A military board meeting in Syracuse, New York, tonight recommended that federal recognition of New York National Guard Lt. Dan Choi as an officer be withdrawn, a move that would result in the former Tustin resident's discharge from the service. Choi's supposed high crime was publicly admitting to being gay.

The recommendation, which is considered the first step in what could be Choi's discharge from the service for violating the military's don't ask-don't tell policy against homosexual conduct, is not a final decision, reports the Syracuse Post-Standard. Another recommendation will be made by the Commander of the First Army, a regional branch of the army, before the chief of the National Guard Bureau makes a final decision.

"I'm disappointed," Choi said at a news conference."Today was a setback for me."

Very early Tuesday in Tustin. Not the real crime but an amazing facsimile.

Once again, it's the Weekly's weekly round-up of Orange County police calls...

MONDAY, JUNE 22

Breaking Up the Boredom of a Bank Line: Shortly after noon, a man clutching a backpack threatened to blow up the Bank of America branch near Westcliff Drive and Irvine Avenue in Newport Beach, tossed a bag inside and walked away. Employees and customers evacuated the building and the Orange County Sheriff Department's bomb squad kept it closed for two hours while inspecting the bag. Meanwhile, an employee had followed the man and pointed him out to cops. Police arrested 55-year-old Ronnie Richard Spain on suspicion of making terrorist threats. The bag wound up containing clothes, papers and personal effects, but nothing that go boom.

Stuck-a in a Yucca Closet: A man broke into a Yucca Avenue home in Irvine through an unlocked window shortly before noon, told a 12-year-old boy to stay put in a closet and later fled. It was unclear whether any goods were taken, but after an intensive, multi-agency search of the area netted Jason Bisbal, 38, of Mission Viejo.

TUESDAY, JUNE 23

Probably Not The Next Mother of the Year: Around 12:45 a.m., a Costa Mesa police officer on patrol spotted a 4-year-old walking alone. The child directed the officer to a relative's home, which led to a visit to the child's home, where it was discovered the 4-year-old and a 10-year-old sibling had been left alone since their mother split for the night about 9 Monday. At 10:20 the next morning, Jessica Zepeda, 27, finally returned home, where she was arrested on suspicion of child endangerment.

Wonder What Tipped Them Off He Was Suspicious? Police responding to a security guard's call of suspicious activity in the community gym at Sierra Vista apartments, 2965 Champion Way, Tustin, peered inside after 1 a.m. and saw a figure hiding behind exercise equipment. Once inside, they were treated to a greater sight: a 45-year-old man dressed in a miniskirt, stockings and heels looking at porn on a computer. Not only that, he was sweating profusely and talking fast, according to the officers, who searched his backpack and allegedly found marijuana, a marijuana pipe, methamphetamine and a glass meth pipe. Stephen Murdoch was arrested on suspicion of narcotics possession, but just wait until the fashion police get ahold of him. I mean, come on: no pearls? More >>

Paul Schultz

This is not Ethel Mark, but isn't she so cute?

A cardiac care nurse at UC Irvine who raised questions about faulty narcotics pumps, proper nurse rotations and mandatory breaks was notified by management that she could expect to fired in early July, according to the California Nurses Association.

Ethel Mark, who's worked at UCI Medical Center for seven years, and a nurse's committee at the hospital have been pushing their managers to curb unsafe "floating" conditions, (nurses who aren't properly trained to operate patients' heart monitors are required to work shifts in the unit), to give nurses -- who work 12-hour shifts -- their proper breaks, and to replace faulty narcotic pumps (six months ago UCI pulled one third of all of these pumps because they failed mechanical tests). As of now, according to the Nurses Association, the remaining malfunctioning pumps still haven't been replaced or fixed.

Nurses are holding a vigil tonight outside of UC Irvine Medical Center to protest the impending firing of Mark, who the association says is being targeted for being a patient advocate and whistleblower. Jill Furillo an RN and Southern California Director of the California Nurses Association (CNA), which represents UC nurses says nurses are obligated to be patient advocates, and to act accordingly if they believe that their managers are making decisions that may hurt their patients. "Ethel Mark, RN had a legal and ethical obligation under the state's Nursing Practice Act to challenge unsafe practices and she acted accordingly," she said in a press release sent to the Weekly today.

Vigil details after the jump...

More >>

In its latest screed, the Jew-bashing, gay-trashing La Voz de Aztlán (run by former Buena Park employee and eternal loon Hector Carreón) turns the tragedy that was the murder of an Arizona girl and her father by one branch of Minutemen Know Nothings into an opportunity to put a Jewish sheen on anti-Mexican sentiment. It got me thinking about Carreón's most infamous insertion of his anti-Semitism into an irrelevant topic: the South Central Farm fiasco of 2006.

Quick recap: a group of farmers took over an empty lot in South Central Los Angeles and transformed it with crops. Developer Ralph Horowitz sued to get the property and eventually got the farmers evicted. It was the lefty cause for a couple of years and was the subject of the Oscar-nominated documentary, The Garden. Horowitz claimed that what ultimately led him to break off any negotiations between him and the South Central farmers were anti-Semitic barbs thrown at him by activists.

The guilty dipshit? Carreon. In one post, under his nom de pendejo Ernesto Cienfuegos, Carreon called Horowitz a "sinister Jewish land developer," named him a member of LA's "Jewish Mafia," said the Los Angeles Police Department was the enforcer of this mafia, noted that LAPD Chief Bill Bratton came from "Jewish New York" and that the purpose of his trips to Israel were to "receive 'training' by Israeli military and police authorities on how to deal with 'the Mexicans and the Blacks in case they riot.'" In another Net shit dropping, Carreon called Horowitz a "greedy Jewish Mogul" and insisted that the entirety of the Los Angeles government "take orders from extremely wealthy Jews."

Here's the best part about the articles: Carreon has removed them from La Voz de Aztlan. Click on one, you get a "File not Found"; try the other, and you get the laughable "This document has now been archived as a historical document." But thanks to the wonders of the Internet, you can find the two offending pieces here and here in their illiterate ignominy.

So, Hector: why did you remove them? Is it another Jewish conspiracy? Or did you finally realize that your bile harms others?

The issue in question.

AN OPEN LETTER TO LYNN LAI, EDITOR OF ORANGE HIGH SCHOOL'S STUDENT MAGAZINE PULP:

Dear Lynn:

I read with interest reporter Doug "Teacher's Pet" Irving's piece in the Orange County Register about your principal, SK Johnson, confiscating your magazine over a cover image he believed looked too much like a gang tattoo and content inside he found questionable.

It appears from the story that you and your Pulpers are receiving the support of the Student Press Law Center, whose chief notes that California has strong laws protecting the free-speech rights of students. Congratulations!

It also appears from the reader comments to the Register's online version of the story that many of that pub's readers are siding with the principal. Don't get too discouraged; Register readers would have marched their own children into Nazi ovens. Sounds as if they'd grant more rights to their loathed "illegals" than they would high school kids. Take solace in the fact that most of them will be dead soon.

So, please keep your chin up . . . and then prepare to lose this round. More >>

UPDATED WITH CONFIRMATION, DETAILS FROM REGISTER REPORT...

It will be was announced today that all Orange County Register employees will be subjected to a 5 percent pay cut, an insider tells the Weekly. effective July 13.

This comes on top of mandatory employee furloughs--or unpaid, one-week vacations--being required every quarter. Translated into wages, that action represented a 10 percent decrease in wages.

At last check, "Orange County's news source" was mum about pay cuts.

"Orange County's news source" confirmed the cuts were being made on their business blog Monday evening.More >>

UPDATED WITH SHOOTING OF VICTIM'S NEPHEW . . .

Anthony Lopez, 44, was lying on the sidewalk in the 300 block of North Jackson Street in Santa Ana, dying from a gunshot wound when police arrived just before 7 p.m. Sunday. Paramedics treated Lopez at the scene, but it was too late.

The general location where Lopez was discovered can be found on Google maps.

About eight hours later, Michael Marquez, Lopez's 33-year-old nephew, was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital in Orange after being shot in the leg outside his home in the 200 block of North Jackson Street, which is about a block south of where his uncle was shot and killed.

Marquez reportedly told police he was standing near his garage when a car pulled up and an occupant pulled out a gun and fired several times before the car sped away. The shootings are being investigated as gang-related crimes.

Hey, hey, hey, the beauty of all these anti- (take your pick) -tax, -deficit, -progress tea parties was that they were truly grass-roots, free from the partisan political hackery that many believe in responsible for the country's fiscal woes in the first place. Then what to make of the Saddleback Republican Assembly announcing it "is finalizing plans for Mission Viejo's July 4th TEA (Taxed Enough Already) Party"? That sounds about as grass-roots as a monster truck pull.

The actual party is expected to last from 7 to 8:30 p.m. near the intersection of Olympiad Road and Melinda Road and the eastern entrance to Mission Viejo's July Fourth Street Faire and fireworks show, where the Saddleback Republican Assembly (SRA)--which is listed among the Orange County Republican Party's officially sanctioned clubs--promises to sponsor other "activities" and register voters beginning at noon. The SRA will also have petitions available to sign calling for the recall of Mission Viejo City Councilman and perceived RINO (Republican in Name Only) Lance MacLean.

At 7 p.m. is when emcee Jeff Morrow is supposed to help shift gears from purely partisan to not openly partisan, rallying the faithful who are urged to bring protest signs, American flags and pitchforks. Diamond Tom provides live music. Potential Teabaggers are urged to call SRA president Matt Corrigan at (949) 830-8088 for more information or to help out. Updates will also be posted on MissionViejoCA.org, the MissionViejoDispatch.com and what SRA call "the county's premier blog," OrangeJuiceBlog.com. In yer face, Jubal!

By the way, SRA's favorite net pundit, Atrios, recently showed how these teabag protests are costing the government money.

Joe Maloof (left) and Pierra Andres Senizergues appear ready to hop on a board in etnies' training facility.

Joe Maloof--who with his brother Gavin owns the Sacramento Kings of the NBA, the Sacramento Monarchs of the WNBA, ARCO Arena, the Palms resort and casino in Las Vegas and film, music and television production ventures--was in Orange County last week to discuss plans for the richest skateboarding competition in history.

Maloof, who is president of Maloof Companies, was at the Lake Forest headquarters of shoe giant etnies, talking with CEO Pierre Andre Senizergues about the Maloof Money Cup, which is scheduled to run July 10-12 at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa.

Happening concurrently with the beginning days of the annual Orange County Fair (find parking early!), the event offers a half million dollars in prize money split among winners in Pro Street, Pro Vert and Women's Pro Street divisions.

Shown in the etnies training facility, where its pro team riders prepare for the upcoming competition, it is unclear whether Maloof and Senizergues had just peeled off their helmets, removed their elbow pads and iced their burns after a session on the half pipe. Love Senizergues' powder blue shoes; wonder where one gets a pair?