Excerpted from the Daily Pilot
By Lily Nguyen
The purchase of Banning Ranch remains within reach as conservationists received a ceremonial check representing $8 million Thursday from state officials to help purchase the 384-acre oil field.
Excerpted from the Orange County Register
By Brooke Staggs
Petrie-Norris, 46, is in her second term representing Assembly District 74, which stretches along the coast from Huntington Beach to Laguna Beach and includes most of Irvine. She serves on committees overseeing accountability, banking, jobs, revenue and veterans.
Excerpted from CalMatters
By Emily Hoeven
If the pandemic made one thing clear in California, it’s that the state often fails to protect its most vulnerable residents.
That was the takeaway from an emotional eight-hour hearing Wednesday, during which state lawmakers listened to testimony about possible reforms to a state law governing how and when severely mentally ill family members can be forced into treatment.
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Excerpted from the Los Angeles Times
By Richard Winton, Laura J. Nelson, Thomas Curwen
A federal grand jury Wednesday charged three companies with criminal negligence in connection with the oil spill that tarred the Orange County coast in early October.
The three-page indictment alleges that Amplify Energy Corp. and two subsidiary firms, Beta Operating Co. and San Pedro Bay Pipeline Co., illegally discharged oil into federal waters from the pipeline they operated off Huntington Beach.
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Excerpted from the Voice of OC
By Teri Welsh
The last 20 years of determination squarely landed this once-in-a-generation opportunity to permanently protect a coastal park and preserve for future generations. To be successful, conservation transactions, like this one, typically need three main ingredients: willing sellers, funding, and political/public will.
By Teri Sforza
Excerpted from the Orange County Register
After a delirious Henry Lehr bolted from a licensed Newport Beach detox in the middle of an August night and broke into a neighbor’s house, he was shot and killed by the frightened homeowner inside.
Deaths like these aren’t uncommon in the rehab industry, where lax regulation runs head-on with the high-stakes illness of addiction.
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Excerpted from the Laguna Beach Independent
BY LB Indy Staff
Laguna Beach resident Chris Kreymann was named among six Orange County veterans honored Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris (D-Laguna Beach) during a Nov. 3 ceremony at the Newport Harbor American Legion post.
“I am honored and humbled to report that I have been selected as the Laguna Beach Veteran of the Year for my service with the 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam during 1971-1972,” Kreymann said.
Excerpted from the Voice of OC
By Brandon Pho
Monday kicked off a series of public autopsies by state lawmakers into the communication delays and regulatory gaps which allowed an offshore oil spill to smear tar across Orange County’s iconic coastline last month.
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The state oil spill committee has multiple aims, namely to identify where improvements can be made in disaster response protocols and offshore pipeline regulation.
Excerpted from the Orange County Register
By Alicia Robinson
While it’s still unclear whether all laws and regulations were followed in the pipeline breach that leaked about 25,000 gallons of oil onto Orange County’s beaches last month, state officials say there’s plenty of room to tighten up existing rules to better prevent and detect future spills.
Excerpted from the Orange County Register
By Alicia Robinson
State legislators holding a special committee hearing in Costa Mesa on Monday, Nov. 15, hope it will point them toward any changes to laws and procedures that could help prevent future oil spills and improve the response to those that do happen.