By Jack Neworth Santa Monica At the end of last week’s column, I was describing myself (circa more decades ago than I care to admit) staring in horror at my wonderful U.S. Forest Service garbage truck fully engulfed in fire. Instead of being a hero in detecting a possibly catastrophic forest fire, it turned out…
By Jack Neworth Santa Monica Currently, 18 brush and forest fires are raging in California. By far the worst is the Carr Fire in Redding where at least eight have died (including two firefighters) and four residents are missing. The inferno, ignited by a spark from a towed vehicle, has destroyed over 113,000 acres and…
Editor’s note: Alice Alveraz is volunteering at the Port Isabel Detention Center in Los Fresnos, Texas. Today (Saturday) I worked as an attorney. As many of you know, I’m here in Texas working as a volunteer medic at a clinic for families who have just been released from ICE. Happenstance and fate connected me yesterday…
Editor: The week before last week, I went to Washington D.C., to meet with 1,400 other citizens across the U.S. to strategize our upcoming meetings with our representative in the capitol. Our group, Citizens Climate Lobby or CCL for short, is trying to pass legislation to curb the burning of fossil fuels. It’s getting too…
Getting wiser about pesticide safety Age brings wisdom, but not always knowledge about pesticide safety. With Older Americans Month upon us, what better time to look at this issue as it relates to maturing Californians? Department of Pesticide Regulation data shows a quarter of all non-agricultural, non-occupational illnesses reported in the state between 2005 and…
By Susan Rowell President of the National Newspaper Association There are two things you need to know about newspapers. Newspapers are important to community life and democracy. Always have been. We at the National Newspaper Association think it is important for all sorts of newspapers to survive for the sake of a free society —…
By Brian J. Hunhoff Editor’s note: In honor of Sunshine Week, we are running this year’s opinion piece from Brian J. Hunhoff on the subject, as we did last year. “Captain Jack” Crawford was one of the original Black Hills Rangers. He survived many Old West adventures and was called “The Poet Scout.” This is…
Editor: First, I appreciate the Idyllwild Town Crier for publishing this article under its frequent, yet underutilized, “Another Point of View” banner. This is my individual response and does not represent an opinion approved by the full board nor the general manager at the Idyllwild Water District. The office of IWD board president is a…
Editor: Three events in my life caused me to beam with pride to be a citizen of this country. The first occurred when the U.S. attorney general resigned in protest, when Richard Nixon asked him to fire the Watergate special prosecutor. The second time was the election/re-election of President Obama. Last year, it was my…
Editor: It’s time to put hard facts to the misguided principles of Idyllwild Water and Fire Protection districts’ hydrant system. Two required hydrant-flow surveys were conducted Nov. 10, 2006, and July 29, 2015. The 2006 survey monitored eight IWD residential hydrants (two actually mislabeled as IWD hydrants instead of Fern Valley, so, in fact, six…
