The town's character was changing, becoming the bedroom for an estimated 12,000 to 15,000 people commuting from the county to Silicon Valley jobs. In the past decade, the town's population almost doubled, to 30,000.Īmong the results: Traffic jams, an overwhelmed sewer system and the takeover of orchards and ridgetops by tract homes. The Web sites went up at a time of high tension around growth issues in Hollister, where the pro-development tide of the 1990s has taken a sudden U- turn. To be called a child molester - I cannot think of anything that someone would call me that would upset me more," he said. The false accusation, though, is why he joined the suit. Characteristic of the sites' juvenile humor, they reproduced his column photo, showing Valenzuela flashing his trademark peace sign, and digitally eliminated one finger. But the Web sites, he said, are the worst.
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He's used to death threats and crank calls. Valenzuela takes pride in a lifetime spent tweaking officialdom of all kinds, including, in the past, then-San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein - when Valenzuela ran a bookstore in the Tenderloin - and now in his Pinnacle column, "Thoughts While Not Shaving." "The Web site says we are trying to turn this place into Sodom and Gomorrah." "But the whole underlying theme of the site is anti-gay," dos Remedios said. They didn't know how else to strike out," Cone said. "We were attacked by someone who didn't like our politics, our success at making (growth) an issue. If I even have a sense there's a potential hate crime, I'll have my staff get all over that."Ĭone and dos Remedios agree that they were not attacked because they are lesbians - but the Web sites and a front-page story the Pinnacle ran about its lawsuit exposed their orientation to many readers and advertisers. "That threshold has not been crossed yet," said Sheriff Curtis Hill. Hollister police and the San Benito County sheriff say the Web sites, however offensive, are not criminal.
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They unplug the computers at night, and no longer let anyone work alone in the Pinnacle's shopping mall office.
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Both incidents could have been coincidences, but dos Remedios and Cone are not taking any chances. Since the first of four anti-Pinnacle Web sites went up in October, the women's horses have been let out, and the newspaper's main computer died mysteriously. The attack against us is so completely mean-spirited."Īdded dos Remedios, executive editor: "The worst thing is not knowing who it is and what the risks are." "That's why these Web sites were such a shock to us and to so many people. It's not a mean-spirited place," said Cone, the Pinnacle's publisher. "It's a cool community, an isolated, small ranching community.