Page Updated: Wednesday, August 19, 2026 1:45 PM ET

The Mercury News - Opinion

Taves: Trump finds a new excuse to play games with California's cash

4 days ago

Borenstein: California taxpayer pension costs grew eightfold since 1999; new plans add billions more

8 days ago

What I learned from interviewing 49 candidates on Bay Area ballots

6 days ago

Opinion: California must protect West Oakland from Trump's toxic coal terminal

4 days ago

Why California's next El Niño won't end the state's water challenges

5 hours ago

Carter: America's surveillance problem is much bigger than Flock

7 hours ago

Opinion: State Legislature must close loopholes to protect Bay Area's air and water

22 hours ago

Chabria: 'Surveillance pricing' is legal gouging. California legislators don't seem to care

1 day ago

Jarvis: Trump's vaccine order puts parents in a bind

1 day ago

Letters: Consequences will outlast Trump's war

19 hours ago

Letters: San Jose City Council must restore land-use sanity

19 hours ago

Drucker: Trump's army of election deniers is a problem on many levels

4 days ago

Opinion: Artificial intelligence can imitate us, but it cannot truly design or invent

4 days ago

Letters: No place in comics for 'Mallard Fillmore'

19 hours ago

Letters: Palm trees belong in LA, not 'Valley of Oaks'

19 hours ago

Opinion: San Jose residents deserve a voice in historic land-use decision next week

4 days ago

Arellano: What gets me so angry about California's proposed billionaire tax

5 days ago

Opinion: A balanced approach to Social Security

5 days ago

Opinion: How Americans can defend their right to vote

5 days ago

Letters: Vote yes on Prop. 43 to protect from runaway taxes

19 hours ago

Letters: Congress needs fighters like Aisha Wahab

19 hours ago

Drucker: You can't beat Susan Collins on working-class vibes alone

6 days ago

Walters: California's catch-22 — Who should pay when utilities' power lines cause wildfires?

6 days ago

Opinion: California studied employee ownership. SB 1174 would put the evidence to work.

7 days ago

Opinion: No one who works full time should be on Medicaid

7 days ago

Letters: World-class universities basis of economic 'luck'

7 days ago

Letters: Stan's, Randy's make Santa Clara doughnut heaven

7 days ago

Opinion: Mail-in ballots are still under attack. Mobile voting can protect access to ballot box.

8 days ago

Opinion: WIC use drop is a warning, not a success story

8 days ago

Walters: California school districts in L.A., Sacramento copy the Capitol's budget deficit dance

8 days ago

Letters: Rand Paul and Senate GOP's witch hunt ignores Constitution

8 days ago

Letters: Bias against their own entrenched in Latinos

8 days ago

Opinion: Wildfires will only get worse until the US stops ignoring climate change

11 days ago

Bloomberg: We can't fix America's schools without data

11 days ago

Schram: The case for de-faking the news

11 days ago

Opinion: Children affected by gun violence need support, or they may continue the cycle

11 days ago

Letters: Don't be fooled into underfunding; vote no on Prop. 43

11 days ago

Letters: Penalizing nonvoters would amount to a tax on the poor

11 days ago

Opinion: Establishment partisans keep smearing ranked choice voting because they fear the majority

12 days ago

Mukunda: What Elon Musk doesn't understand about abundance

12 days ago

Schrager: Your fourth-grader shouldn't be worried about AI

12 days ago

Opinion: Why so many Latinos in the US are anti-immigrant

13 days ago

Abcarian: Shame on Trump, Rubio and Musk, who've enabled needless deaths around the world

13 days ago

McCloskey: The case for making your life harder

13 days ago

Letters: Shaming pet owners won't fix poor veterinary care

13 days ago

Letters: Randy's Donuts location is an example of corporate greed

13 days ago

Brownstein: Democrats' 2028 map reshapes the fight between left and center

14 days ago

Jarvis: No Surprises Act could shock healthcare system

14 days ago

Schrager: Americans richer than ever, and so angry

14 days ago

Letters: Prop. 45 would take state back to bad old days

14 days ago

Letters: Article's author fails to support glib data center opinion

14 days ago

Opinion: Lurie is no Mamdani. San Francisco is fine with that.

15 days ago

Barabak: O, Canada! Caught in crossfire, California wineries despair over Trump tariffs

15 days ago

Mukunda: AI can create start-ups, just not good ones

15 days ago

Jarvis: The No Surprises Act needs a dose of sunlight

18 days ago

Opinion: Why the US should consider making voting compulsory

18 days ago

Philp: The billionaires backing California Forever want Newsom to help. Will he?

17 days ago

Opinion: America's wildlife refuges may no longer protect the animals

18 days ago

Letters: Rapper Mistah F.A.B. should find safer ways to entertain kids

18 days ago

Letters: Subsidized rent could be teachers' path to housing ladder

18 days ago

Chabria: This California Republican has a plan for controlling AI. Can he make it happen?

19 days ago

Opinion: When life gets hard, animals still depend on us

19 days ago

Opinion: How to fix Social Security, in six words

19 days ago

Letters: Affordable housing proposals should be ballot-proof

19 days ago

Letters: Prop. 45 would help developers, not affordability

19 days ago

Friedman: The quick-fix fantasies of the world's strongmen

20 days ago

Is California's data center hysteria more hype than facts?

20 days ago

Opinion: Californians have a rare chance to rein in CEQA and support housing

20 days ago

Opinion: Democrats, watch your language. Please!

21 days ago

Drucker: The US could 'abolish ICE.' Then what?

21 days ago

Opinion: The housing crisis you're not hearing about

21 days ago

Letters: There's something for everyone at Alameda County Library

21 days ago

Letters: San Jose council should focus on bigger issues than bins

21 days ago

Bhasin: Gulag in Gilroy: Finally, some NIMBYism I can get behind

22 days ago

Chabria: Newsom pushes California to crack down on sex trafficking — fast

22 days ago

Mathews: How California lost to Morocco in high-speed rail

22 days ago

Letters: Smoky skies show need to prioritize environment

22 days ago

Letters: Opinion piece oversimplifies money's political impact

22 days ago

Leubsdorf: Trump administration threatens states to tighten voting rules

25 days ago

Schrager: Houses are no longer the best place for your money

25 days ago

Opinion: America is at war. Pete Hegseth is focused on beards and hormones.

25 days ago

Skelton: Californians sour on Newsom's push to ban gas-powered cars

25 days ago

Letters: Investment by data centers can win over communities

25 days ago

Letters: Billionaires are trying to buy Prop. 40 election

25 days ago

Calmes: Send Trump a message that the ICE killings have consequences

26 days ago

Opinion: Veterans don't stop being veterans at the prison gate

26 days ago

Bloomberg: Government-owned AI is a terrible idea

26 days ago

Letters: Oakland drivers deserve safe, well-maintained streets

26 days ago

Letters: Local control crucial to coastal towns like Half Moon Bay

26 days ago

Drucker: Money isn't the root of all political evil

27 days ago

Opinion: California schools are on the frontlines of fighting homelessness. Now they have funding.

27 days ago

Jarvis: The cyclosporiasis outbreak is a master class in miscommunication

27 days ago

Opinion: Big-money Bay Area interests try to shift tax burden onto the poor

28 days ago

Hiltzik: Trump greenlights California's dumbest water project

28 days ago

Opinion: Crucial task of protecting workers now falls to local enforcement

28 days ago

Letters: Reflecting Pool fiasco sums up Trump's whole presidency

28 days ago

Letters: Downtown San Jose needs more than workers to thrive

28 days ago

Arellano: Two Lorenzos from Mexico. One fulfilled his American dream. ICE killed the other.

29 days ago

Opinion: Don't ax proven ways to end homelessness

29 days ago

Jarvis: It's alarmingly easy to get obesity drugs online

29 days ago