H.B., F.V. teachers chosen for county’s top 5

Two teachers from Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley school districts are among the five Orange County Teachers of the Year.

Fountain Valley School District’s Talbert Middle School science teacher John Wood and Huntington Beach City School District’s Peterson Elementary third-grade GATE teacher Deanna Lynn Zamiska were selected after a countywide search, said Orange County Department of Education Coordinator of Academic Events Sharon Nelson.

The best four K-12 teachers and one community college teacher are selected a year ahead, which makes them 2013′s teachers of the year.

The four K-12 teachers who were named will go on to compete at the state level in the California Teachers of the Year program, Nelson said.

The other teachers are Cypress College geology professor Victoria Ann Castle, Tustin Unified School District’s Beckman High School AP history teacher David Lawrence Goldenberg, and Tustin Unified School District’s Peters Canyon Elementary third-grade teacher Jennifer Kathleen Sandland.

—Mona Shadia, @MonaShadia, HB Independent

405 Freeway closed in both directions in Orange County

Both sides of the 405 Freeway in Orange County have been closed after power lines fell on several cars.

The incident occurred at Magnolia Street, near Huntington Beach and Westminster, and it’s unclear how long the freeway will be closed.

According to the CHP website, several vehicles were hit by the falling lines, but there were no immediate reports of injuries.

Vehicles were being diverted onto surface streets, and officials said the traffic was quickly backing up.

The CHP website said the freeway will be closed for at least 30 minutes.

–Los Angeles Times

Fountain Valley considering sex offender ban

Fountain Valley may soon join the handful of cities throughout Orange County that have banned registered sex offenders from entering city parks.

The City Council on April 17 directed staff to consult with other cities’ laws and come up with an ordinance that would ban registered sex offenders from entering Fountain Valley’s parks. The ordinance would seek to protect children who gather there for various activities, said Councilman Steve Nagel.

The law would allow offenders to visit parks on a case-by-case basis after obtaining permission from the police department or a designated staff member.

“This is just to put them on notice that we’re aware they’re going to be there,” Nagel said.

Those caught in city parks without prior permission would be charged with a misdemeanor.

Fountain Valley has 38 registered sex offenders, said City Manager Ray Kromer.

– Mona Shadia, @MonaShadia, Huntington Beach Independent

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Daily Pilot, affiliates win newspaper awards

Journalists from Times Community News (TCN) South, which publishes the Daily Pilot, Huntington Beach Independent and Coastline Pilot, are finalists for six statewide journalism awards.

Reporters, photographers, editors and graphic designers placed first or second in their various circulation categories in the California Newspaper Publishers Assn.’s 2011 Better Newspaper Contest. Rankings will be announced at CNPA’s May 5 conference in San Jose.

The three newspapers also received nine certificates of achievement.

“I am proud of our hardworking staff every day, but it’s nice to see them recognized by their peers,” said John Canalis, editor of TCN South. “Some very good newspaper work is done across the state, and I’m grateful to the judges for taking notice of our work.”

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Singer from F.V. hit on YouTube

People use YouTube for many reasons.

For Courtney Jenaé, it was a way to make her dreams real.

Jenaé, a 22-year-old Fountain Valley native who was born Courtney Woolsey (no relation), discovered that YouTube could help her share her love of singing.

“I feel like having a social media outlet like YouTube is a great advantage because it’s free advertis[ing],” Jenaé said. “It’s a way to immediately get your music out there to everyone.”

Jenaé’s YouTube channel, CourtneyWoolsey, currently has more than 12,000 subscribers and 3 million views. Most notably, her cover of The Chordettes’ “Lollipop” has more than 1.4 million views.

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College board votes to reduce its pay

The Coast Community College District trustees cut their own pay while asking district employees to do the same as part of an effort to tackle a $3-million budget deficit next fiscal year.

The five trustees unanimously voted Tuesday to cut their monthly stipends, starting in June, by 3% — from $1,059 to $1,027.23. The annual savings would be $1,978.20, according to the district.

“I think what we’re trying to do here is to spread out the pain,” said Trustee Lorraine Prinsky. “For years, we have had retirement incentives, departure incentives — just trying to cope with the budget cuts we have. [There] is a $3-million-plus deficit we’re facing, and we don’t want to lay anyone off.”

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Hometown Ballet Repertory Theatre to hit GWC stage

Ballet Repertory Theatre dancers performing the "Kingdom of Shades" sequence in 2009. (Photo courtesy of BRT)

Huntington Beach’s Ballet Repertory Theatre will open its 36th season this weekend by staging the technically challenging “La Bayadère” at Golden West College.

For the second time in four seasons, the hometown company with a shoestring budget will present its rendition of the full-length ballet — which the Frenchman Marius Petipa first choreographed in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1877 — and usually is performed by the world’s most prestigious ballet houses.

“Obviously we don’t have glamorous sets, but the story is complete — everything is intact,” said Terri Sellars, who has restaged a Kirov Ballet version of the tragic love story set in ancient India.

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Drunk? These guys will drive your car home for a fee

For bar or restaurant patrons who have had too much to drink, a Huntington Beach company is offering a ride home — in a very familiar car.

DrunkRescue, which launched in January, provides a service in which professional drivers take intoxicated customers’ keys and chauffeur them back to their residences.

The owners, Davlyn Sousa De Freitas and Robert Herron, started their enterprise in response to Huntington Beach’s high DUI numbers, although their service has quickly expanded to Costa Mesa, Newport Beach, Fountain Valley, Laguna Beach and other surrounding cities.

“People are hearing about us with very little advertising, just social networking websites and word of mouth,” said Sousa De Freitas, who worked as an investment banker for Wells Fargo before starting his new endeavor.

DrunkRescue employs 15 drivers who situate themselves around popular after-dark areas between midnight and 3 a.m. Thursday through Saturday. If a customer calls the business’ main number needing a ride, the operator relays the message to the driver closest to the customer’s location.

The driver then meets the customer — walking over on foot if he’s close enough, or getting a ride from Sousa De Freitas or Herron if not — and takes the keys to his or her car. After the driver has taken the customer home, Sousa De Freitas or Herron picks up the driver and brings him back to his post.

– Michael Miller, @MichaelMillerHB, Huntington Beach Independent

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Harman names Franco as Woman of the Year

Judy Franco (Scott Smeltzer, Daily Pilot)

Sen. Tom Harman (R-Huntington Beach), marking Woman’s History Month, selected a Newport-Mesa school board member as Woman of the Year on Wednesday.

“I am pleased to recognize Judy Franco as the 35th Senate District Woman of the Year,” he said in a prepared statement. “It is also fitting that Judy would be selected during Woman’s History Month because this year’s theme is ‘Woman’s Education – Woman’s Empowerment.’”

“I’m very honored to have been selected by Sen. Harman,” Franco said.

Franco, a Newport Beach resident since 1967, has served on the school board for 32 years.

Harman will be giving her the award at a ceremony in April.

His district includes Costa Mesa, Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley.

— Jamie Rowe, @jamierowe3, Daily Pilot

City Lights: Could Trayvon Martin incident happen in Orange County?

Every so often, a local story turns into a national one — and then a local one again, as individual communities hold themselves up to the light and question whether a similar thing could happen to them. Such has been the case with the death of Trayvon Martin.

Leaving one obvious factor out, the incident in Sanford, Fla. — in which an unarmed 17-year-old was shot by a neighborhood watchman who claimed self-defense — is tragic but not unusual. Every day, somewhere, people die under dubious circumstances; every day, judges and police listen to conflicting accounts of who followed whom or who attacked first.

The Martin case deserves a thorough hearing in court, and with pressure mounting nationwide, I have no doubt that it will receive one. But the case has sparked a national dialogue less about self-defense and vigilantism than about skin color. At this point, has anyone not heard countless times that Martin was black and that his death appears to be racially motivated?

In the last month, a Time magazine columnist published a piece advising parents on how to talk to black boys about the Martin case. “Black maleness is a potentially fatal condition,” the author wrote, later suggesting that parents explain, “You will have to make allowances for other people’s racism. That’s part of the burden of being black. We can be defiant and dead or smart and alive.”

– Michael Miller, @MichaelMillerHB, Huntington Beach Independent

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