Special needs children get early Christmas

ParentsCAN and the Napa Elks Club provided holiday cheer for 150 children with special needs last week.

"We planned this event with Napa Elks to create a place where families could be comfortable and really celebrate the holidays, and see how much support there is for them in this community," said Joan Lockhart, executive director of ParentsCAN.

ParentsCAN is a local parent-operated nonprofit organization which serves families of children with disabilities in Napa County. It provides support and information.

Elks Club event coordinator Dale Bourassa said, "These kids and their families give more to us than we give to them. It's a great way for us to show them that the community supports them."

In addition to Christmas presents for the children, dinner was provided for them, their families, and members of the Elks Club.

A highlight was a visit by Santa Claus./Register

Community Projects drops

bloodbank volunteer program

A tradition that began more than five decades ago ended this week when members of Napa's Community Projects donated their final hours helping draw blood Monday.

Community Project volunteers will no longer assist at the monthly blood drives, held at Napa's First Baptist Church for Blood Centers of the Pacific.

"It was emotional and with regret," CP volunteer Carey Schuyler said of the final day helping the local effort. "It just was not a good use of time anymore," said Schuyler who added that she will, however, continue to donate blood. The drive is held on the third Monday of every month.

Schuyler was one of four CP volunteers who helped at this month's drive in which there were just nine donors.

CP was formed in 1941 as a British war relief project, sending bundles of bandages and other supplies to England during World War II.

The nonprofit organization operates the Community Projects Thrift Store at 715 Franklin St. Proceeds from that operation are donated to various local charitable organizations and area schools, said CP President Marge Schweizer./Register

Off-duty paramedic killed

while assisting freeway crash victim

BERKELEY -- An off-duty emergency medical technician was killed in a roadside accident over the weekend after he stopped to assist a motorist who crashed during a rainstorm, authorities said.

Scott Lofgren, 43, of Berkeley, was killed Sunday when a car hydroplaned on the wet freeway and crashed into him, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Lofgren was stopped at the site of an early morning accident in which a BMW spun out and hit the freeway guardrail.

After examining the BMW's driver, Cassady Toles, 29, of San Pablo, who received minor injures, Lofgren was laying flares around the accident site when the second car hit him, authorities said.

The driver of the second car, Danny Jackson Jr., 28, of Union City, was not cited in the crash.

Lofgren's widow, Chukka Sachs, said her husband of two years frequently left home late at night loaded down with emergency equipment such as an oxygen tank and bandages looking to help accident victims.

He worked for Mutual Aid Response Services, a company that provides emergency medical services at parties and events.

"He was doing what he loved to do best," said Joseph Pred, the company's founder. "I've never met a man who was more willing to go the extra mile to stop and help people."/AP

Watsonville High schedule flexible for migrant students

WATSONVILLE -- Students can now miss finals and leave Watsonville High School before the holiday break under a new policy designed to accommodate migrant students who traditionally visit with family in Mexico at Christmastime.

The students must sign a promise to make up the tests within 10 days of their return to school Jan. 17. Nearly 70 students have signed up and left school during the past week.

Migrants make up nearly half the 2,400-student body and the holiday break begins at noon Wednesday.

In the past, students who missed finals automatically failed the class. But some students complained last year that they sometimes had no choice about visiting relatives in Mexico during finals.

"This gives them the opportunity to finish the work that they accomplished over the semester, and at the same time it allows them to fulfill their obligations with their families," assistant principal Suzanne Smith said./AP

SALINAS, Calif. (AP) -- A former Watsonville pastor and school district employee was convicted of four counts of child molestation involving a 14-year-old girl.

Steven Montez Martinez, 49, of Watsonville was convicted by jurors on Monday. He will be sentenced Jan. 20, Deputy District Attorney Dave Sherman said.

Martinez was arrested in November 2004 and charged with four incidents of molesting the girl in late 1993 or early 1994. Martinez had worked as a scheduling technician for the Pajaro Valley Unified School District from 1989 to 2004.

The girl was molested, however, while attending a now-defunct Watsonville Pentecostal church Martinez founded called the New Jerusalem. The teenager testified that Martinez touched her and asked her to touch him, which he claimed was for healing, Sherman said.

Martinez, a past president of the Pajaro Valley chapter of the California School Employees Association, testified that he was innocent.

"My feeling is that the community has lost a popular, dedicated and hardworking man who had devoted his life to helping and not hurting kids," defense attorney J.J. Hamlyn said.

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (AP) -- Environmentalists want federal officials to closely examine management of the Carrizo Plain National Monument.

A coalition of nine environmental groups wrote in a letter to the Bureau of Land Management that the agency should prepare an environmental impact statement as it crafts a 20-year plan for management of the monument's resources.

The monument, in the southeast corner of the county, was established in 2000 to protect the largest remaining piece of Central Valley grassland. Because this ecosystem is so rare, the monument contains the highest concentration of rare and endangered species in the state.

Environmentalists complain the plan allows too much cattle grazing.

The agency is developing the resource management plan in cooperation with the state Department of Fish and Game and The Nature Conservancy, which helped create the monument by purchasing and conserving land in the Carrizo Plain.

The Bureau of Land Management hopes to have a draft management plan early next year.

"A broad range of alternatives in full compliance with federal law and the presidential proclamation that created the monument will be presented in that draft," BLM spokesman John Dearing said in a statement.

The agency is preparing an environmental assessment to go with the management plan, which is less detailed than an environmental impact statement.

PASO ROBLES, Calif. (AP) -- The City Council is considering placement of the phrase "In God We Trust" in council chambers.

Following the lead of 14 other California cities, the council was expected to decide Tuesday whether to form an ad hoc committee to study the issue.

Councilman Fred Strong is spearheading the drive. He received a letter from In God We Trust America, a nonprofit that is encouraging cities to display the phrase, which Congress made the national motto in 1956.

"This is our history, it's our official motto," Strong said. "We should be proud of our heritage."

Jacquie Sullivan, a councilwoman from Bakersfield, formed the nonprofit after the Bakersfield City Council agreed to have the motto in its council chambers three years ago. Sullivan pushed for the motto after learning that residents of some East Coast cities wanted to have it removed from civic buildings.

"We have the right as Americans to display proudly and prominently the national motto," Sullivan said. "It represents love of God and country.... It is promoting historical and patriotic pride."