Santa Cruz County experienced its first homicide of 2011 on Sunday. The victim, Jose Alfredo Coronel, 32, was stabbed in the chest in Watsonville shortly after midnight. Police transported him to the hospital, where he died of his injuries. There were no reports of disturbances in the area before the stabbing was reported, and police have yet to find the murder weapon. They do not, however, think that the murder was gang-related.
Articles by Danny Wool
Butterflies Enjoy a Break from the Rain
It wasn’t only last-minute Christmas shoppers who decided to take advantage of the sunny spell on Wednesday. In Lighthouse Field, the monarch butterflies were out in full force, taking advantage of the relatively warm air to flutter across the grass in their persistent search for nectar.
Organic Farmer Wins Landmark Pesticide Case
Larry Jacobs takes pride in his organic dill, which he grows at Jacobs Farm/Del Cabo. For years he’d been supplying Whole Foods with the bright green herb, grown organically on his farm just north of Santa Cruz. Then one day he received a phone call. His dill had tested positive for pesticides. It could not be certified organic. The problem, he discovered, was the liquid pesticides used to spray Brussel sprouts on a neighboring, non-organic farm. Those pesticides vaporized and were carried in the wind to his dill.
Homeless Center Remembers the Dead
Homelessness kills. That was the message you could have taken away from the ceremony at the Homeless Services Center on Tuesday night. There were 30 new flags, each with a name, to remember the 30 homeless people who died on the street in Santa Cruz in 2010. They were added to the flags for the victims of previous years, for a total of 463 flags—463 people—since 1999. And that’s only the people we know about.
Senator Calls Grateful Dead Archive “Wasteful”
Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma is more than just a politician. He is also an MD and an ordained deacon in the Southern Baptist church, and something of a controversial figure. In the past, he opposed the regulation of tobacco by the FDA and referred to the prime time screening of Schindler’s List, saying that TV had been taken “to an all-time low, with full-frontal nudity, violence and profanity.”
Sheriff’s Deputies Host Christmas Party for Underprivileged Kids
About 400 kids showed up at the Elks Lodge on Sunday for a Christmas party hosted by the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Department.
Watsonville Gets Money to Fight Gang Violence
Gang violence has been one of the most talked about problems in Santa Cruz County this year.
Rain Takes A Toll on Santa Cruz County
Santa Cruz County received a pummeling this weekend, with rain and high winds knocking down power cables and causing mudslides to block roads. The mountain areas got 3 inches between Saturday evening and Sunday evening alone. “The ground is saturated with water. The winds started blowing so trees are falling everywhere,” says Wil Wingert of the Aptos Fire Department. He says that the department is “a little overwhelmed” by the number of calls reporting downed cables in Aptos and throughout the county. He encourages local residents to be patient and most importantly, to be mindful of safety measures until the wires can be cleared and power can be restored.
New Water Supply for Pajaro Valley?
Last year Barry Nelson of the National Resources Defense Council gave Californians a dire warning: “Look at a map of California and you will see that every major watershed has been tapped. We have hit—or passed—peak water on each of these rivers.” While it may seem ironic to say so as the Central Coast braces for a brutal rainstorm, peak water, much like peak oil, is a serious threat to California and the affluent way of life we lead here. Nelson continues: “Interestingly, this is not a controversial idea within California’s business and urban water communities. Although they may not yet use the term peak water, they are already planning for its reality.”
Body Found in State Park
Sheriff’s deputies have confirmed the identity of a man found dead in Big Basin Redwoods State Park on Thursday near Berry Creek Falls.
