Chairman Baugh Scott R. Baugh, chairman of the Orange County Republican Party, won't get another term in office without a fight. Longtime party activist Tim Whitacre has announced that he will challenge Baugh for the top slot at the county's most powerful political party. The news came this morning in an e-mail Whitacre sent […]
Nativo Lopez
The Top 2010 OC Story That Didn't Make the Register's Year-End List
Veteran Orange County Register reporter Martin Wisckol has named his “Top 10” political events of 2010. It's a thorough list, except for one thing: it omitted arguably the top local political story of the year. Oops. ] Wisckol identifies: OC GOP boss Scott Baugh's anti-union manifesto and a local effort to legalize the defunding of […]
Letters From OC Weekly Readers
SOLDIERING ONGiving Christians a bad name, then using the “we are all sinners” defense [Nick Schou’s “He Shall Be Set Free,” Nov 26]. If God does exist, God is love; if Set Free’s version exists, I welcome the fire. Lily, Costa Mesa, via ocweekly.com Typical OC Weekly: Make spitheads look like good guys, and […]
Nativo Lopez Cries 'Racist,' Appeals Court Cries 'Defamation'
Does an American company have the right to fire competent Latino workers who’ve taken jobs after supplying fraudulent Social Security numbers, and would it then be permissible under the First Amendment for a community activist to publicly label that company “racist”? That isn’t a hypothetical question, but one that ignited controversy this month inside the […]
Nativo Lopez Slammed by Court For Calling Frozen Food Company “Racist”
Nativo Lopez, Orange County's most controversial political activist, helped organize a 2009 protest against a Southern California frozen food company and distributed leaflets branding the business a “racist employer” because it fired almost 300 warehouse workers who'd provided fake Social Security numbers to get their jobs. To Lopez, the mass firings by Overhill Farms, Inc. […]
[This Hole-in-the-Wall Life] Guatemalan Gluttony at Panaderia La Chapina
Guatemalans get nothing but ridicule in the other, lesser column I write, but in culinary matters, I have nothing but love for my shorter, darker cousins. Their cuisine is delicious—hard to find in Orange County, but a treat worth experiencing. So drive your maw to PANADERÍA LA CHAPINA in Santa Ana, disregard the Mexicans swarming […]
The Return of the Nativo
In Modern Times, Charlie Chaplin's 1936 comedy of capitalist errors, there's a scene in which Chaplin's Little Tramp picks up a red flag that falls from the back of a speeding truck. He chases after the truck and tries to wave it down—with the red flag. Unemployed workers in the streets mistake the Tramp for a labor […]
The Don King of Cockfights
Illustration by Bob AulThe location of Nativo Lopez's mind has become a subject of interest for those aware of the former political heavyweight's recent crusade: cockfighting. Yep, the man who went toe to toe with Bob Dornan and won, the man who five years ago seemed on his way to becoming one of the region's […]
!Ask a Mexican!
Illustration by Mark DancyDear Mexican, Why do Mexicans put on their Sunday best to shop at Wal-Mart, Kmart, Target, etc.? SanTana Beauty Why do Mexican women dress up to go to the swap meet? Chica Chicana Why do Mexican women wear stiletto heels to the swap meet? Flat-Heeled Mexican in Echo Park Dear Pochas, You […]
Letters
Letters may be edited for clarity and length. E-mail to letters@ocweekly.com, or send to Letters to the Editor, c/o OC Weekly, 1666 N. Main St., Ste. 500, Santa Ana, CA 92701. Or fax to (714) 550-5908. STRAWDOGS Anyone with a brain knows the cop who shot the dog playing fetch in Drake Park isn't right […]
Chuck Not Amuck
The Orange County Register's editorial board lauds itself as a nonpartisan watchdog of bad government, but its writers consistently betray their Republican Party sympathies. Consider their treatment of two politicians recently embroiled in conflict-of-interest scandals, Chuck DeVore and Nativo Lopez. Lopez, of course, is a longtime Democratic Party activist whom voters recalled from his position […]
Loretta-Lite
The 69th state Assembly district—a Latino-majority area encompassing all of Santa Ana and parts of Anaheim, Garden Grove and Orange—should logically belong to Claudia Alvarez. The Santa Ana councilwoman seems like the ideal candidate for Latino leaders and voters to rally around: demure, charming, and did we mention she's a Latina? Alvarez, who's currently battling […]
The Year in Girl
Photo by James BunoanNew Year's Eve Charles ShawI turn 30 and get unengaged. The county proposes $97.9 million in cuts from clinics, social services (like investigating child-abuse claims), disease control (just in time for smallpox!) and water-quality monitoring? This, from the home of Surf Shitty and Aliso Creek. The very same week it's reported that […]
Schools Out Forever
The successful Feb. 4 recall of Santa Ana Unified School District trustee Nativo Lopez was supposed to transform Orange County's largest, poorest school district from a banana republic into an education haven—that's how Lopez's well-funded, largely conservative opponents pitched it to Santa Ana voters in campaigning for his removal. ''I think what we wanted to […]
The Liberator of Santa Ana Unified
Photo by Jack GouldA specter is haunting Santa Ana—the specter of Nativo Lopez. All the powers of old Santa Ana have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this apparition: mayor and superintendent, Unz and Tuchman, Latina mothers and Republican mercenaries. Feb. 4 was supposed to be the end, the day when the oppressed peoples […]
Just added to the Up in Smoke Tour: Great White!
Photo by Jack GouldSPLIFFIN' CONGRESSMAN Clockwork hereby gives the Hacky-Sack Salute to Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), who had the cojones to lock arms with two Democrats and sponsor legislation to keep medical-marijuana growers and suppliers out of federal prisons. Drafted in response to the latest wave of federal marijuana busts of compassionate users and […]
Letters
Contact us via e-mail (letters@ocweekly.com), regular mail (Letters to the Editor, OC Weekly, P.O. Box 10788, Costa Mesa, CA 92627) or fax (714-708-8410). Letters will be edited for clarity and length. All correspondence must include your home city and a daytime phone number. OH, BABY While I understand that things are tough for Orange County's […]
Letters
Contact us via e-mail (letters@ocweekly.com), regular mail (Letters to the Editor, OC Weekly, P.O. Box 10788, Costa Mesa, CA 92627) or fax (714-708-8410). Letters will be edited for clarity and length. All correspondence must include your home city and a daytime phone number. NATIVOTE Maybe it's just me, but did anyone else notice bold and […]
Letters
Contact us via e-mail (letters@ocweekly.com), regular mail (Letters to the Editor, OC Weekly, P.O. Box 10788, Costa Mesa, CA 92627) or fax (714-708-8410). Visit our website at www.ocweekly.com. Letters will be edited for clarity and length. All correspondence must include your home city and a daytime phone number. SCHLONG STORY SHORT A couple of weeks […]
Chicken Scratcher
For someone who oversees the education of 60,000 students—among the largest pupil populations in California—Santa Ana school board member John Palacio has an embarrassing problem: he can barely write. Specifically, every California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) Form 460 campaign contribution report Palacio has filed since he first ran for office in 1998 is illegible—or […]
Old School Politics
Photo by Jessica CalkinsThree years ago, Santa Ana voters passed Measure C, approving $145 million for the construction of new schools to serve the city's swelling student population. So far, they've gotten almost nothing for the money—except construction delays, cost overruns and the architect involved in the greatest school-construction debacle in U.S. history. The reason: […]