Newly acquired Kings center Pierre-Luc Dubois ready to ‘just fully be me’

• July 12, 2023

EL SEGUNDO — Although he made it to a Dodgers game, a Galaxy match and other outdoor events that might have left his skin sun-kissed after nearly a week in Southern California, center Pierre-Luc Dubois was looking a bit pale during his first in-person interview as a member of the Kings.

“I feel like I haven’t slept or haven’t stopped in the five or six days I’ve been here; it’s been really fun,” Dubois said.

If he’s been soaking up his new environs, it might be understandable as he will, foreseeably, be staying a while, and that’s a novel feeling for him. Not only has he successfully asked out of two NHL cities in six seasons (more on that later), Dubois grew up the son of a Quebecois coach and a supportive Atlantan mom. That meant stints in England, Germany and three different Canadian cities before Dubois moved away from home at 15 to intensify preparation for his pro career.

“It helped prepare me for this life of hockey where you could always, potentially, be on the move,” Dubois said of his youth.

Since turning pro, he has been on the move more than once, most recently when he was traded to the Kings, who signed him to a hefty eight-year, $68 million contract extension. That pact came after they moved heaven and earth in trades to accommodate his contract and that of Dubois’ former Columbus Blue Jackets teammate, defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov. The unique aspect of that commitment might be less on the Kings’ side than on that of Dubois.

His infamous final shift and subsequent benching and trade from Columbus ended his first NHL stint in a sequence that saw him request and effectively force his departure. As he approached a contractual impasse this summer, he informed his second club, the Winnipeg Jets, that they should be looking for ways to move him before next season, when he would have been eligible to become an unrestricted free agent.

“I don’t really live in the past. I try to live in the moment. With an eight-year contract, obviously, you get to live in the future a bit,” Dubois said. “But I think the opportunity to help build and help maintain the culture of winning is really interesting.”

Dubois did not shy away from questions about his past, reputation or character, but was a bit guarded and vague in addressing any potential baggage. What was clear was that he felt that the Kings offered a more conducive situation that lured him into the maximum commitment possible.

“There’s so many rumors, so many things floating around,” Dubois said. “I think as a player, and as a person mostly, there’s times where you just want to grab the microphone and say something. But, also, you have to remain patient. You have to remain positive.”

If his tan and his public perception weren’t quite up to par just yet, his physique appeared to be, which was nothing new for the meticulous pivot.

Dubois packed on 40 pounds of muscle in the two campaigns leading up to his draft eligibility, helping him ascend the board all the way to 2016’s third overall selection. From his high school years onward, Dubois has worked with Dr. Sebastien Lagrange of Axxeleration Performance Center in Châteauguay, Quebec.

“When I was (15), (my father) told me, ‘If you want to make it to the NHL, you’re going to have to make some sacrifices at some point, and this could be a time where you might have to move away to get better training.’ And that’s what I did,” Dubois said. “I moved to Montreal and started training with Sebastien. Our relationship has really developed through the years. At first, he was my trainer and now he’s a really good friend.”

Lagrange said the categorizations of Dubois, who said he was “misunderstood at times,” as capricious or cantankerous hardly tracked with the young man he’d known and worked with closely for a decade.

“If I tell him to do three repetitions, he does three repetitions, not two, not four,” said Lagrange, who added that Dubois showed uncommon discipline not only during workouts but in seeking out other activities and professionals to improve his skills, conditioning and physique.

Dubois, listed at 6-foot-4, had skated around his peak functional weight of 225 pounds, but he slimmed down from 11% body fat to just under 9%, tipping the scales around 215 presently, Lagrange said. While the offseason ahead will focus largely on refinement, conditioning, injury prevention and work toward greater explosiveness, Lagrange said he thought Dubois would carry a desire onto the ice to show the world a player beyond what he already had in Columbus and Winnipeg.

“He is underrated because if everyone knew Pierre-Luc, they would quickly understand his ability to consistently compete – his willingness to give maximum effort no matter the situation in every aspect of his life – is off the charts,” Lagrange said. “He has been taking responsibility for his development since I met him at 15 years old, and he hasn’t changed since. This is the quality that can turn a good athlete into a great athlete and a great player into an elite player.”

The Athletic spoke to Dubois’ agent Pat Brisson, who pointed to the opportunity for Dubois to re-write his narrative much as Jack Eichel did after being traded from Buffalo to Stanley Cup champion Vegas, and Kings president Luc Robitaille, who expressed confidence in the relationship between Dubois and the organization.

“You never know until you’re in the room. But I do believe a kid like this, he wants to come to us. He plays hard. He defends his teammates. He’s a team guy,” Robitaille told The Athletic.

For Dubois, the years ahead in “a city that feels like you can never be in a bad mood” represented possibilities, in hockey and beyond, and a stunning horizon rather than a chance to rectify any aspect of the past.

“It’ll be a fun opportunity for me to just be who I am, not show anybody or prove to anybody, just fully be me,” Dubois said.

That attitude might gel with the Kings’ existing group, which has never been especially image-conscious, much as Dubois’ singular focus on team success in his interview certainly did. Dubois reiterated that the Kings’ alternate captain Phillip Danault, a fellow francophone, seemed more intimately familiar than their limited contact would have suggested. He also repeated that captain Anze Kopitar, a man he might eventually replace as the Kings’ No. 1 center, was a role model for a young Dubois.

“Sometimes he doesn’t get all the recognition that he should or all the attention that he should, but he’s won two Stanley Cups,” Dubois said. “That’s the goal.”

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​ Orange County Register 

Students, faculty protest potential CSU tuition hikes, which heads to full board in fall

• July 12, 2023

Hundreds of California State University students, faculty, and staff gathered at the system’s Long Beach headquarters on Tuesday, July 11, to oppose  proposed 6% annual tuition increases over the next five years — which CSU officials say is necessary to help offset a $1.5 billion funding gap.

The CSU Board of Trustees’ Committee on Finance weighed the proposal on Tuesday, and ultimately decided to send it to the full board for final approval. The board will likely hear the item in September, though the date won’t be confirmed until the agenda for that month’s meeting released.

A CSU workgroup first identified the massive funding gap in a nearly 70-page report released in May. It found that the system only has enough money to pay for about 85% of the actual costs of education, institutional and academic support and student services at all of its campuses.

That’s largely because the CSU’s two primary revenue sources — funding from California’s budget and tuition — haven’t kept up with the ever-increasing costs of operating the nation’s largest state university system, the report said. About 60% of the CSU’s operating budget is funded by the state; the remaining 40% comes from tuition revenue.

State funding, officials said Tuesday, is volatile and highly dependent on external factors that impact economic stability throughout the state. And though California Gov. Gavin Newsom has agreed to a funding compact with the CSU that will provide a 5% annual boost to its annual budget — amounting to a $227.3 million increase for this fiscal year — officials say it isn’t nearly enough to bridge the funding gap.

“Over the past two decades, state tax revenues that support public higher education institutions have significantly fluctuated,” said Ryan Storm, the CSU’s Assistant Vice Chancellor for Budget, on Tuesday, “with a trend toward a decrease in real dollars across the country and within California.”

The state’s share of funding for the CSU total operating budget, Storm said, has declined from about 90% in the 1980s to 60% currently.

The CSU secondary source of funding, tuition revenues, has been stagnant for nearly a decade. The last tuition hike — which was 5%, or $270 a semester — came during the 2011-12 academic year.

Several Finance Committee members on Tuesday said tuition hikes aren’t ideal — but felt obligated to support the proposal because of the CSU’s current financial situation.

“We’re so proud of the fact we have such an affordable system with great access and great affordability,” Trustee Jack McGrory said, “but it’s absolutely fiscally irresponsible to take 40% of your general fund budget and freeze it for 11 years — what’s going to happen is, we will (have) cuts across the board and then all hell will break loose.”

Students and faculty, meanwhile, said they oppose the proposed tuition hikes — arguing that the Board’s proposal is unfair to students.

“The thing that we emphasize it really it shouldn’t be up to the students to essentially pay for their (mismanagement),” said Michael Lee-Chang, a Sac State freshman and member of advocacy group Students for a Quality Education, on Tuesday. “This really isn’t a fight with current students. If anything, it’s probably a greater fight for future students — the later you attend the more you end up paying.”

Student Trustee Diana Aguilar-Cruz, during the Tuesday meeting, also argued that the student groups weren’t given enough time to give their full input on the matter. The Cal State Student Association, for example, doesn’t meet during the summer and have been in the process of onboarding a new set of leaders for the next academic year since May — when the CSU began its discussion about the proposed tuition increase.

“I do believe that our timing should be punched that at least we come back to vote on this in November so that we can give enough time to the students that we serve, so that they can have that conversation,” Aguilar-Cruz said. “Students have fought the same fight countless times and we’ve lost each time — it almost feels that our voices have been ignored throughout the years.”

The CSSA also issued a statement in opposition to the proposal on Tuesday.

The CSU, though, argues that the tuition increases are necessary not only to provide students with the level of education and academic support they’ve repeatedly asked the system to provide, but to comply with several unfunded mandates it will eventually have to pay for in order to maintain compliance with federal and state educational regulations.

Those include up to $18.7 million to institute Title IX regulations, and another $5.8 billion to upgrade decades-old campus facilities that have fallen into despair because of deferred maintenance, according to a staff report for the Tuesday meeting, and another up to $1 billion for employee raises.

The California Faculty Association, a labor union representing about 60,000 employees throughout the CSU, are currently in negotiations for a new employment contract. That group is advocating for 12% wage increases across the board, citing inflation, high costs of living in California, and the CSU’s chronic struggle to hire and retain quality faculty.

Gregory Christopher Brown, an associate professor of criminal justice at CSU Fullerton and the CFA Chapter President at that university, said in a Tuesday interview that the union is in complete opposition to the tuition hikes — arguing that the CSU should find the money to give employees raises elsewhere.

“They’re pricing people out — (tuition) increases have a negative impact on people’s ability to attend the CSU, and this is supposed to be people’s university,” Brown said.

Brown, who is also on the CFA’s bargaining committee, said the union had its first bargaining session with the CSU a few weeks ago, with the next one planned for Thursday, July 20 — though the university system has yet to bring a wage proposal to the table.

“We have a lot of hard working folks out there who are overworked and underpaid and it’s time for the university to step up and give us our rights, respect, and justice, because it means everything to us,” Brown said. “We will fight for it and (we will) strike if we have to.”

Several students and faculty members — along with members of the Finance Committee — also raised concerns about the language in the five-year proposal, arguing that it didn’t outline a firm end-date to the tuition increases.

The Finance Committee, in response, asked staff to amend the proposal to ensure the Board will be required to review and re-authorize additional tuition hikes at the close of the first five years, if approved in the fall, to ensure they won’t continue in perpetuity.

But aside from that change, the Finance Committee moved the proposal on to the full Board without any other amendments. Without the additional revenue from the tuition proposal — which is expected to generate $860 million over those five years — the CSU would have to redirect funding to where it’s most needed.

That could result result in fewer course selections, less student services and a limited capacity for the system to invest in updated learning environments or give pay raises to its employees, officials said.

“We’re doing this for the students — we’re we’re handicapped because we can’t give you what you need because we don’t have the resources to do it,” Trustee Jean Picker Firstenberg said Tuesday. “And yes, it’s on your back — but I tell you, it’s really a modest request and I think it’s done in the most compassionate way possible.”

As it stands, undergraduate tuition — not including other costly fees, such as housing, food and academic supplies — is around $5,742 per year. The tuition rate increase, if approved in the fall, would add an additional $342 to undergrad tuition starting in the fall 2024 semester bringing the total to $6,084.

From there, tuition would go up another 6% annually for the next five years. By the spring 2029 semester, full-time undergrads would be required to pay $7,682 for the academic year, while higher-level programs, such as a doctorate in public health would total about $25,000 per year.

The CSU, in its report, said that the proposed tuition increases wouldn’t change it status as among the most affordable higher education systems in the country. It also added that about 60% of its student population would be unaffected by the change because of grants or fee waivers.

“In addition, many of these same students receive Federal Pell Grants, which helps cover the cost of attendance like books, campus base fees and living expenses,” Storm said. “Annually, CSU students collectively receive $1 billion in Pell grant funds.”

But the students groups took issue with that — arguing that the remaining 40% of the student population who don’t qualify for large financial aid awards would be unduly impacted by the changes.

“Who is in this 40%? Undocumented students and graduate students — both groups do not receive financial aid,” Aguilar-Cruz said. “Imagine being an undocumented student who can’t receive any type of compensation and having a dream of attending school but not being able to accomplish that because because non-resident tuition is double.”

About $280 million of the $860 million the tuition increases are expected to generate over the first five years would fund financial aid for students with the most need, the CSU report said.

The remainder of the funds would be used to expand the work of the CSU’s Graduation Initiative 2025 — which aims to increase graduation rates for first-time and transfer students — alongside pay raises for the CSU workforce, academic facility and infrastructure upgrades, plans to boost enrollment, and other operational costs.

The CSU Board of Trustees is expected to vote on the proposal in September. More information about the potential tuition is available online at calstate.edu/attend/paying-for-college/tuition-increase.

​ Orange County Register 

Norco family whose son was killed on 91 Freeway sues Uber, saying driver left him there

• July 12, 2023

The family of a Corona man who was hit by a car and killed says he was left behind on the 91 Freeway when his Uber ride pulled over to let out another passenger who had to throw up. Now the family is suing the ride-hailing company, alleging the driver’s negligence led to his death.

The crash that killed 21-year-old Cory Hunter occurred just before 3 a.m. on Sunday, May 21. At the time, the California Highway Patrol only identified Hunter as a pedestrian who somehow had made it to the fast lane of the 91 near the Serfas Club Drive exit in Norco.

Hunter died at the scene after an oncoming Toyota Corolla hit him, the CHP said. But his family said the CHP report left out that Hunter was only on the freeway after his ride left without him.

“They said that he was just walking on the freeway,” said his mother, Rhonda Hunter, of Norco. “He could have been homeless. He could have been a guy on drugs. My son never did drugs.

“People thought maybe he committed suicide,” she said. “He did not — he was left there.”

According to Hunter’s family, their attorney and the attorney of the Uber driver, the group of five friends were out drinking the night before in Downtown Fullerton when they agreed to take an Uber ride home. They piled into the van that arrived for them and were headed back to Riverside County when one of them said he was sick.

The driver pulled over to the right-hand shoulder some distance away from the Serfas Drive exit. Hunter was seated in the van’s middle row; he got out to allow the sickened passenger to exit. Within seconds, the rest of the passengers also got out.

The friends who were with Hunter and the driver, according to their attorneys and the lawsuit, all agreed that somehow in the minutes after they pulled over, Hunter disappeared.

His friends called out for him repeatedly, but they heard nothing, said Peter Corrales, the family’s attorney. A short time later, they got back in the van and left.

“There’s only three ways he could have gone,” Corrales said. “Forward toward the (Serfas Club Drive) exit, backwards down the shoulder, or across the freeway.

“Maybe nobody saw him leave. Everyone said they could not find him. But they never heard anything — no screeching tires, nothing like that. It’s still a mystery where he went and why they would leave him there.”

According to court documents, one of the friends there that night said the Uber driver started driving away, but eventually looped back on the 91 to continue looking for Hunter. They still could not find him.

It’s still not clear how Hunter ended up in the fast lane. The Corolla driver who hit him stopped and attempted to help, calling 911, according to the CHP. She is not being investigated for a crime.

Rhonda Hunter and her two other children question how the ride-share driver could have left with one of his passengers still likely somewhere on the freeway. Uber did not respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit or to questions about what training its drivers receive to handle emergency situations.

Theida Salazar, an attorney for the Uber driver, said his client was concerned when he and Hunter’s friends could not find him after pulling over.

“Once he got the word (about Hunter’s death), he was floored,” Salazar said. “My client is a compassionate person: He’s a father, he’s a brother. He’s someone that is very conscientious when it comes to the welfare of others.”

CHP did not respond to a request for comment.

The lawsuit, filed June 3, demands compensatory damages for Hunter’s death from Uber, the driver and the woman who hit him. Rhonda Hunter also said she wanted to see Uber change its policies to ensure something like this never happens again.

“He was doing the right thing,” Rhonda Hunter said of her son. “He was doing what he was supposed to do, and he got left on the freeway. Nobody even called police … he was with five of his really, really good friends. It’s just a hard situation to even grasp.”

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​ Orange County Register 

Jury decides will found in Aretha Franklin’s couch is valid

• July 11, 2023

By Ed White | Associated Press

PONTIAC, Mich. — A document handwritten by singer Aretha Franklin and found in her couch after her 2018 death is a valid Michigan will, a jury said Tuesday, a critical turn in a dispute that has turned her sons against each other.

It’s a victory for Kecalf Franklin and Edward Franklin whose lawyers had argued that papers dated 2014 should override a 2010 will that was discovered around the same time in a locked cabinet at the Queen of Soul’s home in suburban Detroit.

The jury deliberated less than an hour after a brief trial that started Monday. After the verdict was read, Aretha Franklin’s grandchildren stepped forward from the first row to hug Kecalf and Edward.

“I’m very, very happy. I just wanted my mother’s wishes to be adhered to,” Kecalf Franklin said. “We just want to exhale right now. It’s been a long five years for my family, my children.”

Aretha Franklin did not leave behind a formal, typewritten will when she died five years ago at age 76. But both documents, with scribbles and hard-to-decipher passages, suddenly emerged in 2019 when a niece scoured the home for records.

In closing arguments, lawyers for two of Franklin’s sons said there’s nothing legally significant about finding the handwritten papers in a notebook in her couch. It’s “inconsequential. … You can take your will and leave it on the kitchen counter. It’s still your will,” Charles McKelvie said before the jury began deliberations.

Kecalf and Edward have teamed up against brother Ted White II, who favored the 2010 will. White’s attorney, Kurt Olson, noted the 2010 will was under lock and key. He said it’s much more significant than papers found in a couch.

Franklin’s estate managers have been paying bills, settling millions in tax debts and generating income through music royalties and other intellectual property. The will dispute, however, has been unfinished business.

There are differences between the 2010 and 2014 versions, though they both appear to indicate that Franklin’s four sons would share income from music and copyrights.

But under the 2014 will, Kecalf Franklin and grandchildren would get his mother’s main home in Bloomfield Hills, which was valued at $1.1 million when she died but is worth much more today.

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The older will said Kecalf, 53, and Edward Franklin, 64, “must take business classes and get a certificate or a degree” to benefit from the estate. That provision is not in the 2014 version.

White, who played guitar with Aretha Franklin, testified against the 2014 will, saying his mother typically would get important documents done “conventionally and legally” and with assistance from an attorney.

Franklin was a global star for decades, known especially for hits like “Think,” “I Say a Little Prayer” and “Respect.”

​ Orange County Register 

Manson follower Leslie Van Houten released after 53 years

• July 11, 2023

LOS ANGELES — Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten walked out of a California prison Tuesday after serving more than 50 years of a life sentence for her participation in two infamous murders.

Van Houten “was released to parole supervision,” the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a statement.

She left the California Institution for Women in Corona, east of Los Angeles, in the early morning hours and was driven to transitional housing, her attorney Nancy Tetreault said.

“She’s still trying to get used to the idea that this real,” Tetreault told The Associated Press.

Days earlier Gov. Gavin Newsom announced he would not fight a state appeals court ruling that Van Houten should be granted parole. He said it was unlikely the state Supreme Court would consider an appeal.

She is expected to spend about a year at a halfway house, learning basic skills such as how to drive a car, go to the grocery store and get a debit card, according to her attorney.

“She has to learn to use to use the internet. She has to learn to buy things without cash,” Tetreault said. “It’s a very different world than when she went in.”

Van Houten, who will likely be on parole for about three years, hopes to get a job as soon as possible, Tetreault said. She earned a bachelors and a masters degree while in prison and worked as a tutor for other incarcerated people.

Van Houten, now in her 70s, received a life sentence for helping Manson’s followers carry out the August 1969 killings of Leno LaBianca, a grocer in Los Angeles, and his wife, Rosemary.

The LaBiancas were killed in their home, and their blood was smeared on the walls afterward. Van Houten later described holding Rosemary LaBianca down with a pillowcase over her head as others stabbed her, before she stabbed the woman more than a dozen times as well.

The slayings happened the day after Manson followers killed actress Sharon Tate and four others. Van Houten, who was 19 at the time, did not participate in the Tate killings.

Van Houten was found suitable for parole after a July 2020 hearing, but her release was blocked by Newsom, who maintained she was still a threat to society. She filed an appeal with a trial court, which rejected it. She then turned to the appellate courts.

The Second District Court of Appeal in May reversed an earlier decision by Newsom, who rejected parole for Van Houten in 2020. She had been recommended for parole five times since 2016. All of those recommendations were rejected by either Newsom or former Gov. Jerry Brown.

Newsom was disappointed by the appeals court decision, his office said.

“More than 50 years after the Manson cult committed these brutal killings, the victims’ families still feel the impact,” the governor’s office said in a July 7 statement.

Manson died in prison in 2017 of natural causes at age 83 after nearly half a century behind bars.

Leslie Van Houten and Charles Manson

Manson follower Van Houten moves a step closer to freedom
Newsom again rejects parole for Manson family member Leslie Van Houten
Manson follower Leslie Van Houten gets parole recommendation for 5th time
Mass murderer Charles Manson dead at 83
How did 3 young women become involved in the Manson Family murders, asks new film

​ Orange County Register 

Thomas Elias: Judge-shopping is a problem that will only get worse

• July 11, 2023

Judge-shopping is commonplace in American courts, with lawyers constantly trying to get their cases heard by judges they consider predisposed to rule their way.

It was carried to new extremes this spring, though, in at least two cases with the potential to affect millions of current and future lives. When one district judge ordered the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to withdraw its approval of the orally-taken abortion drug mifepristone and another ruled that the drug must be kept available in 17 states that sued for it in his court, there was no doubt about the judge-shopping in play.

Both courts lacked any semblance of the fairness and objectivity that citizens should be able to expect from federal judges with lifetime appointments. It was no accident that these cases were brought in the legal backwaters of Amarillo, Texas, and Spokane, Washington, where the two ideologically opposed judges preside.

Let’s first take a look at the general practice of judge shopping, though, which by all rights should be outlawed, as judges in all cases ideally should be chosen as randomly as possible. The practice has become so accepted that now judges have begun to try it on each other. The trend reached another new extreme, also this past spring.

In March, Patrick Connolly, a conservative state court judge in Los Angeles, asked another court to disqualify fellow Judge Daniel Lowenthal from presiding over the sentencing of a convicted cop killer. The reason: A belief that Lowenthal, the son of former longtime U.S. Rep. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, is too sympathetic to criminals.

Connolly, a former deputy district attorney, prosecuted killer Justin Flint in 2007 for felony murder in the death of a sheriff’s deputy gunned down in her driveway during an attempted robbery.

Connolly objected to a Facebook post from Lowenthal advocating for police to be trained in “civil rights, civil liberties and … (to) understand past inequities and oppression…” that allegedly influence some crimes today. Lowenthal denied any prejudice in the case and ultimately fended off Connolly’s bid to disqualify him.

If judges can try to get colleagues disqualified because of alleged prior prejudices that affect only one person’s fate, it cannot be surprising that lawyers in wider-ranging cases carefully seek out precisely the jurists most likely to help them.

Lawyers for the antiabortion, Roman Catholic-aligned Alliance Defending Freedom did just this when seeking to reverse the more-than-20-year-old approval of mifepristone for use in pharmaceutically-induced abortions.

It’s unknown if those lawyers began by speaking with Amarillo’s Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, but his background includes four years as deputy general counsel of First Liberties Institute, a conservative Christian legal group that has long opposed abortion. Kacsmaryk was among Republican ex-President Donald Trump’s first judicial appointees in early 2017.

So no one should have been surprised when Kacsmaryk ruled that the 1873 Comstock Act — mostly aimed against vice, but also containing a clause criminalizing the mailing of obscenity, contraceptives, abortifacients (abortion-inducing substances), sex toys and personal letters with sexual content — makes shipping mifepristone illegal no matter what its record of safety is or what the FDA says about it.

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It was equally obvious to attorneys general of 17 states including Illinois, Pennsylvania and Michigan — but oddly not California — that they would get the opposite sort of ruling if they went before federal Judge Thomas Rice in Spokane, who tried to assure access to the abortion drug in those states and the District of Columbia. Rice, a former federal prosecutor, was appointed by Democratic ex-President Barack Obama in 2011 and developed a moderately liberal reputation on the bench.

In each venue, the plaintiffs got just what they wanted. The American people got confusion, though, not justice or clarity, and how this will be resolved remains to be seen. For sure, the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives shows no inclination to update the 152-year-old Comstock Act, mostly designed to limit damage from snake-oil salesmen who traveled widely during the late 19th century.

What’s clear from all this action, in federal and state courts, is that judge-shopping is a dangerous practice likely to continue as long as judges are appointed for their ideology, not their legal acumen. It’s likely only to become more common and destructive so long as the court system stays as it is today.

Reach Thomas Elias at [email protected].

​ Orange County Register 

There’s so much extra milk, farmers are dumping it in the sewer

• July 11, 2023

By Nazmul Ahasan and Michael Hirtzer | Bloomberg

There’s more milk than ever in the US but nowhere left to process it, forcing farmers across the Upper Midwest to pour the excess dairy down the drain.

The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District’s wastewater treatment system has been handling increased volumes of milk, a spokesperson confirmed, though he couldn’t verify how much. Since-deleted videos on social media earlier this summer showed farmers pumping thousands of gallons of excess milk directly onto their fields.

Pete Hardin, editor of Wisconsin-based dairy publication The Milkweed, told local media the state’s milk supply with no home could fill as many as 50 trailers a day, each carrying 6,000 to 7,000 gallons.

“We know that milk is being dumped in other parts of the Midwest, not just Wisconsin,” said Laurie Fischer, the founder and chief executive officer of American Dairy Coalition. “At the same time, farms are making decisions as milk prices fall to their lowest levels since the worst period of the pandemic.”

The last time American farmers dumped milk en masse was during the early weeks of Covid-19, when the sudden closure of restaurants and schools threw off a delicate supply and demand balance. Unlike other supermarket staples that can halt the factory line when the market shifts, cows can’t just turn off their udders. Milk is highly perishable and requires expensive transportation, and farmers don’t have room to store it all themselves. Adding insult to injury, about 34 million people in the US are food insecure, but most large-scale dairy operations aren’t set up to process their own milk or sell it directly to consumers, resulting in the difficult decision to dump it.

Several factors are behind the latest glut. Across the US, milk production hit a record high in May, the latest government data show. And Wisconsin, the nation’s largest cheese-making state, has seen its milk output rise at twice the national rate this past year, Fischer said.

Despite recent memories of the pandemic, “farmers have continued to grow milk production, which has put us back into a surplus situation in the region,” said Nate Donnay, director of Dairy Market Insight at StoneX. Meanwhile, the scheduled end of the school year means kids are drinking less milk in the lunchroom than they were in the spring.

As supply rises, processors can’t keep up. About 90% of Wisconsin’s milk is made into cheese, and most of the plants are already filled to the brim. Labor shortages are making the issue worse, said Bob Cropp, professor emeritus and dairy marketing specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A sudden plant closure in Hastings, Minnesota, earlier this summer due to wastewater issues only exacerbated the issue.

They’re “unable to get other plants to take the milk because they have all the milk they need,” Cropp said of farmers across Wisconsin and Minnesota.

As a result, prices for milk are tanking.  Benchmark Class III milk futures, a type that’s used in cheese-making, recently hit the lowest since spring 2020. Cheese is also coming down. That’s starting to trickle down to grocery stores, with consmer prices for milk inching lower for three straight months, government data show. The next US CPI report will come out Wednesday.

Going forward, some farmers are curbing production by sending more of their dairy cows to the slaughterhouse.

“Milk prices are far below farmer cost of production,” Lucas Fuess, senior dairy analyst with RaboBank, said. “I expect the herd size and milk production to decline in the coming months as farmers make adjustments due to the low prices.”

​ Orange County Register 

These 12 Disneyland ride vehicles could fetch $750,000 at auction

• July 11, 2023

An upcoming auction featuring a dozen Disneyland ride vehicles expected to fetch as much as $750,000 will give Disneyana collectors a chance to add a bit of the Anaheim theme park’s history to their personal memorabilia collections.

Van Eaton Galleries in Studio City will hold the Joel Magee Disneyland Collection Auction on July 17-19.

SEE ALSO: She picks through Disneyland trash with one goal: Zero waste by 2030

The collection is on exhibit and open to the public at the Burbank Town Center Mall from Wednesday, July 12 through Sunday, July 16 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The auction of the world’s largest individual Disneyland collection includes 1,500 items ranging from ride vehicles to character costumes to attraction posters from Walt Disney’s original theme park.

We’ve collected the 12 most expensive Disneyland ride vehicles in the auction to help you refine your shopping list before the bidding starts.

Dumbo Attraction Elephant (Van Eaton Galleries)

Dumbo Attraction Elephant

$100,000-$200,000

The 1960s ride vehicle from Dumbo the Flying Elephant in Fantasyland has been restored in gray and pink colors. The elephant vehicle is in fine condition with minor wear.

Global Van Lines Moving Truck (Van Eaton Galleries)

Global Van Lines Moving Truck

$100,000-$200,000

The original moving truck built by Disney Legend Bob Gurr operated during the first few years in the park starting in 1963 and was often seen on Main Street USA. The truck was retired in 1979 when Global Van Lines ended its partnership with Disneyland.

Peter Pan’s Flight Attraction Vehicle (Van Eaton Galleries)

Peter Pan’s Flight Attraction Vehicle

$75,000-$100,000

The rare 1955 flying pirate ship is one of the few ever offered for public sale. The attraction vehicle took riders on an aerial adventure over London and Neverland.

Skyway Bucket Vehicle (Van Eaton Galleries)

Skyway Bucket Vehicle

$60,000-$100,000

The orange rectangle-shaped bucket used from 1965 to 1994 has been signed by Gurr on the upper rim below the railing.

Rocket Jet Attraction Vehicle (Van Eaton Galleries)

Rocket Jet Attraction Vehicle

$40,000-$50,000

The sleek black and white rocket with gold accents and red nose operated in Tomorrowland starting in 1967.

Haunted Mansion Doom Buggy Attraction Vehicle (Van Eaton Galleries)

Haunted Mansion Doom Buggy Attraction Vehicle

$30,000-$50,000

The rare Haunted Mansion Doom Buggy is one of the most sought-after Disneyland collectibles. The Omnimover-style ride vehicle with a remote controlled lap bar sits on a custom-built platform.

Midget Autopia Car (Van Eaton Galleries)

Midget Autopia Car

$30,000-$50,000

The rare Midget Autopia car with a blue body, red rims and chrome detail was designed for kids who were too small to ride in the full-sized Autopia cars. The Midget Autopia track that operated from 1957 to 1966 was donated to Walt Disney’s boyhood home of Marceline, Missouri, after the ride was retired from Disneyland.

Space Mountain Ride Vehicle (Van Eaton Galleries)

Space Mountain Attraction Vehicle

$8,000-$10,000

Rocket ship number 4 has glow-in-the-dark side panels and some scuffing and wear from park use starting in 1977.

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad Car Seat (Van Eaton Galleries)

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad Car Seat

$3,000-$5,000

The two-seat passenger car from the roller coaster train sits on a custom stand. The 1979 car seat has light wear typical of park use.

Buzz Lightyear Astro Blaster Attraction Vehicle Door (Van Eaton Galleries)

Buzz Lightyear Astro Blaster Attraction Vehicle Door

$3,000-$5,000

The door from the Omnimover-style ride system tilts back and forth to let riders in and out. The Disneyland collectible from car XP-37 does not include the blaster and turn controls typically mounted inside the door.

Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh Attraction Vehicle (Van Eaton Galleries)

Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh Attraction Vehicle

$3,000-$5,000

The beehive-designed ride vehicle has golden honeycomb and green leaf details. The 1999 front seat from the Winnie the Pooh attraction has scuffs on the floor from park use.

Toy Story Midway Mania Vehicle Props (Van Eaton Galleries)

Toy Story Midway Mania Vehicle Props

$800-$1,000 each

The side panels from the Pixar Pier dark ride feature Mr. Potato Head and Jessie the yodeling cowgirl on the sides.

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