Category Archives: News and Serious Stuff

Carlsbad Crime Report: Gunfight at In-N-Out

Posted on by
Reply

All of this happened about a mile from my house. Until fairly recently, violent crime was mostly unheard of in my little beachy town. Now, It’s like the wild wild west around here.

Last Friday, September 19, at approximately 9:53 p.m., Carlsbad police officers responded to reports of gunfire in the parking lot of an apartment complex in the 2300 block of Rising Glen Way.

Upon arrival, officers located an unresponsive adult female with gunshot wounds. Despite lifesaving efforts, paramedics pronounced the female deceased at the scene.

The female’s vehicle was taken during the incident.

Using License Plate Reader technology, the vehicle was later located by the Newport Beach Police Department in Orange County. After a short pursuit with Newport Beach Police officers, the driver, identified as a person of interest, was involved in an officer-involved shooting.

The pursuit continued to the Interstate 5 Southbound, where the suspect exited at El Toro Road. After traveling through a business complex, the suspect’s vehicle exited at Regional Center and drove northbound on El Toro Road.

The suspect stopped his vehicle in the lanes of traffic, just south of Avenida De La Carlota, exited his vehicle and immediately began firing at the approaching police vehicles. Multiple officers returned gunfire.

The suspect continued east towards the In-N-Out at 24001 Avenida de La Carlota, continuing to fire at officers. Multiple police vehicles were struck with bullets. After being struck by gunfire, he fell to the ground in the restaurant’s parking lot and continued to fire at officers.

Once the shooting ended, officers approached the suspect and began to render medical attention. He was transported to Mission Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.

Later, Orange County Sheriff’s Department identified the suspect as Andre Anthony Matijasevic, 31, of Rancho Santa Margarita.

The victim of this terrible random act of violence was April Moore. She was a loving mother of two and a huge San Francisco 49ers fan. That fateful Friday night, April had just gotten home from a movie. She didn’t know this person who killed her; she was ambushed in her parking lot.

This is another senseless crime that leaves behind a grieving family. We’ll probably never know why Andre Anthony Matijasevic was in this apartment complex. Did he live there? Was he visiting someone? Did he have a car? If so, why did he steal April’s car? What were his motives? There are so many unanswered questions.

A GoFundMe account was established to help with her memorial and to help her children. https://gofund.me/3de7c821b

This Information was gathered from public reports by Carlsbad, Laguna Beach, Newport Beach police departments.

Autumnal Equinox and Rosh Hashanah 

Posted on by
2

Falling (get it?) on the same day is the autumnal equinox and the Jewish New Year.

Rosh Hashanah is a Jewish holiday that commemorates the birthday of the universe, year 5786, and is the beginning of the High Holy Days.

Fall weather in SoCal usually brings our hottest Santa Ana winds and high temperatures, but yesterday was a drizzly, showery day and we were all so grateful for it because we hadn’t had any rain in months.

Today, the first day of autumn, is still a bit gloomy, but it’s heating up again. The leaves are turning yellow so we know change is on the way.

Mythically, the autumnal equinox relates to the story of Persephone and marks the moment the goddess descends into the underworld to rejoin her husband, Hades.

It’s a good day to write down what we want to release alongside what we want to attract. It’s all about balance.

Happy New Year and Happy Autumn!
L’shanah tovah! Remember to eat apples dipped in honey and hope for an end to war and long lasting peace.

When The Towers Fell – September 11

Posted on by
Reply

I don’t approve of using animals in war or police work. I think it’s cruel to send dogs and horses in harm’s way, especially since these sentient beings don’t have the ability to consent — decision-making capacity –and are merely used as expendable, cheap fodder. In my opinion, that’s clearly abusive.

However, the rescue dogs who searched for victims of the 9/11 attacks saved many lives and then took on the task of providing therapy to survivors.

On September 11, 2001, when the towers fell and the sky turned to ash, more than 300 search and rescue dogs stepped into hell on earth. They didn’t hesitate. They didn’t flinch. They climbed through fire and steel, through suffocating debris and deafening silence, searching for life with every breath, every pawstep, every heartbeat.

They entered with pure hearts and fearless resolve—no armor, no agenda, just the unshakable instinct to help. They worked until their pads split, until the air burned their lungs, until their handlers broke down and hope ran dry. And still, they kept going. Because that’s what heroes do.

When the searching stopped, the therapy dogs arrived. Quiet. Steady. Healing. They didn’t need words. They curled beside the broken, leaned into the grief, and reminded shattered humans that love hadn’t died in the dust.

These beautiful dogs didn’t just serve. They bore the weight of our sorrow. They carried our hope. They were the silent saints of Ground Zero—unspoken, unshaken, unforgettable.

We don’t just remember them. We thank them. For their courage. For their comfort. For showing us, in our darkest hours, what selfless devotion truly looks like.

To the hero dogs of 9/11: your legacy lives on in every rescue, every comfort, every life saved because you showed up when it mattered most. Curated from houndsinpounds.org

Full Corn Moon

Posted on by
Reply

Every full moon in September, this song comes to mind…

Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon
Or asked the grinning bobcat why he grinned?
Can you sing with all the voices of the mountain?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?
–Colors of The Wind from the film, Pocahontas

September’s full moon is special because it’s accompanied by a total lunar eclipse. Sadly, I don’t think we’ll be able to experience the eclipse here in the States but we might observe the moon’s deep reddish hue; not blue, though.

We are reminded to connect with themes of gratitude, release, and harvest by writing down what we’re thankful for and what we want to let go of, and by creating a gratitude chart. As always, this is a great time to charge crystals under the light energy of this full moon.

Featured image by Enchanted Seashells


Life Imitates Art

Posted on by
Reply

It’s been an insane couple of days here on Earth, hasn’t it? A lunar occultation, double meteor showers, giant earthquakes, tsunamis — in addition to retrograde Mercury and the Lion’s Gate portal — and we are definitely in the midst of a massive amount of cosmic energy. I’m not sure what it all means, but I’m on high alert, that’s for sure.

There were no earthquakes or tsunami damage around here, but check out this crazy photo! I was in the garden near a brick patio cleaning fallen leaves from the eucalyptus tree. It’s a really annoying job because my stupid city planted the wrong sort of street trees decades ago and not only do eucs make a giant mess, they’re also a fire hazard. I have to constantly pick up the leaves and the incredibly painful-to-bare-feet seed pods (known as gum nuts). No matter how many times neighbors and I lobby the city to get the tree removed, we are always turned down; another stupidstupid city decision.

In and around the bricks and rocks, I had positioned a few random tiles to add some color when a friendly real lizard stopped by for a visit. I’m glad my camera was close by to memorialize the meeting between art and reality.

Does art imitate life or is life imitating art?

Yes, you are beautiful!

You can see some of the offending euc leaves that fell right after I had cleaned up this area. It’s SO annoying!

Photo by Enchanted Seashells
#WordlessWednesday

Don’t Miss These Spectacular Cosmic Events!

Posted on by
Reply

The first planetary event is a lunar occultation. I had never heard that before, have you?

It sounds quite witchy and magical, don’t you agree? I hope our SoCal skies are clear tonight so I’ll be able to see what it’s all about and absorb some of that mystical celestial enchantment.

Tonight, July 28, two worlds align as the Moon will pass incredibly close to Mars to create a lunar occultation — a fascinating event where the Moon temporarily hides the Red Planet from view.

Lunar occultations involving bright planets like Mars are incredibly rare.

The Moon will move in front of Mars, causing the planet to disappear behind it for a brief period. This is known as a lunar occultation, and it’s a stunning, rare cosmic alignment you’ll want to catch.

Depending on your location, you could experience:

🌓 Mars completely disappearing behind the Moon (full occultation)

🌓 A close conjunction, with both celestial bodies appearing side-by-side in the sky.

🌓 No telescope required — but binoculars or a zoom lens will give you a clearer view.

🌓 Look toward the eastern sky shortly after sunset for the best view.

There’s more…

Don’t miss this two-in-one meteor shower.

The second sky show will occur tomorrow, July 29–30. We’re in for a breathtaking celestial show as two meteor showers—the Southern Delta Aquariids and Alpha Capricornids—reach their peak at the same time.

This rare double meteor shower event will light up the night sky with glowing streaks of light, creating a truly magical experience.

The Southern Delta Aquariids, active from July 18 to August 12, will be at their brightest around these dates and can produce up to 8 meteors per hour under dark skies. Meanwhile, the Alpha Capricornids, though milder at around 3–5 meteors per hour, are known for occasionally producing bright fireballs that surprise even experienced stargazers.

With the moon only 27–36% full, the darker skies will make this event even more visible. It’s the perfect time to step outside, find a quiet spot, and enjoy nature’s own light show.

Info curated from Astrowonders, Google, and Pinterest

Don’t forget to LOOK UP!!!

Plant Seeds of Serenity

Posted on by
Reply

With all the powerful planetary energies at play right now and everything else in this country that almost too horrible to even think about, it seems like a great time to get grounded, to literally get back to what’s simple and healing — and that’s where you’ll find me, in the garden planting seeds of serenity (and flowers).

A garden must combine the poetic and the mysterious
with a feeling of serenity and joy.
– Luis Barragan

Photo by Enchanted Seashells

Federal Agents March Through L.A. Park, Spurring Local Outrage

Posted on by
Reply

Why isn’t this a bigger deal? Have you heard about what happened in Los Angeles? Your city could be next. Mine, too.

This isn’t a crew on location shooting a scene of a disaster film, this is real life. We are living in a nightmare.

APNews

Federal officials said it was an immigration enforcement operation, though it was unclear if anyone had been arrested. “It’s the way a city looks before a coup,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said as she condemned the action.

It had been a quiet morning in MacArthur Park, a hub in one of Los Angeles’s most immigrant-heavy neighborhoods. Children at a summer camp were playing outside, but the park was otherwise largely empty.

Then, dozens of armed federal agents began marching over soccer fields and grass berms, based on footage of the incident. Military-style vehicles blocked the street and a federal helicopter flew overhead.

They wore fatigues, masks and helmets and marched in lines. Some were on horseback. Camera crews followed alongside them.

Los Angeles leaders have grown weary after thousands of National Guard troops and Marines arrived nearly a month ago and immigration raids have become a regular, visible occurrence. But they took particular umbrage at Monday’s extraordinary show of force in MacArthur Park and issued a swift and furious rebuke.

“What I saw in the park today looked like a city under siege, under armed occupation,” Mayor Bass said in a news conference on Monday afternoon, adding that she had traveled regularly into conflict zones as a member of Congress.

Dozens of federal agents were observed in the park, many arriving in armored military vehicles. They were joined by 80 California National Guard troops under the command of President Trump, according to the office of Governor Gavin Newsom, who criticized the effort and has tried to stop the federalization of Guard members through a lawsuit.

Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, did not respond to specific questions about the purpose of the operation at MacArthur Park or whether anyone had been detained.

“The operation is ongoing,” she wrote in an email. “So that should be a message in of itself.”

Asked to clarify that message, she responded that it was an immigration enforcement operation and that such efforts “are not in one single location.”

To many local leaders, the Monday march through MacArthur Park seemed designed to intimidate immigrants and residents, rather than to carry out targeted enforcement. Marqueece Harris-Dawson, the president of the Los Angeles City Council, derided the display as a stunt made for TikTok.

“If you want to film in L.A., you should apply for a film permit like everybody else,” he said during an afternoon news conference. “Stop trying to scare the bejesus out of everybody who lives in this great city and disrupt our economy.”

Ms. Bass said that once she arrived, she had demanded to speak to the person in charge of the operation at the park. She was handed a phone, through which, she said, Mr. Bovino told her that he would be “getting them out of the park,” apparently referring to federal agents.The agents left the park a short time later, she said. From New York Times by Jill Cowan and Mimi Dwyer

***

These questions need to be answered: when are good people going to rise up and put an end to this dystopian nightmare? When is enough, enough?

They ripped away health care. They denied food assistance to children. They exploded the nation’s debt, shuttered Social Security offices, rural hospitals, and decimated federal employees and the VA, along with kidnapping mothers and fathers and students. When is enough ENOUGH?

.

On A Dark Desert(ed) Highway

Posted on by
Reply
Photo by Mario Cuadros on Pexels.com

This all happened quite a while ago, but I realized I hadn’t shared it, so here’s the scary story of my almost brush with death; a cautionary tale of the time I might have starred in a Dateline episode.

I had to be somewhere very early, too early to inconvenience anyone by asking for a ride, so I called a car service. I’ll be vague about which one, but it’s one of the big guys.

It was dark; I waited outside, the driver was on time. The first thing I noticed (red flag number one) is that the car stopped and he started it up again. I thought maybe he was saving gas, so didn’t really think too much about it. We had a few stop signs on the way to the freeway and the engine stalled at every one of them and had to be started back up. (red flag number two). I was a bit concerned and that’s probably when I should have told him to turn around and found another form of transportation but I didn’t.

The driver spoke no English. I mean, ZERO. I managed to learn that he was from Colombia. I could see the Google map on his phone was in Spanish. I spoke a bit of Spanish so we were able to sort of communicate.

Finally on the freeway, his car was going VERY SLOW, well under the speed limit. The engine hadn’t stalled again, though. (another red flag.)

The driver wore very thick glasses and seemed to have a difficult time seeing the road as he was slightly weaving out of his lane. It’s a good thing that it was so early with not many cars on the road. I don’t think he was drunk; I think he couldn’t SEE the road. (red flag!)

The headlights also seemed to be malfunctioning; he’d turn them off and on and the car would sort of slow down and speed up, which was reallyreally freaking me out.

I was beginning to get a little more panicky every second, and even more so when, for some reason, he took the wrong exit on the freeway. We were in a rural area that was heavily wooded- no houses, no stores; nothing.

The very worst case scenarios were running through my head at warp speed. We were on a frontage road with no lights and no people. I thought there was a good possibility that I was going to be the victim of a horrible crime, I really did.

If the worst happened, no one would find me out in the middle of nowhere on a dark, deserted highway. I was petrified, thinking of all the horror stories I had heard about getting in cars with strangers.

Loudly, I commanded, “HEY! This is the wrong exit. GET BACK ON THE FREEWAY NOW!”

I had my hand on the door and 911 ready to be called on my phone. I was ready to bolt and run. I was terrified.

For a brief moment that seemed to last for days, he hesitated, and then, thankfully, turned around. We got back on the freeway, and at which point he was completely lost. I had to direct him the rest of the way to my ultimate destination but not before his car stalled AGAIN at the final stoplight.

I leapt out of his car while it was still slightly moving and RAN into the building. It took forever for my heart rate to subside and the adrenaline to stop pouring through my body. I was as shaky as the time I got an EpiPen for a bee sting. I had to force myself to breathe and slowly regained my calm.

There were so many red flags 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩 that I ignored. Never again!

Friends have asked me if I reported the driver. I thought about it, but I didn’t. Although it was scary, nothing bad actually happened. I was so grateful to be alive and unharmed that I wanted to forget all about it. However, I don’t think his vehicle was going to last much longer, so maybe he’ll figure out that driving people around isn’t the right career choice.

The lesson is to listen to your gut in all life circumstances. If something doesn’t feel right, it most likely is a warning that should be heeded.

I am 1000% grateful that the universe and all the angels once again protected me from harm.

Have you ever experienced a similar scary event?