Angel City FC faces challenge of rebounding from first loss

• April 24, 2025

Angel City Football Club didn’t have long to dwell on last Friday’s one-sided loss against Gotham FC.

That’s probably a good thing, but on the other hand, the first chance to respond is on the road against defending NWSL champion Orlando Pride on Friday.

The Pride is also coming off its first loss of the season, 1-0 against the Washington Spirit, to snap a 17-game unbeaten streak at home.

“All the teams that we’re playing are really good,” Angel City defender Gisele Thompson said. “We’re just sticking to our game plan and focusing on ourselves. We know every team is going to be different. They’re all amazing teams, so we’re focusing on who Angel City is and building off of that.”

Without a shot on goal the entire match, Angel City (2-1-2, eight points) lost to Gotham FC 4-0 on Friday. Gotham had four shots on goal – three in the second half – and all four ended up in the back of the net.

“We have a really young squad right now,” Angel City defender and captain Sarah Gorden said. “The most important thing is how we respond. Going into practice (this week) is about focusing on the next step and moving forward.”

Angel City will receive a big boost with the return of Alyssa Thompson (three goals), who sat out the loss against Gotham with an upper leg injury. The Pride (4-1, 12 points) have allowed only two goals through five games.

“They’re a very mature team,” Angel City interim manager Sam Laity said of the Pride. “(Orlando coach) Seb (Hines) is doing a brilliant job there. They’ve done a great job on the recruitment side of things and have a lot of stability at the club. They’ve been there for four years, so that team and that club is a lot more mature perhaps than we are right now.

“It’ll be a really good opportunity for us to see where we’re at. We will certainly be causing them problems if we turn up and do the things that we’ve done over the course of the five games. They’re a threat, they’ve got threats, they’ve got concerns, but I’m pretty sure they’ll be worried about us as well.”

After the Gotham loss, Laity said the staff did a five-game performance review.

“It wasn’t just a reaction to the Gotham game, but showed things that we’ve done really well over the course of the five games,” Laity said. “There were some of those things against Gotham, including some of the things that we’ve done really well and then other areas of the game that we want to see some changes, as well as changes to the outcome.

“It was actually really sort of cathartic, and perfectly timed. It would be easy to be down and thinking about the result, as opposed to the performance. We want to win, and there’s a demand and a need to win games. However, my job is to prepare the team (for now) and for when the new head coach comes in, and that’s where our focus is. Analyzing the performance over the last five games was a really positive way for us to put the Gotham game in the rearview mirror and start looking forward to Orlando.”

ANGEL CITY FC at ORLANDO PRIDE

When: 5 p.m. Friday

Where: Inter & Co Stadium; Orlando, Fla.

How to watch: Prime Video

​ Orange County Register 

Whooping cough cases are rising again in the US, challenging public health departments

• April 24, 2025

By DEVNA BOSE, Associated Press

Whooping cough cases are rising, and doctors are bracing for yet another tough year.

There have been 8,485 cases reported in 2025, according to preliminary data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s twice as many cases as this time last year, based on the CDC’s final tally.

Rates of whooping cough, or pertussis, soared last year, which experts said wasn’t unexpected. The number of cases fell during COVID-19 because of masking and social distancing. Plus, experts said, the illness peaks every two to five years.

But experts say the outbreaks of vaccine-preventable illnesses, like measles and whooping cough, could be indicative of changing attitudes toward vaccines. U.S. kindergarten vaccination rates fell last year, and the number of children with vaccine exemptions hit an all-time high.

“There’s unfortunately been increasing anti-vaccine sentiment in the United States,” said Dr. Ericka Hayes at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “Our recovery is not nearly as quick as we expected it to be and we needed it to be. And again, when you fall below 95% for vaccinations, you lose that herd immunity protection.”

Whooping cough tends to peak around this time of year and in the fall. It’s usually spread through respiratory droplets in the air, when people with pertussis cough, sneeze or breathe close to others. The symptoms are similar to a cold but the cough becomes increasingly severe with a distinctive sound — a “whoop” as the person tries to take in air. It is treated with antibiotics.

In the past six months, two babies in Louisiana and a 5-year-old in Washington state have died from whooping cough.

The pertussis vaccine, which also protects against diphtheria and tetanus, is given at two months, four months and six months. The CDC recommends adults get follow-up doses every 10 years.

The illness is most dangerous for infants, especially before they receive their first round of vaccinations. That’s why the vaccine is also recommended for expecting mothers — it can protect newborns. But not enough people are getting the vaccine during pregnancy, said Hayes, who is the hospital’s senior medical director of infection prevention and control.

“The uptake of the vaccine for pregnant mothers is not where we need to be at all,” she said.

Pennsylvania, one of the states hit hardest by the illness last year, has recorded 207 whooping cough cases in 2025.

Neil Ruhland, a state health department spokesman, said the biggest increases are in populated areas like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and in middle and high schools and colleges. He said 94.6% of the state’s kindergarteners are vaccinated.

Michigan is on track for a similar pertussis season to last year’s, said Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, the state’s chief medical executive. The state has recorded 516 cases thus far, mostly among children aged 5 to 17, and saw a total of 2,081 cases in 2024.

Bagdasarian said vaccination rates vary from county to county. Some schools have rates as low as 30%, creating pockets of vulnerable communities to vaccine-preventable diseases like pertussis and measles, she said.

“We’re watching pertussis numbers very carefully, but a lot of our resources are going into contact tracing our measles cases right now,” she said. “And public health is doing much more with fewer resources in 2025 than we’ve had to do before.”

AP data journalist Kasturi Pananjady contributed to this report.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

​ Orange County Register 

Cooking with Judy: Judging a dish by its ease, versatility and how good the leftovers will be

• April 24, 2025

If the price of eggs cut into your Easter egg hunt plans last week, you are not alone.

With prices skyrocketing, some opted for decorating potatoes, marshmallows and even rocks as popular alternatives. As of this writing, sales of Michaels’ plastic egg craft kits were up 20% over last year, according to the Associated Press.

This year’s average price in the U.S. for a dozen eggs rose to $6.23 from $2.99 last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, with California’s average as high as $8.97. Officials are promising a drop in prices after Easter, however, with the expected decline in demand. That’s good news for those of us who love an egg in all its many luscious, incredible, edible forms.

I found the lovely dish featured here – one as suitable for company brunch as it is for family meal time – in “Easy Everyday” (Rodale, $29.99) by recipe developer and blogger (howsweeteats.com) Jessica Merchant.

“Puff pastry is an ingredient that I always have in my fridge and use in the kitchen constantly,” she writes. “And as someone who has always struck out with classic piecrust, it saves me every single time.

“Using puff pastry to make a big sheet-pan quiche is a fabulous way to serve a crowd, and it looks so impressive,” she added. “Not to mention that it tastes incredible, with its flaky, buttery layers. It is almost like using a croissant crust in your quiche.”

Merchant uses the recipe for weekday breakfasts or even dinners, cutting leftovers into squares and reheating, although it does lose some of its flakiness, she admits.

The 100 recipes in “Easy Everyday” adhere to Merchant’s promise that dinners should never take more than 30 to 45 minutes to prepare, with breakfasts and lunches considerably less. Her big three tenets are the key to her menu planning: versatility, ease of preparation and leftover quality.

This week, Merchant highlighted two recipes from her cookbook with a YouTube presentation sponsored by Melissa’s Produce, the country’s largest distributor of exotic fruits and vegetables, located in nearby Vernon.

First up: her hummus crunch bowl with her smashed feta vinaigrette (“the dressing that will make a dish pop,” she said), roasted red peppers and kalamata olives over couscous with crunchy pita chips over all.

“I love texture. I love hearing that crunch,” she warbled.

She then put together her Caprese cottage cheese toast in minutes. Burst tomatoes, fresh basil, balsamic drizzle, hot honey … not your grandma’s cottage cheese. To watch the presentation, search Jessica Merchant on YouTube.

Fullerton’s Judy Bart Kancigor is the author of “Cooking Jewish” and “The Perfect Passover Cookbook.” Her website is cookingjewish.com.

THE EASIEST FANCY PUFF PASTRY QUICHE

From “Easy Everyday” by Jessica Merchant; yield: 4 to 8 servings

Ingredients:

• 6 slices bacon

• 1 pound asparagus, cut into thirds

• Kosher salt and black pepper

• 1 sheet puff pastry, thawed if frozen

• 8 large eggs

• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream

• 1/2 cup freshly grated white Cheddar cheese

• 1/2 cup freshly grated Gruyere cheese

• 3 garlic cloves, minced

• 1/4 cup chopped fresh herbs, like parsley, thyme and chives, plus more for serving Yield: 4 to 8 servings

Chef’s note: For best results, use puff pastry that comes in one single sheet. Find it in the refrigerated section of your grocery store with prepared piecrust.

Method:

1.   Preheat oven to 425 degrees

2. Heat skillet over medium-low heat and add bacon. Cook, stirring often, until fat is rendered and bacon is crispy, 6 to 8 minutes. Remove bacon with slotted spoon and place on paper towel to drain excess grease. Chop.

3. Add asparagus to same skillet with pinch of salt and pepper. Cook about 5 minutes, just to soften slightly. Remove with slotted spoon and place on paper towel with bacon. Lay puff pastry in 9 x 13-inch sheet pan. Pastry may go up sides of pan a bit. Poke all over with fork; this helps to keep it from bubbling up.

4. Whisk together eggs, cream, cheese, garlic and herbs until combined. Stir in pinch of salt and pepper. Stir in bacon and asparagus. Pour egg mixture into puff pastry crust. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, until center is no longer jiggly and crust is golden. Remove and let cool slightly. Sprinkle with additional herbs. Slice into 8 squares to serve. This lasts in fridge for 2 to 3 days.

​ Orange County Register 

National Weather Service to resume translating its products for non-English speakers

• April 24, 2025

The National Weather Service will resume translating its products for non-English speakers.

The weather service paused the translations this month because its contract with the provider had lapsed. Experts said the change could put non-English speakers at risk of missing potentially life-saving warnings about extreme weather.

The weather service said Thursday the contract has been reinstated, and the translations will resume by the end of the day Monday.

Lilt, an artificial intelligence company, began providing translations in late 2023. That replaced manual translations that the weather service had said were labor-intensive and not sustainable. It eventually provided them in Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, French and Samoan.

Nearly 68 million people in the U.S. speak a language other than English at home, including 42 million Spanish speakers, according to 2019 Census data.

The translations are important during extreme weather events, but general weather forecasts are also essential for people who work in tourism, transportation and energy, experts say.

The weather service’s parent agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is among the federal agencies targeted by the Trump administration for aggressive staff and budget cuts.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. 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 

Lawsuit challenging Anaheim’s sidewalk vendor restrictions moves forward

• April 24, 2025

A lawsuit seeking to stop Anaheim’s new sidewalk vendor impoundment law is moving forward after an Orange County judge rejected the city’s early legal arguments.

The lawsuit, filed by street vendors who have been cited by code enforcement officers and asked to leave after setting up shop near Disneyland, seeks to get the city to stop enforcing its “no vending zones” around the resort. It also asks for the vendors to be paid for goods confiscated and for past citations to be expunged.

In early 2024, the city updated its sidewalk vendor law to allow officials to impound equipment without having to rely on county health inspectors, a response to concerns over a growing number of vendors staging outside of popular destinations like Disneyland, Angel Stadium and the Honda Center.

“Since the Ordinance took effect, there has been widespread issuing of citations to sidewalk vendors, warnings against vending, and confiscations of property in the Resort Area around Disneyland,” the lawsuit said.

Vendors who don’t have permits, take up too much space on sidewalks or aren’t disposing of grease properly can be cited and have their equipment impounded.

City officials say since SB 946 passed in 2018, which decriminalized sidewalk vending, there has been a significant increase in unpermitted sidewalk vending in Anaheim.

The Anaheim sidewalk vendors filed the lawsuit last fall, arguing that SB 946 mandated that cities couldn’t restrict sidewalk vendors from operating only in designated areas. Before SB 946 passed, the city had a “no vending zone” law that prevented sidewalk vendors from setting up in areas near the Disneyland Resort, according to the lawsuit.

A judge on Friday, April 18, ruled against many of the city’s early legal claims, though didn’t weigh in on the crux of the case that the city’s restrictions violate state law. The city had argued that the statute of limitations had passed on challenging the prohibition on vending in the resort area, which the court disagreed with.

“We stand by our regulations in the best interest of public safety and welcome the chance to share that in court,” city spokesperson Mike Lyster said. “As a city, we must ensure our streets are there for everyone and that any food served meets basic safety standards or the best practices at home. For those looking to do this right, we have a pathway to do so and welcome street vending done the right way.”

An attorney for the plaintiffs did not respond to a request for comment.

The suit’s three plaintiffs have been cited by the city’s code enforcement officers. They sell a variety of goods like light-up toys, Croc charms and bottled water, according to the lawsuit.

Videos included in the lawsuit show confrontations between vendors and a code enforcement officer.

The lawsuit argues that the sidewalk vending allows for economic opportunity for self-employment and gives visitors access to lower-priced food and goods than what they would find in the theme parks.

The city has not slowed down efforts to regulate sidewalk vending. In February, the City Council approved a $250,000 contract to hire a consultant to support sidewalk vendor enforcement.

​ Orange County Register 

Watch the unreleased 1993 footage of Presidents Nixon and Clinton meeting, a video made public for first time

• April 24, 2025

A never-before-seen video of former President Richard Nixon‘s 1993 visit to the White House, hosted by then-President Bill Clinton, has been made public.

The roughly 2-minute video, uploaded recently to the Richard Nixon Foundation‘s YouTube channel, shows Nixon and Clinton meeting at the president’s residence on March 8, 1993. The footage was originally recorded by the White House television unit during the Clinton administration and had never been made publicly available until now.

In the video, Nixon tells Clinton, “It’s strange we never met,” and Clinton responds, “I had one chance to meet you, we were once in the Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong at the same time. I was coming in and you were leaving.”

Clinton then introduces Nixon to Chief Official White House Photographer Bob McNeely, who jokes that Clinton is the first president he’s older than. Clinton, who was 46 when he took office, was one of the youngest presidents in U.S. history.

Nixon, first elected in 1968, became the first U.S. president to resign from office on August 9, 1974, amid the Watergate scandal.

Clinton’s presidency was also marred by scandal. He was impeached by the House in 1998 on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice related to his relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. The Senate later acquitted him.

The Nixon Foundation said it reposted the footage to its own audience after spotting the video online.

“We saw the video posted as new content on the YouTube channel of the Clinton Library. It was footage we had never seen before, so we shared it with our audience,” said Carrie Anderson, a marketing project manager for the Nixon Foundation.

The Clinton Library processed the video in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed in 2023. According to a National Archives spokesperson, “any member of the public can submit a FOIA request to gain access to the records and holdings of the National Archives, and requests are processed by archivists on a case-by-case basis.”

The 25-minute video uploaded to the Clinton Library’s YouTube channel includes Nixon’s White House meeting with Clinton, as well as Clinton’s meetings with the House Budget Committee in the Cabinet Room, the Congressional Black Caucus in the Roosevelt Room and the arrival of then-French President François Mitterrand at the White House.

“Digitization is an additional and very important aspect of sharing records and demonstrating transparency, and the National Archives is making important strides in digitizing and uploading records like this one to the internet,” the National Archives spokesperson said.

Herbert Ragan, audio and visual archivist at the Clinton Library, said the full video received about 23,000 views in four and a half days.

The shorter version posted by the Nixon Foundation to its own YouTube channel on Monday, April 21, has since drawn nearly 14,000 views.

​ Orange County Register 

RFK Jr. recounts heroin addiction and spiritual awakening, urges focus on prevention and community

• April 24, 2025

By TRAVIS LOLLER, Associated Press

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told a personal story of his own heroin addiction, spiritual awakening and recovery at a conference on drug addiction Thursday and emphasized that young people need a sense of purpose in their lives to prevent them from turning to drugs.

Kennedy called addiction “a source of misery, but also a symptom of misery.” In a speech that mentioned God more than 20 times, he pointed to his own experience feeling as though he had been born with a hole inside of himself that he needed to fill.

“Every addict feels that way in one way or another — that they have to fix what’s wrong with them, and the only thing that works are drugs. And so threats that you might die, that you’re going to ruin your life are completely meaningless,” he said.

Speaking to about 3,000 people at the Rx and Illicit Drug Summit in Nashville, Tennessee, Kennedy did not address recent budget and personnel cuts or agency reorganizations that many experts believe could jeopardize public health, including recent progress on overdose deaths.

Kennedy drew cheers when he said that we need to do “practical things” to help people with addictions, like providing them with Suboxone and methadone. He also said there should be rehabilitation facilities available for anyone who is ready to seek help. But he focused on the idea of prevention, signaling his view of addiction as a problem fueled by deteriorating family, community and spiritual life.

“We have this whole generation of kids who’ve lost hope in their future,” he said. “They’ve lost their ties to the community.”

Kennedy said policy changes could help reestablish both of those things. Though Kennedy offered few concrete ideas, he recommended educating parents on the value of having meals without cellphones and providing opportunities for service for their children.

The best way to overcome depression and hopelessness, he said, is to wake up each morning and pray “please make me useful to another human being today. ”

He suggested that cellphones are a pernicious influence on young people and that banning them in schools could help decrease drug addiction. He cited a recent visit to a Virginia school that had banned cellphones, saying that grades were up, violence was down and kids were talking to one another in the cafeteria.

Kennedy told attendees that he was addicted to heroin for 14 years, beginning when he was a teenager. During those years, he was constantly making promises to quit, both to himself and to his family.

“I didn’t want to be someone who woke up every morning thinking about drugs,” he said, noting that one of the worst parts of addiction was his total “incapacity to keep contracts with myself.”

Kennedy said he eventually stumbled upon a book by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung that claimed people who believed in God got better faster and had more enduring recoveries, so he worked to rekindle his faith and started attending 12-step meetings.

Kennedy was interrupted several times by hecklers shouting things like, “Believe science!” He has been heavily criticized by scientists and public health experts for pushing fringe theories about diet, vaccines, measles and autism, among other things.

One heckler was escorted out of the ballroom with a raised middle finger. Without responding directly to the hecklers, Kennedy said that he tries to learn from every interaction, even with people who give him the finger because they don’t like his driving.

“God talks to me most through those people,” he told the group.

University of Washington researcher Caleb Banta-Green was among those escorted out after he stood up and shouted, “Believe science! Respect spirituality! Respect choice! Respect government workers!”

“Spirituality is an essential part of recovery for some people; 12 step works great for the people it works for, however, it should never be mandated,” Banta-Green said in an email after the program.

He added, “We have decades of science-based interventions that are proven effective for supporting recovery and reducing death from substance use disorder. The problem we have is massive underfunding.”

AP Medical Writer Carla K. Johnson in Washington state contributed.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

​ Orange County Register 

Lawsuits take aim at voter-approved transit projects worth billions

• April 24, 2025

By Robbie Sequeira, Stateline.org

Opponents are turning to legal challenges to try to block or delay major public transit expansions — even after voters approve them.

Recent lawsuits in Arizona, Tennessee and Texas have attempted to slow voter-passed projects.

In Nashville, voters passed a $3.1 billion referendum in November to raise the city sales tax half a cent and fund expanded bus service, pedestrian improvements and 54 miles of “all-access” transit corridors. But a Tennessee court, while upholding most of the project, ruled last week that the city could not use the funds raised to purchase land for affordable housing or parks.

The ruling affects only 1% of the total revenue, the court said. But it was a signal that even well-funded, voter-backed transit efforts are vulnerable to some legal roadblocks.

After voters in Maricopa County, Arizona, last year approved an extension of a half-cent sales tax for transportation, the county GOP sued to try to invalidate the results, arguing the vote didn’t meet a 60% supermajority.

In Austin, Texas, a 2024 class-action lawsuit attempted to block the city from collecting property taxes unless it excludes a tax approved by voters in 2020 to fund Project Connect — a major transit expansion. But a judge dismissed the lawsuit late last year.

Public support for expanded transit is surging across the United States. In 2024 alone, voters approved 46 of 53 transit-related ballot measures, unlocking over $25 billion in new funding for transit projects and improvements, according to the American Public Transportation Association.

But despite support at the ballot box, cities often face legal, zoning and political barriers.

Nashville, in particular, is becoming a case study in both momentum and resistance to transit investment and development, according to researchers at the Urban Institute.

“There’s been a sea change,” said Gabe Samuels, a research analyst in the Housing and Communities Division at the Urban Institute. “Nashville had two failed transit referenda in the past decade. This time, it passed decisively. Voters want alternatives to sprawl and traffic.”

But transit-oriented development — the strategy of clustering housing and businesses near high-quality transit — is often hindered by outdated zoning, Samuels and colleague Yonah Freemark told Stateline.

According to an Urban Institute study, more than 90% of Nashville’s residential land is zoned for single- or two-family homes, a pattern common in Southern and Midwestern cities. That zoning limits the density needed to support high transit ridership, the report said. Currently, only 13% of Nashville’s housing lies within a quarter-mile, what the report calls easy walking distance, of its planned transit corridors.

“You’re investing millions — sometimes billions — into transit systems,” said Freemark. “If you’re not thinking about land use and density alongside that, you’re wasting the opportunity.”

Stateline reporter Robbie Sequeira can be reached at [email protected].

©2025 States Newsroom. Visit at stateline.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

​ Orange County Register