Bill Monning, Aug. 5: Purple Heart Day
On July 20, 2017, the California State Senate passed Senate Concurrent Resolution 55 declaring Aug. 7 as Purple Heart Day in California. I am proud to be a coauthor of this resolution that honors Purple Heart recipients and those who serve in the Armed Fo
Sandy Lydon: How Jack London continues to build fires
These chilly nights have kick-started my personal fire-building season. Wood fires are the only source of heat in our home, so a fire in a woodstove is now a daily necessity.
I first learned how to build a fire from my paternal grandmother who lived...
Letter to the Editor, Nov. 7: You’ve got that haunted feeling
Letter to the Editor, Nov. 7, 2017
Guest View: Flooding lessons have not been learned
How quickly we forget. Recent activity centers around the levee system on the Pajaro River. Yet, the first flooding in 2023 was in Watsonville, when the Salsipuedes and Corralitos Creeks overflowed. There are lessons from that flooding that need to be applied to those...
Bill bolstering wildfire protections for farmworkers advances
SACRAMENTO—A bill that would increase protections for California’s farmworkers during hazardous smoky conditions created by seasonal wildfires is making its way through the state legislature.
Assembly Bill 73, also known as the Farmworker Wildfire Smoke Protections Act, recently passed the Assembly Committee on Labor and...
This Week in Pajaro Valley’s Past, Jan. 15
Compiled by Steve Bankhead
25 years ago on Jan. 9, 1996
The city Planning Commission voted 5-2 for approval of the Overlook Shopping Center north of Ramsay Park. It will bring a Target store, Staples, and a major supermarket. Shirley Pyle, owner of the Crestview Shopping...
Letters to the Editor, Dec. 7, 2023
Hospital is a lifeline for Watsonville
I had an array of emotions after reading that the Watsonville Community Hospital got approved for a bond to fund much-needed repairs.
Currently, Watsonville is home to around 51,000 people, and for many, this hospital is all that they have...
Food for power
Three years ago, 18-year-old Cesar Mendoza walked into the El Pajaro CDC Kitchen Incubator with a group of his peers. They were there for a workshop to make vitamin water and to learn how the kitchen ran.
Embrace yourself
“Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind,
had settled on us as the focus of his love,
to be made whole and holy by his love.”
- Ephesians 1:4
This is a Yiddish story of “Mr. Goldberg the Tailor.”
There once lived Mr. Goldberg,...
Jim Barsi—owner of Barsi’s Liquor Store—dies
James Joseph “Jim” Barsi, who ran his eponymous liquor store on East Lake Avenue for a half-century before selling the business and retiring in...





















