Some Federal Reserve officials wanted to raise interest rates last month

• July 5, 2023

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER | AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON — Some Federal Reserve officials pushed to raise the Fed’s key interest rate by one-quarter of a percentage point at their meeting last month to intensify their fight against high inflation, though the central bank ultimately decided to forgo a rate hike.

In a sign of growing division among the policymakers, some officials favored a quarter-point increase or said they “could have supported such a proposal,” according to the minutes of the June 13-14 meeting released Wednesday. In the end, the 11 voting members of the Fed’s interest-rate setting committee agreed unanimously to skip a hike after 10 straight increases. But they signaled that they might raise rates twice more this year, beginning as soon as this month.

In Fed parlance, “some” is less than “most” or “many,” evidence that the support for another rate hike in June was a minority view. And some who held that view were likely unable to vote at the meeting; the 18 members of the Fed’s policymaking committee vote on a rotating basis.

Though last month’s vote to keep rates unchanged was unanimous, it is relatively uncommon for the central bank to stipulate in the minutes of Fed meetings that some officials had disagreed with the committee’s decision.

Overall, the minutes echoed previous comments from Chair Jerome Powell that the Fed will likely keep raising rates this year, with a hike at its next meeting in three weeks considered highly likely.

“Barring any surprises, the Fed will likely increase rates in July after the hawkish pause in June,” said Jeffrey Roach, chief economist for LPL Financial.

Twelve of the 18 members of the rate-setting committee have projected at least two more rate hikes this year, according to the members’ projections released last month. Four envisioned one more increase. Just two officials foresaw keeping rates unchanged.

Raphael Bostic, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, suggested in remarks last week that he had supported keeping rates unchanged last month. Bostic is not currently a voting member.

“I believe we are just now beginning to see signs that the cumulative effects” of the Fed’s rate increases — the fastest in four decades — “are showing up in the real economy,” Bostic said.

“We are making progress on reducing inflation,” he added.

Many of his fellow Fed officials, though, don’t agree. The policymakers who had favored a rate hike last month felt that “there were few clear signs that inflation was on a path to return” to the Fed’s 2% objective anytime soon, the minutes said. The decision to forgo an increase left the Fed’s key rate at about 5.1%, the highest level in 16 years.

At the same time, a majority of officials signaled that they expect to raise rates twice more this year — once more than had previously been expected. In their quarterly economic projections, the policymakers also forecast higher inflation and modestly stronger growth than they had envisioned in June. Those upward revisions are a sign that the economy has been more resilient than Fed officials have expected.

The Fed’s aggressive streak of rate hikes have made mortgages, auto loans, credit cards and business borrowing increasingly expensive.

Many economists described the message from last month’s Fed meeting as a blurry one. On the one hand, the central bank chose not to raise borrowing costs. And Powell said at a news conference that the Fed was slowing its rate hikes to allow time to assess their impact on the economy.

On the other hand, the officials’ forecast for two more rate hikes suggested that they still believe more aggressive action is needed to defeat high inflation. And Powell has said more rate hikes are likely this year.

Speaking at a panel discussion with other top central bankers last week, Powell suggested that “the bottom line is that (interest rate policy) hasn’t been restrictive enough for long enough.”

Most other central banks in developed countries are taking a similar approach. ECB President Christine Lagarde and Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey indicated last week that they expect to keep interest rates high for an extended period. They spoke on the same panel as Powell.

Some economists expect the Fed to raise rates at every other meeting as it seeks to pull off a difficult maneuver: Raising borrowing costs high enough to cool the economy and tame inflation yet not so high as to cause a deep recession.

Powell has said that while a hike at every other meeting is possible, so is the prospect that the Fed might decide to raise rates at consecutive meetings. Economists and Wall Street traders consider a rate hike at the Fed’s next meeting in three weeks to be all but assured.

The Fed’s staff economists have continued to forecast a “mild recession” for later this year, though they also said the possibility that the economy will continue to grow slowly was “almost as likely” as a downturn.

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​ Orange County Register 

Subway restaurants now slicing meat at the counter

• July 5, 2023

Subway is making a big change to its meats, adding freshly sliced deli meat to roughly 20,000 US locations beginning Wednesday.

The move marks Subway’s biggest change in two years when it began refreshing menu options, ingredients and restaurant appearances to boost once-sagging sales and make itself an attractive acquisition target.

SEE MORE: Farmer Boys announces two for $5 discount day on its No Brainer menu

Subway has struggled in recent years as competition in the industry has ramped up, and the staid brand has fallen out of favor with customers. As part of its turnaround effort, the company added customization to its menu – a feature many rivals have popularized – which helped lift sales nearly 8% at American stores last year. Subway doubled down on pushing orders to its app, which helped digital sales. Fresh-sliced meat is another step in that direction, although the payoff remains to be seen.

Around 80% of stores will display the $6,000 slicers prominently (space permitting) near the deli counter with most of the meat sliced several times a day, including turkey, pepperoni, roast beef, ham and salami. That’s a major shift from Subway’s previous method of slicing meat at its factories and delivering it to stores.

SEE MORE: A guide to OC Fair’s newest foods

In addition to boosting freshness, slicing cold cuts at its stores brings the chain in-line with methods at its smaller competitors like Jimmy John’s, Jersey Mike’s Subs and Firehouse Subs, all of which have been growing their store counts in recent years. That’s in sharp contrast to Subway, which has closed roughly 7,000 locations since 2016.

Subway locations currently fresh slice vegetables and freshly bakes bread and cookies daily. Adding freshly sliced meat “felt like the natural step that we needed to get back to and address,” Trevor Haynes, president for Subway’s North America operations, told CNN.

Cheese, steak and rotisserie chicken will still be delivered pre-sliced.

To promote the changes, Subways is rolling out four new sandwiches that highlight the new slicer, including turkey, garlic roast beef, ham and “The Beast,” which features pepperoni, salami, turkey, ham and roast beef on Italian bread.

A year ago, Subway unveiled its most extensive makeover in the company’s nearly 60-year history. The makeover placed less of an emphasis on customization in favor of a “Subway Series” sandwich menu, which now accounts for 20% of sales. Digital growth is also a bright spot for the company, with sales made through its app or third-party services doubling compared to 2021.

Average yearly sales at Subway US restaurants, however, are much lower compared to its sandwich business rivals. Data from QSR Magazine reveals that its three rivals pull in about $1 million per unit, with an average Subway location raking in less than $500,000.

Still, privately held Subway said it had a record-setting year in 2022 with sales at its North America stores that have been open at least a year rising 7.8% last year compared to 2021. Sales also exceeded projections by more than $700 million, but the company didn’t reveal specific numbers.

Subway is also up for sale, with Haynes saying that it’s “on track” for an imminent announcement, likely in mid-July.

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​ Orange County Register 

Secondary test of powder found in West Wing lobby shows it’s cocaine, Biden briefed on investigation

• July 5, 2023

By COLLEEN LONG, ZEKE MILLER and MICHAEL BALSAMO

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden has been briefed on the investigation into the discovery of cocaine on the lobby floor of the White House West Wing, and thinks it is “incredibly important” for the Secret Service to determine how it got there, officials said Wednesday.

U.S. Secret Service agents found the powder during a routine White House sweep on Sunday, in a small, clear plastic bag on the ground in a heavily trafficked area, according to three people, who were not authorized to speak about an ongoing investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

On Wednesday, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the White House had confidence in the Secret Service. “The president think it’s incredibly important to get to the bottom of this,” she said.

Biden was at Camp David with members of his family for the holiday weekend when the powder was discovered and the complex was briefly evacuated as a precaution. The fire department was called in to test the substance to determine it was not hazardous, and the initial test came back positive for cocaine. A secondary, more sensitive lab analysis confirmed the results.

D.C. Fire Department vehicles are seen outside the White House grounds, Sunday night, July 2, 2023 in Washington. The White House was briefly evacuated Sunday evening while President Joe Biden was at Camp David after the Secret Service discovered suspicious powder in a common area of the West Wing. Tests showed the substance to be cocaine. (Anthony Peltier via AP)

Investigators have not yet identified who brought the drugs into the White House. The Secret Service, which is responsible for securing the White House, was combing through visitor logs and security footage.

The lobby where the drugs were found is where many official visitors and staffers enter. It is also open to staff-led tours of the West Wing, which are scheduled for nonworking hours on the weekends and evenings. Those tours are invitation-only and led by White House staff for friends, family and other guests. Most staffers who work on the complex can request an evening or weekend tour slot, but there is often a long wait list.

If a White House employee brought in the drugs, it would be easier to determine, because staff are fingerprinted and subjected to drug tests. A visitor would be harder to pin down; there were tours on Friday, Saturday and Sunday last week.

The District of Columbia fire department was called in Sunday to test the substance to determine whether it was hazardous, though officials immediately suspected illicit drugs because of how it was packaged, two of the people said. It’s routine to follow up with a more sensitive lab tests later. That test was returned Wednesday.

The Secret Service said in a statement Tuesday that the White House was closed as a precaution as emergency crews investigated.

“The item was sent for further evaluation and an investigation into the cause and manner of how it entered the White House is pending,” the Secret Service said.

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​ Orange County Register 

Interactive map: Where are wildfires burning in the US?

• July 5, 2023

As the planet continues to warm as a result of climate change, the rate of wildfires across the United States has created a “new abnormal” of progressively worse risks. To see where wildfires are burning in the U.S., use the interactive map below.

How many wildfires are in the US right now?

The map below shows all tracked active wildfires in the U.S. This interactive map allows users to filter active wildfires based on size.

How to protect yourself from wildfire smoke

As wildfires burn across the planet, wildfire smoke creates hazardous air-quality conditions. Using a mask or face covering can help reduce the risks, with N95 masks most effective. You can also use air-quality tracking maps like this one to gauge the risk in your area.

​ Orange County Register 

Orange County rock band Robert Jon & the Wreck get boost from airplay on KLOS FM

• July 5, 2023

When Robert Jon Burrison first heard a song he wrote played on 95.5/FM KLOS last year, he said he felt like a kid in a candy store.

It caught the frontman and guitarist of Orange County-based rock and blues band Robert Jon & the Wreck and his bandmates — co-founding member and drummer Andrew Espantman, lead guitarist Henry James, bassist Warren Murrel and keys player Jake Abernathie — completely off guard, but one of them was able to record video of the radio playing the song “Pain No More” on their phone.

Burrison compares the moment to the fictional band The Wonders hearing their song on the radio for the very first time in the Tom Hanks-directed 1996 movie “That Thing You Do,” which was also filmed in Old Towne Orange.

“That scene, where everyone freaks out, that’s what it’s like and that’s how it should be always for any band that gets any radio station ever to play their music,” he said while hanging out on the patio at Scarlet Kitchen & Lounge in Rancho Mission Viejo.

Following a quick run of shows in the U.S., the quintet is home for just a couple of weeks before heading back to Europe for headlining shows and festival dates. They’ll also be playing a hometown gig at The Coach House in San Juan Capistrano on Friday, July 14.

“The hometown shows mean a lot more to us now,” he said of the forthcoming gig. “It really is a homecoming now because we don’t have the time to play around like we used to and it means a lot to see all of the people we know and it’s always a blast.”

While “Pain No More” has landed in regular rotation on KLOS and Burrison was even a recent guest on music legend Matt Pinfield’s “New & Approved” show on the station, he said the sudden boost in exposure has been humbling.

“Whenever I hear it now, it brings me joy every single time,” he said. “It’s not something I’m taking for granted because it’s something you do strive for as a musician. You write and record a song that you think is great and then sharing it with people live is its own thing, and what you get out of that is different than anything else. But having a radio station play your song because they like it and want to play it is awesome.”

But Robert Jon & the Wreck is certainly no overnight success.

The band has been at it since Burrison and Espantman met at Citrus College and began gigging at coffee shops up and down the West Coast back in 2011. As the full band formed, they played shows all over Orange County and Los Angeles, most notably Detroit Bar, which later became The Wayfarer in Costa Mesa. They’d opened for Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real a couple of times at The Coach House and began to find their own way traveling across country, booking small venues while out on the road.

After building a healthy fanbase within the U.S., before the COVID-19 shutdown of live events and travel, the band managed to garner pockets of fans by playing small gigs and music festivals in the U.K. and Germany.

“Since day one over there for us, it’s been crazy,” Burrison said. “It seems so far away, so the fact that we can get over there and we’ve been able to create a fanbase and now we recognize people coming to the shows and we’re doing well over there, it’s just crazy. I don’t think we thought about that at all when we started the band, we just wanted to tour the states and see what happened. The crowds over there have been so great and it’s a blast to go back.”

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This time, they’re bringing new music as well. The band’s seventh studio album, “Ride Into the Light,” will be out on Aug. 4 and is led by the single “West Coast Eyes.” All of that time out on the road, networking and working tirelessly on new music paid off when it came to lining up the stars to record the album, which features legendary producers Don Was (The Rolling Stones, Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson), Dave Cobb (Chris Stapleton, Brandi Carlile, Jason Isbell) and Kevin Shirley (The Black Crowes, Aerosmith), as well as guitar virtuosos Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith.

“We did this one very differently than we’ve done anything else,” Burrison explained, still seemingly wrapping his head around the fact that he actually worked with the big players on this album.

“We recorded two tracks with Was, two with Dave Cobb, two with Kevin Shirley and two with Joe (Bonamassa) and Josh (Smith),” he continued. “We just wanted to try out different producers. There’s eight songs on the record and each set of songs have their own vibe because they were written in these different timeframes and in different times and places of our lives. Each producer has their own unique take, too, so that’s what makes this fun for us.”

Fans who have been paying attention may recognize some of the new material since the band toyed with many of the songs while out on the road. Since they spent the majority of their time en route to the next gig, a lot of these songs were written while traveling and fleshed out during quick soundchecks ahead of each show.

“We did so much writing during those soundchecks and we’d play stuff that night just to see if it worked,” he said. “We didn’t have a lot of time, but in those soundchecks we’d have three minutes or so to just jam and we’d see what we could come up with, make sure we recorded it and marked it, then saved it until we got back home to work on it. In the studio, there’s this pressure in just sitting in a room and writing, but during soundcheck, we were just jamming and we’d say ‘Oh that sounded cool’ and it kind of just takes the overthinking out of it.”

Since forming more than dozen years ago, Burrison said a lot has changed for him professionally and personally. He’s now a husband and father, which brings about new and exciting aspects of life, but also different responsibilities and pressures on the road as he misses his family when he’s gone. Luckily he has Espantman, who has been there with him since the start. Other members have come and gone, but Burrison said these two are in it for the long haul.

“We’re both playing chicken now like ‘Don’t you leave. You better not leave. I’m not leaving! You better not, either!’ he said with a laugh. “It’s a brotherhood that no one else can understand. I have best friends and they’ll never understand the dynamic Andrew and I have and we have wives and they won’t understand that dynamic. It just is what it is and I don’t see much of a future of us not doing something in music together.”

Robert Jon & The Wreck

When: 6 p.m. doors; 8 p.m. show on Friday, July 14

Where: The Coach House, 33157 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano

Tickets: $35 at thecoachhouse.com 

​ Orange County Register 

More cops and firefighters coming to Anaheim after city passes $2.1 billion budget

• July 5, 2023

Anaheim will add more cops and firefighters to its streets in the coming year with the $2.1 billion budget recently approved for this new fiscal year – a continued signal the city is overcoming its pandemic-induced financial struggles.

The budget, which kicked in on July 1, will add nine new firefighters and hire a dozen police officers. There will also be six additional police officers dedicated to Anaheim schools. City fees for services such as trash pickup and public golf courses will rise slightly.

“Our call volume is stepping up every year dramatically,” Fire Chief Pat Russell said at a June 13 budget meeting with the City Council. Burns told the council the Fire Department is receiving 18,000 more calls a year than it did in 2008, but still at similar staffing levels.

The city also agreed to continue its services with Be Well OC, which provides mental health resources, at a cost of $1.3 million a year. Anaheim will also spend an additional $3.1 million in the new budget to support more homeless outreach and an extra $4.5 million for landscaping and replacing sidewalks.

The newly adopted budget is 6% larger than the current one. Anaheim’s general fund, which pays for day-to-day operations such as libraries, parks and public safety, surpassed $440 million. Central Library and Haskett Branch Library will now be open seven days a week, with others getting expanded hours, too.

The city is expected to take in record revenues from the taxes it collects. With that, officials expect to pay back by 2028 a bond that was taken out to support the budget during the pandemic, sooner than originally planned, thanks to more tourists returning to hotels. Finance Director Debbie Moreno warned that an economic slowdown could extend that date.

Most city services are seeing rate hikes in line with the consumer price index, officials said. A single-family home will now pay $27.78 a month to have its garbage picked up.

The City Council decided at the last minute to amend the budget presented to them to include hiring three more firefighters than the originally planned six. They also chose to fund improvements at Paul Revere Park at a cost of $100,000. The additional firefighters came after Councilmember Natalie Rubalcava asked city staff at the June 13 council meeting if there was any room in the budget that could go toward public safety.

A memo presented to the council recommended that the council wait to fund new positions until after the police and fire departments had time to complete staffing reviews. The council moved some one-time money to fund the firefighter positions.

​ Orange County Register 

Travel: This Baja resort with ‘brutalist’ architecture boasts its own shaman

• July 5, 2023

An hour away, boozy vacationers wore T-shirts emblazoned, “Chase me like a shot of tequila” in hard-partying, colossal Cabo San Lucas resorts. I, on the other hand, remained peacefully ensconced at my “brutalist” eco-lodge, ringed by 160 acres of family-owned farmland in Mexico’s secluded Baja desert. At the moment, a barefoot shaman was wafting a chalice of smoking copal incense around my bathrobe-clad standing body and wiping me head to toe with a bouquet of lemongrass and other purifying herbs.

“These plants contain your bad energies and you will put them in the fire,” instructed Jorge Cano, who grew up in the Mexican state of Veracruz and learned this sacred two-hour yenekamu ritual from his shaman grandmother; by the way, she lived to age 100. Earlier I had to write down negative stuff I wanted to shed (uh, my crippling dentist phobia?) so I chucked that paper too into the flaming basin after Jorge, attired in all white, summoned Mother Nature and blessed me near swishing banana palms.

Jorge Cano is Paradero’s in-house shaman and heads the wellness program that emphasizes Mexican family traditions. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

Soon we crossed a shallow creek to a thatched hut where, during an A-plus  ancestral massage, Jorge realigned my hips by twisting them in a sling and opened my cranium without surgery. He also placed a sprig of cleansing sage in my belly button and covered it with a hot volcanic stone to seal in good juju.

Soft-spoken Jorge is the resident shaman of the minimalist boutique, remarkably unique, adults-only Paradero Hotel, about 15 minutes from the laid-back boho surf haven of Todo Santos in Baja California Sur. Most notably, Paradero is the anti-Cabo, 45 miles and a Zen galaxy apart. While hungover tourists scrimmaged for pool lounge chairs in Cabo, I serenely chanted “Om, shanti, shanti” in Paradero’s yoga class amid chirping yellow orioles, found my “inner light” through a serape-blanketed group meditation, and vibrated from bronze bowls perched atop my chakras during a sound healing inside a mud-and-clay igloo.

A guest stands on her private rooftop terrace in the brutalist-style Paradero Hotel, built to look like it was chiseled by desert gusts. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

Visually, the stunning Paradero looks like an earth-sprouted fortress. Debuting in February 2021, its 41 suites are encased in twin two-story rippling beige concrete structures designed in the architectural “brutalist” style and melding into sands that coat the cacti- and yucca-specked property. (Architectural Digest lauded Paradero for being “at one with the land.”) Brutalist buildings became popular in the 1950s, are largely monolithic, and include housing projects, universities and, yes, prisons. At ground level, my suites’s oversized rusty steel door ominously slammed shut behind me before I climbed a dim bare interior stairway reminiscent of an old castle (or cell) to my second floor room. Suddenly, I was in the breezy fresh air gazing at a vast magnificent view — sprawling poblano pepper fields, the granite Sierra de la Laguna mountains and an opal silver of the Pacific.

The grounds of the Paradero Hotel as seen from a suite’s rooftop deck. Near the center is the round temazcal and to the right, the yoga tent. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

On one side was my concrete, rustic-chic neutral-hued room with no TV, phone or clock. To communicate with the extremely friendly front desk, you need to use WhatsApp. All the suites’ private bathrooms are separate, requiring guests to pace a few feet outdoors to access the john. You bet I cursed when I awoke at 2:30 a.m. to pee. But when I stepped into the chilly dark, my sleepy eyes widened  —  a luminous full moon fabulously glowed straight ahead and dozens of flying nighthawks appeared fluorescent streaking past me on the terrace. Evidently, “nature calls” is a double entendre here.

“The bathroom is outside the room exactly so you can disconnect from the room, connect with nature, and then go to the bathroom,” Paradero general manager Arturo Soto later explained.

Paradero employee Diana Madero poses in a suspended star net, a bonus of Paradero’s Sky Suites. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

My Sky Suite also featured a cool rooftop “star net,” basically a two-person stretched hammock suspended above my second level and bolted to exterior walls. At night, in the silence, I dreamily stared above at countless celestial sparkles. (Then klutzy me tried to get up. Help. With nothing to grab onto, I crawled out of the bouncy net on my hands and knees like a baby.)

Rooms at the Paradero Hotel are described as sanctuary-like and places to reflect in. The hats and water bottles are gifts for guests; the hanging rod is the closet. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

With rooms starting at $550, Paradero touts its staff-guided adventures that work off your free breakfast burritos. Some experiences are complimentary (such as yoga, meditation, an eight-mile bike excursion, and farming sessions in the garden); others charge a fee (including surf lessons, taco tours, catamaran outings and a shaman-led temazcal sweat lodge ceremony).

“Instead of holding you here, you know with beaches, bikinis, margaritas … our model is different,” said Pablo Carmona, co-owner of the Paradero with Joshua Kremer. The Mexico City financiers were on-site for a Paradero foundation fundraiser.

Fluttering banners decorate a quaint street in Todos Santos, about a 15-minute drive from the Paradero Hotel. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

One afternoon, I joined Paradero guide Hernando Torres on a walking jaunt through charming Todos Santos, a Mexican government-designated “Magic Town” for its cultural richness, history and beauty. Compared to the tranquil tan palette of Paradero, Todos Santos vibrantly exploded in color. Festive “papel picado” banners and bright umbrellas hung over streets peppered with art galleries and bejeweled steer skulls. Fanciful murals of a whale, an Aztec sun calendar and Day of the Dead skeletons decorated village walls. Todos Santos, which translates to “All Saints,” started as a Jesuit mission in 1724; picturesque colonial buildings still line cobbled lanes.

A sign welcomes visitors to Todos Santos, once a sugar cane capital and now a Mexico-designated “Magic Town.” (Photo by Norma Meyer)

In the main mercado, artisan Adrian Bailon Garcia urged me to buy his handmade fish bone swords, including one concocted from a marlin’s long pointy bill, topped with a goat’s hoofed lower leg and accessorized with cow bones. (No, I demurred, it won’t fit in my carry-on.) Later, at Todos Santos Brewing, Hernando introduced me to Aussie co-owner Liz Mitchell, who revealed why one malty suds is christened The Chuck Red Ale. “It’s named after Chuck Norris because it’s like a big red roundhouse kick to the head.” My fun flight of craft beers included karate Chuck, the Dizzee Lizzee, and Wowser’s Trousers IPA.

Returning to Paradero, I again strolled through the separate entrance building, which is an unmanned portal furnished with just two big boulders and the piped-in crash of ocean waves. Welcome to Planet Earth. Through a square archway, the expansive terrain dramatically unfolded, with the hotel meant to look like it was sculpted by desert winds, an open-air communal “living room,” a hidden infinity pool, and al fresco restaurant. The latter doesn’t serve sodas because soft drinks are unhealthy. But it does pour a nutritious bourbon cocktail called the Ginger Carrot.

“When you decompress, you decompress with nature,” Pablo said, noting Paradero’s 5 1/2-acre plot is 80 percent landscaping, 20 percent construction. Indeed, my new acquaintances included comical roadrunners, a silvery slithering snake, hovering turkey vultures, Cuatro the black cat (“head of security”) and his assistant Cinco the black dog.

A clifftop view of Las Palmas Beach during a hike, one of Paradero’s daily included experiences. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

At 7:30 one morning, guide Ivan Panzo led five of us on a hike through private farmland — past a towering spiked forest of 200-year-old cardon cacti and an oasis of 5,000 palm trees — to lovely crescent-shaped Las Palmas Beach, unoccupied except for two stately white egrets. Along the way, Ivan also proudly showed me videos of his 6-month-old son, Lucas, eating strawberries in his high chair.

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The whole staff seemed really personable. So when I met Paradero architect Ruben Valdez, I had to tell him the “brutalist” label conjured up images of thugs flogging guests at the hotel. He laughed. “Maybe we should call it ‘brut’ like in French Champagne.”

Actually, I was a little buzzed, perhaps because the shaman had given me a bougainvillea foot bath or because the sound healing practitioner clanged 14 Tibetan singing bowls and assured me my creativity-containing chakras weren’t too clogged.

When I boarded my plane home, surrounded by red-lobster-faced Cabo burn-outs, I felt (smugly) happy that, on this Baja trip, I was a wellness wonk.

​ Orange County Register 

Here’s what Orange County will receive from California’s budget

• July 5, 2023

Gov. Gavin Newsom and the California Legislature last week reached a deal on the state budget, just in time for the start of the new fiscal year.

The $310.8 billion plan covers a nearly $32 billion budget deficit by cutting some spending — about $8 billion — and delaying others, including a $750 million payment to the federal government for pandemic-related unemployment insurance debts.

Statewide, the budget includes a lifeline for public transit agencies struggling to survive following steep declines in riders during the pandemic and allows transit agencies to use some of the $5.1 billion in funding over the next three years for operations.

But Republican leaders have criticized the plan as unsustainable, arguing it would leave the state with projected multi-billion dollar deficits over the next few years.

As part of the state budget process, Orange County legislators secured millions for various district projects ranging from public safety technology to transportation services.

Here are some ways Orange County residents could see an impact through the budget.

Arts

Several million dollars will go toward Orange County museums.

A total of $250,000 is set for the expansion and improvement of the Orange County Museum of Art’s educational public programs, as requested by Sen. Dave Min, D-Irvine.

And $4.5 million will be given to the Fullerton Museum Center, money that will “allow the museum to make capital improvements to its facilities, to include renovations to its classroom spaces, exhibition area, auditorium, conference room and outdoor patio, according to Sen. Josh Newman’s office. The funding will also be used to “increase accessibility and accommodate performances, community activities and fundraising events” as well as hire more permanent and part-time staff.

Additionally, $2 million is set for the Pacific Symphony, the resident orchestra of the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall located in Costa Mesa, east of South Coast Plaza. The funding will go toward the expansion of the Symphony’s education and community enrichment programs, including elementary school education and veterans’ initiatives.

Transportation

Over $500,000 is set to go to the nonprofit Age Well for transportation for seniors in Orange County. With the funding, Age Well’s senior services transportation project will procure six additional hybrid, specialized vehicles to provide non-emergency transportation services throughout Sen. Catherine Blakespear’s district, which includes the cities of Laguna Hills, Mission Viejo, Rancho Santa Margarita and San Juan Capistrano.

Huntington Beach will be given $1.45 million for its Ride Circuit Shuttle Program to “improve micro-mobility, reduce car traffic and provide low-cost, on-demand transit to residents and visitors on (an) all-electric shuttle,” according to Min’s office. A portion of the funding will be allocated to the Navigation Center, a 174-bed shelter and social services center for individuals struggling with housing insecurity.

Public safety

With the help of the $2 million in funding requested by Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris, Irvine will establish a Real Time Crime Center that “embeds crime analysts in the Irvine Police Department communications and dispatch center.” The funds, according to Petrie-Norris’ office, would go toward equipping the RTCC with new software, hardware and the expansion of the existing dispatch center to include the RTCC analysts’ consoles.

Min also requested $990,000 in funding for RTCC to go toward new dispatch equipment. Current patrol vehicles will be replaced with electric vehicles, and the Criminal Investigation Division Unit will receive additional safety equipment.

Health

Lestonnac Free Clinic of Orange County, a public health clinic that provides free, critical health care services to low-income and uninsured residents throughout Southern California, will receive $3 million in funding jointly secured by Newman and Sen. Janet Nguyen, R-Huntington Beach.

With the funds, the clinic will be able to improve building infrastructure to “expand the number of patients it serves,” according to Newman’s office, and to “purchase a mobile RV unit to grow its street medicine program.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

​ Orange County Register