El Toro Marine Corps Air Station

Orange County's Great Park, envisioned as a dramatic landscape of man-made lakes, streams and a rugged canyon in the middle of suburbia, will cost more than $1 billion to create. The new estimate, revealed during a park board study session last week, reflects costs of the park's updated design. The original estimate was far less than $1 billion. The facility, which will be built on the former El Toro Marine Base, would be one of the largest urban parks in the nation.

When the work crews started pulling down the old buildings and barracks at the closed El Toro Marine base, they expected to find old appliances, faucets and hardware that, if they were lucky, might be worth salvaging. But the unexpected turned up: a painting of the flag-raising at Iwo Jima, mess hall recipes calling for pounds of butter for shortbread cookies, faded photographs and street signs bearing the names of fabled military battles such as Inchon and Midway.

Southern California environmental groups have criticized an attempt by the FBI to build a permanent shooting range on land near the retired El Toro Marine base that once was designated to become part of a national wildlife refuge. The land -- which has been used as a temporary training facility by the FBI since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks -- was included in a 1996 agreement that created a 37,000-acre nature reserve stretching from the Santa Ana Mountains to the Orange County coast.

The Orange County Grand Jury has launched an inquiry into the $649.5-million acquisition of the closed El Toro Marine base by one of the nation's largest home builders and the role of Irvine officials in planning for a huge public park there. The scope of the probe remains unclear, but Irvine officials have come under attack in recent months over the way contracts have been handled for the Orange County Great Park, the centerpiece of a 3,400-home community being developed by Lennar Corp.

The Orange County district attorney is investigating whether the Irvine board planning the proposed Great Park at the former El Toro Marine base violated the state's open meeting law by holding official sessions in Barcelona, Paris and New York City last fall. The inquiry by the office of Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas was confirmed Thursday by Wally Kreutzen, chief executive of the Orange County Great Park Corp.

It will be taps for El Toro Marine Corps Air Station when the curious and the sentimental gather today for a final salute to the base that was closely identified with Orange County for more than half a century. Tours will be available between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. for those who want to take a last look before the base is demolished. About 2,000 people, including former Marines once stationed there, are expected at the free event.

Stand still for 10 days and say "Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese!" That's how long it will take for the world's largest pinhole camera to shoot a record-breaking photo this month in Irvine. The project is part of an effort to chronicle the demise of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station as it is converted into a 1,300-acre regional park. A few weeks ago, six artists began turning a former jet hangar at the base into a massive camera.

This story contains a lot of bull. Part of it came to light Thursday, with the unveiling of plans to revive a snippet of Marine Corps history at the Orange County Great Park. But the tale begins in 1943, when military officials asked Walt Disney to design an insignia based on the name of the new El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. They got more bull than they bargained for.

City Councilman Tony Cardenas and Mayor James K. Hahn plan to hold a news conference today to discuss their hope that the Navy will lease to the city the closed Marine Corps Air Station at El Toro for use as an airport. The city has long sought the former base to take pressure off crowded Los Angeles International Airport. But a majority of Orange County voters oppose an airport there. On Wednesday, the Navy is scheduled to begin auctioning the property.

On the day before a federal auction of the closed El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in Orange County, Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn issued a last-minute appeal to the Navy to let the city use the base as a commercial airport.