New California law protects ‘the children’ by destroying free speech

• June 30, 2023

In just about one year – July 1, 2024 – California’s Age Appropriate Design Code (AADC) will come into full effect; that is, if it is not struck down in the courts. If enacted, social media companies and other online platforms will face a compliance and liability nightmare.

California’s Age Appropriate Design Code Act, which passed in 2022, was intended to enforce a premise that on the surface sounds wholly unobjectionable – that those online services which “children are likely to access … consider the best interests of children when designing, developing, and providing that online service, product, or feature.” In practice, the AADC functions by forcing any such website to submit a Data Protection Impact Assessment before offering any new product or service, in which they must identify all “risks of material detriment to children.” 

This is vaguely defined to encompass anything from exposure to “potentially harmful” content to “whether algorithms used by the online product … could harm children.” And “child” is defined as anyone under 18, which would treat near-high school and some high school graduates the same as kindergartners. 

Essentially, California regulators would have the power to force websites to take down whatever content or cease any practices they deem “materially detrimental to the physical health, mental health, or well-being of a child.” Websites are subject to harsh per-instance fines for failing to protect children from harms that the law largely does not define. 

Thus, a law sold as simply protecting childrens’ privacy online quickly turns into something far more comprehensive, which internet law Professor Eric Goldman has accurately called “a trojan horse for comprehensive regulation of Internet services.”  

Much of the text of the AADC derives from a British law of the same name, which California’s bill text explicitly points to for guidance in enforcing its provisions. The trouble, aside from the law’s incredible vagueness of scope, is that the United States  has something the United Kingdom does not – the First Amendment. While U.S. case law agrees that the government has some degree of duty to protect children from certain kinds of explicit content, such as pornography, even children are afforded a wide degree of First-Amendment-protected access to non-obscene speech.

The effect this law would have on websites’ ability to carry otherwise-legal speech led the trade association NetChoice to challenge the AADC on First Amendment grounds, and to seek an injunction that would block its implementation while under court review. Writing in favor of NetChoice’s request, The New York Times emphasized that the AADC would, by design, limit minors’ freedom of expression and access to legal content, restrictions which have repeatedly been found unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Importantly, the changes websites would have to make to accommodate the AADC would impact more than just California residents and minors. For one example, although the AADC does not mandate it directly, many sites might feel compelled to verify their users’ age, which would obviously have to apply to every user to determine who the minors are. Age verification online remains a difficult problem, risking users’ privacy or else submitting them to biometric scans, and creates another barrier to accessing speech that may itself be found unconstitutional.

The most perverse incentive of all is that many sites would find it far more cost-effective to simply attempt to ban all users under 18 from using their platforms. This is essentially what happened after the passage of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) in 1998, which created such complexity in processing data from minors under 13 that many platforms simply banned them instead. A similar outcome today would be tragic in an era where kids and teens need to develop digital literacy in order to be successful in the workforce. 

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Conversely, sites might instead comply by effectively treating every user as if they were a minor, restricting the content that every user has access to accordingly. Neither outcome is ideal.

In the event that California’s AADC survives its legal challenges, there are ways the state’s regulators could at least mitigate its worst effects, starting with providing concise regulatory guidance that gives website operators a greater degree of certainty about how the law will be enforced. Overall, however, the law starts from the wrong premise, as it makes online platforms liable for decisions about the appropriateness of content and services for all minors when, in reality, these questions differ substantially for every parent and child. In spite of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s protestations, it would be a far better outcome for parents, children and internet users in general if California’s AADC were struck down as unconstitutional.

Josh Withrow is a fellow for the technology and innovation policy program at the R Street Institute.

​ Orange County Register 

Supreme Court rejects Biden plan to wipe away $400 billion in student loans

• June 30, 2023

By MARK SHERMAN

WASHINGTON — A sharply divided Supreme Court ruled Friday that the Biden administration overstepped its authority in trying to cancel or reduce student loans for millions of Americans.

The 6-3 decision, with conservative justices in the majority, effectively killed the $400 billion plan, announced by President Joe Biden last year, and left borrowers on the hook for repayments that are expected to resume by late summer.

The court held that the administration needs Congress’ endorsement before undertaking so costly a program. The majority rejected arguments that a bipartisan 2003 law dealing with student loans, known as the HEROES Act, gave Biden the power he claimed.

“Six States sued, arguing that the HEROES Act does not authorize the loan cancellation plan. We agree,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court.

Justice Elena Kagan wrote in a dissent, joined by the court’s two other liberals, that the majority of the court “overrides the combined judgment of the Legislative and Executive Branches, with the consequence of eliminating loan forgiveness for 43 million Americans.”

See more on key Supreme Court decisions: Southern California educators, leaders split on court’s affirmative action ruling | Court solidifies protections for workers who ask for religious accommodations | Court strikes down affirmative action in college admissions, says race cannot be a factor | Court rejects GOP argument in North Carolina case that could have transformed US elections

Loan repayments are expected to resume by late August under a schedule initially set by the administration and included in the agreement to raise the debt ceiling. Payments have been on hold since the start of the coronavirus pandemic more than three years ago.

The forgiveness program would have canceled $10,000 in student loan debt for those making less than $125,000 or households with less than $250,000 in income. Pell Grant recipients, who typically demonstrate more financial need, would have had an additional $10,000 in debt forgiven.

Twenty-six million people had applied for relief and 43 million would have been eligible, the administration said. The cost was estimated at $400 billion over 30 years.

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​ Orange County Register 

CSUF professor’s book records reunion of Auschwitz twins who survived medical experiments

• June 30, 2023

By Nicole Gregory, contributing writer

In January 1985, Nancy Segal was witness to an extraordinary reunion of adult twins who had suffered from brutal experiments performed on them as children by Josef Mengele in the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in Poland during World War II.

Segal, a professor of psychology at Cal State Fullerton, has published her photos and experiences at this event in her new book, “The Twin Children of the Holocaust: Stolen Childhood and the Will to Survive.”

She was already studying twins and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Minnesota when she heard about this planned reunion. Segal, a twin herself, raised the funds to go to Poland for the reunion and also to attend a mock trial of Mengele, held by the survivors at Yad Vashem in Israel several months later. Segal brought along her camera to photograph the participants and their journey as they got to know one another, discovered photos of themselves and other archived artifacts, shared their stories, and walked through the death camp and the surrounding areas.

The event demonstrated the tremendous resilience of the survivors who’d lost their childhoods, their families, and their homes. It was organized by a group called Children of Auschwitz’s Deadly Laboratory Experiments Survivors (C.A.N.D.L.E.S.).

“Not a lot of people know about these twins,” Segal said. “People have heard vaguely about the Mengele twins and experiments, but they really don’t know the humanity behind the science — or the pseudoscience — that went on.”

Mengele injected children with chemicals to see if their eyes could be turned blue and with bacteria to observe the ways they became ill, among many other cruel experiments. He measured every aspect of their bodies and quizzed them about their families.

“It was an outrage, a horrific stain on the history of a well-respected and very informative research methodology,” Segal said. Her photos and memories of the reunion record the momentous healing for the twins. She photographed survivors placing a memorial candle and wreath at the ruin of a crematorium. Another photo shows a survivor touching the once-electrified barbed wire, and another shows a twin who is now a rabbi saying a prayer at the reunion.

“I regard these photographs as a really unique collection of human history,” Segal said. “No one has ever seen these. This is a very significant event in terms of the Holocaust, and also in terms of twin studies. It’s a story that needed to be told.”

For Segal, the subject is deeply personal. “I’m a Jewish twin. I could really resonate with this because in another time, another place, that could have been my twin sister and me there.”

What was Mengele trying to discover with his experiments? “I think he was trying to show genetic differences among different population groups to prove the superiority of the Aryan race,” Segal said. “That was the ultimate goal. But I think he also couldn’t wait to be lauded as a famous scientist who had this incredible twin data. I think he was kind of driven by blind scientific ambition.”

An estimated 700 to 1,500 pairs of twins were sent to Auschwitz, but the exact number is not known. An estimated 200 twins survived but only nine joined the 1985 reunion.

“A lot of those twins did not know what had happened to the other pairs,” Segal said. “This event connected them with people that they knew as children, so that was remarkable. I saw the most wonderful reunion between these two men from different pairs in the aisle of a plane. I mean, it was amazing.”

The event proved to be a turning point for the survivors. “They went back and confronted the forces that had so clearly separated them from their parents and grandparents and brothers and sisters,” Segal said. “They had the resilience and the strength to confront all that, and to survive and lead productive lives, have occupations, raise families. I think it was healing in the sense that they felt they were bringing Mengele to a kind of trial. They were alerting the world to this. In fact, this event is what stimulated the governments of Israel, Germany, and the U.S. to start a hunt for Mengele.”

In 1985, it was thought that Mengele was still alive. When it was later reported that he had died by drowning in Brazil, many Holocaust survivors did not believe this was true.

Segal is the author of several previous books on twins and lectures nationally and internationally. Most recently she gave a talk at the Orange County Holocaust Education Center in Newport Beach.

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​ Orange County Register 

Narcan hits Southern California streets — and soon store shelves — to fend off the opioid crisis

• June 30, 2023

“Do you need any Narcan?”

Annastasia Rose Beal’s voice rang out cheerfully as she stepped off of an electric skateboard one gloomy Wednesday afternoon and approach three men seated on a Santa Ana sidewalk at First and Lyon streets, with a blend of motels, other low-slung businesses and palm trees about.

Beal was doing what she often does: handing out for free the drug that can cancel out, in miraculous fashion, opioid overdoses.

In a crop top, sneakers and jean shorts, the 28-year-old Beal didn’t ask the men what drugs they may have been on. She didn’t ask if they were homeless. She did make light conversation and asked how she could help.

The three men turned into five. A woman across the street gazed at Beal’s wagon she had been towing — yes, behind her electric skateboard. It was stacked high with boxes of Narcan, water bottles, condoms, hygiene wipes, and electrolyte drink mix packs. The woman crossed First and Beal waved her over and asked:

“What can I get you, my dear?”

The woman, about Beal’s age, took the proffered box that was the size of a palm. It held Narcan.

Beal had struggled with opiate addiction as a teenager in Irvine. “These are my people,” she said. Many of her friends from that time are dead.

Now is different. The drug is commonly called “Narcan,” which is actually the brand name of a device that dispenses naloxone like a nasal spray. The drug can also be injected into the muscle. Finally, it has become widely available and is considered a major weapon — but not the cure-all — in the fight against the opioid-overdose epidemic sweeping the country in part because of fentanyl, which can be lethal at just two milligrams.

The San Bernardino, Riverside, Orange and Los Angeles County sheriff’s departments now all carry naloxone. In 2021, for example, Orange County sheriff’s personnel gave 219 doses of naloxone to 117 people, said Carrie Braun, a spokesperson for the agency. Forty-six of them were in the jails, with the rest on the streets.

Last October, the Los Angeles Unified School District approved naloxone for every K-12 school. That month, the Orange County Board of Supervisors approved six $20,000 grants for the drug’s purchase by school districts. In January, a new law began requiring community colleges and Cal State campuses to keep the drug on hand, too. And in 2022, some state lawmakers started pushing for another law that would make libraries, bars, and gas stations stock up on naloxone.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently approved making Narcan, or naloxone, available over the counter. Soon, anyone at least age 18 will be allowed to buy it off of the shelf. For now, pharmacists can provide the drug without a prescription, albeit once they’ve finished opioid-education requirements.

Beal distributes Narcan through her organization, the Irvine-based Harm Reduction Circle she started in 2021 with co-founders Emma Webb, Dylan Waller, and Hannah Halbers. Their group had to get state approval to hand out the drug.

Beal says she maintains meticulous records of her group’s distribution, keeping the nonprofit in the California Department of Health Care Services’ Naloxone Distribution Project, which delivers the drug by the pallet. Beal also trains people how to use the nasal spray, which is so easy to use, she said, that her 8-year-old daughter, Samantha, learned to do it.

In 2023 so far, Harm Reduction Circle has distributed more than 11,000 doses. In 2022, the group said Narcan it supplied reversed 170 overdoses. In the vast sea of approaches to the opioid epidemic, saving lives — not evangelizing on the dangers of drug use — is Beal’s focus.

“Everyone should be carrying Narcan,” she said.

Naloxone’s cost can be a barrier to its success.

It’s about $140, on average, for a standard, two-dose pack of Narcan spray. The injection is $40 to $60. California is looking to partner with a manufacturer to produce affordable naloxone.

“Today’s market lacks access to a low-cost naloxone nasal spray and relying on the market to self-correct is uncertain, underscoring the need to support development, manufacturing, or procurement of a low-cost option,” Andrew DiLuccia, a spokesman for the state Department of Health Care Access and Information, said in an email.

Major national retailers, such as CVS and Walgreens, carry the drug as do many other pharmacies. But months after the FDA’s announcement, it’s unclear when consumers will actually be able to get the drug off of shelves as easily as grabbing Pepto Bismol or Advil.

Since the FDA’s March announcement, Andres Hanna, a pharmacist who owns Yee’s Pharmacy in Long Beach, said he has regularly checked with manufacturers and looked for FDA updates about when over-the-counter naloxone will be available.

“Once (FDA) approved it, I checked this right away to see if the wholesaler has it so I can get some,” Hanna said. “(But) no one knows anything, it’s not available anywhere.”

The FDA, in an email, casts the spotlight elsewhere when saying when naloxone will hit shelves: “The timeline for availability and price of this OTC (over-the-counter) product is determined by the manufacturer.”

Emergent BioSolutions, which makes Narcan, is “working toward a late summer launch this year,” spokesperson Assal Hellmer said in an email, without elaborating on what needs to first be done.

For now, Hanna has naloxone behind the counter, which he can furnish to those who don’t have a prescription if they are 18 or older. Also, doctors prescribe naloxone along with opioids for their patients as a safeguard, he said.

But Hanna wants to make it even easier for the public to get — from shelves out in the open. Last month, he went to a funeral for someone who suffered an opioid overdose.

Ryan Marble, a 38-year-old security guard who lives in Santa Ana and works for a motel on First Street, regularly sees people using drugs. While at work, he said, he has administered naloxone at least three times. When Beal arrived that Wednesday, Marble happily accepted the Narcan.

“This isn’t going to fix it,” Marble said. “It’s putting a Band-Aid over it. Our government needs to do better.”

Matt Capelouoto lost his 20-year-old daughter, Alexandra, to fentanyl.

An Arizona State student who aspired to become a social worker, she died in 2019 at their Temecula family home from an accidental opiate overdose. In Capelouoto’s words, it was a poisoning — what Alexandra believed was an oxycodone pill, he said, turned out to be laced with fentanyl. In February, the 23-year-old Riverside man who sold her the pill was sentenced to federal prison.

“I will never say my daughter died of a drug overdose, my daughter was poisoned,” the father said. “She did not make a wise choice (but the) fact of the matter is this person sold her a counterfeit pill.”

Capelouoto emphasized that he “110%” supports making naloxone accessible. But more needs to be done.

“For (myself and the) majority of parents that I speak with, all of our kids died by themselves,” he said. “There was nobody around to administer Narcan. So how do we address those deaths? People like to say we’re not going to arrest our way out of this, we’re not going to Narcan our way out of it, either.

“I do support it, but it’s not an end-all. And we need to have a wide variety of tools to help save the lives that are lost.”

Capelouoto advocates for drug dealers getting charged with murder if someone dies from fentanyl poisoning their product caused. The stance has gained traction with some district attorneys.

Naloxone is not new. It was developed in the 1960s and gained FDA approval in 1971; in subsequent decades, it was primarily used by first responders and hospitals. No longer.

Dr. Sid Puri, a substance-abuse expert with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, said he disagreed with any notion that making naloxone widely accessible is somehow enabling drug use.

“If someone was coming into my office, and they have really, really high sugars, my first instinct isn’t, ‘Go out and eat better and exercise before I give you medication or any treatment to reduce your diabetes,’ it’s, ‘I’m giving you medication, I’m giving you something to reduce the risk and to help you in your current situation,’ ” Puri said.

“And that same way, someone struggling with substance use disorder needs naloxone (or) they need sterile supplies because that reduces overdoses and deaths and disease transmission.”

Puri said the over-the-counter approval is “huge” — it normalizes naloxone in everyday places.

“When we think of the way that people have to get naloxone now, they have to get prescribed or they have to go into a pharmacy, they have to give their ID and insurance card,” the medical doctor said. “All those are barriers, especially for people who are experiencing homelessness, or who are using drugs and feel completely stigmatized by the medical and pharmaceutical industry anyway.”

Naloxone, Puri added, has no known harmful side effects and isn’t addictive; the only downside is the user could go through withdrawals. If someone is given naloxone and they aren’t on opioids, it has no effect.

For those on an opioid, naloxone reverses the effect. It can restore normal breathing in two or three minutes. Multiple doses may be needed if a more potent opioid such as fentanyl has been ingested, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Naloxone lasts 30 to 90 minutes in the body. Opioids can stay in the system longer — another reason additional doses may be required.

Administering naloxone is covered under California’s Good Samaritan Law, which protects those who act in good faith to assist someone during a medical emergency.

“If people are alive, we can at least link them to treatment services, we can understand their goals and help them reach them in a safe and effective way,” Puri said. “The dam is broken, and we are watching this wave wash over us. But naloxone is a lifejacket for a lot of people that would otherwise just completely die and drown. So I think this is a step in something.”

Annastasia Rose Beal rides her Onewheel electric skateboard as she hands out Narcan, water, condoms, and other supplies to people along First Street in Santa Ana on Friday, April 14, 2023. Beal runs an Irvine-based nonprofit called the Harm Reduction Circle.(Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

After an hour on the streets, Beal meandered along First on her way to Grand Avenue, her first turn on her way home to Irvine on her electric skateboard.

She has bigger plans for Harm Reduction Circle. The group has started providing free meals on certain days and setting up naloxone distribution at events such as concerts and festivals and on college campuses.

A few more people popped up as she walked. One man she gave a pack of M&M’s. Another woman chatted with Beal for 10 minutes and took a box of Narcan before heading off to a bus stop.

Beal hopped off of her electric skateboard intermittently, leaving boxes of Narcan on a bench, on the top of a trash can, on a curb, and near some bushes.

She hopes whoever needs it, finds it.

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​ Orange County Register 

When the 405 Express Lanes open up, some motorists will avoid the toll

• June 30, 2023

Q. Hi Honk: Can you explain what the new rules will be for the 405 Freeway carpool lanes through Fountain Valley? I have a plug-in hybrid with HOV stickers. I am not sure how things are changing. Thanks!

–  Carol Bobke, Mission Viejo 

A. The new rules are tied to a $2.2 billion project, Carol, that is widening the 405 for 16 miles between the 73 and 605 freeways. It is scheduled for completion late this year.

When it opens, there will no longer be traditional carpool lanes.

Instead, in the middle of the conventional freeway will sit the 405 Express Lanes – a tollway – offering two lanes in each direction. Besides the endpoints, there will be a couple of places in between to enter and leave.

The toll may vary on the hour. A schedule of what the amounts will be is expected to be approved later this summer.

Some drivers will get to take the Express Lanes for free:

Vehicles with two occupants during non-peak hours.
Vehicles with at least three occupants.
Vehicles with license plates only assigned to veterans.
Vehicles properly using disabled-person license plates.
Motorcycles.

Now, Carol, those with the state’s Clean Air Vehicle stickers, like you have, will be able to take the 405 Express Lanes at a discount; the reduced percentage has not been approved yet. The Clean Air Stickers currently eligible are orange, blue, yellow and green.

“Everybody has to have a transponder, just like on the 91 Express Lanes,” said Joel Zlotnik, a spokesman for the Orange County Transportation Authority, which will own and operate the 405 Express Lanes. “This (overall) policy (largely) mirrors the 91 Express Lanes.’”

There’s an exception or two, such as there is no discount for vehicles with only two occupants on the 91 Express Lanes.

To keep motorists updated, the transportation agency has trotted out a website just for the 405 Express Lanes: 405expresslanes.com.

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HONKIN’ REQUEST: Honk gets many great questions, but they tend to be from landlubbers, of which he is one. It is summertime! If you are curious about anything transportation related on the high seas, or in the Back Bay, drop him an email at [email protected]. Same goes with walking, biking, motorcycling, hang gliding, parachuting, etc. Like you, ol’ Honk is quite curious and likes to learn about life’s mysteries.

HONKIN’ FACT: If you want to drive to the epicenter of the Fourth of July, Independence Hall in Philadelphia, it will take you 2,709 miles if you start at the Santa Ana Civic Center. The trip will require 40 hours on the road – if you don’t hit traffic. Or, you can get to Knott’s Berry Farm’s Independence Hall with a 13.6-mile jaunt, perhaps in under 20 minutes. (Source: Google)

To ask Honk questions, reach him at [email protected]. He only answers those that are published. To see Honk online: ocregister.com/tag/honk. Twitter: @OCRegisterHonk

​ Orange County Register 

Reparations task force gives recommendations on how California can atone for slavery

• June 30, 2023

State legislators can now begin to draw up laws that would give Black Californians restitution for the long-term effects of slavery.

The California Task Force to Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans culminated two years of work on Thursday, June 29, when it presented its final report recommending monetary compensation, a formal public apology from the state, and replacing what it called racist policies with new ones.

These recommendations were among many ways the task force urged a progressive path forward for Black Californians.

“This is going to be the start of another lengthy process,” said task force member Sen. Steven Bradford, D-Gardena, during Thursday’s meeting. “Reparations is not a gift, not a handout, not charity. It is what is promised, what is owed and what is long overdue… It’s past due time to repay African American people.”

Implementing reparations won’t be done with one bill, or in one legislative cycle, Bradford added. The task force’s work will ultimately take root, he said, urging supporters to stay engaged and keep advocating for state policies that will forge a better future for Black people.

The proposals now move to the state legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom, who was not present at the meeting.

At the task force’s last meeting in early May, the nine-member committee gave final approval to the hefty list of proposals. Next, those recommendations will go to state lawmakers to consider for reparations legislation.

Talks of reparations have gone on since slavery’s abolition in 1863, with the federal government’s promise of 40 acres and a mule to each freed Black person never being fulfilled.

“When slavery ended in 1863, there was a promise of land that was never paid,” Bradford said. “If you can inherit generational wealth, you can inherit generational debt, and this is a debt that is owed.”

The task force began its work in 2021, studying the political, economic, environmental and educational harms that slavery had on Black Californians and the descendants of slaves. It issued its first report last year, with recommendations such as paying incarcerated people market wages, and creating a state African American Affairs agency, which it built off of for the final proposals.

The final report details historic atrocities that the state, under the panel’s recommendations, would apologize for — like demolishing thriving African American neighborhoods in the name of urban renewal and park construction — and promise to not repeat them.

The report cited 1960s San Francisco where, operating under a state law for urban redevelopment, officials ordered the destruction of the Fillmore District; then the city’s most prominent African American neighborhood and business district. The move wiped out nearly 900 businesses, displaced nearly 5,000 households and damaged the lives of nearly 20,000 people – then left the land empty for many years.

Similarly, in Manhattan Beach, city leadership nearly 100 years ago used eminent domain to take the land under a thriving Black-owned seaside resort, Bruce’s Beach Lodge, under the guise of needing land to build parks. That land sat vacant and wasn’t turned into a park until decades after the local government took it over.

California Senate Bill 796, which Bradford co-authored in 2021, allowed the return of that land to Bruce descendants — a move that officials called the first tangible action of restorative justice for Black people in America.

But officials said there are still endless stories in which people don’t get their property back or the funds they deserve for it.

Three people who testified at Thursday’s meeting shared how their families’ land was taken through eminent domain. They said they were not properly compensated, and continued to be forced from one redlined neighborhood to the next, restricted from living where and how they wanted to, unlike the White people in communities around them.

In the 1,000-page report, the task force also:

Suggests how to calculate cash reparations to address the community’s health disparities, incarceration, over-policing, housing discrimination, devaluation of Black-owned businesses, unjust property takings by eminent domain and labor discrimination
Discusses how a survey on the California Racial Justice Act could help root out and address bias in the criminal justice system
Suggests a standard curriculum centered on the task force’s findings and recommendations, and funding for it
Compiles cases, state and federal laws that demonstrate that federal and state systems have institutionalized discrimination against African American people

Though the state legislature will have to ultimately determine the amount of monetary reparations to be paid, and how to distribute them, economists who reported to the task force had previously estimated that Black residents could be owed more than $800 billion collectively.

“The cost of reparations will be high,” Bradford said, “but make no mistake, the harms that were done are just as high and the disparities its created continue to this day.”

If California puts half a percent, or $1.5 billion, of its $300 billion annual budget into annuity each year, “we can pay for it,” he added. The state finds money to do other things, “so this is our priority.”

The task force meeting set the blueprint for possible reparations proposals and sweeping policy changes across the nation. Illinois, for its part, has an African Descent-Citizens Reparations Commission that has been working alongside California to figure out such recommendations for African Americans in that state.

Protesters participate in a march on August 29, 2020 from Manhattan Beach City Hall to Bruce’s Beach. The protest was one of the first to bring attention to the local, historical issue of systemic racism and of the City taking over the property via eminent domain. (Photo by Tracey Roman, Contributing Photographer)

Historian and author Alison Rose Jefferson has studied how governments land-grabbed Black property through the Jim Crow era, the effects of those practices on Black people, and their ability to own property today. She wrote about Bruce’s Beach and other Black Californian leisure sites in her book, “Living the California Dream: African American Leisure Sites during the Jim Crow Era.”

During testimony at a December 2021 task force meeting, Jefferson recommended that the state invest more in knowledge about Black history so that legislators can make informed policy. She also suggested the state give access to land-grabbed areas where Black people once gathered, especially through jobs and affordable housing.

Before Thursday’s final hearing, Jefferson said that the report being turned into any laws that could benefit Black people will be “incremental… it would take lifetimes for the playing field to be leveled to White counterparts.”

“We’ll be able to do something, but it’ll never be as ethnically mixed as it may have been, if (Black) folks who settled at the beach in the early 20th century had been able to stay down there,” she said. “We can make the guess that if they had been allowed to stay there and grow with the city, they may have had more input in the city’s development, and it may have been a different kind of community than it is today.”

Although California entered the Union in 1850 as a free state, its early state government supported slavery, the report stated. In 1852, officials passed a fugitive slave law that put Black people living in California at risk of being deported to slave-holding states in the south. Some scholars estimated up to 1,500 enslaved African Americans lived in the state that year.

And that history of white supremacy in government still rears its head today.

Over 100 of the 536 last sitting U.S. Congress members have family links to enslavers, Reuters reported.

“That shows how they (lawmakers) think about developing our laws,” Jefferson said, “Because they are from this background of White Supremacy.”

FILE – A crowd listens to speakers at a reparations rally outside of City Hall in San Francisco, on March 14, 2023. California’s first-in-the-nation reparations task force wraps up its historic work Thursday, June 29, 2023, with the formal submission to lawmakers of a final report that includes dozens of recommendations on how the state can apologize and compensate Black residents for decades of discriminatory practices and policies. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

Assemblymember Corey Jackson, D-Perris, applauded the task force’s work and report. In a statement Thursday, he emphasized the importance of the real work in making these reparations happen moving forward.

“Words alone are not enough. We must now take concrete steps to implement tangible policies that address the wealth inequality, housing segregation, discriminatory policing and maternal health disparities that have plagued our community for far too long,” Jackson said.

Rosie Brady, secretary for the NAACP’s 1034 branch in Riverside, said before the hearing that she hopes for honesty when it comes to reparations policies. She also wondered about the implications of being a Black California resident who moved to the state from elsewhere.

“I’m originally from Mississippi, a descendant of slaves — but now I live in California, so what does that mean?”

Still, she is “hopeful” that reparations will allow Black people to “get ahead a little in life,” and be able to do things that she said have been “simple” for white people, like helping their children through college.

“When Black people were freed they weren’t given anything,” Brady said. “Still, we’re at the lowest of the totem pole.”

Related links

California puts a price on slavery’s legacy and draws a blueprint for reparations
California reparations task force to recommend ‘down payments’ for slavery, racism 
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​ Orange County Register 

OC Register removing commenting July 1, 2023

• June 30, 2023

Beginning July 1, 2023, we will no longer be hosting comments on our websites.

We understand that comments can be a good way to discuss and debate the news and to interact with other members of the community. However, open comments, because they are difficult to moderate, sometimes become forums for spam, or worse, abusive and hateful speech that is not in line with our desire to host a free exchange of ideas in a manner that is courteous and respectful. In addition, testing has shown that removing the comments will improve site load times, which means less waiting and a better user experience for our valued readers and subscribers.

As always, we love to hear from our readers. If you want to reach us, our reporters’ email addresses are on every story we post. You can also send your feedback to us at [email protected]. We are also active on social media, and we would be delighted if you would follow us on Twitter or visit our Facebook page where we can continue the conversation. And if you have a strong opinion you’d like to see published, you can send us a letter to the editor at [email protected].

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Dodgers’ trio of All-Stars lead the way in rout of Rockies

• June 30, 2023

DENVER — It might snow in June before the Colorado Rockies can put together a decent pitching staff.

It looked like one of those aberrations – only one – had arrived at Coors Field on Thursday afternoon when a strong hail storm hit Denver. The hail stones blanketed the field, looking very much like a dusting of snow.

Players from the Rockies came out to frolic, making angels on the infield after wading through a two-foot high hail bank the predominant wind had created in the home dugout. The game was delayed nearly two hours while the grounds crew used leaf blowers to melt the hail in the outfield.

“It was really bleak as far as potentially playing,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who walked the field with Rockies manager Bud Black, members of the umpiring crew and both front offices about an hour before the delayed first pitch.

All hail broke loose after that. The Dodgers pummeled the Rockies, piling up 18 hits in a 14-3 rout, allowing them to win a road series outside California for the first time since taking two out of three in Atlanta from May 22-24.

“We were all saying, ‘We’re here. Might as well go for it,’” first baseman Freddie Freeman said of waiting out the storm. “Two hours of rain – I don’t know if you call that rain. It was like snow pretty much. They were talking about we might have to make it up on our one (common) off day and play, like, 20 days in a row. So we were all ready to roll.”

The opportunity to face the Rockies’ pitching staff certainly didn’t hurt their willingness to wait it out. Thursday wasn’t even their worst beating of the homestand. They were on the receiving end of a 25-1 humiliation by the Angels on Saturday and have given up double-digit runs in 14 games already this season. There aren’t enough humidors to help a pitching staff that ranks last or next-to-last (thank you, Oakland A’s) in ERA, hits allowed, runs allowed, home runs allowed, WHIP and strikeout rate.

One thing is certain about the Rockies’ pitching staff this season – Black is going to get his steps in daily.

During the hail storm, the starters for the All-Star Game were announced and three Dodgers were voted into the National League lineup. That trio – Mookie Betts, Freeman and J.D. Martinez – went a combined 8 for 11 with six runs scored and eight RBIs against the Rockies.

Martinez had four hits to cap a seven-RBI, three-home run series. He drove in Betts twice with RBI singles after he led off the first and third innings with doubles and then added a two-run home run during the Dodgers’ six-run fourth inning. In 14 career games at Coors Field, Martinez is a .444 hitter (28 for 63) with six home runs and 20 RBIs.

“There’s just not a better hitter at Coors and the numbers speak to that,” Roberts said. “Just using the whole field, doing what he does.”

Freeman drove in three runs with a pair of singles, reaching 50 RBIs for the season. According to ESPN Stats and Info, he is the first Dodger with 100 hits, 50 RBIs and 10 stolen bases before the month of July since RBIs were first tracked in 1920.

“I just try to do the same thing every year,” Freeman said. “That’s all I’m trying to do is be consistent so you never have to worry about me and when I do something good you don’t really have to talk about it because that’s the norm. That’s what I try and do every single year. Yes, I’ve had a good first half. Still got a few games to go. Hopefully, we can keep those numbers going up.”

But stars and non-stars alike got a taste. Everyone in the starting lineup except catcher Austin Barnes had at least one hit and scored a run in the first six innings. Miguel Vargas ended a 1-for-36 stretch with an RBI triple. Jason Heyward had three hits, including two doubles. Max Muncy drove in runs with a double and a single.

“I think it’s contagious,” Roberts said. “With the energy that Mookie is providing, guys want to follow that energy. … You can just see the pep in the step tonight from the guys so I do believe it’s contagious.”

Rookie right-hander Emmet Sheehan was the beneficiary. After giving up just three hits in his first 12 major-league innings, Sheehan got his first taste of Coors and gave up three runs on seven hits in five innings against the Rockies.

“This is not an easy place to pitch and not an easy environment,” Roberts said.

“I think it’s the ‘Ignorance is bliss’ adage where I know he understands Coors, but I don’t think the kind of the gravity of what it does as far as run creation and scoring runs. So he just went out there.”

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Just Deserves to be an All-Star. pic.twitter.com/WJB0vPcLXe

— MLB (@MLB) June 30, 2023

Mookie and Freddie, one-two punch. pic.twitter.com/iuWWIhaOvX

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) June 30, 2023

“Felt like a regular start to me.” Emmet Sheehan wasn’t phased by the elevation at Coors Field. pic.twitter.com/vOvaHYA38X

— SportsNet LA (@SportsNetLA) June 30, 2023

Dave Roberts speaks on the #Dodgers’ toughness and Sheehan’s evolution. pic.twitter.com/b7qa3jc5qe

— SportsNet LA (@SportsNetLA) June 30, 2023

​ Orange County Register