Brothers David, Dominic Fletcher meet for first time in MLB as Angels face Diamondbacks

• July 1, 2023

ANAHEIM — David and Dominic Fletcher had dreamed about the moment they would share a major league field together.

When it finally arrived on Friday, it was bittersweet.

Their father, Tim, had died suddenly less than three weeks earlier. He was 60.

“This would have been one of his proudest moments,” said Dominic, an Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder. “Every night he turned on the TV and had both of our games going on simultaneously. To be able to be here and watch would have been one of his favorite things.”

The Fletcher brothers grew up in Orange County and attended Cypress High School. They went to Angels games with their dad as kids, sitting “up there at the top,” Dominic said, motioning to the upper deck. They attended the parade after the Angels won the 2002 World Series.

David, 29, and Dominic, 25, played together for one year in high school. David went to Loyola Marymount and was drafted by the Angels in 2015. Dominic went to Arkansas and was drafted by Diamondbacks in 2019.

During one wild June in 2018, Tim saw David make his major league debut in Seattle and Dominic play in the College World Series in Omaha.

The two finally got a chance to play together for Italy in the World Baseball Classic, which was a nod to their mother’s birthplace.

Since then, the two of them split the season playing at Triple-A and in the majors. They had played against each other in Triple-A, but the chances of them meeting in the big leagues shrunk as each was still in the minors a week before this series.

David was called up to the Angels last Saturday, and Dominic got the call from the Diamondbacks on Friday, just in time to report to Anaheim.

David was starting at shortstop and batting ninth on Friday; Dominic was in left field, batting sixth.

“It’s awesome,” David said. “It’s something that we kind of thought would happen one day and could be a special series.”

Angels manager Phil Nevin, who has two sons playing professional baseball right now, said he had a special appreciation for how the family was feeling this weekend.

“As a parent, I couldn’t imagine being in the stands watching your boys play against each other, which is happening tonight,” Nevin said. “It’s got to be really a special moment for their family and what’s going on with them over the last couple of weeks. It’s a tragedy in the family, but then for them to get together like this, it was like it was meant to be.

“Heck, I’ll probably have some emotions with it tonight as well. I know both of them already have. I’ve talked to David yesterday. He mentioned after the game that his brother might be coming. You could hear it in his voice when he said it, how excited he was.”

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Los Alamitos horse racing consensus picks, Saturday, July 1, 2023

• July 1, 2023

The consensus box of Los Alamitos horse racing picks comes from handicappers Bob Mieszerski, Art Wilson, Terry Turrell and Eddie Wilson. Here are the picks for thoroughbred races on Saturday, July 1, 2023.

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Former Riverside technical school CEO gets prison for $105 million VA scam

• July 1, 2023

The founder and chief executive officer of the defunct California Technical Academy in Riverside has been sentenced to five years in federal prison for scamming $105 million in the largest post-9/11 GI Bill fraud case at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Michael Bostock, 54, of Nampa, Idaho, was sentenced Monday, June 26, in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. He previously pleaded guilty in September 2022 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Co-conspirators Eric Bostock, 48, of Riverside and Philip Abod are scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 19 for their roles in the scheme at CTA campuses in Riverside, Temecula and Escondido.

Information was not immediately available regarding the relationship between Michael and Eric Bostock.

From 2012 to 2022, CTA received about $32 million in tuition payments and about $72.5 million in education-related benefits from the VA for 1,793 veterans enrolled at the school, according to a Department of Justice sentencing memorandum.

Bostock and the two other defendants falsely attested to CTA’s compliance with federal regulations mandating that no more than 85% of enrollees in an approved program could be VA-funded. Additionally, they lied to the VA about the enrollment of veterans in approved courses, class attendance and grades, prosecutors said.

To conceal their scheme, Bostock and the other defendants falsified veterans’ contact information by substituting phone numbers purchased in bulk that would ring a cellphone they controlled to ensure regulators could not contact the veterans.

“When regulators called the falsified phone numbers to obtain information about the school, the defendant and his co-conspirators would impersonate students,” says the sentencing memorandum

Bostock and his co-conspirators also faked records to make it appear veterans had completed CTA courses, when, in fact they had not, according to prosecutors.

The memorandum says Bostock fleeced the government to expand the two-year college and provide his wife, stepdaughter and brother with employment.

“This was not a one-off criminal episode or temporary lapse in judgment,” the memorandum states. “The defendant engaged in this fraudulent conduct to ensure that the VA would continue to provide funding to CTA.”

Individuals have filed anonymous complaints with the Better Business Bureau claiming that, after federal agents swarmed CTA, the school abruptly shut down and failed to reimburse them for enrollment fees and tuition-related expenses.

“My son was going to school there one day,” according to an individual, who said CTA owes them $4,369. “I went to drop him off (and) the FBI had all employees and students outside on the ground. I was terrified, I asked what was going on (and) the FBI agent could not give me any information.”

In a statement to federal probation officials, Bostock apologized for defrauding the VA.

“I accept full responsibility for my criminal acts,” he said. “There is no excuse for providing false information to the VA. It is particularly offensive that I abused the GI Bill. This law is designed to serve America’s military heroes. When I committed this crime, I betrayed my own values and disappointed countless people. I am very sorry I acted so recklessly.”

Prosecutors said Bostock’s remorse is “noteworthy,” but added that his history of traffic infractions and drug possession demonstrates his difficulty in following rules.

“The severity of and breadth of the fraudulent scheme that the defendant led, as well as the defendant’s prior criminal conduct, warrant giving significant weight to specific deterrence,” says the complaint.

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Colleges will have to look for new ways to promote diversity

• July 1, 2023

By Collin Binkley | Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has sent shockwaves through higher education with a landmark decision that struck down affirmative action and left colleges across the nation searching for new ways to promote student diversity.

Leaders of scores of universities said Thursday that they were disappointed by what they see as a blow to diversity. Yet many also voiced optimism that they would find new ways to admit more Black and Hispanic students, despite evidence that eliminating the practice often leads to steep enrollment decreases among them.

President Joe Biden said he disagreed with the decision and asked the Education Department to explore policies that could help colleges build diverse student bodies. He also pushed against policies like legacy preferences — admissions boosts given to the children of alumni — that tend to help white, wealthy students.

“We should never allow the country to walk away from the dream upon which it was founded,” Biden told reporters. “We need a new path forward, a path consistent with the law that protects diversity and expands opportunity.”

Yet evidence from states that previously outlawed affirmative action show it will be a daunting challenge.

As an alternative to affirmative action, colleges from California to Florida have tried a range of strategies to achieve the diversity they say is essential to their campuses. Many have given greater preference to low-income families. Others started admitting top students from every community in their state.

But years of experimentation — often prompted by state-level bans on considering race in admissions — left no clear solution. In states requiring race-neutral policies, many colleges saw enrollment drops among Black and Hispanic students, especially at selective colleges that historically have been mostly white.

At Amherst College, officials had estimated going entirely race-neutral would reduce Black, Hispanic and Indigenous populations by half.

“We fully expect it would be a significant decrease in our population,” said Matthew McGann, Amherst’s director of admission, earlier this year.

Facing a conservative Supreme Court that appeared skeptical from the start, colleges have been preparing for a rollback. Some were considering adding more essays to get a better picture of an applicant’s background, a strategy invited in Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling.

“Nothing prohibits universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected the applicant’s life, so long as that discussion is concretely tied to a quality of character or unique ability that the particular applicant can contribute to the university,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court’s conservative majority.

Other colleges were planning to boost recruiting in racially diverse areas, or admit more transfer students from community colleges.

The court took up affirmative action in response to challenges at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina. Lower courts upheld admission systems at both schools, rejecting claims that the schools discriminated against white and Asian American applicants. But at Supreme Court arguments in late October, all six conservative justices expressed doubts about the practice, which had been upheld under Supreme Court decisions reaching back to 1978, and as recently as 2016.

Nine states already have banned affirmative action, starting with California in 1996 and, most recently, Idaho in 2020.

After Michigan voters rejected it in 2006, the University of Michigan shifted attention to low-income students.

It sent graduates to work as counselors in low-income high schools. It started offering college prep in Detroit and Grand Rapids. It offered full scholarships for low-income Michigan residents. More recently, it started accepting fewer early admission applications, which are more likely to come from white students.

Despite those efforts, the share of Black and Hispanic undergraduates hasn’t fully rebounded from a falloff after 2006. And while Hispanic enrollments have been increasing, Black enrollments continued to slide, going from 8% of undergraduates in 2006 to 4% now.

The campus is drawing more low-income students, but that hasn’t translated to racial diversity, said Erica Sanders, director of undergraduate admissions at Michigan.

“Socioeconomic status is not a proxy for race,” Sanders said.

At the same time, some of Michigan’s less selective colleges have fared better. At nearby Eastern Michigan University, the number of students of color increased, reflecting demographic shifts in the state. It illustrates what experts say is a chilling effect seen most acutely at selective colleges — students of color see fewer of their peers at places like Ann Arbor, prompting them to choose campuses that appear more welcoming.

Growing up in Ann Arbor, there was an expectation that Odia Kaba would attend the University of Michigan. When her application was deferred, she started at Eastern Michigan with plans to transfer to Ann Arbor her sophomore year.

By then, Kaba was getting daily texts from her sister, who attended U-M, describing the microaggressions she faced as a Black student on campus. Rooms went silent when she walked in. She was ignored in group projects. She felt alone and suffocated.

“Why would I go to U of M?” Kaba, 22, remembers thinking. “I’m just going to be stuck with people that don’t look like me, can’t relate to me, and with no way to escape it.”

Kaba stayed at Eastern Michigan and graduated with a degree in quantitative economics this year. Even though it’s a mostly white campus, Kaba said she found pockets of diversity that helped make her comfortable.

“I’m in economics, which is a white male-dominated space. But I can walk out of the classroom and be surrounded by my people, and I just feel safe,” she said.

The University of California also saw enrollment slides after a statewide ban in 1996. Within two years, Black and Hispanic enrollments fell by half at the system’s two most selective campuses, Berkeley and UCLA. The system would go on to spend more than $500 million on programs aimed at low-income and first-generation college students.

It also started a program that promises admission to the top 9% of students in each high school across the state, an attempt to reach strong students from all backgrounds. A similar promise in Texas has been credited for expanding racial diversity, and opponents of affirmative action cite it as a successful model.

In California, the promise drew students from a wider geographic area but did little to expand racial diversity, the system said in a brief to the Supreme Court. It had almost no impact at Berkeley and UCLA, where students compete against tens of thousands of other applicants.

Today at UCLA and Berkeley, Hispanic students make up 20% of undergraduates, higher than in 1996 but lower than their 53% share among California’s high school graduates. Black students, meanwhile, have a smaller presence than they did in 1996, accounting for 2% of undergraduates at Berkeley.

Opponents of affirmative action say some states have fared well without it. After Oklahoma outlawed the practice in 2012, the state’s flagship university saw “no long-term severe decline” in minority enrollments, the state’s attorney general told the Supreme Court.

It pointed to a recent freshman class at the University of Oklahoma that had more Hispanic, Asian and Native American students than in 2012. The share of Black students fell, but it wasn’t far from flagship universities in other states that allow affirmative action, the state said.

Still, many colleges expect racial diversity could take a hit. With affirmative action struck down, colleges fear they will unknowingly admit fewer students of color. In the long run, it can be self-perpetuating — if numbers fall, the campus can appear less attractive to future students of color.

That’s a problem, colleges say, because racial diversity benefits the entire campus, exposing students to other worldviews and preparing them for a diverse workforce.

Beyond race, the decision has the impact to reshape other admissions policies. To draw more underserved populations, experts say colleges may need to do away with policies that advantage white students, from legacy preferences and early admission to standardized test scores.

The Associated Press education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

​ Orange County Register 

LAFC defender Ryan Hollingshead is finally an MLS All-Star

• July 1, 2023

Ryan Hollingshead was and was not caught off guard by being named to the Major League Soccer All-Star team for the first time Tuesday.

“It’s one of those things where you’re never really surprised and you’re really surprised,” said the 32-year-old defender, a 10-season MLS veteran. “I think I’ve been putting in seasons as an outside back over the last five or six years that when they’re announcing the All-Star team I’m looking like I should be on there.

“After enough years of not getting selected in those moments, when you feel like you’re playing at the top of your game, you get these thoughts creeping in like, ‘OK, it probably just isn’t going to happen. It’s just not going to happen. It’s just not in the cards.’”

Among the dozen players designated by All-Star head coach Wayne Rooney to participate in an exhibition against Arsenal of the Premier League on July 19 at Audi Field in Washington D.C., Hollingshead is also one of 19 debutants on the 26-man roster.

That includes Los Angeles Football Club teammate Denis Bouanga.

The explosive forward was voted in after playing 23 MLS regular-season games.

The veteran Hollingshead – drafted out of UCLA by FC Dallas, where he played from 2014 until LAFC acquired him in trade prior to last season – had 240 league matches before getting the nod, making him the longest-tenured MLS player among Rooney’s All-Star rookies.

The 6-foot-2 attack-minded fullback has 25 league goals – second most by a defender since 2010 – and 17 assists across 16,455 minutes in MLS.

The bulk of those numbers were compiled in Dallas from 2019 through his championship season with LAFC.

“This club has put me in a position to excel at the highest level and my teammates have put me in that same position,” Hollingshead said. “So I think a lot of this nod towards being an All-Star really has to do with the way that our club has performed over the last year and a half.”

From a numbers perspective, Hollingshead’s 2023 is not indicative of his best self.

One goal, a game-winner against the Galaxy in April, along with an assist through the first half of the year has not landed Hollingshead on an MLS team of the matchday roster, something 12 other LAFC players have appeared on at least once.

Though Hollingshead helped unlock important moments through the club’s Champions League run, the hangover of a draining and ineffective final alongside struggling teammates lingered into a difficult June, when the Black & Gold suffered three of their four losses in the league this year and netted seven of 18 possible points.

Following a rare full week to train, LAFC (9-4-5, 32 points) travels to Hollingshead’s old stomping grounds Saturday in sweltering Dallas, tied for first in the West.

Eyeing a season sweep over seventh-place FC Dallas (7-7-5, 26 points), LAFC’s shorthanded opponent will miss 10-goal scorer Jesus Ferreira, who had a hat trick for the U.S. men’s national team in the Gold Cup on Wednesday.

“Traditionally, Texas hasn’t been a positive place for us,” LAFC head coach Steve Cherundolo noted before the first of five matches over 14 days leading to the All-Star break.

“We’d like to start this little next stretch of games before a bigger break on the right foot.”

LAFC at FC Dallas

When: 5:39 p.m. PT Saturday

Where: Toyota Stadium, Frisco, Texas

TV/Radio: Apple TV (Free)/710 AM, ESPN App, 980 AM

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Anthony Rendon returns to Angels’ lineup after missing time with bruised wrist

• July 1, 2023

ANAHEIM — It might have taken a few days longer than expected for Anthony Rendon to get back in the lineup, but it happened quickly as soon as he gave the green light.

The Angels activated Rendon before Friday’s game. The veteran third baseman did not face any live pitching in the minors or even a simulated game. Rendon had simply hit off the high-velocity machine in the past couple of days.

“He came in after the game yesterday and said he felt great and he wanted to play tonight,” Manager Phil Nevin said before Friday’s game.

Rendon was hit in the left wrist by a pitch on June 15 in Texas. He remained on the active roster for a few days before going on the injured list. He was eligible to return on Monday, but the Angels decided to give him more time.

Nevin put him back into the cleanup spot on Friday. Although Rendon has just one home run in 164 plate appearances, the Angels like him in the middle of the lineup because of the way he works at-bats and drives in runners. He is hitting .286 with runners in scoring position.

“Anthony back out there certainly lengthens us out, puts that quality at-bat in the middle that we’ve been getting out of (Brandon) Drury in that spot,” Nevin said. “But with Anthony and him together in there, for me really lengthens this thing out so I’m excited to have him back.”

The Angels were not able to get Rendon and Drury in the lineup together on Friday, though. Drury hurt his shoulder on a diving play early in Thursday’s game, and he woke up sore on Friday. Nevin said he expects him back in “a day or two.”

“I can’t have all my toys at once,” Nevin quipped.

Shortstop Andrew Velazquez was optioned to Triple-A to create a spot for Rendon.

MEDEROS UP

The Angels called up right-hander Victor Mederos from Double-A, the third time this season they have called up a player who was selected in the 2022 draft. They earlier called up shortstop Zach Neto, their first-round pick, and relief pitcher Ben Joyce, their third-round pick.

Mederos, 22, was the Angels’ sixth-round pick out of Oklahoma State. He had a 5.98 ERA in 12 starts at Double-A this season, with 71 strikeouts and 25 walks in 55⅔ innings.

Nevin said the Angels called him up because they needed multi-inning coverage for the bullpen after getting 10 innings of relief in the previous two days. They optioned right-hander Andrew Wantz.

As for the trend of calling players up after such little time in the minors, Nevin said: “We feel these guys are extremely talented. And ready to be here. I think we’ve provided a good foundation for them and a good support system around them to prepare them for this moment.”

Mederos said he appreciated that the Angels offered opportunities that most other organizations wouldn’t.

“I feel like there’s a lot of organizations out there where you can be the best guy in the Double-A rotation, you’re probably not gonna get that chance,” he said.

NOTES

Neto (strained oblique) said earlier in the week he hoped to begin baseball activity on Friday, but Nevin said that was overly optimistic on Neto’s part. “He was kind of trying to make his own schedule,” Nevin said. “As aggressive as he wants to be with it, hopefully Sunday or Monday, we’ll get him out on the field. If he gets out there and starts doing stuff, this will ramp up very quickly. As long as we know he’s feeling good, it’s a matter of just getting him back in shape. We’ve got to make sure that’s out of there because if you re-injure these things, it takes a while to come back.” …

Left-handed reliever Matt Moore (strained oblique) continues to play catch. He is “getting close to getting back on the mound,” Nevin said. …

Joyce (ulnar neuritis) has a few more days of playing catch before he gets on the mound, Nevin said. …

The Angels designated infielder Jake Lamb for assignment to create a spot on the 40-man roster for Mederos. …

Infielder Kevin Padlo, who had been designated for assignment last weekend, cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A.

UP NEXT

Diamondbacks (RHP Ryne Nelson, 4-4, 4.97 ERA) at Angels (LHP Tyler Anderson, 4-2, 5.54 ERA), Saturday, 7:07 p.m., Bally Sports West, 830 AM

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Orange County restaurants shut down by health inspectors (June 22-29)

• July 1, 2023

Restaurants and other food vendors ordered to close and allowed to reopen by Orange County health inspectors from June 22 to June 29.

Baci Di Firenze Italian Restaurant, 416 N. Lakeview Ave., Anaheim

Closed: June 27
Reason: Cockroach infestation

One Fine Blend at Huntington Beach Public Library, 7111 Talbert Ave., Huntington Beach

Closed: June 27
Reason: Rodent infestation
Reopened: June 29

T.P. Banh Bao 2, 13067 Euclid St., Garden Grove

Closed: June 26
Reason: Cockroach infestation

Cold Stone Creamery, 215 Orangefair Mall, Fullerton

Closed: June 22
Reason: Cockroach infestation
Reopened: June 23

Sookdal, 9448 Garden Grove Blvd., Garden Grove

Closed: June 22
Reason: Insufficient hot water
Reopened: June 23

Cordon Blue Restaurant & Lounge, 15380 Beach Blvd., Suite A, Westminster

Closed: June 22
Reason: Sewage overflow
Reopened: June 22

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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.

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NHL free agency: Ducks move on from Max Comtois, Kevin Shattenkirk

• July 1, 2023

For many teams, it goes without saying that it is an especially complicated year because the salary cap remains tight. That means there are a lot of players pursuing a scarce number of dollars in the system when the bell goes off for the start of NHL free agency on Saturday.

Specific to the Ducks, veteran defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk and forward Max Comtois will be joining a crowded free agent class that had a few surprise additions around the league. On Friday, the Nashville Predators bought out 32-year-old center Matt Duchene, and the Winnipeg Jets did the same with forward Blake Wheeler, their former captain who turns 37 on Aug. 31.

Shattenkirk, 34, will be heading to free agency after playing the past three seasons with the Ducks, his agent confirmed on Friday. It’s understood there wasn’t much traction in any talks with the Ducks after the regular season concluded.

He joined the Ducks as a free agent in 2020 – signing a three-year contract worth $11.7 million – just after winning the Stanley Cup championship with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The path to the parting of ways was different with Comtois, who is 10 years younger than Shattenkirk, and once a promising prospect, a second-round draft choice (No. 50) in 2017. The Ducks opted not to tender a qualifying offer to Comtois after a disappointing season in which he had 19 points in 64 games, and showed signs of continued regression after a 16-goal, 33-point season in 2020-21.

That wasn’t going to cut it with the (relatively) new and unsentimental management group. A year ago, the Ducks didn’t hesitate to cut ties with forwards Sam Steel and Sonny Milano, not qualifying either player. Milano, in fact, was coming off a career-high in assists (20) and points (34) with the Ducks, eventually winding up with the Washington Capitals. He had 33 points (11 goals, 22 assists) in 64 games this past season. Steel, a Ducks’ first-round pick (No. 30) in 2016, landed in Minnesota on a one-year deal and recorded 28 points in 65 games with the Wild. Steel, incidentally, did not receive a qualifying offer from Minnesota on Friday.

In addition to Comtois, the Ducks did not tender qualifying offers to five others: defensemen Axel Andersson and Simon Benoit, goaltender Ollie Eriksson Ek, right wing Bryce Kindopp and left wing Josiah Slavin.

Andersson recently signed a two-year contract with Djurgårdens IF in Sweden, and Eriksson Ek also agreed to a two-year deal with MoDo in Sweden.

As expected, the Ducks did extend qualifying offers to five restricted free agents – forward Troy Terry, centers Trevor Zegras and Benoit-Olivier Groulx, defenseman Jamie Drysdale and goaltender Lukas Dostal.

With where the Ducks are in their rebuild, realistically, it’s not in the timeline of the organization to take big swings in the free agent market. But you can’t rule out the possibility of Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek making a selective strategic signing or two at some point.

“There are a number of spots within our roster that we need to address,” Verbeek said on Friday. “We are looking to add to our forward group on the wing and we will look at a few options to help our blue line.

“We are in a good spot with the cap where we can be flexible in our approach.”

​ Orange County Register