USC football breakdown: How the Trojans look at linebacker

• January 13, 2024

LOS ANGELES — The migration of former top recruits at USC made perfect sense, and one could point to a clear and justifiable reason for each bird flying east in the winter.

Raleek Brown never found the playing time or the role he quite wanted in Lincoln Riley’s offensive scheme. Domani Jackson never found consistency at cornerback, and his recruiter Donte Williams left for Georgia. Malachi Nelson’s departure was surprising, maybe, but it never felt like he was quite being groomed as the heir apparent at quarterback to Caleb Williams.

But Tackett Curtis? That was a surprise.

The freshman linebacker, dubbed “Captain America” by teammates in fall camp, was publicly revered by USC’s defensive staff – mainly by now-fired coordinator Alex Grinch, but Riley was especially high on Curtis. And sure, Curtis was often out of position and struggled in pass coverage in his freshman year at USC, but he also played too much too quickly and had a clearly-bright future in the middle of a defense. So when he was considering leaving the portal, USC had several meetings to try to convince him to stay, a source with knowledge of the situation told the Southern California News Group.

It was of no avail. And Curtis’ eventual departure for Wisconsin, it can’t be sugarcoated, was a blow to USC’s future – particularly when looking at the Trojans’ depth at inside linebacker.

Eric Gentry has two years of eligibility and was a consistent playmaker in 2023, but his ceiling is known. Mason Cobb is an effective defensive leader, but struggled at times with missed tackles in Grinch’s scheme and has one year left. This USC group was responsible as much as any other for an abysmal run defense in 2023, in the bottom 15 in yards-per-game allowed in the nation.

Exit Curtis. Exit Brian Odom, in all likelihood, the linebackers coach who gamely stuck it out in the Holiday Bowl even as his replacement was announced weeks earlier. Enter Matt Entz, a former two-time FCS national champion head coach at North Dakota State and a killer hire at linebackers coach for USC. And enter Easton Mascarenas-Arnold, a former Oregon State Beaver who could be the best ILB USC has had on its roster since the Cameron Smith days of 2017-18.

In comparison to a defensive overhaul in other rooms of the roster, though, this has the least personnel change and the largest margin for error. Entz’s ability to get the most out of Cobb and Gentry in the spring will be paramount, and Mascarenas-Arnold will have a hefty responsibility on his shoulders after a 107-tackle season in 2023.

Here’s a full breakdown of USC’s inside-linebacker room entering spring practice, the first in a six-part series examining the post-portal outlook for every part of the roster. 

Inside linebacker

Returning: Jr. Raesjon Davis, Sr. Mason Cobb, Jr. Eric Gentry, Fr. Garrison Madden

Arriving: Jr. Easton Mascarenas-Arnold, True Fr. Desman Stephens

Departing: Fr. Tackett Curtis, Sr. Chris Thompson Jr., Sr. Shane Lee (eligibility)

Top questions

Who starts? Applicable to any position, really, but particularly key here. USC cycled through a variety of linebacker alignments in 2023, never quite finding the perfect shoe that fit. Gentry’s playing time, as the biggest playmaker of the bunch, was confounding. Davis didn’t find a fair shot, either. Mascarenas-Arnold will almost certainly fill the mike spot; most likely, Gentry will play opposite him with Cobb as Mascarenas-Arnold’s backup.

Can Entz solve USC’s tackling issues? USC’s simple inability over the past two years to wrap up, or taking head-scratching angles on tackling ball-carriers, has been a major problem that led to Grinch’s late-season firing. The Trojans tied for first in the Pac-12 in missed tackles among linebacker groups in the conference, according to Pro Football Focus. Entz brings championship pedigree and a wealth of defensive-coordinator experience; establishing consistent technique with his linebacker group at USC will be paramount in the spring.

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Group X-factor

Stephens is the only ILB commit in USC’s 2024 recruiting class, but even he in himself is a bit of a mystery. He played in the secondary and at wide receiver at Clarkston High in Michigan, but has a nose for the ball and strength and quickness in tackling that’s led to USC tabbing him a member of their linebacker corps. Riley was particularly high on Stephens on national signing day, mentioning he believed the Michigan product was “undervalued,” and Stephens will have a chance to compete for snaps in the spring.

​ Orange County Register 

Martin Luther King Jr. showed us the way

• January 13, 2024

Martin Luther King Jr. never held public office, though he considered running for president briefly in 1967. Yet he may have been responsible for more profound change in institutions and attitudes in the United States than any American of the 20th century.

His life is a testament to the capacity of determined nonviolent protest and resistance rather than violence and bitterness to bring about change; indeed, such methods may be the only ones that can effect change that really matters.

It is not surprising that the legacy of this man who was so controversial during his lifetime is still understood only incompletely, and people even today, almost 56 years after he was assassinated on the balcony of a motel in Memphis, Tennessee, disagree about its significance. Like most humans who contemplate the implications of faith and justice, he was more complicated than his admirers or detractors fully understood.

Although some denominations recognize him as a saint, he was not the plaster saint of comfortable veneration. He got angry and he made mistakes. It is likely that he plagiarized some of his doctoral dissertation, and there is likely truth to rumors that he was a womanizer. His political attitudes were far from tightly consistent. Yet through the temptations and vicissitudes of becoming the most emblematic leader of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, he maintained confidence in the effectiveness of non-violent methods to bring about change.

It is Martin Luther King Jr.’s eloquence that we remember most these days, his way with words, the biblical cadences he employed to plead that his children be judged by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin, to offer his vision of the promised land of equal treatment and human dignity. His eloquence was complemented by personal courage and organizational ability, and the willingness to accept responsibility for the consequences of his actions. Protesting through civil disobedience against laws one considers unjust means accepting arrest and punishment that highlights further the injustice involved.

Dr. King went to jail at least 20 times for his convictions, using those occasions to think and write, emerging with more dignity than ever.

Many Americans still remember a time when segregation by race was enforced by law in parts of this country, by governments ostensibly committed to the principle of equal treatment under the law. The civil-rights movement turned a spotlight on that shame, carrying the moral high ground by clinging to nonviolence in the face of sometimes brutal suppression, and eventually leading the way to dismantling those laws.

Martin Luther King’s life is a testament to the power of ideas and words over injustice and oppression. If we want to change society in ways that further justice and freedom, it is important to learn, to think, to consider the possible consequences of our actions, to operate in accordance with the principles we develop and embrace.

Revolutions occur in peoples’ minds before they happen in the world. That reminder may be the most important aspect of Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy.

This editorial first appeared in January 2008 in the Orange County Register.

​ Orange County Register 

Critical decisions the Supreme Court must make in 2024

• January 13, 2024

If the U.S. Supreme Court was hoping to stay out of election disputes, it’s too late now.

This year, the justices are hearing four cases that could directly or indirectly affect the outcome of the 2024 presidential race.

Back in December 2020, the Supreme Court declined to hear the case of Texas vs. Pennsylvania, in which Texas and other states asked the Supreme Court to temporarily prevent Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin from certifying their election results. The lawsuit argued that courts and various election officials in those four states had made changes to election procedures that violated the Constitution, which says only the state legislatures may determine the “Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives.”

The procedures at issue were such things as changing deadlines, relaxing signature verification requirements, adding new voting locations and installing ballot drop boxes, in violation of state laws.

The justices ducked the issue, declaring that Texas did not have “standing” to challenge the election procedures in other states.

But they’re not ducking now.

On Jan. 5, the justices agreed to hear former President Donald Trump’s appeal of the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling disqualifying him from the ballot under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868 following the U.S. Civil War.

Section 3 bars certain former officials and officers from holding certain federal offices if they engaged in “insurrection.” Whether it even applies to the president or the presidency is disputed by legal scholars, and neither Trump nor anyone else has been charged with the crime of “insurrection.” Regardless, there are dozens of these ballot disqualification lawsuits in multiple states. The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Feb. 8.

The justices also agreed to decide whether the government can muscle social media companies into censoring and deplatforming certain individuals and conversations. On Oct. 20, the justices said they would review Murthy v. Missouri, previously known as Missouri v. Biden. Evidence presented to lower courts has already convinced four federal judges that the U.S. government was engaging in conduct that likely violated the First Amendment. U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty issued a preliminary injunction— on the Fourth of July — ordering the government to knock it off.

But instead of denying it, the Biden administration appealed, saying it needed the power to prevent Americans from hearing “misinformation” while the trial proceeds. Now the case is before the Supreme Court, where the justices have agreed to decide not just the matter of the injunction, but the underlying case itself.

In yet another case that could affect the election, the Supreme Court got involved by not getting involved. On Dec. 22, the justices turned away a request from special prosecutor Jack Smith to speed up consideration of Trump’s claim of presidential immunity from prosecution for official actions. Smith has charged Trump with four felonies in connection with his actions on January 6, and he wanted a quick answer, but he didn’t get one.

Trump was scheduled to go on trial in this case on March 4. That’s not at all likely. Along with the presidential immunity case, there’s another relevant case pending, arguably even more significant.

On Dec. 13, the Supreme Court agreed to hear Fischer v. United States. The justices will decide whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit was wrong in the way it interpreted and applied a law that prohibits anyone from corruptly obstructing an official proceeding.

If that sounds familiar, it’s a felony frequently charged by the Biden administration’s Department of Justice prosecutors. It has lengthened the prison sentences of hundreds of people arrested for their actions at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. It is also the basis for two of the four felony counts in the case against Trump.

The law is 18 U.S.C. Section 1512(c)(2), and the question before the Supreme Court is whether it was violated by the people who went to the Capitol and allegedly or admittedly tried to stop the “official proceeding” of certifying the 2020 election.

Section 1512 is a provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, passed in response to financial and investment scandals. These included the bankruptcy of Enron, an energy company that once had $60 billion in assets and then collapsed amid what the Encyclopedia Britannica gently describes as “a series of events involving dubious accounting practices.”

The law made it a very serious crime to tamper with evidence used in an investigation. Section 1512(c)(1) states, “Whoever corruptly alters, destroys, mutilates, or conceals a record, document, or other object, or attempts to do so, with the intent to impair the object’s integrity or availability for use in an official proceeding; or….”

And then Section (c)(2) adds, “otherwise obstructs, influences or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.”

Federal prosecutors and judges have locked people up for long sentences by interpreting that law, which clearly is about tampering with documents and other evidence in an official investigation of financial crimes, to apply to people like Joseph Fischer. He was charged with “civil disorder,” “assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers,” “entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds,” “disorderly conduct” and “parading” in a restricted building. And he was also charged with violating Section 1512(c)(2).

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols dismissed the 1512 count, but an appellate court reinstated it.

Now the Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether that law can be applied to “acts unrelated to investigations and evidence.” The decision could mean that hundreds of people were wrongfully prosecuted for “corruptly obstructing an official proceeding.”

So that’s four cases the Supreme Court will have to decide by the end of June, all of them potentially having a significant impact on the 2024 presidential race.

That’s what they get for trying to stay out of it.

Write Susan@SusanShelley.com and follow her on Twitter @Susan_Shelley

​ Orange County Register 

Where are California’s rent bargains? They’re not cheap

• January 13, 2024

“How expensive?” tracks measurements of California’s totally unaffordable housing market.

The pain: Even California’s “bargain” rents look expensive on a national scale.

The source: My trusty spreadsheet reviewed 2023 average rent statistics from ApartmentList for 518 larger markets across the US – including 75 in California. ApartmentList’s figures combine pricing from landlord listings and Census Bureau data.

The pinch

California’s 10 cheapest places had a median rent of $1,854 a month last year. Meanwhile, the 443 markets outside of California that were tracked had a $1,566 median rent.

So, rents elsewhere in the nation are 15% cheaper than the Golden State’s “bargain” cities.

Those 10 bargains

Here are the state’s lowest-priced rents and how they’ve changed since 2019 – just before a coronavirus upended the economy. Many of these markets are far from the traditional job hubs of Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego …

Fresno: $1,304 in 2023 – up 26% vs. ’19.

Citrus Heights: $1,658 – up 29%

Sacramento: $1,675 – up 23%

Long Beach: $1,782 – up 19%

Riverside: $1,828 – up 37%

Pomona: $1,880 – up 34%

Berkeley: $2,058 – off 3%

Moreno Valley: $1,921 – up 44%

Santa Rosa: $1,915 – up 15%

La Mesa: $2,089 – up 36%

Other California extremes

The state’s priciest rental communities are primarily markets largely known for high-paying technology jobs …

Newport Beach: $3,242 in 2023 – up 21% vs. ’19.

Lake Forest: $3,151 – up 33%

San Mateo: $3,131 – off 2%

Laguna Niguel: $3,103 – up 36%

Dublin: $3,089 – up 8%

Emeryville: $3,033 – off 2%

Sunnyvale: $3,019 – off 1%

Redwood City: $2,980 – off 3%

Santa Clara: $2,979 – up 4%

Irvine: $2,967 – up 27%

Consider that the biggest rent hikes over four years were most likely to be found inland …

Moreno Valley: $1,921 in 2023 – up 44% vs. ’19.

Murrieta: $2,154 – up 42%.

Carlsbad: $2,280 – up 41%

Vista: $2,259 – up 39%

Aliso Viejo: $2,881 – up 39%

Chino: $2,327 – up 37%

Riverside: $1,828 – up 37%

Escondido: $2,183 – up 36%.

La Mesa: $2,089 – up 36%.

Finally, see the 10 California spots among 75 tracked where rents have declined since 2019 – all in the Bay Area …

Oakland: $2,158 in 2023 – off 13%.

San Francisco: $2,712 – off 12%

San Bruno: $2,757 – off 4%.

Mountain View: $2,922 – off 4%

Redwood City: $2,980 – off 3%

Berkeley: $2,058 – off 3%

Emeryville: $3,033 – off 2%

San Mateo: $3,131 – off 2%

Sunnyvale: $3,019 – off 1%

Bottom line

Ponder that there were 105 markets cheaper than Fresno – California’s bargain in this study.

The US lows for rent? Fargo, North Dakota at $953 a month, Roanoke, Virginia at $956, Fort Wayne, Indiana at $961, McAllen, Texas, at $964 and Lake Charles, Louisiana at $973.

Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com

California exodus?

California interstate departures fell 3% in 2022, arrivals grew 10%
817,669 Californians left in 2022. Which state did they move to?
475,803 moved to California last year. What states did they come from?
Hot job markets are No. 1 draw for ex-Californians
State added 37,010 million-dollar taxpayers in 5 years, most in US
Golden State has 4th ‘stickiest’ population in US, Fed says
Van moves suggest California ‘exodus’ is slowing

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​ Orange County Register 

Examining what’s causing fungal disease on your plants and seedlings

• January 13, 2024

Q. Last spring my peach tree had peach leaf curl. What can I do to prevent it from reappearing this year?

Peach leaf curl is a fungal disease that causes red, warty disfiguration of peach leaves. Mild cases, in which only a few leaves are affected, will not harm the tree. Sometimes the discoloration will appear on tender new growth and flowers. It also can cause corky spots on the fruit.  Moderate or severe cases can impair the tree’s ability to photosynthesize, which can lead to decreased fruit production and quality. Very severe cases can weaken the tree to the point where removal is necessary.

There are several options for treating/preventing peach leaf curl, but they involve spraying the tree during its dormant period. Once bud break occurs (you can see pink or red peeking out of the buds), it is too late to spray. In our area, Valentine’s Day is our cutoff date. This is nice because I can remind my husband that it’s time to spray the peach trees and that Valentine’s Day is coming up. I think this sounds less like nagging.

The fungicides that are commercially available to homeowners include copper-based sprays (Kop-R Spray Concentrate and Liqui-Cop). Chlorothalonil is a synthetic fungicide that is also available. Lime-sulfur, which smells terrible, is no longer available for homeowner use. 

When treating, aim to thoroughly douse the tree – it should be dripping wet. This process should be repeated once a year to keep your peach trees happy. If you would rather not spray, or the spray is not effective, you can plant a resistant variety such as Indian Free, Frost, or Muir.

Q. Every time I try to start seedlings indoors, they will germinate, grow about an inch, then fall over and die. What is causing this?

This phenomenon is called “damping off” and it’s caused by fungus. There are some things you can do to lessen the chance of this happening, but even experienced seed-starters have this problem.

If you are using a seed starting tray that has been used before, it should be sterilized with a bleach solution (2-3 tablespoons bleach in a gallon of water). Let the tray dry in the sun. New trays don’t have to be sterilized. Use seed starting mix (not regular planting mix). Seed-starting mix is fast draining and contains no fertilizer. The presence of fertilizer encourages bacterial and fungus growth, which can overwhelm tender little sprouts quickly.

The sprouts should get lots of light, either from sunlight or a grow light. If using a grow light, try to get the tray as close as possible to the light source – more light means faster growth.

If feasible, direct a fan on a low setting to circulate air above the soil surface. This keeps the very top layer of planting mix dry and encourages stouter growth in the seedlings.

Once the seedlings produce their first set of true leaves, start applying very dilute fertilizer with every other watering.

Los Angeles County

mglosangeleshelpline@ucdavis.edu; 626-586-1988; http://celosangeles.ucanr.edu/UC_Master_Gardener_Program/

Orange County

ucceocmghotline@ucanr.edu; http://mgorange.ucanr.edu/

Riverside County

anrmgriverside@ucanr.edu; https://ucanr.edu/sites/RiversideMG/

San Bernardino County

mgsanbern@ucanr.edu; 909-387-2182; http://mgsb.ucanr.edu

​ Orange County Register 

SCOTUS should uphold the Constitution by deciding the Colorado appeal on the law

• January 13, 2024

The recent decisions in Colorado and Maine finding Donald Trump ineligible to run for the presidency have spawned a host of calls for the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene. Rather than offer serious legal arguments, most opponents contend the decisions are anti-democratic and will have terrible consequences, such as by provoking red states to remove President Joe Biden from their ballots.  These are bad arguments.

All democracies have rules that establish eligibility requirements for persons who seek elected offices.   These requirements limit voters’ choices because persons who do not meet them cannot run.  Thus, even though tens millions of Americans might like to elect Barack Obama to another term as President, they cannot because the 22nd Amendment disqualifies him, as he has already held the office twice.

Millions of Americans might also want to vote for Arnold Schwarzenegger or Jennifer Granholm, respectively the former Governors of California and Michigan.  But both are ineligible too because the Constitution requires Presidents to be natural-born citizens and they are immigrants.

States’ election laws also limit voters’ choices.  Maine disqualified Chris Christie from its GOP primary because his campaign collected fewer signatures than the state’s law requires.

The 14th Amendment provision that has so far kept Trump off the ballots in Colorado and Maine is another eligibility requirement, and an exceedingly important one.  It helps preserve the rule of law by preventing traitors from using the powers of high office to destroy the country.

Millions of voters support Trump. But so what? If widespread support provides no basis for ignoring the 22nd Amendment in favor of Obama or Article II’s native birth requirement in favor of Schwarzenegger or Granholm, how can it be a reason for ignoring the 14th Amendment in favor of Trump?  We should be more concerned about preventing traitors from becoming president than worrying about third-termers or naturalized citizens who never sought to prevent the peaceful transfer of power.

Trump isn’t special.  He must meet the same eligibility requirements as all other candidates. If he can’t because he fomented an insurrection—as in my opinion and that of the Colorado Supreme Court, he clearly did—then to uphold the Constitution he must be excluded from the ballot.

Commentators, including some who agree that Trump fomented an insurrection, nevertheless argue the U.S. Supreme Court should let him run to avoid a repeat of Bush v. Gore, the lawsuit in which the Court decided the 2000 election.  But failing to enforce the Constitution would send the terrible message that threats of violence work.  The country owes an enormous debt to the many lower court jurists who honored their oaths to the Constitution despite Trump supporters’ vicious attempts at intimidation.  The Supreme Court should show as much courage.

Moreover, the contrast with Bush v. Gore – a case that critics see as a purely partisan decision by Republican appointees to hand the 2000 presidential election to the Republican – could hardly be starker.  A decision affirming the Colorado Supreme Court would have to be bipartisan because, to uphold Trump’s disqualification, at least two Republican-appointed justices will have to cross party lines.

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The appeal of the Colorado case doesn’t ask the Court to pick the winner of an election either. If the court agrees that Trump cannot run, then Republicans will nominate someone else who may well win against a weak incumbent.

Finally, while Bush v. Gore divided the country, it still sent the crucial message that the U.S. resolves election disputes peaceably in courts of law and lives with the results.  We don’t settle election disputes in the streets as partisans in some countries do.  The willingness of honest courts to decide controversial cases on the law and facts is one of the hallmarks that distinguishes a mature, law-abiding democracy from a fragile banana republic.

That is the issue at stake in these cases. The appeal of the Colorado decision is the Supreme Court’s opportunity to tell us whether the U.S. is a mature democracy where all candidates for elected office are equal before the law, or a banana republic where partisan judges exempt their favored candidates from inconvenient constitutional requirements.

Charles Silver is an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute and a professor at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law.

​ Orange County Register 

How to find plants for your garden in biodegradable pots

• January 13, 2024

Imagine a future where plants are grown exclusively in biodegradable pots. 

That future is now for Bluestone Perennials. This mail-order nursery in Ohio now ships all of its plants in 3.5” x 4’ coir (coconut fiber) containers. The sides of the pots are breathable, allowing roots to grow through them instead of being confined and circling the interior of the pot, which is never good for a plant. 

Furthermore, it happens all too frequently that in the process of extracting plants from plastic pots, roots are torn and root balls split apart. Even when the plant does come out whole, the roots are matted, necessitating pulling them apart so they can grow into the earth. However, this is not a simple procedure since if break up the roots insufficiently, the plant won’t grow but if you break them up too much, the root system may be compromised. 

The history of biodegradable pots is a disappointing one. The reason for this is that the thick fibrous pots that have long been the biodegradable standard do not decompose quickly enough in the earth. As a result, roots ensconced in them may often end up circling the pots’ interior, leading to a root-bound condition that halts plant growth. Visit bluestoneperennials.com to learn more about their coir pots. I also recommend perusing the vast selection of perennials growing in the company’s greenhouses, most of which will ship in the spring. 

I can spend hours browsing the sites of mail-order nurseries since I learn so much from this practice and, of course, there is no requirement to buy anything. Another mail-order nursery I recommend is Logee’s (logees.com), where many rare fruit species and tropicals are available and 60 different begonia species and cultivars, most of them meant for use as indoor plants, are featured. And then, of course, there’s Annie’s Annuals (anniesannuals.com), a northern California nursery with plenty of exotic plants that grow well in our area. If any of you have a mail-order nursery to recommend, please let me know about it so I can share it with readers of this column.

“The Cottage Garden’” (Cool Springs Press, 2023), by Klaus Dalby, is a photographic treasure trove of cottage gardens he has visited over many years. The book’s back cover invites potential readers to “explore the overflowing abundance of the cottage garden,” which is a good description of what you see when paging through this volume. 

“Overflowing abundance” characterizes a cottage garden since every inch of space is burgeoning with an opulence of botanical life. Flowers are tall and densely growing with plenty of roses, sweet peas, clematis, delphiniums, floxgloves, hollyhocks, borage, hydrangeas, and wildflowers galore. Although the author has a wet climate orientation, a dry climate cottage garden would also include more water-thrifty bloomers such as sages, yarrows, lavenders, and buckwheats.

The cottage garden is informal and mixed in with the flowers — fragrant roses, gardenias, and jasmines are especially prized — are rows of vegetables and the occasional fruit tree. Anything that can provide visual, aromatic or edible delight is a candidate for a cottage garden. While an English garden also tends to be informal since it is meant to mimic the look of an English countryside, there are formal elements involved such as clipped hedges that distinguish it from the freely flowing cottage garden.

“Happy Plants, Happy You” (Cold Springs Press, 2023) by Kamili Bell Hill is an impressionistic collection of thoughts about indoor plants along with helpful hints for growing and caring for them. The author deters those nuisance fungus gnats, for instance, by covering the soil with horticultural sand; the gnats crave moisture and will not lay their eggs in it. She repurposes chopsticks from takeout food to poke and aerate the soil in her pots. 

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Propagation in water is promoted by the author to increase your supply of just about any indoor plant. This is especially easy to achieve with philodendrons and their ilk due to the aerial roots that they produce. You simply cut a leafy shoot just below an aerial root and place it in a small volume of water that is just deep enough to cover the root and a small part of the stem. According to the author, the reason for this is that cuttings exude root hormones that would be diluted by a larger volume of water and slow the rooting process. She confesses that, ultimately, her preference for rooting in water is “mostly because I am nosey and like to watch the roots develop.”

California native of the week: 

Cotton fern (Cheilanthes newberryi) is a truly special plant. Foliage is silver-gray and its habitat is steep, rocky slopes and cliffs even though it grows in both sun and part shade. It would be a suitable companion to California native Dudleyas whose chalky white leathery foliage would offer an interesting contrast to this fern’s soft-textured and gently-toothed leaves, even though the succulent Dudleya and the scruffy fern are similarly colored.

Please send questions and comments about any plant or gardening practice or problem to Joshua@perfectplants.com.

​ Orange County Register 

Orange County restaurants shut down by health inspectors (Jan. 4-11)

• January 13, 2024

Restaurants and other food vendors ordered to close and allowed to reopen by Orange County health inspectors from Jan. 4 to Jan. 11.

El Carnaval, 2026 W. Fifth St., Santa Ana

Closed: Jan. 10
Reason: Insufficient hot water
Reopened: Jan. 10

Landers, 1814 N. El Camino Real, San Clemente

Closed: Jan. 10
Reason: Rodent infestation
Reopened: Jan. 11

Nha Hang $1.99 Restaurant, 7971 Westminster Blvd., Westminster

Closed: Jan. 9
Reason: Cockroach infestation
Reopened: Jan. 10

Food sales at The Home Depot, 6200 Irvine Blvd., Irvine

Closed: Jan. 4
Reason: Rodent infestation
Reopened: Jan. 10

Quan Kim Thap, 15422 Brookhurst St., Westminster

Closed: Jan. 4
Reason: Insufficient hot water
Reopened: Jan. 9

Ozen Sushi, 7185 Lincoln Ave., Buena Park

Closed: Jan. 4
Reason: Rodent infestation
Reopened: Jan. 5

El Maguey Bar & Billiards, 2058 S. Main St., Santa Ana

Closed: Jan. 4
Reason: Rodent infestation and insufficient hot water
Reopened: Jan. 4

Cha2Cha, 9840 Katella Ave., Garden Grove

Closed: Jan. 4
Reason: Cockroach infestation
Reopened: Jan. 5

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This list is published weekly with closures since the previous week’s list. Status updates are published in the following week’s list. Source: OC Health Care Agency database.

​ Orange County Register