STORIES OF THE PAST
50 years ago
SAN DIEGO (UPI) — A helicopter searching for a missing plane with 10 persons aboard Tuesday rescued a California family of six stranded for four days on an uninhabited island in the Gulf of California after their boat capsized.
Harold Carty, his wife and their four children, of Chowchilla, in Madera County, were reported in good condition despite their ordeal.
The family was first sighted Monday on San Luis Island, about 180 miles south of El Centro and 75 miles south of San Felipe, Mexico, by the crew of a search plane from Hamilton Air Force Base.
40 years ago
Varsity basketball teams from Palo Verde and Vista displayed offensive might Monday to collect first-round wins in the El Centro Invitational Basketball Tournament.
Palo Verde started the affair as pre-tourney favorite. The defending Desert Valleys League champs overturned the Imperial Tigers by a 6647 margin.
Vista is one of the few San Diego County teams entered. The Panthers pounced on the Calipatria Hornets in the fourth quarter and came away with a 64-49 victory.
The Blythe-based PVHS varsity won the recent Parker Tournament. Loaded with veterans, the Yellowjackets may have too much power or any tourney opponent.
30 years ago
SAN DIEGO — IVC head basketball coach Jeff Deyo tried to down play it when talking to reporters, but his Arabs defeated the Grossmont Griffins 93-83 in Monday’s second round game of the San Diego Mesa College Basketball Tournament here.
It is the first victory for IVC over Grossmont in two years.
IVC (11-5) will get a rubber game with Orange Coast College tonight at 6 p.m. for the tournament title. Orange Coast defeated the Arabs in their first meeting
— in the Orange Coast Tournament — and the Arabs defeated OCC in the Riverside tourney.
Grossmont is, of course, the two time defending Pacific Coast Conference champion and the team the Arabs will have to beat again this year if they are going to content for the PCC title.
IVC dominated the game, using their manto-man defense and up-tempo offense. Grossmont led just once, at 28-27 when sophomore Shaun Manning hit a three pointer, but the Arabs erased that lead with two jump shots and a free throw by Michael Benton.
20 years ago
CALEXICO — Precise figures still are unavailable, but U.S. Customs Service officials report more and more border crossers are using the international port of entry that opened seven miles east of here Dec. 2.
“We’re seeing a steady increase in the number of people using the new port,” said Louis Semon, a San Diego-based spokesman for U.S. Customs.
That is good news to U.S. Customs officials, who have been encouraging border-crossers to use the new $42 million port in an effort to more evenly distribute the workload among inspectors at the new port and old port in downtown Calexico.
“The new port has been built, it’s there, so let’s use it,” Ruben Carrasco, Calexico ports director for U.S. Customs, said recently at a Calexico Chamber of Commerce meeting.