Free Republic

Two Orange County candidates – facing off in a key state Senate race – pushed their platforms to win votes and encourage voter turnout in November during a forum Wednesday. County Supervisor Janet Nguyen, a Garden Grove Republican, and former state Assemblyman Jose Solorio, a Santa Ana Democrat, took part in a 34th Senate District candidate forum moderated by former television news anchor Ed Arnold at the Pacific Club in Newport Beach. A political who’s who from the county, cities and special-interest groups attended. The event was sponsored by the Orange County Public Affairs Association. Both candidates emphasized the importance...

First those Texans took our jobs. Then they took our money. Well, to be precise, Mexican Gen. Antonio López de Santa Anna’s leg. A group of Illinois soldiers stole it fair and square – back in 1845. During the U.S. war with Mexico, Santa Anna skedaddled from the battle on a donkey and left his prosthetic leg behind in a carriage along with a bag of gold and a freshly cooked chicken. A group of Illinois soldiers ate the chicken, gave the Army the gold and kept the leg. One of the soldiers traveled about Illinois charging 10 cents for...

FULL TITLE: "Who is she? Police release photo of 'woman of interest' in photobomb murder as second female is arrested for being in 'gang who brutally beat victim to death'" ----------------------------------------------------- Kim Pham, 23, was left brain dead following the attack in Santa Ana, California, on SaturdayHer life support was switched off on TuesdayShe had been waiting outside a nightclub when she became involved in an argument with another girl, whose friends also turned on herA friend said fight may have been over a spoiled photoVanesa Tapia Zavala, 25, was charged with murder on WednesdayA second woman was arrested on...

A 25-year-old woman was charged Wednesday with the murder of a California woman who was beaten by a group of people while waiting in line outside a Santa Ana nightclub. Vanesa Tapia Zavala was arrested on Monday and is accused of taking part in the Saturday morning beating that left 23-year-old Annie Hung 'Kim' Pham brain-dead. Zavala, who pleaded not guilty to the murder charge, faces 15 years to life in prison if convicted. She was ordered to remain jailed in lieu of $1 million bail and is due back in court January 30th for a pretrial hearing.

Santa Ana has hired away Phoenix's city manager and has agreed to an annual salary and benefits package of more than half a million dollars, instantly making him one of the highest paid city employees in California. David Cavazos, a longtime Phoenix employee who rose through the ranks from intern to city manager during his 26-year tenure, would have a total compensation package of $558,625 in his first year in Santa Ana. Only the city manager in tiny Indian Wells is listed as having a higher salary and benefits package at $677,172, according to the state controller's office, which most...

Maria Hernandez is one of six people Yahoo News has interviewed for our series on Americans who gained green cards under Ronald Reagan’s 1986 law that legalized 2.7 million illegal immigrants.

A federal judge Monday upheld the federal Fish and Wildlife Service's controversial decision to set aside stretches of the Santa Ana River and other Southern California waterways as critical habitat for the Santa Ana sucker fish. A coalition of twelve Inland Empire water agencies have, for more than two years, opposed the habitat designation on the grounds that the move could jeopardize residents' access to drinking water. In an October 2011 congressional hearing in Highland, opponents of the habitat designation said Fish and Wildlife's move could cost residents 125,800 acre feet of water per year and require ratepayers to spend...

SANTA ANA (CBS) — Vector control officials plan to try Tuesday to corral feral cats living on the campuses of two Santa Ana schools in an effort to reduce the flea population and stave off the spread of typhus, a potentially deadly disease. Santa Ana officials announced last week that someone living near Broadway and Washington Avenue in Santa Ana was hospitalized with typhus last month but has since recovered. City spokesman Jose Gonzalez underscored this morning that the victim had no connection with any local schools. Orange County Vector Control officials have been passing out literature to residents in...

Grace Castro should have joined her friends in August for her first year at Newport Beach's prestigious Sage Hill School. Instead, she's mourning the death of a schoolmate abducted from her Mexican private school by kidnappers who gouged out the teenager's eyes before killing him. Grace's life in her newly adopted home in drug-war-plagued Acapulco is a far cry from her childhood about 2,200 miles away in a yellow Craftsman house in the heart of Santa Ana. After 15 years in the United States, a family illness, unemployment and growing hostility toward illegal immigration compelled her family to make a...

Just under 200 feisty protesters with Occupy Orange County marched Santa Ana streets this afternoon, chanted anti-corporate slogans and won supportive horn honks from hundreds of passing motorists. More than two dozen uniformed law enforcement agents--in vehicles, on foot and riding horses--carefully monitored the peaceful protesters as they gathered in a park across the street from the Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse at noon and then zigzagged down sidewalks to a branch of Chase Bank. "Down with Chase, not the human race!" the crowd shouted under the leadership of Theo Hirsch, an outspoken local musician. The high-energy, bandana-donning Hirsch inspired the...

SANTA ANA, Calif. (KABC) -- A Cypress man was sentenced on Tuesday to 25 years to life in prison after being convicted in the murder of his 2-year-old niece. Michael David Balderas, 33, did not make a statement before Judge William Froeberg handed down his punishment. He was found guilty of second-degree murder and child assault causing death on Jan. 25. Authorities say Balderas had received custody his niece, identified as Baby Jo Jade, because his sister was preparing to serve a federal prison sentence. Balderas physically abused the child between January and March of 2006, prosecutors said. Jo Jade...

Politics: Conservative Orange County, Calif., has for years been plagued by an anomaly: The congressional district in its heart is held by a big-spending Democrat. But a flare-up of identity politics may change that. The 47th District spreads across all of Santa Ana, much of Anaheim, Garden Grove and Fullerton. Census data indicate that roughly half the population is foreign-born, the overwhelmingly largest group being Hispanic, with an admixture of vibrant Asian communities creating a kind of blue-color cosmopolitanism in the center of an affluent coastal county. Fourteen years ago, Democrat Loretta Sanchez managed to oust GOP Rep. Bob Dornan,...

SANTA ANA – Supporters of a bill that would have granted U.S. residency to students and military hopefuls in the country illegally expect about 100 people to attend a vigil scheduled for Monday night in Santa Ana. The 6:30 p.m. event at Sasscer Park comes on the heels of last week's failed attempt to pass The DREAM Act—for Development, Relief and Education for Minor Aliens. The act would give those who qualify a pathway to U.S. citizenship.

Note: The following text SNIPPET is a quote: U.S. Consulate General Nogales issued the following Warden Message on May 11: This Warden Message is issued to encourage U.S. citizens to use extreme caution when traveling on Mexican Federal Highway 15 between Hermosillo and Nogales. A U.S. citizen disappeared early on May 3rd departing from his residence in Benjamin Hill, Sonora. His vehicle was found later that day in Santa Ana, and his remains were recovered May 8. He had been murdered. Based on further investigation, a general increased threat to travelers on the highway between Hermosillo and Nogales continues to...

Washington (CNN) -- The U.S. State Department on Thursday extended a travel warning that had been issued for Mexico because of the region's high level of drug and gang violence. The State Department warning also notes that the authorized departure of family members of U.S. government personnel from U.S. consulates in the northern Mexico border cities of Tijuana, Nogales, Ciudad Juarez, Nuevo Laredo, Monterrey and Matamoros has been extended. The State Department issued similar warnings in March and April. The Mexican government said in April that more than 22,700 people have been killed in drug-related violence since December 2006, when...

In this Friday, Sept. 24, 2009 picture, Albert Peterson with the Two Rivers Authority stands outside an empty jail that Hardin, Mont. built for $27 million. The authority wants a California security company, American Police Force, to take over the facility. Michael Hilton pitched himself to the city as a military veteran turned private sector entrepreneur - a California defense contractor with extensive government contracts who promised to turn the rural city's empty jail into a cash cow. But now a much different picture of Hilton is emerging from public documents and interviews with his associates and legal adversaries. (AP...

Obama eligibility case will be heard on the merits !! Please distribute everywhere. At the hearing today at the Federal Court building in Santa Ana, Judge Carter reportedly said the following: 1. There will be a trial. 2. It will be heard on the merits. 3. Nothing will be dismissed on proceedural issues. 4. The trial will be expeditious, and the judge pledged to give case priority. 5. Being a former Marine he realizes the importance of having a Constitutionally qualified POTUS/CINC. 6. Judge stated that if Obama isn't Constitutionally qualifed he needs to leave the White House.

Supporters of a case that disputes the legitimacy of Barack Obama's presidency claimed a small victory today when U.S. District Judge David O. Carter told them to fix their paperwork and that he would listen to "the merits" of their case. But others present for the hearing Monday at the federal courthouse in Santa Ana stressed that the case remains a long way from ever getting a full airing in court and may never get to that point.

In what ultimately could prove to be a turning point in the legal challenges to Barack Obama's eligibility to be president, a federal judge in California has planned a hearing on the merits of a federal court case raising those questions. According to attorney Orly Taitz, who is working on multiple cases alleging Obama is a "usurper" because he doesn't meet the constitutional requirement that only a "natural born citizen" can be president, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter ruled in a hearing today that her case will move forward. (READ MORE AT LINK)

I've posted a video of the Santa Ana California Tea Party Rally that was held on Tax Day - April 15th 2009 on YouTube. The video runs about 9 minutes. If the YouTube servers are not too busy and you have a fast enough connection you can watch it in HD. Here is the Youtube link: Santa Ana Tea Party Video I've also posted photos of the rally on a Picasa site. Here is the link for the photos.Santa Ana Tea Party Photos