Pilot, paramedic, nurse taken to hospital after a medical helicopter crash in North Carolina

• February 26, 2025

WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) — Three people were taken to a hospital after a medical helicopter crashed in a wooded area near a North Carolina airport, officials said.

The three team members who were on the AirLink helicopter on Monday night were taken for evaluation. No patients were on board, Novant Health said in a statement.

The team consisted of a pilot, a critical care registered nurse and a critical care paramedic, Novant Health said in another statement released later Tuesday. They were in fair condition Tuesday evening, Novant Health said.

The Eurocopter EC-135 helicopter crashed near Wilmington International Airport around 7:50 p.m., the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement. The helicopter had left Novant Health New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington to return to its base at Albert J. Ellis Airport in the Richlands area of Onslow County, Novant Health said.

The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate.

“We are deeply grateful for the compassionate care and swift response demonstrated by area first responders and our team members following the recent helicopter incident,” the health care company’s statement said.

​ Orange County Register 

This week’s bestsellers at Southern California’s independent bookstores

• February 26, 2025

The SoCal Indie Bestsellers List for the sales week ended Feb. 23 is based on reporting from the independent booksellers of Southern California, the California Independent Booksellers Alliance and IndieBound. For an independent bookstore near you, visit IndieBound.org.

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. James: Percival Everett

2. The God of the Woods: Liz Moore

3. All Fours: Miranda July

4. Small Things Like These: Claire Keegan

5. The Wedding People: Alison Espach

6. Three Days in June: Anne Tyler

7. Intermezzo: Sally Rooney

8. Onyx Storm (Standard Edition): Rebecca Yarros

9. Iron Flame: Rebecca Yarros

10. The Women: Kristin Hannah

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. The Let Them Theory: A Life-Changing Tool That Millions of People Can’t Stop Talking About: Mel Robbins

2. Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live: Susan Morrison

3. Memorial Days: A Memoir: Geraldine Brooks

4. How We Learn to Be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith: Mariann Edgar Budde

5. Golden State: The Making of California: Michael Hiltzik

6. The Harder I Fight the More I Love You: A Memoir: Neko Case

7. The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World: Robin Wall Kimmerer, John Burgoyne (Illus.)

8. On the Hippie Trail: Istanbul to Kathmandu and the Making of a Travel Writer: Rick Steves

9. The Sirens’ Call: How Attention Became the World’s Most Endangered Resource: Chris Hayes

10. Aflame: Learning from Silence: Pico Iyer

MASS MARKET

1. Animal Farm: George Orwell

2. The Way of Kings: Brandon Sanderson

3. Mistborn: The Final Empire: Brandon Sanderson

4. 1984: George Orwell

5. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Douglas Adams

6. The Diary of a Young Girl: Anne Frank

7. Lord of the Flies: William Golding

8. The Name of the Wind: Patrick Rothfuss

9. The Brothers Karamazov: Fyodor Dostoyevsky

10. Dune Messiah: Frank Herbert

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. Deep End: Ali Hazelwood

2. Orbital: Samantha Harvey

3. Martyr!: Kaveh Akbar

4. The Handmaid’s Tale: Margaret Atwood

5. Fourth Wing: Rebecca Yarros

6. Demon Copperhead: Barbara Kingsolver

7. North Woods: Daniel Mason

8. The Frozen River: Ariel Lawhon

9. The Vegetarian: Han Kang

10. Project Hail Mary: Andy Weir

​ Orange County Register 

Santiago boys basketball beat rival, kept rolling to the CIF-SS finals

• February 25, 2025

Santiago’s boys basketball team had already played Los Amigos twice in Coast League games.

Santiago lost both games, 60-49 at Los Amigos and 69-59 at Santiago.

And then the two teams, who had been rivals for decades in the Garden Grove League before joining the Coast League, had to play each other in the first round of the CIF-SS Division 4AA playoffs.

Santiago won the playoff game, 45-42, at Los Amigos on Feb. 12, and it has continued to win from there.

The Cavaliers will play in a boys basketball championship game for the first time Saturday at 9:30 a.m. when they take on Ramona of Riverside in the Division 4AA final at Toyota Arena in Ontario.

Jorden De La Mora is Santiago’s star player. Last week he scored 36 points in the Cavaliers’ 66-64 win over Workman in the quarterfinals and scored 25 points, including 13 in the fourth quarter, in their 50-43 win over Pacifica in the semifinals.

“He is a great offensive player,” said Santiago coach Matt Moorhouse, who is in his eighth season in charge of the Cavaliers. “He’s not the fastest player out there, but nobody can stop him.”

Jayden Baude, a 6-2 senior guard, and 5-6 senior guard Anthony Bermudez also have been consistent contributors for Santiago. Moorhouse said Baude “has a college-ready physique” and just needs to get better “skills-wise.” Of Bermudez the coach said, “he’ll be the smallest player on the court but he’s been our leading rebounder in many of our games.”

Santiago finished third in the six-team Coast League in which Savanna and Los Amigos tied for the league championship. Moorhouse had an inkling in December that this season could be a special one.

“We lost to Los Altos and to Mark Keppel, both higher-division teams, by two points,” he said. “Both of those games showed what we could do.”

NOTES

Los Alamitos coach Nathan Berger was a sophomore sitting on the bench when the Griffins won a CIF-SS basketball championship in 2007, the last time the Griffins reached the CIF-SS finals. He watched seniors like Clint Amberry, Corbin Moore and Cameron Jones play. “I was a super fan of those guys,” Berger said, “and now when we’re winning games, those guys are texting me. And Corbin Moore was at our game Friday (when Los Alamitos beat Crean Lutheran in the Division 1 semifinals).”

Los Alamitos plays Mira Costa in the Division 1 final Saturday at 4:30 p.m. at Toyota Arena. …

Berger and Mira Costa coach Neal Perlmutter said their teams are very similar – both like to press, both like to push the tempo. “The key to beating Los Alamitos,” Perlmutter said, “is ball security because they’re going to come at us with incredible pressure. Shot selection will be important, too, and we pride ourselves on taking good shots.” …

Pacifica Christian and Fairmont Prep meet again in the Division 2AA championship game at Toyota Arena on Saturday at 1 p.m. The teams split their two San Joaquin League games and shared the league title. Fairmont Prep won at Pacifica Christian 60-56, and Pacifica Christian won at Fairmont Prep 67-55. …

Admission to the CIF-SS boys basketball finals at Toyota Arena is $24 for adults general admission and $12 for students and for children. GoFan.co is the exclusive place to buy tickets. Parking is $15 at Toyota Arena, which is a cashless venue. …

Admission to the CIF-SS boys basketball finals at Edison High, where Sage Hill plays Knight of Palmdale in the 3AA championship game, is $15 and $7, and GoFan.co is the site for tickets. Parking is $10 and cash only is accepted at Edison. …

Sage Hill’s scoring has been consistent in the 3AA playoffs. The team’s playoff scores: 44-39 over Oakwood in the first round; 42-39 over West Torrance in the second round; 43-39 over Tustin in the quarterfinals; and 45-43 over San Gabriel Academy in the semifinals. …

Sage Hill coach D’Cean Bryant’s son, Carter Bryant, is a freshman at Arizona where he is averaging 6 points a game.

​ Orange County Register 

Coca-Cola’s appeal to Palestinians fizzles as the Mideast war boosts demand for a local look-alike

• February 25, 2025

By ISABEL DEBRE

SALFIT, West Bank (AP) — Order a Coke to wash down some hummus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank these days and chances are the waiter will shake his head disapprovingly — or worse, mutter “shame, shame” in Arabic — before suggesting the popular local alternative: a can of Chat Cola.

Chat Cola — its red tin and sweeping white script bearing remarkable resemblance to the iconic American soft drink’s logo — has seen its products explode in popularity across the occupied West Bank in the past year as Palestinian consumers, angry at America’s steadfast support for Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza, protest with their pocketbooks.

“No one wants to be caught drinking Coke,” said Mad Asaad, 21, a worker at the bakery-cafe chain Croissant House in the West Bank city of Ramallah, which stopped selling Coke after the war erupted. “Everyone drinks Chat now. It’s sending a message.”

Since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack triggered Israel’s devastating military campaign in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian-led boycott movement against companies perceived as supportive of Israel gained momentum across the Middle East, where the usual American corporate targets like McDonald’s, KFC and Starbucks saw sales slide last year.

Here in the West Bank, the boycott has shuttered two KFC branches in Ramallah. But the most noticeable expression of consumer outrage has been the sudden ubiquity of Chat Cola as shopkeepers relegate Coke cans to the bottom shelf — or pull them altogether.

“When people started to boycott, they became aware that Chat existed,” Fahed Arar, general manager of Chat Cola, told The Associated Press from the giant red-painted factory, nestled in the hilly West Bank town of Salfit. “I’m proud to have created a product that matches that of a global company.”

With the “buy local” movement burgeoning during the war, Chat Cola said its sales in the West Bank surged more than 40% last year, compared to 2023.

While the companies said they had no available statistics on their command of the local market due to the difficulties of data collection in wartime, anecdotal evidence suggests Chat Cola is clawing at some of Coca-Cola’s market share.

“Chat used to be a specialty product, but from what we’ve seen, it dominates the market,” said Abdulqader Azeez Hassan, 25, the owner of a supermarket in Salfit that boasts fridges full of the fizzy drinks.

But workers at Coca-Cola’s franchise in the West Bank, the National Beverage Company, are all Palestinian, and a boycott affects them, too, said its general manager, Imad Hindi.

He declined to elaborate on the business impact of the boycott, suggesting it can’t be untangled from the effects of the West Bank’s economic free-fall and intensified Israeli security controls that have multiplied shipping times and costs for Palestinian companies during the war.

The Coca-Cola Company did not respond to a request for comment.

Whether or not the movement brings lasting consequences, it does reflect an upsurge of political consciousness, said Salah Hussein, head of the Ramallah Chamber of Commerce.

“It’s the first time we’ve ever seen a boycott to this extent,” Hussein said, noting how institutions like the prominent Birzeit University near Ramallah canceled their Coke orders. “After Oct. 7, everything changed. And after Trump, everything will continue to change.”

President Donald Trump’s call for the mass expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza, which he rephrased last week as a recommendation, has further inflamed anti-American sentiment around the region.

With orders pouring in not only from Lebanon and Yemen but also the United States and Europe, the company has its sights set on the international market, said PR manager Ahmad Hammad.

Hired to help Chat Cola cash in on combustible emotions created by the war, Hammad has rebranded what began in 2019 as a niche mom-and-pop operation.

“We had to take advantage of the opportunity,” he said of the company’s new “Palestinian taste” logo and national flag-hued merchandise.

In its scramble to satisfy demand, Chat Cola is opening a second production site in neighboring Jordan. It rolled out new candy-colored flavors, like blueberry, strawberry and green apple.

At the steamy plant in Salfit, recent college graduates in lab coats said that they took pains to produce a carbonated beverage that could sell on its taste, not just a customer’s sense of solidarity with the Palestinians.

“Quality has been a problem with local Palestinian products before,” said Hanna al-Ahmad, 32, the head of quality control for Chat Cola, shouting to be heard over the whir of machines squirting caramel-colored elixir into scores of small cans that then whizzed down assembly lines. “If it’s not good quality, the boycott won’t stick.”

Chat Cola worked with chemists in France to produce the flavor, which is almost indistinguishable from Coke’s — just like its packaging. That’s the case for several flavors: Squint at Chat’s lemon-lime soda and you might mistake it for a can of Sprite.

In 2020, the Ramallah-based National Beverage Company sued Chat Cola for copyright infringement in Palestinian court, contending that Chat had imitated Coke’s designs for multiple drinks. The court ultimately sided with Chat Cola, determining there were enough subtle differences in the can designs that it didn’t violate copyright law.

In the Salfit warehouse, drivers loaded “family size” packages of soda into trucks bound not only for the West Bank but also for Tel Aviv, Haifa and other cities in Israel. Staffers said that Chat soda sales in Israel’s predominantly Arab cities jumped 25% last year. To broaden its appeal in Israel, Chat Cola secured kosher certification after a Jewish rabbi’s thorough inspection of the facility.

Still, critics of the Palestinians-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, or BDS, say that its main objective — to isolate Israel economically for its occupation of Palestinian lands — only exacerbates the conflict.

“BDS and similar actions drive communities apart, they don’t help to bring people together,” said Vlad Khaykin, the executive vice president of social impact and partnerships in North America for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organization. “The kind of rhetoric being embraced by the BDS movement to justify the boycott of Israel is really quite dangerous.”

While Chat Cola goes out of its way to avoid buying from Israel — sourcing ingredients and materials from France, Italy and Kuwait — it can’t avoid the circumstances of Israeli occupation, in which Israel dominates the Palestinian economy, controls borders, imports and more.

Deliveries of raw materials to Chat Cola’s West Bank factory get hit with a 35% import tax — half of which Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinians. The general manager, Arar, said his company’s success depends far more on Israeli bureaucratic goodwill than nationalist fervor.

For nearly a month last fall, Israeli authorities detained Chat’s aluminum shipments from Jordan at the Allenby Bridge Crossing, forcing part of the factory to shut down and costing the company tens of thousands of dollars.

Among the local buyers left in the lurch was Croissant House in Ramallah, where, on a recent afternoon, at least one thirsty customer, confronting a nearly empty refrigerator, slipped to the supermarket next-door for a can of Coke.

“It’s very frustrating,” said Asaad, the worker. “We want to be self-sufficient. But we’re not.”

​ Orange County Register 

Instagram influencer arrested in fatal head-on PCH crash in Malibu

• February 25, 2025

A social media influencer has been arrested in connection with a fatal crash in Malibu last year, authorities announced Tuesday.

Summer Wheaton, 33, was arrested about 1 p.m. Monday, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

The arrest followed a monthslong investigation into a fatal crash on July 4, 2024, which occurred on Pacific Coast Highway, west of Carbon Canyon and about a mile from Nobu Malibu.

Investigators said Wheaton was driving eastbound in her 2019 Mercedes-Benz when she crossed the median and collided head-on with a 2020 Cadillac driven by 44-year-old rideshare driver Martin Okeke, who died at the scene.

Sheriff’s officials said Wheaton surrendered Monday at the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station, where she was booked on charges of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, DUI causing bodily injury and driving with a BAC of 0.08% or higher causing bodily injury.

Her bail was set at $230,000, and she posted bond at 3:33 p.m. Monday, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Inmate Information Center.

Wheaton, who goes by the Instagram handle yepitsmesummer, has more than 101,000 followers on the platform.

Anyone with any information regarding the crash was urged to call the sheriff’s Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station at 818-878-1808. Those who wish to remain anonymous can call 800-222-8477 or visit lacrimestoppers.org.

​ Orange County Register 

Kings look to stay hot on home ice, welcome struggling Canucks

• February 25, 2025

On Wednesday night, the Kings will welcome the Vancouver Canucks to their court, Crypto.com Arena, where they’ve been all but impossible to dethrone this season.

The black and silver’s 19-3-2 record gives them the best home points percentage in the NHL (.833). In the unlikely event that they win out at home, they would equal the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings’ 36-3-2 mark, the best ever in an 82-game season. The most vulgar display of power on home ice was by the Philadelphia Flyers of 1975-76, who captured 92.5% of their points at home during an 80-game campaign and did so with a staggering 3.15 average goal differential (the Kings’ is 1.25 this year).

Just being mentioned with those consecrated rosters would be an honor for any team. Philly was vying for its third Stanley Cup in a row that season, falling to Montreal in the Final for the Habs’ first of four consecutive crowns. Detroit advanced to the conference finals in ’96 before winning back-to-back Cups in ’97 and ’98.

After Monday’s 5-2 victory over Pacific pace car Vegas, the Kings were still jockeying around the top three in their division, hoping for home-ice advantage in a postseason matchup for the first time since 2016’s first-round loss to San Jose.

While it might not be an overly prominent concern for the regular season – 17 of their final 27 games will be played at Crypto.com Arena – there exists a massive disparity between the Kings’ home and away splits. Most notably, they’re 12-14-5 when ordering room service, giving them a substandard .458 road points percentage.

Last season, the Kings began the campaign with a record 11 straight road wins, but after a February coaching change, their comfort level at home elevated and an aversion to the road began to develop.

“It’s a complete flip flop from last year. We were more of the road warriors,” Kings wing Quinton Byfield said. “We want opponents to kind of fear coming in and playing in L.A.”

Regardless of the venue, the Kings have seen chemistry persist for their top defensive pairing of Mikey Anderson and Vladislav Gavriov, while the forward line of Byfield, Kevin Fiala and Alex Laferriere has blossomed of late.

While that duo has largely remained a fixture, even with seven defensemen in the lineup regularly, the trio of attackers was dispersed throughout the lineup at times Monday. Byfield, who had a career-high four points against Vegas, reconnected with old pals Adrian Kempe, Warren Foegele and Trevor Moore, while also setting up Fiala.

Coach Jim Hiller said part of the rationale there was his effort to spark Kempe and captain Anže Kopitar’s production.

“We were just trying to get that line, who carried us in many ways for the first half of the season, to just get some traction again and get feeling good about their game, [to get] some consistent time in the o-zone, some chances,” Hiller said. “It just hasn’t happened a lot lately.”

What has happened more frequently lately has been the Kings’ otherwise languid power play connecting. They scored with the extra man in consecutive games for just the third time this season (one was a string of three straight matches), and added another goal nine seconds after an opportunity expired on Monday.

They’ll look to carry over momentum, both recently with the man advantage and all season at home, against Vancouver, which has lost both its games since returning from the 4 Nations Face-Off break. That’s taken them from running neck-and-neck with the Kings for third place in the Pacific to clinging to a one-point lead on Calgary for the West’s second wild card.

This campaign has been a time of tumult for the Canucks as injuries, infighting, underperformance and the departure of J.T. Miller via trade have hindered the prospects of the NHL’s most-improved team last season.

VANCOUVER AT KINGS

When: Wednesday, 7 p.m.

Where: Crypto.com Arena

TV: TNT, truTV, Max

​ Orange County Register 

No. 2 UCLA women’s basketball bearing down during final stretch

• February 25, 2025

UCLA women’s basketball coach Cori Close has been asking her team for toughness. She’s vocalized the need for grittiness in press conferences and been hard on the team during practice, leaning into players — doing everything short of putting on football pads.

The Bruins are giving Close what she wants and what the team needs, and it started in a 67-65 win over Iowa on the road.

“We had to earn some toughness tonight and we did,” Close told reporters after the game. “And I thought we had to do it with our defense and we did.

UCLA (26-1 overall, 14-1 Big Ten) has one more chance to manifest its toughness before returning home for its regular season-ending rematch against USC that’s been sold out since Feb. 12. The Bruins will head to Wisconsin (13-14, 4-12) for a 5 p.m. tip Wednesday.

The team has regained momentum since falling to USC on Feb. 13 in its only loss of the season. It’s gone on a three-game winning streak, with two over ranked teams, to move up to the No. 2 spot in the Associated Press Top 25 poll.

Texas is currently the No. 1 team after going on an 11-game winning streak that included four wins over ranked teams.

The victory over Iowa gave UCLA a program record with 14 conference wins and allowed the Bruins to compete in a high-intensity environment. Nearly 15,000 fans packed into Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Sunday, the biggest crowd UCLA has played in front of all season.

“I knew it was going to be a really cool environment,” 6-foot-7 center Lauren Betts said. “I’m not surprised it was a sold-out crowd. It was just a really great opportunity for our team to experience this and have fun with it and show who we are as a team.”

Wisconsin is coming off of back-to-back road wins against Penn State and Northwestern but has struggled to put together a complete four quarters throughout this season under fourth-year head coach Marisa Moseley.

“We’ve got to be really be able to put scores and stops together,” Moseley told reporters after a loss to Illinois. “That sounds pretty routine, but obviously we’re finding that challenging and so we’ve got to put our team in a better position to do that.”

UCLA will have to contain 6-foot-4 Badgers forward Serah Williams, who is third in the Big Ten in scoring at 19.1 points per game and second in rebounding with 10.2 boards per game. She’s one of only two players in Division I to average in those figures or higher in both categories.

The Bruins’ offense has also been functioning well. Forward Angela Dugalić tied a career-high with six assists against Iowa and the 6-foot-7 Betts is still the second-highest scorer in the conference. The team as a whole is best in the conference in eight statistical categories, including assists per game and field-goal percentage.

And, perhaps most importantly, the intangible toughness the coaching staff harps on began to bloom against Iowa.

“We were down 12 (points), 6:43 in the third quarter and from that point on, I think we won the rebounding battle, we won the hustle battle and we won the toughness battle,” Close said. “We didn’t always win it leading up to it – but that’s how we got the job done.”

No. 2 UCLA (26-1, 14-1) at Wisconsin (13-14, 4-12)

When: 5 p.m. Wednesday

Where: Kohl Center, Madison, Wisconsin

TV: Peacock

​ Orange County Register 

Israel, Hamas agree on new exchange, leaving fragile ceasefire intact

• February 25, 2025

By JOSEF FEDERMAN and ABBY SEWELL

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli and Hamas officials said Tuesday they have reached an agreement to exchange the bodies of dead hostages for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, keeping their fragile ceasefire intact for at least a few more days.

Israel has delayed the release of 600 Palestinian prisoners since Saturday to protest what it says is the cruel treatment of hostages during their release. Hamas has said the delay is a “serious violation” of their ceasefire and that talks on a second phase are not possible until they are freed.

The deadlock had threatened to collapse the ceasefire when the current six-week first phase of the deal expires this weekend.

But late Tuesday, Hamas said an agreement had been reached to resolve the dispute during a visit to Cairo by a delegation headed by Khalil al-Hayya, a top political official in the group.

The breakthrough appeared to clear the way for the return of the bodies of four more dead hostages and hundreds of additional prisoners scheduled to be released under the ceasefire.

The prisoners previously slated for release “will be released simultaneously with the bodies of the Israeli prisoners who were agreed to be handed over,” along with the release of a new set of Palestinian prisoners, the statement said.

An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, confirmed an agreement to bring home the bodies in the coming days. He gave no further details.

The agreement could clear the way for the an expected visit for the White House’s Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff, to the region.

Witkoff has said he wants the sides to move into negotiations on the second phase, during which all remaining hostages held by Hamas are to be released and an end to the war is to be negotiated.

Sewell reported from Beirut.

​ Orange County Register