Subject: Christina Shea

• Chairman Jao

  It looks like Irvine Republicans may have finally developed their own alternative to the Hometown Voter Guide. The Irvine City, School and Neighborhood Leaders Committee (ICSNLC) has paid for $28,011 worth of independent expenditures opposing Beth Krom, $7,612 to oppose Mary-Anne Gaido, another $7,612 to oppose Sukhee Kang, and $17,465 in support of Christina Shea. Krom is Irvine's Mayor, Kang is a Councilmember, and Gaido is Planning Commissioner; the three are campaigning together as "The Gre

  November 1, 2006

• Agran's Irvine Machine Gets Challenger

  A majority of Irvine voters are Republicans and yet for years Larry Agran's progressive political machine has controlled the mayor's office. It's a reality Republican city councilwoman Christina Shea hopes to shatter next year. This morning Shea announced that she will run for the job herself. Shea will face Agran's Sukhee Kang and whatever shell Republican campaign Agran also secretly sponsors to the divide GOP voters. Over the years, Shea has been the bee in Agran's bonnet, especially on et

  September 13, 2007

• OC Fundie Funder Gives Money to Wacky Reeps, Homo-Haters--And Lou Correa?!

  The most influential Orange County man you've never heard of is undoubtedly Howard F. Ahmanson, Jr., heir to the Home Savings (remember that bank?) fortune. He rarely makes public appearances due to suffering from Tourette's Syndrome, but that hasn't stopped him from giving millions of dollars away to some of the craziest causes imaginable: creationism, anti-gay marriage, anti-gay clerics in the Episcopalian Church, and so many others that in its list of America's most influential evangelicals a

  June 19, 2008

• Muffle Scuffle

  *Moved up, 'cause the conversation's fun! Irvine's reigning feet-to-the-fire holder Stephen C. Smith has a very interesting post on his IrvineTattler.com site. Here is an excerpt from “Sukhee Kang Knows Your Birth Date”: Councilman and mayoral candidate Sukhee Kang used a California Public Records Act (CPRA) request in August 2006 to obtain an estimated 90,000 records with personal information about Irvine voters, including birth dates, home addresses and e-mail addresses. The Irvine Tat

  August 3, 2008

• If You Don't Support the Great Park Iconics, the Terrorists Win!

  Clockwork's Pete Townshendesque ears heard Irvine City Councilwoman and mayoral candidate Christina Shea ask the following at Thursday's Great Park Corporation board of directors meeting at City Hall: “If you could put up on the screen the terrorist area.” Now, it is no state secret that Irvine possesses something of a multiculti bent, that the Great Park is pitched to provide all things to all people, that the UCI Muslim Student Union holds great sway on campus. But, for the love of Rumsf

  September 19, 2008

• Sex and the City

  February 25, 1999

• Letters

  March 25, 1999

• Letters

  November 9, 2000

• Irvine Candidate Forum: Mostly Civil, Some Fireworks

  Irvine is either a city where the sun does nothing but shine, the streets are lined with gold and bad stuff never ever ever ever ever ever ever happens, or it's a swirling cesspool of cronyism, backroom deals and looming Muslim threats. That was the message voters were given as a busload of people running for Irvine City Council gathered in the council chambers tonight for a candidate forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters, whose Sharon Holdt served as moderator. Current council members

  October 21, 2008

• Who is Down on Measure R (and How Much Are They Down For)?

  Shea and Choi: big anti-R funders Measure R on the Irvine ballot asks residents to approve what a great job the Irvine City Council is doing on planning the Great Park on the old El Toro Marine Corps base (or if the measure loses, one supposes, what a piss-poor job they are doing). The conflict-of-interest-laden gusher of money flowing into the campaign for the measure has been examined here and here and to a much more comprehensive extent here and for the must-read historical perspective, righ

  October 31, 2008

• More Blast From the Past Fraud Allegations in Irvine Election

  This examines a fraud case from the past involving a big donor to, ironically enough, Irvine Citizens for Ethics in Government, the independent committee against Irvine's Measure R, which asks residents to give a vote of approval to the Irvine City Council's planning of the Great Park on the old El Toro Marine Corps base. This tells you about how more than half of Irvine Citizens for Ethics in Government's funding comes from contributions and loans from the various campaigns of and independent

  November 3, 2008

• You Read the Irvine Election Results Here First

  Kang, Krom and Agran: staying put. Allow me to take you way, way, way back in time to last Thursday, Oct. 30, when the following was posted here (and it was in the print edition that hit the streets that day, too): [Irvine mayoral candidate Christina] Shea and fellow incumbent Sukhee Kang are the only candidates for the two-year mayor’s seat. Whoever loses still has two years remaining on his or her council seat. Among the candidates for two open, four-year council seats are outgoing Mayor B

  November 5, 2008

• Irvine City Councilwoman Beth Krom: Liar?

  Krom: DON'T read my lips At the Oct. 21 Irvine City Council candidates forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters, Councilwoman Christina Shea, in the middle of an unsuccessful campaign for mayor, said that Lennar Corp., which is building homes ringing the future Great Park, would be allowed to triple the 3,200 units called for in its original agreement with the city to develop parts of the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. Termed-out mayor Beth Krom, a political foe of Shea's who wa

  November 11, 2008

• I'm Not Dead Yet

  Christina Shea had one of those gut-check moments when Orange County Great Park Corp. board clerk Steve Larsen read the roll at this morning's regular meeting at Irvine City Hall. "How come you didn't call my name?" Shea asked defensively. Last month's defeat in the mayoral race against Sukhee Kang leaves her with only two years remaining on the Irvine City Council and Great Park board before she will be termed out. After Larsen corrected his mistake, Shea was quick to remind, "I haven't

  November 20, 2008

• Cirque du Great Park?

  The Orange County Great Park Corp. board today unanimously recommended that the Irvine City Council authorize the board's CEO Michael Ellzey to enter formal negotiations with Montreal-based Cirque du Soleil to bring its winter 2010 touring production to the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station base. Council approval is very likely as all five council members sit on the Great Park board. To say the vote was a forgone conclusion is an understatement: moments after the vote, the park's hired

  November 20, 2008

• Great Park's Hired Design Reviewers Get Another $2 Mil to Add to Their Previous $2 Mil

  "Um, yeah, that's not gonna work for me." The city of Irvine is paying a private company at least $400 million to design the Great Park. It has set aside $9 million for city staff and an independent company to check the Great Park Design Studio's plans to make sure they more quickly clear future city design reviews. Now the City Council will be asked to dole out another $1.9 million to compensate the program manager, Bovis Lend Lease, for essentially looking over the shoulders of designers in r

  November 20, 2008

• Great Park to World: Crisis? What Global Economic Crisis?

  You'd think the dotcom crisis was just a bad dream, the housing bubble never burst and we'd mysteriously been time traveled back to the halcyon days of the Clinton economy considering the bullish way the Orange County Great Park Corporation is pushing the financial envelope.   With three of its nine members missing, including constant budget nag Christina Shea, the taxpayer-supported corporation's Board of Directors unanimously approved year-end budget adjustments

  December 22, 2008

• Attorney Who Misspent Clients' $2.7 Million Was at Center of Irvine Election Controversies

  The Register's Greg Hardesty has the scoop on 38-year-old Irvine attorney Sandeep Baweja admitting to burning through nearly all of a $2.7-million settlement that was supposed to be shared by about 1,000 plaintiffs he represented in a class-action labor lawsuit.According to the story, Baweja played the dumb card, saying he invested the money in the stock market without knowing what he was doing, apologizing for his knuckleheaded conduct in papers filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles and r

  December 31, 2008

• Councilwoman Blames Own Panel for Irvine Sister City's Demise

  The Irvine Sister City Foundation--which has helped make Irvine a truly international city thanks to successful partnerships with with Tsukuba, Japan, Hermosillo, Mexico, and Taoyuan, Taiwan--voted to dissolve last night. Despite the denials of Irvine Mayor Suhkee Kang, an Irvine City Council colleague blames the nonproft's demise on "political pay back"--from her own city council. "This is a travesty. A political carving out . . . a tossing aside of an outstanding volunteer

  January 23, 2009

• Will Obama's Stimulus Plan Help Make the OC Great Park a Reality?

  Calling the action "momentous," the Great Park Corp. Board of Directors voted unanimously today to recommend the Irvine City Council adopt the Great Park Design Studio's Comprehensive Park Plan, the final planning piece required before the building phase can begin--as soon as March 20--on the ambitious, mixed-use park on 1,350 acres of the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.Now all the directors have to do is figure out how to pay for it.To that end, director Miguel Pulido, who is Santa Ana

  February 19, 2009

• Lennar Corp. Flies Missing Man Formation Over Great Park

  The hot question raised at this afternoon's Orange County Great Park study session was whatever became of Lennar Corp.? You know, big Miami-based developer? It's Chinese-made drywall stinks? Victimized by copper thieves in Anaheim's Platinum Triangle? Recently faced financial woes and serious allegations but its CEO still got $1.1 million in '08? (Don't worry, folks, it was a pay cut!) Partner with the City of Irvine in the Great Park development? You know? That Lennar?Great Park board member an

  March 19, 2009

• Three Local Elections Worth Watching. Call It Morbid Fascination

  October 30, 2008

• Amid Much Hoopla and Larry Agran's Speechifying, Not Much Great Happening With the Great Park

  July 17, 2008

• Agran's Pork Probed

  January 12, 2006

• Update: Agran's Pork Probed

  January 19, 2006

• Agranistas Fire Ordinance

  December 15, 2005

• Agran on the Warpath

  Indians are the new bogeyman in the war against an already defeated airport

  October 13, 2005

• Criticize Larry Agran, Go to Jail

  September 22, 2005

• A Clockwork Orange

  September 8, 2005

• During Brain Surgery, Keep Your Eye on the Ball, You Cockroach

  July 21, 2005

• Agran Dispenses Great Pork

  July 7, 2005

• Great Park With All the Fixins

  June 23, 2005

• AGRAN AGAIN!

  November 4, 2004

• Letters

  September 2, 2004

• Agrans Filibuster

  Marathon council meeting could mark the end of the Irvine mayor

  August 26, 2004

• The Lunch From Hill

  That stench coming from Irvine City Hall? Its convicted felonand energy lobbyistFrank Hill

  August 12, 2004

• Larry Agrans Power Trip

  Irvine mayors planned public utility could enrich a political pal

  August 5, 2004

• Press Clips

  October 3, 2002

• Mayor Moonbeam, Meet Donald Bren

  April 11, 2002

• Letters

  March 28, 2002

• Sex, Drugs and Narcissism

  March 29, 2001

• The Great Park Is Coming Back

  December 7, 2000

• The Great Farce

  November 16, 2000

• Schlessinger, Shea, Sheesh!

  September 30, 1999

• Orange Countys Least Powerful People The First-Ever Weaklies!

  September 9, 1999

• OC's Sexiest People

  February 18, 1999

• As Stephen Smith Leaves Town, Irvine's "Tattler" Calls on Others to Step Up

  Stephen C. Smith calls on others to keep tabs on Irvine City Hall.CORRECTED!Lost in Santa Ana a few months ago, half paying attention to the street signs and half to Larry Mantle's KPCC interview show blaring out of the car speakers, I heard the host steer his Orange County "roundtable" guests--Orange County Register senior editorial writer Steven Greenhut; former LA Times religion writer William Lobdell and the Weekly's irrepressible Gustavo Arellano--into the topic of local bloggers. The three

  May 12, 2009

• "Press Conference" Against Iran Government Produces No News, Much Political Support in Irvine

  Rep. Laura Richardson (inset), Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Rep. Ed Royce, together at last.If the goal of a press conference is to produce a "big announcement" that makes news and warrants coverage--the usual reason one calls a press conference in the first place--then the Iran Supporters Network failed Friday evening at Irvine City Hall. But if the idea was to bring local politicians, community leaders and the Iranian American community together, engage in some spirited preach

  August 10, 2009

• Park Place Owners Have a Rocky History in Irvine

  Maguire had this office tower built at Park Place in 2006.​Maguire Properties' announcement today that it has sold its Park Place I office property in Irvine is just the latest twist for a massive campus that seems to have been dogged by controversy since the Los Angeles-based developer acquired it five years ago.To get a sense for this, just follow this timeline.June 1999: After more than two decades as the most visible tenant at the futuristic, distinctive green-glass, 1.7 million-squa

  August 12, 2009

• Agran Crony and Gore Campaigner Agrees to Guilty Pleas in Federal Wire Fraud Case

  Irvine attorney Sandeep Baweja, the 39-year-old money man for that town's "progressive" political boss Larry Agran and a former official with Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign, agreed in court papers to plead guilty to two felony charges related to a scheme where he ripped off nearly all of the $2.7 million he'd previously won for his clients, the FBI announced today.In a plea agreement prosecutors filed late Thursday in United States District Court in Los Angeles, Baweja indicates he will pl

  October 2, 2009