Santa Ana

Birds do it, bees do it, even wildebeests and zebus do it. And during the "Valentine's Day Sex Tour" at Santa Ana Zoo today, visitors will learn exactly how animals court and mate in a captive setting. Wild stuff? Well, the event is for adults only, but zoo curator Connie Sweet said she wouldn't go so far as to slap an R-rating on the tour. Call it PG-13.

Until the mats, blankets and other comforts of Necessity Village were finally packed up at sunrise Tuesday, Jerome Clark had been sleeping soundly for the first time in years. For the last decade, the 65-year-old homeless man's on-and-off residence has been the Santa Ana Civic Center, usually the lawn. Like others who live on the streets of Orange County's second largest city, Clark said his nights were fitful, sleep always elusive as he worried about being slapped with a ticket for violating the city's no-camping ordinance.

Federal drug agents on Friday announced the confiscation of an estimated $1-million worth of methamphetamine and the arrests of three Santa Ana men who are suspected of being major distributors of the drug. The arrests, which authorities said was one of the largest of its kind in Orange County this year, followed a two-month undercover investigation by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. "This is a lot, actually, for methamphetamine," said agency spokesman Ralph Lochridge.

The number of U.S. homes stuck in foreclosure ticked down slightly in February compared with the same month a year earlier, new data show. About 1.4 million homes, or 3.4% of all homes with a mortgage, were in foreclosure last month, compared with 1.5 million in February 2011, Santa Ana research firm CoreLogic said Thursday. That was flat compared with January. Banks completed about 65,000 foreclosures last month, or about 1,000 more than in February 2011, and 10,000 more than in January, the research firm said.

During the 1930s and '40s, Jack Benny, Lucille Ball and Rita Hayworth were just a few of the major Hollywood celebrities who stopped in for meals at Daniger's Tea Room, located on the second floor of the historic Santora Building in downtown Santa Ana.

Orange County students on Friday were grieving the death of softball standout Nadia Brianne Matthews, who, according to the county coroner's office, committed suicide a day earlier. The sophomore was a well-liked honor student at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana. "Everybody's shocked," said Mater Dei softball Coach Doug Myers. "We're just absolutely devastated." The 16-year-old hanged herself Thursday night. Police and fire officials were called to an apartment in the 2100 block of East Almont Avenue in Anaheim shortly before 8 p.m., Anaheim police Sgt. Rick Martinez said.

Eight people were in federal custody Thursday after the FBI and local law enforcement officials broke up what they described as a violent street gang responsible for manufacturing $1 million worth of methamphetamine a month. Santa Ana police served warrants on at least eight Orange County homes Wednesday night, seizing an undisclosed amount of methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin in addition to guns. State narcotics agencies also took part in the investigation, officials said.

Lucio Brito, a senior cross-country runner at Santa Ana Valley High School, likes his late-night runs best. Monday, Wednesday and Friday between 10 and 11 p.m., Brito runs for about 30 minutes along Bristol Street. His pace is comfortable, the air is cool and the streets are uncrowded. Though his evening runs are meant to be peaceful, they also are purposeful. These solitary runs have become the cornerstone of Brito's workouts, and the main reason behind his move from the Falcons' No.

It's a company where employees call the owner "the colonel," its products have names like Bullet, Bombshell and Fireball, and there's a vice president of logistics. One of Orange County's many defense contractors, perhaps? No, this Santa Ana company's products won't be found on the battlefield. But you may see them blasting out of a bunker in a war zone of a different type: the local golf course. The company, Pinseeker Golf Corp.

It was shortly after 1 p.m. Saturday when young men started spilling into Delhi Park, jumping over the wire fence, strolling across the play lot toward the basketball court where another group of young men were playing. They were members of different gangs, but the park, usually considered Delhi Aces turf, was treated as neutral territory for a day. "The word's been around that they're trying to stop violence," said a trim, dark-haired young man who spoke for the Little Brook gang.

John Spiak made his name as a curator at the Arizona State University Art Museum, in Tempe, where he spent 17 years helping to develop an innovative program dedicated in large part to a socially engaged mode of art-making known as "social practice. " He was born and raised in Orange County, however, not far from downtown Santa Ana, which makes his move last fall - to take over as director and chief curator of the Grand Central Art Center - something of a homecoming. "I grew up running around this neighborhood," he says, and he speaks of it today with a booster's enthusiasm.

The offers of help arrive at a particularly vulnerable time for troubled homeowners, promising legal tactics that can fend off foreclosures or slash mortgage balances and rates. But the so-called mass joinder lawsuits against lenders often are only the latest foreclosure-rescue frauds designed to extract payments from financially strapped borrowers, the Federal Trade Commission warns. "The firms involved in this scam promise relief but generally don't deliver," the FTC said in a consumer alert posted on its website Thursday.

A judge has shut down a Santa Ana mortgage-relief operation after federal officials accused it of falsely promising help for struggling homeowners to avoid foreclosure or get their mortgage payments reduced. The operation -- five companies and three websites controlled by Sameer Lakhany of Santa Ana -- took in more than $1 million by victimizing hundreds of consumers with two alleged scams, the Federal Trade Commission said Thursday. The companies are Credit Shop, Fidelity Legal, Titanium Realty, Precision Law Center Inc. and Precision Law Center LLC. The websites are HouseHoldRelief.org, FreeFedLoanMod.org and MyHomeSupport.org.

It's not unusual for a high school team to be honored by the local city council or school board for winning a championship, and that's what happened last week for the Santa Ana Valley girls' water polo team. They showed up at the board of education meeting to be recognized for winning a second consecutive Southern Section Division 7 championship last month. What surprised many in the audience was the revelation they heard after a question was asked by a board member: "What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?"

The Santa Ana firehouse on Walnut Street is dotted with reminders of the department's proud 128-year history. A fire alarm telegraph system from 1924 takes up the back wall of the upstairs living room. Downstairs in the garage, the department's first motorized pumping engine from 1921 is dwarfed by the modern truck, engine and ambulance. On Monday, however, the Santa Ana Fire Department reached a final milestone. Officials gathered for a ceremony to mark the City Council's decision to disband the department and have the Orange County Fire Authority handle fires and medical calls for Orange County's second-largest city.

California cities may not ban medical marijuana dispensaries, but the operations may sell only weed that is grown on site, an appeals court ruled in an Orange County case. The unanimous decision by a three-judge Court of Appeal panel in Santa Ana was the first in the state to prohibit cities from enacting zoning restrictions that effectively ban all marijuana dispensaries. The court was also the first to rule that dispensaries must grow the marijuana they sell, a requirement that would force most of them out of business.

There was a chorus of crying from some of the small children taking their first plunge into one of the two outdoor pools at Cerritos College. Carlos Hernandez, 3, wanted no part of the water, despite reassurances from his swimming instructor and the presence of his father, Cesar Hernandez, of Norwalk. In a nearby classroom, Tony Borriboonratana, 9, prepared to start his Basic Math II course.

Concordia point guard Josh Giles was named a second-team men's basketball All-American Tuesday by the NAIA. He is the first player at Concordia to be so honored. Giles, a junior, is the Eagles' all-time leading scorer with 1,539 points. He led Concordia into the final eight of last week's NAIA Division I national tournament, averaging 19.7 points. * The women's soccer team at Cal State Fullerton hosts the Mexican national team in an exhibition game at 7 tonight at Titan Stadium.

The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2012 — Live Action/Animation No MPAA rating Running time: 1 hour, 41 minutes (live action); 54 minutes (animation) Playing: The Nuart Theatre, West Los Angeles; Regency South Coast Village Theatre, Santa Ana

When the 2011 winners of the coveted National Blue Ribbon Schools award were announced, only one of the 305 recipients was in Los Angeles, and that was a charter school. By contrast, two were located about 30 miles away, in Santa Ana - in a school district less than one-tenth the size of L.A. Unified. Yet Santa Ana Unified is far from affluent. A higher percentage of its students are poor and not fluent in English than in L.A. Unified . Close to 95% are Latino - making Santa Ana the most demographically homogenous school district in Orange County.