Subject: California Coastal Commission

• Monday's Headlines & Surprises: Ass Slapping Fun!

  Worm Attack in Dana Point? TMZ reports that Orange County police are investigating former Los Angeles Laker/Chicago Bull Dennis Rodman for allegedly committing a “crime” inside the Hennessy's Tavern near PCH in Dana Point. The celebrity website says Rodman was accused of slapping a female customer's ass so hard it left a “major mark.” No word on what part of his anatomy did the slapping. Jim Amormino, sheriff's spokesman, said dicks in his department's “sex crimes unit” are on

  September 24, 2007

• More woes for toll lovers

  Apparently building a six lane, 16 mile long toll road right down the middle of an environmentally protected state park would break some hippy-dippy law from way back in the 70s, according to the eco-nazis at the California Coastal Commission via the Los Angeles Times. The commission released a 236-page analysis that surprisingly contradicts a previous report by the toll-road builders, the Transportation Corridor Agencies. The coastal commission seems to think the road would lead to "widesprea

  September 28, 2007

• Saturday's Headlines & Surprises: It worked for the Chinese?

  The Final Solution: Alicia Robinson at the Daily Pilot takes over court duty in the Benito Acosta trial and finds ACLU lawyers continuing to press their point that Acosta’s arrest for speaking at a Costa Mesa city council meeting was “political.” At a 2006 public meeting, Mayor Allan Mansoor allowed members of the Minutemen Project to stand to show support for a controversial cops-immigration plan backed by Mansoor. But when it was Acosta’s turn to speak, Mansoor--an honorary member of

  September 29, 2007

• New poll shows mixed bag on 241 toll extension

  Photo by Craig Coppola/Courtesy Surfrider. A poll released this morning shows that OC voters are generally in favor of more toll roads, but not when they go through protected state parks. The poll, which was financed by the California State Parks Foundation, asked 400 voters from each of the county's five supervisorial districts several questions in hopes of measuring opinions about toll roads and, in particular, a proposed extension of the 241 Toll Road through San Onofre State Park

  October 2, 2007

• Tuesday's Headlines & Surprises: Dana's Selective Memory

  Can Bishop Brown Utter The Truth? Frank Mickadeit has an excellent column this morning on yesterday’s press conference by women who have been victimized at least three times--that would be: molested, ignored and then harassed--by Catholic Church officials. There will be more festivities today. This time Bishop Tod Brown (pictured) is set for a court contempt hearing in Orange County and if he decides to hold a press conference, The Mick has a few questions: If your Covenant With the Faithful

  October 9, 2007

• Hu-what?! Schwarzenegger gives toll road stamp of approval

  Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's neutral stance on the 241 toll road extension magically changed for the worse Tuesday, and the Los Angeles Times reports that he's now urging the California Coastal Commission to approve the much-opposed project. The people at the Transportation Corridor Agencies are predictably tickled pink and hope the governor's opinion will have some bearing at next month's Coastal Commission meeting. Good luck convincing the folks who concluded that it would be "difficult to im

  January 16, 2008

• YouTube Saves Trestles

  The Save San Onofre Coalition really hopes the Coastal Commission is a buncha voyeurs. See, the SSOC (made up of Defenders of Wildlife, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, Endangered Habitats League, Laguna Greenbelt, Surfrider Foundation, Audubon California, the California State Parks Foundation and probably some ninjas) has compiled hundreds and hundreds of videos on YouTube for the purpose of convincing Coastal Commission members that a poorly-planned toll road built by a shoddil

  January 23, 2008

• Wake Up and Suck the Orange 2.7.08

  DEAD END FOR TOLL ROAD: LA Times, OC Register - The California Coastal Commission voted 8-2 to deny the Transportation Corridor Agencies a coastal development permit for their Foothill-South (241). The Register says over 2,000 people showed up; the Times says over 3,500 attended. One surfer in attendance estimated 5,000 attendees, considering the 3,000 full seats and the number of people standing, both inside and out. It was the largest Coastal Commission hearing turnout in history, and made the

  February 7, 2008

• The Real Reason Why 241 Toll Road Plan Failed!

  Full disclosure: I'm not too informed on the 241 Toll Road. I don't see how extending it to San Onofre will reduce traffic on the 5 Freeway. I don't surf so don't particularly care if the legendary waves of Trestles disappeared. I do know that the Transportation Corridor Authority is one of Orange County's worst governmental agencies, and that environmentalists care a bit too much about nature at the expense of other issues. But after hearing both sides go at it yesterday on AirTalk with Larry

  February 8, 2008

• Thanks For Nothing

  The Transportation Corridor Agencies, whose Foothill-South (241) toll road extension was recently vetoed by the California Coastal Commission, sent out the following letter to its supporters. My edits are in italicized bold. Dear Supporter: Thank you for your ongoing support for the completion of the 241 Toll Road. Such willful ignorance is to be commended. Special appreciation goes to all those who attended the February 6 Coastal Commission hearing in Del Mar. Sorry we only paid you for half

  February 21, 2008

• State Park Scare Tactics 2

  The Southern California Association of Governments has issued a warning that the California Coastal Commission's veto of the 241 (Foothill-South) toll road extension could spell doom for our air quality. Or at least our air quality credits. It's hard to imagine how a road which would increase cars on all our roads, encourage development, foster industrial as well as commercial complexes and require extensive construction just to be built could possibly have a positive impact on air quality. Sti

  March 7, 2008

• Army Tackles Toll Road

  When supporters of the 241 (Foothill-South) toll road and its builder, the Transportation Corridor Agencies, hear opponents claim they'll stop the project, the reply is usually along the lines of, "You and what army?" The United States Army, assholes. That's right, the Army is finally providing the necessary firepower to blow the TCA's lies clean out of the sky. Colonel Thomas H. Magness is District Commander of the Los Angeles District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE). You may rememb

  April 9, 2008

• The Return of Toll Road Foister Jerry Amante

  Here were told you about our question to Tustin City Councilman Jerry Amante, the chairman of the Orange County Transportation Authority, the Transportation Corridor System Board of Directors and the Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency (TCA) who was all over the news last week after Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez upheld the California Coastal Commission's rejection of the TCA's preferred route for the Foothill/South toll road extension through San Onofre State Park. (Amante i

  December 22, 2008

• Saving Trestles: Game On!

  The on-again, off-again hearing on the 241 Foothill South toll road extension by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce is back on, from 10:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Sept. 22, and in an old/new home, O'Brien Hall at the Del Mar Fairgrounds, or the same place the California Coastal Commission met, took testimony and ultimately voted 8-2 against paving Lexus lanes over state park land. The hearing was to go off last month in the Bren Events Center until fears about the expected crowd size, coupled with a sl

  August 26, 2008

• Toll Road Warriors

  September 25, 2008

• In the Sewage Pipeline

  July 4, 2002

• Marine Land

  Dorothy Green: remembered Academics, government officials, business people and clean-water advocates have been meeting since Tuesday at the seventh annual Headwaters to Ocean (H2O) Conference at the Westin Long Beach, and unless they all got swallowed up by the creatures they gawked at during free visits to the Long Beach Aquarium, they’ll be back at it for Thursday’s closing events. The conference is presented by Southern California Wetlands Recovery Project, the Western Chapter of the

  October 29, 2008

• Too Much Mike Carona on the Mind at LA Times

  Poor Los Angeles Times, Orange County Edition. Not only has it been operating with reduced numbers for years, not only did it suffer layoffs and buyouts this year, not only are its alumni preparing to destroy parts of it, not only is it commonly playing catchup to the also-suffering Orange County Register, but it apparently doesn't have enough copy editors on hand to catch easy mistakes--or, those copy editors are reading too many of Christine Hanley's dispatches from the Mike Carona corruption

  December 10, 2008

• State Panel Backs Native Americans Battling Bolsa Chica Project

  After local Native Americans and the Bolsa Chica Land Trust lost their bid before the California Coastal Commission last month to halt Brightwater/Hearthside Homes construction on the Bolsa Chica mesa until they could be satisfied Indian bones were being handled properly, Anthony Morales said the last hope "for dignity" rested with the California Native American Heritage Commission. Late Friday night, the commission voted unanimously to give the tribal leader of the Gab

  December 13, 2008

• Native American Saga, Part 2: So Many Bones, So Little Time

  "Next is another fun item," joked Chairman Bill Mungary as the California Native American Heritage Commission (NAHC) moved on to the controversy surrounding remains unearthed on the mesa above the Bolsa Chica wetlands after a lengthy debate over the treatment of buried remains at Mission San Juan Capistrano. The commission, meeting Friday in the San Juan Capistrano City Council chambers, is empowered by state resources laws to protect Native American remains, gravesites

  December 14, 2008

• Toll Road Foister Jerry Amante: We're Doomed

  As chairman of the Orange County Transportation Authority, the Transportation Corridor System Board of Directors and the Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency (TCA), Tustin City Councilman Jerry Amante (pictured) is all over the news today, reacting bitterly to the Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez's decision announced yesterday to uphold the California Coastal Commission rejection of the TCA's preferred route for the Foothill/South toll road extension.For instance, as local envi

  December 19, 2008

• Ratings Agency Goes 'Negative' on Foothill/Eastern Toll Road Bonds

  Due to declines in traffic and toll revenues, crippled further by the weakened economy, a ratings agency has revised its outlook on bonds backing the Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency from "stable" to "negative," jeopardizing the TCA's ability to finance construction of the long-debated extension of the 241 toll road through South County.Fitch Ratings believes the Foothill/Eastern TCA could raise tolls substantially and stay afloat, but it likely could not also afford the 241 exten

  February 3, 2009

• Battle Over Bolsa Chica and Indian Bones Keeps Humming Along

  When the California Coastal Commission meets in Huntington Beach on Thursday, panelists will be staring into at least one familiar face: that of Chief Anthony Morales of the Gabrielino-Tongva Band of Mission Indians (pictured). While the commission deals with coastal development issues up and down the state, their monthly meetings bounce around from city to city so they can be closer to all the people whose interests they allegedly represent. Following them from town to town

  February 4, 2009

• Celebrate Saving Trestles by Tying One On. Or Two. Or a Dozen

  The Surfrider Foundation South Orange County Chapter hosts a "Trestles Victory Party" at 8:30 p.m. Friday at O.C. Tavern, 2369 S El Camino Real, San Clemente. The little surfer girls and boys feel like hoisting a few in honor of the U.S. Commerce Department deciding against overturning the California Coastal Commission's previous rejection of the Transportation Corridor Agency's proposed toll-road route through San Onofre State Park and too close for comfort to the world-clas

  February 4, 2009

• One Little, Two Little, Three Little Indian Rifts at Bolsa Chica

  For Chief Anthony Morales of the Gabrielino-Tongva Band of Mission Indians, his long fight for the dignified treatment of Native American remains unearthed on the mesa overlooking the Bolsa Chica wetlands may finally be coming to an end. Healing a rift with rivals from the Juaneño Band of Mission Indians, Acjachemen Nation, will likely take much longer.  Addressing the California Coastal Commission meeting Thursday at Huntington Beach City Hall, Morales revealed that Hearthside Ho

  February 6, 2009

• Interesting Op-Ed Pieces on FBI Informant, Toll Roads

  In "Breach of Trust: FBI Wants It Both Ways," the editorial board of UC Irvine's New University student newspaper takes issue with the indictment of a Muslim resident of Tustin and the use of a controversial government informant. (Background is here and here.) The case is bound to have a chilling effect, according to the editorial.This incident is alarming to the American Muslim community in Orange County, who had been working hard to establish and maintain good relations with the FBI, according

  March 10, 2009

• Handle With Care

  November 6, 2008

• California Coastal

  September 25, 2008

• Say You Will Build It, and They Will Come . . . If the 'It' Is a Toll Road Over Trestles Parkland

  September 25, 2008

• Surf City Mayor Debbie Cook Takes on Dana Rohrabacher, OC's Weirdest Republican Congressman

  September 18, 2008

• How New Developments in Laguna Beach Will (and Won't) Deal With the Pollution in Aliso Creek

  May 29, 2008

• They Didn't Pave Paradise: The top 10 reasons why the Foothill South Toll Road extension failed

  February 14, 2008

• Diary of a Mad County

  Feb. 28-Mar. 6

  March 8, 2007

• Road to Nowhere Fast

  Foothill-South delayed until 2011, possibly forever

  March 15, 2007

• Go with the Flow

  September 2, 1999

• Coots!

  Thats whos fighting to save our last wetlands for you whippersnappers

  December 28, 2006

• Toll Road Rage: Ken Ryan and Friends

  March 16, 2006

• Toll Road Rage: Who Supports the Toll Road?

  August 25, 2005

• They Saved Paradise, Put Up With a Parking Lot

  June 24, 2004

• Diary Of A Mad County

  June 3, 2004

• Turning Water into Whine

  November 20, 2003

• Pick the Next State Coastal Commissioner

  January 9, 2003

• Green With Anger

  November 29, 2001

• The Year in Bits:July - December

  January 4, 2001

• Full Metal House

  December 7, 2000

• Joey vs. the Man

  June 22, 2000

• Green With Anger

  April 27, 2000

• Crystal Chlorination

  December 2, 1999

• Lightning Rod

  February 4, 1999

• [UPDATED] Huntington Beach to Annex Sacred Indian Site

  Photo by Russ Roca Chief Anthony Morales came up empty at November 2008 California Coastal Commission hearing.​ UPDATE: Jaimee Lynn Fletcher reports in Orange County Register: HUNTINGTON BEACH--The city will absorb an unincorporated county island that some environmentalists believe is an American Indian burial ground that dates back more than 8,000 years. A proposal goes before the Huntington Beach City Council tonight to have the city annex 6.2 acres of land on the Bolsa Chica Mesa th

  November 17, 2009