Finland joins NATO, dealing blow to Russia for Ukraine war

• April 4, 2023

By LORNE COOK and MATTHEW LEE

BRUSSELS — Finland joined the NATO military alliance Tuesday, dealing a major blow to Russia with a historic realignment of the continent triggered by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Nordic country’s membership doubles Russia’s border with the world’s biggest security alliance and represents a major change in Europe’s security landscape: The nation adopted neutrality after its defeat by the Soviets in World War II. But its leaders signaled they wanted to join the alliance just months after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine sent a shiver of fear through Moscow’s neighbors.

The move is a strategic and political blow to Putin, who has long complained about NATO’s expansion toward Russia and partly used that as a justification for the invasion.

Russia warned that it would be forced to take “retaliatory measures” to address what it called security threats created by Finland’s membership. It had also warned it would bolster forces near Finland if NATO sends any additional troops or equipment to what is its 31st member country.

The alliance says it poses no threat to Moscow.

Neighboring Sweden, which has avoided military alliances for more than 200 years, has also applied. But objections from NATO members Turkey and Hungary have delayed the process.

Alarmed by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine last year, Finland, which shares a 1,340 kilometer (832 mile) border with Russia, applied to join in May, setting aside years of military non-alignment to seek protection under the organization’s security umbrella.

“I’m tempted to say this is maybe the one thing that we can thank Mr. Putin for because he once again here precipitated something he claims to want to prevent by Russia’s aggression, causing many countries to believe that they have to do more to look out for their own defense and to make sure that they can deter possible Russian aggression going forward,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said just before accepting the documents that made Finland’s membership official.

The U.S. State Department is the repository of NATO texts concerning membership.

Earlier, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said the country “will be forced to take military-technical and other retaliatory measures to counter the threats to our national security arising from Finland’s accession to NATO.”

It said Finland’s move marks “a fundamental change in the situation in Northern Europe, which had previously been one of the most stable regions in the world.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, meanwhile, Tuesday that Finland’s membership reflects the alliance’s anti-Russian course and warned that Moscow will respond depending on what weapons NATO allies place there.

But Peskov also sought to play down the impact, noting that Russia has no territorial disputes with Finland.

It’s not clear what additional military resources Russia could send to the Finnish border. Moscow has deployed the bulk of its most capable military units to Ukraine.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg earlier said that no more troops would be sent to Finland unless it asked for help.

“There will be no NATO troops in Finland without the consent of Finland,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters at the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels a few hours before the country joins.

The country is now protected by what Stoltenberg called NATO’s “iron-clad security guarantee,” under which all member countries vow to come to the defense of any ally that comes under attack.

But Stoltenberg refused to rule out the possibility of holding more military exercises there and said that NATO would not allow Russia’s demands to dictate the organization’s decisions.

“We are constantly assessing our posture, our presence. We have more exercises, we have more presence, also in the Nordic area,” he said.

Meanwhile, Finland’s Parliament said that its website was hit with a so-called denial-of-service attack, which made the site hard to use, with many pages not loading and some functions not available.

A pro-Russian hacker group known as NoName057 (16) claimed responsibility, saying the attack was retaliation for Finland joining NATO.

The claim could not be immediately verified.

The hacker group, which has reportedly acted on Moscow’s orders, has taken party in a slew of cyberattacks on the U.S. and its allies in the past. Finnish public broadcaster YLE said the same group hit the Parliament’s site last year.

Finland’s entry, to be marked with a flag-raising ceremony at NATO headquarters, falls on the organization’s very own birthday, the 74th anniversary of the signing of its founding Washington Treaty on April 4, 1949. It also coincides with a meeting of the alliance’s foreign ministers.

Finland’s president, foreign and defense ministers will take part in the ceremony.

Turkey became the last NATO member country to ratify Finland’s membership protocol on Thursday. It will hand over the document officially enshrining that decision to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken before the ceremony.

Finland’s membership becomes official when its own foreign minister hands over documents completing its accession process to Blinken. The U.S. State Department is the repository of NATO texts concerning membership.

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​ Orange County Register 

54 ghost guns seized as part of unique California program

• April 4, 2023

By STEFANIE DAZIO

LOS ANGELES — California law enforcement took away 54 so-called ghost guns last year from people who can’t legally own firearms, a 38% jump in the number of the hard-to-trace weapons seized since 2021 under a unique state program, officials said Monday.

The ghost guns, which are privately made firearms without a serial number, were part of nearly 1,500 guns taken statewide last year through an only-in-California program called the Armed and Prohibited Persons System, known as APPS.

The California registry cross-matches databases to find people who legally purchased weapons but are now banned from ownership because they have been convicted of felonies or a violent misdemeanor, or have a history of domestic violence or mental illness. State and local authorities then can move to seize the weapons under the program, which began in 2006.

Generally, firearms manufactured by licensed companies are required to have serial numbers that allow officials to trace the gun back to the manufacturer, the firearms dealer and original purchaser. That’s how the registry can find the people who are prohibited from having guns, as well as the weapons linked to them.

Ghost guns, however, are made of parts and are then assembled together — without the serial numbers that can be used to follow the gun’s path. Law enforcement working to find the legal firearms listed on the state registry coincidentally found the ghost guns and seized those as well.

The number of ghost guns discovered by law enforcement through their APPS work has jumped dramatically in recent years. In 2018, officials seized just eight ghost guns through their work on the registry, Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office said.

Bonta has ordered the state’s Department of Justice to focus more on ghost gun investigations in general after years of increased illegal activity.

Guns without serial numbers have been used in deadly violence over the past year, including in New York, where a teenage girl was killed outside a high school in the Bronx, and in Sacramento, when a man fatally shot his three daughters inside a church.

The APPS registry included 23,869 people as of Jan. 1, including nearly 9,300 active cases. The remaining cases — almost 15,000 — include people who are incarcerated, have moved out of state or cannot be located after multiple attempts, Bonta’s office said.

In one case, an attempt to contact a man in Costa Mesa led to an eight-hour armed standoff in Southern California after he fired at the officers. The suspect was on the state’s list because he had a misdemeanor conviction for domestic violence, as well as an active misdemeanor arrest warrant. He eventually surrendered and authorities recovered a rifle, a shotgun and multiple handguns, the attorney general’s office said.

Last year, the total seizure included 712 handguns, 360 rifles, 194 shotguns, 80 assault weapons, three short-barreled shotguns and a machine gun, as well as more than 281,000 rounds of ammunition, according to a report released Monday.

That’s roughly comparable to seizures in 2021, when 1,428 firearms — including 39 ghost guns — were taken by law enforcement under the APPS program.

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​ Orange County Register 

Long drought seals San Diego State’s fate in title game against UConn

• April 4, 2023

By KRISTIE RIEKEN AP Sports Writer

HOUSTON — A magical journey put San Diego State in its first Final Four.

A thrilling buzzer-beater by Lamont Butler landed the Aztecs one win away from a national title.

Hot early shooting on Monday night helped them race to an early lead against the mighty UConn Huskies.

Then things fell apart.

For more than 11 tortured minutes in the title game, no matter what they tried, the Aztecs could not make a field goal in their 76-59 loss.

“It’s difficult to play like that,” Butler said.

Fighting against a stifling defense, they missed hook shots, had layups blocked, badly missed wide-open 3-point attempts and saw easy jump shots fall short.

The Aztecs (32-7) took shot after shot – 14 in all as the clock ticked and ticked – but no matter what they tried nothing would fall.

“We were talking about it for sure,” Butler said. “And we were trying to figure out what we can do to stop the scoring drought and create advantages for ourselves. We tried but things weren’t working.”

By the time Darrion Trammell mercifully made a jump shot with about 5½ minutes left in the first half, the Aztecs had seen a four-point lead turn into a 26-17 hole.

A team that got here on the strength of its vaunted defense was in the end done in by an offense that went cold at the worst possible moment.

“It’s the national championship game, a lot of things had to go right on our end in order to win,” guard Matt Bradley said. “And when you’re missing shots and turning the ball over and even when you’re playing hard on defense, it’s not going to be enough. So we learned that tonight for sure.”

The Aztecs rallied from a 14-point deficit to beat Florida Atlantic in the national semifinal, with Butler’s game-winner at the buzzer marking the first time in Final Four history that a buzzer-beater took a team from trailing to a victory.

This time there would be no such heroics. They did go on a second-half run to make it interesting, though.

San Diego State used a 14-4 spurt, with the first four points from Jaedon LeDee, to get within 60-55 with about five minutes to go.

But Jordan Hawkins made a 3-pointer seconds after that to start a 9-0 run that shut the door on any designs the Aztecs had on another remarkable comeback.

Though their defense had been the star of this Cinderella’s tournament run entering Monday night, their offense had done plenty to complement it.

Through their first five games in the tournament, the Aztecs shot an average of 42.48%. In the biggest game in school history Monday night, they shot a tournament-low 32% – a number significantly lowered by their 28.6% first half.

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It was their second-lowest shooting percentage of the season, behind the 31.7% they shot in a 62-57 victory over Utah State in the Mountain West Conference tournament title game. Their 24 first-half points were the second-fewest they’d managed all season.

There were no tears in San Diego State’s locker room after the loss that snapped a nine-game winning streak, but rather a bunch of guys who were proud of how far they got, even if they came up short.

“We were the only ones who believed we could get here,” Trammell said. “We surpassed our expectations honestly.”

Added Keshad Johnson, who led the team with 14 points Monday night.

“I’m sure we put our school’s name on the map and I’m proud of that,” he said.

​ Orange County Register 

Dodgers explode for 13 runs in victory over Rockies

• April 4, 2023

LOS ANGELES ― Five days into the new season, the Dodgers’ offense has demonstrated a feast-or-famine quality. On a cold and windy Monday night at Dodger Stadium, they feasted.

Most of the Dodgers’ runs in their 13-4 victory over the Colorado Rockies scored with two outs in the fifth inning. Rockies starter Ryan Feltner (0-1) was one out away from leaving in line for a win when he loaded the bases on two walks and a double by Freddie Freeman.

Valencia native Jake Bird took over on the mound, and the floodgates opened. Four straight hits led to seven runs against the former UCLA standout, capped by Jason Heyward’s first home run as a Dodger.

Will Smith and Chris Taylor also hit home runs into a whipping wind, and James Outman became the first Dodger to hit two triples in a game in seven years.

The Dodgers’ 13 runs and 13 hits were both season highs. They scored eight and 10 runs in their two wins against the Arizona Diamondbacks and only one run in each of their two losses.

The beneficiary of their latest outburst was starting pitcher Michael Grove, who was in line for a loss in his 2023 debut until the Dodgers’ big two-out rally. Grove actually exited the game with a 2-1 lead in the fifth inning, but consecutive walks followed by an Elias Diaz double ended his night and left Yency Almonte with two runners in scoring position.

Harold Castro belted Almonte’s first pitch to right field, scoring two runs and giving the Rockies a 3-2 lead. The Rockies scored once more before the inning was over to take a 4-2 lead.

Grove was charged with three runs, all earned, in four innings. He walked two batters and struck out four. After Almonte finished out the fifth inning, the Rockies couldn’t muster a run against Alex Vesia, Phil Bickford, or Shelby Miller.

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The offense did the rest. Freeman went 3 for 4. Outman, Heyward and J.D. Martinez collected two hits each. All nine Dodger starters reached base at least once.

Outman became the first Dodger to triple twice in one game since Yasiel Puig did so on July 25, 2014. The rookie outfielder has collected the Dodgers’ first home run, stolen base and triple of 2023.

Dodgers second baseman Miguel Vargas was hit on the right thumb by a 92 mph fastball from Connor Seabold in the seventh inning but remained in the game. He suffered a hairline fracture of his right pinkie finger fielding a ground ball in February, an injury that left him unable to swing a bat in games for much of spring training.

More to come on this story.

​ Orange County Register 

Villa Park vs. Servite, Cypress vs. Foothill in National Classic

• April 4, 2023

Cypress, Foothill, Servite and Villa Park won their first round games Monday in the first round of the National Classic.

Their victories set up these two quarterfinals games Tuesday: Cypress vs. Foothill at El Dorado High at 10 a.m.; Servite vs. Villa Park at Fullerton College at 1 p.m.

The Orange County top 25 has Villa Park (13-3) at No. 5, Cypress (13-4) at No. 7, Foothill (9-8) at No. 8 and Servite (10-8) at No. 9.

Villa Park on Monday beat Utah’s Jordan 12-1. Spartans senior shortstop Gavin Grahovac homered and drove in four runs and senior first baseman Zack Brown homered and had two RBIs.

Servite beat South Hills, the No. 2 team in the CIF Southern Section Division 2 top 10, 4-3. Kyle Buchanan had two RBIs and Roman Martin homered for the Friars.

Abbrie Covarrubias and Matthew Thomas drove in two runs each for Cypress in a 6-2 win over Liberty of Arizona.

The tournament semifinals are Wednesday at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. at El Dorado. The championship game is at Amerige Park in Fullerton on Thursday at 7 p.m.

​ Orange County Register 

Production throughout Angels’ lineup creates cushion for bullpen in victory over Mariners

• April 4, 2023

SEATTLE — The Angels’ 7-3 victory over the Seattle Mariners on Monday night provided a tidy summation of what they couldn’t do last season.

The bottom of the order strung together a couple of rallies to produce runs early in the game, and they scored three late insurance runs on a Taylor Ward two-run homer in the eighth inning and a Brandon Drury RBI double in the ninth.

After Angels relievers had held a one-run lead for seven outs in the fifth, sixth and seventh, the Angels suddenly made the lead big enough that the Angels didn’t even have a save situation for Carlos Estévez in the ninth.

“We keep coming at you,” Manager Phil Nevin said. “There’s a lot of guys, top to bottom, who are going to give you a good at-bat, and we did that tonight.”

The Angels improved to 3-1, with enough encouraging signs throughout the night to pick up starter Reid Detmers when he wasn’t at his best.

Shohei Ohtani gave the Angels a 4-2 lead on a 431-foot two-run homer in the fifth, his second homer in as many games. Too often last season the Angels’ only offense came on homers by Ohtani or Mike Trout.

This time, Ohtani’s homer came after the Angels had scored single runs in the second and fourth, both times with rallies produced by three hits from the bottom five hitters in the lineup.

Drury, who was batting sixth, had hits in the middle of both rallies, part of a three-hit night.

“Obviously the top of the lineup is as good as it gets, and I feel the lineup is real deep, one through nine,” Drury said. “It’s definitely a special lineup.”

No. 8 hitter Luis Rengifo, who was not in the lineup until Anthony Rendon accepted his suspension about two hours before the game, drove in both runs with singles. Rengifo, who said his approach has improved since he spent so much time with José Altuve in the World Baseball Classic, also drew his fifth walk of the young season in the eighth. He was aboard for Ward’s homer.

Just before that inning, Nevin said he turned to hitting coach Marcus Thames and said: “You give me two more, we’re winning this game. He said ‘Alright, I’ve got you.’”

Suddenly there was breathing room for an Angels’ bullpen that last year was regularly pressed to get nine or 12 outs with a one-run lead. Ryan Tepera, Matt Moore and Jimmy Herget each held the one-one run lead on Monday, and then José Quijada and Estévez worked with the added cushion.

Estévez, who had started warming up before Drury spoiled the save situation by padding the lead to four, finished what Detmers started.

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Detmers has improved the velocity of all of his pitches, giving reason to believe that he might be primed for a performance even better than his 3.77 ERA in 25 starts in his rookie year.

Detmers was throwing harder on Monday, with a fastball that averaged 95.3 mph and a slider that was 90.0 – up from 93.2 and 86.3 – but his command was lacking.

Detmers walked three and he gave up four hits, including three doubles. The Mariners scored three runs.

It wasn’t all his fault, though. Third baseman Gio Urshela made an error on a routine throw, leading to one of the runs being unearned. One of the doubles Detmers allowed was on a well-placed slider and another was softly hit. Detmers also struck out seven.

“I felt good but I just gotta get ahead in counts,” Detmers said. “That was the main thing tonight. I felt like I was fighting pretty much every at-bat. Just gotta get ahead, work ahead and life’s a lot easier. But other than that, I felt good. Just have to get the fastball command down and should have better outcomes.”

​ Orange County Register 

Man gets 26 years to life for killing stepmom with pickaxe in Lake Forest

• April 4, 2023

FULLERTON — A 30-year-old man was sentenced Monday to 26 years to life in prison for killing his stepmother with a pickaxe in Lake Forest nearly a decade ago.

Oscar Luis Morlett III was convicted March 2, but because he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, jurors had to determine whether he was sane at the time of the crime. If he had been found insane at the time of the killing, he would have been committed to a state mental hospital for an indefinite period. Jurors found March 15 that he was sane at the time of the killing.

Morlett was convicted of first-degree murder, with jurors finding true a sentencing enhancement for the personal use of a deadly weapon.

Morlett was convicted of killing 66-year-old Jeanne Ellen Morlett on Aug. 9, 2013.

She was living with the suspect and his father, Oscar Morlett Sr., and brother, Alex, at 21 Blazewood in Lake Forest at the time, according to a trial brief from Senior Deputy District Attorney Seton Hunt.

The defendant had been living with his mother, Lisa Powell, before that, but she kicked him out of the house in June 2013, Hunt said. So his father and stepmother took him in, Hunt added.

The defendant was unemployed and used a bicycle to get around at the time, Hunt said.

Morlett’s father and stepmother told the defendant that they planned to “downsize” and were moving, so they suggested he move out and into a rescue mission, Hunt said.

“Defendant felt the victim was pushing him out of the house,” Hunt said.

On Aug. 6, 2013, the defendant told a neighbor, “I hate my (expletive) stepmom,” according to Hunt. He also said, “I wish she was dead,” the prosecutor added.

The next day the defendant attempted to poison his stepmother by putting patchouli oil in her water, Hunt said.

On the morning of Aug. 9, 2013, the defendant’s father and brother left for work, leaving Morlett home alone with his stepmother, Hunt said.

About 10:45 a.m., a neighbor heard three loud screams or moans, Hunt said.

About 11:18 a.m., the defendant dialed 911 and reported his mother was the victim of a home invasion, but he managed to run out the back door, Hunt said. The call got disconnected and when a dispatcher called back it went to voice mail, Hunt said.

Deputies responded to the home and found the victim’s bloodied body, and she was pronounced dead at 11:42 a.m., Hunt added.

Morlett went to Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, where he again called 911, picking up the phone with a bloody hand, Hunt said. He again said his stepmother was attacked by gardeners, Hunt said.

Morlett later told investigators he attacked his stepmother with a pickaxe when she was in her bed, Hunt added. She sustained 17 puncture wounds, including one to the lung, Hunt said.

Morlett’s attorney, Ed Beckett, said in court papers that his client had been on anti-psychotic medications for years and was attending group meetings for substance abuse at Saddleback Church. As the defendant was awaiting trial, he was committed for 15 months at Patton state hospital until his sanity was restored and he could again assist in his defense, Beckett said.

Beckett argued during trial his client had schizophrenia that prevented him from understanding what he was doing was morally wrong.

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​ Orange County Register 

UConn smothers San Diego State to win 5th national title

• April 4, 2023

By EDDIE PELLS AP National Writer

HOUSTON — After six games and 240 minutes of pure dominance that ran through March, then part of April, it finally became clear there was only one thing that could stop the UConn Huskies.

The final buzzer.

The team from Storrs, Connecticut, topped off one of the most impressive March Madness runs in history Monday night, clamping down early, then breaking things open late to bring home its fifth national title with a 76-59 victory over San Diego State.

“We knew we were the best team in the tournament going in, and we just had to play to our level,” said Dan Hurley, who joined Jim Calhoun and Kevin Ollie as the third coach to lead UConn to a title.

UConn’s lanky star forward, Adama Sanogo, won Most Outstanding Player honors, finishing with 17 points and 10 rebounds in the final, and Tristen Newton also had a double-double with 19 points and 10 boards.

The Huskies (31-8) became the fifth team since the bracket expanded in 1985 to win all six NCAA tournament games by double-digits on the way to a championship. They won those six games by an average of an even 20 points, only a fraction less than what North Carolina did in sweeping to the title in 2009.

UConn built a 16-point lead late in the first half, only to see the Aztecs (32-7) trim the lead to five with 5:19 left. But Jordan Hawkins (16 points), – whose cousin, Angel Reese of LSU, won MOP honors in the women’s tournament – answered with a 3-pointer to trigger a 9-0 run. From there, the only drama left was whether UConn would cover the 7½-point spread and go six for six with double-digit wins.

Yes and Yes.

Keshad Johnson scored 14 points for San Diego State, which came up one win shy in this, its first trip to the Final Four. Darrion Trammell and Lamont Butler had 13 apiece.

UConn, the favorite and best-seeded team at No. 4 for this Final Four, set the stage for this win over an 11:07 stretch in the first half during which the Aztecs didn’t make a single basket. Unable to shoot over or go around this tall, long UConn team, they missed 14 consecutive shots from the floor.

They went from leading by four to trailing by 11, and when they weren’t getting shots blocked (Alex Karaban had three and Sanogo had one) or altered on the inside, they were coming up short – a telltale sign of a team that was out of hops after that draining 72-71 buzzer-beater win over Florida Atlantic two nights earlier.

UConn fan Bill Murray was one of the few celebrities on hand to watch the Huskies make it five for five in title games in one of the most unexpected Final Fours in history. This one marked the last that Jim Nantz would call after 37 years behind the microphone.

He’s had a lot of UConn stories to tell, though this certainly wasn’t the most dramatic.

Even with that brief bout of uncertainty midway through the second half, UConn never truly let the fifth-seeded Aztecs, who overcame a 14-point deficit in the semifinal, start thinking about any more last-second dramatics.

This was a team built strictly for 2023 – replenished by Hurley, who didn’t get much love in the preseason, even after he went to the transfer portal to find more outside shooting after back-to-back first-round exits in the tournament.

“We weren’t ranked going into the year, so we had the chip on our shoulder,” the coach said. “We knew the level that we could play at, even through those dark times.”

Despite the new-age roster building, there was something decidedly old-school about the way the Huskies took care of business in the early going.

They didn’t even think much about 3-point shooting at the start – didn’t make one until more than 13 minutes into the game – instead skipping passes into Sanogo on the post and wearing down SDSU while building the early lead.

The Aztecs were too good a team to cave, and an over-pursuing defense is what triggered the late run to within five. But team built on defense finished the game only shooting 32% from the floor.

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And after its late run, the Aztecs started getting burned and Hurley and Co. were hugging it out on the bench before the buzzer.

UConn’s latest coronation makes Hurley the third coach to bring a trophy home to Storrs. He joins Calhoun (1999, 2004, 2001) and Ollie (2014).

“We have the four national championships coming in, right?” Hurley said. “We were striving for No. 5. Now we’ve got our own.”

And Sanogo – make that Adama – adds himself to others on a first-name basis up on that campus – along with Huskies legends like Kemba (Walker), Rip (Hamilton) and Emeka (Okafor). He averaged 19.7 points and 9.8 rebounds over UConn’s six-game cruise through the tournament.

Much more to come on this story.

​ Orange County Register