Our favorite OC boxer, Ronny Rios, came home this week after a decisive and controversial loss at the Olympic trials in Houston. The potent, artful boxer says he's ready to refocus, turning his sights to his pro career and to finishing out his senior year in high school. "It's time to move on," he says.

Ronny created such a stir this year when he nabbed both the prestigious National Golden Gloves and U.S. Championships title belts, and then headed to the Olympic team trials, that the Santa Ana City Council will issue a proclamation next Tuesday Sept. 4 declaring the date, rumor has it, "Ronny Rios Day" (See "Ronny," August 2).

He's come home to a lot of new hometown fans who plan to follow his pro career, including us. Go Ronny. We love you. (See slideshow).

Staff writer LYT's been visiting family in the UK all week, but he hasn't forgotten his OC pals. He writes:

Greetings from the land of overcast August skies and wonderful cask-aged warm beer! Been staying out in the Devon countryside for a family reunion, and having a grand old time playing with giant chess pieces, and adoring home-cooked meals. Also passing out copies of my OC Weekly cover -- yes, our paper is truly world-famous, as the blog-header claims. Or at least transatlantically famous.

The local pub near where we were staying was supposed to be the highlight of the trip. Essentially described to us as an oversized sitting-room that only serves one kind of beer, it sounded like the sort of quaint thing that's either awful or awesome. Well...

On the last day, I managed to persuade my uncle MIke to go with me, walking a mile and a half uphill in search of tasty beverages. Braving steep slopes, run-ins with cows, and the ever-present stinging nettles (think poison ivy, quicker healing but more hurting), we made it to the Luppitt Inn and found it locked. As we investigated the nasty toilet facilities around back, an old woman emerged. Note that it was around 6:30 p.m.

She: "I'm not open till seven, so it's no good 'angin' around!"

Okay. We backed off, and she went inside, but not before my uncle Mike took a closer look at the pub. At this point, the woman comes out again, looking really furious, and yells "Nor mind lookin' in the window neither! Clear off!"

Not a candidate for the "Best of Devonshire" issue of any local paper, let's just say.

Pictured: LYT's grandpa

• Bye for now: Harald Martin, the Anaheim school trustee everyone loves to hate (and Gustavo likes to thank for unleashing The Mexican within) handed in his resignation letter yesterday. But don't drop the balloons just yet. He says he'll be running again next year.
• Ride a bus today: If you've never been on an OCTA bus, today's the day to do it. The public trans people are celebrating 35 years, and reducing their usual $1.25 rate to 35 cents for the occasion. OCTA's also rolling out a Birthday Bus, decked out in 70's decor. If you catch it, you might just win a prize.
• Angels vs. Anaheim: Angels owner Arte Moreno isn't pleased with the city's proposed development in the Angel Stadium parking lot. The Times reports that he could take it to court. The city once said it wouldn't build on the lot without the Angels' consent, but now council members are singing a different tune. "...we are proceeding further without any negotiation," said Councilman Harry Sidhu.
• Today at 5: The Orange International Street Fair starts up in Old Towne Orange, at Chapman Avenue and Glassell Street.
• Tonight to Labor Day eve: The Boom Boom Room is closing after 80 years of giving pretty gay bois a place to brush up against each other in Laguna Beach. The Boom says goodbye with four nights of extreme partying. The DJ list is over here.

High school football season is upon us, and there is no better time to remind prep stars about the textbook that is Todd Marinovich. The former Mater Dei and Capistrano Valley quarterback still owns the record for the most career passing yards in Orange County history, a feat more astounding considering it's the longest standing major record in OC prep football. USC signed him in the early 1990s, and Marinovich promptly won a Rose Bowl as a freshman. But the phenom fanned out in the NFL, due largely to drug abuse and general stupidity--there's a reason he's called Marijuanavich in some circles.

Now, word comes that Marinovich is facing drug charges yet again after Newport Beach police caught him with methamphetamine. That's not the biggest crime, however: according to the Los Angeles Times report, officers initially stopped Marinovich because he was skateboarding on the Newport Beach pier boardwalk. At 1:15 in the morning. C'mon, cops: don't you have more important folks to hassle than a beach bum skating in the morn?!

Wow. So much happened on Newport Harbor last night. Its getting hard to keep up with all of the drama and refrain from vomiting all over the front of myself. So here we go again with the monotony and stupidity of this fucking show.

Episode three begins with a bang. Chase breaks up with Taylor because he is "getting tired of always having to check in" and "tired of this girlfriend stuff." Taylor doesn't seem fazed by this in the least and goes with the flow with no argument. Perhaps that's because she knows Chase is a huge douche bag.

Anyway, it comes out that apparently this guy Chase has a bitter enemy named Grant and Grant is best friends with Clay. So Clay talks Grant into asking Taylor out since she just broke up with Chase. Grant complies.

Here is how Grant asks Taylor out:

"What up Tay Tay?" he asks.
"Nothing," she answers.
"I was thinking about getting dinner."
"What time?"
"Seven."
"OK. See ya."

It's almost poetic. Almost.

• Where Do Broken Hearts Go? Orange County, it seems. This week singer Robert Barisford Brown—better known as Bobby Brown--filed suit against his wife, Whitney Houston, in OC Superior Court. His grievance? She won’t let him see his 14-year-old daughter. Why file in OC? Brown, 38, claims Houston, 44, moved here for her latest attempt at drug rehabilitation and is living large at his expense in some “posh” hotel. (Montage?!?!) Not sure how far the case will go. A judge has already given Houston sole custody of the couple’s daughter.
• Journalist Sucker Punched: There have been some fine news folks who’ve worked in OC journalism over the years, but none better than J.R. Moehringer. I chatted with Moehringer during some political event we both covered years ago and I think it’s fair to say that he wasn’t pleased that in the LA Times empire he’d been assigned here. Since that stint, he’s only written a best-selling memoir, won a Pulitzer Prize for feature writing and seen one of his articles turned into a movie starring Samuel L. Jackson, Alan Alda and Josh Harnett. But the movie Resurrecting the Champ “is so irksome” to Dana Parsons at the Times because Harnett’s role—based on Moehringer—makes the journalist in the flick both lazy and unethical. Writes Parsons, “All the things the movie says the reporter didn’t do—ask the boxing experts, check the archives, talk to Satterfield’s relatives, be skeptical—the real-life Moehringer did.” To him, the movie “resembles dangerous propaganda.” In the film, the story takes place in Denver. In reality, it was Santa Ana.
• Matt Leinart Watch: The Arizona Republic reported yesterday that Santa Ana Mater Dei’s Matt Leinart is making women “swoon” again. This time the onetime USC football quarterback and current Arizona Cardinal has made the cover of . . . drum roll . . . Animal Fair, according to the paper. Talk about great timing. On the heals of the Michael Vick publicity disaster, the NFL can point to Leinart and Hunter, his German shepherd, and Max, his bulldog. Money quote: “I believe puppy love is out there.”

  Pour him some milk.



• Dana has an idea! It took $500 billion, four years and a couple thousand dead soldiers, but Dana Rohrabacher (R-Skipped Vietnam War Combat Duty) finally caught a wave! The self-styled “Surfin’ Congressman” has abandoned his backing of W’s ridiculous Iraq War strategy. According to Alicia Robinson at the Daily Pilot, Rohrabacher wants the citizens of Iraq to vote to keep or send U.S. troops home. “When we talk about democracy, if we really mean it we should give the Iraqis the chance to vote on the most important issue confronting them today,” he told Robinson. “This may well be an avenue in which, if they don’t want us there, Americans can withdraw with honor.” The congressman recently returned from a European vacation that included fellow OC GOP pal Mike Schroeder, an outspoken critic of the Bush quagmire.


• Is Port the Left Side? The Lido Yacht Expo is opening on Thursday, Sept. 6! The three-day event at Lido Marina Village in Newport Beach promises “an upscale in-the-water show” of more than 250 vessels. Among the features: a $5.75 million 92 Paragon Motor Yacht, The Ocean Alexander 80, The Cheoy Lee 103 and The Viking 67 Sports Cruiser. Did you know famous OC criminal defense lawyer Joe Cavallo (Haidl gang rape fame) parks his yacht in these waters? Yep. Admission will be $12 for adults. Kids under 12 are free, but please keep an eye on them. For more information, contact: www.lidoyachtexpo.com.

• Rove's Tricked-Out Ride: Some folks at the White House apparently have a sense of humor. Karl Rove made the mistake of leaving his Jaguar on the private driveway next to the West Wing when he took off for Texas with le President. Now his car's covered in plastic wrap, post-it notes, stuffed animals and an "I love Obama" sticker. The area's heavily patrolled by the Secret Service, reports CBS, so the joke looks like an inside job.
• Ex-quarterback in trouble: Former USC quarterback Todd Marinovich was arrested in Newport Beach Sunday after police allegedly found a gram of methamphetamine, a metal spoon and a hypodermic needle on his person.
• Santa Ana school woes: Earlier in the year, the Los Angeles Times discovered that elementary schools in Santa Ana were improperly implementing class size reduction. That cost the Santa Ana Unified School District $2 million in state funds. Now the Times reports that an audit has found similar problems at the high school level. That'll be $90,000 back, please.
• Garden Grove killings: Four teens (aged 14-18) were arrested in relation to Monday's double killing near a 22 Freeway pedestrian overpass. Everyone involved allegedly has a gang affiliation, according to the Garden Grove cops.
• Crocs of war: Those plastic, rubbery Crocs are some of the ugliest shoes out there, but they're apparently pretty useful. The Style Scoop blogger was told that "nearly every soldier (in Iraq) had a pair of Crocs or were asking loved ones to send some back because they were practical for the showers and for walking around rocky terrain."

Yorba Linda is now the richest city in the United States according to a newly released 2006 U.S. Census Bureau Report.

The ultra-chic YL, famous for being the birthplace of Richard Nixon, boasts an impressive median household income of $121,075. That's almost $18,000 above Newport Beach, which only placed third.

Guess now they're gonna have to change their name to Old-and-broke-port Beach.

Bangdon.

Yesterday I got an e-mail from my good friend and former colleague Anthony Pignataro, who's now the editor of the Maui Time Weekly (lucky bastard). Anyways, when Pignataro's not busy teasing me about my recent depiction in the Vietnamese-language media as an ugly, big-nosed communist mastermind, he likes to show off his vast knowledge of history and literature. Most recently, he clued me in on what has to be just about the stupidest part of the stupidest speech President George W. Bush has ever made.

After refusing to comment for years about the obvious parallels between his ill-concieved and poorly executed invasion of Iraq and the Vietnam War, Bush finally addressed the issue in a speech at the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Kansas City last Wednesday. Seems Bush finally heard of a certain book about Vietnam—Graham Greene's The Quiet American—that was written 52 years ago, and if Presidents Kennedy or Johnson had read it, they would have steered clear of Southeast Asia. And if Bush had read it, well . . . you get the idea.

Here's what Bush said about The Quiet American:

In 1955, long before the United States had entered the war, Graham Greene wrote a novel called The Quiet American. It was set in Saigon, and the main character was a young government agent named Alden Pyle. He was a symbol of American purpose and patriotism and dangerous naivete. Another character describes Alden this way: "I never knew a man who had better motives for all the trouble he caused."

So far, so good . . . Bush definitely has been hitting his Cliff's Notes.

But then he continues:

After America entered the Vietnam War, Graham Greene—the Graham Greene argument gathered some steam. Matter of fact, many argued that if we pulled out, there would be no consequences for the Vietnamese people. In 1972, one anti-war senator put it this way: "What earthly difference does it make to nomadic tribes or uneducated subsistence farmers in Vietnam or Cambodia or Laos whether they have a military dictator, a royal prince or a socialist commissar in some distant capital that they've never seen and may never heard of?"

So in a nutshell, Bush is using a work of literature that specifically warned against America getting arrogantly involved in an unwinnable war to justify not withdrawing from an unwinnable conflict Bush personally started because he's such an arrogant prick.

That's it. No punch line.

Bush is a moron, folks, and the joke—if there is one, which there probably isn't since invading Iraq has killed thousands of Americans and tens of thousands, if not more, Iraqis and the entire fucking planet hates us now—is on you and me.

The very first article I ever did--and I mean ever; I spent my college years trying to become a Latino Kubrick--dealt with how the Democratic Party used the spectre of former California Governor Pete "Proposition 187" Wilson to scare Latinos into voting Democrat. We haven't heard much from Pete since until this weekend, when supporters unveiled a statue of his likeness in San Diego, where he started his political career. The ceremony was marred by angry Mexicans and gays, who rightfully accused Wilson of bigotry, but we expected that. The true surprise was the brave people who signed up to fend off the inevitable wave vandals: the Irvine Company. The lords of Orange County recently acquired Horton Plaza, where Wilson's statue will stand until someone tears it down like a Tan Nguyen sign. But betcha Don Bren puts extra security there, as he definitely doesn't want to piss off someone who sits on his board of directors.