Financial Markets

Uwe Boll, Worst Director Alive, to Wall Street Execs: 'Don't Think You're Safe'

The perennial worst director is gunning for the bastards—and respect

'Assault On Wall Street': Tom Joad Kills 'Em All

Uwe Boll's solution to the crash? Bloodshed

OC's Tollroad Agency Loses Federal Lawsuit Against Commerce Department

In its determination to satisfy the continual demands of Wall Street investment houses for more profits, Orange County's Transportation Corridor Agency (TCA) wants to go billions of dollars further in bond debt by building a 16-mile tollroad linking state route 241 with Interstate 5.But in 2008 the ... More >>

William Ruehle, Ex-Broadcom CFO, Shares His Amazing Government Persecution Story at UCI

"Something happened," William J. Ruehle matter-of-factly tells UC Irvine law students, who spent Wednesday's lunch hour being mesmerized by the former Broadcom chief financial officer's dissection of his virtual lynching by overzealous federal prosecutors. That something was a 2006 report by a Unive ... More >>

Why Santa Ana's Gun Buyback Won't Do Much

With the Ali Syed freeway shooting spree that ended with four dead this week and the Christopher Dorner nightmare that left five deceased (note I'm counting the gunmen in each), it's not difficult to see why Santa Ana has announced the city's first gun buyback program, which is Saturday near Santa ... More >>

Eddie Murray Pays $350k SEC Fine Tied to Tip from Ex-Orioles Teammate Doug DeCinces

Securities and Exchange Commission heat came to the Baltimore Orioles' second-hottest hot corner (sorry, runner-ups to Boog Powell and Brooks Robinson), and now Hall of Fame first baseman Eddie Murray is paying $358,151 to extricate himself from a federal action that resulted from a tip he got from ... More >>

'Cosmopolis': Twilight of a God

David Cronenberg's film limos through the mind of a master of the universe

Investors Sue Coldwell Banker for $50 Million for Alleged Fund Scheme

U.S. District Court Judge Andrew J. Guilford in Santa Ana has ruled that a $50 million lawsuit against Coldwell Banker on behalf of 1,300 investors in seven real estate investment funds can move forward.Five plaintiffs are named in the suit that alleges an investment scheme was perpetrated by Real E ... More >>

Broadcom Says SEC Probing Its Accounting

​Irvine chip maker Broadcom, which has been no stranger to courtrooms thanks to shareholder lawsuits, complaints that caused one co-founder to step away as owner of his NHL team and a scandalous divorce involving the other co-founder and his love dungeon, may be back in legal hot water.The company ... More >>

Farzin Bazshushtari, Data Storage Maker's Sale Director, Accused of Insider Trading

​A 50-year-old Mission Viejo man charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission with insider trading has agreed to pay more than $150,000 in penalties and surrendered profits to resolve the matter, the SEC announced.According to the complaint filed Friday in federal court, the SEC alleges sales ... More >>

Trevor Noah Talks About America, Accents and Audiences

​Trevor Noah is a big deal in South Africa, having starred on TV and worked with the best talents, but now he's taking his jokes to the States. He'll show the Irvine Improv how humor translates across the globe.

The Muses

Hunger Artists Theatre Company

A Tale of Two City Desks: Covering Occupy Campers vs. Black Friday Campers

​My colleague Vickie Chang just posted an item with a photo that reminded me of something I'd meant to mention here earlier. Has anyone else caught the irony in recent TV news reports on Occupy campers vs. Twilight or Black Friday campers?

Letters From OC Weekly Readers

[UPDATE: Four Protesters Arrested] Occupy Orange County Takes Santa Ana and Finds A Republican!

Little boy protests corporate abuses in Santa Ana today.​UPDATE: 11:44 P.M., OCT. 22: Click here for updates, including names of the arrested and what the group plans on doing next.UPDATE, 11:11 P.M., OCT. 22: Editor's note--Four arrests confirmed by Occupy OC organizer Alicia Rojas for resisting ... More >>

Occupy OC Plays the Percentages

[Moxley Confidential] Even Orange County has far more 99 percenters than 1 percenters. Can Occupy OC be part of effecting real change?

Michael Franti on Occupy Wall Street, His New Album and Fostering Compassion Everywhere

​ A few weeks ago we caught up with socially conscious hip-hop/reggae artist Michael Franti days after he played at Occupy Wall Street. Spearhead's frontman and driving force has been an activist for more than two decades, and he showed up at the protest in pigtails and a tall-crowned cowboy hat ... More >>

New (Fake) Ben & Jerry's Flavor: OccuPie Wall Street

Tauntr.comSpeaking of fake Ben & Jerry's flavors, this one is 99 percent awesome. Illustrator John Defreest created the conceptual OccuPie Wall Street, described as "apple pie ice cream with some other good stuff in there, we think. We're not really sure. No one can explain it to us."  ... More >>

'I Don't Know How She Does It' Sacrifices Nothing

In the fantasy adaptation, working moms can have it all

Downgraded S&P Rating, China, Cuba, Obama, The Illuminati and Their Scary Ties to Newport Beach

​As Republicans in Congress and Democrats in the White House argue over whose role in the debt-ceiling crisis led Standard & Poor's for the first time ever to downgrade U.S debt from an AAA to AA rating, evidence mounts that the cause for this possible push into a double-dip recession was bor ... More >>

All Dean Goetz Wants for Christmas is His Two Blocks of Shares Daughter Unwittingly Tipped Him About

Goetz​Let this be a lesson to all you law firm associates working on big corporate mergers: DO NOT leave your documents about the pending deal lying around the family home during the holidays--lest your personal injury attorney father scan them and wind up facing accusations of insider trading.Tha ... More >>

SEC Posts Complaint Against mUrgent Corp., Accused of Running Boiler Room and $10 Million Scam

​The Securities and Exchange Commission has posted online the complaint filed in Santa Ana federal court against mUrgent Corp., a Santa Ana Internet marketing firm for the restaurant and hospitality industry that is accused of using high-pressure sales tactics to defraud investors "in a $10 milli ... More >>

Walll Street Journal Grumbles About Cupcakes About a Year After the Trend

​Time was when the Wall Street Journal was a respected paper: always with a business-friendly, mostly conservative point of view, but one at least respected. But ever since Rupert Murdoch acquired it a couple of years ago, it has ditched the gravitas for the sort of knee-jerk captain-of-industry p ... More >>

USDA Pushing for School Districts to Buy Food from Local Farmers

Photo by Das UbergeekFrom the Irvine Farmers' Market: Will Organic Pears Make it into SanTana Unified?​Jamie Oliver and Michelle Obama, take note: the United States Department of Agriculture has just announced that it's implementing a rule that is "encouraging" school districts to buy from local f ... More >>

Billionaire Henrys, Nicholas and Samueli, Move to Settle Broadcom Shareholder Suits

​"The Henrys," as Henry T. Nicholas (right) and Henry Samueli are known, had their billionaire asses saved in 2009 when a federal judge accused the prosecution of misconduct and eventually dropped all charges against Broadcom's co-founders. The judge also disappeared the case against William Ruehl ... More >>

Trading Places

Regency South Coast Village

Barney Frank Drops Octobomb (Again)

​Is Rep. Barney Frank becoming like your grandpa who keeps repeating the same story, over and over?The Massachusetts Democrat elicited some laughs and headlines last week for comparing the largest country on the planet to La Habra's world-famous mother of 14, Nadya Suleman.But, while getting the l ... More >>

El Super Goes On a Purchasing Rampage

​When I lived in North Hollywood, we were equidistant from two Mexican-owned markets: Vallarta and El Super. When we moved here to Anaheim, the Vallartas were replaced with Northgate González, but there was only one El Super, on McFadden in Santa Ana.Lately, though, the simple sign ("cuesta menos ... More >>

6 Steps to Make Ronald Reagan Park a Reality

​Twice motions were made Tuesday night to name a local park after Ronald Reagan, and twice the Newport Beach City Council voted that idea down. "We'll bring this back in some form or fashion, somehow," vowed Mayor Keith Curry, the politico pushing for a park named after the Gipper.Six easy steps w ... More >>

'Wall Street' Bailout

Oliver Stone's sequel lets the bad guys off easy

The Mexican Migra Blues

[¡Ask a Mexican!] Are you a vendido or a Manchurian Mexican?

Larry R. Crowder, Joseph R. Porche Busted by SEC for Alleged Green-Energy Investment Scam

​A Securities and Exchange Commission complaint filed Wednesday alleges two Orange County men operated a boiler room that used millions raised for green-energy investments to fuel their lavish lifestyles.Larry R. Crowder, 53, of Newport Coast, and Joseph R. Porche, 51, of Aliso Viejo, ran the sc ... More >>

Barbara Coe Now Against Bill O'Reilly Because He's Not a Birther

O'Reilly: Now on Coe's shit list, which makes him somewhat more tolerable...​In the twisted, irrational world of the Know Nothings, egos and out-and-out weirdness will create foolish, unwarranted rivalries that inevitably lead to the group's downfall. Here in Orange County, of course, you have Min ... More >>

Teabagging Chuck DeVore

Photo by John GilhooleyDoes Chuck DeVore have an app for teabagging?​Assemblyman Chuck DeVore (R-Irvine), who's in the middle of a longshot bid to become your U.S. senator, is cooing about his impending endorsement Sunday from the Tea Party Express, the national conservative movement that helped s ... More >>

Labor Rally Chastises Greed of Chase and Bank of America

The reckless greed of Wall Street banks such as Chase and Bank of America has wrecked the American economy and kill American jobs, claims the Orange County Labor Federation, which leads noontime rallies today in front of branches of both banks in Santa Ana.

The New Economy Will Run On ChuckBucks

​If Chuck DeVore, the State Assemblyman from Irvine, wins the seat he seeks in the U.S. Senate, can he fix the financial woes of California and the country?All signs point to yes, given his campaign's latest innovation: ChuckBucks.The dollar is kind of done, don't you agree? DeVore might be on to ... More >>

Coin, Stamp and Collectibles Expo

Long Beach Convention Center

Californians Fare Best in NRDC Oil-Dependence Rankings

​The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) just concluded a press conference in Washington, D.C., where the environment protectors released a report ranking states by: a) how vulnerable its citizens are to the combined effects of the economic downturn and changing oil prices and, b) significant ... More >>

Shamed ex-SEC Chairman Chris Cox to Float Not on Ice Floe But Orange County Republican Party Boat

John McCain wanted Christopher Cox fired as the George W. Bush-appointed chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Los Angeles Times opined that Cox's chairmanship will be characterized by missing the signs that Wall Street was poised for a meltdown, noting the critics who said Cox's l ... More >>

Orange County May Become the Avis of Municipal Bankruptcies

Since 1994, Orange County has held the . . . um . . . honor of having achieved the . . . erm . . . distinction of the largest municipal bankruptcy in history, a $1.64 billion financial fuck-up that has managed to stick like Roger Maris' single-season homerun record.But the seemingly unbeatable alway ... More >>

Newport Beach Financial Whiz Warns of 'Mini Depression' Unless Trillions Spent

A Newport Beach executive has got President Obama's back, saying the U.S. may slump into a "mini depression" unless policy makers spend trillions of dollars to spur growth. "This economy needs support from the government, a check from the government in the trillions," Bill Gross, the co-chief invest ... More >>

As Cox Takes More Heat, a Bizarro World Blast From the Past

The hits keep coming for embattled Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox, the former local congressman (R-Newport Beach). Amid the Bernard L. Madoff scandal, Cox last week publicly blamed his staff for not vigorously investigating complaints against the fraudster. Today, we hea ... More >>

Last Night: International Pop Overthrow @ Fitzgerald’s

International Pop Overthrow Festival at Fitzgerald’s on July 26 Better Than: Bingo night at the old folks home It’s hard to imagine that in a constant media barrage of the Avril Levines, Jonas Bothers, and Simple Plan’s of the world, the pop rock genre has anything to offer besides an endles ... More >>

Squeezing Money from Corpses in Irvine

That companies which use magical accounting practices to rewrite history to fatten the bank accounts of their executives would try to squeeze money from corpses isn't really too surprising, but it is still disgusting. And it's happening in Irvine. The Wall Street Journal reports that dozens of co ... More >>

Let Them Eat Nachos

You, too, can live off happy hour food

Pump It Up!

Letters

Revenge of the Archies!

Pop bands rule at the IPO

Such a Deal!

Unhealthy incomes

Too many of OCs best-paid executives work for HMOs