Off the I-15

I’ve fried them, sautéed them, baked them into breads and muffins, blended them into soup and even tried eating them raw, but the zucchinis keep coming.

A common problem, I am sure. The zucchini plants — there must be only three or four — in my gardening have been exploding with zukes for months now, and I fear there is no end in sight.

So before the stack on my counter turns into a green wall of squash, I am asking the ingenious cooks of Barstow to give me some creative ways to cook zucchini. Post your favorite zucchini recipes in the comment section, and I’ll let you know what my housemates and I think.

Thanks

Aaron Aupperlee | Staff writer

Marcus Allen, 13, skates at the city’s new skate park at Dana Park on Tuesday.

Bikers and skaters share the bowl at the skate park. Several people at the park Tuesday said there’s no problem with the two groups sharing the facility.

— Stevie St. John

The newly opened skate park on Barstow Road was full of people skating, biking and just taking in the scene on Tuesday. For those of you that missed the opening here’s a video.

-David Heldreth Staff writer

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The red Save-A-Lot shopping cart on Coolwater Lane is gone.

A few days ago, I saw a red shopping cart stuck in the desert on my way to work and got to thinking. A few phone calls later, I had a story. But on Monday, I had no resolution. The red shopping cart still sat in the side of the road on my way to work.

Following the city’s instructions, I called Burrtec, reported a abandoned shopping cart and asked if someone could come and remove it. Throughout the day, I checked up on the cart. Around lunch, yep, still there. A few hours later, yep, still there.

Then I took off to investigate a vegetation fire call out on Highway 58 outside of Hinkley and on my way back to the office saw Vincent Chairet and his Burrtec truck pulling up to the cart. Success!

(Oh yeah, the fire, by time I got out there county firefighters had the small blaze under control.)

— Aaron Aupperlee | Staff writer

It looks like the Russians won the Cold War, at least in the water.

Russian submarines surfaced on Thursday after planting a Russian flag at the North Pole … and collecting geological samples for the ocean floor in an attempt to claim territory believed to be rich in natural gas and oil deposits.

So far, the moon, which United States astronauts claimed when they planted a flag on it in 1969, has yielded only a few rocket loads of moon rocks. Though President George Bush did once remark that moon soil could be turned into rocket fuel and used to propel U.S. astronauts to Mars … so they could come back with Mars rocks.

Russian officials believe the North Pole is part of their continental shelf, questioning the validity of Santa’s proletarian workshop and giving them rights to the reserves once global warming melts the polar ice caps and drowns Florida.
Competing world leaders, however, see it differently.

Canada has claimed parts of the Arctic since 1925. Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay told Canadian Television CTV: “Look, this isn’t the 15th century. You can’t go around the world and just plant flags and say, ‘We’re claiming this territory.’ ”

The United States, which planted its flag on the moon in 1969, also did not appreciate Russia’s move to leave its flag on the Arctic Ocean floor.

“I’m not sure whether they put a metal flag, a rubber flag or a bed sheet on the ocean floor,” Tom Casey, deputy State Department spokesman, told reporters. “Either way, it doesn’t have any legal standing or effect on this claim.”
Russian stepped up to defend its probing scientists.

“When explorers reach an unexplored point, they leave flags there,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. “No one is throwing flags around.”

And during a week when foreign auto manufacturers eclipsed domestic ones in sales, one has to ask: Is buying a Prius patriotic?

— Aaron Aupperlee | Staff writer

Oakland Post editor killed while reporting on local bakery

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Police said they recovered a gun linked to the slaying of an Oakland journalist during a series of early morning raids Friday that targeted members of a Black Muslim splinter group that operates a chain of bakeries.

Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey, 57, had been working on a story about Your Black Muslim Bakery before he was ambushed and slain Thursday morning near the Alameda County courthouse in downtown Oakland, his colleagues said.

Oakland Police Lt. Ersie Joyner said he believes the seven people arrested Friday include the people responsible for Bailey’s death. Police say they still do not have any motive for Bailey’s killing, and that they had no knowledge that he was working on a story about the bakery.

Before dawn, officers raided the Muslim group’s headquarters at the original bakery on San Pablo Avenue, as well as three houses in Oakland. They arrested seven people, including the son of the group’s founder, on various charges including homicide, robbery and assault, but it was unclear if any of those charges were tied to Bailey’s slaying.

“The search warrant yielded several weapons and other evidence of value including evidence linking the murder of Chauncey Bailey to members of the Your Black Muslim Bakery,” said Assistant Police Chief Howard Jordan, who said the raids were part of a yearlong investigation into a variety of violent crimes.
Those include two homicides earlier this year and a kidnapping and torture case in May, Joyner said.

Joseph Debro, an Oakland businessman who writes a column for the Post, said Bailey had recently asked him for information about Your Black Muslim Bakery’s financial troubles for a story Bailey was writing.

“To him it was just another story,” Debro said. “He wasn’t apprehensive or anxious about it at all. He said he was working on a bunch of stories and this was one.”

According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, the last journalist killed in the line of duty in the U.S. was Robert Stevens. The photo editor died Oct. 5, 2001, after an anthrax mailing to American Media Inc. in Florida.

Your Black Muslim Bakery was founded in 1968 by the late Yusuf Bey as a haven for struggling urban families. It sells natural baked goods alongside books by Malcolm X and other black leaders.

Bailey was a longtime reporter for the Oakland Tribune before becoming editor of the Post, a weekly newspaper geared toward the Bay Area black community, earlier this year.

He had written stories for the Tribune about the bakery and its founder when Bey was facing rape charges in Alameda County. Most of those charges were later dropped, although one was still pending when Bey died in 2003.

Bey’s son, Yusuf Bey IV, who was in custody Friday, took over the original bakery and several franchises. In 2005, he was accused of being the ringleader in a group of black Muslims who smashed liquor bottles in Oakland corner stores and berated the Muslim owners for selling alcohol to the black community, because alcohol is forbidden by Islam.

Your Black Muslim bakery has been plagued with financial problems for several years, culminating in a bankruptcy filing last October.

In a declaration filed with the bankruptcy court on June 29, Yusuf Bey IV conceded he was “inexperienced in the business world,” and had “received advice and consultation from those who had proven to me they did not have my best interests at heart.”

Sunday’s blood and marrow drive for Dena Hibbetts-Gerardi was “a huge success,” according to her mother, Shirley Hibbetts. Hibbetts e-mailed me on Monday to let me know about the impressive community response that caused an event slated for 2-7 p.m. to last until about 10:30.

Hibbetts-Gerardi, 45, has an aggressive form of Hodgkin’s lymphoma and needs a bone marrow transplant. See the Desert Dispatch story here. Finding a donor is a challenge because the donor and recipient must have such similar genetic make-ups, according to the Blood Bank of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties. A cheek cell swab (a “buccal swab”), which types the DNA of possible donors, usually costs about $50, but the fee is waived for blood donors.

During the drive, the blood bank collected 119 units of blood and did 154 bone marrow screenings, Hibbetts said.

“The blood bank and hospital volunteer staff were totally overwhelmed with the turnout,” Hibbetts wrote. “To keep everyone hydrated, volunteers distributed water to people in the waiting lines that wound down both sides of the hallways on the bottom floor of the hospital and out the door into the parking lot.”

Hibbetts commented that the “wonderful and uplifting day” illustrated that the people of Barstow are “truly amazing.”

“When one of their own is in need, they don’t hesitate to come out to help,” she wrote. “The outpouring of love and support was mind-boggling.”

Dena Hibbetts-Gerardi draws the winning ticket for a quilt given away during the blood and marrow drive. Karen Jones donated the handmade, king-sized quilt.

Laura Hibbetts fills out paperwork in order to give a buccal swab. She sat on the ground outside because of the crowd at the blood and marrow drive.

Shirley Brand gives a buccal swab so her DNA can be tested.
— Stevie St. John

* Photos were provided by Shirley Hibbetts, who also gave permission to use information from her e-mail.