Featured Articles from the Daily Pilot

Two Corona del Mar neighbors can end their flap now that the City Council decided to keep chickens out of most residential neighborhoods. The "Goldenrod 6" have to go. The hens attracted widespread publicity in recent months when the city asked their owner to remove them from quaint Goldenrod Avenue in December. In response, people lined up on either side of the fence - literally. At least one neighbor to the hens found them offensive, while others thought they were charming . At a study session Tuesday, the City Council agreed with city staff members who recommended that the current law be upheld.

What began as an enjoyable day at last year's Corona del Mar Christmas Walk has resulted in a legal claim of racial discrimination against Landmark Steakhouse, along with questions about whether Corona del Mar is a hostile community to African Americans. Mark McHenry filed a federal lawsuit on March 29 seeking unspecified monetary payment for "mental anguish, embarrassment and humiliation" resulting from racial slurs used in place of his name on two Dec. 5, 2010 receipts from the Landmark Steakhouse, where he was a regular customer.

A 22-year-old woman was taken to the hospital with major head trauma after she was struck by a vehicle Saturday morning, police said. The woman was crossing the street outside a crosswalk north of the intersection of Newport Boulevard and Industrial Way about 1:11 a.m. when a vehicle struck her, according to Costa Mesa Sgt. Brent McKinley. The cause of the accident remains under investigation, and anyone with information is asked to call Traffic Investigator Rick Cummings at (714)

A Corona del Mar man's federal lawsuit alleging that racial epithets were put on his restaurant receipts has been settled, court records show. In his civil complaint filed last March, Mark McHenry says he found the N-word and variants of it on several of his receipts from the popular Landmark Steakhouse in Corona del Mar. Some of the receipts, according to the complaint, also included remarks like "Black is the new white" and indicated that...

NEWPORT BEACH — It was one of those out-of-body experiences, a tale more befitting of the Sage Hill School gymnasium than a classroom. On Friday, artist Akiane Kramarik, 16, told hundreds of Sage Hill students about what it was like to be a well-known painter who, at the age of 4, told national news networks that her art was the direct result of divine intervention. Discovered as a child and first introduced to a national audience by Oprah Winfrey, Kramarik, who only uses Akiane professionally, has been painting since that moment.

COSTA MESA - Police and local marijuana dispensary owners said they will take their cues from federal authorities on how to proceed in light of last week's announcement that the U.S. Attorney's office is ramping up enforcement against pot collectives in California. "We're in wait-and-see mode," said Jeff Byrne, director of American Collective, a cannabis club on Cabrillo Street. "It looks to me to be a play to take property. Too early to tell. " Last week, California's four U.S. attorneys gathered in Sacramento and announced that they were going after the state's marijuana dispensary businesses, which are federally prohibited.

Deepa Bharath SANTA ANA -- A former girlfriend testified Monday that Eric Bechler -- who is standing trial for the murder of his wife -- told her that Pegye Bechler disappeared during a boating trip three years ago off the coast of Newport Beach and was "not coming back." Key prosecution witness Tina New said she and Bechler often discussed his wife's July 1997 disappearance. Bechler, 33, is charged with murdering 38-year-old Pegye Bechler by throwing her overboard during a boating trip.

Although his memories of Iwo Jima are more than six decades old, Bruce Bender remembered the volcanic ash, the pungent smell of sulfur and oppressive heat with vivid clarity as he sat in his Costa Mesa home this week. Bender was one of the first Marines to set foot on that desolate island in the Pacific in 1945. For those men, things started out calmly enough. But not for long. The barrage began when the third wave of Marines arrived on shore. After that, it didn't end for two days.

Costa Mesa would need $81 million in additional revenue to complete a list of spending projects over the next five years. That's according to the wish list the council created last month to prioritize and execute the city's needs and wants. "Even though you may not have the funding source today, you still need to cast the need in the form of a budget so you can understand the scope and magnitude of what we need to generate in revenue or control in expenses to achieve that goal," said Councilman Steve Mensinger.

Rizell-Luera Christina Lucia Rizell of Huntington Beach and Thomas Michael Luera of Newport Beach exchanged vows at a private estate in Nevada on Feb. 3. The bride is the daughter of Paul and Inga Peralta-Ramos of New York City. The bride wore a Scaasi couture gown in satin and lace. The bridegroom is the son of Carmen Sellers of Hermosa Beach. The best man was Philip Peralta-Ramos. The reception was also held in Nevada. The couple spent its honeymoon in Bora Bora.

There never was any moment when Ken Ammann "decided" he wanted to be a coach. In a way, it was always a given, it was in his blood. Ammann's parents taught and coached at Edison and Fountain Valley high schools, so it was natural for Ammann to find his way back to school after he completed his own education. Even his time as a kid when he roamed the sidelines as a ball boy for Edison football games along with future NFL quarterback Todd Marinovich was an experience from which he learned.

A cross-country move to Newport Beach in 2007 turned out to be a life-changing experience for Daria Gordeeva-Grinkova. Before, she seemed destined to become a figure skater, following in the footsteps of her renowned parents, Katia Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkova. But when Daria came from Connecticut to Newport Beach two weeks before her freshman year at Sage Hill School, she hung up the skates and took up lacrosse. The life of a competitive ice skater is behind her. Daria’s life has changed.