Veteran, businessman Mike Andersen remembered for commitment to service

• October 19, 2023

By Jessica Benda

Contributing Writer

Friends remember Mike Andersen as quick to help — and quicker to dodge the credit.

The U.S. Army veteran and owner of north Orange County-based HVAC company Veteran Air died on Oct. 3 at age 40. He is survived by his wife, Jessica, and their six children.

Now, his community is detailing a legacy marked by service. From delivering free holiday hams to truckloads of shovels during a snowstorm, Andersen’s commitment to helping others was steadfast.

Andersen’s knack for the HVAC business stemmed from his father, Rick, who ran Denny’s Air. Under his father’s guidance, Andersen learned the ropes from a young age, but he took a hiatus when he found a calling in his country. He joined the U.S. Army in 2001, spurring four years of service and deployment to Iraq. When he returned, he wanted to start something of his own: Veteran Air.

To him, it was more than a company, it was an opportunity to help his neighbors. Carolina Velez, Veteran Air’s brand ambassador since 2021, said she recognized his commitment to community from the moment she started.

“When I first met Mike, he told me that he had this passion, this duty, this responsibility to take care of our community,” Velez recalled. “Whether or not he knew the people, whether or not they were doing business with his company, he felt a responsibility to care for those members, especially those members in need.”

In 2021, U.S. Army veteran Mike Andersen, right, speaks during a 9/11 ceremony held at A Field of Honor in Anaheim. Anderson, an Army veteran and owner of Veteran Air in Anaheim died on Oct. 3 at age 40. He is being remembered in his community for is philanthropy. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Many know Andersen from his holiday donations, in which he annually bought hundreds of hams and turkeys from local businesses. A couple days before Thanksgiving and Christmas, he and his team would set up a tent and invite anyone in need to come pick one up. Last year, Velez said it almost fell through, but Andersen managed a last-minute save.

“Till this day, I have no idea how he managed to pull that off,” Velez said of his quick thinking. “But it was just one of those events that he believed needed to happen, because so many families were counting on it.”

His compassion extended toward fellow businesses, as well, especially during the economic turmoil of the coronavirus pandemic.

John Kalil, owner of advertising magazine OC Local, wasn’t sure if they would mail the magazine due to so many client closures, so he said he asked if Andersen would want to run a cover of Veteran Air with an encouraging community message. Andersen didn’t stop there — he went to every restaurant featured in the magazine and bought at least $250 worth of gift cards from each. He passed them out to his customers and community at no charge.

That same year, Elizabeth Frazier posted on Facebook that she was hosting a Thanksgiving drive-thru at her Villa Park home for people needing a dinner, and a stranger reached out to ask how he could help. (No surprise, it was Andersen.) The tradition has continued ever since.

“Every single year, he would reach out and ask me for a shopping list and buy hundreds of dollars of food, if not thousands of dollars of food. Last year, we fed 400 people,” Frazier said. “He didn’t ask for anything in return. He almost didn’t want thanks. Because he’s just like, ‘This is what we do for each other. We show up.’”

Nonprofit founder Cindy Furton De Mint recalled Andersen being proactive when it came to getting involved. She started Brothers on a Quest to raise awareness for ataxia, a condition three out of her sons have. She recalled how Andersen not only showed up to her foundation’s events, but was always a platinum sponsor of the National Ataxia Foundation’s annual walk.

“Mike always made sure that besides money, that the team came. We had a table, he’d bring one of his cool trucks that the kids would climb in and out of. He was completely hands on,” De Mint said. “Everything he did was a labor of love.”

Community members recall Andersen as a proud veteran who never passed up an opportunity to support his own. Often sporting combat boots and military pants, Andersen’s military origins were heard through every “No, sir” and “Yes, ma’am.”

Mike Andersen, fifth from right in the large hat, at the dedication ceremony for the Prado Dam Bicentennial Mural near Corona on Friday, June 2, 2023. Andersen and his Veteran Air gave a key donation. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

It seemed almost inevitable that he’d get involved with the Prado Dam mural restoration – painted in 1976 by high school students commemorating 200 years of freedom, the mural had significantly degraded. Andersen donated $40,000 toward the painting effort completed earlier this year after consulting with his Veteran Air team.

A tight-knit team at Veteran Air was a priority, coworkers said. It had to be with its numerous “operations,” which required plenty of coordination and teamwork.

One of his biggest endeavors was Operation Water Drop, which Andersen launched during Texas’ historic freeze in 2021. When Andersen read about the power crisis, he organized a group to pack up heaps of supplies and made the road trip to deliver it all. Touched by the connections he made, he made a joke on the drive home about starting Veteran Air Texas.

Sure enough, they opened a branch a few months later.

“He really saw his team as family,” Velez said. “Everyone looks out for each other, and Mike is what allowed our team members to become that way, because he led by example.”

Veteran Air announced Andersen’s passing on Facebook, which was quickly flooded with stories of his good deeds and positive impact.

“I never spoke to anybody that had a bad thing to say about him,” Frazier said. “Just being around Mike made you want to be a better human, and I saw that with all his workers and all the people that he was surrounded with.”

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​ Orange County Register 

Fed chair: Slower growth may be needed to conquer high inflation

• October 19, 2023

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Thursday that inflation remains too high and that bringing it down to the Fed’s target level will likely require a slower-growing economy and job market.

Powell noted that inflation has cooled significantly from a year ago. But he cautioned that the economy is growing faster than the Fed had expected and could continue to keep inflation elevated. As a result, the Fed chair said, it’s not yet clear whether inflation is on a steady path back to the Fed’s 2% target.

“We certainly have a very resilient economy on our hands,” Powell said in a discussion at the Economic Club of New York. “Many forecasts called for the U.S. economy to be in recession this year. Not only has that not happened; growth is now running for this year above its longer-run trend. So that’s been a surprise.”

Powell’s comments echoed speeches from other Fed officials this week, which have underscored that they are grappling with an unusual and unexpected development: Inflation is slowing even while economic growth and hiring have been robust.

In its drive to tame inflation, the Fed has raised its key rate 11 times since March 2022 to about 5.4%, its highest level in 22 years. Though inflation has tumbled from its peaks of last year, it still has further to go to reach the Fed’s 2% inflation target . Doing so is likely to require slower economic growth.

If the healthy economic expansion and hiring endure, Powell said Thursday, the central bank might have to further raise its benchmark rate. The Fed’s long series of rate hikes have raised the costs of auto and home loans, credit card borrowing and business loans, imposing financial burdens on many households and companies.

At the same time, Powell suggested that the Fed might not have to impose another hike, at least not soon, because of a spike in longer-term bond rates. The rise in long-term rates has contributed to a jump in the average cost of a 30-year mortgage to nearly 8%. Higher long-term rates, coming on top of the Fed’s own short-term rate hikes, could help slow growth and cool inflation, thereby easing pressure on the Fed to hike further.

“That’s exactly what we’re trying to achieve,” Powell said.

“At the margin,” he said, “it could” mean the Fed won’t have to further raise rates.

Yet Powell also said there was no evidence that interest rates are too high right now, a signal that he thinks the Fed could raise them further without causing a recession in the process.

Asked Thursday about the economy’s resilience despite the rate hikes, Powell suggested that interest rates simply “haven’t been high enough for long enough.” Many economists expect that the Fed, even if it doesn’t raise its rate again, will keep them high for an extended period.

Last month, Fed officials predicted that they would impose one more rate hike before the end of the year. Economists and Wall Street traders expect the central bank to leave rates unchanged when it next meets in about two weeks.

Several recent economic reports have suggested that the economy is still growing robustly and that inflation could remain persistently elevated.

In September, hiring was much greater than had been expected, with the unemployment rate staying near a half-century low. Strong hiring typically empowers workers to demand higher wages, which, in turn, can worsen inflation if their employers pass on the higher labor costs by raising their prices.

Yet so far, Powell noted that wage growth has slowed. Other measures of the job market are also cooling, a trend that could keep inflation contained. Indeed, even with solid economic growth, inflation has largely decelerated: The Fed’s preferred measure of price changes eased to 3.5% in September compared with 12 months earlier, down sharply from a year-over-year peak of 7% in June 2022.

On Wednesday, Christopher Waller, an influential member of the Fed’s governing board, suggested that the slowdown in inflation even as the economy has remained healthy is “great news” but also “a little too good to be true.”

​ Orange County Register 

Providence St. Joseph workers to strike beginning Monday

• October 19, 2023

An estimated 700 healthcare workers at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center plan to launch a five-day strike Monday, Oct. 23, claiming severe understaffing and high turnover are impacting patient care.

The lab techs, phlebotomists, patient transporters and others at the Burbank hospital are represented by SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West. They allege bad faith bargaining by hospital management and say St. Joseph has engaged in illegal tactics aimed at silencing workers.

Their labor contract expired in August and their last bargaining session was Oct. 13 — the same day the union issued a 10-day strike notice.

A nursing assistant who recently worked in the hospital’s understaffed telemetry unit said, “one patient was halfway down the hall before we could respond, and some patients will be soiled for way too long before we can get to them.” (Photo courtesy of SEIU-UHW)

Christian Ayon, a lead surgical technician at St. Joseph, said employees are being intimidated and threatened for wanting to improve conditions at the hospital.

“This used to be a premier hospital, but we are struggling to give the quality care our patients deserve as we watch staff leave and positions go unfilled,” Ayon said. “We fight not just for ourselves but for our patients that depend on us.”

Employees picketed the 466-bed facility on August 22, citing the same issues.

Replacement workers contracted

In a statement issued Thursday, St. Joseph didn’t address staffing concerns. But management said the hospital is “well prepared” for the strike and has contracted replacement workers for members of the bargaining unit who choose to strike.

“(We) firmly believes that strikes don’t settle contracts,” the statement said. “They delay them and keep our caregivers from getting the pay and benefits enhancements they deserve.”

St. Joseph said the hospital’s bargaining team has proposed significant contract enhancements, including a 24% hike in wages over a three-year contract. But the union, management said, has offered “unrealistic counterproposals.”

The two sides plan to return to the bargaining table after the strike ends.

St. Joseph nursing assistant Alexis Schoffstall plans to participate in next week’s walkout. She said staffing shortages have left her overworked.

“Just yesterday I was floated to a telemetry unit where patients’ hearts are monitored,” the 36-year-old North Hollywood resident said. “I was the only nursing assistant on the unit with 22 patients. Normally, we should have two nursing assistants there, so I was doing the work of two people.”

When that happens, patient care takes a hit, Schoffstall said.

“There are bed alarms going off,” she said. “One patient was halfway down the hall before we could respond, and some patients will be soiled for way too long before we can get to them.”

Widespread staffing concerns

Southern California healthcare workers have staged a host of rallies, pickets and strikes in recents months, primarily over concerns of inadequate staffing, high turnover and low wages.

Unions representing 75,000 Kaiser Permanente health care workers who recently held a three-day strike over wages and staffing shortages reached a tentative agreement with the healthcare giant last week.

That walkout impacted Kaiser operations in California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

And an estimated 1,800 workers held a five-day strike earlier this month at four Prime Healthcare hospitals over chronic understaffing. The facilities included St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood,  Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood, Garden Grove Hospital Medical Center and Encino Hospital Medical Center.

At St. Francis, 600 registered represented by the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals also joined in for their own week-long strike.

Healthcare workers at Prime Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood held a noon protest in August, claiming short-staffing has left them overworked and undermined patient care.

​ Orange County Register 

Newly appointed California Sen. Laphonza Butler will not seek election to a full term in 2024

• October 19, 2023

By MICHAEL R. BLOOD | AP Political Writer

LOS ANGELES — Newly appointed California Democratic Sen. Laphonza Butler will not seek election to a full term in 2024, avoiding what would have been a costly and competitive race for the seat held for three decades by the late Dianne Feinstein.

Butler — who was named earlier this month by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom to complete Feinstein’s remaining term — said in a statement she made the decision after considering “what kind of life I want to have, what kind of service I want to offer and what kind of voice I want to bring forward.”

“Knowing you can win a campaign doesn’t always mean you should run a campaign. I know this will be a surprise to many because traditionally we don’t see those who have power let it go,” Butler added. “It may not be the decision people expected but it’s the right one for me.”

Her candidacy would have complicated an already crowded race that includes several other prominent Democrats — U.S. Reps. Katie Porter, Adam Schiff and Barbara Lee — and Republican Steve Garvey, a former baseball MVP.

Butler, a Democratic insider and former labor leader, had never held public office before joining the Senate.

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​ Orange County Register 

Newsom plans one-day Israel visit on his way to China

• October 19, 2023

By Tran Nguyen | Associated Press

SACRAMENTO — California Gov. Gavin Newsom is planning a one-day visit to Israel this week to meet people affected by that country’s war with Hamas, stopping over en route to China where he will discuss policies to curb global warming.

The Democratic governor is set to arrive Friday in Israel with plans to depart later that same day for Hong Kong. His office didn’t immediately answer questions about his schedule and activities in Israel.

“I’m on my way to Israel,” Newsom confirmed in a message posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “I’ll be meeting with those impacted by the horrific terrorist attacks and offering California’s support.”

California is also sending medical supplies to the region, including provisions intended for the Gaza Strip, his office said.

On Wednesday, Newsom announced more security funding for places of worship in California, including $10 million to immediately increase the police presence at such places as mosques and synagogues.

“Amid the horror unfolding in the Middle East following the unconscionable terrorist attacks in Israel, California is authorizing the immediate deployment of funds to increase security” at worship sites, Newsom said in a statement. “No matter how and where one prays, every Californian deserves to be safe.”

California is home to the largest population of Arab Americans in the United States, according to the Arab American Institute. It also has the second largest populations of Jews in the U.S., according to the American Jewish Population Project at Brandeis University.

The war that began on Oct. 7 after Hamas militants stormed into Israel, and Israel vowed to destroy the militant group, has become the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides.

Newsom’s visit comes after New York Gov. Kathy Hochul arrived Wednesday in Israel to offer solidarity and support. President Joe Biden also wrapped up a 7 1/2-hour visit to Israel that same day in which he negotiated a deal for limited humanitarian aid into Gaza from Egypt.

Newsom is scheduled to participate in a weeklong tour focused on climate change policies in China, starting in Hong Kong on Monday. He will also visit Beijing, Shanghai and the provinces of Guangdong and Jiangsu.

​ Orange County Register 

Biden will deliver a rare Oval Office address as he seeks billions of dollars for Israel and Ukraine

• October 19, 2023

By CHRIS MEGERIAN and SEUNG MIN KIM

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will deliver a rare Oval Office address Thursday night as he prepares to ask for additional billions of dollars in military assistance for Israel and Ukraine, deepening American involvement in two very different, unpredictable and bloody foreign conflicts.

The speech will be an opportunity for Biden to argue that the United States has an obligation — and a national security interest — in both places. And it’s a chance for him to publicly lobby lawmakers for the money.

The funding request, expected to be formally unveiled on Friday, is likely to be around $100 billion over the next year, according to people directly familiar with the proposal who insisted on anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. The total figure includes some money for Taiwan’s defense and for managing the flow of migrants at the southern border with Mexico.

Biden hopes that combining all of these issues into one piece of legislation will create the necessary political coalition for congressional approval. His speech comes the day after his high-stakes trip to Israel, where he showed solidarity with the country in its battle against Hamas and pushed for more humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Ahead of his address, Biden spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to stress that the U.S. remained committed to backing Kyiv, the White House said. And a senior White House official said Biden continued to develop his remarks on Thursday after working with close aides throughout the week, including on his flight home from Israel. The official declined to be identified ahead of the president’s speech.

Biden faces an array of steep challenges as he tries to secure the money. The House remains in chaos because the Republican majority has been unable to select a speaker to replace Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who was ousted more than two weeks ago.

In addition, conservative Republicans oppose sending more weapons to Ukraine as its battle against the Russian invasion approaches the two-year mark. Biden’s previous request for funding, which included $24 billion to help with the next few months of fighting, was stripped out of budget legislation last month despite a personal plea from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The White House has warned that time is running out to prevent Ukraine, which recently struggled to make progress in a grueling counteroffensive, from losing ground to Russia because of dwindling supplies of weapons.

There will be resistance on the other side of the political spectrum when it comes to military assistance for Israel, which has been bombarding the Gaza Strip in response to the Hamas attack on Oct. 7.

Critics have accused Israel of indiscriminately killing civilians and committing war crimes by cutting off essential supplies like food, water and fuel.

Bipartisan support for Israel has already eroded in recent years as progressive Democrats have become more outspoken in their opposition to the country’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian territory, which is widely viewed as illegal by the international community.

There are rumbles of disagreement within Biden’s administration as well. Josh Paul, a State Department official who oversaw the congressional liaison office dealing with foreign arms sales, resigned over U.S. policy on weapons transfers to Israel.

“I cannot work in support of a set of major policy decisions, including rushing more arms to one side of the conflict, that I believe to be short-sighted, destructive, unjust and contradictory to the very values that we publicly espouse,” he wrote in a statement posted to his LinkedIn account.

Paul is believed to be the first official to have resigned in opposition to the administration’s decision to step up military assistance to Israel after the Oct. 7 attack.

While visiting Tel Aviv on Wednesday, Biden told Israel that “we will not let you ever be alone.” However, he cautioned Israelis against being “consumed” by rage as he said the United States was after the Sept. 11 attacks of 2001.

Wartime decision-making, Biden said, “requires asking very hard questions” and “clarity about the objectives and an honest assessment about whether the path you are on will achieve those objectives.”

A speech from the Oval Office is one of the most prestigious platforms that a president can command, an opportunity to try to seize the country’s attention at a moment of crisis. ABC, NBC and CBS all said they would break into regular programming to carry the address live.

Biden has delivered only one other such speech during his presidency, after Congress passed bipartisan budget legislation to avert a default on the country’s debt.

The White House and other senior administration officials, including Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young, have quietly briefed key lawmakers in recent days about the contours of the planned supplemental funding request.

The White House plans to formally unveil Biden’s supplemental request on Friday, according to two officials familiar with the plans, although the timing could change.

The Senate plans to move quickly on Biden’s request, hoping that it creates pressure on the Republican-controlled House to resolve its leadership drama and return to legislating.

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Border security will likely be a contentious issue in spending conversations.

Although there was a lull in migrant arrivals to the U.S. after the start of new asylum restrictions in May, illegal crossings topped a daily average of more than 8,000 last month.

“There’s a huge need to reimburse for the costs of processing,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who leads a Senate panel that oversees funding for the Department of Homeland Security. “So it’s personnel costs, it’s soft-sided facilities, it’s transportation costs.”

Biden’s decision to include funding for Taiwan in his proposal is a nod toward the potential for another international conflict. China wants to reunify the self-governing island with the mainland, a goal that could be carried out through force.

Although wars in Europe and the Middle East have been the most immediate concerns for U.S. foreign policy, Biden views Asia as the key arena in the struggle for global influence.

The administration’s national security strategy, released last year, describes China as “America’s most consequential geopolitical challenge.”

Associated Press writers Matthew Lee and Mary Clare Jalonick and AP media writer David Bauder contributed to this report.

​ Orange County Register 

Mary Lou Retton experiences ‘scary setback’ in her fight against a rare form of pneumonia, daughter says

• October 19, 2023

Retired Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Mary Lou Retton experienced a “scary setback” in her fight against a rare form of pneumonia this week, after showing remarkable progress towards recovery just days ago, her daughter said Wednesday night.

Retton is still in the intensive care unit and is “really exhausted” after the setback, her daughter Shayla Kelley Schrepfer said in a video posted to Instagram.

“At the beginning of this week, we were going on the up and up. We were so excited, seeing so much progress, and then yesterday we had a pretty scary setback,” Schrepfer said. “She is still in ICU, and we’re just working through some things as far as her setback goes.”

This month, Retton’s family announced the 55-year-old had a rare form of pneumonia that left her fighting for her life. Her daughter McKenna Kelley started an online fundraiser on behalf of Retton’s four daughters to help support the medical costs, noting that Retton is uninsured.

Earlier in the week, Schrepfer said that although 55-year-old Retton still needed intensive care, her breathing was becoming stronger, and she no longer had to rely so heavily on machines.

“Mom’s progress is truly remarkable!” Schrepfer wrote. “Prayers have been felt and have been answered.”

Pneumonia is a respiratory infection that can cause the lungs to fill with fluid, with symptoms that can range from mild to life threatening. Adults older than 65, children younger than 5 and those with other medical conditions are most at risk. The family did not specify the type of rare pneumonia her mother is diagnosed with.

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“We hope that you guys will respect her boundaries, as we want to keep the details between her and our family right now,” Schrepfer said in an earlier Instagram post.

Retton won five medals during the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles – more than any other athlete at those games – making her a household name.

She was the first US woman to earn an Olympic gold in the individual all-around event and was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 1997.

​ Orange County Register 

Pac-12 football: Our 15 bold predictions for the second half of an epic season

• October 19, 2023

Earlier this week, the Hotline offered our midseason review, a look at the best and worst of the Pac-12 at the halfway point of fall like no other.

Now, let’s cast an eye to what should be a riveting stretch run.

The conference has six ranked teams, three Heisman Trophy contenders, a handful of playoff hopefuls and loads of high-profile games on the schedule.

Presenting our predictions for the second half, in rough chronological order.

1. Utah quarterback Cam Rising doesn’t set foot on the field this season due to a prolonged recovery from knee surgery. But in their ongoing attempt to keep opponents guessing, the Utes release blurry drone footage of what appears to be Rising in full uniform, working with the first team. Closer inspection reveals it’s actually 305-pound backup right guard Falcon Kaumatule wearing No. 7 and a knee brace. Even without Rising, the Utes win nine games in one of Kyle Whittingham’s finest coaching jobs.

2. Oregon State and Washington State settle their lawsuit against the Pac-12 before the preliminary injunction hearing in Whitman County, Wash., on Nov. 14. The plaintiffs and defendants agree to a bifurcated governance structure in which an independent arbiter determines which issues impact all 12 schools and which affect only the ‘Pac-2.’ The source of the arbiter’s unlikely success? He’s equally disliked by both sides of the dispute. His name: Larry Scott.

3. On Nov. 12, the day after USC allows 52 points in a loss at Oregon, coach Lincoln Riley relents to public pressure and dismisses defensive coordinator Alex Grinch.

4. A week later, the Trojans hold UCLA to 49 points in a narrow victory in front of 73,286 fans at the Los Angeles Coliseum. Riley is hailed as a genius by USC fans.

5. That same day, Stanford beats Cal 12-11 in front of 17,328 fans at Stanford Stadium. ACC commissioner Jim Phillips is informed of the outcome while accompanying the Stanford volleyball team on its trip to USC and UCLA.

6. Oregon State beats Washington in an overtime thriller, aided by a favorable fourth-down spot that draws UW’s ire but is not overturned by the instant replay booth. However, the Beavers fall one game short of a berth in the conference championship because of an earlier loss to Arizona.

7. ESPN’s ‘College GameDay’ broadcasts from Eugene on the morning of the USC-Oregon game. The guest picker: Gonzaga basketball coach Mark Few. The 1987 Oregon graduate picks the Ducks to win, then uses the occasion to announce Gonzaga will join the Big 12.

8. Washington State’s Jake Dickert doesn’t leave Pullman to become the next coach at Michigan State as the Cougars’ second-half skid undermines his candidacy.

9. Washington’s Kalen DeBoer receives a new contract that doubles his salary, to about $8 million annually, to prevent him from becoming the next coach at Michigan State. “I didn’t want to do it,” UW president Ana Mari Cauce says, “but I wanted to keep my job.”

10. The Pac-12 issues a public mea culpa for an egregious officiating decision. We don’t know the specifics of the gaffe or which team will be victimized — Washington State is a good bet — but the conference doesn’t make it through the season without a display of utter incompetence. The only question is whether there’s a second. And a third.

11. Arizona State goes winless in conference play for the first time since joining the Pac-12 in 1978 as the injuries and postseason ban are too great to overcome. When the season ends, the NCAA slaps the Sun Devils with minor penalties for recruiting violations and calls the administration’s self-imposed sanctions excessive. “Bowl bans are so pre-COVID. We don’t do that stuff anymore.”

12. Arizona clinches a bowl berth for the first time since 2017 behind freshman quarterback Noah Fifita. The Big 12 promptly rescinds its membership invitation and explains that the Wildcats joined the conference under false pretenses, having claimed to be a basketball school.

13. Colorado misses the postseason despite the 3-0 start and spending a month at the center of the sport. CU fans everywhere rejoice as the late-season collapse makes coach Deion Sanders less attractive for openings across college football, the NFL and the Biden Administration.

14. Commissioner George Kliavkoff refuses to hold a news conference prior to the Pac-12 championship game, continuing a stretch of radio silence that began with the collapse of the conference on Aug. 4. Nobody cares.

15. One-loss Washington defeats one-loss Oregon in the conference title game and reaches the College Football Playoff, with the Ducks accepting a Fiesta Bowl invitation as the consolation prize. The Huskies’ victory is made possible when Oregon, leading by six points in the final minute, attempts to convert fourth-and-17 from its own 20. The off-tackle run fails, and UW scores the winning touchdown.

Enjoy the stretch run, everyone.

*** Send suggestions, comments and tips (confidentiality guaranteed) to [email protected] or call 408-920-5716

*** Follow me on Twitter: @WilnerHotline

*** Pac-12 Hotline is not endorsed or sponsored by the Pac-12 Conference, and the views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the views of the Conference.

​ Orange County Register