Anaheim Ca

More than 10,000 buyers, sellers and manufacturers of golf equipment are expected at the Professional Golfers' Assn. of America's annual PGA International Golf Show at the Anaheim Convention Center for three days beginning Sunday. The show is particularly important for Southern golf resorts and shops preparing for their winter season, said Arnold Billingsley, executive vice president of Performance Oriented Sports Equipment in La Mirada.

In a blow to Orange County's hopes for a boost to business and tourism, the California bullet train project has dropped a link to Anaheim from its current, $68-billion plan. The rail agency confirmed the shift Friday, marking a significant departure for the Bay Area-to-Southern California high-speed rail system that state voters approved in 2008. Under newly revised plans, the first phase of the line would have its southern terminus near downtown Los Angeles rather than in Orange County.

Local street gangs are making dangerous inroads into Anaheim's illegal drug trade, fueling fears that commonplace battles for turf could soon explode into more violent wars for profit, authorities said this week. "What we are starting to see now is something that happens in larger cities and what we hoped we wouldn't see here," said Police Sgt. Craig Hunter, assigned to the department's Gang Enforcement Unit. "The gangs are starting to deal drugs. Soon, you're going to start seeing wars."

Upholstery shop owner Rosa Bobbio said she would fight the city of Anaheim rather than pay a graffiti-related fine. Now city officials say she won't have to. After taggers etched graffiti into the windows of her shop late last year, the city ordered Bobbio to have the tags removed. Bobbio, who paints over the graffiti that taggers regularly spray across her walls, balked and said she couldn't afford to replace the windows. After the etchings remained for months, the city sent her fines and fees of $466.

Looking back, Mohammad Abdalla can see things clearly: He was out of place -- a Muslim Palestinian American operating a Mexican American market in Orange. When he took it over, he stopped selling pork because eating it is forbidden by his religion. Customers understood, but it was an inconvenience. Then one day, a man walked in and told Abdalla, "If you don't want to have pork chops and ham for Mexicans, go sell halal food to your own community." It was a suggestion he took to heart.

Six members of an Anaheim street gang have been charged with violating a 2-week-old court order that prohibits them from a variety of activities in the neighborhood authorities say they have terrorized. The arrests are the latest made as the result of the Orange County district attorney's office's decision to use the legal tactic to break up two of the county's gangs that have the most tenacious grip on their communities.

A gunman opened fire in the crowded parking lot of an Anaheim nightclub early Friday, injuring five young men and scattering about 100 patrons at closing time before driving off into the darkness, Anaheim police said. The shooting may have been prompted by an argument between two men over a woman. Two of the victims were in critical condition later in the day; two others were hospitalized with lesser injuries and one was treated and released, police said.

A brick wall separated Julio Perez's childhood home from Disneyland, where his father worked in the laundry room. On that side was the Anaheim that America knew, the quintessential Orange County suburb where expanses of orange groves gave way to rows of 1950s tract homes and a signature theme park. On his side was the neighborhood where Perez, 30, spent his 1980s childhood: a dense, vibrant, heavily Latino island where parks filled with soccer players and families grilled carne asada.

For decades, Anaheim and Disneyland have enjoyed a snug relationship as the city and the entertainment giant have jointly polished the neighborhood where Disney's amusement parks have grown and flourished. More than $6 billon in private and public money has been poured into the resort district, bringing a Disney-esque sheen to an area once overrun with cheap motels, tacky retail shops and bubbling neon signs.

The Eli Home, a shelter for battered women that was approved by the City Council last fall, came under attack again this week by neighbors who don't want the home in their neighborhood. The question before the council was a request by operators of the home to build a block wall around the facility that would encroach on city property along Santa Ana Canyon Road. However, the matter quickly escalated.

When taggers spray-painted the windows of Rosa Bobbio's tiny upholstery shop in Anaheim, she called the police, who told her it was the city's responsibility. But the city told her she owed it $466.66 in fines and fees for not replacing her defaced windows at Century Custom Upholstery. Bobbio's experience is similar to that of other business owners in Southern California who find themselves caught between the zero-tolerance policies of municipal governments and the persistent destruction of taggers.

State regulators are investigating a YMCA day-care center in Anaheim after two toddlers went missing during outdoor playtime and were found on nearby railroad tracks. Police received two calls about 4 p.m. Thursday from neighbors who reported two young boys on the tracks near the YMCA Children's Station at 100 S. Atchison St., Anaheim Police Sgt. Rick Martinez said . One of the callers took the 2-year-olds away from the tracks to safety, staying with them until officers arrived.

Capping a 10-day convention in Anaheim, leaders of the Episcopal Church agreed Friday to consider marriage liturgies for same-sex unions and to give bishops greater latitude in meeting the spiritual needs of gay and lesbian couples. The new policy marked a second victory for liberals after the church gave final approval Tuesday to a measure ending a de facto ban on the ordination of gay bishops. Debate over liberalizing the rules underlined deep theological differences within the church of 2.

A brick wall separated Julio Perez's childhood home from Disneyland, where his father worked in the laundry room. On that side was the Anaheim that America knew, the quintessential Orange County suburb where expanses of orange groves gave way to rows of 1950s tract homes and a signature theme park. On his side was the neighborhood where Perez, 30, spent his 1980s childhood: a dense, vibrant, heavily Latino island where parks filled with soccer players and families grilled carne asada.

Online travel websites have been ordered to pay Anaheim $21 million in hotel taxes that officials say they are owed, but the companies are fighting back against the increasingly common claim that they have shortchanged cities from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. The fight in Anaheim is the latest in an escalating debate between online travel companies and tourist-dependent cities.

ANAHEIM IS still the town Walt Disney made famous, but it's not just Walt's Anaheim anymore. The city's night life scene is growing, with recent additions such as the Ember Cafe and Music Club and the Heat Ultra Lounge. The new center of the scene, Heat, is in an unlikely spot: the Anaheim GardenWalk, an outdoor plaza in the vein of Downtown Disney and Universal City's CityWalk.

Former top Anaheim officials asked police to spy on local activists, including a former union leader who now sits on the City Council and the director of a children's shelter, a retired police captain says. The councilman, Richard Chavez, who also believes he was a target of the secret investigation, on Wednesday called for an independent inquiry into the alleged police practices.

Is the city of Anaheim better off without the NFL? Is it better off without the Angels? Councilman Harry Sidhu interrupted a choreographed news conference Tuesday to pose the first question, and the city might soon have to answer the second question. The issue reflects a growing consensus among economists that sports stadiums and arenas might be wonderful for civic pride but make for poor public investments. "There are only two things you do not want on a valuable piece of real estate.

Five members of a Christian motorcycle gang were charged Friday with a variety of felony weapons and gang crimes after high-profile raids this week targeting the Anaheim-based group. The charges marked a retreat from Wednesday, when authorities arrested seven members of the Set Free Soldiers, including founder and pastor Phillip Aguilar, on charges of conspiracy to commit murder. An eighth member was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.

If Disneyland is the Happiest Place on Earth, Anaheim city officials want to make sure the Resort District is also the friendliest place on earth. So to make sure the town is as polite as possible, everyone from cabbies to cops will be offered training in the fine art of customer service.