STOCKTON , CA - The city of Stockton said work should begin Thursday to clean up a massive pile of water hyacinth and garbage that's at the main entrance to this weekend's Asparagus Festival.

The debris is at the dead end of the channel where thousands of people will enter the festival Friday through Sunday. 

Festival board member Doug Wilhoit said it's "very frustrating" after "constant phone calls to the city," that the mess was there on Wednesday.

But late in the afternoon, city spokesperson Connie Cochran said removal work will start Thursday and the man being hired will stay on the job throughout the weekend.

It's a bureaucratic mess, because the city said the California Department of Boating and Waterways is supposed to remove the hyacinth.  But that agency said Wednesday it sprays hyacinth to kill it, but removal is not part of the agency's responsibility.

Giovanni, President of the Key Club, contacted AFC with the idea for the Key Club to volunteer at AFC.They came with seven volunteers and spent several hours helping out.

They started off their morning walking the homeless pups at the Animal Friends Connection Sanctuary. After walking the dogs 2 1/2 miles, they jumped into providing a spa day! They bathed, blow dried, brushed and snuggled! One volunteer, Elia, gave 12 dogs a bath! She is coming back to volunteer again!

STOCKTON, CA - An older couple was hurt when an intruder burst into their Civic Center district home Tuesday morning and punched them, say Stockton police.

The intruder, which the victims described as a black man in his 20s, about 5 feet 9 inches to 6 feet tall, with a light complexion, fled after taking the woman's purse containing a cellphone, cash and several miscellaneous items, according to the police report.

The couple was inside their home on the 1100 block of W. Park Street when a man broke into the back door, they told responding officers. They said the robber left through the back door and went over a neighbor's fence.

Witnesses said the man was seen running on westbound W. Park Street and then northbound on N. Argonaut Street.

The man and woman were transported to a local hospital to be treated for abrasions and cuts.