Opinion

I want to thank City Editor Melissa Flores for her front page article on the May 7 board of supervisors meeting and the issue of oil and gas fracking in this county. I wonder if the three supervisors who voted for the watered-down gas and oil well ordinance are aware of what is happening in the rest of the country where fracking deep into the earth to extract gas and oil has devastated the land, water and air. In North Dakota (Bakkan gas fields) and in Texas, where fracked wells have been producing fossil fuels for some time, the ranchers and farmers are finding their cattle no longer salable because of contamination, and the quality of their rural lives destroyed by huge trucks rolling up and down newly built gravel roads and creating noise pollution and air pollution that has increased asthma and other lung diseases in these areas. I wonder if these supervisors are aware that it takes one million gallons of water to sink one well? Where is that water to come from in these times of increasing drought? And why do the oil and gas corporations who finance these projects (with taxpayer subsidies among others) refuse to reveal the variety of chemicals that are used to open up the passages where this liquid gold will flow to their CEOs?

Great news! The Hollister Airshow is taking place Memorial Day Weekend, Saturday and Sunday, even though 64 U.S. air shows have been canceled!

In the movie “Born in East L.A.”, Cheech Marin is swept up in a factory immigration-raid and dumped in Mexico. (Though Cheech has only been to Mexico to vacation in Margaritaville.) Our All-American “Dreamers” might relive Cheech’s nightmare. We can thank right-wing, “Remember the Alamo!” ambushes on the Obama-inspired, but bipartisan, Senate Gang of Ocho’s long-overdue “path to citizenship.”

County supervisors were apt to portray a sense of support for oil and natural gas prospects here, but they fell short as it pertains to protecting taxpayers in the event of a necessary cleanup.

Panelists answered the question: Should licensed pharmacies disburse medical marijuana?

Marty Richman: “No, my guess is that many teammates either knew or may have guessed (rightly or wrongly) who is gay long ago. There will be some bumps in the road, but there will be few serious problems.”