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Posts published in “Essays”

The Ukiah Legalization Forum: Mainstreaming Marijuana

In response to worries among the cannabis community about how legalization would affect the pocketbooks of growers and the region at large, the Mendocino Medical Marijuana Advisory Board (MMMAB) convened a forum and workshop in…

The Invaluable Legacy Of Willard Wirtz

Never has there been a greater champion of US workers than former Secretary of Labor Willard Wirtz, who died on April 24 at 98. Certainly in more than a half-century of covering labor, I’ve never…

Plus Marijuana & Psychosis: Volcanoes, Weather & Computer Models

Scarcely a week goes by without some scaremongering headline about climate change, premised on apocalyptic conclusions drawn from some computer-generated model. Modeling lies at the heart of the whole vast climate-change industry, one sparked by…

As Seen in Fort Bragg

Don't know who's running for DA, Fifth District Supe and judge? Now you do.

The Big Scam: How & Why Washington Hooked Mexico On The Drug War

When I first returned to Mexico City in the wake of the great 1985 earthquake, the biggest drug pushers in that distant neighbor nation were Sherwin Wil­liams Paint (“tinner” or “activo”) and Resistol-Dupont glue (“chemo.”)…

Bird’s Eye View

Greetings one and all — if you are sitting comforta­bly then I shall begin... With the summer approaching and The Valley ‘getting its groove on’ as some might say, let’s get straight down to business…

My Favorite Second Place: Boonville 1999

It was just me and my son Riley leading the 17th Annual Boontling Classic 5K runners west on Ander­son Valley Way to the turnaround. As we hit the mile in 5:36, I said “Just like…

Big River Spring

The copious rains of 2010 made Big River the big muddy for much of the winter, the beach in late April grandiloquent with new sand. The probable summer beachscape is shaping up to be quite…

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