Letters To The Editor

Some of us in the coming weeks will experience something not unlike Neil Armstrong’s “one small step for man …” moment. We will decide to test the unknown. Not all of us will be that apprehensive because we suspect that this new virus entered California last December. I know I had the flu between Christmas […]

A cartoon can be ironic or satirical. But when it preaches at us, and lies at the same time, it fails miserably. Take the Mayfield cartoon of April 2. Referring to the recent congressional bailout bill that gave tens of millions of dollars to the middle class, working class, and the poor, and well over […]

Over the years there have been holiday periods with many thousands of vehicles disturbing the dune crust at the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area. On those high-usage days, unless there was wind, there was no plume of air pollution. But the next time the wind blew, the dust went into the air and dangerous […]

The worldwide coronavirus pandemic is serious business. Every responsible citizen ought to inform themselves about that seriousness and do everything possible to protect themselves and others. That being said, I fear that our country is falling into a trap out of which it may never recover. That trap is the addiction to negativity and fear. […]

U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes of the Fresno district is one of the GOP’s top leaders in the House and is regrettably a Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, graduate. He thinks it is more dangerous for people to shelter at home from the coronavirus than be exposed to the virus itself. He has also encouraged Americans […]

The outbreak of COVID-19 has caused me, my family, friends, neighbors, and countless American citizens to lose our jobs and our livelihood. Hopefully with aid from the federal government we can pay our bills and buy food and necessities. This is help we earned and deserve because we paid taxes and are law-abiding American citizens. […]

For those of us who have been opposing the three proposed Cat Canyon oil projects, the announcement that PetroRock has withdrawn its application to drill 231 wells between Sisquoc and Orcutt is welcome news. Meanwhile, the fight continues against the two other Cat Canyon projects. Aera and TerraCore’s projects will add nearly 500 new wells, […]

I was a local teenager during the 1980s AIDS health crisis. I do not remember being told that there were too few condoms on the market so we should give all the condoms to the health care professionals! Of course there is a difference between the AIDS virus and COVID-19 virus. The comparison is far-fetched. […]

Wednesday, April 1, 2020—more than 1,000 Americans died from coronavirus. That number doubles the previous one-day high of 504 from the pandemic, set one day previous. Total U.S. deaths from COVID-19 by one count are now at 5,116. News accounts include state governors and hospital officials across the nation continuing to plead for protective gear […]

On March 16, Gov. Newsom issued an executive order directing local governments to halt evictions for renters and homeowners, slow foreclosures, and protect against utility shutoffs for Californians affected by COVID-19.  It would have been appropriate for the Santa Maria City Council to take up the issue on Tuesday, March 17, and move to meet […]

Let’s say you have a koi pond with 100 fish, and one day you go out and you find one of the fish belly up. You test it and find out it died of a viral infection. At that point you have a 1 percent fatality rate. If there were 1,000 fish and that was […]

On March 15, 2020, the Santa Maria Times published a column by Andy Caldwell who deliberately understated the effect of COVID-19 virus on the American public. The Republican candidate for the 24th Congressional District followed a long list of conservative lawmakers who have been gaslighting the public for weeks regarding the novel coronavirus. It started […]