US announces Israel evacuation flights for Americans as Hamas war rages

• October 12, 2023

By MARY CLARE JALONICK, SEUNG MIN KIM and MATTHEW LEE

WASHINGTON — The White House announced that the U.S. government will begin operating evacuation flights to help Americans leave Israel as Israel prepares to escalate retaliatory action against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.

The evacuation flights are expected to begin Friday, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said. The U.S. government is arranging for at least four charter flights a day out of Israel, according to people familiar with the planning.

The announcement came as the White House confirmed that the death toll in the fighting now includes at least 27 Americans. The war has claimed at least 2,600 lives on both sides since Hamas launched its attack on Israel last Saturday.

Fourteen U.S. citizens in Israel remain unaccounted for. The White House has said a “handful” of Americans are among the dozens of people that Hamas took hostage.

U.S. officials estimate 160,000-170,000 Americans are in Israel, as residents, tourists or in some other capacity. An estimated 500 to 600 American citizens are in Gaza, including people who have been working as humanitarian workers or visiting relatives. Egypt and Israel have closed all exits from the blockaded territory.

The State Department said in a statement it anticipated it will initially facilitate the departure of thousands of U.S. citizens per week out of Israel. The overall security situation, availability and reliability of commercial transportation, and U.S. citizen demand will all influence the duration of this departure assistance. The department asked U.S. citizens in need of evacuation assistance to complete the crisis intake form at travel.state.gov.

There are still some commercial carriers flying in and out of Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport, and ground routes are open to leave Israel. White House officials, however, have voiced concern that those options may not be feasible or affordable for some Americans in Israel who want to leave.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Israel on Thursday to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli citizens. He was joined by the deputy special representative for hostage affairs, Steve Gillen, who will stay in Israel to to support the efforts to free the hostages.

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Blinken said Thursday that Americans would continue pushing regional countries for a safe passage in and out of Gaza, which could help the hundreds of American civilians trapped in the blockaded enclave.

Israeli defense officials have yet to order a ground invasion of the pummeled territory, but have been planning for the possibility. The military has called over 300,000 reservists into action in preparation.

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who joined from Air Force 2 en route to Las Vegas, Nevada, met on Thursday with senior administration officials to discuss efforts to safeguard the U.S., including Jewish, Arab and Muslim communities, following the Hamas attacks in Israel.

Lee reported from Jerusalem.

​ Orange County Register 

Festival Pass: Why Power Trip with AC/DC, Judas Priest, Metallica and more was a perfect festival

• October 12, 2023

Festival Pass is a newsletter that lands in your inbox weekly. But during prime festival season you get bonus editions, too! Subscribe now.

Happy Thursday!

This week’s edition of Festival Pass is going to be short and sweet. I’ll be honest, I’m tired!

Goldenvoice’s three-day Power Trip fest out at the Empire Polo Club in Indio on Oct. 6-8 kicked my butt. My ears are still ringing after taking in sets by Iron Maiden, Guns N’ Roses, AC/DC, Judas Priest, Tool and Metallica.

It was just two bands playing extended sets each day on a single, yet massive, stage. So, it wasn’t nearly the grind of other multi-stage festivals at that venue, including Coachella and Stagecoach. But if you were there or live in the Coachella Valley, you know we were blessed — or cursed — with temperatures in the 100s all weekend long and we weren’t lucky enough to experience the typical nighttime desert cool down. So the heat mixed with the long walking trek into and out of the venue each day finally got to me, after managing to survive a total of four three-day festivals out there in 2023.

However, Power Trip was awesome.

Each day had a slightly different vibe, but that back-to-back Saturday lineup with Judas Priest and AC/DC felt so incredibly special. Just witnessing these giants of metal and rock and roll crushing it with hits and fan favorites felt historical. Overall, it was a celebration of these often overlooked genres with acts in peak form. Also the fans, who were from all over the world, were incredible. They were so nice and this particular festival seemed to lack all the social media influencers that typically flock to the Empire Polo Club for other events — these were true fans through and through.

It was spectacular fun and left diehard metal heads wondering if there will be a Power Trip II. We shall see.

Here’s a look back at our coverage:

Day 1: Power Trip: Guns N’ Roses, Iron Maiden kick things off in the desert

Day 2: Power Trip: AC/DC and Judas Priest do it right in Indio

Day 3: Power Trip: Metallica and Tool close out the festival with fiery performances

Power Trip bassists weigh in on the rock and metal event before it hits Indio

Here’s what else is going on in the Southern California music scene.

Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour” movie hits theaters on Friday

Movie theaters across the country are preparing for the Swiftie takeover as Taylor Swift‘s “The Eras Tour” concert film hits screens on Friday, Oct. 13. Filmed during her first three out of a total of six sold-out evenings at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood back in August, Swift’s tour — which is still ongoing — is a record-setting pop cultural phenomenon that has broken Ticketmaster twice now with initial on sales.

The demand was so overwhelming that going to see the action in a theater is probably the best and most affordable way to get in on the fun, or to relive the event if you’re already missing having experienced Taylormania live.

Here’s where to watch “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” in Southern California this weekend

 ‘Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour’ film premiere shuts down The Grove shopping center — is Taylor coming?

 Why Taylor Swift, Beyoncé concert films are ineligible for Oscars documentary category

Danny Elfman reveals ‘Nightmare’ special guests

Singer-songwriter, producer and composer Danny Elfman will be back at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Tim Burton‘s “The Nightmare Before Christmas” with a live-to-film concert event on Oct. 27-29.

He just announced he’ll be joined by some very special guests including singer-songwriter Halsey and actress Catherine O’Hara sharing the role of Sally and Ken Page resuming his part as Oogie Boogie. Find out who else is performing and how to get tickets here.

Until next week, thanks for reading and keep rockin’!

Read previous editions of the Festival Pass newsletter

Festival Pass: Power Trip brings rock, heavy metal to the desert this weekend

Festival Pass: Ohana Festival: What you need to know before you go

Festival Pass: BeachLife Ranch: What you need to know before you go

Festival Pass: Stagecoach 2024: A closer look at the eclectic three-day lineup

Festival Pass: After a four-year hiatus, Coastal Country Jam returns to Southern California

​ Orange County Register 

What time is the solar eclipse? Check this site to know when to look up

• October 12, 2023

In advance of an annular “ring of fire” solar eclipse occurring this Saturday, NASA has set up an interactive eclipse explorer so people can see when they should look up, and what phase of the eclipse they will experience from their location.

Most of the contiguous United States will experience a partial eclipse this Saturday, Oct. 14. The eclipse is expected to begin at 9:13 a.m. PST in Oregon, and pass through Northern Nevada, Utah, and New Mexico, before reaching Texas just before noon CST. Only the communities along this path will experience totality, when the moon will align with the sun at its farthest point from the Earth, creating a ring of fire effect in the sky.

RELATED: What to look for and where to buy solar shades for safe eclipse viewing

Even without totality, a partial eclipse is still a sight to see with a pair of solar eclipse glasses that adhere to the ISO 12312-2 international safety standard, of course. This is where NASA’s interactive eclipse explorer comes in handy – it loads as a map of the mainland United States, with the path of the eclipse clearly marked from Oregon to Texas. It also gives the viewer a chance to compare the paths of past and future solar eclipses – including the one that will occur in April 2024. The explorer also shows which areas will experience the least and most amount of eclipse in terms of totality and time.

Several national parks are preparing for an influx of visitors looking to experience the eclipse in an open area. National parks in the path of totality include Crater Lake in Oregon, Great Basin in Nevada, and the Padre Island National Seashore along the coast of Texas. Several national parks in the Four Corners region where Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Colorado meet are in the path of totality.

RELATED: “Ring of Fire” solar eclipse headed to Colorado. Here’s everything you need to know.

Saturday’s annular solar eclipse will be the last one visible in the contiguous U.S. until June 21, 2039, when the celestial sight will only be visible from Alaska, according to NASA. 

However, skywatchers won’t need to wait 16 years for another spectacular sight in the sky. A total solar eclipse, in which the moon will completely block the sun from Earth’s view, occurs on April 8, 2024, less than six months from Saturday.

​ Orange County Register 

Jay-Z’s Champagne maker is planning an even more exclusive brand

• October 12, 2023

Tara Patel | Bloomberg News (TNS)

The small French winemaker behind Jay-Z’s Champagne is laying the groundwork for the launch of another luxury brand, aiming to replicate the success of the rapper’s Armand de Brignac “Ace of Spades.”

Family-owned Maison Cattier has stored bottles to age in its cellars of what will be called Champagne de Lossy, according to Alexandre Cattier, the 13th-generation head of the firm that traces its roots back to 1625. Sales are still at least a couple of years away, he said.

Yet even at this early stage, promotion of the high-end label is gearing up. A bottle was featured inside a custom-built Rolls-Royce Droptail that costs upwards of $30 million and was unveiled in August in Carmel, California. Champagne de Lossy now also has a website and an Instagram page.

“The brand will be even more exclusive than Armand de Brignac,” Cattier said in a telephone interview. “Sales will be more targeted.”

He declined to provide details about the identity of his business partner in the endeavor, saying only that the owner of the Rolls-Royce wanted a Champagne brand to match the car’s dark red finish. Photos show an opaque red bottle with a black and silver label.

Cattier’s plans for Champagne de Lossy are part of a trend for higher-end labels in the French region, with an increasing number backed by celebrities. In addition to Jay-Z’s Armand de Brignac, Brad Pitt has the Fleur de Miraval rose and Leonardo DiCaprio backs Champagne Telmont. Actor Morgan Freeman is promoting Laurent-Perrier’s Grand-Siecle cuvee, while former NBA star Tony Parker reportedly invested in Champagne Jeeper.

Cattier will be competing in a more crowded market than in 2006 when it introduced the Armand de Brignac brand. First sold in opaque gold bottles and nicknamed the “Ace of Spades” for the shape of the label, it was promoted by Jay-Z, who had started boycotting another brand called Cristal.

The rapper eventually acquired the Armand de Brignac brand, although Cattier still makes the Champagne inside the bottles. In 2021 Jay-Z sold a 50% stake to luxury juggernaut LVMH. The Brut Gold version is listed by online distributors at around $400 a bottle.

The region east of Paris where Champagne is produced has about 370 maisons and 16,200 grape growers. LVMH is the biggest producer, owning such brands as Dom Perignon, Moet & Chandon, Ruinart and Veuve Clicquot.

Cattier, a minnow compared with LVMH in terms of production, is based in the village of Chigny-les-Roses. That’s about a mile away from a grand manor called Chateau de Rilly, the contours of which are featured on the “de Lossy” label.

The links between the brand, the chateau and the family date back around half a century, Cattier said.

In the 1970s, his grandfather bought buildings in the village of Rilly near the chateau and where Champagne de Lossy was originally produced. While the brand was passed on to another producer at the time, it hasn’t been used for at least a decade. Cattier has now acquired it for a revival, he said.

©2023 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

​ Orange County Register 

House speaker nominee Scalise tries to sway skeptical GOP colleagues, gain 100+ votes

• October 12, 2023

By LISA MASCARO, FARNOUSH AMIRI and STEPHEN GROVES

WASHINGTON — Nominated to be House speaker, Rep. Steve Scalise is heading straight into a familiar Republican problem: Skeptical GOP colleagues are reluctant to give their support, denying him the majority vote needed to win the gavel.

The House opened its Thursday session at midday in anticipation of floor action to elect a speaker, but quickly gaveled to a recess. Scalise must peel off more than 100 votes, mostly from those who backed his chief rival, Rep. Jim Jordan, the Judiciary Committee chairman favored by hard-liners, as lawmakers dig in for a fight to replace Rep. Kevin McCarthy after his historic ouster from the job. No votes were scheduled.

“Time is of the essence,” McCarthy said when he arrived at the Capitol.

Asked if it was still possible for Scalise, R-La., to find enough support, McCarthy said: “It’s possible — it’s a big hill, though.”

The House is entering its second week without a speaker and is essentially unable to function, so the pressure is on Republicans to reverse course, reassert majority control and govern.

Action is needed to fund the government or face the threat of a federal shutdown in a month. Lawmakers also want Congress to deliver a strong statement of support for Israel in the war with Hamas, but a bipartisan resolution has been sidelined by the stalemate in the House. The White House is expected to soon ask for money for Israel, Ukraine and the backfill of the U.S. weapons stockpile.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Scalise said after Wednesday’s private balloting by Republicans when he fell short of expectations.

A steady stream of some of the more hard-line Republicans filed into Scalise’s office late into the evening, bringing their complaints, criticisms and demands as he worked to shore up support.

The situation is not fully different from the start of the year, when McCarthy faced a similar backlash from a different group of far-right holdouts who ultimately gave their votes to elect him speaker, then engineered his historic downfall.

But the math this time is even more daunting. Scalise, who is seen by some colleagues as hero for having survived a 2017 shooting on lawmakers at a congressional baseball game practice, won the closed-door Republican vote 113-99. But Scalise now needs 217 votes to reach a majority that likely will be needed in a floor battle with Democrats.

The chamber is narrowly split 221-212, meaning Scalise can lose just a few Republicans in the face of opposition from Democrats who will most certainly back their own leader, New York Rep, Hakeem Jeffries.

McCarthy, R-Calif., noted that Scalise, a longtime rival, had indicated he would have 150 votes behind closed doors, but missed that mark. At midday, GOP lawmakers convened another private meeting.

Jordan, a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus who was backed by Donald Trump in the speaker’s race, said he did not plan to continue running for the leadership position.

“We need to come together and support Steve,” Jordan told reporters before the closed session.

It was the most vocal endorsement yet from Jordan who had earlier offered to give his rival a nominating speech on the floor, and privately was telling lawmakers he would vote Scalise is encouraging his colleagues to do the same.

But it was unclear whether enough whether lawmakers who backed Jordan will throw their support to Scalise. Handfuls of hard-liners announced they were sticking with Jordan, McCarthy or someone other than Scalise.

Veteran lawmakers said Scalise was not deal-making, as McCarthy did, to win votes.

Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, reaffirmed his support for Trump as speaker; the position does not need to go to a member of Congress.

Trump is expected to take a hands-off approach to the internal GOP fight now that Scalise, rather than his choice of Jordan, is the nominee, according to one person familiar with Trump’s thinking who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Trump, the front-runner to 2024 GOP presidential nomination, repeatedly discussed Scalise’s health during a radio interview that aired Thursday.

Scalise has been diagnosed with a form of blood cancer known as multiple myeloma and is being treated.

“Well, I like Steve. I like both of them very much. But the problem, you know, Steve is a man that is in serious trouble, from the standpoint of his cancer,” Trump said on Fox News host Brian Kilmeade’s radio show.

“I think it’s going to be very hard, maybe in either case, for somebody to get,” Trump said. “And then you end up in one of these crazy stalemates. It’s a very interesting situation.”

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Many Republicans want to prevent the spectacle of a messy House floor fight like the grueling January brawl when McCarthy became speaker. Usually, the majority needed would be 218 votes, but there are currently two vacant seats, dropping the threshold to 217 — and absences heading toward the weekend would drop the majority bar even lower.

Exasperated Democrats, who have been watching and waiting for the Republican majority to recover from McCarthy’s ouster, urged them to figure it out.

“The House Republicans need to end the GOP Civil War, now,” Jeffries said.

“The House Democrats have continued to make clear that we are ready, willing and able to find a bipartisan path forward,” he said, urging that the House reopen and change GOP-led rules that allowed a single lawmaker to put in motion the process to remove the speaker. “But we need traditional Republicans break from the extremists and partner with us.”

Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in New York and Kevin Freking contributed to this report.

​ Orange County Register 

Mission Viejo offers a look at the Los Osos Core Area project

• October 12, 2023

Mission Viejo conducted an in-field walking tour for the Los Osos Core Area project on Wednesday, Oct. 11, giving residents a chance to see the budding project and provide feedback.

After a short presentation about the project, approximately 150 people embarked on a 50-minute walking tour of the site.

The tour, led by Keith Rattay, assistant city manager of Mission Viejo, allowed community members to view the entire site, including the areas where Mission Viejo will eventually expand later in the project. Mission Viejo has been working at Oso Creek to grow the area to include a shopping, entertainment and event plaza dubbed the Los Osos Core Area.

Taped on the ground were the project parameters, and with the help of 3D QR codes, attendees were presented with a virtual recreation of the area to envision the Los Osos Core Area.

The City Council plans to summarize the community input received from the event as well as recap previous meetings on the project on Oct. 24. City staff will present the first phase’s overall cost estimate and make a recommendation to the City Council to move the Los Osos project forward to the next phase.

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Located at the Village Center off of Marguerite Parkway and La Paz Road, the 22,736 square-foot Los Osos Core Area project takes over the older shopping center and connects to the greater project on Oso Creek.

Before the open house began, attendees participated in a pumpkin painting session with the Mission Viejo Cultural Arts Committee alongside local artist Jack Knight.

​ Orange County Register 

Anaheim briefs: Anaheim Reads celebrates community and reading

• October 12, 2023

Each year, the Anaheim Public Library hosts Anaheim Reads, a month-long celebration of reading.

This year, the chosen book is “There, There,” a debut novel by Cheyenne and Arapaho author Tommy Orange. The book is about a large cast of Native Americans and a month of activities are planned around the theme of exploring Native American culture and history.

For children, companion books to read are “Waa’ake: The Bird Who Fell in Love with the Sun”  by Cindi Alvitre and “Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story” by Kevin Noble Maillard.

The opening reception for Anaheim Reads will be held at the Central Library from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Oct. 14. Virginia Carmelo, a leader from the Tongva-Gabrielino Tribe, will speak and there will be children’s activities, traditional dance performances and a Tongva language learning lesson.

There will be a number of activities and workshops held at the various library branches throughout the month, including making fry bread, book discussions, cooking lessons and basket weaving.

A Native Arts Festival will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Nov. 4 at Founder’s Park on West Street.  For more information visit anaheim.net/library.

Get the story behind the crime

The Anaheim Police Department will again present “Anaheim Confidential,” a popular fundraiser for the department’s Cops-4-Kids nonprofit.

Don’t miss Anaheim Confidential on Oct. 13 at the River Arena in Anaheim.

Join homicide detectives as they unravel a decades-long cold case, walking the audience through how long-awaited justice was delivered to the victim’s family.

The event will be 4 to 9 p.m. at the  River Arena in Anaheim. For more information, visit Eventbrite and search for “Anaheim Confidential.” Tickets are $45.

Historic property workshop offered

A free workshop is being offered at 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 25 about having a historic property in Anaheim.

There will be information on the Mills Act property tax program, maintaining a historic home and researching the history of properties.

The workshop will be held in the Downtown Community Center, 250 E. Center St. RSVP by Oct. 20 by emailing [email protected]

Test your trivia knowledge

The Anaheim Historical Society has a Halloween trivia night planned for Oct. 24, with prizes for top team and individual player.

The event will be held at the Downtown Anaheim Community Center, 150 E. Center St.  Check in at 6:30 p.m. and the trivia challenge begins at 7 p.m.

All are welcome to this free event. RSVP to 714-904-6725 by Oct. 20.

Getting ready for Halloween festival Oct. 28

The Anaheim Fall Festival and Halloween Parade is getting ready for its 100th year celebration.

The Fall Festival will be held from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Oct. 28 on the Center Street Promenade and will include an old-fashioned Halloween carnival, local artists, live music, magic shows, kiddie and doggie costume contests, float decorating, kids crafts and much more. The parade follows that night

The group needs more help working on the floats and parade’s organization.  Visit anaheimfallfestival.org and sign up as a volunteer or donate to help fund this community effort.

Celebrating 55 years

The Anaheim High Class of 1968 is planning a reunion on Oct. 21.

There will be a golf game at the Anaheim Hills Golf Course at 10 a.m., contact Dan Royer at [email protected] for information. Non-golfers are invited to breakfast.

From 4 to 9 p.m. there will be a no-host event at the El Torito Grill in Brea (555 Pointe Drive, Brea); everyone will need to pay for their own food and drinks.

This is a great chance to see your old friends.  For information contact Joni Hanger Gramstad at [email protected].

Alzheimer’s OC plans workshop

Alzheimer’s OC will present an in-person conservatorship workshop at the Anaheim Central Library on Oct. 27.

The one-hour workshop will begin at noon in the Multipurpose Room.

For a list of classes the organization offers, visit www.alzOC.org or call 844-373-4400.

Anaheim Beautiful property awards

Anaheim Beautiful is looking for nominations for honoring those in the city who have taken extra steps to make their property beautiful.

Nominations are being accepted now through midnight Oct. 31. Properties will be adjudicated during November and announced in December.

You can self-nominate your property or submit any residential or commercial property to be considered for an award with a photo and some basic contact.  For more information visit anaheimbeautiful.org.

Weekly market gets spooky

Nightmare on Center Street will be hosted at an upcoming Downtown Anaheim Farmers Market.

Look for spooky vendors, trick or treating, and more at the weekly market on Oct. 26 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 435 W. Center Street Promenade.  For more information, visit www.downtownanaheim.com

Andrea Manes shares with her neighbors events and news about the Anaheim community. If you have an event to share, contact her at [email protected] or 714-815-3885.

​ Orange County Register 

Can a sponge-like ‘nanomaterial’ eat up greenhouse gas? Cal State LA will find out

• October 12, 2023

What if tiny sponge-like things known as “nanomaterials” were designed to fight climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide, the pollution that makes up most of the Earth’s greenhouse gas emissions?

California State University, Los Angeles has received a $750,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to research climate change with the goal of developing smart, porous nanomaterials that act as sponges and can be reused thousands of times to soak up carbon dioxide.

Cal State LA is teaming up with famed Iowa-based Ames National Research to “capture” — or absorb — carbon dioxide and pollution in thousands and thousands of tiny pores that scientists will create on the surfaces of pieces of nanomaterial the size of a tablespoon.

The magic behind this science, says Yangyang Liu, a chemistry professor at Cal State Los Angeles, is that a piece of sponge-like material — small enough to hold in your hand — would have a massive surface area due to its vast number of pores. If stretched out flat, the nanomaterial would equal the size of a football field.

The carbon dioxide that is “captured” in the nanomaterial could be injected underground to prevent the pollutant from returning to Earth’s atmosphere, or the captured pollutants could be transformed into fuels.

“These materials we designed can remove CO2 from the air to combat climate change,” explains Liu. “Just a tablespoon of the material we make in the lab can have the total surface areas of a football field, and all that surface can be used to store CO2. … The captured CO2 can then be injected underground. Or we can also use chemistry to convert the CO2 into fuels or other useful chemicals, such as methanol or ethanol.”

In what the researchers say would be a first in science, the Cal State/Ames team is using sunlight to release the captured carbon dioxide from the “sponges” so the costly nanomaterial can be used to absorb pollution, time and again.

Yangyang Liu, Ph.D. , Associate Professor of Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at California State University, Los Angeles. (Photo by J. Emilio Flores/Cal State LA)

In the past, scientists worked with nanomaterials that had limited reuse. Liu wants to devise nanomaterials that can be reused repeatedly — thousands and thousands of times — to keep the cost of creating them to a minimum.

“That’s a major advantage of using these types of materials,” said the professor in an August interview. “Their high surface areas make them excellent candidates for CO2 capture.”

The technical name for the sponge-y materials is “metal-organic framework” or MOFs.

The problem with using carbon capture to tackle climate change is the cost, according to Liu. “The regeneration of materials used for CO2 capture usually requires high temperatures,” she said. “Therefore, the traditional way of capturing CO2 on a large scale may not be economically sustainable or financially feasible.”

So to overcome the costs, “we proposed using sunlight for materials regeneration,” she said.

Sunlight is everywhere and can be used to regenerate the needed materials at zero cost, she explains.

“(Hopefully), we don’t have to synthesize new materials for every ‘capture cycle,’ because material synthesis could be costly, especially given the scale of CO2 capture,” said Liu. “We don’t want to just make these materials and use them once. We want to reuse them many times.”

They hope to launch the effort in the fall semester and estimate that it will take about three years to develop the smart, porous, sponge-like materials to capture pollution.

Cal State LA’s $750,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy aims to provide more research and training opportunities in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) fields while addressing important energy and climate challenges.

Long Qi, a representative of Ames National Laboratory, says that Cal State LA is not traditionally recognized as a research university, so this project aims to provide more opportunities for students to train in the field of clean-energy transformation and carbon capture.

Qi said that having more students familiar with that goal, and having the special expertise, will help the country get to carbon zero by 2050.

“We will be able to provide our expertise … and carry out the research … with no difference from doing research at UCLA or Cal State LA,” Qi said in an Aug. 25 interview.

The award is part of $37 million in grants from the DOE’s Funding for Accelerated, Inclusive Research initiative aimed to build research capacity, infrastructure and expertise at institutions historically underrepresented in the DOE’s Office of Science portfolio.

Cal State LA’s collaboration with the Ames National Laboratory, a DOE national laboratory operated by Iowa State University, is formally titled, “Designing Photoresponsive Nanosponges for Efficient and Reversible Capture and Release of Carbon Dioxide.”

Cal State LA undergraduate and graduate students will have opportunities to participate in the research at their university as well as in internships at Ames National Laboratory.

Qi notes that, “While I think the project is exciting, this is one of a few special grants especially for non-research universities to do fundamental research. In the past, the country just gives money to research professors. This is the first time they want to give money specifically for people in more education-based universities.”

Qi said Cal State LA students will visit the Ames National Laboratory for research work and he will come to Los Angeles to oversee the progress in their labs.

“(This will) develop a larger program beyond the current scope of the work for carbon capture,” he said.

And over the next three years, Liu predicts that she and her students will create nanomaterial the size of a tablespoon with so many pores on it surfaces that, if stretched out, will indeed equal the area of a football field.

Related links

Wildfire smoke is reversing years of air pollution progress in California and the West, new study finds
Newsom-Bonta lawsuit against oil industry good PR strategy, bad for fighting climate change
Mixed bag for climate bills as California lawmakers wrap 2023 season
Youths rally at LA City Hall as global climate strike unfolds around the world
LAUSD students celebrate release of sea lions saved from toxic algae bloom

​ Orange County Register