‘We sing to beating cancer:’ Music at South Coast Plaza honors cancer survivors

• May 30, 2024

Piano music echoed through South Coast Plaza Wednesday morning, the melody of “The Sound of Music” filling its Jewel Court.

The cheerful notes, played by Danielle Yi on a bright blue Yamaha grand piano, underscored the message hanging from the mall’s glass dome overhead: “Hope.”

In an awareness campaign put on by the City of Hope, Pacific Symphony musicians have taken over the court area of the Costa Mesa mall to honor cancer survivors. Photos of a few adorn the nearby walls and displays; shoppers pause to take in the music.

“Through music we heal, we rise, we sing to beating cancer,” City of Hope says about the event, dubbed the “Music of Hope.” The performances are free of charge and open to the public, with music played almost every day from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. through June 10.

More information about the “Music of Hope” can be found on the City of Hope’s website.

Photographer Mark Rightmire contributed to this report.

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​ Orange County Register 

UCI educator group wants a no-confidence vote for Chancellor Howard Gillman

• May 30, 2024

A group of professors and other educators at UC Irvine said Wednesday that Chancellor Howard Gillman should be subject to a vote of no-confidence or official censure based on his handling of pro-Palestinian protests on campus this month.

The call to rebuke Gillman came in a new “Fact-Check” report written by the Irvine Faculty Association, in which professors and others who were at UCI during a chaotic May 15 protest offer point-by-point rebuttals to claims from Gillman about how the day’s events unfolded.

The events at UCI, which included a two-week encampment, were part of a national wave of campus protests related to Israel’s military campaign against Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip.

Overall, the Irvine Faculty Association — which reviewed video and eyewitness accounts from more than a dozen faculty — argued that UCI officials consistently insinuated that the pro-Palestinian protesters on their campus posed a threat to public safety even when facts didn’t support that claim.

That tone, the report’s authors argue, helped turn a non-violent protest into a conflict that included at least 47 arrests, and it was set by Gillman.

“Is this the kind of leadership UCI needs or deserves at this fraught moment?”

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Read UCI student protester demands and administration responses for yourself
UC Irvine leaders defend response to student protests in answers to Academic Senate
47 arrested in UCI protest, encampment crackdown; Chancellor says ‘I’m brokenhearted’
Students take protest to UCI chancellor’s home: ‘No rest until UCI divest’
Crisis in Gaza revives student activism that some considered long gone

That question from the Irvine Faculty Association could become a talking point on Friday, May 31, when the broader Academic Senate — which includes all tenured and tenure-track professors — meets to discuss UCI’s response to the protests. Any move to formally rebuke Gillman would have to be initiated by the Academic Senate, and it’s unclear if that will happen. The Academic Senate is not affiliated with the Irvine Faculty Association, though some professors do belong to both groups.

University officials declined to comment on details of the report or the recommendation that Gillman face discipline.

Earlier this month, Gillman and the school’s Executive Vice Chancellor Hal Stern answered a battery of questions posed by the Academic Senate about the administration’s handling of the protests. Those answers, too, will be part of the debate on Friday.

In their responses, Gillman and Stern told the Academic Senate that they believe their decisions were warranted and boosted safety for most people at the school. But they also acknowledged that UCI, in official social media communications known as ZotALERTs, overstated the level of violence from student protesters during the early moments of the May 15 conflict.

In one alert, issued by UCI communications, the protest was described as “violent,” a word later replaced with “civil unrest.” To date, none of the people arrested on May 15 have been charged with any crimes of violence, though such charges still could be filed.

Another alert described an “occupation” of the Physical Sciences Lecture Hall as involving hundreds of students — an event that Gillman and Stern acknowledged also was overstated.

In its new report, the Irvine Faculty Association said the occupation involved just five students who took over a single classroom, and the students waited to do that until class was no longer in session. Their takeover, of that room, lasted for about 20 minutes, according to the report.

“(B)y the time the campus and media were claiming that ‘hundreds’ were inside the building, the building had been empty for approximately two hours,” the report said.

Such overstatements, the report argued, were consistently put forth by Gillman, starting in late April, when protesters started sleeping in tents outside the Physical Sciences Lecture Hall. Use of terms such as “growing tension,” and statements made by UCI about the protesters’ shifting demands, created a climate that favored conflict over discussion, according to the report.

On May 15, that led to more than 200 police and deputies from at least 20 different police agencies being on the ground at UCI, some using riot-suppression tactics to disperse the crowd. Those tactics, according to the report, were not warranted.

“Despite claims that the protesters had demonstrated a ‘readiness to use violence,’ video evidence shows protesters using classic nonviolent civil disobedience tactics, both in defending the encampment and when being arrested,” the report said.

The report also made several claims about how protesters were handled by police, including:

• A photo shows a police officer pointing a tear gas gun at the head of students standing just a few feet away.

• Students and others were handled violently by police and injured as a result of those encounters.

• Muslim women were forced to remove their hijabs.

• Students and faculty were held for hours without access to bathrooms or medical treatment.

• Some students and faculty were strip-searched while in custody.

• Students and others were subjected to racist, sexist and threatening language.

Critically, the report claims, Gillman and Stern omitted these allegations in their response to the Academic Senate.

“The Chancellor’s narrative and what is deliberately left out of his narrative presents a description of the events leading up to and during May 15 that is completely at odds with reality.”

That lack of candor, the Irvine Faculty Association said, reflects “the general tenor of irresponsibility and the lack of regard for students, faculty and staff.”

One issue that’s still unclear is the chancellor’s role in directing police response to events on campus.

In theory, police response is relegated to law enforcement officials who base their actions on behavior they observe that might be criminal or pose a threat to public safety. But the Irvine Faculty Association Report suggests that Gillman “made the call” that led to multiple police agencies deployed on campus.

Gillman and Stern, in their response to the Academic Senate, said the use of riot gear was “determined by established protocols,” and not a decision made by the administration or UCI’s police force. Campus police officials have said previously that they made the request for extra help from other departments.

Annie McClanahan, associate professor of English at UCI and chair of the Irvine Faculty Association, suggested it might not matter.

She said a 2012 document (Robinson/Edley), written by University of California officials following a wave of sometimes violent encounters at that time, sets out rules that generally frown on the type of response seen at UCI on May 15 and in the two weeks leading up to that event.

“In fact, we don’t know who specifically made the call to allow outside police forces — that is just one of the questions posed by the Academic Senate but unanswered in the 70-page document they received from the Chancellor’s office,” McClanahan wrote, via email.

“But whether the Chancellor acknowledges it or not, Robinson-Edley makes clear who is responsible in the event of failures of leadership leading to police escalation: ‘Responsibility for the response to civil disobedience during demonstration — including for any response that might be taken by the campus police department — rests with the Chancellor.’”

​ Orange County Register 

Pacifica High Graduation 2024: Our best photos of the ceremony

• May 30, 2024

Garden Grove Unified School District’s Pacifica High handed diplomas to the members of its graduating Class of 2024 on Wednesday, May 29.

A commencement ceremony at the Bolsa Grande High Stadium drew families and friends who cheered as the graduates walked across the stage, marking the end of their high school careers and the beginning of their bright futures.

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​ Orange County Register 

Taco Bell’s Big Cheez-It collaborations are nearly here; find out how to get them

• May 30, 2024

Taco Bell is ready to give the world its long-awaited Cheez-It concoctions.

The fast food giant is debuting two menu items, the Big Cheez-It Crunchwrap Supreme and the Big Cheez-It Tostada.

Both items will be available to the general public on June 6, but Taco Bell Rewards members can order them through the app beginning Thursday, May 30.

The Crunchwrap Supreme, priced around $5.49, features a giant cheese cracker, 16 times the size of a normal Cheez-It, wrapped in a tortilla with cheese sauce, lettuce, reduced-fat sour cream and diced tomatoes.

It will be available in a Big Cheez-It Box with a Beefy 5-Layer Burrito, regular Nacho Fries and a medium fountain drink for $8.99.

The tostada, $3.99, is built on a giant Cheez-It with ground beef, tomatoes, lettuce, shredded cheese and reduced fat sour cream.

Cheez-Its are made by Sunshine Biscuits, a division of Kellanova, formerly known as Kellogg Company.

Taco Bell’s chief marketing officer Taylor Montgomery announced the Crunchwrap in February at a fan event in Las Vegas that previewed the chain’s menu plans for 2024.

Taco Bell has been working on a Cheez-It collaboration for a long time and tested these items for the first time in 2022. Challenges included balancing the flavors of Cheez-Its and Taco Bell and finding the right bake time, representatives said at a preview in the company’s Irvine headquarters in April.

Information: tacobell.com

​ Orange County Register 

Trump criminal trial: Even Trump-hating analysts scratch their heads

• May 30, 2024

After weeks of testimony, the criminal trial of former President Donald Trump is now in the hands of the jury, with the outcome unpredictable.

Without cameras in the courtroom, news outlets relied on those attending the trial, many not even attending every day, to “report” whether Trump or the prosecution is “winning.” With some exceptions, the hosts and pundits on outlets like CNN and MSNBC argued both the law and evidence warranted a guilty verdict. Host and analysts on conservative outlets saw the trial differently, and argued the law and facts compel at least a hung jury, if not an acquittal, despite the overwhelmingly anti-Trump Manhattan voters.

Those rooting for a conviction have a problem. A lot of serious analysts, who cannot stand Trump, consider this case problematic at best and politically driven at worst.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg campaigned promising to prosecute Trump. Yet, when he became DA, he did not charge the former president and even suggested there was insufficient evidence to do so. He reversed course after a former special assistant DA quit and wrote a book accusing Bragg of malpractice for refusing to follow through on his campaign pledge. Bragg denied the book influenced him, and said, “I bring hard cases when they are ready.”

About Bragg’s press conference where he announced charges, The New York Times wrote: “The accusations he went on to level against Donald J. Trump were salacious, involving money paid to a porn star just before the 2016 presidential election so she would remain silent about her claim that they had sex a decade before. But Bragg studiously avoided mentioning sex or hush money during the 13-minute event, focusing instead on the 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up the payment. He seemed unprepared (or unwilling) to answer the most obvious questions: why he had abandoned a different case, about whether Trump had falsified the valuations of properties or why he thought he could make these new charges stick.”

Politico, like The New York Times an outlet harshly critical of Trump both as president and candidate, wrote: “Some wondered why Bragg revived a case he had appeared to leave for dead just months ago. Others questioned the specifics — like how Bragg was able to elevate the ‘falsification of business records’ charges against Trump into felonies, a move that requires evidence that Trump attempted to conceal a second crime. Still others focused on the delay in bringing charges — six years after the core underlying conduct — and anticipated that Trump will seek to toss the case for exceeding the statute of limitations, despite the assessment of some legal experts that the case is not time-barred. Bragg left those questions largely unanswered in Tuesday’s filings and public comments.”

In a New York Times opinion piece, Boston University law professor Jed Handelsman Shugerman wrote: “After listening to Monday’s opening statement by prosecutors, I still think the district attorney has made a historic mistake. Their allegation about a ‘criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 election’ has me more concerned than ever about their unprecedented use of state law and their persistent avoidance of specifying an election crime or a valid theory of fraud.”

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Ian Millhiser, a liberal legal commentator for Vox, wrote: “There is something painfully anticlimactic about Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s indictment of former President Trump. It concerns not Trump’s efforts to overthrow the duly elected government of the United States, but his alleged effort to cover up a possible extramarital affair with a porn star. And there’s a very real risk that this indictment will end in an even bigger anticlimax. It is unclear that the felony statute the Trump is accused of violating actually applies to him. … Bragg built his case on an exceedingly uncertain legal theory. Even if Trump did the things he’s accused of, it’s not clear Bragg can legally charge Trump for them, at least under the felony version of New Yorks’s false records law. … Bragg has evidence that Trump acted to cover up a federal crime, but it is not clear that Bragg is allowed to point to a federal crime in order to charge Trump under the New York state law.”

Unintentionally, these liberal skeptics just explained why so many believe that Trump faces persecution by a two-tiered justice system.

Larry Elder is a bestselling author and nationally syndicated radio talk-show host. To find out more about Larry Elder, or become an “Elderado,” visit www.LarryElder.com. Follow Larry on Twitter @larryelder.

​ Orange County Register 

Wild pitch in ninth helps South beat North in Orange County All-Star Baseball Game

• May 30, 2024

IRVINE – It was a fine night for Crean Lutheran baseball at the Orange County All-Star Baseball Game.

Crean Lutheran coach Jake Haney was the South team’s head coach. His son Jackson, Crean’s catcher, was on the South team. And Crean’s Sho Garcia scored the winning run for the South in the bottom of the ninth inning.

Garcia scored from third base on a wild pitch Wednesday to give the South a 3-2 win over the North in the county all-star game that was played at Great Park for the first time.

The Ryan Lemmon Foundation assumed the organizational and management duties for the game after the Kiwanis Club of Greater Anaheim could no longer continue running the game that it started in 1968.

Corona del Mar’s Carter Danz was the South’s team MVP. Justin Tillar of Cypress was the North MVP. Noah Neufeld of Laguna Beach won the game’s Hustle Award.

The South leads the series 32-23-1. The South won last year’s game 11-8 at Glover Stadium where the game had been played for many years. The North won the 2022 game.

With the score tied 2-2 Garcia walked to lead off the bottom of the ninth inning. Garcia stole second base and went to third on an opposite-field, one-out single to right by Tesoro’s Owen Faust. One out later Garcia scored on the wild pitch.

“I was being super aggressive,” Garcia said. “With two outs, I was looking for anything in the dirt and I was just going on it no matter what.

Garcia enjoyed the all-star game experience.

“It was one of the most fun times I’ve had on a baseball field,” Garcia said. “Being with all the kids I used to compete against? That was a lot of fun being on their team this time.”

Jake Haney enjoyed all of the Crean Lutheran angles.

“It was cool to have them out here one more time,” he said. “They’re very deserving, their great kids and they appreciate this. Jackson when he was growing up has been to some of these games to watch our former kids play so this was pretty cool.”

Danz drove in Faust in the bottom of the first inning with a double to give the South a 1-0 lead. Danz hit another double in the third inning, went to third base on a wild pitch and scored on a wild pitch to make it 2-0.

Andrew Olsen of Tustin scored on a wild pitch in the fifth inning to give the North its first run. The North tied it in the eighth inning when Tillar pulled a triple in to the right-field corner and scored on a ground out by Yorba Linda’s Jacob Talbott.

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​ Orange County Register 

The California Legislature should put the brakes on Senate Bill 915

• May 30, 2024

There’s an old stereotype that politicians are fickle and move capriciously with the political sentiments of the moment. This seems to be alive and well among some state lawmakers who can’t decide whether important technology issues should be addressed in Sacramento or at the city-level.

Senate Bill 915 would permit cities to effectively ban state-approved commercial service for autonomous vehicles in a municipality. The bill author, Sen. Dave Cortese of San José, has stated that cities should make the determination whether or not mobility technologies are used on their roads. But in another of his bills, the senator would reduce local control over the location and operation of power plants within their jurisdictions. It seems the senator trusts cities, but only some of the time.

Despite claims of wanting to empower cities around autonomous vehicles, the senator faces a problem: many localities don’t want to be saddled with this new work.

Cities have many priorities in providing for their citizens, whether it’s housing, education, and public safety. And many city leaders recognize that they don’t have the expertise required to make informed decisions about autonomous vehicles. The technology involves complex machinery that operates within dynamic transportation environments.  Piling more work on local agencies with reduced budgets and fewer resources takes attention away from issues that impact the quality of life for residents.

Further, SB 915 would be bad for Californians. The state was among the first to pass a law creating a pathway for autonomous vehicles to operate on public roads. Just as this technology is starting to deploy commercially and offer real mobility solutions for Californians, SB 915 proposes to limit transportation options. Instead, the state is moving backwards at a time when the vast majority of states are embracing mobility advancements.

Efficient transportation is essential to the success of workers. Most residents work outside their home cities and rely on regional travel to make a living, whether by public transit or vehicle roadways. In Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Cupertino and Palo Alto alone, nearly 83 percent of workers commute beyond their city limits. Fragmented transportation rules in different cities hurt travelers.

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And it’s not just commuters gritting through rush hour who will be harmed by the bill. Local residents with limited mobility often rely on a variety of options to meet their mobility needs for work, healthcare, education and entertainment. The number of those with reduced capacity is substantial. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 11 percent of adult Californians have significant issues moving independently, and nearly 5 percent are blind or have significant problems seeing, even with glasses. Under this legislation, their transportation options could be reduced, further marginalizing this underserved population.

Decisions about autonomous transportation are too important to be left to piecemeal decisions in myriad cities. All Californians deserve to know that their state leaders are taking a comprehensive view of the technology and the broadest range of transportation alternatives. California agencies like the Department of Motor Vehicles, Public Utilities Commission, California Highway Patrol and others have the expertise and resources to monitor autonomous vehicles, review regular performance reports and issue permits for this technology. SB 915 undermines their authority and creates a confusing patchwork of regulations.

The state legislature should put the brakes on this bad bill.

Drew Boyles is the mayor of El Segundo

​ Orange County Register 

Sizzling LAFC extends shutout streak, tops Minnesota for 6th straight win

• May 30, 2024

LOS ANGELES — Behind Denis Bouanga’s 50th goal and another banger by Mateusz Bogusz, the sizzling Los Angeles Football Club leap-frogged Minnesota United FC into third place in the Western Conference.

Bouanga’s team-leading ninth goal of the season came on a first-half penalty kick off a foul he suffered. Bogusz added a late insurance goal, his sixth this year, with a laser to the top corner from 30 yards away.

The 2-0 final returned the favor to Minnesota, which defeated LAFC by the same score at Allianz Field in mid-March. The visitors had gone unbeaten over their previous six games coming into the match at BMO Stadium, scoring multiple goals in each match.

Against this version of LAFC (8-4-3, 27 points), Minnesota (7-3-4, 25 points) couldn’t get going.

The clean sheet was Hugo Lloris’ sixth shutout with LAFC and his fourth in a row, surpassing Tyler Miller to establish a new regular-season franchise record for the longest stretch without conceding at 390 minutes.

Between MLS and U.S. Open Cup competition this month, LAFC hasn’t acquiesced in 484 minutes throughout a winning streak that was extended to six games on Wednesday.

Yet again, scoring first was key to LAFC’s efforts.

Bouanga’s penalty in the 38th minute was facilitated by defender Ryan Hollingshead, who returned to LAFC’s starting lineup for the first time since May 4, when the veteran defender suffered a neck injury during the club’s last loss at San Jose.

For Hollingshead, 33, the injury was particularly concerning considering that his neck was broken in January 2017 after stepping out of his car on the side of the highway on an icy night in north Texas to help a motorist who had collided with the median.

Hollingshead, the Good Samaritan, was launched into the air when another driver plowed into him, leaving the former UCLA standout with three broken vertebrae.

The whiplash at the end of the first half against the Earthquakes flared up the 8-year-old contusion in his spine, and for the past three weeks he watched while his teammates marched forward to make the most of a congested calendar.

“That kills me, but at the same time I have to think about me as a human being and me as a dad, a husband and those things,” Hollingshead said.

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After consulting with back and neck doctors “it was just no question that I needed to do what was right for that to heal,” he continued. “We pushed those timelines as hard as we could, but at the end of the day, especially as a veteran in this league, you really start to weigh, ‘OK, when I’m 50, am I going to worry about one more game that I missed in 2024 or am I going to be so happy that I can move and play with my kids and not have neck surgery?’”

With rest and recovery, Hollingshead saw the field as a substitute during LAFC’s previous match in Atlanta, helping to see out the chaotic closing moments.

Against Minnesota he lined up next to three center backs – Aaron Long, Eddie Segura and Jesus Murillo – and fullback Sergi Palencia as LAFC opened with five at the back for the second straight match, which gave the wide defenders freedom to operate higher up the field as wingbacks.

LAFC returns to the field on Saturday, hosting FC Dallas (3-7-4, 13 points) prior to the start of a two-week international break.

More to come on this story.

​ Orange County Register