By Jasmine Boardman ISSUES SURROUNDING SUICIDE Cross all socioeconomic boundaries, yet the topic continues to be stigmatized in our culture. This stigma works to suppress open discussion about suicide, often preventing those who are suffering from seeking help. More needs to be done to promote awareness and education about suicidality — not only to help people […]
Hasta la vista, Benicia?
By Fletcher Phelan JOHN TUSTING’S COMMENTARY SUNDAY (“Sipping lightly”) regarding last week’s Benicia City Council meeting was wonderful. I am grateful for his insight, as I was amazed at the speed with which the Council “resolved” the issue of the increases of our water and sewer rates for the coming years. My first thought, when […]
Sipping lightly: City, residents fall short on water, sewer rate hikes
By John Tusting ON TUESDAY NIGHT, BENICIA CITY COUNCIL voted on the city’s proposed rate hike for water and sewer service. The proposal, which was sent to residents and businesses via mail in October and again in November, justified the rate increase by citing a crumbling infrastructure and rising regulatory climate, and by comparing Benicia’s […]
Jerome Page: A plea for delay of exile
OVER THESE THREE YEARS OR SO OF WRITING FOR THE HERALD, I have generally avoided responding to my critics. Most of their critiques have been short and dismissive versions of “another liberal-socialist harangue,” that almost invariably ignore the opportunity to deal with anything I actually write. However, someone has recently decided to, as it were, […]
Crewmember Report: Benicia, California, Spaceship Earth: Keeping Benicia green
By Constance Beutel AT OUR NOVEMBER 2012 BENICIA CLEANTECH EXPO, we had 18 excellent workshop presentations related to clean technologies and sustainability. I’d like to share the content of a few of those workshops with you. If you’re interested in viewing the presentations to get the real flavor of the presenters, I’ll provide the video […]
Bill Simpkins: Shop Benicia first
WE JUST FINISHED WATCHING the Woody Allen movie “The Front.” As some may recall, it’s about Hollywood blacklisting in the early 1950s. Writers, directors and actors alike were accused of being so-called communists; they couldn’t find work, some committed suicide, some worked as ghost writers, and some left the U.S. altogether. Running an independent repair […]
Our path forward in the 113th Congress
By Mike Thompson I AM HONORED AND HUMBLED BY THE OVERWHELMING SHOW OF SUPPORT I received throughout our district on Election Day. With your vote, you put your trust in me to return to Washington and work to make our district a better place to live, work and raise a family. Now, the election is […]
Bruce Robinson: Open letter to my granddaughter on her 18th birthday
HI EM, IT WAS GREAT TALKING WITH YOU on your birthday last week. This was an important day in your life because now you’re old enough to vote. I didn’t have that privilege when I turned 18 in 1953 because then the voting age was 21. I have to admit I wasn’t very interested in […]
Jerome Page: A Pledge of Allegiance for our times
I BEGIN WITH THE CENTRAL QUESTIONS that frame the current great economic debate in these United States. The first, as framed by the right: Do we intend, against every rational consideration, to cripple the “job creators” with an increase in tax rates on productive wealth in the interests of the parasitic? Second, and directly related to […]
Grant Cooke: Rule by old white guys is over
A LITTLE MORE THAN THREE WEEKS AFTER THE ELECTION, there is at least one lesson we can take away for certain: Old rich white guys no longer rule America. Here, let me be clear. President Barack Obama’s election to a second term took a crowbar and smashed the grip of the power-clasping hands of a […]