New bee tested students on civics knowledge; OC winners now headed to state

• March 14, 2025

Reagan Kemmerer has a lot of love for her country, so she said she’s made it a priority to learn as much as possible about the laws and policies that guide the government and its citizens.

Her dedication is paying off.

Kemmerer, an eighth grader at St. Junipero Serra Catholic School in Rancho Santa Margarita, won the region’s first-ever civics bee competition held Wednesday at the Nixon Presidential Library & Museum, besting 19 other competitors.

“It’s a little bit unexpected, but I’m really proud of myself,” said Kemmerer. “And I’m really honored because I’m really proud to live in the United States. And so, this process of learning more about it meant a lot to me.”

Kemmerer advances to the first-ever state finals, which take place in June at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. Top finishers in the state competition will advance to the National Civics Bee Championships in Washington, D.C. this fall, with the winner receiving $100,000 towards college.

Kemmerer received $500 for winning the regional competition.

Joining Kemmerer at the state finals will be second-place finisher Arlo James Fravien from Walton Intermediate School in Orange and Karishna Gopinathan from Oxford Preparatory in Lake Forest, who finished third.

Fravien and Gopinathan won $250 and $125, respectively.

“We were so impressed and inspired by the students,” said Chris Lowe, director of education for the Richard Nixon Foundation. “It’s all about the students, and they did an amazing job.”

California is now one of 40 states participating in the National Civics Bee. The end goal is to encourage young people to take a more active role in civic engagement, organizers said.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation launched the civics bee as a pilot program in 2022 in five cities, said Hilary Crow, vice president of civics for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation in Washington, D.C.

The civics bee is now held in 40 states and will likely take place in all 50 states in 2026, Crow said.

“It’s an effort really focused on positioning civics as a national priority and getting the business community involved in raising awareness about the importance of civic knowledge and skills across the country,” Crow said.

For the first round Wednesday night, 20 middle school students from Orange County schools took a 10-question, multiple choice quiz onstage at the Nixon Library using iPads.

The questions were projected on a screen for the audience to participate as well; here are a couple:

Question: How did Harry S. Truman demonstrate the civic virtue of courage during his presidency?

Answer: By desegregating the armed forces.

Question: What does equal protection under the law guarantee in the United States?

Answer: That all individuals are treated the same under the law regardless of race, gender or religion.

The top 10 students from the first round advanced to a second round, where each presented a three-sentence summary of their civics project and then answered questions from the judges.

“Before doing this, I didn’t really know a lot about our country’s past,” Kemmerer said. “And so now, having that knowledge, I’m starting to get more involved, watching the news every night and learning more and getting more involved in my community.”

Kemmerer’s mother, Erika, expressed her surprise and pride at her daughter’s achievement, as well as the competition in general.

“We didn’t realize this was as amazing as they set this up to be,” she said. “It was really cool.”

She praised her daughter’s speaking skills and had encouraged her to trust her instincts during the competition, Erika Kemmerer said. “I just said, go with your gut and your heart when you’re up there.”

Reagan Kemmerer said now she’ll be focusing on preparations for the state bee.

“This one was hard and the people here were so smart and they knew what they were doing here,” she said. “So I’m so grateful for this.”

​ Orange County Register 

Chargers adding defensive linemen Da’Shawn Hand, Naquan Jones

• March 13, 2025

The Chargers addressed a glaring need by agreeing with free agent defensive linemen Da’Shawn Hand and Naquan Jones on new contracts Thursday. Hand and Jones will fill a void created when the Chargers lost defensive lineman Poona Ford to the Rams on a three-year deal earlier this week.

Ford played one season with the Chargers and helped them become the NFL’s top-ranked defense, giving up a league-low 17.7 points per game during the 2024 season. Ford signed a relatively modest one-season contract worth $1.125 last year, but opted for a bigger payday with the Rams this year.

The Rams’ deal with Ford is potentially worth up to $29.6 million.

Hand’s contract reportedly is for one year and worth up to $3.3 million.

The teams of Jones’ deal weren’t immediately available.

Conventional wisdom suggested that the Chargers needed upgrades on their defensive and offensive lines after they were dominated by the Houston Texans during a 32-12 loss in an AFC wild-card game Jan. 11. The addition of Hand is but one addition. Chargers defensive lineman Morgan Fox remains unsigned.

On the offensive line, the Chargers re-signed center Bradley Bozeman to a two-year, $6.5 million contract Monday. It’s expected that the Chargers will continue to pursue additional offensive linemen as free agency continues, although more help could be had in the NFL draft next month.

In addition to the Miami Dolphins, Hand, 29, has played for the Tennessee Titans and the Detroit Lions, who picked him in the fourth round of the 2018 NFL draft. He set a career high with 31 tackles in 17 games this past season with the Dolphins. His previous best was 27 tackles as a rookie in 2018.

Hand began his career as a defensive end but moved to tackle with Miami in 2023.

Jones, 27, began his career with the Titans as an undrafted free agent from Michigan State. The Titans waived him during the 2023 season and the Arizona Cardinals signed him Nov. 10, 2023, and he spent the next two seasons with them. He had career highs of 27 tackles and three sacks this past season.

​ Orange County Register 

Sage Hill’s Amalia Holguin fulfills ‘dream’ with run to CIF State girls basketball final

• March 13, 2025

In March of 2022, Amalia Holguin watched “as a fan” and dreamed of her chance as the Sage Hill girls basketball team reached the CIF State championships.

Holguin was in the eighth grade that spring as four of her teammates from Kobe Bryant’s famed Mambas youth team helped the Lightning capture the Division II state title. The victory capped an emotional season as the team honored Bryant and others killed in the 2020 helicopter crash.

On Friday night, Holguin finally gets her opportunity to play for a state crown as Sage Hill (23-11) faces Carondelet of Concord (29-6) in the Division I final at Sacramento’s Golden 1 Center, home of the Sacramento Kings.

RELATED:  Preview of Sage Hill vs. Carondelet in Division I state championship game

“I’ve been dreaming and visualizing this since the eighth grade, so I’m just super proud of myself and our team,” the junior point guard said after the Lightning’s 52-41 triumph against Windward in the regional final Tuesday.

“I’ve been working on my bag all season. This has been my dream since I came to Sage, to get to the highest point and this is the furthest you can go.”

As the last member of the so-called “Mamba 5” in high school, Holguin has emerged this season as more of a team leader.

She was the upstart freshman and sophomore the past two seasons as she played with former Mamba teammates Zoie Lamkin, Kat Righeimer, Annabelle Spotts and Emily Eadie.

All four of those players graduated in 2024 and headed to the collegiate ranks.

In the regional final, Holguin scored a game-high 24 points and grabbed eight rebounds.

Her leadership was just as visible. She encouraged teammates, addressed the home crowd afterward on a microphone and doused coach Kerwin Walters with water as part of the team’s celebration.

“I’ve had former teammates who were older than me who were super-great leaders,” Holguin said. “Kat, Emily, Annabelle and Zoie, they taught me multiple things on the way up.”

Holguin’s expanded role as a team leader arrived as she balances college recruiting. The 5-foot-9 junior, who was All-County last season, has expressed interested in Louisville and Illinois among others.

Holguin entered the postseason averaging 14.7 points and 4.3 assists.

“I’ve had a lot of ups and downs (this season),” she said, “but I think I kept a consistent base through the season.”

Walters has noticed Holguin’s growth as a leader.

“There have been some growing pains but she has slowly just moved that needle … (and) slowly gotten everyone to buy into her,” the veteran coach said. “When it works and when it clicks, you see it, and it’s crazy good. … I’m so proud of the growth she’s had over this last year and become the leader on this team.”

On Friday night, Holguin’s longest season at Sage Hill ends with a chance to join her role models as a state champion.

“I don’t know how I’ve gotten so old, honestly,” Holguin said with a smile. “I don’t know where the time went but I’m just so blessed. … This is my home.”

CIF State girls basketball preview: Sage Hill vs. Carondelet, Division I final

​ Orange County Register 

Anaheim breaks ground on new fire station for Platinum Triangle

• March 13, 2025

Anaheim this month started construction on the city’s 12th fire station, located in the Platinum Triangle, meant to reduce response times in the growing neighborhood that is home to thousands of residents and major destinations such as Angel Stadium and the Honda Center.

The city officials celebrated the beginning of construction for the new fire station on March 4. The occasion occurred after years of delays stemming from objections once raised by the Angels as part of legal issues over the canceled sale of the stadium.

The fire station is being built in a city-owned parking lot about a quarter mile from the stadium off State College Boulevard. Construction on the two buildings that will make up the station is expected to take until mid-2026, according to city officials.

The station will cost around $15 million to construct. City officials expect it will cut emergency medical and fire response times by half to the area. The station will also better serve visitor destinations, including Angel Stadium and the Honda Center, and the now under construction OCVibe, which will have apartments and an entertainment district, officials said.

“Nearly 10,000 Anaheim residents now call the Platinum Triangle home with thousands more to come in the years ahead,” Mayor Ashleigh Aitken said in a statement. “Station 12 will bring reassurance for everyone in the Platinum Triangle, from those living right next door in some of Anaheim’s most modern apartments, to the cheering fans at Angel games and all that is to come with OCVibe.”

The station will have two fire companies and paramedic units, Aitken said.

A fire engine the city purchased more than three years ago for the new station has been deployed at a different station in the Anaheim Hills as the city sorted through its legal issues with the Angels.

The city was in the planning process for building the fire station when the Angels in 2022 told the city that they couldn’t build at that location because it was an area covered by the existing stadium lease.

That came when the Angels were trying to recover $5 million from the city for costs it incurred trying to arrange the sale of the stadium, which the City Council canceled following discovery federal investigators were looking at a former mayor and the negotiations.

The two sides ultimately sorted out their issues and last summer agreed to settle for $2.75 million from Anaheim to the Angels and the team would no longer object to the fire station’s construction.

“My council colleagues that have been dealing with this for a couple of months, we probably didn’t think that this day was going to come as fast as it did,” Aitken said at the groundbreaking ceremony.

The Platinum Triangle is the city’s fastest-growing neighborhood with mid-rise apartments and offices springing up in the area that was once mostly industrial.

​ Orange County Register 

New Rams WR Davante Adams credits Sean McVay’s recruiting

• March 13, 2025

LOS ANGELES — When Davante Adams planned a trip to Japan with friends for early March, he couldn’t have known how much his circumstances would have changed. That the Jets would release him, and for the first time in his career, the All-Pro receiver would be a free agent.

And certainly he could not have guessed the number of phone calls he would receive from Rams head coach Sean McVay, reaching out from across the Pacific Ocean to recruit him to Los Angeles.

“I thought he was out there too just based off of I was talking to him more than I was talking to my wife,” Adams joked Thursday.

Wearing a Dodgers hat after agreeing to a two-year contract Sunday, Adams was introduced as a member of the Rams at the team’s practice facility in Woodland Hills. It all came together quickly for Adams, who just arrived from Japan earlier this week.

But McVay’s aggressive recruiting approach made it hard for Adams to slow-play the opportunity. Adams had met the coach at the Kentucky Derby in 2019, when McVay expressed his admiration for the receiver’s game and the hope that the pair could team up at some point down the line. Firmly under contract with the Green Bay Packers at the time, Adams didn’t think too much about the compliment.

As soon as Adams hit the open market this month, though, McVay wasted little time. In addition to the numerous phone calls, McVay sent Adams two highlight tapes – the first seven minutes long, the second two minutes – narrating what he liked about the receiver’s game.

“It was kind of Jon Gruden-esque,” Adams said. “It just shows how much ball means to him, how much of a priority I was for me and the rest of the guys here. … When you have that from a coach and you’re on the free market and you don’t see it from anybody else to that level, it means a lot.”

It wasn’t just McVay. Players reached out, too, including quarterback Matthew Stafford, to express their excitement at the possibility of teaming up.

Adams had admired Stafford from across the NFC North when the former was in Green Bay and the latter with Detroit. Adams had respected how Stafford made sure to feed the ball to Calvin Johnson in the final week of the 2012 season to help him break Jerry Rice’s single-season receiving record, and appreciated Stafford’s approach to the game.

“He don’t make it any harder than it needs to be out there. He’s simple,” Adams said. “I don’t know if he was quite as eager as Sean was, but it’s still a good feeling knowing the quarterback wants you to be there, too.”

And Adams is excited to pair up with a young, rising wide receiver in Puka Nacua, who changed his jersey number from No. 17 to No. 12 this week, fueling speculation that the change was to accommodate Adams, who has worn No. 17 throughout his career. But Adams said he never spoke with Nacua about the number, his understanding was that Nacua had been planning on making the change prior to Adams’ arrival.

But Adams said he has been impressed with Nacua since his record-breaking rookie year.

“Stuff like that doesn’t happen on accident. He’s got the god-given, he’s got the amazing, electric personality,” Adams said. “He’s smiling every time I see him, every time I talk to him it’s crying faces or LOLs so you know that he’s a happy dude.”

The Rams being the most aggressive franchise in his free agency lined up with what Adams was looking for in a team, potentially one where he could finish his career. With his wife Devanne and their son standing near the podium, the East Palo Alto native and Fresno State grad spoke about his excitement to return to California.

And, after missing out on the postseason since leaving the Packers in 2022, the opportunity to play for a team coming off its second straight playoff appearance.

“I’m a real simple dude, my family and friends mean a lot to me, so being able to have them have easy access to me out here is a good feeling for me, just knowing that I get to kind of have that support, keep it real tight and stay close to family,” Adams said. “And obviously like I said, being a part of a great franchise and a great team that made a great push last year. I’m just here to be another piece to hopefully get them over the hump.”

That was certainly part of McVay’s visions as he made those transpacific phone calls.

“He certainly made sure it did not slip away,” Adams said “It was something that drew me even closer to the Rams, knowing how much I was wanted.”

​ Orange County Register 

How to shop amid tariff uncertainty

• March 13, 2025

By Kimberly Palmer, NerdWallet

As President Donald Trump enacts his tariff plans, you may be wondering if you can expect higher prices when you shop.

Consumers will likely see the most immediate impact on categories like food, where the cost of price increases tends to get passed on directly, says Duleep Rodrigo, U.S. consumer and retail sector leader at KPMG, a professional audit, tax and advisory services firm.

Other products, like household goods, experience a more subdued impact, he says.

“The manufacturer or retailer may decide they want to absorb some of those price increases,” Rodrigo says.

He adds that in the current economic environment, consumers are very price-sensitive, which makes retailers hesitant to pass on the full brunt of any tariff-driven price hike.

While shoppers might not have much control over prices, there are steps they can take to minimize any impact on their own bottom lines.

Here’s how to adjust your shopping habits in an era of tariffs:

1. Prepare your budget for price increases

“You need a budget more than ever,” says Andrea Woroch, a money saving expert who shares budgeting tips on her website, andreaworoch.com.

A budget, she says, gives you more control over how you’re spending to help counteract the uncertainty over the impact of tariffs.

A budget can take the form of an online budget calculator, an envelope-based tracking system or a budget app to help you track expenses.

“Without a spending plan, it’s easy to overspend and rack up debt,” Woroch says.

To get started, she suggests tracking your spending and allotting different amounts to categories such as food, clothing and personal care. You can make adjustments as you go, particularly if prices go up.

At the same time, setting aside money for an emergency fund can make it easier to absorb temporary price increases without needing to take on additional credit card debt.

2. Compare prices and seek discounts

Look for sales, compare prices between retailers and leverage tools like coupon websites to find discounts and cash-back offers, suggests Trae Bodge, smart shopping expert at TrueTrae.com, where she provides shopping tips. She adds that using a credit card that offers rewards or cash back can also help stretch your dollars.

If you’re in the market for consumer electronics or appliances, you might consider buying refurbished items through retailers that offer certification — meaning it’s been inspected and authenticated — and warranties, Woroch says. Checking for “like new” used options when shopping on Amazon can often result in high-quality products for lower prices.

Resale websites such as Poshmark or SidelineSwap can also offer attractive deals on gently used items, and allow you to earn extra cash by selling products, Woroch adds. Using this method, she was recently able to sell some old toys and clothing and then use her earnings to purchase used skis for her daughter without tapping into savings.

3. Resist pressure to spend early and often

While consumers may feel pressure to make big purchases, like a new car, as soon as possible before tariffs drive prices up any further, that could be the wrong move, says Meir Statman, professor of finance at the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University.

“People don’t always pause and ask whether they actually need it,” says Statman, who is also the author of “A Wealth of Well-Being: A Holistic Approach to Behavioral Finance.”

He adds that buying more than you need can create other costs. If you stock up on beef for a deep freezer, for example, you have to pay for the electricity to keep it frozen. If you buy and store wine for an upcoming wedding months in advance, you might decide you want a different type by the time the big day arrives.

“There is no product I can think of that you should rush out and buy now,” Statman says.

Instead, he suggests, consumers should keep an eye on prices and only make purchases when truly needed.

Kimberly Palmer writes for NerdWallet. Email: kpalmer@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @kimberlypalmer.

The article How to Shop Amid Tariff Uncertainty originally appeared on NerdWallet.

​ Orange County Register 

Under Trump, Social Security resumes what it once called ‘clawback cruelty’

• March 13, 2025

By David Hilzenrath, Jodie Fleischer, Cox Media Group, KFF Health News

A year ago, a new head of Social Security set out to stop the agency from financially devastating many of the people it was meant to help.

The agency had long made it a practice to reduce or halt benefit checks to recoup billions of dollars in payments it sent recipients but later said they never should have received.

Martin O’Malley, then the Social Security Administration commissioner, announced in March 2024 the agency would no longer cut off people’s monthly old-age, survivors, and disability checks to recoup money they had allegedly been overpaid — a pattern he called “clawback cruelty.” Instead, it would default to withholding 10% of monthly benefits. The new policy allowed people who already live on little to pay their rent and keep food on the table.

Last Friday, the Trump administration reversed that policy.

Beginning March 27, to recover new overpayments, the Social Security Administration will automatically withhold 100% of recipients’ monthly benefits, the agency announced.

The agency said it was acting in the interest of fiscal responsibility and that the reversal would save the government about $7 billion over a decade.

“It is our duty to revise the overpayment repayment policy back to full withholding, as it was during the Obama administration and first Trump administration, to properly safeguard taxpayer funds,” acting Commissioner Lee Dudek said in a news release.

Advocates for Social Security beneficiaries described the action as cruel and harmful.

“The results are predictable: more unnecessary suffering,” said Kathleen Romig, who worked at the Social Security Administration under O’Malley and is now director of Social Security and disability policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Kate Lang of the advocacy group Justice in Aging said she was heartbroken.

“Those who are most vulnerable, with the fewest resources, are the ones who will feel the harsh impacts of this change,” she said. Many “are going to be unable to buy food or keep the roof over their head,” she said.

In 2023, after an investigation by KFF Health News and Cox Media Group cast a spotlight on overpayments and clawbacks, lawmakers from both parties called on the Social Security Administration to change its approach.

The policy change a year ago was inspired in part by the plight of people such as Denise Woods, who was sleeping in her Chevy in Savannah, Georgia, in December 2023 while contending with lupus and congestive heart failure after the government cut off her disability benefits. The government was demanding she repay almost $58,000.

Many overpayments are the result of government error. It can take the government years to figure out it has been paying someone too much, and by then, the amount the government says it is owed can grow far beyond a beneficiary’s ability to repay. And it has often demanded that recipients repay the full amount within 30 days.

As of October, the SSA was withholding at least a portion of monthly benefit payments from hundreds of thousands of people, according to data the SSA provided last fall to KFF Health News and Cox Media Group. The agency said it was withholding up to 10% from 669,903 people to recoup an overpayment. Asked whether those numbers covered all types of benefits administered by the SSA, the agency’s press office didn’t say.

“Under Trump’s leadership, Social Security has reinstated a cruel policy of clawing back Social Security overpayments with no regard for an American’s ability to pay or whether the overpayment was an error by the agency,” said Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee.

The new plan to completely withhold monthly benefits from recipients who were allegedly overpaid does not extend to the Supplemental Security Income program, one of two Social Security programs for people with disabilities. SSI, as the agency explains, covers “people with disabilities and older adults who have little or no income or resources.”

The government’s estimate that cutting people off completely will save $7 billion over a decade implies it expects many more overpayments in the years ahead.

The SSA’s March 7 announcement was part of a broader dismantling of Biden-era policies under President Donald Trump. It was also part of a broader upheaval at the Social Security Administration, which announced In February that it would cut its staff from about 57,000 to 50,000.

In an interview Monday, O’Malley predicted that the public will experience much longer wait times trying to get through to the agency by phone and longer waits for disability determinations.

Social Security runs on a very old computer system, he said, and driving people out of the agency who understand it “can only result in system collapse.”

“The risk of totally shutting down the agency is greatly increased by people mucking around that don’t know what they’re doing,” O’Malley said.

On the PBS NewsHour last week, he advised recipients to save money to prepare for an interruption of benefits.

Trump deputy Elon Musk has boasted of taking a chainsaw to the federal government and has called Social Security a Ponzi scheme. In a signed declaration filed in federal court last week, a recently retired SSA official, Tiffany Flick, said she “witnessed a disregard for critical processes” as members of DOGE — the Department of Government Efficiency, which Trump established by executive order — demanded access to sensitive Social Security systems, including files that contain beneficiaries’ banking information.

New management at the SSA called its workforce “bloated.” But, under the previous administration, the agency was telling a starkly different story.

A year ago, O’Malley told lawmakers that, as the number of people receiving benefits increased, “historic underfunding and understaffing” at the agency had created a “service delivery crisis.”

Late last year, the agency provided data to KFF Health News showing that in September its workforce was near a 50-year low. As of last month, applicants for disability benefits were waiting an average of more than seven months for a decision, according to the SSA website.

The staffing cuts will lead to more overpayments than ever and will make it harder for the people affected to clear up mistakes, said Jen Burdick, an attorney at Community Legal Services of Philadelphia.

As KFF Health News and Cox Media Group revealed in 2023, about 2 million people a year were receiving notices from the SSA that they were overpaid and owed money back.

People can appeal overpayment notices, request a lower withholding rate, or ask the SSA to waive collection altogether, the agency said. The SSA does not pursue recoveries while an initial appeal or waiver request is pending, it said.

Shortly before O’Malley left the SSA in November, the agency implemented changes that made it easier for beneficiaries to get overpayments waived. The agency spelled out grounds for determining the beneficiary was not at fault — for instance, if the agency continued to issue overpayments after the beneficiary reported a change in their financial circumstances that should have led to a reduction in benefits. Those policy changes remain intact.

Several Republicans who expressed concern about clawbacks in the aftermath of 2023 news coverage did not respond to inquiries for this article or declined to comment. One of them was Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who is now chair of the Senate’s Special Committee on Aging.

“Hardworking American taxpayers pay into Social Security all of their lives so that they can depend on it in the time they need it most,” Scott said in a 2023 letter to the agency. “The fact that the SSA’s actions are leaving some of them worse off, through no fault of their own, is absolutely unacceptable.”

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

​ Orange County Register 

Rams OL Coleman Shelton happy to be back

• March 13, 2025

LOS ANGELES — In most ways, Coleman Shelton is returning to an organization he is very familiar with after agreeing to a two-year deal with the Rams. But when he reported to Woodland Hills instead of the Thousand Oaks facility where he had worked out for five years, the offensive lineman was caught off guard a bit.

What a difference a year makes.

“It’s funny, walking in, it kind of felt like it was completely new to me. So a lot bigger, a lot more space,” Shelton said. “It feels great. Very happy to be back. Being from L.A., back close to family. We’re excited to be home.”

It was the second straight offseason that Shelton entered free agency. After five years with the Rams, he signed a one-year deal with the Bears last March. This time around, Shelton wasn’t sure what to expect even as the possibility of returning to the Rams and Los Angeles, where he went to school at Loyola High, came to the fore.

“You never really know where you’re going to start and then as things progress, you kind of get a feel for more teams and stuff like that,” Shelton said. “I was definitely excited. As I learned from free agency, you don’t really want to put too much hope into one thing. You kind of want to go with the flow and see how it progresses. So I was definitely excited about it and I’m really happy to be here.”

Shelton played all three spots along the interior of the line for the Rams during his first tenure, but started at center in 2023. He developed a good rapport with quarterback Matthew Stafford, who texted him to welcome him back to the team after the sides had agreed to terms.

Shelton is expected to compete for that starting center job again after Beaux Limmer manned the spot as a rookie in 2024. If he does become the starting center, Shelton will already have familiarity with the other four guys around him on the line.

“I’m excited to get going,” Shelton said. “Obviously I know a lot of the guys and then there’s a couple new guys last year who I’ll get to know and I’m excited to meet them and kind of just ready to get after it and hit the ground running and be with a lot of familiar faces.”

Ford relishes the opportunity

Poona Ford’s path to a free-agent payday was not a straight one. The former undrafted free agent had a successful five years in Seattle before signing a one-year deal in Buffalo. But the Bills never found a way to deploy Ford, and he was active for only eight of 17 games in 2023.

After that disappointing season, Ford felt like 2024 was the season to prove himself with the Chargers. And he responded with a career year with 8.5 run stuffs and three sacks. And he was rewarded with a three-year, $27.6 million contract from the Rams this week.

“It’s really just a blessing to be able to secure something like this, especially being undrafted,” Ford said. “It means a lot.”

Ford said he wanted to stay in Los Angeles, and the Rams provided a good opportunity for him to bring physicality in the run game while still getting some opportunities to rush the passer on a young, talented defensive front.

“They were real aggressive in the process and I just felt like this was where I needed to be,” Ford said. “They’re young, they’re hungry and I’m just looking forward to getting to know everybody and building chemistry on and off the field.”

​ Orange County Register