In Ducks’ 30th anniversary season, who are their top 30 players of all time?

• October 17, 2023

The Ducks have had plenty to celebrate over their 30 seasons of existence, the pinnacle of which was their Stanley Cup triumph in 2007. This year, they’ll be infusing fanfare into a celebratory campaign that will bring back legends, reintroduce logos and reflect on a proud history that’s added a refreshing element to Southern California hockey and given Orange County a team to call its own.

While the coaches, owners and fans can all be celebrated, at the end of the day, a franchise’s legacy is all about its players. Ducks broadcaster and former NHL goalie Brian Hayward, who has been with the organization since Day 1, gave us an assist in compiling a list of the top 30 players to ever don a Ducks sweater. The Southern California News Group and Hayward collaborated on the list, with the comments for players 16-30 coming from SCNG and those for the top 15 coming directly from Hayward.

SCNG selects players 16 through 30:

30. Trevor Zegras – A placeholder for things to come, representing his promise and that of this new generation of Ducks.

29. George Parros – Parros led a lineage of enforcers that also included Stu Grimson and Todd Ewen.

28. Andrew Cogliano – Cogliano was a pro’s pro, combining meticulous preparation with Herculean lower-body strength.

27. Todd Marchant – Cogliano had wheels, but Marchant could flat-out fly. He lent that speed to a defensive role in the 2007 Cup run.

26. Petr Sykora – Sykora scored the game-winning goal in the longest game in Ducks history, a quintuple-overtime affair against Dallas, en route to the 2003 Stanley Cup Final.

25. Jakob Silfverberg – Only one thing needs to be said: “Ohh-ahh, Silf-ver-berg, Ohh-ahh, Silf-ver-berg!”

24. François Beauchemin – A secondary contributor in 2007, he returned for a second stint in a leadership role.

23. Rob Niedermeyer – Blazing speed must run in the family because he and his brother Scott both made the list.

22. Jonas Hiller – The Swiss netminder’s 162 wins rank fourth in franchise history.

21. John Gibson – Gibson has made more saves than any other Ducks goalie, and could continue climbing this list.

20. Keith Carney – Super steady and never more so than during the five-OT game in which he logged more than 56 minutes.

19. Bobby Ryan – Ryan was the consolation prize for missing out on Sidney Crosby, and he trails only Teemu Selanne and Paul Kariya among Ducks in goals per game.

18. Hampus Lindholm – Soft-spoken and gentle off the ice, Lindholm rewarded the Ducks for taking him sixth overall.

17. Sami Pahlsson – A shutdown defender and a heart-and-soul guy, Pahlsson was one of four players who went on both the 2003 and 2007 runs (Andy McDonald, J.S. Giguere and Rob Niedermeyer were the others).

16. Chris Kunitz – Quiet excellence personified, Kunitz won a Cup with the Ducks, two more in Pittsburgh and an Olympic gold medal with Canada.

The esteemed Bryan Hayward selects the top 15:

15. Ryan Kesler – Highly competitive, his abrasiveness stood out for a center as talented as him. Incredible faceoff man and penalty killer, he was the perfect second-line center behind captain Ryan Getzlaf.

14. Adam Oates – One of the greatest passers ever to play in the NHL. He was a very cerebral center who saw the game on a higher level.

13. Ruslan Salei – Steady and reliable. Underappreciated nationally, he had a surprisingly good shot.  Very adept at moving people from in front of the net.

12. Sergei Fedorov – Star power. An incredible skater who not only made things happen offensively but played the 200-foot game as well as anyone.

11. Andy McDonald – The underrated center had blazing speed and hands to match. Concussions prevented him from becoming a household name.

10. Steve Rucchin – Unicorn. An undrafted Canadian college player who became the perfect complement for Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne.

9. Guy Hebert – The original Mighty Duck taken in the expansion draft, he kept his team in a lot of games when they were badly outplayed.

8. Cam Fowler – The longest-serving Duck and a beautiful skater who can break the puck out under pressure almost single-handedly.

7. Chris Pronger – Big and nasty, he’d do whatever it took to win. He kept teammates accountable, intimidated opponents and ran the power play.

6. Jean-Sébastian Giguère – A workhorse goaltender who elevated his game in the playoffs. He won one Cup (2007) and almost single-handedly stole another (2003, when he was the playoff MVP in a losing effort). Mentally as tough as they come.

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5. Scott Niedermeyer – A quiet leader who saw the game on a different level than most. A big engine who could elevate his game when the pressure mounted and an effortless skater.

4. Paul Kariya – Incredible shot release and intimidating speed that could pull fans out of their seats.  Disciplined and dedicated to skill development.

3. Corey Perry – Great hands, long reach, a relentless drive and unbridled passion for the game made him the only league MVP in franchise history. (He is also the Ducks’ all-time leader in penalty minutes).

2. Ryan Getzlaf – The complete package: size, strength, incredible vision combined with leadership attributes. A dominant center.

1. Teemu Selanne – A dynamic goal-scorer who played with passion and became the face of the franchise. The best trade in Ducks history. He scored the most important goal in franchise history against Detroit, en route to the 2007 Stanley Cup.

​ Orange County Register 

10 Southern California escape rooms that elevate the terror for the season

• October 17, 2023

Escape rooms are called as such for a reason: As soon as you’re locked in, your goal is to get out as fast as possible.

You’ll want to move especially quickly when these rooms are filled with scary creatures.

If you think you have what it takes to solve clues while monsters and serial killers are creeping on you, then a horror-themed escape room is a perfect outing for couples, groups of friends or families this haunting season. As the escape room concept has risen in popularity in recent years, these spaces have started to theme the experiences to specific holidays and Halloween is no exception.

Here are 10 Halloween-themed escape rooms in Southern California. Make sure to call ahead to make reservations.

Los Angeles County

Escape Hotel Hollywood

When: 1-11:10 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday; 1 p.m.-12:40 a.m. Friday; 11:30 a.m.-12:40 a.m. Saturday; 11:30 a.m.-11:10 p.m. Sunday

Where: 6633 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles

Tickets: $39-$110 at 323-848 4954 or escapehotelhollywood.com.

This place bills itself as an entire hotel full of horror-themed escape rooms. With themes like a haunted daycare, a circus full of freaks and, of course, zombies, each room offers a terrifying option. On Sundays in October, there is an event dubbed Hide & Seek, which is a full contact horror survival game where all of the rooms open up at the hotel for one massive escape room game.

Maze Rooms

When: 10 a.m.-11 p.m. daily

Where: 4365 Sepulveda Boulevard, Culver City

Tickets: Starting at $37 per player at 310-595-2881 or la.mazerooms.com/rooms/theyre-coming.

This place offers several rooms at various locations, but for those who want a classic experience with the undead should check out “They’re Coming” in Culver City. This room starts off with your group doing what seems like a simple escape game, but then the undead rise in the heart of Los Angeles, and the government has quarantined you.

Quest Room

When: 10 a.m.-midnight daily

Where: 1815 Hawthorne Boulevard, Redondo Beach

Tickets: Starting at $127 for two people at 323-307-2090 questroom.com.

A serial killer has been plaguing the streets of Los Angeles and you and your friends find yourselves at the home of the most recent victim to help investigate the crime. This escape room is called “Resurrection,” and be careful because the home of the most recent victim may not be empty.

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Orange County

Escape Room Era

When: 2-10:30 p.m. Monday-Thursday; noon-midnight Friday-Saturday

Where: 3365 E Miraloma Ave., Anaheim

Tickets: $52 per person with a minimum of four people per booking in October. 657-262-6302 or escaperoomera.com.

You can choose your own level of fear here since this Anaheim spot offers escape rooms with different levels of terror. For real horror, there’s “The Hide,” where you and your friends are private investigators gathering evidence against a suspected serial killer. Lights will be out at times, there will be live actors and try not to get freaked out by the strobe lights and fog effects. The slightly less scary room is “The Overgrown,” which is more of a science-fiction based zombie adventure where you will be looking for a cure before the zombies get you.

Escapade Games

When: 3:15-11:15 p.m. Monday-Friday; 11:15 a.m.-11:15 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

Where: 1111 E. Commonwealth Ave., Fullerton

Tickets: $69 at 909-631-6716 or escaperoomera.com/escapade-games.

The organizers of “Zoe: Reborn” promise “100 minutes of pure terror,” with this escape room, which takes you into Zoe’s world as you navigate from her bedroom to her Uncle Robert’s lair through haunting props, eerie music, and realistic set decorations. Guests will have to solve puzzles that include haunted paintings, satanic circles and even buckets of blood. Plus it’s a full contact experience with live actors. It’s so scary that no one under 16 years of age is allowed to enter.

Legacy Escape Rooms

When: 1-10:30 p.m. Monday-Friday; 12:30-11:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

Where: 1525 Mesa Verde Drive East, Suite 212, ​Costa Mesa

Tickets: $39-$55 per person at 949-335-9677 or legacyescaperooms.com.

There are a few scary game options here and the newest one is “Zombie Rising.” Your group must survive the zombie apocalypse and at times your team must even split up to cover more ground.

Riverside County

Inland Empire Escape Rooms

When: 2:30-10:30 p.m. Monday-Friday; noon-midnight Saturday and Sunday

Where: 7000 Indiana Ave., Suite 107, Riverside

Tickets: $30-$40 per person at 951-777-8059 or inlandempireescaperooms.com.

The story of the “Panic Room” is set inside the eerie Kimberly Asylum. Guests must escape before the orderlies come to take you to the evil Dr. Jostle before he performs an archaic and painful procedure.

Breakout Escape Rooms

When: Hours vary; Open Tuesday-Sunday

Where: 22500 Town Circle, Moreno Valley

Tickets: $25-$30 per person at 951-444-4263 or breakyouout.com/the-clinic.

Those who are afraid to go to the doctor will find their nightmares come to life at the medical-themed horror room dubbed “The Clinic.” There’s something strange going on in this clinic where patients come to get better, but many go missing instead.

San Bernardino County

Confusion Escapes

When: 3:30-9 p.m. Wednesdays; 4-9 p.m. Thursdays; 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; noon-9 p.m. Sundays

Where: 245 E. Redlands Blvd., San Bernardino

Tickets: Minimum $150 for three people at 909-639-7077 or confusionescapes.com.

Would you book an Airbnb that is rumored to have belonged to a powerful witch? That’s the premise of the “45 Lampkin Lane” escape room where you won’t want to extend your stay but instead will want to escape before whatever is lurking inside the home catches you.

Unity Escape Rooms

When: 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Sunday

Where: 2015 W. Park Ave. #2, Redlands

Tickets: $30 per person; $22.50 for children under 14 at 877-338-6489 or unityescaperooms.com/redlands/the-cabin.

This escape room experience is called “The Cabin: Stanley’s Sanctuary.” Once you and your friends enter, you must find the book that Stanley the Toy Maker has used to trap the souls of his victims.

​ Orange County Register 

Capistrano Unified to vote on a parental notification policy

• October 17, 2023

Capistrano Unified School District will be the next Orange County district to discuss a parental notification policy on Wednesday, Oct. 18.

Like the policy adopted by Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified earlier this month, the proposal is written to solely focus on mental health concerns and has no mention of gender identity. Parental notification policies recently enacted by other California school districts have included a set of guidelines outlining how school administrators or staff will inform parents that their student may be transgender, such as if they request to use different pronouns or changing rooms that differ from their “assigned biological sex at birth.”

Capistrano Unified’s proposed policy says “parents/guardians will be notified if a student is exhibiting symptoms of depression, anxiety, a dramatic shift in academic performance, social withdrawal or other significant changes affecting a student’s well-being.”

Multiple sections of the proposed policy are verbatim to what was enacted by PYLUSD on Oct. 10, with the emphasis placed on mental health concerns. But PYLUSD Superintendent Alex Cherniss said there could be instances when a teacher or school staff member would notify a parent if they became aware that a student desired or began to transition genders, requested to go by a different pronoun or expressed distress because their gender expression does not match their gender identity.

It’s not yet clear if that is also the intent behind Capistrano Unified’s proposal.

The policy comes at the request of Trustee Lisa Davis who did not respond to a request for comment. During a September meeting, Davis did not go into details about what would be included in the policy but said, “As educators, we are mandated reporters, so we are already mandated to report on anything that is concerning over the safety of a child.”

“Due to the current nationwide mental health crisis exacerbated by the global pandemic, the Capistrano Unified School District recognizes the need for frequent, ongoing and oftentimes immediate communication between school administration, staff, and parents/guardians,” the proposed policy reads. “Furthermore, with reports of depression, anxiety and suicide rates at an all-time high among public school students, action is needed to address this emerging crisis and support the health and welfare of district students.”

The proposed policy states that district employees, administrators and certificated staff are to “collaborate with parents in evaluating the needs of students having academic, attendance, social, emotional, or behavioral difficulties and in identifying strategies and programs that may assist such students in maximizing their potential.”

It specifically instructs district officials to involve a principal or school counselor as soon as they become aware that a student may have suicidal intentions based on their verbalizations or acts of self-harm. In this instance, the principal is to immediately secure medical treatment or mental health services, keep the student under continuous adult supervision until a parent or appropriate support agency is able to intervene and notify law enforcement and other emergency assistance if suicide is actively being threatened.

Capistrano Unified’s proposal also says officials should notify parents if their child is in possession of a prohibited substance, experiences sexual harassment or is involved in a verbal or physical altercation.

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In other districts that have adopted these policies, situations that would warrant alerting a parent include requests to use different names or pronouns or requests to change sex-segregated programs (like athletic teams or changing facilities) that differ from the student’s “assigned biological sex at birth.” Those policies also include notification guidelines if a student reports self-harm, suicidal ideation or injury to others.

Capistrano Unified would become the latest California school district — and third in Orange County —to enact what’s been dubbed a parental notification policy if adopted on Wednesday.

Orange Unified was the first Orange County school district to adopt the policy in early September; PYLUSD became the second last week. And many parental rights activist groups say they will attend Tustin Unified’s next meeting to encourage the policy to be addressed there.

Capistrano Unified has 63 campuses, making it the largest district in Orange County. The district includes the cities of San Clemente, Dana Point, San Juan Capistrano, Laguna Niguel, Aliso Viejo, Mission Viejo and Rancho Santa Margarita.

The Capistrano Unified board is set to meet at 33122 Valle Rd. in San Juan Capistrano at 7 p.m. on Wednesday.

​ Orange County Register 

How ‘Wayne’s World’ director Penelope Spheeris became a true-crime podcaster

• October 17, 2023

It’s hard to know where to start with the story of Peter Ivers.

There’s the time in 1968 when blues legend Muddy Waters declared Ivers – who sat in and played with Waters while still a student at Harvard University – to be the greatest living harmonica player.

Or maybe you start in the mid-’70s, when Ivers, now living in Los Angeles, dipped into film music with works such as co-writing and singing “In Heaven (Lady in the Radiator Song)” for David Lynch’s “Eraserhead.”

Around that same time, he recorded several avant-garde pop albums, such as 1974’s “Terminal Love.” Ivers even opened for Fleetwood Mac at Universal Amphitheatre in 1976, but bombed. (Could it have been that he took the stage wearing only a diaper? Perhaps!)

Jump ahead to the early ’80s, and Ivers was the host of “New Wave Theatre,” the first show to put L.A. punk bands such as Fear, 45 Grave, Suburban Lawns, Angry Samoans, Grey Factor and Bad Religion on TV.

But all that crazy, beautiful, now mostly forgotten creativity ended up overshadowed by his death.

On March 3, 1983, Ivers was found bludgeoned to death in his apartment. Four decades later, the crime remains unsolved.

“I mean, all of us thought Peter Ivers was going to go to the top of the charts, and then everything flopped,” says filmmaker Penelope Spheeris, a friend of Ivers through the punk rock scene she chronicled in the 1981 documentary “The Decline of Western Civilization.”

Spheeris, whose films include “Wayne’s World” and “Suburbia,” is the host of “Peter and the Acid King,” a new podcast about Ivers’s life and death from iHeartPodcasts and Imagine Audio.

However, given all the mystery and menace that still swirls around the circumstances of his death, at first she wasn’t sure she wanted to get involved.

Spheeris signs on

TV producer Alan Sachs, the co-creator of “Welcome Back, Kotter,” was a close friend of Ivers. He’s also the creator of “Peter and the Acid King,” an outgrowth of his years of looking for the truth about Ivers’ death.

“I knew Alan Sachs from back in what I call the punk rock days,” Spheeris says. “So that would be right around ’79, ’80 through ’84. I knew him very well back then because we were at clubs together all the time.

“I hadn’t seen him for a long time, and I ran into him in a parking lot and he asked me I would do an interview about Peter, our mutual friend,” she says. “And I said, ‘Only if so-and-so is not alive anymore.”

Sachs told her that so-and-so, the person Spheeris had long thought might have killed Ivers, was dead. She did the interview, and that was that for a little while.

“A couple of years later – that’s how long Alan’s been working on this – I get a call,” Spheeris says. “And he said, ‘Can you maybe think about being the host for a podcast based on Peter’s life and that period of time?’

“I said, ‘I don’t know, I make movies, I’m not a podcast person,’” she says.

Eventually, and only after she was comfortable the podcast wouldn’t focus too much on the grim, grisly details of Ivers’s death, Spheeris was in.

“It was a concern, which has dissipated as I’ve gone through it and done narration,” she says. “I think the team over there at Imagine has done an amazing job at respecting Peter and the request I made about not getting into anything too graphic. I did have some apprehension about sensationalizing someone’s murder, you know.

“It’s a thin line; it’s like a tightrope here,” Spheeris says. “We’re trying to give respect to him and remember his legacy, and then not be too exploitive.”

An instant appeal

Spheeris isn’t quite sure when she first met Ivers. She thinks it was probably at the Zero Club, the notorious after-hours punk club at the time.

“He just sort of made you want to know him,” Spheeris says.

Before long, they were fellow travelers of the nightlife of Hollywood bars, punk circles, and house parties in Laurel Canyon.

“I bought a house in Laurel Canyon in 1974, which I still own, thank god,” Spheeris says. “So I know all the back roads here, and we used to have these lines of cars following each other, going to parties. So I would go to parties with him, and we’d see each other and got to know each other pretty well by hanging out.”

Ivers, who was born in 1946, was a decade or so older than most of the kids in the punk scene spun out of the Masque in Hollywood into clubs from the San Fernando Valley to Chinatown and the South Bay.

“He was so charismatic. It didn’t matter if he was really a punk or not,” she says. “He emitted this vibe like he was a star already. But he wasn’t. I think that’s what kind of drew everybody to him.

“Plus, you know, if you’re really a punk you’re not going to be judgmental about somebody. You’re just gonna let them be who they are.”

Trainwreck TV

“New Wave Theatre” was created by David Jove, a British expat in L.A. with musical aspirations, and Ed Ochs, a former Billboard editor. The show, which aired weekly on a little-viewed UHF channel, was only reluctantly embraced by punk bands such as the Dead Kennedys, the Plugz, and Ivy and the Eaters.

Part of that was the name – few self-respecting punks wanted to be called New Wave – and part of that was Ivers, who as host, wearing a sparkly pink jacket and rambling in a rapid-fire stream-of-consciousness patter about life, art and music made them cringe.

“It was actually brutal to watch,” Spheeris says. “Because it was so bad – in my opinion. I’m sorry. I don’t want that to be a negative reflection on Peter, but it was really bad.

“I mean, the original, real deal punk groups had great objections to the show because it seemed like they were trying to out-weird the real punk scene,” she says. “And I think that’s what they were doing, and that’s why it was a bit offensive.”

Still, people watched it enough that the fledgling USA Network eventually picked it up as part of its “Night Flight” late-night arts and variety show. And the bands kept going on to perform.

“It was a train wreck, that’s a good way to put it,” Spheeris says. “The fact is there were no outlets for the music back then, visual outlets. The reason the DIY concept came about was because punk bands couldn’t get record deals. And punk bands certainly could not get TV broadcast time. There was no place to be seen other than that show.”

So who done it?

“New Wave Theatre” ended with Ivers’ death. For Spheeris, the L.A. party scene ended for her that day too.

“I remember the fear of thinking that there was somebody that we all knew that probably did it,” she says. “I remember being afraid. And even though there were other serial killers and all that around that time, to have someone so close get murdered was really shocking.

“It did change things,” Spheeris says. “It was a big wake-up call. Let me tell you, we were partying back then. I mean, I can’t believe I lived through it. Every single night and a lot of times every weekend during the day and night.

“But when he got killed, it was like a screeching halt. I didn’t want to go out. I was convinced that whoever killed him was in the room.”

Spheeris, who knows how “Peter and the Acid King” ends, says she did not expect the story to go where it did. She had her own suspicions about who murdered her friend.

“Here’s what has really surprised me,” she says. “Back in the day, after Peter died, if was going into a room and that person was there, in a party situation, I would turn around and leave. I remember going back to my house and my heart was beating so fast because I even laid eyes on that guy.”

“But now that people have done all this research, I have to say I’m not convinced anymore that who I thought did it did,” Spheeris says. “So it’s a little unnerving. I’ve learned that person could still be alive and still be dangerous.”

Even with that undercurrent of dread in the story the podcast tells, Spheeris says she’s glad that her friend is getting recognized for what he created during his life, even if it was just a bit too far outside the mainstream for his rock star dreams to have succeeded.

“It had a certain performance art aspect to it, ‘New Wave Theatre,’ and all of his work, really,” she says. “And that’s the thing about good art, you know. It breaks the rules. And good rock and roll, it breaks the rules.

“And Peter was always breaking the rules.”

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​ Orange County Register 

Leaving California: What’s the best state to move to in 2023?

• October 17, 2023

During the past two years, 1.6 million Californians left for other states.

I figured they might want some help choosing a new place to live. So, I embarked on my “Leaving California” voyage — seven columns ranking the potential of other states for ex-Californian wannabes.

My trusty spreadsheet examined stats on state economies, demographics, health, climate and politics to weigh appropriate landing spots. The 49 other states were graded for costs, wellness, jobs, fun, culture and safety. And just to make sure I didn’t goof, other “best state” rankings also were reviewed.

What did I learn? When those seven scorecards were combined, the top state for an exiting Californian was New Hampshire. It scored three, top-five grades among the seven rankings.

Next on my scorecard for a highly compatible California exit were Utah, Minnesota, Utah, Idaho, and Washington.

At the other end of this spectrum, the top state to avoid was Mississippi. It had four grades in the bottom five. The next lowest were Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama and New Mexico.

And by the way, some states that are popular destinations for Golden State exits scored middling grades: Florida was No. 17 while Texas was 28th. Plus there’s Oregon (No. 26), Arizona (No. 27), and Nevada (No. 34).

EXODUS SLOWDOWN?: California exits drop 3%, arrivals rose 10%. READ HERE!

As you digest this scorecard, think about the variety of folks who might bolt from the Golden State. It’s a flock that includes young adults just starting out, families seeking better opportunities and seniors seeking a cheaper place or slower pace.

Yet no scorecard can fit any one person’s exact needs. These rankings are broad compilations of various medians, averages and indexes – mathematical cliches for the commoner.

These grades, at best, speak to the “typical” Californian. You tell me who that is?

The math

This best-place-to-relocate scorecard reflects my spreadsheet’s seven previous rankings of the 49 other states. These 2023 gradings looked at the pros and cons of places for a Californian’s relocation.

Here’s what those rankings found …

Best bargain: Where would your dollars go the furthest, mixing incomes and cost of living? The top states were Colorado, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Illinois and Utah. The worst? Hawaii, Mississippi, Arkansas, New Mexico and Maine.

Healthiest: Where will you find ideal medical services and statewide wellness? Tops were Massachusetts, Hawaii, Minnesota, New Jersey and Maryland. Worst? West Virginia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Oklahoma.

Best job market: For those seeking employment, where is your best chance at a solid paycheck? Tops were Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Arizona and Texas. Worst? Connecticut, Rhode Island, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia.

Most fun: Where’s the best mix of indoor entertainment and outdoor activities? No. 1 is Florida, then Hawaii, Massachusetts, Colorado and Minnesota. Last for leisure was Indiana, Alabama, West Virginia, Kansas and Kentucky.

AFFORDABILITY: Who can afford to live here? What’s being done? CLICK HERE!

Best culture: Where can you find the most anti-California vibe? The best fits were in South Dakota, North Dakota, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Idaho. And New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Illinois had the worst scores.

Safest: Where might you feel the most secure from risks of crime, climate or collisions? Tops were Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Rhode Island. Worst? Louisiana, Arkansas, South Carolina, Mississippi and Oklahoma.

Other ‘best’ grades: As a double-check of my thinking, other “best state” rankings were reviewed. My composite “best of best” said the top states were New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Minnesota. At the bottom were Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, New Mexico and Alabama.

Bottom line

Do not forget that scorecard creators are human.

Look, there’s bias in any “best state” scorecard no matter how hard an author tries. The choice of data and how the math is applied can sway the final results – intentionally or not.

Let’s contrast my relocation rankings with the “best of best” composite grades I created from other similar scorecards.

Four states got the same grades, including No. 1 New Hampshire plus Nebraska (15), Oregon (26) and West Virginia (41). Seven others had a one-rank difference: Montana (my No. 24 vs. No. 25 “best of best”), Tennessee (31 vs. 32), Kentucky (44 vs. 43), New Mexico (45 vs. 46), Alabama (46 vs. 45), Arkansas (48 vs. 47), and Mississippi (49 vs. 48).

Politely speaking, there seems to be lots of agreement on where Californians should NOT go. For 14 states, however, there was a gap of 10 ranking spots or more.

My grades were far kinder to Utah (No. 3 for me vs. No. 21 “best of best”), Idaho (4 vs. 18), Maryland (10 vs. 23), South Dakota (11 vs. 22), North Carolina (19 vs. 30), Georgia (23 vs. 34), Arizona (27 vs. 37) and Texas (28 vs. 38).

Meanwhile, I was harsher on Vermont (No. 16 vs. No. 2 “best of best”), Maine (20 vs. 8), Connecticut (21 vs. 11), New York (32 vs. 13), Delaware (35 vs. 20) and Ohio (43 vs. 33).

My excuse? Well, it appears I primarily favored states with strong anti-California vibes.

Remember, though, I had a built-in bias. My goal was to find the best state for a departing Californian.

Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at [email protected]

Leaving California?

Which state ‘culture’ is your best alternative?
Where do ‘best state’ rankings tell you to move?
What states are the safest places to live?
Here are the healthiest states to consider
If you want ‘fun’ lifestyle, here are states to move to
States with the strongest job markets
What state is the best bargain?

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​ Orange County Register 

Niles: Price hikes show that Disneyland needs some changes

• October 17, 2023

October brings a new fiscal year — and a new round of theme park price increases — for The Walt Disney Company. But Disneyland visitors have every right to question why they got it so much worse this year than fans of Walt Disney World.

At Disneyland, the company raised the price of daily tickets up to 15.7% and Magic Key annual passes up to 21.5%. Meanwhile, at Walt Disney World, annual pass prices increased up to just 10%, while the Florida resort held the line on daily ticket prices.

More from Robert Niles

Say no to No-Boo; Knott’s Scary Farm should be scary
Disney’s tale of two cities, and their hotels
After 50 years, Knott’s still leads the industry with Scary Farm
What is driving Disney’s theme park expansion plans?
Different choices drive creativity at Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights

Walt Disney World also further relaxed reservation requirements for its parks while bringing back all-day Park Hopping, starting in January.

One is tempted by these numbers to assume that attendance has been much stronger in California than in Florida. The company has suggested as much in its recent earnings calls, even though Disney does not release specific attendance numbers for its theme parks. While that’s good news for the Anaheim-area economy, Disneyland’s Magic Key holders may be left wondering if they ever will get the freedom from reservation requirements that Walt Disney World’s annual passholders soon will enjoy.

Personally, I hope that they won’t.

Removing Magic Key reservation requirements would create a disaster for Disneyland fans. The reservation system has helped the park avoid much of the evening gridlock that plagued Disneyland before the pandemic lockdowns forced Disney to change its annual pass system. One way or another, Disneyland needs to cap the number of people in the park, and it does not want to risk turning away out-of-town visitors. That makes capping Magic Key attendance a must.

But there is another way — just do away with annual passes. With date-specific daily tickets and no Magic Key, requiring advance reservations would become unnecessary. Without tens of thousands of Magic Key passholders visiting the park daily, Disneyland likely would have to reduce daily ticket prices to fill its parks, making the resort a more attractive destination for lucrative out-of-town tourists and infrequently visiting locals.

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Theme parks introduced annual passes to encourage loyal fans to visit more often. Their fixed price means that the cost per visit drops each time a passholder returns to the park. But when Disneyland is raising ticket prices the way that it just did, an annual pass system becomes counter-productive. Why raise daily ticket prices and potentially drive tourists away so that the park has space for passholders who are visiting 30, 40 or 50 times a year?

Disneyland can serve its loyal local fanbase with seasonal discounted multi-day tickets, such as it offered twice earlier this year. And if it really wanted to reward frequent visitors, Disneyland could introduce an annual pass for vehicles, charging something like $150-200 for parking on non-holiday dates throughout the year. Implement license plate reading for that, and the resort could speed up the lines at its parking tollbooths, too.

I would hate to see Disneyland become a place that welcomes wealthy Magic Key holders dozens of times a year while no one else can afford to visit. But that seems to be the resort’s future if something doesn’t change.

​ Orange County Register 

Construction starts on Be Well OC mental and behavioral health services hub in Irvine

• October 17, 2023

With the success of its first location in Orange, Be Well OC will be bringing its mental health and substance abuse treatment services to Irvine with the construction of its newest campus.

Be Well OC officials were joined by local leaders and community members to celebrate the groundbreaking on what will become a 75,000-square-foot facility on 22 acres of county-owned land on Marine Way, not far from the Great Park. The campus will provide services such as a mental health urgent care center and a sobering center, as well as residential and outpatient programs. Another area is planned for family supportive programming.

The first phase is expected to be completed in March 2025, and the rest to be completed September 2025. The facility will be open to Orange County residents, regardless of what insurance they have or their ability to pay, though requires a referral.

“It’s a beautiful day to celebrate Orange County’s commitment to a world class behavioral health system,” said Rick Afable, chairman of Mind-OC, a nonprofit that focuses on accessible care for all, and interim CEO of Be Well OC. “The Be Well Irvine campus will offer an enhancement to the county system with an additional 150 beds for adults, adolescents and families across treatment programs, ranging from crisis services to residential care for mental health and substance use disorders.”

Scott Anderson, guest services coordinator at Be Well OC, knows firsthand how valuable the center’s services are.

“This was around COVID time. I was going through a little bit of a mental health issue, and I didn’t necessarily know how to cope,” Anderson said. “I worked in the restaurant industry for six years and restaurants were shut down. I had recently gotten out of a relationship and I was depressed. I was isolating myself, and the only thing that I resorted to was drinking.”

Anderson said he tried an outpatient program, but his drinking started up again after and got progressively worse. His mom had heard about Be Well OC, a private-public effort to provide mental health care opening in Orange, and gave him an ultimatum: Get help or get out.

“For me, the answer was obvious. I knew I didn’t like living how I was living and the feelings I was feeling, the withdrawals, the pain, the suffering. It was just getting worse,” Anderson said. “So I said I want help. And I went in the car and she drove me to Be Well.”

Anderson detoxed for 11 days in the sobering center before a spot in the residential program opened up.

“I was basically taught that I’m not alone, and that was the biggest thing for me,” Anderson said. “I isolated myself and my pain, my sorrow, and Be Well showed me that I am not alone in this fight and that there’s help out there.”

Anderson said he is excited for the program’s expansion into Irvine to serve more of the county, especially since it will be larger than the campus in Orange. 

“I think this type of movement is what is needed in the community,” Anderson said. “I couldn’t be happier about this campus in Irvine and to be able to help more people, because as we know there’s never enough beds for people who want to go to treatment. Just being able to increase the amount of beds and resources is just amazing.”

The new center was made possible with funding from county, state and federal leaders. The OC Board of Supervisors approved $40 million toward the project, and an additional $15 million was provided by CalOptima Health. A $37.6 million grant came from the state’s Behavioral Health Continuum Infrastructure Program, $12 million in state funding was secured by Assemblywoman Cottie Petri-Norris and $2 million in federal funding was secured by Congressman Lou Correa.

The first Be Well OC campus got a $16.6 million boost from the Board of Supervisors and $11.4 million from CalOptima, with $12 million in contributions from private donors and major hospital systems.

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“It is a testament to the foresight that goes into the planning of this facility and indeed the entire Be Well concept,” Third District Supervisor Don Wagner said. “This is what happens when we work innovatively and collaboratively together to bring about improvements that will benefit the people of Orange County regardless of their economic status.”

Fourth District Supervisor Doug Chaffee said the goal is easy access to mental health and wellness care for every resident of the county. There is more to do, Chaffee said, and he looks forward to finding a location for a third facility in north Orange County that has always been part of the plan. Be Well OC also has mobile response teams that provide services in five Orange County cities.

The slogan for the Be Well OC is “Hope Happens Here,” and Mind-OC board member Rabbi Richard Steinberg said the mission is for that to continue on with this new campus.

“We pray that Be Well will continue to fix the world one person at a time,” Steinberg said, “taking their broken universe, giving them healing, giving them blessing, and ultimately giving them hope.”

​ Orange County Register 

Hamas’ massacre of Jews in Israel boosts anti-Semitism on California campuses

• October 17, 2023

Everyone in academe knows anti-Semitism is the world’s oldest bigotry. But at colleges across California and the nation, this prejudice has become increasingly acceptable and visible in the days since the Oct. 7 massacre of hundreds of Israeli Jews by the terror group Hamas.

In many campus demonstrations, students have screamed that the mass slaying of more than 1,200 men, women, children, babies, the elderly and unarmed concert goers was purely the fault of Israel. But it was not Israel that put maps showing the locations of baby nurseries and schools in the hands of killers from the Hamas terror organization.

Meanwhile, college administrators were exposing their own weakness and timidity.

None of this is new in California, where members of a group called Students for Justice in Palestine (SPJ) have a long history of harassing Jewish students who express sympathy or support for Israel, the world’s only country that is expressly a Jewish homeland.

Most such on-campus episodes have been conducted or supported by SPJ, whose first chapter, at UC Berkeley, was founded by “financial patrons…connected to Islamist terror organizations such as Hamas, Hezbollah, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine,” according to the Anti-Defamation League. Listed among the founders is UC Berkeley Prof. Hatem Bazian.

SPJ has long claimed it is not anti-Semitic; merely anti-Israel. But applauding the murder of dozens of babies slain solely because they were born Jewish is a pure form of anti-Semitism.

Among other episodes, SPJ once set up a fake checkpoint near Berkeley’s Sather Gate campus entrance, using cardboard guns to stop and frisk anyone they believed to be Jewish. No one was expelled or even reprimanded for this.

At Stanford University, according to a federal discrimination lawsuit, a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion program in the student counseling service “advanced anti-Semitic tropes concerning Jewish power, conspiracy and control, and endorsed the narrative that (most) Jews support white supremacy.” In fact, Jews were leading supporters of civil rights in America long before the Freedom Riders of the 1960s, where they made up about half of all white participants.

After the Hamas massacre, SPJ members and supporters at Stanford hung banners on campus saying, among other things, that “The illusion of Israel is burning.” SPJ published a column in the Stanford Daily calling Hamas’ actions, including butchering of babies, “part of the ongoing struggle…”

As on other campuses, there were also graffiti claiming “Israel was solely responsible.” This essentially accused the victims of responsibility for their own murders.

Perhaps the most infamous October campus incident occurred in a Stanford freshman class where an instructor ordered Jewish students into a corner reserved for “colonialists.” The same instructor trivialized the murder of Jews, reportedly asking Jewish students how many died in the Holocaust. When one replied “6 million,” the instructor reportedly responded, “Oh, is that all?”

Stanford quickly pulled the instructor from classes while it “investigates.”

What’s been the overall response of university leaders at the most sought-after California campuses, people charged with maintaining safety for all students, including Jews and Palestinians?

Stanford’s top officials made a brief statement saying they were “deeply saddened by the death and human suffering.” They also said pro-Hamas banners were OK, but should be relocated elsewhere on campus.

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Lambasted for this response, Stanford’s acting president and provost later ate a Sabbath dinner in the Hillel Jewish student center to demonstrate their sympathy. Even so, the response amounted to little.

UC officials were equally tepid. Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ said “…We decry any calls for violence in any form or support for terrorism as we continue to mourn the loss of innocent life…”

And UCLA Chancellor Gene Block said “…We must be vigilant that we do not allow anguish over what is occurring internationally to turn into resentment or mistreatment of our fellow Bruins…”

None mentioned possible action against perpetrators of anti-Semitic actions. This was consistent with UCLA’s never acting against students who once hounded a Jewish student into resigning an elected campus government post she had won.

And so, as is common around the nation, there is no sign yet that any major California campus will even try slightly to prevent the further spread of anti-Semitism.

Email Thomas Elias at [email protected].

​ Orange County Register