“Park in the front of the school!” the CMHS ASB’s Facebook page instructed Friday January 20th. With the alluring promise of a fresh new location, CMHS students were getting ready to party it up at the “Viva Las Mesa” Blacklight dance that was taking place that night. Tantalized with the alluring promise of a new location, breaking away from the usual dance humdrum of the gym or cafeteria, rumors flew around the school the week before as to where this dance would take place. Some suggested the roof while others suggested the soccer fields. The only way to confirm any suspicions was to attend.

This “new location” was the office foyer, where many students quickly pass through on their way to lunch or class. When asked why ASB decided on that location, junior class vice president Eddie Villegas said, “Well, I guess we wanted to offer a fresh new place, and the foyer has high ceilings and offered a great location for the blacklight.”

Other students had mixed feelings about the location.

“The new location was kind of cramped, and I would have preferred something like the cafeteria or the gym even,” sophomore Justin Hoscoe said.

“All the hype about the “new location” made the actual place more disappointing than it already was,” replied sophomore Abby To. 

Decorated with creative Vegas themed posters and streamers around the columns that hold the building up, a great amount of hard work and effort obviously went in to making this dance a success. The ASB started setting up around 5:30 pm to prepare for the flood of students into the foyer. 

Even though the door price was lowered to $15 instead of $20, the amount of students who actually attended the dance was smaller than anticipated. Compared to immense 300 plus students who attended the last dance, only about 60-70 students attended this one. “Even though we didn’t get the expected outcome of people, the DJ and the blacklights were amazing! I had fun and I know people will be disappointed they didn’t go,” Eddie said in response.

Although the dance started at eight, most students arrived around nine, presenting their ID card to Laurie as their ticket and taking the breathalyzer test with Ms. Scott before allowed admittance. 

“It started off exactly like a middle school dance, but after an hour or so, it became really fun. Dances like these are a great opportunity to have fun dancing with your special someone or great friends,” Abby To said.

The DJ, crammed into the area in front of the office entrance, blasted music as students danced the night away. Students who had too much fun on the dance floor were able to get a drink of water and take a seat on the planter outside the Lyceum.

Some students were dressed in Vegas themed costumes like Eddie’s toga and Alyssa Hatton and Jackie Waldron’s “Vegas tourist,” complete with fanny packs and an outdated visor. Others depended on the technology of the blacklight to make them shine under it.

Justin Hoscoe said, “It was fun and I liked being with friends. The atmosphere was very bright and it looked like everybody was having a good time.”

At the end of the night, with sweaty skin and tired eyes, students shook the ringing of the last song out of their ears and headed home.

Costa Mesa High School’s ASB hosted the annual winter rally with this year’s theme as ‘Viva Las Mesa.’

The rally took place on Friday, January, 20th in the large gym. It started with the band playing “California Girls” as people entered to take their seats and quickly after that moved into the video of the rally rules. The main three rules being: seniors exit first, no talking, and no negative cheering or otherwise the rally would be shut down.    

Up next came a video introducing the rally hosts as a “four man wolf pack” in reference to the movie, The Hangover. The four rally hosts were Chris Henrriquez, Henry Torres, Jamin Chalberg, and Noah Him. Then as the video ended, three of the four hosts were seen lying on the rally floor, waking up to realize that Noah was missing.

 This led to ASB’s “green man group” dance, they had their faces entirely painted green, with green swim caps, and all black clothing, as they danced to a series of songs.  

Afterwards it back to the rally hosts still looking for Noah, they had found some pictures, and decided to go to Caesar’s Palace to look for him.

Then the winter sports were introduced. They introduced girls/boys soccer, girls/ boys basketball, and boys/girls water polo. 

Freshmen Jayson Baker spoke out, “they didn’t even introduce wrestling as a winter sport.”

However, later on the CMHS school loop page, ASB posted an announcement saying, “ASB says "I'm Sorry" to Coach Serio and the Wrestling Program! Please join us in the Spring Rally!”

Next, the winter sport captains got to participate in a game called “let’s make Cesar dressing.” They had to create a toga made out of toilet paper. The one with the most cheers won, which were the boys basketball captains, Jordan  Walden and Saaeed Eli-Assadi.

Still, the hosts continued to look for Noah, and they decide to look for him at a dance club.

This introduced Costa Mesa High School’s dance club with their first performance at a rally. Then right afterwards Mesa’s cheerleaders performed.  

Following cheer the hosts announced that someone had seen Noah and they said he had said something about sharks. So the hosts journeyed to Mandalay Bay and then they found his phone in the shark tank. 

Transitioning into the second and final game, one captain from each team was picked to dunk their heads into water and grab the “phone” with their teeth (this was technically bobbing for apples with the phones as tennis balls).

Soon after, the rally came to an end. The senior exited as the band played them off with songs like “Viva Las Vegas” and “Pretty Fly for a White Guy”. 

In regards to how much time ASB put into the rally, coordinator Ciara Rudas said, “about 20 hours!”

Senior Richard Carmody, thought “it was terrible, it takes the same amount of time as tutorial, but I’d rather be at tutorial because I can actually get stuff done.”  

Pastor Daniel Orduña said “I thought the green people were awesome, and the videos were impressive."

Over 100,000 websites blacked out on Wednesday, January 18, in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). These included such sites as Wikipedia, Reddit, Wired, and numerous Tumblr and Wordpress blogs. 

SOPA is a bill that was proposed by Republican U.S. Representative Lamar Smith in late October, aimed at stopping the practice of illegally distributing copyrighted goods and files. Under the provisions of the bill, the government would be able to take down any websites that “engage in, enable, or facilitate” copyright infringement. This could apply not only to sites that host illegal content, but also other sites that link to them, users who stream illegal content (this would be considered a felony by the bill), etc… Courts could stop companies from doing business with these blocked sites, and could also block them from search engines and even Internet service providers. The Protect IP Act (PIPA) is another bill with a similar purpose, so it is often grouped with SOPA in discussions.

Since its inception in October, the SOPA bill has met a lot of criticism from people who claim that it could destroy the freedom of the internet. To many, SOPA is seen as an infringement on First Amendment rights that could potentially destroy any given site, because the terms of the bill are so general and non-specific. In protest, Wikipedia and thousands of other websites “blacked out” for 24 hours on January 18. Users who attempted to connect to Wikipedia were redirected to a page on the SOPA blackout. An application on the page allowed users to look up their state representatives and urge them not to support SOPA.

The popular search engine Google did not take part in the blackout, but instead hosted a petition to Congress against the bill. The home page featured a Google logo that was “censored” (covered with a black rectangle). Clicking on the logo redirected users to the online petition page. According to a Google spokesperson, 4.5 million people signed the petition.

On January 19th, federal authorities announced that they had taken down the website Megaupload, as well as arrested 7 people, in connection with an online piracy case. The seven people were charged with causing more than $500 million in damages by distributing copyrighted content, including movies, TV shows, music, e-books and software. Soon after the report, the online group Anonymous launched an attack on various websites supporting the SOPA bill, including the Justice Department site, Universal Music, and other music and film industry sites. The sites went back up soon afterward.

In response to the SOPA blackout protest, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has decided to postpone the Senate vote on the PIPA bill that was supposed to take place on Tuesday.

A serial killer, responsible for the brutal stabbing deaths of four Orange County homeless men in late December and early January, was recently arrested. 

Itzcoatl Ocampo, 23, an ex-Iraq veteran, was arrested by authorities last Friday after fleeing from a Carl’s Jr. 

Beginning December 20th outside of a shopping center in Placentia, the attacks were all been in within a five mile radius of each other. 

The first victim, James McGillivray, 53, was sleeping peacefully outside the shopping center as the surveillance video shows a dark figure dressed in black approaching him from behind. McGillivray was then stabbed multiple times. Within the next ten days, the killer claimed two more victims, both killed in a similar fashion: Lloyd Middaugh, 42, found on the Santa Ana River Trail, and Paulus Cornelius Smit, 57, found behind the Yorba Linda library. 

The authorities worked diligently to catch the killer and keep the local homeless community safe. They had set up roadblocks in Yorba Linda to question people who drive through areas regularly, coinciding with the murder of Smit. The Orange County Rescue Mission distributed free meals, hygiene products, and safety kits to the community. These kits contained a manual of safety tips, a flashlight, and a safety whistle. The homeless also were being advised to stay out of dark, isolated areas, and seek safety in shelters or in groups.

A volunteer group called the Guardian Angels had also lent a hand. Dressed in white T-shirts and red berets, they patrolled the areas homeless people populated, keeping everyone safe and secure. They patrolled day and night, in cars and on foot. They are a calm group who don’t carry weapons, but will become physical if necessary. They also distributed fliers to alert the homeless that "a serial killer is responsible for the slayings" and to encourage them to "get off the streets" and "keep to more populated parts of town."


The last victim was homeless and Vietnam War veteran John Berry, 65, was found dead nearby the restaurant at the scene of the crime. Unfortunately, Berry had been interviewed weeks ago about the homeless killer and expressed no concern. It wasn’t until several days before his death that he felt he was being followed. 

As for Ocampo, family members and friends said that he had been mentally ill, that he had been hearing and seeing things that weren’t there.

"We are extremely confident that we have the man that is responsible for the murders of all four homeless men in Orange County," said John Welter, the Anaheim Police Chief.  

Wild Rivers is closing down after 25 years of service to the community. 

Wild Rivers is a long time local water park located in Irvine. It was announced four years ago that the plot of land that the water park occupies would make for better use toward the community and better benefit towards its economic health. 

Although Irvine Co. ended the lease agreement with Wild Rivers, it allowed the park to stay open for an extra four years. On October 2, 2011, the lease agreement officially ended, forcing the water park to pack its bags and relocate to another location.

Wild Rivers was known in Orange County for not just its rides, but as well as its employment of youth. Wild Rivers is the largest youth employer in the entire Orange County and out of the 1,200 employees, 50% of them were youth. With the park now closing down, all of the employees would now have to find a job elsewhere, losing one of their best chances of getting a job. 

But if Wild Rivers manages to relocate to another area in time, then those employees would be offered jobs again. The water park was also one of the places that locals in Orange County could enjoy whilst cooling down from the summer heat. 

Mike Riedel, the president of Wild Rivers, is hoping to relocate in time before the deadline as he and staff makes negotiations with Great Park near Irvine. Currently, the park is still unable to come to an agreement with Great Park and it is not sure whether or not Wild Rivers would be allowed to remain in business or not. Even when Wild Rivers is able to secure property for the park and manage an agreement, people may have to wait at least two years before the park actually re-opens elsewhere. During these years, the negotiations will need to be complete before construction occurs, which would add another nine months to finish.
   
According to the LA Times, the plot of land that Wild Rivers occupied is going to be used to build 1,700 apartments. These apartments would be constructed immediately after they finish moving Wild Rivers. 

Riedel is hoping that Great Park will give Wild Rivers the permission it needs to secure a plot of land and to begin construction. With the close of Wild Rivers, people will turn to alternative water parks such as Raging Waters, which is now the biggest water park in Orange County.

People must now patiently await the answer to come and see if Wild Rivers will open its doors again.  

"Just remember to keep it as simple as possible," says CMHS band director Mrs. Sandy Gilboe advises as she made sure that both doors that lead into the band room were shut and locked. Satisfied, she turned and sat on the wooden bench of the small piano, flipping through a packet of sheet music. 

"Now, who wants to go first?"


A student stands up, knees shaking, a trickle of sweat dripping down his forehead as he feels the eyes of his competition staring him down. He adjusts his music stand, and places the freezing cold mouthpiece of his trumpet to his lips. Frantically, he searches for the correct measure in the vast expanse of his white sheet music. 

"Ready? A-one, two, a-one, two, three, four!"  

This scene was one of reality for a small group of CMHS students who auditioned for our school's Jazz Band last Thursday and Friday. The Jazz Band is one of the three choices that CMHS band students are given to replace Marching Band, which ended in November. Besides being mostly composed of member of the Marching Band, the Jazz Band is open for anyone to try out. The Jazz Band meets three times a week during zero periods, learning a variety of music and honing their skills as musicians. They perform at cabarets, festivals, and various other events throughout the spring. To ensure that the students have the musical capabilities necessary to perform in this group, auditions are held in the winter of every year.

Each student had to play a piece of music entitled, "Witchcraft," and improvise a melody from a few notes on a page. The students received this music before winter break, and have been practicing feverishly in preparation for these auditions. 

On Thursday, the brass instruments had their auditions. On Friday, the various saxes and rhythm section had theirs.  

These auditions are treated very seriously. Students not auditioning are yelled out of the room and the actual event happens behind closed doors. When asked what she was looking for during the auditions, Mrs. Gilboe responded, “Well, I want to see how well they’ve prepared the music; that tells me a lot. I chose [Witchcraft] because it’s a new piece we’ll be playing this year, and none of the returning members know it.”

Other techniques she mentioned include articulation, a good sense of rhythm, range, and the ability to improvise. Last year’s Jazz Band was “a lot of fun” and she hopes that this year will be the same. She enjoys the fact that a nice mix of new and old arrived bright and early on the audition mornings. 

After the auditions, students were already looking forward to the jazz season. 

"It feels awkward because I'm the youngest and I'm new to the trombone. I think Jazz Band's going to be a great experience," eighth grader Andrew Garcia said.

"Jazz band has been going through dramatic changes over the past few years. We've had many different musicians come through, but I can feel, after the brass auditions, that this year will be a great year for the Jazz Band!'" senior Chris Henrriquez said.

After school on Friday, Mrs. Gilboe posted the results of the 2012 Jazz Band Auditions on the Advanced Band’s bulletin board. The new members and their respective parts are listed below.

Trumpets:

1st: Chris Henrriquez, senior

2nd: Everett Brown, senior

3rd: Jesus Flores, freshman

4th: Paul Tran, freshman 

Trombones:

1st: Edwin Quevedo, junior

2nd: Grayson Erskine, freshman

3rd: David Andres, sophomore

4th: Andrew Garcia, 8th grader

Alto Sax:

1st /2nd: Olivia LeValley, sophomore

1st/2nd: Eddie Villegas, junior

Tenor Sax:

1st: Alexis Amaya, junior

2nd: Justin Hoscoe, sophomore

Baritone Sax:

Ivan Shikhelman, 8th grader

Drum Set:

Matthew Mirdamadi, freshman

Bass:

Alex Piatti, sophomore

CMHS principal, Dr. D’Agostino, along with the Site Leadership Team (SLT), recently decided to either cut one full- time teacher or five classes from Costa Mesa High School.

This cut was ordered by the Board of Education, although D’Agostino negotiated with the Board to cut 1.0 meaning 1 teacher or 5 sections (classes). This decision had to be made by the end of the semester with the final decision being made and known to staff the last Friday of the 2011 school year. 

The main priorities of the Site Leadership Team going into the decision of making a cut of one teacher or five classes were “maintaining academic, athletic, and activities programs, maintaining full contracts, making sure people keep their jobs, keeping AP and Honors courses, and keeping CTE courses available to students.” 

The decision of what to cut was a process of many SLT meetings, comprising of the teachers on campus led by Principal D’Agostino.

During the SLT meetings, staff members like Mrs. Daniels were thinking, “how can we make more cuts and demand more from staff?”

The reality was due to the stern schedule CMHS has in place now and has had for over five years. Many problems have resulted as well including “overstaffing” to the Newport- Mesa Board. 

“The district wanted to cut 1.6 to 1.8 which would mean one teacher and six to eight classes. Teachers with a six/fifth contract get twenty percent more because they do twenty percent more, with the cuts more than 15 veteran teachers’ paychecks will be deducted by three to five thousand dollars monthly,” commented Daniels.

“This will increase work on teachers and increase availability of certain sections, but not classes. I do feel that admin has done a good job…keeping it a collaborative effort with the concerns of the staff and effect it will have on everyone on campus including students,” she added.

 “The school and district philosophies as a site are illustrated by its goals, there shouldn’t be a discontinuity. The goals of the district and the school are never going to be in conflict, administration does support the goals of the school and the district.”

Daniels also explained how although administration may have to make difficult decisions and face trouble concerning schedule and teacher/ class cuts, they both do have  the same goals of leading students to success and doing whatever that may entail.

”With EMA (Environmental Marine Academy) being considered a part of the changes, Mrs. Daniels and Mrs. Rasmussen are planning to make it an afterschool activity type program rather than a class offered within the daily schedule. 
    
Mrs. Daniels said this about changing EMA. “If you put this into perspective, this is a savings about 42 to 97 thousand dollars annually, which in a district budget of about 13 million annually, is like pennies on the dollar and you are sacrificing much more including the negative impact cutting these classes will have in students being able to graduate high school and be adept to move on to college. If we were going to get rid of Mesa, we would have to send an email to those that provide us with the Scribes Grant and turn away 29 thousand dollars that was to be used for the program. With facts like that it is very unlikely that the EMA program will receive a complete 1.0 cut.” 
  
“Changes in UC state requirements have allowed some programs to be recognized as fine arts and gave legitimacy to non A-G courses and CTE (Career Technical Engineering) courses, interdisciplinary courses which allow children to have credits as allowing them with an opportunity to get involved in good careers; a more holistic approach EMA is involved with. Colleges are starting to understand the importance of students such as these that can think independently and work with people which also has an impact on students,” said Daniels.

If any significant amount of cuts were to be made to ROP, CTE, Honors, or AP classes, the chances of CMHS students being able to graduate from high school and pursue good careers would be lower.
 
Throughout the multiple SLT meetings and open staff/open students meetings that were held, many concerns, opinions, and known priorities were discussed. All teachers and board leaders discussed their concerns. 

Mrs. Uhl represented physical education, “if we reduce three sections it will impact 120 kids including a vast majority of seventh graders, about half of the seventh grade population. We all worked very hard to make sure seventh and eighth grade is separated because of the great difference in size and maturity level of the students. If this changed, they will be on a dual roster (meaning two same subject classes in the same period) and we will not give seventh graders to a high school class, the material they learn is completely different, the maturity level is obviously different, kids being displaced is huge!” 

With ELD (Education Language Development) considered for sectional cuts, Mrs. Hartley commented “if an ELD coordinator position was to be cut, it would be like drawing a line and pretending it’s [program, along with students that depend on it] gone away.”

Mrs. Hayes, a High school language arts and business academy teacher, expressed her concerns, “Over fifty kids are enrolled in the dance class, and if this class were to be canceled, it would also affect students in AP world; leading to dual rosters.” 

“These classes have a tremendous affect on the bottom third of kids, we could have more problems in class; these classes lead to more inspired, more discipline kids and well behaved students,” said Dr. Jerry Howell, a High school History teacher. 

Mr. Ryan commented that he would love to have on-campus coaches hired, which was one of the many issues at hand with cuts of an employee or certain sections including P.E., but he “would hate to lose AP Chemistry so something else could happen.” 

D’ Agostino remained concerned with the staff concerns instead of directly voicing his opinion, but did make sure to state that “we need to maintain a good holistic program including CTE, electives, and AP courses.”

 "The decision is difficult to the fullest extent; in thirteen years we have never had to make a mid-year cut. When I think of program athletics, academics, and extra-curricular activities are all considered,” D’ Agostino added.  

Teachers also volunteered to help with the potential problems the cuts could cause. For example, Mr. Ryan offeredto teach his AP Chemistry classes during lunch. 

    
Mr. Schmidt, the High School Assistant Principal, also commented on behalf of being the one in charge of creating and putting into affect a master school schedule that “so far the schedule has seen ripples, eliminating classes and causing big waves and leading to hand-picked planning for seventh and eighth graders especially who only have an option of band and choir, which are both nearly at their max 
[occupancy].” 

Many priorities and concerns coinciding with the cuts were also brought up by SLT members in the past months. 

“Actually believing that all students can be successful,” was the concern brought by Mrs. Rasmussen.

The importance of grades being updated on a regular basis was addressed by Mrs. Daniels and Mr. Piazza. 

“Honor what other teachers do in their classrooms,” commented Mrs. Krenik, discussing the importance of all members of staff knowing what things others do in order to produce more success. 

“Having a problem- solution mindset,” said Mr. Pannizzo mentioning how important it come up with a list of problems that need to be addressed and ultimately solve them all.

“Reminding ourselves [staff] of all the good things we are doing,” said Mr. Center, seconding Mrs. Krenik’s comment. 

“Along with the concerns of the cuts, care needed to be taken towards tenure teachers, concerns of teachers, the trash around campus, and the care and attitude displayed towards fellow teachers, staff and students.

Dr. D’ Agostino along with Mr. Peralta and Mr. Schmidt, all stressed the importance and their goal to not have only one department or one teacher “take a hit.” He stated the cuts would “be made in the best interest of everyone.”

He also added, “I believe with time and support, all kids can learn.”

“I can report with 1,770 precincts reporting, governor Mitt Romney received 30,015 votes. Senator Rick Santorum received 30,007 votes. Congratulations to governor Mitt Romney, winner of the 2012 Iowa caucuses,” the announcer reports as Mitt Romney’s supporters began to cheer. 

Mitt Romney received 24.6% of the votes. Rick Santorum received 24.5% of the votes. Ron Paul received 21.4%, Newt Gingrich received 13.3%, Rick Perry received 10.3%, and Michelle Bachmann only received 5% of the votes in the Iowa caucuses.

The Iowa caucus is a meeting of Iowa residents to try to select the nominee for the presidential nominating convention. The Iowa caucuses are the first major event in the nominating process for the President and are often an indicator of the presidential candidates for each political party. The Iowa caucus began on January 3rd and ended on January 4th with Mitt Romney’s win.

In 1976, Jimmy Carter won the Iowa caucus and went on to win his party’s nomination and then went on to be the President. The Iowa caucuses are important because it determines who will stay in the race for the presidency and who will drop out. 

Mitt Romney was the governor of Massachusetts. His father was the governor of Michigan. Romney served on a Mormon mission in France. He went to Brigham Young University for undergraduate and then attended Harvard law and business school. He became the CEO of Bain & Company, a management consulting company. Romney co- founded Bain Capital, a private equity firm. He ran for the republican nomination in 2008, but lost the nomination to John McCain. 

Romney got almost the same percent of votes in the 2008 Iowa caucuses, but got second place behind Mike Huckabee. This time in Iowa he went in with less staff and it is perceived that his status as a “winner” will help him win the republican presidential nomination.

Runner- up, Rick Santorum said; “Let me tell you what wins in America are bold ideas, sharp contrasts and a plan that includes everyone.” Many people labeled Santorum as a very liberal candidate. 

Third place, Ron Paul told supporters; “be ready and raring to move on to the next step.”

Fourth place, Newt Gingrich said that he thinks that Romney will not be able to turn around the broken system in Washington. However, Romney believes that Gingrich is in no better a position to fix Washington.

“I think to fix Washington will take someone to come in from outside of Washington and we got a lot of politicians who would like to have the job of leading the country. I think it’s time to have somebody who spent their life in the private sector leading Washington and getting America back on track,” Romney said.

“If we wanna get jobs again in this country it’s gonna be helpful to have a person who’s had a job in the private sector to create jobs in the private sector,” Mitt Romney argued.

The leading Democratic candidate for the coming presidential nomination convention is Barack Obama. The current leading Republican candidate for the presidential nomination convention is Mitt Romney from the state of Massachusetts.

However important Iowa is, the candidates must now move onto New Hampshire to compete in the New Hampshire caucuses. 

German native Harry Burkhart, 24, was arrested Jan. 2 in connection with a series of arson attacks in L.A. county.  

Los Angeles police booked Hollywood area resident Harry Burkhart Monday on suspicion of arson. 

He is believed to be responsible for a string of more than 50 fires set off in the area that left behind torched buildings and cars, resulting in an estimate $3 million in damages.

Burkhart was charged Wednesday with 37  counts of arson, 28 counts of arson and nine counts of arson of an inhabited structure.  

If convicted, Harry Burkhart faces a heavy prison sentence. 

District Attorney Steve Cooley told NBC news: "Arson of an inhabited structure is a violent felony punishable by state prison, not a state prison offense punishable by county jail."

It is believed that a fraud case involving Dorthee Burkhart, the mother of Harry Burkhart, led to his arrest. She faced 19 counts of fraud including accusations that she bailed out on a breast augmentation surgery bill in Frankfurt, Germany.

His mother was arrested December 28, 2011 on a provisional arrest warrant requested by German authorities. Burkhart was at his mother’s court hearing, where he broke out in a slur of curse words and anti-American comments. 

Dorthee Burkhart's legal problems date back to at least 2000, where she committed fraud with apartments in Frankfurt where she failed to return security deposits for the apartments she rented. German officials claim since then that she engaged in several other counts of fraud along with her failure to pay nearly $10,000 in breast surgery. She was arrested in 2007 and taken to a Frankfurt hospital for cardiac problems. She took advantage of the moment when guards took off her handcuffs and allowed her to use the restroom to escape through a window. 

The mother-son duo then moved to Canada, where they applied for refugee status saying they would be tortured and killed if they were sent back to Germany reports The Vancouver Sun. She also told immigration officials that fascist groups were trying to kill them in Germany because of their Russian roots. 

During a hearing last week, she denied the charges against her and suggested Nazis, not her son, were responsible for the recent outburst of fires in the LA county.  

“One little mentally ill child cannot do fire like this,” she said in broken English in court. 

Police say the investigation is ongoing. "The investigation of the 52 fires believed connected to this defendant is not over," said Cooley. "Appropriate action will be taken as further evidence is presented for our review."  

For 45 years, the Jordan Family has run the Costa Mesa Snoopy House.

The Snoopy House located at Costa Mesa City Hall, offered pictures with Santa Claus for young children. It was open from mid December to the New Year.

With handmade moving snoopy objects and sceneries to the Snoopy shows and movies, it made you feel as if you were a part of the Peanuts gang with the psychiatric office, wood stock playing with Snoopy, and the Peanuts band.

At the Snoopy House, many families were there with children. It was more for children rather than adults.

Last year the Jordan Family’s house was foreclosed and the bank was going to take the house and destroy all the decorations. However because of the Costa Mesa City Hall, the Snoopy House was saved to continue on running.