Opinion / Local Spin / Localspin
Colorado shooting should inspire stronger gun control.
A topic of discussion around the newsroom is this: What are the sure-fire ways to tick people off in print? The answer inevitably comes down to two subjects: criticize a powerful religion, or criticize the ...
An unapproved trip into the belly of Monterey Downs.
I am standing in the middle of what, in a few years, might be the parking lot of the low-income housing that Brian Boudreau and his partners have planned as part of the equestrian-themed development ...
Ugly events can be manageable with informed compassion.
Two columns for the price of one, on the theme of life or death, and how to do both with dignity. One: I frequently receive email from a regular reader, a smart man with definite ...
The final painful days bring more than suffering.
Here’s what I realized in the past week (and I swear, this will be my last dying-mother story in these pages): If Oliver, my smelly little Jack Russell mix, is suffering so badly that recovery ...
A daughter struggles with her mother’s imminent passing.
My mother is dying. Not in the philosophical way that we’re all dying, not in a general “the future is promised to no one” way. There is an expiration date – I can’t see this ...
Bad advice drives Byrl Smith’s campaign to cynical places.
On Monday morning, Rick Taylor, the Los Angeles-based operative managing Byrl Smith’s campaign in the 4th District County Supervisor’s race, called to say he understood Smith – whom the Weekly categorically did not endorse – ...
Nonprofit printer on Soledad Street takes to social media.
Michael Scharen has an advanced degree in physics from Kent State University, credit for helping Nobel Prize-winning physicist J. Robert Schrieffer write a few papers and a work history that includes dot-com-era stints as an ...
Former water commish’s attorneys go document hunting.
Raise your hand if you have been employed by the county, or serve on a public board somewhere in the county. Now wiggle your fingers up if the word “desal” entered your lexicon in the ...
Smart tax prep puts more dollars into the community.
Lori is a single mom with two kids in college. She works full-time at a local jewelry store and her daughters work part-time as well. With an annual salary of $20,000, her budget is very ...
Anti-methyl iodide professor says it’s time for alternatives.
On the morning the public relations team at Arysta LifeSciences was polishing a release announcing the company was yanking the strawberry fumigant methyl iodide from the U.S. market (a statement most notable for the sheer ...
A lesson in community engagement through SVMH.
Hazel Tompkins seemed bemused at the sight of all of her new-found compatriots. Until recently, I overheard her saying, she often found herself mostly alone in the audience at the regular meetings of the Salinas ...
Public opinion, campaign season – we’re all really cranky.
Today’s dish: anger, two ways. One: I discovered a great way to tick people off, and for once, it’s got nothing to do with desal scandals, the Diocese of Monterey, controversial ag fumigants, or, hell, ...
Finding hope in the fall of Prop. 8 and the rise of Gives!
Two columns for the price of one: The first on the number eight, and the second on a much larger number. One. As much as I hated living in Berkeley, and boy did I ever, ...
Capital defenders seek to replace the death penalty.
In just a few short weeks, on Presidents’ Day weekend, more than 1,000 criminal defense attorneys, investigators and experts will gather at Monterey Conference Center, as they have for 25 years, to hone their skills ...
A community waits to see where Salinas Valley Memorial money is going.
In April 2011, healthcare industry hired gun Lowell Johnson was brought in by the board of the Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System to do a very specific job: Get the board out of the mess ...
A public process for an invite-only crowd.
Stakeholder: [steyk-hohl-der] A person or group that has an investment, share, or interest in something, as a business or industry. You know, most days I feel pretty damn invested in Monterey County. I live in ...
A 2-year-old girl’s death spotlights media tendencies.
Fermin Gonzales was drafted by the U.S. Army in 1967, sent to the jungles of Southeast Asia and witnessed the kinds of things that nobody, much less a boy barely old enough to be away ...
Marina Coast takes a new and bizarre blood oath.
Of the following scenarios, which seems to be the most implausible?: A) The Marina Coast Water District board (or, as I affectionately refer to them, the Insane Clown Posse), citing no government code in existence, ...
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 ...
A season of frustration can easily transform.
I spend a great deal of time (more time, in fact, than would seem reasonable) positing this single question: What’s wrong with people? It’s something of an occupational hazard. The people in question this week ...
Assange is a necessity. Can the same be said for Amazon.com?
By all accounts, jerk is not a big enough word to describe Julian Assange as a human being. His number two man recently defected to start a rival to Assange’s WikiLeaks, saying there was now ...
Methyl iodide finds friends in unusual places.
Private equity investment – the placement of funds into a company not publicly traded on a stock exchange – is nothing new in agri-business. Examples abound all over the Salinas Valley, from HM Capital Partners ...
Local is good, but cash beats plastic.
Sandwiched between Black Friday (the day bricks-and-mortar retailers hope the red ink on their books will turn black)and Cyber Monday (when URL-ready retailers hope customers will click their way to the biggest online shopping day ...
As Boehner postures, we all suffer.
Seemingly from the very second he realized he was the man who would be king, Ohio Republican John Boehner has been beating his anti-health-care-bill drum even more loudly than before. Boehner, who becomes Speaker of ...
What does a dollar mean in the greater scheme of things?
First United Methodist Church, along with friends from local Catholic and Episcopal congregations, will pump out about 60,000 meals this year from a small kitchen, feeding the homeless, working poor, children, the elderly and others ...
We can only make our community better if we engage in it.
“You live in Salinas? Like, on purpose?” I get that one a lot. It’s true: I live in Salinas, on purpose. I grew up on the South Side of Chicago and came to Salinas more ...
A pasture-raised egg farm only made cents.
It was July. The tomatoes I planted early were late. Drizzle that does not burn off causes mold problems. The tomato future was not bright with a cold, wet summer like this. After almost a ...
Measure P is a wise investment in the Peninsula’s students.
As a parent of a child in the Monterey Peninsula school system, I thought I knew about the condition of our schools because of the many hours I’ve spent volunteering in the classroom over the ...
Pacific Grove Public Library needs the proposed parcel tax.
Measure Q, a parcel tax on the Nov. 2 ballot, had its beginnings in the Library Summit of February 2010, when more than 100 citizens came out to share ideas for the funding and improvement ...
Endorsements Pt II
The Weekly’s picks for local candidates and measures in the Nov. 2 election. (Unopposed offices are not endorsed.)
COUNTY SHERIFF/CORONER | Scott Miller Incumbent Sheriff Mike Kanalakis has a tough job. In the most contentious and commented-on race in the county, there’s zero debate about that. Only problem is, he’s often the first ...
Endorsements
The Weekly editorial board’s recommendations on state and national choices in the Nov. 2 election.
NATIONAL OFFICES U.S. SENATE | Barbara Boxer Boxer shouldn’t be facing such a tough re-election campaign. Her opponent, Carly Fiorina, is a hard-right global-warming denier who by most accounts couldn’t even control her own boardroom ...
Peninsula city managers make the case for a fire merger.
The proposed Monterey Peninsula Regional Fire Consolidation needs to be supported and approved. It is a sound proposal and compares favorably with all of the other alternatives that have been suggested. Here’s how it would ...
Assemblyman Bill Monning samples from his new paperback.
Too often, discussions of complex issues are reduced to sound bites. So I recommended to state Assemblyman Bill Monning (D-Carmel) that he write a book that would discuss his vision for our state. Not long ...
Even locavore ALBA staffers can get lazy with lunch.
On a recent foggy morning, I drove with two food activist companions down a long, dusty road in Salinas towards a hotbed of contradictions. We were on our way to visit one of the beacons ...
A fond farewell, and a word of thanks to a remarkable crew.
It was a perfect Labor Day weekend. My wife and I headed out to the County Fair, bumping up against the kids excited about the rides and the cotton candy, and made sure to check ...
It’s time to face the facts—and for Guillen to go.
What did Carmel city officials know about the Rich Guillen scandal, and when did they know it? The answers to those questions appear depressingly clear. The mayor and city councilmembers knew in May 2008 about ...
More Than a Fluke
Big lessons from schooling with the whales in Monterey Bay.
One father of three from France said, “For you, this is everyday. For us, it is magic.” A woman from Sacramento nervously admitted she’d never been on the ocean before. Once she saw three blue ...
Carmel Valley Road’s free right turn lane should stay.
For anyone who lives in Carmel Valley, the last couple of months have been a driving godsend. I’m not referring to being able to gawk at $500,000 Aston Martins or racing past a slow Lamborghini ...
John Laird for 15th State Senate district seat.
Demonizing the enemy is the oldest trick in politics.
What Steinbeck might say to a Salinas haunted by gangs.
The most recent spate of violence in Salinas has left a trail of blood. Gang violence took the lives of two men Friday night in a week that saw nine shootings in three days, the ...
Sherrod story illuminates what’s poisoning politics.
“There’s an old saying that life is a grindstone, but whether it grinds us down or polishes us up depends on us,” Shirley Sherrod said, at the end of the now-famous speech to the National ...
California school crisis requires willpower.
In May of this year, the Board of Trustees of San Luis Coast Unified School District, the largest district in San Luis Obispo County, voted unanimously to inform the California School Boards Association that no ...
Going for the green ain’t always a bad thing.
The story of the week, of course, was the competition – and the surprise ending – at the U.S. Open. The sagas of Phil Mickelson’s Friday surge, Tom Watson’s farewell round and Tiger’s electrifying return ...
John Laird is the Weekly’s pick for State Senate seat.
Voters have a rare opportunity to cast a particularly meaningful ballot in the special June 22 election for the 15th District State Senate seat. It is rare because this is a special election, with just ...
Getting axed from HP doesn’t qualify Fiorina for Senate.
As the current California contests illustrate, we may still be living in a land with the best political system money can buy. The startling rise of Carly Fiorina to Republican senatorial nominee is a case ...
Playing the blame game won’t end the political mess.
It’s election season, so the candidates have been traipsing across the county, and the country, to compete for the questionably desirable honor of holding public office at a time when: a) there’s less money to ...
Local linguists lobby D.C. to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
Three former military linguists from Monterey County joined the Veterans Lobby Day to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in our nation’s capitol last week, assembling more than 400 lesbian, gay and bisexual veterans from 44 ...
Tough love, smart solutions to street and gang violence.
It was a quiet Sunday night. My wife and I were having dinner at Pho King, the Vietnamese place on Fremont Boulevard, when four teenage kids started getting into it on the corner. I don’t ...
New “compromise’’ puts the species in greater jeopardy.
Given the state of California’s economy, any loss of gray whale tourism will impact many coastal communities. A draft proposal currently under consideration by the International Whaling Commission will, if accepted, put whales and the ...
The real cost of a water solution outweighs the objections.
There’s been a lot of talk over the past few weeks about the regional water supply project. Any project of this size and significance will have its critics, and concerns have been raised about its ...
HER Helmet Thursdays cuts carbon emissions and costs.
Iasked a local businessman what Earth Day brought to mind. His response: “Taking a day off from oil.” Not a bad idea. And it’s not only doable; it can be fun. A Monterey Bay Aquarium ...
Closed-door desal deals are the wrong approach.
In the past two weeks, there’s been a lot of talk about a Regional Project to address the water supply problem on the Monterey Peninsula. In a flurry of activity, the Board of Supervisors, Marina ...
Thanks for getting the joke – even if you didn’t.
When the prospect of doing an April’s Fool issue first came up at an editorial news meeting a few months ago, I thought it was lousy idea. “Satire is what closes on Saturday night,” as ...
California campaign finance reform starts with baby steps.
On June 8, California voters will have the opportunity to remove the taint of large campaign contributions from state elections, at least on a trial basis for the secretary of state in 2014 and 2018. ...
Legal squabble reinforces Carmel’s contentious reputation.
The latest ruling in the Flanders Mansion case underscores how the issue’s been mishandled by Carmel Mayor Sue McCloud and her City Council followers. In a recent decision, Monterey County Superior Court Judge Kay Kingsley ...
Memory of Pacific Grove’s historic Chinese village lingers.
T he fire changed everything. The May 17, 1906 blaze that swept through most of the Chinese village at Point Alones seared not only the landscape of the Monterey Peninsula, but the memories and histories ...
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 ...
Pending laws hit the small farmer – and food safety – hard.
It’s getting difficult to name a food that hasn’t caused a pathogen outbreak. Bagged salad, peppers, beef, and peanuts are just some staples that have been caught spreading E. coli, salmonella and others. These outbreaks ...
Enjoying the moment doesn’t mean giving up the fight.
Asign in front of the Friendship Missionary Baptist Church on Broadway in Seaside reads: “Mother McFadden Appreciation. 2-14 10:45 a.m. All are welcome.” The service will be conducted by Rev. Anthony D. Dunham. I won’t ...
Obama needs to fulfill his legacy, and the nation’s.
This is not a fun piece to write, and it may not be one that’s enjoyable to read. If, like me, you’re someone who believes in the hope Barack Obama represents, it’s a drag to ...
Media News “restructuring” is just more double-talk.
Given the biblical proportion of the headlines recently, it comes as almost comic relief that Dean Singleton, head honcho of Media News, the newspaper publishing conglomerate that owns The Monterey County Herald and 53 other ...
Seeds of Change
Gridlock in Copenhagen conference halls, green gumption on the streets.
It was quite a farcical scene outside Copenhagen’s Bella Center during the final days of negotiations at COP-15 (the United Nations Convention on Climate Change). While the rest of Europe was hit with pre-Christmas blizzards ...
Reforms are needed to protect the California dream.
As Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced his budget proposal for the coming fiscal year this week, California continues to confront a state of dire emergency. The governor is expected to ask for billions of dollars in ...
Problematic proposals for California’s budgetary woes.
Change – and frustration – are in the air. Some of the outcry about the compromises in the health care bill that’s likely headed to President Barack Obama’s desk has been directed at the ability ...
The tangled legacy of the psychedelic movement.
Drugs, sex and rock ‘n’ roll – it seemed like such a good idea at the time, at least to some of us. But like most slogans (with the possible exception of giving peace a ...
Obama, and the rest of us, face grave choices in Afghanistan.
It’s probably the most important decision of his young presidency. The fate of American troops – and the lives of Afghani men, women and children – rest on the outcome of Barack Obama’s speech this ...
Aging with dignity should be a right.
I’m writing this from the vantage point of my age: 86 years and ten months. I am in countdown mode and don’t quite know how to deal with it. I’m thinking of the years in ...
Portola’s real landing place – Pacific Grove.
The latest problem with reinstalling the 1969 Portola-Crespi Cross on Del Monte Beach is not a problem of separating church from state, but rather a problem of separating fact from fiction. There is compelling historical ...
'Weekly' web redesign offers joyful bundling of content.
Having never given birth myself, I’m going completely on hearsay from Mrs. Cushman when I sometimes compare difficult tasks to bearing children. From where I was standing, it certainly looked like hard work, but all ...
Irreverent rag remains relevant to current issues.
Warren Hinckle, who figures prominently in the new book A Bomb In Every Issue: – How The Short, Unruly Life of Ramparts Magazine Changed America, once took a taxi from San Francisco to Quail Lodge ...
Obama’s Nobel deserves a better reception.
It’s been a time of bad news locally, punctuated by (relatively) good news globally. The surprise announcement that Barack Obama has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize is a welcome reminder of the progress we’ve ...
Victory over budget cuts is sweet, but problems persist.
“We Won!” shouts the press release from the Pelican Network, the electronic town criers for Big Sur-based Coastal Habitat. “Governor backs down completely. No parks will be closed.” The decision by Governor Schwarzenegger and his ...
New fault lines in politics, pop culture.
It took awhile for the message to sink in, but rednecks all across this great land finally seem to have realized that someone of African-American descent was elected President last November. Apparently, they don’t like ...
A response to the state’s annual LBAM report.
The California Department of Food and Agriculture recently released its annual report to the California State Legislature on its light brown apple moth eradication program. The report continues the agency’s pattern of relaying inaccuracies about ...
Irish wake marks renewal of purpose.
The rites of passage surrounding Ted Kennedy’s death walked the line between the moving and the maudlin. But at the end of the day, one message arose between the tears and laughter, the innumerable acts ...
Checking in, after 12 months in the trenches.
F.Scott Fitzgerald begins The Great Gatsby with a description of Nick Carraway’s move from the Midwest to Long Island. “It was lonely for a day or so until one morning some man, more recently arrived ...
P.G., Del Rey Oaks fiddle while Salinas burns.
Where to begin? Times of crisis are supposed to bring out our best, not worst instincts, but you sure can’t tell it by what’s going on around here lately. Start with Pacific Grove, where longtime ...
Health care is too important to put off.
It was another confusing week, but when the dust settled, one thing was clear: Health-care legislation had passed the U.S. House of Representatives and was headed to the Senate. It’s unlikely that lawmakers will act ...
California politicians need to get real.
“When I am in California, I am not in the West. I am west of the West,” Teddy Roosevelt famously observed. The latest edition of the state budget meltdown – call it Dysfunctionality 2.0 – ...
Cal Am favors cooperative solutions to water dilemmas.
At California American Water, our mission is to provide the Monterey Peninsula with clean and healthful water in the most cost-effective and environmentally responsible method possible. Last week, a commentary published in this space (“Water ...
Are Cal Am’s proposals good for the county, or just Cal Am?
It is high noon for public opinion about a new water supply. The state Public Utilities Commission will hold local public hearings on July 13 and 14 in Monterey and Seaside on three competing options, ...
Hail and farewell to Monterey Live.
During its tumultuous and less-than-profitable run, Monterey Live served the community in a fundamentally important way, by bringing diverse and exemplary brands of music back to Monterey. (See news story) From sold-out family parties with ...
Will Israeli and Arab leaders get the message?
The bold resolve of U.S. President Barack Obama to settle the Arab-Israeli conflict poses a clear challenge to Israel’s right-wing Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Obama’s challenge to Arab leaders is equally great: He is offering ...
Proposition 8 decision sows seeds of discord.
It was Election Night 2008, and amidst the general newsroom euphoria about the Obama victory (let’s dispense with the false pieties about “objectivity” – everyone here was relieved that our long national nightmare was coming ...
What went wrong, and how to fix it.
When voters cast their ballots on May 19, they weren’t just saying “no” to the propositions; they were saying “no” to the Sacramento status quo. Can we really expect voters to support propositions put on ...
Hold your nose, but vote for Props 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E and 1F.
California is in a huge fiscal mess. Ever since the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, requiring a two-thirds majority vote to raise taxes, the state has lacked a sane way to address its fiscal ...
Panetta Institute Roves far afield.
The Panetta Institute for Public Policy at CSUMB is doing just what it should be doing – helping “our communities and our county meet the challenges of the 21st century,” as it says in the ...
A cultural renewal amidst challenging times.
Don’t tell anyone, but there’s been a cultural renaissance going on around these parts. The Golden State Film Festival has been bringing in some of the most renowned filmmakers in the world to Monterey County, ...
YAC’s art projects have ripple effects for old and young alike.
As concerned community members, parents and artists, and in the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, we opened Youth Arts Collective nine years ago, in downtown Monterey. YAC, a 501c3 nonprofit organization, is an after-school ...
Being green is easy, but it’s hard being green enough.
T he Monterey County Business Council’s new StepUp2Green building certification program promises a range of easy steps we can take to reduce energy use. If StepUp2Green is modeled after the Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star ...
Why can’t Salinas do what Santa Barbara did?
Recently, there have been many emotional letters written regarding Salinas’ gang problems. I suppose it’s not enough that our economy is in crisis but now our community must also worry about having our freedom threatened ...
Observations of a first-term legislator.
While I share the frustration expressed in Weekly Publisher Erik Cushman’s commentary, “Legislators are bailing on California’s fiscal crisis,” (“Dire Straits for the State,” Jan. 29-Feb. 4), I’m disappointed he didn’t offer a more detailed ...
Global warming and deficit reduction are not incompatible.
The California Legislature must pass a new budget to close an estimated $40 billion deficit. While there have been discussions about how to accomplish this, without increased revenue there’s no feasible solution. The state is ...
It’s time to do more than “imagine” a great Salinas.
t’s been a great week for America – and a terrible time for Monterey County. As Barack Obama takes office, the hopes of the nation, and the world, rest on his skinny shoulders. Luckily, the ...
Panetta’s nomination makes good political and moral sense.
The choice of Leon Panetta as the next director of the Central Intelligence Agency is such a good decision by President-elect Barack Obama that it was bound to draw criticism– and it has. California’s own ...
He may find new job a spooky choice.
For an agency whose job it is not to be surprised, nearly everything seems to surprise the CIA these days. So it’s not surprising that the agency was surprised by the choice of Leon Panetta ...
Mayor Bruce Delgado shakes up city hall in promising start.
It’s nice – and rare – to see a politician living up to his campaign promises. So it was good to see that Marina Mayor Bruce Delgado was good to go at his swearing-in ceremony ...
An Aquarian visits the Aquarium.
I visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium on Sunday to take advantage of the free admission policy for local residents and the joint was jumping. The deal, which is on through Dec. 14, is a way ...
Community organizing is the path to survival.
In the modern world, where it takes a minute – or a keystroke – to connect with someone continents away, we’ve become comfortable with the idea of a global community. Our “marketplace” has gotten larger ...
Saving a rebellious writer’s hometown library.
O n Sunday, Oct. 19, a miracle occurred in Salinas. All three branches of the Salinas Public Library stayed open on a Sunday, for the first time in more than 30 years. And they will ...
