SANTA ANA — A 50-year-old man with a history of arrests for flashing and drug offenses, who pleaded guilty in July to indecent exposure and possessing drug paraphernalia in Fullerton, was sentenced Wednesday to three years in prison. Frank Xavier Vega pleaded guilty July 13 to a felony count of indecent exposure, a misdemeanor count…
In 2013, Veronica Pratt, a transgender woman, was arrested and booked into the Alternative Lifestyle Tank at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga. There, along with other gay, bisexual and transgender inmates, Pratt was kept in her cell for about 23 hours a day. She was not allowed…
Homebuying in what we’ll call the “Beach Blvd. Corridor” — in and around Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley, Garden Grove and Westminster — fell 2 percent this spring vs. a year ago. That’s what we found when we looked at Orange County house hunting patterns at the neighborhood level in 2018’s second quarter vs. the April-to-June…
When the Trump administration proposed opening California waters to drilling on an unprecedented scale, state leaders said they would do whatever it takes to keep new oil operations at bay. But promises only go so far. So some in Sacramento now are trying to lock those pledges into law — safeguarding…
FBI agents earlier this year investigated a series of cyberattacks executed against former Democratic House candidate Hans Keirstead during his unsuccessful bid for Orange County’s coastal 48th Congressional District, according to a report released Wednesday by Rolling Stone. The attacks began in Aug. 2017, when Keirstead – a Laguna Beach stem-cell scientist who was vying…
Following the recent death of dog that was sexually abused after being adopted from an Orange County shelter, county supervisors want to create a coordinated regional system to prevent known animal abusers from adopting pets. Supervisors Todd Spitzer and Andrew Do directed county staff at the board’s Tuesday meeting to pursue the information-sharing partnerships with…
There was no set deadline, but the perception of one seemed real enough. It was a Saturday in early August and Jose Lopez’s downtown Los Angeles apartment looked like a command center of sorts. With a printer set up on the center of the kitchen table, a dozen young immigrants sat with computers in the…
A tarp-covered fence at the Irvine Spectrum Center separates established merchants from their new neighbors, who bustle about readying for their imminent grand opening. Printed across the temporary divider, a message beckons: “Experience the Expansion.” The largest H&M on the West Coast is scheduled to open in the new expansion at the Irvine Spectrum in…
California Republicans say that drivers can have smoother roads, more reliable public transit—and lower taxes. In November, voters will get the chance to repeal a recent increase in the state gas tax and assorted vehicle fees. That tax hike—an extra 12 cents per gallon of gasoline, 20 cents per gallon of diesel, and two new…
From our home — yikes, from our home! — my wife and I watch flames from the Holy fire march in our direction and we chatter about an emergency evacuation plan. But the wind shifts. I get back to work. She runs an errand. And planning vanishes like so much smoke. Fire officials warn: Don’t…
