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Pacheco Calendar of Events

Fri
25 May Off Color Comedy Showcase + Dance Party @ the Impala Lounge Every 4th Friday, head to Impala Lounge for their free Off Color Comedy Showcase featuring comedians from across The Bay. Sti…

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Fri
06 Jul Artist Fusion 1st Friday 2012, Oakland Events, Live Music Your positive energy is requested @ Artist Fusion 1st Friday. Enjoy Art, Professional Networking, Live Music, Spoken Word and…

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Fri
01 Jun Artist Fusion 1st Friday 2012, Oakland Events, Live Music Your positive energy is requested @ Artist Fusion 1st Friday. Enjoy Art, Professional Networking, Live Music, Spoken Word and…

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Pacheco Area News

SF Supervisor consults Ouija board before vote

A San Francisco supervisor says he consulted a Ouija board before city leaders voted on whether to recommend naming a Navy ship after slain gay rights activist Harvey Milk.

Supervisor John Avalos tells the San Francisco Chronicle that he believes he made contact with Milk's spirit and that Milk spelled out letters indicating: "Good riddance to don't ask, don't tell."

The Board of Supervisors approved the non-binding resolution Tuesday on a 9-2 vote.

Milk was a city supervisor and former naval officer. He was fatally shot in 1978 by Dan White.

Supporters say the naming would honor the repeal of the `don't ask, don't tell" law barring open homosexuality in the military.

Opponents say Milk opposed war and it would be inappropriate to name a warship after him.

_{Wed, 23 May 2012 10:59:14 -0700}

Fire at former SF police station causes about $200,000 in damage

A two-alarm fire caused an estimated $200,000 in damage to a former police station in San Francisco's Dogpatch neighborhood on Tuesday, a fire department spokeswoman said.

The fire was reported at 1:06 p.m. at 2300 Third St., located on the southwest corner of Third and 20th streets.

The blaze was extinguished in about an hour and did not injure any firefighters or civilians, fire spokeswoman Mindy Talmadge said Wednesday.

The building where the fire burned is a former police station that has been vacant for 16 years, according to police Capt. Paul Chignell, who currently oversees the department's Bayview Station.

The structure, built in the early 1900s, cannot be demolished because of its historical significance, police said. The building has had to be boarded up to prevent squatters and copper thieves from entering, according to police.

The cause of the fire was still under investigation Wednesday, Talmadge said.

The blaze briefly disrupted service on San Francisco Municipal Railway's T-Third line. Service resumed on the line by about 2:15 p.m.

_{Wed, 23 May 2012 10:50:33 -0700}

Oceanographer expects bones in tsunami debris

An oceanographer who tracks flotsam says West Coast beachcombers may find floating athletic shoes with human remains as more debris from last year's Japanese tsunami finally washes ashore.

"We're expecting 100 sneakers with bones in them," Curt Ebbesmeyer told the audience Monday at a tsunami symposium.

Anyone who discovers such remains should call 911 and wait for police. DNA may identify people missing since the March 2011 tsunami hit Japan.

"That may be the only remains that a Japanese family is ever going to have of their people that were lost," Ebbesmeyer said. "We're dealing with things that are of extreme sensitivity. Emotional content is just enormous. So be respectful."

Ebbesmeyer expects the amount of tsunami debris to peak in October, and that could attract a number of Japanese visitors to the Olympic Peninsula, The Peninsula Daily News reported Wednesday.

The three-day symposium in Port Angeles and Sequim was hosted by the Clallam County Marine Resources Committee in partnership with the Surfrider Foundation and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Ebbesmeyer is the co-creator of the Ocean Surface Current Simulator computer model, which predicts the movement of ocean flotsam worldwide using known ocean current patterns along with wind speed and direction information provided by the U.S. Navy.

Ebbesmeyer displayed a series of slides showing computer simulations of debris transport developed by his colleague, oceanographer Jim Ingraham of DriftBusters Inc.

Fast-moving debris from the Japanese tsunami, including oyster farm buoys, soccer balls and a shipping container holding a Harley-Davidson motorcycle with Japanese license plates, has already arrived on the shores of North America.

In April, the Coast Guard sank a 164-foot vessel, the Ryou-Un Maru, in the Gulf of Alaska after it was dislodged by the tsunami.

"I'm expecting 100 vessels over the next couple of years," Ebbesmeyer said.

About 400 Japanese buoys have washed up in Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and British Columbia, he said.

A soccer ball discovered in Alaska was traced to a boy who lives in Northern Japan. A basketball that landed on Prince of Wales Island was traced to a Japanese middle school.

Ebbesmeyer is retired from a career that included tracking icebergs, the 1989 Exxon Valdes oil spill, and Puget Sound currents that affect sewage outflows. He wrote the 2009 book,

"Flotsametrics and the Floating World: How a Man's Obsession with Runaway Sneakers and Rubber Ducks Revolutionized Ocean Science." Ingraham has retired from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, where he created computer models of ocean currents. The Seattle consultants produce the "Beachcombers Alert" newsletter.

_{Wed, 23 May 2012 10:29:44 -0700}

News Source: MedleyStory More Local News Stories