Laguna Beach Local News
By Justine Amodeo | Special to the Laguna Beach Independent
Alleging that the City of Laguna Beach violated the California Environmental Quality Act, a citizen-enforced statute, when it amended its Historic Preservation Program last summer, The Laguna Beach Historic Preservation Coalition, Preserve Orange County and Village Laguna filed a public interest lawsuit In Orange County Superior Court on Jan. 11.
Claiming that the City Council’s actions “were both short-sighted and unlawful,” the suit claims the CEQA protects the historic “built” environment to the same extent as the state’s natural resources such as air, water, and forests and that “as a matter of law, CEQA projects that substantially impact historic resources will have significant environmental impacts.”
After a spectacular 15-minutes-of-fame crash and burn that included serious talk of a U.S. presidential bid, Los Angeles lawyer and three-time convicted felon Michael Avenatti enjoyed a quiet 2020 confined to a friend’s Venice home on a court-ordered COVID release from jail.
But while he’s secured about a dozen continuances in his three cross-county criminal cases, Avenatti couldn’t avoid a sanction issued December 23 in an Orange County civil case: a judge fined him $960 for failing to participate in an evidentiary proceeding in a longstanding lawsuit over $5.4 million Avenatti’s former co-counsel claims he stole. Avenatti’s former business partners, attorneys, and wives also are involved in ongoing court action for their dealings with him, and each could end up facing financial consequences much heftier than the $960 sanction lodged against Avenatti.
Royalty may not suffer criticism but government officials will have to under a new settlement agreement that allows the public to call out individual Orange County supervisors during public meetings.
The Orange County board of supervisors gather during a meeting in Santa Ana, Calif. on Tuesday, March 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Amy Taxin)
(CN) The public will have the last word in Orange County, California. The county on Tuesday agreed in a settlement to update its public comment rules and allow speakers to direct their comments at individual elected officials during public meetings.
The dispute might sound like something out of the comedy “Parks and Rec,” or any other satire on small government agencies, but the American Civil Liberties Union says the change will undo a key rule controlling Orange County Board of Supervisors meetings.
THIS week, 15 years ago, hundreds of police officers and members of public listened as a chief constable paid tribute to murdered PC Sharon Beshenivsky saying she had made a difference . West Yorkshire Chief Constable Colin Cramphorn told the funeral of PC Beshenivsky that she died serving the city of Bradford which she loved. Officers lined the streets of the city with heads bowed as the funeral cortege for the officer who was gunned down in November 2005 proceeded behind a horsedrawn hearse. The chief constable joined PC Beshenivsky s husband, Paul, and three of her five children and stepchildren for the service at Bradford Cathedral.
Former OC Deputy Convicted Of Filing False Police Report Syndicated Local – CBS Los Angeles
SANTA ANA (CBSLA) A former Orange County Sheriff’s deputy pleaded guilty Friday to filing a false police report for failing to submit evidence into booking.
Angelina Cortez, 41, was charged with one felony count last September after prosecutors said she took a credit card from a suspect and later gave it to her son who then used it.
Over the objection of prosecutors, an Orange County Superior Court judge reduced the charge to a misdemeanor and sentenced Cortez to 120 hours of community service and one year informal probation, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s office.