MALIBU — When Rebecca Witjas’ daughter, a sixth grader at Malibu Middle School, was assigned a book report that had to do with survival, she figured her daughter would pick a familiar title like “The Swiss Family Robinson” from the list assigned by teacher Brigette Leonard.
SANTA MONICA BEACH — Visitors will probably appreciate the fact that for the first time in many years they will have access to brand new bathrooms after fighting their way through traffic on Interstate 10 to sun themselves on Santa Monica’s beaches.
Flair Cleaners on Montana Avenue is offering people 50 percent off dry cleaning if they bring in goodies for care packages that will be sent to troops fighting overseas.
CITY HALL — City officials are projecting that City Hall will run a $4.6 million deficit by June 2016, up from the $100,000 they predicted at the beginning of the year.
MALIBU — A man who was despondent over losing his job and driving recklessly along Pacific Coast Highway, crashing his car and killing a 13-year-old Malibu girl, was convicted Thursday of second-degree murder.
Crime Watch is a weekly series culled from reports provided by the Santa Monica Police Department. These are arrests only. All parties are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Santa Monica police officers wrote 16 tickets to motorists who failed to stop for pedestrians in a crosswalk at the corner of Pico Boulevard and 31st Street on Wednesday.
Santa Monica College cosmetology student Inga Erdene Jargalsikhan was named winner Tuesday of the Junior Style Stars National Hair Competition, beating out 315 students nationwide.
CLOVER PARK — The rhythms of bossa nova will blend with the aromas of vegetarian cuisine and possibly the whir of a blender powered by a stationary bike at the 21st Annual Santa Monica Festival this Saturday at Clover Park.
PICO BLVD — Just over 6.7 million people visited Santa Monica in 2011 and pumped a record $1.39 billion into the local economy, a 20 percent increase in spending over 2009, according to a report released Wednesday by the Santa Monica Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Applications are now available for a position on the Santa Monica Commission on the Status of Women. The nine-member commission advises the City Council and city officials on issues relating to women and girls, while also implementing its own 2010-15 Strategic Plan.
A construction crew working on the Palisades Garden Walk park on Wednesday at noon struck underground power lines causing an outage that affected just over 3,000 customers, a spokesperson with Southern California Edison said.