Transportation

Metrolink Train Strikes Person Between Fullerton and Buena Park; Train Delayed, Police Investigating

Sometimes, the stories write themselves, and that's the case this afternoon. Earlier today, a Metrolink train hit someone between Fullerton and Buena Park. How do I know?Because Metrolink told me so on its Twitter feed. And Metrolink just told me that the lines "are open with restricted speed due to ... More >>

Bossy Bus Lady

[Hey, You!] 'On my ride, y'all better follow my rules'

Newport Beach Hosts Sobriety Stop Tonight

Tourists take over beach towns on weekends, so locals know the best time to go out is Thursday night.Guess the cops have figured that out, too.The Newport Beach Police Department is conducting a sobriety checkpoint starting at 8 tonight at . . .

[UPDATED with New Arrest Totals:] Tis the Season to be Boozy and Patrolled and Stopped

ORIGINAL POST, DEC. 21, 8:56 A.M.: The Costa Mesa and Garden Grove police departments are conducting DUI checkpoints tonight, while one goes up in Huntington Beach Saturday night. None of the agencies is revealing the location of the mandatory motorist stops aimed at removing impaired and unlicensed ... More >>

Seal Beach, Laguna Hills, Los Alamitos DUI Checkpoints Tonight, Tustin on Saturday

The multi-agency "Avoid the 38" Anti-DUI Task Force has released its winter schedule, which includes DUI checkpoints from 7 tonight through 3 a.m. Saturday in Seal Beach, Laguna Hills and Los Alamitos.Exact intersections were not revealed.

Lucy Dunn, Distracted Driving Foe on State Transportation Panel, Gets Hands-Free Warning

Lucy Dunn is a longtime punching bag around the Weekly for her presidency of the county taxpayer fund-sucking Orange County Business Council and, going way back, being the local face of home development next to the ecologically sensitive Bolsa Chica wetlands.But it was Dunn's role as a California t ... More >>

Sobriety Stop Tonight in Buena Park, Saturday in Garden Grove; Costa Mesa Eyes Motorcycles

There's mucho police enforcement going on along Orange County streets, starting tonight with a DUI/drivers license checkpoint in the 8000 block of La Palma Avenue in Buena Park from 7 p.m. through 2 a.m. Saturday. The Garden Grove Police Department holds its own on an undisclosed stretch of that cit ... More >>

Cinco de Mayo Puts More Cops on Streets, Highways and Freeways Starting Tonight

To herald the arrival of Stinko de Drinko weekend, the CHP, Garden Grove Police Department and Orange County Sheriff's Department are deploying saturation patrols tonight.Saturation in this case does not define the human pickling that will take place in bars, pubs and house parties across Orange Cou ... More >>

United Airlines Harshes Orange County's Aloha, Ends Hawaii Service out of John Wayne

Citing lack of bookings, United Airlines will end flights between Honolulu and John Wayne Airport starting Monday.As one who used to be able to afford air travel to the Islands, I can say we used LAX more often than JWA because the fares were so much cheaper.

Garden Grove Cops Cover Streets Like Rain Friday the 13th to Nab Drunken Drivers

Sloppy roadways should keep you from getting your drinky-winky on before climbing behind the wheel tonight, Friday the 13th. If you're in Garden Grove, here's another reason you and Sailor Jerry should stay inside: Police will saturate the streets like raindrops beginning at 7 tonight. "If you drive ... More >>

Jeremy Kealoha Belisario Gets 12 Years in Prison and $2.6 Million in Fines and Restitution for Embezzling from Travel Firms He Managed

​What do you get if you buy stuff for your boyfriend and yourself from high-end retailers like Sony, Gucci, Neiman Marcus, Ralph Lauren, Louis Vuitton, and Van Cleef & Arpels, as well as 42 Super Bowl tickets for yourself, family and friends for a weekend of partying that includes limos, hotel ... More >>

Roving DUI Patrols Hit Aliso Viejo, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel and Laguna Woods Tonight

​The Orange County Sheriff's Department holds DUI roving patrols tonight in Aliso Viejo, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel and Laguna Woods.Deputies will target areas that have a high incidence of DUI-related arrests and collisions, according to a department release.

Garden Grove, Stanton and Villa Park Start Anti-Booze Patrols Tonight

​Garden Grove Police Department's DUI Enforcement Team is deploying officers for special saturation patrols tonight and Saturday night to crack down on drunken drivers. The Orange County Sheriff's Department is also holding the patrols tonight in Stanton and Villa Park.With saturation patrols, pol ... More >>

You May Not Know Your Future, But Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) Does

​Roy Reynolds is a Fountain Valley-based pollster with a bug up his ass about the Southern California Association of Governments.Thank God.For those who have never heard of SCAG, it is, as Reynolds puts it, "an unelected, unrepresentative pseudo-government-like group" that "we must tolerate in our ... More >>

Ambulance Chasing? There's an App for That

​You're sitting there at the side of the road with another slack-jawed driver you've just engaged in a fender bender. Time was, you'd fumble for paper and pen and switch names and digits with the other bumper carsman for insurance deductible considerations to be figured out later. But now, a Newpo ... More >>

DUI Patrols Cover Stanton and Villa Park Tonight

​If you're getting your drink on in Stanton and/or Villa Park tonight, be advised to have a designated driver along.The Orange County Sheriff's Department this morning announced roving DUI patrols in those contract cities.

[UPDATED with Final Tallies:] Fourth of July Surprise! Stepped Up DUI Checkpoints and Patrols

​UPDATE, JULY 6, 10:38 A.M.: The Avoid the 38 DUI Task Force just released the final numbers from the holiday weekend past's three sobriety checkpoints and multiple DUI saturation patrols countywide.From 12:01 a.m. Friday through midnight Monday, officers representing 38 county law enforcement age ... More >>

OCTA Promotes 'Dump The Pump' Week, Gives Free Breakfast Tomorrow to Those Who (Gasp!) Leave Their Cars At Home

​More essential than personal trainers and trust funds in this county are our beloved cars. Bus passes, Google's walking directions, Metrolink--these funny words, what do they mean?   And yet the folks at Orange County Transportation Authority (bless their hearts) are taking on the noble ... More >>

[UPDATED with Arraignment:] John Hines, Long Beach Fire Captain, Arrested for Felony Hit and Run

​UPDATE, MAY 3, 9:36 A.M.: Long Beach Fire Department Capt. John Hines turned himself in to an Orange County court this morning on a $250,000 arrest warrant and was to be arraigned immediately on felony drunken driving and hit-and-run charges that could keep him in state prison for nearly seven ye ... More >>

Holiday Toy Express Route Change Scrooges San Juan Capistrano

OCTA.net​Metrolink's Holiday Toy Express chugs into Orange County this month, but after making more than 50 stops over 14 days last year, the Christmasy choo-choo is only stopping 13 times over five days this December.That has one South County town feeling particularly Scrooged.

JetBlue Fetes More Las Vegas-Long Beach Flights With Special $19 One-Way Fares

​Do you suppose a budget airline's $40.68 roundtrip flights between Long Beach and Las Vegas has anything to do with JetBlue promoting expanded service between its Southern California hub and Sin City with $19 flights each way?Naaaaaaaaw, totally coinky-dink.

Mexicana Airlines Stewardesses Lose Their Jobs and Their Uniforms

​Mexicana Airlines' stewardesses have been out of work since the Mexico City-based carrier filed for bankruptcy two months ago.So, with no nuts to distribute, beverage carts to push or flotation devices to blow into, they have decided to move their tails for you in another way.By sho ... More >>

Airport Airspace Changes Prompted by Mid-Air Collision Warnings Come in for Criticism

​Looking up at the skies over north Costa Mesa a couple weeks ago produced a most disturbing site: a JetBlue plane making its normal descent into Long Beach Airport was passed maybe 100 feet above by another airliner heading for either LAX or the landing line at John Wayne Airport. Maybe that's a ... More >>

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 >>

3 Hurt, 2 Killed, 1 Murder Charge in DUI-Crash Weekend

​As previously blogged, Anaheim Police conducted a DUI checkpoint and saturation patrols Friday evening through the wee hours Saturday, while the Orange County Sheriff's Department also stepped up patrols aimed at getting drunk drivers off the streets of Aliso Viejo, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Hills an ... More >>

Deputies Hunt for Drunken Drivers in South County Tonight

​Anaheim is not the only Orange County town launching DUI saturation patrols tonight.

Bike Boxes Open in Long Beach

Courtesy of City of Long BeachBicyclists feel boxed in--and safer--at this Long Beach intersection.​Long Beach is inviting two-wheelers to check the city's first bike boxes along Second Street at Bayshore and Marina Drive.

Is OCTA Sacrificing Transit Service for Executive Pay?

Courtesy of OCTAWill Kempton moves to OCTA from Caltrans, where he has served for five years.The hiring of Caltrans director Will Kempton for the Orange County Transportation Authority's vacant executive director position would seem like a step down. After all, the Schwarzenegger appointee oversees ... More >>

Santa Ana City Council to Put Fix in on Trolley Project Tonight

If only this saga came with Faye Dunaway--instead, we have to settle for Michelle Martinez...It's been almost to the year since I last wrote about how the SanTana City Council would most likely award a light-rail contract to Cordoba Corporation, a company whose president George Pla sits on the SanTa ... More >>

Pentagon Flyover Hysteria Rocks the Internets

Ever since my cover story last Thursday hit the online conspiracy websites, my inbox has been bombarded with emails from folks obsessed with the events of Sept. 11, 2001 as they pertain to the U.S. Pentagon and an American Airlines jet that either did or didn't hit the building, depending on what th ... More >>

Thanks For Nothing

The Transportation Corridor Agencies, whose Foothill-South (241) toll road extension was recently vetoed by the California Coastal Commission, sent out the following letter to its supporters. My edits are in italicized bold. Dear Supporter: Thank you for your ongoing support for the completion of ... More >>

TCA's Complaint "Completely Without Merit"

Earlier this week the Transportation Corridor Agencies filed a complaint against Smart Mobility, preparers of planning studies for opponents of the TCA's Foothill-South (241) toll road extension. The complaint alleged that Smart Mobility's engineers, who are unlicensed in California, "are violating ... More >>

TCA Files Curious Complaint

The Transportation Corridor Agencies has filed a complaint against Vermont-based Smart Mobility alleging that "the company's engineers are unlicensed in California," and are breaking the law by "practicing civil and traffic engineering without legal authorization." Opponents of the TCA's plans to bu ... More >>

YouTube Saves Trestles

The Save San Onofre Coalition really hopes the Coastal Commission is a buncha voyeurs. See, the SSOC (made up of Defenders of Wildlife, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, Endangered Habitats League, Laguna Greenbelt, Surfrider Foundation, Audubon California, the California State Parks ... More >>

Santa Ana's Grand Choo Choo Conspiracy: The Carlos Bustamante Connection

Final post in our Carlos Bustamante conflict-of-influenza series--for now... All this week we've focused on Carlos Bustamante, the SanTana councilmember who gladly takes money from people seeking something from the city, then votes favorably for his donors. Some readers have wondered about my focus ... More >>

Hey, You!

Train in Vain

Another California First (Hijacking Edition)

The pilot and co-pilot of the Pacific Airlines DC-3 could be forgiven if they were confused when the gunman burst through the cockpit door that July evening in 1961. No one had ever attempt to hijack a plane in California before. No one had ever attempted to hijack an airplane anywhere in the United ... More >>

The Year in the 241 Toll Road

The year in doing nothing

Toll Road Rage: 2005 in Review

The year in the 241, the year in doing nothing

Toll Road Rage: Gone Fission

Half-Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous

Memorial Daze

A military transport plane crash 40 years ago killed 83 people. Steve Bedunah
says hes No. 84

Testeskick Airlines

Hitting the Wall

Just Build More Roads

Is the Auto Club working for you or for the auto industry?

Aint No Mountian Low Enough

Its Official!

Dailies report whats been obvious all along: toll roads are in trouble

In-Fight Testing

El Toro Airport Watch No. 119

No Fly Zone

El Toro Airport Watch No. 103

Bring on da Noise

El Toro Airport Watch No. 101

Park It Here

El Toro Airport Watch No. 98