The Marin Independent Journal is the main newspaper of Marin County, California. The paper is owned by California Newspapers Partnership which is in turn mostly owned by MediaNews Group.

The Independent Journal was formed from the merger of the Marin Journal and the San Rafael Daily Independent in 1948. The weekly Journal, one of the state's oldest newspapers, had been established in 1861 as the Marin County Journal. The Journal was published in San Rafael on Saturdays by Jerome A. Barney. The Independent had been started by Harry Granice in 1900 as the weekly San Rafael Independent, which became a daily by 1903 under the management of his daughter, Celeste Granice Murphy. The merged paper was originally called the San Rafael Independent-Journal.

Gannett acquired the paper from the Brown family in 1980. MediaNews Group acquired the paper from Gannett in 2000.

In 2002, former President George H. W. Bush described "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh as "some misguided Marin county hot-tubber". His comment prompted criticism among readers of the Marin Independent Journal, until Bush sent the paper a letter of apology:

Nels Johnson was a clockmaker in Manistee, Michigan, United States. He was the manufacturer of Century tower clocks, clocks designed to last 100 years!

Johnson was born in Nordrup (near Skaftelev in Slagelse Municipality on the island of Zealand), Denmark, about 50 miles from Copenhagen on November 26, 1838. Indications are that his second name in Denmark was Johansen and he anglicized his name to Johnson after his arrival in America. It is unknown if his names are derivatives of his parent's names. He was the oldest child of a poor family and had five siblings.

When Johnson was seven years old, he was kicked out of the family since his parents could no longer support a large family. Johnson had to support himself by working for other farmers, caring for sheep, geese, and cattle. He wore wooden shoes in the winter and was barefoot in the summer months. Johnson, like many other young boys, wanted to become an organ grinder with a monkey. He also wanted to travel with a circus or to be a bugler or drummer boy in the army or to see the world as a sailor. His parents wanted him to become a shoemaker. Ultimately, he decided to become a blacksmith.

Sir Francis Drake, Vice Admiral (1540 – 27 January 1596) was an English sea captain, privateer, navigator, slaver, and politician of the Elizabethan era. Elizabeth I of England awarded Drake a knighthood in 1581. He was second-in-command of the English fleet against the Spanish Armada in 1588. He also carried out the second circumnavigation of the world, from 1577 to 1580. He died of dysentery in January 1596 after unsuccessfully attacking San Juan, Puerto Rico.

His exploits were legendary, making him a hero to the English but a pirate to the Spaniards to whom he was known as El Draque, 'Draque' being the Spanish pronunciation of 'Drake'. His name in Latinised form was Franciscus Draco ('Francis the Dragon'). King Philip II was claimed to have offered a reward of 20,000 ducats, about £4,000,000 (US$6.5M) by modern standards, for his life.

Francis Drake was born in Tavistock, Devon, in February or March 1544 at the earliest, when his namesake godfather Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford was but age 17. Although Drake's birth is not formally recorded, it is known that he was born while the Six Articles were in force. "Drake was two and twenty when he obtained the command of the Judith" (1566). This would date his birth to 1544. As with many of Drake's contemporaries, the exact date of his birth is unknown and could be as early as 1535, the 1540 date being extrapolated from two portraits: one a miniature painted by Nicholas Hilliard in 1581 when he was allegedly 42, the other painted in 1594 when he was said to be 53.

Guide Dogs for the Blind is a guide dog school located in the United States, with campuses in San Rafael, California, and Boring, Oregon. It was founded in 1942 to help veterans who had been blinded in World War II.

Guide Dogs for the Blind was the first guide dog training school on the West Coast. Its creation was a dream shared by Lois Merrihew and Don Donaldson, who recognized the need to help wounded servicemen who would return from World War II without their sight. They believed in the potential of dogs to serve as guides for the blind. A German Shepherd named Blondie was one of the first dogs trained; she was paired with Sgt. Leonard Foulk, the first serviceman to graduate from the new school.

In 1947, Guide Dogs moved to its present location in San Rafael, California, about 20 miles north of San Francisco. In order to meet the increasing demands for services, the school opened a second campus in Boring, Oregon in 1995.

Originally German Shepherds were used as guides, but these are being phased out and the last German Shepherd "graduated" along with its visually impaired handler in November 2009. New dogs are primarily Labrador Retrievers (only black and yellow, chocolate labs are very rare due to the fact that they are genetically prone to health and behavior problems. Two chocolate labs are currently being raised, Snickers and Sweety) Golden Retrievers and Labrador/Golden Retriever crossbreeds.

Robert Sterling, born William Sterling Hart (November 13, 1917 – May 30, 2006) was an American film and television actor.

The son of a garbage man, Bill Hart, he was born in New Castle, Pennsylvania, 50 miles (80 km) northwest of Pittsburgh. He attended the University of Pittsburgh and worked as a clothing salesman before pursuing an acting career.

After signing with Columbia Pictures in 1939, he changed his name to Robert Sterling to avoid confusion with silent western star William S. Hart. His name was legally changed while he was a 2nd Lt. student officer attending flight training in Marfa, TX in 1943. In 1941, Sterling went to MGM. He worked steadily as a supporting player for several years. After serving in World War II as an Army Air Force flight instructor, he returned to Hollywood, but by the end of the decade, his film career had faltered. He did, however, play the non-singing role of Steve Baker, opposite Ava Gardner as Julie, in the hit MGM 1951 film version of Show Boat.

Sterling reinvigorated his career, first with a club act with wife actress/singer Anne Jeffreys, and then becoming a fixture on television. He was cast in numerous dramatic roles on early television, when networks often televised live dramatic performances.