Gustavo on The Tom Leykis Show NEXT WEDNESDAY for Monthly ¡Ask a Mexican! Hour!

Thumbnail image for TomLeykis2_sm.jpg
It's never too early to shameless self-promote an appearance, so guess what I'm doing? If it's the end of the month, that means I'll be appearing on the last Wednesday of the month on The Tom Leykis Show from 3 p.m to 6 p.m.--the first hour devoted to Tom and I discussing the news of the month, the 4 o'clock hour devoted to a live version of "¡Ask a Mexican!" and the third hour to some of the best ethnic jokes around on the weekly "Beeeeee Funny!" segment.

What happened last month? Funny you ask!

More »

In with the New, In with the Old: New California Writing 2013, Part I

Categories: OC Bookly
calliveoakimages.jpg
Of all the many ways to read the eclectic, surprising, affirming and resonating pieces in New California Writing 2013, I fell into the perhaps easiest and undisciplined, picking and choosing from those I hadn't already read elsewhere over the past year, then starting over from the back of the collection. Fiction, nonfiction and poems from some of the best journals as chosen by the publisher, Heyday, and its editor, Gayle Wattawa, I am stopping this morning before I'm even done reading to take the measure of what's there so far. Boy, you think you know what's up, and then this volume in the series arrives to reliably tell you the difference between knew and new.  
More »

Maribel Manriquez Ramos Confirmed to be Dead Body; Roommate Held in Murder: Update

Categories: School Daze

See Update No. 2 at the bottom of page 2 on the recovered body being identified as Maribel Ramos' and her roommate being arrested for her murder. Update No. 1 on page 2 was about a woman's body being found Thursday in Modjeska Canyon, and police and Ramos' family fearing it was the missing Cal State Fullerton student's.

Maribel-Manriquez-Ramos.jpg
ORIGINAL POST, MAY 7, 1:21 P.M.: People at Cal State Fullerton are hoping someone has seen Maribel Manriquez Ramos, a 36-year-old student and University Outreach Office worker who was reported missing on Friday. "The circumstances surrounding Ramos' disappearance are suspicious," reads an Orange Police Department advisory issued Monday.

"She is a very bright, up and coming student and literally just disappeared," a friend of Ramos writes in an email asking the Weekly to publicize the case to draw more attention to it.

More »

Christine Daniel, Who Hawked Phony Cancer Cure on TBN, Gets 14 Years, $1.2 Million Fine

christine_Daniel.jpg
An ex-doctor and minister who hawked a miracle cancer cure via a program on the Costa Mesa-based Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) was sentenced today to 14 years in federal prison because her "brown sludge'' was actually made of suntan lotion and beef flavoring. Besides TBN, Christine Daniel, 58, of Santa Clarita, also sold the phony cure through her "wellness center" with ever-changing names in Mission Hills. In addition to the prison stretch, U.S. District Judge Robert J. Timlin, who remanded Daniel into custody following the four-hour hearing in Los Angeles, ordered her to forfeit nearly $1.2 million. When the then-licensed physician and ordained Pentecostal minister was arrested in LA in October 2009, she'd by then taken $1.1 million from 55 families over three years for her herbal "C-Extract." At least six patients died over a six-month period.

More »

Leticia and Noel Carrasco, Mother and Son Robber-Murderers, Draw Life Sentences

Thumbnail image for Leticia-Carrasco_ugliet_square.jpg
Mother and son tag-teamers Leticia and Noel Carrasco received life sentences today for robbing and murdering a man in a Buena Park motel room after momma picked the fellow up in a Stanton bar with promises of sex.

Leticia Carrasco, the stunner at right, can apply for parole from prison in 25 years when she is 78. Noel Carrasco, 27, must spend the rest of his life behind bars.

More »

Babak "Bobby" Azadgilani is a Wanted Man, Suspected of Raping Laguna Beach Woman

Categories: Crime-iny

babak-bobby-azadgilani.jpg
Have you seen this fellow to the right?

Laguna Beach Police suspect him of raping a woman in her home last month.

Officers have tried to arrest Babak "Bobby'' Azadgilani, 26, at his Laguna Niguel home and business, but he appears to be in hiding, according to Capt. Jason Kravetz, the department spokesman.

More »

Sequestration Hits Santa Ana HUD Office with Friday Furlough Days Through End of August

hud-logo.jpg
Due to the sequestration cuts, the U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) office in Santa Ana will close next Friday, May 24, and unless funding relief comes it will be closed select Fridays through the end of August. The field office in the federal building at 34 Civic Center Plaza joins HUD offices nationwide undergoing furlough days.

More »

Feds Still Targeting Medical Marijuana Dispensary Profiled by Weekly

Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for BongBlotter_01.jpg
Jay Brockman
In my dead-tree edition of the Bong Blotter this week, about the ongoing potpocalypse in Orange County, I quoted the wheelchair-bound medical marijuana activist Marla James about her difficulties in finding a location for her cannabis collective, Patient Med-Aid. Patient Med-Aid is a group of severely-ill patients I profiled last November in my story, "Sick Enough to Smoke."

After the feds targeted the club and others in Anaheim, James was able to re-open Patient Med-Aid in Sunset Beach. Then, the cops effectively shut it down by parking a police car in front of the club. James reopened the club but is already shutting it down again. ""We're working with the city to find a location in an industrial zone," James told me this week. "But I have to say it's a bitch to find a landlord who will rent to us."

Now I know why James is having such a hard time finding a landlord.

More »

Safieh Fard, Mortgage Scammer, Gets 5 Years After Guilty Plea, Withdrawal and Conviction

Da Judge
A Newport Beach jewelry store owner, who withdrew her guilty plea in a family mortgage scam case just before sentencing only to be found guilty in Santa Ana federal court anyway, has learned her fate. U.S. District Court Judge Cormac Carney sentenced 52-year-old Safieh Fard to 63 months in prison.

More »

California Assembly Passes Immigrant-Friendly TRUST Act; OC's Dem Assemblymembers Join GOP in Not Voting for It

Thumbnail image for Sharon Quirk Silva fullerton 8.jpg
Assemblywoman Quirk-Silva
The Trust Act made its way once more through the California Assembly yesterday by a final vote of 44-22. The legislation was vetoed late last year when it reached the desk of Democratic Governor Jerry Brown. Supporters say the bill authored by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano will limit deportations fueled by the fingerprint-sharing federal Secure Communities program while restoring confidence between law enforcement and largely immigrant, Latino communities. It heads to the Senate next.

Locally, our ostensibly Democrat assemblymembers joined the state's troglodytic GOP in not supporting the bill. Assemblyman Tom Daly, whose 69th District is the most heavily Latino in Orange County, unsurprisingly voted against it. Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva, who edged out Republican Chris Norby last year thanks in no small part to the demographics and boundaries of the newly drawn 65th District, abstained.

More »

From the Vault

 

Links

©2013 OC Weekly, LP, All rights reserved.
Browse Voice Nation
  • Voice Places Orange County

    Voice Places

    Find everything you're looking for in your city

  • Happy Hour App

    Happy Hour App

    Find the best happy hour deals in your city

  • Daily Deals

    Daily Deals

    Get today's exclusive deals at savings of anywhere from 50-90%

  • Best Of

    Best Of...

    Check out the hottest list of places and things to do around your city