Mission

Our fair city of Costa Mesa has been roiled with controversy over the past few weeks about our serious budget deficit and the actions our City Council is taking in an attempt to correct it. I thought I'd look into the facts about this situation, in an effort to cut through the rhetoric and become better informed. According to reported data, the average Costa Mesa household earns about $60,000 per year. Three hundred and sixty-six of Costa Mesa's 472 employees are paid more than $100,000 per year.

The Daily Pilot asked fourth-graders at Newport Elementary School: "Would you have wanted to live on a mission?" "No, because when the Indians were there, they had to give up their heritage and their culture to the Spanish." Olivia Muscatello, 9 Newport Beach "No. I'd probably want to own my own land." Ian MacInnis, 10 Newport Beach "No, because there were punishments if you did something wrong, and children did certain jobs I would not want to do."

It isn't every day that Don Schoendorfer gets a call from the White House. In fact, the Santa Ana resident had never gotten any calls from the White House, which is why he was skeptical when a woman claiming to be with the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives called and said President Bush wanted to meet with him. This was no prank call -- the president wanted to meet Schoendorfer to commend...

Mission San Juan Capistrano’s “Romantico” raised more than $230,000 to benefit the preservation of the Mission’s south wing. Last Friday evening the Newport-Mesa social crowd joined with advocates of California history and citizens embracing the spiritual path of the old Mission. They joined for the annual gala dinner celebration, a major financial underpinning of the ongoing restoration and preservation efforts. More than 550 guests attired in end-of-summer finery gathered under the stars for a pre-concert reception fronted by honorary chairwoman Erma Jean Tra cy , representing her family’s foundation, the Thomas J. Tracy and Erma Jean Tracy Family Foundation.

Girls Inc. will host a black-tie fundraiser at 6 p.m. Friday at the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach to support its programming and mission to ?inspire all girls.? Starting with a cocktail reception and featuring a dinner, auction and live music and dancing, the highlight of the event will be keynote speaker Barbara Cirkva Schumacher, the division president of Chanel Inc. Two auctions will transpire, one silent and the other live, with the main prize being the ?Ultimate Parisian Fashion Experience,?

50, Newport Beach ... President and chief executive of the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum ... Took over museum late last year and immediately implemented a roster of community and family events to complement museum exhibits and mission ... Drafting a plan to expand the museum while creating an embarcadero area for the city ... Served as a trade advisor for the Bush and Clinton administrations and once met Yasser Arafat...

HAGESTAD TWO OVER RANCHO MIRAGE — Newport Beach resident Steve Hagestad shot two-over-par 74 in the first round of the ClubCorp Mission Hills Desert Junior golf tournament at Mission Hills Country Club Tuesday to tie for 20th place. Hagestad trails the co-leaders by five strokes in the 54-hole event that continues today. The field consists of 57 boys, ages 12-18.   HESS EARNS HONOR Newport Beach resident Brad Hess, a junior catcher at Brethren Christian High in Huntington Beach, earned first-team, All-Academy League recognition in baseball.

Anastacia Grenda The Mexican film "Ave Maria" features an exceptional performance by Tere Lopez Tarin as a young woman who is persecuted for her beliefs, both scientific and spiritual. Tarin plays the titular Maria, who is living at a mission in "the New Spain" in 1659. Because her father is in good graces with the prelate who can fund a new cathedral for the mission, Maria is allowed to focus more on her intellectual pursuits, such as botany and astronomy, than on her prayers.

Hillel Foundation of Orange County may have dropped its investigation into anti-Semitism at UC Irvine, but the task force the organization assigned to do the job is pledging to continue the inquiry. “We’ve invested so much and learned so much that we feel obligated to go ahead with the report,” said Jesse Rosenblum, the task force’s chairman. Hillel created the task force in February after several clashes between Jewish and Muslim students over the years that were sparked by various controversial speakers and protests.

He still performs the original words. When Arlo Guthrie was a boy, he sat in the backyard with the guitar he'd gotten for his fifth birthday and listened as his father taught him the end of "This Land Is Your Land" - the lyrics, cut in many renditions, that decry hunger and private property. Those verses didn't strike Arlo as much more political than the rest of the song, but he typically closes each performance with one of them. He still sings for the dissenting and downtrodden, as his father did for so many years.

The Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce will not host the Taste of Newport dining festival this year. Chamber President and Chief Executive Steve Rosansky announced the cancellation of the fall event, which for years has been featuring samples from various local restaurants. He made the announcement in a newsletter circulated Monday. "Over the past 24 years, the Taste of Newport has grown into a major Southern California signature event," he wrote. "As a result, it has increasingly relied on the resource of the chamber to the point of keeping us from our core mission of promoting, informing and educating our membership and serving the business needs of the Newport Beach community.

Kevin Kassel's life revolves around water. The 17-year-old environmentalist is captain of the surf team at Corona del Mar High School and founder of a club intent on providing drinking water for people without access to it. Kevin started the H2O Club this school year with the goal of raising $10,000 that will help send 200 water filters across the globe. But the club has been more than two years in the making. When he was 15, Kevin learned about Hurley's H2O program during a tour of its corporate headquarters in Costa Mesa.

CORONA DEL MAR — Winter sports are here, but the members of the Corona del Mar High girls' basketball team are understandably still quite interested in the school's last fall sports squad competing. The CdM football team plays for its second straight CIF Southern Section Southern Division title at 2 p.m. Saturday at Angel Stadium. The girls' basketball team also has to play its last game of the CdM Tip-Off Classic on the same day. The more games the CdM girls win in the tournament, the later their game on Saturday, which means more time for football watching.

Mission San Juan Capistrano hosted its annual Romance of the Mission fall gala Sept. 14. It starred actor and singer Davis Gaines , perhaps best known for his role in "The Phantom of the Opera," performing in the ruins of the mission's Great Stone Church. Chairing the Friday evening event under toasty late-summer skies were Jan and H. Warren Siegel , a retired Orange County Superior Court judge. The Siegels were also the honored guests of the night recognized for their years of dedication to mission projects.

NEWPORT COAST - On Friday night, the Sage Hill School football team played what Coach J.R. Tolver called perhaps its best opponent in his four-year tenure with the Lightning. During the game against Mission Prep of San Luis Obispo, Tolver got perhaps the most outwardly upset he has been during that tenure. The Lightning, missing their top two quarterbacks, were shut out by the Royals, 52-0. It was their most lopsided loss since losing to rival St. Margaret's, 70-0, in 2009. But Tolver had more of an issue with the way things transpired in the second quarter of the nonleague game at Sage Hill.

Knots of Love, which donates handmade caps to chemotherapy patients, is vying for votes next month for a grant worth up to $250,000. Beginning Sept. 6, the Costa Mesa nonprofit will compete alongside nearly 30,000 other charities eligible to receive grant money from the Chase Community Giving 2012 program. Chase media contact Eileen Leveckis confirmed that the charity to receive the most votes could be awarded up to $250,000. An additional 195 top charities could receive anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000, depending on voting results.

With a 2011 trip to the state meet denied and a school record mark not reached, Karlèh Wilson entered this track and field season with some unfinished business. As she approaches Friday's CIF Southern Section Masters Meet at Cerritos College she is one step away from completing her mission. Wilson, the standout senior and Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week, owns the school record in the shotput. Now she's trying to qualify for the state meet, which is June 1 at Buchanan High in Clovis.

Once again, sporting their iconic hats, sunglasses, and suits, Jake and Elwood live on in the hit show, "The All-New Original Tribute to The Blues Brothers," which currently is making its West Coast premiere at the Irvine Barclay Theatre. The critically acclaimed West End production has been upgraded for its U.S. tour, which features the original London cast with additional songs, revived choreography, and a brand new set. The fully revamped production, which started touring the U.S. in the summer at the Chicago Auditorium Theatre, will wrap up its American tour in Irvine on April 7. "This [America]

A Mission Hills man accused of killing two relatives of a UC Irvine student and attempting to kill a third will face jurors a second time, authorities said Tuesday. Opening statements begin Wednesday in the trial against Charles Anthony Murphy Jr. The 27-year-old stands accused of two felony counts of special-circumstances murder, one felony count of attempted murder and one felony count of conspiracy to commit murder, according to the Orange County district attorney's office. In 2007, the D.A.'s office contends, Murphy helped his childhood friend, Van Nuys resident Iftekhar Murtaza, kill Murtaza's ex-girlfriend's father and sister, and stab her mother.