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01.04.16 Volume 15 Issue 40
@smdailypress
WHAT’S UP WESTSIDE ..................PAGE 2 MY WRITE ........................................PAGE 4 KNOW BEFORE YOU GO ..................PAGE 5 POLICE & FIRE LOGS ....................PAGE 10 MYSTERY PHOTO ............................PAGE 11
Santa Monica Daily Press
smdp.com
Can SMMUSD eliminate pesticide use? School board states new goal following recent flea infestation BY JEFFREY I. GOODMAN Daily Press Staff Writer
Can Santa Monica-Malibu schools function without using any pesticides?
2 PCH crashes cause multiple injuries, freeway closures over New Year’s weekend BY JENNIFER MAAS Daily Press Staff Writer
Two separate car accidents involving the Pacific Coast Highway led to road closures and a total of six injured parties over the holiday weekend. On Friday, Dec. 31 at 9:40 p.m., a car crashed into the tunnel that connects the westbound I-10 freeway to the PCH in Santa Monica. Two people were injured in the New Year’s Eve crash and transported to the hospital. The westbound I-10 freeway was shut down at Fourth Street and traffic was diverted off the freeway while police conducted their investigation and the wreckage was removed from the scene. The freeway reopened in that location at 2:23 a.m. According to Sgt. Erika Aklufi of the Santa Monica Police Department, drunken driving was not reported as a factor in the crash. The second crash, which closed both the PCH and the I-10, occurred on Sunday, Jan. 2 around 12 p.m. Six cars, travelling both SEE PCH PAGE 7
The district’s policy on pest control now includes that stated goal, a lofty aspiration in the aftermath of a flea infestation at a local elementary campus that required an army of chemicals to eradicate. SMMUSD is aiming to follow
through on its commitment by focusing on long-term prevention efforts, including better monitoring and maintenance, although officials acknowledged the barriers to eliminating pesticide use altogether.
The district will consider using pesticides “only after careful monitoring indicates that they are needed” and will use chemicals “that pose the least possible hazard and are effective in a manner that minimizes risks to people, property
SEE CHEMICALS PAGE 6
Boys basketball: Samohi wins holiday tournament Mathews named division MVP at MaxPreps Holiday Classic BY JEFFREY I. GOODMAN Daily Press Staff Writer
Maybe two weeks without a game was exactly what the Santa Monica High boys basketball team needed. After a prolonged stretch with no scheduled competition, the Vikings engineered four wins in five days to capture the championship of their division at the MaxPreps Holiday Classic tournament at Rancho Mirage High School near Palm Springs. Samohi sealed its title with a 5343 victory over Mercer Island (Wash.) on Wednesday, when USC-bound senior guard Jonah Mathews was named most valuable player of the bracket and two of his teammates, senior forward Mikhail Brown and junior forward Daniel Schreier, earned all-tournament recognition. Entering the tournament, which featured several teams from outside California, the Vikings had only played once since falling by two points to Pasadena-La Salle at the El Segundo tournament. But they appeared to be in fine form at the MaxPreps event, holding their four opponents to an average of just 49.5 points per game as they closed out the calendar year. Samohi started out by clobbering Las Vegas-Palo Verde 75-45 on Dec. 26 at Xavier College Preparatory High School in Palm
Desert. Coach James Hecht’s squad outscored Palo Verde by 13 in the first quarter and by nine in the third to pull away for an easy victory. The win propelled the Vikings into a matchup against PortlandFranklin, whose roster features 6foot-10 Joseph Smoyer. And Mathews was up for the challenge, pouring in 30 points to lead Samohi in a 73-59 triumph Dec. 28. A day later, the Vikings entered the tournament semifinals against Rancho Cucamonga-Etiwanda and pulled off a 57-51 victory. Trailing by eight at the end of the first quarter, Samohi drew even at 40-40 entering the final period and showed poise down the stretch. Mathews hit a crucial 3-pointer early in the fourth as part of a 23point performance that included five buckets from beyond the arc. All that stood between the Vikings and a tournament championship was Mercer Island, which topped Bountiful (Utah), Riverside-North and Las VegasDesert Pines to reach the finals. In the Dec. 30 title game, Samohi trailed by three at the end of the first quarter. But the team tightened its defense, giving up just three points in the second and eight points in the third as it slowly regained control. Mathews had 21 points in the win. The Vikings posed for photos
Courtesy photo
CRUCIAL TO THE TEAM: Jonah Mathews was named most valuable player after leading the Samohi Vikings to a tournament title.
SEE BASKETBALL PAGE 6
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