The Buzz 10.21.21

FREE SPEECH

Back in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, the public had questions for the Monterey County Health Department about where outbreaks were occurring. The health department’s view was that counting cases by industry, not workplace, was enough information. That’s a widely held view – only one-third of California’s 58 counties release records on the locations of workplace outbreaks, an investigation by the Mercury News found. The First Amendment Coalition views that one-third as leading the way, and on Aug. 27, FAC asked the California Supreme Court to reivew a case and hopefully set a precedent in favor of disclosure. “The underlying problem is a scattershot approach, county by county,” says FAC Executive Director David Snyder. But legislation got in the way. Assembly Bill 685 defines the law in favor of less disclosure, meaning Monterey County’s model of keeping specific outbreak locations confidential holds. “I don’t think there’s a valid reason to withhold that kind of data,” Snyder adds.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“It’s amazing. On the scale of The Lord of the Rings.” - Marina resident Byron Merritt speaking about the new film adaptation of Dune, based on the sci-fi novel written by his grandfather, Frank Herbert

GOOD WEEK / GREAT WEEK

GOOD:

It’s no surprise the California Transportation Commission, at a meeting on Oct. 14, allocated $19 million to the city of Marina for the Imjin Parkway widening project – it comes after the CTC awarded that same sum, in a competitive grant process, to the city in 2018 for said purpose. But this step officially puts money in the pot so that the city can start the process of getting shovels in the ground for a project that aims to reduce traffic and increase safety – not only for drivers, but cyclists too – on a major commuting artery between Salinas and the Monterey Peninsula. Chalk it up as another win for Measure X, the 2016 ballot measure that increased local sales taxes by 0.375 percent to fund transportation projects, and which will contribute $18 million for widening Imjin; the city of Marina will contribute another $2 million, and plans to break ground in summer 2022.

GREAT:

After an alarming overwintering monarch butterfly season last year when the official count inside the Pacific Grove Monarch Sanctuary was zero, volunteer docents from the P.G. Museum of Natural History counted an encouraging 1,316 monarchs on Saturday, Oct. 15. Even more were seen flying away before they could be counted. It was the first day of monitoring for the 2021-22 season, which runs from October to February. The monarchs travel thousands of miles from the Northwest, laying eggs along the way. Since they live less than six weeks, it’s the fourth generation of butterflies that return to the same locations as their ancestors in a process that scientists still haven’t deciphered. Last year there were less than 2,000 monarchs that made it to overwintering sites along the California coast, a 95-percent drop from when counting first began in 1997. This year’s first tally is promising.