Tag: Southern California OC News

Big Bear Receives More Snowfall This Week Than Average Year

Big Bear Mountain—home to one of Southern California’s premiere ski resorts tucked in the San Bernardino National Forest—received more snowfall this week than it normally receives in a year, according to a spokesperson for the resort. During the week, snowfall exceeded more than 100 inches—the retreat’s yearly average—resort spokesman Justin Kern told The Epoch Times on Friday….


Orange County Man Faces 140 Years in Prison for 1990s’ Rapes

SANTA ANA, Calif.—A 57-year-old man was convicted Feb. 23 of raping a 9-year-old girl and a woman who was jogging in south Orange County in the 1990s, and sexually assaulting the 12-year-old daughter of his live-in girlfriend. Kevin Michael Konther, who is scheduled to be sentenced March 21, faces 140 years to life in prison….


Southern California Mountains Hit With First Blizzard Warning in 33 Years

Much of California’s southern mountain region is under an unprecedented blizzard warning—the first in over three decades—until Friday afternoon, the National Weather Service announced Feb. 23. Mountains in several counties—Los Angeles, Ventura, San Bernardino, and Santa Barbara—fell within the weather service’s blizzard advisory, with “heavy snow, winds gusting up to 80 mph, and near zero…


Man Carjacked at Gas Station in Garden Grove

GARDEN GROVE, Calif.—Garden Grove police asked for the public’s help Feb. 22 identifying three suspects involved in a violent carjacking at a gas station. Police were dispatched just after 5 a.m. to the 76 Gas Station at 12512 Knott St. Monday regarding the attack, police said. The victim was getting gas when one of the…


Garden Grove Carjacking Caught on Camera, 3 Suspects at Large

GARDEN GROVE, Calif.—Garden Grove police asked for the public’s help Feb. 22 identifying three suspects involved in a violent carjacking at a gas station. Police were dispatched just after 5 a.m. to the 76 Gas Station at 12512 Knott St. Monday regarding the attack, police said. The victim was getting gas when one of the…


Balloons Banned by Laguna Beach City Council

The Laguna Beach City Council voted unanimously Feb. 21 to finalize a ban on balloons in public, whether inflated or not. Beginning in 2024, balloons cannot be sold or bought in the city, nor used on public property,  but they can still be used by residents in private. Penalties would be a $100 fine for…


Huntington Beach Finalizes Vote Limiting Flags Flown at City Facilities

The Huntington Beach City Council voted 4–3 Feb. 21 to give final approval to an ordinance that only allows city facilities to display government flags—those representing the city, county, state, nation, the six branches of the military, and prisoners of war or those missing in military action. Councilmembers who voted against the policy said they…


Southern Baptists Oust Saddleback Megachurch, 4 Others for Appointing Female Pastors

The Southern Baptist Convention—a protestant Christian denomination with over 47,000 churches nationwide—voted Feb. 21 to remove Saddleback Church from its group for recently appointing a woman as a pastor. The Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee ousted Saddleback’s membership—along with four other churches—“on the basis that the church has a faith and practice that does not…


Landlords Sue Santa Ana Over ‘Unconstitutional’ Tenant Protections

An Orange County landlord group is seeking to overturn the protections against rent increases and evictions enacted by Santa Ana, Calif., in 2021. The Apartment Association of Orange County—who filed a complaint in the Orange County Superior Court against the city on Feb. 14—called the city’s rent control ordinance “unconstitutional” in a statement. “The city’s…


Nixon Library Brings History to Life at Presidents’ Day Celebration

The Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California, celebrated Presidents’ Day Feb. 20 with day-long festivities with free pie, presidential re-enactments, and half-off tickets. Visitors are greeted by president lookalikes of George Washington, Ulysses S. Grant, Abraham Lincoln, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Andrew Jackson—each sharing memorabilia from the former leaders’ lives, followed by…