Left-wing apologists for Hamas terrorism

• October 15, 2023

The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is no doubt complex. There are, indeed, legitimate grievances from the Palestinian people about how they have been treated. And whenever there is conflict, as now, reasonable people can and should be concerned about the loss of innocent life in Gaza.

But there’s a difference between being able to recognize this and defending or even explicitly supporting  the actions of the terrorist rulers of Gaza.

Hamas’ senseless and barbaric attacks on Israel on Oct. 7 are indefensible. Now, those subject to Hamas’ rule in Gaza are facing a humanitarian crisis as Hamas deliberately hides among the civilian population and civilian targets.

Those who empathize with the Palestinians must be very clear in their sympathies. Are they truly concerned about the Palestinian people? Or do they stand with Hamas?

Over the past week, we have seen many organizations and individuals on the wrong side of this issue.

In the immediate aftermath of Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel, the Democratic Socialists of America issued a statement blaming Israel for the attack.

“Today’s events are a direct result of Israel’s apartheid regime — a regime that receives billions in funding from the United States,” the group tweeted. The New York Chapter of the DSA then sponsored a rally in New York City, which saw signs reading “When People are Occupied, Resistance is Justified!” as well at least one protester flashing the Nazi symbol. Likewise, the Long Beach chapter of the DSA issued a statement denouncing  Israel as a “Zionist terror state.”

BLM Grassroots, an independent chapter of the Black Lives Matter movement of which the Los Angeles BLM chapter claims affiliation, issued a statement reading, “When a people have been subject to decades of apartheid and unimaginable violence, their resistance must not be condemned, but understood as a desperate act of self-defense.”

Clearly, these statements show a deeply troubling sympathy not for the ordinary Palestinian, but for terrorists who have abused the plight of the Palestinian people for evil ends. These radical left-wing apologists for terrorists, especially the DSA, must be rejected by all sensible people.

​ Orange County Register 

Now that LA County courts have eliminated cash bail for most offenses, what happens next?

• October 15, 2023

Los Angeles County Superior Court officials are closely watching the rollout of zero-bail to track whether the controversial policy is properly balancing equity for the accused with the need to uphold public safety.

Executive officer David Slayton, in an interview, said the courts plan to publicly release data on the effectiveness of the policy later this month, but early results from the first two weeks appear to suggest the policy is working as intended.

“Individuals who are higher risk to the community are either being released with conditions, or being held for arraignment because there are no conditions where they can be safely released,” he said. “They are being considered not based upon their money, but based upon their risk.”

L.A. County’s “Pre-Arraignment Release Protocols,” commonly referred to as zero-bail, eliminates the financial requirements for release from all but the most serious of offenses prior to arraignment. Police officers will instead cite and release, or book and release, suspects for a majority of misdemeanors and some felonies. Serious and violent crimes, such as murder, kidnapping, robbery and assault with a deadly weapon, are not eligible and still retain previous bail amounts.

Other offenses, such as burglary, will require a magistrate to review the case to determine if someone can be released safely. Police officers also can request what is called an “upward bail deviation” to ask for magistrate review on any felony or in misdemeanor cases involving violation of a domestic violence restraining order, Slayton said.

Tracking rearrest rates

The courts are tracking rearrest rates and failures to appear and will use that and other data to inform future adjustments to the zero-bail policy, he said. Technical changes already have been made based on requests from law enforcement agencies.

Proponents say the county’s elimination of cash bail will alleviate instances where someone is held, potentially for days, solely because of their financial ability.

Even a single day in jail can cost people their jobs, their children and even their lives, supporters argue. A 2022 report by the UCLA School of Law’s Bail Practicum and Berkeley Law’s Policy Advocacy Clinic found that roughly 80% of jail deaths in California occur during pretrial detention. The poor state of Los Angeles County’s jails have led to consent decrees and settlements.

“They’re really horrific conditions that people are being held in,” said Alicia Virani, co-founder of the bail practicum and co-author on the UCLA report, which reviewed the impact of a 2021 California Supreme Court ruling concluding it is unconstitutional to set bail at unaffordable amounts.

More than 30 people have died in Los Angeles County jails so far this year, she said.

The pretrial incarceration of a primary breadwinner “can destabilize an entire family and an entire community network,” Virani said.

Criminals emboldened, critics say

The new policy’s detractors, meanwhile, worry that zero-bail is emboldening criminals, reducing the faith police officers and victims have in the judicial system, and leading to upticks in crime by putting suspected criminals back on the streets immediately.

More than a dozen Los Angeles County cities have joined a lawsuit attempting to reverse the policy. Attorneys for the cities, including Whittier, Downey, Beverly Hills and Arcadia, argue the Superior Courts have balanced the system too heavily in the favor of offenders, so much so that “victims and public safety are given a zero value.”

That case was transferred to Orange County Superior Court earlier this month and is still pending.

Zero-bail policies discourage law enforcement officers and do not make neighborhoods safer or reduce crime, said prosecutor Eric Siddall, the former vice president of the Association of Deputy District Attorneys, which represents about 800 Los Angeles County prosecutors.

“If they arrest someone, it is the equivalent of a parking ticket,” said Siddall, among a slate of prosecutors campaigning to unseat reform-minded District Attorney George Gascon in the 2025 election. “They tell the suspect to come to court in three months or six months. It’s not a deterrent.”

With an existing backlog of about 13,000 felony cases that have yet to be filed by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, Siddal said, most defendants arrested for nonviolent and nonserious crimes will never appear before a judge.

The policy might alleviate jail overcrowding, but the trade-off is more criminals on the street, he said.

“Criminals generally know the legal system better than law enforcement officers and prosecutors,” he added. “They know if they commit certain types of crimes they will be released.”

No clear link on crime rates

While studies have shown that rearrest rates were unaffected when the state implemented the Emergency Bail Schedule, which similarly eliminated bail for most offenses during the pandemic, Siddall said there is no clear link between the policy and any declines. Crime dropped in general in certain jurisdictions and officers might simply have stopped rearresting suspects who were released into the public because of the lack of consequences, he said.

“We don’t know,” he said. “But to suggest that releasing criminals back onto the street somehow decreases crime defies logic and prior studies.”

Last year, the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office produced its own study showing that 420 of 595 of the individuals released on zero bail there were subsequently rearrested, with 20% committing a violent crime. A follow-up study earlier this year once again pointed the finger at zero-bail when it declared that Yolo County saw increases in every category of crime as a result.

Proponents of zero-bail argue that Yolo County was not an empirically rigorous study. Report from courts and state agencies throughout the country, including in California, have found the opposite.

“The new policy isn’t a radical change, it builds off of similar policies that were in place in Los Angeles during the pandemic over the last three years,” said Claire Simonich, associate director of Vera California, an advocacy group fighting over-criminalization and mass incarceration. “If you look at other jurisdictions, we have every reason to believe this is not going to result in an increase in rearrests.”

In July, the Judicial Council of California found that similar policies during the pandemic resulted in a 5.8% decrease in rearrests for misdemeanors and a 2.4% decrease in felonies. Those same categories remained at, or below, historic averages in Los Angeles County, too, according to Slayton, the county courts’ executive officer.

“We were not surprised by the judicial council’s overall findings, because the data was consistent with what we’ve seen locally,” he said.

Rearrests in Los Angeles County dropped from 40% in 2020 to 29% in 2022, the year the emergency bail schedule ended.

Judge sparked policy change

In May, a judge issued an injunction that effectively reinstated the emergency schedule for both the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the LAPD. Roughly two months later, the Superior Court’s Executive Committee adopted the zero-bail policy that ultimately went into effect Oct. 1.

Other states and counties have not seen increases in crime either after implementing similar policies. New Jersey, which implemented bail reform in 2017, found that “nearly all defendants released successfully completed their pretrial period without acquiring a new charge, with the rate of rearrest for very serious crimes at less than 1% annually since 2018,” according to a report to the legislature.

New York, Kentucky and Harris County, Texas, boasted of similar successes.

“I think the data, when we have it, shows the opposite of what the fear-mongers would like us to believe,” said Virani of UCLA’s bail practicum. “All of this together shows that we do know how to do this.”

Political backlash

Regardless, politicians in New York and New Jersey have faced fierce backlash for those policies. New York, in particular, has dialed back its reforms several times in response to widespread concerns that it has led to upticks in crime. California’s own attempts to implement bail reforms have fared even worse. After the Legislature passed SB 10, which would have eliminated cash bail in 2018, voters dismantled it through a referendum, Proposition 25, just two years later.

Though local lawmakers have little to do with the Superior Court’s implementation of zero-bail, they already are feeling that heat as well.

“I can’t be the only one that’s having my office inundated with calls, and, when I’m out publicly, I have people approaching me very concerned about this,” county Supervisor Janice Hahn said during the board’s Sept. 26 meeting.

Sheriff Robert Luna, who spoke out on behalf of victims at the same meeting, explained the fears.

“If your child was poisoned by fentanyl and you found that someone was caught selling it in your neighborhood, and they’re released a few hours later without bail, you might question if the system is fair or not,” he said. “If you’re the victim of organized retail theft, and, you know, even if the individuals who stole from your businesses are caught, they will not be held or even required to post bail, you are also going to question the system, and probably get very angry at a lot of us sitting in this room, because they think we’re not holding people accountable.”

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office and the LAPD both have spoken out against the policy. In a statement, LAPD Chief Michel Moore explained that law enforcement is averse to zero-bail because “that approach offers little to no deterrence to those involved in a range serious criminal offenses.”

The imposition of higher bail amounts achieved the goals of safety, deterrence and prevention, he said.

“We will continue to speak with the L.A. County Judicial Council as they strive to strike the appropriate balance in protecting community safety and victims from further harm, without unduly withholding an individual from their release back into the community,” Moore stated.

Gascon supports zero-cash bail

The District Attorney’s Office, in a statement, said prosecutors have yet to see data from the first few weeks of zero-bail, but that concerns raised by Chief Deputy District Attorney Sharon Woo at the Sept. 26 meeting haven’t been addressed by the courts. At the time, Woo said her boss, Gascón, supports the idea of eliminating cash bail for 80% to 90% of the offenses in the new policy, but he is against the inclusion of certain offenses, such as burglary, and worries about the county’s ability to impose specific conditions of release, such as electronic monitoring and substance abuse treatment.

Though crime ticked up overall in Los Angeles from 2021 to 2023, it has largely stayed flat, or decreased, in the past year. As of Sept. 30, the LAPD has reported a 6.8% decrease in violent crime and a 1.6% increase in property crime compared to the same period last year. The Sheriff’s Department, meanwhile, as of Aug. 30, saw a similar 6% decrease in violent crime and roughly 1% decrease in property crime year to date.

Yet, brazen crimes, such as organized retail smash-and-grabs, have become so prolific that the state issued $267 million in grants to assist law enforcement just this year.

Under the new zero-bail policy, organized retail theft is classified as a “book-and-release” offense. The Los Angeles Police Protective League blamed the elimination of cash bail for a series of flash-mob style thefts in August, saying criminals were emboldened because they knew they’d be out of jail immediately if they got caught.

Slayton scoffed at the idea that zero-bail removes consequences. The policy just removes money as a determining factor.

Someone arrested for a smash-and-grab, for example, will be booked and the crime will be visible to police departments through the county’s booking system. Officers can always request a bail deviation from a magistrate if they believe the individual poses a higher risk of committing more crimes, or if they are aware of other pending charges, he said. All information provided by law enforcement is considered.

Once arraignment is held — up to 30 days later for released defendants — a judge can remand a defendant to custody, or impose  monetary bail, he said.

“We believe that an individualized assessment of the individuals is constitutional, complies with the judges’ statutory responsibility and is better for the community,” he said.

Bail review ‘cursory’

The cities suing to stop zero-bail, however, argue most cases will not involve a magistrate and, when they do, it is a “cursory review of electronic records only, by an on-call judge, relying on rote risk assessment factors, based solely on the bare nature of the charges — without additional facts of the actual crime committed or victims harmed — and based on an arrestee’s criminal history, which does not include repeat offenses that are not convictions,” according to their petition.

The lawsuit highlights an incident in Whittier where a man arrested for having a loaded firearm was released following a magistrate’s review and then went on to assault a police officer, unprovoked, hours later.

Proponents generally support the idea of more eyes on cases before arraignment, but they say it remains to be seen how the magistrates, who are Superior Court judges, will wield that power. Court decisions that expanded judges’ discretion often have led to more holds, not less, they said.

Still, for those who have been pushing for reforms for years, the Superior Court system’s strong stance against cash bail is a positive sign, said Brian Hardingham, senior attorney for the Debtors’ Prison Project at Public Justice, the nonprofit legal advocacy group that sued Los Angeles County and won the injunction that reinstated zero-bail earlier this year.

“A lot of this is going to come down to the details,” he said. “We’re encouraged by the general direction this is going in and paying close attention.”

​ Orange County Register 

Enlisting a friend to spread the word that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

• October 15, 2023

“You’ve had such a busy month that I was worried you wouldn’t have time to drop by,” I said to the moon as it tucked in outside my garden window.

It was a few slices less than full this visit, but what with the Blood Moon in early October and the upcoming Hunter’s Moon at the end of the month, who could blame him for being exhausted?

“I’m so glad you are here, Mr. Moon,” I said as I put the kettle on for tea. “I need your help.”

“More deliveries?” he asked referring to the lemon seeds he dropped off for me last year to friends in two different states and one in Hamburg.

But this year’s request was a little different.

“Remember 25 years ago when I told you that October is Breast Cancer Awareness month?”

I had been watching the Rosie O’Donnell talk show and she had come up with a little lyric she sang to remind women of the importance of getting yearly mammograms. Go with a friend and then you can both sing …

“I’m great. You’re fine. Let’s go have a glass of wine.”

That was the year I found out I wasn’t fine and I was home recovering from breast cancer surgery when I heard Rosie sing those words. The catchy tune and her enthusiastic delivery has stayed with me all these years. Every time I got good news at a check-up I would find myself singing it.

“So how can I help?” Mr. Not-Quite-a-Full-Moon asked as I set two cups of tea in the garden window.

“You can spread the word about the importance of awareness.”

Get yearly mammograms.

Be vigilant about breast self-exams.

Make them part of your shower routine. That’s how I found my lump that turned out to be cancer.

See a doctor immediately if you find anything suspicious.

That’s how lives are saved.

“Everyone watches you, Mr. Moon. You are nature’s internet. You have the power to be seen and heard everywhere without ads interrupting your message.”

A sliver of a smile spread across the face of the moon as we sang Rosie’s song together.

Email [email protected]. Follow her on X @patriciabunin and patriciabunin.com

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​ Orange County Register 

Runners speed past sea life during Aquarium of the Pacific 5K

• October 15, 2023

The Aquarium of the Pacific has plenty of “athletic” animals: fast-moving sharks, contortionist jellies, acrobtic otters and … running humans?

Yep, at least on Saturday morning, Oct. 14, when the popular tourist attraction hosted the annual Aquarium of the Pacific 5K, as part of Long Beach Marathon weekend.

While the main 26.2-mile event is on Sunday, hundreds of people, including families, participated in a 5-kilometer jaunt that took them through the Aquarium of the Pacific and past all of the facility’s lovable sea creatures. Participants received some swag for running in the 5K, including an aquarium-themed finishers medal.

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

As the participants made their way through the aquarium and toward the finish line, the facility’s staffers and mascots — and, one would hope, at least a couple of supportive otters — cheered them on.

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​ Orange County Register 

Santa Anita horse racing consensus picks for Sunday, Oct. 15, 2023

• October 15, 2023

The consensus box of Santa Anita horse racing picks comes from handicappers Bob Mieszerski, Art Wilson, Terry Turrell and Eddie Wilson. Here are the picks for thoroughbred races on Sunday, October 15, 2023.

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​ Orange County Register 

Kings lose in shootout to Hurricanes

• October 15, 2023

LOS ANGELES — With two of last season’s division champions on the schedule to start the season, Kings coach Todd McCellan said he wanted to give both goaltenders a chance to get time in the net.

“We have to get everybody going here,” McClellan said. “We are playing against arguably two of the top five teams probably in the National Hockey League right off the bat and both are going to get tested. We need them to play all season long.”

The Kings goalies got an early look at what lies ahead as the season gets rolling. Cam Talbot started the opener and allowed four goals in a loss to the Colorado Avalanche. On Saturday, Phoenix Copley started and gave up five goals to the Carolina Hurricanes.

But while goaltending might be a challenge moving forward, the Kings’ offense was in midseason form, coming back from a three-goal deficit against one of the best teams in the league to force overtime. The result wasn’t what the Kings had hoped to get – losing 6-5 in a shootout – but it showed they could stay with the best.

“It was a very good point we earned and it’s a bad point we gave away,” McCellan said. “I think the resilience of the group coming back and not quitting, actually playing, for the most part, made it a pretty good game.

“The brain cramps — I can’t use some words I’d like to use in the individual errors — were very costly for the group as a whole. Those have to get cleaned up. There’s some guys that need to get sharp.”

Anze Kopitar was not one of the players McCellan was referring to in his postgame interview.

Kopitar scored his second goal on a wrist shot with 1:22 left in regulation to tie the game at 5. The Kings had trailed 5-3 heading into the final period.

The Kings went back to a more traditional lineup, playing 12 forwards and six defensemen in their second game. In their season-opening loss, they used 11 forwards because of the injury to Viktor Arvidsson, who was placed on the long-term injured list with a lower-body injury, and salary cap issues.

Arvidsson will have surgery next week, McCellan said, which will not only ease the cap space, but open job opportunities for some players.

Despite having a full complement of players, the Kings struggled to stop the Hurricanes in the early going, as Carolina scored three times in the opening period and twice in the second.

The Kings pulled to within one 5-4 on a goal by Vladislav Gavrikov midway through the final period before Kopitar’s game-tying goal.

Veterans Drew Dougherty, Trevor Moore and Kopitar accounted for the Kings’ first three goals and Gavrikov added the fourth score in the third on an unassisted goal from the left side.

Trailing 4-1, the Kings cut the lead on a power play when Kopitar took a pass from Adrian Kempe for a tip-in. It was Kopitar’s first goal of the season; he got an assist in the previous game.

The Hurricanes padded their score on a goal by Teuvo Teravainen before Moore scored a power-play goal to cut the Hurricanes lead 5-3 heading into the final period.

The Hurricanes jumped on Copley early.

After riding out the game’s first power play, Carolina’s Brett Burns powered in a shot from just inside the faceoff circle for a 1-0 lead. Jacob Slavin assisted on the play.

Less than two minutes later, the Hurricanes’ Jordan Martinook was called for tripping, giving the Kings a man-advantage in their first power play. It didn’t matter as the Hurricanes added to their score, this time on a backhand by Sebastian Aho, who slipped the puck past Copley at the 13:19 mark of the first period. Aho also had an assist.

The Hurricanes added to Copley’s rough outing with another goal. Jesperi Kotkaniemi won a faceoff against Phillip Danault and raced down the ice, catching Copley unaware for an unassisted goal and a 3-0 lead.

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The Kings got more aggressive as the period wore on, crowding the net and taking 14 shots, finally connecting on a slap shot from Doughty with 1:33 left in the opening period.

Two games is a small sample but McCellan said there are some things he has been impressed with and others not so much.

One, was how the Kings limited the Hurricanes to 19 shots on goal.

“That rarely happens,” he said. “And we did a pretty good job against Colorado, yet we gave up nine goals in two games. That’s not good.

“So, what’s happening? Where are they (the mistakes) coming from? We’ll start in the crease. We got to get better in that area. Our back end wasn’t real strong against Colorado but it was better tonight. Our special teams gave up two on the powerplay tonight. That’s not good. So, it’s happening from all over the place.

“We will score enough goals to win games. It’s the tightening up of certain areas of our game.”

​ Orange County Register 

Eichel, Hill lead Golden Knights to win over Ducks

• October 15, 2023

By W.G. RAMIREZ (Associated Press)

LAS VEGAS — Mason McTavish scored and John Gibson made 34 saves for the Ducks in their 4-1 season-opening loss. Gibson dropped to 4-17-5 in his career against Vegas.

Trevor Zegras gave the Ducks their first good look at a goal early in the second when he beat Vegas’ defense with a slick pass to himself through his legs but couldn’t finish with a backhand attempt on Hill.

Jack Eichel had a goal and an assist, Adin Hill made 22 saves and the Vegas Golden Knights beat the Ducks (0-1) on Saturday night.

Chandler Stephenson and Shea Theodore also had a goal and an assist, and Jonas Rondbjerg got his first goal of the season. The defending champion Golden Knights, playing their third game in five nights, improved to 3-0-0 with all the wins by identical scores.

Hill improved to 6-0-1 in his career against the Ducks.

Eichel scored his second of the season when he skated through and around the Ducks’ defense, dangled around Gibson, and fired the puck into a wide-open net for a power-play goal with 2 seconds left in the first period.

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Stephenson put Vegas in front by two on a perfect 2-on-1 with Paul Cotter. After passing to Cotter across the slot, Stephenson took the return feed for a short tap into a wide-open net.

Theodore, who started his career in Anaheim and was playing in his 400th game as a member of the Golden Knights, scored his first of the season with a blistering one-timer from the top, Vegas’ second power-play goal of the night. Theodore’s assist on Eichel’s goal left him one shy of 200 helpers for his career.

The Ducks answered less than a minute later when McTavish cleaned up a rebound in the slot to beat Hill.

Rondbjerg’s empty-net goal provided the final margin.

​ Orange County Register 

Galaxy settles for draw against Real Salt Lake as regular season winds down

• October 15, 2023

CARSON — The road to 2024 is officially underway for the Galaxy.

After being eliminated from playoff contention with last Saturday’s 5-2 loss at Minnesota United, the Galaxy is left to play to the role of spoiler with two games remaining, including Saturday’s penultimate game of the season against Real Salt Lake.

As has been the situation this season, the Galaxy (8-13-12) enjoyed success, but in the end was forced to settle for a 2-2 draw in front of 20,673 at Dignity Health Sports Park.

Dejan Joveljic scored in the seventh minute and Douglas Costa scored in the 34th minute to give the Galaxy a 2-0 lead. The lead was cut in half just before halftime as RSL’s Anderson Julio’s deflected shot went past Galaxy goalkeeper Novak Micovic.

“We want to keep the competitive spirit and the energy alive,” Galaxy coach Greg Vanney said during the week leading to Saturday’s game. “Like I said to our guys, I’ve been impressed and appreciative of the character that they’ve shown over the course of this season in the face of a lot of challenges.”

RSL would eventually take advantage of a failed clearance in the 76th minute, leading to Diego Luna’s game-tying goal. RSL is in the playoff chase and turned up the heat on the Galaxy in the second half, but Micovic was able to keep the third goal from scoring.

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“The guys have battled,” Vanney said. “I think back to a game a couple of weeks ago on the road, Austin I think, and we battled until the end and four guys dropped on the field (at the end) because they had given everything they had. I think guys have done that and we fell short …ultimately we didn’t get it done enough to get into the playoffs, but I want us to remain true to the character that we have expressed over the course of the season.”

This season’s elimination from the playoff contention with two games remaining was the earliest for the Galaxy in a full season since 2017. That team, which started the season coached by Curt Onalfo, but finished with Sigi Schmid back in charge after replacing Onalfo in July. That season was also the first since 2008 that saw the Galaxy miss the playoffs.

Now, as the 2023 season comes to an end, the Galaxy have yet to put together back-to-back playoff seasons and have missed the postseason in five of the last seven seasons.

The final chapter on this season will be written Saturday at home against FC Dallas and then another important off-season will begin.

​ Orange County Register