The Buzz 04.23.26

FREE SPEECH

FBI director Kash Patel filed a lawsuit against The Atlantic and reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick on Monday, April 20, alleging that the publication’s article about Patel’s supposed drinking on the job was written with “actual malice.” According to the suit, the article asserts falsely that Patel is a “habitual drunk, unable to perform duties of his office [and] is a threat to public safety.” Patel is seeking $250 million in damages. An Atlantic spokesperson told CNN that the suit was “meritless,” while Fitzpatrick wrote that she interviewed more than two dozen people about Patel for the article. “I stand by every word of this reporting. We have excellent attorneys,” she told MS NOW. Adam Steinbaugh, a First Amendment attorney, wrote on social media that while proving malice won’t be a “lay-up” as Patel states, “It will, however, accomplish the primary goal: making media outlets weighing a story think about the cost for attorneys to get a meritless lawsuit tossed.”

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“It’s frankly extortion from the Trump Administration to pit us against each other.” - Monterey Planning Commissioner Eric Palmer, speaking when the commission voted to strike transphobic language from the city’s application for federal housing-related funds (see story, montereycountynow.com/news)

GOOD WEEK / GREAT WEEK

GOOD:

Goats are good for grazing plants down to the stubble, and that is good for fire prevention. That means the introduction of 400 goats at Palo Corona Regional Park on April 16 is good news – for the goats, and for the re-wilding process of the former Rancho Cañada golf course. The herd is grazing on 8.5 acres around what used to be the 18th hole and will continue eating (working, that is) for five more weeks removing unwanted plants and therefore contributing to productive revegetation of what will be a natural grassland populated by bunch grasses and oak trees, far from the manicured golf course it once was. “It’s a way to get vegetation management done,” says Monterey Peninsula Regional Park District General Manager Eric Morgan. It’s also a nice bonus near the park entrance: “People love seeing the goats. They’re smiling when they come in, because goats make people smile.”

GREAT:

Development in the City of Greenfield has been stalled because the rural city’s wastewater treatment plant is too small and too outdated to serve its current needs. City leaders have been working away at solutions, and Greenfield City Council approved a financial breakthrough on April 14 in the form of an agreement with the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board. The $111.3 million project qualified for a $75 million forgiveable loan from the regional board, meaning the City needs to finance just the remaining $36.3 million toward the overall project, to be repaid at 2.2 percent over a 30-year period. “Without this funding, the City would face significantly higher costs or delays in completing the project,” City Manager Paul Wood wrote in a memo to council. It means construction can proceed on a new plant with a capacity to treat 2 million gallons per day.