UK Subs bassist says band members were denied entry into U.S. at LAX after Trump criticism

• March 22, 2025

Three members of the pioneering British band UK Subs were detained and denied entry into the United States at LAX airport, according to a social media post by the band’s bassist, Alvin Gibbs. The situation meant only the group’s singer was able to perform at the LA Punk Invasion festival in Los Angeles.

“Some of you might have seen posts on UK Subs’ websites, which provide photos and video of a random line-up playing with Charlie at a Los Angeles Punk festival at the weekend. You might therefore be wondering ‘how come?’ Well, the truth is that Stefan, Marc and I were all denied entry into the USA,” Gibbs wrote in a Facebook post just after noon on March 19.

The festival took place March 15 at The Belasco and Mayan theatres. Gibbs was referring to band vocalist Charlie Harper, who according to his post, was the only band member allowed to enter the country. Fellow band members Marc Carrey and Stefan Häublein were also deported back home, according to the post.

According to his lengthy post, Gibbs thinks it could be his public criticism of Trump that got him denied from entering the country.

“There were two issues: 1) they said I didn’t have the right visa for entry and 2) there was another issue, which they wouldn’t disclose, both of which prevented me from being allowed into America — I’m now wondering if my regular and less than flattering public pronouncements regarding their president and his administration were a factor; or maybe that’s just me succumbing to paranoia.” he wrote on Facebook.

Gibbs said his phone and passport were taken and he was forced to spend 25 hours in a holding room with his bandmates and other detainees.

This is the latest instance of people reporting they were denied entry into the United States recently. Published reports include a French scientist who said he was barred because of anti-Trump comments, though the assistant Secretary of Homeland Security called the allegation “blatantly false.” Trump is also expected to soon ban or restrict travel to the United States by citizens of several countries.

The comments on Gibbs’ Facebook post were in large part supportive of the musician.

“Unbelievable. So much for free speech. At least you made it home safe,” one of his followers posted.

Some questioned whether this would affect other artists trying to enter the U.S.

“This makes me wonder about others trying to tour this year, that their visas that used to work just fine normally suddenly won’t when the time comes to do their USA legs,” another commenter posted.

Still  in true punk fashion, Gibbs also lamented the lack of alcohol on his return flight back after a “nightmarish experience,”

“Another eleven hour flight was then endured, the worst bit being I was denied any alcohol because its United Airlines’ policy that any passenger being escorted onto a flight in that manner cannot be served as much as a single glass of wine: Stefan and Marc, on the other hand, who travelled back via British Airways, were allowed to make the most of the free booze on their flight to help offset the stress of our shared experience,” he wrote on the post.

​ Orange County Register 

Newport Harbor baseball starts Sunset League play with three straight shutouts of Corona del Mar

• March 22, 2025

NEWPORT BEACH — Newport Harbor baseball coach Josh Lee and his Sailors couldn’t have asked for a better start to their Sunset League schedule.

Pitcher Lucas Perez allowed two hits and one walk and had six strikeouts over six scoreless innings in the Sailors’ 2-0 victory over Corona del Mar on Friday at Newport Harbor High School.

He also doubled and scored the game’s first run in the second.

The victory completed a three-game sweep for the Sailors (7-1, 3-0), who won all three games by shutouts over their Battle of the Bay rivals.

The Sailors, who are ranked No. 15 in Orange Cunty, won the opener, 4-0, on Tuesday and took the second game, 1-0, at Corona del Mar (6-4, 0-3) on Wednesday.

“The Battle of the Bay here in any sport you go to, a volleyball game, a water polo game or a girls field hockey game, and it’s a rivalry,” Lee said. “We’ve got a long way to go. We’ve got to get our offense on track, but you know it’s not a bad thing when your pitchers pick up your hitters.”

Perez was making his first appearance since the Sailors’ 3-2 nonleague victory over Northwood on Feb. 17.

The senior right-hander allowed a two-out double in the first and went on to retire the next five hitters before giving up a one-out walk in the third.

Perez then retired six in a row before giving up a leadoff single to Jack Phillips in the sixth.

He struck out two of the next hitters and got the third on a fielder’s choice.

Perez doubled to lead off the second, took third on a sacrifice bunt from Adam Martin and scored on Wyatt Graham’s ground out.

“I was just looking to have fun,” Perez said. “Tons of people here, great environment for baseball. I was able to put up (six strikeouts), fill it up, and only give up two hits, and I thought that was pretty good.

The Sailors scored their second run when Ryan Williams walked to lead off the sixth, stole second, stole third and scored on the play when the catcher threw the ball wide of third and into the outfield while attempting to throw out Williams.

In the seventh, the Sea Kings had runners on first and second with one out.

Charlie Kaster, the runner on first, was called out for runner’s interference when he was hit by the ball while running to second.

A dead ball was called and the runner who had been on second had to stay at third.

Williams, who came in to pitch in the final inning, retired the next hitter on a fielder’s choice to end the game.

​ Orange County Register 

Laguna Beach defeats Woodbridge in Pacific Coast League baseball

• March 22, 2025

LAGUNA BEACH — It was a matchup of two fine pitchers, both throwing very well.

Laguna Beach senior right-hander Becker Sybirski got just enough run support in his complete-game, 2-1 win over Woodbridge on Friday in a Pacific Coast League baseball game at Laguna Beach High.

The Breakers, No. 23 in the Orange County top 25, are 10-0 overall and 4-0 in the eight-team league and have the most wins in county baseball. They were 10-17 last season

No. 20 Woodbridge is 8-5 overall, 1-3 in league.

Sybirski struck out 10 Warriors and walked only one. He gave up four hits. One of the Woodbridge runs was unearned.

Four pitches are in Sybirski’s arsenal. He used all four of them effectively Friday.

“One of our sayings on the team is ‘command all pitches,” Sybirski said. “So my goal every outing is to command not just my fastball – many people think that you just need to command your fastball – but if I can command my fastball, my curveball, my slider and my changeup, I’m going to do so much better. Just keep the hitters off guard.”

Woodbridge right-handed pitcher Alex Johnson was impressive, too, Friday. He allowed five hits and one earned run over his six innings.

The Breakers scored their runs in the second inning. Dane Jenal led off the inning and reached on an error. Jenal advanced to second base on Parker Moore’s ground ball that just eluded the diving effort of Woodbridge shortstop Nolan Stottlemyer for a single. Jackson Arrarsin’s sacrifice punt moved Jenal to third base and Moore to second. Dylan Yencho’s chopper up the middle kangaroo’d into center fielder to drive in Jenal and Moore, his sixth and seventh RBIs this season, for a 2-0 lead.

Woodbridge scored its run in the top of the fourth. Stottlemyer smacked a one-out double off of the wall in left-center field, took third base on Caleb Camacho’s single to left field, and scored when Dylan Mutac reached on a fielder’s choice to make it 2-1. With Camacho on second base and Mutac on first Sybirski struck the next two Warriors to end the inning.

The Warriors had Camacho on third base in the sixth but could not get him across. Sybirski finished strong, getting two strikeouts in the seventh inning.

Sybirskis improved to 4-0, lowered his earned-run average to 0.83, and has 35 strikeouts in 25.1 innings.

Laguna Beach coach Ryan Belanto said the Breakers players are not getting anxious about keeping that number “zero” in the loss column.

“They’re having fun,” Belanto said. “We work hard in practice and we work hard in games. They’re having a great time out here.”

​ Orange County Register 

George Foreman, the glowering heavyweight who became a lovable champion, dies at 76

• March 22, 2025

By GREG BEACHAM, AP Sports Writer

George Foreman, the fearsome heavyweight who lost the “Rumble in the Jungle” to Muhammad Ali before his inspiring second act as a 45-year-old champion and a successful businessman, died Friday night. He was 76.

Foreman’s family announced his death on social media.

“A devout preacher, a devoted husband, a loving father, and a proud grand- and great-grandfather, he lived a life marked by unwavering faith, humility and purpose,” his family wrote. “A humanitarian, an Olympian and two-time heavyweight champion of the world, he was deeply respected. A force for good, a man of discipline, conviction, and a protector of his legacy, fighting tirelessly to preserve his good name— for his family.”

A native Texan, Foreman began his boxing career as an Olympic gold medalist who inspired fear as he climbed to the peak of the heavyweight division by stopping Joe Frazier in 1973. His formidable aura evaporated only a year later when Ali pulled off one of the most audacious victories in boxing history in Zaire, baiting and taunting Foreman into losing his belt in one of the greatest fights ever staged.

Foreman left the sport a few years later, but returned after a 10-year absence and a self-described religious awakening.

He then pulled off one of the most spectacular knockouts in boxing history in 1994, flooring Michael Moorer — 19 years his junior — with one perfect combination to claim Moorer’s two heavyweight belts.

Foreman’s transformation into an inspirational figure was complete, and he fought only four more times before moving onto his next career as a genial businessman, pitchman and occasional actor.

He was best known as the face of the George Foreman Grill, a simple cooking machine which sold more than 100 million units and made him much wealthier than his sport ever did.

“George was a great friend to not only myself, but to my entire family,” Top Rank president Bob Arum said. “We’ve lost a family member and are absolutely devastated.”

In the first chapter of his boxing career, Foreman was nothing like the smiling grandfather who hawked his grills on television to great success.

Foreman dabbled in petty crime while growing up in Houston’s Fifth Ward, but changed his life through boxing as a teenager. He made the U.S. Olympic team in 1968 and won gold in Mexico City, stopping a 29-year-old opponent in a star-making performance.

Foreman rose to the pinnacle of the pro game over the next five years, but was perceived as an aloof, unfriendly athlete, both through his demeanor and through the skewed racial lenses of the time. He stopped Frazier in an upset in Jamaica in January 1973 to win the belt, with his knockout inspiring Howard Cosell’s iconic call: “Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!”

Foreman defended his belt against Ken Norton before accepting the fight with Ali in the now-immortal bout staged in Africa by promoter Don King. Ali put on a tactical masterclass against Foreman, showing off the “rope-a-dope” strategy that frustrated and infuriated the champion. Foreman was eventually knocked down for the first time in his career, and the fight was stopped in the eighth round.

Exhausted and disillusioned, Foreman stopped fighting in 1977 and largely spent the next decade as a preacher after his religious awakening. He returned to boxing in 1987 in his late 30s, and he racked up a lengthy series of victories before losing to Evander Holyfield in a title fight in 1991.

Three years later, Foreman got in the ring with Moorer in Las Vegas. Moorer appeared to win the first nine rounds rather comfortably, with Foreman unable to land his slower punches. But Foreman came alive in the 10th, hurting Moorer before slipping in the short right hand that sent Moorer to the canvas in spectacular fashion.

Foreman quit the ring for good in 1997, although he occasionally discussed a comeback. He settled into a life as a boxing analyst for HBO and as a pitchman for the grills that grew his fame and fortune. A biographical movie based on his life was released in 2023.

Foreman had 12 children, including five sons who are all famously named George Edward Foreman.

“Legendary boxing champion, life-changing preacher, husband, father, grand- and great-grandfather and the best friend you could have,” WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman wrote on social media. “His memory is now eternal, may Big George rest in peace.”

AP boxing: https://apnews.com/boxing

​ Orange County Register 

Major League Baseball removes references to ‘diversity’ from MLB Careers home page

• March 21, 2025

NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball removed references to “diversity” from its MLB Careers home page following an executive order by President Donald Trump that could lead to possible federal action against organizations using DEI programs in violation of his administration’s interpretation of civil rights law.

“Our values on diversity remain unchanged,” MLB said in a statement Friday. “We are in the process of evaluating our programs for any modifications to eligibility criteria that are needed to ensure our programs are compliant with federal law as they continue forward.”

The removal of the references was first reported by the website cupofcoffeenews.com.

Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred, who launched a Diversity Pipeline Program in 2016, said following an owners meeting in Palm Beach, Florida, last month that MLB was evaluating the interpretation of law coming from the federal government.

“Our values, particularly our values on diversity, remain unchanged, but another value that is pretty important to us is we always try to comply with what the law is,” he said. “There seems to be an evolution going on here. We’re following that very carefully. Obviously, when things get a little more settled, we’ll examine each of our programs and make sure that while the values remain the same that we’re also consistent with what the law requires.”

​ Orange County Register 

Trump administration cuts legal help for migrant children traveling alone

• March 21, 2025

By REBECCA SANTANA, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration Friday ended a contract that provides legal help to migrant children entering the country without a parent or guardian, raising concerns that children will be forced to navigate the complex legal system alone.

The Acacia Center for Justice contracts with the government to provide legal services through its network of providers around the country to unaccompanied migrant children under 18, both by providing direct legal representation as well as conducting legal orientations — often referred to as “know your rights” clinics — to migrant children who cross the border alone and are in federal government shelters.

Acacia said they were informed Friday that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services was terminating nearly all the legal work that the center does, including paying for lawyers for roughly 26,000 children when they go to immigration court. They’re still contracted to hold the legal orientation clinics.

“It’s extremely concerning because it’s leaving these kids without really important support,” said Ailin Buigues, who heads Acacia’s unaccompanied children program. “They’re often in a very vulnerable position.”

People fighting deportation do not have the same right to representation as people going through criminal courts, although they can hire private attorneys.

But there has been some recognition that children navigating the immigration court system without a parent or guardian are especially vulnerable.

The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2008 created special protections for children who arrive in the U.S. without a parent or a legal guardian.

Emily G. Hilliard, deputy press secretary at Health and Human Services, said in an emailed statement that the department “continues to meet the legal requirements established” by the Act as well as a legal settlement guiding how children in immigration custody are being treated.

The termination comes days before the contract was to come up for renewal on March 29. Roughly a month ago the government temporarily halted all the legal work Acacia and its subcontractors do for immigrant children, but then days later Health and Human Services reversed that decision.

The program is funded by a five-year contract, but the government can decide at the end of each year if it renews it or not.

A copy of the termination letter obtained by The Associated Press said the contract was being terminated “for the Government’s convenience.”

Michael Lukens is the executive director of Amica, which is one of the providers contracting with Acacia in the Washington, D.C. area. He said with the renewal date swiftly approaching, they had been worried something like this would happen.

He said they will continue to help as many kids as they can “for as long as possible” and will try to fight the termination.

“We’re trying to pull every lever but we have to be prepared for the worst, which is children going to court without attorneys all over the country. This is a complete collapse of the system,” he said.

​ Orange County Register 

Alexander: Does the road get harder for UCLA men’s basketball? When wasn’t it?

• March 21, 2025

LEXINGTON, Ky. — It would be easy to say the road now gets harder for the UCLA men’s basketball team, now that 10th-seeded Utah State has been vanquished and No. 2 seed Tennessee awaits the Bruins on Saturday night in the second round of the NCAA Tournament’s Midwest Regional.

But that would almost imply that there’s a point when the road wasn’t a grind for the Bruins. Instead, it has been a fight for every inch of progress during the program’s first season in the Big Ten Conference, with multiple road trips to the Eastern and Central time zones and many, many hours spent on planes.

Want evidence? By the time these two games in the Bluegrass country are concluded and the Bruins return to Westwood, their air miles will have surpassed an estimated 32,400. And if UCLA (22-7) knocks off the Vols and qualifies for the Sweet 16 in Indianapolis, add another 3,620 miles for their fourth round trip to Indiana this season.

Are they used to it? Have the multiple trips to the East maybe enabled the players – who, after all, do most of the heavy lifting – to get used to the process physically?

“I would ask them,” Coach Mick Cronin said. “I’m hoping so. I think so, a little bit.”

UCLA made one cross-country trip in December, to New York (6,414 miles round trip) to play North Carolina. The conference schedule included road games at Washington (1,908) and Oregon (1,476) – familiar trips from the Bruins’ Pac-12 days – along with a single game at Nebraska (2,482) and multi-game trips to Maryland and Rutgers (5,170), Illinois and Indiana (5,406) and Purdue and Northwestern (3,728), as well as last week’s Big Ten tournament in Indianapolis (3,620) and this week’s regional (3,804 round trip between LAX and Lexington).

“It is unique,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said. “I’d like to someday talk to all those guys from the Pac-12, how they handled all the travel this year and vice versa, the Big Ten going out there. That’s a lot of traveling going on.”

But, forward Tyler Bilodeau said, “I think it’s been good for us, we’re used to it. So I think coming into (Saturday) you know, we’re used to being on the Eastern Time zone and all that, not as many fans there, being far from L.A. So, yeah, we’re definitely used to it, ready to go.”

In retrospect, Cronin wasn’t terribly shaken up about last week’s one-and-done against Wisconsin in the conference tournament quarterfinals, because it gave his team a couple of extra days of rest.

Normally, the Bruins leave the day before a game to reduce missed class time. This week they had to get here a day early for the public workouts and media obligations that come with the NCAA Tournament.

“I don’t know if you (can) say easier, but you have a little time – you get that day to adjust, which we had on Wednesday,” Cronin said. “You just can’t do that (leave a day early) at UCLA. Academics are too important. And … it’s a two-game road trip in our conference, we do three of those. We’re already missing too much class, so you can’t add to it.”

One difference this week? Usually, UCLA has its own charter. For the tournament, the NCAA pays for transportation but also supplies the planes. In this case, as Cronin described it, it seems to be the difference between luxury in the skies and the flight equivalent of a school bus.

“We’re pretty spoiled,” Cronin said. “So when we got our own situation that we charter, we have Wi-Fi, and the seats actually have padding. And we have big-time meals and there’s drinks everywhere, and the people serving us love us and they know us. Not the same on the NCAA plane … you get one small bag of stale pretzels, and you can’t ask for a drink until an hour into the flight or you get reprimanded.”

(Let’s hope Mick doesn’t get his knuckles rapped for that. The man just might be the best quote in college basketball, all levels.)

Oh, and there’s this UCLA tradition: Thanks to the quarter system, final exams invariably occur at some point during the NCAA Tournament, which makes you wonder how UCLA teams won so many of them back in the day. And no, players are not allowed or encouraged to take them when they get back to L.A. Proctors accompany the team on the road and exams are administered on-site.

You’d think that the NCAA, in its promotional ads, would find a way to highlight that: “Look, here are players from a traditional basketball power taking their final exams amid March Madness! See, they really are student-athletes.”

Amid all of that, there is basketball to be played. Tennessee is 28-7 and has two players up for national defensive player of the year honors in Zakai Ziegler, a 5-foot-9 senior guard from Long Island, and Jahmai Mashack, a 6-4 guard who played alongside former Bruin (and current Minnesota Timberwolves guard) Jaylen Clark at Etiwanda High. And 6-10, 245-pound junior forward Felix Okpara has a 7-2 wingspan and has blocked 60 shots with three games of four blocks.

Okpara well could be matched up with UCLA’s 7-3 Aday Mara much of the time, although Igor Milicic Jr. is also 6-10 but listed at 225. Playing against the smaller guys – and most of them are – is a challenge, Mara said.

“You’ve got to be, like, ready, and also be quicker because they’re faster,” Mara said. “Once I get the ball or I’m closer to the basket, it’s easier. but getting into the paint or getting closer to the basket is always harder, because they try to push me in my legs, or it’s just more complicated because their center of gravity is lower, so it’s easier for them to move.”

As for the sinus infection that Mara has been playing with, and that he played through, in a game-changing 20 minutes on Thursday night against Utah State? Not a problem.

“I mean, it’s just a little bit harder to breathe,” he said. “But it’s good. It’s good.”

[email protected]

​ Orange County Register 

FACT FOCUS: Posts falsely claim federal judiciary members are in secret club, undermining Trump

• March 21, 2025

By MELISSA GOLDIN, Associated Press

After Chief Justice John Roberts rebuked calls this week by the Trump administration to impeach judges, social media users falsely claimed that he and other high-level legal professionals are part of a “secretive, invite only club.”

Many questioned the motives of members, hinting at coordinated efforts to oppose President Donald Trump.

Among those named was U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg, who Trump had demanded be removed from the bench for his order blocking deportation flights that the president was carrying out by invoking wartime authorities from 18th century law.

But the group in question — the American Inns of Court — is hardly secretive given its large public presence, and there is no evidence that members are involved in nefarious activities targeting Trump. Roberts is no longer an active member and Boasberg is the president of a chapter that is no longer affiliated with the parent association.

Here’s a closer look at the facts.

CLAIM: Roberts, Boasberg and other powerful legal professionals are part of a secret, invite-only club that is working against Trump.

THE FACTS: This is false. Roberts was a member of the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court chapter of the organization prior to his confirmation to the Supreme Court in 2005, but he is not currently an active member of the organization, according to Executive Director Malinda Dunn.

Boasberg is the president of the Edward Bennett Williams Inn of Court, but the chapter disaffiliated from the parent association about 10 years ago when it decided it no longer wanted to pay dues to the national group, Dunn said. He was an active member prior to the chapter’s decision to operate independently.

Information on the American Inns of Court is readily available online. Chapters also have their own websites, which often include details about programs they host for members, typically focused on networking, education and mentorship. Dunn said that members have a wide range of political opinions, but that the organization itself is “assiduously apolitical.”

Some on social media, however, baselessly claimed that there is more to the group than meets the eye.

“It has been revealed that Chief Justice John Roberts is part of an elite, invite-only group called the American Inns of Court, alongside some of the most openly anti-Trump judges in D.C.,” reads one X post.

And yet a check of other members reveals a diverse group. Many current and former Supreme Court justices have been members of the American Inns of Court, according to Dunn, including Sandra Day O’Connor, Neil Gorsuch, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Clarence Thomas.

Inns of Court have existed in the United Kingdom for hundreds of years. The American system, founded in 1980 out of discussions among legal professionals, including Chief Justice Warren Burger, is loosely based on this concept from across the pond.

The American Inns of Court states on its website that it is “dedicated to professionalism, ethics, civility, and excellence” and that its mission is to “inspire the legal community to advance the rule of law by achieving the highest level of professionalism through example, education, and mentoring.”

O’Connor said in a 2015 video that “maintaining and improving an ethics of professionalism is what the American Inns of Court are all about.”

There are more than 300 active chapters across the U.S. Each one manages its own membership and some are limited to practitioners in a certain legal field. Roberts’ former chapter, for example, states that “members are elected to the Inn after being nominated by a current member” and that they must be “actively engaged in appellate practice.”

Dunn said chapters are advised to ensure that their members include legal professionals with different levels of experience. Some may hold membership drives to recruit new faces.

Roberts is currently an honorary bencher in The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, an inn of court in the U.K. This is a purely ceremonial role that, according to Dunn. British inns of court will always offer such a position to Supreme Court justices when they are confirmed, she said.

Representatives for Roberts and Boasberg did not respond to a request for comment.

​ Orange County Register