In today's newscast:
Monterey County’s annual survey of women is underway.
It aims to identify the top concerns for roughly half the county’s population—things like domestic violence.
Adriana Narez-Tapia, with the county social services department, says a significant number of respondents in one year’s survey said domestic violence affected them.
"Services were decreasing, and our funding was going down," she said, "for those services. So that (response) allows us to realize that we still sometimes in our county have situations like this."
She says survey data can help the county secure additional funding for the needs it identifies.
The survey is available on the Monterey County Commission on the Status of Women website, in English and Spanish. All women who live, work or attend school in Monterey County are eligible to take it.
Narez-Tapia emphasizes that every woman’s voice matters.
Avocado growers seek trade changes
California avocado growers are urging the Trump administration to adopt new trade policies to protect the state's industry. The California Avocado Commission is calling for a seasonal tariff rate quota on Mexican avocado imports during the prime harvest window between March and September.
This comes after the United States opted not to renew its trade agreement with Mexico and Canada last week. In the last 30 years, California has gone from supplying nearly all of the domestic avocado market to just 10%.
"The avocado is iconic to California, to our history, and the thought of not maintaining our ability to produce avocados commercially here in California, the birthplace of the Hass avocado is absolutely unfathomable," said Ken Melban, president of the Avocado Commission. "And it would be a just an injustice across the board.”
There are around 3,000 avocado growers in California generating over a billion dollars in annual economic impact across the state, according to the Commission.
That reporting from our partner, CapRadio.
