Opinion

April 18-24 is National Volunteer Week, an opportunity to recognize the impact of volunteer service and the power of kind, compassionate people to strengthen and transform communities. Our volunteers within Mee Memorial Healthcare System never cease to amaze me. They lend their time, their talent...

You will recall, dear readers, last week we left off with my reminisces of university days down in Southern California. I just read the piece in the Rustler, and while I can’t for the life of me figure how it would be interesting to...

Back in 1980, I spent a couple hours with an American icon, a man whose music struck chords across a wide swath of the nation and at times insinuated itself into the political discussion. He came from a small, rural part of Arkansas, born...

I recently mentioned to my boss Ryan that Funny Papers Again seemed be leaning more to light stuff rather than some of the heavier stuff, and by stuff I mean every topic that may interest readers here in our little Valley, so I thought...

The last time I saw him he was sitting in his favorite bar in Las Vegas with a large cold one beside him and a game of Keno in front. He was comfortable in his space. No matter that he still could hardly eat...

It all begun in regular fashion. You are getting ready to go on a trip; so, therefore, things get really het up at work — not in a good way — and you are putting out fires, like California in summer — why does...

Last week, PBS’s news program “Frontline” aired an episode about Covid-19’s devastating impact on the lives and health of farmworkers in Monterey County and meat packers in Kings County. The stories, voices and fears of our farmworkers are certainly important and must be heard by all...

Local column by George Worthy

For those of us with multiple decades behind us as we continue our personal journeys toward some inevitable end, it seems the compulsion increases to reminisce about the time known as the Holiday Season. Or maybe it is just me. How the marked days at...

Do you have proper emergency preparation in place? The recent wildfires should be a reminder to everyone to have emergency plans ready. The idea is to be prepared, whether the threat is a wildfire, earthquake, flood, long-term power outage or some other widespread problem. A...