Trending Topics
Mushroom Madness 
Fungi can cure or kill, nourish life, and also decompose it back into soil. Fossil evidence for fungi is limited, but the ability to analyze molecular data has led to revelations about the evolution of this extraordinary family of...
Fool’s Gold: The Myth of Tiburcio Vasquez 
“And still of a winter’s night, they say,  when the wind is in the trees, When the moon is a ghostly galleon  tossed upon cloudy seas,    When the road is a ribbon of moonlight  over the purple moor,    A...
Billions in Flight: Migratory Birds 
Autumn doesn’t officially begin until the equinox on September 22, but all across North America birds are already on the wing—billions of them. Migration times and destinations vary based on the species and variables like weather and food sources—some...
One-Room Schoolhouse 
Back to school. A hundred years ago in Topanga, it would have been on foot—and often barefoot—to the little, red, one-room schoolhouse by the creek in the bend of the dirt road.  Public education in California was still relatively...
Editorial

A Wee Bit Coin 

Bitcoin? Real estate tokenization? Nope. This real estate token predates the current craze for blockchain assets by a hundred years. This coin was struck by the promoters of the Sylvia Park Development Company in 1924, and it offered the...
Books & Such

The Last Word 

We have been reminded lately— on more than one occasion—that the protections afforded by the US Constitution’s system of checks and balances are vulnerable to manipulation by bad actors. This is perhaps most threatening when the singular chief executive,...
NewsBeat

Jody Lyle – Superintendent 

The National Park Service (NPS) has selected Jody Lyle as the new permanent superintendent of Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area (SMMNRA) beginning July 28, 2024. Lyle first started working with the NPS in 1992 as an environmental educator...
NewsBeat

Topanga Lagoon Restoration Project 

California State Parks announced that members of the public can review the proposed Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR) for the Topanga Lagoon Restoration Project now through August 13th. The proposed FEIR identifies the range of closely related alternatives considered...