Jul 26, 2010 12:00AM

Television review: 'Homeless: The Motel Kids of Orange County'

Although the filmmaking is basic, Alexandra Pelosi captures the sad ingenuity found in lives on the edges in a place known for its conspicuous overconsumption.

Documentary filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi ("Journeys With George," "Friends of God") returns Monday to her customary venue, HBO, with "Homeless: The Motel Kids of Orange County." There were whole families living in single motel rooms long before this latest dep/recession gripped the nation and the world, and not only here in Southern California. (CBS News looked in on some Salinas, Calif., motel kids last year, with a return visit just this May.) But the setting of Pelosi's film is particularly trenchant, given the conspicuous overconsumption that has become associated with the locale — the subtitle echoes "The Real Housewives of Orange County" — and the physical proximity of many of these motels to Disneyland, the self-declared Happiest Place on Earth.

Jul 25, 2010 12:00AM

Downhill skateboarding doesn't fly with Laguna Beach critics

Residents of a popular slope want the city to ban the sport on most hills and enact a speed limit. It's a classic Southern California showdown.

For downhill skateboarders, the feeling of tucking your hands behind your back and bombing down one of Laguna Beach's steep canyon roads is euphoric: the pressure of G-force as you bank turns, the wind on your face and the blur of asphalt rushing below.