Newport

Molly Brown's, the beloved Newport Beach-based swim shop that has garnered quite the celebrity stylist following, has laid down some roots in Laguna. Donna Allen, who owns Molly Brown's along with her husband Greg, last month opened the boutique at 490 S. Coast Hwy. "I live here in Laguna Beach," Donna said. "I've been trying for several years to move into town. When the space became available, I thought it would be a great opportunity. I've gotten great feedback on this store from people from southern Orange County who [now]

Water was liquid gold in the Old West, and not much has changed. With sources drying up, conservation is the battle cry. Mayor Jane Egly will join Newport Beach Mayor Nancy Gardner on Friday to kick off the monthlong Wyland Mayor's Challenge for Water Conservation to see which city in the country can be the most water-wise, not to mention earn bragging rights. The mayors will be joined by artist Robert Wyland, whose foundation is presenting the challenge, representative Michael Rouse from Toyota, and Nancy Stoner from the Environmental Protection Agency, among others.

They say it takes a village to raise a child. Charlotte Day might say that sometimes it takes the help of another village thousands of miles away. In 2005, Day started GOGO Grandmothers, a ministry within the nonprofit Safe Africa that connects grandmothers across the world and donates resources to Malawian grandmothers. "Gogo" is the word for grandmother used in Malawian villages. There are now 12 GOGO Grandmothers groups in the U.S., with a chapter in Newport Beach and two in Laguna Beach.

NEWPORT BEACH - Prior to the second sudden-death overtime, the last voice that could be heard before the sprint was that of Newport Harbor High junior Elissia Schilling. "Hey, let's pick it up right here," Schilling said, before turning to goalie Cleo Harrington. "Fire up, Clee!" The frantic game had already gone nine extra minutes. Both teams had to be tired. Schilling's words provided inspiration to her teammates. Just more than two minutes later, her shot ended the game.

The first time the Laguna Beach and Newport Harbor girls' water polo teams met this season, the matchup had the feeling of a postseason game. It did come during an important event, the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions on Jan. 13, and the teams needed an overtime session to determine the winner, with Newport emerging with a 7-6 come-from-behind victory. The game reflected the parity of the teams that have dominated the top-10 poll this year in CIF Division 1. At 3:15 p.m. Friday at Newport, the teams meet again in a nonleague game that comes less than a week before the Irvine SoCal Championship Tournament, the final tournament of the regular season.

Susan Shieldkret is marching fearlessly into the shaky economy. She opened a jewelry store on Balboa Island in Newport Beach about a year and a half ago, and another one opened in Laguna Beach this summer. The Laguna shop, at South Coast Highway and Cress Street, where Mandarin Fine Arts used to be, had a "soft opening" in August, but held its grand opening Oct. 20. Shieldkret said she believes there will always be a market for the kind of jewelry she sells, which is everything from a $20 faux-gold necklace to an Indian diamond cuff worth thousands.

The UC Irvine art school's role as an academic center on the West Coast for studying and experimenting with radical forms of creativity in the 1960s and '70s will be evident at October exhibitions in Laguna Beach, Newport Beach and at UCI. A roster of star UCI art program alums and teaching artists, who served on the faculty while riding that period's new wave of so-called conceptualism, will be part of three Orange County exhibitions. The Laguna Art Museum, the Orange County Museum of Art and the campus's University Arts Gallery all will present exhibitions showcasing or encompassing the works of artists noted for their contributions to the Southern California arts scene from 1945 to 1980.

It all started with a story. For the last 13 years, Craig Lockwood, the 73-year-old former editor of Surfing and Surfer magazines, has been toiling over a detective story he wrote based on a down-on-his-luck private eye who works out of a Santa Monica gay bar and uses a beer keg as a desk. "I looked at it and said, 'Darn, it's too bad. There's so much good work out there,'" he said. This summer, Lockwood of Laguna Beach and artist Rick Rietveld of Newport Beach debuted their pulp fiction publishing company, Pacific-Noir Pulp Press, and their first title: "Hard-boiled Surf Pulp Fiction.

State law allows some group homes with six or fewer residents to be treated as single-family residences and limits local agencies' regulation of their locations and operations. Neighbors of some group homes in Laguna have expressed concerns about smoking, noise, trash, increased deliveries and additional traffic generated by the occupants, who are often recovering abusers of alcohol and drugs. In May, the Laguna Beach City Council asked staff to review efforts made by Newport Beach to regulate the facilities and on June 21 unanimously passed a resolution of certification of the amendments by the California Coastal Commission.

"People would walk into my booth and they'd say, 'You call this art? This is just junk,'" James Koch says in "Sculptor of the Found Object. " The short documentary film based on artistic process of Koch, a regular at the Sawdust Art Festival, is showing during the Newport Beach Film Festival. However, to director Carole Zavala, his art — made from reclaimed items — was anything but junk. As Koch's neighbor in Laguna Beach, Zavala would hear about his process while drinking coffee on his front porch.