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Posts published in February 2004

The Grocery Workers’ Fight

Health care. It’s by far the most important issue facing working people, their bosses, their unions and their political leaders, the most important issue facing all Americans. Many millions need care, but who is to…

Elegy to the Salton Sea

In 19th Century England, William Wordsworth strolled through his garden. “I am at one with Nature,” he declared. Hemingway’s 20th Century hero Nick paddled with his father in the canoe in the unspoiled Minnesota lakes.…

LAFCO: A Beginner’s Guide

In the February 20 edition of the Record-Bee’s letters section, the question of whether the county has any agency devoted to long term development planning is asked by a resident of Hidden Valley Lake, where…

Winning with Ralph Nader

Listening to Democrats screaming about Ralph Nader’s entry into the presidential race I finally understand the mindset of those Communist dictatorships that used to take such trouble to ensure that the final count showed a…

Fishing Alligator Alley

Noyo Confidential disappeared into the Everglades, into the misty swamps of Alligator Alley last week. I decided to skip the column because I didn't want to do anything that remotely smelled like work. Hey, I…

The Sad Saga of Ignacio Chapela

How to destroy Mexican corn, reap maximum profits, and buy a university in one easy lesson... Seated on the balcony of his appropriately professorial office upon a sun-stroked hillock in the midst of the Life…

Senator Facing-Both-Ways

Across the last 30 years it’s hard to think of a Democratic candidate seemingly assured of his party’s nomination who has had less of a baptism of sewage in the primaries than Senator John Kerry.…

Hearst and Morgan in California

The year its destiny was altered forever, 1919, Camp Hill — part of the old Mexican land grant bought by William Randolph Hearst's father, George, in 1865 — was just one more surge in the…

A Bear Lurks

In political circles, small as they are, the argument of late has been over whether or not 2004 is a déjà-vu-all-over-again of 1972. As political writers repeat past the point of tedium, Presidential campaigns are…

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