Can a leopard change its spots? Can a young man change his ways?

I often remark that I have done several "best things" in my life. Studying abroad in college, marrying my husband, Lloyd Talbot, becoming a school counselor and now a counselor educator with Fresno Pacific University are just a few of the best t

The phones start ringing more frequently after the first of the year. I have a fox in my yard, I found an opossum in my shed, there is an injured hawk in my yard. Living in the San Joaquin Valley can be very interesting when it comes to wildlife. Some peo

Like all farmers, I am painfully aware that agriculture cannot survive without reliable water supplies. Groundwater, in particular, is important to the San Joaquin Valley. Terranova Ranch relies on it for 90% of its annual supply, which includes irrigating 5,500 acres of farmland. Yet for decades we've been using more groundwater than is replenished. Unabated, this practice threatens our long-term water supplies and ultimately our industry.

The United States has the highest rate of incarceration of any industrialized nation in the world. We have witnessed at a national level the mass incarceration of an entire generation of people, the vast majority of whom are black and brown.

Like many people, I've been frustrated at the lack of seriousness at the national level about climate change. The conversation between "believers" and "non-believers" seems silly and dangerous.

At Heritage School in the Humboldt County town of Harris, a dirty, white mare was found scrounging for food from a Dumpster last year.

A movement is taking place in the Golden State to turn back the clock on a fire safety standard that has provided an important layer of protection to Californians for more than 35 years.

Americans believe that a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants should require them to be placed at the end of the immigration line for green cards.

As was in evidence from a recent Valley Voices commentary in this newspaper, there unfortunately remain widespread misconceptions regarding not only whether evolution occurs, but about the meaning of the word theory.

With the end of African-American History Month, we should look at the progressive direction this county has taken since the re-election of President Barack Obama.

Upon enlisting in 1949, I spent my young adult life being intimate with military weapons and was required to be proficient in use of them, as were all military men of that era.

When I take my kids to visit their grandpa in rural Tulare County, they know the rules: Don't drink the water. Instead of pouring a glass from the tap, they pull a bottle from the fridge.

The most important information a culture has is its creation story because from that a culture derives its morality and law.

The debate about torture has heated up again with the release of the movie "Zero Dark Thirty."

After three terms serving the residents of Madera County as a supervisor, I decided it was time to see what retirement really looked like last year, and I didn't run for re-election.

At some point this summer, the largest population group in California will quietly shift from white to Hispanic, the first time since California became a state in 1850.

While The Bee did an admirable job of reporting Feb. 12 on the essential facts of the pilot wastewater-treatment plant under construction near Firebaugh, the story didn't adequately convey the skewed reasoning and colossal waste of taxpayer money tha