Newsom plan would roll back access to police misconduct records

• June 20, 2023

By Trân Nguyên | Associated Press

SACRAMENTO — California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration has proposed an end to public disclosure of investigations of abusive and corrupt police officers, handing the responsibility instead to local agencies in an effort to help cover an estimated $31.5 billion budget deficit.

The proposal, part of the governor’s budget package that he is still negotiating with the Legislature, has prompted strong criticism from a coalition of criminal justice and press freedom groups, which spent years pushing for the disclosure rules that were part of a landmark law Newsom signed in 2021.

The law allows the state Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training to investigate and decertify police officers for misconduct, such as use of excessive force, sexual assault and dishonesty. It requires the commission to make public the records of decertification cases.

The Newsom administration now wants to get rid of that transparency element. The commission says the public could still get the records from police departments. But advocates say local police departments often resist releasing that information.

A number of states with a police decertification process, including Republican-led ones such as Tennessee and Georgia, require state agencies to divulge records of police misconduct.

In Tennessee, records made available through the requirement provided a slew of new details on police officers’ actions when they brutally beat Tyre Nichols, a Black man, during a traffic stop earlier this year. Those details, released by the state police certification commission, were not previously made public by the local police department.

“It’s a slap in the face to the family members who have had their loved ones stolen from them that … a key provision of the decertification process is not being honored,” J Vasquez, of social justice group Communities United For Restorative Justice, said at a news conference last week.

Removing the transparency element from the 2021 law would continue eroding public trust, Antioch Mayor Pro Tem Tamisha Torres-Walker said. The city, 45 miles east of San Francisco, was shaken after a federal investigation found more than half of the officers in the Antioch police force were in a group text where some officers freely used racial slurs and bragged about fabricating evidence and beating suspects.

“To say, ‘go to the very people who commit the crimes against your community and ask them to reveal themselves to you so that you can hold them accountable,’ I don’t think that’s a fair process,” Torres-Walker said.

The coalition of more than 20 groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, also accused the Democratic governor of abusing the budget process to push through his proposal introduced in April.

Carmen-Nicole Cox, director of government affairs for ACLU California Action, said Newsom’s proposal should have gone through the traditional legislative process, instead of being put into the budget.

Democratic Sen. Steven Bradford, who authored the 2021 landmark bill, declined to comment on the proposed change.

The governor’s office referred questions to the commission, whose spokesperson said the proposed change is a cost-saving measure that would still allow the public to access information on decertification cases from local police departments. California is facing a nearly $32 billion budget deficit this year after enjoying several years of record-breaking surpluses and the proposal is one of many of Newsom’s cost-cutting measures.

Neither the governor’s office nor the commission shared how much money the state could save under the proposal.

According to a May budget request, the commission estimated it will handle up to 3,500 decertification cases each year. That’s about 4% of all officers in California. The commission, which has suspended or decertified 44 police officers so far this year, requested an additional $6 million to handle the large number of complaints.

“Because of the substantial fiscal implications, as well as the need to urgently implement these cost-saving measures into law, the budget process is the most appropriate avenue for this,” commission spokesperson Meagan Poulos said in a statement.

For decades, police officers in California have enjoyed layers of legal protections helping shield most of law enforcement misconduct records from public scrutiny, First Amendment Coalition Legal Director David Loy said.

In 2018, things began to shift after the Legislature passed a bill requiring the disclosure of records pertaining to police misconduct including use of excessive force, sexual assault and dishonesty. That law was expanded in 2021 to include the release of investigations into police racist or biased behavior, unlawful searches or arrests and use of unreasonable force.

The 2021 decertification law was hailed as another mechanism to hold law enforcement accountable.

“California has always been a black hole for police transparency,” said Loy, whose group is part of the coalition opposing the change. “The last thing California should be doing is taking any step backward on police transparency.”

The state Legislature passed its own version of the state budget Thursday to meet its deadline without including Newsom’s proposed change to the decertification process. Legislative leaders and the governor’s office will continue negotiations to finalize the budget by the end of the month.

Associated Press reporter Jonathan Mattise contributed from Nashville, Tennessee.

​ Orange County Register 

Summer warning: Prolonged breath holds can cause shallow water blackouts

• June 20, 2023

The story of her husband’s tragic death isn’t easy to tell, but Michelle Brislen knows the dangers of shallow water blackouts are an important message to share – especially as summer break gets underway.

“It was definitely part of my healing process. It still is,” Brislen, a San Clemente High School marine science teacher, said of sharing how her husband, Drew, died while he was out diving alone off Laguna Beach in 2011. “I felt it was so urgent, and I still feel that way. It’s so important.”

That’s why Brislen visited to speak to the San Clemente Junior Lifeguards camp, to teach them of the dangers of shallow water blackouts, also known as underwater hypoxic blackouts, a silent killer of even the most experienced pool and ocean swimmers.

Michelle Brislen, a marine science teacher at San Clemente High School, spoke to a group of junior lifeguards on June 15, 2023. (Photo by Laylan Connelly, SCNG/Orange County Register)

“I don’t want to scare the kids,” Brislen said on a recent day following a presentation to the young guards. “But we also have to be aware of it, especially at the start of summer.”

Brislen started doing lectures for local swim clubs, classes and junior guard programs just a year after her husband’s death, working with nonprofit Shallow Water Blackout Prevention to share the message.

The blackouts can happen to anyone, even expert swimmers, snorkelers, spear fishermen or free divers. It can even happen to kids with friends at pools seeing who can stay down longest or get to the other side of the pool underwater the fastest.

And it can happen in any body of water – the ocean, pools, lakes, rivers, even bathtubs.

“For some, their lungs will take on water leading to drowning while others simply suffocate or die of other causes brought on by the breath holding,” the Shallow Water Blackout Prevention nonprofit warns.

Unlike regular drowning, where there can be 6 to 8 minutes before brain damage and death, there are only about 2.5 minutes before brain damage, and then death, during a shallow water blackout because the brain has already been oxygen deprived.

“People have unfortunately lost their lives in the water, some of them have lost their lives in pools, some of them have lost their lives in the ocean. We want those places to be really, really safe,” Brislen told the San Clemente Junior Lifeguards on a recent day. “It’s a fine line on when people blackout in the water and when you can be resuscitated.”

Big-wave surfer Jay Moriarity, whose life was detailed in the film “Chasing Mavericks,” died while doing breath holds alone in the Maldives, Brislen told the young guards. “He was supposed to have a buddy in the water, but he didn’t that day for some reason.”

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When people black out, their body will naturally take a gulp of air. But when that happens while underwater, drowning occurs. So it’s important to listen to your body and get to air when your body gives you the urge to breathe – and make sure you have enough time to get safely to the surface.

“We don’t want to have a breath hold competition,” she told the youngsters. “That’s when we run the risk. We’re competing, we’re not listening to our bodies.”

One student asked what she should do if a swim teacher tells her to go to the end of the pool without coming up for a breath.

“When a coach says try your best to go to the end of the pool, try. But when your body says it’s time to breathe, then breathe,” she said. “And it’s a great opportunity to talk to your coach. We want people talking about it.”

Another important tip: Always have a buddy with you when in the water.

Junior lifeguard instructor Jaden Hall said as a lobster diver, he’s aware of shallow water blackout dangers. While much of their lifeguarding lessons revolve around rip currents and waves, the shallow water blackout education is an important lesson to pass on to the young guards-in-training, he said.

“This is huge for us, our biggest thing is education for kids,” he said.

It’s important to build confidence in the kids, he added, but also make sure they are aware of risks.

“It’s more common than people know,” he said. “Never push yourself too far.”

More information: shallowwaterblackoutprevention.org

​ Orange County Register 

Airbus wins record order for 500 jets from India’s IndiGo airline

• June 20, 2023

India’s IndiGo airline is buying 500 passenger jets from European planemaker Airbus, the two companies said Monday, in a record-setting order that underscores surging demand for air travel fueled by the country’s economic growth.

IndiGo, India’s dominant carrier, is buying the narrow-body A320 aircraft in what the companies said was the single biggest purchase agreement in commercial aviation history.

Executives from both companies announced the deal on the opening day of the Paris Air Show, the world’s largest event focusing on aviation and space industry. They didn’t disclose how much the order was worth, but it would likely amount to tens of billions of dollars.

The order is “an enormous milestone,” IndiGo CEO Peter Elbers said at a press conference. “No one has ever ordered an order of this magnitude. And it speaks to the potential of Indian aviation and the ambitions which IndiGo is having.”

The purchase highlights how the two companies are “democratizing affordable air travel for millions of people in the world’s fastest growing aviation market,” Airbus Chief Commercial Officer Christian Scherer said in a statement.

New Delhi-based IndiGo’s order surpasses another mammoth deal signed months earlier by Air India for 470 aircraft from both Airbus and U.S.-based rival Boeing.

Indian airlines are racing to tap surging demand for travel from the nation’s growing ranks of middle-class consumers. The A320 jets that IndiGo is buying are typically used on short-haul routes.

Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury said IndiGo’s order “is a sign of the “incredible growth for aviation” and an “opportunity for Indian people to fly for the first time.

The planemaker also notched up orders from Flynas, a budget Saudi Arabian carrier that is buying 30 A320neo jets, and Air Mauritius, which is buying three wide-body A350 aircraft for use on long-haul routes to Europe and South Asia.

Airbus likes to unveil major jet orders at the air show held every other year in its home country. Airbus is one of France’s — and Europe’s — biggest companies, and its performance at the Paris air show is seen as important to its public image in France.

​ Orange County Register 

Latest data shows California will fall far short of power needed to fuel all-EV future

• June 20, 2023

The summer of 2023 might be fairly compared to the summer of 1823, if the North American Electric Reliability Corporation has it right about power outages to come. The common ground between the two would be the lack of electricity.

According to the NERC, the country’s Western Interconnection, which includes California, much of the Western U.S., and parts of Canada and Mexico, “is experiencingheightened reliability risks heading into the summer of 2023 due to increased supply-side shortages along with the ongoing drought impacts in some areas, continued wildfire threats, and expanding heat wave events.”

If peak demand doesn’t exceed normal levels, then there should be adequate supply, says the NERC. But optimism evaporates if conditions become more difficult, and if the weatherman is right, they will be. Forecasts are calling for a warmer-than-usual California summer. It will be particularly hot in Southern California, where roughly 60% of the state’s 39 million residents live. The California Independent System Operator hasn’t issued a flex alert – “a call to consumers to voluntarily cut back on electricity and shift electricity use to off-peak hours” – since September. But its social media department would be smart to be ready for a busy season. CAISO issued five flex alerts in 2020, eight in 2021, and six last year.

Don’t blame the weather, though. Blame policy. California’s collision of its electric-vehicle mandate and its legislated transition to a zero-carbon power grid by 2045 isn’t going to cause sparks as much as it will bring darkness.

Today there are fewer than 900,000 electric vehicles on California’s roads. By 2035, there are expected to be more than 13 million, and by 2045 almost 22 million, because both the governor and the state Air Resources Board have agreed to outlaw the sale of new gasoline-powered automobiles. Every EV that replaces an internal-combustion-engine car represents another bite taken out of a power grid that’s going to be chewed up.

Because of increased demand for charging electric vehicles, fully manufactured by public policy, California will fall 21 percent short of the power needed to meet the demand according to a new Pacific Research Institute report. However, the gap will likely be even wider as this projected shortfall does not include the additional need for more power caused by the conversion of water heaters, stoves, and other appliances from natural gas to electricity.

Planning an accelerated, warp-speed construction schedule for renewables infrastructure so there will be enough power has appeal, but is little assurance the job will be done.

First, transmission capacity will need to be roughly tripled by 2050, a number of state agencies have said. This won’t take years to accomplish, it will take decades and more than just a couple of them.

Second, adding solar and wind farms, and connecting their generated power to the grid with transmission lines will encounter the usual California can’t-build hurdles. Not-in-my-back-yard resistance, much of it from the environmentalists who’ve demanded the closure of natural gas and nuclear power plants, is increasing along with plans to build. It’s a trend recently seen in the Midwest, where voters rejected two proposals to site wind farms. Anyone who believes that this state will be more accommodating should consider that both Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties have banned wind turbines in their unincorporated areas.

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If California doesn’t have blackouts this summer, it won’t be due to policymakers’ forward thinking, though they will take credit. It will be because heavy snow and rain during the winter swelled reservoirs that feed hydroelectric plants that hadn’t been producing power during the dry spell.

There’s no reason to expect this will happen again, though. After 2045, large dams, which provide 6% of the state’s electrical power, will no longer be contributors, as they are not considered a worthy renewable resource under California’s zero-carbon plan. They are, says the Stanford News Service, “a bogeyman to many environmentalists” even though they “could actually play a significant role in feeding the world more sustainably” in addition to being an important contributor to the power mix needed to run a modern economy.

Gov. Gavin Newsom can brag as much and as often as he wants about the green future happening first in California, that the state is “America’s coming attraction.” But he can’t speak into existence the perfect conditions that are necessary for California to be all-EV and at the same time avoid power shortages. The conflict is irreconcilable.

Kerry Jackson is a fellow with the Center for California Reform at the Pacific Research Institute.  Dr. Wayne Winegarden is a PRI senior fellow in business and economics.  Download their new study at www.pacificresearch.org.

​ Orange County Register 

Huntington Beach councilmembers call for denouncing hate

• June 20, 2023

Three Huntington Beach councilmembers want the city on Tuesday, June 20, to condemn recent flarings of antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric in the community.

Councilmembers Dan Kalmick, Rhonda Bolton and Natalie Moser are introducing a resolution to say: “The City Council of the city of Huntington Beach denounces antisemitism, white supremacy and anti-LGBTQ hate.”

Moser said antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ fliers that neighborhoods of residents have found in their yards this month prompted the resolution to denounce hate.

“We need to choose what type of community where we are going to be,” Moser said. “I don’t believe we are one where hate should rule the day. I want people to feel safe here and welcomed here.”

“We have an opportunity as leaders to set the tone,” she said.

Maneck Bhujwala, president of the Greater Huntington Beach Interfaith Council, already wrote the council a letter in support of the resolution.

“The Greater Huntington Beach Council is alarmed at the rise of racist, hate propaganda that tarnishes the good name of our city,” Bhujwala said. “We the representatives of various religious communities of Huntington Beach unitedly condemn this dangerous development.”

The City Council on Tuesday will also consider the city’s next fiscal budget and a request from Councilmember Gracey Van Der Mark to direct city staff to draft a new law to make it harder for children to obtain “obscene and pornographic books” at Huntington Beach Public Libraries, though the request did not offer examples. Van Der Mark said she will make a presentation at the meeting.

The City Council meets at 6 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 2000 Main St.

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​ Orange County Register 

Storybook cottage in Redlands historic district lists for $525,000

• June 20, 2023

A whimsical Redlands cottage has come on the market for $525,000.

Designed in a French chateau style, this well-maintained 835-square-foot home has one bedroom, one bathroom and space-saving built-ins.

The house is nestled in a small lot on a cul-de-sac street of storybook homes that are the stuff of fairytales. Known as Normandie Court, the neighborhood built by F.E. Carson and C.R. Hudson in 1926 is a Redlands historic district.

Inside the compact, all-white home is a living room with a built-in window seat, a fireplace and a ceiling fan. The living room flows into the dining room, which has a built-in china cabinet.

Drawers and a cabinet are recessed into what would otherwise be unused wall space in the hallway.

A cozy kitchen shares space with a breakfast nook and a laundry area at the rear of the house.

The back door steps down to a small patio.

Flowers and lush greenery carved by a brick walkway wrap around the house. And like its neighbors, there’s a detached one-car garage.

Joanna Heard of Re/Max Advantage has the listing.

Records show the house sold last in January 2022 for $505,000.

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​ Orange County Register 

Alexander: Angels and Dodgers have switched places

• June 20, 2023

Traditionally, June is when the Dodgers start to surge. And a year ago, late May and early June was when what had appeared to be a promising Angels’ season went in the tank, with a 14-game losing streak, a change in managers and the unraveling of the team’s agreement with the city of Anaheim over Angel Stadium’s future leading into another dreary summer in Orange County.

And now? As the Dodgers and Angels begin a two-game series in Anaheim on Tuesday night, the Angels are surging and the Dodgers’ season almost seems to be hanging by a thread, and maybe those assumptions about who’s a seller and who’s a buyer at the trade deadline have been knocked askew.

(Memo to all of those pundits who insist the Angels must trade Shohei Ohtani before he abandons them in free agency: Shut up.)

The Angels enter Tuesday night 41-33, 4½ games behind first-place Texas in the AL West and second in the AL wild-card standings, with 11 wins in 14 games. They’re rolling even as injuries continue to ravage the lineup; Anthony Rendon was placed on the injured list on Monday, the third infielder to go to the IL in the last week.

Interestingly enough, as KLAA’s Trent Rush noted when we talked this weekend, the possible turning point to this Angels season might have come on the almost one-year anniversary of what might have been last season’s inflection point.

That was a Sunday afternoon game in Philadelphia last June 5, when the Angels – who had already lost 10 straight after a 27-17 start – blew a 6-2 eighth-inning lead. Bryce Harper hit a grand slam to tie it, and Bryson Stott’s two-run walk-off shot off Jimmy Herget decided it, 9-7. Two days later, Joe Maddon was fired and Phil Nevin was promoted.

So flash forward to this past June 4 in Houston. The Angels had lost the first three of a four-game series and trailed 1-0 when Luis Rengifo tied it with a homer to deep right-center in the sixth. Ohtani doubled in the go-ahead run in the eighth, and that 2-1 victory launched this 11-3 stretch, including three out of four against the Rangers last week in Arlington.

Consider this, too: The Angels blew an 8-2 lead in Kansas City on Saturday, with former Corona High star Samad Taylor providing the walk-off hit in a 9-8 Royals victory. The next day, Ohtani and Mike Trout – the latter battling the worst slump of his career for more than a month – hit back-to-back homers in a 5-2 victory.

Their counterparts up the freeway could have used such a momentum-arresting moment this past weekend. Then again, having the worst bullpen in the National League makes it difficult to escape the torture the Dodgers have faced over the last month.

They’re 11-17 since May 18, and the pitching that has been the foundation of their franchise for six decades is letting them down. They’ve given up 167 runs in those 28 games, and the last time that happened was in 1958, their first season in L.A., when an aging, flawed team finished seventh in an eight-team league and played its home games in the Coliseum.

Remember what we’ve always said about how every fan base in baseball hates its bullpen at one time or another? It’s safe to say Dodger fans currently despise theirs with the heat of a thousand suns. Alex Vesia, Victor González, Phil Bickford, Yence Almonte, Brusdar Graterol … all have veered between undependable and abysmal. Evan Phillips has been the only trustworthy reliever, and even he gave up a walk-off homer in Cincinnati on the last road trip.

Naturally, Manager Dave Roberts gets most of the blame. But what’s he supposed to do when almost every option is a bad one? Pitch Phillips three innings every night?

(Maybe Roberts should pull out the Winston Churchill speech. When the Dodgers were 16-26 early in the 2018 season, he quoted the British prime minister’s line, “When you’re going through hell, keep going.” The next night he told them, “Expect good things to happen,” and they went on a 14-3 run and eventually won the division. But at least that team had a functioning pitching staff.)

While the bullpen ERA is 29th in baseball (5.04, only a half-run better than the Oakland A’s), this is a staff-wide issue. Dodger starters’ collective ERA is 4.38 and 16th in baseball, and that number has plunged since Julio Urías went on the IL, but the more pressing concern is an inability to go deep enough into games to take some of the burden off of the bullpen.

Of the last 15 games, dating to June 6, Dodger starters have completed six innings seven times. Three of those were by Clayton Kershaw (two of them seven-inning stints), two by Bobby Miller and one by Emmet Sheehan, who pitched six no-hit innings in his big league debut Friday night against the San Francisco Giants only to watch the bullpen blow a 4-0 lead after he left.

The other choices? Bullpen games, watching young starters try to figure things out, or praying for the best when Noah Syndergaard goes to the mound. They’ll have a decision to make when he comes off the 15-day disabled list, which could be as early as Saturday.

The three-game sweep by San Francisco over the weekend was embarrassing enough. Naturally, the Giants treated it with the sensitivity and compassion you might expect, posting an image of the HOLLLYWOOD sign on social media.

Get it? Three L’s.

Greetings from HoLLLywood pic.twitter.com/gHIXISi4nx

— SFGiants (@SFGiants) June 18, 2023

Maybe that sweep, and seeing the Giants vault into second place, will spur some urgency from Andrew Friedman, Brandon Gomes and the rest in the executive suites. The Dodgers have made 27 transactions involving 19 different pitchers in June alone, mainly involving the shuttle between L.A. and Oklahoma City.

But there’s no sense waiting for the Aug. 1 trade deadline to make a move, or assuming that the imminent return of Urías or Daniel Hudson will straighten things out by itself, or banking on any sort of late-season return from Walker Buehler or Dustin May. The pitching staff needs help now because the three-wild-card playoff format isn’t that forgiving.

Before Monday night’s games, the Dodgers were one game ahead of Philadelphia for the third and final NL wild-card spot. The Angels, in the No. 2 AL spot, were a game and a half clear of the cutoff.

Even the most loyal, devoted, optimistic Angel fan couldn’t have seen that one coming, right?

[email protected]

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Angels players celebrate after their 3-0 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Friday night in Kansas City, Mo. The Angels enter Tuesday night’s game against the Dodgers with a 41-33 record and 11 wins in their past 14 games. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

​ Orange County Register 

Junior guards take the pier plunge to kick off summer

• June 20, 2023

Brynn Kelly stood on the wooden pier in San Clemente, ready to make a splash into the chilly ocean water below.

“It looks tall from up here,” said Kelly, last in line on Monday, June 19, for the iconic pier jump, a rite of passage for those who participate in the city’s junior lifeguards summer program. “When you’re halfway through, it feels like it’s endless … it’s the only reason I’m here.”

Most schools are out for the summer season and across the county, kids are heading to the beach for junior lifeguard and surf sessions, to local pools for swim lessons and rec swim sessions and to parks and community centers for summer camps.

Thousands of kids will partake in junior lifeguard programs from Seal Beach to San Clemente, each beach town offering slightly different programs, but all rooted in the same lifesaving and beach safety lessons.

Lauren DeVries watched as her son, Trent, 11, jumped from the pier for his second year, and the third time so far this season.

“He loves it, it’s just an opportunity they don’t usually get, to jump,” she said. “It’s just a San Clemente, community-type event we love and get to experience. That’s the highlight. For the parents, too. It’s getting over the fear.”

Jen Beatty watched her daughter, Rooney, 11, saying she doesn’t get nervous anymore – just super excited.

“They have fun, it’s a great opportunity,” Beatty said.

Tatiana Cavazos, a tourist from Riverside, stopped on the pier to watch the kids take the estimated 27-foot jump to the ocean. (Jumping from the pier is normally prohibited.)

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Lifeguard departments latest to face staff shortage as summer beach crowds arrive

“I think it’s pretty amazing,” she said. “It’s refreshing to see something like this, especially with the past few years we’ve had the pandemic.”

Her son, Niko, 7, watched the guards training all morning, she said. “He saw this and he’s in awe.”

Junior lifeguard lieutenant Grey Bennet got ready for his eighth jump since he started the program three years ago.

“Your heart beat gets excited, it’s like ‘ba boom, ba boom, ba boom,’” he described.

The bummer summer weather of the morning couldn’t dampen the mood, with the sun and blue skies poking out by the afternoon for the beach crowds out enjoying the sand and surf.

There may be more spotty sunshine Tuesday and Wednesday, but another low-pressure system is headed to the area by Thursday and Friday, leading to more cloud cover heading into the weekend, National Weather Service meteorologist Adam Roser said.

Low-pressure systems from the north cause cooler, moist air along the coast, a pattern that has stuck around since spring, he said. Water temperatures are still cool – in the low 60s – and when the water is colder than the air, it creates a “temperature inversion,” acting like a lid keeping the cooler temperatures in place.

“As we get into summer months, the water warms up and catches up with the warming of the air,” Roser said. “There’s less low pressure systems from the north as well, more areas of high pressure.”

Meteorologists are eyeing a high pressure area off Mexico that could potentially head to the area by next weekend, he said.

“That should,” he said, “help it warm up.”

​ Orange County Register