Wanted to raise $$ for a school in Afghanistan. What that has to do with swimming I don’t know. Next up is Bruckner Chase making a second try after also failing last year.

Marathon swimmer Patti Bauernfeind, stung by hundreds of jellyfish, gave up her quest to complete a 23-mile swim of Monterey Bay after about 4½ hours Saturday, just short of the midway point of the quest.

Bauernfeind, 43, left Seabright Beach in Santa Cruz at midnight, hoping to conquer the currents, the cold water and the jellyfish to become the second swimmer ever to swim the bay. Cindy Cleveland did it in 1983, and five other swimmers have failed to equal the feat since then.

Bauernfeind, a Pleasanton resident, swam without a wet suit in accordance with English Channel open-water swimming rules.

Score Is Jellyfish 2, Humans 1 In Bay Swimming Attempts

Moe missed it with his gloomy outlook back on June 13.

Still, I saw bigger crowds on Memorial Day.

At Lattitudes restaurant in Pacific Grove, “We had our best week in history,” said owner Tene Shake. People walked to the restaurant from nearby hotels, some with reservations, some not.

Unlike 2000, the tournament went into the early evening this year to accommodate an East Coast prime time TV audience. That meant diners were coming in later, Shake said; even at 11:30 p.m., Lattitudes was still half-full.

The fact that busing to Pebble Beach was provided by the Pacific Grove Chamber of Commerce was a key factor, Shake said.

U.S. Open Looks To Have Been A Success For PG

Moe blathers from his butt about this month’s “greatest thin that could happen”. Pacific Grove could have more revenues if they’d bring in what people want when they are visiting.

Moe Ammar believes the U.S. Open will be “the greatest thing that could happen” to the local economy.

But Ammar, president of the Pacific Grove Chamber of Commerce, is the first to admit that this year’s U.S. Open won’t be as lucrative as 2000, the last time the tournament came to Pebble Beach.

While many hotel rooms on the Peninsula were reserved long ago for U.S. Open week, there are rooms to be had with tournament play just four days away.

Ammar’s survey last week showed Pacific Grove’s 28 hotels and motels are 81 percent booked for the U.S. Open — down from 96 percent a week before the 2000 tournament.

Moe Predicts A Bad US Open Windfall

Nuts!

William Poolman of Pacific Grove has been charged with one felony count of mailing a false weapon of mass destruction causing fear. He is scheduled to appear in court Friday.

The Department of State Parks and Recreation cited Poolman in February for failing to pay for parking at Carpinteria State Park.

Poolman unsuccessfully appealed the citation. He sent his payment to a parking citation collection agency in Orange County and included a gram of a white substance that turned out not to be hazardous.

Authorities say he also wrote threatening messages in the letter.

The U.S. Coast Guard rescued a 31-year-old Vacaville man who had been swept out to sea while surfing at Asilomar State Beach in Pacific Grove this evening.

At about 6:30 p.m., Pacific Grove police were dispatched the area after the surfer’s friend said the man might be in distress.

Asilomar Ocean Rescue: Vacaville Surfer Swept Away

Greenies are shocked, SHOCKED that no one wants to pay $15,000 for a low speed golf cart with limited range. Are they out of touch or what?

The Bay Area’s independent electric car dealerships are in perilous shape, even as electric cars are being hailed as the next big thing by major auto manufacturers. Factors including a hurting economy, lower gas prices and, most notably, the cars’ own limitations.

Neither the Toronto-made Zenn or Santa Rosa-based Zap, the two electric cars most commonly sold in the Bay Area, go very far without a charge. The Zenn, which sells for around $15,000, can’t go more than 25 mph; the Zap, which costs around $10,000, 35 mph.

Greenspot Cars Are Failing

And it’s not “get to the choppa”

Schwarzenegger on Friday responded for the first time about a profanity-laced phrase spelled out on the left-hand margin in his veto message to a state lawmaker who had heckled the governor at a San Francisco event.

The governor smiled as he told reporters at the White House, “That was a total coincidence. It was one of those wild coincidences.”

Governator Sends Coded Message

(San Jose Mercury)

Today’s non-shopping list item: Green Onions (some people call them scallions, Joe)

A Steinbeck spokesman says the company bought the onions from Circle Produce, a Calexico-based company supplied by an onion farm in Mexicali, Mexico.

Castroville-based shipper Ocean Mist Farms recalled 1,746 cases of its green onions as well, after realizing they came from the same lot. No illnesses have been reported.,

What did our career congressman Sam The Sham Farr do with the millions of tax dollars he got when it was spinach or iceberg lettuce?

California Produce Still Tainted

Palo Alto is collecting $250 for late filed burglar alarm permits. For a city that not only fails to collect from businesses that park all day long in 2 hour spots, does P.G. even collect alarm fees?

Art Sklaroff is one of more than a dozen residents who showed up for an administrative hearing earlier this month to contest the fine, which he said came without warning. Like the others, he explained that he had been renewing his mandatory $35 permit each year, but forgot this year because he didn’t receive the city’s usual courtesy reminder.

Like each of the others, he was told that it was no excuse. The rules are the rules.

Revenue – Burglar Alarm Fees

The country voted for change right?

Beall’s (D-San Jose)plan would generate about $1.4 billion a year, with the money going toward alcohol- and drug-related programs. He and other supporters noted at a Capitol news conference Monday that California’s alcohol taxes haven’t been raised since 1991. Backers also said it’s time for the industry to bear more of the costs it imposes on society — including drunken driving accidents, alcoholism and other problems.

Revenue – Alcohol Taxes