T&A Opens Childcare Center
A new child development center in Spreckels will soon open its doors to migrant worker parents and their kids. The center, called the Migrant Education Program/Tanimura & Antle Child Development Center, is a partnership between the Monterey County Office of Education and produce giant T&A. It is the first of its kind in Monterey County, and is slated to open in early May.

The program will provide adult education, preschool education and daytime child care services. It will also teach basic literacy, and how to access resources. Kids will receive a full academic program in preparation for entering kindergarten.

Designed as a model program to be duplicated by other ag companies, center officials say the business and education partnership will add to T&A's "family environment."

Two onsite classrooms can accommodate up to 48 preschool children. The Migrant Education Program of the Monterey County Office of Education will provide the child development program. T&A provided land and money to build fences, a tool shed and playground equipment.

On Tuesday, April 15, county and T&A officials dedicated the program at a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The facility is located at 121 Spreckels Blvd, Spreckels, in Building 3A. For more information, call 455-9947. [JL]

Panetta Institute Hosts Crisis Talks
Bill Clinton has been invited to deliver one of the four talks that make up the 2003 lecture series at the Panetta Institute, titled "Governing in Crisis: The Role of the Presidency, the Congress and the People."

Leon Panetta, who learned a bit about crisis when he served as Pres. Clinton's chief of staff, invited his former boss to speak on July 2. Clinton has been penciled in to talk about being a president in crisis for the last event in the lecture series.

Three events are confirmed. The first takes place Monday, April 21.

With President Bush threatening nearby Syria before the smoke has settled in Baghdad, not to mention terrorism both real and perceived; the deadly respiratory virus from China; collapsed government budgets at all levels; etc.; America has begun the 21st century in crisis mode. With that in mind, the Panetta Institute series might offer one or two answers for the curious.

To start off the lecture series, this Monday Panetta's guests will discuss the role of the press in times of crisis.

On Monday, April 21, Al Hunt, the Washington editor of The Wall Street Journal, will discuss press responsibilities with Mark Shields, host of CNN's The Capital Gang. Both are highly respected authorities on American politics.

On May 5, the topic will be the role of Congress during crisis. Guest speakers will be former Speakers of the House Tom Foley and Newt Gingrich.

Besides having held the same big job, Foley and Gingrich are both members of the Defense Policy Board, a panel of former politicians and military officers that was in the news recently when chairman Richard Perle resigned because of conflict of interest questions.

The third event, on May 19, will feature former Clinton advisor and rabid political commentator James Carville going head to head with his wife Mary Matalin, an advisor to the first President Bush and until recently, an advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney. They are one of the odd couples of American partisan politics, a husband and wife who work for fierce political rivals.

All the Lecture Series events will be held at the Monterey Conference Center, 1 Portola Plaza, at 8pm. The events are open to Lecture Series ticket holders and will also be televised on local cable channels. Standby tickets and cable broadcast times are available by calling the Panetta Institute at 582-4200. [AS]

Seaside Planners Host Confab
Seaside residents have an opportunity this weekend to provide input for the draft General Plan during a community workshop from 10am to 12 noon on Saturday, April 19 in the city council chambers.

The General Plan is a document that guides the city in all its future planning decisions. It has components to address land use, urban design, traffic, housing and so on. Seaside's General Plan was last updated in 1995; the new version will cover the next 10 years or more.

Last week, Gary Patton, director of LandWatch Monterey County, fired off a letter to the city planning department complaining that the public has not had sufficient time to offer input in the creation of the plan. Patton says that the city has it backwards: Rather than take extensive public comment and engage the community in dialogue during the formulation of the plan, the public will be offered a short window to comment on the draft plan later this summer before it is sent to the council.

"The public isn't going to get it until it's written," Patton says. "The [city is] doing the minimum legally required."

According to the city schedule, a draft plan will be released for public review in late summer with public hearings following in September and October. The final plan is scheduled to be adopted later in the year. [AS]

CSUMB Sponsors Talk on Race
Journalists and community leaders (including Weekly reporter Andrew Scutro) will convene at CSUMB on Tuesday, April 22, to discuss "Ethnicity and Race in a Changing America." The forum is sponsored by the Cal State journalism and media program and the Media Literacy Alliance of the Central Coast. The forum will include clips from four PBS films on the topic: Becoming American: The Chinese Experience, produced by Bill Moyers; Matters of Race, a think-piece featuring a multicultural group of American writers; The Power of an Illusion, which questions the existence of race; and This Far By Faith, about religion in the African American experience.

The panel will also include Carolina Garcia of The Monterey County Herald; Theresa Wright of KSBW-TV; and Yinka Osborne of the Crumpton Elementary School in Marina. Rachele Kanigel, head of the CSUMB journalism program, will moderate. [EJ]

--Jessica Lyons, Andrew Scutro, Eric Johnson