SpaceX’s latest Starship test flight ends with another explosion

• March 7, 2025

By MARCIA DUNN

Nearly two months after an explosion sent flaming debris raining down on the Turks and Caicos, SpaceX launched another mammoth Starship rocket on Thursday, but lost contact minutes into the test flight as the spacecraft came tumbling down and broke apart.

This time, wreckage from the latest explosion was seen streaming from the skies over Florida. It was not immediately known whether the spacecraft’s self-destruct system had kicked in to blow it up.

The 403-foot rocket blasted off from Texas. SpaceX caught the first-stage booster back at the pad with giant mechanical arms, but engines on the spacecraft on top started shutting down as it streaked eastward for what was supposed to be a controlled entry over the Indian Ocean, half a world away. Contact was lost as the spacecraft went into an out-of-control spin.

Starship reached nearly 90 miles in altitude before trouble struck and before four mock satellites could be deployed. It was not immediately clear where it came down, but images of flaming debris were captured from Florida, including near Cape Canaveral, and posted online.

The space-skimming flight was supposed to last an hour.

“Unfortunately this happened last time too, so we have some practice at this now,” SpaceX flight commentator Dan Huot said from the launch site.

SpaceX later confirmed that the spacecraft experienced “a rapid unscheduled disassembly” during the ascent engine firing. “Our team immediately began coordination with safety officials to implement pre-planned contingency responses,” the company said in a statement posted online.

Starship didn’t make it quite as high or as far as last time.

NASA has booked Starship to land its astronauts on the moon later this decade. SpaceX’s Elon Musk is aiming for Mars with Starship, the world’s biggest and most powerful rocket.

Like last time, Starship had mock satellites to release once the craft reached space on this eighth test flight as a practice for future missions. They resembled SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites, thousands of which currently orbit Earth, and were meant to fall back down following their brief taste of space.

Starship’s flaps, computers and fuel system were redesigned in preparation for the next big step: returning the spacecraft to the launch site just like the booster.

During the last demo, SpaceX captured the booster at the launch pad, but the spacecraft blew up several minutes later over the Atlantic. No injuries or major damage were reported.

According to an investigation that remains ongoing, leaking fuel triggered a series of fires that shut down the spacecraft’s engines. The on-board self-destruct system kicked in as planned.

SpaceX said it made several improvements to the spacecraft following the accident, and the Federal Aviation Administration recently cleared Starship once more for launch.

Starships soar out of the southernmost tip of Texas near the Mexican border. SpaceX is building another Starship complex at Cape Canaveral, home to the company’s smaller Falcon rockets that ferry astronauts and satellites to orbit.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

​ Orange County Register 

Amid Altadena’s fire rubble, new HUD secretary says agency is ‘laser focused’ on mission, despite looming cuts

• March 7, 2025

After touring the devastation of the Eaton fire on Thursday morning, March 6, with Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, Scott Turner, the new secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, didn’t hold back his thoughts on what he’d just seen.

“I’m unashamed to say that my heart is broken to see that families have gone through this devastation, to see that children have gone through this devastation. It saddens me,” he said at a news conference outside Fair Oaks Burger in Altadena.

“What encourages me is to see people coming together … ideating and strategizing together, asking hard questions,” he said. “How can we rebuild? How can we rehabilitate? How can we get our lives back?”

Turner’s visit to Altadena came as the fire-weary town marks two months since Jan. 7, when the mammoth fire tore through much of the town, resulting in at least 17 deaths, along with the destruction of about 7,000 structures over 14,000 acres.

Homes. Schools. Houses of worship. Businesses – reduced to rubble in the monster blaze’s relentless, extreme wind-driven path.

Speaking before a backdrop of that rubble, in the parking lot of an iconic local restaurant that’s been providing free food to workers and emergency personnel, Turner said his department will remain focused on “serving the most vulnerable,” despite talk of extensive personnel cuts targeting his agency in Washington, D.C.

Just before his tour, HUD announced a 90-day extension of its foreclosure moratorium on Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured single-family mortgages in the areas of Los Angeles County devastated by the January 2025 wildfires.

The moratorium prohibits mortgage servicers from foreclosure actions on FHA-insured single-family forward or Home Equity Conversion mortgages in the Los Angeles County through July 7, 2025. The moratorium was originally set to expire on April 8, 2025.

Barger said her team is working to help homeowners who are facing financial problems to obtain grants to help them rebuild.

“That’s something that we’re going to be working on … at the local level, through a lot of philanthropic organizations to see if there’s going to be any grants for families so that they can build back better,” she said.

Barger called the HUD extension on the moratorium a “lifeline” to people who are “facing immense hardship.”

‘Laser focused’ amid looming cuts

Turner’s visit comes weeks after his boss, President Donald Trump, toured the devastation in the Palisades, where the Palisades fire, which also broke out on Jan. 7, consumed nearly 24,000 acres, destroyed nearly 7,000 structures and left 12 dead. Trump was in the Palisades on Jan. 24 and Turner – a former associate pastor and football player in the NFL – was ultimately confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Feb. 5.

After a disaster, his agency comes in to provide added federal recovery support after agencies such as FEMA and the Small Business Administration work to meet immediate needs in an area. A key function of the agency has been funding housing and other support for homeless people across the nation.

But Turner’s visit also came as the Trump administration looks to cut personnel and programs in federal agencies, as identified through Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE and overseen by Elon Musk.

The Associated Press reported in late February that there are plans to reduce HUD’s staffing by about half.

More than a dozen programs within the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s portfolio would be affected by the loss of some 4,000 positions detailed in documents obtained by the Associated Press, raising concerns among former HUD officials and housing advocates who say a skeletal staff could slow or even stall the department’s critical work.

HUD representatives said such leaks should not be taken as final. The AP reported that the documents, which aren’t clearly dated but were circulated back in February, include total staffing numbers, expected resignations, as well as a projected “Day 120 Headcount” and reduction percentage of staff at individual HUD offices.

But among those potential cuts is reportedly disaster relief.

The Office of Community Planning and Development — which the documents propose cutting by 84% of its staff — is the arm of HUD that helps repair homes and infrastructure after natural disasters, administering $1.65 billion sent to North Carolina after Hurricane Helene.

It also oversees homelessness initiatives and the Community Development Block Grant that funnels billions of federal dollars to local governments for community development programs, such as libraries or affordable housing.

On Thursday, Turner spoke to the question of such cuts after his tour of the area.

“We’re taking inventory of every program at HUD to ensure that the programs that we have are carrying out the mission that we have at HUD … We’re maximizing our budget. We’re taking inventory of our personnel,” he said.

“But understand … We will continue to be laser focused and deliberate about the mission that we do have,” Turner said, citing housing affordability and rampant homelessness, especially in California, as issues being faced. “We want to insure that HUD is committed, that the administration is committed, to help the families that are victims of the wildfires,” Turner said.

Two months worth of lessons

Barger, who is effectively the de facto “mayor” of the unincorporated town of Altadena, recounted several lessons that have been learned from the rebuilding efforts over the past two months, including how little faith people have in their government.

“I’ve made the commitment to lean in hard, because the community’s leaning hard on me,” she said, promising to keep her departments on their toes in the process.

“I’ve told my departments, ‘If I find that you are part of the problem, then you’re gonna either find a new job or get out of the way,’ because people expect from us to do everything we can,” she said.

Along with citing the importance of semantics in identifying those impacted by the fire as “survivors” and not “victims,” Barger said she now sees the importance of educating people about financial predators as soon as possible.

“There are people out there that are predatory in nature who are trying to take advantage of communities, offering well under price for lots, knowing that people are vulnerable,” she said.

Barger said the plan and intention is to keep the character of Altadena intact as they rebuild, noting its vast history as it relates to redlining.

“It’s important for us to protect that history and actually build on it with lessons learned,” she said.

Turner made note of the courage and resolve he’s witnessed among area residents.

“There’s no quit,” he said. “There’s not a give-up attitude here. There’s not a victim attitude here. There’s a victorious attitude here, despite the devastation.”

“I want to encourage everyone to hold on to that resolve and be unified together and working together,” he said. “The government is a convener, a facilitator, but the people working here together with leadership, like the supervisor and others, I believe, will build not only great, swift results but also long-term sustainability.”

Turner said he was blessed and humbled to serve as the secretary of HUD, having faced his own personal challenges.

“I’ve gone through struggles and hardship in personal life,” he said. “I understand what it means to overcome adversity.”

“As I stand here today, I want you all to know I’m with you and that I believe, as we come together as a team, as the American people — and I know the president would feel and say the same — there’s nothing we can’t do,” he said.

Jarret Liotta is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and photographer. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

​ Orange County Register 

Gustavo Dudamel discusses his final season leading Los Angeles Philharmonic

• March 7, 2025

Conductor Gustavo Dudamel came to the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2009, and in the years since then both he and the orchestra found fame as he rose to eventually be both its musical and artistic director.

But things change, and after 17 years, Dudamel will leave the LA Phil for the same roles at the New York Philharmonic at the end of the Los Angeles orchestra’s 2025-26 season.

On Thursday, Dudamel sat down at Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles to talk with Kim Noltemy, the LA Phil president and CEO, about his plans for that 17th and final season, which kicks off in September. The LA Phil has dubbed the season “Gracias Gustavo,” but to Dudamel, the thanks are all his to give.

“It is an overwhelming moment, you know, to see all of this journey, all of this beautiful, deep, wonderful journey,” Dudamel said from the stage of the BP Hall inside the orchestra’s home on Grand Avenue. “The privilege that I have for all of these years to lead this wonderful orchestra? I feel blessed. You know, I think it’s not ‘gracias, Gustavo.

“This orchestra embraced me since the very first moment that I came here to Los Angeles when I was a young conducting animal,” he said to the laughter of reporters and LA Phil staffers as he referenced the way some described him in his earliest days.

And while Dudamel may be leaving the LA Phil, the LA Phil will remain a world-class orchestra long after his departure, Dudamel said.

“I have to say we have created a wonderful artistic human environment to make beautiful music for Los Angeles,” he said. “This is the great thing of this institution. I came here in 2009 and people ask me, ‘What has changed?’ or ‘What you have done?’ Nothing. It has been a natural path. We have created our own style, our own mission.

“I cannot take (credit for) that as an individual,” Dudamel continued. “It has been a work of our team, the administration, the artistic team, and the orchestra, who is on the stage and play all of this wonderful music. So this is something that will never end.

“We are closing a chapter, and we are opening a new chapter. I think it’s very important for art institutions to evolve and to be flexible to new things. You know, we cannot be so selfish and say, like, Okay, I’m the one.

“It’s beautiful to see that we are closing a chapter in such a beautiful state of our relationship,” Dudamel said. “It’s not closing a chapter because it’s not working anymore. It’s working perfectly, and it’s wonderful because in this case it will be a beautiful path to the next person that will lead this orchestra.”

In the final season, Dudamel will lead 14 different programs from the podium in front of the orchestra, most of them over a handful of days and nights.

His season opens in September with the world premiere of a work by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ellen Reid for orchestra and choir co-commissioned by the LA Phil and New York Philharmonic. It is paired with Richard Strauss’s “An Alpine Spring.”

In October, Dudamel will conduct a pair of Stravinsky ballets, “The Firebird Suite” and “The Rite of Spring,” both of which he is closely associated, and pairs them with the United States premiere of “Frenzy” by John Adams, the LA Phil’s creative chair. Later in that month, he’ll conduct the orchestra with the Los Angeles Master Chorale in Mahler’s Second Symphony, and also take the philharmonic for a two-week, three-country tour of Seoul, Tokyo, and Taipei and Tainan, Taiwan.

After a winter break, Dudamel returns in February for several programs focused around Beethoven, one featuring his music for the play “Egmont” as well as pieces by Ricardo Lorenz and Robert Schumann, and the other his first-ever time leading the LA Phil in Beethoven’s “Missa solemnis,” a piece he described as one of the most difficult a conductor can take on.

“This is a piece some conductors are afraid to do because it has such a dimension,” Dudamel said of the work for orchestra and chorus. “It goes beyond the architecture, the technical part of the music, which is huge. To study that score is fascinating. Every time that I open the score, I discover a new room in that beautiful building that is this piece.

“Generally, conductors wait until they get to an age, old age especially, to do this piece,” said the 44-year-old conductor. “Because it’s like a sacred kind of unique place.

“I believe this piece is about faith,” he said. “It makes me really believe, you know, in this other dimension of greatness and beauty that Beethoven was trying to put in this music. With this difficult score, insane, you know, request for singers, for orchestra.

“I said, ‘Look, at least I have some gray hair,’” Dudamel said, laughing. “I’m looking forward. I’m afraid.”

At the end of February into March, he’ll first do an LA Phil commissioned ballet score, Gabriela Ortiz’s “Revolución diamanatina,” written in response and in support of Mexican women’s uprising against violence in 2019. That also features the world premiere of the ballet by dance company Grupo Corpo. Next comes another Beethoven, his “Pastoral” symphony, matched with Thomas Ades’ “Inferno’ from Dante, another commissioned ballet score, this one a 2024 Grammy winner for best orchestral performance.

March also sees the world premiere of an LA Phil commissioned piece by a variety of L.A.-based composers in celebration of the Judy Baca mural “The Great Wall of Los Angeles,” which Dudamel described being blown away by when his friend the movie director Alejandro González Iñárritu introduced him to.

“He said, ‘We’ll get some dinner, but I want to show you something very special that you will not believe that is there,’” Dudamel said of Iñárritu, who is contributing an original film component to the work. “So we went to this area of the city, and we started to walk on the street, and then suddenly we saw this mural with all the history of Los Angeles. I said, ‘Like, how is this beautiful thing there?’

“So we were dreaming,” he said. “We were sitting there in the grass watching all of these beautiful (images) that Judy Baca created together with a wonderful group of young people, which she worked with. And we say that we have to do something. We have to show this to the world. To Los Angeles, too.”

In May, Dudamel, director Alberto Arvelo, and architect Frank Gehry, who designed the iconic Walt Disney Concert Hall, reunite for Wagner’s “Die Walküre,” with an elaborate production Dudamel suggested surpasses what they created for Wagner’s “Das Rheingold,” the first part of Wagner’s Ring Cycle.

“We are like the three amigos,” he said of his close friendships with Arvelo and Gehry. “We have a little bit of tequila, and I say, ‘It’s gonna be expensive.’ It’s going to be very expensive. So there’s something special happening next year.”

Also in May, star cellist Yo-Yo Ma is coming to work with Dudamel for the world premiere of a new concerto by Puerto Rican composer Angélica Negrón,  and later that month, a combination of Strauss’s “Ein Heldenleben” and one more world premiere of an LA Phil commission by Puerto Rican composer Roberto Sierra.

After an evening of concertos on June 4, designed to showcase many of the soloists Dudamel has worked with in the orchestra over the years, he completes his work at the LA Phil with “Gracias Gustavo: Celebrating 17 Years,” with works that honor his Venezuelan and American identities, and close this chapter of his career.

Asked by Noltemy what he hoped audiences will take from this final season, Dudamel said his hope is a simple one.

“That they enjoy it,” he replied. And then came a flash of the humor and charisma that has made him so beloved here.

“I hope I am not doing the concert and people are like, ‘Why did he pick this?’ Come and suffer with the LA Phil!’” Dudamel finished as he and the room burst into laughter.

​ Orange County Register 

No. 2 USC women staying present-minded entering Big Ten Tournament

• March 7, 2025

The USC women’s basketball team has gained confidence and grown from handing UCLA its only two losses of the season – the latter of which earned the Trojans the Big Ten Conference regular-season title.

That fact is still on the Bruins’ minds, but USC is living in the present now that the team has arrived in Indianapolis as the top seed for the Big Ten Tournament.

“That (accomplishment) should be part of who we are, but it doesn’t give us any points,” Trojans head coach Lindsay Gottlieb told reporters Thursday. “We’re trying to win – and it’s unique to win three games in three days. We’re locked in on that challenge.”

The Trojans (26-2 overall) will play ninth-seeded Indiana (19-11), which beat eighth-seeded Oregon 78-62 on Thursday, and will have to win three games in a row in order to take home a second conference trophy Sunday.

Second-seeded UCLA (27-2) is on the opposite side of the bracket, making a third rivalry game of the season a realistic possibility.

“I don’t think it’s hard to keep them from looking ahead,” Gottlieb said, “and the reason for that is we’ve talked about whether we play Indiana or Oregon, that is like a second round and NCAA Tournament game. In this league, if you’re an eight, nine seed – shoot, if you’re a 10, 11 seed in our conference – you’re probably an eight, nine seed in the NCAA Tournament.”

Five Big Ten teams are currently ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, proving the intensity of the conference. USC is the highest-ranked Big Ten team at No. 2 and took home multiple all-conference honors.

JuJu Watkins was named Player of the Year and Gottlieb is Coach of the Year. Watkins and Kiki Iriafen are first-team selections while Rayah Marshall and Kennedy Smith earned second-team recognition.

The success against Big Ten opponents as well as the travel schedule have USC feeling prepared for a strong Big Ten Tournament appearance as well as a lengthy NCAA Tournament run.

“A lot of these teams could be second-round games,” Iriafen said. “In the Big Ten, you can see so many different things and just speaking for myself and my position, sometimes I’m guarding a more post-y post and then other games I’m guarding a guard who’s just really playing the four. It’s a different defensive matchup every single night. The Big Ten keeps you on your toes.”

USC beat Indiana, 73-66, on Jan. 19. The Trojans fell behind early but gained a six-point advantage at halftime before putting together a 12-0 scoring run in the fourth quarter to seal the win.

Four starters – Watkins, Iriafen, Smith and Marshall – scored in double figures and Talia von Oelhoffen added 10 points off the bench.

“We built a lead and then we lost the lead because we put them at the free-throw line,” Indiana coach Teri Moren said of USC on Thursday. “We tell our kids after every opponent: They don’t need your help. So quit fouling them, quit putting them at the free-throw line, make them earn everything. It’s another shot at one of the best teams in the country and one of the best players in the country. It’s going to take our very best.”

No. 2 USC vs. INDIANA

When: Friday, 9 a.m. PT

Where: Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Indianapolis

TV: Big Ten Network

​ Orange County Register 

Miguel’s Jr. is serving fries for the first time

• March 7, 2025

This is a week of firsts for Miguel’s Jr.

The family-owned, Corona-based chain is serving fries and churros for the first time and has a new recipe for carne asada, according to president and chief executive officer Javier Vasquez.

Miguel’s Jr. began serving loaded fries with carne asada for $13.99 on Wednesday, March 5. They were an immediate best-seller, Vasquez said in a phone interview.

“Carne fries have been growing in Mexican cuisine, and we just wanted to have fun.”

The new carne asada is made with a wet marinade instead of a dry marinade, he said.

ALSO SEE: Chipotle Mexican Grill introduces Chipotle Honey Chicken

Although carne asada is the recommended protein, customers can also order loaded fries with chicken or beef. They also come with a scoop of guacamole, jack cheese, serrano salsa, tomatoes, cilantro and onions.

Fries are also offered in a $12.79 Cali Burrito, also made with carne asada, or by themselves for $4.49.

The churro, which has warm caramel filling, costs $2.29.

Vasquez said fries and churros are not frozen, so the chain can keep its commitment to having no freezers in its restaurants.

The fries and churro are available for a limited time, but the carne asada will be a permanent menu item, according to Vasquez.

Information: miguelsjr.com

​ Orange County Register 

Trump casts doubt on NATO solidarity, despite it aiding the US after Sept. 11

• March 7, 2025

By MICHELLE L. PRICE

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday expressed uncertainty that NATO would come to the U.S.’s defense if the country were attacked, though the alliance did just that after Sept. 11 — the only time in its history that the defense guarantee has been invoked.

Trump also suggested that the U.S. might abandon its commitments to the alliance if member countries don’t meet defense spending targets, a day after his pick for NATO ambassador assured senators that the administration’s commitment to the military alliance was “ironclad.”

Trump’s comments denigrating NATO, which was formed to counter Soviet aggression during the Cold War, are largely in line with his yearslong criticism of the alliance, which he has accused of not paying its fair share toward the cost of defense. But they come at a time of heightened concern in the Western world over Trump’s cozy relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has long seen NATO as a threat, and as the U.S. president seeks to pressure Ukraine into agreeing to a peace deal with the country that invaded it three years ago.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sent the alliance into upheaval last month when he said in a speech that the U.S. would not participate in any peacekeeping force in Ukraine, which is not a NATO member, and would not defend any country that participated in it if attacked by Russia.

Trump said Thursday in the Oval Office that other countries would not come to the defense of the U.S. — though they have done exactly that, in the only instance that the Article 5 defense guarantee was invoked.

“You know the biggest problem I have with NATO? I really, I mean, I know the guys very well. They’re friends of mine. But if the United States was in trouble, and we called them, we said, ‘We got a problem, France. We got a problem, couple of others I won’t mention. Do you think they’re going to come and protect us?’ They’re supposed to. I’m not so sure.”

Article 5 was invoked after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, leading to NATO’s largest operation in Afghanistan. France’s military participated in the operation.

“We are loyal and faithful allies,” French President Emmanuel Macron responded Thursday, expressing “respect and friendship” towards U.S. leaders.

“I think we’re entitled to expect the same,” he said.

Macron invoked “centuries-old history,” namechecking the Marquis de Lafayette, a 19-year-old French nobleman, who was a major-general in the American Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, and Gen. John Pershing, commander of the American army in France during World War I. Macron added that a few days ago, he met American World War II veterans who landed on Omaha Beach as part of the D-Day invasion of Nazi-occupied France.

France and the U.S. “have always been there for each other,” Macron said.

When asked Thursday if it he was making it U.S. policy that the U.S. would not defend NATO countries that don’t meet military spending targets, Trump said, “well, I think it’s common sense, right? If they don’t pay, I’m not going to defend them. No, I’m not going to defend them.”

Trump has suggested since his 2016 presidential campaign that the U.S. under his leadership might not comply with the alliance’s mutual defense guarantees and would only defend countries that met targets to commit 2% of their gross domestic products on military spending.

The U.S. is the most powerful nation of the seven-decade alliance, has the largest economy among members and spends more on defense than any other member.

The U.S. was one of 12 nations that formed NATO following World War II to counter the threat posed by the Soviet Union to Western European during the Cold War. Its membership has since grown to 32 countries, and its bedrock mutual defense guarantee, known as Article 5, states that an attack on one member is considered an attack on all.

Trump on Thursday also seemed to suggest the U.S. commitment to NATO might be leveraged in his trade war as he seeks to target what he says are unfair trade policies with other nations, including the European Union.

“I view NATO as potentially good, but you’ve got to get, you’ve got to get some good thinking in NATO. It’s very unfair, what’s been happening,” Trump said. “Until I came along, we were paying close to 100% of NATO. So think of it, we’re paying 100% of their military, and they’re screwing us on trade.”

On Wednesday, Trump’s choice for NATO ambassador, Matt Whitaker, said at his confirmation hearing that in regards to the U.S. commitment to the NATO alliance and specifically Article 5, “It will be ironclad.”

Last year, NATO’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said a record 23 of NATO’s 32 member nations had hit the military alliance’s defense spending target.

Trump has taken credit for countries meeting those targets because of his threats, and Stoltenberg himself has said Trump was responsible for getting other nations to increase their spending.

Associated Press writer Sylvie Corbet in Brussels contributed to this report.

​ Orange County Register 

Convicted Capitol rioter to speak at Laguna Woods GOP event amid backlash

• March 7, 2025

Jeffrey Scott Brown, one of the first three men to be convicted for assaulting police during the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot, will be hosted Friday by a local Republican club that has described him as a patriot and a “victim of the January 6 tragedy.”

Brown, of Santa Ana, is slated to be the key speaker at the March 7 monthly luncheon of the Republican Club of Laguna Woods. He’s expected to share his story from Jan. 6 and offer “updates on his court case and pardon,” according to the club.

The meeting is open only to club members and their guests, though club president Pat Micone said a video recording might be available later.

“We have chosen to keep this event private. We look forward to hearing our speaker’s story,” said Micone.

Security camera footage and a YouTube video captured images of Brown spraying pepper spray at Capitol and Metropolitan police officers, according to court records. In the video, Brown is seen at the Lower West Terrace entrance, using his body to push the crowd forward and spraying an officer whose gas mask had been torn off his face.

Court records show that Brown initially struggled to use the spray canister before being shown how to operate it. But once he mastered the technique, Brown moved to the front of the rioters and sprayed officers as they tried to maintain the line.

In December 2022, Brown and two other men were convicted for their actions during the Capitol riot, which delayed a joint session of Congress convened to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election. Brown was sentenced to four and a half years in federal prison.

But Brown’s situation changed in January, when President Donald Trump issued full commutations and pardons to those indicted or sentenced in connection with the Capitol riot. That list included people, like Brown, convicted of crimes involving violence against police officers.

According to the invitation for the luncheon, Brown’s interest in politics was sparked in June, 2015, when Trump descended the escalator at Trump Tower to announce his White House run. It was, according to the invite, “an event that marked the beginning of and engaging and transformative journey.”

It’s unclear if Brown would be welcome at all other GOP events.

Will O’Neill, the newly elected chair of the Orange County Republican Party, said the county party has no position on Brown’s invitation to speak. He noted that local Republican clubs operate independently of the Orange County GOP, and the Republican Club of Laguna Woods is not officially recognized by the county party.

Brown’s appearance also has drawn attention from outside the Republican party. The Laguna Woods Democratic Club has scheduled a protest outside the meeting, just before the luncheon begins.

The Democratic group’s president, Mary Ribando, said the club has received complaints about Brown’s appearance, from members and from others in Laguna Woods.

“Within the village, we have been in touch with security and the village administration. Our hope was they might ask the Republican club to rescind the invitation to their scheduled speaker, but free speech prevails,” she said.

Trump’s decision to grant a blanket pardon to all protesters, including those who engaged in violence during the Capitol riot, initially drew criticism from some Republican lawmakers, including Rep. Young Kim, R-Anaheim Hills, who represents Laguna Woods in the House.

“It’s an insult to the law enforcement and police officers who work every day to protect our community and individuals like us,” Kim told the Hill in January. “Especially those (police) who work in the Capitol, we owe them a debt of gratitude for doing what they do.”

Since then Kim hasn’t issued any public statements about the pardons. When Kim’s office was contacted to comment for this story, a spokesperson referred back to the quote from January.

In early January, before Trump issued the pardon, Vice President JD Vance suggested any Jan. 6 clemency should not extend to people who committed violence. Since then, however, Vance has defended Trump’s decision, claiming the Jan. 6 defendants faced the “weight of a weaponized Department of Justice.”

The upcoming talk in Laguna Woods isn’t the first time a Jan. 6 convict has been celebrated as a patriot in Southern California. In January, Derek Kinnison of Lake Elsinore, who was sentenced to over two years in prison, received a hero’s welcome at a church in Temecula.

​ Orange County Register 

Orange County scores and player stats for Thursday, March 6

• March 7, 2025

Support our high school sports coverage by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribe now

Scores and stats from Orange County games on Thursday, March 6

Click here for details about sending your team’s scores and stats to the Register.

The deadline for submitting information is 10:45 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 p.m. Saturday.

THURSDAY’S SCORES

BOYS SOCCER

CIF SOCAL REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

Semifinals

DIVISION I

JSerra 4, St. Augustine (San Diego) 0

DIVISION III

Bell 3, Anaheim 2

DIVISION IV

Central Union (San Diego) 2, Laguna Beach 1

DIVISION V

Classical Academy (San Diego) 1, St. Margaret’s 0

BASEBALL

NONLEAGUE

Marina 1, Ocean View 0

Newport Harbor 3, Dana Hills 2

SOFTBALL

DAVE KOPS TOURNAMENT

La Habra 7, Sunnyside 6

St. Joseph 1, El Toro 0

Cypress 8, Fountain Valley 2

Fullerton 2, Hamilton 1

Whittier Christian 10, Kofa 0

Villa Park 4, South Hills 1

Capistrano Valley 9, Lakewood 2

Coronado 3, JSerra 2

El Modena 8, Westlake 0

La Habra 4, Ridgeline 1

Mater Dei 4, Torrance 3

Pacifica 3, Agoura 0

Canyon 7, Campo Verde 1

Canyon 4, Murrieta Mesa 2

BOYS GOLF

NONLEAGUE

Canyon 198, El Modena 206

BOYS VOLLEYBALL

EMPIRE LEAGUE

Calvary Chapel def. Kennedy, 26-24, 25-18, 25-14

NONLEAGUE

Godinez def. Fairmont Prep, 25-19, 25-19, 25-21

​ Orange County Register