Is Capital Pacific Holding Helping to Buy 11 State Buildings?

According to state records, one of the investors in California’s $2.3 billion sale of 11 state office buildings is a Newport Beach company founded and run, until 2008, by Hadi Makarechian, a contributor of more than $314,000 to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger since 2003 and nearly $175,000 to ballot measures backed by the GOP governor.    Read more »

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More About the All Too Often-Overlooked Sebastian Vizcaino

Spanish explorer Sebastian Vizcaino sure got around. Not only did he give the city of Santa Barbara its name but he also discovered the Carmel River in 1603.

As was Vizcaino’s frequent custom, he chose a religious name for the stream — Rio del Carmelo. Carmelo is Spanish for Mount Carmel near Jerusalem, which, in turn, comes from the Hebrew karmel, meaning “orchard.”    Read more »

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