The body discovered Thanksgiving Day on a Monterey beach was identified Monday as Chris Haugen, a Marina man who had been missing for 12 days after a sailing excursion in Monterey Harbor.
Haugen disappeared Nov. 11 after he took out the Lorraine, a sailboat that belonged to his employer. He set off about 3 p.m. But the boat was found running in circles, with its outboard motor running and nobody on board about two hours later.
Category Archives: Monterey Herald
Another Diver Dies In Bay
On Friday afternoon, a 36-year-old Capitola resident was pulled from Monterey Bay by his 15-year-old son.
Firefighters arrived within three minutes of the distress call. Coast Guard rescuers were on the scene applying CPR.
DLI Students Arrested In PG Robbery
Sean M. Davis, 19, Thomas C. Hood, 19 and Lee Nixon Jr., 18, were charged in the strong-arm robbery of a 24-year-old Seaside resident that took place at 3:40 a.m. Saturday.
The victim was struck on the head and robbed of his wallet by a man accompanied by two others at an automatic teller machine at the Bank of America branch at 601 Lighthouse Ave., police said.
What does anyone need cash for from an ATM in PG at 3:40AM? Nothing’s open at that time of the day.
Dangerous Trees To Be Chopped Down
City Manager Jim Colangelo said West Coast Arborists will remove the trees in December at a cost of $65,000. The firm will focus on trees that need to be cut down using cranes, while city employees will focus on less expensive tree-cutting, he said.
Residents who were originally critical of the plan to cut down 200 trees said on Wednesday that they were happy with the process and that the council members went to look at the trees.
Jean Anton, chairwoman of the city’s beautification and natural resources committee, praised the council members for going to the park. In her four years on the committee, she’s never seen that happen.
Ex-Mayor Morrie Fisher Sues For Free Golf
Morrie Fisher has sued the city he once led, claiming the city unfairly took away his lifetime privilege to play golf for free on the city’s links.
Fisher says he was promised unlimited play on the city’s municipal course when he first left the council in 1991, according to the lawsuit filed in Monterey Superior Court last week.
Even if he was a retired, full-time employee, said city attorney David Laredo, the city’s policy doesn’t grant lifetime free golf privileges, nor does it give a city manager the authority to allow unlimited golf play. Green fees at the Pacific Grove Golf Links are now as much as $40, depending on the day.
“I don’t believe there is any basis in fact or in law for the benefit that he claims,” Laredo said
Or as Snick says (in a Clint Eastwood impersonation): “The only way for an ex-mayor get free golf is to buy the golf course!”
Cynthia Hurley Gets A Year In Jail, Loses Properties
Before sentencing, Cynthia Hurley, clad in striped jail garb, was uncuffed so she could sign quit claim deeds for her 30-percent ownership of four Pacific Grove properties to pay a chunk of the $975,000 restitution.
Hurley was convicted of stealing the valuables from 98-year-old Lillian King, who had taken in Hurley and allowed her to live on her five-acre Sunset Drive property. At Hurley’s encouragement, King purchased properties on Divisadero and Granite streets and Piedmont and Forest avenues and signed over partial interest to Hurley.
Prosecutor Lisa Poll said Hurley’s actions were fueled by her addiction to methamphetamine and that she had filled King’s Sunset Avenue property with drug addicts.
Cort Stays On As Mayor – Goldbeck, Schenk Ousted
Incumbent Dan Cort will continue as the city’s mayor after receiving after defeating City Councilwoman Susan Goldbeck and Pacific Grove Hometown Bulletin Publisher Lee Yarborough with nearly 60 percent of the vote.
Was not even a close race for mayor.
DAN CORT 2,627 59.88%
SUSAN GOLDBECK 918 20.93%
LEE YARBOROUGH 842 19.19%
Newly elected council members are Alan Cohen and Vicki Stillwell. Lisa Bennett and Dan Davis return.
Gone are Ron Schenk and Susan Goldbeck.
P.G. Financial Problems More Serious Than Thought
Pacific Grove’s financial problems are more serious than originally thought, said the city manager, who added that services and city jobs might have to be cut to fix the problem.
City Manager Jim Colangelo initially projected that the general fund would fall short by about $700,000 in the 2007-08 fiscal year. But he said late last week that the city will run out of money during the second half of this fiscal year if cuts aren’t made soon.
Colangelo said he will soon recommend new sources of revenues, possibly including funds from sales tax initiatives, increasing hotel or property transfer taxes and more parking meters.
PG&E Suffers Outages For Two Days
A power outage Thursday knocked out electrical service to several hundred customers in the Monterey area, the second such incident in two days.
Pacific Gas & Electric Co. spokesman Jeff Smith said PG&E had received several calls from customers about an outage Wednesday that left thousands of customers, including stores in Del Monte Center, without power for up to four hours.
“When a power outage affects that many customers, it’s not unusual to receive complaints,” he said.
Weather was calm those days. Just wait until the rainy weather starts, and dead pine trees that won’t get cut down start to fall.
Seaside Couple Plead Guilty In Bingo Hall Robbery
Marcus Crooms and his girlfriend, Michelle Chioino, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit the robbery with the understanding that Chioino will be placed on probation and sentenced to a maximum of a year in jail when she is sentenced Jan. 18.
Crooms, 25, and Chioino, 27, must register as gang members for five years under the terms of the plea agreement. According to prosecutors, the crime was carried out for the Crips street gang.
In the course of Chioino’s prosecution, her defense attorney, Miguel Hernandez of Salinas, surmised that authorities may have “spliced” the tapes (of jail phone conversations) to implicate his client, whom he said was being singled out for prosecution because several members of her family have run afoul of the law.