LOYAL FLUSH… The Nov. 1 rain may have been a bummer for fans at the canceled Wailers concert, but it was a call to action for volunteers with the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary’s First Flush water quality monitoring program. The season’s first rain brought 45 locals out to collect samples from 20 storm drains. The stormwater, which carries six months of accumulated urban pollution directly into the sanctuary’s protected waters, will be analyzed for metals, nutrients, bacteria, urea and sediment. Copies of previous First Flush reports are available online at montereybay.noaa.gov/monitoringnetwork/events.html. [KA]

RAIL PREVAILS… Using rail cars to ship county crops on a large scale is doable, but questions remain about who will pay for it. A rail-feasibility study and economic assessment has been completed and the results are positive, says Grower-Shipper Association consultant Stephen Collins. “What it really boils down to is how would we structure something like this,” Collins says, “who is going to build it, how much does it cost.” Collins won’t release details until he completes his rounds to elected officials, finishing with the Board of Supervisors on Nov. 11. [ZS]

THE PRICE OF POETRY… After a rough fiscal year for the city of Pacific Grove, the City Council on Nov. 5 (past the Weekly’s deadline) considered amending the 2008-09 budget to add almost $144,000 to the Poetry Promotion Fund. That’s the pot that allows a poet-in-residence to crash in a city-owned house at below-market rent, in exchange for “cultural services.” The money would be used to do needed repairs and pay back an old loan on the house, according to P.G. Budget Director Jim Becklenberg. [KA]

DU-N-IT AGAIN… Cinemark Holdings Inc. announced last week that it will build a 10-screen movie theater within The Dunes on Monterey Bay. The news is the latest in a series of peachy press releases about The Dunes’ progress since the Marina City Council voted to inject $106 million into the previously stalled development. The Cinemark theater will anchor the village-less development’s “village promenade.” [ZS]