4 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY FEBRUARY 6-12, 2025 www.montereycountynow.com THE BUZZ FREE SPEECH Right-leaning media outlets are taking over offices for news correspondents in the Pentagon on Feb. 14, according to an “annual media rotation program” unveiled on Jan. 31. Staffers from NBC News, National Public Radio, New York Times and Politico have been given two weeks’ notice to move out of their workspaces that they’ve occupied for years. They will be replaced by organizations that have given favorable coverage to President Donald Trump, including One America News Network, Breitbart and the New York Post. Also moving in is the Huffington Post, which, while it has been critical of Trump, does not have a Pentagon correspondent. Reporters from the evicted outlets will still have access to Pentagon briefings, but Kevin Baron, former vice president of the Pentagon Press Association, wrote on social media that correspondents who can’t file their stories from inside the building are at a disadvantage. Good: Corral de Tierra resident Dwight Stump has been busy these past 18 months since first hearing, in July 2023, of the Transportation Agency for Monterey County’s plan to build nine roundabouts along Highway 68 between Salinas and Monterey at an estimated cost of over $210 million. Stump thought he had a better—and far cheaper—solution: adaptive AI traffic signals. By January 2024, Stump had created a website, 9roundabouts.com, a one-stop-shop with documents that purport to show the many advantages of adaptive AI compared to roundabouts. Over the past year, Stump says, the website has had over 20,000 visitors. Those efforts culminated with the TAMC board, last fall, approving up to $500,000 to be spent on converting the nine existing signals to adaptive AI, and honoring Stump, on Jan. 22, with the 2024 Excellence in Transportation Award for an individual. GREAT: On Jan. 31 inside the Grace Dodge Chapel at Asilomar Hotel and Conference Grounds, leaders from the Esselen Tribe of Monterey County and California State Parks entered into a historic memorandum of understanding that establishes shared stewardship of 18 state parks in the Monterey District that are in the tribe’s ancestral lands. It marks the 14th such MOU State Parks has entered into with a tribe, a trend that started after, in September 2020, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a new policy in his administration to seek co-management with tribes of state-owned land if it’s within a tribe’s ancestral territory. “It’s a strange thing to think about the tragedy of history and at the same time be building new beginnings,” said State Parks Director Armando Quintero. As the signatures started to be penned on the MOU, Esselen Tribal Chair Tom Little Bear Nason led a chant with other Indigenous members in attendance. GOOD WEEK / GREAT WEEK THE WEEKLY TALLY The total number of monarch butterflies tallied during the annual Western Monarch Count on the West Coast. It’s the second lowest overwintering population recorded since tracking began in 1997—the lowest was in 2020 with 2,000. Last year the total was 233,394. Source: Xerces Society 9,119 QUOTE OF THE WEEK “I’m just at a place where I need to take a step back and rejuvenate a little bit.” -Monterey Peninsula Unified School District Superintendent PK Diffenbaugh, who announced he is stepping down from his position at the end of the 2024-2025 school year (see story, montereycountynow.com). Happy Valentine’s Day From Gathering for Women - Monterey gatheringforwomen.org ~ 831-241-6154 #gatheringforwomen We’re sending love to all of our supporters! Your generosity, whether through donations or volunteering, helps us spread joy and care to the women we serve.
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