[caption id="attachment_624" align="aligncenter" width="900" caption="Cruz Ramos sips a cup of coffee at Maria\'s restaurant before starting her day."]
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I was selected to spend a day with Cruz Ramos, the city manager for the tiny town of San Joaquin, by the Local Government Commission, a non-profit organization that helps small communities collaborate together with ideas to improve life for their residents. It was a great experience for me to shadow Cruz on her 10-hour day around town and across the valley on what she called “a down day.” I very much appreciate this opportunity from the LGC and my friend John Decker who recommended me for this project.
Click to continue reading “A Day in the Life of San Joaquin city manager Cruz Ramos”
Pha Mouvangsou’s life was a tough one from the get-go. As an infant, his mother (photographed with him and two of his sons here) smuggled him and any other surviving family members to Thailand from Laos where his family was being hunted down by the Viet Cong. HIs father, who was fighting with the Americans had already escaped. In a Thailand refugee camp for four years, young Pha was fed mice to keep his protein up. Eventually the family was re-located in Fresno where Pha lived in poverty and soon got mixed up in gangs. After becoming a father, it was his own son, Sebastian, who got his life turned around. Pha enrolled at 
[/caption]Jose Carranza will be featured in the American Pharmacy Association’s Pharmacy Today magazine. Carranza and his family run a pharmacy in the small farm town of Hughson, CA near Modesto. 
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