Subscribe
to the E-Star!

Briefly for April 30, 2009 edition

(Updated: Thursday, April 30, 2009, 6:21 PM)

YHS students do "Arsenic and Old Lace"

Two batty old ladies with a talent for making killer elderberry wine, their loony brother who thinks he's Teddy Roosevelt, a homicidal maniac with a passion for plastic surgery, and a normal, happy nephew with his fiancée get involved in the plot complications for "Arsenic and Old Lace."

There's also a basement where "yellow fever victims" are buried by Teddy, a plan to send the ladies off to a rest home and a deep concern on the part of the suitor about whether, with so much craziness in his family, he should get married at all.

The show is being presented tonight, Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. at the YHS theater as a benefit for the Danny Zabicki Fund. Danny had a rare form of cancer and the fund in his name helps people dealing with the disease.

The play is the senior project of YHS students Kyle Bohigian, Ryan Rogers, Victor Sandoval, and TJ Sloan.

Tickets cost $5 for students and $7 for adults. For more information or reservations, call (559) 683-4667 Ext. 256.

Vote registration deadline is Monday

Rebecca Martinez, Madera County Clerk-Recorder and Registrar of Voters, reminds voters that to be eligible to vote in the May 19, consolidated statewide special election, persons must register to vote by Monday, May 4.

The California Elections Code requires that in order to be eligible to register to vote a person must be a United States citizen, live in Madera County and be 18 years old on or before Election Day. Registered voters who have moved, changed their names, or wish to change their party affiliations, must re-register by the May 4 deadline.

For more information, call the Elections Division at (559) 675-7720 or toll free (800) 435-0509.

KTNS considers format change

Jesse Taylor, operations manager for KTNS Radio, AM 1060 in Oakhurst wants to know what listeners want to hear because the station is considering a format change. The station now plays what it calls hot adult contemporary. An e-mail making the rounds says the station is considering what it calls "true country" and "classic country."

True country would have a target demographic of 50/50 men and women with an age target of 25 to 54. The e-mail states that the format from Dial Global focuses on playing the top hits from every decade to make the format easy to listen to for even the occasional country listener. True country blends the most popular current country songs with the greatest country hits of all time, it states.

Classic country would have a target age demographic of 35 to 64. It is a 24-hour network format focusing on the biggest songs and artists from the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s, with some hits from pre-1970.

Taylor's e-mail suggests people choose "Neither one ... leave it alone ... have a better suggestion?"

For information, call (559) 683-1060.

Mirror Lake Loop Trail blocked

The southern portion of the Mirror Lake Loop Trail in Yosemite remains closed to hikers indefinitely as a result of a large rockfall last month from Ahwiyah Point near Half Dome and due to the debris and trail coverage.

Rocks fell roughly 1,800 feet, knocking down hundreds of trees and burying hundreds of feet of trail on the southern portion of the Mirror Lake Loop Trail.

The impact generated ground shaking equivalent to a magnitude 2.4 earthquake. Numerous smaller rockfalls have occurred from Ahwiyah Point since the initial rockfall on March 28. There were no injuries or structures affected.

The approximate volume of the initial rockfall is 43,000 cubic meters, or 115,000 tons. This is considerably larger than the 1996 Happy Isles rockfall, which was estimated at 30,000 cubic meters in volume.