Featured Articles from the Daily Pilot

No one was injured after a fire authorities suspect started in the garage of a Costa Mesa home Saturday, the Costa Mesa fire department said. Twenty-five firefighters kept the fire to the garage of the single-family home at 890 Joann Street. The blaze caused an estimated $20,000 in damage, according to a fire department press release. Fire investigators had not determined the fire's cause as of Saturday evening. Four engines and two trucks arrived at the one-story house at 11:19 a.m. Saturday, the release said.

A new Wild Rivers location is expected to open in May 2014 in Irvine with a 25-year lease. The Orange County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the park's construction and operation at its July 30 meeting. The Irvine Co. did not renew its lease with Wild Rivers last October, leading the water park to close, according to the Los Angeles Times. Its last day was Sept. 25. The location, next to the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, was open for 27 years. "We are pleased to be bringing apartments to the greater Irvine Spectrum area," said Irvine Co. spokeswoman Erin Freeman.

NEWPORT BEACH — Sitting on an oversized plush chair in baseball legend Chuck Finley's Newport Beach home, actress Tawny Kitaen seems to be in a much different place than she was eight years ago. A soccer goal is visible in the backyard, and her daughter's art covers the refrigerator in the family home. Her adopted dog, Woody, nuzzles Kitaen as she talks about a new off-camera passion: helping others. A volunteer at Kathy's House, a shelter for at-risk women in San Juan Capistrano, and a member of the board of directors at Testimony Life Resources, an alternative counseling center, Kitaen appears to be a far cry from her role as the eccentric star of "The Surreal Life," or the woman battling a dependency on prescription pills on "Celebrity Rehab.

The California Supreme Court this week rejected a Jewish organization’s appeal against the estate of Joey Bishop, the late entertainer and member of the “Rat Pack.” But the legal battle over his fortune isn’t over yet, an attorney for the Newport Beach Chabad Center said Friday. The center filed several lawsuits and claims against Bishop’s estate, alleging that the entertainer’s advisors and live-in caretaker blocked his final wishes to have part of his estate go toward setting up a charity for special-needs children in Orange County.

Mary Kay VanderMolen passed away peacefully in her home on Sunday, May 5, 2013. She was born in Chicago, Illinois to Gene and Margaret (Ratican) Fritz.  She was a graduate of the University of Illinois, and later attended nursing school at St. Francis Hospital in Evanstan, Illinois. Mary Kay was a breast cancer survivor, loving mother, and loyal friend.  She is survived by her daughter, Caitlin, who is attending college at UCSB, her son, Chris, who resides in Costa Mesa, CA, and her sisters, Beth and Jeannie, who live in Illinois.  Funeral services will be held on Monday, May 13, 2013, at 10:00 A.M., at Our Lady Queen of Angels Church.  2046 Mar Vista Drive, Newport Beach, CA 92660.

A community theater actress accused of covering for her former fiance after he allegedly killed two college students proclaimed her innocence during Tuesday's episode of "Dr. Phil. " Rachel Buffett, 25, of Long Beach has pleaded not guilty to being an accessory to murder after the fact in the May 2010 deaths of Sam Herr, 26, of Costa Mesa and Juri "Julie Kibuishi, 23, of Irvine. Prosecutors allege that she lied to police about key details following the crimes in hopes of protecting accused killer Daniel Patrick Wozniak, 28, of Costa Mesa.

Although typically considered routine, the consent calendar contained three items that caused a hubbub at Irvine's City Council meeting Tuesday. Mayor Pro Tem Jeffrey Lalloway voiced his lack of support for creating a plaque honoring Planning Commissioner Mary Ann Gaido. "I believe it's bad policy to establish a recognition plaque," he said. "I have nothing personal against Mrs. Gaido - she's a nice lady - but I think we have a wall of recognition designed specifically for this purpose.

After charging an Irvine tennis coach with eight felony counts of lewd acts with a child under 14, prosecutors are asking for more victims to come forward, the Orange County district attorney's office announced Monday. Prosecutors allege Jarrid Thomas Baldogo, 29, met his 12-year-old male victim at the tennis courts in Irvine's Santa Clara Park in November. Irvine police originally said the boy was 13. After being hired as the boy's private coach, Baldogo sexually assaulted him at least eight times in his car and apartment between December and May, prosecutors said.

Andrew Edwards The name is a tongue twister. The store is like a giant toy box. Gary and Diane Naumann opened the fourth branch of Toy Boat Toy Boat Toy Boat last Tuesday at Fashion Island. The store is filled with tricycles, dolls, trucks and pirate ships. "We carry just about everything -- we have Mattel; we have Hasbro; but we have a lot of specialty toys," Gary Naumann said. Some favorite toys at the store, the Naumanns said, are the bright plastic Bruder trucks that are stacked near the doorway.

Surf fishing is wide open all along the south coastline. Prime spots off Huntington Beach are kicking out barred perch, corbina and yellowfin croaker while the calmer surf line between the Newport and Balboa piers has been the beach to fish for perch, a fair number of corbina and halibut. The water temperature is holding in the low 70s and this is making fishing very comfortable during the early morning hours and on into the night time fishing period. Angler's Center in Newport Beach is always a good place to find out what's happening around Newport and a stop by the tackle shop last week to check on off shore fishing ended by setting up a fishing date with reel service manager, Ed Dillon of Newport Beach, to fish a good morning tide on Thursday.

During one weekend every December, some of the most beautiful, bizarre and unusual plants take over the Fullerton Arboretum. On Saturday and Sunday, the Orange County Cactus and Succulent Society will hold its annual winter show and sale, and the public is invited. If you're an aloe addict, have an echeveria itch or are addicted to agaves, you've probably had these dates marked on your calendar for months. If your conversation is peppered with words like caudex, glochids, monstrose, fasciated, cresting and variegation, nothing is wrong with you — you're just a cactus and succulent addict.

Irvine Councilwoman Christina Shea's proposal to investigate and improve the housing situation for developmentally disabled residents drew applause - and unanimous approval - at Tuesday's meeting. This "vulnerable group" does not receive adequate aid, and this was confirmed at a recent Community Land Trust meeting, Shea said. "A group of residents did let us know that within Irvine, housing for the developmentally disabled is in short supply," she said. "And that affordable housing designed for those residents to use, in their words, is 'non-existent.'" Toward this end, she suggested creating a task force, but first city staff must: •Identify the scope of the current and future housing needs of the city's developmentally disabled population; •Summarize current housing policies; •Describe housing services others provide to serve the needs of these residents; •Provide the council with a list of possible solutions, if inadequacies are found; •Structure a task force that would convene and provide recommendations to the council for consideration.