Opinion

By Jimmy Dutra, Watsonville Mayor The holidays are typically the happiest time of the year. However, this has not been a typical year. Our businesses have taken a financial hit. Food insecurity is at an all-time high. Stimulus checks are not cutting it. Restless nights...

June 14 is a significant date in our country's history. On June 14, 1777, the Second Continental Congress adopted the United States Flag Act resolution. This resolution stipulated that the official American flag should have 13 stripes, alternating between red and white, 13 stars to...

Editor's note: This column was submitted in December and should have run earlier in January. As we enter the new year, I’m reflecting on our achievements in 2024—progress made possible through collaboration with community members, colleagues, county staff, and you. Together, we’ve worked to ensure Santa...

I live between a stop sign and a speed bump. There’s an official city traffic sign posted standing at the edge of my front yard: “Speed Bump, 15 mph.” No one does that.

In U.S. cities just prior to the automobile revolution, there was plenty of social inequality, but a lot more equality of mobility than we have now.

About 2,500 years ago the young prince Siddartha Gautama became what is known as the Buddha. Soon after his Enlightenment the Buddha shared with his fellow seekers what is known as the Four Noble Truths. The first of these truths is “Life is Dukkha.”...

All around the world this weekend, Christians are celebrating Good Friday and Easter.  Good Friday is sorrow remembered. Easter is joy experienced.  Several years ago while travelling through Israel I had a chance to go inside a first-century tomb that had been discovered when road crews...

Name change decision defies wishes of majority I read with regret Todd Guild's article in your Nov. 18 edition, “Cabrillo College trustees vote for name change.” According to the article, 76% of our community did not want to change the name of our excellent community...

By DENNIS OSMER ​​Dirty tricks. In the case of the Fair Board President and the State Department of Food and Agriculture, this is the best that can be offered to us in Santa Cruz County. The defamation and dismissal of David Kegebein, CEO of the...