Recent Stories
Painful Cuts
Healthcare advocates call governor’s budget revision a “body blow.”
It was bad enough when California was looking at a $9.2 billion budget deficit. But a recent update upped that estimate to almost $15.7 billion, and now Gov. Jerry Brown is proposing even deeper cuts. ...
Updated list of public-employee salaries reveals some fat local paychecks.
Curious how much taxpayer money your local public servant is pulling in? The answer’s as close as a few clicks. State Controller John Chiang has updated the online list of public-employee salaries and benefits in ...
Two Words: Plastic Bags
Carmel Planning Commission says boo to a ban, but Mayor Burnett isn’t dropping it.
A quotable scene in The Graduate includes the advice, “There’s a great future in plastics.” But that was 1967. Forty-five years later the material is ubiquitous, and activists are working to conscript it to history. ...
Dissed Utopia
Esalen Institute’s ‘global community’ protests manager layoffs.
Daniel Cryns’ 58th birthday was a rough one – and not just because April 18 was his first day back to work after his brother’s memorial service. During Cryn’s morning check-in with his staff at ...
Through Rose-Colored Glass
Local sea glass collectors find treasures – and peace – along Monterey Bay shores.
Rob Ellis sets out in the muted late-afternoon sun, searching for glass for it to shine through. He plucks a clear piece from the tide line, then tosses it back because of its sharp edges. ...
Unusual collaboration puts Big Sur locals in charge of Coastal Trail planning.
An 11-year-old state law aims to create a continuous hiking trail along the entire California coast. But in 2007, when the California Coastal Conservancy put out bids for a consultant to design the Big Sur ...
Salt Solo
State PUC says Cal Am can ignore county and go it alone on desal plant; county says, ‘What?’
Like a let-down lover who swears off dating, California American Water is trying to go it alone. Cal Am’s latest desalination proposal, dubbed the Water Supply Project, makes the company the owner and operator of ...
Parents Cringe Over Vaccine Bill
Assemblyman Bill Monning says freedom is not the issue.
Assemblyman Bill Monning, D-Carmel, presided over a heated hearing April 17 for a bill opponents are casting as an attack on parental choice. AB 2109 would require a doctor’s permission to let parents opt out ...
Jack Zipped Down
County Parks, opponents dig in over Jacks Peak zipline proposal.
A proposed zipline course at Jacks Peak Park is still on the negotiating table, but it’s recently lost the backing of several key players. County Parks Planning Manager David Lutes says the county is still ...
The Holistic Hole
Local hospitals battle for the earthy birth market.
The eight women circled at Pacific Grove Adult School’s Parents’ Place, who have requested anonymity in this story, are familiar with the DONA International definition of doulas: trained professionals who provide “continuous physical, emotional and ...
