There is no doubt that the weather we have had this year has been weird, culminating in rare June rain. Can we attribute these record highs and lows, droughts and floods to a newly unstable climate? Might that be because a century of greenhouse gas emissions has trapped solar heat, magnified the shifts of the […]
Letters To The Editor
Posted inOpinion
The Supreme Court needs ethics police
The recent news about Clarence Thomas’ financial entanglements with GOP megadonor Harlan Crow should be alarming to every American. This is what happens when the highest court in the land is given free rein to police itself. Clarence Thomas isn’t the first justice to engage in unethical behavior. And if Congress continues to ignore the […]
Posted inOpinion
My memories of the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area
This month the court will decide if the California Coastal Commission has the right to ban driving on the Oceano beach and dunes. I raised my son in Oceano, and I have no memories of us on the Oceano beach because we never went there: I didn’t want to risk our lives dodging cars, trucks, […]
Posted inOpinion
What’s really behind the Richards Ranch annexation proposal?
I wonder if we have been asking the wrong questions regarding Richards Ranch LLC and its application to annex county key site 26 into the city of Santa Maria. The two questions we might consider: 1) Who are the members of the Richards Ranch LLC, and 2) What is their goal? Over a year ago, […]
Posted inOpinion
Thank you, Pioneer Valley FFA!
I would like to extend my heartfelt appreciation to the Pioneer Valley Future Farmers of America (FFA) for their invaluable support during the opening reception of the Los Alamos Flea. The involvement of three exceptional high school students, Crystal Ortiz, Andrea Cuevas, and Abigail Velasquez, along with their teacher, Tyler Dickinson, made a remarkable impact […]
Posted inOpinion
Protect accountability
Accountability is an ideal that is severely missing in our country today. People need to be accountable for their actions, especially when it’s about the responsibility of government to serve the people. If you believe that government owes a higher duty of accountability to taxpayers, then you will share my opposition to a recently proposed […]
Posted inOpinion
Leaders need to do more
Where is our FDR? With exception to the 22nd Amendment, where is a president so popular he or she will be reelected to the office of the president three times for a total of four terms? Where is public employment for the masses? Is the contempt for the average American by our elected leaders so […]
Posted inOpinion
Hold the Supreme Court to higher standards
Americans are losing faith in our Supreme Court, and it’s easy to see why. The nine justices on the Supreme Court are the only federal judges not bound by a code of ethics. It’s up to the justices to self-police on ethical issues, and they want to keep it that way. That’s why nothing happened […]
Posted inOpinion
Renewable energy isn’t as easy as you might think
Renewable energy is a good idea but not the total answer to energy and climate concerns. Renewable energy is intermittent, unreliable. This cannot be argued. There are so many details that have to be considered to have what so many think is the answer to so many power problems. There are so many facets to […]
Posted inOpinion
Fish farming is terrible for all
People who care about animals, the environment, and California waterways don’t want offshore fish farming (“A safe seafood supply?” May 4). The cramped, unsafe facilities used within the farmed-fish industry promote the spread of parasites and disease and kill fish—who feel pain, as all animals do—in horrible ways, including by suffocating them or piercing their […]
Posted inOpinion
Exxon’s corroded pipeline
Exxon’s asking Santa Barbara County to allow it to reopen a 123-mile-long pipeline that caused the 142,000-gallon Refugio spill in 2015. The pipe is more than 30 years old, is eight years older now than when it caused that great destruction, and has not been fully inspected and repaired in all this time. Rather than […]
Posted inOpinion
Seek the truth and stand up for it
It’s not about red versus blue, but what do we value? What do we honor? What’s best for our families, for our descendants, for our friends and neighbors, for the freedom our forefathers did their best to create and preserve. For all those who gave their lives in battle fighting for freedom. Politics has become […]