Online Dating Coach: Agreements you won’t have to run from

By John Gavin

DO YOU REMEMBER THE 1984 SUPER BOWL?

That was the year the Raiders played the Washington Redskins down in sunny Florida. I was in the service at the time and stationed in far less sunny Washington, D.C. — home of the ’Skins.

I grew up in the Bay Area and the Raiders were my team. In my neighborhood in Morgan Hill, we kids loved the Raiders and they seemed to like us pretty good, too. Players like linebacker Phil Villapiano and wide receiver Freddy Biletnikoff would actually come to play in basketball fundraisers for our local Police Athletic League. I’m not one to use the saying “those were the days” very often, but dang it, those were the days.

Local food freedom

By Steve Gibbs

WE HAD A MOST INVIGORATING WEEKEND. Susan and I attended the second annual Nevada County Sustainable Food and Farm Conference in Grass Valley. We spent two days growing. On Saturday we heard talks from four highly accomplished speakers in the food freedom movement — Patrick Holden, Nicolette Hahn Niman, Michael Ableman, and Joel Salatin — and on Sunday we attended workshops run by the same presenters. The Saturday events ran 10 hours. The two-day cost: $30.

Patrick Holden owns the longest established organic dairy in Wales with 70 head of Ayrshires. He’s biodynamic, a Rudy Steiner head. His farm is a unified organism, and as such is self-sustaining, creating its own food, flora and fertilizer. He led a discussion on how a farm could survive if the world around it went to hell.

Renovated restaurant packs ’em in

OUTSIDE PAPPAS on the big night. Courtesy Iona Morgan

Lights, camera, dinner during two-day grand re-opening guided by TV chef

By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter

Take some wood slats and add some chicken wire, and what do you get? New lights at Pappas Restaurant.

Those lights, fresh blue and white paint and a vintage cash register caught the eyes of some of the patrons who had reservations Wednesday night for the grand reopening of Mike Anestasios’s Greek restaurant at 1654 East Second St.

It all came about after a whirlwind makeover courtesy the Food Network TV show, “Restaurant: Impossible.”

Guests at the restaurant’s first grand re-opening — another, strictly local event was held Thursday — were told the Benicia episode is expected to air in late March or early April.

Restaurateur, diners help effort to keep parks open

By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter

Fliers in hand, diners formed lines all day Tuesday to get a bite to eat at First Street Café and help raise money to save Benicia’s two state parks at the same time.

In exchange for the handbill, the restaurant’s owner, Mark Krull, contributed 20 percent of the diner’s bill to the Benicia State Parks Association.

“It was very successful,” Carol Berman, president of the association, said of the event. She could tell: She had breakfast, bought take-out lunch and returned for dinner at the restaurant at 440 First St. — and each time the place was full, and sometimes she saw lines going out the door.

Owls ‘nesting’ at coffee shop

LES OVERLOCK and the owls of Java Point Café. Keri Luiz/Staff

■ Java Point hosts new exhibit

By Keri Luiz
Assistant Editor

One of the most appreciated things about Benicia is the likelihood of walking into a downtown establishment and finding on display some work by a local artist.

Java Point Café on First Street is one of those places. Walk in there today and you’ll see displayed on one wall some artwork from Bonnie Weidel’s kids’ art classes. On the other will be several small paintings of owls created by local artist and Herald contributor Les Overlock.

BREAKING: Armed gunman holds up Benicia business

Staff Report

Benicia police said an armed robber entered a Southampton business Thursday afternoon and escaped with an undisclosed amount of cash.

No one was injured in the holdup at Check Into Cash, 806 Southampton Road, police said.

A design star, boots n’ all

BENICIAN SHANNA ROSSI. Courtesy photo

Benician creates winning style for rising country singer

By Keri Luiz
Assistant Editor

Shanna Rossi loves horseback riding and she loves design. A chance to bring the two together has brought her recognition — and maybe shown her a potential career path.

Rossi, a 2008 graduate of Benicia High School, recently won an online contest to design a pair of Justin brand cowboy boots for country singer Lauren Alaina, the 2011 runner-up on “American Idol,” as part of Alaina’s promotional effort for her new album “Wildflower.”

For Rossi, 21, currently enrolled at Sacramento State University, it all started with a “Why not?” moment.

Benicia company celebrates centennial

W.J. PUGH, below, founded the company that became Ralphs-Pugh Co., which is based in the Benicia Industrial Park. Courtesy photos

By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter

One hundred years ago, William J. Pugh started a business to distribute rubber goods to agriculture and food processing companies.

Over the years, Pugh added his father-in-law, Isaac Ralphs, as a partner, and the company became incorporated, changed its product focus and moved from San Francisco to Benicia.

Now Ralphs-Pugh Co. is marking its 100th anniversary.

But though it has weathered the storms of many decades, Ralphs-Pugh may not be a familiar name to many residents, said Tom O’Brien, vice president of sales.

Accused in rape case hires attorney; readiness conference set for Feb. 24

By Steve Guertin
Sports Editor

Former Benicia High basketball player James Pierre Mitchell has hired an attorney to represent him in his defense of a felony statutory rape charge filed in late December.

Vincent R. Maher has taken the case from Mitchell’s public defender and said Wednesday he has begun his own investigation.

Police plan 3rd ‘coffee’ meeting with residents

By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter

For his February “Coffee with the Cops” meeting, Benicia police Chief Andrew Bidou is switching the time from a morning session to one in the afternoon.

Benicia students are multi-talented

BENICIA HIGH SCHOOL senior Clifford Cheng, above, practices and sings “Hallelujah” during rehearsals Tuesday for the school’s talent show, which is Thursday night from 6-9 and Friday from 7-10 p.m., as theater technician Abriana Cabrillo marks the alignment of the piano with masking tape. Below, senior Matt Johnson, left, and sophomore Stuart Blackie call their act Brocrastination — because, Johnson said, drumming is what they do a lot of when they are procrastinating, and they procrastinated coming up with their act before the show. The talent show will be held in the high school’s Performing Arts Building, 1101 Military West.

Photos by Herman Bustamante

REPOST: Area musicians band together to help one of their own

LOCAL MUSICIANS will hold a benefit concert for Donna Plummer, whose flutes and other possessions were stolen on Christmas.
Courtesy photos

Editor’s note: This story was originally published Jan. 17.

■ Concert to benefit local jazz flautist victimized on Christmas Day

By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter

A thief stole more than Donna Plummer’s car on Christmas Day. They stole the flutes Plummer uses in her career as a jazz musician.

Since then, the car has been found, but the flutes and equipment — which weren’t insured — remain missing. For a musician, there can be no more devastating loss.

Now Plummer’s colleagues are coming to her rescue, organizing a free concert in Vallejo Jan. 26 in hopes that those attending will donate enough for Plummer to buy new instruments.

Boom times at Parkway

Plaza sees 3 new tenants move in

By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter

Parkway Plaza has a few more spaces to fill before it hangs out the “No Vacancy” sign. But the shopping center is moving in that direction, said Sophina Gellon, leasing agent, who said three new tenants have opened there recently or will do so soon.

“We have a lot of action at Parkway Plaza,” Gellon said of the outdoor mall at 2000 to 2046 Columbus Parkway.

Time slips away: The passing of a legend

By Dennis Lund

“… If our society dictated that one had to be white or black, I would be black.” — Johnny Otis (1922-2012)

A LITTLE MORE THAN A YEAR AGO I wrote a brief tribute to Vallejo-born Johnny Otis, wishing that his “health would hold out for as long as you desire.” Mr. Otis passed away last week. I hope his passing was at a time appropriate for him and his family. After 90 years of living, one has to believe it was.

Johnny Otis was a man who lived in two worlds. Christened John Veliotes, he was born of Greek immigrants and raised in a black neighborhood of Berkeley. His music career started at 18 as part of “Count” Otis Mathews’s band, and he soon changed his name to Otis to honor the Count and because the name “sounded more black.”

Mr. Otis, who identified more with the people he grew up with than with those of his own color, made the quote at the top of this column in summarizing who he was: a man who crossed divides, a man who felt more welcome in the world of the blues.

Board opts to join pact on middle school cell phone tower

By Keri Luiz
Assistant Editor

The joint-use facilities pact dictating the division of funding for a cell phone tower at Benicia Middle School was approved unanimously Thursday by the Benicia Unified School District Governing Board.

An amendment to the agreement allocates 75 percent of the revenue from the tower’s owner, Crown Castle, to the city and 25 percent to the school district. In exchange, the city continues to take care of the athletic fields of Benicia Middle School.

WattzOn gets CSC nod for 1st grant

By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter

Benicia Community Sustainability Commission decided unanimously Monday to recommend the City Council award a $20,800 grant to WattzOn, a consumer energy engagement software company, to launch a pilot energy assessment program in the Benicia Industrial Park.

But because a majority of the panel had attended a work group session that produced a public education grant request, and therefore had to abstain from voting, the commission was without a quorum available to vote on the application.

This Week in Benicia History: 70 years ago: Jan. 22, 1942

Compiled by Keri Luiz
Assistant Editor

Letter from the Publisher, Arthur W. Gluckman
JUSTICE TO “BILLY” MITCHELL

In 1934, Brigadier General William Mitchell, in defiance of his superiors who dogmatically held that the next war would be fought as the first World War was fought — on land and water — warned this nation:

“Air power can destroy navies. Furthermore, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to build any type of vessel of sufficient strength to withstand the destructive force that can be obtained with the largest bombs that airplanes may be able to carry from shore bases or sheltered harbors.”

For that defiance, “Billy” Mitchell was drummed out of the Army.

But Germany believed him, and Japan believed him — and because they believed him and America and Britain didn’t, the curse of aggression now menaces the world.

It is good that America, through Congressional action, has restored “Billy” Mitchell’s good name — good for the people, good for the chastened Army. Posthumously, “Billy” Mitchell has been elevated to the rank of major general. That might please that doughty patriot, could he look back to life — but far more pleasing to him would be America’s swift, if dangerously belated, program to regain mastery of the world’s air in the name of American freedom.

Benicia Forum on Nuclear Power: Fukushima’s legacy, and the start of a community conversation

By Ryan Swan

AS 2011 FADES FROM OUR collective national memory, it’s important to recognize its legacy — a legacy that will live well into the future of commercial nuclear power in the years to come.

On March 11 of this past year, an earthquake and subsequent tsunami caused the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 25 years at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in Okuma, Japan. The severity of the meltdown and its ramifications have been hotly debated, and the impact of the event and its consequences will be globally felt for the foreseeable future.

After weekend of rain, city graduates to fog

Pamela Powers/Special to The Herald

■ Mild drenching over weekend gives way to patchy low-lying clouds, days full on sunshine

By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter

Multiple bands of rainstorms passed through Benicia the last few days, but while the city will get a break from precipitation this week, residents will get to deal with fog instead, the National Weather Service said Monday.

REPOST: Parks group embarks on major membership drive

Editor’s note: This story was originally published on Jan. 3.

Residents can join nonprofit, support effort to stop closures for $12 annually

By Keri Luiz
Assistant Editor

On May 13 of last year Gov. Jerry Brown announced that 70 of California’s state parks would be closed to help shore up the state’s budget shortfall. Both of Benicia’s parks were included on the closure list.

Brown’s announcement set in motion a local movement to keep open the city’s two state parks. Now that effort is ramping up as the parks’ slated closure date approaches.

The Benicia States Parks Association, a nonprofit group of residents and parks “stakeholders,” has been working with the city to keep open the Benicia State Recreation Area and Benicia Capitol State Historic Park.