Censure, impeachment threats used to be rare. Not anymore

• June 28, 2023

By Stephen Groves and Farnoush Amiri | Associated Press

WASHINGTON — House Republicans have held it over Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for months. Attorney General Merrick Garland is facing it too. And President Joe Biden seemingly isn’t far behind.

Driven by the demands of hard-right members, Republicans in the House are threatening impeachment against Biden and his top Cabinet officials, creating a backbeat of chatter about “high crimes and misdemeanors” that is driving legislative action, spurring committee investigations, raking in fundraising money and complicating the plans of Speaker Kevin McCarthy and his leadership team.

Long viewed as an option of last resort, to be triggered only for the most severe wrongdoing, the constitutionally authorized power of impeachment is rapidly moving from the extraordinary to the humdrum, driven in large part by Republicans and their grievances about how Democrats twice impeached President Donald Trump.

Republicans remain so opposed to Trump’s impeachments, in fact, that they are pressing for votes to expunge the charges altogether — an attempt to clear his name that is without direct precedent in congressional history.

“We’re seeing a generation of Republicans who are much more willing to test the boundaries of how much you can weaponize procedures,” said Julian Zelizer, a Princeton University historian and political scientist.

McCarthy on Sunday made Garland the latest target of a potential impeachment investigation as Republicans examine how the Department of Justice handled the prosecution of Hunter Biden for federal tax offenses. It capped a tumultuous week in which hard-right Republicans forced a vote to send articles of impeachment against Biden to a committee for investigation and also voted to censure Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff for his remarks and actions during the 2017 investigation into Trump’s ties to Russia.

Some Republicans are pushing for yet another censure action, this time against Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson for his leadership of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 insurrection.

In the past, lawmakers have reserved censure, a punishment one step below expulsion, for grave misconduct. When former Rep. Charles Rangel, a New York Democrat, was censured in 2010 on a bipartisan vote for ethics violations, then-speaker Nancy Pelosi solemnly summoned him to the well of the House, where censured members must stand as the resolution is read in a moment of public shaming.

“We really tried hard to put aside the partisan considerations because we knew how sharp and potent the weapon (of censure) was,” said former Rep. Steve Israel, Democrat of New York, who was among Pelosi’s closest confidantes. “This thing used to be rare. Now, it’s in every cycle, in breaking news.”

When Schiff was censured last week, the proceedings quickly took on a carnival-like quality. Democrats, Pelosi included, streamed forward to stand shoulder-to-shoulder in the well of the House. They heckled McCarthy as he read the charges — calling out “Shame!” “Disgrace!” and “Adam! Adam!” — until the speaker left the dais.

“What goes around comes around,” one Democrat could be heard shouting in the chamber. Republicans streamed from the chamber shaking their heads.

“That was wild in there,” said Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla. She had brought the censure resolution against Schiff, using a legislative tool that allowed her to bypass leadership and force a vote.

The fervor in the House for doling out punishment shows no signs of breaking — in part because lawmakers are reaping the media attention and fundraising dollars that are steadily replacing committee chairmanships as the locus of power in the House.

Luna, who is just months into her first House term after winning a Florida district formerly held by Democrats, was the subject of a Fox News interview in prime-time after her successful push to censure Schiff.

And the attention cut both ways. Schiff, who is running for a California Senate seat, seemed to relish the moment and leveraged it into a fundraising blitz.

“They go after people they think are effective; they go after people they think are standing up to them,” Schiff said in an interview on “The View,” one of several TV appearances he had in the aftermath.

Yet there’s a risk that Republicans’ appetite for using the punishment powers could easily escalate into a more serious test of whether Congress is legitimately wielding power — and nowhere does that possibility loom larger than when it comes to Biden.

Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Colorado Republican who won reelection last year by fewer than 600 votes, forced a vote last week on an impeachment resolution against Biden for “high crimes and misdemeanors” over his handling of the U.S. border with Mexico.

Republican leaders were able to bottle up Boebert’s resolution, holding a vote that sent the matter to congressional committees for consideration.

Some Republicans, however, view it as a question of when, not if, Biden is impeached. Floor debate on the resolution took on the air of a dress rehearsal, as Democrats and Republicans debated whether Biden has committed “high crimes and misdemeanors” with his handling of border and immigration policy.

Only three other presidents in U.S. history have been impeached — Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton and Trump, though none were convicted by the Senate. Should Republicans decide to make Biden the fourth, a system of checks and balances created by the framers could face a test like never before.

While the Constitution’s impeachment standard of “high crimes and misdemeanors” is deliberately open-ended, the Republicans’ impeachment argument against Biden has centered so far on disagreement with his policy decisions, namely his handling of the southern border, which they say amounts to breaking his oath of office.

Zelizer, the political historian, warned that moving forward with impeachment on those grounds would have lasting consequences.

“It weakens the function of government, it undermines trust in this democracy, and it will leave the democracy weaker than when it started,” he said.

​ Orange County Register 

Amtrak train with 190 passengers derails in Moorpark after colliding with truck

• June 28, 2023

MOORPARK — An Amtrak train carrying 190 passengers derailed Wednesday after striking a truck on tracks in Southern California, and only minor injuries were reported, authorities said.

Three of the train’s seven cars went off the tracks following the collision in Moorpark, said Ventura County Fire Department Captain Brian McGrath.

The number of people hurt wasn’t immediately known, but all the injuries were characterized as minor, McGrath said.

Parts of the demolished truck were still on the tracks, while other sections lay near the derailed train cars. The truck’s driver had only minor injuries and it appears he got out before the collision, McGrath said.

The derailed train cars remained upright on a section of track adjacent to an orchard and bare sections of land.

Most of the passengers were able to exit the train on their own or with the help of first responders, who were called around 11:20 a.m., McGrath said. A few people were transported to hospitals for evaluation, but he didn’t know how many.

TV news helicopters showed numerous people, many carrying luggage, milling about in a field as firefighters worked the scene.

#amtrack train derailment in Moorpark pic.twitter.com/h0TuckxYyy

— dean musgrove (@deanmusgrove) June 28, 2023

#Amtrack train derailment in #Moorpark 7 passengers and a truck driver taken to hospital pic.twitter.com/EYnbr0RtN0

— dean musgrove (@deanmusgrove) June 28, 2023

Crews were able to quickly douse a small fire, McGrath said.

Amtrak spokesperson Olivia Irvin said she was gathering information.

Moorpark is a city of about 35,000 people 50 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.

​ Orange County Register 

Pierre-Luc Dubois calls Kings trade ‘a dream come true’

• June 28, 2023

In a whirlwind offseason, the Kings’ tornado of trades, made ostensibly to create cap space in order to re-sign a defenseman and finally nail down a legit No. 1 goaltender, all led to general manager Rob Blake’s biggest investment yet in … a center?

With only one rostered goalie, Blake prioritized an extension for defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov and then exchanged three roster players, including the emergent three-zone force Gabe Vilardi, and a high second-round pick for the privilege of signing former Winnipeg Jets center Pierre-Luc Dubois to a weighty eight-year, $68 million contract.

Dubois augments a cadre of pivots that already included captain and leading scorer Anze Kopitar; 2022 team MVP and alternate captain Phillip Danault; spark plug and emotional charge Blake Lizotte; and 2020’s No. 2 overall pick Quinton Byfield, who spent the stretch run of last season as a left wing.

“You’ve got to be deep. You see the top teams in the West, and to be able to have to match them, you have to be deep through (the middle),” Blake said. “Those four centermen will be key for that lineup.”

The opportunity to snag Dubois, a 25-year-old who combines prototypical size with uncommon puck skills but has yet to fully materialize his potential, leapfrogged the house-on-fire urgency of a No. 1 goalie.

“I’m hopefully going to play my 500th game in the NHL this upcoming season, but I have so much to learn still,” said Dubois, adding that he was hoping to build on his consistency of a point-per-game pace for more than half of last season before his production fizzled during Winnipeg’s wild-card push.

“To be the complete player I want to become, it takes time, and I think I’m getting closer and closer to that,” he added.

Perhaps most notably, the Kings have now effectively unloaded vast assets from the trade deadline through Tuesday – Jonathan Quick, a first-round draft choice, a third-rounder, Cal Petersen, Sean Walker, Helge Grans, a second-round selection, over $3.5 million in salary retention over two seasons, Vilardi, Alex Iafallo, Rasmus Kupari, Sean Durzi and another second-rounder they acquired for him –– to add Dubois (eight-year extension), Gavrikov (signed for two years after a portion of last season) and what to this point was the short-term rental of goalie Joonas Korpisalo.

The situation was complicated considerably by what turned out to be strikingly misplaced faith in Petersen, whose $5 million cap hit was a wrench in the engine that was to propel the Kings’ sprint from also-rans to short-list contenders.

Gavrikov and Korpisalo were present for last year’s postseason, which resulted, as 2022’s did, in an elimination at the hands of the Edmonton Oilers in the first round.

On Tuesday, Dubois, Blake and Kings president Luc Robitaille suggested the massive investments would bring the team forward in spring-into-summer runs to come.

“You’re not trying to make the playoffs, you’re trying to win the playoffs,” Robitaille said.

“I do think we have to be ready. We’ve been through a rebuild in the last few years, so I think it’s important right now to make sure we’re ready, that we can compete for a long time,” he added.

Dubois echoed that sentiment, saying his contract’s eight-year term gave him and the Kings a broad competitive window in which he hoped to hoist the Stanley Cup multiple times. He described joining the Kings as a “dream come true.”

He played with Gavrikov previously, in Columbus before Dubois was traded to Winnipeg, and Gavrikov video-called him to fill him in about the organization and region. Dubois also said he admired Kopitar immensely as a young player, and that Danault had already endeared himself to him both on and off the ice as a fellow francophone center.

“I haven’t been around Phil as a person a lot, but I feel like every time I’ve seen him, I feel like it’s a friend I haven’t seen in a long time,” Dubois said. “As a player, I think he’s one of the most underrated two-way centers in the NHL.”

Blake always maintained that he would break from his close-to-the-vest approach only to mobilize assets for players in their 20s entering their primes who were going to be in L.A. long-term. He has executed that plan in consecutive offseasons, having added prolific winger Kevin Fiala via trade last year and locking him down for seven seasons.

“Both (Dubois) and Fiala are at ages where they walk in and add production to our lineup right away,” Blake said.

Dubois had already played for two teams in his young career and had successfully requested a trade from both as his contractual situation reached any sort of impasse. Blake said he and his staff communicated with Dubois and his agent Pat Brisson to better understand those situations and Dubois’s desires. In the end, Blake rejoiced that Dubois settled on Los Angeles, just as a beaming Dubois felt fortunate to land in a city he said charmed him across many visits before and after turning pro.

Yet it won’t be all coastal sunsets and red carpets for Dubois or the Kings, as his hefty cap hit and the gymnastics involved in obtaining the right to spend that money have left the Kings in something of a precarious position, at least for the coming season.

They still need to acquire a goalie and fill out a roster that will likely not be able to carry the standard roster size and configuration for much or possibly all of the upcoming campaign. The salary cap increased rather modestly to $83.5 million, the NHL confirmed Wednesday, though a larger increase and some relief for the Kings individually both appear on the horizon for next summer. For now, with some extrapolation, the Kings are essentially brushing up against the upper limit, with significant needs remaining unaddressed.

Blake said sacrifices had been made and more would be necessary.

“I would imagine we’re light on our roster for a lot of the time during the season. A lot of the time you want to carry 23 (players), but you need cap space to do it,” Blake said. “There is going to be lots of juggling with the cap situation.”

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​ Orange County Register 

Game Day: Kershaw and Ohtani all at once

• June 28, 2023

Editor’s note: This is the Wednesday, June 28, 2023, edition of the “Game Day with Kevin Modesti” newsletter. To receive the newsletter in your inbox, sign up here.

Good morning. L.A.-area baseball fans have experienced a rare pleasure the past six years, getting to watch Clayton Kershaw and Shohei Ohtani pitch at the same time. Occasionally, like last night, literally at the same time.

In other news: The Kings made a bold move on the eve of the NHL draft, acquiring long-time trade target Pierre-Luc Dubois from Winnipeg in exchange for three players and a future pick. Andrew Knoll writes about how the Kings look going into the draft tonight without a first-round pick. Lisa Dillman says the Ducks’ options with the No. 2 overall pick include trading it. Lakers draft picks Jalen Hood-Shifino and Maxwell Lewis are thinking about how they’ll fit in, while the team stayed in the running to sign Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura by making qualifying offers. U.S. coach Vlatko Andonovski, preparing for his first Women’s World Cup in charge, said he likes the team’s mix of new faces (including Angel City FC’s Alyssa Thompson) and familiar names (like Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan).

If you’re like me, you try not to miss any game pitched by Kershaw, one of the greatest Dodgers ever, or Ohtani, two of the greatest Angels ever, considering his pitching and hitting.

Last night that required having either multiple screens or a nimble finger on the TV remote. Kershaw and the Dodgers played the Colorado Rockies in Denver at 5:40 p.m. Pacific time, and Ohtani and the Angels hosted the Chicago White Sox at 6:40 p.m.

It was the fourth day this season that Kershaw and Ohtani pitched on the same day, but in the first three they weren’t actually on the mound at the same time. Credit the quirks of time zones, starting times and game flow. Or, if you will, credit some kind of knack the two men have, like great comedians working together, for not stepping on each other’s lines.

Even last night, the Dodgers usually were batting while Ohtani was pitching and the Angels usually were batting when Kershaw was pitching, so they were on the mound at the same time only briefly. But the moment made watching two games at once a worthwhile chore.

At 6:42, on Ch. 68, Kershaw faced the Rockies’ Jurickson Profar to begin the bottom of the fourth inning, while, over on Ch. 30, Ohtani faced the White Sox’s Luis Robert with two out in the top of the first. Kershaw got Profar to fly out to left field on an 0-2 curveball, at the same time as Ohtani struck out Robert on a 1-2 split-finger fastball.

At that point Ohtani (7-3) was just beginning a signature performance that would see him hold the White Sox to one run and four hits while striking out 10 in 6⅓ innings and hit his major-league-leading 27th and 28th home runs, becoming the first player to strike out at least 10 and hit at least two homers since Cleveland’s Pedro Ramos in a 1963 game against the Angels.

The Angels beat Chicago 4-2 to retake sole possession of second place in the American League West, five games behind first-place Texas, reaching the schedule’s midpoint with a 44-37 record.

At the same time, Kershaw (10-4) was pitching perfect ball, not allowing a baserunner until the fifth inning or a hit before Brenton Doyle’s clean single to left with two out in the sixth. After six, Kershaw told manager Dave Roberts he was finished for the night. And turned your TV over to Ohtani.

The Dodgers beat Colorado 5-0, remaining third in the National League West, three games behind first-place Arizona, getting back to 10 games over .500 at 44-34.

The concurrent games last night were a reminder in another way that we should cherish having Ohtani and Kershaw in the L.A. area at the same time, this baseball take on “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”

Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw throws to first base to force out the Colorado Rockies’ C.J. Cron during the second inning on Tuesday night in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

It’s not going to go on forever, or even much longer. Ohtani’s contract is up after this season (you might have heard) and he’ll be the most valuable free agent ever. Kershaw is on a one-year contract and has flirted with returning to his native Texas.

And you worry about injury anytime either of them leaves a game abruptly, as both did last night.

Kershaw said he asked out because he “just didn’t feel great overall” in the sixth inning, declining to get specific with reporters about what bothered him. Robert said, not quite reassuringly, “Right now, I’m not concerned.”

Ohtani left the mound – in the middle of an inning for the first time this season – after the trainer came out to check on him. But his problem turned out to be only a cracked fingernail; he stayed in as a batter and hit his second home run.

Assuming both make their next scheduled starts, that will create another of these Kershaw-Ohtani virtual duels, on Monday, July 3, when the Dodgers open a three-game series at home against the Pittsburgh Pirates at 7:10 p.m. while the Angels open a three-game series against the Padres in San Diego at 6:40.

They will be what they were last night, two baseball greats deserving our undivided attention at the same time.

TODAY

• Dodgers probably will go with a bullpen game in Colorado (5:40 p.m., SNLA), the last time they’ll have to do that before Julio Urias’ expected return Saturday.

• Angels are 5-0 with Jaime Barria starting on the mound as he faces the White Sox’s Lucas Giolito (6:38 p.m., BSW).

• Sparks seek their first three-game win streak this season as they open a trip at Chicago (9 a.m., NBA TV). Sparks update.

• Angel City FC, hosting San Diego, tries to get out of last place in its NWSL Challenge Cup division (7 p.m.,  CBSSN). Angel City update.

• The NHL draft, tonight and tomorrow, will begin with Chicago taking 17-year-old center Connor Bedard (4 p.m, ESPN).

BETWEEN THE LINES

While Connor Bedard is a lock to go No. 1 in the NHL draft, Michigan center Adam Fantilli is a heavy favorite (-700, meaning bet 700 to win 100) over Swedish center Leo Carlsson (+480, bet 100 to win 480) to be taken with the No. 2 pick, currently held by the Ducks. Those odds are from FanDuel.

280 CHARACTERS

“Right this second … Shohei Ohtani: BA: .299. ERA: 2.99.” – Angels beat writer Jeff Fletcher (@JeffFletcherOCR) tweeting in the fifth inning last night, before Ohtani finished the game with a .304 batting average and 3.02 ERA.

1,000 WORDS

Encore: Shohei Ohtani celebrates in the dugout – as do fans in the stands on the Angels’ Japanese Heritage Night – after hitting his second home run of the game in the seventh inning of a 4-2 victory over the White Sox last night in Anaheim. Photo is by Mark J. Terrill for AP.

YOUR TURN

Thanks for reading. Send suggestions, comments and questions by email at [email protected] and via Twitter @KevinModesti.

Editor’s note: Thanks for reading the “Game Day with Kevin Modesti” newsletter. To receive the newsletter in your inbox, sign up here.

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​ Orange County Register 

E-cigs are still flooding the US, addicting teens with higher nicotine doses

• June 28, 2023

Liz Szabo | KFF Health News (TNS)

When the FDA first asserted the authority to regulate e-cigarettes in 2016, many people assumed the agency would quickly get rid of vapes with flavors like cotton candy, gummy bears, and Froot Loops that appeal to kids.

Instead, the FDA allowed all e-cigarettes already on the market to stay while their manufacturers applied for the OK to market them.

Seven years later, vaping has ballooned into an $8.2 billion industry, and manufacturers are flooding the market with thousands of products — most sold illegally and without FDA permission — that can be far more addictive.

“The FDA has failed to protect public health,” said Eric Lindblom, a former senior adviser to the director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products. “It’s a tragedy.”

Yet the FDA isn’t the only entity that has tolerated the selling of vapes to kids.

Multiple players in and out of Washington have declined to act, tied the agency’s hands, or neglected to provide the FDA with needed resources. Former Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump both have prevented the FDA from broadly banning candy-flavored vapes.

Meanwhile, today’s vapes have become “bigger, badder, and cheaper” than older models, said Robin Koval, CEO of the Truth Initiative, a tobacco control advocacy group. The enormous amount of nicotine in e-cigarettes — up 76% over five years — can addict kids in a matter of days, Koval said.

E-cigarettes in the U.S. now contain nicotine concentrations that are, on average, more than twice the level allowed in Canada and Europe. The U.S. sets no limits on the nicotine content of any tobacco product.

“We’ve never delivered this level of nicotine before,” said Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, which opposes youth vaping. “We really don’t know the long-term health implications.”

Elijah Stone was 19 when he tried his first e-cigarette at a party. He was a college freshman, grappling with depression and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and “looking for an escape.” Store clerks never asked for his ID.

Stone said he was “hooked instantly.”

“The moment I felt that buzz, how was I supposed to go back after I felt that?” asked Stone, now 23, of Los Angeles.

The e-cigarette industry maintains that higher nicotine concentrations can help adults who smoke heavily switch from combustible cigarettes to vaping products, which are relatively less harmful to them. The FDA has approved high-nicotine, tobacco-flavored e-cigarettes for that purpose, said April Meyers, CEO of the Smoke-Free Alternatives Trade Association.

“The goal is to get people away from combustible products,” said Nicholas Minas Alfaro, CEO of Puff Bar, one of the most popular brands with kids last year. Yet Alfaro acknowledged, “These products are addictive products; there’s no hiding that.”

Although e-cigarettes don’t produce tar, they do contain harmful chemicals, such as nicotine and formaldehyde. The U.S. Surgeon General has warned that vaping poses significant risks: including damage to the heart, lungs, and parts of the brain that control attention and learning, as well as an increased risk of addiction to other substances.

More than 2.5 million kids used e-cigarettes in 2022, including 14% of high school students, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Most U.S. teen vapers begin puffing within an hour of waking up, according to a survey of e-cigarette users ages 16 to 19 presented at the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco in March.

The potential for profits — and lax enforcement of vaping laws — has led to a gold rush. The number of unique vaping products, as measured by their bar codes, quadrupled in just one year, rising from 453 in June 2021 to 2,023 in June 2022, according to a Truth Initiative review of U.S. retail sales data.

FDA officials say they’ve been overwhelmed by the volume of e-cigarette marketing applications — 26 million in all.

“There is no regulatory agency in the world that has had to deal with a volume like that,” said Brian King, who became director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products in July 2022.

The agency has struggled to stop e-cigarette makers who continue selling vapes despite the FDA’s rejection of the products, as well as manufacturers who never bothered to apply for authorization, and counterfeiters hoping to earn as much money as possible before being shut down.

In 2018, public health groups sued the agency, charging that the delay in reviewing applications put kids at risk. Although a court ordered the FDA to finish the job by September 2021, the FDA missed that deadline. An estimated 1.2 million people under the legal age of 21 began vaping over the next year, according to a study published in May in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Recently, the FDA announced it has made decisions on 99% of e-cigarette applications, noting that it had rejected millions and authorized 23. All authorized products have traditional tobacco flavors, and were deemed “appropriate for the protection of public health” because tobacco-flavored products aren’t popular with children but provide adult smokers with a less dangerous alternative, King said.

The agency has yet to make final decisions on the most popular products on the market. Those applications are longer and need more careful scientific review, said Mitch Zeller, former director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products and a current advisory board member for Qnovia, which is developing smoking-cessation products.

The FDA said it would not complete reviewing applications by the end of June, as it previously forecast, but would need until the end of the year.

Before the FDA can announce new tobacco policies, it needs approval from the president — who doesn’t always agree with the FDA’s priorities.

For example, Obama rejected FDA officials’ proposal to ban kid-friendly flavors in 2016.

And in 2020, Trump backpedaled on his own plan to pull most flavored vapes off the market. Instead of banning all fruit and minty flavors, the Trump administration banned them only in “cartridge-based” devices such as Juul. The flavor ban didn’t affect vapes without cartridges, such as disposable e-cigarettes.

The result was predictable, Zeller said.

Teens switched in droves from Juul to brands that weren’t affected by the ban, including disposable vapes such as Puff Bar, which were allowed to continue selling candy-flavored vapes.

After receiving its own warning letter from the FDA last year, Puff Bar now sells only zero-nicotine vapes, Alfaro said.

When the FDA does attempt bold action, legal challenges often force it to halt or even reverse course.

The FDA ordered Juul to remove its products from the market in June 2022, for example, but was immediately hit with a lawsuit. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit sided with Juul and issued a temporary stay on the FDA’s order. Within weeks, the FDA announced it would hold off on enforcing its order because of “scientific issues unique to the JUUL application that warrant additional review.”

E-cigarette makers Logic and R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co. both sued the FDA after the agency ordered them to stop selling menthol vapes, a flavor popular with teens. In both cases, court-imposed stays halted the FDA’s orders pending review and the companies’ menthol products remain on the market.

Luis Pinto, a spokesperson for parent company Reynolds American, said, “We remain confident in the quality of all of Reynolds’ applications, and we believe that there is ample evidence for FDA to determine that the marketing of these products is appropriate for the protection of public health.”

Under the Biden administration, the FDA has begun to step up enforcement efforts. It fined 12 e-cigarette manufacturers more than $19,000 each, and has issued more than 1,500 warning letters to manufacturers. The FDA also issued warnings to 120,000 retailers for selling illegal products or selling to customers under 21, King said. Five of the companies that received warning letters made vapes decorated with cartoon characters, such as Minions, or were shaped like toys, including Nintendo Game Boys or walkie-talkies.

In May, the FDA put Elfbar and other unauthorized vapes from China on its “red list,” which allows FDA agents to detain shipments without inspection at the border. On June 22, the FDA announced it has issued warning letters to an additional 189 retailers for selling unauthorized tobacco products, specifically Elfbar and Esco Bars products, noting that both brands are disposable e-cigarettes that come in flavors known to appeal to youth, including bubblegum and pink lemonade.

In October, the Justice Department for the first time filed lawsuits against six e-cigarette manufacturers on behalf of the FDA, seeking “to stop the illegal manufacture and sale of unauthorized vaping products.”

Some lawmakers say the Justice Department should play a larger role in prosecuting companies selling kid-friendly e-cigarettes.

“Make no mistake: There are more than six e-cigarette manufacturers selling without authorization on the market,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said in a March letter. Children are “vaping with unauthorized products that are on store shelves only because FDA has seemingly granted these illegal e-cigarettes a free pass.”

___

(KFF Health News, formerly known as Kaiser Health News (KHN), is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs of KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling and journalism.)

©2023 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

​ Orange County Register 

Dave White is the defensive coordinator at Edison

• June 28, 2023

Dave White will serve as the defensive coordinator for Edison football this season.

White confirmed this on Monday.

White was the Chargers head coach for 31 seasons, leading them to 14 Sunset League championships and two CIF Southern Section championships. In recent seasons he has served as receivers and defensive backs coach at Edison where he was a star quarterback for Coach Bill Workman. Current Edison head coach Jeff Grady played for White at Edison.

Edison on Saturday is host of the annual Battle at the Beach passing tournament, annually one of the top football events of the summer.

​ Orange County Register 

Hajj pilgrims brave intense heat to cast stones at the ‘devil’

• June 28, 2023

By Riazat Butt | Associated Press

MINA, Saudi Arabia — Hundreds of thousands of Muslim pilgrims on Wednesday braved intense heat to perform the symbolic stoning of the devil during the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.

With morning temperatures rising past 42 degrees Celsius (107 degrees Farenheit), huge crowds of pilgrims walked or took buses to the vast Jamarat complex just outside the holy city of Mecca, where large pedestrian bridges lead past three wide pillars representing the devil.

Using pebbles collected the night before at a campsite known as Muzdalifa, the pilgrims stone the pillars. It’s a reenactment of the story of the Prophet Ibrahim — known as Abraham in Christian and Jewish traditions — who is said to have hurled stones at Satan to resist temptation.

The ceremony was marred by tragedy on a number of occasions in the 1990s and 2000s, when hundreds died in stampedes during the stoning ritual. Saudi authorities have since built an expanded network of massive pedestrian bridges and redesigned the site to make it safer for pilgrims.

This year, the biggest danger might be the heat.

Temperatures soared past 45 degrees Celsius (113 F) on Tuesday, as Muslims marked the spiritual high point of the pilgrimage by spending the day praying at Mount Arafat, where there was no breeze and almost no shade.

Pilgrims huddled under umbrellas, dousing themselves with bottled water. Cellphones were almost too hot to hold and shut down after just a few minutes of use.

Saudi authorities have deployed tens of thousands of health workers for the pilgrimage and volunteers were handing out water. The Health Ministry said late Tuesday that it had treated 287 cases of sunstroke and heat exhaustion.

The annual Hajj pilgrimage is one of the five pillars of Islam, and all Muslims are required to undertake it at least once in their lives if they are physically and financially able. For the pilgrims it is an unrivalled religious experience that wipes away sins, bringing them closer to God and face-to-face with fellow Muslims from all corners of the earth.

The last three days of the Hajj coincide with Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of the Sacrifice, a joyful occasion in which Muslims around the world sacrifice sheep or cattle and distribute some of the meat to the poor. The holiday commemorates Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmael on God’s command. In Christian and Jewish traditions, Abraham is willing to sacrifice his other son, Isaac.

The holiday, which is held according to Islam’s lunar calendar, depending on the sighting of the moon, began Wednesday in several Middle Eastern countries and will begin Thursday in some Asian countries.

The Saudi royal family has invested billions of dollars in infrastructure to maintain Islam’s holiest sites and to hold the annual pilgrimage, which is a major source of its legitimacy. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, traveled to Mecca on Tuesday to oversee the pilgrimage, according to state-run media.

This is the first Hajj to be held without COVID-19 restrictions since the onset of the pandemic in 2020. Authorities had expected some 2 million pilgrims, but official figures released late Tuesday showed that around 1.8 million were taking part in the pilgrimage. That’s considerably fewer than the nearly 2.5 million who came in 2019. Worldwide economic woes may have been a factor.

​ Orange County Register 

Afro Pride weekend brings ballroom dancing, music and more to Belasco Theater

• June 28, 2023

Following the festivities of Pride Month in June and LA Black Pride Week on June 28-July 3 — both of which celebrate the vibrant Los Angeles LGBTQ+ community with concerts, exhibitions, parades and wellness events — Afro Pride is coming to The Belasco Theater in Downtown Los Angeles on July 8-9.

Afro Pride stems from the intersections of Pride Month and Black Music Month and serves as a two-day bash for the Black LGBTQ+ community. Presented by Live Nation Urban’s Houses of Luv, an event series for Black and LGBTQ+ culture, and the Haus of Basquiat, one of ballroom’s leading houses, Afro Pride brings together music, ballroom dance and Black activism.

“As a Black Queer L.A. native I’ve always sought for spaces that Black Queer creative freedom could exist without being reduced to some sort of spectacle or meme,” Houses of Luv co-curator Zuhura shared in a statement about Afro Pride.

“Afro Pride is the physical manifestation of our spatial imaginaries coming to life with a communal effort to pick up the baton as a young generation of Black queer folks who are actively fighting anti-Black and anti-LGBT power systems. We will not submit to the false idea that our dehumanization is some sort of normalcy. We’re extending Pride beyond June and I can’t wait for the community and allies to experience more than a party, but a radical and memorable experience.”

The evening will kick off with Ballroom Honors and The Exhibition Life Imitates Art as a full ballroom performance, a well-known subculture within the Black and Latin LGBTQ+ communities in which participants dance, lip-sync and model for trophies and the bragging rights of being crowned the winner.

Curated by the Haus of Basquiat’s founding members Miss Shalae and Dashaun Wesley of the Emmy-nominated HBO Max ballroom competition series “Legendary,” the show will feature performances by Kidd Kenn, Lolit Leopard, Cookiee Kawaii and Sevendeep.

The following day will be a concert event filled with rising LGBTQ+ artists in the neo-soul and experimental dance music genres, with sets by Abra, Bbymutha, Alemeda, Shy Lennox, Bmajr, Naygod and Black Bass Collective.

Tickets for both nights are on sale at afropride.com. Tickets for Ballroom Honors and The Exhibition Life Imitates Art on July 8 start at $45. Tickets for the Afro Pride concert event on July 9 start at $37.

​ Orange County Register