Opinion

In the coming days, the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) faces elimination for the month of November, or it may be partially funded—moves that threaten to deepen food insecurity for millions of Americans, including many right here in Hollister. SNAP, formerly known as food...

If you can read this letter, maybe you should thank a teacher. The week of Nov. 2-8 is California Retired Teachers Week, and we all owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to those teachers who not only taught us but helped shape us in...

Halloween, where yards become planted in gravestones and ghosts and offices appear cobwebbed and spidery to make scary fun… Children love to transform into monsters with big mouths and sharply pointed teeth to scare everyone.   Scary Halloween is enjoyable because it is all in fun....

Thanks for these tricks and treats in the Free Lance.   The recall effort tries for the trick. Recalling a supervisor shortly after an election seems like a tricky situation. A recall seems as though voters changed their minds rather soon after voting. Since no one volunteered...

A coordinated effort has been underway to make false claims about specific public officials. It’s clear their motivation is to discredit elected officials who support slow housing growth—a movement favored by a vast majority of local residents.  It’s no coincidence those behind this effort are...

Your Sept. 26 editorial, “When National Headlines Collide with National News” regarding the massive and successful boycott of ABC/Disney, Sinclair and Nexstar distributors (who have since also acquiesced) was tone-death!  It minimized the threats to our freedom of speech. You missed the whole point! This...

California’s love affair with unmerited lawsuits targeted at small and minority small business owners is alive and well. So much so that the California Assembly failed to even schedule a hearing on Senate Bill 84, a much-needed reform measure to protect against abusive shakedown...

The suspension and then the reinstatement of late-night host Jimmy Kimmel has dominated national conversations this past week. For some, it is just another celebrity controversy; for others, it raises questions about accountability in media and entertainment. For us here in the community, it...

No one would ever suspect the library as a place of fraud. We go to the library for novels like “Moby Dick” or “Tale of Two Cities” or for information like “California History of San Benito County” or any history, geography, politics or literature.   I...

In the upcoming special election on Nov. 4, voters are going to see a new measure, Proposition 50. By a vote of the majority, California voters will decide if temporary changes to our congressional district maps should be authorized.  This would allow the legislature, members...