Today is a big day at
@CalMatters
. We rolled out our Digital Democracy platform, which gives the public an unprecedented window into the inner workings of the California Legislature. You should play around with the database. It's pretty cool.
Sacramento police shot Stephon Clark in his grandmother's backyard holding nothing but a cell phone. Tonight, his brother, Stevante, is doing a remarkable job keeping hundreds of protesters calmer than they've been in days, leading them on a march through downtown after curfew.
Just found this singed cat under a car off 6593 Pentz Road in the
#campfire
.
@sacbee_news
reporting duties on hold until I can find a vet. Twitter, help me find one in Oroville.
Apologies. Correct address off Pentz is in the pic. I dropped the calico off at the Valley Oak Veterinary Hospital in Chico. Workers say she’s not terribly burned.
I'm so happy to be a reporter again!
I just did an interview that was so friggin' perfect and revelatory that I now understand a really confusing policy issue that I knew literally nothing about three days ago.
I get paid to to learn new things and then share that with you.
Some of the people I love most in this world still think this is a big liberal media hoax. They also live In places where there’s like 10 ventilators in an entire county. I wrote this story for them.
At least seven
@sacbee_news
reporters including myself covered this month's giant protests in Sac and went and got tested for the coronavirus after.
All results are in... Results were negative.
I was worried my friends and colleagues would get sick. This is a relief.
This is the scene tonight under chilly smoke filled skies at the Walmart in Chico. A
#campfire
refuge camp. As the editor of the
@ChicoER
already said: this is a humanitarian crisis.
I struggled through tears to write this column about my experiences with
#CampFirePets
and other burned animals at the
#CampFire
. Please subscribe to support the journalism me and my exhausted colleagues are doing
Butte County doesn't want any more of your donated stuff. Huge, unfathomable piles of donated are items already there. Officials urge you to please stop sending it and give cash to relief orgs instead.
#CampFire
Our execs took pay cuts or were laid off today. Advertising staff is on leave. This spared journalists the furloughs that other newspaper companies did for front-line news staff. Please subscribe. We need your support now more than ever.
I took this job five years ago because I assumed The Sacramento Bee was a bee-keeping operation and I'd get lots of free honey. Turns out that was also ANOTHER LIBERAL MEDIA LIE!!!!
Last year, I turned in some illegal dumpers. Thought nothing of it. Then months later, they called me back, said they convicted them and I was getting a $1,000 reward. Check came yesterday. Name was spelled wrong, but whatevs. The lesson: Snitches get riches.
A few months ago, I almost quit my job from stress. Instead, my bosses and family let me go on a reporting journey into my favorite corner of California to tell the stories of an ecological crisis in sagebrush country.
My series starts today:
I got a lot of guff from CA Democrats when I wrote this story about gun owners stocking up on ammo because they were worried the state's new background check system would be a mess:
Turns out...
This incoming series of storms is going to be a doozy. Throwing this out there: Wetlands, like the kinds
@DucksUnlimited
builds, restores and protects, are critical buffers against flooding.
Wish I could credit the maker of this meme, since it's spot on.
I poured my heart into my series Nothing Wild about the ecological crisis underway in northeastern California, a place I love more than any other. If you're looking for some long reads over the holidays, I'd be very grateful if you read mine.
I wrote this story following the
#CarrFire
. I have little doubt it will apply to the
#CampFire
. Send cash and gift cards; not stuff. After every disaster, huge piles of donationed goods just get thrown out
A good time to remember that Tulare Lake not all that long ago used to be bigger than the Great Salt Lake, and was the largest body of fresh water west of the Mississippi River. Amazing that the birds of the Pacific Flyway survived its loss.
Seeing a lot of BS photos of water levels at Shasta Lake floating around social media. This is what it looks like on MLK Day. It’s filling up but still only around half full.
#cawater
Took a mental health break after looters almost jumped me and took my phone. One of them grabbed it but I pulled it back and got out of there. I’m now at 11 and L where officers have already fired tear gas and other non lethals to to to disperse crowd
You know what doesn’t have germy door knobs and everyone wants to keep their distance? The backcountry of your local, state and national parks, your wildlife refuges and your local, national and state forests. Why not go enjoy some public lands and open spaces near you today?
It's very likely none of this would have happened if not for my tenacious colleagues at the Miami Herald who uncovered the sweetheart deal prosecutors originally gave Epstein.
This California firefighter nearly died. Then voters laid him off — in fight for lower taxes. My story on why rural Californians in extreme fire zones keep voting down taxes that would fund their local fire departments
I stuck my neck out to advocate for this story staying in front of our paywall, since I wanted this story to be read far and wide and start a national conversation. Based on the feedback I got today it worked. But... 1/2.
The next time you see a physician listed as a "Top" or "Best" or "Super" doctor, remember that time when
@propublica
reporter
@marshall_allen
— who is not in any way a medical professional — was sold a "Top Doctor" award for a mere $99.
This is the first wave. Healthy looking people right now are walking around shedding a virus to which we have no immunity and no vaccine. We really don’t want to have lotteries for which grandma gets a ventilator at hospitals when the next wave hits. Save a grandma. Stay home.
Watching “Aliens” for the 500th or so time. The best sci-fi film ever made whose lesson is: Listen to competent, professional women and do what the eff they tell you if you want to survive.
Took three tries to have an interview with a state senator because his kids were all on the WIFI, and he couldn't get a signal through. He had to go tell one of them to stop streaming a movie. I've never felt such a connection to an elected official in my entire life.
Today is my last day at The Sacramento Bee. Weird to be leaving journalism after 17 years. But I’m really excited to become a full-time waterfowl and wetlands advocate for
@DucksUnlimited
. I explain my rationale for leaving here:
I had to put my dog down today (the same one in my profile pic.)
I’d be very grateful if you read my tribute to a fantastic duck-hunting dog and an even better friend.
I keep thinking about how Paradise isn't all that different from Placerville, Colfax, Shingletown, Jackson or any of the other wooded towns in our region's foothills.
#CampFire
Good luck with that. There's a whole army of well-paid CEQA consultants and attorneys who have a vested interest in ensuring you can't build something as benign as a bike path in CA without an impenetrable 300-page report that no one will ever read.
CEQA isn’t a climate action law. Rather, it’s an outdated no-growth law that frowns on adding new population in environmentally sustainable places like cities. This directly promotes sprawl & increased carbon emissions.
This dysfunction needs to change.
My editors graciously let me write an essay that says everything I’ve ever wanted to say about why hunting is such an important part of who I am as a person. I’d be honored if you read it
Pssst. <Whispers> Hey you guys sharing memes about commercial logging solving California’s fire problems. Yeah. You.
There wasn’t a stick of timber the mills would actually pay for in the places where many of the state’s most destructive wildfires ignited.
It's been a long three days reporting on yet more tragedy in the places I hold close to my heart. I grew up in Siskiyou County. My family lives on the outskirts of Weed, a few miles south of the
#MillFire
.
My latest dispatch before heading home.
With major urban venues closing all over California, I'm re-upping my advice that your public lands are always open. Get off the concrete and breathe some fresh, non-contaminated air at the wildlife refuges, parks, and forests your tax dollars pay for.
BREAKING: PG&E commits to burying 10,000 miles of its lines "starting today," in highest fire risk area, CEO says today in Chico. Filling in for
@dakasler
Becerra's assault weapons registration system was so bad it was turning people trying to comply with the law into potential felons. He's now running one of the nation's largest data collection and distribution networks. My latest:
Every useless drought PR pitch:
Hi Ryan,
I see you’ve been covering California’s drought. Would you like to speak with our founder, Rich McWaterton, about our innovative new technology that recycles hotdog water into green renewable drinking water?
I’ve been working the last couple of weeks on an investigation into the alarmingly high E. coli levels in the American River in Sacramento. It publishes tomorrow online. You’ll want to read it, though you might want to wait until after breakfast... You’ve been warned.
Found this “Happy Birthday” balloon on one of the last remaining sage grouse breeding grounds left in California, at least 20 miles from the nearest possible place to have a birthday party.
Please don’t release balloons. It’s not cute. It’s the worst kind of littering.
My latest with
@dakasler
. Fire scientists are aggressively pushing back against the environmentalist lawsuit shops on forest thinning, calling it "activism that pretends to be science and in fact is just self-serving garbage."
Sad to see CA salmon fishermen advocating for closing the fishing seasons this year because there are so few fall-run adult Chinook in the ocean. We are in the middle of an ecosystem collapse, and we need to step up efforts to get these fish back on our floodplains and wetlands.
Last week, the state quietly published a memo saying it was going to scrub death data from its assisted living facilities COVID tracker.
Then we found out about it.
It's now back up after we started asking about it. Reporting with
@pohl_jason
Over much-needed beers after days at the
#CampFire
,
@Ryan_Lillis
said something that struck me about why we're journalists. It's a genuine honor and privilege to tell the stories of what this community endured. We've got a story coming Sunday that you absolutely must read.
I have too many Facebook "friends" because I accept most requests. I had no idea this lady I friended was a surgeon and former Republican Assemblywoman. She just destroyed one of my antimasker high school buds as he mansplained her with bogus claims. Good times.
To all the cops, firefighters, highway workers, utility crews, farm workers, AC repair people, mechanics and everyone else outside right now trying to make a living, sweltering in this heat: Thank you.
A reminder as we talk about another “record-breaking” CA fire season: Before white settlement, about 4.5 million acres in California burned in a typical summer. About half of those acres were fires intentionally set by native peoples as part of their land-management practices.
Reminder to everyone in
#cawater
: Sierra snowpack only tells partial story.
Trinity, the third biggest reservoir, is not even 1/3 full. This puts pressure on Shasta (only 57% full).
Shasta fills primarily with rain water.
If I had a nickel every time someone said, "The media won't tell you this," and there was a story in that day's paper describing the very thing they said the media wasn't saying, I'd have a drawer of socks filled with nickels I'd want to hit them repeatedly in the head with.
I just drove up the Skyway from Chico to Pearson Road in downtown Paradise over to the hospital and and now parked in a damaged neighborhood off Sierra Del Sol and Pentz roads on the way down to Oroville.
#CampFire
First of several tweets.
Something I’ve been thinking about: Should forested communities like Paradise have neighborhood “air raid” sirens to warn residents of approaching wild fire? Current alert systems are hit and miss and if you’re sleeping you won’t have radio or TV on.
Tough not to choke up interviewing a 94-year-old woman who narrowly survived the
#CampFire
. She sounded just like my grandmother. She has a toy poodle and lived alone in a mobile home just like my grandma. She was rescued by strangers. I cant wait to share their story with you.
Scored an extra Pfizer and I didn’t even have to lie! I told the shot lady I wanted to hug her! Shot ladies are the best! My first shot at a bar with friends soon will be to salute all the shot ladies who are bringing the world back to normal.
I have a buddy who got in the skilled trades when I was stupidly getting into journalism. He now works for Chevron, owns two lovely houses, and regularly travels around. He'll retire comfortably, while my newspaper retirement plan is to die early.
There's a humanitarian and housing crisis following the
#CampFire
. Reporting on the refugees living in tents in a Walmart parking lot and shelters with
@dakasler
,
@StantonSam
and
@Ryan_Lillis
et al:
This story wouldn't have been reported if our legal team hadn't gotten involved. Thing about lawyers is they're expensive. The secret keepers know this. Digital subscriptions help us so we can keep fighting the good fight on government transparency
My first Digital Democracy story at
@CalMatters
published today.
Digital Democracy is a platform that's going to go live in the next couple of months that will give the public an unprecedented ability to keep tabs on lawmakers and the groups trying to influence them 1/
Gavin has used "nation state" for 20 years and all of a sudden everyone is losing their mind.
In fact, as
@ParkerMolloy
points out in this thread, both Schwarzenegger and Pete Wilson used it.
It's how California Governors have always seen California
Now the Redding paper calls for LaMalfa to go.
Having worked at this place for years, I can tell you, they’ll lose a lot of subscribers over this.
@silaslyons_RS
is one of the most meticulously cautious editors I’ve ever worked for.
Suspect this wasn’t an easy decision for him.
... this took weeks for me and
@dakasler
to produce and cost my company a fair amount in travel expenses. Impactful environmental journalism costs money, so I would appreciate all who appreciated this to consider ponying up for a subscription. Only way we can do more of this.
"It's amazing how many adults in this world can't speak without a public affairs officer"
Says
@StantonSam
after getting the National Guardsmen refuse to talk to him in a live feed.
lol. He's so wonderfully crusty, our Sam.
Not gonna lie. Got choked up in this interview with this woman describing her dog saving her from an attacking mountain lion.
“I don’t think,” she said, “I will ever be able to live up to how amazing and loyal she is to me.”
Last year, I did not make my pageview goals.
The reason?
It was based on the previous year’s pageviews. In 2018, I helped cover the Carr and Camp fire, the Stephon Clark protests and the arrest of the Golden State Killer.
2019, bless its heart, was a slow news year.
As a McClatchy alum, I know how disheartening it is to put your all into a story, and see it resonate or make change, but then be forced to reckon with a click tally.
Clicks do not equal worth. I am so proud of my
@sacbee_news
and
@FresnoBee
friends.
Blocked a couple of smug liberal types for saying shitty things about Susanville falling further into drug use and welfare because its primary employer, a prison, is closing.
Poverty and economic hardship isn’t funny just because people belong to the rival political faction.
I once watched an otter eat a 12-inch bass from tail to eyeball in like 25 seconds, scales flying like saw dust, as it made little schlurpy nom nom nom sounds. Just throwing that out there. You're welcome
If you care about California's forests (and you should since we all inhale them for months these days), my story w/
@dakasler
this morning on fire scientists aggressively challenging litigious environmentalist groups on forest management is a must read:
This week marks my four-year anniversary at
@sacbee_news
. I've had some amazing adventures, untangled complicated issues and investigated some shady stuff. I like to think my journalism made California a better place. Please consider subscribing if you haven't already.
Gonna be a lot of fake viral bullshit spread around these next few days. Resist the urge to share things that tickle your confirmation bias without checking first to to see if it's from a legit source.