Grocery

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.

Alicia Robinson Employees at the Newport Coast Pavilions store were back at work on Monday, packing orders for delivery to customers who have had to do their own shopping for the past five months. The store resumed delivery service, which was a casualty of the five-month grocery workers' strike set off by a contract dispute with grocery chains. The Pavilions store in Newport Coast is one of 23 Safeway-owned Southern California stores that resumed deliveries on Monday.

Our Newport-Mesa community has many markets affected directly or indirectly by the grocery strike. The letters to the editors sections have overflowed for weeks. This strike has generated a tempest in a corner coffee-pot. However, let's count the blessings: 1. An incentive to go to many different stores and try new products. 2. An opportunity to meet new people and friendly employees. 3. Shop calmly and quietly without being crowded or run over by carts.

They're common sights around any town — abandoned in shopping carts, clogging gutters, strewn by the breeze across parks and front lawns. For defenders of the environment, plastic grocery bags have long been a source of agony and irritation. Starting this month, though, the state of California is taking action to reign them in. An assembly bill that took effect on July 1 has mandated that a number of grocery stores adopt in-store recycling programs, with collection bins for used bags and reusable bags for sale to customers.

Deirdre Newman It seemed like such a simple idea. Pick up extra food from grocery stores that would normally be discarded and deliver it to social service agencies. But when Corona del Mar High School senior Joe Klunder first broached this idea to the management of a Newport Beach grocery store, he was immediately thwarted. "I called the manager ... and he hung up on me," Klunder said. But the 17-year-old was undeterred. Through legal research, cold-calling and perseverance, Klunder transformed his kernel of an idea into the Youth Community Organization Serving Others, which delivers food and clothing to various social service agencies in the Newport-Mesa area.

Attention grocery shoppers: It is now safe to go back to the stores. That's right, the long and bitter and protracted and pick-your-own-adjective strike and lockout between the grocery employee unions and Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons supermarkets has headed for the checkout line. For some, this comes as great news. For those in search of groceries, the dilemma of either crossing the picket line and offending the pickets or having to drive miles out of your way to pick up milk, butter and eggs for the family is over.

Costa Mesa police tackled a man on the Santa Ana Country Club golf course after authorities say he nearly ran over a police officer and crashed a car through a fence into the country club while fleeing the scene of a suspected drug deal in a grocery store parking lot on Friday night. Police shot a second man involved in the incident with a Taser gun after he fled the parking lot on foot. Law enforcement officials now believe that the men were involved in an identity-theft scheme involving stolen bank account information, said Costa Mesa Police Lt. Clay Epperson.

Jennifer Kho MESA VERDE -- About 1,000 business owners, employees and customers have signed a petition to try to persuade Trader Joe's Co. to open another store in Costa Mesa. The petitioners want the new store to open in a shopping center at Harbor Boulevard and Baker Street where Save Max was, said Jody Reese, owner of My Kind'a Beach Tanning Salon, who has been circulating the petitions. "We're trying to get something here that would generate business for the whole center, not just the individual store," said Larry Ziemke, manager at King's Copies, another store gathering petition signatures.

Paul Clinton Healthier-foods grocery store Henry's Marketplace is readying its third Orange County store at the Costa Mesa Square shopping center, a spokeswoman said. The store is scheduled to open within a month. The Southern California grocer, which operates 19 other stores in the region, has also hired David San Miguel as its store director, the company said. "We're excited about opening a new store in Costa Mesa and adding David to the team," said John Baker, the vice president of Henry's.

Irvine police and the FBI are searching for a Newport Beach man suspected of robbing the US Bank inside a Pavilions Market in Irvine on Wednesday. According to authorities, a male suspect entered Pavilions, 3901 Portola Pkwy., and handed the teller a note asking for money. He did not speak, and there was no visible weapon. He fled the scene with an undisclosed amount of cash. Shortly after photos of the suspect were released, authorities received calls that led them to a suspect, Matthew David Lewis.

COSTA MESA — A line of about 50 customers waited Wednesday for the grand opening of the first Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market in Costa Mesa. The crowd streamed in when the supermarket's doors opened a little past 10 a.m. The new store, whose sales space occupies about 10,000 square feet at Newport and Harbor boulevards, will feature the same low prices and community-centric service the brand is known for, said store Manager Mark Spencer. "I can guarantee the best customer service in town," said Spencer, who has more than 25 years experience working in grocery stores, adding that he was very proud of the new team.

Editor’s note: This is the third of a three-part series on how the recession is affecting the Newport-Mesa area. 8 a.m. Bob Jordan got in his company van, set a single cup of water in a cup holder to quench his thirst, and headed off on the route that he’s taken nearly every Monday for the last 12 years. The van, one of two owned by the Westside nonprofit Share Our Selves, maneuvered its way out of the cramped parking lot on Superior Avenue, inching around parked cars and families who had come for their daily needs.

Undeterred by a sizable police search and police helicopter hovering overhead, authorities said a Rancho Cucamonga man doubled down on his luck Monday by robbing a bank only minutes after stealing from a nearby restaurant. Police arrested Kenneth Wayne Bennett, 46, about 2 p.m. Monday outside a Costa Mesa Albertsons store on suspicion that he robbed the Downey Savings branch inside, and less than 30 minutes earlier had stolen a bottle of liquor and a cash register from Newport Rib Co. down the street.

Costa Mesa police tackled a man on the Santa Ana Country Club golf course after authorities say he nearly ran over a police officer and crashed a car through a fence into the country club while fleeing the scene of a suspected drug deal in a grocery store parking lot on Friday night. Police shot a second man involved in the incident with a Taser gun after he fled the parking lot on foot. Law enforcement officials now believe that the men were involved in an identity-theft scheme involving stolen bank account information, said Costa Mesa Police Lt. Clay Epperson.

Simple Peace Bags are stylish and reusable bags that help the environment and the artisans who make them. Founder DeAnna Reposa of Corona del Mar went on a journey to reduce her paper and plastic shopping lifestyle and created her own brand: Simple Peace. Initially, she bought every reusable canvas, fabric and polypropylene recycled product, and wasn’t sold on any one. Now she produces Simple Peace Bags made of high-quality certified organic cotton, hemp and recycled canvas, and they’re manufactured in Orange County!

When the City Council considers how to allocate federal funding for local organizations tonight, one of the programs that could be on the brink is the Costa Mesa Senior Center’s free grocery distribution. The Redevelopment and Residential Rehabilitation committee, which recommends how the city should allocate the Community Development Block Grant money, has determined the city should give the senior center $12,000 for the Senior Lunchbox program. Last year, the senior center received $14,000 for the program which provides free, healthy groceries for low-income seniors every couple weeks.

Presidential contender Barack Obama, rocked by criticism for his affiliation with Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, recently delivered a speech distancing himself from his longtime pastor’s most inflammatory comments but also calling on the nation to engage in a conversation about race. Many religious leaders have heeded the call. Do you think it would be productive to do that in Newport-Mesa, and what would be the best way to go about it?   Obama not only addressed race, but called us to accountability.

With food prices soaring nationwide, Patrice Apodaca has learned to get creative when she goes grocery shopping. The Newport Beach resident, who shops for her family every week, used to pile her cart with mangoes and blueberries, but has laid off some of the produce lately as the price tags grow steeper. She used to do a good deal of her shopping at Trader Joe’s, which offers cheaper costs than many other supermarkets, but now shops there almost exclusively. And she’s grateful that, while milk and produce get less and less affordable, the cost of dry noodles hasn’t skyrocketed too much.

They're common sights around any town — abandoned in shopping carts, clogging gutters, strewn by the breeze across parks and front lawns. For defenders of the environment, plastic grocery bags have long been a source of agony and irritation. Starting this month, though, the state of California is taking action to reign them in. An assembly bill that took effect on July 1 has mandated that a number of grocery stores adopt in-store recycling programs, with collection bins for used bags and reusable bags for sale to customers.