Internal Revenue Service

Department of Justice Retreats From Tying LA Businessman to Organized-Crime Operation

We recently reported that a federal prosecutor in Orange County has been blocking an alleged organized-crime figure from receiving nearly $2 million in bail from a Los Angeles businessman with close ties to ex-LA District Attorney Steve Cooley.Assistant United States Attorney Todd T. Tristan repeate ... More >>

Mike Carona's Curse: Two of the Dirty Ex-OC Sheriff's Tainted Benefactors Die Within Weeks At The Age Of 61

A former Florida cocaine trafficker, who became an ultra-wealthy database guru that bought valuable gifts for corrupt Orange County sheriff-turned-convicted-felon Mike Carona, died Thursday or Friday, according to news reports.The Palm Beach Post quickly handed Hank Asher, 61 and a high school ... More >>

Notes From the Underground Economy

Are companies at the Port of Long Beach cheating truckers out of their rightful wages?

Bombshell Court Ruling: OC Deputy Unfairly Demoted For Telling Truth About Corruption Under Mike Carona

A California judge has ruled that Sheriff Mike Carona violated state law by committing "egregious and despicable" retaliation inside the Orange County Sheriff's Department against one of his 2006 election opponents: Lieutenant Bill Hunt who campaigned on restoring integrity to the agency and found h ... More >>

Orange County Register Questions Ron Thomas's Nonprofit Status

Questions about the money raised by the Kelly Thomas Memorial Foundation and how it's being spent continue to swirl. Two weeks ago, the Weekly wrote about a scuffle of words between Ron Thomas,  father of slain homeless man Kelly Thomas, and Stephan Baxter, organizer of Art With an Ag ... More >>

George Jaramillo, Ex-Assistant OC Sheriff, Faces Jail Again if Lying To Federal Judge About Money

Wearing his traditional natty dark suit but minus the once dominant cat-who-swallowed-the-canary glare, Assistant Sheriff turned convicted felon George Jaramillo marched into the Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse today to explain why he's still not, well, a sneaky bastard.Of course, I am taking sligh ... More >>

Will New Fullerton City Council Appoint Ex-Sheriff's Deputy Bill Hunt as Chief of Police?

Bill Hunt was one of the few Orange County Sheriff's Department (OCSD) deputies who had the cojones to publicly stand against the corruption of Mike Carona, our sheriff turned convicted felon and present day resident of a federal prison in Colorado.For having ethics and common decency, Hunt saw Caro ... More >>

Ron Paul on Americans: "What happened to us? Why are we such wimps?"

Ron Paul spit Libertarian fire at a youth rally Wednesday night in front of the packed westside stands at Cal State Fullerton's Titan Stadium. For those familiar with Paul's platform, it was standard fare from the Texas congressman, who, unlike presumed Republican nominee Mitt Romney, has preac ... More >>

Meet Jane Doe from the Haidl Gang Rape Trial

OC's most famous sexual-assault victim breaks her silence on the 10th anniversary of the Haidl gang rape

[UPDATED with Sports Agent's Reaction:] Leigh Steinberg, Who Inspired Jerry Maguire, Accused of Being a Deadbeat

​UPDATE, DEC. 22, 5 P.M.: One-time super-sports agent Leigh Steinberg of Newport Beach has reacted to the bench warrant imposed on him by an Orange County court commissioner, calling the whole thing the result of a mix-up. The 62-year-old tells the Associated Press that he was under the mistaken i ... More >>

James Rosemond, Rap Manager Linked to Tupac Attack, Arrested on Drug Smuggling Charges

​According to our sister publication LA Weekly, hip-hop manager James Rosemond, a.k.a. Jimmy Henchman, was arrested in New York this morning. He is alleged to have had a role in the 1994 attack on Tupac Shakur. Federal agents claim Rosemond is the leader an LA-to-NYC coke ring. He was collared a ... More >>

[UPDATED with Indictment:] Lenny Dykstra's Spectacular Fall Continues

​UPDATE, MAY 9, 11:22 A.M.: Lenny Dykstra, the former major leaguer out of Garden Grove, could get up to 80 years in federal prison if the numerous bankruptcy fraud counts against him stick.That's disclosed in an announcement of a federal grand jury indictment accusing Dykstra of bankruptcy fraud ... More >>

Last Comic Standing Contestant Sues Tustin, Lennar Homes For Anti-Asian Discrimination

Nick Dao​Nick Dao--a former, losing contestant on NBC's Last Comic Standing--isn't laughing.One of the last kids to escape Saigon via U.S. military airlift in the hours before the collapse of South Vietnam in April 1975, Dao--now 44 years old--is suing the City of Tustin and Lennar Homes for alleg ... More >>

Guess Who Paid for Study Advocating Free Prepaid Cell Phones for the Poor?

​A "first of its kind" study by the New Millennium Research Council (NMRC) concludes $4 billion in income could be generated for the poor by simply giving such folks free prepaid cell phones."Subsidized Cell Phones Provide Significant Economic Gains for Poor and Near-Poor Americans" singles out ... More >>

Feds Allege "Pump and Dump" Fraud Involving Panamanian Banks, Long Beach Fugitive and Sports Drink Named After Notre Dame's Rudy

Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger​A Long Beach man who is believed to have fled to his native South Africa has been charged with running a $5.2-million "pump and dump" investment fraud that involved a sports drink named after Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger of Notre Dame football and Rudy movie fame, money launde ... More >>

Gay Rights Groups Again Link Carly Fiorina to Latino Outreach Bus That Breezed Through OC

​We began Monday morning by noting the "Vota Tus Valores" ("Vote your values") bus filled with conservative Hispanics and marriage inequality proponents was in Santa Ana, following up with the news that a demonstrator against the Latino outreach effort there claimed he had been roughed up by someo ... More >>

Can Somebody Wake Up Van Tran?

Saying "no" is exhausting​I'd been wondering when my favorite Van Tran photo would appear in a campaign ad and this morning Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez obliged. No, it's not the one of Tran hugging Mike Carona in a photograph that recorded the Republican assemblyman happily accepting a real sher ... More >>

The Feast Days of Summer

And Winter and Fall and Spring! Where to eat, drink and be merry during the most important holidays

[UPDATED:] Benny Hinn and Paula White Deny Affair

​SECOND UPDATE: Benny Hinn, End-Times Cultist? Click here for the details. UPDATE: Hinn's new message to followers: I am not having an affair and send me $2 million. (details at end of post) . . .Televangelist Benny Hinn, who resides behind gates in Dana Point and has a church and television studi ... More >>

Higher Ground at Canyon

Rich Mead's new 'creative Californian' restaurant doesn't fix what's not broken

Now We Begin the Real Sheriff Sandra Hutchens Era

​In the waning days of the campaign for sheriff, a resigned but not defeated Sandra Hutchens argued a point to an unreceptive group of voters in Newport Beach, handed the microphone to rival Bill Hunt and said something like "This crowd is yours again."Time and again, Hunt dominated events with pa ... More >>

Mike Carona On the Mic

[Moxley Confidential] The convicted ex-sheriff says he should have been warned that his buddy was wearing a wire

Bill Hunt's Remarkable Rise

[Moxley Confidential] Will Mike Carona's ex-punching bag be Orange County's next sheriff?

Bill Hunt Captures Deputy Union Endorsement in Sheriff's Race

Sheriff Hutchens loses deputy vote​The Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs (AOCDS) announced today that Bill Hunt, a challenger to appointed Sheriff Sandra Hutchens, has overwhelmingly won the powerful union's endorsement for the June election.

Pioneering Garage-Punks Pierced Arrows Target Detroit Bar

The Eddie Vedder-approved Fred and Toody Cole have finally become hip-in their 60s!

Long Beach State Professor Kevin MacDonald Helps Mainstream a New White Supremacist Political Party

American Third Position Party Just Laughable Ripoff of Previous Failed Skinhead Effort

​Last in a series about the latest effort by Orange County white supremacists to mask their laces and braces. More to come in the future whenever I see fit...The latest Internet dispatch from the neo-Nazi American Third Position Party offers a bit of an apology, stating "our web team is hurriedly ... More >>

From the Mixed-Up Bankrupcty Filing of Mr. Robert Bisno

Bisno: Doesn't pay bills​A source sent us the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing of Robert Bisno, the man who essentially bought an election for SanTana Mayor Don Papi Pulido's regime by pouring tens of thousands of dollars into a campaign that extended term limits for the SanTana city council. Maybe th ... More >>

The Smoking Gun Posts Lenny Dykstra's Bankruptcy Filing

​Lenny Dykstra, the pride of Santa Ana known as "Nails" during an illustrious Major League Baseball career with the New York Mets in the 1980s and Philadelphia Phillies in the 1990s, details his post-career, financial free-fall in bankruptcy documents just posted by The Smoking Gun, which notes th ... More >>

[Moxley Confidential] Mike Carona Maintained His Smug Mug During Sentencing

[Moxley Confidential] DA Tony Rackauckas Wins Civil Suit, Does Not Cry

Mike Carona is Hoping There's a Moron on his Jury

For more than a year, Mike Carona's legal defense team and its sycophants aimed a portion of their wrath at Brett Sagel, the assistant United States attorney and driving force behind the prosecution of the indicted, ex-Orange County sheriff. They've impugned his motives, belittled his experien ... More >>

In 'Seven Pounds,' Will Smith Encores His 'Pursuit of Happyness'

[Election 2008] 10 Signs That People Besides Us In OC Think John McCain Sucks, Too

Wiley Drake: Reverend or Ayatollah?

"It's not my hit list; It's God's hit list."

It's Fun to (Not) Pay for the YMCA

On the corner of Santa Ana Boulevard and Broadway in SanTana stands a magnificent YMCA building (pictured here in the city's pre-Mexico days) that's been abandoned for years. Developers have proposed various ideas—turn it into a boutique hotel, reopen it as gym, transform the structure into an ext ... More >>

Public Service for Fun and Profit (Gary Miller edition)

Is it any wonder that Congressman Gary Miller (R-Diamond Bar) coasts to easy wins every election? His district, the 42nd (which covers eastern OC and doglegs down over Mission Viejo), is one of the state's most reliably Republican districts, and Gary Miller doesn't just embrace those beliefs Republ ... More >>

a Clockwork Orange

Grimm End

The Year in Disappearing Ink

A Byrd in hand is worth two Bushes

Con Air

Spielbergs Catch Me If You Can

Critical Mass

Catholic hospital tries to counter campaign by nurses union

Diary of a Mad County

Dare I Say Icon?

Nancy Sinatra can walk all over me any time

Dumbbell

Eric Bechler committed a perfect murderand then bragged about it

You Dont Wanna Be Dave

Former HB mayors case goes to the DAs office

Stand by Your, er, Dick

Nixon apologist Taylor tries to exploit Clinton-impeachment frenzy

This Year in Lost Letters

They Live!

Nixon symps seize on Clinton sex romp as evidence that Dick was a good guy!

The Loser Wins

How Bob Dornan turned political defeat into a financial windfall for his family