Good fiscal management has resulted in the City of Irvine building up operational reserves to $100 million — roughly $50 million in an Asset Management Reserve Fund and another $50 million in a Contingency “Rainy Day” Reserve Fund.

Although accumulating these reserves is laudatory, the City’s reluctance to deploy the reserves to alleviate hardships caused by a global pandemic is troubling.

If you love animals and have been thinking about adding a four-legged member to your family, swing by the Irvine Animal Care Center (IACC).

State Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris hosted a holiday book drive to help spotlight the importance of education, literacy, small businesses, and local authors.  One of the local authors who participated, Jessica Patrick is also a high school librarian.

If you follow college football, you have probably heard of college superstar quarterback Jonathan Tyler (JT) Daniels.

But did you know that JT spent his childhood here in Irvine? He graduated from high school a year early so that he could play football for USC in 2018 at the age of 17.

The annual partnership between the City of Irvine and the Irvine 2/11 Marine Adoption Committee to help military families has begun!

The Annual Toy Drive benefits families of Irvine’s adopted 2/11 Marine Battalion. To help bring joy to local military families during the holidays, you can donate a new, unwrapped gift suitable for infants or children ages 12 and younger.

Congratulations to Irvine native, singer-songwriter Michael (MC) Taylor, who has been nominated for a Grammy for his album, Terms of Surrender. 

The album is included within the Americana genre.

As we began October — which was six months into the pandemic — Orange County had reported 53,751 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 1,268 deaths.  There were 172 Orange County residents hospitalized with COVID-19.

During October & November, there were an additional 24,802 confirmed COVID-19 cases reported across the County … and we lost another 309 of our neighbors. As of December 11th, there are 1,122 COVID-19 patients in Orange County hospitals.