El Estero Car Wash Gives Away Customer’s Car

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On May 6, a sunny Sunday afternoon, the Pacific Grove woman took her beloved blue BMW to El Estero Hand Car Wash for a spring cleaning. Watching the process from the video screen in the lobby, she saw the attendant put a final shine to her rearview mirror and started walking outside to drive it away.

And then someone beat her to it. An unknown man with a receding hairline and a big grin on his pale face jumped into the car like he owned it and floored it out the driveway.

“The guy just, bam, beelined, gave it gas and he was out of there,” said a still-incredulous Harmell.

It really is too easy. The attendants don’t check receipts, they hold the door open and let you in any car.

El Estero Car Wash Gives Away Customer’s Car

KPIG DJ Laura Ellen Dies From Cancer At 57

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Laura Ellen brought back the KFAT sound to Pacific Grove’s KOCN before starting KPIG.

Laura Ellen Kpig Sty

Laura Ellen Hopper, the longtime program director and co-founder of KPIG 107.5 FM, died Monday from complications of lung cancer. She was 57.

Hopper of Royal Oaks was widely known to fans of KPIG as the mellow midday disc jockey who loved to champion emerging country/folk singer/songwriters, but she also was largely responsible for shaping both the sound and the public image of one of California’s most idiosyncratic and beloved radio stations.

Another local hero has passed. . .

Article from Santa Cruz Sentinel

KPIG DJ Laura Ellen Dies From Cancer At 57

Power Grid Shuts Down for a RACCOON?

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Raccoon Pwns PGe

When PG&E workers realized the animal was sitting on the line, they shut off the power, said company spokesman Jeff Smith.

Here, however, the company — and thousands of customers who needed electricity — were unlucky: The raccoon was licking its paws on the piece of equipment that shuts down electric flow.

“That meant we had to go to a bigger one down the line,” Smith said.

Instead of 200 or 300 customers, about 6,600 houses and shops in Pebble Beach, Pacific Grove and Monterey’s Cannery Row were in the dark, he said.

 

Power Grid Shuts Down for a RACCOON?

P.G. Woman Arrested in Carmel Fraud

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A Pacific Grove resident was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of using a stolen credit card to purchase almost $300 of goods from the Long’s Drugs in Carmel.

Police said Lorien Lee Weaver, 30, of Pacific Grove, bought $292.89 worth of a digital camera, miscellaneous cosmetics, clothing and other items at the store in the Crossroads Shopping Center.

Odd is that this was only reported in the Salinas Clownifornian.

P.G. Woman Arrested in Carmel Fraud

P.G. Explores Contracting Golf Jobs

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Administrators want the golf course to seek maintenance proposals from private companies, an action that could put 10 employees out of their jobs.

Eight of the employees are union members who must be offered other city jobs.

City Manager Jim Colangelo said he believes it’s unlikely a private company could provide the same quality of services at the course for less money, but he wants to provide residents — who may be asked to vote for a tax increase in November to bail the city out of financial difficulties — with a clear analysis.

Would they take a pay cut or decert? Nahhh.

P.G. Explores Contracting Golf Jobs

Peace Kooks Caught With Stolen Property

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Marina City Councilman Dave McCall was mighty surprised when he learned a long-missing campaign sign from his November 2006 re-election race was spotted last weekend on a street corner in Monterey.

He was concerned enough about the company being kept by the 2-by-4-foot red, white and blue placard to interrupt a pleasant Sunday afternoon and zoom down to Window on the Bay Park.

McCall bolted from his car, grabbed his sign, checked for any other campaign signs and started to leave. One male protester grabbed him for a moment.

McCall, who has his sights set on a run for Marina mayor next year, thought the last thing he needed was a confrontation in the middle of this scene. He whipped out his ID and the protester relented. McCall went home and called police to report the incident, just to keep his bases covered.

“It’s irritating, why someone would take my sign … or try to ruin my credibility using my sign in that situation,” McCall said later. “I just wanted to handle it calmly.”

Cowards Protest

Peace Kooks Caught With Stolen Property

Visitors Get Tagged To Learn About Their Migration

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The Ventana Wildlife Society is petitioning the city of Pacific Grove to help it learn more about monarch butterflies.

The group is asking the City Council for a letter of support that would help it get grant money to start a monarch habitat restoration project.

Aw, you thought they were studying the migration habits of tourists, huh?

Visitors Get Tagged To Learn About Their Migration

P.G. Fees To Rise

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Plan to spend more money to play golf, remove a tree or park at Lovers Point in Pacific Grove this coming year.

Along with increasing fees, the city will not fill open vacancies in the police and recreation departments in an effort to help balance the 2007-08 budget.

Cost reductions|
· Eliminate a fire chief position and contract with Monterey for incident command services instead.

· Keep the museum director position open for half of the year and hire a part-time employee at a quarter of the director’s annual salary. The current director, Paul Finnegan, has said he will retire in December.

· Keep vacant two police officer and one recreation department office assistant positions.

· Eliminate a $10,000 contract to check remodeling/building permits.

New revenue|

· Contract to provide additional fire management services for Carmel.

· Implement a new $200 tree removal/trimming permit application fee.

· Increase golf course fees.

· Modify the golf clubhouse use permit to allow for private parties and meetings.

· Increase rents from recreation facilities and parks.

· Raise $60,000 through the museum, potentially by charging admission.

· Install parking meters at Lovers Point and Central and Eardley avenues.

P.G. Fees To Rise

Marine Mammals, Birds Affected by Algae Bloom

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Large blooms of algae in Monterey Bay are releasing a toxin that has apparently been poisoning large numbers of marine mammals and birds.

Blooms of the algae produce a neurotoxin called domoic acid, said Tim Stephens of the University of California-Santa Cruz, whose scientists report that the blooms which first appeared in Southern California earlier this spring are now occurring along the Central Coast.

Researchers have detected high levels of the toxin in the bay, he said, and large numbers of dead seabirds, as well as sea lions with symptoms of domoic acid poisoning, have been turning up on Monterey Bay beaches.

“The impact on marine life depends on how much of the toxin gets into the food web,” said Raphael Kudela, associate professor of ocean sciences at UC-Santa Cruz. “But in terms of toxin production and the size of the bloom, this event is similar to the large blooms we saw in Monterey Bay in 2000 and 2002.”

Serious – nature does things that appear cruel.
Silly – maybe Round-Up herbicide in the ocean would kill the algae.

Marine Mammals, Birds Affected by Algae Bloom