Malibu Lagoon hearing Oct. 27
The fate of the California State Parks plan to alter Malibu Lagoon will be decided at a Thursday court hearing in San Francisco. The decision comes after a lengthy debate about whether or not to recontour the lagoon.
The project’s opponents believe the lagoon recovery plan, which was slated to begin in June, is destructive and that the wetlands preserve can repair itself over time.
Project supporters include local environmental groups such as Heal the Bay, which say the idea that the lagoon can repair itself over time ignores science, and that the marshland must be rehabilitated before the lagoon becomes irreparable, choked by water flow blockage and years of upstream pollution and depletion of oxygen.
The California State Parks project was scheduled to begin on June 1 of this year, but San Francisco Superior Court Judge Ernest Goldsmith issued a stay delaying the project. Should Goldsmith allow the project to proceed, bulldozers that will be used to dredge and recontour the lagoon would not begin work until next summer.
Mother, son die from Kanan-Dume crash
A single-car accident on Kanan-Dume Road last Tuesday afternoon reportedly killed local residents Steve Halpern, 61, and his mother, Belle, 90. Both were transported to a hospital. A neighbor of the Halperns told The Malibu Times that Belle died shortly after the crash and Steve died about four hours later at the hospital.
California Highway Patrol Public Information Officer Leland Tang confirmed the accident, but could not confirm the identities of the victims, pending notification of next of kin.
The crash occurred shortly before 4:30 p.m. near Tunnel One on the road.
“The cause of the accident is still being determined,” Tang said. “We have no idea why the vehicle left the roadway.”
The southbound lanes of Kanan-Dume were diverted for about 45 minutes while the accident was cleaned up, Sergeant John Skikas of the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station confirmed to The Malibu Times.
Human skeletal remains found in Malibu Canyon
Human skeletal remains were discovered in the Tapia Park area of Malibu Creek State Park, an official from the Los Angeles County Department of Coroner confirmed to The Malibu Times.
Ed Winter, Assistant Chief of the coroner’s office, said it was not known whether the remains were male or female. Police dogs were spotted at the scene while helicopters flew overhead.
Pedestrian hit by truck on Pacific Coast Highway
A pedestrian was seriously injured Oct. 18 after being struck by a pickup truck on Pacific Coast Highway near the Malibu Pier, Sergeant Philip Brooks of the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station confirmed. Catherine Carlson, 56, of Santa Monica, was crossing Pacific Coast Highway at 5:31 p.m. when she was struck by a 2009 Dodge Ram driven by a 51-year-old man from Ojai.
Carlson sustained “significant” injuries and was airlifted to UCLA Medical Center. Brooks said the injuries may have included a broken back, but he could not confirm that. Witnesses told law enforcement authorities the pedestrian appeared to be at fault, as she was wearing earbud headphones as she crossed the highway. Witnesses said there was heavy traffic and that the driver of the truck appeared to be driving under 30 miles per hour.
Feds after African leader’s Malibu mansion
The United States government, after filing a forfeiture complaint against an African government official’s Malibu mansion on Oct. 14, filed an amended complaint against Teodoro Nguema Obiang on Tuesday. Obiang is the son of Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, president of the oil-rich central African nation Equatorial Guinea.
Equatorial Guinea has a population of 650,000 people but is Sub-Saharan African’s third-largest producer of oil after Nigeria and Angola. The complaint alleges Obiang, the country’s minister of agriculture and forestry, laundered vast sums of money that were fraudulently obtained through his position and influence. Obiang owns a mansion in the Sweetwater Mesa area of Malibu. His official salary is listed as $100,000 per year.
“The complaints announced today allege that, on a modest government salary, Minister Nguema amassed wealth of over $100 million,” U.S. Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer said. “While his people struggled, he lived the high life, purchasing a Gulfstream jet, a Malibu mansion and nearly $2 million in Michael Jackson memorabilia.” Alleging that these extravagant items are the proceeds of foreign official corruption, the Department of Justice is seeking to seize them through coordinated forfeiture actions. “Through our Kleptocracy Initiative, we are sending the message loud and clear: the United States will not be a hiding place for the ill-gotten riches of the world’s corrupt leaders.”
“Mass die-off” reported at Surfrider Beach
A “mass die-off” of marine life occurred at Surfrider Beach last week, according to a blog posted by Heal the Bay Coastal Resources Director Sarah Sikich. The post, on Heal the Bay President Mark Gold’s “Spouting Off” blog, stated there were “thousands” of sea urchins on shore, as well as dead lobsters and seabirds.
Sikich suggested the die-off could have resulted from someone illegally breaching the lagoon, along the lines of a similar die-off last year. She also wrote that following the first major storm of the year, accumulated pollution and water from the Malibu Lagoon can be washed out to the beach.
“Heal the Bay reached out to several marine ecologists and invertebrate specialists last year, and again this week, in attempt to determine what caused this mass mortality,” Sikich wrote in the blog post. “There is a common concern among the scientists we’ve talked to about local marine life health, but we have found no clear cause.”
Four injured in Pacific Coast Highway crash
Four people were injured in a traffic accident at Pacific Coast Highway and Topanga Canyon Boulevard Thurs., Oct. 20 at 4:30 p.m. when a silver Toyota Prius and a van collided.
The accident closed the southbound lanes of Pacific Coast Highway and one northbound lane for an hour. All lanes were reopened by 6 p.m.
One accident victim was transported by helicopter to UCLA Medical Center and county fire department paramedics transported the other three accident victims to UCLA and Westwood Medical Centers.
Governor signs shark fin ban
Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill into law that bans the possession, sale and distribution of shark fins in the state earlier this month. The law goes into effect in 2013.
The bill, written by Democrat Assemblyman Paul Fong, passed the legislature on Sept. 6. Brown signed the bill into law on Oct. 7.
Oregon, Washington and Hawaii already have similar bans.
Georgienne Bradley, executive director of the Malibu-based ocean conservation organization Sea Save Foundation hoped Brown would sign the bill.
“Passage of [it] would help insure the future of California fisheries, jobs and our oceans,” Bradley said. “If there is even a minor quantity change in any member species, it upsets the universal balance. A species removed from the system results in an accumulation of their food source and starvation of their predators.”
The bill caused some controversy among Chinese advocacy groups. The Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Los Angeles said the ban unfairly attacks their culture because shark fins are used in shark fin soup, a Chinese delicacy.