Opinions
Second & Flume: Hope
The rain was the perfect company as I sat down on the eve of the one-year anniversary of California’s coronavirus lockdown. Not coincidentally, March 19, 2020, was also the day that the CN&R closed its […]
Second & Flume
Opinions
Second & Flume: Damage control
I’ll never forget the morning after the Camp Fire—Nov. 9, 2018. That’s the day I drove up the Skyway and into the burning hellscape of what I once recognized as the town of Paradise. One […]
Second & Flume
Second & Flume: Unforgiven
This Gen-Xer’s lefty views on the government and social issues diverge greatly from a lot of folks in the North State, and that includes most of those with whom I share DNA. I’d call myself […]
Opinions
Second & Flume: Sad and angry
One of my worst fears about the pandemic was realized six days before Christmas. That’s when I lost my beloved grandfather, Albert Baleme Jr., the patriarch of my mother’s family. He was my last living […]
Opinions
Second & Flume: Muckraker remembered
“Hey, kid. How ya doin’?” I can hear Tim Crews’ gravelly voice say those exact words, his typical greeting. Though busy as editor and publisher of the twice-weekly Sacramento Valley Mirror, the publication he founded […]
Opinions
Second & Flume: Burning questions
How could Butte County become the site of a wildfire-related mass casualty event less than two years after 85 people were killed by the Camp Fire? I’ve been stuck on that question since Sept. 9, […]
Opinions
Second & Flume: Bad timing
By the time you read this, I’ll be recuperating from my second surgery in a month. I won’t go through the whole long and involved story, but I will give you a snippet of the […]
Second & Flume
Second & Flume: Catching up
It’s impossible to fit everything I’d like to say into this space after what has taken place during our more than three-month print hiatus. I’ll start with how much I’ve missed having this weekly conversation […]
Second & Flume
Body counts and rodeo clowns
Memorize these figures: 62,000 and 83,019. The first is the high-end estimate of U.S. deaths attributed to influenza during an entire annual flu season. The second is the number of Americans who have died of […]
Second & Flume
Helping the Fourth Estate
In many ways, March 27 feels like years ago. That’s the day I was forced to publish my column exclusively online, and life just hasn’t been the same. Since stopping the print presses nearly six […]
Second & Flume
Second & Flume
Thick cats, odd finds, and your new Schitty family
Have listicles ever been as popular as they have been over the past month? As of this Sunday (April 19), it’ll have been that long since the start of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s unprecedented stay-at-home order. […]
Second & Flume
Bittersweet
I may have been in the middle of feeling sorry for myself when former CN&R staff writer Ashiah Scharaga called to tell me the California News Publishers Association had revealed the results of its annual […]
Second & Flume
Leave the light on
Each Thursday for the past 13 years, I’ve walked into the CN&R’s office and grabbed a freshly printed issue of Chico’s trusty alternative weekly. Yesterday was different. As I swung around the roundabout at Second […]