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Labor rights icon Dolores Huerta, who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama in 2012, was in South County and San Benito County last week campaigning for her preferred candidate in the 30th District State Assembly race.

From Yosemite to the Teutoburg Forest in Germany, and through the world's highways, byways, and dirt roads, Airstream enthusiasts have been there with their silver-bullet looking, aircraft-inspired adventure travel trailers.

A Sacramento man who was in town for the Mushroom Mardi Gras festival was accidentally stabbed by his friend when two groups clashed in a fight outside a downtown Morgan Hill bar Sunday night, according to police.

Nearly 500 participants helped raise more than $105,000 as they set up camp May 19-20 at Morgan Hill Community Park for the inaugural Relay For Life of South County.

The state’s petroleum industry is spending $320,000 in the District 30 State Assembly race to defeat fundraising frontrunner Robert Rivas. The San Benito County supervisor hopes to succeed Anna Caballero, who is running for state senate this year and represents a district that stretches from Morgan Hill to King City and includes Watsonville and all of San Benito County.

Morgan Hill Police released a series of surveillance photos of two men and their vehicles involved in recent residential burglaries, in an effort to identify the suspects who have allegedly stolen from homes in broad daylight.

Stolen vehicleA thief or thieves stole a black 1994 Honda Accord from the 100 block of Mathilda Court. The theft was reported 7:26am April 25.A gray and black Honda Accord, previously reported stolen, was recovered on John Telfer Drive. The vehicle was recovered at 6:22pm April 26.Someone stole a gray 2013 Honda Civic from the 200 block of Berry Court. The vehicle was reported stolen 11:43am April 27.Petty theftA man in his 30s stole a Golden State Warriors jersey, shirt and sweatshirt from Big 5 Sporting Goods, 150 Cochrane Plaza. The theft was reported 3:47pm April 26. Suspicious personA man and woman were seen on remote video surveillance breaking into the fenced-in collection/donation area at Goodwill, 17630 Monterey Road. Police responded and warned the couple not to trespass on the property again. The incident was reported 2:40am April 27.BurglaryA thief or thieves broke into a construction site on the 16700 block of Monterey Road and stole numerous tools, including a compressor, chop saw and various other tools. The burglary was reported 7:59am April 27.Someone stole a child’s bicycle from a garage of a home on Brega Lane. The bike is described as a green and black eight-speed Specialized mountain bike. The theft was reported 6:54pm May 7.The owner of Erik’s Deli, 309 Vineyard Town Center, reported that the restaurant’s bread delivery person notified her that the business had been burglarized before he dropped off the day’s bread May 8. The cash register drawers were stolen, and the safe had been broken into. The burglary was reported 7:14am May 8. DisturbanceA student suffered a head injury during a fight with a classmate at Live Oak High School, 1505 E. Main Ave. One of the students was arrested and transported to Santa Clara County Juvenile Hall, where his parents picked him up. The student was cited on suspicion of battery. The fight was reported 10:40am April 27.Municipal code violationA maroon SUV was parked on the 16100 block of Keith Way for two days before a resident called police to report someone appeared to be living in the vehicle. Surrounding the parked SUV were empty beer bottles and cans strewn about. The vehicle was reported 11:26am April 27.A motorhome was parked on Foothill Court for 10 days while the occupants were living inside. Police marked the vehicle for a municipal code violation and abatement. The violation was reported 5:27pm May 7.Hit and runA white Toyota Corolla backed into the garbage container at Rosy’s At The Beach, 17320 Monterey Road, damaging the gates in the process. The vehicle fled the scene. The incident was reported 2:20pm May 9.All subjects are innocent until proven guilty. Information is compiled from public records.

Blair Zerr was with his family in anticipation of getting selected in the May 3 Canadian Football League (CFL) Draft. Apparently, Zerr isn’t one to stand still. Not wanting to wait or perhaps a bit apprehensive he might not get selected, Zerr left the house to get a workout in.

As the annual Morgan Hill Mushroom Mardi Gras approaches, it only seems appropriate to further examine Santa Clara County's second biggest agricultural product, the mushroom.Garlic gets lots of play locally, with Gilroy as the self-designated Garlic Capital of the World and hosting the Gilroy Garlic Festival. But the $79 million in annual Santa Clara County mushroom sales, according to the most recent Santa Clara County crop report, soars above garlic’s $6.5 million like a towering portobello.At one of the area's mushroom farms, Del Fresh Produce at 11300 Center Avenue in Gilroy, mushrooms are grown by the ton, but business continues to be a challenge because of a lack of labor, and strict state and federal regulation.The buck stops with Don Hordness in his absolutely no-frills office at Del Fresh Produce, one of the most productive mushroom farms in one of the most prolific mushrooms growing locations in the world.California ranks third, behind Pennsylvania and the entire country of Canada when it comes to growing mushrooms.At Del Fresh, it all starts with the soil, which the company produces from raw wheat straw and cottonseed meal, along with 100 tons of compost a month.“Composting is like, if a tree falls in the woods, it takes some years for that tree to break down into the soil, but we rev it up here,” Hordness said. “We add nitrogen to the straw, and we grow these thermophilic bacteria and fungus, and those little guys break it down. We build tight piles that build up the heat, between 130 and 160 degrees. That's when you see the steam rising off the piles—that's when the bacteria is eating up the nutrients.”As it turns out, the mushroom is part of the thermophilic process of breaking down topsoil. The meaty mushroom is a fungus after all.“We bring out the compost and leave it in a controlled environment for seven days, and the mushroom is part of the process,” Hordness said. “Once we lay the compost down, we plant the mushroom spores.”Del Fresh buys its mushroom spores from certified plant labs. The microscopic spores are planted into the pasteurized compost contained in six-foot by four-foot planters stacked five high, placed in a controlled cool and dark grow rooms, and two weeks later the spores spread like white spider webs through the compost. As the mushrooms eat through their food supply, the caps bloom, and are ready for picking.Mushroom BusinessDel Fresh grows White Button, Crimini and Portobello mushrooms for stores like Trader Joe’s, Safeway, and others. Typically, Del Fresh produces 60,000 pounds of mushrooms every week, year round. Since mushrooms weigh about one ounce each, that’s almost a million mushrooms every week.It takes 50 employees, from harvesters, packers and mechanics to grow a million mushrooms a week. Finding new employees, however, has become increasingly difficult.“If you’re breathing and look like you can pick up 25 pounds,” joked Del Fresh Food Safety Coordinator Emily Bettencourt.  "A lot of times they come here for a couple of days, and they're gone. They want a lot of money, for very little effort."Workers are in short supply. In January the unemployment rate in California dropped to an all-time low, and nationally the rate was at 3.9 percent in April according to the United States Department of Labor.Some of the most lucrative jobs at Del Fresh Produce are the 18 mushroom harvesters. Del Fresh does not use mechanical hands, but rather those of the harvesters, who on average pick 60 pounds of mushrooms an hour for .22$ a pound. Some can average 100 pounds an hour."The ones that pick 100 pounds an hour can make about $80,000 a year, with benefits and a 401 K," Bettencourt said of the United Farm Workers Union members.Finding workers is hard, and so is steering through the stormy seas of the many state and federal regulatory agencies the farm must satisfy. Bettencourt thumbed through a stack of business cards, and named a few; Bay Area Air Quality Management District, County of Santa Clara Department of Environmental Health, California Air Resource Board, USDA."If you look on Craigslist, there are a lot more jobs on there that weren't there five to eight years ago," Bettencourt said. "If you look at transport jobs, it’s all Doordash, Uber, and Lyft; they suck up the labor."Of particular difficulty to satisfy, is the Public Health Drinking Water Division. Del Fresh Produce is required to test for nitrates, and ever since the Llagas Creek sewage spill in January 2017, it’s required to buy a water scrubbing system for its well water.“Two weeks ago I went to the Safeway in Morgan Hill, and I saw a sign that said, ‘Safeway supports local farmers,’ and I thought, ‘how nice,’” Bettencourt said. “I look, and I find mushroom from Canada. I wrote them an email and asked why they buy mushrooms from Canada when they’re in a mushroom capital. The response they sent was pretty lame, but I checked a week later, and they had Monterey Mushrooms. Maybe they did hear.”  The Mushroom Mardi Gras Festival, May 26-27 at the downtown Morgan Hill Amphitheater Grounds and Depot Street, is an annual celebration of the mushroom and family fun. The Mushroom Mardi Gras Festival is a non-profit organization that awards scholarships to high school students in the Morgan Hill Unified School District, grants for elementary and middle schools, along with donations to local clubs and organizations.

More than 200 special-needs adults and children donned cowboy hats and ventured to Thorson’s Arena in San Martin Saturday, May 12 to experience a Day out on the Ranch. The fourth annual event was hosted by the El Camino Club—a local nonprofit comprising members of the Gilroy-Hollister California Highway Patrol (CHP). “It’s just about providing a fun day for adults and children with special needs who reside in the local community from south Santa Clara County and San Benito,” said El Camino Club president Chris Miceli. “It’s about live music, a petting zoo—giving those folks an outlet and an opportunity to experience something they don’t normally get to experience.” The El Camino Club, which sells fireworks in Gilroy each year to raise money for the community, will be holding a chili cook off and car show Saturday, June 2 to benefit Operation Freedom Paws.