Juul agrees to pay $462 million e-cigarette settlement to 6 states, including California

• April 12, 2023

By KAREN MATTHEWS

NEW YORK — Embattled electronic cigarette-maker Juul Labs Inc. will pay $462 million to six states and the District of Columbia, marking the largest settlement the company has reached so far for its role in the youth vaping surge, New York Attorney General Letitia James said Wednesday.

The agreement with New York, California, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Mexico and Washington, D.C. marks the latest in a string of recent legal settlements Juul has reached across the country with cities and states.

The vaping company, which has laid off hundreds of employees, will pay $7.9 million to settle a lawsuit alleging the company violated the state’s Consumer Credit and Protection Act by marketing its products to underage users, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey announced Monday. Last month, the company paid Chicago $23.8 million to settle a lawsuit.

Minnesota’s case against Juul went to trial last month with the state’s Attorney General Keith Ellison asserting that the company “baited, deceived and addicted a whole new generation of kids after Minnesotans slashed youth smoking rates down to the lowest level in a generation.”

Like some other settlements reached by Juul, this latest agreement includes various restrictions on the marketing, sale and distribution of the company’s vaping products. For example, it is barred from any direct or indirect marketing that targets youth, which includes anyone under age 35. Juul is also required to limit the amount of purchases customers can make in retail stores and online.

“Juul lit a nationwide public health crisis by putting addictive products in the hands of minors and convincing them that it’s harmless,” James said in a statement. “Today they are paying the price for the harm they caused.”

James said the $112.7 million due to New York will pay for underage smoking abatement programs across the state.

District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb said in a statement that Juul “knew how addictive and dangerous its products were and actively tried to cover up that medical truth.”

A spokesperson for the Washington D.C.-based Juul said that with Wednesday’s settlement, “we are nearing total resolution of the company’s historical legal challenges and securing certainty for our future.”

The spokesperson added that underage use of Juul products has declined by 95% since 2019 based on the National Youth Tobacco Survey. According to the CDC though, since surveys were administered online instead of on school campuses during the pandemic, the results cannot be compared to prior years.

In September, Juul agreed to pay nearly $440 million over a period of six to 10 years to settle a two-year investigation by 33 states into the marketing of its high-nicotine vaping products to young people. That settlement amounted to about 25% of Juul’s U.S. sales of $1.9 billion in 2021.

Three months later, the company said it had secured an equity investment to settle thousands of lawsuits over its e-cigarettes brought by individuals and families of Juul users, school districts, city governments and Native American tribes.

Juul rocketed to the top of the U.S. vaping market about five years ago with the popularity of flavors like mango, mint and crème brûlée. But the startup’s rise was fueled by use among teenagers, some of whom became hooked on Juul’s high-nicotine pods.

Parents, school administrators and politicians have largely blamed the company for a surge in underage vaping.

​ Orange County Register 

Alexander: Are the Lakers the team that won’t die?

• April 12, 2023

LOS ANGELES — Maybe it was fate that pushed the Lakers into their triumphant moment Tuesday night.

Maybe the frenzied ending and the explosions of noise from the faithful had to happen the way they did, after the home team had trailed by 15 against a Minnesota club that entered the night shorthanded and a heavy underdog but took the fight to the Lakers and had them on their heels for much of the first three quarters.

The home team’s ultimate 108-102 victory in overtime was, for sure, a reminder to never assume. It was also a reminder that the failures and struggles of earlier in the season might have been building blocks.

It was, for large stretches, absolutely inelegant. The quality of play and the spottiness of the Lakers’ efficiency for much of the night were certainly no endorsements for picking the No. 7 seed Lakers over the No. 2 seed Memphis Grizzlies when their best-of-seven first-round series begins Sunday, no matter how many “team nobody wants to face” descriptions we’ll hear in coming days about any team that starts with LeBron James and Anthony Davis and goes from there.

And yet … maybe we’re looking at a true zombie team here, The Team That Wouldn’t Die. A team that started the year 2-10, dealt with injuries and personnel changes and stayed in the fight, and somehow is still in it.

Maybe there truly is something to Coach Darvin Ham’s insistence that W and L stands just as much for Wisdom and Lessons as for Wins and Losses, though the latter is what tends to determine how long a coach stays employed.

“I think some of the huge disappointing losses we experienced early on – whether it was a defensive breakdown, whether it was an unfortunate foul, whether it was missed free throws, whether it was running out of gas in overtime – it’s totally uncomfortable when you’re in the moment and going through those things,” Ham said.

“But again, you have to find the silver lining in things, whether it’s basketball, major sports in general, in life. You constantly got to look for a silver lining and look forward and learn from these mistakes so that, you know, they’re not repetitive, they don’t become repetitive.”

It’s a multi-faceted process. The transactions that brought people like D’Angelo Russell, Jarred Vanderbilt, Rui Hachimura and Malik Beasley to the roster at midseason also brought opportunities for both newcomers and holdovers to share experiences, create dialogue and figure out ways for individuals to become part of the whole.

“And you go to that process and once you get to the end of things, to have everyone healthy, to be playing in the type of rhythm we’re playing in, to defend at the level that we’re defending at going into the most important time of the year, you can’t ask for a better situation,” Ham said.

The craziness of the late stages of regulation – a dead-on 3-pointer by Dennis Schröder to give the Lakers a 98-95 lead with 1.4 seconds left, followed by a questionable foul call against Anthony Davis on a 3-point try by Minnesota’s Mike Conley with one-tenth of a second left and Conley’s three free throws to re-tie the score – probably didn’t faze the Lakers because the entire journey from 2-10 to the playoffs has been crazy.

“With the mindset that we have, it was just, ‘Next play,’” Austin Reaves said. “We did not dwell on it or anything like that. That just shows the resilience of the team.”

That, James said, is something his team has been very good at, being “able to stick with the game and find a way to gut it out and win – (despite) slow starts or not finishing the game off the way we’d like to.

“You know, just always trying to find a way. And tonight was another instance of that versus a very, very, very good team.”

It was a true playoff atmosphere, even if the NBA doesn’t consider these games part of the playoffs but instead, the “Play-In Tournament” (with, of course, a title sponsor).

The capacity crowd raised the noise level exponentially as the game got tighter and crazier, and particular plays – Schröder’s 3-pointer at the end of regulation, Hachimura’s 3-pointer in the first minute of overtime, and Davis’ inside basket over Karl-Anthony Towns with 1:40 left in overtime for a 105-100 lead – had to have had Apple Watches throughout the building issuing “loud environment” warnings.

“It’s playoff intensified out there,” James said. “You dive for loose balls, you’re taking charges, you run guys off the line trying to keep your body in front of ’em.

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“Basically you’re just takin’ the gas down to E, then try to refuel as much as you can save as a reserve tank. … You can always find a way to make one more play, one more steal, one more block and one more rebound, you know, or get one more stop.”

Next play … next game … next series … this is how the Lakers’ 2022-23 season has been built, with the lessons of the bad times informing the decisions of the better ones.

“That’s been our mantra, what’s represented us the entire season: Just trying to move forward,” Ham said. “Not constantly belaboring an issue, a problem, what went wrong, but just constantly trying to find solutions to make sure we don’t make the same mistake twice.”

That mentality, and having been in urgency mode for most of the previous month, has gotten them here. And now they’ve reached the time of the basketball year that, at least for this proud franchise, truly defines success or failure.

[email protected]

​ Orange County Register 

John Stossel: Media self-censorship during the COVID pandemic

• April 12, 2023

Over the past three years, we reporters learned there were certain things that we weren’t allowed to say. Not long ago, in fact, my new video may have been censored.

One dangerous idea, we were told, was that COVID might have been created in a lab at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. That seems very possible, since the institute studied coronaviruses in bats, and America’s National Institutes of Health gave the lab money to perform “gain-of-function” research, experiments where scientists try to make a virus more virulent or transmissible.

A Washington Post writer worried the lab leak theory “could increase racist attacks against Chinese people and further fuel anti-Asian hate.”

The establishment media fell in line, insisting that COVID most likely came from a local market that sold animals.

Left-wing TV mocked the lab theory as a “fringe idea” that came from “a certain corner of the right.”

“This coronavirus was not manmade,” said MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, confidently, “That is not a possibility.”

Not even a possibility?

Debate about it, we were told, posed a new threat: misinformation.

Facebook banned the lab leak theory, calling it a “false claim.”

But now the U.S. Department of Energy says the pandemic most likely came from a lab leak. FBI director Christopher Wray now says the origin of the pandemic is “most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan.”

For two years, the most likely explanation was censored.

Do the media gatekeepers apologize for their censorship? No.

The closest to an admission of guilt I found was from Chris Hayes, who eventually said, “There’s a kernel of truth to the idea that some folks were too quick to shut down the lab leak theory.”

There was more than “a kernel of truth.” Again and again, politically correct media silenced people who spoke the truth.

Facebook throttled the reach of science journalist John Tierney’s articles simply because he reported, accurately, that requiring masks can hurt kids.

YouTube suspended Sen. Rand Paul for saying, “Most of the masks you get over the counter don’t work.”

But what they said is true. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its guidance to say cloth masks are not very effective. And now a big study failed to find evidence that wearing even good masks stops the spread of viruses.

Probably the most blatant censorship was Twitter’s shutting down the New York Post’s reporting about Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Twitter wouldn’t let users decide for themselves. The company just called the Post’s report “potentially harmful” and blocked users from sharing it.

Facebook, as usual, was sneakier, suppressing the story instead of banning it outright. That’s what they do to my climate change reporting.

Today, the media admit the Post story is true. But they don’t admit they were wrong. Now they just say things like, “Nobody cares about Hunter Biden’s laptop.”

Bad as the media are, what’s worse is that government wanted to censor.

Sen. Mark Warner complained, “We’ve done nothing in terms of content regulation!”

Fortunately, his colleagues were not as irresponsible as he; no censorship legislation passed. But government did apply lots of pressure.

The White House asked Facebook to kill what they called “disinformation,” even urging them to censor private WhatsApp messages.

Now that Elon Musk owns Twitter and opened up the company’s internal files, we know that censorhip requests came from “every corner” of government, as journalist Matt Taibbi put it.

Even individual politicians tried to censor.

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Maine Sen. Angus King’s staff complained about Twitter accounts that they considered “anti-King.” Rep. Adam Schiff’s office asked Twitter to suppress search results.

Fortunately, Twitter refused.

But the sad truth is that lots of government agencies and media tyrants want to limit what you read and hear.

At least now, we can speak the truth:

COVID probably was created in a Chinese lab.

Masks are unlikely to provide much protection and requiring them can harm kids. Hunter Biden did lots of sleazy things.

Self-appointed censors tried to shut us up, but eventually, the truth almost always comes out.

Every Tuesday at JohnStossel.com, Stossel posts a new video about the battle between government and freedom. He is the author of “Give Me a Break: How I Exposed Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam Artists and Became the Scourge of the Liberal Media.”

​ Orange County Register 

Mind your own state, Governor Gavin Newsom

• April 12, 2023

In an interview with former White House spokesperson and now MSNBC host Jen Psaki, Gov. Gavin Newsom offered some political advice to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

“I’d tell him to pack up and wait a few years,” he said. “And actually do some of the hard work, which actually includes governing, not identity and culture wars.”

Newsom could well have been talking about himself.

The governor offered those remarks while on a multi-state tour funded by his newly formed political action committee to fight “rising authoritarianism” — or to raise his national profile for a future presidential campaign — depending on one’s naivete.

To be sure, both Gov. Newsom and Gov. DeSantis have a knack for grabbing national headlines over big culture war fights.

DeSantis has sparred with Disney for opposing a Florida law restricting discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity to young children. DeSantis has also signed legislation banning transgender athletes from participating in sports intended for biological women and girls.

Newsom, for his part, has purchased billboards in Republican states advertising California as a sanctuary for women seeking abortion in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling giving states the authority to restrict or permit abortion. Newsom has signed legislation offering “sanctuary” protections for transgender minors seeking medical procedures in California from other states.

Reasonable people can differ on the appropriate policy approaches to hot button culture war issues. But the reality is that both Newsom and DeSantis have participated in the culture war, scoring plenty of political points for their efforts.

Newsom, obviously, has been eager to establish himself as a national Democratic figure and possible successor to President Joe Biden.

About this time last year, Newsom began unloading on the national Democratic Party after the leak of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, saying, “Where the hell is my party? Where’s the Democratic Party? … Why aren’t we calling this out? This is a concerted, coordinated effort. And, yes, [Republicans are] winning.”

Indeed, Newsom spent much of last year trying to grab the national spotlight by needling his own part, prompting some warnings from loyalists to President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. “I like what Newsom is doing, but I don’t want him to be Icarus, and sometimes he gets too close to the sun,” one Harris loyalist told Politico last year.

Newsom obviously hasn’t let up the perpetual campaigning.

Meanwhile, the big issues facing California when he was first elected lieutenant governor, of all things, still persist. From high housing costs and homelessness to high rates of poverty and poorly performing K-12 schools, California has no shortage of serious problems that demand serious focus from the governor.

Longtime political observers are no doubt mindful of Newsom’s historical tendency to boldly promise major results, only to get bored and move on to the next issue. In 2008, then-Mayor Newsom pledged to end chronic homelessness in San Francisco. We all know how that went.

Four years ago, as governor, he called for a “Marshall Plan for affordable housing” and said it was time to “get real” about the high-speed rail project. Four years later, the housing crisis is as challenging as ever and the bullet train has only ballooned in costs and been delayed further.

So, before Newsom tries to lecture the rest of the country, he should mind his own store.

​ Orange County Register 

Let state mortgage program expire

• April 12, 2023

With a recession approaching, now is a good time to reassess expensive government programs, cutting where possible. A good place to begin is letting expire the California Dream for All Shared Appreciation Loan program.

According to its website, it is a down payment assistance program of up to 20% of a home’s purchasing price “for first-time homebuyers to be used in conjunction with the Dream For All Conventional first mortgage for down payment and/or closing costs. Upon sale or transfer of the home, the homebuyer repays the original down payment loan, plus a share of the appreciation in the value of the home.”

The $300 million allotted for the program was supposed to last “months, according to loan officers who attended agency presentations,” reported the Washington Post. “Instead, it became evident within days that the money would run out almost immediately.”

An April 6 Program Bulletin to CalHFA Approved Lenders announced the program would be paused beginning April 10.

“It’s not surprising people took advantage of it while it’s available,” Geoffrey Lawrence, director of research at the Los Angeles-based Reason Foundation, told us. But there’s a problem. “It has little effect on housing affordability because you’re effectively subsiding high housing prices. For a program like this that makes tens of thousands of dollars available to homebuyers, it would goose the price of homes by about the same amount. It’s similar to college loans, which is one of the reasons tuition keeps going up.”

It’s simple economics: When demand increases, prices go up. That means those who know about the mortgage program and fill out the paperwork in time got an advantage over everybody else, especially the taxpayers footing the bill.

Any funding from not continuing this program should be saved to deal with a budget deficit for fiscal 2023-24 that could exceed $30 billion.

As to making housing more affordable, instead of goosing demand, as this program has done, we encourage the state to continue working to increase supply.

Two good ways are: Reform the California Environmental Quality Act. And enforce Senate Bills 9 and 10 from 2021, which promote more construction.

​ Orange County Register 

Frumpy Mom: The ABC’s of traveling well with kids

• April 12, 2023

I recently stumbled across a notebook I kept of our trip to the Italian Riviera many moons ago when the kids were still young enough to enjoy my company and did not yet flinch when I tried to touch them.

Some of these tips that I wrote to myself will be useful in my future ventures with my newborn grandson, Floyd. And some might help you, too.

Here are my ABCs of traveling with children:

A. Apartment. Rent one. There’s more room for the kids to run around and you can cook. This means you don’t have to hear “I’m not hungry” three times a day when the kids don’t like a meal you just purchased in an expensive restaurant.

B. Backpacks. Give each of the kids one to bring onto the plane, with favorite snacks, a sweater and something to do.

C. Companions. You need these for help when you’re traveling with kids, or else you’ll just be exhausted every second. For older kids, bringing a companion for them means they won’t make your life a living hell.

D. Distractions. My kids were endlessly distracted by anything involving dogs or dinosaurs. One or the other would keep them entertained for hours.

E. Electronic devices. Even if you don’t approve, bring them along because they will prevent migraines. If you have a kid, you already know this.

F. First Aid Kit. Yes, you need this. When my daughter Curly Girl was small, we camped on a remote beach in Baja. Running around on the rocks, she tore her knee open. I nearly fainted at the blood gushing from her wound, but I pretended that it was no big deal, cleaned it up with wipes from the first aid kit and then used a butterfly bandage to close it up. We were too far from a doctor for stitches. Luckily, it worked and the gash healed fine. This is why you bring a First Aid kit.

G. Grocery stores. These are your friend. Find snacks for your room, even if you’re not cooking. And if you are cooking, go crazy. We lived on pasta in Italy, because it was cheap and I could easily buy it from the store. Eating out was, ouch, expensive.

H. Hat. Bring them. With a string so they don’t blow away.

I. Insect repellent. Wipes work better than sprays because the rugrats will resist less and they won’t spill inside your suitcase.

J. Jump rope. I find these are useful for both entertaining the kids and getting them good and tired. And they take up little space in your suitcase. You can also use it as an impromptu clothesline.

K. Kids ticket. If your kids are 12 and under, you should always assume they’ll pay half price. So ask. On some airlines, kids under 12 pay half for their airfares. Shop around for these. I had a lot of frequent flier miles at one time on Delta, so I decided to use those to take my kids to Egypt, back way back when. I looked on the Delta Airlines website and just saw regular fares for the kids. But when I looked at Orbitz for the same fares, it showed the kids for half price. So, ask!

L. Laundry. You can get your laundry done anywhere. Seriously. I had laundry done by Masai tribal people on the banks of Kenya’s Sand River. So don’t bring too much stuff. You can get it washed.

M. Milk. In other countries, you often find milk in shelf-stable boxes that don’t need to be refrigerated. Your kids may or may not drink this. It will probably be okay in cereal, which I’m sure you also bought at the grocery store.

N. Nightlight. Buy one of these at the dollar store. It’s so useful to light up the bathroom at night. I still bring this along for myself.

O. Old Maid. Speaking as a woman who’s never been married, I object to its name, but this is a great card game to shove in your pocket and play with the kids whenever.

P. Potato chips. Or Pretzels. Pack them in suitcases so the kids have instant access whenever they want.

Q. Quilt. Bring a small quilt or throw along for cold waiting rooms, planes and so forth. It can also serve as a pillow.

R. Red-eye flights. I know most people dislike these, but I found the darkness and quiet helped my kids to sleep on long flights, and helped me keep my sanity.

S. Snacks. Bring them. Lots of them. In their own suitcases and little backpacks for the plane.

T. TV. Yes, you want this. My kids watched “The Wizard of Oz” on Italian TV and it actually gave me a few minutes to nap. You can also download movies onto your tablet to ruin their brains, er, give yourself a small break.

U. Underwear. Don’t forget to pack these. Don’t ask me how I know this.

V. Very light suitcases. Make sure they can wheel them on their own.

W. Water bottles. Yes. Bring them. Stainless steel and they can often be refilled at the airport.

X. Xanax. Yeah, you might need one of these,

Y. Yard. Whenever possible, try to get a place with a yard so the rugrats can burn off steam.

Z. Zoo. This is usually a good location to run the kids ragged, although you’ll also be dragging by the end. I don’t like small zoos, they depress me, but animal rescue places are great.

Related links

Frumpy Mom: It happened. There’s a baby.
Marla Jo Fisher: I’m taking my kids on vacation – against their will
Marla Jo Fisher: I just sent my son away
Thai times: Family adventure and fabulous food in Thailand
Marla Jo Fisher: Traveling with teens is different

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​ Orange County Register 

How Janelle McDonald returned UCLA to gymnastics prominence

• April 12, 2023

UCLA gymnasts will wince if you ask them about the intrasquad meet that occurred in the first practice after the Pac-12 championships.

Coach Janelle McDonald decided to hold an intrasquad to replicate the feeling of competing two days in a row. So after a Pac-12 championship in which UCLA worked their way from fourth to second place in the final standings, and after traveling back from Utah, the Bruins went all out.

“It’s a good idea. But did I want to do that? No,” Bruins senior Margzetta Frazier said. “We were so tired, but we sat in the huddle like, ‘Let’s lean on each other. It’s not going to be the last time we compete like this. Let’s get it done.’ It was so freaking hard.”

In spite of their fatigue, every gymnast hit their routine. McDonald’s decision paid off even further on the second day of the NCAA regionals, when the Bruins battled meet-day nerves as well as personal struggles. They reminded each other of the successful intrasquad, then proceeded to finish second and qualify for the NCAA championships.

McDonald’s bubbly personality has rebuilt morale in UCLA’s bounceback season, but beyond the smiling face are coaching decisions made with intention. And those have the Bruins ready to contend for a national title.

The Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics Association (WCGA) named McDonald as Head Coach of the Year and UCLA’s BJ Das, Kyle Grable and Autumn Grable were named Assistant Coaches of the Year in early April, but McDonald’s accolade has been years in the making.

Finding her niche

Although McDonald a first-year head coach at UCLA, she’s been coaching since she was a teenager. While in high school, she led recreational classes at Gymnastics Unlimited in Washington so she could train for free at the facility.

“I loved being able to even help the little kids learn their first part cartwheel. There was just so much joy in it,” McDonald said. “I wasn’t really planning on continuing coaching, but as I coached through college I was like, ‘I don’t want to do anything else.’”

As she continued her career, she coached higher and higher levels of gymnastics and ended up as an assistant coach at California. The coaches in Berkeley were attracted to her joyful demeanor as much as they were to her ability to hone in on specifics, particularly on uneven bars.

“Part of the things that we love in Cal gymnastics is taking a lot of pride in details and lines,” Cal co-head coach Elisabeth Crandall-Howell said. “It’s holistically looking at a video of a kick and thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s really pretty.’ It’s that and having people in the program like Janelle who would embrace the details of things.”

McDonald’s attention to detail still shows in daily practices. She allows the Bruins to “play gymnastics,” letting them experiment with different skills, but also makes sure all drills are completed with quality, right down to the final handstand hold.

In film sessions, she reviews slowed-down routines recorded on iPads during meets in both one-on-one and team settings. She points out a detail in a gymnast’s routine, then asks what their mindset was in that moment. The thoughts of gymnasts who are in as well as out of the lineup are taken into account.

Some gymnasts, like sophomore Ana Padurariu, seek constructive criticism and like to have every detail spelled out for them.

“I like to improve on everything that I can,” Padurariu said. “So anything that she’ll see, like, ‘Your legs are apart here, on your handstand you need to open your hips, on dismount you need to point your toes.’ She’s always very transparent.”

Getting the results

The extra effort spent on details is showing in the results, especially on bars. Last season’s best score as a team in the event was a 49.475. The Bruins have surpassed that score seven times this season.

The team has been ranked within the top six in the nation all year and is No. 5 in the country on uneven bars and balance beam and No. 1 in floor exercise. UCLA has also surpassed a 198 total team score three times this season, a mark that was achieved only once last season – coincidentally against Cal, where McDonald was coaching at the time.

McDonald manages gymnasts with a wide range of skills as well as a wide range of personalities at UCLA. Some gymnasts, like Kalyany Steele, are soft-spoken. Others, like Jordan Chiles, burst into press conferences, talking quickly and preventing any instance of silence by making her thoughts known on any topic that comes to mind.

The key has been directing the energy of each gymnast into a common focus to get the whole team to function at full capacity.

“It’s easy to talk about scores and talk about that kind of stuff. But at the end of the day, we can’t control that,” McDonald said. “Somebody sitting in the chair does and so don’t focus on it. Pivot your mindset into what you can be intentional about.”

Setting the standard

McDonald put together a challenging preseason for the Bruins. The first meet was the Super 16, which brings together some of the best teams in college gymnastics in Las Vegas. UCLA was placed in a session with then-No. 1 Oklahoma as well as Michigan and Auburn, which were ranked No. 4 and No. 5, respectively, at the time.

UCLA placed fourth at the meet, but hit its highest season-opening score in 18 years.

“That was definitely something we were intentional about,” McDonald said of scheduling the meet. “It’s going to show our team where we’re at and where we want to go. That day, I saw them flip a switch to really believing how great they can be. And that was a moment that really has catapulted our season to being so great.”

The Bruins again find themselves among the best teams in the country this week in their first appearance as a team at the NCAA championships since 2019. They’ll start Thursday at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, in semifinal 2 against Oklahoma, Utah and Kentucky at 6 p.m. PT.

If they’re one of the top two finishers in the session, the Bruins will move on to the finals, slated for 1 p.m. Saturday.

“We’ve really just been champing at the bit,” said Frazier, who was part of a nationals-qualifying team as a freshman. “The more we said it, the more we believed it and embodied it and realized, ‘Why not us? We went into regionals like, ‘Why not us? We’re the top team in the nation.”

The seed of that mentality was planted by McDonald at the Super 16 meet, and grew with every film review, dual meet and grueling intrasquad. The coach has been smiling as bright as her blue-glittered nails all throughout – perhaps her most intentional coaching decision of all.

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“You have to be able to work and you have to be able to push yourself to places that are uncomfortable to improve,” Crandall-Howell said. “Even when things are hard, you’re able to reflect upon the joy that you have for what you’re doing and the people that you’re doing it with. Embracing the hard days can can be a choice that you make.”

NCAA WOMEN’S GYMNASTICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

When: Thursday

Semifinal 1 (noon): No. 3 Florida, No. 4 Cal, No. 6 LSU, and No. 8 Denver

Semifinal 2 (6 p.m.): No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 2 Utah, No. 5 UCLA, and No. 7 Kentucky

Where: Dickies Arena, Fort Worth, Texas

TV: ESPN2

​ Orange County Register 

First boats pull into new slips in Dana Point Harbor overhaul

• April 12, 2023

Despite a gloomy marine layer, the owners of the Dragonfly, a 26-foot sailboat, were all smiles and sunny dispositions as their boat passed its first inspection as part of the requirement of getting a slip at Dana Point Harbor’s newly installed boat docks.

The French-made, cherrywood boat is among 260 vessels that will move into the harbor’s first five completed docks in the next two weeks.

The docks – between Baby Beach and the Island Way Bridge  – are the first of 16 phases to the renovations that will create a new 2,254-slip marina. The $115 million project is expected to take five years.

It’s been 48 years since there was a new dock in the harbor.

“We’re really excited and thrilled to be moved into the new docks,” said Lori Shelton, who with her husband, Shane Dandy, brought the Dragonfly in for inspection on Tuesday, April 11. “I love the design, the architecture and the finely-chiseled docks.”

“Instead of square ends, they’re rounded, so we can move the boat in gently,” Dandy added.

The inspection – which included checking to make sure the boat was not leaking too much electricity into the water and an overview of its seaworthiness – didn’t take long and the Dragonfly passed with flying colors, making its owners proud. In a few days, it will get another review from the U.S. Coast Guard. This is the couple’s fifth boat and their 18th year in the Dana Point Harbor.

The new docks are the first project completed in a massive $500 million overhaul to the harbor by the developer group Dana Point Harbor Partners. In 2018, the group won a 66-year lease from the County of Orange and in return the partners are making the improvements in both the marina and on land.

Joe Ueberroth, of Bellwether Financial Group, is handling the marina project; Bryon Ward, president of Burnham Ward Properties, is heading up the development of the harbor’s commercial core; and Bob Olson, of R.D. Olson, will build two hotels once entitlements from the California Coastal Commission come through.

Under the public-private partnership, the developers are expected to design, fund and build the improvements, then operate those portions of the harbor through the life of the lease before returning the property to the county. The Orange County Sheriff’s Department’s Harbor Patrol building and docks are not part of the partners’ lease.

Work on the marina began in August with the demolition of the rusted and decaying C docks. The debris was hauled away and the new docks, which were built in Northern California, were trucked down and installed. New gates with security cameras have also been installed and there are new gangways and railings.

“This is a state-of-the-art marina,” Ueberroth said. “There is no steel in the system. When you walk the old docks, all the steel there is corroded. This is a new-generation type of dock. Dana Point is getting the best.”

The progress has come with some learning curves, Ueberroth said, adding that both phases one and two are rolling out at the same time. Next, the group will tackle the marina’s East Cove where docks A through F will be removed and replaced with an even larger dock system to accommodate 300 boats. Demolition there should begin in May.

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The larger harbor area and Dana Wharf will also be replaced, but that is likely two to three years out, Ueberroth said. There will also be a guest dock. The largest boat that will be accommodated in the harbor will likely top out at about 109 feet, Ueberroth said.

“I always want things to go faster,” Ueberroth said of the pacing. “But, we’re pleased with our product and excited for the tenants.”

As part of the construction, Bellwether hired a team to keep an eye on the wildlife in the harbor, especially its sea lion population. The Coastal Commission required potential disturbances from the noisy pile driving be watched. But, Uebberroth said few sea lions were sighted within the mandatory 300-foot zone near the construction, and there were no observed disturbances.

“We were very meticulous in watching their behavior,” he said. “It will be interesting when we get to East Cove where there are more sea lions.”

The new docks are generating enthusiasm among harbor visitors and the nearby businesses.

“It’s been pretty exciting, people are coming over to watch the boats going in,” said Kelly Reinderknecht, the marina’s general manager. “It’s been since 1978 (that) a boat came into a new dock.”

Boaters in the newly completed section have until April 25 to move into their new slips so demolition can start on the next phase.

Some boat owners who have rented in the harbor have balked at the rate increase for slips announced in 2021 ahead of the marina renovations and filed a lawsuit in court arguing the higher costs are not in compliance with the Tidelands Act because they would limit public access. Uebberroth called the argument baseless and said there is no violation, adding “The rate in Dana Point continues to be below market rate.”

The first boat owners to sail in were Sheila Bayati and her husband, Alex Sanchez, aboard their 28-foot power boat Xalt, which arrived early Friday, April 7.

“We weren’t planning on being the first,” Bayati said, but added, “Oh my God, it was amazing.”

“The setup is absolutely correct,” she said of her new slip. “The old dock was extremely worn and wobbly. Now our twin boys can walk around in their bare feet and we don’t have to worry about them getting cut up.”

On Tuesday, the Laguna Hills couple was out to take the boat on a spin through the harbor. The weather was a bit cool, so they opted not to go out to sea.

“We just love the water and being out on the boat,” Bayati said. “We’ll spend time at the dock, take it out, and anchor near a sand bar, we spend most of our holidays on the water.”

“We love Dana Point Harbor,” she added. “We used to live in San Juan Capistrano and were there every weekend even before we had a boat. We’re so excited about the changes.”

​ Orange County Register