2013 Editor Notes Archive Stories

Wherever I've been, there always is some little disagreement on how important Cinco de Mayo is to the Mexican community. Some claim it's more of an American tradition. Others don't care; it's a good date to have some festivities celebrating the culture. I don't know about all that, but the Cinco de Mayo festival at our fairgrounds on Sun

Last Saturday, first stop: It was sunny and we were drinking smoothies, sitting on straw bales, under the shade of a tarp, listening to music. The little band played an old Jesse Colin Young song. Ahhh. It was a nice little timeout-for-life moment, relaxing there in Smartsville during last week's Pioneer Day. It's the principal fundraisi

We watched the community Saturday night. We liked what we saw. We were at the fairgrounds exhibit hall for the 25th annual Italian Night, done up by the Marysville Kiwanis Club. Someone told us that it would be like a huge class reunion, and that was a good way to describe it. We watched as groups of people gathered here and ther

Even when things go wrong, it's hard to be critical of a group of volunteer citizens, like those who have been involved in the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity. They mean well, they aren't getting paid and sometimes the expectations are more than they can handle. We'll just note that it's probably a good thing there was a shakeup in

Things have been changing in the Appeal-Democrat news pages over the past few months, and it's funny how the calls and comments go. For some, the most obvious changes are things that have been cut, or moved around. For others, it's things added. Hopefully, it remains more of the latter. It seems like it wouldn't hurt to check the

Something dark happened in our community this past week. We're disinclined to do much commenting on legal cases while they're happening, and what was a shootout earlier this week is now likely to become a legal case. Still, something this significant should cause us all to take pause and just consider things. It seems appropriate to make

Forgive me for not getting to this sooner, but we've been meaning to give a big thumbs up to the Bok Kai Parade, everyone who helped make it happen and everyone who took part in it, as participants and spectators. It was our first time since moving here, and we had a wonderful morning in Marysville. It started out with us wandering aroun

We're proud of our Appeal-Democrat photographers, as we are of our whole newsroom staff. Writers try to capture a defining moment, the height of action, the moment of impact, the gist and the relevance of a story and then write a good bit of background and explanation. A photographer has to try to capture it all in an image and a short c

There was some joking and friendly ribbing, but mostly upbeat presentations by a panel of leaders, one each from Wheatland, Live Oak, Marysville and Yuba City. We attended the Yuba-Sutter Chamber of Commerce's State of the Cities breakfast meeting Friday. Writer Eric Vodden will provide a report elsewhere in this edition. What I was happ

We can't wait to see the dragon! We've been looking forward to this weekend since deciding to come to work at the Appeal-Democrat last November. When you're about to move to a new place, you start checking out references to your new town. Check out Marysville, and you're going to find plenty of references to the Bok Kai festival.

I know what I want to be when I grow up. A member of the SIRs (Sons in Retirement) club. I visited them during their monthly meeting last week. I walked into the banquet hall and there were a couple hundred of them. I was a little worried because I'm naturally shy. But they were nice. They listened, mostly politely. Then there were comments and

Bees are amazing creatures. That's all there is to it. They're neat to look at; they're beautiful to watch. I'm the son of an old beekeeper; Dad always had hives in the yard and here and there out and around the county. When a swarm would settle into someone's attic or under the eaves of some business downtown, they would call Dad to com

I was sitting in an office of the Tri-County Newspapers suite in Willows on Thursday morning, listening to newsroom staffers and getting that warm glow of pleasant nostalgia for my old days. It's a fun and hardworking bunch, the TCN news crew, and hanging out with them brought back memories of happy times working at a little weekly newsp

I've been wondering about this for quite a while and across a lot of state lines: How do you protect land for agriculture? How do you balance that with protecting property owners' rights to use their property as they wish, whether they want to build houses or solar arrays or windmills, a hog confinement system or a feedlot? It wi

Smart choices: That's what we're hoping to make here at the Appeal-Democrat. With a new publisher and a new editor, and lots of items on their priority lists, it seems like a good time to update our customers. Like any other for-profit business trudging along on its way out of the Great Recession, the newspaper industry as a whol

Somewhere among the news the last few weeks, the subject of cruising came up. Then I noticed the "No Cruising Allowed" sign at the city's edge. Then there was a letter writer lamenting the passing of what she thought was harmless entertainment. We're talking about the act of driving a car, usually full of young adults, back and forth or

I'm a tad over 50. OK, more than a tad. I'm old enough to irritate people with comments about how things used to be. Still, there are topics for which it's important to compare generational cultures. I'm pretty sure "bullying" is one of those. I have a feeling people my age and older don't take it seriously enough. After

When it comes to economics, it really might not be the illness that kills you but the cure. The recession has been officially over for quite some time; but the recovery seemingly takes forever. Most of us muddle along. For those who are down and out, it's a matter of urgency. Thankfully, local charities praise area residents for how much

I'm glad I've moved to a community that organizes a unity march in observance of the birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the MLK holiday. The holiday is now respected across cultural and ethnic lines, it seems to me. It wasn't always like that. I remember writing about it in the '80s and having white neighbors shrug and c

We have more research, reporting and thinking to do before we take an official stand on the lawsuit filed by Yuba County Water Agency against the National Marine Fisheries Service and US Army Corps of Engineers, but it sure looks like the YCWA believes it is acting in the best interests of this community. The point of contention is over

The type size is so large at the top of the page, you probably didn't notice the change. Up to now, this page has been labeled "Opinion." Starting today, it's the "Forum." Sure, it's all about being a place where opinions are expressed. But we want to emphasize that the invitation is out there for readers to use this public space to enga