Travel/Adventure

The print media often claims that its purpose is to provide information to the citizens. Does anyone believe this?

The Bee recently sued to obtain pension information on Stan County retired employees. Public employee are also citizens. Who agrees this information should be public information?

Since the print media has the ability to decide elections, sway peoples oppinions, and choose which facts it puts in a story or leaves out, should'nt they provide the salaries of all its staff and employees?

If the  print media were concerned about quality factual reporting, all papers would be free. If the goal of papers is to inform the public of what is occuring, then all papers should be free. The cost of making papers would be paid for by Ads.

While Kristin Olsen voted to close Parks and park restrooms because they didn't have any money, they sure found EXTRA money when it came to covering their mistakes is planning the Bus Garage.  Can you imagine the cost over runs when it's being built when it cost Modesto over an extra third just for the plans.

We have to many insiders on the council it's time to send a message of "NO MORE" will we tolerate campaign contributions in exchange for votes favoring special interests.

No state in the union despises Californians then the state of Idaho where urban California transplants have congested  Idaho cities,shoved their liberal beliefs down Idahoans throats,increased the crime rate and overrun the state.Californians take note native Idahoans don't want you in their state.Don't move to Idaho you are neither wanted nor welcome.

Here are a few of the girls involved with Cataline is his pole dancing video shoot.  How old are they?

Today felt like my first fall ride of the year, although the leaves haven't started falling along Dry Creek yet. The creek is running low and slow. The lilies of the the field are in full bloom. I enjoyed the coolness of the morning, refreshing after so many rides in the heat of summer. There is a sense of calm in Modesto, a lull before the winter storms (hopefully). It was a beautiful day for riding

On my Santa Cruz vacation, I visited my favorite retail spot. It’s called Big Kahuna Hawaiian Shirts in Capitola (there’s a theme here). It’s just a couple of blocks from the beach and has more than 1,000 shirts in stock. I can spend a lot of time in there checking out all the wild-and-crazy designs.

When I was there recently, I had the quintessential laid-back beach experience. As a walked in the door, the twentysomething cashier said to me: “Hey, dude!” OK, I don’t get called that much any more, if ever. No matter how indigenous I try to look, I’m clearly too old and too uptight to be in the dude crew. But, hey, I appreciated the compliment.

Even when I’m on vacation I am always checking out the business climate where I’m supposed to be relaxing. It’s just a habit I guess. On a recent trip to Santa Cruz, I was curious how this laid-back beach region was doing amid this stifling recession.

I was surprised to see that housing prices from Santa Cruz to Monterey really hadn’t come down much. While there do seem to be some short-sales and bank-owned properties on the market, if you’re not willing to drop $700,000 to live in one of the beach communities, not necessarily on the beach, or $500,000 in some of the farther-out enclaves up in the redwoods, you’re out of luck.