Universal sets opening date for year-round Horror Unleashed in Las Vegas

• February 19, 2025

Leatherface, Frankenstein’s Monster and the Wolf Man will soon be haunting the Las Vegas Strip when Universal Studios opens a new haunted experience this summer based on the popular Halloween Horror Nights events.

The new Universal Horror Unleashed year-round experience will debut on Aug. 14 in Las Vegas.

ALSO SEE: First look at Dark Universe monster land coming to Epic Universe

Tickets went on sale Wednesday, Feb. 19 for Universal Horror Unleashed at the Area15 entertainment district in a 110,000-square-foot indoor space near the Las Vegas Strip.

Universal Horror Unleashed will open with four haunted houses based on Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Exorcist: Believer, Universal Monsters and Scarecrow: The Reaping.

All four haunted houses have appeared during past Halloween Horror Nights events at either Universal Studios Hollywood or Universal Orlando, according to Universal Parks News Today.

ALSO SEE: Universal Studios Hollywood sets dates for Halloween Horror Nights 2025

Ticket prices for a single entry into each haunted house will vary by date and range from $69 to $99. An unlimited access pass will cost $99 to $149 a day. Discounts will be available for Nevada residents.

Universal Horror Unleashed will be open Thursdays through Mondays (closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays) throughout the year with extended hours in October.

ALSO SEE: What is Universal Fan Fest Nights? All about the first-ever fandom event

The new permanent haunted house will be an anchor tenant of Area15 — best known as the home of Meow Wolf’s Omega Mart immersive art experience.

Universal plans to continuously update the haunted houses, restaurants, bars, seasonal events and merchandise in the Vegas venue.

​ Orange County Register 

Should groundwater manager in OC spend $10,000 to fete police, firefighters?

• February 19, 2025

Now, $10,000 is barely pocket change for even the smallest local governments. But it could, say, pay for a modest wedding at a park overlooking the beach, or for a halfway decent used car, or for a year’s worth of property taxes for a lot of folks.

On Wednesday, Feb. 19, though, the Orange County Water District is slated to vote on whether to spend up to $10,000 on a “First Responder Appreciation Luncheon to express our gratitude and strengthen relationships.”

Why can’t someone just drop a cake off at the fire station, you’re wondering.

“First responders are crucial to emergency management and daily safety at OCWD, guiding staff evacuations, managing hazardous materials, and quickly addressing emergencies and suspicious activities,” says the agenda report, describing, well, a first responder’s job.

“OCWD’s water quality department collects groundwater samples from 1,500 sites, including high-crime areas, underscoring the need for solid partnerships with local law enforcement to protect our staff.”

Wow. We’ve never really thought about armed escorts at the water well! OCWD’s job is to manage the groundwater basin and pump the stuff to cities and other water districts, so it’s not generally responding directly to fires and such like other water districts might.

“Scheduled between July and December 2025, the event will facilitate interaction among first responders and District staff, fostering mutual understanding and cooperation,” the report to the board says. “The luncheon will feature a flexible ‘drop-in’ schedule to accommodate the varied availabilities of first responders from Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa, Orange County Intelligence Assessment Center, and WEROC.”

Hold on. What?! We’ve been reporting on Orange County governments since the earth’s crust hardened and have never heard of WEROC or an Intelligence Assessment Center!

WEROC, it turns out, is the Water Emergency Response Organization of Orange County, administered by the Municipal Water District of Orange County (MWDOC), “which supports and manages countywide emergency preparedness, planning, response, and recovery efforts among Orange County water and wastewater utilities.”

The OCIAC, meanwhile, is a “fusion center” that was formed in 2007 “to meet the need for information sharing among federal, state and local law enforcement agencies and other public safety disciplines.”

OK, so maybe we’re talking several cakes here. The OCWD board is slated to vote on allocating $10,000 for food and rental expenses for a fete for 250 to 350 people, and various OCWD departments support the idea, “citing its effectiveness in building community relations — a sentiment echoed by successful outcomes from a similar event at Moulton Niguel Water District,” the staff report says.

Moulton Niguel has been doing these luncheons for 10 years, said Joone Kim-Lopez, Moulton Niguel’s general manager. It often works directly with first responders during emergencies — the Coastal fire in Laguna Niguel in 2022 is one recent example — and Kim-Lopez views it as a chance for the water people to sit down with the emergency people over plates of barbecue to learn a bit about one another. That makes working together under stressful emergency conditions more effective and efficient, she said.

Moulton Niguel spent $8,011.39 on the appreciation luncheon last year. “We have firefighters, deputies, volunteers, EMTs — we have a really good turnout,” Kim-Lopez said. “It’s something that has grown in popularity. Councilmembers come out as well to thank first responders. It’s our way of showing our appreciation.”

Cynics might suggest it’s also a good way for water board members mulling runs for higher office to rub elbows with influential folks in the public safety unions. But we’re not cynical here!

So we asked the powers-that-be at OCWD to tell us more about all this. General Manager John Kennedy said board member Cathy Green was impressed by Moulton Niguel’s efforts and thought it would be nice to do at OCWD as well.

Kennedy sees it as an opportunity to get OCWD’s staffers together and show appreciation as well. It’s true that OCWD doesn’t work with first responders quite the way a city water district (or Moulton Niguel) would, but it’s had chemical exposures that sent a worker to the hospital, and security incidents where intruders came onto campus, and a minor fire, and even some heated board meetings where first responders stood by in case things got out of hand.

We asked if OCWD often needs armed escorts as it monitors wells in high-crime neighborhoods — and where these neighborhoods are. Kennedy said that, in some poorer neighborhoods, homeless people camp near the wells, and it can be a bit scary for OCWD workers, so it has occasionally requested assistance.

OCWD is also “exploring the possibility of offering a designated work/rest space on the OCWD campus for patrol officers.” Is office space tough for public safety types to come by? Spokesperson Gina Ayala said it would just involve sharing space — and the kitchen — it already has with first responders out in the field. A place for them to rest, park their vehicles, write reports. And the $10,000 estimate is just that, she said — the district wouldn’t necessarily spend that much.

Most board members weren’t keen on chatting, but it appears there will be at least one “no” vote.

“Wasteful spending, such as this $10,000 luncheon that has zero impact on our local water supply, evokes anger and skepticism towards government, especially since there are more affordable ways for OCWD to express gratitude to our first responders,” said Stephen Sheldon.

We’ll let you know what the OCWD board decides. If you want to weigh in, send comments to the board online at www.ocwd.com/contact-us or call 714-378-3200.

​ Orange County Register 

Frumpy Mom: Why doctor’s appointments multiply like bunnies

• February 19, 2025

Some of you may be familiar with a certain ritual of American life: The doctor’s appointment.

I don’t know anyone who actually likes doctor’s appointments — except maybe the doctor — but it seems to be an inevitable part of our lives, especially when you get to be old like me.

As some of you know, I have cancer, so I’ve been to approximately 18 bazillion of these over the last six years. At one point, I realized I had 17 doctors. For real.

Because what happens is that once you have one doctor’s appointment, it multiplies like bunnies, and soon you have two, three, four, five, six or 507 subsequent visits. And this isn’t even with the original doctor, who makes you take tests and come back anyway, even if there’s nothing wrong with you.

It’s a rule of thumb that the more aggravating it is to get to a particular office, the more often they want you to come in.

Last year, I went to the eye doctor because I needed new glasses. But she told me, in the blink of an eye, (get it?) that I needed to go see another eye doctor — a specialist — because she couldn’t dilate my eyes.

So, I made an appointment with the specialist, and showed up on the appointed day. So far we’re up to two appointments, in case you’re counting.

But that eye doctor told me I needed to go see “a specialist.”

“Wait, I thought you were the specialist,” I told him, feeling confused.

“Well, yes, but now you need to see a retina specialist, then come back and see me again, because there’s something weird in your eyes I want him to look at,” he said.

So I did what he told me, got tested and returned. The weird thing is just “something we have to watch.” (Now we’re on the fifth appointment, in case you’re still counting, and I still have no new glasses.)

So the new old eye doctor told me I had cataracts and I should get surgery.

“Wait, wait,” I told him. “I just want a new pair of glasses.” But here’s the thing. He was very, very handsome. Now, I may be old, but I’m not blind. I had never once thought about cataract surgery, but suddenly I was talking to a nice woman in an office and signing a whole bunch of forms agreeing to have Mr. Handsome cut my eyes open and put in new lenses.

This is like when you agree to go to a meeting at a vacation hotel and it turns out to be a time-share presentation, and you walk out two hours later, having purchased a week in Colorado Springs every year into infinity.

So my surgery was scheduled for a month hence, and I filled out 18 pages of medical history that the hospital emailed me, including when I stopped wetting the bed and sucking my thumb. (Answer: Never.)

On the appointed day, my kind friend Samantha picked me up and drove me to the hospital at the crack of dawn (No. 6). When I checked in, the receptionist handed me a thick stack of forms to fill out. After I looked at them, I informed her that I had already filled out all these forms online.

She told me she didn’t have access to those, so please just fill them all out again.

The outpatient surgery was pretty fast, and they don’t even put you to sleep. They didn’t give me enough painkiller, so I kept wincing and jerking, at which point the two doctors working on me would yell and tell me to stop moving.

Afterward, though, there was no pain. The whole thing, including recovery, lasted a couple of hours, then my friend picked me up and brought me home.  My vision was better already, I noticed.

Two days later, my vision was good enough to drive back to the new old doctor for a checkup (No. 7), Everything was fine, so I went back home and had a snack.

I still didn’t have new glasses, and now I couldn’t get new lenses until my vision settled down after the surgery, which took about a month. This meant that I couldn’t read anything, because I had great distance vision now, but my close-up vision was still rotten.

The inability to read is a major disadvantage to a writer, so I went to Dollar Tree and bought some cheaters for $1.25 each to get me over the hump. I had to go in for a few more checkups (Nos. 8 and 9) and then back to the retina specialist (No. 10).

Eventually, the happy day came when I got permission to get new lenses, which required an appointment with an eye doctor who fits glasses. (No. 11). And $85 later, I walked out with a prescription, and ordered new spectacles which were a big relief when they arrived and I could once again see my computer screen. So it all had a happy ending. You will note that I mentioned my 17 doctors, but I will spare you the details of my visits to all of them. Let’s just say the stories add up. Where’s Marcus Welby making house calls when we need him?

​ Orange County Register 

Trump officials want to ban junk food from SNAP. Past efforts show it’s not easy to do

• February 19, 2025

By JONEL ALECCIA, Associated Press Health Writer

A push to ban sugary drinks, candy and more from the U.S. program that helps low-income families pay for nutritious food has been tried before — but it may soon get a boost from new Trump administration officials.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the newly confirmed health and human services secretary, and Brooke Rollins, the new agriculture secretary, have both signaled that they favor stripping such treats from SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Kennedy has been most vocal, calling for the government to stop allowing the nearly $113 billion program that serves about 42 million Americans to use benefits to pay for “ soda or processed foods.”

“The one place that I would say that we need to really change policy is the SNAP program and food stamps and in school lunches,” Kennedy told Fox News host Laura Ingraham last week. “There, the federal government in many cases is paying for it. And we shouldn’t be subsidizing people to eat poison.”

In one of her first interviews after being confirmed, Rollins said she looked forward to working with Kennedy on the issue.

“When a taxpayer is putting money into SNAP, are they OK with us using their tax dollars to feed really bad food and sugary drinks to children who perhaps need something more nutritious?” Rollins said. “These are all massive questions we’re going to be asking and working on in the coming months and years.”

But removing certain foods from SNAP — known for years as food stamps — isn’t as simple as it sounds.

The program is run by the USDA, not HHS, and is administered through individual states. It is authorized by the federal Food and Nutrition Act of 2008, which says SNAP benefits can be used for “any food or food product intended for human consumption,” except alcohol, tobacco and hot foods, including those prepared for immediate consumption.

Excluding any foods would require Congress to change the law — or for states to get waivers that would let them restrict purchases, said Katie Bergh, a senior policy analyst for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan research group. Over the past 20 years, lawmakers in several states have proposed stopping SNAP from paying for bottled water, soda, chips, ice cream, decorated cakes and “luxury meats” like steak.

“None of those requests have ever been approved under either Republican or Democratic presidents,” Bergh said.

In the past, Agriculture Department officials rejected the waivers, saying in a 2007 paper that no clear standards exist to define foods “as good or bad, or healthy or not healthy.” In addition, the agency said restrictions would be difficult to implement, complicated and costly. And they might not change recipients’ food purchases or reduce conditions such as obesity.

Anti-hunger advocates point to research that shows SNAP recipients are no more likely than other low-income Americans to buy sugary drinks or snack foods. And they say that limiting food choices undermines the autonomy and dignity of people who receive, on average, about $187 per month — or about $6.16 per day, according to latest figures.

“This is just another way to cut benefits,” said Gina Plata-Nino, a deputy director at the Food Research and Action Center, a nonprofit advocacy group. “It’s like, how do we restrict people more? How do we stigmatize them more?”

Bills are pending in Congress and in several states to restrict SNAP benefits from paying for soda, candy and other items.

Rep. Josh Breechan, an Oklahoma Republican, sponsored the Healthy SNAP Act.

“If someone wants to buy junk food on their own dime, that’s up to them,” he said. “But what we’re saying is, ‘Don’t ask the taxpayer to pay for it and then also expect the taxpayer to pick up the tab for the resulting health consequences.’”

One SNAP recipient said she uses her monthly $291 benefit to buy necessities such as meat, oil, milk and coffee. Martina Santos, 66, of New York City, supplements those foods with fresh vegetables and fruits from a pantry run by the West Side Campaign Against Hunger, where she’s also a volunteer. Because she has diabetes and other health conditions, she said she understands the importance of using the benefits only for nutritious options.

“For me, SNAP is to be used toward healthy food to get people to avoid all the disease they’re having around right now: obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure,” Santos said.

In Kansas and elsewhere, bills that would ban soft drinks and candy highlight some of the challenges of such changes.

Several pending bills seek to keep SNAP from paying for soft drinks, but they would continue to allow drinks containing milk, milk alternatives like soy or almond milk, or drinks with more than 50% vegetable or fruit juice. Candy is characterized as any unrefrigerated, flourless preparation of “sugar, honey or other natural or artificial sweeteners in combination with chocolate, fruits, nuts or other ingredients or flavorings in the form of bars, drops or pieces.”

By that definition, Kit Kat and Twix bars, which contain flour, wouldn’t be banned. And juices that contain high amounts of sugar, but are more than half fruit juice by volume, would be allowed.

Such conundrums have stymied changes to the SNAP program for decades. But this moment could be different, said Dr. Anand Parekh, chief medical officer of the Bipartisan Policy Center, a think tank based in Washington, D.C.

The momentum behind Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement could spur a new focus on solutions to poor diets that account for leading risk factors for early disease and death.

“When we talk about the SNAP program, we have to remind people that the ‘N’ stands for nutrition,” Parekh said. “It’s about time that both parties can come together and see what are the innovations here to improve diet quality and nutrition.”

Associated Press video journalist Mary Conlon contributed to this report.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

​ Orange County Register 

Americans’ confidence in air travel safety dips slightly after Washington plane crash: new poll

• February 19, 2025

By LINLEY SANDERS, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans’ confidence in air travel and the federal agencies tasked with maintaining air safety has slipped a little from last year, following a recent crash in Washington, according to a new poll, but most still believe air transportation is generally safe.

The survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that 64% of U.S. adults say plane travel is “very safe” or “somewhat safe.” That’s down slightly from last year, when 71% said that. About 2 in 10 U.S. adults now say air transportation is very or somewhat unsafe, up from 12% in 2024.

Faith in government agencies’ ability to ensure safe air travel dipped as well. Just over half of U.S. adults have “a great deal” or “a moderate amount” of confidence in federal government agencies to maintain air safety, down slightly from about 6 in 10 last year.

The poll was conducted Feb. 6-10, shortly after the Jan. 30 collision between an American Airlines passenger jet and an Army helicopter in Washington but before a Delta jet flipped on its roof while landing in Toronto. The Washington collision, which killed all 67 people aboard the two aircraft, was the country’s deadliest aviation disaster since 2001. The decline in confidence, while small, suggests that the event may have rattled some Americans. The 2024 poll was conducted after another incident that raised questions about the safety of air travel, in which a panel blew off an Alaska Airlines jetliner above Oregon, leaving a gaping hole in the side of the plane.

Overall, Americans think traveling by plane is about as safe as walking or taking a car. About two-thirds say either walking or driving are safe forms of transportation. Only about half of U.S. adults say a local subway, metro or light rail system is safe, in line with 2024.

After the Washington crash, President Donald Trump, a Republican, blamed federal diversity and inclusion promotion efforts and reassured Americans that it is safe to fly. That may help explain why Democrats and independents, but not Republicans, have seen a drop in trust.

Independents’ belief that plane travel is safe fell substantially, from about 6 in 10 calling it safe last year to about 4 in 10 now. About 7 in 10 Democrats say plane travel is safe, down slightly from about three-quarters in 2024. Republicans have not changed their views about air travel being safe.

Democrats and independents also have less faith in the government’s ability to ensure air safety than they did four years ago. The poll was conducted before the firing of probationary Federal Aviation Administration employees, but at least some of the shift is likely related to the change in presidential administration, from Joe Biden, a Democrat, to Trump.

In January 2024, when Biden was still president, about 7 in 10 Democrats said they had high confidence in federal government agencies to maintain air safety. Now only 6 in 10 Democrats say that. Independents’ confidence also declined, while Republicans’ opinions did not move.

The poll found that U.S. adults’ confidence in pilots and commercial airlines remains unchanged. About 8 in 10 U.S. adults have a high level of confidence in pilots, and about three-quarters say that about commercial airlines.

The AP-NORC poll of 1,112 adults was conducted Feb. 6-10, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.

​ Orange County Register 

Justice Department and New York Mayor Adams face judge’s scrutiny in bid to dismiss criminal charges

• February 19, 2025

By LARRY NEUMEISTER and MICHAEL R. SISAK, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Justice Department lawyers and New York City Mayor Eric Adams are set to face a federal judge who is signaling that he’s unlikely to rubber stamp their request to drop the mayor’s corruption charges weeks before an April trial.

Judge Dale E. Ho in Manhattan scheduled the Wednesday afternoon hearing after three government lawyers from Washington made the dismissal request on Friday. Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor resigned after she refused an order to do so.

Ho already indicated that the hearing was likely to be only an initial step when he wrote in an order Tuesday that one subject on the agenda will be a discussion of “procedure for resolution of the motion.”

Also set for discussion are the reasons for the request to dismiss the indictment against the Democrat that charges the first-term mayor with accepting over $100,000 in illegal campaign contributions and lavish travel perks from a Turkish official and business leaders seeking to buy his influence while he was Brooklyn borough president. He has pleaded not guilty.

Early last week, Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove told prosecutors in New York in a memo to drop the charges because the prosecution “has unduly restricted Mayor Adams’ ability to devote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime.” He said charges could be reinstated after November’s mayoral election.

Two days later, then-interim U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi, saying Bove’s request to drop charges in return for assistance in enforcing federal immigration laws would betray Bondi’s own words that she “will not tolerate abuses of the criminal justice process, coercive behavior, or other forms of misconduct.”

“Dismissal of the indictment for no other reason than to influence Adams’s mayoral decision-making would be all three,” Sassoon, a Republican, said of what she called a “quid pro quo” deal as she offered to resign. She also said prosecutors were about to bring additional obstruction of justice charges against Adams.

Bove responded to Sassoon with apparent anger, accepting her resignation and accusing her of “pursuing a politically motivated prosecution despite an express instruction to dismiss the case.” He then informed her that two prosecutors assigned to the case were suspended with pay and that an investigation would determine if they keep their jobs.

If either of those prosecutors wished to comply with his directive to dismiss charges, he welcomed them to do so, but Hagan Scotten quit the following day, writing in a resignation letter that he supported Sassoon’s actions.

Scotten wrote to Bove that it would take a “fool” or a “coward” to meet his demand to drop the charges, “but it was never going to be me.”

In all, seven prosecutors, including five high-ranking prosecutors at the Justice Department in Washington, had resigned by Friday.

Since then, a small army of former prosecutors have gotten behind the defiant stand by Sassoon and other prosecutors.

On Friday, seven former Manhattan U.S. attorneys, including James Comey, Geoffrey S. Berman and Mary Jo White, issued a statement lauding Sassoon’s “commitment to integrity and the rule of law.”

On Monday, three former U.S. attorneys from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut submitted papers to Ho suggesting that he appoint a special prosecutor if he finds the Justice Department acted improperly or that he order all evidence be made available to state and local prosecutors.

A former Watergate prosecutor filed papers separately, telling the judge to reject the government’s request and consider assigning a special counsel to explore the legal issues and ultimately consider appointing an independent special prosecutor to try the case.

Also Monday, Justice Connection, an organization advocating for Justice Department employees, released a letter signed by over 900 former federal prosecutors to career federal prosecutors that said they have “watched with alarm” as values “foundational to a fair and justice legal system” have been tested.

In the letter, the former prosecutors said they “salute and admire the courage many of you have already exhibited. You have responded to ethical challenges of a type no public servant should ever be forced to confront with principle and conviction, in the finest traditions of the Department of Justice.”

On Tuesday, Alex Spiro, a lawyer for the mayor, wrote to the judge, saying those who believed that Adams struck a “quid pro quo” with prosecutors were wrong.

“There was no quid pro quo. Period,” he said.

​ Orange County Register 

Trump imposes his vision on America in departure from first-term stumbles

• February 19, 2025

By CHRIS MEGERIAN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Months into his first term as president, Donald Trump was furious with the snowballing Russia investigation and ordered White House counsel Don McGahn to make sure that special counsel Robert Mueller got fired.

“Mueller has to go,” McGahn recalled Trump saying. “Call me back when you do it.”

But McGahn didn’t do it, and Trump didn’t even bring it up the next time they saw each other. Such incidents were common during Trump’s initial experience in the White House, where officials would soften or ignore his most outrageous decisions and the president seemed unwilling to enforce his will.

It’s hard to imagine the same thing happening during Trump’s second term. Instead of repeating his laissez-faire attitude toward his own administration, the Republican president is asserting control at every opportunity, backed up by loyalists at all levels of government. Despite occasional disorganization and confusion, there’s a headstrong determination to push through any obstacles.

Trump doesn’t just want to change course from Joe Biden’s presidency, his team is holding back congressionally authorized funding championed by his Democratic predecessor.

Not only did Trump officials tell the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to stop working, his team set up a tip line so people could report unauthorized actions taken by staff at the agency.

Trump wasn’t satisfied with simply firing all the board members at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He made himself chairman.

This time, Trump seems to be saying, his orders will not be ignored. This time, there will be follow through.

The White House summarizes Trump’s approach with the mantra “promises made, promises kept.” Administration officials also dismiss concerns that the president is exercising too much control. They say Trump is entitled to impose his vision on the government that he was elected to lead.

Others see something darker and more menacing for the country and its future.

“Donald Trump’s instincts haven’t changed,” said Timothy Naftali, a Columbia University historian. “He’s just angrier, meaner and more effective than he was in his first term.”

Trump often felt as though he was undermined in his first term by the “deep state,” a term used by his allies to describe civil servants and career officials. Now, he’s moving swiftly to cut the federal bureaucracy with the help of Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur Trump has empowered to oversee the downsizing of the workforce.

“We’ve never had a president come into office with such a deep desire for revenge,” Naftali said. “Donald Trump is trying to hollow out institutions that he thinks embarrassed him.”

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was created to protect Americans from financial fraud, abuse and deceptive practices, has been brought to a standstill. The U.S. Agency for International Development, a leading distributor of humanitarian assistance, was shut down.

A prime target is the Department of Justice, which infuriated Trump by investigating him during his first term and after leaving office. He was indicted twice by federal authorities, although the cases were dropped after he won last year’s election because sitting presidents can’t be prosecuted while in office.

Now Trump has filled leadership positions with loyalists, such as Emil Bove, the acting deputy attorney general, who was previously Trump’s defense attorney.

Last week, Bove pushed to drop corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, saying it was more important for Adams to help Trump enact stricter immigration policies.

“The pending prosecution has unduly restricted Mayor Adams’ ability to devote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime that escalated under the policies of the prior Administration,” Bove wrote.

Several prosecutors in New York and Washington resigned in protest, and a court hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.

Trump said that he wasn’t involved in the decision to drop the case against Adams, but he’s previously said that the Democratic mayor had been unfairly targeted for political reasons.

Another example of Trump’s heavy-handed approach this time has been his handling of criminal charges against supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Hours after taking the oath of office a month ago, the president pardoned roughly 1,500 people, including those who attacked police officers.

Then his administration decided to push even further. Thousands of FBI employees are being questioned about their role in Jan. 6 investigations, with suggestions that they could face punishment.

Bove said agents “who simply followed orders and carried out their duties in an ethical manner” were not at risk, adding that “the only individuals who should be concerned … are those who acted with corrupt or partisan intent.”

It’s a sharp change from Trump’s first administration, which included a number of establishment figures who resisted his impulses.

Olivia Troye, a former national security official who has been a critic of Trump, said staff members would confer with each other after meetings with the president.

“Why don’t you hold on that before you go do something, and let’s see what happens,” Troye recalled people saying. “Let’s see if it passes.”

The mixed signals were partly a matter of inexperience. The president and some of his advisers had never served in government.

“During the first administration, quite frankly, they had no idea what they were doing,” Troye said. “Now they have people in place who were there the first time around. They’ve been preparing to execute for several years.”

Trump has taken a scorched-earth approach to uprooting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, commonly known as DEI. He’s signed executive orders to end the programs, but that wasn’t enough for his administration.

Messages distributed by the Office of Personnel Management, which functions as the human resources agency for the federal government, said employees should not try to “disguise these programs by using coded or imprecise language.”

Anyone who sees evidence of DEI should immediately disclose it.

“There will be no adverse consequences for timely reporting this information,” the messages said. “However, failure to report this information within 10 days may result in adverse consequences.”

​ Orange County Register 

CIF-SS boys basketball playoffs: Tuesday’s scores, updated schedule for Friday’s semifinals

• February 19, 2025

The Orange County scores from Tuesday’s CIF-SS boys basketball playoff games and the schedule for the semifinals Friday, Feb. 21.

CIF-SS BOYS BASKETBALL PLAYOFFS

OPEN DIVISION

Third round of pool play, Tuesday

Pool A

Harvard-Westlake 61, JSerra 48

Notre Dame/SO 67, Santa Margarita 59

Fourth round of pool play, Friday

La Mirada (0-2) at Santa Margarita (0-2), 7 p.m.

JSerra, bye

DIVISION 1

Quarterfinals, Tuesday

Crean Lutheran 73, Campbell Hall 66

Los Alamitos 56, Rolling Hills Prep 54

Santa Barbara 75, Mater Dei 70 (OT)

Semifinals, Friday

Crean Lutheran at Los Alamitos, 7 p.m.

DIVISION 2AA

Quarterfinals, Tuesday

Pacifica Christian 54, San Juan Hills 38

Fairmont Prep 75, Chino Hills 40

Semifinals, Friday

Pacifica Christian at Corona Centennial, 7 p.m.

Riverside Poly at Fairmont Prep, 7 p.m.

DIVISION 2A

Quarterfinals, Tuesday 

Irvine 71, Long Beach Cabrillo 66

St. Bonaventure 71, Villa Park 65 (OT)

Semifinals, Friday

Irvine at St. Bonaventure, 7 p.m.

DIVISION 3AA

Quarterfinals, Tuesday

San Gabriel Academy 66, Capistrano Valley Christian 51

Sage Hill 43, Tustin 39 (OT)

Semifinals, Friday

San Gabriel Academy at Sage Hill, 7 p.m.

DIVISION 4AA

Quarterfinals, Tuesday 

Santiago 66, Workman 64

Pacifica 44, Cate 41

Semifinals, Friday

Pacifica at Santiago, 7 p.m.

DIVISION 4A

Quarterfinals, Tuesday

Citrus Hill 65, Katella 43

DIVISION 5AA

Quarterfinals, Tuesday 

Sierra Vista 63, Anaheim 60

DIVISION 5A

Quarterfinals, Tuesday 

Saddleback 68, Gabrielino 61 (OT)

Semifinals, Friday

Arroyo at Saddleback, 7 p.m.

​ Orange County Register