Here is a look at upcoming news events:
O.C. roads: The Orange County Transportation Authority is expected to seek $4 million in funding -- from the 2006 voter-approved transportation bond initiative -- for traffic light synchronization along 10 major arteries.
Reunion: Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys will hold a reunion party for all the people who were born at the hospital in the last 50 years.
Monday
Tuesday
Politics: Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) will attend a fundraiser at the Island Hotel in Newport Beach.
Gangs: The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors considers a proposal to crack down on gang violence.
Friday
Convention: The California Democratic Party begins its annual convention in San Jose.
Saturday
Swallows: The 50th annual parade to celebrate the return of the swallows to the San Juan Capistrano Mission occurs.
Cesar Chavez: United Farm Workers will hold the 10th annual Cesar Chavez Walk & Festival at Olvera Street in downtown Los Angeles.
Ask a reporter
When will the Orange County Great Park open?
In five years? Ten? Decades? No one knows, because planners don't yet have a timeline. A small "preview park" with palm trees, picnic tables and a 5-acre lawn is slated to open this summer around the site's orange balloon ride. That site will expand over the next two years. After that, the timing is hazy. A sports park, with more than a dozen soccer fields, may be the next element -- but that's still three to five years away. The future park's 1,350 acres will be developed in spurts, and much of it could open to the public as early as 2013. But first workers will have to pull out hundreds of acres of concrete, shape the earth into a canyon, lakes and terraces, and the park must secure funding from property taxes during a stock market slowdown, all of which could face delays. That could keep the whole park from being finished until the 2020s.
-- Tony Barboza
On latimes.com
From The Homeroom, a blog covering education issues:
