Ed Bearden,  a community editor with the Modesto Bee wrote a good opinion piece on MID. He looked at the history of MID and what it was originally all about. Now its about making money, growing and making a profit. Not about service any more. See the following Link. Note the Modesto Bee site loads extremely slow.

BEARDEN: Dubious business going on at publicly-owned MID

Read more: http://www.modbee.com/2010/12/20/1480162/dubious-business-going-on-at-publicly.html#ixzz18nUgC5wL