I met Bobbo at a Paul Westerberg show back in 2005. I was still reeling from my father’s death. Still grief-stricken, though it was maybe more than six months later.

I had recently started working as the only web editor for the company. Back then it was just Tony Dodero and I as we started up dailypilot.com and the other sites for Times Community News. So I was working long hours. Some pretty late shifts. Needless to say my biological clock felt like a car crash on the 405 — all twisted up and waiting for the ambulance to take you away while rubberneckers gaped. It was in that spirit that I showed up late for the show, not understanding at the time that the House of Blues actually starts rock shows on time. Quite a foreign concept for this old rock critic who has waited hours and hours for shows to start. Anyway, I missed most of it. Afterward it was announced that Westerberg would meet fans after the show — appropriately enough in bizarre fashion the ex-Replacements frontman was meeting fans one at a time.

(READ MORE…)

Being a judge means you’re going to have to make some tough calls. That’s obvious. We ran an editorial this weekend highly critical of Orange County Superior Court Judge Thomas Borris’ plea agreement with Albert Lee Schildknecht (pictured above in his mug shot), the one-time music director at St. Timothy Catholic Church convicted of sexually assaulting a woman when she was 16 years old and living in Costa Mesa.

It was a bad decision in our view and we made our case in the editorial so no need to rehash that. But I have to get something off my chest. I’ve heard from some that there was chatter out there speculating why we didn’t name Judge Borris in our initial report about the plea agreement. I understand some readers might think we were trying to cover for the judge. Nothing could be further from the truth.

(READ MORE…)

When I heard Rep. John Campbell had to have part of his colon snipped I winced like most folks, but let me tell you I may empathize more than some.

For about 10 years, I was misdiagnosed with a peptic ulcer. The real cause was a bacterial infection commonly known as “h. pylori,” a malady that can be basically cleared up with a two-week dose of antibiotics and Prilosec or Prevacid.

(READ MORE…)