Solar Frays
Will Central California’s proposed place in the sun ruin life for sustainable farmers?
The country road wends inland from Highway 25 to the potholed boondocks: past gravel quarries and scrubby hills, over rocky drop-offs, finally opening into wide green grassland. This lushness is an anomaly; Panoche Valley is ...
Issues / 2010 / Feb 25
Monning's Hero
Regina Mason named Woman of the Year.
Regina Mason has spent much of her life fighting for the disempowered – including the poor, at-risk students, abused children and mental health patients. Although her work is often low-profile, it has touched countless lives. ...
New chief for Monterey County Convention and Visitor's Bureau.
The tourism promotion group's new head comes to Monterey County from Jacksonville, Florida where he leads that city's tourism agency. A nearly 30-year veteran of the hospitality industry, Reyes did an 18-year stint at the ...
Big News
Whaling proposal harpoons international debate.
The International Whaling Commission proposes to legalize commercial whaling - in order to reduce illegal whaling. Despite a 1986 international ban on for-profit whale hunting, which left open a loophole for scientific whaling, Iceland, Norway ...
Big Sur Land Trust acquires a new home in downtown Monterey.
The Big Sur Land Trust is moving out of Carmel's Clock Tower Place and into downtown Monterey's First Federal Court Adobe. BSLT's offices will be at 509 Hartnell Street beginning in September, the nonprofit announced ...
Salinas could cut over 200 jobs
The city of Salinas may eliminate 79 full-time positions and 132 temporary jobs to address a growing budget shortfall, according to a report the City Council will consider tomorrow night. The budget framework includes $9.8 ...
Del Monte Beach cross will rise again in a new location.
The City of Monterey announced Monday March 1 that it has a solution to the controversy over the Del Monte Beach cross which was cut down by vandals last fall. Bishop Richard Garcia of the ...
18-year-old killed by assault in Marina
Juan Guillen, an 18-year-old Seaside resident, was found dead in Marina on Saturday morning, the victim of a violent assault, Marina police say. Police discovered Guillen lying on the sidewalk in front of 3070 Del ...
P.G. recommends extending medical pot moratorium, Carmel mulls ban.
The P.G. City Council will consider whether to extend its 45-day emergency medical marijuana ban for a year at its March 3 meeting. Medical pot entrepreneur Daniel Maniscalco said he had hoped to open his ...
Congressman Sam Farr wants more money for tourism promotion
Remember those dancing raisins? The California Raisin Board paid some $20 million to make SunMaid and other wrinkly grapes unforgettable. Monterey County—or any other part of the country—could cook up a similarly memorable ad campaign ...
Pacific Grove police book burglary suspect.
Pacific Grove police arrested Jordan Pollacci, 20, in connection with two recent burglaries near Lighthouse Avenue and 17 Mile Drive. The first, in early January, happened at a single-family residence; the second, in mid-February, at ...
Yelp sued for allegedly shaking down clients.
Oh, brave new world! Two law firms have filed a class action suit against Yelp for allegedly running an "extortion scheme, shaking down customers for payments in return for deleting negative comments about their business." ...
A shooting occurs at the south end of Seaside.
Thursday, Feb. 25, sometime before 9:45pm, a shooting was reported at the corner of Francis and Tierra in Seaside, one block from Fremont Boulevard. Sgt. Bruno Diaz, on the scene with about a dozen Seaside ...
Local legislators get gold stars from League of Conservation Voters scorecard.
Monterey County's electeds in Washington, D.C. are doing alright, according to the League of Conservation Voters. LCV's National Environmental Scorecard for 2009 gives California Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Sam Farr (D-Carmel) ...
Newcomer Jose Mancera to challenge heavyweight Simon Salinas
Jose Mancera, a Salinas Realtor and Gonzales resident, says he will challenge south county supervisor Simon Salinas in the June election. "Simon Salinas has been around for a while," Mancera says. "I really believe he ...
Get Involved
Public Citizen
THURSDAY 2|25 MOVIE TIME | MONTEREY—Monterey Green Action presents Flow: For the Love of Water, followed by a discussion on graywater and water catchment. 7pm. East Village Coffee Lounge, 498 Washington St., Monterey. montereygreenaction@yahoo.com. BUDGET ...
Real Estate
By The Numbers
$675,000 Recent Sale 627 Spazier Ave., Pacific Grove Built: 1940 Size: 1,800 square feet Features: 3 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, 2-car garage Amenities: Ocean view, original wrought iron fixtures, wood flooring, private garden Seller: Chase Bank ...
Lines in Limbo
Redrawing legislative districts to make them less political stokes political fight.
A battle is brewing over who will draw the state’s legislative district lines after the 2010 Census. That job used to belong to the state Legislature. No more. Too many Californians thought lawmakers drew oddly ...
Give Me Garlic
Robust recipes and flavor resurrections from Seaside to Chamisal.
Say it with me: perfectly garlic-simmered pasilla peppers stuffed with sweet roasted garlic, garlic-crusted pulled pork, jack cheese and queso fresco – on a benevolent bed of handmade porcini-garlic-cream raviolis. That’s a mighty recipe-could-be for ...
Broadway on Ninth
Sunset channels the Big Apple with back-to-back Andrew Lloyd Webber and Christine Ebersole shows.
Christine Ebersole didn’t blink before the shimmering Tony Award crowd as she accepted the 2007 Tony for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical for her role in Grey Gardens. She didn’t pull ...
Unrest in Seaside
Movement to oust City Manager Ray Corpuz gains momentum.
In a closet-sized office with orange-and-yellow walls, two Seasiders stuff envelopes while Al Glover hauls a full bin to the Post Office. Helen Rucker orchestrates the movement of volunteers in and out of the new ...
Noxious Waters
Central Coast water board aims to keep ag pollutants in check
Salinas Valley is home to some of the most polluted waterways on the Central Coast. Moss Landing Harbor is one of the state’s “toxic hot spots.” In some parts of the valley, half the wells ...
Passing health care is not Marxism, but common sense.
This whole political meltdown is getting very old, but things could be even worse. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel told The New York Times recently that the notion that our entire system of ...
Sarajevo Scenes
Covering the Bosnian war was a wake-up call for a former adman turned photojournalist.
Christian Maréchal left a plush job as creative director of a London advertising agency in November 1992, drove across Europe to Croatia and Bosnia, and into Sarajevo. Founded by the Ottoman empire in the 15th ...
New news on old news.
For the Archives…The 43-year-old Pacific Grove Museum Assocation has approved its own extinction. Ninety-two percent of the association’s voting members agreed to transfer the organization’s assets to the Museum Foundation of Pacific Grove, the new ...
Baby-Making Menu
Dining while pregnant births lessons for all eaters.
As a food writer, I’ve long been conscious of what I put in my mouth – from an umami-filled bite of soy-soaked shiitakes, to caramelized pork belly and its unctuous mouthfeel, or the delicate balance ...
The Last Station
War and Piece: Drama about Tolstoy’s troubled marriage is a surprisingly lusty portrait of literary life.
“Practice what you preach” is a saying that has undone many an ideologue, and Leo Tolstoy, one of the world’s great writers and thinkers, struggled with his own appetites, which ran counter to a publicly ...
Cop out Selling Out
Kevin Smith’s new flick isn’t worth a ticket, on an airline flight or in a multiplex.
Shame on Silent Bob. I realize that times is tough and everyone’s gotta make a living, and that that’s probably why Kevin Smith agreed to direct a big-budget studio buddy action comedy. But shame on ...
Squid Fry for Feb 25, 2010
Squid Fry for Feb 25, 2010
OH, CANADA… Squid likes Canada. Squid really does. With its impressive immigrant-driven multiculturalism, striking natural beauty and a population that’s about identical to the Golden State’s, it feels like California’s goofy ice-fishing, horny-for-hockey cousin. Besides, ...
High Spirits
Increasingly supernatural F*ck, I’m a Ghost haunts Woody’s Bayside Grill Friday.
F*ck, I’m a Ghost guitarist-vocalist Quinn Thompson adds tendrils of guitar that wrap around the rhythm of his band’s song “Short Straw” like vines. Inside a dimly lit Pacific Grove home, his vocals barely break ...
Murder of Crow?
The Ryann Crow case holds up a mirror to countless other acts of domestic violence.
Although the circumstances of Ryann Bunnell Crow’s alleged murder are still largely a mystery, domestic violence groups say marital killings are typically the final violent act in an abusive pattern. “People don’t usually murder a ...
Pregnant With Danger
How two hikers got lost in Big Sur backwoods – when one was two months from giving birth.
On the most southern edges of Big Sur awaits a Pacific Valley trail called Pruitt Loop. The 12-mile horseshoe-shaped ramble climbs to a grand elevation of 1,950 feet, weaves in and out of trophy redwood ...
If you were lost, what skills do you have that would help?
Asked at Friday’s CSUMB-CSU East Bay basketball game.
Follow-up: Where is the last place you want to get lost? The best? EMILY SULCER | Sophomore | Psychology Major A: My background in defensive arts. I took karate so I could handle myself. Lost ...
Brezsny's Astrology
Free Will Astrology
Aries (March 21-April 19): “Everything is complicated,” wrote poet Wallace Stevens. “If that were not so, life and poetry and everything else would be a bore.” I hope you will choose his wisdom to serve ...
Letters to the Editor for Feb 25, 2010
ADULT LIT, TOO I enjoyed reading Walter Ryce’s well-researched story on graphic novels (“Getting Graphic,” Feb. 18-24), the cutting edge of literature. But to describe Belle Yang as merely a children’s book author and illustrator ...
Market Madness
P.G. looks to move its farmers market, while a Seaside version debuts.
A farmers market is simple in theory, but the deviled eggs are in the details. Although markets are already established in Monterey, Marina, Salinas and Carmel, small dramas are playing out in the two local ...
Art Listings for Feb 25, 2010
Art Listings for Feb 25, 2010
HAPPENING THIS WEEK ARTISANA GALLERY Restructuring: The gallery devotes its space to a solo show of nearly 20 pieces by Tracy Parker. The paintings and reclaimed mixed media works include new geometric paintings informed by ...
¡Ask A Mexican! for Feb 25, 2010
One man's take on his culture's stereotypes
Dear Mexican: I’m a lifelong resident of Arizona and have worked side by side with illegals for 25 years as a bloquero. In all that time, I never knew ONE of them to be an ...
Fishermen rally against regulations, in D.C. and Monterey.
Today fishermen and their supporters, under the banner "United We Fish," protested in Washington, D.C. for reform of regulations they say are making it nearly impossible to make a living harvesting seafood from domestic waters. ...
