Alexander: Ducks’ No. 2 pick Leo Carlsson showing his stuff at development camp

• July 7, 2023

IRVINE — The tipoff that Leo Carlsson might indeed be the second-best player in what many consider the Connor Bedard draft – first among equals, as it were – could be this: A month before last week’s NHL selection process, the 18-year-old Carlsson was playing with the big boys in the IIHF World Championships.

“Orebro (HK, the Swedish professional team for which he played last season) had him on the wing most of the year, almost the whole year,” said Matt Keator, Carlsson’s Boston-based agent, in a phone conversation. “And then he goes to the Swedish national team and he’s their first-line center on the national team at the Worlds.

“So that says a lot about him as a player and a prospect.”

Carlsson had three goals and two assists and was a plus-5 in that tournament, playing with and against seasoned professionals. That was a few months after logging three goals and three assists with a plus-4 in the World Junior Championships in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, Canada.

Those tournaments, as well as his performances with his club team – including 10 goals and 15 assists in 44 games this past season – convinced the Ducks to make him the No. 2 pick last Thursday, just another head-spinning moment in what has been a frenetic few weeks for Carlsson.

Among his Swedish teammates at the Worlds was Ducks forward and assistant captain Jakob Silfverberg. While Carlsson – rated the top European prospect coming into the draft – had no way of knowing whether the Ducks would use pick No. 2 on him, it was certainly a possibility. But his conversations with Silfverberg were less about the Ducks’ organization and “more like the weather and stuff,” he said.

That is a selling point, obviously. The beach day Carlsson and several others enjoyed on July 4, a day off during the week-long development camp, had to have reinforced that.

The World Championships, which concluded for the Swedes on May 25 when they lost to tournament co-host Latvia in the quarterfinals, began a hectic few weeks. That included two different trips home to train with Orebro, the NHL draft combine in Buffalo, a visit to Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final in Las Vegas with fellow prospects Bedard, Adam Fantilli and Will Smith and then the draft itself in Nashville.

The NHL combine is not the type of televised dog-and-pony show we see from the NFL. No on-ice evaluation; just physicals and lots of job interviews.

“Basically, it was a meeting … and then maybe an hour’s rest or 30 minutes rest, and then the next meeting,” Carlsson said. “And then lunch, and then more interviews and stuff like that. So pretty easy, actually.

“I mean, I got some tips from my agent on some answers and stuff like that. But I was myself. I didn’t have any problems with it.”

He seems capable of handling the difficult stuff, and the crazy stuff, even when his journey to Nashville turned into a 14-hour drive with his family because of weather-related flight cancellations. Is it a challenge to stay calm when things around him aren’t?

“Not really, to be honest,” he said. “I don’t know how to say it, but nothing becomes too crazy for me.”

This week he is wearing practice jersey No. 37 at the Ducks’ development camp at Great Park Ice, and maybe the low number is indicative of his status here. Even so, with on-ice skills work and physical testing interspersed with sessions on such things as nutrition and leadership, and with so many new faces to put names to, it can be disorienting.

“I think I’ve spoken to everybody,” he said. “I mean, of course, it’s hard with new faces everywhere, stuff like that. So it’s kind of hard to remember (who) is who sometimes, because there’s so many.”

New coach Greg Cronin had heard glowing reports of Carlsson, but in getting his first close look this week one thing stood out: At 6-foot-3 and a listed 194 pounds, he’s “a big kid.”

“Some guys that are 6-3 are narrowly built,” he said. “He’s got a big frame. I don’t know what his weight was at the combine, but if he’s a 193-pound guy in early June, what’s he gonna look like a year from now? … His frame can support 220 pounds, I think fairly easily. So that’s the first thing that stands out. And then he’s got long arms. He’s got reach and he’s got range to him. You know basketball people trumpet length a lot. He’s got length to him.

“It’s early, so we don’t know how much his body is going to grow in the next year, two, three, or four. But I think his upside, in relationship to his body growth, is huge. I mean, Connor Bedard’s not a big guy, right? So he doesn’t have Leo’s size. He’s got other skills that are really terrific. That’s why he’s the first pick overall. But I do think, just watching him skate, watching him move, he’s an athletic kid, which is important too. His athleticism to me shows up in practice with his skating and his movement in tight spaces.”

Carlsson said he grew up idolizing Sidney Crosby, but as a guy who has size but is shifty and won’t shirk his defensive duties, a more accurate comparable might be the Kings’ Anze Kopitar, who is 6-3, 225. And Carlsson has shown, through two seasons in the Swedish Hockey League and then the World Championships, that even at 17 and 18 he’s unfazed against more experienced competition.

No. 2 picks in the NHL draft are more of a risk than you might think. Going back through 30 years of drafts, you can find a little more than a handful who turned out to be true impact players: Drew Doughty, Evgeni Malkin, Daniel Sedin, Patrick Marleau, Chris Pronger and Trevor Linden. Guys like Eric and Jordan Staal (brothers taken No. 2 four years apart), Gabriel Landeskog and Jack Eichel are part of the next tier. And there are a lot of players taken No. 2 in that span who never reached the potential expected of them.

Carlsson already has a shot at being the best Ducks’ No. 2 pick ever, though the other two were productive in a different way.

Bobby Ryan, picked right after Crosby in the 2005 draft, had four straight 30-goal seasons for the Ducks and was eventually traded to Ottawa in 2013 for a package that included Silfverberg. Defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky, picked in ’94, was traded for future Hall of Famer Teemu Selanne in 1996, then reacquired in ’99 and traded to New Jersey in the summer of 2002 for a package that included Petr Sykora … and the Devils wound up beating the Ducks in the 2003 Stanley Cup Final.

But the immediate question Carlsson faces: After this development camp, which concludes Friday with an open practice at 11 a.m. and a 3-on-3 scrimmage at noon at Great Park Ice’s Five Point Arena, does he go back to Sweden for another year’s seasoning or start the clock on his NHL career?

The Swedish Hockey League preseason begins on Aug. 1, well before the early September start of the Ducks’ rookie camp, but Keator said there was “no rush” to what will be a group decision.

“He’ll talk to his family, his Swedish agents, myself, (Ducks GM) Pat Verbeek, his staff, and we’ll come to a consensus,” Keator said. “But in the end, it’s Leo’s life. And you know he’s going to make the decision with our input. But it’s a consensus thing. We all work together, and I’ve talked to Pat about it a few times, and he’s been great. And we’ll just see how it evolves.”

Whenever and however it does evolve, we know this: Leo Carlsson will approach it calmly.

jalexander@scng.com

​ Orange County Register 

Hotel group files unfair labor practice charges against Unite Here 11

• July 7, 2023

A bargaining group representing 44 Southern California hotels has filed unfair labor practice charges against the workers’ union with the National Labor Relations Board.

The charges allege Unite Here Local 11 broke the law by attempting to force the hotels into a contract with elements that have nothing to do with their employees and “could harm the Los Angeles tourism industry.”

SEE MORE: Hospitality workers return to work, but more walkouts possible, union says

The move comes after hundreds of hospitality workers picketed 19 Southern California hotels over the July 4th weekend before returning to work July 5. Union officials have warned that more walkouts could occur at 44 other hotels at any time.

The Coordinated Bargaining Group said Unite Here is insisting the hotels support a controversial LA County ballot measure requiring them to house the homeless along with regular guests. They say Unite Here also wants them to impose a 7% tax on guests of unionized hotels as a means of growing Local 11’s footprint outside Los Angeles.

RELATED: What’s behind the workers’ strike at Southern California hotels?

Both of those factors, the group said, would dissuade some travelers from coming to Southern California.

“Insisting that these provisions must be in any contract settlement, and striking to include them is not only unlawful, but is also a real obstacle to reaching agreement on a contract,” said Keith Grossman, a spokesperson for the Coordinated Bargaining Group.

Grossman said Local 11 is not bargaining in good faith and has refused to provide documentation relating to its demands. He added that the union is falsely claiming the Coordinated Bargaining Group’s proposal may not secure employees’ healthcare for the next four years when it actually would.

Pete Hillan, a spokesman for the Hotel Association of Los Angeles, said the homeless mandate and tax issue fall under the purview of city governments — not hotels.

“This is a real head-scratcher,” he said. “And the demand that hotels provide housing for homeless individuals wouldn’t come without wrap-around services that address mental illness, drug addiction and safety precautions for housekeepers.”

Unite Here co-President Kurt Petersen said the hotels are “paying thousands of dollars so attorneys can file frivolous lawsuits” when the money could be better spent on affordable housing so hotel workers could afford to live in Los Angeles.

“The only unhoused people in hotels are the hotel workers who are struggling to pay rent, doubling up, moving further away — and sometimes living in their cars,” he said.

And that 7% tax?

Petersen said that could replace the “junk fees” hotels charge and could be used to fund affordable housing for hospitality workers.

“As everyone knows, hotels have two rates,” he said. “When you book a room it might be $250 a night. But then it becomes $300 when they add in bogus charges for things like wireless service. Everyone knows it’s a scam.”

More than 15,000 Southern California hotel workers voted early last month to authorize a strike as they bargain for a $5-an-hour pay hike, more affordable health care, a secure pension plan and “safe and humane” workloads.

They include room attendants, cooks, dishwashers, front desk agents, servers and food service workers.

The top concern among the employees is the rising cost of housing. In a recent union survey, 53% of workers said they have either moved in the past five years or will be forced to move in the near future because of soaring housing costs.

Christian Morales, a laundry worker at the Hilton Pasadena, makes $20 an hour but says it’s not enough.

“My wife works, too, but our rent is $1,500 a month and we have gas, grocery costs and a $500-month car payment,” he said. “Everything is getting expensive.”

Hillan called the union’s picketing “theatrics.”

“It does harm to union members and to the hotels, and it’s bad for tourism,” he said. “Why would someone come here for a convention when they know they could run into a labor situation?”

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​ Orange County Register 

Judge Andrew Napolitano: Democracy without safeguards and constraints is a threat to liberty

• July 7, 2023

“Which is better — to be ruled by one tyrant three thousand miles away or by three thousand tyrants one mile away?” — Rev. Mather Byles (1706-1788)

Does it really matter if the instrument curtailing liberty is a monarch or a popularly elected legislature? This conundrum, along with the witty version of it put to a Boston crowd in 1775 by the little-known colonial-era preacher with the famous uncle — Cotton Mather — addresses the age-old question of whether liberty can long survive in a democracy.

Byles was a loyalist, who, along with about one-third of the American adult white male population in 1776, opposed the American Revolution and favored continued governance by Great Britain.

He didn’t fight for the king or agitate against George Washington’s troops; he merely warned of the dangers of too much democracy.

No liberty-minded thinker I know of seriously argues today in favor of a hereditary monarchy, but many of us are fearful of an out-of-control democracy, which is what we have in America today. I say “democracy” because there remain in our federal structure a few safeguards against runaway federal tyranny, such as the equal state representation in the Senate, the Electoral College, the state control of federal elections, and life-tenured federal judges and justices.

Of course, the Senate as originally crafted did not consist of popularly elected senators. Rather, they were appointed by state legislatures to represent the sovereign states as states, not the people in them.

Part of James Madison’s genius was the construction of the federal government as a three-sided table. The first side stood for the people — the House of Representatives. The second side stood for the sovereign states that created the federal government — the Senate. And the third side stood for the nation-state — the presidency. The judiciary, whose prominent role today was unthinkable in 1789, was not part of this mix.

In his famous Bank Speech, Madison argued eloquently against legislation chartering a national bank because the authority to create a bank was not only not present in the Constitution but also was retained by the states and reserved to them by the 10th Amendment.

In that speech, he warned that the creeping expansion of the federal government would trample the powers of the states and also the unenumerated rights of the people that the Ninth Amendment — his pride and joy because it protected natural rights — prohibited the government from denying or disparaging.

He gave that speech in February of 1791, 11 months before the addition of the Bill of Rights — the first 10 amendments — to the Constitution. Given the popular fears of a new central government, Madison assumed that the Bill of Rights would be quickly ratified. He was right.

His Bank Speech remains just as relevant today.

Had Madison been alive during the presidency of the anti-Madisonian Woodrow Wilson — who gave us World War I, the Federal Reserve, the administrative state, the popular election of senators and the federal income tax — he would have recoiled at a president destroying the three-sided table. Wilson did that by leading the campaign to amend the Constitution so as to provide for the direct popular election of senators.

Nor would Madison have stomached the efforts today by liberal Democrats to amend the Constitution to provide for the direct popular election of the president.

Part of Madison’s genius was to craft anti-democratic elements into the Constitution. And some of them — like retaining state sovereignty — created laboratories of liberty. President Ronald Reagan reminded the American public in his first inaugural address that the states formed the federal government, not the other way around. Had I been the scrivener of that speech, I’d have begged him to add: “And the powers that the states gave to the feds, they can take back.”

Reagan also famously said that we could vote with our feet. If you don’t like the over-the-top regulations in Massachusetts, you can move to New Hampshire. If you are fed up with the highest state taxes in the union in New Jersey, you can move to Pennsylvania.

But the more state sovereignty the feds absorb — the more state governance that is federalized — the fewer differences there are among the regulatory and taxing structures of the states. This has happened because Congress has become a general legislature without regard for the constitutional limits imposed on it.

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If Congress wants to regulate an area of human behavior that is clearly beyond its constitutional competence, it bribes the states to do so with borrowed or Federal Reserve-created cash. Thus, it offered hundreds of millions of dollars to the states to lower their speed limits on highways and to lower the acceptable blood alcohol level in peoples’ veins — this would truly have set Madison off — before a presumption of DWI may be argued; all in return for cash to pave state-maintained highways.

The states are partly to blame for this. They take whatever cash Congress offers, and they accept the strings that come with it. And they, too, are tyrants. The states mandated the unconstitutional and crippling lockdowns of 2020-2021, not the feds. The states should be paying the political and financial consequences for their misdeeds, not the feds. They took property and liberty without paying for it as the Constitution requires them to do, not the feds.

Byles feared a government of 3,000. Today, the feds employ close to 3 million. Thomas Jefferson warned that when the federal treasury becomes a federal trough, and the people recognize it as such, they would only send to Washington politicians — faithless to the Constitution — who promise to bring home the most cash.

In a democracy, faithless to constitutional guarantees, the majority will take whatever it wants from the minority — including its liberty and property.

Andrew Napolitano is a syndicated columnist.

​ Orange County Register 

3 teens arrested in connection with pizza delivery driver’s slaying in Stanton

• July 7, 2023

Three teenagers were arrested Wednesday, July 5, on suspicion of murder in the 2022 killing of a pizza delivery driver who apparently tried to help an elderly man being assaulted in Stanton, authorities said.

Anaheim residents Adrian Castaneda, 19, and Damian Ivan Mayorga, 18, as well as  Garden Grove resident Henry Diep Le, 19, are accused of fatally shooting Juan Cristalinas last June at the 7000 block of Lessue Avenue, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department said in a news release.

Cristalinas, who was 49 and lived in Santa Ana, had been trying to help a 76-year-old man who was apparently being beaten by a group of men demanding money, the release said. The 76-year-old man was also shot but survived.

It was not immediately clear whether the suspects knew any of the victims.

“Juan leaves behind three sons, a loving wife, and three beautiful grandchildren. He was a hardworking, loving man. He had two jobs and spent his weekends working on cars as a mechanic. He was the kind of person who always stood up for others and wasn’t scared of doing the right thing,” a GoFundMe set up for Cristalinas said.

Castaneda, Mayorga, and Le were all being held at Orange County Jail as of Thursday evening, according to jail records.

Bail was set at $1 million each. Le was due in court Thursday, while Castaneda and Mayorga were expected to appear Friday.

Pizza delivery driver killed, elderly man wounded in Stanton neighborhood

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​ Orange County Register 

Wimbledon finally completes first round 2 days later than planned

• July 7, 2023

By HOWARD FENDRICH AP Tennis Writer

WIMBLEDON, England — Let the record reflect that the rain-logged first round of Wimbledon 2023 finally concluded at 3:23 p.m. local time on Thursday, Day 4 of the tournament, 48 hours later than originally planned, when Alexander Zverev finished off his 6-4, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5) victory over Dutch qualifier Gijs Brouwer.

Zverev was supposed to start and, naturally, finish, on Tuesday. Instead, he didn’t take the court to play his first point of the fortnight until about 17½ hours after Novak Djokovic already had made his way into the third round.

“Took me three days,” Zverev joked, “but I’m here.”

For once this week, the sun was out at the All England Club, and the showers were nowhere to be found.

Instead, there was plenty of play, plenty of results – 56 in all – and plenty of drama, perhaps none more than in one much-hyped showdown that did not conclude: Two-time Wimbledon champion Andy Murray vs. two-time major finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas was suspended at 10:40 p.m. and will resume Friday.

Played with the roof closed at a loud Centre Court filled with “Let’s go, Andy! Let’s go!” chants from fans, that one was stopped just after Murray took a two-sets-to-one lead. Tsitsipas took the opening set 7-6 (3), but Murray took the next two 7-6 (2), 6-4. Murray, 36 and with an artificial hip, slipped and fell behind a baseline but arose and finished that third set just before play was halted.

There were tears for Alizé Cornet, who slipped to the turf and hurt her leg at 5-all in the second set of what would become a 6-2, 7-6 (2) loss to defending champion Elena Rybakina.

There were tears for Donna Vekic, too, and she won. She came back from a set and 5-2 down in the second to eliminate 2017 U.S. Open champion Sloane Stephens.

“I was losing,” Vekic said later. “Not that I was just losing – I felt like I was getting killed.”

There was realism for Stan Wawrinka, a three-time Grand Slam champion who is now 38, coming off years of injuries and operations, and, while he was pleased to defeat Tomás Martín Etcheverry, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2, knows what comes next: a matchup against Djokovic, who has won seven of his men’s record 23 major championships at this event.

“There’s zero opportunity to win Wimbledon for me, I think,” Wawrinka acknowledged.

“It’s an honor to play Novak here. … Hopefully I can make a competitive match,” he continued, “but if you will look at recent results, I don’t really stand a chance.”

There was new ground for a group of men who won to reach the third round at the All England Club for the first time: No. 14 seed Lorenzo Musetti, qualifier Maximillian Marterer, Mikael Ymer, Quentin Halys and Roman Safiullin.

Ymer came back from a two-set deficit to knock off ninth-seeded American Taylor Fritz, 3-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.

Two American men stuck around for the next round by winning: No. 10 Frances Tiafoe, a semifinalist at the U.S. Open last September, and No. 16 Tommy Paul, a semifinalist at the Australian Open in January.

They were joined in the third round by two American women, No. 4 Jessica Pegula and 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin.

There was familiar disappointment at the grass-court major tournament for Casper Ruud, who was the runner-up at three of the past five majors but lost to British wild-card Liam Broady on Centre Court, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-0. Ruud has never been past the second round in four appearances at Wimbledon.

“I’m going to keep trying. I have a goal, of course, in my career to try to do well here at some point,” said Ruud, who was seeded fourth. “It didn’t happen this year. I’ll come back. I honestly love coming here. It’s such a special place.”

There was the end of the line for Anett Kontaveit. She was the last player to lose to Serena Williams – at the U.S. Open last year while ranked No. 2 – and said before Wimbledon she would be retiring because of a chronic bad back.

And there was the latest sign of promise from Mirra Andreeva, a 16-year-old qualifier from Russia.

Andreeva made her way into the third round at the second consecutive major when 2021 French Open singles and doubles champion Barbora Krejcikova quit because she was hurt while trailing, 6-3, 4-0.

“For sure, it’s not the way I wanted to win the match,” Andreeva said. “But still, I advance to the next round, so I’m happy with that.”

KENIN ON COMEBACK TRAIL

Sofia Kenin reached the third round for the first time on Thursday. Or as the 2020 Australian Open champion put it: “Just trying to prove some people wrong.”

Kenin beat Wang Xinyu of China, 6-4, 6-3, to back up her victory over seventh-seeded Coco Gauff that ended a streak of three straight first-round exits at Grand Slam tournaments.

The 24-year-old American came into Wimbledon ranked 128th and had to go through qualifying to reach the main draw – and she’s fine with that.

“If I know every time I’m going to get to the third round at a Slam, I’ll play qualies,” said Kenin, who was ranked No. 4 after her title at Melbourne Park. “Yeah, definitely I feel like that for sure helped me. Grass wasn’t always my favorite surface, and I felt like I had some really good solid wins in qualies even though they were against tough opponents.

“Looks obviously easy, but it was tough and I feel like those matches definitely gave me confidence.”

Kenin’s win on Court 4 wasn’t a work of art – she hit 11 winners to 17 unforced errors – but she jumped on Wang’s second serve and broke her four times.

The Russian-born Kenin next faces Elina Svitolina, a Ukrainian who is making a comeback of her own. Svitolina is back on tour after the birth of her first child in October. She beat five-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams in the first round.

Kenin, who has dealt with foot and ankle injuries, said she’ll prepare for “a long, tough match” because Svitolina “gets a lot of balls back, from what I remember.”

Svitolina followed up her win over Williams by eliminating 28th-seeded Elise Mertens, 6-1, 1-6, 6-1.

The Ukrainian, who is ranked 76th, remembers Kenin as an aggressive baseliner.

“She loves to strike the ball, dictate on the baseline. I’ll have to react quick. I’ll have to move my legs really, really well and expect a quick ball,” Svitolina said.

Regarding proving people wrong, Kenin didn’t point to anyone specific.

“It’s just like I didn’t have maybe the best results, but I felt like this year, you know, I started off pretty good overall and I just had to find my way,” she said. “I have been fighting it. Yeah, just hope that I can keep it going.”

TIAFOE SENDS FOOTWEAR MESSAGE TO TRAVIS SCOTT

Tiafoe is still waiting on his sneakers from Travis Scott.

The American tennis player, who advanced to the third round at Wimbledon on Thursday, playfully nudged the rapper to send him a pair of his new Nike sneakers.

“His manager keeps saying, ‘Yeah, it’s coming, yeah, it’s coming,’” the 25-year-old Tiafoe said, noting that Scott is performing on Saturday in London. “Yeah, no, this is all good fun. It’s just funny. Yeah, I’m excited. That’s definitely my guy. It’s cool that he’s out here.”

The 10th-seeded Tiafoe had noticed top-ranked Carlos Alcaraz wearing a pair at practice during the Queen’s Club Championships, a Wimbledon warmup event.

The Maryland native beat Dominic Stricker, 7-6 (11), 6-4, 6-2, and next faces 21st-seeded Grigor Dimitrov.

AP sports writer Ken Maguire contributed to this story.

​ Orange County Register 

Huntington Beach lifeguard suffered spinal cord injury while on duty

• July 7, 2023

A Huntington Beach city lifeguard is in the hospital following a serious spinal cord injury while on duty on July 3.

The lifeguard, identified on the Huntington Beach Fire Outreach Foundation fundraising site as Elizabeth Lovat, was transported to a local hospital following the injury where she is reported to be in stable, but serious, condition. She was not actively involved in a rescue at the time of the incident, authorities said.

“Our priority at this time is to provide support for the injured lifeguard and her family while she recovers,” Huntington Beach city spokesperson Jennifer Carey said. “Out of respect for the family’s privacy, no other information will be provided at this time.”

Lovat attended Huntington Beach High School, where she graduated with honors, and has been studying speech pathology at Iona College in New York, where she plays Division 1 women’s water polo.

She was recognized as an All-American athlete and received numerous athletic awards. She has been on the Dean’s List (4.0) in the last year, according to the foundation site.

“Elizabeth has a passion for helping others and has learned and used her communication skills with American Sign Language to help her community, which has in turn shaped her career and educational goals,” the foundation post says. “She knows what it takes to overcome life’s most challenging setbacks and persevere. Her dad taught her ‘not to be afraid of failure’ and her attitude has inspired those around her.”

Lovat was a recipient of a Ben Carlson Fund scholarship in 2021. Lifeguards up and down the coast on Thursday, July 6, paid tribute to Carlson, a Newport Beach lifeguard, on the anniversary of his death during an ocean rescue in 2014.

Lovat’s injury comes just two weeks following Hoag Hospital’s annual Project Wipeout, a gathering of local lifeguards who talk about spinal cord injury and other dangers at the beach.

“Most neck and spinal cord injuries are caused by the tremendous strength of the ocean’s waves forcing your neck and spine into harmful, unnatural positions,” the Project Wipeout website says.

A big swell hit the region on Monday, with waves in the 4- to 6-foot range, causing hazardous conditions along the coast that are expected to continue into the weekend.

The National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center estimates that 12,000 people suffer a spinal cord injury each year, with 8% of those suffered during a recreational activity.

According to a story in 2015, there are typically anywhere from 40 to 50 spinal cords injuries of varying severity each year in Huntington Beach.

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​ Orange County Register 

Ben Carlson Day in Newport Beach remembers lifeguard’s legacy

• July 7, 2023

The moments on the sand and in the sea pay tribute to Ben Carlson, a remembrance for the lost lifeguard. But Thursday, July 6, was also a reminder of his legacy to inspire the next generation of guards.

Ben Carlson Day is an annual tradition in Newport Beach following the lifeguard’s death nine years ago as he rescued a swimmer in distress during a big swell that hit on a busy Fourth of July holiday weekend. The swimmer made it, but Carlson died.

“It’s very uplifting and that’s how we want to remember Ben and celebrate his life, what he did for our department and for lifesaving,” Newport Beach Lifeguard Chief Brian O’Rourke said.

Carlson was the first and only Newport Beach Lifeguard to die in the line of duty since the department formed in 1923.

His death was a somber, yet pivotal moment in the city’s lifeguarding history, one that sent waves of shock through the tight-knit coastal community as well as lifeguard departments across the country.

Following his death, family and friends set up the Ben Carlson Memorial & Scholarship Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to drowning prevention and education.

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“It’s very important to keep his legacy going, not only for what he did, but what he stood for. He was someone who believed in hard work and supporting the lifeguard team here and really represented an image of success by being mentally tough and working hard,” O’Rourke said. “He was a role model.”

The group hosts an annual conference dedicated to saving lives and each year selects scholarship recipients that mirror Carlson’s qualities of outstanding achievements in academics, athletics, service to society and sense of independence.

This year’s recipients include Newport Beach’s Chester “Chet” Clark,  a Cal State Fullerton student studying communications, Valeria Gamez Hernandez, from Long Beach, who is earning a computer science and engineering degree from USC, and Samantha Tadder, of Virginia Beach, who is studying biology and pre-med at Stanford University.

On Thursday, young guards heard a presentation from Ben Carlson Foundation board member Spencer Pirdy, who shared stories about the junior lifeguard instructor and 15-year veteran, who was just 32 when he died.

Some of the junior guards did a run-swim-run event, one of Carlson’s favorites, to mark the day. And, lifeguard boats paraded down the coast in front of the junior lifeguards, flashing sirens to the cheer of the crowd.

In the afternoon, the Carlson family and foundation provided lunch to all guards on duty from Sessions West Coast Deli, which this year ran a promotion to “buy a lifeguard lunch,” bringing meals to not just Newport Beach guards but also State Parks lifeguards in Huntington Beach and Crystal Cove.

At 5:15 p.m. a moment of remembrance was planned at Tower 17, the area and time where Carlson died during the ocean rescue.

Carlson was also a big-wave surfer, a waterman with years of ocean experience who embraced the lifestyle of being around the ocean, someone who “really believed in what lifeguards stood for and wanted to be the best he could be,” O’Rourke said.

As part of the Newport Beach Lifeguard Department’s centennial celebration, the city will be hosting an event on Aug. 9 that will have a presentation from the Newport Beach Historical Society and a showing of the film “Part of Water,” a documentary about Carlson’s life.

This past weekend, when big crowds and big waves showed up for the holiday, was a reminder of the role lifeguards play in keeping people safe at the beach.

On July 4, lifeguards conducted 1,407 preventative actions and 146 rescues, officials said, mostly in the afternoon hours as waves started to grow.

Big surf in the 4- to 6-foot range is expected to continue into the weekend, meaning the department will be staffing up as rip currents and strong surf pose hazards to beachgoers.

“It’s continuing,” O’Rourke said. “There’s some pretty solid energy in the water.”

The guards will spend long days in the sun, racing to save people from rip currents and scanning the sea for potential dangers that loom, he said.

“We have an amazing team,” he said. “It’s very demanding. We’re really proud of our staff, every year.”

​ Orange County Register 

Long Beach, LA ports receive nearly $600 million in state infrastructure grants

• July 7, 2023

The nation’s busiest shipping gateway hailed a windfall of nearly $600 million in state infrastructure grants for the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles on Thursday, July 6.

The Port of Long Beach hosted California Transportation Secretary Toks Omishakin on Thursday, who during a press conference called the occasion a “historic and momentous” day for the ports and people throughout the state.

The total statewide funding announced on Thursday, Omishakin said, amounts to more than $1.5 billion in port and freight infrastructure. That money will pay for long-term upgrades for goods movement capacity and efforts to lessen environmental impacts on neighboring communities.

The ports of LA and Long Beach combined received more than one-third of that funding.

The Port of Long Beach will get $350 million total, which will go toward completing a series of construction and clean-air technology projects designed to speed up the transformation to zero-emissions operations. That money will be split into two major efforts:

$225 million will fund a variety of zero-emissions cargo-moving equipment and supportive infrastructure projects across the port, including top handlers, along with tugboats and locomotives. It’s the single largest grant the port has received to support zero-emissions goals as part of the 2017 Clean Air Action Plan Update.
$158.4 million will go toward the planned Pier B On-Dock Rail Support facility, which will shift more cargo from trucks to on-dock rail. The $1.57 billion facility will be built in phases, with construction set to begin in 2024 and be completed in 2032.

At the Port of Los Angeles, $233 million in state grants will support three critical supply chain and safety projects:

The Maritime Support Facility and Expansion Projects, which will provide chassis and empty container storage for all 12 container terminals at the ports of L.A. and Long Beach, with the additional funding providing for an improved expanded area from 30 to 71 acres.
The Rail Mainline/Wilmington Community and Waterfront Pedestrian Grade Separation Bridge project, which involves demolition work, soil remediation and construction of a 400-foot dedicated pedestrian bridge over freight tracks. The goal is to create safer connections among the Wilmington community, several local schools and the Port of Los Angeles’s Wilmington Waterfront area. The project will also include building retaining walls, storm drainage, electrical and utilities, sidewalks and landscaping.
The State Route 47/Seaside Avenue and Navy Way Interchange Improvements project, which will modify the intersection of Navy Way and Seaside Avenue on Terminal Island to improve traffic operations, reduce collisions and improve safety. A new westbound auxiliary lane, eastbound two-lane road and new off-ramp will be among the upgrades.

The Port of Los Angeles last week also received a $15 million grant from the California Transportation Commission for a four-lane grade separation on Terminal Island to reduce truck delays and improve safety.

“Roughly 20 months ago,” Omishakin said at Thursday’s news conference, “Gov. (Gavin) Newsom stood right here at the Port of Long Beach as dozens and dozens of vessels were backed up in the water in the harbor behind you. The governor made a promise that we were going to come up with solutions both short-term and long-term.”

The ports of Hueneme and San Diego also received funding from the package.

“You asked for our reaction,” said Kristin Decas, CEO and port director of Hueneme. “Wow.”

The milestone funding will help that port, in Ventura County, make progress toward possibly becoming “the first zero-emissions port,” Decas said.

At the Port of San Diego, part of the funding will be used to improve and modernize industrial activities, including an auto processing terminal, as well as to provide more park space and other recreational areas within the port’s footprint.

“I can’t emphasize enough the importance of investing in our infrastructure,” said Rafael Castellanos, chair of the Port of San Diego commissioners. “The Romans knew it, building roads (and other infrastructure) throughout the ancient world.”

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The Port of San Diego, he added, helps build and repair ships for the U.S. Navy, providing more than 64,000 port-connected jobs.

For the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach — which move 35% of the nation’s imports and exports, Omishakin said — the funding is also a boon at a time when deadlines to meet environmental mandates are fast approaching.

The twin ports must convert all of their cargo handling equipment to zero emissions by 2030, and have a 2035 deadline for implementing an entirely zero-emissions truck fleet.

“This funding not only helps us to be competitive and grow cargo,” said Port of Long Beach CEO Mario Cordero, “but to do it in a way that keeps in mind our environmental principles” to reduce impacts on surrounding communities.

“It’s not just about moving cargo,” Cordero said. “It’s about how we do it.”

David Libatique, POLA’s deputy executive director, called the funding “phenomenal in its scope and scale.”

“The ports on the West Coast have been chronically under-funded” when compared to the East Coast, Libatique said.

The state funding, said former Long Beach Mayor and current U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia, “is a huge injection of money and support for our ports.”

​ Orange County Register