Larry Wilson: Radio Free Europe loss means one cowboy less on world stage

• March 22, 2025

Sometimes in a culture there’s one single moment — one speech, one piece of art, one song — after which everyone recognizes the changing of the guard.

It always looks or sounds so obvious, as if it had always been there and we just hadn’t seen it, or heard it, although of course it wasn’t so obvious until its creator or creators sculpted it, which wasn’t necessarily easy — it’s only in retrospect that it was so inevitable.

In pop music, the tipping point that led to the renaissance that was American indie rock after a period when only the British post-punk bands — the Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees, or the Irish upstarts U2 — were doing anything interesting was the 1981 release by REM, an obscure new band out of Athens, Georgia, of one banger of a song: “Radio Free Europe.”

The success of the driving, muddy, lyrically almost incomprehensible song was propelled by the simultaneous burgeoning of college radio, the left-of-the-dial FM stations of which began playing the number in joyous saturation, because here was something new, something the hidebound “album-oriented rock” stations of the time, locked in to terrible bands like Foghat and Foreigner, and unnecessary spinnings of the same old Led Zep, couldn’t fathom.

One song. A revolution. That was clear. A thousand garage bands were formed on listening to it. But what the hell was it about?

Stipe so often sang in a mumble — a “Murmur,” as a later album was titled — that all the lyrics excepting the “Radio Free Europe” chorus were indecipherable.

When the song was added in 2010 to the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress because of its cultural significance, critic Lori Majewski wrote: “Turns out, R.E.M.’s breakout single is named for a U.S.-funded organization that disseminates uncensored news, responsible discussion, and open debate in countries around the world where, in its own words, ‘a free press is banned by the government or not fully established.’ How ironic, then, that ‘Radio Free Europe’ liberated rock fans in their own country, gifting music fans with a song that signaled the end of the world as rock fans knew it while heralding the arrival of a thrilling new one.” Turns out Stipe wrote the lyrics on a kind of bet: the band had grown up hearing commercials for the government network aimed at spreading democracy behind the Iron Curtain, and guitarist Peter Buck challenged him: “Write a song with that as the title.” He did, but the rest of the lyrics have little to do with spreading democracy.

When I was growing up, in the same way that it seemed weird, and a little appalling, to learn that the CIA sponsored cultural tours of jazz artists, and even poets and New York School painters, to Eastern Bloc countries, the idea of Radio Free Europe and its parent Voice of America had the hint of jingoistic propaganda about it. In spy novels, the cultural attaché is always really a spy.

And, look, the Berlin Wall fell, and the Soviet Union split up, and Germany was reunited. We, uh, won the Cold War.

But these days, given your Hungaries, descending into fascism, and your Russias, already descended into czarism, the idea of an American network telling it like it is to listeners in troubled parts of the world — even if they no longer have to hide in the attic secretly tuning in to your frequency on their analog dials — doesn’t seem like such a bad idea. Listen in and you’ll find straight down the middle news.

But, for the next three years at least, forget about normie hopes for America or its voice overseas. Donald Trump considers the plain-talk VOA “The Voice of Radical America,” because it reports both sides of stories, and thus he wants to “ensure that taxpayers are no longer on the hook for radical propaganda.” And, Katie, bar the door, “in March 2019, Voice of America ran a segment about transgender migrants seeking asylum in the United States.” Can’t have that news reported! A Trump executive order last week guts the United States Agency for Global Media to “the minimum presence.” Vladimir Putin will see that, as my  Somali friend Saeed Omer used to say when we worked together in the Middle East, as “one cowboy less”  on the world stage as American influence diminishes.

Larry Wilson is on the Southern California News Group editorial board. lwilson@scng.com.

​ Orange County Register 

Viewers flock to web cam livestreaming Big Bear bald eagle’s nest to the world

• March 22, 2025

Full of questions about Big Bear Valley’s bald eagles, 5-year-old Ava Diaz watched the livestream of the nest on the large monitor and captured images with her own pink camera.

As Ava pointed out interesting behaviors the eagles displayed in their nest overlooking Big Bear Lake, her mother took in the monitor and materials presented by the A.K. Smiley Public Library in Redlands to connect patrons to nature they wouldn’t normally get to see up close.

“This is my first time seeing the display,” Cindy Diaz said. “My daughter loves it!”

Hundreds of thousands of people are equally enamored with the eagles, flocking to social media to watch the lives of Jackie, Shadow and their chicks unfold in real time.

The Redlands library set up its monitor March 10, just a few days after all three of Jackie’s eggs had hatched.

According to library director Don McCue, the display — which includes the livestream on a monitor, a collection of books and photographs, as well as information on eagles, owls and other birds — is attracting youngsters and others to learn more about animals.

“All ages check the display out,” said Jason Topor, the IT administrator who set the livestream up in the library. “It’s great because not everyone has the ability to stream the eagle cam.”

Friends of Big Bear Valley, the nonprofit that maintains the livestream, has kept it going for years in an effort to connect people with nature, “so that they will love it and want to take care of it,” according to Jenny Voisard, media manager for the organization. The nonprofit is aware of several libraries that share the livestream with their patrons.

“We don’t monetize our sites and the feed is free from advertisements,” Voisard said. “We try to provide a calm, low-drama environment, real-time eagle observations and a place for people to ask questions and share their own experiences and wonder about nature.”

Something about Jackie and Shadow is special, Voisard added. They make people laugh and cry — the latter especially in recent years, as Jackie’s eggs have not survived the winter. Before this year, her last successful nesting season was 2022 when Spirit hatched and soared away.

“We understand (when viewers) freak out a little, because we love them too,” Voisard said.

Topor said one library patron informed staff the eagles deserved their privacy and shouldn’t be on camera, but most visitors who stop by the display enjoy the show.

“I’ve watched the feed before, but didn’t know it was here at the library,” said Valerie Boone, another Smiley patron. “It’s fantastic.”

The library sees about five people an hour stop to check out the eagle display. Four of the books from the display have been checked out and three have been returned so far, circulation clerk Julia Hanna said.

Many viewers of Jackie and Shadow’s world were disheartened to learn one of the three newly hatched eaglets died. As livestream fans mourned the chick’s passing, Friends of Big Bear Valley counseled viewers.

“Please allow yourself to grieve and feel whatever you feel,” the nonprofit wrote on social media. “Please honor the chick for its courage in getting as far as it did and doing whatever it came to do.”

To keep up with the eagles, view the 24/7 livestream on YouTube or visit the Smiley library at 125 W. Vine St. Library hours are available online at akspl.org.

The library display will be up as long as patrons want to watch it, McCue said.

​ Orange County Register 

Will California Democrats defer to former VP Kamala Harris if she runs for governor?

• March 22, 2025

Former Rep. Katie Porter certainly didn’t wait for former Vice President Kamala Harris to decide whether she, too, wants to run for California governor in 2026.

But Porter, in recently declaring her candidacy to replace term-limited Gov. Gavin Newsom, has put a bit of an asterisk next to her campaign.

Should Harris decide to enter the race, Porter would bow out, her spokesperson has said.

Porter is laying out her cards.

“If Kamala comes into this race — especially if she comes in tomorrow, she comes in now — it’s going to have a near field-clearing effect,” Porter said on a recent episode of the “Pod Save America” podcast.

It would be “disrespectful,” Porter said when pressed on why she’s willing to defer to Harris rather than run a campaign regardless, not to acknowledge that the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee “would be an incredibly strong candidate.”

Meanwhile, other candidates are ignoring the Harris-of-it-all shadow cast on the already-crowded field for governor.

Former Assembly Speaker and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, for instance, said a theoretical Harris entry doesn’t matter. He’s in it to win it, he said during a recent event at the UC Student and Policy Center in Sacramento.

So what’s the better campaign strategy for the field of Democrats, a group that, as of now, includes legislative leaders, members of the state’s executive branch and a former congressional representative?

Defer to the person who led your party in the recent presential election?

Or fight for pole position, convince voters that no matter who else runs, you’re the best one for the job?

It’s politics, so predicting just which approach is the most politically savvy strategy may be a fool’s errand this early in the race.

Still, it could prove to be a defining moment for Democrats, said Matt Lesenyie, who teaches political science at Cal State Long Beach, with a focus on political psychology and messaging.

Likening it to an actual horse race, Lesenyie said the Democratic Party — and to some extent, Republicans, too — have struggled because they have not had their top candidates really go toe-to-toe with one another.

“Their thoroughbreds haven’t actually had to run a race until it was too late,” he said. “(Former President) Joe Biden is a quality candidate but probably should have had another runner-up against him in the primary to show he still has it or he doesn’t.”

But certainly when you have a race oversaturated with quality candidates, most of them are going to take a foreseeable loss, Lesenyie said.

So some candidates may need to decide if they’d gain more by going up against a candidate like Harris — or if they can afford another loss on their record.

“There’s an unwritten rule: You can only lose two races and continue on with your political career,” Lesenyie said. “Voters can sour on you because you’re a two-time loser. You may be a winner other times, but you’ve picked the wrong fights.”

And then there’s the fundraising aspect. Lose too many races and donors may keep their wallets closed.

In that sense, “it may end up looking like either getting all the way in or staying out until Harris should decide might have been more plausible strategies,” said Dan Schnur, who teaches political messaging at USC and UC Berkeley.

Schnur said a defer-to-Harris strategy is “a puzzling approach.”

“The message is essentially, ‘I’m the second-best person in California to be governor. Give me money just in case the person who is better than me doesn’t run.’ It’s hard to see how a lot of donors would contribute to a candidate who might not be in the race later this year,” Schnur said.

Harris reportedly said she would decide by the end of summer whether she’s entering the race.

In the meantime, other Democratic candidates have been a bit less vocal about their plans.

A spokesperson for Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis has said she remains committed on her gubernatorial bid. But Politico reported that Kounalakis, who is close to Harris, is also quietly considering running for state treasurer instead.

State Superintendent Tony Thurmond told Politico “we’ll see” about his campaign’s future should Harris run, but also said he was not running for anything else.

Businessman Steven Cloobeck is not one of those candidates. He unequivocally said he does not care who else is running; he’s in the race because he believes “California is worth fighting for.” He accused the other Democratic candidates of being too focused on their own resumes and wanting to “force each other into the race” to see if they’d have a better chance of running elsewhere.

“Those in office now have failed us,” he said. “They have not done the job or the work.”

While Porter has taken that defer-to-Harris approach, she’s balancing it with still casting herself as the No. 1 person for the job.

Porter’s campaign, in a recent fundraising email, of course, makes no mention of Harris. Instead, it acknowledged “this race won’t be a walk in the park” with so many contenders and propped the former congresswoman up as “a leader who is ready to go toe to toe with extremists.”

And when pressed on the “Pod Save America” podcast if she thought she’d be a better chief executive for California than Harris, Porter said, “If I didn’t think I would be the best governor that California could have, I wouldn’t be in this race.”

But Schnur, at least, isn’t necessarily convinced it’s the right approach.

“‘I’m in the race for now,’ is not a particularly compelling bumper sticker,” he said.

​ Orange County Register 

Big Bear ski resorts hope to stay open through April

• March 22, 2025

A “March miracle” snowstorm that brought a healthy base to local resorts could mean an extended season through April, welcome news for skiers, snowboarders and snow players hoping to enjoy the spring season on the slopes.

“That’s the plan,” said Big Bear Mountain Resort spokesman Justin Kanton. “As of now, thanks to some storms we’ve seen so far this month, that should give us the push we need to stay open through April.”

Kanton warned, though, that warm weather could quickly change the plans.

“We’ll just have to take it as it comes,” he said. “It can dump three feet on you and it can all melt in a week.”

For the entire month of March, there was about 50 inches of snowfall, while the season total is at about 80 inches, Kanton said.

It was more snow than the worst season on record, the 2017-18 season when there were just 39 inches, he said.

Conditions are holding up well across all three of Big Bear Mountain Resort’s properties – Bear Mountain, Snow Summit and Snow Valley – since last week’s storm that brought about 3 feet of snowfall.

“These are probably the best conditions for the season, to date,” Kanton said. “Hopefully we’ll get another shot of snow or two before the season ends.”

Even if the snow starts to melt, at the minimum one of the three resorts will stay open through April, he said. The operations teams will do regular assessments, he added.

There are several spring events on the horizon, including the “Bear Break,” with a pond skim and a retro fashion contest, free to enter for participants.

Southern California’s largest snow-tubing park, Big Bear Snow Play, is open daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and is expected to remain open through Easter weekend in April. Big Bear Snow Play has also expanded its glow-tubing night sessions for spring break, and will be open daily from Friday, March 28, to April 5, from 5 to 9 p.m.

The recent snow will make for extra chilly lake conditions for those who are taking the Polar Plunge at noon on March 29. The event is a fundraiser for the Special Olympics Southern California athletes.

The lake’s water temperature is expected to stay in the mid-30s for the event dubbed “Freezin for a Reason.”

Funds are raised to help support year-round sports training, leadership programs, athletic competitions, and health initiatives for children and adults with intellectual disabilities in the Inland Empire Region of Special Olympics Southern California.

Individuals who take the Polar Plunge challenge are asked to raise at least $50 through pledges from family, friends and co-workers. More information: sosc.org/bigbearplunge

​ Orange County Register 

Jersey Shore beach tag prices for 2025: How much it’ll cost to hit the sand

• March 22, 2025

By Sam Ruland, The Philadelphia Inquirer

It’s almost that time of year again — Jersey Shore summer. Whether you’re a dedicated beach bum, a weekend warrior, or someone who just wants to dip their toes in the water for a day, there’s one thing you’ll need to factor into your budget: beach tags.

While some Shore towns are still gloriously free (shoutout to Wildwood and Atlantic City), most require visitors to shell out for a daily, weekly or seasonal badge. And this year, those prices range from a reasonable $8 for a single-day pass to a jaw-dropping $200 for a season-long tag.

The good news? Many towns offer preseason discounts if you plan ahead, and some have reduced rates for seniors, kids and veterans. The bad news? If you forget to grab a badge, you might find yourself getting turned away just as you’re about to claim the perfect spot in the sand.

So, how much will it cost to hit your favorite Shore spot this year? We’ve rounded up the latest 2025 beach tag prices.

Beaches that are free (no badge required)

• Atlantic City: No beach tags required.
• Corson’s Inlet State Park: No beach tags required. More info.
• Island Beach State Park: No beach tags required; however, parking fees apply: $6 on weekdays and $10 on weekends. More info.
• North Wildwood: No beach tags required.
• Sandy Hook: No beach tags required; parking is $20 per car or $100 for a season pass.
• Strathmere: No beach tags required.
• Wildwood & Wildwood Crest: No beach tags required.

Most expensive season badges

• Deal: $200 for a seasonal walk-on fee.
• Loch Arbour: $150 for a season badge.
• Spring Lake: $110 for a season badge.
• Sea Girt: $115 for a season badge.
• Monmouth Beach: $105 for a season badge.
• Ocean Grove: $100 for a season badge.

Preseason discounts on seasonal badges

Want to save a few bucks? Buy your season badge early:

• Sea Isle City: $25 before May 15; $30 after.
• Ocean City: $30 before May 31; $35 after.
• Barnegat Light,Beach Haven,Holgate, and Long Beach Township: $40 before June 15; $50 after.
• Margate: $10 before May 31; $20 after.

Daily beach fees (most common rates)

• $8 in Stone Harbor
• $10 in Ocean City, Holgate, Barnegat Light, and Beach Haven.
• $12 in Avon-by-the-Sea, Belmar, Sea Girt and Deal.
• $13 in Ocean Grove, Lavallette and Monmouth Beach.

Senior and youth discounts

Many towns offer reduced rates for seniors and youth:

• Avon-by-the-Sea: Seniors (65+) and youth (12-18) pay $55 for a season badge.
• Harvey Cedars: Senior season badge is $12.
• Long Beach Township & Holgate: Seniors (65+) pay $5 for the season.
• Lavallette: Seniors pay $25 for a preseason badge.

What to know before you go

• Some beaches charge more on weekends and holidays (e.g., Deal: $12 on weekdays, $15 on weekends).
• Certain towns offer free or discounted badges for veterans and individuals with disabilities.
• Beach tag checkers patrol most paid-access beaches, so be sure to purchase your badge before heading onto the sand.

As the season approaches, more Jersey Shore towns will finalize their 2025 beach badge prices. For the most accurate and up-to-date information, check the official websites of your favorite beach towns. And if you’re looking to save a few bucks, grab your badges early.

Because nothing kills a beach vibe faster than getting stopped at the entrance.

©2025 The Philadelphia Inquirer. Visit inquirer.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

​ Orange County Register 

Suspicious adversary: Can photographers and AI get along?

• March 22, 2025

For many photographers, artificial intelligence is their worst enemy. The evolving power of computers to create images that quickly, credibly and cheaply simulate the work that humans have done with cameras for more than a century threatens their very existence.

It’s not a conspiracy theory to say AI could replace many real photographers, especially those in the commercial realm, in a matter of years. It has already started.

At the same time, the Colorado Photographic Arts Center has been their best friend. The Denver-based nonprofit has spent 62 years doing everything in its power to elevate the images that photographers make, staging countless exhibitions, public events and educational programs to enhance public understanding and appreciation of what the organization’s very existence argues is an essential art form.

That makes CPAC’s current exhibition a curious, and certainly controversial, outing. “History Reimagined” features three photographers whose work is generated exclusively by artificial intelligence. No use of actual mechanical cameras, no photo shoots in perfectly lit studios or on busy urban streets or in war zones, no sitting of subjects or framing of scenes.

Clearly, curator Samantha Johnston, who also happens to be CPAC’s executive director, is playing the traitor here by engaging with artists whose main tools are prompts, entered into programs, which generate images based on billions of data sets stored digitally around the globe.

These artists don’t point and shoot; they sit and type. They are anti-photographers, at least in the making of the work now on display at CPAC. They don’t belong here.

But this risky move has a significant reward. It is one of the most thoughtful and timely exhibits that CPAC has ever done. Print by print, it is a wildly captivating showcase of groundbreaking art.

Johnston knew she would take some heat, and made some wise advance moves to head off criticism and open up minds. In her curator’s statement, she notes how the show respects CPAC’s foundational mission to “acknowledge and respond to the technological innovations that are transforming the medium.”

She has a point there. CPAC guided the photo-loving public through the transition from analog to digital photography, the last revolution that altered how we see and respond to image-making. It is the institution’s responsibility to explore what comes next.

She also built her roster around three people who have demonstrated real skills with actual cameras. Todd Dobbs, Laura Rautjoki and Phillip Toledano are all accomplished in traditional photography techniques. That gives them at least some cred with the photo crowd.

Most importantly, she found good products to show off as examples of AI’s abilities. The images in this show do not just mimic actual photos; they do so with finesse and a deep understanding of what makes a quality photo connect to the human spirit as well.

That is to say, they do not look fake. Nor do they look hyper-real. Viewers cannot easily brush them off as follies and are forced to confront them as qualified competitors to traditional photos. The enemy is well-armed, and it’s got skills.

Within that, these artists deploy a lot of imagination and exploration. They each have their own motivation for making fakes, and each challenges the usual boundaries placed around art-making. This work engages a fundamental question: Is creating visual images through AI an extension of photography, or is it a whole new art form?

In some ways, these images feel very much like the contemporary art we see now in galleries and museums, with artists exploring topics of politics, media, racial bias and exploration of personal identity. They are trendy that way.

For example, the pieces from Rautjoki’s “The Image of a Woman” series look at the way females have been presented in art and media in her home country of Finland — mostly by male artists, filmmakers and photographers — and how that impacts her own ideas of self.

Her tactic is to replace the male gaze with data-driven images prompted by a female artist and produced by AI. Because the data set that AI uses includes historical photos, journalistic products and things like selfies, Rautjoki’s images alter the usual gender biases.

Within that new reality, she ventures far into the surreal, generating work of full-blown, often eerie, fantasy. Some of these objects explore the past and some feel super present, and many are quite funny. But she manages to make things that demonstrate, as she says in her statement, “the same quiet, ordinary, and unpretentious atmosphere that has characterized my previous work as a photographic artist.”

Fiction drives the work of Toledano, whose “Another America” series rewrites the history of mid-20th century New York City. His question: If it is becoming impossible to know if a photo is telling the truth, why not create a truth of your own — and make it more interesting than what really happened?

So he prompts AI to visualize his fantasies. One photo shows a giant sinkhole taking out a large section of street in Manhattan, which would have been a calamitous event — if it had actually happened. Another shows wolves roaming the streets of the city, while another depicts a massive urban flood. Some of the photos are accompanied by not-true stories penned by writer John Kenney.

Toledano’s photos demonstrate the power of AI to create fantastical pictures and its capacity to make them feel ultra-real — but also its dangers in allowing users to manipulate memory with deftness.

Dobbs’ work has the most critical take on AI’s abilities. To create his images, he prompted his computer to produce a “photograph of a typical American,” and it gladly offered up scores of scenes of human figures decked out in red, white and blue, often to ridiculous extremes.

The photos document one of AI’s biggest problems: “Despite running the same prompt countless times, the resulting images are uniformly American, white, and suburban — a visual echo of dominant cultural norms,” as the curator’s segment sums it up. Dobbs’ point is that AI is only as good as the data it knows, and oftentimes that data is lacking.

But Dobbs’ work does not come off as such a simple question-and-answer. It contains a deeper discussion about patriotism, consumerism and the nuances of personal and national identity. It condemns AI but at the same time honors it by understanding its power to both reflect and drive the cultural conversation.

That same idea overrides the exhibition as a whole. AI is here, and it is something to fear. It may be the source of our extermination, but can it make us more thoughtful and creative humans as we head out the door?

IF YOU GO

“History Reimagined” continues through April 12 at CPAC, 1200 Lincoln St., Denver, Colorado. It’s free. Info: 303-837-1341 or cpacphoto.org.

​ Orange County Register 

Reshoring: A boon for U.S. real estate and local economies

• March 22, 2025

For decades, American companies sent manufacturing operations overseas in search of lower costs.

Cheap labor, fewer regulations and efficient global supply chains made offshoring the dominant strategy for everything from electronics to pharmaceuticals.

But the tide is turning.

Reshoring — the process of bringing manufacturing and supply chains back to the U.S. — has gained momentum in recent years. Supply chain disruptions during the pandemic, geopolitical tensions with China and rising overseas labor costs have forced companies to rethink their strategies.

Add in government incentives like the CHIPS Act and tax credits for domestic production, and reshoring are no longer just patriotic talking points, they are a business necessity.

While this shift brings economic benefits, one sector poised for significant gains is industrial real estate. Industrial space and logistics hubs are seeing increased demand as companies look to rebuild supply chains on American soil.

Industrial’s big moment

Manufacturing may have been outsourced, but demand for industrial real estate has remained strong, thanks to e-commerce. Now, reshoring is adding another layer of demand, particularly for manufacturing and distribution space.

Manufacturers looking to reshore need factory space, and they’re not just eyeing traditional industrial strongholds like the Midwest.

Texas, Arizona, and the Southeast are emerging as major reshoring hubs due to business-friendly policies, affordable land, and proximity to key transportation networks. Even California, despite high costs, is benefiting from semiconductor and biotech reshoring, thanks to its deep talent pool and access to ports.

With this shift, developers are repurposing outdated office and retail properties into industrial use. The conversion of big-box retail into warehouse and distribution centers is already happening, and underutilized office campuses could be next in line for transformation into R&D labs or advanced manufacturing facilities.

The logistics boom

Manufacturing doesn’t work in isolation. It needs a strong logistics network to move raw materials in and finished products out. That’s why reshoring is fueling growth in warehouse and distribution space, particularly in regions with easy access to rail, highways, and ports.

The trend is especially pronounced near inland logistics hubs like Dallas-Fort Worth and Atlanta, where vast warehouse developments are emerging to support reshored manufacturing operations. Port cities like Savannah, Charleston, and Los Angeles are also seeing an uptick in industrial activity as reshoring strengthens domestic supply chains.

Challenges to overcome

Reshoring isn’t a magic bullet. Companies bringing production back to the U.S. face significant challenges, including labor shortages, infrastructure gaps and higher operating costs.

The U.S. manufacturing workforce has shrunk over the years, and finding skilled workers is a growing concern.

Companies investing in reshoring must also invest in workforce training and automation to bridge the skills gap. Community colleges and vocational programs are beginning to step up, but this will be a long-term effort.

Another hurdle is infrastructure. While industrial construction boomed prior to 2023, roads, bridges and ports need upgrades to handle increased freight movement. Power supply is another issue, particularly for energy-intensive industries like semiconductor and electric vehicle battery production.

A long-term shift

Despite these challenges, reshoring is not a short-lived trend—it’s a structural shift that will reshape American industry for decades.

Advances in automation and AI are making domestic production more cost-competitive, and companies now recognize the risks of over-reliance on overseas supply chains.

For commercial real estate, this means continued demand for industrial space, adaptive reuse opportunities for underperforming assets, and expansion of logistics hubs. Cities and states that invest in infrastructure and workforce development will be the biggest beneficiaries of this new era of American manufacturing.

Reshoring is more than an economic shift — it can be a real estate revolution!

Allen C. Buchanan, SIOR, is a principal with Lee & Associates Commercial Real Estate Services in Orange. He can be reached at abuchanan@lee-associates.com or 714.564.7104.

​ Orange County Register 

Swanson: UCLA’s Londynn Jones never sweats the ‘small’ stuff

• March 22, 2025

LOS ANGELES — If you think UCLA women’s basketball standout Londynn Jones is formidable at her 5 feet, 4 inches tall, I’ve got to tell you about her great-great-grandmother, Mamie Kirkland.

Before her death at 111 in 2020, the 4-6 Kirkland was, as the Buffalo News put it this week, “a giant of Buffalo history.”

Dan Barry memorialized Kirkland in the New York Times, writing that “she was also the embodiment of the African-American experience of the 20th century,” detailing her experiences dealing with racial violence, lynchings, riots and the Ku Klux Klan. Kirkland’s life helped inspire the opening of the Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, in Montgomery, Alabama.

“She was,” Jones said, “an extremely powerful woman.”

She never got to see Jones play basketball in person, but yes, she said, there absolutely is some Kirkland in her out there on the court.

“Yes! Just how strong she is,” Jones said. “She was a walking miracle.”

Also: “We looked alike, when she was younger.”

Jones is the Bruins’ mean-mugging, fun-loving guard, a diminutive, never-daunted competitor.

A junior from Riverside – where Kirkland would spend winters to get away from the cold – Jones is usually the most obvious player on the court, a favorite of fans who can appreciate a good beating-the-odds story, and anyone who might enjoy a rousing game of cat-and-mouse.

Southern’s 5-4 guard DaKiya Sanders certainly did: “I think she’s a great player, playing for a great team. It’s great to see somebody my height that’s at this level.”

Jones entered the NCAA Tournament averaging 8.8 points per game and shooting 34.8% on a team-leading total of 184 3-point attempts.

“I feel like the one thing I do get a lot is like, ‘Oh my God, you’re so small,’” Jones said. “But I’m around tall people all day, so, yes, I am small, but I make sure to tell them, ‘You guys are just big, I’m actually average.’”

On Friday, she was better than average; she was big in helping guide top-seeded UCLA to an 84-46 victory over No. 16 seed Southern before a crowd of 5,703 at Pauley Pavilion. One of six Bruins to score in double figures, she finished with 11 points on 5-for-11 shooting.

Kirkland – who was the mother of nine, according to the Times – never learned to drive, and often attributed her longevity to spending so many years walking around Buffalo, selling Avon beauty products.

Jones said she used to ask: “Grannie, how do you live so long? And she would be like, ‘No stress. Don’t stress.’ That was her secret.”

After everything Kirkland overcame in her life, that makes sense.

And it makes sense that, for Jones, the secret to success for the Bruins will be that they don’t stress as they venture deeper into March Madness with a second-round game Sunday night against the eighth-seeded Richmond Spiders.

“If we get each other going, we laugh, we smile, we giggle, and make jokes on the court,” she said. “That’s what it’s all about.”

In 2016, the Equal Justice Initiative honored Kirkland, then 107, at a fund-raising gala, where she gave a speech, turning down a wheelchair and walking on stage on her own. Until her death, Jones said, Kirkland “had all her hearing, seeing, walking.”

And this month, Jones is dancing again, her chance to make history possible because of the strength and spirit of her great-great-Grannie.

“I miss her extremely,” Jones said. “She was amazing.”

​ Orange County Register