​A divided Newport Beach Park, Beaches and Recreation Commission voted 4-3 Tuesday night to ban and remove fire rings from city beaches. A ban advocate told the panel exposure to smoke from the 60 rings can aggravate asthma, bronchitis and lung disease, and being a seasonal sufferer of at least two of those maladies I can relate. But that's not why I wouldn't be happier if the pits were verboten.
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​A week after the Weekly reported that local business Bob's Towing had sued the Fullerton Police department for harassment, the department fired back with a salvo of its own. Tuesday's city council meeting saw the embattled department unveiling a nearly 600 page report detailing a  year-long investigation of six service providers who competed for a city franchise. More >>

​Ronald Reagan is back at Bonita Canyon Sports Park in Newport Beach--and this time he wants blood.

Actually, it's a statue of the Gipper that has risen from the ashes--and to its full and upright position--after the city paid $6,500 to repair the bronze figure that was bent by would-be Dutchnappers last November.
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Harry Sidhu

​As expected, Anaheim City Council members Kris Murray, Gail Eastman and Harry Sidhu failed to show up to last night's special meeting regarding their votes last week approving nearly $160 million in bed-tax subsidies to the developer of two Disney Resort-area hotels.

About 75 residents and community activists showed up, but with no quorum to reverse, postpone or at least discuss the sweetheart deal for the GardenWalk hotel partnership, it is scheduled to go into effect today.
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​UPDATE, JAN. 31, 10:58 A.M.: What if you threw an Occupy-type protest over $158 million in taxpayer handouts being given to a hotel developer and no one showed up to hear it? That could become a reality tonight should three Anaheim City Council members who last week approved tax subsidies to the GardenWalk hotel partnership play hooky from a special meeting called by Mayor Tom Tait. Councilwoman Lorri Galloway, who like Tait voted against the funding, reportedly received emails from colleagues Kris Murray, Gail Eastman and Harry Sidhu saying they'll be no-shows tonight.
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​The County of Orange has been sued, scolded and ordered to reduce jail overcrowding for years. Just as regularly, attempts to expand the number of beds at the James A. Musick Facility in Irvine have been met with resistance--and court battles--from that city and nearby Lake Forest.

It's happening again: Irvine is reportedly suing the county over a plan to add 512 beds to the minimum-security jail.
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​City Attorney Joseph A. Fletcher left the cracked streets of Santa Ana a January ago with more than $605,000 in salary, severance and benies, and new data released by the State Controller show that brought him this "distinction":

Fletcher earned more in 2010 than any other municipal employee in California except "Jabba the Corrupt" Robert Rizzo of Bell.
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​Governor and Norcal Democrat Jerry Brown and Assemblyman and OC Republican Chris Norby don't agree on much, but they do see graying eyebrow to graying eyebrow on abolishing local redevelopment agencies to help close the state budget gap. Today, they and other RDA opponents scored a victory when the California Supreme Court upheld outlawing the money-suckers.
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Agran (at right): Can he finally do something progressive after years of being a tool?

​This summer, the city of Irvine and its apologists made much about its decision to force any contractors doing work for the city to pay its workers a living wage, that progressive wet dream in effect wherever former Mechistas sit on city councils.

The announcement made it seem as if Irvine really is a wonderland where no exploitation is allowed, and everyone who lives, works, and plays in the city is middle-class except those stray Mexicans that invade their parks every once in a while. Of course, the devil is in the details, and one key group of workers on Irvine land is excluded from a living wage: farmworkers at the Great Park.
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​Today's city of Santa Ana announcement that it is ending elephant rides at Santa Ana Zoo was cheered by animal rights activists. "Following more than a year of pressure from PETA, the Animal Protection and Rescue League, Animal Defenders International (ADI), and celebrities including Charo and Switched at Birth star Constance Marie, the city of Santa Ana's decision today to cease elephant rides at the Santa Ana Zoo is spot on and puts the facility in the company of more than 220 other accredited zoos that do not provide these cruel and dangerous rides," reads an email from David Perle, senior media coordinator with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
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