Nearly four months of training to become a tank platoon leader—the key word being leader—may have had an impact on Rancho Santa Margarita City Councilman Jesse Petrilla. A less excitable, seemingly more focused councilman took his spot on the dais Wednesday after his graduation from the Army Armor Basic Officer Leader course in Fort Knox, KY. About 48 hours after touchdown in Orange County—after service in the California Army National Guard—Petrilla was at City Hall, first attending the fete for retired Councilman Gary Thompson and then for his first regularly scheduled council meeting since …

It was a moment that didn't have to be anything. Mayor Tony Beall had brought along his son Rocko to the Flag Day ceremony where Beall talked and Rocko watched a reverent retirement by fire of worn and unserviceable flags. When it was over, Beall said hello and introduced me. Rocko is 15—or maybe he's only 14, I didn't crack open my notebook to write down that bit of information—and wants to play in a band. He's a pretty good guitar player because I heard him very briefly when his band played at the New Year's Eve Celebration hosted by the city. Beall and I began talking about the previous …

For the four months that he has been a Rancho Santa Margarita city councilman, Jesse Petrilla has been the model of inefficient government. Since taking the oath in December and that night challenging the integrity of fellow Councilman Jerry Holloway—a retired police lieutenant—to his recent standoff with Mayor Tony Beall, Petrilla has been nothing but a high maintenance distraction. He has purchased no goodwill with his colleagues, who have bent over backward for his benefit. Beall even went so far as to say he would nominate him to be the next mayor pro tem as an act of good faith. All …

Today was supposed to usher in a new era in Patchdom. Today was going to be the debut of Momsday, a cleverly named means of meeting the needs of one of Patch's favorite demographics. We were going to unveil our Whiz Kid—and yes, earlier in the week I privately made a pee joke—and our Kids Planner. We were going to give you Deals! Deals, DEALS! And we were going to offer up some nifty advice on how to raise your kids through our Moms Council—which, by the way, could include a Mr. Mom as well. We Patchers—that's what HQ calls us, and they get away with it because they pay us to respond to …

Well, here we are. What are you going to do about it? That's not a threat, but an invitation. I'm not Robert Conrad challenging you to knock a battery off my shoulder, but Rancho Santa Margarita Patch has officially arrived in the wild, wild West. We've been here now for a week, setting up camp in a city that was just a dream 25 years ago. Over the past 168 hours or so, you've had a chance to read about the family of 9/11 victim Lisa Frost and also her legacy; met three guys who wanted to help during the storms and had no idea they would be cast as heroes in one of the first stories of a …