Orange County

Olympic sprint champion Florence Griffith Joyner died after suffering an epileptic seizure, according to autopsy results released Thursday, and her family and friends say they hope the findings will put to rest rumors that drug use contributed to her death. Griffith Joyner died last month in her sleep at age 38. Her husband, Al Joyner, bitterly criticized those who suggested that she took performance-enhancing drugs.

After years of contentious debate, a long-running and sharply criticized plan to extend Orange County's toll road network to the San Diego County line has been shelved. The extension would have added miles to the county's maze of tollways but also would have cut - in the view of some - perilously close to San Onofre State Beach and one of the state's most treasured surf breaks. On Tuesday, officials with the Transportation Corridor Agencies announced they had canceled environmental studies for the massive 241 extension and said they would pursue less-ambitious alternatives.

The staggering backlog of applications for concealed weapons permits in Orange County has grown to almost 3,000 and some applicants said they've been told it may be years before their paperwork is fully processed. The flood of applications was triggered by a pro-gun appeals court ruling that relaxed the restrictions on who could carry weapons. Most counties in the state have opted to wait for a likely appeal, but Orange County has gone the other way - taking applications from those who claim they need to carry a weapon for their own protection or safety.

Of all the places in the world, why did Larry Agran have to choose Vietnam? That's what local Vietnamese Americans wondered after learning that the longtime Irvine councilman hoped to forge a relationship between the master-planned community and Nha Trang, a southern coastal city in Vietnam known for its beaches and scuba diving. To many who fled the country after it fell to communist forces, Agran's proposal seemed designed to cause hurt, and hundreds indicated they planned to confront Agran on Tuesday, when he was expected to propose that Irvine and Nha Trang form a "friendship city" relationship.

In addition to Constitution Week, Cyber Security Awareness Month and Wear Red for Women Day, Harvey Milk Day will now be officially recognized in Orange County. The decision marks a reversal for Orange County supervisors, who twice previously refused to set aside a day to honor the birthday of the slain gay rights activist, who was a supervisor in San Francisco when he was gunned down in 1978. Supervisors voted Tuesday to adopt a yearly list of proclamations that included Harvey Milk Day. Supervisor Shawn Nelson, who helped activists get the day on the list of more than 90 proclamations, said he understands that the recognition is symbolic.

For years, Orange County has been the contrarian while its neighbors have used distinctive and easy-to-spot letter grades to alert would-be diners what to expect when they swing open the door to a restaurant. Now, Orange County is studying whether it too should move in that direction - but rather than assign letter grades, it's considering using colors. Think traffic lights. The color-coded system advanced by the county grand jury - green, yellow and red - would be similar to those used in Sacramento and Alameda counties.

The FBI has been brought in to help investigate a cache of explosives — grenades, blasting caps and fuse igniters — found in a backpack under a bridge in Placentia on Monday. Orange County bomb squad officials were brought in after the backpack was discovered about 8:50 a.m. Monday by people working in a drainage ditch, Orange County sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino said. After cordoning off the area, bomb technicians detonated the contents of the backpack, including six grenades, blasting caps, fuse igniters and blasting powder.

In a conservative Orange County town, where the strawberry fields were still plentiful and the population solidly white, Danh's Pharmacy stood out when it opened its doors after the Vietnam War came to an end. Yet the business was just the beginning in a small Orange County city that would quickly balloon into a bustling immigrant community. When Danh N. Quach chose to set up shop in 1978 in Westminster, he knew just one Vietnamese doctor - the same man who agreed to co-sign a loan for him. PHOTOS: Little Saigon turns 25 Now, as Little Saigon celebrates its 25th anniversary - a date marked not by the arrival of refugees, but by the state erecting a freeway offramp sign - Quach's shop stands as a landmark in the largest Vietnamese cultural district outside the country itself.

The organization that tracks hate crimes and racial intolerance in Orange County is at risk of having its county funding gutted, a money-saving move that some say could unravel 41 years of hard work in a county that has grown increasingly diverse. A county supervisor is proposing a two-thirds reduction in the money given to the Orange County Human Relations Commission, which leaders say could cripple the group's effectiveness in handling potentially volatile situations. It was the commission, supporters say, that stepped in to calm an angry city when a homeless man died after a violent confrontation with police at a downtown Fullerton transit center.

Orange County's top official resigned Thursday amid criticism of how government leaders handled allegations that a public works executive sexually assaulted multiple women over an eight-year span. After an hours-long closed session, Supervisor John Moorlach emerged to announce Chief Executive Tom Mauk's resignation, effective Aug. 3. It's the latest in a series of departures from county government since Santa Ana City Councilman Carlos Bustamante was charged with 12 felonies and four misdemeanors in connection with the alleged battery and sexual assault of seven of his subordinates.

 Ted Mullen, who was a successful high school football coach for 18 years at Villa Park, Irvine University, Santa Ana Foothill and Anaheim, died on Friday morning. He was 81. He won two Southern Section titles and was inducted into the Southern Section Hall of Fame in 2013. Mullen is survived by his daughter, Jodi. Funeral arrangements are pending. Eric.sondheimer@latimes.com  

 Curtis Godin, the former baseball player turned 100-meter runner for Santa Ana Mater Dei, set the Orange County record for fastest 100 meters on Thursday in a dual meet against St. John Bosco, running 10.42 seconds. Sophomore Sean McGrew of St. John Bosco ran 10.70. St. John Bosco's Matt Katnik set a school record in the discus at 168 feet, 10 inches. He also won the shot put at 60 1/4. Mater Dei's Malik McMorris recorded a season-best of 58 feet in the shot put.   Eric.sondheimer@latimes.com  

An aggressive mountain lion that had lurked in the brushy hills of southern Orange County was shot and killed after it began stalking a mother and her two children after they set off on a day hike. The woman, and a growing number of fellow hikers and passing mountain bikers, were unable to scare off the cougar, which at one point came within yards of her son. Authorities said the cougar was hiding in the brush near a grade school when they arrived and then marched directly toward them, seemingly unafraid.

Three north Orange County cities scrambled Monday to reopen roads and buildings following a magnitude 5.1 quake that snapped water lines, damaged chimneys and left a well-traveled thoroughfare covered in dirt and boulders. Still, as the workweek began and the extent of damage came into sharper focus, city officials said it appeared the cities along the Los Angeles County border had been lightly touched despite the size of the quake and the continuing aftershocks. The biggest concern was Carbon Canyon Road, which remained closed Monday as a result of a rock slide Friday, said Anna Cave, emergency preparedness coordinator in Brea.

When the first jolt hit, Fullerton Mayor Pro Tem Greg Sebourn was on the couch getting his 4- and 8-year-old daughters ready for bed. As Sebourn rushed his screaming girls toward the door, another violent lurch knocked the mayor and one of his daughters to the floor. Sebourn skinned his knee and his daughter bumped her head on a door jamb. On Saturday, the mayor was thankful their injuries weren't worse. "It's the strongest jolt I've ever felt, and I've been in the same town for 41 years," he said.

The magnitude 5.1 earthquake that rattled Southern California on Friday was a 10-second reminder of a fault that seismologists believe can produce a catastrophic disaster. The Puente Hills thrust fault is so dangerous because of its location, running from the suburbs of northern Orange County, through the San Gabriel Valley and under the skyscrapers of downtown Los Angeles before ending in Hollywood. Experts say a major, magnitude 7.5 earthquake on the fault could do more damage to the heart of Los Angeles than the dreaded Big One on the San Andreas fault, which is on the outskirts of metropolitan Southern California.

She was beaten and stomped to death in the early morning hours outside a Santa Ana nightclub amid a group of fellow Vietnamese Americans. Some of her friends may have seen who knocked the 23-year-old Huntington Beach woman to the ground or who kicked her in the head as a crowd encircled them. Some may hold the clues that could bring Kim Pham's killers to justice. But as Santa Ana police detectives try to make sense of the melee that led to her death, the investigation is running into a wall of silence.

This orchard used to be the stuff Orange County was made of. Back in the heyday of the region's citrus production, this five-acre parcel of orange trees in Santa Ana was no aberration. Indeed, at one point, the county boasted more than 67,000 acres of orange groves. Pushed by urban development over the years, the county's groves have been whittled down to scant plots of land, with perhaps fewer than 80 acres left. The Sexlinger Orchard, which borders a park and sits across Santa Clara Avenue from a cemetery, has managed to remain untouched.

The railroad buffs who operate Goat Hill Junction just can't seem to catch a break. Just weeks after thieves broke into the model railroad grounds and stole $9,000 in aluminum tracks and other material, vandals broke into the 40-acre Costa Mesa attraction and caused $4,000 in damage by smashing six picnic tables and prying open an irrigation box. "This is the first time we've seen wholesale destruction like that," said Hank Castignetti, spokesman...

Orange County health officials met in an emergency session this week after the latest measles tally showed the number of cases in the county had rocketed in the last few weeks. There are now 21 confirmed cases of measles in Orange County, the most of any county in California and nearly five times the number of cases in the entire state at this time last year, health officials said. Across the state, the numbers also moved forward, climbing to 49 cases by Friday. Last year, at this time, there were only four reported in the entire state.