Opinion

The alleged sexual abuse of minors and cover-ups at Penn State, other instances involving the Catholic Church and cases where school administrators concealed educator misconduct in exchange for resignations all form an alarming pattern that must be addressed. The incidents involve two phases and trusted institutions. The first phase is an allegation or suspicion of abuse; the second phase is a failure to report - or attempt to hide – the incident by persons of authority and responsibility. The abuse is more egregious on the criminal scale, but on the scale of moral responsibility, the failure to report the events to law enforcement or social services is as disturbing and even more bewildering.

A majority of Hollister council members were out of touch with the community's priorities when they approved a completely irrational set of new traffic impact fees that stand to send an anti-business message to prospective developers.

In November 2008, California voters passed Proposition 1A, the High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act, 53 percent to 47 percent. It authorized $9.95 billion in general obligation bonds to help, ostensibly, fund a $40 billion, 800-mile bullet train. Now, only three years later with nothing built the estimated costs have skyrocketed to $98.5 billion, the completion date has been pushed out nine years to 2033, and the maximum annual ridership estimate has shrunk by 18 million. At what point do the misstatements or gross errors that formed the original premise of Prop 1A invalidate the election results?

Every politician wants to rebuild the Hoover Dam – at least metaphorically. At one time the national frustration phrase was, "If we can put a man on the moon why can't we...?" Now the moon is "old cheese" and we're invoking the Hoover Dam, but could we even build it today?

Significant local news events of the day have pushed the Gavilan College president's whopping $42,000 salary increase off the front page. But it shouldn't be ignored.

Unofficial poll points to favorite candidate

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