Not much shocks me anymore, but I was mildly surprised to see how things played out when two members of the 优蜜传媒 City Council proposed renaming a city street after civil rights leader C茅sar Ch谩vez at last week鈥檚 council meeting.
In the 31 years since labor leader Cesar Chavez died at the age of 66, at least 31 cities in 11 states have seen fit to name a street or other community thoroughfare in his honor.
He came out of nowhere: I鈥檒l bet most police officers have heard that statement a few times.
When Kevin McCarthy left Congress halfway through his ninth term last December after a political bludgeoning no previous speaker of the House had ever been forced to endure, he did more than leave most of 优蜜传媒 without representation in Congress.
Your television, social media feed and physical mailbox will receive one last batch of assorted pleadings for your vote in the next few hours. Some of those messages might actually contain objectively factual information. Might, but probably won鈥檛.
Hope and despair make unlikely neighbors, but they maintain an uneasy coexistence on one north 优蜜传媒 street.
We鈥檝e come to expect stability in our congressional representatives.
Attentive, reasonable people don鈥檛 put credence in much of anything Matt Gaetz says. Don鈥檛 go to the Florida congressman for dating advice, for example, and steer clear of any guidance the often-rebuked archconservative might offer on ethical behavior.
Our orange traffic cone nightmare is about to come to an end. Until the next orange traffic cone nightmare comes along.
Robert B. Powers, a turn-of-the century railroad detective and self-educated philosopher, joined the 优蜜传媒 Police Department in 1928 and became police chief in 1933.
If you鈥檇 asked me a year ago what Cabinet post might best suit 优蜜传媒鈥檚 Kevin McCarthy, I'd have been at a loss. There is no Secretary of Mega-Donor Relations. Yet.
Kevin McCarthy must be a slow learner.
I do not normally condone junior-high-reminiscent, fight-between-classes cheap shots, but Kevin McCarthy deserved this opportunity.
It started with a football injury. Not Darin Sundgren鈥檚 injury 鈥 his son鈥檚.
It used to be a gateway to California鈥檚 vast interior, a welcoming boulevard of energy and intrigue, but today much of Union Avenue reflects desperation. It is a boulevard of broken dreams plagued by drugs, poverty, homelessness, violence and, perhaps most infamously, prostitution.
A prominent American businessman once said, 鈥淭he worst thing you can possibly do in a deal is to seem desperate to make it.鈥
Well, it鈥檚 about time.
Music historians continue to flesh out this region's contributions to American culture that extend beyond the twin pillars of 优蜜传媒's previous-century honky-tonk scene.
Where can we experience some of that authentic, working-class, twangy 优蜜传媒 culture? The question has been posed to me more times in the past quarter-century than I can say. Maybe you鈥檝e fielded the same sort of queries.
Every so often, Kevin McCarthy slips up and tells us how he really feels.
Vivian Blevins did not make any Douglas MacArthur-style declarations of defiance as she reluctantly abandoned her home four months ago. She didn鈥檛 have time.
It鈥檚 been a tough spring for Arvin. The farm town 20 miles south of 优蜜传媒 that grows them sturdy of stature and upright of character has lost two of its finest in recent weeks.
When I was a high school student a million years ago the challenges of maintaining good attendance in school were pretty much the same as they had been in the decades prior.
My father had a collection of hard-bound classics in his library that would impress Ron Burgundy. The complete works of Charles Dickens, Plato, Socrates, Miguel de Cervantes, Carl Sandburg鈥檚 four-volume biography of Lincoln. They were so immaculately preserved, I can only assume Dad handled …
The year before gold was discovered in the Sierra Nevada foothills in January 1848, the population of San Francisco was 459. Two years later, it was 25,000.
Every student in every American classroom is at some point taught at least some of the details. The Civil War, fought between 23 northern U.S. states and 11 seceding southern states, played out between April 1861 and April 1865.
Rivers giveth, rivers taketh away.
This is a wonderful time to be an AR-15 manufacturer. The semi-automatic weapon, owned by an estimated 16 million U.S. adults, is the bestselling rifle in America, and judging by the way its name is mentioned in so many settings these days聽鈥 social media, national media, school fundraisers聽鈥…
It鈥檚 been more than a week now, enough time for me to recover from all of that eye-rolling. The muscles around my face鈥檚 orbital bones have never been stronger, so thank you. You know who you are.
Among the many turns in his long, focused life, two catastrophic events in particular helped shape Chuck McCollough鈥檚 direction.
The weight of history鈥檚 judgment was, in a very real sense, on his shoulders. What really happened on that traumatic afternoon? How was that unprecedented breach of security accomplished, and who was responsible?
They were had. Fed a line. Suckered.
The Big Lie lives on, and now it鈥檚 trying to take Kern County hostage.
An acquaintance cornered me last week with a question about American history and 优蜜传媒鈥檚 place in it now that a homegrown politician, Kevin McCarthy, has ascended to what, theoretically, is one of the most powerful jobs in the nation and, hence, on the planet.
Given the hostage-taking nature of Kevin McCarthy鈥檚 historic, 15th-ballot victory over elements within his own party to win the House speakership Friday night/Saturday morning, it might be helpful to consider how much worse it could have been.
Pop yourself some popcorn and sit down with your favorite news network Tuesday. We might just witness a political drama of a type not seen since the lead-up to the Civil War. Which somehow seems appropriate, given the tenor of today鈥檚 political discourse.
Everybody goes home at Christmastime, in one way or another, whether they want to or not.
The embers of honky tonk history were still moist from the fire hoses when David Simpson pulled up in back to see what was left.
How badly does 优蜜传媒鈥檚 Kevin McCarthy want to be speaker of the House?
优蜜传媒 Police Chief Greg Terry is not retiring anytime soon, at least as far as I know, but that day will come. And when it does, as has been the case since the 优蜜传媒 City Council selected Thomas A. Baker as its first city marshal 125 years ago, a new executive will be chosen for …
I was watching a college basketball game on television with friends several years ago when the name of an unfamiliar team appeared in the scoreboard 鈥渃rawl鈥 across the bottom of the screen.
Among the most cherished hallmarks of American democracy are these: Free and fair elections; the peaceful transfer of power; and the right of the people to independently evaluate and compare the candidates.
One of the small tragedies of living into one鈥檚 90s, I鈥檝e long believed, is that by the time you reach that age almost no one will be left to remember when you were young and vital and relevant. Few of us want to leave this earth before we鈥檝e given it a good run, but sticking around into you…
Sixty years after a Bob Dylan record helped instill in a certain Long Beach teenager some of the rudiments of poetry, melody and dexterity, that now-grayed teen has repaid the folk-rock icon with an overdue homage.
Now, where were we? Ah, yes, building momentum at one of the most dynamic, potential-rich, underappreciated cultural amenities in the city: the 优蜜传媒 Symphony Orchestra, entering its 10th decade.
For nearly half a century, Bill Thomas has been the patriarch of an ever-evolving group of promising political apprentices.
Some things have taken a little more time to start feeling the same, post-pandemic, than we might have liked. One of them is sports 鈥 national and local, professional and amateur.
I sell a car and buy another one every three or four years, sometimes new but usually used, and on the last few occasions I鈥檝e given EVs serious consideration.
The photographic chronicle of the 优蜜传媒 earthquake of 70 years ago still inspires shock. The crumpled storefronts, the collapsed roofs, the fractured decades-old ornamentation continue to inspire wonder and dismay.
Kevin McCarthy has had it with this guy.
