The Great Uncrowding
More than 30,000 state prisoners will shift from state to county control starting Oct. 1 – including 300-plus headed to Monterey County.
In Monterey County’s “situation room” at the county probation department, local law enforcement and public health’s top brass – Sheriff Scott Miller, Probation Chief Manuel Real, District Attorney Dean Flippo, Chief Judge Timothy Roberts and ...
Issues / 2011 / Sept 22
Electric Company
Matt the Electrician returns with new tunes, more beard.
Matt Sever, aka Matt the Electrician, has never played by the rules: After a short stint as a journeyman electrician, he decided to move to Austin, Texas – without knowing anything about the city – ...
Local Spin: Risque Business
In the dog-eat-dog world of news, who’s wearing Milkbone underwear?
It’s hard to choose a favorite among the many comic moments from KION-TV’s parsing last week of the Weekly’s Smart Guide. There was the on-air intro, a stern Marc Cota-Robles leading with random nouns: “Hemp! ...
Golden Lochs
Portland’s Loch Lomond throws a whirlwind of instruments at Fernwood’s redwoods.
Seems there’s not one instrument on the planet that Loch Lomond frontman Ritchie Young won’t tackle. He plays everything from the mandolin and concertina to percussion and guitar. “I’m really stubborn,” Young says. “I was ...
Rocking Hunger
Aaron Gillespie’s Hellosomebody Worship Tour makes a stop in Monterey.
Aaron Gillespie’s tour has an admirable mission that goes beyond spreading the word of Jesus through music: raising money through merchandising (a $25 watch feeds 125 people) for nonprofit Hellosomebody to serve needy kids around ...
Moneyball
Pitch Perfect: Brad Pitt, Moneyball win big by moving beyond baseball.
Baseball, it can be said, is no longer a sport for the masses. The games take forever, there’s often not much action, and the prevailing notion that it’s the “American Pastime” is more a vestige ...
Squid Speaks
TREE TAGGERS… Squid once had a neighbor who got his environmental rocks off by slapping “SUVs Heart Terrorist Oil” bumper stickers on parked gas-guzzlers. A sympathetic cause, yes, but Squid doubts any weary working parents ...
Opinion: One man's take on his culture's stereotypes
¡Ask a Mexican! 09-22-11
Dear Mexican: I am a half-breed, and recently I’ve been reading a lot about the drug violence in Mexico. I’ve become increasingly disturbed by the way in which we Americans are directly contributing to this ...
Changing the food system won’t come from Congress, but from educated eaters
In the forty years since the publication of Frances Moore Lappé’s Diet for a Small Planet, a movement dedicated to the reform of the food system has taken root in America. Lappé’s groundbreaking book connected ...
The Public Voice
Letters to the Editor 09-22-11
Into the Breach Many thanks to Kera Abraham for her excellent article on the continuing efforts to restore and preserve the Carmel Lagoon State Park (“Vinyl barrier brokers truce between enviros, homeowners on the Carmel ...
Salsa Season
Keys to a jarring experience from a special character named Roy.
I learned the ways of canning salsa from a used-car salesman named Roy. He looks like Willie Nelson, bandana and all, and speaks with a southern twang thick enough to get your truck stuck in. ...
Debut Bonfire Heights assembles speakers who have changed the world with vision and verve.
It seems so simple. A small, basic lantern, little more than a flashlight, but bright enough to illuminate a small room. In a place like Kenya, though, it can mean everything: a chance to study ...
Brezsny's Astrology September 22-28, 2011
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): “I have a simple philosophy,” said Alice Roosevelt Longworth, a self-described hedonist who lived till the age of 96. “Fill what’s empty. Empty what’s full. Scratch where it itches.” That’s not ...
The Best, Baby
Wine & Dine wow, a Carmel restaurant’s coup and pop-up foot juggling.
We are talking caramelized day boat sea scallops with fingerling potatoes. Fluffy spinach dumplings in a dreamy Parmesan cream sauce. Sixteen-ounce single bone-in prime short rib cooked for four hours in stout beer and homemade ...
To Air, With Humans
Sean D. Tucker, Canadian Snowbirds lead symphony of aerobatics at International Airshow Salinas.
Normally International Airshow Salinas organizers like it when stunt planes lead the news. Not this time. On the heels of the fatal crash that killed 10 at the Reno Air Races a week before its ...
In-N-Out Tug-O-War
Marina courts the cult burger joint; Seaside scouts for a second chance.
Double-double, chocolate shake and fries. That’s the typical In-N-Out order for both Seaside Mayor Felix Bachofner and Marina Mayor Bruce Delgado. As the fast-food company roots for a Monterey Peninsula outpost, both mayors say they ...
Trickle Down
Steve Collins tells his version of the desal story – in a claim against the county.
Enough of the accusations and reports that point fingers at agencies and officials for the alleged conflict of interest ordeal that imperils the Regional Water Project. On to the legal complaints. Stephen Collins, the former ...
Battle Scars
Monterey Peninsula College works with feds to help vets on the edge.
Jeanne OBrien remembers the whirring of the helicopter taking off beside her, then the plank of plywood hitting the back of her head and slamming her forehead into an ammo can. That’s when her memory ...
By The Numbers 09-22-11
Real Estate
$565,000 Recent Sale 4792 Paradise Cove Ct., Seaside Built: 2005 Size: 2,337 square feet Features: 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, 2-car garage Amenities: Fireplace, chef’s kitchen, tub with jets, balcony, landscaped yard Seller: Sue Sato Buyer: ...
Local projects stall as court considers cities’ case against the state.
A court battle over state legislation to eliminate local redevelopment agencies has brought major projects to a halt countywide. “Essentially, everything’s on hold,” says Daphne Hodgson, Seaside’s deputy city manager. That includes redevelopment projects officials ...
Rising Tides
County joins 350.org’s global day of action in making climate change top of mind.
Current climate change research suggests sea levels could rise by as much 2 meters by the century’s end. That figure doesn’t mean much abstracted to a global scale, but when applied to the coastline near ...
Street Talk 09.22.11 (asked @ Caffe Trieste in Monterey.)
Street Talk 09.22.11 (asked @ Caffe Trieste in Monterey.)
Follow-up: Who is your favorite innovative thinker? AIDAN STELZRIED | Student | Pacific Grove A: Jessica Black. She’s inspiring a lot of… bad music. Pop culture is just getting out of hand. Locked Down: John ...
Get Involved
Public Citizen 09.22.11
ONGOING CITY REDISTRICTING | SALINAS – The city redistricting committee invites the public to provide input on redrawing City Council district lines. 6pm. Sept. 28, Laurelwood School, 645 Larkin St.; Oct. 26, Teamsters Hall, 207 ...
Beyond Steinbeck
The Last Otter Hunter tells the story Cannery Row’s definitive historian always wanted to.
When Michael Kenneth Hemp moved to Monterey in 1979, it is tempting to imagine that Doc Ricketts and John Steinbeck breathed a sigh of relief from on high. Over the next decade, the author established ...
