Government and Politics

Anaheim City Council to Vote on $158 Million GardenWalk Hotel Giveaway Tuesday!

Next Tuesday, after much speculation, the divisive $158 million GardenWalk hotel subsidy will return before the Anaheim city council for a vote. The agenda for the meeting spells out as much as there will be "discussion and action" on a resolution for the economic assistance agreements (aka develope ... More >>

Pastor Shirley Broussard Tells City Council God May Have Allowed Seal Beach Massacre: Report

A Long Beach pastor reportedly told an aghast Seal Beach City Council this week that the October 2011 massacre in that city--the largest mass shooting in Orange County history--may have been allowed by God.Shirley Broussard is quoted as saying the could have Almighty turned a blind eye to the Salon ... More >>

[W/AUDIO] Anaheim Police Association Robocall Attacks Mayor Tait Ahead of Council Meeting

Ahead of tonight's city council meeting, the Anaheim Police Association sent out robocalls attacking Mayor Tom Tait by saying he's supportive of "policies and procedures that will lead to more violence against police and less public safety." The voice making the accusations is that of APA President ... More >>

Diane Harkey Seeks State Tax Board Seat as Husband's Company Goes Belly Up to Stop Suits

After many starts and stops, the day in court seemed to finally arrive Thursday for 80 investors who felt they'd been hornswoggled by the husband of Assemblywoman Diane Harkey (R-Dana Point).But now a fatal blow to the $43 million lawsuit against Dan Harkey and his Point Center Financial has likely ... More >>

Capitol Steps

Carpenter Center

Irvine Makes Sweeping Changes To Clean Up Struggling Great Park Operations

Irvine's first majority Republican city council meeting in more than a decade kicked off last night and the winds of change raged like a hurricane. With the five-member body focused on the Orange County Great Park, the new council voted for sweeping changes including a restructuring of the ... More >>

OC GOP's Apocalypse Now

The party's over for Republicans in Orange County and California

Rep. Loretta Sanchez, A Future Secretary of Defense?

What do Robert McNamara, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Robert Gates and Leon Panetta have in common with Orange County Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez?Almost nothing, but just wait.It's highly unlikely that President Barack Obama would ever name Sanchez to be a Secretary of Defense in his administrati ... More >>

Is John Eastman Hiding Homo-Haters?

Former presidential candidate Fred Karger wants the former Chapman University law professor to reveal who's donating money to his fight against gay marriage

'We Will Live to Fight Again'

Election Day dispatches from around the county

Diane Harkey Faces Assembly Voters Tuesday, Those Suing Her for Fraud and Abuse Always

Those suing state Assemblywoman Diane Harkey and her husband for alleged elder abuse and investor fraud learned last week the civil court trial has been delayed yet again. That spared the Dana Point Republican the indignity of having to face jurors while facing voters Tuesday, when she seeks reelect ... More >>

OC Weekly 2012 Election Guide: Santa Ana!

One in an occasional series on the county's craziest political races...and while we don't endorse candidates, we can sure as hell tell you who's more pendejo than others!Good ol' SanTana, the city that proved having Latinos running the city doesn't improve corruption, the place where progress is hav ... More >>

Why Do Mexicans Rape So Much?

[¡Ask a Mexican!] And why do they always yell, 'Cu-le-ro' at bands they love?

Gail Eastman, Anaheim Councilwoman, Celebrates Defeat of Democracy While City Burns

Click here for our Anaheim police shooting archivesI always knew Anaheim councilwoman Gail Eastman was a tool, or at best a deluded bat, especially after she deemed herself a historian and wrote an execrable book for children that purported to tell the history of my home town but bowdlerized everyth ... More >>

Carlos Bustamante: The Great Brown Flop

Disgraced Santa Ana councilman is the latest OC GOP Latino golden boy gone pendejo

Why Are Prominent 'Arabheimers' Backing Jordan Brandman's Anaheim City Council Bid?

As an extended subsidy to a hotelier was being blessed at city hall, the home of former Anaheim city council hopeful Belal 'Bill' Dalati played host to a fundraiser Tuesday evening for current candidate Jordan Brandman. The invitation for the event asked members of the Arab-American community to joi ... More >>

Is Long Beach Biketown USA?

The seaside city reinvents itself (again) by hitching its civic reputation to cycling culture

Ron Thomas Approached to Appear at Trayvon Martin Rally, Declines

Ron Thomas confirmed today he was approached by the Justice for Trayvon Martin Foundation, which sought his support along with civil rights leaders Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton for an April 26th rally in Los Angeles. The event was geared toward bringing attention to the unarmed  Florida teen s ... More >>

Libertarian Presidential Candidate Gary Johnson: Give Me Orange County's Jim Gray as VP

Saying that he'd rather die than vote for Mitt Romney or Barack Obama in November, former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson today won the Libertarian Party nomination to be the next president of the United States.An energetic Libertarian crowd huddled in Las Vegas at the Red Rock Resort and chose the art ... More >>

Anaheim Hotel Tax Giveaway Dominates Town Hall Forum

​Anaheim residents filed into an auditorium at St. Anthony Claret Catholic Church last night for a KABC-TV Channel 7 town hall. The space in the heavily Latino neighborhood is usually situated for bingo nights, but a majority of the capacity crowd attended in order to express anger for a city coun ... More >>

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Who is the Richest Orange County Congressman of Them All?

​U.S. Rep. Gary G. Miller (R-Brea), is the eighth wealthiest Member of Congress, the 18th wealthiest when combining members of both houses and Orange County's richest congressman by far, according to numbers recently crunched by the Center for Responsive Politics. The nonprofit and nonpartisan cen ... More >>

Dora Landaverde-Torres, Wife of School Board Member, Faces Deportation

​The wife of a Moreno Valley school board member is currently in lockup in Santa Ana. But Dora Landaverde-Torres is not sitting on a cold bunk due to a DUI crash, a shoplifting charge or swinging her purse at a Santa Ana cop. She's not even in the city jail. The wife of Mike Rios, who wants to run ... More >>

Michele Bachmann's Fallon Intro Music: "Lyin' Ass Bitch" by Fishbone, Chosen by House Band The Roots

As Michele Bachmann, congresswoman and GOP presidential contender, walked across the stage to sit next to Jimmy Fallon on Monday night, house band the Roots chose to play Fishbone's "Lyin' Ass Bitch." While the audience only heard a "la la" refrain, the message was pretty clear.

'The Conquest' of the French President's Woman

Sarko wins the Republic, loses his wife

Earthlings Beware!

Costa Mesa Playhouse

Deborah Pauly "Filling Big Hole" DeVore Left, Having Three-Way with Candidates Spitzer and Bucher

​When Republican former assemblyman Chuck DeVore announced Friday he was moving to Texas and not, as previously announced, running against Republican former assemblyman Todd Spitzer for an open Orange County Board of Supervisors seat, the race lost an anti-tax and pro-morality nut. When Mark Buche ... More >>

[UPDATED with Ban Maintained:] Councilman Wants to Allow Guns in San Juan Capistrano Parks

​UPDATE, JULY 20, HIGH NOON: A San Juan Capistrano city councilman's proposal to legalize the carrying of unloaded guns in city parks was . . . wait for it . . . shot down by his colleagues Tuesday night.The City Council voted 3-1 to continue outlawing the firearms, with the lone dissent coming fr ... More >>

Court Orders Immediate End to "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

​A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled today the U.S. military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy must be immediately lifted.The legal battle over the 20-year-old policy is still being played out in courts, but the justices say it must end now that the ... More >>

City Manager Compensation in 3 OC Cities Comes Under Scrutiny by Grand Jury

Bruce Channing, Laguna Hills City Manager​​When the city of Laguna Hills pays you $233,000 in base salary to fill the role of City Manager, of course it should also dish out another $60,000 to ensure that you're riding around in style--everyone knows $233k doesn't go as far as it used to. That's ... More >>

Orly Taitz: Who "ID-Ed" "Bin Ladin?" And What's That On My Forehead?

​Leave it to Orange County dentist/disbarred (we wish) attorney/birther wackjob Orly Taitz to not only question President Obama's announcement that Osama bin Laden is dead, but also to do so in an incoherent, grammatically incorrect, and all-around childishly stupid manner.Posted on her website, j ... More >>

Pastor Terry Jones Brings Koran-Burning Fury to OC

​Controversial Florida Pastor Terry Jones, who was blamed for unrest in Afghanistan after publicly burning the Koran, was in Santa Ana today.The Gainesville, Fla., preacher reportedly arrived last night to take part in today's taping of a segment on Truth TV, an Arabic-language Christian network. ... More >>

Loretta Sanchez Asked to Speak About DREAM Act at Pomona College, Talks About Herself Instead

​Here at your favorite infernal rag, we have long criticized Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez for not having the, um, ovaries to support the DREAM Act, waiting until the tragic death of a DREAMer to co-sponsor the bill in Congress. Of course, we always hear it from Loretta apologists aghast that we c ... More >>

[UPDATED] Irvine 11 Charged With Misdemeanors, Face Jail, Probation, Community Service if Convicted

Photos by Christopher Victorio/OC WeeklySeven of the Irvine 11​UPDATE, MARCH 11, 4:08 P.M.: The arraignment of the Irvine 11 was continued this morning until April 15 so the court can consider defense motions to seal grand jury documents, remove the Orange County District Attorney (OCDA) from the ... More >>

Tustin Sacks Popular City Manager 4 Months into Job

​Just four months after the Tustin City Council unanimously voted to hire David Biggs as city manager, he's been unceremoniously sacked from the job in a 3-2 vote. So far, no explanation has emerged for why the city would fire the former Redondo Beach assistant city manager so soon, but rumors hav ... More >>

Racist OC Register Reader Fustercluck of the Day

​Hello, Haters!And......adios.That's right, folks; you're reading the very last OC Register Reader Fustercluck of the Day. When I started this column, it was intended to poke fun at the fact that any story in the Register that mentioned Mexico or featured a Latino or was written by Yvette Cabrera ... More >>

Lou Correa Lets Online Poker Bill Ride

​State Senator Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana) has introduced a bill that would help cut into California's budget deficit by installing an online poker system that aims to generate $1 billion in state revenues and 1,100 new jobs over the next 10 years.Vegas gives it 3-5 odds to pass--or at least Vegas d ... More >>

Prop. 19: More Than a Nickel Bag of Opinions

Six leading OC medical-marijuana and pot-legalization advocates leave no turn unstoned in examining the ballot initiative

Loretta Sanchez and Hugh Hefner--Together, At Last. Again.

​U.S. News and World Report (they still exist) reported yesterday on a manufactured controversy by the Republican Party against their eternal llorona, Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez. Seems Playboy founder and publisher Hugh Hefner tweeted earlier this week that he was having lunch with Loretta at t ... More >>

The Mexican Migra Blues

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

OC's Adam "Goat Boy" Gadahn Still Alive, Now Hates Obama

​The last time we heard from Adam Yahihe Gadahn, the American voice of Al Qaeda, was four months ago, when he was reported to have been arrested in Karachi, Pakistan. Within a day, those reports had been retracted in keeping with previously discredited reports that Gadahn, better known in the Nave ... More >>

Santa Ana Councilman Blasts New Arizona Immigrant Law

Benavides​"We will get the last laugh over Arizona."--Santa Ana City Councilman David Benavides tonight discussing his approval of a winning city resolution declaring opposition to Arizona's new law that gives cops the authority to stop, question and detain anyone they claim they suspect might be ... More >>

Brad Gates, Space Cowboy

The ex-sheriff's open-space dealmaking has some in San Juan Capistrano crying foul

High Speed Train May Demolish Buena Park Homes Designed to Be Near Trains

California High Speed Rail AuthorityIf only the new train had only to contend with windmills...​Sunday's Los Angeles Times carried a piece that largely rehashed a few low-boiling controversies about the planned high speed train line that, when eventually completed, will connect Anaheim and San Die ... More >>

Carly, Tommy, Chuckie and the Demon Sheep

​The Interwebs are all a-Twitter over the new campaign ad by California Republican U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina featuring--DUNT-DUNT DUNNNNN!!!--demon sheep.Actually, for the rest of this post to make any sense at all, you should first check out the spot, which cannot be embedded here only ... More >>

Tustin Approves Beer & Wine License for Traditions Restaurant

Edwin Goei​ The first item up for discussion at the Tustin City Council meeting agenda last night was the beer and wine permit for Traditions restaurant, a six-month old Indian restaurant in Tustin that I reviewed here. You'd think it would be a simple matter, but it turned out to be anything b ... More >>

Whatever Happened to the Santa Ana Four?

Orange County seethes with immigration raids, demonized Mexicans and appeals for amnesty. 2007? No, 1951

!Ask a Mexican!

'Theyre always little bit more rambunctious'

Northern Exposure

By trashing Spitzer, Register protects GOP, Catholic Church

The Year In Diplomatic Buffoonery, Argyros-Style

War College

67 things you might want to know before the bombs drop