SQUIDFRY 04.8.21: Fake News

Fake News… Squid could feel Squid’s blood pressure rising, as Squid read the April 1 cover story in this very paper, about the secret plan by a secret cabal to shut down Highway 1 through Big Sur for good. How, Squid wondered, was Squid going to dangle off the side of Bixby Bridge to get the epic selfie Squid planned on sending out as a 2021 holiday card? The Weekly had Squid wrapped in its tentacles, right until the part about the white rhino preserve, which is when the Weekly overplayed its hand and Squid knew Squid had been had. You pranksters, you!

So Squid felt a great sense of kinship with Monterey County Supervisor Luis Alejo, who may have only read the headline of the cover story before taking to Twitter to express his **checks screenshots** outrage over the plan: “This secret report by CalTrans, CalFire & others is not only shocking, but an outrage! Such a devastating concept will cut off coastal access to Californians & visitors alike, and cut off an artery for tourism & business to our region. CA cannot surrender.” (Insert raised fist emoji here.)

And then Alejo tagged everyone from Gov. Gavin Newsom and U.S. Rep. Jimmy Panetta to Caltrans, Cal Fire and a bunch of state legislators.

But almost as quickly as the tweet went up, it was taken down, and Squid imagines the conversation that ensued went something like this: “Hey, uh, Luis, did you check the date on the issue?” Hilarity sometimes ensues.

SUPE’S UP… At least Squid has holidays like April 1 to help keep track of time in this timeless pandemic year. And elections. While the presidential election has barely ended, it’s time to start campaigning (and fundraising) for election year 2022. More specifically, it’s time for four candidates already in the race for county supervisor to represent District 2, the North County district currently repped by John Phillips who, at 78, plans to retire.

There’s Regina Gage, who ran against Phillips in 2018 and who’s back (after generating $24,000 in loans to her 2022 campaign in 2020, mostly from herself and her husband) and serving a term on the board of Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare District. There’s Glenn Church of Royal Oaks, whose late father Warren Church was a three-term supe. There’s Steve Snodgrass, CFO of Graniterock and former board member of Pajaro/Sunny Mesa Community Services District, and Grant Leonard, who works as a housing analyst for the city of Monterey.

And the rumor that Kimbley Craig, newly elected mayor of Salinas, may run for supervisor? It’s still swirling. “I’ve certainly been asked by a lot of people but I just became mayor and I’ve got to get some stuff done first,” Craig says.

The primary is June 7, 2022. Squid’s not sure if that’s enough time to get stuff done, but it is enough time for a crowded field to get even more crowded.