6 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY JUNE 26-JULY 2, 2025 www.montereycountynow.com THE BUZZ FREE SPEECH With Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signing Senate Bill 2972 into law on June 20, students at public universities in the state can be banned from talking or having any “expressive” ideas at night. The bill allows universities to enact policies that prohibit “engaging in expressive activities on campus between the hours of 10pm and 8am,” defining “expressive activity” as “any speech or expressive conduct” protected by the First Amendment or Texas Constitution. In an article for the Houston Chronicle, First Amendment attorney Caitlin Vogus wrote that the bill would ban students from studying, writing an email, reporting for the student newspaper, painting a picture or praying at a service, among other things. “Lawmakers want to crack down on college students’ pro-Palestinian protests so badly that they literally passed a prohibition on talking,” she wrote. Republican Sen. Brandon Creighton, who authored the bill, told the Austin American-Statesman that the bill “ensures that speech stays free, protest stays peaceful and chaos never takes hold.” Good: Good news for Soledad residents: the fire department has a new ladder truck. The truck will increase firefighters’ ability to reach higher areas, including rooftops, upper floors and commercial areas. “It’ll create depth and bolster our fire department capabilities here in Soledad, and will enhance our services as the city grows with new commercial and residential properties,” said Cal Fire Battalion Chief Jason Luckenbach. The $1.7 million truck was purchased with $2 million in state funds secured by Senator Anna Caballero. “This investment is about both public safety and preparing Soledad for the future,” she said. The new truck is slated to go into service later this summer. The city also improved its 1950s-era fire station by building a bay next to it that can house the new truck, thanks to different funding sources, including impact fees and the American Rescue Plan Act. GREAT: Shovels are in the ground for a long-awaited safety and traffic flow improvement project in Carmel Valley. Construction began on June 23 on a roundabout at the T-intersection where Laureles Grade meets Carmel Valley Road, an intersection that has long been a priority of the Carmel Valley Road Advisory Committee. Construction is expected to last up to nine months, with two-way traffic controls in place until March 2026. (Construction will pause to allow thru-traffic during busy times like Car Week.) Teichert Construction has been awarded the $3.8 million bid to build the roundabout. The entire project cost, including engineering design, utility relocation and construction, is estimated at $5.6 million. It is funded through a combination of Carmel Valley traffic mitigation fees, a grant from the Monterey Bay Air Resources District and Measure X, a voter-approved, countywide transportation tax. GOOD WEEK / GREAT WEEK THE WEEKLY TALLY The largest graduating class in Rancho Cielo’s 25-year history. The nonprofit vocational school outside of Salinas honored the graduates across all of its vocational programs in a ceremony on Friday, June 13. Source: Rancho Cielo 77 QUOTE OF THE WEEK “The only harassing I do is I ask hard questions.” -Michael “Max” Schell, who resigned from the Soledad Community Health Care District Board of Directors on June 19. Three employees filed formal complaints accusing him of misconduct, which he denies (see story, montereycountynow.com). By Dr. Brynie Kaplan Dau, M.Sc., DVM We live in a beautiful county of wide open spaces with wild plants, wildlife, natural beauty, and a rugged coastline. We have plenty of wide open trails for hiking and walking our dogs. This is one of the reasons we love living here, right? But all of this open space and wild plants has one major downside: foxtails. Foxtails are an unfortunate fact of life for those of us who live in Monterey County. Foxtails grow year round in California but we are now in the season when they dry up and fall off of the plants onto the ground. If you have a dog or an outdoor cat you probably already know what a foxtail looks like. Foxtails can easily get embedded in your dog’s fur. Foxtails are dried seed heads of grasses that are shaped like tiny barbed arrowheads, and they are everywhere. They can become embedded in the fur of our pets, causing significant pain and destruction. They become lodged in eyes, ears, paws, under the arms, and just about anywhere you can think of on a dog’s body. Not only do they hurt our pets initially, but they can travel to more serious places in the body if they aren’t removed. Veterinarians have removed them from the lungs, abdominal organs, and even the brain after they have traveled. Therefore it is important to bring your pet in to your veterinarian if you see or suspect a foxtail. If there’s one in the eye like I saw recently in a young puppy, you’ll often notice squinting, redness, and yellow discharge. They can cause an ulcer on the cornea of the eye and cause significant pain. If a foxtail gets lodged in the ear you’ll notice head shaking and scratching. They can puncture the eardrum and migrate into the inner ear if left untreated. When a foxtail burrows under the skin between the toes, you’ll see a swollen bump, sometimes with a draining tract. I once removed over 35 foxtails from the belly of a dog who was laying in the shade in the weeds. Checking your dog’s paws can prevent foxtails from penetrating the skin. The sooner we can remove these little troublemakers the better. To make matters worse, foxtails are not always easy to find. They can hide in the deeper layers of connective tissue underneath the skin. In this case removal requires sedation and exploratory surgery. Sometimes multiple surgeries are required. Foxtails also carry bacteria with them that gets injected under the skin, so antibiotics as well as pain medicine are often required. The best way to avoid all of this is to stick to the trails when out hiking, and to check your pets every time you go out. I recommend checking ears, and in between toes every day, particularly in hairy breeds. You can further protect your dog by keeping their hair trimmed short, or at least keeping their feet trimmed. But if you do find a foxtail or suspect that one is embedded, take your dog or cat to the veterinarian right away so we can help you and your pet. That’s what we’re here for. Good luck this season! To learn more about foxtails and to get all your pet health questions answered, schedule a visit with Pacific Grove Animal Hospital at 831-318-0306. Summer is the Time to Watch out for Foxtails Sponsored by Pacific Grove Animal Hospital
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