U.S. Customs and Border Protection

Fresh Perspective

"Fresh perspective" and "new eyes" have been Bush administration buzzwords since the nomination of Robert Gates to be Secretary of Defense was announced. Whether the eyes of Mr. Gates-- which saw no evil when he was the Number 2 man at the CIA while the Reagan administration was busy undermining th ... More >>

Sunday's Headlines & Surprises: iPhone Thumb Surgery?

Picking themselves up with your bootstraps: The lobbyists at the Orange County Tourism Council believe they are entitled yet again to a public handout. And, once again, they're going to get it without even a minute of public debate. The board of supervisors placed on its Tuesday consent calender a ... More >>

Tuesday's Headlines & Surprises: Rohrabacher Joins ACLU?

Dana Adopts ACLUish Torture Position! At an Oct. 12 rally, Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-Skipped Vietnam Combat Duty) repeatedly blasted solitary prison confinement. “Long periods of solitary confinement are considered torture,” Rohrabacher said to a tiny Huntington Beach crowd that looked st ... More >>

The Taxi Driver

Military sales to Latin American dictators, CIA contacts, and the strange odyssey of OC cabby Richard Schorling

Rohrabacher's 'Prayers Answered' with Bush's Clemency for Jailed Border Agents

On the dark side for fans of equal justice, President Bush granted an 11th hour clemency for two ex-federal border agents who shot an unarmed Mexican drug dealer, destroyed evidence, covered up a crime scene and filed false reports about what happened. On the bright side, a senior White House offici ... More >>

The Weekly's Head Count of the 48 New Faces Who Want to Be Your Next Sheriff

On the dark side for fans of equal justice, President Bush granted an 11th hour clemency for two ex-federal border agents who shot an unarmed Mexican drug dealer, destroyed evidence, covered up a crime scene and filed false reports about what happened. On the bright side, a senior White House offici ... More >>

Film

MOJADOS: THROUGH THE NIGHT

Dude, Where's My Pot?

Ten years after California legalized medical marijuana, OCs war on cannabis continues

Picks 'n' Pans

Don't miss Freedom From Despair and Mojados: Through the Night at Fullerton Film Fest. Don't bother: A Dios Momo So Board With the USA

Seeking low wages and lax environmental laws, OC boardmakers reluctantly find themselves in Asia

!Ay! !Mi Estomago!

Seeking low wages and lax environmental laws, OC boardmakers reluctantly find themselves in Asia

My Eight Marriages for the Mob

Seeking low wages and lax environmental laws, OC boardmakers reluctantly find themselves in Asia

Letters

Seeking low wages and lax environmental laws, OC boardmakers reluctantly find themselves in Asia

American Girl

Screw Cheneyland! Homes where bold types dwell

July-September

Screw Cheneyland! Homes where bold types dwell

[Special Screenings] 'Shaun of the Dead,' 'Reservoir Dogs,' 'Transformers,' More

Screw Cheneyland! Homes where bold types dwell

Crime Time: An Especially San Clemente/ Huntington Beach Edition

It's the Weekly's weekly round-up of local police calls--with an especially heavy emphasis on San Clemente and Huntington Beach. MONDAY, OCT. 5 He died for your remote. Who's the Patron Saint of Stupidity Again? A 50-inch Viso plasma TV was stolen out of the beer tent erected for the weekend F ... More >>

Crime Time: Rapers! Robbers! Wife Killer! Bad Cops! And a Real Bozo!

It's the Weekly's weekly round-up of local police calls--a day late and many dollars short of paying off the creditors who won't stop calling! Top photos courtesy of Huntington Beach Police Department A BOZO NO-NO: Here's the original suspect description Crime Time received for the Oct. ... More >>

Was Brotherhood Member Brenice Lee Smith a Felonious Monk?

It's the Weekly's weekly round-up of local police calls--a day late and many dollars short of paying off the creditors who won't stop calling! Top photos courtesy of Huntington Beach Police Department A BOZO NO-NO: Here's the original suspect description Crime Time received for the Oct. ... More >>

Dude, Where's My VW Bus That Was Stolen 35 Years Ago? Oh, There It Is

Courtesy of U.S. Border and Customs ProtectionFound it!​You never know what will turn up in a container at the Long Beach port. Sure, the vast majority are filled with legal products bound for store shelves all across this great land. But every so often inspectors will find smuggled guns, drugs, h ... More >>

How Many Anti-Illegals, Anti-Liberal Buzzwords Can Royce Work Into His Anti-Healthcare Rant?

Rantin' Royce!​It's the home game sweeping the Republic: Count how many anti-liberal/anti-illegals/pro-hater buzzwords and references are in the latest email to supporters from Rep. Ed Royce (R-The White Side of Fullerton).The email (Punctuation, capitalizations and boldface intact) follows after ... More >>

Today, Medical Marijuana. Tomorrow, Legalize It!

Rantin' Royce!​It's the home game sweeping the Republic: Count how many anti-liberal/anti-illegals/pro-hater buzzwords and references are in the latest email to supporters from Rep. Ed Royce (R-The White Side of Fullerton).The email (Punctuation, capitalizations and boldface intact) follows after ... More >>

Orange County Snowfall Averted

​Three separate busts over the past couple weeks in Orange County prevented cocaine authorities say was worth $20 million from reaching their destinations.

Tariq Ramadan's Looming OC Speech Draws Warning From Muslim Group

Wikipedia CommonsTariq Ramadan​What the American Islamic Forum for Democracy derides as the "Tariq Ramadan American Islamist Victory Tour 2010" includes a May stop near Disneyland, where American Muslims are being warned by the self-described liberty lovers to "be on guard" as the Swiss academic ... More >>

The Crucifixion of Juarez

On the front line of the U.S. war on drugs, a Mexican city bleeds to death

Rainbow Harbor Terror Attack is Just a Drill

​If you swing by Rainbow Harbor in Long Beach today and notice an unusually large presence of law enforcement types running around like chickens with their heads cut off, you are witnessing neither an actual terror attack nor filming of pick-up scenes for Monday night's 24 finale.

Badlands: From Ground Zero of the Immigration Crisis Along the Mexican Border

Tougher border enforcement in California and Texas has spelled disaster for southern Arizona

OC Sighs as the Only Illegal Things Border Patrol Finds in Car's Trunk are 230 Pounds of Weed

Courtesy of U.S. Border PatrolTrunk full of skunk weed​Missed this one earlier, but U.S. Border Patrol agents earlier this week seized 230 pounds of marijuana stashed in the trunk of a sedan at a San Clemente rest stop.

Seized

Inside the brutal world of America's kidnapping capital

Asylum Denied

Only a fraction of Mexicans get U.S. asylum.

20 Illegal Immigrants Busted Landing Boat at Calafia State Beach This Morning

Smithsonian InstitutionBoat people of another era.​Twenty undocumented immigrants trying to enter the U.S. illegally by sea were arrested this morning at Calafia State Beach in San Clemente.The 17 men and three women, all from Mexico, were riding in a small craft that hit land about 3 a.m., accor ... More >>

The Orange County Interwebs Horror Show Reviews Are In

​This week's collection of things on the Interwebs from or about Orange County includes netizen reviews of a car shop, a sandwich shop, UC Irvine dorms, hotspots for meet-ups, Fullerton City Council candidates, San Clemente's immigration checkpoint and Huntington Beach white boys who refer to them ... More >>

Grinding Justice

Operation Streamline costs millions, tramples the Constitution, treats migrants like cattle, doesn't work

Need a Job? Orange County Career Fair's Got 'Em

​Aflac, Wells Fargo, Farmers Insurance, Kaiser Permanente, National University, The Art Institutes, the University of Phoenix, Forest Lawn Memorial Parks, the Automobile Club of Southern California and United States Customs and Border Protection are among the companies and agencies participating ... More >>

The Feds Bury Border Patrol Abuses of Immigrants

But what's been unearthed reveals a culture of cruelty

Return to Sender

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

Beached Boat Found at Crystal Cove State Park; Illegal Immigrants May or May Not Have Been Aboard

May need adjustments for water-based crossings.​Around 7 a.m. on Tuesday morning, a call came into the police from a woman reporting that she'd seen a small fishing boat come ashore, with nearly a dozen people sitting inside. Upon striking sand, the boat emptied, the people discarded life jackets ... More >>

Khapra Beetle: The Destructive Breed of Beetles Discovered in Rice Shipment at LAX

Not what you want in your rice.​Things could have become pretty buggy for producers of grain and seeds if U.S. Customs and Border Protection would have been slacking on the job. On Dec. 29 at Los Angeles International Airport, CBP intercepted a shipment of Indian rice arriving from Saudi Arab ... More >>

Mexican Pop Singer Kalimba Jailed on Rape Charge

 Twenty-eight-year-old Mexican pop singer Kalimba Ibar, former member of band OV7 and the singing voice of Simba in the Latin American film version of The Lion King, was jailed on rape charges on Jan 20. According to the Associated Press, Kalimba was deported from the U.S. to Mexico after ... More >>

Did Arrestee at Border Pucker Up With a Meth Mouth?

​Four pounds of crystal meth were found taped inside the jacket of a woman at the San Clemente border checkpoint Sunday morning, according to the feds.The 34-year-old Chula Vista woman (and yes, haters, U.S. citizen) was riding in a van headed north on the 5 freeway. When she got out of the van, a ... More >>

Illegals in U.S. Marine Uniforms Get Off Easy

"Who you calling illegal, maggot!"​Head south of the Orange County border on the 5 freeway and you quickly encounter people in one of two kinds of uniforms: those of U.S. Border Patrol officials (think San Clemente checkpoint) and those of the U.S. Marines Corps (think Camp Pendleton).People in bo ... More >>

[UPDATED With Charges, Arraignment Date] Miguel Lerma Jr., Border Patrol Officer, Held in Sexual Assaults of Women in Garden Grove and Long Beach

​UPDATE, APRIL 4, 3:24 P.M.: U.S. Customs & Border Protection officer Miguel Lerma Jr. has been charged with one felony count each of forcible rape, sodomy by force and forcible oral copulation for allegedly attacking a woman in Garden Grove, plus one felony count of rape by use of drugs f ... More >>

Crystal-Meth Block Did Not Come Standard With Jetta Searched Near Border Checkpoint

​Border Patrol agents boast they intercepted a "bumper crop" of crystal methamphetamine near the San Clemente checkpoint last week.Wednesday morning's encounter with a "nervous" 24-year-old woman resulted in the discovery of 12 pounds of crystal meth hidden in the rear bumper of ... More >>

Robert Edward Smyrak and Larry James Allred: Two Knuckleheads Bootlegged Disney Pins

​Is there any doubt Disney will sue the balls off anyone who bootlegs its merchandise? Nope.Need proof? Just ask the two Southern California knuckleheads who were busted importing $2 million worth of bootlegged Disney pins from China.Learn more about their attempted scam (and some even more distur ... More >>

Vaya Con Mom

After their mother was deported to Mexico, the Brito children embarked on a two-year journey trying to navigate life in the United States on their own

10 Held After Human Smuggling Boat Intercepted

​Ten people were detained early this morning after the Orange County Sheriff's Harbor Patrol intercepted a boat used for human smuggling off Seal Beach, authorities said.A Seal Beach police officer said on live television that the Harbor Patrol had been tipped off about the boat's arrival around 1 ... More >>

Korean Tourist Nabbed at LAX with 63 Pounds of Erection Medicine

A tale that will wipe the smile of Bob's face​Was a 40-year-old Korean national visiting Southern California hoping to obtain the biggest, longest-lasting erection in world history?Or did he just want everybody he knew to be, well, excited for weeks?Authorities briefly detained the unidentified to ... More >>