How long can you ski and snowboard this season? Record snow means more time on slopes

• March 22, 2023

Don’t put away those skis and snowboards just yet, it’s going to be a longer-than-usual season on the slopes.

Local ski resorts are still digging out from the most recent storms, with more snow possible, but resort operators are looking ahead, announcing Tuesday, March 21, they’ve already extended their seasons thanks to record snowfall.

Mammoth Mountain will stay open until at least July, while sister operator Big Bear Mountain Resort announced at least one of their mountains – Snow Summit, Bear Mountain or Snow Valley – will remain in operation through at least April. Mountain High will be open until, at least, mid-April.

The extension to the end of April for Big Bear Mountain Resort is about a month longer than typical end-of-season dates, which often wrap up end of March or early April.

Big Bear Mountain Resort has received more snow this season than in the past 20 years – an estimated 210 inches has been recorded with more falling as the latest storm rolls through. Last year, for comparison, the mountain had 69 inches. In 2019-20, an estimated 168 inches fell, but pandemic closures kept people from enjoying those end-of-season springtime conditions.

Resort spokesperson Justin Kanton said this year is “the most snowfall of this millennium,” noting their records go back to the 1999-2000 season.

Another 3- to 5-feet could fall by the end of Wednesday, he noted. “We’re hoping the powers-that-be can keep the roads clear and passable for people.”

Bear Break will make a come back on April 15 – the spring break-style party on the hill encourages people to wear retro gear, with a pond skimming event and music.

“As we get more fully into spring and temps start to warm up and we get some of those clear blue skies, you’ll see more of that beach vibe on the slopes with people wearing short sleeves and tank tops,” Kanton said, though warned UV exposure is 14% higher on the hill so wear a good sun screen and keep hydrated with more than just adult beverages.

John McColly,  chief marketing officer for Mountain High in Wrightwood, said the resort had gotten 2 feet in 24 hours already with this storm, calling conditions “the best snow and spring conditions in years.”

In addition to the West Resort, the East Resort will be open Friday and through the weekend and will also offer night skiing.

The tentative close for the season will be around mid-April, but there’s been three years in the past 20 when the resort was able to stay open into May, he said.

“We’ll stay open as long as snow conditions and crowds permit,” he said. “We definitely would stay open late if possible.”

Mammoth’s season will extend even longer, into summer and through at least July – meaning you could spend Fourth of July on the slopes. No firm close day has been set and there’s a good chance the resort could even stay open into August.

The resort is just inches from surpassing its record snowfall of 668 inches set during the 2010-11 season – and that’s expected to happen in coming days.

One of the most popular events, the Pond Skim, is set for April 16. It’s where costumed skiers and snowboarders try and skim over a 100-foot pond at Canyon Lodge.

Lauren Burke, director of communications for Mammoth Mountain, said anytime there’s this much snowfall in the Sierras, it’s exciting, but people also start looking forward to the warmer weather ahead.

“It’s incredible to be a part of a historic season like this, where we are going to break the all-time record,” she said. “As we move into April, I think everyone is excited for sunshine and spring skiing. It’s truly going to be the best spring skiing we’ve ever seen.”

People don’t always equate California with snow, but having a mountain with a summit more than 11,000 feet tall, a snowpack that holds up and the ability to go surfing one morning and skiing the next, makes the region unlike any other in the country.

Crowds are more spread out during the spring, spending fewer hours on the slopes as more offerings open up. During summer, a person can go on the slopes, then do summer activities such as mountain biking or golfing in the afternoon.

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“If you haven’t made a trip up, and the huge snow storms have scared you away, there’s four more months of skiing to be had,” Burke said.

It’s also a great time to learn how to ski or snowboard, with soft snow and sunshine making conditions ideal for beginners.

The resort has stayed open into July about 15 times in past years, and into August only a handful of times, the last time in 2017, Burke said. “We expect this to be one of our longest seasons on record.

​ Orange County Register 

DEA warns horse tranquilizer xylazine is making fentanyl overdose crisis worse

• March 22, 2023

Joseph Wilkinson | (TNS) New York Daily News

The drug xylazine, which has been linked to an increase in overdoses, has now been seized in 48 of 50 states, the Drug Enforcement Administration announced Monday in an alert.

Xylazine, also known as tranq, is often cut with fentanyl. Xylazine is legal as a horse tranquilizer, but it’s not approved for human use.

“Xylazine is making the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced, fentanyl, even deadlier,” DEA boss Anne Milgram said in the alert. “The DEA Laboratory System is reporting that in 2022 approximately 23% of fentanyl powder and 7% of fentanyl pills seized by the DEA contained xylazine.”

Fentanyl is cut with xylazine to extend the high that users feel. The average fentanyl high is relatively short, but the sedative effects of xylazine can make it last longer.

However, xylazine itself is not an opioid, meaning that overdose-reversal drug naloxone, better known by the brand name Narcan, does not work on it.

Because xylazine is often found in opioids, medical experts still recommend administering Narcan and calling 911 when around someone suffering an overdose.

More than 107,000 people died from overdoses between August 2021 and August 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Two-thirds of those overdoses involved fentanyl, but the feds did not know how many also involved xylazine because medical examiners do not always test for it, and it doesn’t show up on basic toxicology screenings. Earlier this month, several people died of xylazine overdoses in Syracuse within a week.

The drug was first detected in large quantities in Philadelphia before spreading across the country.

©2023 New York Daily News. Visit nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

​ Orange County Register 

Stagecoach 2023: See who will be grilling with Guy Fieri

• March 22, 2023

Lainey Wilson, “Sons of Anarchy’” star Taylor Sheridan, Old Dominion and ZZ Top are among the stars who will be hanging out with Guy Fieri at the Stagecoach County Music Festival this year.

The festival used social media to announce its schedule of cooking demos with country stars and pitmasters at Guy’s Smokehouse during the three-day festival, which runs April 28-30  at the Empire Polo Club in Indio.

Guy’s Smokehouse is essentially a food hall for smoked meats in the midst of the festival, but it has become an attraction in its own right as much as the music stages. The TV star makes regular appearances with his lineup of pitmasters as well as country music artists, while his assistants hand out barbecue samples. Celebrities who are attending the festival also swing by.

When Stagecoach announced its lineup last September, Jon Pardi said he wanted in on the action.

“I would definitely do some barbecue with him; he’s a good dude.”

Pardi got his wish. He’s one of the musicians on the schedule. Here is the rest of the lineup.

Friday, April 28:

3 p.m. Adam Perry Lang and Pat Martin

4 p.m. Jon Pardi

5:50 p.m. ZZ Top

Saturday, April 29

3 p.m. Chris Conger and Rashad Jones

4 p.m. Niko Moon

5:50 p.m. Old Dominion

Sunday, April 30

3 p.m. Brandon Shepard and Operation BBQ

4 p.m. Lainey Wilson and Taylor Sheridan

5:50 p.m. Bailey Zimmerman

Three-day general admission passes are $389; three-day Saloon passes are $799; Corral Reserved Seating is $829-$1,999; three-day Corral Reserved Standing Pit is $1,499; RV camping is $620-$1,620; Car camping is $244; Lake Eldorado camping is $679-$899; preferred parking is $99 and any-line shuttle passes are $70. All passes are available at stagecoachfestival.com.

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​ Orange County Register 

Albano’s Diamond Club: Orange County softball standouts last week, March 22

• March 22, 2023

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

Dan Albano’s Diamond Club outstanding softball players last week, March 13-18:

Kaylee Layfield, JSerra, Jr., SS

Layfield went 4 for 7 with three RBIs and a triple to help the Lions defeat No. 14 Tesoro and Rosary.

Loula McNamara, Tesoro, So., P

McNamara allowed two runs on seven hits, struck out six and walked none in six innings during a 2-1 loss against No. 10 JSerra.

Audrey Robles, El Modena, Sr., 2B

The Concordia-bound infielder went 5 for 8 with a home run, two doubles and five RBIs to help the Aztecs defeat El Dorado and No. 6 El Modena.

Jillian Torres, Santa Margarita, So., CF

Torres went 3 for 4 with two home runs and a double in a 5-3 loss against No. 4 Orange Lutheran in the Trinity League.

Brianne Weiss, Orange Lutheran, Jr., P

The Notre Dame commit scattered seven hits and struck out 15 in a complete-game victory as the Lancers defeated No. 11 Santa Margarita 5-3.

PAST SELECTIONS

March 15

Giselle Alvarez, Los Alamitos, Sr., 3B

Makenzie Butt, Fountain Valley, Jr., INF

Alysa Del Val, Pacifica, Sr., 2B

Kai Minor, Orange Lutheran, So., CF

Sara Pinedo, El Modena, So., P

March 8

Auddrey Lira, Villa Park, So., P

Malaya Majam-Finch, Fullerton, Fr., P

Peyton May, Orange Lutheran, Fr., P

Zoe Prystajko, Huntington Beach, Jr., P

Natalie Romero, Rosary, Sr., P

Please send nominees for Diamond Club softball players of the week to Dan Albano at [email protected] or @ocvarsityguy on Twitter

​ Orange County Register 

L.A. teachers union proves yet again it’s not about the children

• March 22, 2023

Since seizing control in 2020 of the United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) in a maneuver characterized by even the uber-liberal LA Magazine as a “hostile takeover,” Cecily Myart-Cruz has made little secret of her desire to leverage the union and its vast resources as a vehicle to advance a radical, socialist, anti-Semitic political agenda rather than advocate on behalf of teachers, let alone students.

And now, right on schedule, she’s teamed with Service Employees International Union (SEIU) to involve her own union’s members in a three-day strike the Los Angeles Times is calling the “largest and longest full disruption of education in the nation’s second-largest school system since the six-day teachers’ strike of 2019.”

The work stoppage began on March 21 and is being orchestrated by SEIU 99, which represents about 30,000 bus drivers, teacher aides, campus security aides, special education assistants, custodians, gardeners and cafeteria workers. The union is seeking a whopping 30% across-the-board pay raise on their behalf and, true to form, Myart-Cruz is pressuring her own members to walk out in sympathy.

But, of course, wages, benefits and working conditions are just a starting point for someone who, in a 2020 interview, asserted, “The union has to be about social justice.”

Myart-Cruz’s stewardship of UTLA began three years ago, when only 5,300 members ⎯ about 16% of its dues-paying total ⎯ participated in the union’s leadership election. She got 69% of that 16% running against a candidate who wanted UTLA to concentrate on actual teacher concerns rather than partisan politics.

In the years since, Myart-Cruz has used her position to embroil UTLA in a laundry list range of radically liberal causes having nothing to do with education, including:

“Racial justice”:Medicare for all;The millionaire tax:Financial support for undocumented families; and,Rental and eviction relief.

Even more inexplicable was Myart Cruz’s bizarre insistence that UTLA boycott Israel over its conflict with Hamas.

But nothing more vividly illustrates her contempt for everything ⎯ including students and her own membership ⎯ that might stand in the way of her socialist agenda than her callous determination to keep L.A. schools closed during the COVID pandemic while she grandstanded for her personal objectives.

In early March 2021, for example, when feckless California Gov. Gavin Newsom tried to bribe teachers back into classrooms by promising $2 billion worth of incentives for schools agreeing to reopen before April 1, Myart-Cruz brushed aside his proposal as a “recipe for propagating structural racism.”

While her district’s students languished at home grappling with an epidemic of depression, substance abuse and even suicide, Myart-Cruz stubbornly refused to capitulate, waiting until late April to only partly reopen for hybrid, part-time learning.

When parents complained, pointing to the low incidence of COVID cases in schools that had fully reopened, the race-obsessed Myart-Cruz dismissed their concerns as the product of unexamined privilege.

A year later, Smarter Balanced Assessments found the percentage of LA Unified School District students meeting or exceeding state standards in English dropped by about two percentage points compared to the pre-pandemic 2018-19 year ⎯ falling from 43.9 to 41.7%.

In math, the drop was steeper, falling by five percentage points from 33.5 to 28.5%.

But for Myart Cruz, the physical, emotional and educational devastation wrought by her hard-line stance was simply collateral damage.

“There is no such thing as learning loss,” she retorted when confronted with her own record. “Our kids didn’t lose anything. It’s OK that our babies may not have learned all their times tables. They learned resilience. They learned survival. They learned critical-thinking skills. They know the difference between a riot and a protest. They know the words insurrection and coup.”

Could it be more clear that UTLA finds itself in the grasp of an unhinged zealot who thinks of LAUSD’s 600,000 K-12 students as nothing but pawns to be traded for political victories?

And now she’s at it again, in a strike that doesn’t even directly affect her members.

Whatever else the ongoing work stoppage may be about, for Myart-Cruz and her allies at SEIU 99, the school district’s workers, students and parents are irrelevant. Stripped to its essence, this is all about the larger goal of imposing by bullying, blackmail and backroom deals a failed political philosophy they know would be rejected at the ballot box even in loony, leftist California.

 Aaron Withe is CEO of the Freedom Foundation,.

​ Orange County Register 

Actor Dick Van Dyke injured in car crash in Malibu

• March 22, 2023

Actor Dick Van Dyke suffered minor injuries when the car he was driving crashed a week ago in Malibu, authorities said today.

The “minor” single-vehicle crash occurred on the morning of March 15, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Paramedics were sent to the scene as a precaution, and an accident report was taken, the sheriff’s department reported. Further details were not released.

ABC7 reported that the 97-year-old actor’s silver Lexus crashed into a gate.

Last month, Van Dyke became the oldest contestant to appear on the Fox singing contest “The Masked Singer.”

Van Dyke starred on CBS’ “The Dick Van Dyke Show” from 1961 to 1966. “Bye Bye Birdie” launched his movie career in 1963, followed by the hit musicals “Mary Poppins” (1964) and “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” (1968).

In 2018, Van Dyke, who has won four Emmys and one Grammy, made a dancing cameo in “Mary Poppins Returns.”

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​ Orange County Register 

Game Day: The Ohtani-Trout show must go on

• March 22, 2023

Editor’s note: This is the Wednesday, March 22, edition of the “Game Day with Kevin Modesti” newsletter. To receive the newsletter in your inbox, sign up here.

Good morning. Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout combined to produce a great baseball moment last night. Let’s hope it’s not the only time they do that.

In other news:

Paul George went down with a knee injury as the Clippers dropped a one-point game to the Thunder; word of a diagnosis is expected today.
All eyes were on injured Adem Bona (shoulder) and David Singleton (ankle) as UCLA’s men’s basketball team headed to Las Vegas for Thursday’s Sweet 16 game against Gonzaga.
Austin Ekeler said he wouldn’t mind staying with the Chargers, but he clearly wants his pay (14th among NFL running backs) to match his production (sixth at the position last season).
Tearing an ACL at the NFL scouting combine didn’t stop USC offensive lineman Andrew Vorhees from stoking draft interest with his bench-press performance.
The Dodgers can’t announce it yet, but Julio Urias is lined up to make his first opening-day start March 30 against the Diamondbacks, with Clayton Kershaw starting the season’s second game.
The rain prompted Santa Anita to cancel Friday’s card and shift the track’s three-day racing week to Saturday through Monday.
And here is how the Los Angeles Unified School District workers’ strike is affecting prep sports.

The World Baseball Classic final ended with Ohtani on the mound in relief and Trout at the plate, the Angels teammates facing each other for the first time in competition as Team Japan tried to protect a one-run lead over Team USA with the bases empty and two outs in the top of the ninth inning in Miami.

Since Major League Baseball’s new pitch clock wasn’t in effect, the tension was allowed to build. Twenty-five seconds elapsed, 10 more than will be allowed during the season, between when Ohtani got the ball back after a 102 mph fastball missed to make the count 3-2 and when Ohtani delivered the decisive pitch. Ohtani adjusted his cap and blew on his right hand. Trout exhaled through his lips as he got set. Nobody watching in the ballpark or on TV shouted, “Hurry up! I’ve got better things to do!”

When Trout swung and missed at a pitch that swept away from him, Ohtani turned toward onrushing teammates in a triumphant pose and Japan began an emotional celebration of a 3-2 victory and the country’s third championship in five editions of the WBC.

And Angels fans felt emotions of their own, decidedly bittersweet.

It was fun to see the two great Angels play starring roles, even for opposing teams, in a contest with World in the title. It was frustrating to realize the chances of them doing so, both wearing an Anaheim uniform, in a World Series seem as remote as ever.

Not only Angels fans, but anyone who likes to see the best players on the biggest stages hates the fact that while Trout and Ohtani have each won American League MVP awards during the five seasons they’ve been on the same team, they’ve never had a roster around them capable of making the AL playoffs or even cracking .500.

“Seeing Trout and Ohtani lead their teams onto the fields carrying flags makes me so, so frustrated about the Angels of the last half decade,” Washington Post baseball writer Chelsea Janes wrote on Twitter as last night began.

Even after some helpful offseason moves, the Angels are rated by betting markets as third in the AL West, eighth in the AL and smack in the middle of the 30-team MLB with 40-1 odds against winning the 2023 World Series.

The odds of Ohtani remaining an Angel for more than the one season remaining on his contract might be better than that, but they aren’t short.

Team owner Arte Moreno, speaking with Angels beat writers for the first time in more than three years last week, said that he’s prepared to pay the Major League Baseball luxury tax in order to sign Ohtani long-term but that contract talks haven’t begun.

Ohtani’s agent said last month that there’s no deadline for talks to begin, but hinted they’re more likely to wait until after the season.

Baseball columnist J.P. Hoornstra wrote that enticing Ohtani to stay involves more than money. Hoornstra noted that Japanese fans at the WBC brought their country’s tradition of singing personal jingles for each player.

“My proposal to Angels fans is simple,” J.P. wrote. “Make a unique fight song for Ohtani, and sing/chant/hum it before each of his at-bats at Angel Stadium. He will be the only player in MLB afforded this tradition – a unicorn treatment for a baseball unicorn. More than that, it will honor Ohtani’s heritage in a way that makes him feel right at home. It might just become the most compelling non-monetary reason for Ohtani to re-sign in Anaheim if the Angels miss the playoffs again.”

Ohtani’s price tag certainly didn’t go down after the WBC, in which he hit .435 with a home run and four doubles at the plate and recorded a 1.86 ERA with 11 strikeouts in 9 2/3 innings on the mound.

But the performance compounds the imperative for the Angels to do everything they can to keep Ohtani. Ohtani and Trout aren’t just, at their best, the two most watchable players in baseball right now. They’re the three most watchable, counting Ohtani with the bat and the ball.

Their turn in the shared spotlight with a lot on the line last night lasted 2 minutes 45 seconds and will be remembered around the globe as one of baseball’s finest moments.

As great as it was to see them compete against one another, it would be better yet for the Angels to keep them competing with each other, surround them with enough talent to play for pennants, and let that moment last for seasons to come.

TODAY

Lakers are one-half game out of 10th place and a play-in game as they host the Suns (7 p.m., SPSN, ESPN). Lakers update.
Angels face the Rockies in Scottsdale, Ariz. (1:10 p.m., BSW). Yesterday’s game report.
Dodgers meet the Mariners in Peoria, Ariz. (6:40 p.m., SNLA). Yesterday’s game report.

BETWEEN THE LINES

The Lakers are 1-1/2-point underdogs against the Suns tonight. Since LeBron James was sidelined in late February, the Lakers have a 5-2 record as underdogs, both straight up and against the point spread.

280 CHARACTERS

“Pretty crazy how MLB has run a 20-team tournament over two weeks on two sides of the globe and it comes down to the exact scenario everyone wanted before it started.” – Jeff Fletcher (@JeffFletcherOCR) watching Shohei Ohtani pitch to Mike Trout with two out in the ninth inning of a one-run game.

1,000 WORDS

On top of the world: The Angels’ Shohei Ohtani (capless), former Dodgers pitcher Yu Darvish (11) and Japan teammates celebrate defeating Team USA 3-2 last night in Miami to win the World Baseball Classic Photo is by Megan Briggs for Getty Images.

TALK BACK

Thanks for reading the newsletter. What changes would you like to see in its daily content? Send suggestions, comments and questions by email at [email protected] and via Twitter @KevinModesti.

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

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​ Orange County Register 

Man arrested in shooting at San Pedro beach park that injured 5

• March 22, 2023

A 22-year-old man with ties to a San Pedro gang has been arrested on suspicion of shooting at a group of family members and friends at Royal Palms Beach Park, injuring five, including himself, authorities said on Wednesday, March 22.

Jose Ortega was arrested in Orange County on March 9, five days after the shooting, Los Angeles police Capt. Brent McGuyre said at a press conference.

“We determined that during the altercation, the suspect was struck by one of the rounds potentially from his own handgun,” McGuyre said.

Ortega got to a hospital on his own or with the help of another, McGuyre said. Witness statements and surveillance cameras recently installed by the county at the beach helped to identifying Ortega as the suspect, police said.

Royal Palms Beach in San Pedro on Monday, March 6, 2023.(Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)

A firearm was found at the scene. Ballistics tests were ongoing to determine if that was the weapon that was used. McGuyre said he did not know whether that firearm was legal or a ghost gun.

Ortega was booked into jail on four counts of attempted murder, four counts of assault with a deadly weapon and one count of discharging a firearm at an inhabited vehicle, police said. He was charged with those counts and was being held on a bail amount of more than $4 million.

He also faces a carjacking count and three attempted carjacking counts from April 2021, inmate records show.

When asked why the Los Angeles Police Department waited a dozen days after the suspect’s arrest to announce it, the captain it was to protect the investigation.

“There were aspects of the investigation that would have been harmed if we announced early,” McGuyre said. “While the investigation is still ongoing, we felt the investigation was at a point where we could announce without significantly impacting the investigation.

“There was a significant amount of community concern surrounding this event, which is why we announced today,” he said. “Otherwise, we may have held off until the full investigation had been completed.”

Related: Royal Palms Beach to close early on weekends in wake of shooting

About 5:45 p.m. on March 4, officers flocked to the beach park, in the 1800 block of West Paseo Del Mar, after the shooting.

Among those at the park were two group: One of family members and friends, and another with ties to the San Pedro gang, McGuyre said. An argument broke out — over what was not revealed — which led to a fistfight and the suspect pulling out a gun and firing, the captain said. There has been no indication that the groups knew each other.

A man attempted to wrestle the gun away from Ortega and was shot, said Los Angeles Councilman Tim McOsker, who also spoke at the press conference. When the man’s son came to his aid, he was also shot. The two other injured victims were either other family members or friends, McGuyre said; he was unsure of their relationships.

Related: San Pedro beach shooting that injured 5 highlights safety concerns

The gunman and at least one other person fled in a silver car, police have said.

The father was still in the hospital in critical condition, the captain said. The three other victims and the suspect have been released from medical care.

Officials have said the shooting occurred during an unpermitted concert shortly before security guards were scheduled to arrive for the nightly patrol.

Because of the shooting, the park’s closing time has been bumped up to 4:30 p.m. from dusk on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

How detectives found Ortega in Orange County, where he lives, was not disclosed.

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​ Orange County Register