In today's newscast:
Inclement weather shelter to open in Salinas
The 50-bed shelter will open its doors ahead of an expected aggressive El Niño winter. People will be housed at the Chinatown Navigation Center, which closed in April.
Lisa Murphy is an assistant city manager for Salinas. "It's this massive El Niño that's coming through. People need shelter. So rather than take it down as planned we are reopening it just for this inclement weather shelter."
Murphy says Salinas worked with Monterey County to fund the site which will open on November 15 and close on March 31.
The shelter will operate from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. when rain and temperatures below 45 degrees are forecast.
"We'll know hopefully 24 to 48 hours in advance. And, our street outreach workers will be out on the streets, trying to contact folks to let them know that it'll be opening," said Murphy.
Murphy says the city will prioritize families, then single women, followed by single men.
Monterey County district attorney’s office displeased over state move to commute life sentences
The Monterey District Attorney’s office has identified five people on death row who committed murders in the county. Now their life sentences could be commuted.
The news of potential clemency came after Governor Gavin Newsom announced last week he would convert all death sentences to life in prison without the possibility of parole. But clemency is not yet certain in four of the Monterey County cases.
"Any of these people that had a felony conviction outside the murder case—those folks have to go to the California Supreme Court for review," said Chief Assistant District Attorney Berkley Brannon. "So we'll see what that review ends up being, what it ends up looking like."
Brannon says the governor’s move undermines existing law and is unfair to victims, their families, juries, and California voters, who have chosen to maintain capital punishment.
