Columnists

All the emotional and intellectual energy in this spring’s primary election campaign focused on congressional and legislative races, where a rare combination of new rules and new district maps produced some entirely new kinds of results, with many upcoming runoff races featuring intra-party battles pitting Democrat against Democrat and Republican vs. Republican.

Controversy flared anew last month when a Dutch newspaper announced that the late Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, her husband Prince Bernard, and Queen Beatrix’s late husband, Prince Claus, were all baptized posthumously (after their deaths) into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as the LDS or Mormon Church).

As the South Valley gears up to party hearty for America’s 236th birthday bash, you’ll find plenty of activities in the region for the Independence Day celebration. We at MHAT-19 (Morgan Hill Access TV, cable channel 19) wish you a joyful holiday as you spend time with friends and family members celebrating the history and culture of our nation and the incredible freedoms we enjoy.

The talented GrooveLily trio of the delightful “Striking Twelve” fame has returned to the TheatreWorks stage with a musical rerun of their lives, the story of how they arrived at this time and place of where they are now.

Like a canary in a coal mine, roses provide an early-warning detection system in our vineyards. Roses are generally weaker than grape vines, yet have almost the same genetic make-up. Planted among the grapevines, roses react first to disease, soil and water conditions. Roses are “indicator plants” that give the vineyard manager time to fix the problems before they reach the grape vines. Not only are roses a harbinger to the production of healthy vines, they also lend a colorful contrast to the vineyard.

Q: We got into a discussion the other day about hiking the hills with our dogs. There’s some poison oak on this trail we walk, so we try to avoid going to close to that area. Can our dogs get skin problems if they get into that stuff?

I stumbled upon the Food Network quite by accident. I was in Southern California watching my infant granddaughter when one day, while channel surfing, I found that the peppy music and stunning close-ups during Food Network’s cooking shows kept baby Gracie enraptured on even her fussiest days. I was hooked.

While this article is a bit more dry and technical than I usually write, it addresses an important tax issue that could potentially save you and/or your heirs a significant amount of money – proper planning can make the difference between leaving money to your loved ones, or leaving money to Uncle Sam.  

School is over; summer is here; vacation has started. At first, children thoroughly enjoy the unstructured leisure time now available to them, but this may not last. Days stretch on, and parents may soon hear the dreaded refrain: “I'm bored! There's nothing to do!”