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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.”

WATSONVILLE >> Seventeen students at Mount Madonna School who spent a year working on a project to protect the Western snowy plover are among 15 national winners of the 2016 President's Environmental Youth Award.

WATSONVILLE — Congressman Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.) announced that three airports on the central coast of California have received federal grants from the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Aviation Administration.

Watsonville Municipal Airport received $295,200, Mesa Del Rey received $334,606 and Salinas Municipal received $82,581. Specifically, the federal grants will be used for runway improvements and rehabilitation.

WASHINGTON – A Trump administration plan to eliminate popular and longstanding foreign food aid programs as a cost-saving measure would be short-sighted and ill-advised, witnesses testifying before a House agriculture panel said Wednesday.

But even before they got started, the Republican chairman of the Agriculture Committee, Rep. Michael Conaway of Texas, said the proposed cut to the McGovern-Dole and Food for Peace programs "seems contrary to the role they play in a robust ‘America-first' policy."

WATSONVILLE >> Agricultural workers and their families could become eligible to apply for a "blue card" that would give them a one-time opportunity to acquire legal citizenship status and work authorization if they show consistent employment in U.S. agriculture over the past two years, pay a fine and pass a thorough background check.