USC LB Eric Gentry out with injury against Minnesota

• October 6, 2024

MINNEAPOLIS — It wasn’t long into Easton Mascarenas-Arnold’s time at USC before he and Mason Cobb started calling themselves yin-yang, the two-man balance at linebacker at the heart of the Trojans’ defense.

If Cobb was down, Mascarenas-Arnold could pick him up. Vice versa. Two complementary spirits. They have found stability, though, in part next to the emergence of a third force, the 6-foot-6 Eric Gentry bringing fire and versatility and production unmatched across most of the nation at large.

“Shoot, I got all confidence when he’s on the field,” Mascarenas-Arnold said of Gentry after USC’s Week 1 win over LSU. “As an offense, I know they’re looking out there like, ‘Damn, they got a 6-foot-6 linebacker, like, I know he’s a threat.’”

He would pose no threat against Minnesota on Saturday, because Gentry wasn’t in the lineup, a massive blow for USC’s defense that’s been largely anticipated since he was carted off in the fourth quarter of USC’s win over Wisconsin last week. In one man sidelined, USC went without its leading tackler and tackler-for-loss and sack artist against Minnesota – placing the onus on the Yin-Yang brothers to stay in balance without him.

“It changes some things, certainly not everything. … I’d still venture to say, you know, 80 to 90 percent of what we’re going to do, we’re probably going to do whether he’s there or not,” Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley said of Gentry’s injury Thursday. “And so we do have a lot of confidence in the other guys at those positions.”

With senior Raesjon Davis out as well after deciding to redshirt, freshmen Desman Stephens II and Elijah Newby stood as next in line on USC’s depth chart behind starters. Gentry’s absence, though, provided a sudden opportunity for junior Anthony Beavers Jr., a former safety who’s played sparingly this season but played in Gentry’s weakside-linebacker spot during practice in the week’s preparation.

Makai Lemon, Akili Arnold return

Two weeks after a brutal blindside hit on a special-teams play knocked sophomore receiver Makai Lemon out for the following week’s contest against Wisconsin, he was back in uniform Saturday against Minnesota, a boost for USC’s young receiver room.

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Arnold, too, was active and back in his starting spot next to Kamari Ramsey at safety after also exiting against Michigan and missing the Wisconsin win. It was a pivotal bill of health for USC, as Oregon State transfer Arnold had previously worn the defense’s green dot for in-helmet communication with defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn.

“It was on different guys all throughout camp,” Lynn said in early September of the choice to dub Arnold with the in-game comms, “and we just felt like Akili ended up being the right person to have it on.”

No more right-guard rotation

After Alani Noa and redshirt-freshman Amos Talalele spent much of USC’s past two games switching across various series, Riley said he didn’t “necessarily have a preference” on keeping the rotation intact or naming a permanent starter at right guard.

In Saturday’s first half against Minnesota, though, Riley and offensive-line coach Josh Henson sent Noa out every series, a show of faith in a sophomore with obvious promise but had his share of struggles in USC’s 3-1 start.

“He’s played physical, he’s certainly, he’s improved so much mentally,” Riley said of Noa, a couple weeks ago. “His communication skills in there have really improved. Our guys have gotten comfortable playing with him.”

​ Orange County Register 

Tiller Days celebrates Tustin community

• October 6, 2024

The Tustin community turned out Saturday for the Tustin Tiller Days parade and festival.

The four-day community celebration, which is in its 67th year, continues Sunday, Oct. 6, with carnival games and rides, lots to eat, a brewery festival, entertainment throughout the day and more at Columbus Tustin Park.

The always funny Kids Say the Cutest Things contest will be at 1 p.m. and there is an an ice cream eating contest at 2 p.m.  Journey USA caps the day’s stage entertainment, playing from 6 to 8 p.m. You can also smash a car for charity.

If you go

When: Noon to 8 p.m. on Oct. 6

Where: In and around Columbus Tustin Park, 17522 Beneta Way

Cost: Free admission

Information: tustinca.org/637/Tustin-Tiller-Days

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​ Orange County Register 

Runners, walkers speed past marine life during 2024 Aquarium of the Pacific 5K

• October 6, 2024

Hundreds of runners and walkers made their way past otters, jellyfish, and other marine life during the Aquarium of the Pacific 5K Run/Walk on Saturday, Oct. 5.

People of all ages took part in the race early Saturday morning, as part of the 40th annual Long Beach Marathon weekend. Long Beach welcomed more than 22,000 runners who are set to participate in events this year, organizers said.

As people ran or walked to beat personal records or have a good time with friends and family, they enjoyed the Aquarium of the Pacific’s exhibits, as well as having mascots, staff and volunteers cheer them on. Participants received some swag for running in the 5K, including an aquarium-themed finishers medal.

The 5K began at the aquarium, with participants then making their way around Shoreline Village Park, past the lighthouse in ShoreLine Aquatic Park and over the Queensway Bridge. After that, they turned around and finished the race by running through the aquarium.

The early morning did not stop adults and kids from smiling ear to ear as they made their way through some of Long Beach’s iconic landmarks and getting to wave at the sharks, fish, and otters.

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​ Orange County Register 

Santa Anita horse racing consensus picks for Sunday, October 6, 2024

• October 6, 2024

The consensus box of Santa Anita horse racing picks comes from handicappers Bob Mieszerski, Eddie Wilson, Kevin Modesti and Mark Ratzky. Here are the picks for thoroughbred races on Sunday, October 6, 2024.

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​ Orange County Register 

Former Lake Forest insurance broker gets 3 years of probation for stealing $183,000 in premiums

• October 6, 2024

SANTA ANA — A former Lake Forest insurance broker pleaded guilty Thursday and was immediately sentenced to three years of probation for stealing about $183,000 in an insurance premiums, exposing victims to the danger of uninsured losses.

Karen Marie Dondanville, 56, pleaded guilty to 90 counts, mostly felonies, including grand theft, theft from an elder, fraudulent insurance benefit claims, assisting in a false claim, making false entries in records or returns, and forgery. She also admitted sentencing enhancements for property damage exceeding $65,000 and aggravated white collar crime between $10,000 and $500,000.

Dondanville accepted a plea deal with prosecutors, her attorney, Fred Fascenelli, said.

“Now she can make strides to make these people whole,” Fascenelli said of her remaining free of custody. “With her being on probation everyone benefits… The goal usually is you want to compensate the victims.”

He said personal problems contributed to sloppy oversight that prompted the criminal case.

The California Department of Insurance said Dondanvile was ordered to pay $335,349 in restitution to the victims, which includes payments to victims who had uncovered losses as a result of Dondanville’s theft.

Dondanville’s insurance broker license was revoked by the state in November 2019, according to California Department of Insurance investigator Braelyn Velasco in court papers.

She stole $183,074 from January 2012 through January 2020 in “payments, insurance premiums and return premiums from 32 customers through the use of fraud, misrepresentation and forgery,” Velasco said in court papers when the case was filed in 2021.

She provided customers fraudulent insurance documents to bill for excessive premiums, and at times provided proof of insurance to mortgage companies when the customers had none, Velasco stated.

The defendant received and deposited premium payments from victims and “failed to remit all — if any — of the premiums to the victims’ insurance companies, thus depriving the victims of their insurance benefits and exposing them to potential uncovered loss,” the investigator said.

“Dondanville manipulated victims’ insurance policies in order to steal premium refunds,” Velasco said. “Dondanville changed victims’ mailing addresses on insurance policies to her own mailing address without the victims’ knowledge or authorization.”

She also allegedly forged victims’ signatures on documents she submitted to insurance companies that requested the victims’ policies be canceled and premiums be refunded to her, and the investigator found that Dondanville also submitted insurance applications for victims’ properties that contained false information in order to steal premium refunds.

She also “substantially exaggerated a victims’ property dwelling, in order to increase the policy’s premium,” Velasco alleged. “Once the insurance company received the premium from the victims’ mortgage account, Donadanville requested the insurance company lower the dwelling amount and issue a premium refund, which Dondanville would divert to herself.”

Three of the victims were older than 65, Velasco said.

Even after her license was revoked, the defendant carried on with her business, Velasco said.

“One of Dondanville’s victims experienced substantial losses that were not covered by an insurance policy, despite the fact the victim paid Dondanville for the insurance policy and that Dondanville provided proof of insurance,” Velasco said. “The victim did not discover the proof of insurance was fraudulent until after the victim experienced the loss.”

The Orange County Register contributed to this story.

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​ Orange County Register 

Swanson: Does a Hollywood ending await Dodgers’ Jack Flaherty?

• October 5, 2024

Jack Flaherty’s story has so many elements of a classic coming-of-age sports movie that you almost feel like you should be able to predict the ending.

The best player on the “Sandlot” growing up to play for the Dodgers? It being set in the Valley, a la “Karate Kid” and “Bad News Bears”? The backdrop being a famously competitive Little League that produced TV stars like Tom Selleck and All-Stars like Jack McDowell, that was dominated for a spell by a pitcher who damn right threw like a girl, the real-life Amanda Whurlitzer – known to Flaherty and his generation as Marti Sementelli.

Those Sherman Oaks Little Leaguers remember her, and she remembers them too – Flaherty especially: “One of those kids that was like, ‘You gotta watch out for him, ’cause he’s gonna be something.’”

I imagine everyone who played with or against that famously intense little Flaherty fellow remembers, and that they’ve all been tuned in since July, when he was traded from Detroit to L.A., a Boy in Blue at 28.

That they’ll be on the edge of their seats watching him take the mound Sunday at Dodger Stadium, the site of Harvard-Westlake High School’s CIF Southern Section Division I championship in 2017, when Flaherty singled in the game’s only run and pitched an eight-strikeout shutout.

Dodgers acquire Jack Flaherty from Studio City Harvard-Westlake & Sherman Oaks Little League.

Welcome home, @jflare_ https://t.co/GtmwYhgv49 pic.twitter.com/NxTcXtt92n

— L.A. in a Minute (@LaInaMinute) July 30, 2024

This time, Flaherty can play the hometown hero in Game 2 of the best-of-five National League Division Series against the San Diego Padres.

Not sure how far we can push this dream sequence before producers reject the script as being too far-fetched, but it feels like Flaherty is eager to find out.

Because when Mookie Betts had Flaherty on his podcast and mentioned “how tough it’s going to be” to have to perform in the postseason in front of the hometown fans, the pitcher shook him off: “Yeah, it’s fun.”

“That’s what you qualify as fun?” Betts asked. (The two-time World Series winner and 2018 American League MVP who’s slumped in his past couple postseasons used a different word: “Stress.”)

“Yeah, 100%, that’s what it is… it’s fun, man,” said Flaherty, who is 1-3 with an 3.60 ERA in five postseason appearances with the St. Louis Cardinals and Baltimore Orioles. “It’s going to be high-intensity, pressure-filled, like, a lot of fun.”

Cinema, you might say.

Since joining the Dodgers, the right-hander has a 3.58 ERA in 55⅓ innings over 10 starts, wielding his slider and perhaps his most noteworthy ability – availability.

“I think everyone deep down wants to play for their hometown team,” Flaherty told reporters after being traded. “Getting the opportunity to is just special.”

It’s been special for his oldest fans too, people like Jason Drantch, who played with Flaherty on a different Dodgers team – the one that won the District 40 Little League Tournament of Champions title in 2005.

Dodgers pitcher Jack Flaherty, far left in the second row, was the youngest and best player on the Sherman Oaks Little League team that won the District 40 Little League Tournament of Champions title in 2005, as recalled by former teammate Jason Drantch, third from left in the second row. (Photo courtesy of Jason Drantch)

Flaherty was the youngest – 8 or 9 – and best and most intense player on that team, recalled Drantch, a former first baseman who was, at 11, the oldest.

“It was pretty clear at that young age that he had a future in the game,” said Drantch, who gives the Dodgers two thumbs-up for changing their minds and deciding to give Flaherty the Game 2 start, because that’s the game for which Dratch has tickets.

“When he was on the mound, I just remember the fear the other kids seemed to have. That intensity, he brought that to the mound and you did not want to face him; you did not want to step into the box against him. I’m glad I didn’t have to, because it didn’t look fun.

“That team we were on, we were very successful,” added Drantch, now a sports producer at KTLA. “And that was because of him. He led the way in that regard and it was a great honor to be a part of it.”

Marti Sementelli dominated my little league. Yes she’s a girl. Yes she’s better than Mo’Ne

— Jack Flaherty (@jflare_) February 14, 2015

Sementelli was a couple years older than Flaherty and didn’t face him until high school, as she continued her historic baseball career into college and then with Team USA.

She also remembers Flaherty’s heart-on-his-sleeve passion, and his prowess at shortstop and as a hitter before he narrowed his focus to pitching in high school – a decision that worked out well, as she watched first-hand this season.

When Flaherty threw 6⅔ innings of no-hit ball May 30 at Fenway Park, Sementelli was there, in the press box, working as one of Major League Baseball’s data operations staffers.

“I’m inputting all the live-game updates into the MLB website, tracking every single pitch … and thinking, ‘How ironic, that we both came from Sherman Oaks, playing really competitive Little League baseball,’” she said. “‘And how cool would it be if I worked Jack Flaherty’s no-hitter?’ ”

She could have imagined he’d have nights like that, she said. But watching him now, it’s his staying power that really impresses her: “Not just to make the majors, but to be very successful? Making The Show and being someone that people want on your team, that’s a big-time pitcher? He’s become that guy in the majors. That’s super cool.”

“And it isn’t easy, no matter how good you are,” said Harvard-Westlake athletic director Matt LaCour, who in 2021 became only high school coach to have three former teammates make opening-day starts in the same season, when Flaherty (St. Louis Cardinals), Lucas Giolito (Chicago White Sox) and Max Fried (Atlanta Braves) did it.

The 34th overall pick out of high school in 2014, Flaherty made his big-league debut in 2017 and in 2019 logged a 2.75 ERA in 196⅓ innings and finished fourth in NL Cy Young award voting.

He wasn’t as sharp in the short 2020 season and then was hindered by shoulder issues. He still didn’t have his best stuff in 2023, when the Cardinals traded him to the Baltimore Orioles, who moved him to the bullpen.

“How you adapt and how you persevere is how you’re ultimately going to be successful,” LaCour said. “And the way Jack has done, it’s a great reminder to guys that are younger … you’re going to hit a spot where you’re not the best, or people have caught you. It’s what you do from there to separate yourself again that’s really important.”

After signing a one-year, $14 million contract as a free agent last offseason, Flaherty became an All-Star candidate and dependable No. 2 starter for the Tigers, with an 11-8 record and ERA (2.95) that was in the top 10 among AL pitchers.

And then, at the trade deadline, Detroit swapped him for a pair of Dodgers’ minor-league prospects.

Now the stage is set, perhaps, for a real-life Hollywood ending. Get your popcorn ready.

“I’ve had some conversations over the last couple days with some family and some people close to me, just kind of putting it all into perspective and how kind of surreal and just crazy of an opportunity it is – being from here, growing up here, coming to games here,” Flaherty said Saturday, before Game 1. “It’s just a lot of fun, at the end of the day.

“I was looking back, like little young me, if I was to tell myself this: What would like 8-year-old me say? It would be pretty cool. So I’m just trying to enjoy it.”

⁦@Dodgers⁩ ⁦@jflare_⁩

Circa 1997 …. Let’s Go!!! pic.twitter.com/YlI39KIx3Q

— Eileen Flaherty (@JackandGradyMom) July 30, 2024

Jack Flaherty really put on a show on the mound at Dodger Stadium on Sunday and then popped out to the LA Sparks game and did a jersey swap with Cameron Brink!

You love to see two new stars in Los Angeles connect like this

Via Sparks, Dodgers. pic.twitter.com/7xpMsFuceA

— Dodgers Nation (@DodgersNation) September 9, 2024

Jack Flaherty, who grew up idolizing Kobe Bryant, on the opportunity to pitch on 8/24: “It still doesn’t feel real, what happened all those months ago. To pitch today is special, and there’s really no other way to put it.” #STLCards pic.twitter.com/f6rXfIGway

— Bally Sports Midwest (@BallySportsMW) August 25, 2020

​ Orange County Register 

The vice presidential debate was a sad reflection of how low our standards have fallen

• October 5, 2024

If you tuned in to Tuesday’s vice presidential debate, you are now deeply familiar with the life stories of Senator JD Vance and Governor Tim Walz. It was as if they could not help but lull us to sleep with long and boring prologues about their childhoods before answering any question. By the time they got around to saying anything even remotely relevant, we had already forgotten what was asked.

The problem with Vance is that he’s an unprincipled yes-man whose sole purpose is to further his political career. He has changed many of his views with the intent of being able to parrot Trump’s views. This was clear from his answers to questions about everything from abortion to Trump’s election denial. 

Before Trump was elected in 2016, when it was politically safe to criticize Trump, he called him unfit for office. Later, when the landscape changed in 2020, he privately called Trump America’s Hitler. Now that he stands to benefit as Trump’s VP, he’s more than happy to stand side-by-side with his Hitler. He has morphed into a different person like the conniving, dishonest politician that he is.

Vance was asked what responsibility the Trump administration would have to reduce the impact of climate change. Vance said, “Let’s say it’s true [that carbon emissions are driving climate change], if you believe that, what would you do? You’d want to reshore as much American manufacturing as possible and you’d want to produce as much energy as possible in the United States of America because we are the cleanest economy in the entire world.”

So, a potential future vice president of the United States doesn’t have the ability to think about implications. Vance failed to consider the fact that the reason imports from places like China and India are affordable is precisely because of their lower wages and lax environmental protections. If the products we currently consume from those countries were instead produced in America, the higher wages, safety standards, and environmental restrictions would make those products many times more expensive.

When questioned about how economists at the Wharton School estimated that Trump’s economic plan would add trillions to the deficit, Vance said, “A lot of those same economists attacked Donald Trump’s plans and they have PhDs but they don’t have common sense and they don’t have wisdom.” 

How dumb must economics students across the country be feeling? They’ve been wasting years studying complex micro and macroeconomic concepts to have thoughtful and informed opinions about economic policy when they could have just consulted their gut. Why didn’t Walz hold Vance accountable for any of this?

This leads us to Governor Tim Walz’s performance. The biggest takeaway is that Walz failed to capitalize on Vance’s many lies and bizarre positions. A competent and knowledgeable person would have pressed Vance about his many dubious economic claims. 

When Vance expressed disdain for expert opinion, it presented a perfect opportunity to demonstrate that Trump’s VP pick is a wildly overconfident know-nothing who thinks he knows better than those who have dedicated their lives to studying their specific field of inquiry – not necessarily in those exact words.

Instead, Walz spoke to the camera and talked to the public about how they should listen to their doctors if they need heart surgery. A much better strategy would have been to link Vance’s comment to a vicious character trait shared by Trump and his running mate.

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When Vance pressed Walz about the language used in Minnesota statutes that Vance falsely claimed allowed doctors to refrain from providing life-saving care to babies who survive abortions, he simply repeated that Vance’s statement was false. Vance pressed him to explain why his characterization of the statute was inaccurate but Walz missed the opportunity to tell him exactly what the statute expressed. He should have been prepared for this given that he signed it into law. Instead, this exchange made it seem like Vance’s claim was well-grounded.

Then again when Vance refused to answer whether he agreed with Trump that climate change is a hoax, Walz should have pressured him to answer. The same was the case with Vance’s pathetic and misleading response that minimized Trump’s election denial.

It was frustrating to read so many prominent media outlets praise their performance. The failings were clear but I suppose that the bar was set quite low after the presidential debate.

Rafael Perez is a columnist for the Southern California News Group. He is a doctoral candidate in philosophy at the University of Rochester. You can reach him at rafaelperezocregister@gmail.com.

​ Orange County Register 

Drug warriors are scamming us with Prop. 36 — and they have been lying to us for decades

• October 5, 2024

This November, California voters will decide whether they want people convicted of third-time drug possession and petty theft to be treated as felons and sent to state prison for years. Opponents of Prop. 36 have suggested this cruel and counterproductive ballot measure represents a “return” to the war on drugs that most Americans now oppose. 

In fact, the war on drugs never ended. Worse still, the interests behind the war on drugs—who are now pushing Prop. 36—have known for decades that criminalizing drug use is counterproductive. 

Fifty years of the drug war have bloated our jails and prisons; separated tens of millions of children from their parents; and shortened people’s lives by a combined millions of years. But overdose deaths are at near record highs, overall drug use is rising, drugs are increasingly potent, and there is a scientific consensus that drug arrests and prison sentences have no beneficial impact on drug use whatsoever. In fact, research shows that drug seizures increase overdose deaths.

And yet police across the country still arrest more people for possessing drugs than for any other “crime.” Even now, 87% of drug arrests are for possessing drugs for personal use. In Orange County, where I live, prosecutors in recent years filed more criminal charges for possessing drug paraphernalia than for any other offense. Despite California Democrats’ shift in rhetoric, they have not shifted away from the war on drugs. 

So why haven’t they?

Because decreasing drug use and overdose deaths have never been the goals of the drug war. Its purpose has always been to prey on existing fears and prejudices to score easy political points. As one of the top advisors to President Nixon, who began the drug war, later admitted: “We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin [a]nd then criminalizing both heavily, we could…vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”

Today’s fears lie with the very real opioid crisis, and today’s prejudices with unhoused people. Drug warriors capitalize on that discomfort with visible poverty, although the reality is that criminalization exacerbates homelessness and only housing solves it. 

To obscure the purpose of carceral drug war policies from well-meaning voters, their supporters have often sought to rebrand them as “treatment.” Prop. 36’s supporters peddle the lie that it will provide more access to drug treatment by allowing people who complete programming to avoid the criminal consequences Prop. 36 creates. This is nonsense: Prop. 36 actually defunds drug treatment. 

Besides, being forced to undergo drug treatment under threat of incarceration is already a standard condition of pretrial release, probation, parole, diversion programs, and more. Coerced treatment is, in other words, a central feature of the disastrous drug war, not a step away from it. As the research confirms, it does not work. 

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In light of all this, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that the politicians, prosecutors, and police chiefs committed to the drug war know they are lying to us. If their careers actually depended on reducing drug deaths, surely they would not sabotage themselves by continuing such counterproductive policy. Instead, they would follow the recommendations of experts on addiction, like increasing harm reduction or reducing destabilizing factors like poverty and prison.

Sadly, in the real world, Governor Newsom seems too politically ambitious to campaign seriously against Prop. 36, and he vetoed a bill for life–saving safe injection sites in 2022. In the real world, an array of interests from corporate retailers like Wal-Mart and the prison guards’ union, which understands that Prop. 36 will increase the prison population and lead to more funding that benefits its members, have collectively poured millions into misleading Californians about whom Prop. 36 is really for. Our politicians are happy to play along. 

Salil Dudani is a Senior Attorney at Civil Rights Corps. He is based in Orange County.

​ Orange County Register