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On a recent rainy Saturday morning, I attended a Rotary meeting in Cupertino. My purpose in going was to learn more about the state of mental health services in the county, in my role as a commissioner on the Los Gatos Community Health and...

More and more these days, we Americans are losing our sense of connection and community.  In 2023, former US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy reported an epidemic of loneliness and isolation. This year, the American Psychological Association warned of a crisis of disconnection in the...

I walked out of a chemistry lab my freshman year of college, excited to call my family and update them on my newfound independence. What greeted me on the other line was not exciting news, however, it was news that crushed my soul.  “Kaitlyn,” my grandmother...

Happiness is something we all pursue, but sometimes we take it too seriously. Some people treat happiness as a goal to be achieved, while others treat happiness as if it is a key business performance indicator. But in doing so, we miss the things...

The Community Health and Senior Service Commission (CHSSC) is implementing year one of the road map to improve the lives of older adults in Los Gatos. As CHSSC’s chairperson, my position presumably affords me some latitude to “tongue in cheek,” think outside the box and...

I love Mary Poppins. It’s true. I attribute my fandom to my childhood growing up on Guernsey, a coastal island rock, delivering less than a spoonful of sugar—and more a dose of dreary. Winter months dragged as rain fell from a bleak sky. I...

As avid rowers of the Los Gatos Rowing Club, we frequently encounter trash floating in the Lexington Reservoir during our practices. The scope of this problem is alarming. Every year, the San Francisco Bay is overwhelmed by a staggering 7 trillion pieces of microplastics,...

Gearing up every morning for a job built on danger just comes with being a firefighter. Yet for thousands who hold this job in the Bay Area, the greatest risk may come not from flames or collapsing walls, but from the gear meant to...

Silicon Valley is not just the epicenter of high technology and global innovation; it is a unique cultural mosaic that has inspired generations of entrepreneurs and visionaries. Here, diversity is not a slogan—it is the essence that has allowed revolutionary ideas to be born...

I aim for humor in my Los Gatan columns. The kind that elicits a chuckle, maybe a snort, not the kind that has readers questioning my grip on reality (though, fair point, the jury is deliberating on that one). Of course, I also try...