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Articles by Kim Weir
"Pickle for the Ponies" brings Thoroughbred Racing Industry Celebrities together to support Therapeutic Horses of Saratoga and the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund - Therapeutic Horses of Saratoga, Inc.
“Pickle for the Ponies” brings Thoroughbred Racing Industry Celebrities together to support Therapeutic Horses of Saratoga and the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund Saratoga Springs, NY (August 22, 2024) — Hosted by Legacy Pickleball Club in Ballston Spa “Pickle for the Ponies,” will benefit Therapeutic Horses of Saratoga (THS) and the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund (PDJF).
Thank You, Judge Ann
Retired Butte County Superior Court Judge Ann Rutherford died last month—on Feb. 16. She was 86. During this Women’s History Month, I join those left behind who have been sharing their verities about Judge Ann. Groundbreaking she was, and trailblazing. Remarkable. Highly regarded, sharp-minded, and quick-witted, too. She was all that. But no words capture her depth of commitment to justice, or the fierceness of her intelligence and character.
Thank You, Judge Ann: A Remembrance
by Kim Weir guest commentary Posted March 19, 2024 Retired Superior Court Judge Ann Rutherford, the first female judge in Butte County, served 40 years on the California bench. She died Feb. 16. The people who Judge Ann Rutherford left behind are now sharing their verities about her. Groundbreaking, she was, and trailblazing. Remarkable. Highly regarded, sharp-minded, and quick-witted, too. She was all that.
Up The Road: Richard Nixon, OC’s Most Famous Homeboy
Published July 2, 2021 at 12:53 PM PDT Richard Nixon and Elvis, The President and The King, 1970. / Photo by Ollie Atkins, presidential photographer Photographs of President Nixon and Elvis Presley, 12/21/1970, shot by Nixon's chief photographer, Ollie Atkins. Courtesy National Archives. While president, Richard Nixon would stroll the beach below the Western White House in San Clemente wearing coat, tie, and wing tips—proving he wasn’t much of a Californian, even if he was born here.
Up The Road: Knott’s Berry Farm, Merry Farm & Scary Farm
Published June 27, 2021 at 12:55 AM PDT People think of Disneyland as America’s first and original theme park. But that would be Knott’s Berry Farm, in nearby Buena Park, even if Walter and Cordelia Knott didn’t charge admission for decades. America’s earliest amusement parks were picnic areas where, after long, hard days, working people gathered to eat, make music, and enjoy life.
Best Of Up The Road: Remembering Manzanar
Published June 17, 2021 at 4:38 PM PDT Up the Road rolls on this week to Manzanar, a World War II internment camp on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada. “Relocation Center” was the preferred official term. Manzanar faces Hwy. 395 six miles south of Independence, California—an irony only in historical hindsight. Because the Japanese-Americans citizens rounded up and relocated here had no independence. Stroll through an unsavory yet also surprising chapter of U.S. history.
Up The Road: The Happiest Place On Earth
Published June 10, 2021 at 1:35 PM PDT We’ve been exploring Orange County, till now, to show there’s more here than just Disneyland. But now we’ve arrived, at the heart of the O.C. family experience. Walt Disney wanted to take his daughters to a non-sleazy amusement park—something that didn’t yet exist in the 1940s. He built a better mousetrap, so to speak, on the genius of his animated cartoons. Disneyland’s opening day in 1955 was nationally televised, broadcast live from coast to coast.
Up The Road: The Swallows Of Capistrano
Published June 3, 2021 at 11:27 PM PDT At the first sign of aging in the southern state, a bulldozer or plastic surgeon often gets called in—not true at Orange County’s Mission San Juan Capistrano, where preservation is the holy grail. As for the mission’s returning swallows, Father Junípero Serra started the story. A schmaltzy song carried it forward.
Up The Road: Laguna Beach Art & Artists
Published May 29, 2021 at 7:31 PM PDT Don Graham / Flickr Laguna Beach got its start as a low-key artist enclave and celebrity escape far from the prying eyes of LA. Still exploring the Orange County coast, the next city south of Newport Beach is Laguna Beach, once a low-key artists’ enclave, known today for high-rent real estate and a highly unusual ode to the arts, the annual Pageant of the Masters.
Up The Road: Newport Beach
Published May 20, 2021 at 3:17 PM PDT Konrad Summers / Flickr The 1905 Balboa Pavilion, one of California’s last waterfront recreational pavilions, was once connected to LA by the Pacific Electric Railway. A few miles south of laid-back Surf City is Southern California’s premier yacht harbor. Now a sometimes crass media symbol of spendy living, Newport Beach has been a rich-people’s playground since the 1920s, the preferred seaside escape for L.A.’s old money.
Up The Road: Surf City USA
Published May 14, 2021 at 12:36 AM PDT Troy Williams / Flickr Sara Wakita, National Scholastic Surfing Championships, Huntington Beach. At some point you need to visit Surf City, a name—title, really—inspired by Jan and Dean’s version of Brian Wilson’s Surf City. Which was inspired by Orange County’s Huntington Beach and surf culture. It’s now official. After skirmishes with Santa Cruz, that scrappy surf city up north, Huntington Beach landed the Surf City trademark.
Up The Road: The Orange County Story
Published May 7, 2021 at 12:44 PM PDT Pascal Walschots / The US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach is on for the summer of 2021. Beyond Disneyland, what’s the point of Orange County? Don’t ask someone from Los Angeles. The differences between L.A. and O.C. next door are not easy for outsiders to grasp. Both feature sunny neighborhoods strung together by shopping malls and freeways. Both sped through the boom-bust times of mission settlement, farming, oil, subdivisions, and aerospace.
Up The Road: Where To Now? More Downtown Sacramento & Around
Published April 30, 2021 at 12:16 AM PDT Bob Wick, US Bureau of Land Management / Cosumnes River Preserve south of Sacramento, home to California’s largest remaining valley oak riparian forest. A truly engaging “museum”—curated from marble markers, lush Victorian gardens, and strange, brave stories from around the globe—is the old Sacramento City Cemetery, once known as the City of the Dead.
Up The Road: Where To Now? Major Sacramento Museums
Published April 25, 2021 at 6:02 PM PDT Nathan Hughes Hamilton / Flickr Crocker Art Museum’s original building, once a family mansion. Tour the Leland Stanford Mansion State Historic Park at 800 N Street to take in its award-winning restoration. Remember the transcontinental railroad’s “Big Four”? This eclectic mansion represents the local legacy of one of them—Governor Leland Stanford, who also founded Stanford University.
Up The Road: Where To Now? Capital Sacramento
Published April 17, 2021 at 1:03 AM PDT Lisa Nottingham / Flickr Capitol rotunda detail (no special effects) Benicia, San Jose, and Vallejo each took a turn as California’s capital city after statehood in 1850. But by 1854 Sacramento was hefty enough to wear the crown. When California’s gold fever subsided people still came, drawn by dreams of success and landed wealth. Growth meant jobs, the most important “field” being agriculture.
Up The Road: Where To Now? Old Sacramento
Published April 8, 2021 at 11:43 PM PDT Daniel X. O’Neil / Flickr Old Sacramento preserves many monuments to early California settlement. The original gold rush boomtown of Sacramento boomed first as a tent city on the mudflats along the river, an area partially defined these days by the intersection of Front and J Streets, just west of I-5.
Up The Road: Where To Now? Sacramento’s Railroad Ties
Originally aired 03/31/21 The dream of the nation’s first transcontinental railroad—a cross-country rail line to connect the West with the rest of the nation—was first dreamed in Sacramento. Was first built here. The valley’s first railroad, completed in 1856, ran the 22 miles between Folsom and Sacramento.
Up The Road: Where To Now? The Sacramento Story
Originally aired 03/24/21 People love to poke fun at Sacramento. Mark Twain was among the first. In Sacramento, he observed, “It is a fiery summer always, and you can gather roses, and eat strawberries and ice cream, and wear white linen clothes, and pant and perspire at eight or nine o’clock in the morning.” Looking for an icon—like New York, the Big Apple—some folks have dubbed Sacramento the Big Tomato, a wry reference to its truck-crop heritage. It’s a natural.
Up The Road: Where To Now? Enjoying Palm Springs
Originally aired 03/17/21 Sitting around the pool doing nothing is no sin in Palm Springs. Countless swimming pools here, reportedly one for every six residents—all kinds of water use hard to believe in the middle of a desert. It’s the first thing you’ll notice, along with acres of lawns, and well over 100 golf courses. No worries, people say. Plenty more where that came from, thanks to our underground lake.
Up The Road: Where To Now? The Palm Springs Story
Originally aired 03/09/21 Greater Palm Springs is another good place to travel with, and among, people again. In the beginning was the desert—the Colorado Desert, and its wide, sandy Coachella Valley. With the San Jacinto and Santa Rosa Mountains as scenic backdrop, Palm Springs sprang up from the Cahuilla people’s sacred palm-shaded hot springs. Then came the movie stars, when Hollywood discovered “the village,” followed by the heyday of mid-century “desert-modern” architecture.
Up The Road: Where To Now? Monterey Bay
Originally aired 02/03/21 We’ve been getting ready for crowds of people again, now that the COVID tide is turning—maybe even traveling for the purpose of being with people. We started with Santa Barbara and vicinity. Another good choice, for easing back into “people travel,” is Monterey Bay, though today we’ll barely introduce its enduring mysterious appeal.
Up The Road: Where To Now? South Of Santa Barbara
Originally aired 02/24/21 Montecito, just south of Santa Barbara, boasts surreal Lotusland, 37 acres of exotic gardens created by Madame Ganna Walska, thwarted opera singer and compulsive marrier of millionaires. Here, explore the world’s finest private collection of cycads—pine-tree relatives that look like palms—also cacti, succulents, luxuriant ferns, weeping euphorbias, an aloe-and-abalone-shell “forest,” lily and lotus ponds, bromeliads, orchids, and roses.
Up The Road: Where To Now? North Of Santa Barbara
Originally aired 02/11/21 One thing about Santa Barbara is how hard it can be to leave. One thing making that easier, for most of us, is how insanely expensive it is. The cost of living in Santa Barbara—and, of course, visiting—means that scouting out options and alternatives up and down the coast is just part of life, for residents and visitors alike. One possibility: Park yourself at county and state parks on the beach, just up the coast.
Up The Road: Where To Now? Santa Barbara
Originally aired 02/03/21 Soon we’ll be able to travel—really travel, to places where other people are part of the point. Including cities large and small. Queen of California’s small cities is Santa Barbara, beautiful, rich, and mysterious. (She goes by the name “Santa Teresa” in the works of mystery writers Sue Grafton and Ross MacDonald.) Her story hints at good fortune almost as incredible as her good looks, rarely dimmed by disaster. Yet disaster made Santa Barbara the beauty she is today.
Up The Road: In This New Year: Where To Now?
Originally aired 01/20/20 Unless you’re long in the tooth, like me, you’ve probably never heard the Midwestern witticisms of Bill Vaughan, editor and columnist at the Kansas City Star, who died in 1977. Here is some sample wit: “A citizen of America will cross the ocean to fight for democracy, but won’t cross the street to vote in a national election.” That one, not always true, given the turnout in our most recent presidential election, but based on past ones, true enough.
Up The Road: North Coast Tour: Touring More Redwood Towns
Originally aired 01/06/21 To wrap up our socially distanced tour of California’s North Coast, we’re visiting entire towns originally built of old-growth redwood, trees otherwise harvested and milled to build post-Gold Rush California. Just south of Eureka is tiny Ferndale, first settled by Danish immigrants in 1864, when this delta plain was still heavily forested.
Up The Road: North Coast Tour: Watching The Pacific Gray Whale
Originally aired 12/30/20 When visiting the ocean in winter, one particular fellow traveler pops to mind—the Western or Pacific gray whale, also known as the California gray whale. A close-up view of California’s official mammal is life-changing. Dark, barnacled heads shoot up from the deeps to breathe, blasting saltwater from blowholes with the force of a firehose. That spouting is how you’ll first spot them, all along the California coast. Not so close, but close enough.
Up The Road: North Coast Tour: Geology Tour Of Land’s End
Originally aired 12/23/20 MacKerricher State Park is Fort Bragg’s park, deeply woven into the community’s story, past and present. Most people enter this gorgeous stretch of ocean, tidepools, forest, coastal prairie, and sand dunes three miles north of town, where the visitor center and campgrounds are.
Up The Road: North Coast Tour: Geology Tour of Land’s End
Originally aired 12/16/20 State parks along California’s North Coast offer great opportunities to explore—up close and personal—the long-ago processes that created the land beneath our feet. And that continue to power change, from continental drift and emerging landforms to volcanic explosions and earthquakes.
Up The Road: North Coast Tour: Studying Geology “On The Brink”
Originally aired 12/09/20 The Great California Road Trip has rolled west—to explore more of the North Coast, “the brink of the world,” as an ancient Ohlone dancing song has it. Gain new appreciation of our edge of the world, up close and personal, by taking along a nifty state parks geology guide produced with help from the California Geological Survey.
Up The Road: North Coast Tour: Redwoods First
Originally aired 12/02/20 It’s a cliché to say it’s magical to meander through coast redwoods. That’s probably because the experience is magical, so people keep saying it. The magic is strongest among stands of surviving old-growth redwoods—the last stand, ecologically, of these prehistoric giants.
Up The Road: North Coast Tour: Why You Should Come Along
Originally aired 11/26/20 The Great California Road Trip heads west this week, to the edge of the continent. California’s isolated, sometimes isolationist human history has been shaped by the land itself. That even early European explorers imagined the territory as an island is a fitting irony, because in many ways— geographically, yes, but also in the evolution of plants and animals—California was, and still is, an island in both space and time.
Up The Road: Eastern Sierra Tour: Into The Desert
Originally aired 11/18/20 Consider last week’s thumbnail sketch of Death Valley a preview of California’s deserts. As it happens, fall, winter, and spring are ideal times to explore them. Which is the first point: California has multiple deserts. The 25 million acres typically considered desert extend east from Los Angeles and its edge cities into Nevada and Arizona, south into Mexico, and north to the eastern Sierra Nevada.
Best Of Up The Road: Death Valley National Park
Originally aired 09/26/18 We visit Death Valley this week, the lowest point in North America. Death Valley’s depths are all the more impressive when you consider that the highest point in the continental U.S., Mount Whitney, is just 100 miles away, in the southern Sierra Nevada near Lone Pine. To stargazers, Death Valley is the closest thing to heaven in light-blinded Southern California. To rockhounds, it’s a timeless monument to very grounded geologic grandeur.
After Paradise: Two Years
By Matt Fidler & Tess Vigeland & Andre Byik & Kim Weir • 4 hours ago Originally aired 11/09/20 It's been two years since the catastrophic Camp Fire ripped through Paradise, Magalia, Concow, and surrounding communities. In this special report, we look back at lessons learned from that tragedy... from fire management to affordable housing. Also have a conversation with the Butte County sheriff about how his office has used what happened in the Camp Fire to inform multiple crises since then.
'Go Plumas' and take along your best behavior
By Kim Weir Imagine wave after wave of complete strangers pulling up next to your town’s pristine river to unload their camping gear and then settle right in. Even when no camping is allowed. Even when no facilities — not even pit toilets — are available. When favorite wild places get trampled, becoming de facto garbage dumps and latrines, entire communities sour on even the idea of welcoming visitors. Which is exactly what happened in parts of Plumas County in late May.
'Go Plumas,' And Take Along Your Best Behavior
By Kim Weir Imagine wave after wave of complete strangers pulling up next to your town’s pristine river to unload their camping gear and then settle right in. Even when no camping is allowed. Even when no facilities — not even pit toilets — are available. When favorite wild places get trampled, becoming de facto garbage dumps and latrines, entire communities sour on even the idea of welcoming visitors. Which is exactly what happened in parts of Plumas County in late May.
Up The Road: Downtown Redding's Tactical Urbanism
This week we continue exploring how and why to travel after a disaster, and head up the road to Redding, a river city situated on the northern rim of the great Sacramento Valley. We don’t think of Redding as a valley town, and it really isn’t, because it’s located on the edge of wildness, mountains rising up behind it like a spectacular curtain.
For Alica Bedore, every day is Food Day
Student food insecurity is now a major issue on most campuses of the California State University (CSU). Alica Bedore knows a great deal about this subject—in part because she knows a great deal about CalFresh, the federally funded program that helps low-income people buy the food they need for good health. In fact, Bedore focused her master’s degree on the eligibility of Chico State students for CalFresh benefits.
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