Orange County Register: It's not the happiest place on Earth today, as Disneyland begins laying off back-office employees and telling employees of a Paradise Pier Hotel restaurant it will close. . . . Motivational speaker Gary Shawkey was booked into Orange County Jail on murder charges after spinning wild tales about criss-crossing the country in search of his business partner, who is believed to be the victim. . . . Firefighters battling a blaze at a Santa Ana commercial storage building discovered an indoor pot farm. Firemen immediately removing their hazmat masks to take in the smoke was not reported. . . . California Coastal Communities, the builder of the controversial Brightwater development on the Bolsa Chica mesa, lost $44.7 million last year. . . . Police believe the woman found floating in Huntington Harbour died of an accident.
Los Angeles Times: Let cash registers ring! This is the last weekend to buy something in California before the sales tax increases. . . . Tolls for the 91 Freeway Express Lanes will drop 50 cents during seven time slots throughout the day as the Orange County Transportation Authority tries to attract commuters. . . . Cal State Fullerton reached a deal with Lennar Corp. to continue leasing classroom space in Irvine's future Great Park. . . Consumers trying to stage a protest over alleged loan-modification scams at Centre Legal in Buena Park got stuck in the office building's elevator. . . . A decorative wall constructed around a Huntington Beach “castle” has neighbors pissed. Wait until the see the moat!

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.