Garden Grove

The Newport Harbor Baseball Assn. Mustang under-9 All-Stars went into their Sunday afternoon game against Garden Grove with plenty on the line. In Sunday's sectional final played at Bob Henry Park in Newport Beach, a win would advance them through to the following week's regional tournament. A loss would mean the end of their season. Standing in their way was the Garden Grove squad that had handily beat Newport just three days earlier, 10-4. But this time, NHBA turned the tables for a 11-5 to advance to the regional tournament.

Sarah Ann Booth, born in Willard, Ohio on October 15, 1927,  peacefully passed away Tuesday, June 7, 2011 surrounded by family  and friends. Sarah resided in Orange County, California for over 40 years.   Many of those years were spent living in and going back and forth to Saudi Arabia with her beloved husband Clarence who worked for the ARAMCO Oil Co. until his passing in 1984. Once permanently settled in Costa Mesa Sarah’s passions in life were her loving grandchildren,  gardening and supporting charities.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against a Garden Grove man accused of executing a Costa Mesa man and his co-worker during a robbery last year in Stanton. Because of the seriousness of the alleged crime, and the nature of the slayings, a panel of Orange County district attorney prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Hilbert Pineil Thomas, 39. Thomas is accused of shooting, execution-style, Costa Mesa resident Matthew Francis Scott, 42, and his coworker Elizabeth Ann Palmer, 50, of Fountain Valley, on Feb. 2, 2010 at Golden Sun Homes in Stanton.

The Irvine Health Foundation on Tuesday will award $150,000 to Costa Mesa's Share Our Selves at the Pacific Club in Irvine. The award is given to organizations that demonstrate "extraordinary success, creativity and innovation in promoting health and wellness" as well as availability and accessibility of services. "The organizations receiving these recognitions serve nearly 100,000 residents annually," Ed Kacic, president and CEO of the Irvine Health Foundation, said in a statement.

Drawing blood from his own arm, the father resolved to save his children from starvation and dehydration at sea. He dribbled it into their mouths, all to deliver them from a bleak promise of poverty and repression. That's how Phu Nguyen describes his and his sister's escape from Vietnam. It was 1981, and Nguyen, only 3 at the time, had set sail with his family. After one month at sea, the death of nine children aboard their boat, and eight months in a Hong Kong refugee camp, the Nguyens finally arrived in America.

F reebie of the week: Dig the Smashing Pumpkins as much as you dig free stuff? Visit smashingpumpkins.com now to download the first four songs off their new concept album, "Teargarden by Kaleidyscope Vol. 1: Songs for a Sailor," for free. Visit the site frequently if you like what you hear; there will be a total of 44 new songs released, one at a time, culminating in a box set . The main event For many, Memorial Day means a chance to grab a discount sofa or bedroom set, so we'll focus this week's O.C. Bargainista column on that which can be sat on, run over or hung from a ceiling or wall.

A Garden Grove man pleaded not guilty Friday to killing a Costa Mesa woman and her co-worker in Stanton last year. Hilbert Pineil Thomas, 39, was indicted last week on two counts of murder related to the mysterious killing of two people at the Golden Sun Homes trailer park in Stanton Feb. 2, 2009. For months authorities could not find a motive for the crimes or the car of Elizabeth Ann Palmer, a Costa Mesa resident, who was a secretary there. She and Francis Scott, the business owner’s son, were shot to death.

The push is on at Newport-Mesa Unified schools to get as many parents as possible to fill out the 2010 Census, the theory being that the more students are counted, the greater the chance of federal money in the absence of state aid. Although counting everybody is important to the U.S. Census Bureau, traditionally it’s been the Latino population in the district that’s specifically targeted due to the occasional language barriers, said...

A former UC Irvine biology major was convicted Tuesday of strangling his mother to death during an argument about his career path in medicine. Son Richard Lam Nguyen, 31, of Garden Grove, faces up to 11 years in prison for killing his 71-year-old mother on Dec. 20, 2008. Nguyen was living in the same room with his mother then, and the two argued about his career. Nguyen graduated from UCI with a degree in biology and was a first-year student at Ross University in Dominica, a school in the Caribbean, where he was studying to become a pharmacist.