Merced County Times Newspaper - The Power of Positive Press

Atwater City Leaders met for the first time in the new year of 2021 on Monday inside of City Hall for a regular public meeting.  Members discussed the idea of expanding zones in which retail cannabis business and taco trucks…

IMPORTANT UPDATE:  The Times and various Merced-area residents have been asking in recent days how people will be notified that they can start to receive critical COVID-19 vaccines. An answer came today, Wednesday, Jan. 13, but it…

'People are at risk of dying due to COVID simply because we are in danger of not having the resources to care for them if we continue to see the number of COVID cases increase at the current rate. ... Progressing to crisis level care means…

For someone like Kelly Turner, a fulfilling life is being wide awake at 5:30 a.m. for the drive to Los Banos where a troubled young man is in need of a ride to court. It’s a 19-hour Saturday for a field trip to Folsom Prison where a…

As Mercedians ring in the new year, many people are hoping to start it off on the right foot by enthusiastically searching for inspiration so as to focus on things that will help counteract the nightmare times of 2020. One such…

In this new year of 2021, the local Shakespeare Festival will be celebrating its 20th season! Artistic Director and Founder Heike Hambley directed the first Shakespeare comedy for the young theater company, “Much Ado About Nothing,”…

New cases of COVID-19 have continued to surge for the past month at a rate of 200 to 230 per day in Merced County (on Jan. 5, there were 372 more than the day before), and a further cause for concern is virus resistance among Tier…

Talk about Operation Warp Speed. The Merced City Council — with three new members and a new mayor after the November election — are taking on some big, staff-driven, proposed changes to downtown Merced that are being presented at a…

Anais Guillem is one of those UC Merced grad students you don’t ever want to see leave town.  “During my time here, I have always looked for ways to collaborate with local residents, and also to give back something beneficial…

It was the year many of us would like to put in the rear view mirror. But even on New Year’s Eve — with all the hope and prayers for better days ahead — the events, actions and circumstances of 2020 are by no means fading…

Times Photos by John Miller

Ruben Sanchez has been an artist for his entire working life. And it shows.  From working in the fields to becoming a produce vendor, the depiction of agriculture and hard work is clearly seen in the colorful canvases that…

Overwhelmed is not a word that appears to apply for someone like Barbara Levey. Levey has simultaneously led four major Merced County departments with a steady hand for the past eight years, and this came after 26…