Raise A Glass To Slow News Week

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Here’s a couple of off topic beverage stories.

Over in France they can refill wine jugs just at the grocery from 1,000 liter wine tanks.
Wine Refill Tank

Keg wine and wine vending machines just got supersized: 500 and one-thousand liter tanks have landed in French supermarkets.

Bring your own resealable bottles, Poland Spring containers, jerrycans, whatever. Or you can get one at the store. Select your grade (red, white, or rosé). Pump. Print receipt.

Other side of the planet, Woody Smith of Kentucky claims caffeine defense in murder trial

In the weeks preceding May 4, 2009, Woody Smith told Noelker, he hadn’t been sleeping, in part out of fear his wife would take their two children and leave him.

Fleckinger said Smith found out his wife was having an affair with a co-worker. Sexton said knowledge of the affair led Smith to rely on caffeine and not sleep out of fear his wife would take the children and leave.

“The next several hours of Mr. Smith’s life, were described to me as if he were in a daze,” Noelker wrote in his report.

Final Foxtrot, Dance Studio Shuts Down

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Located above Pollaci’s liquor store.

It’s the last dance for Ingrid Tower and Shall We Dance, yet Tower is confronting the studio’s closure with the same grace her dancers have displayed for the past four years. There are no regrets, questions of ‘what if,’ and no finger-pointing. The simple truth is that post-recession, Tower’s studio could not sustain itself financially.

Final Foxtrot, Dance Studio Shuts Down

It’s Not Global Warming, Climate Change, Pollution, Fishermen or G.W. Bush Killing Otters

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Hungry Alien Sharks

Nature did.

The shark-bite attacks on otters are essentially “taste tests” made while hunting, Harris said.

“This would explain why the majority of the otters collected have a single bite mark,” he said. “These bites are more investigative.”

After a shark realizes an otter won’t make a good meal, they let go and move on, Harris said.

Shark attacks on otters are part of nature, Harris said, but they concern researchers who want to preserve healthy populations.

“It becomes complicated,” he said. “They are both protected species.”

It’s Not Global Warming, Climate Change, Pollution, Fishermen or G.W. Bush Killing Otters

City Council Cozies Up With PG$E On Smartmeters

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Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s SmartMeters are a fundamental part of building a smart power grid that will increase energy efficiency, improve service and cut costs, a spokesman for the utility told the Pacific Grove City Council on Wednesday.

The SmartMeter itself isn’t new, PG&E spokesman Andrew Tang said. It dates from the 1980s. What is new is the radio net that will report power usage.

Big Brother watching you. Bankrupt PG&E not willing to improve the energy delivery system but will instead automate it’s power grid to charge you more when the opportunity arises.

Not to mention put meter readers out of a job.

City Council In Bed With PG$E On Smartmeters

PG&E admits to flaws in some smart meters

Botched Smart Meter Roll Outs Provoking Consumer Backlash

P.G. Cops Arrest Salinas Cop For Child Molesting

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Blame the victim. It works for Dave Stamm.

Lance M. Mosher, 44, was arrested Tuesday on two counts of lewd acts with a minor and penetration with a foreign object, police said.

Mosher is accused of committing the acts in 2007, police said.

The complaint stemmed from a prior complaint by an unnamed individual and the acts were committed while Mosher was living in Pacific Grove, authorities said.

Mosher’s attorney, Juliet Peck, said the teen accusing her client of molestation may have a mental illness, which could explain the allegations.

P.G. Cops Arrest Salinas Cop For Child Molesting

City Council Candidates In Lock Step On Issues

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Same old blah blah blah. More taxes, change the tree policy, high cost desalinization, more development.

As the date comes near, I’ll be asking some tougher questions such as where they stand on the chicken control issue.

Four candidates for three four-year terms on the Pacific Grove City Council showed few areas of disagreement at a forum Tuesday at Chautauqua Hall that drew an audience of 50.

Incumbent Councilmen Ken Cuneo and Alan Cohen, and challengers Rudolph Fischer and Richard Ahart Jr., who will face off in the Nov.2 municipal election, answered written questions submitted by the audience on a number of city issues.

City Council Candidates In Lock Step On Issues

Fire Breaks Out At Plaza Hotel On Cannery Row

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Fire damage minimal, but several floors below got everything soaked by the sprinkler systems.
Monterey Plaza Hotel

With the Cannery Row hotel filled to capacity, the Cherry’s Jubilee car show in full swing for the weekend, and a beer fest under way on the hotel’s lower terrace, a fire started in the penthouse of the westernmost building of the hotel complex about 3:21 p.m., and forced the evacuation.

According to Monterey Fire Capt. Barry Perkins, who arrived first on the scene, the fire started in a flue in the mechanical room on the five-story building’s penthouse level.

Who remembers the real fires in old cannery buildings?


Fire Breaks Out At Plaza Hotel On Cannery Row

Algae Is Killing The Sea Otters

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Suprised Sea Otter

Maybe is was better when Round Up was used near the shore.

Microcystin, which is commonly referred to as blue-green algae, can cause liver damage when ingested. All 21 sea otters that tested positive for the bacteria died from liver failure, according to the study, which was completed with the help of experts from UC Santa Cruz and a variety of state and federal agencies.

It is believed the toxins flowed to the ocean off the coast of Monterey in rivers and creeks. Sea urchins and shellfish near the outflow filtered the water and the poison accumulated in their bodies, which were, in turn, eaten by otters.

Algae Is Killing The Sea Otters