Exposition Park, home to past Olympics, will get revamp and green space

• February 25, 2023

California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot joined state and local leaders this week to promote future plans for Exposition Park, including dramatic updates to its existing museums, the addition of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art and plans to transform 14 acres of badly needed green space to serve neighborhoods south of the park.

On Thursday, Feb, 23, newly appointed Exposition Park General Manager Andrea Ambriz greeted dignitaries and supporters before her swearing-in ceremony at the Los Angeles Coliseum, the centerpiece of Exposition Park.

Ambriz has a big job ahead, overseeing the park’s proposed master plan which is aimed at creating greater access, equity and sustainability at one of L.A.’s urban jewels. Expo Park is among the top five tourist and visitor destinations in Southern California, drawing 4 million visitors annually.

The event this week focused on an update to the park’s master plan, which officials said “charts a course for greater access, equity and environmental sustainability.”

Exposition Park, a 152-acre site just south of Downtown Los Angeles, is home to world-class museums, famed sporting venues and community assets aimed at educating and entertaining local residents and tourists.

It was a site of the famed 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympic Games and will be a site for the 2028 Olympic Games. It will also host events related to the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

​ Orange County Register 

Feds seek to limit telehealth prescriptions for some drugs

• February 25, 2023

By Amanda Seitz and Lindsay Whitehurst | Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration moved Friday to require patients see a doctor in person before getting attention deficit disorder medication or addictive painkillers, toughening access to the drugs against the backdrop of a deepening opioid crisis.

The proposal could overhaul the way millions of Americans get some prescriptions after three years of relying on telehealth for doctor’s appointments by computer or phone during the pandemic.The Drug Enforcement Administration said late Friday it plans to reinstate once longstanding federal requirements for powerful drugs that were waived once COVID-19 hit, enabling doctors to write millions of prescriptions for drugs such as OxyContin or Adderall without ever meeting patients in person.

Patients will need to see a doctor in person at least once to get an initial prescription for drugs that the federal government says have the the most potential to be abused — Vicodin, OxyContin, Adderall and Ritalin, for example. Refills could be prescribed over telehealth appointments.

The agency will also clamp down on how doctors can prescribe other, less addictive drugs to patients they’ve never physically met. Substances like codeine, taken to alleviate pain or coughing, Xanax, used to treat anxiety, Ambien, a sleep aid, and buprenorphine, a narcotic used to treat opioid addiction, can be prescribed over telehealth for an initial 30-day dose. Patients would need to see a doctor at least once in person to get a refill.

Patients will still be able to get common prescriptions like antibiotics, skin creams, birth control and insulin prescribed through telehealth visits.

The new rule seeks to keep expanded access to telehealth that’s important for patients like those in rural areas while also balancing safety, an approach DEA Administrator Anne Milgram referred to as “expansion of telemedicine with guardrails.”

The ease with each Americans have accessed certain medications during the pandemic has helped many get needed treatment, but concerns have also mounted that some companies may take advantage of the lax rules and be overprescribing medications to people who don’t need them, said David Herzberg, a historian of drugs at the University of Buffalo.

“Both sides of this tension have really good points,” said Herzberg. “You don’t want barriers in the way of getting people prescriptions they need. But anytime you remove those barriers it’s also an opportunity for profit seekers to exploit the lax rules and sell the medicines to people who may not need them.”

U.S. overdose deaths hit a record in 2021, about three-quarters of those from opioids during a crisis that was first spun into the making by drug makers, pharmacies and doctors that pushed the drugs to patients decades ago. But the grim toll from synthetic opioids like fentanyl far outstripped deaths related to prescription drugs that year, according to Centers for Disease Control Data. Fentanyl is increasingly appearing on the illicit market, pressed into fake prescription pills or mixed into other drugs.

The proposed rules deliver a major blow to a booming telehealth industry, with tech startups launching in recent years to treat and prescribe medications for mental health or attention deficit disorders. The industry has largely benefitted from the reprieve on in-person visits for drugs brought on by the pandemic, although some national retailers stopped filling drug orders generated by some telehealth apps over the last year.

The DEA has grown increasingly concerned over the last two years that some of those startup telehealth companies are improperly prescribing addictive substances like opioids or attention deficit disorder medication, putting patients in danger, a DEA official told The Associated Press on Friday.

The official said the agency plans to have the new rule in place before the COVID-19 public health emergency expires on May 11, which will effectively end the loosened rules. That could mean people who may seeking treatment from a doctor who is hundreds of miles away need to start developing plans for in-person visits with their doctors now, pointed out Boston-based attorney Jeremy Sherer, who represents telehealth companies. Patients will have six months to visit their doctor in person when the regulation is enacted.

“Providers and their patients need to know what that treatment is going to look like moving forward and whether, once the public health emergency ends in May, if they’re going to need to figure out a way to have a visit in person before continuing treatment, and that can be a real challenge,” he said.

Many states have already moved to restore limitations for telehealth care across state lines. By October, nearly 40 states and Washington, D.C., had ended emergency declarations that made it easier for doctors to see patients in other states.

​ Orange County Register 

Magnolia girls soccer wins school’s first CIF-SS title by edging La Quinta in OT

• February 25, 2023

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GARDEN GROVE — Magnolia captured its first CIF Southern Section team championship in any sport Friday night behind its resilient girls soccer team, which was led by a player who knew how to use the wind to the Sentinels’ advantage.

Junior Brisa Medina scored twice on direct shots off corner kicks, including the game-winning strike in the middle of the first sudden-death overtime period to lift Magnolia past La Quinta 2-1 in the CIF-SS Division 7 championship in rainy and windy conditions at Bolsa Grande High.

Magnolia High, which opened in 1961, has crowned individual section champions but before Friday it had never won a title in a team sport.

“It feels amazing,” Medina said after a celebration with dozens of fans who braved the harsh weather. “This is an unforgettable feeling. We got to where we are with teamwork.”

Medina scored on direct shots off corner kicks by sending the boots high into the wind, where the ball flew into the net courtesy of consistent winds of about 20 miles per hour that blew toward the north end of the field.

The winning goal arrived on her second consecutive corner kick, sneaking into the near corner with 4:10 left in the sudden-death period.

“It was just a matter of looking toward the corner and the wind helped me out, which was great,” said Medina, who has a team-leading 15 goals for the Sentinels (17-9-1).

Magnolia played with the wind at its back for the first overtime period and answered a goal late in the second half by La Quinta’s Jillian Ferguson.

The Aztecs (16-7-5), who played the second half with the wind at their back, drew a hand ball against Magnolia in the penalty box and Ferguson scored on a penalty kick to tie the score at 1-1 with about 13 minutes left in regulation.

Earlier in the second half, the Garden Grove League champion almost scored off a corner kick from the same spot as Medina but goalie Xuan Mai Johnson scrambled to the ball.

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Medina bent in her first corner kick for a goal in the 33rd minute to give the Orange League champions a 1-0 lead.

The title was special for longtime Magnolia coach Erland Jones and his coaching staff of alumnus Alyssa Garcia and Wilfredo Velasco. In his 21st season, Jones had five children and one foster child graduate from Magnolia, where he and his late wife Deborah worked.

“We’ve been the underdog a lot of times,” Jones said with tears in his eyes. “It’s amazing (to win).”

​ Orange County Register 

COVID-19 effects on California will linger for years

• February 25, 2023

Gov. Gavin Newsom says California’s COVID-19 state of emergency will end on Feb. 28, just four days shy of three years since he issued the first of countless orders he said were necessary to cope with the pandemic.

“Throughout the pandemic, we’ve been guided by the science and data – moving quickly and strategically to save lives,” Newsom said in October announcing the February end date. “The state of emergency was an effective and necessary tool that we utilized to protect our state, and we wouldn’t have gotten to this point without it.”

The efficacy of Newsom’s pandemic orders will be debated for years, particularly the shutdowns of schools and businesses and the billions of dollars in no-bid contracts his administration issued.

What cannot be debated, however, is that their impacts on millions of Californians will linger for years, decades or perhaps even generations.

Nearly 3 million Californians lost their jobs due to the shutdown orders. While the state has, on paper, recovered all of the jobs it lost, countless small businesses that shut their doors have not reopened.

With work-at-home the growing norm, restaurants and other businesses dependent on concentrated employment were clobbered. The downtowns of the state’s larger cities – including the state capital, Sacramento – were hollowed out and have not, in the main, recovered.

California’s stark divide between haves and have-nots grew wider. Upper-income Californians could do their jobs from home but lower-income service workers simply lost their jobs. Some qualified for unemployment insurance, but a managerial meltdown at the state Employment Development Department delayed, sometimes for months, benefits for legitimate claimants while EDD handed out billions of dollars to fraudsters.

School shutdowns, and the fitful efforts to continue instruction via the internet, had a devastating effect on students, especially those from poor families which lacked technology and whose parents could not work from home. The “achievement gap” that has long plagued California’s public school system widened even further, recent research has found.

Several new studies add even more evidence that the steps taken by the state to combat COVID-19 will have long-term negative impacts.

An analysis by The Associated Press, Stanford University’s Big Local News project and Stanford education professor Thomas Dee determined that 234,000 students in 21 states vanished from public school enrollment rolls during the pandemic. More than half of them were in California.

Overall, in those states, enrollment dropped by about 700,000 students, but most of the decline could be explained by enrollments in private schools, movements to other states or shifts to at-home instruction. Of the remaining 234,000 absences for which there was no explanation, researchers said, 152,000 were in California.

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The Public Policy Institute of California crunched the numbers and discovered that not only did COVID-19 kill about 100,000 Californians but that the state’s life expectancy, which had been tied for the nation’s highest with Hawaii at 80.9 years, has dropped by two years – the first such decline since World War II.

PPIC found that the higher death rate has disproportionately affected non-white Californians, particularly Latino and Black residents. “Between 2019 and 2021, the death rate (deaths per 1,000 residents) increased 51% among Latinos, 31% among Blacks, 26% among Asian-Americans, and 17% among whites,” the PPIC reported.

Finally, a new study UCLA Center for Health Policy Research found that Newsom’s stay-at-home orders, affecting businesses, child care centers and school, created financial hardships that led to psychological distress and a sharp increase in turmoil and conflict, including domestic violence.

Some COVID-19 victims are experiencing long COVID, with lasting debilitative effects. California suffers from lingering effects as well.

CalMatters is a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s state Capitol works and why it matters. For more stories by Dan Walters, go to Commentary.

​ Orange County Register 

The Book Pages: Octavia’s Bookshelf owner Nikki High on an incredible first week

• February 25, 2023

If you’ve ever thought a bookstore would be the best place to wait out a cold, stormy Southern California day, well, you’re right.

Yesterday, I caught up with Pasadena’s most celebrated new bookstore owner, Nikki High of Octavia’s Bookshelf, and she described the shop that day.

“I had a great day. It was cozy, the rain was coming down on the skylight, and there was just a lot of conversation, mostly around Octavia Butler,” says High. “It just felt so fulfilling. There were a couple of kids in there and some couples and friends and solo shoppers and people just conversing with each other and looking at the books.

“I sat back and looked around and thought, This is it. This is what I was hoping to do,” says High, sounding both deeply moved and extremely tired.

The BIPOC-focused bookstore, which is just in its first week of business, is already a phenomenon, one that has touched people as a place to celebrate representation, community and, of course, books.

The store opened on Saturday, Feb. 18, and there was a line – a very long line – to get into a bookstore. And nobody seemed to mind.

I was there and it was incredible: hundreds came for the event, which featured poet Joshua Evans starting things off with a poem that brought High to tears. It was a beautiful moment, one of many, and set the mood of the day.

With crowds of patrons lined up and down the street, owner Nikki High welcomes them to Octavia’s Bookshelf on Saturday, Feb. 18, 2023, at 1361 N. Hill Ave. in Pasadena. (Photo by John McCoy, Contributing Photographer)

“You probably saw me crying; I cried throughout the day and they were just tears of joy and relief that we got our doors open. And it was, I would say, probably one of the best days of my life.” (It was a good day for the rest of us, too.)

So yes, the line was long – I waited an hour or so to get inside and shop and some waited nearly two hours – but it was full of happy, smiling people. (You can read my colleague Georgia Valdes’ report with photos by John McCoy, including the lovely one above, for more on the day.)

This was special: The people I waited with were all strangers to each other, but we didn’t stay glued to our phones ignoring each other – a feat, considering we were a bunch of bookish introverts. Up and down the line, people chatted, exchanged book recommendations and held each other’s places, generally making the whole thing a total pleasure.

“Readers are an incredible community, but the way that they showed up to support this store,” High says, laughing in amazement, “selling close to 3,000 books in two days. It was quite successful.”

The store is a compact oasis of excellent books and authors: Octavia E. Butler, Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, R.F. Kuang, Lauret Savoy and many more.

I got myself a copy of Butler’s novel “Dawn,” which had been recommended by one of my linemates, along with Justina Ireland’s “Dread Nation,” which injects a zombie apocalypse into the American Civil War (that should be interesting to read in between episodes of “The Last of Us”). Finally, I picked up Aaron Philip Clark’s “Blue Like Me,” a 2022 crime novel set in LA that sounded terrific.

Along with books, I got cards and a tote bag – because I like tote bags almost as much as bookstore T-shirts. I left happy and looking forward to my next visit.

On Thursday night, High sounded pretty happy, too.

“I am just so lucky to be a part of that. I met so many people, and I just felt such community and love and support,” says High. “You know, you mentioned folks standing in line for hours – some people up to two hours – and they were just all in a really good mood.

“I could not have imagined a better outcome. It’s beyond my wildest dream.”

For more info, go to octaviasbookshelf.com. And High is scheduled to be among the local booksellers, authors and food trucks at the inaugural Be The Change Book Festival at Central Library 222 East Harvard Street, Glendale, on Saturday, February 25th, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. (It’ll be indoors!)

Remembering Tom Verlaine’s life among the books 

Tom Verlaine of Television performs during the All Tomorrows Parties festival held at UCLA on March 15, 2002. (Photo by George Campos / The Press-Enterprise)

Speaking of bookstores, Seattle’s Phinney Books alerted me to a piece of writing I wanted to share with you all, because I just loved it.

Following the death of Television singer and guitarist Tom Verlaine, Colin Groundwater wrote a lovely remembrance of the influential musician for Literary Hub. (Television’s “Marquee Moon” is a beautiful album I’ve listened to many, many times.)

But the piece wasn’t about Verlaine’s musical life; it was about his yearslong ritual of haunting the $1 book carts that line the front of New York City’s epic bookstore The Strand. While the store has faced difficulties in recent years, it is a wonder, a place I always try to visit when in New York.

Verlaine, who took his stage name from the French poet, was one of the shoppers known as “cart sharks,” the determined, intense devotees who focused almost exclusively on finding treasures in the cheap books outside. The article describes a kind of ecosystem of seekers of which Verlaine was one.

As someone who worked in a record store and encountered the delightful range of serious music shoppers, I appreciated Groundwater’s description of The Strand’s clientele.

And, honestly, there’s something kind of moving about Verlaine, a rock icon, if not a rock star, spending his time pawing through books when not on tour or recording.

While the cliche of rock stardom is parking your Rolls in the swimming pool, that never seemed very appealing to me.

But looking for good books?  If that’s not making it, I don’t know what is.

OK, some final thoughts before we get to the Q&A. Did you see “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania”?

I support your judgment either way.

But – minor spoiler ahead – my favorite part of the movie involved an author reading at San Francisco’s City Lights Bookstore.

Although, I found that scene harder to buy than shrinking heroes and quantum realms. As a lifelong comic book reader, I can buy into most every crazy plot point except for this: If an actual superhero gave a reading at a local bookstore, it would be a lot better attended than the one in the movie.

Finally, I wanted to share this photo of my dog, just as I found her one afternoon, hovering over author Rebecca Makkai’s new book, “I Have Some Questions for You.” This, you can take as a recommendation; the book is terrific.

No, I didn’t pose this. I came upon my dog eyeing (and yes, licking) Rebecca Makkai’s wonderful “I Have Some Questions for You.” (Photo by Erik Pedersen)

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​ Orange County Register 

As storm pummels region, homeless folks often left to weather cold outside

• February 25, 2023

Frigid temperatures, heavy rain and snow — and even hail — brought by a severe winter storm that will continue into the weekend has forced Southland residents to bunker in their homes.

But not everyone has a home in which to seek shelter.

While forecasters and government agencies have advised residents to avoid the outdoors as the worst of the storm makes its way along the West Coast, for the thousands who are homeless across Southern California — including nearly 70,000 in Los Angeles County alone — the options for shelter are limited.

In Long Beach, for example, about 100 people without shelter camped out under the awning of the Billie Jean King Main Library, in downtown, on Thursday evening, Feb. 23, in an attempt to keep safe.

Tony Johnson, who’s been without permanent shelter on and off for the past 10 years, was among them.

“We just try to stay warm and dry as best we can,” Johnson said on Friday morning.

Several local agencies have increased their outreach efforts this week to ensure those in danger of hypothermia or other health hazards are protected from the cold.

But the region, officials say, lacks the general infrastructure to handle such harsh winter conditions. And the infrastructure that exists is distributed unevenly. San Bernardino and Pasadena, for example, lack winter shelters entirely, while Los Angeles County’s homeless population is so large it’s unlikely near-unlimited resources would be enough to help everyone.

So many of those on the streets have no other recourse than to endure the tempest the best they can.

“There are fewer people experiencing homelessness who die of hypothermia in New York than there are in LA,” said Kimberly Roberts, deputy chief programs officer at the nonprofit LA Family Housing. “We see more health-related incidents as a result of cold and wet weather because we don’t have the shelter system that colder states and communities have actually established.

“We just don’t have that system,” she added in a Friday interview, “and we don’t have those resources available at the same scale.”

Hypothermia — which often occurs by overexposure to cold weather or water — happens when the body loses heat faster than it can produce it. If left untreated, the condition can cause heart and respiratory failure, and often results in death.

The medical emergency is a chief concern among unhoused folks, particularly during severe weather events — like the one making its way through Southern California this weekend.

The region’s geography, though, poses another threat to people without shelter:

Flooding.

The Los Angeles foothills, in particular, are prone to flooding and mudslides, Roberts said, and the banks of the LA River — which some unhoused folks camp out on — can overflow, with strong currents able to sweep people away.

“People are often residing in places that flood very easily — but not often, so they may not know the risks of being in a specific area,”  Roberts said. “We’re faced with trying to make sure people are not dealing with the elements that lead to health issues like hypothermia; we’re also trying to make sure that they’re at high enough ground — when the flooding and the water does come  — to be safe.”

LA Family Housing’s outreach teams have worked to connect with folks across the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys over the past week, Roberts said, offering interim housing, transportation to higher ground, emergency winter shelter and other resources.

“For those that were not able to find shelter, or were not interested in shelter, we’re offering them resources to stay as safe as possible and reduce risk,” Roberts said. “We’re offering sleeping bags, tents, tarps, shoes, umbrellas, ponchos, food — anything that we can offer to keep them as dry and as warm as possible in the rain.”

LA Family Housing, alongside multiple other nonprofits throughout the county, work in tandem with the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority to provide interim shelter.

But as it stands, the agency has just under 300 beds available through its winter shelter program, according to agency spokesperson Ahmad Chapman.

“We have great concern and operate with all due urgency for all of our people experiencing homelessness in LA County,” Chapman said in a Friday interview. “In times like these, with severe storms, our outreach teams work even harder to make sure that as many people as possible can feel every resource we have available, so that folks can be safe and get out of the cold and wet like we’re experiencing this weekend.”

Alongside the traditional winter shelter program, which is seasonal, LAHSA also activated an augmented version of the program, Chapman said. That program gets activated during severe weather conditions.

“The augmented winter shelter program has been reimagined so that we can offer hotel and motel rooms to folks so that they can escape the cold and wetness that we’re experiencing this week,” Chapman said.

LAHSA currently has about 500 vouchers available for hotels and motels, he said.

In Long Beach, which has its own Homeless Services Bureau, officials are also taking advantage of the county’s augmented winter shelter program, according to agency manager Paul Duncan.

The city’s own winter shelter, at the former Community Hospital, is currently at capacity.

Long Beach was set to open a second winter shelter at the Silverado Park gym next week — but that plan is currently being reconsidered entirely after pushback from the community.

But regardless, those beds would come online too late for the current storm.

Outreach staff from the Long Beach Fire and health departments, though, hit the streets on Thursday and Friday to alert people living along the LA River about the potential flooding hazard, Duncan said.

“The goal is to ensure everyone is aware of the impeding weather and any risks and asking people to move from areas that look like they could be more highly prone to flooding,” Duncan said in a Friday email, “and (ensure) that they are aware of resources and have items that can be beneficial in keeping warm through the rain.”

The city will conduct further outreach throughout the weekend, Duncan added.

Members of the Long Beach Rescue Mission, an organization the provides shelter and social services to unhoused folks, spent the bulk of Friday driving around the city in their own outreach van to hand out care packages and lunches — and transport people back to their shelter to stay dry.

“This is actually our first rainy day since we’ve been doing this program,” John Wimberly Sr., an outreach coordinator at the Rescue Mission, said.

By early afternoon, he’d already taken three people back to the shelter, he said.

Volunteers and staff focused their efforts on MacArthur Park — a popular spot for those who are homeless, on both rainy and sunny days — where a handful of folks without shelter took cover from the storm. Many were bundled up in blankets, some only reaching out a hand to accept a lunch or care package.

“We start out with lunches and care packages, sometimes we have clothes to accommodate certain people,” Wimberly said. “If we don’t have clothes for them now, we’ll come back again after we go back (to the shelter) to stock up.

“We had restocked with a full complement of sweaters and jackets and jeans,” he added, “and we went on location and we pretty much cleared out.”

But so many folks were seeking shelter from the storm, Wimberly said, that the Rescue Mission staff had trouble finding people in the locations they normally frequent.

Pasadena, meanwhile, doesn’t have a winter shelter set up at all — though the city is currently in talks with a site that is expected to serve as its emergency location next winter.

“We wish we had a bad weather shelter but we have not been able to identify an appropriate site over the last, well, since the beginning of the pandemic,” Housing Department Director Bill Huang said Friday.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, Pasadena had an emergency shelter operate every winter for the past 30 years.

“In lieu of having a bad weather shelter,” Huang said, “we do have some weather-activated motel vouchers.”

Those are provided by a local nonprofit, Friends In Deed. About 75 people have been moved into motels through that program, Huang said.

Tony Zee, a Pasadena firefighter and member of the city’s homeless outreach team, said his crew have helped about 20 people find shelter from the storm over the past week.

“The hardest part is finding enough hotels,” Zee said Friday.

In the Inland Empire, San Bernardino also doesn’t operate an emergency shelter, according to a Friday email from city spokesperson Jeff Kraus.

Instead, those without shelter must rely on emergency shelters run by local nonprofits.

Operation Grace, for example, is one such facility that assists women and children under 11 years old — but it only has six beds.

And those beds are already occupied by people progressing through a 90-day program geared toward getting them back on their feet.

Still, Operation Grace has been able to link those who are homeless to other shelters and services during the storm.

“This is a really tough winter season,” Executive Director Jessica Alexander said by phone Friday. “We typically see an increase in requests for shelter in the winter months anyway, but this is an especially tough winter, so all nonprofits, including Operation Grace, are seeing an increase in calls for service.”

In Riverside County, storm outreach teams have been engaging unsheltered residents everywhere — offering them places to stay. Transportation to shelters also is being provided as needed.

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The county is coordinating with its in-house Emergency Management Department to expand assistance efforts should concerns worsen, said Housing Department Deputy Director Tanya Torno.

Nonprofits are an immense help with homeless response in Southern California, Roberts said.

But the reliance upon those organizations, she said, has also triggered questions about how the system, as a whole, can function better — including during crises.

“There’s definitely conversations across the community to address the need for a more responsive system,” Roberts said. “But that’s true regardless of the weather.”

It’s times like these, though, when usually temperate California finds itself trapped in a tempest, that homeless folks need a robust support system.

Or they’ll have to survive on their own.

Staff writers Christina Merino, Brittany Murray, and Brian Whitehead contributed to this report.

​ Orange County Register 

Orange County students ‘snowed in’ at science camps due to weather

• February 25, 2023

Southern California’s weather events delayed the return trip of hundreds of Orange County students participating in outdoor science camps in the mountains.

At least two Orange County school districts have students spending extra time at their days-long science camp due to inclement weather while parents at a third district were expecting the arrival of their children late Friday, Feb. 24.

Nearly 500 students from Irvine Unified School District’s Cadence Park, Oak Creek and Stone Creek schools were supposed to return Friday but will have to remain at “Camp Pail” in Running Springs until this weekend when driving conditions are expected to improve, a district spokeswoman said.

Another 120 students from Turtle Rock Elementary will stay put at a camp in Crestline.

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“We continue to collaborate with camp staff, local fire departments and the CHP to help ensure our students are safe and well cared for,” said Irvine Unified spokeswoman Annie Brown.

In the Centralia Elementary School District, 72 students are at the Emerald Cove Outdoor Science Institute Camp with two of the school’s teachers and camp staff, Superintendent Norma Martinez said in an email. They will likely be staying until Sunday.

“As far as being ‘snowed in,’ being in a camp, surrounded by classmates, trained staff and caring teachers is the best way to ride out the storm,” Martinez said.

At Saddleback Valley Unified, 96 students and adults tried to leave a day early, Thursday, but large buses were no longer allowed up the mountains.

By Friday morning, the district had four smaller 20-person vehicles “to drive up the mountain and pick up students and staff,” district spokeswoman Wendie Hauschild said.

“It took two round trips, but we were able to get everyone safely down the mountain and into the larger buses,” said Hauschild. “The larger buses are due to arrive at their school this evening (Feb. 24).”

At the Pali Institute Outdoor Education Center, staff has been working with the schools’ teachers to offer more games and activities and some snow time outside, said Ben Waterhouse, the center’s assistant director.

”The main goal is to make sure the kids are safe,” he said.

“Some of the kids today wrote a bunch of notes and hung them around our dining hall, expressing things like ‘stay positive’ and ‘smile today’,” Waterhouse said. “This is one of those events that all of us will look back on 10 years from now and think this was a cool opportunity.”

Alli West, an Irvine resident whose sixth-grader, Fletcher, is at Camp Pali, said she suspects her son is having a grand time.

“I would say most of the kids are so happy to still be there, and probably many of the adults are dying to pick them up,” West said. “My kid is probably in hog heaven.”

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​ Orange County Register 

Lakers’ D’Angelo Russell doubtful to play Sunday in Dallas

• February 25, 2023

EL SEGUNDO — The Lakers are uncomfortably familiar with the best-laid plans, and exactly what they’re worth.

Their latest grand strategy of starting three former teammates alongside LeBron James and Anthony Davis lasted all of 8½ minutes after the All-Star break, when D’Angelo Russell stepped on Donte DiVincenzo’s foot and twisted his right ankle.

Now, the Lakers’ latest starting lineup – meant to take them through the rest of the regular season and possibly beyond – might be on hold. Russell is doubtful for Sunday afternoon’s game in Dallas against the Mavericks, who recently retooled themselves with Kyrie Irving. The one big positive Coach Darvin Ham could offer was that Russell, a 2019 All-Star, has no “structural” damage in his ankle – though he trotted out of the arena Thursday night with a concerning limp.

But Ham also said Russell, 27, was attentive during Friday’s practice, as the Lakers prepared for their three-game trip against some challenging Western Conference clubs.

“Even though he’s not able to be physically active with the rest of the group, he’s out here listening as we’re talking about Dallas,” Ham said of Russell. “Doing some things on the court, he’s right there on the sidelines soaking it all in and continuing to learn our system, our terminology. So, it’s good, man. It’s a good vibe.”

If the Lakers are forced to use a 31st starting lineup Saturday, the silver lining is that they’ve gotten used to it. The team’s depth shined through in their 124-111 victory over short-handed Golden State on Thursday, with eight players scoring in double figures (including five off the bench). James and Davis combined for just 25 of those points – and while the Lakers will want to squeeze more production out of their stars, it’s reassuring that they don’t need to.

“Simply put, it says we’ve really improved our roster by leaps and bounds,” Ham said. “Those guys that we brought in, our guys that’s in the fold and have gotten minutes, are able to be aggressive and feel comfortable being aggressive.”

Ham cited the increasing comfort level of Rui Hachimura, who had 14 points on 5-for-9 shooting against the Warriors, as well as the outburst from Malik Beasley who had 25 points to lead the team. Jarred Vanderbilt didn’t have a dramatic stat line with four points, nine rebounds and two assists, but his hustle and defense have brought an element to the starting lineup it was missing.

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The back line is liable to be tested this week in Dallas. While Irving and MVP candidate Luka Doncic are backcourt players, they have a gift for maneuvering into the paint – or for finding open teammates in position by the rim with their passing. Vanderbilt figures to be one of the players tasked with guarding Doncic, who had a near-triple-double against the Lakers on Christmas Day.

“He’s a great player, he plays at his own pace,” Vanderbilt said. “So just try to corral him with length and physicality, and just not let him be comfortable. When he’s comfortable, he’s a great player. So just try to knock him off balance a little bit and make everything uncomfortable for him.”

In their last four games, all with their trade deadline acquisitions, the Lakers have carried a plus-6.3 net rating (seventh in the league in that span) and gone 3-1, largely against teams fighting for play-in spots above them. In the Mavericks, there’s a sense that they’ll test their mettle against one of the West’s best teams, replete with superstar talent.

“It’s going to be a good test for us on the road and we’ll see what our team really looks like,” Davis said Thursday night. “But I’m very confident in our team and in our group going into any game.”

​ Orange County Register