John Wayne Airport

John Wayne Airport's redesigned website and 2004 annual report have earned airport officials accolades for their communication skills. The airport announced Thursday it has received a first-place award for last year's annual report and a second-place award for its website, www.ocair.com, from the Airports Council International of North America. John Wayne was one of 54 airports competing for airport council awards. It's the fifth time John Wayne Airport has been recognized by the airports council for its communication and marketing.

From time to time, the opinion pages of Orange County newspapers are dotted with letters penned by holdout veterans of the El Toro airport wars. Only rarely now are they followed by bemused rebuttals from those who won their Great Park. Persistence is admirable, but only to a point. Eventually it becomes pitiful. That aside, what's to become of John Wayne Airport over the next 20 years and beyond is an entirely different matter, and one that's far from settled.

Winters-- Lewis Kerri Winters, the daughter of Jenlyn and Thomas Winters of San Clemente, and Brent Lewis, the son of James and Susan Bedal of La Crescenta, have announced their engagement. The bride-to-be graduated from the UC Santa Barbara with a bachelor's degree in English. While at school, she was a member of Pi Beta Phi Sorority. She is employed as an account manager at AT&T. The groom to be graduated with a bachelor's degree in English. While at school, he was a member of Theta Chi Fraternity.

Construction for an expansion project approved last October for John Wayne Airport could begin before the year is out. Airport spokeswoman Jenny Wedge said an exact timeline for construction has not been set. Workers could begin the expansion this fall by reconfiguring a facility used to store aircraft that stay at the airport overnight. Wedge declined to give cost estimates since that data has not yet been released to all members of the Orange County Board of Supervisors.

Maybe it's a campaign ploy, but John Graham, one of 17 candidates to replace former Rep. Chris Cox, is resurrecting the suggestion of a commercial airport at Camp Pendleton. Although Graham may be the first of the candidates to bring airport issues into the campaign, with the history of the proposed El Toro airport and the future of John Wayne Airport fresh in voters' minds, he's not expected to be the last. The candidates are vying to represent the 48th Congressional District, which includes Newport Beach, Irvine, Laguna Beach, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Hills, Laguna Woods, Lake Forest, San Juan Capistrano, Dana Point, Aliso Viejo and Tustin.

Dry heat returned to Newport-Mesa Wednesday, as Santa Ana winds swept through inland Orange County, pushing temperatures near beach communities into the 90s. Wind gusts peaked at 25 mph at John Wayne Airport, but the blustery Santa Anas kept their distance from the beaches, said National Weather Service forecaster Stan Wasowski. A red-flag warning of high fire danger plagued the mountains and canyons, but did not affect any areas in Orange County, Wasowski said.

When did parking become the problem? Regarding Aug. 29's Daily Pilot story, "Triangle Square to refocus on fashion," this is just the most recent in a series of news reports about efforts, so far unsuccessful, to restore Triangle Square to some semblance of its former glory. And in response, I've got to say there's something fishy going on here. I was at the grand opening of Triangle Square more than a decade ago. I recall seeing Richard Branson, Virgin's CEO, cavorting in a hot tub with the Baywatch babes.

Pilgrims heading up and down the Glendale (2) Freeway for the last couple of months have noticed a shadowy figure or two gazing into the distance from the hills above. Cardboard cutouts of Clint Eastwood, John Wayne and Gene Autry, bearing labels that read “Glendale Public Art Project 2012,” have been a mystery - something their creator says is intentional. Justin Stadel, the Glassell Park resident and artist behind the cowboy cutouts, said he created the works so viewers could draw a spiritual feeling, a sense of freedom, from L.A.'s varied landscape.

I want to start by saying that I feel both the Newport Beach City Council and city staff deserve a giant round of applause and a thank you for all their work during this month of August. Whether you agree or disagree with their decisions, I don't ever recall so many meetings on so many items in the same month. Due to all the happenings in Newport Beach, it has been difficult to choose any one particular topic. To begin with there is the expansion plan at John Wayne Airport -- scheduled to open by May of 2010 with a price tag of $512 million.

Jackson Bell As a Burbank native, Mark Barton wants to keep his city beautiful. So Barton, a professional graphic designer, submitted a logo Monday for the recently renamed Bob Hope Airport. The facility was formerly the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport. His proposal, using patriotic colors, is a simple design of an airplane between the words "Bob Hope" and "Airport." "It is my responsibility as a resident to respond because I want what is best for the city and the airport happens to be in Burbank," Barton said.

Pilgrims heading up and down the Glendale (2) Freeway for the last couple of months have noticed a shadowy figure or two gazing into the distance from the hills above. Cardboard cutouts of Clint Eastwood, John Wayne and Gene Autry, bearing labels that read “Glendale Public Art Project 2012,” have been a mystery - something their creator says is intentional. Justin Stadel, the Glassell Park resident and artist behind the cowboy cutouts, said he created the works so viewers could draw a spiritual feeling, a sense of freedom, from L.A.'s varied landscape.

Bob Hope Airport will soon open all ticket counters to competing airlines that serve the airfield to better handle overloaded crowds. After the conversion is complete, the counters will be under the same processing system, meaning Southwest could tap the resources of U.S. Airways counters if needed. The Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority on Tuesday approved up to roughly $2.5 million for the second phase of the project, to be completed by Atlanta-based SITA Applications Systems.

BURBANK — Passenger activity at the Bob Hope Airport during the first half of 2007 reached record highs, exceeding figures tallied before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Between January and June, about 2.86 million passengers traveled in and out of Burbank's airport — which is up about 23% from the 2.33 million passengers traveling during the same period in 2001, Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority statistics show. Air travel out of Burbank was seeing an upward trend until Sept.

BOB HOPE AIRPORT ? The Bob Hope Airport halted all inbound and outbound flights for two hours on Tuesday after air traffic radar problems at a regional control tower in Palmdale disrupted flight patterns at several Southern California airports. At about 6 p.m., airport officials learned of a power outage at the Los Angeles Air Route Traffic Control Center in Palmdale, a facility that monitors planes traveling outside the radar screens of individual airports, Operations Supervisor Tom Janowitz said.

From time to time, the opinion pages of Orange County newspapers are dotted with letters penned by holdout veterans of the El Toro airport wars. Only rarely now are they followed by bemused rebuttals from those who won their Great Park. Persistence is admirable, but only to a point. Eventually it becomes pitiful. That aside, what's to become of John Wayne Airport over the next 20 years and beyond is an entirely different matter, and one that's far from settled.

The drive to another airport is never easy, even at 10 p.m. in the middle of the week. As you read this on Saturday morning, my wife and I are in New York exercising one of the following options: We are celebrating the return of the home field advantage to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. We are marveling at the pitching skills of Randy Johnson who led his team to victory Friday and all but assured a Yankees series victory. We are about to attend the game that was supposed to be played Friday night but was rained out. Although we have five tickets for the game, we came to New York not to see the Angels in Yankee Stadium but to celebrate the 60th birthday of my brother, Michael.

Dry heat returned to Newport-Mesa Wednesday, as Santa Ana winds swept through inland Orange County, pushing temperatures near beach communities into the 90s. Wind gusts peaked at 25 mph at John Wayne Airport, but the blustery Santa Anas kept their distance from the beaches, said National Weather Service forecaster Stan Wasowski. A red-flag warning of high fire danger plagued the mountains and canyons, but did not affect any areas in Orange County, Wasowski said.

Just last week, we wrote that we wanted to stand out in the wind and rain to cover hurricanes like TV reporters. We've changed our minds. Print media will do just fine for us, thank you. As circumstances would have it, we caught the tail end of Hurricane Rita as it swept over the Midwest. While Rita was churning toward the Gulf Coast last Thursday, Vic and I flew to Indiana for the burial of my mother's ashes. We were supposed to change planes in Chicago to go to Indianapolis.

The rain, thunder and lightning that hit Southern California on Tuesday should be gone by today, and Newport-Mesans can look forward to brighter skies, according to the National Weather Service. "It'll just be some low clouds in the morning. It will be mostly sunny," weather service forecaster Don Whitlow said. Hurricane Max, a Pacific Ocean storm west of Mexico, likely contributed to the rumbling storms that lighted up the sky late Monday and into Tuesday, Whitlow said.

When did parking become the problem? Regarding Aug. 29's Daily Pilot story, "Triangle Square to refocus on fashion," this is just the most recent in a series of news reports about efforts, so far unsuccessful, to restore Triangle Square to some semblance of its former glory. And in response, I've got to say there's something fishy going on here. I was at the grand opening of Triangle Square more than a decade ago. I recall seeing Richard Branson, Virgin's CEO, cavorting in a hot tub with the Baywatch babes.