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Andrew Stolper, Shamed Ex-Federal Prosecutor in Santa Ana, Launches Litigation Finance Firm in Irvine with Convicted Former FBI Agent

Has this ever happened to you? Someone tells you about a person you have never heard of before, then a couple days later the same name pops up from a completely different source.That happened to yours truly when it came to Santa Ana-based federal prosecutor Andrew Stolper.Make that former prosecutor ... More >>

Kia and Hyundai Go to War in Santa Ana Court

When Kia and Hyundai were forced to recalculate their gas-mileage claims after a government audit, the top two South Korean automakers may have believed regulatory fines and a consumer compensation plan would have ended the financial bleeding.Think again, unless Kia and Hyundai can fight court chall ... More >>

Monster Energy Drink Possibly Linked To Five Deaths

The FDA is investigating reports of five deaths that may be linked to Monster Energy, the popular caffeine-and-taurine beverage in a big black can.A lawsuit against Corona-based Monster Beverage claims that a 14-year-old Maryland girl with a heart condition died after drinking two cans of the energy ... More >>

"Human Meat" Butcher Shop Opens in London

Relax. It's a PR gimmick. But man is it making the rounds on the interwebs...which makes it an ingenious if perverse PR gimmick. To promote the upcoming release of the Resident Evil 6 video game, Capcom has set up a shop at London's Smithfield meat market featuring edible meat-products molded to loo ... More >>

How Do You Follow the Disney California Adventure Re-Do? Make Hulk Mad

How do you follow a boffo grand re-opening weekend at Disney's California Adventure?By marrying future expansion plans with a comic-book series whose movie franchise is drawing boffo box office around the world.

McDonald's New CEO Described as a "Teddy Bear Of A Man"

​McDonald's has announced it is bringing on a new CEO come July when Jim Skinner, its current CEO, retires after 7 years at the helm. When Don Thompson, the 48-year-old Chief Operating Officer who oversaw the successful roll-out of its McCafe concept, takes over, he does so after working his ... More >>

Taco Bell Testing Out Chipotle-Style Menu

​We reported last week that Taco Bell was adding breakfast to its repretoire of chalupas and MexiMelts®; but apparently the Irvine-based company isn't settling with just eggs and cheese in an attempt to revitalize their brand. If things go according to plan, 2012 might see the most sign ... More >>

Nicolas Cage, Promoting Trespass, Recalls Brush with Naked Intruder in His Newport Beach Mansion

​Promoting a new movie at the Toronto Film Festival that has him playing the head of a household victimized by intruders, Nicolas Cage has been recounting for various ink-stained wretches the break-in into his former Newport Beach mansion. Cage, who was sleeping in his bayfront bedroom with his wi ... More >>

[UPDATED with Pre-Trial Bickering:] Federal Judge in Santa Ana Sets Trial For First of Hundreds of Lawsuits Against Toyota

​UPDATE, SEPT. 9, 2:10 P.M: Earlier this week, Toyota and the lawyers representing the people suing Toyota in several unexpected-acceleration cases, presented court papers showing their disagreements on specifics of the trial. The two parties disagree on how many of the then Toyota-drive ... More >>

[UPDATED with Pre-Trial Bickering:] Federal Judge in Santa Ana Sets Trial For First of Hundreds of Lawsuits Against Toyota

​UPDATE, SEPT. 9, 2:10 P.M: Earlier this week, Toyota and the lawyers representing the people suing Toyota in several unexpected-acceleration cases, presented court papers showing their disagreements on specifics of the trial. The two parties disagree on how many of the then Toyota-drive ... More >>

The French Are Using Duck Fat for Biodiesel

Flickr user Brothers Le​Reuters had a tantalizing story about how the French, particularly those who live in Dordogne, are converting duck fat into biofuel. If the headline piqued your interest, it's probably because you associate duck fat as the luxury item it is here. Even Reuters played up that ... More >>

Illegal Mexican Tuna Granted Amnesty, to Invade U.S. Supermarkets Soon

​Craving some authentic Mexican tuna ceviche? Well, next time you order it, the fish might actually be from Mexico.Reuters reports that the Geneva-based World Trade Organization (WTO) has made an important decision in a decades-long battle between the U.S. and Mexico over tuna imports. The trade o ... More >>

Former Angels Radio Host Dave Smith Sues Team Over Alleged Racism

​Dave Smith was a popular talk show host on AM 830 KLAA, the radio broadcast station of the Los Angeles Angeles of Anaheim. His voice mysteriously went off the air in 2009, leaving some listeners questioning his whereabouts.    Two years later, his name resurfaces, this time in cour ... More >>

French Restaurants Realize They're Too Expensive

Flickr User WallyG​Reuters had a report that fancy eateries across France will cut down their prices for a week in September (from the 19th to the 25th) to attract those who were previously put off by the pretentiousness and scared away by the cost. For example, a three-course meal ... More >>

Starbucks Gets Sued by The Feds for Firing Worker with Dwarfism

Reuters reports that Starbucks has been slapped by a lawsuit from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for firing a barista-in-training with dwarfism in El Paso, Texas. The barista was terminated because she asked for a stool or a small stepladder to perform her job.The feds argue that this v ... More >>

The Wii 2: Fact vs. Rumor

​News in the video game industry is typically slow within the few months leading up to the Electronics Entertainment Expo, since video game companies want to save their surprises for the biggest gaming event of the year. In a way, this is like the "calm before the storm." Nintendo, however, doesn' ... More >>

[UPDATED with Mattel Getting Bitch-Slapped:] Chick Fight! Chick Fight! Barbie vs. Bratz

​UPDATE, APRIL 21, 12:31 P.M.: The sluttier, younger chick wins!A federal court jury in Santa Ana not only rejected claims that MGA Entertainment's popular line of Bratz dolls violates the copyright of Mattel's Barbie, but the panel awarded MGA $88.4 million for trade secrets misappropriated by M ... More >>

Appeals Court Upholds Injunction Against Arizona's Controversial SB 1070 Immigration Law

If you don't like the ruling, turn your screen upside down.​A federal appeals court today upheld a lower court decision that blocked the most contested provisions of Arizona's controversial SB 1070 immigration law from taking effect. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th ... More >>

A Skype Wedding: Groom Marries His Bride From a Hospital Bed at UCI Medical Center

​Nothing was going to stop Helen Oh from getting married this past Saturday, not even the fact that her hubby-to-be, Samuel Kim, had come down with a lung infection that landed him in the isolation ward of the UCI Medical Center in Orange. Family and friends from Korea and New York had flown in fo ... More >>

'Wide Angle View' Shows the Personal Is Political

The photojournalists of OCCCA's latest exhibition never stop working

Jerry Brown Death Threat Graffiti Allows Foes to Paint Orange County With Pressurized Can of Hate

​Representatives from the California Highway Patrol and Santa Ana Police Department said today there have been no new developments in the case of the death threats against Governor Jerry Brown spray-painted on two walls in Santa Ana. (Brown's office directed all inquiries to the CHP, which is head ... More >>

Chick Fight! Chick Fight! Barbie vs. Bratz

​Considering the preponderance of plastic, empty-headed bleach blondes one finds around these parts, at least a few have likely found their way into the federal courthouse in Santa Ana. But the two fitting the same description going before a judge at the Reagan today have achieved icon status with ... More >>

John Campbell Explains His Car Industry Conflict-Of-Interest Flip Flop

​Kudos to D.C. newspaper the Hill for asking U.S. Representative John Campbell the question that's been in the back of our minds ever since we read that the Office of Congressional Ethics was investigating him: Didn't Campbell, a former car salesman and auto executive, do a 180 on own conflict-of- ... More >>

Is a $110 Bowl Of Ramen Coming to L.A. in August? And How To Make Your Own.

Edwin Goei Not the $110 bowl. More like $8 (at Santoka in Costa Mesa).​There are reports from Reuters that a restaurant in Japan is serving and selling what must be the world's most expensive bowl of ramen. The "Five-Taste Blend Imperial Noodles" offered at Tokyo's Fujimaki Gekijyo restaura ... More >>

Researchers: Cell Phones and Brain Tumors Are a Bad Connection

​Keep those Blackberries pushed up tightly against your heads, Christmas shoppers: a very large, 30-year study of just about everyone in Scandinavia shows no link between cell-phone use and brain tumors.Reuters has the skinny.The findings validate what UC Irvine medical researchers have been sayin ... More >>

Full Film Slate: "Imagine This," "Crude," (the Return of) "The Cove," "Coco Before Chanel" and Michael Moore's Latest Polemic

Chill the Red Bull, re-heat the coffee and warm up the crack pipe: your eyeballs are about to get a workout from local screens in the days ahead. "Imagine This" took a film crew high into the Andes Mountains. First, Laguna Beach Film Society screens the documentary Imagine This tonight. Eion ... More >>

Vibe Magazine Bites the Dust, Quincy Jones Vows to Buy it Back

Damn, another music mag...gone. Yesterday afternoon it was announced that Vibe Magazine was officially closing it's doors, stopping it's presses and going the way of the 8-track. This extinct outlet for Hip Hop and R&B is now survived by only two major magazines of it's kind: XXL and The Source ... More >>

Is P.F. Chang's good? And News About Irvine's China Garden.

Edwin GoeiTwo stories involving Chinese food caught my attention last week. First, there's local news about what is arguably one of OC's best Chinese restaurants, China Garden in Irvine. Fellow OC Food Blogger Julian Hsu has the scoop. In his post, he writes: "We just ate there for dimsum lunch t ... More >>

Welcome to the Poorhouse: Relief Agencies Need Relief

A big hole is ripping through the safety net, according to the Orange County Funders Roundtable, a coalition of local foundations that today released results of a countywide study that found 58 percent of responding nonprofits are facing declining revenues in 2009 and more than 66 percent are seeing ... More >>

Orange County's "Toilet-to-Tap" Technology is Catching On

In November of 2000 for OC Weekly, I wrote "Waste Waterworld: Will Poop-to-Tap Plan Raise a Stink?" Oh, the comments I got from water officials for using words like "pee," "poop" and "the Ewww! Factor" in a piece about the Orange County Water District and Sanitation District's planned $600 million G ... More >>

Starbucks Doing Cheap Breakfast Combos?

"Starbucks Launches Cheaper Coffee-and-Food Combos" the article in Reuters was titled, and with it, I saw two words I'd never thought I'd see in the same sentence with the name "Starbucks": Cheaper and Food Combos.  But that's exactly what they're doing. Why? Well, I.T.E.S (it's the economy stupi ... More >>

Indian Students Try To Make World's Biggest Sandwich

Somewhere in Springfield, USA, Homer Simpson drools, "Mmmmmm...World's Biggest Sandwich."  But in watching this Reuters video, I'm noticing that there's a lamentable lack of meat. Surely this one's meant for Apu Nahasapeemapetilon and his friend Sir Paul McCartney. 

Thai Food: Endangered

Reuters had an enlightening article today about how in Thailand, authentic Thai food is endangered because of "changing tastes wrought by globalization." And most lamentably "culinary shortcuts (that) have ended up changing Thai flavors, and placing some dishes in danger of extinction altogether." ... More >>

[Game On] Gold Metal, Tarnished: French Laugh In the Face of Video Games As Sport

Santa Ana Potholes More Popular Than Bush

The new Reuters/Zogby poll shows that 76 percent of the country would probably have George W. Bush managing a date shake shop on PCH than serving as president. Only Richard M. Nixon attracted worse approval ratings and he ordered burglaries from the White House. Pollster John Zogby, a Republican, sa ... More >>

Urell Supporters Take Out Full-Page Ad in OC Register

We rarely read past Page Four of the Orange County Register's front page, since anything beyond that is usually Macy's ads and rehashed Associated Press or Reuters blurbs. Indeed, we didn't read past page four this morning until an eagle-eyed reader (gracias, amigo) alerted us to a full-page ad take ... More >>

Monday's Headlines & Surprises: Rhinotillexomania

!Ask a Mexican!

Special Houston-Seattle edition

The Reconquista Begins! (Book Edition)

The book version of ¡Ask a Mexican! officially hits stores mañana, but a quick look through the SanTana Barnes & Noble reveals it's already in stock. In anticipation of it, I've done mucho interviews in the past week--and it's only begun. Below is a quick run-down: San Antonio Curr ... More >>

R.I.P. Mark St. John, ex-Kiss Guitarist

Reader Pat O'Connor called this morning to inform us that former Kiss guitarist Mark St. John died of a cerebral hemorrhage April 5. He was 51. St. John's death has received little attention in Orange County media, but it has been reported by Billboard's website, Reuters, msnbc.com, Wikipedia, and o ... More >>

OCC Excommunicates the Pledge

In a meeting on Wednesday night, Orange Coast College student trustees voted to ban the Pledge of Allegiance from their meetings, citing an incompatibility between nationwide submission to God and justice for all. Student trustee Jason Bell explained his position to Reuters: "That [under God] part ... More >>

See How They Run

To hell with stem cell research - now they're just being silly. From today's Sludge Report: WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Human embryonic stem cells can partly restore vision in blinded rats, and may offer a source of transplants for people with certain eye diseases, researchers at a U.S. company reported ... More >>

Baby, It's Warm Outside

The Inconvenient Truth is on its way to becoming the box-office champeen of documentaries (pound sand, Michael Moore!). Orders are already brisk for the DVDs that won't be out until November. However, because Truth starred Satan's spawn Al Gore, there's a good chance many holy rollers skipped it and ... More >>

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