Thursday, June 30
Game theory takes on big issues, including education and global warming.
In summer 2009, the UK’s Guardian newspaper had a problem: an enormous pile of receipts. British politicians had been caught filing what would total millions of pounds’ worth of bogus personal expenses. To try to ...
Squid Speaks
LACKING INSIGHT… What’s cuter than kittens boxing on the Internet? Rednecks getting together and saying, “Hey, let’s develop a news site with a bunch of our semi-literate friends and make our M.O. all about hating ...
Opinion: One man’s take on his culture’s stereotypes
¡Ask a Mexican! 06.30.11
Dear Mexican: Just suppose that all of the southwestern United States had remained in Mexican hands. Would the Mexicans have done any better with it than they have with the present confines of Mexico? - ...
Great Un-Housed
Monterey County’s homeless population climbs as critical services are cut.
The worst moments in Danny Osborn’s 30 years living in a tent near Sand City came when teens walking in the dunes destroyed encampments for fun. “What I worry about is somebody stealing my stuff,” ...
Budget on Defense
Death penalty cases spike defense costs for taxpayers, but cuts still loom large.
The Monterey County Public Defender’s office is facing a nearly $300,000 shortfall for the fiscal year that ends this week – due almost entirely to the high costs of two cases in which defendants could ...
Business Time
Castroville “living laboratory” empowers entrepreneurs.
Downtown Castroville’s looking sharp these days, and it’s not just the thistles on its world-famous artichokes. Fresh coats of paint adorn established businesses, and new window displays lure in patrons. “Before, people couldn’t really see ...
Playing Tag
Electronic tracking project probes the secret lives of Pacific predators.
Hipster humans aren’t the only creatures who lurk in cafes. White sharks, black-footed albatrosses and albacore tuna have their own watery equivalent in a hot spot between Baja California and Hawaii. That’s one finding of ...
Netting a New Energy Source
Farr-backed partnership cuts fishermen’s costs, pollution.
Like wind and ocean currents collaborating on the weather, public and private forces are working together to turn old fishing gear into power. Plastic and metal netting, natural and synthetic ropes, and seafood traps are ...
International Independence
Esalen International Arts Festival does a global-style of Fourth of July celebration.
Meklit Hadero has a way with words, whether in English or Amharic, the national language of Ethiopia. Her lyrics are meaningful – “I like simple things, but life ain’t so simple,” she sings, “no one’s ...
Street Talk 04.28.11 (asked @ Asked at the U.S. Post Office in Marina.
)
What’s the most patriotic thing you can do?
Follow-up: What’s the classic All-American meal? KRISTINA BECK | Student | Marina A: Join the military. I’ve dated a lot of military guys and I saw their love for the country grow. Their values were ...
We have noble heroes, but my favorites are obnoxious.
Looking at the Weekly’s list of Local Heroes for 2011 is a humbling experience. A woman who teaches children to become micro-entrepreneurs, and in doing so, mentors them through a summer that might otherwise be ...
Get Involved
Public Citizen 06.30.11
THURSDAY 6 | 30 COST OF WATER | PACIFIC GROVE – Water Plus presents a forum for Cal Am ratepayers, “The Cost of Doing Nothing.” Panelists will cover the history of water on the Monterey ...
Five for the Fourth
Down-home city celebrations mark the main local draws.
William Faulkner described independence best: “We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.” Despite several fireworks shows on hold because of demolished budgets, this year’s Monterey County Fourth of ...
Study in Style
Jackie Greene, Blonde Redhead offer two different (and wildly popular) musical approaches in Big Sur.
“There are no greater truths than those learned through the miracle of song,” Jackie Greene writes in the introduction to Gone Wanderin’: The Songs of Jackie Greene 2001-2011. “All is exposed. A lyric may unearth ...
Transformers - Dark of the Moon
The newest Transformers soars over low expectations.
Former film director Michael Bay isn’t known for his subtlety, and Transformers: Dark of the Moon has about as much of it as a phased-plasma rifle to the back of the head. I say former ...
The Tree of Life
A world wrought by Terrence Malick plays out starkly and painfully through the lens of one family’s life.
Years ago, a fraternity at San Jose State University mischievously sent two of its members to stand outside of the student union building, look up and point at the building. When they did, passing students ...
Letters To The Editor 06.30.11
It’s Academic Bay View Academy will open August 15 (“Bay View Academy charter school finally finds space, and the students to fill it,” June 23-29). BVA has state and county approvals, grants and students, with ...
Sow Special
The Garden Party gives home growers crucial aid in cultivating organic vegetables and herbs.
Helaine Tregenza has done it again. Guru of the home and commercial garden installation business The Raised Bed, and previously a main player behind the sorely missed Elkhorn Farm & Mercantile in Moss Landing, the ...
Summer Sizzle
The low-down on high times for the sweetest season.
The live Grateful Dead banjo music, BYO wine and entrees like mesquite-grilled pork ribs in pumpkinseed mole ($16) have long made Cachagua General Store’s (659-1857) Monday night-only dinners hot like a Penelope Cruz-stuffed piquillo pepper. ...
Local Heroes 2011 – Megan Tolbert
Because eco dynamics touch every aspect of life.
Toss an organic apple at a local environmental issue, and you’ll probably hit Megan Tolbert. The 34-year-old can be sighted digging in Monterey’s community garden, sitting in on Electric Vehicle Alliance meetings, teaching Monterey Peninsula ...
Local Heroes 2011 - John Pearse
Because protecting the tiniest of ocean creatures is the work of a lifetime.
Following in the wading boot impressions of local marine biologists like Julia Platt and Ed Ricketts, Dr. John Pearse is a humble hero with simple goals: Keep an eye on our oceans, and get kids ...
Local Heroes 2011 – Michelle Slade
Because one mentor can make all the difference.
You can expect a surging number of young lemonade stand proprietors to hit the streets this summer, and it’s because Michelle Slade is planning far ahead for the future of Monterey County. Instilling a spirit ...
Local Heroes 2011 – Peter Nelson
Because technical literacy brings opportunity.
“I’m just making this S*** up as I go along,” jokes Peter Nelson, who runs the Salinas Chinatown Community Learning Center, a computer lab and digital literacy classroom for underserved populations. But Nelson’s seat-of-his-pants approach ...
Local Heroes 2011 - Celina Trujillo
Because the children of migrant workers matter.
Following a Saturday evening presentation at the Bread Box Recreation Center in East Salinas in April, people greet Celina Trujillo like an old friend, catching up over cookies and lemonade. Though she’s just presented sobering ...
By The Numbers 06-30-11
By The Numbers 06-30-11
$1,800,000 Recent Sale 24655 Outlook Drive, Carmel Valley Built: 1998 Size: 2,585 square feet Features: 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 3-car garage Amenities: Four acres, two fireplaces, ocean view, landscaped, barbecue area Seller: Ted Tobey and ...
Brezsny's Astrology June 30-July 6, 2011
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): When astronaut Buzz Aldrin flew to the moon and back on the spacecraft Apollo 11 in 1969, he was paid less than $8 a day. That has to stand as one ...
Raising the Sand Bar
A look into the Aquarium’s newly re-minted Open Sea gallery.
On a huge circular touch screen, visitors tap a tiny image of zooplankton and it swells in size, ready to be spun with a flick of a finger for 360-degree study of spiny antennae and ...
Thursday, June 23
Who’s Your Daddy?
Figuring out who their forefathers are drives a dedicated group of genealogists to discovery.
Gary Carlsen was cleaning out his attic in 1990 when he came across a pile of family heirlooms. Among them appeared a box of his mother’s things, where he chanced upon a book. He didn’t ...
Regional Project leaders dined out, visited SF on the county’s dime.
This much can be said about Monterey County Water Resources Agency General Manager Curtis Weeks: He likes to eat out, especially when the county picks up the tab. A September 2010 report from Monterey County ...
Blues Babies
The Monterey Bay Blues Festival celebrates 25 years with a female tour de force and Grammy-worthy zydeco.
Since 1986, the Monterey Bay Blues Festival has hosted a barrage of blues superstars, from Etta James and Taj Mahal to B.B. King and Ruth Brown. This year’s 25th anniversary boasts another stellar collection of ...
Cars 2
Disney/Pixar’s 'Cars 2' smokes the first installment with sublime visuals and fast action.
For all its fast-paced action and fish-out-of-water comedy, the first Cars was one-dimensional and lacked the heart that we’re used to from Disney/Pixar. Cars 2 isn’t going to overwhelm you with its heart either, but ...
Bad Teacher
Extra Credit: Bad Teacher aces the rom-com test by pickling the genre with genius technique.
It doesn’t descend – ascend? – to the levels of so-evil-it’s-genius of Bad Santa, which it clearly hopes to invoke with its title alone, but Bad Teacher is a refreshing breath of just-so-wrongness in today’s ...
Oil on the Range
Ranchers say old-school cattle raising doesn’t pay the bills. now, even some enviros are backing oil leases to save ranch land.
South of Salinas, where the dark green valley floor gives way to golden slopes of the Gabilan and Santa Lucia mountains, there appears what ranchers call “hill land.” On a bright spring morning, cattle are ...
Squid Speaks
SUGAR AND SPICE… Mere mortals are no match for Squid when it comes to a mudslinging contest, what with eight tentacles and all, but that didn’t stop Marina Coast Water District board member Ken Nishi ...
Chilled, Not Frozen
Local grape production and revenue dip, but marketing dollars keep flowing.
After a freeze in early April, baby wine grapes shriveled into crumbly bunches the consistency of of corn flakes, according to grape growers in the Salinas Valley. Even after the vines sprout new bunches, production ...
Maritime Mess
Revamped Museum of Monterey struggles to stay afloat as accusations fly.
Since its June 4 reopening, the Museum of Monterey has been hit like a ship in a squall by staff departures and allegations of mismanagement by its Board of Directors. Despite insistence by board members ...
Diocese Lockdown
Priest case will proceed more privately, judge admonishes attorneys for talking.
Six months after the Diocese of Monterey launched an internal investigation into claims the pastor of the Old Mission San Juan Bautista church molested a teenage boy in 2005, documents filed in a civil suit ...
Styrofoam Slap
Local cities have been slow to enforce their polystyrene bans. So the Weekly invites you to do the job.
Our readers voted it the Best Green Trend of 2011: replacing polystyrene take-out containers with Earth-friendlier materials, like cardboard and Taterware. As trends go, it’s a pretty hot one: The cities of Carmel, Pacific Grove, ...
Street Talk 04.28.11 (asked @ Asked at Bayonet Black Horse in Seaside.
)
What do you want to find about your family history?
Follow-up: What legacy do you hope to pass down? MIKE CUTINO | Student | Monterey A: There’s a guy named Burt Cutino in Monterey and I’d love to meet him and see if we’re related. ...
>Now we know: Marina Coast and Heitzman knew.
Dear Mrs. Collins, I get it. I really, really get it, that letter you wrote to the Monterey County Herald earlier this month in defense of your son, Steve Collins. I know where the urge ...
Whooping cough cases soar, but experts say a simple vaccine can save the day and lives.
Last year, California had the highest incidence of whooping cough in 52 years. More than 8,000 cases of whooping cough were confirmed, including 10 infant deaths. In 2009, 19 cases were reported in Monterey County, ...
New Lease
Bay View Academy charter school finally finds space, and the students to fill it.
The founding and housing of the Bay View Academy charter school wasn’t without its fair share of drama. These days, though, Academy Board President Bill Shaw is feeling good about its future. “We’re on track ...
¡Ask a Mexican! 06.23.11
Dear Mexican: I’m wondering how Mexicans feel about the communities of American expats springing up all over Mexico? Also, are there places in Mexico where it doesn’t get so hot that Americans are generally pretty ...
Letters To The Editor 06.23.11
Being Blunt Prohibition fuels crime. (“From the feds to the county, the confusion surrounding medical marijuana laws are enough to drive a girl to get stoned,” June 16-22). It makes no sense for taxpayers to ...
Go Time at 1833
The most anticipated debut of the decade, plus Mundos’ Squealing Pigs.
If I had a flaming absinthe cocktail for every time someone asked me, “What is the deal with Restaurant 1833?” my life would be one big fat fire-hazard of a hallucination. And that’s something which ...
By The Numbers 06-23-11
Real Estate
$1,800,000 Recent Sale 58 Spanish Bay Circle, Pebble Beach Built: 1990 Size: 3,500 square feet Features: 3 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, 2-car garage Amenities: Overlooking the 12th fairway, chef’s kitchen, library, steam shower Seller: Stephen Luczo ...
Brezsny's Astrology June 23-29, 2011
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Golden orb spiders of Madagascar spin robust webs. Their silk is stronger than steel yet able to bend and expand when struck by insects. Here’s an equally amazing facet of their ...
Tuesday, June 21
DOCUMENTS: Steve Collins Conflict of Interest Investigation
Reporting by Sara Rubin and Rebecca Robinson A new report on alleged double-dipping by former Monterey County Water Resources Agency board member Steve Collins has implicated Marina Coast Water District General Manager Jim Heitzman. The ...
Thursday, June 16
Get Involved
Public Citizen 06.16.11
THURSDAY 6 | 16 PLANNING SOLUTIONS | SALINAS–Hartnell College presents a screening of the documentary A Convenient Truth on environmental solutions through urban planning. A Q&A with the filmmakers follows. 3-5pm. 411 Central Ave., Room ...
Igniting Invention
A range of locals tap innovative Kickstarter website to chase their creative dreams.
A college student seeks just enough money to film a mini-documentary. A photographer pines for publishing funds. An arty nonprofit venue needs a reboot. Unfortunately, the struggling artist’s life isn’t so romantic. That’s where Kickstarter.com ...
Brezsny's Astrology June 16-22, 2011
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): The film Tuck Everlasting tells the story of a family that becomes immortal after drinking from a magical spring. The two parents and their two sons hide their gift from the ...
By The Numbers 06-16-11
By The Numbers 06-16-11
$442,000 Recent Sale 24650 Santa Rita St., Carmel Built: 1948 Size: 1,170 square feet Features: 2 bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms, 2-car garage Amenities: Fireplace, patio, deck, fenced yard, updated kitchen Seller: Deutsche Bank Buyer: James and ...
Food, a Love Poem
With apologies to Julie Andrews, a few of my favorite things.
Poets have compared it to a bird, a fire and an earthquake. Some say love can inspire war, unmatched music and mortal illness. Yes, love knows many faces. For me, of late, I found it ...
Mi Pueblo Food Center
Big Dealin’: Mi Pueblo does Latino grocery extra-large and affordable.
The scale of the 20,000-square-foot Mi Pueblo Food Center is overwhelming, and assaults several senses. The bustle of eager attendants and dozens of customers creates a bee-hive hum while mariachi and banda music plays in ...
Letters To The Editor 06.16.11
Party On Reading the last paragraph of Squid’s commentary regarding “Moderate” Steve McShane was cathartic (“Squid Fry,” June 9-15). It’s disappointing that the Weekly so often relegates harsh, sound criticism of The Egregiously Absurd (TEA) ...
¡Ask a Mexican! 06.16.11
Dear Mexican: I’m a white girl dating a Mexican from Jalisco that works for my dad. There lies the problem. Dad absolutely dislikes him andtotally opposes me dating Ignacio and has been almost rude to ...
Case Study
Celebrity favorite, legendary songwriter Peter Case descends on little Alternative Cafe in Seaside.
In 2009, Peter Case underwent emergency open-heart surgery. Uninsured, the 57-year-old singer-songwriter emerged alive, but with hospital bills totaling six figures. What ensued in the aftermath shows how respected Case is as a musician and ...
Rock Diary
Local rising star Lauren Shera shares her thoughts from her debut at Bonnaroo.
Carmel Valley’s Lauren Shera has wanted to attend the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival for years. This year she did – not only as a fan, but also as a performer. Here’s a little taste ...
MoM Needs A Parent
Monterey’s fragile hopes for its newly revamped maritime museum were dashed this week with news that Executive Director John Bailey has quit. Bailey’s resignation comes just nine days after the Museum of Monterey (formerly the ...
Mom wants pot. Now how do I send her some?
My 83-year-old mother in Chicago called me about a month ago with what sounded like a simple request. “I need pot,” she said. I thought I heard her correctly. “You need a pot? OK, you ...
Squid Speaks
UNLIKE IT… Just the other day, Squid was beadily eyeing the Weekly tech dude in a meeting, spurting indignation at a rash of Google Docs hiccups. “What’ll we do if Google goes belly-up with all ...
Street Talk 04.28.11 (asked @ Penny Saver Market in Marina.
)
Which activity is most enhanced by smoking marijuana?
Follow-up: Who or what would you want to blaze one with? PAE AUELUA | Laborer | Marina A: I like to get high and play basketball. It makes me feel like I’m Michael Jordan… but ...
Skateland
Weighty Eighties 'Skateland' unspools a tender and nuanced understanding of a time in Texas.
“The future’s open wide,” sang Modern English’s Robbie Grey on the band’s 1982 single “I Melt With You.” For a time, if you were coming of age but maybe not trying so hard to grow ...
Mr. Popper’s Penguins
Jim Carrey entertains with 'Mr. Popper’s Penguins'.
Loosely based on Florence Atwater’s 1938 children’s book, Mr. Popper’s Penguins never completely gels. But that doesn’t stop Jim Carrey from using everything in his arsenal of comic physicality to keep his audience entertained – ...
Silver Screen Sur
Jack Kerouac’s 'Big Sur' gets the Hollywood treatment from Kate Bosworth and company.
Joining a list of movies filmed in Monterey County that includes Clint Eastwood’s Play Misty For Me, Turner and Hooch and Star Trek IV is an upcoming feature film adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s 1961 novel ...
When the Salt Hits the Fan
Steve Collins dirt threatens to sully other officials involved with the desal project.
The investigation of former water official Steve Collins’ potential conflict of interest isn’t over yet. Now that some of Collins’ billing records have been made public, the question becomes: “Who knew what, when?” In early ...
Cottage of Cards
Carmel Valley assisted living project nears completion, despite legal challenges.
After a nearly decade-long planning and permitting process, a 78-bed assisted living facility in Carmel Valley faces a new legal battle over environmental rules. The lawsuit, filed June 1 by Save Our Peninsula Committee, follows ...
Power Washing
Multinationals talk marketing, while locals implement zero waste behind the scenes.
Makers of environmentally sensitive products spent a good deal of time at the Sustainable Brands Conference talking about their ability to change people’s behaviors. Were they not for a noble purpose, such intentions might have ...
A Hazy Future – Part 1
Part 1: From the feds to the county, the confusion surrounding medical marijuana laws are enough to drive a girl to get stoned.
Compassionate Health Options is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it kind of place. Tucked away in a small, second-floor suite off Pacific Street in Monterey, its only signage is a faded piece of paper taped to a ground-level window ...
A Hazy Future – Part 2
Part 2: The Medicine
To get to Judy Song’s home, you must wend your way through Carmel Valley, whose hillsides, as Richard Rosen recalls, were the site of massive marijuana grow operations in the early ‘80s. Song calls this ...
A Hazy Future – Part 3
Part 3: The Money
The profit motive is a compelling argument for increasing access to medical marijuana in California, particularly as the Golden State slashes services in its struggle to sustain solvency. Proponents of Proposition 19, last year’s unsuccessful ...
Village Green
Monterey Mattress teams with green architecture firm to envision a Fort Ord “eco-village.”
Safwat Malek calls it a dream site: More than 18 acres on the former Fort Ord that he wants to transform into a “live-work eco-village.” “There’s an existing building and blighted land that’s crying out ...
Thursday, June 9
Squid Speaks
PARTY GUY… Despite the endless entertainment value of stories about Arnold Schwarzenegger’s love child and Anthony Weiner’s weiner, Squid thinks even politicians have a right to some privacy. But even Squid couldn’t hold Squid’s jaw ...
Uke Troop
The Ukulele Melee gives the little instrument big love at Carl Cherry in Carmel.
Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder recently released an album that features the godfather of grunge on an unlikely instrument: the ukulele. Vedder told Rolling Stone that he first realized the potential for his Ukulele Songs after ...
Shotguns and Knives
Osio debuts a Hobo With a Shotgun and Forks Over Knives.
This Hobo started life as one of the faux trailers in the underloved Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez mash-up Grindhouse, and it’s to be commended for truth in advertising, since the bluntly accurate title pretty ...
Flag For a Fallen Uncle
As Flag Day nears, a young Pagrovian keeps his tribute to his late soldier hero flying.
On a cloudy morning in Pacific Grove, three fifth-grade boys, one holding a carefully folded American flag, make their way out of a Monterey Charter School classroom and head for the pole in front of ...
Horse enthusiasts weather deadly horse virus; Rodeo plans to go on.
When horses can become so neurologically impaired they can’t walk or control their bowels in a matter of days, horse owners get serious about protecting their equine companions. A highly contagious strain of herpes virus ...
Rock Bottom
Without funding, a recovery program for homeless families could lose everything.
Rachel Hernandez had been sleeping on the streets of Greenfield for a year when she became pregnant with her fourth child and decided it was time to quit meth. After enrolling in an addiction recovery ...
Mixed Bags
Peninsula cities explore a plastic bag ban – and hope the industry won’t sue.
At first glance, you might think Angela Brantley’s houseboat is surrounded by jellyfish. But the white blobs she fishes out of the water are actually flimsy plastic bags. “We find them everywhere,” says Brantley, who ...
Watering Hole In One
MRWPCA, Pacific Grove officials explore recycled water for the golf course.
With water at a precious premium on the Monterey Peninsula, it’s hard to justify using potable flow to irrigate golf turf. Several Pebble Beach courses already use recycled water and stored rainwater. Seaside’s Bayonet and ...
Market Watch
Trader Joe’s developer plans new destination for downtown Monterey.
Doug Wiele’s eyes light up as he describes his vision for the building that will rise from the ashes of a 2007 fire that gutted an Alvarado Street business hub and snarled traffic in downtown ...
One man’s take on his culture’s stereotypes
Dear Mexican: There are many who give lip service to border security. For the moment, put on your secure-borders hat and tell us how you would secure the borders if your job depended on its ...
Street Talk 04.28.11 (asked @ Mi Pueblo in Seaside.
)
What is the most misguided Latino stereotype?
Follow-up: What Latino holiday should be celebrated more? ALEX CANO | Mi Pueblo Store Director | Greenfield A: That we all just eat tacos and rice and beans. Or that we’re dirty and unorganized. Guad ...
An insider riffs on rivalries that haywire Latino influence.
We’ll call her Señorita X, or X for short. She’s an up-and-coming power player in Monterey County politics – educated, professional and forthright. You may have seen her at public meetings; if you have, you ...
Public Citizen 06.09.11
ONGOING NON-PROFIT PRIORITIES | COUNTYWIDE – The Community Foundation for Monterey County hosts forums to receive public input on priorities as it restructures guidelines for grant programs. 5:30pm June 9, Office of Education, 901 Blanco ...
Are a high percentage of self-identified Republicans completely stupid?
One aspect of American politics that receives insufficient attention is that a significant percentage of self-identified Republicans – around half – are complete idiots. And the candidates who wish to be elected by them must ...
Free (For Real)
Seaside reclaims Juneteenth, an overlooked celebration of slavery’s actual end.
This Saturday, Star Social Club President Sharolyn Haulcy-Robinson is throwing a barbecue at Laguna Grande Park in Seaside. It’s an early commemoration of an obscure holiday known as Juneteenth which lands, this year, on Father’s ...
Letters To The Editor 06.09.11
Support the Arts… Thanks so much to Jessica Lyons for connecting the dots and to everyone at the Weekly for giving this story so much space and prominence! (“From kindergarten to community college, art education ...
Sweet Dream
A superlative and authentic French outpost, Provence Bakery, finds a surprising place in Prunedale.
The bakery buzz is all around town: French brothers Greg and Guillaume D’Angio have opened an authentic bakery at the Prunetree strip mall on San Miguel Canyon Road in Prunedale. In the same parking lot ...
Good Company
Carmel Food Company, Point Pinos Grill rank among welcome upgrades.
Sam the server brought out a surprise. “This is from another table,” he said. “A bite of the hanger steak… ” That’s a little strange, I thought, but hey, sharing is caring, and it’s got ...
Minority Rules
P.G. Mayor Carmelita Garcia mulls Hispanic power on the Peninsula.
Monterey County’s Latino base is at its strongest in Salinas and the South County (see table, p. 20). It’s also a political force to be reckoned with on the Monterey Peninsula, but that growing population ...
Drawing the Lines
Central Coast redistricting puts Latinos in the spotlight.
The California Citizens Redistricting Commission hearing in Salinas May 22 quickly became a polarized debate about the Central Coast’s identity in which the Latino community took center stage. “Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties ...
Power Play
If it voted en masse, the Latino electorate could change America’s political balance for decades. But neither party has sealed the deal.
The rapid growth in the U.S. Hispanic population over the last 40 years – both in terms of raw numbers and percentage of the population – is probably the most important emergent force in American ...
By The Numbers 06-09-11
Real Estate
$948,697 Recent Sale 25565 Paseo De Cumbre, Monterey Built: 1990 Size: 4,440 square feet Features: 5 bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms, 3-car garage, 1.5 acres Amenities: Wood-burning fireplace, bay view, heated pool, vaulted ceilings Seller: Recontrust Co. ...
Brezsny's Astrology June 9-15, 2011
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): You have a poetic license, as well as astrological permission, to be extra cute in the coming week. I mean you have a divine mandate to exceed the usual levels of ...
Good God
Pierce Tasting Room offers a devoutly attractive regular summer music alternative to bar scene.
Benjamin Franklin once said, “Wine is constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy.” OK, the inventive patriot actually said beer, not wine, but you get the idea. Pierce Ranch Tasting ...
Staying Stills
Gary Burr and friends unleash their talented love for Crosby, Stills and Nash with a Monterey tribute.
Nationally acclaimed song scribe Gary Burr left Woodstock on Sunday morning and consequently missed the live debut of Crosby, Stills and Nash. It wasn’t until a few months later, after Burr had broken his leg ...
Friday, June 3
Music education also hard hit by by budget cuts.
California music classes and teachers declined dramatically between 1999-2000 and the 2003-04 academic year, according to the aptly named “The Sound of Silence” report, authored by Music For All, a national music education organization. The ...
Thursday, June 2
Letters To The Editor 06.02.11
Chain Mail Another nail in the coffin of downtown Monterey (“Alvarado Street coffee shop moving out, making way for national chains,” May 26-June 1). Do we really need another Starbucks in the area, or a ...
Power Procrastination
Small-scale solar energy producers are still waiting for their PG&E payout.
The 5-kilowatt photovoltaic array in Roger Manley’s Pasadera backyard is more than enough to cover the electricity his own home uses. And he’d be getting paid for the difference soon, if it weren’t for a ...
By The Numbers 06-02-11
Real Estate
$325,000 Recent Sale 1600 Darwin St., Seaside Built: 1970 Size: 1,469 square feet Features: 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2-car garage Amenities: Wood-burning fireplace, fenced-in yard, many cosmetic updates Seller: Vincent Pryor and Stanley Sanders Buyer: ...
The War on Culture
From kindergarten to community college, art education budgets are being slashed to the bone. And we’re all going to pay the price.
Kim and Gina Weston hosted the Weston Scholarship awards ceremony in early May like they do every year, but this year’s event at the Sunset Center was bittersweet. To enter the contest, each student must ...
Van Goes
Camper Van Beethoven rekindles Key Lime Pie, eyes new album.
NOTE: Due to incoming storm Camper Van Beethoven's show has been postponed until Sunday, June 12. Jonathan Segel can easily recall the first time he heard Key Lime Pie, the album that Camper Van Beethoven ...
X-Men: First Class
Rise of the Mutant: X-Men: First Class earns a place among the top comic book movies ever made.
“Best. Comic book movie. Evah!” So my inner fangirl is screaming as she does a little happy Snoopy dance. “X-Men: First Class is awesome!” The cooler, more rational part of my brain is looking upon ...
Hesher
Strong performances from Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Rainn Wilson undone by nonsense.
Hesher, the nihilistic character played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, is the antidote for what ails this movie’s dysfunctional family. The character is designed to be pure id – a snarling, half-dressed squatter bearing ominous tattoos on ...
Itchin’ for the Kitchen
Much-awaited Stone Creek Kitchen eyes its opening, and festivals flourish.
When she says, “It’s all about the ingredients,” I’m thinking Kristina Scrivani is talking about the elements in the perfectly simple sandwich I’m holding in my right hand – with roasted Spanish piquillo peppers, all-natural ...
Ravenous Riffs
As Red Beans & Rice releases 'New Recipe', the group only grows hungrier for more.
One of the reasons Red Beans & Rice continues to remain tasty after nearly 20 years is it never settles on any one combination of ingredients. Founding member Gil Rubio says one of the latest ...
Worming My Way In
A food-waste rookie learns to dig vermicomposting.
Call me Lloyd Christmas, Jim Carey’s character in Dumb and Dumber, who boasts, “I got worms!” Only unlike Lloyd, my dream isn’t to open a pet shop, but to keep food scraps out of landfills ...
iFarming Meets Field
New software offers potential for remote weeding; local robotics get federal nod.
Anew imaging machine might not look like a robot to those acquainted with cyborgs or cylons, but a patent-pending technology made its Salinas debut last week with a demonstration that promises to cut the labor ...
Presidi-uh-oh
Army’s plans for major upgrades have neighbors, enviros up in arms.
The Presidio of Monterey is about to get a major facelift intended to improve the form and function of the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center. But while U.S. Army representatives say the 20-year update ...
Brezsny's Astrology June 2-8, 2011
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): The film The Men Who Stare at Goats tells the story of the U.S. army’s efforts to harness psychic powers for military purposes. It’s not entirely a work of the imagination. ...
Shut-Off Valve
Water Resources Agency board appointment leaves Peninsula mayors feeling shunned.
Taxation without representation was a central concern during the Board of Supervisors’ May 24 debate over a Monterey County Water Resources Agency board seat. Oddly, it was invoked in arguments both for and against the ...
Street Talk 06.06.11 (asked @ CVS in North Monterey.
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What do you have trouble throwing away?
Follow-up: What is your most wasteful habit? JANET VASQUEZ | Waitress | Seaside A: I have a lot of pens and pencils from work. I have drawers full of them, and most don’t work. What’s ...
Local water has disintegrated into local insanity.
On Friday, two San Francisco Bay Area attorneys who specialize in stupid public official tricks are slated to go in to a room with the Monterey County Board of Supervisors and hand over the results ...
Get Involved
Public Citizen 06.02.11
ONGOING GREENING BUSINESS | MONTEREY—Professors from the Monterey Institute of International Studies lead a training for managers and government leaders on corporate governance and the environment. Topics include executive compensation challenges, capital markets and climate ...
With constant conflict, searching for peace becomes an abstraction.
In times of war, U.S. presidents have often talked about yearning for peace. But the last decade has brought a shift in the rhetorical zeitgeist while a tacit assumption has taken hold – war must ...
Blossoming Sound
Idyllic new outdoor venue Dahlia Farm launches a summer of music in Elkhorn Slough.
Three miles east of the powerplant smokestacks in Moss Landing lingers a sweet-smelling, 3-acre sanctuary of green pastures and flower gardens. Colleen and Jim Goff, of Dahlia Farm, have been growing and selling 550 varieties ...
Hops From Heaven
The Moses brothers lead locals to a frothy promised land with Post No Bills, Monterey Beer Festival.
For locals who have discovered the pleasures of small-batch beer, there is good reason to add a few hops to the step: Two seminal, suds-lovers’ events – the opening of Post No Bills in Sand ...
Squid Fry 06.02.11
Squid Fry 06.02.11
OIL AND WATER… A love of saltwater and inherent distrust of magic didn’t stop Squid from partaking in a rain dance this winter, a last-ditch effort so successful that Squid takes full credit for forcing ...
Opinion: One man’s take on his culture’s stereotypes
¡Ask a Mexican! 06.02.11
Dear Mexican: I’m new to the San Antonio area and am enjoying exploring the many wonderful aspects of its history and culture. One thing has become incredibly bothersome to me, though: the plight of pet ...
