History is being reclaimed. We congratulate the Placerville city manager and City Council for selling the old city hall and ensuring its historical preservation. The buyer, who is leasing with an option to buy, is A.M. Pacific Engineering, a Placerville company. The engineering firm plans to restore the big double doors on the old Confidence [...]

We were pleased to read Sheriff John D’Agostini’s report about his department’s improved approach to burglaries. He and his investigators and patrol deputies have improved their approaches in two ways. Most importantly they added patrol, surveillance and investigative resources to areas in the western part of the county, especially El Dorado Hills, where residential burglaries [...]

The differences between the two Republican front-runners are ones of style. Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich are really quite similar on the issues. Newt is expansive and voluble. His ideas and inspirations are so wide-ranging that at times they have wandered off the Republican farm. But Tuesday his election night speech after coming in second [...]

When President Obama talks about everyone getting a “fair shot” and  everyone doing their “fair share” who is he talking about? Solyndra sure got its fair share when the Obama administration gave $573 million of our money to the company that shortly afterward went bankrupt. George Kaiser, who owned 35 percent of the company and [...]

Schools remain doubtful about Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to avoid further state budget cuts through a state ballot proposition to temporarily raise sales taxes and income taxes on higher income taxpayers. Despite the uncertainty, at least one school district is weathering the recession reasonably well. El Dorado Union High School District just released its annual [...]

Friday’s Mountain Democrat featured Doug Noble’s first in a series of historical and contemporary looks at communities throughout El Dorado County. It is called “Where the heck is …?” The first community featured was Bucks Bar. And who would have known that the bridge, built in the 1940s, was actually built on the abutments built [...]

What a unique opportunity. Third through fifth graders — 139 of them — submited questions to NASA, which selected 20 questions. Jan. 24 those 20 students got to step up to the microphone and pose their questions to an American astronaut on board the International Space Station. Cmdr. Daniel C. Burbank answered each of the [...]