Managing editor So a kid jumps out of his chair and hugs his dentist. No, this isn’t the start of a joke; it’s a story Dr. Dale Stanec loves to tell. The Cameron Park dentist has made friends of his patients. He knows their family stories, their schools and sports, their hobbies. A small practice [...]

Mother Lode News correspondent Toots loves to run free and explore. Toots is a healthy dog with a canine zest for living. But when the then 2-year-old Malamute started to wreak havoc in her Cameron Park neighborhood, TootsÕ owner, Debbie Preston, had to fence the dog in. ÒShe was killing the neighborsÕ chickens. I felt [...]

Democrat automotive columnist Although it is perhaps the most stylish VW ever created, VW held the costs down by using the platform from under the also great looking current generation VW Passat. Let me get this out of the way now and that is the CC (and VW Passat for that matter) are superlative automobiles [...]

What a horror story to be kidnapped and then imprisoned in a backyard hovel since age 11 and then to bear two children allegedly by the man authorities have charged with kidnapping and rape. Three girls with no schooling. Two people shine through this sordid story of lost youth. First are the University of California [...]

Editor What a fantastic melange of geology and geography is the San Francisco Bay Area. It is such a geologic mishmash because of its plate tectonics. Over 140 million years chunks of land have shifted and folded and subducted to the point that the San Francisco Bay Area has become a veritable inventory of geological [...]

California Highway Patrol officers generally have a reputation for being cool, calm and collected, whether making routine traffic stops or responding to severe traffic accidents. Those characteristics seemed to come through in their union, which struck a deal with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last week that gives up their previously contracted raises. Instead of bigger paychecks [...]

Democrat columnist ÒAn ounce of hypocrisy is worth a pound of ambition.Ó Ñ Michael Korda As its name implies, the United States is comprised of independent states, all of which are supposed to be individual examples of democracy at work. But lately, the states have been experiencing serious difficulties, especially California. It has been oft [...]