County chooses status quo at OC Animal Care

• May 29, 2024

Orange County residents who had expected transformational change at the animal-care facility were surely disappointed at the county’s selection in April of a new director, Monica Schmidt. She has the requisite experience and appears open to public input, but she comes from within an agency that has been failing OC residents and animals for years. Schmidt had been serving as interim director and previously as assistant director.

The shelter situation has been abysmal for decades, with OC Animal Care the subject of six grand-jury reports. The latest one released last year is particularly scathing. It pointed to “the shelter’s unresponsiveness to community needs, restricted public access to the shelter’s kennels (and) restricted opportunities to walk through the kennels and engage with adoptable animals.” It also highlighted unacceptably high euthanasia rates.

Instead of vowing to improve the long-troubled agency, the Board of Supervisors largely rebutted the detailed criticisms. In past years, officials blamed funding and facilities problems, but in 2018 the county opened a state-of-the-art $35-million facility in Tustin. There’s no longer a valid excuse.

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During COVID-19, the shelter moved to an appointment system for public viewing of adoptable pets. After the pandemic ended, OC Animal Care continued to limit access. By not allowing people to wander through the kennels, this policy almost certainly boosted kill rates. Meanwhile, the appointment-setting process was frustrating. Although other shelters in the state re-opened, the county insisted that these policies protected public safety.

In January, the county finally – and after much public anger – reinstated viewing hours, but it’s only from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. The county’s animal-care system seems designed to make life easier for its employees rather than maximize opportunities to find homes for cats and dogs. Schmidt has spoken about finding “commonalities” within the community, but Animal Care needs less pabulum and more action.

A good starting point would be to open visiting hours significantly throughout the week. Until the shelter adopts that commonsense approach, we’ll just assume county officials are more interested in protecting the status quo than finding homes for neglected pets.

​ Orange County Register 

Amazon opens its first California pharmacy in Corona

• May 29, 2024

Amazon is getting into the pharmacy business in California.

The online mega-retailer on Wednesday, May 29, officially opened its first pharmacy in the state. Located in an industrial area of Corona in western Riverside County, the pharmacy near the 15 and 91 freeways promises to deliver prescription drugs — often within hours — using the same infrastructure that puts other goods on customers’ doorsteps.

Once fully ramped up, the pharmacy, which technically opened in March, will deliver medication to the Inland Empire, Orange County and the greater Los Angeles area, including West Hollywood, Torrance and Long Beach.

“Our mission with Pharmacy is to make it easier for people to get and stay healthy,” John Love, Amazon Pharmacy vice president, said before a ribbon-cutting ceremony. “It’s that simple.”

David Ambroz, Amazon’s head of community engagement in Southern California, said the pharmacy leverages “Amazon’s world-class logistics network” to “provide fast, free and convenient delivery of prescription medications right to the customer’s door.”

Riverside County Supervisor Karen Spiegel helped cut the ribbon.

“There’s more to this than the pills,” said Spiegel, a former Corona mayor who represents the city on the Riverside County Board of Supervisors. “It’s about the people and I get excited about the job opportunities that are now available” through the pharmacy.

One of 12 Amazon Pharmacy locations nationwide, the Corona pharmacy is next to an existing Amazon fulfillment center — a warehouse where goods are brought in, categorized, packaged and shipped in an elaborate process involving computers, forklifts, conveyor belts and bustling, vest-wearing employees.

The pharmacy, Love said, operates like any retail pharmacy.

It’s in a much smaller room than the cavernous fulfillment center, with rows of shelves and medication sitting in bins with brightly colored labels in an environment where sterile safety glasses are required.

More than 1,000 medications are available at the pharmacy, Love said. The pharmacy itself isn’t a walk-up facility and sits behind two sets of locked doors.

“One of the benefits of (the) pharmacy, from a shipping and a delivery (standpoint), is it’s light and small,” Love added. “So there’s a lot of medications that we can sort in a fairly small amount of space.”

A machine resembling a smart fridge contains frequently prescribed pills and sits behind the pharmacists’ station. Two computer panels let pharmacists review medications and spot any potential problems, such as a pill that might conflict with a patient’s other medication, for example.

After that, to protect patients’ privacy, medications are packaged and labeled in Amazon packages resembling anything else that someone might order. From there, the packages are sent to the fulfillment center, where a seemingly endless procession of drivers push package-laden carts to deliver on their rounds.

Amazon plans to give price estimates to customers before they order medication — a move Love and others hope convinces people who think they can’t afford their medicine to fill their prescriptions.

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“We hear these terrible stories of people going up and having a really embarrassing moment,” Love said. “You might be at a physical pharmacy in your neighborhood and you get in line and they tell you the price of the medicine and you can’t afford the medication.”

Launched in 2020, Amazon’s other locations include New York City, Seattle, Indianapolis, Miami and Phoenix. Its entry into the pharmacy market caused the stock of competitor GoodRx to fall 22.5%, with the stock of Walgreens, Rite Aid and CVS taking a hit as well, CNBC reported in 2020.

Spiegel said it’s an honor that Corona is the first California location.

“It’s one of those things that time, money, whatever the reason is (for not filling a prescription), you’ve now taken that away and that’s what’s amazing,” she said.

​ Orange County Register 

Twelve years later Lashinda Demus will finally get her gold medal in Paris

• May 29, 2024

Lashinda Demus was busy coaching in March 2023 when she received a text from a friend.

“Congratulations!” the message said.

“Congratulations?” Demus responded.

“I didn’t even have a clue what he was talking about,” Demus, the Inglewood native and former Long Beach Wilson High School standout hurdler, recalled Wednesday.

It wasn’t until her friend forwarded her a news report that Demus learned that the International Olympic Committee had elevated her to gold medalist for the 400 meter hurdles at the 2012 Olympic Games in London because of a doping violation by Russia’s Natalya Antyukh, the winner in London.

“I found out when everybody found out,” Demus said. “Which I thought was kind of wild. I didn’t get a heads up for anything.”

Demus will finally receive her gold medal on August 9th in Paris in a special and groundbreaking event at Champions Park beneath the Eiffel Tower in the first ever medal reallocation at the Summer Olympic Games.

The IOC’s confirmation of the ceremony Wednesday came 4,384 days after Antyukh held off Demus by a mere seven-hundreths of a second, the blink of an eye, in London.

“This broke my heart as I knew I was the best runner in the race,” Demus said. “Once I get to Paris, for the Olympic Medal Ceremony, my broken heart will finally be healed.”

The healing process, the push to get the IOC to recognize Demus and other Olympic athletes deprived of medals and their proper standing by drug cheats in a manner worthy of their achievement was driven by Demus.

Thomas Bach’s presidency of the IOC has been marked a repeated failure to effectively address Russia’s decades long systemic state-sponsored doping program and the impact it has had on international sports and athletes like Demus.

IOC officials, Demus said “are probably just doing their job, trying to push things through. You’re trying to hit deadlines and I get it. And I think that’s why it’s necessary for someone like me to help and liaison through this process because I completely understand and get where an athlete is coming from. The reason that this is going on is that I simply trailblazed this. I wanted this to be made right.

“If I was competing in an international competition with billions of people watching I want to receive my medal again in the same kind of platform and that was my main message to them.”

Demus, like many in the sport, had doubts Antyukh, who had beaten the American, then reigning World champion, just once in eight races prior to the Olympic final and had not beaten her at all since July 2010.

“But you can’t assume someone is doping just because she beat you,” Demus said. “That’s a crazy thought. So I left it alone. I accepted that I lost and got my silver medal.”

But Antyukh was named in a 2016 investigation into Russian doping by Canadian attorney Richard McLaren and commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency. In April 2021 the Court of Arbitration for Sport handed Antyukh, who had since retired, a four-year ban but declined to strip her of her Olympic medals.

It wasn’t until December 2022 that the Athlete Integrity Unit, the agency overseeing anti-doping for World Athletics, international track and field’s governing body, stripped Antyukh of the gold medal and declared Demus the Olympic champion.

“The AIU remains committed to investigating all cases of potential violations and securing the appropriate outcomes,” said AIU chief Brett Clothier at the time. “The integrity of the sport of athletics is our utmost priority and we are pleased, in this instance, that athletes who competed fairly at the highest level will ultimately be acknowledged as the rightful medal winners.”

The IOC, however, didn’t display a similar sense of urgency.

It took Bach and the IOC another three months to finally elevate Demus to Olympic champion status.

It would be even more months before she heard anything from the IOC.

“It was months,” Demus said, “definitely not weeks.”

There were no congratulatory texts from the IOC. No emails discussing medal ceremony options or even confirming the IOC decision.

“No official phone call,” Demus said. “That was concerning. Very concerning.

“I haven’t received any official documents. How do I know this is real?”

She recalled the IOC’s handling of her friend Adam Nelson’s case. Nelson finished second in the 2004 Olympic shot put final. Eight years later it was revealed that the winner, Yuriy Blonoh of Ukraine, tested positive for banned performance enhancing substances. It would be another year before Nelson was finally awarded his gold medal at a Burger King at a food court in Atlanta’s Hartsfield International Airport.

“That has always been in the back of my mind,” Demus said referring to the Nelson debacle. “If they approach me with this, I’m going to be ready. Because this is not happening that way.”

Demus retained Javier Rubinstein, an attorney with years of experience handling international arbitration.

“I knew right off the top I needed legal guidance,” she said.

Finally, the IOC got back to Demus.

Demus had two options, the IOC said. She could receive her medal at the U.S. Championships or the World Championships. Whatever she picked, the IOC added, they needed her to make a decision right away.

“They wanted all these answers to these questions like instantly,” she said. “And I was like, ‘This is crazy, I can’t even. I have things to work through. I have kids who will travel with me. I have family members. I felt like I was being rushed. You can’t rush. I’d waited 12 years and now I’m being rushed to make a decision. No, that’s not happening that way.”

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For the next year, Demus and Rubinstein went back and forth with the IOC.

“I’m the one who kind of orchestrated the whole thing,” she said. “So I was the one who was approving, arguing or disagreeing to different things that happened.”

Eventually she prevailed.

“If I was competing in an international competition with billions of people watching I want to receive my medal again in the same kind of platform,” Demus said “and that was my main message to them.”

And so the evening of August 9 with the world watching, beneath the Eiffel Tower, one of the planet’s most iconic and recognizable landmarks rising above the Olympic city to the stars, a monument, the author Natalie Lloyd once said, of “steel and lace,” a gold medal will finally be placed around the neck of the elegant and determined hurdler who personified both.”This is as close as you can get,” Demus said, “to making it right.”

​ Orange County Register 

French Open: No. 1 Iga Swiatek fends off Naomi Osaka upset bid

• May 29, 2024

By HOWARD FENDRICH AP Tennis Writer

PARIS — Iga Swiatek played like the current No. 1 and the two-time defending champion at the French Open. No surprise there. That Naomi Osaka looked like the former No. 1 that she is – and on clay, no less – amounted to an announcement that she is still quite capable of elite tennis.

Surging down the stretch as Osaka faded, Swiatek saved a match point and grabbed the last five games to sneak her way to a 7-6 (1), 1-6, 7-5 victory in the second round of the French Open on Wednesday night in a thrill-a-minute contest befitting two women who both own four Grand Slam titles.

“For sure, this match was really intense. Much more intense for the second round than I ever expected. For sure, I’ll be more ready next time,” Swiatek said. “Naomi played amazing tennis. … I’m happy that she’s back and she’s playing well.”

For Swiatek, this extended her Roland Garros winning streak to 16 matches as she pursues a third consecutive trophy at the clay-court major. For Osaka, who cried when she left the court after letting a 5-2 lead in the concluding set slip away, this amounted to a return to her big-hitting best.

They went back-and-forth for nearly three hours as rain loudly pelted the outside of the closed roof at Court Philippe Chatrier – showers forced the postponements of 23 singles matches until Thursday – and a riveted, if hardly full, crowd alternated their support between the two players. Sometimes, spectators called out before a point was done, prompting admonishment from chair umpire Aurélie Tourte during the match.

And from Swiatek afterward.

“Sometimes, under a lot of pressure, when you scream something during the rally or right before the return, it’s really, really hard to be focused,” Swiatek said. “The stakes are big and there is a lot of money here to win. So losing a few points may change a lot. So please, guys, if you can support us between the rallies but not during, that would be really, really amazing.”

Osaka served for the victory at 5-3 in the final set, and was a point away from winning, but she put a backhand into the net. Soon, when Osaka missed another backhand, this one long, Swiatek finally converted a break point on her 10th chance of that set, and they played on.

Maybe the lack of high-level matches caught up to Osaka, because her mistakes continued to mount, including a double-fault that put Swiatek in control 6-5. Swiatek, who has led the WTA rankings for nearly every week since April 2022, then held serve one last time.

“I don’t necessarily feel like I regret anything,” Osaka said.

Still, this was, without a doubt, Osaka’s top performance since she returned to the tour in January after 15 months away while becoming a mother. (Her daughter, who is 10 months old now, accompanied Osaka to Paris and recently started walking.)

“I was watching Iga win this tournament last year, and I was pregnant. It was just my dream to be able to play her,” Osaka said. “When I kind of think of it like that, I think I’m doing pretty well. And I’m also just trying not to be too hard on myself. I feel like I played her on her better surface. I’m a hard-court kid, so I would love to play her on my surface and see what happens.”

Because of the weather, only nine matches were completed Wednesday, and winners included Coco Gauff, Ons Jabeur, Sofia Kenin, Carlos Alcaraz, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Andrey Rublev.

It’s been a few years since Osaka played this capably and confidently, hammering big serves at up to 122 mph and imposing groundstrokes. Her quick-strike capabilities were on full display: Osaka won 82 of the 139 points (59%) that lasted four strokes or fewer, and she finished with a 54-37 advantage in total winners.

All of those familiar mannerisms were back, too. She turned her back to Swiatek to reset between points, hopped in place, tugged at her pink visor’s brim and slapped her palm on her thigh. Osaka celebrated points by shaking a clenched fist and shouting “Come on!”

She grabbed nine of 10 games to dominate the second set and lead 3-0 in the third. Then 4-1. Then 5-2.

As one ball or another would fly past Swiatek, zipped near a corner or right at a line, she turned toward her guest box and shot a look of confusion or concern in the direction of her coach and her sports psychologist.

“I felt for most of the match that I wasn’t really (in the) here and now,” Swiatek said. “My mind was, like, playing around sometimes.”

She’s not used to this sort of one-way traffic coming head-on in her direction. Normally, it’s Swiatek who is delivering lopsided sets at a foe’s expense, especially on clay. She now has won her last 14 matches this month, with titles on the surface at Madrid and Rome – a clay double no woman had done since Serena Williams in 2013.

But this marked a sudden return to the Osaka everyone came to expect, match in and match out, back when she was at the height of her powers, climbing atop the rankings and gathering two trophies apiece at the U.S. Open and Australian Open from late 2018 to early 2021.

It was in May 2021 that Osaka withdrew from the French Open before her second-round match, explaining that she experiences “huge waves of anxiety” before speaking to the media and revealing she had dealt with depression. She took time away from the tour for a mental health break, then opted for another hiatus after her title defense at the U.S. Open a few months later ended with a third-round loss.

She helped usher in a change in the way athletes, sports fans and society at large understood the importance of mental health – and prompted those in charge of various sports, including tennis, to take the issue seriously and try to accommodate and protect them better.

Osaka entered with an 0-4 record on the red stuff against opponents ranked in the top 10 and never has been past the third round at Roland Garros. This also would have been her first win anywhere against a top-10 opponent since January 2020.

Instead, though, it is Swiatek who moves on and continues her bid to become the first woman with three championships in a row in Paris since Justine Henin in 2007-09.

​ Orange County Register 

California legislators advance bills aimed at toxic chemicals, pesticides, lead

• May 29, 2024

Los Angeles area legislators are leading the charge to combat chemicals connected to leukemia, ADHD, hearing loss and breast cancer — and more — through a series of proposed environmental laws.

Assemblymember Laura Friedman, D-Burbank, is pushing a bill to ban the herbicide paraquat, which has been linked to a 64% increase in the risk of Parkinson’s disease.

Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, D-Encino, is backing an effort to ban six harmful food dyes from meals provided in public schools. Chris Holden, D-Pasadena, is leading an effort to crack down on lead exposure in schools. And Assemblymember Luz Rivas, D-Arleta, and Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, are sponsors of a bill to remove two cancer-causing chemicals from plastic packaging.

All four laws met a key deadline to clear the Assembly floor this month and are now headed to the state Senate.

Meanwhile, the state Senate passed a bill by Senator Ben Allen’s, D-Santa Monica, that would close a loophole in the state’s plastic bag ban. A companion bill already passed the Assembly, so this law is now poised to advance to Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk.

Collectively, all five pieces of legislation have the potential to dramatically improve health outcomes for children, farmworkers, and Californians in general, while giving mother nature a break from poisons and pollution.

Friedman’s AB 1963 would ban paraquat starting on Jan 1, 2025, a chemical she says is “easily the most toxic herbicide still in use in California today.”

The chemical is prohibited in more than 60 nations, but continues to be widely used to grow crops like corn, soybeans, cotton, almonds and peanuts across California. In addition to the elevated risk of Parkinson’s, paraquat has been connected to high blood pressure, heart failure, kidney failure, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and childhood leukemia.

AB 1963 has the support of famous labor leader Dolores Huerta who spoke before the state Assembly about the disproportionate impact the chemical has on Latino farmworkers.

“This dangerous weedkiller has been used since the 1960s, endangering millions of essential agricultural workers, their families, and local residents,” she said. “Farmworkers feed America’s families. We must do better by them.”

Local legislators are also trying to do better by California’s kids, whose developing brains and immune systems are particularly vulnerable to the harmful effects of chemicals.

Assemblymember Holden wants to see a crackdown against the state’s longtime enemy of lead in drinking water — a potent neurotoxin that can cause irreversible damage to children’s intellectual development, hearing and ability to concentrate.

In 2018, Holden authored a law requiring licensed child care centers in the state to test their tap water for lead contamination. The results came out last year and found that one in four centers had lead levels above the allowable threshold.

Now he is pushing AB 1851, which would set a goal of zero lead in drinking water at schools and in childcare facilities, and fund a program to test for and clean up lead in drinking water at ten school districts.

“Lead consumption among youth and disenfranchised communities occurs at a higher rate,” Holden said in a statement on the bill. “Assisting schools with the resources and appropriate standards to ensure the water our children drink is safe will help us protect our schools, students and communities.”

Assemblymember Gabriel is also working to oust chemicals that can harm a child’s brain, behavior and immune systems. He authored AB 2316, which would ban several food dyes–Red Dye No. 40, Yellow Dye No. 5, Yellow Dye No. 6, Blue Dye No. 1, Blue Dye No. 2 and Green Dye No. 3–as well as the food additive titanium dioxide from meals served in public schools.

The dyes have been found to cause neurobehavioral problems, while titanium dioxide has been linked to DNA damage and immune system harm.

“As a lawmaker, a parent and someone who struggled with ADHD, I find it unacceptable that we allow schools to serve foods with additives that are linked to cancer, hyperactivity and neurobehavioral harms,” Gabriel said. “This bill will empower schools to better protect the health and wellbeing of our kids and encourage manufacturers to stop using these dangerous additives.”

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Lastly assembly members Rivas and Lowenthal are sponsoring AB 2761 to get tougher on the use of chemicals in plastic packing.

The bill was authored by Assemblymember Gregg Hart, D-Santa Barbara, and would ban PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride) and PFAS (Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances) in plastic packaging sold or distributed in the state. The chemicals have been linked to an elevated risk of multiple cancers including liver, brain, lung and breast cancer.

Senators Allen and Catherine Blakespeare, D-Encinitas, are teaming up to close a key loophole in the state’s 2014 plastic bag ban by removing the exemption for thicker reusable plastic bags. After the 2014 ban passed, these thicker bags largely replaced flimsy single use plastic bags at grocery stores — but more often than not these reusable bags still ended up in the trash.

Now a decade later, Californians are throwing out nearly double the amount of plastic waste on an annual basis.

“These thicker plastic bags may be called reusable, but most of us are only using them once,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn. “This loophole has undermined the state’s effort to reduce our use of single-use plastics and ironically made the problem worse. I appreciate Senator Ben Allen and his colleagues for taking this on and taking a stand against the plastics industry.”

Earlier this month the Board of Supervisors passed a resolution authored by Hahn to put their support behind the bill.

​ Orange County Register 

State advances measures targeting AI discrimination and deepfakes

• May 29, 2024

By Tran Nguyen | Associated Press

SACRAMENTO — As corporations increasingly weave artificial intelligence technologies into the daily lives of Americans, California lawmakers want to build public trust, fight algorithmic discrimination and outlaw deepfakes that involve elections or pornography.

The efforts in California — home to many of the world’s biggest AI companies — could pave the way for AI regulations across the country. The United States is already behind Europe in regulating AI to limit risks, lawmakers and experts say, and the rapidly growing technology is raising concerns about job loss, misinformation, invasions of privacy and automation bias.

A slew of proposals aimed at addressing those concerns advanced last week, but must win the other chamber’s approval before arriving at Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk. The Democratic governor has promoted California as an early adopter as well as regulator, saying the state could soon deploy generative AI tools to address highway congestion, make roads safer and provide tax guidance, even as his administration considers new rules against AI discrimination in hiring practices.

With strong privacy laws already in place, California is in a better position to enact impactful regulations than other states with large AI interests, such as New York, said Tatiana Rice, deputy director of the Future of Privacy Forum, a nonprofit that works with lawmakers on technology and privacy proposals.

“You need a data privacy law to be able to pass an AI law,” Rice said. “We’re still kind of paying attention to what New York is doing, but I would put more bets on California.”

California lawmakers said they cannot wait to act, citing hard lessons they learned from failing to reign in social media companies when they might have had a chance. But they also want to continue attracting AI companies to the state.

Here’s a closer look at California’s proposals:

FIGHTING AI DISCRIMINATION AND BUILDING PUBLIC TRUST

Some companies, including hospitals, already use AI models to define decisions about hiring, housing and medical options for millions of Americans without much oversight. Up to 83% of employers are using AI to help in hiring, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. How those algorithms work largely remains a mystery.

One of the most ambitious AI measures in California this year would pull back the curtains on these models by establishing an oversight framework to prevent bias and discrimination. It would require companies using AI tools to participate in decisions that determine results and to inform people affected when AI is used. AI developers would have to routinely make internal assessments of their models for bias. And the state attorney general would have authority to investigate reports of discriminating models and impose fines of $10,000 per violation.

AI companies also might soon be required to start disclosing what data they’re using to train their models.

PROTECTING JOBS AND LIKENESS

Inspired by the months-long Hollywood actors strike last year, a California lawmaker wants to protect workers from being replaced by their AI-generated clones — a major point of contention in contract negotiations.

The proposal, backed by the California Labor Federation, would let performers back out of existing contracts if vague language might allow studios to freely use AI to digitally clone their voices and likeness. It would also require that performers be represented by an attorney or union representative when signing new “voice and likeness” contracts.

California may also create penalties for digitally cloning dead people without the consent of their estate, citing the case of a media company that produced a fake, AI-generated hourlong comedy special to recreate the late comedian George Carlin’s style and material without his estate’s permission.

REGULATING POWERFUL GENERATIVE AI SYSTEMS

Real-world risks abound as generative AI creates new content such as text, audio and photos in response to prompts. So lawmakers are considering requiring guardrails around “extremely large” AI systems that have the potential to spit out instructions for creating disasters — such as building chemical weapons or assisting in cyberattacks — that could cause at least $500 million in damages. It would require such models to have a built-in “kill switch,” among other things.

The measure, supported by some of the most renowned AI researchers, would also create a new state agency to oversee developers and provide best practices, including for still-more powerful models that don’t yet exist. The state attorney general also would be able to pursue legal actions in case of violations.

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BANNING DEEPFAKES INVOLVING POLITICS OR PORNOGRAPHY

A bipartisan coalition seeks to facilitate prosecuting people who use AI tools to create images of child sexual abuse. Current law does not allow district attorneys to go after people who possess or distribute AI-generated child sexual abuse images if the materials are not depicting a real person, law enforcement said.

A host of Democratic lawmakers are also backing a bill tackling election deepfakes, citing concerns after AI-generated robocalls mimicked President Joe Biden’s voice ahead of New Hampshire’s recent presidential primary. The proposal would ban “materially deceptive” deepfakes related to elections in political mailers, robocalls and TV ads 120 days before Election Day and 60 days thereafter. Another proposal would require social media platforms to label any election-related posts created by AI.

​ Orange County Register 

Anaheim man convicted of killing ex-girlfriend while awaiting trial on domestic violence case

• May 29, 2024

An Anaheim man was convicted Wednesday of killing his ex-girlfriend shortly after getting into a brawl outside a nightclub and while awaiting trial for a domestic violence attack against the same woman.

An Orange County Superior Court jury deliberated for about a day and a half before finding Aaron Romo, 37, guilty of first-degree murder, among other charges, for beating and strangling 24-year-old Mirelle Mateus in the early morning hours of March 17, 2023.

While Romo himself maintained his innocence at trial, both the prosecution and the defense acknowledged that the evidence indicated he was responsible for Mateus’ violent slaying. The question left for jurors was whether it was first-degree murder, as argued by the prosecution, or a lesser count of voluntary manslaughter, as countered by the defense.

The prosecution pointed to Romo’s relationship history — which included five restraining orders and allegations of varying degrees of abuse from seven women — to paint him as a “physically violent” and “emotionally manipulative” man.

“He can’t have what he wants,” Senior Deputy District Attorney Mark Birney told jurors last week. “And he has decided that Mirelle is what he wants. So he decides to manipulate her. And when manipulation doesn’t work, violence ensures.”

The defense countered that Mateus’ death was the result of a “perfect storm,” as Romo’s intoxication from a night out with his friend and a head injury from losing a fight outside a club combined with built up “emotional tension” from his tumultuous relationship with Mateus.

He did not plan this,” Defense attorney Ricardo Nicol told jurors. “This is not what he wanted. It was a rash decision made in the heat of passion.”

Mateus’ relationship with Romo seemed to end on Dec. 5, 2022, when Romo was accused of battering Mateus and throwing her over a patio balcony at his luxury Anaheim apartment in the 1900 block of Union Street. Romo was charged with domestic violence, posted bond to remain out of custody and was served with a restraining order barring him from contacting Mateus, who moved in with her mother in La Palma.

In an effort to get Romo’s mind off of Mateus, a friend on March 16, 2023 persuaded him to come out for a drunken night out at the District Lounge in Orange.

Romo’s efforts to hit on another woman were apparently unsuccessful, resulting in Romo getting slapped and thrown out of the club. Romo instigated a brawl outside the club, with cell phone video showing him getting knocked down and possibly temporarily unconscious.

Romo called Mateus, begging her to pick him up from outside the club. She agreed, and drove him back to his Anaheim apartment.

At the complex, Romo grabbed Mateus’ cell phone and may have seen messages on it from other men, according to testimony. A security guard later described Mateus resisting Romo’s efforts to get her into his apartment, recalling her telling Romo “I’m not crazy, I’m not going in there.” Romo “violently” pulled Mateus into his apartment, likely by the hair, the prosecutor said.

The security guard called 911. Anaheim officers responded, but left after no one answered their repeated knocks on Romo’s door.

Inside the apartment, the prosecutor said, Romo beat Mateus as she fought for her life and then strangled her. Blunt force injuries were found on her head, face, hands and a knee. Clumps of her hair were found in various parts of the apartment. Romo wrote on a bathroom mirror “I didn’t want this I love U I want to die Please.”

Romo rode his motorcycle to another girlfriend’s residence in Temecula, threatened to kill himself and barricaded himself inside the apartment, getting into a standoff with Riverside County sheriff’s deputies.

Mateus’ mother realized her daughter hadn’t returned home and learned she had been with Romo. The mother went to Romo’s apartment, where she found her daughter’s body in a bathroom.

In Temecula, Romo’s girlfriend learned from a friend of Romo that Mateus was missing. The girlfriend later told deputies that when she asked Romo what happened he acknowledged killing Mateus. Romo was eventually convinced to leave the Temecula apartment and was treated for apparently self-inflicted lacerations on a forearm.

Romo’s sentencing is scheduled for June 24. He faces life in prison.

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​ Orange County Register 

Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman hopes he has found his swing

• May 29, 2024

NEW YORK — Freddie Freeman is flattered by your concern.

“The thing that makes me kind of smile is when people come up to me and say, ‘Oh, you’re not playing that well,” said the Dodgers first baseman, whose batting average has been below .300 for most of May and who went 26 games between home runs at one point. “I’m, ‘That’s still okay. Thank you for believing that there’s way more in there.’

“It’s nice that the bar is so high up here and that’s what everybody expects.”

Most of all, Freeman expects more of himself – even though he went into Tuesday’s doubleheader batting .284 with an .833 OPS, numbers that most major-league hitters would gladly accept.

A five-hit day Tuesday (three in the first game of the doubleheader, two in the nightcap) raised those numbers closer to Freeman’s usual standards.

“Whenever you don’t play the way you think you can play, it’s always frustrating. There’s no way around it,” Freeman said.

Freeman was frustrated by a flaw in his swing that had persisted – on and off – since September. He was opening up his front hip too soon, causing him to cut off his swing, limit the areas of the strike zone he could cover and how long his bat was in the hitting zone. His hip turn is “a massive part of the swing for me,” Freeman said.

“When you keep doing the same thing over and over and you know it’s wrong, it’s frustrating,” Freeman said.

Monday’s rainout gave Freeman some down time with the hitting coaches to watch some video – something that is “very rare” for Freeman who prefers to go by “feel.”

“We were trying to figure out why I was opening up too soon with my cues to hit that way (points to left field),” Freeman said. “We watched a lot of video from four, five years ago and what I was doing there and what I was doing May of last year and comparing.”

What they found was that Freeman was not loading on to his back leg adequately, leading to his front hip opening too soon. Tuesday’s five-hit bonanza provided positive feedback.

“I’ve always little flashes here and there throughout the first couple months, feeling good, and then the next day you feel bad,” he said. “Hopefully it’s more of a sticking thing this time.

“I don’t know. To say you’ve got anything figured out in this game, it’s just not true.”

2B OR NOT 2B

Mookie Betts started at second base on Wednesday for the first time since April 29. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts had said he wouldn’t be switching Betts between shortstop and second base any more so that Betts could settle in and get more experience at shortstop.

Roberts explained the move Wednesday as a way to give Betts a lighter workload for a day. With left-hander James Paxton starting, more action was expected on the left side of the infield.

“To get him on the other side of the diamond, it’s essentially, as Mookie puts it, almost like an off day,” Roberts said.

Betts continues to work daily at shortstop long before game time. Roberts praised Betts for all the extra work he is putting in but expects Betts to cut back eventually.

“That will happen,” Roberts said. “I don’t know if it’s gonna happen in June or July. It will happen. But I think it’s just more, for us, leaving it to him that whenever he feels the confidence that he can kind of manage his prep work, at that point in time, he will. But I just trust him in the sense of, he knows what it takes to get ready.”

STARTING ROTATION

Monday’s rainout and Tuesday’s doubleheader will change the Dodgers’ starting rotation slightly going forward. Walker Buehler will start Friday at home against the Colorado Rockies, with Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Saturday.

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Gavin Stone will start Sunday, with Tyler Glasnow pushed back until Tuesday in Pittsburgh. It will be Stone’s second start this season on the standard four days of rest and only the fourth by a Dodgers starter this season on four days of rest.

ALSO

Relief pitcher Evan Phillips made his second rehab appearance with Class-A Rancho Cucamonga on Tuesday and retired both batters he faced, striking out one. Phillips (hamstring) is expected to join the Dodgers on Friday and be activated from the injured list.

UP NEXT

The Dodgers are off Thursday.

Rockies (TBA) at Dodgers (RHP Walker Buehler, 1-2, 4.26 ERA), Friday, 7:10 p.m., SportsNet LA, 570 AM

​ Orange County Register