California Coast

Hundreds came in uniform to Terminal Island on Saturday to say goodbye to the veteran Coast Guardsman killed last week when his boat was rammed by suspected smugglers. His shipmates called him a patriot and gave him the standard salute for a comrade killed in action. But amid the pomp and circumstance of military mourning - the flyovers and rifle salutes - another side emerged to Chief Petty Officer Terrell Horne III, 34. A doting father known to do push-ups with his two young sons on his back.

A 39-year-old man surfing off the Santa Barbara County coast was killed Tuesday in a shark attack that occurred off the same beach where a bodyboarder was killed two years ago. Francisco Javier Solorio Jr. of nearby Orcutt was dragged by a friend onto the beach after he suffered a massive bite on his upper torso that turned the water around him red, Santa Barbara County sheriff's officials said. He died at the scene. "His friend saw the shark bite him," said Sgt. Mark Williams.

When Mike Maiorana was a boy during World War II, his family was like a lot of others in his Monterey neighborhood. In 1942, his mother was declared an "enemy alien," along with 600,000 other Italians and half a million Germans and Japanese who weren't U.S. citizens. More than once, men in suits searched the Maiorana house for guns, flashlights, cameras, shortwave radios — anything that could be used to signal the enemy. Like 10,000 others up and down the California coast, the family was suddenly forced to uproot.

In a surprise move, an Orange County judge Wednesday halted the trial of a man accused of killing his wife during a cruise off the Newport Beach coast, citing questions about whether the crime occurred in California water. Murder suspect Eric Bechler's attorney called on the judge to throw out the case, arguing that testimony suggests the crime occurred 8 to 12 miles off the coast, outside the state's three-mile jurisdiction. Superior Court Judge Frank F.

A moderate earthquake shook the Northern California coast early today. There were no reports of damage or injury. The 1:44 a.m. temblor had a magnitude estimated at 4.3 on the Richter scale and was centered 5 miles off Cape Mendocino.

"The truth is the oil companies aren't prepared to handle a spill the size of Valdez or even one-tenth the size of Valdez." --Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy, who serves on the State Lands Commission, addressing the issue of whether officials would be prepared for a major oil spill off the California coast should one occur.

Two species of primitive worms that feed off the bones of dead whales have been discovered off the California coast, scientists reported Thursday. The blind worms have no proper stomachs, but use bacteria to help break down nutrients from whale bones and feed them into root-like organs, the U.S. and Australian researchers said.

The small Coast Guard inflatable vessel was 20 yards from the panga, an open fishing boat that law enforcement officers say has become the craft of choice to ferry untold numbers of marijuana bales and undocumented immigrants from Mexico to Southern California. Spotted earlier by a Coast Guard cutter, the panga was running without lights, a standard practice in the illicit trade, according to investigators. The four men on the boat dispatched from the cutter Halibut approached it cautiously, about 200 yards from the shore of Santa Cruz Island, off the Santa Barbara coast.

The "Humboldt Bay Beaches & Dunes" map and guide describes 11 park, wildlife and recreation areas along the Northern California Coast in and near Eureka. It lists facilities such as picnic tables and boat launches and also activities such as guided walks. Order from the Humboldt County Convention and Visitors Bureau, (800) 346-3482. (Ask for the map by name because it's not included in regular visitor packets.) For more information, visit www.redwoodvisitor.org.