Photos: Pro Breakdancing comes to Alhambra

• July 2, 2023

​ Orange County Register 

No-fuss odds and ends pasta dish perfect for Fourth of July

• July 2, 2023

By Carla Vigos

Laguna Woods Globe correspondent

One of my favorite things to do is create a dish from odds and ends in the refrigerator. My Aunt Rose would call this “mescolanza,” which in Italian means mixture.

Today I had Swiss chard, grape tomatoes, and mushrooms needing some love and attention before going bad. I always have Italian sausage in the freezer, and I had some frozen feta as well.

So what’s a cook to do? Easy. You boil some pasta and create a new dish – which I must say turned out delizioso.

INGREDIENTS

8 ounces rotini pasta

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 hot or mild Italian sausages, casings removed

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper (optional)

1 bunch Swiss chard, stems finely chopped and greens sliced into ribbons

6 large cloves garlic, finely chopped

8 ounces sliced mushrooms

2 cups sliced grape tomatoes

1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese

PROCEDURE

Cook rotini in salted water until al dente, usually a minute before time indicated on the pasta package. Save 1 1/2 cups of pasta water before draining. Do not rinse pasta.

Meanwhile, in a large fry pan or pot, heat olive oil on medium low heat. Add sausage and break apart.  Add chard stems, garlic, mushrooms and optional red pepper. Saute until sausage is cooked.

Add chard leaves, tomatoes and 1 cup of pasta water. Cover and cook on a low simmer for 5 minutes. Add feta and stir in to blend. Now add the pasta and stir to combine.

You want it saucy, so more reserved pasta water may be needed. Adjust the seasonings. No parmesan is needed for this pasta because of the saltiness of the feta, but add if desired.

You can use any greens instead of chard, like spinach, kale or arugula.

Any questions or comments, email [email protected].

​ Orange County Register 

Dodgers Will Smith and Clayton Kershaw named to All-Star team

• July 2, 2023

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Validation delayed was not validation denied for Will Smith.

The Dodgers catcher was named to his first All-Star team Sunday as a reserve, joining left-hander Clayton Kershaw, who was named to the National League’s pitching staff for the game July 11 in Seattle. Three Dodgers — Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and J.D. Martinez — were voted into the starting lineup.

For Kershaw, it is his 10th All-Star selection, tying Pee Wee Reese for the franchise record. He finished third in the player voting among starting pitchers behind Zac Gallen and Marcus Stroman — although he is unlikely to participate in the game due to a sore shoulder.

Smith finished behind Braves catcher Sean Murphy in both the fan and player voting. His first All-Star selection comes just a few months after he played for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic.

“Obviously, the dream as a kid is to make an All-Star team. So it’s an honor. I’m excited. Just happy to be able to go,” Smith said.

“Hopefully it’s the first of many All-Stars and hopefully I’ll get to play in the World Baseball Classic again. Obviously, the WBC was a great experience and I’m sure this will be too.”

It’s an experience Smith probably played well enough to earn in 2021 or 2022, but he was left off the team.

“I mean, yes and no,” Smith said when asked if this year’s selection validated his standing among MLB catchers. “For me, I don’t really keep going on that stuff (as motivation). I just go out and try to help the team win. I kind of already knew I had the respect of my peers from the WBC and all that.”

Smith was a finalist for the start at catcher but was beaten by Braves catcher Sean Murphy in the second phase of fan voting.

“I think he deserved it,” Smith said. “His numbers were a little better, so congrats to him. I’m happy for him. Obviously I wanted to be in there as the starter. But if you don’t like it, you just have to play a little better.”

NO DECISION

Kershaw threw in the outfield again Sunday morning and “there was progress,” according to Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. But there is no decision yet on whether Kershaw will start Monday or go to the Injured List.

Roberts said on Saturday that a decision would need to be made Sunday because of the ramifications for the rest of the team’s starting rotation.

“There’s some things that we have to think through if he starts, if we give him an extra couple extra days to kind of kick the can,” Roberts said. “So right now, for me, watching him throw the baseball — he didn’t throw a ‘pen (off the mound), didn’t spin the baseball (throw curves or sliders) but there was progress. He felt better. So that’s encouraging.”

Kershaw would not comment on his throwing session or status Sunday. But his desire to pitch even with a sore shoulder appears to be putting the Dodgers in a bind.

If his start is pushed back (meaning he would only make one more before the All-Star break), the Dodgers would need a fill-in starter Monday. Right-hander Michael Grove will meet the team in LA, Roberts said, and be available to pitch “whether it’s to start or to come in” (out of the bullpen). But Grove was just sent down on Thursday and can’t be recalled so quickly unless he replaces someone going on the Injured List.

“That’s where it gets a little bit muddy because of roster management as far as 26 players,” Roberts said, though he added the Dodgers have “softened a tick” on pushing Kershaw’s start back.

“But that’s still very unlikely. … It’s most likely either tomorrow or a potential IL. And I think that for us, appreciating the schedule, the All Star break coming up, potential games lost, that wouldn’t be lost because of the break — if there is any time for us to do this, and to give him a little re-set, this would be it.”

Selling that idea to Kershaw could be the reason the Dodgers have “kicked the can” on an IL decision.

“Obviously, Clayton expects to make all of his starts and that’s what makes him special,” Roberts said. “But I think that having the conversation and trying to appreciate the shorter and the long term of the rest of the season is important.

“I think that you’ve got guys that are lined up to pitch that are throwing well, that feel good physically, and to continue to stay the course I think is important and also having a guy that’s not going to pitch — roster, reliever, all that stuff sort of matters to winning baseball games.”

UP NEXT

Pirates (RHP Mitch Keller, 9-3, 3.34 ERA) at Dodgers (TBA), Monday, 7:10 p.m., SportsNet LA, 570 AM

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​ Orange County Register 

Lisa Hart signs off as host on Laguna Woods Village TV

• July 2, 2023

Standing before a backdrop of the American flag, Lisa Hart opened her June 14 “ThisDay” broadcast on Laguna Woods Village TV at 9 a.m. sharp. She announced that it was Flag Day, detailing the holiday’s history, before telling viewers that it was her last day as host of the daily show.

Hart will move her base of operations to Arizona, where she plans to use her expertise as a certified travel agent and enjoy a bit of travel herself.

“I may get into some TV work as well,” said Hart, who hosted “ThisDay” for three years.

During that final show, Hart aired a tape of one of her favorite segments – a piece about the Equestrian Center and miniature horse Sebastian, or Little Sebby.

She also chatted with Paul Ortiz, general manager of Broadband Services for the Village, and Michael Taylor, one of two new co-hosts for “ThisDay.” The other is Bobbie Higgins, who will rotate duties with Taylor and on occasion appear with him.

Among her fondest memories, Hart said, was the work she did during the pandemic.

“Because of Zoom, I was able to speak with people I wouldn’t be able to get in here (the studio), such as the emergency room doctor at Saddleback Memorial,” she said.

She also enjoyed talking with residents during the lockdown to see how they were coping.

“There are so many clubs here, and I appreciate their passion,” she said. “People come here to enjoy life and have new adventures.”

In her own new life, Hart said she hopes to travel more and “help people find fabulous vacations.” She plans to post adventures to social media through her company, Hart Adventures.

“I’ve been doing this (at Village TV) a long time,” she said. “Although it will be tough to leave, I will be happy not to get up early each day, put on makeup and rotate my clothes,” she said with a laugh.

In the closing moments of the show, Taylor complimented Hart on the enthusiasm and genuine enjoyment she shows for her interview subjects.

“You are the same person on and off TV,” he said.

The trio closed out Hart’s final appearance at 9:30 a.m. as the camera zoomed out on her Village TV career.

“ThisDay” has aired for around 50 years, Ortiz said, and has had six hosts in that time, one for as long as 35 years.

“The show will evolve again as the new hosts become more comfortable in their new roles,” Ortiz said in an email. Hart’s other show, “Your Health,” will be on hiatus until new employees can get “up to speed,” he added.

Taylor has more than 30 years of broadcasting experience in front of and behind the camera. He worked with PBS SoCal KOCE for more than 14 years, serving as news director as well as producer and reporter for a daily live news program. He holds a bachelor of arts degree in broadcast journalism from Cal State Fullerton.

Higgins also has 30 years of broadcast experience, both in front of and behind the camera, and has hosted a variety of TV programs such as talk shows, corporate videos and sports shows. She also has done voice-over work on commercials and corporate videos. She holds a bachelor of arts degree in communication from USC.

Ortiz credits both with a good working knowledge of the local area and the Village as each has lived in the area for more than 25 years.

After the show, Hart acknowledged the many informative conversations she had with her interview guests.

“I learned something new every day,” she said. “I spoke to so many interesting and educated people, including doctors, scientists, nurses, researchers, executives, business owners and our residents with amazing pasts.”

She is most proud of the work she did during the pandemic, when the Village station was the only one in the area dispensing local numbers for information and instructions.

“We kept our residents informed daily, and I believe that the city of Laguna Woods was the first in the area to have a majority of its residents vaccinated,” she said, expressing pride in the community.

“I have enjoyed this job because I got to be myself on camera,” Hart said. “It’s so much better than acting.”

​ Orange County Register 

Solar microgrid offers Soboba tribe independence, with model many users could adapt

• July 2, 2023

By this time next year, nearly 3,000 solar panels will span the roof of Soboba Casino in San Jacinto, powering the flashy slot machines, air conditioned hotel rooms and golf course facilities that dot the tribe’s 474,000-square-foot resort.

Utility services for Native Americans can be problematic. Tribes across the United States report pricier electric bills, more frequent outages and a higher percentage of homes with no electricity at all than those figures for Americans who don’t live on tribal lands. So with a surge in federal funding available to help offset the costs of installing renewable energy projects, the Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians has joined the growing number of tribes who are building out microgrids to help flip the switch on that dynamic.

“It’s about independence,” said Jason Cozart, who’s one of 1,200 tribe members and assistant general manager of Soboba Casino Resort. “Self sufficiency for any tribe is important, and this is just another form of that.”

Microgrids are independent electricity networks, where a local energy source like solar panels is used to power an adjacent building, a collection of buildings, or an entire neighborhood. They typically tie into the larger energy grid but can be disconnected to operate independently, with battery storage and control systems that run like mini utilities.

Done right, microgrids can lower utility bills, offer reliable backup power and even take some businesses or communities entirely off the currently strained power grid. That’s why hospitals and prisons, which can’t risk power outages, have used microgrids for years. But in recent years, the price of solar energy has come down while traditional electricity costs and available funding for renewable energy projects have shot up. And Guillermo Gomez with Scale Microgrids — which partnered with Soboba on its project — said interest in microgrids has never been higher.

His company is developing a microgrid to power Santa Margarita Water District’s water and wastewater treatment facilities in south Orange County. They’re also building out a local power grid for a fruit packing facility in Fresno and for a food distribution company near Scale Microgrid’s California headquarters in Los Angeles.

For new construction, some cold storage companies and other businesses that require lots of energy around the clock are being told utilities won’t be able to connect them to the grid for a year or more, or that they can only get steady power during off-peak months.

“You can’t really run a business like that,” Gomez said. So some of those companies are asking Scale Microgrids and its competitors to power them up with independent microgrids as soon as possible.

Some also are pursuing microgrids to meet environmental goals. Since the electric grid still gets a significant share of its power from fossil fuels, adding a microgrid that’s powered by renewable energy (such as solar panels) can dramatically reduce a business, agency or community’s carbon footprint.

Soboba Casino Resort, for example, is projected to cut its carbon footprint by 1,000 pounds a year, or the equivalent of taking 4,800 gas-powered cars off the road, once its microgrid is up and running. The project also will relieve some strain on the state’s energy grid, to the benefit of all Californians.

It’s all in line with the tribe’s mission to be good stewards of their ancestral home, Cozart said.

“We’re doing our best to take care of the land that we have,” he said. “Obviously, it’s all we got.”

A timeline stretching across one casino wall details the history of the Soboba people, including their long struggle for rights to their land and the rivers and springs that once sustained them. The decades-long water rights case was settled just 15 years ago, when Cozart was already well into his career with the casino.

Cozart, who grew up on the 7,000-acre reservation, remembers pretty frequent power outages. “And power was out for a while,” he said. “We weren’t necessarily the priority on getting things back up and running.”

Jason Cozart, assistant general manager at Soboba Casino Resort, talks solar power and Soboba being power self-sufficient in San Jacinto on Wednesday, Jun. 28, 2023. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

The tribe’s relationship with Southern California Edison and other utilities is far better today, he said. But those memories naturally fuel the tribe’s desire to be as self-sufficient as possible, Cozart said, “so that we can determine our own future.”

That’s why they recently finished construction on their own gas station, the Road Runner Express. And it’s why they’re pursuing this microgrid project.

The microgrid will allow the casino to operate in what’s called “grid-parallel mode,” Gomez explained. That means they’ll use solar power during the day and grid energy when it’s cheap and reliable at night. But they’ll also store solar energy on site, in batteries behind the casino in a space about the size of two shipping containers that’s now used as parking spots for resort work trucks. They can then sell that stored energy back to Southern California Edison during peak demand or, crucially, use it as needed for their own backup power.

The tribe already has a system in place to ensure the casino won’t go dark if there’s an outage from Edison, whether it’s rolling blackouts or if power is being cut during high wind events as a way to reduce wildfire risk. But if the electricity goes down now, the casino switches to diesel-powered emergency backup generators, which spew out lots of harmful pollutants.

Soboba isn’t ditching those generators entirely, in case true emergencies arise. But once the microgrid is in place, they’ll be able to use solar power for outages when the sun is shining and backup battery power for when it’s not. Gomez projects they’ll have enough stored juice to run the casino for four to eight hours.

The entire design will have a capacity of 1.5 megawatts. And Gomez said projects of this size on average save customers 22% on monthly utility charges.

The battery system to store the power generated by a Scale Microgrids project is expected to use the space where these three trucks are parked behind Soboba Casino Resort in San Jacinto on Wednesday, Jun. 28, 2023. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Soboba started talking with Scale Microgrids back in early 2021. So last summer, when Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act, the teams had a shovel-ready proposal that helped them land several grants to cover roughly half of the total project cost, which they declined to share.

Without that funding, Cozart said they would have found a way to move the microgrid project forward eventually. Now, the plan is to start construction in January and flip the switch next June.

As part of those funding agreements, Soboba members agreed to establish the casino as a designated cooling center. That means it will be open, as capacity allows, for a nearby mobile home park, neighboring retirement communities and other area residents.

They’re also looking to add the casino’s first charging stations for electric vehicles and do more electrification projects. And this could be just the start.

The casino’s microgrid has the potential to double in size down the road, allowing the tribe to go completely off the grid. By covering the parking lot with solar panels and adding more battery capacity, Gomez said their calculations show they could cover about 90% of demand. And he said they’re looking at other options, such as hydrogen power, to close any remaining gap.

It helps, Gomez said, that Soboba members already had done some energy projects before. That included installing solar panels several years ago to power the reservation’s sports complex, tribal administration building and other facilities.

Some other tribes, such as the Pechanga Band of Indians in Pechanga, have even developed their own full-fledged power utilities. But for tribes that haven’t yet ventured down that path, Gomez said there’s understandably some skepticism when an outside company like his approaches.

It doesn’t help that some solar companies have made big promises to tribes in place like Imperial Valley about the potential for power generation, cost savings or local jobs and failed to deliver. So Gomez advises anyone considering a microgrid project to insist on paying nothing up front and having performance guarantees in place, so they won’t have to pay during any month where the system doesn’t perform as spelled out in the contract.

He also recommends finding a company that offers options in terms of who owns the equipment and how it’s financed. Soboba, for example, will own its equipment, in keeping with that self-sufficiency goal. But for the Santa Margarita Water District projects, his company will own and operate the batteries.

With funds still available from the Inflation Reduction Act and other programs, Gomez said, “I think we’re at a precipice,” with lots of these microgrid projects set to take off.

​ Orange County Register 

Do family vacation homes foster closeness or animosity?

• July 2, 2023

The family vacation home is often a point of pride, a place for reconnecting and making memories.

A vacation home, whether it’s in the mountains, near the sea, on a lake, or on a farm, can have sentimental as much as economic value.

Unfortunately, these very characteristics can also make the family vacation home one of the most difficult assets to pass down to future generations.

Change happens

While a parent is alive and organizing family get-togethers at the vacation home — summer vacations, reunions, weddings, memorials — things often go smoothly. The kids show up, and eventually the kids bring along their own kids, and everyone is happy (if a bit crowded) and reasonably well-behaved.

Everyone knows who gets what bedroom, who sleeps in the bunk beds (sorry, younger kids!), who can drive the boat/ATV/tractor, who cooks, who cleans (not mom! She’s on vacation!), who gardens, who barbecues, and where the best take-out places are.

Everybody loves the family vacation, so, of course, parents want this joyful place to remain in the family for generations to come. Parents envision future generations vacationing just like they’re doing now.

But things change when one generation passes on. Leaving the family vacation home to all children in equal shares in your will or trust may be a prescription for disaster. What once was an idyllic place can quickly become a battleground.

What can go wrong?

When the parents die, there is no longer a matriarch or patriarch organizing the vacation and use of the property.

There may even be vying for that role — is it the oldest child? The most responsible child? The wealthiest child? Logistically, it’s no longer one family in a triangular shape with the parents at the peak. Instead, if there is more than one child, it’s several families creating new “triangles” of their own.

Besides the struggle to “be in charge,” once the kids have kids of their own, and then those kids marry and/or have kids of their own, not everybody fits in the house. Or worse, not everybody gets along.

So, who gets the “good weeks” to use the home each summer? Who gets the week it’s most crowded or before school lets out? If one of the kids has four kids of their own and another kid is unmarried and without kids, do they each get the same number of weeks to use the vacation home? What if one child doesn’t want to be a co-owner of the home? What if a grandchild moves in and refuses to leave?

If the children all own separate shares of the property outright, they each have the right to live there, to sell their share, to force the sale of the entire property, to vacation there when and how they’d like, and to bring whatever guests they’d like.

For these and myriad other reasons, leaving a vacation home outright in equal shares to all your children is rarely a good idea without some structure in place.

What to do

First, talk to your children (and grandchildren, if appropriate). Do they want the vacation home to stay in the family? Do they all want it? How will they use it in the future? Are the kids thinking they’d make a killing turning it into a short-term rental? Does one kid want to tear down the cabin and build a McMansion?

These are all things you need to know before deciding how to leave the vacation home in your trust (and if you have a vacation home, you need a trust not just a will). Just because you like the idea of your kids all vacationing together long after you’re gone, doesn’t mean they will. If you don’t consider their plans for the home, you may be creating animosity among them.

If only one child is interested in the vacation home, you can leave it to them and leave other assets of equal value to the other children.

If there aren’t enough other assets to equalize the gifts, you can give the child who wants the vacation home the right to buy it from the others or from your trust at your death.

Be sure to consider the property inside the home (furniture, fixtures, and family heirlooms) as well, and determine whether those stay with the home or are divided among the children.

If more than one child is interested in the property, your planning will need to be more detailed.

Another option

When one or more people (related or not) are going to own property together, it’s important to have an agreement detailing the rights and obligations of co-owning the property.

If it’s going to stay a vacation home, consider leaving the property in trust with specific terms for the use of the property (who, how, when, for how long), naming a trustee to manage the trust (one, maybe two people, but not all the children and grandchildren!), stating how and when the property can be sold, who pays for what (there will be property taxes, utilities, repairs, and maintenance) and the terms for passing the property through generations.

In other words, set the ground rules and give a method for enforcing them.

If instead, the property is going to become a rental property, whether that’s a short-term vacation rental or a long-term rental, another option is to put the property in a Limited Liability Company (LLC). Each of the heirs can own a membership interest in the LLC, a manager is designated, and an operating agreement is entered into that sets out the terms for selling or otherwise transferring a membership interest.

An asset as special as your family vacation home needs and deserves special attention. Discuss your plans with your children or other heirs and then with an experienced estate planning attorney. Then enjoy sipping a cool beverage on that dock, beach, porch, or balcony, knowing you’ve left a legacy and not a conflict.

Teresa J. Rhyne is an attorney practicing in estate planning and trust administration in Riverside and Paso Robles, CA. She is also the #1 New York Times bestselling author of “The Dog Lived (and So Will I)” and “Poppy in The Wild.”  You can reach her at [email protected]

​ Orange County Register 

As a senior motorist, renewing my driver’s license made me a nervous wreck

• July 2, 2023

Are you over 70 and a California driver?

Are you going to have to renew your driver’s license anytime soon?

Are you in for a surprise! And perhaps a nerve-wracking experience, like me.

For over two years during the COVID pandemic, senior drivers in California could skip taking the dreaded knowledge test when renewing, thanks to Gov. Gavin Newom’s temporary waiver to reduce in-person contact. You only needed to renew and pay for a new license online. But not anymore. That welcome reprieve expired at the end of 2022.

Now, if you are over 70, once again the DMV requires that you take a vision test, a new photo and pass a 25-question written test every five years. The renewal application, payment and test can all be done online, but you still will need to trek into your local DMV office for the rest, including the test if you fail it two times online.

If a written test is in your future, you’d better start now memorizing all the endless information in the 92-page California Driver’s Handbook because you’re going to need it to pass the test.

I speak from a stressful, nail-biting experience I don’t ever want to go through again.

My driver’s license is expiring this year on July 7, my 85th birthday. That meant I had to get it renewed if I wanted to keep driving myself around town.

I’ve been driving myself around since I was 16 growing up in Lombard, a small suburb west of Chicago. That’s 69 years of driving experience.

I figured with all that experience, taking the California written test would not be a problem. I had taken it before and passed. Boy, was I wrong.

Preparing to take the written test, I went through the Driver’s Handbook pretty carefully. It’s available on the DMV website which is how I was reading it, but printed copies can be found in DMV offices.

Printed copies of the DMV handbook are available at DMV offices but it’s also available to read on the DMV website.

Well, I failed my first attempt at the test which I took online. Why did I fail? Maybe it was a case of nerves, especially since the online test is monitored. A special app that you have to download first turns on your computer camera to make sure you are not cheating.

No talking.

No looking at notes.

I was confident I would pass on my second try so I took the test again online on the same day.

I failed again! That meant I had one more try, but I had to take the test in person this time at a DMV office.

With my July 7 birthday fast approaching, I tried to make an appointment at nearby DMV offices in Long Beach, Bellflower and Anaheim, but nothing was available until after my birthday.

I finally was able to make an appointment for June 27 at the DMV office in Compton which is conveniently located right off the 91 freeway.

If I was nervous taking the test the first two times, I was really nervous preparing for the third try. I spent hours studying the Driver’s Handbook, taking copious notes on everything from what you should do on a flashing red light to what you should do when driving in a fog. I took sample tests online with dozens of questions, many of which I thought were irrelevant that had nothing to do with how I drove a vehicle. Questions like: When you buy a vehicle, how manydays do you have to transfer ownership to your name? Or, What can your punishment be if you dump or abandon animals on a highway?

I felt like my days at the University of Illinois when I was cramming for a final exam.

Everything went well at the Compton DMV. My appointment time was on schedule. I went into the testing room where several people were standing at a computer taking their test. Corrine, an employee, was helpful in getting my computer ready.

I felt prepared and ready but still nervous as the first question came on the screen. I knew there would be 25 questions, five of which I could get wrong and still pass. As you take the test, a big red X shows up if you get a question wrong. I wasn’t too worried as I missed two of the first 10 questions or so. I could miss three more and still pass, I said to myself. But then I missed a fourth question and a fifth, and I still had about seven questions to go.

Yikes! If I missed just one of those seven, I would fail and have to go through the whole laborious process again of renewing. I tried not to think that, if I failed, I wouldn’t be able to drive after July 7.

I wasn’t sweating, but my hands were shaking a little as each question came up. I was so busyconcentrating on each question I lost track of how many questions I had left. It seemed like an eternity as questions kept popping up. Finally, the screen showed the most welcome words I had seen in a long time:

Congratulations! You have passed the test!

Hallelujah! I wanted to shout. It was like I had won the lottery.

Corrine congratulated me and typed out my interim license renewal.

As I drove home with my wife, I was glad I had passed, but I had so many questions about my ordeal: Why were irrelevant questions on the test? What did they have to do with my driving ability? Why not have a driving test instead of or in addition to a written test? Why was a written test required for only drivers 70 and over? Isn’t that age discrimination?

For answers, I emailed questions to the DMV office in Sacramento and got a reply from Angelica De La Pena, an information officer.

She said the DMV “takes knowledge-based exams seriously and has upgraded the test and our processes over time to ensure they are accurate in their assessment and fair to all. Ensuring the knowledge exam accuracy helps confirm that drivers have the knowledge needed to safely operate a vehicle. Answers to all test questions are taken from the California Driver Handbook.”

She said the DMV last updated the exam in 2021 “using a linear-on-the-fly testing algorithm, to help assess and manage the difficulty of the exam (to ensure fairness) and to improve validity, reliability and integrity. The algorithm also helps the DMV know when questions are too difficult and need to be rewritten and when a question in the test bank is overexposed and needs to be pulled or replaced.”

De La Pena said the DMV also has started offering knowledge tests online and has released an eLearning course “to remove the barrier for test adverse drivers.” I don’t know if she meant that I was a test-adverse driver. She said drivers preparing to take a written test may practice by taking sample tests available online.

On mandating driving tests for renewal applicants based on a certain age, De La Pena said, “The California Vehicle Code does not allow the DMV to do so, as the ‘age of a licensee, by itself, may not constitute evidence of a condition requiring an examination of the driving ability.’”

However, she said, “The DMV can take administrative actions on driving privileges for anyone who demonstrates a lack of capacity to operate a vehicle.”

It seems like any changes to the 70-year-old threshold or whether a driving test should replace the written test is a hot potato that would have to be answered by the California Legislature and not the DMV.

In the meantime, we seniors alone have to contend with a written test that has some questionable questions regarding driving ability.

But I have a big smile on my face. I can drive for at least five more years until my next DMV go-around.

That’s a great birthday present.

​ Orange County Register 

4 ways to accommodate special diets at your Fourth of July celebrations

• July 2, 2023

The Fourth of July is an occasion to celebrate the birthday of the United States. It’s also a time for gathering with friends and family, grilling and enjoying good food and cool drinks.

Unfortunately, those with special dietary needs face unique challenges when eating away from home.

Nearly one in five adults report following a special diet. Special diets are sometimes needed to help manage medical concerns or food allergies, requiring limiting or avoiding certain ingredients or foods such as sugar, salt, dairy, nuts or gluten, for example. They may also involve adhering to a dietary pattern such as vegan or vegetarian for ethical or environmental concerns.

Regardless of the reason for special diets, it’s important for guests to have safe, healthy and satisfying food options. While it may not be realistic to serve a menu that 100% accommodates all guests with and without food restrictions, it’s important to offer safe alternatives when able. Whether you are hosting the barbeque or bringing food to a potluck, there are ways to help accommodate those with special dietary needs.

Ask guests about their special diets ahead of time.

By asking your guests ahead of time about their food restrictions, you can plan your menu accordingly. If you are unable to know your guests’ dietary needs before the event, opt to make your menu friendly to the most common dietary needs, which are vegetarian, nut/peanut allergies and gluten intolerance. A barbeque menu that includes veggie burgers, gluten-free buns and a nut-free dessert can be extremely inclusive for those with common food restrictions.

Label all dishes.

Those with food restrictions and allergies greatly appreciate when dishes are labeled. Use note cards or sticky notes to indicate items with nuts, shellfish, eggs and other common allergens. Keep gluten-free options separate from those containing gluten and label special dishes made to accommodate guests with food restrictions such as a dairy-free dessert or a low-sodium bean salad. Keep packaged items in their original container so guests can read the food label if necessary.

Include healthful, plant-based options.

Those who are vegan or vegetarian can be unintentionally excluded at a barbeque with typical fare like ribs, burgers and hot dogs. Fortunately, convenient meatless alternatives are easily found at most supermarkets. These include vegan hot dogs, plant-based burgers and meatless “chicken” to name a few. One way to accommodate the entire spectrum of eaters is to include healthy plant foods like beans, tofu, salads, fruit and whole grains in a variety of recipes.

Don’t be afraid to discuss your special diet.

If you have special dietary needs and will be attending a food-focused gathering, let your host know about your diet ahead of time. Offer examples and suggestions of foods that are safe and reasonable options. Offer to bring a dish that you can safely enjoy and share with others. If your dietary needs are severe or particularly unusual it may be best to eat before you go. This can help take the pressure off feeling hungry around foods that may not be appropriate or could cause illness.

Food and nutrition are an important part of treating and managing numerous health concerns. Planning ahead and communicating clearly about special dietary needs are important steps toward making sure your Fourth of July barbeque is safe and healthy for everybody.

LeeAnn Weintraub, MPH, RD is a registered dietitian, providing nutrition counseling and consulting to individuals, families and organizations. She can be reached by email at [email protected].

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