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Posts published in “from the archives…”

To Manhattan Island at About 41 Miles Per Hour

Tell your California friends you’re going on vacation, and they’ll smile. Mention that it’s a family vacation, and that smile may falter for a moment. Tell them you’ve booked a trip to New York City,…

A Prosecutor’s View of Proposition 36

Here are two recent typical press releases from the DA’s office: • Sandy Lee Cooper, 31, of Willits, was sentenced on May 27 to 4 years 8 months in state prison at the California Rehab…

Where Are the Files, Sue?

Susan Massini might as well have torched Fort Bragg herself that September night in 1987 for all she did about it. In two hours the town's library, Ten Mile Justice Court and the old Piedmont…

Who Is An Indian?

This yet mythical realm encompassing Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru is populated by nearly 50,000,000 citizens of their respective republics, 40% of whom (low end estimate) are deemed to be indigenous peoples, perhaps 20-30 million in…

Just Looking, Thanks

It was early in the fall of 1951. There were three of us, in our late teens. We were foolishly trying to drive home in a battered, ready-to-die Chevrolet, all the way to San Francisco…

New York Times: ‘Maybe We Did Screw Up a Little’

On May 26 the New York Times finally hitched up its pants, took a deep breath and issued an editorial declaration of moderate regret for its role in boosting the case for war on Iraq.…

America’s Greatest Editor Moves On

By year’s end the greatest newspaper in the United States will have relocated from California’s North Coast to Eugene, Oregon. Bruce Anderson is leaving Boonville. The Anderson Valley Advertiser will become The Eugene AVA.  Be…

The Beheading Video

Upon hearing of the beheading of Philadelphia "contractor" Nicolas Berg in Iraq by self-proclaimed al Qaeda operatives, I searched the internet for articles on the incident. I found over a hundred news reports, most of…

Germany

There is that old cliché of travel: that it allows the traveller another perspective on the place left behind, the one he may or may not return to. With the rise of the internet and…

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