24 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY OCTOBER 23-29, 2025 www.montereycountynow.com INSIDER 2025 CALIFORNIA JOURNALISM AWARDS JULY 3-9, 2025 MONTEREYCOUNTYNOW.COM LOCAL & INDEPENDENT CYCLE SCENE 8 | HOSPITALS BRACE FOR CUTS 10 | YOU’RE AN ALL STAR 32 | FLOAT ON 39 FIRST PLACE GENERAL EXCELLENCE • 2025 CA JOURNALISM AWARDS • Our immigrant community forms the backbone of Monterey County and the country. These are some of their stories. p. 18 MAKING AMERICA GREAT Thoughtful Impact For our Independence Day edition in July of 2025, we profiled six Americans making an impact in Monterey County. Of the six, one was born in Vietnam, one in Mexico, one in India and three were born in California. All described their own immigrant experience or that of their ancestors, a reminder that everyone came from somewhere and serving as local personification of a major news story gripping our country in 2025. Workforce Impact In May 2025, we reported on the Monterey County Preschool Service Corps, which trains and pays up to 20 local people to serve in preschools, providing extra language and literacy support for 64 students in 10 classrooms—and helping train needed early childhood educators. That funding was eliminated by the federal government. After our story appeared a local couple wrote in to say they were moved by the reporting to write a check to jumpstart a campaign to keep the program operating. Funding for the 2025-26 school year has been secured, and new corps members were sworn in on Oct. 14. First Place, General Excellence First Place, Investigative reporting First Place, Front page layout First Place, Best Calendar First Place, Health reporting First Place, Transportation reporting First Place, Food Writing 1st Monterey County Weekly editorial department (from left to right, standing): Sloan Campi, Pam Marino, David Schmalz, Agata Pope¸da, Celia Jiménez, Katie Rodriguez, Erik Chalhoub, (seated): Dave Faries, Sara Rubin and Daniel Dreifuss. Second Place, Public Service Journalism Second Place, Best Column Second Place, Photo essay Second Place, Business reporting Second Place, Enterprise reporting Third Place, Best Newsletter Third Place, Special section FIRST PLACE GENERAL EXCELLENCE • 2024 CA JOURNALISM AWARDS • FIRST PLACE GENERAL EXCELLENCE • 2025 CA JOURNALISM AWARDS •
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