Let me get this straight. The President of the Highland Historical society finds it a "Burden" to maintain and have control of important documents related to the history of the city? And she also does not want to be available for those doing research? Perhaps her current position as President is too much of a burden and should be relinquished over to someone who is not so burdoned by something that is clearly in her scope of duties as to historical preservation. Does she also expect the library to maintain pictures from her vacation or recent doctors xrays as well? Her burdens are just whining and should be addressed as such. If she is unable/unwilling to maintain the documents then why is it necessary to have an office of a historical society in the first place? I'm sure the ratio of people who are probably doing research and would rather go to the library to search rather that have a historical expert who can help is vast. Find another job Ms. Alexander since you can't be "burdened" with doing what is clearly your own job.

vangie valle
Friday, May 02, 2008 (01:05:20 pm PDT)

We are parents of a son in 10th grade, and very troubled and concerned by the proposed budget cuts to schools and education. California, the wealthiest state in the wealthiest country, spends thousands less per student than the national average. How can our youth have the preparation to work at and eventually lead companies if even more money is taken away from their education? Not funding education will drive businesses out of California. Our state’s stability will be further endangered. We need to support education, not cut funding for it. - The budget cuts will affect my son's high school as follows: • No journalism teacher, one less English teacher. • Math and English classes will have over 40 students. • The social sciences will lose 1 full-time teacher and 2 electives in sociology and psychology. • 2 foreign language teacher pink-slipped, another will not be replaced. • There will be no librarian. • The counseling department will lose 2 counselors. The “student to counselor” ratio will approach 600 to 1, a 20% increase in caseload. • AVID, a program - for promising, under-represented students will be eliminated. The school’s WASC accreditation is at risk. • The reassignment of locker room attendants has several immediate, and negative effects upon the student. • 1 classified office position will be eliminated (that after losing a person during the last round of cuts). The school has been working with a skeleton crew for years due to previous budget cuts of 2.5% and 7%. With the latest rounds of budget cuts, the school is being pushed beyond the critical mass. The future of California depends on a strong education system. There must be other ways to solve this problem besides endangering our children’s future. We would everyone to oppose these budget cuts, and instead support children, teachers and the future of our great State.

Richard Theiss
Tuesday, Apr 22, 2008 (12:04:36 pm PDT)

I find it interesting that in your survey of the new Wal-Mart Supercenter, three out of the four people contacted were not pro-Wal-Mart. I also recall being part of a group of commmunity members who signed electronic petitions against Wal-Mart being built within the city. Your small, informal survey, along with the previous anti-Wal-Mart petition, suggests that the Wal-Mart project was not supported by the community. However, it appears that the city council ignored the desire of the community in favor of whatever perks and benefits Wal-Mart offered. I think the city will soon realize that the opportunities and benefits of developing the "Golden Triangle" will be dwarfed by the problems associated with allowing Wal-Mart to build a "Supercenter".

Joshua Cunningham
Thursday, Feb 21, 2008 (04:02:51 am PST)

I was delighted that my periodic table books were included in the round up of mystery themes. I'd be happy to send a copy of one of those books, or the first book in my new mystery series-- based on dollhouses and miniature scenes -- to the first 2 Highland residents who email me with the request and their address. The book is Murder in Miniature, and I'm writing as Margaret Grace. Happy New Year to all! Camille/Margaret

Camille Minichino
Thursday, Jan 03, 2008 (08:01:11 am PST)

I was delighted that my periodic table books were included in the round up of mystery themes. I'd be happy to send a copy of one of those books, or the first book in my new mystery series-- based on dollhouses and miniature scenes -- to the first 2 Highland residents who email me with the request and their address. The book is Murder in Miniature, and I'm writing as Margaret Grace. Happy New Year to all! Camille/Margaret

Camille Minichino
Thursday, Jan 03, 2008 (08:01:42 am PST)

I am the 3rd cousin to Christopher Bain from Poway California.. He and his wife died in the fires, they were our only contact to the rest of our family in Ca. If anyone knows anything about funeral arrangements or where their son is, please let us know. thank you. Misty and family...

Misty O'Gea
Sunday, Oct 28, 2007 (07:10:24 am PDT)

Your editors are very wise. The column by Abersold, PhD is in the entertainment section, not science. That is a very correct decision, because ID is entertainment, not science. Please let us know what subject Mr/Ms Abersold got his/her PhD in, also which university. I have a very strong hunch it is not biology probably not even in Physics, Chemistry or Geology. For an article that begins with the assertion, "I have an insatiable desire to learn", the author is too quick to abandon learning and stop with just admiring nature and its complexity. First of all please understand that no one believes we are products of random chance. Not even the evolutionary biologists. Not even Dawkins says we just "happened" by a random chance assembly of chemicals. The most important driving force of evolution, the very foundation of it is Natural Selection. That is the very theme of the book "Climbing the Mount Improbable" by Dawkins. You would be doing your readers a great disservice if you do not ask a real evolutionary biologist to write a column explaining natural selection. Just try, even superstars on the evolution side, like Dawkings, Denett or Jerry Coyne might do it for free for a local sheet like yours.

Ravilyn Sanders
Saturday, Sep 22, 2007 (08:09:58 am PDT)