Opinion

The holiday season brings excitement, but it can also disrupt our routines and make it easy to let healthy habits slip. With travel, parties and shopping, it’s common for our usual health practices to take a backseat. One of the biggest challenges in December is...

For the past few weeks I have been telling everyone I think cares to hear it that if they want to enjoy the Arroyo Seco River, they needed to do it posthaste, as that particular stream is going to die before the Fourth of...

Joanne's Got It: Column by Joanne Banuelos

I was the co-founder of South County Animal Rescue (SCAR) back in January of 2016. At the time we were filling a large hole in animal rescue services in our area, and, since then, we have done over seven years of incredible work. Sadly, there...

Our first meeting was an interesting one. I had been hired as her boss at the local paper. She took me to see one of her oldest friends and clients. I was told by the customer, in no uncertain terms, that if I took...

Many times, over the past five decades I drove between Southern California and the Salinas Valley on El Camino Real, aka the 101, and so am very acquainted with the stretch of asphalt from Santa Barbara to SoMoCo. Now, like motorists everywhere finding a...

I’m not great with anniversaries, birthdays and the like. When I say I’m not great, what that means is that I have an incredible memory for what can be difficult days in the annual calendar. Days like my sister’s birthday. “Forever 48,” I wrote...

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...

It has been a most interesting year; what an understatement. I have never felt so fortunate and yet so frustrated. I’ve found skills this year I didn’t think I had. I have dug deep for patience I never believed I possessed. Four years ago,...

I don’t know what happened. We skipped through Halloween, enjoyed a nice, peaceful Thanksgiving and then all heck broke loose. I took an early Christmas delivery to my dad and sister overseas — and how organized was I! Even had the holiday gift bags...