This 92-year-old Disneyland firefighter has no plans to retire

• October 25, 2024

At 92 years old, Hank Ameen still works two days a week as a Disneyland firefighter after more than 62 years of service at the Anaheim theme park, making him the longest-serving Disney employee at the company.

Disneyland has been a big part of Ameen’s life. He took his wife to the original Disney theme park on their honeymoon in August 1955 – just one month after it opened to the public.

ALSO SEE: Disneyland considering haunted maze for Oogie Boogie Bash, survey says

After serving in the United States Air Force, Ameen got a summer job as a Jungle Cruise skipper in 1958 when he was 26 years old.

His previous bartending experience helped him land the Disneyland job. The Disney recruiter figured any worthwhile bartender would know how to talk to customers and tell a joke or two.

“I picked it up, and then lo and behold, people were clapping, and they liked my spiel,” Ameen told the Disney Parks Blog. “I felt pretty good about that.”

Disneyland firefighter Hank Ameen aboard the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland. (Courtesy of Disneyland)

Ameen quit the Disneyland job after a few summers and joined Garden Grove Fire Department where he went on to work for 35 years as a city fireman. But he soon missed Disneyland.

On his days off, Ameen started working as a Disneyland firefighter – helping to put out the occasional fire in the parks, keeping attractions and entertainment running safely and monitoring pyrotechnics during nighttime fireworks shows.

“I have a passion for what I do because I feel like we are protecting the magic,” Ameen told the Disney Parks Blog.

Ameen attributes his long career to his active lifestyle. He swims, works out at the gym and walks around Disneyland in the morning before the parks open. He’s medaled in several Disneyland 10K races. And he remains endlessly optimistic about life.

“You have to have a good outlook on life,” Ameen told the Disney Parks Blog. “Make the best of it. Live in the moment.”

The Disneyland Fire Department’s Smoke on the Water team celebrates after the 2024 Disneyland canoe race. (Courtesy of Disneyland)

Ameen helped the Disneyland firefighters win the park’s annual employee canoe race in August and dethrone the long-reigning champs from the Davy Crockett Explorer Canoes team.

The firefighter’s Smoke on the Water team adopted Ameen as their mascot and trained with the “Win one for Hank” motto.

Ameen joined Smoke on the Water for a victory lap around Tom Sawyer Island after the resounding win.

“I have great pride in the people I work with,” Ameen told the Disney Parks Blog. “I learn from them and hopefully they learn from me.”

ALSO SEE: Disneyland restarts Magic Key sales — What you need to know

Ameen once ate lunch with Walt Disney at the Inn Between backstage employee dining area.

“He started walking towards my table, but I never thought that he would sit with me,” Ameen told the Disney Parks Blog. “He pulled up a chair and he asked me questions like, ‘How do you like working here? How do you like the food? What can I do?’ It was maybe a 10-minute conversation. That was a wonderful memory.”

In the decades since, Ameen has met Disneyland Resort President Ken Potrock, Disney Parks Chairman Josh D’Amaro and Disney CEO Bob Iger.

Disney Parks Chairman Josh D’Amaro, Disneyland firefighter Hank Ameen, Disney CEO Bob Iger and Disneyland Resort President Ken Potrock at Disneyland. (Courtesy of Disneyland)

The nonagenarian has no plans for retirement.

“As long as I can smile and laugh, I’m going to be here,” Ameen told the Disney Parks Blog.

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​ Orange County Register 

McDonald’s says onions from California produce company are linked to deadly E. coli outbreak

• October 25, 2024

By JONEL ALECCIA and DEE-ANN DURBIN

A California-based produce company was the source of fresh onions linked to a deadly E. coli food poisoning outbreak at McDonald’s, officials with the restaurant chain said Thursday. Meanwhile, other fast-food restaurants — including Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC and Burger King — pulled onions from some menus.

McDonald’s officials said that Taylor Farms, of Salinas, California, sent onions to one distribution facility, which led the fast-food chain to remove Quarter Pounder hamburgers from restaurants in several states. McDonald’s didn’t say which facility it was.

MAP: Where has the E. coli outbreak been linked to McDonald’s?

An outbreak tied to the burgers has sickened at least 49 people in 10 states, including a person who died, federal health officials have said. Investigators said they were focused on slivered onions as a potential source of the infections.

U.S. Foods, a major wholesaler to restaurants across the country, said Thursday that Taylor Farms had issued a recall this week for peeled whole and diced yellow onions for potential E. coli contamination. The recalled onions came from a Taylor Farms facility in Colorado, a U.S. Foods spokesperson said. But the wholesaler also noted that it wasn’t a McDonald’s supplier and that its recall didn’t include any products sold at the fast-food chain’s restaurants.

BURGER TROUBLE: McDonald’s tries to reassure customers after deadly E. coli outbreak

Taylor Farms did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Officials with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration did not confirm that the agency is investigating Taylor Farms. A spokesperson said Thursday that the agency is “looking at all sources” of the outbreak.

In the meantime, other national restaurant chains temporarily stopped using fresh onions.

“As we continue to monitor the recently reported E. coli outbreak, and out of an abundance of caution, we have proactively removed fresh onions from select Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC restaurants,” Yum Brands said in a statement.

Louisville, Kentucky-based Yum Brands wouldn’t say where onions were removed or whether the company uses the same supplier as McDonald’s. Yum Brands said it will continue to follow guidance from regulators and its suppliers.

Restaurant Brands International, which owns Burger King, said Thursday that 5% of its restaurants use onions distributed by Taylor Farms’ Colorado facility. Burger King restaurants get deliveries of whole, fresh onions and its employees wash, peel and slice them.

Even though it wasn’t contacted by health officials and it had no indications of illness, Restaurant Brands said it asked the restaurants that received onions from the Colorado facility to dispose of them two days ago. The company said it’s restocking with onions from other suppliers.

Chipotle said Thursday it doesn’t source onions from Taylor Farms or us any other ingredients from the Colorado facility.

Onions have been implicated in previous outbreaks. In 2015, Taylor Farms recalled a celery and onion mix used in Costco chicken salads after 19 people were sickened with E. coli. Last year, 80 people were sickened and one died in an outbreak of salmonella poisoning tied to bagged diced onions from Gills Onions of Oxnard, California.

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At least 10 people have been hospitalized in the McDonald’s outbreak, including a child who suffered a severe kidney disease complication as a result of the infection. Illnesses were confirmed between Sept. 27 and Oct. 11, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Victims were infected with E. coli 0157:H7, a type of bacteria that produces a dangerous toxin. It causes about 74,000 infections in the U.S. annually, leading to more than 2,000 hospitalizations and 61 deaths each year, according to CDC.

A Greeley, Colorado, man is suing McDonald’s after contracting an E. coli infection. In a lawsuit filed this week, Eric Stelly said he ate food from local McDonald’s on Oct. 4 and fell ill two days later. After he sought emergency care, health officials confirmed his infection was part of the outbreak.

Symptoms occur of E. coli poisoning can occur quickly, within a day or two of eating contaminated food. They typically include fever, vomiting, diarrhea or bloody diarrhea and signs of dehydration — little or no peeing, increased thirst and dizziness. The infection is especially dangerous for children younger than 5, people who are elderly, pregnant or who have weakened immune systems.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

​ Orange County Register 

Cox Communications Launches Xumo Stream Box: a next-level voice-activated streaming device for internet customers

• October 24, 2024

Cox Communications today announced the launch of Xumo Stream Box, a 4K streaming device that brings together the best of live TV and streaming into one simple, intuitive experience. The device is now available to Cox Internet customers nationwide at a competitive, one-time price point.

​Why it mattersResearch studies show consumers get frustrated and overwhelmed by the sheer volume of content available to them.

Consumers are managing all their streaming services themselves.
Finding something to watch can feel like a chore.

With the launch of Xumo Stream Box, Cox Communications is removing these obstacles for its Internet customers, offering them a device that makes finding and watching the content they love easy. Powered by Comcast’s newest entertainment experience, Entertainment OS, Xumo Stream Box enables Cox customers to:

Watch more, search less

Customers can search for a show or movie by saying its name into the included voice remote, and Xumo Stream Box will search across available apps and services to find it.
Xumo Stream Box uses both AI-driven personalization and a team of editors to surface content recommendations within the experience, helping customers find something to watch without having to jump in and out of apps.

Enjoy all the best apps, with more ways to personalize than ever

Xumo Stream Box comes preloaded with hundreds of streaming apps, including live streaming services like YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV, Sling TV, and Fubo, as well as top streaming apps like Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, Max, Peacock and hundreds more. They can simply say the name of the streaming service into the voice remote, and Xumo Stream Box will find and launch it.
With “My List,” Cox customers can build personalized viewing lists for every member of the family. With just one click, customers can add any show or movie available on Xumo Stream Box to a specific list, giving them a quick way to find what to watch next.

Get more from their streaming experience

The built-in channel guide makes browsing through Xumo Play’s 350+ free live channels – spanning live local and national news, movies, sports, reality shows, crime TV, kids programming and more – a seamless part of the experience.
By saying “free” into the voice remote, customers will find thousands of on-demand movies and TV shows from apps like Tubi, Pluto TV, and Xumo Play.​

With the launch of Xumo Stream Box, Cox continues to evolve its entertainment portfolio to meet the changing needs of its customers. Xumo Stream Box joins Contour as the latest device to leverage Comcast’s award-winning entertainment and voice technology, bringing the same seamless search and content discovery its TV customers enjoy to its broadband customers.

“We designed Xumo Stream Box to take the complexity out of streaming and get customers to the programs they love faster, while also making it easier for them to discover something new to watch,” said Michael Gatzke, Senior Vice President, Affiliate Development, Xumo. “Cox joins Xfinity, Spectrum and Mediacom as the fourth U.S.-based operator to offer Xumo Stream Box to its customers, capping off a great year of growth and momentum for our streaming devices.”

Xumo Stream Box is the latest example of Cox meeting its customers’ evolving needs – now with a flexible entertainment solution that pairs with Cox Internet. Cox has invested nearly $12B in network upgrades over the past 10 years to deliver some of the most powerful communications and entertainment services and will continue making multibillion-dollar annual infrastructure investments over the next several years. The company also recently launched Cox Mobile to provide flexible, affordable options to address customers’ connectivity needs outside the home.

​ Orange County Register 

How hard is it to find student housing in Southern California?

• October 24, 2024

Half of the public universities in Southern California have waiting lists for student housing, meaning that thousands of students are forced to look off campus for a place to live while pursuing a four-year degree, reporting by the Southern California News Group shows.

Although data shows that academic performance and a sense of engagement improves for students who live on campus, two University of California campuses and four California State University campuses in the region had to turn people away from university dorms, suites and apartments this year. That comes at a financial cost since off-campus housing tends to be more expensive than university housing.

What about you?

Have you been unable to find university-provided housing? How much of a struggle is it to find affordable housing off campus?

Please take our survey to let us know what it’s been like for you:

 SURVEY: How hard is it to find Student Housing in SoCal?

​ Orange County Register 

UCLA QB Ethan Garbers feeling more comfortable and confident

• October 24, 2024

LOS ANGELES — When UCLA quarterback Ethan Garbers needs a little motivation, he’ll sometimes look to social media comments.

“You’ve kind of gotta take it with a grain of salt,” Garbers told reporters, “because a lot of these people, they have no idea what you’ve been through or what it’s like to be out there.”

Few people in general could relate to the season UCLA football has experienced under a new coaching staff in a new conference and with just two wins despite incremental improvements.

UCLA (2-5, 1-4 Big Ten) has continuously put its trust in the redshirt senior to lead the Bruins and uphold the team pillars of discipline, respect and enthusiasm – something he’s taken seriously through his final year of eligibility.

“After the last game, I was like, ‘Dang, only five more left.’ It’s kind of sad,” Garbers said. “The goal is to win every single game and make a bowl game. That’s been the goal since the beginning, to win every game.”

The offense seemed to finally click in the Bruins’ 35-32 win over Rutgers when Garbers completed 32 of 38 passes for 383 yards and four touchdowns for their first Big Ten victory. He even took off for a 49-yard touchdown rush despite dealing with a lingering ankle injury.

The coaching staff entrusted him with a quarterback sneak on a fourth-and-1 in the second quarter after shying away from fourth-down attempts in previous games.

“All the coaches were preaching, ‘Hey, if it’s third-and-long or fourth and we get fourth-and-one, we might go for it, doesn’t matter where we are,’” Garbers said “And that just fires us all up and it’s great to stay on the field. Any time we get short yardage, we’re definitely looking to capitalize on it.”

Garbers was named the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week for his efforts and was given an 89.6 grade by Pro Football Focus – the second-highest grade of the week for anyone at the quarterback position.

Getting the ball out quicker has been a focus of the offense recently, which has helped lead to more pressure on opposing defenses and more yardage.

“Quickness just comes with the comfortability of the offense and then also just trust and then reps with all the other guys,” Garbers said. “I feel very comfortable in the offense. Now it’s just me just trusting what I see and going out there and just making the plays.”

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Garbers confirmed during media availability Thursday that he has been dealing with an ankle injury this season. Imprints from the layers of tape that heavily wrapped his ankle and foot were visible when he spoke with reporters.

He’s had to dedicate more time to pre-practice treatment and post-practice recovery as well as mobility exercises, but said the pain he’s dealt with this season is “really nothing, honestly.”

While his daily schedule may have changed, the team’s energy is inexhaustible. Team warmups before practice remain loud and fun, with riled-up players feeding off the nonstop jumping and body checks.

“I think everyone’s just feeling more comfortable, feeling better about the things that we’re doing,” Garbers said. “Everyone’s coming out here with a great attitude every day.”

​ Orange County Register 

Horse racing: Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar challenges horsemen, bettors

• October 24, 2024

For any major sports event that moves from place to place from year to year, the venue can be a big part of the story. That’s true of the Breeders’ Cup, whose moveable feast of multimillion-dollar thoroughbred races has visited a dozen tracks in eight states and provinces in its 40 years. And nowhere is it more true than at Del Mar, which hosts the 14-race festival for the third time next Friday and Saturday, Nov. 1-2.

Del Mar’s quirky main track and turf course can dictate strategy for horsemen and horseplayers, or leave them guessing over the next week.

Among them is Chad Brown, the nation’s highest-earning trainer in 2024, a four-time winner of the annual Eclipse Award as North America’s outstanding trainer and the most successful Breeders’ Cup trainer in recent years. The horses Brown entered this week include contenders in as many as seven Breeders’ Cup races. But many of those are horses whose come-from-behind running style could be compromised if the Del Mar main track plays the way it often did during the summer season.

“It’s a bit concerning that the track favored (early) speed at the most recent meet,” Brown, who’s based in New York, said this week when I asked him about it on a Breeders’ Cup media conference call. “Hopefully it’ll change a little bit. These tracks do change.”

It’s not only the racing surface that could work against late-running horses, including Brown’s Sierra Leone in the $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic, the main event of the second day, and Chancer McPatrick in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, the focus of the first day.

“The shorter stretch at Del Mar would also be a bit of a concern for horses that close,” Brown said. “So these are real challenges for those two horses to get to the winner’s circle. We’ll have to overcome it.

“Certainly it’s not impossible for horses that are coming from well off the pace to win at Del Mar. We’ve seen it before. My hope would be that they wouldn’t be quite as far back in these races.”

Del Mar and Breeders’ Cup executives can’t promise how the track will be, and with the Del Mar fall meet opening Thursday we’ll have only one afternoon of pre-Breeders’ Cup racing to judge by.

“The track at Del Mar can be a little bit different during the fall meet than it is during the summer meet,” said Tom Robbins, executive vice president for racing industry relations at Del Mar and executive director of the Breeders’ Cup selection panel. “Hopefully we can achieve all that we want: fairness from inside to outside (of the track), and the safest possible surface.”

Bettors are already analyzing the lists of 212 “pre-entered” horses announced Wednesday, including a Breeders’ Cup-record 80 from overseas. Handicapping will get more intense after fields, post positions and official morning-line odds are finalized Monday.

Some of Del Mar’s sharpest handicappers talked about the factors, specific to Del Mar, that they’re weighing.

• The possible speed bias of the dirt track.

Although overall statistics show front-running horses at the Breeders’ Cup distances on dirt won no higher a percentage of races in the Del Mar summer season than, say, at the current Santa Anita fall meet, there were many afternoons at the San Diego County track when early speedsters could not be caught.

“Speed is always a good commodity, but it seemed unbeatable on certain days,” said Bob Ike, proprietor of BobIkePicks.com and co-host of the Thoroughbred Los Angeles radio show.

“If the main track is anything like it was during the meet earlier this year, speed will be king,” said Bob Mieszerski, the Southern California News Group’s lead handicapper.

In the 2021 Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar, front-runners won four of the seven dirt races, including Knicks Go in the 1¼-mile Classic. In 2017, only one front-runner won, but it was Gun Runner in the Classic.

• The short homestretch, which measures 919 feet from the turn to the finish – shortest among one-mile tracks in the United States – gives stretch runners less ground to work with.

Handicapper, radio host and horse owner Jon Lindo calls the short stretch the “biggest difference” about Del Mar.

“Riders with local knowledge – especially on the dirt course – have a slight edge on knowing when to move,” Lindo said. “(A) 1¼-mile dirt race at Del Mar has proven to be a ‘short’ race for the distance, meaning horses that at other tracks have struggled to get the distance have proven successful at Del Mar.”

• A home-track advantage appears negligible. Horses who ran their previous race in California scored one win at the 2017 Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar and two in 2021, fewer than average in the era of two-day Breeders’ Cups. This may reflect a general decline in the strength of California contingents.

• Post position can be decisive on the Del Mar turf, especially in 5-furlong sprints (like the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint and Juvenile Turf Sprint), which start close to turns.

“I won’t take a short price on a horse who is very likely to lose a lot of ground in a turf race,” said Frank Scatoni, the online handicapper, Del Mar seminar host and “Six Secrets of Successful Bettors” author. “But if that same horse was 10-1, I might feel OK about it.”

Chad Brown, who has contenders Carl Spackler in the Mile and Zulu Kingdom in the Juvenile Turf, said he hopes his grass-course horses “draw more toward the inside.”

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On the media conference call, Brown criticized another Del Mar quirk when he was asked about the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf by my Southern California News Group colleague Jay Posner: That race will be run at 1⅜ miles, as it was in 2021, instead of 1⅛, as in 2017. Brown declined to enter horses he thinks are unsuited to the distance. Fewer than half of the pre-entered horses have raced that far. It’s one more challenge for handicappers.

A Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar presents trainers, jockeys and bettors with more decisions to make than usual, and potential rich rewards for making the right ones.

Follow horse racing correspondent Kevin Modesti at Twitter.com/KevinModesti.

​ Orange County Register 

Horse racing notes: Stay Hot tries to close out Santa Anita meet with win

• October 24, 2024

SANTA ANITA LEADERS

(Through Sunday)

Jockeys / Wins

Juan Hernandez / 18

Umberto Rispoli / 15

Antonio Fresu / 11

Tyler Baze / 7

Hector Berrios / 7

Trainers / Wins

Phil D’Amato / 13

George Papaprodromou / 12

Bob Baffert / 11

Doug O’Neill / 8

Mark Glatt / 6

Michael McCarthy / 6

WEEKEND STAKES

SANTA ANITA

Friday

• $85,000 Anoakia Stakes, 2-year-old fillies, 6 furlongs

Saturday

• $200,000, Grade II Twilight Derby, 3-year-olds, 1⅛ miles on turf

Sunday

• $100,000, Grade III Autumn Miss Stakes, 3-year-old fillies, 1 mile on turf

LOS ALAMITOS

Saturday

• $100,000 Wild West Futurity, 2-year-old quarter horses, 350 yards

Sunday

• $1 million, Grade I Golden State Million Futurity, 2-year-olds, 400 yards

DOWN THE STRETCH

• Closing weekend of the Santa Anita fall meet features the Twilight Derby on Saturday. Stay Hot (Antonio Fresu riding), winner of four of six lower-level stakes, seeks his first Grade II and first 1⅛-mile victory for trainer Peter Eurton after running a sharp second in the Del Mar Derby at this level and distance.

• The Anoakia Stakes will be run Friday after drawing too few entries to be held as scheduled last Sunday. Bob Baffert trains three of the five 2-year-old fillies in the 6-furlong sprint, including Grade III runner-up Casalu (Martin Garcia) and 10-length debut winner Silent Law (Juan Hernandez).

• Santa Anita’s Friday card offers a double carryover in the pick 6, on races 4-9. After nobody combined all six winners on Saturday or Sunday, the carryover is $153,104.78, and the track projects the pool to grow to more than $750,000.

• In Los Alamitos night racing, fastest qualifier American Dreamin is favored in Sunday’s $1 million Golden State Million Futurity for leading quarter-horse jockey Armando Cervantes, trainer Monte Arrossa and owner Dunn Ranch. The 2-year-old filly can give Dunn Ranch its third futurity of 2024. Up to Party won the Ed Burke Million Futurity and PCAHRA Breeders Futurity and is pointing for the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity trials Nov. 24.

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• In one of the weirder award announcements, Luan Machado was named Jockey of the week for Oct. 14-20 by the Jockeys’ Guild. Machado won two Grade III stakes at Keeneland last weekend, with Brunacini in the Perryville and Chop Chop in the Dowager Stakes. But the previous Wednesday he had made an embarrassing error, costing Ultimate Strike a maiden win – and the horse’s bettors a 13-1 payoff – by easing up at the wrong finish line. The Jockeys’ Guild news release called Machado’s week “an example of the highs and lows of race riding.” The satirical Racing Onion tweeted: “Even we couldn’t come up with this one.”

— Kevin Modesti

​ Orange County Register 

Santa Anita horse racing consensus picks for Friday, October 25, 2024

• October 24, 2024

The consensus box of Santa Anita picks comes from handicappers Bob Mieszerski, Eddie Wilson, Kevin Modesti and Mark Ratzky. Here are the picks for thoroughbred races on Friday, October 25, 2024.

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​ Orange County Register