The Buzz 06.15.17

WHO’S IN TOWN?

The people who are bringing us flexible electronics – making possible futuristic capabilities like wearables, flexible batteries and monitor screens, smart bandages, and much more – are in town for 2017FLEX, an annual conference for manufacturers, customers, researchers and government and military representatives. It’s sponsored by a consortium of organizations and companies advancing the industry, valued in 2015 at $5.1 billion. Now in its 16th year, this year’s theme is “Flexible Electronics – Accelerating to Manufacturing.” Exhibitors include industry giants like Applied Materials and DuPont, as well as companies and laboratories involved in nanotechnology, printable electronics, 3D printing, plasma processing, clean energy and more.

Mon-Thu June 19-22. Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel, 1 Old Golf Course Road, Monterey. $795-$1,575. 2017FLEX@flextech.org.

FREE SPEECH

If you’ve driven northbound on Highway 101 through Chualar, maybe you’ve noticed the billboard that went up the last week of May: “Monterey County Leaders Have a Choice: Invest in our communities/neglect our communities,” it reads. It’s intended as a message to the Monterey County Board of Supervisors as they deliberate over the 2017-18 budget. It will stay up through July 16 at a cost of $4,100. The Weekly wanted to know what it’s asking for, and who’s asking. The campaign, called “Budget Our Values,” is funded by the California Endowment, which also backs Building Healthy Communities in East Salinas. BHC and allied groups are asking the supes to divert $3 million from the Sheriff’s Department and toward job training and mental health care. That figure comes from an analysis – also funded partly by the California Endowment – showing savings from Prop. 47, which reduced sentences for minor crimes.

GOOD WEEK / BAD WEEK

Good:

It’s a great week for local at-risk youth, who have new safe harbors crisscrossing the county. As of June 13, Monterey-Salinas Transit buses became mobile Safe Place sites, providing youth in crisis immediate aid. A partnership between MST and nonprofit Community Human Services’ Safe Place program, the new service posts national Safe Place logos on bus exteriors and posters inside with contact information for runaways, homeless youth and kids otherwise in danger. When a youth asks a bus driver for help, transit staff can contact Safe Place – available 24/7 – and connect the youth immediately to food, shelter and other emergency support. “We are excited to be working with MST to expand our outreach efforts,” says Robin McCrae, CEO of CHS. Safe Place has provided survival aid, emergency shelter, counseling, family reunification and other services to nearly 350 young people a year for 20 years.

Bad:

It’s usually a bad week for cancer patients in treatment, but here’s another challenge: getting rides to treatment. The American Cancer Society needs more drivers for its Road to Recovery program, a partnership between volunteer drivers and cancer patients who need rides to Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula and Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital. As of June 2017, 13 patients have requested 123 rides to get care; with only four active drivers, 53 percent of those request have not been met. Although both CHOMP and SVMH are located along bus lines, patients who live in South County have trouble accessing public transportation, says American Cancer Society’s manager of healthcare systems, Cheryl Sinclair: “It’s always more of a challenge when patients live in remote areas.” Those most in need of rides are patients without families or those who can’t afford bus fares. To volunteer, call 1-800-227-2345 or go to cancer.org