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Woolsey-Judd square off in SR tonight

It hasn’t received much attention, but Rep. Lynn Woolsey is scheduled to square off tonight at Santa Rosa City Hall against her Republican opponent Jim Judd. The forum, sponsored by the League of Women Voters, will be held from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Santa Rosa City Council Chambers [...]

By | September 20th, 2010|0 Comments

Can schools raise standards while cutting?

  By Paul Gullixson Fifteen years ago, Ruben Armiñana set a high bar for his campus — and raised a few eyebrows in the process — claiming that Sonoma State University was fast becoming California’s public “Ivy League” school. That was pretty heady stuff for an institution commonly referred to [...]

By | September 13th, 2010|0 Comments

A vote for mufflers

California legislators deserve practically all of the criticism that gets heaped on them, but one vote today counts as music to my ears. On Monday, as it headed toward adjournment of the regular two-year session, the state Senate approved legislation to crack down on noisy motorcycles. If it’s signed by [...]

By | August 30th, 2010|0 Comments

Candidates on the prowl

A political consultant named Bob Shrum quipped that a political rally in California is three people sitting around a TV set. He wasn’t far from the truth. Iowa- or New Hampshire-style retail politics is long gone in California. It’s largely gone in Iowa and New Hampshire, too, just played out [...]

By | August 25th, 2010|0 Comments

In defense of the Boy Scouts

When a young man comes of age on the South Pacific island of Vanuatu, he’s required to climb a crude wooden tower about 100 feet high and leap head-first toward Earth, tethered at the ankle by vines. The goal is to land close enough to the ground that the lad’s [...]

By | August 16th, 2010|0 Comments

Spare change?

North Coast politicians are doing their part to stimulate the economy. Among them, Noreen Evans, Michael Allen, Wesley Chesbro and Jared Huffman have spent more than $1.2 million on their campaigns in the 2009-10 election cycle. No, it isn’t Meg Whitman money. It might not even match the change under [...]

By | August 10th, 2010|0 Comments

A yacht, hold the taxes

Most of us don’t buy yachts, so you may have been surprised to learn that Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry could duck a $473,000 sales tax bill by docking his sleek new toy in Rhode Island. If so, you might also be surprised to learn that California will cut you essentially [...]

By | July 28th, 2010|0 Comments

Woolsey, WikiLeaks and war spending

Rep. Lynn Woolsey says in a guest opinion we just posted that the WikiLeaks revelations "left me no other choice than to vote this week against the supplemental appropriations bill to spend billions more on military operations in Afghanistan." She went on to ask, "How could I in good conscience endorse [...]

By | July 27th, 2010|0 Comments

For whom the Bell tolls

The City Hall pay scandal in Bell adds another count to the growing indictment against California’s extravagant public employee pension benefits. Robert Rizzo may be out as city manager, but he qualifies for an annual pension of $600,000 for the rest of his life. With cost-of-living increases factored in, that [...]

By | July 27th, 2010|0 Comments

Another issue avoided in governor’s race

Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman slip and slide around issues like NASCAR drivers weaving through traffic. Whitman promises change with no details, mixed in with tired attacks on Brown, and the Zen master tells us that process is the program. It looks like they may duck another issue courtesy of [...]

By | July 21st, 2010|0 Comments