Local News

The U.S. vaccination campaign has been rolling along and picking up steam. Some 22% of California’s roughly 40 million residents are fully vaccinated, and more are signing up for appointments. COVID-19 case rates in the state are at some of their lowest levels since...

SALINAS VALLEY — Christian Clifford, author of books about Spanish-Mexican history in California, was on a quest to visit all 21 California missions, including Mission Soledad and Mission San Antonio de Padua in South Monterey County — on foot. When asked why he did it,...

SALINAS VALLEY — High schools in King City and Greenfield will reopen this week with a phased return of teachers and students to classrooms beginning April 15. South Monterey County Joint Union High School District Superintendent Brian Walker issued a video update on April 2...

The U.S. job market remains challenging, with the government reporting Thursday that initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose last week. A total of 741,000 workers filed first-time claims for state jobless benefits last week, an increase of 18,000, the Labor Department said. It was...

“This is a game changer,” Gov. Gavin Newsom exulted last week during a news conference. “We are very, very enthusiastic.” Was he talking about his recent coronavirus vaccination? The latest poll in the recall campaign? No, he was reveling in news from what has long been California’s sweet...

KING CITY — Students from Monterey County Dance Theatre were able to return to their dance studio in King City to resume indoor practice for the first time in 380 days. Director Janette Harkness called the past year “the roller coaster of all roller coasters,”...

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden, calling gun violence in the United States “an international embarrassment,” took a set of initial steps on Thursday to address the problem, starting with a crackdown on the proliferation of so-called ghost guns, or firearms assembled from kits. Acknowledging that...

CLASSROOM RETURN GREENFIELD — Greenfield Union School District Superintendent Zandra Galvan said the district continues to plan for the return to in-person instruction beginning April 26, as announced in her April 1 message to families. The first grades that will return on April 26 will...

KING CITY — King City Lions Club hosted its yearly Easter Egg Hunt at Salinas Valley Fairgrounds last Saturday. A total of 3,000 eggs plus 24 prize eggs were prepared by a team of 15 in the Orradre Building kitchen, then hidden around the fairgrounds...

WASHINGTON — A highly infectious variant of the coronavirus that was first identified in Britain has become the most common source of new infections in the United States, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday. The worrisome development comes...