It's a week worth of bite-size Orange County news and what it all taught us.
FEB. 4: The Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange reveals on its website that it is accepting from parishoners new names for Crystal Cathedral through Feb. 20. Bishop Tod Brown's
only requirement is that the new moniker be “Christological,” but Weekly
editor Gustavo Arellano later learns His Todness already decided that “transfiguration” will be included in the winning title. What We Learned: Let he who has
not sinned in a bankruptcy acquired glass house cast the first
stone.
]
FEB. 5: Just before Cannabis Community is set to go on the air at 11 a.m., KOCI pulls the plug on Robert Martinez's radio show. That's not the only weird thing to happen lately with the show. A few weeks ago, the show gave live coverage to a pro-legalization discussion held at Skosh Monahan's restaurant and bar, which is in Costa Mesa and owned by that city's mayor. But while Gary Monahan was saying publicly he supports regulated medical marijuana clinics in Costa Mesa, DEA agents raided two dispensaries and threatened to do the same to all the others based on a request from city officials. What We Learned: 35 days, 8 hours until the St. Patrick's Day booze blowout at Skosh!
FEB. 6: After spending three months in Orange County Jail while suspected of murdering his mother and older brother, 23-year-old Eder Giovanni Herrera of Yorba Linda was to be freed with the arrest of former classmate and accused serial killer Itzcoatl Ocampo for those slayings. Instead, Herrera entered federal lockup under an immigration hold–before being released on his own recognizance today. What We Learned: Who is ever really free?
FEB. 7: The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals strikes down Prop. 8, saying California's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Supporters of the initiative vow to fight on to the U.S. Supreme Court, while Prop. 8 foes and legal experts counter, “Good luck, chumps.” What We Learned: To boldly predict California's wedding industry will be the first to recover, followed closely by the divorce industry.
FEB. 8: The Orange County Register names Gustavo Arellano one of the county's most interesting people. “OC Weekly readers have long known Arellano's wit,” writes reporter Tom Berg. “But
since his best columns were made into a book a few years back, Arellano
is known nationally, appearing on the Today show, Nightline, The
Colbert Report and in the Village Voice. What We Learned: There goes Gustavo's hat size again.
FEB. 9: The Orange County Sheriff's Department arrests one of its own for a two-month sexual relationship with an inmate at the Men's
Central Jail in Santa Ana. Deputy Jennifer Tamara McClain, 29, of Long
Beach, trades her uniform for a jail jumpsuit after booking on
suspicion of sexual activity with a male inmate. What We Learned: Screw speed dating, the OC's got a new meet market.
FEB. 10: El Monte gang member Cesar Gomez is sentenced to life in state prison without the possibility of parole for the brutal murder of 24-year-old Inglewood prostitute Ashley Nicole Lilly in an upscale Garden Grove hotel in August 2009. The victim had advertised her services in the Weekly's Backpage.com, among other sites. Gomez had been deported to Mexico but sneaked back into this country. What we learned: Jim Gilchrist, may we introduce your new poster boy.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.