Story Time
Tales of adventure, intrigue, romance and seamonsters? All of the 101-word variety
As if fitting it all into 101 words wasn’t enough of a challenge, this year the Weekly made your lives even more difficult. Not only did your stories have to meet that brief but iconic ...
Issues / 2010 / Dec 30
Monterey Maritime and History Museum Director seeks early exit from her job.
Museum Director Pam Crowe-Weisberg, who joined the staff in late 2009 and has overseen the year-long closure and ongoing revamp of the troubled institution, is reportedly in negotiations with the Monterey History and Art Association ...
Monterey parents to plead charter school case at County Office of Education.
The Monterey Peninsula Unified School District board gave a unanimous thumbs down to a new charter school in the district at its Jan. 3 meeting, paving the way for Bay View Academy's founding parents to ...
The Monterey Jazz Festival brings on a new managing director
A year-long search for a new executive director of the Monterey Jazz Festival landed Chris Doss in the position. Doss will direct day-to-day operations and will work with the Board of Directors and the Artistic ...
Special Edible
Salinas' Internet sensation owes much of his fame to a healthy diet.
Snappy Shelly Steinbeck cracked 1 million web views Dec. 31, making him, according to Salinas Public Library spokespeople, the most famous turtle on the web. See what he eats—and what else makes him tick—at the ...
After surviving gunshot wounds, sea lion is blind but safe
A sea lion that was rescued near Sausalito on Dec. 8 is in stable condition at the Marine Mammal Center, where the 330-pound adult male has started eating fish and vocalizing, says Jim Oswald, communications ...
Special Edible
A look at the many respectable restaurants that launched during the year gone by.
Just months ago, there were no incredible crepes being made by the Viva La Crepe chefs or unbelievable biscuits from Toast Carmel Valley, no rolls coming from the folks at Sakana Sushi or pints from ...
Former Santa Cruz Assemblyman John Laird to head state Natural Resources Agency, according to reports.
The San Jose Mercury News is reporting that former state assemblyman John Laird is expected to be named by Governor Jerry Brown to head the state Natural Resouces Agency. The agency manages parks, fish and ...
Activists file suit against state pesticide agency for methyl iodide approval
A coalition of farm worker advocates and environmentalists filed suit in Alameda County Superior Court Dec. 30, asking the court to roll back the state Department of Pesticide Regulation's controversial decision to approve methyl iodide ...
About Last Night
First Night Monterey was an all-inclusive closing party to 2010.
Everyone was throwing or attending a New Year's Eve party to close out the first decade of the millenium. Locally, though, probably no one place could match the size, scope or the depth of creativity ...
Marina Coast Water District's S&P credit rating raised to AA-
The Marina Coast Water District (MCWD) announced that its Standard & Poor's credit rating has been improved from A+ to AA- in recognition of its "strong financial performance, good liquidity, and strong coverage." “The higher ...
Cult of thinness battles fat acceptance movement and kids still lose.
As President Obama signs the new federal child nutrition bill, flanked by anti-childhood-obesity crusader Michelle Obama, the culture wars have devolved into a food fight – literally. Yet it is a battle in which the ...
Squid Bonanza
Biologically inexplicable boom highlights uncertainty about management.
On Dec. 17, 2010, the California market squid-fishing season was closed for the first time in history. The statewide catch hit the harvest limit of 118,000 tons, with 20,000 tons caught in Monterey Bay and ...
Taxes Cometh
Volunteers prepare to file taxes for low-income earners.
As tax season approaches, United Way Monterey County is training a team of 90 volunteers to prepare taxes for low-income households. Part of the IRS’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program developed 40 years ago, ...
Nurse Without Borders
Seaside man on annual trek to help save lives in Nigerian hometown.
Working in a shed and the garage of his Seaside home, Richard Anyanwu packs boxes with donated pharmaceuticals, stethoscopes and glucose testing strips in preparation for a three-week trip to Nigeria. The volunteer head of ...
What’s your most entertaining short story from your past?
Asked at the Maiden Publick House in Big Sur.
Follow-up: What’s the best story you’ve made up to get out of work? ASHLEIGH POLAND | Bar Manager | Big Sur A: I get gas and there are cops all checking me out. After I ...
Profit margin high, management say layoffs needed to keep it that way.
Nearly 50 Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital workers, including 20 registered nurses and 27 housekeepers and clerical workers, lost their jobs this week in the hospital’s latest round of cost-cutting. The National Union of Healthcare Workers, ...
Brezsny's Astrology
Free Will Astrology
Aries (March 21-April 19): “Just because everything is different doesn’t mean anything has changed,” said writer Irene Peter. That should be cautionary advice for you in 2011, Aries. From what I can tell, it will ...
Real Estate
By The Numbers
$560,000 Recent Sale 4496 Seascape Court, Seaside Built: 2005 Size: 2,465 square feet Features: 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, 2-car garage Amenities: Fireplace, den/office, vaulted ceilings, large fenced backyard Seller: Wells Fargo Bank Buyer: Sharon Coggin ...
The Public Voice
Public Citizen
ONGOING ONE WARM COAT | MONTEREY – The Girl Scouts of Monterey Bay are collecting gently used coats so they can be cleaned and given to someone in need. Children’s coats are especially needed. Bring ...
Letters to the Editor for Dec 30, 2010
CANCER AWARENESS January is National Cervical Health Awareness Month. This is an opportunity to remind women to schedule their annual pap tests and appointments for their children to receive the series of HPV vaccine shots, ...
How Now, J. Brown?
Governor-elect warns of even deeper cuts, locals brace for impact.
During a Dec. 14 budget forum at UCLA, Gov.-elect Jerry Brown predicted dark days ahead for California’s economy. But the question remains: How can it get any worse? With ominous yet vague warnings like “fasten ...
Squid Fry for Dec 30, 2010
Squid Fry for Dec 30, 2010
DEVELOPER CONJUGATION… Just a few years ago, the noun Gerry Kehoe morphed into a past-tense verb around Oldtown Salinas. The Irish-born real estate developer (yeah, that’s it, developer!) wanted to build an ambitious hotel-and-condo project ...
Images as Everything
Exploring a year in portraits helps reveal a community’s identity.
Sometimes you have to follow your subject for hours – through vineyards, a cave, a jeep ride (or seven) and into a hidden, dark cellar – for the one candlelit moment that captures his or ...
¡Ask A Mexican! for Dec 30, 2010
One man's take on his culture's stereotypes
Dear Readers: The failure by the Senate to pass the DREAM Act – which would’ve made citizens out of young adults who came to this country as children and go to college or join the ...
Art Listing for Dec 30, 2010
Art Listing for Dec 30, 2010
HAPPENING THIS WEEK COASTAL ART AND POETRY CONTEST California school children (K-12) are invited to enter their California Coast inspired art, and/or poetry, into this year’s art and poetry contest sponsored by the California Coastal ...
Beasties and Weezy
Exploring the most anticipated 2011 albums, from Radiohead to Red Hot Chili Peppers.
The year 2010 brought Jersey punk rockers Titus Andronicus into the spotlight with its American history-themed The Monitor. There was also Kanye’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, maybe the hip-hop masterpiece of the decade. The ...
High Resolution
Showing how a table beer tap and bull ride are relevant.
In 2011, I will not go to the gym everyday, eat healthier or scale the seven highest summits in the world. I will, however, solemnly resolve to share with you things you should know. There’s ...
Tuned Up
First Night Monterey’s 2010 strong music options ramp up an already incomparable local tradition.
It’s a quarter-to-three on Dec. 31 and you, your sweetie, and your three kids are at Macy’s Furniture at Del Monte Center, waiting for a shuttle bus. Your youngest son, 5, is dashing at nearby ...
True Grit
True Grit includes beautiful performances but lacks pop.
It slips by almost unnoticed. Mattie Ross, relating her own tale of her adventures with U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn, mentions her sister twice… and calls her by two different names. First she is Victoria, then ...
Gulliver's Travels
Black Out: Gulliver’s Travels doesn’t go much of anywhere.
As disinterested in itself as Gulliver’s Travels seems to be, it’s a wonder it ever came into existence at all. The film reveals little exertion made on behalf of the narrative, lackadaisical attention paid to ...
UFW co-founder is making methyl iodide her new mission.
Dolores Huerta at 80 years old has more energy in her voice than some people half her age. Famous (there are a lot of old timers who likely would use the word “notorious” – and ...
Best Year Ever
A trifecta of music playmakers reflect on an incomparable 2010.
Musically , the year gone by was a monstrous one for Monterey County. Bob Dylan, Arcade Fire and Agent Orange all graced the Central Coast with their presence. Conor Oberst and the Felice Brothers played ...
Top Picking
Ag Against Hunger fuels food banks with discarded nourishment.
Ag Against Hunger is the ultimate example of a simple idea – one spark – put into great action. Without the Spreckels-based nonprofit, 11 million pounds of produce would have ended up in compost heaps ...
Habanero’s Grill & Cantina
Habanero’s Grill & Cantina’s atypical approach works in downtown Monterey.
Sibling rivalry is nonexistent in Dennis Barwick’s family – his food and entertainment family, that is. Habanero’s Grill and Cantina, which opened on Sept. 17, joins sister establishments Bellagio Pizzeria (404 Tyler St.) and Luxe ...
Washington celebrates 25 years of CRP
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the 25th anniversary of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) in Washington last week. "Although it was designed to address soil erosion, CRP has become one of the standouts in the ...
The Facebook furor, Bach rocks in Carmel, Dylan’s defiance and why California is still cool.
Call it the year of lame-duck achievements. Without attempting to gild the lily, 2010 ended better than it began. Here’s hoping the new year will bring us better times – and better luck. That said, ...
