2013 Archive Stories

HUNTINGTON BEACH – Police have identified a 25-year-old man who remains in critical condition after they said he was beaten with skateboards on Friday. Viktor Silcock sustained injuries to his head after he was beaten inside the Surf City Laundromat at Goldenwest Street and Warner Avenue just before 8 p.m. Friday, police said. Four

Over a century ago, before modern science, drug companies sold patent medicines like the Parke Davis Cocaine Injection Kit, Bayer's Heroin Cough Suppressant and the Wyeth brothers' Sun Opium Tablets. Coca-Cola, then made with cocaine, was promoted as a medical tonic. Dramatic news reporting on the addictions and deaths of babies, children and ex

Business owners across California are preparing for the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) next year. Starting in 2014, businesses with 50 or more full-time employees will be fined if their full-time workers are forced to buy health insurance because they are neither covered by an employer plan nor eligible for Medi-Cal. The

Kobe Bryant wasn't in the courtroom, but a painful family argument between him and his mother played out Monday before a federal judge.Judge Andrew J. Guilford all but begged the lawyers to settle a dispute over decades' worth of Bryant's basketball memorabilia outside of his Santa Ana courtroom.Trying the case in public, the judge

Balboa and Bahia Corinthian yacht clubs celebrated the start of the boating season Saturday with cannon blasts, bagpipes, boat inspections and pageantry all around."It's a bit like a birthday party," said Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club Commodore Tom Madden. "You have that excitement and anticipation one time a year for the start of boating s

Also: IRS scandal; Sex abuse in the military

ANAHEIM – Joe Blanton is on pace to do something that hasn't been done as long as he's been alive. He'd probably like to keep it that way. Following another hard-hit outing Monday night in an 11-4 Angels loss at Angel Stadium, in which Blanton (0-7) gave up a dozen hits, seven runs and couldn't make it out of the fifth inni

ANAHEIM – Forty-seven outs, the Angels bullpen got Manager Mike Scioscia over the six-game trip in Houston and Chicago. And the rag-tag bunch of relievers allowed precisely zero runs, throwing 152/3 innings of scoreless baseball — albeit against two of the worst teams in baseball. That was the biggest positive sign Sc

So close at hand was hockey Armageddon in Southern California that it seemed too good to be true. It was. The Kings wanted the Ducks. The Ducks wanted the Kings, even if they couldn't say it with a Game 7 against Detroit at hand. The first playoff matchup that fans of both sides have long dreamed of was right there. A rar

Teemu Selanne is a Ducks icon and one of the most beloved athletes to have graced the Orange County sports scene. But at 42, Selanne appeared to wear down as the NHL season progressed and it has become apparent that his role on the team is diminishing before our eyes. A star in the truest sense of the word for the past two decades, the F

Aretha Franklin has canceled appearances in Chicago and Connecticut later this month under a doctor's recommendation.A Monday news release said Franklin will need treatment during the time period that shows were scheduled with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on May 20 and at Foxwoods Resort & Casino in Connecticut on May 26. The

The biggest bright spot from the Angels' 3-3 performance on their recent six-game road trip? According to Manager Mike Scioscia, it was the club's bullpen, which pitched scoreless frame after scoreless frame in the weekend set with the Chicago White Sox. Now, with a three-game series with the Kansas City Royals beginning Monday n

A year ago the Ducks were about to be locked out, which wasn't the worst thing. They had no password anyway. Their best player in 2011-12 was a 41-year-old. They missed the playoffs, decisively. They were 23rd in the league in 5-on-5 play, and in scoring. Their backline looked like a jigsaw puzzle poured out of the box. T

Former Lakers forward Mark Madsen, best known for his bad dancing, is looking to make leave a better impression with Los Angeles area basketball fans as a coach. Madsen was named coach of the D-Fenders on Monday. Madsen, a first-round pick out of Stanford by the Lakers in the 2000 NBA Draft, played alongside Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bry

The Swiss-born American composer and saxophone player Daniel Schnyder lives around the corner from Duke Ellington's New York residence in Harlem. He first heard Ellington, who died in 1974, when he was 11, listening to the big-band leader and composer on the radio in Switzerland. Although classically trained – he played the cello a

LAGUNA BEACH – Steps from the sand at Aliso Beach Park on Friday, Kevin James Finley saw his Costa Mesa High School class ring for the first time since it was stolen 26 years ago. "Oh my God. That's it!" the 47-year-old said, taking off his sunglasses to get a better look. He laughed as he pulled the ring from its gray cloth bag. "

ANAHEIM – The Ducks now turn Honda Center over to the Rolling Stones, without satisfaction or shelter. The winner-take-all game in this first-round series was hanging in their wheelhouse, and yet the Ducks took nothing except a comprehensive lesson in how to come up big. Detroit's 3-2 victory spoiled dreams of a Freeway Ser

Bob Murray, whose moves for the Ducks engineered a major turnaround for the franchise into a Pacific Division champion this season, was named one of three finalists for the NHL's general manager of the year on Monday.

ANAHEIM – The call was memorable simply because Angels play-by-play broadcaster Victor Rojas was able to make it. He wasn't rendered speechless and stuck in an agape state of astonishment with the detonation of another massive Trumbomb. "That is hammered! Oh. My. A big, big fly for Mark Trumbo. Two-nothing Halos. I've never seen a

"Survivor" ended a strong season Sunday night with a worthy winner in John Cochran and plenty of drama and false teeth, so why am I so unhappy Monday morning? The reunion show. Historically, that extra hour is one of the best parts of the season. We get to see all the players together for the first time since episode one, and at

ANAHEIM – Ervin Santana didn't hear from any of his old Angels teammates upon arriving in Orange County this week with his new team, the Kansas City Royals. The Angels signed him in 2000. He made his first major league debut with the club in 2005. He pitched in Anaheim for eight years but he wasn't expecting any phone calls.

I fear that most of us think of Roseanne Barr as a professional annoyance today, but there was a time when she was one of America's favorite entertainers. Her sitcom, "Roseanne," was the No. 1 series of 1989-90 and finished No. 2 in three other years. And in those days, a top-rated show put up viewership numbers that seem impossible toda

It's a monument to the cold-blooded, an inn for those who slither, a schoolhouse for those who fear reptiles. The Reptile Zoo, a herpetologist's Eden tucked within the modest exterior of a Fountain Valley shopping center, is home to an ever-expanding list of exotic reptilian residents. It has been educating and amazing children and adult

Here are the top-performing pitchers and hitters at the top three levels of the Angels' organization, with their expected eventual times of arrival to the majors, if any. Stats listed are as of Monday. TRIPLE-A SALT LAKE Outfielder Brad Hawpe: 21 for 71 (.296), .405 OBP, 2 HR, 15 RBI, Like the

SANTA ANA – Friends and family of Maribel Ramos gathered Monday night for a candlelight prayer, urging the public to be vigilant in their search for the Army veteran and Cal State Fullerton student missing for 11 days. "She has tons of people that love her," said her younger sister, Lucero Gonzalez, moments before the vigil began a