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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
We just posted an interesting guest opinion piece from the runner-up in the competition to remodel the AT&T building on 3rd Street in downtown Santa Rosa. It's rare we hear from the losing bidders in these kinds of design competitions. But in this case Eric Anderson, one of the partners of "The [...]
In our Tuesday editorial, we strongly supported a bill by local Assemblyman Jared Huffman that would have required anyone receiving three DUIs to have their driver’s license taken away – permanently. We felt such non-nonsense rules were needed after growing weary of the repeated stories of people with multiple DUIs [...]
Paul Gullixson
Jim Sweeney
This blog is written by Press Democrat editorial writers Paul Gullixson and Jim Sweeney.