California’s regulatory labyrinth makes it hard for Californians to get things done

• April 30, 2023

California was once the powerhouse of American growth and innovation, a place that let people pursue their dreams without inhibition. Its latitudinarian attitude toward builders and entrepreneurs made the state a magnet for migrants from around the world. It grew to become the world’s fifth-largest economy, and its population exploded from 1.5 million in 1900 to about 18 million in 1964, when it became the largest state in the nation, to almost 40 million today.

Yet that expansive, optimistic era is now over. In 2020 and 2021, for the first time in its history, California’s population shrank. Early indications are that it shrank again in 2022. The main reason: the state makes it increasingly hard for people to do a great many things. Indeed, few places in the Western world today make it tougher to construct a new house or launch a new business. When Mercatus Center researchers ranked the states on the number of separate demands in their regulations, California had by far the most, with almost 400,000 rules. California is dead last on the Cato Institute’s and the Pacific Research Institute’s state rankings on regulatory burdens.

Regulations are choking California, transforming a dynamic center of innovation and job creation into a place where pettifogging bureaucrats besiege citizens and entrepreneurs with demands covering even the minutest actions. It’s no surprise that people are leaving.

California has become notorious for its stratospheric housing prices, and nothing has done more to sap the state’s entrepreneurial energy and drain its citizens’ pocketbooks than restrictions on new building, which drive up those prices. In many places developers need to pay for extensive archeological, paleontological, and biologic reports on their property, written at great cost by academic experts. Even when a development meets all the planners’ reporting and zoning demands, bureaucrats and politicians in many cities have “discretionary review” of proposals, enabling them to reject projects based on vague criteria or no criteria at all. 

The state’s building standards account for more than 75,000 of its 400,000 regulatory demands. Many of these attempt to make every home an environmental mecca. For instance, most new homes must have solar panels and those with garages must have a 208- or 240-volt electric-vehicle charging space. State and local codes mandate that housing developers add costly water-saving features, such as using only “climate adapted plants,” and provide the government with a “Landscape Documentation Package” describing all the ways the building limits water use. 

If someone wants to build in lots up to five miles from the ocean, he can be subject to the tender mercies of the California Coastal Commission. A developer will need to obtain a Coastal Development Permit from it, filling out a 24-page application and paying up to $10,000 per house for the privilege. All these impositions increase the cost of new buildings—and reduce the likelihood of their getting built in the first place.

California’s high housing costs drive away many skilled workers, but even if such workers could afford to live in the state, it is often illegal for them to practice their craft. According to the Institute for Justice, California is the second-worst state in the nation in terms of occupational license regulations. The state has found myriad other ways to make it hard for businesses to find and employ good workers. Measure AB 5, passed in 2019, forbids companies from using independent contractors unless they meet numerous state rules. 

California was once a shining example of how to attract good manufacturing workers and businesses, once boasting some of the most advanced silicon chip “fabs” and aerospace engineering facilities on earth—but government overreach ended that. From 1992 to 2002, the state passed an average of 15 labor-law changes yearly, four times the national average, with technical and heavy industries feeling the harshest impact. Since the early 1990s, the state has gone from having almost 16 percent of its workforce in manufacturing to less than half that and is now far below the national average.

For almost every national regulator and attached code, California has its own stricter regulators and codes. The California Environmental Protection Agency and the California Department of Industrial Relations compete not just to enforce but to layer more requirements on top of federal environmental and labor rules. The California Office of Administrative Law supervises more than 200 state agencies and commissions with the power to issue regulations, including the Bureau of Household Goods and Services, the Naturopathic Medicine Committee, and the Department of Pesticide Regulation.

California often pronounces onerous new regulations, and then allows almost anyone to sue if businesses don’t abide by them. Residents of the state are familiar with signs on products and in businesses about chemicals “known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.” Proposition 65, passed in 1986, established this labeling rule. The current state list contains more than 900 chemicals, used to make every imaginable product, from shoes to cars to computer parts. Just to ensure your safety, some trees for sale in the Golden State feature Prop. 65 warnings.

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If firms ignore the labeling rule, they better watch out. Since 2000, businesses have paid more than $300 million in legal settlements for failure to post warnings, with attorneys garnering nearly three-fourths of the total. The combination of Prop. 65 and litigation means that many companies, such as BJ’s Wholesale Club, now refuse to ship products to California, worried that they might send an improperly labeled item. California also uses lawsuits to enforce federal rules against businesses. For instance, the Americans with Disabilities Act lets people sue businesses to make them accessible to the disabled, but in California a plaintiff can get special monetary rewards for suing successfully. One plaintiff filed more than 100 lawsuits in a year. 

In our federal system, if businesses and people don’t like your rules and your demands, they can move. A recent Hoover Institution analysis showed that 352 company headquarters left the state from 2018 to 2021, including 11 Fortune 1000 companies. Hundreds of thousands of people, including this writer, have departed, too. If California’s politicians and bureaucrats think that businesses and people will abide by ever more rules and pay ever more for housing and services, even as other states roll back regulations and mandates, they’re dreaming.

Judge Glock is the director of research and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, as well as a contributing editor of City Journal. This piece is adapted from City Journal’s special issue “Can California Be Golden Again?”

​ Orange County Register 

This film reminds us that fun, friendship and new adventures are ageless

• April 30, 2023

I thought I was doing my daughter a favor when I agreed to watch the movie “80 for Brady” with her. But it turned out to be the other way around. Although I’m not much of a sports fan, and, unlike my daughter, definitely not in love with football star Tom Brady, I do understand why one of the 80-year-old female characters in the film described him thus:

“What a beautiful man. So well hydrated.”

Based on the true story of four, 80ish lifelong friends who are die-hard Brady fans, Lily Tomlin, Rita Moreno, Jane Fonda and Sally Field melt into the characters. The four women travel to watch Brady play in the Super Bowl and laughable, crazy chaos ensues as they live out the adventure of their lives. Although it’s not the first time these actresses have made me laugh and cry in their performances about aspects of older age, this story hit home.

They could have been me and my three closest friends — we called ourselves The Four Squares, a name created one day while we were having lunch in Pasadena at the now-defunct Beckham Place. Louise outlined our table with her hand and declared “just like this table the four of us are a perfect square.” The name stuck. But not the “Squares.”

Although I am now the only remaining Square, I always refer to us in the plural. Sometimes I take the “Squares” with me when I go shopping for clothes. I can still picture the three of them circled around me fussing over the wedding dress I bought when I married George.

I still ask their opinions, especially if I’m thinking about doing something I’m a little unsure about. “Do you think it’s okay for me to have dinner with a man I met in my grief class?” Three heads nod yes in unison.

Though some have referred to “80 for Brady” as an exaggerated piece of fluff, I applaud the message it sends that having fun is not something you grow out of. Fun and friendship and new adventures are ageless. When my mother was 100 she said she still felt like a 26-year-old woman inside. I think that’s something to look forward to.

Email [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @patriciabunin and at patriciabunin.com.

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​ Orange County Register 

Dear Gov. Newsom: If addiction is a brain disease, where are all the doctors?

• April 30, 2023

Fourth in a regular series. See Dear Gov. Newsom: People are dying in the Rehab Riviera. Do something, Dear Gov. Newsom: Their daughter’s been swallowed by California’s rehab monster and How did Frankie Taylor overdose in a state-licensed addiction treatment center?

Dear Gov. Newsom: Today we’ll take a break from harrowing tales of tragedy and death in California’s (poorly regulated, private-pay, 12-step based, insurance-money fueled) addiction treatment system to visit with Dr. Walter Ling, a neuropsychiatrist who’s worked in addiction medicine for nearly as long as you’ve been alive.

Please listen to what he has to say. For thousands of people, it’s a matter of life and death.

Ling has the remarkable gift of clarity, frequently quotes his mother’s wisdom, has an infectious optimism — and will be the first to tell you that his formidable foray into addiction treatment was entirely by accident. The plan was simply to finish neurology and psychiatry training at Washington University in St. Louis and return to the Chulalongkorn University Medical School — he was born in China and grew up in Thailand — but then he met May, a local teacher volunteering at a children’s hospital. Wedding bells rang. May felt that pull west, dearly wishing to raise their kids in California, so he took a job at the Sepulveda VA Hospital in Los Angeles in 1971.

We’ll jump ahead a bit to tell you that Ling has had a hand in studying every major medication for opiate addiction in the United States, is founding director of UCLA’s Integrated Substance Abuse Programs and a keen chronicler of how addiction treatment cleaved from mainstream medicine and was schluffed off to its current, expressly non-medical, silo.

Over there, it’s oft overseen by “recovering” addicts who may or may not be recovered.  “Medication-assisted treatment” is still widely shunned. And detoxification — the initial weaning off substances — is tragically mistaken for treatment itself.

“The most common outcome of detoxification,” Ling has written, “is relapse.”

Here are a few of his Mama Ling-esque pearls of wisdom you should memorize:

• Detoxification may be good for a lot of things, but staying off drugs is not one of them.

• The difference between getting off drugs and staying off drugs is the difference between a wedding and a happy marriage. The wedding is a big deal, but it has nothing to do with a happy marriage. Right now, our entire treatment system is targeted to the wedding.

• You can’t get a life if you can’t stay off drugs. And you can’t stay off drugs for long if you can’t get a life. Taking medication is the best guarantee that you don’t die from an overdose and actually stay off drugs.

• The term “medication-assisted treatment” itself is puzzling. What is the medication assisting? It is the treatment.

• If addiction is a brain disease, where are all the doctors?

Gold standard

Shortly after the young Ling family arrived in California, the good doctor was helping out on the general psychiatric ward at the Veteran’s Administration hospital. Nixon was president. Veterans were returning home from Vietnam with troubling heroin addictions. Something had to be done.

Sepulveda had one of the VA’s first methadone programs, and Ling was asked to fill in for a few of weeks when the chief of psychiatry and research was out of town.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Ling worked with these rattled and traumatized young people to find out how best to help them. He helped run myriad scientific studies of medications designed to address addiction, publishing hundreds of papers that have been cited thousands of times.

All three medications approved to treat opioid addiction had to endure Ling’s watchful gaze: methadone, naltrexone, and buprenorphine. These drugs can bind to the brain’s opioid receptors, foil opioid highs, manage cravings, head off overdoses and, generally, pave the way for that happy marriage.

Buprenorphine, in particular, is far more convenient, and thus effective, at keeping people off drugs for the long haul than its medical cousins. And most any medication is more effective than the ubiquitous 12-step approach alone. That, Gov. Newsom, is why medication is an integral part of California’s push for better treatment in its public addiction treatment programs.

But not so much in the private sphere of California’s addiction treatment system.

“Look around the treatment industry and ask whether things have really changed,” Ling writes. “We have studied addiction as a science for more than 40 years, but we treat our patients the way we did 40 years ago.”

In 2023 — after decades of research showing that medication is the gold standard for getting a life — much of California’s treatment system continues to shun it.

• Just 22% of California’s outpatient facilities — where most treatment happens — offered methadone, buprenorphine or naltrexone treatment, according to federal data. 

• Only 59% of programs transitioning people back to their regular lives offered overdose education and Naloxone, a drug that can reverse opioid overdose and practically bring people back from the dead.

• Overall, a tremendous chunk of treatment facilities in California — 41% — didn’t provide any “pharmacotherapy services” for their patients at all, despite skyrocketing overdose and death rates.

A buprenorphine implant. Photo courtesy of Jerrey Roberts, DAILY HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE

“We know that medication plays a critical role in keeping addicts off drugs but we insist on assigning medication a secondary role,” Ling writes. “We call addiction pharmacotherapy ‘medication-assisted treatment’ even though there is nothing that the medications are supposed to assist that works. …

“Even when we reluctantly tolerate the use of medications, we want patients to get off them as soon as possible. Nationwide, detoxification is still the most common, most profitable and least effective treatment offered; it has an over 90% relapse rate. We expect detoxifications to return patients to their old non-addict self, ignoring the fact that once addicted, they can’t turn back the clock of their body and brain to before addiction. We act as though we believe contraceptives don’t just keep you from getting pregnant but make you a virgin again.”

Historically, addiction has been viewed as a criminal offense and a moral failing. Medical intervention took a big back seat to behavioral approaches.

“Counseling by counselors who themselves had a history of addiction was based on the premise that counselors’ shared life experiences could uniquely help patients enter into recovery,” Ling writes. “This hypothesis was never tested or proven true, despite becoming a routine component of treatment. Instead of serving to extend patient care, counseling grew into a parallel service often in conflict with the physician’s treatment goals.”

Alcoholics Anonymous uses sobriety coins to represent how long members have remained sober. (FILE PHOTO BY, BRUCE CHAMBERS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER/SCNG)

We require doctors who prescribe medications to connect patients to counselling, but we don’t require abstinence-based treatment facilities to connect patients to medical treatment.

We don’t want to go against the abstinence treatment industry, and we let the regulatory agencies become symbiotic with the system they regulate.

And that, Gov. Newsom, is the crux of it.

“We don’t need more treatment that is not treatment,” Ling has told us. “If we want to find sensible solutions, we should stop doing things that don’t work.”

California has the resources and compassion to make such changes, Ling believes. We’re slated to get more than $2 billion in opioid settlement money for fighting addiction. And you, governor, are trying to reform our system and readying an initiative for the 2024 ballot “to build state-of-the-art mental health treatment campuses to house Californians with mental illness and substance use disorders.”

Please. Build a system that treats addiction, first, as a medical issue. Of course, doctors are not all angels — we’ve chronicled the surgeon accused of building a luxurious life on the backs of often-desperate drug users, and the doctors getting kickbacks for ordering gazillions of unnecessary drug urine tests — but I’d rather put my life, and my kid’s life, in the hands of someone with eight years of schooling and three to seven years of residency, instead of the guy who dropped out of high school but has cycled through seven behavioral treatment programs, relapsed as many times, and has been triumphantly sober for five months.

“Yes, we can do better,” Ling writes. “We need to support the use of prescribed medications like buprenorphine and provide the resources to help patients live a life without drugs. We know what we must do, and we have the tools to do it. It’s been said that we Americans love reality shows because if we put things on TV, we don’t have to face them in real life. But if we want to succeed in fighting opioid addiction and reduce overdose deaths, we must have the courage to look in the mirror, resist our biases, acknowledge where we fall short, and find the gumption to make real changes to finally end this crisis.”

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​ Orange County Register 

Orange County Artist of the Year winners announced

• April 30, 2023

For a 10th year, Artist of the Year shines a spotlight on high school students in Orange County.

The program was conceived in 2014 as part of the Orange County Register’s Varsity Arts initiative to acknowledge and celebrate student artists with the kind of recognition long bestowed on student athletes.

Meet the Artists of the Year

Dance: Jonah Smith, Orange County School of the Arts
Film and TV: Magdalena Aparicio, Yorba Linda High School
Theater: Selma Elbalalesy, Aliso Niguel High School
Instrumental music: Lucie Kim, Orange County School of the Arts
Vocal music: Adrianna Tapia, Santa Ana High School
Fine Arts: Alexandra Hernandez, Costa Mesa High School
Media arts: Zachary Cramer, Fountain Valley High School

Teachers from across the county helped develop Artist of the Year back then. They remain vital to its success by nominating students, serving as volunteers throughout the adjudication process and helping to shape the evolution of the program each year.

In that first year, the Register awarded honors in six arts disciplines. The winners emerged out of 113 students nominated from 50 schools.

What a difference 10 years has made. The growth and impact of Artist of the Year has exceeded expectations.

Artist of the Year has grown into a strong and vital platform for showcasing the talents and community contributions of student artists.

The program is now co-sponsored by Chapman University College of Performing Arts and the Register. This year 721 students were nominated by their teachers — public and private. They hailed from 78 local high schools and arts organizations.

And 2023 boasts seven artistic disciplines: Dance, Film & TV, Fine Arts, Instrumental Music, Media Arts, Theater, and Vocal Music. Each discipline was further divided into 30 specialties with finalists named in each.

Arts teachers and working professionals determine the winners.

“I believe the students involved see it as a genuine honor to be nominated, and those who make it to the next level of competition also see it as a genuine honor,” said Jim Kollias, chair of the visual and performing arts department at Beckman High in Tustin.

Kollias, an instrumental music instructor, was one of the teachers who worked with Artist of the Year producer Heide Janssen to design and launch the program. He’s remained involved year after year, helping with the judging.

Kollias credited Janssen’s vision and leadership for the continued success of Artist of the Year.

“Had she not been at the center of the program, it would have surely faltered by now,” he said.

At Beckman High, Kollias added, participating in Artist of the Year also has given both arts instructors and students a sense of the excellence around the county, something to gauge themselves against and “level up.”

“We study the videos and presentations,” he said. “This is the best and we want to be the best.”

The culling process for Artist of the Year is rigorous.

It starts with the teacher nominations. The nominees are asked to submit in writing what it means to be an artist and talk about their own creative journeys.

Those submissions get whittled down through subsequent rounds involving online scrutiny of performance videos, art portfolios, film samples and resumes.

Semifinalists are selected by arts teachers. (Previous stories in the Register named all 108 semifinalists for this year.)

At the end, comes the in-person judging by panels of community members who teach, perform, and guide the development of the arts in Orange County.

Whew!

The students who have been honored as Artist of the Year value both the encouragement and the recognition. At least 50 of the past winners responded to a request to share their post-high school artistic endeavors.

One of them, Hayoung Roh, a graduate of Orange County School of the Arts and the 2014 Artist of the Year for dance, now performs with the dance team for the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets, known as the Brooklynettes. She called winning Artist of the Year a “life-changing” experience that gave her the confidence to pursue dance as a career.

“The timing of the win was crucial in my case,” Roh said. “Especially during my senior year of high school where there were so many more questions than answers, it made me realize it’s not some far-fetched dream.”

To Janssen, giving young artists like Roh that boost is the main objective of Artist of the Year.  But the program is also a nod to their instructors, she said.

“By shining a light on the talent and artistry of our top students every year, we are not only celebrating them and giving them the push to continue their artistic pursuits, but we are also, hopefully, highlighting the quality of the work being taught in the arts programs throughout the county.”

The sponsorship of Chapman University College of Performing Arts over the past four years has helped the program grow. The school has committed $25,000 a year toward general operating expenses and will help fund the 2024 competition.

Additional support comes from the university’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, along with other in-kind contributions that include providing the venues for the semifinalist presentations.

The public is invited May 10 to attend a 5:30 p.m. awards ceremony in Memorial Hall on the Chapman University campus, 1 University Drive, Orange. Top students from Artist of the Year will perform and present their work.

Meet the 2023 Artists of the Year. Click on the student’s name to read a profile and see other finalists in the category.

Dance: Jonah Smith, Orange County School of the Arts
Film and TV: Magdalena Aparicio, Yorba Linda High School
Theater: Selma Elbalalesy, Aliso Niguel High School
Instrumental music: Lucie Kim, Orange County School of the Arts
Vocal music: Adrianna Tapia, Santa Ana High School
Fine arts: Alexandra Hernandez, Costa Mesa High School
Media arts: Zachary Cramer, Fountain Valley High School

​ Orange County Register 

Stagecoach 2023: Kane Brown, Bryan Adams and Nelly close out Day 2

• April 30, 2023

The second day of the Stagecoach Country Music Festival on Saturday, April 29 was a little less crowded than the first day during the early and even mid-afternoon.

It could’ve been the ongoing heatwave lingering over the Coachella Valley — or the hard partying the evening before during headliner Luke Bryan — that caused festivalgoers to stroll in a little later, but they still turned up for the party atmosphere.

Fans beat the heat by kicking back in air-conditioned branded activations and spots like the Honky Tonk and Shein Saloon and sipped on cold beer and lemonade. Some made the long trek across the Empire Polo Club grounds to check out Mane Stage performer Niko Moon over at Guy Fieri’s Stagecoach Smokehouse. Moon and Fieri were making an enormous mac and cheeseburger.

ON THE MANE

Later in the day, Moon’s Mane Stage set reflected those feel-good vibes and got the audience up and out of their lawn chairs in the heat to dance, some even hoping up on the nearby bales of hay to sway along. He had fans singing along to songs like “Good Time,” “All That We Need” and “Heaven Has a Bar.”

Saturday headliner Kane Brown began 10 minutes later than scheduled and the set had a 90-second countdown before he kicked off his performance with an immediate burst of pyrotechnics that caused the crowd to roar back and wave their cowboy hats in the air. Fans danced and sang along to the songs “Like I Love Country Music,” “Used to Love You Sober” and “Heaven.” Near the end of his set, he was joined by his wife Katelyn Jae for the couple’s duet, “Thank God.” Brown’s set ended with a band and lots of fireworks.

“We’ve been waiting years to be back here and play with you guys,” Matthew Ramsey of Old Dominion said as the band took the Mane Stage just before Brown.

Performing at the Mane Stage isn’t new for the five-piece group since they played in the same spot in 2019 and made their Stagecoach debut in 2016. The band kept the crowd up and dancing as they kicked off with hits “Make It Sweet” and “No Hard Feelings.” But the most amusing part of the night wasn’t necessarily the Dominion hits but the covers, pulling out “As It Was” by Harry Styles.

Former “American Idol” contestant Gabby Barrett took the Mane Stage right as the sun finally set. For many, she’s known as one of the leading voices of Gen-Z country, and it was clear why during her 45-minute set. She made sure to play her hit “I Hope,” to which fans, especially the ladies, sang their hearts out to the breakup anthem. Her set was a mix bag of songs off her debut 2020 album “Goldmine” and covers like Lady A’s “Need You Now” and Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin.’”

CLASSICS IN THE PALOMINO

Keb’ Mo’ brought the rhythm and blues during his afternoon set in the Palomino. Keb’ Mo’s career stretches back to the late ‘70s, having 19 full-length records under his belt. The five-time Grammy award-winning artist flipped through his most beloved tracks, and the small but eager crowd relished every second of it. There wasn’t much talking, other than occasional nods and waves, but the music supplied by Mo’ and his band were more than enough as he went through “Shave Yo Legs,” “I Remember You,” “Life Is Beautiful,” and two classics, “Am I Wrong” and “Perpetual Blues Machine.”

Singer-songwriter Nikki Lane was charming as ever. The performer and curator of the festival’s Stage Stop Marketplace and Horseshoe Stage, stunned in her country-meets-rock-and-roll inspired outfit, her freshly dyed blonde and wavy locks topped by a blue cowboy hat with her name boldly bedazzled in rhinestones.

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She rocked thorough songs off her latest album, the title track, “Denim & Diamonds,” dedicated to all the hardworking ladies in the audience.

She bounced around on her guitar to “First High” and got down with the crowd, grooving her body along to “Black Widow.” If someone could give her a long enough break from working behind-the-scenes at the festival, Lane is more than ready for a nice spot on the Mane Stage.

Mary Chapin Carpenter kicked off her set in the Palomino with a wide smile and back-to-back hits, 1992’s “Passionate Kisses” and 1994’s “Shut Up and Kiss Me,” her sizable crowd happily singing along to the choruses.

Her speaking voice was soft and sweet as she addressed her fans: “Hello, Stagecoach,” she said. “We’re so happy to be here … it’s not that hot.” Clearly she was joking, because just outside the shaded stage area, the sun was still mercilessly beating down on the festival grounds. The set was filled with her classic ’90s country music and fans of different generations sang all of the lyrics and danced along.

“Down at the Twist and Shout” was a song she prefaced by acknowledging she could hear the sing-a-longs. “So great hearing you all sing along,” she said sincerely. “You’re so beautiful.”

She also played “He Thinks He’ll Keep Her” and “I Feel Lucky” with a lot of sass. She slipped in a new offering, too, adding “Secret Keepers” from her 2020 album, “The Dirt and the Stars.” It fit well in her set of well-crafted songs, all of which she delivered passionately as she pounded away on her well-worn acoustic guitar.

Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives are a Stagecoach staple. They also easily won Stagecoach’s best dressed trophy. The crew came out in coordinating outfits that included bright blue colors on their jackets and shirts — minus drummer Harry Stinson’s getup, which was red — with bold flower embroidery and lots of rhinestones.

The band got people rockin’ straight away with “Burn the Woodpile Down,” while Stuart flipped around his signature silver hair and jammed on his guitar. The audience cheered as the song came to a close and he let out a big ‘ol “Thank you, goodnight!”

But the band had a lot more up its sleeve, including a pair of new songs — “Sitting Alone” and “Space” — off their forthcoming album, “Altitude,” which is due out on May 19. Stuart described the album as “cosmic country” and it’s exactly that, sort of twangy and out of this world, with a ‘60s psychedelic rock vibe.

Canadian singer-songwriter Bryan Adams, who was originally scheduled to perform at Stagecoach in 2020, closed out the Palomino on Saturday night with crowd that spilled far outside of the massive tent. People in the back were camped out as far as the eye could see, some chilling in their lawn chairs as far back as the food stands.

Fans cheered and danced to Adams’ fiery performance, which was full of windy guitar solos and ballads — like “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You” — that brought some fans to tears. He had a commanding stage presence, resonating with the crowd throughout the set. One of the most notable moments was when fans sang along to “Shine a Light,” with their phone flashlights lighting up the otherwise dark stage area. He also played “Somebody,” “Summer of ’69” and “Cuts Like Knife.”

THE AFTER-PARTY

Los Angeles-based DJ Dillon Francis kept the fans raving as he closed down the Honk Tonk. The line to get in was brutal, as it took some folks more than 20 minutes just to get in the door. But once the wait was over, there was a raging party inside. Francis played everything from a few remixed songs by Rihanna including “Don’t Stop The Music” and “Only Girl (In The World)” to country classics. Other tracks included house remixes of Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” and Tame Impala’s “Let It Happen.”

As Kane Brown wrapped up his set, festivalgoers made their way to Nelly’s Late Night in Palomino after-party which resulted in a tightly-packed tent and a massive overflow of guests just trying to catch a glimpse of the rapper. As is typical with the more popular acts, getting through the crowd was nearly impossible, but once people settled in, they danced, jumped around and sang along, shoulder to shoulder, with others to Nelly’s popular tunes including “Hot in Herre,” “Ride Wit Me” and “E.I.”

 More Stagecoach Country Music Festival news

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Stagecoach 2023: See photos of performers and fans from Day 1

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​ Orange County Register 

Stagecoach 2023: See photos of performers and fans from Day 2

• April 30, 2023

The Stagecoach Country Music Festival raged on a the Empire Polo Club in Indio on Saturday, April 29 and despite temperatures once again being over 100 degrees throughout the early and mid-afternoon, fans still showed up to the party.

Day 2 saw early sets by acts like Restless Road, Lily Rose, Corey Kent, Jamie Wyatt, Keb’ Mo’ and Lola Kirke. By the later afternoon, the Palomino had a stacked lineup of interesting and varied entertainment including alt country queen Nikki Lane, classic country artists Mary Chapin Carpenter and Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives, Canadian rocker Bryan Adams and rapper Nelly led a massive Late Night in Palomino after-party.

RELATED: Stagecoach 2023: Kane Brown, Bryan Adams and Nelly close out Day 2

Over on the Mane Stage, Niko Moon, Gabby Barrett and Old Dominion held it down until headliner Kane Brown’s turn. Fans were scattered across the venue in the evening, either checking out Brown’s set, trying to squeeze into the Diplo-curated Honky Tonk where his friend and fellow DJ Dillon Francis was performing, or they stood far outside the Palomino to catch a glimpse of Nelly doing songs like “Shake Ya Tail Feather” and “Hot in Herre.”

There was also a lot of action inside Guy Fieri’s Stagecoach Smokehouse where the TV personality and restaurateur linked up with Niko Moon to make a mac and cheeseburger with a six pound bison and elk meat patty that they happily shared with fans.

 More Stagecoach Country Music Festival news

Stagecoach 2023: Guy Fieri, Jon Pardi toss barbecued turkey legs to hungry fans 

Stagecoach 2023: Trixie Mattel slays Late Night in Palomino performance 

Stagecoach 2023: See photos of performers and fans from Day 1

Stagecoach 2023: Luke Bryan keeps fans singing, Jon Pardi gets a surprise on stage during Day 1

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​ Orange County Register 

CIF-SS boys volleyball playoffs: Saturday’s scores, updated schedule for quarterfinals

• April 30, 2023

The scores from Saturday’s games in the CIF Southern Section boys volleyball playoffs and the updated schedule for the next round.

CIF-SS BOYS VOLLEYBALL PLAYOFFS

DIVISION 2

Second round, Saturday

Orange Lutheran def. Long Beach Wilson, 25-19, 29-31, 21-25, 25-19, 16-14

Upland def. Los Alamitos, 25-18, 15-25, 25-21, 26-24

Redondo def. Sherman Oaks Notre Dame, 22-25, 25-15, 25-16, 25-15

Santa Barbara def. Aliso Niguel, 25-18, 25-20, 25-14

Tesoro def. South Torrance, 23-25, 25-23, 25-13, 20-25, 15-10

Dos Pueblos def. St. Francis, 3-2 (scores not reported)

San Marcos def. Anaheim Canyon, 25-23, 25-22, 25-19

Servite def. Millikan, 25-19, 25-12, 25-21

Quarterfinals, Wednesday, 6 p.m.

Upland at Orange Lutheran

Santa Barbara at Redondo

Tesoro at Dos Pueblos

Servite at San Marcos

DIVISION 3

Second round, Saturday

St. Margaret’s def. Pacifica Christian/NB, 3-0

Fountain Valley def. Newbury Park, 25-21, 25-17, 24-26, 25-13

Trabuco Hills def. Cerritos, 25-22, 25-16, 23-25, 25-23

Alemany def. Sunny Hills, 25-18, 25-18, 25-14

El Segundo def. Warren, 25-17, 25-18, 25-17

Vista Murrieta def. Oak Park, 3-1

Anaheim Fairmont def. South Pasadena, 25-16, 25-19, 25-18

Mission Viejo def. Bishop Montgomery, 3-1

Quarterfinals, Wednesday, 6 p.m.

Fountain Valley at St. Margaret’s

Alemany at Trabuco Hills

Vista Murrieta at El Segundo

Anaheim Fairmont at Mission Viejo

DIVISION 4

Second round, Saturday

Claremont def. Xavier Prep, 25-11, 25-22, 25-9

El Dorado def. Keppel, 25-19, 26-24, 25-22

Santa Ana Calvary Chapel def. Anaheim, 25-16, 23-25, 25-14, 25-20

Troy def. Cathedral, 25-27, 25-17, 25-14, 26-27, 16-14

Crossroads def. Fontana, 3-0

Dana Hills def. Diamond Ranch, 25-11, 17-25, 21-25, 25-21, 16-14

Quartz Hill def. Tustin, 25-22, 25-20, 25-18

Hart def. Woodbridge, 26-28, 25-15, 25-17, 16-25, 15-13

Quarterfinals, Wednesday, 6 p.m.

El Dorado at Claremont

Santa Ana Calvary Chapel at Troy

Crossroads at Dana Hills

Hart at Quartz Hill

DIVISION 5

Second round, Saturday

Da Vinci def. Aquinas, 25-10, 25-15, 25-17

Fullerton def. Magnolia, 25-15, 25-16, 23-25, 25-17

Godinez def. Woodcrest Christian, 25-17, 25-16, 25-14

Nordhoff def. Garey, 25-20, 23-25, 25-21, 25-22

Paraclete def. Lancaster Desert Christian, 25-23, 26-24, 28-30, 25-17

Samueli def. Temescal Canyon, 25-18, 25-23, 25-22

Rancho Verde def. St. Anthony, 9-25, 25-20, 25-21, 25-19

Chino Hills def. Arrowhead Christian, 25-13, 25-19, 25-13

Quarterfinals, Wednesday, 6 p.m.

Da Vinci at Fullerton

Nordhoff at Godinez

Samueli at Paraclete

Rancho Verde at Chino Hills

DIVISION 6

Second round, Saturday

Leuzinger def. Waverly, 25-17, 25-17, 25-18

Trinity Classical def. Pasadena Marshall, 17-25, 25-22, 20-25, 30-28, 15-13

Santa Monica Pacifica Christian def. Summit, 25-18, 25-21, 25-20

Wildwood def. Beacon Hill, 3-1

Hawthorne Math/Science def. San Jacinto Valley Academy, 25-17, 25-19, 25-22

Pilgrim def. Southlands Christian, 25-21, 25-18, 23-25, 26-24

CAMS def. Vasquez, 3-0

Glendale Adventist def. Cathedral City, 25-19, 25-11, 25-13

Quarterfinals, Wednesday, 6 p.m.

Trinity Classical at Leuzinger

Wildwood at Santa Monica Pacifica Christian

Pilgrim at Hawthorne Math/Science

Glendale Adventist at CAMS

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​ Orange County Register 

Dana Hills boys volleyball pulls out win over Diamond Ranch in second round of playoffs

• April 30, 2023

DANA POINT — The Dana Hills boys volleyball team extended its storybook season by beating Diamond Ranch in five sets in the second round of the CIF-SS Division 4 playoffs.

Dana Hills (23-13) beat Diamond Ranch 25-11, 17-25, 21-25, 25-21, 16-14 Saturday at Dana Hills High.

The Dolphins will host Crossroads in the quarterfinals Wednesday.

Dana Hills wins the 5th set 16-14 to beat Diamond Ranch. Dana will play Crossroads in the quarterfinals on Wednesday. @ocvarsity @SteveFryer @latsondheimer @SouthOCsports @dhhs_athletics pic.twitter.com/FPLv9m8CNa

— Michael Huntley (@mikehuntley63) April 30, 2023

Dana Hills was winless in 2021 and 2022 and had a 28-game losing streak before winning a tournament game against Chaparral in late February. This is the Dolphins’ first playoff appearance since 2019.

“These boys struggled but came to practice every day wanting to work hard,” Dana Hills coach Spencer Andrews said. “When I got hired I said, ‘what do you want out of this year?’ and they said they wanted to get after it. The story here is if you don’t give up and work your butt off, sometimes magic happens.”

Saturday’s match was full of peaks and valleys for the Dolphins. Dana Hills dominated the first set but did not play well in the next two sets and lost both.

“Diamond Ranch is a heck of a team with some dynamic players and they are well-coached,” Andrews said. “It was a battle. Ultimately, we took some timeouts and took deep breaths and our boys stayed composed. They are awesome kids.”

While many teams rely on a pair of strong outside hitters to score, Dana Hills spreads the ball around well and has several players who can hit effectively.

Andrews credits the team’s setter, Christian Anderson, and the team’s close bond for the balanced play.

“We have an amazing setter and our team chemistry is off the charts,” Andrews said. “These guys hang out after school everyday. They surf, play beach volleyball and get food together every day. It’s a cliche but it really does feel like a family.”

The Dana Hills blocking unit, led by Seamus Flynn made it difficult for Diamond Ranch (23-11) to score late. Flynn led the Dolphins in blocks and was fourth on the team in kills.

The Dolphins have seven players who will play collegiate volleyball next year, but Flynn is the lone player with a Division I scholarship, to Long Island University.

“He’s an absolute workhorse and is always the first guy in the gym,” Andrews said. “He’s one of my favorite kids to coach and he’s an awesome teammate.”

Sebastian Naficy and Nick Cespedes led the Dolphins in scoring. Jack Andrew had the lone service ace of the match for the Dolphins.

Diamond Ranch won the Hacienda League this season and swept Oxford Academy in the first round.

Dane Santoyo led both teams in kills Saturday and freshman Mario Portillo had back-to-back aces for the Panthers to finish the third set.

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​ Orange County Register