Orange County's Leading Source Of News, Culture And Entertainment
Orange County's Leading Source Of News, Culture And Entertainment
SACRAMENTO–Freshmen legislators arriving in Sacramento receive advice from veteran politicians about the intricacies of working in California's capital. One of those tips is to remember that microphones broadcasting legislative debates can also capture embarrassing, career-ending personal admissions if a politician isn't careful. Michael D. Duvall, Orange County's 72nd Assembly District…
Today, a chingo of SanTana residents met at State Senator Lou Correa's office to discuss the Renaissance Specific Plan, which seeks to transform the city's downtown in a good (according to proponents) or gentrifying-Mexicans-outta-there (says opponents) way. I'm sure the other SanTana blogs–specifically Sean Mill at The Liberal OC and the Orange Juice! gang–will have …
Continue reading “The Renaissance Blob in Santa Ana's Redevelopment Plan”
Rooney was late draining me this morning. His orb said he was called away to a meeting of fellow Nurg dignitaries. My guess is there's another human uprising in Montana. The Nurg don't do anything about the uprisings, but they do like to watch. “Resistance is futile,” Rooney likes to say, “but it is also …
The flier seems innocuous enough: a blue-and-black sheet announcing a June 25, 2003, fund-raiser for Santa Ana City Councilwoman Claudia Alvarez in support of her campaign for the 69th state Assembly District seat. But more than a year after the event, this simple invite might prove to be the final stake through Alvarez's once-promising political …
Illustration by Aaron KratenIf all goes according to plan, there will be a state-of-the-art community center in Aliso Viejo in about two years. All the city has to do is give away land to the Gabrielson Family Foundation, a nonprofit organization run by two pastors, and allow them to hold Sunday services there for perpetuity. …
Photo by: Tenaya HillsA young woman walks into Santa Ana's Sol Art Gallery, scruffy guy in tow. Curator Sali Heráldez greets them warmly—they're the first visitors of the day. She offers them something to drink. The couple graciously accepts two cups of water and tries to give Heráldez some money, but she refuses. “We're not …
Photo by Gustavo ArellanoIn the mid 1990s, still in his 30s, boyish, bespectacled Curt Pringle was elected speaker of the state Assembly, was chairman of several key committees, collected more money from the powerful tobacco lobby than anyone in the state Legislature except Willie Brown and was named California Journal's most influential Assembly member. When …
The trenches have been dug, barbed wire strung up, and mines laid for the most acrimonious county construction dispute since the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. This local Sunni Triangle: the corner of 10th and Broadway in downtown Santa Ana, where mega-developer Mike Harrah wants to build One Broadway Plaza. Harrah—who looks like an …
Photos by Jack Gould (left) and Johan VogelBob Dornan loves bare-knuckled political combat, and Dana Rohrabacher is just as vicious. Though both are Orange County Republicans who served in Congress together, they now despise each other. So the March 2 Dornan-Rohrabacher primary race should have topped Dornan vs. Sanchez I and II in spilt blood. …
Screw freeways: the train is emerging as the traffic solution of choice for politicians in central and northern Orange County, probably because local freeways are so royally fucked. So, politicos are hitching their futures to proposed rail projects, confident their lobbying will translate into profit and prestige for their towns and, perhaps, them. But let …
Photo by James Bunoan “Even if this was not a law, which it is, I'm afraid I would have a lot of difficulty endorsing an enterprise which is as fraught with genuine peril as I believe this one to be. These dances and this kind of music can be destructive, and, uh, Ren, I'm afraid …
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 …