INSIDE SCOOP
OPINION
NATIONAL
SMC SUCCESS STORIES PAGE 3 DADDY DEAREST PAGE 4 CONGRESS GOES WILD ON CALIFORNIA PAGE 7
TUESDAY, JUNE 10, 2008
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Volume 7 Issue 179
Santa Monica Daily Press GREENER PASTURES SEE PAGE 10
Since 2001: A news odyssey
THE FEELING BETTER ISSUE
Police look for missing resident BY MELODY HANATANI Daily Press Staff Writer
OCEAN PARK Nobody knows where he is. Nearly two weeks after Santa Monica surfer Kevin Gale was last seen, Alden Cusick is still at a loss for words, unable to explain the disappearance of his friend for more than two decades.
“I thought something is wrong, he’s not around,” Cusick said. “I started going to his place, I thought maybe he’s mad at me. “I couldn’t figure out what was going on.” A retired flight attendant who frequented the waters off Bay Street, Gale, 49, has been missing since May 27 when he was last spotted en route
to the Serra Retreat in Malibu. A few unreturned phone calls and unsuccessful visits to his Ocean Park home later, the well-liked surfer was reported missing to the Santa Monica Police Department on June 4. The SMPD launched a search effort in conjunction with the L.A. County Sheriff ’s Lost Hills Station and the Malibu Search and Rescue
Team, covering roughly 10-square miles in the Santa Monica Mountains over the past few days. The team was able to narrow the search area after detecting a cell phone signal on Thursday, but the rescue efforts were derailed after the signal was subsequently lost, possibly SEE MISSING PAGE 8
GALE
Brandon Wise brandonw@smdp.com
HEALTH SCARE: In light of a nation-wide salmonella outbreak that has been linked to certain kinds of tomatoes, the most popular being Roma, Ocean Park Pizza parlor posted a sign to ease customers' concerns. Owner Gary Wallack said his restaurant only uses hothouse, vine-picked tomatoes which would be safe from the disease. Spending $13.50 a case for his tomatoes, Wallack said the freshness helped justify the cost. The source of the tomatoes responsible for the illnesses in at least 16 states has not been pinpointed. At least 23 people have been hospitalized.
FDA warns consumers about salmonella linked to some tomatoes BY ALEXANDRA BISSONNETTE AND MICHAEL MIDDLEHURST-SCHWARTZ Special to the Daily Press
DOWNTOWN A nation-wide salmonella outbreak has left Santa Monica restaurants, grocers, and consumers scrambling to ensure the safety of their tomatoes.
The Food and Drug Administration announced Saturday that certain raw tomatoes had been linked to 145 cases of Salmonella reported since mid-April. “The best thing to do if you have those certain types of tomatoes, throw them away or take them back to the grocery store,” said Karen Blakeslee, an extension associate in
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the food science program at Kansas State. The FDA recommended consumers not eat three kinds of tomatoes — raw red plum, raw red Roma, and raw red round tomatoes — unless they had been grown and harvested in one of the 15 states or territories where there had been no ties to the outbreak. Cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes and
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tomatoes sold with the vine still attached have been cleared for consumption by the FDA. Grocers throughout Santa Monica have been responding to the FDA’s warning. Whole Foods on Montana Avenue is no SEE TOMATOES PAGE 9
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