>Union Democrat | Sonora News, Sports, & Weather, Angels Camp, Twain Harte, Jamestown

A 16-year-old told police he was assaulted by unknown subjects Thursday in Sonora.

Sonora police responded to Sonora Regional Medical Center to a report of an assault at about 6:25 p.m.

The victim told police he was walking on Snell Street near Bonanza Road at about 3:45 p.m. when he saw an 1980s or 1990s white, single cab two-wheel drive Chevy truck parked ahead of him, according to a Sonora Police Department report.

The driver got out of the truck and approached him, starting to punch him in the face. Three other subjects joined the first one. One hit the victim in the head with a small tree limb, the report said.

The subjects then ran back to the truck and drove off.

The victim told police he didn't know any of the subjects and doesn't know why they attacked him, the report said.

He describes the driver as a white male, possibly 16 to 17 years old, wearing a white T-shirt and black Dickies pants.

Anyone having information regarding this incident is asked to call the Sonora Police Department at 532-8141.

Yosemite National Park hopes that some of the $920 million doled out in the federal stimulus package to the National Park Service will go to retrofit the Ahwahnee Hotel.

It’s too early to say how much money Yosemite will get, and if the hotel project, which is one of hundreds on Yosemite’s books, would be financed, said Yosemite spokesman Erik Skindrud.
  

On March 26, it will be 137 years since the earth rumbled from Red Bluff in Northern California to the beaches of San Diego.

The 1872 Owens Valley Earthquake shook Sonorans from their slumber and into the streets wearing pajamas. In Yosemite, John Muir hid behind a large pine tree hoping it would protect him from granite boulders plunging from the tombstone-shaped Sentinel Rock.

 Rarely does one think of Yosemite or Sonora as being earthquake prone, but even Yosemite through the years has retrofitted several buildings and has budding plans to make the Ahwahnee Hotel quake proof— just in case another big one strikes. 

Garth the cat is cuddling again.

For three days, Garth clung to a tree branch 75 feet above his Phoenix Lake area home. His coat was matted and pecked by crows. He meowed but wouldn’t budge from his perch, even after days of rain, sleet and snow.

“I don’t think he’d make it another night,” said Penny Baptista, a neighbor and organizer of a Wednesday rescue attempt. “There’s been snow, wind, and hail— everything.”

Chinese Camp’s school board Wednesday night approved moving forward with filing a state waiver stating the district can’t afford to operate another year independently.

When a district is about to be insolvent, it has an opportunity to dissolve and reorganize with another district, said Bill Schneiderman, district superintendent/principal. That option is called a Lapsation Waiver due to Fiscal Insolvency.

The district is looking at a $55,000 deficit for the 2009-10 school year and cannot afford to run past this school year.

After much discussion and a public hearing, the board voted 2-1 in favor of filing the waiver, with Trustee Denise Nicolini dissenting.

A state steering committee is recommending that Tuolumne County be granted $16 million to construct a juvenile detention facility.

Currently, one doesn’t exist in the county, which results in local offenders being housed in juvenile detention centers elsewhere, usually the Central Valley.

The state Corrections Standards Authority is set to consider the funding recommendation at a March 19 meeting. Tuolumne County is the sole Mother Lode county, and one of six throughout the state, that was given preliminary approval for funding. The funds amount to $100 million for the counties.
 

 A grand jury in El Dorado County has indicted a man accused of murdering his son and attacking his girlfriend with an ax.

Charles A. Bailey, arrested a year ago in East Sonora, faces charges of murder with special circumstances, attempted murder and domestic violence.

The special circumstances enhancement makes the case eligible to become a death penalty case should the El Dorado County District Attorney decide to pursue it, said Deputy District Attorney Vicki Ashworth, who is prosecuting the case.

 A Sonora man accused of stabbing another man is headed to trial.

Robert Scott Harper, 18, faces a charge of assault with a deadly weapon causing great bodily injury following a fight on a Sonora rooftop Feb. 16.

Tuolumne County Superior Court Judge Eleanor Provost found probable cause to try Harper following a preliminary hearing Wednesday.

Brian Greene poses for a picture in Antarctica. Courtesy photo

Weddell seals that lay like slugs across the ice.

An ice tube that provides a window to the flurry of the ocean’s inhabitants 20 feet below the surface and 1,000 feet in all directions.

These are a few of Antarctica’s treasures Sonora residents Brian and Mckenzie Greene experienced while living there on two separate six-month stints in 2001-02 and 2003-04.