Costa Mesa, CA – Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris marked Women’s History Month by honoring Linda Sadeghi, Noelle Smiley, and Amy Nakamoto as the 2026 Women of the Year. The 8th Annual Women of the Year Celebration honors and elevates women whose extraordinary leadership, entrepreneurship, and volunteerism have made a lasting impact across Orange County.
An investigative series about California’s lax drunken driving laws by CalMatters is prompting the Legislature to take action with 10 new bills. Each one needs to be evaluated based on its merits. But it’s encouraging to see lawmakers spend their time on a deadly problem that is primarily caused by the state’s bureaucratic failures.
Bottom line: The Department of Motor Vehicles allows repeat DUI offenders to keep getting back on the road.
Should state regulators shrink your electric company’s profits? And would that really lower our appalling, outrageous, abominable electric bills?
Consumer advocates have been pushing this idea for years, and the California Public Utility Commission went so far as to make wee tiny downward adjustments in December. But Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris, D-Irvine — and most everyone we know who actually uses the outlets in their homes — thinks that probably did not go quite far enough.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Kelly Montalvo said speaking about the loss of her son Benjamin six years ago to a hit and run by an impaired and distracted driver is something she must do in a numb state because of the trauma tied to his death.
“Benjamin was the youngest of our four sons, and as his oldest brother said at his funeral, they called him 'Bean Dip,' so he said, 'Bean Dip' was truly the best of all of us,” Montalvo said.
It wasn’t the first time the woman who took her son's life had been involved in a hit-and-run, Montalvo said.
It’s been more than four decades yet Rhonda Campbell’s voice still quavered as she stood before a row of television cameras recalling the day in 1981 when a repeat drunk driver killed her 12-year-old sister. She remembers her father crying as he told her what happened, still hears her mother’s scream when the coffin lid closed.
A woman who, while driving and texting, killed a 21-year-old bicyclist and then fled the scene is scheduled to be released after serving less than a third of her nine-year sentence. The victim’s mother is livid.
“How can you do this, be a repeat offender, kill somebody and serve two and a half years of a nine-year sentence?” said Kellie Montalvo, referencing the offender’s time in custody after being sentenced. “It’s completely outrageous to us.”
Costa Mesa, CA – Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris joined Costa Mesa city leaders, including Mayor John Stephens and Mayor Pro Tem Manuel Chavez, along with community members for the groundbreaking of the Ketchum-Libolt Park improvement project, supported in part by $1.2 million in funding she helped secure in the California State Budget. The upgrades reflect a continued commitment to public safety, neighborhood investment, and enhancing quality recreational spaces for Costa Mesa residents.