Does time travel exist? Probably not, but let’s take a shot. The California drought may give us a unique chance to go back to 1955. That’s when the Folsom Dam was built, during they heydays of dam building from the 1950s to the ’70s. California, along with the rest of the United States, experienced major population growth with the…

Year ago, fires burned regularly in our California forests and they were an asset, ridding the forests of the undergrowth. Actually, the forests needed them…

By STEVE M. TIETJEN, Ed.D. Most Merced County students return to the classroom this week after a year-and-a-half of in-person learning, distance…

There was a time when COVID-19 was at its peak and businesses were shutting their doors at a rapid pace. Paying people a bonus when they lost their job was the right thing to do. However, things have changed, and businesses are opening up again, but there are no workers. We write specially because the sit-down restaurant businesses cannot…

This is the first time in my life I have had to depend on a well for my water, and I have been seriously thinking of letting my lawn go dry. However, it…

Since COVID-19 hit Merced, there hasn’t been much progress to talk about. Homelessness has only gotten worse, unemployment is as high as always, and, of…

She was in her 80s, and I was in my 70s, when I received my first letter from Betty Stewart, written in the most beautiful handwriting I had seen since my dad died — and he had attended Calligraphy classes. The letter was written on yellow-lined pad paper, just the same as the pads which I used to write on when I covered the stories of the…

It was not that long ago when we first stepped onto our own sailboat in Alameda, and sailed out into San Francisco Bay. The year was 1994. We had only…

“Do you mean to tell me, you shut off my phone for 66 cents?” we asked the AT&T operator. It was the last straw. We had had it with AT&T.…

It sits as a cornerstone of Downtown Merced. Known to most locals as the Mondo Building on Main Street. Facing Bob Hart Square, the Mondo Building looks like it had been plucked out of Rome, with its beautiful columns climbing toward the sky. It has been there since 1928, built by Gene Mondo as the local home of the Bank of Italy. Later…