Dear Readers,

After years of hiring school superintendents who didn’t work out, the Carmel school district is trying to decide what qualities it wants in the latest crop of candidates to fill the job, and where it should look for them. Mary Schley reports.

A lawsuit seeks to force the county to curtail operations at Laguna Seca raceway until noise and other impacts on the surrounding community are studied and mitigated. Kelly Nix has that one.

Big waves and a very high tide created quite a show on Carmel Beach and around Carmel Point Thursday morning, with only a little damage reported. Mary Schley and Chris Counts have the details.

Dozens of projects were red tagged in Carmel during the year, and planning director Brandon Swanson explains why. After giving it new feet and a wing, the SPCA will once again be displaying a raptor weathervane it recently discovered. Jimmy Panetta is trying to get FEMA to change its mind about reimbursing Monterey County for expenses stemming from the 2020 wildfire in Cachagua. A former baseball standout has been sentenced for molesting a minor. A lawsuit against CUSD has been revised to name the official who’s alleged to have harassed a colleague. Caltrans says the Highway 1 bridge over Limekiln Creek needs to be replaced. Carmel emergency officials will offer a disaster preparedness seminar at Sunset Center. The Monterey Musem of Art is looking for an architect to take on a major remodel project. Dennis Taylor checks in with some outstanding high school athletes of years gone by. Elaine Hesser explains why The Pine Cone was covering a pioneering economist 100 years ago. Neal Hotelling revisits the day Dick Clark bought his rock ’n’ roll dance party to the Beach Club. Jerry Gervase remembers some of the people he admired who departed this Earth during 2023. In our Health Lifestyles special section we offer ways to improve your mind, body and spirit in the New Year. And my editorial says if the United States and California are going to get serious about clean energy, they better get started with a whole bunch of nuclear powet plants.

Paul Miller, Publisher
paul@carmelpinecone.com

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