Steve Bannon is accused of doing a straight-arm Nazi salute at CPAC but says it was just ‘a wave’

• February 21, 2025

By JILL COLVIN and ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON, Associated Press

OXON HILL, Md. (AP) — Steve Bannon was accused of making a Nazi salute as he concluded a speech at a conservative gathering where President Donald Trump is slated to speak this weekend, but Bannon said Friday the gesture was merely a “wave.”

Bannon, who once served as Trump’s chief strategist and helped lead his 2016 Republican campaign, was onstage at the Conservative Political Action Conference outside of Washington on Thursday evening when he extended his right arm in the air, his palm flat, after imploring the crowd to “Fight! Fight! Fight!” — a reference to what Trump shouted after an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, during last year’s campaign.

The gesture drew immediate backlash due to its similarities with the right-arm salute linked in history to the Nazis and their allies.

“Steve Bannon’s long and disturbing history of stoking antisemitism and hate, threatening violence, and empowering extremists is well known and well documented by ADL and others,” the Anti-Defamation League, an antisemitism and human rights watchdog, wrote on X in response. “We are not surprised, but are concerned about the normalization of this behavior.”

Meanwhile, French far-right National Rally president Jordan Bardella said he had cancelled his scheduled speech at CPAC on Friday in reaction to what he described as “a gesture referring to Nazi ideology.”

“While I was not present in the room, one of the speakers allowed himself, out of provocation, a gesture referring to Nazi ideology. As a consequence, I made the immediate decision to cancel my speech,” Bardella said in a written statement.

Bannon, speaking to a French journalist from Le Point news magazine on Friday, said the gesture was not a Nazi salute but was “a wave like I did all the time.”

“I do it at the end of all of my speeches to thank the crowd,” Bannon said.

Bannon, whose “War Room” podcast is extremely popular on the right, also blasted Bardella for his decision to cancel, calling him “unworthy to lead France.”

“He’s a boy, not a man,” Bannon said, according to video posted by correspondent Claire Meynial.

He echoed those comments later Friday, telling The Associated Press, “If he canceled because I waved to the crowd like I did at the Front National seven years ago … he’s not a man and he will never be the leader of France.”

Online, some far-right users suggested Bannon had made the gesture purposely to “trigger” liberals and the media, while others distanced themselves. Nick Fuentes, a far-right influencer and Trump ally who uses his platform to share his antisemitic views, said in a livestream that Bannon’s salute was “getting a little uncomfortable even for me.”

Bannon’s gesture came at the end of a speech in which he repeated lies about the 2020 election, which Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden, and continued to press for Trump to serve a third term, something the Constitution explicitly bars.

“The future of America is MAGA. And the future of MAGA is Donald J. Trump,” he said. “We want Trump in ’28!”

Bannon is not the only person in Trump’s orbit whose gestures have come under scrutiny.

Trump adviser Elon Musk drew criticism last month after he slapped his hand on his chest and then extended his arm out in a speech at Capital One Arena celebrating Trump’s inauguration. But extremist monitors and experts said it was unclear what Musk was trying to convey to the crowd.

Musk “made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute,” the ADL concluded.

Musk also pushed back. “Frankly, they need better dirty tricks,” he posted on X several hours after he left the stage. “The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired.”

Marshall Lerner, a Jewish conservative who attended CPAC but had not seen Bannon’s appearance or gesture, said he was bothered by how some critics look to link Trump’s Make America Great Again movement with Nazism and mentioned the criticism of Musk.

“It’s like saying if the Nazis got up in the morning and they ate breakfast and Trump got up in the morning and ate breakfast, he is doing things that the Nazis are doing,” Lerner said. “That’s silly. That’s ridiculous. That doesn’t make any sense.”

CPAC chairman Matt Schlapp defended Bannon, writing on X that he participated in the passing of resolutions in strong support of Israel and in opposition to antisemitism as they kicked off the conference.

“I stand w Israel and Bannon,” Schlapp wrote.

This year’s gathering, held in Oxon Hill, Maryland, has drawn a who’s who of conservative leaders and Trump administration officials, including numerous Cabinet members. Vice President JD Vance addressed the convention earlier Thursday.

Colvin reported from New York. Associated Press writers Sylvie Corbet in Paris and Ali Swenson in New York contributed to this report.

​ Orange County Register 

Kings, Doughty take on Utah after 4 Nations Face-Off final

• February 21, 2025

Drew Doughty and Canada conquered the 4 Nations Face-Off on Thursday, and now he and the Kings will square off with Utah HC, commencing a three-game homestand on Saturday.

Doughty was a late addition to the squad following an injury to Alex Pietrangelo and a recovery from his own malady, a broken ankle that required surgery. As he always has with the maple leaf emblazoned upon his torso, Doughty came through for his country. He added the first-ever 4 Nations gold medal to quite a heap of precious metals: two Stanley Cups (2012, 2014), two Olympic gold medals (2010, 2014), World Cup of Hockey gold (2016), World Junior gold (2008), a Norris Trophy (2016) and more.

“It’s an amazing feeling – the best, the best, the best feeling,” Doughty told Mayor’s Manor’s John Hoven after the final in Boston. “It’s been a long time since I felt something like that.”

Not only did he add to his overflowing collection of accolades when Connor McDavid’s overtime goal won the tournament for the Canadians, but Doughty contributed the champions’ highest net rating for a defenseman, per The Athletic. That came after playing just six games for the Kings, a trial run that more than satisfied the Canadian brass, who opted to invite Doughty over strong wire-to-wire performers at right defense this season.

It was the first tournament that could even approximate the “best-on-best” energy of the Olympics since 2016’s World Cup of Hockey, which won’t return until 2028. The burning desire of players to represent their countries and compete at that level was highly perceptible, especially as a build-up to next year’s Winter Olympic Games in Milan, Italy.

For Doughty’s part, he hoped that it would not be his last time skating in red and white.

“I think I played pretty well. I’m still not exactly myself yet, [but I did get] much better. I’m looking forward to making that team next year,” Doughty told Hoven. “I’ve already thought about that, that’s what’s wild.”

Doughty will don black and silver for the seventh time this season on Saturday, when his typical defense partner, Mikey Anderson, should also return after missing four games prior to the break with an apparent hand injury.

Though Doughty was still en route from Boston on Friday, signs pointed to Anderson continuing to play with Vladislav Gavrikov. With Gavrikov on his off side, the alignment left just two right defense spots for Doughty, Brandt Clarke, Jordan Spence and Kyle Burroughs, though the Kings could opt to dress seven defensemen as they have frequently under coach Jim Hiller.

Opposing them Saturday will be Utah, which will resume play six points back of the final wild-card berth in the West and eight behind the Kings. Emergent from the dysfunctional shadow of the Arizona Coyotes, the relocated franchise has designs on the playoffs, especially now that it’s healthier on defense.

John Marino played for the first time this season in mid-January and now Utah will get another rearguard back as Sean Durzi will face his former team on Saturday. It will be his first action since Oct. 14, when he sustained a shoulder injury that required surgery.

Durzi signed a four-year, $24 million extension over the summer, a year after the Kings traded him for a second-round pick that they flipped to Winnipeg in the Pierre-Luc Dubois deal. Durzi matched his career highs in goals and power-play points last season and set new personal bests in assists, points and plus-minus rating.

Utah at Kings

When: 6 p.m. Saturday

Where: Crypto.com Arena

TV: FDSNW

​ Orange County Register 

Galaxy not looking to rest on their championship season

• February 21, 2025

CARSON — One look at the calendar and it wouldn’t appear as if the Galaxy had enough time to celebrate their MLS Cup championship and recover from last year’s grind of a season.

Diego Fagundez said he did.

“The monkey is finally off of my back,” he said of winning his first MLS Cup. “Like I said last year, we’re here for another ring.

“I think everybody is going to come after us, I think we showed in preseason that know matter who you are, we’re going to fight and take care of business and I think Sunday is a big statement. We did that with (Inter) Miami last year (in the season opener) and this year the same thing.”

Sunday will be the start of Fagundez’s 15th MLS season, his second full season with the Galaxy. It will also be the first season since 2015 that the Galaxy will start as defending MLS champions.

Last year’s run to the franchise’s sixth MLS Cup title was its first since 2014.

With Riqui Puig sidelined after tearing his ACL in the Western Conference final, Gabriel Pec could see his role expand even more. Joseph Paintsil will also be sidelined early as he recovers from a groin injury. That will also mean another expanded role for a player like Fagundez. He filled in last season as Puig was sidelined with a groin injury.

“Now that I have it (the ring), there’s another mindset that I said to myself that I want another one,” Fagundez said. “That’s what we’re working hard for. I feel really good. Coming in from preseason, only having six weeks off, I thought I did the right things to prepare myself.

“It kind of helps when you don’t have to work as hard to get there. You’re kind of already in that mindset. I didn’t really stop. I want to have a big year this year and I said to myself, ‘This could be your year.’ There’s a lot of missing pieces, so it’s time for players to step up and I said to myself that it’s my time to step up and help as much as I can.”

Ahead of this season, some faces have been moved out (Dejan Joveljić, Jalen Neal, Mark Delgado and Gaston Brugman) and some new pieces have been brought in (forward Christian Ramirez, midfielders Elijah Wynder and Lucas Sanabria and forward Matheus Nascimento), but the challenge of repeating is great.

No team has repeated in MLS since the Bruce Arena-coached Galaxy in 2011 and 2012.

“Initially, coming in and being champions, it’s going to be about committing to the new process and starting again,” Galaxy coach Greg Vanney said. “The challenges are going to be different in terms of how teams approach us. It’s going to be a different road to success this year.

“We have to continue to build off of the things that we learned about each other and about who we are last year. Integrate some of the new guys and manage each game and each situations appropriately. The challenges are the same every year, it doesn’t, you just have manage them as they come and find the solutions. I think we learned a lot about each other and about ourselves.

“We matured as the season went on. The starting point (this season) in preseason was higher than it was last year because we had more guys who were aware of our system and aware of their roles and responsibilities and have also created relationships on the field that weren’t in the same place last year as they are now. So we need to continue to mature as a team, we need to help integrate the new players into what we’re doing and help them build relationships with guys that have been here to establish timing, rhythm as we start a new journey and new process.”

The biggest challenge will be playing without Puig, who recently returned to L.A. after time home in Barcelona.

“It’s been great to have him around,” Vanney said of Puig. “There’s two parts to this: He has to focus on the things that are going to get him back on the field and if he’s around here all of the time, then he’s using resources for the training room. It’s finding the balance between getting him exactly where he needs to be to make sure he’s taking the steps that he needs to come back at the right time and the right way.

“But the second is having him around the group. His presence is unique and special. He has a great way connecting with players on and off the field and they love to have him around.”

The Galaxy made the big jump from 13th place in 2023 to MLS Cup champions. This season’s schedule will include CONCACAF Champions League play, starting next month, and the Leagues Cup in the summer.

“Everyone will want to beat us every single game,” defender and captain Maya Yoshida said. “We still have to be hungry to accomplish something. We’ve had good preparation so far. I feel much better than year before because we’ve already made our base last season. I’m pretty confident so far.”

​ Orange County Register 

Dodgers pitcher Tony Gonsolin ready to reclaim his spot

• February 21, 2025

MESA, Ariz. — It was closer than you think.

The Dodgers’ glaring lack of starting pitchers as they headed into the postseason last fall had them considering every possible option – even one who hadn’t pitched in the big leagues since August 2023 and was still in the final stages of recovering from Tommy John surgery.

“Yeah, I think we were pretty close,” said Tony Gonsolin, the TJ rehabber in question. “I had talks with (Brandon) Gomes (GM) and (President of Baseball Operations) Andrew (Friedman) about it. Everything played out. We were okay, and they didn’t have to use me.”

The Dodgers navigated their way to a World Series title with three traditional starters (Jack Flaherty, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Walker Buehler) and frequent ‘bullpen games,’ ultimately deciding that Gonsolin wasn’t ready after just 7⅔ innings over three rehab games in Triple-A.

“We weren’t close,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts insisted. “He was sort of there (at workouts), but he wasn’t. … We were really just hoping that we didn’t have to get to that point.”

Now that Gonsolin is ready to return, he finds himself the forgotten All-Star in a packed rotation.

Gonsolin was an All-Star in 2022, going 16-1 with a 2.14 ERA and a 0.87 WHIP in his most recent healthy season. He pitched with an injured elbow in 2023, persevering for 20 starts in order to reach a contract bonus before undergoing Tommy John surgery. Since he threw his last pitch in August 2023, the Dodgers have added an entire rotation – Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Roki Sasaki and Shohei Ohtani.

“Maybe a little bit,” Gonsolin said of being forgotten in a starting group that also includes Dustin May coming back from surgery, Bobby Miller trying to re-set after a disastrous sophomore season and future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw returning for his 18th season. “(I’m) just trying to go out there and compete and see what happens.

“(I) try not to pay attention to that honestly. Just go out there and do my job.”

Gonsolin said the three rehab games in the minors last year plus throwing to Dodgers’ hitters in simulated games during their postseason workouts was enough to put an end to “rehab mode” and bring him to Camelback Ranch feeling “just like spring training.”

“It was cool to be back in, like, a real game,” Gonsolin said after throwing a one-hit, scoreless inning against the Chicago Cubs on Friday.

“Overall, I felt pretty good. I thought the fastball execution could be a little bit better but I thought I threw a couple good splitties, couple good sliders, couple good curveballs. Overall, just good results.”

Even before Gonsolin took the mound against the Cubs, Roberts said the 30-year-old right-hander looks to be far advanced from last fall.

“Oh gosh, he looks much better than he did at that point,” Roberts said when asked to compare Gonsolin’s spring form to what he saw in October. “I think at that point in time, he was trying to give us whatever he had left, which he did, and go through the process of surgery.

“Where he’s at now, he looks really sharp. The ball is coming out good. The breaking stuff, command. Everything looks good. We just can’t forget how good Tony has been for us when he’s healthy. So I’m certainly not sleeping on Tony. I think he’s going to be good for us.”

MARRIED MAN

Dodgers rookie Roki Sasaki announced through his Instagram account on Friday morning that he had recently been married. Like Shohei Ohtani last spring, Sasaki did not provide his wife’s name, only referring to her (as Ohtani did) as “an ordinary woman” – meaning not a fellow celebrity.

“It’s a new start both in my personal and professional life (this year) and I’m full of hope and anxiety,” the 23-year-old Sasaki posted in Japanese. “But we’ll work hard together as a couple so I hope you’ll continue to support us.”

Sasaki declined to provide any details when he spoke to the media on Friday morning, saying only that the marriage had happened during the offseason. His teammates – including fellow Japanese stars Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Ohtani – did not learn of the marriage until his Instagram post, Sasaki said.

“Roki? What? I didn’t know he had a girlfriend,” Roberts said, reacting with surprise when asked about Friday’s news. “Well, congratulations. The wedding gift will be on the way – after I meet his wife.”

Roberts said Sasaki is scheduled to make his Cactus League debut “sometime in the middle of the (next) week.”

MILLER UPDATE

Right-hander Bobby Miller was in camp Friday morning after being hit in the head by a line drive two batters into his spring debut on Thursday.

“He has a little bit of a headache, but there’s no fracture,” Roberts reported. “He slept fine, feels much better today than he did yesterday. Today, he’s just gonna lay low, but he feels very confident that he can kind of pick up his throwing program soon.

“He’s just got to keep going through the concussion protocol just to make sure that we stay on the right track.”

Roberts said Miller joked about having “a hard head.” But the line drive left the bat of the Cubs’ Michael Busch at 106 mph, creating a moment that was “terrifying and frightening” as third baseman Max Muncy put it after the game.

“He certainly escaped in a lot of ways,” Roberts said.

PHILLIPS PROGRESS

Right-hander Evan Phillips threw his first bullpen session of the spring during Friday’s workout. The reliever suffered a ligament tear in his shoulder during the postseason last year and was on a modified offseason program that didn’t include picking up a baseball until January.

Phillips said he has experienced no pain in the shoulder since increasing his throwing at spring camp. He said he understands “Opening Day is off the table” but he is optimistic he won’t be far behind schedule.

​ Orange County Register 

Lakers’ JJ Redick realized ‘playing hard’ is NBA’s only cheat code

• February 21, 2025

PORTLAND, Ore. — During JJ Redick’s introductory press conference as the Lakers head coach in late June, one quote, among many, stood out.

When discussing how he envisioned handling rotations, managing players’ workloads, in-game management and the variety of responsibilities an NBA head coach is tasked with, Redick made it clear there’d be collaboration with the analytics and performances teams.

It was also evident that a similar approach was being taken when it came to modernizing the Lakers’ game plans, with an emphasis on attempting more 3-pointers, generating high-value shots, pace and creating a greater margin for error with possessions advantages.

Or as Redick put it at the time: “I’m going to use math. I’m going to use math.”

But after the Lakers’ road win over the Portland Trail Blazers on Thursday, which was the second night of a back-to-back after Wednesday’s home loss to the Charlotte Hornets, Redick shared an epiphany he recently had.

“I had this revelation, like I don’t know, six weeks ago, two months ago – the math stuff, it’s important,” Redick said. “It really is. Guys have to communicate, all that stuff. [But] there’s actually only one cheat code in the NBA, and that’s playing hard.

“If you play hard every night, you have a chance to win. If you don’t play hard every night, you’re probably going to lose.”

Consistently playing with high-level effort and attention to detail has plagued the Lakers’ during their lowest moments over the past few seasons.

“In the past, especially my first two years, maybe a little bit in my third year, last year, I don’t know if we’d have won this game,” Lakers guard Austin Reaves said Thursday. “In the past, young, athletic teams that play really hard, obviously, have to match their physicality and pace and stay poised through it all.

“And I feel like this year, we’ve done a really good job of matching that intensity and also playing with IQ as well. So I think that’s a major leap from what we’ve done in the past.”

But in the Lakers’ best moments, and their most impressive wins, their effort has been evident, even when their execution hasn’t been crisp, which was the case in the win over the Trail Blazers.

The Lakers turned the ball over season-worst 24 times for 31 Trail Blazers’ points.

Their 18-point second-quarter lead dwindled down to zero by the early minutes of the fourth.

But their effort, and the plays where it’s most required, prevented them from letting go of the rope in ways they may have in previous seasons or even earlier this season.

They outrebounded the Blazers (48-33) on the offensive (11-6) and defensive (37-27) glass. The Lakers’ leading scorers for the game, LeBron James (40) and Reaves (32), made multiple clutch defensive plays.

And Thursday wasn’t an aberration.

The Lakers entered Friday tied for the league’s second-best record since Jan. 15, going 13-4 in that stretch, in large part because of their improved effort.

The Denver Nuggets, who are on a nine-game winning streak, are tied with the Lakers for the league’s second-best record since Jan. 15.

The Lakers will close out their stretch of three games in four nights with a matchup against the Nuggets on Saturday at Ball Arena.

“It’s just a more of a reflection on like the good stretches, the bad stretches, who we beat, who we lost and feel like against certain teams that maybe we weren’t supposed to win,” Redick said of his revelation, “it was like blatantly obvious that we won because we played harder. That’s where that comes from.”

The Lakers understand there will be bumps in the road as they continue to incorporate All-Star Luka Doncic, who sat out Thursday as the team managed his left calf that sidelined him for 6½ weeks before he made his Lakers debut Feb. 10.

But they also know that playing hard will create a greater margin of error as they work through the kinks.

“That’s the best way to play in this league,” James said. “The best way to compete in this league is to play hard. You can get through a lot of games if you’re able to just play hard. You’re able to cover up for a lot of mistakes.”

LAKERS AT NUGGETS

When: 5:30 p.m. PT Saturday

Where: Ball Arena, Denver

TV/radio: KABC (Ch. 7)/710 AM

​ Orange County Register 

PCH reopens for Pacific Palisades and Malibu residents; passes required

• February 21, 2025

Access to Pacific Coast Highway between Santa Monica and Malibu, which had been restricted since the Palisades fire erupted Jan. 7, was expanded this week for residents, business and other traffic.

As of 6 a.m. Thursday, the route was opened to residents of the Pacific Palisades and Malibu burn areas, along with essential businesses and school bus traffic, according to Caltrans.

Residents and business owners in the area will need to have access passes to use the roadway. Residents in Malibu and unincorporated areas can obtain access passes at Malibu City Hall, 23825 Stuart Ranch Road. Pacific Palisades residents can obtain passes from Los Angeles city staff at the Disaster Recovery Center at 10850 Pico Blvd.

“The PCH closure has been challenging for our residents who need to get to and from work, school, and essential trips,” county Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said in a statement. “As PCH reopens, we have streamlined the process for them to more easily navigate checkpoints and access their properties.”

RELATED: ‘We’re gonna be on the roads’: In Eaton, Palisades fire clean-ups, get ready for lots of trucks

Caltrans officials noted that restrictions will still be in place:

— PCH is reduced to one lane in each direction with a 25 mph speed limit between Chautauqua Boulevard in Pacific Palisades and Carbon Beach Terrace in Malibu

— All signalized intersections are on flashing red and should be treated as a four-way stop, even if the intersection is dark due to a power outage

— No parking or stopping is permitted, and no pedestrians are allowed in the work zone

— No vehicle passing is permitted

— There is one lane through the McClure Tunnel from the westbound 10 Freeway to northbound PCH, and one lane entering northbound PCH from the California Incline. Those two lanes merge into one lane, potentially causing delays.

PCH still remains closed to general traffic, “and only essential travel is recommended,” according to Caltrans. People trying to reach Malibu can use the 101 Freeway and Las Virgenes Road/Malibu Canyon Road or Kanan Dume Road.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles County officials announced the reopening of four county-maintained roads in the area that were closed due to the recent storms.

Piuma Road, Rambla Pacifico Street, Schueren Road and Saddle Peak Road all reopened Thursday morning. Tuna Canyon Road remains closed, and Las Flores Canyon Road is open to residents only.

​ Orange County Register 

She opened a bookstore in Sierra Madre. After the fires, she saw how it could help

• February 21, 2025

Not long after opening her new bookstore, Fables & Fancies, in Sierra Madre last fall, Ana Buckley said she was having a hard time letting things go.

And by “things,” she meant the books she was selling to customers.

“They were taking my books too quickly for me,” she laughed, recalling those first days in the shop, but she’s since come to terms with the process.

“I’ve learned to be OK with people buying the books and taking them away from me,” she said. “Now I’m better with it.”

SEE ALSO: Like books? Get our free Book Pages newsletter about bestsellers, authors and more

When Buckley and I first spoke in December, the conversation dealt mostly with the challenges and excitement of opening her first bookstore, which will sell both new and used books, on Sierra Madre’s main street.

“This is the first time where everything about this space is my call: The color of the walls, the books I carry, the decorations I put up for the holidays. It’s such an exciting, lovely feeling to look around and be like, ‘Yeah, this is how I want it,’” she said. “You create the space you want to be in. That’s what it feels like.”

Since that first conversation, however, Buckley and her co-owner husband Tim, like so many in the communities of Sierra Madre, Pasadena and Altadena, have been dealing with the challenges presented by recent wildfires, power outages, rain and mudslides.

The store had been open less than two months when the fires hit, and so we spoke again last Saturday to catch up on what’s been happening.

After she and her husband evacuated with what she calls her “circus” – two cats, two dogs and a mother-in-law – they were grateful to learn their apartment had been spared. So the question became when they could get back in and go to work.

“We just had to wait until the power came back,” she says, and once she could return she cleaned the space and found that her stock had fared OK. “I got really lucky there.”

Buckley says booksellers at Octavia’s Bookshelf and Black Cat Fables messaged to check in on her, and once the store reopened, she wanted to begin providing services to the community. She loaded shelves with donated books that were free to those impacted by the fires and hosted storytimes for children.

“We have donated books for people who need to rebuild their home libraries,” she says. “There was a two-week period when kids were out of school – and parents, I could see were just a little frantic– so we did a storytime twice a day.

“I put out a call to the community if anybody wanted to come and volunteer,” she says, adding that the response was overwhelming. “So many people volunteered to read to the kids.”

Buckley says they found other ways to help, too, such as providing space in the back for a local yoga studio to hold classes and offering a welcoming place for those who needed one.

“Every single day that I was here once we reopened, somebody would come in who had lost their home, and some people were barely keeping it together,” she says. “We would end up talking for a really long time. And that kind of felt good; that did feel like I was helping to some degree because at least they had a space where they could talk.

“One [visitor] got emotional because he saw a copy of ‘The Hobbit’ that was the same exact edition that his father had inscribed to him as a gift,” she says. “It’s just stuff like that, you know?”

Buckley says the store is planning a grand opening event on March 15, which will feature the unveiling of its large main room with custom shelves, a large tree and  art by Buckley’s brother, who is an artist based in Mexico City.

“There’s going to be oversized scissors and everything,” she laughs about the ceremony. “We’ll be ready to go. I’m so excited.”

Buckley, who grew up both in Mexico and California, went to high school in Riverside and has worked in a number of Southern California bookstores, including Borders, The Daily Planet, The Last Bookstore and Lost Books, before deciding it was time to start her own.

She says that Sierra Madre has been an ideal, welcoming place, recalling how a group of librarians from the Sierra Madre Public Library ventured down the street together to say hello.

“I was starstruck,” she says.

Buckley has also learned some local lore about her location: It was once a music store where it’s believed the Van Halen brothers got their first instruments.

“A customer actually had the receipt — the literal receipt. The dad, Jan Van Halen, bought the drum set and guitar for his kids here at 50 W. Sierra Madre Blvd., isn’t that crazy?”

And for now, she’s looking forward to making some history here herself.

”I love it. Like, closing up at night and just looking around at this – it’s such an amazing feeling,” she says. “This is such a great community.”

For more information, check out the store’s Bookshop.org site or Instagram.

​ Orange County Register 

Ancient deity, pet and endangered species. Why is axolotl Mexico’s most beloved amphibian?

• February 21, 2025

By MARÍA TERESA HERNÁNDEZ

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Legend has it the axolotl was not always an amphibian. Long before it became Mexico’s most beloved salamander and efforts to prevent its extinction flourished, it was a sneaky god.

“It’s an interesting little animal,” said Yanet Cruz, head of the Chinampaxóchitl Museum in Mexico City.

Its exhibitions focus on axolotl and chinampas, the pre-Hispanic agricultural systems resembling floating gardens that still function in Xochimilco, a neighborhood on Mexico City’s outskirts famed for its canals.

“Despite there being many varieties, the axolotl from the area is a symbol of identity for the native people,” said Cruz, who participated in activities hosted at the museum to celebrate “Axolotl Day” in early February.

While there are no official estimates of the current axolotl population, the species Ambystoma mexicanum — endemic of central Mexico— has been catalogued as “critically endangered” by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species since 2019. And though biologists, historians and officials have led efforts to save the species and its habitat from extinction, a parallel, unexpected preservation phenomenon has emerged.

Axolotl attracted international attention after Minecraft added them to its game in 2021 and Mexicans went crazy about them that same year, following the Central Bank’s initiative to print it on the 50-peso bill. “That’s when the ‘axolotlmania’ thrived,” Cruz said.

All over Mexico, the peculiar, dragon-like amphibian can be spotted in murals, crafts and socks. Selected bakeries have caused a sensation with its axolotl-like bites. Even a local brewery — “Ajolote” in Spanish — took its name from the salamander to honor Mexican traditions.

Before the Spaniards conquered Mexico-Tenochtitlan in the 16th century, axolotl may not have had archeological representations as did Tláloc — god of rain in the Aztec worldview — or Coyolxauhqui — its lunar goddess — but it did appear in ancient Mesoamerican documents.

In the Nahua myth of the Fifth Sun, pre-Hispanic god Nanahuatzin threw himself into a fire, reemerged as the sun and commanded fellow gods to replicate his sacrifice to bring movement to the world. All complied but Xólotl, a deity associated with the evening star, who fled.

“He was hunted down and killed,” said Arturo Montero, archeologist of the National Commission of Protected Natural Areas. “And from his death came a creature: axolotl.”

According to Montero, the myth implies that, after a god’s passing, its essence gets imprisoned in a mundane creature, subject to the cycles of life and death. Axolotl then carries within itself the Xolotl deity, and when the animal dies and its divine substance transits to the underworld, it later resurfaces to the earth and a new axolotl is born.

“Axolotl is the twin of maize, agave and water,” Montero said.

Current fascination toward axolotl and its rise to sacred status in pre-Hispanic times is hardly a coincidence. It was most likely sparked by its exceptional biological features, Montero said.

Through the glass of a fish tank, where academic institutions preserve them and hatcheries put them up for sale, axolotl are hard to spot. Their skin is usually dark to mimic stones — though an albino, pinkish variety can be bred — and they can stay still for hours, buried in the muddy ground of their natural habitats or barely moving at the bottom of their tanks in captivity.

Aside from their lungs, they breathe through their gills and skin, which allows them to adapt to its aquatic environment. And they can regenerate parts of its heart, spinal cord and brain.

“This species is quite peculiar,” said biologist Arturo Vergara, who supervises axolotl preservation efforts in various institutions and cares after specimens for sale at a hatchery in Mexico City.

Depending on the species, color and size, Axolotl’s prices at Ambystomania — where Vergara works — start at 200 pesos ($10 US). Specimens are available for sale when they reach four inches in length and are easy pets to look after, Vergara said.

“While they regularly have a 15-years life span (in captivity), we’ve had animals that have lived up to 20,” he added. “They are very long-lived, though in their natural habitat they probably wouldn’t last more than three or four years.”

The species on display at the museum — one of 17 known varieties in Mexico — is endemic to lakes and canals that are currently polluted. A healthy population of axolotl would likely struggle to feed or reproduce.

“Just imagine the bottom of a canal in areas like Xochimilco, Tlahuac, Chalco, where there’s an enormous quantity of microbes,” Vergara said.

Under ideal conditions, an axolotl could heal itself from snake or heron biting and survive the dry season buried in the mud. But a proper aquatic environment is needed for that to happen.

“Efforts to preserve axolotl go hand in hand with preserving the chinampas,” Cruz said at the museum, next to a display featuring salamander-shaped dolls. “We work closely with the community to convince them that this is an important space.”

Chinampas are not only where axolotl lay its eggs, but areas where pre-Hispanic communities grew maize, chili, beans and zucchini, and some of Xochimilco’s current population grow vegetables despite environmental threats.

“Many chinampas are dry and don’t produce food anymore,” Cruz said. “And where some chinampas used to be, one can now see soccer camps.”

For her, like for Vergara, preserving axolotl is not an end, but a means for saving the place where the amphibian came to be.

“This great system (chinampas) is all that’s left from the lake city of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, so I always tell our visitors that Xochimilco is a living archeological zone,” Cruz said. “If we, as citizens, don’t take care of what’s ours, it will be lost.”

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

​ Orange County Register