The Buzz 10.11.18

WHO’S IN TOWN?

Here are some big questions: What is the nature of terrorism today? How has terrorist activity evolved? How does it vary across geographies? And what do these trends indicate about future terrorism? Those are at the core of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, or START. It’s a Department of Homeland Security center, where social scientists converge to look for answers to questions about national and international security. START launched in 2005, and this week Experiential Education Specialist Eva Coll comes to town to talk to graduate students at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies about job opportunities in trying to understand and end terrorism.

12:15-1:15pm. McGowan Building room 102, 411 Pacific St., Monterey. Free; not open to the public. (301) 405-6600, start.umd.edu.

FREE SPEECH

Bill-signing season in Sacramento came with some good news for transparency. AB 748 and SB 1421, co-sponsored by California News Publishers Association and American Civil Liberties Union, overturn 40 years of restrictions on access to documents held by law enforcement agencies. The new laws will give members of the public (including the press) the ability to get records, including audio and video, previously exempt from the California Public Records Act. That includes surveillance footage gathered as evidence; body camera and dash cam footage; and other video and audio footage related to officer-involved shootings and use of force that results in injury or death. The new laws also require police agencies to release documents in officers’ personnel records, including those related to discipline. These new laws are expected to benefit public defenders and prosecutors who rely on police testimony in court, improving the integrity of the criminal justice system in the state. The new laws take effect July 1, 2019.

GOOD WEEK / BAD WEEK

GOOD:

When Seaside’s first-ever farmers market launched June 9 with the opening of the remade West Broadway, it was originally envisioned to be seasonal, and run through September. But it’s been gaining traction with every Saturday, so much so that Seaside and its partner Everyone’s Harvest, which runs the market, decided to make it a year-round thing: On Oct. 4, Seaside City Council approved a contract with Everyone’s Harvest to run the market every Saturday (except Dec. 22 and Dec. 29). A city report on the market states that “community participation… indicates that the quality of life is improving” because of the market and that the West Broadway area “is becoming more vibrant.” It also states that vendor participation exceeded the anticipated goals, and that the fees collected at the end of August exceeded the original projection for the entire season.

BAD:

On Oct. 2, the Monterey County Office of Education released annual testing results. Despite slight improvements from 2017 scores, results remain dismally low, and worse than California on average: In English and langauge arts, 38 percent of students met or exceeded standards, lower than the statewide average of 50 percent. In math, 26 percent of Monterey County students met or exceeded standards, below the statewide average of 39 percent. This is the fourth year of the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress tests, and since they were first administered in 2015, Monterey County students’ scores have risen by 6 percentage points. MCOE spokesperson Jessica Hull says the disparity between Monterey County and the state has held since the old tests, and atrributes the gap to higher rates of poverty and English-language learners.