6 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY JULY 9-15, 2026 www.montereycountynow.com THE BUZZ FREE SPEECH Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is not retiring. While an NPR story erroneously stating the opposite was live for only five minutes, it set off a humiliating incident for a veteran reporter who admitted to making a “rookie mistake.” As she was leaving the Supreme Court on June 30, reporter Nina Totenberg misheard an announcement about a retirement. She had assumed it was meant for Alito, and after consulting with her editor, they published a prewritten story about the justice that was meant to run when he actually did announce his retirement. When the Supreme Court did not make an official announcement, and when other outlets weren’t picking up the story, NPR knew it had made a mistake. “It was the worst professional mistake of my more than 50 years in journalism,” Totenberg wrote to Alito. “I could go on, but I don’t know what else to say except that I am so, so sorry.” In an article posted on NPR explaining the story’s retraction, NPR Executive Editor Krishnadev Calamur said he’ll be reviewing the process for posting breaking news. “This sort of shit should not happen,” he said. Good: In 2005, King City City Council approved the Mills Ranch Specific Plan, a 92-acre, master-planned residential and community development in King City, located near San Antonio Drive and Spreckels Road. The project includes hundreds of single-family homes, commercial space and park space, mostly under development by Nino Homes. Now, the affordable units are coming; Nonprofit Community Housing Improvement Systems and Planning Association Inc. (CHISPA) will celebrate the groundbreaking of Mills Ranch Apartments on Wednesday, July 15. The project will provide 40 two- and three-bedroom apartments; 30 units will be reserved for farmworker families. CHISPA secured a nearly $11.7 million state grant for the project. As part of the grant, King City committed to completing about $3.2 million in bicycle, pedestrian and landscaping improvements. GREAT: Congratulations to Kelsey Pfendler, who completed a solo row from Monterey to Honolulu, arriving on land Friday night, July 3, after more than 43 days on the water. She became the third woman ever to make the journey solo. Pfendler set out to become the first American woman to solo row the 2,400mile journey. She not only succeeded at that goal but also beat the overall record, setting a new speed of 43 days, 17 hours and 55 minutes. (The previous record was 55 days, set by a male rower.) Pfendler also became the fastest woman and the youngest person to row from California to Hawaii. As she rowed her 132-square-foot boat into Honolulu harbor July 3, hundreds of spectators lined the shore chanting, “Kelsey, Kelsey!” “I was shell-shocked coming into the harbor, people chanting my name,” Pfendler says. “It was really intense. I had a lot of emotions.” GOOD WEEK / GREAT WEEK THE WEEKLY TALLY The amount the Carmel City Council approved on a 4-1 vote to insert into the 2026-2027 budget to contribute to See Monterey for tourism marketing and a visitor management study. Councilmembers said in June they weren’t sure they wanted to contribute. Source: Carmel City Council meeting, Monday, July 6 $292,947 QUOTE OF THE WEEK “The larvae are gregarious settlers.” -Kerstin Wasson, researcher coordinator at Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, on a project that is reintroducing oysters to the estuary (see story, montereycountynow.com/newsletter).
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