{"id":252807,"date":"2026-04-05T10:39:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T10:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/252807\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T10:39:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T10:39:11","slug":"a-nonpartisan-california-news-site-draws-worldwide-audience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/252807\/","title":{"rendered":"A nonpartisan California news site draws worldwide audience"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SACRAMENTO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Every morning, Jack Kavanagh<\/a> brews himself a cup of coffee or tea, pads down a short hallway, past the dining room, and turns left into his small home office, where he brings California to the world.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been his routine for decades, through all manner of upheaval<\/a> and events<\/a> \u2014 social, political, natural and man-made.<\/p>\n

Kavanagh, a somewhat-retired former TV newsman, has documented the policy and personalities behind those developments one curated paragraph at a time, complete with links, so others can follow his trail, feel the pulse of the state and take away what they will.<\/p>\n

California: Unbiased and unvarnished.<\/p>\n

What began as a summary for colleagues at a television station in Sacramento has developed a worldwide following, an achievement noteworthy not just for its duration \u2014 Kavanagh\u2019s catalog may be the state\u2019s longest-running news aggregator \u2014 but for all the things his website is not.<\/p>\n

There are no flashy graphics on Rough & Tumble<\/a>. No eyeball-grabbing videos, no partisan commentary or agenda, and none of the edge or snark that greases the gears of the perpetual-political-outrage machine.<\/p>\n

There are just headlines and short summaries, presented as simply and unadorned as the plain-spoken Kavanagh himself. \u201cThe bottom line,\u201d he said, \u201cis trust\u201d \u2014 vouching that an article is credible and worthy of a reader\u2019s time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt all comes down to that. And now, with the age of AI fakes and all the other social media and stuff like that, it\u2019s even more important. It\u2019s even more unique.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kavanagh, 78, is a New Englander by birth and Californian by choice.<\/p>\n

He grew up in Providence, R.I., and by his own account was aimless until his 21st year. One night, in June 1968, Kavanagh watched the small black-and-white television in his bedroom as live coverage of Robert F. Kennedy\u2019s assassination unfolded. Captivated, he knew from that moment on what he wished to do with his life.<\/p>\n

A low-level job at a local radio station led to an on-air position at its TV affiliate, where Kavanagh\u2019s big break came in 1978 when a massive blizzard hammered the Northeast. His marathon coverage garnered national notice and, two years later, an offer to move to a larger market in Milwaukee. He was prepared to go, when another offer came from a TV station out West.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you know many nanoseconds it takes,\u201d Kavanagh asked rhetorically, \u201cto make a decision between Milwaukee, Wisc., and Sacramento, Calif.?\u201d<\/p>\n

Especially after an epic snowstorm or two<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Kavanagh's <\/p>\n

Two Emmys for television reporting adorn Jack Kavanagh\u2019s home office in Sacramento.<\/p>\n

(Sara Nevis\/For The Times)<\/p>\n

Kavanagh had never set foot in the state and part of his steep California learning curve was devouring as many newspapers \u2014 back when they abounded<\/a> \u2014 as he could. He noticed a large stack that sat untouched each day in the newsroom; most of his colleagues, he said, were simply too busy to dive in. So he began typing up a summary of the top headlines and stuffing copies in people\u2019s mailboxes. <\/p>\n

When the internet was still in its infancy<\/a> \u2014 Kavanagh guesses the year was 1994, or so \u2014 he began putting his compendium online, so those working at the station\u2019s Stockton bureau could partake as well.<\/p>\n

There wasn\u2019t much interest. But people in the capital began noticing. Kavanagh\u2019s daily wrap-up developed an audience among political insiders \u2014 lawmakers, lobbyists, legislative staffers \u2014 and then a following that grew to include other reporters and, eventually, readers throughout California and beyond. <\/p>\n

Rough & Tumble \u2014 the name captures the sweat and grit of politics \u2014 has continued without interruption for 30-plus years. In that time, Kavanagh has missed only a few days here and there.<\/p>\n

That includes in 2004, when he underwent quadruple bypass surgery. Another time, when Kavanagh was suffering ulcerative colitis, he brought his laptop and worked from a hospital bed. (The laptop also accompanies Kavanagh and his very indulgent wife of 42 years on their vacations.)<\/p>\n

Kavanagh typically starts each morning scanning dozens of news sites<\/a>. He posts the big headlines of the day. He also looks for trends and stories that connect the dots, which are collected beneath subheads \u2014 AI, water, housing, education and the like.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want it to be a tip sheet for anybody who is in a Fortune 500 company, or who is a kid on a scholarship in a high school somewhere,\u201d Kavanagh said over lunch at a favorite Mexican restaurant. \u201cI want them both to be able to zoom through this and figure out what\u2019s going on and move onto something else.\u201d <\/p>\n

Mindful of his global audience, he updates his site with fresh headlines starting in the late afternoon. (Analytics allow Kavanagh to watch as the world wakes up and readers from as far away as Russia and China, represented by a blue dot, begin showing up on his computer monitor.) In all, he said, he devotes four to five hours a day to his one-man enterprise.<\/p>\n

Rough & Tumble gets about 1.1 million page views a year, Kavanagh said, and while it\u2019s not a huge moneymaker, the business allows him to write off his many subscriptions. A small amount of advertising also helps pay for the occasional trip.<\/p>\n

Years after leaving the television business and a brief career as a media coach, Kavanagh runs the site as a kind of public service and a way to stay engaged and keep mentally fit. He\u2019s still captivated by his adopted home state. \u201cEvery day,\u201d he said, \u201cI learn something new about California that I didn\u2019t know yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kavanagh has no succession plan. He said Rough & Tumble will end the day he does \u2014 or sooner, if artificial intelligence<\/a> renders Kavanagh and his role as host, news-gatherer and California guide obsolete.<\/p>\n

Either way, it will be a loss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SACRAMENTO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Every morning, Jack Kavanagh brews himself a cup of coffee or tea, pads down a short hallway, past…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252808,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1864,7,9,8,217,112218,2667,592,1892,112219,121,225,1383,315,112220,112221,72],"class_list":{"0":"post-252807","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-audience","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-california-headlines","11":"tag-california-news","12":"tag-day","13":"tag-jack-kavanagh","14":"tag-morning","15":"tag-people","16":"tag-reader","17":"tag-rough","18":"tag-sacramento","19":"tag-state","20":"tag-summary","21":"tag-time","22":"tag-tumble","23":"tag-worldwide-following","24":"tag-year"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}