You have a day left to bid on a piece of Dita Von Teese, the burlesque superstar who went by Heather Renée Sweet when she knocked around University High School in Irvine. It's not a smooth, milky white body part up for auction on eBay but the stunning beauty's French blue, 1939 Packard 120 sedan.

More »

You never want anyone to get hurt out there, but the chain of events that led a cement truck to become embedded into a Garden Grove residential garage would have been as fascinating to watch as that old Mouse Trap game they used to hawk on the teevee. The marble dropped around 2:10 p.m. Wednesday when the truck, heading north on Brookhurst Street as it approached Brookside Avenue, rear ended a compact car driven by an elderly woman in the same lane.

More »

The Obama White House knew Fisker Automotive was sputtering financially in 2010, a year before a half-billion dollar government loan to the Anaheim-based electric car maker was frozen, the Associated Press reports today. Since the plug-in hybrid Fisker Karma roll out at the 2008 North American International Auto Show, the company has experienced production delays, vehicle recalls, cash-flow problems, Hurricane Sandy wiping out 300 new cars, founder Henrik Fisker's resignation, nearly all its workforce being pink slipped and a looming bankruptcy filing.

More »

See the update at the end of this post with Toyota's statement on the settlement.

ORIGINAL POST, APRIL 5, 4:19 P.M.: Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas today announced Toyota Motor Corp. has settled a $16 million lawsuit with his office over sudden acceleration claims. The case, based on alleged violations of California consumer protection laws, is separate from the federal action in Santa Ana's Ronald Reagan courthouse that Toyota settled with plaintiffs earlier this year for $1.1 billion.

More »

Wikimedia Commons

Don't believe the hipsters: the true throbbing center of SanTana life is the corner of Bristol Street and McFadden Avenue. This is where wabs flock to whenever the Mexican soccer team wins a big game (which, nowadays, ain't often). This is where a massive shopping plaza hosts a Northgate González market, the county's best corn tortillas in La Flor de Mexicali, and a hell of a Bristol Food Court. And due to the area's massive parking lot, this also becomes Ground Zero every Easter weekend--but especially Easter evening--for one of the largest public-street, non-permitted cruising festivals in Southern California.

More »

Irvine is reportedly the sixth worst place in the country to drive through.

That's based on CNN Money rankings that may hold a clue as to how Irvine can afford to be one of America's safest cities.

More »

It's not often you read a police report about a criminal you remember standing on your driveway (unless you are Carlos Bustamante out there, holding a mirror), but I experienced it reading about a fellow who is apparently trying to a pull a con with on-the-spot auto body work in Newport Beach residential neighborhoods.

At least, it sure sounds like the guy calling himself "Tom Amico" is my guy.

More »

Or else?

Irvine BMW is being sued by a Laguna Niguel man who claims dealership employees pushed him and held him down and that a repossession agent punched him as they seized his 2004 BMW 745i.

If you're wondering why the fraud, assault and false imprisonment case is in Orange County's federal rather than state criminal court, that's because the district attorney's office says it could not prove Albert Scott Arditi's case.

More »

Christmas Eve, Newport Beach advertising executive Mike Robertson was expecting the coolest stocking stuffer--if he had a really big stocking, that is: a cherry red, 1989, mint-condition Corvette convertible with 67 miles on the odometer. How he got the car for the same amount originally sought in '89--just shy of $40,000--was a Christmas miracle.

More »

Toyota will pony up $1.1 billion to make sudden-acceleration lawsuits go away, according to a proposal filed in federal court in Santa Ana today. As part of the largest settlement in U.S. history involving automobile defects, Toyota would send cash to eligible customers who sold or turned in their leased vehicles in 2009 or 2010, launch a customer-support program providing coverage for certain vehicle components and retrofit additional non-hybrid vehicle models subject to a floor-mat recall with a free brake-override system.

More »