The news media does little to dispel the impression that murder investigations are open-and-shut. Murders make front page news, and arrests and sentencings are usually covered. But when the going gets tough, when police are stumped and slogging through the grunt work involved in trying to crack frustrating cases with few clues or leads, the media looks the other way.

But despite the fact that the media leads us to believe that solving murders is an easy task, every city has its share of unconcluded homicide investigations.

In the city of Monterey, alone, there are 17 unsolved murders (committed between 1971 and now) sitting on investigators' desks. In this week's issue we look at one of those cases, the killing of Starr Mooren in 1996, and the detectives who are still looking to solve the murder.

Also in the news, you'll find one story about a Carmel Valley water deal with some very twisted politics, and another about the remarkable string of victories by Latino candidates in Monterey County in last week's elections.

Arnold Schwarzenegger's headed back into the future with this week's release of The 6th Day, a sci-fi flick about the dangers of playing with cloning and DNA. According to reviewer Richard Von Busack, it's not half bad (which means it's only about half good).