Orange County restaurants shut down by health inspectors (March 23-30)

• April 1, 2023

Restaurants and other food vendors ordered to close and allowed to reopen by Orange County health inspectors from March 23 to March 30.

Salt Creek Grille, 32802 Pacific Coast Highway, Dana Point

Closed: March 28
Reason: Vermin infestation (other than cockroaches or rodents)
Reopened: March 29

KFC, 1345 S. Main St., Santa Ana

Closed: March 28
Reason: Rodent infestation
Reopened: March 29

Bueno Bueno Mexican Kitchen, 26762 Verdugo St., Suite C, San Juan Capistrano

Closed: March 28
Reason: Rodent infestation
Reopened: March 29

BJ’s, 22022 El Paseo, Rancho Santa Margarita

Closed: March 28
Reason: Rodent infestation
Reopened: March 28

Jack In The Box, 1502 S. Main St., Santa Ana

Closed: March 27
Reason: Cockroach infestation
Reopened: March 29

Yang’s Braised Chicken Rice, 13824 Red Hill Ave., Tustin

Closed: March 24
Reason: Insufficient hot water
Reopened: March 25

Sonny’s Pizza & Pasta, 429 N. El Camino Real, San Clemente

Closed: March 23
Reason: Rodent infestation
Reopened: March 23

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This list is published weekly with closures since the previous week’s list. Status updates are published in the following week’s list. Source: OC Health Care Agency database.

​ Orange County Register 

Baldwin’s codefendant gets 6 months probation on gun charge

• April 1, 2023

By Morgan Lee | Associated Press

SANTA FE, N.M. — A codefendant in the case against actor Alec Baldwin in the fatal 2021 shooting of a cinematographer on a movie set in New Mexico was convicted Friday of unsafe handling of a firearm and sentenced to six months of probation.

Safety coordinator and assistant director David Halls also must pay a $500 fine, complete a gun-safety course and 24 hours of community service after agreeing to the conviction related to the death of Halyna Hutchins on the set of the Western movie “Rust.”

Under the plea agreement, Halls agreed to testify truthfully at any upcoming hearings or trials. That includes criminal proceedings against Baldwin and movie armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who have pleaded not guilty to charges of involuntary manslaughter in Hutchins’ death.

Halls appeared briefly by video to waive his right to challenge the negligence charge, as state District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer approved terms of a plea agreement with prosecutors.

Defense attorney Lisa Torraco urged the court not to impose a prison sentence — the maximum possible penalty was 6 months behind bars — noting that Halls was “extremely traumatized and “rattled” with guilt.

Hutchins died shortly after she was shot on Oct. 21, 2021, during rehearsals on a film-set ranch on the outskirts of Santa Fe. Baldwin was pointing a pistol at Hutchins when the weapon went off; a single live round killed her and wounded director Joel Souza.

If convicted of involuntary manslaughter, Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed could face a maximum penalty of 18 months in prison and fines.

Torraco said Halls had checked the rounds in the revolver before handing it to Baldwin to see whether they were dummies or blanks with an explosive. She said it was “never in anyone’s imagination” that live rounds would be in the gun.

“When Ms. Gutierrez-Reed brought the firearm … on set into the church, he did check the firearm,” she said of Halls. “He wouldn’t have even thought that there was a live round in that, in that gun. … And he, like many others, is extremely traumatized.”

But prosecutor Kari Morrissey said Halls, a veteran filmmaker of more than 30 years, failed in his duty as the last line of defense for firearms safety, and that the fatal shooting took place after two earlier weapons misfires on set.

“Mr. Halls did not check every round that was in the gun to confirm that it was a dummy round and not a live round,” she said. “He then handed the gun to Mr. Baldwin and Mr. Baldwin began to practice his cross draw. And during that action of practicing the cross draw, the gun went off. And obviously Mrs. Hutchins was struck by the bullet and was killed. That is the factual basis for Mr. Halls taking the no contest plea to the unsafe handling of a deadly weapon.”

In separate regulatory proceedings, workplace safety authorities have asserted Halls shared responsibility for identifying and correcting any hazardous conditions related to firearms safety in the movie’s production.

Halls’ sentencing took place on the 30th anniversary of the death of Brandon Lee. The son of martial-arts legend Bruce Lee was hit by a .44-caliber slug from a gun that was supposed to have fired a blank while filming “The Crow.”

A weekslong preliminary hearing in May will decide whether evidence against Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed is sufficient to proceed to trial.

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In her sentencing, Judge Marlowe Sommer confirmed with Halls that he would “testify truthfully in all hearings, trials, or settings involving any and all defendants and co-defendants in this matter.” Prosecutors can reopen the case if Halls violates the terms of the plea agreement.

Santa Fe’s district attorney this week appointed two special prosecutors, Morrissey and Jason Lewis.

The original special prosecutor, Andrea Reeb, resigned following missteps in the initial filing of charges against Baldwin and objections that her role as a state legislator created conflicting responsibilities.

​ Orange County Register 

A look at how things are going along the U.S. southern border

• April 1, 2023

Two big stories regarding the southern border were in the news this week. One about asylum seekers, the other regarding slowing the flow of deadly drugs.

The flow of people

At least 38 people are dead and 29 are injured following a fire Monday at an immigration processing facility in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, according to Mexico’s National Migration Institute.

The migrants started the fire in protest, lighting their sleeping mats after learning they were being deported.

The blaze broke out shortly before 10 p.m.

Sixty-eight men from Central and South America were staying at the facility, which houses migrants who are waiting on requests for asylum in the U.S. or preparing to cross the border. At least 28 Guatemalan nationals were among the dead, Guatemala’s Institute of Migration confirmed.

Here’s a look at the increasing number of people at the border trying to get to the U.S. in recent years:

Southern border Border Patrol apprehensions and inadmissables by month

The most apprehensions in years was in December and the numbers in the El Paso, Texas, region near Ciudad Juárez, Mexico tripled.

The flow of illegal drugs

The Department of Homeland Security has been looking into noninvasive technology to scan cargo and pedestrian vehicles for years. The first X-ray scanner for cargo coming through on the front lines went into action in Brownsville, Texas, last week.

Most U.S.-bound trucks and nearly all passenger vehicles are generally scanned selectively if they are pulled aside. Mexican cartels have long profited from these odds while smuggling fentanyl and other narcotics. The U.S. had a record of nearly 107,000 fatal overdoses from fentanyl in 2021, the most since numbers have been available.

Technology helping enforcement

This transmission image above is from the Customs and Border Patrol and shows a tractor-trailer carrying picture frames and 4,834.8 kilograms of marijuana and 210 kilograms of crystal meth.

The U.S. wants to increase routine scanning of vehicles arriving from Mexico. In 2019, Congress appropriated $675 million to install the technology. President Joe Biden called for more drug-detection technology in his State of the Union speech and this month’s budget proposal, which included $305 million for new inspection systems.

X-ray imaging technology has been used for years in airports to detect drugs and explosives. At the southern border, that nonintrusive scanning technology has mostly been used during secondary inspections until now.

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, the majority of fentanyl, heroin and methamphetamine is trafficked across the southwest border. It’s primarily smuggled into the U.S. through legal ports of entry, meaning it comes within feet of a Customs and Border Protection officer. Prior to the new scanner in Brownsville, CBP has acknowledged it could scan only 2% of all private passenger vehicles and 16% of commercial vehicles at land borders.

The U.S. aims to deploy 123 large-scale scanners along the border by fiscal year 2026, growing its ability to perform nonintrusive scans to 70% of cargo vehicles and 40% of passenger vehicles, according to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Drones provide Border Patrol agents with air support no matter where they are. Instead of having to launch a much larger platform, such as an Air and Marine Operations helicopter and crew, the smaller drones fit in the back of a patrol vehicle and can be put in the sky in a matter of minutes.

In 2020, the Border Patrol had more than 135 of these systems in use throughout the country, with 60 more in the procurement process. Plans are eventually to have 460 drones patrol from above. Agents fly two different types of drones: a vertical takeoff and landing quadcopter and a fixed-wing model similar to a model airplane.

Smugglers in the air

The Border Patrol in a March 1 news release said some human traffickers that were arrested were using drones. “Human smugglers using drones to surveil the Border Patrol is a growing trend that we’ve observed along the border,” San Diego Sector Chief Patrol Agent Aaron M. Heitke said. “This technology provides transnational criminal organizations with new capability that they are eager to exploit.”

Sources: Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Department of Justice, NBC Montana

​ Orange County Register 

Corona’s new drone is latest tool to warn rivers’ homeless to storm danger

• April 1, 2023

On New Year’s Eve, 10 Corona firefighters waded into the Rincon Wash, searching in the dark through thick brush for two homeless people who were trapped by rising stormwater.

Finally, after an hour, the people were located and rescued.

“Every time we put one of our guys in the water, especially swift water, it puts them at risk,” Corona firefighter/paramedic Mike Leckliter said.

But now, with the acquisition of a state-of-the-art drone in late January, the Fire Department can more accurately pinpoint the location of the homeless people inhabiting the city’s rivers and washes to alert them to impending storms and use that information to decrease the time to reach them if they require rescue. The drone can even deliver a life vest.

“It’s going to be a game-changer for us,” Deputy Fire Chief Justin McGough said.

Corona firefighter and paramedic, Mike Leckliter demonstrates the new state-of-the-art rescue drone outside the fire station on Tuesday, March 28, 2023. (Photo by Anjali Sharif-Paul, The Sun/SCNG)

The drone is just one of many ways, high tech, low tech and no tech, that public safety agencies in Southern California warn homeless people to move to higher ground ahead of rising water. The methods often involve person-to-person contact using outreach teams, cell phone alerts and messages broadcast over loudspeakers from police helicopters such as Riverside Police Department’s that flies over encampments in the Santa Ana River ahead of major storms.

The consequences of failing to relocate were spotlighted in November when a surge of water in the Cucamonga Wash in Ontario following a rainstorm swept three homeless people to their deaths. This winter, a seemingly never-ending series of storms has kept water levels — and the danger — high and filled creeks and rivers that can often be dry.

Firefighters look for people trapped in the rain-swollen Cucamonga wash in Ontario on Nov. 8, 2022. Several homeless people were rescued. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

“We’re always looking at ways to prevent a tragedy like that from happening,” said Orange County sheriff’s Sgt. Frank Gonzalez, who is assigned to a team of 12 deputies and a clinician in the department’s behavioral health bureau.

Six deputies are assigned to the Santa Ana River, which in OC stretches from the Riverside County border to the Pacific Ocean. When the skies are clear, the deputies offer resources such as housing and food. When rain is coming, the deputies return to urge the homeless to relocate.

A San Bernardino County Fire swift rescue team prepares to cross the Santa Ana River to rescue 8 stranded individuals in 2019. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

“The biggest thing is gaining trust, communication and showing empathy and showing over time that we are genuine. We earn their trust, they know we are empathetic to what they are going through and over time, we are able to gain compliance from a lot of these individuals,” Gonzalez said.

In Los Angeles County, sheriff’s deputies working with the Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority talk to homeless people living in rivers personally and make announcements over loudspeakers.

The Ontario deaths spurred change in San Bernardino County.

Before then, said sheriff’s spokeswoman Gloria Huerta, the threat of flood hazards to life was “generally the responsibility of flood control personnel or the jurisdiction where the risk was present.” The county’s homeless outreach team would “sometimes make notifications in major waterways,” and a sheriff’s helicopter crew would make announcements as well.

Members of a San Bernardino County homeless outreach team contact people in a flood control channel in December 2022. The county has been developing a telephone system to alert such homeless people to coming storms that would cause the water level to rise. (Courtesy of San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department)

Now, the county is working toward a more formalized process. The outreach team has been meeting with the county Office of Emergency Services and has proposed using the reverse 911 system to warn homeless people living where dangerous flooding is likely, Huerta said. In the meantime, outreach workers are handing out cards instructing homeless people how to sign up for a county emergency telephone system that sends text messages.

“It is a common misnomer that most folks who are homeless lack cell phones,” Huerta said.

Riverside County officials count on homeless people owning cell phones. The county several times during the winter storms sent alerts to cell phones, accompanied by loud tones, urging people in the Santa Ana River to move to higher ground.

Corona’s new $32,000 drone can’t make phone calls, but that’s about it.

The advantages it has over the Fire Department’s fleet of six smaller drones are that it can fly for an hour vs. 20 minutes on a battery charge, it can fly in rain and high wind, its cameras have improved zoom lenses and can detect heat signatures coming from a person from farther away, and it can deliver a payload weighing up to 7 pounds.

A homeless man clings to a tree in the Los Angeles River in the Atwater area of Los Angeles as members of the Los Angeles Fire Department’s swift water rescue team assist. LA sheriff’s deputies work with housing officials to warn homeless people living in rivers ahead of coming storms. (Photo by Mike Meadows)

Leckliter put the drone through the paces in a recent demonstration. He zoomed in on a construction worker from 1,000 feet away, close enough to get a detailed description of his build and clothing. Leckliter then snapped on an attachment and hooked a life vest to it. He pressed a button on a control panel and the drone released the vest. The drone can also drop two-way radios and bottles of water to lost hikers.

“It’s whatever our imagination is,” Leckliter said.

The infrared camera system has allowed firefighters to find homeless encampments where there were believed to be none. That will help them target more people for alerts. Operators of the drone can attach a loudspeaker and drop a pin on an electronic map that shows up on tablets that are in each fire engine, allowing crews to go more directly to victims.

Leckliter has his own fleet of drones, including a racing drone that can travel at 80 mph and one with a GPS system that will follow him as he rides his bicycle. He said he lobbied the department to purchase this advanced drone.

“As a drone pilot I understood the abilities that would bring our department to be able to more rapidly acquire intel and get to scenes faster than we ever could and ultimately decrease the risk of putting our personnel in hazardous locations when we can do the same thing with remote resources,” Leckliter said,

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​ Orange County Register 

Aquarium director: For ocean health, stop flushing period products

• April 1, 2023

Blame shame, convenience or ignorance, but studies show anywhere from half to more than two-thirds of women flush their tampons down the toilet.

Considering the average woman uses around 10,000 tampons in a lifetime, that’s a lot of period products landing in sewer systems.

Plumbers and wastewater experts have long cautioned against flushing anything but toilet paper, since other materials can cause clogs and lead to pricey repairs. Now, with growing awareness about the chemicals and microplastics found in many period products, environment and marine life advocates are adding their voices to a chorus asking folks to ditch the flushing habit.

“The concern for our aquarium is we want to make sure that people are aware that this is sort of a new reality we have to deal with,” said Marissa Wu, programs and operations director for the Roundhouse Aquarium in Manhattan Beach. Wu has made it a personal mission to educate people about the risks and alternatives to flushing period products.

Wu has been at Roundhouse Aquarium since 2016, helping to further the free site’s mission to highlight marine life native to Southern California waters, from sharks to shrimps. The aquarium recently added a display about pollution and how long it takes different materials to biodegrade in the sea. Wu said they’ve been trying to inform visitors how to cut down on waste and single-use products that too often end up in the ocean, an effort that has led her to start researching risks and alternatives to traditional tampons and pads.

Tampons must go through a review with the Food and Drug Administration before they can be sold in the United States, and experts generally consider those products safe if used as directed. But Wu pointed out that manufacturers aren’t required to list the ingredients of period products, or test results for things like chemicals and microplastics, on their packaging.

“So we’re basically putting something in a very sensitive part of our bodies that we don’t know much about,” she said.

Independent tests have found microplastics not only in wrappers and tampon applicators, but also in some tampon strings and in the tampons and pads themselves. The products otherwise are largely cotton, which is among the crops most heavily treated with pesticides. Some products also have been shown to have other chemicals, compounds and synthetic materials added to mask odors, boost absorbency and increase durability.

Such findings raised concerns for Wu in terms of personal health. And as a marine life expert, she also started to think about what happens when those materials end up in our sewer systems.

Anything flushed down the toilet can end up in oceans and other bodies of water in several ways. If sewers overflow or leak, as happens far too often, those materials end up contaminating local waters. Products like tampons also can hit screens in wastewater systems and sit there for a long time, leaching out whatever is inside of them until they’re cleared out and thrown in landfills. And some sewer systems have grinders to break down such material, which can create pieces of plastic small enough that they make it into the treated wastewater streams that many Southern California plants release into the ocean.

Once there, Wu said, “They take around 500 to 800 years to break down. … And that’s just an estimation. We don’t fully know entirely how long it’s going to take because some of the first plastics that were made are still out there, right? They still exist. So we haven’t lived long enough to have a true estimate of how long it’s going to take.”

The plastics do get smaller and smaller, she noted, with microplastics considered anything less than five millimeters. That debris can get inside algae or plankton, Wu explained. Then fish feed on that plankton, and humans feed on the fish. So yes, bits of those flushed products might eventually end up inside of us.

“And the plastics don’t break down or get passed through the systems,” Wu said. “They just stay there.”

Wu also is worried about how pesticides or other chemicals in period products might affect marine life.

“I had a friend in grad school who was studying at the shark lab over at Cal State Long Beach. She was looking at sting rays and whether toxins that were ingested by the mother were passed on to the pups before being born, through the bloodstream and placenta. So she was majorly concerned as well about feminine products ending up in the ocean.”

The good news, Wu said, is that there are alternatives.

The most basic thing people can do, she said, is to stop flushing any period products down the toilet and, instead, wrap them in toilet paper and deposit them in waste baskets. There’s been progress in making that option more convenient, she noted, with most public facilities now offering lined bins in each stall for safe disposal.

Next, Wu recommends women either consider reusable products, such as period panties or menstrual cups, or look for single-use products that are organic cotton and don’t contain plastics.

“I would encourage women to learn more about the products and learn to trust a brand,” she said.

“It’s a very personal decision, so I encourage people to treat it that way and treat yourselves with respect to make sure that you’re aware of what brands you’re using and what they put in those products. Because, on the one hand, it does affect you. But at the same time it can also help the environment if we’re more conscious about it.”

Unfortunately, reusable and organic products tend to cost substantially more than traditional period products. With reusables, Wu pointed out it’s an upfront investment that can save money over time, like buying a reusable water bottle. But with single-use products, the cost can be twice as high.

That’s why Wu is not currently in favor of any sort of government regulation on the materials used in period products, realizing it might price some lower-income women out of the market. But she would like to see companies list ingredients and test results on packaging, so consumers can at least make more informed decisions.

Then, she said, “For menstruators who can afford to be more conscientious about the environment, and more conscientious about what what is put into their feminine products, make sure they go with the brands that they trust and brands that they agree with, as far as what kind of materials they’re using and putting up against their skin in those very sensitive areas.”

Wu would also like to see more people pressure companies to ditch plastics and other potential pollutants voluntarily, for the good of their consumers and the planet.

‘If enough of us raise our hands ask companies to make things a little bit better,” she said, “maybe they will.”

​ Orange County Register 

Sen. Fetterman discharged from Walter Reed

• April 1, 2023

By Brian Rokus and Kannita Iyer | CNN

Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman has been discharged from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center where he was being treated for depression, his office announced Friday.

He will return to the Senate when it returns from recess on April 17, his office said in a news release, confirming CNN’s earlier reporting.

“I am so happy to be home,” the freshman Democrat said in a statement. “I’m excited to be the father and husband I want to be, and the senator Pennsylvania deserves. Pennsylvanians have always had my back, and I will always have theirs.”

Fetterman checked himself in last month “to receive treatment for clinical depression,” his chief of staff said at the time. A source familiar with the matter previously told CNN that while Fetterman was not suicidal, his symptoms for depression included loss of weight and loss of appetite.

“I want everyone to know that depression is treatable, and treatment works,” Fetterman added in the statement after being discharged. “This isn’t about politics — right now there are people who are suffering with depression in red counties and blue counties.

“If you need help, please get help,” he said.

Fetterman, the 53-year-old freshman who helped cement Democrats’ 51-49 Senate majority last fall, suffered a stroke last year during the days ahead of the primary. And when he returned to the campaign trail, Fetterman often struggled to communicate with lingering auditory processing issues, relying on assistance through devices with closed captioning in order to properly have conversations and answer questions.

The same auditory processing issues impacted him in his early days in the Senate. And when he struggled with substantial weight loss and a loss of appetite, he was diagnosed with clinical depression, later checking himself into Walter Reed for treatment.

Fetterman has experienced depression “off and on” over the course of his life, a statement previously issued by the senator’s chief of staff said.

In February, the senator went to the George Washington University Hospital after feeling lightheaded, his office announced. However, he was discharged two days later, and his office said that test results had been able to “rule out a new stroke.”

His lack of eating and drinking contributed to dizziness, the source previously told CNN.

​ Orange County Register 

Final Four: UConn in familiar territory as it faces Miami

• April 1, 2023

By EDDIE PELLS AP National Writer

HOUSTON — All this buzz about how a wildly unpredictable March Madness led to a Final Four nobody could possibly have seen coming overlooked one small detail.

UConn.

When the Huskies tip off against Miami in Saturday’s second semifinal, they will be two wins away from their fifth national title since 1999. No other school has won more over that span.

When the name “UConn” came up with a “4” seed next to its name three weekends ago on Selection Sunday, nobody raised too much of a stink. Four wins later – after no opponent came within 15 points of the Huskies – it’s becoming apparent this is a team that might have been overlooked. Or underestimated.

“A lot of things happened,” Coach Dan Hurley said in explaining how UConn’s profile went from world-beater to middle of the pack in midseason.

Most of that had to do with a string of six losses in eight games starting on New Year’s Eve. It was a dry spell that coincided, according to the coach, with a stretch where “we didn’t guard anybody for two weeks.” It also included two games against a then-top 25 Xavier team before it lost its star, Zach Freemantle, and a feud Hurley launched against Big East referees that he said distracted him from coaching his team.

“We left that behind,” Hurley said. “In November, December, February, March, we’ve been as good as anybody.”

UConn (29-8) ended the regular season listed eighth in the NCAA NET Rankings, a key guide for the selection committee that rates teams based on the strength of their schedules and other factors. That would have put UConn at a 2 seed. Meanwhile, Miami (29-7) was 35th in those rankings, which would have corresponded with a No. 7 seed, not the No. 5 the Hurricanes received.

The combined seedings of the four Final Four teams is 23 – the second highest since seeding began in 1979.

“How your season starts is not really reflective of how you might be in February and March,” Miami coach Jim Larrañaga said. “And it’s an impossible task for the committee to seed 1 through 68 and for everything to fall into place.”

But things have slotted in nicely for the ’Canes.

Their run to the Final Four has been sparked by one player, Isaiah Wong, whose agent put out word that Wong was considering the transfer portal if he couldn’t get a better NIL deal, and a few others, Nijel Pack and Norchad Omier, who came from elsewhere to help Larrañaga fill in a few pieces from a team that made the Elite Eight last year. Many viewed an NIL deal worth a reported $800,000 as an obvious reason Pack left Kansas State and chose the Hurricanes.

Larrañaga thinks it was more than that.

“I hope, and I really do assume, and I’m pretty sure I know, that Nijel saw the opportunity he had with Charlie graduating,” Larrañaga said of the departure of 12-points-per-game guard Charlie Moore.

All that sort of shuffling across the country has been cited as a major reason the tournament has felt so jumbled this season, and left us with a Final Four nobody saw coming.

Well, maybe not no one.

In a sign the Huskies aren’t fooling anyone anymore, UConn is a prohibitive 10-13 favorite to win it all, according to FanDuel Sportsbook.

Some might argue UConn has been as good as anyone over the past quarter century. With players such as Rip Hamilton, Kemba Walker and Emeka Okafor leading the way, the Huskies won titles in 1999, 2004, 2011 and 2014.

But shortly after 2014, the program disintegrated in the wake of recruiting violations and the ugly departure of Coach Kevin Ollie. Hurley got the job in 2018 and saw UConn was ranked 170th on the KenPom analytics rankings.

“And you start looking at who was 165 and who was 172, and UConn shouldn’t be in this neighborhood,” Hurley said.

The Final Four feels like more familiar territory for this program.

ILLNESS

UConn’s second-leading scorer, Jordan Hawkins, came down with a non-COVID illness and missed Friday’s practice. Hurley said he was optimistic that the sophomore, who averages 16 points per game, had been isolated from the team in quick enough fashion to not get anyone else sick.

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“Hopefully it just doesn’t continue to spread, and hopefully Jordan’s good to go, or at least give us something,” Hurley said.

DANCING

Some people would call it a win-lose. Larrañaga is getting buzz for his post-victory locker room dancing celebrations that look like a cross between the gopher in “Caddyshack” and Elaine from “Seinfeld.”

There’s a reason, Larrañaga said, that they call this “The Big Dance,” and he’s not going to slow down now.

“If I can entertain my players, bring a smile to their face or have them laugh, that’s great because I got thick skin,” he said. “I don’t worry about stuff like that.”

​ Orange County Register 

Grateful Ilie Sanchez, LAFC look to extend momentum in Colorado

• March 31, 2023

To his teammates, Ilie Sanchez is known as the Maestro. Or Professor. The Brain. The Nucleus.

The straw that stirs Los Angeles Football Club’s drink since joining the team last year as a free agent added another title on Wednesday.

“I like to call him a gringo now,” said Kellyn Acosta, who greeted Sanchez with chants of “U-S-A! U-S-A!” when his fellow midfielder, hailing from the Catalonia region of Spain, returned to the LAFC Performance Training facility following a successful naturalization interview. “He’s American and it’s definitely super special.”

Moving to the U.S. in 2017, following a flight from Barcelona to Tucson, Ariz., Sanchez was warmly greeted by representatives of Sporting Kansas City and shortly thereafter received a green card.

Five years later, surrounded by new friends in L.A., Sanchez, 32, waved a small American flag in celebration of his citizenship with thoughts of settling down in the States after his playing days were done.

“Growing up, my mentality was always to be where people want me to be and so far I’ve had amazing opportunities here in the U.S. to have a job that I really enjoy and really fight for,” Sanchez said. “Once I retire, or if I keep building my soccer career here, that would be an awesome situation if I could stay here for so many years.

“Nothing changed for me from yesterday when I wasn’t a citizen to today that I finally became one of you guys, but still I hope that in the next years to come I can keep building relationships and moments and memories here in the U.S.”

Currently, that means doing what he can to propel LAFC forward.

Next for Sanchez and the group is the Colorado Rapids at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, where LAFC has not won since 2018.

“We didn’t look good there last year so we still have something we’d like to prove,” LAFC head coach Steve Cherundolo said. “It’s a team who is ready to win their first game of the season and we’ll have to do everything in our power to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

After missing the playoffs following a Western Conference title in 2021, the Rapids (0-3-2, 2 points) have struggled to earn points and sit at the bottom of the league standings.

LAFC (3-0-1, 10 points) also picked up where it left off and is one of four unbeaten MLS teams heading into the Saturday evening encounter near Denver, which opens another congested segment of the early-season schedule that could amount to eight games in April if LAFC advances to the CONCACAF Champions League semifinals.

As the first leg of the quarterfinal round against Vancouver looms in Canada next week, there is no utility in looking past the Rapids. That means counting on Sanchez to do his part in the center of the park, where he has served as a “super efficient, hard-working, very clever and intelligent” contributor over 37 regular-season games and LAFC’s 2022 MLS Cup run, Cherundolo said.

“Ilie means a lot to us, as a person first,” the coach added. “Great. Just an unbelievable human being. Very kind. Great communicator. Somebody who takes other people’s feelings into consideration before his own. Really just an all-out leader for us. A fantastic guy to have in our locker room and our club. We’re extremely blessed to have him.”

LAFC AT COLORADO

When: Saturday, 6:39 p.m. PT

Where: Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, Commerce City, Colo.

TV/Radio: Apple TV+ – MLS Season Pass/710 AM, ESPN LA App, 980 AM

​ Orange County Register