Featured Articles from the Huntington Beach Independent

A handful of Huntington Beach residents told council members Monday that they're fed up of waiting for a new senior center. The proposed facility at Huntington Central Park that was approved in 2006 and planned to be complete in 2009 has yet to break ground after years of lawsuits and the loss of funding. A group of residents aired their complaints about the Rodgers Seniors' Center at 17th Street and Orange Avenue, saying that the facility is falling apart and is doing more harm than good to its patrons.

HUNTINGTON BEACH — TJ DeFalco opened with an ace serve Thursday night and from there, it was aces all around for the Huntington Beach High boys' volleyball team. The Oilers reserved a spot in Saturday's CIF Southern California Regional Division 1 championship match by sweeping past visiting San Clemente, 25-20, 25-18, 26-24, before another great crowd at Huntington's Elmer Combs Gymnasium. Huntington, the top seed in the tournament, returns to Santiago Canyon College in Orange for Saturday's 7:30 p.m. Division 1 finale.

The Huntington Beach Park where a man was allegedly beaten with a skateboard is no stranger to crime, according to police. "It's an area where we need to keep a high visibility of police presence," Huntington Beach Police Chief Ken Small said. "Those kinds of incidents can happen pretty quickly. " Drug possession, loitering, battery and a single murder are among the crimes reported in the last five years.Nineteen counts of battery have been reported, five of them in 2012, along with eight cases of minors loitering and nine incidents of drug possession.

The class started out with 34 recruits -- upon graduation, there were only 20. "It takes a lot of effort, heart and help to complete this course," said Gary T. Knostman, graduate of Golden West College's Criminal Justice Training Center. "I couldn't have done it on my own." The 125th graduating class of Golden West College's Criminal Justice Training Center held its ceremonies in the larger and more spacious Robert B. Moore Theater at Orange Coast College on Friday.

It all started 47 years ago when Jack Combest borrowed $500 from his father to open a small gift shop in Long Beach. "I just said I wanted to start a business, and he didn't ask," Combest said. "He just gave it to me. " When he first opened the store, the then-engineering student at Cal State Long Beach didn't think he would keep it for a lifetime. Combest said his girlfriend at the time wanted to open a "cutesy baby" store, which didn't exactly sound like an exciting idea for him. So they decided they would open one that would perfectly fulfill his and her interests and tastes: a shop that sells gifts and items that "you don't really need, but you want.

Patrick Cottle does most of his work in a small shop in Norwalk, but he stays on call 24 hours a day. After all, he never knows when somebody is going to need a drum. Cottle, the owner of BoneYard Drums, has had bands call him at 10 p.m. en route to a gig, needing a small part for their drum kit. He’s had producers phone him at odd hours from the recording studio. Sometimes, drummers land at the airport and call him to provide an entire set for their upcoming show. For nearly three years, Cottle has made a living finding old and beat-up drums, outfitting them with new parts and selling them back to the music industry.

K aren Shaw remembers the day 12-year-old Robin Samsoe went missing in 1979. More than 30 years later, the Huntington Beach resident is working to make sure her own 12-year-old daughter isn't abducted and killed, as Robin was. Shaw is spearheading a Huntington Beach Super Signature drive on Saturday to urge legislators to crack down on violent child predators and pass Chelsea's Law. The proposed legislation would increase the punishment...

His nickname could be "Aqua Lung." His slogan could be: Banker by day, world-class swimmer by night. He is Richard Saeger, a 1984 Olympic gold medalist who has recently delved, or dived, back into the pool, breaking records all over again. Saeger, 41, who regularly trains at Newport Harbor and Corona del Mar High school pools, is fresh off a world-record performance in the 100-meter freestyle in the 40-44 age division at the Mission Viejo Masters Meet July 3. An Irvine resident since 1999, Saeger got back into competitive swimming in 2000 after taking a 14-year hiatus to focus on his career -- banking, basically.

Marina High is moving on in the CIF Southern Section baseball playoffs after picking up a big road victory Tuesday. For two other teams that day, the season came to an end. Marina advanced to the Division 1 quarterfinal round for the first time since 2009 after the Vikings traveled to Thousand Oaks and returned home with an 11-4 second-round win. Their Sunset League brethren, Fountain Valley and Huntington Beach, were eliminated in second-round losses,...

It was just the perfect fit. That's why Nothing Bundt Cakes co-Founder Dena Tripp decided to bring her company, which franchised a few years ago, to 16622 Beach Blvd., Suite 102 in Huntington Beach, just a few miles from her hometown of Fountain Valley. She and her husband, Blaine, both graduated from Fountain Valley High School. "There was only one choice in my mind as to where the perfect bakery would be and that was Beach Boulevard," said Tripp, who moved to Las Vegas to start a family and her business in the late 1990s.

A developer with local ties will try to make a long-delayed project - which eventually would bring condominiums, businesses and a hotel to downtown Huntington Beach - a reality. DJM Capital Partners announced in a press release last week that it purchased about 11 acres of the vacant 31-acre site designated for the Pacific City project. It will be the fourth developer to become involved in the project in the last eight years. Pacific City seeks to bring 516 residential units, shops, restaurants and an eight-story hotel to the site downtown on Pacific Coast Highway between First and Huntington streets.

REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK Cops aren't like regular people -- at least that's what most people seem to think. It seems that most people have a bad opinion of cops, or none at all. I have to admit that I haven't always had a very good opinion of them. That changed when I got into journalism. My first job at a newspaper put me in contact with police officers on a weekly basis and I learned a lot about them. They are just like everyone else. They have families, they have lives outside of the police department and the same things that bother us, bother them.

Ocean View Little League's magical summer began last year with a District 62 title and ended with a World Series championship in Williamsport, Pa. But there was a changing of the guard Monday night at Mile Square Park in Fountain Valley. Huntington Valley dug its way out of a three-run hole against Ocean View and went on the dethrone the reigning champs, 8-3, to win the District 62 Major Division All-Star Tournament. Huntington Valley, which went undefeated in the tournament, advances to Section tournament play July 14 at Woodfield Park in Aliso Viejo.