On Friday, as I write this, I decided to turn off my brain and go with my gut. No facts, just feelings. After all, that's how most people vote. In today's gerrymandered districts and split electorates, candidates' stands aren't really that different. Voters end up deciding by personality or whether they like the candidate's spouse.

I sat mesmerized by Sen. Barack Obama's acceptance speech Thursday night. I was alone, watching from my living room uninterrupted. His words moved me.
I remembered his speech delivered back in 2004 at the DNC. The part that gave me goosebumps then was the stuff about "not being a country of red states, of blue states, but of the United States."

That kind of pragmatic politics makes me smile. I got all tingly again when Obama read that line Thursday, even though my head says bipartisanship is about as likely as me buying a retirement condo on Mars.

Likewise, I like the way McCain has said he would "follow bin Laden to the gates of hell." Goosebump city. But my head says: We're no closer to capturing bin Laden than we are to erasing the federal deficit.

Gut politics, however, is more than listening to speeches. It is looking at personalities. I like to call this the psychology of politics.

Obama is trying to be more human so the video montage focused on his upbringing, being raised by a single mother who was white, along with his white grandparents who would take him fishing.

I see him as a man who remembers his mother, who died of cancer. Her words gave him that sense of right and wrong, that feeling that he must respect others. I think McCain is a kick sometimes -- funny, charming, but I'm not sure about the influences of his mother being well, fresh in his mind. And I don't like his wife, Cindy. She was on YouTube saying the only way to get around Arizona is by private jet, so, she bought herself one.

Obama's wife doesn't do much for me, but she appears strong and intelligent. Oh yeah, she raised darling daughters -- an emotional plus for me, a family guy.

Obama comes off arrogant. Heck, anyone that goes to Harvard has to be confident. As I watched the video of him going to the gritty parts of Chicago to help people go from welfare to work and to help those who lost their jobs, I was impressed.

I've done some volunteer work with the down and out at my former church in Pasadena, even attended conventions where other Christians doing charity work -- some from Chicago -- would talk about helping the poor, building affordable housing, getting people health insurance. I could never measure up to those giants, but I got to know some of them and admired them. They made me feel like I was going something, something good.

Listening to Obama makes me revisit those days. Those warm and fuzzy feelings came back.

"It's politics. It is rehearsed, orchestrated ..." my colleagues reminded me. But for just one day, I am going to see this as most Americans do -- with their gut, not their brain.
Sorry, you can lament that all you want but it is a fact. I've fought that approach my whole life, even when I was first exposed to politics at age 10, when I helped staple Richard Nixon posters to telephone poles in Long Island.

I remember my best friend's mom took us to the Turnpike to watch Democratic nominee Hubert Humphrey ride into town in a motorcade. That's still one of my most cherished childhood moments. That year, 1968, the race was so close I remember waking up and my mom greeted me with the news: "We still don't have a president." I didn't understand.
But politics is not based on logic. It is based on feelings, on a fleeting moment, on how a candidate makes you feel.

This race -- though historic in that it features the first African-American nominated by a major party -- is no different.

I was intrigued by the question after I heard former Los Angeles Times TV critic Howard Rosenberg on NPR this week say he doesn't believe in the pollyanna view. He said they don't bring countries together but rather, with the focus on medal counts and winning at all costs (including cheating), they ramp up nationalism and increase global friction.

Certainly, there isn't any love being shown to the Democratic, western-leaning country of Georgia by Russia. And inside China, the government's clampdown on free speech -- the jailing of dissident group members and underground church pastors -- hasn't produced a "We'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony" Coke moment.

Add this to the usual gymnastic judging disputes, throw in the latest wrinkle of athletes playing for other countries for the money (see: South Dakota's Becky Hammon earning $2 million to play basketball for Team Russia) and your Olympic bubble is burst.

So many of course had their bubbles popped during the doping scandals of recent years. In Sydney in 2000, American television could not get enough of track star Marion Jones. But she was stripped of her five gold medals after lying and eventually admitting she used performance-enhancing drugs. She watched these games from a jail cell.

There is a feeling of distrust that lingers every time an athlete breaks a world record. You can't help but hear the whispers. I certainly hope that is not the case with the winners in Beijing. And so far, for the most part, the athletes have not flunked drug tests.
Now, bad feelings between China and the United States are growing because of an investigation into the age of Chinese gymnasts who under IOC rules, must be 16 years old.

One can't escape the cloud of past cheating that lingers over the games like a blanket of Beijing smog. And Rosenberg may be right about the Olympics lacking a world peace bump.

But having been a spectator in two summer Olympic games, I can't shake the feeling of closeness to all peoples -- Americans, Europeans, Asians and Africans -- that pervaded at those games. I can only conclude that being there is way different than watching a delayed media event that is sanitized and jingo-ized before it reaches your living room.

As I look back, it was the little things that made me realize we are all human, we are all of the same planet.

In Los Angeles in 1984, there was so much of the positive. Recently I was reminded of that day we watched Carl Lewis win the 100 meter race, grab the American flag and do a victory lap. He later also won gold in the 200, a record that was broken just this week by phenom Usain Bolt of Jamaica.

That same hot day, my wife, myself and friends found shade under white tents at USC and drank cool ale in the "Olympic Beer Garden" set up by the U.S. and other nations. Today, if you go to USC, a small plaque marks the spot of that international watering hole.

I will never forget attending team handball at Cal State Fullerton's tiny gymnasium during the '84 Olympics and being swept up in Team Iceland fans' enthusiasm as they chanted "Ees-lund!" "Ees-lund!" The Iceland fans welcomed me in and taught me how to cheer Icelandic.

While the Atlanta games certainly had their problems, I'll always remember watching Michael Johnson run the 200 meter and set the fastest time. Again, as that record was broken this week in Beijing, the TV cameras flashed on Johnson. I thought he would be sad. Instead, he jumped and cheered -- again for Bolt -- who surpassed his record time by running the race in 19.30 seconds.

Johnson's sportsmanship, Carl Lewis's class, Iceland's fans, trading Olympic pins ... these are a few Olympic memories that may not bring world peace, but from time to time bring a smile to my heart.

I heard about a couple of gas stations offering cheaper gasoline, so I went down there this morning on my way to work. I filled up at the Mobil at Durfee Avenue and Peck Road (at the 60 Freeway) for $3.95 a gallon (regular).

Sweet!

This felt better than any editorial I've written on high gas prices. Any editorial cartoon I've run showing oil company executives as fat pigs rolling in record-setting profits. It was economics in practice.
I just bought gas for under $4 a gallon! First time in at least a year, right? And it felt good. I was on such a high, I decided I could spring for a cup of coffee. As I pulled the handle down on the filling station's coffee machine, nothing came out. The cashier/manager told me he had completely run out of coffee! It was around 9:15 a.m. so I guess he was busy with customers earlier this morning.

So was the Shell station across Durfee, which also was selling gas for $3.95. My colleague here, Linda Alquist, said the Conoco/Phillips 66 station at Garey Avenue and Foothill Boulevard on the Pomona/Claremont border was also selling gas for $3.95. I've not seen it cheaper? If you have, do tell.

Now, this makes me feel like I'm sticking it to the man. It beats inflating my tires properly (although I do that, so don't go telling Obama.).

I've always thought highly of Vincent Bugliosi, the former L.A. County prosecutor who put Charlie Manson on death row, and the author of several riveting true crime books, including "Helter Skelter" which was about the Manson case, and "Outrage," in which he picked apart the flawed prosecution in the O.J. Simpson murder trial.

I remember reading "Outrage" and after each page, becoming angrier and angrier over the sheer ineptitude of the prosecutors in that case. Bugilosi is a highly respected legal mind and a sharp writer.

So, when I heard he was speaking at Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena Thursday night to promote his new book, "The Prosecution of George W. Bush For Murder," I had mixed feelings. Could he be for real? His reputation, and hearing him speak, gave me the answer. He's dead serious.

Bugliosi spoke with passion and conviction to a standing-room only crowd at Vroman's on Colorado Boulevard. Bugliosi is true to his word. He spoke clearly about how in his view George W. Bush misled the Congress and the American people into war in Iraq. He believes that such conduct is not only reprehnsible but criminal.

Whether any attorney general of any of the 50 states, or any county district attorney, would prosecute George W. Bush after he leaves office for war crimes is the $64,000 question (or considering the price tag of the Iraq war, it should be the $564 billion question).

One thing is certain. Bugliosi is not a nut and he's not gone whacko. He's still the same respected, legal mind that put Manson and almost every murder defendant he prosecuted behind bars.

It's too bad that very few media outlets will have him on their talk shows to discuss his new book. He said it is the first time he has been virtually shut out of all major media outlets from promoting a book of his. He said the media are scared of upsetting the right wing. Yet, despite the media blackout, it has jumped to 9th on the New York Times Bestseller list.

His point: America is no longer exercising its two main principles: 1. No one is above the law. and 2. We have freedom of expression and freedom of the press.

The book was published by Vanguard Press in May, 2008.

Well, not quite. The only thing missing are those robocalls in which the candidate -- or some worthy surrogate -- (Madonna? Susan Sarandon? Phil Gramm?) give a recorded spiel on how we should vote in November.

It's July, so people may have forgotten receiving a deluge of annoying, intrusive automated calls from candidates during the presidential primary in February, usually at dinner time or when your favorite show is on TV.

Shaun Dakin, a marketer who founded the Web site StopPoliticalCalls.org, hasn't forgotten. He's collected 50,000 names from people who want to block these political robocalls.

While the federal Do Not Call Registry has about 160 million phone numbers on it, most of these Americans don't realize that charities, market research and political calls are exempt.

"You can't get too angry at charities. But nobody likes politicians. No one is very happy with political robocalls," Dakin told me Friday morning.

Dakin is joined by California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who co-authored legislation this year that would ban robocalls between 9 p.m. and 8 a.m. and restrict political calls to no more than twice a day per telephone number.

Feinstein was awakened to the issue in February when she taped a political message for another candidate. Thousands of California voters heard: "Hi. I'm Dianne Feinstein ..." when they picked up their telephones and were outraged. "They sent out the calls at 3 o'clock in the morning," Dakin said.

Talk about the phone call at 3 a.m.

After getting a flood of calls from very real and very angry constituents at her senate office, Feinstein said "she learned her lesson" and would not make another robocall ever again. And, she set out to regulate the practice.

Feinstein and other legal experts believe that it is a violation of free speech to outlaw political calls. So, she's chosen to regulate the worst practices.
Others wonder how effective these calls really are. In fact, some political strategists say they turn voters off.

But the issue gets down to money. Dakin said it once cost about 25 cents per call. Now, vendors have lowered that to 2 cents or less per call, making robocalls the cheapest form of political messaging. A Pew Internet & American Life Project study found it is the No. 1 form of congressional communication. The study found that 81 percent of Iowa voters received robocalls during the caucuses. Companies doing these calls would lose big bucks if the practice was stopped or curtailed.

There's also a matter of the law. The calls are illegal according to California Public Utilities Commission's own rules. Yet, the CPUC has not picked up a phone to call off these robotic nuisances. According to CPUC Code Sections 2871-2876 (http://law.justia.com/california/codes/puc/2871-2876.html), the call must begin with a "live" caller and he must ask permission of the person being called before hitting the play button. The "live" person must also identify the organization making the call.
This almost never happens.

As Dakin said, using live people would defeat the purpose.
Dakin said he's received thousands of e-mails from people who are fed up with robocalls from political candidates.

Many are people who work at night and have had their sleep interrupted. Others are stay-at-home mothers whose infants are awakened from naps. Senior citizens -- a high propensity voting bloc -- report getting 15 or more calls a day.

If the state were to abide by the law, the caller would have to be live. At least the person answering the phone could have the satisfaction of venting to a live human being.

-30-

The new East Valley Community Health Center at 420 S. Glendora Ave. in West Covina opened its new facility last week.

Alicia Mardini, chief executive officer, stands in front of waiting room. The day the clinic opened the new building was filled to capacity.

WEST COVINA -- There are those who talk about healthcare and those who do something about it. In the doer category are Alicia Mardini and the folks at the East Valley Community Health Center.
This place opened its new, 25,000-square-foot building about a week ago here. It is three times the size of its old building. One the day it opened, the patients waited outside the building. The clinic reached capacity that same day.
Filling a need -- helping the poor and the uninsured get basic healthcare -- is what Mardini and East Valley Community Health Center do. They see 120 patients a day (and that doesn't count those here for blood work or lab visits). It adds up to 45,000-50,000 patient visits a year.
"About 90 percent of our patients are people who work,'' explained Mardini. "Some of them have more than one job."
The bulk of those patients are in their 40s and 50s. They work at blue collar jobs for employers who do not offer healthcare insurance. These are the working poor. They do not qualify for Medi-Cal because they work!
Mardini said it is crucial for the clinic to see Medi-Cal patients as well because the state reimburses for those. However, looming state cutbacks has put that revenue supply in jeopardy.
Also, with the state cutting back on the payments for doctors, fewer and fewer specialists are taking Medi-Cal patients.
It's incredible that in our country, right here in West Covina, people can't get to see a doctor. In Los Angeles County, all the public-private clinics and county clinics running at full capacity can take about 1 million people, leaving almost 2 million uninsured residents without access to healthcare. That's just in the county.
"These are the people that if we don't treat them, they end up in the emergency rooms," Mardini said.
The group took a big chance when it decided to build a new facility. It received $6 million from private donors, including the Ahmanson Foundation. But it still needed to take out a mortgage for the balance -- about $4 million. That gives Mardini more wrinkles on her forehead.
But the idea was to expand staff and see 50 percent more patients within the next five years. Those expansion plans are on hold. In fact, that may not happen because it faces state budget cuts that may require the clinic borrow money to stay open in the second half of the fiscal year. Instead of hiring additional medical staff, it may have to use that money to paying off its loans.
"We know we will make it. It is just very hard,'' Mardini said.

"I winced. I'm sure that's what the New Yorker's esteemed editor David Remnick expected me to do when I saw the Barack and Michelle Obama caricature cover that everybody's talking about," wrote Clarence Page in his latest column.

A quick check at the Arcadia News Stand on Duarte Avenue found them totally sold out, according to a friend who is trying to get a hold of one.

Tonight I'll be proudly attending the Temple City High School commencement for the Class of 2008. My son, Matt, 18, will be graduating, as will some 534 other seniors.
Here's a high school from which 15 students will be going to UCLA, and another 15 will be going to UC Berkeley (my son, included). That is just one aspect of the success story that is Temple City High School.

Respected TC businessman Jerry Jambazian wrote in an e-mail to me, after attending the TCHS senior awards ceremony: "In the graduating class there were 151 seniors who had a GPA of 3.5 and SAT (scores) of 1500 and above."

Call me biased, but you know the argument is easily made that this school, with its above 800 API, is one of the best in the San Gabriel Valley.

That's why I believe a recent editorial in a weekly newspaper (NOT affiliated with the Pasadena Star-News or any of our weekly publications) that criticized outgoing Temple City Unified School District superintendent Joan Hillard was harsh and inappropriate. The writer went so far as to suggest that Hillard not attend graduation and other promotion ceremonies this year.

While our newspaper (and even yours truly) have been critical of Hillard at times, she deserves to be present at the TCHS graduation tonight. As someone who was at the helm of this district for nine years, she contributed to the continued success of this district and its students. I want to thank her, the other administrators, counselors, coaches, the teachers at TCHS, Oak Avenue Middle, and the three elementary schools and all the staff for a job well done.

The school is a model of what a small district that promotes learning can do.

If what happened after its iPod release a few years earlier holds true, Apple will not be the only entity to see increasing profits. Common thieves and criminals will be eating better this summer as well.

That's because there is a direct correlation between every new release of the latest palm-sized Internet device and street crime.

In the year after the iPod was released, Los Angeles saw an increase of 34 percent of robberies of iPods and other similar electronic gadgets and San Francisco saw a doubling of such crimes, according to a report by Chris Hansen at Dateline NBC.

While Hansen was doing a yeoman's job reporting the dark side of the usually all-giddy new technology news reports, most of the bad news from the electronic revolution never becomes conventional wisdom.

Sure, techno-bloggers and some iPod and iPhone users know about the bulls-eye painted on their back -- even the increasing chance of becoming a victim of a violent robbery -- but most go about using the devices oblivious to the dangers.

I happened to be in the Bay Area the day Jobs was unveiling the new iPhone, which will be sold at a lower price ($199 for the 8-gigabyte model and $299 for the 16-gigabyte model). The price of the required service will, however, rise to $39.99 a month plus $30 for data.

While at an orientation lecture from a police officer from U.C. Berkeley, where I was with my son, Matt, who'll be attending there in the fall, the officer spoke in frank terms about these devices being magnets for "thugs" who often roam the city and campus looking for expensive electronic devices to steal from Cal students.

She mentioned, matter-of-factly, that the release of iPods and iPhones spiked the crime rate at U.C. Berkeley. As a precaution, students should not walk around campus with their iPods or iPhones visible, nor should they have both earplugs in their ears. "Those two white ear plugs are a dead give away," she told the freshman parents, who absorbed the message like dry sponges.

I have to admit, I had no idea these devices were such a problem. But I did recall my son getting a $300 iPod from his uncle in New York and remembering it was promptly stolen after only two weeks. Most likely, it was lifted from a backpack or gym locker at his high school.

The thefts of these video-data-music devices are quite common. Hansen reported that it has become such a problem on college campuses that some have banned them.
On more than a half-dozen occasions during my visit to the Bay Area, I witnessed a person take out an iPhone and begin surfing data. At the airport, at a Giants game, on the Berkeley campus, on the BART -- none tried to hide the device. Were they unaware they were sitting ducks?

Colleague Daniel Fritz, who was using his iPhone in the newsroom Friday, said he never uses the device unless he feels secure. When he does use it in public, he cups his hands around it "so it looks like any, ordinary PDA," he told me.

A very funny YouTube video by Flixxy Films shows how a bump-and-rob scenario can cost a person several hundred dollars in a few seconds. Also, some iPhone users are victims of identity theft as thieves download the owner's personal banking data and use it for fraudulent purchases. The video concludes with the owner pressing a remote control detonator that blows up the device and the thief.

Hansen of Dateline asked if Apple can design such advanced technology, why can't they incorporate a way to track down the thief or render the device useless when stolen?
I'm guessing that will never happen. More reason why users of new technology should know the down side as well as the up.

Howard Jarvis, tax fighter

Today, as I write this, (June 6) it is exactly 30 years since the voters approved the historic California tax-cutting measure Proposition 13.
What do you give for the 30th anniversary? Hmm, I know a lot of school teachers worried about layoffs who would like to give the voters a sack of coal.

I've been in California exactly as long as Proposition 13 has been around. Yup, I moved here from New York in August 1978 to attend Univeristy of California, Irvine and like many, I fell in love with SoCal and stayed. Today, it still feels like we're living under the cloud of Prop. 13. Living here and reporting on communities in Orange, San Bernardino and now, Los Angeles County for almost those 30 years, I've seen and heard all sides of the property tax cutting measure.

My first experience was when I was still in New York. I got a phone call from my parents, who had heard from my brother, who had just joined the Los Angeles County sheriff's department. He was worried, very worried, that if this ballot measure was to pass, he would be out of a job.

Well, that didn't happen. In fact, in April, he retired from the department after 31 years of meritorious service.

Scare tactics were the first reaction to the measure. But California found a way (it was called reserves) to pay cities and schools for the shrinking property tax revenues. Then, as we saw in Tuesday's Covina Utility Tax vote (Measure C, approved by 65 percent of the voters), the use of scare tactics to convince voters to vote for a tax is still in vogue.

Which brings me to my next point. Utility Users Taxes came about after Prop. 13, after the state stopped the bailouts and started taking some of the money back. Then property tax revenue bond began to appear on our property tax bills. Almost every school district has one, some have two on the rolls. When you add community college districts and some water districts, it, well, almost adds up to a pre-Prop. 13 tax bill.

The point is: other taxes have taken the place of lowered property taxes. It is the old step on the snake illustration; step on the tail and you haven't killed the snake, you just fatten the head.

As I went through the process of signing in, getting my ballot and putting my "inka-vote" dot next to the persons I was voting for, I thought how this has become an archaic activity. It is almost like some ancient art, and I'm still doing it like they did in past generations.

It was not so much the paper ballot and the inky half-pen tied to a metal chain that I used to mark my ballot. But it was more the feeling that I was a select remnant: those who still vote in primaries! I had a colleague at work who saw my "I voted" sticker ask me what that was about. So, I guess I'm part of the ancient collective that still votes...

I know what you're thinking. This voting thing is done WAY too often. And splitting the primary this year (presidential held in February, all the rest held today, June 3) was a bit much. Remember how everyone said the presidential primary in California would make our state "more relevant" in picking candiates for president? Well, imagine what it would've been like had we kept our presidential primary in June? We would've had CNN and Matt Drudge camping out in California today and all week.

Oh well, water under the bridge....
About today's ballot. We here at the Star-News/SGV Tribune/Whit DN editorial board enjoyed meeting candidates for judges of Los Angeles Superiior Court. Our choices are in the newspaper today and on our web sites ("Our Picks: Election Day"). Check them out. There are considerable differences in many judicial candidates. Meanwhile go out and vote. You have until 8 p.m.

He and John W. Robinson, author of the best selling hiking book "Trails of the Angeles" were going to cut the racing ribbon at the start line.

I hear they may run it next weekend but I'm still not sure.

Owens was joking that the Santa Anita Fire in late April denuded some of the slopes adjacent to the trail, which leads from Sierra Madre to Mount Wilson. What is normally a treacherous drop becomes even more so, he said, because there is little brush to break your fall.

I've hiked it and have run it to Orchard Camp several years ago and remember thinking how one slip could send you down the canyon several hundred feet. And that was during good conditions. So, I think the organizers made the correct call.

I was hoping to drive up Chantry Flat Road and check out the new store Saturday, but Owens tells me that the canyon got 2.5 inches of rain from the recent storm, causing a minor slide on Chantry Flat Road that makes it unpassable.

That's disappointing. I hope they can fix it this weekend, when I'd like to get some hiking in bertween raindrops.

Speaking of rain, the storm may have moved mud, but it also may have a silver lining. It may be just the right conditions to germinate seedlings in the soil, Owens said. It would be a good beginning to new life in the fire-damaged Angeles above Sierra Madre.

The last 6 miles or so of this state highway have been closed (hence the signs in Azusa and in La Canada that say "close to Wrightwood'') since 1978. That's right, 30 years. They are lobbying Caltrans to get that portion of the road fixed and reopened, so folks can make the loop from Azusa to Mount Waterman, Mountain High ski areas, Wrightwood and then down to La Canada and the 210 and back to the east San Gabriel Valley.

It's a worthwhile idea.
So would getting the road fixed that leads from the West Fork to Coldbrook Campground and Crystal Lake picnic area and campground. That's 350+ camp sites that just sit there unused!
I'll show you my pictures from the tour:

Above: Morning fog hangs amid the charred pine trees where the Curve and Bridge fires damaged the forest in 2002.

Above: Bill Larson, the Caltrans chief for Highway 39, opens the gate above Bear Canyon and Deer Flats, allowing our bus to go through to Highway 2.

Above: Highway 2 (Angeles Crest Highway) from the top left, meets Highway 39. The connection from 2 to 39 has been closed to the public for 30 years.

Above: A view from the top: Looking down on Bear Canyon

PINBALL machine production is way down. There’s one company left making them. They’re being replaced by home video games and cell phones. The machines manufactured today go directly to homes not stores, according to the Friday New York Times article.

The story sent me back to my childhood in Long Island and that lucky machine in the back of a candy store off Newbridge Road. If I had some money from my paper route I’d hop off my bike, go in and test my flipper skills and maybe enjoy a chocolate egg cream and a bonus score.

Today, kids rarely go out of the house to find entertainment. They flip on the flat screen and fire up the Xbox. Or they play across social networking sites at their home computer.

It’s not like I ventured into the great outdoors alot, either, unless it was to attend a ball game. You’re talking to a kid who flunked scouting. But ever since a day 20 years ago, when I hiked into the eastern San Gabriel Mountains with botanist Ann Croissant on an assignment, I’ve been hooked on wild plants.
Yeah, who’d a thunk it? Me and plants. It’s really not so shocking since I studied environmental science and took botany at Nassau College.

I had no idea, however, of the variety of species, nor the array of shapes and colors of wildflowers right here in our back yard.

“The San Gabriels, a home to biodiversity! Who would have thought that a mountain range so heavily impacted by people and urban sprawl in Los Angeles County would retain its rank as one of the most biodiverse regions in America,” was how Croissant so aptly stated it in her new book “Wildflowers of the San Gabriel Mountains,” (Stephens Press, 2007).

The window to the thriving world below my knees was opened. Croissant showed me purple thistles and orange-red paintbrush growing from craggy rocks. Later, I was the first to write about the discovery of the thread-leaved brodiaea along the Colby Trail in Glendora, an endangered plant that existed only in the intense flower oasis called the Santa Rosa Plateau, until this discovery. Glendora named it their city flower and celebrates its existence every May.

Blue dicks, chia, purple nightshade, phacelia, wild morning-glory, golden-yarrow are just some of my favorites. These and others are featured in her book, organized by color and spiral bound for use on the trail.

If you haven’t seen these flowers, now may be the best time. Plentiful winter rains have produced a rich bounty. Though the first bloom is ending, the second bloom — the blues and purples — are due in May and June.

And you don’t need a course in botany. Just a desire to get off the couch, drop the remote and head for the hills. Start by checking out the roadway flowers (I love the ones next to the 57/10 interchange). Going to the San Gabriel Mountains Regional Conservancy’s Web site (www.sgmrc.org) for info on hikes and nature center locations.

“It (family hikes) is something that has been lost in the heritage,” explained Croissant, founder of the group. “A lot of families don’t go out; it is a consumer culture.”
Whenever she hikes with kids, either through scouting or the “Hike It!” program her group sponsors, she finds young people are absorbed.

“You only have to take kids on a trail once time and it is amazing how much they pick up,” she said.
And you don’t have to be young or in excellent physical shape to go wildflowering.
“It is for the kid in all of us,” she said with a smile.

WHEN I was 26 years old, I was one of those young reporters who believed that my next story would be bigger than Watergate.

I was, as we say in the business, hungry for news. As my mentor Gary Granville, a former investigative reporter used to say, I was looking for “red meat.” So when my editor at the Orange County Register told me to cover the Olympic Torch relay in Garden Grove, I thought this was vegetarian fare.
In fact, it smacked of a public relations event cooked up by the U.S. Olympic Committee to promote the upcoming games in Los Angeles, which by the way, were being boycotted by the Soviet Union and were being bashed from within and without as something that was dead on arrival due to LA’s bad air and choking traffic.

Not to mention, a few days before, I covered the raising of Olympic street banners in Garden Grove, which was my beat and where the torch relay would travel. I remember the banners were done up in those garish colors — hot pink and light green.

Needless to say, boy was I wrong. And so was the rest of the media prognosticators.

Not only was the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles one of the most successful in the history of the games, it was a shining moment for L.A. and Southern California. It had many storylines, including one of celebratory athletes and unmatched camaraderie among the U.S. swim team (gold medalists); joyous celebrations; free-flowing freeways; cleaner than imagined air and cooperative, peaceful fans all enjoying a nearly crime-free two-week event.

I believe the tone was set during the torch relay.
Southern Californians of all ilk came out of their homes to cheer on total strangers holding gold-plated torches burning a kerosene flames.

In Garden Grove, I watched a handicapped runner carry the torch his assigned mile to the cheers of well-wishers lined up three rows deep. Then, I witnessed something that melted my heart: The crowd spontaneously hoisted that young man on its shoulders and carried him several hundred more yards. I remember the ear-to-ear grin from his proud father. I have never forgotten that day, not even 24 years later.
I only wish I had kept the article. A search of the OC Register archives was fruitless. I don’t even remember the runner’s name.

But the event touched me deeply. So deeply, that I broke a journalism cardinal rule: I helped the competition. Let me explain.

The next day, the torch was in Newport Beach/Irvine and my wife, Karen E. Klein, was covering it for our rival, the Orange Coast Daily Pilot. I got up at the crack of dawn with her thinking I’d be a spectator. I stationed myself along the other end of Von Karmen, one of the sterile boulevards that criss-crossed the planned community of Irvine. Again, like magic, the people came out to cheer the runners and I was swept up, taking quotes and recording history, as they waved American and Olympic flags in a show of unity.

I have never seen that many people in the streets of Newport Beach or Irvine since. I have never witnessed a sporting event with such pure excitement like the torch relay of 1984.

There were no protesters. No police in riot gear. No conflict, really. Unlike today, when the torch relay for this summer’s Olympics in Beijing was marred by riots in Paris and London. And earlier this week, in San Francisco, where anti-China demonstrators had lined the Embarcadero Wednesday morning. The mayor changed the route at the last minute and the relay proceeded nearly without spectators.

The wife of local torch runner Eric Burke was kept in the dark and missed her husband’s historic run. The Pasadenan was chosen for his work with “at-risk” students.

He enjoyed the experience, he told Staff Writer Kevin Felt, even though a few protesters threw water balloons in an attempt to extinguish the flame.

I am embarrassed for those torch runners, who were trying to unite the world and run for an ideal. I am all for protests, only this was the wrong venue.

I guess back in 1984, my news story did not change the world, not like Watergate or Iran-Contra. But it changed me. It taught me to be on the lookout for the American spirit — it can surprise you. I only hope that now, in a much more cynical world, there are pleasant surprises left.