Opinion

Back in 1980, I spent a couple hours with an American icon, a man whose music struck chords across a wide swath of the nation and at times insinuated itself into the political discussion. He came from a small, rural part of Arkansas, born...

It is never easy to come up with the words for this column; there are so many issues and topics that one can become so overwhelmed trying to find one or two subjects to write about that the end result is writer’s block. Happens...

While making my way through social media the other day, I came across some photos taken by my friends J&J, a mother-son duo, of their day hiking the trails and caves of the Pinnacles National Park, one of the natural showcases of Monterey County....

I landed at London Heathrow Airport, as I have done many times these past 37 years. I checked into my fave airport hotel — the Hilton Garden Airport Hotel at Terminal 2 and relaxed for the rest of the day, culminating in a delicious...

More than three decades ago, Cesar Chavez, founder of the first successful union for farmworkers, predicted a future in which the cities of California would be run by people who looked like him. “History and inevitability are on our side,” he said in one of his best-known...

They say that when you do — or don’t do — something consistently for three weeks, it becomes your new habit. I’ve tried to practice that theory various times in my life, such as a new exercise or diet regime. There is something to...

Some 30-plus years ago I was employed by what was then known as the Greenfield News, we now know it as one of the triune Salinas Valley Tribune editions, which include the once Gonzales Tribune and Soledad Bee. The title Editor included citywide reportorial...

I had to go to South San Francisco on business yesterday. It was really hot while I was up there. Not something I have seen often. Usually there is a breeze off the ocean where my customer has his plant. But it was missing...

As I venture out mornings for a bike ride ‘round some favored routes, it is apparent that the young denizens of the village are headed to their respective campuses as schools are now up and running full tilt boogie. It goes without saying that...

It was one of those defining moments. Near reminiscent of the morning we watched one and then two towers collapse; when we got the news Diana died in a car crash. Not apocalyptic like that, but still shocking and time-defining. The newsflash came across...