Opinion

It is the beginning of a new year and it is time for us to remember how we can help our friends, neighbors, and community through the simple act of giving blood. January has been known as National Blood Donor Month since 1970 because people are busy with their post-holiday schedules, trying to get back into their work and/or school routines, and forget about making time to donate blood.

Both my great-grandfathers immigrated to Watsonville in the 1850s. Not long after they first arrived, they were introduced to one of our region’s greatest threats to lives and livelihoods: flooding from the Pajaro River and its tributaries. Soon after arriving, my great-grandfather Stephano Martinelli,...

Letters to the Editor, Dec. 23, 2017

Recently, the attorney general’s office completed paperwork for an initiative that, if qualified for the 2024 ballot and approved by voters, would require California’s nearly 6 million public school students to take a course in personal finance. The proposal, by an organization called Californians for...

By Felipe Hernandez, Watsonville City Councilman We face a sobering reality.  For those of us who came of age in the 20th century, the existential threat of climate change that we debated theoretically and at great length will be lived by the children being born...

Letter to the Editor, March 8, 2018

By Frank Anderson Most everyone agrees that Santa Cruz County needs to improve its transportation. We’ve all observed large, virtually empty buses, the lack of a safe bike network, and a rail corridor that has sat unused for decades. All the while, thousands of cars...

As a pilot based at Watsonville since 1980, I am shocked at the Watsonville council’s decision to close the crosswind runway. The dissenting four council members (Montesino, Salcido, Quiroz-Carter and Orozco) voted against a compromise that would have retained the cross wind runway AND...

By JIMMY DUTRA We have seen politics hit an all-time low in our community. Behavior that has been more common at the national and state level has arrived in our local politics. It has moved from “what I can do for the people” into “how...