​Compared with other counties around the nation with populations of at least 500,000 people, the County of Orange is fourth best at delivering services electronically, finds the 2009 Digital Counties Survey. Conducted annually by the Center for Digital Government and the National Association of Counties, the survey zeroes in on best practices when it comes to information technology--or "IT" in French. 

"Across a broad spectrum of service and budgetary challenges, the county is very proud to achieve fourth place in the National Digital Counties Survey, as compared to our 10th place ranking in 2008," says Mahesh Patel, assistant chief information officer, in a statement e-mailed by the county administrative office.  "This achievement was made possible by the efforts of staff countywide to improve IT governance, business collaboration, strategic planning, and technology implementation."

Zzzzz . . . Huh? What? Is he done talking?
 
AlertOC, a mass notification system designed to keep residents and businesses informed during local emergencies; OCParks, the online county park campsite and shelter reservation application; and OCGov, the county's homepage that provides information about Orange County with links to Internet sites for all county agencies and departments, were among the sites singled out for praise.

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Echo Beach tells the story of the Newport Beach surf scene in the eighties. Originally a reference to the steep, fast breaks between 52nd and 54th Streets, the name "Echo Beach" came to signify an entire era of Southern California surf culture. A group of innovative, extra-rebellious local surfers rose to global prominence not only for their new level of athleticism in the sport of surfing, but also for their (then) whacked-out contributions to style, fashion, business, culture and the arts. Neon colors, new styles, and a general loudness pervaded the Echo Beach scene, along with the usual cornucopia of drugs, girls and parties that always abounds in any surf scene worth its salt.

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Flickr User SurfDaddy

"Don't Drink and Disney"

​You're excited, we know it, we can feel it from here! This week's round-up of tweets from Disneyland bring us gems like a gal rehashing high school hatred for "some one-armed girl" and, everyone's favorite, getting high at the park (we highly recommend the Winnie the Pooh ride). Follow us at @OCWeekly!

sazmi: @shezzalicious i doubt its as bad as the time me and my friends went to disneyland..the guys got ill, & the hotel room was covered in puke

freshlyinstable: Too many people at Disneyland! Scram! Go the fuck away.

NikkiNix08: At disneyland and some one armed girl i hated in high school just walked pass me. I shouldve tripped her!

chanmolina: Floatin at disneyland. High as a kite. Wow

CatsRGods: Disneyland is full of slack-jawed mongoloids that have significant others. Fuck you, universe.

mitchellwojcik: IM AT FUCKING DISNEYLAND AND I HAVEN'T STOPPED SMILING ONCE WOOOOOOOOOO FUCK

mitchellwojcik: FUCK YOU SMALL SPANISH WOMAN YOU WILL NOT GET IN MY WAY THIS LAND IS MY DISNEYLAND WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO 

God bless Yvette Cabrera. Now that Gordon Dillow is gone, she's the only bleeding-heart liberal columnist left at the Orange County Register. Although she does sometimes take a classic left-wing, root-for-the-underdog approach to her writing, most of her stuff--whether profiles of struggling single mothers or idealistic teachers trying to help their students succeed in life--falls in the category of human interest stories.

But let's not focus on the actual substance of Cabrera's editorials. Fact is, she could write an editorial calling for Mexico to be annexed by the United States and turned into a prison for illegal immigrants and she'd still get viciously anti-Mexican hate mail. Here's a quick tour of the typical reader commentary taken from Cabrera's last five editorials, none of which had anything to do with illegal immigration, of course. It's time for another fun edition of...

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In "Channelling Oprah," July 20, Cabrera talked about her appearance on Oprah and opined that the world would be a better place if there was a Latina Oprah too. Not everyone agreed:

Anyone questioning the legality of those here from another country are
labeled "racist". Oooooo... so predictable. Also, I'm from Philly, not the
'Bible belt'. Check your liberal propoganda, dufus. Once again, nothing
against ANY race, but it is truth and fact... SoCal is OVERRUN by illegals
from Mexico. I don't care about 100+ years ago. This is the United States of
America. We have laws and we have a LEGAL immigration process. If you don't
follow it, you are an ILLEGAL. I challenge Cabrera because she doesn't
represent the facts or any semblance of balance... only a 100% pro-illegal
Mexican agenda. She poorly disguises it by focusing on illegals from other
Hispanic countries, but FACT... illegal Mexicans drain our state and our
country through public assistance programs funded by taxpayer money. And the
also rob, steal, rape and kill legal citizens. Many don't contribute
anything but violence and hatred to the OC. Over 25% of those in Santa Ana
jail are illegals. I want the state to uphold the law. And I want the
register to print balanced and honest reporting, not blatent 'advocacy
pieces' written only to elicit sympathy to the illegal cause. I welcome
LEGAL immigration. Open your LA Republican wallet and take out all the cash,
walk outside and give it to the first Hispanic you see that needs financial
assitance. Don't ask questions, just give them your cash. Now do this once a
week, every week. What? Problem with that skywrytr? Right. The exact problem
I have with what the state and the fed does with illegals every day. Give my
tax dollars to them with no conditions, no aggrement, just hand them cash
day after day. And then they turn around and rob you, kill your neighbor,
rape your friend. Wanna keep giving them your money without condition?
Didn't think so.

Two days later, in "Think This is Unfair, Gov? Tough!", Cabrera profiled a struggling single mom who just lost her job. This time, the hate had less to do with Mexicans than poor people.

Until poor, ignorant women stop having children with poor, ignorant men, Ms.
Cabrera will regularly have a similar (or worse) story to write about.
Unfortunately for society, it is unlikely Ms. Cabrera will ever be out of
work.

Here's where things get wacky. On July 27, Cabrera penned a column about teenage obesity among Santa Ana youths titled "A Patch of Dirt, A Couple of Rooms and a Lot of Passion," which led one reader to compare the relative dangers of gangbangers and cheeseburgers.

Facts, or lack thereof has never stood in the way of Yvette; not when she has the opportunity to write yet another article having to do with her beloved Hispanics in Santa Ana. The "greatest challenge" these kids face is the fact many of their parents chose to enter this country in violation of our laws, thereby putting their kids in a precarious situation. Combine that with their parents lack of education and general apathy towards getting one, and you can begin to grasp the real situation facing these kids.

Oh...we didn't even get into the non-stop gang violence that plagues Santa Ana. If I had to pick between a cheeseburger and a gang banger,I would say the gang banger and the perpetual violence has a greater detrimental impact than does their diet.

And rounding out our five hateful screeds takes us to Cabrera's most recent column, "The Tough Luck Club" from July 29, in which she bemoans California's economic crisis and the looming budget cuts. This typical liberal handwringing naturally led one bright reader to offer the following modest proposal:

"If the CITIZENS of Calif would quit giving free tax money to the illegal
immigrant for schooling and medical costs maybe there would be money for
other programs. I suggest this. We as CITZENS round up all of the illegal
immigrants send them home. If they give the excuse their child was born here
they take them and we still send them home or they still leave and we put
the child in a foster home.

Courtesy of Orange County Sheriff's Department

R.I.P., Margot Walters

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The Orange County Register reports the body of a woman found Wednesday night in Woodfield Park has been identified by the coroner as Margot Walters, who went missing in Aliso Viejo July 17. The 76-year-old, who'd exchanged words with her husband before she wandered off, died of natural causes, according to the coroner.

Guess that means the Register-reading Nancy Graces who convicted hubby Egon Walters of murder here and here and here and here and here--before his wife's cause of death was known, but of course--owe someone an apology.

Maj. Gen. John S. Harrel

​If you can make it there in less than half as hour, you can still catch the 11 a.m. Commanding General Change of Command ceremony at the Joint Forces Training Base, 11200 Lexington Ave., Los Alamitos.

Major General John S. Harrel, commanding general of the California Army National Guard's 40th Infantry Division since August 2007, is transferring command to Brigadier General Scott W. Johnson during what is billed as a "rare and impressive event." Troops, family, veterans, dignitaries and the general public will be there.

Harrel, whose National Guard lieutenant son is currently deployed overseas, is assuming command of the California Army National Guard.More >>

​After thirty years of working closely with the county and swooping in to absorb patients the county's shoddy public health care system could no longer treat, Planned Parenthood was forced to give up the county grant it has received for the past nine years. In a scathing letter written to the county Health Care Agency, CEO Jon Dunn ripped into the agency, and the board of supervisors, for blatantly erecting a series of barriers that have made it virtually impossible for the organization to receive the $290,000 allocation it was seeking for a new breast cancer treatment clinic.

Despite Planned Parenthood's long track record of working harmoniously with the county for decades, the Board of Supervisors "discovery" a few months ago that the non-profit received funds for sexual health training sessions and education (which many county employees benefited from) prompted a series of board meetings that eventually led to the yanking of Planned Parenthood's funds. After the funds were reinstated (because of the potential illegal move on the Board's part), the Health Care Agency enacted a new set of rules for all the community clinics receiving funding from the county. The new rules seemed specifically targeted at Planned Parenthood, with new caveats specifically targeted at clinics that performed abortions (county funds have never been used for abortion services at Planned Parenthood). Read the full back story here.

After several months of trying to comply with the Health Care Agency's new rules, Planned Parenthood gave up late last week after the agency asked that Planned Parenthood review and sign a proposed contract -- which would only pay half of the $290,000 allocation the clinic has traditionally received -- in less than 24 hours. "We told them we had to review it with our board and pleaded with them for more time, but they wouldn't give it to us," says Stephanie Kight, senior vice presidnet of Planned Parenthood OC. Without time to review the contract, the organization was forced to forfeit the grant, says Kight. 

"The barriers that the County erected for Planned Parenthood alone -- conditions it did not impose on other clinics -- have made it impossible for us to provide critical health care services to women in Orange County," wrote CEO Jon Dunn in a frustrated and biting letter sent to the board, the Health Care Agency, and cc'd to the ACLU on July 29. The letter lays out, in detail, the myriad barriers Planned Parenthood, unlike other clinics, faced in securing their funding.

Read the full contents of the letter after the jump....
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I haven't paid much attention to Hugh Hewitt as of recent, mostly because all he seems to talk about is Obamacare, and that's not exactly the sexiest of subjects. But I did tune in yesterday, at the very end of the show, and he was playing one of my favorite songs: Lulu's "To Sir with Love" (don't ask). Beautiful, overwrought, late-1960s Brit pop. I have no idea why Baby Hewie was playing it, or why he kept giving biographical details about the singer, but O.C.'s most prominent conservative yakmouth played the song in its entirety and spoke about if the entire time. SHUT THE FUCK UP, HUGH HEWITT, AND LET ME HERE LULU! Maybe he was trying to tie her with Sarah Palin or someone (qdpsteve?) in Commentlandia can provide context, but here's the song without any Baby Hewie yammering:

​PhoCusWright Inc., a market research firm with offices in Connecticutt, New York and Europe, has found a lone bright spot in a travel industry that will continue to be brutally battered well into 2010: online bookings. 

"The main online travel agencies should benefit from the ongoing secular shift in transactions from traditional points of purchase toward the Internet," says Jack Fuller, the author of what's actually a 2008 market trends study that's been updated for 2009.  

"While we still expect the main players (Expedia, Orbitz, Priceline and Travelocity) to report a decline in 2009 gross bookings (versus 2008), that decline should be in the single digits, versus a double-digit decline for the underlying travel sector," said Fuller, as reported by TravelMole's David Wilkening.

While other travel sectors experience declines the rest of the year, Fuller expects online travel agencies to return to growing by year's end and bookings to be up in 2010. A better-than-expected domestic leisure travel season is apparently helping to lead the charge.

​So, you know those Nigerian criminals of "We've got a $1 million check waiting from your long lost Nigerian prince uncle" spam e-mail fame? They've come up with a new scam, warns the FBI.

You can't believe your good fortune--you find a rental home in a nice area through a Craigslist classified ad at an unbelievably low rate. The landlord--who had to leave the country and travel to Nigeria--asks that you wire him two months' worth of rent. You arrive at the home on the agreed-upon date, but there's just one small problem--the house is not actually for rent and its owners know nothing about your agreement.

God, I hate it when that happens. Twice! It's apparently the result of "Nigerian criminals located halfway around the world" responding perhaps to the current housing market that has more people renting than buying, says the bureau.

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