Larry Wilson: The anti-woke new impresario of the high-culture Kennedy Center

• February 22, 2025

Eight years ago when I was at a writing conference in Washington, D.C. I got in touch with a former staff writer of “mine” — when you’re the editor of a newspaper, the vernacular makes it seem as if you own your reporters — who’d gone from the education beat here to actually teaching middle school there. I asked him out to dinner, and he said sure — but that he also had tickets that night for Alvin Ailey at the Kennedy Center, so we could eat first, take the subway to see the greatest dance company in America later.

I don’t know much about dance, but I know who’s good at it. And I was super-excited to get a chance to visit the Kennedy Center, which I’d been hearing about for half a century, but had never been to. What a spectacular performance, in a knockout venue, the beating heart of American culture.

You know who else has never been to the Kennedy Center — not once, despite living in town for four-plus years?

Donald Trump. And yet now he’s installed himself as its chairman of the board.

Though not having darkened its doors himself, he told reporters after he purged the entire board that some shows in the several theaters there “were terrible.”

In a leaked audio of a phone call he made to his new board members, which includes his chief of staff and her stepmother, he laid out his vision: “we’re going to make it hot. And we made the presidency hot, so this should be easy.”

You know one thing that’s not going to be easy? Getting the famously cheap new board chair to open his own wallet and donate to the institution — which is basically the chair’s entire job. The billionaire philanthropist David Rubenstein, who Trump purged as chairman, contributed $120 million to the Kennedy Center over 20 years on its board. And he oversaw the development effort to get other Americans to give over $100 million each year to the Kennedy Center, which is not some government department, but an independent nonprofit.

We don’t know much about what kind of theatrical and musical culture Trump is considering for his reign, although it is said he once considered getting into the mug’s game that is Broadway producing, and that he’s a fan of “Cats.”

Of course we also know that he likes country music and The Village People, both of which are great — his boys Kid Rock and Ted Nugent, not so much — but hard to imagine filling the hundreds of Kennedy Center performances a year with.

He did say that in his time as impresario the center is “not going to be ‘woke,’” and wrote on social media: “NO MORE DRAG SHOWS, OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA.”

Among the tens of thousands of performances over the decades, there apparently have been a few drag shows, not up the president’s alley. And the center did produce a children’s musical called “Finn,” the title character described on the Kennedy Center’s website as “a young shark who just wants to be his true self. He loves sparkles and bright colors despite being a shark.” Yeah, its upcoming national tour has been canceled already.

But the Kennedy Center is where Justices Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg went to the opera together. It’s where former Vice President Mike Pence saw “The King and I.” Just perusing at random the recent calendar for the venue: Vasily Petrenko conducts Tchaikovsky’s Manfred Symphony. Edgar Moreau plays Saint-Saëns. “Adept as a performer of Baroque and contemporary music,”countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen. “Set today in the ‘Shear Madness’ hairstyling salon, this record-breaking comedy is Washington’s hilarious whodunit.” Riverdance 30 — The New Generation. The New York City Ballet. A festival called Arts Breaking the Sky: “EARTH to SPACE will fill the Center with musicians and astronauts, poets and researchers, visual artists and engineers, actors and environmentalists, architects and astronomers, dancers and scientists, film makers and space designers.”

Oops. Scrolling down to Friday night, we see: “Liberated Muse presents The Soundtrack for Social Justice, a poetic and musical reflection on the ways we can manifest a world of fairness and equity where human rights are recognized and upheld.” Fairness? Too woke for words. The show must not go on.

Larry Wilson is on the Southern California News Group editorial board. [email protected].

​ Orange County Register 

Readers share their stories about the resilience of rhubarb

• February 22, 2025

In response to a recent column on rhubarb I received several emails regarding local success with this plant, such as the following from Chuck Aardema, who gardens in Bellflower. It is a testimonial to rhubarb’s durability and longevity.

“I have been raised around rhubarb all my life. My mother and father were great gardeners and fruit growers just in their own backyard. We had a large rhubarb plant in the garden all the time. My father hated the plant which he even tried to eliminate by pouring his car drain oil around it. Somehow it always survived. Mom, who had grown it in Minnesota, made cobblers, pies, breads, jams and other desserts from the red stalks. When mother was not able to live alone anymore we moved her into an assisted living facility. I dug her beloved rhubarb plant out of her garden and transplanted it into her sister’s backyard where it grew to even greater width. When her sister passed away I once again dug it up and moved it to our own backyard where it now has been growing for another 9 years.

“I have removed pieces of the root from time to time to give to other family members. My wife and I enjoy the stalks in sauces, pies, cakes, bars, and jams. Mom had her beloved plant ever since I can remember and I still have the same plant today. This week I will turn 78 years old so you know how old it is. I have it planted in a flower bed against an east facing wall. I keep it fertilized and well mulched and watered. It now reaches about 4.5 feet across and at least 3 feet tall with large vibrant green leaves. There used to be a large Dutch community in my area and rhubarb was grown by many. My wife once took a large quantity of cut stalks to a women’s auxiliary meeting and put a sign on them that they were free. It almost started a riot with the women competing for them.”

Note from this account that rhubarb can be propagated from root cuttings.

Doris, who gardens in Upland, describes her rhubarb adventure as follows: ”I transplanted an old ignored plant from my grandson’s garden two years ago. After dividing it and cleaning it up I now have about ten plants. I grew up in Wisconsin where we had it and I enjoyed it. But being in Southern California for the last 50 years I had never seen it. I still don’t know what I should be doing but it is thriving. However, the stalks are quite thin with a mild flavor. The first year when I transplanted them I created shade and they did well. The second year I did not shade them and they did well. This year I cut them all back and they are coming back abundantly. I have fertilized them with worm castings.”

A number of factors could be responsible for your thin stalks. Since your transplants came from “an old ignored plant,” they would be in recovery from the original plant’s neglected state. Furthermore, you want to pay attention to watering and organic content of the soil since plants in dry soil or soil lacking in compost may produce thin stalks. Shoots that are overly abundant, especially when first emerging in the spring, unless some are cut out, may not develop into thick, robust stalks. Plants that are less than two years old are often simply left alone. Harvesting stalks during this period would mean slower root growth since there are fewer leaves to send carbohydrate down below for establishment of a strong root system which would lead to sturdier stalks later on.

Peggy Stewart shared rhubarb and avocado growing memories and her own gardening experience as well: “My mother-in-law grew rhubarb in her San Marino garden in the 1970s.  I cannot tell you her specific growing techniques except that she watered well and used mulch. She also grew a legendary avocado tree, probably a Fuerte, whose fruit she counted at 750 one year. She gave it two inches of water a week and used urea for fertilizer.  I live on the bay in Balboa and have a small patio garden.  However, except for some lavender, I grow only California natives. So many grow on coastal bluffs and are happy at the beach.”

Regarding your last statement about natives being “happy at the beach,” we should bear in mind that the inland climate of most Southern California residents differs significantly from that along the coast. I have a serious gardening friend who tried to grow a ground hugging Ceanothus, native to the California coast, on a slope that was only 10 miles from the beach. For several years, this Ceanothus stubbornly refused to grow, exhibited some dieback, and finally had to be removed. Just because a plant is native to California does not mean it will thrive in your garden. You need to pay careful attention to each plant’s requirements for growth based on its habitat as opposed to the microclimate in your own garden.

This perspective is also important when evaluating the appropriateness of Mediterranean climate plants for our gardens. Mediterranean climates include, first of all, the climate of lands that border the Mediterranean Sea, but also that of southwestern Australia, South Africa, Chile, and Southern California. It is generally assumed that plants which thrive in one Mediterranean climate will thrive in all of them, but this is not necessarily so. Of all five Mediterranean climates, that of Southern California is the harshest when our combination of low rainfall and elevated summer temperatures is taken into account. What this means is that a plant which never needs to be watered in South Africa may require regular summer irrigation in our part of the world.

California native of the week: Before people started to design gardens with California native plants specifically in mind, there was dwarf coyote brush (Baccharis pilularis). During those long years of drought in the late ’80s and early ’90s, coyote brush was eagerly sought and widely planted as a ground cover because of its capacity to live in the virtual absence of water. People did not really know or care where it came from as long as it lived up to its reputation for growing into a dense mat and thriving a whole summer without irrigation. Coyote brush is, in fact, one of the most widely seen of all California native plants. It grows throughout the chaparral and canyons of our own area. The growth habit of coyote brush becomes flatter as you get closer to the coast. It is dioecious, meaning there are separate female and male plants. Only males are clonally propagated since the flowers on female plants are considered to be unattractive although certain larger coyote brush selection in full bloom — such as Baccharis Centennial — are a glorious sight during the winter season. Twin Peaks No.2 and Pigeon Point are the lowest-growing and the most popular of the ground-hugging coyote brushes, not exceeding two feet tall. To look their best, in the hottest weather, they will benefit from a single monthly soaking and yet, once established, will never need more than that and, in fact, will survive with no water at all.

Pleasant childhood memories associated with plants or gardening persist. Do you have any such memories to share? If so, you are invited to send them along to [email protected]. Your questions and comments as well gardening conundrums and successes are always welcome.

​ Orange County Register 

Spring break prices hit record high – these affordable destinations are trending

• February 22, 2025

By Ashley Wali, Food Drink Life

Spring break 2025 is set to be the most expensive on record, with trip budgets up an average of 26%, according to Yahoo Finance. The beach still tops the list for most spring breakers, but sky-high prices push smart travelers to skip the sand and choose lesser-known destinations that won’t break the bank.

Over 32 million visitors will descend on Florida this spring, and yet a recent HomeToGo analysis finds eight of the top 10 trending states are landlocked. If you’re among the many Americans seeking an alternative spring break, these nine destinations bring the wow factor without the high price.

Embrace the chill

Not every spring break adventure has to involve warm weather. Coolcations are a 2025 travel trend, according to the luxury travel network Virtuoso. Budget travelers wanting to get outside can bundle up to enjoy the tail end of winter at lower prices, while most travelers have moved on to warm weather locations. Late September through April is off-season in Alaska, which is why Travel + Leisure calls it the best time to visit for lower prices.

Catch peak Northern Lights in Alaska

The current solar maximum we are experiencing means that 2025 will be a peak year for the Northern Lights. Trek up north to Fairbanks, where Bella Bucchiotti of xoxoBella says, “The locals make you feel so welcome. Watching the Northern Lights dance across the sky is surreal, and there’s nothing like soaking in Chena Hot Springs while surrounded by snow.”

Hit the slopes with low spring prices

Skiing is still good in some places, even into April and beyond. If you want to hit the slopes instead of slathering on sunscreen, look to Arapahoe Basin, Colorado; Mammoth Lakes, California or Whistler, British Columbia, as these destinations offer reliable late spring snow. Amanda Luhn of Simply Awesome Trips shares this tip: “You avoid the frigid temperatures of January and February and often get cheaper spring prices.”

Immerse yourself in culture

Cultural tourism is expected to grow at a 14% CAGR from 2024 to 2031, reaching $11.8 billion by 2031. Spring breakers looking for more than relaxation can find experiences designed to connect them deeply with the culture they are visiting. Yahoo Finance predicted that 2025 would be the most expensive spring break season yet, but it doesn’t have to be if you go to these cities.

Take a city break in Mexico City

When most travelers flock to the beach, cities empty out, making for fewer crowds and easier visits to places like Mexico City. A quick getaway for U.S. travelers, Mexico City packs a punch as a Unesco World Heritage Site. Prices remain affordable for a major city due to abundant accommodation options and an undeserved reputation for being unsafe.

Explore the best restaurants in Mexico City on a self-guided food tour while you soak in the ancient city’s history, charm and culture. Walk off all that amazing food with a visit to the National Museum of Anthropology and take a stroll through Chapultepec Park. Head out of town to the floating gardens of Xochimilco to see how Aztecs grew and transported food, and view the area in a new way with a hot air balloon ride over Chichén Itzá at sunrise.

Cheer on your favorite team at spring training

Nothing screams culture like America’s favorite pastime. Baseball fans have a lot of choices for spring break, cheering on their favorite team.

All 30 Major League Baseball Teams travel to the warmer climates of Arizona or Florida for spring training, where diehard fans can take in a game for much cheaper than during the regular season. For those saving money by staying closer to home, stadiums around the country celebrate the opening day of the regular season in late March or early April.

Tour ancient ruins in Central America

Don’t count out ancient ruins just because you are priced out of Chichén Itzá in Mexico. Copán in Honduras and Tikal in Guatemala are just as stunning but draw fewer crowds and provide a more affordable alternative to popular ruins locations, with prices in Honduras coming in at one-third those of Mexico. Spring temperatures are also perfect for exploring these ancient cities without the oppressive humidity you will find in summer.

Small crowds also mean better photos. Book a photographer in one of these beautiful locations and finish those family photos early this year. Your holiday cards will thank you.

Escape to the outdoors

Budget travelers don’t have to avoid animal encounters, natural wonders or outdoor adventures just to save money. This year, travelers can use destination swaps and all-inclusive options as well as support recovering economies as they plan a spring break to remember.

Sail away on a Caribbean cruise

Leave the land behind and sail away on a Caribbean cruise without worrying about expenses adding up. Kristin King, writer at Dizzy Busy and Hungry, says she chose a Bahamas cruise over a beach vacation because, “Instead of paying separately for hotels, meals and entertainment, the cruise bundled everything into one price, making it easier to stick to a budget. Plus, with included dining, onboard activities and multiple destinations to explore, we got to see beautiful places, relax and have fun without breaking the bank!”

Snorkel with whale sharks in La Paz, Mexico

La Paz, north of Los Cabos, is a detour destination near a typical tourist hotspot that is less crowded and more affordable. According to an Expedia report, 63% of travelers plan to visit a detour destination on their next trip. Luckily for La Paz, it is not only a budget-friendly alternative to Los Cabos but also one of the best spots in the world to encounter whale sharks in the winter and spring months.

Kayak the bioluminescent bays of Puerto Rico

Demand remains depressed in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria in 2017 and the travel disruptions of 2020 and 2021. Savvy visitors can help the island recover while benefiting from continued low prices.

While there, don a life jacket after dark and slip into Mosquito Bay in Vieques, Puerto Rico, the brightest of only five bioluminescent bays in the world. Millions of microscopic organisms call this water home and light up a fluorescent blue when agitated. Trail your fingers through the water and see a blue streak glow behind you, or float along and make the most unique snow angel you’ll ever see.

Attend a cherry blossom festival

The Tidal Basin explodes with color in late March as hundreds of cherry trees near the Jefferson Memorial blossom in unison. It’s a spectacular sight, but also an expensive one. Skip Washington, D.C. for more budget-friendly festivals nationwide, with notable events in Macon, Georgia; Portland, Oregon; Seattle; Dallas; Nashville; Boston and more.

Get out there for less

Sky-high prices mean it’s time to rethink spring break. If you want a unique vacation without the high price tag, skip the beach and head to one of these unique destinations. Whether you are staying close to home or venturing out, there is an outdoor adventure, cultural excursion or cold-weather option for you.

Ashley Wali is a travel writer and photographer. She is the founder of Wanderlux, a luxury travel blog that provides insider tips, practical guides and stress-free family trip inspiration.

​ Orange County Register 

‘The Monkey’ review: Stephen King’s killer toy becomes ‘Longlegs’ creator Osgood Perkins’ plaything

• February 22, 2025

Filmmakers tinker with the question of tone from project to project, many not as much as they should. But writer-director Osgood Perkins has no problem with tonal adjustment.

His recent and most popular feature, last year’s “Longlegs,” worked in a sustained register of steady, clammy, creepily effective dread. Perkins makes a hard left into merrily grotesque slapstick with his new film, his fifth, “The Monkey.” The knob has been turned to a distinctly different tonal setting: Merry death, dismemberment and nicely timed sight gags, rolling along, with a dash of sincere parent/child bonding.

Essentially a series of sketch-comedy illustrations of how many ways you can kill off your cast members, “The Monkey” comes from Stephen King’s 1980 short story. The psychic link between King and Perkins is childhood trauma, passed from generation to generation. As kids, identical twins Hal and Bill (both played by Christian Convery) are raised by their mother (Tatiana Maslany). Their vagabond wastrel of a father (Adam Scott, in a prologue cameo), long out of the picture, has left behind some trinkets and mementos, including one bad-intentioned toy monkey, not a cymbal-crasher as in King’s story but a drummer with a vengeance.

Each time the monkey’s mechanical key is turned, someone — anyone, seemingly at random, besides the key-turner — dies in spectacularly awful fashion. The younger of the twins, bullied persistently by his three-hours-older brother, has enough sadness and human difficulty in his life without all the adults in the boys’ orbit expiring, violently. First, it’s the boys’ babysitter (beheaded at a Japanese steakhouse), then mom (explosive aneurysm while frosting a cake), then the boys’ aunt and uncle, the latter played, amusingly and briefly, by director Perkins.

A generation after the boys drop the killer mechanical percussionist down a well, it’s 2024, the monkey’s back, and Theo James takes over the roles of grown-up and now-estranged Hal and Bill. Throughout “The Monkey,” director Perkins carries over certain visual strategies from his earlier work: the slow, ’70s-style zooms and, more sparingly, dissolves; the “gotcha!” surprise element of his most judicious shock cuts, played mostly for laughs here.

Is the mixture of frolic and earnestness wholly successful? No, but calling “The Monkey” tonally uncertain is inaccurate, I think. It’s confident in its mood swings. James and young Colin O’Brien, very effective as Hal’s son, Petey, strive for realistic emotional stakes with just the right hint of irony, as beleagured father and guarded son try to make sense of their fragile relationship amid a parade of random eviscerations, electrocutions and face-meltings.

Some of the killings in this spree are a drag: unpleasant, without the funny part, one involving Sarah Levy of “Schitt’s Creek” and a for-sale sign. Even so, and even with structural echoes of the “Final Destination” movies, “The Monkey” suggests little of that franchise’s rote determinism. Perkins gives us the randomness of extraordinarily bad fortune and, for a lucky few, the value of a hardy survival instinct.

In various interviews, the filmmaker has told his own story again and again. By age 27, he had lost his father (actor Anthony Perkins) to AIDS, after a closeted bisexual life, and his mother (actress and photographer Berry Berenson) on Sept. 11, 2001. He has been working through all that ever since. While I hope Perkins doesn’t lean into jokey sadism as a dominant creative impulse — we have too many jokey sadists with movie deals as is — “The Monkey” asserts his stealth versatility as well as his confident technique. Perkins rarely lingers on the worst of what we see; his editors, Graham Fortin and Greg Ng, have genuine comic timing.

This may be the least faithful Stephen King adaptation on record, but fidelity to the source material only gets a filmmaker so far.

“The Monkey” — 3 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: R (for strong bloody violent content, gore, language throughout and some sexual references)

Running time: 1:38

How to watch: Premieres in theaters Feb. 20

Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic. 

​ Orange County Register 

Fermented foods: The winter blues cure hiding in your fridge

• February 22, 2025

By Shruthi Baskaran-Makanju, Food Drink Life

Fermented foods like kimchi, sauerkraut, miso and even yogurt are having a big moment, and it’s not just because they’re trendy. A 2024 medical study found that fermented foods boost your mood, allowing these tangy, flavor-packed staples to offer a burst of brightness and depth to even the simplest winter meals.

Tangy, bold and rich, fermented food staples don’t just add flavor – they bring a welcome spark to even the simplest winter meals. Not only will they enliven your daily meals, but there’s evidence to suggest that they can also pull you out of that mid-winter slump.

The social media fermentation revolution

Move over casseroles – fermented foods are the latest stars on social media. Home pages are overflowing with tutorials on everything, from making your own kombucha to crafting the perfect kimchi fried rice. Why the sudden obsession? Fermented foods are not only versatile but also provide that punch of bold, complex flavor that feels like a much-needed wake-up call during the colder months.

“Eating fermented foods is a powerful tool for nurturing your mental health by changing your microbiome,” notes Dr. Susan Albers for the 2024 Cleveland Clinic research. “It releases beneficial bacteria into our gut that makes a good environment for creating neurotransmitters that help to boost our mood.”

Take miso soup, for example. One creator’s miso ramen hack recently garnered millions of views, thanks to its simplicity and satisfying umami kick. Another viral star is kimchi mac and cheese – a genius way to combine spicy, tangy kimchi with melted cheese for the ultimate comfort food mashup.

For busy millennials and Gen Zers, fermented foods fit right into the narrative of convenience and creativity. A little scoop of sauerkraut or a dollop of miso paste can transform a dish with almost no effort, making it the ideal addition to weeknight dinners.

The comeback of bold, time-honored flavors

In an age where convenience often trumps tradition, fermented foods offer a rare blend of both. They’re rooted in centuries-old techniques yet perfectly suited for modern, fast-paced kitchens. As people crave deeper connections to their food – whether through DIY fermentation projects or rediscovering cultural staples – these tangy, umami-packed ingredients provide a satisfying link between the past and present. The growing interest in fermentation isn’t just about bold flavors; it’s about reviving traditions, celebrating global cuisines and making everyday meals feel a little more intentional.

Bringing bold flavors to the winter table

Winter meals often lean toward hearty and heavy. While there’s comfort in a rich stew or creamy pasta, fermented foods add a vibrant contrast that cuts through the richness and makes dishes more dynamic. Think of them as your secret weapon for keeping winter meals interesting.

Kimchi, with its spicy tang, can be tossed into a quick fried rice, served alongside scrambled eggs or added to a steaming bowl of ramen. Sauerkraut isn’t just for hot dogs – try it in a grain bowl, layered on a sandwich or even stirred into mashed potatoes for a surprising twist. And miso? It’s a flavor bomb waiting to be whisked into soups, marinades or salad dressings.

A global staple with endless possibilities

Fermented foods have been around for centuries, with different cultures putting their own spin on the process. Koreans perfected the art of kimchi, Germans brought us sauerkraut and the Japanese elevated miso into an art form. While these dishes may come from different corners of the globe, they all share a common theme: practicality.

Fermentation was historically a method of preserving food through long winters, but today it’s all about enhancing flavor. This global tradition means there’s no shortage of options to explore. From tangy Indian pickles eaten with fresh homemade naan to refreshing Mexican tepache, fermented foods offer endless ways to spice up your winter meals.

Easy ways to add fermented foods to your diet

The beauty of fermented foods is how easily they can be incorporated into your routine. They don’t require fancy recipes or hours in the kitchen. Stir a spoonful of plain yogurt into your morning oats or top it with granola and fruit for a bright, satisfying start to the day. Layer sauerkraut onto your favorite sandwich or wrap for a tangy crunch that wakes up your taste buds. Pair kimchi with crackers and cheese for a quick and flavorful afternoon snack, or keep jars of pickled onions or fermented hot sauce on hand to instantly elevate any meal.

More than just a trend

While fermented foods may seem trendy, they’ve been quietly sitting in our fridges and pantries all along, waiting for their moment to shine. They’re not just an easy way to brighten up your meals but also an opportunity to embrace tradition and experiment with flavors you might not have tried before.

So, next time the winter blues strike, skip the heavy casseroles and comfort yourself with something a little lighter but just as satisfying. Whether it’s a spoonful of kimchi, a miso-rich soup or a tangy yogurt parfait, fermented foods bring a spark to winter meals that’s impossible to ignore. Because when the days are cold and gray, every little burst of flavor counts.

Shruthi Baskaran-Makanju is a food and travel writer and a global food systems expert based in Seattle. She has lived in or traveled extensively to over 60 countries, and shares stories and recipes inspired by those travels on Urban Farmie.

​ Orange County Register 

Protect your packages: Tips to prevent ‘porch pirates’

• February 22, 2025

By Jasmin Jose, Stacker

Package theft, often referred to as “porch piracy,” remains a significant concern in the United States. The rise of e-commerce has led to a substantial increase in residential deliveries, resulting in troubling rates of stolen packages, LA Post reports.

There were over 120 million reported package theft incidents in 2023. However, the real number is likely higher due to underreporting, as victims forgo filing reports due to the slim chances of recovery or arrest.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service , or USPIS, reports mail and package theft is a persistent issue. Between 2018 and 2023, postal inspectors arrested nearly 9,000 suspects related to mail and package theft crimes. Additionally, USPS handles billions of mail items annually, making theft a notable concern, especially in densely populated areas like Los Angeles and New York City.

The best protection against porch piracy is vigilance, creative preventive measures, and collective action within their communities.

As people across the U.S. continue to embrace online shopping, package theft remains a persistent threat, calling for heightened community awareness, and preventive action. Policymakers and law enforcement are urged to develop targeted strategies to curb this rising crime, while consumers must adapt by safeguarding their deliveries more effectively.

To protect yourself from future package theft, consider investing in secure delivery solutions. Options include using a lockable parcel box, requesting delivery to an alternative secure location’—like a workplace or a nearby Amazon Hub locker—or requiring a signature for delivery. Home security systems, such as doorbell cameras, can also act as both deterrents and evidence collectors. Regularly monitoring delivery updates and promptly retrieving packages can further minimize the risk. Additionally, utilizing services like USPS Hold for Pickup or arranging delivery times when you’re home can reduce the chances of theft.

If you discover that a package has been stolen, the first step is to check your surroundings thoroughly to confirm it wasn’t delivered to a hidden or alternative location. Then, contact the delivery company immediately to report the theft and provide tracking information. Many companies—like Amazon, FedEx, and USPS—offer policies or programs that may refund or replace stolen packages if theft is verified. Additionally, it’s recommended to file a police report for documentation purposes—while it may not lead to immediate recovery, it helps local law enforcement track patterns of theft. If the package was insured, contact the insurer to initiate a claim.

To avoid packages being stolen, it’s recommended to install security cameras, require delivery signatures, use parcel lockers, or arrange alternative delivery locations, which can reduce the likelihood of theft. Community watch initiatives and shared neighborhood surveillance also help in monitoring suspicious activity.

Certain cities face disproportionate risk. The top 10 worst cities for package thefts are San Francisco, Seattle, Austin, L.A., Fresno, Milwaukee, Portland, Sacramento, New Orleans, and Hartford. Many people rely on surveillance cameras, yet arrests remain rare. For example, despite dozens of video-captured thefts, L.A. Police Department data reveals there were only 25 arrests in 2023 related to package theft. However, efforts like deploying “bait packages” equipped with GPS trackers have shown promise in catching repeat offenders but remain limited in scope.

Deliveries from major carriers like Amazon, USPS, and FedEx are frequently targeted due to their ubiquity. The rise of e-commerce, with a projected 17.9% increase in online orders in 2024, exacerbates this problem.

The problem tends to be worse during holidays—like Christmas and Valentine’s Day – when the volume of online shopping surges. An estimated 210 million packages are stolen annually across the U.S., costing consumers over $19.5 billion.

This story was produced by the LA Post and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.

​ Orange County Register 

Amid Eaton fire’s toll, older Altadenans struggle with decision to rebuild

• February 22, 2025

Writer and historian Michele Zack, 73, is the first to admit: “This is not our dream for our golden years.”

But six weeks after the Eaton Fire, she and her husband Mark are taping up structures in their burned 100-year-old home, one way to indicate to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers what not to level in its debris cleanup.

“We’re choosing not to say we’re too old to rebuild,” Zack said. “We have other options, but none of them as much meaning as staying here, trying to help Altadena rebuild and seeing what happens next.”

Older Altadenans — or residents “of a certain vintage,” as one puts it — are facing a choice dictated by numbers: first, their age, and then, the economics of their life post-Eaton fire.

And even as most say their love for their Altadena community can’t factor into the reality of their choices, the town’s “live free or die” spirit dictates respecting each other’s course. What those paths are cut straight for some and are uncertain for others.

On Feb. 11, Altadenans discussed the issue of age and starting over on the Facebook page “What’s Up in Altadena.” Commenting on the first lot in Altadena that sold after the fire ($100,000 above its asking price) Darcy Duran, 66, said she couldn’t imagine going home in five-plus years, an estimate on how long rebuilding would take.

“I’ll probably sell, too,” she wrote. “But I’d like a fair offer from someone who wants a home built.”

Others chimed in agreement: “I’m almost 67 and struggling with the same decision,” and “I hear you. 69 here and tired.”

There are approximately 6,064 people aged 65 or older in Altadena, making up around 21% of the total population of 42,846, according to data from the 2020 U.S. Census Bureau.

Pastors Robert and Micheline McFarland, founders of LIFT International Church in Altadena, lost their home of 32 years in the Eaton Fire. Their church is safe, sharing the campus of Westminster Presbyterian Church on Lake Avenue and Woodbury.

In that time, Micheline McFarland, 69, has loved raising two daughters, and pastoring a community where “everybody had love.” She used to own a salon on Lake and Mariposa, frequented the now-lost Fox’s Restaurant in town as well as the jewel that was Altadena Hardware.

“We just had a new Thai place open we hadn’t tried yet,” she said.

Since the fire, the couple have been busy going the hard way with their congregation, leaving little time to dwell on their losses. McFarland said their car almost caught fire in their desperation to save Ziggy, their four-year-old white poodle, and their cat Sophie, both of whom were lost to the fire.

“Yes, we plan to rebuild,” Robert McFarland said, adding the message, “Altadena is not for sale.”

Most people he’s spoken with want to rebuild.

“But the reality is there are those who are under-insured who will definitely need financial assistance or grant money if they are going to rebuild. Amid rent gouging, land speculators and insurance woes, the cost of rebuilding may exceed working people’s means.”

A lot of the “older elders” he’s spoken with who are over 80 years old are torn whether or not they will live to even see a rebuild of Altadena.

What’s at stake is Altadena losing that strong representation of Black and Brown people and it will no longer be the community it’s historically known to be, McFarland said.

In the town’s Black community, he said, the elders have represented generational wealth and family legacy.

“And that’s in jeopardy,” McFarland said.

His wife said during the immediate aftermath of the fire, she was paralyzed, thinking none of it was real.

“Now I’m angry,” Micheline McFarland said. “How did this happen? It’s like a death and we’re in mourning. It’s the death of a community.”

McFarland said while the Black community’s treasure of elders remain an inspiration, she understands if they see time as a limitation.

“One of our ladies had just built an ADU on her property for her daughter,” she said. “All that is gone now and she told me, ‘I don’t know if I can do this again.’”

Valerie Elachi, 76, and her husband Charles, 77, lived in what she laughingly called Altadena’s Bermuda Triangle. Their Crescent Drive home sat at one point, with another stretching seven miles to Caltech one way and seven miles to JPL in another.

Elachi remains spirited and gracious as she walks around the ruins of her two-story, pueblo-style home, built in 1923 for Mildred Smith, literary secretary and mistress to the writer Zane Grey from 1916 to 1930.

“First I was shocked, then I was super sad. Now I’m just royally pissed off. Can I say that? It didn’t need to happen,” she said. “It’s like a death, but a hit-by-a-bus kind of death. It’s like a war happened in Altadena.”

The Elachis’ Hunt and Grey home is one of several historic homes lost in the area, and the owners of those neighboring homes are planning on rebuilding.

“We’re going to try,” she says carefully. Scuttled plans for a renovation can be reused.

Age is an issue, true, but “with enough perseverance and enough energy, I suppose one could still preserve the neighborhood.”

There’s no question which side of the question René Amy, 64, stands. After all, the longtime Altadena community activist had a giant banner reading, “Altadena Strong: We Will Rebuild!” a week after the fire, emphasis on the “will.”

Amy, who lost his home on Calaveras Street, said he’s seen Altadena struggle with many issues, from public education to gentrification to a brouhaha about the height of hedges. Even as he celebrated the reopening of the neighborhood’s Grocery Outlet this week, he said the path ahead will be long and slow.

“It’s not all going to be easy,” Amy said. “But let me be very clear. Altadena will rise from the ashes because of our incredible sense of community. So many of the things we love about Altadena goes back to the people, and a lot of them will come back and stay. The thing that matters is the sense of community and the big hearts trying to hold it together.”

For Victoria Knapp, chair of the Altadena Town Council, the question of older Altadenans rebuilding is specific to a number of dynamics.

“What is the insurance situation; are there additional funds to bridge any gap without having to spend one’s retirement; is the senior alone our coupled; are there adult children who would inherit the rebuilt home and would they want to; are there any outstanding health conditions that would be exacerbated by the potential stress of rebuilding; are the adult children nearby, in another state, and is moving closer to them an option and/or preferred,” Knapp said. “These are questions that need to be answered by older Altadenans facing a rebuild.”

For Hans Allhoff, chair of Altadena Heritage, the many aspects of Altadena underlines the freedom every resident has to chart their next steps.

“We all love Altadena in our own way,” he said. “It’s very easy to say we’re going to rebuild, but you have to do it right. At the end of the day, we need to respect that it’s everyone’s call.”

The McFarlands want to impress upon their neighbors that they don’t have to leave.

“It’s their home,” Robert McFarland said. “It’s their place, that people you know years ago set down the stakes and paid the price for them to be here, and that they should stay, that they should rebuild. And if they decide not to rebuild, they should sell to a young family that looks like them for a reasonable price who could not otherwise afford to live here.”

Groups such as Green Housing Foundation can help, he added.

Elachi sits in what used to be the outdoor patio of her home of 40 years and with a sad smile relates the loss of her extensive, museum-quality collection of Native American pottery, listing tribal names like a gentle chant: “Inuit, Acoma Pueblo, Navajo, Jemez.” She catalogs other losses: her husband’s archives from a lifetime with JPL and Caltech, baby photos of their daughter Lauren, how they had just gotten their home “almost to the point of perfect.”

“I danced down the staircase at the open house when we found this house,” Elachi said, remembering. “We starved for three years after so we could afford it, but it was fabulous.”

She stops at the door of the flat-roofed guesthouse, one thing that was saved from the fire.

“Oh look, the camellias are blooming,” she said, gazing at a pale pink bloom.

​ Orange County Register 

Dense fog advisory issued for San Diego County Coastal Areas and Orange County Coast until Saturday morning

• February 22, 2025

San Diego County Coastal Areas and Orange County Coast were placed under a dense fog advisory by the National Weather Service on Saturday at 4:18 a.m. The advisory is in effect until 10 a.m.

The NWS San Diego CA said, “Visibility as low as one quarter mile in dense fog.”

“Low visibility could make driving conditions hazardous,” according to the NWS. “If driving, slow down, use your headlights, and leave plenty of distance ahead of you.”

Guidance from the NWS for navigating foggy conditions

If a dense fog advisory is issued for your area, it means that widespread dense fog has developed and visibility often drops to just a quarter-mile or less. These conditions can make driving challenging, so exercise extreme caution on the road, and if possible, consider delaying your trip.

If you must drive in foggy conditions, keep the following safety tips in mind:

Reduce speed:

Slow down and allow extra travel time to reach your destination safely.

Visibility priority:

Ensure your vehicle is visible to others by using low-beam headlights, which also activate your taillights. If you have fog lights, use them.

Avoid high-beams:

Refrain from using high-beam headlights, as they create glare that impairs your visibility on the road.

Keep a safe distance:

Maintain a significant following distance to account for abrupt stops or shifts in traffic patterns.

Stay in your lane:

To ensure you are staying in the correct lane, use the road’s lane markings as a guide.

Zero visibility protocol:

In situations of near-zero visibility due to dense fog, activate your hazard lights and seek a secure location, such as a nearby business’s parking lot, to pull over and come to a stop.

No parking options:

If no parking area is available, pull your vehicle as far to the roadside as possible. Once stationary, turn off all lights except the hazard flashers, engage the emergency brake, and release the brake pedal to ensure your tail lights are not illuminated, reducing the risk of other drivers colliding with your stationary vehicle.

By adhering to these recommendations from the NWS, you can navigate foggy conditions with greater safety, mitigating the risk of accidents and prioritizing your well-being.

​ Orange County Register