The Save San Onofre coalition filed two lawsuits in San Diego Superior Court Wednesday aimed at stopping what it considers the first five-mile segment of a 16-mile toll road that would ultimately cut through a south Orange County park and up against a northern San Diego County beach.

The complaints allege the Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency (TCA)'s approval of the "flawed" 241 South Toll Road project fails to account for a range of ecological and economic impacts and violates the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) for not meeting basic environmental review.

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Environmental activists opposed to the extension of the 241 toll road into South County are crying foul over the Orange County Transportation Corridor Agencies' (TCA) recently approving a conceptual plan for construction of the first leg of the project, alleging there was little public notice as previously promised.

But the TCA counters that proper advance notice was given, but the opposition groups misunderstood what exactly was being voted on.

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Insane but true: I do everything possible to avoid the 73 and 241 toll roads. For the former, I'll go down PCH or the 405 if I ever have to get to Aliso Viejo, which is thankfully almost never; for the latter, a simple drive east on Oso Parkway or El Toro Road forever will do. Really: why would I want to support such a waste of asphalt at the TCA roads? And it's no longer just crazy lefties like us, who have been ranting about this sham for 17 years, who are now ranting. Last week, the right-wing Pacific Research Institute put out a paper blasting the TCA for their unmanageable debt (now in the billions of dollars) and for fleecing taxpayers for hundreds of millions of dollars over the years when promising never to cost the public a dime.

And that's what I talked about yesterday on my weekly "Orange County Line" for KCRW-FM 89.9.

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Photo by Christopher Victorio/OC Weekly

Orange County environmentalists, state park lovers and others in 2008 successfully fought the Transportation Corridor Agency's 20-year-old plan to extend the 241 Toll Road through San Onofre State Park, thanks to rejections by the California Coastal Commission and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

But the battle is not over, warns the Surfrider Foundation.

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Self-proclaimed historical preservationist and Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach blogged last month that he had "a hard time swallowing" a proposal to designate Trestles beach and San Onofre State Park historical landmarks.

Someone give that man the Heimlich maneuver because the California State Historic Preservation Commission today unanimously approved the landmark proposal.

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​When one author praises another on a book jacket, and the second author then does the same on the first author's tome, that's logrolling. It's a practice that's also common among academics and movie critics. In politics, logrolling happens when political favors are exchanged, even among members of different parties. The Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) got into the logrolling game this week when it applauded the $260 billion federal transportation reauthorization bill and, especially, language included that could speed up road construction, including another agency's 241 Foothill-South toll road expansion.

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Photo by Meranda Carter/ OC Weekly

​Give Wahoo's Fish Taco co-founder Wing Lam credit for working his Mexican food chain into widely seen television commercials for other companies. In 2000, he and his righteous whiskers appeared in a national spot for Merrill Lynch and its small business services. Lately, Lam and his Wahoo's van have turned up in Southern California Ford Dealers ads touting the vehicle made for small businesses.

But in the most-recent Ford commercial, Lam sneaks in a political message.
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​Developers of the despised Foothill (241) Toll Road expansion into San Clemente figure if you can't beat 'em, piecemeal 'em.

That's the takeaway from a Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency committee approving $206 million be spent for the first four miles of a planned 16-mile extension that would ultimately connect with the San Diego (5) Freeway in San Clemente.

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​Foes of the 241 Foothill-South toll road carving through San Clemente are calling bullshit on the Transportation Corridor Agency's latest ploy to win public support: propping up their unpopular project as a statewide job creator, economic stimulus and deficit buster.

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Surfrider Foundation

The swindle'n continues.

​UPDATE, MAY 9, 4:20 P.M.: The basis for the most recent PR campaign--pushing the need for additional evacuation routes in the case of a emergency at SONGS or Camp Pendleton--was a concern expressed in a public poll from November 2010 (months before the tragic events in Japan), according to Lisa Telles, a spokeswoman with the TCA.More »