Antonio Morales is serving time for burglary at the Santa Cruz County Jail. Or at least he was. On Friday, Morales received a pass, allowing him to leave jail to go for a medical appointment. Morales left the jail but never returned.
News
North Coast Locals Take Action to Save Fish
Pescadero Marsh, at the confluence of Pescadero and Butano creeks, has long been known as a thriving habitat for migratory and native wildlife. That’s all changing, local residents say, and the coho salmon and steelhead trout that spawn there have been disappearing. “The frogs, the snakes and gobies—they’ll come back. But once the fish are gone, they won’t come back. They’re extinct,” one local angler, Steve Simms, told the Santa Cruz Sentinel. Then there are the red-legged frogs. The largest population in state live there too, and it has been declining rapidly as well.
Teen Assaulted in Ocean View Park
Ocean View Park has long been considered one of the safer places for young people in the city. That’s why a 15-year-old local girl had no qualms going there alone at 6:30am Saturday to enjoy the sunrise. According to police, a stranger approached her and started making lewd comments. He then tried to grab her, but she managed to run off. “This is something I’ve never heard of happening at this park before,” said Scott Guthman, who lives near the park and uses crosses through it frequently to get downtown and to the beach.
Human Remains Found at Pogonip
Yesterday, SantaCruz.com reported on the number of unsolved murders in the county, and how local police are sometimes hard-pressed to identify even the remains of the victims. Now they have another mystery to handle. The badly decomposed remains of a man were found in a remote area of Pogonip yesterday afternoon. Police Spokesman Zach Friend was quick to point out that there were no signs of foul play, and the death may have been the result of a drug overdose. According to him, drugs were found at the scene.
Domestic Violence Calls Up
There’s a rise in domestic violence against women, say officials with Women’s Crisis Support in both Santa Cruz and Watsonville. Laura Segura, executive director of the center, says that calls have increased by 21 percent in the past two years. Segura was reluctant to pin the blame on the recession, but the trend witnessed in the county is repeated elsewhere throughout the nation. Across the country in Rhode Island, for example, felony-level domestic violence has increased by 25 percent.
Police Still Stumped by Homicides
It has been a violent year in Santa Cruz County, with 15 homicides so far—five more than for all of 2009. The problem facing police, however, is not just the number of murders, but the number of murders that are still unsolved. In one extreme case, police are still trying to identify the victim.
Economy, Public Safety Top Voter Priorities
Santa Cruz city residents went to the polls yesterday and put the city on a new path. Incumbent Councilmember Lynn Robinson will be joined by top vote-getter Hilary Bryant and 2008 candidate David Terrazas on the city council. All three support increased economic development for the city, including the encouragement of new businesses. “The economic strength of the city is on everybody’s minds,” said Robinson, explaining that this will help to generate more tax revenue for the cash-strapped city.
The Exhibitionist: Figured Out
Human eyes are drawn to it first, irresistibly, no matter what the vista. Some anthropologists say that our popular culture is obsessed with, even worships it. We certainly know nothing quite as completely as we know it: the human figure. That quadri-limbed shape dances along the roofs of caves, the unmistakable mark of humankind from the time our species harnessed fire and hunted with pointed sticks.
Santa Cruz Carbon Plan Leads To All Roads
People Power, along with eco allies Transition Santa Cruz and the Campaign for Sensible Transportation, wants to see the Climate Action Plan become less car-friendly. Activists have met with planners and sent letters to the city suggesting that 30 percent of traffic impact fees should be set aside for bike and pedestrian projects, among other measures.
A Literary Friendship: Hass and Marcus
“One of the great themes of all poetry and all literature of all time is death,” says Stephen Kessler. “There is this sense poetry is some kind of ticket to immortality if it is great enough, so I think that poets become aware earlier of mortality—their own and everyone else’s.”
