There was a day when I never would have considered writing down my thoughts or opinion with the notion of having them in print. Although I write articles about other people for this newspaper almost every day, the thought of letting my life be available...
It is widely acknowledged that President Bush's program of "faith-based initiatives" - supplying government grants to religious organizations performing social service activities the government approves - has been something of a dud. Two former officials...
I was driving around Orland on Memorial Day, looking for homeowners flying U.S. flags to do a short story. It was shorter than I expected because most of the homes were, shall we say, flag-challenged. That's no disrespect to Orland; you could see...
In the light of a modest civil liberties victory last week with the Supreme Court's acknowledgment (barely) of the Second Amendment, it's important to remember this Independence Day that rights are not assigned to us or given to us by the government....
There was a time when the phrase "states' rights" was code for trampling on the rights of individuals. That was during the great 20th Century civil rights battle, when many states asserted they had the right to prevent some citizens from enjoying rights...
Imagine that the company you worked for was running massively in the red, and all employees were told that, to stay in business, everyone must take a pay cut. Now imagine the company's board of directors, already paid more than the bosses of all other...
Almost any trip to the mailbox reveals just how wrong is the current perception that, because of proliferating casinos, most American Indians have now become wealthy. Mailed appeals arrive daily throughout California from charities like the American Indian...
Get this: Dads are essential to kids. According to the National Fatherhood Initiative, kids who grow up without dads are more likely to grow up poor, drop out of school, end up in jail and encounter numerous other struggles in life than kids who grow...
A large majority of California voters prefer that state government cut spending rather than raise taxes to balance the budget, according to the latest California Field Poll.It's encouraging that most people recognize this common-sense approach to correcting...
As state officials conduct what promises to be the most difficult and contentious California budget negotiation in recent memory, it's fair to ask two questions: Are we better off than we would have been if Gray Davis had not been recalled in 2003? And...