Insomnia woke me at 4 a.m. Falling babies, high school bomb plots, pregnant bank tellers shot by robbers, the tragedy of Roberto Clemente (on PBS), gas thefts, mysterious lights in Phoenix (both a UFO hot spot and terror cell conspiracy conclave), the Pennsylvania primary, Chicago gang massacres. The Love God with Don Knotts was on, but didn't help.

My mind, pumped with adrenalin, cannot study. I keep remembering the violent angry mob of Chinese, the words they screamed at me, their spit that sprayed their flagpoles and me and fists that hit me.

Chico City Councilman Tom Nickell has proposed cutting the city's community funding allotment to the Chico Chamber of Commerce by $10,000. This is unheard of! The Chamber, which yearly asks for and receives the biggest slice of city funding pie, says with the cut it will have to abandon its plans to erect a kiosk or two.

The Chico Unified School District has no one but itself to blame for its current monetary woes. Well, that statement may be a little harsh and hyperbolic, but the truth is, the district has made decisions in the past that have turned detrimental. These include an overly zealous union who has made salary the top priority at all costs, a large number of teachers at the top of the salary scale, an overabundance of super-high paid administrators at the district level, and the usual monetary waste from which all school districts suffer.

Four years after voting for union representation and 11 months into contract negotiations, Enloe Medical Center service employees staged an informational picket April 20 to protest what they say is the hospital's refusal to grant them salaries and benefits on par with other local union hospitals.With 26 of 39 contract issues resolved, the two sides remain far apart on the most contentious. The union says it is seeking industry standards that it bases on area hospitals like Red Bluff's St. Elizabeth's and Redding's Mercy, which are both union.

Suddenly, it seems, sustainability and eco-sensitivity is all the rage. From Wal-Mart to Chevron to the green peacock on NBC, our largest corporations have climbed aboard the environmental express, slapped a green label on their commodities and told us, "Here, buy this; it's good for the environment."

If there was ever proof that political slogans are absolutely meaningless it is this: Butte County Supervisor William Connelly's re-election signs say that a vote for him is a vote for change. He is an incumbent. He's held office for the past four years. What can this possibly mean? How does a vote for an incumbent represent a vote for change? What's changing? Did he get a makeover? Suffer amnesia? Born again? New hairstyle? Maybe by "change" he means "spare change" as in a vote for him will put a few extra coins in our pockets. Sure, change sounds good. Who doesn't want it in these abysmal times? But maybe if he'd worked a little harder to make things better his first go-round, then he could say, "A vote for me is a vote for the status quo!" As it is, his re-election sign might as well say, "I promise, if elected, I'll do a better job next time!" That's not going to attract enough votes to secure victory.

Few work in Paradise, and most of the library donations are biblical, so with the exception of the tux shop, Obama was right. So was the "head" who picked me up hitching (the Democrats are at Donner's Pass). Where's Pat Paulson?

1000 Grandmothers are getting rockers greased, and stomachs prepared for the Close the SOA Fast set for April 23-25 in the Downtown City Plaza. Fasters and supporters will be in the plaza from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The grannies and others will be in their rocking chairs offering information about the former School of the Americas, collecting quilt squares, and urging citizens to call Congressional District 2 Representative Wally Herger urging him to vote for House Resolution 1707. The bill before the House budget session this summer will suspend the funding of the school until a full investigation into documented abuses is reported and acted upon.

Bleeding eardrums, confused adolescence, hairdos straight out of Dr. Seuss, dozens of sweaty youth slamming each other to the ground while screaming profanities with grins on their faces. Despite what you might think, we're not about to give you a report on the most recent prison riot. We're here to describe just another night at The Senator.

It was a rotary phone, I couldn't press 9; lost a free trip to the Caribbean. Would have missed the bus too, but it was late.

At the back (where else?) was a loudmouth out of jail, with a microphone in his larynx, and a profane punk. The driver mumbled about the language, so the work training gal (Ian Wright) yelled "she said watch your mouth!"

Twenty years ago this September, 200 Oroville residents gathered in room B-10 of the Nelson Avenue School in Thermalito to learn how badly they'd been poisoned by a plume of toxic smoke from fire that had occurred more than year earlier.

Good for the Colusa Unified School District Board for voting 3-2 to retire the high school's mascot moniker, "The Redskins." Critics say the board sucumbed to the pressures of political correctness. This, however, was not a case of political correctness, it was more about cultural sensativity and, let's face it, institutional racism. Even if it were a case of PC jitters, what's wrong with being correct?

A year ago Josh Indar reported in The Chico Beat that local excavator Thomas Carpenter had been ordered by the Environmental Protection Agency to clean up a large pile of rubble he allegedly dumped on his property, about 10 miles west of Chico, in March 2006.

This week The Beat learned that rubble, which sits along the banks of the Sacramento River, a few miles south of Highway 32, is the remains of the buildings torn down on the campus of Chico State University to make way for the construction of the school's new activities and student centers.

Maybe it is just me, but... does it seem to you that good manners disappeared with the end of the 20th Century?

You know what I am talking about. Public cell phone use. Those wonderful isolated individuals walking down the supermarket aisle next to you talking (always loudly) about their latest visit to the gynecologist, or why the boss at work is such a jerk. Or maybe it is just a check with the other half about what should be purchased that evening, aisle by aisle, ad nauseam.