The Buzz 10.19.17

WHO’S IN TOWN?

If only Marian the Librarian could see today’s digital landscape, she just might lose all her marbles. This week hundreds of librarians are in town for Internet Librarian 2017, the national conference for librarians of every type – city, school, university, corporate, government and specialty – as well as information managers, researchers and systems professionals. The conference opens with a presentation by EEPMON, described by conference organizers as “a Millennial hybrid new media artist” who mixes art and technology. Other presenters include Craig Lucas, state librarian for the California State Library and Jeanne Holm, senior technology adviser to the mayor of Los Angeles. The conference will explore librarians’ relationships with their communities, their collections and other related information industries.

Sun-Wed Oct. 22-25. Monterey Marriott, 350 Calle Principal, Monterey. $209-$789. internet-librarian.infotoday.com/2017.

FREE SPEECH

For years, the Weekly has published Ask a Mexican, a syndicated column by Gustavo Arellano answering questions about Mexican culture from readers, ranging from curious to hostile. (Most recently, the column ran online.) As of Oct. 13, Arellano is out as editor of the OC Weekly, and that means Ask a Mexican is gone – at least in name. “We own the trademarks,” OC Weekly President Duncan McIntosh writes by email. “If we can find a suitable individual to write it we will continue.” Arellano, meanwhile, plans to keep writing using a new, non-trademarked column title. He told the OC Register he resigned rather than lay off half his staff, the choices he says McIntosh presented. McIntosh, who bought the paper about a year and a half ago – and who owns three boating publications, among others – says the editorial department has been consistently over-budget.

GOOD WEEK / BAD WEEK

GOOD:

It’s a good week for monarch butterfly lovers as staff and volunteers at the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History have started observing—and counting—them at Monarch Grove Sanctuary in Pacific Grove. Last year at this time, staff counted approximately 50 butterflies at the site. This year they spotted 42. Museum volunteers offer monarch interpretation and education programs at the sanctuary starting noon-3pm Wednesday, Nov. 1, while the natural history museum will celebrate the return of the monarchs to the Monterey Peninsula with two events in the coming weeks: the 2017 Butterfly Ball gala Saturday, Nov. 4. (Tickets are available at pgmuseum.org/butterflyball.) The celebration continues 10am-3pm Saturday, Nov. 25, with Science Saturday: Magnificent Monarchs, where attendees view live butterflies, create origami monarchs, have their faces painted like a monarch, and more.

BAD:

It’s a rough time for Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula; a former employee filed a class-action lawsuit against in Monterey County Superior Court on Sept. 18 against CHOMP for allegedly failing to provide employees with accurate wage statements detailing overtime pay and total hours worked, as required by state labor code. The lawsuit was filed by Ursula Valles on behalf of all non-exempt employees who were paid overtime wages since Sept. 18, 2016. According to court documents, Valles was a a phlebotomist at CHOMP from 2014 to 2017. The labor code states that employers can be penalized $50 per employee for the first inaccurate pay statement, and $100 for each subsequent statement, up to $4,000. Brenda Moore, a CHOMP spokesperson, writes, “The class action concerns the format of pay statements and whether it meets the specifications in Labor Code 226. We believe our pay statements meet those specifications.”