Veronica Kelley: Commercial insurance must do better for people seeking recovery

• September 30, 2026

As we recognize Recovery Month, we must confront a difficult truth: addiction affects countless individuals and families, yet our system continues to fail those who seek care. Substance use disorder is a chronic, relapsing disease of the brain—one that affects memory, pleasure, and motivation. It is treatable, and like other genetically influenced diseases such as diabetes or heart disease, relapse is often part of the process. Long‑term support saves lives. One in five people will struggle with a substance at some point, and they deserve access to real treatment.

I’ve personally dealt with this, years ago, I was at the San Jose airport, heading home from a County Behavioral Health Directors Association meeting, when my 20‑year‑old daughter called me in a panic. Her boyfriend, who had been abusive and also dealing drugs, was refusing to leave our home. My daughter had been trying to recover from opioid use disorder. I was hundreds of miles away, terrified, and unable to get to her.

I called my sister, who lived closer. She and her husband rushed over, got my daughter out safely, and removed a large amount of methamphetamine they found in the house. My daughter stayed with them through the weekend. My sister, who is a drug counselor, helped her through the painful withdrawals while I began calling every residential treatment center I could find.

I have good commercial insurance. The kind you expect will help in a crisis. After hours of searching, I found a reputable program in Costa Mesa that agreed to see her Monday morning.

By then, my daughter was in full opioid withdrawal. She was cramping, vomiting, shaking, unable to sleep, and frightened. Anyone who works with addiction knows that withdrawal is often the tipping point, when people use again not to feel high but simply to stop feeling like they are dying. She told the staff openly about her heroin and methamphetamine use. She wanted treatment.

When we arrived, we felt hopeful. That hope disappeared quickly. After the assessment, the physician told us:

“Your daughter didn’t test positive for drugs. We can’t admit her.”

Heroin and methamphetamine leave the body within two to three days. She didn’t test positive because she had survived the weekend. She was visibly ill and clearly in withdrawal. She was asking for help. I asked about using the Clinical Opiate Withdrawal Scale, which is standard in public programs. He brushed it off and told her she needed to “convince him” she wanted treatment.

She was fighting for her life. I had insurance. She had a medical need.The response: no positive urine screen, no treatment.

This is not how the public behavioral health system treats people. I’ve been a licensed clinician for 35 years, nearly all of them in the public sector. When someone on Medi‑Cal comes to us, we review their history, screen to understand what substances may still be present, and complete a full ASAM assessment to find the right level of care. Then we provide that care.

Commercial insurance does not operate the same way.

And no, this wasn’t an isolated provider. This was the first attempt, not the last. Every commercial insurance based program we tried had similar barriers. Many were understaffed, avoided evidence based treatments, and fell far short of accepted standards of care. 

By contrast, public behavioral health systems are closely monitored and must follow strong clinical standards.

At one facility, a “family group” had 30 family members and one counselor. He asked me to help facilitate the session. That is not treatment. It is neglect.

This cannot continue. Addiction is a chronic disease. It is diagnosable. It is treatable. And people deserve competent care. Personal training, reiki, and unlicensed “coaching” are not treatment for a life‑threatening illness.

We have mental health parity laws meant to make sure behavioral health conditions are treated the same as physical health conditions. On paper, these laws look promising. In practice, they are often ignored, especially when someone is struggling with substance use disorder. Stigma takes over. The disease is mistaken for a character flaw. And people die because of it.

Our children, siblings, parents, and friends deserve access to safe, evidence based treatment—regardless of the type of insurance they carry.

It’s time for regulatory reform. It’s time to enforce parity. And it’s time for commercial insurers to do what the public system already does every day: treat addiction like the healthcare issue that it is.

Veronica Kelley is director of the OC Health Care Agency

​ Orange County Register 

Donna Summer was a struggling singer. Then someone played her demo at an orgy

• September 30, 2026

For Donna Summer, her life and music can be neatly divided into what came before and after Casablanca Records.

Before Casablanca’s Neil Bogart signed her to record “Love to Love You Baby” in 1975, Summer was a struggling American singer in Munich, where she’d moved a few years earlier to star in a German production of the musical “Hair.”

By the time she released “Bad Girls,” her seventh album for Casablanca, in 1979, Summer, who died in 2012, was a global pop star, so much so that when David Geffen launched his own record label a year later, Summer was the first artist he signed.

A new box set, “Donna Summer: The Casablanca Studio Albums Collector’s Edition,” captures all of the music Summer made for Casablanca Records, chart-topping hits and album tracks alike, with producers-songwriters Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte collaborating with Summer to create a remarkable range of music.

“Donna Summer is exceptional,” says Christian John Wikane, who, in addition to writing the liner notes for the new box set, published the nonfiction photo book “A Night at the Disco” in March.

“She did what no other artists during the 1970s did in terms of club music, which was every six months she had a new No. 1 hit on the disco chart,” he says. “And it wasn’t repeating what she did six months prior. It was always a new sound or a different facet of her voice that hadn’t been expressed.

“That’s why I feel that she is so important to the 1970s, because she showed that dance music could give artists a chance to be creative, a chance to show a different side of their personality that maybe they couldn’t do in a more traditional pop or R&B context.”

Summer’s albums for Casablanca were often a source of fantasy for listeners then, Wikane says.

“A way to unlock your imagination as you’re listening or dancing,” he says. “Some artists might have done that for one or two albums, but Donna did it consistently between 1975 and 1979.

“That is why I feel she is such an important figure in the 1970s. But even beyond that, I feel that she influenced generations that are just getting started now.”

In an interview edited for length and clarity, Wikane discussed the innovation of those Casablanca albums, Summer’s relationship with Bogart, the chemistry Summer shared with Moroder and Bellotte, and more.

Q: Donna had been living in Munich for years by the mid-’70s. How’d Neil Bogart find and sign her?

A: It really comes from her producers, Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte. Their publisher brought “Love to Love You Baby” to MIDEM, which is the annual music industry conference in Cannes, and Neil Bogart was there. At the time, they were just trying to shop “Love to Love You Baby” to different independent labels. [Summer, who co-wrote the song with the two producers, sang on the demo track.]

So Neil heard it, and just to advance the story, played it at a party one night, which a lot of people say was an orgy more than a party. That gave him the inspiration to call Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte and say, ‘Please expand this to 17 minutes, like a full side of an album.’

He was thinking about how Iron Butterfly and “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” had done that back in 1967 as a full side of an album. And he heard the potential of “Love to Love You Baby” as this sort of sustained musical experience that works for dancing and also worked for other activities.

Q: And just like that, she’s got a contract with Casablanca?

A: I think for Donna, she was surprised that was the song that got her into the door for her home country. I think she did it more, not as a joke, but I don’t think she knew that was the song that would launch her career.

Casablanca was all about marketing, so they came up with the concept of her as the First Lady of Love. Which is why on her early album covers she’s posed provocatively, with her eyes closed and her head back. She was coming from a theatrical background; she knew how to fit into that role, even though personally I don’t think she felt necessarily comfortable doing that.

I think that’s what drove the innovation of these albums at Casablanca. As you progress through the catalog, the albums become much more well-rounded in terms of Donna’s voice, but also what she was singing about.

The first three albums are very much oriented around love and sensuality and hearing her in that very breathy kind of voice. But by the time you get to “I Remember Yesterday” [her fourth Casablanca album], you really hear her voice open up in a way that I don’t think anyone who heard “Love to Love You Baby” would have expected.

Q: All of it, the sensual stuff and what followed, all sold tons of records.

A: Casablanca was very important in launching Donna and kind of giving her an image. This is the same record company that had Kiss and Parliament-Funkadelic. Like characters, basically. So she became this character and then thankfully was able to grow out of that.

Q: There are plenty of stories about Neil Bogart as a wild ’70s record label boss kind of guy. How did they get along?

A: Oh, Donna considered Neil her mentor. When I interviewed Donna for an oral history about Casablanca Records back in 2009, she said that “Neil Bogart was my Clive Davis. He really nurtured me.” So I feel like if they did clash, it was maybe her wanting to exercise more creative input into the records and not just always being the First Lady of Love.

I just think that at a certain point, because she was so successful, Neil was able to give her that space to really transcend, in a very short amount of time, her initial image with the record company and how they were marketing her to the industry.

Q: You mentioned “I Remember Yesterday” as the album where things shifted. Is that the one with “MacArthur Park Suite” on it?

A: No, that came two albums later on “Live and More.” “I Remember Yesterday” has “I Feel Love,” so that’s why a lot of people regard that as an important album. The reason I think it’s an important album is that it shows her paying homage to the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s on side one.

Then, on side two, it’s more a variety of contemporary styles, and with “I Feel Love,” I mean, that still sounds like it’s the future almost 50 years later.

Q: I want to ask you about Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte, and how important their collaboration was on these records.

A: I feel there definitely is an alchemy between Donna, Giorgio and Pete that is so unique that I don’t think it could have been replicated in any other way or any other combination. The example that I give as a point of comparison is Dionne Warwick with Burt Bacharach and Hal David. You have the trio creating music that is in a class of its own.

Pete Bellotte was very literary, so the concepts for some of those albums actually came from books he was reading. One of the books was a trilogy, and that’s how he got the idea for “A Love Trilogy.” Another book was based on a [classical music] quartet and that’s how they came up with “The Four Seasons of Love” being four tracks [titled after the seasons].

Giorgio, I feel, was driven by technological innovation, and very much steeped in pop music but always wanting to experiment with that. And then Donna, I feel was just such a chameleon as a singer that she could really shape herself into whatever they came up with.

Q: Why did she leave Casablanca after “Bad Girls” in 1979? Did she and Neil fall out?

A: What she told me when I interviewed her about that in 2009, and she didn’t go into detail, but I think she found that other people at the company, not so much Neil Bogart, were sort of black-marketing her records. And she wasn’t getting the royalties that were due her.

I think when you realize that you’re sort of the record company’s bread and butter and yet the numbers aren’t adding up, it’s like, “OK, well, maybe I need to seek another option here.” Because she was the top artist not only at Casablanca but in the industry.

Q: When you interviewed Donna, how did she view her Casablanca years?

A: I can almost quote it verbatim because I asked her what that experience means to you all these years later of working at Casablanca. Donna said, “Everyone that was there was there for me.” She said it almost like being an only child with loving parents. Like, how much attention was given to her to succeed because she was the company’s top solo artist.

And I think in terms of the music, she talked about how “Last Dance” was very special for her. That was written by Paul Jabara specifically for her to showcase her voice. Paul knew her from back when she was in “Hair,” so Paul knew what her range was and wrote “Last Dance” to showcase that range.

She said there isn’t a night that goes by where I don’t realize Paul wrote that for me. So I think songs like “Last Dance” retained a very special place for her because of why they were written, but then, also what they meant for the audience and the fans. I mean, it’s a story that a lot of people can relate to, wanting to find someone at the end of the night before the night ends.”

​ Orange County Register 

Justice Department files complaint against judges over immigration enforcement surge comments

• September 30, 2026

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Justice filed a complaint Wednesday against federal judges in Minnesota over their remarks to the media related to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement surge.

The complaint escalates the department’s battle with the federal judiciary, which has halted administration priorities, dismissed high-profile prosecutions and accused government lawyers in some cases of failing to comply with court orders.

The department is demanding that the judges recuse themselves from all criminal or civil cases involving the Department of Homeland Security, Attorney General Todd Blanche told reporters, because of what he described as “obvious bias they have shown” in recent remarks to The New York Times.

At issue is a September article in which seven federal judges in Minnesota — nominated by Democrats and Republican presidents — spoke on the record about their experience dealing with a flood of cases during last winter’s immigration crackdown that led to thousands of arrests.

The judge at the center of the story, Patrick Schiltz, accused the government in January of failing to comply with nearly 100 court orders. He said in a ruling that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a part of DHS, “is not a law unto itself.”

Schiltz, who was nominated by Republican President George W. Bush and served as a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, told the newspaper that what happened in Minnesota’s federal court last winter “created a grave threat to the rule of law.”

In a statement Wednesday, Schiltz said he was “acting well within the ethical rules that apply to federal judges in speaking to The New York Times.”

“Indeed, in February of this year, the Committee on Codes of Conduct issued an advisory opinion to emphasize that federal judges” may speak or write “on core judiciary matters such as advocacy for the rule of law and judicial independence,’” Schiltz said. “That is exactly what I did.”

The complaint was filed with the chief judge of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which oversees federal judges in Minnesota.

The Republican administration has railed against what it describes as “activist judges” who officials say are intent on thwarting Trump’s agenda. Yet some of the most critical and unfavorable court rulings have come from judges nominated by Trump and other Republican presidents.

​ Orange County Register 

Iranians face soaring prices for medicine as the US blockade and sanctions hit hard

• September 30, 2026

By NASSER KARIMI and AMIR-HUSSEIN RADJY

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Medication prices are soaring in Iran and some treatments have become hard to find, leaving patients and their families scrambling as a U.S. blockade and stepped-up sanctions squeeze the country’s pharmaceuticals industry.

Some medicines have more than tripled in price, further squeezing Iranians’ finances seven months into the country’s war with the United States and Israel. Prices for food and other goods have skyrocketed even as unemployment has risen and the currency, which hit a record low this week, has lost half its value.

The war has become an economic endurance test. Iran has tried to push world energy prices higher with attacks on the region’s oil shipping routes; the United States, in turn, has aimed to wreck Iran’s economy by blockading its ports since June and slapping it with increasingly tough sanctions.

Iran’s pharmaceutical industry is vulnerable because of its reliance on imports. So far there has been little sign of major shortages of medicines at Iran’s hospitals, but the difficulties are showing at pharmacies.

Gholamreza Rahmani, a Tehran welder, and his wife recently scoured several pharmacies over two days hoping to fill prescriptions for four medicines for their 12-year-old daughter, who was having stomach troubles. “Each one would have one or two items, not all of them,” he said, noting that they couldn’t find one of the medicines anywhere. The search cost him two days of wages because he couldn’t go to work.

“My daughter’s illness and the loss of income are like scissors, cutting from two sides,” he said.

Iran’s pharmaceutical industry needs imports

Iran produces more than 80% of its medicines domestically, according to official statistics, but many of those rely on imported raw materials. Before the war, most medicines and pharmaceutical components were brought in by sea, but the American naval blockade has cut off shipping, Bahman Sabour, a member of the Tehran Pharmacies Association, told local media.

Medical importers switched to more expensive air routes. But that access has been threatened by new U.S. sanctions on a number of Iranian airlines, which led to some international flights being halted.

U.S. sanctions don’t directly target medicines, but financial sanctions in place for years also hurt the pharmaceutical supply because international banks and companies often will be overly cautious and refuse transactions because they fear running afoul of sanctions, said Reza Majdzadeh, a professor at the School of Health and Social Care at the University of Essex in England.

“A medicine may be perfectly legal to sell to Iran, but a bank may refuse to process the payment,” he said. “A pharmaceutical or shipping company may simply decide that dealing with Iran is not worth the risk. … The transaction is legal on paper, but it does not happen in the real world.”

The Iranian government hasn’t said how much medicine production has fallen. But officials say it has been hurt because airstrikes damaged more than 40 pharmaceutical factories, including some producing cancer treatments.

Also, cash-strapped pharmacies sometimes struggle to keep their shelves stocked. Insurance companies have fallen behind by as much as nine months on payments to pharmacies for drug coverage because of the “current situation,” said Mohammad Jamalian, a member of parliament’s health committee.

Sabour, of the pharmacies’ association, said insurance companies owe pharmacies about $270 million.

Supplies are also strained because medicines are smuggled to neighboring Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, where prices are higher, state media reported.

Pharmacy prices are spiking

“The price of almost everything has gone up, in some cases doubling, quadrupling, or even increasing sixfold,” said Mina Mohammadian, a salesperson at a pharmacy in Tehran.

Mehdi Pirsalehi, head of the government agency that sets drug prices, said last week that the prices of 2,000 types of medicines were “amended” over the past six months because of inflation and currency issues.

Ali Fallah, a Tehran resident, said the ointment he buys for inflammation has quadrupled in price in three months — from 750,000 rials, or about $0.35, to 3.25 million rials, or roughly $1.46. The minimum daily wage for an unskilled worker in Iran is about 7.5 million rials, or about $3.50.

“I honestly don’t know where this situation is heading,” Fallah said.

The prices of tablets essential for patients undergoing kidney dialysis, for example, have climbed by nearly 350% in recent months. So have over-the-counter painkillers like acetaminophen, if they can be found at all.

The government appears to be ensuring hospitals are supplied

An employee at one public hospital said there are shortages of key specialized psychiatric medicines to treat bipolar disorders and acute psychosis, and more common medications for anxiety and panic disorders. Doctors have had to use electro-convulsive therapy on patients more often because the relevant drugs weren’t available or were of inferior quality, she said.

“The side effects for patients are really a lot,” she told The Associated Press by phone from a major Iranian city. She spoke on condition that she and her location would not be identified for security reasons.

Azita Hassanpour, a part-time teacher, said that her mother, who has cancer, has been able to get her chemotherapy treatments, but sometimes they are delayed because the medicines aren’t as available as they were before the war. Hassanpour is also concerned because her mother hasn’t been able to get her annual flu shot, with authorities trying to track down new vaccine sources.

“I am worried that I may lose her because of flu. I weep out of her sight every night,” Hassanpour said.

Hadi Ahmadi, a spokesman of the Iranian Pharmacists Association, told local media Saturday that about 700,000 flu vaccine doses were imported from China and another half million doses are expected soon. But a jab this year is going for 22 million rials, or roughly $9, which is almost double last year’s price, though authorities have promised to provide it to high-risk patients free of charge.

Radjy reported from New York.

​ Orange County Register 

Mark Carney’s stand against Trump leads to Nobel Peace Prize and Time Person of the Year buzz

• September 30, 2026

By ROB GILLIES

TORONTO (AP) — Mark Carney built a global profile in 2026 by standing up to U.S. President Donald Trump. If some prediction-market traders and prominent admirers are right, the Canadian prime minister could end the year with the Nobel Peace Prize and Time magazine’s Person of the Year.

Carney briefly became the favorite Monday for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize on Kalshi, a U.S.-based prediction market, when traders on the exchange put his chances at 14%. His odds later fell, illustrating the highly speculative nature of the wagering.

There is no public evidence Carney is on the Nobel Committee’s secret shortlist for the prize that will be announced Oct. 9 in Oslo, Norway.

But the buzz about the Canadian leader possibly winning the esteemed peace prize reflects the message that has raised his profile: Middle powers should band together to defend sovereignty as great powers increasingly use economic and military leverage.

Whether that position resonates with the Nobel Committee is impossible to know. One thing is certain, though: the Nobel and Time’s annual award happen to be two honors Trump covets.

Trump believes he deserves Nobel honor

Carney and Trump are locked in an escalating trade war, with 50% U.S. tariffs on billions of dollars of Canadian goods and Canadian retaliation. Trump also has told Canadian leaders to “fall in line” or face consequences “far WORSE” than existing tariffs.

Trump, who has twice been Time’s Person of the Year, has repeatedly complained about not receiving the Nobel, saying in July that he “should have won that award more than anybody.”

“President Trump would be furious, of course,” said Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal. “If this ever happens, I would love to be a fly on the wall of the Oval Office to see the president’s face when he learns about it.”

Trump already possesses a Nobel medal, just not one awarded to him.

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, the 2025 Nobel laureate, presented Trump with her medal at the White House in January. Trump accepted it, while the Nobel Committee stressed the prize itself remains hers.

“Trump will be unhappy whoever gets the Nobel,” said Nelson Wiseman, professor emeritus at the University of Toronto. “If Carney got it, it would make relations with Canada rockier than they are.”

Carney has strong case for Time award

Time already named Carney one of its 100 most influential people of 2026 and specifically noted his popularity increased as he stood up to Trump.

On Tuesday, Carney was the second choice on major prediction markets for Time’s Person of the Year, behind New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The winner will be announced Dec. 10.

Time has described Trump’s cumulative impact as helping create a “new global order” increasingly shaped “not by systems or institutions, but by the will of a single man.” Carney’s answer has been to urge middle powers to band together rather than bend one by one.

New York University professor Scott Galloway said Carney has it in the bag and called him “the leader that Europe’s been looking for for the last 20 years.”

“I believe, hands down, Time’s Person of the Year has already been decided and it’s going to be Mark Carney,” Galloway said.

On Galloway’s podcast, journalist Fareed Zakaria said Carney is winning admiration abroad and has given countries facing a less predictable United States “a kind of language and a path” to build new alliances rather than simply bend to Washington.

Carney moving to front of a new global order

Carney’s standing abroad took off in January at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he declared the old international order was not coming back and urged middle powers to work together rather than wait for its restoration. His speech came as European leaders were confronting Trump’s push to acquire Greenland and tariff threats.

“We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition,” Carney said in his speech, which received a standing ovation.

Carney has since tried to put the argument for a new global order into practice, pushing Canada closer to Europe and seeking new partners in Asia as Trump’s tariffs fractured the old Canada-U.S. relationship.

European lawmakers gave Carney another standing ovation this month as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed opening the door for Canada to become the European Union’s first associate member.

“Carney’s international profile has been driven by his standing up to Trump, unlike the Europeans and Asians who rushed to make deals with him,” Wiseman said. “Trump’s pressure on Canada has helped elevate Carney in the eyes of the world.”

​ Orange County Register 

The world’s largest oat milk producer has joined an unusual climate journalism campaign

• September 30, 2026

By ANTON L. DELGADO

NEW YORK (AP) — Oatly, the world’s largest producer of oat milk, is sending a new message to its consumers: most people want their governments to take action on climate change.

Splashed on the side of the Swedish company’s cartons is messaging from the “89 Percent Project,” a campaign launched by Covering Climate Now, a global journalism nonprofit.

Newsrooms traditionally try not to associate with organized advocacy efforts, but the unorthodox campaign has been gaining traction. Participating news organizations have amplified research that 80% to 89% of people worldwide want their governments to confront climate change.

Oatly’s new cartons were first released in Sweden and have since been rolled out to other European nations, including Belgium and Germany. The cartons are expected to be on U.S. shelves by January, said Caroline Reid, senior sustainability director at Oatly.

“Companies should be taking much more responsibility, not only in reducing their own environmental footprint, but really working out how they can use their platform to drive a positive future,” Reid said at an event last week during New York Climate Week.

Behind the ’89 Percent Project’

In addition to producing stories on climate change, Covering Climate Now promotes reporting on the issue through journalism trainings, newsroom collaborations and press awards. It launched the “89 Percent Project” last year and describes it as a global collaborative journalism initiative.

The project takes its name from a 2024 study in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Nature Climate Change. Based on a survey of nearly 130,000 people across 125 countries, the study found that 89% of people want intensified political action on climate change.

Most people who want climate action don’t realize they are in the “silent majority,” said Mark Hertsgaard, executive director of Covering Climate Now. But that is beginning to change, as “elements of civil society all around the world pick up this 89% message and spread it themselves.”

The project launched with several media partners, including The Guardian, Agence France-Presse and El País. In April, Japanese TV stations said over the next two years they would air announcements about how the majority of Japanese people want stronger climate action. In June, in a separate initiative, 136 Japanese news outlets also began spreading this messaging via social media platforms, news releases, and other forms of public communication.

Numerous polls, surveys and scientific studies in the U.S. have long found that a majority want the government to take more action on climate change, even if the issue is rarely brought up in political campaigns.

In a 2022 poll, The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that nearly two-thirds of Americans thought the federal government was not doing enough to fight climate change, which is primarily caused by the release of greenhouse gases when coal, oil and gas are burned.

That same year, a study based on responses from more than 6,000 Americans and published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Nature Communications found that most Americans underestimate the prevalence of support for major climate change mitigation policies and climate concern. While 66% to 80% of Americans support these policies, Americans think only 37% to 43% do.

“We felt that we, and our fellow journalists, were really missing the story here,” said Hertsgaard, adding he believed the industry was inadvertently “misrepresenting a big part of the climate story, which is that most people around the world want this tackled.”

Oat milk company boosts climate message

Oatly’s milk carton campaign is subtle, especially when compared to the more well-known 1980s U.S. milk carton campaign that put photos of missing children on cartons to spread awareness about their cases.

The new cartons feature two stacked text boxes on one side of the carton.

The much smaller top box reads: “Politicians! These eleven words represent people not interested in climate action.” The lower box, which takes up most of the carton’s side, has an 89-word message that makes the case that most people want their governments to take climate action and that doing so could lead to political wins.

Reid, with Oatly, first read about the climate project in The Guardian. As a company selling alternatives to cow milk, she said the project “aligns with what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to engage people and make them want to do something different.”

Every organization, political party and brand can play a bigger role in contributing to societal net zero, meaning as much carbon being absorbed as is released into the atmosphere, and driving the transition to renewable energy, Reid said.

Project treads fine line between journalism and advocacy

President Donald Trump has periodically railed about climate change and policies meant to address it, including transitioning to carbon-free energy like wind and solar. During the 2025 U.N. General Assembly, Trump called climate change a “con job” and renewable energy the “Green Scam.”

This narrative, which goes against years of science that has established that human-caused emissions are driving the climate to change, has pushed some organizations to take a stronger stand in rebutting the administration and go a step further to advocate for solutions.

Covering Climate Now’s project straddles a tightrope between advocacy and journalism, which experts say has pros and cons.

“The economic failures of so many news outlets have led to a rise in independent journalism that operates outside the norms established by legacy media outlets,” said Seth Stern, chief of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation. “There is plenty of room for advocacy in journalism.”

Clay Calvert, who specializes in First Amendment and freedom of expression issues at the University of Florida, said two dangers arise when journalism organizations partner with companies.

The first is that the journalism group will pull its punches and self-censor negative information about the corporate partner. The second is that the journalism organization will favorably portray its corporate partner in news coverage.

“There really needs to be a wall of separation in any newsroom between the interests of the journalism entity, including its readers and viewers, and those of its corporate partners,” Calvert said. “Sometimes creating and maintaining that separation is easier said than done.”

No money has changed hands between Covering Climate Now and Oatly, according to Hertsgaard, who called the company an “ally.”

“As a journalist, I feel like we have to have the courage to not just report the facts, but to draw the connections,” Hertsgaard said. “Now, if that amounts to advocacy, then that’s an advocacy I’m comfortable with.”

Associated Press writer Jennifer McDermott contributed to this report.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

​ Orange County Register 

Seal Beach activates local emergency in preparation of El Niño

• September 30, 2026

A local emergency proclamation was active Wednesday, Sept. 30, for Seal Beach in preparation for the upcoming El Niño season.

The proclamation supported the city’s preparations for severe storms, coastal flooding, high surf, erosion and other weather-related impacts in the months ahead.

City Manager Patrick Gallegos issued the proclamation at the Seal Beach City Council meeting on Sept. 22, and the council approved the measure.

The proclamation acts as a proactive preparedness measure, the city said, adding that residents do not need to take immediate action. Declaring a local emergency allows the city to prepare and coordinate resources before potentially severe weather develops and provides additional flexibility if conditions change.

The proclamation follows Gov. Gavin Newsom issuing a statewide state of emergency for the developing El Niño event on Sept. 21 and Orange County proclaiming a local emergency.

Seal Beach experienced significant loss and movement of beach sand during recent high-surf conditions from Hurricane Marie. The local emergency proclamation will allow the city to focus on preparing for the broader risks associated with the upcoming El Niño season, the city said.

The proclamation allows the city to coordinate and stage personnel and equipment before severe weather occurs, strengthen coordination with Orange County, state agencies, neighboring jurisdictions and mutual-aid partners. It also allows officials to protect city facilities, infrastructure and beaches, use emergency purchasing and contracting procedures and respond more quickly to flooding, coastal erosion, infrastructure damage, road impacts, power disruptions or other emergencies that may develop.

The city added that the proclamation does not guarantee state or federal reimbursement and encouraged residents to review and complete their own emergency preparations, including: signing up for emergency alerts, checking household emergency kits and supplies (including for pets), clearing drains and gutters, preparing for possible power outages.

City officials said knowing evacuation routes, communicating family emergency plans and connecting with the community to support neighbors and those who may need assistance in an emergency is crucial.

Residents can learn more at sealbeachpd.com/emergency-preparedness/.

​ Orange County Register 

Eating on Route 66: Burgers and Schwarzenegger shakes in Santa Monica

• September 30, 2026

The last dozen miles of Route 66‘s 2,400-plus miles are in Santa Monica. That’s where we are wrapping up our road trip of notable Southern California restaurants along the Mother Road.

We started the trek with a burger in Victorville and will end it with a burger on the Santa Monica Pier.

Route 66 didn’t extend to Santa Monica when it was signed into existence in 1926. But the city wanted a piece of the action and got it in a 1936 realignment. Route 66 changed several times before being decommissioned, as early as 1964 in Santa Monica, when Caltrans began removing Route 66 signage, according to the city.

But in the 2000s, some pier boosters decided that the Mother Road ought to end at the Pacific Ocean and made it so.

Our road trip has two endings: the official 1936 terminus at Olympic and Lincoln boulevards in Santa Monica and the 2009 “End of the Trail” on the 117-year-old structure.

The drive: About 14 miles of Route 66 is on Santa Monica Boulevard. Our last stop was Barney’s Beanery in West Hollywood, a hangout for Jim Morrison and other famous rock stars.

As we leave that city, glance to the left, and you’ll see Tail O’ the Pup, a 1946 hot dog stand shaped like a hot dog. It’s on the sidewalk at 8512 Santa Monica Blvd., but it was moved there in 2022 after years in storage. Its original site was a few blocks away. A building at that address is said to be the place where Morrison and the Doors recorded “L.A. Woman.” tailothepup.com

As we head for the beach, we’ll pass through Beverly Hills and a narrow park that runs along Santa Monica Boulevard for nearly two miles.

Our destinations: If we stayed on Santa Monica Boulevard, we’d arrive at Palisades Park on a ridge overlooking the ocean and Pacific Coast Highway. There, a plaque dedicated in 1952 commemorates one of Route 66’s alternate names, the Will Rogers Highway. Rogers was a beloved humorist in the early 20th century. His nearby ranch house was lost in the devastation of the Pacific Palisades fire.

But first we’re going to Mel’s Drive-in at 1670 Lincoln Blvd., the 1936 terminus. Mel’s is a restaurant chain made famous in George Lucas’ 1973 cruising classic “American Graffiti.” The Santa Monica restaurant is not a drive-in, but self-driving Waymo cars occasionally cruise the parking lot.

It was originally Penguin Coffee Shop, which opened in 1959, and retains the Googie architecture popular for Southern California diners in the mid-20th century.

Mel’s takes advantage of its location with a large fish tank decorated with Route 66 landmarks.

The menu includes an R-66 Burger made with Angus beef, sharp cheddar cheese, shoestring fried onions and Thousand Island dressing for $22. Also, look for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s All-Star Menu, including a plant-based Proteinator Shake for $14.

Ironically, we can’t drive to our final Route 66 destination, the Santa Monica Pier. The aging wood and concrete structure is in the midst of a massive bridge rebuilding project, and its entrance at Ocean and Colorado avenues is closed to vehicles, although pedestrians can walk in. A famous blue-and-white neon sign over the bridge is also being dismantled for renovation.

Beach parking is available on Pacific Coast Highway, and the city has inexpensive parking structures about a half mile away.

You can buy Route 66 souvenirs including T-shirts, key chains and bottle openers all along the pier.

Among the eateries is the original stand for Hot Dog on a Stick, which dates from 1946, and Pier Burger, where what it calls the “last burger on land” costs $8.50. The place also specializes in frozen custard, serving a Route 66 concrete with chocolate chunks for $8.75. pierburger.com

The “End of the Trail” sign is outside of Pier Burger. It went up decades after Route 66 was decommissioned and features the number 66 inside a circle instead of the official shield used for U.S. highways.

This example of California dreaming doesn’t seem to bother tourists, who line up for photos hugging the sign and embracing the century-old myth of the Mother Road.

​ Orange County Register