Police say a 15-year-old boy was on life support at UCI Medical Center in Orange on Tuesday following a shooting in an alleyway last week, according to the O.C. Register.
The incident happened at about 6:40 p.m. Friday in the 400 block of North Laurel Street, which is in Santa Ana Councilman Roman Reyna’s Ward 5. Police say the shooting was gang related. Continue reading
City of Santa Ana
SANTA ANA, CA. – The City of Santa Ana is excited to announce the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony for the Memorial Exercise Park on Tuesday, November 18, 2014 at 4pm. Memorial Exercise Park, located at 2102 S. Flower Street, will be the City’s fourth exercise park and join locations at Birch Park, Garfield Park and the Maple/Occidental Exercise Area as part of the City’s ongoing efforts to encourage health and wellness in the community.
The new exercise area is constructed under a colorful canvas shade structure adjacent to the Memorial Community Center. Visitors will enjoy nine new exercise stations including a leg press, chest press, sit-up bench, cross country ski, upper body and more. The new exercise area also features wheelchair accessible exercise equipment. Continue reading
“Claudia Alvarez, a trustee with the Rancho Santiago Community College District, says she is “strongly considering” a run,” according to the O.C. Register.
Alvarez, a Deputy District Attorney, spent several years on the Santa Ana City Council. When she termed out she won a seat on the Rancho Santiago Community College District’s Board of Education.
The O.C. Register also reported that Jose Solorio, who just lost badly to Supervisor Janet Nguyen in the General Election race for the 34th State Senate District, is not going to run for Nguyen’s seat on the O.C. Board of Supervisors. Continue reading
MEDIA ADVISORY
For Immediate Release
Wed., Nov. 19, 2015
7:30 PM – 8:30 PM | Kershaw Auditorium
FREE LECTURE & BOOK SIGNING: What It Is Like to Go to War
Meet Bestselling Author Karl Marlantes in Conversation
Bestselling author Karl Marlantes will be at the Bowers Museum on Wednesday, November 19 at 7:30 pm for a free lecture and signing to discuss his latest non-fiction work, What It Is Like to Go to War. Mr. Marlantes will be interviewed by Mary Menzel, Director of the California Center for the Book. Mr. Marlantes is a Vietnam Veteran, a Rhodes Scholar, and the author of the New York Times best-selling novel Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War.
In What It Is Like to Go to War, Mr. Marlantes takes the reader on a deeply personal and frank journey into what it is like to experience the ordeal of combat. Marlantes combines riveting accounts of his combat experiences with lucid analysis, self-examination and thoughts on war throughout history from Homer to The Mahabharata to Jung. Continue reading
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Nov. 11, 2014
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Joel Zlotnik (714) 560-5713/Eric Carpenter (714) 560-5697
OCTA Honors Employees Who Served For Veterans Day
About 10 percent of OCTA’s workforce is former military service men and women
ORANGE – The Orange County Transportation Authority today recognized the service of employees who are military veterans during OCTA’s fifth annual Veterans Day Appreciation event.
OCTA employs 115 veterans from the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines and Coast Guard, representing nearly 10 percent of the workforce. OCTA has been recognized by military organizations as a military-friendly employer for its efforts to actively recruit veterans. Continue reading
A group of local students led by Emmanuel Gonzalez, a Beckman High School student, has organized a protest in Santa Ana against the murder of 43 students who went missing Sept. 26 after a confrontation with police in Iguala, 80 miles southwest of Mexico City.
There are allegations that the Mayor of Iguala and his wife conspired with the police and drug gangs to kill the 43 students who had come to town to collect money and had commandeered buses. Continue reading
City of Santa Ana
WASHINGTON, D.C. (November 10, 2014) – Twelve young people from across the country shared the stage with First Lady Michelle Obama today as they accepted the 2014 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award on behalf of the after-school programs that have changed their lives.
The award recognizes the country’s best creative youth development programs for using engagement in the arts and the humanities to increase academic achievement, graduation rates, and college enrollment. The awardees—chosen from a pool of more than 350 nominations and 50 finalists—are also recognized for improving literacy and language abilities, communication and performance skills, and cultural awareness. Continue reading
City of Santa Ana
Celebrate Our Veterans: Santa Ana Public Library presents special veterans events in November / Honrando A Nuestros Veteranos: la Biblioteca Pública de Santa Ana presenta varios eventos especiales en honor a nuestros veteranos durante el mes noviembre
SANTA ANA, CA – Karl Marlantes, Vietnam veteran and author of What It Is Like to Go to War, stated, “One of the things we have to get over as a culture is avoiding talking about the fact that we’ve been at war…..We have to step up to the plate and say: We’ve been at war and we’re willing to hear what it was like for our veterans, the people who have done the fighting for us.”
The Santa Ana Public Library will present three outstanding events during November for veterans and the whole community. We will listen to our veterans’ stories and honor them for the sacrifices they have made for our nation. Continue reading
We are excited about another year of helping and serving families in need on Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving Day. This year’s Unity in the Community Thanksgiving Spectacular is sure to be Spectacular!
Thanksgiving is a time to be with family, to remember the year that has passed and to be thankful for what we have been given. Thanksgiving is also a time to remember those less fortunate, the needy, the forgotten, and the homeless.
On Thanksgiving Day, November 27, 2014, from Noon until 5:00 PM Operation Warm Wishes, will host and serve FREE ALL YOU CAN EAT-Thanksgiving dinner, with all the trimmings, to families in need, senior citizens, troubled youth, the homeless, those suffering from various illnesses and all in need. This is going to be an amazing event all to help those in need. No one will be turned away! Continue reading
Veterans Day will be even more special this year in Orange County as a group of real estate professionals has stepped up to help a pair of Veterans who happen to be married – and who suffered an unbelievable calamity.
Chris Winterton has served our Country is the United States Army for 11 years as a Staff Sargent with the 1/211 Out of Utah and with the 116th Secor while deployed in Iraq. His wife Sarah, who also served, is currently with the National Guard.
Chris and Sarah met while serving and they were married in 2011. During his 11 years of service, Chris helped build schools in Nicaragua, helped here at home with Hurricane Katrina Relief efforts and deployed to Iraq in 2007. It was during this time tragedy stuck. Chris was injured suffering a traumatic brain injury (tbi) and was hospitalized. But he did not give up! In 2012 he deployed to Afghanistan, just 6 days after his son was born, to serve another tour. Unfortunately, his injuries sustained in Iraq caught up to him and he had to take a medical discharge from his career serving our country. He now deals on a daily basis with supporting his family, PTSD and TBI. Continue reading
Transparency really matters to Santa Ana Mayor Pro Tem Sal Tinajero. It is why he split from Councilman David Benavides’ “Team Santa Ana” in the recent City Council election. Benavides steadfastly refused to compel his Planning Commissioner Phil Bacerra to fill out the mandated Communication Disclosure forms until Tinajero threatened to remove Bacerra from his Commission.
Tinajero had the votes to dismiss Bacerra and Benavides knew it. Mayor Miguel Pulido and Council Members Vince Sarmiento and Angie Amezcua would have likely backed Tinajero.
Now that the election is over it is time for our City Council to get back to work trying to improve our city however Council Member Michele Martinez reacted in typical chola fashion after the election, when she told the Voice of OC that “When I was fighting the mayor before, the gloves were on, now the gloves are off — its bare knuckles.” Continue reading
A 20-year-old woman named Kimberly Camacho was arrested after leading police on a pursuit in an allegedly stolen car through multiple Orange County cities Friday evening, according to the O.C. Register.
The chase began in the 1600 block of East First Street at around 4:28 p.m., when Santa Ana police officers observed a white sedan that matched a description of one reported stolen from Garden Grove, said Cpl. Anthony Bertagna of the Santa Ana Police Department, according to Fox News.
ORANGE COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY PRESS RELEASE
November 6, 2014
SANTA ANA – The Orange County District Attorney’s Office (OCDA) convicted eight men in October 2014 of loitering with the intent to commit prostitution or engaging/agreeing to engage in prostitution. The defendants in these cases approached a woman, whom they believed to be a prostitute, loitering in areas known for prostitution and human trafficking in Orange County. Some defendants agreed to engage in commercial sex with a woman and were subsequently arrested by law enforcement.
The Santa Ana Police Department, Brea Police Department, Irvine Police Department, Garden Grove Police Department, and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department (OCSD) investigated these cases. Deputy District Attorney Kelly Manley of the HEAT Unit prosecuted these cases. Continue reading
ORANGE COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY PRESS RELEASE
Case # 14WF4079
Date: November 6, 2014
WESTMINSTER – The Orange County District Attorney’s Office and the Garden Grove Police Department (GGPD) are seeking the public’s help with identifying potential additional victims of a man charged with sexual assault after meeting his victims through Craigslist. Blaise Ryan Christie, 32, Garden Grove, is charged with two felony counts of sodomy by force with sentencing enhancement allegations for committing the specified offense against more than one victim. If convicted, Christie faces a maximum sentence of 30 years to life in state prison. He is being held on $1 million bail and is scheduled to be arraigned Dec. 3, 2014, at 8:30 a.m. in Department W-1, West Justice Center, Westminster.
Between September 2014 and October 2014, Christie is accused of posting an advertisement on Craigslist soliciting someone for companionship, offering thousands of dollars a week. On two separate occasions, Christie is accused of meeting with 24-year-old Jane Doe #1 and 20-year-old Jane Doe #2, engaging in consensual sex, and forcibly sodomizing the victims. Continue reading
ORANGE COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY PRESS RELEASE
November 6, 2014
Case # 12WF2176
MAN SENTENCED 18 YEARS TO LIFE IN PRISON FOR SHOOTING-MURDER OF RIVAL 17-YEAR-OLD
SANTA ANA – A man was sentenced yesterday, Nov. 5, 2014, to 18 years to life in state prison for shooting and murdering a 17-year-old rival. Reda Hassan Safieddine, 21, Fountain Valley, was found guilty by a jury Sept. 18, 2014, of one felony count of second degree murder with a sentencing enhancement for the personal discharge of a firearm causing death and one misdemeanor count of brandishing a firearm.
At the time of the crime, Safieddine, then 18-years-old, and the victim had an ongoing rivalry. A few hours before the shooting on Aug. 13, 2012, the defendant encountered the victim and argued with him in a residential neighborhood in Santa Ana. After the verbal confrontation, Safieddine and the victim went separate ways. Continue reading