OPINION: With just over six months to go until this year's local body elections, no serious contender has emerged to challenge Hamilton Mayor Bob Simcock.

OPINION: As a litmus test of public interest by numbers, last Monday night's public meeting to discuss Waikato's own celebration day was underwhelming.

OPINION: The return of students to Waikato University and Wintec always brings with it a bevy of promotions and stunts from bars determined to attract their share of the student dollar.

OPINION: Kiwi rugby league star Benji Marshall at the weekend gave an interesting insight to sports super stardom in a new weekly column he is writing for a Waikato Times sister paper, Sunday News.

OPINION: Lofty goals are always laudable, but sometimes they can be too unrealistic. Prime Minister John Key has spoken much about wanting to "close the gap" with Australia by 2025 but it appears less and less achievable.

OPINION: You matter because of who you are. You matter to the last moment of your life, and we will do all we can, not only to help you die peacefully, but also to live until you die.

OPINION: If only more people would listen to the sage words of advice offered up through this daily editorial column. Imagine the fantastic place the Waikato would be ...

OPINION: There's nothing like a tsunami warning to get people to the beach.

OPINION: Phil Heatley's shock decision to resign his housing and fisheries portfolios, ostensibly over two bottles of wine, appeared to be such a knee-jerk reaction that even Labour's deputy leader Annette King thought it strange.

OPINION: A court ruling this week in Italy has set a new, and unpalatable, benchmark on the freedom of the worldwide web.

OPINION: Labour leader Phil Goff was ridiculed in many quarters when he announced a major economic policy shift late last year: Labour was now ready to reconsider our monetary policy and shift its focus beyond the one narrow target of low inflation. It would look, too, at how monetary policy affects growth and productivity and management of the exchange rate.

OPINION: The ongoing palaver with Telecom's XT network could be the most embarrassing business failure in New Zealand this decade.

OPINION: How long does the presumption of innocence for someone facing the courts have to last?

OPINION: Another message from a faceless terror group and another sporting campaign is disrupted.

OPINION: There was a common and positive thread through yesterday's Waikato Times.

It is difficult to discuss the merits of the Whanau Ora Taskforce's report, which champions a new way of delivering welfare to dysfunctional families. The devil is in the detail, as they say, and the report is being kept under wraps while the Government works through its recommendations.

OPINION: And so the madness continues in the Southern Ocean.

OPINION: When former Green Party leader Jeanette Fitzsimons signed off last week it marked the departure of one of the first intake of MMP members who changed the face of New Zealand politics.

OPINION: Leading horse trainer Paul Moroney's offer to hand in his licence last week spared him suspension by racing's disciplinary court – the Judicial Control Authority (JCA). It was a smart move.

OPINION: Sadly, the latest saga in America's Cup yachting history has been written. The Americans have claimed back sport's oldest trophy for the first time in 15 years, since Dennis Conner lost it to the Russell Coutts-led Team New Zealand.