Clippers trying to make the most of Rui Hachimura’s skills

• October 8, 2026

INGLEWOOD — Shortly into the Clippers’ preseason opener on Sunday, point guard Darius Garland found Rui Hachimura with a pinpoint pass that the newly acquired forward took and pulled up for a 3-point shot.

Garland found Hachimura again 42 seconds later, this time resulting in a running dunk. The two connected on two more seamless passes in the Clippers’ 104-101 victory over the Golden State Warriors. The plays were instinctive and automatic – chemistry developed over the course of just a few weeks.

“We’ve been working together a lot during that week,” Garland said after Wednesday’s practice. “We’re in training camp, so it was good to finally put it to use though, put it to work against somebody else.”

Before the Clippers signed Hachimura to a two-year, $28 million free agent contract, Garland had already done his homework on the former Laker.

Before the team gathered for unofficial workouts, Garland knew Hachimura was an elite 3-point shooter with an efficient mid-range jumper, a power forward who can exploit mismatches with his 6-foot-8, 230-pound body.

“Yeah, we already knew what type of talent Rui is,” Garland said. “So, just trying to figure out his spots, but the Golden State game was definitely a little sample size of what we can do.”

Hachimura averaged 11.5 points and 3.3 rebounds in 28.3 minutes over 68 games (41 starts) with the Lakers last season. He shot 51.4% (307 for 597) from the field and 44.3% (116 for 262) from 3-point range, which was the fifth-best mark in the NBA.

UNEXPECTED TALENT

Garland, 26, has seen plenty of rookies in his eight seasons in the NBA. This season, two have impressed him – Keaton Wagler and Baba Miller. Most know about Wagler: the No. 5 overall draft pick out of Illinois, where he was a two-time consensus second-team All-American. Miller, however, is more of an enigma.

Miller is a 6-11 forward from Spain who bounced around the college game, playing at Florida State and Florida Atlantic before finishing at Cincinnati. His soft outside shooting touch is notable, but he can do much more on the court.

“Just his athletic ability, him stretching the floor, him switching one through five (defensively), just him being himself really communicating, blocking shots, rebounding the ball,” Garland said. “I think he’s got a lot of people kind of hyped and surprised a little bit. Not surprised, but pretty excited.”

NOTES

Injured players Brandon Ingram (Achilles), Kobe Sanders (hip impingement), Yanic Konan Niederhauser (foot surgery) and Bradley Beal (knee inflammation) all continue doing individual player development work during their recovery, according to the team. Beal was on the court Wednesday but did not participate in drills. Sanders is day-to-day while Niederhauser and Ingram are out for the start of the season. …

The Clippers filled their open training camp spot with Jahmyl Telfort, who landed the last two-way contract last season. The team waived Fletcher Loyer on Tuesday.

​ Orange County Register 

ALDS: Jo Adell, José Ramírez lead Guardians past White Sox in Game 3

• October 8, 2026

CHICAGO — Jo Adell and José Ramírez powered Cleveland with a pair of two-out triples, and the Guardians avoided an AL Division Series sweep by cooling off the Chicago White Sox with a 9-3 victory in Game 3 on Wednesday.

Adell’s three-run triple gave Cleveland a 4-1 lead in the third inning. Ramírez’s three-bagger drove in Travis Bazzana and Patrick Bailey for a 7-3 advantage in the eighth.

The Guardians recorded two triples in a postseason game for the first time in franchise history.

They became the first major-league team to accomplish the feat since the Dodgers in Game 1 of the 2024 World Series.

Adell, Ramírez, Bailey and Brayan Rocchio each had two of the team’s 11 hits – a complete turnaround for the AL Central champions after they managed just three runs and seven hits in the first two games of the series combined.

Game 4 is on Thursday.

Chicago won its first four games in a surprising postseason appearance after going 60-102 last year. It was backed by a frenzied crowd of 40,590 for the franchise’s first home playoff game since 2021, but there wasn’t much for the fans to cheer in the final innings.

The White Sox struck out 19 times and went 2 for 11 with runners in position. Their bullpen faltered after coming up big in their fast postseason start.

Chicago jumped in front on Kyle Teel’s RBI double off Daniel Espino with one out in the first. But Espino fanned Chase Meidroth before Foster Griffin struck out Tristan Peters looking, stranding runners on second and third.

Griffin set a franchise record for a reliever with seven strikeouts in 2⅔ innings. The left-hander allowed one run and two hits.

Cleveland rallied in the third against Bryan Hudson, who entered after Sean Newcomb pitched two scoreless innings.

Bazzana walked and scored on Steven Kwan’s one-out single to left. Facing left-hander Hagen Smith with two down and the bases loaded, Adell grounded a high fastball down the first-base line for a 4-1 lead.

Adell, who was acquired in an August trade with the Angels, also hit an RBI triple during Cleveland’s 4-3 loss in Game 2. He hit one triple during the regular season in each of the last two years.

Playing in his 48th postseason game – all with Cleveland – Ramírez manufactured an insurance run for the Guardians in the fifth. He doubled, stole third and scored on Chase DeLauter’s grounder to second, beating Teel’s tag with a headfirst slide.

Ramírez’s savvy baserunning gave the Guardians a 5-2 lead. The seven-time All-Star went 0 for 6 with two walks in the first two games of the series.

Up next

Parker Messick starts for Cleveland in Game 4. Messick permitted two runs and four hits over 4⅓ innings in the series opener. The left-hander went 12-9 with a 2.56 ERA in 32 starts during the regular season.

Chicago did not announce its pitching plans before the game. Smith started Game 1 for the White Sox, striking out four in 2⅔ hitless innings.

​ Orange County Register 

8 alleged Mexican Mafia prison gang members charged with attempted murder, extortion in Pomona

• October 8, 2026

Eight alleged members of the Mexican Mafia prison gang have been charged in connection with an attempted murder and extortion scheme in Pomona that authorities say was orchestrated by high-ranking members of the organization, federal officials said.

In July, the victim was reportedly driving down a Pomona street when a person began to walk toward the vehicle while shooting 12 to 15 rounds from a handgun, the FBI said. Shots hit the vehicle at least three times and a nearby parked vehicle was hit at least four times.

The Mexican Mafia allegedly believed the victim of the attempted murder owed them a debt. The victim was placed on an “86” list by the Mexican Mafia, indicating that the victim could not enter Pomona or any illegal casinos operated by the gang, under threat of death. The gang also took the victim’s vehicle, the FBI said.

After the shooting, gang members apparently contacted the victim and demanded $2,000 to avoid further violence and for the return of the victim’s vehicle, authorities said.

During the investigation, authorities seized about $200,000 in cash, methamphetamine and 11 illegal “ghost guns,” which did not have serial numbers.

In addition to the eight Mexican Mafia members, one person was charged with assisting with the crime by cleaning up bullet casings after the shooting before police could collect them as evidence.

The Mexican Mafia associates are being charged for conspiracy to murder, attempted murder, shooting at an occupied vehicle and extortion depending on their role in the crime. Six men ranging in age from 25 to 56 are currently in custody, the FBI said. Authorities are still searching for Jeffrey Griffin, 44, of Montclair and David Arenas, 30, of Pomona.

One 47-year-old man also being charged in the conspiracy is already incarcerated for another charge.

​ Orange County Register 

35 film projects — including Ice Cube’s ‘Last Friday’ — receive California tax credits

• October 7, 2026

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday announced that 35 film projects, including the long-awaited next installment in Ice Cube’s “Friday” franchise, are receiving credits in the latest round of awards from the expanded California Film Commission’s Film & Television Tax Credit Program.

Twenty-eight of the 35 projects are independent productions, including 20 with budgets under $10 million, and state officials say the selections show “that California is uniquely tailored to support grassroots creativity.”

“What makes this latest round so exciting is the mix of independent filmmaking and iconic stories that are part of California’s cultural legacy,” California Film Commission Director Colleen Bell said. “From an emerging filmmaker bringing an ambitious new vision to life to the return of beloved franchises like ‘Last Friday,’ ‘Clueless’ and ‘The Rockford Files,’ these are stories with deep roots in California. Through our tax credit program, we’re helping bring these stories to the screen while keeping the jobs, investment, and production that bring them to life right here in California.”

The recipients include the following projects:

— “Last Friday” (New Line Cinema)

— “Michael 2” (working title) (Lionsgate)

— Untitled Paramount Crime Thriller (Paramount Pictures)

— “Leaves of Glass” (Pinstripes Studios)

— “Pure” (The Space Program)

— Untitled Mike Mills Film

— American Wolf (Sweet Humans Productions)

— Additional projects from Warner Bros. Studios and Pixar

“I’m thrilled to produce ‘Last Friday’ right here in Southern California, where our cast and crew lives,” said Ice Cube, the star, writer and producer of the upcoming film. “This story has been part of the fabric of South Los Angeles since our first film 31 years ago so producing the film here with more than 180 local cast and crew underscores the value of the California production incentive program. We’re thankful for the opportunity to stay local.”

Victoria Alonso and Tom Culliver, producers of “Leaves of Glass,” said their film was “set in the Chicano communities of Los Angeles, and it simply wouldn’t exist if we couldn’t shoot here. We are incredibly excited to showcase a side of Los Angeles rarely seen on camera, and work with the greatest crews in the world. We are deeply grateful to the California Film Commission for making this film possible.”

According to Newsom’s office, the expanded tax credit program has generated $7.2 billion in California production spending since July 2025 via 179 different projects.

Officials with the governor’s office said the 35 projects will deliver meaningful economic benefits for California, including $1.08 billion in direct production spending, $635 million in qualified spending (inclusive of qualified wages), $423 million in qualified wages, 5,453 cast and crew jobs, 24,842 background performers measured in days worked, and 1,049 total California shooting days.

Newsom’s announcement comes one day after Los Angeles-area members of Congress and entertainment industry unions called for passage of legislation that would create a federal tax credit for film and television productions made in the United States.

The governor also signed a bill last month that creates a first-of-its kind tax credit to support entertainment workers in all areas of post-production.

​ Orange County Register 

UCLA coaching staff all too familiar with Oregon’s elite offense

• October 7, 2026

“Zero picks all season!” UCLA safeties coach Anthony DiMichele yelled, with an expletive sprinkled in, during practice Wednesday.

The gauntlet was thrown at the Bruins’ defense to become the first team this season to intercept a pass by an Oregon quarterback, whether it be Dylan Raiola or Dante Moore.

That challenge was matched by the charismatic voice of Bob Chesney Sr., the father of the first-year UCLA head coach, who asked the No. 21 Bruins if they’d get more than the four interceptions they compiled in their 54-3 rout at Maryland. Chesney Sr. is a volunteer assistant who spent 53 years coaching high school football in Pennsylvania and regularly joins his son at practice.

“You’ve got great receivers coming up against you and an elite tight end, stable running backs that are elite and a Heisman candidate or two,” UCLA defensive coordinator Colin Hitschler said of the 13th-ranked Ducks. “Who wouldn’t want the opportunity to play against that? Schematically, they put a lot of obstacles in front of you. There’s a chip on our shoulder there, and we have to find a way to slow it down.”

Hitschler and many others on Bob Chesney’s staff are hoping to see different results after they came up short at James Madison in December in a 51-34 drubbing by Oregon in the first round of the College Football Playoff.

Moore torched the JMU defense, called by Hitschler, on 19-of-27 passing for 313 yards and four touchdowns. Returning sophomore Jordon Davison rushed for 90 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries, as the Dukes allowed 201 yards on the ground at 7.7 yards per carry.

“You learn from every opportunity and every game,” Hitschler said of the season-ending defeat more than 10 months ago. “Win or lose, any good coach or any system is going to learn from previous mistakes. Obviously it wasn’t good enough when we played them last year and would love to play them again last year, but that’s not how it works. It’s one and done, and you’re knocked out. It is what it is. Regain, reload and gain a group of new guys, and let’s see how we can attack them slightly differently or hit them again.”

The sense of urgency from Hitschler came out. He was overheard yelling at his defense, commanding more effort.

“Every day there’s a lot of intensity of practice,” Hitschler said. “You win Tuesday through Friday, you tend to win the game on Saturday. Just crossing our i’s, dotting our t’s, and let’s see what we can do to slow down this offense.”

UCLA (4-0, 2-0 Big Ten) enters as an 11.5-point underdog – the first time it hasn’t been favored this season – Saturday in Eugene. Each team comes off a bye, with UCLA having plenty of high notes in its 51-point road throttling of the Terrapins. The Ducks (3-1, 1-0) went home winners Sept. 26 after a 41-27 defeat of USC.

Saint Paul returns to Eugene

Along with UCLA’s familiarity on defense comes the spotlight on Oregon transfer wide receiver Jalen Saint Paul, who committed to the Ducks in February 2024 before announcing he was heading to Westwood in May 2025. He didn’t record any statistics in Eugene.

After playing in two games with no receptions for the Bruins last season, the 5-foot-11, 185-pound junior from Carlsbad High caught two passes from Nico Iamaleava for 11 yards in the 28-10 victory over San Diego State on Sept. 12.

Bruins offensive coordinator Dean Kennedy believes Saint Paul has made strides since joining UCLA and could be a precursor to a successful reunion for the former Duck returning to Autzen Stadium.

“He’s been coming on really strong,” Kennedy said. “He’s been coming on really strong. He’s earned reps. First game he didn’t play as much. Each game he’s taken steps for a young guy. It speaks to his preparation and his intelligence level because we do move receivers. We have them play the inside and the outside, and it’s not easy. For him to pick that up and gain the trust. It’s huge. He’s gaining the trust of (Iamaleava), and that’s a huge piece of their chemistry.”

​ Orange County Register 

The high cost of California’s proposed billionaire tax

• October 7, 2026

California’s billionaire tax is being sold to voters as a way to make the state’s wealthiest residents pay a fairer share, using most of the tax revenue for healthcare. Less understood are the assumptions behind Proposition 40 about how much billionaires already pay in taxes, how they manage their wealth and how they will respond to a new 5% levy.

Once those estimates are corrected, experts project the wealth tax could ultimately cost California $24.7 billion more than it raises. My new report for the Independent Institute takes a closer look at the research behind the “2026 Billionaire Tax Act.”

Here’s what went wrong: 

Start with a basic question: How much do billionaires pay in taxes? Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, economists who helped write the billionaire tax proposal, estimated that the nation’s wealthiest households face comparatively low overall tax rates.

But economist David Splinter of the Joint Committee on Taxation reached a different result after adjusting their estimates for double-counted income and other data errors. For example, while Saez and Zucman estimated the nation’s 400 wealthiest households paid an overall tax rate of 24% between 2018 and 2020, Splinter’s corrected estimate was 38%. This is a 14-point difference in one of the central figures used to make the case that billionaires are undertaxed.

The same issue arises with another argument that the super wealthy can avoid income taxes by borrowing against their assets through a strategy known as “buy, borrow, die.” The idea is that rich people can fund their lifestyles by borrowing against appreciating assets instead of selling them and triggering capital gains taxes. When they die, their heirs inherit those assets at a stepped-up basis, eliminating taxes on unrealized gains. Recent research suggests the strategy is uncommon. New borrowing accounted for only 2.4 percent of total economic income for the top 0.01 percent of wealth holders in 2022.

In reality, the U.S. has a highly progressive tax system in which the top taxpayers pay a very high percentage of their income in tax. Data assembled by the Cato Institute shows that the rich pay the vast majority of federal taxes. The bottom 50 percent of taxpayers, by contrast, account for just 3 percent of federal income tax revenue.

These estimates matter because they affect how much Proposition 40 would actually raise. Another central issue is how billionaires will respond. For over a decade, California has experienced net domestic outmigration. Wealthier residents face fewer barriers to relocating to jurisdictions that offer more favorable conditions. When a government becomes overly punitive to the rich, they can just leave. In fact, capital flight in response to the proposed billionaire tax has already begun.

Before Jan. 1, 2026, the cutoff for determining residency under the wealth tax, six billionaires left the state. In doing this, they took $27 billion of potential tax revenue with them, or more than one-fourth of the wealth tax’s projected revenue. When the wealthy leave, California also loses investment in local businesses and jobs.

Scholars at the Hoover Institution estimate that the permanent loss of income tax revenue from billionaires who leave California would ultimately outweigh the money raised by the tax, leaving the state $24.7 billion worse off over time. Voters will have the chance to decide in November if they want to tax away the foundations of economic prosperity. 

Risking capital flight and setting a dangerous tax precedent based on a misperception of the state and national tax systems is reckless, especially when it could drive away not only billionaires but millionaires and people who aspire to become one. 

Kristian Fors is a policy analyst at the Libertas Institute, Utah’s free-market think tank, and a research fellow at the Oakland-based Independent Institute. He is the author of “Flawed Research and Real Economic Damage: Examining California’s Proposed Billionaire Wealth Tax.”

​ Orange County Register 

HBCUs are underfunded. A legal effort starting in Missouri seeks to fix it

• October 7, 2026

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH and COLLIN BINKLEY

An effort to address decades of underfunding at some historically Black colleges and universities kicked off Wednesday with a lawsuit against the state of Missouri.

Students and graduates of Lincoln University in the state’s capital of Jefferson City allege the lack of financial resources undercut their education and devalued their degrees.

More than a dozen other states are in the crosshairs of a newly formed group called the 1890 Project.

“It is very unfortunate that we still live in a climate where, depending on the color of one’s skin, one gets precedence over the other,” said Lincoln graduate Jeanneth Johnson, a 54-year-old from the Detroit suburb of Sterling Heights, who is a plaintiff in the lawsuit.

The University of Missouri system and the governor’s office both said in written statements that they couldn’t comment on pending litigation.

HBCUs missed out on money

Back in 2023, the administration of then-President Joe Biden found HBCUs in 16 states had missed out on $12.6 billion in funding over the last three decades. The finding and an ensuing call for the governors in those states to boost spending came one year after members of Congress also raised concerns.

At issue is the funding of land-grant universities. The first batch was established in 1862 under the Morrill Act, which gave public lands to states to pay for colleges that focused on educating students in practical fields like agriculture and engineering.

It was a departure from traditional colleges at the time, which focused mostly on classical subjects for the elite, such as Latin, Greek, philosophy and theology. But the law’s namesake, Justin Smith Morrill, a senator from Vermont, believed higher education should be accessible to all social classes.

In the wake of the Civil War, Morrill, an abolitionist, called for an update to the act. Passed in 1890, the new law required states either to open their land grants to students of all races or establish separate land grant schools for Black students.

Missouri, a border state that allowed slavery but fought with the Union during the Civil War, wasn’t about to open its flagship University of Missouri campus in Columbia to Black students. To meet the new requirement, it looked toward what was then called Lincoln Institute, which a Black Union Army unit started at the end of the war by pooling their wages.

Seventeen other mostly former Confederate states and border states established 18 other land grant schools for Black students. They included Tuskegee University, the only private 1890 land grant.

Federal law requires an equitable distribution of state funding for all of a state’s land-grant universities — whether HBCU or otherwise. But the 2023 Biden administration analysis found that only two states funded traditional and HBCU land-grants equitably — Delaware and Ohio. Lincoln University alone was underfunded by $361 million from 1987 through 2020, the newly filed lawsuit says, citing federal numbers.

Today, Lincoln’s enrollment has fallen to around 2,200 students, down from around 3,400 in 2011 and just a fraction of the approximately 32,000 enrolled on the University of Missouri’s Columbia campus, which was roiled by protests in 2015 over racial injustice, leading to the resignation of two top administrators.

“We’re not saying they should be funded equally, but they should be funded on parity,” said Don Calloway, a former Missouri state lawmaker who leads the 1890 Project. “And the feds funded Lincoln with the proper parity. The problem is that the state made an intentional choice not to match the federal appropriation. And that’s where Lincoln really was cheated.”

He blames millions in deferred maintenance on some of Lincoln’s enrollment woes.

Calloway said he also is talking to state’s attorneys general in several other states, including Virginia, Arkansas, Maryland, North Carolina, Alabama and Georgia. Over the decades, lawsuits also have been filed in several of those states over underfunding of HBCUs, including one in Maryland that led to a $577 million settlement.

Missouri is the first legal target

But those lawsuits mostly focused on state-level funding disparities between all HBCUs and non-HBCUs. There are dozens of HBCUs that aren’t 1890s land grants, often started by nonprofits and religious groups. Calloway said his legal strategy is focused just on the 1890s schools.

“We expect to negotiate and/or litigate in multiple jurisdictions over the next year,” he said. “Missouri is the first.”

Herbert Kitchen, a plaintiff whose great-great-grandfather, Caleb Lindsey, was one of the soldiers whose pay founded Lincoln, recalled his residence hall frequently was without heat and hot water when he was a student at Lincoln in the 1980s. Rumors were swirling that the school might close, and he said some employers looked at his degree as “second rate.”

Kitchen, a retired California community college administrator, thinks of his great-great grandfather as he fights for Lincoln, a school generations of his family have attended.

“I am,” he said, “the hope and dream that my great-grandfather had when he was a slave.”

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

​ Orange County Register 

Appeals court says Atlanta family cannot take the government to trial for a mistaken FBI raid

• October 7, 2026

By SUDHIN THANAWALA

ATLANTA (AP) — An Atlanta family cannot take the federal government to trial for a mistaken FBI raid on their home in 2017, but they can seek to hold the agent who led the SWAT team liable, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

FBI agents broke down the front door of Trina Martin’s Atlanta home before dawn on Oct. 18, 2017, stormed into her bedroom and pointed guns at her and her then-boyfriend as her 7-year-old son screamed for his mom from another room.

The agents quickly realized they had the wrong house and left, but Martin and her boyfriend at the time, Toi Cliatt, said they were left traumatized, and they sued the government and the agent. The U.S. Supreme Court revived their lawsuit last year.

A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Wednesday the government was shielded from liability under an exception to a federal law that allows lawsuits over wrong-house raids. But the panel reversed a decision that gave the agent immunity.

“Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs, a reasonable jury could fairly conclude” that the agent had “failed to engage in reasonable efforts to avoid error, and therefore, violated the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights,” the judges said.

Jenna Sellitto, a spokeswoman for the FBI’s Atlanta office, said the agency does not comment on personnel matters.

The FBI team quickly apologized after the raid and left for the right place, with the team leader later saying that his personal GPS device had led him to the wrong address. The FBI was looking for a suspected gang member a few houses away.

Martin and Cliatt’s lawsuit accused the agents of assault and battery, false arrest and other violations.

Their attorney, Patrick Jaicomo, said in a phone interview his clients felt good about Wednesday’s ruling.

The decision on immunity for the agent was a clear win, but there was also reason to be hopeful about the ruling in favor of the government, he said.

That decision was based on 11th Circuit precedent, and the judges wrote separately to encourage the full appeals court to revisit those earlier decisions. Jaicomo, senior attorney with the nonprofit Institute for Justice in Arlington, Virginia, said he plans to seek that review, opening up the possibility that his clients could eventually be allowed to take the government to trial as well.

​ Orange County Register