Meeting a reminder of bad old days
That was quite the dust-up at the government center last week between health care exec Ron Castle on the one hand and county Supervisor Bruce Gibson and his trusty supervisor sidekick Adam Hill on the...
View ArticleArgument is way, way over the line
Public discourse has become scabrous since the rise of the Internet and talk radio and television. Partisans routinely sling insults at one another, and invective hangs over too many discussions like a...
View ArticleBusinessman enters 'The Twilight Zone'
I've been trying to remember the way Rod Serling started off all those old "Twilight Zone" episodes. As I recall, he faced the camera and said, in a clipped, carefully modulated voice, "Presented, for...
View ArticleCounty codes in need of improvement
All things considered, Barbara Ojena would rather be enjoying the summer in her old Nipomo digs instead of riding out August in the triple-digit desert heat of Palm Springs, where she is staying with...
View ArticleCompromise a dirty word for the GOP
There it was again, this time in the Los Angeles Times: The assertion that the gridlock in Washington is caused by the intransigence of the two major political parties.
View ArticleA good bill? Hold on to your sheets
The headline on the news release was irresistible: The government, it said, wants to tell motel owners whether to use fitted sheets or flat sheets.
View ArticleIn the unity 9/11 created, one big problem remains
Like tens of thousands across the nation, a few hundred people from around the county got together Sunday at a local church to remember the events of Sept. 11, 2001. But these folks had more on their...
View ArticleSay goodbye to retirement, health care
A few decades back, I figured I'd retire at 65, like my father.
View ArticleDoes Grover need such 'homeland security'?
The Grover Beach Police Department is going to grab $133,000 in Homeland Security money to use for electronic license plate readers. Are you feeling safer?
View ArticleBob Cuddy: After five decades, Peace Corps celebrates renewed sense of purpose
The equatorial sun slid slowly behind the giant okoume trees as I headed back to the work site to make sure we had not left behind any tools after our daily labors building a school in the jungle.
View ArticleSome think fairness is just so unfair
In hindsight, maybe I was a bit rough on the guy. After all, he was just trying to make a few bucks. He'd probably lost his job and was doing what he had to do to put food on the table.
View ArticleDunes future is an issues we must discuss
When Vic Montalban looks at the beach at the end of Pier Avenue in Oceano and Grand Avenue in Grover Beach, and its environs, he experiences double vision.
View ArticleDunes future is an issue we must discuss
When Vic Montalban looks at the beach at the end of Pier Avenue in Oceano and Grand Avenue in Grover Beach, and its environs, he experiences double vision.
View ArticleSLO Occupy camp all but unoccupied
I moseyed down to the county courthouse the other day to check on the local version of the national Occupy Wall Street movement. I wanted to get a sense of where they are these days and where they...
View ArticlePlastic bags hold a lot of democracy
It's not often that you hear George Washington and his pre-Revolutionary War days in Virginia's House of Burgesses dropped into a 21st-century government discussion about garbage.
View ArticleLet's keep our civil liberties, more people say
Spot quiz: What do South County home-school parents, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, the American Civil Liberties Union, accused terrorists at Guantanamo, and the U.S. Supreme Court have in common?
View ArticleTrashing of Paso chief shows bad journalism
I hesitate to get in the way of the hyperventilating mob storming the castle, drooling to capture and destroy the Paso Robles police chief. If I'm not careful, I might catch a pitchfork, or get set on...
View ArticleOn medical marijuana dispensaries, supervisors are masters of weakness
Here's something I'd like to see, but never will: I'd like to see San Luis Obispo County supervisors stand up at a public meeting and say, in unison like a Greek chorus, "We have an announcement to...
View ArticleLady Liberty ended up proud of A.G.
Off to the side in the Arroyo Grande City Council chamber, a replica of the Statue of Liberty stands, metaphorically watching the goings-on and perhaps reminding the local government and citizenry of...
View ArticleSLO code crusade goes a little too far
The scene: A tree-lined street in the happiest and most self-satisfied city in America.
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