Opinion

I doubt anyone would choose “She regretted not spending more time on Facebook” as an epitaph, or would want their obituary to say they cherished the time spent on their cell phone with family and friends. So why do so many of us, particularly those younger than 40 years old, devote so much time to […]

Is the phone ringing off the hook at Santa Maria Area Transit (SMAT) (928-5624)? It should be. The new bus routes and schedules, which were introduced on June 19, are hardly a bus rider’s dream come true. I returned after being out of town for three weeks to find that my beloved Santa Maria Area […]

Desperate times are dangerous times, especially when the Legislature and governor grasp for quick fixes. A case in point is the new state budget, which aims to eliminate redevelopment agencies in California, thereby taking away even more local revenue in an attempt to fix California’s chronic budget problems against the will of the people. This […]

The con job goes on. Throughout the Cold War, the CIA and our government consciously misrepresented the military prowess of the Soviet Union, exaggerating their military strength. They did this, of course, to justify a continuation of our obscene military budgets, to continue to feed the fat-and-sassy corporate culture that fed off the military budget. […]

Good riddance to redevelopment districts, thanks to our new governor and the Legislature, who justifiably eliminated them to end an enormous drain on public resources, despite howls from municipal bureaucrats throughout the state. The Los Angeles Times recently reported that annually more than $5 billion of redevelopment money in California was not used for redevelopment […]