Boom Flowers, Taking The Local Pulse, And Something Skulky
As Fourth of July Weekends went this one had an unusual dynamic to it. Incurable romantics, we couldn’t help but hold the New Fourth up against Fourths long past, where dads and uncles in t-shirts lit peep-squeak pyrotechnics with their cigars in the street outside newly acquired homes while moms in pedal pushers or summer…
Monday Morning Quarterbacking
G’morning 24/680 People – and welcome to a new week. We’re doing some broken field running through the stock market this morning as they take a bit of a hit but we know the more sports-minded among us are still recovering from a weekend of nail-biting contests on the gridiron and in hoops arenas. Local…
Cop Tech: “This Is Car 54 – Preparing To Launch The Probe…”
We’re old enough to remember the times when police and press were at least in sympathy with each others’ needs and the press tip toed around advancements in police technology so they’d at least have a sporting chance against a criminal element determined to outwit them. Public Safety was the over-arching interest, after all. Those…
Can We Scrub The Planet’s Atmosphere – One Individual Forest At A Time?
We’re looking for land. It’s a thing of ours – all the ancestors were miners and ranchers and farriers and they all had “spreads.” They lived close to the earth and they learned to work it, alongside their crops and animals. We used to visit, before our family succumbed to the Jet Age and moved…
Semi-Rural Noise: Moraga Maintains Its Previous Stance – And It’s Not Music To Everyone’s Ears
Along with dog parks and speed bumps and sink holes one of the most rancorous topics available for Moragans to sink their teeth into like a Rawhide Chew Bone from time to time has been – noise. What noise, you might ask. Roosters and cows and the occasionally boisterous owl courting a love interest in…
Re-Thinking Policing: Should Officers Handle Priority Calls Only?
NOTE: We like to “what if?” from time to time around News24/680, putting things out there for people smarter than us to weigh in on and, when things go right, perhaps come up with a better way of doing things. We’re hopeful police officers and their commanders will contribute their thoughts, experiences here – Editor.…
People Of Earth – And The 24/680 – So, Whaddaya Think?
We’ve developed a semi-loyal following of readers/neighbors who seem to appreciate our hyper-local coverage of newsy stuff in Contra Costa County – and a little beyond, but now we’d like to venture waaay outside our county lines and see what you have to say about recent developments with possibly inter-stellar implications. Some of you may…
A Reader Remembers The Depression – And How Her Government Helped Her Family Through It
We’ve been writing a bit about current public sentiment – best described, perhaps, as frantic; angry; suspicious; patient; optimistic with a peppery dose of humbled and “wondering what’s coming next” added for good measure. We’ve been tested. We’re being tested. Not war-time tested or Depression tested, maybe, but still tested. People are hurting, livelihoods are…
Yours In LipZippetyUppedness
We’re riding high on sleep deprivation and vintage Fleetwood Mac and watching The National Madness slide by while nightcallers ring us up and whisper: “Aren’t you going to say anything?” Those unlucky enough to know us well know we’re loquacious with just a hint of cocksure garrulousness thrown in – traits bestowed since the day…
You Guys Can Handle The Truth, Right? Right?
Our intern once described what we do as: “Dancing a jig alone, at the end of a giant razor blade, with everyone standing around hoping you’ll slip.” Pretty much. And it can be pretty dang hairy out there all alone, thousands of eyes on you, not all of them friendly, and everyone ready to throw…