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Volume 9 Issue 172
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THE THINKING OF NORM ISSUE
In search of families
Samohi’s Lacy passes away BY DANIEL ARCHULETA Managing Editor
BY REBECCA KHEEL SAMOHI Norm Lacy, Santa Monica High
Special to the Daily Press
School’s athletic director, passed away on Saturday, school officials and friends said. The cause of death was due to a heart attack, according to a number of sources associated with the school. “Just terrible,” Samohi softball Head Coach Debbie Skaggs said. “This is very devastating for the student body, the faculty and the administration,” Skaggs, who has known Lacy since she started at the school 24 years ago, said that he will be honored before the softball team’s semi-final playoff game on Tuesday. She said that there will be a moment of silence before the team takes the Samohi field. The ceremony is slated to begin before the team’s 3:15 p.m. game. “It’s with a heavy heart that we play the game,” Skaggs said, Lacy, who won two California Interscholastic Federation football titles with Samohi, also spent time across town at St. Monica, where he led the Mariners to a CIF title as well. “I haven’t shed tears like this in a long time,” said Tony Todd, an assistant baseball coach at Samohi. Todd played for Lacy during the early 1980s, helping the Vikings win a CIF title.
DOWNTOWN Linda Brenden knows she’s
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Brandon Wise brandonw@smdp.com Spectators watch competitor Phillip Dang as he slices through the air during the advanced short weapon portion of the First Annual International WuShu Tournament held at Santa Monica High School’s north gym on Saturday. The art of Chinese WuShu is a fullcontact sport based on traditional Chinese martial arts, created in the People's Republic of China using the skills of hand-to-hand as well as short and long weapon techniques.
LAPD investigates scuffle with cyclists LOS ANGELES Los Angeles police say they are investigating a confrontation between officers and bicyclists riding in a Hollywood rally in protest of BP and the Gulf oil spill. The Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement Saturday that its internal affairs unit has launched a use-of-force investigation after video of the incident was posted online and a complaint was filed.
Hopper, who was twice nominated for Oscars and earned a star this year on the Walk of Fame, died Saturday at his home in the Venice neighborhood of Los Angeles, family friend Alex Hitz said. Hopper had been diagnosed with prostate
VISION IN BLUE
daniela@smdp.com
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
changed at least one life from opening up her home to foreign exchange students. During one of the 21 years she has hosted international high school students as part of Education First’s Foundation for Foreign Study, a boy from Scandinavia did not interact much with the other students and stayed close to adults. His father died a couple months prior to his trip. After a few weeks, Brenden found other foreign exchange students in the program who had been in similar situations and helped the boy connect with them. “He was so despondent when he came that he wanted to go home, but by the time he left, he didn’t want to go home,” recalled Brenden, the area manager for EF. “I would never look back and say, ‘No, I could never (host a foreign exchange student).’” Education First is currently searching for host families in Santa Monica and other areas of West Los Angeles for its first program in Malibu, which will start July 14 and last 18 days, though it has faced some difficulties recruiting families. EF has been bringing foreign exchange students to America since 1979. Programs have been held across California, but Brenden, a Thousand Oaks resident, decided to expand the program to Malibu this year. One reason for that is because it is physically closer to where she lives. But she said also thinks students will enjoy the area. “Kids want to come to Southern California,” she said. “They want to go to the beach.” But because it is a new area and there is no base of host families to rely on, there has been some difficulty in finding hosts, said Nina Edwards, the program leader for Malibu. As of Friday, 48 of 101 students and five chaperones still needed to be placed in homes. Edwards also attributed the slumping economy to deterring possible host families. “People are a little less eager to have
Dennis Hopper, Hollywood legend dies CHRISTOPHER WEBER Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES Dennis Hopper, who brought the counterculture to Hollywood with “Easy Rider” and led a career marked by successes, failures and comebacks, has died at age 74.
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