Category Archives: Pacific Grove

Falcons Have Flown The Coop – BUT

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Open dumpsters are acknowledged as a problem.

Mark Brodeur, with the city, says the gulls are all but gone. Brodeur, the city’s community and economic development director, came up with the idea to bring the falconer in after seeing the tactic work in San Antonio, where he was working. He says there is a noticeable difference now in downtown, where seagulls had become a nuisance

Brodeur said there are still three spots in town where the seagulls are frequently being seen. He said all of the three spots are homes to open dumpsters. Brodeur said they have asked the businesses with the dumpsters to close them and expects this will solve the problem.

Falcons Have Flown The Coop – BUT

Unleash The Falcons On The Gulls!

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Never did see the hawks out flying. I think having bird expert walking the streets with a falcon distracted people from noticing all the gull poop. After all, the real problem remains unchecked.

The Falcon

A sense of urgency to get seagulls to fly the coop. In recent years, they’ve become a nuisance and health hazard to the people who live, work and visit the area.

“The poop everywhere doesn’t make the town look very attractive to shoppers,” local business owner Janneke Rowland-Wolken said.

“You don’t want to be nasty towards the seagulls, they are part of our small little town here. But you do want to treat the problem and I think it’s a nice and environmentally friendly way,” Rowland-Wolken said.

Monday was orientation day for the birds. Once they get comfortable with the environment, they’ll be out flying around Thursday or Friday of this week. But that’s not the end of Mardin’s work. She’ll probably be back this summer when tourism picks up and more people are dining outside when gulls are there for the free food.

Unleash The Falcons On The Gulls!

Stuart Elder Changes His Story

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Grasping to shift the blame, he adds Bambi to the story and says he was at half the speed originally stated.

Stuart Elder, the man convicted in the drunken-driving deaths, took the stand Thursday to testify he was driving on Sloat Road in Pebble Beach at about 30 mph, when he saw a deer on the road, prosecutor Meredith Sillman said Monday. Elder then testified he sped onto the opposite side of the road to avoid crashing into the animal, saw the victims and crashed head-on, Sillman said.

“He changed his story at the last minute to fit the evidence that we had brought in,” Sillman said.

Elder’s original story stated Sharon Daly, 72, who was driving the Ford Freestyle with Linda LaRone, 65, as her passenger, cut him off, which led to the crash. Elder was the only person the defense called to testify, Sillman said.

Stuart Elder Changes His Story

 

Stuart Elder Found Guilty

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Fifteen years? Only fifteen years.

Stuart Elder, a 31-year-old builder, faces up to 15 years in prison for the manslaughter deaths of Linda LaRone, 65, and Sharon Daly, 72. The women were the former owners of a popular Pacific Grove pet shop.

Still the blame shifting continues…:

At trial, Elder’s lawyer Michael Lukehart had argued Daly, who was driving, had also been drinking that night.

Sillman said the responsibility of the two deaths, and injuries to his passenger, were solely Elder’s fault.

Stuart Elder Found Guilty

Stuart Elder DUI-Manslaughter Trial Defenses

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Denial is more than a long river in Africa.

Elder faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted. Because investigators did not find previous driving under the influence convictions, he is not facing a life sentence. Elder has a checkered driving history, with more than a dozen traffic citations between 2003 and 2012.

He says we was cut off:

“He said he was cut off by a vehicle and was unable to avoid it, then they collided,” Avila said. “He seemed to be upset, irrational, excited and talkative.”

Then his DUI blood test was unconstitutional:

Prosecutor Meredith Sillman argued that Elder signed a release allowing medics to withdraw blood from his body prior to being jailed, and that the officer acted in conformity with the law. The court agreed with Sillman and admitted the tests as evidence during trial.

Then it was due to the way the road is laid out:

“What if it was a traffic engineering issue? What if others reacted the same way in that area? Since it’s a homicide, perception here is crucial,” he said.

Sillman said “it is just too much” data for her to collect and find exactly what the defense is looking for. The court denied the defense’s motion.

Stuart Elder DUI-Manslaughter Trial Defenses

Lady Bank Robber Faces Substantial Penalty

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Things must be tough all over.

Cristina Padilla Bank Robber

Cristina Fernandez Padilla, 51, pleaded no contest Thursday in San Luis Obispo Superior Court to eight felonies, including several counts of second-degree robbery, evading a police officer, and assault with a car as a deadly weapon. Without that plea she faced up to 32 years in prison, prosecutors said, but is now facing 20-year prison term.

Padilla was arrested in August 2013 after she tried to rob a Golden Credit Union branch in San Luis Obispo. She was known for robbing smaller banks and credit unions, often chatting amicably with tellers before showing them a note demanding money.

The Monterey Credit Union robbery in Pacific Grove was the only robbery in which Padilla allegedly brandished a handgun.

Besides Pacific Grove, she is suspected of robbing banks in Atascadero, Nipomo, Paso Robles, Modesto and Pismo Beach. In 2005, she was convicted for a burglary in Monterey County.

Lady Bank Robber Faces Substantial Penalty

Pacific Grove Offers Alternates To Starbucks

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LHA Starbucks

The closed KFC on Lighthouse Avenue in New Monterey has been transformed into Starbucks and Pacific Grove’s MoeAmmar sent out a message that there are P.G. coffee sellers that are superior to the mega coffee chain.

Shirt-for-hire wants us all to know that P.G. offers up coffee that costs more, is less convenient and has fewer choices than Starbucks.

The new Starbucks has a drive through, coffee that is cheaper, open for business when people want it and stands a less chance of being pooped on by gulls. No wonder P.G. fails to attract tourist dollars.

In reaction to a new multi-million dollar Monterey Starbucks opening less than 400 feet from its border, the Pacific Grove Chamber of Commerce took an advertisement in Wednesday’s Herald declaring its “preferred coffee shops.”

Starbucks is not on the list and Thursday the chamber will launch a marketing campaign to highlight its smaller, independent coffee shops.

“My mission is to educate and remind our residents and our businesses there are, at least, nine, 10 places where you can have coffee that, to me, is better than Starbucks,” chamber president Moe Ammar said.

Pacific Grove Offers Alternates To Starbucks

Fear Of Seals – Man Sets Off Bomb To Scare Them Away

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Didn’t he think he was safe from seals two miles from the ocean?

The small bomb, usually used to scare off seals, went off near a hardware store and a gas station on Forest Avenue near Forest Hill Boulevard at 9 p.m. An officer in the area heard a loud bang. A resident told him a man had lit and thrown an explosive device near a gas station.

Michael Harley Henderson, a 28-year-old Pacific Grove resident, was located at a nearby liquor store and admitted to detonating the “seal bomb” and throwing a second unlit bomb into a trash can. The small cylinder-shaped bombs are about 3 inches long, police said.

Fear Of Seals – Man Sets Off Bomb To Scare Them Away