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, [...]
After a presentation on Laguna Beach’s defensible space, where firefighters can safely make a stand against an oncoming fire, City Council member Bob Whalen on Tuesday pushed his colleagues to consider measures to broaden such boundaries. As a result, the council agreed to consider the interior canyons identified by the fire department most in need [...]
Higher parking rates may be among the first changes to affect locals and tourists, if Laguna Beach’s City Council endorses a parking management plan slated for review on Tuesday. The latest draft of the 168-page plan lays out the vision of Irvine-based RBF Consulting, who examined parking in downtown and along Laguna Canyon Road with [...]
U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter last week dismissed all claims but one in a lawsuit filed last March by Leonard Porto, alleging civil rights violations and challenging the legality of Laguna Beach’s treatment of the homeless on multiple fronts. Laguna’s City Attorney Phil Kohn sought to dismiss the suit in its entirety last [...]
Incumbents for four spots on the Arts Commission and two spots on the Planning Commission whose terms expired were re-appointed by the City Council last week. In a surprise turn, the council voted in six members for the Arts Commission, expanding its roster to nine members with the addition of two newcomers, David Emmes, the [...]
For the second time this month, Mayor Kelly Boyd voiced his belief that the city’s largest pending capital improvement project, the estimated $50 million village entrance parking structure and strip park, should not go forward without voter approval. Boyd’s statement came as part of a “State of the City” address Tuesday, where he, City Manager [...]
Quick action by a skim boarder saved the life of an infant pulled into a rip tide by a rogue wave on Saturday at Aliso Beach, according to witnesses. Pat Watson, 46, who took up skim boarding after moving from Hawaii in 1991, said he threw his board aside and took off in a dead [...]
Quick action by a skimboarder is credited with saving a life after a big wave knocked a child from the arms of her mother on Saturday at Aliso Beach, according to witnesses. Videographer Pat Watson, who was trying out a new skimboard, sprinted into the water after he saw a woman pulled off her feet [...]
A second herd of goats will start foraging in open spaces surrounding Laguna Beach to help maintain a fuel break beginning June 1. The city’s Fire Department requested adding more of the four-footed fuel-consumers due to this winter’s scant rainfall, resulting in plants with low moisture levels that easily burn. The state Department of Forestry [...]
By Justin Swanson | LB Indy Thalia Beach Café will close its doors for good after Monday, May 27. The dining establishment, which originally began as Mediterranean food stop Goko’s Cafe, is unable to meet the demands of a new lease with higher rent, say its owners. Goko, in business since 1993, was bought [...]
Laguna Beach police released video images Friday of suspects in two separate break-ins of local businesses, including one that occurred the previous night. They are seeking the public’s help in identifying the suspected culprits. More than $8,000 worth of tools and other items were taken in a midnight burglary at Ganahl Lumber, 1765 Laguna Canyon [...]
View preservation and public safety received top billing at Laguna Beach’s City Council, which heard testimony Tuesday on progress by a committee drafting a new view ordinance and from staff investigating the addition of video surveillance cameras downtown and at the city’s exit points. Larry Nokes, chair of the view equity committee established in January, [...]
He came up to the podium looking like a stylized beach version of the Great Gatsby. Top-siders without socks, dark blue trouser shorts patterned with red embossed anchors, a starchy-new cream-colored sport coat with a blue- and white-checked pocket scarf, a white dress shirt with dark blue tie and stylish, neatly parted black hair. A [...]
Few surprises surfaced in the public workshop held Tuesday as Laguna Beach’s city staff presented a proposed two-year budget, outlining estimated expenditures of $68.5 million for the coming fiscal year and of $67.6 million for the following year. City Council members largely endorsed staff recommendations for use of a $1.1 million windfall in the general [...]
By Tad Heitmann, Special to the Independent Laguna Beach High School’s Park Avenue Players have forged their own intense interpretation of Arthur Miller’s classic American cautionary tale, “The Crucible,” which opens a seven-performance run on Friday, May 24, at 7:30 p.m. Featuring an entirely original prologue depicting the forbidden events that unleash the subsequent hysteria, [...]
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 [...]
