UCLA men’s basketball vs. USC: What you need to know

• February 23, 2024

LOS ANGELES — The UCLA men’s basketball team is going for a sweep against crosstown rival USC on Saturday, following a 15-point win at Galen Center on Jan. 27.

That victory began a six-game winning streak for the Bruins that unceremoniously ended against Utah on a buzzer-beating tip-in Sunday.

UCLA has had the entire week to prepare for the Trojans, which has provided them with a coveted opportunity for a reset and not spend a portion of every practice watching film.

“This time of year, it’s good to only have one game in one week so you can get some rest,” UCLA coach Mick Cronin said. “The guys are constantly getting hit with game plans … we spend two or three days of an unbelievable amount of preparation, put into scouting our opponents and game plans. I’m not saying (just) us, I’m talking college basketball … the mental grind of that with players is something I try and stay in tune with.”

Sophomore guard Dylan Andrews finished with a game-high 20 points in the 65-50 victory over USC last month.

“My main thing is turning defense into offense,” Andrews said. “Letting defense be the thing that leads into your offense, not just focusing on offense, because sometimes the ball is not going to go into the basket and you need to figure out what else you can do to affect the game.”

Sophomore forward Adem Bona added a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds and two blocked shots against the Trojans. Bona’s ability to affect the game with timely shot blocking could also spur the team’s fast-break offense.

“Blocking and having possession of the ball just opens the fast break for you because the whole team is on attack while there is no one back on defense,” Bona said. “I think it helps a lot for me to be able to make plays like that. That’s big-time plays, stopping them from getting a point, getting us a point on the other end. I think that’s big-time plays and I need to make more of those.”

UCLA VS. USC

When: 7 p.m. Saturday

Where: Pauley Pavilion

TV/Radio: ESPN / 570 AM

Records: UCLA 14-12, 9-6 Pac-12; USC 10-16, 4-11

UCLA’s latest result: The Bruins are coming off a disappointing 70-69 loss at home Utah on Sunday. Sebastian Mack was ejected in the first half for a flagrant 2 foul after appearing to strike Utah’s Branden Carlson in the face with his arm, but the freshman guard is expected to play against USC, Cronin said.

“It’s over. He made a mistake. He’s a young kid, you move on,” Cronin said. “You can’t put your arm up because once you put your arm up it, then it gets to a point of flagrant.”

Junior guard Lazar Stefanovic finished with a game-high 19 points and eight rebounds, but UCLA gave up the winning tip-in with 0.2 seconds left after not securing a rebound.

USC’s latest result: The Trojans are coming off a 92-89 loss at home to Colorado on Feb. 17. Guards Boogie Ellis (30) and Isaiah Collier (25) combined for 55 points in the double-overtime loss. However, USC blew a 16-point lead in the second half. Freshman guard Bronny James finished with just two points and two assists in 14 minutes and did not play in overtime.

Matchups to watch: Andrews and Sebastian Mack, who are averaging a combined 24.5 points per game, against USC’s backcourt of Ellis and Collier, who are averaging a combined 32.9 points per game.

Andrews held Ellis to eight points on 3-of-10 shooting on Jan. 27. Collier, a highly touted freshman, did not play but has since recovered from a hand injury and is averaging 19.5 points per game since returning Feb. 7.

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UCLA trends to watch: UCLA has won eight of its past 10 games, improving to 14-12 overall, after falling to 6-10 with a 90-44 loss at Utah on Jan. 11.

“I think we were on a start-over this year,” Cronin said. “Early on, the guys didn’t understand our culture of, ‘It’s just not OK to lose, regardless of your situation.’”

In the last 10 games, Stefanovic is shooting 40.9% from 3-point range and 90.9% from the free-throw line. During that span, the 6-foot-7 junior guard has averaged a team-high 14.4 points and 7.2 rebounds per game.

UCLA is 12-3 when it hold its opponents to 65 or fewer points.

​ Orange County Register 

How to rent a car with points and miles — and get the best deal

• February 23, 2024

Stephanie Zito | Bankrate.com (TNS)

Although many analysts predicted that post-COVID “revenge travel” would peak in 2022, ongoing research suggests consumers are still prioritizing spending money on travel. According to a 2023 Bankrate survey, planned leisure travel was up from 2022 — even as many Americans still had less than three months of emergency savings in the bank.

This demand has led to record-breaking revenue for the U.S. car rental industry, according to Auto Rental News data. Although rental car companies were hit hard in 2020, total revenue soared to $36.1 billion in 2022 and $38.3 billion in 2023. But while this is great news for the rental car industry, it often means higher car rental prices and lower availability for travelers.

Usually, I almost never recommend using rewards for rental car bookings since you can almost always find a rental car deal through AutoSlash, Hotwire, Kayak or Priceline if you don’t care what company you’re renting from. When these kinds of deals don’t exist, however, here’s what you need to know about booking a car rental with miles or points.

Here’s how to book a car rental with miles or points.

Airline miles and points

Nearly every airline has a frequent flyer program that has the option to redeem your points or miles for rental car bookings. The exchange value of airline miles for rental cars typically isn’t as good as using miles for booking flights, but it is an option. It might also be worthwhile if you’re earning more miles than you can spend on flights through a co-branded airline credit card.

Flexible credit card rewards

If you have a card that is part of a flexible credit card rewards program, like American Express Membership Rewards or Chase Ultimate Rewards, you can book a rental car through the travel portal just like you would for booking a flight or hotel. Redemptions are still tied to the cost of the rental but will vary based on the rewards redemption value of your particular card.

Car rental loyalty programs

If you frequently rent cars through any of the major car rental companies like Hertz, Avis or National, you should be earning rewards in the rental company’s own loyalty program. Just like airline or hotel loyalty programs, these programs are free to join.

For example, if you join the Avis Preferred program, you’ll earn 1X points per dollar spent on rentals and 2X points per dollar spent on accessories (with a minimum of 100 points per booking), and you can redeem your points for free rental days starting at 700 points. Accessories can be redeemed for 250 points each, and additional points may be available through promotions — such as those that earn you an extra 100 points for booking within the first three months of joining — or through the company’s higher-tier Preferred Plus and President’s Club programs.

If you happen to have a stash of car rental rewards, what better time to use them than the present? Likewise, if you don’t have a car rental loyalty account, it’s a good time to join since you’ll be earning lots of rewards if you wind up paying for a car rental.

When should you rent a car with points or miles?

If you’re the kind of rewards collector who likes to maximize the cents per mile you get when redeeming rewards, car rental redemptions might not be for you. Rental redemptions are almost always linked to rental prices, so if prices are high, you’ll have to pay a lot of rewards.

Value, however, isn’t always only about the numbers. If you really need a car rental and can’t afford to pay a higher rental rate, using points or miles for a car rental may still be a good value to you.

Tips for booking a car rental with points and miles

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Alternatives like Turo or locally owned rental companies may offer more favorable rates, but if you’re looking to book a car for upcoming travel, my top tip is to make your plans sooner rather than later. If you decide to pay for a car rental, most companies don’t require a deposit and have very liberal cancellation rules.

It doesn’t hurt to book a paid reservation as far in advance as possible, then cancel or change the booking as you get your flights and accommodation sorted. If you’re booking with points or miles, you’ll still want to book as far in advance as possible, but make sure you know the company’s rules, as some rewards programs won’t reinstate your rewards if you have to cancel your rental.

You’ll also want to double-check the rules of your credit card rental insurance if you’re planning on using the primary or secondary rental car coverage that’s offered with many credit cards. Most credit cards only provide this insurance benefit when you use the corresponding credit card to pay for the rental. Do some research in advance to see what your credit card offers.

The bottom line

Booking car rentals with your points or miles may be worth considering when rental rates are high. Though using credit card rewards for car rental bookings isn’t always the best way to maximize redemption value for your points and miles, redeeming rewards for a rental may still be of great value to you if covering the cost of a car makes your trip possible.

(Visit Bankrate online at bankrate.com.)

©2024 Bankrate.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

​ Orange County Register 

San Clemente will invest in getting permits so it will be ready when opportunities for sand arise

• February 23, 2024

San Clemente officials are hoping to expand their chances of bringing sand to the coastal town’s shore, renewing a program that will allow the city to seek out “opportunistic sand.”

But first, it needs to weave through a maze of permitting and approvals that could take up to two years, and likely spend hundreds of thousands dollars, just to get the go-ahead to find available sand to bring to its beaches.

San Clemente city leaders this week approved renewing its SCOUPS permit – short for Sand Compatibility and Opportunistic Use Program – a state program it had participated in about a decade ago, but its five-year permit expired.

The step is the latest in the town’s attempt to manage and maintain its eroding coastline, where at times during high tide several of its beaches become a sliver or are non existent.

Maintaining sand is important not just for recreational space, but because the beach is a major tourism draw and sand serves as a buffer between the ocean and infrastructure, such as the railroad that passes along its shoreline.

The program would allow the city to explore opportunities outside of the pending U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project – which will add about 251,000 cubic yards of sand between T-Street and Linda Lane once it resumes after delays – to add supply to other areas of the city’s beach in need, city coastal administrator Leslea Meyerhoff recently explained to the City Council.

“We’re looking for opportunistically-available sources – sediment that comes out of Santa Ana River, excavation from construction sites where there’s export material compatible with the beach, landslide material that has fallen onto the slope,” said  Meyerhoff. “The program is opportunistic in nature, but it is an important tool to have in the toolbox and quite a few cities and counties have them in California.”

OC Parks is also currently in the SCOUPS application process, but San Clemente wants to be able to do its own projects, if necessary, to be a little more aggressive and nimble to get sand on its beaches, City Manager Andy Hall said.

The city used its SCOUPS permit twice for projects in North Beach, first in 2005 to bring-in 5,000 cubic yards of sand and again in 2016 when it brought 12,000 cubic yards from the Santa Ana River, much like a project done at Capistrano Beach last summer.

The sand was free, however the city had to pay about $625,000 to haul the supply to its shoreline.

About 1,000 truckloads of sand from the Santa Ana River were placed on North Beach in 2016. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Now with the City Council’s unanimous approval to move forward, city staffers can start preparing the regulatory permit applications required from a lengthy list of agencies –  the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the California Coastal Commission, the Regional Water Quality Control Board, California State Lands Commission and the Southern California Regional Rail Authority – a process that could take up to two years.

The permitting process could cost anywhere from $250,000 to $400,000, including consultants fees and environmental reviews, Meyerhoff said.

Once permitted, the city would look at various sources for sand.  The Santa Ana River is one that has been used several times by many municipalities, including most recently at Capistrano Beach and Doheny State Beach when 3,000 truckload were hauled in, but the city might also be able to access sources such as the Prado Dam, inland riverbeds or even the desert.

Meyerhoff said she received an email from someone in Palm Springs who said they had “millions and millions” of cubic yards of sand, the cost to the city would mostly be the trucking cost.

“There’s a lot of sand sources out there,” she said, noting the material has to be considered “beach compatible.”

Councilman Steve Knoblock was also contacted recently by the Orange County Water District saying the Prado Dam had an “unlimited amount” of beach-quality sand they could ship to San Clemente on railcars.

“I’d like to be able to take advantage of that,” he said.

Knoblock also asked if the city’s staff had been in talks with the Orange County Transportation Authority, which in the past has dumped boulders along the railway to protect its infrastructure, to help with bringing in sand instead. There are concerns the boulder can contribute to erosion in the future.

“We would certainly work with them as a partner agency, we do have ongoing discussions with them as part of their resiliency plan and the needs of the city,” Meyerhoff said.

The city last year released a study identifying “critical hot spots,” as part of its Nature Based Resiliency Project Feasibility Study. 

A train makes its way north along the coast at North Beach in San Clemente as waves crash against the rocks just below the railroad tracks on Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2021. The city is hopes more sand will help its disappearing beaches. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

The city also last year held a town hall to discuss ideas to retain sand, such as building offshore reefs or groin jetties, similar to what Newport Beach put in decades ago to combat severe erosion that threatened homes.

Suzie Whitelaw, a member of Save Our Beaches San Clemente, showed photos of threatened areas along the coast, starting with the Shorecliffs clubhouse that has an eroded beach with sand bags set out for protection; the concession stand in North Beach that has little sand under it; and the city’s south end where 3,500 feet of rock boulders have overtaken the beach.

She said the city should explore bringing sand from the Prado Dam by rail, which has less environmental impact than trucking it in.

“We can dump it right on the beach,” she said. “Just some dozers on the beach or let Mother Nature spread it around once it’s on the beach.”

The city is holding a second community meeting from 4 to 7 p.m. on Feb. 29 at City Hall to present a draft of the nature-based sand retention solutions being considered. Following an open house that shows various designs for various sections of the coast, there will be a presentation by city officials and consultants.

Several ideas, such as creating reefs to mimic Lower Trestles and T-Street, were showcased last year for addressing short-term and long-term coastal erosion. The city will use the new feedback to refine the designs, officials said, which are expected to be published in a draft feasibility study later this year.

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​ Orange County Register 

Researchers find association between air pollution and Alzheimer’s

• February 23, 2024

Shelia Poole | (TNS) The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

ATLANTA — A new study from Emory University researchers has found an association between traffic-related air pollution and Alzheimer’s disease in humans.

Using brain tissue donated by metro Atlanta residents, researchers evaluated their home addresses for air pollution generated by nearby traffic. The study, released Wednesday, does not prove air pollution causes Alzheimer’s, but found an association between exposure to air pollution caused by traffic and signs of Alzheimer’s in brain tissue.

Medical and environmental officials have long warned about the consequences of air pollution on respiratory and cardiac health.

The study contributes to already existing evidence that breathing pollution may lead to “plaques” or deposits in the brain — a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease.

“It’s concerning because the reason most of the air pollution is high in Atlanta is due to traffic,” said Anke Huels, the study’s lead author and an assistant professor of epidemiology at Emory’s Rollins School of Public Health. “It’s also why we focused specifically on traffic-related air pollution exposure.“

The study is one of the first to look at the association between air pollution and signs of Alzheimer’s disease in human brain samples, she said. The findings are published in “Neurology,” the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Brain tissue used in the study was taken from 224 donors in the brain bank at Emory’s Goizeuta Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center who died before 2020. The patients had lived in urban or suburban areas in the 20-county metro area. Most of the patients were white, 59% were male, and the patients’ mean age of death was 76.

Most of the brains studied were from people who had already been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or some other form of dementia before they died.

While the study population isn’t comparable with the general population, Huels said the study findings are still valuable because it shows pollution is associated with plaques in the brain.

More than 6.7 million U.S. residents have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, including at least 150,000 Georgians.

Alzheimer’s, one of the dementias, is a progressive disease that affects memory and other brain functions, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. Researchers do not know the exact cause of Alzheimer’s disease, but it likely is due to a variety of genetic and environmental factors. Air pollution has been suspected previously as a potential factor.

“In our study we used air pollution models, which can give us an estimate of the residential traffic-related air pollution concentration with a very fine resolution up to 200 to 250 meters,” Huels said. “Of course you would see the highest levels of these pollutants around major highways, so people who lived very close to major highways had the highest exposure to traffic-related pollutants.”

The study looked at “fine particulate matter” from traffic exhaust and whether there was an association between breathing polluted air and signs of Alzheimer’s in the brain. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, particulate pollution is made up of tiny particles of solids or liquids so small they can be inhaled deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream, potentially causing health problems. They are the cause of haze in some parts of the U.S.

Huels said the findings are in line with previous studies, which have shown associations between particulate pollution and cognitive decline, memory loss or a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.

Researchers also looked at patients who carried the “APOE gene” a major genetic risk factor for developing Alzheimer’s. But the strongest association between pollution and Alzheimer’s was seen in those without that risk factor. This suggests that environmental factors like air pollution could be a contributing factor to Alzheimer’s disease in patients in which the disease cannot be explained by genetics.

“We know that air pollution is bad for our health, including our brains,” according to a statement from Jill Disney, program director for the Alzheimer’s Association Georgia Chapter. “Multiple studies presented during AAIC 2021 were the first to suggest that reducing pollution is associated with lower risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.”

Disney called for more research in areas of the United States with high levels of pollution that tend to be populated by low income individuals and people of color.

The Chicago-based Alzheimer’s Association last year said it invested $100 million into dementia research, the largest single-year investment since 1980 when the nonprofit was founded. In Georgia alone, $600,000 was awarded to advance research efforts in 2023.

Overall, the state of Georgia has 19 ongoing projects totaling nearly $3.5 million and includes research being conducted including looking at risk factors, care and early detection.

The Emory study was funded by an Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center pilot grant through the National Institute of Aging. Huels and other researchers had no relevant financial interest in the outcome.

What is “fine particulate matter”?

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, these are tiny particles that are so small they can be inhaled deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream, potentially causing health problems. They are the cause of haze in some parts of the U.S.

These particles are made up of solids or liquid droplets with diameters that are generally 2.5 micrometers and smaller.

How small is 2.5 micrometers? Think about a single hair from your head. The average human hair is about 70 micrometers in diameter – making it 30 times larger than the largest fine particle.

©2024 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Visit at ajc.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

​ Orange County Register 

‘Fourth wave’ of opioid epidemic crashes ashore, propelled by fentanyl and meth

• February 23, 2024

Colleen DeGuzman | (TNS) KFF Health News

The United States is knee-deep in what some experts call the opioid epidemic’s “fourth wave,” which is not only placing drug users at greater risk but is also complicating efforts to address the nation’s drug problem.

These waves, according to a report out this week from Millennium Health, began with the crisis in prescription opioid use, followed by a significant jump in heroin use, then an increase in the use of synthetic opioids like fentanyl.

The latest wave involves using multiple substances at the same time, combining fentanyl mainly with either methamphetamine or cocaine, the report found. “And I’ve yet to see a peak,” said one of the co-authors, Eric Dawson, vice president of clinical affairs at Millennium Health, a specialty laboratory that provides drug testing services to monitor use of prescription medications and illicit drugs.

The report, which takes a deep dive into the nation’s drug trends and breaks usage patterns down by region, is based on 4.1 million urine samples collected from January 2013 to December 2023 from people receiving some kind of drug addiction care.

Its findings offer staggering statistics and insights. Its major finding: how common polysubstance use has become. According to the report, an overwhelming majority of fentanyl-positive urine samples — nearly 93% — contained additional substances. “And that is huge,” said Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health.

The most concerning, she and other addiction experts said, is the dramatic increase in the combination of meth and fentanyl use. Methamphetamine, a highly addictive drug often in powder form that poses several serious cardiovascular and psychiatric risks, was found in 60% of fentanyl-positive tests last year. That is an 875% increase since 2015.

“I never, ever would have thought this,” Volkow said.

Among the report’s other key findings:

The nationwide spike in methamphetamine use alongside fentanyl marks a change in drug use patterns.
Polydrug use trends complicate overdose treatments. For instance, though naloxone, an opioid-overdose reversal medication, is widely available, there isn’t an FDA-approved medication for stimulant overdose.
Both heroin and prescribed opioid use alongside fentanyl have dipped. Heroin detected in fentanyl-positive tests dropped by 75% since peaking in 2016. Prescription opioids were found at historic low rates in fentanyl-positive tests in 2023, down 89% since 2013.

But Jarratt Pytell, an addiction medicine specialist and assistant professor at the University of Colorado’s School of Medicine, warned these declines shouldn’t be interpreted as a silver lining.

A lower level of heroin use “just says that fentanyl is everywhere,” Pytell said, “and that we have officially been pushed by our drug supply to the most dangerous opioids that we have available right now.”

“Whenever a drug network is destabilizing and the product changes, it puts the people who use the drugs at the greatest risk,” he said. “That same bag or pill that they have been buying for the last several months now is coming from a different place, a different supplier, and is possibly a different potency.”

In the illicit drug industry, suppliers are the controllers. It may not be that people are seeking out methamphetamine and fentanyl but rather that they’re what drug suppliers have found to be the easiest and most lucrative product to sell.

“I think drug cartels are kind of realizing that it’s a lot easier to have a 500-square-foot lab than it is to have 500 acres of whatever it takes to grow cocaine,” Pytell said.

Dawson said the report’s drug use data, unlike that of some other studies, is based on sample analysis with a quick turnaround — a day or two.

Sometimes researchers face a months-long wait to receive death reports from coroners. Under those circumstances, you are often “staring at today but relying on data sources that are a year or more in the past,” said Dawson.

Self-reported surveys of drug users, another method often used to track drug use, also have long lag times and “often miss people who are active for substance use disorders,” said Jonathan Caulkins, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College. Urine tests “are based on a biology standard” and are good at detecting when someone has been using two or more drugs, he said.

But using data from urine samples also comes with limitations.

For starters, the tests don’t reveal users’ intent.

“You don’t know whether or not there was one bag of powder that had both fentanyl and meth in it, or whether there were two bags of powder, one with fentanyl in it and one with meth and they took both,” Caulkins said. It can also be unclear, he said, if people intentionally combined the two drugs for an extra high or if they thought they were using only one, not knowing it contained the other.

Volkow said she is interested in learning more about the demographics of polysubstance drug users. “Is this pattern the same for men and women, and is this pattern the same for middle-age or younger people? Because again, having a better understanding of the characteristics allows you to tailor and personalize interventions.”

All the while, the nation’s crisis continues. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 107,000 people died in the U.S. in 2021 from drug overdoses, most because of fentanyl.

Caulkins said he’s hesitant to view drug use patterns as waves because that would imply people are transitioning from one to the next.

“Are we looking at people whose first substance use disorder was an opioid use disorder, who have now gotten to the point where they’re polydrug users?” he said. Or, are people now starting substance use disorders with methamphetamine and fentanyl, he asked.

One point was clear, Dawson said: “We’re just losing too many lives.”

___

(KFF Health News, formerly known as Kaiser Health News (KHN), is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs of KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling and journalism.)

©2024 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

​ Orange County Register 

House Speaker Johnson must now confront his own party’s sabotage

• February 23, 2024

Steven T. Dennis and Billy House | Bloomberg News (TNS)

Mike Johnson promised a “well-oiled machine” the night he won the U.S. House speaker’s gavel. Four months later, he hasn’t delivered.

Republicans’ impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden is unraveling, Ukraine war aid languishes amid GOP opposition as Russia advances on the battlefield, and the U.S. government is on the brink of a politically damaging government shutdown.

“Over 100 days in, we’ve yet to fulfill and execute policy,” said Republican Patrick McHenry, who briefly served as a caretaker speaker last October after Republicans ousted Kevin McCarthy.

Johnson, a novice in high-stakes Washington negotiations whose tiny House majority is riven with infighting, won the speakership in October after Republicans rejected several more seasoned candidates. At the time, Republicans heralded the election of the 52-year-old socially conservative Louisianan as a fresh start for the deeply fractured party.

Yet multiple senior House Republicans, granted anonymity to speak frankly, now portray Johnson as an insecure leader who faces a steep learning curve. Those GOP lawmakers complain Johnson keeps counsel mostly with an insular circle of his own staffers on even the most challenging matters — and that some senior colleagues are treated as objects of suspicion rather than allies.

They cite two back-to-back humiliating defeats in one early February evening, when the House not only rejected an Israel-only war aid package Johnson put up for a vote but also a marquee Republican impeachment resolution against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Johnson went ahead despite warnings from other Republicans, one lawmaker said.

Johnson rallied his party the following week to impeach Mayorkas on a second try, prevailing by a single vote after Republican Steve Scalise returned from cancer treatment.

Tough Choices

But Johnson now confronts a series of much tougher choices next week that he’s been ducking for months as he navigates a Republican majority at war with itself.

Johnson has repeatedly signaled he opposes a shutdown, thinks it’s bad politics and is willing to compromise to get a spending deal. Senior congressional aides on Thursday were still working on a deal but said they didn’t know whether a shutdown could be avoided.

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Having already agreed to overall spending levels with Democrats, Johnson and his lieutenants have sought to temper conservative expectations they will get major policy wins in upcoming funding bills. But Republican hardliners are sticking with a laundry list of demands.

Johnson has toughened his stance against Ukraine aid without major concessions from Democrats on the border. He rejected a bipartisan Senate deal to impose new border restrictions, and he continues to insist on policies like forcing migrants to remain in Mexico while asylum cases are heard.

But the Biden team is stepping up attacks on Republicans for holding back aid after Ukraine’s chaotic retreat from the key city of Avdiivka over the weekend and the suspicious death in prison last week of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny.

Election-year politics are raising pressure on the speaker. Biden is telegraphing plans to cast a do-nothing Republican House as a villain. House Republicans’ efforts to target the president with an impeachment inquiry were damaged when a star witness was indicted for lying to the FBI and turned out to have ties to Russian intelligence.

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, the party’s dominant figure, has intruded from the sidelines, denouncing the compromise on border restrictions Republican and Democratic senators reached and rendering it toxic for many GOP lawmakers.

And Johnson’s biggest accomplishment — a package of tax cuts passed with the help of Democrats — is being held up in the Senate amid Republican opposition there.

The speaker’s leeway to act will narrow when the House returns next Wednesday from an 11-day break and Democrat Tom Suozzi is sworn in as the winner of a special election to replace expelled New York Republican George Santos. Johnson can’t lose more than two Republicans on a party-line vote.

A wave of senior Republicans are voting with their feet. Twenty-three GOP lawmakers have either resigned or announced plans to leave at the end of the year, including five who hold powerful committee chairmanships.

Rocky Reign

The deadlock on Ukraine aid is a predicament of Johnson’s own making. Despite declaring in October “we can’t allow Putin to prevail,” Johnson has held up aid as leverage for border restrictions. He holds the power to allow or block a vote on aid, though “America First” isolationists like Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia could seek his ouster if he brings it to a vote.

With Johnson yet to offer a plan of his own with any chance of passing the Senate, Republicans who support Ukraine are floating proposals, including a pared-down version or turning the aid into no-interest loans, an unorthodox option Trump raised at a campaign rally.

A broad bipartisan House majority supports Ukraine aid. But more than half of House Republicans voted against Ukraine aid last year. That reflects eroding support among the party’s voters, with 48% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents saying the U.S. gives too much assistance to Ukraine in a Pew poll late last year.

Yet veteran Republican lawmakers see grave political risk if Russia continues to advance on the battlefield while Republicans block ammunition for Ukraine’s defense.

“If Putin wins, Republicans will lose,” said Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina.

McHenry, who played a key role last year in negotiating an agreement to avert a U.S. debt default, argues the time has come for House Republicans to make the best deal they can. Johnson’s position is secure enough to withstand disappointment among hardliners, if only out of buyer’s remorse over McCarthy’s ouster.

“We’re in a much worse public policy position now because of this,” he said, referring to the recent months of GOP deadlock. “The question is how effective you are with the time you’re given.”

—With assistance from Erik Wasson.

©2024 Bloomberg News. Visit at bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

​ Orange County Register 

Disneyland closes 4 attractions during busy festival season

• February 23, 2024

Disneyland will close four attractions for seasonal refurbishments during the biggest seasonal food festival of the year and just before Spring Break crowds begin flocking to the Anaheim theme parks.

Radiator Springs Racers, Incredicoaster, Redwood Creek Challenge Trail and the Sailing Ship Columbia will temporarily close in late February or early March as part of Disneyland’s standard refurbishment schedule.

ALSO SEE: What to expect at Disney’s Food & Wine Festival 2024

The four new attraction closures join the Astro Orbitor, Grizzly River Run, Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain and “Fantasmic” that were already shuttered for refurbishment.

The timing of the attraction closures coincides with the 2024 Food & Wine Festival that starts March 1 at Disney California Adventure.

DCA’s Radiator Springs Racers in Cars Land will close Monday, Feb. 26 through March 1 for a brief refurbishment.

The Incredicoaster in Pixar Pier will go down March 4-14 for a slightly longer seasonal refurbishment.

ALSO SEE: 7 reasons Disneyland characters want to unionize

Redwood Creek Challenge Trail will close on March 4 for an extended refurbishment that will stretch though at least early April, according to the Disneyland website.

The ropes, nets and interactive elements in the wilderness adventure play area are expected to be refurbished or replaced during the closure, according to MiceChat.

A temporary closure of the Sailing Ship Columbia will be short-lived on Monday, Feb. 26 through Thursday, Feb. 29.

The Mark Twain Riverboat is scheduled to return Saturday, Feb. 24 from a five-month refurbishment.

Scaffolding has surrounded the paddlewheeler since mid-September while the riverboat that plays a key role in “Fantasmic” gets a heavy dose of TLC during the nighttime spectacular’s extended downtime.

ALSO SEE: Is Disneyland’s new Pixar Place Hotel worth $500 a night?

The Grizzly River Run will remain closed through Thursday, Feb. 29 during the coldest part of the year in typically sunny Southern California when fewer visitors want to get soaked on the water ride.

Astro Orbitor closed in late November for an extensive refurbishment. The rocket spinner ride at the entrance to Tomorrowland in Disneyland is expected to return March 14.

The Haunted Mansion closed in January for an extensive renovation of the outdoor queue area that will add a new accessibility elevator for wheelchair users exiting the ride and a new retail shop at the attraction’s exit. Disneyland has not announced a reopening date for the popular dark ride.

ALSO SEE: Disneyland doubles the number of Star Wars Nite events

The latest temporary closures don’t include Splash Mountain — which is undergoing an extensive conversion into Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. The Critter Country log flume ride is scheduled to reopen with a new “Princess and the Frog” theme in late 2024.

“Fantasmic” will return May 24 after a yearlong hiatus following an inferno that engulfed the show’s audio-animatronic fire-breathing dragon.

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Also not on the temporarily “out of order” list are several attractions that never returned following the yearlong pandemic closure that shuttered Disneyland and DCA.

Disneyland’s Star Wars Launch Bay and DCA’s Blue Sky Cellar are being used for Imagination Campus — an educational travel workshop that teaches students about the arts and sciences used in Disney theme parks.

The Magic Eye Theater in Tomorrowland remains dark with no upcoming show in the works.

The Hyperion Theater in Hollywood Land briefly returned for a summertime run of “Rogers: The Musical” before closing again with nothing planned for the 2,000-seat Broadway caliber venue.

The Fantasyland Theatre no longer has regularly scheduled shows after the “Tale of the Lion King” ended its run in early January.

​ Orange County Register 

It is illegal to redact your address on your registration card, but there are options

• February 23, 2024

Q. Honk: I have redacted the street address, the city and the ZIP code from my Department of Motor Vehicles registration paperwork that typically goes in the dashboard. Does this violate any law? The garage door opener is in the car, so thieves could get into my car away from home, learn where I live and gain entry into the garage. The DMV registration card should not show where you live.

– Bruno Gutierrez, Colton

A. You can’t alter the registration card, Bruno, or you could face a fix-it ticket or a citation for an infraction, said Jake Sanchez, an officer and spokesman for the California Highway Patrol. How such a violation is handled is an officer’s discretion.

Officer Sanchez understood your safety concerns, and offered up a couple of ideas.

Put in it your wallet, or perhaps in a see-through photo sleeve attached to you keys so it is always with you when you drive.

Or take out a P.O. Box and make that the address on the registration, if permitted by the DMV with your type of driver’s license.

Now, if someone creates a counterfeit registration card or forges one to mislead the authorities, the ante gets substantially higher.

“That would be the felony side of things,” Sanchez said.

By the way, an officer can pull up the registration info via the computer in his or her squad car, so long as the database is up, using the license-plate number or the vehicle-identification number (VIN).

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Q. You probably get this all of the time, but what kind of license plate is this?

– Mark Porterfield, Laguna Beach

A. Over the years, Honk has covered more ground than tall fescue, Mark, but he doesn’t recall answering this question.

Mark popped over a photo of a plate he saw in a Los Angeles parking lot. It shows a red “A,” a two-digit number and then a smaller “R1.”

The A signifies the vehicle owner has been in the state Assembly, the R means the person is retired from the state body and the 1 indicates it is the second plate issued that is tied to that specific office.

Somewhat similar plates are also available to state senators and U.S. Congress members of both houses.

“Retired plates can be issued to multiple former or retired (state Legislature) members for the same district,” said Ronald Ongtoaboc, a DMV spokesman. “Legislative plates are not issued to retired members of the U.S. House or Senate.”

Might be kind of fun to have such plates if you qualify, but the perk isn’t free. Under the Vehicle Code, it costs an extra $53 to register and then an extra $43 each year.

HONKIN’ DASHCAMS: A colleague of Honk’s is writing a story about dashcams. Do you have one in your car or truck, or have a GoPro or similar device on your motorcycle helmet? Would you talk to the reporter about if? If so, please drop Honk an email.

HONKIN’ FACTS: Passing through John Wayne Airport’s in January were 884,884 passengers, about 1% more than that month in 2023. Southwest Airlines was the clear leader with 280,796, while American Airlines, at 149,607, and United Airlines, with 135,022, followed.

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

​ Orange County Register