For over 55 years, Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County, Inc. (CAB), has launched impactful programs to alleviate the greatest needs of people experiencing poverty across Santa Cruz County and the Pájaro Valley – including: homelessness prevention, employment and mentoring services for youth and adults, immigration legal services, and crisis response services during the COVID pandemic and recovery.

Join us for season two of Voices’ own Gray Area podcast, where we make documentaries for your ears. This time, we’ve followed one man with a life sentence who got an unexpected second chance at life. But before he came home, Voices correspondent Gilbert Bao helped revolutionize the whole concept of rehabilitation in the state’s prison system. He and other incarcerated men in Soledad’s Correctional Training Facility took on the work of changing themselves — and with them, an entire prison system. This 10-part audio documentary series starts in November 2022.

For the third time since 2019, Cal Am will argue for approval of its proposed desal project to the state Coastal Commission on Nov. 17. In its previous efforts, the Coastal Commission staff recommended denial. But now the commission is under intense pressure from Gov. Gavin Newson to approve all desal projects in California. This is the same project, but it appears that the Coastal Commission staff is now recommending approval due to the governor’s pressure.

It was a good and grand thing that happened on Tuesday. The voting public said it was time for a new way of doing things in the Monterey County Sheriff’s Department, a way that is not merely imposed on us the way it always has been. For decades mediocrity...

Following a pivotal ruling by a Monterey County judge, three men allegedly slandered by sheriff’s candidate Joe Moses and two associates are expanding their lawsuit to include other defendants. The plaintiffs — deputy and one-time sheriff candidate Scott Davis, retired deputies’ union official Dan Mitchell and Davis campaign consultant...

Víctor-Mario Zaballa grew up in a community surrounded by the works of the Mexican master muralists of the 20th century. All that art obviously had an impact. Born in Mexico City in 1954, Zaballa said he has drawn from the history, symbolism and heritage of the world around him to inspire his own art. Despite a series of recent health issues, Zaballa said he continues to follow his inspiration.

When it comes to the fight to limit pesticide use, perhaps the most effective tool activists have at their disposal is lawsuits. It appears they’re gearing up to file another one. In a 50-page legal request, Central Coast activists are asking the Monterey County Agricultural Commissioner to review all...

SPCA Monterey County urges pet owners to take precautions to safeguard their pets this Halloween:. Pets should be kept indoors and preferably confined to an area of the home where they cannot escape. Multiple strangers in costume at your door can be very stressful for your pet. Pets might slip out the front door unexpectedly or become frightened and bite.

With some supervisors expressing serious concerns about the performance of the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office, the Board of Supervisors agreed Tuesday to refer some issues to the state Attorney General’s Office for criminal investigation and to begin the process of creating civilian oversight for the department. “So many...

Reg Huston, a professional musician and philanthropist, founded the S.T.A.R. (Support Theatre Arts Regionally) Foundation in 2008 to benefit local nonprofits. He partnered with the Community Foundation for Monterey County (CFMC) in 2010 to create the S.T.A.R. Foundation Stewardship Fund to make the greatest impact. Since then, the fund granted approximately $1.2 million to support performing arts nonprofits and schools, and provided scholarships in the amount of approximately $200,000 to 74 graduating high school students.

Though their diminished numbers hamper local wildfire response, real-life incarcerated firefighters are still on the front lines in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties. This story is co-published with Open Campus, where an earlier version appeared. In a trailer for CBS’s new firefighting drama, Fire Country, an opening scene of a...

Oakland lawyer Lori Rifkin previously litigated four other jail deaths with claims against Monterey County during the past decade. The claims resulted in settlements worth about $6 million. Those cases include:. Joshua Claypole, May 2013. Claypole, a longtime mental patient, was arrested for fatally stabbing a cab driver. Shortly after...

Monterey County officials have agreed to a $2.5 million settlement in the latest in a series of jail death lawsuits, this one involving a schizophrenic inmate who died from consuming a huge amount of water after having received almost no psychiatric care for months on end. Rafael Ramirez Lara was...

Fresh on the heels of the City of Gonzales receiving the esteemed 2022 Helen Putnam Award for Excellence for the Gonzales Youth Council’s Mental Health Service Action Project the city announced the appointment of the 2022-2023 Gonzales Youth Council (GYC). Nineteen youth have been selected to serve on the...

All four locations of the Central Coast YMCA will offer chills and thrills during the Halloween season with its Spooktacular 2022 on Oct. 21. Spooktacular events feature trick-or-treat stations, arts & crafts, costume parade and more fun for the whole family, all free to the community. Spooktacular will be held...

Under the motto of “We’re greater as a force together,” Indigenous communities from both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border came together Oct. 9 at Patriot Park in Greenfield to celebrate their own existence. Through dances and storytelling they urged others to learn more about Indigenous Peoples Day, which they hope becomes a national celebration.

For the second time in two weeks, a senior Monterey County sheriff’s official has been served with termination papers for actions that could put him in legal jeopardy. This case involves purportedly unearned overtime pay that went to the department’s highest-paid employee, Detective Sgt. Bryan M. Hoskins. Last year his pay totaled $437,000, including $263,996 in overtime, according to the Transparent California website that tracks public employee salaries.

Investigative reporter Royal Calkins has been uncovering critical information about the operations, scandals and behavior of employees at the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office since early 2020. The following are the highlight stories he has produced for Voices of Monterey Bay:. Another Scandal at the Jail. Monterey County stops paying...

Alarming developments about sexual harassment at the Monterey County Sheriff’s Department are now being compounded with new reports of a commander placed on leave for allegedly receiving drugs illegally obtained for him from the jail’s stockpile. Dustin Hedberg, head of special operations for the Sheriff’s Office, was placed...

Edward Kennedy, the great war correspondent, scored the greatest scoop of the century — and it cost him dearly. He broke the news that World War II had ended in Europe, but he released the account of Germany’s humiliating surrender a day before the world’s triumphant leaders wanted the world to hear the news.