They're working on a special Highway 99 offramp to the UC Merced campus, but in the meantime you trek across some seedy and some spanking new parts of the city to get to the land where the mascot is a Golden Bobcat. Bam. There it is. Like a space station on Mars. Dozens of buildings -- labs researching things like stem cells, ''student quarters'' ...

All the important feel-good words were there at the Fresno Board of Supes, which unanimously endorsed a resolution to bring a UC med school to the San Joaquin Valley. Partnership.... Pipelines.... Collaboration.... Unity.... All the sound reasoning was also present at the Jan. 29 vote. The Valley is short of doctors ... Short of allied medical ...