U.S. Congress

California Assembly Passes Immigrant-Friendly TRUST Act; OC's Dem Assemblymembers Join GOP in Not Voting for It

The Trust Act made its way once more through the California Assembly yesterday by a final vote of 44-22. The legislation was vetoed late last year when it reached the desk of Democratic Governor Jerry Brown. Supporters say the bill authored by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano will limit deportations fueled b ... More >>

Obama Administration Bans Synthetic Weed

More than four months after voters in Colorado and Washington State legalized recreational marijuana smoking, the Obama administration has yet to announce any plans to either tolerate those developments or continue to crack down on America's homegrown marijuana industry (to the presumed delight of t ... More >>

In Which A Teacher Writes Back to His Congressman, Gently Correcting His Writing and Thinking Errors

I am this Sunday morning postponing my terrific and much-anticipated (by me, at least!) reviews of a first novel by OC's own Peggy Hesketh, the new short story collection by Gary Amdahl of Redlands, and Gold Line-chapbook award winner Alisa Slaughter's short stories to offer--completely unsolicited- ... More >>

John Boehner, House Speaker, to Give Irvine's Great Park Ballon a Run for the Orangey

On April 4, the orangest thing in Irvine will not be the Orange County Great Park balloon.It will be a certain speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.[INSERT BOTH FILLED WITH HOT AIR JOKE HERE.]

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 >>

San Clemente Closes Tobacco & Accessories Shop for Sales of "Spice" and "Bath Salts"

The city of San Clemente has shut down a smoke shop where the Orange County Sheriff's Department claims it seized 106 grams of the stimulant known as "bath salts" and more than 2½ pounds of the compound "spice" that produces a pot-like high.The business license was yanked for Tobacco & Accesso ... More >>

Orly Taitz U.S. Senate Campaign Posts Video with Nary a Word from the Candidate

Orly Taitz's U.S. Senate campaign has released a 4-minute video that is said by orlytaitzesq.com to have "improved sound."One wonders if that improvement is there being no sound of the dentist/lawyer/real-estate saleslady/Obama denier/Zsa Zsa Gabor impersonator's voice.Apparently, Marge at the Aliso ... More >>

Village Voice Media Asks for Your Support of Senate Bill 596

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher Admits He's a "Coward"

Rohrabacher calls himself "chickenshit;" public nods​The Hill newspaper is reporting today that Costa Mesa Congressman Dana Rohrabacher switched a budget vote this week because he feared the political consequences of not voting in lockstep with Orange County's other Republicans in the House of Rep ... More >>

Jerry Brown Signs Half of California DREAM Act; Illegal Immigrants Now Eligible For Private College Scholarships

​Having made a campaign pledge to do so, Gov. Jerry Brown signed the California DREAM Act yesterday.  Well, half of it.During a town hall meeting at Los Angeles City College, Brown signed AB 130, the part of the two-bill package that gives illegal immigrants who live in California and at ... More >>

California DREAM Act Passes State Assembly

​It's a little confusing, but no less a victory for illegal immigrant college students. While the national DREAM Act, an immigration bill aimed at providing a path to citizenship for young people, died in the U.S. Senate--and possibly forever--last year, the California DREAM Act is very much alive ... More >>

Help Feed Dana Rohrabacher's Family Today

Dana: Fighting for his own free lunch and having fun!​In the last 32 days of 2010, Dana Rohrabacher's congressional campaign committee raised $3,400 and his wife, Rhonda, took $5,387 from it for the family under the theory that she is her husband's campaign manager, according to the Federal Electi ... More >>

Rohrabacher, Royce, Campbell and Other Doves vs. Pelosi, Waxman and Other Hawks

​Before shock and awe, there was just give peace a chance. The call for a surge in Iraq drew a push-back from MoveOn.orgers. Doves bristle at endless warfare.Ah, the good old days. Now, down is up, Simon Cowell is Jennifer Lopez, and hawks who once warned "You-break-it, you-fix-it" are talking pul ... More >>

OC Planned Parenthood Funding in Crisis

​On Friday, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a budget resolution that eliminates Title X, a program that gives low-income women access to family-planning services. Taking the biggest hit is Planned Parenthood--the nation's largest reproductive health services provider--which would lose a ... More >>

Return to Sender

What would comprehensive immigration reform look like if the Feds got off their duffs?

Can We Please Stop Freaking Out About S.510 (the Food Safety Modernization Act) Now?

Flickr user paullew​The large food safety overhaul has passed the U.S. Senate after a clerical error and a deal between the Democrats and the Republicans to keep it out of the continuing resolution that will keep the government running, and is now headed back to the House for final passage (and, u ... More >>

"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Overturned in Senate

Godspeed, Lt. Choi.​This morning will be known as the day the DREAM Act died in the U.S. Senate but "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was overturned there.By a bipartisan vote of 63 to 33, the Senate voted to end the debate on a bill that will allow President Barack Obama to overturn the Pentagon's ban on g ... More >>

DREAM Act Dies in Senate, Maybe Forever

​The dream is over, possibly forever, possibly until some time after the 2012 election--if and when the political climate changes in Washington.Once again, the DREAM Act that would provide a path to citizenship for young people who were brought into the country by the undocumented failed to break ... More >>

[UPDATE:] DREAM Act Passes in the House, Stalls in the Senate

​Update, December 9, 6:11 p.m.: The esteemed Surf City GOP Congressdude, Dana Rohrabacher, said on the House floor that the DREAM Act is unfair to "non-minorities."Oh no he diiiiiiiin't?!?Oh, yes. Yes he did. See the video and a passage from his debate after the jump . . .

[BREAKING:] Sorry, Lt. Dan Choi: "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Repeal Fails

​Repeal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy that would have allowed gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military just failed in a 57-40 procedural vote in the U.S. Senate. Despite two-thirds of Americans and most in the mlitary supporting the repeal, the setback seemingly doom ... More >>

Mexican Macroeconomics

Do undocumented migrants steal jobs from American workers?

Dana Rohrabacher Wants to Take His Loony Act to Bigger Stage

Glassy-eyed Dana​Dana Rohrabacher, a man whose notoriously poor judgment caused him to associate with a long list of people who became convicted felons, wants to become chairman of the Science Committee in the House of Representatives.According to a Nov. 30 profile in Politico, the Costa Mesa cong ... More >>

Latino Voters Influence Felt Beyond Brown and Boxer in California, Claim Advocates

​Should we credit/blame Latino voters for Jerry Brown returning to the governor's office, Barbara Boxer remaining in the U.S. Senate and Democrats not only holding the nation's upper house but picking up a seat in the California Assembly? Latino advocacy groups think so.

[UPDATED:] Election 2010: Coker is Spun, Polled, Teabagged

​1:28 p.m.: Orange County agreed with state voters on most ballot initiatives, although more of us did want to keep choking on polluted air until the unemployment rate drops and most like the state budget approval process to remain fucked-up, thank you very much (probably because many are philosop ... More >>

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Bowers Museum

Sunday News Notes: Reg Slams Loretta Sanchez

​Local news highlights include:Register against Loretta Sanchez but drags out marijuana stanceThe editorial staff of the OC Register has declared itself for congressional candidate Van Tran, a Republican; U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina, a Republican; and Whitman, yep, a Republican. "From our ... More >>

Carly Fiorina Gets the Worm at Tequila Summit

​When it comes to the four major party candidates for California's highest state offices this November--Democrat Jerry Brown and Republican Meg Whitman for governor and Democratic incumbent Barbara Boxer and Republican Carly Fiorina for U.S. Senate--it is Fiorina who has so established herself as ... More >>

Gay Rights Groups Again Link Carly Fiorina to Latino Outreach Bus That Breezed Through OC

​We began Monday morning by noting the "Vota Tus Valores" ("Vote your values") bus filled with conservative Hispanics and marriage inequality proponents was in Santa Ana, following up with the news that a demonstrator against the Latino outreach effort there claimed he had been roughed up by someo ... More >>

Carly Fiorina Bus Pandering to Latinos is in Santa Ana (or is It?)

​A bus that represents Republican U.S. Senate nominee Carly Fiorina's outreach to Latinos was scheduled to park right now at the Santa Ana intersection of Main and 17th streets--home of Norm's, bus stops and the Weekly's former world HQ. But, as a wag over at the Orange Juice blog has noted, it's ... More >>

Duane Roberts, Green Party Candidate for Senate, Endorses Prop 19

​As election day nears, we'll be running more and more coverage of what will likely be the most contentious ballot initiative this November: Proposition 19, which would legalize recreational possession and cultivation of marijuana for residents over the age of 21. Or at least that's what supporter ... More >>

Disneyland Resort District Goes to Pot

​The Happiest Place on Earth, meet The Highest Place on Earth.What is supposedly Orange County's first large-scale marijuana expo opens Saturday morning at the Anaheim Convention Center, which is, of course, directly across Katella Avenue from Disney's California Adventure theme park and the main ... More >>

The Truth Is Like a Mexican

[¡Ask a Mexican!] Facts and stats always win

Chuck DeVore's New Career: Blogger

John Gilhooley / OC Weekly​We should have seen this coming from the California Republican party's greatest geek politician, the man who posed with an iPhone on the cover of the Weekly and who, as we long ago predicted he would, ran the most Snakes On a Plane-like campaign (plenty of hype, laughed ... More >>

She's Still the Sheriff

On the night declared the start of 'the year of the woman,' Sheriff Sandra Hutchens wins big enough to avoid a run-off with either the tea-party guy or the OC Republican-establishment guy

[UPDATED:] Today's Important Unimportant Election, From My TV Screen to Your Computer/Phone Screen

​11:15 p.m.: Don't be surprised if KOCE is accused of turning over its election coverage to that rare Orange County bird known as the "Democrat." The "live, election night edition of Real Orange" came from the Artists Village in Santa Ana, OC's version of Havana. Their election expert was the Voic ... More >>

Our Shortlist of Superintendents for Capistrano Unified

Illustration by Evan YarboroughFormer CUSD Supt. Woodrow Carter, presumably resting in retirement.​The beleaguered Capistrano Unified School District has been through about, oh, 732 different superintendents in the past, say, four years. Following the firing of facial-loving supe Woodrow Carter la ... More >>

UPDATE: Palin Endorses Fiorina, Adding to Chuck DeVore's Endorsement Blues

Therealbs2002 / Wikimedia / Creative CommonsBackstab DeVore? You betcha.Originally posted May 6, 12:41 p.m. Updated May 7, 8:22 a.m.: DeVore really is sad! See bottom of post.​Half-term Alaska governor Sarah Palin has endorsed ex-HP CEO Carly Fiorina's run to dethrone Barbara Boxer in the U.S. Sen ... More >>

It's The Fiorina-DeVore-Campbell Debate Drinking Game!

MS Paint photo illustration by Spencer Kornhaber, you can give me my Pulitzer now.Fiorina's ready to play.Sometimes, campaign flacks are kinda useful!Case in point: the drinking game directions we received from Julie Soderlund from the Carly Fiorina for U.S. Senate campaign. Fiorina is debating Repu ... More >>

Behold Animal Liberation, Veneration at Long Beach State, Chapman University

Animal Liberation Front​Animals: They're so hot right now.Mere days before the start of "World Week for Animals in Laboratories," Cease Animal Torture (CAT) kicks off its second annual four-day conference at Cal State Long Beach Thursday, while Interreligious Voices for Animal Compassion (IVAC) pr ... More >>

Wiley Drake Prays for 219 Congress Members to Die

Gustavo ArellanoWiley Drake, saint coach​Buena Park radio pastor Wiley Drake grabbed headlines last year for calling on his supporters to pray for Barack Obama to die. Now he has extended that Christianly action to the 219 members of the House of Representatives who voted for the health-care ... More >>

Phil Zuckerman Lecture: Society Without God

Irvine Ranch Water District

Carly, Tommy, Chuckie and the Demon Sheep

​The Interwebs are all a-Twitter over the new campaign ad by California Republican U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina featuring--DUNT-DUNT DUNNNNN!!!--demon sheep.Actually, for the rest of this post to make any sense at all, you should first check out the spot, which cannot be embedded here only ... More >>

Imaginary U.S. Map Leaves OC Intact

​Democrats around the nation are feeling a lot of ire at America's electoral system lately. Even though Dems have still got a 59-41 majority in the U.S. Senate, the election of Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown means they won't be able to get health-care reform--which was crazy-close to being p ... More >>

Arianna Huffington

Sheraton Park Hotel

Royce, Sanchez Blast North Korea's Harsh Sentencing of Journos

Two Orange County representatives in the U.S. Congress came out strongly today against North Korea's harsh sentencing of 12 years hard labor for two U.S. journalists charged with "hostile acts." The other four Members of Congress were silent.Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) emailed the Weekly t ... More >>

Royce, Sanchez Blast North Korea's Harsh Sentencing of Journos

Two Orange County representatives in the U.S. Congress came out strongly today against North Korea's harsh sentencing of 12 years hard labor for two U.S. journalists charged with "hostile acts." The other four Members of Congress were silent.Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) emailed the Weekly t ... More >>

A Very Special Introduction

Welcome to the new ocweekly.com

This Buds for You

Marijuana: The Band fights for your right to party

Constitutional Cuisinart

OC congressmen try to chop U.S. birthright out of the 14th Amendment