Editorials

Don’t be misled by so-called “safe and sane” fireworks on this holiday, or any other. These sparklers can still blind and burn skin. They can ignite housefires and wildfires. They can kill or maim pets. The “safe and sane” designation assumes another very important ingredient:...

Nearly 29,000 San Benito County adults were registered to vote in the June 5 primary. In neighboring Santa Clara County, the number of registered voters was a record, approaching 850,000. The “turnout”—the percentage of registered voters that actually cast ballots—was considered above average for...

Five candidates are running for California Assembly District 30, and two have emerged as serious contenders to represent the region’s half million residents. The district includes south Santa Clara County and San Benito County and is currently represented by Anna Caballero, who is running...

Two months after the death of Steven Juarez while in the custody of Gilroy police, the investigation of the exact cause of his death continues. While the police and the district attorney’s office are investigating whether police were responsible, they have said little about...

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in late March that he didn’t expect President Trump’s tariff announcements to have “a big impact on the economy.” He even went so far as to say that “what we’re doing is long-term very good for the economy.” Mnuchin...

San Benito County District Attorney Candice Hooper told us this week that her forensic accountant has finished his examination of bank records of the Matulich Charitable Trust, and that she has forwarded the case back to Hollister Police “for further investigation” of possible criminal...

One prevailing stereotype of Californians—shared by state residents as well as red-state politicians and the Trump Administration—is that we pay higher taxes than anyone else in the country. A national consumer website, WalletHub, this month has released its 2018 Taxpayer Survey, as well as its...

The printing press remains the symbol—despite the arrival of online news—of the Fourth Estate, of “Freedom of the Press.” That’s why for centuries one of the first acts of authoritarian rulers was to smash the printing presses of the opposition. In 21st Century democracies, the...

Sadly, events in distant cities mean that our students and teachers have had to add another set of tools for school safety that we all hope they never have to use. Preparations for a broad list of calamities—earthquake, fire, bomb threats, gunfire—are now a fact...

Sonny Perdue is a veterinarian, and a former governor of Georgia. He also is the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. He spent one day in the nation’s biggest agricultural state last week—California—presumably to show that the Trump Administration cares about and understands our state’s critical...