How to track Santa on Christmas Eve

• December 20, 2023

There’s no one busier on Christmas Eve than Santa Claus, and one organization has been tracking his exceptional gift-giving abilities for more than 60 years.

This modern tradition actually started in 1955, “when a young child accidentally dialed the unlisted phone number of the (Continental Air Defense Command) Operations Center upon seeing an newspaper advertisement telling kids to call Santa,” according to the bi-national organization North American Aerospace Defense Command.

The director of operations at the time, Col. Harry Shoup, “answered the phone and instructed his staff to check the radar for indications of Santa making his way south from the North Pole,” the organization says on its website. And so the tracking of Mr. Claus began.

It continued when NORAD formed and replaced CONAD in 1958. Since then, NORAD says it has “has dutifully reported Santa’s location on Dec. 24 to millions of children and families across the globe.”

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If you’re interested in tracking Santa on Christmas Eve, you can call NORAD at (877) HI-NORAD or follow Santa’s location using NORAD’s Tracks Santa website — that’s the map above — or its social media channels.

While NORAD cannot confirm when Santa will be at each house, the organization says it does “know from history that it appears he arrives only when children are asleep!” That means between 9 p.m. and midnight on Christmas Eve in most countries, NORAD adds.

“If children are still awake when Santa arrives, he moves on to other houses,” the organization notes. “He returns later, but only when the children are asleep!”

Contributing: Kurt Snibbe, Southern California News Group

​ Orange County Register 

Rings dropped into Massachusetts Salvation Army donation kettle: ‘Given in love for a second time’

• December 20, 2023

The incredibly generous tradition of people dropping jewelry into The Salvation Army’s red donation kettles continued this week in the Bay State.

Lt. Nicole Fullop of The Salvation Army was counting money after collecting red kettles from multiple sites in Waltham on Thursday when she found a wedding band and an engagement ring.

There was also a note from the anonymous donor, who dropped them into a red kettle at the Market Basket in Waltham.

“This ring is being given in love for a second time,” the donor wrote. “Like the first time, I hope that this ring will bring joy and make a difference.”

The rings are valued at an estimated $1,500. The Salvation Army said the rings will now be “put directly toward helping families and others in need in the Waltham area this holiday season.”

Over the years, people have donated valuable jewelry and rare coins with notes that have helped The Salvation Army raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to support social services in communities.

“We are honored and humbled that someone would care enough to give something this precious to The Salvation Army to help others,” Fullop said. “Donors dropping valuable jewelry and coins with notes into kettles has been happening for years and is often a reminder of how the kettle is a sign of hope.”

Donations of rare, valuable coins at Salvation Army kettles across the country have made headlines in recent days.

This year, The Salvation Army is aiming to raise $2.5 million in Massachusetts through its red kettle campaign. The donation campaign ends on Christmas Eve.

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Each year, The Salvation Army serves more than 24 million people across America. That breaks down to more than 55 million meals for the hungry, more than 10 million nights of shelter for the homeless, and Christmas gifts for children who may otherwise go without presents.

Volunteers who are interested in helping The Salvation Army in a community near them can learn more by visiting www.SalvationArmyMA.org.

​ Orange County Register 

Florida abortion-rights backers ‘confident’ they have signatures to make 2024 ballot

• December 20, 2023

Backers of a proposed constitutional amendment protecting abortion rights say they are on track to hit a major milestone needed to get the issue before Florida voters in next year’s election.

Floridians Protecting Freedom reported Tuesday it will submit 1.4 million signatures to election supervisors by the end of the year, well above the nearly 900,000 needed to make the ballot. That topped the group’s initial goal of 1.25 million signatures.

“We’re confident we’re going to submit enough petitions to get on the ballot,” said Campaign Director Lauren Brenzel.

If it makes the ballot, the amendment must win at least 60% of the vote to secure passage.

The state has until Feb. 1 to verify the signatures to ensure they come from eligible voters and meet other requirements. As of Tuesday, the state reported that 753,762 of the required 891,523 signatures had been verified. Nothing is official until the state certifies that requirements have been met.

The signature benchmark equals 8% of the voters in the last presidential election. Florida also requires ballot initiatives get broad support across the state with a requirement that the same proportion of signatures be collected in at least half of the state’s congressional districts.

Work is still being done in targeted congressional districts across the state to qualify, Florida Senate Democratic Leader Lauren Book said in a social media post.

“It’s clear our campaign to give power to the people is on track to win back our rights,” she said.

Abortion rights supporters are making a final push for outstanding petitions to be signed and submitted by Friday.

The ballot initiative’s summary states in part, “No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider.”

If the amendment meets the signature requirement, it will need to clear another hurdle to get on the ballot.

Florida Supreme Court could deny voters a say on abortion rights

The Florida Supreme Court, which is dominated by conservative justices, must approve the ballot initiative’s language. The high court is tasked with evaluating proposed citizen ballot initiatives to determine if the language is clear, won’t mislead voters and deals with a single subject.

Republican Attorney General Ashley Moody has argued that the ballot summary will confuse voters because it doesn’t define the term “viability.” Supporters say the term has a “well-understood, commonly accepted meaning” as “the point at which a fetus could survive outside the womb.”

Earlier this year, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill that bans most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. That law will take effect if the Supreme Court upholds a 15-week abortion ban passed last year.

​ Orange County Register 

Analysts say Ukraine’s forces are pivoting to defense

• December 20, 2023

By Volodymr Yurchuk | Associated Press

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s armed forces are taking up a more defensive posture, a military analysis said Wednesday, after their summer counteroffensive failed to achieve a major breakthrough against Russia’s army and as winter weather sets in after almost 22 months of the war.

“In recent weeks, Ukraine has mobilized a concerted effort to improve field fortifications as its forces pivot to a more defensive posture along much of the front line,” the U.K. Ministry of Defense said in an assessment.

The Kremlin’s deep defenses held firm against Ukraine’s monthslong assault, using Western-supplied weapons but without essential air cover, along the around 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line.

Most fighting in recent weeks has focused on artillery, missile and drone strikes as mud and snow hinder troop movements.

“Russia continues local offensive options in several sectors, but individual attacks are rarely above platoon size,” the U.K. analysis said. “A major Russian breakthrough is unlikely and overall, the front is characterized by stasis.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin is hopeful that Kyiv’s Western allies will grow weary of financing the costly Ukrainian war effort, allowing the Kremlin’s forces to make a new offensive push next year against a weaker foe. He has put the Russian economy on a war footing to prepare for that.

But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday that he’s certain the United States will make good on its promise to provide billions of dollars in further aid for Kyiv to continue its fight. The U.S. Congress has broken for vacation without a deal to send around $61 billion to Ukraine.

Zelenskyy also noted that next year Ukraine plans to produce 1 million drones, which have become a key battlefield weapon. The relatively cheap drones can be used to destroy expensive military hardware.

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Oleksandr Kamyshin, Ukraine’s Minister of Strategic Industries, said the million new drones will be so-called first-person view, or FPV, drones, which have a real time video function.

In addition, he said in a Telegram post, Ukraine can manufacture next year more than 10,000 mid-range strike drones that can travel hundreds of kilometers (miles) as well as more than 1,000 drones with a range of more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles). They will allow Ukraine to hit targets well behind the front line and in Russia.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian air defenses intercepted 18 of 19 Russian Shahed-type drones overnight, the Ukraine air force claimed Wednesday.

Also, Russia fired two S-300 ballistic missiles at Kharkiv in the northeast of Ukraine, it said. No casualties were reported.

Yuras Karmanau contributed to this report from in Tallinn, Estonia.

​ Orange County Register 

Supervisor Andrew Do’s ridiculous smear of LAist reporter Nick Gerda

• December 20, 2023

Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do has come under much needed scrutiny for his involvement in approving millions of dollars of public funds to Viet America Society, a nonprofit organization in which his daughter has had a leadership role.

This editorial board, citing this and his clearly established record of cronyism and pay-to-play activity, has called for Supervisor Do to resign.

In response to this, Supervisor Do has offered little but deflection and word games to obfuscate his well-documented and unethical activities.

But now Supervisor Do has reached a new low.

In a press release published online today, Supervisor Do accuses LAist reporter Nick Gerda, who has done courageous reporting on this issue, of linking to a “falsified” IRS document belonging to the Viet America Society.

“The tax filing that Nick Gerda has cited about Rhiannon Do’s employment with the Viet America Society in 2021, which he argued required disclosure, was in fact forged. Viet America Society’s 2022 tax return was modified to say 2021 in order to create a false timeline,” said Supervisor Do, who also called for Gerda to be fired.

Strong words. But what’s the truth?

What obviously drew Supervisor Do’s ire was a recently published story by Gerda titled, “Nonprofit Led By OC Supervisor’s Daughter Failed To Submit Required Audits For Millions In Spending, Records Show.”

As part of a much larger piece, Gerda’s story links to two tax returns, one from the 2021 calendar year and one from the 2022 calendar year. The 2022 form lists Supervisor Do’s daughter, Rhiannon Do, as vice president of the organization. According to Gerda’s past reporting, Rhiannon Do’s LinkedIn profile indicated her title was “president” of the organization from July 2021 onward, though this was changed amid LAists ongoing reporting.

Here’s where Supervisor Do, or whoever did his research for him, appears to be confused. Stay with us, as this gets into the weeds.

The 2022 form linked by Gerda does, in fact, say “2021” in the upper right hand corner of the document. But it also says “For the 2021 calendar year, or tax year beginning 01-­01-­2022 , and ending 12­-31­-2022.”

This editorial board searched ourselves for Viet America Society’s tax returns.

Nonprofit ProPublica shows the 2022 tax returns for Viet America Society with “2022” clearly marked in the upper right hand corner. The only apparent discrepancy is the year in the top right corner. Otherwise, the figures and information contained in the tax return linked by Gerda and the one linked by ProPublica for the same year appear to be identical.

We next searched Guidestar.org, which also contains financial information on nonprofit organizations.

Sure enough, the 2022 return on Guidestar.org includes the same quirk as the document linked by Gerda: “2021” is included in the upper right corner of the document, while also saying, “For the 2021 calendar year, or tax year beginning 01­-01-­2022, and ending 12­-31­-2022.”

Supervisor Do, in other words, appears to at best be confused and worst seizing upon a minor glitch in a document available from a reliable clearinghouse on nonprofits in order to distract from all that Gerda has dug up.

Supervisor Do certainly knows that most people won’t have the time or will to dig into comparisons of Form 990s. And so, he has teed off on a reporter who has rightly brought to public awareness that he knowingly steered public funds to a nonprofit headed up by his daughter without disclosing that.

The one point of contention Supervisor Do actually has with Gerda’s reporting is over the legal status of the nonprofit.

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In 2023, the California Attorney General warned the nonprofit that it “is prohibited from engaging in conduct for which registration is required, including soliciting or disbursing charitable funds” due to a delinquency dating back to the 2020 fiscal year. Gerda also showed that in 2020 the county’s contract administrator told colleagues she had “serious concerns about issuing a contract to this organization that appears to be a home based business and can’t verify their non-profit status.”

In response, Do’s screed against Gerda meekly explains, “In fact, the Viet America Society was given 60 days to cure a paperwork filing deficiency with the California State Attorney General and has always been a legally registered non-profit organization.”

Throughout this entire scandal, Supervisor Andrew Do has shown that he will go to great lengths to excuse away and deflect from his unethical behavior. It raises legitimate questions about what else he’s done and what else he is hiding.

Once again, we call for Supervisor Andrew Do to stop misleading the public, to take responsibility for his unethical behavior and to resign from office immediately. He cannot be trusted with public funds or public office.

​ Orange County Register 

How young Rams have infused Aaron Donald with new energy and joy

• December 20, 2023

Last year, it got dark early around the Rams’ Thousand Oaks headquarters.

Not the way the nights come early in December. But for a team that had won the Super Bowl a year prior, the hangover could not have been worse. Injuries piled up in a startling fashion, and with them came losing like the Rams hadn’t seen since 2016, their first season in Los Angeles.

No one was immune from it, even the man built like a superhero. An ankle sprain and subsequent tightrope surgery ended Aaron Donald’s season in Week 12, the fifth of six straight Rams losses. The superstar defensive tackle did not play the final six games, four more than he had missed in the first eight seasons of his career combined.

“It was tough. It was tough but something that I had to go through, that we had to go through,” Donald said, “and we’re here now.”

“Here” is somewhere it wasn’t clear the Rams could reach so quickly after last season’s 5-12 disaster. At .500, 14 games into the season, in control of their own destiny for a playoff spot.

But most of all? The Rams are having fun, thanks to an influx of young energy in the locker room. And Aaron Donald, best known to the outside world for his glaring intensity on game day, is allowing himself to get swept up in it.

New beginnings

When Donald first met with the media at training camp in July, he declared he had “something to prove” in his 10th season. It was a comment that raised eyebrows among his teammates. What exactly did the three-time Defensive Player of the Yea and Super Bowl champion, already fitted for his Canton gold jacket, have to prove?

But defensive line coach Eric Henderson knew it had more to do with how the previous year had ended than anything to do with Donald’s résumé.

“I think anytime that you end the season, whether it be losing or not finishing the way you wanted to finish as an organization but also not having the opportunity to finish because of your health,” Henderson explained, “you want to get a second chance at it.”

When Donald arrived in Irvine in July, he was technically playing for the same team with which he has spent his entire career. But it was like everything had changed around him.

The Rams spent the offseason shedding expensive veteran contracts. The defense, and the defensive line room in particular, were struck hard. A’Shawn Robinson and Greg Gaines left as free agents. So did outside linebacker Leonard Floyd.

For a team that had entered so many camps with the Week 1 roster predetermined, 36 rookies were vying for spots.

“It felt like a whole new team even though it’s the same team. But it was pretty much, everybody was different,” Donald said. “You got Ernest [Jones], a couple guys that were out there that you played with, but for the most part it was a lot of new pieces that you never played with, didn’t know what to expect.”

If it was discombobulating for Donald, the situation was intimidating for the rookies who had grown up in reverence of Donald. Here they were, expected to share ideas and strategies with the man whose tape they had modeled their games after.

“You just never quite know how it’s going to go coming in and with him being as talented as he is and what kind of person he’s going to be,” rookie third-round pick Kobie Turner said. “But you could tell that he wasn’t like holding himself way above everybody else. It was pretty comforting.”

As the days and weeks went by, Donald did what he could to take his young linemates under his wing.

Donald has always been known more as a leader by example. He sets the standard when it comes to how to work out, how to take care of his body, how to practice, how to watch film. In other words, what it means to be a pro. If Aaron Donald takes it all so seriously, you have no excuse not to.

“I know these young guys have just gravitated towards him. Everything he does, they try to do,” Henderson said. “I think that’s helped our culture.”

But Donald has taken on a different kind of leadership role this season, too. He’ll invite the young defensive linemen to his house, or take them out to dinner, or organize the rookie dinners in which first-year players pay for veterans’ meals.

“Just creating a lot of atmospheres where you can get the guys together. I think those have been the things that he’s been excited about,” Henderson said. “That was one of the things that really stands out, just his attitude, his approach. He’s a little bit more sensitive to the guys being young. But I think the personalities of these young guys have really rejuvenated him to where he’s having so much fun just being around these cats.”

Poke the bear

The young Rams in the defensive line room call Donald a “big brother” figure. If that’s the case, though, the other guys have certainly embraced the “little brother” hallmark of trying to get under Donald’s skin.

Rookie Desjuan Johnson, “Mr. Irrelevant” in April’s draft, has been a prime instigator, often leaning across the laundry basket in front of Donald’s locker to see his reaction to the latest jab. Donald usually fights back a grin as he concentrates on tying his gold-trimmed New Balances.

“Everybody likes to laugh, everybody likes to smile,” Johnson reasons. “As a young player, you still want to talk junk and push him to be the best version of himself – even though that’s Aaron Donald, he don’t need nobody to push him – but just knowing that you got somebody that got your back.”

This button-pushing hasn’t been limited to Johnson. Practice squad member Cory Durden frequently talks about wanting to dunk on his veteran teammate at Donald’s home basketball court.

“[Durden] said, ‘We gotta play basketball. I bet you got AD on the court, huh, right on the middle?’ ” Turner recounts. “AD is like, ‘Yeah.’ He was like, ‘I’ll drop 30 from the AD logo.’ So everybody tries to get up under his skin a little bit, but it’s all love, man.”

Asked about this dynamic, and Donald – typically stoic at press conferences – drops his head with a quick snort of laughter before recovering.

“That’s what it’s about. You want to come to work, you want to have a group of guys that you enjoy being around, you have fun being around, that works, that want to be good,” Donald says. “I think we got a bunch of guys in our room that are like that and then obviously, having different personalities and everybody clicking together and having fun with each other, that helps everything.”

Skipping off

The Rams had just put the finishing touches on their third straight victory in a fashion befitting a team that has woven together generations of players. Donald and Turner had combined for a safety late against the Cleveland Browns, and their work for the day was done.

As they headed for the sideline, Donald wrapped his arm around Turner’s shoulder, and Turner returned the gesture. But then something strange happened: Donald began to skip.

“I didn’t understand that it was happening at first,” Turner said, eyes still wide days later as he recalled the moment. He then added with a belly laugh, “It was definitely a core memory.”

And one that resonated across the Rams’ locker room, too.

“It was definitely funny, I’m not going to lie,” third-year tackle Bobby Brown III said. “I definitely need that picture, that picture is hilarious.”

“I was laughing so hard about that. That made my day to see him enjoying the young exuberance of Kobie Turner,” defensive coordinator Raheem Morris said. “When you have veteran players and that stuff rubs off on those guys in that way, it’s pretty fun to see.”

But it wasn’t much of a surprise to Henderson and the rest of the defensive line room that have seen a new side to Donald this season.

“It was exactly what we’ve been seeing in the D-line room amongst the group. It was just something that the world had a chance to see,” Henderson said. “But I was already seeing that. It was a genuine love and appreciation for each other and for just the camaraderie that we have.”

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“Even though we won the Super Bowl and stuff my first year, I feel like he smiles more this year. He’s taking the memories in more this year than probably he has maybe in past years,” Brown added. “He is the vet. So now that he’s around a whole bunch of young guys, it’s like full of life.”

And a far cry from the dark days of 2022. But at this stage of Donald’s career, it’s the right vibes at the right time.

“Just enjoying it, never taking nothing for granted,” Donald said. “Obviously, around this time last year [I] wasn’t able to play so had the opportunity to be out there playing with them guys. Just never taking it for granted, just trying to have fun and enjoying it.”

​ Orange County Register 

Longtime Irvine football coach Terry Henigan dies

• December 20, 2023

Terry Henigan, who coached Irvine to four CIF Southern Section football championships, died Tuesday, his longtime assistant and co-head coach Rick Curtis confirmed Wednesday.

Henigan was the football head coach at Cypress from 1976-79. He took over at Irvine for the 1981 season and coached the Vaqueros for 29 seasons. He retired after the 2009 season at age 65 and moved to Indio.

He coached Irvine to CIF Southern Section championships three years in a row, 1991-93, and in 2000.

Curtis remembered Henigan as “tough but fair.”

“He was a commander,” said Curtis, who is now the football coach at Crean Lutheran.

Plans for services have not been determined.

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​ Orange County Register 

Irvine will start banning gas-powered lawn equipment next year

• December 20, 2023

In another move to transition away from fossil fuels, Irvine is banning the use of gas-powered lawn equipment, beginning next summer.

That includes gas-powered leaf blowers, lawnmowers, string trimmers, hedge trimmers, edgers and chainsaws.

Starting July 1, businesses working in Irvine that employ more than 50 people won’t be able to use gas-powered leaf blowers and lawnmowers while residents and all other businesses have until Jan. 1, 2025, to replace theirs.

The ban on using all other gas-powered equipment will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2025, for businesses that employ more than 50 people, and July 1, 2026, for residents and all other businesses.

Any landscaping company working in Irvine — regardless of where that business is based — will be subject to these regulations, said city spokesperson Kristina Perrigoue.

While the state has already moved forward with phasing out gas-powered lawn equipment, the city’s ban expedites those efforts, said Joel Belding, deputy director of Irvine’s sustainability department. Under state law, which goes into effect Jan. 1, only the sale of new gas-powered lawn equipment is banned, not the use of existing equipment.

City leaders also voted last month to work with the South Coast Air Quality Management District to provide financial assistance to Irvine residents and Irvine-based landscaping businesses to purchase electric tools. The cost for electric leaf blowers is generally somewhere in the $1,500 to $3,000 range, up to three times the cost of a gas-powered one, Belding said.

South Coast AQMD has two general programs to help replace gas-powered residential lawn mowers and commercial lawn equipment: a rebate program that offers up to a $250 rebate for residents to purchase a cordless, electric lawn mower and a program for commercial landscapers and gardeners within its jurisdiction that covers up to 85% of the cost of commercial electric lawn equipment.

The Irvine-specific rebate program will essentially be an expansion of South Coast AQMD’s efforts to cover the full range of gas-powered equipment addressed in Irvine’s ban, Perrigoue said. The city will foot $150,000 to fund the program, but more could be added based on demand.

Irvine residents and Irvine-based businesses will be able to take advantage of both the general program and the Irvine-specific program. The partnership between South Coast AQMD and Irvine will be the first of its kind, said agency spokesperson Kim White.

“The financial incentive provided through the partnership will result in more equipment being replaced,” she said.

Funds will be disbursed on a first-come, first-serve basis, Belding said.

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The Orange County Power Authority also offers discounted equipment and rebates on electric tools available for purchase on its website.

Other Southern California cities — including Pasadena, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica and Los Angeles — have already banned the noisy lawn equipment. In Pasadena, where the use of gas-powered leaf blowers was banned in April, failure to comply with an initial 30-day warning notice will result in monetary citations. The first citation is $100, second is $200, third is $500 and the fourth is $1,000.

Irvine’s ban, however, won’t automatically come with punitive enforcement, Belding said. The city will delay traditional enforcement, like fines, until there is more general awareness of the ban and “market options become common.”

“We want to give the market a chance to respond to the state’s ban on sales and learn about how landscapers and commercial property owners are responding to the change and utilizing the rebate program,” Perrigoue said. “The city is taking an education-first approach and businesses’ good faith efforts should mean that no businesses are adversely impacted.”

​ Orange County Register