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Columns
08.12.09

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Silicon Valley News Notes

Keep on Rollin'

County Assessor Larry Stone may be getting bored with waiting for the baseball commissioner to approve an A's move, so he's thinking up new ideas. One popped out of his lips at the mayor's annual breakfast at the San Jose Jazz Festival, of which Stone is honorary chair. Let's build a statue to commemorate hometown heroes the Doobie Brothers in San Jose, Stone proposed. Certainly other cities have celebrated their popular musicians. Austin has a Stevie Ray VaughAn statue and Seattle honored Jimi Hendrix with the Experience Music Project. Bronzing the Doobies would pose some logistical problems. For one thing, there's been more than a dozen members over the years. If the four or five original Doobies (depending on whether ousted bass player Dave Shogren is included) are commemorated, that leaves out Michael McDonald. The question of who's in or out could be avoided by using a symbol, such as the winged logo (somewhat commercial), a Harley (biker magnet) or a large doobie (Mayor Chuck Reed probably won't go for it). We have a feeling that this one's going to take some work.


Putting Some Teeth Into the Law

Everybody has heard of the "man bites dog," story but what about "woman bites cop?" Los Gatos, a town where crime usually confines itself to barking (not biting) dogs and the occasional shoplifting, experienced just that recently when an out-of-control intoxicated woman allegedly went on a masticating rampage. It went down like this: motorcycle officer Mario Carrizosa attempted to question a female motorist who had collided with a car in a parking lot on North Santa Cruz Avenue at 7:15pm on July 30. To his surprise, the woman suddenly hit the gas and drove away aggressively, causing Carrizosa to jump out of the way of her vehicle to avoid getting hit as she fled the scene. A car chase ensued, with the suspect running through stop signs and stop lights, eventually losing police. Following the pursuit, police identified the suspect as 46-year-old Cathleen Titus of Monte Sereno, and they immediately responded to her listed address. According to a police report Fly picked off the fax machine, Titus proceeded to bite an officer on the leg as she was being arrested, and injured herself while resisting being handcuffed. Still not ready to give up, police say she kicked a hospital employee and tried to take a chunk out of a second officer as she was being treated for her injuries. Titus was booked on several accounts of assault and battery, DUI, felony evading, resisting arrest and driving on a suspended driver's license. With her bail is set at $250,000, Fly hopes Titus has learned her lesson about getting nippy with the boys in blue.

 

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