House Passes Bill Upgrading Pinnacles to National Park
After years of working to improve and protect Pinnacles National Monument, Rep. Sam Farr’s (D, Carmel) Pinnacles National Park Act—a bill calling for an upgrade to a national park status—was passed by the House of Representatives. Coming just a few months after the designation of 15,000 acres as Fort Ord ...
Casey Stoner wins the 2012 Red Bull U.S. Moto Grand Prix at Laguna Seca
The twisty track at Laguna Seca hosted a lot of speed this weekend with Repsol Honda rider Casey Stoner win his fourth race of the 2012 season ahead of Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo. Stoner, the defending world champion, started the race from the front row, while Lorenzo started in pole position ...
BLM Plans More South County Oil and Gas Leases
BLM is accepting public comment on a lease sale for below-ground mineral rights on more than 6,000 acres in South Monterey County.
Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital Rejects Natividad Proposal, Will Remain Stand-Alone
After a months-long search for a prospective partner, the Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare system's going to go it alone. The SVMH board of directors voted 4-0 Thursday to reject the only partnership proposal on the table, from public safety-net Natividad Medical Center. Citing a recent quality of care report that ...
Scouting for a Surf Spot is Easier Thanks to SurfSpotting App
For those in the market for a new surf spot, you need look no further than your mobile device, thanks to the new and improved SurfSpotting iPhone application. With more than a dozen local surf spots in Monterey County and over 1000 preset spots around the world, the app displays ...
Carmel Realtor Pleads Guilty to $16 Million Fraud Scheme
It's dangerous to invoke Jack Nicklaus' name unless he's really behind a golf course: Former Carmel realtor Thomas Joseph O'Meara pleaded guilty today to lying to investors and exaggerating the support of the pro golfer's firm, Nicklaus Design, for a planned Fresno-area golf course and gated community. According to an ...
Competitive Field for Salinas Mayor Takes Shape
Just a week after the filing period opened, five people have taken the first steps toward running for the two-year office. With Mayor Dennis Donohue retiring, the open field leaves candidates to differentiate amongst themselves, though most platforms at this early stage of the campaign are similar: Trim spending wisely ...
Electric Vehicle Charging Station Unveiled at Del Monte Center Mall
As California angles for a statewide reduction in greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, the Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle Charging Network and Monterey Bay Electric Vehicle Alliance are working to get more charging stations installed across the Central Coast region. They just added a juicy location to their ...
Local Nonprofits Need Online Votes to Win a Minivan
Loaves, Fishes and Computers and YWCA, two local nonprofits, have a one in five chance in winning a minivan through Toyota’s nationwide competition, but their success depends our your vote. LFC and YWCA are two of 100 organizations selected from 4,000 applicants to participate in Toyota’s "100 Cars for Good" ...
Seaside Hit With First Shooting Homicide of 2012
An 18-year-old male has died from injuries sustained in a shooting in the early hours of Sunday morning. Around 4:00am, Seaside police officers responded to reports of shots fired in the 600 block of Hamilton avenue and also on the 1200 block of Hilby avenue. One known victim who was ...
Developer Ditches Marina's Cypress Knolls Senior Housing Project
Marina has had terrible luck with developers for its planned senior community on the former Fort Ord. It cut ties with its first developer, Front Porch, in 2008, then spent close to $1 million in renewed plans for the site. After a long process of vetting interested developers, the City ...
MBARI Open House Draws Visitors From Around the Central Coast
Ocean lovers of all ages flocked to Moss Landing on Saturday to check out the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute’s open house in celebration of their 25th anniversary. The estimated 3,000 visitors, according to the PR representative Kim Fulton-Bennett, had the opportunity to learn about the most recent discoveries and ...
State Monitoring Shows Salinas Pesticide Residues Within Limits
Pesticide residue in Salinas fell within healthy levels over the last year, according to data released Thursday by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation. “We’re pleased the results indicate a low health risk to residents of the communities where monitoring stations are located,” DPR Director Brian Leahy said in a ...
Armed Assailant Kills 12, Wounds Dozens at Midnight Dark Knight Showing in Colorado
A gunman in full riot gear and armed with multiple weapons opened fire on theater-goers in Aurora, Colo. during a midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises, killing 12 people and wounding 50. The suspect is believed to be 24-year-old James Holmes who was apprehended by police shortly after the ...
Pacific Grove Joins Nader Agha in Desalination Venture
The Monterey Peninsula's search for a new water supply took yet another turn Wednesday night, when the Pacific Grove City Council voted to back developer Nader Agha's desalination project in Moss Landing. By a 5-2 vote, the council agreed to enter a preliminary agreement with Agha, who is proposing what ...
Garcia Runs for Re-Election as Pacific Grove Mayor
Her earlier bids for state Assembly and county supervisor didn't pan out, but Pacific Grove Mayor Carmelita isn't ready to retire from politics. This fall, she's asking P.G. voters to renew her post as mayor. She'll be running against Councilman Bill Kampe, who announced his bid for mayor in March. ...
BREAKING: Legal Claims in Regional Desal Project Pile Up, County Fires Back at Marina Coast
First the Monterey County Water Resources Agency and Marina Coast Water District commissioned separate reports detailing the collapse of the Regional Water Project; each report absolved its respective agency of wrongdoing in the alleged conflict of interest by former MCWRA board member Steve Collins. Now, the agencies have filed competing ...
Seaside Artist Completes Ohlone Baskets
The past two and a half years of Linda Yamane's life have been dedicated to the creation of two feather-and-olivella-bead Ohlone baskets. One, supported by a grant from the Creative Work Fund and completed in May, is slated for temporary exhibit at the planned Big Sur Land Trust visitor center ...
New Regional Transportation Leader Hired
Months after local planning agencies pushed the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments to consider dissolving itself altogether, the regional transportation agency has new leadership. Maura Twomey will become AMBAG's new executive director on August 20. She leaves her current post as deputy director of the California Transportation Commission where ...
State Supreme Court Declines to Hear John Kenney Case, Murder Conviction Upheld
The state Supreme Court announced July 11 it wouldn't hear an appeal by John Kenney, who was sentenced in 2008 to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Kenney, known to friends as "Jack," was convicted for the slaying of Mel and Elizabeth Grimes, his next-door neighbors in Carmel ...
Marina Cops Bust Suspected Marijuana Growers
Marina police discovered about 100 mature pot plants, as well as a drying operation, in a residential garage Thursday night. This was the third bust in Monterey Bay Estates, a residential community on Quebrada del Mar west of Crescent Avenue, in recent years, according to police. A man and woman ...
Public Utilities Commission Votes to Sink Regional Water Project
The Regional Water Project went out with barely a whimper on Thursday. A month after Administrative Law Judge Gary Weatherford proposed the California Public Utilities Commission agree to abandon the desalination project, the commissioners voted 5-0 to bury the project. "Given the uncertainty surrounding [the California Environmental Quality Act], financing, ...
One Dead in Salinas Triple Shooting
Three young men were walking home near North Hebbron street after church around 10:30pm last night, Bibles in hand, when a few assailants walked up and starting shooting. Jonathan Perea Hernandez, 25, who suffered multiple gunshot wounds to his upper torso, did not survive his injuries. A second male victim, ...
Del Rey Oaks Taser Death Lawsuit Dismissed
The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a lawsuit against Taser International July 11, finding the company had no obligation to inform law enforcement officers that repeated use of the Tasers they manufacture against subjects could result in death. The lawsuit was filed by the parents of 38-year-old Michael ...
Taylor Farms Locates Headquarters in Downtown Salinas
Fresh produce giant Taylor Farms, a company based out of Salinas with farms all over North America, will break ground in August on a new building located on Main Street in downtown Salinas. The headquarters will be 97,000 square feet, hold 200 employees and feature a ground floor retail space ...
Election Results Finalized; Huerta Hangs onto Seat as Greenfield Mayor
Greenfield Mayor John Huerta is looking forward to finishing out his term, which ends in 2014, with a newly configured city council he expects will be more agreeable than the notoriously divisive city council that blocked many of Huerta's positions with a 3-2 majority. "I get the opportunity to continue ...
City of Marina Sues FORA, Judge Temporarily Halts Planned Sale of Preston Park
A judge today temporarily halted the Fort Ord Reuse Authority's pending sale of Preston Park, a 354-unit housing development in Marina. The city of Marina on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against FORA over the sale asking the court to block the sale, and Monterey County Superior Court Judge Lydia Villarreal ...
UPDATED: EPA Tells FORA to Man the Fort, Threatens to Close off Public Access
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has instructed the Fort Ord Reuse Authority to crack down on trespassing on the former Fort Ord, and threatening to cut off public access entirely if recreationists don't stick to designated trails. "Continued access to former Fort Ord property depends on the willingness of everyone ...
CASA of Monterey County Gets New Name, Logo
After a year of planning, Court Appointed Special Advocates, or CASA, is unveiling a new name, logo and marketing plan—including a new website and brochure—the agency hopes will bring more recognition and in turn, more volunteers to the children that need them. The new name, Voices for Children, “signifies the ...
Health Care Reform Boosted Preventive Screenings in California
More than 1.3 million Californians received at least one preventive service free of charge during the first six months of 2012 thanks to the Affordable Care Act, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced Tuesday. Those patients were covered by Medicare prior to health care reform passing, but ...
Salinas Launches First Public Community Garden
A 22-by-33-foot sliver of Central Park next to Hartnell College is just a patch of dirt now, but it took $4,500 and hours of volunteer effort to get there. Two families are members of this community garden, and for $25 a year have bought themselves space to plant flowers and ...
Scuba Diving for Smiles at the Monterey Bay Aquarium
Children with disabilities and special needs scuba dive at the Monterey Bay Aquarium with a little help from new friends.
Former La Playa Workers Call For Boycott of Hotel
Of the 113 workers laid off after the sale and subsequent purchase of La Playa hotel in Carmel by Classic Hotels & Resorts, two have been rehired. Former bartender and 33-year employee of La Playa Noe Hinojosa calls that “outrageous.” And many of his former colleagues agree—banding together late last ...
Woman Perishes in Monterey Apartment Fire
An apartment fire on Munras Avenue has claimed the life of an elderly woman this morning. At 6:55am, Monterey firefighters responded to reports of heavy fire in the front of the two-unit complex. Firefighters contained the blaze and stopped it from spreading to surrounding homes and businesses. A woman and ...
Local Red Cross Volunteers Headed to Help Montana Wildfire Evacuees
Carmel Vally residents and Red Cross volunteers Beverly Parker and Michele Reiners have been deployed to help staff shelters for those displaced by Montana wildfires.
Two Former DLI Instructors Plead Guilty to Lying About Immigration Status
Former Defense Language Institute teachers Adeba Sultana and her husband Mohammad Ali Rabbani pleaded guilty in federal court on Monday to using fake names and falsely describing their method of entry into the U.S. They used the names Amanullah and Iren Arsalan on their U.S. immigration papers, and Sultana claimed ...
County Takes Steps Toward Preserving Whispering Oaks
Almost a year after the County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 to support a new Monterey-Salinas Transit headquarters and a business park on the former Fort Ord—a project named for the 3,400 trees it would've leveled—the same board took steps last week to preserve the Whispering Oaks site in perpetuity. ...
NPS Dean of Students Alan Poindexter Killed in Jet Ski Accident
U.S. Navy Captain Alan Poindexter, a former NASA astronaut and current dean of students at the Naval Postgraduate School, was killed in a jet-skiing accident in Pensacola, Florida today. According to a Reuters report the 50-year-old was riding jet skis with his two sons when the oldest of the two ...
Peninsula Water Fee Moves Forward
The Monterey Peninsula needs fresh water, which takes money. That's the bottom line for the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District board, which on June 27 adopted a new water fee by a 6-1 vote. The fee will be dedicated specifically to efforts to develop new water supplies. District projects include ...
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