Guest View

The first real test of California's new

For the life of me, I cannot figure out why some people have a

Recently we enjoyed some gloriously balmy days in our corner of the world, which means it must be January. Well, no – all that glory and balm had nothing to do with the fact that it is January. Soon enough we got back to freezing off major body parts while begging our significant others to hoist the thermostat upward just one minuscule degree because doing so couldn't possibly cost more than, say, the federal budget deficit.

I got stuck behind a pair of bumper stickers the other day while waiting for a red light. One car said, "Honk, if you Love Jesus." The other read, "Honk, If You're Horny."

RRecently, our community has been hammered by several highly

Who doesn't want sex offenders tracked and kept away from children? As the only provider of services for victims of sexual assault in South Santa Clara and San Benito counties, Community Solutions is committed to our community's safety and victims' rights. However, as such, we recognize that Proposition 83, dubbed Jessica's Law, will not be conducive to protecting our community from sexual predators.

Many of the responses to my July 11 column about the sadness and sickness of the violence in the Middle East are attempting to label me in inaccurate ways; so I thought this column could help define who I am and what I believe. By doing this I hope we'll keep an ongoing discussion on track, and off personalities.

The aim of "environmental strategies" in substance abuse prevention is to create an environment that prevents substance abuse. One strategy is to reduce access and availability to young people, who, studies show, increasingly drink to get drunk. Most of those underage drinkers access alcohol mainly at their own homes or the homes of their friends. Morgan Hill student responses to the California Healthy Kids Survey, taken every two years, show Morgan Hill students report lifetime use (asked "have you ever…?"), binge drinking (five or more drinks), and being drunk or high on campus at higher rates than the state averages. Adding to these discouraging statistics are the responses routinely heard from parents: "yes, they're drinking. It's better that they drink here at home where they have supervision."  

All of Morgan Hill knows the Johnson Lumber Ace Hardware store