Toyota Camry

The Nightmarish Saga of Michael Fitzgibbons

The case pitting the whisteblowing doc against Integrated HealthCare Holdings Inc. appears to be over

Orange County Deputies Seek Approval of $1.1 Million Undercover Vehicle Rental Deal

Boss at the Orange County Sheriff's Department (OCSD) want to extend a 2010 undercover vehicle rental contract worth more than $1.1 million annually through February 2014 without additional competitive bidding.County supervisors will consider the request at their Jan. 29 public hearing in Santa Ana ... More >>

Katherine Ann Heinzel, Ex-Newport Beach Cop Who Won Discrimination Case, is Prison-Bound

Katherine Ann Heinzel--a former Newport Beach policewoman who successfully sued the city for discrimination, won an $150,000 court award and was allowed to take disability retirement--is headed to state prison for nine years. The 51-year-old, who retired to the Riverside County town of Winchester ne ... More >>

Toyota, Plaintiffs Willing to Settle Sudden-Acceleration Lawsuit in Santa Ana for $1.1 bil

Toyota will pony up $1.1 billion to make sudden-acceleration lawsuits go away, according to a proposal filed in federal court in Santa Ana today. As part of the largest settlement in U.S. history involving automobile defects, Toyota would send cash to eligible customers who sold or turned in their l ... More >>

Katherine Ann Heinzel, Retired Newport Beach Police Officer, Guilty of Killing One, Injuring 2

A retired Newport Beach policewoman has been convicted of killing a dude and injuring three others in San Diego County.Jurors found Katherine Ann Heinzel, 51, of Winchester, guilty of three felonies, including vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, for a fatal drunken-driving crash last November ... More >>

Judge Issues Tentative Sanction Against Toyota in Sudden-Acceleration Trial

The federal judge in Santa Ana assigned to Toyota's nationwide sudden-acceleration trial issued a tentative sanction against the automaker for an inspection of a crashed 2008 Toyota Camry. Judge James V. Selna writes that the inspection casts "a cloud of suspicion" over Toyota Motor Sales USA's beh ... More >>

Mission Ranch Market Keeps Growing

[Hole In the Wall] The best little Persian supermarket in OC makes Mission Viejo sumptuous for the first time

Let's Get Physical

[Hey, You!] Nice crashing into you today . . .

Alfredo Granados Canchola Gets 55 Years for Sexual Attacks on Girls Ages 10, 13 and 16

​Family members told an Orange County Superior Court judge last week that their lives have not been the same since March of 2009 when Alfredo Granados Canchola coaxed a 13-year-old girl into his car and fondled her. Victim impact statements of the girl, her mother and father were read before Judge ... More >>

John Rodriguez, Serial Penis Flasher, Gets Year in Jail, 5 Years Probation, Lifetime Sex Offender Rap

​John Rodriguez, tried for stroking his penis at girls walking to school and grabbing one of them, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges today and was sentenced to a year in jail, five years of probation and lifetime registration as a sex offender.The 6-foot-1, 350-pound, 20-year-old dental assist ... More >>

Frank Lauder Woods Accused of Assaulting Cop After Violent Scrap That Had Him Reaching for Gun

​Frank Lauder Woods is lucky to be alive. So is the Huntington Beach cop who took the suspected baddie down. What began as a stolen vehicle report turned into a foot chase and altercation between Woods and the unidentified officer, who managed to cuff the suspect just as he was reaching for the wa ... 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 >>

[UPDATED with 5th Victim:] John Rodriguez Accused of Being Serial Flasher of Penis to Schoolgirls

​UPDATE, SEPT. 8, 10:55 A.M.: Due to media coverage of the indecent exposure charges against John Rodriguez, a fifth female has come forward to accuse the 20-year-old Santa Ana dental assistant of flashing his penis at her as she walked to school, prosecutors say.Rodriguez, who is scheduled to be ... More >>

Alfredo Granados Canchola Looking at 40 Years in Prison Minimum for Terrorizing Local Girls

​A jury in Santa Ana today found a 29-year-old Artesia man guilty of kidnapping, trying to kidnap and sexually assaulting three different girls over a 5-month span.Alfredo Granados Canchola was convicted of five felony counts and a sentencing enhancement for the commission of a sexual offense ag ... More >>

Joseph Hyungmin Son of Austin Powers Fame and John Rodriguez with the Mole, Mole, Mole Are Toss Ups for Ugly Police Mugshot of the Week

​Our periodical Ugly Police Mugshot of the Week has featured clear winners--if by winners you mean losers--as well as clear winners and a few also-rans. We've also crowned souls who were not that physically unattractive, but their crimes put them over the top with our judges--if by judges you mean ... More >>

100 Reasons to Be Ecstatic About Summer In OC!

Summer here is bliss, better than anyplace else in the States

Federal Judge in Santa Ana Sets Trial For First of Hundreds of Lawsuits Against Toyota In February 2013

​A Santa Ana-based federal judge has picked the bellwether case in the slew of freak-acceleration lawsuits lodged against Toyota. The trial, which will undoubtedly influence the litigation of the other cases, is set to start on Feb. 19, 2013, according to a timetable housed on the court' ... More >>

Hunt Heats Up for the Cooler Bandit

​Recognize the guy on the right? The FBI and several Southern California law-enforcement agencies would love ever so much to know who he is, as he has been linked to seven bank robberies in the region since August 2009.His last hit was the Jan. 15 robbery of a U.S. Bank branch in Long Beach. He's ... More >>

[UPDATED:] Eddie Jurado Duran, OC Homicide No. 41: 14-Year-Old Found Shot to Death in Stolen Car

​More than two months after 14-year-old Eddie Jurado Duran was found dead in the driver's seat of a stolen car parked in a Santa Ana alley, two teens believed to have been occupants in the vehicle have been arrested for his murder.Because of boys' ages--15 and 16--they have not been identified.

[UPDATED:] Herman Ochoa, OC Homicide No. 43: Another Teen Found Shot Dead in Car

​UPDATED: The murder victim is identified. So is the murder suspect (updates throughout) . . . Santa Ana Police received reports of shots fired in the 500 block of West St. Andrew Place just after 2:30 a.m. Sunday. Officers arrived to find a white SUV with the target of that gunfire inside: 19-yea ... More >>

Eddie Jurado Duran, OC Homicide No. 41: 14-year-old Found Shot to Death in Stolen Car

​Santa Ana Police have little to go on but this: 14-year-old Eddie Jurado Duran was found shot to death Wednesday night in the driver's seat of a stolen red 1990 Toyota Camry.His grandfather had called the cops just after 10 p.m. to report the young gang member had been killed, which led offices t ... More >>

[UPDATED:] DA Sues Toyota

UPDATE: The Orange County District Attorney's Office this morning stepped up pressure on Toyota, unveiling a consumer complaint hotline, an online complaint form and access to its first civil complaint against the automaker (details after the jump) . . . Courtesy of Elizabeth JamesThis is where Eliz ... More >>

Crime Time: Indoor Pot Farming, Bandits on Bikes, Satellite Surveillance Pleas, Teen-on-Teen Stabbings and a Whole Lotta Armed Robberies

It's the Weekly's weekly round-up of local crimes and police calls--now with waaaaaay more armed robberies, bike-riding/-taking bandits and indoor pot busts. ​MONDAY, NOV. 16Wee Hour Party Goes to Pot During a party in a home in the 700 block of Maplewood Avenue in Fullerton, a resident whipp ... More >>

Western Medical Center's Owners Sued Their Doctors to Muzzle Them, But One Wouldn't Shut Up

Do You Drive One of the 10 Most Stolen Cars in California?

Feast your eyes on the hottest car in California, Speed Racer: the 1991 Honda Accord. ​Forget your Ferrarris, Lamborghinis, heck, even your grandparents' Buicks. According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) Hot Wheels 2009 report, which crunched data reported to the National Crime Infor ... More >>

A Tale of Two Hatch Chile Roasts

Picture to come once my chica updates her blog...Maybe there's really nothing to do in La Habra. Maybe Newport Beach was too drunk already tailgating for the USC game to care. But, boy, was there a hell of a difference at the county's two public Hatch chile roasts.The first one occurred August 22 at ... More >>

Crime Time: Nekkid Folks, Robber Baby, Strip-Club Stabbers, Loaded Brownie and a Flaming Bag of Poo

Courtesy of Orange Police Department and Orange County Sheriff's DepartmentWe call this collage "Robberies, Solved and Unsolved." Top left: a man hands a teller a note demanding cash at Chase Bank in Orange. Top right: Booking photo of Adam J. Bennett, 20, of Santa Ana, who is suspected of robbing $ ... More >>

Anti-Gang-Injunction Activist Says Orange P.D. Ganged Up On Her Kids

Crime Time: No Incidents at Home Plate Before Angel Game

Photos by Professional Services Responder George Ridley Olszynski, Lewellyn, Palmer and Hutchens play hardball.This week's Weekly round-up of local police calls is illustrated with a photo of Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens, Anaheim Police Sgt. Greg Palmer, who is president of the Anaheim Pol ... More >>

Prius Drivers Have Discovered the Hybrid Car Can Take Them On an Unexpected Adventure

Orange, Citrusy-Smelling Burning Rubber Comes to Raceways

Fullerton-based Yokohama Tire Corp., the North American manufacturing and marketing arm of Tokyo-based Yokohama Rubber Co., wants you to know it is "making history" today at Sebring International Raceway in Florida, where each Porsche 911 race car competing in the Patrón GT3 Challenge series event ... More >>

Corn Power

How to Make and Use Biodiesel

Car Trouble

Whistleblowing doctors weird saga continues

Can I Get a Witness?

DA refuses to press charges against whistleblowing doctor in road rage case

Black Gloves, Brown Camry, Bad Case.

The Orange County District Attorney's office has declined to prosecute a Santa Ana health care activist for a bizarre case of road rage. Dr. Michael Fitzgibbons, a mild-mannered whistleblower who had criticized patient care at Santa Ana's Western Medical Center, was arrested two weeks ago for waving ... More >>

Whistleblower Blues

Outspoken Western Med doctor arrested in suspcious road-rage incident

This Hole-in-the-Wall Life

Golden Comfort

Just Another Roadside Distraction

Anatomy of a murder on Beacon Avenue

This Hole-in-the-Wall Life

24-Hour Pho

Border Story

I couldve smuggled in an illegal immigrant but didnt: A tale of regret

Swift Souffle Serenade

Non-hurried, elegant dining at Savoies Fare

!Ask a Mexican!

High-Class Slumming

Low lights, small plates and big flavors at Motif

Arm Candy

Bagborroworsteal is Like Rent-A-Center For Purses

Dating Lessons for Dorks

Summers Here!

HB kicks off season with annual Dragging of the Cop

CD Reviews

Limp Bizkit; John Wesley Harding; Bettie Serveert; Gingersol

Sell or Die

Guilty Pleasures

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