San Diego County Tentatively Approves Wild Turkey Hunt

Turkey Hunt

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors gave tentative approval Wednesday to a two-day, juniors-only wild turkey hunt to be held on a county preserve, despite opposition from animal rights activists and other opponents.

The first reading of ordinance passed 3-2 and will be considered for final approval Jan. 25. It would permit up to 10 supervised youngsters to hunt wild turkeys with a bows and arrows or guns at the Santa Ysabel East Preserve on March 17 and March 18.   "This is about allowing kids the opportunity, the ones that want to, the ones that choose to, an opportunity where we have an overabundance of turkeys under strict supervision to learn the basics about using a weapon and also hunting," Supervisor Dianne Jacob said.

The 3,800-acre preserve includes a turkey habitat and may be closed to the public on the hunt days, county staffers said.

The hunters would need licenses, training and supervision, said Bob Fusco, president of the San Diego chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation.  

Supervisor Pam Slater-Price and board Vice-Chairman Ron Roberts cast the dissenting votes, though both said they were not opposed to hunting in general.

Possible Retrial

Prosecutors may announce Thursday whether they plan to retry a young man on murder charges in the shooting death last year of an El Capitan High School student whose body was found on the Barona Indian Reservation.

Stanley Virgil Lloyd, 20, is accused in the October 2010 death of 17- year-old Christopher Carioscia of Lakeside.

After three days of deliberations, jurors told El Cajon Judge John Thompson Monday that they were deadlocked 10-2 for guilt on a first-degree murder charge, and the judge declared a mistrial.

Carioscia went missing on Oct. 26, 2010, after telling his family he was going surfing in Pacific Beach. His burned-out car was found the next day on the tribal grounds south of Ramona, and on Dec. 4, detectives found his body near the San Vicente Reservoir.

Lloyd was arrested at his Lakeside home in March. A friend of the defendant told detectives that Lloyd grew tired of buying Xanax, which is prescribed to treat anxiety, from Carioscia and hatched a plan to steal drugs from the victim and kill him, prosecutor David Williams III alleged.

Follow the full story on Ramona.Patch.com.

Research in Sickle-Cell Disease

Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies are using cells from sickle-cell patients to potentially cure the anemia-inducing condition that affects one in every 12 black Americans, it was announced today.

The method developed by Salk researchers also may be used to reverse other disorders linked to the same gene mutation implicated in sickle-cell disease.

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