CSUF food pantry collaborates with community partners

• April 12, 2023

By Nicole Gregory, contributing writer

Students who are experiencing food insecurity never have to go hungry at Cal State Fullerton. The Associated Students Inc. Food Pantry is a free and permanent service for currently enrolled students. The 700-square-foot pantry in the Titan Student Union is open Monday through Friday and is stocked with produce, frozen and canned foods, and freshly prepared meals, all with the support of key partners, including the Fullerton Arboretum.

When it opened in 2021, CSUF’s food pantry served about 100 students each week, but that number has since climbed to 600 per week, said Kristen Johansson, a graduate student who is about to get her master’s degree in public health and who works part time in the pantry. She records how many students come to the food pantry each week and how many total visits the food pantry gets each month.

The pantry will move into a bigger space by the beginning of the next school year to accommodate the increased number of students who use it.

“A lot of our students have many responsibilities — they’re working, they’re students, they’re parents — and they don’t always have money for all their basic needs,” said pantry coordinator Bernadett Leggis, who added that inflation is a contributing factor for the growing number of students who need the food pantry. Whenever possible, Leggis and her team help students connect with the Cal Fresh program, which provides food benefits to low-income families.

The United States Department of Agriculture defines two degrees of food insecurity. “Low food insecurity” means a person’s diet lacks quality, variety, or desirability. “Very low food insecurity” is when a person’s eating patterns are disrupted and food intake is reduced.

“Produce is really a necessity for students, and they request it, so we do our best to give them produce options,” Johansson said. Depending on the season, the Fullerton Arboretum provides the ASI Food Pantry with oranges, grapefruit, pears, plums, peaches, lemons, limes and avocados. The pantry reciprocates by donating compost to the Arboretum.

“Once a week on Thursdays, we take the composting we have and drop it off in the Arboretum’s composting pile,” she said. “And they provide us with extra produce harvested that week.” This arrangement was started a year ago and has been a success — the Arboretum has donated 1,900 pounds of produce, and the pantry has contributed 6,000 pounds of compost to its gardens. “It’s a wonderful collaboration,” Johansson said.

Donations from local businesses also help keep the shelves stocked with food. “Second Harvest is a food bank that helps feed people throughout Orange County,” Leggis said. “They provide donations to the pantry of two to three large pallets of food each week, which is about 1,000 pounds of food per pallet.” This includes milk, dairy, frozen meat, produce and nonperishable canned foods.

Thanks to the class of 2022, donated food pickups have gotten a lot easier — the class gift was money for the pantry to purchase a van. “It allows us to go out into the community more often and receive the donated food,” Leggis said. Food pantry assistants drive the van to pick up donations each week from two Ralphs stores and a Sprouts Farmers Market store. This food might be overstocked items or items close to the labeled date.

Another major partner is Bracken’s Kitchen, a 501(c)(3) in Garden Grove that provides culinary training and also makes — and then donates — freshly prepared frozen meals and soups for people in need. “They make thousands of meals per week,” Leggis said.

Food pantries are now open on many college campuses around Southern California. “Every CSU has a food pantry, and most UCs have some form of pantry, too,” Johansson said.

Each student who comes to the ASI Food Pantry is given an amount of free food they can take home. “Because we are donation-based, the amount we have of each food per week differs,” Leggis said. “There is a limit for some food items to create an equal chance for everyone,” she said. “We also have items that don’t count toward your limit,” she said. “For example, right now we have so much canned tuna, so 10 canned tunas count as one item.”

As a student of public health working in the food pantry, Johansson has a close-up view of how a community addresses food insecurity. “It’s been very eye-opening and heartwarming,” she said. “Through the different collaborations, our common goals — basic needs, supporting the environment, preventing food waste — are achieved. The ASI food pantry is mighty and these collaborations make us so incredibly mightier.”

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​ Orange County Register 

Recipe: Here’s how to make Asian-style green beans

• April 12, 2023

Green beans cooked to perfection, somewhere between hard and soft, are delicious tossed with a sauce made with Asian-style ingredients. Oyster-flavored sauce, that bottled oh-so-tangy condiment, adds umami to the mix. Mirin, rice vinegar and sugar balance out the flavors with sweetness. Toasted sesame seeds add a gentle crunch and welcome nuttiness.

In Chinese restaurants, a version of this dish often features Chinese long beans. They have a distinctive bean taste and are often steamed or stir-fried. Green beans are a little sweeter and easier to find in the marketplace.

Asian-Style Green Beans

Yield: 4 servings

INGREDIENTS

2 tablespoons white sesame seeds

2 tablespoons oyster-flavored sauce

2 tablespoons mirin; see cook’s notes

1 1/2 teaspoons Asian roasted sesame oil

2 teaspoons rice vinegar (not seasoned rice vinegar)

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

Optional: 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon Sriracha

Salt

3/4-pound green beans, trimmed, if long cut in half crosswise

Cook’s notes: Mirin is a type of rice wine and a common ingredient in Japanese cooking. It is something like sake but with a lower alcohol content and higher sugar content.

DIRECTIONS

1. Place a plate next to the stove. Place sesame seeds in a small skillet on medium heat. Shake handle of skillet to redistribute seeds as they lightly brown, 1 to 3 minutes. Keep an eye on them because they burn easily. Transfer seeds to plate.

2. Add oyster sauce, mirin, sesame oil, rice vinegar and sugar to small saucepan. Using medium heat stir until sugar dissolves, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Taste sauce. If you want to add spicy heat, stir in Sriracha to taste.

3. Bring a large deep saucepan of water to a boil on high heat. Add about a teaspoon of salt. Add green beans and boil until beans are tender-crisp (on my stove, I set a timer to seven minutes, that gives a minute or two for the water to come back to a boil, then about five minutes for the beans to blanch in boiling water). Drain. Shake colander to remove excess water.

4. Place beans in bowl. Stir sauce and pour over beans. Toss and add most of toasted sesame seeds, reserving some to sprinkle over beans as a garnish. Toss and taste; sprinkle on a little salt if needed. Sprinkle on remaining sesame seeds and serve.

Cooking question? Contact Cathy Thomas at [email protected]

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​ Orange County Register 

Cheaper gas and food provide some relief from US inflation

• April 12, 2023

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER  | AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON — U.S. consumer inflation eased in March, with less expensive gas and food providing some relief to households that have struggled under the weight of surging prices. Yet prices are still rising fast enough to keep the Federal Reserve on track to raise interest rates at least once more, beginning in May.

The government said Wednesday that consumer prices rose just 0.1% from February to March, down from 0.4% from January to February and the smallest increase since December.

Measured from a year earlier, prices were up just 5% in March, down sharply from February’s 6% year-over-year increase and the mildest such rise in nearly two years. Much of the drop resulted from price declines for such goods as gas, used cars and furniture, which had soared a year ago after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Excluding volatile food and energy costs, though, so-called core inflation is still stubbornly high. Core prices rose 0.4% from February to March and 5.6% from a year earlier. The Fed and many private economists regard core prices as a better measure of underlying inflation. The year-over-year figure edged up for the first time in six months.

As goods prices have risen more slowly, helping cool inflation, costs in the nation’s services sector — everything from rents and restaurant meals to haircuts and auto insurance — have jumped, keeping core prices elevated.

Boxed milk products are shown in a grocery store, Tuesday, April 11, 2023, in Surfside, Fla. On Wednesday, the Labor Department reports on U.S. consumer prices for March. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

“It’s comforting that headline inflation is coming down, but the inflation story has had some shifts under the hood in the last couple of years,” said Sonia Meskin, head of U.S. economics at BNY Mellon’s investment division. “Overall inflation still remains much too strong.”

Even so, the March data offered some signs that suggest inflation is slowly but steadily headed lower. Rental costs, which have been one of the main drivers of core inflation, rose at the slowest pace in a year. And grocery prices fell for the first time in 2 1/2 years.

Grocery prices dropped 0.3% from February to March. The cost of beef fell 0.3%, milk 1% and fresh fruits and vegetables 1.3%. Egg prices, which had soared after an outbreak of avian flu, plunged nearly 11% just in March, though they remain 36% more expensive than a year ago.

Despite last month’s decline, food costs are still up more than 8% in the past year. And restaurant prices, up 0.6% from February to March, have risen nearly 9% from a year ago.

Paul Saginaw, who owns Saginaw’s deli in Las Vegas, said nearly all the costs of a Reuben sandwich — his most popular — including corned beef, cheese and bread, have soared. He charges 10% more for a Reuben than he did 2 1/2 years ago, although he said “our costs have gone up a lot more” than that.

Saginaw is also paying more for paper goods and packaging, just as takeout and delivery orders have become a much bigger part of his business. One clamshell-style food container has jumped from 43 cents apiece to 98 cents.

“Everything we use has gone up,” he said.

Rich Pierson, a semi-retired owner of a financial planning business who was shopping this week at Doris Italian Market and Bakery in North Palm Beach, Florida, said high restaurant prices have led him and his wife to eat much more at home.

“We cook more at home than we ever have due to the rising costs,” he said. “You do look for the occasional deals and add value when you can — that’s for sure.”

Gas prices fell 4.6% just from February to March, a drop that partly reflected seasonal factors: Prices at the pump usually rise during spring. Gas costs have tumbled 17% over the past year.

Yet price increases in the service sector are keeping core inflation high, at least for now. That trend is widely expected to lead the Fed to raise its benchmark interest rate for a 10th straight time when it meets in May.

Travel costs are still rising as Americans make up for lost vacation time during the pandemic. Airline fares rose 4% from February to March and are up nearly 18% in the past year. Hotel prices jumped 2.7% last month and are up 7.3% from a year ago.

Among the biggest drivers of inflation has been rental costs, which make up one-third of the government’s consumer price index. Rental costs rose 0.5% from February to March. Though still high, that was the smallest such increase in a year.

According to Wednesday’s government report, rents have risen by about 9% from a year ago. Yet Apartment List, which tracks real-time changes in new leases, shows rents rising at a 2.6% annual pace. As more apartments reset with those smaller increases, the government’s inflation data should show milder increases in coming months.

“It’s something that’s certainly coming, there has been some moderation in rents,” said Mark Vitner, chief economist at Piedmont Crescent Capital.

Fed officials have projected that after one additional quarter-point hike next month — which would raise their benchmark rate to about 5.1%, its highest point in 16 years — they will pause their hikes but leave their key rate unchanged through 2023. But officials have cautioned that they could raise rates further if they deem it necessary to curb inflation.

When the Fed tightens credit with the goal of cooling the economy and inflation, it typically leads to higher rates on mortgages, auto loans, credit card borrowing and many business loans. The risk is that ever-higher borrowing rates can weaken the economy so much as to cause a recession.

On Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund, a 190-nation lending organization, warned that persistently high inflation around the world — and efforts by central banks, including the Fed, to fight it — would likely slow global growth this year and next.

There are other signs that inflation pressures are easing. The Fed’s year-long streak of rate hikes are also starting to cool a hot labor market, with recent data showing that companies are advertising fewer openings and that wage growth has been slowing from historically elevated levels.

A more worrisome trend is the possibility that banks will pull sharply back on lending to conserve funds, after two large banks collapsed last month, igniting turmoil in the United States and overseas. Many smaller banks have lost customer deposits to huge global banks that are perceived to be too big to fail. The loss of those deposits will likely mean that those banks will extend fewer loans to companies and individuals.

Some small businesses say they are already having trouble getting loans, according to a survey by the National Federation for Independent Business. The IMF said Tuesday that pullbacks in lending could slow growth by nearly a half-percentage point over the next 12 months.

A slowdown in the economy could cool inflation and as a result would help the Fed achieve its objectives. But the blow to the economy might prove larger than expected. Under the worst-case scenario, it could mean a full-blown recession with the loss of millions of jobs.

Associated Press Video Journalist Cody Jackson contributed to this report from North Palm Beach, Florida.

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​ Orange County Register 

Earn a bank bonus or interest last year? Don’t forget to pay taxes on it

• April 12, 2023

With tax season in full swing, you may be consolidating the various charitable donation receipts, deductions and W-2 forms that you’ll submit to the Internal Revenue Service. But if you received any bank sign-up bonuses or earned interest on your bank balance, you may owe additional taxes you might not have planned for.

Interest rates on bank accounts, such as high-yield savings accounts, were high in 2022 due to ongoing rate increases made by the Federal Reserve. Bank sign-up bonuses and promotions have also been high, often $100 or more. The IRS sees bonuses and interest as additional income, which means the government has to take its cut.

What’s the Tax Rate for Bank Interest and Bonuses?

Interest from savings accounts is taxed at the same rate as your income, which is in the range of 10%-37% in the United States in 2023. If you’ve earned interest, your bank may send you a 1099-INT tax form. These forms are issued by businesses that offer interest, such as banks, and they let you know how much you owe for taxes on your earned interest.

Bank bonuses are typically taxed the same way, although you might receive a 1099-MISC form instead of, or in addition to, a 1099-INT form. Sometimes, however, banks don’t send out forms at all.

“Not all financial institutions send out 1099s for bank bonuses,” said Matt Bundrick, co-founder of BankBonus.com, by email. “However, this does not relieve you from your obligation to include them on your tax return.”

If you’ve earned a bank sign-up bonus or interest but haven’t received any tax forms, you can add that income to a 1040 form, which allows tax filers to list any additional income they’ve received, such as prize winnings, jury duty pay, alimony and other non-1099 or non-W-2 earnings. If you’re using tax software, you may be prompted to add additional income in your form submission, and the software will tell you how much you owe as a result of the information in your filing.

If you forgot to add something to your tax filing, you could reach out to the IRS to amend your tax return.

What’s the Tax Difference Between Bank Bonuses and Credit Card Bonuses?

The IRS doesn’t require that taxes be paid on credit card bonuses because those bonuses are categorized as rebates on spending, not as income.

Credit card bonuses can typically only be earned by spending a certain amount, usually within a time frame such as three months.

How Can I Be Smart With My Bank Account Interest and Bonuses?

If you’re receiving a bonus or interest on your bank balance, it’s a good idea to set aside a percentage of your earnings for taxes in advance so you can cover your tax obligations. For peace of mind, it can be helpful to keep your tax money somewhere you won’t access it, such as in a separate savings subaccount set aside for taxes.

“I recommend that clients keep a log of their interest, dividends and bonuses throughout the year so as not to be surprised when they receive these statements,” said Walter Russell, CEO of financial advisor firm Russell and Company, via email. “Some of my clients pay quarterly estimated taxes so that the tax burden is lighter come tax season.”

If you try to earn multiple bank account sign-up bonuses by frequently opening new accounts and moving money among accounts to earn a bonus, you’ll likely owe more taxes simply because you earned more money.

In addition to taxes, there are other details about bonuses that you’ll want to keep in mind.

“Know the terms of the bonus before signing up,” Bundrick said. “This will help you avoid any headaches down the road. The last thing you want is to be wondering where your bonus is, only to find out you forgot to include the promo code on your application or otherwise didn’t qualify.”

Taxes are due by April 18 this year, so don’t forget to look into tax obligations concerning your bank account while you compile your forms. Underreported income — even by accident — can lead to an audit by the IRS or even create legal problems such as tax fraud charges. If you can stay on top of your paperwork and pay the taxes you owe, you should be able to get through tax season smoothly, on top of earning more on your bank account.

This article was written by NerdWallet and was originally published by The Associated Press.

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​ Orange County Register 

Travel: Madagascar boasts plants and animals found nowhere else on Earth

• April 12, 2023

Somewhere in the faraway Mozambique Channel, on Madagascar’s tiny, roadless, volcanic “Lemur Island,” a tawny-colored, wet-nosed, white-maned, utterly adorable lemur suddenly pounced from a tree in the tropical rainforest — and landed on my shoulder.

She leaned over, wrapped her eerily human-like hand around my wrist and, with a silky tongue, licked a squished piece of banana from my outstretched palm. Another golden-eyed lemur leapt atop my other shoulder and sniffed my hair. I was in crazy lemur love.

A pair of sifaka lemurs appear to play peek-a-boo near the Sacred Lake of Mangatsa. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

After all, I had swung halfway around the globe to view lemurs in Madagascar, the only place on Earth where the primitive primates are native, live in the wild (112 species at last count), and evolved here over millions of years. This troop of lemurs, on the turtle-shaped island officially called Nosy Komba, had been habituated to people. Others I encountered in Madagascar were not but they calmly and profoundly gazed with their big peepers at two-footed admirers. Funnily, some lemurs resembled mini panda bears or black papillon dogs.

“They are sacred animals for us. People think our ancestors’ spirits live in the lemur,” said Claudia Randrianasolo, a local Malagasy guide.

The luxury Ponant ship, Le Champlain, anchors along the west coast of Madagascar. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

Endearing lemurs were just part of my extraordinary, out-of-the-box odyssey. You see, I was on a Ponant small-ship expedition sailing its maiden voyage of an exotic brand-new way-off-the-tourist-track Indian Ocean itinerary, “Adventure in Madagascar.” During this inaugural 15-night cruise, the French luxury liner’s captain, crew and naturalists — along with its 132 well-traveled passengers —  were all authentically discovering the mysterious “eighth continent” of Madagascar together for the very first time.

Dancers in a Vezo fishing village welcome the first-ever cruise ship passengers to visit their shores. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

One afternoon, we arrived in rubber Zodiacs on a remote beach to visit rare “sea nomads” and found the entire fishing village turned out to greet the only cruise ship passengers they had ever met. Other days, we stood over a tribal king’s holy crocodile-infested lake, strolled among Madagascar’s iconic, towering “upside down” baobab trees, eyed three-eyed lizards, and snorkeled around stunning coral reefs. And we continually experienced the unique culture of this island nation 250 miles off east Africa’s coast —  women painting their faces with a paste ground from sandalwood as a sunscreen and for cosmetic beauty; fishermen hollowing out tree trunks to build traditional “lakana” canoes in a week; locals exclaiming “Maki! Maki!” meaning “Lemur! Lemur!”

The underwater Blue Eye aboard Le Champlain (and other Ponant explorer ships) has to be the most unique lounge on the planet’s seas. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

After every excursion, we returned to Le Champlain, our “explorer-class” ship featuring the Blue Eye, a “multi-sensory” underwater Jetson-style cocktail lounge with two large oval portholes to spy ocean creatures and hydrophones to pick up their sounds. While swathed in purplish-blue surroundings, you can quietly relax in curved, vibrating  “body listening sofas” and sip a complimentary Curacao-and-rum libation named the Blue Eye. No critters swam by for me, although digital projections of glowing jellyfish hypnotically wiggled up walls and pre-recorded audio played of whales, dolphins and other marine beings that had once vocalized near our ship.

The back deck of Le Champlain offers dining, a small infinity swimming pool, and breathtaking sunset views. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

Indeed, this trailblazing cruise was five-star like other Ponant journeys (note our caviar-and-champagne “tea time,” Laduree macarons, and the spa’s 24-karat gold hair follicle treatment). But onboard truly felt unpretentious. The easygoing French team of naturalists, often clad in tan safari clothes, presented eco-focused lectures; the affable  expedition leader, David Beaune, also conducted laughter yoga and had me cackling like an idiot. You also know the vibe is cool when the ship’s doctor dances in her red high heels to “Twist and Shout” with partying cruisers, some in their 80s.

The world’s second smallest chameleon is barely noticeable on the Madagascar island of Nosy Hara. It was the tiniest until scientists in 2021 discovered a more miniature one in Madagascar. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

Madagascar is astonishingly rich nature-wise, even boasting the world’s teeniest chameleon (we spotted the inch-long second puniest chameleon). Nearly 90 percent of its flora and fauna are found nowhere else on the planet. But economically Madagascar is one of the poorest countries; many inhabitants live on less than $2 a day. With tourism low but crucial, it’s satisfying to know our visit brought needed income — and Ponant, us.ponant.com, repeats the same route multiple times this year into 2024 (starting at $9,770).

“Mora mora,” the Malagasy guide Claudia said, referring to two words seen printed on women’s customary bright “lamba” sarongs. “It means slowly, slowly. It’s a philosophy for us. Taking what comes peacefully. I don’t have it today, but maybe tomorrow. Mora, mora.”

Madagascar has more than 300 species of reptiles — most endemic — so it’s easy to spot weird scaly creatures. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

Vehicles are scarce, but after our Zodiacs washed up to port city Majunga, locals ferried us in 4X4s for a lengthy bumpy ride past rice paddies, mangroves and zebu cattle-pulled carts to the myth-shrouded transparent Sacred Lake filled with carp, eels and crocodiles. We were among the Sakalava tribe, one of 18 ethnic groups in Madagascar.

“Hello White people!” smiling, waving children yelled in the Malagasy language as we slowly drove on a rutted dusty road dotted with their families’ thatched huts. My Sakalava guide told me locals pray and ask for blessings at the Sacred Lake because a Sakalava king’s zebu died in quicksand there. Or the other story is a king’s angry sorcerer transformed a village into the lake and villagers into fishes. As we walked on a long dirt trail to the lake, accompanied by a spunky 10-year-old Sakalava boy with a myna bird atop his shoulder, we looked up at tree branches — white-and-brown teddy bear-faced sifaka lemurs stared back. Shortly, we’d see more. At the compact lake, tamarind trees sheathed in red and white fabric signified “holiness” and “respect.” A crocodile snapped out of the water to catch a chunk of thrown raw meat.

Zebu-pulled carts navigate rickshaws and foot traffic in the Malagasy town of Toliara. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

On a different day, beyond the busy town of Toliara, we passed hundreds of bicycled rickshaws and, again, rustic wagons drawn by humped, horned zebu used for plowing, transportation, and hauling goods.

“In Madagascar, the zebu is very very important.  It’s a sign of being rich,” explained Sambo Ruffin, a Malagasy guide. “The zebu is like a bank. We put our money in the zebu. There is a tribe that steals zebu — it’s a custom but it is against the law. Sometimes, you have to wrestle a zebu to marry a woman. And when a man dies, his zebu is sacrificed and eaten.”

Most heartwarming was our visit to Sarodrano’s simple coastal village of Vezo fishermen, known as “sea nomads” because their survival for centuries depends solely on the ocean. Sambo earlier informed me the Vezo can purportedly hold their breath underwater for 15 minutes and women give birth in the ocean to instill babies with strong marine skills.

Side by side, a Vezo outrigger and Ponant Zodiac signify an incredible cultural exchange in the village of Sarodrano. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

What I didn’t expect was the enthusiastic welcome as we alighted from Zodiacs into the knee-high tide, the first cruise ship voyagers to ever appear on their shores (and also mainly White and French). A tribal elder emphatically blew a whistle as she and others joyously danced, including male celebrants shaking fishing spears. Rows and rows of villagers watched, some looking curious or perhaps unsure. Afterward, we walked around with a Malagasy guide and witnessed daily life — women untangling seaweed (some sold to China for cosmetics); men repairing fishing nets; youngsters gleefully sliding down sand dunes on plastic water containers. When we ambled by one thatched hut, a mother surprisingly invited us inside to see her 2-day-old baby boy, Augustin.

Vezo kids, unaccustomed to visitors in their small village, ham it up for a camera. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

None of the Vezo seemed to speak English but we all understood each other. I soon was in the middle of the ocean bobbing in a five-person canoe hand-dug by my bow paddler, a Vezo fisherman named Bier. More Ponant passengers glided in similar outrigger canoes. At the same time, our naturalists encouraged village children to jump in our 10-person Zodiacs for rides. Kids boisterously piled in, a huge heap of them howling in laughter and shrieking out to sea. At day’s end, the fishermen lined up their guest-occupied canoes in the water; the boatman next to me energetically strummed a handmade guitar while his buddies whooped in song. Bier forcefully beat his paddles against our canoe like drums. Vezo boys and girls waded into the surf, uncontrollably giggling with our naturalists.

Later, from my Zodiac, as I waved goodbye to the Vezo, I actually choked up.

Dubbed “mothers of the forest,” baobab trees are an iconic symbol of Madagascar. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

A couple days before, we meandered through the Reniala Reserve “spiny forest” among bulbous, soaring baobab trees, some 1,200 years old. “Many people believe spirits live inside the baobab and they will pray to it and bring offerings,” said Malagasy guide Rivo Rarivosoa. Other people, he added, use the inner bark to make ropes, the leaves to cure stomach aches, and the spongy trunks to help in droughts. (Incredibly, a baobab can collect up to 26,000 gallons of rainwater.) Reniala is also a lemur rescue, so we caught a glimpse of caged ring-tailed ones being rehabbed from the illegal pet and bushmeat trade before their return to the wild.

A sifaka lemur, like other kinds of lemurs, only exist in the wild on the island nation of Madagascar. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

Yes, not everyone believes lemurs are sacred.  All species — including the itty-bitty mouse lemur — are considered endangered and threatened with extinction due to deforestation and poaching. It’s mind-boggling, since lemurs supposedly floated here 60 million years ago on rafts of vegetation after Madagascar broke off from Africa. On Lemur Island, the forested sanctuary where lemurs are free to roam (although, remember, habituated ones will jump on humans to eat that handheld piece of banana), the long-tailed residents are protected by villagers who use tourism income from entry fees and handicraft sales to survive. We were also fortunate to see insanely cute “maki” (specifically the common brown lemur species) while hiking on the uninhabited island of Nosy Tanikely, a national park.

A Ponant Zodiac motors to a beautiful snorkeling beach in Madagascar. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

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Our expedition voyage spanned 2,633 nautical miles, and although centered on Madagascar, as planned it encompassed other international stopovers. We started in the idyllic island nation of Seychelles, where the world’s largest bats — known as flying foxes — eerily swooped over white-sand beaches and a vivacious community guide disclosed how to make booze from coconuts. Eventually, our ship had to leave Madagascar earlier than intended because of threatening Cyclone Freddy winds and we had to reach Reunion island before that French territory went on strike. We disembarked in the country of Mauritius and there I enjoyed a Ponant post-cruise tour that included time at an elaborate Hindu shrine where a priestess blessed me with a red dot between my eyes.

I already felt extremely blessed to have visited isolated, unparalleled Madagascar.  And now back home in California, I keep thinking of what guide Claudia so poignantly urged: “Please remember the smiles of the Malagasy people. Mora Mora.”

​ Orange County Register 

10 ways to celebrate Earth Day in Southern California

• April 12, 2023

Earth Day is a global environmental movement where we’re all asked to think about and maybe even actually do something to better our world on Saturday, April 22.

Typically, inhabitants of Earth participate on this day by volunteering and taking part in events that help the planet and all of the creatures living on it. There are plenty of events happening on Earth Day as well as several green-themed happenings taking place in the days leading up to and post-Earth Day.

Here 10 ways to celebrate the holiday around Southern California.

Earth Day at Quail Hill Community Center

Quail Hill Community Center, 39 Shady Canyon Drive, Irvine. 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, April 15. 949-724-6814 or cityofirvine.org. Free.

The city’s Quail Hill center will team up with the Irvine Ranch Conservancy to offer guided hikes in honor of Earth Day. And for those wanting to help the Earth at home there will be a compost demonstration at noon.

CicLAvia – Mid City Meets Pico Union

Mid City and Pico Union. 9 a.m.- 4 p.m. Sunday, April 16, ciclavia.org. Free.

This event takes place in various parts of the city and encourages participants to get out of their cars and get on bikes or walk on foot, ride skateboards or any other type of people-powered means of transportation by closing down a stretch of street to cars. The Earth Day event takes place in the Mid City and Pico Union area with the Mid City route starting on La Brea Avenue and heading down Washington Boulevard to 7th Street then turning up to Venice Boulevard with the route extending to Hoover Avenue.

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Getting “Wiggly” with Composting

Cypress Library, 5331 Orange Ave., Cypress. 5-7 p.m. Tuesday, April 18. 714-826-0350 or ocpl.org. Free.

Young kids can learn all about the Earth during a special story time and about composting with worms from a Discovery Cube Science Center educator. It all ends with kids making the “Ants on a Log” desert, which is celery decorated with chocolates and raisins to look like ants walking on a log.

CSUDH Earth Day Festival

Cal State Dominguez Hills, 1000 E Victoria Street, Carson. 10 a.m.-2:30 p.m. April 18. 310-243-2303 or eventbrite.com. Free.

The school celebrates Earth Day at the weekly Farmers Market located on the East and South Walkways with about two dozen environmentally-themed booths, bingo games as well as e-waste, battery and shoe recycling and an upcycled art exhibit. From 2:30-3 p.m., environmental and feminist artist Kim Abeles will be speaking on the library’s fifth floor.

Earth Day Cleanup

Crown Valley Park Amphitheater, 29751 Crown Valley Parkway, Laguna Niguel. 8:30-11:30 a.m. Saturday,  April 22. 949-362-4300 or cityoflagunaniguel.org. Free

Since Earth Day is all about treating the Earth nicely, the city of Laguna Nigel is looking for volunteers to help clean the Niguel Botanical Preserve. Volunteers plant, weed, add mulch, and clean up areas of the gardens. Pre-registration is required.

Earth Day at the White Point Nature Preserve

White Point Nature Preserve, 1600 Paseo del Mar, San Pedro, 9 a.m.-12 p.m. April 22. Register at pvplc.volunteerhub.com. Free

Volunteers can help the wildlife at the preserve by removing invasive vegetation, planting native species, cleaning seeds, spreading mulch and other activities. The day will also include a guided garden walk, a native plant sale, scavenger hunt and a raffle.

Glendora Earth Day Festival

Glendora City Hall, 116 E. Foothill Blvd., Glendora, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. April 22. 626-914-8228 or cityofglendora.org. Free

The city is going all out for Earth Day with activities that include a community bike ride, a reptile show plus a scavenger hunt and face painting for kids. The city will also offer free shuttles that will take residents on an eco-tour of Glendora and to the Dalton Wilderness Area.

Riverside Insect Fair

Riverside Main Library, 3900 Mission Inn Ave., Riverside. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. April 22. 951-826-5408 or riversideca.gov/insectfair. Free

The buzz on this event is that bugs will be teaching kids about the Earth with the help of Entomology students who will be showing off bugs like beetles, butterflies and all sorts of other insects to exhibit importance of nature. Also on hand will be the Wyland Mobile Learning Experience, a mobile truck that will teach kids all about the water cycle.

Teen Climate Fest: Earth Day Edition 

Aquarium of the Pacific, 100 Aquarium Way, Long Beach, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. April 22. 562-590-3100 or aquariumofpacific.org. Paid admission to Aquarium required. Admission is $36.95 per adult, $26.95 per child, $33.95 per senior  and free for Aquarium members.

The Earth is in the hands of the Aquarium of the Pacific’s Teen Climate Council as they put on a stylish event in Long Beach. The day will include an upcycled fashion show featuring recycled items, panels discussing environmentally-friendly fashion as well as booths manned by fashion companies and teen environmental researchers.

Wild & Scenic Film Festival On Tour

Warner Grand Theatre, 478 W. Sixth Street, San Pedro, 4-6 p.m. Sunday, April 23, pvplc.org. Tickets are $15 online or $20 at the door.

The Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy will present 14 films at the Warner Grand Theatre in honor of Earth Day. Topics will range from kayaking to Alaskan dog sledding to stories about saving wildlife and other conservation efforts.

​ Orange County Register 

Feds get no interest in auction of iconic Ziggurat building in Laguna Niguel

• April 12, 2023

The distinctive, pyramid-esque Chet Holifield Federal Building in Laguna Niguel, nicknamed the Ziggurat, has been on the auction block for the last month, but failed to draw a single bid by Wednesday’s 9 a.m. deadline, April 12.

U.S. General Services Administration officials will now try to determine why the building, which the federal government has decided is surplus property, didn’t sell and what is the next steps, a spokesman said, adding that the starting bid of $70 million was suggested because “that was what the market dictated.”

The building near Alicia Parkway has been a landmark in South Orange County for half a century. It was designed by William Pereira, who is known for the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco and the Los Angeles International Airport.

For decades, the building – named in 1978 after the longtime congressman from California  – housed thousands of federal employees from up to 12 agencies, including about 2,000 from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. For the past several years, it has only been about half full.

Related links

Laguna Niguel’s $70 million Ziggurat auction is wasted opportunity
Any interest in buying the iconic Ziggurat building in Laguna Niguel?
The Ziggurat: How a white elephant became a county landmark
Laguna Niguel’s landmark the Ziggurat could be facing the wrecking ball
Ziggurat a touch of Babylon in Orange County

The Ziggurat building was among a dozen buildings identified in 2021 by federal officials for sale under the Federal Asset Sale and Transfer Act. Under the FASTA legislation, proceeds from property sales will be used to consolidate further and sell off excess federal properties, officials said.

Another federal building on about 17 acres in Silicon Valley’s Menlo Park with a suggested price tag of $120 million also went without any bids.

The Ziggurat is near several strip shopping malls as well as the Aliso & Wood Canyons Wilderness Park.

With the property’s size and location, it was advertised by the GSA as offering “a unique development opportunity as one of the largest land parcels available in the market within highly desired South Orange County” and officials highlighted its “Unparalleled flexibility and growth potential with a unique location, size, view amenities, and re-zoning potential.”

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​ Orange County Register 

How John Sayles transformed ‘Jamie MacGillivray’ into an epic historical novel

• April 12, 2023

Writer-director John Sayles is best known for movies he’s made, such as “Passion Fish” and “Lone Star,” both of which earned him Oscar nominations for his original screenplays.

But Sayles, 72, didn’t start his career with filmmaking in mind. By the time of his movie debut with “Return of the Secaucus 7” in 1980, Sayles already had written a pair of acclaimed novels, including “Union Dues, a finalist for the 1978 National Book Award.

“There’s two big differences,” Sayles says of the challenges that a blank page presents at the start of a screenplay or novel. “One is that when you’re writing a movie, you have to deal with time.

“In a feature, you always have to think: ‘Am I 10 minutes into this? Am I an hour into this? What should people know by now? What do they think is going to happen next?’” he says.

“Whereas, when you’re writing a novel, nobody’s going to sit and read a 700-page novel in one sitting,” Sayles says. “So you have time to walk around in the story a little bit more. You can have chapters that are telling you more about the world that the people are in but don’t necessarily advance the plot. And you can have more points of view.”

His new work, “Jamie MacGillivray,” was intended to be a film before the vagaries of independent filmmaking left Sayles’ screenplay gathering dust for two decades.

Sayles never doubted that the story had good bones. Its fictional protagonist, Jamie MacGillivray, is a young Highland Scot whose clan backed the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745, which sought to overthrow King George II and restore the Stuart monarchy to the British throne.

When that uprising was crushed at the Battle of Culloden in 1746, MacGillivray escapes the noose for banishment to the American colonies, where his story moves from indentured servitude to life with a Native American tribe and fighting the English in the French and Indian War.

“I just felt like it’s such a good story I should do something with it,” Sayles says of the decision to rework it into a historical novel. “It was a kind of interesting and nice process to be able to go deeper into the history and into the characters.

“Now, I would say it’s much more like a miniseries that lasts a couple of years instead of a feature.”

Scouting expeditions

The story behind the novel began more than 20 years ago when Sayles answered the phone to find Scottish actor Robert Carlyle, then not long removed from his successes in “Trainspotting” and “The Full Monty,” on the line.

Carlyle had been recommended to Sayles as a screenwriter who might be interested in a story he wanted to develop – the story of Jamie MacGillivray, whose imagined adventures reflect the real lives of ordinary historical figures.

“I liked the idea so much I wrote a screenplay on spec,” Sayles says, using the technical term for writing a screenplay without pay or a contract lined up. “Then Robert Carlyle and Maggie (Renzi), who I live with and was the producer on it, and I scouted the Highlands of Scotland with Robert, and then came back and scouted a bunch of locations that show up in the book here in the states and in Canada.

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“And we just were never able to raise the money to make it, which is kind of the story of our lives as independent filmmakers,” he says.

Two decades later, not long before COVID-19 hit, Sayles dusted off the screenplay to see if it might work as a novel.

“In that process, of course, all those stops in between (in the script) became more stops and more characters,” he says. A young Scottish woman who briefly encounters Jamie as the book begins was chief among the characters whose stories grew as the novel expanded to 696 pages.

“Jenny was originally a very minor character who showed up only at the beginning and at the very end of the story,” Sayles says. “And doing the novel, I was able to follow her: How did she get to the New World? What was her path and how was it different than Jamie’s?”

History lessened

Sayles was raised in Schenectady, New York, a region over which the French, English and Native Americans fought before, during and after the time period of the novel.

“I kind of grew up with the official story,” he says of the French and Indian War in particular, and the early settlement of North America in general. “Which was interesting, but not the complete story, you know, or not the complex story that when you really jump into the history you realize.

“It was much more complicated than that,” Sayles says. “It was still being taught as these rough but civilized people coming over from Europe and encountering these savages. And when the two superpowers, the French and the English, got involved with each other, it became a dirty war because they had to enlist Native allies who murdered and scalped people.

“That was the official story for a long, long time, certainly in the mind of the public,” he says. “Doing the research for the screenplay gave me the basic historical structure that the novel is hung on. But doing it as a novel, I was able to get into much more of the real detail of what led to what, and just how complicated it was.”

From contemporary history, Sayles worked his way further and further back to the original documents of the times. He found the logs from sailing ships that transported convicts like Jamie and Jenny to America. He found records of an English convict ship seized by the French, its human cargo liberated and taken to the island of Martinique as happens in the novel.

There were court transcripts from the trial of Simon Fraser, the Scottish leader known as Lord Lovat, who backed the Jacobite rebellion and is a character in the book. Like Jamie, Lovat is taken to London and tried for treason, though his story ends not in the New World but on the executioner’s block.

Recent works by Native American scholars helped illuminate the history of the tribes who were squeezed between the French and English. “George Washington and the Indians,” a new history published around the time Sayles started work on the novel, provided fresh insights into the role played by the future Founding Father, who also appears as a character in the book.

Along with research, Sayles suggests that imagination can fill in the gaps if you’ve dug into the records enough.

“I always tell people, ‘Look, I adapted the novel ‘The Clan of the Cave Bear,’ where there’s like three skeletons that they’re basing everything on,” he says. “The 1740s and ’50s? That’s easy compared to that.”

Language lessons

One of the things that readers will notice throughout “Jamie MacGillivray” is Sayles’s use of dialect and other languages for the characters.

Jamie and his fellow Scots speak in the dialect of the Highlands, though Jamie himself also speaks English and French. When Jenny arrives in Martinique, she’s faced with a French-speaking populace. Later, in the colonies, Jamie realizes that to survive his time with the Lenape, or Delaware, Indians he will need to learn their language.

All of that can create a challenge for readers accustomed to standard English, no matter the period, people or place, but to Sayles it was an important way to get at the truth of the story.

“The main reason I went with it is because of Jamie and the other people who are kind of ripped out of the life that they thought that they were going to live,” he says. “They had to deal with new languages and people who didn’t speak their language. Even Highlanders would have had a hard time sometimes being understood in the Lowlands of Scotland.

“Jamie’s trying to survive, and if I don’t understand what they’re saying, I don’t know when to run away,” Sayles says. “I wanted the reader, the audience, to have to do some of that themselves.”

In a way, the verisimilitude of the dialogue helps Sayles deliver the feeling of truth that fiction can achieve and traditional history sometimes cannot.

“It’s one of the advantages,” he says of writing fiction that hews close to real events and serious research. “You can come at it from the inside out.”

A military history of the Battle of Culloden will provide the battalions and tactics and outcomes, Sayles says. The novelist’s imagination can fill in the thoughts and feelings of those who are there.

“You have a character who’s hoping to not get shot down and hoping to cover enough ground so that his side overruns the others,” Sayles says. “That character’s a warrior. He’s done this before. He knows what battle is.

“And you have a very personal experience of that battle.”

Searching for screentime

In the two decades since the story of Jamie MacGillivray began, cable networks and streaming services have expanded the landscape for limited series. For now, Sayles says there are no plans to adapt the novel.

He’s currently got a pair of movie projects he’d like to make if financing can be found. There’s a Western based on the 1926 novel “Pasó Por Aquí” – “I Passed This Way” – by the cowboy writer Eugene Manlove Rhodes. “Patronage,” an original screenplay, is set in a Chicago bar on the night that rioting broke out during the 1968 Democratic Convention.

And there’s also an almost-finished novel emerging from the bones of another unmade screenplay. “To Save the Man” is set at the Carlisle Indian School in the early 1890s.

“In an interesting way, I have to be much more visual when I’m writing a book than I do when writing a screenplay,” Sayles says, noting how his prose has to carry the descriptions that a camera might otherwise handle.

“You really have to provide much more visual detail,” he says. “On the other hand, if you want the sun to shine and you’re writing a book, the sun is shining. I’ll tell you, there’s a lot of times I wished I could do that as a director.”

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​ Orange County Register