Costa Mesa Ca

To start their morning Sunday, about 20 Jews attended a Mechitza Minyan service in a ballroom of a Costa Mesa hotel, praying in Hebrew, with separate seating for men and women. A few doors down, a group wearing sweat pants and T-shirts began their day by breathing deeply and twisting their bodies in a class titled "My Body, My Temple: Yoga for the Jewish Soul." A couple of hours later, a third group engaged in a discussion about Israel's national security agenda.

An Orange County land battle going back half a century has resurfaced, and as is always the case when it's real estate with a Newport Beach ZIP Code, things get thorny. At stake is a privately owned, undeveloped 402-acre parcel known as Banning Ranch. Costa Mesa, which flanks the property on the north, has had its sights on annexing the land, arguing that the city would be most affected if it gets developed.

Not too long ago, Rena Puebla and Ellie Genuardi had a hard time getting distributors to carry their unique cake toppers -- porcelain-like figurines that interchange to make gay, straight and interracial couples. When they pitched the figurines to home shopping networks, executives shot them down. Ditto mainstream stores. No one told them expressly why they wouldn't carry the decorations, but to the business partners who designed the diverse dolls, the message was clear.

It must have been some good pizza. A 25-year-old deliveryman for Tony Maroni's Famous Gourmet Pizza was delivering three pizzas to an apartment complex in Costa Mesa on Tuesday night when six people confronted him. "One of the suspects displayed what the victim believed to be a weapon in his waistband and demanded the pizzas," according to a news release from police. "The victim surrendered the pizzas to the suspects, who fled the area in a small gray vehicle."

In a city that has clashed loudly and publicly over immigration laws, the arrest of Marcelino Tzir Tzul underscored the worst fears in Costa Mesa's Latino community. The 37-year-old illegal immigrant from Guatemala was picked up for riding his bicycle on the wrong side of the street, brought before a federal agent at the city jail and then shipped to a federal lockup to await his likely deportation.

A man who allegedly let himself into a woman's apartment and fell asleep on her couch -- naked -- was arrested Saturday on suspicion of burglary and indecent exposure, authorities said. Michael Bonnie, 36, of Laguna Niguel allegedly entered the apartment in the 300 block of Rochester Street through an unlocked door and crawled under a blanket on the living room couch. The woman discovered the intruder, who was sleeping near three children, about 7:15 a.m. Bonnie was booked into the City Jail.

Police are looking for a man who robbed a pharmacy Tuesday night of its inventory of the prescription painkiller OxyContin. The robber, described as a 5-foot-10-inch thinly built white- or brown-skinned male, entered the Rite Aid store in the 3000 block of Harbor Boulevard shortly before 11, dressed in black with a white cap and "acting like he had a gun in his pocket," said Costa Mesa Police Sgt. Mike Ginther.

A worker at a car wash was killed Wednesday when another employee hit him while driving a customer's car from the wash bay to the detailing area, authorities said. The man's name was not released pending notification of relatives. The accident occurred about 4 p.m. at Classic Hand car wash in the 100 block of Wells Place. The man died at the scene.

A man and woman were arrested after another man was beaten unconscious with a 2-foot steel pipe in what police described Tuesday as a road rage assault. Officers called to Adams Avenue and East Mesa Verde Drive about 5:25 p.m. Monday discovered that Marco Rodriguez, 28, of Westminster had allegedly taken the pipe from his trunk and struck the other man, whose name was not released.

Two burglars pried open jewelry cases at Saks Fifth Avenue early Monday and made off with an unknown amount of jewelry, police said. The burglars, wearing ski masks and hooded sweaters, forced open a door leading to an electrical room and were captured on surveillance video entering the jewelry area of the South Coast Plaza store about 4 a.m. and leaving minutes later, Costa Mesa Police Sgt. Bob Phillips said. He said police were waiting for Saks to provide an inventory of stolen items.