EDUCATION
A little more time for KOCE foundation's payment
Coast Community College District officials on Thursday agreed to
give the KOCE-TV Foundation another chance to come up with an
$8-million down payment to buy the station.
The fundraising arm of Orange County's only public broadcasting
channel missed a June 30 deadline to come up with the money. District
trustees voted to extend that deadline to Thursday because the
license transfer was still awaiting approval by the Federal
Communications Commission.
-- Marisa O'Neil
NEWPORT BEACH
A Rose Queen honored, revered and remembered
Holly Halsted Balthis, hailed as the "Queen Mum" of Rose Queens,
died of natural causes in her Laguna Beach home. She was 95. Balthis
was the oldest surviving Rose Queen and won the honor in 1930 at a
time when she was given $10 to make her own gown. For 73 years, Rose
Queens looked up to Balthis as their glorious predecessor.
She was proud of the title she held. Balthis had a special
fondness for the Tournament of Roses and drove herself to all related
events. She had television interviews scheduled as recently as two
weeks before her death.
* As it turns out, people with official titles aren't the only
ones who take themselves seriously. Ski Meinschein is the
self-proclaimed "Birdman of Newport Beach." The West Newport man
lives for birds. For the last three years, he claims that he has been
visited by cliff swallows, denizens of Argentina that take a summer
vacation in Orange County.
Meinschein waits in his backyard for a pair of swallows to fly by
twice every day. He believes the swallows stop and do a loop when he
claps his hand softly for them. Meinschein used to entertain Newport
Beach Pier visitors with his collection of exotic birds, but he
retired from his labor of love for health reasons three years ago.
-- Deepa Bharath
COURTS
D.A. files new complaints in Haidl gang-rape case
The Orange County district attorney on Friday filed a revised
version of the initial complaint in the trial of a high-profile
gang-rape case, hoping it would fetch a conviction the second time
around, officials said.
Prosecutors have filed nine felony complaints against Greg Haidl,
son of Orange County Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl, Kyle Nachreiner and
Keith Spann, including rape and oral copulation by intoxication,
sexual penetration by intoxication and assault with a deadly weapon
-- in this case a pool cue.
Prosecutors say the three defendants, all now 19, raped an
