Leaders, Winners and Moms

1. There's a City Council meeting tonight at 7 p.m. at City Hall, and it should be interesting, as four councilmen determine whether their fifth colleague, Jesse Petrilla, will attend meetings via teleconference while he's serving almost four months in the National Guard. If they determine he can't serve—and the military has not given any indication that he can—they'll have to decide what to do with Petrilla's seat:  keep it vacant in his absence or give it to someone else during his absence. Here's .

2. It was a big day in Rancho Santa Margarita for girls' soccer teams on Tuesday. Santa Margarita and Trabuco Hills  both won, so the two will meet Thursday at Trabuco in the Southern Section quarterfinals. Scoring machine Lauren Bohaboy did the damage for over Harvard-Westlake.  Aubrey Baker and Samantha Filon scored in over Dana Hills. Four different players scored for , over Newport Harbor.

3. The Capistrano Unified School District pulled the trigger on 346 employees, voting to give them pink slips and consider them temporary employees in preparation for a worst-case scenario. It could potentially save the district $34.6 million. Here's the . 

4. On this date in history, Feb. 23, five-time Formula One champion Juan Manuel Fangio—in his last season—was kidnapped by Fidel Castro's rebels the day before the Cuba Grand Prix; he was released a short time after the race, which was marred by a crash that killed seven spectators and injured dozens of others. In 1940, Woody Guthrie wrote the song, This Land Is Your Land. In 1978, Barbra Streisand's "Evergreen" and Debby Boone's"You Light Up My Life" tied for best song, the only time in Grammy history that has occurred. In 1980, speed skater Eric Heiden set a record in the 10,000 meters and won an unprecedented fifth individual gold medal; though swimmers Mark Spitz (1972) and Michael Phelps (2004) won seven medals, only four were in individual golds.

5. Celebrating birthdays today are actors Dakota Fanning (17), Patricia Richardson (60), Peter Fonda (72) and musicians Howard Jones (56) and Johnny Winter (67). Also born on this day were the late Paul Tibbets, who dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima; Victor Fleming (1915), who co-directed The Wizard of Oz and directed Gone with the Wind back-to-back; and George Frederic Handel (1685) who composed "Messiah."

Added Value: It's Wednesday, and that means Patch will post throughout the day some cool things to do with your kids, or your husband, or by yourself. And if you missed it last week, with some moms about a subject that deserved a lot more discussion than it received. Get involved in the discussion!

For What It's Worth: It's Pull Your Sofa off the Wall Month (it will help the place look bigger). It's also National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, and Inconenience Yourself Day, which is always the fourth Wednesday of February. To inconvenience yourself, why not pull your sofa off the wall?