Signing Off
Marina regulations turn city officials into art critics of store caricatures.
Guido, the plump and jolly Italian statue in front of Marina’s Coffee Mia Brew Bar, is a marked man. Last month, city code enforcers fined café owner Horace Mercurio for having the so-called “characterization sign” ...
Pump It Up
North County looks like it may get water, but proposed deal remains contentious.
The Monterey County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, April 13, took two initial steps toward pumping water to hundreds of North County residents, who are trucking in water and lack fire-fighting storage. First, the supes ...
Water Junction
County to kick down $155,000 to Aromas district to connect waterless North County residents.
The Monterey County Board of Supervisors Tuesday is slated to pony up $155,000 to help get Aromas Water District fluid flowing to residents in the Oak Ridge and Via Del Sol Drive areas of North ...
Vlog puts Creedence twist on General Plan
Adding a local land-use twist to CCR's "Bad Moon Rising," I perform a tune about Carmel Valley's opposition to Monterey County's recently released general plan, as reported in this week's news story. Watch Video
Solar water heater company giving away systems.
Harpiris Energy is looking for Monterey Bay-area homeowners to participate in a solar water heating demonstration project. The Salinas-based company announced that it has nine SunCache systems to give away, but homeowners must agree to ...
General Confusion
Carmel Valley issues still hotly disputed as GPU 2010 heads to Planning Commission.
Carmel Valley’s land use battle is back in full formation, with developers revealing plans for a 42-home subdivision at the mouth of the valley and residents raising concerns over new growth, fuzzy math, and watered-down ...
5 Times 10
First 5 celebrate 10 years, partners with MY Museum
First 5 Monterey County is celebrating 10 years of providing service funding for children ages 0 to 5 by taking MY Museum's Wheelie Mobilee across the county, the organization announced today. "The partnership will focus ...
New Carmel Valley subdivision unveiled, residents up in arms over general plan.
Carmel Valley’s land use battle is back in full formation with developers revealing plans for a 42-home subdivision at the mouth of the valley and residents raising concerns over new growth, fuzzy math, and watered-down ...
Health Plan
Endowment-funded plan to address safety, health care in East Salinas
A California Endowment-backed initiative in East Salinas will aim to keep families safe from violence and provide health care coverage to all children. The Building Healthy Communities plan will be presented Wednesday night, after 10 ...
Officer assaulted, man beaten outside Salinas restaurant
Salinas police arrested a 19-year-old woman and a 31-year-old man for battery on a police officer and other charges Friday night after a bar fight at Chapala's in Salinas. According to police: "Officers came upon ...
Hotel Union Grows
CSUMB cafeteria workers join hotel union
Cal State Monterey Bay cafeteria workers have joined local hotel union UNITEHERE Local 483, the union announced today. The 50 Sodexho workers were formerly represented by Service Workers United and petitioned to leave SWU for ...
Sign of the Times
Latest sheriff’s race shootout targets alleged billboard campaigning violation.
Sheriff candidates Fred Garcia and Scott Miller are taking a technical dig against incumbent Sheriff Mike Kanalakis, alleging his campaign violated a county ordinance that prohibits political billboards from going up earlier than 60 days ...
Lobos Locos
L.A.’s Los Lobos join Leo Kottke in Carmel for a show at Sunset.
It’s a little unsettling at first to see Los Lobos whistling and dancing with Dopey and Sleepy at Epcot – Disney’s seven dwarfs swaying their arms as the East L.A. rock stars launch into a ...
Keeping the Covenant
Clergy, citizens unite to build peace in gang-plagued Salinas.
Building on the momentum from a huge March 27 peace march in Salinas and outrage from the tragic killing of six-year-old Azahel Cruz, the Catholic Diocese of Monterey is hoping parishioners and the community at ...
Environmental, farmworker groups petition EPA to ban pesticide methyl iodide.
A coalition of environmental, labor and farmworker advocacy groups today petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to rescind approval of strawberry fumigant methyl iodide, which state regulators are considering registering to replace methyl bromide. The ...
Senior Development
Two developers vie for Cypress Knolls project.
Santa Ana-based Coastal Rim Properties and local team Peninsula Housing Partners submitted development proposals for Marina's Cypress Knolls site, a city official confirmed today. The deadline for proposals was Friday. Jennifer Coile, project manager for ...
Vlog parodies Whammy Bar story.
In the spirit of South by Southwest and a new music venue opening in Monterey, I strum (and attempt to sing) a Van Morrison-inspired tune about my news story about the Whammy Bar. Watch Video
Sureno Stings
Police arrest 10 Salinas gang members following murder of 6-year-old
Salinas police have cracked down on two factions of Sureno gangs and netted 10 arrests in the wake of a 6-year-old boy's death from a stray bullet on Tuesday, the department announced today. Elementary student ...
Dave McCall to run for Marina mayor
Marina City Councilman Dave McCall will run for mayor in November, saying he wants to get the understaffed city back on the right track. "Our City Council has kind of been in political gridlock in ...
Double Whammy
Former Monterey Live owner to reopen Doc’s Lounge with new acts, spiffed-up look.
Gary Smith, former owner of Monterey Live, stands inside what used to be Doc’s Dance Lounge in Monterey wearing his signature baseball cap and leather jacket. What was once a bandstand with a stripper pole ...
Scanning the Field
Airport security factory and laundry facility vie for Marina building.
Colorful graffiti tags envelop the walls, and makeshift skateboarding ramps and boxes cover the floor of the former Fort Ord maintenance garage-turned-skater warehouse. Kenneth Bailey and John Osborne, heads of airport security technology company Secure ...
Marina development would be eco and resident friendly, developers say.
Raphael Garcia, project manager at Rana Creek, is hoping to try out the sustainable design elements proposed for Sand City “ecoresort” Monterey Bay Shores, but at a less politically volatile location. Garcia is part of ...
Christian Soldier
Local Salvadoran revolutionary honors the memory of slain Archbishop Romero.
Nelson Santos sits at a polished dining table in his Marina apartment, flipping through a book about El Salvador’s civil war. He points to a black-and-white photo of dead Salvadorans with a sign that reads ...
On the Loose
Attempted murder suspect escapes from Juvenile Hall
Salinas Police and Monterey County Juvenile Probation are searching for 17-year-old Antonio Gregorio, after he slipped his security shackled and escaped during a medical visit in Salinas this morning. Gregorio fled to the parking lot ...
Nursery Rhyme
McShane to announce run for Salinas council
Steve McShane, owner of McShane's Nursery and a Salinas planning commissioner, will declare his bid for City Council on Tuesday, he announced today. "The City of Salinas faces some of the greatest challenges in its ...
Inside scoop on players involved in jail site
Check out my news vlog below where I talk about uncovering the players involved in farmland the county may buy to build a new jail facility. Watch Video
Two racist incidents shock CSUMB campus, students rally
CSU Monterey Bay students are holding a "Death to Discrimination" demonstration today in response to two racist incidents on campus. On Tuesday evening a white student yelled "f*** you n*****" at a black female student, ...
Connecting Dots
Kanalakis’ campaign treasurer represents property owners of potential jail site.
Monterey County’s move to buy 126 acres of farmland south of Salinas for a new jail has all the makings of a political controversy: questionable connections to the sheriff’s race, quid pro quo between city ...
Diocese to lead peace march
The Diocese of Monterey and Communities Organized for Relational Power in Action are organizing an anti-gang violence march in Salinas on March 27. "Gang violence is a disease attacking our communities and our families," said ...
Salinas layoffs begin today
Starting with one-on-one meetings today, about 40 full-time city of Salinas employees will get pink slips telling them they may be out of a job come June 15. "People are anxious and they want to ...
Marina Heights development delays continue, Dunes seeks grant money
The Marina City Council on Tuesday is set to extend Marina Height's obligation to make subdivision improvements for another year and approve a state grant application for the The Dunes on Monterey Bay. The city ...
Behind the scenes of Pentagon shooter story
Here's my first weekly vlog detailing the story behind my stories. This week, I talk about the strangeness of being a local reporter interviewing national reporters in Hollister a day after John Patrick Bedell shot ...
58 percent of deputies vote for Garcia
About 58 percent of Monterey County Deputy Sheriffs Association members endorsed former commander Fred Garcia for sheriff, according to a department insider. Sheriff Mike Kanalakis received about 21 percent of the vote, former Pacific Grove ...
Feeding Frenzy
Hollister invaded by press as the Pentagon shooter story explodes.
Agated Central Coast community became the unwelcome focus of the nation’s news eye (almost as scary as the Eye of Sauron in Lord of the Rings) after Pentagon shooter John Patrick Bedell injured two police ...
Old School Salinas
A local marvels at 50-plus years in a now-dense Alisal area that once held only a few homes.
Tucked behind Alisal High School in Salinas, at the end of an unmarked alley, Bud Boyster saunters out of his neat, white-paneled house wearing a thick flannel shirt, jeans and boots. His hair is slicked ...
County unemployment rate hits 17.8 percent
Monterey County's unemployment rate reached 17.8 percent in January, with the agricultural industry taking the biggest blow, dropping 3,500 jobs from December 2009, according to state data released today. In comparison, 13.2 percent of Californians ...
Committee to examine how Salinas does business
An overarching Salinas budget committee plans to take a thorough look at how the city is organized and search for ways to more effectively deliver services, whether through outsourcing or public-private partnerships, committee members say. ...
Report: County foreclosures drop in January and February
Notices of default, the first step in the foreclosure process, and trustee deeds, the final step, both dropped in Monterey County when comparing January and February totals to the same months last year, according to ...
Live reports from Hollister as media searches for Pentagon gunman's motive in his sleepy home town.
The nation's news outlets are in Hollister, chasing the trail of John Patrick Bedell, who authorities have identified as the shooter who opened fire on police officers in what has been called a suicide mission ...
Video captures CSUMB budget protest
CSU Monterey Bay students who are outraged at the state of the state's public university system walked out of classrooms and rallied in the main quad today. Check out the video below, which was produced ...
Soulful Pleas
Castroville group gets love from
Behind on rent and rallying supporters, a Castroville youth program and church is fighting to keep its doors open. Last week, Soul’d Out Christian Center’s landlord served the organization with a three-day notice to pay ...
Blood Out
Former northern gang member wants to shed tattoos and find a job.
At 15, Julio’s friend tattooed “X4” beside his left eye using a sewing needle with an ink-dipped thread. Poke by poke, the Norteño gang symbol sunk into his teenage skin. About a year later, the ...
Salinas could cut over 200 jobs
The city of Salinas may eliminate 79 full-time positions and 132 temporary jobs to address a growing budget shortfall, according to a report the City Council will consider tomorrow night. The budget framework includes $9.8 ...
18-year-old killed by assault in Marina
Juan Guillen, an 18-year-old Seaside resident, was found dead in Marina on Saturday morning, the victim of a violent assault, Marina police say. Police discovered Guillen lying on the sidewalk in front of 3070 Del ...
Newcomer Jose Mancera to challenge heavyweight Simon Salinas
Jose Mancera, a Salinas Realtor and Gonzales resident, says he will challenge south county supervisor Simon Salinas in the June election. "Simon Salinas has been around for a while," Mancera says. "I really believe he ...
Noxious Waters
Central Coast water board aims to keep ag pollutants in check
Salinas Valley is home to some of the most polluted waterways on the Central Coast. Moss Landing Harbor is one of the state’s “toxic hot spots.” In some parts of the valley, half the wells ...
Murder of Crow?
The Ryann Crow case holds up a mirror to countless other acts of domestic violence.
Although the circumstances of Ryann Bunnell Crow’s alleged murder are still largely a mystery, domestic violence groups say marital killings are typically the final violent act in an abusive pattern. “People don’t usually murder a ...
CSUMB teach-in addresses climate change
CSU Monterey Bay is holding a teach-in tomorrow that explores creating green jobs, alternative fuels and realizing the campus's goal of becoming carbon neutral. Focus the Region 2010, which begins at 11am and is free ...
Kanalakis accused of campaigning on the job
Sheriff's union representative David Cariaga is accusing Sheriff Mike Kanalakis of campaigning on the job, saying he has six months of surveillance showing weekly meetings with his campaign staff. "The Sheriff had a standing appointment ...
Salinas set to approve soccer complex deal
Tomorrow night the Salinas City Council is scheduled to approve an agreement with Monterey County outlining a land swap that will advance plans for a regional soccer complex. Mayor Dennis Donohue and Board of Supervisors ...
