Irvine City Council

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 >>

Larry Agran is Stealing Another Election in Republican-Heavy Irvine

Documents obtained by the Weekly prove Larry Agran's liberal, Democrat political machine, the one that has ruled over Republican-heavy Irvine for 12 consecutive years, already secretly stole next month's election so it can keep power for at least two more years. The documents--a series of emails sp ... More >>

Top 10 OC Shows of Summer 2012

The only thing tougher than realizing that yet another summer concert season has come and gone is taking the time to sort all the best moments together an relive them in numerical order. For us, the difficulty of the latter usually means that we got to experience enough slam-dancing, chorus-shouting ... More >>

[UPDATED with "Industry Winning":] San Onofre Nuclear Plant Reopening Pushed Back as 1,300 More Damaged Tubes Found

UPDATE, MAY 21, 5:23 P.M.: The energy director of a Washington, D.C.-based consumer advocacy group calls Gregory Jaczko's resignation as chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) "a terrifying example of industries trying to wreak havoc on those who regulate them-and winning.""Jaczko sou ... More >>

[UPDATED with Irvine Call for Closure:] Tim Carpenter Back to "No Nukes" San Onofre with All His Old Progressive Pals

UPDATE, APRIL 25, 10:53 A.M.: As expected, the Irvine City Council Tuesday night called for the shutdown of the nuclear power plant 22 miles away, the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS).Among the more than 200 people who turned out for the agenda item was Arnie Gundersen, a former nuclear ... More >>

Occupy Orange County's Protest Courts Disaster

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

Irvine Forces City Contractors to Pay their Workers a Living Wage--Unless They're Mexican Crop Pickers

Agran (at right): Can he finally do something progressive after years of being a tool?​This summer, the city of Irvine and its apologists made much about its decision to force any contractors doing work for the city to pay its workers a living wage, that progressive wet dream in effect wherever fo ... More >>

Irvine Befuddled DA Tony Rackauckas on Perverts-in-the-Park Debate

Larry, Sukhee & Beth: The water's safe!​Having lost his push to get a defiant Irvine City Council to adopt his proposed ordinance banning convicted sex offenders from public parks, a befuddled Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas left Tuesday night's session and immediately thought ... More >>

[UPDATE: Council action:] Will Larry Agran Block Pervert-in-the-Park Ordinance?

Agran can't decide on sex offender issue?​Update: At last night's council meeting, an annoyed Larry Agran argued that Irvine parks are sex-crimes free (against minors) and so any ordinance banning convicted sex offenders from entering the properties is unnecessary. An even more annoyed Beth K ... More >>

Report: Irvine Floats Proposal to Pay Retired Great Park Official $332,282 in Yearly Pay and Pension

​Orange County Register investigative reporter Tony Saavedra has a great post today about plans afoot in Irvine to give its retired Orange County Great Park finance manager a no-bid contract for up to $198,400 to stay on next fiscal year.That would be on top of the $133,882 yearly pension Kurt Mow ... More >>

Why Are People Surprised Orange County has Anti-Muslim Loons?

Pauly: Pendeja​Color me jaded, cynical, or wayyyyy too in to be able to see from the outside, but I'm shocked that the anti-Muslim* rally that happened last week in Yorba Linda has made the national news. Write-ups in Salon, Good, and other national publications? Really? Sure, part of it is that t ... More >>

Chipotle Replaces Long-Shuttered Irvine Restaurant

Edwin GoeiIt's been a long while since Vessia in Irvine shuttered, about a year. The owner and namesake, Franco Vessia, closed the long-standing Italian restaurant at the Crossroads in Irvine to focus on his newer Frankie's Steak and Seafood in Temecula. But then, that restaurant had to close ... More >>

Irvine Candidate Jeff Lalloway Fired By Fellow Republican

lallowayforirvine2010.comLalloway: Give me some Excedrin!​There are many things a rookie Republican candidate doesn't want to happen two weeks before an election.Yes, one might be to get caught pants-less with a naked minor on a roof at daybreak.Another, though less dramatic, might be to get fired ... More >>

Jeff Lalloway: I Was Attacked For Questioning City of Irvine Spending

Lalloway: I'm being sabotaged.​Jeff Lalloway feels sucker punched tonight and his attacker wasn't the media or liberal Democrats who run Irvine, one of Orange County's two Democratic controlled cities.Lalloway, a Republican candidate for the Irvine City Council, says a fellow Republican, retiring ... More >>

Killer Quince

Happy Quinceañera to us! A look back at 15 years of telling the other side (that is, the real side) of OC's story

Liberal OC Demands Approval of Orange Juice Blog's Apology to Liberal OC as Part of Pissing War Settlement

​Updated, with the Liberal OC's response on the bottom... Today, August 25, is the day that the Liberal OC blog has given Orange Juice! blog publisher Art Pedroza as a deadline to accept a settlement offer in their federal lawsuit against the blogger--or risk further legal hell.You'll remember tha ... More >>

The Great Park: Hot Air?

Thanks to Larry Agran, a few people have gotten very rich from the county's proposed $1.2 billion, still-not-built park

Coming Up Next From the Christina Shea Echo Chamber: Contamination Under the Great Park

​Christina Shea is not termed out as an Irvine City Council member until November, but she has given her first exit interview.If you expected the longtime City Hall fixture--who served as mayor from 1996 to 2000--to leave quietly, you obviously haven't been paying attention. Indeed, Shea lets slip ... More >>

Agran Makes His Moves at Great Park

Photo by Christopher VictorioA familiar role for Larry Agran on Wednesday: moving chess pieces at the Great Park. ​When Great Park Corp. board members several months ago were chewing the fat at one of their monthly board meetings at Irvine City Hall, chairman Larry Agran mentioned how he envisione ... More >>

Irvine Councilman Slammed For Disrespecting Nancy Pelosi

Christopher VictorioDid Steven Choi embarrass Irvine? ​Dan Chmielewski at the LiberalOC.com blog today blasted Irvine Councilman and state Assembly candidate Steven Choi for pinning to his back a small poster depicting U.S. House of Representative Speaker Nancy Pelosi as Stalin, the brutal Russian ... More >>

Park Place Owners Have a Rocky History in Irvine

Maguire had this office tower built at Park Place in 2006.​Maguire Properties' announcement today that it has sold its Park Place I office property in Irvine is just the latest twist for a massive campus that seems to have been dogged by controversy since the Los Angeles-based developer acqu ... More >>

"Press Conference" Against Iran Government Produces No News, Much Political Support in Irvine

Rep. Laura Richardson (inset), Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Rep. Ed Royce, together at last.If the goal of a press conference is to produce a "big announcement" that makes news and warrants coverage--the usual reason one calls a press conference in the first place--then the Iran Sup ... More >>

Cirque du Soleil Confirms 2010 Tour Stop in Great Park

Photo courtesy of Cirque du Soleil"The Trickster" of Cirque du Soleil's "Kooza."There's not much to the park yet, but the Orange County Great Park in Irvine has been confirmed as a 2010 tour stop for the freaky French-Canadian circus Cirque du Soleil, OCGP chairman Larry Agran announced today.Montre ... More >>

Cell Phone Towers Make Waves, Angry OC Residents Cry Cancer

Did the Other Cleat Just Drop on Odd Man Out?

Friday, I posted my thoughts on a damn fine read, Odd Man Out, which is about lefty washout pitcher Matt McCarthy's experiences as a farmhand in the Angels organization. The post led to a lively debate in the comments section about the accuracy of McCarthy's reporting. Among those who ques ... More >>

An Orange County with Two Democratic Congress Members?

Make room, Loretta Sanchez?TheLiberalOC.com reported today that serious efforts are underway to elect not just Orange County's second Democrat to Congress but also its second female Democrat. Dan Chmielewski, who runs the influential progressive blog and has undeniable insider Democratic Party conn ... More >>

Great Park to World: Crisis? What Global Economic Crisis?

You'd think the dotcom crisis was just a bad dream, the housing bubble never burst and we'd mysteriously been time traveled back to the halcyon days of the Clinton economy considering the bullish way the Orange County Great Park Corporation is pushing the financial envelope. &nb ... More >>

Cirque du Great Park?

The Orange County Great Park Corp. board today unanimously recommended that the Irvine City Council authorize the board's CEO Michael Ellzey to enter formal negotiations with Montreal-based Cirque du Soleil to bring its winter 2010 touring production to the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station ba ... More >>

Irvine City Councilwoman Beth Krom: Liar?

Krom: DON'T read my lips At the Oct. 21 Irvine City Council candidates forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters, Councilwoman Christina Shea, in the middle of an unsuccessful campaign for mayor, said that Lennar Corp., which is building homes ringing the future Great Park, would be allowed to ... More >>

More Blast From the Past Fraud Allegations in Irvine Election

This examines a fraud case from the past involving a big donor to, ironically enough, Irvine Citizens for Ethics in Government, the independent committee against Irvine's Measure R, which asks residents to give a vote of approval to the Irvine City Council's planning of the Great Park on the old El ... More >>

Three Local Elections Worth Watching. Call It Morbid Fascination

Plumbing the Depths of Irvine's Election

Dear Joe the Plumber, As you well know, you have unplugged many a drain at Casa de Coker over the years and sooner or later you'll be handling that bathroom remodel we talked about years ago. But first, I have a favor. I have started a petition drive where signees will let my bosses know what a goo ... More >>

Pin the $285,560 on the Non-Fundraising Fundraiser

Steven Choi: unsatisfied Down four members, the Orange County Great Park Corporation Board of Directors voted 4-1 today to recommend the Irvine City Council spend $285,560 for a private fundraising consultant. That's for one year, and the chosen firm is not expected to actually raise any funds dur ... More >>

Irvine Candidate Forum: Mostly Civil, Some Fireworks

Irvine is either a city where the sun does nothing but shine, the streets are lined with gold and bad stuff never ever ever ever ever ever ever happens, or it's a swirling cesspool of cronyism, backroom deals and looming Muslim threats. That was the message voters were given as a busload of people r ... More >>

Muffle Scuffle

*Moved up, 'cause the conversation's fun! Irvine's reigning feet-to-the-fire holder Stephen C. Smith has a very interesting post on his IrvineTattler.com site. Here is an excerpt from “Sukhee Kang Knows Your Birth Date”: Councilman and mayoral candidate Sukhee Kang used a California Public Re ... More >>

Chairman Jao

It looks like Irvine Republicans may have finally developed their own alternative to the Hometown Voter Guide. The Irvine City, School and Neighborhood Leaders Committee (ICSNLC) has paid for $28,011 worth of independent expenditures opposing Beth Krom, $7,612 to oppose Mary-Anne Gaido, another $7, ... More >>

A Life Wasted

Dave Christensen went from Irvine politician to undercover agent in an FBI stingand then died in a mysterious hiking accident

Man Bites Dogma

WEB EXCLUSIVE! On the Passing of Ed Dornan, 1940-2005

Agran on the Warpath

Indians are the new bogeyman in the war against an already defeated airport

Editing a Paper in Your Hometown

Diary of a Mad County

Letters

Over the Hill

Quail Hill exposes Agrans migration from no-growth to pro-growth

Waive Goodbye

How inland cities killed sewage dumping

Letters

Super Dave Christensen

Racing councilman hits the special-interest wall

Galaxy Girl

And the New Irvine Order

Sex and the City

July-September

October-December