Opinion

In 1986 I worked for California’s Employment Development Department, where I processed amnesty seekers under President Ronald Reagan’s landmark immigration reform law called Immigration and Control Act (IRCA). The Watsonville office reviewed documents proving that applicants had worked in the local farming economy for...

When I began my newsie career in 1991, the newspaper had a circulation of about 25,000 on Saturdays and slightly less during the week. Circulation was therefore a key department as well, because the well-oiled machine of putting the paper out was really no...

It all started about three weeks ago with a stiffening of the neck that while a minor bother for a few days to within a few hours the pain became severe enough that I could not swivel my head side-to-side more than a few...

The good and bad aspects of choosing a title line (see above) for a column is once up there, the writer is bound to it throughout the piece. If the writer adheres to the subject of the title throughout all is well, but if...

December is here and we are all getting ready for the holidays. Whether you celebrate the Winter Solstice, Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwanza the library has something for you. 1) Our Winter Reading Club starts on Dec. 1, 2025, and runs through Jan. 31, 2026. Reading...

The perfect day was on order for the chosen celebration of life of our very own valley girl. Blissful sunlight through the oaks on River Road was on the menu, as was some delightful company. I arrived on top of some very ripe vines...

We’ll get to the title of this week’s column, kinda, but first I offer up mention of a television program both to conjure a memory in the likeminded and to inform a younger readership; if one exists. When I was a kid laying on a...

“No doubt the universe will unfold as it should,” I tell my husband (sort of citing my favorite poem “Desiderata”). This was after we returned home from our neighbor’s place up the hill. Most times you go to neighboring homes and receive tomatoes or...

To the Editor: Today is Ash Wednesday, the day Christians are reminded they will return to the dust from which their sacred teachings say they come. Those teachings also tell them to do justice and let the oppressed go free. “You shall be called the repairer...

I have given myself over to the theory that the Feds have in the interest of brevity or clarity or something meddled in our affairs regarding the city’s street names. This theory is based upon both the musings of a knowledgeable citizen and a...