Columnists

Swine Flu Fallout -more-

The battle over Bay Area Rapid Transit’s Oakland Airport Connector gives us a rare chance to look into the heart of our public transportation policies and priorities, so long as we are able to clear the inevitable political hyperbole out of the way. -more-

I saw my first winter wren in Tilden Park during the Ford administration, but I haven’t encountered many in the East Bay since then. The Contra Costa Breeding Bird Atlas (www.flyingemu.com/ccosta) shows them still nesting in the Berkeley and Oakland hills. -more-

There was a time when the University of California’s summer school was an instrument of adult education, created primarily for the benefit of elementary and secondary school teachers. Such was the case in 1905, when the eminent Austrian physicist Ludwig Boltzmann (1844–1906) was invited to teach at the summer school, his trip financed by university regent and patron Phoebe Apperson Hearst. -more-

Well, once again, that miraculous, once-size-fits-all, end-of-all-your-troubles, maintenance-free thing turns out to be none of the above. This time it’s Trex decking, but there are lots of product defects out there so I’m certainly not going to single out Trex for lambasting. -more-