Monterey County News

A baby Neanderthal who lived in what is now Belgium about 100,000 years ago started eating solid food at 7 months old, revealing a new aspect of the evolution of breast-feeding. The precision of this estimate is courtesy a new technique that uses elements in teeth to determine when breast-feeding started and stopped.

Preschool students were evacuated and sent home for the day after someone called in a bomb threat to a Carmel Valley Preschool.

Monterey County's public defender has filed a federal lawsuit claiming the county jail offers substandard health care to inmates.

Two Monterey County beaches received middle-of-the-scale ratings for dry-weather water quality, and six others received high grades, in an annual report issued by Heal the Bay, a Santa Monica-based nonprofit environmental group that tests for bacteria, trash and other types of pollution along California's coast.

Monterey County spelling bee champion Cecilia Trujillo of Chualar Union Elementary School carries a quiet poise and confidence in person.

Local and state law enforcement delivered a crippling blow to Nuestra Familia with the arrest of 47 individuals, many of whom allegedly belong to the notorious Salinas gang, as part of a four-month operation that began in Chinatown.

Organizers of a counter petition in the battle over land on Fort Ord turned in more than 20,000 signatures Thursday morning at the Ford Ord Reuse Authority.

Residents seeking to invalidate public-safety pensions approved in 2002 by the Pacific Grove City Council are going to court to get their rollback initiative before city voters.

A Monterey County gang "kingpin" long sought by the FBI was arrested Thursday at the conclusion of a sweeping investigation targeting the leadership of the Nuestra Familia regiment in Salinas, law enforcement officials announced.

An Ohio couple finds a letter apologizing for years of beer thefts, while in California, a guy's plan to give police a fake name backfires.

I t is an honor to take over this column from my law partner Dirk Stemerman. To introduce myself, I am a new father, a husband, and a civil trial lawyer.

Boots planted on the floor of his boat in Monterey Harbor, Bryan Lucas hoists his only catch of the day: a sparkling 17-pound Chinook salmon caught May 17 off Pebble Beach.a © "The fish have been real spread out, so it's kind of been hit and miss," he says.

A new study commissioned by The Transportation Agency for Monterey County suggests installation of a toll booth between state highways 1 and 101 could pay for major road improvements to the roadway.

A MARIN DILEMMA is that its local governments are a maze of often independent stand-alone agencies sometimes operating with little oversight.

We would like to thank all the residents of Clearlake and surrounding areas and of course all first responders for their relentless and selfless efforts to bring Mikaela back to us.

Monterey County supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved a contract with Alameda County to house up to 80 local jail inmates in a facility in Dublin, at a cost of up to $2.5 million, despite a request from the American Civil Liberties Union that the county hold community meetings first.

Monterey County Free Libraries is offering free downloadable music. Songs may be downloaded using your MCFL library card number and pin.

Q Are there any improvements along Highway 1 than can help make the drive, especially on the weekend, from Santa Cruz toward Monterey more enjoyable and timely where the highway goes from four to two lanes between Watsonville and Castroville? ... Why doesn't Caltrans or Monterey County build a four-lane road east of Elkhorn Slough? A ... (more)

It's just a 4-mile stretch of country road, but Highway 156 is a vital link between the Monterey Peninsula and the Bay Area -- and now it could become the first toll road north of Los Angeles.

Thirty Santa Lucia Highlands winemakers came together for the Santa Lucia Highland Gala on Saturday May 18 at Mer Soleil Winery in Monterey County, serving wine lovers some of the best Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Syrah and more.