MONDAY
10.05.15 Volume 14 Issue 280
@smdailypress
‘Near drowning’ cases increase BY JENNIFER MAAS Daily Press Staff Writer
This year the Santa Monica Fire Department reported its highest number of “near drownings” since 2012. And with a total of four reported this year, including two over Labor Day weekend, the number of incidents has doubled since 2014. According to the Santa Monica Fire Department’s deputy chief of operations, Jeff Furrows, a near drowning “could be a person who has a little bit of water in their lungs and they are gonna get checked on and released, all the way to a person in critical condition, where perhaps CPR was performed and that person could have expired in the hospital at a later time, but they were delivered to the hospital … But in our interaction with them they were still in the category of a near drowning.”
Furrows said a drowning on the other hand implies a fatality. The fire department records only “near drownings,” and Furrows said it isn’t always easy for the department to get information about what happens to the victims after they leave the paramedics’ care. “It’s sometimes very difficult for us even to get the final disposition of the patients,” he said. There were no “near drownings” reported in Santa Monica in 2009. In 2010 there were four incidents recorded: two women and one man in the ocean, and one female in a pool. In 2011 four incidents were again reported, all from the ocean, with two men and two women involved. In 2012 the number spiked to five, all in the ocean and all male victims. In 2013 there were two “near drownings” report-
WHAT’S UP WESTSIDE ..................PAGE 2 LAWN BOWL TOURNAMENT ........PAGE 3 EARTH TALK ....................................PAGE 5 KNOW BEFORE YOU GO ................PAGE 6 MYSTERY PHOTO ............................PAGE 11
Santa Monica Daily Press
smdp.com
Local cafe hosts President of Ghana for chocolate tasting
SEE WATER PAGE 4
St. Monica renovating athletic facilities Library also being modernized as part of upgrades at Catholic school
Jennifer Maas jennifer@smdp.com
SAMPLE: The President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama, visited Espresso Cielo last week.
BY JEFFREY I. GOODMAN Daily Press Staff Writer
Things have changed since Frank Cruz was an athlete at St. Monica Catholic High School. The current athletic director remembers a time before so much emphasis was placed on diet, exercise and health, a time when food was taboo in baseball dugouts. “Back in the day, it was, ‘Suck on an orange,’” he said. “There’s so much going on with physical fitness and nutrition and refueling.” Developments in science and technology have significantly altered the way athletes, coaches and administrators approach, prepare for and participate in sports. And St. Monica is making upgrades of its own, as evidenced by forthcoming renovations to its athletic facilities that are part of longterm infrastructure improvements
at the Santa Monica private school. A major piece of the project will be the reconfiguration of the lower level of St. Monica’s gymnasium to include new boys and girls locker rooms and updated athletic training space. The school’s sports programming for girls has grown dramatically since the locker rooms were built some 70 years ago, school president Thom Gasper said. “It’s taking one of our oldest facilities and really trying to make it appropriate for today’s student-athlete,” he said. “We’re trying to make sure things are laid out in a way that supports male and female students.” Plans include revamped weightlifting areas with space for stretching and high-intensity training. St. Monica officials are working with consultants and strength-training experts who have
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Daily Press Staff Writer
“Best chocolate in the world!” the president of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama, announced to onlookers in Main Street’s Espresso Cielo, as he took a bite out of a piece of Omanhene chocolate. Mahama visited the café Thursday night specifically to try products made with Omanhene cocoa, a brand of chocolate manufactured locally in Ghana using only Ghanagrown cocoa beans. Espresso Cielo is one of the only cafés on the West Coast that exclusively uses the Milwaukee-based company’s cocoa. And though Espresso Cielo’s owner, Diane Maler, was out of town, her staff was prepared to make Mahama feel at home. “It’s really cool to have him here and to be SEE COCOA PAGE 8
SEE SCHOOL PAGE 4
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BY JENNIFER MAAS
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