Santa Ana News

Multi-colored fliers line the walls outside Grand Central Art Center's Main Gallery.

Sixty three year-old LAUSD teacher Mark Berndt has been charged with 23 counts of lewd acts on children. Berndt allegedly regularly told children they were going to play a “tasting game”, then blindfolded them and in some cases put tape over their mouths. He then fed students a “milky” substance on a spoon and on top of cookies. Later DNA testing confirmed that this substance was indeed Berndt’s own semen. He also ran cockroaches over the faces and mouths of the children. Berndt took pictures of these encounters, according to USA Today.

Berndt is going to keep getting his benefits – and he even kept his job back in 1993 when he was first charged with molestation. And he got a $40K payment so that he would retire. How did all this happen? Because of rules that the teachers’ union bartered for – the same union that is now supporting ultra-liberal Democratic Assembly candidate Julio Perez, who is running for the 69th A.D.

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SANTA ANA - A five-year veteran with the Orange County Sheriff's Department has been arrested for allegedly engaging in sexual activities with a male inmate.

SANTA ANA Before sentencing a 13-time DUI offender to six years in state prison Friday for violating probation, Judge Thomas H. Goethels gave the defendant a stern lecture.

Remember when Supervisor Janet Nguyen bullied her fellow Supervisors into appointing her to the CalOptima board for two more years? Well now we know why. ”A $250-per-person campaign fundraiser for Supervisor Janet Nguyen will be held Feb. 28 at the home of Dan Brothman, the CEO of Santa Ana’s Western Medical Center,” according to the Voice of OC.

The “Tribute to Supervisor Janet Nguyen” follows Nguyen’s successful drive last year to give hospitals a permanent seat on the board of the $1.4-billion CalOptima health plan for Orange County’s poor and elderly.

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An El Monte man was sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for killing a prostitute in a Garden Grove hotel.

SANTA ANA - A 47-year-old patient care assistant at Saddleback Memorial Medical Center was charged Friday with sexual assault and battery stemming from two alleged incidents.

SANTA ANA Two teenagers have been arrested on suspicion of killing an Irvine man during a robbery attempt near Artist Village in 2010, police said.

This is an update to my previous Wednesday February 8 posting with some good news.

An Orange County sheriff's deputy is facing criminal charges for allegedly having sex with an inmate at a jail facility in Santa Ana, officials said.

The checkpoint will be staffed by officers trained in the detection of alcohol and drug impairment, Santa Ana police said.

The work week ends with mostly sunny skies and cooler temperatures Friday before the weather makes a sharp turn: clouds and fog rolling in overnight that could bring light rain or drizzle.

Hot fun in the winter time? Maybe in Southern California as the Coachella Valley's Thermal and Orange County's Santa Ana tied today for hottest locales in the country.

At the City Council meeting Wednesday night, the city manager was the only city official to address the pink slips handed out the prior day.

A man was convicted Thursday of crimes related to breaking into a Garden Grove home and exposing himself to a woman and her grandchildren, authorities said.

The first of two open houses was held this week, with the second coming up on Saturday, Feb.

Q. I was talking to another driver about those long charter buses and how they are always speeding.

“Matthew Harper, a top aide to Supervisor Janet Nguyen, was quietly transferred this month from Nguyen’s office to OC Waste & Recycling as a public affairs manager. The move raised a few eyebrows in the supervisors’ fifth-floor offices in the county Hall of Administration,” according to the New Santa Ana blog.

Harper was a close friend of Supervisor Nguyen for many years, so why hasn’t she endorsed him, in his race for the 72nd Assembly District? Harper has picked up the endorsement of two other Supervisors, Vice Chair Shawn Nelson and Supervisor Pat Bates. But why hasn’t Nguyen elected to support her friend and former employee? As far as we know she also hasn’t contributed to his campaign coffers.

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After a wild brawl in which he allegedly stabbed and killed two Mission Viejo men last June, a battered Justin Alvin Maseo Tombleson slept with his girlfriend until 8 a.m., then browsed a local swap meet with her and her parents.

GARDEN GROVE A man suspected of stabbing another man during an argument at a Santa Ana apartment was taken into custody Thursday afternoon after he was stopped in Garden Grove, police said.