A little bit about a lot of things:

• The gloves are off in the race for the District 5 seat on the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors, as Newman mayor and supervisorial candidate John Fantazia came out slinging with a weekend mailer characterizing incumbent Jim DeMartini as “Pinocchio” and accusing him of being less than truthful to his constituents.

Surprise, surprise.

While we had hoped for better, this was exactly the kind of “hit piece” that many had predicted in a campaign against the controversial DeMartini.

The outspoken supervisor certainly has his share of political enemies, most of whom have been on the receiving end of DeMartini’s frequently blunt and critical comments.

He was the target of a YouTube piece which lambasted DeMartini. Nobody stepped forward to take credit, of course.

The highly-publicized trial of a young woman accused of stealing DeMartini’s identity also has had the supervisor in the spotlight. The most intriguing aspect of that case is the presence of celebrity attorney Mark Geragos to defend the woman. What brings Geragos to the Central Valley to handle what amounts to a relatively minor case, exactly? I have my doubts that the defendant would have such high-powered representation had the alleged victim in the case not been named Jim DeMartini....but maybe that’s just my overly skeptical side.

He is no stranger to having a bulls-eye painted on his back, that’s for sure.

DeMartini does speak his mind, without apology. Most who take offense, however, are those not accustomed to hearing somebody call it as they see it without regard for being politically correct.

This is the government, after all, and DeMartini is anything but your usual public official.

With all due respect to my friends in public service, if something walks like a duck, talks like a duck and looks like a duck, the common government response is to commission a two-year study to find out if it really is a duck. Then, if it is, they label it a “web-footed swimming bird.”

DeMartini just calls it a duck and moves on. He is not your typical elected representative.....and, hello, there are a lot of regular people out there (known, in political talk, as “voters”) who like him for that very reason.

How John Q. Public reacts to last weekend’s mailer remains to be seen....just as time will tell what tone the campaigns take down the stretch.

The overwhelming sentiment heard here in recent days, though, is that the mailer reflects badly on Fantazia and, by extension, Newman. Yes, he is a county candidate, but he is also still Newman’s mayor. His constituents here - not to mention his fellow council members - deserve better.

To a person, everybody I have spoken with is disappointed in him.

I have not yet decided which candidate will get my vote on June 3.

What I would most like to hear from each, however, is why I should vote for them, not why I shouldn’t vote for the other.

The candidate who can win on his own strength is the one who deserves to represent us.

I find it very ironic that the mailer depicted DeMartini as a puppet, while everything about the attack piece begs the question of who, exactly, is pulling what strings in the Fantazia camp.

• Our West Side communities are once again rallying to support a local family in need.

Bonita third-grade student Nicole Ramirez is battling severe aplastic anemia, a very rare blood disorder in which the bone marrow produces too few red cells, white cells and platelets.

Nicole has endured five hospital stays since December, and doctors continue to monitor the effectiveness of ongoing therapy in building up her blood counts. Her ordeal has also left the family in financial need, and the Newman-Crows Landing community is stepping up to help with a blood drive and other planned fund-raisers.

An account for the Ramirez family has also been opened at County Bank in Newman.

Time and time again we have seen our communities lend a helping hand to those in need, providing support in so many ways to see families through a crisis.....we encourage everybody to help in whatever way they can, and to keep Nicole and her family in our thoughts.

• As noted elsewhere, STAR testing will soon be getting under way in area schools.

Standardized testing has become a fact of life in education, and the scores are the benchmark by which we judge school performance.

That’s a lot of pressure....and if you think that the tests should be a breeze, think again.

A list of “released questions” found on the California Department of Education web site offers some insight into the degree of difficulty – and those questions are anything but easy!

I would have big trouble on my hands if I had to pass those exams.

Kind of humbling to realize that your average fourth-grader could run circles around you on the STAR tests.....