Opinion

Respect our leaders  I am a Ph.D. in agriculture and marine research in the Monterey Bay for the past 50 years. I have read about and seen nearly every political regime, agricultural and oceanic issue as it relates to Monterey Bay during those last five...

A local group is calling on the nation’s largest berry grower to cease the use of pesticides on farm fields located near schools. The Campaign for Organic & Regenerative Agriculture (CORA) will hold a press conference and community gathering on May 21 to ask Driscoll’s...

Letters to the Editor, Dec. 14, 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...

Riverside Drive was closed to traffic and two homes were evacuated Wednesday afternoon between Union  Street and Marchant Street after construction crews ruptured a natural gas line. Watsonville Fire officials said the pipeline break was reported at 2:29pm in a section of the road that...

In 1989, the Loma Prieta earthquake significantly damaged a hospital that had served the community of Watsonville for decades. Devastated by the earthquake, the nonprofit Watsonville Community Hospital (WCH) had to be sold to a for-profit corporation. In 2022, it returned to community ownership.  Still,...

Joseph Stalin famously remarked that in an election, “Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything.” While stakeholders in our democratic system insist that our votes count, in reality, given our electoral system, which consistently features two major political parties, in...

On March 7, 2020, I sat with friends and colleagues around a table at the fairgrounds’ Crosetti building for the annual crab feed. As we laughed and ate way too much, I never imagined the next time I’d be at the fairgrounds would be...

One of the basic teachings of the Buddha is the truth of change. This is an undeniable reality that we are all aware of. However, we resist change and cling to the illusion that we are always in control of our lives. When life...