Although the media in Orange County and everywhere else continued to be dominated Monday by reactions to Osama bin Laden’s death, other local news did get reported, in fact, quite a bit.
Voice of OC’s Tracy Wood comes with the latest from the county’s Ending Homelessness 2020 Board. Things are “complicated” on the board, which still hasn’t found an executive director to lead the initiative.
Wood also checks on the $75 million bond deal struck by the city of Anaheim and billionaire Henry Samueli when they thought the NBA’s Sacramento Kings were coming to town. That deal died when the Kings decided to stay put, at least for a year.
The Liberal OC has a fascinating take on the calendars for Orange County supervisors. Funny how something so simple as a request for a calendar seems to have triggered numerous legal reviews.
Geoff West over at the Bubbling Cauldron blog in Costa Mesa has some fun combing through the new “warrants” feature the City of Costa Mesa just launched, a bit like looking at someone’s check registry.
West does an excellent job of connecting potential dots figuring that the city may have spent $137K to settle a lawsuit for $40K. He’s also got an interesting take on City Councilman Jim Righeimer’s bid to expand fireworks sales in Costa Mesa at Tuesday’s council meeting as well as a probing look at the transition at City Hall.
The Daily Pilot spilled quite a bit of ink this morning on profiles of Costa Mesa Councilman Steven Mensinger and local teacher Joel Flores, whom, as you might recall, went at each other over the city’s outsourcing plan a couple weeks ago after a fun run held in the city.
Lauren Williams’ piece on Mensinger alternately quotes people who describe him as a dedicated volunteer in the community and others who say he can be a bully.
Joseph Serna, meanwhile, filed a largely glowing portrait of Flores, who teaches at Estancia High School and has become aligned with the group that is fighting the outsourcing plan.
In other Costa Mesa news, Williams writes that the city announced plans to hold weekly public meetings on the budget.
The LA Times is all over the fact that the Cal State Senate can’t agree that felons shouldn’t get a pension.
The Times also reports that the state Democratic Party is pondering whether to try to focus on places like Orange County?
The Orange County Register’s Randy Youngman says Kings fans shouldn’t go overboard in celebrating the decision by the NBA team’s owners to stay another year in Sacramento. He says its unlikely that the cash-strapped city will produce a new arena or anything else that will keep the team for the long term.
Resident Register Watchdog Teri Sforza writes about the redundant water districts of Orange County — the Orange County Water District and the Municipal Water District of Orange County — perhaps trying to shed some of their redundancies.
The Register’s Claudia Koerner has an interesting look at Laguna Beach’s attempt to control outdoor lighting with an ordinance.
Richard Chang reports that the director of the Laguna Beach Art Museum has resigned.
And if all that isn’t enough, the Dalai Llama will visit UC Irvine on Wednesday.