Del Mar horse racing consensus picks for Saturday, November 16, 2024

• November 16, 2024

The consensus box of Del Mar horse racing picks comes from handicappers Bob Mieszerski, Eddie Wilson, Kevin Modesti and Mark Ratzky. Here are the picks for thoroughbred races on Saturday, November 16, 2024.

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​ Orange County Register 

Former Dodger Al Ferrara, a 2-time World Series champion, dies at 84

• November 16, 2024

Former Dodgers outfielder Al “The Bull” Ferrara died on Friday, the team announced. He was 84.

Ferrara was part of the Dodgers’ World Series championship teams in 1963 and 1965 and also hit 27 home runs over two-plus seasons with the San Diego Padres from 1969-71.

“We are saddened to hear the news of Al Ferrara’s passing today,” Stan Kasten, the Dodgers’ president and CEO, said in a statement. “Not only was Al a memorable player for the Dodgers in the 1960s, but he tirelessly supported the Dodgers community efforts and was one of our most committed alumni supporters. We extend our sympathies to his family.”

Ferrara was named the Dodgers’ MVP in 1967 when he batted .277 with 16 homers and 50 RBIs in 122 games.

Following the 1968 season, Ferrara was chosen in the expansion draft by the Padres and was the prime left fielder for the franchise during their first two seasons. He batted .260 with 14 homers and 56 RBIs in 1969, and hit .277 with 13 homers and 51 RBIs in 1970. He played 138 games both seasons.

The Padres traded Ferrara to the Cincinnati Reds in May 1971 and he retired after the season.

A native of Brooklyn, New York, Ferrara batted .259 with 51 homers and 198 RBIs in 574 games with the Dodgers (1963, 1965-68), Padres (1969-71) and Reds.

During his playing career, Ferrara landed guest acting roles on popular series such as “Gilligan’s Island” and “Batman.”

Ferrara served as an alumni ambassador for the Dodgers since 2009 and was still making appearances for the organization this year.

Ferrara is survived by his son, Al III, and grandchildren Al IV and Samantha.

​ Orange County Register 

Video: Steve Fryer and Dan Albano make their predictions for quarterfinals of CIF-SS football playoffs

• November 15, 2024

In this week’s OCVarsity Gridiron video, Dan Albano and Steve Fryer discuss Orange County’s top football games in the quarterfinals of the CIF-SS playoffs and make their predictions.

They discuss: Northwood at Murrieta Mesa (Division 6), El Modena at Thousand Oaks (Division 4), San Juan Hills at Oaks Christian (Division 2), JSerra vs. Orange Lutheran at Orange Coast College (Division 1) and Centennial at Mission Viejo (Division 1).

​ Orange County Register 

Correction: Absolute Technologies temporarily closing Anaheim plant

• November 15, 2024

An article about Absolute Technologies that published Nov. 12 on Page A1 in the Orange County Register print edition and online on Nov. 11 incorrectly stated that the Anaheim company was temporarily laying off workers at Christmas. The company is temporarily closing its plant during the holidays from December 23, 2024, through December 27, 2024.

​ Orange County Register 

El Rancho football hands Los Amigos its first loss in CIF-SS Division 11 quarterfinals

• November 15, 2024

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GARDEN GROVE — Los Amigos’ football team entered the CIF-SS Division 11 quarterfinals Thursday with a perfect record and its best start in school history. The Lobos still wanted more.

El Rancho had other ideas.

The Dons forced three turnovers to shutout the Lobos in the second half and went on to collect a 40-20 victory at Garden Grove High.

In the semifinals next week, El Rancho (8-4) will play the winner of Friday’s San Gorgonio-Grand Terrace quarterfinal. It will be the Dons’ first semifinals appearance since 2018 in Division 10.

“To stay perfect is hard. It’s hard and I think it showed tonight,” said Los Amigos coach Romel Guess, whose team finished 11-1. “We knew who we were facing coming in. It was a good El Rancho team, who has played some really good teams this year.”

“We stuck to what we do and our boys played their hearts out,” the coach added. “When you leave it all on the field, you don’t hang your heads on these types of games.”

El Rancho led 21-20 at halftime and then scored two touchdowns — adding the 2-point conversion each time — to take control in the second half.

The Dons didn’t turned the turnovers into many points but their defense against Los Amigos’ ground attack led to excellent field position. In the second half, El Rancho capitalized with a 3-yard TD by Diego Diaz in the third quarter and a 9-yard touchdown run by Phoenix Navarro early in the fourth.

“That was a great team win,” said El Rancho coach Adrian Medrano, whose squad placed third in the Del Rio League. “We talk about playing fast, playing tough and playing discipline, and we did that tonight.”

“Hats off Los Amigos (and) Coach Guess,” he added. “Great football team. Well-coached.”

Navarro rushed for 75 of his 88 yards in the second half. In the first half, the senior caught a 22-yard TD on a screen from QB Ryan Dominguez.

Dominguez also threw a 23-yard TD in the first half to Giovani Montenegro.

El Rancho led 21-20 at intermission thanks to Julien Acero blocking a 28-yard field goal attempt by Los Amigos on the final play.

The Dons’ special teams excelled in a first half that featured two lead changes.

Ray Madrid III had three long kickoff returns for El Rancho, including a 59-yarder late in the first half to the Los Amigos 34. On the next play, Dominguez scored on a 34-yard TD run up the middle and Joshua Campos added the PAT as El Rancho took a 21-20 advantage with 3:13 left in the half.

Campos converted all three of his PATs in the first half. He kicked a late 24-yard field goal to cap the scoring.

Madrid’s 59-yard kickoff return was timely because it answered a 46-yard touchdown run by Los Amigos’ Raul Cruz. The Lobos converted the PAT and briefly led 20-14.

In the second half, El Rancho blocked a punt. The Dons almost returned the ball for a touchdown but lost a fumble at the Los Amigos 3.

“We talked all week that special teams were going to be huge,” Medrano said.

​ Orange County Register 

Real Housewives of Orange County: Friend-zone celebration

• November 15, 2024

Here’s one of the big differences between the real world and the reality TV of “The Real Housewives of Orange County.”

In the real world, it’s a good thing, as Martha Stewart might say, to be called a friend.

But in the reality of the “Housewives,” and especially in the mouth of a very angry housewife, that might be the most cutting putdown of all. Housewives are Olympians, you see. Friends of housewives? Mere mortals, with less airtime and smaller paychecks.

Shannon Storms Beador is very, very angry as the second of three reunion shows for “The Real Housewives of Orange County” gets underway. She knows that joining the reunion this hour is Alexis Bellino, who on this 18th season of the series that, for better or worse, launched this whole franchise, has been Shannon’s biggest nemesis.

Shannon, you’ll recall, dated John Janssen for four years until last year. Then John met Alexis, who had been a fulltime housewife on Season 5 through Season 8 when she was replaced by Shannon.

When Alexis returned to the series this season – as a “friend of” the housewives, – she and John were a hot item.

In the final segment of the episode, Alexis walked onstage to a snarky welcome from Bravo host Andy Cohen and the first of many eyerolls from Shannon.

After a bit of chit-chat – she and John are engaged, she’s happy to be back – Andy asks for an update on the lawsuit that John brought against Shannon. Shannon says that while she does not believe she owes him the $75,000 the suit is asking for, she’d offered him $70,000 to make it go away.

“That’s a really hard thing for me to do,” she says, getting emotional. “But I said I would give him $70,000, and he wouldn’t sign the non-disclosure agreement, which Emily can confirm is standard.”

Housewife Emily Simpson is an attorney, which gets mentioned often on the show. If “attorney” was the word in a drinking game, you’d be as drunk as Tamra Judge, said she was when the dinner party at Katie Ginella’s house was shot this season.

“I was just plastered,” Tamra says. “I didn’t even remember the next day. I don’t ever want to be like that again.”

Back to the Shannon-Alexis showdown. There’s an argument too confusing to explain.

The other housewives accuse Alexis of being her boyfriend’s “mouthpiece” and repeating things he’s said.

“You have a really strange relationship with the truth!” Alexis shouts at Shannon.

“That’s exactly what John said,” Emily says about Alexis’s last line as an archival clip arrives showing Alexis repeating Johnny J’s comments on Shannon from a few episodes back.

“Stop being John’s mouthpiece!” Shannon yells.

“I have to!” Alexis replies without any explanation of why she must.

As the bickering continues, Emily and Gina eventually start to lose it and are laughing.

But then, as Shannon tells Alexis she should have never come back on the series if she was dating John Janssen, and Alexis replies that Shannon could also have quit the show, things get good again.

“It’s my job. I’ve been here 10 years,” Shannon says.

“And this is my job, too,” Alexis replies.

“I took your job 10 years ago and I’m still sitting here!” Shannon shouts.

“And I came back 10 years later, didn’t I?” Alexis smirks.

“Yeah, as a friend!” Shannon says, sticking the I’m-a-housewife-and-you’re-not shiv between Alexis’s ribs. “A friend. You’re a friend.”

Referee Andy should have called the fight at this point, but he’s too busy making OMG-I-can’t-believe-this faces for the cameras, while most of the others, but particularly Gina and Emily are holding back laughter.

“Still, it’s a job,” Alexis weakly retorts.

“Oh, no, no, no,” Shannon says, like Popeye throwing back cans of spinach, getting stronger by the moment.

“Alexis, it’s your ‘career,’” she says, delivering the word career dripping with sarcasm.

“I’ve been on TV for 15 years, Shannon, five different shows,” Alexis counters.

“Ohhh!” Shannon thunders like Hera from “The Real Housewives of Mount Olympus.” “You’re a TV star!”

​ Orange County Register 

Trump election won’t impact Olympics, LA28 officials say

• November 15, 2024

LOS ANGELES — Officials organizing the 2028 Olympic Games said on Thursday that they do not expect the election of Donald Trump as president to impact the funding of Los Angeles’ third Olympics.

LA28 has a $6.9 billion budget funded by television rights, corporate sponsorships, marketing and ticket and merchandising revenue streams.

But security for the Games is expected to cost an additional $1-2 billion, which will largely be covered by the federal government. The Los Angeles Olympics have been designated as a National Special Security Event, and security will be handled by the Department of Homeland Security and the Secret Service. No federal funds will be used in the funding of the Games.

“I guess one of the effects of having done this for 10 years is this will be our third president but fourth administration,” said Casey Wasserman, the LA28 chairman and a prominent Democratic Party donor.

Putting on the Games, Wasserman said “requires cooperation and coordination. We’ve had great success with both Republican and Democratic administrations and have no doubt that will continue and starting during the election process, or the election cycle.”

LA28 officials were in contact with both the Trump and Harris campaigns and the Biden administration prior to last week’s election, Wasserman said. Trump was in office in 2017 when Los Angeles won its bid to host and signed federally binding documents for the government to deliver security and transportation for the Games.

“We had outreach from both transition teams so that they could get up to speed and get running once the election was over,” said Wasserman, who noted the Los Angeles Games are 1,338 days from opening on July 14, 2028. “And obviously, now that there’s an administration in place and that staff starts to fill up, we will continue to engage with them, just as we did previously, and we will continue to do through the end of the process.”

Wasserman’s comments came following three days of meetings between LA28 officials and International Olympic Committee Coordination Commission.

Los Angeles remains on track to deliver an “unparalleled” Olympic Games in 2028, said Nicole Hoevertsz, the head of the IOC commission.

The IOC commission’s first visit to Los Angeles since 2022 focused on “key areas of progress” with LA28’s plans for the city’s third Olympic Games and “key advancements” in the Games’ venue plan, Hoevertsz said. The commission on Thursday visited the Rose Bowl, the new Intuit Dome in Inglewood and the Long Beach Convention Center, waterfront and Marine Stadium.

With the meetings, Hoevertsz said, LA28 enters “a new phase, moving from strategy to action.”

“Los Angeles offers infinite possibilities setting the perfect stage for the Olympic and Paralympic Games and inspiring us all to work towards delivery of unparalleled Games in 2028,” Hoevertsz said.

“L.A. is the land of imagination, you see, and when the world looks at the city, it expects to be wowed, and with spectacular venues and landscape, the passion for sport, vibrant communities, and it’s breadth of culture and innovation, L.A. has all the ingredients to exceed those expectations.”

The venues and competition schedule for the 2028 Games could be completed by early next summer, LA28 CEO Reynold Hoover said.

That schedule could include the Olympic cricket competition being played on the East Coast. Wasserman said LA28 will find a venue for the sport that is best for both cricket and the Games. Softball and canoe slalom have already been moved 1,300 miles east to Oklahoma City.

“These Games are incredibly focused on L.A. and Southern California and being responsible and making hosting the Games fit our city and our community as opposed to fitting our city to host the games,” Wasserman said, “which is the mistake that has been made in the past and the promise we have made to the city and the community not to make going forward.”

Hoover said LA28 doesn’t have a timeframe for delivering an updated budget to the Los Angeles City Council. Earlier this year an LA28 official said the group would provide an updated budget to the city by the end of the year.

LA28’s next big milepost, Hoover said, is the organization’s move into its new headquarters in downtown Los Angeles this spring.

In 2026, the organizing committee will “get into some of the fun stuff,” Wasserman said, which includes opening up ticketing and hospitality options to the public, organizing the torch relay, creating a mascot, Cultural Olympiad and volunteer program.

“We cannot wait to host the world,” he said during a news conference on the campus of UCLA, which will host the athletes’ village.

​ Orange County Register 

‘Senseless act:’ Man arrested after popular great egret killed in San Bernardino Mountains

• November 15, 2024

People who frequent Lake Gregory in the San Bernardino Mountains are seething and grieving after authorities say a man trampled on the beauty and tranquility there by throwing rocks and injuring a great egret, leading to its death.

The bird was so beloved that visitors gave it a name: Arthur.

“The egret stands out all the way across the lake. It’s really a showy kind of bird,” Nathan Godwin, general manager of the Lake Gregory Company, which manages the park near Crestline for the county, said in an interview Thursday.

A 36-year-old Claremont man was arrested on Tuesday, Nov. 12, on suspicion of animal cruelty and killing of a non-game bird, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said.

Deputies received a report of a man throwing rocks at ducks, and a witness filmed the attack. The man wounded an egret sitting on a dock with one of his throws, and a second person pulled the bird out of the water and broke its neck to end its suffering, the sheriff’s news release said.

Witness statements and the video led investigators to the Claremont man’s home, where he was arrested.

Godwin said he began receiving messages about the attack within minutes.

He said there are several egrets at the lake. They can grow to four feet tall with a wingspan of 50 inches. They were once endangered because they were frequently killed as their feathers were coveted to make hats. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 makes it a crime to kill an egret or destroy their nest.

“It’s a sense of outrage that a person would come here and kill a bird this way,” Godwin said. “It’s just a senseless act of violence in the mountains where everyone comes to enjoy the natural beauty. A lot of people were really upset at how it happened and shocked and surprised that this would even happen.”

Godwin said he doesn’t know of any other birds there that have been named by visitors. There is a mama mallard duck that migrates back to the lake every year and produces several ducklings.

“We know who she is,” Godwin said. “You kind of get used to seeing a bird and recognizing a bird. There is something special about that. That’s what people liked about Arthur.”

The Sheriff’s Department asks anyone with information on the investigation to call Deputy Ian Buchowiecki at 909-336-0600. Information may be left anonymously on the WeTip website at wetip.com or by calling 800-782-7463.

​ Orange County Register