Obama coming to Corona del Mar

President Obama addresses a crowd at a townhall meeting at the Orange County Fairgrounds in 2009. (Daily Pilot File Photo)

President Obama plans to fundraise in Newport Beach this month during a swing through Southern California.

A Corona del Mar couple recently announced they will host a breakfast for the president Feb. 16, with proceeds benefiting Obama’s reelection campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

While Newport is better known as a Republican Party fundraising bastion, Obama raised more than $1 million here in a 2008 campaign stop at the Balboa Bay Club. Local Democrats say they expect another strong showing.

– Mike Reicher, @mreicher, Daily Pilot

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Learn about the ‘teenage mind’ at Sage Hill forum

Sage Hill School, in partnership with the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, is hosting “The Teenage Mind: What Every Parent Needs to Know” at 7 p.m. Feb. 9 on campus, 20402 Newport Coast Drive.

“Sage Hill School is pleased to welcome the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation to our campus to provide cutting edge information on the important issue of teenage mental health,” Jason Gregory, Sage Hill director of community life and public purpose, said in a statement. “As an educational institution, we are committed to providing purposeful opportunities to educate and empower our students, our families and our community.”

– Britney Barnes, @BritneyJBarnes, Daily Pilot

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A day of snow and sun

Attendees enjoy sledding down the hill at Grand Park in Aliso Viejo for Snow Fest on Saturday. (Photo by Kelly Tokarski)

While it felt like summer in most of Orange County this weekend, Aliso Viejo was a winter wonderland.

The city’s Snow Fest 2012 on Saturday drew people from all ages to enjoy about 52 tons of snow trucked in for the event.

Families came to the Grand Park in Aliso Town Center to take rides down “Grand Mountain” and the “Bunny Slope,” and the young ones enjoyed the “Snow Man Park” play area.

—Kelly Parker, @kellyparkertcn, Coastline Pilot

Water district hosts study group

COSTA MESA — Mesa Consolidated Water District officials are looking for a few good water ambassadors.

Mesa Water is offering a free water issues study group starting Feb. 15 through May. The classes lead by Mesa Water experts will meet from 6:30 to 8 p.m. the third Wednesday of the month in the boardroom, 1965 Placentia Ave.

“So many people turn on their tap and have no idea how the water gets there,” said Mesa Water Board President Fred Bockmiller.

– Sarah Peters, @speters01, Daily Pilot

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Albertsons wine tasting license approved

Albertsons in Corona del Mar has been granted an “instructional tasting license” by the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, paving the way for wine and beer tastings at the store at 3049 E. Coast Hwy.

“We will have our first ‘tasting’ this Saturday,” said Store Director Robin Begley. The free event will feature Yellow Tail and Ruta 22 wine in the liquor department, she said, and will be open from 2 to 6 p.m.

– Amy Senk, @coronadelmartdy, Corona del Mar Today

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Ringing in the Lunar New Year

Members of Mrs.Archibald's kindergarten class parade past upper grades as they perform a Dragon Dance in honor of the Chinese New Year at Harbor View Elementary in Corona Del Mar. (DON LEACH, DAILY PILOT / January 25, 2012)

CORONA DEL MAR — Antsy to begin, the 5- and 6-year-old students — some wearing red paper conical Chinese hats and holding musical instruments or accordion dragons on two Popsicle sticks — lined up.

“We’re going to ring in the Lunar New Year,” kindergarten teacher Michele Creason cheered with a ring of a handbell.

Harbor View Elementary School’s annual kindergarten dragon parade began Wednesday afternoon with a cacophony of celebration as the student shook maracas, rang bells and triangles, and banged blocks and wooden sticks.

“Gung hay fat choy,” shouted kindergartner Garrett Peard, 6. He was wishing his peers a happy new year in Chinese as he made his way around campus.

Led by a student wearing a decorative paper mache headpiece of a smiling man, followed by a dragon with sharp teeth, the parade snaked its way across campus. It was met with thunderous cheers from older students eating lunch. Others came out of their classrooms to join the festivities and celebrate Chinese New Year.

– Britney Barnes, @BritneyJBarnes, Daily Pilot

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Thursday’s ‘Library Live’ event to feature photographer’s work on Colorado River

An award-winning photographer who spent two years documenting the Colorado River will discuss his work at a Library Live event at the Central Library on Thursday.

Peter McBride has worked as a photographer for nearly 20 years in more than 60 countries, according to a statement from the Newport Beach Public Library Foundation.

“McBride’s most recent project took over two years, documenting his local river –- the Colorado. One of the most loved and litigated rivers in the world, it ceases to reach the sea,” the statement said.

– Amy Senk, @coronadelmartdy, Corona del Mar Today

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Newport Beach Restaurant Week starts

Bryon Freeze, Five Crowns Chief de Cuisine, prepares Salmon Tar Tar, made with Skuna Bay Salmon from British Columbia, Vancouver Island, for guests during a media launch event for the upcoming Newport Beach Restaurant Week at Five Crowns restaurant. (KEVIN CHANG, Daily Pilot / January 18, 2012)

Several local restaurants will be showing off their most popular dishes during Newport Beach Restaurant Week, which kicks off Friday.

Area eateries will tempt diners with special prix-fixe, multicourse menus that range from $10 to $20 for lunch and $20 to $40 for dinner.

Chef Deborah Schneider of SOL Cocina at 251 E. Coast Hwy. said she sees the event as a way to give back to the community that has welcomed her since her restaurant’s launch in 2009.

“We appreciate all their support over the years; Newport Beach really made us welcome,” Schneider said. “We’ve gotten great community support here, both in summer and in the off-season.”

Schneider said SOL is a coastal Mexican concept evocative of Baja California, where seafood reigns. The menu is friendly to vegans and vegetarians as well as to those with food allergies and intolerances, and food is grilled rather than fried.

– Candice Baker, @TheDailyPilot, Daily Pilot

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Gardner: ‘The state of the city is fine’

Newport Beach Mayor Nancy Gardner, center, speaks with guests at the state of the city address Tuesday at Five Crowns. The event was sponsored by the Corona del Mar Chamber of Commerce. (DON LEACH, Daily Pilot / January 17, 2012)

CORONA DEL MAR — Mayor Nancy Gardner delivered Tuesday what was perhaps the shortest state of the city address in recent history.

“The state of the city is fine,” she told an audience during a Corona del Mar Chamber of Commerce luncheon at Five Crowns. “Any questions?”

Gardner was only partially joking. In some of her first public remarks since being sworn in December, she praised the city administration for weathering the recession, and then devoted most of her talk to neighborhood issues.

Gardner, who lives just blocks away, focused on issues affecting CdM business owners.

She is set to give a more formal annual address in February about the state of the entire city.

– Mike Reicher, @mreicher, Daily Pilot

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Eclectic shops celebrate anniversary, more openings

Truman Severson makes a drink at Portola Coffee Lab at the OC Mart Mix in August. (Scott Smeltzer, Daily Pilot)

COSTA MESA — It’s not often that a business can celebrate a grand opening and a birthday party in a single week.

The OC Mart MiX, an indoor market with more than 30 eclectic tenants, plans to host an opening party for recently launched vendors from 3 to 6 p.m. Saturday, and a celebration marking the market’s first year from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Jan. 26, according to the MiX Facebook page.

Both events will take place at the shopping center, 3313 Hyland Ave.

“With over 30 shops, the OC Mart MiX has become a market place where shoppers can get everything they need in one spot,” said Andrea Young, who spearheaded the organization of the market and now operates the Paper House.

– Sarah Peters, @speters01, Daily Pilot

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