If you are politically conservative, like most of what the Tea Party stands for and a strong defender of the Second Amendment of the Constitution (the right to bear arms), you would have been in good company at the Yosemite Gateway Restaurant Jan. 24.

Speaking at an Oakhurst/Coarsegold Area Tea Party meeting, Sam Paredes, executive director of Gun Owners of California said his organization is recruiting Tea Party members to run for the state assembly and senate seats to regain some balance in California from the radical left.

It was a story that touched the hearts of Mountain Area residents a year ago. Four family members, including two well-liked Oakhurst Elementary School students, Jayden, 8, and Alexis Montoya, 10, were killed in their sleep by carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning on Jan. 16, 2011.

It was a story the Chicago-based company, First Alert, took notice of. Company leaders decided they would do what they could to make sure such a tragic incident never happens in Oakhurst again. The company, manufacturers of fire extinguishers, smoke alarms and other home safety equipment, donated carbon monoxide detectors to every family of the 345 K-through-fifth-grade students at the school.

Oakhurst Elementary School, First Alert and Cal Fire have joined in a cooperative effort to provide every family with children in the school a carbon monoxide alarm.

The educational awareness program is in honor of the Montoya family, who lost two children, an uncle and a grandmother due to accidental carbon monoxide poisoning last year in Oakhurst. The children Jayden, 8, and Alexis, 10, were students at Oakhurst Elementary School when the accident occurred at a home on Royal Oaks Drive on Jan. 16, 2011.

Yosemite High School Superintendent Steve Raupp surprised many, including the district's board of trustees, when he announced his retirement last week after a 34-year career as teacher, coach, athletic director, vice principal and superintendent.

Raupp and Jane, his high school sweetheart and wife of 38 years, moved to Oakhurst in 1978 after being invited to come visit Yosemite High. Oakhurst and the Yosemite campus were a pleasant sight for the young couple after spending three years in the desert town of Indio where summer temperatures could reach 115 degrees.

Yosemite Unified School District Superintendent Steve Raupp has announced that he will retire June 30, ending his 34-year career in the district.

Raupp announced his retirement to the district board of trustees during closed session Jan. 9 and to the Yosemite High School staff last Friday through a prepared e-mail statement.

Former Yosemite High basketball star Katie Menton is having a standout senior season at Pepperdine University (8-7, 3-1) leading the team in rebounds (78), blocked shots (7) and assists (78) after 15 games. Known for her outside shooting skills, she is second on the team for made 3-pointers (22) and made free throws (44).

Menton, the first Yosemite High basketball player to play at the Division 1 college level, is averaging 13.1 points a game and has 25 steals through Jan. 4.

The Mountain Area showed its generosity again by making the annual Toys for Tots drive a big success with more then 4,000 toys valued at $60,000 being distributed to 1,350 children throughout Eastern Madera County.

The campaign kicked off Nov. 14 and ran through Dec. 16 with 60 Toys for Tots donation boxes distributed to 50 locations throughout the Mountain Area including Raymond, O'Neals, North Fork, Coarsegold, Ahwahnee, Oakhurst, Bass Lake and Fish Camp.

Close to 100 volunteers served more than 320 adults and children during the free Christmas Eve Outpouring dinner at the Oakhurst Community Center.

The home cooked meal of roasted turkey, baked ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce and a variety of cakes and pies for desert was provided by 28 volunteer community teams.

About this time of year for the past 25 years, something magical happens to Flint Tompkins, 67, of Coarsegold. His beard seems to get whiter, his coat transforms into red velvet, a red hat appears atop his head and his Volkswagon Trike transforms into a sleigh complete with twinkling lights.

Tompkins, who was a counselor at the Oakhurst Counseling Center for 16 years, has been a pastoral counselor at Sierra Pines Church for the past six years. He said he has a lot of fun the 15 days before Christmas spreading some holiday joy around town and visiting schools, day care centers and retirement homes.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced Dec. 9 a decision has been made to convert Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla to a facility that will house low- to medium-security adult male inmates and Madera County District 2 Supervisor David Rogers of Chowchilla is not happy with the plan.

According to a prepared statement from the department, the conversion will help alleviate the adult male inmate overcrowding problem and avoid staff layoffs at the institution. Female inmates will go across the road to the Central California Women's Facility and to Corona to the California Institution for Women.