Cults, romance, war and mom: Daniel Clowes’ new book ‘Monica’ explores the ’60s

• October 20, 2023

For years, cartoonist Daniel Clowes knew he wanted to start a book with two Army grunts, Johnny and Butch, smoking cigarettes in their foxhole in Vietnam as bullets flew and mortar rounds boomed nearby.

“These characters are kind of living in another era,” he says recently on a call from his home in Oakland. “Unaware of what’s going on back home.

“I thought that was such a strong idea because it was a real separation of two very distinct worlds,” says Clowes, whose books include such graphic novels as “Eight Ball,” “Ghost World,” “Wilson” and “Patience.” “You have these two naive guys, thinking they’re fighting World War II. They think they’re still in this bygone 20th-century era.

“But back home, everything is changing. Everything they’re counting on is completely different.”

His new book, “Monica,” begins with that chapter. Clowes, 62, wanted to explore the ’60s in this book, and the Vietnam War fits solidly into that plan.

But what he realized he really wanted to write and illustrate was a book about his mother, and the eight chapters that follow focus on the life of Monica, whose mother Penny was inspired by Clowes’ mom.

“I didn’t want to do just straight autobiography or biography,” Clowes says. “I wanted to have the room to kind of not feel like I was beholden to the facts, which is why I think I always do fiction.

“I needed a narrator for the story and realized early on it was the baby,” he says of Monica, who was born to the unmarried Penny, Johnny’s high school sweetheart and fiancée, while Johnny was still in that foxhole. “She was the one sort of telling what it was like to grow up in this world.

“Once I had that in place, I saw that all the other stories that I’d been thinking of in the book were all about this character,” Clowes says. “It felt like I’d almost raised a child that I understood. You know, you often have characters, you see them as adults, as middle-aged characters, and you kind of imagine their upbringing, but we don’t really know.

“In this case, I felt like I knew every minute of her life as a child, so I had a real sense of her as a living character.”

In an interview edited for clarity and length, Clowes talked about his mother, how her absence of interest in parenting influenced the book, and the concept to do each of the nine chapters as entirely different genres of comic books.

Q: What was it about your mother that drew you to tell part of her story here?

A: My mother was just a very distinctive character and very unlike anybody else’s mother. People would talk about their mother and I’d think that couldn’t be more opposite of my mother. I don’t think my mother made me a meal after I was a baby. After that, we would just go out to dinner if we ate dinner together at all.

She decided when I was six that birthday presents were frivolous, like something a consumer was compelled to do, so she never bought me another present. She was very disengaged from my life. So that was all I knew.

Out in the world, she was a very remarkable woman who ran her own auto repair shop on the South Side of Chicago. She was a martial artist. At 70 she went to law school and got a law degree. She did all these kinds of amazing things but she was absolutely not a mother in any sense. It was a very disconcerting way to grow up.

As a father, I couldn’t imagine making the same decisions she did. And I wanted to figure out why she did that.

Q: I can imagine it might have certain challenges writing something that’s related to your own family. What was it like to be using your own life more directly in ‘Monica’?

A: When I began the story, my mother was very much alive and I worried about her response to it. You know, she was very defensive about her choices and never accepted that it might not have been great for me. That was very painful for her, so she always kind of argued against it.

I wanted to do it anyway. I always imagined I could somehow keep it from her. You know, she doesn’t follow media of any kind. But I knew she had friends who would probably tell her, ‘I heard about your son’s book on NPR.’ And so I was kind of dreading that, and I think that’s why I started so slowly at the beginning.

But in the middle of the book she died, and then my brother, who was the only other person who was kind of party to this childhood, he also died. So I had nobody left to either argue against me or to corroborate anything or even have any firsthand knowledge of it. That became a whole ‘nother story unto itself, trying to piece together the mystery without any firsthand witnesses.

Q: Penny abandons Monica as a toddler and disappears. We later find out she joined a cult. That and other kinds of faith show up throughout the book.

A: I’m not someone who’s gone through all that experience. I’ve never been drawn to religious ways of thinking or to joining cults and things like that. But I’ve always had a somewhat unhealthy obsession with reading about them, especially all those California cults, which felt like something my mother would do even though she was much more individualistic and it would have been very difficult for her to listen to anybody else.

When you read (about cults), the beginning chapters always seem great. You think, ‘Oh, it would be great to be in the Manson Family! Caring for each other, taking in all these wounded souls, it’s us against the world.’ And then of course you hit the midpoint and all of a sudden you’re killing people or drinking the Kool-Aid or whatever it takes.

(Monica’s) mother just disappeared, a total mystery. So she is looking for some kind of community, but also something to explain how she feels so separate and different. It’s really about examining that loneliness. Like there must be, you must be a creature of faith somehow.

Q: Tell me a little bit about your process. Do you have the script fully written before you start to illustrate?

A: Most of the thinking goes before it. I did those first two stories, I knew somewhat the rest of the book from there. By doing those, it clarified the rest of the book. So I was able to think through exactly what happens. And, of course, a lot of the thinking is stuff that never appears on the page.

I thought about her life from beginning to end. And there are 20 years where none of that makes the comic. It informs it, though. Things like the way she talks and her attitude towards things that you can tell are formed by experiences that you didn’t necessarily see.

So it’s a process of thinking about nothing but the story for years and literally years. Then when it comes time to actually sit down and compose the panel-to-panel sequences, the dialogue and stuff like that, it becomes almost like transcribing. It’s like, OK, I know what happened.

Q: Do you ever find yourself going back to earlier parts of it and rewriting, redrawing?

A: Always. It’s sometimes like doing a gigantic oil painting. Maybe I’ll paint all of the horses over to the side in the beginning, because they’re in the deep background. And then you paint the figures and you go, Oh, those horses don’t quite match for me. And you go back and go over them.

I do all my artwork still on paper and if you look at the paper there are often taped-on panels, like three or four on top of each other. It’s almost a relief map.

Q: So you could flip back and go, ‘Oh, this is where I started?’

A: I often wonder if somebody’s going to wind up with this artwork someday, and they’re going to go, ‘Oh my God, what the hell was he doing?’ I’ll often do four or five things and then go back to the first one.

Q: In terms of the visual style, ‘The Foxhole’ kind of reminds me of ‘Sgt. Rock’ –

A: – or the TV show ‘Combat’ –

Q: – and the ‘Penny’ chapter feels like one of those old romance comics. Tell me about mixing and matching visual styles.

A: One of the very first thoughts about the book was that I was imagining telling a life story using a different genre for each story. I thought that would be a sort of interesting way to do that. And so I started out, you know, I have a war story, and that goes into a sort of young girl romance story, but then that story sort of turns into something else halfway through. And then there’s a kind of supernatural EC Comics story.

But then I found the genres started to merge and, like, pile up on each other so it’s a cacophony of genres. And that felt like much more depth and interest to me than just kind of sticking to the conceit. Then, as it builds up at the end, it builds up to where there’s almost no genre, or the genre is naturalism, real life. Which, of course, gives way to a completely different genre.

And so it sort of became reflective to the way human life is where your babyhood is a genre. You’re a baby and you’re seeing the world, and everything is simple until it’s not. And then everything is combining and getting muddy and chaotic.

Q: When you were finished how did it feel? What were you thinking in terms of looking back at your life with your mother?

A: It’s hard to say. Certainly, I spent so much time thinking about her during the making of the book. I have very mixed feelings. Towards the end of working on the book, I found, under all her junk, a bunch of letters she had written to a friend. It kind of underlined and listed all the answers to all the questions I’ve had growing up. It ended up being a revelation, so I tried to give that to ‘Monica’ too, a little bit.

Daniel Clowes book event

What: Clowes signs his new graphic novel ‘Monica’

When: 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 20

Where: Skylight Books, 1818 N, Vermont Ave., Los Angeles

Also: This is a ticket event. To enter the signing line you must by a copy of ‘Monica’ from Skylight Books

For more: Go to www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-daniel-clowes-signs-monica

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​ Orange County Register 

School officials, police investigate after swastikas drawn on Corona del Mar High School locker

• October 20, 2023

Police and school officials are investigating after swastikas were drawn on a locker at Corona del Mar High School, a Newport-Mesa School District official said.

The school district was made aware of the hate symbols over the weekend and reported it to police, Newport-Mesa School District spokeswoman Annette Franco said. The district also planned to meet with the Jewish Federation of Orange County to determine the next steps, she said.

“This behavior is unacceptable and will not be tolerated in our schools,” Franco said. “We are better than this.”.

Franco said the vandalism and an increase in digital hate speech has prompted Corona del Mar Middle/High School officials to form an interfaith council made up of students, parents, community members, and local religious leaders to discuss what happened, as well as educate and encourage productive dialogue around culturally sensitive issues.

“This is especially important as we are seeing an increase in hate speech and violence online and in social media due to recent events overseas,” she said.

The group was expected to meet this week, she said. Police have not returned a reporter’s calls about the incident, and the district did not respond to additional requests for comment.

In 2019, students, parents, and community members — including a Holocaust survivor, expressed shock and outrage during a meeting with district and Newport Harbor High School administrators after a photo taken at an off-campus party showed several students flashing a Nazi salute as they surrounded a swastika formed by red plastic cups.

According to administrators, the off-campus party involved students from Newport Harbor, Estancia, Costa Mesa, and Corona del Mar high schools.

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​ Orange County Register 

Santa Anita horse racing consensus picks for Friday, Oct. 20, 2023

• October 20, 2023

The consensus box of Santa Anita horse racing picks comes from handicappers Bob Mieszerski, Art Wilson, Terry Turrell and Eddie Wilson. Here are the picks for thoroughbred races on Friday, October 20, 2023.

Trouble viewing on mobile device? See consensus picks

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​ Orange County Register 

Judge bars Chino Valley Unified from outing transgender students to parents

• October 20, 2023

A San Bernardino Superior Court judge Thursday, Oct. 19, granted a state-requested preliminary injunction that prevents the Chino Valley Unified School District from implementing portions of its parental notification policy.

The policy, adopted by the board in July, sought to require schools to notify parents if a student requests to change their name or pronouns, seeks access to facilities or sports programs that do not align with the gender on their birth certificates, or asks to change their school records.

In court Thursday, Judge Michael Sachs ruled the policy’s first two provisions forcing outing transgender students to their parents are discriminatory based on sex, violating the Constitution’s equal protection clause.

The third provision, however, is “neutral facing,” Sachs ruled, because it affects all students, not just those seeking gender-affirming accommodations.

The final provision of the policy, he added, “is a circumstance in which the students are making this information a voluntary addition to their school records not a mandated obligation.”

Opponents of the district’s notification policy cheered Sach’s ruling as a win for their side.

“The judge accurately described the forced outing policy as ‘discriminatory on its face,’ and we agree,” Kristi Hirst, a former teacher, parent and co-founder of Our Schools USA, said in a news release.

“It’s embarrassing that this school board chooses to ignore the harm they are causing in Chino and in communities throughout California in order to pursue a political crusade,” Hirst continued. “Educating children works best with engaged parents and caring teachers working together to create a safe space for all children to learn – and that’s what school boards ought to be focused on.”

Sachs said he recognized that all parties are concerned with the safety of students.

“The issues we are dealing with are significant and important to both the school district, the parents, the teachers, as well as the students,” said Sachs. “I am hopeful the decisions I make today will provide some (clarity) to San Bernardino and the Inland Empire.”

RELATED: What do conflicting judicial decisions mean for parental notification policies?

Chino Valley is expected to return to court Feb. 26, 2024 to decide on a formal trial date.

“We look forward to defending Chino Valley’s policy as the case moves forward,” Emily Rae, senior counsel with the Liberty Justice Center, which is representing the district in court, said in a statement.

“Both the law and public opinion are on Chino Valley’s side — recent polling shows that a supermajority of Californians believe parents should be involved in their kids’ education and that schools should not keep secrets from parents,” Rae said.

The matter landed in court in September, after state Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit to block implementation of the CVUSD notification policy.

On Sept. 6, Superior Court Judge Thomas Garza granted the state-requested temporary restraining order, which put the policy on hold.

At the time, Garza said he granted the injunction in an “abundance of caution,” noting that while most parents are not a danger to their children there are exceptions.

The notification policy introduced in June requires schools to notify parents in writing within three days after their child identifies as transgender, is involved in violence or talks about suicide. The provisions related to outing transgender students have drawn ire from LGBTQ students and advocates.

Meanwhile, as of Sept. 15, seven school districts have adopted their own parent notification policies including Murrieta, Temecula, and Orange school districts.

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​ Orange County Register 

High school football live updates: Thursday’s games for Week 9 in Southern California

• October 20, 2023

Looking for live high school football updates? Click here

Follow along tonight, Thursday, October 19, as our Southern California News Group reporters provide scores, stats, videos and much more from the sidelines at tonight’s Week 8 games.

Support our high school sports coverage by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribe now

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THURSDAY’S GAMES

CIF-SS

605 LEAGUE

Cerritos at Artesia, 7 p.m.

Pioneer at Glenn, 7 p.m.

BIG 4 LEAGUE

Segerstrom at Garden Grove, 7 p.m.

CITRUS BELT LEAGUE

Cajon at Yucaipa, 7:30 p.m.

Citrus Valley at Redlands East Valley, 7 p.m.

DEL RIO LEAGUE

La Serna at El Rancho, 7 p.m.

DESERT SKY LEAGUE

Victor Valley at Adelanto, 7 p.m.

DESERT VALLEY LEAGUE

Indio at Banning, 7:30 p.m.

FOOTHILL LEAGUE

West Ranch vs. Castaic at Valencia HS, 7 p.m.

GARDEN GROVE LEAGUE

Los Amigos at Bolsa Grande, 7 p.m.

GOLDEN LEAGUE

Littlerock at Quartz Hill, 7 p.m.

INLAND VALLEY LEAGUE

Valley View at Moreno Valley, 7:30 p.m.

IRONWOOD LEAGUE

Ontario Christian at Aquinas, 7:30 p.m.

IVY LEAGUE

Orange Vista at Temescal Canyon, 7 p.m.

MANZANITA LEAGUE

St. Jeanne de Lestonnac at Temecula Prep, 7 p.m.

MISSION VALLEY LEAGUE

Mountain View at El Monte, 7 p.m.

MOUNTAIN PASS LEAGUE

Citrus Hill at Tahquitz, 7 p.m.

Liberty at Perris, 7 p.m.

San Jacinto at West Valley, 7 p.m.

MOUNTAIN WEST LEAGUE

Alta Loma at Bonita, 7 p.m.

Ayala at Charter Oak, 7 p.m.

ORANGE LEAGUE

Century at Western, 7 p.m.

Magnolia at Santa Ana Valley, 7 p.m.

Savanna vs. Anaheim at Glover Stadium, 6:30 p.m.

PACIFIC-UPPER LEAGUE

Arcadia at Muir, 7 p.m.

Pasadena vs. Burbank at Burroughs HS, 7 p.m.

PACIFIC COAST LEAGUE

Irvine vs. Beckman at Tustin, 7 p.m.

RIO HONDO LEAGUE

Pasadena Poly at Monrovia, 7 p.m.

RIVER VALLEY LEAGUE

Arlington at Ramona, 7 p.m.

Patriot vs. Norte Vista at Rubidoux HS, 7:30 p.m.

SKYLINE LEAGUE

Riverside Notre Dame vs. Bloomington at San Bernardino Valley College, 7:30 p.m.

TRINITY LEAGUE

Mater Dei vs. Orange Lutheran at Orange Coast College, 7 p.m.

NONLEAGUE

Paloma Valley at Hemet, 7:30 p.m.

L.A. CITY

EXPOSITION LEAGUE

Maywood CES at Santee, 7:30 p.m.

VALLEY MISSION LEAGUE

Panorama at Granada Hills Kennedy, 7 p.m.

Reseda at Canoga Park, 7 p.m.

Sylmar at Van Nuys, 7 p.m.

8-MAN

CIF-SS

Blair at CSDR, 7 p.m.

Milken vs. Noli Indian at Soboba Oaks Ranch, 6:30 p.m.

Football

— James H. Williams covers UCLA football (@JHWreporter) September 1, 2023

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​ Orange County Register 

How Kaiser unions strikes led to ‘historic’ deal

• October 20, 2023

By Kristen Hwang | CalMatters

Health care workers fed up with low pay, burnout and understaffing walked out on Kaiser Permanente twice in 12 months, disrupting care and compelling the health giant to hire thousands of temporary workers.

The company’s blue-collar unions put Kaiser on notice that they would walk out again in early November, raising the stakes as negotiations continued.

Faced with that threat, Kaiser Permanente announced what the Biden administration called a “historic” contract with the union coalition representing its lowest-paid workers, promising steep raises over the next four years.

It was the latest in a string of scorching labor wins in California this year.

In fact, unions did so well in the Capitol that the Kaiser contract wasn’t even the biggest labor victory for healthcare workers at the end of last week. That designation went to the law Gov. Gavin Newsom signed instituting a new minimum wage for health workers and gradually raising the floor to $25 an hour over a decade.

Kaiser workers will achieve that milestone faster under the contract the healthcare giant announced Friday, which raises pay for some 68,000 California workers by 21% through 2027.

Kaiser Vice President and Chief of Human Resources Greg Holmes said the terms of the deal help the organization maintain its reputation as “one of the best places to work in health care.” The company plays an outsize role in California health care, where it serves more than 9 million patients.

“We believe this new contract will actually help us continue to have some of the best employees … and with those employees, we’ll be able to deliver on our mission of providing high quality, affordable and accessible health care to our members,” Holmes said.

More than 75,000 Kaiser Permanente workers in multiple states began a three day strike on Wednesday to protest unfair labor practices and unsafe staffing levels at hundreds of Kaiser hospitals and facilities across the United States. This picket line at Kaiser Permanente South Bay Medical Center received constant supportive honks from the mostly working class neighborhood in Harbor City on Wednesday, October 4, 2023. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

But that optimism for Kaiser’s workforce didn’t come easily.

Less than a week before reaching a deal, more than 75,000 Kaiser workers in four states staged a three-day strike, protesting acute staffing shortages and accusing Kaiser of engaging in unfair labor practices. The short but disruptive strike led to patient appointment cancellations across the country and required Kaiser to hire thousands of temporary workers.

Just 12 months ago, a strike by mental health workers similarly disrupted the company. Thousands of therapists and other mental health clinicians at Kaiser’s Northern California facilities walked out for 10 weeks, protesting high case volumes, months-long delays in patient care and widespread burnout.

The prolonged strike resulted in reduced caseloads, additional guaranteed time with patients, and a commitment from Kaiser to hire more therapists, but not before the state opened an investigation into the health care giant’s practices. That investigation concluded last week with a $200 million settlement, including a $50 million fine from the state.

U.S. labor secretary mediated contract talks

Acting U.S. Secretary of Labor Julie Su, who mediated the final tense negotiations last week between Kaiser and its blue-collar unions, said the latest agreement was a testament to labor’s power.

“Collective bargaining works. It may not always look pretty, but unions have throughout our nation’s history built the middle class,” Su said during a press briefing Friday. “And it’s through agreements like this one. President Biden and I support workers’ right to organize.”

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris praised the recent Kaiser deal, too, in a message on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “The President and I strongly believe in the collective bargaining process, and we know that when unions are strong, our nation is strong,” Harris said.

Kaiser’s union coalition represents more than 85,000 workers in six states and Washington, D.C., but the coalition’s largest footprint is in California. About 90% of Kaiser’s workforce is in California, where it operates more than 500 health facilities and three dozen hospitals.

Dave Reagan, president of SEIU-United Health Workers West, the largest of the coalition unions, said the deal helps reestablish Kaiser as an industry leader for patients and workers.

“Although it’s been bumpy, and we’ve obviously had our challenges, there is a commitment on the part of the unions that comprise the coalition to genuinely say to Kaiser, we want to rebuild the partnership,” Reagan said.

‘Stability’ at Kaiser Permanente

Before the statewide minimum wage deal was announced, Steve Shields, Kaiser’s senior vice president of national labor relations, said Kaiser executives decided bumping California wages to $25 was the “right thing to do” especially for employees on the lowest end of the wage scale.

“Regardless of the legislation, internally we looked at this and said this makes sense,” Shields said.

Union leaders say the salary increases and other commitments from Kaiser will create “long-term stability” for a workforce that has struggled with high turnover from the COVID-19 pandemic in addition to increased inflation. Hundreds of thousands of health workers have left the profession since 2020, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“We have reached a tentative agreement that unquestionably allows this workforce to not just keep up with but exceed the cost of living that people are struggling with across the country,” Reagan said. “People under this tentative agreement can rightfully expect to make real economic progress in real terms.”

Kaiser representatives did not answer questions about how much its labor agreement is estimated to cost, although they did say that it will not lead to cost increases for Kaiser patients. According to the mental health investigation, Kaiser reported a net revenue exceeding $91.3 billion in 2022.

“It’s not our intention that this agreement will have any impact on rates. We have an obligation to members that we are delivering affordable health care. This agreement alone would not translate into changes in rates,” Shields said.

​ Orange County Register 

Fryer: Orange County’s revamped football leagues for 2024 taking shape

• October 20, 2023

Orange County football has the usual high number of tight league races happening this season. League rivalries are about as good as they’ve ever been.

Enjoy them now, because most of these league rivalries are very unlikely to be around next season.

They could continue as nonleague games, but it’s more fun when a playoff berth or a league championship is at stake.

Orange County high schools agreed this past spring to reassemble its football leagues and conferences after this season. With the exception of the Trinity League teams, all of the Orange County 11-player football teams will placed into one basket. CalPreps’ ratings will be used to place teams into leagues. This is a football-only plan. League and conference memberships will be different for other sports.

If the 2023 football season was over, what would the leagues look like in 2024?

Let’s do this … but first a couple of items to know …

Again, the Trinity League is excluded. The four football teams with the top ratings by CalPreps will be in one league, then there will be 10 six-team leagues, and the bottom five teams in one league.

The league names have not been finalized, so the working titles are Orange County Football Conference A (OCFC A) and Orange County Football Conference B (OCFC B),etc. For this exercise, we’re going with “leagues.”

The previous two years of ratings will be used to place teams into leagues, weighted at 65 percent for the 2023 season and 35 percent weighted for the 2022 season.

Going into this week’s games, with rounded-off ratings totals, here are what the leagues would look like in 2024 (league members listed in alphabetical order):

League A: Edison, Los Alamitos, Mission Viejo, San Clemente.

League B: Corona del Mar, Newport Harbor, San Juan Hills, Tesoro, Villa Park, Yorba Linda.

League C: Capistrano Valley, Cypress, El Modena, Trabuco Hills, Tustin, Western.

League D: El Dorado, Foothill, Huntington Beach, La Habra, Laguna Beach, Laguna Hills.

League E: Crean Lutheran, Dana Hills, Fountain Valley, Irvine, Northwood, Orange.

League F: Aliso Niguel, Canyon, El Toro, Santa Ana, St. Margaret’s, Troy.

League G: Brea Olinda, Esperanza, Kennedy, Segerstrom, Sonora, Sunny Hills.

League H: Beckman, Fullerton, Garden Grove, Marina, Valencia, Westminster.

League I: Buena Park, Calvary Chapel, Pacifica, Portola, University, Woodbridge.

League J: Estancia; Katella, Los Amigos, Ocean View, Rancho Alamitos, Santa Ana Valley.

League K: Anaheim, Bolsa Grande, Costa Mesa, La Quinta, Loara, Santiago.

League L: Century, Godinez Magnolia, Saddleback, Savanna.

The margins could be tight when teams are placed into football leagues for the 2024 season. Through eight games of this season, using the Calpreps ratings, Irvine’s rating is 4.79 and Aliso Niguel’s is 4.78. So if the 2023 season was over now, Irvine would be the bottom team in League E and Aliso Niguel would be the top team in League F.

NOTES

CIF-SS football playoff brackets will be released Oct. 29 at 10 a.m. The 8-man football playoff brackets will be released Oct. 29 at 1 p.m. …

Yes, Orange County has 8-man football. Sage Hill, in Newport Beach, is in the Prep League and is 4-2 overall and 0-1 in league and averages 48 points a game. Vista Meridian, in Santa Ana, plays a freelance schedule and is 1-4. …

The CIF-SS Division 1 football championship game will be played at the Coliseum on Nov. 24. The first CIF championship football game played at the Coliseum was in 1923 when Long Beach Poly defeated Glendale 15-8. The most recent CIF final at the Coliseum was in 1997 when Long Beach Poly beat Mater Dei 28-25. …

It looks like the Pacific Coast Conference schools will present a proposal at Monday’s releaguing meeting that would exclude Rosary from its group. This past spring Orange County schools included Rosary in the Pacific Coast group in the approved releaguing plan for all sports outside of football. The Freeway League, which would be broken up in the passed proposal, has indicated that it would present a proposal that would keep its membership intact. …

Holly Barker of Trabuco Hills and Evan Noonan of Dana Hills, so far, are making it easy to select the Orange County boys and girls cross country athletes of the year by winning or finishing high in just about every race they enter. Barker won last weekend’s Orange County Championships and earlier finished first in the Central Park Invitational. Noonan finished first in the Orange County Championships, the Woodbridge Classic and was third in the Clovis Invitational. …

The CIF-SS Division 1 girls volleyball playoffs started Wednesday. Mater Dei swept Palos Verdes in three sets (the first was a tough one, 27-25), Los Alamitos lost to Mira Costa in three sets and Huntington Beach swept Alemany (and another tough first set there, with the Oilers winning 28-26). Division 1 pool play resumes Tuesday with Los Alamitos at Huntington Beach. Huntington Beach beat Los Alamitos in their two Surf League matches. …

Newport Harbor’s girls flag football team had its closest win of the season Wednesday, a 14-12 victory over Edison. Newport Harbor is 21-1, with the loss to Woodbridge, which Newport Harbor defeated a couple of weeks later.

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​ Orange County Register 

Official charged with embezzling more than $14 million from OC school district

• October 20, 2023

A former senior Orange County education official has been arrested after authorities allege he embezzled more than $14 million in public school funds over a seven-year span.

Jorge Armando Contreras, 52, is facing a felony charge of embezzling from programs receiving federal money, and has been ordered jailed without bond, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office statement.

The Yorba Linda resident is accused of embezzling the money while working as senior director of fiscal services at the Magnolia School District.

Prosecutors say from August 2022 to July 2023 alone, Contreras embezzled more than $4 million, using the money to pay $1.9 million to American Express, to withdraw $325,000 in cash from ATMs, to transfer more than $130,000 to a person he would later marry and to purchase a BMW SUV.

Contreras also is accused of using some of the stolen funds to pay $190,000 to a West Hollywood dermatologist and cosmetic surgeon and to buy Versace and Louis Vuitton luxury items.

According to a complaint filed last week at the federal courthouse in Santa Ana and unsealed on Thursday, Contreras made the unauthorized payments to himself, receiving more than 250 checks — ranging from $11,000 to $95,000 — from the school district that were deposited into his personal bank account. Fictitious persons were listed on the checks as the payee, federal prosecutors said.

Prosecutors allege that Contreras altered documents to hide the embezzlement. And some of the money was transferred to bank accounts in Mexico, according to the indictment.

In 2020, prosecutors allege, Contreras when purchasing a home in Yorba Linda paid for more than $1 million of the cost through a wire transfer from a personal bank account, and allegedly altered bank statements submitted for a loan application tied to the property in order to hide the embezzled funds.

The Magnolia School District — which serves students in Anaheim and Stanton — hired Contreras in 2006 to manage their fiscal operations. He was placed on administrative leave in August, according to prosecutors, and the district has filed a lawsuit against him.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office noted that 81% of the children educated by the Magnolia School District are classified as socio-economically disadvantaged, and that the school receives millions of dollars annually in federal funds.

So far, the district has undertaken efforts to recover and freeze some $4 million, said Frank Donavan, district superintendent.

“Mr. Contreras’ actions, which diverted millions of dollars intended to benefit children to his own personal use, are shocking to the conscience and deeply disturbing,” Donavan said in a statement Thursday. “The District will continue to aggressively pursue all options to recover funds and to ensure justice is served.”

Contreras is scheduled to return to federal court for an arraignment on Nov. 27. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in federal prison.

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​ Orange County Register