The People V. Eva Ruiz-Gomez
A Family-court battle turns ugly as a mom faces felony charges of interfering with the rights of her son’s father. the teen at the heart of it wonders why the courts won’t listen to him.
Eva Ruiz-Gomez steps through the double doors of Courtroom 13 at the Monterey County Superior Courthouse, her long, dark hair pulled back from her face, and asks for a phone. “I need a phone. I ...
Issues / 2012 / Dec 06
Your Brain on Water
An area scientist takes a psychological approach to advocate for the ocean.
Marine biologist Wallace J. Nichols is embarking on a new journey into the science of the sea. The path he’s taking: our brains. His Blue Mind project is an in-depth study of how the brain ...
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Spencer Silver was a co-inventor of Post-it notes, those small, colorful pieces of paper you can temporarily attach to things and then remove to use again and again. Speaking about the ...
By The Numbers 12.06.12
Real Estate
$963,000 Recent Sale 103 Laurel Dr., Carmel Valley Built: 1978 Size: 3,718 square feet Features: 4 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, 2-car garage, 2 acres Amenities: 2 fireplaces, granite and wood floors, deck, study, approved for horses ...
Beaten Down
Business owners, homeless advocates aim for a fragile peace after brutal attack.
Last Thursday at Dorothy’s Place, a lively Salinas soup kitchen, a group of homeless men and women sat down to tell stories about their friend who was nearly beaten to death in October. That same ...
California Scrapin’
U.S. Census ranks the state as the poorest in the nation.
Anew poverty measurement by the U.S. Census Bureau indicates nearly a quarter of Californians are poor, giving the state the highest poverty rate in the nation. The Supplemental Poverty Measure, first released last year and ...
Tarnished Brass
NPS president and provost booted over violations; contract worker remains on staff.
Former Naval Postgraduate School President Dan Oliver allegedly decided one prospective employee was valuable enough to risk the rules. So he finagled federal hiring guidelines, arranging to get her on staff for higher pay through ...
Payback Time
Obscure Seaside Watermaster board vote makes desal plant bigger
Monterey County already has enough water agencies to drown in. Each one is neck-deep in legal and technical issues few can understand, but many pay for. Last week, the most under-the-radar water agency of all ...
Letters To The Editor 12.06.12
Air Ball Whoa. What timing. Don’t know where you were – or where last week’s cover story (“What About Bob,” Nov. 28-Dec. 5) was – when you heard that Andrew Bogut pulled the plug on ...
Analyzing the nastiest detail of a brutal Salinas beating.
He was walking away. That’s the thing people don’t yet realize because nobody has yet put it out there. So here it is, in all its grim and ugly reality: Police say the homeless man ...
Squid Speaks
LABOR’S LOVE LOST… Squid figured it was a lock when ex-Coastal Commissioner Mark Stone recommended Monterey County Supe Jane Parker to his empty spot. But a funny thing happened to Parker on her way to ...
Late Bloomer
Peace of Mind Dog Rescue give senior dogs like Lily a second chance.
Lily’s future didn’t look so bright. The 6-year-old Hollister stray, a black-and-white Chihuahua-rat terrier mix, was headed to the shelter where she would join a lot of other Chihuahua mixes, many of them younger and ...
Read All Over
Even as national book chains sputter, local booksellers see a bright future.
When Matt Sundt’s mother decided to clear out her cookbook collection – some 2,500 strong, including titles like Cooking with Love and Butter, a 1977 paperback, and Tennessee Favorites, including a page of instructions for ...
Lighthouse Presents
The independent movie house screens a winter’s harvest of holiday films and much, much more.
Holiday films have long earned a place in December’s occurrences of chorales and carols, Nutcracker dances and Christmas plays, traditional meals and shopping deals. In the rush to harness the tide, Century Cinemas has got ...
Great State
A pair of Americana Music Award winners from two different eras comes to the Golden State Theatre.
It was “sheer blind luck” that film critic Roger Ebert stumbled upon John Prine one evening back in 1970. Prine – a mailman by day and underground folk hero by night – was reluctantly performing ...
Musically Gifted
Seven thoroughly original holiday gifts for music lovers that won’t break the bank.
The Beatles 180g Remastered Vinyl (Siren Trading Co., 527 Ramona Ave., Monterey; 920-2801; $22.95) Since 1995, Siren Trading Co. has been peddling vinyl via the Internet. A couple months back, they set up a physical ...
Street Talk 12.06.12 (asked in downtown Monterey.)
What’s taken for granted about the ocean?
Follow-up: What is the best part about living close to the ocean? KAYT GREEN | Author | Pacific Grove A: The otters and wildlife. People make choices that threaten the natural habitat. This area is ...
Don’t Be a Tool
With gift-giving season here, the best gift for a cook might be food, not elaborate gadgets.
Based on the variety of ice cream scoops on the market – 1,529 from Amazon alone – one might conclude the world faces a crisis of improperly or inconveniently excavated ice cream. I think it’s ...
Sweet Spot
At brand-new Room for Dessert, every cookie, cake pop and cup of tea comes with the lost art of… love.
You’d be forgiven for not knowing about Tammy Huniker’s first Room for Dessert restaurant. While independent, it’s tucked on Notre Dame High School’s campus, giving the all-girls Catholic student body breakfast, lunch and game-night grub. ...
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Searching for Bilbo: Anticipation builds as The Hobbit nears, and it’s a good reminder to channel your inner hero.
“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit… ” is what Oxford professor J.R.R. Tolkien once absentmindedly scribbled on an exam book. When that line led him into his first book, The Hobbit, ...
Playing for Keeps
Losing Game: No one wins in Playing For Keeps.
Of all the great mysteries of Hollywood, Gerard Butler’s appeal is chief among them. He’s confident, has an accent, can sing and had nice painted-on abs in 300, granted, but none of that forgives the ...
Surf’s Uppity
Ventana tourist package pisses off Big Sur waveriders.
In Big Sur’s surfing culture, respect is earned by time on the water. So one hotel’s effort to attract surfing tourism has the tight-knit community snapping. Ventana Inn & Spa in Big Sur has partnered ...
Public Citizen 12.06.12
THURSDAY 12 | 6 CEREMONIOUS COUNCIL | SEASIDE – Mayor Ralph Rubio and council members Ian Oglesby and Dave Pacheco are sworn in and outgoing Mayor Felix Bachofner and councilman Steve Bloomer are honored. 7:30pm. ...
