In the News
SALINAS >> The Food Safety Modernization Act requires all fresh food facilities to have food safety inspectors with the proper education and credentials.
And thanks to a grant just awarded to Hartnell College and CSU Monterey Bay, Monterey County students will soon be able to get skills needed to get into those careers.
Hartnell and CSUMB will establish two new agricultural programs: food safety management and plant and soil science degrees. The bachelor degrees will be jumpstarted with a grant close to $290,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
America's public lands and waters were front and center on Capitol Hill Thursday (June 22)
America's public lands and waters were front and center on Capitol Hill June 22 as Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke testified before the full House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources regarding the Department of the Interior's 2018 budget.
Seaside >> The rainbow colors of the Monterey County LGBTQ+ community shouted Saturday during a pride parade with allies in Seaside.
Some 700 people took part in the Peninsula Pride Celebration and Parade, starting on Fremont Boulevard and ending at Oldemeyer Center on Hilby Avenue.
The turnout, said Tyller Williamson, one of the event's organizers, was "way more than what I expected. It was just amazing."
ACTIVE DUTY soldiers and veterans who commit misdemeanors in Monterey County and are suffering from mental health problems or other issues related to their military service will now have a chance to resolve their cases in a special court instead of facing jail or other penalties.
On June 7, the Monterey County Superior Court launched what it calls the "military diversion calendar," which allows military defendants charged with relatively minor crimes to undergo counseling and treatment under the direction of the Veterans Administration and Monterey County Behavioral Health.
CONGRESSMAN JIMMY Panetta took the field Thursday evening during a Congressional baseball game at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. Just the day before, he was at bat during a practice with other Democratic House of Representatives members for the annual charity event when he got word that shots had been fired at a field in Alexandria, Va., where GOP members were practicing.
(CNN) -- Sensing an opening on national security issues, House Democrats are launching a new effort to counter President Donald Trump's foreign policy.
A trio of junior lawmakers with military and Pentagon experience will announce on Tuesday the formation of a new national security task force to push back on policies coming from congressional Republicans and the White House.
The task force is being led by Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, a Marine Corps Iraq veteran who has received some early 2020 presidential buzz.
On Friday, Congressman Jimmy Panetta used Nepenthe as a meeting space to hear the recent concerns of his constituents. Panetta, Siri and his second daughter Gia had hiked the trail themselves that morning to live the experience. “I’ve always seen this job as being a bridge around the district to Washington and back and that was basically part of the discussion we just had,” Panetta said.
BIG SUR, Calif. - Congressman Jimmy Panetta took a look first hand at the conditions many Big Sur residents live in as some people are still trapped between mudslides and the closed Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge.
The Big Sur community is learning to deal with a whole new set of challenges. Which is why members of the community arranged a roundtable discussion with Congressman Jimmy Panetta.
"Anytime we can get anybody south of the bridge, just walking that trail, changes one's perspective entirely," said Nepenthe owner Kirk Gafill.
Democratic Congressman Jimmy Panetta has moved forward on two initiatives to support the nation's agricultural industry. Panetta, who represents the 20th congressional district, which includes major growing regions in the Salinas and Pajaro Valleys and parts of Santa Clara Valley, has joined forces with Republican Congressman Rodney Davis of Illinois to establish the bipartisan Congressional Agriculture Research Caucus. The Caucus will focus on agriculture research, innovation, and mechanization efforts as Congress prepares for the 2018 Farm Bill.
Meanwhile, Democratic members of the House spoke to other concerns. Rep. Jimmy Panetta of California worried about the implications of reducing the country’s role internationally. “When we don’t lead, that vacuum is filled,” he said. And Rep. Marcia Fudge of Ohio argued for the pure humanity of the programs. “Of all the things we could cut, we would cut food,” she said. “We have become complicit, or will become complicit, in the starvation of hungry women and children.”