The paradigm of marriage has been destroyed. The Supreme Court of California in its current decision on marriage based its decision on the premise that there is no compelling interest on the part of the state in heterosexual unions.

Take a person who is passionate about a subject, put him or her in a room of like-minded citizens and watch a civil debate take place on the topic of choice.

Our job as journalists is to keep you informed about what is taking place in your community. In the year-plus that I’ve been working exclusively online, I’ve seen how we can expand what we do so we can respond almost immediately to what you want to know about.

During the recent U.S. presidential primary campaign, the candidates talked frequently about proposals to reduce the number of people in this country, now 47 million, who lack health insurance by measures such as expanding eligibility for Medicaid and requiring that individuals buy coverage or pay a fine.

Dear editor, The 35 articles of impeachment of George W. Bush, which were read into the Congressional Record by Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, are arguably the most important material you will read in your lifetime.

Dear editor, On May 16, 17 and 18, more than 170 volunteers left a little blood, a lot of sweat, and drank a keg of beer (thanks to Downtown Joe's) on the Historic Oat Hill Mine Trail.

Dear editor, On behalf of the board of directors, the staff, and most especially, the patients of Community Health Clinic Ole and Sister Ann Community Dental Clinic, we want to congratulate the Napa Valley Vintners on a most successful Auction Napa Valley and thank them for selecting Clinic Ole as the recipient of this year's Fund-a-Need auction lot.

Overall, last Friday’s Napa Community’s Growth Summit was a good start in the right direction. Not much was produced in terms of tangible solutions, other than an agreement that Napa County’s challenges are increasingly regional and, as such, require cooperative solutions. While I was discouraged by some of the passive-aggressive public statements made by other city’s planning officials directed at American Canyon, I found it at least beneficial to get the sentiments out in the open, so we can begin working past them.

A populist frustration increasingly finding voice in Napa County is that the wine and hospitality industries are pulling in services and attractions that cater principally to upscale vacationers and tourists, while neglecting any sense of a local living wage and inadvertently threatening the very Ag preserve that those industries depend on through, among other things, jumbo-sized developments and hotel mega-resorts in areas that were once only the purview of B&B’s.  

I am shocked and angered by the contemplated attempt of those who lost the Measure N vote to immediately put the same attempt to scuttle Napa Pipe before us. This is a way to flip off the community that voted against this once, and reeks of being sore losers.

I am surveying the latest news to think over what I want to say about the Obama-McCain race at this point and I can’t help but feeling that the world is breaking down into a lot of chaos right now. I know, I know, it always seems that way, nothing new under the sun, but yet right now ... the problems just seem to be piling up. And there is a gathering sense that things are really out of control. And I am not hearing any answers, just the same old tired propaganda.

Remember, everyone, starting July 1 it is illegal to hold a cell phone and talk while driving.

OK, folks, you've been debating online here for about two weeks now whether John McCain or Barack Obama is your choice for president.

OK, folks, you've been debating online here for about two weeks now whether John McCain or Barack Obama is your choice for president.