Feather Alert notification system for missing Native Americans touted

• March 25, 2023

Law enforcement and tribal officials from across the state gathered Friday, March 24, in San Bernardino to tout the state’s newest emergency notification system, this one designed to alert the public in real time when Indigenous people go missing under suspicious circumstances.

The Feather Alert system took effect on Jan. 1 as a result of Assembly Bill 1314, authored by Assemblymember James Ramos, D-Highland. California’s law enforcement agencies and Highway Patrol will activate the alerts whenever a Native American goes missing.

During a news conference at the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, Ramos said California now ranks seventh in the nation for unsolved Native American homicides and homicides not investigated.

“The toleration of sitting back and doing nothing is not an option,” Ramos said. “We moved forward with the state Legislature and implemented Feather Alert.”

Friday’s news conference was followed by a round table summit on the Feather Alert system in the sheriff’s conference room.

Capt. Ken Roberts, Ambert Alert coordinator for the California Highway Patrol, said the Feather Alert has been added to an already robust alerting system that includes the Amber Alert, Endangered Missing Persons Alert, Silver Alert — activated when an elderly, developmentally or cognitively impaired person goes missing and is determined to be at-risk — and the Blue Alert, when a law enforcement officer is killed or seriously injured and their assailant has fled.

“This just adds to the tool belts to help and assist the allied agencies that investigate the missing persons, and we’re able to get out real-time information to the public,” Roberts said.

Charles Martin, chairman of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, said, “We have created a powerful new tool for protecting tribal communities. Implementation of the Feather Alert is a critical step forward in addressing the deadly epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous people in California.”

He said Indigenous women are murdered at a rate that is 10 times the national average, and Native Americans experience disproportionately higher rates of abduction and violent crimes.

“When any person goes missing, every second counts,” Martin said. “The public and law enforcement notifications that will be issued by the Feather Alert system will provide communities and law enforcement with critical real-time information.”

An article published by the University of North Dakota School of Law in 2021, titled “Silent Crisis,” noted that while the number of Native American men, women and children who have disappeared or been murdered is difficult to gauge, data gleaned from the Sovereign Bodies Institute’s database contained 4,754 cases in the U.S. and Canada of missing and murdered Indigenous women as of August 2021.

Proposition 47 audit

Ramos also announced the launching of a state controller’s audit on the effectiveness of Proposition 47 in San Bernardino and Riverside counties. The law, which reduced some drug possession and property crimes offenses from felonies to misdemeanors, has generated fierce criticism and opposition from the law enforcement community since its passage in 2014.

The key arguments by law enforcement is that the law, known as the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act, simply has not served its purpose and has led to spikes in crime, mainly property crimes such as commercial burglary and theft.

Ramos said he took his proposal Tuesday before the Joint Committee on Legislative Audit, which approved the audit. He said the audit is the first of its kind since Proposition 47 was passed.

“Today, we are gathered in effort to promote the efficiency of public safety in ensuring all our families in San Bernardino and Riverside County are put first,” Ramos said.

While the law was meant, in part, to ensure offenders participate in drug rehabilitation programs instead of serving long stints in jail or prison, many law enforcement officials said the effort has proved somewhat futile.

Sheriff Shannon Dicus said the state needs to take a hard look at the overall impact Proposition 47 has had on society and make the necessary adjustments.

“After nine years, the unintended consequences of Prop. 47 continue to affect the quality of life in our communities,” Dicus said. “We continue to see increases in the homeless population, increases in the number of our residents battling with mental health issues and substance abuse issues, and increases in theft-related offenses.”

From 2021 to 2022, the county experienced a 36% increase in commercial burglaries, a 55% percent increase in thefts from merchants, and a 25% increase in grand thefts, Dicus said.

“Prop. 47 was titled the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act, and from our perspective, I can assure you, our schools in our neighborhoods are far from any safer,” said Grant Ward, president of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Benefit Association. “It’s time to do something different, and this audit if the first step to getting that done.”

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One of the things Proposition 47 did was increase the threshold for felony grand theft from $400 to $950, which left many in law enforcement wincing.

“Thieves can take up to $950 worth of property and only face a misdemeanor charge. These misdemeanors are dealt with through a citation,” Dicus said. “If the suspect is taken to jail, they are released soon after processing, to repeat the process all over again. Unfortunately, theft has been normalized. Thieves now look at this as an easy career path.”

Dicus acknowledged, however, that for some drug- or alcohol-addicted criminal offenders, jail or drug court is the best option for detoxing, getting into treatment programs and even continuing their education.

But Proposition 47 sabotages those efforts by allowing offenders to get off lightly, only likely to reoffend.

“Why would you go into a rehabilitation center when you can just walk out of the court?” Ward asked. “While the original intent of Prop. 47 was, in fact, to bring more treatment to those in need and less jail time, it’s clear that that just isn’t happening.”

​ Orange County Register 

Orange County restaurants shut down by health inspectors (March 16-23)

• March 25, 2023

Restaurants and other food vendors ordered to close and allowed to reopen by Orange County health inspectors from March 16 to March 23.

Robata Wasa at Irvine Spectrum Center, 926 Spectrum Center Drive, Irvine

Closed: March 22
Reason: Rodent infestation
Reopened: March 23

Van Hoi Xuan, 9110 Bolsa Ave., Westminster

Closed: March 22
Reason: Rodent infestation
Reopened: March 23

Keno’s, 2661 W. La Palma Ave., Anaheim

Closed: March 22
Reason: None provided
Reopened: March 23

Avila’s El Ranchito, 2101 Placentia Ave., Costa Mesa

Closed: March 22
Reason: Rodent infestation
Reopened: March 23

Cucina Alessa, 520 Main St., Huntington Beach

Closed: March 22
Reason: Rodent infestation
Reopened: March 23

Circle K, 3006 Harbor Blvd., Costa Mesa

Closed: March 21
Reason: Rodent infestation
Reopened: March 21

Todos Santos, 22322 El Paseo, Rancho Santa Margarita

Closed: March 16
Reason: Rodent infestation
Reopened: March 17

Loft Hawaiian Grill, 5950 Corporate Ave., Suite 300, Cypress

Closed: March 16
Reason: Cockroach infestation
Reopened: March 20

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

​ Orange County Register 

Man arrested in 1988 killing of Cypress man who had gone to meet friends in Fontana

• March 25, 2023

A 63-year-old Wisconsin man was arrested at his home last week after a murder charge was filed again him in the death of a Cypress man who went missing in 1988, authorities said.

On June 8 of that year, Angel Martinez, 52, was reported missing by his wife. He had left home to meet with friends in Fontana and never arrived, said Officer Jason Delair, a spokesman for the Fontana Police Department.

His body was found two weeks later in La Paz County, Arizona.

Following forensic testing, authorities zeroed in on a suspect.

On March 15, Fontana police traveled to De Pere, Wisconsin, where the suspect, Kelvin Keith Emmons, 63, was arrested at his home. Information on how authorities were able to identify the suspect and a motive for the killing were not released by authorities.

Emmons was awaiting extradition to San Bernardino County.

“This arrest is a testament to our commitment to justice for victims and their families,” Fontana Police Chief Michael Dorsey said in a statement. “I want to thank all those who worked on this case over the years for their dedication and hard work.”

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​ Orange County Register 

San Diego State ousts No. 1 overall seed Alabama from NCAA tournament

• March 25, 2023

By GARY B. GRAVES AP Sports Writer

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — San Diego State coach Brian Dutcher has insisted throughout the NCAA tournament that if his team plays to its strengths, it doesn’t matter what the opposition does.

The Aztecs certainly played the way they wanted to against the top overall seed in March Madness.

Darrion Trammell and San Diego State used a dominant defensive performance to knock Alabama out of the tournament, bottling up All-America freshman Brandon Miller in a 71-64 victory in the Sweet 16.

Trammell scored 21 points while Miller, whose outstanding season was marred by off-the-court complications, was held to nine points on 3-of-19 shooting and had six turnovers.

The fifth-seeded Aztecs (30-6) will face sixth-seeded Creighton (24-12) on Sunday in the South Region final. Each program is seeking its first Final Four appearance.

Roughly 30 minutes after Alabama fell, the tournament’s final remaining No. 1 seed, Houston, lost to Miami, 89-75, leaving March Madness without a single top seed among its final eight teams for the first time since seeding began in 1979. The other top seeds, Purdue and Kansas, lost during the tournament’s opening weekend.

“It’s just parity,” Dutcher said. “That’s what it is. There’s not a lot of difference between the best team in the country and the worst team in the country. You’re seeing that on this stage.”

San Diego State trailed 48-39 midway through the second half before going on a 12-0 run and controlling the game from there. The Aztecs finished with eight blocked shots – five by Nathan Mensah – and forced 14 turnovers.

Trammell scored the first eight points of SDSU’s big run. He made a 3-pointer, stole the ball from Miller and converted a layup, and then buried another 3-pointer.

“We’re going to go on our run,” Trammell said, “and I just took the opportunities they gave me. I took my shot, and I just made a play on defense. From there, our team was in it. That’s when the momentum changed.”

So did the Crimson Tide’s season.

The March Madness run of Alabama (31-6) was clouded by its response to the Jan. 15 fatal shooting of a 23-year-old woman in Tuscaloosa, which led to capital murder charges against a then-Crimson Tide player, Darius Miles.

Miller was at the scene of the shooting and has not been charged, but police have said in court documents that Miles texted Miller to bring him his gun. Authorities have said Miller is a cooperating witness, and he did not miss any playing time. Miller received armed security protection during the tournament.

Mark Sears had 16 points and Jahvon Quinerly and Charles Bediako scored 10 each for Alabama, which shot 32% overall and a miserable 3 for 27 (11.1%) from 3-point range. The Crimson Tide fell short of the second Elite Eight berth in school history.

“We came to this game prepared as much as we could possibly,” Miller said. “I think our shot-making could have been better. Our shot choices could have been better, but it’s just that San Diego’s a good group of guys. They’re vets, so they have a lot of experience. I feel like they came out and played hard.”

San Diego State’s players knew they had to impose their will on Alabama’s deep and gifted roster.

“Alabama’s a great team. They have a lot of talented players and individuals,” Trammell said. “We knew it was going to be hard. It was a dogfight. Very physical.”

Sears’ layup got Alabama within 66-64 with 46 seconds remaining, but Matt Bradley made two free throws and Micah Parrish followed by making three of four attempts, including two with 17 seconds left.

After the final buzzer sounded, Aztecs players and coaches rushed the court and hugged each other in a joyous celebration.

Jaedon LeDee finished with 12 points for the Aztecs.

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San Diego State shot just 38% overall and was outrebounded 52-48 but made clutch shots to rally when Alabama seemed in control behind a faster pace after halftime. A technical foul on Dutcher also seemed to spark his seasoned team, which maintained its physical play and thwarted every attempt by the Tide to rally.

“I’m using Muhammad Ali quotes because we’re in Louisville, and we talked about confidence and the key to confidence is being fearless,” Dutcher said. “I thought we were fearless tonight.”

BLOCK PARTY

Mensah and Johnson had emphatic rejections with San Diego State ahead, 53-50.

Both blocks came on layup attempts by Quinerly. Mensah swatted the first and Johnson rejected a subsequent attempt seconds later. Trammell followed with a step-back jumper for a five-point cushion.

BIG PICTURE

San Diego State: The Aztecs never seemed fazed by Alabama or Miller. More impressive was their resilience when the game seemed to be slipping away.

Alabama: Other than the second-half run that put them ahead briefly, the Crimson Tide seemed out of sorts in multiple ways. The team’s reliance on 3-pointers showed its desperation.

Alabama players watch from the bench during the closing seconds of their 71-64 loss to San Diego State in an NCAA tournament South Regional semifinal on Friday in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)

​ Orange County Register 

Orange County scores and player stats for Friday, March 24

• March 25, 2023

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

Scores and stats from Orange County games on Friday, March 24

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

FRIDAY’S SCORES

BASEBALL

ORANGE COAST LEAGUE

Estancia 6, Santa Ana 5

EMPIRE LEAGUE

Cypress 12, Valencia 3

WAVE LEAGUE

Edison 1, Marina 0

COACH BOB INVITATIONAL (AZ)

Crean Lutheran 14, Prospect Ridge Academy (CO) 0

Crean Lutheran 12, Standley Lake (CO) 2

SOFTBALL

GOLDEN WEST LEAGUE

Westminster 3, Ocean View 2

ORANGE COAST LEAGUE

Calvary Chapel 11, Estancia 1

NONLEAGUE

Pacifica 12, El Modena 1

Capistrano Valley Christian 5, Valencia 2

​ Orange County Register 

What’s with all this talk about firing squads?

• March 25, 2023

By Michael Tarm | Associated Press

CHICAGO — The image of gunmen in a row firing in unison at a condemned prisoner may conjure up a bygone, less enlightened era.

But the idea of using firing squads is making a comeback. Idaho lawmakers passed a bill this week seeking to add the state to the list of those authorizing firing squads, which currently includes Mississippi, Utah, Oklahoma and South Carolina.

Fresh interest comes as states scramble for alternatives to lethal injections after pharmaceutical companies barred the use of their drugs.

Some, including a few Supreme Court justices, view firing squads as less cruel than lethal injections, despite the violence involved in riddling bodies with bullets. Others say it’s not so cut-and-dry, or that there are other factors to consider.

A look at the status of firing squads in the United States:

WHEN WAS THE LAST EXECUTION BY FIRING SQUAD?

Ronnie Lee Gardner was executed at Utah State Prison on June 18, 2010, for killing an attorney during a courthouse escape attempt.

Gardner sat in a chair, sandbags around him and a target pinned over his heart. Five prison staffers drawn from a pool of volunteers fired from 25 feet (about 8 meters) away with .30-caliber rifles. Gardner was pronounced dead two minutes later.

A blank cartridge was loaded into one rifle without anyone knowing which. That’s partly done to enable those bothered later by their participation to believe they may not have fired a fatal bullet.

Utah is the only state to have used firing squads in the past 50 years, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Death Penalty Information Center.

WHAT HAS CAUSED THE LETHAL DRUG SCARCITY?

Under Idaho’s bill, firing squads would be used only if executioners can’t obtain the drugs required for lethal injections.

As lethal injection became the primary execution method in the 2000s, drug companies began barring use of their drugs, saying they were meant to save lives, not take them.

States have found it difficult to obtain the cocktail of drugs they long relied on, such as sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride. Some have switched to more accessible drugs such as pentobarbital or midazolam, both of which, critics say, can cause excruciating pain.

Other states have reauthorized the use of electric chairs and gas chambers — or are at least considering doing so. That’s where firing squads come in.

ARE THEY MORE HUMANE?

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is among those who say firing squads are a more humane method of execution.

That idea is based on expectations that bullets will strike the heart, rupturing it and causing immediate unconsciousness as the inmate quickly bleeds to death.

“In addition to being near instant, death by shooting may also be comparatively painless,” Sotomayor wrote in a 2017 dissent.

Her comments came in the case of an Alabama inmate who asked to be executed by firing squad. A Supreme Court majority refused to hear his appeal. In her dissent, Sotomayor said lethal drugs can mask intense pain by paralyzing inmates while they are still sentient.”What cruel irony that the method that appears most humane may turn out to be our most cruel experiment yet,” she wrote.

BUT IS DEATH BY FIRING SQUAD REALLY PAINLESS?

In a 2019 federal case, prosecutors submitted statements from anesthesiologist Joseph Antognini, who said painless deaths by firing squads are not guaranteed.

Inmates could remain conscious for up to 10 seconds after being shot depending on where bullets strike, Antognini said, and those seconds could be “severely painful, especially related to shattering of bone and damage to the spinal cord.”

Others note that killings by firing squad are visibly violent and bloody compared with lethal injections, potentially traumatizing victims’ relatives and other witnesses as well as executioners and staffers who clean up afterward.

ARE FIRING SQUADS MORE RELIABLE?

If reliability means the condemned are more likely to die as intended, then one could make that argument.

An Amherst College political science and law professor, Austin Sarat, studied 8,776 executions in the U.S. between 1890 and 2010 and found that 276 of them were botched, or 3.15%.

The executions that went wrong included 7.12% of all lethal injections — in one notorious 2014 case in Oklahoma, Clayton Locket writhed and clenched his teeth after midazolam was administered — as well as 3.12% of hangings and 1.92% of electrocutions.

By contrast, not a single one of the 34 firing squad executions was found to have been botched, according to Sarat, who has called for an end to capital punishment.

The Death Penalty Information Center, however, has identified at least one firing squad execution that reportedly went awry: In 1879, in Utah territory, riflemen missed Wallace Wilkerson’s heart and it took 27 minutes for him to die.

WERE FIRING SQUADS EVER IN WIDE USE?

Firing squads have never been a predominant method of carrying out civilian death sentences and are more closely associated with the military, including the execution of Civil War deserters.

From colonial days through 2002, more than 15,000 people were put to death, according to data compiled by death penalty researchers M. Watt Espy and John Ortiz Smykla. Just 143 died by firing squad, compared with 9,322 by hanging and 4,426 by electrocution.

HAS THE SUPREME COURT WEIGHED IN?

High court rulings have required inmates who oppose an existing execution method to offer an alternative. They must prove both that the alternative is “significantly” less painful and that the infrastructure exists to implement the alternative method.

That has led to the spectacle of inmate attorneys bringing multiple cases in which they argue the merits of firing squads.

In 2019, the Supreme Court ruled in Bucklew v. Precythe that some pain does not automatically mean a method of execution constitutes “cruel and unusual” punishment, which is prohibited by the Eighth Amendment.

The Constitution “does not guarantee a prisoner a painless death — something that, of course, isn’t guaranteed to many people,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the 5-4 majority.

Key factors in deciding whether a method is “cruel and unusual” include whether it adds extra pain “beyond what’s needed to effectuate a death sentence,” Gorsuch said.

​ Orange County Register 

Angels’ Shohei Ohtani ready to turn page from World Baseball Classic to Opening Day

• March 25, 2023

TEMPE, Ariz. — Friday afternoon was something of a palate cleanser for Shohei Ohtani.

In between the electric atmosphere of a World Baseball Classic title for Japan and Opening Day of a season that’s critical for him and the Angels, Ohtani went through the formality of one last spring training workout.

A couple of hundred people – half of them media members – watched Ohtani throw 81 pitches against a team of Arizona Diamondbacks Class-A players on a back field at the Angels’ complex.

The Angels had originally planned to have Ohtani pitch in Friday’s Cactus League game against the Padres, but they opted instead for the low-stress, controlled environment of a minor league game, in which innings can be shortened or extended to fit the pitcher’s needs.

“With all the pitches and the high intensity I was throwing in the Classic, I felt like I was already ready for Opening Day,” Ohtani said through his interpreter. “Today was just fine-tuning stuff.”

Ohtani threw all of his pitches except his curveball, giving up one run on a wind-blown homer by 19-year-old Gavin Conticello. Ohtani struck out eight and walked one. He worked 4-2/3 innings.

Ohtani, who will pitch the Angels opener next Thursday night in Oakland, said his “body was a little more sore than normal” because it had been just three days since his 15-pitch outing to close out the WBC with a strikeout of Mike Trout.

Ohtani punctuated that moment by hurling his glove and cap into the air, and he later described it as the best moment of his life.

Ohtani said his best memories were pitching in front of the fans in Japan, starting with the first game of pool play in the Tokyo Dome against China.

“How quiet the stadium was, even though it was a full stadium, that kind of gave me chills,” Ohtani said. “It was a weird feeling.”

Now, he has traded in his Japan uniform for the red of the Angels, and all of the exhilaration has been replaced by the same questions.

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Ohtani is set to be a free agent at the end of the season, and most around the sport assume that he will sign a deal of at least $500 million to pitch somewhere else.

The Angels have not had a winning season in any of Ohtani’s five years, a point that fans and analysts mentioned frequently as the baseball world enjoyed seeing him perform in the spotlight of the WBC.

For the record, Ohtani said nothing has changed about his potential free agency since he experienced the WBC, but he said “I definitely want to win a ring with the Angels.”

Ohtani said his appetite to enjoy that kind of atmosphere with the Angels is now even greater: “After experiencing those games, win or go home, I definitely felt like I want to experience that here too.”

​ Orange County Register 

OCC creates store for fashion design students to stock up on experience

• March 25, 2023

One day, Christian Hernandez wants to open a shop of his own to sell the clothing he designs.

For now, customers can browse his pieces – and buy them – from a pop-up shop recently opened at Orange Coast College.

Understanding that there is no substitute for putting his textbook knowledge to use in the real world, Hernandez said he created a marking plan that he presented to his classmates in the college’s fashion design program, who then selected the sophomore to display and sell his merchandise at the new Coast Collective Co-Lab on the first floor of the campus College Center.

He finds the inspiration for his designs in observing and interpreting the everyday life going on around him, he said, and wants his apparel to prompt “people to stop and introspect and think about life.”

He is selling his apparel under his label, CH.

“I’m looking to see what my classmates like, see how my designs are doing and how they sell,” Hernandez said. “Just like a little crash course before I go on and do my own thing.”

The students will be developing their entrepreneurial skills by merchandising their own products in the process, Fashion Department Program Coordinator Lauren Becker said.

“(The students are) understanding how their brands fit into a retail environment,” Becker said. “It allows them to connect directly with the consumer and speak with them. It really allows them to troubleshoot and problem solve and get feedback. It allows them to see their product in a living space, which maybe they haven’t had that opportunity yet.”

Students can pick up valuable information such as how their products look displayed on a sales floor, and whether they should change the display or the line of merchandise being offered, she said.

The student entrepreneurs keep 100% of money made from sales.

“I’m very appreciative for the opportunity to sell at this space and very much looking forward to the opportunity to that comes with it,” said Jean-Victor Lairmore, whose merchandise brand, Stream & Grounds combines influences from European and Southern California subcultures. “This will help me tailor my customer service skills and get a better understanding of the customer.”

Along with the six student entrepreneurs, a current faculty member in the fashion design program and two alumni of the program were given initial space in the co-lab.

Another area of the pop-up is student-designed merchandise donated by the students with the proceeds going to support the college’s on-campus food pantry, the Pirates Cove.

“I think it is a cool opportunity for people to be able to sell their things and also, as a buyer, get things that are pretty unique, that you can’t get anywhere else,” said sophomore fashion student Madeline Lietz, who purchased a hoodie for $25 and necklace designed and sold by student Mariam Abdelrehim, under the brand Bebe Rouge. “You can’t go to any other store and get any of those.”

The current displays will be up through the end of the semester and then a new group of student entrepreneurs will be selected to display their merchandise in the fall.

Becker said she would like to see the co-lab expand beyond the fashion department to allow other programs, such as art, culinary or horticulture students, to have the experience of selling their creations.

“Our dynamic and flexible space will be able to host a range of events,” she said, “including talks from industry experts, opportunities for students to showcase their skills and talents, and collaborations with brands.”

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​ Orange County Register