Tag archives: Congress

A Lifeboat to Roe
By Gwyn Lurie   |   July 5, 2022

Humor is often born of pain. So last month, when Justice Alito’s draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization was leaked, sounding the death knell for the constitutional right to abortion established in Roe v. Wade, it was no surprise when Stephen Colbert joked of the irony that this decision was written by […]

What is Infrastructure?
By Robert Bernstein   |   August 24, 2021

When you hear the word “infrastructure” do your eyes glaze over? As I write this, Congress is debating an infrastructure bill that is on the order of a trillion dollars. Is that a lot or a little? Almost by definition, infrastructure is all the boring stuff that enables all the cool things in society to […]

Escaping Minority Rule: Ending Gerrymandering Gaining Control Over Self-Perpetuating Politicians
By Rinaldo Brutoco   |   January 28, 2021

One hundred and thirty-nine members of the U.S. House of Representatives voted, after the insurrection (which sacked the Capitol building and took five lives), to support the mob’s demands to overturn the results of the recent presidential election. An election found, after sixty meritless legal challenges, to have been a free and fair exercise in […]

Letters to the Editor
By Montecito Journal   |   January 21, 2021

Capitol Offense Like most Americans, I was distressed last week when rioters at the instigation of Donald Trump invaded and trashed the Capitol. It was even more upsetting for my wife, Mary, who worked twelve years on Capitol Hill. I covered Congress for Ridder Publications before going to The Washington Post and have been in […]

Andy Caldwell
By James Buckley   |   October 1, 2020

Andy Caldwell’s mother was an immigrant from Austria and his father was a Bataan Death March survivor. Andy was born on an Air Force base in Jacksonville, Arkansas. After his father got out of the Air Force, they moved to Kingsburg, California, just south of Fresno. His dad passed away when Andy was nine years […]

Sitting Down with Salud
By Gwyn Lurie   |   February 6, 2020

I asked Salud Carbajal, our Congressman from the 24th district, if he would sit with me for an interview. Three plus years into his job in Washington, he is playing a far different role from the role he played for 12 years as our 1st district County Supervisor. These are challenging times for anyone in […]

Letters to the Editor
By Montecito Journal   |   August 15, 2019

Running for Congress I have been called upon by dozens of leaders throughout the Central Coast who believe we need and deserve better representation in the halls of Congress than currently is the case. Whereas, I have never had any personal political ambitions, I am, nevertheless, going to answer that call. That is because, just […]

Letters to the Editor
By Montecito Journal   |   July 18, 2019

By the Numbers Congress declining to deal with border issues has permitted an “estimated” 11 million illegal immigrants into California. Trying to solve California’s shortages for funding for housing, education, road and bridges repairs and medical care will be like trying to fill a bottomless pit unless, and until, the ultimate number of people using […]

Letters to the Editor
By Montecito Journal   |   February 21, 2019

A Burning Issue Do they read the Montecito Journal in distant Hope Ranch? I hope so.For several months oil has been seeping out of the bluff between Hope Ranch and the beach and it is hot enough that it is burning underground. There have been repeated efforts to stop it by burying it but this […]

MUS Students at the Capitol
By Gwyn Lurie   |   June 7, 2018

(The following was sent to us from MUS board member Gwyn Lurie.) This is a picture of the fifth-grade children from Montecito Union School on the steps of the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. The students went on their colonial trip last week and also visited Jamestown, and Williamsburg, Virginia, and Philadelphia.  This trip has […]