Reports link Taco Bells to 2011 multi-state salmonella outbreak

For days, the speculation has been rampant: Which Mexican food chain – only identified as “Restaurant Chain A” by federal investigators earlier this month — was linked to a large salmonella outbreak late last year?

This week, Food Safety News named Irvine-based Taco Bell as the chain in question.

In October and November, at least 68 diners were sickened across 10 states, including 16 in Oklahoma and 43 in Texas. The spate of illnesses eventually petered out and was reported by the Centers for Disease Control on Jan. 19.

But the agency stayed mum on the origin of the salmonella bacteria, saying only that the majority of victims had reported eating at 18 separate locations of “a Mexican-style fast-food restaurant chain” in the Midwest.

– Tiffany Hsu, Los Angeles Times

…Continue reading Reports link Taco Bells to 2011 multi-state salmonella outbreak

CHP responds to two crashes on 405 at Euclid

Multiple people were sent to the hospital after two separate vehicles crashes on the San Diego (405) Freeway on Thursday morning, according to California Highway Patrol.

The first crash occurred at 8:57 a.m. on the northbound lanes at Euclid Street when an SUV struck the center divider, partially blocking the left lane. There were no known injuries, according to CHP.

A second crash occurred at 9:12 a.m. at the same location, involving two taxi vans, with possible injuries.

Costa Mesa Fire crews responded and were still at the scene as of 10:15 a.m. Thursday.

It is not known if the two crashes were related.

— Sarah Peters, @speters01, Daily Pilot

Dog stolen in home invasion robbery reunited with family

Orange County Sheriff's Department spokesman Jim Amormino brought the dog home. (KTLA-TV)

Police are looking for an armed home invasion robber who terrorized a grandfather in Orange County, before stealing some electronics and the family’s dog.

It happened Wednesday morning at a home in the 10400 block of Brookhurst Street, near Cerritos Avenue, in an unincorporated area of the county.

The 59-year-old victim, who spoke to KTLA, said he saw a man come into his backyard and try to steal his cockatoos.

…Continue reading Dog stolen in home invasion robbery reunited with family

Fire map meeting scheduled for Feb. 9 at OASIS

The Newport Beach Fire Department will host a meeting at 7 p.m. Feb. 9 at the OASIS Senior Center to answer questions about the proposed adoption of Cal Fire’s Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone maps.

About 5,000 Newport Beach homes fall within the state’s Very High Fire Hazard Severity Map Zone, which includes homes along Buck Gully and Morning Canyon and stretches from Orchid down to Crystal Cove with most of Newport Coast also is included. If the maps are adopted, homeowners would face more intense scrutiny of fire hazards such as location of woodpiles, tree species, where trees are and how many trees are clustered together as well as buffer zones for firefighters to access blazes. New construction also would face stricter regulation, and homeowners would have to disclose to future buyers that their houses fall within the Very High Fire Hazard area.

– Amy Senk, @coronadelmartdy, Corona del Mar Today

…Continue reading Fire map meeting scheduled for Feb. 9 at OASIS

Obama coming to Corona del Mar

President Obama addresses a crowd at a townhall meeting at the Orange County Fairgrounds in 2009. (Daily Pilot File Photo)

President Obama plans to fundraise in Newport Beach this month during a swing through Southern California.

A Corona del Mar couple recently announced they will host a breakfast for the president Feb. 16, with proceeds benefiting Obama’s reelection campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

While Newport is better known as a Republican Party fundraising bastion, Obama raised more than $1 million here in a 2008 campaign stop at the Balboa Bay Club. Local Democrats say they expect another strong showing.

– Mike Reicher, @mreicher, Daily Pilot

…Continue reading Obama coming to Corona del Mar

Brothers arrested with cache of weapons, including AK-47

(Courtesy Santa Ana Police Department)

Two brothers were arrested in Santa Ana Tuesday, after detectives serving a search warrant at their home found a large cache of weapons and ammunition, including an AK-47.

The suspects, 32-year-old Esteban Muniz and 24-year-old Jose Muniz, were booked at the Santa Ana City Jail.

Police say three juveniles between the ages of 10 and 16 also lived at the home in the 200 block of Chantilly Street.

…Continue reading Brothers arrested with cache of weapons, including AK-47

Should California bite the bullet on high-speed rail?

An artist's rendering of a proposed California high speed rail station is shown. (California High-Speed Rail Authority)

By Steve Lopez

If and when California’s high-speed train is built, how fast would it have to go, and how much cheaper would a ticket have to cost, for you to give up flying?

I went to Union Station this week, as well as the Burbank airport, to ask travelers those very questions. And I’d like to hear from you too.

But let me set things up first.

Every time I consider booking a flight from Burbank to Oakland, I think about whether I’d prefer to drive instead. Usually, I go with the one-hour flight, and if there are no delays, I’m always grateful I didn’t make the six-hour drive up Interstate 5. But if traffic to the airport is rough, security is a headache and the flight is delayed, I sometimes end up wishing I’d driven.

…Continue reading Should California bite the bullet on high-speed rail?

Alleged homeless killer may be linked to murders of mother, son

Detectives are investigating a possible link between the fatal stabbings of a Yorba Linda woman and her son in October and the slayings of four homeless men.

Itzcoatl ‘Izzy’ Ocampo, 23, is charged with four counts of first-degree murder plus the special circumstances of multiple victims and murder by lying-in-wait, making him eligible for the death penalty.

Now the OC Register is reporting that the 4 homeless men may not be Ocampo’s only victims.

…Continue reading Alleged homeless killer may be linked to murders of mother, son

Taking plunge from art to surf

Former Laguna Art Museum Director Bolton Colburn, seen here in 2008, is now executive director of the Surfing Heritage Foundation. (FILE PHOTO)

Former longtime Laguna Art Museum executive director Bolton Colburn hasn’t traded his business attire for Hawaiian shirts just yet, but he is poised to make a splash in the world of surf culture.

Colburn has been hired as executive director by the Surfing Heritage Foundation with an ambitious goal to take the 11-year-old organization from a San Clemente industrial park to an urban coastal center and significantly raise its profile locally and internationally.

“It’s my dream job,” said Colburn, a former competitive surfer who was a U.S. amateur surfing champion in the late 1970s.

Colburn, 56, left the Laguna museum in May after 23 years and a number of upheavals. He was in the thick of the battle over the museum’s ill-fated merger with the Orange County Art Museum in the mid-1990s.

Around 2005, he proposed the Laguna Art Museum move from its longtime location on Cliff Drive to the city’s “arts district” near the Laguna Playhouse, Festival of Arts and Sawdust Art Festival, an idea that ultimately foundered.

With the Surfing Heritage Foundation, Colburn holds the reins of an organization that has been mostly devoted to collecting and archiving its considerable holdings, including some 500 surfboards, 250,000 photographs, and other materials including film, literature, clothing and other artifacts.

–Cindy Frazier, @CindyFrazier1, Coastline Pilot

…Continue reading “Taking plunge from art to surf”

Man barricaded in peninsula home wanted on larceny charges

Authorities have surrounded a house on the Balboa Peninsula where a man has barricaded himself inside after U.S. Marshals tried to serve him with an arrest warrant.

U.S. Marshals said Geoffrey Earl Patton refused to come out of a home in the 100 block of 25^th Street on Wednesday afternoon when marshals tried to arrest him for a warrant out of Westchester County, N.Y.

Balboa and Newport boulevards have been blocked off from between 22^nd and 29^th streets, officials said.

Police are not sure if Patton is armed, but he does have guns legally registered in his name, said Deputy U.S. Marshal Laura Vega.

Marshals called Newport Beach and told them about the situation about 1:15 p.m., Police Department spokeswoman Kathy Lowe said. Newport Beach’s SWAT team is assisting in getting Patton out of the home, she said.

– Joseph Serna, @JosephSerna, Daily Pilot

…Continue reading Man barricaded in peninsula home wanted on larceny charges