Local 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 it all out as there will be "discussion and action" on a resolution for the economic assistance agreements (aka developer ... 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 >>

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 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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

Santa Ana Fire Department Reduced to Fliering to Save Itself

​Pity the SanTana Fire Department, an agency with a 128-year-old history of serving the needs of the county seat. Times are tough around in all municipalities, but especially in SanTana, where the city faces an eight-figure hole due to an inept city council and the bureaucrats it's hired over the ... More >>

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 >>

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 >>

[UPDATED: Jerry Amante Served] Obnoxious Blowhard Mayor To Be Served with Recall Papers

​UPDATED, APRIL 6, 11:30 A.M.: As promised, the Tustin citizens group trying to recall Mayor Jerry Amante served him with official notice at the council meeting last night. TheLiberalOC reports that although there was space for 25 signatures, 30 residents signed the form. That still leaves 6,970 s ... 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 >>

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 >>

Mission Viejo Council Candidate Makes it Official

​We previously mentioned how Dale Tyler was the first person in Mission Viejo to pull papers to potentially become a candidate to replace city councilman Lance MacLean in the event that voters recall MacLean from office in February. Now, it appears Tyler is the first person to make his candidacy ... More >>

Politics Devours Journalism In Dana Point, Courtesy Of Twitter

My own stupid phone picture of the meeting. Compare to Bishop's.Here's a story. Your reporter attends Dana Point City Council workshop tonight about the proposed Town Center design. Your reporter leaves midway through, unsure of what to later write about the generally uneventful first half of the me ... More >>

Agran Reelected Great Park Corp. Board Chairman

The Great Park Corp. Board of Directors this morning unanimously reelected director Michael Pinto to another four-year term and then reelected the Laguna Canyon Foundation founder their vice chairman. It was initially announced to be a straight flush, with the unanimous reelection of Irvine City Cou ... More >>

Say You Will Build It, and They Will Come . . . If the 'It' Is a Toll Road Over Trestles Parkland

Dammit, Janet!

Why do Supervisor Janet Nguyen's former supporters in OC's Republican power structure hate her so much?

The Fix is In (Santa Ana Edition)

Remember my post yesterday, where I theorized out loud about how SanTana councilmember Carlos Bustamante could greatly benefit if Cordoba Corporation (headed by major contributor and fellow Santa Ana Business Bank director George Pla) ever got a contract with the city to develop a mass transit syste ... More >>

When a Conflict of Interest Isn't But Should Be: The Carlos Bustamante Story

First of three parts... There are political hacks, and then there is SanTana councilmember Carlos Bustamante, the Orange County Republican Party's Great Brown Hope and a man who seemingly never met a political donation he didn't accept and subsequently vote for his donor's interests. Seriously, pe ... More >>

Fight! Fight! Fight!

While Latinas have earned a reputation for having “spicy” personalities (just ask the governor!), it was something else to watch Santa Ana council member Michele Martinez and Mayor Pro Tem Claudia Alvarez exchanging insults and dirty looks during tonight’s city council meeting. Things starte ... More >>

San Diego: Screw Trestles

San Diego has no business in San Diego County. At least, that's what their City Council seems to think. In our Best "Best of OC" Issue yet, Dave Wielenga eloquently described one of the major problems with the Save Trestles campaign: apathy. Surfers and the surf industry pay lip service to their be ... More >>

Immoral Moral Majority of One

Self-righteous Agran leaves paper trail in voting scandal

Agran on the Warpath

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

Agrans Filibuster

Marathon council meeting could mark the end of the Irvine mayor

Say Youre Gay, Larry!

Irvine Mayor Agran could learn damage control from New Jersey Governor McGreevey

The Lunch From Hill

That stench coming from Irvine City Hall? Its convicted felonand energy lobbyistFrank Hill

Naked City

Koos fights for your right to sketch cooze

Not-So-Real Estate

In fraud investigation, will H.B. councilwoman claim the little-old-lady defense?

Florence Got Nice Paintings

Register, Times sing of an Anaheim and Santa Ana Renaissancebut where are the Pietas?

Earth Mover

Supervisor candidate Jim Potts wants to shake up county, dig tunnel under mountain

Null and Boyd

Crooked councilman gets kid-glove treatment

The Ride of Their Lives

Residents say, No way to city officials who want to bulldoze their neighborhood to build roller coasters

The King of Garden Grove

Mayor Broadwaters hotel city

Toll Road Collision

Two San Clemente city officials took more than $40,000 from the countys toll road agency

Surf City Gets New Launderer

Past fines dog council-hired lobbyist

Milk-Carton Millionaires

Argyros and Gibbs missing from DAs Garofalo investigation

Compromising Positions

Is the DAs office too partisan to be trusted to investigate HB Republicans?

Getting More Retail than Sinatra

Whose Poop Is It Anyway?

How not to solve the Aliso Creek pollution mystery

Merrill Lynch Mob

The firm's Laguna Beach project backers are paving a little piece of paradise

Blown Coverage

How to keep ignoring the bankruptcy fallout

Newport City Haul

The latest scandal in the city conservatives built

Fed Said: Ted Dead

FBI sting pops Santa Ana City Councilman Ted Moreno

Republicans Who Smear Republicans

Who's behind the campaign to get Pat Bates?