Wired's Brandon Keim is stumped: Why are less-educated Republicans more likely to agree with the global scientific community than their more-educated political counterparts, and vice versa among Democrats? Oddly enough, the majority of Republicans might not believe in global warming,...

According to one poll, 29 percent of Democrats think she should....

SACRAMENTO -- As state leaders hunt for politically palatable solutions to California's swelling budget deficit, some Democrats are proposing unorthodox ways to generate cash.

Despite their fading clout in Shasta County, you can still gather enough Democrats to fill the community room at the library for a candidate night. Kindly invited, I dropped by Tuesday evening to see the promised line-up of the three...

INDIANAPOLIS — Barack Obama swept to a convincing victory in the North Carolina primary Tuesday night and declared he was closing in on the Democratic presidential nomination. Hillary Rodham Clinton eked out a win in Indiana as she struggled to halt her rival’s march into history.

Timber mogul Archie "Red" Emmerson and his Sierra Pacific Industries may be making a play for the bankrupt Pacific Lumber Co. mill in Scotia. An article that ran last week in the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat repor

I laugh out loud each morning when I hear, from one of the T.V. talking heads, that the cost of a gallon of gas has ratcheted up another nickel to $3.61 per gallon, which is read under the cacophony of nature-Nazis demanding more fuel mileage from our new vehicles, more car pooling, more mass transit, more, more, more. Mea

A couple of weeks ago, I noted that even as the population in Shasta and Tehama counties has grown, the number of Democrats has fallen. The region grows more Republican by the year. Somehow I missed, until reading Dan Walters'...

I Hear You all screaming about getting out of the War in Iraq, but I don’t hear any of you acknowledging what would happen if we got out tomorrow…or the day after. Seems that you forgot about 900 million militant Muslims, who have vowed to see our destruction and need oil to finance it.I Hear You all crying

WASHINGTON — The electoral road to the White House favors Democrats this fall — either Barack Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton — and has Republican John McCain playing defense to thwart a presidential power shift.

I am not an American. My citizenship status may be that by birth I am American, but by ideology, I am not. Many people get riled up about America, America, America! I think that’s one good way to hold back progress.As people we need to be open-minded and world thinking. Someone going on and on about THEIR

By now, there are so many sports metaphors littering the campaign coverage that it's hard to tell CNN from ESPN. The Pennsylvania primary not only had its wrestling matches and boxing rings and slam dunks but almost turned pinochle into a contact sport.

The to-and-fro over Gail Rich's nomination to the Redding Planning Commission is another reminder that in Shasta County, even the environmentalists and "liberals" are Republicans. But recent figures about voter registration drive home the point. The secretary of state's office...

I Hear You all screaming about getting out of the War in Iraq, but I don’t hear any of you acknowledging what would happen if we got out tomorrow…or the day after. Seems that you forgot about 900 million militant Muslims, who have vowed to see our destruction and need oil to finance it.I Hear You all crying

There's a fluffy article in today's NY Times about determining who you'll vote for by the contents of your shopping cart.You might be a Clinton supporter if:Your exercise regimen involves an elliptical trainer.You like Boca burgers.You use honey as a sweetener.

Redding Mayor Mary Stegall will be an alternate delegate for presidential candidate Hillary Clinton at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, she said Monday.

It's well-known that Ronald Reagan was a Democrat before, as he put it, the party left him, and he became a Republican. Still, it's striking to hear this 1948 speech on behalf of Democratic candidates. Reagan in '48 sounds a...

Redding Mayor Mary Stegall was elected as an alternate delegate, pledged to Sen. Hillary Clinton, to the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August. Stegall was selected at a caucus in Chico this afternoon. Don't necessarily agree with her choice,...

It must be good to be you. Clearly you are having more fun now. How could you NOT be having fun, running against two clowns funneling you material that money can’t buy. I know, I know, Hillary is smiling again. She should be. With her campaign all but stalled under typhoon Obama, until the Rev. Wright Bom

ARE WE THERE YET? The Democratic senators questioning, or more like chastising, Gen. David Petraeus, sound like the kids in the back of the car: Are we there yet?

The Bee reports that a bill that would permanently allow volunteers to work on public projects -- building park benches and playgrounds, cleaning up creeks, etc. -- died on a party-line vote in the state Senate's labor committee. The Republicans...

Someone forwarded me this e-mail from Mayor Mary Stegall: From: Mary Stegall To: To: Undisclosed-Recipient Sent: Monday, April 07, 2008 9:30 AM Subject: Democratic Caucus in Chico Dear friends, I have entered my name as a delegate for Hillary Clinton...

Yahoo! She won!! Finally! Jackie Speier is going to Washington! According to the San Francisco Chronicle, "Speier plans t

Assemblyman Rick Keene, a Chico Republican, has proposed a bill to amend disability-access laws to encourage repairs and discourage frivolous lawsuits. Judging from history, it will go nowhere in the Democratic Legislature.

Republicans believe you can cut taxes and bring in more money. Democrats believe you can turn mortgages that people can't afford to pay into ones that they can and it won't cost anyone a cent. Alas, Michael Kinsley did....

It seems that the presidential primary season has outlived its welcome, rather like winter in northern New England, where the snowdrifts have delayed our annual appointment with crocuses. But there are times when even frozen ground can be surprisingly fertile.

Jim Dyar band  June 1, 2008 — Redding - Taste of Redding - Redding City Hall, 777 Cypress Ave. - noon The JDB joins five other bands in this annual outdoor event featuring food, spirits and music. Music is free. Food and beverage passes: $25-$35. The event is from 1 to 4 p.m.  June 27,

• Pilot's condition is improving • Democratic Party seeking delegates • Anderson man accused of stealing charity money

Mark your calendar. As soon as the Democrats took the majority in the House, our economy took a nosedive. The minimum wage for starters.

Has anyone else wondered just how we got to where we are with the ‘08 Presidential candidates? While most of us cannot remember the original slate of hopefuls without a scorecard, an old newspaper or Google, it has become painfully clear that we might have thrown out the baby with the bathwater. To that end, it might be

For a sec, after reading this headline, I thought our visiting Democratic senator was dissing Stillwater Business Park as wasteful corporate welfare and the unending war on drugs as an abject failure. Wrong on both counts, it turns out....

Elections can be about policy, personality or identity. The race between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton is surely not about policy. The differences between the two are microscopic.

Democrats in Sacramento are looking at a variety of tax increases -- on oil, high incomes, and big cars -- but the quirkiest one is a tax on music and video downloads. From the Chronicle: AB1956 by Assemblyman Chuck Calderon,...

Rep. Wally Herger took a swipe at the Democrats' proposed budget today, knocking some proposed tax increases before adding this gem: “What's more, this budget fails to address the long-term solvency of Social Security and Medicare. This chart demonstrates how...

Thomas Elias: Come-from-behind win for 1st AmendmentThomas Elias, Tuesday, March 11, 2008 on Redding.comIn the beginning, it looked like an utter disaster for the First Amendment,whose gu

WASHINGTON - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's trio of victories over Sen. Barack Obama last week appears to have persuaded a sizable number of uncommitted Democratic superdelegates to wait until the end of the primaries and caucuses before picking a candidate, according to a survey by The Washington Post.

WASHINGTON -- Hillary Rodham Clinton won't catch Barack Obama in the race for Democratic delegates chosen in primaries and caucuses, even if she wins every remaining contest.

"If other Democrats want to beat up the governor, I respect their views." Fabian Nunez, talking to the LA Times' George Skelton. Barack Obama says we need a new, more respectful politics, but the respect Nunez is showing proves we're...

Can't knock state Senate President Don Perata for pussy-footing around on the issues. From the L.A. Times: Democratic legislative leaders declared Tuesday that they are prepared to delay the state budget this year if that's what it takes to get...

Despite polls showing he trails potential Democratic rivals by as much as 20 percentage points in this state, presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain says he will make an all-out California run, trying to put the state in play for the first time since 1992.

Like Freddy Krueger in the sequels to "A Nightmare on Elm Street," Ralph Nader has just announced -- I'm baaaack!

I can't believe we missed Saturday Night Live last night.... We were watching a Netflix documentary about my all-time favorite architect: "

Hear legendary Redding attorney (and stalwart Democrat) Dugan Barr had a big retirement party last night in the south end of the Mall in Downtown Redding. Forty years is a long time. Congratulations, Dugan. (I'll bet he keeps his hand...

Had a chance yesterday afternoon to talk at length with Jeff Morris, the Trinity County supervisor who is hoping to win the Democratic nomination to challenge Rep. Wally Herger in the fall. Morris is a long-shot candidate and knows it,...

Had a chance yesterday afternoon to talk at length with Jeff Morris, the Trinity County supervisor who is hoping to win the Democratic nomination to challenge Rep. Wally Herger in the fall. Morris is a long-shot candidate and knows it,...

SACRAMENTO -- Three Senate Democrats accused Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday of jeopardizing negotiations over water projects and generating regional tensions by moving ahead with planning for a canal around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

I supported Hillary last year, and ever since then she has been a disappointment to me. I didn't think I'd ever say this about the Clintons, but I'm getting heartily sick of both of them. I will still vote for Hillary if she gets the nomination, which doesn't seem likely at all if she continues to campaign the way sh

No one can spend some 10 days visiting the battlefields in Iraq without seeing major progress in every area. ... If the U.S. provides sustained support to the Iraqi government -- in security, governance, and development -- there is now a very real chance that Iraq will emerge as a secure and stable state."

On Tuesday, I got a sarcastic e-mail from a Hillary supporter. She forwarded a crack made by Howard Wolfson, Clinton's media man, about Obama. "Senator Clinton," he scoffed, "is not running on the strength of her rhetoric." To which my friend added: "Unfortunately."

We are cruising for an economic bruising.  Our government is spending WAY more money than it takes in.  The total national debt accumulated between the signing of the Constitution and 1980, when Ronald Reagan was sworn in as president, was about $1 trillion. (A billion is a thousand million; a trillion is a tho