Seal Beach

SEAL BEACH -- Pam Serdutz paced nervously outside the Salon Meritage early Thursday morning, desperate to know whether her favorite stylist was among the victims. "I can't stand it, not knowing whether Gordon survived or not," she said, trying not to cry at the scene of Wednesday's shooting rampage in Seal Beach that left eight dead and one critically injured. She was referring to Gordon Gallego, who she said had cut her hair for years. Full coverage: Deadly shooting at Seal Beach beauty salon "I called his home phone, but his message machine is full," Serdutz said.

SEAL BEACH - A gunman opened fire in a hair salon Wednesday afternoon, killing eight people in what authorities are calling the deadliest rampage in modern Orange County history. The shooting about 1:30 p.m. in the normally placid O.C. beach town near the Los Angeles County line eclipsed even the 1976 mass murder of seven people at Cal State Fullerton. It was immediately unclear whether any of the victims were from Newport Beach or Costa Mesa, but the shooting reverberated in the Newport-Mesa community.

SEAL BEACH - Beach volleyball players ages 18 and under may compete in the final tournament of the Sunkist AVP/AVA Youth Tour, scheduled Aug. 27 at Seal Beach. The event, a follow-up to the AVP tour stop at the same venue, Friday-Sunday, features competition in 10-and-under, 14-and-under, 16-and-under and 18-and-under divisions. Winners from each division will have the opportunity to appear on Fox Sports Net. Interested competitors may register by phoning the AVP at (310)

Recent Newport Harbor High graduates Bryce Greeley and Justin Morehead, as well as Ryan Knapp of Estancia, are in the field for the CORE Realty Holdings Junior Golf Tournament, which is scheduled for July 24-27 at Old Ranch Country Club in Seal Beach. The field includes 84 boys and girls ages 12-18 from seven states, as well as China and Taiwan. Sixty of the players are from California. Greeley and Morehead helped the Newport Harbor boys' golf team finish third at the CIF Central Team Divisional last May. Knapp, who just finished his sophomore year at Estancia, helped the Eagles to the Orange Coast League championship and their fifth straight undefeated league season.

Mathis Winkler NEWPORT BEACH -- Returning to his hometown after a 7-year stint as Seal Beach's public works director, Stephen G. Badum will take on the same job here starting June 18. Badum said he had been interested in the position for quite some time and actually left Newport Beach to return later on. "I knew I needed more experience at a higher level," he said, adding that he'll be able to build on his experience...

Doris Kettles Ronholt, born March 28, 1918, in West Haven Connecticut ,died April 16, 2008, in Whittier, California. Dorrie was a long time realtor in Orange County who pioneered the sale of Leisure World properties in Seal Beach & Laguna Beach. She was preceded in death by her first husband, A.Y. “ Sandy “ Kettles and by her second husband, Kai Ronholt. She is survived by her daughter Mary Randall and her son, Dave Kettles, three grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren.

EDITOR?S NOTE: These people have been arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of an intoxicant. They are considered innocent until proved guilty. ? Costa Mesa Wednesday, Dec. 12 Michael David Agnor, 36, Lancaster Christopher Oreski, 42, Costa Mesa Thursday, Dec. 13 Tamer Farah, 26, Fullerton Aimee May Anderson, 21, Huntington Beach Andrew Bettencourt, 21, Costa Mesa Friday, Dec. 14 Laura Wheeler, 36, Costa Mesa Lea Evans, 22, Huntington Beach Adam Wayne Scott, 20, Huntington Beach Jonathan Novak, 23, Costa Mesa Saturday, Dec. 15 Jonathan Novak, 23, Costa Mesa Breanna Calapietro, 28, Seal Beach Christopher Diffee, 27, Costa Mesa Jaime Villa, 28, Costa Mesa Sunday, Dec. 16 David Edward Marano, 31, Costa Mesa Ashley Marie Munno, 21, Irvine Andrew Fletcher Kalanz, 26, Costa Mesa David Anthony Trucios, 26, Costa Mesa Monday, Dec. 17 Chicko Ito, 31, Long Beach Thomas Ralph Rowe, 20, Costa Mesa ?

GIRLS’ VOLLEYBALL Newport Harbor def. Edison HUNTINGTON BEACH — The visiting Sailors clinched a share of the Sunset League title and the league’s No. 1 berth in the CIF Southern Section Division I-AA playoffs with a 25-21, 25-17, 25-16 win Thursday. Cinnamon Sary had 35 assists and Maddy Brown had 12 kills the Tars (24-6, 9-1 in league). Sage Hill def. Oxford Academy CYPRESS — Zoe Kreitenberg and Lindsey Kish had seven kills each to pace the Lightning’s 19-25, 25-17, 25-7, 25-14 Academy League win Thursday.

The jury trial of a Costa Mesa priest accused of molesting a 7-year-old has been delayed, according to court records. Denis Lyons, 77 of Seal Beach, was set to appear at Santa Ana's Central Justice Center on Monday, but will now appear in court at 9:30 a.m. Thursday. Lyons is charged with four felony counts of lewd acts on a child under the age of 14, court records show. He is accused of molesting a boy in the church rectory and sacristy at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Costa Mesa, according to archived reports from the Costa Mesa Police Department and Orange County district attorney's office.

Richard Dunn SEAL BEACH - With the European professional volleyball season over, Newport Beach's Leland Quinn is back on local sand, but the neighborhood isn't quite what it used to be. After a one-year hiatus, the Association of Volleyball Professionals Tour will return to Seal Beach Aug. 18-20 for the Paul Mitchell AVP U.S. Open. Quinn, among the area products expected to compete with beach volleyball's best athletes for the $75,000 purse at Seal Beach, lives most of the year in Europe, where last season he played in Spain.

I appreciate Benjamin J. Hubbard's take on angels and demons, and the goodness of most people, and I respect the turn to religion to process events such as the tragic massacre in Seal Beach ("Our angels are stronger than demons," On Faith, Oct. 19). Scott Dekraai, the alleged Seal Beach shooter, is a severely disturbed individual. The tragedy didn't have to happen. I suggest another practical approach that would tap into concrete responses by the angels: Many people in our society are suffering from real neurobiological disturbances, ranging from depression and other mental illnesses, including post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.

The Seal Beach Sun is the first newspaper that paid me to write. The exact date escapes me. It was about 1990, maybe 1991. The article, a feature, was about a lifeguard, but I recall little else. What I remember clearly is the freelance pay: $25. What amounted to gas money also gave me some badly needed confidence that the journalism degree I was pursuing nearby at Cal State Long Beach would lead to a paying job. I've spent the days following the Seal Beach shootings thinking back on my times covering the community as a Sun freelancer while in college and, much later, as a staff reporter and editor at the nearby Long Beach Press-Telegram.

SEAL BEACH -- Pam Serdutz paced nervously outside the Salon Meritage early Thursday morning, desperate to know whether her favorite stylist was among the victims. "I can't stand it, not knowing whether Gordon survived or not," she said, trying not to cry at the scene of Wednesday's shooting rampage in Seal Beach that left eight dead and one critically injured. She was referring to Gordon Gallego, who she said had cut her hair for years. Full coverage: Deadly shooting at Seal Beach beauty salon "I called his home phone, but his message machine is full," Serdutz said.

SEAL BEACH - A gunman opened fire in a hair salon Wednesday afternoon, killing eight people in what authorities are calling the deadliest rampage in modern Orange County history. The shooting about 1:30 p.m. in the normally placid O.C. beach town near the Los Angeles County line eclipsed even the 1976 mass murder of seven people at Cal State Fullerton. It was immediately unclear whether any of the victims were from Newport Beach or Costa Mesa, but the shooting reverberated in the Newport-Mesa community.

Newport Beach and surrounding coastal communities this week received the kind of report card that would make any parent proud: nearly straight As. From Newport Bay to Crystal Cove, area beaches not only scored high in water quality on Heal the Bay's annual report card, but many fared better than last year. The Santa Monica-based environmental nonprofit's report gave A-to-F grades to 447 California beaches after documenting the "routine monitoring of beaches by local health agencies and dischargers," according a press release.

The jury trial of a Costa Mesa priest accused of molesting a 7-year-old has been delayed, according to court records. Denis Lyons, 77 of Seal Beach, was set to appear at Santa Ana's Central Justice Center on Monday, but will now appear in court at 9:30 a.m. Thursday. Lyons is charged with four felony counts of lewd acts on a child under the age of 14, court records show. He is accused of molesting a boy in the church rectory and sacristy at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Costa Mesa, according to archived reports from the Costa Mesa Police Department and Orange County district attorney's office.

Accused of impersonating a G-Man, a Seal Beach woman met real FBI agents Thursday when they arrested her at Fashion Island in Newport Beach, authorities said. Karen Hanover, 44, was arrested without incident two days after federal prosecutors charged her in a Santa Ana federal court with using special technology to mask her phone number and disguise her voice so she could scare people into thinking she was a federal agent. The criminal complaint accuses Hanover of targeting people at real estate education seminars to pay her a $30,000 "fee" to help them find commercial properties to buy. Hanover spent all of her time allegedly finding new investors to swindle out of their money instead of actually finding property, something she wasn't qualified to do anyway, prosecutors claim.

SEAL BEACH - When your father plays violin, your brother plays violin, your cousins play violin and your aunt plays viola, clearly the sounds of strings run deep in the family. So it was only natural that Maxim Eshkenazy take up the family trade and pick up a violin at age 5. His mother - the engineer of the family - insisted. His father, though, wasn't so sure. But it all worked out. That motherly insistence is what eventually brought Eshkenazy far from his European homeland and to Orange County audiences.

Loyalty to a former boss is certainly commendable, but for columnist Steve Smith to compare Dr. Laura Schlessinger's recent "eleven n-word rant" to that of the legendary social critic and humorist Lenny Bruce boggles the imagination ("City Life: Another lesson learned," Aug. 17). Superficially there is a relationship, because Lenny was given to including all the racial epithets in his shtick — we found a Dustin Hoffman rendition of the famous and profane Lenny doing stand-up on YouTube — with the express and stated purpose of softening their sting.

Sometimes I can feel bad news waiting for me on the other end of a ringing phone. It was Friday night a week ago. I was in the newsroom. My wife’s number appeared on the caller ID. There was commotion on the other end. All I heard my wife say was that our daughter was hurt and bleeding, that the situation wasn’t dire. But then there was something about the kid needing stiches. My gut turned. My 4-year-old had been on the playground at her preschool center in Huntington Beach, my wife explained.