Since we announced our new Fund for Local News last week, the donations in support of the Community News have been filling our mailbox. All I can say is “Wow! Thank you very much!”

The nation’s Centers for Disease Control recently released the results of a survey studying the impact of the pandemic on mental health. Their findings were startling. The CDC survey revealed that more than 40 percent of the survey’s respondents reported COVID-19 had created mental stress in…

My column in April about my runs through downtown Redlands during the height of the COVID clampdowns noted with irony several “essential” businesses that were still open, including a liquor store and a vaping shop. Several readers were particularly struck by the vaping shop, open at a time w…

Re: “Surveys support one-cent sales tax increase,” Redlands Community News,  July 31.

You could say there have been some silver linings to the pandemic we are all now living through. Our homes have never been cleaner, we have finally found time to clean out closets and garages and the shop local movement has been getting a boost, evidenced by cities all over America encouragi…

Assemblyman James C. Ramos, D-Highland, and Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, last Thursday asked the Legislature’s administrative committees to obtain input from an advisory group that includes historians and California Native Americans before determining the fate of the Junípero Serra st…

Just eight days after the U.S. Census Bureau released the digital 2020 Census survey, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a Stay at Home Order due to the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 exposed a crisis that has been prevalent for decades in hard-to-count communities, and that is the lack of …

Late 1949, dad buys the Holland bakery. We move into a modest home on East Highland Avenue. We escape Los Angeles for a wonderland of orange, palm and pepper trees.

Another night, another round of these inconsiderate boneheads in Redlands setting off fireworks and M80s (apparently it’s happening nationwide), upsetting our dogs and disturbing the peace — sometimes well after midnight — and all a month before the Fourth!

Last week’s commentary by John Berry of the Redlands Tea Party Patriots deserves a response. Mr. Berry set the tone by writing, “What started as a racial justice protest has devolved into violent mobs wantonly destroying public property as well as vandalizing statues of ... great American ic…

On Saturday, the Redlands Tea Party Patriots will lead a “Defend Our Police and Defend America” rally because it’s time somebody stood against the bullies.

Like many of you, I watched with an overwhelming sense of horror and dismay the shocking video of the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer while other officers looked on and did nothing.

Friends of Redlands has been studying the city’s General Plan Downtown Specific Plan and the Transit Villages Specific Plan Draft. The Transit Villages Plan for parking is insufficient for the success of downtown.

Dear Redlands community,

In reaction to my April column about the runs I’ve taken through downtown Redlands and the various sights I’ve seen when so many businesses are experiencing those “viral vacancies,” some readers told me that they were struck by the irony that a liquor store and a vaping shop were still open …

This crisis has shown us how much we need our local small businesses. They provide valuable services and products and are often a social “hub” for the community. We need to “shop local” as much as we can, even if that means paying a premium for the convenience of shopping local.

Problems are solved by facing them squarely. Last week, Gov. Newsom outlined the magnitude of the state’s deficit and proposed a multiyear, strategic approach that works to protect the most vulnerable, students, and our public health and safety systems. The Legislature now begins the work of…

Our state and nation have implemented extraordinary measures in the face of the coronavirus. We are forever grateful to our health-care workers and all those on the frontlines.

The San Bernardino County district attorney's office is not a proponent of the release of inmates solely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and we do not support the release of county jail inmates awaiting the court process.

It seems like a lifetime away, but only a few months ago that the world was focused on a stern, teenage Swedish girl who warned us about the effects of global warming. Greta Thunberg was Time magazine’s “Person of the Year.” Also seemingly a world away, was the pushback from deniers who wrot…

In these trying times, the Common Vision Coalition would like to focus on the positive. We would like to thank the Redlands Police Department for all their hard work to keep the community safe and to create an environment that encourages everyone, especially our young people, to make healthy…

The San Bernardino County district attorney's office is not a proponent of the release of inmates solely due to the COVID-19 pandemic and we do not support the release of county jail inmates awaiting the court process.

As quoted in this paper on March 13, James Spee, professor of business at the University of Redlands, told us what motivated those who voted against Measure G, and how measures N and U are to blame for our failure to build our state assigned housing units, leaving Redlands “behind its fair s…

This is a scary time for our community, and our country. The fact is that the spread of the coronavirus is forcing us to face a series of unprecedented challenges, and to make difficult choices each day.

This was the week that the coronavirus pandemic became a truly local story in Redlands and our neighboring cities Yucaipa and Highland. This was the week when we learned we are all one community.

With the changing and fluid developments involving the COVID-19, coronavirus, we would like to make you aware of our approach to protect the health and safety of our staff and the public.

Long-time Redlanders have said bluntly that they’ve never witnessed a battle like the recent one waged over Measure G.

In 2012, during the early days of my “Phillosophically Speaking” column for our city’s local, daily newspaper, I submitted a piece about a homeless encampment of some 15 or so tents under the Interstate 10 overpass near Sylvan Park. I knew the gathering well because I’d passed it numerous ti…

I write to fully support the passage of Measure G in the city of Redlands. When serving as the mayor of Redlands in the 1980s, our historic downtown was a priority. Enormous effort was put into preserving and protecting downtown, making it a vibrant place to work and play.

Measure G, to be voted on in the March 3 election, is shaping up as one of the most contentious issues in city history.

(In 1897, eight-year-old, Virginia O’Hanlon asked her father whether there was or was not a Santa Claus. In a stroke of profound fatherly wisdom, he suggested that she put the question to the editors at The New York Sun newspaper. “If you see it in the Sun,” he told his daughter, “it’s so.”

No matter if you were a veteran after four years or 44 years of military service, a veteran will always have our own experiences and our own story to share. Being able to represent fellow veterans as the grand marshal at the seventh annual Redlands Veterans Parade was the icing of my own 44 …

As many die-hard environmentalists have noticed, Redlands’ last remaining cycling centers closed in August — one of them being the rePlanet on Wabash Avenue I used earlier this year after the one next to Albertsons on Redlands Boulevard left.

It’s hard to forget the first time I looked up at the night sky in Joshua Tree National Park. I’d never seen so many stars. I was a student at the University of Redlands and had only just realized that one of the most stunning landscapes in the United States was right in our backyard. I alwa…

On Oct. 9, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1482, the first statewide rent control bill in California history. Many of the legislators who supported this bill believe that it will provide immediate and much-needed relief to renters who are struggling to make ends meet due to the state’…

Founded in 2001, the Redlands Community Foundation (RCF) was developed as a way for people to leave a legacy to their community. It exists to maintain and improve the quality of life in the Redlands area by providing a professional vehicle whereby a variety of philanthropic desires of local …

Recently, the California Legislature wrapped up the 2019 session with the governor signing hundreds of bills into law.

To paraphrase this man you may have heard of named Jesus: Those who live by the gun shall die by the gun.

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day in April 2020, Esri and the University of Redlands are partnering to give each elementary school student in Redlands a tree.

As a Danish-American, the past couple of weeks have been rather interesting.

Wildfires, mudslides, earthquakes, tsunamis. I am trying to come up with a list of natural disasters we live with in Southern California. Not that I am hoping to experience any of them, but after the pretty big trembles in the beginning of July, it makes you wonder if you got your act togeth…

This month, students across the Inland Empire head back to the classroom to start the school year. It can be a hectic time for young people and their families to be meeting new teachers, attending new schools and often adjusting to a new routine.

I recently returned to Redlands from speaking at the Coalition to End Sexual Exploitation Global Summit 2019 in Washington, D.C.