Former OCC student wins Food Network challenge

COSTA MESA — A graduate of Orange Coast College’s culinary arts program won first place this week in a contest in which four top chefs went up against one another to see who could create a chocolate vehicle that actually moved.

Award-winning Las Vegas pastry chef Chris Hanmer, a former resident of Costa Mesa, won $10,000 — not to mention a shot at fame on the TV screen.

You can check it out on the Food Network at 6 p.m. Saturday.

The contest, dubbed the Food Network Runaway Chocolate Challenge, will also air at 7 p.m. Sunday.

The chef and his design partner, Loppo Martinez, spent nearly a month preparing for the contest, they said.

“His work was stellar,” said Bill Barber, an OCC culinary arts associate professor who had Hanmer as a student.

Hanmer managed to make an old-fashioned bicycle from chocolate and it strutted its stuff by rolling along a narrow beam propped up for the contest.

Catalina Flyer may temporarily suspend service from Newport to Avalon

NEWPORT BEACH — The Catalina Flyer, a popular 500-passenger catamaran that makes daily trips to Santa Catalina Island from the Balboa Pavilion, may halt operations for a few months to buy and install a new engine that complies state environmental law.

Bob Black, general manager for the tour boat company, said unless he’s able to find a catamaran to lease, he may suspend service to Avalon as early as Sept. 12.

“I’m not thrilled about having to do this, but it’s something we’ve got to do,” said Black, referring to the purchase of a pair of engines that will cost him nearly $1 million.
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Immigration: O.C. business dealing in counterfeit goods

An undisclosed Orange County business was allegedly dealing in counterfeit and pirated goods, and the name of the company will be released Tuesday morning at a  news conference being held by federal and Los Angeles and Orange County law enforcement agents.

Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, part of the Department of Homeland Security, said Monday that the results of a multi-agency crackdown will soon be revealed to the general public.

“This was big,” Kice said. “But right now, I can’t say much other than there’s going to be plenty of information forthcoming at our press conference on Tuesday morning.”
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Costa Mesa’s Vanguard University scores well in regional ranking

Vanguard University, a Christian, faith-based college in Costa Mesa, made the top 10 in the Best of the West Regional Category of Best Baccalaureate programs, according to Princeton Review’s annual rankings.

The No. 9 ranking came while the university had been fighting a negative stigma of having been sanctioned by the Western Assn. of Schools and Colleges last year. The reason for the sanction was that the university lacked solid financial stability and governance, according to university President Carol Taylor.

The sanction, which was levied against the more-than-2,000 student college in June 2009, was removed in June this year, Taylor said.

“The Western Assn. of Schools and Colleges Commission took action to continue Vanguard’s accreditation but to place the university on probation, reflecting that the university was out of compliance with elements … related to fiscal sustainability and effective governance,” Taylor said.
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Police: Woman found dead in Newport Beach committed suicide

Newport Beach police are saying that a 50-year-old woman, whose decomposed body was discovered in Newport Harbor on Aug. 22, apparently committed suicide, but Lt. Bill Hartford declined to comment on how Swee Ai Oh might have killed herself.

The Orange County Sheriff Coroner’s office said the case is still under investigation.

Oh’s body was discovered by fishermen. She was reported missing by her family on Aug. 12 after she was last seen leaving for a walk in the Back Bay, according to police.

Hartford said one of the police detectives involved in the case was on hand when the coroner ruled the cause of death a suicide.

Contacted Monday, Sigal Mitchell, a supervising deputy with the Orange County sheriff coroner, said the coroner’s office is still investigating.

Firefighters: Shady Canyon blaze accidentally sparked by golfer

Just how bad is the drought?

Let’s put it this way: Over the weekend a golfer accidentally chipped a rock, setting off a 12-acre blaze next to the Shady Canyon Golf Course in Irvine, Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Greg McKeown said Monday.

The good news is the fire was put out, but not before more than 150 firefighters from around Orange County descended on the blaze, with helicopter overhead and hand crews on the front lines, McKeown.

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10-foot surf hits the Wedge

NEWPORT BEACH — Drawn by unusually high summer surf, die-hard body surfers, some burning their sick days, took to the Wedge on Tuesday.

They rode 10-foot waves with nothing but fins as three major storms in the Southern Hemisphere made their presence felt along Balboa Peninsula and much of coastal Orange County.

Onlookers cheered. Fellow surfers strategically whistled from the shore, giving the body surfers ample warning of the monster waves approaching from behind.

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Edison works to restore power on Newport Peninsula

NEWPORT BEACH – About 250 Southern California Edison customers along the Peninsula lost power Tuesday morning after a transformer malfunctioned, officials said.

Workers with SCE were working to isolate the outage and restore power to residents in the area, said Steve Conroy, spokesman for SCE.

The power outage first occurred at 4:22 a.m., affecting nearly 3,000 customers in the area, Conroy said. Workers were able to isolate the problem and restore power to most residents and businesses.

Newport Beach police officials said they received calls about the outage early Tuesday morning but did not have to dispatch any officers to intersections or other outage-related calls.

The outage affected customers along Oceanfront and Balboa Boulevard, Conroy said, between 15th and 20th streets.

—Tom Ragan

Organization lights the path to recovery

Lisa and Fred Zoller, stand in the kitchen area of the apartment they call home at the Costa Mesa Motor Inn. Their children, Fredyzia and Fantasia, are shown in photograph that hangs above their bed at right. (Photo by Don Leach | don.leach@latimes.com)

COSTA MESA — They’re a long way from the Hawaiian beaches of Oahu, where, they said, their addiction to meth eventually made them homeless, forcing them to live out of a tent in a place called Barbers Point.

They used to stay up all night “tweaking” with other meth addicts who’d gather there. They had tiki torches outside. Their tent was pretty big. Visitors came and went. They had lots of fellow methhead friends, but something in life was missing.

Meth always seemed to have the edge. So they got out.

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Woman reported missing from Back Bay

Swee Ai Oh

Newport Beach police are asking the public to help find a missing woman who was last seen walking near the Back Bay at 2:30 p.m. Thursday.

The woman, identified as Swee Ai Oh, is 50 years old, weighs about 120 pounds, and stands at 5 feet, 2 inches tall, police said.

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