Laguna Beach residents who daily wake to the sound of planes overhead just after 7 a.m. likely take little comfort in knowing that the onslaught could begin earlier. A curfew agreement, which stipulates take-off times no earlier than 7 a.m., is up for renewal and part of negotiations underway with John Wayne Airport, according to [...]
Bass player Eric Morton, co-founder of the influential Laguna Beach-based Rebel Rockers reggae band, died Thursday, June 6, after a long battle with liver disease. He was close to 60, though he declined to discuss his age. Morton, known as Redz, performed with and married lead singer Deborah Sullivan, known as Princess. Together with keyboard [...]
By Justin Swanson | LB Indy A 66-year history serves as testament to one of Laguna Beach’s special traditions, now an ingrained coming of age ritual for the town’s high school graduates. Witness the $328,955 in scholarships awarded at Laguna Beach High School’s Honors Convocation last week to 107 graduates, the largest sum in [...]
By Rita Robinson and Andrea Adelson| LB Indy The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station near San Clemente won’t be restarted again, but it will be years before its distinctive double domes disappear from the coastline. “It doesn’t happen overnight,” said Edison spokeswoman Maureen Brown, describing a years-long process decontaminating and deconstructing the plant under [...]
After years of talks and studies, Laguna Beach’s City Council voted 3-2 on Tuesday to proceed with a $42 million village entrance park and parking structure, partly financed by an estimated $29 million revenue bond measure. Mayor Kelly Boyd and council member Toni Iseman dissented. Boyd objected to proceeding without putting the measure before voters [...]
The latest design concept for Laguna Beach’s long-awaited downtown village entrance as well as how to finance the estimated $42 million project goes under review tonight in a special 6 p.m. meeting of the City Council. The concept envisions a park with pedestrian pathways replacing the current asphalt parking lot at the town’s gateway on [...]
A dedicated trolley lane downtown and smaller, open-air shuttles were suggested as transit alternatives during a Planning Commission workshop about updating Laguna Beach’s Downtown Specific Plan, an area bounded by Legion Street to the south and Cliff Drive to the north. About 30 locals attended to weigh in on the three topics up for discussion: [...]
By Justin Swanson | LB Indy Confronted with the timeless, maternal distress of assuaging her infant’s teething, Julie Podolec concocted a functional, non-medicinal solution to her young son’s pains. She made popsicles from fresh, pureed fruit. Podolec soon realized her blender bowl held a refreshing rethinking of a basic stalwart of Americana. “It’s ‘a [...]
The resignation of the longtime spiritual leader of Laguna Beach’s most unusual church represents a historic break, which now shifts responsibility for rebuilding the shriveled St. Francis by the Sea congregation to a tiny flock of the faithful and a trio of priests. Bishop Simon Eugene Talarczyk, 85, who served in St. Francis’s sanctuary for [...]
By Justin Swanson | LB Indy For the first time, Laguna Beach lifeguards’ can now rely on their own rescue watercraft for patrol and rescue missions. Though deployed since Memorial Day weekend, the new addition to the marine safety department will be heralded with a christening ceremony on Main Beach, Saturday, June 8 at [...]
The City Council green-lighted imposing flexible rates on Laguna Beach’s parking meters, among a series of recommendations in a parking management study considered on Tuesday. Other measures council members seemed keen on implementing soon included a shared valet parking system and incentivizing owners of private lots to open them to the public. These were just [...]
San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station was permanently closed today, Southern California Edison announced. “I didn’t think Edison would throw in the towel so early,” Arnie Gunderson, a 40-year former nuclear industry engineer and co-founder of the anti-nuclear nonprofit Fairewinds Energy Education Corp, said Friday at an impromptu press conference held on the frontage road at [...]
Southern California Edison announced Friday it will permanently close the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, which has been shut for more than a year. “We have concluded that the continuing uncertainty about when or if SONGS might return to service was not good for our customers, our investors, or the need to plan for our [...]
“Will we survive ourselves?” That’s the question Japan’s former prime minister, who resigned after the nuclear reactor meltdown in Fukushima, posed during an unprecedented visit to Southern California this week to oppose nuclear power. In San Diego for a panel discussion on Tuesday, Naoto Kan admitted he favored nuclear power as a source of clean [...]
Sarah Schmidt, a 10-year volunteer cast member in the Pageant of the Masters, does not believe in half-measures. To turn herself into a convincing facsimile of Jean Harlow for a larger than life publicity photograph, the 31-year-old, just days before posing for the picture, chopped and colored her long auburn tresses to embody the wavy, [...]
Ill Prepared Hiker Rescued from Hillside
A sheriff’s helicopter was used to extract a hiker who suffered an anxiety attack and was unable to move from a steep trail in Laguna Beach’s open space about 6 p.m. Sunday, June 9, police said. Lifeguards in an all-terrain vehicle coordinated the extraction from thick brush and a steep slope between Alta Laguna Park [...]
