Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words

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  • Nat'l Weather Service Issues Flood, Debris Warning for Southern California

    Observer Staff|Updated Jan 15, 2017

    Noon Sunday 1/08/2016: Flash flooding and mud and debris flows possible for recent burn areas of southwestern California this evening through Monday morning. Locally, rain is expected to start around 4 am Monday morning, and has caused flooding damage and chaos in the Northern part of the State. The National Weather Service in Los Angeles/Oxnard has issued a Flash Flood Watch for the recent burn areas in Los Angeles County, including the sand, fish, and other recent burn...

  • Martin Rubin Says "My Efforts to Organize Anti Airport Protest Have Been Hijacked."

    Observer Staff |Updated Jan 15, 2017
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    Update: This e mail just in "Regarding the planned February 4th protest: As director of Concerned Residents Against Airport Pollution, please understand that Jonathan Stein is attempting to hijack my efforts to organize this event, and in doing so has only complicated and made it more difficult for me to focus as we move forward. I have been in the process of planning this event since mid-December.Only the date has been finalized. The format of the event is in process. I have...

  • Car Runs Red Light, Collides With Expo Line Train Late Sunday Morning

    Observer Staff |Updated Jan 15, 2017
    2

    Some people just can't wait for the train to pass. 7th Street was closed to traffic at Colorado Blvd late Sunday morning, as a result of a train v. car collision. A Westbound Expo line train passing 7th Street on Colorado in Santa Monica collided with the rear end of a passenger car, according to an MTA employee who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the press. "The car ran a red light," he said. "We don't know if anyone was injured in the...

  • Bobcat 332 Dies of Mange Brought on by Rat Poison, in Santa Monica Mountains

    Observer Staff|Updated Jan 15, 2017

    "We are sad to report that another wild cat has died in the Simi Valley area," said Zachary Behrens of the National Park Service, in a press release to the Santa Monica Observer Newspaper. "Bobcat 332 was an approximately 3-year-old male that we've been following in the Simi Hills since 2015. He had severe mange, a skin disease caused by mites. Since we often see mange accompanied by rat poison in animals' systems, B-332's blood tests will be sent to a lab for analysis," he...

  • SMMUSD Embargoes Pizza Slices, Chicken Sandwiches and Burritos

    Observer Staff|Updated Jan 13, 2017

    As of the beginning of 2017, junk snacks are history at Santa Monica schools. SMMUSD will also ban Pizza slices, Chicken Sandwiches and Burritos, unless they are part of a lunch with several items. The new standards are intended to comply with updated health standards published by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), says SMMUSD. USDA has issued new standards focus on snack foods and beverages sold to children during the school day at school "snack bars." "The...

  • Sugar Daddies and Serial Killers Make Odd Bedfellows

    Observer Staff|Updated Jan 12, 2017

    (Los Angeles, CA / January 12, 2016) -- Blanc/Biehn Productions (BBP), the powerhouse indie film studio founded by actors/filmmakers Michael Biehn and Jennifer Blanc-Biehn, announces that principal shooting for Killer Weekend has begun in Los Angeles. Jamielyn Lippman (When the Bough Breaks) will direct the thriller, with an original screenplay by Travis Romero, who wrote the story with Lony Ruhmann; Romero and Ruhmann have also collaborated on behalf of BBP in the 2013...

  • Ultimate Easter Egg Hunt: Shipwreck Results in German Beach Strewn With Plastic Easter Eggs

    Observer Staff|Updated Jan 11, 2017

    1/06/2017: It was a dark and stormy night. The Captain of the Maersk Alabama did not see the reef near Langeoog Island, before he was upon it. The good ship and crew was a bone to be chewed, when the witch of the North Sea came calling. So they dumped a container over the side, and the result was a beach strewn with plastic, multi-colored Easter eggs. Authorities say the plastic eggs containing instructions in the Cyrillic alphabet, were dumped from a container that was lost...

  • Text of Meryl Streep's Speech at the Golden Globes; Trump's Response

    Observer Staff|Updated Jan 11, 2017

    Meryl Streep gave an intensely political speech tonight at the Golden Globe awards, where she received the Cecile B. Demille lifetime achievement award. Donald Trump dismissed her speech, noting that she introduced Hillary Clinton at the DNC. Trump denied mocking a disabled reporter; he noted that he had reversed what he had initially written about 9/11. "Meryl Streep, one of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood, doesn't know me but attacked last night at the Golden...

  • Pokemon Ice Cream Truck Lures Creatures Inside With Promise of Charging Station

    Observer Staff|Updated Jan 11, 2017

    Apparently, Pokemon Go characters have more to worry about than just Poke balls. A Pokemon Go ice cream truck cruising the streets of SoCal lures the little guys with promises of ice cream (and a charging station, say some on social media). Pokémon Go is a free-to-play, location-based augmented reality game developed by Niantic for iOS and Android devices. The game was the result of a collaboration between Niantic and Nintendo, by way of The Pokémon Company, and was i...

  • Pacific Bluefin Tuna Fetches $632,000 at Auction in Japanese Fish Market

    Observer Staff|Updated Jan 9, 2017

    A Japanese sushi chain owner bid a winning 74.2 million yen ($632,000) for a 212 kilogram (466 pound) bluefin tuna in the final auction at the current site of Tokyo's Tsukiji market, since the market is supposed to move. The Pacific bluefin tuna (Thunnus orientalis) is a predatory species of tuna found widely in the northern Pacific Ocean, but it is migratory and also recorded as a visitor to the south Pacific. In the past it was often included in T. thynnus, the 'combined' sp...

  • Observer Picks Top 12 Santa Monica News Stories of 2016

    Observer Staff |Updated Jan 9, 2017
    1

    Most of this years top stories had something to do with the extraordinary increase in the price of Westside real estate. 1. Measure LV defeated: It was a true grassroots effort, that started with people who were Fed Up Waiting in Traffic and Not Going to Take It Anymore. They felt sold out by the feckless folks on Santa Monica's City Council and their minions (mostly they're called Staff). They took matters into their own hands, faced the opposition of rich men like NMS's...

  • SMPD Combats Bike Accidents by Giving Out Tickets in Accident Prone Areas

    Observer Staff|Updated Jan 9, 2017

    The Santa Monica Police Department will be conducting Bike and Pedestrian Safety Enforcement Operations with focused enforcement efforts on primary collision factors involving motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists, writes SMPD Lt. Saul Rodriguez. "The Police Department periodically identifies locations where bike and pedestrian collisions are prevalent, along with the violations that led to those collisions. In an effort to lower deaths and injuries, officers will be on duty...

  • China Problem: Amazon Third Party Sellers Cannot Be Trusted to Deliver Goods

    Observer Staff|Updated Jan 9, 2017

    Amazon has a "China Problem" and it is leaving many disappointed US children this holiday season, claims one writer. Amazon says they had their best Christmas sales season ever, and that sales are up 20%. However, Wade Shepard writes that Amazon has become inundated with unreliable, even fraudulent third party sellers, based mostly in China, who fail to deliver. Shepard, the author of Ghost Cities of China, claims to have parsed through numerous complaints on Amazon, and...

  • 15 Year Old Girl Rescued from Pimp, Sentenced to 12 Years in State Prison

    Observer Staff|Updated Jan 8, 2017

    On January 4, 2017, Defendant Marcus Deshon Slaughter, MB/29, of Compton, pled guilty in Compton Superior Court to one count of felony pimping and sentenced to serve twelve years in state prison. The case began on April 22, 2016, when Century Station Deputies responded to a call for service regarding a fight at a local motel on Long Beach Boulevard, Lynwood. At the motel, Deputies met an 18 year old female who said she had been working for a pimp, Defendant Slaughter, as a...

  • Greta Van Susteren Moves from FOX to MSNBC--She's Playing For the Other Team!

    Observer Staff|Updated Jan 8, 2017

    Megyn Kelly is not the only Fox Anchor switching networks. Kelly starts at NBC next week. In September, Van Susteren left Fox in a Huff, possibly over the Bob Ailes sexual harassment scandal. Rather improbably, starting at 6 PM on Monday, Greta Van Susteren will be doing a show at MSNBC called for the Record. Will her fans feel like she's crossing into enemy lines? Asked MSNBC anchor, Rachel Maddow. "I just think they should give me a chance. I'm interested in the facts, and...

  • UFO Crash Lands in Santa Monica Alley, After Being Sighted Over Devon, UK

    Observer Staff|Updated Jan 8, 2017

    A crashed UFO was found in a Santa Monica alley on New Years day, 2017. The object was lying near trash cans, it's alien occupant having fled the wreckage. But not before munching on discarded Christmas trees that lay nearby. The UFO may have been a casualty of New Years Eve gunfire over Texas. It may have simply been a 20 year old NASA launch whose orbit decayed. Or perhaps something more exotic. Two men claim to have seen a flaming UFO overhead in Devon, UK on December 28,...

  • SMPD: Photo of Woman Who Stabbed 7-11 Employee on 16th Street, Released

    Observer Staff|Updated Jan 8, 2017

    A store employee was stabbed Tuesday morning at the 7-11 convenience store, located on 16th Street and Santa Monica Blvd. The store was taped off with yellow police at work tape. This from the Santa Monica Police Department: "On January 3, 2016 at 6:03 am , Santa Monica PD received a radio call for service of an assault with a deadly weapon at the 7-11 at 1600 Santa Monica Blvd. Officers determined the incident involved a knife. The suspect entered the store and attempted to...

  • Wreckage of helicopter and bodies of two men found in the sea off San Pedro

    Observer Staff|Updated Jan 6, 2017

    1/5/17: Two bodies were pulled from the wreckage of a helicopter that crashed off the coast of San Pedro, according to officials. The bodies were presumed to be that of photographer Michael Justice and pilot Christopher Reed, authorities said during a Thursday afternoon press conference. 1/4/2017: The US Coast Guard and others are responding to reports of a helicopter down in the ocean off San Pedro. So far no wreckage or victims have been spotted in the water. Angels Gate has...

  • Mariah Carey Blames Lip Syncing Debacle on Dick Clark Productions' Sound Guys

    Observer Staff|Updated Jan 5, 2017

    It was a cold, cold New Year's Eve in Times Square last night. Mariah Carey will probably be forgiven for lip-synced her way through her hits onstage. Finally, she threw in the towel, reports the New York Daily News. "It just don't get any better," she hissed before leaving the stage. The pop icon brushed off the flub with a follow-up tweet later that evening."S--t happens," Carey said early Sunday. "Have a happy and healthy new year everybody! Here's to making more headlines...

  • Santa Monica Police Target Drunk Driving Over the Holidays With a New App.

    Observer Staff |Updated Jan 3, 2017
    1

    Even a Senior at SamoHi knows, you can't drink and drive. Well especially said Senior, since they pretty much all drink. But the Police Dept. nevertheless released their annual warning to drivers. Here it is: This holiday season, the Santa Monica Police Department (SMPD) will be out looking for drunk and drugged drivers as part of a special year-end Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over enforcement mobilization. "Beginning December 16 and continuing into the New Year, you will see...

  • Spy vs. Spy: Obama Expels 35 Russian Officials, In Response to DNC Hack

    Observer Staff|Updated Jan 2, 2017

    The announcement culminates months of vigorous internal debate over whether and how to respond to Russia's unprecedented election-year provocations, ranging from the hacks of the Democratic National Committee to the targeting of state electoral systems. Donald Trump will be in power in 3 weeks, and his softer view on Putin's Russia, indicates that he will undo the order. The Obama administration announced new measures on Thursday in retaliation for what U.S. officials have...

  • Debbie Reynolds Dies One Day After Her Daughter, Carrie Fisher

    Observer Staff|Updated Jan 1, 2017

    On December 28, 2016, one day after the death of her daughter Carrie Fisher, Reynolds was hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, in fair-to-serious condition after suffering a stroke at her son's home. Later that afternoon, she died in the hospital. Her son Todd Fisher tweeted that her last words were that she wanted to be "with Carrie." Reynolds, 84, complained of breathing problems, an unidentified source told the Los Angeles Times. The Times notes that, u...

  • Fans Sense a Great Disturbance In The Force, as Carrie Fisher Dies

    Observer Staff|Updated Jan 1, 2017

    Carrie Fisher has died at UCLA Hospital's Ronald Reagan Medical Center, at 8:55 am PST Tuesday. She was 60 years old. Fans, who remembered her mostly for her role as Princess Leia, shared their feelings on Social Media following Christmas. It was as if Darth Vaader had prevailed in "A New Hope." "A million voice's are crying out tonight... Carrie Fisher was very intelligent, funny,forthright and a film icon she will be sadly missed," said Bryan Dow. "Now a million voices cry...

  • Twitter Account of Sony Music Hacked, Falsely Tweets Brittany Spears Died

    Observer Staff|Updated Dec 31, 2016

    3/25, 1 pm EST: The Twitter account of Sony Music falsely tweeted Monday that Britney Spears had died, featuring separate postings that read: "RIP @britneyspears #RIPBritney 1981-2016," and "Britney spears is dead by accident! We will tell you more soon #RIPBritney." Similarly the twitter account of Bob Dylan tweeted "Rest in Peace, Brittany Spears," so it appears Dylan was hacked as well. A representative for the 35-year-old pop star told CNN the death claim was erroneous....

  • UFO Crashes Into Arctic Sea; Causes Mysterious Arctic Pinging, Siberian Snow Eggs

    Observer Staff |Updated Dec 29, 2016
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    The villagers of Igloolik, Nunavut were asleep when a streak quickly crossed the sky and struck the ice with a bang. 200 villagers came out their doors, but there was nothing to see except black water steaming and bubbling through a round, 10 meter hole in the ice. It was a night late in November 2010 and no one wanted to linger long outside in the middle of a dark night. The truth of what had happened was almost unimaginable. A UFO crashed through the Arctic ice 6 years ago,...

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