Commentaries

“Eleanor Rigby” came out in 1966, and The Beatles’ plaintive rock anthem has aged well (clearly better than I have). “All the lonely people—where do they all come from? Where do they all belong?”  Evidently they’ve all crossed the Atlantic, because loneliness seems to be a uniquely American problem. Our nation’s top health authorities have […]

When politicians make a mistake, who suffers the consequences? It’s usually tax-paying citizens who pay the price, and in one case it could have a dramatic impact on your health if you need emergency medical transportation. Recently the Board of Supervisors unanimously chose to award a 10-year ambulance services contract to the Santa Barbara County […]

Editor’s note: This commentary originally ran in our sister paper, New Times, on Nov. 2, and we updated the number of casualties on both sides with data from the Associated Press. The tragic spasm of war in Israel and Palestine shocks the senses. Hamas militants launched their vicious attack into Israel on Oct. 7, killing […]

Get ready folks, your trash bills will be growing soon. That doesn’t mean that the service would get any better than it already is, it just means that the cost to your local solid waste utility is going to go up significantly because the state of California will begin requiring the acquisition of fully electric […]

Decades ago, I earned a Ph.D. in political science. Today I’m ready to toss my diploma into the trash.  “Political” and “science” are two words that should no longer be connected. They form an oxymoron, at least in their application to contemporary American governmental processes. U.S. politics are becoming ever more irrational.   Americans in […]

Changing “climate change” that’s been around for the last 4 billion years is a tough job, but in California, which has only been around for 173 years, our politicians think they have the answer. There have been many misfires along the road to saving the Earth. First it was to stop drilling for oil and […]

Oct. 12 was National Farmer’s Day—a day set aside each year to honor the hardworking men and women who’ve dedicated their lives to feeding a nation. Did you even know about this event, or did it get lost in the clutter of “special days” on our calendars each year. North County has a very large […]

The community of Lompoc is advancing a set of initiatives to provide new and motivating opportunities for its young people so they can navigate and thrive in the world beyond high school. This focus is critical given sobering national trends that reveal increasing death rates and other deteriorating outcomes among children in the U.S.  National […]

What does a person who is in a decision-making role do when having to “approve” something that their principles won’t allow them to vote “yes” on? Well, I can only speak for myself on this issue. I was part of the Lompoc City Planning Commission for several years. After a hiatus I was reappointed, and […]

Ten years ago, when the Sierra Club joined with marine sanctuary advocates in advocating for the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary, we were all very clear: There is a “doughnut hole” in California’s marine sanctuaries.  The Channel Islands sanctuary covers that environmental gem off the Santa Barbara Channel; the Monterey Bay sanctuary reaches down to […]

For many years I was a Planning Commissioner, and during several hearings nonprofits or the Santa Barbara County Housing Authority said that Lompoc needed more low-income housing. The state and federal government have been trying to “fix” the affordable housing problem since the early 1960s when they started creating large high-density apartment buildings and crammed […]