Opinion

It is 3 a.m., this column will run Feb. 1, one week from this morning. According to statistics from 2020, by that date 868 people in the United States will have died from gun violence. Now that you see where this is heading, you...

To the Editor: Last week I wrote a guest column on the Western Flyer, the legendary boat that took John Steinbeck and Doc Ricketts to the sea of Cortez in 1940. A reader pointed out it wasn’t all about community, that Carol Steinbeck helped a great...

The agricultural stretch of California’s Central Coast along the Salinas Valley is often called the “Salad Bowl of the World,” and for good reason. It supplies over 60% of the nation’s lettuce and substantial portions of strawberries, spinach and broccoli. But beyond the fertile...

A few weeks ago I asked you, dear readers, about your first memory. I wanted to know who might be reading my words and allow me to know how you might have grown up. No name, no address or anything really that you don’t...

If someone had told me in 1977 that King City would look like it does today, I would have found that unbelievable. But indeed in 48 years I have witnessed in King City an amazing transformation, and I have to say that I am...

Ever since my sister passed, my daughter and I have been wont to follow her lead and give each other experiences instead of merchandise for special occasions. I was so delighted when the kid gave me concert tickets for Christmas. I love concerts, I...

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...

If I were to offer up a descriptive sentence regarding the city’s newly upgraded main thoroughfare, it would be peppered with adjectives leading to superlatives and culminating with comparatives; i.e. “Like the revitalization seen in Old Town in Salinas, the City of King is...

I cannot recall the first time I learned about The Great Depression of my parent’s generation, but I do remember their stories of that time in American history. As early as elementary school we watched period newsreels depicting unemployed workers in soup kitchen lines,...