THE BODY of a dead man was found Friday morning in the trunk of a car in Stanton (Shutterstock).

UPDATE: The victim in Friday’s homicide has been identified as Jeffrey Cheng, 31, of Irvine. According to the OCSD, he is the registered owner of the vehicle he was found inside. Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call (714) 647-7000.

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An investigation is underway in the apparent homicide of a man in Stanton.

According to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department – which provides police services for the city – deputies on Friday at 10 a.m. responded to the 12000 block of Leafwood St. regarding a “suspicious vehicle.”

The vehicle’s driver side window was smashed and there was blood on the exterior. When deputies gave the auto a closer examination, they found the body of a dead man in the trunk.

His name and cause of death will be determined by the coroner’s office, and also the question of whether the death took place where the body was found, or at another location, and then moved.

Anyone with information useful to the investigation is asked to call the OCSD at (714) 647-7000.

Bike paths, townhomes on GG agenda

To prepare residents for the coming major expansion of bike paths in the city, appropriation of $73,880 in state grant money will be considered by the Garden Grove City Council when it meets on Tuesday night.

The city won a $1.8 million grant to expand the bicycle and pedestrian trail along the former Pacific Electric right-of-way from Stanford Avenue to Brookhurst Street.

To encourage youth and others to safely use the new path, which will link the downtown area of the city to the Brookhurst-Chapman shopping district, the “BikeSafe Garden Grove” program would work toward creating 10 events each year – 30 over three years –toward that end.

Also on the agenda is a public hearing on a proposed residential project at 9861 11th St. to build 31 townhome-style housing units.

The council will meet at 6:30 p.m. in the council chamber at the Community Meeting Center, 11300 Stanford Ave.

OC jobless rates rose in January, but …

The unemployment rate in Orange County jumped a half-point in January, but part of that increase reflects the annual revision of the numbers behind the figure.

ORANGE COUNTY’S jobless rate rose in January, according to the EDD.

According to the state Employment Development Department, the rate for the OC rose to 3.3 percent from 2.7 percent in December 2018.

That’s a loss of 24,600 jobs, much of it attributed to cutbacks in retail trade as seasonal holiday workers were let go.

Other major declines were in construction, business and professional services, and leisure and hospitality.

For local cities, here are the figures.

• Garden Grove: 3.6 percent (up from 3.1 percent)
• Huntington Beach: 3.3 percent (2.8 percent)
• Stanton: 3.6 percent (3.1 percent)
• Westminster: 3.7 percent (3.2 percent).