Results tagged “santaana”

A claim that President Barack Obama was born in Kenya and not in Hawaii was dismissed in a Santa Ana U.S. District Court today, reports the LA Times. California attorney Orly Taitz, who apparently is the leader of the "birther" movement, has tried several times to challenge Obama's natural born citizenship with no luck. She's lost in many lower courts and was fined by a federal judge in Georgia for using the legal system for “political rhetoric and insults."

When will we learn? Just because they spray paint cans may seem harmless doesn't mean the people using are not. A man who approached taggers in Santa Ana this morning was attacked, says the LA Times: "The 38-year-old was walking near the intersection of McFadden and Orange avenues just after 2 a.m. when he saw a group of three young men painting graffiti on a wall, said Santa Ana Police Cmdr. Tammy Franks. The man told them to stop. After pausing, the three men, joined by two others, surrounded the man and began hitting, kicking and stabbing him in the torso. The man, whose name was not released, was taken to the hospital and is recovering from injuries that are not life-threatening." He got lucky and we thank him for his bravery. However, many times people are murdered over this. The LAPD says if you witness a tagger, clear the area and call 911.

Welcome a new baby saki monkey to the Santa Ana Zoo! Born on May 18th, the child's sex is still unknown, but zoo officials say it's healthy and full of energy. It is the fourth born to its parents Dakota and Aaliyah. The full family can be seen at the zoo's Tropical Rainforest multi-species exhibit.

There are about 30- to 35,000 bears in California, according to Department of Fish & Game officials. With that many, there's no doubt that stories like this morning's--a 300-pound bear wanders into a Camarillo apartment complex--are surprising. Yesterday around noon, two campers' dog and mountain lion dueled in the Cleveland National Forest outside of Santa Ana. Mountains lions usually want to keep to themselves and Fish & Game officials told the OC Register that they believe the mountain lion was only acting in self defense, therefore, they will not hunt the lion to put it down. If your curious about what to do in an encounter and how to properly live among them, the state has some good webpages about our local bears and mountain lions.

Charity Navigator released their list of the country's 10 Most Inefficient charitable groups, naming two Orange County groups as some of the best for being worst. The ranking looks at the percentage of money spent versus the amount of money actually put towards supporting the cause, and those listed "spend more than $0.50 to raise each dollar in support, making them four times less efficient than the average charity. This inefficiency forces them to devote more than 40% of their budgets to fundraising, limiting the difference they can make with your dollars."

  

Two baby golden lion tamarin monkeys were born last month at the Santa Ana Zoo at Prentice Park. Interestingly enough, this is the second time in 2009 that twins of this species have been born at the zoo--twins were also welcomed in January.

The Santa Ana Zoo has a bunch of new animals including the aptly named bald eagle, Spirit, who "omes to Santa Ana from a rehabilitation facility in Alaska due to a wing injury that precluded her from being released back into the wild," according to a zoo statement. Last month, the zoo's monkey population increased to 52 when twin red-handed tamarin monkeys were born. The two will be available this weekend at the Zoo’s 57th Birthday Party event. Also: the zoo is preparing for the arrival of more animals including a pair of pretty pink roseate spoonbills for the walk-through bird aviary, a sloth, and a giant Amazonian centipede, supposedly one of the largest centipedes in the world.

California is thiiiiiiiiiiis close to having an actual state budget, but it's going to be a tough last battle to get 'er done. KQED's Capitol Notes blog has opted, albeit reluctantly, the newest way to keep groups of people informed at an up-to-the-second rate: Twitter. Although KQED's John Myers says Twitter is "just one more step towards full non-contemplative analysis and writing," it might be the best way to follow "tonight's budget debate/vote/saga." Why the drama? Well, for one thing, it might come down to one vote. "Santa Ana State Sen. Lou Correa, one of only three Democrats representing Orange County, may prove to be the deciding vote for or against a plan touted by the California Chamber of Commerce as the best solution to 'keep our state from going over a financial cliff,'" explains the OC Register. Yikes! Talk about precarious. No wonder Capitol Notes' first Tweet cautions: "Buckle those seatbelts."

The missing charter plane bound to John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana from Catalina was found this morning on top of a hill just west of the island's airport. Three burned bodies were found inside. The LA Times found that the pilot, Mark Hogland, was not licensed to fly commercial flights like the one he allegedly was doing when the plane crash.

It only takes 20 minutes from take off to landing for a plane to go from Catalina Island to John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana. The chartered Bonanza plane, piloted by Mark Hogland, was carrying two others and took off around 4:50 p.m. yesterday with weather causing low visibility. It was supposed to land at 5:10 p.m., but never made it. The Coast Guard was eventually warned, nearly five hours later, at 10:30 p.m. who began and still continue search and rescue efforts.

The National Weather Service has issued a Red Flag Warning for Los Angeles and Ventura Counties for today until 4 p.m. They caution that "Santa Ana winds with gusts up to as high as 70 mph will occur through and below many passes and canyons of Ventura and Los Angeles County through this afternoon. At the same time...humidity levels will remain low with poor nighttime recovery. In addition...warm temperatures in the 80s and 90s will continue. As a result...critical fire weather conditions exist. The mixture of strong winds...low humidities...warm temperatures and very dry fuels will continue to bring a high fire danger through this afternoon across nearly all of Ventura and Los Angeles County."

Santa Ana is gearing up for its November 15th music and arts festival called soundDowntown. They just announced some more artists of the large 50 band line-up that will play at over 10 local venues. Notable bands to LAist are local and national acts such as the The Entrance Band, Mexican Institute of Sound, Bus Driver, Nortec Collective, Int'l Noise Conspiracy, Strange Fruit, Shepard Fairey, Nosaj Thing and The Growlers.

Yesterday morning, it was Encino. Last night, it was Santa Ana when a man who was told by police to leave an area got involved in a struggle with officers. He tried to grab a gun from one officer's holster when the another officer shot him dead, according to police. Several officers had minor injuries.

• In part to honor the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr and in part to "increase the peace" a 40-hour moratorium on violence goes into effect for the City of Los Angeles starting at 6:01 p.m. tonight. Do your part!
• Because "You can't fire me...I QUIT!" lacks that certain je-ne-sais-quoi, perhaps? An employee in the midst of getting the boot today in Industry stabbed his boss with a pocket knife.
• 31-year-old Keven Lee Graff was sentenced to two life terms in prison today for two murders he committed in June 2004. Graff, a former Marine who is homeless, beheaded a 91-year-old screenwriter then murdered his 69-year-old neighbor.
• The mother of the dead baby found earlier this week near a home in Santa Ana has been arrested by US Marshals after a short stand-off in Henderson, NV. 20-year-old Michelle Pedroza used to reside in one of the houses near where the infant's corpse was discovered by a resident.
• A crowd of about 4,500 gathered today to honor firefighter Brent Lovrien, who died on the job last week in an explosion. His services were held downtown at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, and he was remembered as a man with "a true sense of loyalty."
• Actor Chris Rock took the stand for about 15 minutes this morning to testify in the trial of pro-snoop Anthony Pellicano, who allegedly used some shady methods to do is generally shady job. Rock hired the private dick to dig up dirt on a model who claimed the comedian knocked her up.
• Ever wonder if renting a garage is legit in the city? CurbedLA reminds us about housing and tenancy laws in their Ask Curbed column.
• In the days before WeHo, there was grub The Gay Way... EatingLA gives us a culinary chuckle and throwback with a photo of a 1940s era downtown eatery.

...there will be no bubble after all.

Stunts come in all shapes and sizes, but the one planned for next week at the Santa Ana Zoo is absolutely elephantine--at least for one pachyderm named Tai.

God, sometimes we love Orange County. It's such a parody of itself at times, which we admire. Especially when it comes to brilliance like the following found over at Laughing Squid. You see, the city of Santa Ana (oy) wants to help parents determine, via the graphic above, whether or not their child is a rat bastard tagger. The city of Santa Ana's site explains their accusatory and unfair image, along with the final word as to what is and is not art, thusly:

Arthur Paul Carmona, 26, an advocate for people wrongly accused of crimes who was wrongly accused himself and incarcerated for 2 1/2 years as a teenager in Orange County was killed this weekend. His name became widely known when he was arrested when he was 16 and convicted of robbing two juice bars in Irvine and Costa Mesa:

His mother mustered support for her son and political and community outrage followed over police tactics that led to her son's arrest. Support for overturning his 12-year prison sentence came from law firms, community groups, Hollywood actors and the politically active rock band Rage Against the Machine.

Continue reading "Wrongly Accused, Released from Prison, Killed at Party"

Reports of Bigfoot were sweeping across America by the late '50s, but what Charles Wetzel encountered on Saturday, November 1st, 1958 was unlike anything reported in the press. He was cruising in his 1952 Buick Super near Riverside, lending an ear to KFI Radio of Los Angeles, when he had to slow his car further to avoid water that had spilled across the road from the Santa Ana River. Suddenly, the radio began to crackle and then, from the shadows a creature of unthinkable nature emerged, and stood in the middle of the wet road.

Will it be pouring buckets tonight? If you aren't already planning on holing up with some popcorn and Netflix picks, you may want to get out and get your art & culture on. Let us help!

Forget medical marijuana storefronts, the feds have found a new kind of place to storm into -- museums. Today, four Southern California museums, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana, the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena and the Mingei International Museum in San Diego, were raided in an attempt to bust an "alleged illegal smuggling of Southeast Asian and Native American artifacts."

The search warrants, which were executed shortly after 7:30 a.m., gave agents the authority to search the museum's galleries, storage areas offices and computers. The targets of the investigation are Robert Olson, an alleged art smuggler, and Jonathan Markell, the owner of Silk Roads Gallery in Los Angeles, which also was raided Thursday.

Continue reading "Federal Agents Raid LACMA"

Two incidents that took place yesterday in parts of Orange County turned deadly and claimed two lives and injured others.

So far this weekend in the Southland there have been several major freeway accidents that led to injuries, deaths, arrests, and shutdowns.

Photo by jek in the box via Flickr

During the go-go, greed is good ‘80s, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous and host Robin Leach became the symbol of American opulence. It was hard not to aspire for 'champagne wishes and caviar dreams.' Of course these days, there are countless shows featuring the upper crust flaunting their wealth. And like a car wreck, we wretch at the sight of such blatant materialism while secretly keeping our eyes glued to the TV set. So...