84 layoffs hit surf industry’s biggest brands following Boardriders sale

• October 25, 2023

A wave of change is underway for the world’s largest surf brands.

Eighty-four positions were eliminated at Boardriders Wholesale LLC Inc.- the umbrella company that owned Quiksilver, Billabong, Roxy, RVCA and a handful of other action-sports brands. The layoffs follow the September sale of the action-sports company to New York-based Authentic Brands Group.

The layoffs, which started in September and will continue through October, are happening in the Huntington Beach and Costa Mesa offices. They will be completed by Oct. 31, according to a letter the company sent to the state Employment Development Department.

In the letter, the company called the permanent layoffs “necessary but difficult measures,” with 72 positions cut at the Huntington Beach headquarters, 19 in Costa Mesa, one in Mira Loma and another at Universal City.

The eliminated jobs ranged from the top level down, from CEO to several vice presidents, jobs in the art, design, marketing, sales departments and beyond.

While Authentic Brand Group did not respond to requests for comment, industry insiders said the downsizing marks a turbulent time for the legacy brands, all of which have a rich history in Southern California and have played a pivotal role in the evolution and growth of surfing culture here and around the world.

Vipe Desai, executive director of the Surf Industry Members Association, said the long transition of the sale left a sense of uncertainty within the company for the past year.

“There were a lot of people uncertain if they were going to have a job,” he said. “That’s what has affected some of the uncertainty and maybe even the morale within the brands.”

Layoffs, unfortunately, are typically standard when brands are purchased, he said.

Some people were rehired by the licensee, he said, while others have landed at other brands within the tight-knit industry.

Following the sale, which also included DC Shoes, Element, VonZipper and Honolua, Authentic Brands Group announced Liberated Brands as its licensee and operating partner, the same group used for Costa Mesa-based Volcom and Spyder, a ski and snow brand.

Liberated will become the retail and e-commerce operator for Quiksilver, Billabong, Roxy, RVCA, Honolua and Boardriders in the US and Canada. It also will be the licensing partner and wholesale distributor in the US and Canada for Billabong, RVCA and Honolua adult sportswear, activewear, swimwear, outerwear, headwear and base layer products.

In 2018, a sale to Oaktree Capital that combined two longtime rivals, Billabong and Quiksilver, shocked the surf world when the legacy brands were brought together under the Boardriders portfolio.

That company had already made deep cuts throughout the company with 170 jobs — 110 in the U.S. and 60 in Asia — eliminated in 2022, according to surf industry tracker shop-eat-surf.com. 

Most everyday consumers don’t know, or care about, who is licensing the brands, Desai noted. It’s more about who their favorite athletes ride for, or what events the brands sponsor.

“I don’t think they care who owns what,” Desai said. “It’s only the people who follow it or want to talk negatively about what is happening because something they love is being disrupted.”’

He warns, however, of potential “brand erosion.”

“The consumer will make that choice at the end of the day,” he said.

Hurley, sold to financial group Bluestar Alliance in 2019, is another brand being licensed out that has seen its business-model change in recent years.

Its products — once sold exclusively at core surf shops — now are popping up at discount retailers, ranging from tweezers, face care and pool toys. A Hurley-branded sweater collection was recently spotted at Costco selling for $14.99.

Throughout the surf industry’s history, there have been several brand growths and business-model changes, Desai noted.

At one point, Hang Ten was the largest surf brand with a $12 million annual revenue. Then, that brand disappeared and OP stepped in and grew to $300 million. Then Gotcha, Quiksilver and Billabong took the top spots.

Both Billabong and Quiksilver were born in Australia, and brought to Southern California as North American licenses.

Bob McKnight, a business student at the University of Southern California, and pro surfer Jeff Hakman bought the license to sell in the U.S. in the 70s from the brand’s Australia founder Alan Green, building up the brand from a Newport Beach bedroom, selling boardshorts to surf shops out of McKnight’s VW bus.

Billabong, also originally created in Australia, was introduced to the U.S. market by Bob Hurley. He bought the licensing rights and built into a $100 million business, and 16 years later in 1999 created his own brand, Hurley, which was later sold to Nike and in 2019 sold to Bluestar Alliance.

With the biggest surf brands being run by financial groups outside of the surf industry, will they be able to maintain authenticity in the surf world?

“I think that does pose a challenge for these brands in how they navigate authenticity,” Desai said. “I think it is a concern that a lot of people in the industry share.”

There’s room for legacy brands to grow outside of the industry to a wider audience, while still staying core, he said. The hope is they employ people who have credibility in the surf industry.

“Let them lead your brand, these are people who have grown up in the industry, in the culture,” Desai said. “They understand the ecosystem of the industry and how to navigate the waters of retail, the athletes… Let these folks take charge, instead of trying to run it from a 20-story office building.”

It’s also an opportune time for small and mid-size brands to grow, he noted.

Surfside Sports co-owner Duke Edukas, who has long run the Costa Mesa surf and snow retail shop, said it’s too early to tell how the recent sale or layoffs may impact sales.

Many longtime reps, who have become friends through the years, have lost their jobs.

“I know most of them and I trust all of them,” he said, noting he will miss their weekly meetings.  “But let’s face it, no one knows where this is going to go.”

It will be the consumer that dictates what he should do on the sales floor. RVCA, for example, is the number one men’s seller and he doesn’t envision that changing anytime soon.

When Volcom was bought by Authentic a few years ago, people worried about the future of that brand. But today, it remains one of the top-selling men’s brands, as well as a strong player in the snow category, he said.

“The worst thing retailers can do is overreact,” he said.

So long as the top legacy brands are still selling, the big surf names will remain on the sales floor, he said.

“My eyes will be wide open to those numbers,” he said. “Those numbers will dictate what we do.”

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​ Orange County Register 

Georgetown women’s basketball coach Tasha Butts, former UCLA assistant, dies after breast cancer battle

• October 25, 2023

Tasha Butts, head coach for the Georgetown University women’s basketball team, died aged 41 on Monday after a two-year battle with breast cancer, the school’s athletic department announced Monday.

“I am heartbroken for Tasha’s family, friends, players, teammates and colleagues,” Lee Reed, Georgetown’s athletic director, said in a statement.

“When I met Tasha, I knew she was a winner on the court, and an incredible person whose drive, passion and determination was second to none. She exhibited these qualities both as a leader and in her fight against breast cancer.

“This is a difficult time for the entire Georgetown community, and we will come together to honor her memory.”

In April, Butts was named the Hoyas’ head coach after spending four years on the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets’ coaching staff. She was promoted to associate head coach in 2021.

Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman delivers remarks regarding Georgetown women’s basketball coach Tasha Butts during the Big East NCAA college basketball media day at Madison Square Garden in New York Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2023. Butts died Monday after a two-year battle with breast cancer, the school’s athletic director said. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)

Butts announced her advanced stage metastatic breast cancer diagnosis during the 2020-21 season. As she was going through treatment, Butts helped Georgia Tech earn an NCAA Tournament berth.

“Tasha was so instrumental to the success of this program. What she did as a member of this coaching staff cannot be overvalued,” Georgia Tech women’s head coach Nell Fortner said in a statement.

“She was tough – tough on her kids, tough in her expectations, but yet she was soft underneath when players needed her to be there for them, and she was always there for them. We are incredibly sad this day has come.

“She battled from the day of her diagnosis. We are proud of her fight to the end. We will forever love Tasha. She will forever be missed.”

Prior to coaching, Butts was drafted out of the University of Tennessee by the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx in the 2004 draft. As a rookie, she played in 30 games, helping the franchise to a record 18 victories and a playoff appearance.

“Our hearts are heavy as we learn of the passing of Tasha Butts,” the WNBA posted on X.

“A beloved member of the basketball community, Tasha was drafted 20th overall in 2004 by the Minnesota Lynx after a legendary career at Tennessee, and was continuing her legacy as a renowned coach at the college level.”

‘Heartbroken’

After the 2004 WNBA season, Butts returned to Tennessee where she was a member of four Southeastern Conference regular season championship teams, finishing with a 55-1 conference record, to be a graduate assistant for legendary Hall of Fame coach Pat Summit.

The Lady Volunteers would advance to the Final Four and win the 2005 SEC Championship.

“Our program is heartbroken to lose a member of our Lady Vol sisterhood much, much too soon,” Tennessee head coach Kellie Harper said in a statement.

“Tasha was the type of person who connected with people everywhere she went. She had such a positive impact not only on our Tennessee family but on women’s basketball as a whole.”

Butts played overseas in Portugal and Israel as well as briefly for the WNBA’s Charlotte Sting and Houston Comets.

She would go on to be a part of the coaching staff at UCLA for three seasons (2008-11) and LSU for eight (2011-19).

“Tasha was a great player and went on to have a successful career as a coach too,” LSU head coach Kim Mulkey said in a statement.

“More importantly, she had an impact on so many lives throughout her lifetime. We are sad to lose her at such a young age.”

The Milledgeville, Georgia native is survived by her parents, Spencer Sr. and Evelyn, brother Spencer Jr. and nephew Marquis.

​ Orange County Register 

Travel: Hoofing it around cultural sites in the heel of Italy’s boot

• October 25, 2023

In Italy’s heel of the boot, elves must’ve been afoot throughout the fairytale village of Alberobello, the world’s only enclave of 1,500 hobbit-like, stone trulli houses seemingly painted in white powdered sugar and capped with roofs resembling pointy gray party hats. To magically ward off demons, some trulli are marked with symbols, such as an arrow-speared heart.

Built centuries ago, the whimsical abodes brim with trulli-centric life: I sipped the local Primitivo in trulli wine bars, ate nonna’s pasta in trulli trattorias, shopped in trulli that sold trulli-shaped bottles of limoncello and teeny trulli earrings, and slept in a trullo (singular of trulli) as bells chimed from a church holding hallowed bone fragments of Alberobello’s patron saints. Surprisingly my neighbors weren’t Smurfs but six elderly Italian couples who, in a long-standing tradition, sat on plastic chairs outside their trulli to exuberantly socialize in the late afternoon.

Soon I waved arrivederci to Alberobello, moved to an Apulian farmhouse and hiked to the haunting burial site of a 28,000-year-old pregnant woman dubbed “the world’s oldest mother.” Later on, I spent three nights in a cave. That occurred in the spellbinding rock-chiseled town of Matera, where James Bond thrillingly careened his Aston Martin through serpentine streets while chased by bad dudes in the 2021 movie, “No Time to Die.”

A view of the rock-hewn UNESCO-listed town of Matera, as seen from an ancient cave on the Murgia mountainside. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

What’s great is I didn’t have to plan any of this juicy jaunt. Along with five wonderful strangers-turned-besties from Britain, I was on an eight-day Exodus Travels walking trip, the inaugural “Paths of Puglia & Matera — Premium Adventure” (exodustravels.com). Our eldest group member was a zesty 77 and our two longest treks each eight miles. You gotta feel la dolce vita when strolling by lush acres of grape-blooming Puglia vineyards and groves of silvery-green olive trees up to 3,000 years old.

The opulent busy facade of Basilica di Santa Croce in Lecce has both been praised as a masterpiece and criticized as a lunatic’s nightmare. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

Also on our southeast Italy itinerary: gallivanting through the glorious medieval  “White City” of Ostuni, taking a train to scrutinize insanely ornate Baroque curiosities in Lecce, and nonstop pigging out on regional dishes such as orecchiette pasta with turnip tops sauce and sun-dried tomatoes. (Mangia! Mangia!)

It’s easy to get lost in the serene, winding alleyways of Ostuni’s white-washed old town. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

“Tourists always go to Florence or Rome, but this is an area to be discovered,” said Puglia native and Exodus guide Ioana Misino, 38. Leading our entire journey, the patient, informative Ioana beautifully rolled her “r’s” and warmed us with tales about her typical worrying Italian mother. (“Ahh, Mamma,” she would sigh with a smile when her cell phone rang once again.)

Alberobello is known for its 1,500 storybook trulli homes, well-preserved and still used as residences or businesses centuries after they were built. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

We started our escapades in Alberobello, which like Matera is a stunningly preserved UNESCO World Heritage Site. Alberobello’s beehive trulli date from the mid-14th century on, were contrived from nearby limestone boulders, stacked without mortar, and crowned with conical roofs topped with decorative pinnacles. A main perk was the dry-stone construction could be sneakily dismantled to avoid paying property taxes to the then-king.

I’ll detail more about our overall voyage, but first the breathtaking, see-it-can’t-believe-it grand finale of Matera, honeycombed with 9,000-year-old cave dwellings still inhabited by humans and gripping hillsides teetering over a steep, gaping ravine.

On the Murgia plateau and canyon side, scores of mysterious holes are actually caves once inhabited by prehistoric people and later used as Byzantine rock churches by hermit monks. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

“Welcome to the Flintstones city,” enthused our local guide, Barbara Russo. “Matera is the largest sculpture in the world carved by hand.” She had just arrived at our boutique Wi-Fi-enabled cave hotel, not far from where 007 knocked out henchman Cyclop’s bionic eye.

Matera’s history is extremely rocky. Once an ancient settlement, by the mid-20th century Matera had deteriorated into a wretched slum, still without running water or electricity and plagued by malaria, dysentery and soaring infant mortality. Large peasant families shared enlarged cave homes with donkeys and chickens; human and animal waste mixed in streets. After Matera was labeled “the shame of Italy,” the Italian government evicted its 16,000 residents to newer housing in the 1950s, leaving a seedy ghost town attracting junkies and thieves.

Chiseled into a rock in Matera, the dramatic Church of Santa Maria De Idris juts from a hill and overlooks a cathedral, piazza and ravine. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

In the 1980s, redevelopment began and citizens started returning; in 1993 UNESCO listed Matera’s millennia-old two Sassi (meaning “stones”) districts comprised of more than 1,000 dwellings, in addition to 150 rock churches on a vast craggy outcrop. Hollywood came calling: Jesus was crucified in Matera (a stand-in for Jerusalem) in Mel Gibson’s 2004 film, “The Passion of the Christ.”  Across the Gravina River, we hiked along the rugged Murgia plateau, peering into spooky grottoes that sheltered Paleolithic hunter-gatherers and later became Byzantine cave churches for reclusive monks.

wilderness hike across the gorge from Matera’s town center brings trekkers to some simple cave churches dating from the eighth century on.(Photo by Norma Meyer)

On that trek, we scrambled over rocks, although our trip’s five planned walks — altogether totaling 30 miles — were generally easy on flatter ground. Of course we logged many more miles hoofing about hill towns since our Exodus agenda offered plenty to do.

With a sense of humor, chef Tommaso Perrucci teaches pasta-making at his Kapunto cafe in Matera. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

Like pasta-making. In Matera’s Kapunto cafe, along with my hairnet-clad, amusing travel mates (two husband-and-wife couples and a solo woman), I mixed my dough, robustly stretched my dough, cut my dough and felt like a dodo when as instructed I pushed three fingers into small bits of dough to roll them into indented pea pod-shaped capunti. Mamma mia. Next, after trying with a knife tip to create orecchiette “little ears” I produced noses on my pastry board. Gesturing with his hands, chef Tommaso Perrucci — who perfected his passionate pasta skills watching his mama — surveyed my work and assured,  “Not a disaster.” He paused. “BUT a disaster.” Then he kiddingly (OK, maybe not) told me, “In order to have enough time to learn to make pasta, you will need to get a visa and have residency here.”

Every day, eating was an extravaganza  — and often a surprise. One time for dessert, a server carried in a tray of roundish puffy pastries and in a thick Italian accent, animatedly explained something about “boobs.” We all laughingly bellowed, “What?” He elaborated: “Nun’s boobs.”

Seriously, that’s the real name of Italian cream-filled spongy cakes which resemble  mammary glands complete with nipples. According to legend, monastery nuns first created and sold the delicacies centuries ago, possibly to honor a tortured female saint whose breasts were ripped off with pincers.

Backing up now, before Matera we explored the “White City” of Ostuni, where our local guide described olive oil as “the gold of Puglia,” vendors cracked prized almonds with hammers, and buildings, just like in the Middle Ages, are regularly coated with gleaming white limestone to blunt the hot sun. From there, we ambled on a rural road alongside antiquated, gnarled, personality-laden olive trees to a secluded ominous cavern that is Delia’s ritualistic burial site. Delia is the moniker given by archeologists to a Cro-Magnon woman who died around 28,000 years ago at age 20, was eight months pregnant and in death donned a headdress and bracelets made of seashells and deer teeth. I had chills staring at the re-creation of her and her baby’s skeletons laying on the cave floor; the actual remains are in an Ostuni museum.

The re-created skeleton of an eight-months pregnant woman lies in Agnano Archaeological Park where she was buried 28,000 years ago. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

That evening, in Ostuni’s countryside, we stayed in an 18th-century “masseria” (fortified farmhouse) and I lathered myself with complimentary mini-vials of olive oil shower gel. Just a note here about Exodus Travels —  on its 500-plus itineraries worldwide, the company is all about family-run lodging and restaurants. (Also, I’m a big fan of the down-to-earth small-group adventure company. This was my sixth international trip with Exodus over years and my fellow travelers have always been multi-repeat customers too.)

Like other decor in Lecce, two figures outside a private mansion were carved centuries ago from “Lecce stone,” a unique limestone found in the area. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

The next morning, we rode a train to “Florence of the South” Lecce, a dizzying, dazzling city of lavish Baroque architecture. (You’d swear the designers were on psychedelics.) The magnificent façade of the Basilica of Santa Croce danced amok with figurines —  she-wolves, Turkish prisoners of war, dragons, cherubs, mythical lion-eagles, pomegranates. Lecce is also famous for its papier-maché workshops — a lightweight, life-size Virgin Mary loitered outside of one. I also noticed a regional specialty on a pub menu — pezzeti di cavallo, which translates to “pieces of horse.” A waitress said she didn’t know which parts.

Hiking through the Itria Valley puts walkers up close with verdant vineyards and age-old olive groves — and works off all those consumed carbs. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

Our week blew by. I knew it’d be intriguing when my first morning, at an Alberobello trulli trattoria, 24-year-old Nicolas Mentz fixed me a cappuccino, garnished it with a frothy heart and kindly welcomed me to “Cinderella’s town.” At our final destination, Matera’s past engulfed us while life colorfully carried on: A woodworker crafted initialized bread stamps in his cave shop so residents can recognize their loaves baked in communal ovens; artisans displayed cucu rooster whistles, Matera’s good-luck charms; a tabby cat festooned with a red bow tie lounged near a hip cave bistro. Except for two T-shirt sellers, there wasn’t much indicating that Matera was where Daniel Craig’s Bond romanced and lividly dumped his on-screen girlfriend, wildly vaulted his motorcycle into a crowded piazza, and fiercely spun doughnuts in his machine gun-firing Aston Martin, among other action scenes.

But I did spot a banner affixed to a rustic balcony and imploring, “Siate Gentili Con I Sassi.” It means “Be Gentle With The Stones.”

If you go

Exodus’ eight-day “Paths of Puglia & Matera — Premium Adventure,” includes accommodations, all meals except two, wine-tastings, local tours, train tickets, and more. Rates for 2024 start at $3,920 but prices are often discounted.  A similar trip, “Walking in Puglia & Matera,” includes different hotels, and fewer meals and activities, from $1,885.

​ Orange County Register 

Australian PM arrives at White House for meetings and celebrations of alliance with US

• October 25, 2023

By CHRIS MEGERIAN

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden said he was “doubling down” on the alliance with Australia as he welcomed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to the Oval Office on Wednesday, part of a state visit intended to bolster American ties in the Pacific against the backdrop of fighting between Israel and Hamas.

Biden said the leaders would discuss supporting Ukraine, where the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues after almost two years, and how to “stand with Israel in the wake of Hamas’ appalling terrorist attack.”

The state visit, only the fourth since Biden took office, is a reminder of how he’s pursuing long-term plans to counter China’s influence even as bloody conflicts in the Middle East and Europe remain the most immediate concerns.

Albanese arrived at the White House on Wednesday morning as a military band played and 4,000 guests watched from the South Lawn.

Biden said their alliance is characterized by “imagination, ingenuity and innovation,” and they will “race undaunted to a future we know is possible if we work together.”

Albanese said the “soul of our partnership” is “not a pact against a common enemy,” but “a pledge to a common cause.”

The two leaders are scheduled to hold a press conference in the Rose Garden after their meeting.

Senior administration officials said Biden and Albanese would be focused on supporting economic development among Pacific island nations, a key arena as the U.S. seeks the upper hand in the region.

The U.S. and Australia plan to work together on building maritime infrastructure and laying undersea cables to strengthen internet connectivity, according to the officials, who insisted on anonymity to discuss details before they’re announced.

There are also plans to have U.S. companies launch space missions from Australia, and Microsoft announced it would spend $3 billion on cybersecurity, cloud computing and artificial intelligence there.

The initiatives come on top of a previously announced defense arrangement in which the U.S. is developing nuclear-powered submarines for Australia. The collaboration, which also involves the United Kingdom, is known as AUKUS, an acronym for the three countries’ names.

“State visits are a big deal,” said Charles Edel, a senior adviser and Australia chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “They’re filled with plenty of pomp and circumstance, but they also serve as an opportunity to take stock of critical relationships and push them further forward.”

Wednesday’s events end with a state dinner in a pavilion erected on the South Lawn of the White House. On the menu will be farro and roasted beet salad, butternut squash soup and sarsaparilla-braised short ribs.

The B-52s, a rock group, were originally scheduled to perform, but they’ve been replaced by military bands.

“We are now in a time when so many are facing sorrow and pain, so we made a few adjustments to the entertainment portion of the evening,” first lady Jill Biden said.

The scenes of celebration will be juxtaposed with the crisis in the Middle East, where Israel has increased its bombardment of the Gaza Strip in retaliation against Hamas for its Oct. 7 attack. Hundreds of Palestinians were reported killed in a single day, and more bloodshed is expected as Israel prepares a ground invasion of the densely populated territory.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said there’s “no more important time than now” to hold the state visit to demonstrate the strength of the U.S. relationship with Australia.

The outbreak of war “doesn’t stop the work that the president has continued to do, whether it’s these diplomatic conversations, these important bilateral visits, or whether it’s domestic issues right here in this country,” she said.

Biden has previously hosted the leaders of France, South Korea and India for state visits.

This one is something of a consolation prize for Albanese after Biden scrapped his earlier plan to visit Australia in May during a standoff with House Republicans over the debt ceiling. The decision forced the cancellation of a meeting of the Quad, which includes the U.S., India, Japan and Australia. A quick stopover in Papa New Guinea was postponed as well.

Albanese touched down in the U.S. late Sunday, and he visited Arlington National Cemetery on Monday to commemorate how Americans and Australians have fought alongside each other over the years.

The Bidens welcomed Albanese and his partner, Jodie Haydon, to the White House on Tuesday evening for a private dinner and to exchange gifts.

Albanese is also tending to Australia’s relationship with China. He announced Sunday that he would meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in November. He will be the first Australian prime minister to visit China in seven years, a reflection of tension between the two countries over trade and security issues.

“It’s in Australia’s interest to have good relations with China,” Albanese told reporters.

Albanese’s meeting with Xi would come just weeks before a potential meeting between Biden and Xi during a gathering of Asian leaders in San Francisco. Beijing has not yet announced whether Xi will attend the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, known as APEC.

China’s top diplomat arrives in Washington later this week to meet with top U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

Congressional chaos is another complicating factor for Albanese’s visit. House Republicans have been unable to settle on a new speaker — a fourth potential replacement emerged on Tuesday, which means it’s been impossible to move legislation on Capitol Hill.

When Albanese wants to lobby for legislation, “it’s even difficult for him to meet the right person to make the case,” said John Lee, a Sydney-based senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.

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For Australia, that means critical issues could be left in limbo. Officials in both countries are hoping to streamline rules on weapons exports to improve defense collaboration.

Biden wants $3.4 billion to expand naval production facilities to help provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines. Sullivan described the proposal as “a key component to making our AUKUS agreement a success.”

Australia plans to buy up to five U.S. submarines and later build its own. It’s the first time in 65 years that the U.S. has shared its nuclear propulsion technology.

But Lee, who worked as a national security adviser to Australia’s foreign minister in a previous government, said the two countries are straining to make progress on their plans.

“The U.S. and Australia are not on track,” he said of their defense partnership.

Associated Press writer Will Weissert contributed to this report.

​ Orange County Register 

Vote now for the Southern California News Group Boys Athlete of the Week, Oct. 25

• October 25, 2023

Editor’s note: SCNG prohibits the use of bots and any other artificial methods of voting. Suspicious activity could lead to the disqualification of candidates.

Welcome to the Southern California News Group’s Boys Athlete of the Week poll.

Throughout the high school sports year, SCNG will provide a list of candidates — selected by our 11 newspapers in Orange County, Los Angeles County, Riverside County and San Bernardino County — who stood out over the previous week and allow you, the reader, to vote for the overall winner.

This week, we consider performances from Oct. 16-22.

The poll closes at 11 p.m. Thursday.

Vote as many times as you’d like until then without using bots or any other artificial methods of voting.

The weekly winner will be announced each Friday morning online.

GIRLS ATHLETE OF THE WEEK POLL

Here are this week’s nominees (the poll is below the list of candidates):

Orange County boys athlete of the week: Trent Mosley, Santa Margarita

Press-Telegram Boys Athlete of the Week: Jarret Nielsen, Jordan

Daily Breeze Boys Athlete of the Week: Cadence Turner, Redondo

Daily News boys athlete of the Week: Jackson Askins, Valencia

San Gabriel Valley Boys Athlete of the Week: Richie Munoz, Bishop Amat

Inland boys athlete of the week: Ronald Weathers, Arroyo Valley

About the poll: The Southern California News Group includes the Orange County Register, L.A. Daily News, Press-Enterprise, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Whittier Daily News, Pasadena-Star News, Long Beach Press-Telegram, The Daily Breeze, San Bernardino Sun, Daily Bulletin and Redlands Daily Facts.

LAST WEEK’S WINNERS

Southern California News Group Boys Athlete of the Week: Ardwon Morris, Orange

Southern California News Group Girls Athlete of the Week: Helena Foord, South Pasadena

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​ Orange County Register 

Vote now for the Southern California News Group Girls Athlete of the Week, Oct. 25

• October 25, 2023

Editor’s note: SCNG prohibits the use of bots and any other artificial methods of voting. Suspicious activity could lead to the disqualification of candidates.

Welcome to the Southern California News Group’s Girls Athlete of the Week poll.

Throughout the high school sports year, SCNG will provide a list of candidates — selected by our 11 newspapers in Orange County, Los Angeles County, Riverside County and San Bernardino County — who stood out over the previous week and allow you, the reader, to vote for the overall winner.

This week, we consider performances from Oct. 16-22.

The poll closes at 11 p.m. Thursday.

Vote as many times as you’d like until then without using bots or any other artificial methods of voting.

The weekly winner will be announced each Friday morning online.

BOYS ATHLETE OF THE WEEK POLL

Here are this week’s nominees (the poll is below the list of candidates):

Orange County girls athlete of the week: Yurang Li, Sunny Hills

Press-Telegram Girls Athlete of the Week: Simrin Adams, Wilson

Daily Breeze Girls Athlete of the Week: Lyla Fedio, Redondo

Daily News girls athlete of the Week: Manaia Ogbechie, Oaks Christian

San Gabriel Valley Girls Athlete of the Week: Taylor Yu, Temple City

Inland girls athlete of the week: Emilyn Czaplicki, King

About the poll: The Southern California News Group includes the Orange County Register, L.A. Daily News, Press-Enterprise, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Whittier Daily News, Pasadena-Star News, Long Beach Press-Telegram, The Daily Breeze, San Bernardino Sun, Daily Bulletin and Redlands Daily Facts.

LAST WEEK’S WINNERS

Southern California News Group Girls Athlete of the Week: Helena Foord, South Pasadena

Southern California News Group Boys Athlete of the Week: Ardwon Morris, Orange

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​ Orange County Register 

CSUF professor’s LA art exhibition is a ‘love letter to jotería communities’

• October 25, 2023

By Greg Hardesty, contributing writer

Since he was a child, Eddy Francisco Alvarez Jr. has been writing.

It was a creative outlet throughout a challenging upbringing.

Eddy and his two sisters, Gaby and Patty, all children of immigrant parents, grew up on welfare and in subsidized housing.

Their Cuban father was mentally disabled, and their Mexican mother stayed home to take care of him when she wasn’t cleaning houses or hotel rooms.

But challenges didn’t stifle the creative juices in Alverez, who in addition to writing also considered acting before he discovered his sweet spot in academia.

Now, the associate professor in CSUF’s Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies is celebrating a first.

Based on his research into queer Latinx communities in Los Angeles (Eddy grew up in the San Fernando Valley), his exhibition continues its run (Aug. 24 through Jan. 28, 2024) at the Museum of Social Justice in downtown Los Angeles.

“Finding Sequins in the Rubble: Archives of Jotería Memories in Los Angeles” is the museum’s first LGBTQ-focused exhibition. It also marks Alvarez’s first time curating a public history project. And he had some help from students in two of his classes.

“It’s been very scary because I have so much love for my communities, and it’s been lots of work,” says Alvarez, a member of the queer Latinx community of L.A., “but it’s also been so much fun and a very memorable experience.”

Reclaimed empowerment

Write your words

to leave a legacy, a history, a herstory, a queerstory,

so that your words may create paths to follow,

Recipes for self-love, self-healing, survival.

The above is from Alvarez’s poem, “Write Your Words,” and he views the exhibition as a form of poetry.

“It’s a love letter to jotería communities in L.A. and everywhere,” says Alvarez, referring to the word derived from the derogatory terms Joto and Jota that historically have been used to describe people of Mexican descent who do not fit heteronormative standards.

Jotería now is a reclaimed term of empowerment for queer Latinx and indigenous people.

Alvarez’s exhibition was curated from images, artifacts and oral histories, and is designed to focus on the love, joy, activism and family that queer Latinx in Los Angeles have built.

Alvarez first pitched the idea to a former professor at Cal State University Northridge, where Alvarez, a first-generation college student and former elementary school teacher, earned a bachelor’s degree in Spanish (he earned master’s and doctorate degrees in Chicana and Chicano Studies at UC Santa Barbara).

It took a lot of support from former and current colleagues as well as students at CSUF, which Alvarez joined after teaching stints in New York and Portland, to make the exhibition a reality.

Alvarez even got his family involved. A niece helped him pick up artifacts across Los Angeles

Humbling and rewarding

For the exhibition, some of Alvarez’s Titan students transcribed, conducted oral histories, did background research, and put together timelines.

Esmeralda Llerenas, a first-year graduate student pursuing a master’s in counseling with an emphasis in the Latinx community, interviewed a good friend for the exhibit.

“Being able to share his story, and being given the trust to do so, was so humbling and rewarding,” she says.

Llerenas says Alvarez was a source of validation and comfort for her.

“I struggled with my imposter syndrome on this project,” she says. “But he made sure to always be available and supportive, while also providing feedback. I trusted him and his expertise to guide me in the right direction.”

Amalia Contreras, a recent graduate with a major in history and a double minor in Chicano studies with plans to become an educator or a journalist, collected data on oral history interviews that Alvarez conducted.

She organized data from those oral histories using a spreadsheet that pinpointed the places that document important locations of where folks realized their sexuality and had first met their first boyfriend or girlfriend.

“To me,” Contreras says, “Professor Alvarez is the most impactful educator and activist on campus. He has truly been a leader in every sense of the word. He is the reason why I minored in Chicano studies. And his presence in higher education has contributed to so much healing in the Latinx/Chicanx community here at CSUF.”

‘It feels like home’

Alvarez is working on a book, “Finding Sequins in the Rubble: Memory, Space and Aesthetics in Queer Latinx Los Angeles,” an oral history and archival project that maps physical and ephemeral sites of memory and quotidian moments of pleasure and resistance for queer and trans Chicanx and Latinx communities in Los Angeles.

He also is working on a collection of essays and poems about growing up queer.

He’s thrilled to be at CSUF.

“It feels like home,” Alvarez says. “Many of my students have stories like mine, and they are so committed to their learning. Many of them juggle multiple jobs and families and go to school. And I’m lucky to have amazing and supportive colleagues.”

Visit museumofsocialjustice.org to learn more about Alvarez’s exhibit.

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​ Orange County Register 

Trump rages as former acolytes turn against him under legal heat

• October 25, 2023

Donald Trump’s wealth, power and fame acted like a magnet for new associates keen to enter his orbit. But now, key figures who sought a share of his reflected glory are turning against him to save themselves.

The ex-president absorbed a trio of blows Tuesday that worsened his legal peril and underscored how the 2024 election – in which he is the front-runner for the GOP nomination – will play out in the courts rather than traditional voting battlegrounds.

In the most significant development, ABC News reported that Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, had met federal prosecutors multiple times and had categorically undermined the ex-president’s narrative about a stolen election. Meadows was the gatekeeper to the Oval Office in the critical days when Trump was allegedly plotting to steal the 2020 election after voters rejected his bid for a second term. CNN has reached out to Meadows’ attorney for comment.

In another damaging twist, former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis, who blanketed television networks after President Joe Biden’s victory to falsely claim he was elected because of fraud, reached a plea deal with Georgia prosecutors. Ellis on Tuesday tearfully confessed to the felony of aiding and abetting false statements that she and other lawyers told Peach State lawmakers. She was the third former Trump acolyte to agree to testify against the ex-president and others this week. The election subversion prosecution brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is now following the classic playbook of a racketeering case wherein smaller fish are peeled away for reduced sentences to secure their testimony against the alleged kingpin.

“If I knew then what I knew now, I would have declined to represent Donald Trump in these post-election challenges. I look back on this experience with deep remorse,” Ellis said.

Ellis was a comparatively junior figure in Trump’s schemes to overthrow the election, although there is reason to believe she was in critical meetings of interest to prosecutors. Her guilty plea also looks like terrible news for former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who also served as a Trump lawyer after the election and with whom Ellis worked closely.

Her repudiation of her own behavior marks an ominous omen for Trump because it shows that while falsehoods about election fraud are still a potent political force in the GOP and conservative media, it’s the truth that matters in court. Under the legal system, the former president could face a level of accountability that the US political system, which is still buckling under his influence, can’t match.

One of Trump’s former associates was feeling no remorse when he arrived in court in New York on Tuesday seeking to undermine another Trump legal defense. The former president’s longtime fixer, Michael Cohen, came face to face with his ex-boss for the first time in five years when he took the stand in a civil trial in which prosecutors are seeking to end Trump’s ability to do business in the state. Cohen has already gone to jail for tax fraud, making false statements to Congress and campaign finance violations – some of which were linked to his work for Trump before he launched his political career. Cohen once vowed to take a bullet for his former boss but has left no doubt that he’s been itching to testify against him for many months. While his own conviction raises credibility issues about his testimony, Cohen implicated Trump on Tuesday, saying his former boss directed him to inflate his net worth on financial statements.

“Heck of a reunion,” Cohen told reporters after testifying under Trump’s gaze.

Trump feels the growing legal heat

Each of Tuesday’s legal dramas threatened to undermine Trump’s position in separate cases, to which he has pleaded not guilty, and emphasized how the Republican front-runner’s bid to recapture the White House will be shadowed by his criminal liability.

And for someone who has the exaggerated sense of loyalty harbored by Trump – albeit one that mostly goes one way – the spectacle of three former associates turning against him will be especially irksome.

While the crush of legal cases bearing down on him hasn’t diminished his dominance in the GOP presidential race, there are increasing signs that the courtroom pressure is beginning to grate on a former president who, in a lifetime of business, personal and political scrapes, has made an art form of dodging accountability.

In a rage-filled stream of consciousness on his Truth Social network on Tuesday night, Trump lashed out at the ABC report about Meadows.

“I don’t think Mark Meadows would lie about the Rigged and Stollen 2020 Presidential Election merely for getting IMMUNITY against Prosecution (PERSECUTION!),” the former president wrote.

“Some people would make that deal, but they are weaklings and cowards, and so bad for the future our Failing Nation. I don’t think that Mark Meadows is one of them, but who really knows? MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”

This came only a day after Trump absurdly compared himself to Nelson Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison – much of it in a tiny cell on Robben Island – enduring forced labor in a quarry for opposing the racist apartheid system in South Africa. After his release, the Nobel Peace Prize winner remade his divided nation as president and became a symbol of unity, humility, racial healing and forgiveness – qualities rarely shown by Trump.

“I don’t mind being Nelson Mandela, because I’m doing it for a reason,” the ex-president told supporters in New Hampshire.

Trump’s persecution complex is revealing, however. The former president is portraying himself as a bulwark against a government that he claims is weaponized against him and his supporters. The idea that he is a political martyr who is being unfairly targeted by the Biden administration – despite 91 charges across his four criminal indictments – may be his only credible campaign tactic. After all, he may be a convicted felon by Election Day in less than 13 months. While that prospect doesn’t seem to faze Republican primary voters, it may be a serious vulnerability among a broader electorate.

The significance of the Meadows developments

Legal watchers in Washington have speculated for months about the activity of Meadows, a former North Carolina congressman who became the last chief of staff of Trump’s turbulent White House term.

During his testimony before a federal grand jury, Meadows was also asked about efforts to overturn the election as well as Trump’s handling of classified documents, CNN previously reported.

But if, as ABC News has reported, he has been granted immunity by special counsel Jack Smith and met federal prosecutors multiple times, that qualifies for the over-used term of “bombshell.”

Meadows is also a key figure in the Fulton County, Georgia, probe, where he made a failed effort to have his case elevated to federal court after unsuccessfully arguing his actions at the behest of Trump’s election thwarting effort fell under his official duties.

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Meadows, who met Smith’s team at least three times this year, told investigators he did not believe the election was stolen and that Trump was being “dishonest” in claiming victory shortly after polls closed in 2020, according to ABC.

The agreement is the first publicly known in the special counsel’s investigation into the events around January 6, 2021. The exact terms of Meadows’ deal with prosecutors are not clear, but often such agreements allow a person with valuable information about an investigation immunity from prosecution in exchange for fully cooperating.

The reported details of Meadows’ testimony could be hugely damaging for Trump because a fundamental plank of the ex-president’s defense relies on the notion that he sincerely believed that the election was stolen and that his actions were not therefore criminal because they were an exercise of his right to free speech.

It has long been the case that while those around Trump in business and politics often find themselves slipping deep into legal trouble, he skips free. The apparent decisions of Meadows, Ellis and Cohen – together with the mass of legal threats now facing the former president – suggest that charmed life is about to meet its biggest challenge yet.

​ Orange County Register