We first reported on this potential deal back in October (when we also questioned whether it's the top priority for the state), but the Pacific Forest Trust proudly announces that just this week the Wildlife Conservation Board approved a conservation...

It's been a frequent complaint about the new, $150-a-year tax -- officially a "fee," though there'll be a lawsuit to settle that question -- that it does not actually fund any firefighting. Rather, it goes to prevention and education and...

California needs a healthy and vibrant oil and gas industry, which brings good jobs and revenue to our state. Not the most outlandish sentiment in the world, but the source might surprise a few readers....

Prompted by the Forest Service's announcement today of a new initiative to "expand the number of forest acres treated by 20 percent over the next three years and increase the pace of active forest management," and specifically to "increase the...

The month's most oddly charming press releases will surely include Assemblyman Jim Nielsen's honoring Indian Republic Day and touting the "Punjab of America" --- aka the Sacramento Valley. (Sacramento) - Assemblyman Jim Nielsen (R-Gerber) participated in the honoring of January...

The Redding area BLM office has a new director, replacing recently retired Steve Anderson. And she's a local: Jennifer Mata, a Bureau of Land Management natural resources specialist, has been named manager of the agency's Redding Field Office. She reports...

I'm embarrassed as a Republican to hear all this whining. That's Vince Barabba, a Republican member of the Citizens Redistricting Commission, quoted in George Skelton's column about the latest twist in the party's battle against new legislative districts. (Namely, the...

Despite the delay of a planned vote a few weeks back, the state Public Works Board has agreed to seek concessionaires to help keep open nearly a dozen Northern California state parks otherwise set for closure, including Tehama County's Woodson...

Facebook makes its IPO filing official, reports The NY Times. The presumed rush of Facebook employees cashing out their stock could give a huge short-term lift to state revenues. Beats a kick in the teeth....

Facebook is about to cannonball itself into a vast pool of dumb money. That's Michael Hiltzik's skeptical take on the Facebook IPO. Sadly, the "dumb money" is yours and mine....

The San Francisco Chronicle editorialized in Monday's paper that the "Klamath River dam removals should go forth," basing its argument on the recent draft decision from the Interior Department. There's a case to be made for dam removal --- even...

3M's project north of Shasta Lake sounds a lot like one being debated this week down in Riverside County. The politics will probably be similar too. From the L.A. Times: A giant rock quarry proposed in the hills above Temecula...

Will those proposed school-bus cuts take a painful whack out of the rural north state's school budgets? It looks like they probably won't this year at least. The Assembly Budget Committee just passed -- with 19 votes in favor and...

On today's letter to the editor from Greg Beale, the first comment out of the chute harkens back to some former representatives in a strangely telling way: We do remember Clair Engle and Biz Johnson, our Democratic congressmen of olde....

Here's a familiar-sounding story. I wonder if it will end any better than NorCal's Quincy Library Group. The easy work for former adversaries in the Idaho timber wars was to start talking and develop trust. Now those environmentalists, foresters and...

That's the quote from Cottonwood rodeo rider Keith Roquemore on this poster, one of a number going up on BART stations in the San Francisco area as part of a photography project called "Real Rural." From an announcement: Beginning today,...

It comes from the mayor of Salinas: Mayor Dennis Donohue says that when he gives Rotary Club talks in Monterey or Carmel, he tells the audience that he knows some of them think stepping into Salinas -- crossing the "lettuce...

Perhaps sensing that bills he's introduced seeking a new public vote on the bonds that would finance the high-speed rail line, Sen. Doug LaMalfa has filed an initiative to do the same. The "Stop the $100 Billion Bullet Train to...

I like to say wolves are boring, but people are fascinating. So says Ed Bangs, a recently retired wolf-recovery specialist for U.S. Fish and Wildlife, tells The NY Times, which noticed the new wolf in our neighborhood....

It didn't get online, apparently, but this Op-Ed by Rep. Wally Herger about "Agenda 21" was published in Yreka's Siskiyou Daily News this week. Apparently I'm not the only one hearing more than I can understand about a 20-year-old U.N....

With plans in the state budget to further delay the opening of the Redding (and Fresno) veterans homes, veterans advocates are predictably -- and justifiably -- angry. But is there any leverage to force the issue? Maybe. Rep. Wally Herger...

Not in the high-profile political races. The Bee reports that turnover related to term limits brings new faces --- but it actually expected to cut the number of female lawmakers in the Capitol: The Legislature is expected to welcome a...

Faced with unprecedented threats from industrial development, these national forests need strong national protections. So Jane Danowitz, U.S. public lands director for the Pew Environment Group, tells the AP for a story about the release of the new Forest Service...

I don't know that the death of Brian Counts last week was somehow directly involved with alcohol, but it's hard not to speculate that it was, given his record. Counts had been sentenced at least three times for driving under...

I never quite understood the source of the bad blood between former state Sen. Sam Aanestad and his successor, Sen. Doug LaMalfa. Might be nothing more than rival ambitious Republican camps. But it was there, and it might not be...

I'm a little slow in noticing this, but Dan Logue's departure back to the 3rd Assembly District has yet another candidate deciding it's a good time to run for Assembly in the new 1st AD. From the Lassen County Times:...

Good to see this unanimous Supreme Court ruling: The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that police must obtain a search warrant before using a GPS device to track criminal suspects. But the justices left for another day larger questions about...

Last year, the Rand Corp. the Los Angeles-based think tank, published -- and then retracted --- a study that purported to find that crime dropped in neighborhoods surrounding medical-marijuana dispensaries. Well, that report was retracted, but the Sacramento News and...

It wasn't just Les Baugh who picked up the Shasta County Republican Assembly's endorsement last week. Chapter President Tyler Clifford informs me that the group also endorsed Pete Stiglich for Congress, Rick Bosetti for Assembly, Patrick Jones for Shasta County...

He apparently pulled off an upset in South Carolina, but seriously, is the world ready for President Newt Gingrich?...

Joel Kotkin has been pretty gloomy for a long time, but darn this piece is singing from a different songsheet. While the U.S. has its challenges, it is positioned to achieve a more solid long-term trajectory than its European and...

Maybe so. A newly revised Senate budget bill would, instead of pummeling certain bus-dependent rural districts, impose a modest across-the-board cut on school budgets. The Bee has some details: The state's coalition of education groups, which includes teachers, school boards...

I haven't yet had a chance to independently verify this, but the Baugh for Senate campaign says it snagged the Shasta County Republican Assembly's endorsement after a candidate forum last night. The Twitter announcement came last night: Couldn't wait 2...

Interesting new report in my inbox this a.m. from the Worldwatch Institute: Washington, D.C.----Global use of hydropower increased more than 5 percent between 2009 and 2010, according to new research published by the Worldwatch Institute for its Vital Signs Online...

Well, we went and editorialized today about what a fine idea it was for the state parks department to at least consider offers from private concessionaires to run some parks that would otherwise close, but will the state go through...

Our board of supervisors supports an agenda that will destroy our freedom, our right to own property and the very foundation of our country So writes one Andrea Carson in the Siskiyou Daily News, and she's referring to the Siskiyou...

Somehow I can't get enough of Victor Davis Hanson's eloquent gloom: Now, as in Greece, the veneer of civilization is proving pretty thin in California. Hospitals no longer have the money to offer sophisticated long-term medical care to the indigent....

In a story last week, Democrat Jim Reed expressed confidence that he could raise some money to give a serious challenge to Sen. Doug LaMalfa in the race to replace Rep. Wally Herger -- even as outside consultants from both...

It comes from Gov. Jerry Brown's "state of the state" speech this morning: Critics of the high-speed rail project abound as they often do when something of this magnitude is proposed. During the 1930's, The Central Valley Water Project was...

Well here's an interesting twist on the saga of the closing state parks. The state is seeking private concessionaires to run 11 parks that are otherwise due to shut down -- or will if the State Public Works Board agrees...

Here's an idea that would win the youth vote -- and the teacher's vote. From the Bee: Gov. Jerry Brown will call for less statewide testing and expanding classroom focus beyond math and English in his annual State of the...

The L.A. Times has the scoop on a report that, in a just world, would be the final nail in the coffin of the high-speed rail project: As the price tag for California's bullet train has soared to nearly $100...

David Little, editor of the Chico Enterprise-Record, had a good column on last week's political shuffle, including an observation about the man who will all but surely be our next congressman: What's almost as dizzying is LaMalfa's meteoric rise. For...

Fish and Game posted a cool interactive map on its wolf page that shows, wow, the puppy was in the neighborhood -- wandering almost down to Montgomery Creek before skirting around west and south of the Thousand Lakes Wilderness, then...

The very talented Jesse Rosten, a commercial film-maker who lives in Redding, just might be the most famous man on the Internet this week. Friends in other states are posting links to his outstanding short spoof. If you haven't seen...

Some people from Kansas think they're promoting some cause by picketing at soldiers' and sailors' funerals --- apparently including the rites scheduled for Saturday for Petty Officer 1st Class Chad Regelin. Because these people are the most offensive on the...

George Skelton skewered the left's attempt at rebranding the other day, but apparently the political activists formerly known as liberals have read the opinion polls. The Pew Research Center says "progressives" are considerably more popular than "liberals." Perhaps I'm missing...

I've heard folks joke that, in California, it will soon be illegal to smoke anything but marijuana. In Marin County, that might not be a joke. From the I-J: Marin's war on smoking was blunted Tuesday as a measure cracking...

At least in Oregon. Weird story from the Medford Mail-Tribune: The U.S. Supreme Court decided this week not to hear Jackson County Sheriff Mike Winter's legal challenge that asserted U.S. law trumps state laws when people with medical marijuana cards...

Talking this afternoon with Rep. Wally Herger about some of the highs and lows of his 25 years in Congress, I asked him how thing had changed from 1980s --- when it was possible for a Democratic Congress and Republican...