When Kinde Durkee pleaded guilty in March to embezzling at least $7 million in campaign funds from Orange County Democrats such as Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove), state Sen. Lou Correa (D-Anaheim) and Assemblyman Jose Solorio (D-Santa Ana), as well as other California politicians like U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, she was looking at up to […]
Jose Solorio
Diane Harkey, Dana Point Assemblywoman, Helps Kill Bill That Would've Banned Lobbyist Gifts of Tickets to Politicos
Wow, we haven't checked in on Dana Point-area Assemblywoman Diane Harkey in a couple of years–really, ever since former Weekling (and current Atlantic guy) Spencer Kornhaber took her down a couple of notches some years back. But when you're a self-professed small-government zealot who rails against government giveaways except when they involve free tickets for […]
Matthew Castaneda, a.k.a Wrestler Chippy Sanchez, Gets 15 Years to Life for Sex with Girl
Pro wrestler Matthew Castaneda met an opponent he could not defeat in May, when a jury convicted the Anaheim 35-year-old of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl he met on MySpace. Known in the ring as “Chippy Sanchez,” he'll next be grappling at a state prison, where a judge sent him today for 15 years to […]
Lawmakers Vote to Prohibit Anaheim Schools' 'Demoralizing' Practice of Color-Coding Student IDs Based On Test Scores
Last year, two schools in the Anaheim Union High School District tried a new academic incentive program. Students were given identification cards in colors that revealed how well they performed on standardized tests. Those with the “best” colors were given freebies and perks, like getting to stand at the front of the line in the […]
Little Saigon Tet Parade Brings South Vietnam Back To Life
Under a bright blue sky and appreciating warm temperatures despite occasional gusty winds, Orange County's Little Saigon community celebrated the Chinese Lunar New Year today with a Tet parade that, if based solely on the number of South Vietnam flags waved, resurrected the long dead Asian nation if only for a day. More than 1,000 […]
OC Young Democrats Reject Tom Daly's State Assembly Candidacy
At one point in modern Orange County history Anaheim's Tom Daly was considered the biggest rising star in the local Democratic Party. That sentiment ended in 1996 with the stunning emergence of Loretta Sanchez, then an unknown character who toppled legendary, Republican Congressman Robert K. Dornan of Garden Grove. While Sanchez has become an undeniable […]
Solorio's Revenue-Sharing Bill Passes Assembly, Inching Fairgrounds Away From Private Control
The Orange County Fairgrounds continue to creep closer to remaining publicly controlled land. On Wednesday, Assemblyman Jose Solorio's bill (AB 35) proposing a revenue-sharing plan took a major step forward when it passed on the Assembly floor. It will next move to a vote in the state Senate. Solorio's bill would make it so that […]
OC Fairgrounds: Revenue-Sharing Plan Gains Traction; Governor Releases Revised Budget; Costa Mesa Mayor Would Rather the Land Go to Highest Bidder
In breaking news, Assemblyman Jose Solorio's bill (AB 35) passed the Appropriations Committee–with a vote of 10-2–and will now move to the Assembly Floor. The bill allows for a revenue-sharing option if Governor Jerry Brown decides not to honor the $100 million bid by Facilities Management West for the Orange County Fairgrounds. That's but another […]
Bill Clinton: OC Needs Loretta Sanchez in Congress
Accompanied by a decent-sized Secret Service detail, Bill Clinton came to Orange County this afternoon to offer advice. The 42nd president of the United States told several hundred people (and at least 60 reporters) gathered under a cloudy sky and outside Santa Ana's historic old red courthouse that local voters need to re-elect Congresswoman Loretta […]
Commie Girl
A dozen of us were sitting on the patio at Original Mike's Thursday night following an OC Young Democrats meeting, engaging in enjoyable inside-baseball political gossip, when Paul Lucas, the Democratic candidate for the 68th Assembly District, pretended to hump a tree to illustrate the kind of hate-lovin' he would inflict on a local Democratic […]
The Lovable Loser
Ryan Gene Williams moved from Houston to Orange County two years ago to attend Orange Coast College, and by November he'll be dead. The Santa Ana resident is running for state Assembly—a white guy in an assembly district that includes parts of Garden Grove and Anaheim (whose residents are likely to have been born in Mexico […]