Penguin vs. Orcas.... Smart Bird!!

The penguin is being pursued by several Orcas, who are circling him for the kill. People on a small boat are filming all the action of the chase. Wait til you see what the penguin does to fix his problem! Thanks to a eBay and Facebook friend, Oda, for showing this video off... I love it!!



Yes, I know the music is annoying to some, but it kind of fits the action! lol...

Have a nice day?

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

How could I resist posting this LOLCat? It kind of reminds me of the look I got from one of my cats this morning when I looked out the window on to my back porch. One of the cats was sitting on top of the dryer just staring at the window waiting for me to let her in... lol

I'm Still Alive...

I'm still around, I just haven't been taking the time to sit here and type.. I am still following the news on the various cases I've posted about in the past as well as watching a few other "new" ones. Right now, however, I'm not going to post about crimes, nor am I going to post about my most recent little trip with my Mom and Stepdad to Monterey, nor any of the other things I've been doing in the last few weeks. I am going to simply post a "music video" that a friend posted a link to on Facebook... The song is created entirely from the normal system sounds in Windows 98 and Windows XP... Check it out!

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Update: Scott Malmstrom (July Dead Body Story)

Yesterday's Appeal Democrat had a "Breaking News" story about the murder of Scott Malmstrom. I mentioned him in two posts a couple months ago. Look here and here for the original posts.

So, yesterday afternoon, the Yuba County Sheriff's Department reported that they have arrested a Marysville man on suspicion of homicide in the case of Scott Malmstrom. If you saw/read my previous posts about the dead man, you'll know that he was a registered sex offender. His body was found in a Linda, CA apartment complex after neighbors reported a foul odor coming from Malmstrom's apartment. Anyway, the fellow they arrested is Todd Allen Cole, a 25 year old man who was already in custody at the Yuba County Jail on an unrelated parole hold.

The Appeal Democrat did a little research and found out that this guy, Cole, was arrested by the Yuba City Police Department back in April on suspicion of violating parole, possessing false identification and vandalism, and was booked into Sutter County Jail. He was listed as a Yuba City resident in that arrest. I haven't seen any mention by the paper nor anyone else that states what the original crime was that he was on parole for. The guy is supposed to be arraigned either sometime today or on Monday. Whenever it is, I hope the paper sends a reporter so they can put more info in their story about the crime and about Cole's history.

What I would like answered is;

• What was the original crime he was on parole for?
• What was the parole violation he was picked up for in April?
• When was he released from the Sutter County Jail?
  
• When was he re-arrested for parole violations by the Yuba County law enforcement agencies?
• What was the parole violation he was picked up for by Yuba County law enforcement agencies?
  

And those questions are just for starters!

Malmstrom's sister, Jennifer, has posted comments here a couple times on the story I did on July 29th. The first time, she was asking for anyone with information to come forward and give the info to the investigators. The second time was to tell me and my readers that Cole had been arrested. Jennifer, you may not believe it, but I had just read the story in the paper and copy/pasted it off to a separate document so I could use the information in it to write this post. I apologize to you for not getting this written yesterday. I also saw your comment at the bottom of the Appeal Democrat article. I wasn't aware until reading your comments how many times Cole allegedly stabbed your brother. 17 stab wounds equals a lot of anger in my opinion. It will be interesting to see how this case proceeds and to find out what kind of evidence they have against Cole.

I have to admit that I don't have much sympathy for the victim in this case. He was a sex offender and had his own victims. I do have sympathy for his family, though. The trial is going to be hard on them and I hope they have the strength to make it through the ordeal.

Source: UPDATE: Man arrested for July slaying in Linda

More Fire Images (Updated)

I'm still watching the news about the fires still burning around the state, especially the huge fire in Southern California, the one named "Station Fire". One of the things I'm watching is it's approach to Mount Wilson and the century old observatory there. Mount Wilson also hosts the communication towers for most of the radio and television stations in the Los Angeles basin. I can remember visiting the observatory up on that peak years ago. It has always amazed me that an observatory so near to the smoggy LA basin could get clear views of space. I've felt the same about the Griffith Observatory... Anyway, a really good way to keep track of what is happening up on Mount Wilson is to check in with the web cam that sits on top of the Solar Tower.

Here's some screen captures from last night and this morning:

This one was taken a little while after sunset. I wish I had thought to capture one the sunset views. Maybe I'll try tonight.

This one was just before I went to bed last night...

And this one is from this morning... So far so good. The fire is close, and unfortunately it's getting closer. I just hope that the observatory survives. It's a piece of history and it's an important facility for the scientists who watch the skies.

Another image I want to share is one that I "borrowed" from twitter. A fellow posted a link to it and said that it was an image that had been uploaded to a local media site. I don't know which site, nor do I know who took it, but it's such a striking photo... When I first saw the image I almost thought it was a CGI (Computer Generated Image) or a painting... What do you think? CGI? Painting? Nope.. It's an honest to goodness photo... Kudos to the photographer, whoever you might be...

~~~

Just a little note here, I haven't stopped watching the news about crimes. Still watching things locally and still watching the national news. I've been keeping up on the Anthony's and what they're all up to, and I still have an alert in google for anything that Phil Spector and his wife do. And lately, I've been watching the news about Jaycee Dugard and her kidnappers, Phillip and Nancy Garrido. I don't know when I'll post about them, but I'm sure I will eventually.

Update:

Just a quick update about the link to the Mount Wilson Observatory web cam that's in the post above; Unfortunately the web server is down now. All the smoke that had been building up close to the web cam on the Solar Tower was from backfires set by firefighters trying to protect the main structures and communication towers. So far, so good. They are burning off the undergrowth and dead pine needles on the ground and keeping the flames out of the trees themselves.

Here are the last three entries from the blog (which is temporarily being hosted elsewhere), the second entry explains why the web cam is down:

1 Sep 09, 2:04 pm PDT - CHARA Site Manager Larry Webster, who left the mountain yesterday morning, has told me that what we see on the TV feeds is exactly what the fire fighters told him they would do to deplete flammables on the ground. Their plan, which they would have implemented earlier had they not been withdrawn, was to start these groundlevel fire and literally walk along with them to keep them controlled. This is why we see no flames. The fires will consume the accumulation of needles from the many pine and fir trees as well as other scrub growth that could flame up and ignite lower limbs that would them permit the blossoming of the entire tree into flames. All the smoke we see is entirely consistent with this procedure. Larry and Dave are both delighted to see what's going on, but I've got to say that seeing smoke next to those domes is very unsettling to me. Still, I know what the fire fighters are now doing is necessary to save the Observatory.

1 Sep 09, 2:15 pm PDT - The Mount Wilson webserver went down moments ago, most likely due to a backfire infiltration of a pull box containing telephone lines that bring us our T1 internet service. All future updates will be posted here.

- The Battalion fire chief on Mount Wilson has just called both Larry and Dave to ask how to turn off the fire alarm up there! His name is Cam Todd and he's a Cal Fire chief with crews from Calaveras County. These are the same fire crews who did such a fantastic job prepping the place over the weekend before they were withdrawn yesterday morning. Chief Todd confirmed that these are indeed backfires and he said his guys are doing a heck of a job and their efforts are going just great!

Incredible Fire Photo

Just had to share this photo of odd fire behavior.. Or maybe not so odd. Fire can create it's own wind and weather patterns... The speed limit sign says 25mph.. How fast do you think the fire is "moving"?

Photo source: LA Times

Traveling Again... Fires... And Losses...

Yesterday, I spent the day with my parents out in the car for a day trip. This time my Step-dad decided on going up to Nevada City for breakfast and then on up the hill to Truckee for window shopping and lunch. When we arrived in Grass Valley on Highway 20, we heard sirens and then saw an ambulance and a fire truck racing up behind us, then we saw off to one side of the road a large column of smoke rising up through the trees. We couldn't see what was burning, and with my folks in the car, I wasn't about to go chasing the smoke with my camera to get photos. Also, we weren't able to get over to the side in traffic so that could step out of the car to get a photo of the column of smoke. So, once the emergency vehicles were clear of us, I took the turn onto Highway 49 so that we could get up to Nevada City.

*Skipping forward in time, when we got back to Yuba City and my parents home, I got on their computer to look up some information and found that the smoke was saw in Grass Valley was a fully involved apartment building. Two people were injured and about 13 were left homeless. (Source of photo and information: The Union) One of the injured was a woman who was apparently in the apartment where the fire started. She suffered burns and injuries from exploding oxygen tanks. I haven't been able to find information on how she is this morning. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

After breakfast in Nevada City, we traveled on up to Truckee and spent a few hours wandering around the town, window shopping and enjoying the cooler weather. There are a lot of very interesting little shops and lots of friendly shopkeepers. After wandering through the shops and having a little lunch (No comment on the lunch nor the restaurant we ate at beyond the fact that I doubt if we'll be going back there.. lol), we headed back down I80 towards home. I'd say about half-way down from the summit, I saw flashing lights in the rear view mirror, and it wasn't a cop. It was a fire vehicle (Not a fire engine, it was a supervisor vehicle. An SUV type.) and he literally flew past us and we lost sight of him rather quickly. A couple miles after we lost sight of him, we saw off in the distance between the trees a very large column of smoke billowing up. It was nearly impossible to tell at that point where the fire was because the road twists and turns so much. We got a few more glimpses of the growing column of smoke as we traveled down the highway. And we saw a lot more fire vehicles, engines, crew trucks and supervisors. As we got near Applegate, the color of the smoke suddenly turned from the brown/tan color of a brush or wildland fire to thick black smoke. We knew then that there were structures involved. And from the amount of smoke, we thought there a lot of buildings involved.

After we got off I80, we drove down near the town of Lincoln so we could get a clear view of the smoke and stopped so that I could get out of the car to take a couple photos. In the photo to the left, you can see the thick, dark color of the smoke. At this point we were less than 10 miles (as the crow flies) from the fire. In the next photo, you can see a wide shot of how the smoke was "laying down" and being blown to the north. Even during the few moments we were stopped alongside the road while I took those few photos, we saw another fire truck go by with lights and sirens.

*Skipping forward in time again to us looking up the fire information on the computer at my folk's house, we found out that the smoke we'd been watching on our way down from Donner Pass was the "49er Fire" in the northern part of the city of Auburn. And the black smoke we saw was coming from 50 to 60 structures that were being destroyed. Businesses and residences both. I haven't seen a full official count of structures lost yet. There are still a lot of trucks and firefighters out on the fire this morning, and the last I saw, the fire is still just 60% contained.

The rest of the drive home was uneventful, thank goodness. We unloaded our goodies from Truckee and sorted things out and watched some of the news coverage of the fire in Auburn. I headed for home then, but on the way, I decided to stop and take one more photo looking back towards Auburn and that column of smoke. I picked a spot where the highway climbs up a levee on the Sutter Bypass and pulled off to the side of the road. At this point, all you can see of that black column of smoke we saw earlier is a smudge against the horizon because of the haze in the valley.

The latest information from the CalFire website says that the 49er fire has burned 275 acres (Down from the 500 acres the news stations were reporting yesterday due to more accurate mapping of the fire today.) The CalFire website is also reporting that 60 structures were either damaged or destroyed.

More information, videos and photos from the 49er fire in Auburn can be found in these links:
KCRA3
News10.net
CBS13/CW31
Fox40 News

In other fire news, the Station fire near Los Angeles doubled in size overnight to 85,750 acres burned. And it took the lives of two Los Angeles County Fire Department firefighters yesterday.

The official release about the deaths of the firefighters is here:

Firefighter Line of Duty Deaths

It is with our deepest regret to inform you the media of the Line Of Duty Deaths for Fire Captain Tedmund "Ted" Hall and Firefighter Specialist Arnaldo "Arnie" Quinones. These two members tragically lost their lives when the where overran by a fast moving fire which approached Fire Camp 16 on the "Station Fire" Incident.

Fire Captain Tedmund "Ted" Hall was 47 years of age and was a member of the Los Angeles County Fire Department for 26 years and lived in San Bernardino County, California. Firefighter Specialist Arnaldo "Arnie" Quinones was 35 years of Age, and was a member of the Los Angeles County Fire department for 8 years and lived in Palmdale, California.

Funeral arrangements are pending and information relating to services will be made available in the near future.

For additional information, please contact Captain Mike Brown, Public Information Officer at (323) 881-2413.

I've said many times that firefighters are heroes. We have two more fallen heroes now. Please say a little prayer or have a good thought or two for these two heroes as well as for their families, friends and co-workers.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today issued the following statement after two Los Angeles County firefighters died while fighting the Station fire:

“Our hearts are heavy as we are tragically reminded of the sacrifices our firefighters and their families make daily to keep us safe. This is a devastating day for firefighters everywhere and Maria and I join all Californians in expressing our gratitude and sadness. Our hearts go out to their loved ones.”

The other blog that I post on has information as well: California Fire News

~~

So many firefighters out there on all of the fires that are threatening people, homes and wildlands. Please take a few minutes today and think of the thousands of men and women who choose to protect you and yours.

A few thoughts about anonymous comments...

My blog suddenly has gotten a lot of attention because of a post from last December about a photo of Rachelle Spector posing with a gun. I'm not going to speculate about what has suddenly drawn people to that photo. (Over 300 visitors clicked into the blog just to look at that stupid photo since Thursday!) It has also generated some comments that I guess were supposed to be insulting towards me. Idiotic comments, for the most part and were good for a laugh before I deleted them. I've added one last comment to that particular post and I will repeat what I put in the comment here because it pertains to all of the insulting comments from people who don't like what has been written on my blog.

I don't know why this particular post has attracted so much attention in the past few days. The post is OLD, people! Csn't you read the date on the post? Why on earth are people just NOW finding this post and sending insulting comments to me about it? If you want to insult someone, try emailing Rachelle. After all, it was HER photo posing with a GUN that started things.

I personally don't care if this post or her photo offends her or her husband's groupies. If she had any brains at all, she would never had someone take a photo of her with a gun DURING HER HUSBAND'S MURDER TRIAL.

To all the anonymous commenters who object to this post or any other post I have on this blog. Don't bother trying to insult me or anyone else on this blog in an idiotic comment such as the ones I deleted today. The comment moderation has been enabled for quite a while now and it will stay that way for a while longer. If the garbage keeps coming in, the next thing that will happen is that the ability to post anonymously will be GONE.. Got it?

The thought of having to censor the comments on my blog is disturbing to me. But then having anonymous idiots jumping in and posting insults to me or any of the other readers of my blog is even more disturbing. I never had any problems with the anonymous posters until I posted about Rachelle Spector. Even the previous posts I wrote about Phil Spector didn't get the attention from the sick idiots that apparently follow Rachelle around. So, just in case one of Rachelle and Phil's groupies read this post, pass the word. Rachelle nor her or her husband's groupies can NOT going to scare me into removing her photo, nor are they going to make me stop posting to my blog.

If any readers object that strongly to my writings, my opinions or my sense of humor so much that they feel compelled to write a stupid insulting comment complaining about what I have written or how I've written something, I suggest that you just click on through to another blog somewhere and stop coming back to mine and trying to insult me in more comments that will not be published. If you think your ideas are so much better than mine, then start your own damn blog. Got it?

Finally, I apologize to the readers of my blog that don't complain and insult in a comment... It seems that it's the childish actions of a few that always ruin things for the many......... I'm sorry, folks.. I really am.

CALIFORNIA FIRE NEWS: Yuba Base Camp at Yuba-Sutter Fairgrounds

I went out taking more photos today, only this time I took pictures of fire trucks and firefighters. There is a large fire burning in the hills east of where I am and they set up the base camp at the fairgrounds in town. I spoke to a lot of firefighters over there from all over. There were trucks from Reno and Sparks up in Nevada, there were trucks from Northern Oregon and from all over California. I even found a bunch of them at a car wash cleaning up their trucks.. lol.. Go check out the pics..

CALIFORNIA FIRE NEWS: Yuba Base Camp at Yuba-Sutter Fairgrounds

The photo above is of a truck that is down here in our area from Reno. The crews from the Reno/Sparks area were fun to talk to. They gave me a whole line about how one of the fellows on the top of the truck (filling the ice chest with ice and bottles of water) was a "world class weight lifter" among other things... And of course the fellows on the top of the truck were adding their own little tales... I should have taken my boots with me.. The stuff was getting pretty deep out there around the Nevada Strike Team... lol

Heros, I tell ya... They're all heroes. Even tired, dirty and hungry, these guys took the time to talk and joke around with this old lady. Heroes, I tell ya. Thats what they all are. Tell a firefighter "Thank you" the next time you see one.

Eureka, Fort Bragg and More

My Stepdad was getting bored sitting around the house, so he came up with the idea of going up to Eureka for a day or two. So I headed over to Yuba City early Thursday morning and parked my car in their garage, transferred my suitcase to their car and off we went... As we headed north, and then west through the coastal range, the weather changed from bright and sunny in the valley to cloudy up in the mountains. It actually rained on us a bit on our way down from the summit. The weather on the coast was very changeable from one hour to the next. Cloudy now and an hour later it was sunny. I took a coat with me, but never even got it out of my suitcase... lol

Of course we took a few side trips here and there. For instance, once we got to Eureka and got settled in our motel room, we headed out to Samoa so we could have lunch at the Samoa Cookhouse which is the last operating lumber mill cookhouse still in operation. If you ever have an opportunity to be near Eureka, I highly recommend you visit the Cookhouse for a meal. The Cookhouse serves meals "family style" even if you are there by yourself. In other words, they bring bowls and platters to your piece of the long tables and you serve yourself. Oh yeah, they bring pitchers of ice water and your choice of beverage to the table too. There was a man sitting by himself at the other end of the table and they served him with the bowls, platters and pitchers as well. The menu for Thursday afternoon's lunch was:

• Vegetable beef soup (Definitely not canned soup!)
• Salad Short Ribs in Gravy (Big chunks of meat along with chunks of carrots in gravy.)
• Pasta (I'm sure there was a name to the pasta that I missed. It was lightly seasoned but was great with the gravy from the ribs over it.)
• Calico Beans (A variety of types of beans cooked together with sort of a light barbeque sauce.. Yummy!)
• Peas (I let my Mom and Stepdad have the peas and I stole all the carrots out of the dish of ribs.)
• Chocolate cake with chocolate icing

After completely stuffing ourselves at the Cookhouse, we decided it might be a good idea to walk some of it off. So we headed over to the marina.

We wandered around looking at the boats, which are a mixture of commercial fishing boats, charter or private fishing boats and private pleasure boats. At one end of the marina, there is a monument that lists sailors lost at sea from that area. The dates on the names on the lists ranged from the 1800's clear up to this year. Across the sidewalk on the bay side, there is a statue dedicated to all the sailors lost at sea. It was sad to read through the lists and see how many of them had never been recovered after being lost. After walking around the marina for a while, we decided to go back over to the old part of Eureka and look at some of the Victorian homes that are scattered all over the old part of town. As we came down into that part of town, we could see the tower on the Carson Mansion, so we headed off the "main route" down one of the side streets in the direction of that tower we could see above the roofs of the other buildings. We didn't quite make it to the mansion when that street ended in a parking lot for the library. But that was fortunate, because the library had a lovely brochure with a map of points of interest in Eureka. We did manage to find our way to the front of the mansion though.

It's owned by a private club, so we didn't get a chance to go inside or even around the grounds and gardens. But, there are many more stately old Victorians within a few blocks.

Across the street from the Carson Mansion is another, smaller, mansion that was built by the Carson family that is called the "Pink Lady". The following pictures are of more of the Victorians that we walked past, some are offices and some are bread and breakfast inns or even a hotel.

After walking around looking at the beautiful buildings we got back in the car, thinking we'd go check out the "downtown" part of old Eureka. As we drove down the "main street" of the old part of town, we saw people carrying folding chairs and stuff towards the waterfront. Naturally we got curious and headed that direction.

We found a band on the waterfront getting ready for an open air free concert. They played a couple of tunes in between fiddling with the sound balance and stuff.. The music was kind of jazzy and had some of the folks that had gathered there up and dancing. By this time, my Stepdad's legs were about to give out on him, so we went back to the motel and settled in for the evening.

We got up the next morning and headed south down Highway 101 towards the redwoods and Fort Bragg. We had originally planned on grabbing some coffee and the "continental breakfast" that the motel advertised, but since the office was still locked up after 7am and we couldn't even see the coffee maker working we decided to head on down the road. We found a lovely little cafe in a small town called Miranda which is along the Avenue of the Giants. Breakfast was delicious and huge..

Silly me, I didn't take any pictures at all in Fort Bragg or down in Mendicino when we went window shopping and wandering. I guess I'd been there too many times.. lol.. I promise, blog readers, I will try to take some pictures in Fort Bragg and in Mendicino the next time I go over there.

I took a few pictures on the trip "home" yesterday. When we left Fort Bragg, we headed south down Highway 1 for a while. We saw some spectacular views and even went out to one of the lighthouses along the coast.

Point Arena Lighthouse in the fog.

Sun peeking through the fog at Point Arena.

Sea caves near Point Arena Lighthouse.

By the way, if any of my readers are from the area around Booneville CA, can you please tell me what was going on there yesterday? When we came into town on Mountain View Road, we saw a group of people standing by the fence at the end of the airport, then we saw all the people that were along the road next to the airport. We drove down that road to the point where it was roped off and all the airplanes were parked.. We were curious, but we didn't see anyone handy enough to pull over and roll down a window to ask.. lol, I figured I could find something on the internet... WRONG! LOL! So, if anyone knows what was going on at the Booneville airport, I'd sure appreciate it if someone posts a comment!

Hopefully this will work.. It's a map of our route (for the most part)...

View Yuba City, Eureka, Fort Bragg & Back in a larger map

Yay! It worked! LOL.. It didn't want to work earlier..

Catscan anyone?

moar funny pictures

NEXT MAN BELLIES AND HAIRY BACKS CARWASH COMING UP!

Here's the email I recieved from Pat and Kacie's Ride for Hope:

Hey all

Our carwash date is August 9th '09 at Breaker Glass on P'ville Dr. 9:00 am till 3:00 pm.

Just hoping to get some hairy backs and men's bellies out there to participate and have pretty fun day of it.

Last years went very well at just a short notice to those we know and our sexy dancers on P'ville drive just draggen' them in.

This year should be bigger and better.
Hoping all can come out on the 9th and give us a hand.
It is well appreciated.

Please let me know if you can join us.

Thank You
Pat

P.S. oh yes, I have more bellies to call than you see on the email list above, also the ladies are just money handlers and spectators, but are also very welcome to come on out.


So it's on for next wekend, Sunday the 9th. Placerville Drive crosses Hwy 50E to Tahoe just before Placerville. Take the off ramp and bear right till you cross over the freeway and while you are passing the El Dorado Co. fairgrounds on the right keep an eye open for Breaker Glass on the left for the carwash.

Hope to see you there!




I think we might try to be more vigilant about using sunscreen this year. We all got toasted last year...

Let them know if you're coming from out of town to support us and our cause to End Domestic Violence. It would be cool to know how far we're reaching.

Again, hope to see you there, I'll be having fun!!!
I'll be wearing the white beard...
Gene.

An Angry Groundhog and Other News

A friend sent me a link to a news item in a New Jersey newspaper that caught her eye. Would you believe a groundhog that attacked a man in his garage and then went on to go after two cops? Here is what the article had to say about the groundhog:

Police Sgt. Mike Danyo and Officer Paul Ryan on Thursday encountered a different type of aggressive behavior. The pair found themselves pitted against an angry groundhog at an Oak Street home.

The resident, Alex Scott, told police he had attempted to leave his house at 11:46 a.m. and entered his garage to get his truck when the groundhog began to chase him. Scott, who kicked the animal several times but was unable to evade it, ran back into his house and called police.

When Danyo and Ryan arrived and Scott attempted to show them where the groundhog was, the rodent sprang toward the officers, Cacciabeve said.

Danyo tripped and fell as the groundhog pursued him, Cacciabeve said. But Ryan, who jumped out of the way as the groundhog charged at his feet, discharged the pepper spray into the rodent's face, Cacciabeve said.

The spray disoriented the groundhog and allowed Ryan to retrieve a snare from the back of the patrol car, said Cacciabeve, who had responded to assist.

The officers snared the groundhog and held it until assistant animal control officer Sandy Burkhardt arrived to cage it. The animal was later euthanized and its remains will be shipped today to the Department of Health and Senior Services for rabies testing.

Click "HERE" to see the entire article, including the part about a thieving black bear who raided someone's garage and freezer for his dinner... I can't imagine being chased by one of these little critters. But then I suppose they can be just as bad as the possums who hang out on the property next to where I live and come wandering over here looking for food every evening. They have a really nasty bite if you get them cornered or angry at you. I've never been bitten, but I've sure had them hiss at me when I've gone outside and suprised one of them in my yard in the evening. Right now, my daughter and her husband (who live across the street from me) are trying to clear a family of possums out from under their house. They've trapped two yesterday and they think there are at least 2 more under there. I haven't talked to them this morning to see if they caught any more last night.

Other News
The local newspaper hasn't done any updates about last week's bank robbery, the robbers in custody or the one that they said was still on the run. I checked the jail website this morning and the two in custody are apparently still there and are still under a "no bail" condition.

The other story I wrote about in my previous post, the dead man that was found in the apartment in the neighboring town, had a followup article that said that an autopsy was going to happen yesterday, but nothing further in the paper today. I'm guessing the coroner will have to do a tox screen and other tests to determine the cause of death.

This morning's "breaking news" on the paper's website was about an accident last night where a truck drifted off the road and collided with two mobile homes in a trailer park north of Marysville. Fortunately, none of the residents of the home were seriously injured, but the driver of the big rig died at the scene because he was thrown from the truck. The California Highway Patrol are investigating the accident and are asking that anyone who witnessed the accident to call. Perhaps the man either fell asleep or had a medical problem before the truck drifted off the highway. I don't know, but I hope that the paper will say something when the investigation is finished. I have a feeling though, that this will be another of the stories that just go "poof" and we never hear about again. My condolences go out to the family and friends of the driver, Michael J. Angerer from Red Bluff, CA.

~~~~
Geez... I just looked at the front page of the paper's website and there is another "Breaking News" story... This time about a person that was found dead this morning in a vehicle pulled from a canal east of Gridley. The story says that a witness reported the submerged car a little after 6 am this morning. Crews from Cal Fire and Butte County Fire Department joined the search for the vehicle, which a tow truck pulled from the canal shortly after 8:20 a.m. A second person had been inside the vehicle but managed to escape, according to a CHP officer. How the car went off the road was not immediately clear and I'm wondering where that second person went. Was he the "witness" that called the emergency in?

UPDATE: Dead Body Story

The paper just posted an update to the story of the decomposed body that was found in an apartment in Linda, Calif. The state Department of Justice positively identified the decomposed body through fingerprints and the deceased man is Scott Dana Malmstrom and he was a victim of a homicide. The results of the autopsy showed Malmstrom was stabbed to death with a sharp instrument. Investigators are still going through evidence found at the scene and are calling for any witnesses to come forward.

Local News: Bank Robbery, Dead Body and More

Our local paper has been "interesting" lately. Just this past week, there's been a bank robbery in Yuba City on Wednesday, a decomposing body found in an apartment in the neighboring town of Linda yesterday, a retrial scheduled for a man accused of sexual assaults on a teenage girl, accidents and more... My main gripe about the local paper is that they will put the initial story up on the website (and I'm assuming what hits the actual newspaper is the same as what is on the website), sometimes with very sketchy information. Sometimes there will be a follow-up article giving you a bit more information, then the story evaporates. **Poof** No more information to be found.

Take the bank robbery for instance. On Wednesday afternoon they had a story titled "Suspects in Bank of America robbery caught". The story evolved over the course of the day on the website, since the initial write-up was "Breaking News" and as they got more information from law enforcement, they added to the story which was printed in the newspaper on Thursday. Then on Friday, they gave us another article titled "Yuba City bank suspects linked to more heists?" that gave us, the readers, a bit more information along with the mug shots of the two men who were arrested. Then late Friday night, they gave us an article meant for Saturday's paper titled "Third bank robbery suspect sought" which gave us very little "new" information other than there apparently was a third guy with the other two sometime before, during or after they robbed the bank. I suppose I should give a brief (if possible) description of this bank robbery so you don't have to go clicking on all 3 links unless you really want to. First of all, I'll give you the booking photos of the two that are in custody so far.

	George Saman Emseih, age 20 from Fairfield CA
	Aaron Christopher Watts, age 21 from Oakland CA

Ok, so there's the two that are sitting in the Sutter County Jail at the moment. (The jail website says they on a "no bail" hold right now, so I guess they haven't gone before a judge yet. Oh, the perils of committing a crime and getting caught outside the big cities.. No 24/7 judges here!)

So, Wednesday morning, around 10:30am, these guys from out of town robbed one of the local banks. One of the guys is from Oakland and the other is from Fairfield. (My question is why on earth did they drive all the way to Yuba City to rob a bank here? There are a lot of towns/cities between here and where they are from that have banks!) Anyway, they apparently waved a gun around and grabbed the money (The paper hasn't said how much they stole.) and took off, headed west in a black BMW. For some reason, a sheriff's deputy stopped the robbers about 5 miles west of Yuba City, near the town of Sutter. The deputy got one of the guys in custody, but the other one took off. (I'd love to know why the deputy stopped them.. Was it a traffic stop or did he know that these guys were bank robbers? The paper didn't say.) So, the guy who took off kept heading west (Right past the little town I live in! And I didn't hear a thing! No sirens, no helicopter, no nothing! LOL) with the CHP helicopter tracking him and he was captured about 10 miles north of Colusa, the town to the west of where I live. The distance traveled in this "chase" from the bank in Yuba City to where they picked up the second guy was approximately 40 miles, give or take a couple miles. Now the third article, the one that tells us that they are looking for a third guy (A fellow named Cory Jermon Edwards from Fairfield. He's the older of the three, the paper says he's 27. I checked the jail site and the guy isn't in custody yet. At least not here in Sutter County.), gives us just a wee bit more information. Like the fact that the gun that was used was a semi-automatic and that it had been recovered where they arrested robber #2 and that a K-9 unit from Yuba County assisted in finding the gun. (Ok, that would make at least 5 law enforcement agencies involved. Yuba City Police Department, Sutter County Sheriff's Department, California Highway Patrol, Colusa County Sheriff's Department and Yuba County Sheriff's Department.) This being the weekend, I'm not really expecting to see anything on the paper's website today, but hopefully they'll give more information tomorrow sometime. Or maybe the story will go "**Poof**" like so many others.

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I suppose I should say something about the body that has been found in that apartment over in Linda. The paper is reporting that the man found is/was Scott Malmstrom and the comments below the article say that he is/was a sex offender and hadn't been seen in a few days. A search of California's Megan's Law Web site reveals that a man by that name lives at the Beale Star apartments where the body was found. Click HERE to see his listing on the web site. The paper isn't reporting anything about a cause of death yet, the autopsy won't happen until the weekend is over. There is quite a bit of speculation about the cause of death though. Everything from murder to suicide. Hopefully the reporters at the local paper will follow up on this story.

Earthquake Drill?

One of the things I do almost every day, in fact sometimes several times a day, is to check the USGS website to see what kind of seismic activity there has been. If there's been a quake over 3.0 in California or in the states nearby, I post about it on the California Fire News website (If I can beat the blog owner, that is! LOL). This afternoon, shortly after peeking in on the USGS site I went over to the LOLCat's site and found this cutie and just had to share:


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Skating Babies? Cute Commercial!

A friend saw this on a news broadcast earlier tonight and told me about it.. I had to go hunting for it on YouTube so I could see it... Watch this! It's great! LOL!!

A "Wow" Photo

Every once in a while you happen across a photo that makes you say "Wow!"... This afternoon, I found one of those. The Wallstreet Journal has a "Pictures of the Day" in their Photo Journal. I've had the pictures of the day in my Google reader for a while now, but this shot of a Sunrise at the Rams Island Light near Portland, Maine made me stop and admire the color and the composition of the shot. Kudos to Robert F. Bukaty from the Associated Press for a gorgeous photo.

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I've been avoiding posting on the blog for a bit now. One of the reasons is that there is really nothing "new" with most of the cases I've been watching.

Phil Spector is adjusting to life in the prison he's been assigned to (Corcoran) and his wife has been amazingly silent for the last couple weeks, so there is nothing new there. Especially since any kind of news about the two civil cases just doesn't make it into the main stream media. I keep searching though.. I'm really curious as to how the suit Spector brought against Robert Shapiro will turn out since Phil doesn't want to answer any questions in a deposition.. He just wants Shapiro to simply hand over the money..

Casey Anthony is still in jail waiting for the murder trial, which has been postponed with no definite start date thanks to Casey's new lawyer, Dr. Andrea Lyon. Apparently her teaching schedule is in conflict with the trial date that was orignially scheduled. So, the murder trial is postponed until sometime next year and there will be a status hearing in January. Meanwhile, the prosecution wants to push ahead on the financial fraud charges stemming from Casey's theft of Amy Huizenga's money and checks. During a meeting with all the attornies invovled in the murder trial, the judge requested something in writing from Amy invoking her right to a speedy trial. It'll be interesting to see how Jose Baez will try to squirm out of that..

I'm also watching for news about the murderer of Brianna Denison, James Biela. He's tried twice now to have all the charges against him split into separate cases instead of trying them all in one trial. He's failed at both attempts to have the cases split with the latest attempt having been denied in June. No word yet about when the trial will happen up in Reno.

There are a few other cases that I look for information on, but it's hard to find anything about. I'm not going to list them out until I find some kind of update. The problem right now with watching the news (Both print and televised) is that the majority of what we're seeing is all about Michael Jackson. Apparently we are supposed to hear all the rumors about him, his children, his ex-wives, drugs, illnesses, etc, etc, etc... I'm sorry, but I am tired of hearing all about this stuff. I've enjoyed his music, but I've never been a fan of the man. (shrugging my shoulders)

And so, to close, here's an LOL Cat that I shared on facebook last night:


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Yep, I do feel like I'm in a rut... lol.. How about you?

Please Be Careful Out There....

Last night, after returning from the trip up to Redding my folks dropped me off here at my home and drove to Yuba City to their home. Not long after they left, my daughter (across the street) called me to ask if I'd heard from my folks, her grandparents, to let me know they'd made it home. I hadn't, so my daughter told me that there'd been a very bad accident on the highway between here and Yuba City... I tuned into the scanner and listened and then made my way to the local paper's website and then got on the phone......... (My folks made it home ok!)

Yes. It was a horrific accident as you can see in the photo to the left. A sedan and a van involved in a head-on crash. There were reportedly at least 9 people in the van and 2 people in the sedan. The driver of the sedan is the single (so far) fatality. Amazingly, the 9 people in the van, including an infant were not wearing seat belts.

Please, people. If you're going to be out and about on this holiday weekend, be safe! Use seatbelts and don't drink and drive! Don't be a statistic!

Source: Appeal Democrat

UPDATE:
They've identified the young woman who died in this accident... The Sutter County coroner's office reported her name was Lorretta Lynn Deniz, 22, of Yuba City. My condolences go out to the young woman's family and friends.......

Source and more information: Appeal Democrat

A Sundial Bridge and a T-Rex Named Sue....

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July yesterday and that everyone is still enjoying their holiday weekend. Yesterday was a fun one for my parents and I even though we saw no fireworks except on TV last night. My Step-dad had gotten bored with sitting at home and came up with the idea of going up to Redding and visiting the Sundial Bridge and the Turtle Bay Museum. I'd never gone to either the bridge or the museum before, so I was happy to be the driver for the trip. Redding is only about 2 1/2 hours from here, so it was an easy drive up there even with a stop halfway there for breakfast at a Black Bear Diner in the city of Willows. If you've never experienced a meal at a Black Bear Diner, I'd advise you to arrive at the restaurant hungry. The portions are big, the meals reasonably priced and definitely delicious!

Anyway, we found our way to the museum fairly easy, the route is well marked once you get into Redding. The park that surrounds the museum was apparently to be the site of the 4th of July festivities there in Redding, so there were lots of tents and awnings being set up, people wandering around and security directing traffic. I'm not going to give you a running commentary of the whole visit to the museum and the bridge... I'll just give you a few pictures of some of the things we saw...

When you first enter the museum, the first exhibit is of a sculpture of a tree set on a glass floor, and the view of the sculpture includes the root system of the tree!

We arrived at the museum about 15 or so minutes before the feeding time in the huge aquarium they have, so we made our way down into the chamber where you can view the fish.

As you can see from the image above, the children were fascinated by the fish swimming past the windows... There are sturgeon, striped bass and rainbow trout swimming around in this tank which is constructed to look like the Sacramento River. The fish kept in the tank are what would be found in the river itself.

The museum does have a couple of "rare" fish swimming around... Both are albino rainbow trout... The markings are quite different on the two fish...

Here's a view of the tank windows that also shows what we saw above the water level. That's one of the museum employees up there in the process of feeding the fish...

One of the exhibits that the museum is hosting this summer is called "A T. Rex Named Sue" that is on loan from The Field Museum in Chicago. That thing is HUGE! lol...

Another exhibit is called "The Art of The Brick" and consists of pieces of art that are constructed of Lego building bricks! The artist, Nathan Sawaya uses thousands of legos of different colors to construct his sculptures... Including a T. Rex not named Sue.. lol

Oh yeah.. I almost forgot to give you a photo of the Sundial Bridge!

I'd like to go back up there and spend some more time in the museum and see some of the other things they've got there. The arboretum, the butterfly house and I'd also like to walk across the bridge. Yesterday was hot. Too hot to do much walking about outside. My folks and I decided that we'd pick a cooler day to go back. Perhaps midweek and not on a holiday so there would be fewer people and spend some more time enjoying the place....

Amazing Basket!

I saw this on the news and went hunting for the video... This kid is amazing! LOL!!