Santa Ana Ca

Failure no longer colors Eric Arevalo's identity. For five years, the 17-year-old spray-painted freeway overpasses from Orange County to San Francisco with his moniker, Fale, chosen because the Santa Ana youth had felt like a failure all his life. Now he works with canvas and clay, creating seascapes, masks and watercolors through the art program at Santiago Creek School in Santa Ana.

The paintings are big, bold and unsigned -- each one newly hung on the walls of the recently opened courthouse as a testament to Orange County's history and promise. The largest is a mural depicting Westminster vs. Mendez, the 1947 ruling originating in Orange County that put an end to segregated schools for Mexican children. It was painted by students from Otto A. Fischer School, which serves residents of juvenile hall. The collaborative art at the new 4th District Court of Appeal building in Santa Ana was shown this week at a ceremony honoring those who helped bring to fruition the project involving students and courthouse officials.

A 32-year-old Norwalk man was sentenced to death for an execution-style slaying in a dispute that led to the breakup of a Los Angeles-based methamphetamine ring. Orange County Superior Court Judge James A. Stotler followed the penalty recommendation of the jury that had convicted Tupoutoe Mataele on Aug. 3. The panel convicted the 375-pound defendant of the first-degree murder of Danell Johnson, whom prosecutors described as a member of the ring.

They didn't hold up to the bears of Alaska, but they just might be enough to discourage the scavengers of Santa Ana. Fed up with urban foragers who root through neighborhood trash in search of plastic and aluminum, residents of one Santa Ana neighborhood are locking up their recyclables in a container designed to withstand the brute strength and cunning of brown and black bears. So it is that Paula Faccou now keeps a key -- right on the same chain with her house key -- to lock up her trash.

Beatriz Cisneros, daughter Roxan and her friend Lizzett Santa Cruz swooped into one of the many bridal shops on Santa Ana's 4th Street like hunters tracking prey. Gem-studded tiaras in clear plastic boxes lined the shelves to their right. To their left were displays of satin altar pillows, lace-trimmed photo albums, gold-rimmed champagne glasses and silver crucifixes. A sewing machine hummed in the background. The accessories could wait.

A task force of local police and federal agents has dealt a serious blow to a Santa Ana street gang that ran a drug business from a poor, densely populated neighborhood, officials said Friday. A 10-month investigation into alleged gang activity in the Bishop Manor apartment complex in the city's southeast side ended early Thursday with a raid by Santa Ana police and federal authorities on about a dozen units.

Commencement at this Santa Ana school was a serious ordeal. Boys had to wear ties. Girls' dresses required shoulder straps at least 2 inches wide. Families brought balloons and flowers and decorated their cars with white shoe polish. Five rehearsals ensured flawless filing in and out of the auditorium by students in red gowns. But if something did go awry, it was hardly the end of the world. After all, they were only leaving middle school.

Enayda Morales and her family came to the United States from Mexico five years ago, drawn by a dream to one of Southern California's biggest immigrant gateways. In Santa Ana, Morales and her husband and two young children found what tens of thousands of others did before them: Hope on the installment plan, with steep monthly payments. "Es la rueda Americana," said Morales -- "The American treadmill." Her husband earns $400 a week in an auto body shop. The family subsists on rice and beans.

A memorial fund has been established for the family of an 8-year-old Santa Ana boy killed in a hit-and-run accident. Sara Jimenez and her three children were walking on Grand Avenue near 14th Street in Santa Ana on Saturday when a car jumped the curb and hit them, killing Marcos Chico, police said. Donations can be sent to Jimenez, c/o Service Employees International Union Local 1877, 1516 N. Sycamore St., Santa Ana, CA 92701.

Thirteen years ago, Robert Rendon's brother was murdered in a gang shooting on Rosita Place in Garden Grove. Last week, around the corner on La Bonita Street, Rendon's 26-year-old son lost a leg in another drive-by shooting. "We're strong people, but this takes a lot out of you," said Rendon, 54, a carpenter who grew up and raised eight sons in the neighborhood, which straddles Westminster Avenue--also called 17th Street--and includes a few blocks of both Santa Ana and Garden Grove.

A 67-year-old man was killed after a car veered off the road and struck him, authorities said Sunday. Roger Peloquin of Willington, Conn., was walking on the sidewalk about 8 a.m. Saturday when a white Toyota Celica traveling north on Main Street went off the road near Garry Avenue and hit him and a light pole, Santa Ana Police Sgt. Pete Semelsberger said. Peloquin was taken to Western Medical Center, where he died. No other injuries were reported. "The driver of the vehicle remained at the scene and cooperated with the investigation," Semelsberger said.

Imagine skating with the puck through the neutral zone and realizing a hulking defenseman with a bad attitude is drawing a bead on you. Instead of calculating what a collision might feel like -- let's see, force = mass x acceleration -- a more primal urge takes over: Look out! Now, imagine sitting in science class as your teacher stands at the chalkboard and begins diagramming Newton's second law of motion.

In the secluded courtyard of a weathered condominium complex, at the dead end of a graffiti-marred Santa Ana street, the Cham are busy preparing a summer feast. Banana trees grow tall here, shadowing crowded stalks of lemon grass and green onion. Severed bits of a cow slaughtered in conformity with Islamic law fill bright blue plastic tubs. Nearby, women sit cross-legged, chatting and laughing; their strong hands grind fresh ginger in stone mortars.

It's an image rarely seen in Little Saigon: the red flag of Vietnam. The last time the communist flag was displayed prominently in Orange County's Vietnamese enclave -- when a merchant displayed the banner -- it ignited 53 days of angry street protests. Today, an exhibit commissioned by a Vietnamese American arts group will open in Santa Ana, a display that purposely includes communist symbols, the flag of the fallen country of South Vietnam and artwork that has been banned in Vietnam.

Angelica Maciel used to drive through the oak-shaded streets of Santa Ana wondering if she'd ever be able to buy one of the charming little bungalows she so admired. But the real estate frenzy had overtaken even this hardscrabble Orange County city, and prices kept going up. Not any more. Last month Maciel paid a bit under $270,000 for a two-bedroom, 910-square-foot house. It had previously sold for $504,000 in 2006 and was foreclosed upon in July.

With historic buildings, an arts district and a lively street scene reflecting its thriving Latino population, Santa Ana has grown into the slogan it adopted in 2006: "Downtown Orange County." It's come a long way since the '80s, when the civic center area was a ghost town of boarded-up buildings. Now, in a county known for its suburban sprawl, Santa Ana is a true urban center, with an art walk the first Saturday of every month.

For years, Orange County civic boosters have argued over where its "downtown" might be: Santa Ana's historic urban core? Costa Mesa's leafy arts complex? Anaheim's bustling Resort District? Now Santa Ana city officials are promoting a massive redevelopment plan they say should end the debate once and for all.

Educators in Santa Ana, pummeled for years over their approach to bilingual education, say their newest method for teaching English is the best yet. They point to classrooms such as that of kindergarten teacher Luz Martinez at King Elementary. When her students learn the letter "y," they scrawl sentences about "yemas" and "yates" rather than their English equivalents, "yolks" and "yachts." Even those who never spoke a word of Spanish before this year join the exercise.

A task force of local police and federal agents has dealt a serious blow to a Santa Ana street gang that ran a drug business from a poor, densely populated neighborhood, officials said Friday. A 10-month investigation into alleged gang activity in the Bishop Manor apartment complex in the city's southeast side ended early Thursday with a raid by Santa Ana police and federal authorities on about a dozen units.

French Park, a residential neighborhood northeast of downtown Santa Ana, is an architectural wonderland -- a place where historic homes are spared the wrecking ball or given a safe haven. Built from the late 1890s through the 1920s by some of Orange County's most prominent movers and shakers, the community has a cornucopia of home styles, including Victorian, Craftsman, Colonial Revival, English Tudor and Spanish Colonial Revival.