Featured Articles from the Daily Pilot

Editor's note: This corrects the day the crews were expected to arrive in Ensenada. NEWPORT BEACH – Amid a light breeze and sunny skies, racers set sail Friday afternoon in the 64th annual Newport-to-Ensenada International Yacht Race. Winning the first start was defending champion Taxi Dancer, a 68-foot bright yellow yacht from Santa Barbara. Dennis Conner's Stars and Stripes, from San Diego, followed close behind. While the breeze showed promise early — at about 6 knots in the morning — by the time the gun fired at noon, it had dropped to about 3 or 4 knots from the west.

NEWPORT BEACH — Sitting on an oversized plush chair in baseball legend Chuck Finley's Newport Beach home, actress Tawny Kitaen seems to be in a much different place than she was eight years ago. A soccer goal is visible in the backyard, and her daughter's art covers the refrigerator in the family home. Her adopted dog, Woody, nuzzles Kitaen as she talks about a new off-camera passion: helping others. A volunteer at Kathy's House, a shelter for at-risk women in San Juan Capistrano, and a member of the board of directors at Testimony Life Resources, an alternative counseling center, Kitaen appears to be a far cry from her role as the eccentric star of "The Surreal Life," or the woman battling a dependency on prescription pills on "Celebrity Rehab.

When John McMonigle posted a question on his Facebook page about how people would be spending the weekend in Orange County, he mostly got responses like going to the beach or attending children's sporting events. But someone posted this reply, which was still posted on Monday morning but had been deleted by the afternoon: "Filing for bankruptcy. How about you?" McMonigle, 46, a Newport Beach real estate agent behind the sale of some of the county's most expensive properties, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy Friday to relieve debt from a few more than 200 creditors, according to online federal court records.

Accused of impersonating a G-Man, a Seal Beach woman met real FBI agents Thursday when they arrested her at Fashion Island in Newport Beach, authorities said. Karen Hanover, 44, was arrested without incident two days after federal prosecutors charged her in a Santa Ana federal court with using special technology to mask her phone number and disguise her voice so she could scare people into thinking she was a federal agent. The criminal complaint accuses Hanover of targeting people at real estate education seminars to pay her a $30,000 "fee" to help them find commercial properties to buy. Hanover spent all of her time allegedly finding new investors to swindle out of their money instead of actually finding property, something she wasn't qualified to do anyway, prosecutors claim.

Domoic acid poisoning is suspected in the deaths of two dolphins that washed up in Newport Beach on Sunday, a Laguna Beach-based marine mammal expert said. Two adult dolphins washed ashore on 15th and 61st streets in Newport Beach with seizures and tails flapping, visible symptoms of domoic acid poisoning. They died on the beach. The Pacific Marine Mammal Center on Monday conducted necropsies on the dolphins and is anticipating results in the next 48 hours. Michelle Hunter, the center's director of operations and animal care, believes such poisoning caused the dolphins' deaths.

Newport Beach police arrested two Valencia brothers New Year’s Eve after they allegedly beat up a Santa Ana man near Newport Pier, Sgt. Steve Burdette said Friday. Darren Deldo, 25, and Daniel Deldo, 27, were waiting in line to enter the District Lounge, 121 McFadden St., shortly before midnight when some of their female friends began arguing with other women about cutting in line, Burdette said. The two groups moved to the base of Newport Pier to continue the argument.

Correction: An earlier version of this story reported results from "a majority of residents. " The sampling was only of registered voters. COSTA MESA — A majority of registered voters are concerned about city spending and believe that some services should be outsourced to the private sector, according to a poll conducted on behalf of the Costa Mesa Taxpayers Assn. The poll's results, which were released this week by the nonpartisan but conservative-leaning residents' group, came weeks after the results of a separate poll paid for by the Orange County Employees Assn.

COSTA MESA — With a handwritten note, a brick and a throw, criticism of Costa Mesa Mayor Gary Monahan escalated to more than just words when someone vandalized his bar after closing Saturday. "This wasn't directed at the bar, it was directed at the mayor, at my place of business for actions that I'm doing as mayor," Monahan said Saturday. "That's kind of scary. " At about 3:30 a.m. a Skosh Monahan's employee called police after someone launched a brick through their front-door window with a note taped to it. Neither Monahan or police would detail what the note said, but officials said it was critical of Monahan personally and referenced the citywide layoff notices distributed last month.

Newport Beach Mayor Mike Henn ran in the 115th Boston Marathon on Monday, completing the race in just under four hours. The 62-year-old mayor was one of 26,800 participants to run in the country's oldest annual marathon. Henn completed more than 26 miles, or 42.195 kilometers, in 3:57:37, according to the Boston Marathon's athlete tracker. Henn finished 9,979th for men and 15,513th overall, according to the tracker. Athletes have to qualify to run in the Boston Marathon, according to the Boston Athletic Assn., which puts on the event.

COSTA MESA — At one point during the Feet to the Fire forum discussion on Monday night, Orange County Employees Assn. General Manager Nick Berardino questioned the heart and wisdom of having city employees work on proposals to contract out their own jobs. "That is just ugly," Berardino said. The crowd applauded. "It's reality," retorted Costa Mesa Councilman Jim Righeimer over that applause. That exchange just about summed up the tone of the night's panel discussion at the Costa Mesa Neighborhood Community Center, which had more than 100 attendees.

Fashion Island retail store and clothier Splendid will host an all-day shopping event and rally on Thursday to benefit the EIF Revlon Run/Walk for Women, according to a news release Monday. The store will donate 15% of sales to the Run/Walk for Women, to be hosted by the Entertainment Industry Foundation and Revlon in Los Angeles on May 7, from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursday. Rally attendees can also sign up to run or walk with Team Splendid and enter to win the Team Splendid Sweepstakes.

Much has been made of the brewing fight between Five Guys Burgers and Fries restaurants and In-N-Out Burger. This summer, Newport-Mesa will become a burger battlefield of sorts, as the two chains with cult-like followings go head to head on Harbor Boulevard. The Virginia-based Five Guys, which is expanding aggressively into Southern California, plans to open a restaurant on Harbor near Baker Street, less than half a mile from the new In-N-Out at Harbor and Gisler Avenue.

The Irvine Co. has eliminated about 75 positions through a combination of layoffs and the closing of open positions, a source with knowledge of the situation confirmed Monday. The layoffs were mainly in the corporate administration and included areas like finance, the person said. A second source, who asked not to be named, confirmed that the total number of eliminated jobs was about 75. It was unclear how many jobs were eliminated through layoffs versus cutting open positions.

Newport Beach Police Capt. Jim Kaminsky received more than $1,200 in free rooms, vouchers and meals from the Island Hotel in 2007-08, possibly exceeding limits that the state sets for public employees and the city sets for police officers, according to a letter from the hotel reviewed Friday by the Daily Pilot. In the letter dated June 29, 2009, which the Pilot obtained using the California Public Records Act, hotel Managing Director Richard Evanich asks Kaminsky to reimburse the Newport Center hotel $460.