Torii Hunter remains realistic about Angels’ postseason chances

Opportunity, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

Manager Mike Scioscia remains optimistic about the Angels making some kind of playoff push, saying before Wednesday’s 16-inning win over the Cleveland Indians that “we have the opportunity here where if we start playing well, we can really make this interesting.”

Torii Hunter remains realistic. Even after the marathon 4-3 victory, the center fielder acknowledged that the Angels failed to capitalize on what may have been their best and last chance to challenge Texas for the American League West title.

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Fashion Island will participate in national Fashion Night Out on Friday

From LATimes.com and staff reports

Last year’s first installment of Fashion’s Night Out, an effort to jump-start a sagging industry with an evening full of shopping events in major cities all over the world that was brought to us by New York-based Vogue magazine and the Council of Fashion Designers of America, was, not surprisingly, very Manhattan-centric.

Southern California was barely represented, with a few local scattered efforts staged at Neiman Marcus in Beverly Hills and the Fred Segal Center on Melrose Avenue.
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Woman gets police to put cold case on ice

Somebody should pin a detective’s badge on Collene Thompson Campbell.

For the third time, the 78-year-old San Juan Capistrano woman has helped solve a murder mystery — this one a 1933 shooting of an officer considered a cold case by Alhambra police.

Like the other two homicides she played a role in resolving, this was one Campbell took personally.

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Scot Shields’ Angels career is winding down, but he hopes to pitch again this season

Scot Shields can see the writing on the wall. That doesn’t mean the veteran right-hander has to acknowledge it just yet.

The last remaining link to the Angels’ 2002 World Series championship team and the setup man of the decade, as  dubbed by Sports Illustrated, Shields has been relegated to a nonessential relief role this season after missing most of 2009 because of left knee surgery.

Shields, 35, rebounded from an awful two-month start, sprinkling in a few strong outings to bring his earned-run average down from 6.86 on June 10 to 5.28 in 43 games on the year. But with his four-year, $18-million contract expiring and youngsters such as Kevin Jepsen, Jordan Walden, Francisco Rodriguez and Michael Kohn shooting past him on the depth chart, the chances of Shields’ returning in 2011 are less than remote.

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Drugs, drinking popular at park near Metrolink tracks where teens were killed, neighbor says

2 teens struck, killed by train in Mission Viejo

Two teenagers are dead and another is injured after a Metrolink train struck them Thursday morning in Mission Viejo.

The accident occurred at 6:15 a.m. near Alicia Parkway and Via Fabricante, according to KTLA.

The three teenagers appeared to be walking on the tracks when the commuter train struck them. The train involved in the crash was Metrolink Train 603 headed north from Oceanside.

According to Metrolink, a bus is ferrying commuters between the Laguna Niguel and Irvine stations. Orange County trains to Los Angeles are operating with one-hour delays.

– Rong-Gong Lin II

Two girls critically hurt by alleged drunk driver in Santa Ana

Orange County D.A. fires the man he was grooming to succeed him

Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas has fired the man he was grooming to succeed him and, in a departure from what he promised voters earlier this year, will run for reelection in 2014.

Rackauckas had previously announced that 2010 would be his last term. Five years ago, he said the same thing about the 2006 term.

Todd Spitzer, a former assemblyman and Orange County supervisor, was at one point Rackauckas’ hand-picked successor and has worked at the prosecutor’s office since last year, moving between assignments apparently to get on-the-job experience.

Huntington Beach logistics firm needs to find its niche

Marc Schnell is a fixer.

Companies such as Quiksilver Inc. and Smashbox Cosmetics have hired his logistics firm to take care of problems with incoming goods. He has, to cite some examples, hired temporary workers to replace too-small snaps on a shipment of 10,000 shorts that came into a company from Asia, repair 200,000 kids’ lamps with faulty wiring and shrink-wrap thousands of individual boxes of cosmetics for distribution to exacting retailers.

But now Schnell needs a fixer himself.
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20 illegal immigrants arrested in Orange County beach landing

Border agents arrested 20 illegal immigrants Tuesday morning who were attempting to enter the country by sea at Calafia State Beach in San Clemente.

When the small craft the immigrants were riding in land landed, the occupants attempted to flee. Agents with the U.S. Border Patrol arrested 17 men and three women, all from Mexico.

A 36-year-old woman suffered a broken leg while jumping from the boat, according to a statement from the U.S. Border Patrol in San Diego. She was taken to a hospital for treatment. The others were taken to a Border Patrol station for processing.

No further details were immediately available, but the Associated Press said the incident occurred about 3 a.m.