MTS makes more bus route changes
The Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) will make schedule modifications and changes to bus routes beginning this weekend.
Holiday and weekend schedule changes will begin Sunday, Jan. 28, followed by weekday changes on Monday, Jan. 29.
In University City, changes will include expanded service on Route 41, with later southbound service on weekday evenings. Additional weekday trips will be added to Route 48 between 7 and 10 a.m. to alleviate overcrowding. Routes 150 and 89 will both undergo some minor schedule improvements.
The final phase of MTS’s comprehensive master plan will be introduced in March.
For information, visit www.sdcommute.com, call (800) COMMUTE or pick up pamphlets titled “Rider Alert” on MTS buses and trolleys.

Preston Memorial Bench to be dedicated
The Pat Preston Memorial Bench will be dedicated on Saturday, Feb. 3, at 10 a.m. A community volunteer who especially enjoyed working with youth, Preston died in October 2005 following an auto accident. Her bench is located at the Standley Park Little League and softball field, 3585 Governor Drive ” a very appropriate spot, since she was extremely active in Little League.
Preston’s son Ryan, sister Barbara Cooke and parents Levonne and Lawson Cooke will celebrate her memory at the dedication and hope to meet some of the people whose lives she touched.
The community raised more than $1,500 for the memorial bench and plaque to honor Preston.
For information, call Standley Park, (858) 552-1652.

Girl Scouts launch cookie sales, Operation Thin Mint
The Girl Scouts’ 2007 Cookie Program is off to a rip-roaring start. Through March 18, nearly 17,000 local Girl Scouts in the San Diego-Imperial Council will sell about 2.5 million boxes of cookies.
While customers can still expect the usual Samoas, Trefoils, Café Cookies and more, the good news is that all varieties now feature zero grams of transfat yet feature the same taste, according to the Girl Scouts.
The Girl Scouts started selling cookies in 1917 to fund troop activities and community projects. The purpose remains to this day, and the program is the nation’s leading business and economic literacy program for girls, according to the Scouts. Troops set goals, develop marketing skills, learn money management and manage inventory. All proceeds stay local.
For the sixth year, the organization continues with Operation Thin Mint, in which the public can purchase and donate boxes of Thin Mints and other cookies to troops stationed overseas, along with personalized notes of appreciation. Since 2002, military troops have received 825,002 boxes of cookies. This year, Girl Scouts aim to send its millionth box.
“The idea is that everybody in San Diego knows everybody in the military,” said Mary Doyle, spokeswoman for the local Girl Scouts chapter. “So I think, more so than in some parts of the country, people here understand what it means to get a taste of home and a note to show we care.”
The 2007 Operation Thin Mint send-off will take place Saturday, May 12, 9:30 a.m., aboard the USS Midway at the San Diego Aircraft Carrier Museum, 910 N. Harbor Drive. All who participate in Operation Thin Mint are invited to the free event, and Mayor Jerry Sanders will be in attendance.
To purchase and donate cookies, call the council’s Girl Scout Cookie Hotline, (877) 296-MINT. Cards can be downloaded at www.girlscoutssdi.org/otm, and completed cards can be returned to any Girl Scout office in Balboa Park (1231 Upas St.), Escondido, Carlsbad or El Centro.

Italian exchange student at LJCD needs host family
La Jolla Country Day High School has accepted an exchange student from Italy through the World Heritage International Student Exchange Program and is looking for applicants for a host family who can provide room and board for the teenager.
Exchange students are selected based on academic performance, English proficiency, teacher recommendations and personal interviews. All students are insured, bring personal spending money and expect to share the host family’s responsibilities and activities.
Host families can be couples or single parents and households with or without children and should preferably live in the immediate area.
For more information, call Bodil Dencker, World Heritage representative for Southern California, (949) 310-5612 or (800) 888-9040, or visit www.world-heritage.org.

JCC hosts Support Israel Week in San Diego
“Expressions,” a weeklong exhibition featuring Israeli artworks, will run through Sunday, Jan. 28, at the Lawrence Family JCC, 4126 Executive Drive.
The exhibition consists of sculptures, paintings, glasswork and jewelry from more than 125 of Israel’s talented artists and artisans, including Agam, Michael Gorban, Kalman Sheml, Tolla Inbar, Ruth Bloch, Sakstier Baruch and others. The focus of “Expressions” is to promote the work of artists whose livelihood has been decreasing because of the lack of tourism in Israel due to recent war and terrorist attacks.
For more information, call (858) 457-3030. Operating hours are Monday-Thursday, 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Sunday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Appeals court drops city’s Soledad cross fine
As part of an ongoing legal battle that began more than a decade ago, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Jan. 12 vacated a lower court’s decision that had called for the city to remove the Mt. Soledad cross from city property or face monetary fines.
The ruling by the United States Court of Appeals, which ordered city officials in May 2006 to remove the Mt. Soledad cross from city land or face a $5,000-per-day fine, was made moot by the Jan. 12 decision.
In a statement, City Attorney Michael Aguirre called the ruling a victory for the Mt. Soledad Veterans War Memorial.
The issue of the memorial’s status has been debated in court proceedings since the late Phillip Paulson, an atheist and Vietnam War veteran, filed a lawsuit against the city in 1989, claiming that placing a cross on public property violates a provision of California’s Constitution that prohibits showing preference to a religion.
Aguirre filed a motion in July 2006 to suspend the May ruling and put a hold on the fines until all appeals were processed.
The following month, the U.S. Congress created federal legislation to designate the symbol and land a national memorial. Shortly thereafter, President Bush signed the Mt. Soledad Veterans War Memorial Act into law. During the Jan. 12 ruling, the court held that the federal legislation enacted by Bush in August 2006 transferred the city’s interest in the cross to the federal government, making the lower court’s order no longer enforceable.