In a truly democratic society it would seem like the powers that be would make it easier for people to vote instead of taking rights away.

The regime in the majority in the United States is hellbent on taking away rights. It makes me wonder if this is even a democracy anymore.

On Aug. 24, the Supreme Court in an emergency order upheld the president’s executive order to limit who can use mail-in ballots. This is likely going to affect the midterm elections in November.

NPR wrote: “Trump’s order calls for the Department of Homeland Security to develop state lists of adult U.S. citizens and for the Postal Service to obtain lists of eligible mail voters from states. According to the order, USPS is supposed to deliver mail-in ballots only to people on those lists. All election officials would also be required to have certain barcodes on their mail ballot envelopes.”

Elections are supposed to be run by the states, not the feds. How does the Supreme Court not know this?

More details affecting mail-in voting could be forthcoming from the Supreme Court in the days and weeks ahead.

I still don’t understand how all these elections throughout the country can be rigged when it’s Republicans who hold the majority. They seem to only have a problem if they lose, but not when they win. They are selling the American people a bunch of lies about our elections.

How is it that Trump can vote by mail, but he wants to pull that option from others? Just this month he voted by mail in the Florida Republican primary. He also cast a vote by mail earlier this year in a special election in Palm Beach County.

“Mail-in ballots are inherently corrupt,” Trump said in July.

There is zero proof of this.

I have been voting by mail for longer than I can remember. This is how I always want to vote. There is no reason not to vote by mail if one wants to.

While other states are following the orange man’s lead, as well as the court’s, to dismantle voters’ rights, California is taking aim to uphold them with several bills in the current legislative session.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s response to Monday’s ruling was: “The Supreme Court just let the Trump administration move ahead (for now) with its plan to disenfranchise voters across the country. California will be suing again to block these Orwellian rules from being implemented.”

Next to being at the ballpark, listening to baseball on the radio is my favorite way to experience a game.

I’ve never met Mike Krukow or Duane Kuiper, but I feel like I know them. For the last 36 years they have been the voices of the San Francisco Giants. Krukow is retiring after this season because of health reasons.

Broadcasters who make you feel like you are at the park, offer insight you might not otherwise glean and tell it like it is make the sport all that much more enjoyable. In my car, living room, bedroom—wherever I’d hear them—it’s almost like they became friends.

If one were to total the number of hours I’ve listened to both of them—on the radio and TV—I’m pretty sure I’ve heard their voices more than I have any family member or friend. And I’m not a die-hard, listen to every game kind of fan.

In recent years they’ve done fewer broadcasts together because of health issues. Other broadcasters have been brought in. I’ve gotten used to them—sort of. To be honest, I don’t always recognize their voices. I can’t say that about Kruk and Kuip, or for Jon Miller.

Miller is in the National Radio Hall of Fame. Kruk and Kuip are sure to follow. Miller has also received the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s Ford C. Frick Award which is an annual award for a broadcaster who made “major contributions to baseball.” It’s hard to imagine Kruk and Kuip won’t join this elite group.

It’s going to be hard next season without Kruk part of the broadcast team. It feels even harder to imagine than when a favorite player gets traded away or retires; probably because Kruk and Kuip have always been there—at least as long as I’ve been a fan.

While I feel sorry for myself and other fans who will miss this dynamic duo, we will have Kuip—and Kruk, well, he more than deserves to retire. On the bright side, he’s already said he wouldn’t mind joining a broadcast or two or an inning or so next year and for however long.

Winter came and went in a blink of an eye. For Vail Resorts it was a black eye.

During the third quarter earnings call in June “challenging” was one of the most used words. Lack of snow translated to fewer people hitting the slopes, which meant challenging sales of most everything at the company’s properties.

Vail Resorts owns Heavenly Mountain Resort, Kirkwood Mountain Resort and Northstar. Vail’s Colorado and Utah properties also suffered from receiving little white stuff.

Officials reported resort revenue for the quarter declining 7 percent compared to the previous year, saying it was “primarily driven by unfavorable weather conditions that impacted visitation and revenue for both local and destination guests, particularly at our resorts in the Rockies and in Tahoe.”

Visitation was off 15 percent, though lift revenues were only down 5 percent, which is attributed to season pass sales increasing 3 percent before the lifts started turning last November.

“When you look back over 40 years, the prior worst decline in visitation outside of Covid-related closures for the Rockies was down 8 percent in 2012, which illustrates the unprecedented severity of the conditions and the anomaly we just experienced,” CEO Rob Katz said.

Dismal conditions in 2025-26 are impacting pass sales for the upcoming season. In the earnings call it was noted through May 26 Epic pass sales were down 10 percent for 2026-27.

The Epic pass was introduced in 2008 as a way to reward riders by offering a cheaper alternative to daily lift ticket prices, while providing the opportunity to ski/board at any Vail property. For the upcoming season that pass costs $1,119. The Tahoe Local pass, which is what people who ski the Sierra tend to buy, goes for $699, provides access to Vail’s three resorts in the area. The $597 Tahoe Value pass comes with more restrictions.

“Looking back over the past several decades, U.S. ski market data indicates that visitation typically fully recovers following a season with poor conditions if the subsequent season has normal conditions,” Katz said. “And we believe we are well positioned to capture that visitation recovery with the pass and lift ticket product and marketing strategies we have developed. That said, given how unprecedented this past season was, it’s hard to know with certainty how any of this will play out.”

Note: A version of this story first appeared in the Tahoe Mountain News.

While the worry is AI will take over just about every job, those in the trades seem less concerned. Still, understanding and working with technology is a must. It starts in apprentice programs and continues to the job site.

“In apprentice and training programs, technology supports classroom and hands-on training through tablets, digital curriculum, online training and safety modules, videos and testing,” Rick Wells, CEO of Marin Builders Association, said. “In the field, it helps with plans, photos, time tracking, safety documentation, inspections, change orders, layout, drones, and communication between crews, supervisors and the office.”

The organization has 565 members throughout the North Bay who represent most every kind of contractor as well as people who do business with contractors.

Technology is part of most trades, including electrical, HVAC, plumbing, solar, roofing, painting, civil, grading and general contractors.

“They use it for digital plans, estimating, diagnostics, layout, drones, GPS, project management, scheduling, safety, controls, documentation, color matching, coatings specifications, site photos, inspections, and project communication,” Wells said. “Technology—including tools like drones, AI, and field software should help strengthen the trades, not diminish them.”

Wells believes as technology continues to progress, the core fundamentals of a good employee and quality work will remain at the forefront.

“What should not change is the value of skilled labor, craftsmanship, safety, mentorship, and pride in the work,” he said.

Technology was first introduced in front offices. Accounting, estimating and communication were some of the primary ways tech first seeped into trades.

Mike Ghilotti, president and CEO of Ghilotti Bros. Inc. in San Rafael remembers when it was a big deal to get a fax machine. Now his team uses iPads along with specific software and apps for the construction business.

They use technology to plan and schedule work, as well as determine if they are under or overbudget.

Learning to use tech

            Wells doesn’t believe the need to understand and be comfortable around technology is going to keep many people out of construction, especially younger applicants.

“It may be a barrier for a few, but in today’s tech world of handhelds, it is less and less common. The foundation is still reliability, work ethic, safety, problem-solving and willingness to learn. Technology is another tool, and we should make it approachable,” he said.

Frank Cuneo used to be a sheet metal worker. Now he is director of North Bay Building Trades Council’s Trades Introduction Program (TIP) in Santa Rosa. It serves Marin, Sonoma, Lake and Mendocino counties.

For a nearly a dozen years TIP has offered what it calls a pre-apprenticeship program three or four times a year. The course is 128 hours. This compares to an actual apprenticeship via a union that is yearslong.

“The average age is about 30-years-old. Most of them are out of high school for  a little while and are looking for something better in terms of employment,” Cuneo said.

A recent grad went from being a dental technician to a painter apprentice.

Understanding and using technology is definitely part of TIP’s curriculum.

Cuneo remembers when cell phones used to be banned on job sites. Now they are another tool—could be to calculate something or look up references. Laptops and tablets are used to access plans, details about installation standards, even building codes.

“Technology is allowing more people with different abilities to be in the trades. You used to have to lift 100 pounds, and be tough and bulky,” Cuneo said. “Now more jobs rely on fine motor skills and using the tools you have. It’s opened up the field to others.”

Connected Apprentice is utilized by 12 of the country’s largest construction trades—including in Sacramento, Milpitas, Berkeley, San Jose, Concord, Hayward and San Francisco.

“It is a technology bundle that helps trades modernize apprenticeship training,” explained Steve Metzman, CEO of iBusiness Technologies, which developed Connected Apprentice.

He said unions have forever handed out three-ring binders full of information. Now they distribute iPads, as Apple is a partner with Connected Apprentice. In addition to learning on a tool that will be ubiquitous in the field, any curriculum updates are essentially automatic without printing reams of paper.

Even though the information is the same, Metzman said Connected Apprentice may provide “deeper learning because with iPads instructional material can include video and rich diagrams.”

While many people go through trade unions for training via apprentice programs, colleges are also a path to knowledge and employment.

Santa Rosa Junior College’s courses are diverse, ranging from industrial trades which includes welding, advanced transportation and logistics; to advanced manufacturing, which was formally machine shop; to building trades, which covers HVAC and carpentry; and culinary arts.

Plus, the Petaluma campus has a free, non-credit carpentry program that’s all about learning vocational skills.

About 75 percent of students enrolling in these trade programs obtain certificates, with the other 25% earning an associate’s degree.

“We feel like if we can train students with modern technology in the trades, they will be better positioned in the workforce and command higher starting wages,” Benjamin Goldstein, dean of Culinary Arts, Industrial & Trade Technologies, Construction Training Center, told the Business Journal.

With multiple computer systems being part of every automobile, as well as cameras and sensors, technological know-how is a must to be a mechanic. No longer is being handy with a wrench going to be enough.

Heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are far from simple. SRJC work on the same simulation software the professionals use.

“If a system stops working, there could be a thousand reasons why. So, you need to understand various different faults in the equipment,” Goldstein said.

While students in culinary arts are still using pots and pan, gas and induction, and various food stuffs, the biggest change with technology is in the front of the house—as in with point-of-sale software and devices. It’s learning programs for taking reservations that don’t involve answering a phone, and how card readers work.

“There’s a whole art and science to syncing orders,” Goldstein said.

Real world applications

When John Matheny started in the solar and electrical field in 2009, to get a system up and running was 99 percent physical work, 1 percent technology based.

“When you were done wiring up a solar inverter, you turned the switches on, and it started producing. We would occasionally install monitoring systems, but this was done by one person who specialized in it, and it had no effect on how the system performed, only how its performance was viewed,” said Matheny, who owns Matheny Electric in Sebastopol. “Now, depending on which manufacturer of products is being installed, a much larger portion of the work involved to get a system up and running properly is done through a smart phone or from a desktop browser remotely.”

Matheny didn’t take the typical route via an apprentice program to become a certified electrician and electrical contractor. He studied on his own time and took online classes. Going forward, there are likely to be less people like him or those who mostly learn on the job.

“High technology acumen is very important. I can train on the job for many things that we do; bending conduit, sizing wire, making connections, etc.,” Matheny said. “Keeping track of app log-ins, emailing, uploading photos, and that kind of thing are much harder to train if someone does not have a strong technology background.”

Solano Glass Company in Fairfield uses tech in the office, not in the field. It used to be deals were made over a handshake; estimates weren’t signed because there was an innate sense of trust.

Genie Branson, co-owner of the company, said now everything is put in ink. Bills are paid online; checks are practically obsolete.

When it comes to marketing her business, it’s social media via technology that trumps newspapers.

Ghilotti works with a slew of trades people in the construction business like cement workers, masons and carpenters. His workforce is made up of five unions.

“The pros of technology is that you can do things much quicker with greater accuracy and efficiency. It’s enabling field crews to have information,” Ghilotti said. “The cons are that sometimes we get too reliant on technology and don’t use common sense to think through issues and problems.”

Technology is also a tool in bringing job seekers and employers together.

Chris Simmons is founder and CEO of HammerLoop, an online construction hiring platform based in Tiburon.

The app is modeled off dating apps. Instead of having people search for love, they are either looking for workers or seeking a job.

With the initial focus being on recruiting applicants, HammerLoop has 1,350 want-to-be workers signed up and 150 employers. This is as of early June, with the app only available since the first of the year.

The test geographical triangle went from Marin County to Sonoma County to Sacramento County. Idaho and Texas are the next markets.

Simmons said with 50 percent of the construction industry Spanish-speaking, the app is available in Spanish and English.

It costs nothing to list a job or one’s profile, or to peruse the site. However, if you want to swipe right, so to speak, then job seekers must pay $7/month for unlimited use and employers pay $100/month for unlimited access.

“Eventually they will see more jobs and have a better sense of their local market, and be better informed of pay scales,” Simmons said of workers. “Even if their profile is not in active mode, they will get notifications coming across.”

This gives them insight into who is hiring, where and potential earnings.

Simmons said until now the best way to find a construction job was word of mouth. HammerLoop, he believes, will dramatically alter how people find their next job. He expects to have 20,000 profiles on the site within the first year.

Looking to the future

Solano Glass Company isn’t worried AI will replace glass installers. It takes people to do that job and they don’t see that changing.

Wells, with Marin Builders, said, “There will absolutely continue to be a need for skilled labor for the foreseeable future. Technology and AI will change how work gets done, but they won’t replace judgment, adaptability, hands-on skill and real-time problem-solving on a jobsite.”

In fact, everyone interviewed for this story believes people will always be needed in the trades.

“Technology is a fundamental tool used by supervisors to succeed in today’s world of construction, but if you just want to come out, work hard, be a part of a great team and build incredible things, there are still great opportunities in the construction trades,” Ghilotti told the Journal. “More importantly, there’s a good likelihood that AI will not replace those workers for a long, long time.”

One way AI will help those in the trades is that those workers will be the ones building the data centers.

“That construction boom is real. There is a huge demand for masonry, concrete, electricians, plumbers and HVAC techs,” Goldstein said. While those centers might not be in the North Bay, he knows what SRJC students are learning will provide them the opportunity to be strong candidates for those jobs.

For Jack Buckhorn, executive director of North Bay Labor Council, AFL-CIO based Santa Rosa, he knows working in the trades makes for a good life. He was an electrician before taking a leadership position in the union.

(NBLC represents more than 70,000 workers and about 70 union affiliates in Sonoma, Lake, Mendocino, and Marin counties.)

“It’s a great middle class career that isn’t going to be outsourced or AI’d,” Buckhorn said. “We are going to continue to build things. That is not going to go away. It’s great for people who want to work with their hands.”

Note: A version of this story first appeared in the North Bay Business Journal.

A mourning dove wants to call the top of an outside ceiling fan home. (Image: Kathryn Reed)

It happened overnight. Without warning. They were taking up residency in the back yard. Uninvited. Unwelcome.

The mess was pretty outstanding. The efficiency clearly lacking.

I was afraid I might run afoul of the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act if I forcibly evicted the two mourning doves.

Mama, that’s how I referred to the one sitting on the nest atop the ceiling fan in the outside area, gave me the stink eye as I stood in the doorway. Dad, the one bringing the twigs, was wary of me; pausing his work if I were too close.

Turning on the fan didn’t do a thing. Well, it didn’t do what I wanted, which was to get mama to leave and the nest to fall.

With it being July 3 I was pretty sure no government agency was going to provide with me information I needed. What surprised me was to get a return call July 4 from Edith at Chico Animal Control.

Twigs that didn’t make it into the nest accumulate on the ground. (Image: Kathryn Reed)

She said if there were no eggs in the nest, to place the nest someplace else—tree, bush, that sort of thing. She said if there were hatchlings, then wait until they were able to fly before relocating the nest. She said I would not be violating federal law.

I waited until mama left the nest that evening before the removal process began.

Up the ladder I went. Wow, what a haphazard home they had created. There was literally more debris on the ground than on the fan. You couldn’t even it call it a nest; it was just a bunch of twigs.

I cleaned up the whole mess and haven’t heard from the squatters or seen them. Hopefully, they’ve made a home someplace more appropriate.

Born in the U.S.A. It has always meant something, and the Supreme Court this week underscored that meaning when it ruled against the president.

If you are born in the United States, you are a citizen of the United States.

When the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified in 1868 birth right citizenship was codified into law. It says: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.”

Trump signed an executive order to ban birth right citizenship on the first day of his second term. Eighteen months later and he is on the losing end of this discriminatory directive.

Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas were in the minority of the 6-3 decision that came out June 30. While Justice Kavanaugh was in the majority, he said he would use federal law to quash the executive order. The other five—Justices John Roberts, Amy Coney Barrett, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson—based their decisions on the Constitution.

This means the Constitution would have to be changed for Trump to get his way.

The court’s decision makes me cautiously hopeful to believe in the rule of law that our founding fathers established with the separation of powers.