Beverly Quaye is suing the owner of the Parish Publick House and the owner of the strip mall where the pub is located over the death of her son. According to Quaye, pub owner Erik Granath physically assaulted her son Benjamin before tossing him out of the bar for drunkenness. Quaye tried to stumble back to his residence but fell into a culvert near the adjacent railway tracks. His body was found there by a jogger the next morning.
The Price of A Good Seat
Impedimenta! Locomotor Mortis! You know that there will be more than a few people trying out these Harry Potter spells on Tarralynn Dorr and her friend Prism, especially when those people realize that Tarralynn and Prism got in to see the first showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, while they did not. Tarralynn, a loyal Muggle, didn’t need to use any magic to get the tickets and the best seats in the house. She just got in line early. Very early. Thirty hours early.
Sheriff’s Deputies Raid Marijuana Growers
Sheriff’s deputies in Santa Cruz County raided five homes in the Santa Cruz region on Thursday and made five arrests. The raids were made on the Westside and in Bonny Doon and Scotts Valley. About 400 marijuana plants were found in four of the homes, along with 100 pounds of buds valued at $300,000. In two of the homes deputies also found weapons, including eight AK-47 and five AR-15 assault rifles. In one home, the police also found a boat, valued at $40,000, believed to have been bought with the proceeds from marijuana sales.
City Clerk Heading to Mountain View
Lorrie Brewer, 50, who has recorded the discussions and decisions of Santa Cruz City Council since 2008, has resigned her position effective the end of this month. After more than two decades working with City Council, Brewer will be leaving Santa Cruz for Mountain View, where she will also serve as City Clerk.
Human Remains Identified
One of the outstanding cases facing the SCPD is on its way to being solved.
Jury Rules in Favor of Vets
When the county closed the Veterans Memorial Building in downtown Santa Cruz because of safety concerns, the vets decided to fight back. They argued that the reports were exaggerated and that the replacement facility on Emeline Avenue did not meet their basic requirements. It may have been the same size as the original location, they argued, but it was difficult for elderly and disabled vets to get to. Furthermore, it didn’t even have a kitchen, they added, which is why they decided to forego their traditional Thanksgiving dinner for the needy next week.
UCSC Students Protest Tuition Hike
While the UC Board of Regents was meeting in San Francisco, about 200 students from UCSC gathered at the Porter College quad to protest a proposed tuition hike. At the San Francisco meeting, the regents were planning to decide whether to go ahead with an 8 percent tuition hike, on top of last year’s 32 percent hike. The students were furious at the prospect. In 2001, they noted, tuition was $7,695. In the 2011-2012 school year, it will be $11,124.
Graywater Rebates Going Unused
“Graywater is a great thing,” effuses Ron Duncan, conservation and customer service field manager for Soquel Creek Water District. “We call it wastewater when it goes down the drain, but it’s not. It’s a resource waiting to be had.”
The Exhibitionist: Leo Villareal
Light might well be the most distinctive mark of mankind on the surface of the planet. From space, continents glow and light clusters indicate where people are gathered. Artists long have “painted with light” metaphorically, but at the beginning of the 21st century, light became the medium for a new art form. Using computer programming, the artist creates and sets in motion a sequence of actions expressed in light and directed by mathematical rules or algorithms, then allows that sequence to play itself out without intervention.
Skate Local First
Long before chambers of commerce adopted the “buy local” slogan, before slow food and farm-to-table entered the popular lexicon, Steve ‘Birdo’ Guisinger, founder and co-owner of Consolidated Skateboards, battled mega-corporations and made it his mission to educate skaters about the importance of supporting their local skate shops.
