Dry Ice

A 22-year-old Disneyland employee was arrested on suspicion of setting off a so-called dry ice bomb in the Toontown section of the park, forcing the child-friendly area to be evacuated, Anaheim police said Wednesday. Long Beach resident Christian Barnes, an outdoor vending "cast member," was booked on suspicion of possession of a destructive device and is being held in lieu of $1-million bail. The explosion in a trash can was reported Tuesday evening and forced the evacuation of Toontown for two hours while police investigators and the Orange County Sheriff's Department's bomb squad moved through the amusement park.

A 22-year-old Disneyland employee faces the possibility of six years in state prison after Orange County prosecutors Thursday charged him in connection with two explosions that forced a partial evacuation of the Anaheim amusement park. Christian Barnes, who appeared in Orange County Superior Court via a closed-circuit video, entered a not-guilty plea to one count of possessing a destructive device in a public place. The Long Beach man is being held in lieu of $500,000 bail, half the amount he was held on when he was first booked by Anaheim police investigators.

A small explosion at Warner Bros. studios Monday blew trash and debris out of a garbage bin and brought police and firefighters to the scene. The explosion occurred when dry ice that had been placed in the bin melted, building up pressure and finally blowing it apart, said Burbank Police Lt. Edward Skvarna. He said there was no fire and no injuries, although the sound of the explosion could be heard for several blocks. Warner Bros.

A 22-year-old Disneyland employee was arrested on suspicion of setting off a so-called dry ice bomb in the Toontown section of the park, forcing the child-friendly area to be evacuated, Anaheim police said Wednesday. Long Beach resident Christian Barnes, an outdoor vending "cast member," was booked on suspicion of possession of a destructive device and is being held in lieu of $1-million bail. The explosion in a trash can was reported Tuesday evening and forced the evacuation of Toontown for two hours while police investigators and the Orange County Sheriff's Department's bomb squad moved through the amusement park.

It all started with the Huntington Beach oil spill in 1990, when Tim Beck stood on the beach watching a black tide of crude oil heading into shore. "It just kept getting closer and closer (to the beach)), and nobody showed up to save the day," says Beck, 45, a Manhattan Beach inventor and, to make ends meet, an El Segundo substitute science teacher. "I started thinking there had to be some way to stop an oil spill." Then it came to him. Why not use massive heat extraction?

Two devices believed to be acid bombs and left outside an Orange residence turned out to be plastic cola bottles filled with dry ice, an Orange police spokesman said. Police, firefighters and the Orange County sheriff's bomb unit responded to a call at 9 a.m. from residents in a house at the 400 block of West Crystal View Avenue, who found one of the devices on the front porch and another in the bed of a pickup truck, said Officer Jack Nanigian.

Newport Beach police conceded Friday that they were more than a little baffled by the discovery they made during a routine search of a room at an upscale hotel: a woman's body packed in dry ice. "It's very odd," police spokesman Sgt. Evan Sailor said. "It's not normal; it's a little weird." How the woman died, how long her body had been in the hotel room and even who she is -- mysteries all, police said. Officers discovered the fully clothed body at 10:15 p.m.

Police have arrested five teenagers on suspicion of planting "dry-ice bombs" at a senior class event at Pacifica High School last week. The bombs--made from plastic soda bottles and dry ice, which explodes--were placed around the school gym at a chaperoned senior "lock in" on Sept. 28, police said. No one was hurt. An officer assigned to Garden Grove High School learned the identity of one of the teens, Garden Grove police said.

The body that was found packed in dry ice in a Newport Beach hotel room in March showed no evidence of physical trauma, according to a final autopsy report released Tuesday by the Orange County coroner's office. Monique Felicia Trepp, 33, died from a combined overdose of cocaine and alcohol, according to the report. Coroner's officials originally confirmed the cause of death in May.

It all started with the Huntington Beach oil spill in 1990, when Tim Beck stood on the beach watching a black tide of crude oil heading into shore. "It just kept getting closer and closer (to the beach)), and nobody showed up to save the day," says Beck, 45, a Manhattan Beach inventor and, to make ends meet, an El Segundo substitute science teacher. "I started thinking there had to be some way to stop an oil spill." Then it came to him. Why not use massive heat extraction?

A small explosion from an apparent dry ice "bomb" at Disneyland's Toontown on Tuesday afternoon forced officials to evacuate people from the popular area, law enforcement authorities said. No injuries were reported from the blast, which rocked the theme park about 5:30 p.m., the Anaheim Police Department said. Toontown, a popular area for families with small children, was reopened about two hours later, police said. The dry ice appeared to have been placed in a plastic bottle that was left in a trash can and the explosion was confined to the can, police said.

You can see it in the dwindling light and windy, gray skies: Fall is upon us. It's the kind of deep-thinking weather that makes cocktail lovers long for something warm and rich. Xino, chef-owner Chris Yeo's Asian-fusion restaurant, has you covered with several new fall offerings that will keep you cozy. Beverage director JP Nguyen has been playing with crisp apples, honey, cinnamon and other seasonal inspirations. One of his more arresting creations is called the Smoking Pumpkin; it combines dark, sweet Kahlúa, earthy spiced-pear vodka and tart pineapple juice with a chunk of smoky dry ice for eerie effect.

Mike Costello sells ice. Nothing but ice. Crushed ice, cubed ice, dry ice. Ice in small bags and big bags and solid, 300-pound hunks. He sells blocks of ice for sliding down hills and ice luges for parties. It's a slow time for business right now, summer being the hottest season for the frozen stuff, of course. But even Halloween and the Fourth of July ? days that would traditionally put the business into the black ? aren't what they used to be, Costello says. "The ice business used to be a good business, but not anymore," he said.

A team of astronomers announced its first snow Thursday ? not due to the approaching winter, but from a spacecraft that observed a peanut-shaped comet spitting fluffy ice balls into space. The Deep Impact spacecraft flew within 435 miles of the comet known as Hartley 2 on Nov. 4, snapping images as it whizzed past about 27,000 mph. Images released that day revealed a nearly 1 1/2-mile-long body with a smooth middle and rough, bulbous edges that was spewing gas from its surface.

Stephen David Royds, the high-living drug dealer who kept his girlfriend's corpse frozen in a 2-by-3-foot plastic bin at the Fairmont Newport Beach hotel for as long as a year, pleaded guilty Monday to drug charges and was sentenced to four years in prison.

The body that was found packed in dry ice in a Newport Beach hotel room in March showed no evidence of physical trauma, according to a final autopsy report released Tuesday by the Orange County coroner's office. Monique Felicia Trepp, 33, died from a combined overdose of cocaine and alcohol, according to the report. Coroner's officials originally confirmed the cause of death in May.

A 22-year-old Disneyland employee faces the possibility of six years in state prison after Orange County prosecutors Thursday charged him in connection with two explosions that forced a partial evacuation of the Anaheim amusement park. Christian Barnes, who appeared in Orange County Superior Court via a closed-circuit video, entered a not-guilty plea to one count of possessing a destructive device in a public place. The Long Beach man is being held in lieu of $500,000 bail, half the amount he was held on when he was first booked by Anaheim police investigators.

Sooner or later, every home has a power outage or a mechanical breakdown that knocks out the refrigerator. Dealing with the food inside requires a knowledge of food safety. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends the following guidelines: * Keep the freezer door closed. To keep what cold air you have inside, don't open the door more than necessary. A full freezer will stay at freezing temperatures about two days; a half-full freezer about one day.

Orange County coroner's officials Thursday confirmed what investigators had long suspected: A woman whose body was found packed in dry ice in an upscale hotel room died of an overdose. Monique Felicia Trepp, 33, found March 6 at the Fairmont Hotel, died of an acute combination of cocaine and alcohol, supervising deputy coroner Larry Esslinger said. Investigators believe that she may have been dead for as long as a year. Trepp's boyfriend, Stephen David Royds, 46, has been charged with possession and intent to sell drugs from the hotel room that he and Trepp shared.

How Monique Felicia Trepp wound up dead and packed in dry ice in a Newport Beach hotel room is proving to be a mystery full of bizarre leads but as yet no answers. The Orange County coroner believes Trepp, who was discovered last week in a Rubbermaid container in a room at the Fairmont hotel, died of a drug overdose. Stephen David Royds, who had been living in the hotel for years, is being held on drug charges but isn't a suspect in Trepp's death. Beyond that, things get fuzzy fast.