Results tagged “theoc”

One year ago this Thursday, the Freeway Complex fire broke out. The 30,305-acre fire destroyed 314 homes. Two years ago this past Sunday, the Santiago Fire ignited, eventually burning through 28,517 acres and destroying 14 homes.

Sounds like a tame enough idea: Print up some t-shirts with the school mascot running and make a slogan out of one of those 800 numbers that uses words instead of digits. Only one of the parents from Linda Vista Elementary School in Yorba Linda decided to give the presumably made-up number a whirl and found that number was something else entirely, according to the Pasadena Star-News...

Pet hotels, pet groomers, pet spas, and pet boutiques cater to the needs of dogs and cats--or rather their owners' needs--for the finer things in life. The OC Register profiles Carrie Hyde, the owner of The Spaw, which is a a dog daycare and grooming business in Tustin, as she preps to open up her latest pet-venture, which is described as a "Whole Foods for dogs and cats."

When it comes to making a man's member larger, there are pharmaceuticals, herbal supplements, and pumps that have this very unique market cornered. But rather than employ one of these methods, an Orange County man decided to go with a more homespun do-it-yourself method, with near-disastrous results.

Users of the business-oriented social networking site LinkedIn who are based in Orange County are sick of being considered part of "greater Los Angeles." One user, Laguna Niguel's Sven Johnston, has "spearheaded the campaign to get the O.C. recognition," apart from L.A. explains the OC Register's Jan Norman in a blog post.

To borrow from The Daily Show, but to draw more from its non-satirical roots, this is a glimpse of a true California moment of zen. Taken at Salt Creek Beach, Dana Point. If you put your face close enough to the monitor you might be able to catch a whiff of the ocean air. Then again, you might just look like a tool. Better bet: Hit the beach and chill out.

Lifeguards are cautioning surfers and swimmers alike that a high surf is due to hit the shores of the OC with some pretty serious strength starting tomorrow, according to the OC Register. "The waves are going to be so big from this south swell - the biggest our coast has seen for years - jet-ski assists have been added to this year's Hurley U.S. Open of Surfing so the surfers don't paddle against a raging river all day."

Last November, the Laguna Beach City Council voted to stand with other California cities in supporting the movement to sue the state over the passage of the controversial Prop 8, which outlaws same-sex marriage. Although "7,602 Laguna residents voted against Prop. 8, with 68 percent of the vote, and 3,544 residents, or 31 percent, voted in favor of the initiative," residents were upset with the Council's decisions, and supporters of the ban called for a gathering to be held last night at 5 "outside the City Council's regularly scheduled March 3 meeting," explains the OC Register.

Nothing like a fresh breath of uptight air to balance out our state's rep as being full of left-wing nutjobs: Shoppers in Mission Viejo are lodging complaints with The Shops, a mall that includes the A/X Armani Exchange store. They're upset about the store's current window display, a giant red heart behind these words: "Give Love Get Love" and "Practice Safe Love Armani Exchange supports National AIDS Fund." What's wrong with that? Oh, wait--if we mention AIDS we must be talking about sex, right? Yes, kids, that heart is "made of hundreds of red, packaged condoms," explains the OC Register. It's not clear what the specific nature of the complaints are, just that they began last week, and have been shared between mall management and the store, who are not violating mall policy and may opt to keep the display up if they wish.

OC Pastor Rick Warren has been in the headlines recently thanks to his upcoming participation in the inauguration of Barack Obama as President. Warren's support of California's Proposition 8 has tarnished Obama's message of hope for many, and now Warren's past statements about same-sex marriage are receiving even more scrutiny. Today CBNNews.com published a series of quotes taken from two video messages Warren put online in October and December, respectively, for his parishioners at the Saddleback Church.

Evangelical pastor Rick Warren, who was recently chosen to lead the invocation at Barack Obama's Presidential inauguration, spoke publicly yesterday at the 8th Annual Convention of the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Long Beach, about his stance on homosexuality and California's Prop 8.

37-year-old "Mad Dog" Mike Bell was found dead over the weekend inside a Costa Mesa rehab home called Ramona House. The one-time professional wrestler whose life was the subject of brother Chris' documentary Bigger, Stronger, Faster, "was reportedly 60 days clean when his body was discovered by a roommate who had gone out to get something to eat," according to the OC Register. They add that Bell's brother "said the cause of his brother's death was still unknown but it could be attributed to the 'rough life' Mike Bell lived."

A largely known Prop 8 proponent has been selected to do President-Elect Barack Obama's inauguration invocation on January 20. Rick Warren of Lake Forest's Saddleback Church was chosen by the Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, which is causing the LGBT community to go a little nutsy on the blogosphere.

As the Triangle Complex fire ravaged through Orange County's Yorba Linda last month it devoured numerous pricey homes in its path. Tales of homes going down in flames as firefighters worked with limited to no water supplies began to surface, and speculations that lawsuits would result began to crop up.

After sections of Yorba Linda were devastated last weekend beneath the powerful flames of the Triangle/Freeway Complex Fire, the city now faces another potential natural disaster: Mudslides. The OC Register explains how their city's public works director, Mark Stowell, has been "doing his best to impress upon the residents that the city's bare, fire-blackened hills now pose a huge threat to those homes that escaped last weekend's firestorm." With rains due to fall as early as tomorrow night, residents are not only having to recover from the fires, but also shore up their hillsides and homes with sandbags, in case the dried-out soil can't hold and the mud comes crashing down.

We can drive up to mail boxes, ATMs, and to fast-food windows. Now in Orange County you can do drive-through voting. Imagine that...voting without ever leaving the comfort of your car. It's so SoCal!

Tacos can be exciting stuff, but for one Westminster taco stand things got a little too heated yesterday when a brawl involving about a dozen people erupted outside. The incident took place at Alerto's Mexican Restaurant just before one in the morning, when apparently "a man pulled a gun as one group [of customers] was leaving in their vehicle." According to the officers on scene, "Benjamin Nguyen, 19, suffered a gunshot wound to the chest. Tu Huynh, 21, was shot in the leg," and both were taken to Fountain Valley Hospital. The fight and shooting are under investigation.

Yesterday brought both presumptive Presidential nominees to Orange County to Pastor Rick Warren's Lake Forest mega-church for question-and-answer sessions that overlapped only briefly. It was the first time John McCain and Barack Obama shared the stage for quite some time. Warren posed the same set of questions to each candidate, and both seemed to frequently frame their responses in the context of Christianity in light of their audience, reports KNBC.com. The questions covered several of this campaign's primary areas of interest, including abortion, gay marriage, and other topics from a "range of moral, foreign and domestic issues."

An article in the OC Register today by former Wave newspaper editor Curt Seeden today takes a quick and humorous look at the recent revelation that flip flops are bad for your health. In fact, the shoes formerly known as thongs "can cause arch, ankle, hip and back injuries as well as cancer, migraines, herpes and warts." Seeden explains that the findings came from a scientific study that determined the "flip-flops cause the muscles in the top and bottom of your feet to work against each other, resulting in immediate death." Okay, maybe not immediate death, but most definitely physical strain. So are those shoes many of us men, women, and children in Los Angeles love almost year-'round really "more dangerous than an asbestos martini?" Should we all throw our flip-flops out, or caution to the wind?

TALK*: Tim Sinclair from the Booker T. Washington National Monument in Hardy, Va., will discuss Washington’s story around a traditional campfire at Temescal Gateway Park at 7:30 pm. Born as a slave, Booker T. Washington became one of America's most prominent African American educators and orators of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Fans of deep-fried anything rejoice! The Orange County Fair opened its gates yesterday and will be welcoming crowds in Costa Mesa until August 3. There's tons of stuff going on there from Tuesdays through Sundays, including live performances, kids stuff, carnival games, animals, exhibits, and did we mention the food? The theme this year in the OC is "Say Cheese!" so some combination of cows, photo ops, and dairy products is sure to be in abundance. Die-hard fair-goers, consider this a primer for the LA County Fair, which runs September 5-28 this year.

An Anaheim police officer responding to an 8 a.m. indecent exposure report at the Best Western Raffles Inn wound up shot in the leg on the scene. According to reports, the two officers who arrived at the hotel parking lot saw the suspect near his vehicle, and the shots were fired, although it is not clear if it was the suspect doing the shooting. The suspect fled following the incident and has not been found.

A Fountain Valley High School junior is facing criminal charges after it was determined he sent threatening emails to two English teachers.

Move over, Michael Jackson. An Orange County man has redefined the meaning of "crotch grabber."

Despite having returned back to his post just two weeks ago, today Orange County's beleagured Sheriff Michael Carona, announced his retirement from the job on the Department's blog. Carona is entwined in a mess of legal troubles that extend to include his wife and his mistress, Deborah Carona and Debra Hoffman, respectively, in its web.