It’s not required to be a historian to know that legalization of pot in California is the most important law and public policy in California since 1978’s precedent-setting tax reform initiative Proposition 13. It’s clear…
Posts published in “Essays”
What? Ku Klux Klan in Mendocino County? You bet! Unfortunately our county was no different than the rest of the USA in having a KKK presence over the last century. First, thanks to the Fort…
Sometime during the Summer of '73, after the unionization strike dust had settled at Philo Lumber, and I had resettled into the routine pulling strips at The Point, Sammy Prather, leader of the Green Chain…
California Governor Gavin Newsom may be an empty suit and Corporate Liberalism personified, but those trying to recall him are much worse. A prospective Republican challenger is Caitlin Jenner, the Olympic decathlon champ formerly known…
John Wheeler and James Anthony escaped from the county jail in Ukiah in the dinner hour of November 7, 1879. They employed a Babbitt metal key to unlock their cells and a door to the…
This is our final part in the series looking at the 1918 Influenza Pandemic. It started in early 1918 and lasted about two years, officially ending in April 1920. During those two years, it went…
Disturbing news suggests baseball has grown delirious from ill-considered changes made by owners unfamiliar with the game’s history and traditions. Alarmed, son Lucas and I launched a 250-mile roundtrip journey to Oakland to assess baseball’s…
Wow, a double whammy, losing a loved one and discovering you are to inherit a loving gift from them, as they left a Will. Prepare for a journey into the Kabuki theater of the macabre…
For the last several years I've been on Sacajawea's trail, literally from Montana and Idaho to Oregon. Of course Sacajawea means Lewis and Clark. Part of the trail my brother was working as a tourist…