Olivenhain Encinitas

RANCHO ENCINITAS ACADEMY NURTURES STUDENTS UNDER THE SHADE OF ONE OF THE CITY’S OLDEST LIVING TREES

Students at Rancho Encinitas Academy Unknowingly Experience a Piece of History Every Time They Step onto their Playground

 Situated on the former site of Stallings Ranch Nursery, the Rancho Encinitas Academy Campus holds much more history than just the text books in its library. A majestic oak stands over 40 feet high on the park-like campus and is thought to be one of the city’s oldest living oak trees. The namesake of the city – Encinitas is Spanish for “little oak” – the oak is presumed to be among the original little oak trees on the Rancho Las Encinitas, owned by Don Andres Ybarra in 1842.

The magnificent tree is thought to be more than 275 years old, and is the perfect centerpiece to the school’s sprawling green campus; which covers two acres of landscaped grounds with its sister school, Edison Academy. There are 7 separate buildings custom designed and constructed especially for the school. The campus, with its architecture, landscaping, and proximity to the ocean is conducive to a safe, relaxing and tranquil learning experience.

“Our goal is to nurture a student’s natural wonder and joy of learning, facilitated by a positive and relaxed atmosphere,” said Paul Wulle, Director of Rancho Encinitas Academy. “With it’s rich history and lush grounds, we were able to design a campus that reduces stress and anxiety so that a child’s focus may be on learning.”

Rancho Encinitas Acadmy’s unique learning environment is enhanced by bird aviaries and bunny hutches, and three outdoor playground areas. “Jobs time,”a learn-by-doing activity at Rancho Encinitas Academy, includes recycling, grounds keeping and feeding the animals, activities which promote responsibility and personal development.

Marco Lazaro, stung to death by bees, his humanity nearly killed by mainstreet media et al...

Marco Lazaro, stung to death by bees, his real story overlooked by mainstreet media

(Marco Lazaro  died June 16, 2010. His death and the news coverage of it raised many questions, all the more relevant today. As for the killer bees. They're baaaaaack, as reported by W.C. Varones at Enicintas Undercover. To wit: "Like the swallows returning to Capistrano and the flies returning to Del Mar, the killer bees have returned to Encinitas. Yesterday I drove through a swarm of them, then came home to find another bunch contemplating building a nest in the compost bin. Last year the killer bees arrived in late April and early May. Then in June they killed poor Marco Lazaro.")

Marco Lazaro, 54, died around 11 a.m. Wednesday, June 16 after he smashed a backhoe into a giant beehive at a property near the intersection of Manchester Avenue and Pacific Rancho Drive at Olivenhain.

Lazaro was clearing brush near San Elijo Lagoon when he suffered more than 500 bee stings as he ran from the backhoe to a nearby shack to avoid the attack, then collapsed there.

Paramedics took Lazaro to nearby Scripps Memorial Hospital at Encinitas where he was pronounced dead. He died of anaphylaxis, an allergic reaction to the stings, according to the San Diego Medical Examiner.

Experts who later investigated the hive said it was unusually large, containing 60,000 to 80,000 hybrid Africanized bees. The hive had sat undisturbed in the field for untold years, they said.

Lazaro was a refugee from the Guatemalan highlands who came to Olivenhain more than 30 years ago, living at the property as a caretaker and landscaper, according to sources.

Two aspects of this story struck me quite personally.

Bees and Me

Firstly, when I was about 10 years old attending summer camp, I horribly ran straight into a beehive and was stung 50 to 100 times. Since now I know experts consider 150 to 300 bee stings enough to immobilize a large person, I can thank my lucky star I wasn't more badly injured that day. As it were, it hurt like hell for a week, or so, and made me bee-shy for a long time.

I've gotten over that, and, in fact, love bees. After reading about bee intelligence, I'm impressed, not scared at all. In fact, I give them mad props.

For example, did you know bees have incredibly large brains for their size? Researchers believe bees are highly efficient, actually -- just like I pretend to be --  and work only a few hours a day at their appointed tasks. Then, they spend a lot of down-time relaxing, doing whatever they do for fun, and even daydreaming, according to specialists.

Oh, the humanity: Poor Marco Lazaro and the even poorer remnants of corporate journalism

That's all cool, but the second aspect of the story striking me squarely at its roots, was more disturbing. Marco Lazaro, the person, seemed more like a tragic bystander than victim.

Every, and by that I mean EVERY, local news source immediately shifted from Lazaro's death to lame, impersonal, by-the-press-release dissertations on the dangers of bee stings, adding cautionary warnings about what to do in bee attacks, the growth of the bee problem, and related generic nonsense.

Marco Lazaro, the victim? Sorry, Charley horses, nothing else to say about him; whether he was a good guy or hard worker, what people thought about him, what he might have accomplished in life, or not.

Despicable excuses for news coverage, which unfortunately was the way of much of the world up to today as journalism was turned into a cash cow to be looted by faux business types starting in the late 1980s. (Locally, you can just look at Gilroy-based Mainstreet Media, publishers of the Rancho Santa Fe Review-Del Mar Times-Solana Beach Something and the Coast News "Group" who may, or may not, still be in business at Encinitas.)

So, actual journalists were downsized, and then laid off, in the 2000s as the bottom-feeding, bottom-line non-journalist publishers sought to maximize their greed, a kind of journalistic shadow play of Wall Street and the real estate frauds.

Without actual journalists driving coverage, looking for the humanity inside the breaking story rather than its bottom line coverage, people such as Marco Lazaro, went by the wayside, yielding to the mediocrity illustrated by his ultimate story's coverage demise.

New digital media partnerships restoring responsible journalism

Thank goodness, then, for the Internet and the new digital media environment bringing together citizen bloggers and professional journalists in a responsive, and responsible, partnership.

The dinosaur corporate profit-mongering breed is on its way out the door with vastly hyper-bloated overhead costs and no reliable, or interesting, content, hemorrhaging money by the bank account-load. The lean, and not so much mean as appropriately resourced, models such as Ah-Ha Rancho Santa Fe are thriving.

With that said, we return to Marco Lazaro's real-life story. WaveBlog of New Encinitas ran the story the way it should have been run in the first place, talking about the man who was victimized by fate and a wrong turn of his backhoe, not the hype of "bee danger."

WaveBlog alone -- citizen journalists -- did the story right. What's left of "professional" -- substitute the word "corporate" -- journalism hyped the alarmist crapola, ignoring the humanity. WaveBlog was there with actual insight and compassion.

So, letting you know a bit more about Marco Lazaro, the man, we re-publish, and pass along, the WaveBlog story, which ran without a byline, even, well under the dying media radar, restoring the humanity somewhat to this overlooked, and most important, element lost in corporate journalistic translation. Long story short, please read on...

--- Dan Weisman

founder/editor

Ah-Ha Rancho Santa Fe

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                                                                   WaveBlog

MY FRIEND MARCO, GUATEMALAN, STUNG TO DEATH BY AFRICAN BEES IN ENCINITAS

In 1989, my wife Sarah and I were expecting our second daughter; Molly Margaret, I was working for Noren Honda and Mike Doyle of Doyle Sports that retailed surf-wear in The Lumberyard on Highway 101, when I was first introduced to Marco Lazaro and his common-law wife, Rosa.

A mixed-non-marriage, Rosa from Central Mexico and Marco hailing from the Guatemalan highlands lived in a tin shack in a gully off a barranca on the property of Mrs. Rosemary Woods (Wiegand) on a ramshackle rancho squeezed between Encinitas Country Day School and the San Elijo Lagoon.

When the local temps dropped below freezing we always took new blankets purchased at clearance sales to Marco and Rosa. They could have a small fire in the shack to keep warm, but always had to leave the door open to the freezing wind to avoid asphyxiation.

Coincidentally, Rosa was a beloved cleaning lady for Walter Steidel who was the San Diego County Regional Retail Vice-President of Robinson’s Department Stores; that my wife, Sarah was a buyer for. There were several connections.

Marco was Indio, deeply red skinned and with the almost-Central American ability to build almost anything out of everything to achieve whatever it was you asked of him; as long as you didn’t care what it looked like; and he earned his money.

Marco was the most dependable person you ever met and was so cynical in his world-view that just a sour look and squinting of his Asiatic visage would make me break into uncontrollable laughter as I read his mind.

Especially when I would come upon one of his phantasmagorical creations tied onto the back of his truck combined with his ability to, somehow, transport everyone else’s cast-offs to Tijuana only to build an entire apartment complex in south-east Tijuana for his common-law non-married mother-in-law; Lourdes, who ended up inheriting a nearly new wheel chair when my own mother-in-law, Beth Lyon faded into the constant shifting mist of Alzheimer’s disease.

Then, in 1992, Marco’s mother became ill, and Marco felt duty-bound to travel down to say goodbye to her as she was near death.

Normally, I would see him every other Tuesday morning, but as he left to return to Guatemala, it was the last time I saw him for over two years.

In January of 1993, Rosa, her sister and mother-in-law (in the Lyon Familia wheelchair) arrived at our home across the street from Park Dale Lane Elementary (where I was the PTA President). Rosa had a bunch of federal paperwork informing us that Marco would not be allowed back in the United States; unless Rosa could prove that there was a job waiting here in Encinitas for him.

Thus began an incredible odyssey of California corporation creation, Mexican and Guatemalan Visas, work permits, federal investigators and even, an ex-girlfriend chick fight between Rosa and one of Marco’s former girlfriends…on my front lawn (Don’t ask).

Finally, in 1994, I convinced the Feds to allow Marco to travel back over the border and become my full time employee.

Marco arrived at my door and we had a little impromptu party as he recounted his adventures with federales, gun thugs, bureaucrats and his mother’s burial trip into the jungles.

This lasted for a week until Mrs. Woods rehired him back and having convinced Rosa of his faithfulness during his exile outside of Guatemala City for the two years, Marco was back home again and ready to work.

But the economy had changed (Euphemism) and we no longer could afford to have Marco garden nor Rosa clean and straighten.

Mr. Steidel, the big Robinson’s boss in La Jolla passed away and Rosa no longer rode the bus to La Jolla every Wednesday to care for the Steidel’s only child and plan her Quincenera.

Then, Rosa’s mother passed on; her sister, passed, and after a year without contact, Rosa, came by the house, emaciated with breast cancer she could not afford treatment for and feigning like nothing was wrong, I fixed tea while she and I reminisced about all the people we loved that have passed away and of the great ‘city’ that Marco had built in Calle Obregon, south of the border.

Six months later, walking out of the Cardiff By The Sea Post Office, I ran into Marco. (Photo) Tears came to his eyes as he recounted Rosa’s last days and he reached inside his truck for he wanted to bring some of the porcelain animals my daughters had made for Rosa at Carla’s Art Camp back a dozen years earlier to my girls; as one of Rosa’s last requests.

I snapped a quick photo of Marco so I could show my daughters that he was still alive and cooking, and then a week later I fell ill and before I knew it, I was in surgery.

I did not see my friend, Marco again.

Over the years, he’d helped me move several times, was a guest at my home, was Mr. Dependable at all times; had one of the keenest abilities to read people (Especially Noren ‘Napoleon’ Honda) and also had one of the trippiest naturally spikes of a hair for all time.

WEDNESDAY, June 16, 2010
I was at dinner with the Encinitas Fire Chief on Wednesday night, late, when the Chief was called by a Division Captain and informed that an Encinitas resident had been stung to death by bees.

We all shuddered at the table and asked for more morbid details.

The next morning, just before 5:00 a.m., I jumped on the computer and popped up the local daily and to my horror, slowly my disbelief became tears boiling out of my eyes and down onto my keyboard.

My friend Marco, who I had jumped through federal hoops to return my longtime friend to his common-law wife, Rosa, had died an incredibly painful and violent death.

Stung to death by 500 ‘Africanized’ bees on Mrs. Wood’s rancho.

Marco absolutely did not deserve to die the way he did and I am sure that somewhere today, maybe many places in Calle Obregon, many a candle is being burnt for Marco and Rosa; as we held our own prayer vigil for him with some smoking votives surrounded by the porcelain animals that Marco had returned to Amanda and Molly after his life mate had passed on.

Vaya con dios, mi amigo.

Yes, go with God.

Your very hard, very happy life is finally over. We hope you are at peace.

Marco, my friend...

...For more from WaveBlog, visit  http://newencinitasnetwork.org/blog/?p=313

Solana Beach, Calif. school textbook Islam coverage brings regional, 700 Club TV coverage...

(Editor's Note: A video and story airing today on the Christian Broadcasting Network, CBN, that broadcasts the 700 Club, also picked up by KABC-TV, Los Angeles, deals with the San Dieguito Union High School controversy that started in February over a school textbook's depiction of the practice of Islam. Complaints have focused in the past on texts used for 7th Grade and 10th Grade world history classes. Conservative critics say too much time is being used to study Islam. Muslim scholars say the depictions of Islam in the textbooks are incorrect and misleading.)

A classroom history book is causing controversy in Solana Beach over the description of Islam.

Three men have come forward to protest the book, saying it goes out of its way to portray Islam in a positive light. They say the book is full of distortions, omissions and falsehoods.

"If the school's going to bother to teach about Islam, they should do it as history is, according to the facts. If they want to romanticize it, they can put it in fairy tales," said Michael Hayutin, a textbook critic.

Hayutin and his colleagues say there are 22 errors in the book, everything from the meaning of Jihad to polygamy to slavery in Islam.

Islamic scholars are now accusing the men of having an anti-Islam agenda.

"I honestly think that they are using this world history issue as a pretext to malign and discredit Islam and Muslims," said Tehseen Lazzouni, a Muslim scholar.

The textbook is currently under review by the state Board of Education.

Gene Shefrin, publicist, dies at 90 at Encinitas, Calif. Repped Peggy Lee, Connie Francis, Perry Como and the lost goes on...

The native New Yorker gave Woody Allen, then a 16-year-old going by his real name Allen Konigsberg, his first job as a joke writer as persuaded the New York Yankees to have the Guy Lombardo Orchestra entertain the crowd from center field before the start of the 1951 World Series at Yankee Stadium.

(Gene Shefrin with Tony Bennett, one of many stars and celebrities the Encinitas, Calif. publicist reppresented until retirement in 1987.)

Former entertainment industry publicist Eugene "Gene" Shefrin died April 6 in Encinitas, Calif., after a long battle with Parkinson's Disease. He was 90.

During his 42-year career in PR prior to his retirement in 1987, Shefrin represented, at various times, Guy Lombardo, Tony Bennett, Johnny Mathis, Frankie Laine, Vic Damone, Perry Como, Sam Cooke, author Irving Wallace, composers Alan and Marilyn Bergman, Don Rickles, Norm Crosby, Don Adams, Richard Pryor, Jackie Mason, Peter Falk, James Caan, Monty Hall, Peggy Lee, Kate Smith, Connie Francis, Sarah Vaughan and Dick Clark.

Shefrin, who retired in 1987, did PR for the Beatles’ second New York appearance — a February 1964 concert at Carnegie Hall that followed by three days their stint on The Ed Sullivan Show — and another performance by Frank Sinatra and Lena Horne, also at Carnegie Hall, that benefited the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, a civil rights organization.

Shefrin was also involved with the PR for the Beatles' first New York appearance at Carnegie Hall and a performance by Frank Sinatra and Lena Horne, also at Carnegie Hall, benefitting the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. Along with special projects for Motown Records and Simon & Schuster Publishing, which included West Coast PR for Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's Watergate tome "All the President's Men," he also handled 1964 rock concert film "The T.A.M.I. Show" and numerous TV variety specials.

Born in New York City, the son of Russian immigrants, Shefrin attended graduated from City College of New York in 1942 and then joined the U.S. Army Air Force. He was initially stationed at Randolph Field in San Antonio, Texas, and was assigned as a reporter on the base newspaper, the Randolph Rookie. While there, he married Sophie Schwimmer. During WWII, he served in the 96th Bomber Group in England and was awarded two battle stars.

In 1945 he started his career in PR at Fred Stengel Associates in New York as an apprentice publicist. The following year, he joined David O. Alber Associates as an account exec; five years later, he was named exec VP.

While at the Alber firm, he gave a then 16-year-old Woody Allen, ne Allen Konigsberg, his first job, as a joke writer.

Along with special projects for Motown Records and Simon & Schuster Publishing — which included West Coast PR for Bob Woodward & Carl Bernstein’s 1974 book All the President’s Men — he also handled the 1964 rock concert film the T.A.M.I. Show and TV variety specials from the likes of Milton Berle and Diana Ross.

In 1963 he left Alber and soon thereafter moved to Los Angeles, founding Gene Shefrin Associates, which was renamed the Shefrin Co. in 1976 when his son, Paul, joined the firm.

He was a longtime member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and the Publicists Guild.

In addition to his son Paul, a longtime publicist, Gene Shefrin is survived by his wife of 68 years, Sophie, and two grandchildren. Donations may be made to the National Parkinson Foundation.

Short shorts: Olivenhain 9-1-1 delays, Solana Beach station re-imagining, Legoland, San Diego County General Plan...

 Olivenhain residents complain about slow ambulance response times

Hey, Olivenhain is pretty much Rancho Santa Fe, a bit to the west and maybe a bit less expensive, but not much in many cases.

 And as at "The Ranch,"  "The Vain" coasts along winding, sometimes confusing back roads. Hence a problem.

Many living in those East Encinitas custom home have to wait up to 14 minutes for an ambulance to arrive. The Encinitas response time goal is 5 percent in 80 percent of ambulance calls.

Not good if you have an emergency. Encinitas Fire Chief Mark Muir this week said it's tough balancing the rural Olivenhain's needs with the much more densely populated coastal Encinitas.

Muir and fellow fire officials are preparing a White Paper outlining the city's response times for various neighborhoods, the region's future needs, and some options for improving service to Olivenhain.

Encinitas council members are expected to hear the presentation and discuss the solutions at its March 23 meeting.

Solana Beach Train Station Event

Solana Beach Mayor Lesa Heebner and city council members, along with Matt Tucker, executive director of North County Transit District (NCTD), for a "ribbon cutting ceremony" at 4 p.m. Wednesday, March 2, at the Solana Beach Train Station. the Del Sol Lions Club will provide refreshments.

This "prototype community marketing station" will highlight City of Solana Beach, local business community and social events in a public/private collaboration. This “first of its kind” station will be evaluated for use at other North County Transit District Stations.

Legoland opens 'Lego Hero Factory'

Legoland California theme park in Carlsbad has opened the Lego Hero Factory, a new Lego-building area in its Imagination Zone. Here, children can build toy heroes and villains from Lego bricks.

One wall of the Hero Factory is a 7-by-28-foot Lego brick mosaic that is being built this week by park visitors. Park visitors will be given a color-coded base plate to assemble the mosaic sections with colored bricks through Monday, Feb. 28. The mural is expected to be completed by early next week.

 San Diego County Supes continue General Plan Update hearings

San Diego County Board supervisors will continue their hearing on the county’s General Plan Update on March 16.

Their vote came after receiving the county Department of Planning and Land Use (DPLU) report responding to questions or claims raised by the public and the supervisors during the three previous hearings.

County staff will continue to work with stakeholders to address questions, and the continuance will also give the county supervisors time to review the report, which included property-specific requests and responses to substantive issues.

“An incredible amount of work has gone into what is before us today,” Supervisor Dianne Jacob said.

Encinitas Calif.-based Grauer School Selected to Participate in Dreyfuss Initiative

The Dreyfuss Initiative (TDI) has enlisted the participation of The Grauer School in advancing its mission to reestablish civics education in American classrooms...

...According to Dreyfuss, "The Grauer School is a time-tested incubator for theory to practice in the public school setting. The school caught my attention based on their distinctive and highly effective approach to education," (46 seniors from the past three graduating classes have been accepted to 87% of all colleges to which they applied and amassed $5.5 million in scholarship offers) "resulting in achievements unmatched by any school in the region. I discovered on a recent site visit to a Grauer classroom that students enrolled there had an excellent foundation of American history, but craved more rigorous treatment of civics in the real world. These students will help us engage other students on a nationwide level in the National Conversation. They will also develop a task force to facilitate the implementation of a TDI project called 'Civics Express', an experiential learning train journey that traces the historical steps of the Founding Fathers."

Grauer School faculty recently participated in the bi-coastal National Conversation event held on January 17, 2011, hosted by TDI simultaneously at the University of San Diego in San Diego, CA and at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C. Grauer School faculty provided assistance at the San Diego event, which included a panel discussion featuring Richard Dreyfuss, Roy Romer, John Fund, Diane Ravitch, Richard Shenkman, and Admiral Bruce Boland. Entitled, "It's Time for a Talk; The National Conversation on Revitalizing America's Civic Culture", the discussion addressed the unprecedented anxiety felt by U.S. citizens regarding our nation's future accompanied by the lack of comprehension surrounding the cultural meaning and heritage of America.

The Grauer School is an independent grades 6-12 college preparatory day school; its students commit several thousand hours to humanitarian and ecological service annually, locally and globally. The School, now celebrating its 20th year in San Diego's North County, is the only UNESCO associated institution in the southern California region. To learn more about The Grauer School experience, visit http://www.grauerschool.com or call 760/944-6777.

 This is a view of the Dreyfuss Initiative from JLUE'S WEBLOG

Question Concerning Dreyfuss Initiative

The Question?

What does Richard Dreyfuss suggest students be taught in ‘Civics’?

In 2006 Dreyfuss made the comment that when terrorist go into Disney World and do something horrible, we will willingly toss the Bill of Rights into the ocean. He suggest that our young people are not ready to lead a free country in a dangerous world. This is one of the reasons he suggest all schools have a civics course of study.

Simply stated, ‘Civics’ is the study of the rights and duties of citizens. Certainly there should be either a course of study in civics or an emphasis on civics in social studies. This should go without saying, so why do we need an initiative such as ‘The Dreyfuss Initiative’ to accomplish something so simple?

Richard Dreyfuss, David Barton, and many other educators realize that American students are not performing well and that ignorance is a big problem in our nation. How can we continue to govern ourselves if we do not understand our own government and are not familiar with our own rule of law? We spend hours arguing and listening to politicians, but we often remain ignorant or allow our youth to grow up without even a fundamental understanding of our government.

Despite the fact that America far outspends other nations on education, ourstudents are outperformed by students from Poland, the Slovak Republic, Czechoslovakia, Iceland, China, Taiwan, Canada, Korea, Wales, and many other nations. America currently has one of the poorest outcomes per education dollar spent among all industrial nations.

I have spent a good deal of time looking and listening atand this initiative and I have to say that I think his heart is in the right place here. He does want to improve our nation. He believes ‘Civics’ isn’t being taught and he wants true ‘Civics’ taught in public schools. He doesn’t propose to teach the subject, just that it be done.

In 2006, Dreyfuss also said that when it comes to teaching our children ‘civics’, a lack of money is not a reasonable excuse. He suggested that educators who understand the importance of civics can find ways to make the subject accessible and exciting, engage students and make parents demand it. He is, however, wrong on one important point. He also said:

“We are the richest country in the history of the world, and can afford to do anything we wish, if we wish it… The trick is to make the powers that be share our wish …”

While we have been the richest country in the history of the world with the highest standard of living, it only takes one or two administrations who fail to understand our economy, our economic system, to put us in second, third or last place. We are no longer the richest nation. We are now a nation deeply in debt with a president who plans to continue to spend borrowed money. How many men and women have bankrupted themselves through the continued spending of borrowed money? Americans must realize that nations also have to accept and live by economy reality and principles!

Here is the point where I feel that Richard Dreyfuss and many others fail to make a connection.  He not only espouses the teaching of ‘Civics’, he also is a very outspoken liberal. Liberalism hasn’t, doesn’t and will never work with our economic system or with our constitution.  Therefore, the choice becomes more than liberalism and conservatism.  It becomes a choice between living in freedom from debt or living in bondage to nations to whom we are indebted.

To teach ‘Civics’, (the study of the rights and duties of citizens) in our public schools we must also teach financial responsibility. A good citizen accepts responsibility. Students must be taught economics as well as civics if our nation is to survive. The steady diet of ‘liberalism’ that is being taught in most colleges cannot continue if students are going to become responsible for themselves and ultimately for the nation.

People Behaving Badly, or Police Beefs: Olivenhain 7-Eleven hit for cigs/cash; misc. burglaries around ...

This much is certain: the thief likes to smoke...a lot.

Shortly before 8:30 p.m. Monday, a lone gunman struck the 7-Eleven at 2240 Encinitas Blvd.., at Rancho Santa fe Road absconding with a pack of smokes and some scratch, according to authorities.

The robber who ran away had a black semi-automatic handgun. He was described as Latino, in his 20s, about 5 feet 5 inches tall, with a mustache and wearing a black hat, according to the fuzz.

OK, more details on a few of the local burglaries and bad stuff this month:

DEL MAR: A burglar stole a $20,000 ring, a $20,000 necklace, and a $10,000 watch from Loghman Jewelers on Camino del Mar between 8:30 p.m., Feb. 4 and 10 a.m., Feb. 5.

ENCINITAS: A 23-year-old man and 24-year-old woman were found unconscious after their food was deliberately poisoned. The crime occurred at 11:30 p.m., Feb. 4 on Summerhill Court.

ENCINITAS: A burglar stole $50 in cash from the Dairy Queen on Encinitas Boulevard, 8:41 a.m., Feb. 5.

ENCINITAS: A burglar stole $360 in liquor from the Vons on El Camino Real, 5 p.m., Feb. 6.

ENCINITAS: A 31-year-old woman was arrested for stealing $2,560 from the Home Depot on El Camino Real.

ENCINITAS: A burglar stole $3,445.63 from the Santa Fe Animal Clinic on Santa Fe Drive.

SOLANA BEACH: A 21-year-old woman was arrested for stealing $110 in shoes and miscellaneous items from Marshalls on San Rodolfo Road, 8:30 p.m., Feb. 8.

Grauer School Installs 'Portraits of California' Photography Exhibit at San Diego Airport

The Grauer School located in Encinitas was invited to install a photographic display at San Diego International Airport/Lindbergh Field of revealing photographs depicting the Southern California coastline taken by eleven Grauer School students during a recent expedition. The students traveled along the California coastal route in search of unique subjects illustrating the raw nature of the coastal wilderness and wildlife. Entitled, ”Portraits of California”, the exhibit is displayed on the East side of Terminal Two on the Youth Art Wall and will be available for viewing through June 1, 2011.

According to Teacher Christy Goodson of The Grauer School Center for Visual and Performing Arts, “The images tell a story of Southern California in a pictorial format. It portrays students engaging in the natural coastal environment while admiring the developing culture, making steadfast relationships with nature and engrossing themselves in an unforgettable exploratory search for the essence of what makes our coastal terrain so unique. Our California coastline is a distinctive eco-culture that has been subject to massive development over the past century and these photographic images reflect the rich ecological heritage that still exists.”

Sponsored by WiLDCOAST, the Youth Art Wall conservation art project program was implemented on December 8, 2009, at Lindbergh Field with the goal of heightening awareness for their mission to maintain the preservation of the coastal terrain. WiLDCOAST is comprised of environmental groups whose objective is to conserve coastal and marine ecosystems and protect wildlife. The organization has protected over 21,000 acres and 22 miles of coastline through private lands acquisitions and has helped prevent several large development projects that would permanently alter the unique natural landscapes of the Baja California Peninsula.

The Grauer School is an independent grades 6-12 college preparatory day school; its students commit several thousand hours to humanitarian and ecological service annually, locally and globally. The School, now celebrating its 20th year in San Diego’s North County, is the only UNESCO associated institution in the southern California region. To learn more about The Grauer School experience, visit www.grauerschool.com or call 760/944-6777. General Questions:  info@grauerschool.com.

Drywaller Bandit suspect in custody after series of Encinitas bank robberies

A Pasadena resident believed to be the so-called "Drywaller Bandit" - a serial thief responsible for a six-month spree of armed bank robberies in Los Angeles and San Diego counties - was arrested today following his 11th alleged holdup.

About 9:15 a.m., Thursday, Feb. 3 a man wearing a dust mask and armed with a pistol robbed a Chase Bank branch office in the 100 block of North El Camino Real in Encinitas, San Diego County sheriff's Lt. Jim Walker said.

A few minutes later, arriving deputies spotted a man matching the description of the robber walking to the east near the bank. Seeing the patrol personnel, he broke into a run. The deputies caught up with the suspect, later identified as 39-year-old John Leendert Oskam, a short distance away and took him into custody.

Oskam was taken to the Encinitas Sheriff's Station to be interviewed. He was expected to be booked into the Metropolitan Correctional Center and arraigned in U.S. District Court in San Dieg

The "Drywaller Bandit," so named by investigators due to the type of construction-style mask he wore during his crimes, is believed to have robbed two Pasadena banks in August, as well as banks in Encinitas and Oceanside last year and this year.

Authorities believe he robbed a US Bank branch on Sept. 24 and Dec. 21, a Citibank branch on Nov. 19 and Dec. 27 and a Wells Fargo branch on Oct. 25, all on North El Camino Real.

A robbery of a Chase bank branch in Oceanside on Dec. 8 also was attributed to the Drywaller Bandit, as well as two heists in Pasadena in August, according to Darrell Foxworth of the FBI.

Ah-Ha Exclusive: Financiers buy IPath Footwear; relocates offices, jobs to Encinitas

Boston-based Madison Parker Capital on Monday said it had acquired Torrance, Calif.-based IPATH, a designer, developer and marketer of skateboarding footwear and apparel. Financial terms of the deal were not released. Madison Parker Capital acquired IPATH from The Timberland Company.

The investment group's Klonelab portfolio company took over IPath operations and named Nate Smith the brand's new president, who then said company headquarters were moving from Torrance to Encinitas. A former Patagonia executive, Smith said IPath would retain its Torrance management team.

“The purchase of the IPATH brand from Timberland was a no brainer for us," said Tom McGee, Klonelab chief executive officer. "They had exceptional growth last year in a down market, a great core management team in California and iconic silhouettes and team riders that give us the authenticity and foundation needed to continue to grow the brand.”

Smith said: “We’re moving IPATH out of Torrance to a spot where the crew can be more creative and the team guys will actually want to come hang when they’re in town. San Diego’s roots in skateboarding are deep and we look forward to being an active player in the community and becoming a part of that rich heritage.”

 IPATH, based in Torrance, CA, was founded in 1998 by professional skaters in Northern California. The company was conceived as a way to break away from the conventions and establish a revolution of skate style designed and tested by skaters.

While IPATH shoes are primarily skateboarding specific, they also feature “chill” models designed more for style over skate functionality. A distinctive characteristic of IPATH shoes is the “greener” based product accomplished by offering alternative materials such as organic cotton in their shoes and accessories.

For more information, visit: www.ipath.com.

Groundbreaking education documentary 'Race to Nowhere' runs on Friday at The Grauer School

 “Race to Nowhere”, an up-close look at America’s school system and the pressures facing today’s students, produced and co-directed by Vicki Abeles, is getting a ton of publicity these days, especially in light of President Obama's new education initiative.

The Race runs at 7 p.m. Friday at the Grauer School, 1500 S. El Camino Real, Encinitas. a $10 donation is requested at the door or in advance at http://rtngrauerschool.eventbrite.com/.

Abeles is a concerned mother who investigates the truth behind the nation's "achievement-infatuated societal effect on school-age children." She looks at the pressures to achieve robbing students of self-realization opportunities and family relationships.

Race to Nowhere is a plea to families, educators, experts and policy makers to examine current assumptions on how to best prepare American youth for adulthood.

“As a mother, I experienced the stress firsthand and realized that no one was talking about it,” Abeles said. “I saw kids who were anxious, depressed, physically ill, checking out, abusing drugs and, worst case, attempting suicide.

"I felt compelled to speak out about this crisis by making a film and giving voice to the students, teachers, and parents," Abeles added. "I wanted to expose a deeper truth about our education system. We are graduating a generation of robo-students, unable to think and work independently, creatively and collaboratively."

The film is gaining a lot of traction across the nation with showings this month setting the stage for more in-depth discussions of education in America. The Grauer School's showing will be followed  by a panel discussion featuring Jacqueline Rush, one of the students highlighted in the film, and Dr. Stuart Grauer, Head of School.

The Grauer School also is gaining a lot of traction these days. Founded in 1991, it's a private, grades 6 –12 college preparatory school accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, renowned for academic excellence, attracting $2.2 million in scholarships for its 18-member, 2010 graduating class.

To learn more about The Grauer School experience, or the continuing Speaker and Film series, visit www.grauerschool.com or call 760/944-6777.

There's been a change in my hummingbirds.  I say 'my' like they're pets.  Ha!!  Seriously, since the weather has cooled, they seem to have sobered up.  So much so that they've got new levels of energy and have brought some friends.  Amazingly, there seems to be a small but noticeable herd  visiting my feeder and apparently, the word is out.

Recently, I went to the Rancho Santa Fe branch of the San Diego library to get my new library card and to check out the collection.  How much information do they have on hummingbirds, I wondered.  Enough, I supposed, yet I still had googled the subject from home prior to my visit.  Information at your fingertips, right or wrong, is the internet universe.  I'm writing on and for the internet.  I love the immediacy of online communications.  Don't you?  Why else would you even be reading this, after all.

Yet, there is something about a library, and the RSF branch is no exception, that is intoxicating and energizing than electronic, well, electrons!   When in the library, I'm aware of breathing deeper, as if I'm sucking down information not just through my brain, but also through lung.  There is a subtle awareness of wood, pulp, that accompanies the delivery system of facts, or even fiction, between the covers of books that does not exist electronically over the net.  Yet, speed has value and convenience all its own, hence the enormous popularity of online information.

I believe in both delivery systems, actually, profoundly so.  While at the library, I was aware of people even though there were few, and most of those were quiet.  In truth, I was likely the noisiest one, asking questions of the librarian about the San Diego system, her answering me generously.  At some point, I was curious about where I could buy ice cream in the town center, having a ferocious dish-a-day habit.  Another patron happened along with his son and the librarian turned to them, uncertain where ice cream might be available.  The man told me about the Sandwich Shop having frozen yogurt; that was the only place he was aware that sold anything like it in town.  The librarian turned back to me, satisfied to have been a vehicle for providing this detail, a smile emanating from her face, another factoid delivered.  The exchange was so local and personal, intimate in its own way.

And that, my friends, is something not available through flesh and blood on the net.  Nor, is there the aroma of tree processed as paper, acting as conveyor of electronic brain sparks through fact or fiction.  Without a doubt, I love both things; the near instant gratification of internet provisions that  functions with the same rapidity of a hummingbird.  I think my computer might actually even hum at times, much like the birds outside my window.  Yet the library is where time and substance is rearranged in ways that slow the mind, allowing it to meander and consider what's being ingested.  It serves physical experience as part of its pleasure.  

In the end, it is not possible to pick a preference.  Each delivery system remains equal in my mind because in certain ways, they reveal different aspects of me to myself, fulfilling different roles, alternating needs.  Is this any different in nature?  Do the hummingbirds stop going to flowers just because they suck up sugar water at my feeder?  I doubt it.  Would they rather be inebriated by heat, or jacked up on too great a concentration of C & H sugar from the Village Market?  

I'm answering for them.  The hummingbirds want both things, as do I!  Anyone whoever grew up on the nutrients contained in books AND knows the pleasure of speed at a keystroke will likely agree.    And that, my friends, is the balance of nature, its evolutionary patterns, complete with fast beating wings hunched over the sweet smells of books from your RSF library.

To be continued......

Rosalie

Since I've moved to the area, I've written a few times on this site, sending the link to local friends, others in the US, and even some around the world.  To a one, they are all fascinated by my descriptions of this little gem of a community I find myself in.  "Please send more, I love it!"  I'm guessing a couple may have even called some relocation agents, they've been so mesmerized by this small part of heaven.

But today, I find myself 'wordless' in the lovely descriptions of this valley I've heretofore grown a very quick love affair with.  I still love the rolling hills.  I still love the incredible lushness of greens, trees, birds chippy-chirping away.  But the things is, I've started writing another book today and I've used so much of my daily noun, verb, and adjective quota for the day that I'm severely tapped out.

This will come as a shock to some who know me since I've also heretofore been a candidate for worlds most verbose female.  Yet, in some respects this condition, this thinner layer of description leaking out of my skull, is actually no different than those of you who say, have to go tend the lemon or orange groves and can't stand one more friggin trip out there.  Or, those of you having to clean horse stalls, groom a horse, or otherwise do the daily work that you routinely love, know what I'm talking about.  The effort to put one foot in front of the other, or in my case, hunt for some crazy idea or another to language out on a page, is just too much to bear.

Well, you get the idea.

Olivenhain, where I live now, is currently sporting three new flowering plants in my front yard.  And I did fill up the hummingbird feeder, besides writing this morning, and this little snippet of blah blah this afternoon.  Beyond this, I can do no more.  The old brain box is tapped!  Drained, as it were.

My next life?  I think I'll be a professional orange picker.  Or maybe groom horses one ranch at a time until I get back East.  Until then though, I've got my eyes set on a fabulous fish dinner in this land-locked heaven and even though I'll be sharing a meal with a new-found friend, I hope he's not expected conversation tonight.  My language skills until midnight will only consist of nodding pleasantly.  I just hope nothing rattles! 

To be continued.

Rosalie