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By Mark Turner To Chief Scot Smithee, thank you for a job well done. I can’t imagine it’s an easy job being a cop. There are a lot of challenges that go along with being a member of law enforcement, especially these days. While the cop...

By Marie Blankley On Jan. 7, Valley Transportation Authority staff presented the VTA Board with a revised Draft 10-year Vision that allocates 2016 Measure B revenue among the categories of projects to be funded by Measure B over the next 10 years. Among these projects...

As a lifelong resident of Gilroy (since 1964!) whose family comes from farming throughout Santa Clara County, I’ve lived through the change of our once prevalent orchards to today’s Silicon Valley. As Silicon Valley developed and job opportunities soared, so did the cry for...

Public safety and providing opportunities for individuals leaving jail or prison can be perceived as opposing objectives. But the County of Santa Clara is building relationships between law enforcement and reentry services to create environments where residents involved with the justice system can heal...

Gov. Gavin Newson’s announcement in the spring to radically reshape California’s mental health care was compelling for several reasons. One is personal: I have an adult son with schizophrenia, a condition that’s impacted our lives for almost 30 years and counting.  My son is 44...

The past year and a half has been extremely hard on everyone, but it has been especially hard on small business owners. And according to Americans for the Arts, the arts were tremendously impacted by the pandemic, with an overall expected financial loss of...

I write on behalf of my Gilroy City Council Member Office, in support of Valley Transportation Authority’s Transit Oriented Development in Gilroy and in response to a recent letter from Gilroy Growing Smarter (Gilroy Dispatch, May 21). 1. Downtown Gilroy is the urban core of...

Whenever I think of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, two things come to mind: sales and whitewashing. As a capitalist nation, we will frequently throw any social and moral awareness behind a paywall regardless of the original person’s message. The irony of an MLK sale...

Every generation has grown up being told that they, the youth, are the future. In American society, this means that the youth (theoretically) have the power to sway elections once they are of voting age.  Unfortunately, the youth vote has not always met its potential...

Three years ago, the possibility of a global pandemic took up about as much headspace for most people as the possibility of a global conflict: technically possible, but not really a “thing” in this millennium. But as it turns out, history repeats itself. And...