Anaheim pay proposal would destroy jobs and take the city in the wrong direction

• March 29, 2023

As a general rule, working conditions and pay rates in private companies ought to be determined in the open marketplace, through negotiations between companies and their workers – as well as their unions, when appropriate – and not at the ballot box.

We therefore oppose a proposal by a hotel-workers’ union to ask Anaheim voters to impose costly measures on the city’s hotel operators. The union claims it has gathered the requisite number of signatures to place such a measure on the 2024 ballot. Similar measures have had mixed results in other Orange County cities.

The measure would require that hoteliers pay hotel workers at least $25 an hour, which is $9.50 an hour above the state’s current minimum wage. It limits the amount of rooms that housekeepers could clean in a day – unless the hotels double that wage for the entire working period.

The city’s hotel and business groups have yet to publicly respond, but it’s easy to understand what such an aggressive minimum-wage proposal would do: reduce service, create layoffs and increase hotel room rates.

Related Articles

The proposal also claims to protect hotel workers from harassment by mandating that hotels provide panic buttons monitored by security guards, but hotel owners already have security measures in place and the incentive to protect their housekeeping workers.

The union claims the wage hikes and security measures would boost Anaheim’s tourism industry, but we’d expect the reverse. This may be a tactic to pressure the City Council to pass higher wages that the union has been unable to secure through the negotiating process.

These measures are justified “because hotels and event centers receive benefits from city assets,” according to the initiative language. In 2018, Disneyland ultimately rejected city subsidies for a hotel as voters approved a measure that would have boosted the minimum wage for hotels that receive a tax rebate.

Anaheim’s subsidy culture created fertile ground for the recent corruption scandal, but that speaks to the need for less government meddling in the resort industry. Hotels shouldn’t receive subsidies, nor should voters or City Council determine wage rates.

​ Orange County Register 

Is coffee bringing people back to the office?

• March 29, 2023

By Julia Hobsbawm

I was in New York for in-person work meetings a few weeks ago. While there were the requisite lunches and cocktails at my favorite haunts, one thing stood out: coffee. My working assumption that coffee is an unremarkable and often undrinkable aspect of working life changed when I realized that it’s playing a central role in rebuilding corporate office culture in the new hybrid era.

For employees returning to offices on a hybrid basis, on average three days a week, having a coffee with someone is the perfect way to rebuild relationships with people they haven’t seen in possibly three years. As I wrote in this column recently, offices break the isolation and monotony of working from home and yet company leaders have to work hard at offsetting the drag of the commute, especially given the fact that the pandemic showed remote workers could be successful.

I took my anecdotal observations to the research firm Ipsos, which analyzed location data from nearly 10 million mobile phones in over 5,000 coffee shops in the New York City area for me. It showed that only 12% of visits occur during working hours, but outside lunch hours. It’s hard to argue with the appeal of free coffee in the office given surging inflation.

I saw the benefits of coffee in reviving office camaraderie first hand on a tour of the Park Avenue offices of corporate real estate consultants Savills Plc. Vice Chairman Gabe Marans showed me a plethora of newly refurbished work spaces from small, soundproofed booths to open plan cubicles and some offices complete with their own sofas and tables forming  a corner office look with privacy for senior executives. But the pride of the renovation is a vast kitchen/hangout area called “The Happy Room.”

The coffee break and its role in bringing people together socially isn’t new. In the 17th and 18th centuries, coffee became a competitor to tea as the beverage of choice for both elites and workers. In his book A History of the World in 6 Glasses, the writer Tom Standage describes European coffee houses as “the internet of the Age of Reason.” Today the coffee break is widely understood as much in a work context as anything, with the “Fika” break in Sweden, “Elevenses” in the UK or even “Smoko” in Australia or the frequently seen canned coffee in Japan, normally the home of tea. Although the US is the largest coffee machine market, the fastest-growing is Asia.

What’s new today is the way the office is aiming to emulate the coffee house in-house. Coffee consumption is rising while office use has halved in cities like New York compared to before the pandemic. Global green bean exports in November 2022 totaled 9.2 million bags up 10.8% from the same month of the previous year, according to the International Coffee Organization. On the ground, media magnate Sir Martin Sorrell told me that despite reducing his office space to factor in a three-days-in norm, he agrees “totally” that redefining offices around social space has become indispensable for clients and teams alike.

That’s especially true now that many workers don’t have assigned desks. “When the time came to reopen our London office, we switched to hot-desking. A more flexible use of office space ensures you always have room to grow your team if your revenue does,” said Drew Benvie, chief executive officer of communications agency Battenhall. Expanding the social space when people are coming in at unpredictable times is a way to mitigate there being nowhere for employees to sit. Battenhall recently posted “a day in the office” on TikTok to underscore that the hot desk life is fun, though the practice remains a topic of debate.

Now to the issue of quality. Gone are the stewed pots of tasteless water. It was notable on my recent trip that I was offered not even the pod-brewed coffee supplied by Starbucks, but the specialist, expensive expresso variety administered from top-of-the-range machines. But the one which got me most was delivered on tap:  nitro coffee  (Reader: it’s punchy).

Obviously, social life and office life have combined before, but the emphasis used to be on out-of-office bonding — happy hours and beers on Friday kind of stuff. These days, no one is in the office on a Friday if they can help it. So what happens during working hours to keep people connected matters a lot — and coffee is rising to the challenge.

Julia Hobsbawm is a columnist for Bloomberg Work Shift and founder of The Nowhere Office. Her Nowhere Office podcast series is here. email: jhobsbawm@bloomberg.net

​ Orange County Register 

Big & Rich will headline the Old Town Music Festival in Temecula

• March 29, 2023

The Old Town Music Festival will return for a third year at The Temecula Stampede on Saturday, June 17.

Promoters announced that country music act Big & Rich, the duo responsible for songs like “Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy),” “Holy Water” and “Comin’ to Your City,” will headline along with support from Eddie Montgomery of Montgomery Gentry, Coffey Anderson, Creed Fisher, Runaway June and Cowboy Troy. Additional artists will be announced in the coming months.

Tickets are $59-$119 and are available now at oldtownmusicfestival.com.

Once again, the parking lot of The Stampede will be turned into the outdoor festival grounds with a large stage, several full bars, barbeque and other activities. The inside of the venue is a great escape from the heat and will include additional performances, full bars, line dancing and mechanical bull riding. The festival is all-ages and will take place from noon to 10 p.m.

The Old Town Music Festival’s inaugural year in 2021 was a big success. It was a two-day affair featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, Chris Janson, The Band Perry and Tyler Farr. The event returned in 2022 with headliners Nelly and Jamey Johnson.

Related Articles

​ Orange County Register 

Recipe: This asparagus soup, made with fennel and basil, is irresistible

• March 29, 2023

Many spoons filled with asparagus soup have passed my lips. Some thick with cream, others thinned with broth or fat-reduced evaporated milk. I’ve enjoyed some more than others, but perhaps my very favorite along with the asparagus is packed with fresh fennel and basil, yielding a flavorful, creamy mix that is topped off with a little Pernod. A swallow of this tasty soup leaves irresistible flavors dancing in my mouth.

Pernod is made from distillates of star anise, fennel and 14 other botanicals such as coriander and mint. Truth be told, I sometimes make myself a small cocktail while the soup cooks, diluting the Pernod with ice water, a process that produces a tempting cloudy mix.

Cook’s notes: As with many pureed soups, if the soup is too thick, before serving add more broth to reach the correct consistency and return to heat to warm it. Use salted butter if you like but reduce the amount of salt that is added in step 2 by a little bit (soup will be tasted before serving and it may need more salt). To wash fennel and leeks: place the cut-up fennel and leeks in bowl of cold water. Swirl around to remove dirt. Drain in colander and shake colander to remove excess water. The soup can be refrigerated for up to 5 days or frozen for up to 6 months.

Asparagus and Fennel Soup

Yield: 6 to 8 servings

INGREDIENTS

2 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter; see cook’s notes

5 cups (3/4-inch-diced) fresh fennel, tops and cores removed (2 fennel bulbs), see cook’s notes

3 cups coarsely chopped leeks, white and light green parts, (2 leeks), see cook’s notes

2 1/2 cups chopped yellow onions (2 onions)

1 pound medium-thick fresh asparagus

1/2 cup long-grain white rice

8 cups chicken broth

3 large sprigs fresh thyme, tied together with cotton kitchen string

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup julienned (leaves cut crosswise into thin strips) fresh basil leaves, plus extra for garnish

2 tablespoons Pernod liqueur

1/2 cup half-and-half

For serving: freshly grated Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large pot, heat oil and butter over medium heat and add fennel, leeks, and onions. Cut or break-off the tough bottoms of the asparagus and discard. Cut off 8 (2-inch) tips from the asparagus and reserve. Slice the remaining stalks into 1/2-inch thick crosswise slices and add them to the pot. Cook the vegetables for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, cooking until very tender.

2. Add rice to vegetables, pour in the chicken broth, add tied-up thyme, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper. Bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until rice is very tender. Discard thyme bundle.

3. Meanwhile, bring a small saucepan of water to a boil. Add the reserved asparagus tops and cook for 2 minutes, drain and transfer to a bowl of ice water. Set aside.

4. Puree the soup with an immersion blender. (You can use a regular blender but be careful not to overfill it; divide mixture into batches and hold down the lid with a potholder.) Stir in half-and-half, taste for seasonings, and reheat over low heat. Ladle into soup bowls and garnish with julienned basil, Parmesan cheese and a blanched asparagus tip.

Source: Adapted from “Cooking for Jeffrey” by Ina Garten (Clarkson Potter, $35)

Cooking question? Contact Cathy Thomas at cathythomascooks@gmail.com

Related Articles

​ Orange County Register 

Alexander: It should be a fun MLB summer in Southern California

• March 29, 2023

The game itself will be better. That’s almost a sure thing as Baseball 2023 begins its long march to November, with rules changes designed to quicken the pace, encourage offense and return the sport to what it used to be.

But will the local teams be better?

The oddsmakers say no. This Space says yes. Hapless optimism, or do I sense something the wise guys don’t? We’ll see.

You might have seen our staff predictions already. Five of the seven of us who were polled agree that the Angels will get back into the postseason for the first time since 2014, as a wild-card team. I’m not ready to predict they’ll get any farther than that this year, nor am I ready to forecast that just getting back to the postseason will be enough to keep Shohei Ohtani in an Angels uniform. But hope is built on small beginnings, right?

And let’s face it. Angels fans who grumble because Arte Moreno isn’t selling the team – and there are a lot of them – need something, anything, to sustain that hope. A better, deeper roster and the opportunity to fool the experts at least a little bit is a start.

It helps that the Angels have added proven big-leaguers to replace the youngsters and fringy guys who had to step in a year ago when injuries scrambled the roster. Gio Urshela, Hunter Renfroe and Brandon Drury provide superior offensive production to last year’s replacement players, and they can bolster a lineup that could be awfully scary if Ohtani, Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon are all healthy and performing up to their capabilities.

There are also signs that General Manager Perry Minasian understands the critical role of not only depth but having several multi-position players on a roster, similar to the way the Angels’ neighbors one county to the north have been built. (Of course, this could be a challenge for Phil Nevin in his first full season as Angels manager, convincing players that they won’t necessarily be on the lineup card in the same spot – or at all – every day. But it’s been done.)

Pitching, for a change, wasn’t what sunk the Angels in 2022. The bullpen is potentially good and the rotation should be better than average, bolstered by All-Star Tyler Anderson and anchored by Ohtani, who I’m predicting will win the American League Cy Young Award in addition to getting serious MVP consideration again.

Bottom line: When you have two of the best players in the world on your roster, something’s got to go right at some point, doesn’t it? And as for the idea that things need to go right to keep one of those two … well, if that doesn’t spark some extra urgency organizationally, maybe there is no hope after all.

As for the team 30 miles up the 5? I’m calling my shot now.

In a year when the game returns to a classic style, get ready for a classic World Series: Dodgers vs. Yankees. And it says here that 2023 will be a repeat of 1981, which will be perfect symmetry in a season in which the Dodgers will finally retire Fernando Valenzuela’s No. 34.

Yeah, I’m sort of lonely among our prediction panel. San Diego, punching way above its market-size weight in terms of payroll, received four of the other six votes as World Series winners, with Atlanta and Toronto getting the remaining two. And it’s possible I’m just being overly counterintuitive, but I’m guessing this will be a season in which the Dodgers toss the script that has sustained them for much of the past decade and find another way to the finish line, this time lying in the weeds as a wild-card team.

They’ve been the hunted for the past decade, winning the NL West in nine of the past 10 seasons and requiring 107 wins by San Francisco to beat them in the other. In that 10-season stretch under the stewardship of Guggenheim Baseball, they’ve played .612 ball, they’ve won more than 100 games four times in the past six seasons (and had a .717 winning percentage in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season), and have led all of baseball in regular-season victories three times.

And all they’ve brought back in that span was one lousy Commissioner’s Trophy, in 2020, and the final game of that World Series against Tampa Bay featured the other manager’s move that backfired. More often their own pitching usage miscues have cost them, and while Dave Roberts always gets the blame, we can debate whether the manager or a front office overly active in strategy decisions should actually be held accountable.

So maybe it’s time for a different approach, tailored to the expanded playoffs and necessitated by a roster that begins the season with more youngsters and more questions. And by not extending themselves to rack up huge margins in the regular season, they can be fresher for the postseason – and by this, I mean not only the players but the manager, coaches and executives.

The Padres, as noted, have gone all-in. Their 40-man roster payroll of $275.8 million is projected to be the third-highest in baseball by Cot’s Contracts, trailing only the New York clubs (the Mets at $375.3 million and the Yankees at $295.3 million), while some $25.4 million ahead of the No. 5 Dodgers.

So let them spend. We were reminded again last year, the first of the expanded playoffs and wild-card series byes, that being hot in October is what matters. The 89-win Padres eliminated teams that won 101 and 111 games (Mets and Dodgers), 87-win Philadelphia eliminated teams that won 93 and 101 games (St. Louis and Atlanta), and then the Phillies got to the World Series … where Houston was waiting for them. End of fairy tale.

The Dodgers’ lineup, even with the star power of Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, is not the same monster that it’s been at the start of recent seasons. But Andrew Friedman tends to do his best work at the trade deadline, and I’d be willing to bet that the roster will be a lot stronger after the deadline and at least a couple of the youngsters on the Opening Day 26-man will have significant impacts.

Related Articles

The danger, as usual, lies in Friedman and his R&D staff overthinking things in the postseason and orderi– … er, suggesting … strange pitching strategies, such as using an opener in Game 5 against the Giants in 2021 with repercussions that affected Julio Urías and Max Scherzer in the NLCS against the Braves.

But if the front office can be persuaded to stay in its lane – I know, that’s a lot to ask – I can easily see the Dodgers getting on a roll in the postseason. And this time, it says here, the Dodgers eliminate the Padres in the NLCS and win Game 6 of the World Series in Yankee Stadium. They haven’t clinched a World Series in L.A. since 1963. Why start now?

This time, at least, they’d get a parade.

jalexander@scng.com

​ Orange County Register 

US home prices fell in January for the 7-straight month

• March 29, 2023

U.S. home prices fell for the seventh month in a row in January, as the Case-Shiller US National Home Price Index is now 3% off its 2022 peak.

“2023 began as 2022 had ended, with US home prices falling for the seventh consecutive month,” said Craig Lazzara, managing director at S&P Dow Jones Indices.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, U.S. prices fell 0.2% for month and are now only up 3.8% for the year. The 20-city index is 4.7% off last spring’s high after falling 0.4% for month and rising just 2.6% over the past 12 months.

The three California market in the 20-city index have some of the largest drops off last year’s all-time highs, using seasonally adjusted data …

No. 1 San Francisco: 13.2% off last spring’s high. Down 0.8% for month, down 7.6% for the year.

No. 4 San Diego: 8.3% off high. Down 0.6% for month, down 1.4% for the year.

No. 6 Los Angeles-Orange County: 6.4% off high. Down 0.3% for month, up 0.9% for the year.

“January’s home price weakness is yet more proof of the doldrums the housing market was stuck in during the fall and winter, when buyers and sellers were forced to come to terms with a new, relatively higher-interest-rate environment,” said Jeff Tucker, senior economist at Zillow.

Fed focus

Home prices have been falling as a result of the Federal Reserve’s historic effort to rein in inflation. That battle has caused mortgage rates to spike over the past year, resulting in many home buyers being priced out of purchasing a home.

Typically, when demand drops, supply swells and prices go down. But fewer homes are coming to market for sale because ultra-low interest rates over the past few years are causing many home owners to stay put, keeping the inventory of homes stubbornly low.

This was all before banks began failing in March, the impact of which is obviously not reflected in January’s data.

“Financial news this month has been dominated by ructions in the commercial banking industry, as some institutions’ risk management functions proved unequal to the rising level of interest rates,” said Lazzara. “Despite this, the Federal Reserve remains focused on its inflation-reduction targets, which suggest that rates may remain elevated in the near term.”

As a result, said Lazzara, mortgage financing and the prospect of economic weakness are likely to remain a headwind for housing prices for at least the next several months.

Mortgage rates are expected to be volatile for as long as the Fed has to work to pull back runaway inflation. Rates had been rising in February as inflation did not seem to be cooling as much or as quickly as expected. But when banks collapsed in March the uncertainty in the financial sector caused investors to take actions that resulted in mortgage rates ticking down in recent weeks.

“As the market comes back to life this spring, prices are likely to rise month over month, but fall year over year, compared to last year’s frenzied spring shopping season when buyers raced to lock in lower mortgage rates,” said Tucker. “Just how much prices will rise from winter lows will depend on whether mortgage rates stabilize and creep downward or stay high and volatile.”

Elsewhere

How the other 17 markets in the 20-city fared through January, ranked by their drop off their 2022 peak using seasonally adjusted data …

Seattle: 11.4% off last spring’s high. Down 1.5% for month, down 5.1% for the year.

Phoenix: 8.3% off high. Down 0.8% for month, up 0.0% for the year.

Las Vegas: 8% off high. Down 1.1% for month, up 0.4% for the year.

Related Articles

Denver: 6.4% off high. Down 1.0% for month, up 1% for the year.

Portland: 6.1% off high. Down 0.6% for month, down 0.5% for the year.

Dallas: 5.7% off high. Down 0.6% for month, up 5% for the year.

Tampa: 3.5% off high. Down 0.3% for month, up 10.5% for the year.

Boston: 2.9% off high. Up 0.3% for month, up 4.2% for the year.

Washington: 2.7% off high. Down 0.3% for month, up 2.4% for the year.

Charlotte: 2.4% off high. Up 0.2% for month, up 8.1% for the year.

New York: 2.3% off high. Down 0.2% for month, up 5.2% for the year.

Minneapolis: 2.1% off high. Down 0.2% for month, up 1.8% for the year.

Detroit: 2.0% off high. Down 0.1% for month, up 3.2% for the year.

Atlanta: 1.7% off high. Flat for month, up 8.4% for the year.

Miami: 1.5% off high. Up 0.1% for month, up 13.8% for the year.

Chicago: 1% off high. Flat for month, up 4.8% for the year.

Cleveland: 1% off high. Up 0.1% for month, up 4.8% for the year.

​ Orange County Register 

OC and LA chefs nominated for James Beard Foundation Awards

• March 29, 2023

The James Beard Foundation announced its 2023 nominees for its upcoming James Beard Foundation Awards later this summer.

Carlos Salgado, chef and owner of one-Michelin star Costa Mesa restaurant Taco María, was among one of five chefs nominated for the Best Chef: California category which was dominated by Southern California chefs. Salgado has been previously named as a semifinalist for this category for seven consecutive years.

“I am honored to receive this nomination, and proud to be recognized alongside such talented chefs, especially my friends and peers here in Southern California,” Salgado said in a statement.

The other chefs nominated include Chef Gilberto Cetina Jr. of Holbox and Chef Brandon Hayato Go of Hayato in Los Angeles and Chef Justin Pichetrungsi of Anajak Thai in Sherman Oaks. Chefs Kyle and Katina Connaughton of SingleThread in Healdsburg were also nominated.

Niki Nakayama, chef and owner of two-Michelin star L.A. restaurant n/naka, was nominated for Outstanding Chef, which is a nationwide category.

Related Articles

No L.A. restaurant was nominated for Outstanding Restaurant, although when the semifinalists list was released earlier this year, Santa Monica’s Cassia was listed.

Greg Dulan of Dulan’s Soul Food Kitchen, Dulan’s on Crenshaw, and Dulanville was named as a nominee for Outstanding Restauranteur and Rashida Holmes of Bridgetown Roti was nominated for the Emerging Chef category.

Although no local bakery was nominated for this year’s new category, Outstanding Bakery, Margarita Manzke of République was nominated for Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker.

OTOTO gained a nomination for Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program.

The awards will be presented at a ceremony in Chicago this June. The full list of nominees can be found here.

​ Orange County Register 

Senate votes to repeal Iraq War authorization

• March 29, 2023

By Mary Clare Jalonick | Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The Senate voted Wednesday to repeal the resolution that gave a green light for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, a bipartisan effort to return a basic war power to Congress 20 years after an authorization many now view as a mistake.

Iraqi deaths are estimated in the hundreds of thousands, and nearly 5,000 U.S. troops were killed in the war after President George W. Bush’s administration falsely claimed that Saddam Hussein was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction.

“This body rushed into a war” that had massive consequences, said Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat who has pushed for years to repeal the powers.

Senators voted 66-30 to repeal the 2002 measure and also the 1991 authorization that sanctioned the U.S.-led Gulf War. If passed by the House, the repeal would not be expected to affect any current military deployments. But lawmakers in both parties are increasingly seeking to claw back congressional powers they have given the White House over U.S. military strikes and deployments, and some lawmakers who voted for the Iraq War two decades ago now say that was a mistake.

Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., noted it would be the first time in more than 50 years that Congress would repeal a war powers vote, since the Gulf of Tonkin resolution that authorized military force in Vietnam was repealed in the early 1970s.

“Americans want to see an end to endless Middle East wars,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, adding that passing the repeal “is a necessary step to putting these bitter conflicts squarely behind us.”

Supporters, including 18 Republican senators, say the repeal is crucial to prevent future abuses and to reinforce that Iraq is now a strategic partner of the United States. Opponents say the repeal could project weakness as the U.S. still faces conflict in the Middle East.

“Our terrorist enemies aren’t sunsetting their war against us,” said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who is at home recovering from a fall earlier this month and missed the vote. “When we deploy our servicemembers in harm’s way, we need to supply them with all the support and legal authorities that we can.”

The repeal’s future is less certain in the House, where 49 Republicans joined with Democrats in supporting a similar bill two years ago. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., has suggested he is open to supporting a repeal even though he previously opposed it, but Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, the Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has indicated he would like to instead replace it with something else. But it is unclear what that would be.

Kaine and Todd Young, R-Ind., who led the effort together, have said they believe a strong bipartisan vote sends a powerful message to Americans who believe their voices should be heard on matters of war and peace.

President Donald Trump’s administration cited the 2002 Iraq war resolution as part of its legal justification for a 2020 U.S. drone strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassim Soleimani, but the two war powers resolutions have otherwise rarely been used as the basis for any presidential action. About 2,500 U.S. troops remain in Iraq at the invitation of the Iraqi government and assist and advise local forces.

A separate 2001 authorization for the global war on terror would remain in place under the bill, which President Joe Biden has said he will support.

The October 2002 votes to give Bush broad authority for the Iraq invasion were a defining moment for many members of Congress as the country debated whether a military strike was warranted. The U.S. was already at war then in Afghanistan, the country that hosted the al-Qaida plotters responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, something Iraq played no part in.

The Bush administration had drummed up support among members of Congress and the American public for invading Iraq by promoting what turned out to be false intelligence alleging Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. After the initial March 2003 invasion, American ground forces quickly discovered that the allegations of nuclear or chemical weapons programs were baseless.

The U.S. overthrow of Iraq’s security forces precipitated a brutal sectarian fight and violent campaigns by Islamic extremist groups in Iraq. Car bombings, assassinations, torture and kidnapping became a part of daily life for years.

Some GOP senators opposing the repeal, including McConnell, have raised concerns about recent attacks against U.S. troops in Syria. A drone strike last week killed an American contractor and wounded five troops and another contractor, then a rocket attack wounded another service member. Iranian-backed militants are believed responsible for the attacks.

Biden and his administration have argued that the repeal would not affect any response to Iran. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, both said at a Senate hearing last week that American troops are authorized to protect themselves and respond to attacks, including under Article 2 of the Constitution, which gives the president the authority to protect troops.

Sen. Menendez, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said just ahead of the vote that the repeal “in no way diminishes” the U.S. ability to deter Iranian aggression.

“This is not about Iran,” Menendez said. “This is about Iraq. Saddam Hussein is gone.”

The pushback from McConnell comes amid a growing rift in the Republican Party on the U.S. role in the Middle East, with some echoing Trump’s “America First” message to argue against military intervention abroad. Other Republicans are concerned Congress is giving too much leeway to the president in matters of war.

“It’s time we take back our constitutional authority to declare war,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., after voting for the repeal. Cramer said every authorization on the books should relate to current threats.

Young said that “a lot of lessons have been learned over the last 20 years.”

He said supporting the legislation “want to ensure that the American people can hold us accountable, rather than delegating those important authorities to an executive branch and then lamenting the unwitting wisdom of the executive branch if things don’t go well.”

Associated Press writer Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report.

​ Orange County Register