It's the week of newsitude with a dabbling of learning from it.
FEB. 18: A boozehound is busted at California Adventure after taking swings at Disney Resort employees near the Tower of Terror. The guest is then sprinkled with pixie dust, a.k.a. mace. As video from the encounter goes viral, The House That Walt Built issues a statement swearing such behavior is unusual at the Happiest Money Pit on Earth. What We Learned: Some Tinkerbells can take a punch.
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FEB. 19: Nicole Ethel McMillen, a 41-year-old wife and mom who worked as a teacher's aide in Tustin schools, is arrested for alleged unlawful sex or physical contact with a 14-year-old boy in her Irvine home. By mid-week, a second youth comes forward with accusations. Neither kid was a student of McMillen. What We Learned: A couple boys may have learned waaaaaay earlier than the rest of us how to un-hook a bra.
FEB. 20: Rep. John Campbell, a Republican who has served his heavily Republican, Irvine-based congressional district since 2005, is not endorsed by the Orange County GOP Central Committee. Though Campbell is supported by the local party hierarchy, he is not trusted by hardline conservatives because he supported TARP and the repeal of “Don't Ask, Don't Tell.” What We Learned: Mitt Romney's got a new stream-room buddy.
FEB. 21: The Fullerton City Council learns from a special investigator the city hired that it's police department did not purposely deceive the public about the beating death of homeless man Kelly Thomas. So the cops accidentally covered it up? The report does little to sway either side of the debate. What We Learned: Reason No. 376 not to put one's faith in the current city council.
FEB. 22: The Orange County Coroner rules the death of Chapman law professor Katherine Karmer a suicide. The wife, mother and former prosecutor who passionately fought on the right side of LGBT and other civil-liberty issues, leaped from a Newport Beach structure on Feb. 17. What We Learned: Shock extends beyond those she helped, mentored and fought alongside.
FEB. 23: Former Costa Mesa-Newport Beach school chief Jeffrey Hubbard is sentenced to 60 days in jail for secretly giving a $20,000 bonus and car allowance to an underling from his days leading Beverly Hills schools. The educator, who sexted the official who got four years for her role in the scandal, also must serve probation and pay restitution. His lawyer calls the sentence excessive. What We Learned: The lawyer was right since Hubbard will be out of jail by mid-March due to overcrowding.
FEB. 24: Alexander Lucas Barnes, 20, of Santa Ana, is sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison for smashing the head of his girlfriend's baby boy into a wall, killing the 9-month-old. Barnes, who couldn't take the kid's crying while babysitting, was a teen at the time of the second-degree murder. What We Learned: Someone needed Jeffrey Hubbard's lawyer.
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.
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