Striking early could be the difference for No. 12 USC against No. 20 Oregon

• September 23, 2026

LOS ANGELES — USC offensive lineman Elijah Paige is locked in for game day before he even gets out of bed.

“It all starts with how we wake up, how we stretch in the hotel, how we do walkthroughs in the hotel,” Paige said. “Everything that we do leading up to the game should be that fast start, and that all leads to the first drive of the game.”

The 12th-ranked Trojans (4-0 overall, 1-0 Big Ten) have struggled to start games with authority in their last two outings, and setting the tone will be a must for them in Saturday’s game against No. 20 Oregon (2-1, 0-0) and a defense that could make them pay for early mistakes.

Quarterback Jayden Maiava went 0-for-3 passing and threw an interception on USC’s opening drive against Louisiana. A week later, against Rutgers, he was 3-for-8 passing and the Trojans were dealt two penalties for a combined 15 yards on the opening drive.

USC reached the 17-yard line, but was forced to settle for a field goal.

“We haven’t played some of our best ball in the last few weeks,” head coach Lincoln Riley said. “That’s always important moving forward, but we’ve been able to get in some pretty nice rhythms as well. I don’t know if there’s anything magic to it. We need to play a little bit cleaner, we need to take care of the ball, and we need to be better in the red zone.”

Oregon’s defense has the fifth-best turnover margin (1.33) of the 18 teams in the Big Ten Conference. The Ducks, who are on a four-game win streak against USC, have hauled in a conference-best five interceptions through three games and four players have recorded an interception this season.

Freshman defensive back Jett Washington leads the defense with two picks.

But it’s not just keeping the ball – it’s about taking it to the end zone, too.

“Finishing in the red zone was definitely one of the big points for us,” Riley said. “Obviously, the previous week, we had a turnover. We want to come out of the gates fast. That’s a big part of it, but you’ve also got to be ready to respond if you don’t. Our guys have done a pretty good job of that.”

Playing at the Coliseum could give USC an edge, since the Trojans are 24-9-1 when these two teams play in Los Angeles. Players don’t have to travel and can go through their game-day routines in a familiar environment.

“It’s just being in the Coliseum, knowing what everything looks like, what everything sounds like,” Paige said, “and, really, the momentum of just having the fans cheer for you rather than the fans cheering for somebody else.”

This game could potentially have long-term effects on the 12-team College Football Playoff, making the stakes even higher. Oregon already has one loss this season to Oklahoma State, and USC can hardly afford to take any early hits to its record with games against No. 13 Penn State, No. 7 Ohio State and No. 5 Indiana still to come later this season.

Riley and his players emphasized during Tuesday’s media availability that they’re not treating this game with the same urgency as any other.

“We’re just focused on the game plan, the preparation, practice every single day,” quarterback Jayden Maiava said.

KICKOFF TIME FOR WASHINGTON

USC’s home game against Washington on Oct. 3 will kick off at 4:30 p.m. and will be shown on NBC (Ch. 4).

It’ll be the second straight 4:30 home kickoff for the Trojans, who play Oregon at the same time this weekend.

WEEKLY AWARDS

Safety Christian Pierce was named the Jim Thorpe Award National Defensive Back of the Week. He recorded a game-high 11 tackles and added an interception in USC’s 42-35 victory over Rutgers. He led all defensive backs nationally in tackles that weekend.

Kicker Caden Chittenden was named the Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week and running back Riley Wormley was named the Big Ten Freshman of the Week.

Chittenden’s two field goals and four PATs equated to 10 points against Rutgers. Wormley scored his first touchdown as a Trojan and ended the game with two touchdowns on four carries.

​ Orange County Register 

José Soriano thinks Angels sale is ‘great opportunity’ for former teammates

• September 23, 2026

WEST SACRAMENTO — When the Angels traded starting pitcher José Soriano to the Toronto Blue Jays at the deadline in August, they gave him an unexpected shot to play in the postseason.

Soriano spoke about the opportunity after his start against the Athletics on Sept. 8 when he shut down the hosts over seven innings.

Even with the big personal changes going from Southern California to eastern Canada, Soriano hasn’t been trying to change too much in terms of how he approaches each game.

“Just trying to have the same mentality,” Soriano said. “Try to prepare the same way.”

He’s taking everything in stride, and he’s enjoying playing in competitive games. The right-hander credits the Blue Jays for having a team that is all working together and pulling in the same direction, and he believes that being involved in a chase for a postseason spot has helped him be the best version of himself, playing in meaningful games.

Soriano has struggled in two starts since that conversation, giving up 10 runs (nine earned) over 11⅓ innings against the Detroit Tigers and Texas Rangers. Toronto’s postseason hopes are now a dream, with the Jays trailing the Chicago White Sox by 3½ games with five to play entering Tuesday.

Still, Soriano looks at his decade in the Angels’ organization fondly. When asked about the team’s pending sale following his departure, he said all of his years with the Angels were incredible.

“The people treated me really well there,” Soriano said. “I don’t have something bad to say [about that time]. The news surprised me, to be honest. I never expected it was going to happen this year, but I think it’s a great opportunity for the guys.”

Asked for one former teammate to watch out for, he named his former rotation mate Reid Detmers, who has enjoyed a strong second half of the season. The two spent plenty of time together in the Angels’ rotation since Soriano’s debut in 2023. Since May 24, the left-handed Detmers holds a 2.76 ERA, good for 10th in MLB over that stretch.

“He has another level,” Soriano said.

TROUT’S USAGE IN FINAL WEEK

Mike Trout spent three of the past four games at DH for the Angels, and he occupied that spot again for Tuesday’s series opener against the A’s. Still, there is no set plan in place for the three-time American League MVP for the final week of the season. The 35-year-old outfielder went into the final week of the season having already played 137 games.

It’s a second consecutive season of good health for Trout, who played in 130 games in 2025 after being limited to 29 in 2024, 82 in 2023 and 36 in 2021 as injuries have cost him significant time in recent years.

“We’ll take it day-by-day,” Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said before the game. “Most games he’s played since [2018], posting up and never complaining. He never asked for [the time off], I gave it to him. It’s been a treat to have him.

Suzuki said he’s been in Trout’s position during his playing career, and there is no point in going out there and making him run around during these final few games.

“That being said, [Trout] is like, ‘I still want to play in the outfield if I can,’” Suzuki said. “I’ll look for a spot to throw him in there, but we’ll take it day by day.”

AROUND THE BASES

Yusei Kikuchi was set to make his penultimate start of the season on Tuesday, but after an injury-plagued season that has limited the left-hander to 57⅓ innings this season, the hope is just to finish the season strong and try not to do too much.

“Go out there and execute pitches,” Suzuki said. “Attack the strike zone and kind of just do what he does.”

The Rocket City Trash Pandas, the Angels’ Double-A affiliate in Madison, Ala., went into their Tuesday night game with a chance to win the Southern League championship, having already secured a 5-4 victory over the Biloxi (Miss.) Shuckers in the opener of the best-of-three championship series on Sunday.

UP NEXT

Angels (RHP Walbert Ureña, 9-10, 2.74 ERA) at Athletics (LHP Jeffrey Springs, 4-14, 6.18 ERA), Wednesday, 6:40 p.m., ABTV, 830 AM

​ Orange County Register 

Ex-Inland woman seeking divorce doubted husband would kill her. Minutes later, she was dead

• September 23, 2026

It was the first of August, and Laura Smith told her sister that she couldn’t take the abuse anymore.

Smith had been married to Brian T. Smith for 30 years, the first 24 in Redlands and Yucaipa, while he worked as a California Highway Patrol officer in Baldwin Park, San Bernardino and the San Gorgonio Pass.

On this date, Laura Smith planned to tell her husband she wanted a divorce and leave with the adult son living in their home in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, according to her sister, Jean Gwaltney of Cave Creek, Arizona.

Gwaltney said her sister called her before heading to the house.

“In case he kills me, I want you to know my heart is right with God and make sure to tell my kids that they are everything to me and they were my life and I love them more than anything,” Gwaltney, 53, told a Southern California News Group reporter, recounting the conversation. “She said, ‘Don’t worry, I’m going to get out. I don’t think realistically he would do this.’ “

Twenty minutes later, Gwaltney said, her sister was dead.

Lake Havasu City police say Brian Smith, 60, and Laura Smith, 49, were arguing over the divorce on Aug. 1 when their son Matthew, 24, intervened and tried to de-escalate the situation. But Brian Smith grabbed a shotgun from another room and shot his wife several times, killing her, before killing himself.

The couple also left behind son Steven, 30, and daughter Taylor, 28. Matthew was the son of Brian and Laura; Steven was Brian’s son; and Taylor was Laura’s daughter.

Laura Smith had worked as a dental assistant years ago but mostly was a stay-at-home mom, Gwaltney said

“She was the most loving, most beautiful, most extremely smart, best mother and grandmother, sister, daughter and wife,” Gwaltney said. “Her children were everything to her, and that was her source of joy.”

Laura Smith enjoyed fishing in Lake Havasu — her preferred catch was striped bass — and with her children at Yucaipa Regional Park. She also liked watching the off-road dune races at Glamis in Imperial County.

Brian Smith was well-known in the Inland Empire, Gwaltney said. He spent the first 20 years with the CHP as a motorcycle officer before patrolling the 10 Freeway corridor and other nearby state highways from 2014 to 2020, according to Gwaltney and Smith’s service record.

He resisted efforts to get him mental health assistance, Gwaltney said. She described him as often angry and mentally and physically abusive.

“He hid it very well,” Gwaltney said.

There was no life insurance, no survivor benefits, no will and no trust to help the children, Gwaltney said.

“He expected them to be able to handle everything on their own,” said Gwaltney, who established a fundraiser to assist the children.

Gwaltney said her sister stayed with her husband so their children would have a father in their lives. Gwaltney said she hopes that people reading about the family’s tragedy will “really see that Laura was an amazing woman and she thought she did all the right things by staying for her kids. She would die for her kids, which is what she did.”

​ Orange County Register 

This week’s bestsellers at Southern California’s independent bookstores

• September 23, 2026

The Southern California Independent Booksellers Association Bestsellers List for the week ended Sept. 20 is based on reporting from the independent booksellers of the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association. For an independent bookstore near you, visit IndieBound.org.

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. Exit Party: Emily St. John Mandel

2. The Disappearers: Marlon James

3. Switzy: Emma Cline

4. Taipei Story (Deluxe Limited Edition): R.F. Kuang

5. Yesteryear (Indies Introduce): Caro Claire Burke

6. Whistler: Ann Patchett

7. The Calamity Club: Kathryn Stockett

8. The Pirate Queen: Ariel Lawhon

9. Dead Beat (Ninth House Series #3): Leigh Bardugo

10. We Chase Shadows: A We Solve Murders Mystery: Richard Osman

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump: Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Swan

2. The Perilous Fight: Colin Kaepernick

3. End Times Fascism: And the Fight for the Living World: Naomi Klein, Astra Taylor

4. The Map vs. the Terrain: A Leader’s Field Guide to Navigating Uncertainty: Bill Fournet

5. Profiles in Cowardice: A Study of Collaboration in the Trump Era: Jacob Weisberg

6. London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family’s Search for Truth: Patrick Radden Keefe

7. Never Say Die: A Memoir: Ke Huy Quan

8. The Adaptability Quotient: Rewiring Your Mind for Success in the Next Human Era: Alec Litowitz

9. American Scoundrel: Roy Cohn’s Dark Journey from Joe McCarthy to Donald Trump: Kai Bird, Susan Goldmark

10. I’m Still Here: A Cat’s Purpose Forever: Cathryn Michon, Michelle Detering (Illus.)

PAPERBACK FICTION

1. Theo of Golden: Allen Levi

2. Fruit Fly: Josh Silver

3. Dungeon Crawler Carl: Matt Dinniman

4. Circe: Madeline Miller

5. East of Eden: John Steinbeck

6. The Women: Kristin Hannah

7. The Wedding People: Alison Espach

8. Lonesome Dove: Larry McMurtry

9. Stoner: John Williams

10. Angel Down: Daniel Kraus

PAPERBACK NONFICTION

1. Bread of Angels: A Memoir: Patti Smith

2. Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly: Anthony Bourdain

3. Mother Mary Comes to Me: Arundhati Roy

4. Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea: Journeys Through Ancient Literature: Emily Wilson

5. Slouching Towards Bethlehem: Essays: Joan Didion

6. Flamingo Estate Pleasure Principles: An Almanac from the Garden: Richard Christiansen

7. Just Kids: Patti Smith

8. An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles: Updated Sixth Edition: David Gebhard, Robert Winter, Robert Inman

9. A Marriage at Sea (Indies Introduce): Sophie Elmhirst

10. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants: Robin Wall Kimmerer

​ Orange County Register 

Orange County scores and player stats for Tuesday, Sept. 22

• September 23, 2026

Support our high school sports coverage by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribe now

Scores and stats from Orange County games on Tuesday, Sept. 22

Click here for details about sending your team’s scores and stats to the Register.

The deadline for submitting information is 10:45 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 p.m. Saturday.

BOYS WATER POLO

COAST LEAGUE

Los Amigos 20, Savanna 10

Western 20, Anaheim 6

CRESTVIEW LEAGUE

La Habra 19, Brea Olinda 5

EMPIRE LEAGUE

Santa Ana 15, Buena Park 10

Fullerton 13, Laguna Hills 6

FREEWAY LEAGUE

Yorba Linda 24, Esperanza 21

GROVE LEAGUE

Bolsa Grande 13, Orange 4

NORTH HILLS LEAGUE

Villa Park 19, Sonora 7

PACIFIC COAST LEAGUE

Sage Hill 18, Portola 6

SOUTH COAST LEAGUE

Aliso Niguel 10 San Juan Hills 6

NONLEAGUE

Canyon 16, Valencia 12

Northwood 8, Edison 6

Ocean View 11, El Modena 10

GIRLS TENNIS

EMPIRE LEAGUE

Garden Grove 11, Kennedy 7

SAN JOAQUIN LEAGUE

Fairmont Prep 16, Capistrano Valley Christian 2

Webb 10, Tarbut V’Torah 8

NONLEAGUE

Orange 15, Ocean View 3

Canyon 10, Huntington Beach 8

Tustin 11, Anaheim 7

GIRLS GOLF

SUNSET LEAGUE

Los Alamitos 232, Corona del Mar 238

NONLEAGUE

St. Margaret’s 198, JSerra 201

Canyon 182, Villa Park 262

GIRLS FLAG FOOTBALL

TRINITY LEAGUE

Mater Dei 39, Santa Margarita 14

NONLEAGUE

Santa Monica 24, Sunny Hills 0

Segerstrom 32, San Dimas 6

​ Orange County Register 

Administration’s focus on noncitizen voting has led to 160 arrests. Experts say that shows it’s rare

• September 23, 2026

By ALI SWENSON

NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump administration’s whole-of-government effort to find and prosecute noncitizens illegally on state voter rolls has resulted in about 1,600 voter fraud cases that have led to 160 arrests, Homeland Security Investigations senior official Matthew Millhollin said in a press briefing Tuesday.

The numbers unveiled just six weeks before Election Day provide a rare status update on an initiative that has redirected federal resources and hundreds of employees to search for foul play in elections at the direction of President Donald Trump.

They fall far short of the hundreds of thousands of noncitizen voters that Trump and the Department of Homeland Security have previously suggested were on the rolls. They also represent a tiny fraction of the country’s more than 211 million active registered voters, underscoring what former election officials and election law experts say is a proven fact: Voter fraud, including voting by noncitizens, is rare.

“They have tried to manufacture evidence of widespread noncitizen voting, and every time they do, their numbers are incredibly small, even when they’re overstated,” said David Becker, a former U.S. Justice Department attorney who leads the nonprofit Center for Election Innovation and Research. “They confirm what we’ve known for years, which is that states have been doing an extraordinarily good job of keeping noncitizens off their voter lists.”

Millhollin shared the arrest data at a joint press briefing with the Justice Department and the U.S. Postal Service about DOJ charges against a Utah postal worker for throwing out more than 300 mail ballots during the state’s June primary. In the same briefing, Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter said the DOJ had charged 70 people since the start of the administration with “unlawful voting and registration offenses.”

Neither Millhollin nor McCotter clarified exactly what charges their data included, or whether they overlapped. Homeland Security Investigations, as a subagency of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is generally focused on immigration-related crimes. A Justice Department spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to an emailed request for clarification.

Ahead of November’s midterms, which will determine control of Congress for the final two years of his term, Trump has taken extensive measures to try to crack down on noncitizen voting. It’s something he claims is rampant and marring elections across the nation, but research shows it is incredibly rare.

He signed two election-related executive orders designed in part to address the issue, both of which are tied up in legal challenges. He also has pressured states to use a controversial federal voter database that has been blocked by a federal judge for violating Americans’ privacy, and tried repeatedly to get lawmakers to pass a stagnant documentary proof of citizenship bill.

In a last-ditch effort to hunt for noncitizen voters without detailed data from all states, DHS in August ordered a group of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services staff to pivot to a full-time manual investigation of state voter rolls, according to a federal whistle blower’s report. The whistleblower said the effort is directing federal employees to misrepresent themselves on state voter lookup tools in a way that could violate state laws. The person also warned the initiative leans on unreliable data that could wrongly implicate U.S. citizens in federal documentation.

State election officials in Texas investigated registered voters who were flagged as noncitizens on their voter rolls by Trump’s federal voter database before a judge blocked its use. Of the 2,724 registered voters, it referred 117 cases to the Texas attorney general’s office for investigation. In mid-September, seven people in the state were charged with illegally voting in federal elections or falsely claiming citizenship. Texas has about 18 million registered voters.

Becker said examples like that are characteristic of what often happens when potential instances of noncitizen voting are investigated: The real numbers are consistently small.

“No system is perfect,” he said, adding that he was not aware of a single election whose outcome was altered by noncitizens voting.

McCotter, in Tuesday’s briefing, argued that even a small number of fraud cases can be significant.

“The right of American citizens to have their votes properly counted is vital to determining the rightful winner of an election,” McCotter said. “But the actions of even one malicious actor on the ground can fatally undercut that security.”

Kathy Boockvar, the Democratic former secretary of state of Pennsylvania who now runs a nonpartisan election security firm, said there are real consequences for election officials when Trump and others make hyperbolic claims of fraudulent voting.

“Lots of people just believe what they hear, then reach out to election officials, and these days don’t have any qualms about threatening them,” Boockvar said. “There is a direct, constant effect here that leads to the fueling of antagonism against election officials.”

​ Orange County Register 

Is it ‘killer robots’ or ‘super intelligence’? At the UN, leaders see both

• September 23, 2026

By SETH BORENSTEIN

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — It’s killer robots versus super intelligence.

Visions of the future straight out of comic books are playing out at the United Nations as world leaders talk about the threat — or promise — of artificial intelligence.

Once again it was Donald Trump against the U.N, chief and other leaders on a pressing issue involving science and the future, echoing ongoing disputes over the threat of climate change.

Armed with a new U.N. science report that warns of a slight but real potential of catastrophic and irreversible harm, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres kicked off the parade of world leaders speaking at the General Assembly by calling for more oversight of AI, warning in vivid if not ominous terms of what could go wrong.

“Let us resolve that life-and-death decisions must never be surrendered to machines. Killer robots must have no place in our future,” Guterres said in his farewell address to world leaders. He also warned about AI in his first General Assembly address a decade ago.

With Guterres saying the world needs to “advance the conditions for the responsible pacing of AI and the additional safeguards needed to address risks,” the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday will address how to place some kind of controls on the technology and it will feature some of the biggest names in the field.

It’s super, not artificial, Trump says

Less than an hour later, Trump was having none of that. “The United States also totally rejects any attempt to construct a globalist scheme to control for the artificial intelligence being spoken of so much. Now here and after officially called super intelligence, changing the name,” he said.

World leaders speaking after Trump used “artificial intelligence” — not “super.”

“Every major new technology brings challenges, and superintelligence is no exception,” Trump said. “Yet the very same people who said we’ll all be dead in 12 years because of global warming, a name since reborn to climate change, because the planet was cooling, not warming, and nobody was dead. These are the same people that are now saying that AI is going to kill us all, that robots are going to attack us, and that everything is going to be a total disaster.”

Trump was referring to a 2018 UN report that outlined the danger of human-caused climate change for long-term breaching of the internationally agreed-upon threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming since pre-industrial time and said it was 12 years away.

Studies now say that breach is imminent in the next few years. That report — along with other science documents — did not say everyone would die. It said extreme weather would get more dangerous and that reducing pollution could prevent 100 million premature deaths over the next 82 years.

Also, the world has not cooled, but warmed 0.8 degrees Fahrenheit (0.45 degrees Celsius ) in the Past 12 years, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Go slow but cooperate, others say

The problem is both Trump and Guterres reduce the issue to something that’s not useful, says University of Chicago computer science department chairman Henry Hoffmann.

“One turns it into a science-fiction movie; the other turns it into a nonissue,” Hoffmann said in an email. “Both push people to pick a team instead of engaging with the real risks and the possible mitigations. There shouldn’t be ‘sides’ on whether we need adequate control over powerful autonomous systems. The interesting debate is over what mechanisms actually provide that control.”

Other nations want to make sure they are not left behind during an AI race between the U.S. and China, which Trump said America is winning. French President Emmanuel Macron and Guterres also made the issue about protecting children.

“Let’s not wait for the consequences to come raining down on AI,” Macron said. “We must act now to protect our children and our young people.”

Finland President Alexander Stubb, like other leaders, said AI will change the world, potentially for good, but needs strong controls.

“Artificial intelligence is the most consequential technology in the history of mankind. It will impact science, the economy, politics, security and the very essence of our humanity,” Stubb said. “Humans can and should be in the driver’s seat. We have a choice. We can compete, cooperate or slow down. For me, cooperation if the best way forward.”

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham told a meeting of business leaders on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly that he wants to see “a single set of global principles and standards” that can unlock AI’s potential while mitigating its risks.

He said forging “AI for good” will be the main focus of the UK’s presidency of the G20 group of nations next year.

Before Monday’s speeches, Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group, a political risk advisory firm, said AI has the potential to make the world cleaner, improve technology and improve lives — but can be scary. Trying to deal with AI might be, like climate change, one of the most meaningful roles the United Nations could have, but its power is limited, Bremmer said.

Wednesday’s Security Council AI meeting will include some of the biggest names in AI, including those who have recently sounded the alarm about the need for guardrails. Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, followed by Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, and finally Clément Delangue, who is the CEO of and co-founder of Hugging Face, which was hacked by a rogue OpenAI program.

Edith M. Lederer, Jill Lawless and Jennifer Peltz contributed to this report from the United Nations.

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 

Claim Jumper steakhouse in Buena Park closes

• September 23, 2026

Claim Jumper is down to one Orange County restaurant after closing its Buena Park location this week. The restaurant served its final meal on Monday, Sept. 21, confirmed by an employee.

Reddit users took notice of the closure on Sept. 21. The Buena Park venue, across the street from Knotts Berry Farm, has since been removed from Claim Jumpers’ locations page. That leaves its Costa Mesa outpost, located inside South Coast Plaza, and San Diego spot as the chain’s only remaining California locations.

In June, the San Bernardino space quietly closed, ending the chain’s presence in the Inland Empire.

ALSO READ: Are restaurants the new anchors at Orange County malls?

Craig Nickoloff and his father, Carl, founded Claim Jumpers in Los Alamitos in 1977. The Nickoloff family name has long been synonymous with dining in Orange County. Craig’s son, Nick Nickoloff, who owns and operates namesake restaurants Nick’s and South of Nick’s.

Craig Nickoloff sold a majority stake in his eatery to a private equity firm in 2005. The chain later went into bankruptcy in 2010. At its height, Claim Jumpers operated 45 locations in eight states.

Claim Jumpers is known for its its Gold Rush-era decor, with steaks galore and oversized portions of comfort fare.

Additionally, there are three other Claim Jumper locations, owned and operated by Landry’s and sometimes branded as CJ, found at Golden Nugget casinos in Las Vegas and Laughlin, Nevada, and Lake Charles, Louisiana.

No word yet what, if anything, will replace the Buena Park location found at 7971 Beach Blvd.

​ Orange County Register