Articles

World Beat

Follow the Money: Bin Laden, the Taliban and the CIA.

Plane Truth: Intelligence community ignored threats to cities.

People

Charles Booher: Death of a Spam Fighter.

Victor Perera, 1934-2003: Novelist, teacher, journalist Victor Perera nurtured idealism in his readers and students.

Guess who's coming to dinner? President Clinton and Vice President Gore's 1993 visit to Los Gatos.

Clinton in the Glen: Hey, remember when we had a president who actually read books?

King Pong: Nolan Bushnell's new game.

So Annoying: Chronicle Restaurant Critic Michael Bauer.

Gentleman Joe: Mr. Coffee didn't stay for coffee.

Jake the Rake: Restaurateur Jack Allen was a Silicon Valley legend.

Lobbyist for the Little Guy: Gene Lokey.

Typing While Impaired

Chili on a Pun: Headline writers rise to challenge in Wendy's "finger food" fiasco.

Triumph of the Robots: How the Algorhythms Won.

Son of Spam: Charles Booher vs. the penis pill spammers.

One Man, Two Votes: Vote fraud is easy.

Triumph of the Robots

Craven Images: Naming buildings after mid-career politicians is like donation to their campaign.

¡Ay Dios, Ampárame!: Protect Me, Los Van Van.

This Frozen Moment: Daquiris on Daquiri Beach.

Road Trips

Snake Eyes: Santeria serpent snatched at customs thanks to archaic U.S. policy.

Fear and Loathing in Las Tunas: An account of my 1997 drive across Cuba to the funeral of Che Guevara, inspired by On the Road and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Roberto Robaina: A wild limo ride through the streets of Manhattan with then Cuban Foreign Minister Roberto Robaina.

Takeshi's Excellent Adventure: A tamer road trip, through Silicon Valley with a Japanese cartoonist, featuring mechanical bulls, cheap beer, Godzilla on an Etch-a-Sketch and Takeshi's sketch of me.

San Jose Politics

The Lynching of Terry Gregory: The scandal-plagued Gonzales administration discovers ethics.

The Greening of Mayor Golfzales: Mayor gets hooked on fancy golf courses, where he de-stresses thanks to his lobbyist friends.

Who Built Downtown San Jose?: Written in response to an editorial "The Downtown that Frank Built" published in another paper following the resignation of San Jose Redevelopment Agency's Executive Director, Frank Taylor.

Gonzales for San Jose Mayor: Yes, we endorsed the guy who won. It's always better to endorse a loser, because then you don't bear any responsibility for what happens after the election.

Silicon Valley

Suddenly We're Cool: In early 1998, as Silicon Valley was transformed by the Internet boom, I developed the bagels-to-donuts index to scientifically document the valley's progress on the low tech front.

Here to Kingdom KOME: How a legendary California rock station fell victim to the 1996 Telecommunications Act, which gutted limits on broadcast ownership concentration.

A History of San Jose's Jewish Community: They were pioneers in the city's early commercial and civic life, but assimilated quickly and lost the faith.

Dreams Die Hard: Restaurateur Ken Williams bet it all on a new shopping center in Downtown San Jose. The price he paid for taking that gamble was higher than anyone could have foreseen.

Build, Build, Build: Silicon Valley development is closing in on the last pockets of agriculture and standing historical buildings.

Got To Give It Up: Philanthropy, Silicon Valley Style.

Metro Newspapers

Metro's First Decade: A short history of Silicon Valley's weekly newspaper , including our most embarrassing cover story.

How It All Started: The birth of the Los Gatos Weekly.

Robert Aldrich, 1920-1997