Opinion

Our state and local housing crisis can be measured in many ways: From the more than $70,000 one has to earn to afford the rent of a two-bedroom apartment locally to our state’s 78,000 unsheltered homeless (nearly half of the nation’s total), to county med

The importance of the youth vote in 2020 Attention young people: Baby Boomers (born between 1946-1964) and Millenials (ages 18-35) both represent nearly one-third of the potential voting populace apiece. In 2016, people 65 years and older voted at a 71 percent rate. Millennials voted...

One of the most significant actions the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors took during our recent budget cycle was to authorize the purchase of a new South County Service Center. This purchase will create a second County government building that would provide Mid-...

The irony of Pajaro evacuations On Sunday I had the opportunity to attend a press conference about the evacuation of people near the Pajaro River in the community of Pajaro. I was struck by the irony of the situation.  In December the Monterey County Board of...

There’s an old attorney’s adage that states: “If you have the law on your side, argue the law; if you have the facts, argue the facts; if you have neither, pound the table.” The highly misleading TV editorial by KSBW’s conservative station manager JW Heston, that aired during MLK weekend, is his pounding on the table, but with words I never said.

Naloxone can save lives A billboard will be unveiled in Watsonville presenting how Naloxone can easily save and reverse an opioid overdose.  True convenience arrives as soon as anyone views the value and significance of this tool. It has the power to save a life. Why...

MEMO FROM REV. SHINSEKI “There are causes for all human suffering, and  there is a way by which they may be ended, because everything in the world is the result of a vast concurrence of causes and conditions, and  everything disappears as these causes and...

Compiled by Steve Bankhead 25 years ago on  Feb. 23, 1996 A 13-member delegation from Watsonville’s sister city Kawakami, Japan began a whirlwind tour here of our lettuce industry. The lettuce industry began in Japan during the U.S. occupation after World War II when a mess...

Memo from Pastor Rene: There they were, side by side, helping to feed evacuees in our church parking lot last week: A true red-state conservative and a deep blue Democrat. I knew this about the two men from previous conversations, but as I watched them...