Rearview Mirror: OC Week in Review

Sunday (07.26.15)

Immigration attorney gets prison time

A Newport Beach attorney has been sentenced to federal prison after being convicted of being involved in a scam that prosecutors said targeted immigrants who were in the country illegally and being held in detention while awaiting possible deportation. Gino Paul Pietro, 54, defrauded six defendants and their families by asserting that his investigator could settle their criminal and immigration cases, according to federal prosecutors. (Los Angeles Times)

Anaheim: We’re more than Disneyland

Known for 60 years as the home to Disneyland, Anaheim is pushing the idea that there’s more for tourists to do — and spend money on — than ride on Space Mountain and snap a selfie with Mickey Mouse. Among the new offerings are a food mall that was converted from an abandoned orange packing house and a brewery built within an old Packard car dealership. Five hotels with more than 1,000 rooms are set to open over the next 12 months, in addition to three hotels with 470 rooms that opened last year. (Los Angeles Times)

Man confronts taggers, is stabbed

A man was beaten and stabbed after confronting a group of taggers who were defacing a vacant home in Anaheim, police said. The man, whose identity was not released, was stabbed outside the home. The victim was being treated at UCI Medical Center in Orange, said Lt. Eric Trapp. (Los Angeles Times)

Monday (07.27.15)

First lady’s designer launches line

Designer Tadashi Shoji, who is known for elegant evening gowns worn by the likes of Michelle Obama, Octavia Spencer and Florence Welch, was set to launch a line for girls from 2T to 10. The Tadashi Shoji Kids prices range from $148 to $328 and will be sold on the designer’s website, at his boutiques in South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa and Las Vegas, and at other retailers. (Los Angeles Times)

Flasher throws sand at cops as he is pursued

Newport Beach police say they chased a flasher onto the beach and into the ocean as he threw sand at an officer and exposed his genitals. When an officer pulled up in his car, the flasher ran to Prospect Street, turned toward the beach and headed across the sand into the ocean, according to police. Tyler Ray Luna, 22, of Newport Beach as arrested and booked on suspicion of resisting arrest, battery on an officer, indecent exposure and battery, according to a spokeswoman for the Police Department. (Daily Pilot)

Tuesday (07.28.15)

Council: Let lifeguards set blackball limits

Newport Beach lifeguards could soon have more control over the time when surfing is prohibited along the city’s beaches. The City Council indicated that it favors allowing lifeguards to blackball, or prohibit, hardboard surfing off the city’s beaches when they determine that conditions are unsafe for swimmers, body boarders and users of skim boards. (Daily Pilot)

Oakley plans O.C. layoffs

Foothill Ranch-based Oakley is laying off more than 160 employees in Southern California, according to state records, as it further merges operations with its Italian parent company. The decision will cost nearly 140 jobs at Oakley’s Foothill Ranch headquarters, according to a filing with the California Employment Development Department. (Los Angeles Times)

Wednesday (07.29.15)

Naugles reopens in Fountain Valley

After a 20-year hiatus, Naugles, a popular Mexican restaurant that once had a cult-like following, reopened in Fountain Valley. The Naugles rebirth was met with joy, which resonated over social media. (KTLA)

Thursday (07.30.15)

D.A. seeks additional sex assault victims

The Orange County district attorney is seeking additional victims of a taxi cab driver who is facing rape charges. Samy Hakim, 54, of Anaheim has been charged with one felony count of rape of an intoxicated person and one felony count of sexual penetration by a foreign object of an intoxicated person. Hakim was arrested July 9 by the Huntington Beach Police Department after a woman claimed she had been raped by him in his taxi cab late last year while she was under the influence of alcohol. (Los Angeles Times)

Parents say bullying drove son to suicide

Parents of a late 14-year-old Irvine High School student say their son was driven to suicide because school employees failed to protect him from incessant bullying, according to court documents filed last week that ask a judge to clear the way for the family to sue. Tyler Kirkland shot himself in the head on Sept. 2 after enduring “severe verbal and physical harassment” throughout his freshman year at the school, according to a petition filed July 22 in Orange County Superior Court. (Daily Pilot)

Friday (07.31.15)

Midget Autopia could reemerge in Missouri

The Walt Disney Hometown Museum in Marceline, Mo., is hoping to revive the vintage Disneyland attraction known as Midget Autopia, the first park ride ever moved to a non-Disney property. The museum plans a $500,000 Kickstarter campaign to bring back the 10-car ride that ran in Anaheim from 1957 until It’s a Small World displaced it in 1966. In a chapter known mostly to serious Disneyphiles and select Missourians, Walt Disney donated the ride to the town of Marceline, where Disney lived from ages 4 to 8. The town ran it for 11 years until growing costs forced its closure. (Los Angeles Times)

UCI Irvine seeks artists with a science bent

UC Irvine has put out a call for artists who want to manipulate the building blocks of life as we know it to create art as we’ve never known it — works made of living organisms that owe their existence to biological engineering rather than evolution. It recently invited artists to apply for a chance to create a new artwork using techniques in synthetic biology — the burgeoning science of fiddling with DNA strands that exist in the natural world to produce substances, organisms or, in this case, aesthetic objects or images, that expand upon what nature has to offer. (Los Angeles Times)