Free Republic

Vietnamese foodie guide: Critic Brad A. Johnson dishes about the 25 best things to eat in Little Saigon The scent of Little Saigon hits me in the face. An intoxicating perfume of jackfruit and bananas and the vanilla-y scent of pandanus leaves wraps itself around me in a warm, tight embrace. It’s a sunny Friday afternoon, and the line to purchase something cold and sweet at Thach Che Hien Khanh in Garden Grove stretches out the front door and down the sidewalk, past a vendor of exotic fruits and knickknacks — chopsticks, paper lanterns, plastic Buddhas, various figurines of the...

... [Jake] LaMotta has been the subject of several books, a film considered one of the greatest in American cinema, and a failed stage show called "Lady and the Champ." Now there's a second feature film about his life, this one titled "LaMotta: The Bronx Bull." LaMotta will be in Orange County on Saturday when the new movie, produced by Irvine-based Main Street Films, premieres as part of the Newport Beach Film Festival ...

It has been years since audiences have been given a horror movie that wasn't a carbon copy of another film—big-budget film producers aren't exactly flowing with ideas. Thankfully, the Horror Showcase at the Newport Beach Film Festival, running April 23-30, aims to counter that fatigue with a new crop of filmmakers outside of the Hollywood milieu, presenting seven short films and one feature film that not only break the mold of clichés, but also eat their brains . . . or something. Because if there's one thing we can be mindful of, it's that some of the best, most memorable...

1. Orson Welles was born on May 6, 1915. 2. As a filmmaker, his three greatest pictures, in order, are Touch of Evil (1958), Citizen Kane (1941) and The Magnificent Ambersons (1942). 3. Ah, yes, but Citizen Kane tops many lists as the greatest film of all time (with Welles filling the top slot on many directing lists). The fictional story of a megalomaniac newspaper magnate (loosely based on William Randolph Hearst) and innocence lost is indeed a masterpiece . . . albeit a dated one. Newspaper magnates? Not in this century, bub. 4. John Houseman wrote in his 1972...

In a 'very rare' move, judge kicks Orange County D.A. off case of Seal Beach mass shooting killer Scott Dekraai SANTA ANA – A Superior Court judge removed the Orange County District Attorney’s Office from the case against the deadliest killer in county history, saying Thursday that the defendant’s right to a fair trial had been violated by false testimony and the withholding of evidence. Judge Thomas M. Goethals, however, refused to block a potential death sentence for confessed mass murderer Scott Dekraai, whose penalty trial is scheduled to start March 30 for killing eight people at a Seal Beach...

That icon of police transportation, a vehicle so sturdy and beloved and ubiquitous that it became virtual wallpaper on TV cop shows and local streets – the Ford Crown Victoria – is dead. The upshot is this: For many police agencies, it’s time to buy a new car. Ford stopped making the Crown Vic four years ago, saying sales to the public had fallen to the point that the car is no longer viable, even if demand from police agencies remained strong. Fuel efficiency (or in the Crown Vic’s case, inefficiency) played a role.

A Florida school board has made a controversial decision to ban the distribution of religious and political material in its schools. The Orange County School Board previously allowed copies of the Bible in their schools, but they decided to reconsider the policy after receiving a request from the Satanic Temple to hand out Satanic coloring books. The board decided that to avoid legal action, it had to ban Bibles and any other religious material from being passed out to students. …

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Orange County school board members voted Tuesday evening to ban all religious materials from being distributed at public schools. In 2014, a group put Bibles in Orange County schools for one day, and another group was able to provide atheist materials. But it was when the satanic temple tried to put its own book in schools that the district's policy became an issue. The policy previously permitted the groups to leave religious materials on tables at schools at the beginning of the year on a nationally recognized freedom day. At Tuesday's meeting, board members voted 7-1...

March 3, 2014 3:45PM As we predicted/requested on Friday, The Tulving Company has gone out of business, as of Monday morning. They are no longer answering their phones, and we have reliable information confirming that they are ceasing operations. This page will be updated as more information comes in. There is a lot of information on our old page about The Tulving Company. We hope to update this page with information about what will happen next. At this point, our best guess is that The Tulving Company will file for bankruptcy. Unfortunately, we believe that there will be little in...

Amid mounting pressure from both atheist groups and concerned parents, Orange County (Fla.) Public Schools have banned Bible distribution in several area high schools after Satanists and an anti-religion group announced plans to pass out their own literature. One of the largest school systems in the country with more than 180,000 students, OCPS had allowed World Changers of Florida, a Christian group, in conjunction with the Florida Family Policy Council to passively distribute Bibles to high school students on Jan. 16—which is National Freedom of Religion Day—for the past three years. Under the school system’s policy at the time, Bibles...

Recently, the House passed, by an overwhelming margin, a resolution to condemn the Russian Federation for actions considered hostile and aggressive within its sphere of influence, specifically with regard to the politically torn country of Ukraine. Ten Members voted “nay,” myself among them. I wish to explain why I took this unpopular position. Above all, while Vladimir Putin’s government may well have engaged in questionable behavior toward neighboring countries, Resolution 758 was nothing more than gratuitous, needlessly provocative and shortsighted. Moreover, reasonable observers the world over can see it as tantamount to a declaration that Russia is America’s enemy. The...

NEWPORT BEACH – Two people were in the Orange County Jail this week, after police stopped them in a van with automatic rifles and ammunition. The van contained seven AK-47 assault rifles, six 30-round high-capacity 7.62 caliber magazines, two 10-round magazines and more than 350 rounds of 7.62 caliber ammunition inside, Newport Beach police spokeswoman Jennifer Manzella said. Manzella said the arrests are significant because of the weapons seized. All of the guns were modified to fire in fully automatic mode, and one had a barrel less than 16 inches in length in violation of California state law, she said....

Orange County continued its trend toward an electorate that looks more like the rest of the Democratic state when it supported Proposition 47 – which reduces some non-violent felonies to misdemeanors – with 53 percent of the vote. Republicans had a good mid-term election nationwide and in Orange County wrested two state legislative seats from Democrats. But a Register analysis of Prop. 47 found a broader ongoing shift of county voters. The county GOP advantage over Democrats has steadily declined from 22 percentage points in 1990 to 9 points today, with little indication that the slide’s end is in sight....

60 percent of site’s 226,838 comments attributed to fewer than 100 unique profiles Sixty percent of the site’s 226,838 comments generated from September 2012 to early last month can be attributed to fewer than 100 unique profiles, according to an analysis completed by The Washington Times with assistance from an outside data analytics team. Many of those profiles belong to just one person who created multiple aliases or personas to widen her influence and multiply her voice. Cindi Huynh, an Obamacare supporter in California, posted on average 59 times a day on the site in 60 days, making her the...

California’s death row houses 749 inmates, including 64 convicted in Orange County. From serial killers to child murderers, here is a closer look at 10 of the most notorious death row cases from O.C., as well as some facts about Death Row in California: ...

California Democrats were unable to regain their two-thirds legislative supermajority in the state Senate and lost ground in the Assembly, at least in part due to the victories of two Republican candidates from Orange County — both women, both Asian-American. The victories of Janet Nguyen in the 34th state Senate District and Young Kim in the 65th Assembly District over Democratic rivals could signal a shift in the Orange County political landscape – and more broadly, in the GOP’s relationship with Asian-Americans. University of California, Riverside political scientist Karthick Ramakrishnan said the victories represent a nuanced picture of an electorate...

A father of eight has sparked controversy by refusing to save money for his children’s college education. Guerilla Parenting author David T. Fagan told the Washington Post that college is 'a lot of wasted time' and if his children want to attend, they will have to pay for it themselves. The 37-year-old marketing entrepreneur, whose family lives in Orange County, California, added to MailOnline: 'The focus is too much on a piece of paper and not enough on self-reliance.'

I confess I've been called a bigot for lots of things simply because I have a Christian worldview. I've been called it by atheists, homosexuals and Islamists, but they always use that because they simply cannot defend their positions, and so, they resort to name calling. It shouldn't surprise anyone then that socialist Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA) spoke at an Islamic Society of Orange County town hall meeting on the issue of the Constitution and Sharia law. Keep in mind that this town hall meeting took place in 2012, but her words are still relevant today because she and others...

ANAHEIM – The Anaheim Police Department could be the first agency in the county to require officers to wear video cameras while on patrol, after the City Council unanimously approved the the $1.15 million purchase of 250 of the devices Tuesday. The first officers are expected to be outfitted with the body-mounted cameras in November, with all of them wearing the devices by April. It’s part of the department’s effort to increase transparency and mend a fragile relationship with the public after several high-profile shootings.

HUNTINGTON BEACH – A woman whose tirade against her roommate was videotaped and went viral was arraigned in Orange County Superior Court on Tuesday for a variety of charges. Laura Angela Cox, 47, of Huntington Beach was charged on suspicion of driving under the influence of methamphetamine, battery against a cohabitant and vandalism resulting in less than $400 in damages. Cox was in custody as of Tuesday afternoon, but information on her bail amount was not immediately available.