Almost ten months ago, on Monday, May 18, 2009, at about 6:01 PM, the apparently happy life of Los Alamitos father and husband Gary Gierczak, 54, along with two other men, ended suddenly in a mid-air crash off Long Beach. The weather was clear, it was during daylight, the planes were both being tracked on FAA radar, and the pilots were experienced flyers. In fact, Gierczak had an airline pilot’s license. The National Transportation Safety Board, NTSB, concluded that the pilots did not see each other.

Gap, Inc. announced yesterday the four winners of this year’s Casting Call Contest for babyGap and GapKids Stores Nationwide. Long Beach’s Madison Russell, 9, was one of the four. The national contest called for one boy and girl in the babyGap category (4 and under) and one boy and girl for GapKids (5 to 10). Madison was the winner for the girls 5-10 group and will be featured in store windows nationwide.

With typical Southern California mid-winter temperatures pushing into the 70’s, how about a snow day in Irvine? The Great Park kicks off its winter series with a boatload—make that a sledload--of free winter fun tomorrow, Saturday, January 30, 2010. The GP is offering a long list of events and activities. Admission is free, parking is $8.00, and GP will even provide free sleds and skates.

Gap Inc. recently revealed the 20 lovable finalists in its nationwide contest to find the next faces of babyGap and GapKids. Out of nearly a million entries submitted online by hopeful parents, Madison, 9, from Long Beach, CA, was selected by the judges as one of the 20 finalists.

The friends and colleagues of recently deceased businessman, entrepreneur and Tech Coast Angels founder, Luis Villalobos, are establishing an endowed fellowship fund to be awarded to a graduate MBA student at the Paul Merage School of Business at University of California, Irvine. The fellowship, entitled the Luis Villalobos Endowed Fellowship in Entrepreneurship, is designed to honor the business leader in perpetuity.

There are 40,000 students and staff either commuting to or living on the CSULB campus and only 13,000 parking spaces. The university has a variety of programs to deal with the parking shortage, as well as reducing congestion and pollution, but much of the focus of those efforts is around bringing people to and from campus.

On Monday of this week, in a brief filed in the Supreme Court in Salazar v. Buono, the United States government defended the constitutionality of the 75-year old Mojave Desert Cross, which memorializes World War I veterans. The ACLU is representing a former park assistant Superintendent, Frank Buono, who claims to be offended by the display of a cross on government property where someone he knew was denied permission to erect a Buddhist symbol.

If you want to try a Queen Mary signature Bloody Mary at 1936 prices, this Wednesday is your chance--your only chance, and you will only get one at this price. May 27, 2009 marks the 73rd anniversary of the Queen Mary’s Maiden Voyage from Southampton, England to New York City. To celebrate the occasion, the Queen Mary is offering her signature cocktail – the Bloody Mary - at the alluring price of .36¢ in the Observation Bar on May 27th only.

There are two major events happening in West Orange County this week end. The Seal Beach Chamber of Commerce will host their 22nd Annual Classic Car Show. The Rossmoor Community Services District and the Rossmoor Homeowners Association will present their Family Fun Days at Rush Park.

At this time of year, when southern California finally gets some rain, our local beaches really get dumped upon, and we don’t mean the rain. According to Kim Masoner, Founder, Seal Beach based Save Our Beach, when it rains, the trash comes down the San Gabriel River and ends up at Seal Beach. “Trash from Diamond Bar and people in Azusa, their trash comes all the way down to Seal Beach.”

Heifer Project International is a non-profit agency whose mission is to work with communities to end hunger and poverty and to care for the earth. The fair this Sunday, November 15, will give Attendees an opportunity to purchase animals to be sent to families in third world countries. The idea is to provide a source of food rather than short-term relief. The families agree to pass on one or more of their animal’s offspring to another neighbor in need which creates an expanding network of hope, dignity, and self-reliance.

In an out of court settlement approved by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge, Lowes Home Improvement yesterday agreed to pay up to $29.5 million to settle a class action law suit covering all of California. Two former Lowes employees alleged that they, and thousands of other hourly Lowes workers, were not paid for hours they were required to work "off the clock" before and after their normal shifts. Although Lowes agreed to pay the $29.5 million, they denied all of the claims raised in the lawsuit. What's wrong with this picture?

The waves, rip currents, and high tides from a storm in the Southern Hemisphere are expected to hit Orange County beaches this weekend. The surf should be dangerously sporadic today, and peak on Friday, just in time for the California regional lifeguard competitions at Seal Beach.

As President Obama presides over the largest bankruptcy of an American industrial company in history and 100 year old GM enters a court supervised restructuring, your Editors wanted to understand what it all might mean for local Chevy lovers. Since there is not a significant GM manufacturing facility in West Orange County, the autoworker's plight might not be quite as relevant to our local area as the concerns of our local Chevy lovers. There are however, plenty of Chevy lovers in West Orange County. We surveyed several local Chevy dealers to get their first reaction to the bankruptcy filing, their reactions varied greatly.

Although official announcements are still forthcoming, it is clear that Gary D. Gierczak, 53, was the pilot of one of the two planes which collided off Long Beach on Monday. The mid-air crash between a single engine Cessna 172 and the twin engine Cessna 310 which was piloted by Gierczak, was reported by another pilot who saw the accident Monday afternoon. The Coast Guard called off the search for survivors on Tuesday.

Expect major congestion on Seal Beach Blvd between Bolsa Avenue and Adolfo Lopez Drive. If you go south on Seal Beach Blvd. from the 405 toward PCH, or the other direction, be prepared for more than the usual traffic jams starting this Monday, at 7:00 am.