Category Archives: Off Topic

Tiny Shed Living Explained

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There’s no sewer or water hookups. Propane stove, solar panels. It’s a substainable  camper trailer that can’t be moved.

Tiny House don't flush

Business Insider

Real estate broker/owner Amber Russell would like to see the possibilities for tiny homes expanded in Monterey County and beyond, and she’s now working toward that goal.

She’ll speak on “How to Make a Tiny Impact, No Matter the Size of Your Home” at this weekend’s Inspired Home Expo at Monterey County Fair & Event Center, 2004 Fairground Road in Monterey. The expo is free and open to the public this Saturday and Sunday.

“I’ll be talking about what draws people to tiny houses, and also how we can use less energy in our current homes,” said Russell, who has the National Association of Realtors’ Green Designation, specializing in energy efficiency ad sustainability, and is the only Realtor in Monterey County with that designation. She recently launched her own mobile brokerage, Over the Moon Realty.

Tiny Shed Living Explained

Downtown Deplorables

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A little news from the runaway mayor’s home base.

Stockton’s Silva stepping up. But can’t keep his firearms from getting stolen

Mayor Anthony Silva on Thursday outlined a nine-step proposal to curb gang violence and seek justice for a 3-year-old girl killed by gunfire last weekend.

“I hereby declare war on active gang members within the city of Stockton,” he said at a news conference at City Hall.

“Everyone here, you know we can think of all sorts of (homicide victims),” the mayor said. “Tim Egkan just last year, I can think of all sorts — Ray-Ray (Rashawn Harris), we should all have these people in custody.”

Egkan was a force in downtown Stockton redevelopment before he was fatally stabbed in early on Sept. 13, 2015, just blocks from his downtown home.

Harris, 13, was gunned down at 7 a.m. Feb. 23, 2015, in his driveway in the 2200 block of South Sacramento Street by a .40-caliber Beretta Px4 Storm semi-automatic pistol.

According to the District Attorney’s Office, the Beretta was legally registered to the mayor, one of two guns stolen from him in separate thefts. Silva did not report that gun stolen until March 22, 2015 — 27 days after Harris’ killing. The D.A.’s Office said in August that Silva refused to cooperate with investigators seeking information about the recovered gun, although the mayor has denied that claim.

Downtown Deplorables

Salinas Cops Are Peeping For Cellphone Using Drivers

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It’s not like anything else in happening in Salas, eh? How many people die of cellphone accidents compared to gang shootings?

Salinas Police said an undercover officer looked for drivers using their cellphone and then informed a uniformed officer in a marked patrol car of the violation. Ten stops were made 3 hours.

“It has been shown time and time again that using your cellphone while driving is very dangerous,” said Sgt. Gerry Ross. “It’s very tempting to answer that phone when someone calls but it is not worth someone getting hurt or killed. Find a place to pull over and call the person back.”

Ross said drivers are keeping an eye out for police, and officers are having to get more creative to enforce cellphone laws.

Salinas Police said they are also sending plainclothes officers out on foot, to look into cars to spot illegal cellphone use.

Salinas Cops Are Peeping For Cellphone Using Drivers

Don’t You Just Love Public Transit?

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Nekked drug users riding without a care.

Shoeless Rider Lights up Apparent Crack Pipe While on Bart

Note to BART: Please require your crack-smoking riders to wear pants.
It’s bad enough that some people get away with smoking cigarettes while on BART. But a rider puffing crack in the handicapped seats while wearing a towel(?) draped over his crotch, well, that’s going to give a transit system a bad name.

Don’t You Just Love Public Transit?

Weekend Stay At Air BnB Turns Out Kinky

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Could happen in your neighborhood. Please say no to short term rentals.

Sharon Marzouk confronted what looked like a bad scene out of a porn film last Friday at her Menlo Park home where she was renting a bedroom to an Airbnb guest.
When Marzouk walked through the door, she says she found water trickling through the ceiling as the bathtub in the upstairs bathroom was flooding the second floor and pouring into the first.
Marzouk was hit with more surprises inside the bedroom of the Airbnb guest who she claims accidentally forgot to turn off the faucet: a large box of Magnum condoms, a vibrator, a bag full of used tissues, a few pairs of killer high heels, and a hand-written list of “pics” that included items such as “masturbating vid,” “bent over green Abercrombie,” and “blue and white skirt vibrator.”
Marzouk says the guest told her she was a real estate agent after confirming the booking, but when she stepped inside that room last week, she realized this was probably a lie.

Weekend Stay At Air BnB Turns Out Kinky

Air BNB Rental Adds Up To Loss

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and… “Calculator.”

In a lengthy Facebook blog post, a California woman recently explained her horror story with an Airbnb guest who allegedly left behind thousands of dollars in damage and — according to the homeowner — may have been running an adult business from the house.

When the homeowner returned to survey the damage, she entered Vera’s room and noticed a number of things that set off her something’s-wrong-dar.

“I noticed that there was a handbag with only condoms in it,” she tells CBS, but her blog post includes more explicit details, like the sex toy left out in the open. Those alone may be found in the private rooms of countless women and aren’t really evidence of any illicit business.

However, the homeowner also found what appears to be a checklist of photos or videos that Vera needed to shoot, like “Masturbating Vid,” “Bent Over A**/White Thigh Highs,” and… “Calculator.”

Air BNB Rental Adds Up To Loss
[Consumerist]

Tourists – Good For What?

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From Hawaii. I’ve felt their pain for a long time.

People sometimes forget how important tourism is and start lamenting there are too many people around, particularly when business is good, she said.

“It’s just a tendency for people to start complaining,” Dance said. “And so the thing is, let’s remind everybody again.”

But not everyone in Hawaii is on board.

Critics say the industry offers poorly paid jobs and exploits Hawaiian culture. But many complaints are about increased traffic and congestion

Rena Risso, a 30-year-old who was born and raised in Kailua, understands the positive aspects of tourism, but she believes they’re outweighed by the negatives.

“I think, as far as the local’s point of view, it’s humbug,” she said after an early morning walk. “I can’t even take my kids to the beach on a weekend because it’s so crazy.”

Tourists – Good For What?

KRON 4

Many Restaurants Lie About Sourcing

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I think that we as Americans have really come to expect inexpensive food. We spend a very small amount of our disposable income on food, and restaurateurs have to cope with that. They have to figure out how to offer food to us at a price we will pay, while buying the best ingredients that they can. And often, as in any other business, it’s buy low and sell high.

You confronted a lot of chefs about this, and a lot of them gave you the same answer.

[They said] “I guess that should come off the chalkboard.”

There were plenty of people who were honestly surprised to find something was still on the chalkboard or still on their menu many months after they’d purchased that product, and many others that were just caught red-handed.

NPR
Many Restaurants Lie About Sourcing

“Free Phone” Pushers Defrauding The Public

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I am often a skeptic when a business exists solely on payments from government programs. Free Phones, mobility scooters, subsidized solar systems, electric cars, etc. Shows you just how loose the government is with our tax dollars.

The Federal Communications Commission plans to fine Total Call Mobile $51.1 million after alleging the carrier fraudulently collected payments from a program that subsidizes wireless service for low-income consumers.

According to FCC documents [PDF], since 2014 Total Call Mobile requested and received more than $9.7 million in payments by signing up tens of thousands of duplicate or ineligible consumers “despite repeated and explicit warnings from its own employees, in some cases compliance specialists, that company sales agents were engaged in widespread enrollment fraud.”

[Consumerist]
“Free Phone” Pushers Defrauding The Public