Michael Rosenbaum’s ‘Inside of You’ podcast goes live in L.A. with Zachary Levi

• October 6, 2023

Michael Rosenbaum is thrilled to finally be doing a live taping of his podcast “Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum” at the Regent Theater in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Oct. 11.

The actor, musician and host says it’s been years in the making; the show had first been expected to make its live debut in Austin with “Shazam!” actor Zachary Levi but the COVID-19 pandemic shut down that in-person Texas gathering.

“I really hadn’t looked into it since, but finally I was like ‘Why not?’” Rosenbaum said during a recent Zoom interview from his home in Los Angeles. “My biggest fear was that no one is going to show up, no one cares and I didn’t want to put myself out there. Then I was like, Let’s just do it. Let’s have fun and who cares who doesn’t show up. I love the podcast and it’s a big part of my life. I know it means a lot to other people too, so I wanted to do this and try it out and Zach Levi is going to be my guest again.”

In 2018, after a couple of television shows he’d been working on had been canceled, Rosenbaum, who is best known for portraying Lex Luthor on seven seasons of the TV superhero drama “Smallville,” decided to start a podcast. He launched “Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum” and brought on some pretty big-name guests, including his “Smallville” co-star Tom Welling, but it wasn’t catching on at first.

“I realized this is hard. No one was listening and I wasn’t making any money, but I was working really hard at it,” he said. “I wanted to quit a million times, but I just stayed with it and I realized the more vulnerable, the more upfront and honest, the more real you are with the questions you ask and you’re genuine and not trying to be like everyone else … that was key. I’m just a dude who is interested in other people and that’s it. I think that’s why it’s become successful.”

Rosenbaum said hosting a podcast didn’t come easy, but he soon figured out that it had to be about more than just two actors sitting around talking about actor stuff. He records the podcast at home for various platforms and YouTube, which he said creates a comfortable setting for guests to have more free-flowing conversations. In recent years, the talk has gravitated toward topics of self-care and mental health.

“I greet them at the door, ‘You want a cup of coffee? Are you hungry? Would you like a sandwich?’ and you have like a five-minute warm-up,” he said. “Then you start and you hope you can get to a place where the audience is listening and goes, ‘Hey, this is a really candid, open conversation and not just two actors talking.’”

“I want to talk about what makes you tick. What do you do when facing adversity? How do you deal with loss and your mental health? What do you do for anxiety? Do you go to a therapist? You work your way into those things if they present themselves.”

Rosenbaum said he’s had surprising moments with just about every guest as they open up and share their real-life experiences with one another. He credits Levi with helping him get into therapy and admits to still being hesitant at times to share too much of himself as deeper topics are explored.

“It’s still hard for me because some things happened to me when I was younger and I was surrounded by a lot of dysfunction,” he said. “I try to be as open as much as I can without hurting the people that I love. I try to speak the truth, I really do, but I can’t always be as forthcoming as I want to be, but I’m pretty damn upfront.”

That sort of vulnerability, coupled with the openness of his guests, like “Arrow” star Stephen Amell, who allowed Rosenbaum to air the panic attack he suffered as the duo were taping an episode three years ago, has really hit home with the listeners.

“The audience has become like a family,” he said, noting that on Patreon fans are able to communicate with one another, with Rosenbaum directly and submit questions they’d like to ask certain guests. “People come up to me on the street now and I’m like, ‘Wait, you’re not coming up to me about ‘Smallville’?’ and they’re like, ‘No, we love the podcast.’ It’s just been incredible, but a very slow roll.”

His guests have ranged from James Gunn and Andrew McCarthy to Paula Abdul and Jim Gaffigan and many more. With each episode, he said he’s taken away something profound. He said actor Crispin Glover was delightful (and Rosenbaum does a pretty spot-on impression of Glover in his role as George McFly in “Back to the Future”); he was thrilled to have Emmy award-winning actor and comedian Bob Odenkirk on – though that booking came about in an unusual way.

“He offered me a role in a movie and then he had to call me and say, ‘Hey, I’m sorry I have to tell you I can’t offer you the movie now because the producer got this other actor to do it, which is Will Arnett,’” he said with a laugh. “So I emailed him and said, ‘Hey, since I didn’t get in your movie, will you do my podcast?’ He laughed and said, ‘Sure.’ I was a little nervous because I loved his performance in ‘Breaking Bad’ and ‘Better Call Saul’ and I just learned so much more information about him that I didn’t know. It was fantastic.”

A few years ago, Rosenbaum said he took a break from acting because he wasn’t enjoying the process. “The No. 1 ingredient for me to do something is the element of fun, and my therapist agreed,” he said.

So he dove into the podcast and wrote music with his band Sun Spin. He’s also written a children’s book that will be out next year and taped a series with his longtime friend Jon Heder (Rosenbaum does another great impression of Heder in his lead role in “Napoleon Dynamite”).

“I wanted to do a reality show because we love horror movies. We’ll go to the scariest places on Earth and call it ‘Scared with Michael Rosenbaum and Jon Heder.’ He and I are just good friends and I could sense that people would want to watch that,” he said. “You have to do things that make you smile and do things that give you energy. Yeah, people have to work hard for a living and work at jobs they don’t like, but if you can do something on the side that you like, whether it makes you money or not, do it. Because it will save your mental health.”

For the live show, he expects that there will be a lot of energy and he’s ready to rip through some ’80s and ’90s tunes and fire T-shirts out into the audience with a T-shirt launcher.

“I just want everyone to have a good time,” he said. “We’re doing a meet and greet with Zach, too. Maybe we’ll belt out a song. I don’t know. We’re still figuring that out, but honestly, if you said ‘We’re going on now’ I could wing it because I think it’s all about being spontaneous and being fun, engaging the audience and everyone just enjoying it. I’m like a kid in a candy store. I enjoy these things.”

Michael Rosenbaum’s “Inside of You” Live Podcast with Zachary Levi

When: 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 11

Where: Regent Theater, 448 S. Main Street, Los Angeles

Tickets: $45-$150 at Ticketmaster.com

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​ Orange County Register 

Southern California special district firefighter earns $290,000 … in overtime

• October 6, 2023

So we told you about the city firefighter who made more than $500,000 in overtime.

Then we told you about the county firefighter who made more than $400,000 in overtime.

And today we tell you about the special district firefighter who made more than $290,000 in overtime. (Starts to look cheap in comparison, right?)

The crown for “California’s Most Prolific Overtime Earner Among 164,000+ Special District Employees” for 2022 goes to a captain with the Orange County Fire Authority. His overtime pay ($290,399) was more than twice his regular pay ($127,306), with total wages of $451,010, according to data from the state controller.

That does not include what the Fire Authority pays for his health plan and retirement benefits, which totaled another $75,162 (for total compensation of $526,172).

Next up on the statewide special district “oodles of overtime” list was a Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District captain, whose overtime pay ($277,576) was also more than twice his regular pay ($122,325), with total wages of $435,780.

No. 3 statewide: another Orange County Fire Authority captain ($277,499 overtime, $124,877 regular pay, total wages of $444,110).

Surprise! No. 4 broke the firefighting mold — a staff nurse in Alameda County’s Washington Township Health Care District (overtime of $272,622, regular pay of $224,214, total wages of $499,620) — but firefighting popped right back with No. 5, with Riverside County’s Idyllwild Fire Protection District’s chief (overtime of $264,578, regular pay of $132,525, total wages of $463,680).

If someone had told me all this, I might have had a slightly different career trajectory. And to answer the question that comes up after each overtime series installment: No, overtime does not spike pension pay.

You can see the entire spreadsheet on statewide special district pay here.

What’s so special?

A special district, for those unschooled in California’s crazy patchwork quilt of local governments, is a single-purpose agency that (traditionally) popped up during California’s rural rancho days, when there weren’t city or county governments around to kill rats and mosquitoes, or distribute library books, or pump and deliver water, or treat and dispose of sewage, or, say, fight fires.

Even as major metropolises grew up around them they continue to exist. They exist above, beyond and in addition to the more visible (and perhaps more accountable) city, county and state governments, many of which could arguably do their jobs just fine and save taxpayers/ratepayers money at the same time.

• In Los Angeles County, there are 202 special districts (as well as 88 city governments and the county government), according to controller data.

• In Orange County, there are 77 special districts (as well as 34 city governments and the county government).

• In Riverside County, there are 117 special districts (as well as 28 city governments and the county government).

• In San Bernardino County, there are 99 special districts (as well as 24 city governments and the county government).

Every last one of them is vital to functioning, they’ll tell you. Their focus on a single mission (say, water delivery), rather than a mess of missions (say, like cities), allows them to provide better service. But precisely why, say, O.C. needs 16 different water agencies and a half-dozen sewer agencies — in addition to all those cities and the county government — will forever mystify me.

(OK, actually, not much of a mystery: “Believe it or not,” a droll Bob Braitman, retired LAFCO exec in many California counties told me, “special districts sometimes don’t want to consolidate. If you look it up in your dictionary, it’s something called ‘parochialism.’ Sometimes they pay their board of directors’ members a stipend. Sometimes the directors don’t want to give up that stipend, or the status that goes with it. Sometimes they’re opposed even if it would be logical. Sometimes.”)

Overtime

But we digress. Back to overtime and the firefighters who dominate the special district top-earners list, just like their municipal brethren.

In Orange County, OCFA overwhelms the overtime spending list, dropping $62 million on it last year. Its regular payroll was $141.2 million. Trailing way behind, but next up, was the Orange County Sanitation District, spending $2.3 million on overtime; the Irvine Ranch Water District, $2.2 million; Moulton-Niguel Water District, $1.3 million; and Santa Margarita Water District, $878,329. (See pay detail for all Orange County special districts here.)

In Riverside County, the overtime picture was much tamer. Its biggest overtime spender was the Riverside Transit Agency, at $2.9 million; the Coachella Valley Water District at $1.4 million; the Sunline Transit Agency at $1.2 million; Eastern Municipal Water District at $924,099; and the Western Municipal Water District at $840,324. (See pay detail for all Riverside County special districts here.)

In San Bernardino County, the biggest overtime spenders were the Chino Valley Independent Fire District, at $8.3 million; the Inland Empire Health Plan, $5 million; Big Bear Fire Authority, $2.9 million; Omnitrans, $2.5 million; and the Apple Valley Fire Protection District $1.6 million. (See pay detail for all San Bernardino County special districts here.)

Los Angeles County doesn’t have any independent firefighting special districts to dominate the list. That left the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority as the biggest overtime spender, at $84.4 million. Next up was Antelope Valley Healthcare District, $17.2 million; the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, $12.6 million; L.A. County Sanitation District No. 2, $7.8 million; and the South Coast Air Quality Management District, $2.6 million. (See pay detail for all Los Angeles County special districts here.)

Why?

Well, as far as firefighting goes, there are the demands of crazy fire seasons and the “minimum staffing levels” hammered out between agencies and their elected boards.

OCFA has been wrestling with overtime costs for years. It tracks the spending closely and reports on it annually — it has run close to $70 million a year for the past several years. It will keep wrestling the bear: Staff has been directed to “continue pursuing reductions in overtime by filling vacant positions as quickly as possible after the positions become vacant,” as well as queue up more dispatchers and “use overtime to fill shifts that are temporarily vacant rather than hiring additional personnel, recognizing this as a cost-effective practice for temporary needs.”

The basic situation: “All seven Chino Valley Fire District fire stations are staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year,” said spokesperson Massiel Ladron De Guevara. “Overtime is generated for various reasons, including vacancies resulting from retirements or injuries to personnel. The Fire District has a recruitment schedule in place to find quality candidates to fill vacancies.”

We had a refreshingly frank chat with Jeff Willis, chief of the Big Bear Fire Authority.

“Other departments can adjust staffing depending on the anticipated workload — but that’s not the case with the fire services,” he said. “We don’t have the ability to predict that with reasonable accuracy. That drives minimum staffing levels — the cost of the standing army.”

Well, we know the overwhelming majority of emergency calls are medical in nature. So why does a fire engine show up alongside the ambulance? Do they expect people to spontaneously combust?

“That gets back to workload,” he said. “It’s difficult to accurately predict what a patient’s needs are going to be. In Big Bear, houses are up off the road or down below. Sometimes just two people carrying a gurney up or down the stairs is not appropriate. You might need four people to carry the gurney.

“When people dial 911, they expect an awful lot from us.”

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Of course, the folks who run things have the power to expand or contract the “standing army,” though this is often a bitter battle fought with unions seeking to get the most for their members. Like some other fire agencies, Big Bear transitioned firefighters off of ambulances. It now has new non-safety classifications for the likes of ambulance operators, paramedics and emergency medical services workers, and that has saved money.

“Those folks are very qualified, but they are not designated safety personnel,” he said. “They can’t do cut and rescue, firefighting, the safety aspects that are the most dangerous parts of our job. They’re not allowed.”

To make a real dent in overtime, we hear two different things: 1. Give us more money to hire more people; or 2. Change the minimum staffing model, separating fire from paramedic services.

OT can be contained, but only by changing the model, city administrators have told us. Some believe that nobody in the fire service wants to contain OT because it lines their pockets handsomely.

Want to do something about that? Let your city council members, county supervisors and special district boards know.

​ Orange County Register 

California is leading the way in Medicaid abuse

• October 6, 2023

California has just asked for and received a waiver from the federal government that allows the state to skip eligibility verification for Medi-Cal.

According to estimates from the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association, American taxpayers are losing more than $100 billion a year to Medicare and Medicaid fraud. In California – where the Medicaid program is referred to as Medi-Cal – there is little incentive to address waste, fraud and abuse in the handling of billions in federal funding.

With Medi-Cal, it now appears that California’s sloppiness is by design as there are perverse incentives to actually expand abuses. First, some background.

The Social Security Act mandates that Medicaid’s eligibility guidelines include verification of assets, income, and employment status. But, amid the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic, emergency measures were enacted, and Medicaid enrollment was facilitated without the usual verification of eligibility. While understandably designed to provide immediate relief during a crisis, by law it was to be only a temporary measure.

Medicaid’s suspension of eligibility determination protocols like asset verification was similar to the SBA’s fraud-riddled Paycheck Protection Program — pay first, verify later. And while millions of people kept their healthcare, it was at a cost of hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars lost to fraud and waste.

Now that many Medicaid recipients have reentered the workforce, a major beneficiary of lenient Medicaid eligibility standards appear to be the insurance companies because they receive a per-member, per-month fee from the American taxpayers.

Private insurers encouraging lax Medicaid eligibility requirements is fast-becoming a budgetary emergency — not just for California’s Medi-Cal program, but nationally. The Louisiana Department of Health spent $112 million on Medicaid coverage for nearly 14,000 adults who don’t appear to live in Louisiana, according to a state legislative audit. Simply “verifying” someone’s address would have solved that problem. Insurance companies don’t view this as “their” problem.

Now that the pandemic has subsided, Medicaid is under a statutory obligation to enforce eligibility verification again. Without it, taxpayers will be handing thousands of dollars per person to insurance companies for people who have access to other health plans.

Unfortunately, the perception that millions of Americans are about to imminently lose their Medicaid coverage has led California to request that CMS allow them to waive the “asset verification” requirement for Medi-Cal recipients. Foolishly, CMS just approved their request in what appears to be a direct violation of the Social Security Act.

The practical effect of all this is that California has taken a huge step toward what it has wanted for decades; a single payer system known as Medicaid For All.

But the problems with this tactic – both legal and practical – are countless. First, if California is allowed to continue down this path it is likely to embolden other states to follow suit. It’s critical to consider the fiscal implications not only for individual states but also for the federal government, whose coffers are affected by such decisions.

Second, California’s failure to include asset verification is reminiscent of the state’s $31+ billion fraud loss to cybercriminals who exploited similar loopholes in the state’s unemployment insurance program — the largest sum ever lost by a state to organized crime.

Third, once somebody is on the Medicaid rolls, it is assumed by other agencies that they “qualify” for the program. This is called Broad Based Categorical Eligibility, and by being on Medicaid, somebody becomes eligible for TANF, SNAP and a host of other benefits. Has the Congressional Budget Office or the OIG even considered the financial implications of suspending eligibility requirements for all entitlement and welfare programs?

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Finally, this pen-stroke policy shift raises moral, ethical, and even Constitutional concerns: can one state, in concert with a single President, violate the law, circumvent Congress, and force the rest of the country to pay for it? California surely has a right to spend $1 trillion a year, or $10 trillion for that matter, on providing free healthcare to its residents — but not using money that is taken from taxpayers of other states.

In approving California’s request to permanently dissolve asset verification for Medi-Cal, CMS is setting a dangerous precedent for the rest of the nation. The situation demands scrutiny and a transparent debate. Rather than allowing this policy shift to unfold in the shadows, a public debate should be robust and inclusive. This is a decision that affects not only those in need of healthcare assistance but also every taxpayer who bears the financial burden of such expansion, including future generations.

Jon Coupal is president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.

​ Orange County Register 

The B8kery by Selanne coming to Laguna Beach

• October 6, 2023

A new bakery has arrived in Laguna Beach. The B8kery by Selanne, located next-door to its sister restaurant, Selanne Steak Tavern, is currently in its soft-opening stage but will officially open Sunday, Oct. 8.

Pastry chef Rebekah Eastman, who previously worked at Bourbon Steak, Michael Mina’s restaurant at the Waldorf Astoria Monarch Beach Resort in Dana Point, has helmed the menu at the new Pacific Coast Highway bakery.

Located inside the storybook Tudor building that Andree’s Patisserie called home for over 60 years, the B8kery features such sweet treats as bang pies (an elevated nod to the Pop-Tart) in strawberry, brown sugar, and seasonal fruit varieties ($4 each); blueberry streusel muffins ($4); berries and cream croissants ($5.50); ginger molasses cookies ($3); peanut butter brownies ($5); gluten-free doughnut muffins ($4); orange rolls ($5); cinnamon rolls ($5) and more.

The new bakery also offers savory items, including the seemingly requisite avocado toast ($6), ham and cheddar scones ($5), and biscuits ($1.25).

Smoothies like the Super 8 (hemp and chia seeds, banana, berries, almond butter, vanilla protein, coconut milk,  and spinach), the Blue Laguna (blue spirulina, vanilla protein, mango, banana, dates, almond butter, and coconut milk, and Dominique’s Coffee Dream (coffee, almond butter, dates, hemp seeds, banana, toffee Stevia, vanilla protein, and almond milk) run $12 each. The B8kery also has a coffee menu featuring such standbys as iced coffee ($4), cappuccino ($5), and espresso ($4), as well as more whimsical drinks like lavender or churro lattes ($7 each).

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Fun fact: The bakery, like its neighboring Michelin Guide-recognized namesake restaurant, is owned by NHL Hall of Famer, former Anaheim Duck and Olympic ice hockey athlete Teemu Selänne and business partner, Kevin Pratt. “The B8kery,” simply pronounced “the bakery” (not “BAIT-KERY”), uses an “8” instead of an “A” in honor of Selänne’s jersey number, which was retired by the Ducks in 2015.

Open daily from 7 a.m. until 2 p.m.

Find it: 1456 S. Coast Highway (at Calliope St.), Laguna Beach; instagram.com/theb8kery

​ Orange County Register 

Why these plants might be the toughest perennials of all

• October 6, 2023

Five things to do in the garden this week:

1. Alice Formiga, writing on the reneesgarden.com website expounds on the best time to harvest vegetable crops. She writes, “With few exceptions, vegetables are best harvested in the cool morning hours so that they stay crisp and store longer. Harvested too late, they become limp and wilt quickly, having evaporated much of their moisture and absorbed the midday heat. This is especially important for leafy greens like lettuce, chard, and fresh herbs such as parsley and basil. It also applies to crisp fruiting vegetables like peas, and anything in the cabbage gamily like broccoli and radishes.”

2. The first two weeks in October are probably the most favorable time to plant in Southern California. While benefiting from soil still warm from summer heat, days are cool. Conditions are perfect for germinating seeds of leaf and root vegetables, cole crops, and peas. Green manure crops such as clover also germinate reliably now. If you have a patch of clover and wish to increase it, you can achieve that goal by digging up pieces and planting them in bare ground. I have done this successfully by excavating six-inch by six-inch chunks of clover “sod” to a depth of three inches or so. If these chunks are taken from within a swath of clover, the bare spots created by their removal will quickly be filled in this time of year by the surrounding clover.

3. Pansies are the toughest fall/winter annuals and may be the toughest annual flowers of all. Planted in October, they have been known to still be flowering in July. You will need to deadhead – remove wilted flowers – almost daily to keep them blooming. They will also do best in half-day sun although full sun exposure is fine, even if it shortens their garden life. What you don’t want to do is plant pansies in the same garden spot year after year. If you do, they will eventually be killed by the Rhizoctonia fungus, which can persist in the soil for years. You therefore want to rotate your pansies with other annuals, just like farmers – and astute backyard vegetable gardeners – rotate their crops. To avoid this fungus issue, plant violas, pansy cousins commonly known as Johnny-jump-ups. Their flowers look like pansies only are less than half the size. Another benefit of violas is that they self-sow, something that pansies seldom do in our part of the world.

4. Leaf lettuces are the easiest to grow but certain head lettuces are much tastier. I refer to Bibb and Buttercrunch varieties, which are classified at Butterhead or loose head types. Four Seasons is another Butterhead that, as its name implies, can be grown throughout the year. It has a delicate, mouthwatering flavor. For Caesar salads, you will want to grow crunchy Romaine types, with elongated heads. The best head lettuce to grow for resistance to bolting – flower production when the weather turns warm – are crisphead varieties such as Summertime and Mission, which may also be planted throughout the year.

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5. Although there is much to-do this time of year regarding fall-planted, spring-flowering bulbs, a summer-flowering bulb that requires no maintenance whatsoever can be planted at this time too. I refer to the belladonna lily or naked lady (Amaryllis belladonna). It sends up foliage in the winter which is completely dead by the time flower stalks emerge in early summer. Thus, naked lady refers to the fact that its pink flowers, which bloom in profusion once the bulbs begin to spread, are bereft of foliage and thus completely exposed to ogling eyes.

Please send your questions and comments to joshua@perfectplants.com.

​ Orange County Register 

Mortgage rates hit 23-year high as Fed plays ‘Grinch’

• October 6, 2023

“Memory Lane” takes a stroll through financial history because the economy has a funny habit of repeating itself.

Buzz: Mortgage rates have surged to their highest level since 2000 – with hints they’ll go higher – as the Federal Reserve plays housing’s “Grinch” to cool the economy.

Source: My trusty spreadsheet looked at the rates on the average 30-year fixed mortgage from a survey by Freddie Mac. To help explain home loan swings, I compared rates with the Consumer Price Index’s inflation rate.

Numbers: The average 30-year mortgage rate was 7.49% for the week, up from 7.31% a week ago and the eighth consecutive week above 7%. The last time it was higher was November 2000.

How much does that jump hurt house-hunting? A borrower seeking $600,000 today would have a $4,191 house payment at current rates, up 9% from financing costs at the 6.66% rate in October 2022 and up a stunning 66% from the 2.99% rate in October 2021.

How long ago?

Let’s jar your memory and go back to 2000 …

The news: The Supreme Court essentially chose the presidential election winner, George W. Bush. Turn-of-the-century Y2K computer fears prove unfounded. Microsoft was declared a monopoly.

The culture: “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” starring Jim Carrey, was the box office hit. The top TV show was “Survivor.” And the No. 1 song was “Breathe” by Faith Hill.

The sports: Pro champions were football’s Rams (St. Louis), basketball’s Lakers, hockey’s Devils and baseball’s Yankees.

The back story

Much like 2023, the 2000 economy was seen as too hot. It was fueled by a technology revolution, you know, those “dot-com” businesses that first monetized the internet.

Remember it’s the Fed’s job to keep inflation moderate. So in Grinch-like fashion, the central bank uses its rate-nudging powers to chill the economic party when the cost of living seems out of control.

The late 1990s were good times, economically. Gross domestic product growth ran above 4% for four straight years – an upswing not seen since. Unemployment was at a three-decade low. And the stock market was riding a long winning streak.

It’s also worth noting the inflation that put mortgage rates at 8% in 2000 was a seemingly meek 3.5%. But that was roughly double 1998 and folks had memories of 1970s double-digit inflation in their heads.

The result

The 2000 rate hikes came with the dot-com stock market crash.

A mild recession hit the nation in 2001 as joblessness rose to a four-year high. GDP growth, which was 3% in 2000, fell to almost zero the next year.

Then the slower business climate was further jolted by the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. So the Fed began moderating rates. Mortgage rates got 1 point cheaper in 2001 as US homes appreciated 13% over two years.

Still, the central bank got its prize: Inflation cooled to under 2% by mid-2002.

History lesson?

Consider how mortgage rates move vs. the cost of living. It may help explain why home loans seem extra expensive these days.

It’s a key relationship because lenders, and the investors who buy mortgages, want to get paid an interest rate well above the inflation rate. This premium rate varies over time. It’s a mortgage pricing variable that the Fed doesn’t control.

In 2000, the housing market faced a 5.5 percentage-point “gap” between mortgage rates and inflation.

Then consider August 2023, the latest month with full inflation stats. The 7.1% average mortgage rate came with 3.7% inflation – only a 3.4-point gap.

Could current rates be relative bargains by those 2000 standards?

Yet 2000 stands out as a turning point for mortgage rates. Soon afterward, inflation phobia seemed to break.

REAL ESTATE NEWSLETTER: Get our free ‘Home Stretch’ by email. SUBSCRIBE HERE!

From 1972 through 2000, mortgage rates averaged 9.9% as inflation ran 5.2% – that’s a 4.7-point gap. But since 2000, home loans averaged 4.9% as inflation cooled to 2.5% – only a 2.4-point gap.

Why the change in mortgage pricing? My guess is that the overall downturn in inflation eased the anxieties of lenders and investors. That lowered the need for hefty premium rates to cover the risks of a high cost of living.

Well, that is until the pandemic era jolted inflation, pushing it to the worst levels in four decades, including the CPI rising to a 9% rate by mid-2022.

If 2000 is a guide, interest rates of all sorts – including mortgages – will likely remain elevated until there’s prolonged evidence that this bout of inflation is over.

Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com

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​ Orange County Register 

Bubbles redux: Marineland, closed for nearly 4 decades, recalled in new podcast

• October 6, 2023

Marineland of the Pacific closed its doors nearly 37 years ago, but there are lasting memories for those who worked or played there.

When he was a child growing up in the South Bay, Tod Perry visited the home of Orky and Corky, a pair of killer whales that were the park’s main attraction.

While the popular tourist attraction in Rancho Palos Verdes closed when he was around 10 years old, he still has vivid memories of the place.

“It almost felt like the animals were part of the community, like Orky and Corky were your personal pet whales and you could go see them,” said Perry, who now resides in Long Beach.

Perry brought together former employees to share some of the memories of the park that was open for more than three decades, from 1954 to 1987, in his new podcast “LA’s Own Marineland.”

The 12-part podcast, 10 hours in length, traces Marineland’s history, from its development to its closure.

At first, said Perry, the podcast was going to focus solely on the closure.

“When I started talking to people who worked there, that people had such a love for the park, there was such a passion, (they were) heartbroken about the closure,” Perry said. “I thought, okay, we’re going to tell the whole story.”

Perry used social media to gather interviews for the podcast including the “I worked at Marineland of the Pacific” Facebook page.

He received many responses to a Facebook post — from trainers to those who wore character costumes — to talk about their time at Marineland. In total, he interviewed about 20 people associated with the park.

One of those interviews was with head marine mammal trainer Larry Clark, who died in August at 85 years old.

Clark was one of the first trainers at Marineland, said Perry, so it meant a lot to get the interview with him.

Perry does not shy away from some of the controversial aspects of Marineland such as the issue of marine mammals in captivity, or the safety of those that care for the animals including trainer Jill Stratton, who nearly drowned while working with Orky in 1978.

There was also the controversial sale of Marineland to SeaWorld while the park suffered declining attendance and financial hardships.

The luxury resort Terrenea was completed in 2009 and now makes it home at the Marineland site.

During the opening minute of the podcast’s first segment, Perry said “rightfully so” there has been a “sea change in public opinion,” on the topic of marine mammals in captivity since Marineland closed.

“Throughout the course of this podcast, I hope to deal with these issues with honesty and sensitivity, while also acknowledging the tremendous awe, joy, and respect these animals have inspired in millions,” said Perry in the podcast.

That awe was first inspired in Perry, a Torrance native, during his first visit to Marineland when he was around 4 years old.

He remembered clearly the murky ocean water that filled the killer whale tanks.

“You sit there and as a kid you don’t really know what to expect and then suddenly, Orky comes up, who’s 14,000 pounds, and it’s thrilling and frightening,” Perry said. “I think it was probably such an intense experience that it really left a huge impact on me.”

Perry said because of that Marineland had more of an impact on him as a child than did Disneyland.

So, when the park closed, it affected him deeply, said Perry.

Years later, Perry began his career in media at 97.1 KLSX, as a “lackey” from 2002 to 2007, according to his website marinelandpodcast.com.

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From there he co-created and hosted “Low Budget FM,” a comedy show on iTunes, and began his podcast career in 2011 with radio’s Brian Whitman. That was followed by “What’s This Tao All About?,” a podcast on Eastern philosophy. Perry is currently the host of the “Upworthy Weekly” podcast with Alison Rosen.

Along with the spectacular view of the Pacific Ocean from the park, Orky and Corky were a main attraction for Marineland visitors along with dolphin shows and Bubbles, a star pilot whale.

In recent years there has been an effort by residents, Marineland fans, as well as the city of Rancho Palos Verdes to restore and find a new home for one of the last remnants of Marineland, Bubbles, a 26-foot fiberglass statue of the famed pilot whale that had marked the entrance of Marineland.

Jon Sansom launched the “Preserve Bubbles the Whale!” GoFundMe page, there was an anonymous $40,000 donation from a RPV resident in January, and the city voted to include $75,000 in its 2023-24 budget for a new request for proposals for an updated estimate, if needed, to design a monument on which the Bubbles statue would sit.

City staff plans to meet with the fundraising group and Bubbles supporters to determine next steps, said city spokesperson Megan Barnes in an email on Oct. 2.

Perry said the podcast is available on all major podcast platforms.

For more information, see marinelandpodcast.com.

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​ Orange County Register 

Los Amigos football pulls out victory over Rancho Alamitos with strong finish

• October 6, 2023

GARDEN GROVE — The Garden Grove League football game between Los Amigos and Rancho Alamitos on Thursday wound up being a turnover-marred contest.

It became apparent that the team that could play mistake-free football down the stretch would likely come out on top.

That team was Los Amigos, which turned a takeaway early in fourth quarter into the eventual winning touchdown, forced a punt on the ensuing drive and then put together a long, time-consuming drive late in the game to come away with a 13-12 victory at Bolsa Grande High School.

By preserving the victory, the Lobos (3-4, 1-1) were able to avert what could have been a second heartbreaking defeat in a row after giving up a last-minute touchdown in their 28-21 defeat to La Quinta last week.

The victory also keeps the Lobos in the mix for the league championship along with the Vaqueros (3-4, 1-1), La Quinta and Bolsa Grande.

Los Amigos turned the ball over five times over the first three quarters but also had takeaways of their own, including a 75-yard interception return for a touchdown from Miguel Radilla that gave the Lobos a 7-0 lead in the second quarter.

“We did everything tonight to lose the game,” Lobos coach Melo Guess said. “We’ve been beating ourselves quite a bit. That just shows we’ve got a lot of young boys. We’re still fighting injuries. We’ve got a couple of bodies back tonight. We’re going to get a couple more guys back next week. I’m a firm believer, man, everything happens for a reason. It’s part of God’s plan for whatever the reason.”

With two minutes left in the first half, the Lobos had possession on the Vaqueros 21-yard-line and were in a position to take a two score lead into the halftime.

But an errant snap sailed far over quarterback Maysen Navarro’s head and was recovered by the Vaqueros’ Luis Lopez, who picked up the loose ball and returned it to the Rancho Alamitos 47.

The Vaqueros drove to the Lobos 10 where quarterback Henry Garcia hit Omar Salazar for a 10-yard touchdown pass, making the score 7-6 after the missed 2-point conversion attempt.

Rancho Alamitos took a 12-7 lead on Henry Garcia’s 9-yard scoring pass to Jesus Diego.

But the Lobos got the lead back for good on Isaac Galindo’s 30-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter.

That score came off a fumble recovery from Marcelito Avilas.

Galindo finished with 181 yards and a touchdown on 34 carries.

“My blockers got that first hole for me,” Galindo said of his touchdown run. “I got to second level and I just had to make the most out of it.”

Isaac Galindo of Los Amigos rushed for 181 yards and scored the game-winning touchdown in a 13-12 victory over Rancho Alamitos on Thursday, Oct. 5. (Photo by Lou Ponsi)

After forcing the Vaqueros to punt on the ensuing possession, the Lobos put together a 15-play, 37-yard drive, and even though they didn’t score, the Lobos left only 1 minute and 17 seconds on the clock for the Vaqueros, who had no timeouts left.

“You know, last week it was a tough loss,” Guess said. “But it was really important to bounce back from last week’s loss. Because, I mean, it’s for the league title, the last league title.”

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​ Orange County Register