Opinion

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...

Letter to the Editor, Feb. 3, 2018

Let’s set the record straight. There are no confirmed Coronavirus cases in Watsonville and we did not report that absolute falsehood. I can say that with 100 percent certainty.  For those that do not know, someone on the internet was playing a game earlier this...

When people hear “Watsonville Airport,” it often brings to mind moments of resilience and pride—whether it was serving as a crucial lifeline after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, playing a key emergency role during the 2020 CZU fires, or even welcoming a presidential visit...

Thank you, John Laird The Democratic Women’s Club (DWC) of Santa Cruz County thanks State Senator John Laird for his swift action on introducing legislation to save the Watsonville Community Hospital, recently purchased by the Pajaro Valley Healthcare District Project, a consortium of government agencies and...

No trust in the Health Trust The Community Health Trust of the Pajaro Valley was created more than 20 years ago from the proceeds of the sale of the Watsonville Community Hospital to a private corporation. I was a founding member of the Board of...

Three years ago, California did something truly remarkable and forward-looking by approving historic legislation that allocated a record $6 billion to bring equitable and affordable high-speed broadband service to all Californians.  The multi-year investment aimed to close the digital divide by building the largest “Middle...

Renowned 20th-century theologian, Karl Barth, said that one should, “preach with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.” That is to say, what pastors and priests preach ought to be faithful to scripture and applied to our current context. There...

In Santa Cruz County, keeping our communities healthy is a collaborative effort by many health care service providers, and Watsonville Community Hospital is an essential piece of that puzzle. For several months now, Watsonville Community Hospital has been teetering on the verge of closure and...

When a call comes in for a medical emergency, every second counts.  While an ambulance may be on its way from other parts of the county, it is often the Watsonville Fire Department that arrives first. What many people may not know is that every...