John Moorlach

Trestles Wins State Historical Landmark Nod and Now Goes for National Recognition

Self-proclaimed historical preservationist and Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach blogged last month that he had "a hard time swallowing" a proposal to designate Trestles beach and San Onofre State Park historical landmarks.Someone give that man the Heimlich maneuver because the California State ... More >>

Robert Citron, Who Went From OC Treasurer's Office to Prison for 1994 Bankruptcy, Dies

OC Weekly started publishing in September 1995, something I remember because I'd been hired on the editorial side four months before that. It's also my memory that our cover story package dissecting the 1994 County of Orange bankruptcy, fallout and lessons learned/ignored was among the first to win ... More >>

[UPDATED with Board's Memories:] Chuck Smith--No, Not That Chuck Smith; We Mean the Former County Supervisor--Dies

See the update at the end of this post about county supervisors remembering Smith before adjourning today's Board meeting in his honor.ORIGINAL POST, OCT. 1, 2:18 P.M.: Charles V. "Chuck" Smith, who as an Orange County supervisor during the Weekly's toddler years became our face for good (advocating ... More >>

You Can Wear Your Disdain for the Sad State of Orange County Fire Services, Then and Now

In these days of, say, a 128-year-old Santa Ana Fire Department disbanding due to budget constraints and fellow agencies' city governments also contemplating contracting fire services out to the Orange County Fire Authority, one can be excused for assuming a certain product hawked on eBay right now ... More >>

Will OC Supervisors Find Their Carlos Bustamante Sex Scandal Scapegoat Today?

When Orange County's supervisors huddle this afternoon for a hastily called secret meeting apparently to fire or reprimand County CEO Thomas G. Mauk in the wake of the sensational Carlos Bustamante sex scandal, the supes might want to also boot one of their own.Back in 2007 when then-county Public W ... More >>

OC Tax Dollars Try to Teach Nitwit Parents How to . . . Parent

​In memorable lines from the mockumentary film Best in Show, a redneck gives his pal, who is getting ready to take a long road trip with his hound dog, sincere advice: "If you're hungry, eat something" and "If you're tired, pull over." In Orange County, we might add this line, "If you need somethi ... More >>

John Wayne Airport's Terminal C Opened Today; Flights To Mexico Expected By Next Summer

​Today, at 5 a.m., we went tri-terminal. That's right, John Wayne Airport's Terminal C finally opened up. Basically, there's now more parking spaces, check-in kiosks, security lanes, gates and, of course, Starbucks. Here's a map of the airport's add-ons.Yesterday there was an invite-only dedi ... More >>

[UPDATE: More Stupidity from Supes, and Silliness from Local Press] What Does the Orange County Board of Supervisors Have Against Spanish and Latinos?

Nelson: Still dumb when it comes to Mexis...​UPDATE: Okay, so Janet Nguyen is REALLY stupid--I mean, stupider than what we already knew. Unlike the other supervisors, she knows exactly what Latino Health Access is about--she received an award from them a couple of years ago, according to sources w ... More >>

Supreme Court Sides With OC Deputy Union on Lucrative Pensions

I want retirement money to buy more Hostess Ho Hos​The California Supreme Court today rejected an appeal by Orange County supervisors who wanted them to sanction amendments to what an earlier board of supervisors had done: grant sheriff's deputies the right to retire at the age of 50 and collect 9 ... More >>

Top 15 Notable OC Quotes of 2010

Rev. Schuller: Give me mo' money!​15. "I want to tongue every inch of you because I love you."--A text message Oxford Academy high-school history teacher Christopher John Ontiveros allegedly sent to a 17-year-old female student before his arrest for sex crimes.14. "[Barney Frank] will be shot dead ... More >>

Letters From OC Weekly Readers

Supervisor John Moorlach Defends Crooked Ex-Sheriff Mike Carona

Moorlach is suffering from frightening amnesia​This afternoon on a radio talk show, Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach defended former Sheriff Mike Carona who was arrested by FBI and IRS agents and convicted of public corruption in 2009 after a federal trial.Moorlach, a conservative Republican ... More >>

Dana Point Martial Arts Shop Tops Hot List

​The Dragon Institute on Pacific Coast Highway in Dana Point has nabbed the No. 1 spot of MyFoxLA's "Hot List" for Orange County martial arts shops.The institute specializes in Wing Chun Kung Fu that teaches how smaller, weaker persons can defend themselves against big creeps or county Supervisor ... More >>

Death and Taxes

[Moxley Confidential] While the public wasn't listening to Steven Greenhut, the certainties of life changed

As Register Questions His Conservative Cred, Moorlach Defends Doubts About OC Fair Deal

​Following an Orange County Register opinion piece that took direct aim at the conservative cred of local Republican politicians who opposed selling the Orange County Fairgrounds to the highest private bidder, one of those called-out has fired back.Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach, writing i ... More >>

Shirley Grindle Runs Out of Patience With TINCUP Reform Committee

Friday Film Funnies Fun: The OCTA, and John Moorlach the Bus-Hater

Supervisor John Moorlach wants to get rid of our bus system? What a buffoon! This video is too earnest, but what are you gonna do...

Letters From OC Weekly Readers

How Pro-Life Activists and OC Supervisors Cut Off Funds to Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood Still In the Running for County Funding

All seemed to be said and done yesterday in the fight over whether Planned Parenthood should receive county funds for its non-abortion related health care programs.

It's a Quick Read 14: Weekend and Monday B.S.

Orange County Register: Octo-Mom took spawn from her oldest litters to Knott's Berry Farm on Saturday and Disneyland the day before, and all she got were crummy t-shirts reading: "More kids have passed through my log fume than Knott's" and "Your Kaiser co-pays help ... More >>

Welcome to the Poorhouse: the Rise of the No-Tell Motel

I was feeling pretty shitty this morning about having to talk to a credit-card company and charge-card company about their hardship programs. Then the New York Times reminded me things could be much worse.In light of the current financial meltdown, reporter Erik Eckholm puts a fresh spin on the Oran ... More >>

Supervisors Abort Planned Parenthood Funding

As anticipated, the Orange County Board of Supervisors today cut about $300,000 in Planned Parenthood health education funding by canceling the nonprofit's contract through the Coalition of Orange County Community Clinics. Each Supe cited a moral objection to Orange-based Planned Parenthood providin ... More >>

Moorlach, NY Times Refuse to Acknowledge Moxley

Our former sheriff Mike Carona made the New York Times a couple of days ago, and the parachute dispatch was boring save for the last segment: In recent years, however, local news outlets reported accusations of murky financial dealings and the misuse of public money and accusations of infidelity. ... More >>

Has It Been a Year Already?

2007: A year to remember

Sheriff Carona Takes Two-Month Vacation

Halfway through today's intensely dull OC Board of Supervisors meeting, during which the supes hemmed and hawed about whether to allow county voters to demand elected officials under indictment take a paid leave of absence, board chairman Chris Norby paused to read a letter from Sheriff Mike Carona, ... More >>

No Party Favors

The county GOP gives beleaguered Republican board members at Capo Unified Schools a vote of no-confidence

Wednesday's Headlines & Surprises: A Real Saint in OC

While Politicians Yap, Strickland Performs: The current issue of People celebrates Orange County’s Alena Strickland, 49, for taking in 112 foster children. Yes, 112. Even more impressive? According to the article, each child has had special needs such as autism, blindness and deafness. She doesn� ... More >>

Monday's Headlines. No Surprises: More Ex-Gay Action in Irvine

More ex-gay Irvine action: Over the weekend, the devil snuck into Irvine and the mainstream media said nary a word. On Saturday, Focus on the Family's homosexuality-quashing Love Won Out conference came to Mariners Church (the event was interestingly categorized under "MarinerScare" on the church w ... More >>

Wednesday's Headlines & Surprises: My New Slogan For The Deputies!

Back the Badge, Support the Star, Empty your Wallet: Peggy Lowe at the Register watched “dozens of black-shirted deputies march through Civic Center Tuesday as the union went on a public offensive to rally support for their fight to preserve” an incredibly generous pay, perk and pension package ... More >>

Friday's Headlines & Surprises: The Drake Two-Step

Dancing With the Fibber: UC Irvine Chancellor Michael V. Drake has inspired a new dance. We’re calling it the Drake Two-Step, and it goes like this: hire, lie, fire, lie, rehire, wiggle. For a story in today’s Times, Drake admits that he “bungled” the firing last week of Erwin Chemerinsky a ... More >>

Wednesday's Headlines

More immigrants than ever: Bilingual folks ain't so special anymore. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that nearly one in five people living in the United States speaks a language other than English. The number of immigrants in the country is at an all time high at 37.5 million, according to 2006 data ... More >>

No Street Cred

The county's biggest public worker union called on all OC factions -- Republicans, Democrats and all those in-between -- to join them in a countywide recall effort to remove County Treasurer-Tax Collector, Chriss Street, from office. The County's money manager is under investigation by the Orange Co ... More >>

Thursday's Headlines & Surprises: OC Judge Slaps Guv

Will a murder inmate defeat the Guv? Orange County Superior Court Judge Kazuharo Makino — a quiet, often-expressionless fellow who is married to a court reporter — ruled yesterday that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was wrong to deny parole to Delbert “Dale” Chrittenden. The inmate was foun ... More >>

Friday's Headlines & Surprises

No, really? You can finally relax. The Coastline Pilot decided it was time to voice its opposition to alcohol consumption by teenagers. “Drinks, teens shouldn't mix,” the Los Angeles Times-owned community paper serving Laguna Beach declared today. And just in case readers didn't comprehend the ... More >>

Saturday's Headlines & Surprises

Saddle Sores: Supervisor John Moorlach hasn't been in office long but he could be the most revolutionary county politician since . . . well . . . we haven't had any revolutionary politicians on the board of supervisors. On Friday, Moorlach announced plans to cut pension benefits retroactively for c ... More >>

Civilian Review of Sheriff Passes 5-0

Steven Greenhut at the Register's Orange Punch Liberty Blog attended today's Board of Supervisors meeting and reports that Sheriff Mike Carona lost his bid to kill the concept of a civilian review panel. Thanks to a surprising last-minute switch by Supervisor Bill Campbell, the vote was 5-0, accor ... More >>

Key OC Republicans Back Civilian Oversight of Sheriff

Steven Greenhut over at The Orange County Register's Orange Punch blog recently reported more bad news for Sheriff Mike Carona. Key members of the powerful Republican Lincoln Club announced last week they believe it's time to form a civilian review panel over the sheriff's department, says Greenhu ... More >>

Cop Land

Pressure mounts for civilian oversight

Cop Land

Longtime courthouse observers can't remember the last time an Orange County jury convicted a police officer of abusing his power. It's not that abuse doesn't periodically occur. Several months ago, I watched the trial of an Irvine cop who got an erection and ejaculated on a female motorist in Laguna ... More >>

Glum Old Party?

With the Democrats taking the House and threatening to take the Senate at this hour, you might expect the Orange County GOP election night party at the Hyatt Regency Irvine to be a mopey affair. After all, a huge banner in the room proclaims this is "America's Most Republican County." But, other tha ... More >>

Is There an ECCO in Here?

Interesting June 6 election endorsements from the Elections Committee of the County of Orange (ECCO), a political action committee aimed at mainstream (change to:) Democrat Party hacky gay lesbians Democrats: GOVERNOR Steve Westley (D) - endorsed Phil Angelides (D) - acceptable Arnold Schwarzenegg ... More >>

The First Annual OC Weekly Pension-Crisis Essay Contest!

The Times They Are A-Changin . . . Back!

The GOP gets funky, by which of course we mean they smell

The Adventures of John Moorlach

The Honeymoon Continues

The press and politicians protect John Moorlach from tough questions about Edison investments

The Metamorphosis

John Moorlach re-fights Measure H

Behind the Smoke

Measure G to the countys poor: Go to the end of the line, and wait there for 20 yearsagain

Lifes a Beach, Then You Sue

Blown Coverage

How to keep ignoring the bankruptcy fallout