RACINE – Overcharged for 24 years on her property taxes, 84-year-old Angie France now wants the city to repay her the money she could have used during the years she cared for her ailing husband until his death.

“If I owed the city instead, I’m sure they would make sure I pay them back,” France said.

Another 104 of these so-called “alleyway graves” in city cemeteries have been sold but remain empty.

The east Salinas teenager is largely paralyzed: He can move his neck, raise both his arms a few inches and move one wrist — the physical toll of a “gang-related” shooting that nearly killed him two years ago.

“That night, I was supposed to die,” he said, remembering the doctors told his parents at the time he wouldn’t last a week.

“But I’m still here.”

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“Half a million pounds so far,” said Lyle Shurtleff, environmental scientist with the Department of the Army, totaling up the collection of metals.

“We’ll probably pick up a million pounds by the time we’re done,” he added, looking over a picturesque piece of land — covering hundreds of acres — on the former Fort Ord. (MORE)

The residents of the southeast Soledad neighborhood appear to have turned in for the night — except for a half-dozen men standing outside a well-lit garage.

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