Orange County

On a clear day, the expanse of blue ocean seen from the living room of this San Clemente home seems almost endless. Sometimes, as day gives way to evening, a line of pink stretches like a crayon scrawl in the sky. When night falls, the sea is an abyss of black. Margrit Ucar fell instantly for the panorama. Even before her husband, Manas, had a chance to see the house, she knew it was where they would raise their two young daughters, twins Margo and Grace.

Two Santa Ana College football players and a male friend were charged with raping and sexually assaulting a drunk or unconscious woman last summer and videotaping the crime, Orange County prosecutors said Friday. John Paul Foster II, 22, of Seaside in Monterey County, and Michael Alexander Clemmons, 19, of Tustin were arrested and arraigned this week in the July 2008 assault. The third suspect, Luster Ditto Lewis, 20, of Irvine, turned himself in Friday and was arraigned.

A man walked into the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove on Wednesday, knelt down at the foot of a cross and fatally shot himself in the head. The man entered the sanctuary about 9:40 a.m. and gave a handwritten note to a church volunteer. He then walked to the front of the pews, knelt before the cross and removed a semiautomatic handgun from his backpack. He put the weapon to his head and pulled the trigger, Garden Grove Police Lt. Dennis Ellsworth said.

The explosive Wedge surf break in Newport Beach has left generations of daredevils with broken bones and concussions. On Friday, with waves topping 20 feet, it killed a man -- a rare death at a place that would seem to invite it. The Orange County coroner's office has identified the man as 50-year-old Monte Kevin Valantin of Lawndale. He was thrown against the rock jetty that produces the Wedge's outsized waves about 12:30 p.m.

Was it the real estate downturn, or were people misled into a risky investment scheme? That's the question at the center of a lawsuit filed Tuesday that accuses Orange County real estate lender Dan J. Harkey of bilking dozens of investors out of more than $15 million. In an added twist, the investors claim that their money helped fund the election of Harkey's wife, state Assemblywoman Diane L. Harkey (R-Dana Point).

He was a former lawman who called himself "Mask" and advocated a hold-nothing-back lifestyle that helped transform mixed martial arts fighting into a craze and turned his own fighting apparel company into a multimillion-dollar business.

A karate instructor at a Costa Mesa self-defense studio was arrested this week on suspicion of molesting a 4-year-old girl whom he was giving a private lesson, authorities said Thursday. Jon Patrick Harrison, 61, of Anaheim is charged with one felony count of lewd acts on a child. Harrison has been a martial arts instructor at United Studios of Self Defense for 10 years, and authorities worry there could be other victims, said Orange County Sheriff's Department spokesman Jim Amormino.

To improve my chances of winning an annual Oscar-picking contest with friends, I went to see "Milk" the other night. Aside from providing key information for my ballot, the movie about one of America's first openly gay men elected to public office gave me a glimpse into an Orange County that seems like a long time ago. At least, I think it was a long time ago. On paper, it was.

As federal authorities press their case against a Tustin man accused of lying about ties to Al-Qaeda, they disclosed this week that some evidence came from an informant who infiltrated Orange County mosques and allegedly recorded the defendant discussing jihad, weapons and plans to blow up abandoned buildings.

An Orange County woman was sentenced to eight years in prison Tuesday for recruiting people for unnecessary surgeries as part of a multi-state, $154-million medical insurance fraud scheme. Lilia Toscano, 41, pleaded guilty to 98 counts that included conspiracy, grand theft, tax evasion, insurance fraud and so-called capping, or recruiting patients for a fee, the Orange County district attorney's office said. Toscano enlisted more than 245 people, most of them from California, to take part in the bogus surgeries in exchange for money or low-cost cosmetic surgeries.