KATLYN LONG'S SUSPICIOUS DEATH
Originally published in the AVA June 10, 2009
The last few months of Katlyn Long’s abbreviated life unfolded much like anyone transitioning between relationships: Unhappy with her long-term, 31-year-old boyfriend, Long broke things off. The 22-year-old Fort Bragg girl had met someone else—someone who, friends say, seemed to make her happy.
She left California with her new boyfriend early last year, but work obligations brought her back home for what was to be a brief visit. That fateful trip back would be her last: In the early morning of May 29, after spending the night with her ex-boyfriend, she was hauled to Mendocino Coast Hospital in an ambulance without a pulse—the victim of a methadone overdose.
Yet it wasn’t until last week that police revealed her cause of death; no charges have been filed.
MENTAL HEALTH MELTDOWN
Originally published in the AVA June 3, 2009
When cops were dispatched to a rural Redwood Valley address
recently, they had little information about what to expect: All they
knew was a man with a gun was standing in his front yard shouting
insults at passersby. Neighbors thought he might be dangerous, but
police didn’t know who the man was, whether he was mentally ill or had
a criminal record.
Upon arrival, they found the man shirtless with a gun in a holster;
he promptly demanded that they leave his property. After cautiously
discussing the situation, one of the uniformed police boldly walked up to the man and, acting as friendly as possible, offered a handshake. Then he snagged the gun from the holster.
THE REST OF JOHN SAKOWICZ'S RESUME
Originally published in the AVA April 29, 2009
In his swift climb up the Northern California financial media ladder, John Sakowicz didn’t just claim to have founded a multi-billion dollar offshore hedge fund. To hear Sakowicz tell it, he’s a man with impeccable Wall Street cred—a man who’s spent much of his life toiling in finance.
“I am a 30-year veteran of Wall Street,” he writes in his profile at SeekingAlpha.com, a financial web site. “I have cofounded a billion-dollar, unregistered, offshore hedge fund, and have worked for UBS, Dean Witter, Colonial Management Associates, Spear Leeds Kellogg, Merrill Lynch, and Alex Brown & Sons.”
He’s said that he’s worked as a trader on the floors of the New York Stock Exchange, the New York Mercantile Exchange and the Commodity Exchange, and he says he’s a general partner in an offshore investment advisory group called Templar Advisors.
Since Sakowicz’s ascent began last year, his columns on the country’s plummeting economy have appeared in the North Bay Bohemian—as well as the Boho’s other Bay Area papers. He’s appeared on Al Jazeera and KPFA as a pundit. He started “The Truth About Money,” a bi-weekly radio show on KZYX. And he scored an endorsement from the Institute for Public Accuracy, the San Francisco organization that connects experts and journalists.
