Press "Enter" to skip to content

Posts published in “Essays”

Supes Spike Laura’s Law

“Laura’s Law has always been a non-starter in Mendo. We can’t afford it,” said one County official involved in the preparation for last week’s two-and-a-half-hour presentation on the “court assisted outpatient treatment” program. Advocates think…

Frankenfood Inc. Attacks! (Again)

The name sounds like it could be the moniker of a really bad hombre - the arrogant, cold-hearted, bandolier clad bandito in a Spaghetti Western who rides down from the mountains with his grizzled gang…

Lawsuit Debate Spices NCRA Meeting

The legal battle between the North Coast Railroad Authority (NCRA) and the Friends Of the Eel River (FOER) became a battle of words at the rail agency’s meeting last week. Mutual resentment was on full…

How I Became An Atheist, by Harry Fisher

After a childhood in the Hebrew National Orphan Home and a youth spent as a labor activist and merchant marine, Harry Fisher volunteered to fight fascism in Spain as a member of the Abraham Lincoln…

Silent Spring, 50 Years On

California Governor Jerry Brown recently moved to restrict the use of some chemicals used as flame retardants, due to their impacts on human health. The ensuing scenario is a now-familiar one — attacks on the…

River Views

On the Fourth of July the branches of the chokecherry trees in the yard bent nearly to the ground, heavy with fruit. The next morning proved to be a race against robins, warblers, blue jays…

Salt & Song

“Things filled men with fear: the more things they had, the more they had to fear. Things had a way of riveting themselves on to the soul and then telling the soul what to do.”…

-