Subject: Dana Point

• Heal The Bay Gives the Baby Beach a Clean Bill Of Health

  Heal the Bay has released its annual report card of California beach water quality. Each of Orange County's beaches has received a grade, and the 88-page report has some other info on the county. Let's break it down:We've got two "beach bummers." On Heal the Bay's list of the top 10 worst beaches in the state, Poche Beach in San Clemente comes in seventh and Doheny State Beach in Dana Point comes in tenth. Not great. Doheny received two F's and a D; Poche got F's across the board.The Baby Beach:

  May 20, 2009

• Dana Point: Not As Disgusting As It Used To Be

  Santa Monica's Heal the Bay has issued its 16th annual Beach Report Card, documenting the water quality at Southern California's beaches-- though "quality" may not be exactly the right word, since the report card lists SoCal's top ten beaches in terms of water pollution. This year, Los Angeles County is the clear winner in the bacterial sweepstakes, capturing a whopping 8 of the 10 places on the list. But coming in at lucky number 7, ensuring OC gets its share of the shame, is Doheny State Beach

  May 25, 2006

• Monday's Haul

  Save our gay bar: Gay activists are reaching out to George Clooney and Brad Pitt, asking that the actors buy Laguna Beach's Boom Boom Room—which is on its way to becoming a boutique hotel. Darn it: The Daily Pilot just snagged itself a new managing editor. We're still turning over rocks for one over here. Stabbing suspect arrested: A suspect in a three-person slashing at Dana Point was arrested in Long Beach yesterday night, reports the Times. Paris checks in early: Scared and stripp

  June 4, 2007

• 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

• Sunday's Headlines & Surprises: The Shame of Wayne Gross

  Dana Point Gets a Celebrity! Earvin “Magic” Johnson and his wife, Cookie, have purchased a $7.6 million gated-community “vacation” home in Dana Point, according to the Times. Though “Hot Property” reporter Ruth Ryon didn’t share more details about the location, you can assume it’s at the oceanfront Headlands, property owned for decades by the Chandler family, longtime owners of Ryon’s employer. Anyhow, real estate agent Shelley Brown told the paper that Johnson, who lives most

  November 18, 2007

• Check Out My Package

  It's pretty well-known that I'll go almost anywhere I'm invited if there's free food and booze, but some invites make more sense than others. Movie premieres, I understand. Art gallery openings, sure. But a meeting held by a package tour company to pitch their getaways to local travel agents? I mean, I don't make near enough money to afford African safaris or whatnot, especially since some of them cost as much as my rent for the entire year. And I'm fairly sure that most of you who pick our free

  January 9, 2008

• Dana Point

  September 27, 2001

• Eight Days

  August 5, 2004

• Rendezvous To Be Replaced By New Steakhouse

  The revolving door of eateries continues.  According to the Capistrano Dispatch, the space that the recently departed Rendezvous occupied in San Juan Capistrano's train depot is being developed by the people behind Gemmell's of Dana Point.In it's place, come mid-January, will be a steakhouse called "The Vintage Steakhouse".

  December 4, 2008

• To Do Tonight 1/6

  Wildcat Duo, 7:30 p.m.Not one, but two wildcats. Wow. Renaissance Dana Point, 24701 Del Prado Ave., Dana Point, CA; 949-661-6003Playwright Festival, 7 p.m.Learn to write plays and listen to live readings.Fullerton College, 321 E. Chapman Ave., Fullerton, CA; 714-992-7433TNT Tuesdays, 6:30 p.m.A dynamite night at this country club.In Cahoots/Club Rio, 1401 S. Lemon, Fullerton, CA; 714-525-9700

  January 6, 2009

• This Week in Reasons To Be Embarrassed About Dana Point

  Diane HarkeyNow, I love Dana Point, my sleepy, crusty, adorable harbor-village-that's-trying-to-dress-up-as-Newport hometown. But its legal cityhood is only a little bit younger than I am, and so I can relate to the public embarrassments it has had in the last week or so. You turn 20, you're told that you're an adult, you go out into the world, and you end up making an idiot of yourself. Three Dana Point residents in the news of late: -- OC Sheriff Sandra Hutchens. Yes, we were quite proud when

  February 19, 2009

• It's Time To Harpoon A Whale Of A Cliché In Dana Point

  SparkyLeigh / Flickr / Creative CommonsBrighten up your baleen and brush your blowhole, because for the next two weekends, Dana Point hosts its 38th annual Festival of Whales. Despite the fact that I've lived in that silly little seaport for some two decades, I have exactly zero memories of this event ever taking place (My parents claim to have taken me for whale-shaped pancakes when I was three, but I don't believe it. How could you ever forget whale pancakes?). But that should change this year

  March 3, 2009

• Starting This Friday: Dana Point Restaurant Week

  Not a moment after the first ever Orange County Restaurant Week winds down (it ends this Saturday, March 7th, after a one week extension), another "Restaurant Week" waits in its wake.  Up next? Dana Point with its own Dana Point Restaurant Week. It starts this Friday, March 6th and runs to the 15th. The deals vary from restaurant to restaurant, but just like OCRW, it's 3-courses. Prices start at $20 per person.The list of participants is a who's who of Dana Point restaurants and include

  March 3, 2009

• Politics Devours Journalism In Dana Point, Courtesy Of Twitter

  My own stupid phone picture of the meeting. Compare to Bishop's.Here's a story. Your reporter attends Dana Point City Council workshop tonight about the proposed Town Center design. Your reporter leaves midway through, unsure of what to later write about the generally uneventful first half of the meeting. Your reporter returns home a few hours later, for some reason fires up Twitter, and sees a post from Dana Point City Councilmember Joel Bishop, age 51:joelbishop:Town center plunlic meeting in

  March 31, 2009

• Junior Oceanographer

  Ocean Institute

  April 9, 2009

• Ahoy!

  February 12, 2009

• Recall Madness!

  August 23, 2007

• Grub Guide

  Tasty morsels from the county's best damn dining guide
  

  August 9, 2007

• Doheny Dumps

  April 12, 2007

• Grub Guide

  February 1, 2007

• Grub Guide

  January 11, 2007

• Grub Guide

  January 4, 2007

• Grub Guide

  December 21, 2006

• Grub Guide

  December 14, 2006

• Grub Guide

  November 23, 2006

• Grub Guide

  November 16, 2006

• Alan Hess

  The architecture critic and author shares some of his favorite things

  October 19, 2006

• Grub Guide

  September 14, 2006

• Grub Guide

  May 11, 2006

• Yule Log!

  November 24, 2005

• Dana Point

  October 20, 2005

• Beach Cities Pizza

  June 23, 2005

• Best Shopping and Porn

  October 30, 2003

• Their Ocean

  September 18, 2003

• D

  October 24, 2002

• Diary of a Mad County

  June 6, 2002

• Whos Acai Now?

  August 9, 2001

• This Is War?

  August 5, 1999

• Knock 'Em Down

  October 1, 1998

• Doheny Blues Festival

  May 14, 2009

• Got'cher Doheny Blues Festival Coverage Right Here

  The blues! What's it all about? I dunno. But I'm gonna find out. Tomorrow marks the start of the two-day Doheny Blues Festival in Dana Point. I'll be covering the highlights of the performances from soulful people who got famous before I was born, from Brian Setzer to B.B. King. Follow the beach-and-blues action on my Twitter (skornhaber), and check this very blog for the wrap-up review.

  May 15, 2009

• Slideshows: Doheny Blues Festival at Doheny State Beach, Earth Crisis at Chain Reaction

  B.B. King? In Dana Point? Oh, it happened. This weekend, in fact, at the Doheny Blues Festival at Doheny State Beach. You might have read Spencer Kornhaber's blog about the two-day event. (If you didn't, for shame, but your chance to make up for it can be found here.) But, when reading that, if you're thinking, "Hey, you know what would be cool to go along with these words--some pictures," well, we've got you covered. Keith May was out there doing the photography thing. The end result? Right her

  May 19, 2009

• Dana Point's Beautiful Bridge To Semi-Nowhere Opens

  Giant ceremonial scissors made an appearance along Pacific Coast Highway in Dana Point this morning, as members of the city council and OC Board of Supervisors member Pat Bates dedicated a brand new pedestrian bridge.It's not just a pedestrian bridge, though. It's "beautification." It's a "great work of art." It's "part of a traffic congestion relief project." Those were the words of Mayor Lisa Bartlett -- and it's easy to understand what she meant with the first two. The bridge, which I drive u

  May 22, 2009

• Surf-a-Rama

  June 11, 2009

• Father's Day Art Show

  June 18, 2009

• The Spirit of Cooperation Prevails in Diane Harkey's Hometown?

  Diane HarkeyThe latest "Soapbox" page in the Dana Point News provides a nice little study in contrasts. The bulk of the page goes to a column from Joel Bishop, Dana Point's jolly, Twittering councilman. He's all about "the power of collaboration": "I get weary of people in power blaming one another for problems and issues instead of grabbing the horns of the dilemma, and collaboratively fixing them."To illustrate the "power of collaboration," Bishop offers quotes from Ronald Reagan and Washingt

  May 27, 2009

• Dana Point Art Festival

  October 8, 2009

• Fire Up the Vanagon, They're Talking Nukes at San Onofre Again

  Pretty!​The serious reconsideration of expanded nuclear power amid our uncertain energy future can mean only one thing: the resumption of serious protests against expanded nuclear power. With the San Onofre Nuclear Generation Station (SONGS) so close, and a public workshop and hearing about the plant's operations coming up tomorrow, someone had better get Jackson Browne, Martin Sheen and Harry Dean Stanton on the horn again.

  November 4, 2009

• Crime Time: Creepy Toys, Slick Bank Robbers, Egged On Victims, Dog-Beating Dipshits and At Least [Alleged] Criminals Still Read Newspapers

  It's the Weekly's weekly roundup of local police calls and assorted mayhem.MONDAY, NOV. 2". . . and I don't like you!" ​"I'm Talking Tina . . . and Things Are Going to Be Different Around Here" A woman called 9-1-1 around 3:45 in the morning to say she heard a baby toy go off downstairs in her home in the 26800 block of Moore Oaks Road in Laguna Hills even though no one else was supposed to be down there. She wanted deputies to come by and make sure everything was safe. Set your tasers to stun

  November 10, 2009

• Turkey Trot

  November 19, 2009