Tag Archives: Mission Viejo

News, Politics, Government

Calif. outage leaves 123,000 without power

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Authorities say a power outage in Southern California has left at least 123,000 customers in the dark in San Diego and Orange counties.

San Diego Gas & Electric spokeswoman Jennifer Ramp says the blackout began at just after 11:40 p.m. on Thursday and continued into the early morning hours of Friday.

Ramp told KNBC-TV (http://bit.ly/13ECZkb ) that the company’s entire south Orange County customer base was without power. That includes the cities of Mission Viejo, San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano, as well as Camp Pendleton in neighboring San Diego County.

The company is investigating the cause of the outage.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News

News, Politics, Government

Church members pray for pastor after son's suicide

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Members of Rick Warren‘s Southern California church began Sunday services with a prayer for the popular evangelical pastor, as he and his family coped with the apparent suicide of his 27-year-old son.

Tom Holladay, teaching pastor at Saddleback Church in Orange County, opened the 9 a.m. worship service by saying the congregation would face the tragedy together, “as a church family.”

Holladay led a prayer for Warren and his wife, Kay, and their two other children.

The lead pastor was not in attendance Sunday, the day after the church announced that Matthew Warren took his own life at his Mission Viejo home.

The church said the younger Warren struggled with mental illness, deep depression and suicidal thoughts throughout his life.

He was the youngest Rick Warren‘s three children.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP‘s earlier story is below.

Popular evangelical Pastor Rick Warren asked members of his Southern California church for prayers as he and his family coped with the apparent suicide of his 27-year-old son.

The church said on Saturday that Matthew Warren took his own life at his Mission Viejo home.

Matthew Warren struggled with mental illness, deep depression and suicidal thoughts throughout his life, Saddleback Valley Community Church said in a statement, after his body was found Friday night.

“Despite the best health care available, this was an illness that was never fully controlled and the emotional pain resulted in his decision to take his life,” the church said.

Allison O’Neal, a supervising deputy coroner for Orange County, declined to release the cause and manner of death pending an autopsy of the young man.

Rick Warren, the author of the multimillion-selling book “The Purpose Driven Life,” said in an email to church staff that he and his wife had enjoyed a fun Friday evening with their son. But their son then returned home to take his life in “a momentary wave of despair.”

Over the years, Matthew Warren had been treated …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News

News, Politics, Government

1 Calif. hiker found and recovering, 1 still lost

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Dehydrated and disoriented, one of two teenage hikers missing in Southern California’s Cleveland National Forest has been found, as crews searched for his female companion.

Nicholas Cendoya, 19, was discovered by another hiker shortly before 8 p.m. Wednesday night and airlifted to a hospital.

He was talking to paramedics but struggling to answer questions about what had happened and where the second hiker, 18-year-old Kyndall Jack, might be.

“He was extremely confused and disoriented,” said sheriff’s Lt. Jason Park.

Only minimal searching had been planned for the night, but an intensified hunt with renewed hope was under way late Wednesday night for Jack after Cendoya was found.

Sheriff’s investigators planned to talk to him at length once he was recovering at Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo. They hoped to get more direction on where to look for Jack, who was hiking with Cendoya Sunday when the pair made a 911 call from a dying cellphone and set off the search.

The hiker who came across Cendoya went for help and found a firefighting training crew not involved in the search that just happened to be nearby, Park said.

They found Cendoya about a half-mile south of where much of the search had focused. He was surrounded by so much vegetation that the helicopter rescue crew had trouble keeping track of him once they’d found him.

“When the rescuer was lowered he lost sight of him,” said Division Chief Kris Concepcion of the Orange County Fire Authority. “That’s how thick the brush was.”

Several dozen searchers with help from helicopters had been combing the rugged hills of Trabuco Canyon in the national forest.

Two volunteers got lost themselves and had to be airlifted out Wednesday afternoon.

They were searching the area because the Sunday 911 call was traced to a nearby cell tower, Orange County Fire Authority Capt. John Muir.

Muir said earlier that Cendoya and Jack’s “probability for survival is good” with mild weather both day and night.

The two were …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News

News, Politics, Government

Man accused of killing ex-wife aboard Italian cruise ship

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A California man has been arrested in southwest Florida on an outstanding murder warrant in the death of his ex-wife, who went overboard from an Italian cruise ship seven years ago.

Lonnie Kocontes, 55, was taken into custody Friday night by federal marshals and booked into the Pasco County Jail where he was being held without bail, authorities said.

He was charged with one count of special circumstances murder for financial gain, according to Farrah Emami, a spokeswoman for the Orange County District Attorney‘s office.

Kocontes’ ex-wife, Micki Kanesaki, plunged into the Mediterranean on May 26, 2006, off the Island Escape, which was sailing between Sicily and Naples, according to the FBI. Her body washed ashore the next day in Calabria in southwest Italy.

Kanesaki, 52, was sharing a cabin with Kocontes, her ex-husband. They divorced in 2002 after six years of marriage but lived together in their Mission Viejo, Calif., home until 2005, court records showed.

Kanesaki left the cabin around 1 a.m. to get a cup of tea, Andy Furlong, a spokesman for ship owner Island Cruises, said at the time. Kocontes, a lawyer, reported her missing after he woke up and couldn’t find her after a search, Furlong said.

Italian police boarded the ship, seized records and videotapes and took statements from the crew.

Prosecutors said Saturday that Kocontes strangled Kaneski to death on board the ship and then threw her overboard.

The arrest ended an investigation that started in 2008, when Kocontes began transferring more than $1 million from Kaneski’s bank accounts into joint accounts he held with his new wife. That prompted the FBI to begin seizure efforts and a criminal probe, prosecutors said.

Kanesaki’s mother, Setsuko Kanesaki, said her daughter was in good spirits before the cruise.

“I can’t imagine what happened to her. There’s no reason to believe it was a suicide,” she told the Orange County Register in 2006.

It was unclear Saturday whether Kocontes has retained an attorney. Plans were being made to extradite him to Southern California.

If convicted, Kocontes faces a minimum sentence of life in state prison without the possibility of parole and is eligible for the death penalty, Emami said.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News