Health agencies scramble to prepare for new mpox strain

• September 6, 2024

Ariel Cohen | CQ-Roll Call (TNS)

WASHINGTON — State and federal health agencies are gearing up to respond to a new strain of mpox — the virus formerly known as monkeypox — if the new strain spreads to the United States.

But this time, they are doing so with fewer resources.

Both an mpox public health emergency declaration and federal pandemic preparedness law were still in effect in 2022, the last time the U.S. faced a widespread mpox outbreak. That gave the federal government and state health departments more resources and flexibility than it has now to deal with an outbreak.

Last month, the World Health Organization declared a public health emergency of international concern, the highest alarm under international health law, over the new mpox strain. The strain, known as clade 1b, has been rapidly circulating in central Africa and has been detected in Sweden and Thailand.

The new strain differs from the 2022 world outbreak of the clade IIb mpox strain, which U.S. officials treated with two doses of the JYNNEOS mpox vaccine. Much like the COVID-19 vaccines, the mpox shot JYNNEOS prevents severe infection, hospitalization and death from mpox, but doesn’t fully prevent transmission, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Clade 1b is endemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the strain is more widespread than any other outbreak. Clade 1b usually causes a higher percentage of people with mpox to get severely sick and die, compared to clade IIb, according to the CDC.

While clade 1b has not yet been detected in the U.S., state and federal health officials are gearing up for what could be a potentially worse outbreak than in 2022 by leaning on the lessons it learned two years ago.

“It’s a different ballgame than in 2022, in some ways that are better and in some ways that are TBD,” Jen Kates, senior vice president and director of global health and HIV policy at KFF, said. She noted that public health jurisdictions today are already armed with mpox vaccines and treatments, unlike in 2022.

Budgeting for vaccines

The State Department says it’s been preparing for clade 1b’s emergence in the U.S. since December 2023 through increased monitoring of wastewater and other surveillance systems. But access to public health surveillance systems has waned since the COVID-19 public health emergency ended.

And the 2022 mpox public health emergency allowed the federal government to more easily free up resources to produce and distribute vaccines to high-risk groups at no cost.

The federal government ended the emergency declaration in 2023, but JYNNEOS vaccine maker Bavarian Nordic privatized the vaccine earlier this year. Now states must order it on the commercial market. State health officials said the budget is more of a concern now that vaccines are privatized.

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Crystal La Tour Rambaud, the manager of the vaccine preventable disease program of the Pima County Health Department in Tucson, Ariz., said that between the mpox vaccine and new RSV vaccine, costs are adding up.

“It’s just added a lot onto the plate in just a couple years, where the budget hasn’t changed significantly,” La Tour Rambaud said.

As a result, the Pima County Health Department is reassessing whom they offer free vaccinations to, and in some cases, only offering free shots to the uninsured. Insured individuals can get vaccinated at commercial pharmacies, she said.

Under the current structure, those with public or private insurance can access the mpox shots without any cost barrier, because the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel has recommended the vaccine.

But the only way uninsured adults can get the shot at no cost is if their jurisdiction has used federal funds to purchase the vaccines.

Raynard Washington, the director of the public health department in Mecklenburg, N.C., said the department has been able to use some of STD and HIV funds for mpox response, but are still stretched too thin.

The pandemic preparedness law expired in September 2023, but Congress extended seven provisions of that law via the March government funding bill until the end of 2024. This included policies to help activate personnel during a public health emergency, among others.

The CDC recommends health departments report all mpox cases to the CDC within 24 hours and promote vaccination in their communities. Under a declared public health emergency, the government can waive certain authorities to streamline disease reporting, sending funds to jurisdictions, for example.

Even though there is no public health emergency in effect now, Washington said that in Mecklenburg, “overall, the system is probably better prepared now than we were in 2022” because they’ve dealt with mpox before. Public health departments already have vaccines on the ground and people in the community who have been vaccinated.

The Mecklenburg health department is pushing for the reauthorization of the federal pandemic preparedness law as well as giving CDC the authority it needs to collect data, from both health care systems and laboratories so it could share that information to jurisdictions.

But because there is a new strain of mpox, it’s possible they’ll have to change their response.

“We might be starting back at ground zero again, depending on how this all plays out,” Washington said.

©2024 CQ-Roll Call, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Visit cqrollcall.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

​ Orange County Register 

More than half of HIV-positive Americans are 50+. Figuring out care is complex

• September 6, 2024

Anya Sostek | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (TNS)

In the late 1980s, Linda Rose Frank began working with HIV-positive individuals at the University of Pittsburgh. At the time, those affected were mainly young men with a terrifying prognosis.

“There was not really anything to treat people,” she said. “We were watching people die.”

More than three decades later, Frank still works at the University of Pittsburgh in the care of those living with HIV. But now, the majority of HIV-positive people are over the age of 50 — and one focus of Frank’s work is how to best care for people aging with human immunodeficiency virus.

Frank is executive director and principal investigator of the MidAtlantic AIDS Education and Training Center. In the last few years, MAAETC has developed training materials specifically focusing on HIV and aging, such as a pocket training guide on “integrating geriatric principles in the HIV clinic.”

“Sometimes it’s difficult to ascertain whether or not what we are seeing is something related to HIV or a normal aging condition,” said Frank. “That requires a lot of assessment by experts.”

The Centers for Disease Control estimates that for its most recent year of data, 2022, there were about 596,000 people over the age of 50 living with HIV — about 53% of the total number. And while most of those people were diagnosed prior to turning 50, more than 2,600 people over the age of 55 were newly diagnosed with HIV that year.

“I think that people assume that older folks don’t engage in sexual relationships, but of course we know that’s not true,” said Frank, who is also a professor in the department of infectious disease at the University of Pittsburgh, as well as Pitt’s nursing and medical schools. “Or that we assume that it’s only young people who use substances — that’s also not true.”

Frank advocates for routine testing for HIV by primary care physicians regardless of age or risk factors. “Just like you need to know your blood pressure and cholesterol, you need to know your HIV status,” she said. “That’s the way to normalize it for everybody.”

Knowledge of HIV status is so important because medications and treatment are so effective, she said. One study last year in Lancet HIV found that for many patients who started their HIV drug regiments after 2015, life expectancy is similar to that of the non-HIV positive population.

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One key to long-term health in HIV-positive individuals is ongoing monitoring, said Frank, and that can become even more important in the aging population.

“One of our concerns is that people get lost to care,” said Frank. “For somebody over 50, maybe their husband or wife died and they became depressed — sometimes they’ll drop out of care. Our goal is to do more research to find the people who dropped out of care and get them back in.”

Medication interactions also have to be carefully reviewed in an aging population, as do mental health and mobility concerns. These issues will only intensify as the population continues to age. For its most recent demographic report, the CDC added a “75 and above” category to its age tables. And one estimate predicts that by 2030, 70% of people with HIV will be older than 50.

“They got diagnosed and got treatment,” said Frank, “and now they are living to 50, 60, 70 and above.”

(c)2024 the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Visit the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette at www.post-gazette.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

​ Orange County Register 

Israeli soldiers fatally shoot American woman at West Bank protest, witnesses say

• September 6, 2024

By JULIA FRANKEL and AREF TUFANA

NABLUS, West Bank — Israeli soldiers killed an American woman demonstrating against settlements in the West Bank on Friday, two protesters who witnessed the shooting told The Associated Press. Two doctors said she was shot in the head.

The U.S. government confirmed the death of 26-year-old Aysenur Ezgi Eygi but did not say whether she had been shot by Israeli troops. The White House said in a statement that it was “deeply disturbed” by the killing of a U.S. citizen and called on Israel to investigate what happened.

Eygi was also a Turkish citizen, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Oncu Keceli said, adding that the country would exert “all effort to ensure that those who killed our citizen is brought to justice.”

The Israeli military said it was looking into reports that troops had killed a foreign national while firing at an “instigator of violent activity” in the area of the protest.

[]

The woman who was fatally shot was attending a weekly demonstration against settlement expansion, protests that have grown violent in the past: A month ago, American citizen Amado Sison was shot in the leg by Israeli forces, he said, as he tried to flee tear gas and live fire.

Jonathan Pollak, an Israeli who was participating in Friday’s protest, said the shooting occurred shortly after dozens of Palestinians and international activists held a communal prayer on a hillside outside the northern West Bank town of Beita overlooking the Israeli settlement of Evyatar.

Soldiers surrounded the prayer, and clashes soon broke out, with Palestinians throwing stones and troops firing tear gas and live ammunition, Pollak said.

The protesters and activists, including Pollak and the Eygi, retreated from the hill and the clashes subdued, he said. He then watched as two soldiers standing on the roof of a nearby home trained a gun in the group’s direction and shot at them. He saw the flares leave the nozzle of the gun when the shots rang out. He said Eygi was about 10 or 15 meters (yards) behind him when the shots were fired.

He then saw her “lying on the ground, next to an olive tree, bleeding to death,” he said.

Mariam Dag, another ISM activist at the protest, also said she saw an Israeli soldier on a rooftop. Dag said she then heard the firing of two live bullets. One ricocheted off something metal and hit a Palestinian protester in the leg; the other hit Eygi, who had moved back into an olive grove, she said. Dag said she ran toward the fallen woman and saw blood coming from her head.

“The shots were coming from the direction of the army. They were not coming from anywhere else,” she said.

Eygi had just arrived in the West Bank on Tuesday, Dag said. “This was our first day on the ground together. She was very happy and very excited this morning to start. She was really keen on coming to the demonstration.”

“This has been happening to Palestinians for decades. This happened because of the impunity which the Israelis act with,” including help from Western governments, she said. Before Friday’s shooting, ISM said 17 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli forces at the weekly Beita protests since March 2020.

Two doctors confirmed Eygi was shot in the head — Dr. Ward Basalat, who administered first aid at the scene, and Dr. Fouad Naffa, director of Rafidia Hospital in the nearby city of Nablus where she was taken.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. was “intensely focused” on determining what happened and that “we will draw the necessary conclusions and consequences from that.”

In a written statement shared on X, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said it condemned “this murder carried out by” the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

At least three activists from the International Solidarity Movement have been killed since 2000. ISM activists often place themselves between Israeli forces and Palestinians to try to stop the Israeli military from carrying out operations. Two ISM activists — American Rachel Corrie and British photography student Tom Hurndall — were killed in Gaza in 2003.

Corrie was crushed to death in March 2003 as she tried to block an Israeli military bulldozer from demolishing a Palestinian home in the southern Gaza town of Rafah near the Egyptian border. Hurndall was shot in the head by an Israeli soldier about a month later.

It’s also one of a handful of cases in which apparent Israeli fire killed Americans inside the West Bank since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. Neither American nor Israeli authorities have released findings into investigations into the twin killings of two Palestinian-American teens, Mohammad Khdour and Tawfic Abdel Jabbar, shot in the span of a month while driving down dirt roads close to their villages in the northern West Bank.

Palestinian officials said the killing reflected Israel’s intensified repression of Palestinian protests in the West Bank since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. Israeli forces rarely use live ammunition to put down protests inside Israel. But in the West Bank, Palestinian demonstrations are frequently met with live fire.

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Hussein Al-Sheikh, the secretary general of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, wrote on X that the killing marked “another crime added to the series of crimes committed daily by the occupation forces.”

Settlements are overwhelmingly viewed by the international community as illegal under international law.

The settlement of Evyatar was initially an outpost unrecognized under Israeli law but was legalized by the Israeli cabinet in July, in a move the far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said was in response to recognition of Palestinian statehood by a number of countries.

Israeli fire has killed over 690 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, Palestinian health officials say. In that time, attacks by Palestinian militants on Israelis in the territory have also increased.

AP writers Aamer Madhani and Matthew Lee in Washington, and Jack Jeffery in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.

​ Orange County Register 

How books can bring together a community of readers

• September 6, 2024

Reading is often seen as a solitary act, but it can also be one of the ways we make connections, share ideas and build community.

A few weekends ago, I was seated with extended family and the two youngest at the table – a middle-schooler and a high school freshman – started telling me about recent books they loved and the sorts of stories they enjoyed. They were looking for recommendations and – earning the eternal good favor of this book person – said they always liked the books I suggested.

They had delightfully specific preferences: The middle-schooler liked dystopian novels set in a future America – but not if the stories included an outer space element. (This also led to a bleakly funny moment when we all momentarily struggled for the antonym of “dystopian,” a term used far more these days than the one we were searching for, “utopian.”)

The middle-school reader asked if I had more suggestions. I did, or I tried, anyway. But as we ran through them, I was reminded that no matter how many books you’ve read, you’ve never read as many as you’d hoped to. (Maybe that’s why Pierre Bayard wrote a book called “How to Talk About Books You’ve Never Read.” But I don’t know; I’ve never read it.)

So this part of the conversation played on a loop:

Me: “People love [name any book].”

Kid: “Have you read it?”

Me: “Um, no.”

That is always humbling: All those books you haven’t read. And don’t even start on the books you did get through but forgot once they went back on the shelf (which is why some of you are smart enough to keep track of what you read).

Reading is one of the ways we make connections, share ideas and build community. (Getty Images illustration)

Then, another of the younger folks, a college-aged reader who likes the work of Brandon Sanderson and Patrick Rothfuss, asked for some long fantasy novel recommendations. Once again, I had titles to suggest, but precious few that I’d read and could discuss with any specificity.

If it’s not already abundantly clear, I was loving all this – especially as I hadn’t instigated it, the kids had. Believe it or not, I don’t turn up at every event shouting, “Hey, what’s everyone been reading?!” … I mean, I absolutely do say it, but I do so quietly and more one-on-one.

So the point of all this? A dear member of our gathering, a self-described dyslexic, non-reading adult who has nevertheless given me many thoughtful gifts of books and music, had the best recommendation: Pierce Brown’s Red Rising Saga, which he happened to have, unread, at home. The middle-schooler beamed.

Once Upon a Time Bookstore celebrated its 20th anniversary under the ownership of the Palacios family on April 1, 2023. (Photo by Erik Pedersen)

I hadn’t planned to write about this family gathering, but not long after it I was in Once Upon a Bookstore in Montrose, which I like visiting when I’m nearby. I’d come in feeling a little rushed as my parking meter was counting down, but the friendly, welcoming confines of a great local bookstore was just what I needed. How welcoming is it? Four separate staffers at the store paused to compliment me on the Octavia’s Bookshelf T-shirt I was wearing.

Storeowner Maureen Palacios saw me and came over to talk about the upcoming novel by S.A. Cosby, a writer we’d seen at Vroman’s together. Then she reminded me that I’d recommended Jordan Harper’s “She Rides Shotgun” to her and she’d since bought multiple copies to give out to friends. (It is very good, by the way.)

Maureen and Once Upon a Time bookseller Iz shared great recommendations about books for young people. Maureen raved about “Alebrijes” by Donna Barba Higuera, and her unstoppable enthusiasm hand-sold me a copy.

When I asked for some recommendations for YA books relating to trans and LGBTQ+ issues, bookseller Iz provided a range of thoughtful, well-considered suggestions. I’d been talking to a parent who was looking for recommendations, and I was pleased to get some I could pass along – and I bought one, too.

Had my meter not run out, I might have stayed until closing time, but I left with much more than I came in with – a feeling of community and many, many good book recommendations.

And since The Book Pages is its own little community, I want to pass along some of  those recommendations. I hope you’ll continue to send in your own, too.

Suggested dystopian books: Neal Shusterman’s Arc of a Scythe series; Patrick Ness’s Chaos Walking series; Marie Lu’s Legend series; and Pierce Brown’s Red Rising Saga.

Suggested (longish) fantasy books: The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan; The First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie; “The Once and Future King” by T.H. White; and “Assassin’s Apprentice”/The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb.

Suggested YA books with LGBTQ+ and trans themes: “Both Can Be True” by Jules Machias; “The Deep Dark” by Molly Knox Ostertag; “Melissa” by Alex Gino; “Lawn Boy” by Jonathan Evison; and “Snapdragon” by Kat Leyh.

Books coming out this September

Books released in September 2024. (Covers courtesy of the publishers)

What a month for book releases! We’ll have features on even more books coming out this month, but here’s a quick checklist of some notable new releases.

Sept. 3

“We’re Alone: Essays,” Edwidge Danticat

“The Life Impossible,” Matt Haig

Sept. 10

“Reagan: His Life and Legend,” Max Boot

“Here One Moment,” Liane Moriarty

“Tell Me Everything,” Elizabeth Strout

Sept. 17

“Entitlement,” Rumaan Alam

“The Wildes,” Louis Bayard

“Connie, A Memoir,” Connie Chung

“We Solve Murders,” Richard Osman

Sept. 24

“Intermezzo,” Sally Rooney

“Playground,” Richard Powers

“Eden Undone: A True Story of Sex, Murder, and Utopia at the Dawn of World War II,” Abbott Kahler

For more books to consider, check out this week’s bestseller list.

TJ Klune on a comment that fueled his work

The author TJ Klune, whose new novel, “Somewhere Beyond the Sea,” is a sequel to “The House in the Cerulean Sea,” says he aims for this new book to celebrate the trans community and hopes we can “be kinder to each other.” (Courtesy of Tor Books)

TJ Klune is the bestselling author of “The House in the Cerulean Sea.” The sequel, “Somewhere Beyond the Sea,” arrives Sept. 10 from Tor. Correspondent Diya Chacko spoke with Klune about the new novel (as well as Klune’s audiobook narrator for both novels, Daniel Henning). Here, Klune takes the Q&A about his reading life.

Q. What was the first book that made an impression on you?

“Where the Red Fern Grows” by Wilson Rawls. God, I still reread that once a year. Dogs are my favorite animal in the world. I was maybe eight or nine years old when I read it and it was the first book that ever made me cry. I didn’t know books could do that – I didn’t know books can make you feel that way.

Q. Is there a person who made an impact on your reading life?

My librarian in Douglas County, Oregon. I didn’t have a very good home life growing up. I had very sh—y parents who did not like the fact that they had a queer kid, and I lived in a very poor rural community. It sounds like one of those stories that older people tell, but I rode my bike into town five miles each way, and spent all day at the library during the summers. The librarians there fed my addiction for books. I read anything and everything they gave me.

Q. What are you reading right now?

Right now, I’m rereading one of the most banned books in America: a queer graphic novel about coming out called “Flamer” by Mike Curato. There’s a blurb across the top of it that says: This book will save lives. And I absolutely 100% agree; it is remarkable. If I had this graphic novel when I was a kid, so many things would have been different for me.

Q. Is there a book you always recommend to others?

“Light From Uncommon Stars,” by Ryka Aoki. I think it is one of the best novels written in the last 20 years. I was moved in ways that I did not expect. I got to read it early and I told her, flat out, this book is going to go places. It’s going to help so many people. And guess what? It did. It’s an extraordinary piece of fiction that I try to get everybody to read.

Q. Is there something from a book-related event or happening that made an impression on you?

I was invited to speak at a very rural school in West Virginia of sixth through twelfth grades. On stage, I used the word “queer” to describe myself, since that is a word I’ve claimed, it is part of me. Apparently the school board was quite upset; they said that someone in the audience “might be” uncomfortable, and that they wished I hadn’t done that.

Afterwards, I got to meet with a select group of students. One comes up to me and says, “I know all about the gay stuff.” I say, “What do you mean?” and he says, “Last year, I had a girlfriend, he came out as trans, and now he’s my boyfriend.”

That has stuck with me ever since, because it is that easy for a child to accept someone in their life being their true self. Why is it so hard for adults? That kid made my day, made my year, made my career. It’s exactly why I do what I do.

Read the full interviews with TJ Klune and audiobook narrator Daniel Henning.

More bestsellers, authors and books

Danzy Senna is the author most recently of the novel “Colored Television.” (Photo credit Dustin Snipes / Courtesy of Riverside)

Producing ‘Television’

Why Danzy Senna says writing her new novel was a struggle. READ MORE

• • •

Some end of the summer romances for book lovers. (Covers courtesy of Tor.com, Dell, Berkley, Dutton, Flatiron and Gallery Books)

15 summer romances

The Ripped Bodice’s Leah Koch helped us pick a diverse range of romantic reads. READ MORE

• • •

Alison Espach’s “The Wedding People” is among the top-selling fiction releases at Southern California’s independent bookstores. (Courtesy of Henry Holt & Co.)

The week’s bestsellers

The top-selling books at your local independent bookstores. READ MORE

• • •

Daniel Henning, who did the narration for TJ Klune’s 2020 bestseller “The House in the Cerulean Sea,” returns for the author’s new “Somewhere Beyond the Sea.” (Photo credit Sara Pettinella / Courtesy of Tor Books)

Audiobook adventures

Narrator Daniel Henning says TJ Klune’s writing “got into my soul.” READ MORE

• • •

Carribean Fragoza, Romeo Guzmán and Samine Joudat are the editors of “Writing the Golden State: The New Literary Terrain of California,” a collection of essays that explores the state through diverse perspectives. (Artwork by Fernando Mendez Corona)

State of affairs

The California-focused “Writing the Golden State” explore disability, race and class. READ MORE

• • •

Chris Nashawaty is the author of the new book, “The Future Was Now: Madmen, Mavericks, and the Epic Sci-Fi Summer of 1982.” (Courtesy of Flatiron Books)

Summer of sci-fi

Over 8 weeks in 1982, “E.T.,” “Blade Runner,” “The Thing” and more hit theaters. READ MORE

• • •

Author Gary Goldstein has written a new book, “Please Come to Boston,” and he has a virtual book event presented by Warwick’s on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. AUTHOR PHOTO COURTESY OF GARY GOLDSTEIN

A ‘Boston’ invitation

Author Gary Goldstein puts his protagonist on a path to self-discovery. READ MORE

• • •

Did you read anything you loved lately? Email epedersen AT  scng.com and we may include your comments in an upcoming newsletter.

And if you enjoy this free newsletter, please consider sharing it with someone who likes books or getting a digital subscription to support local coverage.

Thanks, as always, for reading.

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The next event is scheduled for today, Sept. 20, at 5 p.m. with Garth Greenwell and Moon Zappa. Sign up for free now.

Want to watch previous Bookish shows? Catch up on virtual events and more! 

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​ Orange County Register 

Slash drops Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights vinyl

• September 6, 2024

Ever wondered what the soundtrack to your nightmares might be? Slash has his own ideas.

On the first day of Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights, Slash announced the release of a limited-edition 11-song vinyl-only album via Snakepit Records LLC/Deko Entertainment. The album includes original compositions over the last six years for the Halloween Horror Nights “Universal Monsters” haunted house. The Grammy-winning guitarist and songwriter wrote all the music and guitar on the album, while Stacey Quinealty co-wrote with other instruments and vocals.

The record will be sold on-site at the theme park, offering only 300 alternate-color vinyl hand-signed by Slash. Fans can find copies inside the stores at Universal Studios Hollywood from Sept. 5 through Nov. 3 until they are sold out. Additionally, 100 of these copies will be available online via Deko Entertainment’s website.

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Guns N’ Roses’ Slash loves blues and summer festivals. So he conjured S.E.R.P.E.N.T.

“As a longtime fan of horror movies and of ‘Halloween Horror Nights,’ I jumped at the chance to once again collaborate with Universal Studios Hollywood to produce a soundtrack for the ‘Universal Monsters’ haunted house,” said Slash in a press release. “Similar to the way music affects a film, I composed this score for the legions of infamous characters in these haunted houses to elicit a sense of emotional terror.”

Over the past six years, Slash has composed the original music for Halloween Horror Nights “Universal Monsters” haunted house which fans experience every Halloween season. This year, his original score for the all-new haunted house “Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodlines” is headlined by an all-female gathering of classic Universal Monsters, including The Bride of Frankenstein, Dracula’s Daughter, She-Wolf of London and the undead, mummified Egyptian princess Anck-Su-Namun.

It will reside within the iconic Sound Stage 12 on the studio’s back lot, the original filming location for Universal horror films such as “Dracula,” “Frankenstein,” and “The Bride of Frankenstein,” among other classic and contemporary films.

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Universal’s Insidious maze ain’t over until the final-final-final-final-final scare
Texas Chainsaw Massacre maze returns to Universal’s Horror Nights
Universal’s Horror Nights calls the Ghostbusters to save the world from another Ice Age
Universal brings A Quiet Place maze to Halloween Horror Nights

​ Orange County Register 

Newsom vetoes controversial housing bill meant to help undocumented immigrants

• September 6, 2024

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday, Sept. 6 vetoed a controversial housing bill that would have ensured California homebuyers are not excluded from assistance programs due to their immigration status.

AB 1840 would have ensured that an applicant’s immigration status was not the sole reason they were denied from any of California’s Housing Finance Authority’s home purchase assistance programs, including the Dream for All Program, which provides a loan for first-time homebuyers.

“Given the finite funding available for CalHFA programs, expanding program eligibility must be carefully considered within the broader context of the annual state budget to ensure we manage our resources effectively,” Newsom wrote in his veto.

The idea, according to bill author Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula, D-Fresno, was that the “social and economic benefits of homeownership should be available to everyone,” including undocumented individuals, and doing so will bolster personal economic stability as well as the local economy.

Arambula previously made clear that undocumented first-time homebuyers already can apply for the Dream program, which offers 20% downpayment loans up to $150,000. The Dream for All Program ran out of its $300 million in funding 11 days after launching in 2023.

Sen. Josh Newman, who voted in favor of the bill, said previously that AB 1840 was more of a “clarification.”

“The bill does not create a new program or substantially expand an existing program,” Newman said. “What it does is it attempts to address ambiguity in the existing regulation, and many borrowers have received conflicting information.”

The bill received significant pushback and national media attention, particularly as opponents questioned its cost in a year when California is already grappling with a major budget deficit.

A fiscal analysis determined the bill would result in “unknown significant cost pressures, potentially in the millions annually,” to cover the expanded eligibility for the California Dream for All Program.

Local lawmakers were mostly opposed to the bill.

“Very simply, we cannot afford it,” Sen. Kelly Seyarto, a Republican whose district includes Yorba Linda, said in late August. “We’re already battling with deficits every year, year after year.”

Others who opposed it included Sen. Janet Nguyen, R-Huntington Beach, and Democratic Sens. Catherine Blakespear, Dave Min and Tom Umberg.

“While I support down payment assistance programs for those who need it, the California Dream for All Program provides down payments on home purchases up to nearly $1 million,” Min said in August. “I believe this program exacerbates the main problem with housing in our state, by helping to inflate home prices, while failing to create more new housing stock.”

Local assemblymembers who voted against AB 1840 included Phillip Chen, R-Yorba Linda; Laurie Davies, R-Laguna Niguel; Diane Dixon, R-Newport Beach; Cottie Petrie-Norris, D-Irvine; Kate Sanchez, R-Rancho Santa Margarita; and Tri Ta, R-Westminster.

In addition to Newman, Sharon Quirk-Silva, D-Fullerton; Avalenio Valencia, D-Anaheim, and Sen. Bob Archuleta, a Democrat whose district includes Buena Park, all voted in favor of the bill.

Seyarto, in floor comments in late August, also cautioned that the bill could end up incentivizing mortgage brokers to give loans to people who cannot afford them.

“This is a recipe for financial disaster for individuals, especially (for) people that can’t really afford it,” said Seyarto.

CalMatters contributed to this report.

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​ Orange County Register 

Trinity League Football Podcast: Mater Dei-Bishop Gorman takes spotlight after Santa Margarita’s stunning win

• September 6, 2024

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One of the biggest weeks of the nonleague season is here for Orange County football.

It’s Mater Dei-Bishop Gorman, St. Frances-Orange Lutheran and St. John Bosco-Sierra Canyon.

That’s three intriguing games on the heels of Santa Margarita’s stunning victory against Corona Centennial last week.

Get ready for Friday’s national showdowns and Saturday’s St. John Bosco-Sierra Canyon clash by listening to this week’s episode of the Trinity League Football Podcast witth OCVarsity’s Dan Albano and insider Scott Barajas.

You can listen to the show here, and subscribe in Apple Podcasts and Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts to catch every episode as they publish. Please like and subscribe to the show.

Please send feedback to Dan Albano at dalbano@scng.com and follow show at @TrinityFBPod on X

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​ Orange County Register 

Treasury recovers $1.3 billion in unpaid taxes from high-wealth tax dodgers

• September 6, 2024

By Fatima Hussein | The Associated Press

The IRS has collected $1.3 billion from high-wealth tax dodgers since last fall, the agency announced Friday, crediting spending that has ramped up collection enforcement through President Joe Biden’s signature climate, health care and tax package signed into law in 2022.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel traveled to Austin, Texas, to tour an IRS campus and announce the latest milestone in tax collections as Republicans warn of big future budget cuts for the tax agency if they take over the White House and Congress.

Yellen said in a speech in Austin that in 2019, the top one percent of wealthy Americans owed more than one-fifth of all unpaid taxes, “leaving ordinary Americans to shoulder the burden.”

“To fix this, we’ve channeled IRS funding toward significant investments to combat tax evasion,” she said.

In 2023 and 2024 the IRS launched a series of initiatives aimed at pursuing high-wealth individuals who have failed to pay their tax debts. The IRS said the campaign is focused on taxpayers with more than $1 million in income and more than $250,000 in recognized tax debt.

Agency officials said since the program’s launch, almost 80% of the 1,600 millionaires targeted by the IRS for failing to pay a delinquent tax debt have now made a payment, leading to over $1.1 billion recovered. And in the first six months of a new February 2024 initiative, the IRS collected $172 million from 21,000 wealthy taxpayers who have not filed tax returns since 2017.

Republicans have called for funding for the IRS to be cut.

Donald Trump’s campaign for president said he would drastically reduce spending on federal agencies — and that Democratic nominee Kamala Harris “cast the tiebreaking vote to hire 87,000 new IRS agents to go after your tip income.”

That debunked claim comes from a plan the Treasury Department proposed in 2021 to bring on that many IRS employees over the next decade if it got the money. At least 50,000 IRS employees are expected to retire over the next five years.

The National Taxpayer Advocate, the independent IRS watchdog, issued a 2023 annual report stating that the IRS employs roughly 681 armed agents.

In its efforts to modernize, the agency this year also launched a program called Direct File, which allows people with very simple W-2s to calculate and submit their returns directly to the IRS. The IRS said in April that those using the program claimed more than $90 million in refunds.

While the program included 12 participating states in the 2024 tax filing season, more states have joined in for the 2025 tax season, including Maryland, Oregon, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Connecticut, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Maine.

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​ Orange County Register