Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/author/nsantana/)
Norberto Santana, Jr. is an award-winning investigative reporter with nearly two decades reporting experience, most recently engaging Orange County government institutions and decision makers as the founding publisher of the nonprofit digital newsroom, Voice of OC. As publisher, Santana oversees all newsroom, engagement and fundraising operations and also writes a weekly Opinion column about Orange County government. In 2017 and 2018, the Orange County Press Club recognized Santana as Orange County’s best columnist. Before founding Voice of OC in 2009, Santana was a lead investigative reporter for the Orange County Register from 2004-2009, focusing on county government. He’s spent nearly two decades just focusing on local governments across Southern California, previously as a staff writer with outlets such as the San Diego Union Tribune and the San Bernardino County Sun. Santana began his journalistic career in the early 1990s as an apprentice reporter with Congressional Quarterly in Washington, D.C. covering daily floor action in the U.S. Congress and followed that up with a stint covering the territorial Senate for the U.S. Virgin Islands Daily News. In addition to his experience as a journalist, the Southern California native has a master’s in Latin American Studies, has worked as an elections analyst on National Endowment for Democracy programs across Latin America and was one of the founders of CubaNet.org, a website featuring the work of dissident journalists inside Cuba that has operated since 1995. Languages spoken: English and Spanish Areas of expertise: Orange County, southern California, investigations, politics, elections, government transparency, Congress, Latin America, local government, civic education and reporting education.
As the Angels’ development bid for the heart of Anaheim moves forward at a fastball pace, planning commissioners examine the process – without live public comment.
The County of Orange this past month installed a new County Health Officer with limited background and also tasked him with running the county’s billion dollar Health Care Agency.
New numbers from the beleagured County Health Care Agency – showed nearly half of 2,000 restaurants inspected since June had a “COVID non-compliance rate of approximately 40%.”
The County of Orange is failing taxpayers when it comes to disseminating public information about the coronavirus pandemic.
Supervisors are again expected to hear a proposal that would ask voters this coming November to consider creating a three-term, 12-year life term limit for county supervisors.
OC supervisors today are expected to consider placing an initiative on the November ballot establishing a lifetime, three-term limit for a county supervisor.
Going into Tuesday’s supervisors’ meeting, it looks as if there’s no official appetite to put the renaming issue up for a formal discussion, much less a vote.
Pencil in the John Wayne Airport naming battle onto the list of potential races that could tell us a lot about the new Orange County come this fall.
Since Coronavirus broke out, county supervisors have spent most of their time on the public dais reacting to public health restrictions like mask orders or closures of beaches.
Orange County’s Public Health Officer Nicole Quick abruptly resigned on Monday night after several intense weeks defending a mask order that quickly became controversial.