A 22-year-old Half Moon Bay Man was sentenced to a year in jail for sexual assault, reports the Palo Alto Daily News.

According to prosecutors, after a night of dancing and drinking on June 19, 2005, Jesus Navarro Sanchez invited the woman, her sister and her sister’s boyfriend to his house in Half Moon Bay.

The group took two cars. Upon their return, Sanchez reportedly drove off the freeway in San Mateo, leaving the woman’s sister and her sister’s boyfriend behind in their car, according to the district attorney’s office.

Sanchez then drove the woman to an isolated area and raped her, prosecutors claimed. The two came back to the woman’s sister’s car on state Highway 92, where, with the victim in tears, her sister and boyfriend reportedly attacked Sanchez.

Sanchez later admitted to "abusing" the victim, according to prosecutors.

After an eight-day trial in August 2006, the jury deadlocked at 8 to 4 for guilty and a mistrial was declared, the district attorney’s office reported. On Jan. 8, Sanchez, originally charged with rape and false imprisonment, agreed to plead no contest to felony sexual battery on the condition that he would not be sent to state prison.

Seton Coastside has won the WRAP (Waste Reduction Awards Program)annual award recognizing outstanding efforts to reduce nonhazardous waste and send less garbage to our landfills. "WRAP of the Year" (WTOY) recognizes five of the best examples of these efforts, which serve as waste management models to the rest of their industry. Seton Coastside has won five WRAP awards in a row, and was selected as one of the five winners out of 1200 past winners in the State. Seton Coastside’s award is the first time that a hospital has been selected for the WOTY. 

When a few of the presenters were talking about the "Flat Mop" system that Becky Clark introduced to Seton Coastside, saying that they didn’t know what it was, Sister Ann Leitao, Patient Advocate, went and got the mop from the back of the room, and demonstrated its use. It saves water and is very effective in cleaning the rooms, preventing room to room contamination.

Highway 1 is under one way traffic control at Devil’s Slide due to a rock slide. Caltrans projects to have the road reopened by 6:30pm. Southbound traffic was backed up to Fassler (Sea Bowl) at 5pm. 

While the loss of Coastside Gourmet Coffee is getting a lot of attention, the closure of Thrifty Coin Wash Laundromat to make way for a Peet’s coffee shop may be a greater loss to the Coastside. Thrifty has 79 machines and has been in business since 1970, reports Julia Scott in the County Times.

Although he has not yet been served with an eviction notice, laundromat owner Joung Chai said his landlord, Maher Shami, refused to renew his five-year lease when it expired in November. He has been on a month-to-month lease since then.

Chai didn’t even know Shami had applied to the city for a building permit to replace both his space and the cafe next-door with a Peet’s until cafe owner Raman Bechar told him of it in January.

Both businesses’ hopes were dashed on Feb. 13 when Bechar received a letter from Shami rejecting an offer he made in return for a long-term lease. Shami has said he needs to charge more rent to make "upgrades" to the western flank of the strip mall. He did not return calls. ...

"Eighty-five percent of my customers are Mexican families. They are poor, and a lot of them are renting. They don’t have washing machines. ... This would be a disaster for them," said Chai.

Last Friday, I had the opportunity to appear on KQED’s Forum call-in program. The topic of discussion was the future of radio in the wake of the proposed merger of XM and Sirius satellite radio networks.  I have written a couple of reports on satellite radio for JupiterResearch. If you’re interested, you can still listen to the program on KQED’s website.

I also was able to participate in a discussion of the impact of the Internet on the news business, as the moderator of a remarkable panel that included the managing editor of WSJ.com, the publisher of Slate, and the supervising producer of CNN.com.  This discussion was at an interactive advertising club in New York. It was fun to participate in a more upbeat discussion of the news business than I usually hear these days. Of course, these guys are all working on the online side of their businesses, so it’s not surprising that they’re all in a good mood.

Anyway, I’m back in town, and I’ll be posting more Coastside news shortly.

Oral communications got a little hot on Tuesday.  George Muteff and a couple of others protested his treatment by members of the city council at the previous meeting.  He resented the assertion that he speaking on behalf of developer "Chop" Keenan (Beachwood and other developments). Council member Grady distributed Muteff’s last campaign finance report with contributions from Keenan and related interests marked with stars.

The Half Moon Bay City Council reaffirmed its decision to allow the city’s planning director to issue Coastal Development Permits at his discretion, and formally repealed the ordinance of the previous city council removing the administrative CDP option.  Council member Jim Grady expressed his astonishment that city staff had allowed the ordinance languish unenacted after the California Coastal Commission had requested more information.

The City Council also decided to recall Chapter 3 of its Local Coastal Program from the Coastal Commission so that its definitions could be made more consistent. Consistency has been an ongoing theme of the new city council and invoked in support of several decisions already.

The midyear budget review was punctuated by discussions of the greatly increasing cost of the police department and the city’s legal bills. Council members made obligatory statements on the importance of public safety and blamed the police increases on the police department’s state retirement fund.

• Oral Communications, announcements, proclamations, city council reports, staff reports, consent calendar | Quicktime | Flash |
• Coastal Development Permit procedures | Quicktime | Flash | Documents |
• Recall of Chapter 3 of city’s Local Coastal Program | Quicktime | Flash |
• Midyear budget review | Quicktime | Flash | Documents |
• Association of Bay Area Governments report on "Taming Natural Disasters" | Quicktime | Flash | Documents |

There will be a flyathlon at Half Moon Bay Airport Saturday, May 19.

Flyathlon is a multiple-challenge activity in which the "flyathletes" fly a segment and then participate in local sports segments at the airport. The sport segments are determined by to the amenities in the destination airport.

The First 2007 Flyathlon will take place in Half Moon Bay. The event will take place Saturday, May 19 2007 from 9am to 5pm. The KHAF flyathlon has three segments: fly, four-mile run & kayak. At the end of the kayak segment there will be a lunch and an award ceremony. There will be group and individual challenges and prizes. Space is limited so enroll early. Registration starts February 15. Late registration is April 1 to 30 if space remains.

Join Jake Sigg and Jon Campo and many other knowledgeable people on an exploration of one of the Bay Area’s hidden jewels.  Sanchez Creek Canyon, just 15 minutes south of San Francisco in Pacifica, is home to rough-skinned newts, rubber boa snakes, and federally listed red-legged frogs.  This relatively intact watershed is one of only two canyons in Pacifica that has never been developed, except for the presence of a rustic archery range.  Expect to see red-stemmed dogwood, hazelnut, fringe cups, columbine, oceanspray, trillium, slim Solomon, woodland sanicle, five species of ferns, and many other local gems.

The San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department, the SF Public Utilities Commission, and the North Central Coast Water District are proposing to build a pipeline and a 20,000-sq ft water tank platform 40’ tall to bring water to the Sharp Park Golf Course.  The tank and concrete pad will transform the canyon’s secluded, wild character—one of only two coastal canyons without substantial development.

Don’t miss the chance to walk through this wild place before this threatened development takes place.  It is not certain that it will go forward, but only an informed public can stop it, or slow it down sufficiently to insist on a public process, including hearings.

Questions?  Jake Sigg 415-731-3028, Jon Campo 650-355-0247

Click below for directions.