[UPDATED with PETA Virtual Dissection Bid:] Anti-Vivisection Group Demands Facebook Remove Harbor High Students' Dead Cat Photos

See update at end of this post about People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) offering to donate “virtual dissection equipment” to Newport-Mesa schools. ORIGINAL POST, JULY 3, 2:15 P.M.: The nonprofit pressuring Newport-Mesa Unified School District officials to intervene to stop Newport Harbor High School students from posting Facebook photos of themselves playing …

Now Showing: New Menu Selections From TAPS

Proprietor-founder Joe Manzella of TAPS Fish House & Brewery sat down for a meal as executive chef Manny Gonzalez, Tom Hope, director of culinary, and brewmaster Victor Novak took turns offering our luncheon the backstory on some seasonal specials. Chef Manny reincarnates a fashion plate of vegetables annually (this year's variation includes watermelon radish, cucumbers, …

Calling All Bibliofolk: Resist the Transformers, Save UCI's Bookstore, and Take Back the University, Too.

This week, Mr. Bib happily shares a rant-analysis-thought piece by a fellow scholar-activist who takes on the dismal decision-making at our shared alma mater and place of employment. My biblio-pal Michelle Chihara is a PhD candidate, an MFA, a creative writer and sometime journalist, and knows how to write a righteous homily on a Sunday …

Local DREAM Activists Organize Forum Surrounding President Obama's Wannabe DREAM Act

After DREAM activists courageously staged sit-ins at Obama for America campaign offices in multiple cities, the President announced earlier this month on June 15 a policy change affecting undocumented youth. Not an executive order as Know Nothings whine, the move nevertheless pressured the Deporter-in-Chief from below and gained concessions in the run-up to an election …

Life in the Nuclear Family: On No-Nukes Nuns, Alison Bechdel, and San Onofre

Philip Larkin's famous and bitter poem, “This Be the Verse,” about what Mom and Dad do to you has “faults” and a “coastal shelf” which suits me fine for some easy book talk this week by way of San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, that toxic and dilapidated Three Stooges movie with the endearingly poetic official …

[UPDATED with Possible Victim I.D., Easters' Past:] Kent Wycliffe Easter and Jillianne Bjorkholm Easter, Attorney Couple, Allegedly Planted Drugs on School Volunteer

See end of the post for victim possibly identified in lawsuit Kent Easter filed against her and his wife Jill's legal and crime-thriller background. ORIGINAL POST, JUNE 19, 2:23 P.M.: Kent and Jill Easter are accused of being very bad eggs. The husband and wife attorneys face charges today of planting a bag containing Vicodin, …

McDonald's Ranks Last In Customer Satisfaction Survey

The survey results of a so-called American Customer Satisfaction Index released Tuesday ranked McDonald's dead last in with a customer satisfaction rating of 73, two points behind Burger King and KFC. Number one? Papa John's. You can see the full list here. Pithy headlines like “McDonald's Customers Aren't Lovin' It” aside, is this really much …

Five Ways To Get Your Foie Gras On (Legally) In California After July 1

On July 1, SB 1520 comes into force, which bans the production (including production-for-hire) and sale of products involving force-fed birds. Notice those words–you can't produce it, and you can't hire someone else to produce it, and you can't sell it to anyone. That leaves all sorts of great legal ways to obtain your foie …