Will Ozempic temper consumer hunger for Olive Garden breadsticks, groceries?

• October 25, 2023

Darden Restaurants CEO Rick Cardenas got a question on a recent earnings call that even the industry analyst asking it thought was odd.

The analyst wanted to know about what effect diabetes and appetite suppressant drugs such as Ozempic would have on restaurant demand. Cardenas heads the company that owns Olive Garden, home to “never-ending” soup, salad and breadsticks.

“Full-service dining occasions are driven by a desire to connect with family and friends,” Cardenas answered on the earnings call last month, noting he did not expect a “meaningful impact” for his Orlando-based company.

Despite all those breadsticks at Olive Garden, Cardenas said Darden has spent a lot of time over the years developing menus to give guests a wide range of choices.

“If it suppresses appetite a little bit, they’re still going to eat,” Cardenas said. “So we’re going to be there for them when they do.”

Darden has 1,998 restaurants including Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen and Ruth’s Chris Steak House.

But it’s not just at Darden where these kinds of questions are coming up. Walmart U.S. CEO John Furner told Bloomberg that the company has seen a “slight pullback” from shoppers taking those medications.

GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic are Type 2 diabetes medicines that help with blood sugar and might also help with weight loss. According to the Mayo Clinic, the drugs appear to assist in subduing hunger.

Still, restaurant and retail experts say it’s too soon to know for sure what will happen.

“It’s more of a Wall Street story as opposed to a consumer story because if it becomes a big consumer story it would take so long to work its way through all the different consumers,” San Diego-based restaurant analyst John Gordon told the Orlando Sentinel. “I think it would take years to reach mainstream coverage and adaptation.”

One unknown for restaurants, Gordon said, is if the prescription could mean different things for different kinds of eateries, such as Denny’s versus Darden’s The Capital Grille, a fine dining chain.

“It’s an issue that those that follow stocks day in and day out … might find to be a catalyst, and a catalyst is something that is new news that might drive stocks either up or down,” Gordon said.

But traditional grocers such as Lakeland-based Publix could be more exposed than retailers such as Walmart or Target that offer more than food, said Amanda Lai, a director at Chicago-based retail consulting firm McMillanDoolittle.

“Retailers like grocers that are more food-centric would likely be more impacted if the trend of pulling back on shopping for food as a result of appetite suppressant drugs continues to grow,” Lai said.

Lai also noted shoppers have been tightening their wallets for an entirely different reason: high inflation in recent years.

“Since we’re just hearing some of the preliminary findings from retailers, it’s still fairly early to draw definitive conclusions,” Lai said.

When asked about the comments from Walmart and what, if any, effects Publix had seen or expects to see from shoppers who might be on these medications, spokeswoman Maria Brous said in an email the company did not have “direct data that would correlate or support this theory.”

Publix has more than 1,350 stores in the Southeast and 859 stores in Florida.

Lai said the issue could put “the onus on food companies to continue to innovate their offerings.”

​ Orange County Register 

H-1B: Government’s proposed visa changes are murky but could mean big changes

• October 25, 2023

The federal government is proposing major changes to the H-1B visa program intended to allow U.S. companies to hire foreign citizens with specialized skills, including expanding the types of work not subject to an annual cap.

While the plan runs to 227 pages, it leaves unanswered some questions about how the new rules might change the number of H-1B visas and who could receive them.

Silicon Valley technology giants rely heavily on the H-1B to secure top foreign talent. Those companies, and many others in the Bay Area, also employ large numbers of H-1B workers at below-market wages, using staffing and outsourcing companies to secure such employees. Critics cite reported abuses and say companies, including major tech firms and staffing and outsourcing companies, use the H-1B to supplant U.S. workers, drive down wages and facilitate outsourcing.

The Department of Homeland Security on Friday released the proposal, saying it would “modernize and improve the efficiency of the H-1B program, add benefits and flexibilities, and improve integrity measures.” The new proposal was published Monday in the Federal Register, triggering a 60-day period for public comments the agency will review before publishing a final rule.

The visa, which employers obtain through a lottery on behalf of specific workers, has become a flashpoint in debates over immigration. Replacement of U.S. workers by visa holders has spawned lawsuits, and efforts to shorten the lengthy path to a green card and citizenship for Indian workers — by far the largest group of H-1B recipients — have been ensnared in political gridlock.

Among the most consequential of the planned changes is expanding the types of jobs not subject to the 85,000 annual visa cap, said Ron Hira, a Howard University professor who studies the H-1B.

Many universities, and nonprofit and government research organizations, are exempt from the visa cap. Under current rules, H-1B visas can be awarded to foreign citizens for work that “directly and predominately” advances “the essential purpose, mission, objectives or functions” of such employers. Under the new rules, visas could be awarded for work that would “directly further an activity that supports or advances one of the fundamental purposes, missions, objectives, or functions” of the employer.

“A qualifying organization may have more than one fundamental purpose, mission, objective, or function, and this fact should not preclude an H-1B beneficiary from being exempt from the H-1B cap,” the proposed rule said.

Hira said the vagueness of the proposal raises concerns that companies, including staffing companies who seek to game the H-1B system, could exploit their partnerships with cap-exempt entities. “A lot of companies that are subject to the cap work with government organizations, are vendors to nonprofit research organizations,” Hira said.

“It potentially opens up a huge avenue for virtually any company to magically become cap exempt,” Hira added. “The reason we have a cap in the first place is to protect the labor market so that employers don’t flood the labor market with H-1B workers.”

Hira noted that UC San Francisco in 2017 laid off dozens of U.S. workers as it outsourced IT work to an Indian company that assigned H-1B workers to the contract.

The agency did not provide in its proposal an estimate of how many additional H-1B workers could be brought in by expanding cap-exempt work, Hira said.

The agency also proposed tightening the definition of a “specialty occupation” that qualifies for the visa. Job duties must be directly related to required degrees, and although there may be more than one acceptable degree field for an occupation, “a general degree is insufficient,” according to the proposal.

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Again, Hira said, the agency did not provide estimates on how changing the definition could affect visa numbers and patterns of allocation.

Homeland Security, through U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, did not answer detailed questions about the proposal, but said in a statement that it “remains committed to preventing misuse and fraud in the H-1B registration process, meeting the ever-changing needs of the U.S. labor market, and breaking down administrative barriers for eligible U.S. employers seeking to use the H-1B program.”

In the most recent application period, the agency received 750,000 applications, with hundreds of thousands of duplicates, Hira said. The proposed rule to ban what the agency described as “multiple registrations by related entities,” and ensure each applicant has only one shot at selection, could “maybe clean up this problem,” Hira said.

David Bier, associate director of immigration studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, who supports increasing the H-1B cap, applauded the proposed expansion of exceptions for research jobs. Bier also lauded the rule’s proposal to codify entrepreneurs’ ability to obtain an H-1B visa, which could lead to new jobs and industries. Bier noted that the agency proposed an 18-month limit on the visa for entrepreneurs based on possible fraud, but failed to specify what fraudulent behavior it believed might occur.

The new rules’ “biggest value add” may be resolving issues in a way that makes it harder to undo progress later, Bier said.

​ Orange County Register 

Disneyland sets reopening date for Adventureland Treehouse

• October 25, 2023

Work is finally finished on the transformation of Tarzan’s Treehouse into the what’s-old-is-new-again Adventureland Treehouse that has taken twice as long to complete as the original creation of Disneyland.

Disneyland will reopen the Adventureland Treehouse inspired by Walt Disney’s “Swiss Family Robinson” on Nov. 10 after a refurbishment project that has stretched for more than two years.

SEE ALSO: Disneyland sets opening date for Pixar Place Hotel makeover

The new Adventureland Treehouse pays tribute to Disneyland’s original Swiss Family Treehouse while also serving as a tie-in to a new Swiss Family Robinson television show in the works for the Disney+ streaming service.

A family of five who possess magical and unique gifts that help them survive life in the jungle will soon be moving into the Adventureland Treehouse once work is complete on their new home, according to the backstory created for the rethemed Disneyland attraction.

The family uses objects found in the jungle to collaborate together while also pursuing their own individual passions and interests, according to the backstory created by Walt Disney Imagineering.

SEE ALSO: ‘Drones are the next thing’ for Disney nighttime spectaculars

The treetop home’s iconic water wheel pulley system with bamboo buckets powered by a small nearby brook generates the energy needed to run the family’s gadgets and inventions.

The chef father has built a ground floor kitchen and dining room where meals cook themselves and “magical water” cools an ice box. The father’s studio displays hand-made gadgets and inventions for exploring the jungle along with sketches and paintings of each of the treehouse rooms.

Concept art of the Adventureland Treehouse coming to Disneyland. (Disney)

The musical mother has a player organ in her room that plays “Swisskapolka” in an homage to Disneyland’s original Swiss Family Treehouse. The music den is filled with a harp, lute, guitar and other musical instruments she uses to entertain the family.

The teenage daughter is an astronomer and astrologer whose room near the top of the treehouse is filled with diagrams of the solar system and models of the universe. She tracks the stars, planets and comets with her telescope and charts her discoveries in her notebooks and sketchbooks.

An abstract illustration of the astronomers loft in the Adventureland Treehouse at Disneyland. (Disneyland)

The naturalist twin sons — one an animal lover and the other a plant lover — share a room filled with monkeys, toucans and man-eating plants.

SEE ALSO: Disney reveals secrets behind Indiana Jones Adventure boulder scene

The Disneyland treehouse in the boughs of an 80-foot-tall manmade tree has changed ownership a few times over the past six decades.

The original Swiss Family Treehouse based on the 1960 Disney film opened at Disneyland in 1962. The Adventureland attraction was rethemed in 1999 as Tarzan’s Treehouse based on the Disney animated film from the same year about a boy raised by apes.

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Tarzan’s Treehouse closed in September 2021 — meaning the two-year refurbishment project has taken twice as long as the yearlong construction of Disneyland that was completed in 1955.

Disneyland announced plans in 2022 for a rethemed version of the attraction that would be once again inspired by the “Swiss Family Robinson” novel written by Johann David Wyss in 1812.

The 150-ton evergreen with 6,000 vinyl leaves even has its own tree species name — Disneydendron semperflorens grandis.

​ Orange County Register 

Ike’s Love and Sandwiches opens Huntington Beach location

• October 25, 2023

Soon after Ike’s Love and Sandwiches opened its first store in San Francisco in 2007 (formerly known as Ike’s Place), the then-nascent sandwich shop, founded by eponymous owner-founder Ike Shehadeh, had long lines stretching from its storefront daily. So much so that the regular queue of devotees and persistent smell of fried bacon stoked the ire of neighbors. Their loss. Since then, Shehadeh’s shop has grown to nearly 100 locations nationwide.

Ike’s latest spot, which will officially open in Huntington Beach in early November, has softly opened for business this week.

Shehadeh’s menu honors his hometown of San Francisco with sandwiches like the Robin Williams (which comes with halal chicken, Italian dressing, mushrooms and pepper jack). He even pays tribute to — avert your eyes, Dodgers fans — the San Francisco Giants with such meaty concoctions as the Barry Bonds (turkey, bacon, Swiss), Matt Cain (roast beef, salami, turkey and provolone) or the Hunter Pence (turkey, bacon, avocado, barbecue sauce, honey mustard, Swiss, cheddar, and pepper jack).

Ike’s has revealed two new sandwiches exclusive to the Huntington Beach shop: the Safari Surfin’, which comes with chicken-fried steak, Ike’s Double H Sauce, honey, and gouda cheese, and the Pacific City, featuring breaded eggplant, Ike’s Double H Sauce, avocado and pepper jack. All sandwiches are served hot with hot dirty sauce, a garlic aioli with a blend of hush-hush seasonings and spices (vegan sauce is also available).

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Customers are also allowed to build their own sandwich if the vast menu isn’t to their liking. Sandwich buns come in Dutch crunch (another tip of the hat to San Francisco), sourdough, white, gluten-free or whole wheat varieties.

For the official grand opening, Ike’s will host an event on Friday, Nov. 10 where the first 50 people in line will get a free T-shirt, a free sandwich, and a chance to win free sandwiches for a year. Ike’s will also have special $7.97 sandwiches available all day, as well as a special appearance by Shehadeh.

Ike’s Love and Sandwiches has six other Orange County shops in Lake Forest, Newport Beach, Costa Mesa, Tustin, Fountain Valley and Westminster. CEO Michael Goldberg said in a written statement, “Southern California loves Ike’s. We’re almost to 100 locations and we’ll be adding even more very soon.”

Find it: 18685-2 Main St. (at Delaware Street), Five Points Plaza, Huntington Beach

​ Orange County Register 

Quick genetic test offers hope for sick, undiagnosed kids. But few insurers offer to pay

• October 25, 2023

Phil Galewitz | (TNS) KFF Health News

Just 48 hours after her birth in a Seattle-area hospital in 2021, Layla Babayev was undergoing surgery for a bowel obstruction.

Two weeks later, she had another emergency surgery, and then developed meningitis. Layla spent more than a month in neonatal intensive care in three hospitals as doctors searched for the cause of her illness.

Her parents enrolled her in a clinical trial to check for a genetic condition. Unlike genetic tests focused on a few disease-causing variants that can take months to produce results, the study at Seattle Children’s Hospital would sequence Layla’s entire genome, looking for a broad range of abnormalities — and potentially offer answers in under a week.

The test found Layla had a rare genetic disorder that caused gastrointestinal defects and compromised her immune system. The findings led doctors to isolate her, give her weekly infusions of antibiotics, and contact other hospitals that had treated the same condition, said her father, Dmitry Babayev.

Today, Babayev credits the test, known as rapid whole-genome sequencing, for saving his daughter’s life. “It is why we believe Layla is still with us today,” he said.

Like her disorder, Layla’s experience is rare.

Few hospitalized babies with an undiagnosed illness undergo whole-genome sequencing — a diagnostic tool that allows scientists to quickly identify genetic disorders and guide clinicians’ treatment decisions by analyzing a patient’s complete DNA makeup. That’s largely because many private and public health insurers won’t cover the $4,000-to-$8,000 expense.

But an alliance of genetic testing companies, drugmakers, children’s hospitals and doctors have lobbied states to increase coverage under Medicaid — and their efforts have begun to pay off.

Since 2021, eight state Medicaid programs have added rapid whole-genome sequencing to their coverage or will soon cover it, according to GeneDX, a provider of the test. That includes Florida, where the Republican-controlled legislature has resisted expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.

The test is also under consideration for coverage in Georgia, Massachusetts, New York and North Carolina, according to the nonprofit Rady Children’s Institute for Genomic Medicine, another major provider of the test.

Medicaid coverage of the test can significantly expand access for infants; the state-federal program that insures low-income families covers more than 40% of children in their first year of life.

“This is an extraordinary, powerful test that can change the trajectory of these children’s diseases and our own understanding,” said Jill Maron, chief of pediatrics at Women & Infants Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island, who has conducted research on the test.

“The only thing interfering with more widespread use is insurance payment,” she said.

Proponents of whole-genome sequencing, which has been commercially available for about six years, say it can help sick infants with potentially rare diseases avoid a months- or years-long odyssey of tests and hospitalizations without a clear diagnosis — and increase survival.

They also point to studies showing rapid whole-genome testing may lower overall health costs by reducing unnecessary hospitalizations, testing and care.

But the test may have its limits. While it is better at identifying rare disorders than older genetic tests, whole-genome sequencing detects a mutation only about half of the time — whether because the test misses something or the patient does not have a genetic disorder at all.

And the test raises ethical questions because it can also reveal that babies — and their parents — have genes that put them at increased risk for adult-onset conditions such as breast and ovarian cancer.

Even so, some doctors say sequencing offers the best chance to make a diagnosis when more routine testing doesn’t provide an answer. Pankaj Agrawal, chief of neonatology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, said only about 10% of babies who could benefit from whole-genome sequencing are getting it.

“It is super frustrating to have sick babies and with no explanation what is causing their symptoms,” he said.

Some private insurers now cover the test with certain limitations, including UnitedHealthcare and Cigna, but others do not.

Even in states that have adopted the test, coverage varies. Florida will add the benefit to Medicaid later this year for patients up to age 20 who are in hospital intensive care units.

Florida state Rep. Adam Anderson, a Republican whose 4-year-old son died in 2019 after being diagnosed with Tay-Sachs disease, a rare genetic disorder, led the push for Medicaid to cover sequencing. The new state Medicaid benefit is named for his son, Andrew.

Anderson said persuading his GOP colleagues was challenging, given they typically oppose any increase in Medicaid spending.

“As soon as they heard the term ‘Medicaid mandate,’ they shut down,” he said. “As a state, we are fiscally conservative, and our Medicaid program is already a huge program as it is, and we want to see Medicaid smaller.”

Anderson said it took doctors more than a year to diagnose his son — an emotionally difficult time for the family as Andrew endured numerous tests and trips to specialists in several states.

“I know what it’s like to not get those answers as doctors try to figure out what is wrong, and without genetic testing it’s almost impossible,” he said.

A Florida House analysis estimated that if 5% of babies in the state’s neonatal intensive care units got the test each year, it would cost the Medicaid program about $3.3 million annually.

Florida’s legislative leaders were persuaded in part by a 2020 study called Project Baby Manatee, in which Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami sequenced the genomes of 50 patients. As a result, 20 patients — about 40% — received a diagnosis, leading to changes in care for 19 of them.

The estimated savings exceeded $3.7 million — a nearly $2.9 million return on investment, after the cost of the tests, according to the final report.

“We have shown that we can justify this as a good investment,” said Parul Jayakar, director of the hospital’s Division of Clinical Genetics and Metabolism, who worked on the study.

___

(KFF Health News, formerly known as Kaiser Health News (KHN), is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs of KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling and journalism.)

©2023 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

​ Orange County Register 

84 layoffs hit surf industry’s biggest brands following Boardriders sale

• October 25, 2023

A wave of change is underway for the world’s largest surf brands.

Eighty-four positions were eliminated at Boardriders Wholesale LLC Inc.- the umbrella company that owned Quiksilver, Billabong, Roxy, RVCA and a handful of other action-sports brands. The layoffs follow the September sale of the action-sports company to New York-based Authentic Brands Group.

The layoffs, which started in September and will continue through October, are happening in the Huntington Beach and Costa Mesa offices. They will be completed by Oct. 31, according to a letter the company sent to the state Employment Development Department.

In the letter, the company called the permanent layoffs “necessary but difficult measures,” with 72 positions cut at the Huntington Beach headquarters, 19 in Costa Mesa, one in Mira Loma and another at Universal City.

The eliminated jobs ranged from the top level down, from CEO to several vice presidents, jobs in the art, design, marketing, sales departments and beyond.

While Authentic Brand Group did not respond to requests for comment, industry insiders said the downsizing marks a turbulent time for the legacy brands, all of which have a rich history in Southern California and have played a pivotal role in the evolution and growth of surfing culture here and around the world.

Vipe Desai, executive director of the Surf Industry Members Association, said the long transition of the sale left a sense of uncertainty within the company for the past year.

“There were a lot of people uncertain if they were going to have a job,” he said. “That’s what has affected some of the uncertainty and maybe even the morale within the brands.”

Layoffs, unfortunately, are typically standard when brands are purchased, he said.

Some people were rehired by the licensee, he said, while others have landed at other brands within the tight-knit industry.

Following the sale, which also included DC Shoes, Element, VonZipper and Honolua, Authentic Brands Group announced Liberated Brands as its licensee and operating partner, the same group used for Costa Mesa-based Volcom and Spyder, a ski and snow brand.

Liberated will become the retail and e-commerce operator for Quiksilver, Billabong, Roxy, RVCA, Honolua and Boardriders in the US and Canada. It also will be the licensing partner and wholesale distributor in the US and Canada for Billabong, RVCA and Honolua adult sportswear, activewear, swimwear, outerwear, headwear and base layer products.

In 2018, a sale to Oaktree Capital that combined two longtime rivals, Billabong and Quiksilver, shocked the surf world when the legacy brands were brought together under the Boardriders portfolio.

That company had already made deep cuts throughout the company with 170 jobs — 110 in the U.S. and 60 in Asia — eliminated in 2022, according to surf industry tracker shop-eat-surf.com. 

Most everyday consumers don’t know, or care about, who is licensing the brands, Desai noted. It’s more about who their favorite athletes ride for, or what events the brands sponsor.

“I don’t think they care who owns what,” Desai said. “It’s only the people who follow it or want to talk negatively about what is happening because something they love is being disrupted.”’

He warns, however, of potential “brand erosion.”

“The consumer will make that choice at the end of the day,” he said.

Hurley, sold to financial group Bluestar Alliance in 2019, is another brand being licensed out that has seen its business-model change in recent years.

Its products — once sold exclusively at core surf shops — now are popping up at discount retailers, ranging from tweezers, face care and pool toys. A Hurley-branded sweater collection was recently spotted at Costco selling for $14.99.

Throughout the surf industry’s history, there have been several brand growths and business-model changes, Desai noted.

At one point, Hang Ten was the largest surf brand with a $12 million annual revenue. Then, that brand disappeared and OP stepped in and grew to $300 million. Then Gotcha, Quiksilver and Billabong took the top spots.

Both Billabong and Quiksilver were born in Australia, and brought to Southern California as North American licenses.

Bob McKnight, a business student at the University of Southern California, and pro surfer Jeff Hakman bought the license to sell in the U.S. in the 70s from the brand’s Australia founder Alan Green, building up the brand from a Newport Beach bedroom, selling boardshorts to surf shops out of McKnight’s VW bus.

Billabong, also originally created in Australia, was introduced to the U.S. market by Bob Hurley. He bought the licensing rights and built into a $100 million business, and 16 years later in 1999 created his own brand, Hurley, which was later sold to Nike and in 2019 sold to Bluestar Alliance.

With the biggest surf brands being run by financial groups outside of the surf industry, will they be able to maintain authenticity in the surf world?

“I think that does pose a challenge for these brands in how they navigate authenticity,” Desai said. “I think it is a concern that a lot of people in the industry share.”

There’s room for legacy brands to grow outside of the industry to a wider audience, while still staying core, he said. The hope is they employ people who have credibility in the surf industry.

“Let them lead your brand, these are people who have grown up in the industry, in the culture,” Desai said. “They understand the ecosystem of the industry and how to navigate the waters of retail, the athletes… Let these folks take charge, instead of trying to run it from a 20-story office building.”

It’s also an opportune time for small and mid-size brands to grow, he noted.

Surfside Sports co-owner Duke Edukas, who has long run the Costa Mesa surf and snow retail shop, said it’s too early to tell how the recent sale or layoffs may impact sales.

Many longtime reps, who have become friends through the years, have lost their jobs.

“I know most of them and I trust all of them,” he said, noting he will miss their weekly meetings.  “But let’s face it, no one knows where this is going to go.”

It will be the consumer that dictates what he should do on the sales floor. RVCA, for example, is the number one men’s seller and he doesn’t envision that changing anytime soon.

When Volcom was bought by Authentic a few years ago, people worried about the future of that brand. But today, it remains one of the top-selling men’s brands, as well as a strong player in the snow category, he said.

“The worst thing retailers can do is overreact,” he said.

So long as the top legacy brands are still selling, the big surf names will remain on the sales floor, he said.

“My eyes will be wide open to those numbers,” he said. “Those numbers will dictate what we do.”

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​ Orange County Register 

Georgetown women’s basketball coach Tasha Butts, former UCLA assistant, dies after breast cancer battle

• October 25, 2023

Tasha Butts, head coach for the Georgetown University women’s basketball team, died aged 41 on Monday after a two-year battle with breast cancer, the school’s athletic department announced Monday.

“I am heartbroken for Tasha’s family, friends, players, teammates and colleagues,” Lee Reed, Georgetown’s athletic director, said in a statement.

“When I met Tasha, I knew she was a winner on the court, and an incredible person whose drive, passion and determination was second to none. She exhibited these qualities both as a leader and in her fight against breast cancer.

“This is a difficult time for the entire Georgetown community, and we will come together to honor her memory.”

In April, Butts was named the Hoyas’ head coach after spending four years on the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets’ coaching staff. She was promoted to associate head coach in 2021.

Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman delivers remarks regarding Georgetown women’s basketball coach Tasha Butts during the Big East NCAA college basketball media day at Madison Square Garden in New York Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2023. Butts died Monday after a two-year battle with breast cancer, the school’s athletic director said. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)

Butts announced her advanced stage metastatic breast cancer diagnosis during the 2020-21 season. As she was going through treatment, Butts helped Georgia Tech earn an NCAA Tournament berth.

“Tasha was so instrumental to the success of this program. What she did as a member of this coaching staff cannot be overvalued,” Georgia Tech women’s head coach Nell Fortner said in a statement.

“She was tough – tough on her kids, tough in her expectations, but yet she was soft underneath when players needed her to be there for them, and she was always there for them. We are incredibly sad this day has come.

“She battled from the day of her diagnosis. We are proud of her fight to the end. We will forever love Tasha. She will forever be missed.”

Prior to coaching, Butts was drafted out of the University of Tennessee by the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx in the 2004 draft. As a rookie, she played in 30 games, helping the franchise to a record 18 victories and a playoff appearance.

“Our hearts are heavy as we learn of the passing of Tasha Butts,” the WNBA posted on X.

“A beloved member of the basketball community, Tasha was drafted 20th overall in 2004 by the Minnesota Lynx after a legendary career at Tennessee, and was continuing her legacy as a renowned coach at the college level.”

‘Heartbroken’

After the 2004 WNBA season, Butts returned to Tennessee where she was a member of four Southeastern Conference regular season championship teams, finishing with a 55-1 conference record, to be a graduate assistant for legendary Hall of Fame coach Pat Summit.

The Lady Volunteers would advance to the Final Four and win the 2005 SEC Championship.

“Our program is heartbroken to lose a member of our Lady Vol sisterhood much, much too soon,” Tennessee head coach Kellie Harper said in a statement.

“Tasha was the type of person who connected with people everywhere she went. She had such a positive impact not only on our Tennessee family but on women’s basketball as a whole.”

Butts played overseas in Portugal and Israel as well as briefly for the WNBA’s Charlotte Sting and Houston Comets.

She would go on to be a part of the coaching staff at UCLA for three seasons (2008-11) and LSU for eight (2011-19).

“Tasha was a great player and went on to have a successful career as a coach too,” LSU head coach Kim Mulkey said in a statement.

“More importantly, she had an impact on so many lives throughout her lifetime. We are sad to lose her at such a young age.”

The Milledgeville, Georgia native is survived by her parents, Spencer Sr. and Evelyn, brother Spencer Jr. and nephew Marquis.

​ Orange County Register 

Travel: Hoofing it around cultural sites in the heel of Italy’s boot

• October 25, 2023

In Italy’s heel of the boot, elves must’ve been afoot throughout the fairytale village of Alberobello, the world’s only enclave of 1,500 hobbit-like, stone trulli houses seemingly painted in white powdered sugar and capped with roofs resembling pointy gray party hats. To magically ward off demons, some trulli are marked with symbols, such as an arrow-speared heart.

Built centuries ago, the whimsical abodes brim with trulli-centric life: I sipped the local Primitivo in trulli wine bars, ate nonna’s pasta in trulli trattorias, shopped in trulli that sold trulli-shaped bottles of limoncello and teeny trulli earrings, and slept in a trullo (singular of trulli) as bells chimed from a church holding hallowed bone fragments of Alberobello’s patron saints. Surprisingly my neighbors weren’t Smurfs but six elderly Italian couples who, in a long-standing tradition, sat on plastic chairs outside their trulli to exuberantly socialize in the late afternoon.

Soon I waved arrivederci to Alberobello, moved to an Apulian farmhouse and hiked to the haunting burial site of a 28,000-year-old pregnant woman dubbed “the world’s oldest mother.” Later on, I spent three nights in a cave. That occurred in the spellbinding rock-chiseled town of Matera, where James Bond thrillingly careened his Aston Martin through serpentine streets while chased by bad dudes in the 2021 movie, “No Time to Die.”

A view of the rock-hewn UNESCO-listed town of Matera, as seen from an ancient cave on the Murgia mountainside. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

What’s great is I didn’t have to plan any of this juicy jaunt. Along with five wonderful strangers-turned-besties from Britain, I was on an eight-day Exodus Travels walking trip, the inaugural “Paths of Puglia & Matera — Premium Adventure” (exodustravels.com). Our eldest group member was a zesty 77 and our two longest treks each eight miles. You gotta feel la dolce vita when strolling by lush acres of grape-blooming Puglia vineyards and groves of silvery-green olive trees up to 3,000 years old.

The opulent busy facade of Basilica di Santa Croce in Lecce has both been praised as a masterpiece and criticized as a lunatic’s nightmare. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

Also on our southeast Italy itinerary: gallivanting through the glorious medieval  “White City” of Ostuni, taking a train to scrutinize insanely ornate Baroque curiosities in Lecce, and nonstop pigging out on regional dishes such as orecchiette pasta with turnip tops sauce and sun-dried tomatoes. (Mangia! Mangia!)

It’s easy to get lost in the serene, winding alleyways of Ostuni’s white-washed old town. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

“Tourists always go to Florence or Rome, but this is an area to be discovered,” said Puglia native and Exodus guide Ioana Misino, 38. Leading our entire journey, the patient, informative Ioana beautifully rolled her “r’s” and warmed us with tales about her typical worrying Italian mother. (“Ahh, Mamma,” she would sigh with a smile when her cell phone rang once again.)

Alberobello is known for its 1,500 storybook trulli homes, well-preserved and still used as residences or businesses centuries after they were built. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

We started our escapades in Alberobello, which like Matera is a stunningly preserved UNESCO World Heritage Site. Alberobello’s beehive trulli date from the mid-14th century on, were contrived from nearby limestone boulders, stacked without mortar, and crowned with conical roofs topped with decorative pinnacles. A main perk was the dry-stone construction could be sneakily dismantled to avoid paying property taxes to the then-king.

I’ll detail more about our overall voyage, but first the breathtaking, see-it-can’t-believe-it grand finale of Matera, honeycombed with 9,000-year-old cave dwellings still inhabited by humans and gripping hillsides teetering over a steep, gaping ravine.

On the Murgia plateau and canyon side, scores of mysterious holes are actually caves once inhabited by prehistoric people and later used as Byzantine rock churches by hermit monks. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

“Welcome to the Flintstones city,” enthused our local guide, Barbara Russo. “Matera is the largest sculpture in the world carved by hand.” She had just arrived at our boutique Wi-Fi-enabled cave hotel, not far from where 007 knocked out henchman Cyclop’s bionic eye.

Matera’s history is extremely rocky. Once an ancient settlement, by the mid-20th century Matera had deteriorated into a wretched slum, still without running water or electricity and plagued by malaria, dysentery and soaring infant mortality. Large peasant families shared enlarged cave homes with donkeys and chickens; human and animal waste mixed in streets. After Matera was labeled “the shame of Italy,” the Italian government evicted its 16,000 residents to newer housing in the 1950s, leaving a seedy ghost town attracting junkies and thieves.

Chiseled into a rock in Matera, the dramatic Church of Santa Maria De Idris juts from a hill and overlooks a cathedral, piazza and ravine. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

In the 1980s, redevelopment began and citizens started returning; in 1993 UNESCO listed Matera’s millennia-old two Sassi (meaning “stones”) districts comprised of more than 1,000 dwellings, in addition to 150 rock churches on a vast craggy outcrop. Hollywood came calling: Jesus was crucified in Matera (a stand-in for Jerusalem) in Mel Gibson’s 2004 film, “The Passion of the Christ.”  Across the Gravina River, we hiked along the rugged Murgia plateau, peering into spooky grottoes that sheltered Paleolithic hunter-gatherers and later became Byzantine cave churches for reclusive monks.

wilderness hike across the gorge from Matera’s town center brings trekkers to some simple cave churches dating from the eighth century on.(Photo by Norma Meyer)

On that trek, we scrambled over rocks, although our trip’s five planned walks — altogether totaling 30 miles — were generally easy on flatter ground. Of course we logged many more miles hoofing about hill towns since our Exodus agenda offered plenty to do.

With a sense of humor, chef Tommaso Perrucci teaches pasta-making at his Kapunto cafe in Matera. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

Like pasta-making. In Matera’s Kapunto cafe, along with my hairnet-clad, amusing travel mates (two husband-and-wife couples and a solo woman), I mixed my dough, robustly stretched my dough, cut my dough and felt like a dodo when as instructed I pushed three fingers into small bits of dough to roll them into indented pea pod-shaped capunti. Mamma mia. Next, after trying with a knife tip to create orecchiette “little ears” I produced noses on my pastry board. Gesturing with his hands, chef Tommaso Perrucci — who perfected his passionate pasta skills watching his mama — surveyed my work and assured,  “Not a disaster.” He paused. “BUT a disaster.” Then he kiddingly (OK, maybe not) told me, “In order to have enough time to learn to make pasta, you will need to get a visa and have residency here.”

Every day, eating was an extravaganza  — and often a surprise. One time for dessert, a server carried in a tray of roundish puffy pastries and in a thick Italian accent, animatedly explained something about “boobs.” We all laughingly bellowed, “What?” He elaborated: “Nun’s boobs.”

Seriously, that’s the real name of Italian cream-filled spongy cakes which resemble  mammary glands complete with nipples. According to legend, monastery nuns first created and sold the delicacies centuries ago, possibly to honor a tortured female saint whose breasts were ripped off with pincers.

Backing up now, before Matera we explored the “White City” of Ostuni, where our local guide described olive oil as “the gold of Puglia,” vendors cracked prized almonds with hammers, and buildings, just like in the Middle Ages, are regularly coated with gleaming white limestone to blunt the hot sun. From there, we ambled on a rural road alongside antiquated, gnarled, personality-laden olive trees to a secluded ominous cavern that is Delia’s ritualistic burial site. Delia is the moniker given by archeologists to a Cro-Magnon woman who died around 28,000 years ago at age 20, was eight months pregnant and in death donned a headdress and bracelets made of seashells and deer teeth. I had chills staring at the re-creation of her and her baby’s skeletons laying on the cave floor; the actual remains are in an Ostuni museum.

The re-created skeleton of an eight-months pregnant woman lies in Agnano Archaeological Park where she was buried 28,000 years ago. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

That evening, in Ostuni’s countryside, we stayed in an 18th-century “masseria” (fortified farmhouse) and I lathered myself with complimentary mini-vials of olive oil shower gel. Just a note here about Exodus Travels —  on its 500-plus itineraries worldwide, the company is all about family-run lodging and restaurants. (Also, I’m a big fan of the down-to-earth small-group adventure company. This was my sixth international trip with Exodus over years and my fellow travelers have always been multi-repeat customers too.)

Like other decor in Lecce, two figures outside a private mansion were carved centuries ago from “Lecce stone,” a unique limestone found in the area. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

The next morning, we rode a train to “Florence of the South” Lecce, a dizzying, dazzling city of lavish Baroque architecture. (You’d swear the designers were on psychedelics.) The magnificent façade of the Basilica of Santa Croce danced amok with figurines —  she-wolves, Turkish prisoners of war, dragons, cherubs, mythical lion-eagles, pomegranates. Lecce is also famous for its papier-maché workshops — a lightweight, life-size Virgin Mary loitered outside of one. I also noticed a regional specialty on a pub menu — pezzeti di cavallo, which translates to “pieces of horse.” A waitress said she didn’t know which parts.

Hiking through the Itria Valley puts walkers up close with verdant vineyards and age-old olive groves — and works off all those consumed carbs. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

Our week blew by. I knew it’d be intriguing when my first morning, at an Alberobello trulli trattoria, 24-year-old Nicolas Mentz fixed me a cappuccino, garnished it with a frothy heart and kindly welcomed me to “Cinderella’s town.” At our final destination, Matera’s past engulfed us while life colorfully carried on: A woodworker crafted initialized bread stamps in his cave shop so residents can recognize their loaves baked in communal ovens; artisans displayed cucu rooster whistles, Matera’s good-luck charms; a tabby cat festooned with a red bow tie lounged near a hip cave bistro. Except for two T-shirt sellers, there wasn’t much indicating that Matera was where Daniel Craig’s Bond romanced and lividly dumped his on-screen girlfriend, wildly vaulted his motorcycle into a crowded piazza, and fiercely spun doughnuts in his machine gun-firing Aston Martin, among other action scenes.

But I did spot a banner affixed to a rustic balcony and imploring, “Siate Gentili Con I Sassi.” It means “Be Gentle With The Stones.”

If you go

Exodus’ eight-day “Paths of Puglia & Matera — Premium Adventure,” includes accommodations, all meals except two, wine-tastings, local tours, train tickets, and more. Rates for 2024 start at $3,920 but prices are often discounted.  A similar trip, “Walking in Puglia & Matera,” includes different hotels, and fewer meals and activities, from $1,885.

​ Orange County Register