Locked seeks a winning trip in the Big ’Cap

• February 28, 2025

ARCADIA — The jockey and trainer of 4-year-old Locked and 3-year-old Rodriguez lavished praise on those colts after their latest starts, using terms normally reserved for horses who actually, you know, won their races.

Locked and Rodriguez both finished second.

Wins could come Saturday, when those rising stars are among the horses to watch on Santa Anita Handicap day, one of the highlights of Santa Anita’s winter-spring season.

Locked is the 3-2 favorite over fellow out-of-state shipper Hit Show (5-2) on the morning line for a nine-horse field in the $300,000, Grade I Santa Anita Handicap, a classic 1¼-mile race for 4-year-olds and up. Rodriguez is the 9-5 second choice behind his Bob Baffert stablemate Barnes (even money) in a field of six in the $300,000, Grade II San Felipe Stakes, the penultimate test for California 3-year-olds aiming for the Kentucky Derby.

The 11-race card, featuring four stakes, starts at noon. Temperatures in the 60s and a 21% chance of rain are forecast. The Santa Anita Handicap has been contested on a fast track in 74 of its 87 runnings and 23 of the past 24.

Locked and Rodriguez both come out of races in which they finished second to the nation’s top-ranked horses in their divisions and faced less than ideal circumstances.

Locked, a son of 2017 Horse of the Year Gun Runner who has won at the Grade I and Grade II levels in Kentucky and New York for trainer Todd Pletcher, went into the Grade I Pegasus World Cup Invitational at Gulfstream Park near Miami on Jan. 25 as the favorite. But he had his head turned when the starting gate opened and dropped farther off the pace than usual. He and jockey John Velazquez rallied to finish second, 6¼ lengths behind White Abarrio, whose victory lifted him to No. 1 in the National Thoroughbred Racing Association’s national rankings.

“I thought he ran probably the best race of his life,” Pletcher said of Locked right after the Pegasus. “Unfortunately, from that post (10 in a field of 11) you can’t make any mistakes.”

Pletcher has decided to fit Locked with blinkers for the first time Saturday. While Velazquez rides big races in Florida, Jose Ortiz will be aboard Locked for the first time since they finished third to 2-year-old champion Fierceness and Muth in the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita.

Either Locked or Hit Show, a Grade II winner in Kentucky for trainer Brad Cox who’ll have Prat riding, can be the first Santa Anita Handicap winner from out of state since Jimmy Jerkens-trained Shaman Ghost in 2017 and Bill Mott-trained Ron the Greek in 2012.

The top local threats are Mirahmadi (Juan Hernandez riding), the speedier part of a Baffert duo with New King (Mike Smith); Express Train (Hector Berrios), the 2022 Santa Anita Handicap winner trying to be the first 8-year-old to win the Big ’Cap since Olhaverry in 1947; and Katonah (Tiago Pereira), the San Pasqual Stakes winner.

If you like Locked because he has competed with the best and faced adversity, you can make a case for Rodriguez to score a mild upset of Barnes in the San Felipe.

Rodriguez, whose front-running maiden victory in January earned the highest Beyer speed figure for any of the San Felipe horses, was a close second in the betting to Baffert’s Citizen Bull in the Robert B. Lewis Stakes on Feb. 1. But when Citizen Bull and Martin Garcia broke on top, Hernandez decided to cede the early lead to the horse who has not only the same trainer but the same owners. Citizen Bull led the 1-mile race all the way to beat Rodriguez by 3¾ lengths, confirming the 2-year-old champion’s No. 1 spot in the NTRA’s 3-year-old rankings.

“It was pretty impressive what he did, running second,” Baffert said right after the race. “He’ll get a lot out of this.”

“I think he’s going to be better next time,” Hernandez said.

This time, Prat will take over Rodriguez, a son of Authentic, while Hernandez sticks with Barnes, the $3.2 million son of Into Mischief who stretches out to 1 1/16 miles after dominating the 7-furlong San Vicente Stakes.

Rodriguez has come back to post the fastest workouts in this field, and Baffert said Friday the colt does appear to have benefited from the Lewis Stakes experience.

The San Felipe will award 50 Kentucky Derby qualifying points to the winner, all but guaranteeing a spot in the field May 3.

“This is our March Madness starting,” said Baffert, who also has Mellencamp (Smith) in the San Felipe.

A key question is whether Barnes, from post 3, or Rodriguez, from post 4, will take the early lead. Baffert said he won’t give instructions to Hernandez and Prat.

Aiming to stalk the leaders could be Journalism, the Los Alamitos Futurity winner making his 3-year-old debut with Umberto Rispoli riding for trainer Michael McCarthy.

“Even though it’s a smaller field, it’s a competitively matched field,” McCarthy said Friday.

The Santa Anita Handicap picks here: 1. Locked, 2. Hit Show, 3. Mirahmadi

The San Felipe picks: 1. Rodriguez, 2. Barnes, 3. Journalism.

Picks for the full card from all four handicappers in the Southern California News Group consensus are available online.

​ Orange County Register 

Opioid cash grab: As federal funding dries up, states turn to settlement money

• February 28, 2025

By Aneri Pattani, KFF Health News

At a recent Nevada legislative committee hearing, lawmakers faced off with members of the governor’s administration over how to fill gaping holes in the state’s upcoming budget.

At issue: whether opioid settlement money — paid by health care companies that were sued for fueling the opioid crisis and meant to help states abate addiction — should be funneled to two counties for a safety-net program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, which is aimed at helping low-income children and families.

Previous funding “will no longer be available after June 30, 2025,” the budget proposal says. By then, billions of dollars in covid-era relief from the federal government — including a set-aside for TANF, which can cover emergency aid, job training, child care, and more — is likely to have expired.

Recognizing both the need for and uptake of this assistance, Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo’s budget proposal directs $5 million in opioid settlement cash to shore up the program in the state’s most populous counties, Clark and Washoe.

The prospect of such trade-offs is smacking many states in the face as they embark on budget season.

Not only is the river of federal pandemic relief that flowed to public health, education, food assistance, child care, and more over the past few years drying up, but a deluge of actions from the Trump administration has thrown into question once-reliable federal funding for a myriad of social services and health care programs. Congressional Republicans have also threatened cuts to Medicaid, a joint federal and state health insurance program for many low-income people.

Together, these financial headwinds have left many states hunting for alternative funds to maintain crucial services.

Opioid settlement money can seem like an attractive option. More than $10 billion has landed in state and local government coffers in recent years and billions more are set to arrive over the next decade-plus.

But recovery advocates, family members who have lost loved ones to addiction, and legal experts say that money has a specific purpose: to address the ongoing addiction and overdose crisis.

Even if $5 million is a small portion of the hundreds of millions Nevada has received, some say spending it elsewhere sets a troubling precedent. Nevada Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager, a Democrat, raised this concern at the February hearing.

“There doesn’t seem to be a direct link to opioids” in the governor’s proposal directing these dollars to TANF, he said. Settlement money should not be used “to backfill budget accounts.”

Richard Whitley, director of the state’s Department of Health and Human Services, insisted at the hearing that this was an appropriate use of settlement dollars. The money flowing through TANF will help “relatives who are raising children whose parents are substance-abusing,” he said.

In addition, Elizabeth Ray, a spokesperson for the Republican governor, told KFF Health News that the money would help families at risk of losing custody of their children due to substance use, with the goal of keeping kids in their homes and “ultimately reducing the need for foster care placements.” Implementing this program through the state’s TANF system would “reduce start-up costs and implementation time,” she wrote in a statement.

But TANF is available to many families living in poverty and it was unclear how these dollars would be targeted to such a subset.

Similar budget conflicts have surfaced in Connecticut — whose Democratic governor, the CT Mirror reports, is asking lawmakers to redirect opioid settlement money to social services that were previously funded through other means, including federal dollars — and Arizona, whose legislature transferred $115 million in settlement money to the state prison system last year to help close a $1.4 billion budget deficit.

National recovery advocate Ryan Hampton expects to see more efforts like this nationwide.

“I have a very high level of fear that states are going to be tapping into these settlement dollars in every creative way they can to fill some of these budget shortfalls,” he said. “It’s a grave misuse of funds and one that is going to have dire consequences.”

Although national overdose deaths have declined recently, tens of thousands of Americans are still dying from overdoses each year. In a few states, including Nevada, such deaths increased in the 12 months leading up to September.

“The intent of these dollars is to save lives right now,” said Hampton, who is in recovery from opioid addiction and founded a Nevada-based recovery advocacy organization. He submitted a public comment opposing the Nevada governor’s budget proposal.

Hampton and other advocates worry that using opioid funds for services that, even if crucial, are only tangentially related to addiction risks a repeat of the tobacco settlement of the 1990s.

At that time, cigarette manufacturers agreed to pay state governments billions of dollars annually. Initially, states spent a chunk of that money on anti-smoking programs, said Meg Riordan, a vice president of research at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, which tracks states’ spending on tobacco prevention programs.

But over time, states encountered budget crunches and many raided or dissolved trust funds they’d set up to protect tobacco money. Instead, they funneled the cash directly into their general funds and spent it on infrastructure projects and budget shortfalls.

“Once the funds start going somewhere else, there’s a risk that they won’t come back,” Riordan said.

Tobacco use remains a leading cause of preventable death in America.

The opioid settlements have more guardrails than the tobacco settlement did, but KFF Health News’ multiyear investigation found lax oversight and enforcement.

Nevada and Connecticut are among 13 states that have explicitly restricted the practice of supplantation, or using opioid settlement funds to replace existing funding streams.

Whitley, Nevada’s DHHS director, and the governor’s office have insisted that none of their proposed uses of settlement funds are examples of supplanting.

At the February hearing, Whitley repeatedly suggested that the budget proposal was misworded, creating a false impression. “We’ll clean that up with the language,” he said.

But he also emphasized the importance of settlement dollars as federal funding sources diminish. “As ARPA [the American Rescue Plan Act] goes away and other flexible funding goes away to address problems, this becomes one that really we have to rely on,” he said.

That perspective seems reasonable to JK Costello, director of behavioral health consulting for the Steadman Group, a company that he said is helping about a dozen local governments across the country administer the settlements.

Ideally settlement money adds to existing services, he said, but realistically, some safety-net programs, even if they don’t directly address addiction, can be a lifeline for people with opioid use disorder. If major cuts in federal spending imperil those programs, using settlement funds to save them could be worthwhile.

“Getting people into great treatment when their housing voucher is cut isn’t really that helpful,” Costello said. “Treatment isn’t going to work if they’re not able to eat or feed their kids.”

The tricky thing is that many community organizations that work directly on addiction and recovery issues are also feeling the crunch of expiring federal aid and expected federal program changes that would reduce their resources, Costello said. When everyone is strapped, deciding where limited settlement dollars can do the most good becomes increasingly challenging.

Some places presciently set aside opioid settlement funds in “emergency” or “sustainability” accounts that could be tapped for addiction services in case of declining federal aid. South Dakota has such a fund with more than $836,000, according to its 2024 opioid report. None of it has been used yet.

Kristen Pendergrass, vice president of state policy for the addiction-focused nonprofit Shatterproof, hopes states turn to rainy day funds first, before raiding settlement accounts.

Nevada has $1.23 billion in its rainy day fund, more than the national median, according to The Pew Charitable Trusts.

“It would be a slippery slope if we stop paying attention now” and allow settlement funds to be used for anything, Pendergrass said. “The money was won to remediate harms and save lives. It should be used that way.”

©2025 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

​ Orange County Register 

Man arrested after attack on Orange County firefighters in Buena Park, authorities say

• February 28, 2025

An Anaheim man was arrested Thursday night, Feb. 27, after he allegedly attacked Orange County firefighters and Buena Park police while trying to get inside a fire engine, authorities said.

Orange County firefighters were returning to the station about 6:45 p.m. when a 42-year-old man flagged them down near Knott Avenue and Desman Road, Buena Park police Sgt. Jon Shaddow said.

The man then allegedly jumped onto the engine and fought with firefighters after they got out, Shaddow said. During the fight, three firefighters were injured and at some point the man got into the cab.

The second man ran off.

Buena Park police arrived and “it took several officers to get him out of the truck,” Shaddow said.

The man fought with the officers but was eventually handcuffed.

“He fought the Fire Department for no reason that we know of,” Shaddow said.

A trucker told OnScene.TV, a freelance news organization that sometimes works with the Southern California News Group, that he was in his big rig on Knott when he saw two men on bicycles come out from the path for train tracks.

“They approach one of my coworkers and start using a pump to bang on the door … like they were going to break the window,” the trucker said.

It is unclear what type of pump, and where it came from.

As the fire engine was approaching, the man turned his focus to the firefighters, the trucker said, adding that he saw the man bite at least one firefighter so hard it broke skin.

“They had no reason to be attacked in the first place, they were just doing their job,” the trucker said.

News video shows police officers struggling with the man, who got into the driver’s seat of the fire engine, with the man constantly yelling for help. Officers eventually detained him.

The man was arrested on suspicion of vandalism and assault on first responders, Shaddow said.

The sergeant said “a few” officers suffered minor injuries. Fire Authority Battalion Chief Chuck Fedak told OnScene TV that the three firefighters were hospitalized with minor injuries.

​ Orange County Register 

Rams and Matthew Stafford agree to restructured deal

• February 28, 2025

Matthew Stafford will be the Rams’ quarterback for a little longer.

After being told he and his agent could talk to other teams to assess his value, the veteran signal-caller has agreed to a restructured deal with guaranteed money Friday to remain with the Rams.

The Rams announced their new agreement with Stafford on Friday without initially revealing any details.

Stafford, who turned 37 earlier this month and was still under contract for two more seasons, had restructured his deal last season to assist the team in getting under the salary cap.

After Stafford got the Rams within one play of upsetting the eventual Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles in the divisional round of the NFC playoffs last month, the Rams agreed to allow Stafford to test the market and evaluate his worth at this point in his career.

Stafford was due a base salary of $23 million in 2025, and a $4 million roster bonus was due by March 14, but Stafford’s contract was not guaranteed for 2026.

The New York Giants and Las Vegas Raiders were reportedly two of Stafford’s top suitors, with eyebrows raised over rumors of Stafford and Raiders minority owner Tom Brady coincidentally meeting up at a ski resort on Montana.

While Stafford likely could have made more money elsewhere – provided his desired new team and the Rams could agree on a trade – it’s doubtful he would have found the success he’s encountered in Los Angeles.

On March 18, 2021, the Rams acquired Stafford, who spent the first 12 seasons of his career never having won a playoff game with the Detroit Lions, for quarterback Jared Goff, two first-round picks and a third-round pick.

Head coach Sean McVay and Stafford became a perfect fit, winning Super Bowl LVI in his first season in Los Angeles.

In four seasons with the Rams, Stafford has compiled a 34-23 record, throwing for 14,700 yards and 95 touchdowns with 44 interceptions. In seven postseason games, Stafford went 5-2, averaging 298.3 passing yards per game with 15 touchdowns.

Last season, Stafford completed 65.8% (340 of 517) of his passes for 3,762 yards with 20 touchdowns and eight interceptions. He led the Rams to a 10-6 record and an NFC West title before they defeated the Minnesota Vikings 27-9 in an NFC wild-card game Jan. 13 in Arizona.

One week later, the Rams traveled to snowy Philadelphia and had the ball on the Eagles’ 21-yard line in the final minutes before coming up short in advancing to the NFC Championship Game.

Had the Rams parted ways with Stafford, they would have been left with backups Jimmy Garoppolo and Stetson Bennett IV and might have had to look toward free agency or the NFL draft.

McVay recently emphasized on the “Fitz & Whit” podcast that the Rams’ goal was to retain Stafford while managing the franchise’s short- and long-term goals.

“There is no dispute – and let’s not get it twisted in regarding to anybody wanting him to be our quarterback,” McVay said. “Now, there’s layers to it. You have to be able to say, ‘Hey, how do we continuously build? How do we support him? How do we make sure that he’s getting what is his worth relative to those things?’”

​ Orange County Register 

Mourners bury one of the last hostages released from Gaza as talks start for ceasefire future

• February 28, 2025

By JULIA FRANKEL

JERUSALEM (AP) — Mourners in Israel on Friday were burying the remains of one of the final hostages released in the first phase of the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, as negotiators discussed a second phase that could end the war in Gaza and see the remaining living captives returned home.

The funeral procession for Tsachi Idan, an avid soccer fan who was 49 when he was abducted by Hamas, began at a Tel Aviv football stadium en route to the cemetery where he was to be buried in a private ceremony.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Idan, taken from Kibbutz Nahal Oz during the Hamas-led Oct. 7 2023 attack that sparked the war in Gaza, was killed in captivity.

His body was one of four released by Hamas early Thursday in exchange for over 600 Palestinian prisoners, the last planned swap of the ceasefire’s first phase, which began in January. Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada, and European Union.

Idan was the only one of his family taken to Gaza. His eldest daughter, Maayan, was killed as terrorists shot through the door of their saferoom. Hamas fighters broadcast themselves on Facebook live holding the Idan family hostage in their home, as his two younger children pleaded with them to let them go.

“My brother is the real hero. He held on,” Idan’s sister, Noam Idan ben Ezra, said in an interview on Israeli radio Friday. She said Idan had been “a pace away” from being released during a brief ceasefire in November 2023, when more than 100 of the 251 people abducted on Oct. 7 were released.

“Tsachi was forsaken twice. The first time when he was kidnapped from his home and the second time when the deal blew up,” she added. “The fact that Tsachi is not standing next to me today is the outcome of the decision-making and the policy here in Israel. They did not listen to us then, but it’s not too late to listen to us today.”

Concern for remaining hostages

With the first phase of the ceasefire deal set to end Saturday, relatives of hostages still held in Gaza are ramping up pressure on Netanyahu to secure the release of their loved ones.

According to Israel, 32 of the 59 hostages still in Gaza are dead, and there has been growing concern about the welfare of an unknown number who are still alive, particularly after three hostages released Feb. 8 appeared emaciated.

One of the three, Eli Sharabi, said in an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 Friday that he and other hostages had been held in iron chains, starved and sometimes beaten or humiliated.

“During the first three days, my hands are tied behind my back, my legs are tied, with ropes that tear into your flesh, and a bit of food, a bit of water during the day,” he said, in one of the first interviews by a hostage released under the current deal. “I remember not being able to fall asleep because of the pain, the ropes are already digging into your flesh, and every movement makes you want to scream.”

Sharabi found out after his release that his wife and daughters had been killed during the Oct. 7 attack.

The next phase of the ceasefire

Under the terms of the truce Israel and Hamas agreed to, Phase 2 of the ceasefire is to involve negotiations on ending the war that has devastated the Gaza Strip. That includes the return of all remaining living hostages and the withdrawal of all Israeli troops from the Palestinian territory. The return of the bodies of the remaining deceased hostages would occur in Phase 3.

Hamas said in a statement released Friday that it “reaffirms its full commitment to implementing all terms of the agreement in all its stages and details.” It called on the international community to pressure Israel to “immediately proceed to the second phase without any delay or evasion.”

Officials from Israel, Qatar and the United States have started “intensive discussions” on the ceasefire’s second phase in Cairo, Egypt‘s state information service said Thursday. Netanyahu’s office confirmed he had sent a delegation to Cairo. Israel has reportedly been seeking an extension of the first phase to secure the release of additional hostages.

“The mediators are also discussing ways to enhance the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, as part of efforts to alleviate the suffering of the population and support stability in the region,” said the statement from the prime minister’s office.

Israel’s negotiators will return home Friday night, said an Israeli official, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door talks. Negotiations are set to continue Saturday, the official said. But it was not clear if the Israeli team would travel back to Cairo to attend them.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday that the coming days are “critical,” and urged Israel and Hamas to fulfill their commitments.

The first phase of the ceasefire saw 33 hostages, including eight bodies, released in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. Netanyahu has vowed to return all the hostages and destroy the military and governing capabilities of Hamas, which remains in control of Gaza. The Trump administration has endorsed both goals.

But it’s unclear how Israel would destroy Hamas without resuming the war, and Hamas is unlikely to release the remaining hostages — its main bargaining chips — without a lasting ceasefire. After suffering heavy losses in the war, the group has nonetheless emerged intact, and says it will not give up its weapons.

The ceasefire, brokered by the United States, Egypt and Qatar, ended 15 months of war that erupted after Hamas’ 2023 attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people.

Israel’s military offensive has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health officials, who don’t differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths but say over half the dead have been women and children.

The fighting displaced an estimated 90% of Gaza’s population and decimated the territory’s infrastructure and health system.

Palestinians prepare for Ramadan amid destroyed homes

Palestinians who returned to destroyed homes in Gaza City started Friday to prepare for Ramadan, shopping for essential household goods and foods. Some say the Islamic holy month feels better than one spent last year, but still far from normal.

“The situation is very difficult for people and life is very hard. Most people — their homes have been destroyed. Some people can’t afford to shop for Ramadan, but our faith in God is great as he never forgets to bless people,” said Gaza City resident Nasser Shoueikh.

Ramadan is a holy Islamic month during which observant Muslims around the world practice the ritual of daily fasting from dawn to sunset. It’s often known for increased prayers, charity and spirituality as well as family gatherings enjoying different dishes and desserts during Iftar, when Muslims break their fasting, and Suhoor, the last meal before sunrise.

Associated Press writer Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv contributed.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

​ Orange County Register 

New stove that plugs into a normal wall outlet could be major gain for health and the climate

• February 28, 2025

By ISABELLA O’MALLEY

NEW YORK (AP) — For years, Ed Yaker, treasurer of a New York City co-op with nearly 1,500 units, and fellow board members have dealt with gas leaks. It can mean the gas at an entire building is shut off, leaving residents unable to use a stove for months until expensive repairs are made to gas lines.

So Yaker was all in when he learned of a California startup called Copper that was manufacturing an electric stove and oven that could simply be plugged into a regular outlet. The sleek, standard four-burner electric induction stove runs on 120 volts, meaning there is no need to pay a licensed electrician thousands of dollars to rewire to 240 volts, which many electric stoves require.

“In terms of, ‘Is this the way to go?’ It’s a no brainer,” Yaker said, demonstrating a quart of water that boiled in about two minutes. His apartment is full of books, many on energy and climate change, and the energy efficiency was a motivation, too.

Then there are the health benefits of cooking with electricity. Gas stoves, which 47 million Americans use, release pollutants like nitrogen dioxide that has been linked to asthma and cancer-causing benzene.

“You wouldn’t stand over the tailpipe of a car breathing in the exhaust from that car. And yet nearly 50 million households stand over a gas stove, breathing the same pollutants in their homes,” said Rob Jackson, an environmental scientist at Stanford University and lead author on a study on pollution from gas cooking.

“I had a gas stove until I started this line of research. Watching pollutant levels rise almost immediately every time I turned a burner on, or my oven on, was enough to get me to switch” to an electric stove, he said.

Induction stoves are also a way to address the considerable amount of climate change that comes from buildings — emissions from cooking, heating and cooling living spaces and hot water.

In the case of gas stoves, about half of the flame’s heat escapes into the room. Electric stoves by comparison can be up to 80% efficient. Of those, induction stoves come out on top with up to 90% efficiency in part because they only heat where the surface contacts the pot.

Just the presence of a gas stove in a home contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, even when it’s not turned on. Jackson’s team found gas stoves bleed methane — the main constituent of natural gas — when they’re off, from loose fittings and at connections between the stove and wall. The climate impact of leaky stoves in U.S. homes was estimated to be comparable to carbon emissions from 500,000 gasoline-powered cars.

The stove contains a battery that is smart, meaning it can charge up when electrical rates are low, allowing people to cook without incurring peak-rate electrical charges.

The new Copper stoves are not cheap. Early adopters are relying on government incentives to defray the cost. When Yaker, who worked as a teacher and was a saver, bought his, it was $6,000 and a federal tax credit for clean energy appliances brought that down to $4,200.

The manufacturer now has an agreement with the New York City Housing Authority to buy 10,000 stoves at a maximum price of $3,200 each, set to arrive in 2026.

Eden Housing, a nonprofit affordable housing developer, retrofitted a 32-apartment building in Martinez, California with Copper stoves using state and local programs, and hopes to purchase more.

“It’s pretty cool, it looks nice and it’s easy to clean,” said Jolene Cardoza, about the new appliance. Her adult daughter’s asthma was irritated by her old gas stove when she would come over to bake and she’s happy the Copper doesn’t release pollutants.

Other tenants found the transition to induction cooking more bumpy.

“I don’t really like the way it cooks my food in the oven,” said Monica Moore, who notices a difference in the texture of her cornbread. She is impressed with how quickly water boils, but misses cooking with a flame and said it was a hassle to switch out her pans with ones that are compatible with induction stoves.

For Jackson, though, the change is important.

“I think shutting the gas off to our homes and electrifying our homes is one of the best things that we can control individually to reduce our personal greenhouse gas emissions. I think of cars and homes as the two places to start for reducing our greenhouse gas footprint,” said Jackson.

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 

Texas measles cases rise to 146 in an outbreak that led to a child’s death

• February 28, 2025

By JAMIE STENGLE

DALLAS (AP) — The number of people with measles in Texas increased to 146 in an outbreak that led this week to the death of an unvaccinated school-aged child, health officials said Friday.

The number of cases — Texas’ largest in nearly 30 years — increased by 22 since Tuesday. The Texas Department of State Health Services said cases span over nine counties in Texas, including almost 100 in Gaines County, and 20 patients have been hospitalized.

The child who died Tuesday night in the outbreak is the first U.S. death from the highly contagious but preventable respiratory disease since 2015, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The child was treated at Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock, though the facility said the patient didn’t live in Lubbock County.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s top health official and a vaccine critic, said this week that the U.S. Department of the Health and Human Services was watching cases but dismissed the outbreak as “not unusual.”

The virus has largely spread through rural, oil rig-dotted West Texas, with cases concentrated in a “close-knit, undervaccinated” Mennonite community, state health department spokesperson Lara Anton has said.

Gaines County has a strong homeschooling and private school community. It is also home to one of the highest rates of school-aged children in Texas who have opted out of at least one required vaccine, with nearly 14% skipping a required dose last school year.

Texas law allows children to get an exemption from school vaccines for reasons of conscience, including religious beliefs. Anton has said the number of unvaccinated kids in Gaines County is likely significantly higher because homeschooled children’s data would not be reported.

The measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine is safe and highly effective at preventing infection and severe cases. The first shot is recommended for children ages 12 to 15 months, and the second for ages 4 to 6 years. Most kids will recover from measles, but infection can lead to dangerous complications such as pneumonia, blindness, brain swelling and death.

Vaccination rates have declined nationwide since the COVID-19 pandemic, and most states are below the 95% vaccination threshold for kindergartners — the level needed to protect communities against measles outbreaks.

The U.S. had considered measles, a respiratory virus that can survive in the air for up to two hours, eliminated in 2000, which meant there had been a halt in continuous spread of the disease for at least a year. Measles cases rose in 2024, including a Chicago outbreak that sickened more than 60.

Eastern New Mexico has nine cases of measles currently, but the state health department said there is no connection to the outbreak in West Texas.

​ Orange County Register 

Where do local booksellers get help when things get tough? Here.

• February 28, 2025

If the last few months have taught us anything, it’s that bookstores and booksellers can be counted on to step up and support their communities.

But who steps up to support the booksellers and bookstores – who operate on the slimmest of financial margins during even the best of times – when disasters like the Eaton and Palisades wildfires hit?

Turns out, the Book Industry Charitable Foundation does. The nonprofit, which got its start as an organization connected to Borders bookstores nearly 30 years ago, went national in 2012 with a mission to help book and comic book sellers across the country when times get tough.

“We are the only national nonprofit dedicated to assisting book and comic people,” says BINC communication coordinator Erika Mantz. “Our core program is we help the actual book people – booksellers, comic retailers and owners of stores and comic shops – with their personal financial crisis needs.”

“We provide an emergency financial grant – grant, not a loan,” says Mantz. “There’s no repayment.”

“We don’t write a check to somebody,” she says. “We pay the bills.”

While BINC’s support is confidential, Fables & Fancies bookseller Ana Buckley volunteered during an interview that she’d gotten help from the nonprofit – and wanted others to know how good the experience with her program manager had been.

“She called me back the same day,” says Buckley. “They really are what they say they are.”

BINC focuses on helping individuals with housing, healthcare or other issues, such as a death in the family.

“It could be a housing stability issue: Your landlord says, ‘Sorry, you have to leave; you need to find a new apartment,’” says Mantz. “We can help with the first month’s deposit, the starting out, getting you there.”

Or as some booksellers across Southern California have learned, BINC could help those impacted by the Eaton and Palisades wildfires.

“We can help in times of natural and manmade disasters – and obviously the wildfires,” says Mantz. “Before that was the southeast region of the country with the terrible flooding. … In other states, hurricanes Milton, Helene, Ian.

“Natural disasters are certainly the ones in the news cycle,” she says. “But you know, every day, even during the wildfires, we’re having just as many related to, you know, dental bills.”

But sweeping away these seemingly small obstacles can create profound improvements in a person’s life.

“If you can just get that paid and get ahead, you can take off from there and soar,” says Mantz.

The help, which Mantz says on average is about $2300 or so, doesn’t have to be large to be effective.

“A household can quickly become vulnerable. You know, we’re not talking about grants of tens of thousands of dollars. We’re not talking about massive amounts of money.

“You have a family member who passes away, you’ve got funeral expenses, you need to travel. You don’t have the extra money for that. This is where book and comic people can come in and help. We’ve distributed over $11 million to more than 10,000 individuals and stores in our history – and those numbers probably need a little updating.”

Mantz describes the process, which involves BINC program managers who take time to listen and determine the best way to help.

“We have program managers who talk one-on-one with anyone who comes seeking help or is referred to us for help. It’s completely confidential,” she says. “Your store owner doesn’t have to know. Your coworkers don’t know, and we work with you.”

“We offer resources. It might be financial – working on your finances, your taxes, free resources. We offer access to free mental health and wellness,” she says. “They’ll give resources for how to negotiate your medical bills, to get the cost down.

Mantz praises the nonprofit’s partners for their support and fundraising, which allow them to do this work.

“We really rely on our amazing partners –  the big publishers, the small publishers, Libro.fm, Bookshop.org. These organizations share the same values and see the value in what we do,” says Mantz. “We really could not do it without them.”

The admiration goes both ways, says Mark Pearson, CEO and co-founder of Libro.fm.

“Libro.fm is immensely grateful for BINC’s vital role in supporting booksellers and comic retailers in need. The needs are so great across thousands of bookstores that without BINC, no other organization could handle the needs at this scale,” says Pearson via email.

“BINC is uniquely positioned to redirect contributions from book lovers to booksellers who need it most during an emergency.”

Mantz says the goal is to keep our bookstores and comic book shops open and serving the community. Because that’s good for everyone.

“These stores are a safe harbor for ideas and equity and access, but without that help a lot of book and comic people would have to leave their profession and their communities,” she says. “We feel passionately … that the safe space they provide is so vital.

“I think most anyone I talk to has their store – they love their bookstore, and they wouldn’t want to see it be gone,” she says. “We provide this safety net for the people who work there, the employees who give them great hand-selling recommendations, and the stores who stay open and get in the materials that they’re looking for.

“If you want to keep your store in your community, this is one way you can help.”

For more about the Book Industry Charitable Foundation, check out its website. 

Corinna Vallianatos shares a secret link between her stories

Corinna Vallianatos is the author of “Origin Stories,” which arrived 13 years after her Grace Paley Prize-winning debut collection, “My Escapee,” came out to raves. She’s also the author of the 2020 novel, “The Beforeland.” She spoke with correspondent Michael Schaub and took the Q&A.

Q: Is there a book or books you always recommend to other readers?

I’ve been recommending Joy Williams’ collected stories, “The Visiting Privilege,” to students and friends for years. If I sense they have a slight inner appetite for chaos, I’ll recommend “The Quick & the Dead” too.

Q: How do you decide what to read next?

I keep a stack of books on my bedside table. It’s often a matter of what kind of mind, what sort of logic and language, I want to be privy to.

Q: Can you recall a book that felt like it was written just for you (or conversely, one that most definitely wasn’t)?

Since I love being surprised by the strange workings of someone else’s mind, I prefer reading books that don’t feel as if they were written just for me. But I am grateful for the thuds of recognition that come over me when I read something that strikes me as particularly true, darkly true or courageously true or strangely true or hilariously true. That last is the best.

Q: Is there a genre or type of book you read the most – and what would you like to read more of?

I mostly read fiction — short stories and novels — but I find I’m reading more nonfiction lately, especially books by Janet Malcolm and Emmanuel Carrère.

Q: Do you have a favorite book or books?

“The Great Fires,” a collection of poetry by Jack Gilbert, is a book I return to again and again. And I read “The White Book” by Han Kang at least once a year.

Q: Is there a person who made an impact on your reading life – a teacher, a parent, a librarian or someone else?

The children’s librarian at the Burke Branch library in Alexandria, Virginia. Mrs. Reinhart, possibly? She dressed up like a lion for story hour and showed Charlie Chaplin movies on a projector and pull-down screen and was tall and dashing and in possession of excitement and gravitas. My brother and I used to check out towers of books from the library each week.

Q: What’s something about your book that no one knows?

Two stories — “New Girls” and “Blades in Silver Water” — feature a common character named Emily. She’s a secondary character in “New Girls,” and the protagonist in “Blades in Silver Water.” “Blades” goes back in time — she’s younger there by several years. The story’s interested in understanding how she came to be. It’s not important that readers make this connection, but it’s there nonetheless.

Teen legal challenge

Huntington Beach teenagers sue over book review board, restricted access to books. READ MORE

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The week’s bestsellers

The top-selling books at your local independent bookstores. READ MORE

• • •

Bookstores to the rescue

How bookstores in Pasadena and Monrovia became local aid resources after wildfires. READ MORE

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New time for ‘Bookish’

The next event, which is Fri. March 21, at 4 p.m., will salute SCNG’s Notable list of California authors and feature novelist and writer Lidia Yuknavitch.

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​ Orange County Register