U.S. District Judge David O. Carter just issued an order dismissing Laguna Niguel attorney Orly Taitz’s attempt to revive her lawsuit alleging that Barack Obama cannot be president because he was born in Kenya.
Carter dismissed her case in October without going to trial. Taitz then filed a motion with the [...]
Click here for my subsequent story on Pelosi’s speech in Irvine.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s upcoming appearance this evening at Orange County Democrats’ annual dinner has attracted hundreds of protesters from throughout the region, representing broad political spectrum. I even ran into Pelosi’s Republican challenger in next year’s Congressional race.
The [...]
Rep. Loretta Sanchez
Rep. Loretta Sanchez was on the Today Show this morning and said Michaele and Tareq Salahi, the Virginia couple that crashed the White House State Dinner last week , had better “lawyer up” because it’s entirely possible that law enforcement officials are [...]
Mission Viejo florist Joni O'Neill at White House jobs summit.
Joni O’Neill spent almost five hours at the White House today and the Mission Viejo florist said it was the “opportunity of a lifetime.”
O’Neill was one of 130' [...]
Laguna Niguel attorney Orly Taitz had her lawsuit challenging Barack Obama’s presidency thrown out on Oct. 29, but that hasn’t stopped her from filling a new document in the case with a broad array of allegations.
“There was a concerted and a well orchestrated effort by a number of individuals to [...]
Freshman Assemblyman John Perez, D-Los Angeles, appears as though he’ll be the next Speaker of the California Assembly.
Current Assembly Speaker Karen Bass held a briefing with some reporters this afternoon, and while this reporter was too busy with a daily story to attend, The Sacramento Bee is reporting that [...]
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Not so sure that’s true when it comes to the holiday card the National Republican Congressional Committee put out the day after Rep. Loretta Sanchez unveiled her own Christmas greeting.
Here’s what Joanna Burgos, NRCC”s western press secretary, [...]
Assemblyman Jose Solorio today introduced a bill to block the sale of the Orange County Fairgrounds, saying efforts to sell the property have been clouded by “conflicts of interest” as well as other problems.
Solorio, D-Santa Ana, also wrote a letter to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger asking him to halt the sale [...]
President Barack Obama delivering his Afghanistan speech.
President Barack Obama’s decision to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan and his outline of the beginning of an exit strategy along with it didn’t get much support from Orange County’s congressional delegation.
Here’s what [...]
President Barack Obama’s war speech on Afghanistan got mixed reviews from some experts in Orange County. Chapman University political science Prof. Don Will, for example, came away unclear on what kind of government Obama hoped would run the country after U.S. troops withdrew.
“The problem in many ways is more [...]
President Barack Obama arrives for his Afghanistan speech.
President Barack Obama is about to start his speech where he will detail his new strategy for the war in Afghanistan.
The White House just released the text of his speech. The president [...]
The effort to recall GOP Sen. Bob Huff, whose district includes parts of Orange, Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties, was pronounced dead today by the Secretary of State’s Office, because of inadequate valid signatures on the petition seeking to place the measure on the ballot.
In fact, it appears that [...]
President Barack Obama will announce that July, 2011 will be the beginning of the end of U.S. combat troops in Afghanistan.
Reporters had a telephonic briefing a little while ago by two “senior administration officials’’ who spoke to us on background. The president will begin speaking to [...]
With this column in Monday’s paper, I caught up with the activities of the Orange County-based effort to recall Assemblyman Anthony Adams, R-Hesperia. In a nutshell, they submitted their petition signatures, elections officials said their sample showed too many invalid signatures and not enough good ones, and then recall [...]
Jacqueline Nguyen
Jacqueline Nguyen was just confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate as the nation’s first Vietnamese American federal judge.
“Judge Nguyen is a tested judge with a track record of success as both a judge and a federal prosecutor,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said on the Senate [...]
Rep. Loretta Sanchez’s holiday card- the most eagerly-awaited piece of mail on Capitol Hill is here – in your inbox.
Sanchez, D-Santa Ana, has a new twist on her annual message. She’s sent out e-cards and is using the money she’s saving on printing and [...]
Rep. Ed Royce and the State Dinner crasher
Rep. Loretta Sanchez will be on hand Thursday when the Homeland Security Committee questions the head of the U.S. Secret Service and the Virginia couple that got past them and crashed President [...]
During her tenure as executive director of the county Democratic Party, Melahat Rafiei has helped pump up county Democrats’ registration numbers and saw Barack Obama come closer to winning Orange County than any Democratic presidential candidate in more than 30 years.
She landed her current gig in June 2007, and will [...]
The battle map sent out by protesters attempts to cover every possible entry by Nancy Pelosi into the Hilton Irvine on Friday evening, when the House speaker shows up as the featured guest at the O.C. Democrats big annual Harry S Truman dinner.
Self-proclaimed “Tea Party Patriots” will be joined [...]
President Barack Obama and Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church during the 2008 presidential campaign.
In a wide-ranging interview on TV’s “Meet the Press” this morning, Saddleback Church Pastor Rick Warren said people [...]
Rep. Ed Royce and the State Dinner crasher
Rep. Ed Royce is one of the notables who got their pictures taken at Tuesday night’s White House State Dinner with a woman who crashed the party.
That’s right. The leader of the [...]
The president hosted his first State Dinner for the Indian prime minister.
Rep. Ed Royce and his wife Marie were one of a handful of Republicans who got to party down with the president last night [...]
The effort to recall Assemblyman Anthony Adams, R-Hesperia, was pronounced dead by Secretary of State Debra Bowen on Friday, but recall advocates today found cause to hope for a revival.
Recall leader Mike Schroeder of Corona del Mar said some of the rejected petition signatures thrown out may indeed be valid, [...]
The Register’s Cindy Carcamo just filed this story:
Mexican Consul Carlos Rodríguez y Quezada is retiring from his post in Santa Ana on Monday, according to his spokesman, Agustin Pradillo Cuevas. Quezada is leaving a few months shy of two years from when he first came to Santa Ana, replacing a [...]
The Orange County supervisors voted unanimously this morning to urge Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to block the sale of the Orange County Fairgrounds.
The city of Costa Mesa last week agreed to ask the governor to scrap the sale, and advocates call today’s move a critical step toward preserving the fairgrounds. The county’s [...]
Updated with reactions.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s office announced yesterday that the big guy had tapped moderate Republican State Sen. Abel Maldonado of Santa Maria as California’s next lieutenant governor.
“Sen. Maldonado has proven he has the strength and courage it takes to reach across the partisan divide and put the interests of [...]
If it’s the holiday season it must mean that Capitol Hill is waiting to see what Rep. Loretta Sanchez’s Christmas card will look like this year.
For 2009, the Santa Ana Democrat has a new twist. She’s going high tech and is going to send an [...]
Anaheim Deputy Chief Craig Hunter has won the endorsement of a key activist group in his bid to unseat Sheriff Sandra Hutchens.
The OCCCWS — a group that is trying to gain more access to concealed weapons permits – has thrown its support behind Hunter, according to its web site. [...]
Orange County Supervisor Chris Norby has endorsed Fullerton lawyer Shawn Nelson to succeed him as the county’s fourth district supervisor.
Nelson is Norby’s first endorsement since winning a special election last week for Assembly. Norby will advance to a runoff to fill the seat vacated on Sept. 9 by Mike Duvall, [...]
Orange County Supervisors on Tuesday will consider whether to ask Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger not to sell the Orange County Fairgrounds.
The city of Costa Mesa last week approved asking the governor to scrap the sale. And if it passes, the county’s resolution will ask other Orange County cities to [...]
Majority Leader Harry Reid (R) hugs Sen. Chris Dodd. Sen. Tom Harkin looks on.
With just the 60 votes they needed, the Democrats got the okay today to begin debating an $848 billion health [...]
Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark.
Sen. Blanche Lincoln said minutes ago that she will vote to let the debate start on health care reform.
The Arkansas Democrat was the last holdout Majority Leader Harry Reid needed to start deliberations on the most massive overhaul ever of [...]
Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., will vote yes health bill debate.
Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu just announced she’s going to vote later today to allow Majority Leader Harry Reid’s health care reform bill to move to a formal debate.
That [...]
Sen. Barbara Boxer
On the eve of what will be the most important vote ever on health care reform Sen. Barbara Boxer spent 30 minutes making the Democrats’ case for beginning debate on a far-reaching $848 billion bill.
“What we have before us,’’ said Boxer, D-Calif., [...]
Updated Nov. 23 with comments from Mike Schroeder.
The effort of two Orange County GOP activists to recall Assemblyman Anthony Adams, R-Hesperia, was thrown out today by Secretary of State Debra Bowen after it was determined that insufficient signatures had been gathered to qualify the measure for the ballot. Recall proponents [...]
A new Rasmussen Reports poll shows Republican Meg Whitman in a dead heat with Democrat Jerry Brown in the race for governor, a big swing from less than two months ago when Rasmussen showed Brown 9 percentage points ahead and this Field Poll showed him 20 points ahead.
The [...]
Tuesday’s dismal turnout at the polls added fuel to the call to do away with polling places and conduct elections entirely by mail, as is done in Oregon, two small California counties and at least one California city.
Just 9,172 - 4 percent - of the 72nd Assembly District’s voters went [...]
Over on the OC Watchdog blog, we’ve got a report about Democratic State Senator Lou Correa’s mysterious new challenger, Sue Perez, who has filed paperwork with the California Secretary of State’s office to run in the 34th Senate District, but who is still registered to vote in the 33rd.
Loyal [...]
Majority leader Harry Reid and Senate Democrats unveil health bill.
The long-awaited Democratic health bill that Majority Leader Harry Reid will bring to the Senate floor was unveiled tonight after the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the bill [...]
The allegations that Barack Obama is not a natural-born citizen and so is not legitimately president continue to percolate, with an appeal filed Monday with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter on Oct. 29 dismissed without trial a civil suit seeking to [...]
Of course we’ve got to wait out the democratic process to play out Jan. 12 to find out whether county Supervisor Chris Norby will be elected to the state Assembly. And yes, Democrat John MacMurray could still beat out Norby in the runoff election, although party registration in the district [...]
The nonpartisan and highly respected Legislative Analyst’s Office released a report this morning projecting that the state Legislature will have to address a new $21 billion budget deficit by the start of the new fiscal year on July 1, 2010.
This comes, of course, after a brutal year of budget [...]
Sen. Dianne Feinstein
Sen. Dianne Feinstein told Attorney General Eric Holder this morning that she fully supports his decision to bring the masterminds of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to New York City for federal trials.
“I happen to believe that our federal judges are our [...]
Updated with Norby’s and MacMurray’s comments.
County Supervisor Chris Norby, a Republican, has a commanding lead in the race to replace disgraced former Assemblyman Mike Duvall, with 36 percent of the vote. Democrat John MacMurray is second with 28 percent, followed by Linda Ackerman with 20 percent.
29,130 mail ballots have been [...]
The race for Orange County Sheriff is looking pretty familiar with the addition Tuesday of Anaheim Deputy Police Chief Craig Hunter.
With Sheriff Sandra Hutchens and former Lt. Bill Hunt already in the contest, Hunter increases the deja vu. All three were finalists for the job last year, with the Board [...]
Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley tells me that he’ll be posting a tally of virtually every mail ballot he’s received for today’s special election at 8:05 p.m.
Since more than half the votes cast are expected to be mail ballots, we should know the results at that time unless it’s [...]
Sarah Palin’s much-hyped book, a best seller before a copy came off the shelves went on sale this morning.
I’ll have a full column in a few days as soon as I have time to fully read the tell-all book that has the John McCaincamp fuming, political pundits [...]
Rep. Ed Royce has lunch with local midshipmen at U.S. Naval Academy..
To go to one of the nation’s military academies you have to get your member of Congress to nominate you.
Today, Rep. Ed Royce went to [...]
Updated with responses from O.C. GOP Chairman Scott Baugh and O.C. Dems’ Executive Director Malahat Rafiei.
Some have touted the election of Barack Obama has heralding a “post-racial era,” but prejudice swayed some from voting for the black man and is causing many to be wary of his policies, according to [...]
Dena Bunis, Washington Bureau Chief, Martin Wisckol, Politics reporter, Tony Saavedra, Register investigative reporter, Jennifer Muir, BRIAN JOSEPH, Sacramento Correspondent
