Your July 30, 2008, editorial, “Schools turning out defective products,” certainly addresses an important issue that your readers should consider. But they deserve the whole story. Full story »

My original thought was to launch this article stating you should have an official or unofficial chain of command, but I rescind that idea.
In my opinion, every business must have an official written chain of command in place. Chain of command, organizational hierarchy, responsibility ladder or corporate structure — the terms and phrases all mean the same thing and every organization has one. Full story »

As any forester knows, there is little if any time to spare when it comes to harvesting trees damaged by wild fire.
John Sessions, a leading expert on salvage logging and a forestry professor at Oregon State University, argued that point in January 2004 after studying the 2002 Biscuit blaze that charred nearly 500,000 acres of Siskiyou National Forest. Full story »

My plan was to get us out of the heavy air created by North State fires burning for more than a month. So, my two grandsons and I headed west. Two years ago, I had promised the boys a camping trip, but it was put off for one reason or the other. Full story »

Why are there schools? This seems like a foolish question to any thinking adult because the answer is so obvious.
However, I have heard different answers from former students and others.
Too many young people would say, as one of my students did one day, “To be with my friends.” To her and others like her, school was just a social gathering. Full story »

Whether California faces rosy or gloomy times, we must always make public safety the number one priority. If our streets, parks and schools aren’t safe from gang violence and other crimes, then nothing else really matters. Before anything else, we have to be safe. Full story »

“I just knew I’d find your house would be full of books,” a neighbor said as she eyeballed the bookcases and my pile of reading materials on the coffee table. Full story »

When a new automobile – either purchased or leased – is so riddled with problems that even the manufacturer cannot fix it within 18 months – a reasonable time period, the vehicle is declared a lemon in California under the Tanner Consumer Protection Act, California Civil Code 1793.22 (2004). Full story »

There is an old adage “You’re never too old – you’re never too young” for this or that.
Right now, I’m talking about those volunteers who show up when duty calls. In my regular job, I need volunteers to help with this or that or another thing. I’m spread thin and can’t cover all the bases all the time. Things are tight for everyone right now and everybody is trying to say afloat. Full story »

With so many means to communicate between people in today’s world I find it frustrating when people misuse tools such as emails, texting, memos or voice mailing. My experience has run a gauntlet of people who communicated in different ways and some were doozies. Full story »

We watch food prices soar upward, beginning when the price of oil took off like a rocket taking the price of gasoline and diesel up with it. Our leaders decided growing corn to make ethanol for biofuel was the answer. Full story »

Corn, ethanol, gasoline and inflation form a mixture that produces repercussions from which we cannot seem to escape.
It almost seems that OPEC, speculators, environmentalists and politicians are in league, holding the United States hostage in an effort to do what? I wonder about their aims. Full story »

The five trees on my property that were scorched in the Canyon Fire of 1999 are healing nicely. These huge Sycamore trees shade my home from the hot sun as it moves across the sky. Full story »

Dear Mr. Winship:
I can’t respond to your weekly poll online because my computer is 13 years old and was born without any ‘on-line.’ However, I would like to weigh in with the simple reason why the term ‘marriage’ must be reserved to and for heterosexual couples.
Full story »

I suppose it is human nature for the curious to personally want to inspect a disaster scene.
I learned that lesson at a young age whenever my mother, the daughter of a U.S. Forest Service district supervisor and the sister of a U.S. Forest Service smokejumper, always wanted to chase down the local fire engines to see what had just burned. Full story »