Stuffed cookies and East Coast ice cream coming to Dana Point

• June 13, 2024

Two sweet new pitstops, Dirty Dough Cookies and Bruster’s Real Ice Cream, will open in Dana Point later this year. The chain shops will join a slew of other eateries within the coastal enclave’s burgeoning Lantern Village District, joining neighboring dining spots like Maison Cafe + Market, Clean Juice, Bear Coast Coffee, Homeslice, Dana Point Ale House and Truly Pizza.

Dirty Dough Cookies

A Utah-based enterprise, Dirty Dough prepares its cookies from the inside out, with every cookie featuring layers, mix-ins and/or filling within the dough. “The other guys can focus on making cutesy, clean cookies that look better than they taste,” beams the copy on the company’s website. “Dirty Dough sells cookies for real life, which can get a little messy.”

Such maximalist cookies listed on the Dirty Dough menu include the Raspberry Toaster Tart, a Pop Tart-like sugar cookie filled with raspberry jam and topped with icing and sprinkles; the Reverse, a fudge filling wrapped in a chocolate cookie, which is then wrapped in a peanut butter cookie and drizzled with chocolate and crushed Reese’s; the Brookie, a brownie and cookie hybrid filled with caramel; the Parent Trap, a chocolate cookie stuffed with peanut butter and topped with peanut butter frosting and a chocolate cream cookie crumble; and Bliss, an oatmeal cookie crammed with cream cheese and topped with orange-tinged cream cheese, dried cranberries, and white chocolate chips.

SEE ALSO: Top Chef winner will bring classic Middle Eastern food to Hollywood this summer

Bennett Maxwell founded Dirty Dough Cookies in 2018 from his Arizona State University dorm room, according to lore.

The company landed in legal trouble in 2022, prompting a so-called Utah Cookie War on social media, when competitor Crumbl filed a lawsuit against Dirty Dough accusing the company of “forming businesses copying Crumbl’s processes, trademarks, and trade dress in a confusingly similar way.” Crumbl Founder/CEO Jason McGowan alleged in a post on LinkedIn that “one of the defendant’s brothers, who we also believe was involved in the defendant’s business, was a former corporate employee of Crumbl who has access to our recipes, schematics, processes, and other proprietary information.”

In response to the lawsuit, Maxwell said in a 2022 press release, “Apparently, this billion-dollar company, Crumbl, is threatened by a start-up with only a couple of locations in order to make a federal case out of rainbow sprinkles and rectangular boxes … Dirty Dough intends to defend itself against its baseless claims.”

The suit has since been settled out of court.

Marking the company’s first footprint in California, the Dana Point location will join other future Dirty Dough Cookies poised to open in Modesto, Poway, Oceanside and Stevenson Ranch.

Bruster’s Real Ice Cream will open at the corner of Amber Lantern and Pacific Coast Highway. (Photo by Brock Keeling/SCNG)

Bruster’s Real Ice Cream

Bruster’s Real Ice Cream, a scoop shop specializing in rich ice cream (12% butterfat) and making fresh waffle cones and desserts in every shop.

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In addition to ice cream, the 200-unit chain also sells frozen yogurt, milkshakes, sundaes, pies and custom ice cream cakes, including the cone cake, an ice cream cake flanked by filled wafer cones

Founded in 1989 by Bruce Reed (the “Bruce” in Bruster’s) in Bridgewater, Pennsylvania, Bruster’s popular flavors include Southern Banana Puddin, Butter Pecan and Chocolate Peanut Butter Buckeye.

Bruster’s has approximately 200 independently owned locations in 22 states and Guyana. Its Dana Point location joins other OC Bruster’s in Huntington Beah, Orange, Cypress, Seal Beach, Yorba Linda and Fullerton.

Both Dirty Dough Cookies and Bruster’s Real Ice Cream, each located within a block of each other, are tentatively scheduled to open later this summer.

​ Orange County Register 

Euro 2024: Expect the unexpected at the European Championship

• June 13, 2024

A returning Cristiano Ronaldo, a rampant Kylian Mbappé and a resurgent Germany.

Throw in a Harry Kane-powered England and defending champion Italy and Euro 2024 is wide open.

That’s without mentioning three-time winner Spain.

The unpredictability of the European Championship, which begins in Munich on Friday, is what makes it such compelling viewing. Even in its expanded format of 24 teams, there is always the potential for a surprise.

This is the tournament, after all, that was won by rank outsider Greece in 2004. In 1992, it was won by Denmark, a team that hadn’t even qualified for the finals but was granted entry at the 11th hour when war-torn Yugoslavia was banned.

Host nation Germany hopes to create a welcoming and festive atmosphere for millions of soccer fans who will watch the games in stadiums or fan zones across the country – like it did when it hosted the 2006 World Cup.

However, this tournament will be played in a different political context. Europe’s biggest sporting event since the Russian invasion of Ukraine is taking place in the shadow of the most devastating conflict in Europe since World War II.

Ukraine is participating and can expect a warm reception in Germany, which hosted the team’s home matches during the qualifying campaign. Russia was excluded from qualifying – it has been suspended from all international competitions by European soccer body UEFA as well as global counterpart FIFA.

Meanwhile, Georgia is coming to its first major soccer championship as a political crisis deepens at home.

The South Caucasus country has seen weeks of protests against a controversial law that opponents say would crack down on media freedom and hinder efforts to join the European Union.

And across the EU, voters will still be digesting the results of elections to the European Parliament – the 27-member bloc’s legislature – as the tournament gets underway. Early results Monday showed a surge in nationalist and far-right sentiment, which has often manifested itself in Europe’s soccer stadiums, particularly among hardcore ultras.

As always, the threat of hooliganism looms over the European Championship, where clashes between rival fans have become a common feature. The threat of terrorism and political violence is an even bigger security concern, following a series of attacks on politicians in Germany.

German authorities are stepping up border controls during the tournament. More than 20,000 police officers will be on duty.

Given the tensions surrounding the Gaza war, UEFA and Germany avoided even higher security concerns when Israel was knocked out in the playoffs for Euro 2024.

On the field of play, there is reason to expect an exciting tournament, without the COVID-19 restrictions that were in place during the previous Euros in 2021.

England and France are among the favorites.

Three years ago, England was just a penalty shootout away from winning its first trophy since the 1966 World Cup but lost the final to Italy. Since then, manager Gareth Southgate has seen the emergence of Jude Bellingham as one of the top talents in world soccer, while Phil Foden is living up to the hype he generated when first emerging at Manchester City. Meanwhile, Harry Kane scored 44 goals in 47 games in his first season at Bayern Munich.

France also suffered the heartbreak of a shootout defeat when it lost the World Cup final in Qatar to Argentina. Mbappé remains its star attraction, but he is surrounded by top class talent throughout the French squad in the form of Antoine Griezmann, Eduardo Camavinga, Aurélien Tchouameni, Ousmane Dembélé and Kingsley Coman.

Ronaldo will be back competing in Europe after heading to Saudi Arabia to play his club soccer. Even at the age of 39 the former Real Madrid and Manchester United striker is still a goal machine — scoring 10 during Portugal’s perfect qualifying campaign.

Germany is a question mark after a string of disappointments at recent major tournaments, but new coach Julian Nagelsmann has lifted the mood of the host nation just in time for Euro 2024, with morale-boosting wins in friendlies against France and the Netherlands.

It’s a dangerous game to make predictions about Italy after the traditional powerhouse of international soccer failed to qualify for the last two World Cups but won the Euros in between.

Spain is looking to restore its former glory after having dominated international soccer from 2008-2012 when it won two Euros and was also crowned world champion. There is no shortage of talent at coach Luis de la Fuente’s disposal, with Man City midfielder Rodri establishing himself as arguably the best in his position and Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal among its emerging stars.

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Other teams to watch include Croatia, which came third at the Qatar World Cup, and still has Luka Modric producing at the highest level with Real Madrid. Belgium’s golden generation has disbanded, yet it still qualified as a group winner, with striker Romelu Lukaku the top scorer with 14 goals.

If this is the year of another surprise winner, potential candidates could include Ralf Rangnick’s Austria, which impressed during qualifying; Denmark, a semifinalist in the last Euros; or Serbia, which has some serious attacking talent.

In a tournament that has produced some of international’s biggest shocks – anything seems possible.

​ Orange County Register 

Survey finds VA Loma Linda workers uncomfortable reporting misconduct

• June 13, 2024

A 2023 survey of VA Loma Linda Healthcare System employees shows a large majority of respondents are reluctant to report workplace misconduct because they believe top leadership often fails to address their complaints, the Southern California News Group has learned.

According to a synopsis of the confidential U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection “climate review” administered in November, 78% of more than 900 respondents said inaction by management poses a significant barrier to filing grievances.

Just 27% of respondents who reported wrongdoing to VA Loma Linda’s executive leadership team believe their complaints were taken seriously and properly addressed, according to survey results reviewed by SCNG.

Additionally, 40% of respondents believe VA Loma Linda’s executive team makes an effort to encourage whistleblowing, while some workers believe those efforts are superficial. Slightly more than half of the respondents emphasized the need for increased leadership accountability to improve reporting.

VA Loma Linda physicians and nurses had a more positive view of the whistleblower reporting climate compared to nonsupervisory employees, the survey found.

“Veterans nationwide have earned access to the highest quality care and services — period,” House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Bost, R-Illinois, said in a statement. “That starts with ensuring that the VA employees who serve them have their best interests in mind and are able to work in a place free from hostility and retaliation.

“The climate survey revealed VA Loma Linda employees do not have faith their local VA leadership will adequately address their concerns,” he said. “That’s a culture problem that the Biden administration needs to fix, immediately.”

The VA is actively working to address issues raised in the climate review through “comprehensive and transparent measures,” Susan Carter, a spokesperson for the agency, said in an email. Results of a separate survey in May, completed by 73% of VA Loma Linda employees, are being reviewed and should offer a more accurate and broader perspective, Carter added.

Meanwhile, VA Loma Linda leadership has begun implementing the following to improve the complaint reporting climate:

Monthly town halls and service-level staff meetings.
Weekly in-person visits alongside department leaders within rotating work areas.
Monthly all-employee safety forums.
Biweekly “Answering the Call” sessions focused on strengthening organizational excellence by gathering staff to celebrate successes and spread best practices.
Addition of an “Ask the Director” link on VA Loma Linda’s internal webpage to directly address staff questions and concerns.

Results from the climate review survey have surfaced as the House Veterans Affairs Committee makes final preparations for a July hearing to address widespread whistleblower retaliation at VA Loma Linda, which has roughly 3,300 employees and serves more than 76,000 veterans.

The committee began investigating VA Loma Linda more than a year ago amid revelations about the employment of grounds department supervisor Martin Robles, who allegedly used frequent racial slurs, required employees to buy him food and drive him to and from work, and then punished those who refused his demands with bad assignments.

A 2021 federal investigation recommended he be fired. However, VA Loma Linda officials instead promoted him.

Sharon L. Sperry of Sedona, Arizona, the mother of Ryan Sperry, a 43-year-old former Marine and irrigation technician who worked for Robles and died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 2022, believes his suicide was prompted by years of work-related harassment and retaliation. She is suing the VA and Robles for $5 million.

Robles, in a September 2023 U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission grievance against the Department of Veterans Affairs, alleged Ryan Sperry and co-workers discriminated against him and created a hostile work environment.

Bost, Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Hesperia and several bipartisan lawmakers are sponsoring legislation to give the VA authority to quickly discipline poor-performing employees.

Federal watchdogs and advocacy groups also have scrutinized other whistleblower-related controversies at VA Loma Linda.

In 2022, government fact-finders found that VA Loma Linda mismanaged more than $1 million in patient transportation funding over three years by colluding with ambulance companies, according to a confidential report obtained by SCNG.

Additionally, several patient advocacy organizations determined in 2023 that VA Loma Linda violated the civil liberties of some veterans seeking voluntary mental health evaluations by placing them on involuntary psychiatric holds as a precondition for their transportation to a hospital or treatment facility.

Bost sent a May 7 letter to Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis R. McDonough reiterating an earlier request for information about discipline and performance plans for VA Loma Linda employees who have had allegations of serious harassment, relationships with patients, and pharmaceutical theft substantiated by the VA.

“These substantiated allegations are incredibly serious, further, I understand that the individuals in question are likely still employed by VA,” Bost said. “I am concerned that these individuals are still walking VA Loma Linda’s halls, collecting a paycheck, and interacting with our nation’s veterans despite the substantial misconduct against them.”

Related links

Lawmakers demand VA Loma Linda investigative reports amid employee retaliation probe
VA Loma Linda whistleblowers mount, probe widens into harassment allegations
Whistleblower retaliation allegations growing at VA, new report says
VA Loma Linda manager promoted after probe recommended firing for creating hostile work culture
Mother blames son’s suicide on work harassment at VA Loma Linda, files $5 million lawsuit

Obernolte concurs.

“The hostile work environment at VA Loma Linda has led to the loss of numerous committed and respected employees who were important to the success of the VA’s mission, and it has impeded the ability of the staff to provide the timely, high-quality care our veterans have earned,” he said in a statement.

“I strongly urge the VA to discipline VA Loma Linda employees, including leadership and management, who have serious, substantiated allegations against them. Our veterans deserve the highest quality of care, and the people choosing to serve them deserve a productive and safe workplace environment. Anything less is a disservice to both VA employees and the veterans they serve.”

​ Orange County Register 

Is Biden’s border move too little, too late?

• June 13, 2024

President Joe Biden’s announcement of executive action aimed at strengthening the Southern border is surely a welcome – albeit belated – development, considering the migrant crisis plaguing cities across the country.

However, this order – which shuts down the asylum system if the average number of daily encounters hits 2,500 and only reopens once encounters fall to 1,500 – is unlikely to significantly move the needle in Biden’s favor.

Put another way, while this is a step in the right direction, this move, which seems overtly political, coming this close to the election, may be too little too late.

To that end, as encounters between migrants and U.S. law enforcement have surged from roughly 850,00 in 2019 – the last pre-pandemic year under Trump – to a peak of almost 2.5 million in 2023, the border has become a significant political vulnerability for Biden. 

A single executive order, coming five months before the election, is unlikely to fix that, given how long-running disapproval of Biden’s handling of the border has been.

Recent polling underscores the uphill challenge it will be for Biden to convince voters that he has the right approach to immigration and the border, despite this executive order. A dismal one-quarter (25%) of voters approve of Biden’s handling of immigration, per Emerson polling conducted in June.

Indeed, immigration is often cited as a top-3 issue for voters, and as tracked polling from Harvard/Harris reveals, since May 2022, immigration has consistently been an issue where Biden’s approval is lowest.

Further, across all public polls, Biden currently has a 32% average approval on immigration per RealClearPolitics polling averages. This is his second lowest approval rating on any issue tracked by RealClear, trailing other hot-button issues such as the economy (40%), foreign policy (36%), and inflation (35%).

With that said, it isn’t simply that voters are unhappy with Biden’s handling of the border that poses a threat. Rather, it’s that a majority of voters strongly prefer Donald Trump and think he will do a better job.

Trump has a 27-point lead (52% to 25%) among registered voters on the question of who would be better at handling immigration and border security, according to a recent Marquette University poll. 

As CNN noted, this is a drastic reversal from this point in 2020, when the same poll showed Biden with a 1-point lead on the issue.

Even among Latino voters, who are absolutely critical to Biden’s reelection in swing states like Nevada, Arizona, CNBC polling found that Trump led on immigration by a staggering 23-points.

And while it is true that House Republicans share some blame for failing to pass a border bill earlier this year, Biden’s framing of this executive action as bypassing “Republican obstruction” are likely to fall on deaf ears. 

Fair or not, the president is almost always held responsible for immigration and the border, and on this, Democrats have been steadily moving to the left of the national consensus for years. As recent as 2019, every Democratic presidential candidate, including Biden, said they support decriminalizing border crossings.

In that same vein, by moving to the middle on this hot-button issue, Biden has inflamed tensions with the left-wing of his party, which has already begun pushing back. Two Democratic Representatives from California – Reps. Nanette Barragan and Judy Chu – expressed their “disappointment” in comments criticizing the new policy.

Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Biden campaign surrogate, likewise criticized the order as “a functional ban on asylum.” Warren even broke with her state’s governor, Maura Healey, who stands to pay a bigger electoral price, given high levels of voter dissatisfaction with how she’s handling an influx of migrants to Massachusetts. 

Moreover, the ACLU has already promised to sue in order to block this order, ironically forcing the Biden administration to defend similar asylum restrictions that then-President Trump attempted to enact in 2018.

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Taken together, it does not appear that Biden did enough to improve perceptions of his immigration policies among moderates and Independents, nor will this be enough to effectively rebut Trump’s attacks in their upcoming debate.

Part of the problem for Biden is that for three years, Americans have been unwavering in their concern about the Southern border. And even with Congressional stonewalling, Biden could have issued these orders at any time before the migrant crises metastasized  to the point of overwhelming even the most deep-blue states and became the vulnerability it now is.

Ultimately, this is a band-aid on a much more serious problem that demands bipartisan legislation. As I wrote in these pages in February, our immigration system and border security have long needed sweeping reform that goes beyond the scope of an executive order.

And while it remains to be seen what the true electoral impact is of Biden’s shift on the border, it seems unlikely that even this blatantly political move will be enough to overcome the challenges Biden and Democrats have vis-à-vis immigration. 

Douglas Schoen is a longtime Democratic political consultant.

​ Orange County Register 

Trump’s abortion dilemma: He cannot please hardline activists without alienating voters

• June 13, 2024

When former President Donald Trump agreed to address a conference hosted by an organization that opposes abortion in all circumstances, President Joe Biden’s campaign cited the appearance as evidence of Trump’s extremism on the issue. But in his brief recorded remarks at the Danbury Institute’s Life & Liberty Forum in Indianapolis on Monday, Trump did not explicitly mention abortion at all, although he paid lip service to the value of “innocent life.”

That episode reflects the dilemma Trump faces as he tries to retain the support of pro-life activists without alienating voters who reject the hardline position of groups like the Danbury Institute. Trump has staked out a mushy middle ground that is more consistent with public opinion, even as he brags about his role in overturning Roe v. Wade and describes himself as “the most pro-life president in American history.”

The Danbury Institute’s understanding of “pro-life” is clear. “The greatest atrocity facing our generation today is the practice of abortion — child sacrifice on the altar of self,” it declares. “Abortion must be ended. We will not rest until it is eradicated entirely.”

The group emphatically opposes exceptions that Trump supports. “Abortion is never medically necessary to save the life of a mother,” it says, adding that “aborting an innocent child conceived in rape or incest only compounds the injustice and pain caused by the initial crime.”

Whatever their moral logic, those views are wildly unpopular, even among Republicans. And according to recent polling, voters dissatisfied with current abortion policies overwhelmingly say they are too strict, while 63% of Americans think “abortion should be legal in all or most cases.”

The latter view could be consistent with banning abortion after 15 weeks of gestation, since around 96% of abortions are performed before that cutoff. But Trump, after floating the possibility of a 15-week federal ban, reconsidered the idea.

Trump now says abortion regulation should be left to the states, which jibes with the federalist critique of Roe. Biden, by contrast, supports national legislation that would codify Roe’s limits, without much regard to the constitutional rationale for overriding state legislators in this area.

Roe is often described as recognizing a right to abortion prior to fetal “viability,” which nowadays is said to occur around 24 weeks. But Roe and its progeny also required that post-viability abortions be allowed when pregnancies “endanger the woman’s life or health” — a potentially sweeping exception that arguably mandates “abortion access for all pregnancies.”

That broad interpretation of the health exception underlies Trump’s charge that Democrats are “radically out of touch with the majority of Americans in their support for abortion up until birth,” as Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt put it. Beyond his rejection of abortion on demand, however, Trump is cagey about which restrictions he favors.

Trump has said “heartbeat” laws, which apply around six weeks into a pregnancy and rule out most abortions, are “a terrible thing and a terrible mistake.” But the mistake that Trump perceives seems to be more political than moral.

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After Republicans’ disappointing performance in the 2022 midterm elections, Trump complained that his party’s candidates had “lost large numbers of Voters” because they “poorly handled” the “abortion issue,” especially when they “firmly insisted on No Exceptions.” Republican politicians who share Trump’s concern were relieved when he helped neutralize this electoral liability by accepting a wide range of state policies.

Although Trump’s federalist approach has a sound constitutional basis, his apparent agnosticism regarding exactly how abortion should be regulated suggests he has no firm convictions on the subject. Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, was “deeply disappointed” by Trump’s position, while Live Action founder Lila Rose flatly declared that “President Trump is not a pro-life candidate.”

When push comes to shove, Trump is betting, such critics will swallow their reservations and turn out for the man who ensured Roe’s demise. But as his triangulation shows, that victory was just the beginning of the struggle to persuade Americans that “abortion must be ended.”

Jacob Sullum is a senior editor at Reason magazine. Follow him on Twitter: @jacobsullum.

​ Orange County Register 

Federal Reserve sees just one rate cut this year

• June 13, 2024

Federal Reserve officials said Wednesday that inflation has fallen further toward their target level in recent months but signaled that they expect to cut their benchmark interest rate just once this year.

The policymakers’ forecast for one rate cut was down from their previous projection of three cuts, because inflation, despite having cooled in the past two months, remains persistently above their target level.

The scaled-back estimate for rate cuts came as something of a surprise, given that the government reported earlier Wednesday that consumer inflation eased in May more than most economists had expected. That report suggested that the Fed’s high-rate polices are succeeding in taming inflation.

Financial markets took encouragement, though, from the policy statement the Fed issued after its latest meeting ended, which underscored that it sees progress in its fight against high inflation. Broad stock indexes rose sharply, and bond yields fell in response.

The policymakers, as expected, kept their key rate unchanged Wednesday at roughly 5.3%. The benchmark rate has remained at that level since July of last year, after the Fed raised it 11 times to try to slow borrowing and spending and cool inflation.

Whenever the Fed does begin to reduce its benchmark rate, now at a 23-year high, it would eventually lighten loan costs for consumers, who have faced punishingly high rates for mortgages, auto loans, credit cards and other forms of borrowing.

The central bank’s rate policies over the next several months could also have consequences for the presidential race. Though the unemployment rate is a low 4%, hiring is robust and consumers continue to spend, voters have taken a generally sour view of the economy under President Joe Biden. In large part, that’s because prices remain much higher than they were before the pandemic struck. High borrowing rates have imposed a further financial burden.

Speaking at a news conference after the Fed meeting ended, Chair Jerome Powell seemed to downplay the significance of the policymakers’ collective forecast of just one rate cut in 2024. That forecast is derived from the individual predictions of 19 policymakers, and Powell noted that 15 of the officials projected either one or two rate cuts this year.

“I would look at all of them as plausible,” he said.

“No one,” the Fed chair added, “brings to this a really strong commitment to a particular rate path. It’s just what they think in a given moment in time.”

Economists say two rate cuts, with the first one coming as early as September, are still possible despite the central bank’s prediction of just one.

“I don’t think September’s off the table,” said Matthew Luzzetti, chief U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank. “To get there, you’d have to have a string of inflation reports like the one we got this morning.”

At his news conference, though, Powell cautioned, “We’ll need to see more good data to bolster our confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2%.”

He also underscored that with the economy still overall healthy, Fed officials feel little urgency to cut rates.

“What we’ve been getting is good progress on inflation, with growth at a good level and with a strong labor market,” the Fed chair said. “Ultimately, we think rates will have to come down to continue to support that. But so far they haven’t had to.”

Uncertainty over when borrowing rates might come down is keeping some consumers on edge, especially those seeking to buy a home who face painfully high mortgage rates, now averaging around 7%.

David Goines, who owns a four-bedroom, two-bath mobile home in Lexington, Oklahoma, began looking for a new house last year but was put off by the elevated mortgage rates.

“Once we calculated what our payments would be for the house that we were looking at, it was just unfeasible,” he said.

Goines, a 36-year-old information technology director, has been holding out hope that rates would ease this year. He’s still waiting.

“We’re pretty pessimistic of the rates even getting down to 5% in the next 12 months,” he said. “Right now, we’re just pretty much stuck.”

On Wednesday morning, the government reported that inflation eased in May for a second straight month, a hopeful sign that an acceleration of prices that occurred early this year may have passed. Consumer prices excluding volatile food and energy costs — the closely watched “core” index — rose just 0.2% from April, the smallest rise since October. Measured from a year earlier, core prices climbed 3.4%, the mildest pace in three years.

“We welcome today’s (inflation) reading and hope for more like that,” Powell said.

Inflation has tumbled from a peak of 9.1% two years ago. The policymakers now face the delicate task of keeping rates high enough to slow spending and fully defeat high inflation without derailing the economy.

Measures of inflation had cooled steadily in the second half of last year, raising hopes that the Fed could achieve a rare “soft landing,” whereby it would manage to conquer inflation through rate hikes without causing a recession. But inflation came in unexpectedly high in the first three months of this year, delaying hoped-for Fed rate cuts and potentially imperiling a soft landing.

As part of the updated quarterly forecasts the policymakers issued Wednesday, they projected that the economy will grow 2.1% this year and 2% in 2025, the same as they had envisioned in March. They expect core inflation to be 2.8% by year’s end, according to their preferred gauge, up from a previous forecast of 2.6%. And they project that unemployment will stay at its current 4% rate by the end of this year and edge up to 4.2% by the end of 2025.

The expectation that the unemployment rate will remain around those low levels indicates that the officials believe that while the job market will gradually slow, it will remain fundamentally healthy.

“By so many measures,” Powell said, “the labor market was kind of overheated two years ago, and we’ve seen it move back into much better balance between supply and demand.”

​ Orange County Register 

Daxon: Raise the flag for Flag Day — and new Brea businesses

• June 13, 2024

Did you know that a declaration to proclaim June 14 as Flag Day started with President Woodrow Wilson in 1916?

Again in 1927, President Calvin Coolidge’s Flag Day proclamation went nowhere. Finally, in 1949, under President Harry Truman, Congress finally gave approval for June 14 to be observed nationally as Flag Day. But it is not a legal holiday, except in Pennsylvania, but we proudly honor our flag on that day.

Flag Day is also a good time to replace that flag that’s faded or a bit tattered. When you do replace it, the old one doesn’t go in the trash. The proper disposal of our flag is by burning it in a retirement ceremony usually done by scouts and veterans’ organizations.

In 2018, Danielle Eby chose to create flag disposal boxes out of wood and painted in red, white and blue for her Girl Scout Gold Award project, equal to Boy Scouts’ Eagle Award. With help from other scouts, her parents and others, the boxes were built and ready for old flags.

Today, as in the beginning, the disposable boxes are conveniently located around town at the Brea Lions Scout Center, Brea Museum, Brea Senior Center, Brea Community Center, Brea Fire Administration offices in the Civic Center and at Birch Hills Golf Course.

Danielle’s parents, Denise and Dale Eby, currently maintain the boxes. Yes, Denise Eby is also Brea’s treasurer and Danielle is a senior at Northern Arizona University.

“Last October,” said Denise, “I took a large quantity to the Orange County Fire Authority when they did their annual retirement.”

She added that Boy Scout Troop 707 plans to take over the project.

Just remember when your flag is ready for retirement, place it in one of flag retirement boxes all around Brea.

Something not retiring in Brea are new places to shop and eat.

Just recently, l discovered the J. Crew Factory store in the Brea Union Plaza center. It took over the former Hallmark Shop and is next to Ultra Beauty Store & Hair Salon, located in the former Pier One store.

A lot of us remember the cool J. Crew Store that was at Brea Mall.  J. Crew Factory is looking good and so are its reduced prices.

A surprise to me is that its manager, Hector, told me it’s been there for three months. It has cool clothing for women, men and kids, plus accessories and even shoes. Hard to believe that was once a card shop.

And there are even more big changes to the Brea Union Plaza.

The former Sears Outlet, next to Nordstrom Rack, is being transformed into a Mor Furniture Store. According to Mike Zeller of Mor, it expects to open in August.

In Brea Downtown, the former Ruby’s Diner is being transformed into a Finney’s Craft House & Kitchen. According to Brad Finney it is family owned, family friendly and was started eight years ago by his twin brother, Greg.

There are currently 14 Finney’s and the Brea location and a couple more are in the works.

Finney’s features an array of craft beers and a varied menu that includes everything from tacos and flatbread pizza to gourmet sandwiches and burgers.

He expects the Ruby’s signage to be gone in about 30 days. Then we’ll see Finney’s “coming soon” signs, but they are making major changes to the property and Finney doesn’t expect them to open until February or March of 2025. I bet it will be worth the wait.

Terri Daxon is a freelance writer and the owner of Daxon Marketing Communications. She gives her perspective on Brea issues twice a month. Contact her at  daxoncomm@gmail.com.

​ Orange County Register 

Despite budget crisis, Orange will save cherished community events, hire police and fire — for now

• June 13, 2024

After weeks of budget deliberations on a projected deficit, the Orange City Council voted Tuesday to temporarily protect beloved community events such as the 3rd of July fireworks celebration and the Christmas tree lighting ceremony.

The council also directed city staffers to continue to hire police and fire officers for roles never before filled, while authorizing a freeze on vacant positions outside of public safety. In addition, the council mandated cuts to community and library services.

Still, the city faces a deep hole for the new fiscal year beginning in July, and the council appears inclined to ask voters for a sales tax in November to fill it.

Orange is facing a $19.1 million structural budget deficit and is on pace to run out of emergency reserve funds within two years, officials say. If approved, the council’s latest direction for revenue enhancements and cuts would still leave the city with a budget deficit next year of more than $8.7 million, according to Finance Director Trang Nguyen.

“Our task is to pass a balanced budget,” Mayor Dan Slater said to the council Tuesday. “Tonight, we couldn’t get there.”

He said he hoped some more cuts might be identified before the seven-member council has a final opportunity at its next meeting June 25 to adjust the city budget before the new fiscal year. Regardless of their decisions in two weeks, councilmembers plan to revisit expenditures in December including the idea of chopping community events or freezing public safety hires.

“We cut tonight $5 million and we saw how painful that was, and if we don’t have revenue coming in, the problems will still exist,” Councilmember Kathy Tavoularis said Tuesday.

A majority of the council rejected again recommendations from city staff to sign off on budget reductions to public safety – spending on police and fire accounts for about two-thirds of Orange’s general fund, or day-to-day, spending.

Conversely, councilmembers provided direction to hire for previously budgeted, yet left vacant, roles that when filled will grow the Police Department to its largest size in city history. They acknowledged the city needs to raise new revenue to sustain the police force and other services.

“The only way we’re going to get there (to a balanced budget) is to pass some kind of a sales tax measure,” Slater said.

The council is still weeks away from having to decide whether to ask voters for a local sales tax this November, but on Tuesday, all seven members voted in favor of city staff coming back to the council with a formal study of some sort of proposal to levy a local tax.

Sales tax in Orange County is 7.75% and 10 cities, as City Manager Tom Kisela pointed out, have added their own local taxes as an additional revenue source. The highest are Los Alamitos and Santa Ana at 9.25%.

Slater and Councilmember Denis Bilodeau called for staff to examine a half-percent sales tax addition that would sunset after six years, but their five colleagues voted instead for studies of either a 0.75% or 1% sales tax, citing a need for the city to raise more revenue.

“I can’t in good conscience light off fireworks while asking people to dig into their pockets,” Bilodeau said before his minority vote, along with Slater and Tavoularis, to end the 3rd of July fireworks show. “We don’t have the money to fund all these things. There are things that we need to have and things that we want to have, and this is a want to have.”

Councilmember John Gyllenhammer, in the majority, disagreed. “There’s value to these events, value to living in Orange,” he said. “It’s an investment in Orange.”

City Attorney Michael Vigliotta said he needed to research the legality of a sunsetting sales tax that could potentially vanish after Orange ran a budget surplus for a certain number of years. Currently, staff estimate that a 1% sales tax could help Orange increase annual revenue by up to $40 million.

In support of a sales tax measure, Tavoularis called Orange a “cheap city” that historically has spent less than many of its neighbors. But she and others on the dais also expressed their opinion that the city has not done enough economic development to keep up with services for a growing population and an increasing number of unfunded state mandates. A city staffer pointed out that Orange has run a structural deficit since fiscal year 2009 during the Great Recession, but through the years has used one-time money sources and other options for covering costs.

Councilmembers Jon Dumitru, Ana Gutierrez and Arianna Barrios made informal calls for a budget audit going back at least several years to determine how Orange ended up in this predicament and why previous city leaders allowed an annual deficit to grow for more than a decade.

City staff will also continue research into fee studies to see where Orange can generate more money. Tavoularis and Barrios are advocates of asking Chapman University, which is exempt from property taxes, to make a payment to the city in lieu of taxes. The council previously discussed imposing some sort of per-student public safety fee on Chapman, a measure that Gyllenhammer said in May might not be warranted without assessing data on the university’s impact.

Staff say they also are working on development plans to help Orange capitalize on its proximity to Disneyland, potentially bringing forward an incentive program to lure upscale hotels to the west side of the city.

Near the end of the meeting this week, Kisela apologized to the council for delays in responding to their study requests, saying that staff has had little time to examine anything other than line item cuts to the budget.

In a warning about overworked city staff and their low morale, Kisela said City Hall faces a “self-correcting problem.” He worries overburdened employees will find new places to work by the end of the year — inadvertently correcting the city’s budget crisis by trimming the payroll.

“I would say in about six months that people aren’t going to be here, and that’s going to be a result of some of the things that are happening tonight,” he said.

“The only reason I’m still here is because I made a commitment for two years,” he added. Kisela, a former Orange police chief, was lured out of retirement by the council to become interim city manager in 2022. The interim tag was removed in early 2023.

Kisela said Orange has a history of “always getting by.”

Now, he said, it’s time for the city to start “thinking big.”

And, he said, “Thinking big costs money.”

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