July 20, 2021 Media Brief
Orange County
Voice of OC: Huntington Beach City Council deadlocks on Tito Ortiz’s replacement as special election looms
The Huntington Beach City Council has less than two weeks to appoint a council member or it’s an election by default to fill a vacancy left by Tito Ortiz, who resigned last month with more than three years left on the seat’s term.
Voice of OC: Fullerton at crossroads, political ideology vs. city services
Where has the political ideology of “government is the problem” led the City? You have only to drive on Fullerton’s crumbling streets to find the answer to that question. The City has a demoralized workforce suffering from burnout due to a lack of resources.
OC Register: Orange County reported 315 new COVID cases and one new death, July 20
There were 126 people with confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Orange County hospitals on Tuesday, 59 of whom needed to be in an intensive care unit.
Voice of OC: Santa Ana cops to hold no confidence vote in police chief unions says
The union has flirted with this course of action before with previous chief Carlos Rojas, who resigned in 2017, and police unions in Anaheim and Huntington Beach over the last decade have held no confidence votes in chiefs that have since departed the city.
Voice of OC: Harmful algae may finally be out of Newport Beach
But it may take months, even years, to ensure the algae — known scientifically as Caulerpa Prolifera — and its threat to local ecosystems is completely gone, officials said last Tuesday, as the area is still under close watch.
OC Register: Off-duty Orange County DEA agent arrested on Capitol riot charges
Mark Ibrahim, 32, was a probationary employee of the DEA and was on personal leave from the agency when he traveled to Washington on Jan. 6. Several weeks before the riot, he had given notice of his intention to resign.
OC Register: ‘It’s crazy’: Orange County home sales up 67%, median price soars to $900,000
At $680,000, the region’s median home price was up $125,000 in the 12 months ending in June, the second-biggest year-over-year gain in CoreLogic records.
Daily Pilot: O.C. Fair sells out for first time since 1890, but there may be ways to get in on booked days
Orange County residents hankering for a corndog and pig races will have to act fast, as O.C. Fair organizers reported Monday the regional festival sold out on opening weekend for the first time in more than a century.
California
OC Register: Record drought in Western U.S. means elevated fire risk in Southern California
While Southern California has been spared the worst impacts of the drought so far this year, the region’s vulnerability to wildfires and water shortages is expected to grow in the coming months — and decades.
Publication Date: July 20, 2021
