WNBA Power Rankings: Aces are No. 1, Sparks at No. 6 after close losses to Sun, Lynx

• June 20, 2023

The 2023 WNBA season has passed its quarter mark, meaning all 12 teams have played at least the first 10 games of their expanded 40-game schedules, the longest in the league’s 27-year history.

The Sparks are currently 5-6 with wins against the Phoenix Mercury (twice), Seattle Storm, Chicago Sky and Dallas Wings and losses to the Las Vegas Aces (twice), Minnesota Lynx (twice), Connecticut Sun and Seattle.

As we get closer to the All-Star Game on Saturday, July 15 in Las Vegas, every team still has a realistic shot at a coveted playoff appearance, which requires a top-eight finish in the standings.

The rankings (through games of Sunday, June 18):

1. Las Vegas Aces (10-1): The defending WNBA champions are led by two-time MVP forward A’ja Wilson. Wilson is averaging 18.5 points and 9.1 rebounds per game, which is on par with the career averages for the 2018 WNBA Rookie of the Year. However, it is All-Star guard Jackie Young who is averaging a team-high 20.8 points per game on 59.9% shooting from the field and 46.8% from 3-point range. Along with Kelsey Plum and former Sparks Candace Parker and Chelsea Gray, Las Vegas has five former All-Stars in a superb starting lineup. In fact, on Sunday, Parker became the only player in WNBA history with at least 6,500 points, 3,000 rebounds, 1,500 assists, 600 blocked shots, and 500 steals.

2. Connecticut Sun (9-3): Alyssa Thomas should be considered an early season MVP candidate, as the point power forward is averaging 15 points, 10.2 rebounds, and 7.7 assists. Thomas is a legitimate triple-double threat every time she takes the court for Connecticut.

3. New York Liberty (7-3): The Liberty are led by two-time WNBA champion Breanna Stewart, who is averaging 23.9 points, 10.8 rebounds and 4.0 assists. Stewart, second in the league in scoring and rebounding, joins Sabrina Ionescu, Courtney Vandersloot, Jonquel Jones and Betnijah to make the Liberty the other team featuring a starting lineup comprised of former All-Stars.

4. Washington Mystics (7-4): The Mystics are led by two-time league MVP Elena Delle Donne, who is averaging 18.4 points and 6.4 rebounds. She is averaging a team-high 31.1 minutes per game after being limited by injuries since the end of the 2019 season, when the Mystics won the championship.

5. Atlanta Dream (5-5): The Dream are on a three-game winning streak thanks to guard Allisha Gray, who averaged 22.7 points, six rebounds and two assists in important road wins against New York, Connecticut and Indiana. Gray is averaging a team-high 18.7 ppg for the season, while still being asked to be the team’s primary defensive stopper.

6. Los Angeles Sparks (5-6): Seven-time All-Star forward Nneka Ogwumike is averaging 19.6 points, 9.8 rebounds, and 3.8 assists this season, her best statistical season since her 2016 league MVP season. Recently, Ogwumike became the sixth player in WNBA history with at least 5,000 points, 2,000 rebounds, 600 assists, 500 steals and 200 blocks, something she achieved in 327 regular-season games. The Sparks are 1-3 since their 77-62 win at home against the Chicago Sky on June 9 and have started their five-game homestand with two losses. Ogwumike, who will likely earn her eighth All-Star appearance this summer, said she’s looking forward to being joined by some of her Sparks teammates this time around. The other likely candidates are Jordin Canada, Lexie Brown and Dearica Hamby.

Sparks forward Nneka Ogwumike drives up the court during the first half of their game against the Chicago Sky on Friday night at Crypto.com Arena. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)

7. Dallas Wings (5-7): The Wings have unleashed the team’s unicorn – Satou Sabally. The 6-foot-4 point forward is averaging a career-high 20.9 points, 11 rebounds, and 3.1 assists under first-year head coach Latricia Trammell, who was a Sparks assistant coach for four years before moving into the first chair in Dallas.

8. Indiana Fever (4-7): Indiana already has four wins this season after going 5-31 in 2022. Rookie forward Aliyah Boston has been a difference-maker, averaging 16.0 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks. Boston, the No. 1 pick in April’s draft, has the inside track to being named the league’s Rookie of the Year.

9. Chicago Sky (5-7): The Sky have lost four straight games after starting the season 5-3. Guard Marina Mabrey, who was selected in the second round of the 2019 WNBA Draft by the Sparks, is averaging a team-high 17.5 points.

10. Minnesota Lynx (3-8): The Lynx are 3-2 in their last five games and All-Star forward Napheesa Collier (20.5 ppg, 7 rpg) deserves a lot of credit for that.

11. Seattle Storm (3-7): All-Star guard Jewell Loyd is leading the league in scoring at 25.4 ppg. She scored a season-high 39 in Seattle’s 109-103 win at Dallas on Saturday.

12. Phoenix Mercury (2-8): The Mercury have struggled this season and have lost three straight with Brittney Griner and Diana Taurasi sidelined with hip and hamstring injuries, respectively. If Griner, who has been playing like an All-Star, gets healthy, the Mercury should move up in the standings.

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Sparks’ Nneka Ogwumike should be an All-Star starter, according to Coach Curt Miller

• June 20, 2023

LOS ANGELES — Sparks forward Nneka Ogwumike is the model of consistency, according to Coach Curt Miller.

“I think sometimes Nneka gets taken for granted in this league,” Miller said. “She’s been a staple of consistency and a staple of who she is as a person.”

Sparks head coach Curt Miller makes the case for Nneka Ogwumike to be voted as a WNBA All-Star Starter. If Nneka makes the 2023 All-Star team, it would be her 8th appearance in her 12-year WNBA career. #WNBA #WNBAAllStar #WNBATwitter pic.twitter.com/yZ7uZtbZLg

— John W. Davis (@johnwdavis) June 19, 2023

Ogwumike, 32, is averaging 19.6 points, 9.8 rebounds, and a career-high 3.8 assists per game in her 12th season in the WNBA, which is comparable to her league MVP season in 2016 (19.7 ppg, 9.1 rpg, 3.1 apg). The seven-time All-Star is currently eighth in the league in scoring and fourth in rebounding.

“This may be the best start in the first 11 games to a season that she’s ever had and she’s been an MVP in this league,” Miller said. “Her numbers speak for themselves. She’s carrying us. We’re asking a lot of her.”

Miller believes Ogwumike deserves not only to be an All-Star again this season but a starter in next month’s game in Las Vegas.

“I told her, she’s so fun to coach and we’re putting her in positions where she’s having tons of success and we’re asking a lot of her and she’s stepping up,” Miller added. “I think everybody out there has seen that. I think she’s an All-Star starter, but she’s certainly deserving of another All-Star appearance. I think she’s played herself into a starter.”

“It’s one of the ultimate honors,” Ogwumike added when asked about the possibility of being named a WNBA All-Star Starter for the second straight season. “I’m always honored when I’m named an All-Star in any capacity, but it’s not exactly what I play for.

“It’s definitely one of the accolades that a lot of people have dreams of making. I’m very grateful to have been consistently named one, despite how the team is going but I also strongly believe you get a lot of votes when your team is doing well and I would like to say that our team is doing pretty good. We have some games that we think we could have won but in terms of our everyday growth, I see it progressing. But being named a starter or an All-Star at all is always a blessing. I’m really looking more forward to maybe some of my teammates being named All-Stars.”

Nneka Ogwumike told me what it would mean to her to be selected as a WNBA All-Star Starter. #WNBAAllStar #WNBATwitter #WNBA pic.twitter.com/FcL2WLuymW

— John W. Davis (@johnwdavis) June 19, 2023

The Sparks (5-6) continue their five-game homestand against the Minnesota Lynx (3-8) on Tuesday night at Crypto.com Arena.

Minnesota has presented a conundrum for the Sparks this season. The Sparks are 0-2 against the Lynx, losing both games in similar fashions. The Sparks blew an 11-point lead in the fourth quarter on June 11 in Minnesota and could not maintain a nine-point halftime advantage on Friday night at home.

Lynx forward Napheesa Collier, a two-time All-Star who missed most of the 2022 season due to pregnancy, has averaged 24.5 points and 7.5 rebounds against the Sparks this season.

“I’m excited that it’s Minnesota because we’ve lost back-to-back against Minnesota,” Sparks forward Karlie Samuelson said. “It’s good you can bounce back after a loss and keep competing.”

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Shohei Ohtani to showcase his two-way talents against the Dodgers this week

• June 20, 2023

LOS ANGELES ― The Dodgers have had to pitch to the Angels’ Shohei Ohtani on at least two occasions in each of the last five seasons.

They have never had to face the two-way star as a pitcher, a fate Manager Dave Roberts will no longer be able to avoid Wednesday.

“Given the choice, I’d probably rather him just hit,” Roberts said of Ohtani, “because it’s only four at-bats, where if you’re looking at 110 pitches, that’s pretty daunting.

“You pick your poison with that one.”

Ohtani is scheduled to start the second game of the two-game Freeway Series at Angel Stadium. As a pitcher, Ohtani is leading the major leagues in hits allowed per nine innings and ranks second in strikeouts.

The Dodgers’ beleaguered pitching staff is catching him at an even less opportune time.

Ohtani is riding a 15-game hitting streak in which he is batting .446 with nine home runs and 20 RBIs. If he maintains his current pace over a full season, Ohtani will finish with a franchise-record 53 home runs, 129 RBIs, 109 runs, 22 stolen bases and 10 Wins Above Replacement according to both FanGraphs and Baseball Reference.

There was a time when many within the baseball industry questioned whether Ohtani’s bold two-way experiment would work.

In 2018, Ohtani finished his first spring training with an ERA of 27.00 in two abbreviated appearances. His sixth Cactus League game was against the Dodgers. Ohtani went 0 for 2. Clayton Kershaw struck him out looking on a curveball. Ohtani grounded into a double play in his other plate appearance, lowering his spring batting average to .091.

“I could care less now,” Kershaw said that day about the Dodgers’ failed pursuit of Ohtani in December 2017. “He didn’t pick us, so, you know, good luck to him.”

Much has happened since.

Among other things, a new generation of players has reached the major leagues having never needed to question Ohtani’s ability to pitch and hit full-time at the game’s highest level. That includes several players who could potentially pitch or hit against Ohtani in this series. The Dodgers’ 26-man roster features eight rookies.

Infielder Michael Busch was a sophomore at the University of North Carolina when Ohtani debuted with the Angels.

“We were kind of excited to see it play out,” Busch said. “He’s been doing it at a high level for so many years.”

Other players have been drafted and developed as two-way players since Ohtani debuted. Perhaps the most notable among them, Tampa Bay’s Brendan McKay, is trying to return from Tommy John surgery after five mostly disappointing seasons in the Rays’ minor league system. McKay batted .202 at Triple-A before turning to pitching full-time in 2022.

Another former two-way player, Angels first baseman Jared Walsh, only established himself as a major league regular once he gave up pitching.

If Ohtani were able to inspire a trend of two-way players by his mere presence on the Angels’ roster, today’s youngest big leaguers could have seen it take root in college or the minor leagues. That never happened.

“(Ohtani) is one in I don’t know how many,” outfielder Jonny DeLuca said. “It’s pretty insane. It’s hard enough getting here doing one thing and he’s elite doing both. It’s kind of an anomaly.”

DeLuca played for the University of Oregon with Angels minor leaguer Kenyon Yovan. Drafted as a two-way player, Yovan hit .194 at the Advanced-A level in 2021 and now is a full-time pitcher at Double-A Rocket City.

Another of DeLuca’s Oregon teammates, Ryne Nelson, played shortstop in college but hasn’t picked up a bat in professional baseball. He’s now in his first year in the Arizona Diamondbacks’ starting rotation.

“You see less and less (two-way players) when you get to high school, less when you get to college, and less when you get in the minor leagues, and you can count on your hand the amount of guys who can do it at the major leagues,” Busch said. “And (Ohtani) does it at an extremely high level on both sides of the ball.”

“Hitting’s hard enough,” Dodgers outfielder James Outman said. “I can’t imagine having to pitch on top of it.”

Now, for the first time, the Dodgers will be able to see Ohtani do both.

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Newsom plan would roll back access to police misconduct records

• June 20, 2023

By Trân Nguyên | Associated Press

SACRAMENTO — California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration has proposed an end to public disclosure of investigations of abusive and corrupt police officers, handing the responsibility instead to local agencies in an effort to help cover an estimated $31.5 billion budget deficit.

The proposal, part of the governor’s budget package that he is still negotiating with the Legislature, has prompted strong criticism from a coalition of criminal justice and press freedom groups, which spent years pushing for the disclosure rules that were part of a landmark law Newsom signed in 2021.

The law allows the state Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training to investigate and decertify police officers for misconduct, such as use of excessive force, sexual assault and dishonesty. It requires the commission to make public the records of decertification cases.

The Newsom administration now wants to get rid of that transparency element. The commission says the public could still get the records from police departments. But advocates say local police departments often resist releasing that information.

A number of states with a police decertification process, including Republican-led ones such as Tennessee and Georgia, require state agencies to divulge records of police misconduct.

In Tennessee, records made available through the requirement provided a slew of new details on police officers’ actions when they brutally beat Tyre Nichols, a Black man, during a traffic stop earlier this year. Those details, released by the state police certification commission, were not previously made public by the local police department.

“It’s a slap in the face to the family members who have had their loved ones stolen from them that … a key provision of the decertification process is not being honored,” J Vasquez, of social justice group Communities United For Restorative Justice, said at a news conference last week.

Removing the transparency element from the 2021 law would continue eroding public trust, Antioch Mayor Pro Tem Tamisha Torres-Walker said. The city, 45 miles east of San Francisco, was shaken after a federal investigation found more than half of the officers in the Antioch police force were in a group text where some officers freely used racial slurs and bragged about fabricating evidence and beating suspects.

“To say, ‘go to the very people who commit the crimes against your community and ask them to reveal themselves to you so that you can hold them accountable,’ I don’t think that’s a fair process,” Torres-Walker said.

The coalition of more than 20 groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, also accused the Democratic governor of abusing the budget process to push through his proposal introduced in April.

Carmen-Nicole Cox, director of government affairs for ACLU California Action, said Newsom’s proposal should have gone through the traditional legislative process, instead of being put into the budget.

Democratic Sen. Steven Bradford, who authored the 2021 landmark bill, declined to comment on the proposed change.

The governor’s office referred questions to the commission, whose spokesperson said the proposed change is a cost-saving measure that would still allow the public to access information on decertification cases from local police departments. California is facing a nearly $32 billion budget deficit this year after enjoying several years of record-breaking surpluses and the proposal is one of many of Newsom’s cost-cutting measures.

Neither the governor’s office nor the commission shared how much money the state could save under the proposal.

According to a May budget request, the commission estimated it will handle up to 3,500 decertification cases each year. That’s about 4% of all officers in California. The commission, which has suspended or decertified 44 police officers so far this year, requested an additional $6 million to handle the large number of complaints.

“Because of the substantial fiscal implications, as well as the need to urgently implement these cost-saving measures into law, the budget process is the most appropriate avenue for this,” commission spokesperson Meagan Poulos said in a statement.

For decades, police officers in California have enjoyed layers of legal protections helping shield most of law enforcement misconduct records from public scrutiny, First Amendment Coalition Legal Director David Loy said.

In 2018, things began to shift after the Legislature passed a bill requiring the disclosure of records pertaining to police misconduct including use of excessive force, sexual assault and dishonesty. That law was expanded in 2021 to include the release of investigations into police racist or biased behavior, unlawful searches or arrests and use of unreasonable force.

The 2021 decertification law was hailed as another mechanism to hold law enforcement accountable.

“California has always been a black hole for police transparency,” said Loy, whose group is part of the coalition opposing the change. “The last thing California should be doing is taking any step backward on police transparency.”

The state Legislature passed its own version of the state budget Thursday to meet its deadline without including Newsom’s proposed change to the decertification process. Legislative leaders and the governor’s office will continue negotiations to finalize the budget by the end of the month.

Associated Press reporter Jonathan Mattise contributed from Nashville, Tennessee.

​ Orange County Register 

Summer warning: Prolonged breath holds can cause shallow water blackouts

• June 20, 2023

The story of her husband’s tragic death isn’t easy to tell, but Michelle Brislen knows the dangers of shallow water blackouts are an important message to share – especially as summer break gets underway.

“It was definitely part of my healing process. It still is,” Brislen, a San Clemente High School marine science teacher, said of sharing how her husband, Drew, died while he was out diving alone off Laguna Beach in 2011. “I felt it was so urgent, and I still feel that way. It’s so important.”

That’s why Brislen visited to speak to the San Clemente Junior Lifeguards camp, to teach them of the dangers of shallow water blackouts, also known as underwater hypoxic blackouts, a silent killer of even the most experienced pool and ocean swimmers.

Michelle Brislen, a marine science teacher at San Clemente High School, spoke to a group of junior lifeguards on June 15, 2023. (Photo by Laylan Connelly, SCNG/Orange County Register)

“I don’t want to scare the kids,” Brislen said on a recent day following a presentation to the young guards. “But we also have to be aware of it, especially at the start of summer.”

Brislen started doing lectures for local swim clubs, classes and junior guard programs just a year after her husband’s death, working with nonprofit Shallow Water Blackout Prevention to share the message.

The blackouts can happen to anyone, even expert swimmers, snorkelers, spear fishermen or free divers. It can even happen to kids with friends at pools seeing who can stay down longest or get to the other side of the pool underwater the fastest.

And it can happen in any body of water – the ocean, pools, lakes, rivers, even bathtubs.

“For some, their lungs will take on water leading to drowning while others simply suffocate or die of other causes brought on by the breath holding,” the Shallow Water Blackout Prevention nonprofit warns.

Unlike regular drowning, where there can be 6 to 8 minutes before brain damage and death, there are only about 2.5 minutes before brain damage, and then death, during a shallow water blackout because the brain has already been oxygen deprived.

“People have unfortunately lost their lives in the water, some of them have lost their lives in pools, some of them have lost their lives in the ocean. We want those places to be really, really safe,” Brislen told the San Clemente Junior Lifeguards on a recent day. “It’s a fine line on when people blackout in the water and when you can be resuscitated.”

Big-wave surfer Jay Moriarity, whose life was detailed in the film “Chasing Mavericks,” died while doing breath holds alone in the Maldives, Brislen told the young guards. “He was supposed to have a buddy in the water, but he didn’t that day for some reason.”

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When people black out, their body will naturally take a gulp of air. But when that happens while underwater, drowning occurs. So it’s important to listen to your body and get to air when your body gives you the urge to breathe – and make sure you have enough time to get safely to the surface.

“We don’t want to have a breath hold competition,” she told the youngsters. “That’s when we run the risk. We’re competing, we’re not listening to our bodies.”

One student asked what she should do if a swim teacher tells her to go to the end of the pool without coming up for a breath.

“When a coach says try your best to go to the end of the pool, try. But when your body says it’s time to breathe, then breathe,” she said. “And it’s a great opportunity to talk to your coach. We want people talking about it.”

Another important tip: Always have a buddy with you when in the water.

Junior lifeguard instructor Jaden Hall said as a lobster diver, he’s aware of shallow water blackout dangers. While much of their lifeguarding lessons revolve around rip currents and waves, the shallow water blackout education is an important lesson to pass on to the young guards-in-training, he said.

“This is huge for us, our biggest thing is education for kids,” he said.

It’s important to build confidence in the kids, he added, but also make sure they are aware of risks.

“It’s more common than people know,” he said. “Never push yourself too far.”

More information: shallowwaterblackoutprevention.org

​ Orange County Register 

Airbus wins record order for 500 jets from India’s IndiGo airline

• June 20, 2023

India’s IndiGo airline is buying 500 passenger jets from European planemaker Airbus, the two companies said Monday, in a record-setting order that underscores surging demand for air travel fueled by the country’s economic growth.

IndiGo, India’s dominant carrier, is buying the narrow-body A320 aircraft in what the companies said was the single biggest purchase agreement in commercial aviation history.

Executives from both companies announced the deal on the opening day of the Paris Air Show, the world’s largest event focusing on aviation and space industry. They didn’t disclose how much the order was worth, but it would likely amount to tens of billions of dollars.

The order is “an enormous milestone,” IndiGo CEO Peter Elbers said at a press conference. “No one has ever ordered an order of this magnitude. And it speaks to the potential of Indian aviation and the ambitions which IndiGo is having.”

The purchase highlights how the two companies are “democratizing affordable air travel for millions of people in the world’s fastest growing aviation market,” Airbus Chief Commercial Officer Christian Scherer said in a statement.

New Delhi-based IndiGo’s order surpasses another mammoth deal signed months earlier by Air India for 470 aircraft from both Airbus and U.S.-based rival Boeing.

Indian airlines are racing to tap surging demand for travel from the nation’s growing ranks of middle-class consumers. The A320 jets that IndiGo is buying are typically used on short-haul routes.

Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury said IndiGo’s order “is a sign of the “incredible growth for aviation” and an “opportunity for Indian people to fly for the first time.

The planemaker also notched up orders from Flynas, a budget Saudi Arabian carrier that is buying 30 A320neo jets, and Air Mauritius, which is buying three wide-body A350 aircraft for use on long-haul routes to Europe and South Asia.

Airbus likes to unveil major jet orders at the air show held every other year in its home country. Airbus is one of France’s — and Europe’s — biggest companies, and its performance at the Paris air show is seen as important to its public image in France.

​ Orange County Register 

Latest data shows California will fall far short of power needed to fuel all-EV future

• June 20, 2023

The summer of 2023 might be fairly compared to the summer of 1823, if the North American Electric Reliability Corporation has it right about power outages to come. The common ground between the two would be the lack of electricity.

According to the NERC, the country’s Western Interconnection, which includes California, much of the Western U.S., and parts of Canada and Mexico, “is experiencingheightened reliability risks heading into the summer of 2023 due to increased supply-side shortages along with the ongoing drought impacts in some areas, continued wildfire threats, and expanding heat wave events.”

If peak demand doesn’t exceed normal levels, then there should be adequate supply, says the NERC. But optimism evaporates if conditions become more difficult, and if the weatherman is right, they will be. Forecasts are calling for a warmer-than-usual California summer. It will be particularly hot in Southern California, where roughly 60% of the state’s 39 million residents live. The California Independent System Operator hasn’t issued a flex alert – “a call to consumers to voluntarily cut back on electricity and shift electricity use to off-peak hours” – since September. But its social media department would be smart to be ready for a busy season. CAISO issued five flex alerts in 2020, eight in 2021, and six last year.

Don’t blame the weather, though. Blame policy. California’s collision of its electric-vehicle mandate and its legislated transition to a zero-carbon power grid by 2045 isn’t going to cause sparks as much as it will bring darkness.

Today there are fewer than 900,000 electric vehicles on California’s roads. By 2035, there are expected to be more than 13 million, and by 2045 almost 22 million, because both the governor and the state Air Resources Board have agreed to outlaw the sale of new gasoline-powered automobiles. Every EV that replaces an internal-combustion-engine car represents another bite taken out of a power grid that’s going to be chewed up.

Because of increased demand for charging electric vehicles, fully manufactured by public policy, California will fall 21 percent short of the power needed to meet the demand according to a new Pacific Research Institute report. However, the gap will likely be even wider as this projected shortfall does not include the additional need for more power caused by the conversion of water heaters, stoves, and other appliances from natural gas to electricity.

Planning an accelerated, warp-speed construction schedule for renewables infrastructure so there will be enough power has appeal, but is little assurance the job will be done.

First, transmission capacity will need to be roughly tripled by 2050, a number of state agencies have said. This won’t take years to accomplish, it will take decades and more than just a couple of them.

Second, adding solar and wind farms, and connecting their generated power to the grid with transmission lines will encounter the usual California can’t-build hurdles. Not-in-my-back-yard resistance, much of it from the environmentalists who’ve demanded the closure of natural gas and nuclear power plants, is increasing along with plans to build. It’s a trend recently seen in the Midwest, where voters rejected two proposals to site wind farms. Anyone who believes that this state will be more accommodating should consider that both Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties have banned wind turbines in their unincorporated areas.

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If California doesn’t have blackouts this summer, it won’t be due to policymakers’ forward thinking, though they will take credit. It will be because heavy snow and rain during the winter swelled reservoirs that feed hydroelectric plants that hadn’t been producing power during the dry spell.

There’s no reason to expect this will happen again, though. After 2045, large dams, which provide 6% of the state’s electrical power, will no longer be contributors, as they are not considered a worthy renewable resource under California’s zero-carbon plan. They are, says the Stanford News Service, “a bogeyman to many environmentalists” even though they “could actually play a significant role in feeding the world more sustainably” in addition to being an important contributor to the power mix needed to run a modern economy.

Gov. Gavin Newsom can brag as much and as often as he wants about the green future happening first in California, that the state is “America’s coming attraction.” But he can’t speak into existence the perfect conditions that are necessary for California to be all-EV and at the same time avoid power shortages. The conflict is irreconcilable.

Kerry Jackson is a fellow with the Center for California Reform at the Pacific Research Institute.  Dr. Wayne Winegarden is a PRI senior fellow in business and economics.  Download their new study at www.pacificresearch.org.

​ Orange County Register 

Huntington Beach councilmembers call for denouncing hate

• June 20, 2023

Three Huntington Beach councilmembers want the city on Tuesday, June 20, to condemn recent flarings of antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric in the community.

Councilmembers Dan Kalmick, Rhonda Bolton and Natalie Moser are introducing a resolution to say: “The City Council of the city of Huntington Beach denounces antisemitism, white supremacy and anti-LGBTQ hate.”

Moser said antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ fliers that neighborhoods of residents have found in their yards this month prompted the resolution to denounce hate.

“We need to choose what type of community where we are going to be,” Moser said. “I don’t believe we are one where hate should rule the day. I want people to feel safe here and welcomed here.”

“We have an opportunity as leaders to set the tone,” she said.

Maneck Bhujwala, president of the Greater Huntington Beach Interfaith Council, already wrote the council a letter in support of the resolution.

“The Greater Huntington Beach Council is alarmed at the rise of racist, hate propaganda that tarnishes the good name of our city,” Bhujwala said. “We the representatives of various religious communities of Huntington Beach unitedly condemn this dangerous development.”

The City Council on Tuesday will also consider the city’s next fiscal budget and a request from Councilmember Gracey Van Der Mark to direct city staff to draft a new law to make it harder for children to obtain “obscene and pornographic books” at Huntington Beach Public Libraries, though the request did not offer examples. Van Der Mark said she will make a presentation at the meeting.

The City Council meets at 6 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 2000 Main St.

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