Congressman Panetta announces farmworker aid
ROYAL OAKS—Congressman Jimmy Panetta was on the Central Coast Thursday, touting two pandemic assistance programs he helped pass that will benefit agriculture workers and the industries that employ them.
The Pandemic Response and Safety (PRS) Grant Program will provide $650 million in grants to food...
Open Farm Tours to return this weekend
PAJARO VALLEY—Open Farm Tours returns this Saturday and Sunday to the greater Pajaro Valley, with eight local farms participating in two days of events.
Originally started in 2014 as the Corralitos Open Farm Tour, the event has continued to grow and add more farms from...
The responsibilities of serving on a school board
We usually discuss issues occurring within the district. However, for this month’s column, we decided to take a different approach and shed some light on our roles as trustees and the process of decision-making. What is it like to take on a publicly elected...
When you’re tired of hoping
“I’m tired of hoping.”
That sentence, spoken to me by a member of our congregation last week, summarizes the mood of many.
Tired of hoping.
Tired of waiting, tired of trying, tired of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel grow dimmer. At the start...
Letters to the Editor, Sept. 24
Ethic studies bill is discriminatory
On Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk is the ethnic studies bill. I must note that he doesn’t need to sign it. Surprise? The California State Board of Education already approved, in 2016, the Around the Horn & Inland Waterways content for...
How did we lose our sense of living here on Earth?
We are living in an unprecedented time of change and upheaval. Every night when I turn on the evening news, you would think the world is going to hell in a handbasket. In the backdrop of global pandemic that is not abating, wildfires are...
Lakeside Organic Gardens celebrates 25 years
When Dick Peixoto decided in 1996 to convert his 55-acre farm in Watsonville to an organic production, he wasn’t sure if he’d made the right decision.
Peixoto had been farming conventionally for years, and back then, organic produce was a specialty—something only smaller farms tended...
Changing course
We are all lifelong learners committed to growing and understanding more about our world. Humanity’s great strength is in its ability to adapt. A little over a year ago, the Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees decided to end our contracts with...
Letters to the Editor, Sept. 17
SRO reversal is disappointing
We are upset, but not surprised, to hear that the Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees has voted to bring School Resource Officers (SROs) back to campus A pilot program using education money, funding that was meant to go...
Is there no balm in Gilead … or anywhere?
Looking over the suffering of his people, the prophet Jeremiah cries out in grief and dismay, "Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?” (Jeremiah 8:22) That is, is there no comfort for the suffering? Is there no relief for the...
Reinstate Barrios Unidos at Pajaro Valley High School!
A month and a half ago, Principal Todd Wilson of Pajaro Valley High School decided against renewing a contract with Barrios Unidos, a grassroots...