Chino Valley school board President Sonja Shaw to run for state superintendent of public instruction

• March 14, 2025

A Chino Valley school board member known for advancing conservative policies plans to run for statewide office in 2026.

Sonja Shaw, president of the Chino Valley Unified School District board, on Friday, March 14 launched her campaign for California state superintendent of public instruction, a nonpartisan office overseeing public schools in the nation’s most populous state.

In a text to the Southern California News Group, Shaw wrote: “California schools used to be the envy of the entire nation — yet today, despite a $130 billion budget, more than half of our kids fail to read and write at grade level.”

“I’m running for California State Superintendent to put parents back in charge of our children’s education, not the Sacramento politicians who created this mess. Enough is enough; our schools must refocus on preparing our kids for success, not pushing radical ideologies.”

Shaw was elected to the Chino Valley Unified School Board in 2022, she became board president in 2023 and remains in that role after the board changed its rotation policy last year.

She describes herself as a “soccer mom” spurred to action by COVID-19 policies that closed schools and required masks and vaccinations in the classroom.

“It started small — scribbling notes on index cards and commenting at school board meetings,” Shaw wrote on Facebook. “Then as I observed problem after problem, it grew into a fight against the radical ideologies forced on our kids over parents’ objections.”

Since taking office, Shaw spearheaded several efforts that made national news and landed the district in court, including a policy requiring schools to inform parents within three days if their child identifies as transgender.

Other Shaw-led policies include a ban on all non-U.S. or non-military flags in classrooms; LGBTQ+ advocates say it’s an indirect ban on pride flags. She also supported making it easier to take books with sexually explicit content off library shelves.

If elected to a four-year term, Shaw would replace Tony Thurmond, who has held the job since 2018 and is running as a Democrat for governor in 2026.

Shaw ejected Thurmond from a heated July 2023 school board meeting in which the board approved the transgender notification policy.

After that vote, other school districts, including Temecula, Murrieta and Orange, passed similar policies. The Chino Valley district is suing to block a 2024 state law that bans school districts from having transgender notification policies.

Shaw, who has appeared on GOP-friendly Fox News, faces an uphill battle in her quest for higher office. California, a blue state, hasn’t elected a Republican to statewide office since Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006.

While the GOP has made inroads in California in recent years, Democrats continue to dominate state politics, holding a supermajority in the state legislature and 43 of 52 House of Representatives seats.

At least 10 other candidates have filed papers declaring their intent to run for state superintendent of public instruction, including former Inland Democratic state Sen. Connie Leyva.

California’s primary is June 2, 2026. The primary’s top two vote-getters, regardless of party affiliation, advance to the November election.

​ Orange County Register 

Hip-hop artist Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs pleads not guilty ahead of May sex trafficking trial

• March 14, 2025

By LARRY NEUMEISTER

NEW YORK (AP) — Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs returned to federal court in New York City on Friday, pleading not guilty to the latest version of an indictment charging him with two decades of sex trafficking crimes.

The 55-year-old Combs, his beard noticeably grayer than even weeks ago, stood with his hands folded before him as he told Judge Arun Subramanian that he had read the indictment and understood the charges against him.

Combs, who has been held without bail since his September arrest, hugged two of his lawyers as he entered the courtroom.

Subramanian told lawyers that questionnaires will be distributed to hundreds of prospective jurors at the end of April so that questioning of would-be jurors can begin on May 5, with opening statements expected to occur on May 12.

According to the indictment, Combs used the “power and prestige” he wielded as a music mogul to intimidate, threaten and lure women into his orbit, often under the pretense of a romantic relationship.

The indictment said he then used force, threats and coercion to cause victims, including the three women, to engage in commercial sex acts.

It said he subjected his victims to violence, threats of violence, threats of financial and reputational harm and verbal abuse.

“On multiple occasions, Combs threw both objects and people, as well as hit, dragged, choked and shoved others,” it said. “On one occasion, Combs dangled a victim over an apartment balcony.”

Defense lawyers have argued that prosecutors were trying to demonize sex acts between consenting adults.

Part of the discussion in court Friday revolved around what will be allowed at the trial regarding a video that aired on CNN last year that showed Combs punching his former protege and girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, and throwing her on the floor in a hotel hallway.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Mitzi Steiner said the video was “critical to the case.”

Defense attorney Marc Agnifilo said the video was “deceptive and not in accordance with the actions that took place.”

He said certain actions were speeded up in the video by as much as 50 percent and others were taken out of order.

“From the defense standpoint, it’s a misleading piece of evidence, a deceptive piece of evidence, a piece of evidence that has been changed,” he said.

Combs blew kisses and waved to family members in the gallery as he was led out of the courtroom by marshals.

​ Orange County Register 

Angels prospect Christian Moore ‘making strides’ at first big-league camp

• March 14, 2025

TEMPE, Ariz. — During the first week of big-league exhibition games, Christian Moore kept asking his teammates the same questions about pitchers he was facing.

“Is this guy good?” Moore asked.

He quickly got an answer that told him he didn’t need to keep asking.

“They’re all good,” Moore recalled hearing. “That was something that flipped a switch in my mind. When you come into a game, odds are everybody on the diamond is really good at their job. That’s why they’re here. That was something that definitely flipped for me.”

It’s been an eye-opening spring for Moore, the Angels’ top position player prospect. This time last year, Moore was just getting ready for the start of the Southeastern Conference schedule at Tennessee.

After he led the Volunteers to a College World Series title, Moore was picked by the Angels with the eighth selection in the draft. Because of the Angels’ quick promotion of prospects, questions began immediately about how soon Moore could reach the majors.

This spring has given the baseball world the best indication of just how close Moore, 22, is to being ready. Although he’s still in big-league camp and fighting for a job, he’s shown there is still some work to do.

Moore was 9 for 33 (.273) heading into Friday’s game, with one extra-base hit, a triple. He has struck out 13 times and walked six times.

Some of his best at-bats came early, including a two-strike hit to key a ninth-inning rally in the first game. He’s shown good plate discipline at times.

“What happened, that happens with young kids is his first week here, he was just letting it go,” Angels manager Ron Washington said. “Then he started thinking. He even started thinking in BP. See what I’m saying? That’s just youth, but the kid can outright swing the bat. … He’s fighting up there, but he’s seeing stuff and doing things that he’s never done before. He did it in college and then he did it in A-ball and Double-A, so he’s starting to see what the major leagues is like.”

Moore said one of the adjustments is seeing high fastballs.

“The high heater is something I definitely wanted to work on in the offseason, but that zone wasn’t real popular in college,” Moore said. “A lot of guys it was down, down, down. You might get a ball below the knees. I was able to handle that. Now it’s kind of flipping. I’m looking at the top of the zone. I’m working on that.”

On the defensive side, Moore has gone through the normal drills that Washington has for all his infielders. Every morning they go through a workout with Washington and infield coach Ryan Goins, even before the regular workout.

“It’s getting way better,” Moore said. “Looking back at highlights from college and looking at myself now, it’s night and day. I love the process and the progress I’m making. I never thought I’d be that good of a defender. I just always relied on my athletic ability. It’s beautiful when you put in the work. Things can happen.”

Washington said Moore’s defense is “making strides, and we’ve just got to make sure that continues.”

He had a rough game Tuesday. He made an error and misplayed two other balls that were ruled hits. After that game, Washington acknowledged the issues, but said he’s confident Moore is putting in the effort to get there.

Moore admits he’s got work to do, starting with the pregame drills.

“I want to get to the point where, whatever I do, I’m not missing anything,” Moore said. “I’m not there yet. I want to be there. I’m in great hands. Whatever happens, whether I’m here or I go back down to minor-league ball, I know I’m in great hands. I know whoever’s there can help me.”

The Angels had Moore work out at third base in instructional league in the fall, but since spring training has worked only at second. The plan was for him to get work at both spots, but the Angels decided to have him to stick to second, for now.

“He just needs more time on the field,” Washington said. “His natural spot is second, so we’ll keep him at second.”

As for his demeanor off the field, the Angels have been happy to see Moore came into the camp with the proper attitude. He hasn’t shown the entitlement that some top prospects have. His locker is between Zach Neto and Nolan Schanuel, previous prospects who reached the majors quickly.

“I told him, just like I got told when I was a young kid, just keep open ears and a quiet mouth,” Neto said. “Hear and everything and don’t talk back. If you have questions, of course ask questions. The biggest thing is just to take in as much as you can, not only from me, but everybody else in this locker room and the coaches.”

RENGIFO UPDATE

Luis Rengifo, who has been working back from a hamstring issue, was in the lineup as the starting third baseman Friday. It was just the second big-league exhibition of the spring for Rengifo, who missed time earlier because of an illness.

Rengifo was scheduled to play four innings and bat two or three times.

The Angels had been getting Rengifo plenty of reps at the plate in the previous days, when he hit in minor-league games, without playing the field or running the bases.

Washington said Rengifo’s timing was off, but if he continued without any setbacks, he would have time to be ready for Opening Day.

NETO UPDATE

Neto stood in the box against Reid Detmers, José Suarez and Chase Silseth during their bullpen sessions Friday. Neto still hasn’t hit against live pitching, so this was simply to get him some preparation taking game-speed pitching.

He has been hitting off coaches in regular on-field batting practice.

“Swing is feeling really good,” Neto said. “Healthy. Just trying to get back to game-like swings.”

Defensively, Neto is throwing at a distance of 105 feet, which is just one step short of the 120 feet he needs to reach before he can make full throws from shortstop to first base. He’s been throwing from shortstop to second.

Neto, who had shoulder surgery in November, is expected to start the season on the injured list but be back sometime in April.

NOTES

Third baseman Yoán Moncada was a late scratch from Friday’s lineup because of thumb soreness. He had been scheduled to start in the home game, but when he was scratched, Rengifo was switched into the home lineup instead of the lineup for the game against the A’s in Mesa. …

The Angels have been using catchers Logan O’Hoppe and Travis d’Arnaud in the No. 2 spot in spring training, but Washington said that’s just so the catchers can get their at-bats quicker, without as many innings in the field. Washington said he’s leaning toward Taylor Ward in the leadoff spot, and Mike Trout and Jorge Soler at Nos. 3-4, but the second spot remains in question. Washington said he’d begin using his normal lineup around the middle of next week.

​ Orange County Register 

LA Marathon preview: New winners will emerge from 2025 races

• March 14, 2025

LOS ANGELES — The 2025 Los Angeles Marathon will be an opportunity for world-class distance runners to emerge as first-time champions.

The 40th running of the LA Marathon with be led by an international field. The women’s and men’s races will begin at Dodger Stadium around 6:45 a.m. and 7:01 a.m. Sunday, respectively, followed by 26,000 community runners.

The course winds through iconic neighborhoods and landmarks like Chinatown, Little Toyko, Hollywood, West Hollywood, Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills and ends in Century City.

In 2024, Kenya’s Dominic Ngeno won the men’s race in 2 hours and 11 minutes. Kenya’s Stacy Ndiwa won the women’s race in 2:25:28. Neither Ngeno or Ndiwa are running in this year’s race.

This year’s top contender in the men’s race includes Ethiopia’s Gizealew Ayana, who has a personal best of 2:07:15. Ayana, 22, won the 2023 Paris Marathon in 2:09:04.

Other contenders include Kenya’s Moses Kiptoo (2:09:35), Boniface Kibiwott (2:10:06) and Sammy Rotich (2:10:08).

The top American in the field is 25-year-old Matthew Richtman with a personal best time of 2:10:47. Richtman ran collegiately at Montana State. He has a long term goal of representing the United States as one of three marathoners in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

“It will be nice just to be in the same city and really get that experience and see what it’s all about,” Richtman said. “That’s something that’s definitely on the horizon that I’m sure everyone is looking at as well.”

However, the sixth-place finisher at the 2025 U.S. Half Marathon championship on March 1 in Atlanta said instead of trying to run a specific time, he’s going to focus on competition.

“I think it’s always a good idea to go in with an open mindset, Richtman continued. “There’s good competition but it could be my day, who knows, so you always want to have that opportunity to be in that front group.”

Another newcomer is Athanas Kioko. The 30-year-old from Kenya will make his marathon debut on Sunday.

“Because this is my marathon debut, my first goal is to finish the race and break 2:10 depending on how the guys go, so that is my goal,” Kioko said.

Kioko ran collegiately at Campbell University in North Carolina. He is aiming to run faster than 2 hours and 10 minutes. He believes that if he runs that pace, he will have an opportunity to win the race.

“I’m trying to see if the marathon works for me so if I’m able to finish it and feel good, break 2:10 and win the race that would be amazing,” Kioko continued. “I’m just ready for that.”

The course record in the men’s race is held by Ethiopia’s Markos Geneti, who ran 2:06:35 in 2011.

In the women’s race, the top contender is Kenya’s Antonina Kwambai with a 2:23:20 personal best. Kwambai has raced well at the LA Marathon before but said her training leading up to this year’s race has been better than when she finished second in 2:30:13 in 2022.

“I’m going to do my best,” Kwambai said. “I came here three years ago. I want to improve my time like 2:25.”

Other contenders on the women’s side include Ethiopia’s Tejinesh Gebisa (2:24:37) and American Savannah Berry (2:29:13), who grew up in Bakersfield and lives in Orem, Utah.

The course record in women’s race is held by Ethiopia’s Askale Merachi, who ran 2:24:11 in 2019.

Meanwhile, the Marathon Chase time differential will be 16 minutes and 5 seconds, which will be the head start for the women’s race before the men’s race. The first runner to cross the finish line will win a $10,000 bonus.

The women are 10-4 all-time in the Marathon Chase, including six straight victories.

Organizers said Sunday’s race will be dedicated to the first responders who worked for weeks to put out January’s wildfires in Los Angeles County.

“It’s the healing of the city,” LA Marathon television broadcaster Toni Reavis said. “The marathon has always shown up on the calendar at just the right time to help bind the city when it’s had floods, public uprising after the Rodney King incident in 1992, the fires this year. This is a chance for LA to come together and dispose of all the differences that people have and be drawn together by our common humanity. The marathon does that like nothing else.”

​ Orange County Register 

Long Beach swimming areas closed due to Rowland Heights sewage spill

• March 14, 2025

Coastal swimming areas in Long Beach remained closed Friday due to a sewage spill.

The spill occurred in Rowland Heights after a grease accumulation led to the overflow of a main sewer line, causing a spill of 10,500 gallons of sewage, according to Long Beach officials. While the origin of the spill is more than 30 miles away, the sewage was expected to make its way to Long Beach shores via the San Gabriel River, the city said.

Water from the San Gabriel River connects to the Pacific Ocean in Long Beach, which means pollution anywhere upriver can affect the coastal waters and other waterways in the city. Long Beach has just over six miles of public beach.

Long Beach City Health Officer Dr. Anissa Davis ordered all open coastal swimming areas in Long Beach temporarily closed for water contact due to the spill. State law requires temporary closure and posting at beaches in these situations, out of an abundance of caution, until the water quality meets state requirements.

Testing will take place again Monday, according to the city.

City workers have been posting signs along the waterfront to let beachgoers know of the closure.

People can also call the water hotline at 562-570-4199 or visit longbeach.gov/beachwaterquality for the latest status on Long Beach recreational beach water quality.

​ Orange County Register 

Southern California’s 45-month job creation streak is over

• March 14, 2025

Southern California had 21,800 fewer jobs in January compared to 12 months earlier, the first yearly employment dip after a 45-month upswing following pandemic business restrictions.

My trusty spreadsheet, filled with newly revised state job figures, found 7.94 million people at work in January in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. These job counts are not adjusted for seasonal swings.

That four-county staffing was down 0.3% in 12 months. You must go back to March 2021 to see the last decline in local employment on a year-over-year basis.

January’s drop was a rough start to 2025 for workers.

Yes, there’s the expected seasonal loss of work as temporary holiday gigs end. However, the 169,600 decline from December was 27% higher than January’s average dip since 2011.

Bosses grew cautious on staffing as the year began. Consumers and corporations are being thrifty about spending as inflation and interest rates remain stubbornly high. Also, there is increased uncertainty with Donald Trump returning to the White House.

And some job losses might be tied to the Los Angeles wildfires. The economic hit will be better reflected in February job stats.

January’s employment dip also boosted regional joblessness. The four-county unemployment rate was 5.4% in January compared with 5.2% in December and a year earlier.

Regional differences

Here’s how the job market performed in the region’s key metropolitan areas …

Los Angeles County: 4.56 million workers after dropping 99,500 in a month and declining by 13,900 in a year. First 12-month drop in 13 months. Unemployment? 5.8% vs. 5.7% a month earlier and 5.3% a year ago.

Inland Empire: 1.7 million workers, after dropping 39,700 in a month but growing by 2,500 in a year. – 46th consecutive 12-month increase. Unemployment? 5.3% vs. 4.9% a month earlier and 5.2% a year ago.

Orange County: 1.68 million workers after dropping 30,400 in a month and declining by 10,400 in a year. First 12-month drop in 45 months. Unemployment? 4.1% vs. 3.7% a month earlier and 3.9% a year ago.

Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at [email protected]

​ Orange County Register 

5 years later: How COVID changed health care

• March 14, 2025

By Anya Sostek, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

PITTSBURGH — John Sullivan, chief medical officer of St. Clair Health System in Pittsburgh, spent 33 years in the Navy. And when he thinks back to this week five years ago, he likens the early COVID-19 days to a military deployment.

“I still get a little PTSD talking about this, honestly, thinking back on that week,” he said. “We were scared for our own lives, working longer hours than we ever had before. For all of us leading health care systems, we were making enormously consequential decisions, often many every day, without really any information.”

What happened during those early weeks and months of the COVID pandemic changed the face of health care — both in terms of the people working within it and the way that health care is delivered.

Vaccines entered the health care system in ways that they hadn’t before, from cameras following a UPS van bringing the first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine into Western Pennsylvania to a carefully orchestrated hierarchy of who was eligible to receive vaccines by age and health conditions to vaccine contrarianism and distrust of the health care system.

Masking also arrived suddenly, with statewide recommendations in April 2020 and mandates that June, followed by pushback from some segments of the public. The state and county health departments issued public health orders such as closing schools, restaurants and other businesses that affected all Pennsylvanians.

“Clearly a lot of things have changed,” said Donald Whiting, who is now chair of neuroscience at Allegheny Health Network but was the health system’s chief medical officer from 2019 until earlier this year. “The most rapidly developed during COVID and most long-lasting single thing is telehealth. It was remarkable how quickly it rolled out — truly, within a matter of weeks — and how it was accepted by patients.”

Before COVID, telemedicine was often seen as an inferior option, or one to be used only in special circumstances. But as it became commonplace out of necessity early in the pandemic, a surprising thing happened.

“People started liking it,” said Dr. Whiting. “They started seeing it as a reasonable alternative to in-person visits, and there’s a whole younger generation that that’s their preference in a lot of cases.”

Kristen Walker, a therapist and clinical director at the Counseling & Wellness Center of Pittsburgh, now sees about 50% of her patients online. Prior to COVID, “it was very rare,” she said. “You may have done one or two here and there.”

The switch to online has not just opened up the ease of access for her local patient base, but has also allowed patients across Pennsylvania to access therapy — even in rural areas with limited in-person options.

“I’ve done so much virtually that I’ve never thought possible,” she said. “My job has changed because now I can see someone 200 miles away, still give them effective treatment, feel good about what I’m doing, and they can get what they need.”

Patients getting behavioral health services across the AHN network are just as likely to do so virtually as they are to visit a doctor or therapist in person. Online access has also made therapy more efficient to deliver across a large health system, eliminating the need for patients and therapists to physically be in the same place, said Anil Singh, executive medical director for population health at Highmark Health.

“It’s really around slot utilization and the ability to have those openings within your schedule,” he said. “The ability to do that across a large population of providers allows that access to be easier. We’re not seeing the wait times that we would usually see.”

Dr. Singh, who is also a pulmonologist for AHN, uses telehealth for follow-up visits in his pulmonary practice. Patients from rural areas particularly appreciate the option, he said, which eliminates the need to drive into Pittsburgh, pay for parking, and often navigate hospitals, stairs and parking garages while managing breathing challenges or an oxygen tank.

Even in the neurosciences at AHN, about 12% of appointments are now virtual — an appealing option for patients with advanced neurologic conditions who may have difficulty traveling.

Telehealth is also expanding into more physical medicine. Highmark Health has had success using a Virtual Joint Health program in which patients complete physical therapy exercises with the guidance of a tablet that uses computer vision. More recently, it has added a program for virtual pelvic floor therapy.

“If you asked me six years ago would I have thought that virtual pelvic health is something we’d be talking about, the answer would be no,” said Dr. Singh. “It’s about listening to the patients and what are they asking for that they would rather do in the comfort of their own home.”

Aside from telehealth, one of the biggest changes to health care as a result of COVID came not in how care was delivered, but who was delivering it. In the early days of COVID, health care workers felt alone — and terrified.

“Everybody else was really sheltering in place but in the health care world, you were the one going out, fighting the battle,” said Dr. Whiting. “You felt like you were putting your life on the line every time you went to work.”

That fear, and other pressures, resulted in widespread resignations among health care workers, both in Pittsburgh and nationwide. One study found that about 100,000 registered nurses left the workforce during the pandemic.

“It was risky, it was harder, there was less joy in the work, we all had masks on all day and many people lost their reliable child care,” said Dr. Sullivan. “All of a sudden you had all these near-retirement departures, anyone with loss of child care stability and some people who questioned whether they were in the right field.”

Additionally, travel nursing agencies offering lucrative salaries drew nurses out of the regular hospital pool.

And the challenges of managing a thinning workforce were often more difficult than managing the COVID disease itself, said Dr. Sullivan. To recruit more workers, St. Clair Health System and other local health systems threw themselves into developing partnerships and other efforts to encourage more people to join the workforce.

UPMC launched initiatives to attract nurses with programs for students as young as middle school, and it increased capacity at the seven UPMC Schools of Nursing. In 2024, those schools graduated 550 nurses, up from 250 in 2022.

COVID has also led to more focus on the mental health of health care workers.

Ohio State University in 2020 launched its Buckeye Paws program, which continues to connect therapy dogs to staffers at the Wexner Medical Center. AHN still has decompression rooms for staff, as well as wellness programs and other behavioral health support.

The health care workforce at AHN has largely recovered from the losses that it suffered during COVID, said Dr. Whiting, though there are some specialized fields such as certified registered nurse anesthetists, where they still see shortages.

“We’re significantly better than we were,” he said, “but I think everyone is still building up staff to some degree.”

Early on in the pandemic, chief medical officers across the region began meeting weekly, at first through a Monday night phone call. And while this doesn’t sound remarkable, it was in a region that had traditionally been a competitive health care environment.

“This was your wartime cabinet,” said Dr. Sullivan, noting that the group has now been formalized as the Western PA Chief Medical Officers Consortium. “It’s a really valuable way to run a response to health care — not as competitors but as friends.”

The group helped navigate parts of the pandemic, issuing a statement in late 2021 urging the public to wear masks, get vaccinated and stick to approved therapies, and advocating for general health care issues as well. Just last month, the group addressed health care workplace violence after a shooting at UPMC Harrisburg.

As the federal COVID emergency declaration ended in spring 2023, the booster vaccines shifted from government to commercial oversight. Despite some delays with the commercial rollout, Pittsburghers started to see the new COVID vaccines that October, and following rollouts have more or less mirrored the arrival of the influenza vaccine.

In some ways, said Dr. Sullivan, it’s taken five years just to get back to the pre-COVID status quo.

“I find myself working on initiatives that were on my mind in early 2020,” he said. “We’re starting to get back to those things because a lot of the last few years have been firefighting — supplies, people, wave after wave of COVID, and other respiratory illnesses.”

© 2025 the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Visit www.post-gazette.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

​ Orange County Register 

Judge finds frozen embryos are not divisible property in cancer survivor’s case against ex-husband

• March 14, 2025

By OLIVIA DIAZ

FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — A northern Virginia judge determined embryos are not property that can be divided up, rejecting a previous analysis by the court saying such fertilized eggs could be considered divisible “goods or chattel” based on 19th-century slave law.

Nearly 10 months after closing arguments, Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Dontaè L. Bugg wrote in an opinion letter earlier this month that he would dismiss a cancer survivor’s partition lawsuit against her ex-husband — a legal action that one property owner can take against another. The former wife, Honeyhline Heidemann, sued Jason Heidemann over access to two embryos they froze during a 2015 cycle of in vitro fertilization but agreed to leave in storage during their divorce three years later.

In the bench trial, Honeyhline Heidemann testified the embryos were her last chance to conceive another biological child after a cancer treatment. Jason Heidemann’s attorney argued he did not want to become a biological father to a child by force, even if he wasn’t required to be a parent.

The dispute attracted national attention in 2023 when Judge Richard E. Gardiner — who is no longer assigned to the case for unrelated reasons — referenced slavery-era law when overruling Jason Heidemann’s pleading that the state’s partition statute did not include the embryos. Bugg wrote in his March 7 letter that he took issue with Gardiner’s reliance on state law predating the passage of the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution abolishing slavery.

Bugg wrote that Virginia lawmakers have since 1865 removed references to slavery to “excise a lawless blight from the Virginia Code, the institution of slavery applicable to fellow citizens, which removal supports that human beings, and by extension embryos they have created, should not as a matter of legislative policy be subject to partition.”

Bugg’s dismissal of the case comes during a growing national debate on whether fetuses are human. Seven states have defined embryos, fertilized eggs or fetuses as a “person,” “human being” or “another” in their homicide code, according to Pregnancy Justice’s unpacking fetal personhood report from last September.

In 2024, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are people.

And later that year, U.S. Senate Republicans blocked legislation that would make it a right nationwide for women to access in vitro fertilization and other fertility treatment after then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer forced a vote on the issue.

Before this trial, there was little case law in Virginia governing the treatment of embryos.

Jason Zellman, Honeyhline Heidemann’s attorney, acknowledged in court that the case touched on sensitive issues, but he also suggested Bugg didn’t need to establish any sweeping precedent. Honeyhline Heidemann, who had a daughter with Jason Heidemann through the same in vitro cycle, also testified that she hoped to acquire both remaining frozen embryos, but would also accept if Bugg separated the fertilized eggs between her and the former husband.

Carrie Patterson, Jason Heidemann’s attorney, argued the judge should not conclude that embryos could be sold or divided. Although Virginia courts have the power to direct the sale of property, Patterson also referenced that the American Society for Reproductive Medicine had deemed the sale of fertilized eggs unethical.

Bugg wrote there was no case law suggesting fertilized eggs should be valued, bought or sold — nor did he have evidence there would be a mechanism to carry out such a process given embryos’ nature.

“It is obvious that these two human embryos, if implanted and carried to term, would not result in the same two people,” he wrote. “In fact, the embryos are as unique as any two people that may be selected from the population, including siblings with the same biological parents.”

Olivia Diaz is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative.

​ Orange County Register