Los Angeles Comic Con 2024 kicks off with cosplay and ‘Back to the Future’ reunion

• October 5, 2024

When you see Star-Lord and Gamora from Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” standing next to each other at Los Angeles Comic Con, you might assume they arrived together in a pre-planned group costume.

“No, we just met today!” said Delaney Sargent of Buena Park. She and Thomas Barr, from Burbank, happened to perfectly match their cosplay to the other on day one of the con, which kicked off this weekend, Oct. 4-6, at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Sargent spent about two weeks creating her Gamora costume “and about three and a half hours in makeup today,” she said. She plans to unveil two more looks this weekend – Belle from “Beauty and the Beast,” and Ariel from “The Little Mermaid” – and participate in the cosplay competition on Saturday

“I’m really nervous; it’s my first time competing,” Sargent said. “But it’s one of the things I’m most looking forward to, along with connecting with friends.”

In addition to elaborate cosplay, this year’s L.A. Comic Con will see multiple cast reunions on the main stage – including, for the first time, actors from the classic 1991 black comedy “The Addams Family.” Anjelica Huston, Christopher Lloyd, Christina Ricci, Carel Struycken, and Jimmy Workman will appear Saturday afternoon to reminisce about the making of the movie and discuss its lasting impact.

On Friday evening, Lloyd also participated in a ticketed “Back to the Future” panel featuring Michael J. Fox, Lea Thompson and Thomas F. Wilson, to be rebroadcast on the main stage Saturday morning. Other reunions to expect Saturday: voice actors from “Avatar: The Last Airbender” and “Rick and Morty,” as well as Harvey Guillén, Kayvan Novak and Kristen Schaal from “What We Do in the Shadows.”

These panels often inspire “really neat” costumes from large groups of fans, said Misty Johnson, who was representing longtime Riverside business DragonMarsh Apothecary & Teas on the exhibition floor.

“For ‘Back to the Future,’ I’ve seen lots of people in ‘50s costumes, and also (Marty’s) futuristic jacket and shoes, carrying hoverboards,’” she said. “It’s really kind of neat, because people go, ‘Oh, that’s right! I really liked that movie. I want to try and dress up as that character.”

Johnson says the DragonMarsh booth has been in the same place on the exhibition floor for the last four years at L.A. Comic Con. On entering the floor, “walk in, look left, look for the lights,” she said.

“I love this spot because everyone passes by us. I love being able to look at everyone’s costumes,” Johnson said. Her favorite costume so far? An exact handsewn replica of Michelle Pfieffer’s Catwoman costume from the 1992 “Batman Returns” movie.

“She looked fantastic in it, and she just nailed it. It was beautiful,” Johnson said. “As a person who stitches, I was just really amazed.”

The craze for cosplay could be seen all the way to the other side of the convention floor, where the nonprofit group “Cosplay for Science,” had created a pop-up museum. The organization was founded by four paleontologists, including Gabriel-Philip Santos, director of education for the Raymond M. Alf Museum in Claremont and co-host of the PBS show “Eons” about the history of life on earth.

“There’s so much science woven into all of our favorite pop culture stories,” Santos said. “Science definitely has a place here at L.A. Comic Con, and we’re happy to bring that to people.”

This year, “Cosplay for Science” partnered with the Los Angeles Zoo and Bone Clones, Inc, to educate con-goers on the animals in the natural world that inspired creatures in science fiction and fantasy realms.

“We have so much fun talking about how dinosaurs inspire fantasy creatures like dragons, and how aliens from ‘Star Wars’ are inspired by cool creatures on our planet,” Santos said, adding that the concept for the organization sprang from a convention where, while representing the Alf museum, he and others dressed up as characters from “Jurassic Park.”

“People want to talk to us so much more when we’re in cosplay,” he said. “People see our cosplays and our themes – we’ve done Star Wars and Pokémon – and they get really interested.”

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​ Orange County Register 

Blessings for pets of all sizes at Saint Nicholas Church

• October 5, 2024

One for Mili and one for Teddy, one for Putih and one for Cedar, Fr. Martin Bui walked through the small crowd gathered at Saint Nicholas Church offering blessings Friday afternoon.

Mega Tjandra carefully clutched Putih, her pet dove, in her hands; Teddy, a shih tzu, sat patiently at the feet of his owner, while Mili was held by hers. Bui climbed into a horse trailer to bless Cedar, a mustang.

On the Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi, Saint Nicholas Church held its annual Blessing of the Animals. Most of the animals were dogs, but all creatures were welcome.

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​ Orange County Register 

Main Salon at Casa Romantica opens up after being closed for more than a year by landslide

• October 5, 2024

A new art collection depicting the history of San Clemente, with an eye on some of its oldest buildings and the beach town’s founders, is among several new permanent art displays now on view in the newly reopened Main Salon of Casa Romantica’s Cultural Center and Garden.

The salon, which opened Friday, Oct. 4, after being closed because of the unstable hillside beneath the historic San Clemente landmark, has been refurbished with new paint and tiles. The space allows the casa to showcase its art and hold indoor events and concerts.

Friday’s event included a ribbon-cutting, docent-led tours of the casa’s open areas and entertainment. Mayor Victor Cabral, City Manager Andy Hall and councilmembers Chris Duncan and Steve Knoblock were there, along with members from the San Clemente Chamber of Commerce and dozens from the community.

“While it was one of the most challenging years, it’s been the most rewarding because as a team, we got to dive in and make it better than it was,” Casa Romantica Executive Director Kylie Travis said. “Opening the salon is a huge milestone and is getting us back to what Casa Romantica is. I’m so honored to show it to the community.”

For 18 months, the space, which now showcases the historical community exhibit, along with another display dedicated to the impact of surfing in San Clemente and one devoted to the rich cultural heritage of the Native American people, was closed off to visitors. The landslide tore off parts of the historic property once home to Ole Hansen, the beach town’s founder, and now owned by the city.

The slide, which occurred on April 28, 2023, also tore apart the historic property’s ocean view terrace, sending debris and rubble into several units of a condominium complex below and onto the railroad tracks along the beach. The ocean terrace, southern gardens and amphitheater remain closed.

The landslide stopped train travel in the area and forced the historic home to cancel art shows, programs, concerts and a host of weddings planned for the spring and summer of 2023. Land movement continued for several months, and in July 2023, the City Council approved spending $8.5 million to stabilize the slope.

In November, after the California Coastal Commission issued an emergency permit, crews began working on the slope stabilization. Though winter rainstorms set the work schedule back a bit, crews installed four rows of tiebacks that were bored into the hillside and stabilized with cables connected to concrete beams to keep the slope intact.

With that part of the stabilization now completed, Travis said it allowed the casa to reopen the salon. Next steps, she said, is “digging a keyway at the base of the slope,” which will then be restored with the soil that was removed. More materials will be added to strengthen the slope to make it more stable but, once done, it will still look like a natural coastal slope, she said.

Getting the salon ready for its reveal on Friday also took some doing, Travis said.

Related links

With storms on the way, crews are sealing up slope under San Clemente’s Casa Romantica
San Clemente to spend $75K for geology study beneath Casa Romantica to determine extent of landslide
More land slides beneath Casa Romantica, trains stopped through San Clemente again
Land beneath Casa Romantica drops 10 feet, halts railroad service through San Clemente
Emergency slope repair to start at Casa Romantica, passenger trains still halted in San Clemente

“We lost our wheelchair ramp in the slide,” she said, adding that it was a bit harder to move things back into the salon, which had undergone its own refurbishment during its downtime.

Casa staff redid the community history display set around the fireplace to make it more centric to San Clemente.

“We had photos and other things about Orange County, even Venice and Huntington Beach that didn’t quite make sense why it was here,” Travis said. “Now we’re more focused on the history and buildings of San Clemente like the casino, the Beach Club and the community center.”

They also updated their collection dedicated to the area’s early residents, the Acjachemen tribe. Travis said she and others from casa worked with representatives from the tribe to make sure the depictions were accurate.

They also updated their surfing collection to show the early influence of surfers who came to the beach town from Hawaii and how they influenced the community’s surfing roots.

A fun note in reworking that display, Travis said, was when surfer Caroline Marks, who lives in San Clemente, won the women’s surfing gold medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Tahiti. That required a tweak and an addition to the display now exhibited in the salon.

With Friday’s reopening of the salon, Travis said she looks forward to the center’s fall programming, which sometimes requires an indoor setting.

“It adds value to the experience and keeps people wanting to come back,” she said. “We hadn’t changed the space in 20 years. It’s our responsibility to make this the best it can be.”

Knoblock, who has followed the reconstruction effort closely since the slide’s first movement, said he was thrilled at the salon’s opening, calling it a “step in the right direction.”

“It’s nice that the community has access to the beautiful facility again,” he said.

Next up will be restoring the view terrace at the back of the property. That requires a sign-off from the Coastal Commission, which he said he is hopeful can be accomplished in the next six months.

“We don’t expect,” he said, “the Coastal Commission will be an impediment.”

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​ Orange County Register 

Goodwill of OC CEO Nicole Suydam ready to celebrate 100 years, look to future

• October 5, 2024

There won’t be any celebrities in the spotlight at Goodwill of Orange County’s big 100th anniversary gala on Saturday, Oct. 5.

The organization is the star, said Nicole Suydam, Goodwill OC’s president and chief executive officer since 2018.

And the gala takes place on the Goodwill OC campus in Santa Ana, not at a fancy hotel.

The gathering will raise funds while celebrating what Suydam said is – and always has been – Goodwill’s chief mission: jobs and workforce development.

“The core of what we’re doing hasn’t changed – connecting with individuals, supporting individuals who need someone to take a chance on them.”

Goodwill thrift stores provide jobs and revenue to help sustain programs for the disabled and others facing employment challenges.

The organization says more than 94 cents of every dollar earned goes to its services: employment, job coaching and training, career development, etc. Goodwill OC gets four stars, the highest possible rating, from the independent nonprofit guide Charity Navigator.

One of the county’s largest and most financially successful nonprofits, Goodwill OC served 30,356 people in 2023 and currently employs 1,760 individuals who make an average hourly wage of $18.98, according to their figures.

Suydam is excited for Goodwill’s next 100 years, particularly the goals set for the coming decade in retail and services.

One newer program, Career Pathways, pairs Goodwill employees with on-staff career navigators to set goals, identify barriers and work on defined steps toward career advancement and higher wages.

Suydam talked about Goodwill’s past, present and future:

Q: In Goodwill OC’s 100-year history, you are the first woman chief administrator. It took 94 years. Do you think about that?

A: Yeah. I do. It took a while for that to happen. I think it was just the right time and I was the right person.

Q: What made you the right person?

A: Part of it was my history with the organization. I had spent over nine years here, before I worked at Second Harvest (leading the county’s largest food bank).

The board knew my passion for the mission – that I could come in and have a vision to take the organization to new places … and be able to move faster maybe than somebody else that didn’t know the organization well.

Q: Goodwill wants to double its retail footprint here over the next 10 years.

A: It’s bold and aggressive. It could take longer but we want to do our best to create some urgency around it.  It will really take a lot of work on our part to develop more relationships – especially in south Orange County.

That is really where our presence is missing. I have to do more work to make sure cities understand how we can partner with them and be a valuable resource.

Q: Does that mean increasing the number of stores to 50 by 2034?

A: That would be the bold goal, yes. We have right now 25, so we want to get to about 50.

We want to be smart about that. It could also mean that some of our footprint might change as leases end. Maybe we close smaller stores and open bigger ones.

We’re using a lot of advanced tools to look at neighborhoods and where we could be located. We have a pretty good idea. So as opportunities open up, we work with real estate brokers and cities.

We have to get approvals from the cities, especially when we collect donations. Every time we open a store, we need a donation center, too. That’s how you keep the business sustainable.

Our growth potential is mostly in south Orange County.

Q: What can we expect in 2025?

A: We have a new store we’re looking to open by end of first quarter in Costa Mesa.

We’ve been in Costa Mesa many years with a store on 19th Street. We’ll keep that store and that donation center because it’s very good for us.

We’re also looking forward to expanding on what we’re doing with our Career Pathways Program. We want to open that up to more people in the community who could benefit from that service.

How do we get people on that pathway to good-paying jobs? It’s going to take more community partnerships – with training providers, with community colleges, with other nonprofits.

Q: And what will be the biggest challenge in the foreseeable future for Goodwill?

A: Though we’re a nonprofit, we still operate like a business. The cost to operate has gone up significantly.

I’m glad we’re diversified in how we operate because it definitely is getting more expensive for rent and labor, health care insurance, liability insurance.

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​ Orange County Register 

Larry Wilson: Where are the college students on the right?

• October 5, 2024

I read with interest a recent column by Occidental College student Tejas Varma in his Eagle Rock school’s newspaper.

Its headline drew me in: “The lack of conservative intellectuals at Occidental hurts everyone.”

Its lede: “‘I want to debate a Republican.’ These are words I don’t usually hear myself say, especially considering how frustrating political debates tend to get with my grandparents. But leaving my politics seminars at Occidental, I find myself wishing for someone across the aisle to challenge me.”

His point reminded me of a teaching prompt I tried to use with a group of university opinion writers last year, all of them presumably progressive.

I noted that one of the criteria on which scholars seeking to get  professorships at their prestigious school were graded was a demonstrable commitment to DEI principles — diversity, equity and inclusion. They are asked to cite some past example in their academic careers.

“What if,” I asked the students, “the prospective hire seeking a job in the Mathematics Department was a nerdy recently minted Ph.D from a top-notch program with a fantastic resume and an expertise in teaching differential calculus. When asked about DEI, she replied: ‘So sorry, I just don’t know anything about that. I’m  a simple numbers geek, I guess.”

Should she still be docked on the grading scale, and likely lose out on her chance for the job?

Of the six or seven student journalists to whom I posed this question, not one took a contrarian position. To them, academic diversity is of such core fundamental importance that they can’t imagine hiring a professor who is ignorant of it.

That was disappointing to me in the extreme. Whereas the professoriate has always been more liberal than a random assortment of insurance agents, we’re at a point where the formerly exaggerated charges by movement conservatives is true: Right-wingers, libertarians and even the apolitical are not represented on our college campuses.

“Political diversity, especially conservative thought, is almost nonexistent at Occidental,” Varma continues.

And then he adds:  “I’m not advocating for some far-right, Trumpian version of conservatism. Many of Trump’s policies don’t even fit traditional conservative principles.”

Young fellow’s got that right. Donald Trump probably has no idea who Buckley was.

The good news is that, contrary to what conservative parents think, the lack of diversity is still way more within the student body than among the teachers, almost all of whom — whatever their own politics — still engage with the real world.

“I’m talking about ideas like Austrian economics and free-market policies,” Varma continues, after properly dissing Trump’s know-nothingness. These are “perspectives I encountered in Professor Daron Djerdjian’s economics class.  One class with Djerdjian made me realize how much I was living in a political bubble. College, after all, is supposed to challenge our thinking.”

Oops — my bad. In the very next sentence, I discovered that recently Professor Djerdjian’s contract was not renewed at Oxy, despite more  than 400 students and alumni signing a petition to hire him, expressing how valuable his perspective was.

None of us are privy to a college’s private rationales for its hiring decisions. It can hire who it wants. But not a good look.

And yet, academics who still value true diversity in thought do exist.  Wesleyan University in Connecticut “launched an initiative supported by a $3 million endowment to expose students to ideas outside the liberal consensus,” Varmas writes. Students, you’re harming yourselves when you decline to puncture your philosophical bubble.

Larry Wilson is on the Southern California News Group editorial board. [email protected]

​ Orange County Register 

100 things to know as Goodwill of Orange County turns 100

• October 5, 2024

Goodwill of Orange County is celebrating its centennial year of local service.

Focused on workforce development, Goodwill has spent the past 10 decades supporting people with disabilities and other challenges to employment.

With its centennial gala and fundraiser set for Saturday, Oct. 5, here are 100 things to know about the nonprofit organization and the people behind it.

1920s

1. Methodist minister and Midwest transplant the Rev. John Winterbourne establishes the Orange County Division of Goodwill Industries of Southern California in 1924.

2. An offshoot of Goodwill’s Los Angeles operation, the Orange County branch in Santa Ana employs four disabled people to fix damaged goods for resale.

3. Goodwill OC relocates from a room in Winterbourne’s home to a rented house on Logan Street.

4. Winterbourne was also a one-time publisher of the Tustin News, the Costa Mesa Herald and San Juan Capistrano’s The Missionite.

5. The first store, in Santa Ana, opens at 411 W. Fourth Street, at the present-day Civic Center.

6. The February 1928 edition of Goodwill News includes the phone number “Santa Ana 2046” to request a burlap bag for castoffs that can be salvaged.

7. Goodwill’s motto: “Not for Profit but for Service.”

8. At the time of the 1929 stock market crash, Goodwill OC has four stores – in Santa Ana, Anaheim, Huntington Beach and Stanton.

9. Only the Santa Ana store will survive the decade of the Great Depression.

1930s

10. In April 1932, Winterbourne is delivering $75 in goods to the Huntington Beach store when a gas leak causes the truck to explode.

11. Winterbourne can only salvage two tires. He asks the public for the loan of a truck so he can continue supplying Goodwill’s stores.

12.  Goodwill Industries of Orange County is incorporated on July 28, 1932.

13. The Goodwill Women’s Auxiliary is formed in 1935 to provide support with fundraisers and other public campaigns.

14. Goodwill OC transitions from an independent operation managed by Winterbourne to administration under the Southern California division.

15. In early September 1935, George F. Angne from Los Angeles is named administrative head in Orange County.

16. Angne announces that the two Santa Ana stores – a second shop had opened on Main Street – will consolidate and operate as both store and workshop at 600 W. Fourth St.

17. Angne tells the Santa Ana Journal that Goodwill’s 15 workers earn what he calls “opportunity wages,” making about $10 a week.

18. A local newspaper describes items in a window display: a “cocky Civil War cap,” “a demure calico house frock” and “a woolly black fascinator that once graced a feminine neck when grandma was a girl.”

19. Goodwill is already a Halloween season go-to, with Angne reminding the public of the store’s large stock of costumes.

20. The Santa Ana operation gets a visit in October 1935 from the Rev. Edgar James Helms, who in 1902 Boston founded what became Goodwill Industries.

21. Goodwill Industries of Orange County is formally returned to Los Angeles control in 1936.

22. Winterbourne, now an assistant to Angne, heads up a theological in-store used book service launched in September 1937 for young ministers.

23. Goodwill’s average hourly wage in 1937 is 24 cents an hour. A federal minimum hourly wage rate of 25 cents is instituted in 1938.

24. In April 1938, Goodwill temporarily closes shop to assist the Santa Ana Red Cross emergency relief effort in response to a flood.

25. A letter sent by the Red Cross thanks the organization for the loan of chairs and desks, as well as trucks and drivers.

1940s

26. Goodwill OC employs 24 workers by 1944.

27. Unsold items are offered by the pound when Goodwill opens its “As Is Lot” next to the Santa Ana workshop in 1946.

28. The “As Is” concept continues as the current-day Goodwill Marketplace, commonly referred to as “the bins.”

29. The first of its kind in the nation, “As Is” will be replicated around the country.

30. Goodwill Industries of Orange County is once again autonomous, returning to local control Oct. 1, 1946.

31. A November ad in the La Habra Star extends a “HAPPY THANKSGIVING” to Goodwill’s supporters, along with a phone number to make contributions.

32. An August 1949 Goodwill vacation notice in the Star: “For the next 10 days our telephone operator will be away. Will you cooperate by temporarily telephoning your requests for truck calls to Mrs. McBride.”

1950s

33. The Santa Ana workshop/store moves to 417 W. Fourth St. in 1950.

34. By 1952, Goodwill employs 75 workers.

35. The Women’s Auxiliary continues its work, holding a December 1953 sale of dolled-up Christmas dolls. Proceeds go to Goodwill employees.

36. Expansion renews with second retail site in Norwalk.

37. Goodwill OC pays its millionth wage dollar on May 2, 1954, and is recognized that year as the nation’s fastest-growing Goodwill entity.

38. In 1956 and ’57, new stores also open in Costa Mesa, Garden Grove and Whittier.

39. In the busy year of 1957, board president Gaylord M. Hicks becomes Goodwill OC’s third executive director.

40. The Santa Ana workshop is relocated in February 1957 to a new building at 2702 West Fifth Street on 2.5 acres purchased by Goodwill. The site remains Goodwill’s main campus and headquarters.

41. With more than 190 employees by September 1957, Goodwill reaches its second millionth dollar paid. The nonprofit’s average hourly wage is $1.10.

42. The first donation collection booth debuts at the Garden Grove Alpha Beta near Harbor Boulevard in October 1957.

43. To mark his death in 1958, the George F. Angne Memorial Chapel is built in the center of Santa Ana’s Fourth Street store. He was 71.

44. The Costa Mesa and Norwalk stores expand in 1959.

45. Construction starts in November 1959 on a 5,000-square-foot Fullerton store, the first sales outlet in north Orange County.

46. The collection booths prove popular, expanding to stores in seven shopping centers by the end of the decade, thanks in part to the Santa Ana Kiwanis Club.

1960s

47. Goodwill workers get Christmas bonus checks in December 1960 during a breakfast honoring past board presidents, held at Farm Bureau Hall.

48. Walter Knott is a prominent member of Goodwill OC’s board of directors in the 1960s. The Knotts remain strong supporters during their lifetimes.

49. A planning conference for staff in 1961 takes place at Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park.

50. Newport Beach resident Andy Devine, the raspy-voiced character actor whose roles included “Cookie” the sidekick to Roy Rogers, helps Goodwill OC celebrate National Goodwill Week in March 1961.

51. Goodwill paid out $588,380 in wages to 280 employees in 1961.

52.  Service clubs – including the East Whittier Rotary Club and Kiwanis clubs in East Whittier and Pico Rivera – sponsor more collection booths.

53. Swiss Chalet-themed booths are introduced.

54. Orange County is one of two collection points nationwide selected in 1962 by Goodwill Industries of America to assemble artificial limbs, braces and physical aids as part of an overseas humanitarian outreach.

55. The Women’s Auxiliary presents a $1,000 check in late 1963 for purchase of a dishwasher and a cooler at the Goodwill plant.

56. In 1964, 652 people with disabilities are on Goodwill’s payroll.

57. Over the decade, new stores come to Fullerton, Anaheim, Downey, La Habra, Buena Park, Orange and both the Fairview campus and south Main Street in Santa Ana.

58. The Garden Grove store relocates in 1962; Costa Mesa and Norwalk stores relocate in 1966.

59. Goodwill adds two more workshop units in 1963 and 1969.

60. The James Irvine Foundation awards a $10,000 grant in November 1965 toward additional rehabilitation workshops.

61. Goodwill OC founder John Winterbourne dies in 1968 at 97.

1970s

62. Gov. Ronald Reagan visits in June 1970 to dedicate Goodwill’s first workforce development site, the two-story Rehabilitation and Evaluation Center in Santa Ana.

63. Reagan announces a $177,116 state grant to fund 12 new trade training courses teaching light assembly, bench work and clerical skills.

64. In February 1971, Goodwill OC asks for volunteers to sew uniform aprons for its retail workers. Patterns and materials supplied.

65. In December 1973, volunteers are sought for such Goodwill services as counseling aide, entertainer, hair stylist, movie projectionist, social service and vocational evaluation aides, recreation specialist and nurse.

66. Goodwill OC partners with local businesses in 1974 to provide jobs for disabled people through its Packaging and Assembly Enterprise. Workers prep sweetener packages for local jails and retool TV remotes.

67. When Cordelia Knott dies of a heart attack at 84, the family requests contributions to Goodwill OC in lieu of flowers.

68. George W. Kessinger is named president and chief executive officer in 1977. He previously worked for Goodwill Industries in Missouri and West Virginia.

First boutique concept called Classic Closet opened in San Clemente in 1987. (Courtesy of Goodwill of Orange County)

1980s

69. In May 1980, Goodwill discontinues home pickups and unattended collection booths. It establishes 40 attended donation sites.

70. The James Irvine Foundation donates $25,000 in March 1981 to purchase trailers for the donation sites.

71. A new store opens in Westminster.

72. San Clemente is the locale in 1987 for Classic Closet, Goodwill OC’s first boutique concept – high-class clothes at bargain prices.

1990s

73. The classroom-based Deaf Services program begins in 1992, teaching skills to achieve more independence at home, work and in the community.

74. From 1994 to 1997, new stores open in Huntington Beach, Anaheim and Lake Forest, which also hosts the Goodwill Keepers boutique.

75. The Orange store relocates in 1999.

76. Goodwill Computer Works opens in March 1997. The electronics specialty store is the brainchild of former Northrop Corp. technician and engineer Walter Schorsack, hired by Goodwill a year earlier.

77. The Assistive Technology Exchange Center, known as ATEC, opens in May 1997. What began with device lending has grown to include such services as assessment and training, tech support and repair.

78. Goodwill OC marks its 75th anniversary in 1999. That year it launches ShopGoodwill.com, the first e-commerce auction site created and managed by a nonprofit.

2000s

79. Classic Closet relocates to Huntington Beach in 2000.

80. By 2001, ShopGoodwill.com has generated $2 million in income. Goodwill OC leader Kessinger is credited as the site’s guiding force.

81. In April 2001, Kessinger is named chief of the Goodwill Industries worldwide network of 216 offices.

82. At 67, Dan S. Rogers becomes Goodwill OC’s fifth chief executive.

83. Fun fact: Rogers was once an All-American basketball player at USC and became UC Irvine’s first head basketball coach.

84. Multiple new stores are added from 2001-2008: College Plaza in Fullerton, Garden Grove, Bristol/Warner in Santa Ana, Brea, Beach/Lincoln in Anaheim, La Habra.

85. A $7 million capital campaign leads to the 2008 opening of the Rogers A. Severson Fitness and Technology Center in Santa Ana for people with physical disabilities and chronic illnesses.

86. The celebration of ShopGoodwill.com’s 10th anniversary in 2009 marks nearly $85 million in site-wide sales since its inception – money generated for Goodwill OC and participating Goodwills around the country.

2010s

87. Taylor Harkins, a developmentally disabled Goodwill OC employee, moves in 2011 from computer repair to building collectible models from thousands of discarded Legos. The models are a huge hit on ShopGoodwill.com.

88. Frank Talarico Jr. is named Goodwill OC’s sixth president and CEO in 2012. Founder of the Southern California PGA Foundation, his background also includes consulting for the NFL Players Association and leadership roles at Servite and JSerra high schools.

89. Leonel Barragan, the voice of Goodwill OC’s public service announcements and longtime Goodwill Marketplace auctioneer, retires in 2015. Barragan had childhood polio. His 45 years at Goodwill was the only job he ever had.

90. The Tustin-based Tierney Center for Veteran Services opens in 2016. Services include employment and education counseling, housing assistance, legal services and financial guidance.

91. A $1 million donation from philanthropists Thomas and Elizabeth Tierney was seed money for the center. Donations and community partnerships keep the center free to military veterans and their families.

92. Actor/musician John Stamos, Talarico’s then-brother-in-law, performs at the annual Goodwill OC gala fundraiser with Mike Love’s Beach Boys in 2014 and 2015, and emcees in 2016.

93. Talarico’s April 2018 resignation as head of Goodwill OC is announced in a letter from the organization’s board chair.

94. Nicole Suydam replaces Talarico in October 2018. She is Goodwill OC’s first-ever woman president and CEO.

95. Suydam spent nearly a decade as Goodwill OC’s vice president of development before leaving in 2012 to take the helm of Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County.

96. A fully accessible, ADA-compliant website re-do launches in July 2019.

2020s

97. A new owner/operator, Reimagine, takes over Severson Center in 2020.

98. Goodwill OC temporarily shutters its retail outlets and donation centers because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It offers its trucks to help with food distribution around the county.

99. ShopGoodwill.com reaches $1 billion in sales in March 2021 and $2 billion a couple years later, on behalf of 130 Goodwills. Thrift stores break all-time records that same year, hitting monthly sales of $6 million four times.

100. In April 2024, Goodwill OC opens its 25th store – in Fountain Valley.

Sources: local newspapers, UC Riverside news database, Goodwill OC.

​ Orange County Register 

Orange County restaurants shut down by health inspectors (Sept. 26-Oct. 3)

• October 5, 2024

Restaurants and other food vendors ordered to close and allowed to reopen by Orange County health inspectors from Sept. 26 to Oct. 3.

Woktastic, 7911 Valley View St., La Palma

Closed: Oct. 2
Reason: Cockroach infestation
Reopened: Oct. 3

Oasis Bar, 10448 Knott Ave., Stanton

Closed: Oct. 1
Reason: Insufficient hot water
Reopened: Oct. 2

Bronx Sandwich Co., 949 S. Euclid St., Anaheim

Closed: Oct. 1
Reason: Cockroach infestation
Reopened: Oct. 2

Kitchen at Troy High School, 2200 Dorothy Lane, Fullerton

Closed: Oct. 1
Reason: Rodent infestation
Reopened: Oct. 1

Khoi Restaurant, 13916 Brookhurst St., Suite D, Garden Grove

Closed: Oct. 1
Reason: Cockroach infestation
Reopened: Oct. 3

Smoking Tiger, 4600 Beach Blvd., Suite D, Buena Park

Closed: Sept. 30
Reason: Rodent infestation
Reopened: Oct. 1

Ralphs, 1435 W. Chapman Ave., Orange

Closed: Sept. 26
Reason: Rodent infestation
Reopened: Sept. 26

Food sales at Burlington Coat Factory, 7777 Edinger Ave., Suite 128, Huntington Beach

Closed: Sept. 26
Reason: None provided

Andalusia Kitchen, 111 W. Avenida Palizada, Suite 302, San Clemente

Closed: Sept. 26
Reason: Rodent infestation
Reopened: Oct. 2

This list is published weekly with closures since the previous week’s list. Status updates are published in the following week’s list. Source: OC Health Care Agency database.

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​ Orange County Register 

Changing demographics and the political calculus of anti-immigrant rhetoric in swing states

• October 5, 2024

By Gloria Rebecca Gomez, Stateline

Editor’s note: This series explores the priorities of voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as they consider the upcoming presidential election. With the outcome expected to be close, these “swing states” may decide the future of the country.

As former President Donald Trump worked to scuttle a bipartisan border deal in Congress because it threatened to derail his campaign’s focus on immigration, Republicans in Arizona unveiled a plan to empower local officials to jail and deport migrants, decrying the federal government’s lack of solutions.

“Arizona is in a crisis,” state Senate President Warren Petersen said in late January. “This is directly due to the negligent inaction of the Biden administration.”

What followed were months of GOP lawmakers in Arizona making use of Trump’s border security rhetoric, employing xenophobic language to cast immigrants and asylum-seekers as criminals. But there was strident opposition to the plan, too, from many Latino and immigrant Arizonans who traveled to the state Capitol to protest the legislation.

Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris offer starkly different plans for the future of the 11 million people who live in the United States without legal status. Harris, in a bid to stave off accusations that she’s soft on the border, has sought to establish a firm security stance. To that end, she has vowed to bring back and sign the torpedoed bipartisan border deal.

On the campaign trail, Trump has taken a far more hawkish approach, promising mass deportations. He has offered few details, other than that he would be willing to involve the U.S. National Guard. President Joe Biden, Trump and other recent presidents have deployed the National Guard or military troops to support Border Patrol actions, but not in direct law enforcement roles.

Immigration has consistently ranked high among voter concerns nationwide, following heightened political rhetoric and a record-breaking number of unlawful border crossings in late 2023. Those numbers have since plummeted to a three-year low, but the U.S. border with Mexico remains a key talking point for Republican politicians.

But immigration is a far more complex topic than border security alone, and strategists may be miscalculating by failing to consider some key voters and their nuanced perspectives, recent polling shows.

Growing populations of new and first-generation citizens in the swing states — with the power to sway elections — are transforming demographics and voter concerns.

In Arizona, Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed the legislation that would have allowed local law enforcement to usurp federal authority on immigration, but Republicans repackaged it as a ballot initiative called the “Secure the Border Act.” In a state that Biden won by fewer than 11,000 votes four years ago, and where political strategists anticipate high voter turnout, the ballot measure serves as a test of whether the GOP’s immigration position will drive people to the polls in a swing state.

While many Republicans hope the immigration issue boosts their chances in down-ballot races, progressive organizations are working to mobilize voters in opposition through canvassing and voter registration drives.

Living United for Change in Arizona was established in the aftermath of the state’s controversial “show me your papers” law — SB 1070 — passed 14 years ago by Republican lawmakers. LUCHA Chief of Staff Abril Gallardo derided this year’s Secure the Border Act as the latest iteration of that law.

“Arizonans are sick of Republicans trying to bring back the SB 1070 era of separating families, mass deportations and children in detention centers,” she said. “We’re here to say, ‘Not on our watch.’”

Read more: GOP, Trump build on immigration fears to push voting restrictions in states

The ballot measure has been widely criticized as greenlighting discrimination. Among other provisions, it would make it a state crime for migrants to cross the southern border anywhere except a legal port of entry and punish first-time offenders with six months in jail. Local police officers would be authorized to carry out arrests based on suspicion of illegal entry, and Arizona judges would be empowered to issue orders of deportation, undermining court rulings that have concluded that enforcing immigration law is the sole purview of the federal government.

Gallardo said that LUCHA is focused on engaging with voters to ensure the proposal fails. The organization is part of a coalition of advocacy groups committed to knocking on more than 3 million doors before November.

“They can try to ignore us, but come Election Day and beyond, they will hear us, they will see us, and they will feel the strength of our movement,” she said.

An August UnidosUS and BSP Research survey asked Latino voters in Arizona about their top priorities on several issues related to immigration policy. The results show strong support for protecting longtime residents from deportation and offering them a path to citizenship — along with cracking down on human smugglers and drug traffickers. Policies centered on building a wall or mass deportation ranked near the bottom. In recent years, Latino voters in the state have helped reject virulently anti-immigrant candidates.

Latino voting strength

In 2020, Latinos made up about 20% of the state’s electorate, and they largely favored Biden over Trump. Then, two years later, a record-breaking number of Latinos voted in an election that saw Democrats win statewide offices. Today, 1 in 4 Arizona voters is Latino, and a new poll from Univision estimates that more than 600,000 will cast their ballots in the state’s November election.

The Grand Canyon State is far from the only swing state with both impactful Latino and new-citizen voting blocs.

Still, campaigns might be ignoring these voters. The UnidosUS poll showed 51% of Latino voters in Georgia hadn’t been contacted by either party or any campaign, even though 56% say they’re sure they’ll vote.

“This is, I think, a wake-up call for both parties to reach out into the Latino community,” said BSP senior analyst Stephen Nuño-Perez in a Georgia Recorder story. “There’s still not a lot of education out there on why Latinos should be voting for one party or the other.”

The numbers hovered right around there in other swing states. In Pennsylvania, that was true for 50% of the people polled. In North Carolina, it was 49%. In Nevada, 53%. In each case, a higher percentage said they plan to vote.

Influence grows in dairy country

The number of Latino voters in Wisconsin is a fraction of the electorate that lives in states closer to the U.S.-Mexico border but no less impactful. There are roughly 180,000 eligible Latino voters who call the Badger State home. Biden carried Wisconsin in 2020 by a margin of just 21,000 votes, less than 1 percentage point.

Christine Neumann-Ortiz is the executive director of Voces de la Frontera, a civil and workers rights organization that advocates on behalf of immigrants. She said that over time, the Latino vote has become increasingly sought after by politicians looking to gain office.

“If you don’t get it, you don’t win it,” she said.

Residents leave a polling place after voting in the state’s primary election on April 2, 2024, in Green Bay, Wisconsin. (Scott Olson/Getty Images/TNS)

Neumann-Ortiz said that the rise of the Latino electorate has translated into political power. The group has been a longtime backer of driver’s licenses for Wisconsinites without full citizenship status, and occupational licenses for recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a federal policy that grants temporary work permits and protection from deportation to people who arrived in the country as minors.

Nineteen states and the District of Columbia allow people without citizenship status to obtain driver’s licenses. And just 12 give DACA recipients the opportunity to obtain medical or legal licenses.

Legislation in Wisconsin to open up access to either license was blocked by the GOP legislative majority, though the movement behind the proposals drew support from top officials, including Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who backed driver’s licenses for all as a policy priority last year. Influential lobbying organizations, such as the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation and the Dairy Business Association, both of which lean conservative, also threw their weight behind the push for universal driver’s licenses.

Read more: Though noncitizens can vote in few local elections, GOP goes big to make it illegal

Neumann-Ortiz attributes that support to the fact that immigrants make up a large part of the state’s dairy and agricultural industries. And in rural areas where dairy operations and farms are located, public transportation is sparse. United Migrant Opportunity Services, a Milwaukee-based farmworker advocacy organization, estimates that as much as 40% of the state’s dairy workers are immigrants. Other estimates indicate they contribute 80% of the labor on dairy farms.

Despite being over 1,000 miles away from the U.S.-Mexico border, immigration and border security are key issues for Wisconsinites, and their positions appear mixed. In a September survey from Marquette University’s Law School, 49% said they agreed with deporting all immigrants who have lived in the country for years, have jobs and no criminal record, while 51% opposed it.

Newly minted citizens stand to break new electoral ground

Laila Martin Garcia moved to the United States with her husband and infant son eight years ago. November will be the first time she casts her ballot for a U.S. presidential candidate since she became a naturalized citizen two years ago in Pennsylvania, and she’s elated.

“The main reason for me to become a citizen was to vote,” she said. “You know, this is home. This is where my husband is, where my son is being raised, and I wanted to make sure that I was using my voice in any way possible.”

She’s part of another segment of the electorate that will have a chance to respond in the voting booth to the election-year emphasis on immigration: newly naturalized voters. In fiscal year 2023, just over 878,000 immigrants became naturalized U.S. citizens, according to the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank. That number represents a slight decline from the previous fiscal year, when a little more than 969,000 people achieved naturalization — the highest number of new citizens in a decade.

Newly naturalized voters can close the gaps in swing state races, according to Nancy Flores, who serves as the deputy director of the National Partnership for New Americans, a coalition of immigrant and refugee rights organizations.

Every presidential election year, the coalition partners with local organizations to assist eligible immigrants as they embark on the naturalization process and help newly naturalized citizens register to vote. New citizens, Flores said, are a great investment, because once they’ve made a commitment to vote, they will likely continue to do so. And naturalized voters appear to cast their ballots at higher rates than U.S.-born citizens. In the 2020 election, about 66% of the general electorate turned out to vote, compared with nearly 87% of naturalized voters surveyed by the organization.

This year appears on track to repeat that trend: As many as 97.3% of naturalized voters residing in states polled by the National Partnership for New Americans — including in the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania — reported that they plan to vote this fall.

“For a lot of folks, reaching the point of citizenship is really a lifetime achievement,” Flores said. “And we see that folks really don’t take that lightly.”

And while Flores noted that naturalized citizens don’t fit one single voter profile, most of them do share an immigrant background and so are sympathetic on the issue.

“New American voters are not a monolith,” she said. “Folks that are naturalized are doctors, professors. We have folks that are naturalized that are picking the fruit that we eat. It really runs the gamut, but the common thread is the immigrant experience.”

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A poll conducted by the organization found that naturalized voters share many of the same concerns as other U.S. voters, including worries about inflation and the economy. But, Flores added, candidates who are looking to attract naturalized voters are likely to be most successful with the demographic group when they present a positive view of immigration.

“Looking at immigration as an asset to our country, looking at how it can benefit the economy, looking at how we can provide pathways [to citizenship] that are humane — those things resonated with voters,” she said.

Similarly, Martin Garcia’s experiences as an immigrant have colored her views as a voter. Immigration reform, she said, is at the top of her priorities. Originally from Barcelona, Spain, Martin Garcia arrived in the U.S. in the middle of Trump’s first campaign, and she said she saw firsthand what his anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies wrought.

In her work as an advocate, she frequently helped families torn apart by deportations, and in her personal life, while trying to share her language and culture with her son, she dealt with nativist hostility. During one incident at the grocery store, while she was helping her toddler identify items in Spanish, a stranger accosted her.

“I remember he came up to me and said, ‘We’re in America, speak American,’” she recalled. “Now that I think of that moment, I have so many things to say to that person. But at that moment, I was so scared. I just took my child, left my cart there with half of my groceries, and left the shop.”

Today, she recalls that incident, and the rallies and protests during Trump’s presidency, as catalysts for her civic engagement. Martin Garcia said she views the 2024 election as an opportunity to look out for the immigrant community’s needs.

“We deserve to thrive, and we will be thinking about that,” she said. “We have to make sure that our communities have the right to thrive in this election.”

What’s on the table at the federal level?

The failed $118 billion bipartisan border plan set aside $20 billion to pay for more border barriers, expanded detention facilities, more officers for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol, and legal counsel for unaccompanied children. The bill also included more than $80 billion destined for aid and humanitarian assistance overseas.

The deal would also have overhauled the asylum system and eliminated the “catch-and-release” system. It would have narrowed the criteria under which people can apply for asylum, fast-tracked the processing of existing claims and given migrants work authorizations while their claims reached resolution. The president would have been granted the power to shut down asylum claims processing altogether, once a certain number of claims had come through, resulting in more migrants being automatically deported during periods when there are a lot of border crossings.

For Vice President Kamala Harris to be able to sign the deal if she’s elected president, it would have to clear both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate, which appears unlikely unless Democrats win a majority in both chambers in November.

Former President Donald Trump has said that if he’s voted back into the White House for a second term, he will oversee mass deportations in the style of President Dwight Eisenhower’s “Operation W*tback.” The 1954 policy only succeeded in removing about 300,000 people, despite government claims that more than 1 million people were deported. Discriminatory tactics led to an unknown number of U.S. citizens being deported, too.

While it might at first sound feasible and draw support from some voters, adding context quickly turns them away, said Douglas Rivlin, a spokesperson for America’s Voice, a national immigration reform advocacy organization.

“You start talking about the number of jobs we’re going to lose, and the spike to inflation, and the hit to the U.S. economy contracting that way, and a lot of people turn against mass deportation,” he said.

A May 2024 report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that immigrants made up 18.6% of the U.S. labor force — about 1 in 5 workers.

Rivlin warned that mass deportation would necessarily result in the breaking up of families, and leave millions of U.S. citizen children in the lurch. As many as 4.4 million children who are citizens in the U.S. live with at least one parent who does not have full citizenship status.

“You can’t deport 11 million people and not rip apart families, especially because 4 or 5 million children live in those families,” he said. “Are you going to deport them, too? Or are they going into foster care?”

One of the most notorious policies enacted during Trump’s presidency was his “zero tolerance” immigration initiative, which separated thousands of migrant children and babies from their parents at the country’s southern border. The policy ended after broad public backlash and federal lawsuits. More than 1,000 children remained separated from their families as of this spring, according to the most recent data available from the Department of Homeland Security’s task force on reunification.

The majority of American voters, Rivlin said, don’t want overly punitive immigration policies. Most favor opening up legal pathways to citizenship for the millions of people who’ve made their home in the U.S. A June Pew Research survey estimated that 59% of American voters believe that “undocumented immigrants” living in the country should be allowed to remain legally. And while there’s been an uptick in voters who oppose offering citizenship to people without legal status, they remain in the minority, with 37% supporting a national deportation effort.

Gloria Rebecca Gomez is a reporter for the Arizona Mirror.

Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: [email protected]. Follow Stateline on Facebook and X.

​ Orange County Register