INSIDE SCOOP
COMMENTARY
BIG BLUE PROGRESS
BUSINESS
PAGE 3 SUPER BOWL WORSHIP
PAGE 4 INHERITING YOUR WORLD
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2007
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PAGE 14
Volume 6 Issue 75
Santa Monica Daily Press LET’S BE BLUNT SEE PAGE 17
SM tide has not changed
Since 2001: A news odyssey
THE SEWN UP ISSUE
SHARED NEEDLES
BY KEVIN HERRERA Daily Press Staff Writer
WILL ROGERS BEACH Portions of Will Rogers, Venice and Dockweiler beaches remained closed today after sanitation officials were notified of a raw sewage spill Tuesday afternoon. At Will Rogers, 100 yards of the beach will be closed until at least this afternoon on both sides of the Santa Monica Canyon Creek, where sanitation officials estimate 431 gallons of raw sewage entered the Santa Monica Bay. County health officials warned swimmers and surfers to avoid contact with ocean water, which could cause illness. “Los Angeles County residents and visitors to these beaches should avoid contact with the ocean near the point of discharge until these portions have been deemed safe to reopen,” said Dr. Jonathan E. Fielding, the director of public health for LA County. “We will be conducting water quality assessments to test the level of bacteria in the water. Beaches will remain closed until test results indicate that bacteria levels meet health safety standards.” Venice Beach is closed from the Marina del Rey channel entrance to a quarter mile north of the channel. Dockweiler Beach is closed from Ballona Creek to a quarter mile north of the channel. County health officials said at least 2,400 gallons of sewage flowed into Ballona Creek and out into the bay. Sanitation workers from the city of Los Angeles responded to the Will Rogers discharge at 12:03 p.m. Tuesday, completed clean-up work at 12:40 p.m. and notified the county health department at 3:30 p.m. Culver City officials responded to discharges leading to Ballona Creek and Venice and Dockweiler beaches at 3 p.m., completed clean-up work at 4 p.m., and the county department of public health was notified at 4:27 p.m. Recorded information on beach conditions is available around the clock on the Los Angeles County department of public SEE SPILL PAGE 10
CLOSE-KNIT GATHERING Santa Monica’s knitting circles share their far-from-lost art
STORY PAGE 12 Christine Chang news@smdp.com
SPINNING YARNS: The Talking Stick’s barista, Seth Heuiser, gets direction from Johnnie Loy in making a hat. “I knitted a little bit in the past but ever since the Stitch n’ Bitch started to meet here, I’ve picked it up again, and I’ve been knitting every time they come,” he said.
Professional panhandlers congregate BY KEVIN HERRERA Daily Press Staff Writer
REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK ONE MAN’S TAKE ON CITY COUNCIL MEETINGS
GABY SCHKUD (310) 586-0308 The name you can depend on!
CITY HALL For a small piece of paper, it carries a lot of weight. I’m talking about cash money, you know, the almighty dollar. And just like the O’Jays declared in 1973, some people will still “do things, do things, do things, bad things with it,” while others will “do things, do things, do things, good things with it.” Those people — I’m talking about the good guys now — came with their hands out Tuesday night as part of an annual tradition in which residents and social service
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providers ask the City Council for dough to fund their pet projects. Based on their requests, elected officials develop a set of community budget priorities that they must consider when drafting City Hall’s spending plan for the coming fiscal year. It was especially important for service providers to attend, since the council was discussing what organizations need to do to qualify for the community development grant program, which provides $6.7 million annually to 29 non-profit human service and housing development organizations supportSEE NOTEBOOK PAGE 11
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