In a win for ocean conservationists, the state Fish and Game Commission earlier this month finalized marine protections for Southern California, preventing fishing or taking anything from the shorline along most of Laguna Beach, effective Jan. 1 Fishermen are adjusting more than their lines to comply with the new order. Volunteers also are stepping up [...]
Five retiring Laguna Beach firefighters set the stage for promotions for six members of the staff and five new hires, who emerged from a field of a thousand applicants. The five new firefighters who made the cut were sworn in this past Monday, given their turnout gear and are half way through a two-week [...]
Photos by Ted Reckas Expert and novice alike take advantage of the long-running stone carving class taught by master stone carvers and longtime college instructors Marvin Johnson and Joseph Sovella. At the Saturday sessions, held at Laguna College of Art & Design, 2222 Laguna Canyon Rd., students learn techniques using a variety of tools [...]
The next Laguna Beach Historical Society program will feature long-time Laguna Beach resident Arnold Hano sharing a personal history, entitled “History Not Always Made by a Committee.” The program Tuesday, Nov. 8, from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. and will be held at the Laguna Beach City Hall Council Chambers, 505 Forest Avenue, where the public [...]
By Ted Reckas, Special to the Independent Three weeks before the sanctioned start of the local lobster-hunting season, Rodger Healy motored out of Dana Point Harbor in his boat, loaded with traps. They were rigged with special mesh, small enough to catch everything, including illegal, undersized juvenile lobsters. He hoped to get a good [...]
Polish-born photographer Art Zdanowski’s first visit to Laguna Beach provoked an instant reaction: he recognized his future home. Even more significantly, he found the artistic inspiration of its atmosphere and people profound. To express his appreciation to his adopted hometown, the four-year resident presented the City Council with his dramatic photograph of the town’s Main [...]
Local organizations showered soon-to-graduate high school seniors with more than 100 scholarships cumulatively worth thousands of dollars last Friday during the annual honors convocation. Check out the full list 2011 Honors Convocation. Look for more details in Friday’s edition.
Laguna Beach High School’s dance department performs in its spring concert, Eleven, at 7.30 p.m. May 5-7 in the Artists’ Theatre. The show showcases 11 choreographers, who fuse their visions in the styles of ballet, contemporary, jazz, hip-hop and tap. Two graduating seniors, Hali MacDonald and Hayley Seitz, serve as guest choreographers. The box office [...]
Property Owner Says It’s A Bluff When an iron gate with security camera went up across the driveway at 2425 S. Coast Highway, so did a figurative door slam on public coastal access to a beach stairway, claim two neighbors contesting design elements of a large-scale bluff-top home there. Michael Wilson, who lives just north [...]
The Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Canyon has received 27 sea lions and eight dolphins with signs of domoic acid poisoning from a harmful algal bloom over the last two weeks. Just two sea lions survived. “We clearly have an event taking place. There have been dozens of animals coming in up and down [...]
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 [...]
