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Volume 12 Issue 162
Santa Monica Daily Press
WALK TO AFRICA OR RUN FOR THE OCEAN SEE PAGE 2
We have you covered
THE GET OUT AND RUN ISSUE
Housing prices less than lovely, report shows BY ASHLEY ARCHIBALD Daily Press Staff Writer
CITYWIDE News flash: Apartment and house rentals on the Westside are (still) expensive.
Data released by Lovely, a web aggregator of rental information, estimates that the average renter can plan to spend $3,400 per month for housing in Santa Monica, with one bedroom units hitting $2,900 and two and three bedroom units averaging $1,800 a room.
That makes the city by the sea third most expensive of 93 cities and neighborhoods evaluated by the site behind only Bel Air and Pacific Palisades at $4,324 and $4,499 respectively. Santa Monica properties move quicker than apartments in either of those locales,
however, averaging 22 days on the market compared to 26 in Pacific Palisades and 34 in Bel Air, according to the site. Between time spent on the market and SEE RENTS PAGE 10
8-year term for Bulger girlfriend upheld by court BY DENISE LAVOIE AP Legal Affairs Writer
BOSTON The longtime girlfriend of reputed gangster James “Whitey” Bulger lost her bid to reduce the eight-year prison sentence she received for helping Bulger during his 16 years as a fugitive. A three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Friday that it found no basis to change the sentence that Catherine Greig received after she pleaded guilty to conspiracy to harbor GREIG a fugitive, identity fraud and conspiracy to commit identity fraud. The panel included retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter. Bulger, the former leader of the Winter Hill Gang, fled Boston in late 1994 and remained a fugitive until he and Greig were captured together in Santa Monica in 2011. The two were living in a rent-controlled apartment north of Wilshire Boulevard when they were apprehended. Prosecutors say Greig helped Bulger in multiple ways while he was hiding from law enforcement. Bulger, 83, is scheduled to go on trial in June on charges that he participated in 19 murders. Greig’s appellate attorney, Dana Curhan, had argued that the sentencing judge “effecSEE SENTENCE PAGE 11
GOOD WORK REWARDED
Brandon Wise brandonw@smdp.com Members of the Santa Monica Boys & Girls Club gather at John Adams Middle School on Friday to receive two checks from the Staples Foundation totaling $3,500 for taking first and third place in a nationwide competition to help communities through service projects that included cleaning up storefronts and Santa Monica Beach, and helping the homeless and their animals.
Rising consumer demand aids organic industry sway BY MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press
WASHINGTON The organic food industry is gaining influence on Capitol Hill, prompted by its entry into traditional farm states and by increasing consumer demand.
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That’s not going over well with everyone in Congress. Tensions between conventional and organic agriculture boiled over this week during a late-night House Agriculture Committee debate on farm legislation that for decades has propped up traditional
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crops and largely ignored organics. When Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Ore., a former organic farmer, offered an amendment to make it easier for organic companies to organize industry-wide promoSEE FOOD PAGE 11