Police move search for two boys’ bodies to Irvine landfill

The bodies of two young boys believed to have been killed by their father more than a month ago still have not been found, and police are now focusing  their attention on an Irvine landfill.

Investigators believe that Shazer Fernando Limas, 31, is responsible for the death of his girlfriend and their 1-year-old and 3-month-old children. He was arrested May 3 after leading police on a high-speed chase for more than an hour and was later charged with three counts of special circumstances murder, which make him eligible for the death penalty.

His girlfriend’s body was located in the L.A. County morgue April 25 after being found in a gutter in La Puente. Prosecutors believe that Limas stabbed his girlfriend and the children in their upscale apartment in Orange on April 14.

Police originally scoured the Brea landfill for the children’s bodies, but began searching an Irvine landfill  Tuesday morning after investigators learned that trash from Limas’ apartment complex is funneled to both locations, said Sgt. Dan Adams with the Orange Police Department.

He said it was likely that cadaver dogs will continue the search until Friday, but cautioned that it will be difficult.

“The trash from a month ago could be 20 feet deep,” he said.

–Nicole Santa Cruz, Los Angeles Times

Taste of OC will return

The Taste of Orange County will return in June after a more than 15-year hiatus, an event producer confirmed this week.

Not only is the countywide, five-star culinary festival emerging from retirement, but artisan cocktails, locally brewed beer, sommeliers, cooking demonstrations, celebrity chefs, arts and musical entertainment are in the festival’s corner this time around.

“With the explosion of restaurants and chefs and food and wine, we do [festivals] all over the country in individual cities,” said Judy Gray, one of the event’s producers. “But we really need to do something all together. The time has come again. I think this is going to shine a light on how the culinary scene has grown and what it has to offer.”

The two-day festival will be held June 16 to 17 at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine.

It previously was held in an industrial complex’s parking lot near the Irvine Spectrum Center, Gray said.

While it’s not clear why past festival organizers hung up their aprons, Gray said the new organizers have a comeback in the works, with plans extending five years out.

–Sarah Peters, @SPeters01, Daily Pilot

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Pilobolus dancers to perform at Irvine Barclay Theatre

Pilobolus dancers will perform at Irvine Barclay Theatre. (Courtesy Irvine Barclay website)

How many human bodies does it take to make an elephant? For a team of Pilobolus dancers, the answer — five — lies within their collective improvisation.

At 8 p.m. on May 17 through 19, Pilobolus will perform a mixed repertory at the Irvine Barclay Theatre as part of the venue’s contemporary dance series.

To date, Pilobolus has produced more than 100 choreographic works. The troupe’s Barclay program will consist of five pieces that span 11 years: “Gnomen” (1997), “All Is Not Lost” (2011), “Megawatt” (2004), Sweet Purgatory (1991) and Duet (1992).

“All is Not Lost” is the live companion to Pilobolus’ video collaboration with the Grammy-winning band OK Go. Together, the team earned a nomination for a Best Short Form Music Video Grammy Award in 2012.

The piece was choreographed by associate artistic director Renee Jaworski, who began performing with Pilobolus in 2000.

“We decided it was pretty much the way we made the video and we wanted to show people that,” Jaworski said in a phone interview. “So, what you are seeing on the stage is a behind-the-scenes look at our video.”

–Heather Youmans, Special to the Daily Pilot

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San Onofre nuclear plant backs away from reopening date

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

Southern California Edison backed off from comments made last week by one of its executives, who said the company hopes to have the San Onofre nuclear plant — shuttered due to equipment issues — back online and operating at a reduced capacity in June.

In a written statement, the company said, “SCE and the [California Independent System Operator] have maintained throughout the SONGS outage that nuclear safety has no timeline and the units will only be returned to service when SCE and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) are satisfied it is safe to do so.  SCE has not filed a request with the NRC seeking to restart the plant.”

Edison said in its statement it provided the June planning dates to the ISO in March only for administrative purposes.

Stephen Pickett, the company’s executive vice president of external relations, said last week Edison was preparing to submit a plan to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission that could have the plant back online running at 50% to 80% capacity in June.

NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko released a statement Monday, saying the agency has yet to receive a written statement from Edison to say the required steps have been taken to investigate and make a plan to fix the issues at the plant and “any discussion of a date for the restart of Unit 2 or Unit 3 is clearly premature.”

The plant has been shuttered for more than three months because of problems with excessive wear in steam generator tubes.

On Tuesday, Edison reported it has taken about 1,300 tubes out of service because of wear — 510 in Unit 2 and 807 in Unit 3 — representing a little more than 3% of the total number of tubes in the plant, and a higher number than the company had previously reported.

Edison and ISO officials appeared at the Irvine City Council meeting Tuesday night to reassure the public that contingency plans are in place to ensure the plant’s outage will not result in blackouts over the summer. The plans include speeding up transmission upgrades, bringing retired generating units at a natural gas plant in Huntington Beach back into service, and giving incentives for customers to conserve energy.

Corona del Mar boys win league title

Before the Pacific Coast League finals, Coach Bill Sumner was confident his boys’ track and field team could win the league title, but he wasn’t making any predictions. That’s not his style.

“I don’t cash any checks until we put money in the bank,” Sumner said, using a metaphor as an example that he doesn’t make predictions.

All the hard work the Sea Kings have put in paid off Friday at Irvine High, where the boys’ team won the PCL title with an impressive team effort and standout performances from John Swigert and Nick McGuinness.

The CdM girls’ team finished third at the PCL finals.

“I like to be confident and we had every position to win the league title,” Sumner said. “But you still have to run the races.”

The CdM 4×100-meter relay team certainly ran hard and quick. Thomas Testini, Nick Willard, Cole Cottrell and Swigert broke the school record, winning in 42.69 seconds. They broke the previous record (42.76) set in 1972 by Joe Tosti, John Miles, Matt Cox and Carlo Tosti.

Swigert, who scored 25 points, also won the 200 in 22.49 and the 400 in 49.42. Plus he was on the victorious 4×400 relay that won in 3 minutes, 25.25 seconds and also included Troy Hardy, Ryan Rodrigues, Swigert and Kyle Iverson.

“The team came together,” Sumner said. “They all knew they had a shot at [the PCL title].”

McGuinness scored 26 points with high finishes in three events. He won the 300 hurdles in 39.36 and took second in the 110 hurdles (15.49) and high jump (5 foot, 10 inches).

CdM’s Braden Brahs won the high jump, clearing 6-1.

Alex Imani was also a league champ for the Sea Kings with his big win in the discus (158-6).

“The secret to us winning is not a guy, but it’s several guys doing multiple events,” Sumner said.

The longtime CdM coach was thrilled his boys’ team won the league title. It adds to a great year the school is having in athletics. Plus it’s impressive since the small school has so many standout athletes in other sports such as lacrosse and volleyball, both having superb seasons.

The CdM boys grabbed the league title with 166 points. Woodbridge was second with 142.

On the girls’ side, CdM scored 74.5, finishing behind champion Woodbridge (175) and runner-up Irvine (116).

Kristen Rivera won the 800 in 2:16.19 for the Sea Kings. Karléh Wilson also a league champion for CdM, winning the shot put (40-1½). She was second in the discus (126-9).

Ashlee Powers finished second in the 3,200 in 11:01.80 and third in the 1,600 in 5:09.03.

The CdM league champs and others who qualified for the CIF Southern Section Division 3 preliminaries will compete Saturday at Jim Scott Stadium.

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

Beach Boys tour hits Irvine on June 3

The Beach Boys at their Malibu beach house in February. (Courtesy Guy Webster)

Touring together for the first time in more than two decades, the reunited members of the Beach Boys will catch a new wave into Orange County.

The Beach Boys’ 50th Anniversary Tour kicked off last month to enthusiastic crowds. As part of their tour of more than 40 cities in the U.S., Europe and Japan, Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston and David Marks are to play at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine on June 3.

The band recently announced that it soon will come out with a new studio-recorded album of hit-inspired originals, the Beach Boys’ first album in decades featuring all of its surviving original members. Capitol Records is to release the album on June 5.

Fans who have followed the band throughout its years of family feuds, legal turmoil, health problems — as and the loss of Carl and Dennis Wilson — had deemed a reunion tour as unlikely.

But when the public glimpsed the reunited Beach Boys performing together at this year’s 54th annual Grammy Awards, good vibrations for a possible tour with this brand-new configuration of members pulsated.

–Heather Youmans, Special to the Daily Pilot

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Man believed to be ‘Snowboarder Bandit’ is arrested

The Irvine Police Department was part of a law enforcement team that was instrumental in the capture of the “Snowboarder Bandit,” a man believed to be the suspect in a series of bank robberies.

Riverside resident Michael B. Franks, 29, was apprehended Friday night based on information obtained by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and the FBI, which worked closely with Irvine police to catch him, according to an FBI news release.

The three agencies were part of a larger group known as the Bank Robbery Apprehension Team (BRAT), which investigated the robberies and worked together to catch Franks. BRAT included the Newport Beach Police Department and others throughout Orange, Ventura and Riverside counties.

Media coverage and bank surveillance photos of the bandit were also instrumental in developing leads throughout the investigation, according to the release.

Franks will remain in custody until next week, when he’s expected to be charged.

— Mona Shadia, @MonaShadia, Daily Pilot

UCI sweeps to NCAA title

LOS ANGELES — All through its postseason run, the deepest team UC Irvine men’s volleyball Coach John Speraw ever had kept shuffling the deck. But in the NCAA final against top-ranked USC on Saturday night, the Anteaters merely rode their same hot hand.

Senior opposite Carson Clark, a four-time All-American, pounded a match-high 22 kills with a .465 hitting percentage to help the No. 2-ranked ‘Eaters top to Trojans, 25-22, 34-32, 26-24, in front of 9,612 at USC’s Galen Center.

The victory, in front of the third-largest NCAA championship men’s volleyball crowd ever, gave UCI the program’s third NCAA crown in six seasons. Men’s volleyball now matches men’s water polo with three NCAA titles for UCI.

“Carson is the man,” summed up UCI junior setter Chris Austin, who also stepped up with 48 assists and a team-best 15 digs.

Clark, the school’s all-time kill leader with 1,861, had 10 kills in Game 2 to help UCI (26-5) rally from a 14-7 deficit. He had seven more in the third set, by which time Speraw had delivered instructions to Austin about going to the go-to guy. He was named Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four.

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‘PSY’ circus show headed to Irvine Barclay

Part of "PSY," the newest and largest production from the Montreal-based circus troupe Les 7 doigts de la main.

“PSY,” the newest and largest production from the Montreal-based circus troupe Les 7 doigts de la main (seven fingers of the hand), will spring into its debut at the Irvine Barclay Theatre for four performances only, starting May 10.

Most known for their international hit Traces, 7 Fingers’ fourth creation, “PSY,” was conjured up in 2010. “PSY” explores the surreal underworld of the human psyche, while merging acrobatics of the body, mind and soul.

Founded in Montreal in 2002, 7 Fingers’ initial goal was to bring circus to a human scale. Nearly a decade has passed and they have managed to climb the international circuit, landing a debut at the Barclay.

“PSY’s” novel concept alone was enough to draw in Irvine Barclay President Doug Rankin, who has had his finger on the circus’s pulse for years. Since the early 1990s, the Barclay has consistently incorporated circus performances in their seasons.

“It’s more than just a collection of great circus skills,” Rankin said in a phone interview. “The way this theatre company weaves things together into a story during an hour and a half production is very engaging, very enthralling.”

–Heather Youmans, Daily Pilot

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