Three city council members replied to an email question from me stating neither they nor their families will ride in the City of Mission Viejo float in the Tournament of Roses Parade. They are Gail Reavis, John Paul Ledesma and Frank Ury.
Council members Trish Kelley and Lance MacLean have not responded. I will [...]
Archive for July, 2008
Letter: Three Council Members Vow Not To Ride Float
Posted in Letters to Editor, Rose Parade Float on July 24, 2008 | 5 Comments »
‘Cost Plus’ Store Reports Customer ID Thefts From PIN Pads
Posted in Business, Consumer, Crime & Public Safety, tagged Cost Plus World Market, ID Theft, PIN pads on July 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Cost Plus World Market (“Cost Plus”) announced today it recently learned that PIN pads at its Mission Viejo Store may have been tampered with between February 2008 and April 2008. As a result, certain account and PIN numbers may have been acquired by unauthorized third parties. There have been reports of unauthorized debit card activity [...]
Little Girl In The Red Wheelchair
Posted in Charity, Events, Sports, tagged Mission Viejo 5K Run, Mission Viejo Football, Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation, Samantha Weiner on July 19, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Samantha was diagnosed with cancer at the age of eighteen months. Today she is a 17-year-old junior at Mission Viejo High, in the Special Education Program. Although she survived cancer, the treatment left her mentally and physically disabled, requiring special care 24/7.
The Mission Viejo High football team adopted Samantha and pediatric cancer as their [...]
Letter: Paving Paradise
Posted in City Aestheics, Letters to Editor, Parks & Recreation, Save Casta Golf Course, Zoning & Development, tagged Casta del Sol Golf Course, Diane Greenwood on July 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
As the old Joni Mitchell song says:
“They paved paradise and put up a parking lot” and…”you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.”
Let’s not lose any more of the precious green space that Mission Viejo has. Our city seems to want to cement over anyplace that will bring in a nickel and a new [...]
Letter: Sunrise Is Pit Bull Attacking Golf Course
Posted in Uncategorized on July 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Mission Viejo’s planners determined the appropriate amount of greenspace and recreational space the community should have. The resultant CASTA DEL SOL golf course is an example. Shrinking the golf course will adversely effect the USGA rating of the course.
Sunrise Housing is like a pit bull. They grab on and never let go. They ignore the [...]
Starbucks Closing Two MV Stores
Posted in Business on July 17, 2008 | 2 Comments »
As part of a strategy to close 600 stores nationwide, Starbucks has announced two closings will occur in Mission Viejo.
The store near Henry’s Market on Santa Margarita Parkway will be closed. The street address is 27775 Santa Margarita Parkway.
The second store slated for closing is on Marguerite Parkway across the street from [...]
Casta Golf Course: Sunrise Explores Alternate Section For Housing
Posted in City Aestheics, Initiative (Low Density), Parks & Recreation, Planning Commission, Save Casta Golf Course, Zoning & Development, tagged Casta del Sol Golf Course, Casta Golf Course, Sunrise Assisted Living on July 17, 2008 | 4 Comments »
Last year Sunrise Assisted Living entered a provisional contract to purchase Casta Golf Course. It then conducted a PR campaign to condition residents to its plan to construct a multi-story housing facility in the area of the current clubhouse and maintenance yard. Its plan assumed the City would rezone that site for high density housing.
The Company is now exploring [...]
Times Cuts Local News Resources
Posted in Media, tagged Los Angeles Times, Orange County Times, William Lobdell on July 17, 2008 | 1 Comment »
The L.A. Times has reduced its staff of Orange County reporters to 11, severely straining resources for covering community news, according to long-time OC reporter William Lobdell, who announced he is leaving the newspaper.
Lobdell, interviewed today on National Public Radio, stated no news organization has yet devised a model to overcome the electronic [...]
MV Man Injured: Totals 2008 Harley Motorcycle
Posted in People, tagged Michael Franzee, Motorcycle Accident on July 17, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Michael Franzee of Mission Viejo, age 53, was in satisfactory condition after crashing his motorcyle in a rural area of Washington.
Franzee failed to negotiate a curve and broke his collar bone after sliding into a rock embankment. The site was 28 miles west of Winthrop, according the Wenatchee World News. He was being [...]
Letter: SVN Concerned About Blogs
Posted in Letters to Editor, Media, tagged Allan Pilger, Blogs, Saddleback Valley News, SVN on July 17, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Readers should be on the lookout for an upcoming Saddleback Valley News report on the general public’s take on community blogs like the Mission Viejo Dispatch.
Lindsey Baguio, Saddleback Valley News staff writer, reported in July 16’s issue that she will “be hitting the streets of Mission Viejo this week to find out if you, the [...]
PhotoStory: Assemblyman Spitzer & Councilman Ledesma Rally For Test Fairness At THS
Posted in Schools, tagged College Board, Educational Testing Service, ETS, John Paul Ledesma, Todd Spitzer, Trabuco High School on July 17, 2008 | 1 Comment »
State Assemblyman Todd Spitzer and Mission Viejo Councilman John Paul Ledesma participated at a rally Wednesday afternoon to support Trabuco High students who felt cheated when their college board scores were invalidated on the basis of faulty testing oversight by school administrators.
The rally took place in front of a large media presence, including TV crews from KNBC, KOCE, [...]
Letter: We Weren’t Informed Re Test Administration
Posted in Letters to Editor, Schools, tagged Trabuco High School AP Tests on July 16, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
This is all true. Like the Dispatch article states, we are only advised to report student misconduct—knowing of any exam takers with unfair advantage, observing cell phone use, etc. I was never aware of any rule concerning random seating or proctor/ student ratio; and the methods to report any unfair advantages were only regarding student [...]
Exam Innocence: Testing Board Didn’t Advise Students of Admin Rules
Posted in Schools, tagged Advance Placement Tests, College Board, ETS, Trabuco High School on July 15, 2008 | 10 Comments »
The Educational Testing Service (ETS) has tried to defend cancelling 690 Advanced Placement test scores for about 380 Trabuco High Students by referring to its student/parent bulletin. The ETS argument fails because the bulletin did not disclose to students and parents the administrative rules and violations that led to revocation of the test results.
It seems uncontested that administrators failed their [...]
Photos: Sandcastle Champs Grant-A-Wish At U.S. Open
Posted in People, tagged Greg LeBon, Team Archisand, U.S. 28th Sandcastle Open on July 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Mission Viejo’s Team Archisand won the national championship for 6 of the last 8 years, but this year had to yield to a San Diego team. The 28th U.S. Open of Sandcastles took place in Imperial Beach over the weekend with thousands of spectators flocking to see the sculptures.
MV’s Greg LeBon, shown in [...]
Craigslist Scam: MV Man Arrested
Posted in Crime & Public Safety, People, tagged Alexander Braslavsky, Anthony Marshall, house rental deposits on July 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Carlsbad police yesterday charged Mission Viejo resident Anthony Marshall, age 38, with defrauding people shopping for housing rentals.
According to police, Marshall and a partner, Alexander Braslavsky of Irvine, age 34, would identify vacant foreclosure homes. They then allegedly took rental deposits on the those homes from innocent shoppers who responded to their ad on [...]
