Welch

​Santa Margarita High School's football team is coming off a state championship, having won the CIF Division I bowl game on Dec. 16, and all the state's largest newspaper wants is head coach Harry Welch's head.

Placed on administrative leave as the Rancho Santa Margarita parochial school and the Diocese of Orange investigate allegations he pushed or shoved a player before that bowl win, Welch is also being rocked by the firing of Kevin Lawrence Orton, his third assistant coach accused of drug possession.
More >>

​Valerie Plame, whose career as an undercover for the CIA ended when the Bush White House blew her cover in 2003, comes to the UC Irvine School of Law Feb. 17 to give a free talk about her experiences.

Now going by Valerie Elise Plame Wilson, to reflect her marriage to former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, the 48-year-old wrote about her spook career in 2007's Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House.
More >>

​It's a long way from the Gulf of Mexico to UC Irvine, but the institution is close enough for Harvard Professor Richard Lazarus, who delivers the inaugural lecture for UCI's Law Center for Land, Environment and Natural Resources this afternoon.

Lazarus discusses his experiences leading a presidential commission investigating the 2010 Gulf Oil Spill from 3 to 4:30 p.m. in Room EDU 1131 at the School of Law. A reception follows.
More >>

UCI.edu

​Ian Massey has a funny piece in UC Irvine's New University student newspaper about the ultimate Oscar "snub": the nomination denied a certain Moneyball supporting actor.

He would be Mike Gillespie, the head coach of the Anteaters baseball team.
More >>

​It's been a while since we've heard from our pal Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minuteman Project and sworn enemy of Barbara Coe. He does pop up on our comments from time to time, where he smacks down true Know Nothings (as opposed to his misguided immigration philosophy).

But yesterday, Jimbo sent us an email to a story in the Columbia Spectator, the college newspaper of the Ivy League school, that states the campus' College Republicans want to invite him back. Last time he was at Columbia in 2006, a bona fide riot ensued in the auditorium where Gilchrist was scheduled to speak. Roll the tape!
More >>

​Earlier this week, the French Senate passed a resolution making it a crime in France to deny the Armenian genocide, a historical reality accepted by everyone except the Republic of Turkey and many of its citizens. As a result, many Turkish-American organizations in this country are already blasting the French government for kowtowing to what they claim is whiny Armenian propaganda, a vile stance if ever there was one. For instance, the Assembly of Turkish American Associations, headed by Coto de Caza resident Ergun Kirlikovali, just issued this press release that stated, in part, "Genocide is a criminal charge, which a legislature must defer to the judiciary and executive in foreign affairs"--and then accuses France of committing genocide against Algerians. Um, yeah...
More >>

​UPDATE, JAN. 24, 5:26 P.M.: The support Newport-Mesa Unified School District Superintendent Jeffrey Hubbard enjoyed from his Board of Education disappeared into the paneling separating trustees from the public barred from a secret meeting this afternoon.

In other words, the board voted unanimously to can Hubbard, who has been convicted on corruption charges in Los Angeles County and faces prison time. The district's short statement after the jump . . .
More >>

​Speaker of the Palestinian parliament Aziz Duwaik, whose secret meeting with UC Irvine students and faculty visiting Israel in 2009 raised cackles in some corners, was ordered to be held without trial for six months, his lawyer said today. The senior Hamas official, whose name is alternately spelled Aziz Dweik on some news sites, was arrested by Israel Defense Forces soldiers at a checkpoint near the West Bank city of Ramallah last week over his alleged dealings with terrorist groups.
More >>

​A male teacher who fondled little girls at his Garden Grove elementary school and a Santa Ana Walmart was sentenced Monday to eight years in state prison and the burden of having to register as a sex offender for life.

A jury in October had found Christopher Micah Brazelton, 36, of Irvine, guilty of two counts of lewd acts with a child under 14 while also finding true the sentencing enhancement for lewd acts involving multiple children and substantial sexual conduct with a child.
More >>

​"Irvine International Film Festival is Full of Hidden Gems" gives an overview of the inaugural event running through Monday at Edwards Westpark 8 in Irvine, but more advance word is in order for Vic Losick's In God We Teach. Though it mostly chronicles a New Jersey high school student outing his history teacher proselytizing for Jesus, the documentary also revisits Mission Viejo's infamous "Jesus Glasses" case.
More >>