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BREAKING: Weather outlets throughout the world are confirming a “Strong to Very Strong” El Nino this year, and some are predicting an “Extreme El Nino”.  Last years call for a weak El Nino was true in the technical sense, as we kept catching Yellowtail throughout the wintertime– a happening that is virtually unheard of. What’s that mean for us in Newport?  A year filled with …

Tonight, Council voted to reject the proposal by Councilwoman Diane Dixon to ban Jet Packs in the harbor.  Dixon’s proposal carried no actual line-items whatsoever, just an outright ban.  Was it the noise?  Safety?  No– she just wanted to ban them completely without any other qualifications. I spoke on behalf of reason: We already have noise ordinances.  We already have wake ordinances. …

Newport Harbor High School has just won the National Sailing Championship! NHHS Took first place by a very respectable margin in this years Sailing Competition. Congrats to all the sailors in this competition… …and a special congratulations to NHHS– the best school for sailing in the entire country!    

Newport Beach’s City Hall is a building which produces no revenue and costs the taxpayers of Newport Beach well over a half-million dollars each and every month simply to pay down the debt created with its construction and payment plan. While the Irvine Company gave us the land for free, we managed to turn the “New City Hall Project” from …

The Jet Packs in the harbor are cool– nobody is denying that.  However, should they be here in our harbor? Many boaters use the channel that they operate in, and some complain that the Jet Packs tend to be in the way, with newbie drivers flying and spraying seawater all over the place– so should they be banned? I think …

Today is the peak of the Big Swell, with the swell pushing in from dead-south, bringing 10-14ft waves to the big beaches and 20ft waves being generated at The Wedge– estimates which many claim are noticeably low. Last night’s swell overtook much of the sandbars in the area north/west of the Balboa Pier, creating a lake-like scene, shown here: The peak today will be …

The storm that we’ve been tracking for the last week is finally arriving this weekend– and we aren’t talking about boxing.  This Saturday through Wednesday we will see higher than normal swells, with the Wedge seeing waves up to 20 feet high. Monday or Tuesday will likely be the biggest waves, but we’ll start seeing major increases as early as Sunday morning, …

By now, you’ve heard about the water crisis throughout California.  For many reasons, our water supply is simply too low.  In Orange County, we have a reservoir that we pump most of our water from, but we are only allowed to pull 72% from the OC’s reservoir, meaning still need to import 28% of it from northern water supplies– the same supplies that …

One of the items in Tuesday’s City Council meeting was whether or not to add more police to Newport Beach’s Balboa Peninsula, which councilwoman Dixon has repeatedly referred to as having a  “crime problem”.  This is part of Dixon’s “Lights Out” proposal, and 1,746 signatures were submitted to show public disapproval.  All were summarily ignored by council. First, let’s start with the police …

At least one Newport Official is now facing the music in regards to his questionable behavior and missing contribution reports with the Newport Beach City Hall project.  The original City Hall project was set to cost $46m in cash, but ballooned to over a quarter-billion dollars by the time city officials were done with it. The project not only resembles an …