Opinion: Five ways your business can win the war for talent
By Greg Bland With the U.S. economy continuing to grow, businesses are beginning to scale their operations back to pre-pandemic levels. Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties all added jobs from June to July. As the Pacific Coast Business Times recently reported, Ventura County led the way with 2,500 new jobs in the Read More →
Opinion: ‘Use it or lose it’ policy wastes our natural resources
By James Salzman The Bureau of Land Management auction in February 2016 for oil and gas drilling rights near Arches National Park was unremarkable. The high bidder, Tempest Exploration Co. LLC, paid $2,500 for the 1,120-acre lease by credit card and began paying annual rental fees. What soon did prove remarkable, though, was the revelation Read More →
Opinion: Oxnard was central to Chicano movement
By Frank P. Barajas This column is an excerpt from the book “Mexican Americans with Moxie: A Transgenerational History of El Movimiento Chicano in Ventura County, California, 1945-1975,” by Frank P. Barajas. From the United Farm Workers Boycott Office in Delano, California, Jessica Govea, 24, examined a clipping of a full-page advertisement in the Ventura Read More →
Opinion: Your workers want a sense of purpose
By Christie Garcia If staff can work from anywhere in the world, why would they work for you? Once they do, what motivates them to perform their best? And perhaps most importantly, what would make them stay? In the last year we’ve watched a dramatic shift in employee satisfaction and seen that people are no Read More →
Our View: Heidi Harmon changed the game as mayor of SLO

When Heidi Harmon narrowly won election as mayor of San Luis Obispo back in 2016, she vowed to shake up the status quo. And that’s what the former Bernie Sanders convention delegate did when she won by a handful of votes. During the next five years, she pressed the no-growth crowd for more housing, including Read More →
Opinion: Pandemic accelerated already rapid rise of the fluid workforce

By Vlad Vaiman Talent management (TM) has been a key priority for CEOs throughout the world for nearly two decades. Aging populations, shrinking talent pools, expanding skill gaps, shifting workforce mobility, and other critical considerations all contribute to TM remaining a top priority for both large and small organizations. However, it is difficult to have Read More →