As we dance through life, often an opportunity, or responsibility, to follow comes to us. How we respond is our choice. We need to ask ourselves do we have the courage, the patience, strength and, yes, faith to follow? Difficult as following may be, it is much harder to lead. It can take much more hope and determination. Civil rights icon Rosa Parks drew upon amazing powers to lead. Parks dared to make a difference. Saturday, the Caesar Chavez group will host a celebration in honor of Parks' birthday. The public is encouraged to attend the event at Miller & Lux from 2 to 5 p.m. Feel free to bring a poem, song or statement in honor of this courageous woman. | Full Story

Happy Black History Month and Valentine's Day to everyone. Don't forget to show that special someone in your life how much they mean to you and how much you love them. | Full Story

Eating our seed corn. Shooting ourselves in the foot. Cutting off our nose to spite our face. | Full Story

I can't live without my daily newspaper. | Full Story

With the New Year upon, us we are presented with an opportunity to start anew. At the Los Banos Police Department, we resolve to continue to battle those who would choose to harm others; we will continue to show the youth of our community that gangs are a road that goes nowhere; and we will continue to aggressively enforce our traffic laws to reduce the number of individuals injured or killed in traffic related incidents. | Full Story

In the Central Valley, January is generally not a memorable month. It's a month most valley residents simply try to get through. | Full Story

On behalf of the César Chávez Committee (C.C.C.) I would like to thank the Enterprise for announcing our "Happy birthday, Rosa Parks!" celebration Feb. 4 at the Miller & Lux building from 2 to 5 p.m. | Full Story

TThe budget crunch in California has many ripples. One of the small but significant ripples affects California community colleges. | Full Story

Soroptimist International of Los Banos would like to thank the communities of Los Banos and Dos Palos for, once again, making our annual See's Candies holiday fundraiser another huge success. A special thank you to our businesses who so generously participated in our fundraising efforts. | Full Story

I am a retired dairy farmer who has lived in Los Banos all my life on Ward Road in the country, I don't come into town very often. Thank God! | Full Story

I have only lived in Los Banos for about a year, but I look forward to the newspaper every week because of Diana Ingram's column "Around Town." | Full Story

The Los Banos Chamber of Commerce and the Los Banos Enterprise thank you for supporting the annual Reader's Choice Awards. This is an evening for our local merchants to be recognized for their outstanding service to our community. | Full Story

California legislators have debated the merits of Internet gambling for three years. Despite tons spent on lobbying, campaign contributions and on public relations, those debates haven't gone anywhere. Sadly, this year may be different. | Full Story

Happy birthday, Parks! | Full Story

Dear Mayor, | Full Story

I have always been fascinated by the study of human nature. | Full Story

I am moving to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. | Full Story

I cannot express the joy and gratitude I have with the fantastic results of the Angel Tree project this year. | Full Story

California's first public charter school opened in 1993. The state now has 982 charter schools with more than 412,000 students. In exchange for being allowed flexibility on rules, and room to experiment, charter schools are supposed to be held accountable for results. Yet local districts vary widely in their oversight. | Full Story

This old dog of 66 years will try to master new technology this year. Yes, I have succumbed to family pressure and purchased a smart phone. | Full Story

2 Timothy 2:7 Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this. NIV | Full Story

Imagine what it would be like if the story of Christmas were to happen in 2011 -- in our town. | Full Story

The city of Los Banos Parks and Recreation Division would like to thank VFW Post 2487 and American Legion #166 for their generous sponsorship donation for our youth basketball program this year. The Los Banos veterans are very active in our community helping many organizations, including us. The Los Banos veterans' continuing support helps our program out tremendously every year. | Full Story

My first Christmas in California was a culture shock. We no longer lived in a large house in winter wonderland Michigan, but in a small apartment in West Los Angeles. My mother, busy working and adjusting to being a single mother, decided we would skip the holiday. It made sense. We had no family or friends. Being in retail sales, my mother would be working until late and have to be back the next day. So we had no tree, decorations, baking, stockings, egg nog; none of what for all my life had been tradition. | Full Story

As mentioned in the last column I wrote about Pastor's Appreciation Month, we have a unique position ordained by God in the local church body. The last point I left off on was concerning the authority the pastor has been given. We must understand that his authority has been given by God and not that of man. | Full Story

Jonah Hill plays his regular chumpy self in David Gordon Green's "The Sitter," a crazy romp in the same vein as the 1980s baby sitter comedy "Adventures in Babysitting." | Full Story

If at first you don't succeed, try doing it a little differently. Or, chi la dura la vince (he who perseveres succeeds). | Full Story

To some, this is a time to eat hardy, drink extra and party. To others, it is a time to stay indoors and write Christmas cards. Still, others find it a depressing and stressful time. Some eat for comfort, others scrape by. No matter what, we eat and drink differently now than any other time of the year. | Full Story

When Attorney General Kamala Harris pulled California out of nationwide settlement talks with big banks over the foreclosure debacle, it left a big question: What would her next move be? | Full Story

Trees have been discussed frequently in this space. Today I'd like to talk about a tree that does not need to be planted or pruned. It does, though, need to be nurtured -- by the whole community. Updated: Dec. 9, 2011 10:34 AM | Full Story