Mary Lou Retton experiences ‘scary setback’ in her fight against a rare form of pneumonia, daughter says

• October 19, 2023

Retired Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Mary Lou Retton experienced a “scary setback” in her fight against a rare form of pneumonia this week, after showing remarkable progress towards recovery just days ago, her daughter said Wednesday night.

Retton is still in the intensive care unit and is “really exhausted” after the setback, her daughter Shayla Kelley Schrepfer said in a video posted to Instagram.

“At the beginning of this week, we were going on the up and up. We were so excited, seeing so much progress, and then yesterday we had a pretty scary setback,” Schrepfer said. “She is still in ICU, and we’re just working through some things as far as her setback goes.”

This month, Retton’s family announced the 55-year-old had a rare form of pneumonia that left her fighting for her life. Her daughter McKenna Kelley started an online fundraiser on behalf of Retton’s four daughters to help support the medical costs, noting that Retton is uninsured.

Earlier in the week, Schrepfer said that although 55-year-old Retton still needed intensive care, her breathing was becoming stronger, and she no longer had to rely so heavily on machines.

“Mom’s progress is truly remarkable!” Schrepfer wrote. “Prayers have been felt and have been answered.”

Pneumonia is a respiratory infection that can cause the lungs to fill with fluid, with symptoms that can range from mild to life threatening. Adults older than 65, children younger than 5 and those with other medical conditions are most at risk. The family did not specify the type of rare pneumonia her mother is diagnosed with.

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“We hope that you guys will respect her boundaries, as we want to keep the details between her and our family right now,” Schrepfer said in an earlier Instagram post.

Retton won five medals during the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles – more than any other athlete at those games – making her a household name.

She was the first US woman to earn an Olympic gold in the individual all-around event and was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 1997.

​ Orange County Register 

Pac-12 football: Our 15 bold predictions for the second half of an epic season

• October 19, 2023

Earlier this week, the Hotline offered our midseason review, a look at the best and worst of the Pac-12 at the halfway point of fall like no other.

Now, let’s cast an eye to what should be a riveting stretch run.

The conference has six ranked teams, three Heisman Trophy contenders, a handful of playoff hopefuls and loads of high-profile games on the schedule.

Presenting our predictions for the second half, in rough chronological order.

1. Utah quarterback Cam Rising doesn’t set foot on the field this season due to a prolonged recovery from knee surgery. But in their ongoing attempt to keep opponents guessing, the Utes release blurry drone footage of what appears to be Rising in full uniform, working with the first team. Closer inspection reveals it’s actually 305-pound backup right guard Falcon Kaumatule wearing No. 7 and a knee brace. Even without Rising, the Utes win nine games in one of Kyle Whittingham’s finest coaching jobs.

2. Oregon State and Washington State settle their lawsuit against the Pac-12 before the preliminary injunction hearing in Whitman County, Wash., on Nov. 14. The plaintiffs and defendants agree to a bifurcated governance structure in which an independent arbiter determines which issues impact all 12 schools and which affect only the ‘Pac-2.’ The source of the arbiter’s unlikely success? He’s equally disliked by both sides of the dispute. His name: Larry Scott.

3. On Nov. 12, the day after USC allows 52 points in a loss at Oregon, coach Lincoln Riley relents to public pressure and dismisses defensive coordinator Alex Grinch.

4. A week later, the Trojans hold UCLA to 49 points in a narrow victory in front of 73,286 fans at the Los Angeles Coliseum. Riley is hailed as a genius by USC fans.

5. That same day, Stanford beats Cal 12-11 in front of 17,328 fans at Stanford Stadium. ACC commissioner Jim Phillips is informed of the outcome while accompanying the Stanford volleyball team on its trip to USC and UCLA.

6. Oregon State beats Washington in an overtime thriller, aided by a favorable fourth-down spot that draws UW’s ire but is not overturned by the instant replay booth. However, the Beavers fall one game short of a berth in the conference championship because of an earlier loss to Arizona.

7. ESPN’s ‘College GameDay’ broadcasts from Eugene on the morning of the USC-Oregon game. The guest picker: Gonzaga basketball coach Mark Few. The 1987 Oregon graduate picks the Ducks to win, then uses the occasion to announce Gonzaga will join the Big 12.

8. Washington State’s Jake Dickert doesn’t leave Pullman to become the next coach at Michigan State as the Cougars’ second-half skid undermines his candidacy.

9. Washington’s Kalen DeBoer receives a new contract that doubles his salary, to about $8 million annually, to prevent him from becoming the next coach at Michigan State. “I didn’t want to do it,” UW president Ana Mari Cauce says, “but I wanted to keep my job.”

10. The Pac-12 issues a public mea culpa for an egregious officiating decision. We don’t know the specifics of the gaffe or which team will be victimized — Washington State is a good bet — but the conference doesn’t make it through the season without a display of utter incompetence. The only question is whether there’s a second. And a third.

11. Arizona State goes winless in conference play for the first time since joining the Pac-12 in 1978 as the injuries and postseason ban are too great to overcome. When the season ends, the NCAA slaps the Sun Devils with minor penalties for recruiting violations and calls the administration’s self-imposed sanctions excessive. “Bowl bans are so pre-COVID. We don’t do that stuff anymore.”

12. Arizona clinches a bowl berth for the first time since 2017 behind freshman quarterback Noah Fifita. The Big 12 promptly rescinds its membership invitation and explains that the Wildcats joined the conference under false pretenses, having claimed to be a basketball school.

13. Colorado misses the postseason despite the 3-0 start and spending a month at the center of the sport. CU fans everywhere rejoice as the late-season collapse makes coach Deion Sanders less attractive for openings across college football, the NFL and the Biden Administration.

14. Commissioner George Kliavkoff refuses to hold a news conference prior to the Pac-12 championship game, continuing a stretch of radio silence that began with the collapse of the conference on Aug. 4. Nobody cares.

15. One-loss Washington defeats one-loss Oregon in the conference title game and reaches the College Football Playoff, with the Ducks accepting a Fiesta Bowl invitation as the consolation prize. The Huskies’ victory is made possible when Oregon, leading by six points in the final minute, attempts to convert fourth-and-17 from its own 20. The off-tackle run fails, and UW scores the winning touchdown.

Enjoy the stretch run, everyone.

*** Send suggestions, comments and tips (confidentiality guaranteed) to [email protected] or call 408-920-5716

*** Follow me on Twitter: @WilnerHotline

*** Pac-12 Hotline is not endorsed or sponsored by the Pac-12 Conference, and the views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the views of the Conference.

​ Orange County Register 

University of California activist letter blames Israel for Hamas’ crimes, condemns calls for peace

• October 19, 2023

While the letter signed by dozens of Harvard University student groups blaming Israel for Hamas’ terrorism has received national attention, a letter signed by groups and individuals affiliated with the University of California system has received scant attention.

The letter, which was circulating on social media within days of Hamas’ terrorist assault on Israeli civilians, holds Israel, not Hamas, responsible. “To blame anyone other than the Zionist Israeli government and its settlers mischaracterizes this struggle and fuels the ongoing violence,” the letter declares. “Although international law states that Palestians’ (sic) have the right to defend themselves in their ancestral homelands, it is evident these rights only apply to some.”

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The letter goes on to engage in direct apologia for Hamas’ butchery, arguing, “To police Palestinian means of resistance and demand that they be perfect victims and resistant subjects is part of the genocidal campaign against Palestinians.”

The radical screed then goes on to link the situation in Gaza to the University of California: “As it attempts to reckon with its legacy as a land-grab institution, the University of California must also reckon with its complicity in ongoing settler-colonial projects in the United States and abroad. Land acknowledgements are not enough if they are empty signifiers.”

Among the signers of the letter include pro-Palestinian student groups, like Students for Justice in Palestine UCSB and  Students for Justice in Palestine at UCLA, as well as hundreds of faculty, alumni and students.

“This statement is nothing less than a call for Palestinian liberation,” they write. “We remember and become accomplices to liberation. At this time, we refuse any calls for ‘peace’ which are just calls for the quiet submission of Palestinians to an early grave.”

These extremists are what pass, apparently, for the “educated” among us. It’s a disgrace.

​ Orange County Register 

Who’s brought in the most money so far in the race for Rep. Katie Porter’s open congressional seat?

• October 19, 2023

Republican Scott Baugh for the third straight quarter has reported a fundraising edge over Democrats in California’s 47th congressional district, according to reports posted this week with the Federal Election Commission.

In the third quarter of fundraising, which spans from July 1 to Sept. 30, Baugh raised $417,715 and spent $48,555.

The race features a crowded slate of candidates, among them Baugh, Democratic state Sen. Dave Min, Republican businessman Max Ukropina and Democratic community organizer Joanna Weiss.

Min raised $311,196 in the third quarter.

And in that same period, Weiss brought in $400,049, including the $100,000 she loaned her campaign. She loaned her campaign $95,000 in the second quarter as well.

Ukropina, who entered the race in April, brought in $121,218 during the third quarter, personally contributing a little over $2,000.

Breaking down the numbers

Like Baugh’s, the three other leading campaigns in the race for Rep. Katie Porter’s open congressional district have all hit a mid-campaign lull, according to the latest campaign finance reports.

A money slowdown at this stage of the election cycle is not all that surprising, said Dan Schnur, who teaches political messaging at UC Berkeley and USC.

“Most campaigns start out with a burst of energy and enthusiasm as candidates reach out to their closest friends and past supporters,” Schnur said. “The third quarter can often be the in-between period after the candidate has already picked the low-hanging fruit but before the campaign is more visible as the election gets closer.”

The coastal CA-47 — which includes Irvine, Laguna Beach, Newport Beach and Huntington Beach — is one of 33 Republican-held or open seats in the country that the national Democratic Party’s campaign arm is eyeing as a “critical battleground” to win a House majority. And Republicans, too, see the seat as a “top target” to pick up in 2024.

Porter launched a 2024 bid for the U.S. Senate in January.

Democrats have a slight upper hand in voter registration in the district: 35.6% of voters in the district registered as Democrats, 33.9% as Republicans and 24.5% list no party preference.

Spending habits

The two Democrats in the race and Ukropina blew through cash in the third quarter at a faster rate than Baugh did; all three spent more than half of what they raised.

Min doled out just over $191,000, 60% of his third-quarter haul. Of that, he spent $70,000 on various consulting services, including digital, fundraising, research and legal. The rest of his expenditures went toward air travel, office supplies, online advertising, software rental and staff salaries, among other fees.

Weiss spent close to $202,000, 67% of her haul minus the loan. She also poured over $70,000 into fundraising, digital and campaign consulting.

And Ukropina, a political newcomer, spent more than $80,000, close to 70% of what he brought in. Of that, he spent nearly $50,000 on consulting services and another $2,861 on ads.

Baugh, on the other hand, spent just over 11% of his haul from July 1 to Sept. 30. A little over 30% of his spending, $16,091, went toward consulting, while the rest went to software, bookkeeping, travel, lodging and food.

“(Baugh’s) campaign is probably saving money for post-primary because there’s not as much pressure on them as there is with the two Democrats facing each other,” Schnur said.

In California, all candidates running for office are listed on a single ballot and only the top two vote-getters in the primary — regardless of party preference — advance to the general election.

Given Baugh’s status as the “only well-funded Republican in the race,” Schnur said, he’s likely to advance to the general election in November.

“That means Min and Weiss are fighting for that other spot,” Schnur said. “So it shouldn’t be surprising that they’re spending more aggressively given the more immediate stakes that they’re facing.”

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“While the career politicians in this race will need millions of dollars to defend their failed records, our outsider campaign for new leadership has raised half a million dollars entirely from grassroots conservatives who know that I am the strongest candidate to win,” Ukropina said.

In 2018, Porter became the first Democrat to hold office in what was then the 45th congressional district after she defeated incumbent Rep. Mimi Walters. Last year, Porter won a tight race against Baugh.

Baugh entered October with the most cash on hand: over $1.3 million.

Min and Weiss closed out the quarter with $825,542 and $832,638 still left to spend, respectively, while Ukropina had $323,097 at the close of the reporting period.

​ Orange County Register 

What’s wrong with climate credits for cow poop? California regulators would like a word

• October 19, 2023

More than a decade ago, California helped spark a boom in biofuels — produced from plants or animal waste — with its first-of-its-kind Low Carbon Fuel Standard. The program forces carbon-intensive fuel companies to pay for cleaner burning transportation fuels.

But as the state eyes an electric future, winding down support for some of the fuels the standard helped proliferate is proving highly contentious. The case of biofuel made from dairy farm manure is perhaps Exhibit A of those tensions.

The California Air Resources Board is planning to overhaul its fuel standard, including consideration of a 2040 phaseout of credits that put a premium on using methane emitted by cows to produce natural gas. About half of the state’s methane emissions come from dairy and livestock, so collecting the gases wafting off of manure keeps them out of the atmosphere and offers a renewable source of fuel.

But the paradox is that dairy biogas is used to produce a combustion fuel — which the state is on a path to phase out, especially for cars and trucks. The air board is considering a phaseout of the dairy credits because they encourage natural gas production, which emits greenhouse gases.

The manure debate has major implications for California’s role as a climate leader. During New York Climate Week last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom launched an international climate initiative aimed at reducing global methane emissions. Under a state law, California must cut its methane emissions 40% from 2013 levels by 2030.

The reason for the urgency: Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that’s responsible for up to 30% of the world’s global warming that is driving climate change. Unlike other greenhouse gases, methane breaks down in about a decade, meaning curbing it could quickly reduce some of climate change’s impacts.

California is America’s dairy capital, with more than 1.7 million cows producing about $10 billion worth of milk last year — but these cows and other livestock in California also produced the climate-altering equivalent of almost 23 million tons of carbon dioxide in 2020. Most of that is methane emitted by cow manure and from their farts and belches.

California’s strategy for cutting its methane footprint has so far hinged on providing incentives, mostly to the dairy industry. In doing so, the state has spawned a complicated, niche industry dedicated to capturing dairy methane and selling it as a renewable fuel. California does this through grants for construction of digesters — recovery systems that trap the methane from manure — and valuable climate credits from its Low Carbon Fuel Standard program.

The biofuel produced by collecting methane from dairy and swine manure is used to produce natural gas that powers heavy-duty trucks and other fleets — the equivalent of 21 million gallons of diesel fuel in the first three months of the year, according to air board data.

The state program “creates significant environmental and environmental justice impacts…The pollution of groundwater, odors, air quality, massive ammonia emissions and flies.”

Phoebe Seaton, Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability

Producers of dairy biogas say phasing out the special credits for capturing methane would upend what has been a success story, devastating the industry and halting the state’s progress on methane reductions.

“If they do that, then that essentially takes away most of the value — in terms of this gas being low-carbon — and really undermines the whole reason we do this,” said Daryl Mass, chief executive of Mass Energy, a digester developer company that has built numerous methane-capturing projects on California’s dairy farms. “If the rules change, and that gas is no longer low-carbon, then we don’t really have a business model.”

But environmental groups and others are pushing for a more aggressive phaseout. They say the credits support industrial dairy farms that pollute rural, low-income communities in the Central Valley.

“The state has decided — instead of regulating methane emissions — to incentivize and provide preferences for the production of methane in a manner that also creates significant environmental and environmental justice impacts,” said Phoebe Seaton, executive director of the Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, a Fresno-based environmental advocacy group. “One is the pollution of groundwater, (and) odors, air quality, massive ammonia emissions and flies.”

Phasing out credits for dairy gases

Born out of the state’s 2006 climate law, the goal of the air board’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard is reducing the climate impact of transportation fuels by 20% between 2013 and 2030. Companies that produce more carbon intensive fuels must buy credits to offset their emissions, while lower-scoring fuels produce credits that can be sold. The fuels are graded using a “life cycle” evaluation that judges not just how clean those fuels burn, but also the carbon dioxide emitted during their production and distribution.

The program has reduced the carbon footprint of fuels, particularly for medium and heavy-duty trucks. So much so that the price of the program’s credits have plummeted as producers have rushed into the market: The credits fell to a weekly average price of $62.93 last week, compared to $180.87 two years prior. A large bank of unused credits now exists.

The board’s staff is expected to unveil its plan to overhaul the Low Carbon Fuel Standard before the end of this year and the board would vote in early 2024. The agency is considering making the carbon intensity requirements for fuels more stringent, weighing a 30% reduction by 2030 and 90% by 2045.

The board also could limit credits to only dairy biogas used in California. Currently the rules allow credits if it is injected anywhere into the North American natural gas pipeline.

Most concerning for California dairies, and the dairy biogas industry, is an effort to do away with “avoided methane crediting.” Currently dairy biogas is allocated a very low carbon intensity compared to other fuels, because it comes from captured methane.

The Air Resources Board says that eliminating this crediting by 2040 will both support the digester development in the near-term while sending a long-term signal that the state support won’t last forever.

On a recent afternoon, the Calgren Renewable Fuels facility loomed over Highway 99 like an agroindustrial cathedral amid the almond orchards, cornfields, dairy farms and canals surrounding it.

Travis Lane, chief executive of Calgren near the Tulare County town of Pixley, said doing away with this crediting would likely render a considerable part of his biogas operation worthless.

“There’s no reason to do it (otherwise),” Lane said. “You’re going to push people back to fossil natural gas.”

Calgren CEO Travis C. Lane walks through the facility, which produces natural gas from the methane collected at several farms with digesters. Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local

For the last 14 years, making biofuels out of organic matter has been the company’s business model. In a county where cows outnumber people, Calgren has gone all in on making natural gas from methane captured from 20 of Tulare County’s dairy farms.

But the cost of trapping the methane from farms, transporting it, cleaning it and injecting it into the state’s natural gas pipeline makes dairy biogas uncompetitive compared to other fuels. Lane said the proposal to phase out the special treatment of dairy biogas caught him by complete surprise.

About seven miles away, the origin of Calgren’s natural gas supply sat close to the ground like a tethered balloon.

Dairy owner Jared Fernandes stands on the digester on his farm the Legacy Ranches near Pixley . Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local

At Legacy Ranches, Jared Fernandes, 51, a third-generation dairy farmer, jumped atop his dairy digester to demonstrate the strength of the massive industrial tarp, which covers an unseen manure lagoon about the size of a football field.

“They said you can drive a car on this — they say it’s that strong,” said Fernandes, his stocky frame undulating against the relentlessly flat terrain.

Flies swarmed. Nearby a mechanical contraption whirred, pumping fresh solid manure onto a growing brown pile. The solids are saved as fertilizer while the liquid gets pumped into the covered lagoon.

Walking on the tarp — filled with the gaseous methane — was similar to stepping on a bounce house at a child’s birthday party.

“I wanted to be on the cutting edge, with a company that was going to help me do it. I would never have done this on my own.”

Jared Fernandes, Legacy Ranches

Fernandes first saw a methane digester as an 8-year-old child in the 4-H agriculture program. He was born into the dairy business and has always appreciated technology and the latest developments in ag tech, but installing a digester on his own dairy never made financial sense — until Calgren approached him in 2018 with a plan to build his digester and lease the land.

A digester uses bacteria that feed on the waste in a covered environment, producing biogas and fertilizer for crops. Fernandes provides the cow poop to Calgren, under the terms of his “manure supply agreement,” and Calgren pays him based on the price of the biogas, largely dictated by the prices of credits created under the Low Carbon Fuel Standard.

His digester, constructed by Maas Energy and Calgren, cost $3.5 million to build, according to Calgren, paid for by a $1.5 million grant from the California Department of Food and Agriculture plus $2 million in private investment. Fernandes’ farm is one of 20 participating in a cluster that feeds into Calgren’s pipelines, which serves SoCal Gas.

Left: A machine separates manure from wastewater being fed into the digester at Legacy Ranches. Right: The digester system at Legacy Ranches. Photos by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local

Without the digester, Fernandes said he would have just kept the manure in an open lagoon, with climate-changing methane bubbling and popping and rising into the air uncontained.

“I wanted to be on the cutting edge, with a company that was going to help me do it,” Fernandes said. “I would never have done this on my own.”

At Legacy Farms, Fernandes manages 3,000 Jersey cows, the light brown breeds that can produce high-fat butter and protein-rich milk for less feed than their popular rivals, the black and white Holstein breeds.

A proliferation of dairy digesters

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California has 120 digesters operating on dairy farms, serving 128 dairies, according to Dairy Cares, which promotes the digester approach to methane reduction. An additional 99 are under development. Most of these projects are in the Central Valley, where California’s industrial scale dairy industry is situated. The state has 17 other clusters with a model similar to Calgren’s serving ancillary dairies.

While the technology has existed for decades, the industry took off in earnest in the Central Valley when the California Department of Food and Agriculture began providing grants for digesters in 2015.

Big players, including the oil industry, have taken interest in digester investment. BP in 2021 announced a plan to develop renewable natural gas in partnership with three California dairies. Shell said it has similar plans with dairies outside of California.

Chevron, which last year announced a joint venture with California Bioenergy, wrote to the Air Resources Board that removing the credits for biogas “will lead to cancellations of future digester projects and shutdown of existing projects.”

But environmental groups say the Low Carbon Fuel Standard incorrectly treats the methane from the large manure lagoons as a naturally occurring phenomenon rather than as the result of deliberate industry practices. The use of lagoons to store manure slurry flushed out of animal pens has proliferated in recent decades as farms have consolidated and ncreased in size.

First: Maria Arevalo stands in the backyard of her daughter’s home in Visalia. Arevalo, who has lived in Pixley for 47 years, says emissions from the dairy have affected her breathing. Last: Maria Arevalo shows the CPAP mask she wears every night because of her sleep apnea. Photos by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local

Maria Arevalo, 74, a former agricultural industry worker turned environmental advocate, said people in Pixley, where she lives, suffer from diseases and discomforts from air pollution, including asthma, sleep apnea, burning noses and eyes, and headaches.

She said the smells and flies from the large dairies surrounding her town have gotten worse. She doesn’t believe the digesters have helped.

“The aroma smells like ammonia, and when you smell that ammonia smell you can really feel it. Your nose burns when you breathe it in,” Arevalo said in an interview with CalMatters.

Inside Climate News reported that processed manure from the digesters might be responsible for increased ammonia emissions. Ammonia is a toxic gas that can cause respiratory effects and aggravate asthma.

Reward an industry or regulate it?

The debate over rewarding or regulating the dairy industry comes down to which is better: a carrot-or-stick approach.

Earlier this year, state Sen. Ben Allen, a Redondo Beach Democrat, introduced Senate Bill 709 at the behest of environmental groups seeking to require the board to directly regulate the dairy sector like it does other methane-producing industries, like landfills. It’s a two-year bill to allow for more discussion of the issue, a spokesperson for Allen said.

“No other industry is treated as if their pollution is naturally part of a baseline and then lavished with incentives to essentially stop polluting…That’s problematic,” James Duffy, a now-retired Air Resources Board transportation fuels branch chief told CalMatters. He has written letters in support of the demands by environmentalists to eliminate the credits.

“If you excessively reward an industry for poor historic environmental performance — that itself is troubling — but it also serves to distort the market against potentially more sustainable alternatives.”

Last month the air board held an eight-hour meeting with extensive public comments. At the end of that meeting, some board members were left grappling with the complexities of encouraging the development of a biogas market, if only to a point and temporarily. Other board members appeared determined to end the subsidies for dairy biogas.

“No other industry is treated as if their pollution is naturally part of a baseline and then lavished with incentives to essentially stop polluting… That’s problematic.”

James Duffy, former Air Resources Board branch chief

Gideon Kracov, a board member who represents the Los Angeles basin’s air quality board, said he supports the change, adding that California should not support any biofuels past 2040, because the fuels were meant to serve as a temporary solution.

“These are bridge fuels that we do not want in the transportation sector after 2040,” Kracov said.

An air board report indicated the dairy industry was on track to reduce methane emissions by the equivalent of 4.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, achieving those declines through the use of the state’s digesters and an expected decline in herds.

That’s well short of the 9 million that the industry needs to reach by 2030 to comply with California law. One option that many are banking on is approval of a feed additive by the Federal Drug Administration that will reduce so-called enteric emissions, which are cow burps and farts.

But Michael Wara, director of the Climate and Energy Policy Program at Stanford University, said the board isn’t accurately measuring emissions because its estimates are based on herd surveys and projections and not actual measurements.

Wara told the board at an environmental justice meeting last month that California needs more exact data from farms if it is to accurately track progress toward a 40% methane emissions reduction target, as required by law.

“We believe that something substantially more accurate is required to know whether we are in compliance,” Wara said.

​ Orange County Register 

Festival Pass: How Insomniac Events is celebrating its 30th anniversary

• October 19, 2023

Festival Pass is a newsletter that lands in your inbox weekly. But during prime festival season you get bonus editions, too! Subscribe now.

Happy Thursday!

While we don’t have any full-fledged music festivals on the schedule for this weekend, music festivals reporter Holly Alvarado checked in with Pasquale Rotella of Southern California-based Insomniac Events as the company celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.

It all started in 1993, with local DJs and about 300 EDM fans at a warehouse party on the corner of Slauson Avenue and Crenshaw Boulevard in South Central Los Angeles.

Now, Insomniac Events throws massive parties with big-name acts like Kaskade, Diplo, Zedd, Tiësto, Deadmau5, Armin van Burren, Marshmello and more. They also produce some of the largest music festivals around the world and about a dozen popular electronic music fests here in Southern California alone, including Hard Summer, Nocturnal Wonderland, Beyond Wonderland, Day Trip and more.

In our interview, Rotella looks back on the early days of Insomniac, relishes in the present and is hopeful for the future of his growing company in the ever-evolving EDM scene. Read more about Insomniac Events and the 30th Anniversary Lane — a pop-up experience that is on display at all major festivals through the end of 2023 — here.

Insomniac Events’ Escape Halloween will return to the NOS Events Center in San Bernardino on Oct. 27-28.(Photo by Jose Murga, Insomniac Events)

Insomniac Events‘ next big party is Escape Halloween, taking place on Oct. 27-28 at NOS Events Center in San Bernardino.

It’s an immersive Halloween experience that has expanded to five spooky-themed stages and now with exclusive after-parties that keep the fun going until 6 a.m. both days. Fans will also get to experience the 30th Anniversary Lane pop-up at this show, too.

The lineup includes performances by Zedd, Kaskade, Three 6 Mafia, Above & Beyond, Afrojack, Zomboy and more. Holly has more on Escape Halloween’s expansion, what to expect from the event this year and how to get tickets here.

Thomas Rhett is set to headline Boots in the Park at Silverlakes Sports Complex in Norco on March 9.(Photo courtesy of Getty Images)

Orange County-based Activated Events announced that its Boots in the Park Festival will return to SilverLakes Sports Complex in Norco on March 9, 2024.

The successful country music festival brand, which hosts events throughout Southern California and now in Arizona, will be back at its original home in Norco with headliner Thomas Rhett. He’ll be joined by Jordan Davis, Mitchell Tenpenny, Parmalee, Tyler Braden, Presley Tennant and DJ Luwiss Lux.

Music Festival Reporter Holly Alvarado has more on Boots in the Park and how to get early passes to the festival here.

Paramore (vocalist Hayley Williams pictured at the 2023 Bud Light Super Bowl Music Festival at Footprint Center on February 09, 2023 in Phoenix, Arizona) will headline the 2024 ALTer Ego show at Honda Center in Anaheim on Saturday, Jan. 13. (Photo by Marcus Ingram, Getty Images)

ALT 98.7/FM and iHeartRadio’s ALTer Ego is moving from its longtime home at the Kia Forum in Inglewood to Honda Center in Anaheim on Jan. 13, 2024.

“The Woody Show” morning crew surprise announced the lineup, which features Paramore, The 1975, The Black Keys, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Bush, Sum 41, Yellowcard, lovelytheband and The Last Dinner Party, on Friday, Oct. 13.

Tickets go on sale starting early next week. Here’s everything you need to know about the presale, how to jump on the 24-hour ALT VIP sale and more.

Until next week, thanks for reading and keep rockin’!

Read previous editions of the Festival Pass newsletter

Festival Pass: Why Power Trip with AC/DC, Judas Priest, Metallica and more was a perfect festival

Festival Pass: Power Trip brings rock, heavy metal to the desert this weekend

Festival Pass: Ohana Festival: What you need to know before you go

Festival Pass: BeachLife Ranch: What you need to know before you go

​ Orange County Register 

The Audible: On the Charger Lady, Dodger accountability, and Kim Ng

• October 19, 2023

Jim Alexander: Not sure if you saw it while covering the Chargers-Cowboys game the other night, but Charger Lady (my nickname for her) has become a meme. The Monday Night Football director made sure to get multiple shots of the overly emotive woman in the Justin Herbert jersey every time the Chargers made a play. Her reactions were priceless … but at game’s end, and another typically Chargers finish, the shot of her with hands to forehead, agonizing, was so memorable even the Chargers tweeted it. (Or is it X’d it? Hard to keep track now.)

#newprofilepic pic.twitter.com/3JAYCLdQa2

— Los Angeles Chargers (@chargers) October 17, 2023

Anyway, I think it’s kind of illustrative of what you go through if you choose to root for a team whose very name has become a verb for failure in the most painful, agonizing way. The Chargers’ L.A. fan base is learning what its former San Diego fan base learned the hard way. (One way to find out how long someone has followed the Chargers: Ask them about Marlon McCree’s role in the team’s history.)

I do believe they still hate-watch the team in San Diego. Our colleague at the Union-Tribune, Sunday columnist Nick Canepa, still does a report card following each Chargers game, and while Brandon Staley got an “F” again this week, he wasn’t alone.

You were there. How did it look in person?

Mirjam Swanson: Uninspiring.

Although maybe Merianne Do – the now-famous Chargers fan – would argue with me on that?

This 20-17 loss to the Cowboys on Monday night wasn’t a classic Chargering collapse, of course, because the Chargers never had a substantial lead to give away.

The opening drive went according to script and then mostly it was frustration. The running game gave them just 53 yards. Brandon Staley did the go-for-it-on-fourth-and-goal (from the Cowboys’ 7-yard line) instead of taking the three points in the third quarter, and I get having fine field position if it didn’t work out (it didn’t; Herbert’s pass was incomplete) … but in a game where points were proving so hard to come by, I would’ve taken three of them.

And Herbert wasn’t exactly lighting it up either, overthrowing receivers and then throwing the game-ending interception on the Chargers’ final drive.

All of it felt out of sync.

I was at the Rams’ game the day before, and you can see that team building and improving weekly, finding a rhythm (which might be tested by injuries to their running backs now). But there isn’t the same momentum when you consider the Chargers. You know?

Jim: Maybe it’s the curse of expectations. People expected the Rams (3-3 so far, with Pittsburgh at home this week) to have a bad season, but they’ve got some youth, they’ve got energy and they’ve played the NFC’s two best teams, the 49ers and Eagles, closer than expected. And they have Sean McVay.

Interesting point: The guys in McVay’s coaching tree are a combined 9-13 so far this season: Staley 2-3, Zac Taylor in Cincinnati 3-3, Matt LaFleur 2-3 in Green Bay and Kevin O’Connell 2-4 in Minnesota.

(Or to put it another way, Marianne Do’s two favorite teams – she roots for the Vikings as well – are 4-7. I guess you can say she knew what she was getting into.)

Speaking of expectations, Andrew Friedman met the media Tuesday after the latest Dodgers failure to meet said expectations. He said all of the things you’d expect him to say, but I didn’t see any real accountability – specifically, for not doing more to bolster the rotation at the deadline. He made a reference to there not being a lot of guys out there who can go six or seven innings – but even five would have been sufficient.

You want to play deep into October? You give up what you have to give up to get those reinforcements at the deadline. When you have one of the best farm systems in baseball, trying to win every deal and hold onto all of your top prospects – which seems to have been Friedman’s modus operandi the last two years – won’t get it done.

Oh, and he used the term “October theater.” I’m still not sure what that means.

Mirjam: I like that term, actually.

Because the Dodgers have the regular-season script memorized backward and forward. They’ve got that down. But when the lights get brighter, and the pressure ratchets up – especially considering those aforementioned expectations, self-imposed by all the regular-season success – they’re just not getting it done.

I maintain that they don’t necessarily need five or six innings from starters, that’s not the way they’re playing it anymore, but they do need an inning. As in one, or goodness, two. And they didn’t get even that.

So obviously, their pitching failed them – but even decent pitching wasn’t going to rescue them from such an epic collapse at the plate. It’s not as though Mookie Betts hasn’t been clutch; he’s a two-time World Series winner. It’s not as though Freddie Freeman isn’t clutch; he’s a World Series winner. But neither of those guys was clutch for the Dodgers this postseason.

Anything but; they were anemic: 1 for 21! Still hard to believe. And that one hit was on account of a defensive miscue.

Maybe the Dodgers should’ve invested in, say, Corey Seager two offseasons ago? Certainly he had his injury issues and droughts too, but he’s sure been clutch for the Texas Rangers – going 4 for 8 with three doubles and two RBI in a two-game wild-card sweep of the Tampa Bay Rays.

And he certainly had clutch moments for the Dodgers, like in 2020 when he was the NLCS and World Series MVP after hitting seven home runs and collecting 16 RBI across those series…

Or, if we’re talking about investing in someone clutch, Shohei Ohtani should help.

Jim: Three guys who played key roles in Dodger postseasons – or thrived in “October theater,” if you prefer – were Seager, Joc Pederson and Cody Bellinger. I look at the Dodgers’ lineup now and, aside from Kiké Hernández (a three-homer game against the Cubs to clinch the 2017 NLCS) and Max Muncy (the 18th-inning game-winner against the Red Sox in ‘18), I don’t see a lot of guys who exhibit that clutch gene. Lots of good guys who play hard, but there needs to be someone who rises to the moment, whether it’s Mookie and/or Freddie or a role player who can handle the bright lights. Maybe Shohei’s that guy … but, then, we’ve never seen him on the October stage.

Final topic of the day: Kim Ng. As Brittany Ghiroli wrote in The Athletic after Ng stepped down as the Marlins’ general manager, refusing to accept a demotion: “Kim Ng was a reluctant trailblazer. Now, she’s a certified badass.”

I guess this is how it works when you are part of an unrepresented or underrepresented group: You take the job you’re offered because you don’t know if you’ll get another chance. But even when you show you can do the job, despite the indignities and the garbage you have to put up with, you’re expected to just smile and roll with it. Instead, she walked away when the Marlins’ CEO, Bruce Sherman, told her he planned to hire a president of baseball operations to oversee her.

Let’s see: All Kim Ng did – with all of her years of baseball experience in the Yankees’ and Dodgers’ front offices and then in the Commissioner’s office – was get an underfunded operation back to the playoffs, pick a manager in Skip Schumaker who just might turn out to be an outstanding skipper, and broke barriers, and she’s supposed to accept a demotion? My thought: If the Marlins needed a POBO, which is not unreasonable, give her the job and hire a general manager to work for her.

My hope is that someone will hire her quickly. Knowing the way these things work, I’m not optimistic.

Mirjam: All of that. Gotta love the reporting within Ghiroli’s piece: “Detractors say she can be abrasive…” Of course. She’s mean. But if she wasn’t mean, then she’d be a “mother hen” and not a strong enough leader. I’ve heard that one.

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I agree that I’m glad Ng didn’t put up with the Marlins’ mess, but it also seems like the club got what it wanted by declining to offer her an otherwise-expected extension and then, for all intents, demoting her. How transparently insulting.

I concur, though, I hope she gets another shot soon, because the results prove she’s deserving – she took a 90-plus loss team with a bottom-10 payroll and turned it into a wild-card team in a couple of seasons! That’s no small feat.

And moreover, I hope she gets compensated better than she was in Miami, where she was among the lowest-paid GMs.

But I’m not holding my breath, either.

​ Orange County Register 

Bad Bunny brings the Most Wanted Tour to Crypto.com Arena

• October 19, 2023

Bad Bunny has announced a 2024 North American arena tour supporting his newest record, “Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va A Pasar Mañana,” that is set to come to Crypto.com Arena on March 13-15.

The 47-date tour dubbed Most Wanted Tour comes on the heels of the newest record, which features Young Miko, Feid, Arcángel, Bryant Myers, De la Ghetto, Eladio Carrión and more.

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Fans are being asked to register ahead of tickets going on sale to help block bots and scalpers. Fans can now register until Sunday, Oct. 22, for Verified Fan Registration at ticketmaster.com. Once registration closes, fans will be randomly selected to receive a code that allows access to the official on-sale on Wednesday, Oct. 25.

Last week, Bad Bunny made history with “Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va A Pasar Mañana” becoming the most-streamed album in a single day in 2023 so far on Spotify. Benito, the first name of the three-time Grammy winner, also made history at the 2023 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival as the first Latin headliner with a set that nodded to the many styles of Latin American music that the Puerto Rican star draws inspiration from.

​ Orange County Register