Taxes

OC GOP's Apocalypse Now

The party's over for Republicans in Orange County and California

Dana Rohrabacher Flip-Flopped on Fiscal Cliff Debate; Claims He Was Confused

As he paced the House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. last night, Dana Rohrabacher must have felt knots in his robust belly beneath the soiled tie, incessantly wrung his hands and sweated profusely inside his ill-fitting, polyester-inspired suit.Rohrabacher, who is accustomed to barking ... More >>

Professional Tax Preparer Wins Prison Trip For IRS Cheating Scams

As a professional tax preparer, Mark Joseph Jensen didn't just help steal money from the U.S. Treasury by falsifying tax returns in the name of his clients. Jensen also secretly diverted client refunds into his own bank account and didn't bother to file income tax documents for himself during severa ... More >>

William Douglas Agopian Admits to Being OC's Latest Pig at the Public Trough

​Move over, Robert Rizzo and Jeffery Hubbard: another public official who lives in Orange County but worked in Los Angeles County is corrupt as hell. William Douglas Agopian resides in Santa Ana, but the 61-year-old was the chief business officer with the Lynwood Unified School District, from whom ... More >>

The Lonesome Travelers

Laguna Playhouse

Five Jokes You Can Make About Lauryn Hill Pleading Guilty To Tax Evasion

With last week's news of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' separating, as well as Adele's pregnancy, chances are you didn't have a chance to come up with any witty comments regarding hip-hop icon Lauryn Hill pleading guilty to tax evasion. Lucky for you, we wrote five one-liners for you to freely use nex ... More >>

IRS Nabs Costa Mesa Tax Preparer For Claiming False Deductions

Based on an Internal Revenue Service investigation and a 50-count federal grand jury indictment issued this week, authorities today arrested a Costa Mesa tax preparer in Prescott, Arizona.Ronald Vernon Strawn, 67, will face charges that he fraudulently prepared income tax forms that focused on manuf ... More >>

Occupy Sherwood Forest?

Maverick Theater's production of the Robin Hood saga is a parable for our times

Can You Fleece Me Now? Verizon Among Nation's Top Tax Dodgers: Report

​Verizon Communications has been one of the nation's biggest tax dodgers for the past three years, according to a new report that is to be released today."Unpaid Bills: How Verizon Shortchanges Government Through Tax Dodging and Subsidies" is to be unveiled at a press conference held by the Commun ... More >>

Lincoln Club of Orange County Proposes "Legalization" Path For Illegal Immigrants: Permanent Serfdom for Mexicans

​In the most hilariously misguided local effort to get Latinos to vote Republican since Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina downed tequila shots in Newport Beach, the Lincoln Club of Orange County, that august group of rainmakers whose donations make or break candidates and issues, have proposed a way t ... More >>

Dana Rohrabacher Identifies National Income Disparity Cause

Rohrabacher​Since 1993, the wealthiest one percent of Americans have captured 50 percent of the nation's economic growth.If that fact alarms you, Orange County Congressman Dana Rohrabacher knows who to blame for the 18-year-old crisis: a Chicago constitutional law professor. You may have heard of ... More >>

Occupy OC Plays the Percentages

[Moxley Confidential] Even Orange County has far more 99 percenters than 1 percenters. Can Occupy OC be part of effecting real change?

Dave Gilliard, OC Sheriff's Adviser, Caught in "Shady" $840,000 Scheme

​Dan Morain, one of the true jewels of mainstream journalism in California, has tied a key campaign adviser to Sheriff Sandra Hutchens, Congressman Ed Royce and state Assemblyman Jim Silva to a "shady" effort to smear Sen. Barbara Boxer in the 2010 election.Veteran political consultant Dave Gillia ... More >>

This Elephant Never Remembers

[Hey, You!] Trunk off, GOP push-pollster!

Laura Estrella Cruz, ex-County Treasurer-Tax Collector Assistant, Convicted of Theft of $2,600

​Former Orange County Treasurer-Tax Collector accounting assistant Laura Estrella Cruz was convicted today of stealing over $2,600 in taxes and fees residents sent to her office.The 35-year-old Santa Ana resident pleaded guilty to one felony count of grand theft and one felony count of misappro ... More >>

Loretta Sanchez Defends Obama Attack on GOP Budget Plan

Obama finally gets Sanchez backing​Appearing this afternoon on MSNBC, Orange County Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez defended President Barack Obama's morning speech declaring that he will not allow Republicans to continue to force the poor and middle class to pay for massive tax cuts for the rich.In ... More >>

FAIR-y Tales In the Immigration Debate

Anti-immigrant think tanks are aiming their dubious statistics at the 14th Amendment

FBI Seeks Man Who Allegedly Stole Billionaire's Tax Refund

Donny's Dough is missing​Donald Bren, Orange County's richest man with at least $12 billion, doesn't part easily with money. Just ask some of the teenage children he's had out of wedlock. They've been forced to go to court to collect what amounts to a buck fifty in Bren's imperial world.So Bren mu ... More >>

Arnold Schwarzenegger's Indian Tribe Tax Idea Slapped Down

screenrant.comBarbarian Tax Man"We find all of the state's arguments unpersuasive."--From the Ninth Circuit's ruling this week that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's made strong-arm efforts to force the Rincon San Luiseno Band of Mission Indians to accept an illegal tax on tribal gambling ... More >>

Celebrate Tax Day With a High-Tech Toilet, "An Inconvenient Tax" Film

Second prize: steak knives.​Ah, Tax Day. What better day to get a spritz up your butt crack?

Steven Bren, Son of Billionaire Irvine Co. Chairman, Lands on Tax Delinquent List

Only known photo to exist anywhere and everywhere of Steve Bren, not counting those other ones.​A former Grand Prix racing champion and son of billionaire Irvine Co. chairman Donald Bren occupies the No. 18 spot on the most recently updated list of California's most delinquent tax delinquents.Ste ... More >>

Meg Whitman: Spend It If You've Got It

Photo by Christopher VictorioMeg Whitman campaigns in Buena Park.​Money is not an issue for Meg Whitman as she seeks the governor's office. She has vowed to spend $150 million of her own money, if that is what it takes to win. With seven months until election day, she's well on her way.Chase Davis ... More >>

Teabagging Chuck DeVore

Photo by John GilhooleyDoes Chuck DeVore have an app for teabagging?​Assemblyman Chuck DeVore (R-Irvine), who's in the middle of a longshot bid to become your U.S. senator, is cooing about his impending endorsement Sunday from the Tea Party Express, the national conservative movement that helped s ... More >>

Can't Pay Your State Tax by April 15?

​If there's no way in Helena you can pay what you owe in state income tax by April 15, fear not: you don't have to.That is, you will have to pay your taxes eventually, but the California Franchise Tax Board (FTB) today advised those who need extra time to contact the agency immediately for assista ... More >>

Mortgage Scheme is "Most Sophisticated and Arrogant Fraud" Judge David O. Carter Has Seen

​Jared Tornow, 34, of San Clemente, was sentenced this morning to nearly six years in federal prison for what U.S. District Judge David O. Carter called one of the most sophisticated and arrogant frauds he has ever seen.According to court documen ... More >>

Soooo Lucky: He Could've Got 300 Years in Prison for Ripping Off Seniors, But He Only Got 90 Years

Courtesy of Orange County District AttorneyJeffrey Gordon Butler readies for his 90-year stretch.​After Jeffrey Gordon Butler, 51, of San Juan Capistrano, was convicted in June of stealing the life savings of more than 125 unsuspecting elderly victims in a "Ponzi" scheme by fraudulently soliciting ... More >>

Youth Shelter Embezzler Pleads Guilty, Must Pay Back More Than $400K

​"'Tis the Season to Bone Nonprofits, Fa La La La La, La La La La," which dealt with a spate of inside thefts from Orange County charities lately, included the case of 48-year-old Lydia Kathleen Fitzgerald, the former Casa Youth Shelter executive assistant accused of stealing nearly $450,000 over ... More >>

Letters From OC Weekly Readers

Accountant Gets 4 Years for Stealing $500,000 From Trust Fund to Pay for Doll Collection

​A Laguna Hills accountant hired to manage a brother and sister's trust fund has been sentenced to four years in state prison for stealing more than a half million dollars to pay for a doll collection.  Margot Jean Strawn, 58, had pleaded guilty to two felony counts ... More >>

Don Bren's Gift That Keeps On Taking Public Money (or Trying to, Anyway)

Local Billionaire/Tax Felon Says His Swiss Banker Made Him Do It

Amid President Barack Obama's vow to end off-shore tax breaks for U.S.-based multinational corporations and individuals within a decade, billionaire Igor Olenicoff, who owns homes in Laguna Beach and Florida, says from his Newport Beach office that his Swiss bankers led him to lie about his foreign ... More >>

SanTana's Designated Choo-Choo Builder Cordoba As Controversy-Ridden as They Come

Spurious GeorgeAs we predicted, Don Papi Pulido and his SanTana City Puppets rewarded Cordoba Corporation over more-qualified candidates with a contract to head a proposed streetcar project because of Cordoba head George Pla's many SanTana connections. Doug Irving of the Orange County Register had a ... More >>

An OC-Based Car Empire Breaks Down

madaise / Flickr / Creative CommonsThe Capistrano Insider caught a story in Automotive News about Newport Beach's Mike Kahn, who, until recently, ran one of the fastest-growing car dealership chains in America. Or at least, that's how Automotive News ranked his company in 2007. Come 2009, though,&nb ... More >>

DeVore Scoffs at Budget Data Suggesting Orange County Uses More, Spends Less for State Services

Assembly Budget Committee chairwoman Noreen Evans (D-Santa Rosa) released data from the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) that suggests cuts under the state budget plan approved Thursday morning could hit Republican areas hardest because they use more government services, while ... More >>

Read Sheriff Carona's indictment here

This morning, the Weekly stood with folks from the LAT, ABC7, NBC4 and other media outlets outside the Ronald Reagan Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse, waiting with bated breath and loaded cameras for the man of the hour—Sheriff Michael S. Carona (R-Indicted)—to make his walk of shame. Alas, ... More >>

New test of American-ness

The pool of 100 questions unveiled today to be used on naturalization tests starting in October 2008 doesn't look all that different from the 96 questions they're replacing. At least not $6.5 million different, the reported sum spent on the revamp. Some hard questions were simplified – applicant ... More >>

!Ask a Mexican!

Is this over-reliance on her family a cultural difference?

A Billion Here, A Great Park There

"A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real money", runs the quip that is the only reason most people who remember Senator Everett M. Dirksen remember him at all.  And news of the Great Park in this morning's Times brings that quote, if not Everett M., to mind. Orange ... More >>

The Gov's Budget: Who, What, and How Hard?

If you're a college student in California, congratulations-- you play a leading role in Governor Schwarzenegger's new budget plan. The governor believes in you. He believes you're the sort of person who can make a sacrifice for the public good. Instead of turning to, say, big businesses, real est ... More >>

Speaking of congressional races ...

Check out this little ray of sunshine from Bloomberg (the news service, not the mayor): Candidates Ignore $1.35 Trillion Minimum Tax `Bomb' By Ryan J. Donmoyer Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Congressional candidates this fall are furiously debating Iraq, Medicare and extending tax cuts. Most are staying qu ... More >>

Eddie Rose on "The Good, the Bad & the Ugly"

Eddie Rose writes: "In California this year, we have--with one notable exception--the WORST slate of candidates, including a man who can't pronounce the name of the state he claims to serve! Were it not for the importance of several ballot propositions, it probably wouldn't make much sense to go to ... More >>

Live Free Now

Ask me how: Talking taxes and trilaterals in Irvine

Burning Bush

The presidents conservative critics

Burning Bush

The presidents conservative critics

Mr. Bigs Sack

Diary of a Mad County

Great Pork

Agrans plan for a Great Park will make Don Bren a far richer man

Letters

Lie the Friendly Skies

El Toro Airport Watch No. 135

Virtual Tax

Cox and Packard find a war they can winagainst a nonexistent tax