Monday, June 17, 2013
FAIRFIELD-SUISUN, CALIFORNIA
99 CENTS

1 dead, 3 hurt in Vallejo shooting

FAIRFIELD — One woman died and three people were injured as Vallejo dealt with its second fatal shooting in 48 hours. Police responded at about 5:45 p.m. to a report of multiple gunshot victims inside a house in the 100 block of Frisbie Street. Police told San Francisco television station KTVU Channel 2 that someone armed with [...]

Fairfield police log Sunday, June 16, 2013

5:30 a.m. — Burglary/vehicle, 500 block BEGONIA 5:44 a.m. — Hit-and-run with property damage, 0 block SUNSET 1:47 p.m. — Physical fight, 1100 block WASHINGTON 2:18 p.m. — Burglary/commercial, 1000 block BECK 2:29 p.m. — Hit-and-run with property damage, 4600 block CENTRAL 3:20 p.m. — Vehicle theft, 5000 block BUSINESS CENTER 8:51 p.m. — Drunken [...]

Let’s find ways to improve graduation rates

For the past several weeks, we have celebrated our successful high school graduates in Solano County. While I congratulate them, let us not forget the 16 percent of Solano County high school students – 859 students – who dropped out. In Fairfield and Vacaville, one out of every 11 students dropped out of high school; [...]

My jeers and cheers for last week

My first jeer goes to the writer of this column. I wrote last week about the hundreds of tea party groups that had successfully gamed the system and obtained nonpolitical, 501(c)(4) status with the Internal Revenue Service in order to acquire unlimited, anonymous donations, rather than comply with strictly regulated donations and public disclosure accountability [...]

Question of the week: What should US do in Syria?

Evidence that Syria has used chemical weapons against opposition forces could lead to more American involvement in that country’s crisis. Do you think the U.S. should intervene with its military? Should it support the rebels? Should it stay out of the crisis entirely? Participate in this week’s poll: Last week’s results: Has the federal government [...]

Good mixes with bad, Rio Vista-style

Rio Vista is a town caught between the old ways and the new. Beset by financial troubles along with every other city in the state during the Great Recession and its aftermath, Rio Vista has seen its share of political battles that include a recent fight over sewer and water system rate hikes and massive [...]

Summer’s about to take the stage

Things are looking up as spring prepares to give way to summer. That’s the loose theme of this nuggets column, a compilation of things I found interesting Saturday and decided to share with the rest of you. Bigger and better In-Shape Sport on Dover Avenue opened its doors to the community after a massive renovation [...]

Sound off for Sunday, June 16, 2013

Last week, we asked if the government went too far in its monitoring of electronic communication. Here are some comments on our website: This may seem out of character coming from a hard-line conservative, but do believe that government has the duty to protect us in any way it sees fit. This can’t be a [...]

Cheers, jeers for the week of June 9-15, 2013

Cheers to those who were honored this week by the Fairfield-Suisun Chamber of Commerce for their contributions not only to the chamber and the business communities of the two cities, but to the overall communities as well. Anthony Russo received the Distinguished Citizen Award. Russo and his family are fixtures in Solano County’s business community [...]

Plan to keep state agencies in check

If you think that the big party that the Internal Revenue Service had is bad, and that $150-per-night rooms should not be allowed, then we should do something about cutting costs of the 400 California state agencies that we have. Most of them have no oversight of how they spend their budgets. So when spend [...]

Congress loses touch with public

In this day and age of trying to prosecute Edward Snowden for treason, it shows where Congress’ brains are; especially when they should have prosecuted “Hanoi Jane,” aka Jane Fonda. She wasn’t charged while siding with the enemies of America. Instead, they let her walk and now here’s this guy with a GED and they [...]

A debt of honor to US forces’ translators in Afghanistan

In Afghanistan, the Taliban have promised to kill Afghans who worked for the Americans and their families. In Iraq, similar threats were made by radical Islamic insurgents. They were not idle threats. The terrorists proved quite diligent in carrying out those threats. Thus, the U.S. forces made a bargain, both explicit and implicit: Work for [...]

Justice long-delayed for energy cheaters

It’s taken almost 13 years, but justice may finally be coming to California consumers victimized by the federal government during California’s energy crunch of 2000 and 2001. Yes, by the federal government. For people who weren’t in California or don’t remember, that was the time when power prices here soared as electricity-trading companies like Enron, [...]

‘Trailer bills’ bypass important public scrutiny

As a legislative conference committee was doing its item-by-item sojourn through the state budget this month, many were marked “tbl.” It was insider shorthand for “trailer bill language,” but it just as easily could have stood for “trouble,” because that’s what the annual exercise of writing bills to accompany the budget has become. As state [...]