10 reasons we cling to stuff we don’t need — and how to stop

• January 18, 2025

The beginning of a new year is the ideal time to harness those feelings of guilty excess and summon the resolve to lighten up.

I know it’s no fun. As I sort through my own home, I have a whole arsenal of excuses to avoid letting go of what should go. To fuel my momentum, I ran my top 10 reasons for not letting go by organizing expert Kim Krogh, owner of Elephant Organizing, of Orlando, and asked her to bust through my resistance.

“I’ve heard every one of these excuses,” she confirmed, before cutting through them one by one.

1. But I might need it someday.

How long has it been since you wore or used it? Five years? 10? If it’s been a long time, chances are you won’t need it. In the unlikely event you will, ask what your price threshold to replace it is — $10, $50, $100? If you can replace it for under your pain point, let it go. Chances are also good, if you really need that never-used juicer, you can borrow it from a friend.

2. But so-and-so gave it to me.

A gift is yours to do with what you want. If you don’t like or use it, then it’s just taking up space. Regift, toss, donate or otherwise pass it on. “You have my permission to let go along with the needless guilt,” Krogh said.

3. But it was mom’s…

“These are loaded items,” said Krogh, who confesses she struggles with them, too. If you find yourself saying, “I don’t really need this item, but it came from someone important to me,” then ask what good it’s doing buried in a closet or under a bed. You’re not honoring your mother’s wedding dress or your grandma’s mink stole, if it’s sitting in a box. Consider repurposing items. Or donate them. Krogh had been dragging around vintage clothes from early 1900. She finally donated them to a high school theater department that needed costumes. “Now grandma’s clothes live on on stage.”

4. But it was expensive.

So? That doesn’t mean it’s worth much now. Lots of people believe their china, crystal and chandeliers — “all of which I have and love,” Krogh said — are worth more than they are, but millennials don’t want that stuff. To confirm true market value of an item, look up “sold” (not listed) prices of similar items online in the used marketplace. If it is worth it to you to try to sell, then sell it. The quickest place is through an auction house, estate sale or consignment store. Take a percentage and be done with it. Don’t let stuff you don’t need or use take up space just because you think it has value.

5. But I want it to go into good hands.

This is a lazy excuse. Are you really going to vet potential buyers? By waiting for that perfect recipient, you’ve created an unnecessary hurdle. Let the item go and find its place in the world.

6. But my kids might want it.

“Uhh, probably not,” Krogh said. If you think they might want something, ask them in a clear, non-manipulative way. Tell them you want to get rid of some things, but you don’t want to get rid of anything they want. Assure them they will not hurt your feelings. Give them a deadline to get it or you’ll donate it. Don’t become their storage unit.

7. But what if I regret letting something go?

Krogh hasn’t met anyone in her 15-plus years of organizing who has felt remorse from letting go. But if you change your mind after a piece is gone for good, the world will not come to an end.

8. But I can deal with it later.

Delaying decisions is the reason you’re in the pickle you’re in. Wouldn’t you rather decide the fate of these items than burden your kids or spouse with them?

9. But what’s the harm in keeping it?

Space is finite. “I can organize all day long, but I can’t make more space,” Krogh said. If you don’t create a habit of regularly letting go, your things will just keep piling up.

10. But it’s irreplaceable?

The hardest items to part with are those that have sentimental value, particularly heirlooms. “We can’t keep everything. Start there,” said Krogh, who gradually downsized her parents from a 5,000-square-foot home into assisted living. Ask family members if they want anything. Then make executive decisions about what can go. “I can’t keep it all and don’t want it all,” she said. Realism needs to surpass sentiment.

“As an organizer, I’m not a minimalist,” Krogh said, as we wound down our lively back and forth. “I am a normal person, but I know everything in my house, and whenever any item is old or tired or not useful it goes.”

Marni Jameson is the author of seven books including “Downsizing the Family Home.” Reach her at [email protected].

​ Orange County Register 

Matt Fleming: Wildfires unleash an endless stream of very bad takes

• January 18, 2025

Gov. Gavin Newsom launched a webpage to combat “disinformation” about Los Angeles wildfires, but its usefulness is debatable.

Referencing a tweet alleging such, Newsom wrote: “FACT: No fire stemmed from a satanic ritual.”

Phew! I’m glad Newsom set the record straight there. Without his webpage, millions of Californians might still be wondering if satanists were behind the whole thing.

I’m kidding. That’s not something anyone serious was considering. What’s funny about this though is that it’s still unknown what caused the fire, meaning Newsom’s website is spreading disinformation itself.

Since the cause of the fire is not known, it’s factually incorrect to say “Fact” it wasn’t a satanic ritual.

Of course, I don’t believe it was from a satanic ritual — that’s ridiculous — but I can’t say that for sure, since, again, the cause is still unknown. Which highlights the broader point, which is that there is a lot of misinformation out there, as there usually is with most emergencies, but Newsom appears to be looking to score political points rather than actually trying to be helpful.

In fact, that Newsom’s disinformation page is hosted on his campaign website instead of his government website betrays his intentions because political speech is held to a much lower standard than government speech.

It’s also why Newsom’s soliciting charitable donations for The California Fire Foundation through his campaign page instead of simply directing traffic to the organization. He’s got to make sure he can collect data on people and hit them up later for campaign contributions.

IT’S CLIMATE CHANGE

“Just to be clear there have been 101 wildfires in California already this year. This is because of a rapidly changing climate. Period,” Assemblyman Isaac Bryan posted on X.

Period! I guess it’s settled. It doesn’t matter that that number of wildfires this year is entirely average for California and in fact is substantially fewer on average than in 1987, the furthest year back I could find (and also the nearly 40-year high). It also doesn’t matter that the U.S. Forest Service halted its wildfire prevention efforts last year.

I look forward to Newsom calling out this misinformer.

THERE’S LOTS OF WATER

Newsom has repeatedly tried pushing back on criticism that there was not enough water to fight the fires. There have been numerous problems with access to water, including a county-run reservoir being completely empty at the time of the fires, but Newsom, as chief of the misinformation police, wants people to know that the water problem is not a state problem.

“The reservoirs are completely full — the state reservoirs here in Southern California. That mis- and disinformation I don’t think advantages or aids any of us,” Newsom said on “Meet the Press,” according to the New York Post.

Governor, we get that you’re trying to cover your own butt, but there was a water problem. To suggest otherwise is, dare I say, misinformation.

SHOW VOTES ARE POLITICAL

Newsom was right about one thing though. Combining wildfire aid funding with the governor’s desire to boost funding for lawsuits against the federal government, to “Trump-proof” the state, is a bad idea, according to Politico California.

Apparently, lawmakers had been considering combining the two for reasons I can only assume were to force Republican lawmakers into a bad vote, to either support legal fights against Trump or to oppose wildfire aid funding.

Newsom was critical of those “politicizing this tragic moment,” according to The New York Times. But as usual, he was focusing on national Republicans, not Californians in his party. I’m sure he was forgetting he was collecting wildfire donor data for campaign purposes as well.

YOU SHOULDN’T BE IN A FIRE, DUMMY

Though of all the silly things people have said as part of the debate over the Los Angeles fires, my favorite was actually from 2019. In a video promoting the Los Angeles Fire Department’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion program, Deputy Chief Kristine Larson, who heads the program, defended the efforts as important in responding to emergencies.

“You want to see somebody that responds to your house, your emergency, whether it’s a medical call or a fire call, looks like you,” Larson said.

Of course that’s not true. No one with any sense would sit in an emergency situation hoping a person of their affinity group is coming to save them. Sure, there might be language issues that are important, but beyond that this statement is absurd on its face.

Larson also decried people expressing concerns that women firefighters might not be strong enough to pull adult men from burning buildings.

“He got himself in the wrong place if I have to carry him out of a fire,” Larson said with a smirk.

That’s exactly the attitude we need from first responders! You don’t want to be saved by a woman firefighter who may or may not be able to carry you out of a burning building, don’t be in a burning building in the first place.

Of course, I don’t know how Larson squares that attitude with the fact that most people do not set their houses on fire themselves, and if they do it’s usually an accident. (For the record, anyone, no matter how different from me, is allowed to save my life at the appropriate time. Thanks in advance.)

Fighting disinformation, staying apolitical in a crisis and promoting diversity are all great things. Unfortunately, the people entrusted with these roles are not taking their responsibilities seriously.

Follow Matt Fleming on X @FlemingWords

​ Orange County Register 

Prison abuse, deaths and escapes prompt calls for more oversight

• January 18, 2025

By Amanda Hernández, Stateline.org

Rampant sexual abuse by guards at women’s prisons in California. An inmate suicide that went unnoticed for 18 hours in Washington state. Multiple jail breaks in Pennsylvania.

Prisons and jails across the United States are overcrowded and understaffed, jeopardizing the safety of incarcerated people, correctional officers and surrounding communities. As state legislatures convene in the coming weeks, many lawmakers are focusing on a key criminal justice issue for prisons and jails: more oversight.

Accountability for the nation’s correctional facilities is decentralized and inconsistent. While some states, counties and municipalities have independent oversight bodies, many rely on internal mechanisms or lack formal systems altogether, according to Michele Deitch, director of the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab at the University of Texas at Austin, which runs the National Resource Center for Correctional Oversight.

Policy experts predict that correctional oversight will take center stage in this year’s legislative sessions, driven by mounting scrutiny of worsening prison and jail conditions and the growing adoption of independent oversight bodies across the country. Adding to the momentum, President Joe Biden last year signed a law creating an independent ombudsman to investigate complaints from the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ 122 facilities. The law also mandates inspections of all federal facilities.

“Legislators have become much more aware of what they don’t know and how much of a closed system this is,” Deitch said in an interview. “They’re totally reliant on the corrections officials to tell them what’s going on inside the facilities, and that’s not the best way for legislators to exercise oversight.”

But some correctional officials argue that adding another layer of oversight won’t solve their fundamental problem.

“We know the root causes of our current conditions: We have too many inmates and too few correctional officers,” Michael Resnick, the prisons commissioner for Philadelphia, said in October when he testified before the City Council against a measure that would create a new oversight board and office for the correctional facilities in that city. Resnick could not be reached for comment for this story.

The measure passed, but establishing the new board and office requires voter approval, which could be decided through a ballot question in May.

At least 16 states — both red and blue — considered 31 correctional oversight bills during last year’s legislative sessions, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. However, only Maryland and Virginia approved legislation to create ombudsman offices to monitor their state prisons.

Not all of the bills that were considered would have established independent oversight bodies; some focused on internal changes or specific accountability measures within existing structures.

In addition, advocacy groups and legislators in New Jersey, South Dakota and Wisconsin called for greater independent oversight in response to growing concerns about staff shortages, violence and deteriorating conditions in prisons.

At least 20 states and Washington, D.C., now have independent prison oversight bodies, according to Deitch. Elsewhere, state prisons rely on other forms of accountability.

Some state, county and city officials also want to beef up oversight of jails, which are usually operated by local law enforcement agencies or state departments of correction and hold people who are awaiting trial or sentencing, or who are serving shorter sentences.

In Washington state, for example, where an independent oversight office already monitors state prisons, a lawmaker has prefiled a bill that would establish an independent board to oversee the state’s 59 local jails. Last year, a similar bill stalled in the Senate.

The measure would create a seven-member board — made up of corrections officials, an attorney, health care professionals and formerly incarcerated people — that would establish standards for housing and health care in jails, investigate conditions and report their findings to the state.

If the bill is signed into law, Washington would join 28 other states with similar entities, Deitch said.

Oversight in Philadelphia

For years, Philadelphia’s jails have grappled with severe staffing shortages, an increasing number of deaths and multiple jail escapes, among other challenges.

As of June 2024, nearly 900 correctional officer positions remained unfilled, representing a 45% vacancy rate, according to the latest federal court monitor’s report, which was released last September under a class-action settlement addressing conditions of the city’s facilities.

Late last month, the Philadelphia City Council approved a resolution authorizing a ballot measure, to be presented to voters in May, asking whether the city should set up a nine-person jail oversight board and office.

Efforts to establish an independent oversight system date back at least two years. An earlier panel was criticized for its lack of transparency and effectiveness and was not fully independent from the city’s prisons department, according to Sara Jacobson, who served on the board for six years before resigning in 2022.

Jacobson, who is now the executive director of the Public Defender Association of Pennsylvania, told Stateline that during her time as a member she did not receive any documentation outlining the board’s duties.

“One of the reasons I left was that it appeared to me that it existed simply to say that it existed. The agenda appeared to be set by and run by the prison administration. There was almost no access for the public,” Jacobson said in an interview.

Philadelphia Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, who sponsored the ballot measure legislation, is part of a working group that is focused on determining the board’s potential budget and defining its investigative powers, and that includes Democratic Mayor Cherelle Parker. Thomas told Stateline that safety — for inmates, staff and visitors — is a key concern.

Under the proposed measure, at least one board member must have previously been incarcerated. People who have worked for the city’s prisons department, Sheriff’s Office or police department would be ineligible. The nine members would be appointed by the City Council, the mayor and the city controller.

Funding for the oversight office would come from the prisons department’s budget, with a minimum of 0.0045% of spending allocated to the office. That amount would be less than $14,000 in the current fiscal year.

Resnick, the prisons commissioner, said last fall that his department doesn’t need the extra eyes.

“There are already several layers of oversight for the [agency], and it will not be helpful to add another and potentially create conflict and confusion,” Resnick told city councilmembers during the committee hearing.

Legislative proposal in Wisconsin

In response to criticism over prison conditions in Wisconsin — including deaths, violence, prolonged lockdowns and criminal charges against a former prison warden and staff — legislators and advocates in that state also have called for the creation of an independent ombudsman to investigate concerns.

State Rep. Ryan Clancy, a Democrat, criticized the Wisconsin Department of Corrections’ complaint system, describing it as ineffective for addressing systemic issues. Currently, complaints are first reviewed by staff at the prison where they originate.

“We really need a system there that allows folks to communicate with a third party who is not tied directly to the management of that prison,” Clancy, a corrections committee member, said.

“It doesn’t make sense to stigmatize the people that are blowing the whistle, and that are just looking out for both their own needs and the needs of other people that they’re incarcerated with,” Clancy said.

©2025 States Newsroom. Visit at stateline.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

​ Orange County Register 

Health care AI, intended to save money, turns out to require a lot of expensive humans

• January 18, 2025

By Darius Tahir, KFF Health News

Preparing cancer patients for difficult decisions is an oncologist’s job. They don’t always remember to do it, however. At the University of Pennsylvania Health System, doctors are nudged to talk about a patient’s treatment and end-of-life preferences by an artificially intelligent algorithm that predicts the chances of death.

But it’s far from being a set-it-and-forget-it tool. A routine tech checkup revealed the algorithm decayed during the covid-19 pandemic, getting 7 percentage points worse at predicting who would die, according to a 2022 study.

There were likely real-life impacts. Ravi Parikh, an Emory University oncologist who was the study’s lead author, told KFF Health News the tool failed hundreds of times to prompt doctors to initiate that important discussion — possibly heading off unnecessary chemotherapy — with patients who needed it.

He believes several algorithms designed to enhance medical care weakened during the pandemic, not just the one at Penn Medicine. “Many institutions are not routinely monitoring the performance” of their products, Parikh said.

Algorithm glitches are one facet of a dilemma that computer scientists and doctors have long acknowledged but that is starting to puzzle hospital executives and researchers: Artificial intelligence systems require consistent monitoring and staffing to put in place and to keep them working well.

In essence: You need people, and more machines, to make sure the new tools don’t mess up.

“Everybody thinks that AI will help us with our access and capacity and improve care and so on,” said Nigam Shah, chief data scientist at Stanford Health Care. “All of that is nice and good, but if it increases the cost of care by 20%, is that viable?”

Government officials worry hospitals lack the resources to put these technologies through their paces. “I have looked far and wide,” FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said at a recent agency panel on AI. “I do not believe there’s a single health system, in the United States, that’s capable of validating an AI algorithm that’s put into place in a clinical care system.”

AI is already widespread in health care. Algorithms are used to predict patients’ risk of death or deterioration, to suggest diagnoses or triage patients, to record and summarize visits to save doctors work, and to approve insurance claims.

If tech evangelists are right, the technology will become ubiquitous — and profitable. The investment firm Bessemer Venture Partners has identified some 20 health-focused AI startups on track to make $10 million in revenue each in a year. The FDA has approved nearly a thousand artificially intelligent products.

Evaluating whether these products work is challenging. Evaluating whether they continue to work — or have developed the software equivalent of a blown gasket or leaky engine — is even trickier.

Take a recent study at Yale Medicine evaluating six “early warning systems,” which alert clinicians when patients are likely to deteriorate rapidly. A supercomputer ran the data for several days, said Dana Edelson, a doctor at the University of Chicago and co-founder of a company that provided one algorithm for the study. The process was fruitful, showing huge differences in performance among the six products.

It’s not easy for hospitals and providers to select the best algorithms for their needs. The average doctor doesn’t have a supercomputer sitting around, and there is no Consumer Reports for AI.

“We have no standards,” said Jesse Ehrenfeld, immediate past president of the American Medical Association. “There is nothing I can point you to today that is a standard around how you evaluate, monitor, look at the performance of a model of an algorithm, AI-enabled or not, when it’s deployed.”

Perhaps the most common AI product in doctors’ offices is called ambient documentation, a tech-enabled assistant that listens to and summarizes patient visits. Last year, investors at Rock Health tracked $353 million flowing into these documentation companies. But, Ehrenfeld said, “There is no standard right now for comparing the output of these tools.”

And that’s a problem, when even small errors can be devastating. A team at Stanford University tried using large language models — the technology underlying popular AI tools like ChatGPT — to summarize patients’ medical history. They compared the results with what a physician would write.

“Even in the best case, the models had a 35% error rate,” said Stanford’s Shah. In medicine, “when you’re writing a summary and you forget one word, like ‘fever’ — I mean, that’s a problem, right?”

Sometimes the reasons algorithms fail are fairly logical. For example, changes to underlying data can erode their effectiveness, like when hospitals switch lab providers.

Sometimes, however, the pitfalls yawn open for no apparent reason.

Sandy Aronson, a tech executive at Mass General Brigham’s personalized medicine program in Boston, said that when his team tested one application meant to help genetic counselors locate relevant literature about DNA variants, the product suffered “nondeterminism” — that is, when asked the same question multiple times in a short period, it gave different results.

Aronson is excited about the potential for large language models to summarize knowledge for overburdened genetic counselors, but “the technology needs to improve.”

If metrics and standards are sparse and errors can crop up for strange reasons, what are institutions to do? Invest lots of resources. At Stanford, Shah said, it took eight to 10 months and 115 man-hours just to audit two models for fairness and reliability.

Experts interviewed by KFF Health News floated the idea of artificial intelligence monitoring artificial intelligence, with some (human) data whiz monitoring both. All acknowledged that would require organizations to spend even more money — a tough ask given the realities of hospital budgets and the limited supply of AI tech specialists.

“It’s great to have a vision where we’re melting icebergs in order to have a model monitoring their model,” Shah said. “But is that really what I wanted? How many more people are we going to need?”

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.

©2025 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

​ Orange County Register 

What the Monterey Peninsula teaches us about commercial real estate

• January 18, 2025

As I shared last week, I celebrated my 68th birthday recently. My wife treated me to a weekend at Pebble Beach.

I know! But someone had to do it.

We stayed in a spot overlooking the iconic Pebble Beach golf links — home of the annual AT&T Pro-Am and countless major championships over the years.

This golf course has witnessed so many unforgettable moments, from Jack Nicklaus’ famous one-iron shot to a foot at the 17th hole in the 1972 U.S. Open to Tiger Woods’ runaway U.S. Open victory in 2000. Orange County is well represented, too, with Mark O’Meara hoisting the AT&T trophy a record five times, and Jordan Nasser claiming the title of California amateur champion there in 2006.

As a lifelong golfer, I was in awe.

The weather can be a bit tricky in January, but we rolled lucky snake eyes — clear skies and cool temps. Perfection!

So, what do my ramblings about the former home of the Crosby Clambake have to do with commercial real estate?

When you think about Pebble Beach, it’s easy to picture the world’s greatest golfers competing on a pristine course, overlooking the rugged coastline. But beneath the beauty and the legends, Pebble Beach is a masterclass in careful planning, adaptability and excellence — the same principles that apply to success in commercial real estate.

Let me share a few lessons I learned during my visit.

The journey, not the destination

Each hole at Pebble Beach presents a unique challenge, much like every deal in real estate.

Some days, the weather’s perfect, and every shot falls into place. Other days, you’re fighting wind, sand traps, and frustration.

But just like in golf, the process of getting there — the strategy, the effort, the adjustments — is where the real value lies. The destination — a trophy, a closing — is just the cherry on top.

Eat what you catch

Golfers and real estate professionals share a bond: there’s no safety net.

A missed putt or a deal that falls through means starting over. But that pressure drives us to be resourceful, resilient, and relentless.

It’s not for everyone, but for those who thrive under the challenge, the rewards are sweeter because we’ve earned every bit of them.

Trees for the forest

Golfers know that every hole, every shot, every decision matters. It’s tempting to focus on the big picture —your scorecard or the finish line— but the real work happens one stroke at a time.

In real estate, the same holds true. It’s the small details that often make or break a deal — a clause in the contract, the way you handle a client, or even the vibe of a property.

Don’t lose sight of the trees.

Focus on the freedom

Standing on the 18th fairway at Pebble Beach, gazing out at the Pacific, I couldn’t help but feel an incredible sense of freedom.

Golf, like real estate, offers that in spades. You’re not tied to a desk or a clock. Sure, there are deadlines, but the autonomy to chart your own course is priceless.

There are many ways to score

The beauty of golf — and real estate — is that there’s no single path to success. Some win by overpowering the course with booming drives, others by finesse around the greens. In real estate, success can mean building relationships, mastering negotiations, or finding creative ways to add value. The key is to play to your strengths and embrace the diversity of opportunities.

As I soaked in the beauty of the Monterey Peninsula, I realized how much the game of golf and the art of real estate have in common. Both demand patience, creativity, and a deep appreciation for the journey. And both, when done well, offer rewards far beyond the scorecard.

So, the next time you’re out on the course — or walking through a property — remember this: it’s not just about where you’re going. It’s about how you get there. And sometimes, the view along the way is the greatest reward of all.

Allen C. Buchanan, SIOR, is a principal with Lee & Associates Commercial Real Estate Services in Orange. He can be reached at [email protected] or 714.564.7104.

​ Orange County Register 

San Juan Hills boys basketball overwhelms Tesoro with big effort by Mason Hodges

• January 18, 2025

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO — This was supposed to be a big night for the San Juan Hills boys basketball team. The Stallions had feasted on Dana Hills and Trabuco Hills in South Coast League play, but the rivalry game with Tesoro represented a step up.

A significant challenge. A measuring stick.

It was a whitewash.

Led by Mason Hodges with 25 points and Adam Aziz with 16, San Juan Hills scored a big win, all right, a 67-25 victory over the Titans.

It was going to be a tall order from the outset for Tesoro (15-8, 1-2). The Titans were without their big man, Randy Wandje, who sprained an ankle three minutes into a loss to San Clemente. Wandje, who would have drawn the task of defending 6-foot-7 Hodges, could be back next week, or it could be a few weeks. But his absence from the lineup Friday was noteworthy because Hodges had his way.

San Juan Hills (16-7, 4-0), ranked No. 9 in Orange County, had a size advantage, an experience advantage, a manpower advantage, and a homecourt advantage. And it compounded the Tesoro’s troubles exponentially.

The Stallions scored the first 13 points. They scored 18 unanswered points in the second quarter. They held Tesoro scoreless for almost eight minutes in the second half.

“We played pretty well, and we were really strong early,” Stallions coach Jason Efstathiou said. “We got in a flow and a good rhythm. Tesoro’s a good team and they’re well-coached, but a lot of shots didn’t fall for them that could have really made a difference.

“I was happy with our energy. Being active is a key part of this team. We never want to settle for the first open shot, we want to move the ball.”

In the early going, the ball moved to Hodges or Aziz. During the 13-0 burst to begin the game, Hodges drilled two 3-pointers as part of his 8-point effort, and Aziz scored five. Cameron Goltara added four.

Tesoro hit four consecutive shots in the final two minutes, including a pair of 3-pointers, to pull to within 14-10 before Goltara’s 3-pointer at the buzzer made it 17-10.

Hodges dominated the inside in the early going of the second quarter, scoring six of San Juan’s first eight points to make it 26-12. Then Aziz hit back-to-back 3-pointers and Hodges added one from the top of the key in a span of 69 seconds. The lead was 35-12 and the rout was officially underway.

Other than the last two minutes of the first quarter, when Tesoro 10 points and the first two minutes of the third when they scored 7 – both outbursts buoyed by two 3-pointers – the Titans had nothing to show but effort.

The lead was 53-21 going into the fourth quarter.

Hodges is considered the best big man in the South Coast League and Aziz the best point guard, and it mattered. The game was particularly a showcase performance for Hodges.

“I think he’s amazing,” Efstathiou said. “I wouldn’t want to go to battle with anyone else.”

Selected as a team captain for three years, Hodges has on offer to walk on at UC Irvine and has two Division II scholarship offers. Everyone is obviously hoping something else comes along as well, otherwise someone is going to get a steal.

“He’s a gem,” Efstathiou said, which is an appropriate description since one of the D2 schools is Colorado School of Mines.

Hodges showed spin moves inside, a couple of dazzling passes for assists, and knocked down three 3-point baskets. “I’ve worked hard on that part of my game,” he said. “I’ve been knocking them down pretty consistently this year.” He had 18 at halftime, 25 after three quarters, and sat out the fourth quarter. He’s averaging 24 points per game, 12.1 rebounds.

“Everyone played together,” Hodges said. “We’re a family, it’s definitely not an individual thing. I know I have a great supporting cast, guys I can trust to pick up the slack if I have an off night or I’m not in the right head space.”

His head was right on Friday, and his shot was right on target. And right now, San Juan Hills is right on schedule to face down San Clemente for control of the South Coast League on Wednesday on the Stallions home court. Of course, it should be righteous.

​ Orange County Register 

Australian Open: Monfils beats Fritz to reach 4th round at age 38

• January 18, 2025

By HOWARD FENDRICH AP Tennis Writer

MELBOURNE, Australia — Gael Monfils joined Roger Federer as the only men to reach the Australian Open’s fourth round at age 38 or older since the tournament field expanded to 128 players in 1988, coming back to beat fourth-seeded Taylor Fritz, 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (1), 6-4, on Saturday (Friday night PT).

And after that win, Monfils returned to Margaret Court Arena and sat in the stands to watch his wife, Elina Svitolina, eliminate the women’s No. 4 seed, two-time major finalist Jasmine Paolini, 2-6, 6-4, 6-0, at night.

“I warmed up the court for her,” Monfils said with a smile.

Her take?

“I got inspired after my husband’s win,” Svitolina said. “I watched a little bit.”

After punctuating his victory with a 134 mph ace – his 24th of the afternoon, doubling Fritz’s total – Monfils did a celebratory dance at the baseline while thousands of fans at Margaret Court Arena roared, many waving red-white-and-blue French flags.

“It was really tough to hurt him. He just got back everything,” Fritz said. “I felt like I wasn’t even hitting. … It seemed almost too easy for him to hurt me, for how much I was struggling to hurt him. He played really, really well. Not too much I could do.”

Monfils started his season with a title at a hard-court event in Auckland, New Zealand, which made him the oldest man to win a tournament since at least 1990.

“Just fortunate. But every day is different. We work hard. I try to be very disciplined with the recovery. I am a strong believer (in) myself. Strong belief I can do some damage,” said Monfils, who has never been past the quarterfinals at the Australian Open but did reach two major semifinals, most recently at the 2016 U.S. Open. “With a little luck, here we are in the second week of the Australian Open.”

Federer was a slightly older 38 when he got to the semifinals at Melbourne Park in 2020, which turned out to be his last appearance at the tournament.

At the other end of the age spectrum, a pair of young Southern Californians who have been friends for a while and trained together in the offseason – Irvine’s Learner Tien, 19, and former Aliso Niguel High standout Alex Michelsen, 20 – earned debuts in the fourth round at a major. Ben Shelton, who is 22, won, too.

Tien, a qualifier ranked 121st, followed up his surprising win against No. 5 Daniil Medvedev in a five-setter that ended at 3 a.m. on Friday with a 7-6 (10), 6-3, 6-3 victory over Corentin Moutet of France. Michelsen, who is ranked 42nd, overwhelmed No. 19 seed Karen Khachanov of Russia, 6-3, 7-6 (5), 6-2. It was the second time Michelsen knocked off a top-20 seed this week after beating No. 11 Stefanos Tsitsipas, the 2023 Australian Open runner-up, in the first round.

Shelton, the 21st seed and a U.S. Open semifinalist in 2023, defeated 16th-seeded Italian Lorenzo Musetti, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (5), and will take on Monfils on Monday.

Michelsen will try to send another high seed packing when he plays No. 8 Alex de Minaur, an Australian who beat No. 31 Francisco Cerúndolo, 5-7, 7-6 (3), 6-3, 6-3. Tien faces 55th-ranked Lorenzo Sonego of Italy, a 6-7 (3), 7-6 (6), 6-1, 6-2 winner over Fabian Marozsan.

Playing his usual brand of charismatic, entertaining tennis in front of a loud crowd, Monfils compiled an impressive ratio of 58 winners to 34 unforced errors and dropped just one service game. And while Monfils won 11 of the 15 points he finished at the net, Fritz only went 16 for 30 when he pushed forward.

“I’ve done the job,” Monfils said.

The 27-year-old Fritz, the runner-up to Jannik Sinner at the U.S. Open in September, became the highest-seeded man to exit the bracket at Melbourne Park this year. Fritz’s right foot was treated by a trainer during the match.

The result ended a 12-match losing streak for Monfils against top-five players at Grand Slam tournaments.

Michelsen joked that he was too busy to have a lengthy phone conversation with his mother back home in California. His excuse was pretty good, actually: He was on court defeating Khachanov.

“Mom, hi! I’m sorry I only called you for a minute this morning. I had things to do,” the 42nd-ranked Michelsen said, looking into a TV camera during his post-match interview at John Cain Arena. “I love you. I miss you. I hope everything’s good at home.”

Michelsen is the second-youngest man from the United States since Andy Roddick in 2003 to get this far at the Australian Open – two years ago, Shelton was about 1½ months younger than Michelsen is now.

Michelsen is part of a crop of Americans making moves in the brackets at Melbourne Park. Six U.S. men and five women from the country reached the third round – both tournament highs.

And Michelsen has done it by defeating two players with some real success at the hard-court event in the past: Tsitsipas was the runner-up in Australia in 2023; Khachanov lost to him in the semifinals that year.

Michelsen, who is coached by 2005 U.S. Open semifinalist Robby Ginepri, converted all four break points he earned against the big-serving Khachanov and compiled an impressive 39 winners to 27 unforced errors.

“I played unbelievable most of that match. I don’t know what’s going on. … I’ve never hit my forehand that well,” Michelsen said. “Played some of my best tennis at the end.”

SINNER ROLLS ON

Defending champion Sinner beat 46th-ranked American Marcos Giron, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2, reaching the fourth round at Melbourne Park for the fourth time.

Sinner stretched his unbeaten run to 17 matches, dating to last season. He had an eventful 2024, claiming his first two Grand Slam titles, reaching No. 1 in the ATP rankings for the first time – and going through a doping case that is still not quite resolved, because the World Anti-Doping Agency appealed his exoneration.

The 23-year-old Italian’s next opponent in Australia will be either No. 13 Holger Rune or Miomir Kecmanovic, who were playing later.

After eliminating Giron, who was trying to get to the fourth round of a major for the first time, Sinner was critical of himself, pointing specifically to his 16-of-24 success rate on points when he moved forward.

“The percentage of my net game was not really good,” Sinner said with a chuckle.

“For sure, if I want to go on in this tournament, I have to improve,” he added. “So hopefully in the next round, I’m able to raise my level.”

‘PERFECT’ SWIATEK ROUTS RADUCANU

Everything came so easily for Iga Swiatek during a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Emma Raducanu in a third-round match between two past Grand Slam champions – if you thought that meant it would be close, you’d have been rather wrong – that this was how she described it:

“I felt like the ball,” Swiatek said, “is listening to me.”

Loud and clear. Asked to explain that sensation, Swiatek put her two index fingers a few inches apart and said, “It’s just being able to aim for this kind of space.” Then she spread her palms more than a foot apart to show that’s the margin for error on other days.

The difference, she said, comes down to “being more precise and actually knowing where the ball is going to go, seeing the effects that you want it to.”

When the five-time major champion and former long-time top-ranked woman – now No. 2, behind Aryna Sabalenka – is at the height of her powers, as she sure has seemed to be in Week 1 at Melbourne Park, it is hard for anyone to slow Swiatek down.

The heavy-spinning, high-bouncing forehands. The squeaky-sneaker scrambling to get to every shot. The terrific returning. And so on.

Against Raducanu, who won the 2021 U.S. Open as a teenage qualifier, Swiatek played at a level she called “perfect.”

Indeed, Swiatek mounted a 24-9 edge in winners, made only 12 unforced errors – roughly half of Raducanu’s 22 – and claimed 59 points to 29. That caused one spectator to yell out, “No mercy!” in the second set as Swiatek was reeling off the last 11 games after the match was tied at 1-all early with not a cloud in the sky and the temperature approaching 80 degrees.

“I think it was a little bit of her playing well, and me not playing so well,” Raducanu said. “That combination is probably not good.”

Fair.

Swiatek, who agreed to accept a one-month suspension in a doping case late last year, owns four trophies from the French Open and one from the U.S. Open. But she’s never been beyond the semifinals in Australia; she lost in that round to Danielle Collins in 2022.

A year ago, Swiatek was upset in the third round by teenager Linda Noskova.

Swiatek, who said she dedicated Saturday’s win to her grandfather, has ceded a total of only 10 games through three matches with new coach Wim Fissette sitting courtside. Next up will be 128th-ranked Eva Lys of Germany, who lost in qualifying but was given a spot in the main draw when someone withdrew about 10 minutes before her first-round match.

Lys defeated Jaqueline Cristian, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, and is the first “lucky loser” to get to the Australian Open’s fourth round since the tournament moved to Melbourne Park in 1988.

Others who now will get a chance to play for a quarterfinal berth after victories Saturday included No. 6 Elena Rybakina, No. 8 Emma Navarro and No. 9 Daria Kasatkina. Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon champion, beat No. 32 Dayana Yastremska, 6-3, 6-4. Navarro eliminated three-time major finalist Ons Jabeur, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, and Kasatkina got past No. 24 Yulia Putintseva, 7-5, 6-1. Unseeded Veronika Kudermetova beat No. 15 Beatriz Haddad Maia, 6-4, 6-2.

Tenth-seeded Danielle Collins was to take on fellow American and No. 19 seed Madison Keys later Saturday night.

Navarro, who reached her first major semifinal at Flushing Meadows in September, has now won all three of her matches in Melbourne this year in three sets.

That means she has been involved in 30 tour-level three-setters since the start of last season, the most of any female player.

“I love three sets. I love tennis so much, I can’t resist,” joked Navarro, who grew up in South Carolina and won an NCAA singles title at the University of Virginia. “I just wanted to stick in there and keep believing in myself.”

​ Orange County Register 

Capistrano Valley boys basketball pulls out win over Aliso Niguel in OT

• January 18, 2025

ALISO VIEJO — Capistrano Valley center Jake Davis picked a perfect time to make his first 3-point basket of the season.

With 5.8 seconds remaining in the game, Davis intercepted an inbound pass by Aliso Niguel and made a game-tying 3-point shot that sent Friday’s Sea View League game into overtime.

Capistrano Valley then took control in the extra period and beat Aliso Niguel 59-51 at Aliso Niguel High.

“It was a little bit crazy,” Davis said. “Darius (Turner) put a lot of pressure on the ball and forced them into an awful situation and I got a wide-open shot.”

Davis made 7 of 8 free throw attempts in overtime and finished with 20 points and 11 rebounds.

“Jake Davis played like a man down the stretch,” Capistrano Valley coach Brian Mulligan said. “We have a lot of seniors with some poise that never gave up. And I don’t know, maybe there may have been a little luck involved, but we’ll take it.”

The game was a testament to the expression that basketball is a game of runs. The Cougars (17-4, 2-1) went on a 10-0 run to open the second half and built an 18-point lead.

Aliso Niguel (16-6, 2-2) responded with a 20-0 run to take its first lead of the game midway through the fourth quarter.

“Honestly, I was not composed inside but I had to look very composed,” Mulligan said. “I told them we stressed being a good defensive team and we had to get some stops.”

Capistrano Valley got the stops it needed in the first half and in overtime. The Cougars held Aliso Niguel to 13 percent shooting from 3-point range in the first half and allowed only one basket in overtime.

Aliso Niguel found its shooting stroke during the 20-0 run. The Wolverines shot 50 percent from 3-point range in the second half and made 6 of 7 3-point attempts at one point.

“We got to shooters and we recovered well and maybe it was fatigue in the second half,” Mulligan said. “I told (Aliso Niguel) coach Barnett before the game, ‘you’re going to make 10 or 11 threes.’ They are so hard to guard because they have six guys who can make threes on you and that’s a difficult assignment.”

Turner had a double-double for Capistrano Valley with 13 points and 10 rebounds.

Gabe Williams scored 15 points and made a crucial 3-pointer in the fourth quarter to stop Aliso Niguel’s run.

Jay Keys led Aliso Niguel with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Jayden Mysin had 10 points for the Wolverines and Noah Shihad made two big 3-pointers in the second half.

The Sea View League has proven to be one of the more balanced leagues in Orange County. There are no undefeated teams in the league and every team has at least one league win.

“I think we are all very equal,” Mulligan said. “Everybody has to be on the top of their game or else you’re going to be on the bottom really quick. Or you could win a couple of games and shoot up to the top too. It’s fun.”

“There are no nights off in this league,” Barnett said. “Capo is really good. They defend at an elite level so I knew it was going to be like this tonight. It’s a test every night.”

​ Orange County Register