iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Sara Rubin @sarahayleyrubin.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

Pacific Grove’s biggest improvement in years - a new cafe/restaurant in the long-vacant fomer seltzer spot at Lovers Point. Congrats to the Crema team on a beautiful design, approachable menu and just fantastic vibe. (I thought I’d still miss Crema 1.0 cozy vibe but this is too stunning to care).

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Sara Rubin @sarahayleyrubin.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

Happy Local News Day! Here at @montereycountynow.com we are celebrating local news every day as practitioners of journalism. For this occasion, we are encouraging more people to read/subscribe (for FREE) to our newsletter. You can join in here: www.montereycountynow.com/newsletter/

Sara Rubin @sarahayleyrubin.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

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The TSA workers at Monterey Regional Airport are truly some of the most courteous staff anywhere. And they are working without pay because they’re being treated as pawns, despite the fact that they are normal people with rent and car payments etc. I dropped a little cash in the donation box.

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Sara Rubin @sarahayleyrubin.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

At the gubernatorial debate tonight hosted by Democratic clubs/party orgs from Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties, described by their leaders as an historic first for this kind of tri-county partnership.

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Sara Rubin @sarahayleyrubin.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

An amazing resource for locals looking to get involved with social justice discussions, trainings, protests, etc — a calendar of What/When/Where courtesy @unitemontereyco.bsky.social: unitemontereycounty.net/social-justi...

unitemontereycounty.net

Social Justice Calendar – Unite Monterey County

Sara Rubin @sarahayleyrubin.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

Here to plug the California Local News Fellowship—an awesome partnership between newsrooms and State of California to fund early-career journalists. @montereycountynow.com is proud to host @katierodriguez.bsky.social (who rocks). New fellow application period opens today:

fellowships.journalism.berkeley.edu

California Local News Fellowship – The UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism is offering <span class="color">ten $10,000 postgraduate Food and Farming Journalism Fellowships</span> for audio and p...

Sara Rubin @sarahayleyrubin.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

Busy news week here capped by a busy news day - hat's off to @pammarino.montereycountynow.com for breaking the news about a vote by CHOMP nurses to unionize then following through reporting on today's vote, plus a story about the new Kimpton hotel in P.G. (www.montereycountynow.com/blogs/news_b...)

Nearly 500 of CHOMP's 800 nurses vote in favor of joining a union in historic vote.

Registered nurses at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula have overwhelmingly voted in favor of joining the California Nurses Association in an election that ended Friday, Jan. 30. The vote

Sara Rubin @sarahayleyrubin.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

I was looking for ways to support the people fighting to defend dignity, safety and peace in Minneapolis, and a friend there posted this helpful link to mutual aid groups: linktr.ee/mplsmutualai...

linktr.ee

@mplsmutualaid | Linktree

Clearinghouse of mutual aid for our neighbors

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Sara Rubin @sarahayleyrubin.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

Amazing underwater video by local divers at Monastery Beach showing a white shark swimming right past them — looks elegant from this angle more than fierce! From Dec. 30, 2025: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GO1...

youtube.com

SCUBA Great White Shark Encounter - Monastery Beach, CA, 2025 - 4K

YouTube video by Soup Cat JJ

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Sara Rubin @sarahayleyrubin.bsky.social · 24/12/2025

It has been so beautiful at Lovers Point after we lost Erica. I don’t think anyone photographed the rainbow on Sunday. I am reminded of the Robinson Jeffers line: “I admired the beauty While I was human, now I am part of the beauty.” www.montereycountynow.com/blogs/opinio...

Sara Rubin @sarahayleyrubin.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

At Monterey Regional Airport right now, board chair Carl Miller is announcing a new nonstop route that starts in May 2026: MRY-ORD. (That's Chicago.)

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Sara Rubin @sarahayleyrubin.bsky.social · 12/10/2025

Epic roving station from #Salinas Police who are distributing paletas at #Ciclovia

Sara Rubin @sarahayleyrubin.bsky.social · 12/10/2025

Cool bikes at #Ciclovia. Serious question: how do they get on and off?

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Sara Rubin @sarahayleyrubin.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

End of an era in the sad march of corporate overlords dismantling local news. CBS Bay Area KPIX has taken over Salinas-based KION, and on day one all 13 people in the Salinas newsroom are laid off.

The entire newsroom at Salinas TV station KION is dissolved in merger with San Francisco-based KPIX.

Salinas TV station KION's newsroom dissolves in merger with KPIX. 13 staff laid off, KPIX takes over coverage.

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Sara Rubin @sarahayleyrubin.bsky.social · 17/08/2025

Amazing grand opening celebration of Ensen Community Park today. Congrats to the City of Salinas and @bigsurlandtrust.org for making this happen.

Sara Rubin @sarahayleyrubin.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

I invite you (you!) to participate in my informal poll: Do you love #CarWeek, hate Car Week or feel indifferent about Car Week? That's the lede to my column in this week's @montereycountynow.com about the unregulated burden of Car Week (actually 10 days) on the community:

It’s time to rethink the ever-growing series of Car Week events.

Explore Monterey's Car Week impact and future. Assess reviews, tourism, and environmental concerns faced by the community.

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Sara Rubin @sarahayleyrubin.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

I've asked this question before and I ask it again, in honor of #CarWeek: Drivers who do not use your turn signal, why not? It's a quick, easy flick of a finger, and almost 100% of the time there is another driver or a pedestrian or a bicyclist who finds it helpful.

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Sara Rubin @sarahayleyrubin.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

Are you chiming in tomorrow at the California Coastal Commission meeting on short-term rentals in Monterey County? @pammarino.montereycountynow.com wrote this preview—this policy has been years, like a LOT of years, in the making.

The county’s vacation rental ordinance faces one more hurdle for approval.

Monterey County's vacation rental ordinance awaits approval. See how it could impact local housing and tourism.

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Sara Rubin @sarahayleyrubin.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

Salinas City Council meeting starts imminently. They will discuss a $100,000 sponsorship of July Fourth fireworks event hosted by Compass Church—which appears to violate not only of the city's own sponsorship policy, but also church/state separation. www.montereycountynow.com/blogs/opinio...

Salinas City Council considers a sponsorship that violates the church/state separation.

Salinas Council debates $100K sponsorship for an event intertwining church values and public funds, challenging church/state separation.

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Sara Rubin @sarahayleyrubin.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

Today is the day, voting begins for the annual Best Of Monterey County Readers' [that's you] Poll in @montereycountynow.com — choose your faves here.

form.jotform.com

Best Of 2025 Finals

Please click the link to complete this form.

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Sara Rubin @sarahayleyrubin.bsky.social · 05/08/2025

The @nytimes.com mini crossword today includes a clue referencing @csumb.bsky.social’s mascot so I think I can retire from word games now.

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Sara Rubin @sarahayleyrubin.bsky.social · 29/07/2025

In the current issue of @montereycountynow.com you can read by feature story about the Hi’ilani ‘O Ke Kai hula group. Instructor Marleen Bush is a force. Here she is playing ipu heke (double gourd) at a recent class.

Sara Rubin @sarahayleyrubin.bsky.social · 29/07/2025

The city of Seaside’s parks are a thing of beauty, thanks largely to the coordinated efforts of Friends of Seaside Parks. (Thank you all!) I just walked up to the take-what-you-need community garden at Havana-Soliz Park for a handful of mint, so lovely.

Sara Rubin @sarahayleyrubin.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

The deal, 50/50 between Hartnell Foundation and National Steinbeck Center, is expected to close as soon as July 15. The venue name officially changes now to One Main Street. (Thank god for the end of @ symbols in the name, that was a bad 2000s trend.)

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Sara Rubin @sarahayleyrubin.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

There's a truly overwhelming sense of optimism in the room, celebrating what this anchor venue can be for downtown Salinas, a dream that has arguably never quite been realized. Will this partnership be the ticket?

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Sara Rubin @sarahayleyrubin.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

Jackie Cruz serves as exec director of the Hartnell Foundation and is a VP at Hartnell College. She is credited with "shepherding this from the get-go." She says: "One Main Street is a place where education, innovation, community and culture meet."

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Sara Rubin @sarahayleyrubin.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

Steve Emerson, president of the National #Steinbeck Center — a nonprofit that has for years been a tenant of the building and will now again be a co-owner — says there was urgency to this deal: "If we don’t do this now, it may be another 100 years before we have another opportunity like this."

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Sara Rubin @sarahayleyrubin.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

A beaming Hartnell College President Michael Gutierrez makes the announcement and says it's a unique opportunity to acquire the Steinbeck Center: "If we don’t do this now, it may be another 100 years before we have another opportunity like this."

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Sara Rubin @sarahayleyrubin.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

A packed room at the @steinbeckcenter.bsky.social in #Salinas this morning is here to celebrate a big announcement: CSUMB is selling this important downtown property to two nonprofits, Hartnell College Foundation and the National Steinbeck Center.

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Sara Rubin @sarahayleyrubin.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

Here at the Monterey #NoKings protest where I estimate there are at least 2,000 people to start off.

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Sara Rubin @sarahayleyrubin.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

Collaborative artwork in process on display tonight at Open Ground Studios’ 12th anniversary party, featuring words banned by the current leadership of the USA. It will be shared at the #nokings protest in Monterey on Saturday.

Sara Rubin @sarahayleyrubin.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

One fun tradition at @montereycountynow.com is a trade with @everyonesharvest.bsky.social that means a bounty of produced delivered to our office every Thursday in summer, coinciding with the Seaside farmers market.

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Sara Rubin @sarahayleyrubin.bsky.social · 08/06/2025

I’m finally taking the plunge into a new and better place than Twitter. Speaking of plunging, I will use my first post on Bluesky to offer this PSA: If you’re considering a dip in the Monterey Bay, today is the day! I just went for a swim and it’s calm and exquisitely clear, magic out there.