These were supposed to be Supervisor Tom Riley’s glory days.
By Marc S. Posner Daily PilotSerendipity kept my feature about Tom Riley’s pending retirement from elected office from running as scheduled. And then, boom, the entire county went bankrupt. I called the chairman of the Board of Supervisors, added a couple of quotes, and had an award-winning story (second place, non-breaking news, Orange County Fair, July 1995).
SUNSET BEACH — Koll Real Estate Group officials are fighting flier with flier.
By Marc S. Posner Huntington Beach IndependentQuite possibly my all-time favorite lede kicks off this story. I always had the Talking Heads’ song “Burning Down the House” playing in my head when I read that line — and now you will, too.
HUNTINGTON BEACH — As one of 12 men to walk on the moon, you’d think that Pete Conrad would recall the event like a giddy teen remembers his first kiss.
By Marc S. Posner Huntington Beach IndependentThe thrill I found in meeting Pete Conrad can’t be overstated. He was a Right Stuff-era aviator and astronaut I had been familiar with since childhood. Meeting a human who set foot on another heavenly body was out-of-this-world (sorry for the pun; no I’m not).
Instead, the retired Navy captain routinely answers the question with the smooth, calm demeanor of a Right Stuff-era test pilot.
When people ask: “what was the most-difficult story you had to cover?” this is one of two that comes immediately to mind. I’ll never forget arriving at this accident scene because the magnitude of what transpired minutes earlier hung in a somber mood. I think about these girls and their father regularly.
A wrong-way driver and another motorist were killed when their vehicles collided head-on Saturday on Sand Canyon Avenue.
The accident occurred when the driver of a GMC pickup crossed the center divider and hit a Volvo station wagon as it traveled south. The driver of the pickup, identified as John Paul Renzi, 42, of Trabuco Canyon, and the driver of the Volvo, a woman, were killed.
The woman’s three children were hospitalized after the crash at 12:40 p.m.