Recently I revisited a book I had read about 20 years ago by one of my favorite contemporary American essayists, Richard Hofstadter’s The Paranoid Style in American Politics.
With a few slight modifications, I think the book could have been written today – only the names and the groups would have to change.
This week Bob Dunning posted excerpts from a Village Homes plan to go to well water rather than pay for the increased cost of water under the new project.
Drilling through the morass of tongue-in-cheek comments, it appears the crux of the situation is, “The Village Homeowners Association Board has been contemplating construction of a well on Village Homes property for over two years to help defray the rapidly increasing cost of water.”
The City of Davis declared impasse with DCEA (Davis City Employees Association) back on November 8, 2012. More recently, on April 12, 2013, the city declared impasse with the Davis firefighters’ union, Local 3494.
According to a press release from May 31, “The City’s agreement with DCEA expired on June 30, 2009, and the agreement with Local 3494 expired on June 30, 2012. The City commenced negotiations with both groups in the spring of 2012 regarding the terms and conditions of employment for these represented units, and the parties have spent the last year negotiating for successor agreements.”
In his Friday column, Davis Enterprise columnist Bob Dunning raises the question as to whether Clayton Garzon, accused in the brutal beating of Mikey Partida back in March, would be able to get a fair trial in Yolo County.
He concludes, “If the defense can find 12 people in Yolo County who have never heard of this case, fine … but they would have to have been living in a cave to say that honestly …”
During his opening arguments on Thursday, Deputy District Attorney Ryan Couzens had admonished the jury that the witnesses were all drinking and partaking in meth use. He warned them that at times the testimony might conflict. But even he was perhaps not prepared for what happened on Friday.
The trial of Billy Wolfington and Shannon Silva continued Friday afternoon in Judge Mock’s court. It was quite eventful, to put it mildly. Taking the stand was Simone Mitchell. Ms. Mitchell, wearing a hat and cloth nearly covering her face, was shaking and on the verge of tears as Mr. Couzens began asking her questions about the evening of September 2, 2011.
