Orange Coast

Results of an independent probe into allegations that an Orange Coast College instructor vilified his Muslim students are expected to be released this week, with findings certain to draw intense scrutiny nationwide from Islamic groups and watchdogs for academic freedom. The Orange County Department of Education has been conducting the investigation.

In these capsules of recent reviews, dollar signs indicate the average price of a meal for one, without beverages. $: less than $10 $$: up to $20 $$$: up to $30 $$$$: more than $30. * ALLEGRO: Allegro is a suburban Italian restaurant with a big-city sensibility: Tokyo, maybe, or even Milan. Chef Mario Petillo, formerly of Rafaello, doesn't over-sauce his pastas and isn't afraid of simplicity.

For 22 years, aspiring actors have trooped through Alex Golson's theater classes at Orange Coast College, learning about the dangers of "California line endings," the unseemliness of stagy sighing and, Marlon Brando's scowl notwithstanding, the virtue in a simple, engaging smile. Now beginning actors elsewhere can share Golson's insights.

An iconoclastic professor at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa has become the first instructor in the district in more than a decade to receive a notice of unprofessional conduct, a serious reprimand that tells him to shape up in 90 days or face firing.

A laid-back community college known for its crew teams, sailors and surfers has become a caldron of political passion in the aftermath of an intense classroom debate about Islam and terrorism. The conflict at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa has divided a political science class, opened a rift between administrators and faculty, and spilled onto the national stage where the notion of academic freedom is being reexamined in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the United States.

Orange Coast men's basketball Coach Steve Spencer has hired Scott Coopman as an assistant. Coopman was an assistant at Westmont College in Santa Barbara the last five seasons.

Brad Wright, former UCLA basketball player, has been hired as an assistant men's coach at Orange Coast College. Wright, who played at UCLA in 1982-85, will join Coach Steve Spencer's staff.

Ryan Bousquet, the nation's fourth-ranked miler as a senior at Anaheim Esperanza High in 2000, has transferred from Arizona State to Orange Coast College for personal reasons. Bousquet ran a school-record 4 minutes 6.97 seconds in the mile at Esperanza and won Southern Section Division I titles in the 1,600 and 3,200 meters as a senior. He placed third in the 1999 state Division I cross-country final.

Some come to live out the fantasy of sailing off to paradise. Others simply want to learn enough to pilot a 14-foot dinghy in Newport Bay. About 6,000 people each year take classes from Orange Coast College's School of Sailing and Seamanship.