Sweet Turkish Van cat Buddy is looking for a fresh start

• July 1, 2023

Breed: Turkish Van

Age: About 9 years

Sex: Neutered male

Buddy’s story: Buddy is a sweet, quiet boy with big, blue eyes. At 9, he’s just middle-aged, since cats can easily live to be 16. He’s a chunky guy, but that’s just more to love. He adores being brushed and fed cat treats – they don’t have to happen at the same time, but hey, if you can multi-task, he won’t complain! Buddy spent much of his life living in a cage, but since getting out more he has discovered how fun toys can be and likes being held. He prefers to snuggle with someone and be petted and brushed while he purrs away.

Adoption donation: $125, includes vaccinations, flea and worm treatment

Adoption procedure: Contact Joanne with Long Beach Spay and Neuter Foundation at [email protected] or 562-241-1521 to receive an adoption application and schedule an appointment to meet Buddy. The three cats Buddy lived with are also looking for new, forever homes.

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Reports: Rui Hachimura returns to Lakers on a 3-year, $51M deal

• July 1, 2023

Free agent forward Rui Hachimura will reportedly return to the Lakers on a long-term contract.

The team and Hachimura came to an agreement on a three-year contract worth $51 million, multiple media outlets reported.

The Lakers made Hachimura a restricted free agent when they officially extended qualifying offers to him and guard Austin Reaves on Tuesday.

Hachimura’s qualifying offer was for a one-year salary of $7.74 million, but he was always going to receive a far more lucrative deal during free agency.

The Lakers acquired Hachimura, the No. 9 pick in the 2019 draft, in a Jan. 23 trade with the Washington Wizards.

Hachimura averaged 9.6 points and 4.7 rebounds in his 33 regular-season games with the Lakers. He found his offensive rhythm, especially as a 3-point shooter, during the playoffs, averaging 12.2 points (48.7% shooting from 3-point range) and 3.6 rebounds as a key part of the rotation (24.3 minutes – 16 games played and one start).

The Lakers said goodbye to two free agents from last season’s roster on Friday, when veteran guard Dennis Schröder and forward Troy Brown came to agreements with other teams. Schröder reportedly agreed to a two-year, $26 million deal with the Toronto Raptors while Brown is headed to the Minnesota Timberwolves on a one-year deal.

Reaves, a restricted free agent who played a significant role in the Lakers’ turnaround last season, didn’t sign an offer sheet with any team on the first day of free agency.

The Lakers are limited in the salary they can offer Reaves, 25, because they don’t have his full Bird rights – they have his Early Bird rights – after signing him to a two-year contract in September 2021.

The maximum contract the Lakers can offer Reaves is for around $52 million across four years. A team with significant salary cap space, such as the San Antonio Spurs or Houston Rockets, could offer Reaves a contract of up to four years, with the last two seasons as high as a maximum salary – around $98 million for the entirety of the contract.

But because of the Gilbert Arenas Provision in the collective bargaining agreement, which helps teams retain their own restricted free agents who are not coming off standard rookie scale deals, the Lakers can – and likely would – match any offer sheet Reaves signs with another team.

Guard D’Angelo Russell, who started for the Lakers after being acquired from the Minnesota Timberwolves ahead of the Feb. 9 trade deadline, remains an unrestricted free agent.

Yahoo Sports reported that Russell and the Lakers could agree to terms on a two-year, $40 million deal with the second year a team option or non-guaranteed.

Mo Bamba and Malik Beasley also remain unrestricted free agents after the Lakers didn’t pick up Beasley’s $16.5 million team option for 2023-24 and waived Mo Bamba on Thursday before his $10.3 million salary for next season became guaranteed.

Those moves helped the Lakers stay below the $172 million luxury tax apron for the 2023-24 season, giving them access to the $12.4 million non-taxpayer mid-level exception entering free agency. They’ll use most of that exception to sign free agent guard Gabe Vincent, who they agreed to terms with on a three-year, $33 million contract on Friday.

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Here’s one of the greatest challenges for anglers in California

• July 1, 2023

Catching on

California has several unique fishing programs, including the Heritage Trout Challenge and two Free Fishing Days.

For beginners

Saturday, July 1, is one of two Free Fishing Days each year in California. If you didn’t plan for tomorrow, the next will be Sept. 2. On these days, you can fish without a sport fishing license. Some restrictions apply regarding steelhead, sturgeon and salmon. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife developed the days as an inexpensive way to introduce people to fishing.

A California Sport Fishing License is generally required for everyone 16 or older except on the two Free Fishing Days.Some California Fish and Wildlife Department regions offer a Fishing in the City program where you can go fishing in the middle of major metropolitan areas.

The Fishing in the City program is in its 30th year and there are many events scheduled throughout the state and during the year.The aim of the program is teaching kids and parents to fish by giving them the tools they need to return to fish on their own. All programs are offered at very low or no cost at all.

Catching on

The CDFW’s portion of Fishing in the City is funded through the Sport Fish Restoration Fund. The purpose of the program is education, access and caring for urban waterways that were neglected. California’s urban anglers identified a lack of free time as the primary reason why they don’t fish.

“Fishing offers the perfect tool to reconnect people with their community waterways,” the CDFW says. “It is an easy step to connect healthy aquatic habitats with healthy fish and healthy people.”

New for 2023

Fishing licenses used to be good from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31 of each year, but now you can buy one today and it will be good for 365 days.Here’s a link to Los Angeles and Orange counties program.

Here’s a link to the Inland Empire program.

Freshwater opportunities

The California Fish and Game Commission established the Heritage Trout Program in 2017 to emphasize education and angling opportunities for California’s native trout.

The CDFW has identified 12 historic drainages in the state (with 11 different species) and by catching six different species and photographing these fish, you can receive a colorful, personalized certificate and an embroidered hat.

To qualify for the challenge, six different native trout must be caught within their respective historic ranges. All fishing regulations and rules for the area must be observed.

Applications and supporting photographs may be submitted electronically or via mail and, once submitted, become property of the state. Your personal information will be kept private.

There are no rules about how long it takes to complete the challenge. Any heritage trout legally captured in your lifetime qualifies for the challenge.

Applications can be found online at wildlife.ca.gov/Fishing/Inland/HTC.

It can be completed electronically or handwritten.

Since this is a recognition program with no time limit, old photographs can be used as long as the trout can be identified. The angler doesn’t need to be in the picture.

Tackling them all

If documenting six different species isn’t enough of a challenge, you can pursue the Master Angler Challenge.

For the native trout fanatic, there is the elite Master Angler recognition for those who capture and document all 11 subspecies currently recognized in California.

For the record

Current California angling records for trout. The facts regarding the catch must be recorded on the California Inland Water Angling Record Verification Form (FG 737A). Forms are available at wildlife.ca.gov/Fishinq/Records. Record forms must be submitted within 30 days of catch.

​ Orange County Register 

NHL free agency: Kings’ goalie quest could be costly

• July 1, 2023

With NHL free agency set to open Saturday, the intrigue may be twofold for the Kings, whose effective salary-cap space might be measured in pocket lint or rusty coins rather than dollars even as they remain in need of a starting goaltender and a complete pro roster for the upcoming campaign.

Given the Kings’ current cap situation, it seems that they will have to exchange a roster player for a goalie, whether directly or indirectly. The flurry of activity on and around the start of the free-agency period could present them with opportunities.

“We have to (acquire a goalie). We only have one under contract right now, well two, with (prospect Erik) Portillo (and Pheonix Copley),” General Manager Rob Blake said.

Complicating matters for the Kings is that cap space is at a premium all over the NHL, especially among competitive teams. On Thursday alone, former Ducks winger Corey Perry was dealt for a seventh-round pick, two promising young Edmonton forwards were offloaded for future considerations, and the Islanders had to send a second-round draft pick with winger Josh Bailey to jettison his contract only to receive the same nebulous “future considerations.”

The Kings have already given the trade tracker a strenuous workout this offseason. They have pushed out seven players and two draft selections, enabling them to re-sign defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov for two seasons and acquire center Pierre-Luc Dubois for the purpose of signing him to a fresh eight-year contract.

Three roster forwards have already been sent away and a fourth may be on the chopping block to facilitate the acquisition of a goalie and, potentially, an economically priced replacement for the outgoing player, likely a forward.

Though the Kings have been tight-lipped about their specific plans, it’s evident that winger Viktor Arvidsson is not under contract beyond the coming season, when he’ll account for $4.25 million against the salary cap. Forward Trevor Moore’s cap hit is nearly commensurate ($4.2 million), but the Thousand Oaks native just signed his extension and has a limited no-trade clause set to kick in Saturday, complicating matters from both ethical and logistical standpoints.

While Blake and his staff have had a strong poker face, at least one more trade seems inevitable.

The relative stagnation of the NHL salary cap in recent years has prompted GMs to preserve value from assets wherever possible, resulting in a relatively thin free-agent class from top to bottom.

That includes the goaltending market, with last year’s playoff starter Joonas Korpisalo creating limited buzz about a potential return. Heretofore Pittsburgh Penguin Tristan Jarry, 28, is another exception to a market overflowing with netminders in their mid-30s. Jarry has familiarity with new Kings goaltending coach Mike Buckley, who was Pittsburgh’s goalie whisperer until heading westward.

On the positive side, any pain will be transitory. Next summer, the cap is widely projected to experience its first significant increase since 2019 and the only King in line for a noteworthy raise may be defenseman Matt Roy. Meanwhile, team captain Anze Kopitar is due for a new contract, and seems likely to sign for less than his current $10 million annual average value, offering further flexibility.

Though the precise terms were not discussed, Blake said he felt confident he and Kopitar would meet soon and hoped that they would have an extension in place before Oct. 11’s home opener.

“I don’t think he’ll ever slow down, it’ll be the day when he says, ‘I want to go home,’” said Kings president Luc Robitaille of Kopitar, who has continued to excel in a top-line role.

While Kopitar’s future with the Kings appeared to be in no jeopardy, Phillip Danault seemed destined for a return to a familiar role from two prior stops in his career: third-line center. When asked about Dubois’ position, Blake was unequivocal.

“He’ll obviously be in the middle of the ice there,” said Blake, also alluding to a top-six role for Dubois.

Quinton Byfield, a No. 2 overall pick entering the final year of his entry-level deal, will start 2023-24 where he ended 2022-23, on the wing. Blake had expressed hope that Byfield would return to the middle after the Kings were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs, but displayed a more open attitude after the Dubois trade.

“Whether (Byfield) ends up at center over the years or not, that’s still not really laid out firm by any means, but we did like the progression he showed (on the wing),” Blake said.

What was concrete Friday were the statuses of some of the younger Kings who were without contracts. The Kings extended qualifying offers to defenseman Tobias Bjornfot, winger Samuel Fagemo, center Akil Thomas and forward Tyler Madden. They also re-signed forward Taylor Ward to a one-year extension, a move made with a mind toward their minor-league affiliate.

Forward Jaret Anderson-Dolan, who once seemed destined for a long-term spot in the bottom six; forward Lias Andersson, a former No. 7 overall pick acquired by the Kings from the Rangers for a second-round pick; and winger Zack MacEwen, whom the Kings acquired at least year’s trade line but deployed sparingly, were among the 10 players who had their tenders declined. They will become unrestricted free agents Saturday, although that doesn’t preclude entirely their return to the Kings.

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Brothers David, Dominic Fletcher meet for first time in MLB as Angels face Diamondbacks

• July 1, 2023

ANAHEIM — David and Dominic Fletcher had dreamed about the moment they would share a major league field together.

When it finally arrived on Friday, it was bittersweet.

Their father, Tim, had died suddenly less than three weeks earlier. He was 60.

“This would have been one of his proudest moments,” said Dominic, an Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder. “Every night he turned on the TV and had both of our games going on simultaneously. To be able to be here and watch would have been one of his favorite things.”

The Fletcher brothers grew up in Orange County and attended Cypress High School. They went to Angels games with their dad as kids, sitting “up there at the top,” Dominic said, motioning to the upper deck. They attended the parade after the Angels won the 2002 World Series.

David, 29, and Dominic, 25, played together for one year in high school. David went to Loyola Marymount and was drafted by the Angels in 2015. Dominic went to Arkansas and was drafted by Diamondbacks in 2019.

During one wild June in 2018, Tim saw David make his major league debut in Seattle and Dominic play in the College World Series in Omaha.

The two finally got a chance to play together for Italy in the World Baseball Classic, which was a nod to their mother’s birthplace.

Since then, the two of them split the season playing at Triple-A and in the majors. They had played against each other in Triple-A, but the chances of them meeting in the big leagues shrunk as each was still in the minors a week before this series.

David was called up to the Angels last Saturday, and Dominic got the call from the Diamondbacks on Friday, just in time to report to Anaheim.

David was starting at shortstop and batting ninth on Friday; Dominic was in left field, batting sixth.

“It’s awesome,” David said. “It’s something that we kind of thought would happen one day and could be a special series.”

Angels manager Phil Nevin, who has two sons playing professional baseball right now, said he had a special appreciation for how the family was feeling this weekend.

“As a parent, I couldn’t imagine being in the stands watching your boys play against each other, which is happening tonight,” Nevin said. “It’s got to be really a special moment for their family and what’s going on with them over the last couple of weeks. It’s a tragedy in the family, but then for them to get together like this, it was like it was meant to be.

“Heck, I’ll probably have some emotions with it tonight as well. I know both of them already have. I’ve talked to David yesterday. He mentioned after the game that his brother might be coming. You could hear it in his voice when he said it, how excited he was.”

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Los Alamitos horse racing consensus picks, Saturday, July 1, 2023

• July 1, 2023

The consensus box of Los Alamitos horse racing picks comes from handicappers Bob Mieszerski, Art Wilson, Terry Turrell and Eddie Wilson. Here are the picks for thoroughbred races on Saturday, July 1, 2023.

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Former Riverside technical school CEO gets prison for $105 million VA scam

• July 1, 2023

The founder and chief executive officer of the defunct California Technical Academy in Riverside has been sentenced to five years in federal prison for scamming $105 million in the largest post-9/11 GI Bill fraud case at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Michael Bostock, 54, of Nampa, Idaho, was sentenced Monday, June 26, in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. He previously pleaded guilty in September 2022 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Co-conspirators Eric Bostock, 48, of Riverside and Philip Abod are scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 19 for their roles in the scheme at CTA campuses in Riverside, Temecula and Escondido.

Information was not immediately available regarding the relationship between Michael and Eric Bostock.

From 2012 to 2022, CTA received about $32 million in tuition payments and about $72.5 million in education-related benefits from the VA for 1,793 veterans enrolled at the school, according to a Department of Justice sentencing memorandum.

Bostock and the two other defendants falsely attested to CTA’s compliance with federal regulations mandating that no more than 85% of enrollees in an approved program could be VA-funded. Additionally, they lied to the VA about the enrollment of veterans in approved courses, class attendance and grades, prosecutors said.

To conceal their scheme, Bostock and the other defendants falsified veterans’ contact information by substituting phone numbers purchased in bulk that would ring a cellphone they controlled to ensure regulators could not contact the veterans.

“When regulators called the falsified phone numbers to obtain information about the school, the defendant and his co-conspirators would impersonate students,” says the sentencing memorandum

Bostock and his co-conspirators also faked records to make it appear veterans had completed CTA courses, when, in fact they had not, according to prosecutors.

The memorandum says Bostock fleeced the government to expand the two-year college and provide his wife, stepdaughter and brother with employment.

“This was not a one-off criminal episode or temporary lapse in judgment,” the memorandum states. “The defendant engaged in this fraudulent conduct to ensure that the VA would continue to provide funding to CTA.”

Individuals have filed anonymous complaints with the Better Business Bureau claiming that, after federal agents swarmed CTA, the school abruptly shut down and failed to reimburse them for enrollment fees and tuition-related expenses.

“My son was going to school there one day,” according to an individual, who said CTA owes them $4,369. “I went to drop him off (and) the FBI had all employees and students outside on the ground. I was terrified, I asked what was going on (and) the FBI agent could not give me any information.”

In a statement to federal probation officials, Bostock apologized for defrauding the VA.

“I accept full responsibility for my criminal acts,” he said. “There is no excuse for providing false information to the VA. It is particularly offensive that I abused the GI Bill. This law is designed to serve America’s military heroes. When I committed this crime, I betrayed my own values and disappointed countless people. I am very sorry I acted so recklessly.”

Prosecutors said Bostock’s remorse is “noteworthy,” but added that his history of traffic infractions and drug possession demonstrates his difficulty in following rules.

“The severity of and breadth of the fraudulent scheme that the defendant led, as well as the defendant’s prior criminal conduct, warrant giving significant weight to specific deterrence,” says the complaint.

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Colleges will have to look for new ways to promote diversity

• July 1, 2023

By Collin Binkley | Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has sent shockwaves through higher education with a landmark decision that struck down affirmative action and left colleges across the nation searching for new ways to promote student diversity.

Leaders of scores of universities said Thursday that they were disappointed by what they see as a blow to diversity. Yet many also voiced optimism that they would find new ways to admit more Black and Hispanic students, despite evidence that eliminating the practice often leads to steep enrollment decreases among them.

President Joe Biden said he disagreed with the decision and asked the Education Department to explore policies that could help colleges build diverse student bodies. He also pushed against policies like legacy preferences — admissions boosts given to the children of alumni — that tend to help white, wealthy students.

“We should never allow the country to walk away from the dream upon which it was founded,” Biden told reporters. “We need a new path forward, a path consistent with the law that protects diversity and expands opportunity.”

Yet evidence from states that previously outlawed affirmative action show it will be a daunting challenge.

As an alternative to affirmative action, colleges from California to Florida have tried a range of strategies to achieve the diversity they say is essential to their campuses. Many have given greater preference to low-income families. Others started admitting top students from every community in their state.

But years of experimentation — often prompted by state-level bans on considering race in admissions — left no clear solution. In states requiring race-neutral policies, many colleges saw enrollment drops among Black and Hispanic students, especially at selective colleges that historically have been mostly white.

At Amherst College, officials had estimated going entirely race-neutral would reduce Black, Hispanic and Indigenous populations by half.

“We fully expect it would be a significant decrease in our population,” said Matthew McGann, Amherst’s director of admission, earlier this year.

Facing a conservative Supreme Court that appeared skeptical from the start, colleges have been preparing for a rollback. Some were considering adding more essays to get a better picture of an applicant’s background, a strategy invited in Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling.

“Nothing prohibits universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected the applicant’s life, so long as that discussion is concretely tied to a quality of character or unique ability that the particular applicant can contribute to the university,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court’s conservative majority.

Other colleges were planning to boost recruiting in racially diverse areas, or admit more transfer students from community colleges.

The court took up affirmative action in response to challenges at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina. Lower courts upheld admission systems at both schools, rejecting claims that the schools discriminated against white and Asian American applicants. But at Supreme Court arguments in late October, all six conservative justices expressed doubts about the practice, which had been upheld under Supreme Court decisions reaching back to 1978, and as recently as 2016.

Nine states already have banned affirmative action, starting with California in 1996 and, most recently, Idaho in 2020.

After Michigan voters rejected it in 2006, the University of Michigan shifted attention to low-income students.

It sent graduates to work as counselors in low-income high schools. It started offering college prep in Detroit and Grand Rapids. It offered full scholarships for low-income Michigan residents. More recently, it started accepting fewer early admission applications, which are more likely to come from white students.

Despite those efforts, the share of Black and Hispanic undergraduates hasn’t fully rebounded from a falloff after 2006. And while Hispanic enrollments have been increasing, Black enrollments continued to slide, going from 8% of undergraduates in 2006 to 4% now.

The campus is drawing more low-income students, but that hasn’t translated to racial diversity, said Erica Sanders, director of undergraduate admissions at Michigan.

“Socioeconomic status is not a proxy for race,” Sanders said.

At the same time, some of Michigan’s less selective colleges have fared better. At nearby Eastern Michigan University, the number of students of color increased, reflecting demographic shifts in the state. It illustrates what experts say is a chilling effect seen most acutely at selective colleges — students of color see fewer of their peers at places like Ann Arbor, prompting them to choose campuses that appear more welcoming.

Growing up in Ann Arbor, there was an expectation that Odia Kaba would attend the University of Michigan. When her application was deferred, she started at Eastern Michigan with plans to transfer to Ann Arbor her sophomore year.

By then, Kaba was getting daily texts from her sister, who attended U-M, describing the microaggressions she faced as a Black student on campus. Rooms went silent when she walked in. She was ignored in group projects. She felt alone and suffocated.

“Why would I go to U of M?” Kaba, 22, remembers thinking. “I’m just going to be stuck with people that don’t look like me, can’t relate to me, and with no way to escape it.”

Kaba stayed at Eastern Michigan and graduated with a degree in quantitative economics this year. Even though it’s a mostly white campus, Kaba said she found pockets of diversity that helped make her comfortable.

“I’m in economics, which is a white male-dominated space. But I can walk out of the classroom and be surrounded by my people, and I just feel safe,” she said.

The University of California also saw enrollment slides after a statewide ban in 1996. Within two years, Black and Hispanic enrollments fell by half at the system’s two most selective campuses, Berkeley and UCLA. The system would go on to spend more than $500 million on programs aimed at low-income and first-generation college students.

It also started a program that promises admission to the top 9% of students in each high school across the state, an attempt to reach strong students from all backgrounds. A similar promise in Texas has been credited for expanding racial diversity, and opponents of affirmative action cite it as a successful model.

In California, the promise drew students from a wider geographic area but did little to expand racial diversity, the system said in a brief to the Supreme Court. It had almost no impact at Berkeley and UCLA, where students compete against tens of thousands of other applicants.

Today at UCLA and Berkeley, Hispanic students make up 20% of undergraduates, higher than in 1996 but lower than their 53% share among California’s high school graduates. Black students, meanwhile, have a smaller presence than they did in 1996, accounting for 2% of undergraduates at Berkeley.

Opponents of affirmative action say some states have fared well without it. After Oklahoma outlawed the practice in 2012, the state’s flagship university saw “no long-term severe decline” in minority enrollments, the state’s attorney general told the Supreme Court.

It pointed to a recent freshman class at the University of Oklahoma that had more Hispanic, Asian and Native American students than in 2012. The share of Black students fell, but it wasn’t far from flagship universities in other states that allow affirmative action, the state said.

Still, many colleges expect racial diversity could take a hit. With affirmative action struck down, colleges fear they will unknowingly admit fewer students of color. In the long run, it can be self-perpetuating — if numbers fall, the campus can appear less attractive to future students of color.

That’s a problem, colleges say, because racial diversity benefits the entire campus, exposing students to other worldviews and preparing them for a diverse workforce.

Beyond race, the decision has the impact to reshape other admissions policies. To draw more underserved populations, experts say colleges may need to do away with policies that advantage white students, from legacy preferences and early admission to standardized test scores.

The Associated Press education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

​ Orange County Register