GARDEN GROVE — It took more than 50 firefighters about 30 minutes to extinguish a two-story apartment-complex fire that forced 12 people out of their homes and claimed the lives of six cats. When firefighters arrived at the complex, on the 13300 block of El Prado Avenue, at about 3 a.m. they learned that one man…
By KEN MORITSUGU BEIJING — China’s burgeoning space program achieved a first on Thursday: a landing on the so-called dark side of the moon. Three nations — the United States, the former Soviet Union and more recently China — have sent spacecraft to the near side of the moon, which faces Earth, but this landing…
ANAHEIM — A big rig lost its load Wednesday night when it struck the La Palma Avenue overcrossing on the eastbound Riverside (91) Freeway in Anaheim. The crash occurred just after 7 p.m. and prompted the closure of four lanes of the freeway, according to the California Highway Patrol. The driver said he was transporting…
GARDEN GROVE — A 30-year-old man was behind bars Wednesday on suspicion of causing an alcohol-fueled, multiple-vehicle New Year’s Day crash on the Garden Grove (22) Freeway that killed a mother and her 9-year-old daughter. Melvin Cleveland Branch of Orange, who was being held on $100,000 bail, was arrested on suspicion of gross vehicular manslaughter…
NORWALK — The coroner’s office Wednesday released the name of a man shot to death in Norwalk. Jose Soto Jr., 26, was a Norwalk resident, coroner’s Lt. Larry Dietz said. Deputies responded at 4:50 p.m. Monday to a call of a gunshot victim in the 14300 block of Carmenita Road and located the person, who…
A shallow magnitude 3.2 earthquake was reported Thursday morning four miles from Cahuilla, Calif., according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake occurred at 7:32 p.m. Pacific time at a depth of 1.2 miles. According to the USGS, the epicenter was 17 miles from Valle Vista, 19 miles from Hemet…
A driver ran a red light, striking and fatally injuring a pedestrian in Fountain Valley on Sunday, Dec. 30, police said Wednesday. The motorist had driven into the intersection of Warner Avenue and Los Jardines West without the right of way, swerved in an attempt to avoid another vehicle, then traveled onto a curb, according…
Roberta Weintraub emerged as a polemic figure in the anti-school busing movement that swept the San Fernando Valley in the late 1970s. Elected to the Los Angeles school board as an activist, she became a coalition builder, being elected president four times during her 14 years as a school board…
The new ice rink at Irvine’s Orange County Great Park was crowded on Wednesday, Jan. 2, with bundled-up kids holding the hand of a parent, laughing teens too cool to wear jackets, and junior hockey players zipping in and out among the slower, less experienced skaters. Great Park Ice, when finished, will host figure skating, youth…
The state agency that enforces workplace law has issued a warning to distribution facilities that they could be on the hook for future fines if they do business with trucking companies that violate wage laws. The warning, issued Jan. 2 by the California Department of Industrial Relations and based on a law that went into effect the…
