Orange County softball standings: Final 2025

• May 9, 2025

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The final Orange County high school softball standings for the 2025 season

​ Orange County Register 

‘Mentally kind of exhausted’: Lakers’ Luka Doncic gets time to settle in

• May 9, 2025

LOS ANGELES — As Luka Doncic sat inside the makeshift press conference room inside Crypto.com Arena following the Lakers’ season-ending loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round of the playoffs, he fielded multiple questions about what he learned over the previous couple of months.

Even though it had been nearly three months since coming to Los Angeles from Dallas in early February, the 26-year-old Slovenian star hadn’t had the time to sort through his experiences over the last several weeks.

The emotions weren’t as raw as they were when the Mavericks, the franchise Doncic spent the first 6½ seasons of his NBA career with and the one with whom he expected to retire, shockingly traded him to the Lakers on Feb. 2.

Or his first time playing against his former team in Los Angeles on Feb. 25.

Or his first time playing at American Airlines Center as a visiting player on April 9.

But they followed Doncic in the aftermath of joining the Lakers, making April 30 following the Lakers’ Game 5 loss to the Timberwolves one of the first times he could exhale and take in everything that had transpired over the previous several weeks.

“Honestly, I don’t know, I’m mentally kind of exhausted from everything that happened,” Doncic said during his end-of-season news conference. “A lot of people won’t believe me, but I am. Now is the time to process everything.”

A part of that “everything” for Doncic will be making a decision on defining the length of his tenure with the Lakers.

Doncic will become eligible to sign a contract extension on Aug. 2.

He has a $45.9 million salary for next season and a $48.9 million player option for 2026-27.

Doncic could sign a maximum four-year, $229 million contract extension with the Lakers, with the $51 million first-year salary for 2026-27 replacing the player option for that season.

But he could also sign a shorter-term extension to re-enter free agency sooner and recover some of the money that was left off the table for him when the Mavericks traded him to the Lakers.

Doncic would have been eligible to sign a five-year, $345 million “super max” contract extension with Dallas this summer. But when he was traded, Doncic became ineligible for a “super max” with the Lakers, limiting how much money and how long he’s able to sign for on his next contract.

Doncic could sign a three-year, $165 million extension (including a player option for the third year) with the Lakers, which would allow him to become an unrestricted free agent during the 2028 offseason. He’ll have 10 years of service following the 2027-28 season, making him eligible to sign a five-year contract that would start at 35% of the salary cap that summer as opposed to the 30% of the cap he’s able to sign for now.

“I [haven’t thought] about it yet,” Doncic responded when asked about his potential extension. “I’ve been focused on basketball. So obviously this is the time now to think about everything.”

Everything Doncic has said about his brief Lakers experience suggests that he plans to be with the franchise for the long term, including saying during an exclusive interview with ESPN’s Malika Andrews in mid-April that he wants to stay in Los Angeles.

And the Lakers are expecting Doncic to be around for a while.

“It’s incredibly exciting to have the promise of him in our next decade of Laker basketball with being able to build a team around him and him being at the center of our franchise,” Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka said of Doncic. “Our partnership with him has been incredible.”

But until Doncic signs a new deal with the Lakers, which isn’t possible for another three months, the franchise will be looking to sell itself on why it’s the right organization for the 26-year-old Slovenian for the long term.

Meanwhile, Doncic enters a pivotal offseason looking to ensure that the Lakers’ disappointing end to 2024-25 was an anomaly.

“He wants to be held accountable,” Lakers first-year coach JJ Redick said of Doncic. “I want to bring out the best version of Luka. And that’s what he wants from me. And so that’s the partnership going forward. That’s the expectation. And that’s the baseline of what we’re trying to do. Let’s try to bring out the best version of Luka and hopefully win a championship doing that.”

​ Orange County Register 

Galaxy looking for ways to snap 11-game winless streak

• May 9, 2025

Frustrations. Something the Galaxy have had a lot of this season.

On Sunday, they managed to take it another level, losing 1-0 to Sporting Kansas City, despite not allowing a shot on goal. SKC’s lone tally came on an own goal in the first half.

“Definitely a frustrating one,” Galaxy goalkeeper John McCarthy said. “It has to get to a point where something, push comes to shove, something’s got to give for us at some point.”

“We thought it could have been the Kansas City game, I think it’s kind of getting to the point like repetitive …we deserved a result, but you have to go out and earn everything every day, so at this point, you have to really forget about things that happened in the past. The only thing that matters is the next game. It’s truly day by day. I said it last year, we had to take it day by day, game by game, nothing else matters, just take it one at a time.”

The next game is an MLS Cup rematch against the New York Red Bulls. The Galaxy defeated the Red Bulls 2-1, back on Dec. 7, capping a championship season for their sixth MLS Cup.

It was the perfect turnaround after a dismal 2023. That’s also the last game the Galaxy have won in MLS play.

Fast-forward to 2025 and the Galaxy are back at the bottom, currently mired in a historic winless streak (0-8-3) to start the season, due to a mix of injuries, roster makeover and a lack of production.

“When times are tough, like when it rains it (expletive) pours,” said McCarthy, who led the Galaxy in goal in clinching the Cup. “You’ve got to figure out how to get out of it, and no one’s going to help you besides the 28 guys in the locker room. You can’t start looking around and going, ‘Who’s going to do it for us?’ It’s truly got to be an ‘us’ thing. Yeah, it sucks to lose, it sucks that we could have won a game here and there and could have draw a game here and there. We also should have lost a game here and there too, it’s truly on the group. It’s got to be within ourselves. There’s nowhere else to look, it has to come from us.

“I hate losing. I’m a sore loser. Big time. I don’t care what it is, I don’t like to lose at anything I do and I give everything to win, whether it’s small-sided, whether it’s a crossbar challenge, whatever it is and when it comes to the weekend, I give everything to win. So when it doesn’t work out, yeah, we’ve had some unlucky moments and it’s been extremely frustrating moments, but you just have to find a way to grind some things out, little bit more life to us, push for the 90 minutes and I think some good things will go our way.”

After Saturday’s meeting against the Red Bulls, the Galaxy will stay on the East Coast and head to Philadelphia for a midweek May 14 meeting against the Union.

“We’ve got to find solutions,” Galaxy coach Greg Vanney said. “That’s why I say every year is a journey. Every year is different. It presents new challenges every single year. This year has provided plenty of them from the start of after winning the championship and having to clear out some guys to injuries to performance stuff. There’s been plenty of things. Our job here as a collective group, as a team, is to find the solutions, even when challenges present themselves. So far, yeah, we haven’t found those solutions. We’re going to keep fighting for it.”

Pec and Paintsil out Saturday

Aside from Riqui Puig, who is still sidelined while recovering from his ACL injury, the Galaxy will also be without their other two Designated Players. Gabriel Pec suffered a hip injury last week and Joseph Paintsil sustained a thigh injury. Both were forced out of the game early.

Vanney said there was a chance that Pec could be available for the Philadelphia game, but Paintsil’s injury could linger longer than a week.

GALAXY at NEW YORK RED BULLS

When: 4:30 p.m. Saturday

Where: Sports Illustrated Stadium; Harrison, N.J.

How to watch: Apple TV+, Apple TV (MLS Season Pass)

​ Orange County Register 

Longtime agent Jeff Sperbeck’s fatal fall from golf cart driven by John Elway ruled an accident

• May 9, 2025

A California coroner’s office has officially ruled that the death of Jeff Sperbeck, the sports agent who died after falling from a golf cart driven by longtime friend and business partner John Elway, was an accident.

On Friday, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department — which launched an investigation into Sperbeck’s death after a media frenzy around Elway’s involvement — released a statement from the Riverside County Coroner’s Bureau that ruled out any criminal activity.

“The Cause of Death is ‘Blunt Head Trauma,’ and the Manner of Death is ‘Accident,’ and the Mode of Death … is ‘Passenger fell from golf cart,’” the Coroner’s Bureau said in the statement.

Medical personnel first responded to a call made by Elway’s party on Saturday, April 26, after Sperbeck fell from the cart at the California country club The Madison Club. He was transported to Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs, where he was put on life support before being pronounced dead early April 30.

The sheriff’s department didn’t begin an investigation until it got a large wave of media inquiries, as Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco previously told The Denver Post, and because of the “implications” that Elway acted wrongly in the incident. In the days following Sperbeck’s death, Bianco maintained that nothing the medical personnel had seen on the day of their initial response merited an investigation from the sheriff’s department.

“This, from all appearances and from all evidence, seems to just be a horrific accident,” Bianco told The Post last week.

The coroner officially ruled as such Friday, and the investigation is drawing to a close.

Bianco told The Post in a text Friday that the department has concluded all interviews and is waiting on a few outstanding videos to supplement witness statements, but that he anticipated those videos would “just corroborate the rest of what we have learned.”

Sperbeck, Elway’s agent during the quarterback’s Hall of Fame career with the Denver Broncos, was 62. He is survived by his wife, Cori, and three children, Carly, Sam and Jackson.

​ Orange County Register 

How the military is dealing with Hegseth’s order to remove transgender troops

• May 9, 2025

By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The military services scrambled Friday to nail down details and put together new guidance to start removing transgender troops from the force.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in a memo released late Thursday, reinstated orders issued earlier this year that said “expressing a false gender identity divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service.”

His new order gives active duty troops until June 6 to identify themselves as transgender and voluntarily begin to leave the service. National Guard and Reserve troops have until July 7.

Army Maj. Alivia Stehlik, who served in the infantry and is now a physical therapist, will be eligible to retire in three years but doesn’t want to be forced out for being a transgender service member.

“I still have a job to do,” she said. “My command expects me to show up and be an officer and do my job because I’m the only person at my unit who can do what I do.”

The military services were rushing to put out new guidance to help commanders work through the process, including what to do in more complex situations, such as if any of the troops are deployed, at sea or may require special orders or funding to meet the deadlines.

Here’s a look at the issue and what happens next:

What is going on with banning transgender troops?

In 2015, then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter broached the idea of lifting the ban on transgender troops and allowing them to serve openly, which raised concerns among military leaders. He set up a study, and in June 2016 announced the ban was over.

Reinstating that ban has long been a goal for President Donald Trump.

Six months into his first term, Trump announced he was not going to allow transgender people to serve in the military “in any capacity.” That set off a roughly two-year struggle to hammer out the complex details of how that would work, even as legal challenges poured in.

The Pentagon eventually laid out a policy that allowed those currently serving to stay and continue with plans for hormone treatments and gender transition if they had been diagnosed with gender dysphoria. But it barred new enlistments of anyone with gender dysphoria who was taking hormones or had transitioned to another gender.

Gender dysphoria occurs when a person’s biological sex does not match up with their gender identity.

That ban was overturned by then-President Joe Biden. When Trump took office again this year, he directed Hegseth to revise the Pentagon’s policy on transgender troops.

In late February, Pentagon leaders ordered the services to set up procedures to identify troops diagnosed with or being treated for gender dysphoria by March 26. And it gave them 30 days to begin removing those troops from service.

A flurry of lawsuits stalled the ban. But on Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled that the administration could enforce the ban, while other legal challenges proceed.

How many transgender troops are there?

There are about 2.1 million active duty, Guard and Reserve troops.

According to the Defense Department, about 1,000 service members have voluntarily identified themselves as transgender and will now begin the process of leaving the military.

Defense officials say troops began to self-identify after the February order, going to their commanders and filing out forms. That process stopped in late March due to the lawsuits, but officials said Friday they were dusting off those files and figuring out how to proceed.

Still, exactly how many troops may be affected is complicated, and the military services are grappling with how to identify and remove them all.

Defense officials have said that 4,240 troops currently serving in active duty, the National Guard and Reserve have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria And they contend that, as of late last year, about 3,200 service members had received gender-affirming hormone therapy from 2015 to 2024, and about 1,000 received gender-affirming surgery.

Previously, however, estimates of transgender troops have hovered between 9,000 and 12,000. And they could range from people who haven’t been officially diagnosed or aren’t taking medication to those who are taking medication, have undergone surgery or are in the process of transitioning to their preferred gender.

In March 2018, then-Defense Secretary James Mattis released a memo with unprecedented details on the data. It said, at that time, there were 8,980 service members who identified themselves as transgender and 937 had been diagnosed with gender dysphoria.

Is military separation voluntary or not?

Hegseth’s latest memo sets up two distinct processes, but the details remained a bit uncertain.

Service members who voluntarily identify themselves to commanders would likely be able to receive some type of separation pay, which could include cashing out leave time that hasn’t been used or bonuses that haven’t yet been paid.

After June 6, the department will go through medical records to find any other troops who have been diagnosed with or treated for gender dysphoria and force them to leave the service. Those troops may not qualify for some of that additional pay.

The Pentagon policy, as written earlier this year, would allow for limited exemptions.

That includes transgender personnel seeking to enlist who can prove on a case-by-case basis that they directly support warfighting activities, or if an existing service member diagnosed with gender dysphoria can prove they support a specific warfighting need, never transitioned to the gender they identify with and proves over 36 months they are stable in their biological sex “without clinically significant distress.”

If a waiver is issued, the applicant would still face a situation where only their biological sex was recognized for bathroom facilities, sleeping quarters and even in official recognition, such as being called “Sir” or “Ma’am.”

What will it mean?

Over the years, transgender troops have been serving effectively in all of the services, according to military leaders, who told Congress they were not seeing any problems. They have ranged from rank-and-file enlisted members to elite special operations forces.

The troops and activist groups argue that removing transgender service members also hurts their units and military readiness more broadly.

Stehlik, who has been in the military since she went to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 2004, transitioned in 2017, while serving in the Army. She said that for her and others who haven’t hit their 20-year retirement milestone, being kicked out would mean a major loss of benefits, including a pension and health insurance.

Sarah Klimm, a transgender Marine who served for 23 years, retired just as the end of the ban was announced in 2016, so was never able to serve openly.

Now a policy analyst for Minority Veterans of America, she said that in the past nine years, there haven’t been any of the unit cohesion problems that some feared.

Klimm said ousting members is going to hurt military readiness. “Senior enlisted side and senior officer ranks — that’s a lot of time and money put into them,” she said. “You don’t just backfill it.”

Associated Press writer Geoff Mulvihill in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, contributed to this report.

​ Orange County Register 

2 South Gate men charged with robbing casino patrons

• May 9, 2025

Two South Gate men are facing federal charges for allegedly committing more than a dozen armed robberies targeting the winnings of people leaving local casinos, officials announced Friday, May 9.

Juan Gabriel Gonzalez, 22, and Dereck Nathan Lopez, 21, are charged in Los Angeles federal court with multiple counts of interference and attempted interference with commerce by robbery — known as a Hobbs Act crime — one count of Hobbs Act conspiracy and multiple counts of using firearms during a crime of violence. Lopez is also charged with one count of being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

A 10-count indictment alleges that Lopez and Gonzalez entered local casinos under false names to hunt gamblers appearing to win or cash-in a large number of chips. Lopez, Gonzalez and others then followed the victims’ vehicles from the casino, ambushed them on the highway, brandished firearms, smashed the vehicle’s windows, demanded money or chips and fled, prosecutors allege.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Lopez, Gonzalez and associates allegedly robbed and attempted to rob individuals leaving casinos on at least 15 occasions, including three on a single night.

Before one incident, Lopez is seen on casino surveillance video celebrating a gambling victory with a victim he was scouting, including high-fiving the victim after the win, court documents allege.

Within an hour, Lopez’s co-conspirators had allegedly blocked her vehicle, brandished firearms and stolen $21,000 in cash. In a separate incident, Lopez, Gonzalez and their co-conspirators stole at least $130,000 in casino winnings, federal prosecutors contend.

Officials say Lopez is also charged with being a felon in possession of three firearms and over 30 rounds of ammunition found at his home in December 2023. Lopez is not legally permitted to possess a firearm or ammunition because his criminal history includes a conviction in San Bernardino Superior Court for grand theft in November 2023 during the period of the indicted robbery spree, prosecutors said.

If convicted of all charges, each defendant would face up to life in federal prison, prosecutors noted.

​ Orange County Register 

Archer beef jerky maker taking over shuttered Farmer John plant in Vernon

• May 9, 2025

The snackmaker Archer is taking over the former Farmer John meatpacking plant in Vernon, saving the downtown Los Angeles plant targeted for demolition.

The plant closed two years ago when the former owner, Virginia-based Smithfield Foods, cited rising costs of doing business in California. The 30-acre site drew near-constant protests from anti-meat activists, putting a dent in its sales of hot dogs, bacon and other meat products.

Archer founder and CEO Eugene Kang said his San Bernardino-based company is leasing the 140,000-square-foot factory from California-based Ruiz Foods, tearing out old equipment left behind by Farmer John and replacing it with new machinery that will make beef jerky and meat sticks.

Beef jerky is traditionally made from dried whole cuts of muscle meat and then dehydrated. Meat sticks are made with beef, but are described by Kang as an “elevated Slim Jim” made with grass-fed beef and no artificial ingredients. The sticks are similar to a sausage, but smaller in diameter and designed for on-the-go eating.

Also see: More protests planned at Farmer John slaughterhouse in Vernon despite plan to close

Kang, who started his snack business in 2011, said he plans to hire 200 workers at the Soto Street factory in September.

Fifteen years ago, Kang said he first got hooked on beef jerky and meat sticks while driving on a sightseeing trip to the Grand Canyon in Kingman, Arizona.

During that trip, the then-21-year-old saw a billboard alongside Interstate 40 that lured him to exit the freeway to taste beef jerky at a roadside stand. The stand operator used a formula from Charlie Mirachi, a small meat snack maker in Grand Terrace, who had roots selling the product in Costa Mesa.

“It’s softer and more tender than most beef jerky. It feels more premium than a Slim Jim (a rival) because of the natural ingredients we use,” said Kang, who ended up buying the formula and Mirachi’s tiny business as the entrepreneur was approaching his 80s and had no succession plan in place.

Today, the San Bernardino-based company forecasts $300 million in sales this year, and more than $500 million in sales over the next 18 months with the Vernon factory fueling the expansion, according to Kang.

The company has undergone lots of changes in recent months.

In March, the business changed its name to Archer from Country Archer Provisions, and last month announced its sponsorship of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Kang said it was coincidence that he got the sponsorship with the Dodgers, and the factory once run by the former Farmer John — which left a void in the market with its Dodger Dogs when it departed California.

Papa Cantella’s is the new supplier of Dodger Dogs at Dodger Stadium. The Dodgers announced in 2021 that they were no longer sourcing the dogs from Farmer John, which had supplied them for half-a-century.

“It’s a pinch-me moment,” said Kang, who is an avid fan of the Dodgers and lives in East Los Angeles.

Archer’s meat snacks are sold nationwide in more than 30,000 retailers — including grocers like Albertsons, Costco, Kroger, Safeway, Sprouts, Target, Walmart and Whole Foods.  A one-ounce meat stick costs about $2.49 while a 2.5-ounce bag of beef jerky can range from $6.99 to $7.99, Kang said.

The Vernon plant and its associated hog-production farm were once the target of weekly vigils organized by the Animal Alliance Network, protesting the treatment of baby pigs raised in cramped conditions until they are loaded on trucks bound for the slaughterhouse. The Vernon plant once employed 1,800 workers.

​ Orange County Register 

You called me. No — you called ME. Before US-China meeting, nations each say the other wanted talks

• May 9, 2025

By DIDI TANG

WASHINGTON (AP) — Who called first?

It’s the question that has put Beijing and Washington in a verbal sparring match even as the two countries are heading into a weekend meeting in Switzerland to discuss lowering sky-high tariffs that they slapped on each other in heated moments that have shaken financial markets and stirred worries about the global economy.

“The meeting is being held at the request of the U.S. side,’’ Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said Wednesday.

President Donald Trump disagreed. “They said we initiated it? Well, I think they ought to go back and study their files,” Trump said Wednesday when swearing in David Perdue as the new U.S. ambassador to China. That followed weeks of each side suggesting the other side had reached out first, including Trump implying Chinese President Xi Jinping had called him, only to be refuted by Beijing.

When it comes to the world’s two largest economies readying themselves for what is expected to be tough trade talks, the public back-and-forth is no trivial matter.

“The obsession with who reached out first is a proxy fight over leverage,” said Craig Singleton, senior director of the China program at the Washington-based think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “For Washington, signaling that Beijing initiated the meeting reinforces the narrative that the tariffs are working. For Beijing, denying outreach preserves the illusion of parity and avoids domestic perception of weakness.”

Jockeying for dominance

Daniel Russel, a former U.S. diplomat who oversaw East Asian and Pacific affairs, called the exchange “part diplomatic stalemate and part dominance display worthy of a nature documentary.”

In his decades-long career as a diplomat, Russel said he is unaware of a single instance where a Chinese leader initiated a call with a U.S. president. “It may be pride, it may be protocol, but for Beijing, being the demandeur is to show weakness — and that’s something the Chinese system is hardwired to avoid,” said Russel, now vice president for international security and diplomacy at the Asia Society Policy Institute.

The Trump’s administration is less accommodating. “Their position is: ‘If Xi wants the tariffs lifted, he knows how to reach us,’” Russel said.

Not long after Trump raised tariffs on Chinese goods to 145% and Beijing retaliated with 125% tariffs on U.S. goods, Trump suggested that China, like many other countries, was in talks with his administration. On April 22, he apparently directed White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt to say “we’re doing very well” regarding a potential trade deal with China.

“I think it’s a process that’s going to go pretty quickly with China,” Trump said on the same day. “I think we’re going to live together very happily and ideally work together.”

Back and forth … and back again

Yet China quickly denied any talk towards a deal. When asked about such negotiations, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun responded: “All is fake news.” The next day, Guo asked the U.S. to “stop creating confusion” on tariff talks.

Then came a TIME magazine interview when Trump claimed Xi had called him. Details? None provided. When? Trump didn’t say. “He’s called. And I don’t think that’s a sign of weakness on his behalf,” Trump said in the interview published on April 25. Beijing dismissed it, saying there was no recent leadership phone call.

Yet soon the word started to spread on China’s social media that the Trump administration was contacting Beijing, and it was confirmed a few days later by the Chinese Commerce Ministry.

The U.S. had “repeatedly” and “proactively” conveyed messages to China recently to express the hope to engage in negotiations with China, the ministry said on May 2. “In this regard, the Chinese side is assessing it,” the ministry said, in an apparent off-ramp move climbdown that prepared the public opinion for the announcement a few days later that Vice Premier He Lifeng would meet U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in Switzerland this weekend.

Sun Yun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center, said the reality is more complicated when the two governments have been in regular contact and each side may have its own understanding what constitutes “reaching out” for tariff talks. “Technically,” Sun said, “both sides are correct.”

By Thursday, Trump appeared ready to move on. “We can all play games — who made the first call, who didn’t make them. Doesn’t matter,” Trump said.

Referring to the upcoming tariff talk this weekend in Switzerland, Trump said: “It only matters what happens in that room.”

​ Orange County Register