Connectors at Highways 91, 71 in Corona to close overnight Monday

• July 5, 2024

Highway 91 to northbound Highway 71 connectors in Corona will be closed in both directions overnight on Monday, July 8, for lighting installations, the Riverside County Transportation Commission announced Friday, July 5.

Vehicles will not be able to access these freeways from either direction, with the westbound connector shutting down from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m., and the eastbound connector closing from 10 p.m. to 6 p.m., a commission news release states.

The closure times will be used by crews to install lines of overhead lighting equipment as part of the 71/91 Interchange Project, which is expected to be completed in 2025.

Commission officials encourage drivers to take alternate routes, such as the 15, 57 and 60 freeways.

The southbound 71 to westbound and eastbound 91 connectors will remain open. Construction activity is subject to change because of weather or other factors.

Monday’s will be the latest closure during the continuing project.

The commission and Caltrans are reconstructing the 71/91 interchange in a project that will replace the single-lane loop connector between the eastbound 91 and northbound 71 with a new, two-lane, direct connector ramp.

​ Orange County Register 

Gavin Newsom gaslights Californians as he jockeys for the White House

• July 5, 2024

In politics, gaslighting means brazenly denying what people can see with their own eyes, and then refusing to admit the lie even when caught at it. Gov. Newsom, in his State of the State address, demonstrated that he has elevated gaslighting to an art form.

There were so many misrepresentations in his pre-recorded video speech that they were challenging to count.

The gaslighting started right out of the box in the opening sentence, quoting California Gov. Culbert Olson from 1939 as the world was about to be plunged into the Second World War. Olson warned that California’s great task was to confront “the destruction of democracy.” Newsom warned, “the economic prosperity, health, safety and freedom that we enjoy are under assault.”

Who are you going to believe, him or your lying eyes?

Newsom said little or nothing about California’s electricity rates, insurance crisis or the gas tax going up again on July 1st. Instead, he railed that “Republicans in Congress have chosen cynicism, partisan politics and the dangerous path of chaos instead of doing their job.”

Apparently, he thinks “their job” is to ignore the wishes of the people who elected them and follow California off the cliff to the highest poverty rate in America when the cost of living is considered.

Newsom’s gaslighting about “democracy” is rich considering that he just led the effort to convince the California Supreme Court to remove the Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act, a qualified initiative, from the November ballot. The court was persuaded by the governor and the state’s legislative leaders to deprive California voters of the right to vote on an initiative put on the ballot by the signatures of over 1.4 million voters.

Nothing says “protecting democracy” quite like canceling an election.

Newsom’s next big whopper was “California is not a high-tax state. You pay a higher percentage in taxes if you’re poor in Texas than you do if you’re wealthy in California.”

If you spit out your coffee at Newsom’s cheerful assertion that “California is not a high-tax state,” you’re probably not alone. No other state comes close to California’s 13.3% top marginal income tax rate (14.4% when an extra payroll tax is included). Add to that the highest state sales tax rate in America at 7.25% even before all the local additional levies. In many cities, the combined sales tax rate is well above 10% with more tax-hike proposals in the works.

And, of course, we have the highest gas tax, not to mention the highest gas prices in the nation due to hidden taxes from regulatory burdens. And even with Proposition 13 limiting increases in property taxes, we rank 19th out of 50 states in per capita property tax collections. California is, by any definition, a very high-tax state.

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So how does Gov. Newsom respond to the truth in front of his eyes? How does he gaslight Californians with the claim that the poor in Texas pay higher taxes than the wealthy in California?

Newsom’s figures come from a study of state taxes by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. ITEP’s 7th edition of “Who Pays?” factors in “the portion of residential real estate taxes passed through to tenants.”

In other words, people in other states who don’t have Prop. 13 pay higher property taxes, directly or indirectly. Does Newsom credit Prop. 13? Of course not. He fights to take taxpayer protection measures off the ballot.

Whether addressing California’s tax burden, crime, homelessness, unemployment or the business climate, Newsom tells us to ignore our lying eyes. He’s right at home speaking on behalf of President Joe Biden, who assures us that the border is secure, and inflation is under control.

The last bit of gaslighting from Newsom is a bit more nuanced. While supposedly meeting his responsibilities as governor of California, he gave a speech criticizing “red states” and the people they elect. He has one foot out the door, flying to Atlanta to attend the presidential debate as Biden’s “surrogate.” He appears to be posturing to be the lead replacement in case, for whatever reason, Biden steps down.

We’ll see. Smearing half the country as enemies of democracy is an unproven strategy in a national election.

Jon Coupal is president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.

​ Orange County Register 

3 accused robbers face murder charges for tourist run over at Fashion Island in Newport Beach

• July 5, 2024

Three Los Angeles County men accused of taking part in an attempted armed robbery at Fashion Island in Newport Beach and dragging a 68-year-old New Zealand woman under a getaway car were charged on Friday, July 5, with special-circumstances murder.

Prosecutors allege that Leroy Ernest Joseph McCrary, 26, Malachi Edward Darnell, 18, and Jaden Cunningham, 28, killed Patricia McKay on Tuesday, July 2, in the commission of a robbery — which Orange County District Attorney’s Office officials noted makes it a potential death-penalty case.

McKay and her husband, just past 3:30 p.m., were waiting to be picked up after shopping.

A white Toyota Camry pulled up next to them and two men in masks jumped out and attacked McKay’s 69-year-old husband, according to a DA’s Office release. One of the men put a gun to the husband’s head, forced him to the ground and demanded his watch, prosecutors said.

The masked men — who prosecutors allege were Darnell and Cunningham — were unable to get the husband’s property. Prosecutors allege Cunningham then attacked the wife, who was holding shopping bags.

As he grabbed the bags, prosecutors allege, Cunningham threw McKay to the ground, then dragged her into the street in front of the Camry, which they say was driven by McCrary.

McKay’s husband jumped in front of the Camry in an attempt to protect his wife, prosecutors say.

But they say that McCrary accelerated forward, forcing the husband out of the way.

McKay was run over and her body dragged 65 feet, according to the DA’s Office.

Darnell had already gotten into the Camry at that point, prosecutors say, while Cunningham was running toward it, trying to catch up.

A good Samaritan tried to stop Cunningham, prosecutors say, but they allege that Darnell fired gunshots out of the vehicle at the person trying to help.

McCrary briefly slowed down so Cunningham could jump aboard, prosecutors said. The good Samaritan was not struck by the gunfire.

Officers spotted the car on the northbound 405 Freeway. During the pursuit, Cunningham bailed out on a surface street in Cypress, prosecutors say. McCray and Darnell were both in the Camry when police pulled it over in South Gate, prosecutors added.

All three men were being held without bail. McCrary and Darnell are from Los Angeles, authorities said, while Cunningham is a Lancaster resident.

Along with the special-circumstances murder charge and a sentencing enhancement for causing the death of a person more than age 65, the three men are facing attempted-robbery charges and other felonies.

Prosecutors say that McCrary is a third-striker, following convictions in Los Angeles County for residential burglary, criminal threats and robbery.

Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer, in a statement, placed blame on “soft-on-crime policies” that “encourage criminality while sacrificing public safety.”

“Our entire community extends its deepest sympathies to the loved ones of Patricia McKay and to the entire country of New Zealand as we mourn her senseless death in the commission of a crime that should have never happened,” Spitzer said. “Our shopping centers and malls have become hunting grounds for criminals who are stalking innocent shoppers to rob them blind because our governor and our Legislature refuse to hold anyone accountable for their actions.”

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​ Orange County Register 

Man severely injured by ‘mortar-type’ firework he was setting off in Anaheim

• July 5, 2024

A Fourth of July reveler seriously injured himself on Thursday night, July 4, while setting off a mortar-type firework, authorities said.

Officers and firefighters responded just before 9 p.m. to reports of a firework-related injury in the 1700 block of South Dallas Drive, said Sgt. Jonathan McClintock, an Anaheim police and fire spokesman.

The first responders learned that the man had lit off the firework and suffered severe head injuries, the sergeant said. He was taken to a hospital in critical condition.

The only fireworks legally allowed in Anaheim are those that have been deemed “safe and sane” by the Office of the State Fire Marshal.

Mortar and mortar-like fireworks are not included in that category, the sergeant said.

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​ Orange County Register 

Disneyland to close Space Mountain during busy summer season

• July 5, 2024

Disneyland plans to close Space Mountain during the middle of the busy summer vacation season to overhaul the 1977 indoor roller coaster that takes riders on a high-speed journey through the dark with many twists, turns and dips.

Space Mountain will undergo a seasonal refurbishment beginning on Aug. 5 and remain temporarily unavailable for about a month, according to Disneyland officials.

ALSO SEE: Why Disneyland’s Oogie Boogie Bash hasn’t sold out yet

Disneyland cast members will work on lighting in the lift-hill tunnel and throughout Space Mountain as well as the attraction’s flooring, according to Disneyland officials.

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After more than four decades of thrills, the popular coaster consistently has one of the longest lines in Disneyland.

The coaster ride through the dark lends itself to thematic overlays that employ video projections on the inside walls of the futuristic man-made mountain.

Disneyland often adds a Hyperspace Mountain overlay during annual Star Wars celebrations and a Ghost Galaxy overlay during the Halloween season.

​ Orange County Register 

Bill aims to pay California merchants if transportation construction affects business

• July 5, 2024

Legislation winding its way through Congress aims to provide funding for small businesses and nonprofits negatively impacted by major transit and highway projects.

Introduced by Rep. Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana, the bill, called the Business Uninterrupted Monetary Program Act of 2023 — or BUMP Act — would require “local sponsors of major transit and highway projects to create a funding pool that will provide impacted businesses with monetary relief to cover expenses during interruption by transportation construction,” according to his office.

Major transit projects required to create a BUMP fund would have a total price tag of $100 million or more, and for highway projects, $50 million or more.

Funding would potentially cover utilities, insurance, rent or mortgage, payroll and loss of income. As the bill is written, it’s up to the sponsors of a transportation project to determine which businesses would be eligible for that funding and how much each business should receive. The local agencies would also need to verify the information provided by the impacted businesses.

If the project already has an equivalent program or the agencies can prove that there is no interruption to business, they could request a waiver from the Secretary of Transportation to opt out of creating a BUMP fund, according to the legislation.

In Santa Ana, where Correa resides, merchants near downtown Fourth Street say they are still coping with the effects of construction that went through the area for the OC Streetcar, a 4.1-mile line connecting Santa Ana and Garden Grove.

Construction of the streetcar, which kicked off in 2018, shut down sidewalks and parking spaces on Fourth Street for several months, which small business owners operating on the historic thoroughfare said led to income losses. Construction is ongoing, said Orange County Transportation Authority spokesperson Eric Carpenter, and streetcar testing is expected to begin in 2025.

In 2022, dozens of merchants demanded financial assistance and relief from OCTA and Santa Ana, and the city offered $3 million in grants to businesses impacted by the streetcar construction.

OCTA reimbursed the city nearly $680,000 for lost parking revenue and other costs incurred between February 2022 and December 2022. The OC Board of Supervisors also approved grants up to $20,000 for impacted businesses.

But longtime business owner Shawn Makhani said the place is still “a ghost town.”

“There are no customers, there is no business,” said Makhani, who owns and runs Telas Fabrics.

Makhani said a significant drop in sales has forced him to downsize. He has been in this location for about 26 years, but now rents out half of his store to another business. Makhani has only one-fourth of the merchandise he used to carry, he said.

“People used to come from all over, and we had a very active business,” Makhani said. “If I did not own my building, I would’ve gone out of business a long time ago.”

The Pizza Press restaurant just down the street from Telas Fabrics has a similar story to tell.

“We saw a massive, massive decline in customers and revenue,” said franchise owner Dara Maleki. “We lost tens of thousands of dollars of revenue that was clearly from the rail car construction project. We saw other restaurants boom, but that was not the case for Santa Ana.”

Carpenter said the OCTA has been “well aware of concerns raised by business owners along Fourth Street” and has worked with them on several fronts to address their concerns.

“Some of what OCTA has done to address those concerns included inspecting the work site daily, providing security in the area and adding extensive fencing and signage to let the public know that local stores and restaurants remained open for business even during the heaviest construction,” he said. “OCTA also continued to coordinate with the construction contractor to increase work hours in the area to complete the work faster.”

Maleki said the BUMP Act would be welcome, but added: “How do we fix what’s already been done?”

“For weeks you would have dirt in front of your store. The whole entire block was ripped up, the walkways were limited, your storefront would be blocked off and you’d have to walk down two blocks to get to the other side,” he said. “What happens when these projects last so long, is people forget about the downtown.”

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“That is the lasting effect of how this rail car has affected the business environment down here.”

Correa said his colleagues around the country have heard from constituents who experience similar hardships during construction projects.

“You’ve got beautiful infrastructure projects going on in the district, and small businesses that are going out of business for the sake of progress,” Correa said. “Local businesses should not have to bear the burden of progress.”

The legislation, co-sponsored by Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Burbank, was referred to the House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit last November and has seen no movement since. Correa’s office shared that it is currently engaging in outreach with other House members and actively working with outside stakeholders on next steps.

​ Orange County Register 

How generative AI is changing the mortgage process

• July 5, 2024

Andrew Dehan | Bankrate.com (TNS)

How would you feel to learn that every time you communicate with your lender, AI is also on the line, taking notes?

While that’s not happening with all lenders today, it could become a widespread practice in the future. Several major mortgage lenders have begun touting artificial intelligence as a tool to help make the mortgage process quicker and easier and to help them write more loans.

But how do we define AI? How can it help you in the mortgage process, and are there regulations put in place to protect you? To get the facts straight, we spoke with experts at some tech-focused mortgage companies.

The difference between generative AI and automation

Today, underwriting for most mortgages is largely automated, with lenders using tools like Fannie Mae’s Desktop Underwriter. When it comes to talking about AI, it’s important to differentiate between more commonly used automation technologies and the latest craze of generative AI, spurred on by products like ChatGPT and DALL-E.

“I think a lot of people are using the AI term, but they’re not using actual generative AI,” says Brad Seibel, president of Sage Home Loans. Much of the technology driving things like online lending and fast preapprovals has been around for a while, according to Seibel. (Editor’s note: Sage is owned by Bankrate parent company Red Ventures.)

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One commonly used technology in underwriting is OCR, or Optical Character Recognition. OCR allows a loan officer or underwriter to upload an image of text, printed or handwritten, and have that text transferred to a digital format.

“I’d put OCR in with classic machine learning,” says Christopher Jaynes, vice president of Product Forward Home Loans at Sage Home Loans. Machine learning is a branch of AI, but it’s not the same as generative AI. In the mortgage world, OCR can read scanned-in or uploaded documents to help determine if you qualify for a loan and what interest rate you’ll be offered.

This approach is different from generative AI, which is a more recently developed technology that compiles existing information to create new content. Generative AI can help lenders refine the information gathered with OCR, according to Jaynes.

“While we’ve been using AI in some forms and fashions for many years now, it’s really this boom around generative AI where we’re starting to really capitalize in different areas throughout the process,” says Josh Zook, chief technology officer for Rocket Mortgage.

Here’s how some lenders are incorporating generative AI throughout the mortgage process.

Generative AI as a chatbot on lender websites

Chat features on lender sites are nothing new, but with advances in technology, they’re able to go deeper than before. Consumers can use the chat feature to learn more about different loan products, see what they may qualify for and start the loan process while talking with the AI.

“I’m seeing a lot of companies that are using the chatbot angle of having a consumer come to the website and be able to have a conversation with AI about what they’re looking for,” says Robert Heck, senior vice president of Revenue for Morty, an online mortgage marketplace. “Then also going through the traditional 1003 process through a more dynamic AI based conversation.”

This means you could visit a lender’s website and use the chat feature to start a loan application. From there, generative AI is also working on the backend, helping lenders move your application from preapproval to underwriting to closing.

How generative AI is making loan processing more efficient and accurate

For loan officers handling a large pile of loans, generative AI is a useful tool for getting the information needed to process a loan.

“For anyone who has done a mortgage, you know that there’s a lot of documents that are created for it,” says Jaynes. “Like your closing document might be 300 or 400 pages of all your supporting documents and your application.”

Jaynes explains that generative AI can distill this information into points to coach the loan officer into helping you with your mortgage.

“That’s also why we’re seeing a higher velocity of these types of tools being rolled out as co-pilots for existing production team members,” says Heck. “Fannie Mae guidelines may be like 1,400 pages. So, [generative AI] can help teams get to a concrete set of rules faster.”

Generative AI can also help make sense of scanned documents — like paystubs, account statements, W-2s and more — which can boost the accuracy of document processing.

“We process around one and a half million documents a month,” says Zook. He also shares that Rocket Mortgage has achieved a much higher accuracy rate by using AI to identify the document and extract the data from it.

“We’ve been able to identify correctly the type of document on 70% of those documents of the one and a half million coming in, and extract over 90% of that information on a document,” says Zook.

Using AI to analyze the context of documents has not only allowed them to reduce the amount of time humans spend compiling and extracting this information but also made the process less error-prone, according to Zook.

But beyond handling documents, generative AI is being used to transcribe and pull information from phone conversations.

“As our banking team is working with clients, [our AI tool] is also listening to the conversations with the clients,” says Zook. “It’s pulling out key information that normally when a banker or loan officer is talking to a client, they’re sitting at a computer, and they have to type this in. So, one of the benefits that you see is that AI allows the banker to really focus and work with that relationship and the needs of the client, rather than the administrative responsibilities that go into capturing what the client said.”

Not only does this free up attention to focus on the client but also having the AI record the information lowers the margin of human error, says Zook.

The concerns with AI in mortgage lending

While generative AI may be reducing human error, the technology itself isn’t immune to errors. Known as “hallucinations,” these errors can pop up in many ways.

Because of how a lot of text-based generative AI — like ChatGPT — is trained, math isn’t its strong suit. Jaynes explains that when you use generative AI to create text, it uses a large database of text to guess what word comes next. It can learn how language functions and build sentences accordingly.

But the rules of math are much more precise, and you don’t want to be guessing at numbers when talking about a mortgage. That said, how generative AI handles math is a major area where it needs to improve.

“OpenAI has come [up] with a hybrid approach where you’re using generative AI, but you’re using it to generate the code to do the math,” says Jarnes.

The problem is that, according to Jaynes, this approach doesn’t consistently get it right, and that doesn’t cut it. So, calculating interest rates and monthly payments, for instance, are best left to tried-and-true computing.

Another concerning area where AI hallucinates is in regards to racial bias. Housing in the U.S. has had a long history of racism, with discriminatory practices such as redlining, and the Black neighborhood home appraisal gap. When AI is trained on these biases, it displays them itself.

ChatGPT-4, OpenAI’s latest iteration of its chat-based generative AI, steered prospective homebuyers to buy in certain neighborhoods based on their race, according to a 2024 study published by MIT. Black homebuyers were recommended majority-Black neighborhoods, and white homebuyers were recommended majority-white neighborhoods. These findings were amplified in more segregated cities, such as New York City and Chicago.

Before this technology is widely adopted, lenders and borrowers are going to need to trust the companies developing it and the results it generates.

Many lenders will be slow to adopt until there’s more regulation

“The mortgage industry is such a heavily regulated industry at this point that I think you typically see things move over years as opposed to months,” says Heck.

Government agencies have begun releasing some guidance on how generative AI can be used in housing. In September 2023, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a statement clarifying that lenders denying borrowers on the basis of credit must explain why.

“Technology marketed as artificial intelligence is expanding the data used for lending decisions, and also growing the list of potential reasons for why credit is denied,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra in the statement. “Creditors must be able to specifically explain their reasons for denial. There is no special exemption for artificial intelligence.”

In addition, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released guidelines in May 2024 stating how lenders must adhere to the Fair Housing Act when using AI and algorithms in advertising.

We’re still in the very early days of generative AI.

More government leadership and regulation are needed before AI will be more widely adopted. That’s largely because most loans have to meet specific criteria to participate in the mortgage market.

“On the backside, where all the loans are sold and securitized, and even where the banks buy the securities, there are minimum requirements that have to be met,” says Seibel. “So even if AI says ‘We don’t need a paystub. We can see this guy’s got a job,’ in order for a bank to buy that loan as part of a security, that piece of paper has to be there. Until the very end of the cycle of where loans go accepts some of this decision-making, I think adoption is going to be restricted on where it can be applied.”

The human touch is still needed when getting a mortgage

While technology is becoming a bigger part of the mortgage process, many people still want to talk to a person at some point in getting a mortgage.

“The reality is that this is probably your single biggest transaction, certainly if you’re a first-time homebuyer, and that makes you want to talk to a person,” says Seibel.

“I still think that people generally just want and trust the human component,” adds Heck. He says that a large part of that is because buying a home and getting a mortgage can be an emotional process.

For Zook at Rocket Mortgage, AI can be used to free up the human element.

“We found the best use cases are helping humans do what humans do best and computers to do what computers do best,” says Zook.

Where AI can do the data entry and find patterns in the data, the human loan officers can excel at coaching borrowers through the process.

“With all the use cases I mentioned, we maintain a human in the loop. We aren’t using AI or automation on any type of lending decisions that are going into that,” says Zook.

At the end of the day, it still has to be a human signing off on the loan, and it doesn’t look like that will be changing anytime soon.

(Visit Bankrate online at bankrate.com.)

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

​ Orange County Register 

Starmer vows stability after UK election victory exposes discontent

• July 5, 2024

Alex Wickham and Ailbhe Rea | Bloomberg News (TNS)

New British Prime Minister Keir Starmer promised a government of “stability and moderation” after leading his Labour Party to a landslide election victory that ended 14 years of Conservative rule that became characterized by turmoil and infighting.

In a dramatic reshaping of the political landscape, Labour took 412 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons, the most since Tony Blair’s 1997 triumph. The Tories garnered 121, their worst ever performance and calling time on Rishi Sunak’s stewardship of the country and his party.

Starmer, 61, vowed to “reset” British politics in a speech outside No. 10 Downing Street in London on Friday after he was formally appointed as premier by King Charles III at Buckingham Palace. “This will take a while, but have no doubt that the work of change begins immediately.” He said his administration would “rebuild Britain with wealth created in every community.”

Any Labour euphoria over the size of its win, though, will be quickly overshadowed by the scale of the challenges facing the next government. As well as the task of getting the economy growing more quickly, the election exposed divisions that look more entrenched. Indeed, the emphatic result was down to the splitting of the Tory vote in favor of more radical forces as much as an embrace of Labour policies.

Starmer has rebuilt his party since his left-wing predecessor Jeremy Corbyn led it to the worst performance in more than eight decades at the last election in 2019, a vote dominated by the U.K.’s tortuous departure from the European Union.

That lingering tension was confirmed by the rise of voices on the right and left fringes, from Brexit architect Nigel Farage’s populist Reform U.K. party, to left-wing independents who campaigned against the war in Gaza.

After ousting the Conservatives, Starmer sought to draw a contrast with their time in office. Starmer assured Britons that “you have a government unburdened by doctrine.”

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The shift in the U.K. stands in contrast to some of its neighbors and allies. In France, parties are trying to figure out how to halt the rise of the far right after Marine Le Pen’s National Rally dominated the first round of parliamentary elections last weekend. In the U.S., Democrats are debating whether President Joe Biden is the man to stop Donald Trump.

Still, Labour won a massive parliamentary majority, but earned only around 34% of the vote share. In a message to those who did not vote Labour, Starmer promised to show that politics can be a force for good.

The new premier will appoint his cabinet later on Friday. Rachel Reeves, a former Bank of England economist and key to Labour’s pitch to business, will become the U.K.’s first female Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Indeed, financial markets have been sanguine. The FTSE 100 stock index rose, while gilt yields fell. The pound rose against a broadly weaker dollar to trade around $1.28.

“This wound, this lack of trust can only be healed by actions, not words,” Starmer said.

(With assistance from Ellen Milligan, Joe Mayes, Aisha S Gani, Celia Bergin and Irina Anghel.)

©2024 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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