Kings prepare to face Vegas and possibly Jonathan Quick

• April 5, 2023

What could have resembled a winner-takes-all tilt with a Kings franchise legend facing his former team for the first time Thursday might have seen its luster diminished with Tuesday’s loss, but there are no small games at this time of year.

The Kings have just four opportunities to make a push skyward, toward home ice in the first round and potentially even throughout the Western Conference playoffs, beginning with a joust against the Pacific-pacing Golden Knights in Vegas and, potentially, former franchise goalie Jonathan Quick.

Quick started Tuesday, losing in overtime to the Nashville Predators. The prior two games, both wins over the Minnesota Wild, and the third period of another match went to another Vegas netminder, Laurent Brossoit. Whom Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy tabs Thursday probably won’t be known until the morning skate, but the Kings have pondered the prospect of facing Quick since the winningest goalie in team history was traded late on a fateful February night.

“We’re still going to go out there and try to win. That’s for sure. I would love to score on Quickie,” said fellow two-time Stanley Cup champion Drew Doughty while the bitter aftertaste of the trade still soured his palate. “But it’ll be tough if we have to play against him, I’m not going to lie.”

The Kings trail Vegas by four points for first place in the division and are also trying to get on the right side of Edmonton. The Oilers blanketed the Kings with two victories in five days by an aggregate score of 5-1, but all that wool only left them hanging by a thread, leading the Kings by just one point.

The Kings will split their remaining games between Crypto.com Arena and the road, while Edmonton has just one home game remaining. The Kings will face Vegas and defending champion Colorado before wrapping up the year by hosting Vancouver and visiting the lowly Ducks. Edmonton has a softer schedule, with Colorado as its only playoff-bound opponent mixed into a meeting with the Ducks and two with the cellar-dwelling San Jose Sharks.

While figures, percentages, measures and statistics, both basic and advanced, have proliferated in recent years, much of the stretch run and playoffs has always hinged on the unquantifiable and barely seen – the fire in bellies and desire in eyes.

“I think all of those intangibles that you can’t open up the newspaper and read are at a fairly high point with our team right now,” Kings coach Todd McLellan said. “The focus is there, the attention to detail is there quite a bit, the drive to win, the game management, we’re in a good spot. We have to continue to build on that and make sure that we’re keeping our gas tanks full.”

A full tank is one thing and a complete roster is quite another. The Kings were without defensemen Mikey Anderson and Alex Edler as well as top point-producer Kevin Fiala and natural goal-scorer Gabe Vilardi on Tuesday. McLellan declined to provide any injury updates, and all four players should be deemed doubtful for Thursday, especially given that the Kings recalled another defenseman, Jordan Spence, from the minors Wednesday. Fiala’s lower-body injury has been the most mercurial, as he returned to the lineup and then vanished anew.

Without Fiala and Vilardi, the Kings’ once-robust power play has continued to sputter, even as they have thrived in their own zone and prospered in the standings. Absent a four-for-five performance against St. Louis, the Kings have converted on just 7 of 45 power plays since the game after the Quick trade on March 2, the sixth-worst clip in the NHL during that span.

On Tuesday, the Kings’ man–advantage savvy faltered once more with an 0-for-4 showing, while Edmonton broke their season-long drought against the Kings on the power play, as both goals allowed by Pheonix Copley came with the extra man.

“The thing that would stand out was special teams. Vilardi and Fiala are kind of key guys for us in that aspect,” said defenseman Sean Walker, who this time last year was among several injured Kings. “But again, on the back end, losing two solid defensemen like that isn’t great for us, but it’s something that we’ve dealt with before. So, next man up, and do your job.”

The next task will be confronting Vegas, which has led the division practically wire-to-wire this season, though the Kings have taken both meetings since the Golden Knights’ opening-night victory.

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The Vegas attack is led by centers Jack Eichel and Chandler Stephenson, but their lineup has often been improvised. Already entering the year with long-term injuries to center Nolan Patrick and goalie Robin Lehner, Vegas has had to use four different netminders due to injury (they currently have two goalies sidelined). Among other injuries, they’ve also been without a top defenseman, former Duck Shea Theodore, for a good portion of the season between two separate stints on IR, and he remained sidelined Wednesday.

Kings at Vegas

When: 7 p.m. Thursday

Where: T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas

TV/Radio: Bally Sports West/iHeart Radio

​ Orange County Register 

Red tags expected to be removed from three San Clemente landslide buildings

• April 5, 2023

Red tags are expected to be removed in the coming days from three oceanfront apartment buildings in San Clemente, where a landslide in mid March sent debris, parts of concrete patios and furniture down the slope and onto a beach path below, Mayor Chris Duncan said.

Residents and short-term renters of 20 units in four apartment buildings in north San Clemente were swiftly evacuated following the storm damage on March 15 that sent sections of hillside sliding several hundred feet toward the ocean. Duncan said he was told geology reports have deemed three structures safe and residents will be allowed to move back in.

One building remains red tagged, but is in the process of completing the necessary paperwork required by the city, Duncan said.

“We’re very excited,” said Clayton Robinson, owner of one of the buildings with his wife, Kim. The couple, who live in Long Beach, bought their property 20 years ago and use it as their primary income. “We’ve been working with the city all week long, we knew it was coming.”

The sudden scenario of possibly losing their property has been a “nightmare,” but the city has been on top of the process, Clayton Robinson said, while he worked around the clock with geologists to ensure all the paperwork was in place.

“We’re just so thankful it’s progressing in such a way,” he said. “We were afraid we were going to lose everything.”

Buildings along Buena Vista are still red tagged in San Clemente, CA, on Wednesday, April 5, 2023. The landslide in North San Clemente forced families out of their apartments a few weeks ago. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Insurance typically does not cover landslide damage, so the loss could have been in the millions.

The San Clemente landslide helped spur a federal emergency declaration for Orange County, which should help fund some of the city’s and the county’s response, but financial help has been limited for the residents who needed to suddenly find new temporary housing until the buildings were deemed safe.

The popular beach trail that runs from North Beach along the damaged area, where heaps of dirt still remain, will stay fenced off to the public until it can be cleaned up, Duncan said.

To have the red tags removed, the property owners had to get geology reports done and submitted to the city for review, Duncan said. There will be additional fixes needed to the back patio areas of two of the properties, where pieces of the concrete patio broke off, to ensure the areas are safe, he said, but that can happen later.

Buildings along Buena Vista are still red tagged in San Clemente, CA, on Wednesday, April 5, 2023. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

He called it “really good news for our residents.”

“I am very pleased with the city staff that they’ve been processing these reports submitted by the building owners’ geologists expeditiously,” he said. “Safety comes first, so we will make sure everything is in place.”

Duncan said he has been inspired by how the residents came together to help each other during the past month, even as their lives were disrupted.

“They acted in a very professional and calm manner, despite the seriousness of the situation and tragic nature of being forced out of their homes,” he said. “I hope soon all of them will be able to be back home.”

Robinson said there’s still work to be done in the damaged area – installing a fence and other safety measures – before the units closest to the ocean can be rented out again.

“The geologist assured us it was just the face that fell, but that the hill is stable, the ground is not going anywhere,” he said. “From his perspective, there’s no threat to the property at this point.”

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The pool, which came inches from falling down the slope, is helping to stabilize the area, he said. “The pool, the geologist feels, is working like a retaining wall, holding the rest of it together. He said, ‘Don’t use, don’t fill, don’t empty … leave it alone.’”

Robinson said he plans on working with a geologist, the city and the California Coastal Commission on any possible further steps that could be taken to shore up the property in the long term.

Buildings along Buena Vista are still red tagged in San Clemente, CA, on Wednesday, April 5, 2023. The landslide in North San Clemente forced families out of their apartments a few weeks ago. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

The city will also be asking those questions for the rest of San Clemente’s coastal bluff tops as part of a coastal erosion study currently in the works, Duncan said. “As part of that, I know we want to focus in on the bluff failure and landslides like this as well; it’s all linked. That is something we will be continuing to look at.”

Since the landslide happened a month ago, the Robinsons’ faith has kept them optimistic about the future, Clayton Robinson said.

“We declared our faith on the first day, we trusted the city and the process,” he said. “Our faith has been proven sound and we’re happy and thrilled we got it back. Even if we lost everything, we wouldn’t let it shake our faith.”

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​ Orange County Register 

Before an earthquake: How to set up a family plan and make your house safer

• April 5, 2023

These checklists are a good place to start in preparing your family and your house for emergencies including earthquakes, wildfires and flooding.

Assemble your emergency kit. It’s crucial to have a go-bag and other earthquake supplies at the ready. Here are the details on what you’ll need.

Have a family plan. Make sure all members of your household know your strategy.

Pick a place to meet if you are in different places when a disaster strikes.
Determine who will pick up the kids from school, and who will check on the pets and, if necessary, prepare them for evacaution. Know the school’s emergency plan, and keep your kids’ emergency release cards up to date.
Designate a person outside your area (at least 100 miles away) as a message contact. Make sure this number is in everyone’s mobile phone, including the kids’. If local lines are jammed, it’s often easier to get through to somebody farther away.

Know these things about your home:

How to open your garage door and/or security gate if the electricity is off.
Where the utility connections are and how to shut off the gas, electricity and water if necessary; same with propane tanks. Pacific Gas & Electric advises not to turn these off unless you suspect there’s a leak or damaged wires. With gas, it could be a long time until a utility crew can turn it back on.

Make the inside of your home safer.

Move beds away from windows and glass skylights. Remove heavy pictures and shelves from above beds.
Secure tall furniture — bookcases, cabinets — to studs in walls. Make sure heavy hanging objects, such as lights, are attached to ceiling studs.
Put latches on cabinet doors.
Install emergency lights, particularly in halls and stairways.
Strap your water heater to the wall. Most hardware stores sell kits for this purpose for about $30. This is particularly important for preventing gas leaks.
Install safety film on large windows or glass doors.

Make sure your home is structurally safe.

Consult with a structural engineer about foundation bolting, crawl space reinforcement, chimney bracing, flexible gas connections.
The California program Earthquake Brace + Bolt provides $3,000 seismic retrofit grants for homeowners in certain areas. Registration is open for 30 days each year; check the program’s website to see if you’re eligible.

Make sure you have adequate insurance coverage.

Standard homeowners and renters insurance doesn’t cover most earthquake damage. If you have homeowners insurance, the provider is required to offer to sell you an earthquake policy, which is usually from the California Earthquake Authority. If you’re a renter, you can buy additional quake coverage for your possessions and for expenses associated with living elsewhere while your unit is repaired.

Compile a household inventory document and update it every year.

RELATED: Earthquake kits: What to put in a go-bag, plus what supplies to keep at home and in the car

​ Orange County Register 

Perspire Sauna Studio adding 8 Southern California locations

• April 5, 2023

Perspire Sauna Studio is expanding its Southern California footprint, bringing new studios to eight area cities.

Founded in 2010, the Costa Mesa-based sauna franchise operates 12 locations, including Irvine, Huntington Beach and Santa Monica.

The expansion into 2024 will include eight new studios in San Clemente, Irvine, Laguna Woods, Calabasas, Manhattan Beach, Brentwood, West Hollywood and Venice. Three additional locations are coming to Berkeley, Chico and West San Jose.

Most Perspire studios are located in spaces that were previously occupied by other retail tenants.

Perspire founder and CEO Lee Braun said California is the company’s biggest market because of the state’s health-conscious communities.

“If you’re living in California, you generally want to be outdoors exercising and enjoying that kind of lifestyle,” he said. “Our studios offer the opportunity for a bit of recovery.”

Perspire offers infrared and red-light therapy that, unlike traditional saunas that heat up the air around you, heat up the body without warming the air. The company says the infrared waves, which penetrate the skin, muscles, joints and tissues, are designed to improve circulation, oxygen flow and help to detoxify the body, according to Braun.

“It’s really like an improvement on traditional saunas,” he said. “With a traditional sauna, you stay in 15 minutes and your nose is burning and you’re overheating. But our saunas just warm up your core temperature by two to three degrees and you’re able to stay in longer. You have more of a cathartic, overall sweat experience.”

Perspire has 30 locations open with more under development throughout the U.S.

Maria Kirgan operates Perspire Sauna Studios in Dana Point and Laguna Niguel. In February, she opened another one in San Clemente. (Photo courtesy of Perspire Sauna Studio)

Maria Kirgan operates Perspire studios in Dana Point and Laguna Niguel. In February, she opened another one in San Clemente.

“We’re getting about 600 people a week at each location,” the 50-year-old Laguna Nigel entrepreneur said. “In January, we hit about 3,000 sessions in Dana Point.”

Perspire’s studios have individual rooms in which customers can sit or lie down, with 40-minute sessions ranging from $39 to $49, depending on the location.

A $59 monthly membership will give a customer four sessions a month, while a $139 monthly membership fee provides unlimited access.

Launching a Perspire studio requires an investment of $444,067 to $590,667, which includes a $45,000 franchise fee, according to the company’s website.

Patrick Findaro, co-founder of Vetted Biz, an online source that evaluates franchise opportunities, said Perspire franchisees should also be prepared to pay fees of $70,000 to $80,000 every four years for equipment and studio upgrades.

Kirgan, who endured chemotherapy and radiation treatments to successfully treat breast cancer, said she first visited a Perspire Sauna Studio as a customer. The experience prompted her to become a franchisee.

“When I was at the tail end of my treatments it really helped with pain, anxiety and depression … all of that stuff,” she said. “And when I got laid off from my job as an executive in technology I decided I really didn’t want to travel anymore, so I changed my quality of life.”

Expected timeline for the newest Southern California openings:

San Clemente (Early 2023)
Irvine-Orchard Hills (Summer 2023)
Calabasas/Porter Ranch (Summer 2023)
Manhattan Beach (Spring 2024)
Brentwood (Spring 2024)
Laguna Woods (Spring 2024)
West Hollywood/Studio City (Spring 2024)
Venice (Spring 2024)

“We’re growing like crazy,” Braun said. “There is so much demand for people taking wellness into their own hands. Our goal is to have 500 locations nationwide by 2027.”

​ Orange County Register 

Kansas bans transgender athletes from women’s, girls’ sports

• April 5, 2023

By John Hanna

TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas is banning transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports from kindergarten through college, the first of several possible new laws restricting the rights of transgender people pushed through by Republican legislators over the wishes of the Democratic governor.

The Legislature on Wednesday overrode Gov. Laura Kelly’s third veto in three years of a bill to ban transgender athletes, and came a day after state lawmakers passed a broad bathroom bill. Nineteen other states have imposed restrictions on transgender athletes, most recently Wyoming.

The Kansas law takes effect July 1 and is among several hundred proposals that Republican lawmakers across the U.S. have pursued this year to push back on LGBTQ rights. Kansas lawmakers who back the ban are also pursuing proposals to end gender-affirming care for minors and restrict restroom use.

The measure approved by Kansas lawmakers Tuesday not only would prevent transgender people from using public restrooms, locker rooms and other facilities associated with their gender identities but also bars them from changing their name or gender on their driver’s licenses. Kelly is expected to veto that.

“It’s a scary time to be raising a trans child in Kansas,” said Cat Poland, a lifelong Kansas resident and mother of three who coordinates a Gay-Straight Alliance at her 13-year-old trans son’s school about 40 miles (65 kilometers) northwest of Wichita. “We may face the very real threat of having to move, and it’s heartbreaking.”

The ban demonstrates the clout of religious conservatives, reflected in the 2022 platform of the Kansas Republican Party: “We believe God created man and woman,” and echoes many Republicans’ beliefs that their constituents don’t like any cultural shift toward acceptance.

“I wish it was 1960, and, you know, little Johnny’s a boy and Mary’s a girl, and that’s how it is, period,” Republican state Rep. John Eplee, a 70-year-old doctor, said during a committee discussion of the bathroom bill.

LGBTQ-rights advocates say its part of a national campaign from rightwing traditionalists to erase transgender, non-binary, gender-queer and gender-fluid people from American society.

Alex Poland, an eighth-grade cross-country runner who hopes to play baseball next year, said he thinks legislators are pursuing “bills against children” who “haven’t done anything to harm anyone” because they don’t know many trans people.

Alex, who went with his mother to lobby for trans rights at the Statehouse last week, said it’s good for the mental health of trans kids to be allowed to play on teams associated with their gender identities, and that most kids don’t care.

It’s mostly adults who “care so much about what the trans kids are doing,” Alex said.

The first state law on transgender athletes, in Idaho in 2020, came after conservatives retrenched from the national backlash over a short-lived 2016 bathroom law in North Carolina. In Kansas, conservatives’ biggest obstacle has been Kelly, who narrowly won reelection last year after pitching herself as a political centrist.

Conservative Republicans in Kansas fell short of the two-thirds majorities in both legislative chambers needed to override Kelly’s vetoes of the transgender athlete bills in 2021 and 2022. But this year, the House voted 84-40 to override her veto, exactly what supporters needed. The vote was 28-12 in the Senate, one more than a two-thirds majority.

Across the U.S., supporters of such bans argue that they keep competition fair. Track and field last month barred transgender athletes from international competition, adopting the same rules that swimming did last year.

Supporters argue that they’re also making sure cisgendered girls and women don’t lose the scholarships and other opportunities that didn’t exist for them decades ago.

“Over the past 50 years, females have finally been able to celebrate our differences and create a division that enabled us to achieve athletic endeavors similar to our male counterparts,” Caroline Bruce McAndrew, a former Olympic swimmer and member from the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame from Wichita, testified to lawmakers.

LGBTQ-rights advocates acknowledge that arguments about competition resonate outside Republicans’ conservative base because of the longstanding assumption that men and boys are naturally stronger than women and girls.

They’re also frustrated that the debate often focuses on whether transgender athletes have or can win championships.

Hudson Taylor, a three-time All-American collegiate wrestler said youth sports should be about learning discipline, “healthy habits,” and having fun in a supportive environment. He founded and leads the pro-LGBTQ group Athlete Ally.

“There’s been a professionalization of youth sports over the last 40 years,” Taylor said. “So often, the legislators and people who oppose trans-athlete inclusion really go directly to the most elite, top talent, Olympic-hopeful athletes.”

The Kansas measure bans transgender athletes from women’s and girls’ teams starting in kindergarten, even though sports and other extra-curricular activities aren’t overseen by the Kansas State High School Activities Association until the seventh grade.

That’s one reason LGBTQ-rights advocates are skeptical that the true issue is fair competition. Another is the scarcity of transgender female athletes.

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The state association said three transgender girls competed in sports in grades 7-12 this year, two of them seniors. Taylor said transgender athletes in college likely number fewer than 500. The NCAA says about 219,000 women play collegiate sports.

The international track and field ban doesn’t affect a single transgender female athlete.

Cat Poland, the Kansas mother with a trans son, said: “They just keep taking the next, the next step, the next step, until where are trans people supposed to go? Where can they can exist to be safe and live happy and fulfilling lives?”

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​ Orange County Register 

Johns Hopkins surgeons get $21.4 million to study pig-to-human organ transplants

• April 5, 2023

Angela Roberts | (TNS) The Baltimore Sun

BALTIMORE — Two Johns Hopkins Medicine surgeons will receive $21.4 million over the next two years to advance research needed to successfully transplant living cells, tissues and organs from animals to humans.

The scientists, Dr. Kazuhiko Yamada and Dr. Andrew Cameron, will receive the funding under two research agreements with the United Therapeutics Corp., a biotechnology company that focuses on projects meant to expand the availability of transplantable organs, Johns Hopkins Medicine said last week in a news release.

Over the next two years, Yamada and Cameron plan to advance the use of genetically modified pigs in human organ transplants, improving techniques already used in the approach to reduce the risk of organ rejection and failure and to increase the likelihood of a patient’s long-term survival.

The funding will help Yamada and Cameron complete the necessary studies in animals requested by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration before the first clinical trials of genetically modified pig kidney transplants in humans can begin, the researchers said in the release.

“Then, hopefully, we can finally realize that promise,” Yamada, a surgery professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said in the release.

Human clinical trials could lead to xenotransplantation — the transplantation of living cells, tissues and organs from one species to another — becoming a way of alleviating the nation’s organ transplant shortage, said Cameron, surgeon-in-chief and director of the Hopkins medical school’s department of surgery.

The number of usable organs for transplantation remains extremely low in the U.S. According to the federal Health Resources & Services Administration’s organdonor.gov, 17 people die every day because they cannot get a transplantable organ.

Last year, there were about 96,000 people on waiting lists for a kidney, but only about 25,500 transplants were performed, according to the agency’s Organ Transplantation & Donation Network. End-stage kidney disease, which results in kidney failure and death without treatment, can only be remedied with dialysis or a kidney transplant from a deceased or living donor, the release read.

For decades, researchers worldwide have investigated the potential of using pig organs — primarily hearts and kidneys — for xenotransplantation in humans because of similarities between the species in how their organs work. Though the FDA has not yet approved these kinds of transplants for clinical use, the agency has permitted “compassionate use” exceptions on rare occasions, according to the release.

Yamada, who was recruited in August to lead Johns Hopkins Medicine’s xenotransplantation research program, performed the first pig-to-primate kidney transplant in 2003 using genetically modified pig kidneys.

Doctors at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the University of Maryland Medical Center transplanted a genetically modified pig heart into man in January 2022 to save his life. The man died two months later of heart failure. However, in the weeks after the transplant, the man who had been bedridden was able to get out of bed, begin rehabilitation and spend time with his family.

“It was either die or do this transplant. I want to live,” the man said in a statement before the operation. “I know it’s a shot in the dark, but it’s my last choice.”

To boost the chances of a successful pig-to-human organ transfer, researchers modify swine so that they don’t have the gene that produces alpha-gal sugar — a compound on cell surfaces that stimulates the immune system and is believed to be a trigger of transplant rejections in humans.

Under the new research agreements, Yamada and Cameron will study this technique — called a gene “knockout” — as well as “knocking in,” or adding, human genes to the donated pig organ to make it seem more human.

The researchers also will study an approach meant to teach the human immune system to recognize the donated pig organ as its own ― transplanting a pig kidney concurrently with thymus tissue from the same animal. The thymus gland is a small organ that lies in the upper chest, under the breastbone, that makes white blood cells, which protect the body against infections.

“By transplanting pig thymus tissue along with the donor kidney, the immune response of the recipient is reduced, prolonging the viability of the organ, and with less need for medical immunosuppression,” said Yamada, who pioneered the transplant approach.

©2023 The Baltimore Sun. Visit at baltimoresun.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

​ Orange County Register 

Ex-VP Pence won’t appeal order compelling testimony on Jan. 6

• April 5, 2023

By Jill Colvin and Eric Tucker

WASHINGTON — A spokesman for Mike Pence said Wednesday that the former vice president will not appeal a judge’s order compelling him to testify in the Justice Department’s investigation into efforts by Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

The decision sets up a possible appearance by Pence in the coming weeks before a federal grand jury scrutinizing attempts by the former president and supporters before the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to undo Democrat Joe Biden’s victory.

Multiple Trump administration officials have testified in that investigation, as well in a separate inquiry examining Trump’s possession of classified documents, but Pence would be the highest-profile witness to answer questions before a grand jury. His closed-door testimony could offer investigators a firsthand account of Trump’s state of mind in the pivotal weeks after he lost to Biden and further expose the rift in their relationship since the end of their administration.

The strain could grown as Pence approaches a likely 2024 run for the presidency and a challenge to Trump, who already is in the race for the Republican nomination.

After Pence was subpoenaed months ago by the Justice Department’s special counsel, lawyers for Trump objected on executive privilege grounds. But a federal judge in Washington last week rejected those arguments, forcing Pence to testify.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg did give Pence a win by accepting arguments from Pence’s lawyers that, for constitutional reasons, he could not be questioned about his actions on Jan. 6. They had argued that because Pence was serving in his capacity as president of the Senate that day, he was protected from being forced to testify under the Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause, which is intended to protect members of Congress from questioning about official legislative acts.

“Having vindicated that principle of the Constitution, Vice President Pence will not appeal the judge’s ruling and will comply with the subpoena as required by law,” Pence spokesman Devin O’Malley said in a statement Wednesday.

The Trump team could still appeal the executive privilege ruling from Boasberg.

The Jan. 6 and classified records investigations are being led by Jack Smith, a former war crimes prosecutor who was named by the Justice Department in November to serve as special counsel. It is not clear when the investigations might end or whether anyone will be charged.

Pence has spoken extensively about Trump’s pressure campaign urging him to reject Biden’s victory in the days leading up to Jan. 6, including in his book, “So Help Me God.” Pence, as vice president, had a ceremonial role overseeing Congress’ counting of the Electoral College vote, but did not have the power to affect the results, despite Trump’s contention otherwise.

Pence has said that Trump endangered his family and everyone else who was at the Capitol that day and history will hold him “accountable.”

“For four years, we had a close working relationship. It did not end well,” Pence wrote, summing up their time in the White House.

Colvin reported from New York.

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​ Orange County Register 

Angels’ Taylor Ward still getting a crash course with the outfield fence

• April 5, 2023

SEATTLE — A day after Taylor Ward made a nice catch just as he crashed into the outfield fence, he said he’s finally over the fear of the wall from last year’s collision.

That’s not such a good thing, though.

The Angels left fielder, whose struggled for three months last season because of a shoulder injury suffered after hitting the wall, said ideally he will have a healthy awareness of where the wall is, without the fear of hitting it.

“It’s getting better,” he said. “Slowly but surely. Still not 100% comfortable. I don’t think I ever will be. That will continue to drive the progression to get better. So far so good. It’s cool to see some of your hard work paying off. That was fun last night.”

The Angels were trailing 3-0 in the bottom of the fourth when Seattle Mariners catcher Tom Murphy hit a fly ball down the left-field line. Ward raced into foul territory and leaped, making the catch just before hitting the wall.

“I still have that instinct to go get it,” Ward said Wednesday. “I kind of knew I was approaching the wall because everything starts coming into your peripheral vision. I still think I can have a better process while approaching the wall.”

Ward said his goal is to get better at “peeking at the wall” more often, so he knows where he is at all times.

But it’s better than it was last year, when he was too aware of the wall.

“I don’t have nearly as much fear as I had after last year,” he said. “I think that’s gone away. Just trying to get better at peeking.”

It’s understandable that Ward would have some reluctance to hit the wall after the impact the collision had on him last year. Ward was one of the best stories in baseball, with an OPS of 1.194 at the time of the incident May 20.

Ward made the catch but suffered a stinger, which is an irritation of the nerve running from his neck through his shoulder. It wasn’t enough to send him to the injured list, but it sapped him of strength and bat speed. Ward had a .602 OPS over his next 68 games. The strength finally came back at the end of the season, and he finished with a .963 OPS in his final 37 games.

Ward believes if he can stay healthy all season, he can be that player for the entire six months. A few games into the season, he has two homers with an OPS of 1.197.

Manager Phil Nevin has said repeatedly he believes Ward can be an elite player, in the same “category” as Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani.

“We’ve talked about this for a long time. I put him right in the category with the two guys behind him, really three guys behind (including Anthony Rendon) him on most days,” Nevin said. “He’s in that conversation. He really is. I think he’s in the bunch of really, really good players, game-changing players in this game, in that MVP conversation with the other two guys behind him.”

READY FOR THE SHOW

Left-hander Patrick Sandoval is excited for his start in the Angels’ home opener Friday.

“It’s the stadium I grew up going to,” said Sandoval, a product of Mission Viejo High. “To be able to pitch the home opener is pretty cool. It’s awesome.”

Sandoval has had a big four-week stretch, including starts for Mexico against the United States and Japan in the World Baseball Classic. He gave up one run in those two starts combined.

“I think it was a good little taste of what this would be, what the postseason would be like,” Sandoval said. “Really good experience overall for my development.”

Sandoval gave up one run on two hits in five innings of his season debut Saturday in Oakland. He threw 86 pitches.

“I didn’t feel my stuff was as sharp as it has been,” Sandoval said. “Definitely more inconsistent with the changeup again, trying to dial that in for this next one. The same with the slider. The shapes were a little inconsistent as well. Other than that, I really liked to how the curveball played. I was happy with both fastballs. I could locate them a little better. The velo was alright. The next one should be a little better.”

NOTES

Left-hander Tucker Davidson has not pitched since Saturday, so if he doesn’t get into a game soon, the Angels will need to do some extra pregame work with him to keep him fresh. Davidson is a candidate to start next Wednesday. Nevin said if Davidson pitches this weekend against the Toronto Blue Jays, he could potentially still start next Wednesday, but with a more limited pitch count. …

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Nevin said he was prepared to use outfielder Brett Phillips to pitch the end of Tuesday’s game if Jaime Barría had gotten into trouble in the bottom of the eighth. Barria ended up getting through the inning with 11 pitches, finishing with 56.

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Angels (LHP Patrick Sandoval, 1-0, 1.80) vs. Blue Jays (TBD), 6:38 p.m. Friday, Angel Stadium, Bally Sports West, 830 AM.

​ Orange County Register