It started with lesbian couples in Vermont in the mid-90s, freaked out they’d lose their babies. Vermont Freedom to Marry was born, and is now the most powerful Democratic organization in the state, most certainly responsible for the victory of Gov. Peter Shumlin, elected in Nov 2010 and, nine months later, the first sitting governor [...]
by Hank Sims
Nothing the North Coast Railroad Authority does should come as a shock anymore. This, after all, is the state agency that for years ran around telling everyone fantastical and contradictory stories — often pulling facts straight out of thin air — in order to gain whatever momentary financial or political advantage it could.
by Dan Bacher
Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the President of the Western States Petroleum Association, is back in the news in an article in today’s Sacramento Bee about the increase in steam injection oil drilling permits since Governor Jerry Brown in November fired two regulators who were actually doing their job. Reheis-Boyd served as the Chair of the Marine Life [...]
Chen Guangchen, the Chinese human rights activist, got four separate articles in the New York Times for May 5. Jane Perlez and Michael Wines reported from Beijing on the deal that would get Chen and his family visas to the US, for him to take up a fellowship at NYU. Andrew Jacobs weighed in with [...]
For ten years, Abe Schoener has been recording the unfolding history of California’s climate and geology — but he is not a government scientist drawing sedimentary core samples from the Earth or a hydrologist taking stream level snapshots each season. Far from either, Schoener is a daring entrepreneur bottling liquid data in one of the [...]
by Daniel Mintz
Fueled by $750,000 of Headwaters Fund money, the county’s Economic Development Division will launch a marketing campaign touting the county’s most well-known resource product — redwood lumber. At its April 24 meeting, the county’s Board of Supervisors approved the hefty Headwaters grant after being told that wood-plastic composite is successfully competing against redwood for decking, [...]
Watch Europe tip left and right as voters rise in fury against the austerity menu that’s been bringing them to utter ruin. In Holland, the right-wing Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders brought down the governing coalition on Monday bellowing his defiance for the “Diktats from Brussels,” and asserting that “We must be master of our [...]
According to some in the business, Minnesota’s nursing home system is in financial trouble in large part because people seem to think that no matter what their net worth, when it comes time for long-term care, they have a right to go on the dole. “Well,” they say as they set up a way to [...]
by Daniel Mintz
The enrollment of some indoor marijuana growers in low income energy assistance programs is being targeted by a state bill and county supervisors are supporting it. Senate Bill 1207 is being considered by state lawmakers and it puts a cap on electricity and gas usage under the California Alternate Rates for Energy (CARE) program, which [...]
by John Eskow
Some years back, when I was doing location rewrites on a movie, I was cornered on the set by an anguished limo driver. We were in a Spanish-speaking nation, and my command of that loving tongue is poor, but I was able to glean a rough idea of what was troubling the driver so much: [...]
