Shares of Irvine-based Tilly’s jump in trading debut

Shares of surf-and-skate retailer Tilly’s Inc. jumped on the first day of trading in the company’s initial public offering.

The Irvine company’s stock climbed 10% on Friday to close at $17.07, a sign of confidence for a retailer jostling for the same youth shoppers as rivals Zumiez Inc. and Pacific Sunwear of California Inc.

Tilly’s surprised Wall Street by pricing its IPO at a higher-than-expected $15.50 a share Friday. That topped the planned range of $11.50 to $13.50 a share and pointed to healthy demand for the stock.

Operating about 140 stores in 14 states around the country, the retailer sells surf-inspired clothing and accessories from brands such as O’Neill, Billabong and Rip Curl.

In the 2011 fiscal year, Tilly’s reported a profit of $34.3 million, up 41% from $24.4 million in the previous year. Sales also rose 20% to hit $400.6 million.

Tilly’s good fortune has been shared by competitor Zumiez, an action-sports chain in Everett, Wash., that reported a 10.1% jump in same-store sales last month and has shown consistent sales growth in the last year.

Another rival, Pacific Sunwear, has not fared as well. In December, the Anaheim company said it would close as many as 200 of its weaker-performing stores in an effort to turn itself around after a three-year slump.

–Los Angeles Times

Experts: Bolsa Chica dolphin may have returned to sea

Onlookers take photos and watch as a dolphin swims in the Bolsa Chica wetlands near the Interpretive Center last week. (Scott Smeltzer)

The wayward dolphin who mistakenly made its way into the Bolsa Chica wetlands last month appears to have returned to sea.

Officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s marine fisheries service said the 7-foot common dolphin — nicknamed “Fred” by some onlookers — was last spotted late Friday and hasn’t been seen since.

They believe the dolphin left the wetlands, which sit adjacent to Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach.

“That’s our hope,” said Monica DeAngelis, a NOAA marine mammal biologist.

Volunteers, wildlife experts and interested bystanders monitored the dolphin since it first appeared in the shallow waters April 26, DeAngelis said. The dolphin apparently swam into the wetlands with five pod mates earlier that week but stayed behind as the others returned to sea.

Although the dolphin appeared healthy, biologists were primarily concerned whether it would be able to get enough food and stay hydrated in the freshwater wetlands, DeAngelis said. They watched for changes in swimming patterns or the formation of algae on its body to signal health concerns.

–Kate Mather, Los Angeles Times

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Homes’ landscaping edges onto public sand in Newport Beach

This metal shark sculpture, shrubbery and lawn on East Oceanfront in Newport Beach are technically on public land. Private property ends at the low wall to the right. Recently, the California Coastal Commission sent letters to homeowners saying that alterations and upgrades like this are "unpermitted landscaping on public beach." (Don Bartletti, Los Angeles Times)

On the tip of Balboa Peninsula, where multimillion-dollar homes sit snug against the sand and the legendary waves draw crowds of bodysurfers, an unlikely battle is taking shape.

At the center are the lawns, lounge chairs, hedges and playground equipment — even a rusty metal shark sculpture — that for years have sprawled out from oceanfront homes onto the public sand.

It’s all illegal, says the state of California, which has ordered homeowners along some of Orange County’s most coveted coastline to rip out the landscaping, sprinklers and all the other upgrades that have crept steadily seaward.

The order from the state Coastal Commission reignites the perennial clash between the government and homeowners up and down the coast who have sought to claim the sand next to their homes and, in so doing, given visitors the impression that the public beach is their private backyard.

For more photos, click here.

–Tony Barboza, Los Angeles Times

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Body found near Coronado Islands may be from yacht race accident

VIDEO: Yacht race tragedy

The San Diego County medical examiner is inspecting a body found floating near the Coronado Islands to determine if it is the fourth crew member from the sailboat that sank during the Newport Beach to Ensenada regatta.

Three bodies were found amid the debris of the 37-foot sailboat Aegean within hours of the craft disappearing. The fourth crew member, the boat’s owner and skipper Theo Mavromatis, 49, of Redondo Beach, was not recovered.

–Tony Perry in San Diego, Los Angeles Times

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Grand jury transcripts detail horror of Seal Beach mass killing

A Seal Beach police officer checks the door at Salon Meritage the morning after the October shooting rampage. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

In the pandemonium of people scrambling to escape the bloodiest shooting rampage in Orange County history, Kenneth Caleb saw a lone, limping figure possessed of a strange calm.

Caleb was staring out the window of Patty’s Place, the Seal Beach restaurant where he went for lunch that day in October. Moments earlier, a terrified employee at the Salon Meritage next door had rushed into the restaurant screaming one phrase over and over:

“Call the police, he’s shooting everybody!”

Caleb heard gunshots. Through the glass door, he could see the scene outside. There were “people running everywhere … a bunch of chaos of people running around,” he told an Orange County grand jury in January, according to transcripts of the hearing unsealed Thursday.

Amid the commotion, he saw one man with a limp move casually through the parking lot, his shoulders square, his gaze cast downward with “zero expression on his face.”

It reminded Caleb of a man strolling through the park. “I am trying to put the picture together,” Caleb testified. “I thought he was a derelict and he just didn’t understand what was going on, and he was putting himself in harm.”

–Los Angeles Times, @LATimes

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Bloody apartment leads to search for bodies of missing mom, 2 boys

Shazer Limas. (Courtesy Orange Police Department)

Police are searching for the bodies of a woman and her two young sons, who they believe were slain  by the woman’s boyfriend in Orange County.

Shazer Limas, 31, was arrested Thursday night on suspicion of killing Arlet Hernandez, 31, and her two sons, a 2-year-old and a 3-month-old, after he led police on a high-speed chase on Orange County freeways, said Sgt. Dan Adams of the Orange Police Department.

Authorities became suspicious of Limas after managers from his former apartment reported finding blood and other evidence in the unit he had just vacated. Limas lived in the unit with Hernandez.

After Limas was spotted near the border of Santa Ana and Costa Mesa on Thursday night, he led police on a freeway pursuit down the 405 and 5 freeways.

The pursuit ended in a standoff on Interstate 5 at Camp Pendleton, near the San Onofre nuclear power plant. The freeway was closed in both directions, backing up traffic for miles. After about an hour, Limas surrendered. He was unarmed.

The reason for the suspected killings is unclear, but the couple recently had some sort of altercation, Adams said.

He said police believe the three victims were killed inside of the apartment, possibly a week ago.

They were searching in Orange County and outer areas for the bodies, he said.

“I’m not sure exactly where, but investigators have certain locations they’re looking into,” Adams said.

–Los Angeles Times, @LANow

Rohrabacher wants moratorium on San Onofre-style nuclear plants

The San Onofre nuclear plant. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) said after a tour of the shuttered San Onofre nuclear plant that he plans to call for a moratorium on building old-style nuclear facilities and press the U.S. government to put its research money into building prototypes for safer nuclear power generation.

Rohrabacher joined a parade of elected officials — including Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) — who have made trips to the plant in the three months since operator Southern California Edison took it offline due to equipment issues.

Rohrabacher said he made the trip Thursday to find out whether the plant was secure from a terrorist attack and to find out about Edison’s handling of safety concerns relating to the issues with the plant’s steam generators.

The congressman said he was satisfied on those points but felt that the problems at San Onofre are the result of outdated technology in old-style “light water” reactors.

“There’s no reason for us to build any more of the old San Onofre-type reactors,” he said. “We should be moving forward very quickly to develop new nuclear technology.”

He pointed to research being conducted by San Diego-based General Atomics, which is developing a compact fast reactor that runs on the spent fuel waste of old-technology plants.

Rohrabacher said he plans to use his seat on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology to “pound the desk,” and may introduce legislation to promote his position.

–Los Angeles Times, @LANow

Wayward dolphin may have been bullied by others

Spectators watch a dolphin stranded in the Bolsa Chica shallows Saturday. (Dave Getzschman / Los Angeles Times)

A dolphin that for days has lingered in a shallow channel in the Bolsa Chica wetlands may have been bullied and prevented from leaving by fellow dolphins, according to one marine mammal rescue specialist on the scene.

When rescue crews on paddleboards tried to help the common dolphin out of the Huntington Beach nature reserve and into the open ocean Saturday, it was aggressively attacked by small group of peers thrashing in the water and was forced back into the wetlands, said Peter Wallerstein, director of El Segundo-based Marine Animal Rescue.

“He was scared, he was intimidated, he was bullied,” he said.

“Dolphins can be very aggressive toward each other,” Wallerstein added. “They’re not the sweet, loving, gentle animals portrayed by the movies and the cartoons. They do have a dark side.”

That behavior played into the decision by crews Monday to hang back and let the dolphin return to the sea on its own rather than try to guide it into a possible confrontation.

On Monday afternoon the dolphin could be seen feeding on fish. The animal has a way out of the wetlands even at low tide, rescue crews said. But for whatever reason, it has chosen to stay.

–Los Angeles Times, @LATimes

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Senior housing complex under construction in Costa Mesa

A computer rendering of the courtyard at Vivante on the Coast. (Nexus Cos.)

Construction is underway on a $62-million senior housing complex in Costa Mesa called Vivante on the Coast.

The 185-unit retirement community being developed by Nexus Cos. at 1640 Monrovia Ave. is intended to provide a resort-style environment for tenants 62 and older.

“We’ve incorporated many of the new ideas in fitness, healthcare, technology and lifestyle that appeal to the demands of our growing aging population, especially here in Orange County,” said Curt Olson, chief executive of Nexus Cos.

The gated campus will have a fitness and physical therapy facility with an indoor saltwater pool, outdoor courtyards and rooftop decks. Culinary options will include fine dining, a cafe and a lounge. There will be a 24-hour concierge and complimentary local transportation.

Other luxury touches include a spa, a yoga deck, a serenity garden and reflexology foot path, putting green and bocce ball court.

There will also be a secure 40-unit facility on the property to provide specialized care for residents with Alzheimer’s, vascular dementia, Parkinson’s and other related diseases.

Vivante will be the first new retirement community built in the Newport Beach and Costa Mesa area in 15 years, Olson said. It is to be completed in fall 2013. Monthly rents, which include meals and other services, will run from $3,990 to $7,590.

–Los Angeles Times, @LATimes

Dolphin to be left alone to return to sea on its own

Crowds gather on the shoreline to watch a wayward dolphin in the Bolsa Chica wetlands. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Rescue crews who tried unsuccessfully over the weekend to guide a confused dolphin from the shallow waters of Orange County’s Bolsa Chica decided Monday to hang back and allow the dolphin to return to the open sea at its own pace.

On Friday, human spectators scared the dolphin into staying in the wetlands, wildlife officials said. And on Saturday, another group of dolphins chased the stranded marine animal back into the wetlands as rescuers attempted to guide it back to the open sea.

Because the dolphin is not in immediate danger and there is plenty of food and water available in the wetlands, rescuers believe letting it decide when to leave is the best strategy, said Peter Wallerstein of Marine Animal Rescue.

“We’re being very cautious about forcing it into harm’s way,” he said.

Wallerstein and five state Department of Fish and Game officers took to paddleboards Saturday morning to encourage the 7-foot dolphin to continue swimming to freedom after they noticed that it had swum several hundred yards closer to Huntington Harbour, which spills into the ocean.

– Stephen Ceasar and Bob Pool from Los Angeles Times, @LANow

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