Orange Ca

For two months, Orange County's gay community turned out in force to the Lucky Strike bowling alley for Spin Tuesdays, a nightclub-style event with DJs spinning pop, dance and '80s music, and a velvet-rope entrance for as many as 1,000 bowlers, pool players and dancers.

In Old Towne Orange -- a mile-square district established during the citrus boom of the late 19th century -- reverence for the past is part of daily business. At the center is Plaza Square, where cars whip around the Victorian-era fountain and garden in a traffic circle once trod by horses and buggies. Around the plaza, old-fashioned soda fountains, barber shops and historic buildings mix with trendy fashion retailers and wine-tasting salons.

A man was crushed by his big rig Monday when he started the engine and the truck rolled forward, trapping him against a block wall, police said. The accident killed Gary Morner, 55, of Orange about 6:30 a.m. in the 500 block of Batavia Street, said Sgt. Dave Hill. Police said that after Morner leaned inside the driver-side window to start the ignition and then got in front of the truck to work on it, the truck rolled forward. He had apparently left the truck in gear and failed to set the brakes.

Hundreds of residents who battled plans for a Wal-Mart store in the Mall of Orange, claiming it would attract unsavory people to their neighborhood, lost their fight Tuesday night. The City Council unanimously approved the proposal by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to open in the building abandoned last spring by The Broadway. "I'd like to have Nordstrom or a Macy's there," said Councilman Dan Slater. "Fortunately, we live in a country where the economy dictates those decisions and government does not."

Old Towne further solidified its identity as Anytown U.S.A. this week when a film company set up lights and cameras on North Glassell Street to shoot a commercial. "This was the only small town we could find in the L.A. region," said producer Gary Romano, who stood under a glaring sun Monday to shoot a 30-second commercial for Snapple Beverages.

Motorists accustomed to speeding down Shaffer Street may be pulled over by traffic cops in the next few weeks unless they change their habits, city officials said. "We can anticipate the police will be writing a lot of tickets," said Mayor Joanne Coontz, who has been besieged by residents complaining about speeders on Shaffer, where the posted limit is 25 mph. For nearly a year, a group of residents has been lobbying the city for stop signs or other slowing devices on the street.

Merchants in the Old Towne plaza are taking a stand against cultural and civic events that require closing the traffic circle to vehicles. Last year, plaza businesses were continually disrupted while Tom Hanks filmed scenes for "That Thing You Do!" in the area. Then, there is the stream of cultural events such as the Gogh Van Orange art fair and the Labor Day International Street Fair.

A program that serves meals to the city's homeless has a permanent location, thanks to a grant from the St. Joseph Health System Foundation. Orange Cares, comprising churches, nonprofit groups and government agencies, received a check for $35,000 from the foundation to buy two modular buildings that community activist Mary McAnena has been using as a kitchen and dining room to feed the homeless.

Anastassia Titova said she and a contingent of Russian visitors brought Moscow weather to Orange with them, but she plans to take home "some of the spirit" of the friendly people they have met here. Titova was one of three teachers who accompanied their principal and 17 students from Moscow International Planet School in the Novo Kosino district to practice their English skills and meet citizens of their sister city, Orange.

Don't be fooled when you tune into the USA cable channel sometime this June and see a small Wisconsin town that serves as the setting to a movie called "The Minutes." It's not Wisconsin. And it's not Hollywood. It's the city of Orange. Orange was chosen by movie producers for its old-style buildings and circular plaza with the fountain in the middle. On Monday, the plaza was abuzz with "Cut!" and "Roll!" as lead actors Mare Winningham ("Wyatt Earp," "St.