Opinion

Believe it or not, it’s time once again to talk about influenza. The typical flu season in the United States begins after Labor Day, and can extend into the early spring of the following year. Our best defense has always been, and continues to...

To the Editor: The first time I experienced the highly skilled and professional services of the Mee Memorial Hospital Emergency Department, it was all my fault. I had dumped my motorcycle out on Oasis Road and literally left my Shakespearean “pound of flesh” on the roadway. Battered and...

My friend from Salinas works for Monterey County and is a proverbial animal nut like me. She contacted me one day and told me that her husband had been working out on Metz Road and the residents there had told him about a stray...

Aahhhh February! This has to be one of my favorite months. For a month that only has 28 or 29 days, there are a lot of days that we celebrate this month. Of course, we have Valentine’s Day. This is the day Saint Valentinus...

By my reckoning 140 years, give or take, of my family’s timeline was spent in prisons; the years accumulated by my parents, a brother and his wife, a niece and myself. And it seems the family occupation within the California Department of Corrections (CDC;...

Before I get into the bits and pieces of today’s column, let me offer a mea culpa regarding some misinformation in last week’s column. I stated that KCHS Class of 1972 has their 50th class reunion scheduled for the same date as the Classes...

As a last look at this year’s storms, I mention that social media users have leveled harsh criticism toward the many people who either blatantly disregarded signs or misjudged flood conditions that required rescue operations; some of these incidents resulted in death. To such...

The following were subjects for full columns, columns I now know will, to use an archaic adage, never see the light of day. The research of these subjects runs to dozens if not scores of hours and each would use up the 1,000-word limit;...

For members of previous generations, a “wakeup call” meant having a hotel employee ring their room at a certain time to rouse them from bed. Today the term is used when we’ve been doing something self destructive for some time (perhaps without realizing it)...

This is confession time. We columnists sometimes have difficulties coming up with an article that will be enjoyed by you, the reader. Something on the page that peaks your interest. Or something about the guys that are supposed to be running our country, about...