AROUND TOWN - April 10, 2009

Business committee seeks new ideas

Laguna Beach City Councilwomen Elizabeth Pearson and Toni Iseman are inviting local business owners and residents to participate on a planning committee to develop ideas to help retain and attract businesses in Laguna Beach — and to help Laguna’s businesses to become more successful in challenging economic times.

The committee will focus on long-term ideas and solutions to help Laguna’s business owners.

The meetings are “open” and anyone who owns or works at a Laguna business — or lives in Laguna Beach — may participate. The meetings will be on the third Thursday of each month at the Community/Senior Center, 380 Forest Ave.

It is anticipated that the meetings will occur through October. The first meeting will be at 5 p.m. Thursday in the large Community Room.

Those who cannot attend the first meeting may call Ann Larson, the city staff person assigned to help coordinate the committee, at (949) 497-0320, to add your name and e-mail address to the distribution list.

May ballot issues will be topic on Saturday

The League of Women Voters and the Social Action Committee of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship will offer a discussion of the pros and cons on the ballot issues that will appear on the May ballot, at 9:15 a.m. Saturday at the Fellowship, 429 Cypress Drive.

Spring cleaning removed lots of beach trash

The Clean Water Now! Coalition, organizers of the California Coastal Commission Adopt-A-Beach Program for Laguna Beach, is pleased with the participation at its March 21 “Spring Cleaning” event.

About 125 volunteers removed almost 800 pounds of trash and recyclables from Laguna’s beaches.

Volunteer organizers included the Hearts of Montage plus the Momentum Group Inc., who staffed the Aliso Beach and Treasure Island cleanups, and Latino Health Access, a Santa Ana-based after school youth program, who assisted executive director Roger E. Butow and Art Fahy at Main Beach. David Marchese organized the Victoria Beach site.

The next cleanup is June 20. For more information and updates visit www.cleanwaternow.com.

Male menopause subject of talk at Woman’s Club

Dr. Joe Ferguson, a clinical psychologist specializing in men and adolescent males in transition and crisis, will speak on “The Myth of Male Menopause and the Real Midlife Crisis,” April 30 at the Laguna Beach Woman’s Club, 286 St. Ann’s Drive.

Doors open at 7 p.m. with the presentation beginning at 7:30 p.m. The community is welcome. Light refreshments will be served. For more information, visit www.Fergi.com.

Cox warns of e-mail scam

Cox Cable is warning subscribers to its Internet service that fraudulent e-mails purportedly from Cox that demand user names and passwords in order to continue service have been received by some subscribers.

The e-mails are addressed “Dear cox.net User,” and state that service will be “terminated in the next 72 hours” unless the user name and password are sent by reply e-mail. The e-mails originate from the address “ info@cox.net,” which is not the company’s e-mail address.

The e-mails claim that “one or more of our subscriber[s] are introducing a strong virus into our system and it is affecting our network. We are trying to find out the specific person.”

In an e-mail alert, James Leach, a Cox spokesman, said he received one of the e-mails Thursday morning. “It is totally false and did not originate from Cox,” Leach wrote. Leach can be reached at james.leach@cox.com.