Security guard shot in Laguna Hills

• October 18, 2023

A security guard was shot Tuesday while sitting in his patrol car in a Laguna Hills neighborhood.

Orange County sheriff’s deputies were dispatched about 11 a.m. to Saddle Rock Place and Bridlewood Drive regarding the shooting, sheriff’s Sgt. Mike Woodroof said.

Deputies found a man, who was a security guard, in a car. The man was taken to a hospital, said Woodroof, who did not have details on how seriously the guard was injured.

A “person of interest” was detained at the scene, Woodroof told a video journalist for ONSCENE.TV.

Woodroof said that the shooting appears to be an isolated incident and there is no threat to the community.

The victim was a security guard but it was unknown whether he worked in the area, the sergeant said. A witness to the shooting dialed 911, Woodroof said.

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​ Orange County Register 

This week’s bestsellers at Southern California’s independent bookstores

• October 18, 2023

The SoCal Indie Bestseller List for the sales week ended Oct. 15 is based on reporting from the independent booksellers of Southern California, the California Independent Booksellers Alliance and IndieBound. For an independent bookstore near you, visit IndieBound.org.

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. Tom Lake: Ann Patchett

2. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store: James McBride

3. The Fraud: Zadie Smith

4. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow: Gabrielle Zevin

5. Death Valley: Melissa Broder

6. The Mysteries: Bill Watterson, John Kascht (Illus.)

7. Roman Stories: Jhumpa Lahiri, Todd Portnowitz (Transl.)

8. Demon Copperhead: Barbara Kingsolver

9. Lessons in Chemistry: Bonnie Garmus

10. The Last Devil to Die: Richard Osman

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life: Arnold Schwarzenegger

2. Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon: Michael Lewis

3. The Creative Act: A Way of Being: Rick Rubin

4. Elon Musk: Walter Isaacson

5. Making It So: A Memoir: Patrick Stewart

6. Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World: Naomi Klein

7. Every Man for Himself and God Against All: A Memoir: Werner Herzog

8. Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America: Heather Cox Richardson

9. Enough: Cassidy Hutchinson

10. Begin Again: How We Got Here and Where We Might Go — Our Human Story. So Far: Oliver Jeffers

MASS MARKET

1. 1984: George Orwell

2. The Name of the Wind: Patrick Rothfuss

3. Interview with the Vampire: Anne Rice

4. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Douglas Adams

5. The Way of Kings: Brandon Sanderson

6. Elvis and Me: The True Story of the Love Between Priscilla Presley and the King of Rock N’ Roll: Priscilla Presley, Sandra Harmon

7. Storm Front: Jim Butcher

8. American Gods: Neil Gaiman

9. 2001: A Space Odyssey: Arthur C. Clarke

10. The Catcher in the Rye: J.D. Salinger

TRADE PAPERBACK FICTION

1. Trust: Hernan Diaz

2. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo: Taylor Jenkins Reid

3. The Way Forward: Yung Pueblo

4. The Midnight Library: Matt Haig

5. The Idiot: Elif Batuman

6. Big Swiss: Jen Beagin

7. Babel: R. F. Kuang

8. Klara and the Sun: Kazuo Ishiguro

9. The Thursday Murder Club: Richard Osman

10. Bunny: Mona Awad

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​ Orange County Register 

Crystal Cove’s priciest per square foot? This $27 million mansion

• October 18, 2023

A Newport Coast home that sold for $27 million has set a Crystal Cove record as the priciest per square foot.

Based on the sale price, the value of the 6,271-square-foot Spanish-style mansion with four bedrooms and eight bathrooms was $4,306 per square foot.

The deal bested the 18,717-square-foot Crystal Cove estate that LoanDepot CEO Anthony Hsieh bought in October 2020 for $61 million at $3,259 per square foot.

According to the listing, the new record holder was built in 2016 on nearly a half-acre lush hilltop in the 24-hour guard-gated neighborhood. The house fronts a saltwater pool and spa with coastal views.

Records show it previously sold for $25 million in June 2022. This past July, the sellers put the home on the market for $29.995 million. It sold for 10% below the asking price on Sept. 7.

The house has an interior entry courtyard with a custom wall fountain that connects to the formal foyer.

Slide-away glass walls in the great room open to the courtyard on one side and an oceanview loggia on the other.

There are two indoor kitchens, with the main boasting custom wooden cabinets, polished stone countertops, an oversized island and a walk-in pantry. The other kitchen is in a second-level, apartment-style suite.

Other highlights include a formal dining room with a cross-vaulted ceiling, an office and a main-level primary suite. It opens to the backyard and features a fireplace, a walk-in closet and a bathroom with a freestanding tub.

Outside, a fireplace warms the outdoor living room. There’s a fire pit seating area and a built-in barbecue area with bar seating.

A four-car garage adds to the offerings.

Tim Smith of The Smith Group at Coldwell Banker Realty held the listing. Jenny Tsao of Rowland Heights-based Ameriway Realty represented the buyer, who purchased the property through an LLC with an address in Diamond Bar.

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​ Orange County Register 

ALCS: Max Scherzer returns for Rangers with chance for 3-0 series lead on Astros

• October 18, 2023

By STEPHEN HAWKINS AP Baseball Writer

ARLINGTON, Texas — Max Scherzer has pitched only once since a miserable night in early September that saw the Houston Astros complete an overwhelming three-game sweep of the Texas Rangers.

When the three-time Cy Young Award winner returns to the mound Wednesday night after missing just more than a month because of a muscle strain in his shoulder, the Rangers will be trying to take a 3-0 lead over those same Astros in the American League Championship Series.

“When the first diagnosis was a teres strain, four to six weeks, for one day I was kind of relieved about it,” Scherzer said Tuesday. “And then it’s been a grind to get myself back to this point to be able to go out there and take the ball again. That’s been my mentality this past month.”

Texas, off to a 7-0 postseason start, will be the fifth team Scherzer has pitched for in the playoffs – he is 7-7 with a 3.58 in 27 games with Detroit, Washington, the Dodgers and the New York Mets. The Rangers acquired the 39-year-old right-hander from New York in a deadline deal in hopes of starts just like this.

Scherzer was dealing with forearm tightness six weeks ago when he allowed seven runs – all on three homers – over three innings in the Astros’ 12-3 win. That wrapped up a series in which Houston hit 16 homers and outscored Texas 39-10. He exited after 5⅓ scoreless innings six days later, on Sept. 12 at Toronto, before going on the injured list because of the shoulder strain.

Manager Bruce Bochy said Scherzer threw nearly 70 pitches in a simulated game last week, and that will be the initial target Wednesday night.

“He’s been working pretty good, so he can get us at least in that area, if not more,” Bochy said. “The guy is hungry to get out there and pitch. He wants to be part of this.”

Scherzer, whose last start against the Astros was a matchup of three-time Cy Young winners, said he’s healthier physically than he was then when he faced two-time teammate Justin Verlander.

“But I don’t know what my pitch count is going to be,” Scherzer said. “Going in the regular season, you build up for 100-plus pitches. Right now I don’t know what the number is in the playoffs.”

Cristian Javier starts this time for Houston, with the 26-year-old right-hander making his fourth start in 16 postseason appearances. He is 5-1 with a 1.91 ERA in playoff games, including five scoreless innings to win Game 3 of the AL Division Series at Minnesota last week.

“There’s no moment too big for him,” catcher Martín Maldonado said.

In his only start against Texas this season, Javier allowed eight runs and nine hits over 4⅓ innings in the finale of the Astros’ only other series in Arlington, when they won 12-11 in July.

Going into only their second home game in these playoffs, the wild-card Rangers’ seven-game winning streak matches Houston’s start last October on its way to winning the World Series. That is one short of the MLB record for best postseason start, set by Kansas City in 2014. Those Royals lost a seven-game World Series when San Francisco won its third title in a five-year span under Bochy.

This is the fifth time since the All-Star break the Rangers have won at least six games in a row, but they also had four losing streaks of at least three games in that span, including an eight-game skid. They had a 20-game stretch in September when they lost four games in a row, won six, lost four and then won six more.

That up-and-down stretch began with that home series that allowed the Astros to take sole possession of the AL West for the first time this year and dropped Texas a season-high three games behind the division lead.

The Astros have never overcome an 0-2 deficit to win a seven-game series but were in a similar situation when they last got to Globe Life Field for the Labor Day series opener. They had just been swept at home by the New York Yankees, but then set a franchise record for the most homers in any three-game span, and matched a major league mark with at least five homers in three consecutive games.

Houston already had the head-to-head tiebreaker and finished 9-4 in the season series but needed every one of those wins to be able to match Texas at 90 victories on the final day of the regular season and put that tiebreaker into play. This time, the Astros need to win at least two of three games to extend the series and get back home.

“All I know, certain places that you go you feel very comfortable as a hitter offensively. And I know our guys see the ball well here,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said. “The way we look at it, we were one hit in each game away from winning those games. So we could be 2-0, but we’re not, but it gives comfort in the fact that we know how close we are at getting it together.”

​ Orange County Register 

Judge rejects latest attempt to toss Georgia election charges

• October 18, 2023

By Marshall Cohen | CNN

Jury selection in the first Georgia election subversion trial is set to begin Friday as planned, after the judge issued a slew of rulings Tuesday rejecting attempts to throw out the charges.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee denied eight motions from co-defendants Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, pro-Donald Trump lawyers who are the first to go to trial.

Chesebro is accused of helping orchestrate the fake electors plot and Powell is charged with crimes stemming from the Coffee County voting system breach. They are the first of the 19 defendants to go to trial, because they invoked their right to a speedy trial.

They have already lost several bids to get the case dismissed. Both have pleaded not guilty

In an 18-page ruling, McAfee rejected the defendants’ arguments that Fulton County prosecutors misapplied Georgia’s anti-racketeering law, and that the indictment failed to establish key elements of the crimes that have been charged, among other things.

“The Court finds that the indictment contains the necessary elements of each offense and sufficiently apprises the defendant of what she must be prepared to meet at trial,” he said.

Jury selection is scheduled to begin Friday.

Roughly 900 residents of Fulton County have been summoned for the jury selection process, and the judge said Monday that he’ll tell potential jurors that the trial is expected to last about five months.

The trial would overlap with the opening months of the 2024 GOP primaries, including the Iowa caucuses in January, Super Tuesday in early March and likely the Georgia primary on March 12.

Trump’s trial is not yet scheduled. One defendant, bail bondsman Scott Hall, has already pleaded guilty and agreed to testify for the prosecution at the trials.

​ Orange County Register 

California cracks down on ‘forever chemicals,’ or PFAS, found in food packaging

• October 18, 2023

California Attorney General Rob Bonta hosted a press conference on Tuesday, Oct. 17 at Los Angeles State Historic Park, to warn companies of their responsibility to disclose the presence of dangerous PFAS under Assembly Bill 1200.

He issued a letter to manufacturers, distributors, and sellers of food packaging and cookware, alerting them that they must adhere to AB 1200, a recently enacted law that restricts the presence of PFAS in food packaging and imposes labeling disclosure requirements for cookware.

Bonta also issued a consumer alert with tips for reducing exposure to PFAS, referred to as “forever chemicals” which include thousands of toxic chemicals widely used in every day products including food packaging, cookware, clothing, carpets, shoes, fabrics, polishes, waxes, paints and cleaners.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta hosted a press conference on Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023, at Los Angeles State Historic Park to warn companies of their responsibility to disclose the presence of dangerous PFAS under Assembly Bill 1200. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles daily News/SCNG)

“Like so many Californians, I am greatly concerned about PFAS exposure,” Bonta said in a press release. “These chemicals are toxic and are all around us. … As the People’s Attorney, I’ve been turning that concern into concrete action by holding accountable big PFAS manufacturers like 3M and DuPont and supporting federal efforts to better protect Americans’ drinking water supply from PFAS.”

Bonta said the PFAS enforcement advisory letter and the consumer alert that he issued “continue these important efforts to protect Californians from harm.”

AB 1200 took effect January 1, 2023, prohibiting the manufacture, distribution, or sale of plant-based (paper) food packaging that contains PFAS. AB 1200 also requires cookware manufacturers to disclose — on the internet or on product labels — the presence of PFAS and other chemicals. It also prohibits manufacturers from claiming their cookware is PFAS-free unless certain conditions are met.

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Susan Little, a senior advocate for California government affairs at the Environmental Working Group (EWG), said in the press release, “PFAS are known as ‘forever chemicals’ because they are among the most persistent compounds in existence. They never break down in the environment, and they build up in people. These chemicals don’t belong in our food packaging or our food. Exposure to PFAS isn’t just a concern; it’s a substantial health hazard. Studies have linked them to increased cancer risks and devastating impacts on reproductive and immune systems, even at tiny concentrations.”

California Attorney General Rob Bonta hosted a press conference on Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023, at Los Angeles State Historic Park to warn companies of their responsibility to disclose the presence of dangerous PFAS under Assembly Bill 1200. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles daily News/SCNG)

Dr. Max Aung, assistant professor in the division of environmental health at USC, said that national health studies have detected PFAS “in nearly all U.S. residents.” He said in the press release, “There is increasing evidence in human studies and experimental models that PFAS are linked to several chronic health conditions. … These findings, coupled with increasing community concerns about PFAS contamination, underscore the need to use the best available science and multi-sector partnerships to reduce exposure and protect human health and the environment.”

​ Orange County Register 

Arab leader summit called off as Biden heads to Israel

• October 18, 2023

By Colleen Long, Aamer Madhani and Chris Megerian | Associated Press

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s efforts to tamp down tensions in the escalating war between Israel and Hamas faced massive setbacks even before he departed for the Middle East on Tuesday, as Jordan called off the president’s planned summit with Arab leaders after a deadly explosion at a Gaza hospital killed hundreds.

Biden now will visit only Israel and will postpone his travel to Jordan, a White House official said as Biden departed.

The postponement of the Amman summit comes after Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas withdrew from the scheduled meetings in protest of the attacks, which the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza blamed on an Israeli airstrike. The Israeli military said it had no involvement and pinned the blame on a misfired Palestinian rocket.

“This war and this aggression are pushing the region to the brink,” Ayman Safadi, Jordan’s foreign minister, told al-Mamlaka TV, a state-run network. He said Jordan would only host the summit when all participants agreed on its purpose, which would be to “stop the war, respect the humanity of the Palestinians, and deliver the aid they deserve.”

The cancellation reflects an increasingly volatile situation that will test the limits of American influence in the region as Biden visits Wednesday.

Biden’s decision to put himself in a conflict zone — the same year he made a surprise visit to Ukraine — demonstrates his willingness to take personal and political risks as he becomes heavily invested in another intractable foreign conflict with no clear end game and plenty of opportunity for things to spiral out of control.

The high-stakes presidential trip is emblematic of Biden’s belief that the United States should not turn back from its central role on the global stage and his faith that personal diplomacy can play a decisive role.

“This is how Joe Biden believes politics works and history is made,” said Jon Alterman, a senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies who worked on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee while Biden was a member.

There’s been no water, fuel or food delivered to Gaza since the brutal Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that killed more than 1,400 Israelis and triggered the unfolding war. Mediators have been struggling to break a deadlock over providing supplies to desperate civilians, aid groups and hospitals.

As the humanitarian crisis grows, so too does the concern of a spiraling conflict that stretches beyond the borders of Gaza. There have already been skirmishes on Israel’s northern border with Hezbollah, an Iran-backed group that’s based in Southern Lebanon.

“There’s a lot that can go wrong on this trip,” Alterman said.

Biden’s travels will be rife with security concerns, and visits by other U.S. officials have been disrupted by rocket launches into Israel. Additional Israeli airstrikes in Gaza could also prompt more condemnation at a time when Biden is intending to demonstrate solidarity with the United States’ closest ally in the region.

The U.S. has subtly shifted its message over the past week, maintaining full-throated support for Israel while slowly turning up the diplomatic volume on the need for humanitarian assistance in Gaza, as Biden and aides have heard increasingly dire predictions about the potential for images of suffering Palestinians to ignite protests and broader unrest throughout the Middle East.

U.S. officials said it has become clear that already limited Arab tolerance of Israel’s military operations would evaporate entirely if conditions in Gaza worsened.

Their analysis projected that outright condemnation of Israel by Arab leaders would not only be a boon to Hamas but would likely encourage Iran to step up its anti-Israel activity, adding to fears that a regional conflagration might erupt, according to four officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss internal administration thinking.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, bouncing back and forth between Arab and Israeli leadership ahead of Biden’s visit, spent seven and a half hours meeting Monday in Tel Aviv in an effort to broker some kind of aid agreement and emerged with a green light to create a plan on how aid can enter Gaza and be distributed to civilians.

It was on the surface a modest accomplishment, but U.S. officials stressed that it represented a significant change in Israel’s position going in — that Gaza would remain cut off from fuel, electricity, water and other essential supplies.

Biden has a long track record of showing public support for Israel while expressing concerns privately to the Israelis about their behavior.

“He believes the only way to get inside the Israelis’ heads is to demonstrate profound empathy, but also to be there,” Alterman said.

In the U.S., Biden has won rare praise from Republicans over his leadership on Israel, but prospects for providing additional aid are uncertain. The administration has said it would ask for more than $2 billion in aid for both Israel and Ukraine, though House Republicans remain in disarray.

Still, Biden is committed to both Ukraine and Israel.

“We’re the United States of America, for God’s sake, the most powerful nation in the history of the world,” he said this week on CBS’ “60 Minutes” when asked whether the wars in Israel and Ukraine were more than the U.S. can take on at once. “We have the capacity to do this and we have an obligation to. … And if we don’t, who does?”

In Israel, Biden was expected to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials. His plans to then meet in Jordan with King Abdullah II, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas were scrapped.

The Israel-Palestinian conflict has been ongoing for decades, and to a large extent, it’s involved the same cadre of men. Netanyahu is the longest-serving prime minister in Israeli history. Abbas has been Palestinian president for nearly 20 years. Abdullah II has been king since 1999 — Biden has called the Jordanian king a loyal ally in a “tough neighborhood.” El-Sissi is the newest leader, president since 2014.

It’s important for these leaders, too, to avoid a prolonged and engulfing regional escalation, particularly as Egypt and Jordan face growing economic tumult.

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In September, the International Monetary Fund issued a report saying that Egypt and Jordan are among the countries in the region that “stand at the brink of a debt crisis.” Egypt in particular is struggling with high inflation.

Neither nation wants to absorb refugees. Jordan already has a large Palestinian population, and the country is coping with hundreds of thousands of refugees from neighboring Syria, Iraq and elsewhere.

With tens of thousands of troops massed along the Israel-Gaza border, Israel has been expected to launch a ground invasion — but plans remain uncertain. U.S. officials have refused to say whether the Israelis were holding off in order for Biden to visit.

“We are preparing for the next stages of war,” Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht said. “We haven’t said what they will be. Everybody’s talking about a ground offensive. It might be something different.”

Meanwhile, the death toll is mounting even without the war’s next stage. Israeli strikes on Gaza have killed at least 2,700 people and wounded more than 9,700, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Nearly two-thirds of those killed were children, a ministry official said.

Another 1,200 people across Gaza are believed to be buried under the rubble, alive or dead. More than 1 million Palestinians have fled their homes — roughly half of Gaza’s population — and 60% are now in the approximately 8-mile-long (14-kilometer-long) area south of the evacuation zone, according to the United Nations.

Associated Press Writers Josh Boak in Washington, Josef Federman in Jerusalem and Matthew Lee in Amman, Jordan, contributed to this report.

​ Orange County Register 

WNBA Finals: Aces lose ‘general’ Chelsea Gray for Game 4 vs. Liberty

• October 17, 2023

NEW YORK — Chelsea Gray is out at least for Game 4 of the WNBA Finals after suffering an injury to her left foot Sunday.

The Las Vegas Aces star guard was wearing a boot on her foot and had it propped up on a scooter she used to get into practice Tuesday. She was injured in Game 3 on Sunday midway through the fourth quarter.

“It’s painful. I’m waiting for more information, it’s not good,” said Gray, who was going to wait until she got back to Las Vegas for further evaluation.

Las Vegas also will be missing forward Kiah Stokes, who had a boot on her right foot.

“I don’t know exactly, I woke up and my foot was hurting and we’re trying to figure it out from there,” Stokes said.

Game 4 is Wednesday night in New York and Las Vegas leads the best-of-five series 2-1. Game 5 would be on Friday if the Liberty even the series.

“You get to the Finals and you don’t get this time back. So it sucks in that way,” Gray said. “But I’m excited still to win a championship. We do it by committee. We haven’t been whole for a long time. Candace (Parker) has been out … so we’re kind of built for this moment.”

Gray said that she injured the foot in the fourth quarter of Las Vegas’ 87-73 loss to New York. She tried to shake it off but knew something was wrong when she couldn’t get up and down the court on the next few possessions.

“Obviously the timing (stinks),” Gray said. “There’s only a couple games left in our season.”

Gray, who is averaging 15.6 points and 6.8 assists in the playoffs this year, has been durable throughout her time with Las Vegas since joining the team as a free agent in 2021, missing only one game.

“We lost our general,” coach Becky Hammon said. “I don’t think there’s any one person that’s going to step up and fill her shoes.”

With Gray and Stokes out, the Aces will need to rely on reserves Sydney Colson and Cayla George to fill their void.

The Aces depth was one of the teams major questions coming into the season. Coming off the championship last year, Las Vegas hoped to increase its depth, but because of an injury to Candace Parker that has sidelined her since late July and Riquna Williams’ legal issues, the team hasn’t been able to do that.

The Aces have had to rely heavily on their four stars — Gray, A’ja Wilson, Jackie Young and Kelsey Plum — this season. The four have combined to average 75 of the team’s 88 points a game in the playoffs.

Gray’s injury is the latest in a long line of distractions that the defending champion Aces have had to overcome this season. Before the WNBA’s 27th season began, the league investigated the team after former Aces player Dearica Hamby said she had been bullied and manipulated for being pregnant.

The WNBA suspended Hammon for two games and also rescinded the Aces’ first-round pick in the 2025 draft for a different issue — a violation of league rules regarding impermissible player benefits.

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Unhappy with the league’s findings, Hamby then filed a gender discrimination complaint last month against the WNBA and the Aces with the Nevada Equal Rights Commission and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

“A lot of adversity and pretty much my girls have held their tongues, been professional the whole time and went about their business,” Hammon said.

WNBA Finals Game 4

Who: Las Vegas Aces at New York Liberty

When: Wednesday, 5 p.m.

Where: Barclays Center, Brooklyn, New York

TV: ESPN

​ Orange County Register