Ficker Cup, qualifier for Congressional Cup regatta, begins in Long Beach

• April 14, 2023

The race for the final two spots in the “grandfather of match racing” has set sail.

The Ficker Cup, a three-day regatta in Long Beach that acts as a qualifier for last available slots in next week’s Congressional Cup, got underway on Friday, April 14.

The Ficker Cup will continue on Saturday and Sunday.

Eight sailing crews took their Catalina 37 yachts on to the waters off the Belmont Pier for the first of two round robins on Friday. A second round robin — during which every team sails against each of the other competitors one at a time — will take place on Saturday.

The semifinals and the finals will take place on Sunday.

Through Saturday’s first five flights — there are seven total in each round robin — only the crew led by American Jeffrey Petersen had a perfect record, as of about 3 p.m. Five other crews — those captained by Peter Holz (USA), Nicole Breault (USA), Pearson Potts (USA), Megan Thomson (New Zealand) and Christopher Weis (USA) — were tied with three wins each.

The teams led by Dave Hood (USA) and Ruairi Finnegan (Republic of Ireland) had not yet won a match.

But there was still plenty of time for them to catch up.

The Congressional Cup, meanwhile, will take place from Tuesday to Saturday, April 18 to 22.

​ Orange County Register 

Tyonn Lue, Clippers face series of adjustments against Suns

• April 14, 2023

PLAYA VISTA — It’s the playoffs, where a team has potentially seven chances to get it right. Seven games to find the right matchups, to figure out the most effective schemes, the right defense and the best offense.

Seven games, if that’s what it takes, for another chance.

The Clippers (44-38) open their best-of-seven playoff series against the Phoenix Suns (45-37) on Sunday with an eye on moving forward, on another opportunity to win their first NBA title. But like any game of chance, the Clippers need strategy, skill and a whole lot of luck to get past Kevin Durant and Co.

“We’ve just got to see how it goes,” Coach Tyronn Lue said. “I think just seeing how a team tries to attack on both ends, who they try to attack defensively and how they try to attack us offensively.

“You put a lot of prep into just one game because once the first game is over, things are going to change. You’ve got to prepare for it, and so our biggest thing is we just want to see the first game and see how they try to attack us, and then just kind of go from there.”

What’s not going to change is the Suns’ talent level. They are loaded with future Hall of Famers, All-Stars and former MVPs at key positions, all of whom are poised to give the Clippers problems if they don’t correct their mistakes in a hurry. But first, they need to focus on Durant.

The Suns are 8-0 when the two-time NBA champion has been on the court since being acquired from Brooklyn. He averaged 26 points and shot 57% from the field in those eight games, and given his length, Durant’s mid-range jumper is nearly impossible to guard, a task that will take a team effort.

“I mean, he’s a great player. These are the fun parts of it,” Clippers star Kawhi Leonard said. “Just going out there, getting to compete against a guy like him that’s been doing it year after year. Everybody is going to have to take the challenge, not just me. It is a team sport, so …”

Guards Chris Paul and Devin Booker also could make the Clippers pay with their ability to find the open man or shoot the ball themselves. Booker leads the team in scoring (27.8 ppg) and is dishing out 5.5 assists per game. Paul, a playoff veteran, is averaging 13.9 points and 8.9 assists.

“They’ve got a lot of great scorers on their team that can put the ball in the basket at a very high level and have been doing it for a very long time, between Kev, Book, CP, even T-Ross (Terrence Ross) – a lot of guys that are great isolation scorers,” point guard Russell Westbrook said. “We’ve just got to do a good job of guarding and finding ways to help each other out.”

The Clippers, however, have their own talent pool, starting with Leonard, who finished the regular season not only healthy but strong. In his past eight games, he averaged 24.3 points, shot 52.2% from the field, grabbed 7.5 rebounds and had 4.7 assists.

Guard Norman Powell came back from a shoulder injury and picked up where he left off. The one-time Sixth Man of the Year candidate scored in double figures in the six games since his return and is averaging 17 for the season despite missing nearly a month of games.

Westbrook has continued his campaign to fit in with the Clippers with his aggressive play and leadership.

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Lue said he is confident his players can withstand whatever the Suns throw at them.

“I think we’ve got to be the more physical team because if we allow those guys to run around and get to their spots, with Booker shooting 50-something percent from mid-range, KD shooting almost 60 percent, CP shooting 50 percent. We’ve just got to be physical.

“I think that’s going to help our defense, just being physical, being into bodies, not let those guys move around and roam freely, so that’s got to be our mindset going into Game 1.”

CLIPPERS VS. SUNS

First-round series schedule (best-of-seven), all times PT

Game 1: at Suns, Sunday, 5 p.m.

Game 2: at Suns, Tuesday, 7 p.m.

Game 3: at Clippers, Thursday, April 20, 7:30 p.m.

Game 4: at Clippers, Saturday, April 22, 12:30 p.m.

x-Game 5: at Suns, Tuesday, April 25, TBD

x-Game 6: at Clippers, Thursday, April 27, TBD

x-Game 7: at Suns, Saturday, April 29, TBD

x – if necessary

​ Orange County Register 

Kings and Oilers brace for another superb playoff clash

• April 14, 2023

Last year’s first-round clash between the Kings and Edmonton Oilers was such an entertaining, edifying series that it only seemed fitting that they would meet again.

On Monday, they’ll square off in Canada for Game 1 of a series that should be spellbinding if last year’s postseason offered any indication.

That confrontation saw the maximum number of lead changes, four, with the Kings at one point responding to an 8-2 onslaught by Edmonton with a 4-0 shutout. Their 3-2 series lead evaporated as Edmonton captain Connor McDavid took over Game 7, a 2-0 clincher on the same ice where this series will begin.

“We’re in a good spot,” Kings forward Trevor Moore said. “We’ve been doing it for 82 games now and I feel like we know what we’re doing; whoever we get in the playoffs I think has a big challenge.”

Invaluable experience

For the Kings, their lineup last season was brimming with first-time competitors in the playoffs, while the Oilers were looking to make the leap from invitee to guest of honor.

They did just that, leaving behind a strenuous bout with the Kings and advancing all the way to the conference finals, where they lost to eventual Stanley Cup champion Colorado. McDavid has credited the Kings series with helping Edmonton’s growth as a group and now hoped to draw on that experience during the rematch.

“I think just being older, a little more experienced in these games. Playing a series against L.A., we know the game that works against them.” said McDavid after the second of two recent Edmonton victories over the Kings that evened the season series.

Arms race

McDavid and Leon Draisaitl have dominated the scoring race and most valuable player voting alike since 2017, and this year has been no different.

McDavid’s 153 points were the most by any player in a single season since Mario Lemieux’s 161 in 1995-96, the 15th most in NHL history and the second most by any player other than Lemieux or Wayne Gretzky. That made him a lock for the Hart Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award with the Art Ross Trophy and his first Maurice Richard Trophy already in his back pocket. McDavid concluded the campaign on a 16-game scoring streak and Edmonton ended on a 15-game points streak.

Draisaitl finished 15 points ahead of the next non-Oiler in scoring and fourth in goals this season, while Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had his first 100-point campaign at age 30.

“I don’t think there’s anything that sets you up for Edmonton, it’s a different monster,” said Kings coach Todd McLellan, who coached the Oilers from 2015-18.

That trio was historically productive on the power play, an area where the Kings improved vastly but fell short of Edmonton’s lethal quickstrike ability. Yet the Kings kept Edmonton’s NHL-leading unit and its top three power-play producers off the board entirely in the first three meetings of the season.

Firing back

The Kings bottled up Edmonton at times last spring thanks to a hermetic 1-3-1 system and the defensive savvy of their top centers, Anze Kopitar and Phillip Danault. But Kings general manager Rob Blake knew they’d need to potentiate their attack to get deeper into the playoffs.

Enter winger Kevin Fiala, who held the team lead in scoring until Game 82 despite missing 13 games with a lower-body injury. His acquisition via trade and the emergence of Gabe Vilardi as a goal-scoring force gave the Kings unparalleled scoring depth in their top nine, creating advantageous matchups galore.

While the Kings may or may not have Fiala (lower body) or Vilardi (upper body) for Game 1, their defense is much healthier than last season and their top six has been carrying the mail of late. Kopitar overtook the team scoring title and did so, in large part, setting up Adrian Kempe, whose hat trick in the season finale made him the first 40-goal scorer for the franchise in nearly 30 years.

The second line, which was integral to the Kings’ success last season, showed more signs of cohesion during the Kings’ final two games of the season, both victories.

“They looked as good as they’ve looked in a long time,” McLellan said. “They had some pace to their game, their tenacity of puck pursuit was at an elite level and they were responsible defensively.”

Fortified at the deadline

The Kings and Oilers meandered at times early in the season, each seeking to stabilize their defense and goaltending for a substantial portion of the campaign.

Fiala and new power-play guru Jim Hiller were as advertised for the Kings, elevating their attack and making their man-advantage unit among the best in the league, a foreign feeling to Kings fans. But Cal Petersen ended up toiling in the minors, Jonathan Quick struggled to find consistency and Pheonix Copley was the only man standing between the Kings and a potential meltdown between the pipes. Meanwhile, a left-hand-shooting defender with some heft to his game was an apparent need, so Blake filled both holes in one fell swoop, with the acquisition of Vladislav Gavrikov and Joonas Korpisalo from Columbus.

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For the Oilers, Stuart Skinner offered an internal solution in goal, while the additions via trade of rugged defenseman Mattias Ekholm and towering center Nick Bjugstad made them harder to play against.

The result of these deals? From March 1 until the close of the season, the Kings had the NHL’s sixth-best points percentage while Edmonton’s staggering .881 mark was 63 points better than that of any other club.

“That’s the regular season. Now’s the time to really play,” McDavid said. “It was a good regular season, individually and for the team, but now it’s the fun time.”

​ Orange County Register 

Student athletes at Buena Park school showcase skills at their first Special Olympics

• April 14, 2023

Cheered on by their fellow students and families, dozens of students at Pendleton Elementary in Buena Park showed off their athletic skills at the school’s first Special Olympics on Friday, April 14.

Forty-one special education students teamed up with 51 buddies from the general education classes as they kicked soccer balls, jumped over bars, walked on balance beams and danced with hula hoops.

“We are excited for our community to see our young athletes persevere through challenges and support one another in truly beautiful ways,” Principal Loriann Leota said prior to the event, which was attended by the entire student body.

The students prepared all year for the Special Olympics, the first of what’s planned to be an annual happening on campus. Pendleton is home to one of two programs for children with disabilities in the Buena Park School District.

“I’m very proud of the work done by the Pendleton team,” said Julie Linnecke, the special education director. “This amazing program has proven to be so valuable for our students. It’s such a pleasure to see the students interacting and having so much fun together.”

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​ Orange County Register 

Lakers focused on containing Ja Morant in first-round playoff series

• April 14, 2023

EL SEGUNDO — The question was direct and to the point, and D’Angelo Russell wanted no part of it. He said he didn’t wish to reply to a query about the challenges the Lakers might face from Memphis Grizzlies backcourt counterpart Ja Morant in their first-round Western Conference playoff series.

“I’d rather, honestly, talk about us,” Russell said before the Lakers departed Friday for Memphis. “Honestly. I’m sure everybody is talking about them. I don’t want to give you (reporters) any headlines.”

OK, fair enough.

Next question.

So, how about this: What do you guys need to do to split the first two games?

“Contain Ja Morant,” Russell deadpanned.

Funny, man.

When the laughter died down, Russell grew serious again.

“Nah, I think they’re a tough team all the way around,” Russell said. “So, I don’t really want to worry about too much, put all our eggs in one thing because they can capitalize from other areas, too. They’re a well-rounded team. Simple as that.”

True enough.

Morant is, as Lakers superstar LeBron James so aptly put it the other day, “the head of the snake.” Morant averaged a team-leading 26.2 points to go with 5.9 rebounds and 8.1 assists during the regular season, leading the Grizzlies to a second consecutive Southwest Division championship.

Morant, 23, has had his share of off-the-court issues, drawing an eight-game suspension from the NBA after he was captured on video waving a gun around during a visit to a strip club in Denver. On the court, he’s the face of a talented young team looking to make a breakthrough in the playoffs.

The Lakers’ defensive plan, like every other team in the league, is to slow the Grizzlies and make them play a half-court game. Allowing them to run, with Morant directing the attack, is not a winning formula. Memphis ranked 22nd in half-court points and third in transition scoring.

“It’s huge, man,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said. “Ja gets a lot of that attention, but it’s all of them. They’ve got multiple guys that can start the break with a couple, three dribbles. Some of the guys can take it all the way. But transition defense is going to be a huge key defensively in us trying to get past this team.”

When it comes to Morant, the Lakers are likely to play defense by committee. Certainly, Ham could put Russell on Morant. Or he could go with Dennis Schröder. Or maybe Jarred Vanderbilt could get the assignment.

“Well, it’ll be a lot of people,” Ham promised.

Is there a detailed defensive plan that Ham would share?

“Just make Ja see bodies, you know what I mean?” he said. “Without giving up too much. That’s any NBA game, for that matter. And now, with the stakes being even higher. What he likes to do is live in the paint. Attacking downhill repeatedly, constantly, with force. We’re gonna have our hands full.

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“Our job has to be to not let them get inside of our defense continuously.”

WHAT’S YOUR HURRY?

The Lakers departed Friday for Memphis in order to get acclimated, planning to practice Saturday in preparation for Game 1 on Sunday. They could have stayed home to practice Saturday and traveled later in the day, but since Game 1 starts at noon (PT), they wanted to arrive early.

“I like to get there early, get acclimated to the city and just that whole new environment, and kind of get guys away from their home situations, just to lock in and get a clear mind and I think the earlier we get there the better,” Vanderbilt said. “We need to …  just get familiar with that whole atmosphere, that whole city.”

SCHRÖDER UPDATE

Ham said everyone on the roster but Schröder practiced when the Lakers returned to the court Friday, after two days of rest after their play-in tournament victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday night. Ham said it was just precautionary after Schröder tweaked his foot during the game.

​ Orange County Register 

California condors killed by avian flu for first time, increasing risk to famed species

• April 14, 2023

A new and growing threat is facing America’s largest bird, the California condor, a famed species that has been slowly recovering from the brink of extinction.

A highly contagious strain of avian influenza has killed at least 18 of the massive birds around the Grand Canyon in Arizona over the past month. And now California biologists are scrambling to address what could be a catastrophic setback if condors in Big Sur and other parts of the state become infected.

“The disease has moved so quickly, and a vaccine development has not,” said Kelly Sorenson, executive director of the Ventana Wildlife Society, a non-profit group that has released condors into the wilds around Big Sur and San Simeon since 1997. “We are in a very tough spot.”

“We are preparing for a worst-case scenario,” he added. “It has the potential to be devastating to the population.”

As of Tuesday, officials have recorded 363 cases of all types of wild birds in California being infected by avian influenza — more than in any other state except Minnesota and Florida, which had 566 and 415.

In California, the disease has also killed bald eagles and golden eagles, turkey vultures, ducks, geese, ravens, gulls, sanderlings, grebes and other birds and has shown up in most Bay Area counties. So far, no condors have been found infected in the Golden State. Avian influenza had not been known to kill condors until the first bird in the Grand Canyon died on March 20.

Embed from Getty Images

If the disease spreads widely across California, scientists say they could begin capturing wild condors to protect them until a vaccine is developed.

“That’s not really a great option,” Sorenson said. “It’s not something they would enjoy, to put it lightly. But it’s better than losing a large number of birds. We are trying to prepare for all scenarios.”

Sorenson’s organization this week purchased 10 large steel quarantine pens, each 12 feet long, so they can care for condors, whose wingspans can stretch 9 feet.

The pens are located on land donated by the Monterey County SPCA along Highway 68 between Salinas and Monterey.

Condors once ranged from British Columbia to Mexico. But because of habitat loss, hunting and lead poisoning, the majestic birds reached a low of just 22 nationwide by the early 1980s.

In a desperate gamble to stave off extinction, federal biologists captured all the remaining wild condors in 1987 and began breeding them in the Los Angeles Zoo, San Diego Zoo and other facilities. The birds’ offspring have been gradually released back to the wild in Big Sur, near the Grand Canyon, at Pinnacles National Park, in Kern County, in Baja, Mexico, and most recently near Redwood National Park. The first condors in modern times to be born in the wild hatched in 2007, and today there are 561 California condors, with 347 in the wild.

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, on March 9, employees of the Peregrine Fund, a non-profit group that manages the flock of 116 wild condors that fly in the Grand Canyon and parts of Utah, saw a female condor that appeared to be sick.

They thought it had lead poisoning, a common cause of death among condors who eat deer and other animals that have been shot by hunters and ranchers, ingesting bullet fragments.

On March 20, they found the bird dead below her nest. Tests confirmed the animal died from Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, a type of “bird flu” that has killed millions of chickens and wild birds across the world.

As of Wednesday, 18 condors from the Grand Canyon area have died, with 6 confirmed from the disease and the other 12 suspected to have died from it. Another five are in veterinary care and undergoing testing for the disease, which veterinarians and biologists call “HPAI.”

The 18 deaths amount to nearly 1 in 6 condors in the Arizona-Utah population and is more than the total number of wild condors that died in each of the past four years from lead poisoning in all locations across Western North America where they have been released.

Scientists think the condors were exposed through contact with wild birds, potentially birds migrating from South America.

The disease’s particular strain, known as H5N1, is considered low risk as a human health concern, according to the Centers for Disease Control. But it is highly contagious in wildlife and can spread quickly by bird-to-bird contact and contamination from birds’ fecal material. The virus can also spread from exposed clothing, shoes and vehicles.

“It’s scary,” said Ashleigh Blackford, California condor coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “This is a program where people have invested a lot of time in this recovery effort. This is a monumental blow in a short amount of time. You can go backward so quickly.”

A California condor basks in the Big Sur sunshine, Friday, Nov. 18, 2022, at the Ventana Wildlife Society’s condor sanctuary. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)

Blackford said scientists are still learning about the disease, how it spreads and how to care for condors who might be exposed.

“This is like the first two weeks when COVID first came out,” she said. “Things are happening rapidly. We don’t have enough data, but we are collecting it rapidly.”

Biologists who deal with condors have been wearing protective coveralls, washing their shoes and taking steps such as not leaving out dead animals for them to feed on so they don’t congregate.

The Central California population of 94 wild condors is still recovering from the Dolan Fire in Big Sur in 2020, which killed 12 of the endangered birds.

It was unclear Thursday, however, what steps Pinnacles National Park in San Benito County is taking to prepare for the spread of the disease in its flock of 29 condors. Park officials referred calls to the National Park Service media office in Denver, and spokesman Naaman Horn said he would not make park scientists available for interviews Thursday, saying all national parks needed to have a coordinated message to the public.

Sorenson expressed concern about the threat in California. “Lead poisoning has been the number one threat to the recovery of the species,” he said. “But this is quite worrisome because condors are highly social, and this disease is very contagious.”

​ Orange County Register 

Suspect and Cash App founder Bob Lee appear to have argued before the murder, documents show

• April 14, 2023

Nima Momeni, the man accused of killing Cash App founder Bob Lee appears to have gotten into an argument with Lee before his death, according to documents released by the San Francisco District Attorney’s office.

A message from Momeni’s sister to Lee from sometime that evening showed the sister checking in on Lee after the disagreement. The text message, per the documents from the district attorney’s office, stated: “Just wanted to make sure your doing ok Cause I know nima came wayyyyyy down hard on you And thank you for being such a classy man handling it with class.”

The motion-to-detain documents also cite a witness interviewed by police and security camera footage, offering a detailed timeline of where Lee and Momeni were leading up to Lee’s death.

Bob Lee (Photo courtesy of Mobile Coin)

A witness, described as a close friend of Lee’s, said he went over to an apartment after being invited by Lee on April 3, where Lee was drinking with a woman later identified as Momeni’s sister, the document states.

The witness told police the woman was married but her “relationship was possibly in jeopardy,” and the witness was unsure if the woman and Lee had an intimate relationship, according to the document. Lee later told the witness that they were going to go to his hotel room, where he invited the woman but she had declined.

While at the hotel room, the witness said Lee was having a conversation with Momeni, which involved Momeni saying he was picking up his sister from the apartment Lee and the witness were previously at, according the document. Momeni asked Lee “whether his sister was doing drugs or anything inappropriate,” the document states. Lee had told Momeni nothing inappropriate happened, according to the document.

Lee was stabbed to death in the Rincon Hill neighborhood of San Francisco early in the morning of April 4. An autopsy found Lee was “stabbed three separate times, once in the hip and twice in the chest,” according to the documents. One of the stab wounds “directly penetrated” Lee’s heart, causing his death.

Momeni appeared in a San Francisco court earlier Friday for an arraignment that came one day after police announced his arrest. Momeni’s arraignment is set to continue on April 25. He will be held without bail in the meantime.

A timeline of events leading up to Lee’s death

After the conversation with Momeni, Lee and the witness went to Lee’s apartment until about 12:30 a.m. on April 4, when Lee left, the document says.

Surveillance footage shows Momeni arriving at his sister’s apartment building in a white BMW around 8:30 p.m. on April 3, and later shows Lee entering the building around 12:39 a.m. on April 4. A little after 2 a.m., security footage shows Lee and Momeni entering an elevator together and getting into Momeni’s BMW. Additional footage from the area shows the two driving around in the car together.

Video then shows the BMW drive to a “dark and secluded area” on Main Street, just out of view for the video to see the interaction between the two men, per the document.

Eventually the two subjects, who are unidentifiable by their faces but seem to be wearing the same clothing, appear back in frame. After about five minutes, the subject wearing a white colored top, consistent with what Momeni appeared to be wearing, “suddenly move(s) toward the other subject,” the document says. The two subjects then separate.

The subject in dark-colored clothing, who authorities believe to be Lee, walks northbound, while the subject in the light-colored clothing walks south and stops along a fence, where a knife was ultimately recovered, the document says. The BMW then “leaves at a high rate of speed,” the document states.

Lee’s family calls for justice

When Momeni entered the courtroom on Friday, members of his family sitting in the front row held up heart signs with their hands. Momeni, who was not cuffed, acknowledged them and smiled back.

In announcing his arrest Thursday, law enforcement described Momeni as a 38-year-old man from Emeryville, California and said Momeni and Lee knew one another, but didn’t provide further details about their connection. California Secretary of State Records indicate that Momeni has been the owner of an IT business.

Many in the tech world and beyond responded to news of Lee’s death with an outpouring of shock and grief.

Lee’s family issued a statement Thursday thanking the San Francisco Police Department “for bringing his killer to Justice” after Momeni’s arrest.

“Our next steps will be to work with the District Attorney’s office to ensure that this person is not allowed to hurt anyone else or walk free,” the statement said.

In the statement, the family described Lee’s upbringing, his career, and the impact of the technology he helped create.

“Every day around the world, people interact with technology that Bob helped create. Bob will live on through these interactions and his dreams of improving all of our lives,” the statement reads.

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​ Orange County Register 

Supreme Court temporarily blocks restrictions on abortion pill

• April 14, 2023

By MARK SHERMAN and JESSICA GRESKO

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court said Friday it was temporarily keeping in place federal rules for use of an abortion drug, while it takes time to more fully consider the issues raised in a court challenge.

In an order signed by Justice Samuel Alito, the court asked both sides to weigh in by Tuesday over whether lower court rulings restricting the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the drug, mifepristone, should be allowed to take effect while the case works its way through federal courts.

The order expires late Wednesday, suggesting the court will decide that issue by then.

The justices are being asked at this point only to determine what parts of an April 7 ruling by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Texas, as modified by an appellate ruling Wednesday, can be in force while the case continues.

The court finds itself immersed in a new fight involving abortion less than a year after conservative justices reversed Roe v. Wade and allowed more than a dozen states to effectively ban abortion outright.

President Joe Biden’s administration and New York-based Danco Laboratories, the maker of the pill, asked the justices to intervene.

The type of order issued by the court Friday, an administrative stay, ordinarily is not an indication of what the justices will do going forward. It was signed by Alito because he handles emergency filings from Texas. Alito also is the author of last year’s opinion overturning Roe v. Wade.

The Justice Department and Danco both warned of “regulatory chaos” and harm to women if the high court doesn’t block the lower-court rulings that had the effect of tightening FDA rules under which the drug, mifepristone, can be prescribed and dispensed.

The new limits would have taken effect Saturday if the court hadn’t acted.

“This application concerns unprecedented lower court orders countermanding FDA’s scientific judgment and unleashing regulatory chaos by suspending the existing FDA-approved conditions of use for mifepristone,” Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, the Biden administration’s top Supreme Court lawyer, wrote Friday, less than two days after the appellate ruling.

A lawyer for the anti-abortion doctors and medical organizations suing over mifepristone said the justices should reject the drugmaker’s and the administration’s pleas and allow the appeals court-ordered changes to take effect.

The Biden administration and Danco now want a more lasting order that would keep the current rules in place as long as the legal fight over mifepristone continues. As a fallback, they asked the court to take up the issue, hear arguments and decide by early summer a legal challenge to mifepristone that anti-abortion doctors and medical organizations filed last year.

The court rarely acts so quickly to grant full review of cases before at least one appeals court has thoroughly examined the legal issues involved.

A ruling from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals late Wednesday would prevent the pill, used in the most common abortion method, from being mailed or prescribed without an in-person visit to a doctor. It also would withdraw the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone for use beyond the seventh week of pregnancy. The FDA says it’s safe through 10 weeks.

Still, the appeals court did not entirely withdraw FDA approval of mifepristone while the fight over it continues. The 5th circuit narrowed an April 7 ruling by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, whose far-reaching and virtually unprecedented order would have blocked FDA approval of the pill. He gave the administration a week to appeal.

“To the government’s knowledge, this is the first time any court has abrogated FDA’s conditions on a drug’s approval based on a disagreement with the agency’s judgment about safety — much less done so after those conditions have been in effect for years,” Prelogar wrote.

Erin Hawley, a lawyer for the challengers, said in a statement that the FDA has put politics ahead of health concerns in its actions on medication abortion.

“The 5th Circuit rightly required the agency to prioritize women’s health by restoring critical safeguards, and we’ll urge the Supreme Court to keep that accountability in place,” said Hawley, a senior counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal group that also argued to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Mifepristone was approved by the FDA more than two decades ago and is used in combination with a second drug, misoprostol.

Adding to the uncertainty, a separate federal judge in Washington on Thursday clarified his own order from last week to make clear that the FDA is not to do anything that might block mifepristone’s availability in 17 Democrat-led states suing to keep it on the market.

It’s unclear how the FDA can comply with court orders in both cases, a situation that Prelogar described Friday as untenable.

Use of medication abortion jumped significantly after the FDA’s 2016 rule expansion, according to data gathered by the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights. In 2017, medication abortion accounted for 39% percent of abortions, but by 2020 it had increased to become the most common method, accounting for 53% of all abortions.

Experts have said the use of medication abortion has increased since the court overturned Roe.

When the drug was initially approved, the FDA limited its use to up to seven weeks of pregnancy. It also required three in-person office visits: the first to administer mifepristone, the next to administer the second drug, misoprostol, and the third to address any complications. It also required a doctor’s supervision and a reporting system for any serious consequences of the drug.

If the appeals court’s action stands, those would again be the terms under which mifepristone could be dispensed for now.

At the core of the Texas lawsuit is the allegation that the FDA’s initial approval of mifepristone was flawed because the agency did not adequately review safety risks.

Mifepristone has been used by millions of women over the past 23 years. While less drastic than completely overturning the drug’s approval, the latest ruling still represents a stark challenge to the FDA’s authority overseeing how prescription drugs are used in the U.S. The ruling late Wednesday overturned multiple decisions made by FDA regulators after years of scientific review.

Common side effects with mifepristone include cramping, bleeding, nausea, headache and diarrhea. In rare cases, women can experience excess bleeding that requires surgery to stop.

Still, in loosening restrictions on mifepristone, FDA regulators cited “exceedingly low rates of serious adverse events.”

More than 5.6 million women in the U.S. had used the drug as of June 2022, according to the FDA. In that period, the agency received 4,200 reports of complications in women, or less than one tenth of 1% of women who took the drug.

Associated Press writers Paul Weber in Austin, Texas, and Lindsay Whitehurst in Washington contributed to this report.

​ Orange County Register