Report usually inform of the battle to raise Africans out of destitution. One business owner is doing her component to bring want to that continent with a service venture that is currently bringing its items to the globe market.
The need to assist others is what initially led South African Elmare Lombard to leave her effective emotional method after 15 years to begin an all-natural aromatherapy line.
Her firm, started with household participants and also area leaders, likewise assists develop farming tasks for deprived individuals in her indigenous South Africa. Molo Africa has an aggressive work plan that aids solitary moms and dads obtain work with the firm or associated companies.
Molo Africa sustains the independent farmers of Africa with suggestions as well as help; the acquisition of raw items at reasonable market value; as well as via education and learning efforts that assist ruined South Africans establish abilities in farming, fundamental education and learning, entrepreneurship and also computer system training.
The firm’s product consists of pure crucial oils, all-natural fragrant space sprays, massage therapy butters, shea soaps and also perfumed candle lights. Molo is an African welcoming definition “hi.” Birthing expressive African names such as “Hamba Suka” as well as “Sefako,” the items consist of necessary oils that were drawn out from unique plants farmed as well as refined normally in African nations.
Gertrude Mewy is an instance of the kind of success tale Lombard’s business aided to develop. With the assistance of the Foundation for Economic as well as Business Development, she began her very own ceramic service.
When she came to be a distributor of ceramic grains to Molo Africa, her tough job paid off. Its agreement with Gertrude allows her to utilize 2 full time employees, both of whom are solitary mommies. Her organization currently sustains 9 individuals and also there are prepare for even more transaction in between Gertrude and also Molo Africa.
Her firm, started with household participants as well as neighborhood leaders, additionally aids develop farming jobs for deprived individuals in her indigenous South Africa. Molo Africa has a positive work plan that aids solitary moms and dads obtain work with the business or associated organizations. Birthing expressive African names such as “Hamba Suka” as well as “Sefako,” the items consist of crucial oils that were drawn out from unique plants farmed as well as refined normally in African nations.
Her organization currently sustains 9 individuals and also there are strategies for even more service offers in between Gertrude as well as Molo Africa.
GILROY — A big Gilroy vineyard totaling more than 300 acres has been bought by a group of local buyers.
The San Jose-based buying group paid $7.8 million for San Ysidro Vineyards, which is located along Pacheco Pass Highway in Gilroy, according to documents filed on Aug. 11 at the Santa Clara County Recorder’s Office.
San Ysidro Vineyards produces grapes for both red and white wines.
The buying group is an affiliate of San Jose-based Valuable Capital Investment Architecture, state and county business records show. The principal executives are Fremont-based Shan Liu, San Jose-based Tianxing Wang and Richmond-based Yu Yan, state and business documents show.
The just-sold San Ysidro Vineyards, located at 3385 Pacheco Pass Highway east of downtown Gilroy, totals about 310 acres, documents at the County Assessor’s Office show.
The buyers obtained $3.2 million in financing for the purchase from Utah-based lender Tycor Management, according to the county real estate records.
The seller was San Ysidro Vineyards, a unit of United California Citrus, an agriculture company based in the Fresno County city of Sanger.
San Felipe Vineyards was bought for $3.4 million, according to grant deeds filed with the County Recorder’s Office.
In 2021, 26 vineyards located in the California Central Coast wine-growing region were bought, according to estimates produced by Jenny Heinzen Real Estate, a company that specializes in vineyard and winery real estate deals. In 2022, 30 California Central Coast vineyards were bought, the real estate firm reported.
Over the first seven months and one week in 2023, just five vineyards have been bought in the Central Coast region, Jenny Heizen Real Estate reported. Extrapolated over a full year, that could work out to eight or nine vineyard property deals this year, which would be a sharp reduction from the prior two years.
The just-sold San Ysidro and San Felipe vineyards have been producing grapes since 1948, according to the United Citrus California website.
“The vineyards produce both pinot noir and chardonnay varietals for supply into long-term relationships with premium California wine producers,” United Citrus states on its website.
A familiar impediment stands between Larissa Pacheco and a second seven-figure payday in the Professional Fighters League. The surging Brazilian will meet Olena Kolesnyk for a third time when their 2023 women’s featherweight semifinal serves as the PFL 8 co-main event on Friday inside The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York.
With fall fast approaching, there’s no shortage of Bay Area happenings to add to your calendar.
Farm-to-Fork Festival 2023: Sept. 7-23, various venues in downtown Sacramento. This beloved annual festival features a wide array of local food, wine and beer vendors, live entertainment, cooking demonstrations, interactive exhibits and special events. Prices vary. farmtofork.com/
Russell City Blues Live: 7 p.m. Sept. 8, Morrisson Theater, 22311 N. Third St., Hayward. Uncover the history of Russell City, a lost Bay Area community, through on-stage interviews and storytelling. A live band will take you back in time, honoring the musical legacy of the town where the blues thrived until the bulldozers rolled in. $18. kqed.org/event/3394
Flower Piano 2023: Sept. 8-12, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. Flower Piano will again transform the San Francisco Botanical Garden into the city’s own alfresco concert hall where everyone is invited to play and listen. Explore global living plant collections while seeking out the 12 pianos spread out across the 55-acre living museum. $0-$130. sfbg.org/flowerpiano
Save The Bay’s Eighth Annual Bay Day: Sept. 8 to Oct. 7, various Bay Area locations. This event series offers unique ways to connect, explore and discover San Francisco Bay, including kite flying, bird watching, picnicking and special events and challenges. Free. bayday.org/
Rivertown Peddlers Faire: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sept. 9, G St. at Second St., Antioch. Enjoy a fun-filled day of music, food, wine, beer and great shopping. Featuring repurposed, handmade, new and used and great vintage finds, this eclectic fair offers a little something for everyone. Free admission. celebrateantioch.org/event/rivertown-peddlers-faire/
Hayward’s Vintage Alley Car Show: Sept. 9, B St. and Main St., Downtown Hayward. This show boasts an impressive array of classic cars from the ’40s through the ’70s. Get ready to embark on a nostalgic journey that will deepen your appreciation for automotive history and the iconic role these automobiles have played in our lives. Free admission.
The Alice — Immersive Cocktail Experience: Running through Sept. 10, Lakeside Drive, San Jose. Reality bends and curiosity reigns supreme at this topsy-turvy tea party. Create your own liquid concoctions under the watchful eye of The Mad Hatter in this dive down the rabbit hole to experience the magic of Wonderland. $47 to $55.
Bark in the Park 2023: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sept. 16, William Street Park, Downtown San Jose. Bring the pups out for dog costume and tail-wagging contests, speakers and demonstrations, plus vendor stalls for humans and dogs alike. Free admission. barksanjose.org/
Good Medicine – A Night of Live Native Stand-Up: 6 p.m. Sept. 16, Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St., Oakland. All-Native comedy night, ‘Good Medicine,’ returns to the stage at OMCA after a sold out 2022 show. Come out to the OMCA Garden for a oshow featuring top comedians Marc Yaffee, Siena East, headliner Tatanka Means and host Jackie Keliiaa. $1-$25
Northern California Renaissance Faire: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekends, Sept. 16-Oct. 22, Casa de Fruta, 10031 Pacheco Pass Highway, Hollister. This fair offers Renaissance-era pageantry, live music, artisans, Celtic concerts and food and drink vendors. Tickets $25-$35 at norcalrenfaire.com/.
Rancho Day Fiesta: 12 to 4 p.m. Sept. 17, Sanchez Adobe, 1000 Linda Mar Blvd., Pacifica. At this living history event, visitors are invited to make adobe bricks, stamp leather, dip candles, make corn husk dolls, churn butter and participate in other rancho-era activities to live as the early Californios did. Free admission. historysmc.org/rancho-day-fiesta/
Fiestas Patrias: 4 to 8 p.m. Sept. 17, Courthouse Square, Redwood City. Celebrate Mexican independence with live music and entertainment, authentic food, arts and crafts vendors and a traditional flag ceremony. The Square will be filled with colorful and glamorous Ballet Folklorico dancing, live mariachi music, a kids area and other entertainment. Free admission
‘Sight Unseen: International Photography by Blind Artists’: Running through Sept. 17, Bedford Gallery, 1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek. This exhibition presents work by the world’s most accomplished blind photographers. Each artist brings their inner vision into the seeing world, revealing a rich visual and emotionally complex blend of physical and conceptual artworks. Tickets are at a pay-what-you-can cost.
San Francisco Comedy Competition: 7:30 p.m. Sept. 21, 2400 First St., Livermore. Discover the next big name in comedy at the 47th installment of the legendary San Francisco Comedy Competition.This contest has launched the careers of some of the biggest names in the industry, including Robin Williams, Dana Carvey, and Ellen DeGeneres. $25-$55
Vintage Fashion Faire: Sept. 22-23, 2701 Monarch St., Alameda. Featuring more than 70 booths offering women’s and men’s clothing, couture, jewelry, accessories, textiles, fine linens and more, the VFF is the place for fashion and accessories from every era. $10-$25. vintagefashionfaire.com/
Sausalito’s Chili Cook-Off: 12 to 4 p.m. Sept. 23, Dunphy Park, Sausalito. Dunphy Park will be festooned with the tents of teams competing in Sausalito’s 44th Chili Cook-off. Attendees can taste their way through the chili offerings, then vote for their favorites. $25
NAPA/NOLA: 3:30 p.m. Sept. 23, Meritage Resort, 850 Bordeaux Way, Napa. Blue Note Napa brings a taste of New Orleans to Napa Valley with a mini-festival pairing Crescent City musicians with classic Creole and Cajun fare, all set to the backdrop of The Meritage Resort’s massive Village Lawn. $69-$119
Sacramento Reptile Show: Sept. 23-24, Cal Expo, 1600 Exposition Blvd., Sacramento. With more than 18,000 people in attendance and more than 3,000 reptiles on display., this ever popular venomous reptile display features more than 45 venomous species from around the world, including King Cobras and Black Mambas. $10-$25. sacreptileshow.com/
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2023: Sept. 29-Oct. 1, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. This annual festival features an eclectic lineup of country, soul and folk musicians performing on six outdoor stages. Free admission. hardlystrictlybluegrass.com/
WWE Monday Night RAW: 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. Oct. 2, SAP Center, 525 W Santa Clara St., San Jose. For more than 25 years and well over 1000 episodes, “Raw” has been WWE’s flagship show. The red brand’s most memorable moments have thrilled, shocked and wowed the WWE Universe and fans across the world. Here’s your chance to see it live, in person. $20-$125
Fleet Week San Francisco: Oct. 2-10, Fisherman’s Wharf and the Marina District, San Francisco. San Francisco Fleet Week hosts the largest parade of ships on the West Coast. See the fleet enter the Bay under the Golden Gate Bridge as visiting ships steam towards their ports, led by the San Francisco Fire Department fire boat shooting jets of water into the air to celebrate. Free. fleetweeksf.org/
Funny Women of a Certain Age: 8 p.m. Oct. 6, Bankhead Theater, 2400 First St., Livermore. Quick-witted. Energetic. Hilarious. Get ready to laugh out loud with this hilarious show featuring a lineup of some of the funniest female comedians over 50, including Carole Montgomery, Cathy Ladman, Leighann Lord, and Barb North. $50-$80
Napa Blues, Brews and BBQ Festival: 12 to 6 p.m. Oct. 7, Napa Valley Expo, 575 Third St., Downtown Napa. This annual festival features live music on two main stages, a variety of delicious barbecue, a beer garden, arts and craft vendors and lawn games for adults. Check napabluesandbrew.com/ for ticket details.
Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival: Oct. 14-15, Main Street, Half Moon Bay. Enjoy monster pumpkins, live music, a parade, fine art and crafts booths, fabulous food and drinks, expert pumpkin carvers, a Pumpkin Run and pie-eating and costume contests. Free admission. pumpkinfest.miramarevents.com/
Hansel & Gretel Immersive Cocktail Experience: Oct. 18 to Nov. 12, Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco. Enjoy an evening of magic and wonder at this part show, part cocktail experience. Unlock clues, solve riddles and taste your way around the abandoned forest and witch’s gingerbread house. $46. bit.ly/HanselandGretelCocktails
San Mateo Harvest Festival: Nov. 10-12, San Mateo County Event Center, 1346 Saratoga Drive, San Mateo. Browse the craft booths and food and drink stalls at this autumn-themed fair. Tickets are $0-$9. harvestfestival.com/san-mateo
The Fab Four – The Ultimate Tribute: 7:30 p.m. Nov. 18, Palace of Fine Arts, 3601 Lyon St., San Francisco. With uncanny, note-for-note live renditions of Beatles’ classics such as “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “Yesterday,” “Twist And Shout,” “Here Comes The Sun,” and “Hey Jude,” the Emmy award-winning Fab Four will make you think you’re watching the real thing. Tickets $45 and up.
Fan Expo SF: Nov. 24-26, Moscone Center West, 800 Howard St., San Francisco. This expo will bring together some of the biggest personalities in acting, comics, cosplay, art and animation for a one-of-a-kind fan experience. Meet legendary comic book creators, attend autograph sessions, snap pictures with celebrities and shop the latest in gaming, art and collectibles. $30-$349. fanexpohq.com/fanexposanfrancisco/
World’s Largest Dinosaurs: Running through Jan. 21, 2024, at 55 Music Concourse Drive in San Francisco. The California Academy of Sciences presents an awe-inducing exhibit on the largest land animals to ever walk the planet. Some of these huge-o-saurus creatures were up to 140 feet long, ate unbelievable amounts of trees and plants and weighed up to 90 tons. $28.75 to $42.50. bit.ly/CASdinosaurs
DRIPPING SPRINGS — Plans for a 5,000-seat outdoor concert venue off Fitzhugh Road in Dripping Springs — brought by California developer Blizexas LLC — are still facing opposition from residents who live nearby.
Last month, members of the Stop Fitzhugh Venue Coalition sent a letter to Hays County and Travis County officials in opposition to the project. The letter was drafted in response to a Traffic Impact Analysis (TIA) submitted by the developer in February 2022.
Coalition members are concerned that the TIA did not analyze the impact of additional traffic on the intersection of U.S. 290 West and Fitzhugh Road and that it did not address emergency vehicle access to the proposed venue and homes in the area during events.
“What’s going to happen if we have an accident out there? What’s going to happen if we have a rainstorm? How are fire trucks, ambulances and patrol vehicles and all of those things going to get in and out? It’s just so jammed up; people can’t even drive,” said Steve Warntjes, a resident who has lived off Fitzhugh Road for 15 years. “It’s a two lane road … Heaven forbid, what if I have a heart attack during that and my wife calls 911? I’m dead.”
“The TIA did not include the [U.S] 290 [and] Fitzhugh Road intersection, [even though] 75% of the traffic is going to go through there by their own study, and they didn’t bother to look at that intersection,” Warntjes added. “I don’t see how you can have a reasonable traffic analysis without having studied that intersection.”
While the parcel of property for the project is in Hays County, the intersection of Fitzhugh Road and U.S. 290 West is in Travis County and any improvements to that intersection would be at the direction of Travis County and Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), according to Hays County Transportation Director Jerry Borcherding.
Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra said that it’s valid for residents to be concerned about whether they will be able to evacuate in the case of an emergency or if first responders will be able to get to their houses, should the venue be constructed.
“One thing we will not compromise on absolutely, for nothing in the world, is public safety and public health. Emergency vehicles have to be able to get in and out, do U-turns and do all those kinds of maneuvers as part of the plan,” Becerra said. “We use our fire marshal to ensure that those plans meet the requirements set forward by the state.”
Hays County is moving forward with engineering firm Cobb Fendley & Associates to perform a corridor study of Fitzhugh Road from its intersection with RR 12 east to the Travis County line, according to commissioner Walt Smith.
Smith agreed that the traffic concerns are valid, but there is only so much the county is allowed to do.
“Without planning and zoning and other types of authority, the county’s hands are almost tied in a lot of these situations, specifically to try to address some of those concerns … I have concern over the current traffic situation on the roadway, but the problem that we have, and I cannot reiterate this enough, is without planning and zoning, we don’t even have the ability to initiate impact fees. So, unlike a city or the state of Texas, if a development goes on to U.S. 290 right now and there’s an analysis of, ‘Okay, well, here are the 15 different things that needs to happen to that roadway or maybe the intersection that is a quarter mile away or maybe additional turn lanes need to be put in,’” Smith said. “When that facility is approved by the state, then TxDOT will mandate [and say], ‘This is what changes must be made and here’s what you’re going to pay for that.’ They can require that facility to pay for that [and] a city can do the same thing. Unfortunately, counties don’t have that ability. We have no impact fee authority whatsoever. So, when we identify those things, we can ask those facilities to pay for it, but at the end of the day, it’s [the] current taxpayers and current residents who have to foot the bill for those things.”
In the letter, the coalition members said that they were disappointed that the county did not hold a public hearing for the TIA.
Hays County Development Services Director Marcus Pacheco explained that for the submittal of a TIA, there is no requirement for a public hearing or notice to the public.
“These studies are prepared and submitted to the county for review. After review, an administrative approval is granted by the county engineer relating to the TIA report and any recommended improvements,” he said. “When TIA studies are required as [a] component of a subdivision application/process, the subdivision process itself may require a public hearing component to be met per our regulations or state and federal law. As presented, the development is not proposing to subdivide the subject property.”
Ensuring that drivers turning into or out of the venue have enough visibility is also important. One of the driveways of the project would provide drivers who are exiting 250 feet of sight distance, while Hays County requires 350 feet of minimum sight distance.
The developer should be “required to apply for and obtain a variance in a public hearing before the Hays County Commissioners Court,” the coalition’s letter stated.
Becerra and Borcherding said that advanced warning signage will be required to alert drivers on the roadway.
Additional concerns
Though additional and congested traffic are high on the list of concerns, residents are also hesitant about the impact the venue would have on Barton Creek, the status of Dripping Springs as a Dark Sky Community and noise pollution.
Smith reiterated that the county does not have the authority for certain regulations, including light and noise.
“We don’t have planning and zoning and that’s the authority that a city uses specifically to regulate dark skies. As a county, we don’t have the ability to do that,” he said. “So, we can’t regulate the lighting, we can’t pass a lighting ordinance, because we don’t have the authority in the state.”
Smith said that even with the state setting the maximum decibel level allowed at 85, residents may hear music or whatever noise is coming from the venue, should it be constructed.
“Before Nutty Brown Cafe moved to Williamson County, for years there would be noise complaints about Nutty Brown Cafe because you could hear [it]. I have residents that tell me that they miss it, because they could sit on our back porch and have a concert every Saturday and they live two miles away. Depending on the wind, it might be three miles away on that night. But they never went over that 85 decibel level. Even with the current state regulation, there’s still going to be the possibility, and I think the probability, that neighbors are going to be able to hear whatever event is happening there.”
What’s next?
While the county “lacks the tools that we need to truly address some of these issues,” Smith said that they will use the tools that they do have to take a serious stance and look at what can and cannot be reviewed.
Becerra invited all residents who are concerned about the proposed venue off Fitzhugh Road to contact his office by emailing [email protected].
“If enough people email my office that they would like some kind of forum where we all come together to discuss this, well then by golly, I promise you, I will create it,” Becerra said.
For more information about the proposed venue and the coalition’s concerns, visit .
When Larissa Pacheco throws her first punch on Friday, she will be aiming at two opponents.
The recipient of her heavy leather inside the cage will be Olena Kolesnyk, as part of a PFL fight card at The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City featuring heavyweight and women’s featherweight semifinals (main card on ESPN and ESPN+ at 9 p.m. ET, prelims on ESPN at 7).
The other adversary perpetually bobbing and weaving in front of Pacheco: the ghost of Kayla Harrison.
Harrison is very much alive, of course, but her flesh and blood have been nowhere to be seen in 2023. The two-time PFL women’s lightweight champion has moved on from season competition to the company’s ambitious pay-per-view Super Fight division. The new enterprise was announced earlier this year but has not yet launched. As a result, Harrison has been sitting idly on the sideline all year, waiting for a fight.
Pacheco, meanwhile, has replaced her as the PFL’s most dominant force — man or woman.
In her two fights during the regular season, Pacheco was a steamroller. She is competing at featherweight now, because the PFL did away with its 155-pound division after she upset Harrison to win the championship last November. So Pacheco cut the extra 10 pounds to squeeze into her new fighting home and picked up right where she left off. She opened the season in April with a commanding decision win over former Bellator champion Julia Budd, then made quick work of Amber Leibrock in June, knocking her out in 45 seconds.
Pacheco’s opponent Friday is a familiar face, although she and Kolesnyk have spent little time in the cage together. On her way to winning last season’s championship, Pacheco knocked out Kolesnyk twice, both times in the first round. It would be the upset of the season, among all six PFL weight classes, if Pacheco doesn’t flatten all competition on her way to another championship.
“There’s not a woman on Planet Earth right now that Larissa Pacheco doesn’t have a chance against,” PFL play-by-play broadcaster Sean O’Connell, a one-time season champ himself during his fighting days, told ESPN. “I mean, there just isn’t one. That’s where she’s gotten to.”
It took Pacheco a good bit of time to reach the stature where O’Connell’s rave review doesn’t sound like hyperbole. Harrison defeated her twice during the 2019 championship run, although Pacheco put up a fight both times. Despite being new to the weight class and outsized, she was the only woman to go the distance during Harrison’s first two domineering seasons.
Then, meeting Harrison once again in last year’s playoff final, Pacheco persevered through early trouble on the canvas, took over the fight and wore down the self-proclaimed queen of MMA to win by unanimous decision.
It was a shocking upset, not just in terms of betting odds — Harrison was an 8-1 favorite — but also in fan perception. For many who follow MMA, the story of fighting in the PFL begins and ends with Kayla Harrison.
Pacheco acknowledges that. “Even though Kayla has been out for the year, she still is the face of the PFL,” the 28-year-old from Brazil said through an interpreter. “You can’t escape seeing Kayla on all the posters and whatnot. So another fight between us is an obvious one to make.”
For one thing, Harrison owns two wins in their rivalry and Pacheco just one, so another meeting could even the score. But Pacheco has a grander interest in once again staring across the cage at the face of the PFL.
“The future goes like this: I am going to become the PFL’s first two-[weight] champion, and then I will fight Kayla again to move closer to my goal,” Pacheco said. “I want to become not just the face of the PFL but also the face of fighting in Brazil.”
The timing is right for that ambition. Amanda Nunes, the consensus GOAT of women’s MMA, has retired. Cris Cyborg is still going strong but is closing in on age 40. Other Brazilian women are making a name for themselves, such as Amanda Lemos, who can become a UFC champ Saturday with a victory over Zhang Weili. But there’s no untouchable presence from Brazil in the sport, no immense figure around whom the future revolves.
Pacheco is continuing to build toward that. She’s not the same fighter as the one from 2014 who got her big break, a short-notice booking in the UFC, just days after her 20th birthday and clearly wasn’t ready for it. In her two Octagon appearances, the too-young fighter was finished by Jessica Andrade and Germaine de Randamie, both of whom went on to win UFC titles.
Pacheco then took three years off to heal a broken arm. When she joined the PFL for the 2019 lightweight season, her career debut at that weight was against Harrison. Pacheco was thrown right into the deep water. Now Pacheco is a featherweight, and although she describes her first cut to 145 pounds in April as “an absolute nightmare,” she feels more agile and stronger, with added energy. She attributes that newfound well-being, in part, to her $1 million championship, which allowed her to invest in better training, weight management and even some less obvious tools for self-improvement. She bought a PS5, for instance, and discovered that playing video games helped her unveil the essential benefit of relaxation.
“I have comfort in my life, whereas I didn’t have that before,” Pacheco said. “Everything in my life has changed.”
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Everything except her underdog mindset, that is.
Despite being a champion on an eight-fight winning streak, including six first-round knockouts, Pacheco does not allow herself to wallow in self-satisfaction. She has seen too many bubbles burst in this sport.
“I still go into every fight thinking of myself as the underdog,” she said. “I have seen everything fall apart for fighters who lose touch with that.”
Pacheco attributes her fighting spirit to those who inspired her as she was growing up in Brazil. No, not Nunes, and not Cyborg, either. Her heroes have always been the women in her family. “My mom, my grandmother, my auntie — those are the women I appreciate above anyone else,” Pacheco said. “If you want to talk about fighters, the women of my family fought for everything.”
Since the mid-1990s, LA’s homegrown band Ozomatli has been delivering international music, including merengue, salsa, hip-hop, samba, funk, reggae, R&B, and more. KCRW speaks with the band’s co-founder, vocalist, and guitarist Raul Pacheco — along with singer and instrumentalist Ulises Bella.
“Ozomatli” refers to the monkey in the Aztec calendar — the horoscope sign of the band’s original drummer Anton Morales.
“[Morales] was like, ‘Well it’s the god of dance, and he’s mischievous … orchestrator of the jungle.’ And then we’re like, ‘Wow, god of dance. That’s pretty cool.’ We love that, we went with that,” explains Bella.
He adds, “If there’s anything that really unified everything we do musically — is that intention to get the crowd dancing … even at corporate events.”
As for the band’s sound, it’s whatever the members are interested in, says Pacheco. “We came with so many different people showing up. … It was: What do you know? I know some Mexican folk songs. What do you know? I know reggae music. … Whoever shows up and contributes — that’s part of the sound. … We were always learning things from each other. … I think our sound is eclectic. … It really is about an appreciation for music from all over the world. And in LA, there’s plenty of that, and we’ve been able to bring it.”
“It really is about an appreciation for music from all over the world. And in LA, there’s plenty of that, and we’ve been able to bring it,” Raul Pacheco says of the band’s sound. Credit: Lisa Johnson.
Bella points out that all the members’ origins in LA prepared them for the different sounds they’d adopt in the future, especially as they started touring nationally and internationally. He says they went to places that many other bands didn’t go to, such as Indonesia, Mongolia, Madagascar, and North Africa.
They also took their political activism everywhere they toured. “We were the house band for pretty much any kind of demonstration. … The one thing with Ozomatli as far as the political or social change aspect of it — is that it’s always been part of our DNA from the beginning,” Bella emphasizes.
“The one thing with Ozomatli as far as the political or social change aspect of it — is that it’s always been part of our DNA from the beginning,” says Ulises Bella. Credit: Lisa Johnson.
The band has a gig coming up with the organization Alzheimer’s Los Angeles. Bella shares that his mother had dementia and recently passed away at age 88. Taking care of her changed him.
“It definitely affected me physically. … I was losing sleep. I had terrible panic attacks because you’re constantly worried about what was going to happen. What medicines do I need to take care of? Did she do this? Did she eat? … That level of hypervigilance just fried my nervous system.”
He adds, “Right before that, we dealt with my mother-in-law who passed away in hospice at home too, during the pandemic. And so it’s just been a lot of really intense life experiences that I think that all of us, as human beings, have to go through.”
Bella’s mom was a big supporter of the band too, dancing at their concerts and informing their activism. “She was super into local politics. And she was integral in exposing the big Bell scandal, the financial scandal that happened there a bunch of years back. … She would be at these meetings, trying to keep these guys accountable. … She was one of the first people that actually was like, ‘Hey, there’s something really, really, really, really, really fishy going on here.’ And it blew up. … It put Bell on the map.”
LA as a whole is always changing, for better or worse, says Bella. “I love it enough where I still can’t fathom myself living anywhere else.”
My mind raced, cycling through a rogue’s gallery of suspects. It wasn’t a deer, a squirrel, or raccoon. And no rabbit systematically works its way down row after row, leaving only nubs in its wake. No, it had to be a groundhog.
The groundhog, as New England gardeners have known for time immemorial, is a formidable adversary. One ravaged Henry David Thoreau’s bean patch at Walden Pond. “My enemies are worms, cool days, and most of all woodchucks,” he lamented. “The last have nibbled for me a quarter of an acre clean.”
The Algonquin people are thought to have called the critter “wuchak,” for “digger,” which English settlers rendered as “woodchuck.” He’s had other names — whistle pig, land beaver — but as for me, I just call him a glutton who grows fat on the fruits of my labor.
This rodent of unusual size is both intelligent and social, able to alert their fellows to danger with a high-pitched whistle (hence: whistle pig). When cornered, they can be quite fierce, defending themselves with their incisors and front claws.
But I was angry and ready to fight, too. I wasn’t about to be bullied by an overgrown squirrel. I needed to stop him, whatever it took.
My ground war with the groundhog took place more than 25 years ago, and yet I still remember it like it was yesterday. Every year at this time, I think back to what I did wrong and what I might have done right, and what I’ve learned along the way.
A whole variety of folklore exists on ways to rid yourself of a groundhog. Some say you should gather hair from your barber and spread it around the perimeter of the garden. But I’m suspicious. Animals quickly adapt to human scents, and I’m betting the hair makes the woodchuck briefly pause and ponder, then proceed straight to your peas and lettuce. Others swear by dumping used cat litter in the groundhog’s hole. Please. The burrows can stretch some 50 feet and I had only one cat, a scrappy stray my wife and I had adopted named Casper.
So my first strategy was to finally finish the chicken-wire fence I had partially erected. It cost me about $80 in materials, and a few hours in labor, and that felt like a small price to pay. And it worked — for all of two days. The groundhog simply tunneled under the fence and sheared off what was left of the radish stems, emerging bean sprouts, and parsnip greens.
I called a fellow gardener for advice. She suggested I buy a humane “live” trap. “I guess woodchucks need to eat like the rest of us: after all, they are as much God’s creatures as we are.”
Then she added, “If you do catch him, make sure you kill him — I don’t want him coming over here.”
I bought the trap, shelling out $65, and I promptly caught a skunk. It was such a job getting the skunk out without being sprayed that I decided to retire the trap to my garden shed for the time being.
My next idea was to keep a handful of small rocks by the back door. I figured if I saw the portly pig and pelted him, the harassment might make him think twice about returning. I’d only seen the groundhog once but figured he’d be easy to hit because he seemed a slow, waddling sort.
I was becoming obsessed, like the groundskeeper in Caddyshack. First thing every morning, I found myself scanning my garden from my bedroom window on the second floor of our home. Sure enough, one morning I saw him. I raced downstairs, still in my underwear, quietly opened the back door, grabbed some stones and charged.
The groundhog heard me coming and raised himself on his haunches. I threw the stones. I’m not sure if I hit him but he did flee at a surprisingly fast gallop. The next morning, he was back again.
He seemed bigger than Casper — grown rotund, no doubt, on my greens and sugar peas. Casper never attempted to intervene, choosing instead to ignore the groundhog and go about his life.
I wondered what Casper knew that I didn’t.
It was time to escalate this battle. It didn’t take me long to find a hole in the woods behind my house. While I examined it, the groundhog himself came barreling down the hill and disappeared into a second hole, no more than 15 feet away from me. Groundhogs make their burrows with multiple entrances, getting them close to food and so they have an escape route should a fox or another predator enter their home. These burrows are works of art, with cozy chambers lined with grass and leaves. The underground nests are higher than the main tunnel so water will not reach them and, being a fastidious sort, they actually dig a dedicated bathroom chamber. I imagine they also design in all sorts of antechambers for the purpose of lounging and gloating about the spoils they’ve stolen from above.
Finding all the woodchuck entrances and exits to their burrows is no easy task. While you might find the “main entrance” by seeing freshly dug earth mounded up, there are hard to detect “plunge holes” at certain times of year for quick access. These plunge holes have no telltale mound because woodchucks dig the opening from within the established tunnel. In short, the woodchuck is smarter than many gardeners, myself included.
Now that I’d found his base of operations, I made my move. I tried sealing the openings with rocks. He pushed the small ones aside like petty worries, the big ones he dug around. And always he was eating.
Over the summer, my well-fed enemy grew larger — and bolder. One day, I sat under our maple and gazed over the pitiful remains of my vegetable garden — a few lonely squash plants, trampled peppers, and a half-eaten eggplant. There were also several healthy tomato plants that he seemed to thumb his nose at, as if not worthy of his smorgasbord.
Once, I saw the groundhog emerge from the woods, sniff the air, and bound toward the garden. I chased him to his hole, grabbed the biggest rock I could find, and pushed it into the entrance. I’ve got you now, I thought.
And then I stepped on a hornets’ nest and went running back to my house.
María Jesús Contreras for the Boston Globe
By this point, it was psychological warfare, and the short furry guy was winning. My mental outlook was as desolate as my garden. I thought about the groundhog constantly. At work, I glumly envisioned him back in my garden, deciding which of my plants he was in the mood to nibble. My friends began to ask me for a daily “groundhog report,” which I didn’t find as amusing as they did. When I got home every evening, I greeted my wife with the same terse question: “Did you see him?”
A half-mile from my home was a small farm-stand run by an elderly man of Russian descent. Whenever I stopped to buy his peaches, apples, and plums, he was always brusque. But on one visit I asked him what I should do about a groundhog, and a hint of a smile emerged. “You must shoot it.”
“But I don’t have a gun.”
“Buy one. I shoot them in my asparagus, early spring.”
Shooting the critter was out of the question — even if I had a gun, which I didn’t, my suburban neighbors wouldn’t look kindly on me discharging firearms while they mowed their lawns and barbecued their burgers.
Still, the farmer and I became friendly, and I remember him telling me he and his brother immigrated to America in 1912, after traveling from Russia to England. He said they tried to stowaway on a ship, but were caught and kicked off. The ship was named Titanic. “I am a lucky man,” he said.
He was lucky, but I was not, because by now my garden looked like the Sahara, and I’d been pushed to my limit. I didn’t care anymore about a kinder, gentler garden with a picturesque fence separating the groundhog’s territory from mine in a microcosm of peaceful coexistence. That approach would never work, I figured, so I turned to another weapon in my arsenal — bombs. Yes, bombs.
My local garden store carried rodent smoke bombs, also known euphemistically as fumigation cartridges, that came with fuses and detailed instructions. The trick was to drop the bomb into the hole and then cover the opening with dirt so the noxious fumes would asphyxiate the groundhog. It’s a grim thought, but I was in a war. (Should you go with the bomb method, and you’re like me and don’t always think things through, here is a tip from an animal control officer: Don’t use the bomb on entrance holes near your home unless you intend to perhaps poison a family member, or burn down your house, or both.)
On my first try, I forgot to seal the exit hole and the fumes escaped. On my second, I sealed the hole, but extinguished the bomb with the dirt. But the third time … ah, success. Three days passed, and not a groundhog in sight.
On day four, I sat under my maple tree, lord of my acre once more. A movement caught my eye. And there he was, my nemesis, perched like a squirrel with lunch from my garden in his paws. Right beneath the tomato plants was yet another entrance to the burrow.
I began to wonder what I would do if I caught the groundhog, as unlikely as that seemed. I’m a fan of author David Grayson, who in his 1936 book, The Countryman’s Year, recounts a battle with his own garden thief. Unlike me, Grayson appointed a deputy — an elderly trapper who guaranteed that if shown the robber’s burrow he could flush him out. On the appointed day, some neighbor boys carried buckets of water to the mouth of the groundhog’s den in an alfalfa field. They dumped all of it down the hole at once. “Suddenly we heard a gurgling sound,” Grayson recounts, “then a snort, and a great furry head emerged at the entrance of the hole.” The trapper pinned down the groundhog with a broom handle, grabbed her by the nape of the neck, “and held her up, squirming, and showing her sharp white teeth.” He put her in a box and he was off, marching “up the road carrying the prize of war.”
Grayson never said what happened next, but I suspect the critter became the trapper’s dinner. Author Kerry Hardy, who has written about the Native Americans of New England, says we shouldn’t wrinkle our noses at the thought. “Woodchuck meat is quite pleasant to the taste,” he writes. “Unlike today’s feedlot-finished cattle, these guys are actually herbivores.” Native Americans roasted groundhog on sticks and let the copious amount of fat run off into the fire.
Even Thoreau himself, the great idealizer of nature, eventually grew exasperated with the groundhog in his bean patch. “Abandoning his not-too-strongly-held vegetarian principles,” biographer Walter Harding writes, “he trapped, killed and ate it as a culinary experiment.”
Don’t tempt me.
In the end, I abandoned the smoke bombs and other thoughts of murder with a measure of shame. Instead, I began to feel something like respect. I ultimately captured my adversary in a live trap (he could not resist cabbage). He had a large black snout, sizable claws, and whenever I approached, his back went up. In a fair fight, should one of us not have been locked in a cage, I have no doubt who would have won.
I drove him to a wooded conservation land several miles from my house and released him into the woods. This, I was quickly informed, is illegal in Massachusetts. (And as I write this confession, I wonder: Has the statute of limitations expired?)
Learn from my mistake. The reasons for not relocating wildlife range from potentially spreading disease to a new environment, to causing social stress because of potential conflict with the animals in the new spot, a brochure from the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife informs me. Besides, “other individuals of the same species” will likely be attracted to your garden anyway — and sometimes the original offender will make his way back.
The law forbidding the movement of wild animals means if you use a live trap because you don’t want to hurt the animal, you are wasting your time — you either have to let it go where you caught it, with little more than a stern warning, or you have to kill it. (The thought of drowning a woodchuck inside a barrel of water turned my stomach, even if he was my sworn enemy.)
So that brings us back full circle, to where we began: Our best defense against these hungry marauders is apparently a fence. You can install an electric one, but it’s a costly proposition, so that was out of the question for me.
Or you can erect a traditional fence with a couple of key features. Buy a 4-foot-wide roll of chicken wire and then fold it in half in an L shape. Two feet of wire then form the fence and 2 feet lie on the ground, encircling your garden. Apparently, most groundhogs don’t realize they can simply back up 2 feet and burrow under the fence.
My groundhog was obviously on the high end of the IQ range. He had burrowed from the woods 20 feet away and then popped up inside the garden. Other groundhogs, I’ve been told, simply climb over such fences. So you might want to make it 4-feet high and have some kind of baffle on the top that gives them another challenge to outwit.
Or you can skip the fences and do what I did: move. I can’t say my groundhog was the main reason my wife and I pulled up stakes in Franklin, bound for a new home in town just a couple of miles away. But I can’t say he wasn’t one of the main reasons, either.
That fall, not long after I’d driven my groundhog to the conservation land, I was packing up the contents of my garden shed when I heard a noise. Listening closely, I swear a mocking, half-whistle was coming from the woods.
Michael Tougias is the author of many books; his latest is Extreme Survival: Lessons From Those Who Have Triumphed Against All Odds. Send comments to [email protected].
The five-fight main card will be headlined by a stylistic chess match between hometown star and No. 1-ranked former Interim Champion Logan Storley (14-2) and No. 7-ranked finishing machine Brennan Ward (17-6). A veritable title eliminator rematch will take place at heavyweight in the co-main event when No. 2-ranked Valentin Moldavsky (11-3, 1 NC) and unbeaten No. 3-ranked Steve Mowry (10-0-1, 1 NC) rematch almost exactly a year to the day No Contest at this same venue last year. Earlier, top middleweight contenders in No. 4-ranked Dalton Rosta (8-0) and No. 6-ranked Aaron Jeffery (13-4) will graduate from social media jabs to in-cage crosses and hooks, and Irish superstar James Gallagher (11-2) will take on James Gonzalez (10-6) in his first action since 2021.
Below are the official weights for all BELLATOR 298 competitors:
BELLATOR MMA 298: STORLEY VS. WARD MAIN CARD:
Friday, August 11 — 10 p.m. ET/PT
Welterweight Main Event: #1-Logan Storley (170.6) vs. #7-Brennan Ward (171)
Heavyweight Feature Bout: #2-Valentin Moldavsky (233.8) vs. #3-Steve Mowry (254.2)
Middleweight Feature Bout: #4-Dalton Rosta (185.6) vs. #6-Aaron Jeffery (185.4)
Featherweight Bout: James Gallagher (144.8) vs. James Gonzalez (146)
Contract-weight Feature Bout: #6-Sidney Outlaw (158.3) vs. #7-Islam Mamedov (159)
BELLATOR MMA 298: STORLEY VS. WARD PRELIMINARY CARD:
This is the heart-stopping moment a hero cop saves a one-month-old baby boy who was unconscious after choking on breast milk and cereal.
The footage, captured in Centennial, Colorado, shows Deputy Nick Pacheco rush into the parents’ apartment and run up the stairs to a bedroom.
He then carefully takes the child from his mother and forcefully pats him on the back as he was ‘blue, unconscious and not breathing’.
The boy, called Carlos, who was choking on a white substance but soon spat it up, regained consciousness and began to cry.
Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office said: ‘He ran upstairs and found the mother holding her baby.
The footage, captured in Centennial, Colorado, shows Deputy Nick Pacheco (pictured) rush into the parents’ apartment and run up the stairs to a bedroom
‘Deputy Pacheco immediately started CPR on the baby with chest compressions followed by back thrusts.
‘The baby was choking on a thick, white substance that turned out to be a combination of breast milk and baby cereal.’
The child was taken to Children’s Hospital Colorado to be checked out by paramedics from South Metro Fire Rescue. He is now back home in good health.
In July, a rookie cop in Louisville, Kentucky, saved the life of a seven-day-old infant after she suddenly stopped breathing.
Video showed officer Nick Greene following a man outside a Shorty’s convenience store in Louisville, Kentucky on Friday and running up to a red truck, where a woman was slouched over in an apparent attempt to protect her baby girl.
Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office said: ‘He ran upstairs and found the mother holding her baby’
He then carefully takes the child from his mother and forcefully pats him on the back as he was ‘blue, unconscious and not breathing’
At that point, Greene’s partner, Noah Cole, whose body-worn camera captured the entire ordeal, could be heard calling for an ambulance at the gas station at the intersection of 18th Street and Broadway.
Meanwhile, Greene sprang into action, gently hitting the seven-day-old baby’s back as she appeared to be motionless.
Finally, after a few tries, the girl could be seen crying out as her breath returns and she began to move her arms.
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Heart-stopping moment hero cop saves one-month-old baby boy who was unconscious and turning blue after choking on breast milk and baby cereal
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