Politics

Growing up in farmworker housing in Paicines, California informed how newly elected state Assemblymember Robert Rivas ran his campaign for his District 30 seat, and now it’s informing one of his first proposed pieces of legislation. The Farmworker Housing Act of 2019 has made its...

Mayor Ignacio Velazquez sent a letter “as a private citizen” to the Hollister Planning Commission raising new, personal objections to plans to develop the 400 block of San Benito Street. The mayor—forced to recuse himself from all discussion and action on the controversial project because...

Council member Marty Richman for District 4 this week was selected to be Hollister mayor pro tempore for 2019. The decision was made by the newly sworn-in council in its first meeting of the new year, and upended the traditional selection process for the position--...

Seven newly elected county government officials took their oaths of office in the Board of Supervisors chambers Jan. 7. Two new supervisors, Peter Hernandez in District 3 and Jim Gillio in District 4,assumed their new positions. District 5 Supervisor Jaime De La Cruz and District...

Congressman Jimmy Panetta’s first week of his second term was a busy one, as the new Democratic majority in the House of Representatives faced new responsibilities and a government shutdown. Panetta and his Congressional colleagues were sworn in en masse Jan. 3 in the Capitol. By...

Newly elected City Councilmember Cesar Flores has been appointed the new mayor of San Juan Bautista. The three new council members—Flores, Leslie Jordan and Mary Vazquez Edge—all voted for Flores’ appointment on Dec.18. Councilmembers John Freeman and Dan DeVries voted against Flores’ appointment. A vote...

The San Benito County Board of Supervisors voted this week to allow commercial cannabis production—but not any medical dispensaries or retails sales— in unincorporated parts of the county. The county resolution will require that prospective cannabis businesses obtain separate permits for each type of commercial...

The undeveloped “400 block” in Hollister on San Benito Street is entering another phase as it inches toward its first development in nearly 30 years. Despite the sale of the property last year to the San Benito Community Foundation and Del Turo Brothers construction,...

All of the votes in San Benito County have finally been counted following the Nov. 6 election. The County has released a final report on the election which is available at www.sbcvote.us. In a press release the county registrar of voters said the jurisdictions will be...

Congressman Jimmy Panetta, headed to an 80-20 victory in his first re-election bid, isn’t going to be putting his feet up in the next few weeks while waiting for his Democratic Party to take control of the 116th U.S. House of Representatives. One of Congress’...