So I was wondering .... President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize for ... well, um ... 2009. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger collects an award from a national parks foundation after trying to close hundreds of parks (and settling for slashing hours, raising fees and generally making them less attractive). [...]

Phillip Burton, the congressman and legendary San Francisco political boss, called it his contribution to modern art. That would be the 1981 congressional reapportionment plan for California. If you like want to try your hand at abstract art and your dance card is clear for, oh, 2011, the state will [...]

    From what I hear, one Sonoma County supervisor, Shirlee Zane, may vote against selling the landfill on Mecham Road at today's meeting. But it's not clear there's a second vote out there to block this controversial sale. (The supervisors need at least four votes to sell this public [...]

For residents of the North Bay and North Coast regions, what's the impact of a grand compromise - if there is one - on water in Sacramento? Most obvious is the bill. Neither Sonoma nor Marin counties get any water from the state project. Neither do the counties farther up [...]

In a major surprise, Supervisor Efren Carrillo joined Shirlee Zane today in rejecting the sale of the Sonoma County landfill to an Arizona firm. The board needed four votes to sell this public asset. It only received three.   Many applauded the outcome, but don't expect that this means the [...]

    Curious things are happening in Rohnert Park, making one wonder whether there's maneuvering afoot to get former City Manger Carl Leivo, an outspoken critic of the City Council at one time, back in his old position.   At last week's meeting, Mayor Amie Breeze, who originally supported the [...]

  Twenty years ago today at 5:04 p.m., three friends and I were seated in Section 2, Row 19 of the upper deck at Candlestick Park, right behind (albeit well above) home plate. This put us directly under a cement canopy around the rim of the ballpark.   I mention [...]

The Loma Prieta quake gave me a good shake in my third-floor office in Sacramento, more than 100 miles from the epicenter. I arrived in San Francisco a couple hours later, watching houses burn in the Marina from the Golden Gate Bridge. But the quake story I remember best came [...]

  Winter fell on a Tuesday this year, and it fell with a vengeance, exposing all those hidden places in life -- in Sonoma County -- where we're most vulnerable. Trees. Roads. Power poles. They succumbed at their weakest joints, leaving blackouts, traffic jams and new lakes in their wake. [...]

Apparently time has sweetened Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's view of a bill that tightens the definition of honey for the purpose of commercial sales in California. At a news conference in July, he blasted AB 1216 by Assemblywoman Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa, as an example of wasted time and effort while [...]