Jerry Roberts

THE SAC-TOWN RUNDOWN: Before coming to town to be editor of the once influential Santa Barbara News-Press, Jerry Roberts spent more than 20 years as a reporter and editor at the San Francisco Chronicle and, early on for a short stint, the weekly Bay Guardian. In addition to covering the Moscone assassination, reporting about the Jonestown tragedy, writing a book about Senator Dianne Feinstein, and interviewing three presidents (Carter, Bush the elder, and Clinton), one of Roberts’s main beats was the state government in Sacramento, most notably during the Jerry Brown era, “when he dated Linda Ronstadt and his administration resembled the bar scene from Star Wars,” Roberts remembered. So it’s with tremendous honor that The Independent welcomes Jerry Roberts as our very own Sacramento watchdog, via his printed Capitol Letters column and regularly updated online blog at independent.com/capitol-letters. People all over the Golden State are already turning to Jerry for the Sac-town rundown, so you should too.