FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2011
Volume 10 Issue 286
Santa Monica Daily Press
BLACKBERRY BUZZKILL SEE PAGE 9
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THE RED OCTOBER ISSUE
Santa Monica’s tides go red … with algae Heal the Bay scientists suspect last week’s heavy rain caused the harmful algae blooms BY ASHLEY ARCHIBALD Daily Press Staff Writer
SM PIER Every week, senior aquarist Jose Bacallaos and his team go diving in the Santa Monica Bay looking for algae, kelp and
sometimes small animals for the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium. On Tuesday, Bacallaos was motoring out near Redondo Beach and King Harbor when he noticed something unusual. “It was pretty foggy, and where we were
motoring it was brown everywhere,” Bacallaos said. The Santa Monica Bay was swept with a phenomenon called the red tide, a discoloration of the water brought on by a rapid increase in certain microorganisms.
Back at the Santa Monica Pier, it was the same story. Vicki Wawerchak, director of the aquarium, pulled a water sample to check for the SEE RED PAGE 13
Digital signs on BBB approved BY ASHLEY ARCHIBALD Daily Press Staff Writer
CITYWIDE As of this week, Santa Monica is free to put digital signs on the sides of Big Blue Buses, which officials estimate will bring in $4 million in BIG BLUE BUS ad revenue. The signs are part of a pilot project crafted by Assemblywoman Julia Brownley (D-Santa Monica) in Assembly Bill 607, which was signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown Monday. It will allow BBB officials to put digital signs on 30 buses in the fleet for the threeyear duration of the project. Those signs display lit advertisements that can rotate every 2.7 seconds, and include text moving across the screen in the same amount of time. The ability to switch out advertisements every few seconds would bring in $4 million in revenue, a sum that would help the company keep fares low, said Dan Dawson, BBB spokesperson. “Transit has always been in a very difficult situation, but more so with the current state of the economy,” Dawson said. “We’re trying to think out of the box to find new and innovative revenue sources.” Those sources keep costs down and bus lines open, he said. However, such signs have never been allowed in California before, and the deci-
FED UP!
Brandon Wise brandonw@smdp.com Supporters of MoveOn.org, a progressive political advocacy organization, protest against excessive corporate profits Thursday at Bank of America on Fourth Street. Supporters are in favor of a tax on millionaires, which President Obama has coined the ‘Buffett Rule.’ The protest was affiliated with the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ movement spreading across America.
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