Orange County

The body of a man from Orange who disappeared nearly a month ago was discovered in the desert this week, a day after a second suspect was arrested in connection with the case, police said Friday. The body of Matias Ojeda Vazquez, 42, who vanished Dec. 22, was found wrapped in a blanket several dozen feet from Interstate 15 near the high desert town of Yermo.

Hundreds of Vietnamese Americans demonstrated Saturday outside a provocative art exhibit in Santa Ana that had featured Communist symbols that protesters claimed mocked their painful experiences as political refugees. The protest -- joined by people bused in from as far away as San Jose -- came the day after one of the works was defaced with red paint and the owners of the building ordered the exhibit closed, saying the organizers lacked the proper business license.

As it turned out, the corruption case against Michael S. Carona ended well for both him and the county where he once held the title of sheriff. We would say where he "served" as sheriff if it weren't for the abundance of evidence that he was more involved in helping himself and his cronies than in acting as a public servant of Orange County.

Two jurors in the high-profile corruption trial of former Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona complained to the judge during deliberations that they felt intimidated and pressured to side with the ex-lawman, according to interviews and jurors' notes unsealed Wednesday. The revelations provide a glimpse into the strained and sometimes awkward deliberations that unfolded inside the jury room before the panel returned its verdict Friday and acquitted Carona of five felonies.

Nancy Craven, 52, shook as she introduced herself, tears in her eyes. "I am a county worker with the Social Services Agency," she said. "Or, I will be, for the next two weeks. I just got my layoff notice yesterday."

U.S. home prices continued to fall in November, with the Los Angeles area posting among the sharpest declines, according to a prominent index released Tuesday. The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index of home prices in 20 metropolitan areas was down 18% in November from the same month a year earlier. Home prices in Los Angeles and Orange counties were down 27% compared with November 2007. Every one of the 20 regions reported a price decline.

Eight chiropractors, three office administrators and an attorney were arrested and charged in Orange County this week after an undercover operation allegedly caught them in schemes to defraud insurance companies through illegal patient referrals, kickbacks and overbilling for procedures that were never done, authorities said Wednesday.

A Roman Catholic priest from Orange County who escaped prosecution for allegedly molesting a teenage boy is facing new police scrutiny over assertions that he sexually abused a second-grader at a Costa Mesa parish school. Costa Mesa police have interviewed Jonathan Kirrer, who says in a lawsuit that he was repeatedly molested by Father Denis Lyons at St. John the Baptist Church. Police have also interviewed Lyons, one of his attorneys says.

Orange County supervisors were looking for someone to transform the sheriff's office when they hired an outsider last year to replace disgraced Sheriff Michael S. Carona. Now they're complaining that the new sheriff isn't sensitive to the culture of Orange County. If by "culture" they mean concealed-weapons permits handed out to people who have no legitimate need to carry guns on the streets, then yes, Sheriff Sandra Hutchens is not one to honor tradition, and we admire her for that.

A former prison guard accused of fatally shooting a 60-year-old man while holding him and his family hostage was charged Monday with murder, attempted murder and aggravated assault, prosecutors said. According to authorities, Alwyn Gibson II, 24, of Fairfield, Texas, was upset over a failed romantic relationship when he stormed the Irvine home of his ex-girlfriend's family.