San Clemente Ca

Gia Lugo knows all about the gang turf battles in southern Orange County. So when she taught school in San Clemente, she was careful not to let students know that she lived in San Juan Capistrano. And she never told people in San Juan where she worked. "I was afraid to have a SJC sticker on my car because it might get tagged or vandalized," said Lugo, 36, who has lived in San Juan most of her life and remembers gangs in junior high.

A man found dead at a San Clemente park was identified Thursday as a gang member named in an injunction that barred him and other gangsters from hanging out at the site where he died, authorities said. Juan Montes Jr., 26, of Capistrano Beach had a criminal record that included three convictions since 2006 for offenses, including burglary and possession of a controlled substance, according to court records.

"Two guys down. Two to zero. We're behind man, we're losing. " --Gustavo Carrillo, 25, an acknowledged member of San Clemente's Varrio Chico gang. * Greg Bass was walking down the street with his 3-year-old son, Dakota, when fire trucks and police cars went screaming past them. He thought they were speeding to a car accident.

Gia Lugo knows all about the gang turf battles in southern Orange County. So when she taught school in San Clemente, she was careful not to let students know that she lived in San Juan Capistrano. And she never told people in San Juan where she worked. "I was afraid to have a SJC sticker on my car because it might get tagged or vandalized," said Lugo, 36, who has lived in San Juan most of her life and remembers gangs in junior high.

A former San Juan Capistrano man was convicted Thursday of second-degree murder for a 1990 shooting that authorities described as San Clemente's first gang-related slaying. Juan Jose Ramirez, who had claimed self-defense in the shooting, faces a minimum of 18 years to life in prison when he is sentenced April 12 for the death of Roman C. Calvillo, 26, of San Clemente. Orange County Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan said the defendant's contentions of self-defense were "not believable." "Mr.

After two months of public hearings and community workshops, the San Clemente Planning Commission this week approved a developer's proposal to build homes and a shopping center on one of the last undeveloped areas of Orange County's coastline. The plan by Irvine-based Lusk Holding Co. for the 250-acre Marblehead property calls for 434 homes, a retail center and entertainment complex between Interstate 5 and the city's historic North Beach area.

It sits on a bluff above one of the best surfing spots in the world, with a view that can reach 60 miles to San Clemente Island on a clear day. It's so isolated that you can barely see the tip of a gazebo or get a peek of some of the Spanish-style buildings from the beach. And the closest you can get to it is a model at the city's public library.

City officials are warning residents to take landslide precautions such as stabilizing hilltops and slopes before the rainy season begins. More than 100 homes suffered serious damage last year when rain-soaked slopes began to slip last year. City Hall has issued a set of guidelines for homeowners to determine whether excavation permits are needed to repair slopes on private property that is still damaged. The information can be picked up from the city engineering division at 910 Calle Negocio.

A man who police believe has committed five rapes and who has unnerved this quiet beach community might be motivated by a need to exert power and to find a "perfect victim" who will resolve his feelings of inadequacy, say local and national experts in sexual assault. While police have revealed little about the rapist's habits, experts interviewed last week drew a rough psychological profile of the man based on what information has been released and common traits found in serial rapists.

Casa Romantica, the historic bluff-top home of San Clemente founder Ole Hanson, will soon be transformed into a cultural and educational center, to the cheers of preservationists who have fought to keep the property intact. The California Coastal Commission's recent approval of the city's restoration plans was the final regulatory hurdle for the $6.8-million project.

An active-duty Marine was found shot to death Thursday morning in a drainage ditch in a hilly area of San Clemente. The victim was wearing desert fatigues commonly used in Iraq and Afghanistan, and his hat was found nearby, Orange County Sheriff's Department spokesman Jim Amormino said. The man was shot in the upper torso and was lying face down, Amormino said. Investigators believe he was killed near where he was found.

When Richard Nixon made San Clemente his western White House, the late satirist Art Hoppe described the population as "15,000 conservative Republicans, 2,000 surfers, five poor people [and] roughly the same number of liberal Democrats." That was in 1972; today the population is 65,000 or so and it's possible they've chased off the last of the poor people and the liberals. As a matter of politics and philosophy, San Clemente has long been friendly to business, to growth, to builders.

The leak of radioactive material that contaminated groundwater beneath the San Onofre nuclear power plant has not reached a drinking-water source in San Clemente, according to test results announced Tuesday. City officials shut down the drinking-water well last week as a precaution after learning that cancer-causing tritium had been detected two miles away, beneath the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in northwest San Diego County.

In an ocean-view San Clemente neighborhood, firefighters responding to a smoldering garage Thursday morning discovered hundreds of marijuana plants with an estimated street value of $100,000 being nurtured in a sophisticated indoor farm. "It appeared to be just a regular home, a family residence in a nice family neighborhood with a boat parked in the driveway and an SUV in the garage," said Jim Amormino, spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff's Department.

A man was rescued Friday when his 50-foot wooden sailboat sank about two miles south of the San Clemente pier, officials said. Michael Scholefield, who lives aboard the vessel, was not injured, said Nicola Lesourd, a U.S. Coast Guard operations specialist. He had left Newport Beach and was heading toward Mexico, officials said. The white boat, named Greyhound, sank about 6:45 a.m. near San Mateo Point after striking rocks, Lesourd said.

A 58-foot commercial fishing boat overturned two miles off San Clemente on Saturday, spilling about 1,500 gallons of diesel fuel, the Orange County Sheriff's Department said. The boat's four crew members were rescued by the sheriff's harbor patrol about 3 a.m. They suffered minor hypothermia, said sheriff's Lt. Ted Boyne.

The U.S. Border Patrol reopened its checkpoint along Interstate 5 on Sunday afternoon, entering another phase of a test to determine whether the operation there is effective, an official said. The checkpoint had been closed for the past six weeks while its agents were redeployed to the border to beef up enforcement there, Assistant Border Patrol Agent Ted Swofford said. The redeployment was part of a test to decide whether the San Clemente checkpoint ought to be permanently kept or closed.

The U.S. Border Patrol seized more than 330 pounds of marijuana this week at the San Clemente checkpoint, bringing its yearly total to nearly 10,000 pounds worth an estimated $7.8 million, authorities said Friday. Inspectors using drug-sniffing dogs seized more than $265,000 worth of marijuana from four vehicles in unrelated searches Wednesday, said Board Patrol spokesman Marco Ramirez. Three people were arrested and were turned over to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.

A day after construction workers said they spotted a mountain lion in the canyons behind an elementary school, state animal control officials on Tuesday continued to watch the area. Steve Martarano, a spokesman for the state Department of Fish and Game, said tracks had been found near Our Lady of Fatima Catholic School that looked like those of a small mountain lion or bobcat. The area abuts 35,000 acres of open space, and wild cats and other animals occasionally wander to populated areas.

A holdup team believed to have used the same method to rob 22 hotels in the Southland over the last three months struck Thursday at San Clemente's Holiday Inn. The pair, described as a man in his late 20s with a goatee and a driver with a thin mustache and short black hair, robbed the hotel in the 100 block of South Avenida de la Estrella about 2:15 a.m., said Jim Amormino, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff's Department.