OK, you might ask, so what's the news, Ross? No, but seriously, I'm a dope for waiting so long to see the Edward Curtis exhibit at Turtle Bay, which I finally caught last night along with a talk by Kirk...

That's what the Fresno Bee asks in a story noting that every city in America is keen to team up with the company -- even though Google itself is being a little vague. Amid all the hype -- publicity stunts,...

Paul Shigley thinks Californians need a crash course in the effects of Proposition 13 and other initiatives that have skewed how the state spends its money. How can we honestly talk about how to fix a problem if we don't...

See why here....

Meg Whitman was a capable and respected business executive at eBay, but I doubt 5 percent of Californians would have even recognized her name this time last year. And she has no political record to speak of. After a year...

[S]ome of the fundamentalists have maneuvered themselves into a position where they have no credibility. That's true for any human endeavor. On the environmental side. On the property rights side. On the religious side. So says Phil Detrich, newly retired...

From Joel Kotkin, in an article riffing on state Sen. Alan Lowenthal's crusade against free parking: Americans -- suburban or urban -- may resist a return to unbridled and extreme Republicanism, whether on social issues or in economic policy. But...

Rep. Wally Herger says the Democrats' health plan "would, for the first time, force taxpayers to subsidize health plans that cover abortion." Ruth Marcus of The Washington Post writes that there is little difference between House and Senate versions and...

A new Field Poll shows former eBay exec Meg Whitman -- now the overwhelmingly likely Republican candidate for governor in November -- with a narrow lead over the Democrat Jerry Brown, who's making a comeback tour. Looking closer at the...

Finally got my Census form in the mail today. I must say, I've rolled my eyes at the marketing campaign but appreciate the need for doing the job correctly. That said, the bold-face letters warning, "YOUR RESPONSE IS REQUIRED BY...

NPR news had an interesting piece yesterday about rural areas that are being left in the technological dust. Its focus? None other than Trinity County. For most Americans, dial-up is a distant memory. But almost all the kids at Burnt...

Ken Murray wrote a column last fall about the perversity of the plastic-bag lobby using the California Environmental Quality Act to stop cities that are attempting to restrict or simply ban the use of plastic shopping bags. Well, it turns...

That's what Santa Barbara Independent writer Nick Walsh -- tongue mostly in cheek -- proposes to curb the endless discussions at some local council meetings. My proposal in this case is not to cut the baby in half, but rather...

I confess, spotting the title in an e-mail got my attention. Fortunately for the museum, the book is work of fiction about the United Nations -- whose headquarters is in the Manhattan neighborhood by the same name....

Hey, if you're going to run a scam, at least run one with good taste. An e-mail from the director of the North State Symphony, Keith Herritt: This afternoon I receievd two phone calls from folks in Chico who each...

I was out of the office last week, but Dave Gilliard e-mailed a note in reply to this blog post. As the PE article states, we were visited by representatives of the Riverside D.A.'s office. We were informed that we...

It's amazing that wildlife biologists are tracking a wolverine near Lake Tahoe, nearly a century after the last one in California was thought to have been killed. But there's a downside to being so rare, the Chron reports: [Sierra Pacific...

Y'all hear about the national record set at the NorCal on Saturday morning? Redding - The 40th NorCal John Frank Memorial Run held on Saturday at Lake Redding Park was the backdrop for a record performance. Linda Somers-Smith, one of...

Commenter "Reddinglife" points to what he (or she) thinks is motivating our editorial opinions: They say anything Kurt Starman asks them to say. I was hoping to keep that quiet, but I guess the secret is out. In all seriousness,...

Wally Herger's pretty ticked about the Interior Department even thinking about new national monuments, to judge by a piece in the Colusa Sun-Herald. (Colusa Count includes some of the land where and Interior Department suggested a new national monument might...

Bob Williams, who writes a column but also runs some cattle, e-mails that the steer/truck index is even worse than that PERC article said. Says Williams: The figure for 1970 is exactly right. At the present 44 steers will buy...

... we could see some change. Congress' approval ratings are typically abysmal, but how does that translate into real politics. Pew asked an important question in a poll released last month: Three in 10 voters, the Pew report says, don't...

It's fun to read rabidly partisan Web sites like the left-wing Calitics or the right-wing FlashReport. You gain a whole new perspective on the world. For instance, did you know that in California, "30 years of right-wing policy .. has...

In 1970, a pound of beef cost nearly five adjusted dollars. Now it costs two. In 1970, a rancher could buy a new pickup (the standard western asset index) with 15 steers. Now it takes 44. So writes rancher Paul...

I'm not sure what happened yesterday, but these two letters arrived in our in-box almost back to back. From Matthew Hill of Redding: Editor: I have accessed Redding.com at least once a day for the past several years. I've always...

Detailed government rules about the precise level of saturated fat and sodium in snacks, the maximum allowable drink size, and the like just make me bristle. (And many commenters on today's story agree.) But let's be perfectly clear about what...

I know nothing about this beyond what the Riverside Press-Enterprise reports, but it's an interesting development. SACRAMENTO - Riverside County district attorney investigators showed up last week at the Northern California offices of a prominent Republican consulting firm and a...

No, really. Timothy Egan reports on an unvarnished bright spot in the Golden State: falling crime. And the trend continues: murder in L.A. is now down 50 percent from the relatively placid levels of two years ago. At this rate,...

Environmentalists have filed lawsuits in 2008 and against last year seeking federal and state protection for the pika -- aka, the "boulder bunny. But just because an activist -- or even a few field surveys -- might say a critter...

The Washington Post reports that some its sources, having discovered the joy of unfiltered and anonymous online responses to stories, are clamming up. Sutherland said such comments were "why I was so hesitant in doing an interview" in the first...

As Wednesday's editorial mentioned in passing, not everyone agrees about how best to manage the Bend -- a proposed recreation area north of Red Bluff. The Daily News reports on some of the local ranchers' worries. Worth a read....

It's too bad these students were more interested in making demands than making an appointment. So said David Reade, Assemblyman Jim Nielsen's chief of staff. He does have a way with words. What was he talking about? Read for yourself....

For the angler in your life, "An Entirely Synthetic Fish" sounds like a wonderful read. A review explores the difficulty of preserving "pure" species in an emphatically mixed-up world. He points to the dilemma posed by rainbow trout's ability to...

In a very crowded room full of mostly business, government and Tea Party types seeing the talk by conservative pundit Steve Greenhut this morning, local union leaders Steve Allen and Chris Darker sat quietly in the back -- too quietly...

This a striking image, but the message seems to me to be 180 degrees off. Yeah, we can't stop earthquakes, and the big ones will be deadly. But Chile is a prosperous nation with, I've read, tough building standards much...

Maybe this is just a coincidence. Maybe Ron Seeling retired (he's been in the job since 1994, according to his online bio), or got a more lucrative offer in the private sector. Still, last summer Seeling, then CalPERS' chief actuary,...

Or say they do, as the OC Register notes in an editorial about Jerry Brown's official announcement that he's running for governor. Jerry Brown's experience as mayor of Oakland - a position in which people can see readily whether potholes...

Somebody's always working a scam. The latest? "Renting" out vacant homes ("Ignore that For Sale sign!) to unwitting marks, then vanishing with the deposit. Read the warning -- and the advice if you spot one in progress....

Methinks the city manager has grown impatient with the pace of committee work. From the staff report for tomorrow's special meeting of the Community Services Advisory Committee: The City Council also asked the Commission to submit its findings and recommendations...

... wait till a chastened CalPERS lowers its sights on the investment returns it think it can realistically expect. The Bee reports on the discussion. Currently, CalPERS projects a 7.75 percent annual return on its massive portfolio. But in...

For close to a year, since the Redding City Council first discussed changing the way city clerk's are chosen, Gary Cadd -- once and future City Council candidate himself -- has been agitating against changing the status quo. Tonight's vote...

I do not buy Charles Bowden's apocalyptic attitude in this High Country News article, though of course I might feel differently if I still lived closer to Mexico. That said, he has a heck of a way with words. A...

Curious what they might have to say about the fuss raised over potential monuments, I rang up the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center in Ashland, who are the primary folks promoting the idea of a Siskiyou Crest National Monument. The campaign manager,...

So says Joe Matthews about the two Republican candidates for governor, who are both spending millions trying to persuade the voters of their conservative bona-fides. Right now, Meg Whitman is spending millions to convince Republican primary voters that she's the...

Who knew? Shasta County's own Mauro Oliveira was outside the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting the other week down in San Diego, ScienceNow reports. Why? SAN DIEGO--I wasn't the only one underwhelmed by the...

I was a college student in the desert city of Albuquerque, N.M., when I first read a news article about a homeowner who'd yanked out the lawn to save water (did I mention this was the desert?) and, for her...

"Hot Air Quarterly," that is. March seems late for the winter issue to be coming out, but the Exalted Ink Monkeys run on their own schedule....

The enthusiasm that kindergartners and first-graders have for a Dr. Seuss reading could, if bottled and sold in your local pharmacy, treat much of what ails America. And the enthusiasm of Juniper's Vanita Ulch, who looks as good in a...

The bill I flagged the other day, which would bar new national monuments in California ( a detail that had eluded me) without Congress' consent, is in fact part of a string of measures being introduced by Republican members of...

I keep hearing that California's employers are hie-ing out for friendlier desert climes. One forecaster sees a different picture. From the Bee: The recession in hard-hit California isn't over yet, but 2010 labor market projections released last week forecast modest...