San Juan Capistrano nearing plan for Orange County’s first park for Native American culture

Centuries before the mission, the orange groves and the suburban sprawl, Orange County was a bustling place.

And even now if you search hard enough between the rolling San Juan Capistrano hills and I-5, you can still find small remnants of Putuidem,the village that housed hundreds of Native Americans long before Europeans came to what is now San Juan Capistrano.

Transgender bus driver, students benefit from San Juan Capistrano’s updated gender rules

In fall 2015, Capistrano Unified’s board adopted a new nondiscrimination policy that protects employees and students based on their gender and gender expression, as well as other characteristics such as race, sex and sexual orientation. The district’s non-discrimination policy hadn’t been updated in 15 years.

105-year-old to pitch at Padres game

I learned about Anges McKee’s story because she lives at the same retirement community as my grandparents. I wrote up a (B-1 centerpiece) profile on her that the Padres then used in their press release.  By the time I returned to do a follow up on her big day, Agnes had gone viral. The story was picked up by every local network and several major sports news outlets.

Weaving a connection: Native American artists keep ancient crafts alive

 She doesn’t need to look. Her hands have memorized how the juncus and deer grass intertwine to make the baskets that are an homage to her Native American heritage.

The Juaneño Band of Mission Indians, the original inhabitants of San Juan Capistrano,  work to maintain the ancient art of basket weaving with the baskets serving a new purpose in modern times.

Muslims focus on Quran during Ramadan

Pitched a story on Ramadan once I discovered that the paper had no current stories on the subject.

Attended the breaking of the fast and sunset prayers at a local mosque and then interviewed a young man who had memorized all 6,000 verses of the Quran.