San Diego County

NEW CITY ADIMINSTRATOR The City Council approved the appointment of Penelope Culbreth-Graft as Surf City's new city administrator. WHAT IT MEANS: Culbreth-Graft is Huntington Beach's first female city administrator. She comes from a position as assistant city administrator in the city of Riverside, where she has been since February, 2003. For three years before that Culbreth-Graft was the tribal government manager for the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians in San Diego County.

Jenny Marder City Administrator Ray Silver will leave his post on April 30, several months earlier than originally planned. When he first announced his impending retirement in September, Silver said he would step down in July. "The biggest reason [for leaving early] is that he had a business opportunity," said Laurie Payne, the city's public information officer. "He has been asked to consult in the private sector, and they wanted him sooner."

Right now, there's a good chance Laguna Beach's James Pribram is on a standup paddleboard, off the Southern California coast probably in North San Diego County. Whether or not he's having fun is debatable, but there is no doubt Pribram is doing something good. Pribram, who has come to be known as the "Eco-Warrior" for his advocacy work for clean oceans and beaches, accepted an invitation to join the guys at Below the Surface, a non-profit organization that promotes water conservation and improving water quality in rivers and oceans.

Huntington Beach attorney Allen Baylis wears many hats — but prefers no clothes. As a board member for the Naturist Action Committee and an attorney, he was the loudest voice against a nudity ban passed last year by the City Council. As president of the new Huntington Beach group Naturists in the OC, he helps set up social events for nudists in the area. And lately, as president of the Friends of San Onofre Beach, Baylis is heading up the legal battle to preserve a longtime haven for clothing-free sunbathers that the state parks department plans to eliminate.

Brethren Christian turned up for the start of the upcoming Academy League boys' basketball season by winning a championship during holiday tournament play. The Warriors were in Palm Springs last week for the MaxPreps Holiday Classic. They won all four games they played and sewed up the title in their division by defeating Canyon Crest of San Diego, 77-70, in the title game Saturday. In the final, UC Irvine-bound center Mamadou Ndiaye poured in 40 points. The senior also pulled down 17 rebounds and blocked six shots.

Sloshing through the mud in the freezing rain, pushing a broken down motorcycle on a trip with his two sons along the Continental Divide Trail is a memory that has become even more precious for one father since his youngest son, Léon Roach III, died Sunday. The trip was just one of the family’s usual summer adventures, but looking back on the journey across the more than 2,500 mile trail, Léon Roach II remembers when his son grabbed him as they made their way along in the miserable conditions and said, “You’re my hero.

It is beautiful, scenic and quirky. Surf City is a great place to live and, with all that there is going on, a great place for a journalist. That means it's probably a tough place to be a city administrator. So congratulations to the city's very first female administrator, Penny Culbreth-Graft, and welcome aboard. Culbreth-Graft brings to Surf City a breadth of experience that includes the sort of thing one might expect -- most recently a stint as the assistant city manager of Riverside, where she dealt with the various departments as she will here.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service and marine biologists will continue to survey Southern California bays and estuaries, including the Bolsa Chica wetlands, after determining that a carpet of nonnative seaweed has been eradicated from Huntington Harbour. In 2000, the service found the invasive leafy seaweed, called Caulerpa taxifolia, in the harbor's surrounding lagoons while conducting unrelated environmental work, marine biologist Rachel Woodfield said.

After road trips to Santa Barbara, San Diego County and Pasadena for three of its first four games, the Orange Coast College football team is home against Riverside today at 5 p.m. "With the places we've been, it sounds like we've been on vacation," OCC Coach Mike Taylor said. But with a 3-1 record, the program's best start in 13 seasons, the Pirates, ranked No. 10 in the Southern California coaches' poll, have been anything but hospitable visitors.

With its mascot the Lightning, and two players nicknamed "Thunder" and "Lightning," the Sage Hill School football team has quite the storm brewing this season. But it's not just superfluous nicknames and titles surrounding the team. Sage is off to a 2-0 start, sparked by its thunderous ground game with the two coveted runners. It was "Lightning" that flashed brightest last week, however, earning senior tailback Keya Manshadi Daily Pilot Player of the Week honors.