Fossil Fuel Energy Production

Frank Cabada, Godinez High Senior, Honored by National Foundation for Engineering Studies

A student at Santa Ana's Hector Godinez Fundamental High School will receive a national award this morning for the lengths he has gone to pursuing a career in engineering.Frank Cabada is one of six Latino high school seniors who will be honored at the Hispanic Heritage Foundation's 14th annual Yout ... More >>

Orange County Register Flambéed for Fawning Over Frickin' Fracking

A media watchdog is barking about a recent Orange County Register editorial on an industry-friendly study boosting fracking, the controversial oil drilling technique critics fear causes earthquakes and groundwater contamination.

Pat Oliphant Exhibit at the Fullerton Museum Through This Sunday!

By Dave BartonThat instantly recognizable signature. The O an open mouth yawping in protest. The dot of the I like a projectile being thrown. The remaining letters leaning forward to attack. You don't even have to know his work to recognize political cartoonist Pat Oliphant is a confrontational indi ... More >>

Charles Best, DonorsChoose.org CEO, Explains How To Feel Good About Paying for Gasoline

The way gas prices have yo-yo'd recently, it's time to fill up as they're down--as I type this, anyway, before the Hurricane Sandy excuse hits the West Coast, as to the last excuse when California's prices were higher than everyone else's because, uh, California refineries are so damn close to us. W ... More >>

The Five Best Wins for Democracy in Orange County Last Night

You're going to read a lot about our experiences last night tomorrow, when the dead-tree edition of this infernal rag appears. Today? A buncha lists breaking down what was a giant win for Democrats last night, but also conservative victories that ensure this county is slowly, truly becoming an egali ... More >>

The Great American Trailer Park Musical

STAGEStheatre

Police Unveil Bullet Holes from Gunman Accused of Killing Man and Firing at Cop Car

With our poison pens, shit-smelling sneers and anti-authoritarian upbringings, we here at Weekly Central can be pretty hard on our local police, expecting the same kind of perfection we employ doing our jobs uncov-- . . .. . . Hey! Stop laughing !! . . . This does not mean that we do not acknowledge ... More >>

Danny Noriego Doesn't Like ICE

[Moxley Confidential] Why are government officials protecting an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who almost killed an innocent Anaheim man?

Five Gas Stations In Orange County That You Don't Want to Fill Up On

​It used to be said that everything was more expensive in California. And until our housing market crashed, it might have been true. But at least one thing remains ridiculously overpriced here--gasoline. California's average cost of gas is now $4.34 for regular gas, while the national average is c ... More >>

Occupy Orange County's Protest Courts Disaster

The dying movement turns into a song-and-dance routine

Rogelio Nava-Rivera Accused of Machete Attack

Rogelio Nava-Rivera​Imagine pulling into your neighborhood Chevron station and seeing a guy with a machete hacking up a vehicle's hood, smashing the driver's and rear driver's side window and then turning the blade to the driver inside.This happened at my neighborhood Chevron station Wednesday eve ... More >>

Irvine Fine Arts Center Welcomes the 99 Percent

Three exhibits show the world in perpetual Occupy mode

Be Hipster Ariel for Halloween This Year!

[Trendzilla]

Newport Beach Chevron Station Owner Who Cooked the Books Must Pay Oil Giant's Attorney Fees

​Trouble began for Newport Beach Chevron gas station owner Mansoor Ghaneeian when his bookkeeper told a Chevron USA auditor that the company's designated dealer of record kept a second set of accounting books.That eventually led to a suit against Ghaneeian by Chevron, a counterclaim that a feder ... More >>

Five Refurbishments That Can Help 'The Haunted Mansion' (The Movie)

​Disneyland's seasonal The Nightmare Before Christmas overhaul of the Haunted Mansion is complete (the attraction reopens today after a 17-day closure), thus kicking off the park's Halloween-themed festivities.Of course, the official launch of the park's Halloween-ness is September 30th which is w ... More >>

'Making Mischief: Humor In Art' Is a Cacophony of Clever

The latest winner from the Irvine Fine Arts Center does much more than tickle your funny bone

[UPDATED with More Details:] OC's Largest Municipal Solar Energy Efficiency Project Shines Today

​UPDATE, JULY 21, 8:47 A.M.: Though the ribbon-cutting unveiling the largest municipal solar energy efficiency project in Orange County is this morning, the city of Brea is already reaping savings that have exceeded expectations. For the month of June, there was a 65% reduction in electricity cost ... More >>

Tree Hugger's Ball

Santiago Event Center

Osama Bin Laden Oil Tanker Terror Plot Hits Close to Home

​The Department of Homeland Security announced today that among the materials Navy SEALS found in Osama Bin Laden's Pakistan hideout were al-Qaida plans to hijack and detonate oil tankers last summer to provoke an "extreme economic crisis" in the West.Officials disclosed no specific U.S. targets. ... More >>

MoveOn.org Comes to the Rescue of Taxes Today

​Taxes must be suffering from battered women's syndrome about now. We're all like, "Aw come on, baby. You know I loves ya," Then--BAM!--corporations and rich people rap taxes upside the head, saying they ain't returning to Clinton-era levels. Then we get all lovey-dovey again and--WHAM!--House Rep ... More >>

Little Scream: 'Just Thinking of Elliot Smith Helps Me Write Better Songs'

​Montreal's Little Scream renews my faith in music. Singer/songwriter Laurel Sprengelmeyer (who looks like a young Susan Sarandon, apparently) is touring to support her debut, The Golden Record, a gorgeous set of folk/pop songs that she named after the 1977 Voyager space-shuttle time-cap ... More >>

Tales From the Brea Oil Field: What Are They Doing Up There?

Brandon Ferguson​Night drivers motoring past the affluent housing tracts and well-kept strip malls of north Brea, not paying attention to the road in front of them, will notice an odd site: a solitary, house-shaped structure perched above the city, surrounded by pitch-black rolling hills and illum ... More >>

Add Another Lawsuit to the List for Oil Company Operating in Brea

Ted SoquiPalm trees burst into flames in nearby Yorba Linda. To see more images from the 2008 devastation, click here.​The flames of Brea's 2008 landfill fire (which you may remember eventually contributed to the Freeway Complex Fire) may have been long extinguished but the problems of BreitBurn M ... More >>

Obama Administration Announces Ban On New Offshore Drilling; Thank The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

Hopefully not for at least another 7 years.​In direct conflict with its previous proclamations, the Obama administration today announced that there will not be any further new offshore oil drilling along the Atlantic Coast, the eastern Gulf of Mexico or the Pacific Coast. At least, not for th ... More >>

EXCLUSIVE! Online Premiere of the Steelwells' Video, 'El Capitan'

​When Fullerton's the Steelwells won Best New Artist and Best Song at the OC Music Awards earlier this year, they took home more than just a statue. Part of the prize for Best Song was an opportunity to make a music video courtesy of the OC Music Awards and Akorn Entertainment. Watch the e ... More >>

Sunday News Notes: New use for Mike Carona's head

​Sunday's local news highlights include:Wearing out the delete buttonRon Campbell, a Register investigative reporter who specializes in computer-assisted reporting, launched the first part of his four-part Sunday series on immigration and the California economy. Grab your magnifying glasses, becau ... More >>

Stephanie Morgan of Seabirds, Part Two

Photo by Kimberly Valenzuela​Today we continue our Q&A with Stephanie Morgan of Seabirds, the one and only vegan gourmet food truck in Orange County. If you missed the first part, click here. Stay tuned tomorrow for our final installment: a recipe. What would you'd like to see more of i ... More >>

Battle Report: Blake Lively Uses Comic-Con to Bring Out Her Big Guns

​Katy Perry might have fired the first shot in this year's Boob War, but it looks like Blake Lively might be the one to fire the last one that ends it all.Our battle report shows who has the advantage.

Seal Beach, Saying Enough is Enough, Wants BP/ARCO to Remove Contaminated Soil

David Falconer/National Archives​After three decades of trying to end contamination from a gasoline station leak in Seal Beach, the City Council has voted to direct BP/ARCO to dig out the tainted soil.The company was asked 25 years ago to do something about the contamination at PCH and Fifth Stree ... More >>

As Everyone Looks Down at What Gulf Oil Spill Has Wrought, UC Irvine Researchers Look Up

​Tar balls created by the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico reached the Texas shore today.But researchers from UC Irvine are not looking at the sands, shorelines and waters impacted by the muck, they are checking out the air hovering over the spill zone. The initial findings: all is not well.

Orly Taitz Wants to Sue for Gen. McChrystal, Testify Against Elena Kagan

Christopher Victorio / OC Weekly​On the heels of her failed bid to become the Republican nominee for Secretary of State, Orange County's top birther and not-top dentist Orly Taitz has kept up her fervent blogging. The theme of late seems to be Taitz wondering aloud about which soon- ... More >>

John Campbell Weighs in on Totally Predictable BP Apology Scandal

Flickr user tifotter / Creative Commons​A mild brouhaha broke out today when Texas congressman Joe Barton told BP CEO Tony Hayward that he was "ashamed" at the way the Obama administration had asked the notorious oil-spilling company to set aside $20 billion in a fund to help cover the damages cau ... More >>

All Disasters Aren't Created Equal: Six Reasons the Music Industry Isn't Singing Over Spilt Oil

​Every summer has its Big Story This year, it's the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, an ecological and financial disaster that is quickly reaching such staggering proportions that the human mind can't comprehend it. It's like trying to count grains of sand on a beach -- or in this case grains o ... More >>

Coal-Mountain Mama Julia Bonds Talks to the Tree-Huggers

​What's an Applachian coal-mining foe doing in the GOP tea party stronghold of Orange County?"She's red meat for the eco-nuts," said Ed Amador, co-organizer of Saturday's Treehuggers' Ball in bucolic Baker Canyon for the Canyon Land Conservation Fund. There was more vegan cheese than beef at this ... More >>

Seal Beach Neighbors to Protest BP and Arco

​Residents of the Bridgeport neighborhood in Seal Beach have previously warned those living along the Gulf of Mexico shoreline that they may have a long wait before British Petroluem (BP) cleans up its oily mess. The Orange Countians know because they have been fighting BP for years over contamina ... More >>

Seize BP Sets Sights on Shamed Oil Company and Long Beach Aquarium

​The national Seize BP Campaign--it has organized demonstrations against British Petroleum through Thursday in more than 50 cities across the country--is coming to Long Beach Wednesday to protest the shamed oil company and a new target: Aquarium of the Pacific."The Aquarium, which claims its missi ... More >>

Map Brings Home British Petroleum Disaster

​The website If It Was My Home allows anyone to personalize the magnitude of the British Petroleum (BO) Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion and spill--also known as "the greatest environmental disaster in United States history."The site opens with a map superimposing the shape of the spill as of t ... More >>

Costa Mesa Arco Gas Station Tries to Hide its Relationship with British Petroleum

Fill 'er up with spin!​I think the only people more hated right now by Americans than Mexicans is anything or anyone having any relationship with British Petroleum, or BP for short. Knowing that, the Arco gas station on the corner of Red Hill and Bristol in Costa Mesa has gone to the extraordinary ... More >>

Hibbleton Gallery Owner on Coyote Hills, Chevron, Supervisorial Candidate Shawn Nelson, and James Lipton

​​​​Every once in a while, we get dispatches from community members--some good, some bad, some hackish. The following is good, and comes from a good guy: Jesse La Tour, owner of the awesome Hibbleton Gallery in Fullerton, one of the few places for art that I bother to visit. Here is his acco ... More >>

Anyone Seen These Dickwads?

Courtesy of Buena Park Police Department​The Buena Park Police Department is looking for the chaps above, caught by surveillance cameras before taking part in a brutal robbery of a Mobil mini-mart.

"Green" Company to Pay $15 Million for Polluting

​Safety-Kleen System Inc. is a national distributor of cleaning solvents. Their products have names like Ecopower motor oil, Icebreaker windshield washer fluid, Khameleon antifreeze and KleenMist II wastewater treatment. They say they are green, well, they better be made of it, because they owe $1 ... More >>

Obama's Oil Drilling Pipe Dream Harshes Surfrider's Mellow

oceanswavesbeaches.blogspot.com​The Surfrider Foundation released a statement today, expressing their disapproval of Obama's proposal to open areas of the Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic coastline and Arctic coastline to oil drilling and exploration. They are not stoked.

Bike and Hike

Bike Ride to Shipley Nature Center

Mayor McCheese

John Mayer

[¡Ask a Mexican!®] Special Tortilla Contest Edition

Grease Bandits

How I learned to stop worrying and love the grease

Mint Juleps, Cornholinand Memphis

Our suet-y Southerner squeals like a pig for Memphis crab cakes

Checklist, Please!

Five summer school spots