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Wayward sea lion is back — this time found in a San Diego storm drain

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Wayward sea lion is back — this time found in a San Diego storm drain


SAN DIEGO — Meet Freeway. He is a teenage mischief maker, a land-loving sea lion fishing for freedom.

And now the pinniped, who earned notoriety in January when he shut down a busy San Diego freeway a pair miles from the ocean, is again.

Final month, somebody noticed him wandering up a storm drain in Logan Heights, a few half-mile from the place the drain hits San Diego Harbor. A SeaWorld Rescue group plucked him from the muck April 7. It took some coaxing to catch him, SeaWorld Rescue group supervisor Jeni Smith mentioned final week.

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If he’d stayed in that storm drain, he would have made it again to the freeway interchange the place he disrupted site visitors in January. It is a direct shot.

Since his most up-to-date rescue, Freeway has been in a rehab of types, getting his conduct assessed. No person is aware of why he retains going to date inland.

On Jan. 7, Freeway made a brazen midmorning try to cross state Route 94 close to state Route 15, east of downtown San Diego. Shocked drivers screeched their vehicles to a halt on the sight of him. A couple of jumped out and stopped different vehicles so Freeway may scoot safely throughout eastbound lanes to the grass within the heart divide.

SeaWorld’s Rescue group responded, scooped him up, watched him for a month after which returned him to the ocean.

They’d first rescued him a couple of months earlier in November, once they discovered him strolling on to Harbor Island Drive. They rehabbed him at SeaWorld for every week, fitted his left flipper with an orange tag and dropped him again into the ocean.

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January marked rescue No. 2. April made it three.

These are simply the rescues. He is been noticed ashore a couple of instances since that first rescue — Level Loma, Encinitas, Cardiff. However these spots are close to the water.

He does not have an official identify. SeaWorld’s Rescue group does not identify the creatures they save. However unofficially and affectionately, some name him Freeway.

After his freeway stunt, the rescuers added a second orange tag, this one on the fitting flipper, so he may very well be recognized shortly and simply.

The tags maintain figuring out knowledge, however they aren’t geo-locators, These dear trackers are used for endangered species and the like.

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When SeaWorld Rescue received the decision a few sea lion in a storm drain final month, the caller couldn’t see the orange tags. However SeaWorld staffers suspected it was Freeway.

Smith mentioned his April journey took him properly out of his habitat.

“There was no meals supply for him. He was sadly amongst trash and purchasing carts,” she mentioned.

The animal reacted when he noticed the rescuers method, she mentioned. Once they provided up fish, he gladly took it. When animals wander out of their ocean habitat, it is normally for meals, Smith mentioned.

Freeway’s weight is nice and Smith believes he eats within the ocean with out drawback. His physique situation can be good, no bumps or bruises.

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They determine he is about 10 to 13 years previous. Eventually verify, he weighed 85.5 kilograms — roughly 188 kilos.

Sea lions could be noticed hanging out in crowds, flopped onto one another. Nobody is aware of why Freeway just isn’t staying with an enormous group. At SeaWorld, he is been dwelling with three different three sea lions, and he has been social with them.

Freeway is certainly one of 37 sea lions SeaWorld has rescued this 12 months. Often, the group has to rescue an animal greater than as soon as. It isn’t typically, although, and more often than not the animals are discovered of their pure habitat. They might be emaciated, could also be tangled in fishing line, could have a shark chunk.

The purpose is all the time to get the animal wholesome and return it to the wild, Smith mentioned.

Freeway stays on the park whereas SeaWorld staffers proceed assessing his conduct and attempting to determine a plan for him. No date is ready but for his return to the ocean.

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“We would like him to be in a secure scenario,” Smith mentioned. “We wish to do what’s finest for the ocean lion. … Proper now, as a result of he has been rescued 3 times in unsafe conditions, we try to determine what his plan is.”

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©2022 The San Diego Union-Tribune. Go to sandiegouniontribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content material Company, LLC.



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How to buy 2025 San Diego Padres MLB playoff tickets, Padres postseason scenarios

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How to buy 2025 San Diego Padres MLB playoff tickets, Padres postseason scenarios


With one week remaining in the regular season, San Diego Padres fans are hoping 2025 is the year the team finally wins a World Series.

After an 85-plus win season, the Padres clinched a spot in the National League Playoffs for the fourth time in the last six seasons.

With Padres fans hopeful for another deep postseason run, the time is now to secure playoff tickets. Check back as San Diego’s playoff scenarios, and ticket prices continue to update during the final week of the MLB season.

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San Diego Padres 2025 MLB playoff tickets

Padres postseason tickets are available for every scenario. If you purchase a ticket and San Diego doesn’t play in that round, tickets will be refunded. See below for all the potential Padres playoff scenarios.

San Diego Padres 2025 MLB playoff scenarios

The Padres have already clinched a playoff spot, but could still end the season as the No. 3, No. 4 or No. 5 seed. If San Diego overtakes Los Angeles for the NL West crown and the No. 3 seed, they will earn homefield for at least the Wild Card round. If the team ends as the No. 5 seed, they will play the No. 4 seed and be the road team in the best-of-3 Wild Card series and beyond.

San Diego Padres 2025 Wild Card Tickets

The Padres’ most likely scenario is to finish as the No. 5 seed and play on the road for the Wild Card round, but if they rise to the No. 3 or No. 4 seed in the National League, they will host all three potential games in a Wild Card series. Here are the ticketing options for each Wild Card home game:

San Diego Padres 2025 NLDS Tickets

Should the Padres win their Wild Card matchup, they would advance to the National League Divisional Series. If the With San Diego entering as the lower seed, they would host Game 3 and a hypothetical Game 4 as long as the series doesn’t end in a sweep.

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San Diego Padres NLCS Tickets

If the Padres advance to the National League Championship Series, it becomes a best-of-seven game series with the winner heading to the World Series. If the Padres are the favorite, they will host Games 1, 2, 5 and 7. In the more likely scenario that the Padres are the lower seed, they will start the series on the road and would host Games 3, 4 and 6.

San Diego Padres World Series tickets

Should the Padres make the World Series, homefield advantage goes to the team with the better regular-season record. While that’s not a likely scenario given the team’s current record, it’s not out of the question. If the Padres did have the better regular-season record, they would host Games 1, 2 and hypothetical Games 5 and 7. If not, they would host Games 3, 4 and then Game 6 should the series require it.

*= if necessary

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Helen Woodward’s kid-focused Humane Education Campus opens

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Helen Woodward’s kid-focused Humane Education Campus opens


This spring, Helen Woodward Animal Center Education Center opened the doors on its new Sharron Lee MacDonald Humane Education Campus, named for MacDonald, a Rancho Santa Fe philanthropist. The $7.5 million project in Rancho Santa Fe features classrooms, animal enclosures and playgrounds, a special place for the more than 13,000 children that visit the center each year to learn and foster a forever love for animals.

The new center, which encompasses two buildings totaling 10,500 square feet with 20,000 square feet of accompanying outdoor space is the new home for Critter Camps, interactive exposure with animal ambassadors, educational programs with schools and Scouts and even birthday parties.

Haylee Blake, the center’s associate director of education, said what she loves most about the new facility is “just having a really intentional space for the kids”.  From the floor to ceiling, whimsical wooden tree sprouting in the corner of the lobby to the playful classroom spaces and many opportunities to get up close and personal with an animal, she said they wanted to create a space that was inspirational, fun and engaging, a place to spark curiosity and empathy for animals and the natural world.

Humane education has always been a focus for Helen Woodward, teaching compassion and care for all animals.  Blake said the new center will continue to be a place for kids to encounter animals, learn about science and debunk myths about certain animals that they may be fearful of.

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When kids are able to interact hands-on with an animal, learn its name and personality, they might become interested in learning more and about how to protect it—even the less cuddly animals like insects and snakes: “They all matter when it comes to a good, healthy ecosystem,” Blake said. “We believe strongly that having live animal presentations is important….It creates a personalized experience.”

It took a long time for this dream campus to come to life.

In 1972, Helen Woodward, a native Californian and Del Mar resident for 40 years, bought a 12-acre farm in Rancho Santa Fe that was covered with weeds, a little house and a falling-down barn to establish what was then known as the San Dieguito Animal Care and Education Center. Many of the center’s structures were built after her death in 1983 and the center was renamed in her honor in 1986.

The Ocean Room at Helen Woodward Education Center’s Sharron Lee MacDonald Humane Education Campus. (Courtesy HWAC)

For many years, the old house on the property was used for the children’s education programs. When construction on the new and improved adoptions center started in 2018, the education program moved into trailers under the covered riding pavilion. Their old stomping grounds became the temporary “Adoptions Village,” and the center’s therapeutic riding program moved to an arena on the back of the property.

Planning for the new humane education campus started at the end of 2019 and was slowed by the pandemic. After breaking ground in the fall of 2023, construction took a little longer than expected to get going, after months of moving dirt around to lift the property out of the flood plain. During the year-long construction, the educational programming didn’t miss a beat. As soon as they snipped the ribbon at an opening ceremony in May, summer camps started rolling in the next week.

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While funding for the project came mainly from MacDonald, the Jack and Marilyn McManama Charitable Trust, the Selander Foundation and the LaureL Foundation, donors contributed to the project in a variety of ways, from pitching in $5,000 to pledging $25,000. Throughout the new center, donors and supporters are recognized with names on features of the building or on colorful, animal-shaped donor plaques.

One of Blake’s favorite donor features is the concrete dog on the playground, which was auctioned off at their annual Spring Fling fundraiser. The winning bidder, the Viterbis, were able to get the dog painted to look like their beloved dog Lou—the climbing feature that sits sweetly on the playground even has a dog tag with his name on it.

Making it even more special, Lou was a Helen Woodward alumni: “Now he has been immortalized and will provide a lot of fun for kids,” Blake said.

The education center now has six classrooms for programming, all meant to be very fun and immersive spaces, themed around different animal habitats including the Desert Room, the Jungle and Woodland Room ( a larger room that can be split in two), Ocean Room, Tundra Room and Pets Room.

Graphic artist Brise Birdsong created all of the art in the rooms digitally—about 220 different are animals are depicted all  of them native to the habitat featured, including the polar bear in the Tundra Room and the California mule deer in the Woodland Room, based on the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The Pets Room features more domestic animals in a park and home environment—dogs and cats, a bearded dragon and goldfish. Birdsong painted one dog in memory of her dog Pepper who passed away at the end of the project.

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As the focus of the classrooms was on making them easy to clean, there are a lot of hard surfaces which Blake can create a lot of echoing, not conducive to instruction or lots of excited talking. The acoustic panels were incorporated into the design—in the Pets Room they are clouds and in the Ocean Room it’s as if you’re submerged underwater with a whale swimming overhead. The constellation painted on the ceiling panels in the Desert Room is based on the actual constellations in the night sky on the day the center was founded on August 8, 1972.

Inside, all of animal ambassadors, from the bunnies to the birds to the lizards and snakes, all have new safe and spacious enclosures with lots of enrichment. New outside enclosures currently house chickens, goats and the newest arrival, an adorably fuzzy baby doll harlequin sheep yet to be named. One enclosure is currently vacant with plans for possibly a mini cow or alpacas—Blake said it’s all about finding animals with the right temperament for the educational programming.

Outside, two animal enrichment patios include bleacher seating with enclosures to keep larger animals like horses during an outdoor presentation.

The center’s outdoor space also features two new playgrounds, which they never had before beyond some bean bags, hula hoops, balls and donated playhouses.  Now the younger kids ages 2-5 have a woodsy, nature-themed playground with logs for kids to climb on and through, with animals scattered throughout including a raccoon, bear, the beloved dog Lou and an eagle perched up high.

The playground for ages 5-12 on the other side of the center has a pollinator theme—the play structure is topped by a monarch butterfly and one of the climbing obstacles mimics a giant spider web. There’s a giant beehive and bee to climb, and a pretty hummingbird slide.

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Each playground is connected to a large room specifically designed to host birthday parties, craft activities or camp lunches, each outfitted with two long tables.

The new building also includes offices for the staff and spaces for instructors and volunteers to work and collaborate, with room to grow.

Future phases of work at Helen Woodward Animal Center could include remodeling of the center’s equine hospital and the Club Pet boarding facility. Plans are still up the air for the old covered pavilion, it may revert back to therapeutic riding program or converted to parking.

To learn more about the education campus offerings or more at Helen Woodward, visit animalcenter.org

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Crusaders Soccer Club highlights captains for program’s 40 top teams

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Crusaders Soccer Club highlights captains for program’s 40 top teams


Overview: Crusaders Soccer Club

Director of Coaching Victor Melendez noted, “Between our competitive and recreational teams, we have nearly 1,500 players wearing Crusaders uniforms. Of those players, 483 are on one of our 40 competitive teams, and 12 of those teams are now playing at a national level.”

On Sept. 2, the Crusaders Soccer Club held our annual Competitive Team Captains ceremony in the sanctuary of the Mission Trails Church.

The sanctuary was packed with the families of the players as they received their official team captain arm bands for the 2025/26 season.

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Assistant Director of Coaching for the soccer club’s Competitive Program, Seth Tunick, was the master of ceremonies and coordinated this special event.

Tunick commented, “Each of our 40 competitive teams has two captains. This is a significant reward for these players. These players continually show dedication to the game of soccer and their team, while maintaining a positive attitude and, of course, demonstrating their leadership qualities. These young men and women are now responsible for demonstrating these abilities throughout the season for their team and the club.”

Director of Coaching Victor Melendez noted, “Between our competitive and recreational teams, we have nearly 1,500 players wearing Crusaders uniforms. Of those players, 483 are on one of our 40 competitive teams, and 12 of those teams are now playing at a national level.”

The first games of the 2025/26 were played Sept. 6-7. Among the competitive and recreational divisions, there were 64 games that weekend.

Nearly 1,000 recreational players on 88 teams also played the first of their 11 Saturday games that weekend. The slate continues through Nov. 16.

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“Because of the advanced level of play of our recreational division, our competitive coaches will be scouting our recreational teams, looking for the next group of competitive-level players for future teams,” said Director of Coaching for the Recreational Program, Modesto Gardiniello.

He also wished “to sincerely thank all our volunteer recreational team coaches and coordinators, who ensure the complicated puzzle of assembling teams and ensuring everything goes smoothly throughout the 11-week season. Come out and watch a game. Our teams will be playing. Stop by just about any grass field on a Saturday in the Navajo area and enjoy a soccer game.”




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