ED CONNOLLY
Posted inNews

Look into Laura’s Law

A California law would help parents arrange help for their seriously mentally ill adult children who refuse treatment
by ED CONNOLLY

Imagine circumstances force you to again live with your parents, to return to your childhood home: You lost your job, were evicted; your friendships have unraveled; the world seems hostile. Instead of understanding your plight, your father and even your mother insist your behavior caused these problems, you are to blame, you aren’t thinking clearly, […]

Posted inOpinion

Honor immigrants, celebrate diversity

I am inspired and humbled to glimpse how some recent immigrants from mainland China strive to succeed in a new home very different from their origins
by ED CONNOLLY

I accompanied a Chinese friend to renew her business license at City Hall, where we filled out several forms and were sent to another office a few blocks away to complete more. The clerk at the second office saw my friend’s mailing address is in San Gabriel—not the Santa Maria address of the business—and mentioned […]

Posted inNews

Montebello bill sails through Assembly

by ED CONNOLLY

The California Assembly on June 3 unanimously passed a bill authored by Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee that aims to kickstart an assessment of an underwater threat: the oil tanker Montebello, which sits less than seven miles off the coast of Cambria, just south of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and 900 feet below the ocean […]

Posted inNews

Bookworms, beware

The local library system warns patrons the government secretly snoops
by ED CONNOLLY

Don’t think what you read is your own private business, because it’s not: The FBI, without any judicial review, can take your library records and gag librarians from revealing their visit. At least the Black Gold Cooperative Library System—the consortium of public book lenders throughout San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura counties—gives patrons fair […]

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