Gabbard right to fight UK on Apple order

• February 27, 2025

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is going to bat for civil liberties against the overreaching British government.

Earlier this month, the Washington Post reported that  British authorities ordered Apple to give them a backdoor to  the encrypted data of Apple users. “The British government’s undisclosed order, issued last month, requires blanket capability to view fully encrypted material, not merely assistance in cracking a specific account, and has no known precedent in major democracies,” reported Joseph Menn for the Post.

Requiring tech companies to create a backdoor necessarily compromises the security of their own products. Even if created for “the good guys,” backdoors can also be taken advantage of by bad faith actors. After all, compromised security is compromised security.

As explained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, just a few months ago, a Chinese government-linked hack of systems for companies like AT&T and Verizon was facilitated in part by backdoors created by those companies for American law enforcement. “This gave China unprecedented access to data related to U.S. government requests to these major telecommunications companies,” they noted. This even included the tapping of calls from now-President Trump.

It’s also always a bad precedent for tech companies to bend the knee to governments, any governments really, and create a backdoor. Inevitably, less trustworthy governments will have access to those same backdoors.

And in this case, really, who are the British to be demanding that an American company compromise the security of everyone, including Americans, just because British authorities want them to?

Soon after her swearing in, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, and Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Arizona, reached out to Gabbard to ask her to tell the United Kingdom to retract its demand.

“If Apple is forced to build a backdoor in its products, that backdoor will end up in Americans’ phones, tablets, and computers, undermining the security of Americans’ data, as well as of the countless federal, state and local government agencies that entrust sensitive data to Apple products,” they wrote.

On Tuesday, she sent a response to the lawmakers saying she will ensure American liberties are protected. “I share your grave concern about the serious implications of the United Kingdom, or any foreign country, requiring Apple or any company to create a ‘backdoor’ that would allow access to Americans’ personal encrypted data,” she wrote. “This would be a clear and egregious violation of Americans’ privacy and civil liberties, and open up a serious vulnerability for cyber exploitation by adversarial actors.”

We echo the folks at EFF on this: “We appreciate Apple’s stance against the U.K. government’s request. Weakening encryption violates fundamental rights. We all have the right to private spaces, and any backdoor would annihilate that right.”

​ Orange County Register 

California is 3rd-craziest housing market in the nation

• February 27, 2025

Yes, California’s housing market is crazy, as only two states have experienced more volatility during the past half-century.

My trusty spreadsheet eyeballed price indexes from the Federal Housing Finance Agency dating to 1975 to get a long-running look at real estate swings for the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Look, watching home prices is not for the faint of heart. That’s true whether you’re an owner or house hunter. By averaging state-by-state rankings for a half-dozen measures of annual price change over 49 years, you see where stability was most common – and where it was rare.

The final grades showed Hawaii and Vermont had zanier price variability than California. Nevada was fourth in price gyrations, followed by Arizona.

Now, if you prefer calm pricing, these calculations say Kansas is your spot. Ohio, Kentucky, Alabama, and Indiana are next for limited price movements.

And how about California’s big economic rivals? Texas ranked No. 26 for price spins, while Florida was No. 6.

Let’s examine the six pricing yardsticks that created this scorecard to view housing’s mercurial ride.

Big gains

When did prices make their most significant one-year surge since 1975?

For California, it was a 27% gain in 1977 – the 12th-highest “best year” among the states and topping the 21% national median.

The largest one-year gains occurred in the early 1980s when mortgage rates swayed as the Federal Reserve battled ugly inflation. Hawaii home prices jumped 74% in 1982, Vermont soared 65% in 1982, and Alaska jumped 36% in 1981.

The three smallest “biggest” gains came in 2021 when the Fed’s cheap money policies juiced normally calm markets during the pandemic era. Kansas had the smallest best-year gain at 14%, followed by Ohio at 15% and Nebraska at 16%.

Texas’s most significant gain was 20% in 2021, which ranked it 29th among the states. Florida’s was 27% in 2005, the 11th largest increase.

Big losses

Conversely, when were the ugliest declines?

In California, it was the 23% drop in 2008 amid the Great Recession, the fifth-largest “worst year” among the states. Nationally, the median drop was 8%.

The 1981 mortgage madness caused gigantic losses. Hawaii’s prices tumbled 54% that year, while Vermont lost 38%. Nevada’s 26% dip, the third-largest, occurred in bubble-busted 2008.

The most minor losses as a state’s “worst year” were 1% slips in Kansas (2011) and Kentucky (2009).

The largest Texas drop was a 9% decline in 1987, No. 22 among the states. And Florida’s worst was the 22% fall in 2008, ranking No. 6.

Extreme swings

Another volatility yardstick is the gap between a state’s best and worst years.

California’s fattest gain (27%) and largest loss (23%) are 50 percentage points apart, the seventh-biggest gap and nearly double the nation’s 29-point median.

The widest gap was Hawaii’s 128-percentage-point chasm, followed by Vermont at 103 and Nevada at 60.

The skinniest gaps were in Kansas at 16 percentage points, Kentucky at 18, and Ohio at 19. And Texas’ 29-point gap ranked No. 25, while Florida’s 50 was No. 8.

Geeky math

Now, contemplate a more formal volatility measurement – what statisticians call “standard deviation.” Basically, it’s the typical swing in a collection of numbers.

This geeky math says California’s home prices deviated at a 9.6% annual pace since 1975, the fourth-sharpest gyration and significantly wilder than the 6.1% national median.

The wildest deviations were in Hawaii at 16.6%, Vermont at 12.2%, and Nevada at 10.5%. The smallest were less than 4% in Kansas, Kentucky, and Nebraska.

The 5% deviation in Texas was No. 32. Florida’s 8.4% was No. 7.

Losing years

Yes, home prices do occasionally fall.

Since 1975, California suffered 10 years of losses, the seventh-highest count. The national median was eight years of price drops in the last 49.

Losing years were most common in Connecticut, 14 times, Rhode Island (13) and Hawaii (12). One-year drops were rarest in South Dakota, occurring just four times in 49 years.

Seven states had five declines. Texas had six losers, and Florida had seven.

Appreciating appreciation

Where was the big money made?

Ah, you guessed it: California! Prices grew at a 6.43% annual pace over 49 years, well above the 4.7% national median.

No. 2 was Washington state at 6.41%. No. 3 was the District of Columbia at 6.2%.

The most negligible appreciation was West Virginia’s 3.4%. Next was Mississippi at 3.6% and Louisiana at 3.9%.

Texas’ 4.6% gains ranked 32nd, while Florida’s 5.2% was No. 17.

Bottom line

Economic rankings are primarily fun exercises with small business lessons hidden within.

Does a homeowner get anything for living in “crazy” housing markets – other than frequent indigestion from tracking all the numerous ups and downs?

The 10 most volatile states averaged 5.4% annual gains over the past half-century. Meanwhile, the 10 least volatile states averaged only 4.3% a year.

The profitability gap is vast over 49 years when those appreciation rates are applied to the U.S. median home price of $31,000 in 1975.

When 2024 ended, that house would be worth $412,000 at the high-volatility rate of yearly gains. Yet only $240,000 at the low-volatility appreciation pace.

That’s a 70% difference. Crazy was rewarded, another example of “no pain, no gain.”

Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at [email protected]

​ Orange County Register 

Justice Department abandoning cases alleging discriminatory police and firefighter hiring

• February 27, 2025

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is abandoning cases that sought to force police and fire departments to end what the Biden administration alleged were discriminatory hiring processes, Attorney General Pam Bondi said Wednesday in the latest move by the Trump administration to end government support for efforts to increase diversity.

A Justice Department official said the administration is walking away from four cases, including one that led to a settlement agreement resolving an investigation into discriminatory hiring practices affecting Black and female applicants to the Maryland State Police. It’s part of a broader effort by President Donald Trump’s administration to roll back initiatives and programs promoting diversity, equity and inclusion, which Republicans contend threaten merit-based hiring.

“American communities deserve firefighters and police officers to be chosen for their skill and dedication to public safety – not to meet DEI quotas,” the attorney general said in an emailed statement.

In the Maryland case, the Biden administration announced in October that it had reached an agreement with state police to change the ways applicants are tested after the department alleged police used a written test that discriminated against Black candidates and a physical fitness test that discriminated against female applicants.

The Biden administration found the tests disqualified Black and female applicants from the hiring process at significantly disproportionate rates, concluding that the tests violated a federal statute that prohibits employment discrimination based on race, sex, color, national origin, and religion.

Bondi’s chief of staff, Chad Mizelle, said in a social media post that the Biden administration had sought to punish police and fire departments “for using race-neutral hiring tools,” even though he said there is “no evidence that the departments engaged in intentional discrimination.”

Maryland State Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday evening.

Other cases were related to fire or police departments in North Carolina, Georgia, and Indiana, Mizelle said.

Trump signed an order on his first day in office directing federal agencies to terminate all “equity-related” grants or contracts. He signed a follow-up order requiring federal contractors to certify that they don’t promote DEI.

​ Orange County Register 

City Hall kabuki while L.A. burns

• February 27, 2025

In the end, it was the least-surprising firing of a subordinate by a mayor in the history of big-city government bureaucracies. Or plain-old bureaucracies of any kind.

When disaster strikes, the finger-pointing begins, and someone is going to take a fall. And it’s mostly not the boss who’s going down.

So after Pacific Palisades burned down in a horrific wildfire while Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was on an overseas political trip, and after there were disagreements about both who was warned when about what, and about how many firefighters should be deployed when wildly dangerous winds are predicted, well, the inevitable happened. Bass fired Fire Chief Kristin Crowley last Friday, L.A.’s first woman mayor ousting the city’s first woman fire chief.

Was the Palisades the mayor’s fault, or was it the chief’s?

It was of course neither’s fault. It was the fault of the entire way we do things in California municipal governance — combined with the undeniable, perhaps unbeatable, force of nature that were the unprecedented wintertime Santa Ana winds of Jan. 7 that wreaked havoc throughout Los Angeles County.

Nature on that scale will win in the end. Which is not at all to say that people can’t respond to disaster in the most efficient way possible.

And inefficiencies abound when fire departments here and all around California choose to radically limit the personnel they can deploy because of the budget realities created by paying radically high salaries to uniformed firefighters. Yes, a firefighter III in L.A. city, which is anyone who has completed a year probationary period, makes $100,596–$118,055 annually. But we all know the story of the fire captain who made $613,000 in overtime two years ago. Many young firefighters could be hired for that — people who could have been deployed the night the fire destroyed one of the most desirable neighborhoods on Earth.

And, while all City Hall salaries are through the roof, the mayor did indeed recently choose to cut the Fire Department budget at least partially to pay for outrageous raises demanded by other city unions.

As we prepare to face future natural disasters, nothing short of a major revamping of how we do public safety is our first order of business.

​ Orange County Register 

Little rain this winter means bummer of a spring wildflower season in Southern California

• February 27, 2025

This year’s wildflower bloom is looking like it’ll be not-so-super.

For the past few years, vibrant, colorful superblooms have blanketed valleys, rolling hills and desert areas across Southern California. But with little rain to soak the soil this winter, chances of a big bloom are wilting.

California State Parks this week sent out an announcement breaking the news to fans that the upcoming wildflower season is expected to be limited, but touted other reasons to still visit its Southern California parks.

In recent years, especially those winter seasons with exceptionally heavy rain, fields of wildflowers have exploded across the region, drawing “poppy peepers” out in search of nature’s beauty.

Add social media’s real-time sharing ability and a newfound appreciation for the outdoors post-pandemic, and wildflower adventuring has grown into a passionate pastime – sometimes so popular, authorities have to shut down trails to protect the delicate landscape.

Each year varies as enthusiasts eagerly await the arrival of the California poppies, Silvery lupine, Desert marigold, Narrowleaf milkweed, Bush sunflowers, California goldfields and more colorful flowers that sprout from March through May.

“This is definitely a tough year for us, because there hasn’t been a lot of rain, so not a lot of wildflowers,” said Katie Tilford, assistant director at the Theodore Payne Foundation for Wild Flower & Native Plants in Sun Valley. “It will definitely be a slower season.”

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, one of Southern California’s most popular spots for wildflower blooms, received only a third of an inch of rain on Feb. 13, after the longest dry spell – 334 days – since Jan. 7, 1942, said Sicco Rood, facilities and research coordinator for UC Irvine who works at a field station in Anza-Borrego.

The annual average is around 5.5 inches of winter rainfall.

“As you can imagine, the bloom is really low at this time,” he said in an email. “This last local rain event has so far not been enough to generate any notable germination around Borrego Springs, as far as I can tell.”

There’s one exception at the Fish Creek watershed, which received a lot of monsoonal rain, in some areas 3-to-5 inches on Aug. 11, with some plants flowering in that area.

There could be a slim chance still for a pop of color: Rood said one former reserve manager said in his 40 years he could only can think of one similar year in the early ’90s when there was no significant rain until March.

“There was enough rain that month that led to a great bloom in early April,” he said. “So, we’re going to need some more rain and cool days in March.”

Wildflower growth depends on a delicate dance of weather factors, including rain and its timing, amount of sunlight, seasonal temperatures and wind.

Recent storms may have helped, but only time will tell because it takes a while for the plants to germinate and grow, said Lori Wear, district interpretive program manager for State Park’s Great Basin area. A few days of hot weather can dry out the budding plants.

“It’s certainly not going to be a spectacular bloom this year,” she said. “We had very little rainfall from basically early autumn through early winter, which really impacted the bloom.”

“It just depends on if we see an early heat wave on what the bloom will look like,” she added.

The Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve averaged more than 6 inches of rain in 2017, 2019, 2020 and 2023, when sections of the park saw a significant bloom. But it is well below those levels this year.

Right now, it’s mostly brown grass covering the area, Wear said.

A big bloom at the poppy reserve can see as many as 300,000 people visiting in a three-month span to see the phenomenon.

“People really enjoy being out in nature and when you see wildflowers covering an entire valley floor, from one mountain top to another, it’s spectacular,” Wear said. “You can’t beat that feeling, looking at that awe-inspiring bloom.”

There are other ways people can enjoy the area, she noted. There’s a newly launched film about wildflowers in the visitor’s center and an educational scavenger hunt called “Agents of Discovery” to try.

One thing to remember: “Never pick the flowers. Take only memories.”

The Theodore Payne Foundation has been around since 1983, and every wildflower season it sets up a hotline people can call in weekly for a report on where blooms are sprouting.

Instead of open source social media platforms, the foundation works with a trusted group of field reporters who call in their findings, with the first day of this season’s hotline scheduled for March 7.

“There’s people taking road trips and staying in hotels just to see poppies bloom, so we want to make sure it’s a reliable source,” Tilford said.

Tilford noted that some of the popular areas to see wildflowers have been impacted by the recent wildfires, including Malibu, the Pacific Palisades and Eaton Canyon. People are urged to stay clear of those areas to help nature regrow.

The fires have also impacted the foundation’s operations because some of the field reporters who typically help the hotline have lost their homes.

A slower season is a good opportunity for the foundation to promote other ways to enjoy nature, such as visiting public gardens or nature centers and hiking mountain trails. It’s also a chance to educate people about perennials such as buckwheat, sage, California lilacs and shrubs that show up in spring, Tilford said.

“We’re trying to get creative and branch out, we still want people to connect with nature and learn how to see these places and do it respectfully,” she said. “There’s a lot of preserved, undeveloped areas that are really a great tool for people to learn about the local ecology.”

People can also order wildflower seeds from the Theodore Payne Foundation to have their own super bloom each year, Tilford said. That’s how the foundations started in 1960, the founder opening a seed store in downtown Los Angeles.

“We’re continuing his legacy,” she said.

For weekly updates from the Theodore Payne Foundation, call the hotline at 818-768-1802, ext. 7.

The Flower Fields in Carlsbad

Flower enthusiasts can still be immersed in colorful displays of nature at the Flower Fields at Carlsbad Ranch, where 55 acres just a short distance from the beach will open on Saturday, March 1.

Taylor Moss, events and marketing manager, said this year’s lack of rain had an impact, but the fields’ irrigation system was used to supplement with water, allowing the seeds to germinate better and keep seeds in place.

Giant Tecolote Ranunculus flowers have shown up for the past 60 years, typically blooming from early March through early May.

There are currently 14 acres in bloom, Moss noted.

Two new attractions were added this year, a traveling glass art exhibit, “Glass in Flight” by Tuscon-based artist Alex Heveri, and a live butterfly encounter in which guests can feed and interact with hundreds of live, native butterflies.

Hours, ticket information and more: theflowerfields.com

​ Orange County Register 

DOGE access to US intelligence secrets poses a national security threat, Democrats say

• February 27, 2025

By DAVID KLEPPER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic lawmakers are demanding answers from Elon Musk about whether staffers at his Department of Government Efficiency have shared national security secrets over insecure communication channels.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia were joined by several other Democrats on a letter Thursday that asserts that reckless actions by Musk and Republican President Donald Trump’s cost-cutting initiative present a threat to national security by exposing secrets about America’s defense and intelligence agencies.

Such information would present huge advantages to U.S. adversaries by giving them critical information about Washington’s defense priorities and the resources assigned to various missions and objectives, the lawmakers said.

Without going through the normal security procedures, staffers hired by Musk have gained access to a variety of sensitive government databases that contain private information about many Americans and their businesses, along with employment and operational information used by the government.

In many cases that includes classified information, such as the precise number of employees working for various intelligence agencies.

According to the letter, DOGE staffers in recent weeks have used unauthorized servers and unknown artificial intelligence programs to analyze and store the data, and shared the information over unsecure channels, raising the risk that a foreign nation, criminal group or inside threat could gain access or misuse the material.

The lawmakers also noted that despite assurances the DOGE website will not reveal information from intelligence agencies, material from the National Reconnaissance Office was easily found, the lawmakers said.

They expressed concerns that DOGE may be cutting spending and personnel without understanding the national security implications until it is too late. They pointed to a recent incident in which the government tried to bring back workers it had fired who worked on nuclear weapon programs.

“DOGE employees do not appear to fully understand much of the information to which they have been given unfettered access and given the cavalier and incompetent ways that they have handled this data, these individuals represent a clear threat to national security and the nation’s economy,” the lawmakers wrote.

In their letter, the Democrats demanded information about DOGE staffing and security protocols and how the data has been used, and potentially misused, since DOGE began operations earlier this year.

Musk and Trump have defended DOGE’s work, saying it’s led to billions in savings. DOGE and the White House did not immediately respond Thursday to questions seeking comment about the lawmakers’ letter.

​ Orange County Register 

Senate committee recommends Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s confirmation as Trump’s labor secretary

• February 27, 2025

By CATHY BUSSEWITZ, AP Business Writer

A Senate committee voted Thursday to advance the nomination of President Donald Trump’s choice to head the Department of Labor, one of the agencies named in lawsuits over moves by Elon Musk’s cost-cutting team to access federal data systems.

Members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions voted 13-9 to recommend Lori Chavez-DeRemer ‘s confirmation by the full Senate.

Although the former Republican congresswoman from Oregon is widely viewed as comparatively pro-labor, some senators have said they would oppose all of Trump’s remaining Cabinet picks as a way to protest his administration’s far-reaching efforts to reshape the U.S. government.

“The next secretary of labor, the next secretary of education, the next secretary of housing, the next secretary of the Treasury is Elon Musk. Let us understand that reality and not play along with this charade,” Vermont independent Bernie Sanders, the committee’s ranking member, said before Thursday’s vote. “Does anyone here really think that any secretary of labor, any secretary of education, is going to make decisions by himself or herself?”

During her Feb. 19 confirmation hearing, Republican senators grilled Chavez-DeRemer about her past support in Congress for pro-union legislation. Sen. Bill Cassidy, the Louisiana Republican who chairs the committee, said business owners were concerned about Chavez-DeRemer’s co-sponsorship of the Protecting the Right to Organize Act.

The PRO Act, which did not come up for a vote during her one term, would have made it easier for workers to unionize and penalized employers who interfered with that activity. When Cassidy asked if Chavez-DeRemer still supported the legislation, she declined to give a yes or no answer.

“I do not believe the secretary of labor should write the laws. It would be up to Congress to write the law,” she said. Later in the hearing, she said she supported state “right to work” laws, which allow employees to refuse to join a union in their workplace.

The response must have satisfied Republicans on the committee. “Representative Chavez-DeRemer’s nomination has the support of unions and businesses. If confirmed, she has the opportunity to bring these two groups together to secure a better future for all,” Cassidy said before the committee’s vote of approval.

The Department of Labor has nearly 16,000 full-time employees and a proposed budget of $13.9 billion in fiscal year 2025. If confirmed, Chavez-DeRemer would preside over that budget and workforce. She would also set priorities related to wages, workplace health and safety, and employees’ rights to organize, as well as employers’ rights to fire workers.

A group of labor unions and 14 Democratic states filed separate lawsuits this month to keep Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency from accessing Labor Department data systems, which contain medical and financial records of millions of Americans, including those who have filed safety complaints about their employers.

During Chavez-DeRemer’s confirmation hearing, Democrats on the Health, Education, Labor & Pensions committee tried to find out where her allegiances would lie. They questioned whether she would continue to be an advocate for workers while serving in an administration that is slashing the scope and size of the federal workforce, including through mass layoffs.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., asked if Chavez-DeRemer would deny Musk or his representatives access to information about competitors or labor violations at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Musk’s companies are the subject of several OSHA investigations.

She said the decision belonged to Trump. “I work for the president of the United States, if confirmed, and I will serve at the pleasure of the president on this issue,” she said.

​ Orange County Register 

Japan hands USWNT its 1st loss under Emma Hayes for SheBelieves Cup title

• February 27, 2025

SAN DIEGO — Toko Koga scored early in the second half and Japan handed the United States its first loss under Coach Emma Hayes with a 2-1 victory Wednesday night in the SheBelieves Cup title game.

The Americans had not lost since last February when they fell to Mexico, 2-0, in the CONCACAF W Gold Cup. The loss also snapped the U.S. team’s string of five straight titles in the annual small-field tournament, now in its 10th year.

The United States and Japan were both undefeated in the tournament heading into the final match at Snapdragon Stadium.

“Of course we want to win. No one wants to lose these things,” Hayes said. “But we didn’t put out our most experienced team. We put out a team we’re hoping to develop, and our goals go beyond just the SheBelieves.”

The U.S. had been unbeaten in the last 14 games against Japan. The Americans’ last loss to Japan came in 2012.

Japan took the early lead with Yuka Momiki’s goal in the second minute. But Ally Sentnor tied it for the U.S. in the 14th with an assist from Catarina Macario.

Sentnor, the U.S. Soccer Young Player of the Year, has scored in both her starts for the team.

Japan pulled back in front on Koga’s goal in the 50th minute. She had come into the match as a second-half substitute.

“They were a higher level to us throughout the whole evening,” said Hayes, who is 15-1-2 as the U.S. coach.

Hayes, who took over the team late last May and led the team to a gold medal at the Paris Olympics, made 10 changes to the roster she used in a 2-1 victory over Australia on Sunday.

Jane Campbell got her eighth career start in goal for the national team as Hayes looks to develop goalkeepers after Alyssa Naeher’s retirement last year.

The U.S. team was playing in the tournament without the trio of Mallory Swanson, Trinity Rodman and Sophia (Smith) Wilson. Rodman is rehabbing a back injury, Smith was not yet in game form and Swanson was out for personal commitments.

“I’d love to have all of our top players available, I want that, but I can only pick the players that are available,” Hayes said. “I think you want to learn this lesson now. This is the game I really wanted for us to really see where players who have played less than five matches for the national team, what’s really missing for them, whether it’s in possession or out of possession.”

Japan was coming off a 4-1 victory over Colombia on Sunday. Mina Tanaka, who plays for the Utah Royals in the NWSL, led all players in with four goals and three assists and was named tournament MVP.

Colombia got its first win in its SheBelieves finale earlier Wednesday. Wendy Bonilla and Catalina Usme both scored in a 2-1 victory over Australia.

The Matildas, playing without star Sam Kerr, were winless in the tournament. Kerr has not played for the national team since ACL surgery last January.

​ Orange County Register