Orange County Register: Miss me? Great economic news! Pier 1 Imports will only close 80 or so stores, not the 125 anticipated originally. . . . The California Energy Commission is considering a ban on big screen televisions. It's not the pollution network programmers spew that is spurring the proposal but a desire to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions. . . . Who says Santa Ana is not welcoming? Its city jail will soon house more immigrant detainees. . . . Signature gathering has been approved for a state initiative to repeal Prop 8 and make gay marriage legal in the Golden State. . . . Phong Thuc Tran, who was suspected of killing two gas company workers, died in an Orange hospital Saturday of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Los Angeles Times: The swallows apparently are not returning to San Juan Capistrano any more. They wear the same colors, have their own lingo and menace eaves: Maybe they fear prosecution under the gang injunction? . . . Holy crap! The Ducks might actually make the playoffs. . . . Dept. of the Very Sad: The Times sent photographer Mark Boster to shoot an explosion at a Rancho Santa Margarita plastic manufacturing plant, but the accompanying words come from an Associated Press story. . . . Dept. of the Very Sad, Parts 2 and 3: For stories on two OC doctors facing disciplinary actions for allegedly botching plastic surgeries and the latest Octo-Mom exploits, the Times leaves its coverage to its Tribune-owned local television partner, KTLA.com.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.