Orange County, California

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Ex-Official Admits to Scheme Taking COVID Relief Money

Funding was intended to feed elderly and disabled people in Southern California

(Newser) - A high-ranking elected official in Southern California has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery in a far-reaching scheme that misused COVID-19 relief funds that should have been used to feed the elderly. Andrew Do, who recently resigned as an Orange County supervisor, entered the plea in federal court in...

Cops: They Flashed Fake Badges, Then Robbed Victims

Vasile Alexandru, 19, and Laurentiu Baceanu, 20, faked being ICE agents in California's OC, cops say

(Newser) - On Thursday, two back-to-back robberies in Orange County, California, captured law enforcement's attention for their similar MO: Two men in a blue SUV going up to their victims, claiming they were Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, then robbing them. Now, police in Anaheim say they've detained two men...

Secret Service Agent Has Scary Night After Biden Gala

Agent robbed at gunpoint in LA suburb of Tustin, fired gun, police say

(Newser) - In Los Angeles on Friday, President Biden appeared at a reelection fundraiser for himself alongside such notables as former President Obama, George Clooney, and Julia Roberts. Meanwhile, just miles away in a nearby suburb, one of his Secret Service agents got caught up in a robbery. Police say they were...

Camp Pendleton Marine Held in Planned Parenthood Attack

California clinic was firebombed last year

(Newser) - An active-duty Marine was arrested Wednesday on federal charges in the firebombing of a Planned Parenthood clinic in California last year. Chance Brannon, 23, of San Juan Capistrano, who is stationed at Camp Pendleton, was taken into custody along with Tibet Ergul, 21, of Irvine, KTLA reports. Both are charged...

Mom Who Urged Daughter to Punch Opponent Must Pay Up

Latira Shonty Hunt ordered to pay $9K in restitution

(Newser) - Update: The woman who instructed her 14-year-old daughter to hit an opposing player during a basketball game, an act that resulted in a concussion, will have to pay. A judge this week ruled that Latira Shonty Hunt, 44, of La Puente, Calif., must pay $9,000 in restitution; write a...

Woman Flees Home, Describes Torture, Rape Over 6 Months

Peter McGuire of Chino Hills, Calif., arrested Saturday, is held without bail

(Newser) - Though a sheriff's deputy responded numerous times to a California home where a young woman was held captive and tortured over six months, help remained elusive until she managed to escape on her own Thursday, according to authorities. The 22-year-old woman, who'd unknowingly moved in with a man...

Sheriff's Deputy Stole From Dead People

Steve Hortz pleads guilty to burglary, grand theft in Yorba Linda, Calif.

(Newser) - Update: A former sheriff's deputy in California has pleaded guilty to stealing from the homes of dead people. Steve Hortz, a 12-year veteran of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, found the body of a man who died of natural causes at a Yorba Linda home in July 2020...

Man Allegedly Attacks 'Murderers' at Vaccine Clinic

Staffer ends up in the ER, and Thomas Apollo was arrested in Orange County

(Newser) - The COVID situation turned ugly in California's Orange County last week, with a man arrested and accused of attacking workers at a vaccine clinic. Staffers at the Families Together mobile clinic in Tustin say the man began calling them "murderers" and perpetrators of a COVID hoax from the...

Basketball Legend's Son Sentenced, and DA Isn't Happy

Adam Abdul-Jabbar, son of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, stabbed a neighbor over trash cans

(Newser) - Update: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's 29-year-old son was on Tuesday sentenced to six months in jail for stabbing his 60-year-old neighbor after being scolded about taking in some trash cans last June. Prosecutors had wanted Adam Abdul-Jabbar to serve seven years and opposed the plea deal offered by the judge, a...

Oil Spill Reaches California Beaches

Dead fish, birds already have washed up along shoreline

(Newser) - A major oil spill has reached the sands of Southern California, killing birds and fish and forcing the closure of beaches. A cleanup operation of the slick that the Coast Guard said covers about 13 square miles. The spill was reported Saturday, and by Sunday, oil had washed ashore, bringing...

Wildlife Officials Seek Info on 'Atrocious Act' Against Pelicans

Authorities say dozens of seabirds are being intentionally injured in Southern California

(Newser) - "WHO'S MUTILATING PELICANS?" That was the all-caps question posed last week by Orange County's Wetlands & Wildlife Care Center after dozens of brown pelicans turned up along the Southern California coastline with serious injuries that appear to have been intentionally caused by a human. In a Facebook...

Amid Fierce Winds, 100K Ordered to Flee California Fires

2 firefighters critically injured near Irvine

(Newser) - California prepared for another round of dangerous fire weather Tuesday even as crews fought a pair of fast-moving blazes in the south that critically injured two firefighters and left more than 100,000 under evacuation orders. Some of the fiercest winds of the fire season drove fires up and down...

1971 Racist Comments Again Have Airport's Name in Play

John Wayne advocated white supremacy in interview

(Newser) - "I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility," actor John Wayne said in a 1971 interview. Those views—and quite a few others—are catching up to him. The Democratic Party of Orange County wants Wayne's name removed from the...

Surfers' Grisly Find: 'Like One of Those Dateline Stories'

Woman's body found in California waters; Orange County officials deem death 'suspicious'

(Newser) - A morning in California waters turned gruesome for a bunch of surfers this week when they stumbled across a woman's body—a death now being deemed "suspicious" by local officials. The San Clemente Times reports that the surfers came across the body around 8am Wednesday, in the ocean...

Cougar Was Dragging Boy by the Neck. Then, a Distraction

Animal, found with backpack hurled by father, is euthanized

(Newser) - A 3-year-old boy is recovering in Southern California after a mountain lion bit him on the neck. The boy was leading his family—two adults and three other children—on a walk through Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park in Lake Forest around 4pm Monday when the cougar appeared, seized the boy...

California Teens Pictured at Party With Swastika, Giving Nazi Salute

Photograph went viral, led to outcry

(Newser) - A California school district is investigating a social media photograph in which young people are seen giving Nazi salutes while standing around a table on which red cups form a swastika, the AP reports. The Newport-Mesa Unified School District was made aware Sunday of social media postings "involving some...

Experts Say Prosecutor Can't Seek Execution in 1973 Killing

After an arrest, district attorney said he could ask for the death penalty

(Newser) - A prosecutor has announced he might seek the death penalty in the case of an 11-year-old girl sexually assaulted and slain more than four decades ago, NBC reports. But Linda O'Keefe was killed in Newport Beach in 1973, in a period when California didn't have the death penalty—...

Small Plane Falls Apart Over Calif. Neighborhood
5 Dead After Plane Parts
Hit California Homes
UPDATED
Feb 4, 2019 12:45 AM CST

5 Dead After Plane Parts Hit California Homes

Cessna fell apart over Yorba Linda

(Newser) - Five people died and two others were injured after a small plane apparently came apart, dropping parts that scattered across a southern California neighborhood Sunday and ignited a house fire before landing in a backyard, witnesses and authorities say. The crash shook the Yorba Linda neighborhood about 2pm after the...

With a 6th Seat Flipped, Calif. Dems Cement a Rout in House

Gil Cisneros defeats Republican in Orange County, Richard Nixon's birthplace

(Newser) - Democrat Gil Cisneros captured a Republican-held US House seat in Southern California, capping a Democratic rout in which the party picked up six congressional seats in the state. In what had been the last undecided House contest in California, Cisneros beat Republican Young Kim for the state's 39th District...

Warning Issued From Helicopter: You Are Next to 15 Great Whites

Paddle-boarders were advised to leave water calmly in California

(Newser) - A sheriff's helicopter crew warned a group of paddle-boarders to get out of the ocean after spotting more than a dozen great white sharks along the Southern California coast. Video posted online by the Orange County Sheriff's Department shows a school of sharks swimming near several people in...

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