Rancho Palos Verdes Ca

More than 20 years after tourist destination Marineland of the Pacific shipped off its whales and closed its gates, a noticeably more refined attraction is about to open atop the same ocean bluffs in Rancho Palos Verdes. The first official overnight guests at Terranea Resort, a 582-room luxury hotel and spa meant to compete with California's most upscale coastal inns, will check in today.

From the backyard of their house, Philip and Eileen Peterson can see Catalina Island, the city of Long Beach and the port, Point Fermin and Cabrillo Beach, a view not uncommon in Rancho Palos Verdes. But part of their view is blocked by trees belonging to their longtime neighbors below, across Crest Drive, and views are the thing in Rancho Palos Verdes.

Did a sheriff's deputy violate the constitutional rights -- and derail the professional golf career -- of a Rancho Palos Verdes man when she raided his home in search of evidence to convict his parents of pimping and prostitution? A U.S. District Court jury thought so two years ago when it ordered Los Angeles County Sheriff's Sgt. Angela Walton to pay $80,000 in damages to Kim L. Johnson and $100 to his aunt, Sun Min Lee, who was subjected to what the court then deemed an unreasonable intrusion.

When the owners of a $480-million seaside luxury resort said they needed more money to ensure it would open, they turned to Rancho Palos Verdes. The City Council last week unanimously agreed to give Terranea Resort what amounted to an $8-million loan by allowing Lowe Enterprises to defer payment of its hotel tax for several years. The vote came despite concerns from city staff members who said the loan was "not fiscally prudent."

A woman leaped to her death Monday afternoon from cliffs in Rancho Palos Verdes, just 1/2 mile from the spot where two teenagers committed suicide last month, authorities said. Witnesses told sheriff's investigators they saw the woman, identified only as being in her 40s, on a ledge about 12:20 p.m. at Point Vicente Park and Interpretive Center before she fell 150 feet to the beach. "The park was full of people," said sheriff's Deputy Judy Gibson.

For nearly three years, Rancho Palos Verdes has been debating how to solve an eyesore problem that has neighbors squabbling with neighbors, people packing City Council meetings and residents passing out leaflets and newsletters. The eyesore? Horses. The equestrian life has been a part of Rancho Palos Verdes even before the city was incorporated in 1973. For decades, people have kept horses in their backyards.

A city-owned recreation center with 1970s carpeting and fading tan wallpaper is not the kind of place you'd expect to find 14 gleaming state-of-the-art personal computers. Nor would you expect to find high school students and retirees surfing the Internet together. But Palos Verdes on the Net, which opened for business Saturday amid much civic fanfare, is anything but typical. In fact, the nonprofit computer center has more in common with a health club than a PC lab.

Heidi K. Chamberlain and Christopher Mills chose a rugged and remote precipice at the edge of Rancho Palos Verdes--a rustic area of expensive homes, dirt-bike trails and jogging and hiking paths--to end their lives.

When Donald Trump came to Rancho Palos Verdes six years ago with plans for a world-class golf course, he was welcomed with open arms. Then came the dispute with the city over his plan to name a street after himself. And then came the battle with neighbors over his 12-foot-tall ficus trees. Now the mogul is suing the small town, and suing big. He wants $100 million from a city with an annual budget just shy of $20 million.

Donald Trump thought that some homes overlooking his Rancho Palos Verdes golf course were so unsightly that he ordered them hidden from view with a row of ficus plants. Trump may know real estate, but he doesn't know Rancho Palos Verdes law, according to city leaders. They say that the vegetation, some of which is 12 feet tall, violates a city code that protects residents' ocean views.