Chemical Reaction
In the past two years, more than 1 million pounds of pesticides were applied in Monterey County – and that’s not counting crop chemicals or household bug spray.
Charts and Links * top pesticides chart * local governments pesticide usage chart * non-ag pesticides usage pie chart * Caveats: when interpreting the numbers. * Downloads: Pesticide Use 2006-2007 Think you can avoid pesticide ...
WITH A GRAIN OF RODENT BAIT
Some things to bear in mind when interpreting these numbers.
These data are raw and are supplied by applicators. The Monterey County Agricultural Commissioner’s Office does not review the figures for accuracy, leaving that to the state. These data include pesticide use for non-production agricultural ...
Bureaucratic maze
Local governments can get sloppy with outsourced pesticide application records.
Short of changing the law, there’s not much citizens can do to stop private licensed applicators from using pesticides. But they should be able to hold government officials accountable for the chemicals applied in public ...
Pesticide Use Within Monterey County, 2006-2007
Our cover story on non-agricultural pesticide use within Monterey County includes charts detailing the top pesticides applied, applications by local governments, and the things the pesticides are used for. Here are additional data on two ...
Issues / 2008 / Jul 24
The Industrialized World
Chris Jordan's powerful images show how our stuff adds up in mesmerizing ways.
National Geographic photographer Chris Jordan is fascinated by the sheer magnitude of the stuff in our modern world, and the cumulative impact of some of these items: plastic cups and bottles, cigarettes, prisons, etc. In ...
Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams
Pausch, who died Friday at the age of 47, was a tenured professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. Ten months ago, he was given three to six months to live, due to pancreatic ...
Letters to the Editor for Jul 24, 2008
CALL IT WHAT IT IS Unfortunately, you got the pronunciation of “rodéo” all wrong; it’s “tor·ture [tawr-cher],” [“Buckle Up,” July 17-23]. Let’s step into the 21st century, and stop finding the entertainment value in cruelty ...
Soledad Wal-Mart project should be reconsidered.
The massive Soledad Plaza project, which includes a 212,500-square-foot Wal-Mart Supercenter, suffers from two major flaws: It’s the wrong size, and in the wrong place. All of its negative impacts are scale-related. Whenever a project ...
Going Global
Ian Dogole and Hemispheres weld together a world of improvised music.
As a university student in the early 1980s, Ian Dogole was fascinated by the ancient world. But by the time he enrolled at Stanford in a graduate program focused on Greek archeology, music had become ...
Obama’s war timeline still leaves the door open for U.S. occupation.
\Barack Obama’s July 3 statement that he would “continue to refine” his policy on Iraq based on a “thorough assessment” of conditions on the ground and more information from military commanders prompted howls of protest ...
Public Citizen
7|24 THURS DEMOCRATIC WOMEN’S LUNCHEON | CARMEL– The July meeting of the Carmel Area Democratic Women’s Luncheon Club features Central Coast Assemblyman John Laird, who gives an update about “What’s Happening in Sacramento: The Budget, ...
Squid Fry for Jul 24, 2008
Squid Fry for Jul 24, 2008
GEARED UP FOR NOTHING… Squid’s got nothing against bikers. Grizzly beards, leather chaps and snake tattoos all make for fine, albeit ripe, company in Squid’s book. Squid does confess that clean-shaven, weekend-only riders get on ...
Q: What is the biggest pest in your life?
Asked at Mid Valley Shopping Center in Carmel Valley.
Follow-up: If bugs could talk, which insect would have the best stories? SUE PECCIANTI | UPS Store Owner | Carmel Valley A: Fleas. My little shitzu is allergic to them. It’s a major problem because ...
Rebuilding Big Sur
Supervisors approve fee waivers and other guidelines to expedite recovery.
A day before Federal Emergency Management Agency officials came to town to survey buildings burned out in the Basin Complex Fire, Monterey County supervisors took initial steps to help rebuild structures and infrastructure that were ...
Speaking In Numbers
The Weekly Tally
67.2 million The total costs as of weekly press time to fight The Basin Complex fire in south Monterey County. The fire, which has burned about 138,220 acres since it started in late June, was ...
Public for Private
Seaside pays retirement benefits to contract attorney.
Disgruntled taxpayers may gripe, but there’s a theory behind offering cush benefits to public employees. Employees who take jobs with local or state agencies often pass up opportunities to earn more money in the private ...
West Side Rider
Fort Ord’s less-trafficked half offers great scenery and a labyrinth of fun mountain bike trails.
Given the shiny red poison oak leaves at the entrance to Fort Ord Public Lands’ Blair Witch Trail– and the dense thicket of oaks and chaparral behind them– it seems an odd place to carve ...
Brezsny's Astrology
Free Will Astrology
Aries (March 21-April 19): Anna Renalda Hyatt, a reader from Colorado, bragged to me about her prowess. “My capacity for expressing love far surpasses that of anyone I have ever met,” she wrote. “I am ...
Moving In
Boys and Girls Clubs, Silver Star Resource Center vie for new youth facility in Salinas.
The Boys and Girls Clubs of Monterey County is close to lining up an East Salinas facility to provide after-school activities and meals for the neighborhood’s burgeoning youth population. A city committee has recommended that ...
Elkington By Any Other Name
Salinas Councilman wants to rename gang-affiliated streets.
Salinas City Councilman Sergio Sanchez wants the city to explore changing street names claimed by gangs. Gang-associated streets, Sanchez says, give neighborhoods a negative connotation, even though most residents who live there are not gang ...
Art Listings for Jul 24, 2008
Art Listings for Jul 24, 2008
OPENING THIS WEEK Daniel’s at garden bistro New landscapes exhibit. 6 Pilot Road, Carmel Valley. 659-5020. dawson cole fine arT Turning Heads: Portraiture by various artists, reception 5-7pm, 7/26. San Carlos and Fifth, Carmel. 624-8200. ...
Mouthwatering Morsels
Culinary questions find delicious answers (and tasty recipes) with Flash in the Pan.
Q: Dear Flash, My boyfriend is a local-foods freak. When we go out to eat, he insists on interrogating the wait staff with questions about where the food comes from. For every menu item he ...
News Updates: House arrest in Big Sur; breathing methyl bromide; dancing in the Pacific Grove streets; tax protest in Seaside.
CACHAGUA HOSTAGES FREED… We’ve reported on the Big Sur residents who felt like they were living under martial law during the Highway 1 mandatory evacuation order. Those who didn’t pack up and flee the fires ...
Innovation proves effective in performance of Mass in B Minor.
This weekend offers Baroque enthusiasts a second opportunity to savor some of the greatest works of music ever composed, while experiencing further innovations and developments at the 71st Carmel Bach Festival. Music director Bruno Weil ...
Hip Hop Hooray:
Ready for ‘90s nostalgia? The Wackness is ill to the core.
The makers of The Wackness would like us to visualize its setting inside a concise set of coordinates: New York City in the early ‘90s, the era of Rudy Giuliani (remember him?), when the streets ...
Great Dame
Pacific Grove product Fred Dame rose from local busboy to president of the Court of Master Sommeliers.
Witnessing him blind taste is mind-boggling– his sniffer is the stuff of legend. Chris Caul, owner of Christopher’s Restaurant in Carmel, has witnessed Fred Dame’s skills in person. “The first time I met him was ...
At Home Alone
Leroy Thrash likes keeping the city clean when no one is up.
It’s 11pm in Monterey and all is quiet. The summer crowds have gone home for the evening, and the only lights that remain on come from the trees that line the streets of downtown. Then ...
Food chain
South Rising
FROM THE ASHES… Hit the south coast last week– bloodies at River Inn, lunch at Big Sur Bakery. It was uplifting to see business going on in Big Sur, folks picking up where Mother Nature ...
Home Page
Integrity of 1910 Salinas home reflects the contractor’s high standards.
Adecade ago, Bill and Simin Grimm bought the 1910 house to refurbish and live in while they fixed it up. Then, they stayed. Impossible as it seems, during their house hunt they asked to see ...
Real Estate
By The Numbers
$705,000 Recent Sale 16 Carneros Ave., Aromas Built: 2005 Size: 2,727 square feet, 1 acre Features: 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2 floors, 2-car garage Amenities: Fireplace, wood floors throughout, luxurious master bath with Roman tub, ...
Step Brothers
R-rested Development: The vulgar immaturity of Step Brothers’ main characters extends to the filmmaking.
Brennan Huff (Will Ferrell) and Dale Doback (John C. Reilly) are 40-year-old losers, unemployed and still living at home with their respective single parents (Mary Steenburgen and Richard Jenkins) when those parents meet and decide ...
¡Ask A Mexican! for Jul 24, 2008
One man's take on his culture's stereotypes
Dear Readers: Gracias, merci, obrigado for the many submissions in our contest asking readers to argue in 25 words why corn tortillas are superior to flour, or vice versa. Below are the winners for some ...
Guitar Hero
The original rock goddess visits Salinas.
For kids who grew up with plastic bangles, spandex and Nintendo, Pat Benatar will always be remembered as the defiant, youthful figure holding her own against the world in the video “Love is a Battlefield.” ...
