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About PeteGolis

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So far PeteGolis has created 115 blog entries.

For news junkies, a last look at 2009

If you think you keep up with your hometown news, here’s your chance to prove it. The 18th annual Press Democrat Quiz for News Junkies is now online. Place your books under your desk and keep your eyes on your own paper. No talking, gum chewing or text messaging. You'll [...]

By | December 31st, 2009|0 Comments

Home for Christmas

Christmas Eve dawned in spectacular fashion with the Rincon Ridge silhouetted against the orange glow that comes just before sunrise. On this cold and sparkling morning, we were out early to harvest fresh Dungeness crab - before the store ran out. Judging by the other folks lined up at the [...]

By | December 24th, 2009|2 Comments

An unhappy new year for state and local government

Want to know why the outlook is so dire for state and local government? Check out Steve Wiegand's report in this morning's Sacramento Bee. And note, near the end, these two paragraphs: "Even if legislators and the governor come up with another patchwork solution to cover the current $21 billion [...]

By | December 20th, 2009|2 Comments

Daddy, what was a VCR?

In one of those end-of-the decade lists that have become a staple of Internet traffic this month, the Silicon Alley Insider served up a list of the stuff that became obsolete in the last decade. If you still depend on a dial-up connection, a film camera, a landline, a pay [...]

By | December 15th, 2009|1 Comment

Marin, you look marvelous

To the local gentry, it’s known as Marvelous Marin, a promotional label that begins to capture the home folks’ strong sense of self. From the Golden Gate Bridge to the Point Reyes National Seashore, it would be difficult to argue that the Marin County landscape isn’t beautiful. Also, the folks [...]

By | December 8th, 2009|5 Comments

Tech stuff: How COTS gathered 280 turkeys in 24 hours

On Thursday, COTS, a community service agency in Petaluma, put out the call for 250 turkeys for its Thanksgiving week food box program. Twenty-four hours later, COTS had 280 turkeys. How did it generate such a quick response? It used e-mail and Facebook to spread the word to community networks [...]

By | November 23rd, 2009|0 Comments

Cutting through the gloom

“It’s OK to ask for help, because we all need help now and then.” -    John Records, executive director, the Committee on the Shelterless. PETALUMA More than 600 people showed up for a 7:30 a.m. breakfast here on Wednesday. And they weren’t lined up to tryout for a TV reality [...]

By | November 22nd, 2009|2 Comments

Welcome to the lull before the latest train wreck

For Californians hoping that state and local government could stop the bleeding, there is more grim news. On Saturday, the San Jose Mercury News reported that the state’s budget deficit - worst case -  could reach $25 billion next year. Twenty-five billion dollars.  Translation: That’s 29.5 percent of the current [...]

By | November 15th, 2009|3 Comments

Hometown government is broken

For Sonoma County people who value the services provided by hometown government, another dispiriting week has come and gone. Local agencies continue to be hammered by budget shortfalls, and the latest financial updates offer no reason to be optimistic about what will happen next year or the year after. In [...]

By | November 8th, 2009|4 Comments

Who would want to be governor?

"Few vying for state's top job," reads this morning's headline, and I'd wager many readers had the identical response. They thought to themselves: No surprise there. Who would want to be governor anyway? By now, the futility of California government has become the story line of our time - an [...]

By | November 2nd, 2009|2 Comments