The week ahead

Here is a look at upcoming news events:

O.C. roads: The Orange County Transportation Authority is expected to seek $4 million in funding -- from the 2006 voter-approved transportation bond initiative -- for traffic light synchronization along 10 major arteries.

Reunion: Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys will hold a reunion party for all the people who were born at the hospital in the last 50 years.

Monday

Tuesday

Politics: Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) will attend a fundraiser at the Island Hotel in Newport Beach.

Gangs: The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors considers a proposal to crack down on gang violence.

Friday

Convention: The California Democratic Party begins its annual convention in San Jose.

Saturday

Swallows: The 50th annual parade to celebrate the return of the swallows to the San Juan Capistrano Mission occurs.

Cesar Chavez: United Farm Workers will hold the 10th annual Cesar Chavez Walk & Festival at Olvera Street in downtown Los Angeles.

Ask a reporter

When will the Orange County Great Park open?

In five years? Ten? Decades? No one knows, because planners don’t yet have a timeline. A small “preview park” with palm trees, picnic tables and a 5-acre lawn is slated to open this summer around the site’s orange balloon ride. That site will expand over the next two years. After that, the timing is hazy. A sports park, with more than a dozen soccer fields, may be the next element -- but that’s still three to five years away. The future park’s 1,350 acres will be developed in spurts, and much of it could open to the public as early as 2013. But first workers will have to pull out hundreds of acres of concrete, shape the earth into a canyon, lakes and terraces, and the park must secure funding from property taxes during a stock market slowdown, all of which could face delays. That could keep the whole park from being finished until the 2020s.

-- Tony Barboza

On latimes.com

From The Homeroom, a blog covering education issues:

Brenda Manuel, the principal at 112th Street Elementary School in Watts, knows the challenges facing urban educators as well as anyone. Her students face daily obstacles that would defeat most adults: poverty, crime, gang violence, broken families. Manuel has fought to make the school a haven and give students opportunities to expand their horizons. But she wants more. Last week, she bent the ear of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa when he came to 112th Street for its annual career day. And she has launched a campaign of sorts to enlist the help of a local radio station -- KTWV-FM (94.7), the Wave -- that recently raised money on behalf of children in South Africa through the World Vision Foundation. That’s great, Manuel said, but her students live in circumstances not so different from those facing children in war-torn, Third World countries. So she sent a letter to the Wave’s Pat Prescott -- and then, when she didn’t hear back, sent it again. And again. “I’m sending this letter every single week,” Manuel said. “Somebody has to be a spokesperson for these children.”

-- Mitchell Landsberg

latimes.com/thehomeroom

The tip

The Dodgers will celebrate 50 years in L.A. with a special game against the Boston Red Sox at the Los Angeles Coliseum on Saturday. Demand for tickets has been high, and as many as 115,000 people could attend. But officials warn that the crush of visitors could cause major traffic tie-ups in the Exposition Park area and beyond into downtown. Gates will open at 4:10 p.m.

Traffic report

101 Freeway: Van Nuys Blvd. offramp from northbound 101 will close 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday. Northbound Topanga Canyon Blvd. onramp to southbound 101 will close 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Wednesday.

105 Freeway: Northbound Long Beach Blvd. onramp to eastbound 105 will close 6 p.m.-5 a.m. Monday-Thursday.

110 Freeway: Northbound offramp at Avenue 43 will close 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Monday. East- and westbound Avenue 43 onramps to northbound 110 will close 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Monday. Northbound 110 offramp to east- and westbound Imperial Highway will close 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday. East- and westbound San Fernando Road onramps to northbound 110 will close 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Thursday.

710 Freeway: Northbound 710 connector to westbound 105 will close 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday, Wednesday-Friday. Southbound 710 connector to southbound 5 will close 10 a.m.- 1 p.m. Monday-Thursday.

57 Freeway: North- and southbound HOV lanes between the Orange-Los Angeles county line and 60 Freeway will close 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Thursday.

91 Freeway: The eastbound offramp to north and south Long Beach Boulevard will close 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Friday.