Kudos to Rick Pillsbury for a quarter-century leading students to academic excellence at Casa Grande High School.

The temptation to make a "buzz" -related joke is almost overwhelming, but I'll restrain myself. Even though it means that my often barbed commentary will lack its usual sting.

Pity the visionary who arrives in Petaluma who hopes to create some new resource that would benefit our quaint, retro-centric town.

Well the anti-big-box NIMBY's are certainly on "target." Five years after a Chamber-sponsored study discovered that millions of dollars in potential tax revenues for Petaluma were going into the city coffers of Rohnert Park, Cotati, Santa Rosa and Novato, the East Washington development is still stalled.

If you ask the State, who measures the water in Menocino's Lake Pillsbury to determine Sonoma County's water resources, everything is just peachy. But if you go to Lake Mendocino - where our water actually comes from - we're still in trouble.

The much touted Stimulus Plan is fast becoming the largest Pork roll since FDR's WPA dotted the country with new bridges, parks and post offices. Though the WPA employed nearly 8 million workers between 1935 and 1943, the program had little positive effect on the national unemployment levels nor did it boost the national economy.