Plastic Bags

The Daily Pilot edition dated Feb. 8 offered an interesting contrast between two sincere advocates concerned with the Newport-Mesa Unified School District's successful accomplishment of its mission to properly educate and prepare its graduates to be all they can be. Views were presented by Pilot columnist Steve Smith and school board Trustee Karen Yelsey. Smith's front page-column ("City Life: Hubbard could be re-hired") suggested a competent checklist for avoiding contractual obligations that have plagued past N-MUSD administrations.

Andrew Glazer WEST SIDE -- In the blue dusk of a cool Thursday evening, six girls with damp, perfumed hair pulled back in ponytails sat on the pavement between two townhouses on Shalimar Street, coloring with pastel markers. Twelve children, ages 4 to 14, played separate baseball games in the middle of the street, running bases chalked onto the asphalt. Five boys and girls perched on a broken wooden fence. Their teeth and tongues were dyed orange, pink and blue by the Popsicles they bought from the ice cream man who passes there at roughly 5 o'clock each evening.

Mathis Winkler NEWPORT BEACH -- Heidi may not guard Taco Bell chalupas, but when it comes to defending her own life, the 6-year-old Chihuahua is every bit as heroic as her famous TV counterpart. After escaping from her owner's Harbor Ridge home last week, Heidi came face to face with a coyote. Since coyotes give birth to their offspring in February or March, the young animals are ready to go hunting for food by this time of year. "[Heidi's younger sister]

T3 Motion, a Costa Mesa manufacturer of electric vehicles, scored a cameo appearance on national television Sunday, when four of its vehicles were featured in a 60-second Audi ad that aired during the Super Bowl broadcast. The company’s stand-up vehicles appeared in Audi’s “Green Police” spot promoting the A3 TDI, Audi’s new diesel-powered station wagon. “Officers” with the “Green Police” were depicted cracking down on people who displayed unfriendly attitudes toward the environment, such as shopping with plastic bags or using incandescent light bulbs.

Turtles often mistake floating plastic bags in the ocean for jellyfish, and they eat them in their entirety. Sea birds think those tiny blue beads of pre-manufactured plastic are actually fish eggs, and they swallow them whole. Their digestive systems can’t take it, and the creatures end up starving to death. The end result is dead fish and more dead sea birds as plastic pollution in the Pacific Ocean mounts. As many as 1 million sea birds die each year and up to 100,000 sea turtles die from the consumption of plastic, that inanimate object that has frustrated environmentalists for decades.

June Casagrande CRYSTAL COVE -- Ten men thought to be illegal immigrants from China and stripped bare were found on the beach here early Thursday and taken into custody by sheriff's deputies. Officials believe the men are all Chinese nationals who were dropped off by a boat offshore near the El Morro Mobile Home Park. The men floated to shore naked in the 60-degree water using life jackets, buoys and makeshift rafts. They were carrying clothes and provisions in plastic bags.

Young Chang Promises started sprouting this week at the Orange County Fair. Promises that your onion rings would be "colossal," that your corn dog would be "jumbo," that your sourdough bread would be "world famous," at least for the duration of the 16-day fair, which starts at 10 a.m. today The signs and their trailers moseyed onto the fairgrounds on Saturday. By Wednesday, the vendor at Ice Cream Desserts was baking his waffle cones and rolling them into funnel shapes.

A recent visit by the state’s second-in-command reminded residents that in addition to plastic bags and aluminum cans, much of its sewer water is recycled. The Orange County Water District hosted state Lt. Gov. John Garamendi and state Assemblymen Van Tran and Mike Duvall Jan. 30 for a tour of the Groundwater Replenishment System in Fountain Valley. The system is the largest purification project of its kind in the world; the amount of water it produces can supply half a million area residents each year, and it is not affected by drought.

Gene Kelly — who choreographed and danced to movie routines involving roller skates, trash can lids and newspaper pages — would have loved “Stomp,” now making a return visit to the Orange County Performing Arts Center. As Spike Jones proved eons ago, there aren’t many objects with which you can’t make, if not music, at least some rhythmic noise. The eight bundles of energy in “Stomp” just take it to illogical extremes. This bountiful bundle from Britain — born in Brighton back in 1991 — is calculated to equally entertain audiences with tin ears and those with perfect pitch.