Fryer: A look back at Orange County’s highlights, standouts in 2023-24

• June 13, 2024

It is impossible in the space provided to include all of the Orange County highlights from the 2023-24 high school sports year.

Here is some of it …

• Orange County’s most dominating athlete this year might have been Newport Harbor senior wrestler Duda Rodrigues. She went undefeated for the second year in a row, winning everything she could through the CIF State Championships, where she pinned all of her opponents to win the 155-pound title. Rodrigues competed in high school wrestling for only two years, having moved to Orange County from Brazil before her junior year. …

• Also dominating this year was Santa Margarita swimmer Teagan O’Dell, who might turn out to be Orange County’s best girls swimmer since Janet Evans at El Dorado in the 1980s. O’Dell, a junior, swam county-leading times in five events. At the CIF Southern Section Division 1 championships, O’Dell won the 200 individual medley in 1 minute, 53.63 seconds, just shy of the national-high school record (1:53.38) she set at the 2023 CIF State finals. …

• Another likely near-future Olympian was JSerra senior Ryder Dodd, who scored 103 goals this year although he missed a few games while leading Team USA in scoring at the Pan American Games. …

• Dodd was selected as the male athlete of the year by the Orange County Athletic Directors Association. OCADA named Ocean View senior Isis Salazar the girls athlete of the year. Salazar competed in five sports this year. Two years ago, she scored a touchdown as a running back on the Ocean View football team. …

• The best athletic event of the year might have been Mater Dei vs. Servite boys volleyball match on March 13 at Servite. Mater Dei won the first two sets, Servite won the next two sets. In the decisive fifth set, Servite and Mater Dei traded match-point chances before Mater Dei took the set for the victory, 25-18, 25-17, 24-26, 23-25, 23-21. …

• Servite’s 27-20 overtime win over Long Beach Poly in the CIF-SS Division 2 football playoffs was a dazzler, too. Servite could have won it in regulation but an extra-point attempt went awry, Poly missed a field goal on the final play of regulation, and overtime’s final play was a Poly fumble recovered by Servite’s Brandon Mosqueda. …

Servite wide receiver Devan Parker, left,, wide receiver Quinn Rosenkranz, center, and running back Quaid Carr, right, celebrate winning the CIF-SS Division 2 quarterfinal playoff against Long Beach Poly in Norwalk on Friday, November 10, 2023. (Photo by Paul Rodriguez, Contributing Photographer)

• Another great football game was Mission Viejo’s 34-28 triple-overtime win over Los Alamitos in a nonleague game in September. …

• The most impactful news of the 2023-24 school year relates to what’s coming for the 2024-25 school year and beyond: teams in most sports will be placed into CIF Southern Section playoff divisions according to that season’s regular-season performance. That’s how it’s has been done for football the last two seasons. Now other sports will do the same, using ratings compiled by MaxPreps.com and others. …

• The second-most impactful news of the school year also relates to what’s coming in 2024-25: new league structures were approved by county schools in October. Included is the construction of the Crestview League boys basketball group that includes Canyon (22-8 last season), Cypress (23-7), Foothill (21-9), La Habra (29-5) and Sonora (20-9). Those five teams were 36-6 in their leagues last season. …

• In his first year as Mater Dei’s football coach, Frank McManus led the Monarchs to CIF-SS and CIF State championships. In April, the school’s administration decided it did not like the manner in which McManus was doing his job. Mater Dei hired Raul Lara, who coached Long Beach Poly to five CIF-SS championships. …

Mater Dei head coach Frank McManus, left, reacts while preparing to present the trophy to quarterback Elijah Brown, center, after the 2023 CIF Open Division high school football state championship game against Serra Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023, in Mission Viejo, Calif. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

• Brea Olinda sophomore Julia Teven started the track and field season struggling to clear 4 feet, 6 inches in the high jump. She ended the season by clearing 5 feet, 7 inches to finish in third place at the CIF State meet. That’s some pretty good progress …

• Aliso Niguel sophomore Jaslene Massey was a formidable middle blocker on the school’s girls volleyball team during the fall and this spring finished third in the shot put at the CIF State meet. She also is adept in the high jump and the long jump, and just might become a fine heptathlete some day. …

• Schools like Aliso Niguel, Mission Viejo and Trabuco Hills deserve applause for adding Unified track and field to their sports programs. Unified sports pair student-athletes with intellectual disabilities with a partner who is a student-athlete who does not have intellectual disabilities to form a tandem for competition. The CIF State Track and Field Championships this past season again included unified competition. …

• Corona del Mar senior Niels Hoffman won the CIF-SS tennis individual championship, becoming only the fourth county player to win consecutive CIF-SS boys individual titles in the sport. The CIF Southern Section has held boys tennis championships since 1922. …

Corona del Mar’s Niels Hoffmann, left, stands with runner-up Tyler Lee of Beckman after capturing his second consecutive CIF-SS singles title Thursday in Claremont. (Photo by Dan Albano, Orange County Register/SCNG)

• Trabuco Hills junior Holly Barker ran the second-fastest 3,200 meters in Orange County history. Her time of 10 minutes, 2.52 seconds at the Arcadia Invitational was the eighth-best time in the nation this school year. She was the county girls cross country athlete of the year in the fall. …

• Dana Hills junior Evan Noonan was Orange County’s only first-place finisher in an individual event at the CIF State Track and Field Championships where he won the 3,200 in 8:43.12. It was the third-best time in that event in county history. He is behind only 1970s greats Eric Hulst of Laguna Beach and Ralph Serna of Loara, and their respective times of 8:41.60 and 8:42.90 are converted from yards to meters. Noonan was the county boys cross country athlete of the year for the ‘23 season. …

• Fountain Valley’s boys wrestling program, led by county wrestler of the year Ryland Whitworth, won a CIF-SS individual tournament team championship for the second year in a row and for the fourth time in five years. With several non-seniors on this year’s team, including Hunter Jauregui and Chris Qureshi, it looks like Barons wrestling will be in good shape next year, too. …

• Girls flag football took off in its first year as an official CIF-SS sport. The sport has grown enough so that it will have CIF-SS championships next season. Newport Harbor, led by junior quarterback Maia Helmar, went 25-1. …

• Kevin Kiernan announced his resignation as girls basketball coach at Mater Dei. He coached the Monarchs to six CIF-SS championships and three state championships. Kiernan, one of the all-time great people in county sports, remains at Mater Dei as athletic director. Including his years at La Quinta and Troy, he is the state’s all–time leader in girls basketball coaching victories with 900. …

• Eric Borba resigned after 16 seasons as Orange Lutheran’s baseball coach. And what a way to go out. Orange Lutheran beat La Mirada in the CIF Southern California Regional Division I championship game. Borba’s teams had won some big tournaments, including three National High School Invitational championships, but had not won a championship that had the initials “CIF” on it until this year. …

Orange Lutheran head coach Eric Borba holds the championship trophy after his team defeated Corona during the championship game of the PBR Spring Invitational at Hart Park in Orange on Friday, March 8, 2024. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

• Longtime Loara boys basketball coach Ed Prange died in November at age 59 of a heart attack. He was an excellent and dedicated coach, and one of the nicer people to coach the game. …

• Rich Boyce resigned as boys basketball coach at Edison. There was no smarter basketball coach in the county. …

• After 20 years of trying, JSerra boys basketball beat Mater Dei for the first time, 68-62 on Jan. 24, as senior guard Aidan Fowler scored 36 points for the Lions. …

• After the boys basketball season ended, Brandon Benjamin transferred back to Canyon after spending one season at Mater Dei. Benjamin, who will be a senior next year, was the county boys basketball player of the year at Canyon in 2022-23.

Related Articles

​ Orange County Register 

Costa Mesa man charged in fatal Newport Beach crash; street racing alleged

• June 13, 2024

A 35-year-old Costa Mesa man has been charged in a two-vehicle fatal crash in Newport Beach that police said Wednesday was the result of street racing.

Andrew Bilat Awad was charged Friday with gross vehicular manslaughter with speeds exceeding 100 mph, according to the criminal complaint.

Awad is accused of killing 86-year-old Bob Gilroy of Newport Beach on Sept. 30 at MacArthur Boulevard and Bowspirit Drive, according to Sgt. Steve Oberon of the Newport Beach Police Department.

Awad was arrested Sunday, Oberon said. It was not clear if Awad was currently in custody.

Related Articles

​ Orange County Register 

Suspect arrested in shooting of 2 teens in Santa Ana, killing 1

• June 13, 2024

A 27-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of fatally shooting a 13-year-old boy and injuring a 16-year-old male bystander in Santa Ana, police said Wednesday, June 12.

The shooting occurred the afternoon of June 5 in a neighborhood on the 900 block of West Bishop Street. Two 13-year-old boys were on foot when they were shot at. One teen fled the scene uninjured while the other suffered a gunshot wound in the upper torso and died in the hospital two days later, police said in a statement.

A third teen, described as an innocent bystander, was shot inside his residence and was hospitalized in critical but stable condition.

On June 7, police arrested Raymond Mario Jimenez from Santa Ana on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and shooting inside an inhabited dwelling.

The shooting was believed to be gang-related, Santa Ana police have said.

Related Articles

​ Orange County Register 

Angels manager Ron Washington thrilled with players’ response to extended pregame meeting

• June 13, 2024

PHOENIX — Class went long for the Angels on Wednesday afternoon.

The Angels have met almost every day this season to go over what went wrong – and right – from the previous game, but the “classroom,” as Manager Ron Washington calls it, was different this time.

Washington said “there were some things we wanted to address,” so the session ended up being much longer than usual.

“When you get guys into what you’re doing, the conversation is getting longer and longer,” Washington said. “We ended up having to cut it off because we (could) have done it all the way to game time.”

The general theme, Washington said, “was more about us making certain that we take care of each other. Can’t get into your feelings. Just hold each other accountable. That’s all. And just play baseball. And where there are mistakes we are going to talk about it. When it’s things that are done extremely well, we’re going to talk about it, so it’s not like we just talked about negative stuff.”

Washington said a few players addressed the group.

“It was tremendous,” Washington said. “I’ve been in the game 54 years and that was one of the most moving times I’ve had with these guys. … They stood up like grown men and handled their business. I was very proud of them.”

Washington said he didn’t want to speak, but players pushed him to say a few things.

Such meetings have been necessary for the Angels as they go through this painful rebuilding season. The Angels came into Wednesday’s game with a 25-41 record. Fundamental mistakes have been frequent, including in Tuesday night’s ugly 9-4 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Washington said it’s important for players to help guide each other in these times, instead of simply having the coaching staff direct things.

“It’s very impactful, because we’re on them all the time as coaches,” Washington said. “It’s nice when each and every one of them hold each other accountable. And there was some accountability in there today. And I was very proud of the way they handled it. I really was. So now when they talk to (the media), don’t be surprised how well they handle themselves.”

O’HOPPE, WARD OUT

Catcher Logan O’Hoppe was not in the lineup a day after he took a foul ball square in the cup. O’Hoppe said he was “100%” physically able to play on Wednesday, but Washington wanted to give him a day off anyway.

“I just didn’t want to push him back out there,” Washington said. “He’s ready to go. He’ll be back in there tomorrow. I want him to move around and make sure everything is well.”

O’Hoppe was reluctant to miss the game, adding that his goal one day is to catch 150 games in a season.

Outfielder Taylor Ward came out of Tuesday’s game with lower back stiffness. Ward said he was “better,” on Wednesday, but he agreed that “it’s best” to take another day.

Related Articles

NOTES

A day after right-hander Chase Silseth gave up six runs in 2⅔ innings in the first Triple-A game of his rehab assignment, Washington said that Silseth “came out of it healthy.” As for the performance, “I think the numbers told what he looked like.” …

Infielder Brandon Drury “came out well” after the first game of his rehab assignment at Triple-A. Drury was 1 for 3 with a walk. Drury is expected to play in the minors for the rest of the week. …

Pitching coach Barry Enright received his National League championship ring from the Diamondbacks before Wednesday night’s game. Enright was the Diamondbacks’ assistant pitching coach last season.

UP NEXT

Angels (RHP Griffin Canning, 2-6, 4.65 ERA) at Diamondbacks (RHP Brandon Pfaadt, 2-5, 4.60), Thursday, 6:40 p.m., Bally Sports West, 830 AM

​ Orange County Register 

Republicans stick to attacking criminal justice system, echoing Trump, after Hunter Biden conviction

• June 12, 2024

By JONATHAN J. COOPER and ERIC TUCKER

PHOENIX — Republicans are responding to Hunter Biden’s conviction on federal gun charges with some version of, “That’s it?”

Loyal to Donald Trump, they largely echoed the former president’s claim that the Justice Department has treated President Joe Biden’s son with kid gloves while zealously prosecuting Trump. Using the attention given to Hunter Biden’s conviction for charges related to buying a gun while addicted to drugs, they pressed unsubstantiated or debunked allegations that Joe Biden — while vice president — acted to advance his family members’ foreign business interests.

The GOP’s argument that Joe Biden is ordering prosecutors to target political opponents has been hurt by the Biden-led Justice Department prosecuting the president’s son — with Biden declining to stop the investigation or pardon Hunter Biden. But in making that case, Republicans may be trying to deflect from Trump’s own stated intentions to wield the criminal justice system against opponents if he returns to the White House.

While president, Trump tried to undercut the Justice Department investigation into his campaign’s alleged ties to Russia and issued pardons to a raft of former campaign aides, friends and donors. And on the campaign trail, Trump has repeatedly declared he is the victim of a “rigged” system and promised to appoint a special prosecutor to target Biden and his family.

House Republicans voted Wednesday to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress, further escalating their battle with the Justice Department.

And Trump sent a fundraising email with the subject line, “Haul out the Guillotine!” The email claimed Trump’s critics have a “Sick Dream” to see him beheaded, the latest example of Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric since his hush money conviction.

In a deal with prosecutors last year, Hunter Biden was supposed to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax offenses and avoid prosecution in the gun case if he stayed out of trouble for two years. But the deal fell apart after the judge, who was nominated by Trump, questioned unusual aspects of the proposed agreement, and the lawyers could not resolve the matter.

He was convicted Tuesday and faces a potential 25 years in prison, though as a first-time offender he is likely to get far less time or avoid prison entirely.

He still faces a trial in September in California on charges of failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes, and congressional Republicans have signaled they will keep going after him in their stalled impeachment effort into the president. The president has not been accused or charged with any wrongdoing by prosecutors investigating his son.

Biden definitively ruled out pardoning his son during an ABC News interview last week. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday did not rule out the president issuing a potential commutation that might reduce or erase a sentence while leaving the conviction intact.

Hunter Biden’s conviction came weeks after a New York jury found Trump guilty of 34 counts related to a hush money payment to a porn actor during the 2016 campaign. Trump falsely claims the verdict was “rigged.” Biden said he accepted his son’s verdict.

Trump’s campaign issued a statement calling the Hunter Biden verdict “nothing more than a distraction from the real crimes of the Biden Crime Family.” Several of his allies followed.

“Remember this was Joe Biden’s corrupt DOJ that tried to negotiate outside immunity unrelated to this case,” said Rep. Elise Stefanik, a New York Republican and a contender to be Trump’s vice presidential running mate. “Today is the first step in delivering accountability for the Biden Crime Family.”

Sen. J.D. Vance, an Ohio Republican and another vice presidential contender, shared a post by Ohio Republican Senate candidate Bernie Moreno saying the gun charges were meant to “insulate and protect” the president.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said the guilty verdict was “appropriate” and didn’t undercut his own criticism of a two-tiered system of justice for Trump and the Bidens.

“Every case is different,” Johnson said. “And clearly the evidence was overwhelming here. I don’t think that’s the case in the Trump trial, and all the charges that have been brought against him have been obviously brought for political purposes. Hunter Biden is a separate incident.”

Democrats did not attack the Justice Department or the courts. Said Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., the No. 3 House Democrat: “Hunter Biden sat before a jury of his peers, a verdict was rendered and House Democrats believe in the rule of law, and so we respect that ruling.”

As president, Trump repeatedly sought to shape the criminal inquiry into whether his 2016 presidential campaign had conspired with Russia.

He fired the FBI director who led the investigation, berated the attorney general he appointed for recusing himself from overseeing the probe and directed his White House counsel to seek the termination of special counsel Robert Mueller. Those acts, and others, contributed to an investigation into whether he had illegally sought to obstruct the Russia inquiry; Mueller did find evidence of obstruction but declined to make a finding about whether Trump had broken the law.

More recently, Trump and allies have suggested that if elected he might advocate the imprisonment of political opponents, something he championed even before he became president.

In a Fox & Friends interview this month, he falsely asserted that he had not used the words “lock her up” in reference to Hillary Clinton and his 2016 opponent’s use of a private email server to transmit sensitive information as secretary of state. He said he could’ve sought to have her jailed but that it “would have been a terrible thing.”

He suggested things are different now that he faces four felony indictments, including the New York case that resulted in a conviction.

“And then this happened to me, and so I may feel differently about it,” he said.

The charges against Hunter Biden stem from a dark period in his life, during which he acknowledges a spiraling descent following the death of his brother, Beau Biden, to cancer in 2015. Jurors found him guilty of lying to a federally licensed gun dealer when he bought a revolver in 2018, making a false claim on the application by saying he was not a drug user and illegally having the gun for 11 days.

Many in Trump’s Republican Party are staunchly against gun control and some of his supporters have questioned whether Hunter Biden should have been tried on the gun charges.

Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican and high-profile Trump supporter, posted on X, “The Hunter Biden gun conviction is kinda dumb.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told reporters at the Capitol that the gun charge was a “waste of time,” though he said other accusations related to Hunter Biden’s taxes were “serious.”

“I just think he’s being punished,” Graham said, adding the average person would be “put in drug diversion or something.”

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., made similar comments.

“Hunter might deserve to be in jail for something, but purchasing a gun is not it,” Massie posted on X. “There are millions of marijuana users who own guns in this country, and none of them should be in jail for purchasing or possessing a firearm against current laws.”

Tucker reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Stephen Groves and Farnoush Amiri in Washington contributed to this report.

​ Orange County Register 

1 man killed and another injured in Costa Mesa stabbings

• June 12, 2024

COSTA MESA — Police Wednesday were looking for a suspect in the fatal stabbing of one man and the wounding of another victim in Costa Mesa.

Officers responded to a knife attack in the 1700 block of Placentia Avenue at about 11 p.m. Tuesday. A 22-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene.

Authorities did not immediately release the name of the victim.

While investigating the fatal stabbing, police found a 19-year-old man who had been attacked earlier at Placentia Avenue and Shalimar Drive. The second victim, who was taken to a hospital by family members, was believed to have been attacked by the same suspect.

Police suspect the attacks were gang-related.

Anyone who may have helpful information for police was asked to call Detective Ramon Hernandez at 714-754-5097.

Related Articles

​ Orange County Register 

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. points to housing affordability in pitch to Southern California voters

• June 12, 2024

Third-party presidential contender Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pointed to housing affordability as he made his case to Southern California voters ahead of the November election.

Kennedy, who is running a longshot bid for the White House, was set to lay out his foreign policy plans — which cover “how do we wind down the American empire abroad and leave us a stronger country than we are today,” he said — at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda on Wednesday evening. Ahead of that speech, the Southern California News Group caught up with the candidate to talk about the state of the race, artificial intelligence, immigration, housing and more.

As he has throughout his campaign, Kennedy often drew on his family: His father was Robert F. Kennedy, a former U.S. attorney general and U.S. senator; former President John F. Kennedy was his uncle.

But he’s also focused on voters’ dissatisfaction with President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, the presumptive nominees of both major parties. Those two candidates aren’t focused enough on issues that impact Americans’ wallets, including housing affordability, he said in an interview Wednesday.

“If we’re going to keep our middle class — which is the greatest economic engine in the history of mankind — if it’s going to continue to be the foundation stone of democracy, we need to make sure that all of our kids can get into houses,” said Kennedy.

Kennedy, 70, has qualified to be on the ballot in California, Delaware, Hawaii, Michigan, Oklahoma and Utah so far, per the New York Times’ tracker. Petitioning for ballot access is ongoing in several other states, according to his campaign.

With less than five months to go until Election Day, Kennedy is polling a distant third in California, election analytics site 538 shows.

The responses below have only been lightly edited for length and clarity.

SCNG: What is your message to voters in Southern California? Why you over the other presidential candidates? 

Kennedy: Everybody in this country is concerned about the direction that we’re going in. Everybody’s concerned that we now have a $34 trillion debt, which is largely the military budget, and that affects everything. It affects the price of housing. 

Orange County is this kind of utopian ideal for America, and there’s this assumption that everybody should be able to afford a home. And today there’s a whole generation of kids in Orange County who are not going to be able to afford a home, who are going to have lives that are vastly diminished from the lives that their families led. That fact has really dire moral implications for our society, that our children are going to live less well than we are. 

The reasons for that are easy to change. They’re easy to understand, and they’re changeable. 

We need to unravel the war machine. We don’t need 800 bases abroad. … We spend more on our military budget than the next 10 nations combined. 

The bigger cause, which is five times the military budget, is chronic disease. 

In Orange County and elsewhere, parents are watching children being plagued by autoimmune diseases like juvenile diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, neurological diseases, peanut allergies and food allergies. 

We have the sickest children in the world, and this is easy to fix. That’s what the role of government is, to eliminate the toxins that are causing those epidemics and give us healthy kids again. 

SCNG: You just touched on housing affordability, which is obviously a big issue for voters in Southern California. Walk us through the specifics of your plan to make buying a home more accessible. 

Kennedy: The most important thing to do right now is to make it illegal for big investment firms to do mass purchasing of housing. I will immediately propose that legislation to Congress.

If we’re going to keep our middle class — which is the greatest economic engine in the history of mankind — if it’s going to continue to be that, if it’s going to continue to be the foundation stone of democracy, we need to make sure that all of our kids can get into houses. 

I have a whole host of plans, including encouraging and incentivizing federal loans, and incentivizing localities to change their rules to allow innovative housing, particularly housing that’s accessible to the middle class. There are all kinds of new innovations in construction — small houses, environmentally friendly houses — but a lot of times you can’t get permits for them. 

My plan is to increase the current housing construction rate by 2 million a year. And that will not only create a boom for the economy but will also quickly remedy the housing shortage. 

I’m going to do a 3% mortgage for young people trying to get into their first home, and I’ll finance that with the issue of treasury bonds that are tax-free at 3% interest. 

SCNG: Something you’ve been particularly critical of the Biden administration about is immigration and border security. Can you detail your plan for us?

Kennedy: I’m going to shut down the border immediately. We should have high walls at the border, but we should have wide gates with legal immigration. We need to have a compassionate immigration policy that reflects our values and our needs. 

If small businesses in this country are now looking for 10 million workers from abroad, we need to be able to get those workers into place in American businesses to pay taxes in this country and keep Social Security solvent and do all the other things that legal immigrants do for our country. 

I want to make sure there is a faster track for citizenship for people who come in here legally, but no nation can survive if it doesn’t secure its borders.

I’ve seen in New York City and other cities around the country, immigrants are coming in, they’re being preyed upon by predatory employers who are paying them $6-$10 per hour. They’re crushing the social safety net. 

I worked with (labor leader) Cesar Chavez for the last couple of decades of his life. He had two big issues: One was pesticides, which disproportionately affect Hispanic farmworkers, and that was my interest. But the other issue he was working on at the time was securing the border. He understood that the illegal immigrants coming across made it more difficult for him to negotiate more salaries and conditions for U.S. workers. All of the lessons I learned from him are true today. We need to shut down the border. 

• Editor’s note: Cesar Chavez’s family has asked Kennedy and his campaign to stop invoking the late labor leader in his campaign and endorsed Biden in his re-election bid. Kennedy’s father worked closely with Chavez on farmworker labor issues. 

SCNG: A new poll came out this week from Vote Latino that showed you doing fairly well among Latino voters. That poll was conducted in five states — not California — but why do you think your message may resonate with Latino voters?

Kennedy: I think I’m doing fairly well because the concerns of Latino voters are a big priority for me. The issues that affect Latino voters have been a priority for my family for generations.

Plus, I’m talking about issues that they’re concerned with — which is building small businesses. The Hispanic immigrants are right now one of the greatest economic drivers for small businesses. They are very entrepreneurial, very hard-working, and they’re optimistic and idealistic about the American dream.

• Editor’s note: The Vote Latino poll surveyed Latino voters in Arizona, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Texas and found Biden leads Trump in a head-to-head matchup 59% to 39%. But when third-party candidates are added to the mix, including Kennedy, Cornel West and Jill Stein, Biden’s support drops to 47% while Trump is at 34%. Kennedy took 12% in the poll.

Related Articles

SCNG: What is your plan for artificial intelligence? How should the federal government balance regulation and safety and promotion? 

Kennedy: I’d answer the question with the question you just asked me — you have to balance safety, and you have to balance the potential. 

We need to make sure that AI becomes a tool for the people to control their government, which it should be. We should have AI walkers doing inventory in the Pentagon and … auditing the Pentagon for the American people, auditing the entire government. We can make government much more efficient. 

But at the same time, Elon Musk warned that AI is first going to steal our jobs and then it’s going to kill us, and between those two things, it’s going to become potentially a tool for totalitarian control by intelligence agencies, by corporations. That’s the danger. 

This is a very complex issue that we need somebody in office who is thinking about this every single waking moment; how do you make this happen? 

You need to regulate it, but if you overregulate it, you drive it out of the country. 

AI can be used for bad things or good things. We want to keep it in the hands of the people to make government more responsive and more subservient to the people, and we shouldn’t allow it to be used by government to make the people more compliant and subservient.

SCNG: What’s your go-to campaign trail food? 

Kennedy: Dried mangos, and I’m a cheeseburger guy. I eat a lot of those. And whenever I’m near the ocean, I eat fish.

​ Orange County Register 

Home designed by OC college students to be used for transitional youth housing

• June 12, 2024

A small house built by Orange County college students was donated to a Homeless Intervention Services of Orange County shelter in Placentia, doubling the number of young adults the program will be able to support.

The home, which is considered an accessory dwelling unit, will house foster youth who have aged out of the system.

The modular unit was designed and built by a group of 30 students from UC Irvine and Orange Coast College as part of the inaugural Orange County Sustainability Decathlon. The competition brought together college students to not only get hands-on architecture experience, but to do so with affordability and sustainability in mind.

“The ADU gifted from UCI and OCC is going to give us the ability to expand our program. Currently with just the home that we have, we can serve up to nine individuals, both male and female,” Alfa Hernandez, program director at HIS-OC, said. “With the expansion of the ADU coming into the backyard of our home. We’re going to go from nine beds to 17 beds. So it’s going to allow us to reach more individuals that are in need.”

This specific group of youths, ages 18 to 24, are “good at hiding,” Hernandez said, meaning they can be more difficult to reach with services.

“They usually try to hide, in their cars and anywhere, but bringing them here and giving them structure, which is what the program does, it gives them that structure, it allows them to learn life skills,” Hernandez said. “A lot of them come up from broken homes, age out of the foster care system, some their parents kick them out for different reasons, and they don’t have that foundation, that basic safe foundation that they need.”

Orange Coast College students Yuka Suzuki and Georgie Ampudia said the experience building the small house was “life-changing,” and knowing the unit will be used for housing youths on the brink of homelessness has made the project all the more fulfilling.

“It’s nice knowing that what we’re building has a purpose,” Ampudia said. “Working with HIS-OC has been really huge because we’re tackling an actual housing crisis that’s going on. That’s the goal. It’s to help the housing crisis while simultaneously tackling climate change.”

Ampudia said she’ll truly feel like their work is done once the ADU is set up in the shelter’s backyard and folks have been moved in.

HIS-OC staff celebrated the expansion Wednesday and will soon start prepping the space – taking down a fence, cutting a couple of trees and more –  before transporting the unit. The organization is working with the city of Placentia to ensure the ADU meets all city building requirements, Hernandez said.

It will cost approximately $160,000 to transport the unit, as well as build out the plumbing, water and solar power systems. More fundraising is needed, Hernandez added.

“We’re rapidly trying to get funding and looking for donations, but the next step would be breaking down the fence at the back of the house, laying down the foundation and getting all the permits,” Hernandez said.

Mike Moodian, a Chapman University professor and cofounder of the  Orange County Sustainability Decathlon, said the “sky’s the limit” for the students who designed and built the home.

“These 30 students from a community college, Orange Coast College, and a research university, UCI, spent more than a year designing and building a highly sustainable, ultra-efficient, innovative home for this major competition,” Moodian said. “Now, it’s being used at a site to house individuals who aged out of the foster system. That is incredible. Who else can say that they accomplished this during their college years?”

Related Articles

​ Orange County Register