Homeland Security targets Democratic campaign after ICE arrest in Pennsylvania

• October 8, 2026

By MARC LEVY

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — When the U.S. Department of Homeland Security publicized the arrest of a Nigerian man for indecent exposure this week, it included a political attack that’s drawing complaints from Democrats and a nonpartisan government watchdog.

The department’s press release alleges that the man worked for a Democratic congressional candidate in a Pennsylvania battleground district, an unusual reference to a high-profile midterm contest.

“It’s unbelievable that Janelle Stelson would employ an illegal alien to work on a congressional campaign, let alone a pervert who exposed himself in public,” Charles Wall, deputy director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in the press release.

A police report said the man had fliers for Stelson in his vehicle. Stelson denied that the man was a campaign employee.

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to questions about how it established the man worked for Stelson. Its press release cited a news report quoting a conservative activist who asserted the connection.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a complaint Thursday with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, calling the department’s attack on Stelson a blatant violation of the Hatch Act, which prohibits government officials from using their official positions to influence elections.

Donald Sherman, who leads CREW, said he’d never seen anything like the department’s statement, where a law enforcement agency “goes out of its way” to reference a campaign affiliation in a press release that has nothing to do with election-related crimes.

The press release is “consistent with the message that the administration and that the president has sent from the top that ICE is to be involved in elections, regardless of what the law says,” Sherman said.

Stelson, a former local television personality, is running for the second time against Republican Rep. Scott Perry in Pennsylvania’s 10th Congressional District. It’s expected to be one of the races that determines control of the U.S. House in the November midterms.

“If he is an illegal immigrant who committed a crime he should be deported,” Stelson’s campaign said. “We never heard of him prior to the news of his arrest. We are grateful to law enforcement for acting swiftly to arrest him.”

President Donald Trump’s administration is already under scrutiny for using federal resources for political purposes. The Department of Homeland Security has spent millions of taxpayer dollars on advertisements glorifying Trump and promoting his campaign messaging, drawing a pair of lawsuits and bipartisan backlash.

According to a police report obtained by The Associated Press, Chimaobim Adedayo Igbojekwe was arrested by an East Pennsboro Township police officer on Sept. 27 after a report of a suspicious vehicle parked next to a public park on a residential street in the Harrisburg suburb.

The officer wrote that, when Igbojekwe opened the door to talk to the officer, he noticed that Igbojekwe’s “genitals were exposed.”

Igbojekwe told the officer he was “in the neighborhood for work and that he was waiting to hand out flyers for Janelle Stelson’s political campaign,” according to the report. Igbojekwe produced a stack of flyers, the officer wrote.

It’s not clear whether the man was working as a paid canvasser for another organization.

Igbojekwe was charged with disorderly conduct and indecent exposure. He pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct, courts records say, and later was arrested by ICE.

Homeland Security said Igbojekwe entered the country legally in 2017 but remained past his “authorized period.” He was granted deferred action by President Joe Biden’s administration in 2021.

Igbojekwe’s public defender did not return a call about the case.

Follow Marc Levy at http://x.com/timelywriter

​ Orange County Register 

Horse racing notebook: ‘Grand Slam’ can end slump at Santa Anita

• October 8, 2026

Many of the most popular horses in California are about to take off for Kentucky and a shot at millions of dollars in Breeders’ Cup purses Oct. 30-31 at Keeneland Race Course. Many, not all.

Grand Slam Smile, below the class to compete in Breeders’ Cups but queen of the California-bred division, is poised to end an uncharacteristic losing streak when the 5-year-old faces as many as nine other fillies and mares Sunday in the California Distaff Handicap for state-breds sprinting down the Santa Anita turf hillside.

After rewarding frequent heavy backing by bettors by recording 12 wins, six seconds and three thirds in her first 21 starts – that’s 100% in the money – Grand Slam Smile ran fifth behind Sweet Azteca in the Grade II Great Lady M. Stakes at Los Alamitos and fourth behind Fibonaccis Ride in the Solana Beach Stakes at Del Mar.

Trainer Sean McCarthy said Grand Slam Smile is ready to get back in the winner’s circle.

“She’s doing as well (in training) as she ever has,” said McCarthy, who has accounted for the mare’s past five stakes victories, all against Cal-breds, after now-retired Steve Specht was responsible for her first five, four in the Cal-bred ranks. “We’re optimistic for Sunday.”

In the Los Alamitos race, McCarthy said, a horse acting up in the starting gate next to Grand Slam Smile caused the habitual front-runner to miss the break.

“That’s a situation that’s hard to overcome,” McCarthy said.

At Del Mar, she was challenged for the early lead from the outside, and jockey Juan Hernandez took a firm grip.

“She’s kind of a free-running type filly, and when she was in a situation where they had a little bit of a hold on her, I don’t think she was happy about that,” the trainer said.

Grand Slam Smile will have Hernandez again in the California Distaff Handicap and has been assigned a career-high 128 pounds, seven more than top rival Bit’s Tiger Magic (Hector Berrios riding) and six more than Rosa Parks (Umberto Rispoli).

“That’s old-school. That’s some real weight,” said McCarthy, who said he doesn’t ordinarily consider weight a factor. “At the end of the day, I don’t think it should matter.”

On Sunday, the California Flag Handicap turf sprint for Cal-bred males has Big City Lights (Kazushi Kimura) carrying 126, two more than top rival Flyover (Emisael Jaramillo).

Santa Anita has racing on the holiday Monday too, featuring the Swingtime Stakes, a turf mile for fillies and mares.

• These are the weeks when many Breeders’ Cup horse owners and trainers are deciding which race to target. The biggest questions: Will 2025 Horse of the Year Sovereignty make it to the Breeders’ Cup Classic after dealing with a foot abscess? And if he does, will Pacific Classic winner Knightsbridge avoid facing Godolphin stablemate Sovereignty in the Classic by moving to the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile? Pre-entries will be announced Oct. 21, with the fields set for Oct. 26.

• John Creager, the 1994 American Quarter Horse Association champion jockey and one of four riders to win 2,000 or more races at Los Alamitos, died Tuesday at 75, the Orange County track announced. Among Creager’s top horses was Sgt Pepper Feature, with whom he beat Denim N Diamonds in the 1982 Champion of Champions.

• Empressum, the 2022 AQHA world champion and two-time Champion of Champions winner, makes his 8-year-old season debut Saturday with jockey Rodrigo Sigala Vallejo in the Grade I Robert Boniface Los Alamitos Championship. Opponents include Favorite Jesshawk, Lethal Cowboy 123, Mask Mandate, Up For Everything and Norco.

• Safety watch: The death of the quarter-horse 2-year-old gelding Boi Sterrus, injured Saturday night at Los Alamitos while finishing sixth in a trial for the Golden State Million Futurity, is the 27th since Jan. 1 in racing and training at the three California racetracks, according to an unofficial count from California Horse Racing Board data. That’s above the average of 23.4 for this part of the year in 2021-25, but well below the 42 in 2020, the first year the CHRB posted fatalities. It was the 10th death at Los Al since Jan. 1. That’s in line with the average of 9.8 in 2021-25, but much better than the 24 in 2020.

Follow horse racing correspondent Kevin Modesti at X.com/KevinModesti.

SANTA ANITA LEADERS

(Through Sunday)

Jockeys / Wins

Emisael Jaramillo / 8

Juan Hernandez / 7

Umberto Rispoli / 6

Kazushi Kimura / 5

Joel Rosario / 5

Kyle Frey / 4

Hector Berrios / 3

Drayden Van Dyke / 3

Armando Ayuso / 3

Trainers / Wins

Jeff Mullins / 4

John Sadler / 4

George Papaprodromou / 4

Doug O’Neill / 4

Phil D’Amato / 4

Carla Gaines / 3

Richard Mandella / 3

Michael McCarthy / 3

(Six tied) / 3

UPCOMING STAKES

SANTA ANITA

Saturday

• $100,000 California Flag Handicap, Cal-bred 3-year-olds and up, about 6½ furlongs on turf

Sunday

• $100,000 California Distaff Handicap, Cal-bred fillies and mares, 3 and up, about 6½ furlongs on turf

Monday

• $80,000 Swingtime Stakes, fillies and mares, 3 and up, 1 mile on turf

LOS ALAMITOS

Saturday

• $100,000, Grade I Robert Boniface Los Alamitos Championship, quarter horses 3 and up, 440 yards

Sunday

• $35,000, Grade III Sound Dash Handicap, quarter-horse fillies and mares, 3 and up, 350 yards

​ Orange County Register 

Pentagon says the firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan will be livestreamed

• October 8, 2026

By KONSTANTIN TOROPIN

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon says the firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan will be livestreamed after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the execution would be “public.”

Hegseth, speaking to the conservative TV outlet Real America’s Voice News on Wednesday, said the execution of Hasan will take place at Fort Hood on Dec. 3. Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people and injuring 32 others in a shooting at the military base in 2009.

“We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public,” Hegseth said.

Hegseth spoke to the outlet aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier while visiting the long-deployed crew, who supported the Iran war, before their arrival at their home port in San Diego.

When asked if Hasan had made any final requests or reached out to the Trump administration, Hegseth simply replied: “Don’t care. We’ll see him on December 3rd.”

Officials in the Pentagon clarified Thursday that the execution will be livestreamed and that more details would follow.

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell had said Monday that President Donald Trump had approved the execution of Hasan.

Trump has previously been critical of public executions in Iran, at times using the possibility of protesters being killed by the Iranian government as a possible rationale for military action. Those warnings preceded his ultimate choice to attack Iran at the end of February over its ballistic missiles and the risk of it developing nuclear weapons.

“We’ve been told that the killing in Iran is stopping,” Trump told reporters on Jan. 14 of this year. “It’s stopping and there’s no plan for executions.”

He repeated that claim on Jan. 20 at a White House press briefing, saying: “We let them know that if that happens, that will be a very bad day for them. And they decided not to do it. They didn’t hang the people.”

Slightly more than a month later in his State of the Union address, Trump said, “We stopped them from hanging a lot of them with the threat of serious violence.”

The White House on Thursday immediately referred questions about the plans for the livestreamed execution to the Pentagon.

However, experts on military law said Hasan could choose to resist execution and file a habeas petition in civilian court, which could significantly delay the execution.

“It frankly might outlast the current administration, and who knows if the next one will have the same penchant for executions,” Eugene R. Fidell, a visiting lecturer at Yale Law School specializing in military law.

Hasan, an Army psychiatrist who held the rank of major, walked into a medical building where soldiers were were waiting in long lines to receive immunizations and medical clearance for deployment. He shouted “Allahu akbar” — Arabic for “God is great!” — and opened fire with a laser-sighted handgun.

During the trial it was revealed that Hasan spent weeks planning the deadly attack, and his preparation included videotaping a sales clerk showing him how to change the magazine on the pistol that he purchased. He would later go to a gun range outside Austin and ask for advice on how to reload with speed and precision from an instructor.

Soldiers later testified that Hasan’s rapid reloading made it all but impossible to stop the shooting. Investigators recovered 146 shell casings inside the building and dozens more outside, where Hasan shot at the backs of soldiers fleeing toward the parking lot.

Hasan said it was an effort to stop them from going to Afghanistan and killing his fellow Muslims. A military judge barred him from presenting that as a defense during his trial. Hasan made almost no effort to defend himself in court, telling jurors when he acted as his own counsel that evidence would show he was the shooter and describing himself as a soldier who had “switched sides.”

Hegseth said the military hasn’t executed a servicemember by firing squad since World War II. The last military execution took place on April 13, 1961, when Army Pvt. John Bennett was executed by hanging.

​ Orange County Register 

Man with a gun and knife is fatally shot by security at Nashville federal courthouse, police say

• October 8, 2026

By KRISTIN M. HALL and ED WHITE

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A man armed with a pistol and knife was fatally shot by a security officer Thursday just inside the busy entrance of a federal courthouse in Tennessee’s largest city, authorities said.

The man in his 40s tried to fire his gun but failed and then pulled out a knife at around 9:30 a.m., said Don Aaron, spokesperson for Metro Nashville Police.

“The security individual fired on the armed individual,” Aaron said, adding that the man was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The man was from out of state. Investigators didn’t immediately know why he was at the courthouse, and a search of his car found “nothing threatening,” Aaron said.

Courthouse visitors must go through a security checkpoint, which is common at all federal courts. The entrances are typically staffed by armed former police officers contracted by the U.S. Marshals Service.

“That’s the entrance that most people in this courthouse use,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Rob McGuire told reporters outside.

The library next door was closed as a result, and officers with dogs were circling the perimeter while workers in nearby buildings gathered to watch.

McGuire noted that the local U.S. Attorney’s Office is inside the courthouse, as are the offices of Tennessee’s U.S. senators.

There have been “security instances where a person acts up or acts inappropriately and has to be removed from the premises, but nothing even approaching this kind of situation,” he said.

Reports of the shooting immediately stirred anxiety and concern.

“People are calling their families to let them know they’re OK,” McGuire said. “I called my wife, called my son, called people that I knew were wanting to know if I was OK. We’re all doing that.”

White reported from Detroit.

​ Orange County Register 

Ducks take off for two games in Canada after first loss

• October 8, 2026

The Ducks set their compasses north, heading for a weekend jaunt through Western Canada that will take them to Winnipeg in an effort to down the Jets on Friday and to Calgary to face the Flames on Saturday.

They started the season with seven solid periods but crumbled in the eighth, turning a high-flying first frame and a 2-0 lead into a 5-2 thumping at the hands of the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday.

“We approached the start of the year in good shape. We got a market correction today, so let’s see how we’ll handle it. Let’s respond in the correct way,” said Ducks coach Joel Quenneville of his team’s quick pivot to consecutive road games.

Quenneville also pointed out that in their two home games the Ducks (2-1-0) had no 5-on-5 goals, scoring five times on the power play in a split of their decisions. All their goals in a 4-3 victory to open the season in Vegas did come at even strength.

Winger Beckett Sennecke, who lit the lamp twice Wednesday, noted that the Ducks were excelling at high tempos and when they had room to skate, but weren’t nearly as dangerous when play slowed down.

“We know we have a lot of fast guys, and we know when we play that way we’re tough to beat, but when we don’t, we’re not that effective,” Sennecke observed.

Nikita Klepov, 18, made his debut against Edmonton, playing just over 10 minutes and being credited with five hits. He was also on the receiving end of a few checks. Quenneville was still deciding how much, if at all, Klepov would figure into the brief road trip. Klepov was the third player in three games to skate on the right side of the third line, which has lacked identity thus far.

Before the Ducks were saddled with their first loss of the season, the NHL’s only other undefeated team, the Colorado Avalanche, lost earlier in the evening. They slipped against the opponent in the on-deck circle for the Ducks in Winnipeg.

After grilling up a slump sandwich last year, bookending their campaign with surges but descending into a midseason abyss, the Jets have again looked solid out of the gate. They have yet to lose in regulation (3-0-1) with Kyle Connor and Cole Perfetti leading the way offensively.

They’ve been without discontented star goalie Connor Hellebuyck after he was suspended for not reporting to training camp, and might be sans top defenseman Josh Morrissey due to an upper-body injury he sustained Wednesday.

Calgary, on the other hand, appears destined for the top draft lottery odds at wunderkind defenseman Landon Dupont. Not only are they one of three franchises without a win in 2026-27, they’d scored just three goals in their first three games ahead of a buzzsaw matchup with Colorado on Thursday. There are 26 individual players who have at least three goals already in 2025-26.

Ducks at Winnipeg

When: 5 p.m. PT Friday

Where: Canada Life Centre, Winnipeg, Manitoba

How to watch: KCOP (Ch. 13), Prime Video

Ducks at Calgary

When: 7 p.m. PT Friday

Where: Scotiabank Saddledome, Calgary, Alberta

How to watch: KCOP (Ch. 13), Prime Video

​ Orange County Register 

Margaret Hamilton, who led a software team for NASA’s Apollo program, dies at 90

• October 8, 2026

By JAMIE STENGLE

Margaret Hamilton, a groundbreaking computer scientist who led the team that created the onboard flight software for NASA’s moon-bound Apollo program and later in life was celebrated as a powerful symbol of women in technology, has died. She was 90.

Hamilton died Sept. 30 at a hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts, her daughter, Lauren Hamilton, told The Associated Press on Thursday. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said on the social platform X that her work helped make humanity’s first journeys to the moon possible.

“To say Margaret Hamilton was a pioneer — to say she was ahead of her time — would be a dramatic understatement,” Olivier de Weck, the Apollo program professor at MIT and interim head of its aeronautics and astronautics department, told MIT News, a publication of the university’s communications office.

“She was a software engineer at a time when that field was in its infancy,” de Weck continued, “and she not only developed advanced code herself but also led a team in using that nascent technology to develop one of the most complex systems humanity had ever achieved.”

In recent years a photo circulated online showing a smiling Hamilton, in her early 30s, standing next to a towering stack of pages containing codes her team used during the Apollo project. And a Lego set celebrating the women of NASA that was unveiled in 2017 included a figure of Hamilton.

She graduated with a degree in mathematics from Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, in 1958 and went to work for MIT in 1959. Her early focus there included working with a meteorology professor on weather prediction software, according to the MIT News article. In the mid-1960s, she started at MIT’s Instrumentation Lab, which had a NASA contract for Apollo.

After first working on software for uncrewed missions, she later led the team developing the onboard flight software for the crewed missions, and by 1968 she was assistant director in charge of the command and service module team, according to MIT News.

“We took our work seriously, many of us beginning this journey while still in our 20s,” Hamilton told MIT News in 2009. “Coming up with solutions and new ideas was an adventure.”

“Because software was a mystery, a black box, upper management gave us total freedom and trust,” she continued. “We had to find a way, and we did. Looking back, we were the luckiest people in the world; there was no choice but to be pioneers.”

She worked at the Instrumentation Lab into the 1970s and then founded two software companies, according to MIT News.

Hamilton received many awards and accolades, including being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in 2016 by President Barack Obama.

​ Orange County Register 

Camp Pendleton Marines’ training deployment became a support mission in Strait of Hormuz

• October 8, 2026

When a group of Marines providing security for the United States’ naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz boarded ships transiting through, the American commanding officer said there was no question how the search-and-seizure missions would go.

“At 2 a.m., when 30 Force Recon Marines step on your vessel, you’re compliant with a capital C,” Col. Chris Niedziocha said recently during a Pentagon briefing following the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit‘s 10-month deployment.

Once Marines were aboard the “target vessels,” the MEU’s drones and manned aircraft supported them from above, Niedziocha said. “You create this bubble around the vessel. So yeah, they complied.”

He credited his troops, including more than 1,100 Marines and sailors from Camp Pendleton, for their perseverance in adapting quickly from what was supposed to be a routine — and shorter — training deployment to supporting the war against Iran as part of Operation Epic Fury.

“The team never lost sight of the mission and performed flawlessly under the most dynamic circumstances,” Niedziocha said.

While the MEU began the year training in the China Sea with Japanese forces, with a stop in the Philippines, the tempo and mission quickly changed in March when troops were ordered to pivot to the North Arabian Sea to enforce the naval maritime blockade ordered by the Trump Administration.

The Strait of Hormuz, between Iran to the north and Oman and the United Arab Emirates to the south, is a vibrant, critical shipping waterway through which, according to reports from the Energy Information Administration, about 20% of the world’s oil flows.

The ground combat element from Camp Pendleton’s 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines only returned in recent weeks after the lengthy and headline-grabbing deployment.

Niedziocha said the 2,500-strong MEU steamed to the Northern Arabian Sea aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli, along with its amphibious ready group that included the transport dock ship USS New Orleans and the dock landing ship USS Rushmore.

Marines and sailors on MEUs are trained and ready to respond to worldwide crises, whether they’re called for combat or humanitarian aid. Aboard the MEU are any command, ground, aviation and logistics units that might be needed. Still, the pivot to the Northern Arabian Sea meant a long ocean journey with an unknown end date, managing fear, uncertainty and boredom while trying to stay in touch with family and loved ones back home.

“There were some periods where it was open-ended,” Niedziocha said. “I think that as long as you tell somebody when something’s gonna end, that’s it’s OK, you can survive. But if you don’t know when it’s gonna end, it’s just a lot harder.”

Getting to the Northern Arabian Sea was a 17-day trip.

“You recognize that the ocean is big. I mean, it really is,” Niedziocha said. “And then you realize that you can’t go in a straight line; it’s got to go around the land.”

Once in place, and after the ceasefire was declared, he said the Marines and sailors of the MEU began patrolling with ships and aircraft to help with the blockade.

“We conducted four maritime interdiction operations, three of which culminated in boarding the vessel,” he said. “Two, we searched the vessels and then let them go. One, we actually seized and retained custody of the vessel for about two weeks and repatriated the crew.”

The vessels were mostly oil tankers and cargo ships, each presenting its own challenges, he said, adding that the key was to balance the threat level.  If the Marines expected resistance, they’d board at night, he said. If not, they’d board during the day.

The goal was ultimately to clear the strait, so ship traffic could get through.

At one point in June, President Donald Trump posted on social media that the U.S. would assume full control of Kharg Island and over Iran’s oil and gas market.

Niedziocha said that although the Marines didn’t ultimately move in to take the island, they were the ground troops that were prepared for the mission.

During the mission to stabilize the strait, Niedziocha said tactics included using smaller, faster Marine and Navy units working together.

“We actually, for the first time, demonstrated what we thought we were able to do, which I think is pretty exciting,” he said, referring to a strategy put in place by former Commandant Gen. David Berger’s Force Design 2030, a modernization of the relationship in which Marine and sailor units operate more closely together while also using remote locations for refueling and rearming.

During the four months under U.S. Central Command, the MEU and amphibious ready group logged 1,600 flight hours that included precision strikes and moving 800,000 pounds of cargo. The units also refueled 300 aircraft ashore and underway, he said.

Among those involved from Camp Pendleton’s 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines was 1st Lt. Jacob Meyer, executive officer of a mechanized company of Marines aboard the USS Rushmore.

Now, happy to be home, Meyer said he feels tremendous pride in what he and those aboard the MEU accomplished.

“It was an honor for us to be able to go out there just to see that all the training we’ve done for all the years finally come to the point where we were ready to use it,” he said. “I think we all learned a lot about ourselves and our own capabilities.”

“It was cool to see so much teamwork across the entire MEU and see such an inspiring amount of people come forward, rank-agnostic, with new ideas,” he added.  “It was awe-inspiring to see how clearly capable we are. That was really, really special.”

As part of the headquarters element, Meyer, 26, arrived a month ahead of his unit in Okinawa to work on planning the deployment.

“We knew something was going on over there,” Meyer said of rising tensions in the Middle East, adding that those on board kept up with headlines when they could.

“The general consensus was that we were ready,” he said, once the Marines and sailors were given word that they were heading out to support Epic Fury. “There was a fair amount of uncertainty; we didn’t know what to expect once we got out there. There was a good amount of excitement and apprehension, but the understanding that we knew we’d be ready.”

During the trip to the Middle East, Meyer said the Marines and sailors kept busy training and maintaining the vehicles and equipment. They also made sure to get at least six to seven hours of sleep.

“We trained day and night to make sure we were ready for whatever was asked of us,” Meyer said. “We did gun shoots on the flight deck, numerous classes each day, piled on top of meetings to go over all the contingencies.”

Standout moments were the incredible sunrises and sunsets, he said, and unbelievably dark night skies filled with stars.

“You get very close with everyone on the boat,” Meyer said. “I will have lifelong friends coming out of that. Literally, everything you need to know about a person and don’t want to know. You’re eating every meal, watching movies when you can in your spare time, having in-depth talks about your families and who’s waiting for you back home.”

After some time, though, Meyer said, the monotony of being out to sea sets in, even with regimented daily schedules.

“The days blend together,” he said, adding that most of the time the seas were calm and the weather was sunny. “There were a couple of days of choppy seas.”

Once in the strait, Meyer said the unit’s main focus was defending the ship and preparing for potential conflicts. To do that, he said, Marines and sailors rehearsed drills multiple times a week, simulating an attack.

“It’s a pretty high-traffic area of the world,” Meyer said, describing the large body of blue water where he saw everything from small fishing boats to large commercial oil tankers.

In the four months Meyer was in the straits, he said he never felt apprehensive that something would go badly.

“It just goes back to us relying and trusting the training we had done,” he said. “We were ready for whatever came our way.”

During their pre-deployment training, Meyer said the Marines and sailors had trained on several new types of technology and drones, but new tech still was making its way to the group.

“I was able to dig into that quite a bit,” he said of getting the new technology and testing it. “It was cool to see it work for us.”

Technology has definitely been a defining characteristic of this war, Niedziocha said.

“The Iranians were very creative and innovative, and they embraced unmanned systems,” he said. “Every part of the force was watched by Iranian UAS and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets.”

“One of the challenging things is the rate of absorption and the pace at which these service investments are being fielded to the fleet; it’s almost a full-time job keeping up with the new gear,” he added. “You always want more. Nobody’s ever said I’m good, but in terms of what we had to do, I never felt like I had a real capability gap there.”

“You figure out how to use it, integrate it, do it safely, do it intelligently; that’s really important,” he said.

Beyond the security and technology challenges, though, Niedziocha said, the most challenging job was probably managing the “human landscape.”

“You’re managing this sociotechnical organization; it’s its people, it’s things, it’s rules,” he said. “But the human factors, the fear, the uncertainty, managing boredom. These are such good people; they’ll work themselves close to the limits of human endurance. If you let them.”

While Meyer had to make sure his teams were trained and ready for anything that came their way, he agreed that among his greatest challenges was the human side of the deployment, too.

Since the war began, there have been reports of supply chain issues among MEUs and aboard Navy ships.

For a while there, Meyer said meals got to be a bit monotonous with the supplies available, “but we never went to bed starving.”

More challenging was being away from friends and loved ones for 10 months, he said.

“Life still goes on back in California, especially for our Marines with families back home,” he said. “Negative life events happen. People pass away, and people get sick, relationship statuses change. Normal pieces of life that don’t go away just because we’re gone.”

“I think managing that is the most difficult thing,” he added, “while still providing the best opportunities for our Marines; that’s the most crucial thing.”

​ Orange County Register 

Rock star Billy Idol to visit Downey school ahead of Hall of Fame induction

• October 8, 2026

DOWNEY — Rock singer Billy Idol, known for hits including “White Wedding” and “Rebel Yell,” will visit a Downey middle school Oct. 22 to meet with students and promote music education as part of a nationwide initiative involving the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, organizers announced Thursday, Oct. 8.

Idol, who is among the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s 2026 inductees, will visit Griffiths Middle School, where students will perform for him before participating in a question-and-answer session, according to organizers.

The visit is part of a multiyear partnership between the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation and Save The Music aimed at expanding music education in public schools across the country.

The initiative will fund at least 25 new music education programs over three years and bring Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees into classrooms to mentor and encourage young musicians, organizers said.

Save The Music is the first recipient of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation’s grantmaking initiative, with programs planned in several communities, including the Los Angeles and Compton areas.

Idol, 70, rose to prominence in the late 1970s as the frontman of the British punk rock band Generation X before launching a solo career that made him a fixture on MTV during the 1980s.

Born William Broad in England, he found commercial success with his self-titled 1982 album, which included “White Wedding” and “Hot in the City.”

His 1983 album “Rebel Yell” produced several of his best-known songs, including the title track, “Eyes Without a Face” and “Flesh for Fantasy.”

Idol’s career has included a decades-long collaboration with guitarist Steve Stevens.

In 2025, Idol released “Dream Into It,” his first full-length album of new material in more than a decade. The record featured collaborations with Avril Lavigne, Joan Jett and Alison Mosshart.

His life and career are also chronicled in the documentary “Billy Idol Should Be Dead,” which examines his beginnings in Britain’s punk movement, rise to fame and struggles throughout his career.

Idol is scheduled to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame during a Nov. 14 ceremony at the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Save The Music partnership is intended to provide schools with musical instruments, technology and educational resources while connecting students with professional musicians.

The school visit will take place at Griffiths Middle School, 9633 Tweedy Lane, in Downey.

​ Orange County Register