Her Indian name, or at least one of her Indian names, the only one any of us know, is Tsupu. She is my great-great-grandfather’s mother, or…
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Stories about the lives and landscapes of California
Bummer and Lazarus are the most famous dogs in San Francisco’s history. Maybe even in California’s history. Between 1861 and 1865, the two mongrels are…
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Inspiration comes to Malvina Reynolds as she drives through a Daly City housing development in 1962. Her song, “Little Boxes,” a satire on conformity, becomes…
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For decades, nobody questions that Artie Samish runs Sacramento. Starting as a lobbyist in the early 1920s, Samish gradually amasses unrivaled power and influence as…
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Assembly member Blanca Rubio agrees to meet me at Chicory, a coffee shop in Sacramento frequented by members of the Legislature. We’ve never met. I’m…
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On a summer day in the San Joaquin Valley, 101 in the shade, I merge onto Highway 99 past downtown Fresno and steer through the…
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After California’s male voters decisively defeat a women’s voting rights ballot measure in 1896, suffragists display plenty of public bravado. But it’s all for show. …
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Erstwhile school teacher Rebecca Merritt Austin and husband James move to Plumas County from Kansas in 1865, setting up their household in the Black Hawk…
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Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio is born in Martinez, California on November 25, 1914 to a fisherman father who sails the family cross the bay when Joe…
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In the view of many sportswriters and historians of the game, the University of San Francisco’s 1951 team is the greatest college football team ever. …
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