Opinion

State Sen. Joel Anderson (R-38th District) comes home to ALEC

Earlier this year, following his sub rosa Washington D.C. meetings with the chief Geico lobbyist, we asked the question: Where in the world is state Sen. Joel Anderson, R-38th District? He’s your state senator in case  you didn’t know, and he was about as far from Sacramento as possible. Answering that question is easy this week. Anderson is at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San…



Where have you gone, Pete Verboom Dairy?

Wind kicks across the site of the old, abandoned Pete Verboom Dairy just off Highway 76, west of Pala. Once an iconic and important dairy farm among hundreds of San Diego County dairy operations, Pete Verboom Dairy No. 1 and No. 2 are no more, and left blowing in the Pala Valley wind. Verboom was president of the San Diego County Milk Producers Council. He…


Art is not a thing

Art is not a thing; it is a way. Elbert Hubbard Desperate to restore a greater sense of beauty in my life, I was to discover a pulsating heap of it in an unexpected place—at the Oceanside Museum of Art. And while I can find beauty in the smallest crevice sprouting a delicate tendril flower, there comes a moment when searching for another’s vision is required….


A Gaggle Of Goats

I live next door to a gaggle of goats, 4 to be exact. Now, I know they come in herds but I like alliteration so gaggle it is. Anyway, my next door neighbor, LizzyGal, has these 4 goats that live in a penned area out back, just before the land slopes down to the creek below. In the ample pen, there are 3 little outbuildings,…


Out and About with Russel Ray — “The Big Eye”

The Russel Ray, Property Consultant home inspection this past Thursday was out on Palomar Mountain. It caught me off guard when I scheduled it because I had no clue that there were homes up on Palomar Mountain. Once I finished the inspection, I headed over to the “Big Eye,” more properly known as Mount Palomar Observatory: The Big Eye is only 62 miles from where…


The View from Here: Music Fest

The view from here is rhythmic. This Saturday my family and I enjoyed the Music Fest at Bates Nut Farm, which was co-produced by the Valley Center/Pauma Music Boosters and Cattle Call, LLC. Last year was the first time we attended and it was so fantastic that we were excited to see the announcement pop up on social media a couple of months ago. Music…


People behaving badly

I covered the Delta. That’s the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta for our purposes although I occasionally covered the Mississippi Delta for newspapers in Louisiana and Arkansas, which is a whole ‘nother story. This was the California Delta where I covered Elk Grove south and west through Hood, Locke, Walnut Grove, Isleton along with places like Lodi, Galt and heaven’s know where for the Sacramento Bee. They…