Free Republic

SALINAS -- Jose Martinez left Mexico around 1988 and toiled for years in a patchwork of fields here, harvesting berries and lettuce and barely making ends meet. In 2002, Martinez took advantage of a city law created to help novice entrepreneurs start businesses related to the city's largely Latino cultural heritage. He bought a taco truck, one of 31 licensed mobile catering vehicles in Salinas, and built it into a modestly profitable operation. But the City Council, responding to a business group and its most vocal members -- the owners of Mexican restaurants -- is poised to vote next month...