Editorials

Consultants advise policy makers to seek win-win situations, where each side or multiple sides of an issue or a dispute walks away with a smile. Greek philosophers called this phenomenon synthesis, German philosophers refined this concept and called it the dialectic and modern parliamentary democracies...

After three months of trauma, grief, vigils, fundraisers, healing, memorials and, for many, continuing pain, let’s take some time for some gratitude. As the #Gilroy Strong banner disappeared from downtown Gilroy and the memorial flowers at Christmas Hill Park faded and withered, hundreds of businesses...

The notion that mental illness drives the current spate of mass shootings is a dangerous oversimplification. Some shooters, such as the Aurora. Col., movie theater gunman James Holmes, yes, have had diagnosed mental illness, while others have not. To unfairly stereotype people with conditions...

The City of Hollister should go back to the drawing board on the 400 block. The proposed deal has way too many problems and is too polarizing because it wasn’t handled the right way. An appraisal was hidden from the public, allowing the land to...

A little over two years ago, this newspaper called for the resignation or termination of Hollister City Manager Bill Avera. The Free Lance editorial said Avera’s mishandling of sewage spills and lack of accountability showed that the former development services director lacked the capacity to...

It sounds crazy, but a presidential rant on Twitter may have forced Gov. Gavin Newsom to “clarify”—actually, backtrack—his position on California’s high-speed rail. “The project, as currently planned, would cost too much and take too long,” the governor said of the state’s high-speed rail plan...

A little over a year ago, we wrote an editorial in this space entitled, “Why should we care?” “Why should we care about any further investigation of the money that disappeared from the Tony and Barbara Matulich Charitable Trust?” was the question we posed. After all,...

Change is in the air in San Benito County. Citizens turned out in record numbers Nov. 6 to elect new faces on a wide range of boards, and appointees replaced some incumbents. In Hollister, three new supervisors were elected, joining one who was appointed in...

There were cheers last week about the record or near-record turnout levels in the midterm elections in California, and across the U.S. While the numbers were relatively high—approaching 60 percent in some California counties— they were properly qualified by adjectives such as “midterm,” “off-year”...

This is a story of ordinary events that unexpectedly escalated into extraordinary circumstances, of dangerous situations that were resolved peacefully—events that in other communities have resulted in tragic, even deadly consequences. But not in Hollister. In the late morning on the day after the Fourth...