California

You might want to check to see if the surf's up Wednesday. The California Assembly on Monday approved a resolution declaring June 20  International Surfing Day,  and the head of the sport's international advocacy group is urging people to take the day off to hit the waves.  "You have my permission to skip work," Surfrider Foundation Chief Executive Jim Moriarty  announced on Twitter . "I'll even write your sick note....

In his recent State of the State address, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger addressed our fiscal deficits. He lamented that the budget for the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has doubled on his watch. Moreover, the governor is tired of California being a donor state. Recent estimates suggest that California gets back 78 cents for every tax dollar sent to Washington. His answer?: “We need to work with the federal government to build a more fair and equitable financial relationship.

The 2009 Golden State Spirit All-State Team Was announced November 22, 2008. These 15 girls were chosen from the best of the best from the state of California based on Cheerleading skills, Academics and outstanding Community Service. The following girls were chosen to the California All-State Team: From Granite Bay High School                                                      Allison Grace From Hart High School                                                                   Stephanie Harris From Magic All Stars                                                                      Lauren Loos From Victory Cheer Company                                                       Natalie Corwin From Riptides                                                                                 Brittany Scholl From Mater Dei High School                                                         Kendall Bullock        From Costa Mesa High School                                                     Allison  Krikorian ...

Editor's note: The Daily Pilot was not granted access to Mitt Romney's visit to the Balboa Bay Club & Resort on Friday night and instead covered the protests outside. This story from pool reports was made available later. * A confident-sounding Mitt Romney in Newport Beach mocked his rival's campaign Friday, hours after the release of disappointing jobs numbers put Democrats on the defensive. At his private fundraiser at the Balboa Bay Club & Resort — where four tickets fetched as much as $25,000 — Romney joked about a visit former President George W. Bush made to the White House a day earlier for the unveiling of his official portrait.

Submitted by Kelsey Chase July 12, 2009 As a summer intern in a city full of unique opportunities and rare experiences I have made every effort to make the best of my stay in Washington DC. You really never know who you might see or what you might stumble across. So far, a couple notable experiences I’ve had were attending a small presentation given by the former Presidential candidate John McCain and sitting in on a Congressional hearing that my boss testified at. This week I had a memorable experience meeting the Senator of California, Senator Diane Feinstein.

Dorr-Carey Engagement Announcement Mr. and Mrs. George Carey of Balboa Island are pleased to announce the engagement of their daughter, Jennifer Morgan Carey  to John Wells Dorr III, son of Mr. and Mrs. John Dorr II of Lafayette, CA. Jennifer is a graduate of Newport Harbor High School and the University of Hawaii where she competed in volleyball. She is the Assistant Volleyball Coach at the University of California at Berkeley. John is a graduate of Las Lomas High School and the University of California at Berkeley where he competed in swimming.

HAL LEHMAN May 8, 1918 - February 26, 2013 Hal Lehman, 94, a 55-year resident of Newport Beach, died peacefully after a long illness, at his Lido Isle home, surrounded by family on Tuesday, February 26, 2013. Hal, the only surviving son of Gladys and Benjamin H. Lehman, was born at home in Boston on May 18, 1918 during the post-WW I flu epidemic. He was basically a life-long Californian, however,  having moved with his family to Berkeley in 1920, when his father joined the University of California faculty as a professor of English.  Hal's mother and father were divorced in 1922 and his  mother moved to Los Angeles where she subsequently became a screen writer and was one of the founders of the Screen Writers' Guild.  As a result of the divorce Hal spent a lot of time on trains between northern and southern California, spending one year with his father in Berkeley and the next with his mother in Toluca Lake.  That arrangement continued until he was 16, when he decided to stay in southern California closer to most of his friends.  Graduating from North Hollywood High, he went on to UC Berkeley  WWII was on the horizon and he joined  the Army in 1940.  A good portion of the next five years were spent in the South Pacific theater.

Natalie Wadsworth-Eilertson Natalie Millicent Wells-Wadsworth-Goode-Eilertson passed away December 22, 2012 in Corona del Mar, California of congestive heart failure at 80.  Born October 15, 1932 in Long Beach, California, Natalie was a beloved sister, wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. She was deeply loved and appreciated by those who knew her.  She shared her joy and deep love for God with others throughout her lifetime. Natalie is survived by her husband John Eilertson, her children Heather Wadsworth-Golub, Sharon Wadsworth-Jillson and John Wadsworth, her step-children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Ashley Erin Greywoode     February 7, 1978 - August 29, 2012 Maiden name: Foss Born in Newport Beach, California, Ashley was the first child of Tom and Stancie Foss, making her a third-generation Californian.  She, along with her brother Taylor and sister Carrie spent nearly all of her childhood in Orange County.  Ashley graduated from Newport Harbor High School and then attended Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where she obtained her Bachelor of...

Christina Suzanne Reicher & Brent Michael Ball Mr. and Mrs. Robert Reicher of Newport Beach, California, are pleased to announce the engagement of their daughter, Christina Suzanne, to Brent Michael Ball, son of Mr. and Mrs. David Ball of Corona del Mar, California.   Christina and Brent are both graduates of Corona del Mar High School.  Christina attended the University of California, Irvine, where she studied sociology and business management. She now enjoys a career in real estate.  Brent studied at the University of San Diego, where he majored in business administration.

Dorr-Carey Engagement Announcement Mr. and Mrs. George Carey of Balboa Island are pleased to announce the engagement of their daughter, Jennifer Morgan Carey  to John Wells Dorr III, son of Mr. and Mrs. John Dorr II of Lafayette, CA. Jennifer is a graduate of Newport Harbor High School and the University of Hawaii where she competed in volleyball. She is the Assistant Volleyball Coach at the University of California at Berkeley. John is a graduate of Las Lomas High School and the University of California at Berkeley where he competed in swimming.

Underlying all the many issues in education is one big, persistent problem: income inequality. From preschool to college, from test scores to technology access, socioeconomic status is the single most important determinant of student opportunity and achievement. This has long been, and probably will always be the case, but it hasn't always been addressed or even fully acknowledged. Recently, however, some bold, yet vastly different, responses to the have/have-not problem have emerged, each bringing fresh controversy while challenging our ideas about how far our public school system should go to try to engineer solutions.

ROBERT LANGFORD MONTGOMERY, JR. 1927-2013 Robert Langford Montgomery, Jr., Harvard '50 mcl, Ph.D. '56 died on February 26, 2013 in Newport Beach, CA. A navy veteran of World War II, he was a professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California - Irvine from 1967, just two years after its founding, until his retirement in 1994. Earlier he had taught at the University of Texas at Austin and at Williams and held a Fulbright Fellowship in France. His academic work centered on the poetry and prose of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

After meeting for nearly two hours in closed session, the Orange County Fair Board announced Wednesday that Doug Lofstrom will take over as interim chief executive. Lofstrom, who takes the helm Thursday, replaces interim CEO Jerome Hoban, who announced earlier this week that he is leaving for a new job as head of the Alameda County Fair in Pleasanton, a Bay Area suburb. Hoban's last day is April 30. "My heart and soul is in this property," Hoban said Tuesday, adding that he was "going to miss this staff.

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert and Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell were in California this week on a whirlwind tour to woo Golden State businesses to expand or relocate to their states. At the Westin South Coast Plaza hotel in Costa Mesa on Thursday, both state leaders took a breather to talk to The Times about why they were chatting with companies in Costa Mesa, Palo Alto and San Francisco. The governors, who cooked up this joint tour after discussing their mutual interest in job creation, took a much more amicable tack than Texas Gov. Rick Perry . Perry's swing through California in February was punctuated by radio ads that declared, "Building a business in California is next to impossible.

Greg Willard Memorial Service & Celebration of Life April 8th at 1:00P.M Reception to Follow Mariners Church (Worship Center) 5001Newport Center Dr. Irvine, California 92603 Preferred Attire- Please Wear Purple in Honor of Greg's Fight against Pancreatic  Cancer

A missing Northern California teen was found in Costa Mesa with a gun in his waistband and a samurai sword in his car, police said Thursday. Costa Mesa police received a call at 6:07 p.m. Tuesday from a 17-year-old boy's father, who said his troubled son may be headed from Elk Grove to see someone he knew in Costa Mesa, according to police. Costa Mesa police and Huntington Beach police using a helicopter searched for about two hours before finding the boy, who was tracked through his cell phone to an area a couple of blocks from Wake Forest Road and College Avenue.

A marathon runner who teaches kindergarten at California Elementary School is leading about 60 kids on a 26-mile journey of their own. Vikki Clifford will run the OC Marathon on May 5, but the day before, she'll be cheering on students from her school's running club in a race of their own. She knows it's a lot to take on. "By the time I get home, I'm saying, 'There's a race I have to run tomorrow, and I'm dead," she said. California Elementary students from kindergarten to sixth grade are training every week for the Kids Run the OC event, when they will run a final mile to cap off 13 weeks of preparation.

Hayden Burthe sprinted through the last 30 seconds of his leg of California Elementary School's fundraiser and lay on the grass, but after pouring a bottle of water over his head, he hopped back up to celebrate the 35 laps he'd run. He and his fifth-grade classmates were churning along for a reason. "So we could get money [for the school] and so we could get pie in the face," said classmate Chris Abak, who ran 29 laps. Donors had pledged money to the school's technology program for each lap the Costa Mesa students ran at their annual jog-a-thon Wednesday.

HAL LEHMAN May 8, 1918 - February 26, 2013 Hal Lehman, 94, a 55-year resident of Newport Beach, died peacefully after a long illness, at his Lido Isle home, surrounded by family on Tuesday, February 26, 2013. Hal, the only surviving son of Gladys and Benjamin H. Lehman, was born at home in Boston on May 18, 1918 during the post-WW I flu epidemic. He was basically a life-long Californian, however,  having moved with his family to Berkeley in 1920, when his father joined the University of California faculty as a professor of English.  Hal's mother and father were divorced in 1922 and his  mother moved to Los Angeles where she subsequently became a screen writer and was one of the founders of the Screen Writers' Guild.  As a result of the divorce Hal spent a lot of time on trains between northern and southern California, spending one year with his father in Berkeley and the next with his mother in Toluca Lake.  That arrangement continued until he was 16, when he decided to stay in southern California closer to most of his friends.  Graduating from North Hollywood High, he went on to UC Berkeley  WWII was on the horizon and he joined  the Army in 1940.  A good portion of the next five years were spent in the South Pacific theater.