Dana Point

Young Girls - Still Water- December 12, 2012

Despite much hesitation about Googling their name, Houston-based band Young Girls were not,  in fact, girls. Being of the distinct opposite sex, these Texas boys knew how to put on a good show, even if Still Water's often reputed 'older' Wednesday night crowd was sparse at best. The two-ye ... More >>

Anti-DUI Deputies Flood Streets of Dana Point, San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano Tonight

If you're driving south tonight--or north from South County--you may want to program your GPS to avoid the cities of Dana Point, San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano.That's because the Orange County Sheriff's Department, which patrols all three, is holding "saturation patrols" from 8 tonight through ... More >>

12 y.o. Boy Allegedly Leads Deputies on Chase That Ends With Car Burning to the Ground

A 12-year-old boy allegedly led Orange County sheriff's deputies on a car chase from San Juan Capistrano to Dana Point early today before crashing into a tree and fleeing on foot as the family Chevy Aveo burst into flames.Dennis the Menace was found hiding in bushes, and the car burned to the ground ... More >>

Hooray for Stacks Pancake House!

[Hole In the Wall] This Dana Point breakfast spot inspires lines worthy of a club

Micah Brown

Constellation Room

Four Tons of Floating Weed Discovered Off Dana Point

Presumably this is unrelated to the arrival of Japanese tsunami debris along the California coastline that we've all been hearing about. But at about noon yesterday, a boater who either really hates marijuana or really loves obeying the law, called authorities to report several large bales of weed f ... More >>

[UPDATED with I.D.'s Confirmed:] Hoarding Cited as Hampering Firefighters at Home Where Author Died

Dana Point Historical SocietyDoris J. Walker-Smith​UPDATE, NOV. 1, 2:19 P.M.: The Orange County Register confirms that the couple killed in Sunday's fire in a cluttered home on Bremerton Street in Dana Point was Jack Pierson Smith and his wife, the author and Dana Point Historical Society founde ... More >>

Pacific Blue Whale Gets Up Close and Personal with Viewing Boat Off Dana Point

​Passengers, a videographer and even the skipper are still shaking their heads over an unusually close encounter with a Pacific blue whale from a viewing boat in the fleet of Captain Dave's Dolphin and Whale Safari Friday afternoon off Dana Point."Dude, that was a miracle," a woman can be heard sa ... More >>

Marijuana War Alive And Well In Dana Point

​Despite this week's news that the federal government is declaring war on medical marijuana dispensaries, an attorney for one such operation that was shuttered by Dana Point officials in March 2011 says his client hasn't given up yet. Jeff Schwartz, who represents Beach City Collectives, which is ... More >>

Dana Point BBQ Championship

ProfessorSalt.comBeef brisket from Los Alamitos team Inhale BBQ​Last Friday and Saturday, September 23 - 24, fifty BBQ teams from across the Western states took over the lush lawns of Sea Terrace Park for the inaugural Dana Point BBQ Championship. Top teams featured on TLC's BBQ Pitmasters show su ... More >>

This Saturday: Dana Point Lobster Fest

Photo Courtesy of Dana Point Lobster Fest ​Last year was the first year of the Dana Point Lobster Fest and evidently it was successful enough that they're doing year two this Saturday, June 25, 2011 from 4 to 9pm at Doheny State Beach.

[UPDATED with Dispensary Filing $30-million suit against city:] Dana Point Wins Another Judgment Against Cannabis Clubs

​UPDATE, JUNE 17: Seems like the back-and-forth legal wrangling between the city of Dana Point and a pair of marijuana collectives is never going to end. The latest news: According to a recent OC Register story, Holistic Health, one of three Dana Point dispensaries that have been ordered to pay mi ... More >>

[UPDATED: Pot Club Rescinds Truce]: Dana Point Officials Winning War on Medical Pot?

​UPDATED, May 13, 12:25 PM: The Beach City Collective rescinded a truce offer yesterday that had been extended to the Dana Point City Council in a May 4 letter, the Dana Point Times has reported. The medical marijuana dispensary had offered to withdraw its $20 million lawsuit against the city if D ... More >>

Alcantara Piano Trio

St. Edward's Church

Dana Point Shuts Down Three Pot Clubs

​It's getting harder to find legal marijuana in Dana Point. In March 2010, city officials sued half a dozen cannabis collectives in an effort to shut them down, demanding access to patient lists and other records. The next month, sheriff's officials raided the Safe Harbor Collective as well as hom ... More >>

Forking Around With . . . Dr. Orly Taitz, Esq.

John Gilhooley/OC WeeklyOrly Taitz was the subject of a Weekly cover story in June 2009.​"Forking Around With . . ." is our occasional feature meant to spotlight the food likes and dislikes of people of prominence in Orange County. Dr. Orly Taitz, the Rancho Santa Margarita attorney and dentist wh ... More >>

Malinda Traudt, Blind, Wheelchair-Bound Woman's Medical Marijuana Appeal Proceeds

​Now that an Orange County Superior Court judgment has been formally entered tossing out the lawsuit that claims the city of Dana Point's medical marijuana dispensary ban unconstitutionally interferes with Malinda Traudt's fundamental rights to life and safety under the California Constitution, th ... More >>

Dana Point Martial Arts Shop Tops Hot List

​The Dragon Institute on Pacific Coast Highway in Dana Point has nabbed the No. 1 spot of MyFoxLA's "Hot List" for Orange County martial arts shops.The institute specializes in Wing Chun Kung Fu that teaches how smaller, weaker persons can defend themselves against big creeps or county Supervisor ... More >>

Malinda Traudt's Attorney Hails Small Victory in Blind Woman's Medical Marijuana Suit

​The 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana has stopped a lower court hearing that could have immediately shut down a Capistrano Beach medical marijuana dispensary.The appellate justices' temporary stay of Tuesday's scheduled preliminary-injunction hearing is related to the lawsuit filed in Or ... More >>

Surfrider Foundation Strikes Back for Access to Beach Below Dana Point Headlands

​Dana Point sued the state last month to keep locks and posted hours on gates leading to the Headlands' access paths to the public coastline. Now, the Surfrider Foundation--the San Clemente-based nonprofit that promotes the right to low-impact, free and open access to the world's waves and beach ... More >>

Dana Point Sues State to Keep Gates Locked to Headlands' Public-Access Paths

Keep off!​Remember all that crap flowing about guaranteeing public access to the magnificent Dana Point Headlands while plans were winding through the city and state for a gated community of 118 multimillion-dollar homes atop the bluff?The operative word above is "bluff."

Dana Point's Legal Ping-Pong Match Over Cannabis Collectives is in Full Swing

SafeHarborCollective.comDana Point Safe Harbor Collective looks safe from here.​Sheriff's deputies served search warrants at a Dana Point medical marijuana dispensary and four homes in San Clemente associated with the business.

Mexi Restaurant Uses ¡Ask a Mexican! Logo for Ad in Dana Point Paper, No One Asks for Permission

​The few times I bother with Dana Point, I pick up a copy of the Dana Point Times. It works--better than the Orange County Register's community rags, but it ain't no Fullerton Observer. But I haven't visited in months, so imagine my surprise when a reader forwarded me an early November copy of the ... More >>

Turkey Trot

Corner of Dana Point Harbor Dr. and Golden Lantern

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 hom ... More >>

Dana Point Art Festival

Lantern Bay Park

Father's Day Art Show

Dana Point Harbor

Surf-a-Rama

Doheny State Beach

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 ... More >>

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 wor ... More >>

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 ... More >>

Doheny Blues Festival

Doheny Beach

Junior Oceanographer

Ocean Institute

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 me ... More >>

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 eve ... More >>

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 th ... More >>

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 th ... More >>

Ahoy!

Pyrate Adventure Sail

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 dyna ... More >>

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 calle ... More >>

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 ... More >>

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 a ... More >>

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 custo ... More >>

Alan Hess

The architecture critic and author shares some of his favorite things

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 Count ... More >>

Dana Point

Beach Cities Pizza

Diary of a Mad County

Whos Acai Now?

Eat exotic fruit, surf and save the rain forest

This Is War?

Behind-the-scenes ties between El Toro Airport supporters and the countys biggest anti-airport groups have to make you wonder