O.C. Now
Laguna Beach
Marine Mammal Center gets grant
Pacific Marine Mammal Center, 20612 Laguna Canyon Road, will receive a $20,000 grant from Southern California Edison that will allow the center to purchase a high-tech, 18-camera surveillance system for its animal care operations.
The system will allow for a camera to be positioned in each pen, including cameras for critical care units, and also two underwater cameras in outdoor pens.
This will allow the center to monitor animals via the Internet. Authorized users may log in and check on animals 24 hours a day.
In addition, the cameras will record several hours of footage and allow caregivers to study animals more closely when humans are not around.
That research can then be shared with other rehabilitation centers across the country.
“This equipment will take our animal care operations to a whole new level,” said Michele Hunter, director of operations at the center.
Southern California Edison has been supporting Pacific Marine Mammal Center for several years, but the $20,000 grant is the largest contribution the corporation has made to the nonprofit.
The center is at 20612 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach.
For more information, visit www.pacificmmc.org.
— Staff reports
Exchange Club hosts pancake breakfast
The Laguna Beach Exchange Club and Laguna Beach Firefighters are holding their annual Memorial Day Pancake Breakfast from 7 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Monday at Heisler Park on Cliff Drive.
Food will be provided by Las Brisas and the White House, and the Orange Inn will supply coffee. Firefighters will flip the flapjacks. The cost of the breakfast is $5.
The breakfast is followed at 11 a.m. by Memorial Day observances at Monument Point.
Following the observances, the Laguna Community Concert Band will perform patriotic favorites, Latin beats, New Orleans jazz and John Williams’ works from 12:30 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. on the cobblestones at Main Beach.
— Staff reports
Huntington Beach
Man faces third strike in vandalism case
A Huntington Beach man could face 25 years to life in prison for allegedly keying a neighbor’s car if an Orange County Superior Court judge decides to count it as his third strike, officials said.
John Patrick Rogers, 45, is expected to be charged with felony vandalism for causing more than $400 in damage, which could be his third strike under the state’s Three Strikes Law.
Rogers has two previous strikes for 2002 convictions for assault with a deadly weapon, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Robin Park.
Rogers was arrested Oct. 18 by the Huntington Beach Police Department for keying and denting his neighbor’s vehicle, said Lt. Russell Reinhart.
The maximum sentence for the felony charge is two to three years with no previous strikes, Park said.
Rogers has other prior convictions and restraining orders against him.
“We’ve arrested him, I don’t know how many times,” Reinhart said.
— Britney Barnes