Letters To The Editor

Assembly Bill 715 is a well-intended proposal for protection of Jewish schoolchildren. But Jewish students aren’t alone in needing protection. The 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center was a timely reminder that, after the attack, Arabs and Muslims were stereotyped as terrorists and suffered widespread mistreatment. The wars in Iraq […]

Some militarists still claim that the country that has the greatest nuclear arsenal holds the best cards in the game of “mutual destruction.”  “It has kept America and Russia from starting a nuclear war for 60 years,” they say. “Why change the equation?”  They refuse to look at today’s total nuclear landscape and consider alternatives. […]

As the midterm campaign season begins in earnest, it’s a good time to get grounded. When considering which candidate to vote for, remember that an elective office is first and foremost a job. The campaign is the job interview, and every citizen is part of the interview panel.  The questions to ask oneself are: Which […]

What if we could fix more roads, bring home more state and federal transportation dollars, and do it without raising the overall tax burden? The San Luis Obispo Council of Governments (SLOCOG) board and the county Board of Supervisors voted to remove Measure H from the November ballot after consultants concluded it did not have […]

What happened to the good old days when a restaurant employee who served you promptly and accurately was happy to get a 10 percent tip? I’m not sure those days were any better, but I am sure it is not the fault of the minimum-wage worker in front of you who is offering a tip […]

If you’re not concerned about plastics, you should be. Plastic doesn’t return harmlessly to nature. It breaks into ever smaller microplastics and nanoplastics that now appear in our food, water, air, blood, and even human brain tissue. In one major study, people whose carotid-artery plaque contained plastic particles were more likely to suffer a heart […]

There are many concerns about adding another 15 to 20 years to an aging Diablo Canyon nuclear plant operation, which uses radiation to boil seawater to make electricity. Sounds outdated and dangerous.  Last year, Trump signed an order to allow greater radiation exposure to the public ignoring its disproportionate effect on children and women.  Our […]

As public hearings continue regarding the Diablo Canyon Power Plant, San Luis Obispo County residents must confront a terrifying reality. While regulators use rare loopholes to bypass environmental rules for a supposedly brief five-year extension—this is the bait—the truth is a multi-decade push to secure power for a surging tech sector and unpublicized AI data […]

Was Dwight Eisenhower a communist? As a Republican president in 1956, he ran on a platform of expansion of Social Security; federal assistance for construction of hospitals; increased federal aid for medical care of the needy; and the creation of a Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. And an immigration policy that provided a haven […]

At a Senate hearing in June, Marco Rubio claimed that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) operated as “an independent State Department,” working contrary to U.S. interests. Despite Rubio’s previously claiming “no kids were dying under [his] watch,” former leading USAID administrator Atul Gawande told The New Yorker that according to recent studies, approximately […]

It’s finally happened: actual American athletes and American fans singing our National Anthem at the World Cup! From what I’ve observed, in every other country in the world other than the United States, fans sing their anthems with pride and gusto at sporting events! Maybe this might spur our nation’s fans to follow suit!  Rather […]