Malibu Ca

Two of Malibu's most prominent and beloved landmarks -- one a palace of secular dreams and the other a center of religious devotion -- were destroyed Sunday. Lost to the flames was the Castle Kashan, the fairy-tale-like structure that stood for 30 years atop a Malibu hill, recognizable from below by its turrets and round towers.

Denise Ritchie scratches holes into a pile of cow manure to make room for the herbs that will create her unusual brand of fertilizer. Once dried and infused with chamomile, stinging nettle and yarrow, the mixture will be bagged and sold as Bu's Blend Biodynamic Compost. Each package features an illustration of a Holstein surfing near Malibu Pier. That's Bu, the formerly scrawny dairy cow Ritchie and her husband rescued as she was about to "go to beef." "You're healing your soil with this stuff," says Sarah Spitz, a KCRW producer and a graduate of the Los Angeles County master gardener program.

How sweet is life when you live next to a celebrity in Malibu? Outside Bob Dylan's house, the answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind. That's what some of the singer-songwriter's neighbors are charging in an increasingly odoriferous dispute over a portable toilet at his sprawling ocean view estate on Point Dume. Residents contend that the nighttime sea breeze sends a noxious odor from a portable toilet on Dylan's property wafting into their homes.

Breahna Dawson last saw Mitrice Richardson during a service at the Pomona church they both attend. Dawson remembers the young woman's warm greeting and bright smile. There wasn't much conversation, but she appeared happy and at peace, Dawson said. In the six months that Richardson has been missing, Dawson and other members of New Direction Community Church have prayed daily for her safe return and spent many hours passing out fliers. On Sunday, several church members joined a group of volunteers in skid row in downtown, part of an expanded search that included teams in Malibu, Calabasas, Santa Monica and Hollywood.

Homes dotting the hillside on Winding Way in Malibu are worth millions -- with good reason. The ocean views are spectacular. Forests of eucalyptus trees attract wildlife and provide a rural refuge from the city. But those same trees can obstruct the ocean views, igniting nasty disputes among neighbors. One such conflict now brewing could land a 73-year-old man in jail.

Longboarders looking for the true mountain experience or a little more speed -- or simply hoping to stay away from traffic -- don't have to head farther than the hills of Malibu. On a recent weekend, we trailed a crew of four longboarders as they descended multiple canyon roads. Although one intermediate rider wore a full-face helmet and a leather skin suit, the more experienced skaters donned lighter helmets, kneepads and elbow pads. And they all wore sliding gloves -- full-fingered mitts with plastic pucks on the palm and fingers -- which let riders put their hands down and slide the board sideways across the pavement in a four-wheel drift to reduce speed.

The mystery deepened Monday in the case of the puzzling crash last week of a $1-million Ferrari Enzo on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. Sheriff's detectives said Monday that they believe a gun's magazine discovered near the wreckage is connected to the crash, and they plan to interview an unnamed person who they believe was in the car with Swedish game machine entrepreneur Stefan Eriksson.

The most destructive fire in Malibu in nearly 15 years raced through parched canyons Saturday, consuming 49 homes and forcing the evacuation of thousands of residents. The so-called Corral fire burned 4,700 acres before the fierce Santa Ana winds died down, allowing firefighters to make a stand. By evening, the blaze, which investigators said was started by "human activity," was 25% contained. Six firefighters sustained minor injuries, authorities said.

Nine-year-old Brooke Porter was enjoying a day at Malibu's Little Dume Beach with her family last Saturday when it happened. About 50 feet above the beach, someone threw objects from the bluff-top compound owned by musician Kenny G onto the sand below. Brooke was hit in the head, causing a scalp injury. Now, L.A. County Sheriff's detectives are trying to sort out what happened -- and who is to blame. "The 9-year-old girl needed four stitches," said Sheriff's Capt.

North of Zuma Beach, past the Hows Trancas market, a locked gate bars entrance to a narrow road. It curves down to a point overlooking the ocean, where, on an outcropping of rock sits Sam Zell's California retreat. It's nearly 40 miles from downtown Los Angeles and the newspaper he has agreed to buy. But it's only a fraction of that distance from Ventura County's Camarillo Airport, into which Zell and his wife, Helen, fly from Chicago by private plane on many weekends.

The showdown at a Malibu beach two years ago looked like a Frankie Avalon movie gone very wrong. A dozen paparazzi were huddled on the sand -- angling for a shot of famously bare-chested celeb Matthew McConaughey -- when suddenly they were confronted by a pack of local surfers. "Let's go!" shouted one surfer. "We'll draw a line in the beach, and we'll fight for the beach. If you guys win, you can have the beach." A fight broke out, and L.A. prosecutors charged two of the surfers with misdemeanor battery.

In the six months since Mitrice Richardson vanished in rugged Malibu Canyon, detectives have tracked reported sightings of her. Searchers have combed a total of 40 square miles looking for any sign of her -- alive or dead. U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D- Los Angeles) called for the FBI's involvement, and Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas asked the Sheriff's Department to review the policies that led to the release of the Cal State Fullerton graduate from the custody of the Lost Hills/Malibu Sheriff's Station shortly after midnight Sept.

Malibu residents are fighting a proposal to use a local fire station as quarters for prison inmate firefighters who need a new home after the Station fire burned through their camp in the Angeles National Forest. Los Angeles County Fire Department officials are looking at the Malibu facility as a temporary replacement after an inmate firefighter camp atop Mt. Gleason was destroyed last summer by the largest brush fire in Los Angeles County history. The blaze killed two county firefighters who were defending the camp.

One of the most extensive searches in the history of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department turned up no evidence of Mitrice Richardson, the young woman who has been missing since leaving the Malibu sheriff's station Sept. 17. The fourth fruitless search of the Malibu area left police and sheriff's investigators mystified and family members clinging to hope that she is still alive. "The beautiful thing about today is that they didn't find a cadaver," said Michael Richardson, 42, the father of the missing woman.

It was like a scene out of a sci-fi movie: A behemoth threatens an innocent town from atop a cliff, shrugging off all capture attempts. Only this real-life besieger was a 116-ton boulder, which gave indications in February 1979 that it might plunge onto Pacific Coast Highway and possibly squash a BMW or two, if not some beachfront architecture. The innocent town was Malibu, so naturally elements of show biz were involved. It was movie producer/ writer Robert Radnitz who led a campaign lobbying Caltrans to bring the big rock down from its 186-foot-high perch.

The great sewer wars of Malibu have finally drawn to a close. Sewers won. The Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board agreed late Thursday to ban septic systems in central and eastern Malibu, a move that would end years of fierce debate over the wastewater devices still commonly used in one of Southern California's most picturesque and exclusive coastal communities. New septic systems will not be permitted in Malibu and owners of existing systems will have to halt wastewater discharges within a decade.

Denise Ritchie scratches holes into a pile of cow manure to make room for the herbs that will create her unusual brand of fertilizer. Once dried and infused with chamomile, stinging nettle and yarrow, the mixture will be bagged and sold as Bu's Blend Biodynamic Compost. Each package features an illustration of a Holstein surfing near Malibu Pier. That's Bu, the formerly scrawny dairy cow Ritchie and her husband rescued as she was about to "go to beef." "You're healing your soil with this stuff," says Sarah Spitz, a KCRW producer and a graduate of the Los Angeles County master gardener program.

The showdown at a Malibu beach two years ago looked like a Frankie Avalon movie gone very wrong. A dozen paparazzi were huddled on the sand -- angling for a shot of famously bare-chested celeb Matthew McConaughey -- when suddenly they were confronted by a pack of local surfers. "Let's go!" shouted one surfer. "We'll draw a line in the beach, and we'll fight for the beach. If you guys win, you can have the beach." A fight broke out, and L.A. prosecutors charged two of the surfers with misdemeanor battery.

Blaming small-scale septic systems for causing much of the pollution in Malibu's watershed, the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board will vote Thursday whether to ban the systems in a large portion of central and eastern Malibu. Under the proposed moratorium, no new septic systems would be permitted, and owners of existing systems would have to halt wastewater discharges within five years. Far from a mundane issue, the staff-recommended proposal has prompted heated debate and threats of legal action in Malibu, where almost all homes and businesses rely on septic systems.

If regional water quality officials approve a proposed ban on septic systems in central Malibu as expected, residential property owners in the affected area would be on the hook for $1,000 a month to pay for a centralized wastewater treatment system, city officials said Monday. Commercial property owners benefiting from the treatment system could be required to lay out significantly more, the city said. Malibu said in a statement that such a system would cost $52 million, more than three times the $16.7-million projection that the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board has suggested at recent community workshops.