Army colonel who served with 101st Airborne honored at Laguna Beach Patriots Day Parade

• March 9, 2025

Retired Army Col. Richard “Bob” Seitz has had an impressive military career, saying he served proudly for more than two decades doing what he had to do and “doing it well.”

But he never expected that his service career — spanning the Vietnam War, along the Demilitarized Zone in Korea and later in Germany during the Cold War — would land him a coveted spot in a parade.

But exactly that is what happened on Saturday, March 8, in Laguna Beach, where Seitz was recognized as the Honorary Patriot in the 58th Patriots Day Parade.

“I think of the men I served with in Vietnam 55 years ago, how I wish all of them could be with me,” he said. “Not a day goes by that I don’t think about the men we lost in Vietnam, not a day. The men I served with, they’ve inspired me my whole life. They surround me like a halo; in many ways, they’re my second faith.”

“Patriot of the Year is not an individual honor for me, but for all Laguna Beach patriots,” he added. “I’m accepting this for them and their service to our nation.”

Seitz, 77,  first served in the 101st Airborne Division for 18 months during the Vietnam War, where he was also wounded in combat, and then later with the 82nd Airborne Division in Korea and the inner-German border during the Cold War.

He continued his military service at the Pentagon and later with the Joint Chiefs’ staff, serving under former Secretary of State Colin Powell and helping plan large-scale exercises for military commands worldwide. During his 24 years of service, Seitz earned three decorations for valor, including the Purple Heart.

“I’m honored and very humbled by this,” he said ahead of Saturday’s parade, adding that he appreciates the Laguna Beach community pays tribute to those who serve. “They left their families, jobs, and educations to serve our nation. And all they ask is to come back into their community and be accepted as community members.”

Seitz had said he planned to wear the Army jungle jacket he left Vietnam with and a Laguna Beach VFW Post 5868 had in the parade, riding with his wife and daughter. He was among 80 parade entries planned to cruise through Laguna Beach downtown Saturday.

Other community members whom the parade committee recognized included Capt. Rick Shoemaker, the parade’s grand marshal; Karyn Philippsen as Citizen of the Year; Lizi Bazargan and Carter McKinzie as the 2025 Jr. Citizens; Mike Tauber as Artist of the Year; and Brayden Belden as this year’s Athlete of the Year.

Along with the noted residents were dozens of parade entries ranging from civic and veterans organizations to school bands, military bands, floats, vintage automobiles, and novelty groups.

The parade —which last year was rained out— is a must-do among locals with the saying being half the town is in the parade while the other half watches.

“It essential we remember the people who have placed service for the nation ahead of themselves,” Seitz said. “We haven’t had a draft since 1973 and there are less veterans out there to serve as role models.”

In his unit of the 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne division, he said, “We had 100 men in Vietnam, lost close to 40, lost 26 since Vietnam and now there are 36 of us left.

“Now those serving forward from Iraq and Afghanistan have to set the example for the next generation,” he added. “It’s very important the community continues to recognize the sacrifice of veterans.”

Seitz said what stood out most to him about his service then was the loyalty he and the other soldiers had for each other.

“The moral objective of Vietnam was to take care of each other on the hard days,” he said.

Among the most poignant memories he has from his combat — first as a rifle platoon leader and later as a rifle company commander once promoted to captain — was when he and his unit made their way through the jungles and mountains in heavily contested terrain near Hue, in the A Sầu Valley, he said.

“We spent most of our time patrolling and looking for enemy activity and denying them use of the area and trying to push them back to Laos,” he said of the combat in November 1970. “It was a very contested area we did not want them to control. We got into a ground offensive that kept going until someone backed off.”

Being honored on Saturday was something Seitz said he would have never even thought about. The experience, he predicted, would be very emotional.

“I genuinely feel a great identity with Laguna Beach,” he said of being embraced and celebrated by the community. “We’re very proud to be part of this community.”

“I think people honestly care about each other,” he said, describing the town’s identity. “The goodness and joy in our community are more important than one individual and I love being part of that.”

​ Orange County Register 

El Modena softball beats Norco to capture Dave Kops Tournament of Champions

• March 9, 2025

Parker Mayes and Ava Savala each hit two-run home runs and Sara Pinedo earned the save as El Modena’s softball team defeated Norco 5-4 on Saturday night to capture its first Dave Kops Tournament of Champions title in Bullhead City, Ariz.

Pinedo closed the game with a strikeout with the tying run on first base to earn the save in relief of winning pitcher Ashley Driskill.

Kaitlyn Galasso and Lucy Mitchell each went 4 for 4 for El Modena.

The Vanguards, ranked No. 7 in Orange County, finished 5-0 in the tournament. They knocked off Orange County No. 1 Canyon 2-1 in the quarterfinals and beat Mater Dei 6-1 in the semifinals.

Galasso went 7 for 7 in the semifinals and finals with two home runs and two doubles.

​ Orange County Register 

Santa Anita horse racing consensus picks for Sunday, March 9, 2025

• March 9, 2025

The consensus box of Santa Anita horse racing picks comes from handicappers Bob Mieszerski, Eddie Wilson, Kevin Modesti and Mark Ratzky. Here are the picks for thoroughbred races on Sunday, March 9, 2025.

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​ Orange County Register 

As LA fires raged, these residents watched their homes burn on doorbell video

• March 9, 2025

Although he was in Las Vegas when the inferno struck, Pacific Palisades resident Michael Gisser nevertheless saw “rivers of fire” going down his street, right past the Ring camera affixed to his front door.

“I was like, how could any house withstand this? The air was on fire,” Gisser, 67, recalled. “I think a lot of people at that stage were like, ‘I hope my home survives.’ And I was like, nothing can survive this. It’s impossible.”

In a uniquely 2020s experience, many fire evacuees used their phones to watch the Los Angeles conflagration rampage through their neighborhoods on Jan. 7.

Video doorbells have taken the country by storm, capturing crimes big and small on camera and providing footage of events like the Philadelphia plane crash.

In Ramona, northeast of San Diego, a Ring camera recently recorded a domestic attack that ended in homicide.

People are using their video doorbells to monitor hurricanes, storms and other weather events, Mimi Swain, Ring’s chief commercial officer, said in a email.

“Much like mobile phones, video doorbells are becoming a regular part of our lives,” Swain wrote. “Video doorbells have reshaped how we interact with our homes.”

As of last year, at least 18% of U.S. households — or at least 25-27 million — had video doorbells, according to Dallas-based market research firm Parks Associates.

That’s up from around 7% of households in 2018.

California’s video doorbell usage is “about the same as the national average,” according to Parks Associates — not surprising since Ring was born in a Pacific Palisades garage. Hence, it’s likely that hundreds, if not thousands, of Pacific Palisades and Altadena residents watched homes burn in real time.

Some fire victims said having video doorbells, security cameras and other smart-home devices gave them immediate feedback about the condition of their homes.

In cases like the Gisser’s, it gave instant confirmation of the worst possible news, plunging them into grief.

Others said doorbell videos made it possible to move on while those without such technology clung to false hope, not learning for a day or two that their home was gone.

And as they watched, they kept looking for fire trucks to roll up and save their property. But the fire trucks never came, residents interviewed for this story said.

Several fire victims say doorbell footage is just the latest sign of the times.

“We live in such a digital and technical day and age. In a lot of ways, that’s a blessing,” said Pacific Palisades resident Tiffany Michelle, 40, a professional poker player. “It’s almost like a movie where you have this recording and the story of everything that happened. And the question is, do you want to have the story?”

Rooms on fire

Reality TV personality Spencer Pratt, a Pacific Palisades native, equipped his home with a dozen security cameras.

When the Palisades fire broke out, Pratt was stuck in gridlock on a 405 freeway overpass.

He pulled out his phone, brought up his security cameras and watched as fire approached from three directions. He switched from camera to camera, checking the deck, the garage and rooms inside his house.

“I was just watching as the fire was coming into each part of the property,” said Pratt, 41. “And then, I watched it burn down until there was no electricity.”

It was “mind boggling,” Pratt said. But it also gave him closure.

“I felt if I didn’t have that, I’d be like, what if, what if,” he said. “I have a lot of friends that didn’t know their house burned down until the next day.”

For the first time since he moved to Los Angeles, Anže Rozman found peace when he and his wife rented an apartment in Pacific Palisades. The natural beauty of the place reminded him of his native Slovenia.

Last April, the television and film composers rented a two-bedroom, two-story house on a hill overlooking Temescal Canyon. Rozman planted a vegetable garden and started making plans to buy the house. He also installed a Nest video doorbell and two additional cameras.

When news broke of the fire, Rozman, 36, bicycled to a nearby ridge to see where it was burning. Within 10 minutes, he saw flames approaching Temescal Canyon. He returned home and prepared to evacuate with his wife, Kara Talve, and their cat.

Before leaving, however, he positioned the camera on his rear balcony looking west down Monument Street toward the canyon so he could know when it would be safe to return.

• See Anže Rozman’s time-lapse video: Short version and Long version

It took two hours for the couple to reach their studios in Santa Monica.

Once there, Rozman brought up the cameras on a large computer monitor and watched as the fire jumped the hill at the end of Monument Street and worked its way through the neighborhood toward his house.

He called the fire department to report what was burning.

“They said they’re doing the best they can,” he said. “Soon our neighbor’s house caught on fire, and then, the whole street’s on fire. … In one hour, the whole street was on fire.”

DoorBot

The concept behind the Ring doorbell was conceived in a Pacific Palisades garage.

Company founder Jamie Siminoff had been working in the garage when he realized he couldn’t hear his front doorbell there, according to news reports. To fix the problem, he invented a doorbell that would create an alert on his phone, calling his invention, “DoorBot.”

Two years later, Siminoff pitched his new product on a 2013 episode of “Shark Tank,” claiming it was the first video doorbell for the smartphone.

“Think of it as caller ID for your front door,” he said.

All but one of the “Sharks” rejected the idea, and Siminoff didn’t like the terms of the offer he did get.

Cast member Mark Cuban doubted that DoorBot (now called Ring) would ever be worth as much as $80 millon-$90 million.

In 2018, Amazon paid $839 million to buy Ring, according to Bloomberg.

As of 2024, Hawthorne-based Ring doorbells continue to dominate in U.S. market share, followed by ADT, Blink, Simplisafe and Google Nest, according to Parks Associates.

False hope

Altadena resident Walter Seace clung to hope his house had survived even after seeing part of his roof catch fire on his video doorbell.

Seace and his wife, Yalda, were glued to his phone after evacuating to her parents’ house.

They could see embers blowing up their driveway from the house next door, which was fully engulfed in flames. They could see what turned out to be a school bus burning across the street.

Then, suddenly, there was a flash as his house caught on fire.

““It was like a firestorm,” said Seace, 61, a sporting goods sales representative. “The flames came over the roof, and then the camera went black.”

“Oh, my gosh!” Yalda Seace exclaimed as she burst into tears.

But Seace believed the rest of his house would be spared and tried to reassure his wife.

As they drove back home the next morning, they could see from the end of the block that nothing was left.

“The only thing that was left standing is our chimney and the two front posts that are made out of brick,” Seace said.

When Rozman’s cameras went dark, it felt like watching a science fiction movie and not knowing the ending.

“It’s kind of surreal,” he said. “You know what you’re watching, but your mind can’t really process it.”

Malibu resident Marika Erdely believed the worst had occurred when her cameras went dark.

Erdely, 66, had forgotten about her video doorbell system until she arrived at her daughter’s home. “What about the Ring cameras?” her daughter asked.

When she checked them just before 6 p.m., she could see flashes of light, flames billowing from a neighbor’s house and a stream of embers flying through her yard and up against her house. The fire kept flaring up, then the cameras died.

“We basically thought, that’s it. We’re done. The house is burning,”  Erdely recalled.

After a sleepless night, she learned the next morning that her house was spared when she saw it on TV.

“My grandson, who’s 7, is like, ‘Oh my god, your house is there.’ There was a lot of emotion. … I mean, it’s a miracle that it survived. It was a big relief.”

Pacific Palisades resident Peter Albores and his family were watching the news at a friend’s home when a neighbor called to say they should look at their video doorbell. His wife, Sandy, pulled out her phone.

“I saw her face from across the room, and I’ll never forget it,” Albores said. “She just put her hand on her mouth, and she started crying.”

The fence and the apple tree were burning, the house engulfed in sparks and embers.

“Just flames everywhere,” he said. “I knew that was it.”

Tiffany Michelle pulled over on Pacific Coast Highway just outside the evacuation zone, her car filled with computers, photos, keepsakes and 25 bottles of her oldest wine. Then, she got a Ring alert on her phone.

She opened the image and saw her fiancé still in the neighborhood, hosing down the front of their house.

“I can now see the smoke clouds have gotten much closer than when I left the house,” Michelle said. She texted her fiancé and said it was time for him to leave.

He walked down the street, through the Palisades Village and down Pacific Coast Highway to her car. It was his last walk through their community.

As her fiancé drove, Michelle constantly refreshed her phone. The sky grew dark as night. Then, she saw flames on her street. She tried to keep optimistic, thinking the firefighters were on their way. Then, she saw that the neighbor’s yard was on fire.

Once they reached their friend’s house in Hollywood, Michelle and her fiancé settled in with their companions, uncorking one of the wine bottles.

“The next time I check my phone, I see every single camera says, ‘Offline.’ Instantly my stomach dropped,” Michelle said. “I knew that it meant that my house was on fire. I knew that it meant my house was burning in that moment.”

She called her fiancé outside and gave him the bad news. In grief, they hugged and cried.

Looking back, Michelle wondered if it would have felt better or worse to not have cameras, to not know the outcome in real time. What causes the most torture: a quick, swift blow, or days of not knowing?

“In some ways, having that immediate knowing really helped the process of mourning and loss,” Michelle concluded. “We didn’t have to sit there with hope for a long time before we knew the answer.”

​ Orange County Register 

How to have a rich, fulfilling relationship with grandparents

• March 9, 2025

Q. I am expecting my first baby in a few months. My recently retired parents, whom I adore, are in the process of moving so they can be close to us when the baby arrives and thereafter. This will be their first grandchild. My concern is that they are already exhibiting some “takeover” tendencies. Do you have any suggestions on how to handle this without hurting their feelings? Thank you. B.B.

Congratulations on having the first addition to your family, an exciting and joyous time. There are ways to set some parameters. But first, let’s talk about grandparenting. 

If you wonder why grandparents care so deeply for their grandchildren, it all began a million years ago in the plains of Africa, writes geriatrician Dr. William Thomas in his book, “What are Old People for? How Elders Will Save the World.”: 

“A mother gave birth to a hominid child after a long and exhausting labor. She barely had enough energy to nurse her baby and not enough energy to feed or care for her other children,” writes Thomas. “A miracle occurred.”

The maternal grandmother came to the rescue and intentionally shared her food with her grandchildren. It was a defining moment that created a new pattern of support that carried over to other families. Along with whales, elephants and giraffes, humans are among the rare species whose grandparents deliberately help raise their grandchildren. So, this sense of caring has an evolutionary history.

Grandparents are important to a family and much more.

Here are a few facts about their role as reported by the U.S. Department of Labor: 

About one-third of the adult population are grandparents. That’s nearly 70 million adults. 

In 2021, 2.74 million children were raised just by their grandmother or 3.2 percent of all children in the U.S. 

Grandparents are an “economic force that should not be ignored,” writes the marketing company Circa 46. They spend close to $180 billion a year on grandkids. 

There are recommended ways to address the relationship between grandparents and the parents of an upcoming sweet baby. It involves a conversation about boundaries and expectations. This may seem premature, yet it might be helpful in avoiding future misunderstandings. 

Here are just a few:

Make your expectations known. One’s parents are not mindreaders. If you enjoy unexpected drop-ins, consider giving your parents a key and welcoming them. If that’s not your style, set aside family times and let them lovingly know about it. 

Explain your choices if needed. Times have changed since grandparents had babies. You might need to explain why you are spending over $1,000 for a sleeper bassinet that supports babies sleeping on their back and rock them or why you are reading a book about the baby whisperer.

Understand grandparents’ boundaries. That may involve babysitting. Do grandparents want to be on call or would they prefer a more scheduled time for visits such as spending every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday afternoons with your baby? Would they prefer babysitting only during the day if they want to avoid night driving? 

Grandparents can have a significant impact on grandchildren. 

Source of wisdom. Grandparents have lived through good and bad times and have valuable life lessons to share. These include their experiences of perseverance as well as their youthful escapades, with lessons not always found in textbooks or online resources. This oral tradition of passing down knowledge and experience is considered a timeless way for grandparents to contribute to the growth and development of their grandchildren, according to the Alden network, a provider of senior healthcare. 

Preserver of tradition and culture. We can think of grandparents as custodians of family traditions and culture. The rituals and customs they pass on to their grandchildren enrich grandchildren’s sense of belonging and identity and are important links in fostering relationships between the generations. 

Source of support. Grandparents can offer a safe place. In our fast-paced and sometimes confusing world, they can provide a sense of security and stability. They are good listeners and typically provide empathy without judgment. This emotional connection enhances children’s sense of belonging and reassurance. 

Participant in reciprocity. The grandparent-grandchild relationship is based on mutual affection and admiration. Grandparents find joy in witnessing grandchildren’s growth and development. At the same time, grandchildren almost always value their unconditional love and cherish their companionship, knowing they are special to their grandparents. Furthermore, both generations have the opportunity to learn from one another. This intergenerational exchange enriches lives and creates a legacy that can continue for generations. 

B.B., thank you for your good question. Enjoy your new baby for many years ahead as well as the loving relationship with your parents. As a new mother, remember to be kind to yourself and get as much sleep now; you’ll need it later. 

Helen Dennis is a nationally recognized leader on issues of aging and the new retirement with academic, corporate and nonprofit experience. Contact Helen with your questions and comments at Helendenn@gmail.com. Visit Helen at HelenMdennis.com and follow her on facebook.com/SuccessfulAgingCommunity.

​ Orange County Register 

Tariffs raise prices, spark conflict and impoverish everyone

• March 9, 2025

SACRAMENTO—Back when conservatives championed ideas rather than outsourced their thinking to their leader, they touted a simple saying: “Ideas have consequences.” Conservatives also understood that while people should always be free to make their own choices based on those ideas, they should be responsible for the consequences of their decisions.

By all means, follow the advice of that YouTube quack who argues that vaccines include microchips that control the population. But when your kid is hospitalized with measles, that’s on you. Unfortunately in a democratic society, the population must endure the brunt of ludicrous ideas imposed by elected officials. (Check out my columns about the awful ones in California.)

We’re now at the “good and hard” part of H.L. Mencken’s definition about democracy being “the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it.” That’s certainly the case with economic policy. If you occasionally check your retirement accounts and did so after the last two times President Donald Trump imposed 25-percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico, you will have noticed that they dropped precipitously.

The markets understand the basic truth about tariffs, which are taxes consumers in our country pay for imported goods. They raise prices, reduce our access to foreign goods and spark reciprocal tariffs that then punish our country’s farmers and manufacturers. They lead to less growth and more unemployment. They increase bureaucracy by requiring officials to calculate duties and enforce them. They create hostilities and have led to actual war.

As economist Robert Higgs explains, “Fiscally, protectionism is a poor source of government revenue that dries up completely as tariffs are increased so much that they reduce trade flows to zero. Morally, protectionism is vicious because it coercively substitutes the ill-informed and ill-directed judgment of government officials for the judgment of people making deals with their own private property.”

Given MAGA is an emotional movement based on resentment rather than a precise set of policy ideas, it’s no surprise the president’s ardent supporters dodge and weave alongside his ever-changing justifications. Our nation has some serious disputes with Mexico involving immigration and drug smuggling, so I’ll focus instead on our government’s juvenile trade war with Canada.

Trump threatened them to gain ill-defined concessions from our friendly, highly developed and peaceful allies to the north. Then, after it was clear Canada had already conceded to whatever it was our president demanded, he suspended them. His supporters claimed tariff critics didn’t understand that this was just a brilliant negotiating tool. But then this month the president imposed them anyway. True to form, MAGA shifted back to arguing that tariffs are great policy in and of themselves.

Some of the more unusual MAGA folks don’t seem to care about inflation or the stock market, but are mainly concerned about crushing satanic pedophiles in the deep state. But most people care about the economy. After the tariff announcement, the Atlanta Federal Reserve revised its annualized growth predictions to “a stunning -2.8%, down from +2.3% last week,” according to Reuters. Then again who can trust Reuters, when you can get your information from Newsmax or TASS?

Last week, the administration suddenly exempted certain agricultural products and suggested that it might broadly suspend tariffs again. Who knows where things will stand by the time you read this. But markets hate uncertainty. This yo-yo effect is rattling them.

It’s hard to understand the idiocy of picking a fight with Canada, except in the context of an administration that likes to punch down. Don’t Americans realize the blessing of sharing the world’s largest undefended border? Canadian provinces are pulling U.S. products from store shelves. Yet the Trump administration and GOP lawmakers are right on cue echoing anti-Canada taunts. This is sillier than the 1995 John Candy comedy, “Canadian Bacon,” where American hockey fans started a war after insulting Canadian beer.

We rely on Canadian energy and lumber and Canadians rely on our products. It’s the proverbial win-win. Any infinitesimal issues between our countries can easily be handled through diplomacy. Canadians are infuriated, and rightly so—not just by tariffs but by the administration’s disrespect toward their sovereignty. Serious nationalists should respect the national aspirations of others.

By constantly referring to the Canadian prime minister as “Governor Trudeau,” Trump has given new life to the Liberal Party, which is now competitive after having recently been down in the polls by 26 points. During her visit to a library that straddles the Quebec and Vermont border last week, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem kept stepping over the line into Canada and saying, “The 51^st State.” Canadians shouldn’t be dogged by such imbecility.

When we’re at war with another nation, we impose trade restrictions to punish the other country. Why would anyone in their right mind choose to punish ourselves for no apparent reason? It’s a disastrous idea. Then again, voting has consequences.

Steven Greenhut is Western region director for the R Street Institute and a member of the Southern California News Group editorial board. Write to him at sgreenhut@rstreet.org.

​ Orange County Register 

LA County probation officers, forced on unpaid leaves by injuries, struggle with financial fallout

• March 9, 2025

A sweeping policy implemented last year that forced hundreds of Los Angeles County field probation officers to take unpaid leaves if they had work restrictions preventing them from redeploying to the troubled Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall has financially devastated some of the department’s oldest employees and is further diminishing the county’s ability to supervise high-risk probationers.

As a result, some officers have turned to early retirements to avoid foreclosures, while others wait to rotate in and out of a limited number of temporary positions for those with injuries or other restrictions.

In November, the Probation Department reported 656 employees — about 16% of the department’s total — were on continuous leaves of absence, according to the most recently available data. Of those, about 215 had received temporary assignments at the time, while another 152 were waiting for placement.

The department’s stance is that employees must be able to perform “all the essential functions of their current classification, including the legally mandated requirements for Peace Officers,” according to probation spokesperson Vicky Waters. State law requires peace officers to be “free from any physical, emotional, or mental condition … that might adversely affect the exercise of the powers of a peace officer.”

‘Can’t go on like this’

One field officer, who spoke on a condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation, was sent home and forced to use his sick time for more than 100 days after a work-related injury prevented him from redeploying to the dangerously understaffed Los Padrinos. The injury did not in any way impact his ability to do the office job he’d done for years without issue, yet he wasn’t allowed to continue in that role, he said.

“In order to be full duty, you basically have to go to the hall,” he said.

When he landed a “temporary modified assignment” from the rotation last year, the department sent him back to his old office, to his same desk, where he did the same work he’d done before he presented a medical note saying he could not redeploy to Los Padrinos.

The assignment lasted for about three months before he rotated out and was placed on leave again, he said. Now, someone else is collecting overtime to do the same job, while he sits at home burning through his sick time once again.

“When they told me they didn’t have a place for me, I told them, ‘my cubicle is empty,’ ” he said.

The officer, who has spent more than two decades with the department, said his salary will effectively be halved if the 90-days-on, 90-days-off rotation continues. His family already is cutting back, putting off replacing an old car and scrimping wherever possible to make sure their bills are covered.

“I’m behind,” he said. “I’m just praying for some type of relief in the near future. I can’t go on like this.”

The officer isn’t sure what to tell his wife and friends when they ask why he can only work three months at a time, instead of year round, he said. Probation officials declined to provide an explanation when asked why some officers have been reassigned to their old jobs on a temporary basis.

“I’m not able to provide info on a specific person’s accommodation or individual circumstances. However, I can tell you we follow the accommodation process, policies and laws for anyone who requests it,” Waters said.

Eduardo Mundo, chair of the county’s Probation Oversight Commission, described such decisions as a “failure to lead” and accused Probation Chief Viera Rosa of “throwing pasta at the wall and seeing what sticks.”

“Unfortunately, nothing is sticking,” he said. “It’s not good for anybody.”

Plea for mutual aid

Mundo has urged the department to bring the officers sent home back, particularly as the field offices now face their own staffing crisis.

In December, the Probation Department sent out a plea for mutual aid, asking the Sheriff’s Department and the county’s more than 45 municipal police departments to use their officers and equipment to conduct “compliance checks” on probationers due to a “significant void” in probation’s ability to supervise “high-risk probationers, including those convicted of sexual assault, domestic violence, gang-related crimes, and other offenses.”

In a statement, Waters said the department is “aggressively implementing necessary reforms to stabilize and improve conditions in our juvenile facilities.” That change requires “decisive action,” she said, and the department is dedicated to ensuring that “every facility is staffed, structured and supported in a way that prioritizes public safety, rehabilitation and reentry.”

“We recognize that some long-serving employees face challenges in meeting peace officer requirements due to age, injury or other medical conditions,” Waters said. “The Department remains committed to providing accommodations whenever possible so that employees are informed about their options, including alternative job placements and retirement pathways.”

Employees who are off for six months or more can apply for long-term disability, Waters said. A leave donation program also exists for employees who have exhausted their accrued leave times, but are unable to return to work.

Aging workforce

The department continues to struggle with an aging workforce. More than half of the sworn probation officers are at least 50 years old, including 19 officers who are older than 70, according to demographics provided by the county. At Los Padrinos, those officers could find themselves tasked with restraining an 18-year-old, risking injury, or reprimand, if the restraint is later deemed excessive.

“People want to work, they just don’t want to risk their life doing it,” the field officer said.

Probation does not participate in the safety retirement program offered to law enforcement agencies by the Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association. As a result, the average age of retirement in the past three years has been 61, according to the Probation Department. By comparison, the average retirement age for a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy was 53 in 2022.

The lack of an early retirement program can make it more difficult to persuade potential hires to choose the Probation Department over working in a police department.

“While we recognize that the absence of a safety retirement plan affects our competitiveness in law enforcement recruitment, any potential discussions regarding changes would need to include multiple stakeholders beyond just Probation,” Waters said.

Early retirement

The Los Angeles County Deputy Probation Officers’ Union has come out in support of early retirement for its members.

“Probation officers, like all peace officers, engage in dangerous and arduous work and should be afforded the same retirement benefits as their counterparts in law enforcement,” said Stacy Ford, the union’s president. “The current system, which requires probation officers to stay in the department for additional years before they can retire, contributes to the injuries and physical limitations that many officers experience over the course of our careers.”

The forced leaves already have accelerated retirement plans for some officers.

A former field officer told the Southern California News Group she retired four years earlier than planned, at 61 at a lower rate, because her only other options were to redeploy to Los Padrinos, where the injuries she sustained on the job could be exacerbated, or continue to stay on leave and risk losing her home.

“I’d never been late on my mortgage in my entire life of being a homeowner, not once, and for two months I couldn’t pay my mortgage,” said the officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to a pending workers’ compensation case. “I was about to lose my home and everything, and it was like nobody cared.”

The former field officer had worked in traditional probation overseeing juveniles in South Los Angeles for more than 30 years and would have stayed at least until 65 if the department hadn’t sent her home. Her job had fewer physical requirements compared to working in Los Padrinos, she said.

The officer had not worked in a juvenile detention facility in decades, she said. “I dedicated my life to this department and they just tossed me to the side,” she said.

Lawsuit alleges discrimination

Arnold Peter, an attorney representing a potential class of up to 800 probation officers in a lawsuit against the county, said his clients are facing the same hardships.

“Many of them are experiencing direct financial loss,” Peter said. “It runs the gamut starting from vacations being canceled, to having to pull kids out of private schools, having to cut back on the number of times you eat out or order food, to homes being under risk of foreclosure and cars being repossessed.”

The litigation accuses the department of discriminating against officers based on medical disabilities, of failing to provide reasonable accommodations, and of retaliation. Three of the field officers in the case allege they sustained injuries after they were redeployed to Los Padrinos.

There are significant differences between the job classifications for those working in the field and those deployed to the juvenile hall, according to the lawsuit. The Deputy Probation Officer II field position is classified as requiring “light” physical effort, including the occasional lifting of “up to 10 pounds,” while Detention Services Officer jobs are classified as “arduous” with “extraordinary physical activity” needed at times, according to an amended complaint and a description on the Probation Department’s website.

Peter is hopeful the case will prompt reinstatement of the officers to their respective field offices with back pay — as well as damages — to cover the losses from the unpaid leaves.

Los Angeles County has denied the allegations and is pushing to have the lawsuit thrown out. County attorneys argued in recent filings that placing officers on leave until they are able to perform their full duties is a reasonable accommodation, as nothing prevents the officers from returning to work once their medical restrictions are lifted.

“As courts have recognized, in providing reasonable accommodations, ‘an employer is not required to choose the best accommodation or the specific accommodation the employee seeks,’ ” wrote attorney Zachary Sarnoff.

Staffing crisis intractable

Viera Rosa implemented the mandate that field officers must be capable of redeploying, or they will be sent home, last year after earlier redeployments failed to muster the necessary numbers to fix the staffing shortage that has plagued Los Padrinos since it opened in the summer of 2023.

That policy hadn’t been enforced prior to Viera Rosa’s arrival. But the dire need for officers at Los Padrinos changed that. The juvenile hall was reopened in 2023 after state officials forced the closure of its two predecessors, Barry J. Nidorf and Central juvenile halls, due to similar understaffing.

Initially, Viera Rosa required field officers to work at the juvenile hall twice a week. Then, he redeployed more than 200 field officers to the facility full-time on 90-day rotations.

That larger redeployment effort, starting in February 2024, did make a difference and temporarily staved off state regulators who had warned that Los Padrinos could be closed too if the county didn’t improve the staffing.

But it didn’t take long for the plan to unravel.

Once the first rotation ended, the department struggled to find enough people for the second. Morale, already low from years of unstable leadership, plummeted further as officers lives were upended by sudden shifts to their schedules and work locations. Aging officers planning to spend their final years at low stress desk jobs were now expected to supervise juveniles in a chaotic — and violent — environment.

By June, half of the 541 regular employees at Los Padrinos were on leave and dozens were still calling out every day, according to figures provided to the county Probation Oversight Commission. The constant call-outs have been attributed to safety concerns and are compounded by worries that the employees will be held over for additional shifts when others don’t show up.

County defiant on Los Padrinos

The Board of State and Community Corrections, the regulatory body overseeing California’s jails and juvenile halls, ultimately ordered Los Padrinos to close following a series of failed inspections in late 2024, but, so far, the county has refused to comply, arguing it has nowhere else to send the roughly 230 youth in custody at the facility.

Probation has unveiled plans to reduce the population at Los Padrinos to bolster recruitment and incentivize transfers and potentially to further consolidate its facilities, but the future of Los Padrinos remains up in the air.

The BSCC denied an attempt by L.A. County to appeal the decision that led to the facility being declared “unsuitable” for the confinement of youth. However, the state board has since conducted a new reinspection at Los Padrinos that could reverse the closure order if the facility manages to pass again. That inspection is still ongoing.

Superior Court Judge Miguel Espinoza also has taken up the question of whether Los Padrinos should be emptied as part of a juvenile murder case. He has delayed making a decision on the matter three times so far out of concern his actions could destabilize the county’s other juvenile facilities.

​ Orange County Register 

Upcycle small food containers or even newspaper for starting seeds indoors

• March 9, 2025

By JESSICA DAMIANO

If you’re planning to start seeds indoors this season, you likely know you’ll need a growing medium (packaged, sterile seed-starting mix is ideal), a sunny windowsill or grow lights and, of course, seeds. But have you given thought to what containers you’ll use?

You might be planning to buy rimmed trays, peat pots or compartmentalized plastic flats, but they’re not your only options. With a bit of imagination, you can easily upcycle items you already have while keeping trash out of the landfill and your money in your wallet.

Try some small food containers

If you have a coffee maker that uses K-Cup-style plastic pods, don’t discard them after brewing. Instead, peel off their foil covers, dump out the used coffee grinds and remove the paper filters underneath. The pods are the perfect size for starting seedlings, and can be washed, disinfected and reused from year to year. You’ll notice the machine even poked a hole in each pod’s bottom for drainage.

Most other small plastic food containers, such as single-serving yogurt cups, clamshell-type salad packages or egg cartons, are also well-suited for starting seeds — as long as you’ve poked holes in their bottoms to allow excess water to drain.

Newspaper or cardboard work well, too

You can even make seed pots from sheets of newspaper. Much of today’s newsprint uses soy-based ink, which is generally considered non-toxic, suitable even for starting edibles.

Here’s how: Fold a newspaper page in half lengthwise, then fold it a second time to achieve a long strip. Next, place a tomato paste can, which is the perfect size for a seed pot, along one edge of the newspaper, a couple of inches from the bottom. Then, roll the newspaper tightly around the can to form a cylinder.

Fold the excess newspaper in at the base of the can, set the wrapped can right-side-up and press it firmly against a flat surface like a table or counter to fortify the bottom of your new pot. If necessary, use a small piece of tape to secure the bottom.

Remove the can and voila! You’ve made a free starter home for your seedlings.

Instead of watering conventionally, which would risk soaking the newspaper, keep the soil surface moist with a spray bottle.

Or cut four 1-inch slits, evenly spaced, around one end of a toilet paper roll. Fold in the resulting tabs and tape them in place to create a solid bottom for your pot.

Why use such small pots?

As their names imply, seed-starting containers are intended only for the first phase of seedlings’ lives. When they outgrow those first pots, sprouted seedlings will need to be moved into larger containers to accommodate their expanding root systems.

Handle fragile seedling roots gingerly when repotting to minimize the odds of transplant shock (newspaper and toilet paper roll pots are biodegradable, so there is no need to remove plants from them when upsizing containers; just plant the whole pot into a larger one.)

You might be wondering why you shouldn’t just start seeds in larger containers from the outset. It’s a logical question with an equally logical answer: Larger pots require a larger amount of potting mix, which would hold more water than a seedling’s fledgling roots can absorb. That excess moisture would place seedlings at risk of root rot, an often-fatal plant disease caused by excess moisture.

It’s also cost-effective to go smaller. Sterile seed-starting mix is more expensive than ordinary potting mix, and you’ll use considerably less in a smaller container than in a larger one. When repotting young plants, you can use ordinary potting mix in their step-up containers, but never use ordinary garden soil; it’s too dense and may harbor pests or pathogens.

Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter. You can sign up here for weekly gardening tips and advice.

For more AP gardening stories, go to https://apnews.com/hub/gardening.

​ Orange County Register