A music trailblazer celebrates 106th birthday Viola Smith, one of the first professional women drummers of the 20th century, recently celebrated her 106th birthday. The Costa Mesa resident is still going strong, teaching techniques to the drummer for Piecemakers Band. Smith started as a professional drummer at the age of 13 in an all-girl orchestra formed…
Rain and snow are expected to hit Southern California this weekend, according to the National Weather Service. “Over the weekend, a Pacific trough moving inland across California will bring clouds and a good chance for showers and mountain snow,” according to a statement from the NWS. The bulk of the precipitation is predicted to fall…
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…
