It's not like the Novato Advance of old days which was truly filled with local information about Novato. Now, for the most part, it's nothing but ads. Sometimes it's only four pages long. The editor/owner's opinions many times contain inaccurate and biased information. About 4 years ago it just appeared on our driveway for free. That lasted about 2 years, then, like a miracle, it disappeared. During that same time it was further downsized as the name Novato Advance was removed and it was given the generic name of Marinscope to cover all of Marin, which it was basically already doing. Let me ask you. Is this any way to run a newspaper? I think not. read more

I just read "The Berkeley Barb and the Trump raid" commentary by Sherman R. Fredrick in this week's Marinscope newspaper. I was very surprised of how he underestimated (and actually made light of) the impact of classified documents - especially the top-secret documents - that quite possibly dealt with international intelligence involving hidden operatives and nuclear secrets. Is he saying that he actually trusts this guy in keeping this national security information under wraps with his track record in this regard? The FBI "raid' was done out of necessity because Trump had taken possession of them illegally, stalled for over a year, and then wouldn't co-operate fully with giving these many documents to the National Archives where they legally belonged. He lied to the FBI that he had given them all of the documents and actually had about twice as many that he had secretly detained. The actual search was done without the agents wearing the usual "FBI" jackets and was not announced publicly by the FBI (it was Trump himself). The subsequent information that has been made public was planned to be kept secret as part of an on-going investigation until both Trump filed legal requests to get more details. Fredrick stated that, as far as Trump possibly having "declassified" these many documents, "well have to see about that". Seriously? From what has been indicated, many of these documents were so sensitive that the agents who handled them didn't have the clearance to inspect them and they certainly couldn't be declassified without thorough review. Besides, if they were all properly "declassified", they all would be available to the public. This dangerous mishandling of top secret documents by the former president has already cause irreparable harm. There has to be an assumption by the CIA that it is quite possible that many of these national secrets got into the hands of our foreign adversaries. If field intelligence operatives have to be pulled (or are assassinated), it could greatly disrupt both our nation's investigative methods and the accuracy of current national security knowledge. ~ Duane Van Dieman, Mill Valley read more

These newspapers are hyper-local. They include the Novato Advance, the San Rafael News Pointer, the Ross Valley Reporter, the Mill Valley Herald, the Twin Cities Times and the Sausalito Marin Scope. You can see the Novato Advance online at https://novatoadvance-ca.newsmemory.com/. It's free for now, but it gives you an idea of what these newspapers are like. Published every Wednesday. Full Disclosure: I am the editor and publisher. read more

Glad that Ross Valley Reporter has resumed driveway delivery in my Fairfax neighborhood. I hope that's true for other communities. Perhaps that wider readership will attract some advertisers and support more content. The paper is very slim for now. I'm rooting for their success. read more