Hello journos! We at @montereycountynow.com are excited to launch Salinas Valley Now this spring. We are hiring a full-time staff writer and a part-time editor. Please share among your networks, @mallorycarra.com @thelatinonewsletter.org www.journalismjobs.com/job-listings...

I was looking for ways to support the people fighting to defend dignity, safety and peace in Minneapolis, and a friend there posted this helpful link to mutual aid groups: linktr.ee/mplsmutualai...

Amazing underwater video by local divers at Monastery Beach showing a white shark swimming right past them — looks elegant from this angle more than fierce! From Dec. 30, 2025: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GO1...

It has been so beautiful at Lovers Point after we lost Erica. I don’t think anyone photographed the rainbow on Sunday. I am reminded of the Robinson Jeffers line: “I admired the beauty While I was human, now I am part of the beauty.” www.montereycountynow.com/blogs/opinio...

At Monterey Regional Airport right now, board chair Carl Miller is announcing a new nonstop route that starts in May 2026: MRY-ORD. (That's Chicago.)

Epic roving station from #Salinas Police who are distributing paletas at #Ciclovia

Cool bikes at #Ciclovia. Serious question: how do they get on and off?

Littlest little kids performing at #ciclovia #salinas today.

End of an era in the sad march of corporate overlords dismantling local news. CBS Bay Area KPIX has taken over Salinas-based KION, and on day one all 13 people in the Salinas newsroom are laid off.

Those are some big numbers.

Amazing grand opening celebration of Ensen Community Park today. Congrats to the City of Salinas and @bigsurlandtrust.org for making this happen.

Great work by @celiajimenez.bsky.social and @pammarino.bsky.social !

I invite you (you!) to participate in my informal poll: Do you love #CarWeek, hate Car Week or feel indifferent about Car Week? That's the lede to my column in this week's @montereycountynow.com about the unregulated burden of Car Week (actually 10 days) on the community:

I've asked this question before and I ask it again, in honor of #CarWeek: Drivers who do not use your turn signal, why not? It's a quick, easy flick of a finger, and almost 100% of the time there is another driver or a pedestrian or a bicyclist who finds it helpful.

Are you chiming in tomorrow at the California Coastal Commission meeting on short-term rentals in Monterey County? @pammarino.montereycountynow.com wrote this preview—this policy has been years, like a LOT of years, in the making.

Salinas City Council meeting starts imminently. They will discuss a $100,000 sponsorship of July Fourth fireworks event hosted by Compass Church—which appears to violate not only of the city's own sponsorship policy, but also church/state separation. www.montereycountynow.com/blogs/opinio...

So cool, how octopuses do their octopus thing. Reporting about research @kakanikatija.bsky.social is doing at @mbarinews.bsky.social by @katierodriguez.bsky.social for @montereycountynow.com "They have no bones yet are able to move across complex underwater terrain with ease,” Katija says.

Today is the day, voting begins for the annual Best Of Monterey County Readers' [that's you] Poll in @montereycountynow.com — choose your faves here.

The @nytimes.com mini crossword today includes a clue referencing @csumb.bsky.social’s mascot so I think I can retire from word games now.

In the current issue of @montereycountynow.com you can read by feature story about the Hi’ilani ‘O Ke Kai hula group. Instructor Marleen Bush is a force. Here she is playing ipu heke (double gourd) at a recent class.

The city of Seaside’s parks are a thing of beauty, thanks largely to the coordinated efforts of Friends of Seaside Parks. (Thank you all!) I just walked up to the take-what-you-need community garden at Havana-Soliz Park for a handful of mint, so lovely.

The deal, 50/50 between Hartnell Foundation and National Steinbeck Center, is expected to close as soon as July 15. The venue name officially changes now to One Main Street. (Thank god for the end of @ symbols in the name, that was a bad 2000s trend.)

There's a truly overwhelming sense of optimism in the room, celebrating what this anchor venue can be for downtown Salinas, a dream that has arguably never quite been realized. Will this partnership be the ticket?

Jackie Cruz serves as exec director of the Hartnell Foundation and is a VP at Hartnell College. She is credited with "shepherding this from the get-go." She says: "One Main Street is a place where education, innovation, community and culture meet."

Steve Emerson, president of the National #Steinbeck Center — a nonprofit that has for years been a tenant of the building and will now again be a co-owner — says there was urgency to this deal: "If we don’t do this now, it may be another 100 years before we have another opportunity like this."

A beaming Hartnell College President Michael Gutierrez makes the announcement and says it's a unique opportunity to acquire the Steinbeck Center: "If we don’t do this now, it may be another 100 years before we have another opportunity like this."

A packed room at the @steinbeckcenter.bsky.social in #Salinas this morning is here to celebrate a big announcement: CSUMB is selling this important downtown property to two nonprofits, Hartnell College Foundation and the National Steinbeck Center.

My reporting with @pammarino.montereycountynow.com for @montereycountynow.com about the #NoKings protests today in Monterey County, the biggest in memory. www.montereycountynow.com/blogs/news_b...

Here at the Monterey #NoKings protest where I estimate there are at least 2,000 people to start off.

The antics of the Trump administration are not happening somewhere else, they are happening here. Read about the ICE detention of a Seaside man—who reported to an immigration check-in—by @celiajimenez.bsky.social for @montereycountynow.com here: www.montereycountynow.com/blogs/opinio...

Collaborative artwork in process on display tonight at Open Ground Studios’ 12th anniversary party, featuring words banned by the current leadership of the USA. It will be shared at the #nokings protest in Monterey on Saturday.

One fun tradition at @montereycountynow.com is a trade with @everyonesharvest.bsky.social that means a bounty of produced delivered to our office every Thursday in summer, coinciding with the Seaside farmers market.

I’m finally taking the plunge into a new and better place than Twitter. Speaking of plunging, I will use my first post on Bluesky to offer this PSA: If you’re considering a dip in the Monterey Bay, today is the day! I just went for a swim and it’s calm and exquisitely clear, magic out there.