“Her” is his wife of 60-plus years; his rock, his foundation, his compass, his true love who always addressed or referred to him as “Lawrence.” To most he was Larry Burdick. But to the many who knew and appreciated his special gift; especially those in his vast bicycling community which included The Davis Bike Club” he was “The Legend.”
Born and raised in Haileyville , Oklahoma, where he played high school football after graduation he joined the Army. Stationed outside Davis at what was later DQ University he met Delores “Dee” from Knights Landing. They raised two sons on L Street and Dee retired from jobs in food service and Larry from a long career in the Nutrition Dept. at UCD.
Our college town with its rapidly expanding university is crammed full of residents who are well read, published, educated, traveled, heeled and thought of. However, it lays claim to only a few true “Legends.” Newsworthy, famous maybe, but not “Legendary.”
Harvey’s Coffee approaches 200 monthly subscribers, every bag roasted by hand on a machine built in the early 1900s
(From press release) Close to 200 people around the country get their coffee from a backyard in Davis, roasted four bags at a time by a high school senior. Harvey Uyeyama learned on that machine in June 2024, the night his father asked if he wanted to give it a try.
“He had been roasting coffee pretty much my whole life,” Uyeyama said.
His father died of a heart attack on Harvey’s 15th birthday. Two weeks later, the church needed coffee for the funeral service, and Harvey roasted it alone for the first time.
“I’d never roasted coffee fully by myself before, and it was a learning curve. I can’t tell you how many batches I probably ruined that night,” he said. “Everyone who drank the coffee at the funeral was like, ‘this is really, really good coffee. This is too good coffee for a funeral.’ And I was like, huh, maybe that’s a sign.”
Harvey’s Coffee now roasts every Friday and delivers every Saturday across Davis, shipping the rest of the country from the same backyard — New Mexico, Iowa, New York. The business is closing in on 200 monthly subscribers.
From L to R: Ann Ehrlich, Amory Lovins, Dr. Paul Ehrlich, and David Kupfer, having lunch in Palo Alto in 2022
By David Kupfer
The summer of 2026 has witnessed the quiet, heavy closing of an era. With the recent passings of population biologist Paul R. Ehrlich, radical theater pioneer R.G. “Ronny” Davis, and most recently, the visionary agrarian writer Wendell Berry on August 31, we have lost a singular trinity of American defiance. Operating in vastly different arenas—the university laboratory, the public park, and the rural hillside—these three men were bound by a shared, ferocious commitment to shaking humanity out of its industrial complacency. To have known them as friends and mentors over the decades was to witness the rare alchemy of brilliant intellect wedded to an uncompromising moral compass. Now, as the dust settles on their long lives, their final, intimate moments reveal the heavy burden borne by those who dare to speak truth to a civilization bent on its own consumption.
His campaign biography says his father’s health struggles taught him “how critical affordable health care” is to working families (ericjones.us/meet-eric). It says he “built a firm that built businesses.” It lists Lyra Health as a company he helped make “accessible to millions.”
Fair enough. Let’s look at the businesses.
His job was healthcare
Jones joined Dragoneer Investment Group in 2013 and became a partner 4 years later, where he remained until he resigned in July 2025. Not an employee. A partner. His sector title at the firm was “Partner – Healthcare, Fintech, Internet” (RocketReach profile; his LinkedIn will confirm). Healthcare was not a side interest. It was his book.
So the question is simple. When Jones and Dragoneer put money into healthcare, who was the customer?
He called for a national moratorium. He said members of Congress who don’t understand the technology shouldn’t be in the room for these decisions (Patch, Sept. 2, 2026).
Strong stuff. The kind of line that gets applause in a room full of people watching data centers drink their water and eattheir farmland, and farmland all over the country.
Here’s the problem. It’s not what his campaign has been telling voters for months.
Go to ericjones.us right now. His official AI platform page said something very different, until 2 days ago:
It may be more. Might be less. But it’s monthly and this is a raise of after income tax dollars. Most living dwellers, bill payers, are eligible. Those incredibly wealthy, not even slightly cost conscious, a few living off the grid or your neighbor perhaps who has recently invested a large sum in solar panels, lithium battery banks and highly efficient mechanical systems might not be. My target audience for this article is the rest of you.
We live in a meteorological wonderland; this huge valley with its high desert, dry heat climate. Thankful every summer evening for our refreshing delta breeze. And our frost, snow free winters. As I type this about 9 AM it’s bright and still on this late August morning. Outside air temp is 68F and it’s 66F in my living room. Last night’s low was 58F and today’s high is 93F. My predicted indoor high is 78F. Only my laptop, my fridge and the trickle charges (TV and smart speakers) are consuming any electrical energy.
Your pay raise is generated by the cost saving measures you implement to drastically lower your P, G & E monthly devotional, offering, bequest, and irksome payment.
Make It Happen for Yolo County board member Marilyn Stebbins and intern Kegen Wells help a UC Davis Guardian Scholar furnish her apartment this summer. The nonprofit has launched a campaign to sponsor former foster youth studying at UC Davis this fall.
(From press release) Local nonprofit Make It Happen for Yolo County is offering opportunities for the community to sponsor UC Davis Guardian Scholars – students who have experienced foster care – as they move into housing this fall. Sponsorship levels run from $200 to $2,500 and provide essential furniture, household goods, cleaning supplies, bicycles and more to ensure former foster youth studying at UC Davis are not burdened financially, physically or emotionally by furniture poverty as they pursue higher education. The campaign will run through mid-October. Learn more and make a donation: https://www.mihyolo.org/donate-index-impact.
“Having a fully furnished, safe and functional home is a fundamental need for these resilient students,” said Cathi Schmidt, executive director, Make It Happen for Yolo County. “Each community member can choose from a variety of levels to provide a tax-deductible gift this fall that will turn a student’s empty living space into a place of comfort, dignity and belonging as they work toward achieving their degree.”
(From press release) Yesterday, Congressman Mike Thompson participated in a candidate forum with his opponent, Eric Jones, at the Yuba County Government Center in Marysville. The event was hosted by the Yuba Sutter Farm Bureau. Congressman Thompson, himself a small farmer that grows grapes, hay and olives, discussed a variety of issues facing the Yuba Sutter community in front of a crowd of 250 people. Congressman Thompson and Eric Jones debated for 45 minutes about issues facing Yuba and Sutter Counties and our agriculture community.
“I was honored to be invited to participate in a debate by the Yuba Sutter Farm Bureau. I was proud to discuss my record of delivering for our ag community and strengthening our rural economies,” said Congressman Mike Thompson “Right now farmers are hurting with reckless and illegal tariffs and I am proud to have worked with the Administration to deliver $9 million dollars in relief to peach growers hit by the cannery closure and will continue to deliver hundreds of millions of dollars for our district for flood control projects.”
(From press release) The City of Davis Police Accountability Commission invites the community to “Working Together to Protect Our Neighbors” on Thursday, September 10, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. at the Veterans Memorial Center, 203 East 14th Street. Speakers will discuss local law enforcement and federal immigration enforcement, practical family preparedness, and community safety. Live Spanish interpretation will be available.
Jones is “ashamed” of supporting Prop 50 and endorses “sunsetting” of federal programs
By Roberta Millstein
Eric Jones, former partner of the venture capital firm Dragoneer Investment Group, seems to be shifting dramatically rightward in the wake of (or in order to gain?) the endorsement of Republican Ray Riehle, his former opponent in Jones’s attempt to become the congressional representative for California’s District 4. What’s going on here? There are several aspects, so let me unpack.
First, I remind readers that Jones still has financial interests in Dragoneer and that his run for Congress is largely funded by 1) his own money, 2) by maximized direct donations from his former Dragoneer colleagues and other high tech executives, and 3) by a Super PAC that has so far funded only Jones, coming from some of the same sources as the direct donations. Each of these three categories individually amounts to millions of dollars. This is Silicon Valley, venture capitalist, AI/high tech, data-center-favoring money, not money that is looking to benefit citizens. Details can be found here.
As I noted in an earlier article, Jones has sought to present himself as a progressive, implying affiliations with Ro Khanna and Bernie Sanders and touting his endorsement from Our Revolution (removed from two Our Revolution web pages and now mysteriously reappeared). As I document in the same article, that appearance of being a progressive was always misleading, given his donation to a Republican candidate for governor — a member of the Bush family — and support of AI-driven health care, among other things. But his mask seems to be slipping further.
Generally, it is a sign of desperation when a candidate dramatically changes his stripes. Does Jones think he can woo Republican voters? Maybe so — after all, he founded an organization whose specific goal was to figure out what voters want (see previous links). And did Jones craft a new platform to gain Riehle’s endorsement? It’s hard to explain why else Jones would now say:
“I supported Prop 50 as a response to the gerrymandering effort in Texas. But after speaking with thousands of voters at their doors, I am extremely disappointed — ashamed, even — of the way this was carried out in our own state.”
Davisite 