The current order requires Cal Am to cut pumping from the river by about two-thirds

Monterey Peninsula water officials expect to publicly release a final proposal for extending the deadline for pumping cutbacks on the Carmel River by four years.
The proposal calls for Cal Am to secure a desal project permit from the state Public Utilities Commission by September 2017, start construction on the desal plant or the groundwater replenishment project by September 2018, and begin providing a new water source by the end of 2020.
The current order requires Cal Am to cut pumping from the river by about two-thirds by the end of next year

From: Monterey Herald 
Photo from: Yelp

The statue of Saint Serra at Lower Presidio Park in Monterey has been decapitated

Just more than two weeks after the Junipero Serra statue at the Carmel Mission was toppled and defaced, the Serra statue at Lower Presidio Park in Monterey has been decapitated. 
Picture by @davidmschmalz

From MC Weekly

Rancho Cañada

Rancho Cañada Golf Club is comprised of two 18-hole courses that weaves back and forth across the Carmel River.
This estate was once a prized portion of the 4,366 acre California Rancho named, "Cañada de la Segunda."
The proposed Carmel Valley Rancho Cañada development  is heavily scaled back from the original vision: Instead of 281 housing units there will only be 130.

From: MPGolf
From: MCWeekly

Western Houndstongue: Cynoglossum Grande

Houndstongue is a perennial herb that is native to California.

Picture from: Mama Quail

Mass graves dot the California missionary system

Today, mass graves filled with Native peoples dot the California missionary system. Tens of thousands died while the missions were in operation. Within 100 years of Serra's arrival, the indigenous population had been decimated from over 300,000 to 16,000. And the man at the helm was made a Saint. 
From: Huffington Post

Carmel Valley Hills Restoration Project

In 1984, restoration of eight miles of river was scheduled to be completed by MPWMD within ten years. In 1992 and 1993, the restoration of the Valley Hills reach was completed and has since been irrigated.
After re-contouring of the site and the planting of cottonwoods, willows, alders, and dogwoods, a total of 4.10 acres of riparian vegetation exist, showing a 185% increase in riparian vegetation in this reach.

From: http://www.mpwmd.dst.ca.us/MapGallery/Valley%20Hills%20copy.jpg 
Picture from: robin purcell

The Pope conducted the canonisation in front of 25,000 people

Pope Francis has made a controversial Spanish missionary a saint in an elaborate ceremony that inspired mass devotion as well as protests branding the new saint a persecutor of Native Americans.

The Pope conducted the canonisation in front of 25,000 people in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington.

“Junípero sought to defend the dignity of the native community, to protect it from those who had mistreated and abused it,” he said.“Having given mature deliberation and having begged the help of divine grace, and the opinion of many of our brothers, blessed Junípero Serra, we discern and define to be a saint, and we inscribe him in the catalogue of saints, establishing him in the universal church among the saints who should be appealed to with devotion.”

Serra oversaw the whipping, beating, flogging and extermination of Native Americans in what is now California.

From: The Guardian