Paul Clinton

Joining other shellshocked travelers on a United Airlines flight -- less than two weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks -- wasn't the most calming experience. On the morning of Sept. 20, my fiancee and I boarded Flight 112 to Chicago's O'Hare International as the first leg of a trip to Pittsburgh. Los Angeles International was an eerie place on that Thursday, with the nearly empty buses running from the remote parking lots. Walking into the terminal, we instantly spotted long, snaking lines at the United ticket counters.

Paul Clinton For reporters, access is key. Of course, many of the public records at our fingertips are also available to any other average Joe -- birth certificates, property deeds and city budgets. But more important than access to records is access to people. Those involved in the issue can usually tell you the most about it. Gaining that access isn't always easy. This is where we reporters earn our huge paychecks. As a rule of thumb, elected officials tend to be more open to sharing information than paid staff members.

Paul Clinton After a July that wasn't much like July, this August is expected to be more like August. With summer weather starting to finally kick in, weather forecasters are expecting a hotter than normal August after a cooler than normal July. "If anything, it will be slightly warmer than a usual August," said Jennifer Welti of the National Weather Service. "It shouldn't be cooler." A warming trend began to hit Newport-Mesa on Monday. It is expected to continue Wednesday, before cooling slightly toward the end of the week, Welti said.

Paul Clinton Little Anthony Rath grabbed at the colorful, plastic eggs laying on the grass. As his father Francis held out the front of his shirt like an apron, the 2-year-old dropped the candy-filled eggs into it and smiled. Anthony was happy. The boy's joy came at the annual Eastbluff Easter Egg Hunt at Eastbluff Park. The event, now in its 19th year, is put on by Newport Beach and the Eastbluff Village Center. The shops in the center donate the candy.

Paul Clinton As a college basketball player, Mark Roche always looked for ways to get stronger, quicker and more agile. Lifting free weights gave him strength, but always made his muscles sore. Plyometrics, the form of German gymnastics that includes tossing a medicine ball, gave him agility, but didn't help him with his vertical leap. Once Roche discovered a line of computerized training equipment that helps athletes improve their strength and endurance by working specific "core" muscles, he found his niche in the training industry.

Paul Clinton Two people's lives ended Friday evening in a vicious head-on collision on the northbound side of the San Joaquin Hills toll road. A man driving the wrong direction on the toll road caused the 6:18 p.m. crash, authorities said. It left the road strewn with tires, bumpers and the ripped-apart hulks of the three cars involved. The toll road from the Laguna Canyon Road to the Newport Coast Drive offramp was closed for several hours, authorities said.

Paul Clinton Susan Adkins gained an 11th-hour reprieve for her Omelette Parlor after Vons officials agreed to rescind their call for her ouster from a 17th Street shopping center. During a Tuesday meeting, Vons Companies Inc. agreed to put Adkins on a month-to-month lease and incorporate her popular local eatery into a planned renovation of the center. "Vons is planning a remodel of the shopping center," Adkins said. "At this point, it's their intention to accommodate the Omelette Parlor."

Paul Clinton NEWPORT BEACH -- The California Court of Appeal has put a local environmentalist's lawsuit challenging the legality of the influential California Coastal Commission on a fast track. The appellate court announced Friday the expedited treatment of the case and scheduled a deadline of Friday for all written legal arguments. Rodolphe Streichenberger, who lives in Newport Beach, won a major court victory against the commission in April, when a Sacramento Superior Court judge declared the agency unconstitutional.

Paul Clinton NEWPORT BEACH -- Moving ahead with a Greenlight vote on the Koll Center expansion, the City Council on Tuesday authorized a special election for Nov. 20. The council members set the date at their regular council meeting with no one speaking out against their move or the project. The council previously approved the project, a 250,000-square-foot expansion of the office complex, at its July 24 meeting. With Tuesday's action, the residents will now get a chance to decide whether project developers will be allowed to build their 10-foot office tower.

Paul Clinton Several maverick Orange County businessmen have formed a nonprofit environmental advocacy group to help clean up the county's beaches. Four of the 11 board members of the group, known as the MiOcean Foundation, live in Newport Beach. Craig Atkins and three other fellow surfers, who also work in the private sector, founded the group about two years ago after a day of surfing in front of Atkins' West Newport home. Atkins remembers heading back to the shoreline, with board in hand, after riding one last wave.

Paul Clinton A modestly-sized crowd of gays and lesbians stepped in unison in Saturday's Orange County Dyke March in a solidarity event that also featured a clear political message. Shouting slogans such as "Hey-hey, ho-ho, homophobia's got to go" and carrying signs demanding recognition for same-sex marriage, the group briskly walked a city block in the afternoon heat. This year's event, the second in the city, drew controversy when the city imposed a 21-point rule book of regulations as an addendum to an event permit.

Paul Clinton Members of a moderate wing of the Republican Party based locally have thrown their growing political clout behind the Running Man. Citing its two-year political relationship with actor and gubernatorial hopeful Arnold Schwarzenegger, the New Majority decided Wednesday to support the candidate with the most star power. The coalition of fiscally minded business leaders, who founded their group in 1999 to abolish "social litmus test" issues for Republican candidates, also said they are philosophically aligned with the former Mr. Universe.

Mike Swanson and Paul Clinton Let the games begin. Peter Ueberroth, leading organizer of the 1984 Olympics, former baseball commissioner and an Orange County resident, is among 135 candidates seeking to replace Gov. Gray Davis if Californians vote for a recall Oct. 7. Ueberroth, a registered Republican, will run for governor as an independent candidate with a bipartisan campaign team. He is using a Newport Beach address as a campaign headquarters.

Paul Clinton As an olive branch to organizers of the second Orange County Dyke March, city leaders have backed away from the bulk of a 21-point rule book imposed on organizers of the Saturday parade. After a series of meetings with attorneys from the group on Friday, city officials elected to drop restrictions on the use of the motorcycles and a requirement that riders submit copies of their driver's licenses, said Tom Wood, the acting city attorney.

Paul Clinton What was once a bustling boater's paradise of yacht shops, parts retailers and other marine businesses has lost some of its luster, civic leaders say. Mariner's Mile now relies more on a handful of lucrative sales tax-generating auto dealers and hot-spot restaurants, but still needs revitalizing, city and business leaders agree. With an eye toward bringing back the hustle and bustle of the Newport Harbor-lining commercial strip, officials and merchants are putting together a series of improvements expected to raise the level of commercial activity.

Paul Clinton Some 20 years ago, Don Ayres Jr. turned his gaze away from the homebuilding business. Ayres, the son of one of Los Angeles' notable early builders, had completed a handful of Orange County housing projects and was looking toward new horizons. A trip to Europe inspired Ayres to move in to the hospitality business. "We went to Europe," the now 62-year-old Ayres said. "We were tired of building homes." From his fatigue sprang the Country Side Inn in Costa Mesa, near John Wayne Airport.

Paul Clinton Mesa Verde's John Moorlach is chasing Orange County's top staff job: the often politically perilous chief executive post. Supervisors fired Michael Schumacher in January after a relatively short tenure. The board also cut loose Jan Mittermeier and, earlier, clashed with William Popejoy. Moorlach, the county's treasurer, will discuss his candidacy for the post at noon today at the Newport Irvine Rotary Club. The meeting will be held at the Atrium Hotel, at 18700 MacArthur Blvd.

Paul Clinton Paul Frank's new retail store, which opened at South Coast Plaza on Saturday, joins a cluster of other clothiers that cater to Orange County's hipster youths. Frank's ironic, deadpan monkey logo has caught fire with mostly fashion-conscious young women, who wear it embroidered on wallets, T-shirts, pajamas and other gear. The South Coast Plaza store is Frank's second in the area, set in a shopping center he headed to as a child to "pick up the ritzy stuff."

Paul Clinton Assemblyman Ken Maddox avoided the state's budget-crisis pressure cooker to honor his commitment to the California Army National Guard. Maddox left his Sacramento office on Friday for Ft. Leavenworth, Kan. He is scheduled to spend two weeks there, returning Aug. 5. "On Sept. 11, terrorists attacked our country because they hate everything about the American system," Maddox said in a statement. "As an elected representative of that system, I rejoined the guard to defend our way of life."