Media

In between Saturday's Stanford football game and the San Francisco 49ers Monday Night Football matchup, the U.S. Army's Golden Knights will drop into Salinas for the eighth annual Veterans Day Parade.

On Sunday, paratroopers will descend from sunny skies – projected to be in the 70s – onto Salinas High School's practice field during opening ceremonies in the school's parking lot at 1 p.m.

The parade will start at 2 p.m. at Salinas High School, then head south on Main Street and into Oldtown.

GONZALES — Gonzales students and brothers Andrew and Scott Funk have earned the Congressional Award for their commitment to physical fitness, volunteering, personal development and exploring the surrounding areas.

Andrew and Scott completed 100 hours of physical fitness, 200 hours of volunteer work, 100 hours of personal development as well as two nights and three days of expedition and exploration that qualified them for the Congressional Award, which they received from Congressman Jimmy Panetta.

MONTEREY — It's been a decade since Greg Migdale started Project Helping Hand. Still, one of his all time favorite stories is about when he helped music teacher Jim Paoletti revive a music program in 2012.

Paoletti knew there was a closet with 10 violins and violas just sitting unused for years because they didn't have new strings, Migdale said.

Congressman Jimmy Panetta, 20th District Democrat and co-chair of the Congressional Agriculture Research Caucus, has introduced the Specialty Crop Mechanization Prize Challenge Act.

The bipartisan legislation incentivizes innovative agriculture technology development and deployment. The bill also encourages public-private partnerships between agriculture industry and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to develop mechanization technology to alleviate workforce and cultivation shortfalls.

“As a former prosecutor, I know how critical U and T visa protections are to law enforcement and immigrant communities,” Panetta said in a February statement. “Non-citizen victims and witnesses daring to come forward to support our criminal justice system deserve safeguarding. This bill promotes victims’ safety and encourages their continued participation in our communities.”

Call it the government's version of "Shark Tank" for fruit and vegetable harvesting.

A California Congressman is introducing a bill that would authorize at least $10 million to spur agriculture technology and encourage public-private partnerships for mechanizing harvests.

Jimmy Panetta's Specialty Crop Mechanization Prize Challenge Act authorizes $10 million in discretionary funds, and allows the U.S. Department of Agriculture to accept funds from other federal agencies, the private sector, universities and state/local governments.

Central Coast Congressman Jimmy Panetta (CA-20) introduced new legislation that will incentivize mechanization and other innovation in specialty crop production.