Subject: Aliso Viejo

• Supervise the Supervisors-Stop the Toll Road

  On Feb. 28, the OC Board of Supervisors will consider adopting a resolution to support the Transportation Corridor Agencies' Foothill-South (241) extension. The motion was put forth by Supervisor Bill Campbell at the Board's Feb. 7 meeting (item 32 on the agenda). No doubt this is meant to trump the adoption by three local city councils (Aliso Viejo, Laguna Beach, Oceanside) of resolutions opposing the road. Unfortunately for TCA and the BOS, the State legislature has its own deck of trump card

  February 17, 2006

• Paranoia Roundup: Immigration edition

  This will come as no surprise, but Aliso Viejo's Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minutemen (not the immortal patriotic heroes of Lexington and Concord– Jim's are the flabby guys who have figured out how to combine xenophobia and birdwatching by scanning the horizon for Mexicans instead of great blue herons) is engaged in wishful thinking again. I'm not referring to his plans for a "multistate civilian border patrols" reported in this morning's Register. No, I'm referring to something else h

  March 30, 2006

• Bait and Switch (Great Wall edition)

  It looks like it's not a not a good week to be a Minuteman or Minuteman sympathizer (Minnie-symp?). Not because those kids at Columbia were mean to Aliso Viejo's own Minute-Grand Wizard Jim Gilchrist– when you're working the xenophobia racket, you really don't expect to get much love from Ivy League ephebes– but because their champions in Congress are playing them for chumps. The Washington Monthly's Political Animal (and Irvine's own) Kevin Drum explains: I see that the Republican

  October 6, 2006

• Tuesday's Headlines

  Parade rejects float: A Huntington Beach panel gave a thumbs-down to an Independence Day entry celebrating the desegregation of state schools, saying the theme didn't have "entertainment value." Paying for parking lot rage: A Costa Mesa man was sentenced to 15 years in prison yesterday after running down a former high school football coach in an Aliso Viejo parking lot. One sick puppy: A pet shop owner in Lynwood has been accused of torturing animals in his care—allegedly performing surgery o

  June 19, 2007

• Thursday's Headlines & Surprises: Dirty Cop Sting

  Catch a crooked cop: Nope. Sorry. Not here in the USA. No way. But in Mexico, authorities want a no corruption zone for the the five-mile road from the Tijuana border south to the beach. Officials are “installing cameras to catch extortion attempts, publicizing that people can pay tickets with credit cards and transferring corrupt cops,” writes Richard Marosi of the LA Times. “They've deployed a squad of female traffic officers to offer courteous help to tourists. They've even declared th

  July 26, 2007

• OC Sex Inventions

  Inspired by an exhibit of sex inventions at the New York-based Museum of Sex, I thought I'd do a little trolling through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's online search for anything interesting coming out of our fair county. Anaheim inventor Wayne Manska was awarded patent #6,645,164 in 2003 for a "lingual vibration device" --- in English a tongue vibrator --- that "[causes] a user's tongue to rapidly, yet gently, vibrate during various oral sex acts such as cunnilingus." In his applicati

  November 9, 2007

• Slain Deputy Faced Criminal Charges

  Sources tell OC Weekly that the Orange County Sheriff's Department deputy found dead in a car parked in Aliso Viejo yesterday had been the subject of a sex crimes investigation in the District Attorney's office and may have opted to kill himself rather than face arrest. Susan Schroeder at the DA's office said she will release a statement today.

  April 3, 2008

• Road Builders Union to Surf Industry: Fuck Off!

  The Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building and Construction Trades Council issued an ultimatum to the Aliso Viejo-based Surf Industry Manufacturers Association: stop sponsoring environmental groups opposed to the 241 Foothill-South toll road or face the mighty wrath of more than 100,000 union workers “who build the roads, hospitals and schools that keep our communities strong.” The letter is not signed by the council's executive secretary, Richard N. Slawson, who is shown at a March rally in

  September 4, 2008

• Letters

  July 1, 1999

• Bounty Killer

  August 22, 2002

• Taco Truck Politics

  Not everyone that matters in Orange County can vote, of course. I ran into Chepe while scarfing down overpriced tacos at a taco truck outside China-Mex Super Buffet in SanTana. He came to this country illegally in 1987 as a scared 20-year-old from Michoacán, promptly knocked up some chick, and spent the following 20 years crafting a good life for himself despite his alien status as a construction worker. Is paying off his home--bought it in 1995, years before the subprime mortgage scandal--and

  November 4, 2008

• In Defense of Aliso Viejo! And Screw Laguna Niguel?

  On this day of rest, when few of you will bother to check out Navel Gazing, what better day to devote a blog post to the Stanton of South County, Aliso Viejo? I wasn't too kind to the collection of gated communities and beautiful, empty sidewalks in my Orange County: A Personal History, and I still maintain the only things going for it are the Soka University bistro and Siamese Express. But last month, one Bradford Evans decided to do something shocking: he defended Aliso Viejo in a letter I'm r

  February 16, 2009

• It's a Quick Read 22: Weekend and Monday Edition

  Orange County Register: Robbins: The chance of dying in Orange County from a natural disaster is relatively low. This is based on a study Fox News cheerily lables "the death map." . . . Wisckol: A 59-year-old Aliso Viejo woman's description of kissing President Barack Obama on his cheek at the March 18 Costa Mesa town hall drew a firestorm of criticism on the Reg Buzz blog. . . . Lansner: The gap between rents and monthly mortgage payments is narrowing. Maybe a glimmer of hope for a ho

  March 30, 2009

• This Hole-in-the-Wall Life

  September 13, 2007

• The Ticket Wizard

  June 8, 2006

• Grub Guide

  January 19, 2006

• Special Screenings

  December 29, 2005

• This Week in Local Chains

  October 27, 2005

• Aliso Viejo

  October 20, 2005

• Turning Japanese

  June 30, 2005

• Letters

  November 4, 2004

• This Week In Small-City Dining

  September 9, 2004

• Letters

  August 26, 2004

• Give Me That Old-Time Religym

  June 3, 2004

• Frozen Assets

  October 23, 2003

• Checklist, Please!

  July 3, 2003

• Belated thanks for the Xmas candy, Luther of Orange

  February 20, 2003

• Dont Fire Until You See the Whites In Their I30s

  January 23, 2003

• A

  October 24, 2002

• C

  October 24, 2002

• Diary of a mad county

  October 10, 2002

• Trawling for Tinis

  July 25, 2002

• Aliso Viejo

  September 27, 2001

• Badass Roller Coaster

  September 20, 2001

• Night-Lite

  June 1, 2000

• Letters

  January 27, 2000

• Cool Thing

  January 20, 2000

• Beautiful Lake Wilson

  January 20, 2000

• It Takes a Village Idiot

  August 19, 1999

• Letters

  August 27, 1998

• It's a Quick Read 35

  Orange County Register: Cypress father and Long Beach Memorial hospital pharmacy manager Hugo Bustamante, 46, was one of the two victims slain by a fellow pharmacy worker Mario Ramirez, 50, who then took his own life. . . . Harold Edward Trees, a 36-year-old Orange man who is believed to be a member of the prison-based Nazi Low Riders white supremacist gang, is popped after he is tied to an elaborate indoor pot farm in a historic downtown Long Beach building. . . . Former Corona del Mar High Sch

  April 17, 2009

• [Special Screenings] 'Under the Bombs,' 'Border Café,' 'The Big Lebowski,' More

  May 14, 2009

• Crime Time: A Weekly Round-Up of OC Police Calls

  The "Clean-Cut Bandit": Coming to a bank near you?MONDAY, JUNE 1Shroomin' in Lagoonan: Laguna Beach Police arrested three people at a La Mirada Street property for alleged possession of hallucinogenic mushrooms, heroin, Xanax, Levitra, Alprazolam and "numerous other unknown pills." Steven Christopher Aiello, 27, of Mission Viejo; Joseph Donovan Black, 26, of Laguna Beach; and Cable Jonathan Jansen, 19, of Aliso Viejo, were arrested on suspicion of trespassing and various drug offenses. Upon his

  June 9, 2009

• OC Register Says Advertisers, Clients Screwed Them Out of $350,000

  Lawyers for the Orange County Register have filed nine lawsuits in the last nine months--including two in recent days--seeking more than $350,000 in outstanding debt from advertisers, commercial printing clients and at least one distributor of OC's largest daily newspaper.According to Superior Court records, the Register wants $73,000 from Viet Tide, a Little Saigon weekly; $24,000 from Hyundai of Costa Mesa; $30,000 from Avalanche Mechanical Inc. in San Diego; $23,000 from Foto Classificados Ma

  June 12, 2009

• Scrabble Tournament

  August 6, 2009

• Baby Cakes Moves from Aliso Viejo to Shops At Mission Viejo

  ​For a short while the cupcakery was operating at both locations, but now the Aliso Viejo store is closed, as a few potential customers found out on Saturday when they pitched up there. Still, if they're that loyal they won't mind the ten-minute drive to the new place...

  August 17, 2009

• Wider Disneyland Rides for Wider Rider Asses?

  David Koenig, the Aliso Viejo author of Mouse Tales: A Behind-the-Ears Look at Disneyland, Mouse Under Glass: Secrets of Disney Animation & Theme Parks and More Mouse Tales: A Closer Peek Backstage at Disneyland has an interesting MousePlanet post that features an unnamed source saying the just-completed, five-week refurbishment of vehicles that carry guests on Peter Pan's Flight at the Magic Kingdom was done for one reason: To fit those guests' fatter asses. "Depending w

  June 3, 2009

• Five Great "Anti-Starbucks" Coffeehouses

  ​By "anti-Starbucks" I don't mean they've launched campaigns against the coffee behemoth (not that I know of, anyway), but that in terms of look, feel and menu they're the antithesis of the chain everybody loves to hate. The Gypsy DenOf the two locations (Costa Mesa and Santa Ana), I prefer the larger Santa Ana one. The décor is kooky, the cakes excellent, and the events--including Lee Mallory's Factory Readings on the first Tuesday of the month--impressive. Alta CoffeeThe coffee's nowhe

  August 24, 2009

• Aliso Viejo to Allow Table Showers (for One Particular Business)

  Soon to be legal at one Aliso Viejo business. ​Massage parlor owners rejoice! The city of Aliso Viejo is in the process of changing local law so that you and other hands-on businesses in town can operate table showers, which are just what the name implies: tables where people lie down next to bathroom fixtures that workers use to shower them off.  Table or "vichy" showers had been prohibited under the municipal code to further regulate&n

  November 10, 2009

• Drivers Ridicule Toll Road Photo Contest

  Photo by Steve OngAliso Viejo resident Steve Ong's winning shot.​An amateur photo contest aimed at promoting Orange County's quasi-private toll roads gave new meaning to drive-by shooting.Folks who left comments on the Transportation Corridor Agencies--or The Toll Roads--Facebook page had other definitions: stupid, dangerous and "a boondoggle." Drivers of the Lexus lanes made a stunning observation as soon as the contest was announced a couple months ago: operating a camera while operating a v

  November 20, 2009