Irvine Ca

The Islamic Center of Irvine is a beige stucco building that blends into the rows of office buildings surrounding it. But last week, it became the most publicized mosque in California with disclosures that the FBI sent an informant there to spy and collect evidence of jihadist rhetoric and other allegedly extremist acts by a Tustin man who attended prayers there. The revelations dismayed mosque members like Omar Turbi, 50, and his 27-year-old son who shares his name.

An Irvine planning commissioner and a retired police officer sued the city this week, challenging a closed-door "settlement agreement" with a high-rise developer as questions have arisen about the builder's support of City Council members who approved it. The Irvine City Council in January approved the agreement to resolve a dispute with Maguire Properties, a Los Angeles real estate developer known for the 72-story US Bank Tower downtown.

Irvine is perhaps best known for its master-planned villages, business prowess and designation as the nation's safest city of its size, four years running. In other words, the type of community where you'd expect to find everything running smoothly. But that prosperous tranquillity does not extend to City Hall, which has a reputation for bitter and divisive politics.

A landscape worker was killed Monday in the backyard of an Irvine home where he was working, and another worker was arrested on suspicion of homicide, authorities said. The incident on Woods Trail occurred shortly before noon when officers discovered a man bleeding on the ground, apparently hit on the head with a blunt instrument such as a shovel or a pick, said police Lt. Rick Handfield. He died at the scene.

An Irvine man was killed and his passenger injured Saturday after he lost control of his car and ran into a tree. Han Huang, 18, was driving north on Yale Avenue. He hit the center divider and veered off the road into a tree. Huang was pronounced dead at the scene. His passenger, also from Irvine and whose name was not released, was being treated for serious injuries. Police said Huang did not appear to have been under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

REVIVING a piece of Orange County history, the city of Irvine is replicating the original Irvine family mansion to serve as a new branch of the Orange County Public Library system. The Katie Wheeler Branch Library, named for the late philanthropist Kathryn Lillard Wheeler, granddaughter of Irvine Co. founder James Irvine II, is being built on the 2.4-acre site where the 19th century mansion was destroyed by fire in 1965.

The estate of John C. Crean, an Orange County philanthropist and RV entrepreneur who died of congestive heart failure five months ago, will donate $10 million to help establish a Lutheran high school in Irvine, authorities said Tuesday. Lutheran South High School is set to open this fall on Alton Parkway in the Woodbridge area. The following year, officials say, it will move to a permanent site in East Irvine. Crean, founder of Riverside-based Fleetwood Enterprises, died in January at age 81.

Losses on mortgage-backed securities have forced an Irvine brokerage firm to begin shutting down its operations, people close to the company said Thursday. At least some of the losses were said to be incurred by clients of the brokerage, Brookstreet Securities. Because of the losses, brokerage regulator NASD told Brookstreet this week to limit its activities to liquidating customer accounts, said Scott Brooks, an executive vice president at the firm. NASD officials declined to comment.

The Irvine City Council wrestled Tuesday with how to pay the operating costs of a 75-foot-diameter helium balloon that will hover over the future Great Park and that is projected to run a $500,000 annual deficit. The tethered passenger balloon will rise 500 feet above the old El Toro Marine base for the first time July 14 and will continue to operate four days a week after that, at a cost of $1.6 million a year.

The Irvine City Council on Tuesday approved a $280-million project that planners hope will ultimately become the backbone of Orange County's first mass transit rail line. The five-mile route would use a combination of streetcars and buses to connect the Irvine Spectrum to the Irvine train station, the future Great Park and housing developments surrounding it. On Tuesday, council members voted 5 to 0 to approve the route and the concept.