Immigration Toll
Newcomers are fueling a U.S. population boom that’s taxing the environment.
In 2006, USA Today ran a lengthy story entitled “How Will the USA Cope with Unprecedented Growth?” The country’s population had just crossed the 300 million mark, up from 200 million in 39 years. Writer ...
Issues / 2008 / May 29
Parks Alternative
Vehicle registration surcharge would allow free public access.
California’s state parks would receive an additional $282 million if lawmakers approve a budget proposal by Central Coast Assemblyman John Laird to pump additional revenue into the struggling state park system. The “state parks access ...
Do It!
CLINIC
Clinic, a quartet from Liverpool, claims to be an experimental band, but their mash-up of punk, metal, folk-rock, psychedelia and ‘50s R&B won’t sound unfamiliar to anyone with a knowledge of 20th-century pop music. How ...
Updates
UPPING THE ANTE… Two weeks ago we first gambled on Salinas businessman Sal Jimenez’s proposal for an upscale card room, called Bankers Casino, in the former Moose Lodge. The Salinas City Council May 20 placed ...
Letters to the Editor for May 29, 2008
MORE SILLY THAN YOU KNOW Congratulations on my favorite issue of Monterey County Weekly ever. Your three stories on skydiving, flying and hang gliding were wonderful. I could almost feel myself skydiving with Mark C. ...
Fairy Dusted
One local calculates how to make a living playing dress-up.
Most performing arts school students wait tables after they graduate and hope for a moment in the spotlight. Not CSUMB grad Michelle Vallentyne– she’s found a way to act full time. After a successful stint ...
Public Citizen
5|29 THURS HISTORIC GARDEN LEAGUE | MONTEREY—Youth Music Monterey performs at today’s Historic Garden League ribbon-cutting celebration. 5:30pm. Casa del Oro Gardens, Pacific and Scott streets, Monterey. Free. www.mpcc.com.LAWYERS ASSOCIATION MIXER | SALINAS—Hors d’oeuvres, pizza, ...
Foreign Feeling
Juan L. Sanchez Ensemble delivers a special show before returning to Spain.
The music of Monterey’s Juan L. Sanchez Ensemble does not recognize international borders. On their second CD titled Hijos de la Tierra, the crack group of local musicians allows Latin, African, Middle Eastern and American ...
Art Listing for May 29, 2008
Art Listing for May 29, 2008
OPENING THIS WEEK AVERY GALLERY Works by Mary Ellen Okelberry and Nita Flamini. City Hall, 440 Harcourt St., Seaside. 899-6811. back porch fabric & quilt gallery Pat Tillson quilt reception 1-3pm, 6/1. 157 Grand Ave., ...
Food Chain
All Aboard
PLAY TIME… I’m sitting here thinking I should be on the golf course, usually Quail Lodge, playing in the California Restaurant Association Golf Tournament. Actually, I was sitting here not thinking much at all and ...
White and Wrong
Flash in the Pan addresses good and bad habits by way of the belly.
Q: Dear Flash, My sister eats egg whites and throws away the yolks. She says it’s the high-protein, low-fat, low-cholesterol way to go. Personally, I’m astounded at this, as the yolk seems, to me, the ...
Ilembe: Honoring Shaka Zulu
LADYSMITH BLACK MAMBAZO
Ladysmith Black Mambazo unites native South African musical traditions with Christian sentiment and political context. It makes sense that the country’s premier vocal group would record an album honoring the iconic warrior Shaka Zulu. But ...
Real Estate
By The Numbers
$1,290,000 Recent Sale 400 Jefferson St., Monterey Built: 1948 Size: 2,500 square feet Features: 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 1 fireplace Amenities: Constructed as a replica of the historic Alvarado Adobe, 2,000 square feet of 7-inch-wide ...
Fine Blue Line
Fishermen bait Sanctuary over marine protected areas.
A pulmonologist may be the doctor best suited to treat a person with lung disease. Yet a general care physician – looking after the person’s whole-body health – may nonetheless insist that her patient stop ...
Home Page
Now the work begins on auctioned Monterey home.
Fourteen minutes, 11 seconds: “Going once, going twice, sold for $485,000.” The auctioneer’s gavel summarily ends the piercing silence radiating from the crowd, there to bid or bear witness. It’s instantly replaced by high-velocity conversation ...
The Golden Age
AMERICAN MUSIC CLUB
“Nobody here will ever save you,” sings alt-crooner Mark Eitzel in “Decibels and the Little Pills,” a devastating character sketch of a girl gone wild. “Your rebel cowboy hat,” he continues, “all it says is ...
What’s a Creative Way to Sneak Into a Country?
Asked at Fernwood Resort in Big Sur.
Follow-up: What are the top three countries you would immigrate into? EDDIE STERN | Server at Nepenthe | Big Sur A: Say your ancestors are from that country and you wanted to learn about your ...
Spring Cleaning
State plans cleanup of contaminated PG&E substation in Monterey.
Residents living near Monterey’s Municipal Wharf may have been surprised to receive a letter from the state Department of Toxic Substances Control, asking for their comment on a planned cleanup of contaminated soils near the ...
Heavy Doo-Wop
Little Anthony & The Imperials expand upon their legacy at the Rock & Rod Festival.
Little Anthony & The Imperials scored early in their career with the 1958 pop and R&B hit single, “Tears on My Mind.” The number features Anthony cooing lines like “love is not a gadget/ love ...
Brezsny's Astrology
Free Will Astrology
Aries (March 21-April 19): Ernest Hemingway said that his best work was a very short story consisting of six words: “For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn.” Alan Moore’s brief masterpiece of fiction is, I think, ...
The Senate without Ted Kennedy will never be the same.
I can’t remember a time when there wasn’t a Kennedy playing a prominent role on the national political stage. From when I was a little kid and my parents wore JFK buttons, to my pre-teen ...
Cheating in every possible way is a national pastime.
.C. Fields said, “Anything worth having is a thing worth cheating for.” By following that guiding principle, Americans have become the greatest cheaters in the world. From the time we’re little kids lying about the ...
Consultant Uncorked
How a local wine advisor cultivates his own kind of counsel.
Although David Coventry is Monterey County’s closest thing to famed wine consultant Michel Rolland, the two grape-juice gurus couldn’t be farther apart. When Rolland appeared in the popular wine documentary MondoVino (2004), the world’s most ...
Speaking In Numbers
The Weekly Tally
$20.43 Average wage earned by Salinas-area workers per hour in November 2007. Workers in small establishments (less than 100 employees) averaged $18.28, compared to $28.28 for workers in establishments with 500 or more. The average ...
Mora in Store
The legendary Jo Mora finds new life (again) with three special exhibits.
Perhaps history is the last refuge of romantics. Indeed, Monterey County is the richer for the infatuation with history by two men separated by a century. Peter Hiller, 56, has taught art at the All ...
Local Branches
A peek at the best places to commune with the county’s incomparable California redwoods.
The tree was living before the Civil War, before Columbus sailed to the New World– even before the signing of the Magna Carta (that was 1215). This particular tree, called the Colonial Tree, sits in ...
Ruff Rider
There’s more to Lola the amazing skateboarding bulldog than good grinding.
Skateboarding legend Rodney Mullen started skating when he was 8 and turned pro at 14. But he’s got nothing on local skateboard prodigy Lola Sampson. Now 1, she’s been riding since she was only 12 ...
Squid Fry for May 29, 2008
MY EYES, MY EYES… Squid watched in increasing amazement, then concern, then horror, as county supes took to party planning the Monterey Music Summit, which would’ve taken place this Friday through Sunday at Laguna Seca ...
Uniform Disappointment
Salinas’ Pat’s Monograms and Uniforms owners lose their business and their home.
Buried somewhere beneath a pile of unpaid bills on Dennis Ostrander’s desk is an eviction notice. It’s full of legalese and fine print, but the bottom line is this: Pat’s Monograms and Uniforms must vacate ...
The Fall
A Mighty Sight: Though The Fall skimps on story, the film is something to see.
The Fall is being billed as a magical collaboration between David Fincher (Zodiac, Fight Club) and music vid wizard Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich, Björk, R.E.M.). Those two creative talents offered encouragement, but the film’s ...
Sex and the City: The Movie
The well-dressed characters of Sex and the City: The Movie appear lovely on the big screen.
Surely enough ink has been spilled over whether a women’s picture can own the weekend box office, or if Carrie and company can find a crossover audience. Still, it raises the hackles: You can’t really ...
Cedar Funding Seeks Bankruptcy Protection.
Cedar Funding Inc. has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which could prevent a receiver from taking over the troubled Monterey investment firm. The filing, which was made Monday in the Northern California District of ...
