Magnolia girls soccer wins school’s first CIF-SS title by edging La Quinta in OT

• February 25, 2023

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GARDEN GROVE — Magnolia captured its first CIF Southern Section team championship in any sport Friday night behind its resilient girls soccer team, which was led by a player who knew how to use the wind to the Sentinels’ advantage.

Junior Brisa Medina scored twice on direct shots off corner kicks, including the game-winning strike in the middle of the first sudden-death overtime period to lift Magnolia past La Quinta 2-1 in the CIF-SS Division 7 championship in rainy and windy conditions at Bolsa Grande High.

Magnolia High, which opened in 1961, has crowned individual section champions but before Friday it had never won a title in a team sport.

“It feels amazing,” Medina said after a celebration with dozens of fans who braved the harsh weather. “This is an unforgettable feeling. We got to where we are with teamwork.”

Medina scored on direct shots off corner kicks by sending the boots high into the wind, where the ball flew into the net courtesy of consistent winds of about 20 miles per hour that blew toward the north end of the field.

The winning goal arrived on her second consecutive corner kick, sneaking into the near corner with 4:10 left in the sudden-death period.

“It was just a matter of looking toward the corner and the wind helped me out, which was great,” said Medina, who has a team-leading 15 goals for the Sentinels (17-9-1).

Magnolia played with the wind at its back for the first overtime period and answered a goal late in the second half by La Quinta’s Jillian Ferguson.

The Aztecs (16-7-5), who played the second half with the wind at their back, drew a hand ball against Magnolia in the penalty box and Ferguson scored on a penalty kick to tie the score at 1-1 with about 13 minutes left in regulation.

Earlier in the second half, the Garden Grove League champion almost scored off a corner kick from the same spot as Medina but goalie Xuan Mai Johnson scrambled to the ball.

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Medina bent in her first corner kick for a goal in the 33rd minute to give the Orange League champions a 1-0 lead.

The title was special for longtime Magnolia coach Erland Jones and his coaching staff of alumnus Alyssa Garcia and Wilfredo Velasco. In his 21st season, Jones had five children and one foster child graduate from Magnolia, where he and his late wife Deborah worked.

“We’ve been the underdog a lot of times,” Jones said with tears in his eyes. “It’s amazing (to win).”

​ Orange County Register 

COVID-19 effects on California will linger for years

• February 25, 2023

Gov. Gavin Newsom says California’s COVID-19 state of emergency will end on Feb. 28, just four days shy of three years since he issued the first of countless orders he said were necessary to cope with the pandemic.

“Throughout the pandemic, we’ve been guided by the science and data – moving quickly and strategically to save lives,” Newsom said in October announcing the February end date. “The state of emergency was an effective and necessary tool that we utilized to protect our state, and we wouldn’t have gotten to this point without it.”

The efficacy of Newsom’s pandemic orders will be debated for years, particularly the shutdowns of schools and businesses and the billions of dollars in no-bid contracts his administration issued.

What cannot be debated, however, is that their impacts on millions of Californians will linger for years, decades or perhaps even generations.

Nearly 3 million Californians lost their jobs due to the shutdown orders. While the state has, on paper, recovered all of the jobs it lost, countless small businesses that shut their doors have not reopened.

With work-at-home the growing norm, restaurants and other businesses dependent on concentrated employment were clobbered. The downtowns of the state’s larger cities – including the state capital, Sacramento – were hollowed out and have not, in the main, recovered.

California’s stark divide between haves and have-nots grew wider. Upper-income Californians could do their jobs from home but lower-income service workers simply lost their jobs. Some qualified for unemployment insurance, but a managerial meltdown at the state Employment Development Department delayed, sometimes for months, benefits for legitimate claimants while EDD handed out billions of dollars to fraudsters.

School shutdowns, and the fitful efforts to continue instruction via the internet, had a devastating effect on students, especially those from poor families which lacked technology and whose parents could not work from home. The “achievement gap” that has long plagued California’s public school system widened even further, recent research has found.

Several new studies add even more evidence that the steps taken by the state to combat COVID-19 will have long-term negative impacts.

An analysis by The Associated Press, Stanford University’s Big Local News project and Stanford education professor Thomas Dee determined that 234,000 students in 21 states vanished from public school enrollment rolls during the pandemic. More than half of them were in California.

Overall, in those states, enrollment dropped by about 700,000 students, but most of the decline could be explained by enrollments in private schools, movements to other states or shifts to at-home instruction. Of the remaining 234,000 absences for which there was no explanation, researchers said, 152,000 were in California.

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The Public Policy Institute of California crunched the numbers and discovered that not only did COVID-19 kill about 100,000 Californians but that the state’s life expectancy, which had been tied for the nation’s highest with Hawaii at 80.9 years, has dropped by two years – the first such decline since World War II.

PPIC found that the higher death rate has disproportionately affected non-white Californians, particularly Latino and Black residents. “Between 2019 and 2021, the death rate (deaths per 1,000 residents) increased 51% among Latinos, 31% among Blacks, 26% among Asian-Americans, and 17% among whites,” the PPIC reported.

Finally, a new study UCLA Center for Health Policy Research found that Newsom’s stay-at-home orders, affecting businesses, child care centers and school, created financial hardships that led to psychological distress and a sharp increase in turmoil and conflict, including domestic violence.

Some COVID-19 victims are experiencing long COVID, with lasting debilitative effects. California suffers from lingering effects as well.

CalMatters is a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s state Capitol works and why it matters. For more stories by Dan Walters, go to Commentary.

​ Orange County Register 

The Book Pages: Octavia’s Bookshelf owner Nikki High on an incredible first week

• February 25, 2023

If you’ve ever thought a bookstore would be the best place to wait out a cold, stormy Southern California day, well, you’re right.

Yesterday, I caught up with Pasadena’s most celebrated new bookstore owner, Nikki High of Octavia’s Bookshelf, and she described the shop that day.

“I had a great day. It was cozy, the rain was coming down on the skylight, and there was just a lot of conversation, mostly around Octavia Butler,” says High. “It just felt so fulfilling. There were a couple of kids in there and some couples and friends and solo shoppers and people just conversing with each other and looking at the books.

“I sat back and looked around and thought, This is it. This is what I was hoping to do,” says High, sounding both deeply moved and extremely tired.

The BIPOC-focused bookstore, which is just in its first week of business, is already a phenomenon, one that has touched people as a place to celebrate representation, community and, of course, books.

The store opened on Saturday, Feb. 18, and there was a line – a very long line – to get into a bookstore. And nobody seemed to mind.

I was there and it was incredible: hundreds came for the event, which featured poet Joshua Evans starting things off with a poem that brought High to tears. It was a beautiful moment, one of many, and set the mood of the day.

With crowds of patrons lined up and down the street, owner Nikki High welcomes them to Octavia’s Bookshelf on Saturday, Feb. 18, 2023, at 1361 N. Hill Ave. in Pasadena. (Photo by John McCoy, Contributing Photographer)

“You probably saw me crying; I cried throughout the day and they were just tears of joy and relief that we got our doors open. And it was, I would say, probably one of the best days of my life.” (It was a good day for the rest of us, too.)

So yes, the line was long – I waited an hour or so to get inside and shop and some waited nearly two hours – but it was full of happy, smiling people. (You can read my colleague Georgia Valdes’ report with photos by John McCoy, including the lovely one above, for more on the day.)

This was special: The people I waited with were all strangers to each other, but we didn’t stay glued to our phones ignoring each other – a feat, considering we were a bunch of bookish introverts. Up and down the line, people chatted, exchanged book recommendations and held each other’s places, generally making the whole thing a total pleasure.

“Readers are an incredible community, but the way that they showed up to support this store,” High says, laughing in amazement, “selling close to 3,000 books in two days. It was quite successful.”

The store is a compact oasis of excellent books and authors: Octavia E. Butler, Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, R.F. Kuang, Lauret Savoy and many more.

I got myself a copy of Butler’s novel “Dawn,” which had been recommended by one of my linemates, along with Justina Ireland’s “Dread Nation,” which injects a zombie apocalypse into the American Civil War (that should be interesting to read in between episodes of “The Last of Us”). Finally, I picked up Aaron Philip Clark’s “Blue Like Me,” a 2022 crime novel set in LA that sounded terrific.

Along with books, I got cards and a tote bag – because I like tote bags almost as much as bookstore T-shirts. I left happy and looking forward to my next visit.

On Thursday night, High sounded pretty happy, too.

“I am just so lucky to be a part of that. I met so many people, and I just felt such community and love and support,” says High. “You know, you mentioned folks standing in line for hours – some people up to two hours – and they were just all in a really good mood.

“I could not have imagined a better outcome. It’s beyond my wildest dream.”

For more info, go to octaviasbookshelf.com. And High is scheduled to be among the local booksellers, authors and food trucks at the inaugural Be The Change Book Festival at Central Library 222 East Harvard Street, Glendale, on Saturday, February 25th, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. (It’ll be indoors!)

Remembering Tom Verlaine’s life among the books 

Tom Verlaine of Television performs during the All Tomorrows Parties festival held at UCLA on March 15, 2002. (Photo by George Campos / The Press-Enterprise)

Speaking of bookstores, Seattle’s Phinney Books alerted me to a piece of writing I wanted to share with you all, because I just loved it.

Following the death of Television singer and guitarist Tom Verlaine, Colin Groundwater wrote a lovely remembrance of the influential musician for Literary Hub. (Television’s “Marquee Moon” is a beautiful album I’ve listened to many, many times.)

But the piece wasn’t about Verlaine’s musical life; it was about his yearslong ritual of haunting the $1 book carts that line the front of New York City’s epic bookstore The Strand. While the store has faced difficulties in recent years, it is a wonder, a place I always try to visit when in New York.

Verlaine, who took his stage name from the French poet, was one of the shoppers known as “cart sharks,” the determined, intense devotees who focused almost exclusively on finding treasures in the cheap books outside. The article describes a kind of ecosystem of seekers of which Verlaine was one.

As someone who worked in a record store and encountered the delightful range of serious music shoppers, I appreciated Groundwater’s description of The Strand’s clientele.

And, honestly, there’s something kind of moving about Verlaine, a rock icon, if not a rock star, spending his time pawing through books when not on tour or recording.

While the cliche of rock stardom is parking your Rolls in the swimming pool, that never seemed very appealing to me.

But looking for good books?  If that’s not making it, I don’t know what is.

OK, some final thoughts before we get to the Q&A. Did you see “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania”?

I support your judgment either way.

But – minor spoiler ahead – my favorite part of the movie involved an author reading at San Francisco’s City Lights Bookstore.

Although, I found that scene harder to buy than shrinking heroes and quantum realms. As a lifelong comic book reader, I can buy into most every crazy plot point except for this: If an actual superhero gave a reading at a local bookstore, it would be a lot better attended than the one in the movie.

Finally, I wanted to share this photo of my dog, just as I found her one afternoon, hovering over author Rebecca Makkai’s new book, “I Have Some Questions for You.” This, you can take as a recommendation; the book is terrific.

No, I didn’t pose this. I came upon my dog eyeing (and yes, licking) Rebecca Makkai’s wonderful “I Have Some Questions for You.” (Photo by Erik Pedersen)

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​ Orange County Register 

As storm pummels region, homeless folks often left to weather cold outside

• February 25, 2023

Frigid temperatures, heavy rain and snow — and even hail — brought by a severe winter storm that will continue into the weekend has forced Southland residents to bunker in their homes.

But not everyone has a home in which to seek shelter.

While forecasters and government agencies have advised residents to avoid the outdoors as the worst of the storm makes its way along the West Coast, for the thousands who are homeless across Southern California — including nearly 70,000 in Los Angeles County alone — the options for shelter are limited.

In Long Beach, for example, about 100 people without shelter camped out under the awning of the Billie Jean King Main Library, in downtown, on Thursday evening, Feb. 23, in an attempt to keep safe.

Tony Johnson, who’s been without permanent shelter on and off for the past 10 years, was among them.

“We just try to stay warm and dry as best we can,” Johnson said on Friday morning.

Several local agencies have increased their outreach efforts this week to ensure those in danger of hypothermia or other health hazards are protected from the cold.

But the region, officials say, lacks the general infrastructure to handle such harsh winter conditions. And the infrastructure that exists is distributed unevenly. San Bernardino and Pasadena, for example, lack winter shelters entirely, while Los Angeles County’s homeless population is so large it’s unlikely near-unlimited resources would be enough to help everyone.

So many of those on the streets have no other recourse than to endure the tempest the best they can.

“There are fewer people experiencing homelessness who die of hypothermia in New York than there are in LA,” said Kimberly Roberts, deputy chief programs officer at the nonprofit LA Family Housing. “We see more health-related incidents as a result of cold and wet weather because we don’t have the shelter system that colder states and communities have actually established.

“We just don’t have that system,” she added in a Friday interview, “and we don’t have those resources available at the same scale.”

Hypothermia — which often occurs by overexposure to cold weather or water — happens when the body loses heat faster than it can produce it. If left untreated, the condition can cause heart and respiratory failure, and often results in death.

The medical emergency is a chief concern among unhoused folks, particularly during severe weather events — like the one making its way through Southern California this weekend.

The region’s geography, though, poses another threat to people without shelter:

Flooding.

The Los Angeles foothills, in particular, are prone to flooding and mudslides, Roberts said, and the banks of the LA River — which some unhoused folks camp out on — can overflow, with strong currents able to sweep people away.

“People are often residing in places that flood very easily — but not often, so they may not know the risks of being in a specific area,”  Roberts said. “We’re faced with trying to make sure people are not dealing with the elements that lead to health issues like hypothermia; we’re also trying to make sure that they’re at high enough ground — when the flooding and the water does come  — to be safe.”

LA Family Housing’s outreach teams have worked to connect with folks across the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys over the past week, Roberts said, offering interim housing, transportation to higher ground, emergency winter shelter and other resources.

“For those that were not able to find shelter, or were not interested in shelter, we’re offering them resources to stay as safe as possible and reduce risk,” Roberts said. “We’re offering sleeping bags, tents, tarps, shoes, umbrellas, ponchos, food — anything that we can offer to keep them as dry and as warm as possible in the rain.”

LA Family Housing, alongside multiple other nonprofits throughout the county, work in tandem with the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority to provide interim shelter.

But as it stands, the agency has just under 300 beds available through its winter shelter program, according to agency spokesperson Ahmad Chapman.

“We have great concern and operate with all due urgency for all of our people experiencing homelessness in LA County,” Chapman said in a Friday interview. “In times like these, with severe storms, our outreach teams work even harder to make sure that as many people as possible can feel every resource we have available, so that folks can be safe and get out of the cold and wet like we’re experiencing this weekend.”

Alongside the traditional winter shelter program, which is seasonal, LAHSA also activated an augmented version of the program, Chapman said. That program gets activated during severe weather conditions.

“The augmented winter shelter program has been reimagined so that we can offer hotel and motel rooms to folks so that they can escape the cold and wetness that we’re experiencing this week,” Chapman said.

LAHSA currently has about 500 vouchers available for hotels and motels, he said.

In Long Beach, which has its own Homeless Services Bureau, officials are also taking advantage of the county’s augmented winter shelter program, according to agency manager Paul Duncan.

The city’s own winter shelter, at the former Community Hospital, is currently at capacity.

Long Beach was set to open a second winter shelter at the Silverado Park gym next week — but that plan is currently being reconsidered entirely after pushback from the community.

But regardless, those beds would come online too late for the current storm.

Outreach staff from the Long Beach Fire and health departments, though, hit the streets on Thursday and Friday to alert people living along the LA River about the potential flooding hazard, Duncan said.

“The goal is to ensure everyone is aware of the impeding weather and any risks and asking people to move from areas that look like they could be more highly prone to flooding,” Duncan said in a Friday email, “and (ensure) that they are aware of resources and have items that can be beneficial in keeping warm through the rain.”

The city will conduct further outreach throughout the weekend, Duncan added.

Members of the Long Beach Rescue Mission, an organization the provides shelter and social services to unhoused folks, spent the bulk of Friday driving around the city in their own outreach van to hand out care packages and lunches — and transport people back to their shelter to stay dry.

“This is actually our first rainy day since we’ve been doing this program,” John Wimberly Sr., an outreach coordinator at the Rescue Mission, said.

By early afternoon, he’d already taken three people back to the shelter, he said.

Volunteers and staff focused their efforts on MacArthur Park — a popular spot for those who are homeless, on both rainy and sunny days — where a handful of folks without shelter took cover from the storm. Many were bundled up in blankets, some only reaching out a hand to accept a lunch or care package.

“We start out with lunches and care packages, sometimes we have clothes to accommodate certain people,” Wimberly said. “If we don’t have clothes for them now, we’ll come back again after we go back (to the shelter) to stock up.

“We had restocked with a full complement of sweaters and jackets and jeans,” he added, “and we went on location and we pretty much cleared out.”

But so many folks were seeking shelter from the storm, Wimberly said, that the Rescue Mission staff had trouble finding people in the locations they normally frequent.

Pasadena, meanwhile, doesn’t have a winter shelter set up at all — though the city is currently in talks with a site that is expected to serve as its emergency location next winter.

“We wish we had a bad weather shelter but we have not been able to identify an appropriate site over the last, well, since the beginning of the pandemic,” Housing Department Director Bill Huang said Friday.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, Pasadena had an emergency shelter operate every winter for the past 30 years.

“In lieu of having a bad weather shelter,” Huang said, “we do have some weather-activated motel vouchers.”

Those are provided by a local nonprofit, Friends In Deed. About 75 people have been moved into motels through that program, Huang said.

Tony Zee, a Pasadena firefighter and member of the city’s homeless outreach team, said his crew have helped about 20 people find shelter from the storm over the past week.

“The hardest part is finding enough hotels,” Zee said Friday.

In the Inland Empire, San Bernardino also doesn’t operate an emergency shelter, according to a Friday email from city spokesperson Jeff Kraus.

Instead, those without shelter must rely on emergency shelters run by local nonprofits.

Operation Grace, for example, is one such facility that assists women and children under 11 years old — but it only has six beds.

And those beds are already occupied by people progressing through a 90-day program geared toward getting them back on their feet.

Still, Operation Grace has been able to link those who are homeless to other shelters and services during the storm.

“This is a really tough winter season,” Executive Director Jessica Alexander said by phone Friday. “We typically see an increase in requests for shelter in the winter months anyway, but this is an especially tough winter, so all nonprofits, including Operation Grace, are seeing an increase in calls for service.”

In Riverside County, storm outreach teams have been engaging unsheltered residents everywhere — offering them places to stay. Transportation to shelters also is being provided as needed.

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The county is coordinating with its in-house Emergency Management Department to expand assistance efforts should concerns worsen, said Housing Department Deputy Director Tanya Torno.

Nonprofits are an immense help with homeless response in Southern California, Roberts said.

But the reliance upon those organizations, she said, has also triggered questions about how the system, as a whole, can function better — including during crises.

“There’s definitely conversations across the community to address the need for a more responsive system,” Roberts said. “But that’s true regardless of the weather.”

It’s times like these, though, when usually temperate California finds itself trapped in a tempest, that homeless folks need a robust support system.

Or they’ll have to survive on their own.

Staff writers Christina Merino, Brittany Murray, and Brian Whitehead contributed to this report.

​ Orange County Register 

Orange County students ‘snowed in’ at science camps due to weather

• February 25, 2023

Southern California’s weather events delayed the return trip of hundreds of Orange County students participating in outdoor science camps in the mountains.

At least two Orange County school districts have students spending extra time at their days-long science camp due to inclement weather while parents at a third district were expecting the arrival of their children late Friday, Feb. 24.

Nearly 500 students from Irvine Unified School District’s Cadence Park, Oak Creek and Stone Creek schools were supposed to return Friday but will have to remain at “Camp Pail” in Running Springs until this weekend when driving conditions are expected to improve, a district spokeswoman said.

Another 120 students from Turtle Rock Elementary will stay put at a camp in Crestline.

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“We continue to collaborate with camp staff, local fire departments and the CHP to help ensure our students are safe and well cared for,” said Irvine Unified spokeswoman Annie Brown.

In the Centralia Elementary School District, 72 students are at the Emerald Cove Outdoor Science Institute Camp with two of the school’s teachers and camp staff, Superintendent Norma Martinez said in an email. They will likely be staying until Sunday.

“As far as being ‘snowed in,’ being in a camp, surrounded by classmates, trained staff and caring teachers is the best way to ride out the storm,” Martinez said.

At Saddleback Valley Unified, 96 students and adults tried to leave a day early, Thursday, but large buses were no longer allowed up the mountains.

By Friday morning, the district had four smaller 20-person vehicles “to drive up the mountain and pick up students and staff,” district spokeswoman Wendie Hauschild said.

“It took two round trips, but we were able to get everyone safely down the mountain and into the larger buses,” said Hauschild. “The larger buses are due to arrive at their school this evening (Feb. 24).”

At the Pali Institute Outdoor Education Center, staff has been working with the schools’ teachers to offer more games and activities and some snow time outside, said Ben Waterhouse, the center’s assistant director.

”The main goal is to make sure the kids are safe,” he said.

“Some of the kids today wrote a bunch of notes and hung them around our dining hall, expressing things like ‘stay positive’ and ‘smile today’,” Waterhouse said. “This is one of those events that all of us will look back on 10 years from now and think this was a cool opportunity.”

Alli West, an Irvine resident whose sixth-grader, Fletcher, is at Camp Pali, said she suspects her son is having a grand time.

“I would say most of the kids are so happy to still be there, and probably many of the adults are dying to pick them up,” West said. “My kid is probably in hog heaven.”

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​ Orange County Register 

Lakers’ D’Angelo Russell doubtful to play Sunday in Dallas

• February 25, 2023

EL SEGUNDO — The Lakers are uncomfortably familiar with the best-laid plans, and exactly what they’re worth.

Their latest grand strategy of starting three former teammates alongside LeBron James and Anthony Davis lasted all of 8½ minutes after the All-Star break, when D’Angelo Russell stepped on Donte DiVincenzo’s foot and twisted his right ankle.

Now, the Lakers’ latest starting lineup – meant to take them through the rest of the regular season and possibly beyond – might be on hold. Russell is doubtful for Sunday afternoon’s game in Dallas against the Mavericks, who recently retooled themselves with Kyrie Irving. The one big positive Coach Darvin Ham could offer was that Russell, a 2019 All-Star, has no “structural” damage in his ankle – though he trotted out of the arena Thursday night with a concerning limp.

But Ham also said Russell, 27, was attentive during Friday’s practice, as the Lakers prepared for their three-game trip against some challenging Western Conference clubs.

“Even though he’s not able to be physically active with the rest of the group, he’s out here listening as we’re talking about Dallas,” Ham said of Russell. “Doing some things on the court, he’s right there on the sidelines soaking it all in and continuing to learn our system, our terminology. So, it’s good, man. It’s a good vibe.”

If the Lakers are forced to use a 31st starting lineup Saturday, the silver lining is that they’ve gotten used to it. The team’s depth shined through in their 124-111 victory over short-handed Golden State on Thursday, with eight players scoring in double figures (including five off the bench). James and Davis combined for just 25 of those points – and while the Lakers will want to squeeze more production out of their stars, it’s reassuring that they don’t need to.

“Simply put, it says we’ve really improved our roster by leaps and bounds,” Ham said. “Those guys that we brought in, our guys that’s in the fold and have gotten minutes, are able to be aggressive and feel comfortable being aggressive.”

Ham cited the increasing comfort level of Rui Hachimura, who had 14 points on 5-for-9 shooting against the Warriors, as well as the outburst from Malik Beasley who had 25 points to lead the team. Jarred Vanderbilt didn’t have a dramatic stat line with four points, nine rebounds and two assists, but his hustle and defense have brought an element to the starting lineup it was missing.

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The back line is liable to be tested this week in Dallas. While Irving and MVP candidate Luka Doncic are backcourt players, they have a gift for maneuvering into the paint – or for finding open teammates in position by the rim with their passing. Vanderbilt figures to be one of the players tasked with guarding Doncic, who had a near-triple-double against the Lakers on Christmas Day.

“He’s a great player, he plays at his own pace,” Vanderbilt said. “So just try to corral him with length and physicality, and just not let him be comfortable. When he’s comfortable, he’s a great player. So just try to knock him off balance a little bit and make everything uncomfortable for him.”

In their last four games, all with their trade deadline acquisitions, the Lakers have carried a plus-6.3 net rating (seventh in the league in that span) and gone 3-1, largely against teams fighting for play-in spots above them. In the Mavericks, there’s a sense that they’ll test their mettle against one of the West’s best teams, replete with superstar talent.

“It’s going to be a good test for us on the road and we’ll see what our team really looks like,” Davis said Thursday night. “But I’m very confident in our team and in our group going into any game.”

​ Orange County Register 

Orange County scores and player stats for Friday, Feb. 24

• February 25, 2023

Support our high school sports coverage by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribe now

Scores and stats from Orange County games on Friday, Feb. 24

Click here for details about sending your team’s scores and stats to the Register.

FRIDAY’S SCORES

BASEBALL

PBR LEGACY TOURNAMENT (AZ)

Cypress 4, Bishop Verot (FL) 2

BOYS VOLLEYBALL

TESORO TOURNAMENT

Mater Dei def. Mission Viejo, 25-20, 25-19

REDONDO TOURNAMENT

Servite def. Highland, 2-0

Ser: Hamar 7 kills. Foy 6 kills. Duarte 6 kills.

Note: Servite’s Ethan Bautista tied a school record with 6 aces.

NONLEAGUE

Bellflower def. Whittier Christian, 25-5, 25-5, 25-14

​ Orange County Register 

Many OC families reaching ‘food cliff’ as pandemic assistance with buying food ends

• February 25, 2023

Nearly 300,000 Orange County households will no longer see a pandemic bump in benefits that has been helping with buying food for nearly three years.

In March, federal funds added in response to the declared coronavirus emergency will end, reducing the benefits provided through the state’s CalFresh program by at least $95 – and for many families, the estimated loss will be about $170.

No recipients will lose their CalFresh benefits, only the extra bump that was delivered in a separate payment in the second half of the month. In Orange County, it had been an extra infusion of about $30 million a month.

CalFresh, the food assistance program, is based on income and other factors and is open to families and individuals, including many seniors, who rely on supplemental aid to purchase food. Some older adults could see their benefits falling from $281 to $23.

The pending reduction in benefits has been dubbed a “food cliff” by some, and Orange County agencies and food banks have been preparing to help soften the landing. Though they knew it was coming, officials only learned after December’s congressional vote on its next spending bill that the payments would stop in March.

And then it was go-time to get the word out so county residents know the other help that might be out there for them, said Jamie Cargo, spokesperson for the county’s Social Services Agency, which administers the CalFresh program locally for the state. The agency, along with CalOptima, which provides health insurance to OC residents most in need, and nonprofits fighting hunger in the county have participated in the outreach.

“We can acknowledge this is a tough time for folks especially to lose these benefits,” Cargo said. “It is not the best time for this to be happening. We are all trying to come together and support the best we can with what we have.”

Cargo said SSA is encouraging recipients to call its offices to review their incomes and expenses because people might be eligible for other options for additional benefits – that goes for any residents who might be struggling in the current economy.

“Call us, tell us your situation. Let’s see if you are eligible,” Cargo said. “We see the need, we want to do the best to help folks.”

The reduction in benefits comes amid rising food costs from inflation and lingering impacts on families from the pandemic, officials said.

“The increased costs of groceries, gas and rents, to name a few areas that have seen prices go up, strain the budgets of the average family. For families receiving assistance benefits, those increases cause further struggles,” SSA Director An Tran said. “Our vulnerable populations will feel the loss of the emergency allotments more acutely now.”

At the Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County, its leaders are hearing from the food pantries they supply that the amount of people looking for food has already been increasing.

“Some are already reporting double the amount of people,” said Claudia Keller, CEO of Second Harvest, which supplies about 300 pantries on a weekly or monthly basis. “We started seeing the need creep up in January.”

Before the pandemic, about 249,000 people countywide were seeking help with getting enough food, Keller said. During the pandemic, the number went up to 650,000. Once impacts from the pandemic began to wane and people were getting jobs back, the numbers dipped down toward 300,000 again.

“What we didn’t plan for was food inflation, increased gas and housing prices,” Keller said, adding that present numbers are up to 371,000 a month looking for food at the pantries. “When these enhanced benefits go away, it will make it worse again.”

With the inflation and food supply chain tightening, Keller said Second Harvest turned to buying 60% of its food. Instead of just buying cases of cans, the food bank is now buying pallets of food. But it has also been able to grow a lot more of its own produce on its farm in Irvine. It is buying milk and eggs from dairies and farms in Chino.

“We’re also stocking up on non-perishable products,” Keller said. “We’re not going to be able to food bank our way out of this, but we’ll be as ready as we can be.”

“We’ll need people to step up – manufacturers and donors,” she said.

Helping people afford fresh, quality food helps improve their health outcomes, said Michael Hunn, CEO of CalOptima, which administers health insurance for about 973,000 county residents. “The food you eat is connected to your health.”

With reduced benefits and rising inflation, people might have to make the decision between paying rent and what food they buy, he said. So the agency has programs offered in various languages and geared toward different cultures on how to choose healthy but economical food items and stretch purchases with recipes and cooking lessons.

The agency is also partnering with the county SSA office to coordinate outreach because they serve many of the same people. Many residents who receive health insurance through CalOptima are also CalFresh beneficiaries – or could be – so the two agencies have created a system for transferring people calling in for services between the two as needed with a “warm handoff” so they reach the right people, Hunn said.

The Laguna Food Pantry in Laguna Beach, which used to serve people in a sort of mom-and-pop general store setting, now hands out food in its parking lot where people drive up to receive boxes full of nutritious items.

“We do anticipate it will be a huge blow to the families we serve,” said Anne Belyea, executive director. “If the reduction is as much as anticipated, it’s a double whammy when people are already hurting from the pandemic and inflation has prices high. When their funds are cut, it’s detrimental. It’s a huge amount of money they’ve grown accustomed to.”

The pantry used to serve about 80-100 families; now, that’s gone up to more than 200 a day.

“Last month we were at 216 families a day; now, it’s up to 234 families,” Belyea said. “We’re seeing a wide range of people from different backgrounds. People who never needed help in their lives.

“We’ll continue to do all we can in looking for donations, purchasing opportunities, or vendors who can give us discounts,” she said.

Belyea also this week submitted her request for grant assistance to the city of Laguna Beach. The pantry leases the land it’s on from the city, and in past years, it was among those groups awarded a community assistance grant. Belyea this year asked for $25,000. Last year, the city gave the pantry $12,000.

“We’ve been very blessed we’ve been so embraced by the community,” she said. “It’s such a basic need to have food.”

Find resources and help at findhelp.org. Reach SSA’s call center at 800-281-9799 or find out more at mybenefitscalwin.org.

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