Stars

COSTA MESA — When intracity Little League All-Star rivals meet annually in the best-of-three Mayor’s Cup series to decide the Costa Mesa city youth baseball championship, the competition can be, well, wild. But the term took on a more literal meaning in the opening game of the 2009 series, won by the Costa Mesa National Little League 11- and 12-year-old All-Stars, 11-3, Monday at Costa Mesa High. Costa Mesa American pitchers issued nine walks and added five hit batsmen to help the visitors prevail.

COSTA MESA - Signs outside the Rags to Riches store run by reality TV "mogul" Dave Hester have been defaced. Black letters across the red and white consignment store's sign read "davehesterfraud.com," and a sign announcing the store's move to Orange was pasted over with a sign reading "Newport con gallery has moved. For more information, go to davehesterfraud.com. " The website urges people not to do business with the TV star. Hester, who stars on A&E's " Storage Wars," ran the thrift store at 1941 Newport Blvd.

Ryan Bousquet, who won a state championship in men’s cross country as a sophomore for Orange Coast College in 2001, died in a motorcycle accident on Aug. 27. Bousquet, 25, was dead on the scene in Anaheim and speed was believed to have been a factor, according to various reports. Bousquet transferred to OCC from Arizona State and competed for the Pirates for one year. He then transferred back to Arizona State. Recently, he had been an assistant coach for Esperanza High’s cross country program.

Coaches like to philosophize about the off-season, stating frequently that games are won in the weight room and on the recruiting trail. The Orange Coast College football team, however, may have lost its best chance at a successful 2008 season in the classroom this past off-season, as no fewer than seven projected starters have come up academically ineligible. Among those who failed to make the grade(s) are five returning starters, including second-team All-Mission Conference American Division tight end Billy Brown.

The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Orange County and Inland Empire Chapter is hosting a wine-tasting cruise Sunday with proceeds going to the organization, officials said. From 3 to 7 p.m., the public is invited to taste wines from around Southern California and enjoy a five-star meal prepared by Executive Chef John Kesoglou aboard the Entertainer. The yacht has three decks and can hold 300 people and will cruise around Newport Harbor. Participating wineries include Zin Alley, Hamilton Oaks, King Frosch, Justin Winery, Cielo, Prager Port, OC Custom Winery and Windsor Vineyards.

I've never had a good relationship with the sea, or really any large body of water where I could drown. But then I heard about the Moonlight Kayaking tours offered at the Newport Aquatic Center in Newport Beach. I can't tread water, but at 23 I figured I'd give water activities one more shot. What could possibly go wrong with kayaking in the Back Bay on Memorial Day weekend? At least I'll have a lifejacket on, right? By day, Danny Hough is a kayak instructor at Orange Coast College, but at night he moonlights as a tour guide, leading paddlers around the bay and residential areas.

Former UC Irvine baseball standout Christian Bergman, a pitcher for the Tulsa Drillers, a Double-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies, is a Texas League All-Star. Bergman will represent the Drillers in the June 25 exhibition game at Arvest Ballpark in Springdale, Ark. Through 10 starts this season, Bergman is 3-5 with a 3.60 earned-run average. He has allowed 83 hits, walked 10 and struck out 41 in 80 innings. Opponents are hitting .266 against him. Bergman, a 6-foot-1 right-hander, won the Chuck Stevens Award in 2012 as the Southern California resident who had the most outstanding minor league season.

North Star Beach in the Back Bay reopened Wednesday morning after a sewage spill closed the area earlier this week, officials said. At 11:15 a.m. officials with the Orange County Health Care Agency received information showing the contamination cleared, according to Larry Honeybourne of the OCHCA. Sewage clears out of an area or dilutes when bacteria and organisms, accustom to living inside an animal's intestines, are exposed to sunlight, temperature changes, natural die off and predation by other microorganisms, Honeybourne said.

Alex Coolman "It was a sad day yesterday in Ireland," said Noel Ginnity, one of the performers in "Stars of the Irish Cabaret." He was talking on a cellular phone from a bus taking him to the airport for a flight to Las Vegas. "Yes, they buried the Irish national hokeypokey champion," Ginnity said. "It took hours to get him in the ground. "Every time they put the right leg in, he put the right leg out." Ginnity, the cabaret's comedian, has a tendency to slip into slightly fanciful anecdotes.

A world-class event, CaDance Festival, will take center stage in Laguna Beach from Oct. 1 to Oct. 9, offering a full menu of top dance performances, master workshops and classes, an Oscar-nominated dance documentary with two of its stars in a attendance, and a gala event with Patrick Swayze. An esteemed dance professional for more than 20 years, Jodie Gates, the festival's artistic director, is bringing internationally recognized dancers and premier dance companies for the nine-day event.