Carmel Valley, Researchers Say
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Bassoonist Australian dog A police officer who makes a return excels at really likes to speed engagement guarding her dad — INSIDE THIS WEEK BULK RATE U.S. POSTAGE PAID CARMEL, CA Permit No. 149 Volume 94 No. 22 On the Internet: www.carmelpinecone.com May 30-June 5, 2008 Y OUR S OURCE F OR L OCAL N EWS, ARTS AND O PINION S INCE 1915 Turning refugees into entrepreneurs Speedy, stealthy burglars hit ■ A difficult trip to help some desperate people Carmel Plaza By PAUL MILLER By MARY BROWNFIELD THE FRESH bullet holes in the U.S. Embassy in N’Djamena were a clue: Vaughn AFTER REMOVING an entire plate glass window from Feather was not in for a leisurely trip to central its frame to enter the store early Friday morning, profession- Africa. And he didn’t want one. al thieves took less than three minutes to stuff two large duf- “Last year I had finished a business con- fel bags with $80,000 worth of purses and belts from Louis sulting program, and I had some wanderlust,” Vuitton and escape, according to Carmel police. he told The Pine Cone after returning home to The heist occurred three months after burglars crept into Carmel. “I decided I should get involved in a rear hallway, cut through a wall of another Carmel Plaza some kind of humanitarian program.” store, The Cheese Shop, and stole more than $15,000 worth Because of a long-standing interest in of rare wines. Africa, he decided that’s where he wanted to Just before daybreak May 23, the burglars, cloaked in make a difference. black and wearing masks, removed a strip from the base of And thanks to a friend of a friend, he chose the 6.5-foot-by-4-foot window and then peeled the rest of the a unique program for his efforts: Rising rubber trim away. International, headquartered in Felton, which PHOTO/COURTESY RISING INTERNATIONAL/VAUGHN FEATHER “They lifted the window out and walked right in,” said bolsters third-world economies by helping the A woman named Saleh in a refugee camp in Chad with some of the Sgt. Mike Calhoun. “Since they removed it without breaking poorest of the poor — in places such as woven baskets Rising International will be selling at local house parties. it, they had to know either a glazier or had some window Afghanistan, Bosnia and Rwanda — turn their experience to know how.” local crafts and handiworks into products that can be sold ty for me to help,” Feather said. The local economy is in in the United States. tatters, and a flood of refugees from neighboring Darfur See BURGLARS page 13A “In some of these situations, the people are so desper- has added to the woes. Rising International’s goal was to ate, what they really need is help getting three meals a set up basic export businesses in some of the refugee day,” said Carmel Jud, founder of Rising International, camps. which has operations in more than 30 countries. “We look “The traditional model of charity isn’t working, and the Two more dogs in for an entrepreneurial opportunity that will help them — people we work with will tell you that,” Jud said. “Nobody without it being charity.” “Pretty quickly she arrived at Chad as a great possibili- See CHAD page 15A ‘vicious’ hearing By KELLY NIX ‘Last Forbidden Kingdom’ on display at Sunset TWO SEARCH and rescue dogs that attacked a woman and her Labrador in Pacific Grove five months ago must be By CHRIS COUNTS bordering Chinese Tibet, Mustang is home to about 9,000 moved out of town or permanently restrained, a hearing offi- hardy residents. cer ruled last week. WINDSWEPT AND nearly devoid of vegetation, the “It is very difficult to reach,” he explained. “There are no The decision, issued May 20 by Robert E. Davis, comes remote Nepalese district of Mustang is a place where fried roads. It takes a week to hike in.” after a Dec. 30, 2007, attack by the two dogs, both German yak dung and goat droppings serve as cooking fuel, where On his last trip to Mustang in 2006, Parker was accompa- shepherds, on the Lab as she was getting into a car. sheep horns hang over doorways to chase away evil spirits nied by a crew of 12 people and 15 horses. The pack animals The dog hearing, the second in the city’s history, came and where firewood is considered a sign of wealth. carried, among other things, large-format cameras, genera- about 10 months after KION TV anchorwoman Olga And yet Mustang is also home to a collection of ancient tors, cables and state-of-the-art lighting equipment. The Ospina’s Maltese was fatally mauled by a Labrador and a Buddhist art so impressive that Carmel photographer expedition was sponsored by the American Himalayan German shepherd in front of the P.G. post office July 25, Kenneth Parker has made three trips there since 2003 to cap- Foundation, which is funded primarily by private donors. 2007. Those dogs was banned from the city. ture what he calls “The Last Forbidden Kingdom.” In the December attack, the two German shepherds, Lola, An exhibit of Parker’s photographs, “Buddhist Earth: Birthplace of Tibetan Buddhism 2, and Bear, 11, owned by Monty Reitz, jumped Reitz’ 4-foot Sacred Places/Sacred Work,” opens Friday, May 30, at the Much of Tibet’s rich artistic culture has been lost under fence and ran toward Tule, a 2-year-old female Labrador Center for Photographic Art. The gallery will host a reception Chinese rule. Yet Mustang, which shares much of the same owned by Casey Conover Houston, and began biting the dog, from 6 to 8 p.m. culture, has remained virtually untouched by the outside according to Davis’ report. Houston had been visiting her Surrounded by some of the world’s highest mountains and See KINGDOM page 16A See DOGS page 31A PROLIFIC LOCAL BLACK WIDOWS SPARE THEIR MATES By CHRIS COUNTS THANKS TO the work of two spider researchers from Canada, the folks at Camel Valley’s Hastings Natural History Reserve have had an opportunity to reexamine some of the myths surrounding the most feared, and per- haps most misunderstood, of arachnids — the black widow. It turns out the local variety of the poisonous spider, the Western black widow, doesn’t eat its mate. But perhaps even more unusual is how common the black widow is — especially in Carmel Valley, researchers say. PHOTO/KENNETH PARKER Kenneth Parker’s images depict Nepal’s otherworldly land- See WIDOWS page 15A A Carmel Valley black widow, who’s probably not a widow. scape and its rich and fascinating culture. Get your complete Carmel Pine Cone every Thursday evening in convenient pdf format via email. Free subscriptions available at www.carmelpinecone.com. 2A The Carmel Pine Cone May 30, 2008 Defoliation the result of hungry worms, not sudden oak death By CHRIS COUNTS live oaks. Thankfully, the oak worms do little actual damage to the WHILE THE sight of defoliated live oak trees might be trees. And the defoliation is part of a natural cycle, disconcerting to some residents, it’s actually nothing to Stromberg explained. worry about, suggested Mark Stromberg, director of Carmel “An afflicted tree might be bare for a year, but they typi- Valley’s Hastings Natural History Reserve. cally return to normal,” he said. “I’ve watched this occur on Despite the concerns of locals who recently contacted oaks at Hastings, and the next year, you can’t tell they were him, Stromberg said most defoliated Carmel Valley live oaks ever defoliated. It’s nature’s way of thinning the forest.” are not suffering from the much-feared sudden oak death, Oak moth populations can rise and fall dramatically from which has decimated the local tanbark oak population. year to year. Stromberg suspects the weather has something “If a tree gets sudden oak death, its leaves don’t fall off to do with the annual fluctuations. right away,” he said. “I think [the rise in the oak moth larvae population] is Instead, the widespread defoliation is a sign the trees are because we’ve had a dry spring,” he added. “Oak worms are being invaded by millions of California oak moth larvae, killed by diseases caused by naturally-occuring bacteria, which seem to have an insatiable appetite for the leaves of fungi and viruses. Because it’s been so dry this year, bacteria and fungi just haven’t been able to get going.” Sudden oak death, meanwhile, is caused by Phytophthora ramorum, a pathogen that has plagued oaks since the mid- Did you know... 1990s. While live oaks are affected by sudden oak death, Jo Mora's art can be seen in many tanbark oaks have suffered the most. The principal symptom of sudden oak death on a live oak is the appearance of areas places here, from his marble sculp- of discoloration on its trunk and the presence of “bleeding” ture of Father Serra's body lying in sap. state at the Carmel Mission to the 23 PHOTO/GARY MCDONALD For more information about sudden oak death, visit Oak moth larvae seem to have an insatiable appetite for the plaster and concrete heads of historic www.suddenoakdeath.org. leaves of live oaks. figures that rim the Monterey County Randi Greene Courthouse in Salinas. You don't have to wander far – maybe the Mora collection at the Monterey Museum of Art or the Harrison Memorial SHIRLEY KIATTA, RN Library in Carmel – to learn that he was a versatile and ELDER CARE CONSULTANT Two Girls prolific artist prized for his illustrated books, colorful Helping Families Make From Carmel posters, oil paintings, watercolors, and photographs, as Informed Choices well as his sculptures.