Members of the Merced City Council and city department heads gathered recently for a strategic planning session to discuss budget priorities and chart a course for growth in the coming months and into 2022. The gathering last Saturday came on the heels of recent Town Hall meetings where residents were invited to express their views…

Congressman Jim Costa (CA-16) has re-introduced HR 867: High-Speed Rail Corridor Development Act, legislation that would provide $32 billion to fund…

There’s been a worrisome increase in cases of elder abuse since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, reports the Association of Mature American Citizens . The…

Assemblymember Frank Bigelow introduced two wildfire related bills, AB 910 and AB 912, to help prevent future catastrophic wildfires. “Last year, California faced its most destructive wildfire season,” says Assemblymember Bigelow. “The Creek fire in my district alone burned over 300,000 acres. California cannot keep putting off the wildfire…

On the surface, Aletha June Schelby Nel and General Vang Pao came from completely different worlds. They never even met each other. But…

Available housing supply, homelessness and "inclusionary zoning" were some of the big topics up for discussion in the last of two Town Hall Meetings led by…

First Baptist Church at 500 Buena Vista Drive in Merced and all churches in California were officially allowed to return to indoor services after a 6 to 3 decision of the U. S. Supreme Court reversed California Governor Gavin Newsom’s in-person worship ban instituted on July 13. The court heard cases brought by Harvest Rock Church and Harvest…

Editor’s Note: The following was first published on Feb. 8 as a guest commentary by the website CalMatters. It was sent in by a “group of elected state…

Community leader Jerry O’Banion, whose service included seven terms as a Merced County Supervisor, passed away on Feb. 14. The cause of death was not…

The Merced City Council on Tuesday night unanimously agreed to move forward with an annexation process that would make the entire UC Merced campus near Lake Yosemite part of the city proper. “Our futures are so intertwined going forward,” said Mayor Matthew Serratto before the decision. “UC Merced is going to be a major economic driver of this…