Everyone has something to say about the recession/depression. ''I'm feeling frustrated with the hyperbolic way people are talking about these cuts. This is a global recession. Of course, the health department is going to have to get by on less money.'' -- Mitch Katz, director of the San Francisco health department, regarding $17 million in cuts ...

Had a high school biology teacher, Brother DeSalles Lawless, what a name! This member of the religious order of Xaverian Brothers could spit out quotables like nobody -- a Kentuckian who could out-jive his street-kid students in Brooklyn with lines like: ''Man, I could trade you in for a broken stickball bat and lose on the deal!'' Anyway, here ...

Here are some words I've never used before -- or seen before in combination. I gotta give credit to the politicians/media manipulators as their writers always scour the thesaurus for ways to paste, pillory or Helicobacter pylori their opponents. Here's how the Sacramento Bee Capitol Alert sized up Assembly/Senate hearings on the ...

In case you missed it, legislation is moving ahead that would ban trans fats in bakeries and restaurants in the state of California by 2010. No state has taken that step, though some cities have. If nothing else, AB 97 by Artesia Democratic Assemblyman Tony Mendoza provides a wonderful taste-test of the mood of the electorate. Here are some ...