Opinion

This year, the Monterey County Needs Assessment Collaborative, a partnership of Monterey County hospitals, health organizations and community agencies, completed a Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) to determine the healthcare needs of residents. The 2025 findings identify diabetes as a persistent health issue in Monterey...

To be honest, I had to sit down and figure out how long ago I moved my family to Gonzales. I’m not going to guess, as I know it has been at least 30 years or more. I loved this town as soon as...

“I want that body!” I said to the husband. We were watching the Olympic Swim Trials. Broad shoulders, muscles, I love it! It’s that time of year when people are stripping down, displaying their body-beautiful to the world, heading to the ocean or a...

When I came to Gonzales, it was a wonderful little town built around the splitting of Highway 101 and closing off development to the south. Almost every citizen knew each other, and businesses that had been thriving for years on Highway 101 began to...

I love living in the Salinas Valley. I have always loved this part of the state. Oh sure there is the wind, but that you have to have something to dust while cleaning house. I will say that you really never, as our early...

“Who is at the door?” I asked my wife as I rolled over stretching my arms above my head. Lorraine responded,  “Did you forget that Gordon is coming over to help you with the truck?” I sat up and rubbed my eyes. I couldn’t...

You know I like to start off with a nice story about someone local or something good that has happened here in Gonzales or South County. I can’t do that this week because of some reprobates that don’t understand that firecrackers and cherry bombs...

It’s 3:17 a.m. early Wednesday morning, nine hours before deadline for this column and I haven’t 1,000 cohesive words anywhere in my head: not a scintilla of theme. This is not often the case when offering this column on a weekly basis (or is...

Something just crept up inside my tiny brain and said, “Oh, you have vacation coming up next month with a lot of moving parts. Maybe you should check on some of those pieces?” I do listen these days when the female intuition kicks in,...

The approval of a plan by the California Redistricting Commission, which includes splitting Jimmy Panetta’s 20th Congressional District into two congressional, assembly and state senate entities, has failed communities across California with its inherent refusal to recognize the unique identities of the districts involved....