Orange County's Leading Source Of News, Culture And Entertainment
Orange County's Leading Source Of News, Culture And Entertainment
Photo by Ted SoquiState insurance commissioner Chuck Quackenbush let insurance companies dodge $4 billion in potential fines for alleged wrongdoing following the 1994 Northridge earthquake after the companies secretly paid $12 million to private Quackenbush-controlled groups. The public's “watchdog” also offered insurance-company executives immunity from future charges and prematurely closed several key state probes into …
If I had to pick one can't-miss concert this week, it'd be comedian/talk-show host BILL MAHER on Friday night at the Sun Theatre. To those familiar with Maher only from ABC's Politically Incorrect, you know him as a smug little gnome whose head is too big for his body, both physically and in terms of …
May 2. Last week, we saw a Costa Mesa couple attempt to “recover” a set of $3,500 gold wheels they said were missing from their impounded 1988 Chrysler LeBaron. This week, the stakes have risen. Our story begins this way: a resident left his 1990 Mercury Sable four-door with a Costa Mesa car detailer. Several …
From Britney Spears to Korn, from Snoop Dogg to 'N Sync, from Erykah Badu to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, this is, like it or not, a hip-hop nation. Hip-hop rhythm is the heartbeat of everything from the hardest gangsta rap to the most overbearing modern alterna-punk to the fluffiest, most innocuous bubble gum—not to …
Trumpet maestro WYNTON MARSALIS tends to inspire either devotion or loathing among jazz fans. His many detractors would have you believe he's a hack, wasting his formidable technical gifts by militantly endeavoring to chain jazz to its past, rather than allowing the music to thrive and grow. The other camp praises Marsalis as a savior …
Photo by Jeanne RiceFor the first time in California history, a Latina will head a county labor council. And the odd thing is it's happening here. On March 25, Linda Sanchez, a 31-year-old labor attorney and the younger sister of U.S. Representative Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove), becomes the Orange County Central Labor Council's secretary/treasurer—the top …
Photo by Jeanne RiceWhen the political history of Orange County is written, the overwhelming victory of Measure F is likely to loom large. In approving Measure F—also known as the Safe and Healthy Communities Act—local voters asserted for the first time their right to vote on huge developments, including the El Toro International Airport. When …
Photo by Jack GouldIt his party's election-night shindig at Newport Beach's swank Sutton Place Hotel, Congressman Dana Rohra-bacher delighted the crowd with a simple chant: “No more Gore!” It was an exciting moment for Rohrabacher—what with his man Dubya scoring impressive primary victories across the country. Of course, the Huntington Beach Republican's high may have …
You may one day find yourself face to face with a picture of Silver Lake's boyish four-piece Beachwood Sparks, all of them impeccably dressed in the finest of '70s country-and-western polyester, the fringes of their shaggy postmod haircuts skimming the edges of their decorated collars. And while gazing upon the photograph, you may also be …
Photo by Keith May Orange County CoastKeeper Garry Brown, who recently announced he’s seeking contributions to outfit the waterway-protection group’s patrol boat, has a judgment of more than $120,000 against him in connection with a Boy Scouts boat-donation program that he allegedly mismanaged four years ago. “Mr. Brown did not serve the Boy Scouts well,” …
Photo by Joy BastOrange County's Superior Court judges can't seem to avoid controversy. Three years ago, a judge was disciplined for telling off-color jokes during a sexual-harassment trial and encouraging jurors to buy a book he wrote. Earlier this month, a state appeals court unanimously rejected a Newport Beach-based judge's decision to allow open discrimination …
To answer this eternal conundrum, we turn to the Chinese. Generally speaking, Chinese philosophy has it that the universe and all living things are constantly at play between the extremes of the yin and yang principles. Yin represents the passive, female, fluid, dark, cold, dispersing forces and yang the active, male, fiery, light, hot and …