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Posts published in “from the archives…”

Anatomy of a Blackball

Stop me if I’m whining, but as long-time readers are aware, quite a number of local tax funded agencies and quasi-public agencies avoid placing advertising with the AVA. That’s how they get their revenge. They…

My Lai Massacre: The Shame That Survives

On March 16, 1968, US soldiers killed 504 Vietnamese villagers on March 16, 1968. The 30th anniversary in 1998 was an opportunity to to give Americans a warm glow. The warmth came of course from…

Anti-Smoking Expert All Wet

What do you do when you have to say, “I’m sorry”? If you’re the professor who holds the anti-smoking chairmanship at the University of California, San Francisco, you say it in small print, duck under…

Shaved, Crushed, Cubed & Block

Epiphanies happen. Just this weekend I was plastered to the sofa and watching the Olympics when it hit me: its all about ice, and not just these silly overhyped games played for the benefit of…

Global Village Idiots

I’m finally, and fully, tele-connected. My satellite TV gives me access to over 100 channels of programming, and my computer is now part of the worldwide web. With one machine or the other, I can…

Bye-Bye Bypass?

The Willits freeway bypass funds at risk? Oh, boo-hoo-hoo. Has the experience of thousands of small towns, hundreds of cities, tons of pollution, lungs full of poison, shortened lives, lost community and peace of mind,…

How Fluor Got $5 Billion & Nearly Blew Up Hanford

On Wednesday May 14, 1997 at 10:47 PM a chemical tank exploded in a deserted factory at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation outside Richland, Washington. The explosion was extraordinarily powerful, blowing down steel doors and shattering…

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