With veto of AB 1383, Newsom saves California from the next pension crisis

• September 21, 2026

You know what? Maybe Gavin Newsom isn’t so bad after all.

On Sunday, the governor vetoed Assembly Bill 1383, which would’ve boosted pension benefits for police officers and firefighters, unwinding critical reforms enacted by Gov. Jerry Brown under the California Public Employees’ Pension Reform Act (PEPRA). More precisely, as the Reason Foundation explained, “it would lower the retirement age for police and firefighters from 57 to 55 and loosen the cost-saving salary caps used to calculate pension benefits.”

In vetoing AB 1383, Newsom reflected back on the crises that led to PEPRA and that it’s best to avoid repeating history.

“PEPRA was a necessary reform born of a crisis exacerbated by past policy decisions,” he wrote. “I still recall — before PEPRA’s passage in 2012 — the alarming forecasts, the fierce criticism of public employees, and the growing pressure to eliminate defined benefit plans altogether. This is an era of California history I do not want to repeat. I fear that undoing PEPRA’s reforms, even partially, risks us doing exactly that.”

Newsom no doubt also remembers that because of the runaway pension benefits doled out by governments in California, cities were literally going bankrupt. Many more local governments — and this is an ongoing problem — have had to raise taxes and slash services just to pay for rising pension costs.

As the League of California Cities warned earlier this year, “Increased pension obligations would crowd out funding for core services such as police and fire, parks and recreation, libraries, road maintenance, and housing and homelessness.”

To quantify that, as Govern for California noted, “In the 2024-25 fiscal year alone, state and local governments in California were forced to divert $36.4 billion from essential services to pension contributions, 162% more than just ten years earlier.”

And for what? As Reason’s Mariana Trujillo explained, under AB 1383, “an estimated 86% of taxpayers’ costs will go toward providing additional pension benefits to the state’s highest-paid public safety employees earning more than $160,000.”

It’s against that backdrop that AB 1383 would’ve just reignited pension problems across the state to help highly paid public employees retire sooner. It would have undone the sacrifices local governments made to stabilize their pension debts. And as an unintended consequence, as part of its crowd-out on other public spending, it would’ve also tightened public safety budgets further and made it harder to hire more cops and firefighters. The irony is terrific.

In addition to these direct consequences of AB 1383 is the unavoidable reality that had AB 1383 become law, other public employee unions would immediately demand similar boosts. That’s how California ended up with the pension mess it had leading up to PEPRA and that’s a political headache Newsom fortunately spared the state from with his veto of AB 1383.

Which then raises another issue — the absurdity of the California Legislature even putting AB 1383 on Newsom’s desk.

If California had a remotely serious legislative body, AB 1383 would’ve been killed off long ago purely on fiscal grounds. But instead California has a state legislature beholden to public employee unions. That’s the only explanation for why AB 1383 cleared the Senate unanimously and near-unanimously in the Assembly.

Republican Assemblyman Carl DeMaio, who built his reputation long ago as a pension reformer in San Diego, was the only consistent “No” vote on the bill. Most Republicans turned in their “fiscal conservative” card and folded to the unions, either by abstaining or voting for AB 1383.

Once upon a time the Republican bloc in the Legislature consisted of at least some fiscal conservatives who cared about taxpayer interests and were willing to stand up to public employee unions. Alas, those days are long gone.

Luckily, there was an adult in the room to stop the Legislature from blowing things up.

Gov. Gavin Newsom saved the day with his veto of AB 1383. By standing up to the unions, he demonstrated also that he’s one of the only people in Sacramento with a spine. It might just be the temporary high of a rare fiscal win in California speaking, but moments like this almost make you wonder: maybe he should run for president?

Sal Rodriguez can be reached at salrodriguez@scng.com

​ Orange County Register 

Orange County high school football schedule for Week 5, Sept. 24-26

• September 21, 2026

HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

Please send updates or changes to preps@ocregister.com.

Games start at 7 p.m. unless noted.

THURSDAY’S GAMES

Tango League

Century at Santiago

Savanna at Bolsa Grande

Nonleague

Lakewood vs. Villa Park at El Modena HS

FRIDAY’S GAMES

Nonleague

Trabuco Hills at El Modena

Troy vs. El Dorado at Valencia HS

Laguna Hills at St. Margaret’s

Summit vs. Edison at Huntington Beach HS

Rancho Alamitos at La Quinta

Anaheim at Buena Park

Eisenhower vs. Los Amigos at Garden Grove HS

Servite at Damien

San Clemente at Murrieta Valley

Laguna Beach at San Pedro

Estancia at Brentwood

Santa Ana at Ganesha

Calvary Chapel at Carpinteria

Tango League

Loara at Magnolia

Santa Ana Valley vs. Godinez at Segerstrom HS

8-MAN

Tri-Valley League

Chadwick at Sage Hill, 6 p.m.

​ Orange County Register 

Angel City FC rolls past Utah Royals after 2 early ejections

• September 21, 2026

Utah (13-9-3) was left severely short-handed against Angel City after defender Paige Cronin and midfielder Ana Tejada were ejected by the 24th minute.

Two minutes later, Ally Sentnor converted the resulting penalty kick past goalkeeper Mandy McGlynn to put Angel City (11-8-6) ahead in Sandy, Utah.

Just two minutes after coming off the bench for the second half, Taylor Suarez made it 2-0 with a one-touch finish off a pass from Gisele Thompson.

Sveindís Jónsdóttir capped the scoring in the 67th minute, dispossessing Tatumn Milazzo deep in Utah territory before rolling a shot past McGlynn’s right side.

​ Orange County Register 

Kazushi Kimura, Peter Miller take Los Alamitos racetrack titles again

• September 21, 2026

Jockey Kazushi Kimura and trainer Peter Miller defended their Los Alamitos Race Course championships as the Orange County track completed a two-week thoroughbred meet Sunday.

Kimura did it in an unusual way, riding all seven of his winners in the first three days before sitting out all but one race in the last three days with a suspension. He finished two wins clear of Armando Aguilar and Edgar Payeras, each of whom rode one winner on closing day. It’s the fifth straight time Kimura has led outright or tied for the jockey title at Los Al’s short meets.

Miller finished with four wins, one more than Jesus Uranga, Bob Hess Jr., Genaro Vallejo and Ryan Hanson. Miller stood alone atop the trainers’ standings at Los Al for the 10th time, having tied for the title at the meets in July of this year and July 2025. Hess, Vallejo and Hanson each won once Sunday.

Thoroughbred racing moves to Santa Anita, which opens a six-week meet Friday with an eight-race card starting at 1 p.m.

​ Orange County Register 

Sparks celebrate Lisa Leslie statue with rout of Fire

• September 21, 2026

LOS ANGELES — The First Lady of the Los Angeles Sparks, legend Lisa Leslie, was honored with a statue outside Crypto.com Arena ahead of Sunday’s game against the Portland Fire.

“I am beyond happy with how beautiful The First Lady looks because they really listened to me,” Leslie told the Southern California News Group, adding that she is interested in rejoining the Sparks’ ownership group.

The Sparks, who had five players reach double figures in the scoring column, celebrated Leslie’s bronzed likeness with a 105-84 win over Portland.

That’s history,” said Sparks forward Nneka Ogwumike when asked why the players made a point to attend the nearly two-hour-long ceremony before the game. “I’m very adamant about players coming in and knowing their history. That’s something that we can’t let go of.”

The Sparks improved to 16-26 overall, moving up to ninth in the league standings with two games left in the regular season. Ogwumike led the way with 20 points, 12 rebounds and five assists. Rae Burrell scored 20 points. Ariel Atkins scored 14 points. Rookie Chance Gray scored a career-high 11 points. Emma Cannon scored 10 points in the first half.

“Always stay ready so I don’t have to get ready,” Cannon said. “This is something I’m used to.

“She’s been tremendous for two years,” added Sparks coach Lynne Roberts when asked about Cannon’s performance. “Just the ultimate professional. All about the team.”

Ogwumike reached 8,000 points in her WNBA career on a putback layup, which gave the home team a 38-31 lead with 5:59 left in the second quarter. Ogwumike is the fourth player in league history to reach that milestone.

Forwards Cameron Brink (ankle), Dearica Hamby (knee), and guard Aaliyah Nye (ankle) all missed the game with injuries. Cannon replaced Hamby in the starting lineup.

Cannon’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer put the Sparks up 60-41 at halftime. Burrell scored 13 points in the first half.

Portland (16-27, 10th) was led by second-year guard Carla Leite with a game-high 23 points. Former UCLA guard Charisman Osborne scored 13 points. Megan DiLeo scored 11 points. Emily Engstler added 10 points.

The Sparks swept the season series 3-0 against the Fire. However, both teams were eliminated from playoff contention last month.

Lisa Leslie told me she’s is beyond happy with how her Los Angeles Sparks statue, dubbed “The First Lady” turned out in front of https://t.co/hXoGl5e01d Arena, known as Staples Center when she led the franchise to consecutive WNBA championships in 2001 and 2002. pic.twitter.com/2AFhhsx77J

— John W. Davis (@johnwdavis) September 20, 2026

Meanwhile, Leslie’s 11-foot-tall bronze statue with a granite base, adorned with her signature lipstick, ribbons, and polished nails, commemorates her as the first player in WNBA history to dunk in 2002.

“LA is everything to me because it’s the root of who I am,” Leslie explained.

The Compton native and former Inglewood Morningside High and USC star is the first player in team history to have a statue outside of Crypto.com Arena.

“I wanted to make sure that this statue was a perfect blend of fearlessness and the competitor that I was, I am and will always be,” Leslie said after her statue was unveiled.

“Being able to witness not just her ceremony,” Ogwumike said, “but all of the people that were there for her I think is incredibly important because it may be an introduction to some players when it comes to the legacy that one person has created and it creates an intersection of people and experiences and stories that will not remain untold.”

Sparks owner Magic Johnson said Leslie was known for leaving everything she had on the court, especially when she led the franchise to consecutive league titles in 2001 and 2002.

“To be able to get a statue here at Crypto, you have to dominate on the court,” Sparks owner Magic Johnson said. “You have to make history on the court and, last but not least, you definitely have to win championships, and when we think about Lisa, back-to-back championships she brought to the Sparks and to Los Angeles, but Lisa, the history-making is what I’m really impressed with.”

Johnson’s Showtime Lakers teammate and former Sparks coach Michael Cooper said he was glad to be there to celebrate his star player.

“I’m proud of you,” former Sparks coach Michael Cooper said. “I’m proud to have coached you, and I’m proud that Los Angeles gets to celebrate you in a way that will last forever.”

Rookie guard Ndjakalenga Mwenentanda scored her first career points via two free throws in the first quarter. Mwenentanda, who finished with six points, is currently on a developmental player contract and was signed in late August, after previously playing for the Golden State Valkyries.

The Sparks will play their final road game of the season against the Las Vegas Aces on Tuesday. They will host Golden State in a season finale on Thursday.

Lisa Leslie’s new statue outside https://t.co/St97l2sPKI arena features her dunking with lipstick and nail polish.

She said she was proud of those details. pic.twitter.com/Z9aSXj2xzk

— John W. Davis (@johnwdavis) September 20, 2026

​ Orange County Register 

Chargers’ Ladd McConkey plays through pain, earns ‘warrior’ praise

• September 21, 2026

INGLEWOOD — Wide receiver Ladd McConkey was the poster boy for all the pain the Arizona Cardinals inflicted on the Chargers’ offense in Week 1. He suffered an injured rib when Arizona’s Mack Wilson Sr. delivered a jarring hit that separated him from the football.

McConkey assumed a similar position in Week 2, with two teeth knocked out of his mouth during the Chargers’ loss to the Las Vegas Raiders, a reminder of all the suffering he and his teammates absorbed during another lackluster loss to a team that was favored by oddsmakers to defeat.

McConkey caught five passes for 82 yards and one touchdown against Arizona.

He had another three receptions for 35 yards against Las Vegas.

Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh referred to McConkey as “Just a warrior.”

Kind words, McConkey said when told of Harbaugh’s comment, nice to hear.

“I appreciate that,” McConkey said. “I appreciate my coach having my back.”

Apparently, sitting out Sunday was not an option, though.

“You only get so many opportunities at this game, so if I can be out there, I’m going to be out there,” said McConkey, who sat out once during his rookie season in 2024, when he set franchise records for first-year players with 82 receptions for 1,149 yards, and once last season.

Even if he had been 100% while playing against the Raiders, he couldn’t have helped the Chargers’ sputtering offense by himself. He did average 11.7 yards per reception, which included a 19-yard gain on a dart thrown by quarterback Justin Herbert in the second quarter.

The completion kept alive a possession that ultimately produced running back Omarion Hampton’s 1-yard touchdown run that tied the score 7-7. Other targets were few and far between, however. Herbert was inconsistent at best while completing 15 of 27 passes for 192 yards.

“I feel like it’s just that we’re hurting ourselves a lot,” McConkey said of an offense that fumbled six times, tossed two interceptions to go with eight penalties, including a holding call against right tackle Joe Alt while Herbert attempted a pass from his own end zone, resulting in a safety.

“I feel like once we can just start clicking, we’ll get rolling. But nobody’s happy with where we’re at, so we’re going to attack it.”

INJURY REPORT

Tight ends David Njoku and Charlie Kolar were each forced from the game. Njoku sustained a knee injury and was carted from the field in the second quarter and Kolar suffered a forearm injury in the fourth. Harbaugh said he didn’t have a postgame update on either player.

Defensive lineman Dalvin Tomlinson injured his hamstring near the end of the third quarter. Left guard Kayode Awosika hurt his leg and was forced from the game. Safety Derwin James Jr. injured his hand in the first half, but was able to continue in the game.

James had a team co-leading seven tackles.

“There were quite a few (injuries) that were reported, and that’s all the information I have,” Harbaugh said when asked for updates after the game.

​ Orange County Register 

Taylor Crabb and Andy Benesh win Laguna Beach Open

• September 21, 2026

Taylor Crabb and Andy Benesh completed a sweep of the AVP heritage events Sunday, winning the AVP Laguna Beach Open with a 21-15, 21-19 win over Trevor Crabb and and Chase Buddinger in the finals.

Taylor Crabb and Benesh also won the Manhattan Beach Open in August and the Huntington Beach Open in May this year after teaming up to start the season.

Taylor Crabb had 22 kills and 15 digs in the finals.

In the women’s bracket, No. 4 seed Madelyne Anderson and Alaina Chacon topped No. 3 seed Coradello Thâmela and Lopes Victoria in the finals, 21-19, 21-15.

Top seeded Kelly Cheng and Megan Craft were knocked out by No. 9 seed Chloe Loreen and Corinne Quiggle on Saturday. Anderson and Chacon beat Thâmela and Victoria in a three-set battle the quarterfinals.

Anderson and Chacon then beat Molly Shaw and Devanne Sours in the semifinals in another three-set match to reach the finals.

​ Orange County Register 

Alexander: Is Chargers’ season already spiraling downward?

• September 21, 2026

INGLEWOOD – If you are a Charger, or a Charger fan, it only gets more difficult from here.

And from the outside, given the performances of the past two weeks – and, essentially, the idea that they’ve squandered one-fourth of their home schedule with a pair of games that were ineffective at best and in some ways closer to horrendously inept – this season’s path already seems wobbly.

It is, in fact, trending dangerously toward being a lost season, and nothing the head coach or quarterback has said after these two games engenders any confidence that this is going to turn around soon.

To recap, the Chargers were embarrassed by Arizona in their opener last week. Sunday, against the team that used to be here years ago – and still has a hold on the hearts of thousands of Southern Californians – the Chargers looked clumsy, disjointed and unfocused, again, in a 26-14 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders.

Next week they play at undefeated Buffalo, which is 2-0 and has outscored opponents 77-62 in its first two games. From there, they get the defending Super Bowl champs in Seattle, play Denver at home and play at Kansas City. By the time they play the Rams on Nov. 1, following a bye week, they could be 0-6.

Platitudes (and we’ll get to those) aren’t going to help.

Consider this span of three bizarre plays late in the fourth quarter Sunday, with the Raiders clinging to a 17-14 lead and the Chargers, somehow, still in position to overtake them:

On a third-and-7 play at their own 40 with 4:49 left, Justin Herbert was sacked and fumbled, but teammate Tre’ Harris recovered for a 6-yard gain. Then, going for it on fourth-and-1 at the 46, they caught a break from the opponent’s inattention when the Raiders were penalized for having 12 men on the field.

And then, with a first-and-10 at the Raiders’ 48, Omarion Hampton had the ball stripped from him by Nakobe Dean. Raiders safety Jeremy Chinn scooped it up and returned it 43 yards to the Chargers’ 16, and three plays later, Vegas went in front 24-14 on Kirk Cousins’ third touchdown pass of the game.

But this week was another cavalcade of Chargers’ miscues. There were back-to-back false starts by tackle Joe Alt inside their own 10 early in the second quarter. And a shotgun snap on a third-and-1 play from their own 32 in the third quarter that glanced off Harris as he was going in motion; Herbert recovered that one, but the Chargers had to punt.

Again, just as a week ago, they played as if they were unfocused: Eight penalties for 45 yards, including three false starts (all by Joe Alt), three holding penalties (by Rashawn Slater, Kayode Awosika and Alt, the latter in the end zone and leading to a safety on the Chargers’ final possession), an illegal use of the hands penalty (Cam Hart) and an illegal formation on their next-to-last possession.

There were six fumbles; they recovered five and the lost one led to the Raiders’ touchdown noted above. Herbert was 15 of 27 passing for 192 yards, was intercepted twice, was sacked three times and had a quarterback rating of 59.5. (His opposite number, Cousins, had a 113.1 rating after throwing for 253 yards and three touchdowns).

And this offense that was supposed to be more dynamic under Mike McDaniel?  It’s averaging 14 points a game. That’s not going to get it done.

So, how does a team respond? Publicly, at least, with clichés substituted for solutions.

“If we’re not playing up to our standard, that’s on us to fix that,” Herbert said. “It’s just on us to be better, to know what we’re capable of doing, doing our job and making sure that we’re putting our best product out there.”

I asked him if there was any anger over this inability to meet the standard.

“No, I don’t think so,” he said. “I think it’s not good enough, and there’s a group full of grown men that can handle their job and they’re gonna do everything they can to correct it and fix it, and we’re gonna stick together and it’s tough. No one wants to lose two games, but there’s nothing we can do about it now, so we gotta get better and fix them.”

At least Herbert this time didn’t use the word “execute” in every other sentence, as he has tended to do at other times. It’s likely that he’d never heard of the quip from decades ago by John McKay, the late USC coach, who, when asked about his team’s execution, deadpanned, “I’m all for it.”

Head coach Jim Harbaugh’s responses to similar questions sounded similarly bland: “We’ll look at the tape, we’ll go back to work. That’s all I know how to do, that’s all we know how to do … find our way, find the way and we’ll move forward. It’s a one-week league, and that’s the only thing I know to do.”

You’re not expecting game plan secrets in these postgame sessions, but something stronger, or at least more substantial, would be nice. Like, for example, this from offensive lineman Slater:

“I mean, I’d be lying if I said we look totally prepared out there. … You look at the plays and it’s not all just the system. It’s technique, technical errors, stuff like getting lined up. It’s all kinds of errors.”

Or this from linebacker Daiyan Henley:

“If this was 0 and 5 or 0 and something, yeah, we can talk a little bit more about it. But I don’t think we’re frustrated at all. I think we’ll just motivated to get to next week. I mean, when you lose a game, you just want to get that feeling out of you where you want to get to the next game.

“… We all understand where we are in the season. And I mean if you go look back at past teams, there’s plenty that have started off slow and got to where they want to go at the end of it. So if that says anything about what we can do right here with these guys and what we have in this locker room, that is what we are right now.”

Given that the chances of an 0-2 team making the postseason seem pretty minuscule, perhaps that is (or at least should be) the theme in the Chargers’ building going forward: Show the so-called experts, and beat the odds.

(And if they do and it works, why, you’re welcome.)

jalexander@scng.com

​ Orange County Register