They only just finished cleaning up after the May Day riots, but yesterday downtown businesses had to contend with a new episode of vandalism.
News
Santa Cruz Author Reimagines Holmes’ World
There exist a vast number of Sherlock Holmes pastiches, from Mark Twain’s Double Barrelled Detective Story to the animated series Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century. Even so, it’s safe to say that local author Laurie R. King’s novels featuring Mary Russell, protégé and wife of Sherlock Holmes, are among the very finest of these stories.
Watsonville Stabbing Not Gang-Related
The stabbing of a 15-year-old girl in Watsonville High School was boy-related, not gang-related.
Cyclists Whiz by a Quiet UCSC
What was Mike Rotkin so worried about? This isn’t the ’60s. The protest wasn’t for our troops overseas, and money, not lives, were at stake. And yet Rotkin was nervous about having the Amgen Tour pass by the UCSC campus, where students were holding a walk-out to protest rising tuition.
Lessons Learned From The Valdez Disaster
Sometime after midnight on March 24, 1989, I was awakened by a phone call. Within hours I was climbing a rope ladder to the deck of the Exxon Valdez. The grounded tanker would drain 11 million gallons of crude into Alaska’s Prince William Sound. The oil would eventually reach parts of some 1,200 miles of coastline—enough to span California’s coast and Oregon’s, too. Twenty-one years later, oil remains in the beaches of Prince William Sound.
South County Water District Drops Lawsuit Against Agency
South County was awash in warm fuzzies last week with the announcement that the small but pugnacious Pajaro-Sunny Mesa Community Services District had dropped its two lawsuits against the embattled Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency. In a joint statement, PVWMA general manager Mary Bannister said the two parties had “buried the hatchet,” while Pajaro-Sunny Mesa GM Joe Rosa referred to the need to “join hands” with “our friends at PVWMA.”
A Photo Finish for Amgen Race in Santa Cruz
It was a photo finish in Santa Cruz for stage three of the Amgen Tour of California as United States’ David Zabriskie nosed ahead of Australia’s Michael Rogers by mere inches to claim the stage win. Defending TOC champ, Santa Rosa’s Levi Leipheimer came in third, while local favorite Ben Jacques-Maynes of Watsonville finished 38th and cycling legend Lance Armstrong placed 14th among the 58 cyclists who completed the 113-mile race from San Francisco to Santa Cruz. With slideshow and videos.
Supe Candidate Haunted by Prank
The 2002 police report that details a threatening voicemail left by Watsonville City Councilman and 4th District Supervisor candidate Emilio Martinez reads like a scene out of Goodfellas. Using a grand total of 15 F-bombs deftly placed among 12 sentences, Martinez makes it clear that one Joe Norris, a former colleague at Indian Motorcycles in Gilroy, ought to tender his resignation.
Gang Sweep in Santa Cruz Nabs Eight Suspects
A coalition of city and county police forces from across Santa Cruz launched a new crackdown against gangs this weekend, arresting eight suspects and contacting fifteen. The arrests were made for narcotics violations, outstanding warrants, and parole violations. Deputy Police Chief Rick Martinez said that, “We periodically do these types of gang suppression operations to address increases in gang crime in our community.
Amgen and UCSC’s Angry Students
The Amgen Tour will be stopping in Santa Cruz today, and the city is expecting thousands of people to show up to greet some of the best cyclists in the world. The crowd may be even bigger than anticipated because students at UCSC have the day off—sort of. Today is scheduled to be a “Day of Protest,” arranged by the students opposed to the University of California’s proposed tuition hike. Though it is officially a walk-out, in the past, Days of Protest got ugly. The question today is whether some of that ugliness will spill over into the bike lanes being used by the Amgen racers.
