Joetopia

So after several weeks of angst and grassroots outrage, the Annie saga has come to a close in an uncomfortable manner — torn up, emotionally rent and fully not tied nicely with a pretty bow as I had originally hoped.
Annie’s new owners returned her to her old owner on Monday evening, and as the photo [...]

I kind of hate to weigh in on a topic that has been ruminated upon ad infinitum, but I had an incident the other day that fully exemplifies the obnoxious attitude many people like to take when sitting behind the wheel of a car.
I’d bet in a great many circumstances, it is an attitude absolutely [...]

So Little Miss Fifth-Grader comes home with a stack of papers from her first day of school. She doesn’t have any homework for herself, but she does have some for me.
I’m supposed to write memories of when I was in fifth grade for some such thing that she will use in class, I [...]

It’s nice to see county officials finally stepping up to do something about this Annie the dog business.
The latest development had them arranging a meeting of top minds to figure out a solution, before the enraged electorate storms the County Government Center with torches and pitchforks.
I’m not exactly sure what their strategy will be, but [...]

 
The most ridiculous thing about the seven-year wait for work to begin on Atascadero’s historic Administration Building is FEMA’s claim that it will only cover visible quake damage.
As noted in Tonya Strickland’s story this week, the federal agency bases its funding estimates on damage people can see, which would seem to be exactly the opposite [...]

In his column yesterday, Bob Cuddy shared the troubling story of Chuck Hogue and his dog, Annie, who jumped out of his truck, went missing for several days, then turned up at the shelter, only to be adopted out to another family before anyone notified Hogue.
Yes, there are lessons we all can learn from this [...]

So I had the honor of being feted in the latest issue of the Santa Lucian, the newsletter published by our local chapter of the Sierra Club.
It seems the enviros were none to pleased with my opinion on the debate over Diablo Canyon’s cooling system.
So they devoted an entire page to a nifty little counterstrike [...]

So the federal government has plunged head first into the Arizona immigration debate.
It’s about time.
As opposed to focusing on civil rights, its case is based on the constitutional standard that the federal government has “pre-eminent” authority to set immigration policy.
In other words, what part of “the supreme law of the land” don’t you understand, you [...]

So the case of John Norris has at least temporarily ended in a hung jury, with the panel split 9-3 in favor of acquittal.
If you haven’t been following the news, Norris is the San Miguel man who fatally shot his wife after apparently stumbling while carrying his Taurus 1911 handgun.
He was charged with involuntary manslaughter, [...]

Contemplating the prospect that Avila Beach could or should aspire to something greater borders on a fool’s errand for all kinds of reasons.
Yet that is the spot we find ourselves in now, these dozen or so years since much of Front Street was razed to scoop out all the oil and tainted sand.
In the wake [...]