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On Wednesday, June 27, the Pacific Club in Newport Beach hosted a trio of Ellis Island Medal of Honor winners as part of the club’s Distinguished Speakers Series luncheons. The Ellis Island Medal of Honor recognizes the combined professional achievements and humanitarian work of...

Imagine sitting on the deck of your own yacht bobbing on the water of Newport Harbor, cruising to Catalina aboard a swift sailboat, or fishing along the coast in your own trawler. Now imagine going to the 45th annual Lido Boat Show and having an up close and personal encounter...

By Cassandra Reinhart | Special to the NB Indy Bruce Cook feels alive again. “I feel totally different and my whole appetite is different,” Cook said. “Things that I loved before I don’t even want to eat now.” Cook, of Newport Beach, received a kidney transplant from Laguna Beach...

By Jeff Glueck | Special to the NB Indy Many of you read my father’s column, “Deep Thoughts from Dr. Mike,” over the years in this newspaper. He loved Newport Beach, his home for 44 years, and loved sharing his thoughts, whether funny, sad, indignant, or irreverent. We lost my...

More than 30 years ago, after admittedly non-competitive 18-year-old Deborah Cowles told her boyfriend that she had decided to become a competitive athlete, he did what any supportive boyfriend should not have done: He laughed. Cowles responded accordingly — she dumped him in...

By Cassandra Reinhart, Special to the Independent Sixty-five-year-old Bruce Cook couldn’t admit to anyone but himself that he will die without a kidney transplant. “I didn’t want sympathy and I didn’t want people to think I was disabled,” Cook said.  “I didn’t think anybody would...

  Snakes slither, rabbits bolt, bobcats stalk, coyotes slink, hawks glide, and a multitude of other creatures dart, dive or peck. This is no exercise in animal action verbs, but it does describe everyday life in one of Newport’s lesser-known wildlife oases: Buck Gully nature...

In 1977 Upper Newport Bay became a marine preserve and wildlife refuge. USC beat Michigan in the Rose Bowl, while Apple Computer incorporated. “Fantasy Island” made its TV debut, while “The Brady Bunch” made its TV adieu.  Biologists identified a form of microbial life dating...

“Wine should be fun.” That statement comes courtesy of Parker Theo, 25, a young entrepreneur whose goal is to shake up the wine industry one glass at a time with his pet project: COLOR wines. Theo grew up in Newport Beach and attended USC. After graduation, instead of taking a...

By Joe Haakenson | Special to the NB Indy Jacquie Moffett has been there, done that. Entering her remarkable 50th year as a presenting artist in Laguna Beach’s Festival of Arts, one might think there is nothing more for her to experience, to inspire her, to tickle her funny bone....

By Caroline Leedom | NB Indy  How do you counter the negative undertone of getting older? Simple: rebrand the experience. That is what local resident Tracy Stayton has done since entering her 30s. At 31, she minted the age as “thirty-wonderful.” At 32, she was,...

  Archaeologists believe that the wheel as a useful tool was rolled out about 3,500 BC, in what was then Mesopotamia, a region within the Tigris and Euphrates River System in the Middle East.     Aside from materials, the wheel has changed little in purpose these past 5,517...

December may be the season to be jolly, but summer ‘tis the season to be surf-and-sun aware.  That cautionary “prescription” comes from avid surfer Bryan Doonan, a sports medicine and family physician who sees more surf-and-sun related injuries in his Newport Center walk-in...

The City of Newport Beach claims that annually there are seven million visitors coming to this resort and shopping mecca.  But then, they’re only counting people. Other important visitors drop in as well, none of which bother to check with air traffic controllers at John Wayne...

There was absolutely no way that four girls weren’t going to set a world record. After all, they were the first humans to row across the entire Pacific Ocean – from San Francisco, to Cairns, Australia. Their incredible odyssey spanning 8,579 miles over nine months is humanly and...

Moviegoers may not expect a film involving amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, to inspire hope, but “Augie” certainly does. The documentary centers on Augie Nieto, the fitness entrepreneur responsible for LifeCycle, and his fight with the disease. ALS attacks nerve cells in...

By Cassandra Reinhart | NB Indy You’ve got to have true grit to keep up with John Wayne’s daughter. “It’s actually funny, people think I can ride a horse because I am John Wayne’s daughter,” Marisa Wayne laughed.  “I’m like, ‘I grew up on a boat!’ ” The daughter of...

If you’re going to the Monster Energy AMA Supercross at Angel Stadium in Anaheim on Saturday, Jan. 21, look for a rider wearing number 14. That’s Laguna Beach-based rider Cole Seely, 26, who trains with Newport Beach resident Jeff Ward.  Ward is Seely’s riding coach, as well as a...

Longtime civic leader and former Newport Beach Mayor Dennis “Denny” O’Neil passed away on Jan. 6 in Corona del Mar after a long battle with fibrosis of the lungs. He was 78. O’Neil was the vice chairman of Newport Beach and Company, the private nonprofit marketing arm...

Before the introduction of aircraft-specific iPads issued to cockpit crews, pilots would pack their carry-on bags with manuals that measured many inches thick.     Retired American Airlines Captain James Whitehead, 71, of Balboa Peninsula, still finds himself traveling to “work”...