Haunted Mansion construction won’t be done when Disneyland ride reopens
- July 10, 2024
Haunted Mansion fans eager to hang out with the 999 happy haunts again after seven months of refurbishments will have to navigate a warren of construction walls to get into the haunted house as crews continue to work on the Disneyland attraction.
Construction won’t be complete when the Haunted Mansion returns in time for Halloween with work continuing on the new stand-by queue and surrounding grounds, according to Disneyland.
“Our new stand-by queue experience hasn’t quite materialized yet,” according to the Disneyland website. “Using a virtual queue allows us to welcome back foolish mortals to this eerie estate once again while we continue work on the surrounding area.”
ALSO SEE: 14,000 Disneyland employees to vote on union strike
The Haunted Mansion closed in January for an extended renovation of the outdoor queue area that will add a new accessibility elevator for wheelchair users exiting the ride and a new retail shop themed as Madame Leota’s carriage house at the attraction’s exit.
Disneyland has announced Haunted Mansion Holiday will return by Aug. 23 in time for the Halloween Time season at Anaheim theme park resort. A Virtual Queue will be used to manage crowds.
The Haunted Mansion will likely reopen in late July and well before the 55th anniversary of the dark ride on Aug. 9, according to MiceChat.
“Come hell or high water, they want the attraction to open well before that date,” according to MiceChat. “Unfortunately, the new queue and shop won’t be ready in time.”
Haunted Mansion riders will bypass the construction via entrance and exit pathways, according to MiceChat.
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Vertical construction has not yet begun on the Madame Leota-themed gift shop at the ride’s exit, according to MiceChat.
“There’s still many months worth of work to be done,” according to MiceChat.
The Haunted Mansion will be in holiday mode when the ride returns for Halloween Time.
Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion has gotten a “Nightmare Before Christmas” makeover based on the Tim Burton animated film for more than 20 years now. The New Orleans Square attraction closed in January with the holiday overlay still in place.
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Gavin Newsom for president? Tallying up his assets and liabilities
- July 10, 2024
Gov. Gavin Newsom leaves the stage after addressing attendees at his inauguration for a second term at the Plaza de California in Sacramento on Jan. 6, 2023. Photo by Rahul Lal, CalMatters
In the nearly two weeks since President Joe Biden’s catastrophic performance in a televised debate, the Democratic freakout over whether he can continue as their presumptive presidential nominee has not abated
Even as Biden insists that he is committed to finishing out the race, speculation continues among the party faithful and political observers over who might be best positioned to defeat Republican former President Donald Trump instead. Among those frequently cited is California’s own Gov. Gavin Newsom, a dedicated Biden surrogate who recently completed a tour on the president’s behalf through Michigan, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire.
While Newsom says he’s standing firmly behind Biden’s re-election and has long publicly denied any presidential ambitions, this chaotic political moment is elevating the national profile that Newsom has spent years cultivating — including through a Fox News debate last fall against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and a heretofore unsuccessful bid for a constitutional amendment on gun control.
CalMatters spoke with political consultants and experts — veterans of California elections, swing state organizing and national campaigns — about Newsom’s prospects as a presidential contender. They largely agreed that he was extremely unlikely to become the Democratic nominee this year even if Biden ultimately withdraws, with Vice President Kamala Harris waiting in the wings, but that Newsom could be a strong candidate in the 2028 primary because of his progressive bona fides and extensive political network.
The biggest question mark: Can a California Democrat, the liberal caricature that has been a political punching bag for decades, win a presidential election? If the last eight years have taught us anything, it’s that the conventional wisdom may no longer apply.
NEWSOM ASSETS
1. He’s a dynamic campaigner
Newsom’s classic good looks and charisma have always bolstered his political star power. (Never forget the infamous “New Kennedys” profile in Harper’s Bazaar in 2004, shortly after he became mayor of San Francisco.) But several observers said they were particularly impressed by how he has navigated a tough situation as a Biden surrogate over the past two weeks, defending the president on television immediately after the debate and then rallying Democratic crowds on the campaign trail.
“I don’t want to hurt him by saying this, but he’s a natural politician,” said Bob Shrum, director of the USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future and an adviser on numerous presidential campaigns, including Democratic nominees Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004.
Newsom’s defense of the Democratic position — even in direct confrontation with conservative opponents and sometimes out ahead of his own party — gives him the image of a fighter, which could appeal to liberal voters looking for a new leader.
“The reason Gavin gets talked about is how dynamic he is, how polished he is in terms of talking about politics and policy,” said Roger Salazar, a Democratic communications consultant who served as a spokesperson on Gore’s 2000 campaign and is a Newsom appointee to a California commission for off-road vehicle recreation. “He’s very strong on the stump and he doesn’t back down.”
It also carries potential benefits behind the scenes, ingratiating Newsom to the Democratic establishment that could clear a path for his future plans.
“Being the loyal lieutenant and not appearing too ambitious will serve him to maybe buy some goodwill and become a legitimate heir apparent,” said Jason Cabel Roe, a longtime GOP strategist in Michigan and former deputy campaign manager for Mitt Romney’s presidential bid in 2007.
2. He has a growing national fundraising base
Newsom is a prolific fundraiser with experience building a war chest to boost himself and other Democrats nationally. It is one of his greatest strengths, rivaling any senator or governor who may be considering their own campaign for president, said Rose Kapolczynski, a longtime Democratic strategist working with Close the Gap California to elect more women legislators.
“He’s raised tens of millions of dollars for his own campaigns and ballot measures. He’s been an effective fundraising surrogate for Biden and others. And that’s given him the opportunity to build a national fundraising network,” Kapolczynski said. “He has a strong small donor network and he’s certainly well-known to major donors across the country.”
Newsom’s three federal committees, branded as the Campaign for Democracy, have raised $24 million for direct contributions to candidates, ad spending and more since launching in March last year, according to data from the Federal Elections Committee. Slightly more than half of that was transferred from his 2022 gubernatorial campaign.
Most of the cash comes from donors in California, the wealthiest state in the nation and the beating heart of its lucrative tech and entertainment industries, a CalMatters analysis found. But Newsom — who regularly travels the country to elevate Democrats in red states — has also expanded his reach from coast to coast.
For example, the Campaign for Democracy PAC, Newsom’s political action committee contributing to Democratic parties and candidates, raised more than $10 million by March, about $6 million of which came from his gubernatorial account. An analysis of itemized contributions from donors who gave $200 or more suggests that more than 40% of the remaining funds came from outside California, across 46 other states.
Establishing the network now also shrewdly lays the groundwork for a potential future presidential campaign, giving Newsom a financial reserve to run ads and curry favor with other Democrats, said Bud Jackson, a longtime Democratic strategist in Washington, D.C., who spearheaded TV advertising efforts to recruit Wesley Clark and Barack Obama for president.
“It sounds like they’ve got their (stuff) together,” Jackson said.
3. He’s appealing to Democratic base voters
If Biden sticks around, the next Democratic presidential nominee will be chosen through the 2028 primaries. Those are decided by a more liberal subset of the electorate that may be drawn to a candidate like Newsom with a history of bold progressive governance — from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples as mayor of San Francisco in 2004 to declaring a moratorium on executions in California not long after he entered the governor’s office in 2019.
Rather than the pocketbook appeal to the working class that propelled Bill Clinton, Democratic voters in the Trump era are searching for a leader with the proper worldview, said Mike Madrid, a Republican political consultant who worked on the anti-Trump Lincoln Project during the 2020 presidential campaign. Madrid believes Newsom is the frontrunner for the 2028 nomination because he has shown Democrats how to win with the cultural issues, such as abortion rights, that are most important to the party’s core supporters.
“He understands the Democratic base better than almost any Democrat of his generation, and that they are driven almost exclusively by cultural issues,” said Madrid, who worked on the campaign for one of Newsom’s gubernatorial rivals in 2018. “I think he’s a generational talent.”
And while candidates generally try to broaden their message during the general election, Madrid said the calculus for how to win has changed. In an increasingly divided electorate, where miniscule margins will decide the presidential race, energizing the base is just as important as winning over the ever-narrower slice of swing voters.
The constant attacks against Newsom and his “California values” by Trump, DeSantis and other Republicans actually benefit Newsom with the people who hate what those conservative politicians stand for, Madrid said.
“The average Democratic voter across the country is not that different from the average California Democratic voter,” he said. “The more that Republicans say California is a liberal hellhole, that helps him. He wants that.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks to reporters in the spin room after a presidential debate between President Joe Biden and Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump in Atlanta on June 27, 2024. Photo by John Bazemore, AP Photo
NEWSOM LIABILITIES
1. He’s not particularly popular
The challenge for Newsom is to reach beyond that Democratic base. While only a snapshot in time, recent trends in California are not encouraging.
After surging during the pandemic and then holding a steady majority, Newsom’s approval rating among California voters has cratered over the past year. The Public Policy Institute of California found in a June survey that just 47% of likely voters in the state approved of the job the governor is doing, down from 59% a year prior.
Pollsters did not track why Newsom is underwater. He’s spent most of the year dealing with a historic budget deficit and the threat of massive cuts to important public programs.
But survey director Mark Baldassare noted that the governor’s approval has shrunk notably with independents, less a third of whom approve of him. Among independent likely voters, his approval is down to 35% from 50% a year ago. During that time, Newsom has leaned into his role as a prominent national surrogate for Democrats and come under increasing criticism from Republicans. In a breakout of survey respondents from the most competitive California congressional districts, only 42% of likely voters approved of the job Newsom is doing. That’s lower than California voters overall — a potentially bad sign for his appeal in swing states.
“Gavin Newsom has become a more politically polarized candidate in a more politically polarized time,” Baldassare said. “That’s one thing that a governor experiences when they put themselves in the national spotlight.”
2. He’s got a tough record to defend
Nearly all the experts CalMatters spoke to agreed that California’s rising crime rates, homelessness crisis and massive budget shortfall provide potent ammunition for conservatives — and even fellow Democrats — to target Newsom during a presidential campaign.
“There’s just so many things that are going wrong in the state, and he owns all of them. He is identified with all of them,” said Roe, the GOP strategist from Michigan.
Voters in California are increasingly frustrated with the state’s rising violent and property crime rates in recent years, although they remain lower than in the 1980s and 1990s, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.
The sentiment fueled support for a ballot measure this November to partially undo Proposition 47 — a decade-old state law approved by voters — by toughening penalties for retail thefts and drug offenses. Newsom and Democratic legislative leaders balked at the measure but eventually backed down amid broken negotiations and failed attempts to put a rival proposal on the ballot.
Similarly, Newsom would have to reckon with overseeing a whiplash-inducing decline from record budget surplus to multibillion dollar deficit, and with the state’s homelessness crisis, which has in many ways defined his governorship. The number of homeless Californians has been on the rise in recent years, accounting for almost half of the nation’s unhoused population.
To change the narrative, Jackson said Newsom must “sidestep” these weaknesses while pointing to other accomplishments.
“He can say, ‘The economy has been in a rough spot, inflation is very high, these are things that I can’t completely control,’” Jackson said.
In part to dampen public concerns about homelessness, Newsom championed Proposition 1 — a mental health bond measure he said would help tackle homelessness — which passed by razor-thin margins in the March primary. And in a friend-of-the-court brief, he also asked the Supreme Court to grant cities more authority to clear encampments. The court’s conservative majority last month obliged, to the outrage of the court’s liberal justices.
When it comes to crime and homelessness, Salazar said, Newsom could point to “major cities in red states” with “the exact same issues.”
3. His appeal to swing state voters is unknown
California Democrats brag about being on the political cutting edge, but their proudly progressive values also make them an object of ridicule. When Rep. Nancy Pelosi was Speaker of the House, Republicans used her San Francisco hometown as a cudgel in ads against members of her caucus. Former Gov. Jerry Brown earned the nickname “Governor Moonbeam” on the way to one of three unsuccessful presidential bids.
California’s luster appears to be dimming even further as Newsom’s star rises. A Los Angeles Times poll in February found that half of American adults believe California is in decline, and nearly half of Republicans said California was not American.
“For better or worse, that’s not something that’s going to play all too well in other parts of the country,” said Dan Schnur, who served as the national communications director for John McCain’s 2000 presidential campaign and now teaches politics courses at UC Berkeley, Pepperdine University and the University of Southern California.
“If he were the smart, personable, aggressive and mediagenic governor of Wisconsin, he’d be unstoppable.”
Jonathan Kinloch, a Michigan Democratic Party official in Detroit and a Biden delegate, said many voters outside of California perceive the state as the “socialist center” of America and Newsom would have to answer their concerns about its tax and environmental policies.
“When you talk about left, California is far left and…is willing to tax itself out of existence,” Kinloch said.
FILE – California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during a Clean California event in San Francisco, Nov. 9, 2023. On Sunday, Feb. 25, 2024, Nearly $200 million in grant money will go to California cities and counties to move homeless people from encampments into housing, Newsom announced Thursday, April 18, 2024, pledging increased oversight of efforts by local governments to reduce homelessness. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
Newsom would also need to figure out a stronger message with non-white working-class voters who could carry him over the top in swing states, said Madrid, the GOP consultant. These voters care more about economic issues and have consequently been drifting away from the Democratic Party in recent elections.
“The pathway to the middle class in California is among the least attainable,” Madrid argued. “The record in California is not great. Is it fixable? It is. But he’s going to need time to get there.”
Schnur said running in a presidential primary — when Newsom can lean on liberal issues that play to his strengths, such as abortion rights and climate change — would give voters more time to get to know him and become comfortable with him.
“In a general election, the landscape is going to be much less hospitable,” Schnur said. “But in a primary, it’s easier for him to change the subject.”
But being from a blue state, Newsom lacks experience in competitive races. That could put him at a disadvantage compared to other politicians — such as Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear — who have also been floated as future presidential contenders.
“His entire career, he just kind of walks into each office,” Roe, the Michigan Republican consultant, said. “So he’s got a glass jaw.”
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Safety of generic Viagra, other drugs called into doubt after false data found by FDA
- July 10, 2024
Anna Edney | (TNS) Bloomberg News
Generic versions of erectile dysfunction drugs Viagra and Cialis, among other medications, were allowed on the U.S. market using potentially problematic data that call into question their safety and efficacy, a Bloomberg analysis found.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration alerted brand-name and generic companies June 18 about a research company in India that had falsified the data used in key studies to gain approval of its medications. Data from the researcher, Synapse Labs Pvt. Ltd., may have been used in hundreds of drugs, which remain available for sale on pharmacy shelves and in Americans’ medicine cabinets.
European regulators last year flagged Synapse to the FDA, which later told U.S. companies that relied on Synapse for key studies to gain approval of their medications that they would have to redo the work somewhere else.
The FDA said companies that used Synapse will get a year to submit new data on the drugs. Without that information, it’s difficult to know the true outcomes of the studies and whether they’re safe. And insurers may have reason to retroactively decide not to cover the medications.
“I think it raises a lot of questions about the implications for the drugs on the market,” said Massoud Motamed, who was an FDA inspector until January 2023 and has a doctorate in biochemistry.
Motamed said his biggest concern is that the drugs Synapse was involved with may have too much or too little active ingredient. Too much can lead to dangerous toxicity issues. Drugs that don’t have enough active ingredient run the risk of not working.
‘Confidential information’
The FDA isn’t telling patients, doctors or pharmacists which drugs among thousands might be impacted because the agency said whether a drugmaker used a particular research company for hire is “confidential information,” according to the FDA alert.
“This is kind of shocking to me,” Michael Santoro, a professor at Santa Clara University who specializes in business ethics and co-wrote a book called “Ethics and the Pharmaceutical Industry,” said about the FDA keeping the drugs secret. “There’s no question in my mind that this data needs to be in front of the public.”
Cherie Duvall-Jones, a spokesperson for the agency, said “the FDA remains vigilant and will act should we identify safety issues.”
She said so far the FDA hadn’t noticed any signs in its side effect data that the drugs had serious safety concerns. The FDA has not suspended sales of the drugs as European Union regulators recommended to member states and declined to say how many drugs were approved using research done by Synapse.
U.S. regulators have done little public outreach about this issue. There’s no way for patients to know which brand-name drugs used Synapse research. But for generics, the FDA guided consumers to an obscure database with codes that indicate whether a generic is deemed to be equivalent to the brand-name drug. If a drug’s code recently changed from equivalent to not equivalent, this could indicate that Synapse was involved in its approval in the US.
“It’s like a riddle,” said Erin Fox, director of the University of Utah’s drug information service that tracks drug shortages.
In addition to safety concerns, Fox said insurers may not cover non-therapeutically equivalent drugs and could even claw back payments.
Generics database
Such switches rarely occur, and usually the FDA notifies the public. For example, last year, the FDA said it no longer considered a generic organ transplant drug from Accord Healthcare Inc. the same as the brand-name version it copied. Accord’s tacrolimus released too much of the medicine at once in the body, which could cause kidney failure or seizures, the agency determined after testing the drug following years of concern from doctors.
Bloomberg’s analysis identified a number of generic drugs that are no longer deemed the same as the brand though they were earlier this year. Among them are Viagra and Cialis generics made by India’s Umedica Laboratories Pvt. Umedica is a contract manufacturer that sells these drugs to other drugmakers to package and market, including Nivagen Pharmaceuticals Inc. in Sacramento, California, and pharmacies that stock various health-care facilities such as doctors offices and hospitals. Bloomberg used databases from the FDA and the National Institutes of Health to identify the drugs and their sellers.
Other drugs on the list include generics of the cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor from India’s Lupin Ltd and risendronate sodium from Aurobindo Pharma Ltd. Lupin sold 25 million generic Lipitor prescriptions in the U.S. between 2020 and most of 2023, according to Symphony Health prescription data compiled by Bloomberg. Umedica’s atorvastatin and carbamazepine, an epilepsy drug, also made the list.
Umedica, Nivagen, Lupin and Aurobindo didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The FDA often protects corporate information, including what factory a drug is made in, for fear of running afoul of trade secret laws. In 2011, the FDA said it found 1,900 instances during an inspection of a Cetero Research facility where lab technicians that supposedly conducted certain tests weren’t in the office at that time. The agency didn’t share what drugs had been approved using Cetero data at the time.
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©2024 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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The Audible: On Kawhi’s Olympic exit, Bronny’s presence and the Dodgers’ shrinking rotation
- July 10, 2024
Jim Alexander: An Olympic bombshell of sorts landed this morning: Kawhi Leonard is pulling out of the Games, departing from the U.S. men’s team in a move that apparently was made by USA Basketball in conjunction with the Clippers.
And my first thought when this story was posted: What are they not telling us?
Supposedly, Kawhi was feeling fine and was enthusiastic – or as enthusiastic as Kawhi gets, anyway – about playing for his country in Paris this month. And now, suddenly, he’s out, with the sole statement thus far coming from the federation:
“Kawhi has been ramping up for the Olympics over the past several weeks and had a few strong practices in Las Vegas. He felt ready to compete. However, he respects that USA Basketball and the Clippers determined it’s in his best interest to spend the remainder of the summer preparing for the upcoming season rather than participating in the Olympic Games in Paris.”
My second thought, while digesting this story: If Kawhi is potentially this fragile that international play poses such a risk, what does that say about the new contract he just signed with the Clippers?
Mirjam, you’ve been around that organization long enough to have a pretty good sense of what’s going on. So … what’s going on?
Mirjam Swanson: I suppose the nation is getting a taste of what it is to be a Clippers fan.
The prospect of Kawhi on any team is worth including him. I’ve seen Kawhi in Terminator mode, when there’s no stopping him. When he’s just an efficient, clinical, steamrolling monster. Everyone wants to experience that again – including Kawhi. It’s pretty clear that he WANTS to play. He wanted to play in the playoffs. He wanted to play in the Olympics. But his health – about which he’s been so guarded for so long – simply precludes him from doing it more and more often.
It’s just a bummer.
And because he’s so private about his health, there’s no way for medical experts to weigh in and explain to us what he’s likely dealing with – so now we have what we had this morning, which is a ton of handwringing and second-guessing and finger-pointing in every possible direction. Who was lying about what and when and why and now what and whatnot?
But it’s probably pretty simple: He’s not healthy enough to go. I don’t think there’s a conspiracy. I don’t think the Clippers dangled it in front of him for all these weeks and then pulled it back right when camp started.
It’s just another gut punch, because the Fun Guy would rather be out there having fun hooping than rehabbing and resting and hoping his knee will cooperate. But that’s not anyone’s fault. It’s just life. It’s just sad.
I know some Clippers fans were miffed that he’d play in the Olympics after sitting out most of their first-round playoff series against the Mavericks, but I always saw it as a positive thing: That means he was hurt but he’s recovered. Now we know he’s not healthy enough for Olympic competition. That should be more concerning for Clippers fans – not that he wanted to give it a shot in the first place.
What it means for the team going forward? We’ll see how cooperative his knee is when the season begins, I guess. But by now, Clippers fans know what the rest of the nation learned today – not to hold their breath.
Jim: Meanwhile, while you were composing all of that, the email tumbled into the inbox – the James Harden signing is now official. A busy morning for the Clippers, even though the Harden signing, reported at $70 million for two years, was basically done a week ago but couldn’t be immediately announced.
And I’m beginning to think that the NBA has replaced the NFL as the closest thing America has to a 365-day (or 366, in this case) sports obsession. It’s been an organic process, but consider: Regular season, playoffs, Finals, draft, free agency, summer league, and in this case the Olympics, lather, rinse, repeat … and late August and September will provide enough gossip and speculation for ESPN’s NBA Today, the social media pundits and our friend Marc Stein’s Substack newsletter.
Which brings me to my next subject. There was a suggestion the other day on the Awful Announcing website summed up with this heading: “Is Bronny James ESPN’s new Tim Tebow, where celebrity coverage dramatically exceeds on-field impact?”
I guess it’s a natural inclination, and it shouldn’t have been surprising that Bronny’s first appearance in summer league (and his first “DNP-Injury” in Game 2 because of swelling in his knee) drew so much attention. Yes, he’s the No. 55 pick in the draft, but he’s also LeBron’s kid. Yes, he’s nowhere near ready for the NBA after one fits-and-starts season at USC, but he’s also LeBron’s kid. You get where I’m going with this.
The point: Did Rich Paul, the agent, do Bronny a disservice by manipulating things to make sure he went to the Lakers? I’m not suggesting that all of this (to date unwarranted) attention is going to hurt his development, but it’s a distraction that at this point does little more than feed the “engagement farming” industry. (And now I am to understand that was a thing even before JJ Redick mentioned it at his introductory news conference. Boy, am I out of it!)
Mirjam: “Organic” in that a certain network leveraged and pumped up interest in transactional, fantasy part of the sport to drive interest and spur debate? It’s felt for years now that the general public cares more about the drama and rumors than the basketball, which … is what it is, I guess. There’s no putting the genie back.
As for Bronny? Yes, there’s way more attention focused on this guy than is warranted for sure, but we all understand why.
Is that a disservice? I don’t know, a 6-foot-4 player who returned from a health scare to average 4.8 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.1 assists in fewer than 20 minutes per game during his one season at USC just got a $7.9 million contract to play for the Lakers.
Is it all sorts of intriguing, the idea of one of the game’s all-time greats playing with his son? Yes. Is there going to be a ton of pressure and scrutiny? Uh-huh. Will it be weird to play with your dad? With your dad who might be the greatest player of all time? Could be. Could it be great? Could LeBron teach him things first-hand that Bronny couldn’t learn from someone else somewhere else? Possibly that too.
But do I feel bad for Bronny? No.
Is it poor Bronny? No.
Will it be hard for Bronny? Maybe, but that’s the job. If he didn’t want the gig, he could’ve become a video game developer. But he’s here, let’s see – and we’re all watching – what he’s got.
Jim: I will say this: A four-year, $7.9 million contract, with a good bit of guaranteed money for a second-round pick, blows a hole in the whole “stay in school” argument. And his attitude about the commotion seems more grounded than those of us observing from afar. He’s there to work and to learn, and the rest doesn’t matter. Good for him.
Today’s last subject? The incredible shrinking Dodgers pitching staff. When they put Tyler Glasnow on the injured list Tuesday with, um, tightness in his back, it seemed little more than a device to give him a few extra days off. But consider: After Bobby Miller was knocked around again by the Phillies on Tuesday night, the starters’ ERA since Gavin Stone’s complete-game shutout against the White Sox two weeks ago ballooned to 9.20 in 10 games, six of which the Dodgers have lost.
And as of this moment, the rotation is Stone (tonight’s pitcher in Philly), Landon Knack, James Paxton, Justin Wrobleski and … I guess Sunday’s start in Detroit, the last game before the All-Star break, is either a bullpen game or an opportunity for another Triple-A or Double-A pitcher. The Dodgers have used 30 pitchers already this season, including Kiké Hernandez in one of those let’s-get-this-over-with position player appearances. Meanwhile, Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Walker Buehler, Clayton Kershaw, and Dustin May are all on the injured list, and those are just the pitchers.
Look at it this way: The Dodgers’ B team still has a 7½-game lead in the division. The positive: Just imagine when all the regulars are back. The negative: Will they still have a lead in the division when Betts, Muncy, Kershaw, etc. do return, or are the Padres or Diamondbacks (or both) about to wake up and make a race out of it?
Gee, maybe they can re-acquire Tyler Anderson. I’m sure the Angels are listening to all offers for their All-Star pitcher. (Then again, USA Today baseball columnist Bob Nightengale reported the other day that the Angels likely will hang on to Anderson.)
Mirjam: All those pitchers and it appears they need more pitching. Appears they’re going to need it if they intend to get where they’re trying to go, if they’re going to do what they invested so immensely in.
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But like you point out: The hits just keep coming. And even though the B Team is doing OK, playing catchup so regularly isn’t a recipe for success long term.
Not with stretches like this recent 10-game spell, in which Dodgers starters have allowed 45 runs in 44 innings, and 51 hits and 12 home runs in that span too, as our Dodgers writer Bill Plunkett pointed out in Tuesday’s game story, chronicling the Dodgers’ sixth loss in 10 games.
How do the Dodgers’ shore up their rotation? The top options – potentially guys like, say, the Chicago White Sox’s Garrett Crochet and Erick Fedde, or the Detroit Tigers’ Jack Flaherty – will come at a steep price.
But what could be more costly? Not making a move.
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Powell: Cooling job market could signal coming rate cut
- July 10, 2024
By Paul Wiseman | The Associated Press
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday reinforced a message that the Fed is paying growing attention to a slowing job market and not only to taming inflation, a shift that signals it’s likely to begin cutting interest rates soon.
“We’re not just an inflation-targeting central bank,’’ Powell told the House Financial Services Committee on the second of two days of semi-annual testimony to Congress. “We also have an employment mandate.”
On Tuesday, when Powell addressed the Senate Banking Committee, he suggested that the Fed had made “considerable progress” toward its goal of defeating the worst inflation spike in four decades and noted that cutting rates “too late or too little could unduly weaken economic activity and employment.”
Congress has given the Fed a dual mandate: To keep prices stable and to promote maximum employment.
“For a long time,” Powell said Wednesday, “we’ve had to focus on the inflation mandate.” As the economy roared out of the pandemic recession, inflation hit a four-decade high in mid-2022. The Fed responded by raising its benchmark rate 11 times in 2022 and 2023. Inflation has since plummeted from its 9.1% peak to 3.3%.
The U.S. economy and job market have continued to grow, defying widespread predictions that much higher borrowing costs resulting from the Fed’s rate hikes would cause a recession. Still, growth has weakened this year. From April through June, U.S. employers added an average 177,000 jobs a month, the lowest three-month hiring pace since January 2021.
Powell told the House panel on Wednesday that to avoid damaging the economy, the Fed likely wouldn’t wait until inflation reached its 2% target before it would start cutting rates.
Most economists have said they expect the Fed’s first rate cut to occur in September. Powell this week has declined to say when he envisions the first cut.
Under questioning from several Republican lawmakers, Powell said the Fed and other financial regulators will overhaul a 2023 proposal, known as the “Basel III endgame,’’ that would raise the amount of capital that banks are required to hold against potential losses.
Large banks have aggressively fought against the stricter requirements, which emerged in the aftermath of the 2007-2008 financial crisis. They have warned that the tighter rules would force them to cut lending to consumers and businesses, potentially imperiling the economy.
Powell said the three main U.S. bank regulators — the Fed, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency — were near agreement on a new version that would be subject to public comment.
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House GOP wants proof of citizenship to vote, boosting an election-year talking point
- July 10, 2024
By Ali Swenson and Farnoush Amiri, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday was poised to vote on a proof-of-citizenship requirement for voter registration, a proposal Republicans have prioritized as an election-year talking point even as research shows noncitizens illegally registering and casting ballots in federal elections is exceptionally rare.
Even if it passes the GOP-controlled House, the legislation is unlikely to advance through the Democratic-led Senate. The Biden administration also said it’s strongly opposed because it says safeguards already are in place to verify voter eligibility and enforce the law against noncitizens trying to cast ballots.
Still, the House vote will give Republicans an opportunity to bring attention to two of their central issues in the 2024 race – border and election security. They also are using Democratic opposition to the bill as fuel for former President Donald Trump’s claims that Democrats have encouraged the surge of migrants so they can get them to register and vote, which would be illegal. Noncitizens are not allowed to vote in federal elections, nor is it allowed for any statewide elections.
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Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, a key backer of the bill, said in a news conference earlier this week that the Democratic opposition means many Democrats “want illegals to participate in our federal elections; they want them to vote.”
During a speech Wednesday previewing the expected House debate, he called the vote a “generation-defining moment.”
“If just a small percentage, a fraction of a fraction of all those illegals that Joe Biden has brought in here to vote, if they do vote, it wouldn’t just change one race,” he said. “It might potentially change all of our races.”
On his Truth Social platform this week, Trump suggested that Democrats are pushing to give noncitizen migrants the right to vote and urged Republicans to pass the legislation — the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act — or “go home and cry yourself to sleep.”
The fixation on noncitizen voting is part of a broader and long-term Trump campaign strategy of casting doubt on the validity of an election should he lose, and he has consistently pushed that narrative during his campaign rallies this year. Last month in Las Vegas, he told supporters, “The only way they can beat us is to cheat.” It also is part of a wider Republican campaign strategy, with GOP lawmakers across the country passing state legislation and putting noncitizen voting measures on state ballots for November.
Democrats and voting rights advocates have said the legislation is unnecessary because it’s already a felony for noncitizens to register to vote in federal elections, punishable by fines, prison or deportation. Anyone registering must attest under penalty of perjury that they are a U.S. citizen. Noncitizens also are not allowed to cast ballots at the state level. A handful of municipalities allow them to vote in some local elections.
They also have pointed to surveys showing that millions of Americans don’t have easy access to up-to-date documentary proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate, naturalization certificate or passport, and therefore the bill could inhibit U.S. citizen voters who aren’t able to further prove their status.
During a floor debate before the vote Wednesday, Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, expressed concern that the bill would disenfranchise various American citizens.
He mentioned military members stationed abroad who couldn’t show documentary proof of citizenship in person at an election office, as well as married women whose names have changed, Native Americans whose tribal IDs don’t show their place of birth and natural disaster survivors who have lost their personal documents.
Morelle said he doesn’t see the bill as an attempt to maintain voter rolls, but as part of larger GOP-led plans to question the validity of the upcoming election.
“The false claim that there is a conspiracy to register noncitizens is a pretext for trying to overturn the 2024 election, potentially leading to another tragedy on January 6th, 2025,” Morelle said on the floor.
Yet Republicans who support the bill say the recent unprecedented surge of migrants illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border creates too large a risk of noncitizens slipping through the cracks. They could purposely or inadvertently break the law to cast ballots that sway races amid narrow margins in November’s elections.
“Every illegal vote cancels out the vote of a legal American citizen,” Rep. Bryan Steil of Wisconsin, the Republican chair of the House Administration Committee, said during the floor debate.
If passed, the bill would require noncitizens to be removed from state voter rolls and require new applicants to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship. It also would require states to establish a process for applicants who can’t show proof to provide other evidence beyond their attestation of citizenship, though it’s unclear what that evidence could include.
Research and audits in several states show that there have been incidences of noncitizens who successfully registered to vote and cast ballots, although it happens rarely and is typically by mistake. States have mechanisms to check for it, although there isn’t one standard protocol they all follow.
For example, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose recently found 137 suspected noncitizens on the state’s rolls — out of roughly 8 million voters — and said he was taking action to confirm and remove them.
In 2022, Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, conducted an audit of his state’s voter rolls specifically looking for noncitizens. His office found that 1,634 had attempted to register to vote over a period of 25 years, but election officials had caught all the applications and none had been able to register.
In North Carolina in 2016, an audit of elections found that 41 legal immigrants who had not yet become citizens cast ballots, out of 4.8 million total ballots cast. The votes didn’t make a difference in any of the state’s elections.
In a document supporting the bill, Johnson listed other examples of noncitizens who had been removed from the rolls in Boston and Virginia. The elections departments there didn’t immediately answer questions from The Associated Press to verify the claims.
Several secretaries of state, interviewed during their summer conference in Puerto Rico this week, said noncitizens attempting to register and vote is not a big problem in their state.
Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams, a Republican, said that his state already requires photo ID to vote and that most people use a driver’s license.
“We don’t really have a problem with this in my state,” he said in an interview.
Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, a Republican who oversees elections, said she supports the legislation in concept but provided a cautionary tale about how aggressively culling voter rolls can sometimes result in the removal of qualified voters. A few years ago, everyone in her household received mail ballots for a municipal election, except her. She had been removed from the rolls because she had been born in the Netherlands, where her father was stationed with the U.S. Air Force.
“I was the lieutenant governor, I was overseeing elections, and I got taken off because I was born in the Netherlands,” she said, “So I think we definitely have those checks and balances in the state of Utah, maybe to an extreme.”
The House vote comes days after the Republican National Committee released its party platform, which emphasizes border security issues and takes a stand against Democrats giving “voting rights” to migrants living in the country illegally.
Republicans are expected to shine a light on their immigration and election integrity concerns at the Republican National Convention next week in Milwaukee, where Trump is scheduled to accept his third straight nomination for president.
Swenson reported from New York. Associated Press writer Christina A. Cassidy in San Juan, Puerto Rico, contributed to this report.
The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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Wimbledon: Novak Djokovic on to semifinals due to opponent’s injury
- July 10, 2024
LONDON — Novak Djokovic’s smooth trip through the Wimbledon bracket got even easier on Wednesday, when he moved into his record-tying 13th semifinal at the tournament via a walkover because his quarterfinal opponent, Alex de Minaur, pulled out with a hip injury.
Djokovic had knee surgery less than a month before the start of play at the All England Club, raising questions about whether he’d even be able to try to earn his eighth championship at the grass-court major and add to his men’s mark of 24 Grand Slam trophies.
But, despite limitations on movement, the 37-year-old Djokovic has dropped only two sets so far, while facing a qualifier in the first round, a wild-card entrant in the second and only one seeded player, No. 15 Holger Rune. Djokovic was supposed to go up against No. 9 de Minaur on Wednesday, but instead will get three full days off before Friday’s semifinals.
More eventful for Djokovic has been his interactions with some spectators at Centre Court. After beating Rune in straight sets on Monday, Djokovic told fans that a group of them showed “disrespect” toward him with the way they were cheering.
In the women’s quarterfinals Wednesday, 2022 champion Elena Rybakina grabbed nine of the last 11 games to defeat No. 21 Elina Svitolina 6-3, 6-2, and No. 31 Barbora Krejcikova eliminated No. 13 Jelena Ostapenko 6-4, 7-6 (4) in a matchup between two past champions at the French Open.
Rybakina ended her win with her seventh ace and improved to 19-2 at Wimbledon in four appearances.
“Definitely, I have an aggressive style of game,” Rybakina said. “I have a huge serve, so it’s a big advantage.”
Her match lasted 1 hour, 1 minute — shorter than the second set alone of Krejcikova against Ostapenko, who at one point ordered her coach to leave the stands.
Krejcikova won her first Grand Slam title on the red clay at Roland Garros in 2021, but never had put together a five-match winning streak on grass until now.
“There have been many doubts from the inside, but also from outside — from the outside world,” said Krejcikova, who arrived at the All England Club with a record of just 6-9 in 2024. “But I’m super happy than I never gave up and that I’m standing here right now.”
The other women’s semifinal is No. 7 Jasmine Paolini against unseeded Donna Vekic.
Djokovic’s next match will come against No. 13 Taylor Fritz of the United States or No. 25 Lorenzo Musetti of Italy. Fritz and Musetti were scheduled to play their quarterfinal on Wednesday.
No man has made it to as many Grand Slam semifinals as Djokovic’s 49. He and Roger Federer are the only men with 13 appearances in the final four at Wimbledon.
De Minaur’s exit is the latest to come because of injury in Week 2 of the tournament. Players who stopped competing in the middle of fourth-round matches because they were hurt include No. 10 Grigor Dimitrov in the men’s draw, and No. 12 Madison Keys and No. 17 Anna Kalinskaya in the women’s.
The hip issue for de Minaur, a 25-year-old Australian, arose right near the end of his four-set win against Arthur Fils on Monday. De Minaur said he heard a crack and knew something was wrong.
He underwent medical tests Tuesday that revealed the extent of the problem but tried to practice on Wednesday morning in the hope he would be able to take on Djokovic. This was the first time de Minaur reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon.
“It’s no secret that, at this stage of my career, this was the biggest match of my career. So wanted to do anything I could to play,” de Minaur said. “I knew what the results were yesterday, but I still wanted to wake up today and feel some sort of miracle and not feel it while I’m walking.”
He was told the hip could get worse if he played Wednesday.
“The problem with me going out and playing is that one stretch, one slide, one anything, can make this injury (recovery) go from three to six weeks to four months,” de Minaur said. “It’s too much to risk.”
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Travel: The Rosarito Beach Hotel turns 100 years old this month
- July 10, 2024
As you walk through double doors into the Rosarito Beach Hotel, the first thing you see is a fan-shaped piece of stained glass over the door with a fetching senorita. Below the glass, an inscription reads in Spanish “Through these doors pass the most beautiful women in the world.”
Those glamorous days of Hollywood beautiful people who swarmed down to Baja to imbibe legal cocktails during Prohibition may be over, but their legacy still lives on in this historic hacienda style landmark that continues to attract Southern Californians in droves.
Before there was a town, there was a beautiful beach and a tiny hotel. Now celebrating its 100 anniversary, the Rosarito Beach Hotel first appeared in 1924, as a 10-room motel on a lonely road.
The popular resort town soon grew up around it. Today, the hotel remains an iconic symbol of northern Baja California, with its neo-Spanish Colonial rancho decor, art collected from throughout Mexico, swimming pools, spa and beachfront.
It’s been a turbulent ride, with plenty of ups and downs. Today, the hotel is doing better than ever, with plans to remodel all the rooms, fresh furnishings and paint that retain its rustic charm, and new restaurants to enjoy.
The hotel is officially considering its anniversary as July 27 and hosting a special ticketed bash on July 20 that’s open to all.
Originally built in 1924 by Daisy Moreno and Jay Danzinger as a 10-room lodging with shared baths, the hotel’s original main attraction was a beautiful beachfront with sunset views.
In 1929, it was purchased by prominent Baja businessman Manuel Barbachano, who expanded and renamed it the El Rosarito Beach Resort and Country Club.
During the Prohibition era, when alcohol was banned in the U.S. the resort became a popular refuge for fun-seeking Americans looking to enjoy tippling legally, only a short drive from the border.
In 1937, owner Barbachano married actress Maria Luisa Chabert, and she moved to then-remote Rosarito Beach, her husband promising he would build her a mansion.
Today, Chabert’s flirty image is the first thing visitors see when they enter the hotel, immortalized in the stained glass atop the entrance doors.
Stained glass over the entrance to the Rosarito Beach Hotel, with the image of the late owner Maria Luisa Chabert. Photo taken iin July 2024.
And her husband made good on his promise to build her a mansion, which today houses the elegant tiled spa and Chabert’s, the fine dining restaurant that recently reopened after a long closure.
Barbacano traveled around Mexico, buying art for his hotel. Four trainloads of hand-painted tiles were brought in from the city of Puebla that can still be seen today.
In 1937, Barbacano commissioned the famed Mexican muralist Matias Santoyo to paint murals around the hotel, most notably as scenic landscapes in the lobby that still greet visitors today.
Hotel general manager Hugo Antonio Torres, who manages the hotel he owns with his four siblings, standing in the historic lobby with murals by Matias Santoyo. (Photo by Marla Jo Fisher, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The changes were a hit with vacationers, and the hotel prospered until Dec. 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. With the U.S. at war, officials demanded that the hotel institute blackout conditions to keep Japanese bombers from finding the coast. These restrictions virtually shut the hotel down until after the war.
But it reopened with vigor after the war, with a new name in 1945: The Rosarito Beach Hotel.
Maria Luisa Chabert, longtime owner of the Rosarito Beach Hotel. (Courtesy of the Rosarito Beach Hotel)
The resort bounced back during the 1950s, when it entered its most glamorous era, attracting celebrities such as Rita Hayworth, Edward G. Robinson, Orson Welles, Spencer Tracy, Gregory Peck, Gene Tierney and more. During this Hollywood period, bandleader Glenn Miller played in the salon, Mexican presidents visited and life was good.
Fun in a beach bar at the Rosarito Beach Hotel, circa 1940. (Courtesy of the Rosarito Beach Hotel)
The era of Hollywood glamour ended with the advent of cheap air travel, when celebrities could jet off to posh resorts in Acapulco whenever they liked. And the British Invasion meant that the appeal of Mexican resorts declined.
As the rich people flew elsewhere, the hotel’s clientele demographic shifted to middle-class people who enjoyed the historic atmosphere and amenities.
Between 1960 and 1970, the hotel had 65 rooms. The resort passed into the hands of Hugo Eduardo Torres in 1983 after the death of his great-uncle and aunt.
Then-owner Torres took out a bank loan to build 80 new rooms in the three-story Playas Tower, with small kitchenettes. Times were good, and in 1991, Torres added the eight-story 147-room Coronado Tower with ocean views, increasing the capacity to 280 rooms.
But then on Sept. 11, 2001, the terrorist attack in the U.S. ground tourism to a halt.
“People were very afraid at the border,” son Hugo Antonio Torres recalled. “Instead of 100% occupancy in the summer, we had 30%.”
That period lasted for around 1.5 years, he said. Then, in 2007, the hotel opened its upscale condo wing, the Pacifico Towers. This new upgraded tower offers rooms with ocean-view balconies from studios to penthouse suites and two private swimming pools.
Originally, the plan had been to sell half the condos and keep the others as rentals, but ultimately 80% were sold to raise additional capital. Many are still rented out by their owners.
But that wasn’t the end of hard times for the hotel.
The real estate crash that began in 2008 in the U.S. had dire repercussions for the resort, with occupancy falling as low as 5%. Then, there was the swine flu epidemic in 2011, and increasing fears about drug cartel violence.
In December 2007, Narco terrorists took over the Rosarito Beach police station. tried to assassinate the police chief and killed one officer in an incident that made headlines iaround the world.
Hotel owner Hugo Eduardo Torres was mayor of Rosarito Beach at the time, and cooperated in the disarmaming of the entire city’s police force, which was judged to be corrupt. According to his son, a government investigation later revealed that more than half of the police officers in Rosarito were corrupt and involved with the cartels.
According to the mayor’s son — Hugo Antonio Torres — a new police force was hired, the people involved were convicted and the town is now cleaned up.
The elder Torres retired in 2021 and handed the hotel over to his five children, with oldest son Hugo Antonio as the managing partner.
Hugo Antonio Torres, who continues to manage the hotel today, said he’s worked there on and off since he was a child, including in the warehouse and the kitchen. After studying accounting, he returned to continue the tradition of the family-owned resort.
According to the younger Torres, the hotel business picked up again from 2015 to 2020, but then briefly crashed when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Occupancy fell to as low as 10%, he recalls.
However, subsequently, Torres said that the number of visitors skyrocketed, thanks to the pent-up demand to travel. People didn’t feel safe flying, but they would get in their cars and drive to Baja, he said.
The years 2020 and 2021 ended up being the best the hotel has ever had, Torres said. Even today, he’s continuing to pour the profits from that period back into the hotel, with new paint, furniture and even a small museum.
Today, 95% of guests come from Southern California, but it still feels like a Mexican hotel, owned by a Mexican family. It’s not for everyone — people who are looking for five-star luxury and can’t handle the quirks of a historic property should look elsewhere. No one turns down your bed here, and there aren’t any slippers in the closet.
But people who love old-world Mexican style and don’t mind a few hiccups would be happy.
A pier that was built to serve cruise ships but never worked out was destroyed years ago by a storm. The hotel has recently rebuilt parts of it and opened a new restaurant there.
Most guests eat breakfast or other meals at the Azteca Restaurant-Bar, just off the resort lobby that looks out onto one of the resort’s swimming pools. Below, green lawns stretch out to the beach.
In addition to overnight lodging and restaurants, the hotel is now also offering a day pass to use the resort facilities for 500 pesos per day, which at this writing was around $28 U.S.
The hotel also offers a FastLane program, which allows ovenight guests to purchase a “fast pass” enabling them to take a special lane to shorten their time crossing the border back into the U.S. At this writing, the pass cost $12.
Meanwhile, changes continue along the border.
Torres said that a flyover bridge is under construction that will allow people to drive easily to the beaches, avoiding the heavy traffic through Tijuana that has always plagued drivers. A third border crossing is also under construction in Tijuana, he said, that will divert truck traffic away from San Ysidro and Otay Mesa.
As the first major beachfront resort built in Baja, the Rosarito Beach has seen many changes in its first hundred years, and the family hopes it will see 100 more.
Rosarito Beach Hotel
Event: The hotel plans an anniversary celebration on Saturday, July 20 in its gardens. Tiko’s Big Band is scheduled to play memorable music from throughout the resort’s 100 years. A photo and video booth, vintage car show, plus food and beverage vendors will be part of the event, which is for those aged 18 and older. Grounds open at 6 p.m. Semiformal attire is recommended. Presale cost is 500 pesos ($27.83 U.S.) in advance or 700 pesos ($38.96) at the event. VIP admission is $800-1000 pesos ($44.53-$55.66). Advance tickets can be purchased by calling 1-800-343-8582 or 1-866-767-2648.
Address: Boulevard Benito Juarez 31 Centro, Playas Rosarito, Baja California, 22710 Mexico
Information: 800-343-8582 or rosaritobeachhotel.com
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