By Mona AlvaradoFrazier /Guest contributor On Sunday’s I take a little longer reading the Arts and Culture section of the newspaper because of the variety of museums, theaters, and cultural events in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Ventura Counties. I’m…
Category: Opinion
Commentary: The Sunbelt strategy
By Frank P. Barajas / Guest contributor What do California State University Professor Rodolfo F. Acuña, Henry David Thoreau, and Abraham Lincoln have in common? Before I tell you, you need to know that the narratives of Acuña (a founder of Chicano…
Commentary: The Dementia scare
By David Magallanes /Guest contributor My morning earlier this week, like most mornings, was peaceful. I had read my newspaper and once again felt that I was aware of local, state, national and world news. I had settled into some…
Commentary: National Women’s History Month
By Mona AlvaradoFrazier /Guest contributor Since 1911 in Europe, March 8 is the day to celebrate International Women’s Day. In 1978 in California, the Education Task Force of the Sonoma County Commission on the Status of Women began a “Women’s…
Commentary: The mystical river of time
By David Magallanes / Guest contributor On a recent afternoon I happened to be in Solvang. I was the typical tourist, looking into all the store windows I passed, classifying the items I saw as useless (to me, anyway), interesting,…
Premier issue of Amigos805 print edition coming in April
The premier issue of Amigos805, a 10,000-copy bilingual print edition, is coming to the region in April to better serve the community in the California Central Coast region. The publication is then scheduled to go weekly starting in May, the…
Williams introduces bills promoting energy efficiency
SACRAMENTO — Assemblymember Das Williams (D-Santa Barbara) recently introduced three bills aimed to help promote green energy technology, facilitate guidelines for efficiency upgrades and optimize investments in distributed generation, his office reported in a media release. AB 2339 will require…
Commentary: Speech, appearance, language and notation
By David Magallanes /Guest contributor What do we perceive when someone on the street approaches us and tells us, “Hey, you got some change? ‘Cause I ain’t got no money and even though I gone to the agency, they won’t…
Commentary: When we were Catholic — Lent
By Mona AlvaradoFrazier / Guest contributor My mother is Roman Catholic. She baptized and raised us as such. We attended Catholic schools from first to twelfth grade. Everything you can imagine in the 1960’s-70’s era of Catholicism, in a Latino…
Commentary: When a combat veteran dies
By David Magallanes / Guest contributor We read about them in the news all too often: the combat veteran who dies eating lunch or drinking coffee when an errant vehicle rams through the wall of the building. Or when he’s…
Commentary: What’s a Red Dress have to do with heart disease?
By Mona AlvaradoFrazier / Guest contributor For the past week, you’ve seen red hearts, candy, flowers and Valentine cards everywhere. Well now that Valentine’s Day has passed, it’s still appropriate to talk about the color red and hearts. February is also…
Commentary: Don’t wait until it’s too late!
By Michael and Stephen Szakos / Guest contributors As we continue to work with the Ventura County community, we are saddened to see how many people wait until it’s too late to save their home, with expectations that a few days to…
Capps votes for House Passage of the STOCK Act. Says stronger bill must be signed into law
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Rep. Lois Capps (D-Santa Barbara) on Thursday applauded the House of Representative’s passage of the Stop Trading On Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act. Capps is a cosponsor of an earlier version of this legislation that would ban insider…
Capps applauds mortgage fraud settlement, urges additional action
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Lois Capps (D-Santa Barbara) on Thursday applauded the announcement that the federal government and 49 states, including California, reached a $25 billion agreement with the nation’s five largest mortgage servicers to penalize robo-signing and other bank…
Commentary: What’s romantic love all about?
By David Magallanes / Guest contributor As it turns out, I use this column not just to inspire and inform, but also to put myself through inexpensive therapy. Just as in “real” therapy, which is well worth the cost as…
Capps critical of bill that would open up the Central Coast to new offshore oil drilling
WASHINGTON —Rep. Lois Capps (D-Santa Barbara) slammed the House Republican leadership’s transportation bill, the so-called “Energy Security and Transportation Jobs Act” (H.R. 3410), which would mandate new oil and gas drilling in the federal waters off Santa Barbara and Ventura counties,…
Commentary: Lifetime friends
By David Magallanes / Guest contributor Most of us have friends. Some friends rank higher than others in terms of “specialness.” Some friends are transitory; we’re friends because we happen to work in the same office or attend the same…
Commentary: You can always make something out of nothing — Simms Taback
By Mona AlvaradoFrazier / Guest contributor The other day I visited our local county museum and found one of my favorite “read to the kids” books. A retrospective journey through the career of Simms Taback filled half of the large…
Bilingual report: Williams receives perfect score on pro consumer votes
SACRAMENTO — When it comes to votes on key consumer rights bills, the 2011 Consumer Federation of California (CFC) scorecard found that Assemblymember Das Williams (D-Santa Barbara) has sided with consumers 100 percent of the time. The first-term Assemblymember, has…
Commentary: Four possible solutions to avoid foreclosure
By Michael and Stephen Szakos / Guest contributors Just a week ago, we held an educational forum at the Oxnard Public Library. A large number of community members attended and walked away informed and armed with knowledge to move forward. “We were…
Commentary: Sometimes You need to ignore the network news and enjoy the beauty all around you
By Boyd Lemon / Guest contributor We are constantly bombarded in the media by all all of the heart breaking, gut-wrenching tragedy that permeates our world. But if you look around, you will see amazing beauty, too. Look at it,…
Commentary: Let’s have coffee
By David Magallanes / Guest contributor How do you go about managing your time, assuming that you do? Not everyone does, after all. Some of us are quite content to “go with the flow,” reacting to whatever blows toward us from the…
Don’t wait for last-minute foreclosure help
Amigos805.com staff report It was a full house at a foreclosure crisis educational forum held Jan. 21 at the Oxnard Public Library, reported David Cruz during his morning radio show Jan. 25 on KOXR AM-910. He made his comments during…
Latino Links: Media Trends
Hispanics view the Internet as a virtual “Plaza del Pueblo,” or town square, a place where they can be inspired and motivated to join the conversation, according to a new “Report on Hispanic Digital Influencers” released recently by 360i Digital…
Commentary: Who are you?
By Boyd Lemon / Guest contributor Since the new age of introspection starting in the 1960s we are often told, “Know who you are.” Or, as Descartes put it centuries ago, “Know thyself.” Have you ever wondered what that really…
Commentary: Reflections on Martin Luther King Day
By David Magallanes / Guest contributor As I write, we celebrate the life and message of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a genuine American hero of the highest order. I am pleased as I compare the plight of the African Americans (called…
Commentary: National Stalking Awareness Month
By Mona AlvaradoFrazier / Guest contributor January is National Stalking Awareness Month, a time to focus on a crime that affects 3.4 million victims a year. This year’s theme —“Stalking: Know It. Name It. Stop It.” —challenges the nation to fight this dangerous…
Community urged to attend VCCCD meeting on Jan. 17 to avert cuts at college district
The community is urged to attend the Ventura County Community College District meeting on Tuesday Jan. 17 to voice its opposition to proposed cuts to college educational programs at Oxnard, Ventura and Moorpark. The meeting will be held from 5 to…
Commentary: Do your homework. Rules are changing
By Michael and Stephen Szakos / Guest contributors As we continue to work on short sales throughout the community, we are finding out that the banks are changing the rules constantly, even from client to client. It is vital to obtain help…
Latino Links: Economic trends
The mortgage crisis has hit the Latino community particularly hard. The Center for Responsible Lending reported last year that Latinos were twice as likely to have lost their homes to foreclosure, or are seriously delinquent, compared to white borrowers. Latinos…
Commentary: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
By Mona AlvaradoFrazier /Guest contributor Soon we will celebrate and enjoy the holiday that commemorates Martin Luther King Jr. Day. In 1957, he was cited as one of the most admired religious leaders in the world. Time Magazine selected him, in 1957,…
Commentary: Get rid of stuff — minimalize
By Boyd Lemon / Guest contributor I was introduced to minimalism when I got divorced and decided to live in the spare room of a friend and his wife and baby. I thought it would be a good transition from…
Commentary: The young maiden and the snake
By David Magallanes /Guest contributor My family, like most families, shares photos of its members via email. It’s exhilarating to see the children and grandchildren, the native citizens of cyberspace, maturing over the years. It’s likewise powerfully poignant to see us older…
Commentary: Hope for tomorrow
By Michael and Stephen Szakos / Guest contributors Over the past few weeks, we have shared some sad stories with you. Some tragic. Some seeming without hope. There is hope and there are answers! A family we helped recently purchased a new…
2-1-1 service continues to make its mark
By David M. Smith / President & CEO, United Way of Ventura County Early next month 2-1-1 Ventura County will begin its seventh year of service to the residents of our county — and what a remarkable service 2-1-1 has been.…
David Cruz Show to start Jan. 16 on KTLK 1150 AM
LOS ANGLES – Clear Channel Radio – Los Angeles is launching a new program, the David Cruz Show, starting Monday, Jan. 16, 2012. The program will air weekdays 3-6PMon KTLK, 1150AM, the company reported this week in a media release. “This…
Commentary: Help for Loneliness
By Boyd Lemon / Guest contributor Loneliness is a common complaint of single people, especially those of us who are “older” or more or less retired. I’m 71 and single. In reality we are all alone inside our heads. Nobody…
Commentary: The Christmas Gifts
By David Magallanes / Guest contributor The following is an essay I wrote several years ago. In the Hispanic world, Christmas isn’t over until January 6, so I can still slip this one in: It was that time of year: time…
Commentary: What if the Mayans are right?
By Mona AlvaradoFrazier /Guest contributor Is December 21, 2012 the End or just a new winter solstice? Is it another Y2K or cause to start worrying? Just because the Mayan calendar ends on that date in 2012 doesn’t mean the world ceases to exist.…
Commentary: The truth shall set you free
By Michael and Stephen Szakos / Guest contributors Happy New Year! May 2012 be a tremendous year for each of you. A fresh start. A new beginning. We know that 2011 was a very difficult year for many of you for various…