The Weekly Buzz 04.21.16

WHO’S IN TOWN?

Don’t ask retired Col. Paul E. Roege for a trick or treat, because he’s unlikely to deliver either. Instead, on his Halloween lecture at the Naval Postgraduate School, Roege addresses the controversial future of nuclear energy. His talk, “Beyond Fission,” looks at bigger nuclear power options – namely radioactive decay – and how they might be deployed for purposes small to massive, ranging from personal electronic devices to spacecraft. Roege, who hails from the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory, believes there’s a bright future for nuclear power. The U.S. military has long been a surprising champion of alternative energy sources, even if it means wading into controversial territory.

1pm Thursday, Oct. 31. NPS Mechanical Engineering Auditorium, Monterey. Free. 656-2387, www.nps.edu/energy.

WHAT’S UP WITH THAT

A reader asks how she can get involved with Earth Day (April 22). Save Our Shores just completed a series of Earth Day beach cleanups that included a haul of 90 pounds of trash and 1,088 cigarette butts on Del Monte Beach in Monterey April 16. For more events, visit the Weekly Arts & Entertainment calendar, p. 30, or look online at www.mcweekly.com/calendar.

OVERHEARD

“My parents got a divorce when I was young, so I spend a lot of time with a psychologist. I’m good at talking about my feelings.”
- A man speaking to a bartender at The Running Iron in Carmel Valley

GOOD WEEK / BAD WEEK

GOOD: There’s a silver lining to watching national politics unravel: Voter registration is surging. The latest report from California Secretary of State Alex Padilla shows more than 560,000 Californians registered online to vote in the first three months of 2016. More than one-third of those newly registered voters are under age 25. (For context, in all of 2015 there were 425,000 online voter registrations.) In Monterey County, voter registration is also at an all-time high, with more than 171,000 registered voters, an increase of 14,000 since the 2012 primary, reports Registrar of Voters Claudio Valenzuela. It remains to be seen whether that means high turnout, but if the recent Carmel City Council election is any indication – more than 50 percent of voters showed – it bodes well.

BAD: It was a tough election night for opponents of Measure X, the proposed ballot measure that will allow Pacific Grove’s American Tin Cannery site to be re-zoned to become a hotel. As the Weekly went to press, 3,764 votes had been counted – about 40 percent of P.G.’s registered voters – and Measure X was prevailing on a roughly 60-40 split. Detractors of the measure argued P.G is already inundated with tourists, and that another large hotel on the Peninsula threatens to undermine P.G.’s quaint, small-town feel. Additionally, some have expressed concern the hotel – which has a working title of Project Bella – will be served by water from an already overdrafted Carmel River. Plenty of hurdles remain for Project Bella, including an environmental impact report.