Redondo police ID bones found in 2001 — answering family’s 4 decades of questions

• June 26, 2023

Antonio “Tony” Johnson was 5 years old when his mother left. Again.

But the boy, now a man in his late 40s, was likely too young to remember when his Mom, Catherine Parker-Johnson, initially left Memphis, Tennessee, four years earlier, eventually making her way out west to Southern California.

That first departure, however, was followed by phone calls and letters – and an eventual return.

On May 13, 1981, a day before Tony Johnson’s big sister, Rebecca, turned 8, their mother showed up on their doorstep.

But the reunion was short-lived.

Despite pleas for her to stay, Parker-Johnson continued her wayward existence. She left again – and would never return.

The letters and phone calls also stopped. Eventually, a sense of abandonment set in among her children, Tony Johnson said. It was as if they were unwanted.

But the truth is more tragic: Their mother was dead.

She was likely murdered.

Her corpse – or most of it, anyway – was buried in the backyard of a Redondo Beach house, where it remained undiscovered for 20 years.

That truth, though, wouldn’t come for more than four decades – not until earlier this year. Ultimately, two retired Redondo Beach police detectives who have made it their post-career mission to help solve cold cases — former Capt. John Skipper and Sgt. Rick Petersen — were responsible for the revelation.

But now, the search for answers, for the full truth behind Parker-Johnson’s fate, is in a new, potentially more challenging phase: Determining how she died – and who was responsible.

That’s why Redondo Beach Police Department officials held a Monday morning, June 26, press conference to ask for the public’s help.

“We’ve been able to develop plausible working theories that are heading us down the right path,” RBPD Chief Joe Hoffman said during the press conference. “But we can still use more information.”

The story of Parker-Johnson’s life and death, and why her remains were hidden in the Earth, is an incomplete manuscript. Detectives have some chapters in full. Other chapters have gaps. Many are missing entirely.

There are also details Skipper and Petersen aren’t divulging, since this is now an open and active murder investigation.

But while the story of Parker-Johnson’s life and death may be fragmented, what is known represents a multilayered tragedy. She dealt with addiction. She was, at least for a time, an itinerant. And she was a Black adult woman, a demographic whose members then and now too often get ignored when they go missing.

It took DNA technology and the hard work of Skipper and Petersen to identify Parker-Johnson, the first step in discovering the missing fragments of her life – which, in turn, will allow her family to heal.

“They,” Tony Johnson said, referring to the detectives, “brought a little light to me.”

“I couldn’t stop her. There was nothing I could do.”

–Van Johnson, Catherine Parker-Johnson’s husband

The way her family describes it, Parker-Johnson had some darkness within her.

She was born on Nov. 9, 1957, in Memphis. But her mother died when she was young and her father didn’t want to tend to tyke and her siblings, said Van Johnson, Parker-Johnson’s husband. So she ended up in foster care.

The bones found buried in the yard of a Redondo Beach home more than 30 years ago were recently identified through DNA as Catherine Parker-Johnson. Investigators are hoping to find out what happened to the 24-year-old when she was killed in 1981. (photo courtesy of Redondo Beach Police)

Johnson met Catherine Parker in the early 1970s at a friend’s home. He fell in love with her deep-set, large, brown eyes, full lips and demure smile.

They married quickly. He was 18. She was 16.

Their two children, Rebecca and Tony, followed shortly after.

And for a time, they were happy. But things changed.

Parker-Johnson, her husband said, grew restless. She began experimenting with drugs, sneaking behind Johnson’s back to do so.

Arguments ensued. And then, Johnson said, he began “just (staying) out of her way.”

Johnson moved with the children into his mother’s house.

Parker-Johnson, her husband said, continued spiraling.

“She was messing with the wrong dudes,” Johnson said in a Saturday, June 24, phone interview. “Her lifestyle changed. She liked that camp life or whatever it was they were doing.”

One night, Johnson said, his phone rang. The caller, Johnson said, told the husband he bought a Cadillac and was planning to drive Parker-Johnson to California.

Johnson, now a retired nurse’s assistant, said he thinks the caller followed through.

He begged his young wife not to leave, but she didn’t relent. She left Memphis in 1977.

Yet, she didn’t disappear.

Instead, she kept in touch with her family. She called frequently to ask about the children. She wrote letters, Johnson said, mostly to her daughter as the girl got older.

And then, four years later, the day before her daughter’s eighth birthday, the prodigal mother returned home.

It was a temporary reunion.

“I didn’t want her to go back to California,” Johnson said. “But she was grown. I couldn’t stop her. There was nothing I could do.”

Two weeks after returning, Parker-Johnson was gone.

This time, she vanished.

Skipper and Petersen have spent the last 18 or so years volunteering their time to help solve old cases their full-time counterparts can’t get to.

They have had multiple successes during that time.

In October 2011, for example, they came across the case of Edward Emery, whose murder had gone unsolved for 23 years.

On Nov. 11, 1995, Emery and his wife had just finished shopping at Smith’s Food King on Inglewood Avenue, in Redondo Beach, and the Carson resident was returning a cart when a man walked up to him and shot him in the chest.

Some early leads fizzled and the case went cold.

But then Skipper and Petersen looked into it. The detectives noticed investigators at the time had collected a saliva sample from the crime scene.

They sent the sample, which had been refrigerated, to a police lab, which ran it through the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, otherwise known as CODIS.

They found a match.

“Even though it wasn’t the end-all,” Petersen said in a previous interview, “it was nice to have a good starting point.”

A lengthy investigation and then a trial ensued, until, in October 2018, Elliot Kimo Laanui was convicted of Emery’s murder.

Two months later, Skipper and Petersen got to work on another cold case: the death of Parker-Johnson.

But at the time, Parker-Johnson was a Jane Doe.

In August 2001, plumbers were digging in the back of a house on Wollacott Street, in Redondo Beach, when they discovered a plastic bag a few feet above a sewage pipe.

The bag was filled with bones.

The Los Angeles County coroner’s office excavated the backyard and found a “nearly complete skeleton,” Skipper said.

But there was no skull.

Investigators quickly classified the case as a “probable homicide,” Skipper said.

Recovery site photograph from August 2001 from when human bones were found in a plastic bag, buried in a Redondo Beach backyard. (photo courtesy of Redondo Beach Police Department)

Detectives worked on the case “pretty intensively for a period of time,” Skipper said. They even submitted DNA from the remains to CODIS, which operates local, state and national databases of DNA profiles from convicted offenders, unsolved crime scene evidence and missing persons.

But that system, which had only been operational for three years, returned no hits.

And there were no other tangible leads that would help identify the victim.

Then, a month later, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks occurred. The country began prioritizing anti-terrorism efforts – including local police agencies.

A couple of detectives were pulled away, Skipper said, and the case went cold.

“This case was going nowhere,” Skipper said. “There were no leads at the time.”

About 17 years later, Skipper and Petersen, with the Redondo Beach Police Department Cold Case Investigations Unit, pulled the case and got to work.

The duo began conducting a traditional investigation. They tracked down people who had lived at the Wollacott Street house. They looked into missing person cases.

Then, they decided to put the nearly 20 years of genetic genealogy advances to use.

But it wasn’t as simple as sending the DNA back through CODIS.

“It’s gonna be a lot of work and it’s gonna take time. But this is solvable.”

— Missy Koski, investigative genetic genealogist

What followed was a genealogical exploration.

First, Skipper and Petersen obtained a slice of femur from the coroner’s office. Then, in 2021, they reached out to the DNA Doe Project, a nonprofit that has used cutting-edge technology and multiple labs to identify John and Jane Does for the past five years.

Eventually, DDP identified the DNA as belonging to a “Sub Saharan African American female,” Skipper said.

It wasn’t much. But it was something.

Skipper and Petersen pulled 40 years’ worth of missing persons reports for African American women in Los Angeles County, from 1954 to 1994, to ensure they got enough hits.

“I thought for sure there would be a few hundred,” Skipper said.

There were 37. And those leads went nowhere.

That’s not entirely surprising, though. Law enforcement hasn’t traditionally taken missing persons cases involving adults all that seriously, Skipper said, particularly in the 1980s – and even more so if those folks were Black.

During her time in California, Skipper said, Parker-Johnson was “marginalized as far as society goes” and had a few “contacts with law enforcement.” Skipper declined to elaborate further.

But the dearth of missing persons reports wasn’t the only challenge.

Building a family tree would be complex. And slow.

They had to build the family tree one DNA match at a time.

“We might not have any close relatives here; she may have been on vacation here, or a recent immigrant or something,” said Missy Koski, an investigative genetic genealogist and team leader with DDP. “We might not have enough relatives here to identify her.”

The first break came when the DDP team found a probable third cousin who lived in Northern California.

That gave them hope.

Koski quickly called Skipper.

“I think we can do this,” she told him. “But it’s gonna be a lot of work and it’s gonna take time. But this is solvable.”

Slowly, the leads started building. So Skipper brought on another team member, longtime RBPD reservist Mike Stark.

Stark hit the road to track down DNA matches and potential family members. His first stop was Northern California to meet that match and to get a DNA sample from her.

But there was a roadblock: The match was adopted, Stark learned, and didn’t know her biological parents.

So officials turned to ancestry.com.

That led to a woman in Texas – whose father was an even closer match.

“We were in shock,” Koski said. “He ended up testing out right on the edge of what would be a first cousin, or possibly a half first cousin or the child of a first cousin.”

The Texas match, Stark said, led to 22 first cousins scattered nationwide, one of whom gave the DNA team its biggest lead yet: There was an 84-year-old aunt in New Jersey, that cousin said, who was essentially a family historian.

Stark went to New Jersey.

“Do you remember anybody,” Stark asked her, “who just disappeared sometime maybe in the ’70s, early ’80s that no one’s ever heard from again?”

She did.

There was half-niece, she told Stark, who might have left for California and had not been heard from for years.

Stark left New Jersey with the names of Parker-Johnson’s sister, a niece’s sister and a potential daughter, who turned out to be Rebecca.

He also had another name: Van Johnson.

“I believe if she was still living, she would have been back.”

— Tony Johnson about his mother, Catherine Parker-Johnson

Jackie Johnson answered the phone in Memphis and then summoned her husband.

“There’s a police officer from California on the phone,” she told him. “They think they found your wife.”

Early on, Van Johnson said, he assumed Parker-Johnson had just left her old life behind. He waited for years to see if she would return.

“I thought she was going to come back, eventually,” he said. “But I had to move on.”

He never heard from Parker-Johnson again. Later that decade, he filed for divorce, ensuring he’d have full custody of the children.

Eventually, he remarried.

Stark’s call, decades later, jolted him.

“I was in shock,” Johnson said. “I figured something was strange.”

He figured “something was strange” with his wife’s disappearance, Johnson said — he never imagined this.

A few more DNA swabs later and the mystery of the Jane Doe, discovered 22 years before in a Redondo Beach backyard, was solved.

In April, it became official: Jane Doe was Catherine Parker-Johnson.

“We have reason to believe that she was alive in California, at least until August of 1981,” Skipper said in a recent interview. “And then she doesn’t surface at all after that, in any way shape or form, not a traffic ticket, nothing.”

Investigators believe Parker-Johnson was living in Inglewood when she died, Skipper said, though the last known contact with her was in Lennox.

But questions, including how she died and why, who killed her – and why she was buried in that backyard.

No suspects have been identified, said Hoffman, the Redondo police chief. And there’s no direct connection to the house where Parker-Johnson’s remains were found.

“There are opportunities for the investigators to pursue different paths,” Hoffman said Monday, “with the hopes that one of those leads toward the suspect that was responsible for this crime.”

But until then, at least Parker-Johnson’s family has one answer.

Learning that police had found his mother was bittersweet, said Tony Johnson, who is now 48.

His last memory of his mother, Tony Johnson said, is of her running up and down the street playing with him.

Then she left. And vanished.

For years, the son said, he thought Parker-Johnson didn’t care about him or the rest of their family. Now, the younger Johnson said, he believes something else.

“I believe if she was still living,” he said, “she would have been back.”

Perhaps then, her son’s last memory of her would be more recent.

Thanks to two retired detectives and a team of genealogists, it’s now possible for her son to believe that’s true.

To believe that Parker-Johnson would have come home.

Staff writer Lisa Jacobs contributed to this report.

How to help

The case is an active homicide investigation.

Anyone with information can call Skipper or Petersen at 310-379-2477, ext. 2714, text 310-937-6675, or email janedoe2001@redondo.org.

​ Orange County Register 

Audi training program readies auto techs for an EV future

• June 26, 2023

The nationwide push for more electric vehicles has created a skills gap among auto technicians, leading Audi to revamp its technician training program to help meet the need.

The automaker’s reimagined Audi Education Partnership — with a heavy focus on maintenance of electric vehicles — is designed to move technicians from entry-level to “expert technician” status in 18 months while they earn a paycheck along the way.

“We’re transforming our existing workforce and bringing new technicians in,” said Brian Stockton, Audi’s senior director of technical service, training and customer experience. “Our goal is to make sure we have a pipeline for new technicians to support our customers.”

Erick Martinez, who had no prior automotive experience, completed his training in October. He learned about the program at Pierce College in Woodland Hills.

“After each course, I could immediately apply what I was learning at the dealership,” the 27-year-old Los Angeles resident said. “I was interested in the program because I saw it as an opportunity to be an apprentice and learn from the best.”

Audi operates 11 U.S. training centers, including a Southern California location in Eastvale. (Photo courtesy of Audi Education Partnership)

Audi recruits many of its technician trainees through the Automotive Service Excellence Foundation, which connects students to schools and automotive learning programs nationwide.

The Audi Education Partnership celebrated its first graduating class in 2022 and has 11 more graduations scheduled this year.

“We have 304 dealerships and our training program can handle 330 to 350 students at any given time,” Stockton said. “We graduate about 130 technicians a year.”

The training program begins with self-paced training modules that cover such topics as EV battery repair and programming a vehicle’s computer systems. Once students complete and pass the modules, they’re hired as apprentices at Audi dealerships where they work alongside experienced technicians to gain first-hand experience. 

Over the next 18 months, they also attend eight weeks of Audi-specific classroom training. The automaker operates 11 U.S. training centers, including a Southern California location in Eastvale.

Classroom training covers a wide range of topics, including electrical basics, wiring diagrams, mechanical diagnosis, suspension and alignment procedures, driver-assist systems and repair of Audi chassis systems.

“The classes are comprised of students from all over the country,” Stockton said. “We start them all off at our training center at Auburn Hills, Mich. and then they are moved around to different centers where they really learn to become part of our team.”

Students are given time off from their assigned dealerships to take the training, and Audi pays for their transportation costs.

Classes are regularly updated to reflect the current dealer environment, Audi said, and training includes real-world auto issues so students are prepared to diagnose and fix them post-graduation.

“I recommend this program to other technicians and students,” Martinez said. “I also enjoyed meeting other technicians and while we graduated to dealers across the country, we remain close.”

Students earn a minimum of $15 an hour during training, but wages are higher in areas like Los Angeles and New York where housing costs are higher.

“Once they complete all of their training it’s not unusual to see technicians earnings upwards of $100,000 a year,” Stockton said. “Technical training of this kind would normally take five years or more, but we’ve broken it down into 18 months. It’s a very defined and structured approach.”

A similar 12-week Tesla START program at Rio Hondo College has seen more than 250 students pass through, with technicians securing jobs in California, Hawaii, Utah, Texas, South Carolina, Washington, Oregon, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Nevada and Idaho.

The program’s student population has shifted from 3% female to 12% female this year, and Rio Hondo has also established a WING-EV (Women in Next Generation Electronic Vehicles) Academy to funnel more women, and those who identify as women, into the field.

The demand for EV technicians is high.

Gavin Newsom recently announced that California had achieved its goal of 1.5 million zero-emission vehicles sold in the state two years ahead of schedule, with $2 billion in incentives distributed to Californians to make the transition more affordable.

The Golden State has emerged as a clear leader in the move toward EVs. Data from the California Energy Commission show that 21% of all new cars sold in California this year have been zero-emission vehicles, while 40% of the nation’s zero-emission vehicle sales are in California.

“We’re making real progress on the world’s most ambitious plan to end the tailpipe so our kids and grandkids are left with a cleaner, healthier planet,” Newsome said in a statement.

​ Orange County Register 

Tripadvisor’s top 10 experiences around the world and in the US

• June 26, 2023

Tripadvisor’s annual Travelers Choice announcements continue to roll out, with its most recent awards bestowed on top experiences, the top 10 tours and attractions around the world and the top 10 in the United States.

It’s a very fun list, accompanied by photos, descriptions and — of course — links so you can book those experiences with their partners. (Tripadvisor is in the travel business, after all.)

“Experiences turn travelers into adventurers, connecting them with the local community and giving them unforgettable stories for years to come,” says Kate Urquhart, the company’s general manager of experiences. “We’re grateful to everyone who took the time to share their reviews and help fellow travelers plan their next escape.”

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The lists run the full gamut from sand surfing in Dubai to extreme parasailing in Hawaii. There are island tours and Alaskan adventures, Thai cooking and Massachusetts haunting. The top of the top — topping both the U.S. and global lists — is a full day tour of the Hawaiian island of Oahu that includes the Byodo-In Temple, as well as plenty of beachy fun.

There were a couple of eyebrow-raisers, too, things that made us wonder a bit. The Travelers Choice awards, after all, are based on user reviews, so you not only need rapturous reviews, you need a whole lot of them. But don’t mind us. One traveler’s Thai cooking course (yes, please) is another traveler’s Korean infiltration tunnel adventure. (We can think of at least two intrepid Bay Area News Group readers who would love that! And speaking of our readers, if you’d like to submit your travel adventures to our Wish You Were Here feature, the how-tos are at the end of that linked story. Or you can just email us.)

Here are the top 10s. There’s something here for literally everyone. Find all the deets on this and other Travelers Choice awards at www.tripadvisor.com/TravelersChoice.

Tripadvisor’s top 10 experiences around the world

1. Grand Circle Island and Haleiwa Tour, Honolulu, Hawaii

2. Thai Cooking Course, Chiang Mai, Thailand

3. Ubud Tour – Best of Ubud, Ubud, Bali

4. Red Dunes ATV, Sandsurf, Camels, Stargazing & 5* BBQ, Dubai, UAE

5. Best DMZ 3rd Infiltration Tunnel Tour from Seoul, Seoul, South Korea

6. Reykjavik Food Walk – Local Foodie Adventure, Reykjavik, Iceland

7. Amsterdam Luxury Guided Sightseeing Canal Cruise, Amsterdam, Netherlands

8. Angkor Wat Sunrise Tour, Siem Reap, Cambodia

9. San Juan Guided Snorkel Tour, San Juan, Puerto Rico

10. Hanoi Jeep Tours, Hanoi, Vietnam

Tripadvisor’s top 10 experiences in the U.S.

1. Grand Circle Island and Haleiwa Tour, Honolulu, Hawaii

2. Juneau Wildlife Whale Watching, Juneau, Alaska

3. History and Hauntings of Salem Guided Walking Tour, Salem, Mass.

4. Party Bike in Old Town Scottsdale, Scottsdale, Ariz.

5.  Niagara Falls American-Side Tour with Maid of the Mist Boat Ride, Niagara Falls, N.Y.

6. Xtreme Parasail in Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii

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7. Deluxe USS Arizona Memorial and Historical City Tour, Honolulu, Hawaii

8. Swim with Manatees, Crystal River, Fla.

9. Fairbanks Snowmobile Adventure from North Pole, North Pole, Alaska

10. The Official Hollywood Sign Walking Tour, Los Angeles, Calif.

For more travel coverage in the Bay Area and beyond, follow us on Flipboard.

​ Orange County Register 

Column: The ‘Flash’ that didn’t: How many franchise ‘sure things’ will it take for the movie industry to rethink its future?

• June 26, 2023

Michael Phillips | Chicago Tribune (TNS)

“Flash,” meet pan.

Last weekend at movie theaters, DC’s stand-alone superhero film “The Flash” starring Ezra Miller, twice, and featuring three Batmen (Michael Keaton most prominently), fell short of box office projections. A fiscal disappointment in the works, most certainly. Same for Pixar’s “Elemental,” another film that needs north of $500 million worldwide, and likely more, to break even on its production and marketing.

This is coming off Disney’s live-action $250 million remake of “The Little Mermaid,” which has done … eh. Not a hit. Good, actually, certainly livelier than most of the animation-to-live-action adaptations. But it’s a might-see. Not a must.

How much longer can this recycling continue?

So much red ink this year, though some franchisees did well: “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” for one. Director-writer James Gunn, now co-CEO of DC Studios, may well be what’s needed to get people interested in Superman, Batman and the rest of the indestructibles all over again. Gunn’s “Superman: Legacy” arrives in 2025.

The managing editor of the movie website rogerebert.com Brian Tallerico told me recently: “With so many streaming options, audiences are starting to say: I didn’t like the last one. So I’m not going to see the next one.”

Jessica Drew and Miguel O’Hara in “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.” (Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animations/TNS)

We talked the other day about money, sequels, franchise exhaustion, failures of imagination and other delights. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Q: Brian, let’s talk flops for starters. Is there any silver lining to be found with so many lesser-quality films semi-tanking this year, from “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” to “Fast X” to “The Flash”? Are there lessons for the studios to learn here?

A: The lesson’s right there in your question when you mentioned “lesser quality.” I mean, “Across the Spider-Verse” isn’t failing. It almost feels like audiences are being more discerning, doesn’t it? They don’t want to devote their time to a sequel to something that’s basically about diminishing returns. Like “Fast X,” or the DC movies. Or Pixar, sadly. Though that’s another story: I think people just got used to watching Pixar movies on Disney+. With so many streaming options, people don’t see stuff just because they feel like they “have to.”

Q: This year, by April, we’d already seen a half-dozen franchise pictures of middling quality or less. Are humans really meant to consume “Shazam!” sequels at that quantity?

A: Over-saturation is a definite problem. Think of it: When we were younger, we had to wait three, four years in between “Star Wars” movies. But today there’s a new Marvel or DC product every other week, it seems, if you include the TV stuff. People have started to take it for granted.

Q: Or leave it.

A: Right. I also heard something interesting the other day. Pre-pandemic, a lot of people, fans included, went crazy for “Avengers: Endgame” (2019) and saw it as a final chapter. They didn’t want or need to start right in with a new phase in the Marvel Cinematic Universe after that. I think Marvel made a mistake going straight into another series of stories, with “The Eternals” and “Ant-Man,” characters few people cared about. They should’ve used “Endgame” as a finish line and then come back a few years later.

Q: Good luck retraining the owner-conglomerates on that idea! The idea of taking 10 years in between “Revenge of the Sith” and “The Force Awakens” — it feels like ancient history to do things that way.

A: Also, this idea that a movie has to make a billion, or close to it, to turn a profit — that was never sustainable. The more options people have for their entertainment, the more the box office numbers go down. The idea that “The Little Mermaid” and “Fast X” are bombs, even with the amount of money they’ve made, it’s crazy.

Q: Look at the new Indiana Jones film (coming June 30). The budget for director James Mangold’s movie landed in the $300 million range, not including marketing. The economics of big-budget action filmmaking have changed in 42 years, since “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” But “Raiders” cost around $20 million in 1981. That’s about $70 million in today’s dollars.

A: What did “John Wick 4″ cost to make?

Q: About $100 million. Which is what “Across the Spider-Verse” cost. That’s half or a third of a lot of the flops so far this year.

A: And “Spider-Verse” and “John Wick 4″ both look great, and made a nice fortune. Most modern CGI (computer-generated imagery) in live-action movies, I mean, most of it looks bad now. Imagine how it’s going to look in 10 years. I watched “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” the other night for Father’s Day, with the family. Looks great. Looked great in ‘89, looks good now. The stunt work, the way Spielberg sets up the action scenes — all good. A sense of composition has been lost with modern CGI. No one will ever remember an image from “Quantumania.” Not even the people who made it.

Q: What should filmmakers be talking about with the studios about expectations in this massively uncertain phase of the film industry?

A: Don’t make assumptions about viewers, and what you think they want to see. Don’t assume people want a “Flash” movie just because it’s part of some big corporate strategy the audience doesn’t care about.

Q: When some of us were 12, we saw plenty of kid-oriented stuff, some good, some not. But now the industry relies on enforcing a kind of perpetual adolescence in everyone. What’s the endgame for an industry forever catering to our childhoods?

A: I was thinking about that, rewatching “Last Crusade.” I saw that the same year I saw “Dead Poets Society” and “Field of Dreams.” Same year as “Do the Right Thing.” Those movies don’t get made anymore, by and large. The mid-budget, wide-release movie has disappeared. And something’s been lost.

———

(Michael Phillips is the Chicago Tribune film critic.)

©2023 Chicago Tribune. Visit chicagotribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

​ Orange County Register 

In-N-Out Burger launches ‘Battle of the Bands’ contest for its 75th anniversary

• June 26, 2023

In-N-Out Burger is holding a “Battle of the Bands” contest as a lead-up to its 75th anniversary festival.

The winner will perform at the event, which will take place Oct. 22 at the In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip.

The contest will take place online and will be judged by In-N-Out president and owner Lynsi Snyder-Ellingson, and .48 Special, the In-N-Out company band, according to a news release.

There is an entry fee of $75, with proceeds benefitting the Slave 2 Nothing Foundation, an organization set up by Snyder-Ellingson and her husband Sean Ellingson to combat human trafficking and addiction.

The contest’s website began accepting submissions on Monday, June 26. Applications will be accepted through Aug. 4.

Bands must submit videos of live performances that can’t be longer than 6 minutes and can have as many as three songs.

All genres of music are accepted, but bands must have at least three members, including a singer and musicians, and they must be at least 18 years old.

The winner will be announced Sept. 1 and informed via email and phone, according to the website.

The festival will include a benefit concert for Slave 2 Nothing featuring .48 Special and ZZ Top. It is a separate ticket, not included in general admission.

Other entertainment includes drag racing, a car show and carnival rides.

In-N-Out Burger is based in Irvine but was founded in Baldwin Park by Lynsi Snyder-Ellingson’s grandparents in 1948, hence the band name .48 Special.

The chain announced the festival nearly a year in advance, when it became the title sponsor of the dragstrip, which is part of the 487-acre Fairplex, home to the LA County Fair.

Information: inobattleofthebands.com, ino75thfestival.com

​ Orange County Register 

Quick Fix: Tomato Mozzarella Flatbread is an easy-to-make vegetarian dinner

• June 26, 2023

Linda Gassenheimer | Tribune News Service

Looking for an easy dinner, I remembered some flatbreads I saw on several restaurant menus. The flatbread crust was traditionally made without yeast, but now several types of crusts are used, including pizza dough.

For a quick vegetarian dinner, I decided to use a thin crust ready-made pizza dough such as Pillsbury. The dough is cooked on its own for a few minutes, then covered with the ingredients and baked to finish. You can also use pita bread and other thin crusts.

I sliced the Parmesan cheese instead of grating it to give more flavor. Pistachio nuts also add flavor and some protein.

Helpful Hints:

— You can use any pasta sauce.

— You can use different types of cheese. Use this recipe as a guide for amounts.

— You can use any type of shelled nuts (walnuts, almonds, pecans).

Countdown:

— Preheat oven.

— Bake the dough for a few minutes.

— While dough bakes, prepare ingredients.

— Remove dough from oven and complete the recipe.

Shopping List:

To buy: 1 package refrigerated thin pizza crust (about 8 ounces), 1 small container part skim milk mozzarella cheese, 1 small piece Parmesan cheese, 1 bottle low-sodium pasta sauce, 1 medium tomato, 1 package shelled pistachio nuts, 1 bunch fresh basil and 1 bottle olive oil spray.

———

TOMATO MOZZARELLA FLATBREAD

Recipe by Linda Gassenheimer

Olive oil spray

Refrigerated thin pizza crust (about 8 ounces)

4 ounces part skim milk mozzarella cheese, cut into thin slices

1 cup reduced-sodium pasta sauce

1 medium tomato cut into 1-inch cubes (about 1 cup)

1/4 cup shelled pistachio nuts

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese slices

1/2 cup fresh basil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray a sheet pan or cookie sheet with olive oil spray. Roll out dough and spread on the sheet pan to a 12 by 8-inch rectangle. Bake 5 minutes. Remove from oven. If the dough has puffed up slightly, press it down with the back of a spoon. Place the mozzarella cheese evenly over the dough. Spread the pasta sauce over the cheese. Place tomato cubes over the sauce and then the pistachio nuts and Parmesan slices. Bake 15 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. Slide onto a cutting board and cut in half. Serve on two dinner plates.

Yield 2 servings.

Per serving:464 calories (51% from fat), 26.4 g fat (10.1 g saturated, 9.6 g monounsaturated), 56 mg cholesterol, 26.8 g protein, 32.6 g carbohydrates, 5.3 g fiber, 865 mg sodium.

(Linda Gassenheimer is the author of over 30 cookbooks, including her newest, “The 12-Week Diabetes Cookbook.” Listen to Linda on www.WDNA.org and all major podcast sites. Email her at Linda@DinnerInMinutes.com.)

©2023 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

​ Orange County Register 

Save your food scraps, save the Earth: More cities and states look to composting

• June 26, 2023

Matt Vasilogambros | Stateline.org (TNS)

In its fight against both climate change and rats, the New York City Council overwhelmingly passed a new ordinance earlier this month that will require residents to dispose of food scraps and yard waste in vermin-proof curbside containers for future compost, diverting organic materials from landfills and turning them into rich soil.

If signed by Democratic Mayor Eric Adams, the city’s mandate would be the largest municipal composting program in the country, keeping 8 million pounds of organic waste every day out of landfills (around the weight of 160 full garbage trucks) and drastically reducing the city’s methane emissions.

The Big Apple’s composting plans are both ambitious and aggressive, said Council Member Sandy Nurse, who chairs the Committee on Sanitation and pushed for a “zero waste” legislative package that includes the composting measure. The council passed it by a veto-proof margin. Once the city rolls out curbside organic waste collection by the end of next year, she said, New Yorkers will realize how “simple” the process is.

“New Yorkers want to do the right thing,” she said. “This is going to create more access.”

In the past decade, many U.S. communities of different sizes and political leanings have created mostly voluntary composting programs, with mandatory programs concentrated in large cities and a handful of blue states. Supporters say these programs reduce emissions, free up landfill space, create jobs and produce soil free of harmful fertilizers that pollute water sources.

However, the programs can be expensive. They require upfront investments in new bins and compost facilities, as well as in public education efforts to change long-held ideas of what goes in the trashcan.

While it takes time, some communities that have embraced composting programs have shown marked decreases in the amount of organic waste that ends up in the dump and have saved taxpayer money in landfill fees.

Composting takes a shift in behavior and patience, said Sally Brown, a professor of environmental and forest sciences at the University of Washington who has studied the impacts of municipal composting programs.

“It’s tough because it’s really easy to put your food waste in the garbage,” she said. “People very often underestimate the amount of education outreach that’s required.”

Expanding composting programs

In her Claremont, California, home, Katja Whitham keeps a covered metal pail on the kitchen counter and a bowl in the freezer, throwing in old coffee grounds, tea bags, vegetable peels, cheese and meat scraps. Once the pail fills up, she tosses the contents into her garden’s composting pile or into the green bin the city distributed to residents last year.

As mandated under a new state law, Claremont requires that residents stop tossing food waste into garbage cans but instead separate it into a different lidded container. That container then is picked up weekly by the city’s waste management and taken to a private composting facility, where the company sells the compost at its discretion, mostly for agriculture.

Whitham said she was excited to see her Los Angeles-area city roll out a mandatory composting program.

“I’ve always been environmentally conscious, so it was a no-brainer for me,” she said. “It’s easy once you get going, but it is an investment; it takes a little extra time and patience.”

Food scraps and yard waste comprise around a third of municipal waste streams that head to landfills and incinerators. This is “problematic and not sustainable,” said Eric A. Goldstein, a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group.

A San Diego resident disposes eggshells, strawberries and coffee grounds into a city-issued compost bin. California requires food and yard waste composting, banning them from landfills. (Matt Vasilogambros/Stateline/TNS)

When buried in landfills, organic waste breaks down and releases methane, a greenhouse gas that traps 25 times more heat than carbon dioxide, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. When thrown in incinerators, moist organic waste requires intense energy consumption to keep the burner temperatures high. It also releases toxins into the air.

Mandatory composting programs have thrived over the past decade in cities such as San Francisco; Portland, Oregon; and Seattle. (Seattleites send 125,000 tons of food and yard waste to composting facilities each year, turning those scraps into compost for local parks and gardens.) Pilot programs are underway in Boston, Pittsburgh and Jacksonville, Florida.

States also are getting into composting. Nine states — California, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington — have enacted laws over the past decade that divert organic waste from landfills to composting facilities, though composting requirements and opportunities for residents and businesses vary by state.

Last year, California began enacting a law requiring that municipalities set up mandatory curbside organic waste pickup and composting.

Of the 615 local jurisdictions in the state, 445 have set up their programs — a 70% compliance rate. There are 206 organic waste processing centers statewide, with an additional 20 being built right now. At these centers, food and yard waste is ground up, placed in heaping rows, aerated by large machinery, and allowed to break down naturally into dirt, eventually being sold off in bulk, often ending up at farms.

Communities are realizing this is the easiest, cheapest thing they can do to fight climate change, said Rachel Machi Wagoner, the director of California’s Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, commonly called CalRecycle. The state legislature allocated $240 million total in recent years to help communities roll out their programs.

“Yes, this is really hard. This is really difficult. There are challenges in front of us,” she said. “But I have seen such a willingness and a dedication from every level, from the individual household and business to the community to the government level. That has been really inspiring.”

Once the state achieves its goal of reducing organic waste disposal by 75% of 2014 levels — down to 5.7 million tons of organic waste per year going to landfills — it will be equivalent to taking 3 million cars off the road, she added.

Of the remaining jurisdictions that have not complied with the law, 138 communities with low populations have applied for five-year exemptions, citing a lack of curbside waste removal services in vast rural areas.

Persuading people to participate has been a challenge, according to the Little Hoover Commission, a Sacramento-based bipartisan state oversight agency. This month, the commission sent a report to the governor and legislature that called for a pause in the state rollout, citing slow implementation, a need for public education and possible amendments to the law.

The state has missed targets, and communities are struggling, said Ethan Rarick, executive director of the commission.

“The state needs to fix this,” Rarick said. “Our commissioners would hope that this program serves as a model for other states or other municipalities in the country, but the first thing you have to do is actually move California down the road of getting to that goal.”

CalRecycle’s Wagoner rejects many of the commission’s assertions. She said its data is outdated and the real numbers are moving in the right direction as more communities, some of which had to postpone programs because of the pandemic, comply with the law. The idea of pausing the statewide composting program doesn’t make sense to her. It’s up to the legislature and the governor to decide how to respond to the commission’s report.

Wagoner does recognize the challenges with public education. She’s seen the complaints on community forums, such as the social network Nextdoor, where residents have lamented an increase in black flies around alleyway composting bins, especially as the weather gets warmer.

Easing into composting

Mandatory composting programs are not for every community, environmental advocates admit. Success for these programs often means gradually bringing people on board voluntarily.

Many communities in states such as Kansas, Ohio and Texas offer food waste composting services for residents, but those programs are mostly voluntary. Across the country, 510 communities in 25 states, representing more than 10 million households, have municipal food scrap collection, according to a 2021 study from BioCycle, a compost-focused news service.

Earlier this year, Olathe, Kansas, a southwestern suburb of Kansas City, rolled out its new composting program, allowing residents to drop off their food and yard waste at a facility in town.

The city pays an organization around $200 a month to pick up that waste two or three times per week and return with compost, which residents can later use for free. As of June 1, 526 residents have used the compost drop-off on a regular basis, said Cody Kennedy, chief communications and marketing officer for the city.

“You can bring in that disgusting bucket and then you can literally go visit our compost pile and take that home,” he said. “We are offering residents an opportunity to dispose of their scraps in a more sustainable way.”

For now, the program is voluntary, with only one drop-off location in the city of 145,000. However, depending on its success, Kennedy envisions that the city could build a second facility in the coming years. It’s also gained some attention from Olathe’s neighbors in the Kansas City area, said Kennedy, who expects other communities to follow their lead.

In New York City, mandatory composting has been a long time coming.

For the past decade, city leaders have sought to implement a citywide composting program, but mostly on a voluntary basis and through drop-off locations. Then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg told residents in 2013 that food waste is “New York City’s final recycling frontier.”

Once enacted into law, the composting program will roll out by borough, starting in Brooklyn and Queens in October. The city has until the end of the decade to build organic waste collection centers in each borough and meet its goal of diverting all its recyclables and organic waste that it sends to landfills in often low-income communities in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York.

Goldstein, at the Natural Resources Defense Council, hopes New York City will inspire more communities nationwide to adopt mandatory composting programs. But, he admits, it will be a gradual process.

“When municipalities see that cities are in the lead on this, having successful programs, where the public is participating, and where some cost savings are actually possible, it’s likely that they too will hop on the bandwagon,” he said.

“It won’t happen overnight, but over time.”

——-

©2023 States Newsroom. Visit at stateline.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

​ Orange County Register 

WNBA Power Rankings: Aces are No. 1, Sparks rise to No. 5 after clinching season-series against Dallas

• June 26, 2023

The Sparks are hoping their two-game winning streak courtesy of back-to-back comeback wins against the Dallas Wings is the start of something special this season. Despite being down two starters lately, Layshia Clarendon (foot injury) and Lexie Brown (non-COVID illness), they found a way to win via career years by Nneka Ogwumike, Jordin Canada, and Destanni Henderson. Those efforts have the Sparks at .500, 7-7 overall, and most importantly fifth in the WNBA Standings.

The rankings (and records through Sunday, June 25):

1. Las Vegas Aces (12-1): The Aces went 2-0 last week as A’ja Wilson, Jackie Young and Chelsea Gray were all named All-Star starters Sunday. Las Vegas is currently on a five-game winning streak as Kelsey Plum and Candace Parker are also having quality seasons to round out the team’s starting lineup. The Aces are a juggernaut, averaging a league-high 93.2 points, outscoring opponents by nearly 16 points per game.

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2. Connecticut Sun (12-3): The Sun went 3-0 last week, in an emotional stretch of games that saw two-time All-Star Brionna Jones go down with a season-ending Achilles injury. Meanwhile, do-it-all point forward Alyssa Thomas responded to not being selected as an All-Star starter with a 14-point, 11-rebound, and 12-assist triple-double in Sunday’s 96-72 win vs. Chicago, which was her second triple-double in a three-game stretch.

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3. New York Liberty (9-3): The Liberty went 2-0 last week as Breanna Stewart was named an All-Star starter and team captain for the second consecutive year. New York’s starting lineup boasts five All-Stars as guards Sabrina Ionescu and Courtney Vandersloot are seemingly on the shortlist to receive All-Star reserve selections.

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4. Washington Mystics (8-5): The Mystics went 1-1 last week, suffering a notably tough 89-88 overtime loss at New York Sunday. Elena Delle Donne is the team’s clear-cut favorite to be selected as an All-Star reserve. Meanwhile, Shakira Austin’s hip injury is concerning for a team that depends on the 6-foot-5 center’s versatility to make the game easier for Delle Donne and the rest of the talented Mystics team.

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5. Los Angeles Sparks (7-7): The Sparks went 2-1 last week, ending their five-game homestand with back-to-back comeback wins against the Dallas Wings. Nneka Ogwumike was named an All-Star starter for the second consecutive season. Ogwumike, an eight-time All-Star selection, is averaging a career-high 20.2 points and 9.7 rebounds in her first 13 games this season, including seven double-doubles. Meanwhile, point guards Jordin Canada and Destanni Henderson were key contributors in helping the Sparks end their recent three-game losing streak. When it comes to the playoffs, winning the season series and postseason tiebreaker against Dallas could come in handy.

However, if the Sparks want to crack the top four in the power rankings and more importantly the WNBA Standings, they are going to have to beat one or more of the WNBA’s top teams.

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6. Dallas Wings (6-8): The Wings went 1-2 last week. Dallas beat the Atlanta Dream 85-73 at home on Tuesday but lost back-to-back road games at Los Angeles on Friday and Sunday. Meanwhile, Arike Ogunbowale and Satou Sabally were named All-Star starters, which shows Dallas has two of the most talented players in the WNBA. Natasha Howard should also receive heavy All-Star reserve consideration.

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7. Atlanta Dream (5-7): The Dream are on a two-game losing streak but Allisha Gray, Rhyne Howard and Cheyenne Parker should all receive major considerations to be selected as WNBA All-Star reserves.

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8. Indiana Fever (5-8): The Fever have already matched their win total from last season’s 5-31 showing. Rookie center Aliyah Boston was named an All-Star starter after her first 13 games in the WNBA, placing her as a top-10 player, averaging 15.6 points and 8.1 rebounds per game. Boston will be the first rookie to start a WNBA All-Star game since 2014. The Fever went 1-1 last week with an 80-68 win at Seattle 80-68 and a competitive 101-88 loss at Las Vegas. Meanwhile, Indiana Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell appears to be on track for an All-Star reserve selection.

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9. Chicago Sky (5-9): The Sky are on a six-game losing streak after starting the season 5-3. All six of those losses have come to teams currently in playoff position: Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Indiana, Washington (twice) and Connecticut.  Chicago guards Kahleah Copper and Marina Mabrey are both averaging more than 16 points per game.

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10. Seattle Storm (4-9): Storm guard Jewell Loyd was named an All-Star starter, after leading the WNBA in scoring at 25.4 points per game. The Storm went 1-2 last week, including a competitive loss to the Connecticut Sun and a 23-point win against the Phoenix Mercury.

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11. Minnesota Lynx (4-9): The Lynx went 1-1 last week, pulling off their third straight win against the Sparks, 67-61 on Tuesday, but losing 89-68 at home to the Connecticut Sun. Lynx forward Napheesa Collier looks like a lock to be named an All-Star reserve soon after averaging 20.9 points and 7.5 rebounds through 13 games this season.

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12. Phoenix Mercury (2-10): The Mercury fired second-year head coach Vanessa Nygaard Sunday after the team’s 2-10 start. Nygaard, a coach with 20 years of experience including nearly a decade at the Windward School in Los Angeles, played five years in the WNBA, including the 2003 season with the Sparks. Mercury lead assistant coach Nikki Blue has been elevated to interim coach for the rest of the season. The good news for the Phoenix is that Brittney Griner and Diana Taurasi are back in the starting lineup. Mercury point guard Skylar Diggins-Smith, who is currently out on maternity leave, was recently seen working out in an Instagram video. However, the fact remains that the Mercury are currently on a five-game losing streak with pending home games against Dallas, Indiana and Minnesota this week.

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