Chef Craig Strong, whose talents have earned the Montage resort’s Studio restaurant top reviews during his near decade tenure, is striking out on his own as owner of a Laguna Beach restaurant. Over the last six months, Strong struck a deal to buyout the owners and developers of...

History will remember Paul Egly as the judge who ordered the desegregation of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Laguna Beach’s reputation as an art colony vividly sprang to life as artists and their fans returned to the Festival of Arts, which opened the town’s longest-running fine art show, now in its 86th season, to the public this week.

A small class of students enrolled in Introduction to Nonfiction, a Laguna College of Art and Design literary survey course, received some practical advice from best-selling author and Newport Beach resident Dean Koontz last week. “You need to know about the business,” Koontz...

McKenna Learns Her Way Around the Capitol   Laguna Beach reident Halland McKenna served as a summer intern for Congressman Joe Wilson of South Carolina. Halland gained experience working in Washington, where she attended committee hearings, led tours, and assisted office...

By Carol Bennion, Guest contributor When informed that she had been nominated by Laguna Beach High School faculty and staff to interview with two of her peers to compete for a single spot at California Girls State, Delaney Basile had no idea what she was getting into. “None of us...

    Laguna Beach police intend to up their visibility during the Cinco de Mayo holiday to deter imbibers from getting behind the wheel, says a police statement. California has seen an increase in drug-impaired driving crashes, though locally police report a drop in DUI...

By Cassandra Reinhart, Special to the Independent Laguna Beach police are asking for the help of residents in locating a car thief who got away on foot during a chase Sunday afternoon. It all started when police officers spotted a black 1998 Honda CRV, reported as stolen out of...

By Cassandra Reinhart, Special to the Independent Laguna Beach police are asking for the help of residents in locating a car thief who got away on foot during a chase Sunday afternoon. It all started when police officers spotted a black 1998 Honda CRV, reported as stolen out of...

Editor, We are the current owners of the house high up on Pearl Street that “…sadly has suffered the same fate as befell the Festival’s restaurant with no rescue in sight.” Apparently Mr. Gasparotti knows our house but has not seen it lately.  Although it...

Editor, Congratulations on another great Fete (11th). We marveled at the wide variety of people of all ages and ethnicities; the goodwill the city spreads during this event is incalculable! But the city should do a little by giving those musicians who play for free a one-day...

Editor, What is infuriating is this: they were artists sitting at a café that boasted farm to table food, in the heart of the canyon leading to Laguna Beach, and that most of their conversations were about nonconformity, when one of the female artists among them mentioned some...