WEEK IN REVIEW

POLITICS

City Council votes 3-2 to stop planning skate park

Costa Mesa City Council members saved the annual Fish Fry with a 3-2 vote to halt plans for a large skate park at Lions Park. Instead, city officials look to build small skate facilities at several parks citywide. The council also rejected a large facility at Fairview Park.

PUBLIC SAFETY

Police seek info on accused rapist, killer of masseuse

Authorities asked anyone with information about an accused rapist and killer to contact them as investigators consider other potential victims.

Forensic evidence from a shared database linked Waymon Livingston, 24, of Stanton, to a rape in a Costa Mesa hotel in May, police said. Livingston is accused of killing Melissa Ann Gonzalez, 21, of Sacramento, in Anaheim. He also faces a rape charge in Stanton.

Livingston contacted a masseuse online for a private session at the hotel, police said. After it was done he asked for sex, and when she refused he choked her unconscious, police said.

Livingston faces life without the possibility of parole on the murder charge and multiple life sentences on the rape charges. He is scheduled to appear in court Nov. 30. Anyone with information about Livingston is asked to contact Anaheim Sgt. Rick Martinez at (714)-647-7041 or Costa Mesa Sgt. Bryan Glass at (714) 754-5090.

 Blood donations are down so the American Red Cross is trying to lure donors with the chance to win a $500 American Express gift card. The winners will be announced on Dec. 15.

Donors in Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego and Ventura Counties are eligible throughout this month.

Donations were low this summer and Red Cross officials are worried that it will be worse during the holiday season when people often vacation.

To make an appointment call (800) 448-3542 or visit www.givelife.org.

For Spanish, call 1-866-POR-VIDA (1-866-767-8432) or visit www.cruzrojaamericana.org.

 A large storm originating from the Southern Hemisphere gave surfers some major action Wednesday with swells that easily reached 12 feet at the Wedge in Newport Beach.

Safety was a concern due to the size of the swells and the low tide during the evening, but no injuries were reported.

NEWS

Local church aids Katrina victims, two years later

Palm Harvest Church volunteers trekked from Costa Mesa to Pascagoula, Miss., to help victims of Hurricane Katrina who are still struggling. Many live in FEMA trailers and can’t afford to fix their homes. Palm Harvest volunteers are helping to repair their homes.

 The staggering economy is hitting home for many of the area’s working poor. Officials with the area’s soup kitchens and food banks reported a rising demand.

Someone Cares Soup Kitchen, and emergency food programs like the one Sheree King runs through Mariner’s Church, have seen an increased need in the community. King, who was accustomed to distributing enough food to fill a two-door cabinet, now delivers about 5,000 pounds of food a month to those in need, while the kitchen fixes daily meals for many well beyond its 85-person capacity.

BUSINESS

AAA gives luxurious Newport businesses A’s

Two hotels and three restaurants in Newport Beach made the Automobile of Southern California’s short list of Four Diamond Award winners for 2008.

The list, which identifies hotels and restaurants that rank in the top 4% of accommodations, included the Balboa Bay Club and Resort and the Fairmont Hotel as well as the Ritz Restaurant and Garden, the Island Hotel’s Palm Terrace and the Balboa Bay Club’s First Cabin restaurant.

EDUCATION

Juniors and seniors take exit exams, results in 8 weeks

Newport-Mesa high school juniors and seniors took the first round of the California High School Exit Exams.

About 700 students on Tuesday and Wednesday took the four-and-a-half-hour test required to graduate. About 40% pass the test, district officials said. Sophomores, juniors and seniors will get another chance to take it in the spring. About 170 of 1,666 seniors need to pass it before May. The test results will appear in eight weeks.

ENTERTAINMENT

Cirque du Soleil pays visit with Italian opera, drama

Cirque du Soleil returned to Orange County after a four-year absence to premiere “Corteo” inside the Grand Chapiteau, its trademark blue-and-yellow big top.

Blending Italian opera with drama and sensational acrobatics, the show depicts a clown picturing his own funeral.

The show is in town through Dec. 23.

 Jeana Keough and Tammy Knickerbocker, The Real Housewives of Orange County, attended a fashion show and luncheon Thursday at the Westin South Coast Plaza hotel, hosted by Ovations for the Cure, a nonprofit dedicated curing ovarian cancer.

Ovations for the Cure hosted its first fashion show and luncheon event in Boston last year, raising $120,000 for the organization, and followed with a second one earlier this year.

Boston resident Patty Franchi-Flaherty was diagnosed with Stage III ovarian cancer in February of 1999, and when her cancer recurred in February 2004, Flaherty and 10 others founded Ovations in November of 2005.

Thursday’s event was the first one in California for the organization.

COSTA MESA

Boys & Girls Club collects wagers lost on the Angels

Mike Scheafer, the president of the board of directors for the Boys & Girls Club of the Harbor Area, got the most notable haircut of the week Wednesday, as students at the club shaved his head bare with an electric razor.

The reason? Scheafer lost a bet with colleagues Dan Monahan and Steve Lampron that the Angels would beat the Red Sox in the American League playoffs. When Boston swept in three games, the longtime Angels fan submitted to the barber’s chair.

“You know the best thing about this?” Scheafer said after Cassandra Menendez, 16, eliminated his last few hairs. “I won’t get lice.”

Lampron, a Boston native, said he was surprised his team had done so well against the red-hot Angels.

“To be honest, I was shocked when they won three games in a row,” he said. “The Angels are always so good at home.”