Palm Desert

Gabrielle Jane Nestande, Killer of Nanny Out for a Walk, the "Great White Defendant?"

Is Gabrielle Jane Nestande, a politically connected former Newport Beach debutante, the "Great White Defendant?"That's how a conservative online magazine is characterizing the 25-year-old convicted of criminally negligent homicide and recently sentenced to six months in jail for the hit-and-run slay ... More >>

Gabrielle Jane Nestande Whisked Off to Texas Jail for 180 Days for Hit-and-Run Homicide

Gabrielle Jane Nestande, the former Texas capital aide, one-time Newport Beach debutante and daughter of a California GOP power player, will do some jail time connected with her being convicted of criminally negligent homicide for a hit-and-run slaying of a pedestrian after a night of beers, vodka a ... More >>

Gabrielle Jane Nestande of Powerful OC GOP Family Indicted on Serious Felonies in Texas

Gabrielle Jane Nestande has been indicted on more serious felonies related to a hit-and-run that could send the daughter of a powerful Newport Beach Republican to a Texas prison for 20 years. The 25-year-old former Austin Capitol staffer and Gov. Rick Perry campaign worker, who had faced a single co ... More >>

Kenneth Moore, Atiqullah Nabizada and Ahmed Tariq Asghari Held for Alleged Short-Sale Scams

The FBI is accusing three men of causing more than $10 million in losses to investors, homeowners and financial institutions through various real estate schemes.After searches of one man's Tustin home, another suspect's in Coto de Caza and a Santa Ana business, the FBI on Thursday took into custody ... More >>

[UPDATED with Charges:] Michael B. Franks Rides into Jail as Alleged "Snowboarder Bandit"

UPDATE, MAY 9, 11 A.M.: The Orange County District Attorney's office (OCDA) has announced the charges against Michael Brandon Franks, 29, of Riverside County, the alleged "Snowboarder Bandit." The multiple felony counts could land Franks in state prison for up to 15 years with a conviction, making o ... More >>

Sobering Times for Pill Poppers: "Generation Rx," National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day

Prescription drug abuse by South County teens has been a hot topic lately thanks to the documentary Behind the Orange Curtain making its world premiere May 2 at the Newport Beach Film Festival and, due to a sell out, getting a second showing May 3 in the huge Big Newport theater.That makes a couple ... More >>

Sylvia Melkonian, Anti-Drug Crusader Whose Late Son Inspired Film Festival Movie, Accused in $4.2 Million Real Estate Scam

The mother of a popular South County high school student whose prescription drug overdose death helped inspire an anti-drug documentary making its world premiere at the upcoming Newport Beach Film Festival has been arrested for participating in a $4.2 million real estate "flipping" scheme that inclu ... More >>

Five Great Eats at Coachella 2012

The second installment of Coachella 2012 kicks off today in Indio. I just got back from enjoying Weekend 1 in the desert and between great performances by At the Drive-In and Tupac's hologram, I managed to get a little food blogging done.It's always smart to fill up before you get to the festival, b ... More >>

Gabrielle Nestande, OC GOP Heavyweight's Daughter, Has Powerful Legal Foe in Death Case

KXAN​As Gabrielle Jane Nestande left her second court appearance in Texas related to charges she failed to stop and help a nanny mowed down by the 24-year-old's car, the scion of a powerful Orange County Republican was met today by family members and supporters of the deceased woman. More troublin ... More >>

[UPDATED with Results and Photos:] Jenelle Hutcherson Wants to Be the First Openly Gay Miss Long Beach And Miss California USA

Janelle Hutcherson's Facebook page​​UPDATE, NOV. 14, 3:59 P.M.: While Jenelle Hutcherson wasn't crowned this weekend, she wrote on her Facebook page that "history has been made." See her pose on stage in her handmade tux and swimsuit at the end of the post. Kristin Bopp was named Miss Long Beach ... More >>

Gabrielle Nestande, Former OC Supervisor's Daughter and Rick Perry Campaign Worker, Indicted on Single Charge in Woman's Hit-and-Run Death in Texas

​Gabrielle Jane Nestande--the 24-year-old daughter of former Orange County Supervisor and state Assemblyman Bruce Nestande, half sister of Riverside Republican Assemblyman Brian Nestande and former campaign worker for Texas Gov. Rick Perry--has been indicted by the Travis County grand jury on a si ... More >>

[UPDATED with Denials:] Ehriberto Arcelara, Killer of Tennis Pro, and Carlos Sanchez, Bus Stop Murderer, Seek Paroles Today

​UPDATE, AUG. 9, 5:26 P.M.: The Board of Parole Hearings, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitations today denied the parole requests of Ehriberto Arcelara and Carlos Sanchez, who are currently serving 16 years to life and 15 years to life respectively at Calipatria State Prison in ... More >>

Bill Gross Reportedly Buys Jennifer Aniston's House for $37 Mil; Chris Cox Settles Down in Laguna Niguel

​Bill Gross, the Newport Beach financial manager who co-founded Pacific Investment Management Co. (PIMCO) and is worth a billion and change, has reportedly bought a Beverly Hills estate Jennifer Aniston bought in 2006 for $13.5 million, gutted and rebuilt to the fawns of Architectural Digest and p ... More >>

[UPDATED with Alcohol Cited:] Ex-OC Supervisor, Assemblyman and Booze Hound Bruce Nestande's Daughter Accused of Fatal Hit-and-Run

UPDATE, JUNE 8, 12:30 P.M.: ​The first post on this story began by tying in a drunken driving crash caused by former Orange County Supervisor and state Assemblyman Bruce Nestande in Newport Beach a few years ago with a hit-and-run death blamed on his 23-year-old daughter, Gabrielle Jane Nestande, ... More >>

Gabrielle Jane Nestande, Ex-OC Assemblyman and Supervisor Bruce's Daughter, Held in Fatal Hit-and-Run

​The apple really doesn't fall far from the tree: former Orange County Supervisor and state Assemblyman Bruce Nestande served six months of house arrest and three years probation after pleading guilty in 2007 to driving drunk the wrong way on a one-way street and hitting a parked car. Now his 23-y ... More >>

Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax at Big 4

Christopher Victorio/OC WeeklyMetallica!​Anthrax, Megadeth, Slayer, and Metallica April 23, 2011Empire Polo Field, Indio Check out our slideshow here! What happens when more than 50,000 metal fans descend on a city? Church burnings, goat slaughter, egregious depletion of the Pabst Blue Ribbon rese ... More >>

Steven Greenhut Left The Orange County Register for Sacramento, But His Poison Pen Still Stings Jim Silva

​The Orange County Register's longtime columnist and senior editor Steven Greenhut left the Santa Ana daily in 2009 to open a Sacramento news bureau for the Pacific Research Institute, a free-market, individual liberty think tank based in San Francisco. But it's obvious he misses Orange County, o ... More >>

Tommy Bahama Bar & Grill Opens Saturday

tommybahama.com​Tommy Bahama in Laguna Beach opens tomorrow, adding one more Tommy Bahama restaurant from the clothing store chain in California. Another restaurant exists up the coast in Newport Beach. There's also one in Palm Desert.

Shooting for a Pole-In-One in Disc Golf

[Summer Guide] The fast-growing sport has several homes in OC

On Harkeys' Watch, a Golf Course Rots

Diane Harkey​Two Saturdays ago, the Palm Springs-based Desert Sun ran a story about a once-great golf course fallen into disrepair:It was one of the Coachella Valley's oldest courses, where famous golfers like former President Dwight Eisenhower and Rat Pack royalty Frank Sinatra once teed off agai ... More >>

Slideshows: The Offspring at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, Clues at Detroit Bar, Eagles of Death Metal at the Glass House

Another weekend is gone, and do we even need to say once more that it was a busy one for the ol' OC Weekly? Well, you've probably already read the sterling review of the Offspring at Irivne's Verizon Wireless Amphitheater on Friday night by our guy David J. Nicolas. But have you seen the photos take ... More >>

"Art" Stands in the Way of Demolition at Irvine Hospital

The fountain of disputeInternationally recognized Laguna Beach artist Marlo Bartels creates whimsical-but-functional sculptures that grace parks, museums and even the inside of people's homes. The city of Burbank commissioned him to make "Early Burbank," a 10x10 foot tile mural. Two undulating mosai ... More >>

Political Nepotism Alive and Well in Orange County

Patrick McGreevy writes in today's LA Times about friends and family members of office-holders getting state jobs. Among them is Marisela Villar, daughter of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who state taxpayers pay $68,000 annually to work out of a Santa Ana state office for Assembly Speaker ... More >>

Longtime OC GOP Legislator Ross Johnson Finds New Life As a Campaign-Finance Watchdog in Sacramento

Letters

'Im so sorry you were bored in the Tridentine mass. Im bored in Bishop Browns chintzy rock band masses with aging hippies doing modern dance in the aisles.'

Jim Morrison at Midlife

Dave Brock and wild child break on through to the other side of 40

Voodoo Boogie

Eagles of Death Metal: Anointed by the spirits of rock & roll

Its, Its a Ballroom Blitz

Show me the money? Dancesport competitors need better agents

Trailer Park Confidential

My Short Life as a California Dreamer

Scary!

White Lines, black helicopters

Guilty Pleasures

1401-1566

Shock Therapy

OC Scientologists denounce psychology with a little mind control of their own

Yo Quiero Mocha Java