Guest View

Water softeners reduce the “hardness” of the water in your household, which can have several benefits for consumers. Less soap and detergents are needed for laundry and cleaning. There is less staining, spotting and scaling on appliances. Clothes last longer and there are energy...

San Benito County supervisors have tackled many profound challenges in the past year and a half since I joined the board with other first-term colleagues.  Some of those immense undertakings include boldly responding to the Covid-19 pandemic, assisting businesses and nonprofits through the pandemic with...

There has been a lot of talk recently about the John Smith Landfill and the fact that San Benito County accepts garbage from Santa Clara County. As the President of the San Benito County Business Council and a former County Supervisor who was involved...

Winter storms brought significant snowfall to the Sierra Nevada and other California mountains in December. Snowpack is critical for the state’s spring water outlook because when the snow melts it runs downhill into streams that fill reservoirs that hold about 30% of the state’s...

While December’s rain and snow show promise, water managers remember the same thing happened last year—epic early storms followed by the driest January through March in California’s recorded history.  After three dry years, all of us are hoping for some reprieve this winter. But the tough reality...

For our tribe, the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, Betabel is much, much more than a vacant lot conveniently located by a Highway 101 offramp. Positioned at the confluence of the San Benito and Pajaro Rivers, where earthquake faults also meet, the Betabel area is a place of power where, for countless generations, our people came together for healing and renewal.

By Kollin Kosmicki San Benito County must address the severe farmworker housing shortage.   As a journalist in the early 2000s, I examined heartbreaking farmworker housing conditions in Hollister. Multiple families, sometimes dozens of residents, often packed into small homes and poverty-stricken conditions.   The situation already reached a...

As someone who was born and raised in Hollister, whose mom was a nurse at the original hospital when it was downtown, I feel a special connection to this community—like so many of you. I was born at Hazel Hawkins, and today, as interim...

As the year comes to a close, it is fitting to reflect on what has been achieved in and around Hollister and at City Hall. The City Council has been very focused on strategic planning, getting the city staffed up and improving operations.  We had...

With a lack of societal and government support during the pandemic, women are having to make some tough decisions. In the U.S., more than 2.3 million women have left the labor force since the start of the pandemic as shown in research done by...