Insights and Opinions

As we step on the plane to fly back to San Francisco, our mind is full of thoughts and impressions of Colombia. First and foremost is it is nothing like we expected. It is a world apart from a backward place previously known for being the world’s largest cocaine producer and a home to wealthy drug barons and cartel leaders. Next, it is far…

My boat, the King Midas, the summer of 1967, was moored in the San Diego harbor after an attempt to sail to Santa Barbara failed because of a dead battery.…

By Antoine Hubbard Sr. Almost every Black person in America has experienced the sting of disrespect on the basis of being black, and acutely disrespected in…

Do you like craft fairs? I like them, especially near Christmas.  The problem is that when I see something I like at these fairs, I can't buy just one — I buy multiples!  This Saturday it was raining, so I bagged the tennis and saw that my local church in Merced was having a craft fair. I was feeling pretty good.  I just got a full tank…

Brain Drain is a big problem for our valley communities. Many of our best students go off to college and never return. They find college sweethearts,…

The Times has been following the local Maasai Medical Mission, a non-profit organization led by Merced’s Robert Quall, as the group makes its way…

At the rate this summer is going, it could be rated as the "Not-So-Hot" summer. The weather man is certainly throwing some unusually beautiful weather at us, and in response, the people are showing up in large crowds at the county fairs and other special events. People are so tired of being cooped up from Covid, the weather just adds…

Let’s assume you’ve been faithfully following your New Year’s resolutions to get in shape. Maybe you’ve been attending your new gym or trying some of the…

The wedding was planned for Sept. 18, and the groom had waited six years to marry his bride. The bride's father was reluctant to give his daughter in…

As the publisher of this grand newspaper, and turning 85 this week, I look back at the more than 60 years of being a newspaperman, and I can’t think of a better way to live. Thank you to all who have read about my wonderings and allowed me to write unbridled. I am still writing with a clear mind everyday, and when I wake up in the…