Violence

NEWPORT BEACH — Sitting on an oversized plush chair in baseball legend Chuck Finley's Newport Beach home, actress Tawny Kitaen seems to be in a much different place than she was eight years ago. A soccer goal is visible in the backyard, and her daughter's art covers the refrigerator in the family home. Her adopted dog, Woody, nuzzles Kitaen as she talks about a new off-camera passion: helping others. A volunteer at Kathy's House, a shelter for at-risk women in San Juan Capistrano, and a member of the board of directors at Testimony Life Resources, an alternative counseling center, Kitaen appears to be a far cry from her role as the eccentric star of "The Surreal Life," or the woman battling a dependency on prescription pills on "Celebrity Rehab.

The public on Thursday night can hear about the increasing violence against women in polygamous, religious sects when UC Irvine begins its David and Sylvia Easton Lecture program. From 7 to 8:30 p.m., Rose McDermott, a Brown University professor, will discuss her research on the ties between polygamy and various kinds of violence against women. McDermott’s talk will take place in the Social and Behavioral Sciences Gateway and is hosted by the school’s Interdisciplinary Center for the Scientific Study of Ethics and Morality.

Director David Cronenberg is known for strange psychological thrillers with science-fiction overtones, "The Fly," "Dead Ringers" and "Naked Lunch" being a few of his eccentric projects. But despite the aggressive title, "A History of Violence" may be his most mainstream and accessible work to date. Viggo Mortensen emerges from his heroic "Lord of the Rings" role to play Tom Stall, a very ordinary family man in small-town America. He's married to a sexy sweetheart with two kids, and he runs the local diner.

Students and faculty at Tarbut V’Torah community day school will use their voices to battle violence against women at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 19. “A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer,” will feature students and faculty reciting true stories of violence as part of its Global V-day fundraiser. Senior student at the school Leah Greenbaum is producing the show after reading the book of the same title by Eve Ensler, the famous author of The Vagina Monologues. The event will be in the Upper School Lecture Hall in Irvine.

Prospective sailors and their families should have no concerns later this month traveling to Ensenada, Mexico, for the 62nd annual Newport to Ensenada International Yacht Race despite reports of increasing violence at the border, Mexican government officials said Thursday. “We know there’s violence in some places, but it’s not spread all around the country,” said Carlos Rodríguez y Quezada, a consul of Mexico based in Santa Ana. “People have asked for more arrangements to be more safe” and they’ve done that, he said.

I'm a journalist and, of course, I believe in free speech. However, certain lines are drawn all the time. For example, I don't know of a video game or telephone app that teaches players how to abuse children. However, there's now what I believe to be a comparable app through which participants can learn to "train" dogs to fight one another. The goal is for the winner to rip the other dog to shreds. The tagline on the "game," called "KG Dogfighting," is "Raise your dog to be the best.

The Vanguard Center for Women’s Studies and the United Studios of Self Defense are partnering to bring the women of Orange County an afternoon of learning more about personal safety, confidence, self-protection and advocacy. After a one-hour self-defense class, the Stop the Violence audience will be able to learn more about violence in their community, ways to help and opportunities to make a difference. Stop the Violence will be from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday at United Studios of Self Defense headquarters at 26826 Vista Terrace, Bldg.

Danette Goulet NEWPORT-MESA -- A proposed revision to the school district's zero-tolerance policy will beef it up, not ease it. The revision, if it's passed by the school board tonight, will outline the Newport-Mesa Unified School District's intolerance of violence and threats of violence by students against students. "The district will not tolerate any gestures, comments, threats or actions, either written, verbal or physical, which cause or threaten to cause or are likely to cause bodily harm, personal degradation or disgrace," the proposed new section of the policy reads.

STEVE SMITH A few weeks ago, my mother gave me the gift of a subscription to the Christian Science Monitor. Having read it almost daily since, I am pleased to report that this is an excellent newspaper, one that I highly recommend to you. The reporting is crisp and clear, with as much of the elusive "balance" that I've ever seen. Don't let the name fool you -- this is not a religious paper. There is on occasion a column devoted to promoting Christian Science, but it is clearly marked as such and except for that, there are no other references.

Noaki Schwartz Pastor Gary Barmore still remembers those occasions when he was randomly attacked while growing up in Compton during the 1950s. While some people might have let these seeds develop into prejudices, Barmore said, thanks to his parents he managed to grow up without any deep animosities. "My parents used to send me to an annual national conference that was interreligious and interracial," he recalled. "I spent a week living with people and feeling what it was like to step into their lives."

The sounds of the high school band Cosmic Infinity reverberated through Corona del Mar High School's quad Friday, drowning out the conversations of students eating lunch. As the music geared up, students celebrated breaking the silence, with some pulling pieces of tape from their mouths and speaking for the first time that day. "I want people to know they are definitely not alone and they can speak up and they have a voice," said freshman Savannah Bachelder, 14, who is part of the Humans Relations Council.

I'm a journalist and, of course, I believe in free speech. However, certain lines are drawn all the time. For example, I don't know of a video game or telephone app that teaches players how to abuse children. However, there's now what I believe to be a comparable app through which participants can learn to "train" dogs to fight one another. The goal is for the winner to rip the other dog to shreds. The tagline on the "game," called "KG Dogfighting," is "Raise your dog to be the best.

The convicted leader of a jewel-thieving gang that killed eight people should be sentenced to life in prison — not death, as prosecutors hoped — a federal jury has determined. Anh The Duong, the leader of a band of gun-toting thieves who robbed jewelry and electronic stores up and down California, including two heists in Newport Beach and Costa Mesa, will be sentenced Feb. 3 in federal court in San Jose. Duong was convicted in September of killing four of the eight people who died during the gang's eight-year crime spree.

At the end of a week of overcast, gray skies and shiver-inducing winds, Newport Beach found itself blanketed in the sun’s warmth Friday afternoon. It was as if the weather cleared to honor an event that’s been smooth sailing for 63 years: the Newport to Ensenada International Yacht Race. Even with participation at a low not seen in years, everyone who crowded onto Balboa Pier to watch the beginning of the race was confident that it’d be around for years to come because of one word: tradition.

“Legion” wants to be a supernatural thriller of biblical proportions. A plague of swarming locusts is only one of many bizarre events unleashed by an angry God. Demons prowling the landscape portend the end of the world. Strange and violent creatures threaten what may be a last outpost of humanity. Dennis Quaid leads the cast of frightened survivors. They are stuck in a desert gas station and greasy spoon restaurant waiting for the next bad thing to happen. There are several scenes with first-rate special effects that grab you by the throat.

The public on Thursday night can hear about the increasing violence against women in polygamous, religious sects when UC Irvine begins its David and Sylvia Easton Lecture program. From 7 to 8:30 p.m., Rose McDermott, a Brown University professor, will discuss her research on the ties between polygamy and various kinds of violence against women. McDermott’s talk will take place in the Social and Behavioral Sciences Gateway and is hosted by the school’s Interdisciplinary Center for the Scientific Study of Ethics and Morality.

During a meeting between UN goodwill ambassador Nicole Kidman and Congress’ foreign affairs subcommittee on violence against women throughout the world, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, who’s a ranking member on the committee, asked if Kidman believes that Hollywood contributed to violence against women. Kidman acknowledged that Hollywood plays a role. Although the focus of the congressional hearing was on violence against women, Rohrabacher’s question was the only thing that was picked up by major news outlets, said Tara Setmayer, communication director for the congressman.

After three days of testimony, prosecutors Tuesday rested their murder case against Costa Mesa native and skinhead gang member Billy Joe Johnson. If he is convicted, attorneys would go into the trial’s penalty phase. The Orange County district attorney’s office is seeking the death penalty for Johnson, 46. Johnson is on trial for his alleged role in the March 2002 slaying of Scott Miller, a founding member of the Public Enemy Number One white supremacist gang. Other leaders in the gang “green-lighted” a hit against Miller following his participation in a 2001 TV news story about skinhead gangs in Southern California and the prison system.

Costa Mesa white supremacist Billy Joe Johnson lured fellow gang member Scott Miller into a dark alley in an Anaheim apartment complex, where two other men who were part of a “chosen death squad ” back in March 2002 lay in wait, an Orange County prosecutor told jurors Wednesday, the first day of Johnson’s murder trial. They ambushed Miller and shot him in the back of the head with a 9-millimeter handgun, he said. “Mr. Johnson led Mr. Miller to his execution and loved every second of it, and loved every second since, because it made him a hero,” Senior Deputy Dist.