Will the Declassification and Transparency Task Force bring us the truth?

• February 19, 2025

If you had to think of two words in the English language to represent the concept of inertia, a complete lack of forward progress, it would be these: task force.

If you had to get it down to one word, it could be this: Congress.

So the announcement this week that there is now a congressional Task Force on the Declassification and Transparency of Federal Secrets sounds more interesting than it’s likely to be.

But there’s a first time for everything, so let’s play along. What’s this about?

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has formed a new Declassification and Transparency Task Force to find and release government documents on the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., as well as documents on the 9/11 attacks, the origins of the COVID-19 virus, the Jeffrey Epstein client list, and the phenomena generally known as UFOs.

In the past you would have to sit through nine or ten movies to get this kind of information, but now we’ll be able to see all of it on CSPAN. The first hearing of the task force is planned for sometime in March.

House Oversight committee chairman James Comer appointed Florida Representative Anna Paulina Luna to chair the task force. He said she is “committed to shining a light on the truth and ending the era of secrecy.”

Luna said her goal is to restore trust through transparency. “The federal government has been hiding information from Americans for decades,” she said. “We have spent years seeking information on the assassinations of President Kennedy, Senator Kennedy, Reverend King, and other government secrets without success. It is time to give Americans the answers they deserve.”

It will be interesting to see what comes out of this. Will we hear shocking revelations of information so outrageously damaging that people were killed over it? Are the members of this panel going to need bulletproof vests?

So far, the Kevlar Caucus includes Republicans Nancy Mace of South Carolina, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Eric Burlison of Missouri, Eli Crane of Arizona and Brandon Gill of Texas.

Good luck, everybody!

This will be a bipartisan task force, but the Democratic members have not yet been announced. Probably still being fitted for the Kevlar vests.

Comer and Luna have already sent letters to high-ranking government officials asking for briefings about the existence of documents, classified or unclassified, under their control.

Attorney General Pam Bondi was asked what documents she has “regarding the investigation into and prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein.”

CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth were asked what documents they have “regarding the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the United States and Operation Neptune Spear,” the military operation that led to the killing of Osama bin-Laden.

Ratcliffe, Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were asked for a briefing on documents under their control regarding “the existence of unidentified anomalous phenomena,” a category that includes unidentified flying objects and submerged objects that have been observed in the oceans.

Ratcliffe and the Director of the National Security Agency, Lt. Gen. Timothy Haugh, were asked about documents on the assassinations of JFK, RFK and MLK.

Rubio, Ratcliffe and Energy Secretary Chris Wright were asked for a briefing on any documents in their departments related to the origins of COVID-19.

“After the briefing,” all eleven letters stated, “the Committee and Task Force shall seek to review these documents and make recommendations on declassification to ensure all applicable orders and laws are being implemented and deliver transparency to the American people.”

This might all be nothing, but it sounds like it could be something.

There is a quality to the second Trump administration that is reminiscent of the opening of the Soviet archives in the early 1990s after the fall of the USSR. The president has unleashed the DOGE team to tear through the electronic records of unimaginable waste and fraud that have gone on for decades. Who knows what information has been protected all these years by entrenched bureaucrats, excessive secrecy and the occasional assassination.

The president has the authority to declassify anything. He could make history.

Write Susan@SusanShelley.com and follow her on X @Susan_Shelley

​ Orange County Register 

Theater review: A sunny production of ‘Annie’ warms the stage in Costa Mesa

• February 19, 2025

Optimism in challenging times must be found whenever and wherever you can uncover it.

For a short week at the Segerstrom Center in Costa Mesa the reminder that the sun will come out tomorrow is on handsome display in “Annie,” the musical that perpetually pursues hope and ultimately finds it in family.

Riding along on composer Charles Strouse’s still catchy jazz and vaudevillian period score — eternally propelled by “Tomorrow,” one of musical theater’s most effective earworms — these themes provide the enduring appeal of a girl’s Depression-era journey from hard-scrabble orphanage to Fifth Avenue mansion.

A positive to this production is the cool, calculating eye that director Jenn Thompson brings to the piece. Thompson, who played one of the orphans when the show started in 1977,  has de-smudged sentimentality from her staging (well, apart from opening night’s rapturous “ooooh” from the hall’s farthest upper reaches greeting the first appearance of Sandy, live theater’s most renowned canine (more on him at the end if you want to just skip ahead).

Though an early number declares “it’s the hard knock life for us,”  the pursuit of hopefulness can get gooey and “Annie” stagings are vulnerable to saccharine performances, which potentially lurk during the overplotted second act and Christmastime ending.

In September, Thompson was around the corner directing at South Coast Repertory, bringing similar brisk focus to the campy material of “Little Shop of Horrors.”  Here, she is aided and abetted by her actors in the three lead roles.

Hazel Vogel’s Annie — her red wigs shaded to “flaming” — is a thoughtfully determined and practical waif. The actress often takes a beat before offering sage, no-nonsense counsel to her elders.

She’s also no pushover with her orphan pals, even if she loves them a lot: in the show’s first scene she shuts up bratty behavior with the crack “Do you want to sleep with your teeth inside your mouth or out?”

Her primary foe is Miss Hannigan, the orphanage’s matron of miseries. Stefanie Londino, an accomplished veteran of “Annie” tours, makes for a most thoroughly accomplished Charles Dickens-y villainess. Her Hannigan is an erratic tyrant, with comic booziness and sheer exhaustion pouring from every pore.

When Londino sings “Little Girls” plenty of self-loathing is on display; later, when a glint of the real malevolence emerges from within her, it’s not surprising.

Where Vogel offers matter-of-fact realism and Londino manifests dead-on-her-feet desperation, actor Christopher Swan’s Oliver Warbucks’ progresses from bumptious billionaire to an affectionate mensch, whose motivations to adopt Annie include self-actualization.

Swan is impressive at peeling back inner layers his character doesn’t know he has so that when he eventually sings Warbucks’ overly yearning mini-ballad “Something Was Missing,” it feels earned.

This production has above average generosity in staging and costuming than most touring shows around for a single week in Costa Mesa.

Against a background scrim of the Brooklyn Bridge contours and fronted by a metallic-looking arch around and above the stage, the settings go from appropriately ramshackle in the orphanage to suitably well-appointed in the mansion.

The costumes — a lot of green on display across the Warbucks’ servants — are also a cut above, though Annie gets saddled for a while with a mauve outfit that should never be worn by a redhead.

What else? Ah, yes, Sandy.

Annie’s orphaned pooch is (so charmingly) undertaken by a 7-year-old labradoodle named Kevin.

Kevin arrives at Segerstrom having performed the role during the holidays at Madison Square Garden, so it’s difficult finding fault, particularly since the Costa Mesa audience went bonkers for him all the way through the curtain bows.

But a teeny aside in pursuit of theater realism: the first labradoodle was believed bred in Australia in 1989. Soooo, how can Kevin be found roaming the Manhattan streets in 1933?

Just sayin’.

‘Annie’

Rating: 3 stars (out of a possible four).

When: Through Sunday, Feb. 23: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 2 and 7:30 p.m, Saturday,  1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday

Where: Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

Tickets: $44.07-157.07

Information: 949-556-2787; scfta.org

​ Orange County Register 

Agriculture Department tries to rehire fired workers tied to bird flu response

• February 19, 2025

By JOSH FUNK, Associated Press

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Agriculture Department is scrambling to rehire several workers who were involved in the government’s response to the ongoing bird flu outbreak that has devastated egg and poultry farms over the past three years.

The workers were among the thousands of federal employees eliminated on the recommendations of billionaire Elon Musk‘s Department of Government Efficiency that is working to carry out Trump’s promise to streamline and reshape the federal government.

Republican Rep. Don Bacon said the administration should be more careful in how it carries out the cuts.

“While President Trump is fulfilling his promise to shed light on waste, fraud, and abuse in government, DOGE needs to measure twice and cut once. Downsizing decisions must be narrowly tailored to preserve critical missions,” said Bacon, who represents a swing district in Nebraska.

The bird flu outbreak has prompted the slaughter of roughly 160 million birds to help control the virus since the outbreak began in 2022. Most of the birds killed were egg-laying chickens, so that has driven egg prices up to a record high of $4.95 per dozen on average. The federal government has spent nearly $2 billion on the response, including nearly $1.2 billion in payments to farmers to compensate them for their lost birds.

A USDA spokesperson said the department “continues to prioritize the response to highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI)” and several key jobs like veterinarians, animal health technicians and other emergency response personnel involved in the effort were protected from the cuts. But some employees of the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service were eliminated.

“Although several APHIS positions supporting HPAI were notified of their terminations over the weekend, we are working to swiftly rectify the situation and rescind those letters,” the department spokesperson said.

Politico and NBC News reported that the jobs that were eliminated were part of an office that helps over see the national network of labs USDA relies on to confirm cases of bird flu and other animal diseases. It wasn’t immediately clear how many workers the department might be trying to rehire and whether any of them worked at the main USDA lab in Ames, Iowa.

Trump administration officials said this week that the USDA might change its approach to the bird flu outbreak, so that maybe entire flocks wouldn’t have to be slaughtered when the disease is found, but they have yet to offer many details of their plan.

​ Orange County Register 

Trump and Musk say they like working together and will keep it at. Will it last?

• February 19, 2025

By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s been a burning political question for weeks: How long will President Donald Trump — who doesn’t like sharing the spotlight — be able to do just that with Elon Musk, a billionaire also overly fond of attention?

In a joint Fox News Channel interview that aired Tuesday, both insisted they like each other a lot and would stick with their arrangement despite what Trump said were attempts by the media to “drive us apart.”

At times, Trump sat back as Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity heaped praise on Musk in an attempt to counteract a Democratic narrative that he’s a callous and unelected force out to destroy the government and upend civil society through sweeping cuts being imposed by the Department of Government Efficiency.

There were also moments when Trump and Musk were all but finishing each other’s sentences, as if they were part of a buddy comedy and not the president and his most powerful aide.

Here’s a look at how the friendship formed, what it means for them both and why Trump’s history suggests it may not last:

They weren’t always friends

Trump told Hannity that he wasn’t really acquainted with Musk until recently, saying, “I knew him a little bit through the White House originally” but didn’t know him before that.

Musk was born in Pretoria, South Africa, and became a U.S. citizen in 2002. He’s the world’s richest man, with a net worth exceeding $400 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His vast business holdings include X, Tesla and SpaceX, as well as the satellite internet service provider Starlink.

Musk said he voted for Democrat Joe Biden in 2020 and Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016. Musk has recently said that Tesla was being unfairly targeted by regulations in its original home state of California. Musk and the company’s headquarters moved to Austin, Texas in 2021, and he increasingly soured on Biden with the then-president’s embrace of unions that clashed frequently with Tesla.

In the past, Musk butted heads with Trump over climate change. They feuded as recently as July 2022 — with Trump calling Musk a “bulls—- artist.” He also suggested then that Musk came to the White House during his first term seeking federal subsidies for “electric cars that don’t drive long enough, driverless cars that crash, or rocketships to nowhere.”

“I could have said, ‘drop to your knees and beg,’ and he would have done it,” Trump previously said on his social media site.

Musk originally backed Ron DeSantis in last year’s Republican presidential primary, even helping the Florida governor launch his White House bid in a glitch-marred presentation on X. But Musk met with Trump at his Florida residence last March and endorsed the then-canidate in July shortly after the first assassination attempt.

“I was going to do it anyway, but that was a precipitating event,” Musk told Hannity.

Musk appeared at his first Trump rally in early October, and his super PAC spent around $200 million to boost the Republican’s campaign. X also amplified messaging — and often disinformation — promoted by Trump and his “Make America Great Again” movement.

The pair spent election night at the president’s Mar-a-Lago club. Less than a week after securing victory, Trump announced that Musk would lead DOGE, the new push to shrink government, alongside former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who left the commission by Inauguration Day.

Their relationship is mutually beneficial

Trump has empowered Musk to help him keep a campaign promise and “ shatter the deep state ” by firing scores of federal workers, shrinking or shuttering agencies and slashing the size of government.

“There’s a vast federal bureaucracy that is implacably opposed to the the president,” Musk told Hannity. He added: “What we’re seeing here is the sort of the thrashing of the bureaucracy as we try to restore democracy and the will of the people.”

Tesla and SpaceX have benefited from lucrative government contracts from the Defense Department, NASA and other federal entities, as well as plenty of tax breaks and subsidies over the years. The Trump administration could also take a lot of regulatory heat off Musk, including dismissing crash investigations into Tesla’s partially automated vehicles and a Justice Department criminal probe examining whether Musk and Tesla have overstated their cars’ self-driving capabilities.

Musk nonetheless insisted to Hannity, “I haven’t asked the president for anything, ever.” Trump said the billionaire “won’t be involved” in areas where his government efforts and business concerns overlap — though that seems dubious given that Musk’s team has already begun scrutinizing federal contracts in areas that would seem to present conflict-of-interest concerns.

Trump’s friendships often don’t last

Trump and Musk say they won’t turn on each other. But those once closest to Trump often end up as his fiercest critics.

His former vice president, Mike Pence, said Trump endangered his family in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol and attempted to bully him into violating the Constitution. His former attorney general, Bill Barr, refuted Trump’s falsehoods about widespread fraud in the 2020 election and has since said he “shouldn’t be anywhere near the Oval Office.”

Michael Cohen, Trump’s longtime lawyer who testified against him in a hush money case, told a House committee in 2019: “People that follow Mr. Trump, as I did blindly, are going to suffer the same consequences that I’m suffering.”

More recently, Trump shrugged off potential security risks while ending Secret Service protection for former top officials in his first administration, including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former White House chief of staff John Kelly.

Trump also has shown repeatedly that he doesn’t like being overshadowed, even hinting at such where Musk is concerned. Asked recently about Musk appearing on the cover of Time from behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, Trump quipped, “Is Time Magazine still in business?”

But Trump has also been fiercely loyal to those he perceives as having stood by him.

Former White House adviser Peter Navarro, who served time in prison related to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, is back helping dictate Trump trade policy. Trump’s valet, Walt Nauta, is working anew at the White House after once being a codefendant with Trump in the classified documents case. Trump has also said he’d offered “about 10 jobs” to his former national security adviser, Mike Flynn, whom he pardoned after Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

Four weeks in, they seem genuinely fond of each other

Throughout the interview, Hannity was friendly and his questions were mostly fawning. But what came through was how complimentary Trump and Musk were of each other — even amid skepticism about how long that’ll last.

“He’s an amazing person,” Trump said of Musk.

“I love the president, I just want to be clear about that,” Musk offered of Trump.

“I feel like I’m interviewing two brothers here,” Hannity finally said.

​ Orange County Register 

Construction for 50th annual Grand Prix of Long Beach formally begins Thursday

• February 19, 2025

Preparations for the 50th anniversary of Long Beach’s “200-mph beach party” — otherwise known as the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach — is officially underway.

Crews recently began building grand stands for the event, which will take place from April 11 to 13. Grand Prix and city officials with formally mark the start of construction — which includes setting up the temporary race track, fending and more — on Thursday, Feb. 20.

Every year, the Grand Prix of Long Beach draws upward of 190,000 visitors to the city.

The 2024 iteration of the event, according to a recent study, generated $100 million economic impact for Long Beach and the seven counties that comprise Southern California — and boasted record-breaking attendance of 194,000 people.

This year’s the Grand Prix is expected to be even bigger, since it’s the event’s 50th anniversary.

The event’s organizers — the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach — have already announced some exciting additions to this year’s race.

Racing legends Mario Andretti and Al Unser Jr., for example, have been tapped to be grand marshals for the event — and legendary rock band Foreigner will headline the Grand Prix’s Saturday night concert.

Construction will continue over the next couple of months, leading up to the big weekend.

Tickets for the 50th Grand Prix of Long Beach, meanwhile, have already gone on sale.

General admission tickets for the first day of the Grand Prix start at $44. Race fans can get a three-day ticket with reserved grandstand seating on Saturday and Sunday for $205.

For more information about the Grand Prix and ticketing, visit gplb.com.

​ Orange County Register 

Historic ocean liner departs Philadelphia on voyage to become the world’s largest artificial reef

• February 19, 2025

By BRUCE SHIPKOWSKI, Associated Press

The historic, aging ocean liner that a Florida county plans to turn into the world’s largest artificial reef departed from south Philadelphia’s Delaware River waterfront on Wednesday, marking the opening segment of its final voyage.

The SS United States, a 1,000-foot vessel that shattered the transatlantic speed record on its maiden voyage in 1952, is being towed to Mobile, Alabama, for planned prep work before officials eventually sink it off Florida’s Gulf Coast.

The move comes about four months after the conservancy that oversees the ship and its landlord resolved a years-old rent dispute. Officials initially planned to move the vessel last November, but that was delayed due to concerns from the U.S. Coast Guard that the ship wasn’t stable enough to make the trip.

Officials in Okaloosa County on Florida’s coastal Panhandle hope it will become a barnacle-encrusted standout among the county’s more than 500 artificial reefs and a signature diving attraction that could generate millions of dollars annually in local tourism spending for scuba shops, charter fishing boats and hotels.

Officials have said the deal to buy the ship could eventually cost more than $10 million. The lengthy process of cleaning, transporting and sinking the vessel is expected to take at least one-and-a-half years.

The SS United States was once considered a beacon of American engineering, doubling as a military vessel that could carry thousands of troops. Its maiden voyage broke the transatlantic speed record in both directions when it reached an average speed of 36 knots, or just over 41 mph, The Associated Press reported from aboard the ship. The ship crossed the Atlantic Ocean in three days, 10 hours and 40 minutes, besting the RMS Queen Mary’s time by 10 hours. To this day, the SS United States holds the transatlantic speed record for an ocean liner.

“The ship will forever symbolize our nation’s strength, innovation, and resilience,” said Susan Gibbs, president of the SS United States Conservancy and granddaughter of the naval architect who designed the vessel. “We wish her ‘fair winds and following seas’ on her historic journey to her new home.”

The SS United States became a reserve ship in 1969 and later bounced to various private owners who hoped to redevelop it. But they eventually found their plans too expensive or poorly timed, leaving the vessel looming for years on south Philadelphia’s Delaware River waterfront.

​ Orange County Register 

Clippers’ retooled roster has elevated expectations

• February 19, 2025

The final 28 regular-season games could be viewed as a new beginning for the Clippers, something of a do-over given their five new players, a near-full strength Kawhi Leonard and elevated expectations.

“We got a chance to be really, really good,” All-Star point guard James Harden said. “Really, really good, a really good team.”

Is that wishful thinking on Harden’s part or a real possibility?

The handful of players the team added before the All-Star break is expected to provide additional offensive flair to an established lineup but whether they can make a significant difference and lead the team deep into the playoffs remains to be seen.

Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said it will take time to integrate the new faces into the rotation, but he is, nonetheless, excited at the prospect of starting anew when the season resumes Thursday night in Milwaukee, the first of a seven-game road trip (though two games are against the Lakers at Crypto.com Arena).

“It’s good for us to start over, I think offensively,” Lue said. “(We need to) just to get better and do the things we need to do that’s necessary to win games. Just be better at executing what we’re trying to do.

“It’s going to take a little bit of time as far as rotations and how we play guys together and things like that. But from a basketball standpoint, I’m kind of excited about it.”

Guard Bogdan Bogdanovic, versatile Ben Simmons and backup center Drew Eubanks are expected to see significant minutes off the bench, while the other two newcomers – veteran guard Patty Mills and Marjon Beauchamp will play as needed.

Bogdanovic, a point guard known for his defensive ability and court vision, will be counted on not only on the defensive end but offensively as a facilitator. He said he didn’t think it would take long for the new players to adjust to their teammates.

“They did such a good job in helping all of us in this transition,” he said. “I mean the first day they were there ready with all sets, all plays, all defensive stuff, Coach Jeff, Coach Ty, so everybody, all assistant coaches, they were on point and when I moved here, I didn’t feel anything in transition. … They are giving me such confidence to play here, and I really like this team.”

Simmons, a 6-foot-10 former All-Star wing, had a solid debut, recording 12 points, seven rebounds, six assists, three steals and one blocked shot, with zero turnovers in his debut against the Utah Jazz last week. He can play at least four positions.

“I’m excited man, I mean Ben brings a skill set that we don’t have other than myself, his passing ability and his speed pushing the ball in the offense to get guys involved,” Harden said.

Leonard returned to the lineup after a lengthy recovery from knee issues, long after the Clippers had established their identity as a defense-first team. The Clippers are limiting their opponents to 108.3 points per game, the second-best mark in the NBA.

“I thought the first 35 or so games without Kawhi, the guys did a great job with just coming together collectively, especially on the defensive end and some guys had career years so far,” Lue said, singling out guard Norman Powell and center Ivica Zubac.

Still, Leonard gives the Clippers an added dimension on both ends of the court. He is averaging 16.3 points on 46.4% shooting, 4.6 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.0 steal in 15 games and only recently topped the 30-minute mark in games.

“Overall, for me it’s just a fresh start,” Leonard said, adding that he will leave others to judge how well he is playing.

“That’s up to other people that rate me or assess what I’m doing, but I’m still getting in a mix of things and learning JVG’s (Jeff Van Gundy’s) concepts on the team. … It’s just a learning process for me to keep going and just want to keep getting better.”

So now, Bogdanovic and Simmons, along with Eubanks and a healthy Leonard give the Clippers a legitimate shot at possibly a higher seed and a deep postseason run.

The Clippers, who closed their first 54 games by winning three in a row and six of 10, sit in the No. 6 spot in the congested Western Conference.

“I think every team needs to, wants to come out the All-Star break and be playing with (a high intensity),” Harden said. “If we want to get to where we want to go, the time is now. We added some shooting, we added some defense and obviously with a healthy Kawhi we’ve got a chance to compete with anybody. So, I think for us, it’s just finding out how we want to play and attacking it.”

CLIPPERS AT BUCKS

When: Thursday, 5 p.m. PT

Where: Fiserv Forum, Milwaukee

TV/radio: FDSN SoCal/570 AM

​ Orange County Register 

2 people are dead after a small plane collision in Arizona, authorities say

• February 19, 2025

MARANA, Ariz. (AP) — At least two people are dead after a midair collision involving two small planes in southern Arizona, authorities said Wednesday.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it is investigating the collision near an airport on the outskirts of Tucson. The Marana Police Department confirmed two deaths after responding to the crash.

The Associated Press left a message with a police spokesperson seeking additional details.

Last week, one of two pilots died on a private jet owned by Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil after the aircraft veered off a runway in Arizona and hit a business jet.

There have been four major aviation disaster in North America in the last month, with the most recent involving a Delta jet that flipped on its roof while landing in Toronto and the deadly crash of commuter plane in Alaska. In late January, 67 people aboard an American Airlines passenger were killed when an Army helicopter collided with it in Washington, D.C., marking the country’s deadliest aviation disaster since 2001. Just a day later, a medical transport jet with a child patient, her mother and four others aboard crashed into a Philadelphia neighborhood on Jan. 31, exploding in a fireball that engulfed several homes. That crash killed seven people, including all those aboard, and injured 19 others.

​ Orange County Register