Book ban attempts hit record high in 2022, library org says

• March 23, 2023

By HILLEL ITALIE | AP National Writer

Attempted book bans and restrictions at school and public libraries continue to surge, setting a record in 2022, according to a new report from the American Library Association released Thursday.

More than 1,200 challenges were compiled by the association in 2022, nearly double the then-record total from 2021 and by far the most since the ALA began keeping data 20 years ago.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” says Deborah Caldwell-Stone, who directs the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. “The last two years have been exhausting, frightening, outrage inducing.”

Thursday’s report not only documents the growing number of challenges, but also their changing nature. A few years ago, complaints usually arose with parents and other community members and referred to an individual book. Now, the requests are often for multiple removals, and organized by national groups such as the conservative Moms for Liberty, which has a mission of “unifying, educating and empowering parents to defend their parental rights at all levels of government.”

Last year, more than 2,500 different books were objected to, compared to 1,858 in 2021 and just 566 in 2019. In numerous cases, hundreds of books were challenged in a single complaint. The ALA bases its findings on media accounts and voluntary reporting from libraries and acknowledges that the numbers might be far higher.

Librarians around the country have told of being harassed and threatened with violence or legal action.

“Every day professional librarians sit down with parents to thoughtfully determine what reading material is best suited for their child’s needs,” ALA President Lessa Kanani’opua Pelayo-Lozada said in a statement. “Now, many library workers face threats to their employment, their personal safety, and in some cases, threats of prosecution for providing books to youth they and their parents want to read.”

Caldwell-Stone says that some books have been targeted by liberals because of racist language — notably Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” — but the vast majority of complaints come from conservatives, directed at works with LGBTIQA+ or racial themes. They include Maia Kobabe’s “Gender Queer,” Jonathan Evison’s “Lawn Boy,” Angie Thomas’ “The Hate U Give” and a book-length edition of the “1619 Project,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning report from The New York Times on the legacy of slavery in the U.S.

Related Articles

Bills facilitating the restriction of books have been proposed or passed in Arizona, Iowa, Texas, Missouri and Oklahoma, among other states. In Florida, where Gov. Ron DeSantis has approved laws to review reading materials and limit classroom discussion of gender identity and race books pulled indefinitely or temporarily include John Green’s “Looking for Alaska,” Colleen Hoover’s “Hopeless,” Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel “The Handmaid’s Tale” and Grace Lin’s picture story “Dim Sum for Everyone!”

More recently, Florida’s Martin County school district removed dozens of books from its middle schools and high schools, including numerous works by novelist Jodi Picoult, Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Beloved” and James Patterson’s “Maximum Ride” thrillers, a decision which the bestselling author has criticized on Twitter as “arbitrary and borderline absurd.”

DeSantis has called reports of mass bannings a “hoax,” saying in a statement released earlier this month that the allegations reveal “some are attempting to use our schools for indoctrination.”

Some books do come back. Officials at Florida’s Duval County Public Schools were widely criticized after they removed “Roberto Clemente: The Pride of the Pittsburgh Pirates,” a children’s biography of the late Puerto Rican baseball star. In February, they announced the book would again be on shelves, explaining that they needed to review it and make sure it didn’t violate any state laws.

​ Orange County Register 

Skeptical US lawmakers grill TikTok CEO over safety

• March 23, 2023

By HALELUYA HADERO AND FARNOUSH AMIRI (Associated Press)

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. lawmakers grilled the CEO of TikTok over data security and harmful content Thursday, responding skeptically during a tense committee hearing to his assurances that the hugely popular video-sharing app prioritizes user safety and should not be banned.

Shou Zi Chew’s testimony came at a crucial time for the company, which has acquired 150 million American users but is under increasing pressure from U.S. officials. TikTok and its parent company ByteDance have been swept up in a wider geopolitical battle between Beijing and Washington over trade and technology.

In a rare bipartisan effort to reign in the power of a major social media platform, Republican and Democratic lawmakers pressed Chew on a host of topics, ranging from TikTok’s content moderation practices, how the company plans to secure American data from Beijing, and its spying on journalists.

“Mr. Chew, you are here because the American people need the truth about the threat TikTok poses to our national and personal security,” Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican, said in her opening statement. “TikTok has repeatedly chosen a path for more control, more surveillance and more manipulation.”

Chew, a 40-year-old Singapore native, told the House Committee on Energy and Commerce that TikTok prioritizes the safety of its young users and denied allegations that it’s a national security risk. He reiterated the company’s plan to protect U.S. user data by storing all such information on servers maintained and owned by the software giant Oracle.

“Let me state this unequivocally: ByteDance is not an agent of China or any other country,” Chew said.

On Wednesday, the company sent dozens of popular TikTokers to Capitol Hill to lobby lawmakers to preserve the platform. It has also been putting up ads all over Washington that promise to secure users’ data and privacy, and create a safe platform for its young users.

TikTok has been dogged by claims that its Chinese ownership means user data could end up in the hands of the Chinese government or that it could be used to promote narratives favorable to the country’s Communist leaders.

In 2019, the Guardian reported that TikTok was instructing its moderators to censor videos that mention Tiananmen Square and other images unfavorable to the Chinese government. The platform says it has since changed its moderation practices.

ByteDance admitted in December that it fired four employees last summer who accessed data on two journalists, as well as other people connected to them, while attempting to track down the source of a leaked report about the company.

For its part, TikTok has been trying to distance itself from its Chinese origins, saying that 60% percent of its parent company ByteDance is owned by global institutional investors such as Carlyle Group. ByteDance was founded by Chinese entrepreneurs in Beijing in 2012. Responding to a Wall Street Journal report, China said it would oppose any U.S. attempts to force ByteDance to sell the app.

Chew pushed back against the idea that TikTok’s ownership was an issue in itself.

“Trust is about actions we take,” Chew said. “Ownership is not at the core of addressing these concerns.”

In one of the most dramatic moments, Republican Rep. Kat Cammack displayed a TikTok video that showed a shooting gun and a caption that included the House committee holding the hearing, with the exact date before it was formally announced.

“You expect us to believe that you are capable of maintaining the data security, privacy and security of 150 million Americans where you can’t even protect the people in this room,” Cammack said to Chew.

Lawmakers sought to paint a picture of TikTok as a Chinese-influenced company interested in gaining profit at the cost of Americans’ mental and physical health. Committee members showed a host of TikTok videos that encouraged users to harm themselves and commit suicide. Many questioned why the platform’s Chinese counterpart, Douyin, does not have the same controversial and potentially dangerous content as the American product.

Chew responded that it depends on the laws of the country where the app is operating. He said the company has about 40,000 moderators that track harmful content as well as an algorithm that flags material.

“I don’t think I can sit here and say that we are perfect in doing this,” Chew said. “We do work very hard.”

A U.S. ban on an app would be unprecedented and it’s unclear how the government would enforce it.

Experts say officials could try to force Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores. The U.S. could also block access to TikTok’s infrastructure and data, seize its domain names or force internet service providers like Comcast and Verizon to filter TikTok data traffic, said Ahmed Ghappour, a criminal law and computer security expert who teachers at Boston University School of Law.

But a tech savvy user could still get around restrictions by using a virtual private network to make it appear the user is in another country where it’s not blocked, he said.

To avoid a ban, TikTok has been trying to sell officials on a $1.5 billion plan called Project Texas, which routes all U.S. user data to domestic servers owned and maintained by Oracle. Under the project, access to U.S. data is managed by U.S. employees through a separate entity called TikTok U.S. Data Security, which employs 1,500 people, is run independently of ByteDance and would be monitored by outside observers.

As of October, all new U.S. user data was being stored inside the country. The company started deleting all historic U.S. user data from non-Oracle servers this month, in a process expected to be completed later this year, Chew said.

Generally, researchers have said TikTok behaves like other social media companies when it comes to data collection. In an analysis released in 2021, the University of Toronto’s nonprofit Citizen Lab found TikTok and Facebook collect similar amounts of user data.

To block such tracking, Congress, the White House, U.S. armed forces and more than half of U.S. states have banned the use of the app from official devices.

But wiping away all the data tracking associated with the platform might prove difficult. In a report released this month, the Cybersecurity company Feroot said so-called tracking pixels from ByteDance, which collect user information, were found on 30 U.S state websites, including some where the app has been banned.

Other countries including Denmark, Canada, Great Britain and New Zealand, along with the European Union, have already banned TikTok from devices issued to government employees.

David Kennedy, a former government intelligence officer who runs the cybersecurity company TrustedSec, agrees with restricting TikTok access on government-issued phones because they might contain sensitive information. A nationwide ban, however, might be too extreme, he said.

“We have Tesla in China, we have Microsoft in China, we have Apple in China. Are they going to start banning us now?” Kennedy said. “It could escalate very quickly.”

___

Associated Press reporter Kelvin Chan contributed to this story from London.

___

This story has been corrected to show Oracle is a software giant, not a server giant.

​ Orange County Register 

How being neurodiverse affects your relationship with money

• March 23, 2023

Money management can be tough for anyone. And one-size-fits-all financial advice can leave neurodiverse (also called neurodivergent) people who are struggling with their finances feeling stigmatized, or at a loss for how to control their finances.

But financial wellness is possible, by leaning on resources that target the neurodiverse community and making strategic use of financial tools.

What is neurodiversity? 

Simply put, “neurodivergence describes how our brains work,” said Maria Davis-Pierre, a licensed mental health counselor and CEO/founder of Autism in Black. Davis-Pierre is neurodiverse; she is autistic and has attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

The brains of neurodiverse people work in unique ways that differ from the average or “neurotypical” person. According to the Cleveland Clinic, neurodiverse conditions include: autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, dyslexia, social anxiety, bipolar disorder and more.

Neurodiversity isn’t uncommon. According to the National Cancer Institute, it’s estimated that 15% to 20% of the world’s population is neurodiverse. Organizations may use varying definitions for neurodiversity, but that estimate is commonly cited.

How neurodiversity affects your finances

The neurodiverse community has a wide variety of needs and strengths, and that’s also true when it comes to money management. And even neurotypical people struggle with their finances. Getting support may help you better navigate finances in ways tailored to your specific needs.

“Most people tend to have a lack of understanding when it comes to their finances,” certified financial planner Elizabeth Yoder said. She is director of financial planning at Planning Across the Spectrum, which provides financial services to neurodiverse folks and people with disabilities.

“I find that neurodiverse people tend to have similar difficulties to everybody else, but in different ways,” she said. “For example, some neurodiverse people may have trouble with ‘future thinking,’ trouble thinking about why they should be putting money in savings and how.”

Some additional financial challenges might include:

Having trouble remembering to pay your bills on time.
Spending impulsively.
Procrastinating when it comes to non-preferred financial tasks, like budgeting.
Having trouble understanding complex financial planning.

Job security can also be at stake. “Typical work environments are not accommodating to people with ADHD or autism, and without accommodations, it’s hard to be successful,” Davis-Pierre said.

She notes that some neurodiverse people may need to take a lot of time off from work, especially if they have other disabilities, which affects their ability to earn a steady income.

And the high cost of health care can also limit financial well-being. “I spend almost $2,000 a month on ADHD medication, with insurance,” Davis-Pierre said. “I have financial privilege — my husband is a licensed physician and I’m a licensed clinician, but it’s still a lot of money, so imagine what it’s like for people who truly can’t afford it.”

An inability to afford care or medication may affect people’s ability to be productive at work — and make money.

How can you improve your relationship with money?

When you’re neurodiverse, community can be a big resource for getting your finances in order. You don’t have to tackle financial wellness alone, and opening up a discussion may provide reassurance about where you stand.

“People who are neurodiverse sometimes think that they are worse off than they actually are,” Yoder said. She notes that often her neurodiverse clients are more on top of things than they give themselves credit for and that improvements are often made once they feel empowered to ask for help.

Here are some additional strategies to help you improve your finances.

Use technology to make things easier

If you struggle with forgetfulness, procrastination or are generally overwhelmed by staying on top of your bills, automating bill payments can help, provided uneven cash flow doesn’t put you in danger of overdrafts.

If it’s hard for you to have a clear picture of all of your savings goals within one account, consider categorizing them. “Some banks allow you to create savings buckets without opening new accounts,” Yoder said. That way you don’t have to try and wrangle multiple accounts and can instead create categories like “travel” or “emergency fund” within one account.

“Make sure that things are easier for you, consolidate accounts where possible, consolidate multiple 401(k)s and get everything in one place,“ she said.

Don’t force yourself to use tools that don’t resonate with you

Not every financial tool or piece of advice will work for everyone. “If a certain financial tool doesn’t work for you, move on from it,” Yoder said.

Acknowledging that something doesn’t work for you can be an important step in taking charge of your finances.

Ask for accommodations

“We are set up in a world where adults get shamed for needing accommodations, so be honest with yourself and understand the accommodations that you need to succeed,” Davis-Pierre said.

For example, at work, you might ask to bring in your own lamp if the office lighting triggers sensory issues or ask for short breaks throughout the day in order to better focus.

In everyday life, asking for accommodations might look like getting someone to write out instructions for something like filing taxes in a way that makes the process easier for you.

Find support

Lean on resources that support the neurodiverse community. Try searching for community-support groups for neurodiverse individuals in your area.

Support can also come from working with financial organizations that center neurodiverse people, like Planning Across the Spectrum, or with a financial therapist.

Additional resources ranging from job help to government assistance and general information on neurodiversity, include:

Neurodiversity Employment Network.
Neurodiversity Career Connector.
Employer Assistance and Resource Network on Disability Inclusion.
Government Benefits.
The Americans with Disabilities Act.
Different Brains.
The Color of Autism Foundation.

More From NerdWallet

​ Orange County Register 

Anaheim Hills briefs: Rotary Club plans Easter Festival for families

• March 23, 2023

Save the date for the annual Easter Festival sponsored by the Anaheim Hills Rotary Club on April 2 at Ronald Reagan Park. This event is open to the community and is Free to attend.

This all-family community event from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. will featuresthe club’s famous Easter Egg Hunt with more than 6,000 eggs stuffed with goodies. The event will have two separate areas for younger and older age groups and kids should bring along an Easter basket.

Other scheduled activities include photos with the Easter Bunny and face painting, a balloon shaping artist and Easter Egg coloring and decorating, as well as fun games. All these events are free.

There is an opportunity to participate in a raffle and a silent auction filled with golf packages, restaurant gift cards, hotel stays, children’s bicycles, as well as many other exciting items for bidding. Retail vendors will also be onsite offering various unique and helpful items available for purchase. Snack items such as shaved ice, popcorn, pizza and beverages will be available to purchase.

Come join the fun. For additional information, visit anaheimhillsrotary.org.

Help Marines and families enjoy Easter fun

Patriots 4 Pendleton is sponsoring an Easter basket and gift card drive and the deadline is April 1. The donations will be benefiting the families of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit from Camp Pendleton.

The charitable organization is currently collecting wrapped Easter baskets for young kids, $20 gift cards for teens and $25 gift cards for single Marines. Monetary donations are also accepted.

For drop-off or other information or to arrange for a pick up, contact Carolyn Walters or the organization at [email protected].

Book sale planned at Canyon Hills

The Friends of Canyon Hills Library is preparing for its Books and Baskets sale set for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 6 and 7 at the branch.

A variety of nonfiction, fiction, children’s and specialty books, as well as Easter items, will be offered at bargain prices. The $2 Bag of Books will also be available and the nonprofit group will provide bags.

Remember, this is a great way to find special books and other items at great prices and all proceeds help the Friends provide services and special programs for the community.

For additional information, contact the branch at 714-765-6444.

Women’s Connection hosts own Easter parade

The Anaheim, Orange and Villa Park Women’s Connection is planning a fun Easter celebration for its next luncheon on April 10 at the Black Gold Golf Club. And all women in the community are invited.

This event includes an Easter hat parade and guests are encouraged to wear a favorite hat and join in. Prizes will be awarded for the most unique, glamorous, funniest and so on. The afternoon will also include vocalist Darene Catuara and guest speaker Pat VanGorder, who will discuss what it’s like to have and to be “The Best of Friends!”

Doors open at 10:30 a.m. for socializing and shopping from onsite vendors; lunch and program follow at 11:30 a.m. The day concludes at 1:30 p.m.

Cost is $32 per person and reservation deadline is March 27. Call Barbi Zipperian for additional information and/or reservations at 714-280-9062.

Hunt for eggs, celebrate Easter with Canyon Hills Presbyterian

The Children’s Ministry at Canyon Hills Presbyterian will once again host a community Easter egg hunt on Palm Sunday, April 2, and all children in the community are welcome.

This event begins in the Fellowship Hall, following the 10 a.m. worship service, and includes a continental style brunch and a gigantic egg hunt outside on the church campus.

Canyon Hills Presbyterian begins its Easter day worship services with a sunrise service at 6:30 a.m., and another service at 8 a.m. in the amphitheater of Oak Canyon Nature Center. All are welcome.

Worship in the beautiful and serene outdoor environment among the impressive oak trees and softly flowing streams that give an extra tranquility to the Easter season. Music consists of acoustic guitars and contemporary songs for the 6:30 service, and features Godsend, the church’s contemporary rock band, at 8.

Worshippers for the early services are encouraged to bring along coffee or hot chocolate, a blanket and dress warm and casual for the outside weather.

In addition to the early morning services, a 10 a.m. service will be held in the church Sanctuary, as well as be live streamed. Music for this service is provided by the Chancel Choir, Godsend and other church musicians.

For additional information on services and activities, visit the church website, canyonhillspc.org.

Be fashionable with the Women’s Club

The Anaheim Hills Women’s Club will host a luncheon and fashion show at noon on April 18 at the Anaheim Hills Golf Course, and all women in the community are invited.

An exciting show will be presented by fashion coordinator Eileen Gerber, featuring beautiful clothes and accessories.

The cost to attend is $35 per person and reservations may be made by calling Karon Kelleher at 714-912-4907 or email [email protected]. Reservation deadline is April 10.

Sharon Hlapcich writes about events and happenings in the Anaheim Hills area. Reach her by phone (714-998-4604 or e-mail ([email protected]).

​ Orange County Register 

Daxon: The rains came – were you prepared?

• March 23, 2023

Probably like most of you, I don’t recall this much rain in Brea, or storms called “atmospheric rivers.”  I’d like those rivers to dry up for a long while.

Fortunately so far in Brea, we haven’t had any streets flooding or houses sliding down hillsides.

“Our staff has been monitoring all storm drain inlets, making sure they stay free of debris,” said Will Wenz, Brea’s maintenance supervisor.  He added that there have been no reports of rockslides or mudslides in Brea Canyon.

And potholes are usually filled within 24-hours of being reported to [email protected] or 714-990-7691, he said.

If you have areas of your property that could flood or start a slide during heavy rains, be prepared and pick up free sandbags at any Brea fire station or the city yard, 545 North Berry Street. You can have 10 bags per household.

Lisa Keyworth, Brea’s emergency preparedness coordinator, said now is the time to get prepared for emergencies.

“Being prepared for any disaster should include preparing a plan, building an (emergency) kit and staying informed,” she said.

The city’s website is an excellent source of emergency information. In an emergency, especially an ongoing one, information is frequently updated on site and the city’s hotline, 714-990-7732, Keyworth said.

It is also recommended that we register with AlertOC.org.  It is the county’s communication system that informs residents and businesses when there is an emergency that could affect your home, family or business. You can sign up your cell phones, landlines, email, text messages and TTY devices to receive AlertOC messages.

Also available is the Wireless Emergency Alert, or WEA, a national alert system that sends area alerts through local cell towers. That’s how the Amber Alerts arrive on our cell phones.

While I doubt we have to worry about being stuck in a home half buried in snow, wildfires, earthquakes and floods could, and have, happened here. We need to be prepared to be on our own for at least three days, and it could be longer before responders can arrive.

Sounds scary, but it is a wake-up call for all of us to prepare an emergency kit with canned and packaged food, medicine, one gallon of drinking water per person per day, prescriptions and over-the-counter medicines your family needs. And don’t forget to include your pets’ food, treats and meds.

The city’s website has a comprehensive list of all else you should include in your emergency kit, including flashlights and batteries, a camp stove, sanitary supplies, a first aid kit with instructions, candles, matches and large trash bags, to name a few of the listed items.

For several years, I’ve kept what I call my earthquake kit in my car’s trunk. I don’t have a camp stove in it, but it does include several items on the city’s list, including sturdy shoes, a light jacket and a wind-up radio.

But having emergencies supplies at home or in your vehicle is fine, but what about at your place of work? Keyworth recommends having emergency kits in workplaces, and that means more than a first aid kit. She is available to speak on emergency preparedness to groups of 10 or more, including HOAs, businesses and churches, to name a few.

Also consider taking the Community Emergency Response Team, or CERT, training offered by the city. It is only six sessions and offered at no cost. The spring class is on now, but watch for sign-ups for the fall sessions.

You will learn disaster medical aid, terrorism awareness, light search and rescue, proper use of a fire extinguisher, how to spot hazards in the area and much more.

Let’s all be prepared!

Terri Daxon is a freelance writer and the owner of Daxon Marketing Communications. She gives her perspective on Brea issues twice a month. Contact her at  [email protected].

​ Orange County Register 

K-pop superstars Mamamoo bring debut U.S. tour to Kia Forum in Inglewood

• March 23, 2023

Mamamoo have announced dates for their first U.S. tour.

And they include a pair of Golden State gigs.

These K-pop superstars perform June 2 at Oakland Arena and June 4 at the Kia Forum in Inglewood.

Tickets go on sale on at 10 a.m. March 29, ticketmaster.com.

The dates are part of the band’s My Con World Tour, which begins its U.S. jaunt on May 16 in New York City. In all, the four-member band — consisting of Solar, Moon Byul, Whee In and Hwa Sa — is set to perform in nine U.S. cities.

2023 U.S. Tour Dates:

May 16 UBS Arena at Belmont Park New York, NY

May 18 CFG Bank Arena Baltimore, MD

May 20 State Farm Arena Atlanta, GA

May 22 Bridgestone Arena Nashville, TN

May 24 Dickies Arena Fort Worth, TX

May 27 Wintrust Arena Chicago, IL

May 31 Desert Diamond Arena Glendale, AZ

June 2 Oakland Arena Oakland, CA

June 4 KIA Forum Los Angeles, CA

​ Orange County Register 

Manhattan DA rejects GOP demands for Trump case info

• March 23, 2023

By Farnoush Amiri | Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The Manhattan district attorney investigating Donald Trump rebuffed House Republicans’ request Thursday for documents and testimony about the case, dismissing it as an “unprecedented inquiry” with no legitimate basis.

In a letter obtained by The Associated Press, the general counsel for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg slammed the congressional request as “an unlawful incursion into New York’s sovereignty.”

“The Letter only came after Donald Trump created a false expectation that he would be arrested the next day and his lawyers reportedly urged you to intervene,” Leslie Dubeck wrote in the letter. “Neither fact is a legitimate basis for congressional inquiry.”

The Republican chairmen of three House committees on Monday sent a letter to Bragg seeking information about his actions in the Trump case. The Republicans criticized the grand jury investigation as an “unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority.”

The chairmen requested testimony as well as documents and copies of any communications with the Justice Department to be turned over by Thursday. The request came as Republicans in the House quickly rallied around the former president as a grand jury in New York weighs whether to bring an indictment against him.

“If a grand jury brings charges against Donald Trump, the DA’s Office will have an obligation, as in every case, to provide a significant amount of discovery from its files to the defendant so that he may prepare a defense,” Dubeck wrote.

The five-page response from Bragg’s office provides a rare insight into what has remained a secret grand jury process, marking one of the first public acknowledgments that there is a sitting grand jury currently investigating Trump. The DA’s office has adhered closely to centuries-old rules that have kept grand juries under wraps to protect the reputations of people who end up not being charged and to encourage reluctant witnesses to testify.

In proceedings closed to the public and members of the media, grand jurors listen to evidence presented by prosecutors and hear from witnesses. There is no judge present nor anyone representing the accused, and prosecutors do not have to offer any evidence favorable to the defense.

The disclosure comes as the grand jury appears close to finishing its work, after hearing last week from Trump’s former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, but the timing of a possible decision on whether to charge the ex-president remains uncertain. Prosecutors canceled a scheduled grand jury session Wednesday and planned to hear testimony on other matters Thursday, according to a person familiar with the matter. But law enforcement in New York has been making preparations for any unrest, should Trump face charges.

The case revolves around hush money payments during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign to women who alleged sexual encounters with him. Bragg’s team appears to be looking at whether Trump or anyone committed crimes in New York state in arranging the payments, or in the way they accounted for them internally at the Trump Organization.

On Thursday, one of the GOP chairmen, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, expanded his probe into the handling of the Trump case by demanding testimony and documents from Mark Pomerantz and Carey Dunne, two former Manhattan prosecutors who had been leading the Trump case before quitting last year in a clash over the direction of the probe.

Related Articles

“Last year, you resigned from the office over Bragg’s initial reluctance to move forward with charges, shaming Bragg in your resignation letter — which was subsequently leaked — into bringing charges,” Jordan, an Ohio Republican, wrote in the letter to Pomerantz late Wednesday. “It now appears that your efforts to shame Bragg have worked as he is reportedly resurrecting a so-called ‘zombie’ case against President Trump using a tenuous and untested legal theory.”

Requests for comment from Pomerantz and Dunne were not returned.

Associated Press writer Michael R. Sisak in New York contributed to this report.

​ Orange County Register 

UC Berkeley investigating AD Jim Knowlton, associate AD Jennifer Simon-O’Neill

• March 23, 2023

The University of California-Berkeley has launched a formal investigation into Cal athletic director Jim Knowlton and executive associate athletic director Jennifer Simon-O’Neill’s handling of dozens of allegations over the course of years that former Golden Bears women’s swimming head coach Teri McKeever bullied swimmers on an almost daily basis, the Southern California News Group has learned.

Attorneys hired by the university have begun contacting current and former Cal swimmers and their parents as part of a follow-up investigation to an eight-month, $2-million probe that led to McKeever’s firing on January 31, according to three people familiar with the investigation.

The current investigation comes against the backdrop of months of mounting criticism of Cal from former and current swimmers, including Olympic gold medalists, and prominent financial boosters of the Golden Bears athletic program that Knowlton and Simon-O’Neill and other university employees prioritized athletic success over athlete well-being. Specifically, swimmers and their parents maintain that Simon-O’Neill and Knowlton’s inaction led to dozens of athletes being subjected to McKeever’s verbal, emotional and physical abuse and in some cases even enabled the coach’s bullying.

Golden Bears boosters, some of whom have made seven-figure donations to the Cal athletic program, have lobbied Chancellor Carol T. Christ for months to fire Knowlton and Simon-O’Neill, arguing their failure to effectively address McKeever’s behavior caused swimmers to be endangered and damaged the university’s reputation.

The McKeever investigation’s heavily redacted nearly 500-page report substantiated allegations of bullying and discrimination over a period of decades first disclosed by the SCNG last May, finding that McKeever, who coached Cal to four NCAA team titles, discriminated against swimmers on the basis of race, national origin and disability, including using the n-word, and abused athletes in violation of university policy.

After interviewing 147 people and reviewing 1,700 documents, attorneys for Munger, Tolles & Olson, the Los Angeles-based law firm hired by the university, concluded “by a preponderance of the evidence that Coach McKeever discriminated against certain student-athletes, in certain instances, on the basis of race, national origin and disability.” The attorneys also found McKeever’s behavior “toward some, but not all, student-athletes in some instances was abuse and violated University policy.”

To date, 44 current or former Cal swimmers, including Olympic medalists and NCAA champions, 23 parents, a member of the school’s men’s team, three former Cal coaches, a former administrator and an athletic department employee have told SCNG that McKeever, the only woman to serve as head coach of a U.S. Olympic swim team, routinely bullied swimmers, often in deeply personal terms, or used embarrassing or traumatic experiences from their past against them, used racial epithets, body-shamed and pressured athletes to compete or train while injured. Swimmers and parents have also alleged that McKeever revealed medical information about athletes to other team members and coaches without their permission in violation of federal, state and university privacy laws and guidelines.

Nine Cal women’s swimmers, six since 2018, have told SCNG they made plans to kill themselves or obsessed about suicide for weeks or months because of what they describe as McKeever’s bullying.

Cal declined to comment. Knowlton and Simon-O’Neill have repeatedly declined to comment on the McKeever investigation and criticism of their handling of athlete and parent complaints.

McKeever has denied any wrongdoing. Her attorney said she will pursue a wrongful termination lawsuit against the university. McKeever’s firing did not include a financial settlement.

In recent weeks and months, Knowlton and Simon-O’Neill have privately tried to distance themselves from McKeever, according to multiple sources.

But university administration and athletic department officials including Knowlton, Simon-O’Neill and Sandy Barbour, Cal’s athletic director from 2004 to 2014, received between 2010 and 2022 more than 30 complaints from Cal swimmers or their parents alleging bullying behavior by McKeever, according to interviews, university documents and emails obtained by SCNG.

Despite the repeated complaints, Cal has paid McKeever just under $3 million in total compensation since 2010 and has given her eight raises in her base pay between 2010 and 2019, according to her contract and other university financial records. McKeever’s annual base salary has increased by more than 77% since 2010.

McKeever is a godmother to one of Simon-O’Neill’s children. Simon-O’Neill was hired by Cal in 2008 as director of Olympic sports operations. She was named associate athletic director in 2013 and after additional promotions was named to her current position, executive senior associate AD, chief of staff and senior women’s administrator in 2019. She was the direct supervisor of the women’s swimming program until the responsibility was removed from her last May, a day after the publication of an SCNG report in which 19 current and former Cal swimmers, six parents, and a former member of the Golden Bears men’s team portrayed McKeever as a bully who for decades has allegedly verbally and emotionally abused, swore at and threatened swimmers on an almost daily basis.

Related Articles

Knowlton has been Cal’s AD since 2018.

At the time of McKeever’s firing, Knowlton wrote to Cal swimmers that he “was disturbed by what I learned in the course of reading through the report’s 482 pages that substantiate far too many allegations of unacceptable behavior. I want to apologize, on behalf of Cal Athletics, to every student-athlete who was subject to this conduct in the past, and I want to thank everyone who had the courage to come forward and share their story with the investigators.”

Thomas Newkirk, McKeever’s attorney, said he was surprised by Knowlton’s letter.

“Jim Knowlton, why he is apologizing to athletes when he knew how Teri coached the entire time he was there is beyond me,” Newkirk said. “It makes no sense.”

RELATED:

UC Berkeley swimmers allege coach Teri McKeever bullied and verbally abused them for years

UC Berkeley places swim coach Teri McKeever on administrative leave

Ex-UC Berkeley swimmer on McKeever: ‘I honestly didn’t know how far she would go’

McKeever’s bullying led to lifelong issues, more former UC Berkeley swimmers allege

NCAA swimming champion details coach Teri McKeever’s bullying last season at UC Berkeley

​ Orange County Register