Letters To The Editor

County Planning and Development staff reports supported the drilling of more than 750 new oil wells in Cat Canyon. They proved to be poorly drafted and replete with error. The proposed projects threatened the quality of our drinking water and the water used by growers. The Oct. 1 Huntington Beach oil pipeline accident has underscored […]

The county of Santa Barbara has forced ExxonMobil to propose trucking their oil until they are permitted to reopen their pipeline. The pipeline is the least expensive and safest means of transportation for the oil from Las Flores refinery.  We urge the county to grant their permission for ExxonMobil to proceed for these reasons. They […]

With a sense of helplessness, we watch events in Afghanistan unfold and wildfires rage in this great state. Meanwhile, the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act are strongly beckoning us to repeal the greatest threat to voting rights since Reconstruction. Hundreds of new voting restrictions are being enacted in […]

For a guy who likes to talk a big game about supporting the middle class and advocating for the job force, you sure threw nurses under the bus with your letter to the Health and Human Services asking to wipe out our staffing ratios. Nurses have been working the last 18 months with crushingly high-acuity […]

The Police Department held a public meeting at the Minami Center last Monday evening, Sept. 20. There are signs on both front doors saying that anyone who enters any public building must wear a mask. Everyone in attendance did wear a mask over their nose and mouth, except for Councilperson Etta Waterfield. She sat among […]

Santa Maria High School, and perhaps the city of Santa Maria, will be abandoning its image of Columbus’ flagship, the Santa Maria, as a logo. Duh! Whose idea was it in the first place to adopt that ship as the city’s, and school’s, logo in the first place? I can assure you, it was not […]

The COVID-19 pandemic rages on, and there are still tens of thousands who have yet to get vaccinated, even though the shots are free and readily available. There is no doubt this mindset is prolonging the pandemic. Back in the early ’50s, a polio epidemic swept through this country with a vengeance. I was in […]

When COVID-19 first blanketed our country in early 2020, we were indeed “all in this together.” But, after the development and wide dissemination of three effective vaccines against COVID, we all saw that cases declined. Well, that was until the rapid spread of the Delta variant among the unvaccinated. We now find ourselves in a […]

There’s something wrong with Joe Biden’s thinking. The United States became energy independent under President Trump for the first time in 75 years, and we no longer bought oil from foreign countries. Now Biden is crushing domestic oil and gas production while pressuring OPEC to boost their production so we can buy theirs. We do […]

The Republican party is attempting to overturn democracy yet again, this time in California. Trump allies, conspiracy theorists, and anti-vaxxers are counting on low turnout among Democrats, Independents, and progressives to pull off their scheme to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom with a right-wing Republican. The stakes are high: Our governor has the power to appoint […]

There was a time in this country when people suffering from disease were forbidden the opportunity to try experimental treatments for their malady. President Trump succeeded in getting a “right to try” bill passed because it was his view that, as a human being, your liberty to choose your treatment, experimental though it may be, […]

We in California face a historically deep drought advancing on our state, in addition to the global warming increase that takes our Western U.S. water more every day. Yet, what are politicians fretting about? The plight of our Golden State? Not so much. The governor worries about the recall and where donations will come from […]