KAZU News

Monterey Bay This Week: Local election results, community bird monitoring, one year post-deportation, and more

KAZU | By Elena Neale-Sacks,

Katie Brown, Amy Mayer, Erin Malsbury, Ngozi Cole

Published June 6, 2026 at 2:00 AM PDT

A man in a blue shirt stands in front of a house on a dirt road with his arms out — Juan Carlos Portillo Contreras was deported in June of 2025 and is now living near San Miguel, El Salvador, after spending a quarter of a century living in the United States.

In this week's news roundup:

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Elena Neale-Sacks

Elena is an Emmy award-winning researcher, reporter, and producer. At KAZU, they cover agriculture, housing and homelessness, and the aftermath of the January 2025 lithium battery fire in Moss Landing. Their reporting and research has been featured on NPR, KQED, Netflix, Reveal, CalMatters, and more. Elena is an alum of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and UC Santa Cruz. You can reach them at elena@kazu.org.

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Katie Brown

Katie Brown comes to KAZU after earning spot news and investigative journalism awards for her reporting and photography in Maine. A Report for America alumna and former Metcalf Institute fellow, Katie’s reporting beats span business, environment, and public health.

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Amy Mayer

Amy Mayer is an award-winning journalist with more than 25 years of experience in public radio. Before KAZU, she worked as an editor for the California Newsroom and at St. Louis Public Radio. For eight years, she covered agriculture as the Harvest Public Media reporter based at Iowa Public Radio. She's also worked at stations in Massachusetts and Alaska and has written for many newspapers, magazines and online news outlets.

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Erin Malsbury

Erin is an award-winning journalist and photographer. She's written for local and national outlets, including the Smithsonian and Science Magazine. She has a master's degree in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

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Ngozi Cole

Before joining KAZU, Ngozi covered health, business and economy stories for WYSO in southwest Ohio and The Ohio Newsroom. She’s also worked as a freelance reporter for Reveal, The New Humanitarian and other outlets.

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