Orange County News Blog

Take a picture of Lackey, it will last longer.

​The Angels have a tough decision to make: Do they try to keep pitching ace John Lackey or spark plug Chone Figgins?

www.hitthebitch.dk

"Hit the Bitch" suffers a black eye.

​The furor over "Hit the Bitch" now prevents you from visiting the supposed "anti-violence website" out of Denmark that allows a mouse-powered (and male-looking) hand to repeatedly smack and slap a young woman.

Photo by Steve Ong

Aliso Viejo resident Steve Ong's winning shot.

​An amateur photo contest aimed at promoting Orange County's quasi-private toll roads gave new meaning to drive-by shooting.

Folks who left comments on the Transportation Corridor Agencies--or The Toll Roads--Facebook page had other definitions: stupid, dangerous and "a boondoggle."

Drivers of the Lexus lanes made a stunning observation as soon as the contest was announced a couple months ago: operating a camera while operating a vehicle at high speeds can get you killed, and stopping to do anything other than pay a toll is verboten.

Those obstacles must've limited the entries. Steve Ong of Aliso Viejo and Irvine's Zoe Thompson, whose shot follows the jump, were the only announced winners. Both received $50 in tolls. Even more entertaining than their purty pictures were the contest comments.

Courtesy of Macy's

"Is that a pout, the gout or the mumps?"

​NEWS ITEM: 'Tis the season of H1N1, so Santas are being told to remove the gloves and wash their hands as much as possible ("Every time you hear a bell, Santa should pump a shot of Purell"), while warnings are being issued about flu buggies and other germs that can live for hours in the jolly fat men's suits, laps and flowing white beards.

INSTA-PUNDITRY: Can you imagine what kind of crap the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade Santa will trudge from New York City when his 25-city tour stops at the Mission Viejo Macy's on Dec. 5? All kids are encouraged to come meet Herr Kringle, and it is for a good cause--a month's worth of Macy's events benefitting the Make a Wish Foundation. Still, better dress the little ones in Hazmat gear, moms.

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UPDATE: Lake Forest 19-year-old Matthew Thomas Dragna will be arraigned in Santa Ana at 1:30 p.m. Friday in the Oct. 23 murder of longtime Hotel Laguna catering manager Damon L. Nicholson, who is believed to be Laguna Beach's first homicide victim since 2002.

Courtesy of Laguna Beach Police Department

Matthew Thomas Dragna

​Dragna, who is being held on $1 million bail, faces a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in state prison if convicted, according to the Orange County District Attorney's office.

Laguna Beach police investigators served simultaneous search warrants Wednesday evening at Dragna's home and a Santa Ana rehabilitation center, where the suspect was taken into custody, Lt. Jason Kravetz announced earlier today.

Dragna is accused of having entered Nicholson's home in the early morning hours of Oct. 23, bludgeoning him to death and fleeing with several stolen items.

Salvador Hernandez reports in the Orange County Register that Dragna, who has a history of drug use and burglary arrests, established a relationship with Nicholson on the Internet before the Laguna Beach man was beaten to death.

​Various Orange County communities are going to be crawling with extra cops this weekend as pre-Thanksgiving pushes are made to get drunks, druggies, the unlicensed and unsafe motorcyclists off the road and to ensure everyone is buckling up.

R. Scott Moxley blogged earlier today about the Orange County Sheriff's Department setting up DUI checkpoints in Stanton and Villa Park on Friday. The next night, the Garden Grove Police Department conducts one from 9 p.m. Saturday to 3 a.m. Sunday at the intersection of Harbor Boulevard and Quatro Street.

​UPDATE: University of California Regents voted for a 32 percent tuition increase today, with a dissenting vote coming from the student-regent. The vote was taken and debated over loud protests outside from hundreds of demonstrators. Our big sis' LA Weekly reports one arrest today.

See also the Los Angeles Times LA Live blog post and their photos here.

​What happens when just before being released from duty at Camp Pendleton for the weekend, you allegedly: participate in a mandatory safety briefing that covers the dangers of drunken driving, including the tidbit that should you get behind the wheel while drunk, you'll likely kill someone; go on to chug alcohol for two hours; tell everyone you're going to drive home to Santa Ana; pass out in your barracks; have your car keys removed from your pocket as you're passed out by a lance corporal; wake up, demand your keys, become belligerent, throw trash and break your cell phone against a wall; ask a lower-rank Marine to fetch your keys; pull rank on the same Marine, forcing him to give you your keys; drive your Dodge Caliber 75 mph in a 50 mph zone on MacArthur Boulevard in Newport Beach; fail to stop of slow down near the intersection of Jamboree Road; hit an Aston Martin waiting at the red light with a radiologist in the driver's seat and his wife is in the passenger seat; cause the car to spin out before coming to a stop, resulting in the doctor's life being taken a half hour later and the woman suffering from bleeding in her brain and back injuries; break your ankle in the same wreck; omit an odor of alcohol, slur your speech, rock red, watery eyes and have a blood alcohol level of .12 percent three hours after the crash?

If you're 22-year-old Lance Corporal Elijah Leigh Ferguson, you face trial today in your hometown of Santa Ana on murder charges.

The Orange County District Attorney's office release follows . . .

Dodge College of Film and Media Arts at Chapman University in Orange.

​No one will think twice about South Korean filmmakers, dignitaries and hangers-on traipsing across a red carpet Friday evening for the opening of the Chapman Pusan West film festival in Orange.

But have this be a South Vietnamese film festival with any hint of red on the carpet, posters or frames of film and cries, shouts, kicks, punches and overall bad mojo will fly from Little Saigon wheezers convinced it's some kind of Commie brainwashing hatched in the North.

Weird how that works.  

HarpersBazaar.com

Mary Lou Stockwell (second from the right), appears with other Fabulous at Every Age winners and fembot Elizabeth Hurley, who handled the introductions at a swanky party in New York City.

​The old money may be on the East Coast, but when it comes to the most, erm, mature of "America's chicest women," the honor goes to Balboa Island. Or, more specifically, the real estate on Newport Beach's artificial-island triumvirate lorded over by Mary Lou Stockwell, the "60s and up" winner of Harper's Bazaar's "Fabulous at Every Age" contest.

"Howdy ho!"

​Some day, an enterprising reporter is going to find out what costs a city more: fixing the pipes, pumps and stations that break down and cause raw sewage to spill all over town, or paying the fines levied when the shit really hits the land.

Of course, since taxpayers get stuck with the bills either way, city officials probably don't give a you-know-what.

And so, we discover the City of Laguna Beach just got popped $70,680 from state regulators today for the release of 590,000 gallons of untreated sewage to the Pacific Ocean on Oct. 29, 2008.

Photo by Beth Stirnaman

Will work for . . . work, in the City of Orange.

​When last Clockwork Ernest Hemingwayed on the Potluck for Progressives, this scratch-resistant sidewinder told of how the kibosh had to be put on the Nov. 13 gathering because the scheduled speaker from the regrouping California Cannabis Initiative backed out.

At the time, event coordinator Duane Roberts disclosed the new Potluck for Progressives date would be Nov. 20--this Friday night--and that the topic would be "The Criminalization of Day Laborers in Orange County."

If Roberts' aim was to present a dinner debate that inflames (heh) less passion than legalizing the Devil's weed, he failed miserably. 

Your next 72nd District assemblyman (after an unnecessary run-off election), Chris Norby!

​Like standing for the national anthem before the game starts, nodding at the uniformed officer before zooming through the border checkpoint or throwing toast at a movie screen flashing a sweet transvestite from Transylvania, the formality of a Jan. 12 special election is all that stands between Chris Norby and California's 72nd Assembly District seat.

Though outgoing county Supervisor Norby belongs to the same Republican party that gave the 72nd a drippy windbag who would disgrace himself, his office, his constituents, common decency and shapely lobbyists everywhere (Mike Duvall, come on down!), 14,038 district voters--or 37.2 percent of those who cast votes--went with Norby.

The Quiksilver-produced, Jamie Teirney-directed documentary Clay Marzo: Just Add Water screens for free tonight as the cinematic collaboration between the Newport Beach Film Festival and Sage Hill School continues on like sun-kissed waves.

See the flier after the jump . . . 

​All eyes from the University of California system, and some from outside it, will be on UCLA today and tomorrow. No, not to observe the Bruins licking their wounds from Monday night's embarrassing loss to Cal State Fullerton on the Pauley Pavilion hardwood. It's at UCLA where the UC Board of Regents, the governing body over the 10-campus system, will vote today on whether to implement 32 percent tuition hikes in the face of massive budget shortfalls. On Thursday, the board is scheduled to vote on putting the plan into action.

"This is a historic moment," writes Jesse Cheng, a fourth-year Asian American studies major at UCI and student-regent designate, for the New University campus newspaper. ". . . If the increase passes, UC Irvine students will face the brunt of the public's failure to invest in the University."

She's urging her classmates to join more than 1,000 students planning to descend on the Board of Regents meeting to protest the fee increase. Trips to Westwood are being organized both days by the Associated Students of UCI; email here if you want to participate and vist the ucregentlive.wordpress.com blog for updates.

"I will be there both days, on one side of the velvet rope, sitting at the table with the Board of Regents, speaking for the future of an affordable and quality UC," writes Cheng. "I hope to see you on the other side."

​A Laguna Hills accountant hired to manage a brother and sister's trust fund has been sentenced to four years in state prison for stealing more than a half million dollars to pay for a doll collection. 

Margot Jean Strawn, 58, had pleaded guilty to two felony counts of grand theft with sentencing enhancements for aggravated white collar crime over $500,000 and property damage over $150,000 and $50,000. Besides the prison time, Strawn was ordered to pay more than $500,000 in restitution to the victims, $95,000 of which she handed over at her sentencing Monday.

The Orange County District Attorney's office release on the case follows after the jump . . .

It's the Weekly's weekly round-up of local crimes and police calls--now with more . . . um . . . you'll see. (Not that you'll want to.) 

TUESDAY, NOV. 10

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​ Nothing to See Here Folks. . . . Seriously, You Don't Want to Look This call came in around 1:10 p.m. concerning activities near the corner of Aliso Creek Road and Enterprise in Aliso Viejo: Two women in their late 80s (!) making out in a black convertible and lifting their shirts. And that's when the heavy bass kicked in: BOWM-CHICKA, BOWM-BOWMMM . . .   Grammy, you told me you were going to water aerobics! (Hat tip to the Orange County Register for keeping tabs on their frisky readership.)

 

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 11

Real Cut-Up A man was walking near McFadden Avenue and Sullivan Street in Santa Ana, where two men came up, one placed a knife to his neck and the other swiped his wallet containing $8 American. They took off, and the victim, who was sliced in the process, headed to a local hospital for treatment of cuts to his hand and the side of the neck. Police got the call to come over and check him out around 2 a.m. No description was offered of the robbers.

Continue reading " Crime Time: Late Octogenarian Lesbian"...

​Wooooo! It's American Education Week. Par-tay!

Um, not so fast. As part of the California Teachers Association's "Stand Up for Schools" campaign, instructors statewise are choosing to commemorate Education Week by warning of the harm being done to students by massive state budget cuts.

That harm includes the elimination of 20,000 teaching jobs.

FreeFoto.com

Welcome.

​The Orange County District Attorney's office shot over the release after the jump about a former caretaker for developmentally disabled adults facing arraignment Thursday for allegedly stealing more than $100,000 from her clients by writing checks from their accounts.

Shandie Marie Lacsamana Rosete, a 33-year-old Placentia resident, is up on 14 felony counts of caretaker theft from a dependent adult as well as sentencing enhancements and allegations for aggravated white collar crime over $100,000, loss over $100,000, and property damage over $50,000. She could get 19 years in state prison if convicted.

Photo by Russ Roca

Chief Anthony Morales came up empty at November 2008 California Coastal Commission hearing.

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UPDATE: Jaimee Lynn Fletcher reports in Orange County Register: HUNTINGTON BEACH--The city will absorb an unincorporated county island that some environmentalists believe is an American Indian burial ground that dates back more than 8,000 years.

A proposal goes before the Huntington Beach City Council tonight to have the city annex 6.2 acres of land on the Bolsa Chica Mesa that the owner wants to sell to developers and Native Americans want preserved because it's considered sacred.

​After generating about $15.5 million at the box office in its opening weekend, The Fourth Kind starring Milla Jovovich only took in a disappointing $4.6 million in its second, this past weekend. Adding insult to insult, Universal has been stung with criticism for fabricating news articles to bolster the alien abduction movie's "based on a true story" claim.

Even if you've joined the millions and millions avoiding this steaming pile of celluloid, chances are you've seen the trailers or TV commercials that open with grainy footage of a woman being interviewed with the Chapman University logo superimposed in the lower right corner. Thinking that might have been the result of a technical malfuction that mistakenly overlapped video of the new horror movie over KOCE/Channel 50's Dialogue With Jim Doti, Clockwork reached out to the Orange institution of higher learning Doti presides over to ask, "Hey, what 'da scoop?"

​Did you really think an email with the headline "Newest Trend in Fashion This Season . . . Ready-To-Wear Breasts" was going to escape the Devil's spawnin', snark-inducin', back-page escortin' Weekly?

Surely, you jest. And stop calling yourself Shirley.

Nope, you could have knocked us over with a feather tickler when we scanned local plastic surgeon Dr. Sid Mirrafati's missive promising, "Women can have READY-TO-WEAR BREASTS in just a few hours."

Oh, do tell more, dear doctor . . .

​Alonso Jose Lopez, a 31-year-old resident of Vista in San Diego County, got Navel Gazing mentions here and here, but he'd no doubt prefer those over the his latest mention: in an Orange County grand jury indictment unsealed today that identifies him as one of nine San Diego criminal street gang members who are among 11 people charged in a recent crime spree in Tustin, Laguna Beach and San Diego County.

​NEWS ITEM:  Author, former Earth First activist and clean-water advocate Patrick Mitchell, who hired on at Silverado Canyon's Carbondale Ranch in June, wants to use the tons of manure produced there to make electricity. 

INSTA-PUNDITRY: Wouldn't they collect much more of the, uh, potential energy source inside the Board of Supervisors chambers in Santa Ana?

Some just write themselves, folks.

​The amount of money a fictional 13-year-old can win if he can make a perfect football pass on national TV in sports columnist Mike Lupica's new youth novel Million-Dollar Throw: $1 million.

The amount of money one of 200 real-life kids ages 8-15 can win if their name is drawn after they make a perfect pass during Lupica's appearance Wednesday at Mission Viejo Library: $1,000.

The amont of free publicity Lupica and his book have gotten and will get from the publicity stunt: priceless.

Horacio Camandulle stars in Adrian Biniez's feature debut, Gigante.

​Gigante is a Mexican supermarket chain Gustavo Arellano has frequently battered around on this very site. Gigante is also the title of a Uruguan film about a chunky supermarket security guard who develops a non-threatening obsession with a floor cleaner during their night shifts.

The Laguna Beach film society presents the debut feature from Adrian Biniez on Nov. 19. 

  

Seal Beach Daily publisher Donna Wares

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Foes of journalism, information dissemination and the written word will be happy to know it's not just behemoths like the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Orange County Register that are suffering. Nor is it solely the purveyors of reportage distributed via the printed page.

Seal Beach Daily, which launched as "an experiment in hyper-local community blogging" a year ago this month, will cease "publishing" on Nov. 30.

Criminy, is there no commercial-editorial model that is safe? Should we go back to investing in town criers? Without print or digital hyper-local news, how will gadflies occupy the hours they are not at city council speaker podiums?

Beats Donna Wares and Kate Cohen. Wares, a writer, editor and college lecturer who worked at the LA Times and Orange County Register, is editor and publisher of Seal Beach Daily, while her co-publisher Cohen, an artist, writer and web designer who also has the Register on her resume, also served as the site's producer. They started SealBeachDaily.com as "one of the new breed of hyper-local news websites--created by professional journalists, serving the community where we live and work." They claim "the response has been tremendous in Seal Beach and far beyond." Looking at the site right now, it's chock full of ads, content and links to other sources of local interest.

Maybe that response was too tremendous.

Photo from Ryan Sheckler's MySpace page

Ryan Sheckler with one of the spoils of his success.

​Matthew Mercuro, the 36-year-old chief financial officer for fellow San Clemente resident Ryan Sheckler's businesses, was arrested and charged today with embezzling more than $365,000 from the 19-year-old professional skateboarding sensation, according to the Orange County District Attorney.

The suspect, who is accused of fraudulently transferring funds to himself from two corporate accounts, has been charged with two felony counts of grand theft with sentencing enhancements for excessive taking over $200,000 and $65,000. If convicted, Mercuro faces a maximum sentence of six years and eight months in state prison. 

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Joshua Steven Rodriguez, 18, of La Habra, was fatally stabbed on Nov. 1, but his death was not officially deemed a murder until a massive search warrant sweep Thursday morning led to several arrests.

Joshua Steven Rodriguez with his mother Yolanda Mansillas and brother Reise Rodriguez (center).

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A fight involving gang members broke out after midnight at a party in the 1000 block of East Francis Avenue in La Habra. Rodriguez, who police do not believe was in a gang, was found stabbed to death just after 12:30 a.m. Two others were sent to the hospital but their injuries were not life-threatening.