Mesa

Head west on 19th Street in Costa Mesa. First, you hit the monumentalist architecture of the 24-Hour Fitness club and Road Runner Sports. Then comes the more modest cash-for-gold outlet and a pawnshop. Finally, half-hidden behind a clutch of palm trees and shrubs, the squat gray building of the Someone Cares soup kitchen comes into view. Clearly, we're on the wrong side of the tracks. Orange County people once hoped to leave those tracks behind, across the L.A. County line. But those days are long over.

Miked, coiffed and dusted with TV makeup, the world's busiest opera tenor was ready for his close-up. "Welcome, Katherine Jenkins, back to the ballroom," barked the "Dancing With the Stars" announcer, "along with the amazing Plácido Domingo, who's just as gorgeous!" It was a balmy October evening at CBS Television City studios on Beverly Boulevard last week, and a surreal mash-up of the famous (Kirstie Alley, Emmitt Smith) and would-be famous were squaring off in an "all-star" edition of ABC's hit dance-contest whack-a-thon.

A registered sex offender has filed suit against four Orange County cities, challenging the constitutionality of a law that bans sex offenders from using public parks, beaches and even some roadways. The suit is aimed at Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach, Seal Beach and Lake Forest, which have all modeled local ordinances on the county's sex offender law, which bans offenders from entering county parks and other public facilities. It is considered one of the most aggressive sex offender laws in California.

Looking to cut down on homeless services in Costa Mesa, Mayor Eric Bever has asked the city to investigate some of the city's most prominent and long-running charities. Bever singled out Share Our Selves and Someone Cares Soup Kitchen, decades-old nonprofits that dispense food and medical care to the poor and homeless. The mayor compared the charities to nightclubs that have become neighborhood nuisances. It would go a long way to solving the problem of homeless people coming to Costa Mesa, the mayor said, "if we managed to put the soup kitchen out of business.

A federal appeals court has ruled that Costa Mesa's ban on "insolent" behavior at City Council meetings is an unconstitutional violation of speakers' 1st Amendment rights. That's a smart decision. The three judge panel voted 2 to 1 to let the rest of the ordinance stand - banning "disorderly" and "disruptive" behavior - as long as the offending word "insolent" was struck from it. (The dissenting judge thought the entire ordinance should be thrown out.) Anyone who has spent any time at a city council meeting - whether as observer or participant - knows how boisterous, noisy and emotional the audience and the speakers can be. It was one such speaker, Benito Acosta, a passionate advocate for immigration rights whose refusal to leave the podium at a Costa Mesa City Council meeting in 2006 got him physically removed and handcuffed, who brought the suit challenging the city ordinance as an infringement on free speech.

A Costa Mesa ordinance that bars "insolent" behavior at City Council meetings violates free speech rights, but the Orange County community may continue to eject people for being disorderly, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday. The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit brought by a man ejected from a Costa Mesa City Council meeting in 2006. He argued that a city ordinance that made it a misdemeanor for speakers at council meetings to engage in "disorderly, insolent or disruptive" behavior was unconstitutional.

A retired Roman Catholic priest in Orange County was sentenced to a year in jail, probation and community service and will be required to register as a sex offender for molesting a grade-school student in the parish rectory and the church more than a decade ago, Orange County prosecutors said. Denis Lyons, 78, pleaded guilty in March to four felony counts of lewd acts with a child under 14 on four occasions in which, prosecutors said, he sexually assaulted the student at St. John the Baptist Catholic School in Costa Mesa.

Costa Mesa Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer has accused local employee associations of being behind a 911 call that led to an officer giving him a field sobriety test outside his home. "This has gone way over the line," Righeimer said at a news conference Friday outside City Hall. "I understand that pensions are a tense issue, that pay is a tense issue. I understand that some people may disagree, but when what looks like someone is paid to follow me around town and set me up for a DUI in front of my kids and my house, it's crossing the line.

Costa Mesa's former police chief confirmed that he was suspended in 2010 and ultimately resigned from the city after an investigation found that he had charged gas for his personal vehicle on a city credit card. "Bad judgment? Yes," said Chris Shawkey, 52. "I should've gone to the city manager and said, 'What do you want me to do?' and work it out that way. But that was really the only thing outside of my employment agreement. " Expense reports submitted to his department over his four years — he was hired in 2006 — show he charged hundreds of gallons of gas across California, Arizona and other states.

Marie Kolasinski, a devoutly anti-government Orange County grandmother who was sent to jail at 85 after clashing with health inspectors at her popular quilting and crafts emporium, has died. She was 90. Once dubbed "Che Kolasinski" by a local newspaper for her militant stands, she died of natural causes April 23 at her Costa Mesa home, said her daughter, Marjorie Serr. Kolasinski was the driving force behind a tiny Christian sect whose members live communally and operate Costa Mesa's Piecemakers Country Store, which occupies a warren of rooms jam-packed with homemade knick-knacks, quilts and craft supplies.