Chad Bianco’s Keystone Cops lose 60 pounds of meth

• April 27, 2023

Riverside County has now gifted satirists a plotline.

Last week, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department arranged a sting operation hoping to arrest drug traffickers. Only, in this case, the department unwittingly became the actual traffickers.

Undercover officers provided a drug dealer with 60 pounds of methamphetamine. The dealer then took off and the department’s finest couldn’t keep up to complete the operation.

“After the transaction, the suspect drove away and deputies from the Gang Task Force attempted a vehicle stop. The suspect failed to yield, and a pursuit was initiated. Due to the high speeds and the suspect’s disregard for public safety, deputies lost sight of the vehicle,” the department said in a statement.

Well done, Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.

“[Methamphetamine] is often sold in quantities of 3.5 grams, or an eighth of an ounce, known as an 8-ball. Sixty pounds of methamphetamine could be divided into 7,680 such 8-balls,” reported the Southern California News Group’s Brian Rokos.

This is the latest humiliation for one of the largest sheriff’s departments in the state.

The department is now under a state civil rights investigation launched by the California Department of Justice due to a massive spike in jail deaths last year.

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The department is also facing civil lawsuits by the families of people who have died while under the county’s custody.  And that comes not long after the county had to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit after Riverside County deputies wrongly raided the homes of an elderly couple without a warrant.

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, elected in 2018 at the behest of the county’s deputies union and with the enthusiastic support of Democratic County Supervisors Chuck Washington and V. Manuel Perez, has steered the department in the wrong direction.

This editorial board will continue to call on the Riverside County Board of Supervisors to establish an oversight body over the Sheriff’s Department. Democrats hold a majority on the board; while they are surely conflicted given their alliance with the deputies union, Democrats in Riverside County must press the supervisors to act and act now.

​ Orange County Register 

Lakers fade in 3rd quarter as Grizzlies force a Game 6

• April 27, 2023

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — LeBron James locked eyes with Lakers coach Darvin Ham with 4 minutes, 40 seconds remaining in what would become a 116-99 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series Wednesday at FedEx Forum. They had a non-verbal discussion, as Ham later put it.

It was time.

Not closing time.

But time to rest, to recover for Game 6 on Friday at Crypto.com Arena.

The Lakers lead the best-of-7 series, three games to two.

If necessary, Game 7 will be Sunday in Memphis.

“Tonight, I was (expletive),” James said. “I’ll be better in Game 6.”

James and Anthony Davis have been very much like ships passing in the night during the first five games of the series. They haven’t been productive together in the same game yet, with James dipping and Davis soaring in Game 5, and it was the opposite in the Lakers’ victory in Game 4.

James scored 15 points on 5-for-17 shooting with 10 rebounds, five assists and five turnovers in 37 minutes before retiring to the bench with the Lakers trailing 106-92. Davis led the Lakers with 31 points on 14-for-23 shooting and a playoff career-high 19 rebounds in a little more than 35 minutes.

“We just haven’t put two performances together,” James said. ”We still put three team efforts together to be up 3-2, and that’s what’s important. It doesn’t matter what A.D. and I are doing, it’s about winning basketball games.”

The Lakers were within 75-74 after James went on a personal 5-0 run that included two free throws with 4:36 left in the third quarter. But, instead of folding, the Grizzlies surged with a 19-2 run to end the third that they would extend to 26-2 by the opening minutes of the fourth.

Desmond Bane and Ja Morant ensured the Grizzlies would live to play another day, shredding the Lakers’ defense with a mix of drives to the basket and perimeter shots. Bane led the Grizzlies with 33 points and Morant had 31, and the Lakers had no answer for either of them.

“We’ll go back to the drawing board and look at the film and see what we come up with and, again, the biggest part of it is to be ready to come out Friday like gangbusters and compete for 48 minutes or however long it takes,” Ham said of the Lakers’ plans for Game 6.

Ham acknowledged facing a difficult decision as to when to pull the plug on Game 5 in order to rest James, Davis and his other starters. Down by 24 points with more than eight minutes still to be played, Ham chose to stick with his starters and see if they could make a run.

“It’s tough, man, because you’re competitive, you feel like in today’s basketball – 3-point shot – you can chew up a deficit really quick,” Ham said. “We gave up a 14-1 run in the first half in the last game, so it just goes to show you. It’s a great conundrum. Do you compete harder?

“Hopefully, some shots go in, you get to the free throw line. Or do you take that time and try to soak up some minutes with those guys getting ice on them or whatever? It’s playoff basketball and everyone’s in a competitive mode, and we decided to leave our guys out there.”

Asked about his level of fatigue, James said simply, “I’m good.”

Davis said he was prepared to “play all 48” in Game 6, if necessary.

“It’s what you prepare an entire season for,” Davis said.

The Lakers fell behind by as many as 17 points in the first half, which had more to do with the Grizzlies’ sense of desperation than anything else. Pushed to the brink of elimination after the Lakers’ overtime victory Monday in Game 4, the Grizzlies fought back to start Game 5.

Memphis could do nothing to stop Davis in the early going, but the Lakers didn’t have a consistent second or third offensive option. James missed seven of his first nine shots and had five turnovers in a first half that was every bit as forgettable as his Game 5 play was memorable.

Davis had a double-double by halftime, with 18 points on 8-for-13 shooting plus 10 rebounds. His teammates combined to shoot 13 of 31 (41.9 percent) in the first half. Austin Reaves, who had 10 points on 3-for-6 shooting, was the only other Lakers player with 10 or more points in the half. He finished with 17.

“Close-out games are tough,” Davis said. “The other team is going to come out with a sense of desperation. It was on their home floor. The crowd was into it. They got hot in the first quarter, making shots. Desmond Bane got hot and the crowd’s energy fed the other guys and they made plays and made shots.”

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​ Orange County Register 

Orange County scores and player stats for Wednesday, April 26

• April 27, 2023

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Scores and stats from Orange County games on Wednesday, April 26

Click here for details about sending your team’s scores and stats to the Register.

WEDNESDAY’S SCORES

BOYS VOLLEYBALL

CIF-SS PLAYOFFS

DIVISION 1

Pool Play

POOL A

Loyola def. Beckman, 25-20, 25-21, 25-19

Corona del Mar def. Edison, 25-23, 26-24, 25-17

POOL B

Newport Harbor def. Huntington Beach, 25-16, 23-25, 25-18, 25-27, 15-12

Mira Costa def. Mater Dei, 3-0

BASEBALL

PACIFIC COAST LEAGUE

Woodbridge 4, Northwood 0

Laguna Hills 9, Irvine 0

Portola 5, Beckman 3

University 8, Sage Hill 4

SOUTH COAST LEAGUE

Dana Hills 6, Trabuco Hills 1

DH: Gallison (W, 4IPM 0ER, 4K) Rapp 1-2, 2RBI, Farris 2-4, 2B, RBI, Murray 1-4, 2B, RBI.

TH: B. Gray 2-2, RBI, Manda 2-4, Luce 1-4, 2B, R.

Tesoro 9, Capistrano Valley 8 (8 innings)

Tes: Freeman 2-4, 2HR, 4RBI. Jorissen 2-3, HR, 2B, 2RBI. Tobias 2-4, RBI.

CV: Montgomery 1-3, HR, 4RBI. Chisolm 2-4, 2RBI.

Note: Tesoro clinches first league championship since 2018.

TRINITY LEAGUE

Santa Margarita 9, St. John Bosco 4

ORANGE COAST LEAGUE

Orange 9, Calvary Chapel 8

Or: Rodriguez 2-4, 3B, HR, 4RBI. Torres 1-2, 2RBI.

CC: Pipia 2-4, 3B, SB, 2RBI. Nakamoto 2-4, RBI.

NONLEAGUE

Mission Viejo 10, El Toro 9

SOFTBALL

PACIFIC COAST LEAGUE

Laguna Hills 8, Portola 1

GARDEN GROVE LEAGUE

La Quinta 10, Los Amigos 3

LQ: Gomez (W, 16K, 0 ER), McIntyre 3RBI, 2B

Note: La Quinta clinches 2nd place in league for the first time in over 30 years

Other scores

Loara 16, Bolsa Grande 2

CRESTVIEW LEAGUE

Esperanza 6, Canyon 4

NORTH HILLS LEAGUE

Yorba Linda 5, El Dorado 2

NONLEAGUE

Brea Olinda 3, Foothill 2

ORANGE COAST LEAGUE

Calvary Chapel 10, Costa Mesa 0

ORANGE LEAGUE

Savanna 5, Santa Ana Valley 4

Anaheim 13, Magnolia 3

SAN JOAQUIN LEAGUE

Capistrano Valley Christian 5, Calvary Chapel/Downey 1

Capistrano Valley Christian 22, Calvary Chapel/Downey 9 (Doubleheader)

Western Christian 14, Samueli Academy 1

SEA VIEW LEAGUE

Capistrano Valley 5, San Clemente 1

El Toro 12, Trabuco Hills 6

TRINITY LEAGUE

Orange Lutheran 4, JSerra 1

GOLDEN WEST LEAGUE

Ocean View 12, Westminster 4

SOUTH COAST LEAGUE

Mission Viejo 1, Tesoro

FREEWAY LEAGUE

Sunny Hills 7, Sonora 6

SH: Moreno  (W,1.1 IP, H 2K), Salcido 2-3, RBI, Cueva  3-4, RBI

OLYMPIC LEAGUE

Whittier Christian 12, Village Christian 2

BOYS TENNIS

TRINITY LEAGUE

Singles Final

Brady Schaefgen (JSerra) def Tiago Zunega (Santa Margarita) 6-1, 6-0

Third Place Singles: Everette Somerville (Orange Lutheran)

Doubles Final

Chris Marci / Alejandro Hill (Servite) def. John Burton / David Chen (Santa Margarita) 6-3, 6-1

Third Place Doubles: Gary Davidson/Connor Faul (JSerra)

GIRLS LACROSSE

PACIFIC COAST LEAGUE

Portola 20, Laguna Hills 1][

Goals: (Por) Zdanavage 7

Note: Jadyn Zdanavage surpassed the 300-career goal mark

Other scores

Northwood 19, Sage Hill 3

BOYS LACROSSE

SEA VIEW LEAGUE

Aliso Niguel 17, Dana Hills 1

PACIFIC COAST LEAGUE

University 15, Woodbridge 10

CRESTVIEW LEAGUE

Yorba Linda 13, El Modena 4

SUNSET LEAGUE

Los Alamitos 20, Newport Harbor 2

BOYS GOLF

TRINITY LEAGUE

Mater Dei 176, Servite 180

Willowick GC (par 35)

Medalist: Cardenas (MD) 33

​ Orange County Register 

Pirates run wild with 6 stolen bases in rout of Dodgers

• April 27, 2023

PITTSBURGH — The Dodgers need to get tough on crime.

The Pittsburgh Pirates stole six bases Wednesday night, running at will in an 8-1 rout of the Dodgers that snapped the Dodgers’ three-game winning streak.

The Pirates have plundered away, stealing nine bases in nine attempts over the first two games of this series. But the crime wave goes beyond that. The Dodgers have surrendered an MLB-high 35 stolen bases in 40 attempts over the first 25 games of the season.

“It hasn’t been good,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said before the game of the Dodgers’ inability to control the running game. “We’ve got to figure something out. I might have to do a better job of calling pitch-outs. I don’t know if that will help in certain situations. We’ve got to try to keep these guys off base, these burners. But they’re gonna keep trying us. I know that. Our pitchers know that. Our catchers know that. So we all gotta get better.”

Tony Gonsolin held the Pirates scoreless into the fourth inning in his season debut, allowing two hits and walking three before being pulled after 3⅓ innings and 65 pitches.

“I threw way too many balls today,” said Gonsolin, who had 26 of those to 14 batters. “Not throwing many effective pitches and fell behind in a lot of counts.”

The Pirates got in the starting blocks against reliever Phil Bickford. They used small ball (including a stolen base and a sacrifice bunt) to set up back-to-back RBI singles by Bryan Reynolds and Andrew McCutchen in the fifth inning. Three straight hits – with another stolen base thrown in – resulted in another run in the sixth.

They broke the game open with five runs in the seventh inning, scoring one run when Tucupita Marcano raced home from second base on an infield single. Dodgers catcher Austin Wynns was called for blocking the plate on that play, allowing Marcano to score.

A double steal with Wynns one-hopping the throw to third baseman Michael Busch, who wasn’t even covering the base, set up a two-run double by Jason Delay.

“When you’re putting guys on base by way of walk or base hits or whatever it might be, they’re gonna try to expose us. Right now I don’t know the answer,” Roberts said after the latest round of thievery was done. “The best answer is to try to keep them off first base, but once they get there, they’re taking advantage of us. So I think it’s a combo of the pitchers at times and also I think that the catchers can be guilty at times as well.

“I wish it was a quick fix.”

The Dodgers have another glaring problem in need of repair. The four relievers that followed Gonsolin each gave up runs and the bullpen’s collective ERA rose to 5.32. Only three teams – the Kansas City Royals, Oakland A’s and Chicago White Sox – have been worse. That is not company the Dodgers want to keep.

“Well, I think there’s a lot of factors,” Roberts said. “We’re not doing a good job of getting ahead. The walk is in play – getting into bad counts, not being able to put guys away when we do get leverage counts. Outside of a few guys, they’re all kind of in that category.

“The consistency of these guys hasn’t been there, for the most part. … You look at the track record and the track records are pretty good. So I’m going to keep running them out there and expecting good things when they go out there until ultimately something changes.”

The Dodgers’ offense has not taken advantage of the new rules aiding and abetting a rise in stolen bases across the league this year. They did little else Wednesday night either.

Pirates starter Roansy Contreras walked two in the first five innings but didn’t give up a hit until Wynns led off the sixth with a single.

“I think just the fact that he was able to throw all his pitches for strikes, fastball and slider. To me, that’s the name of it,” Dodgers outfielder Jason Heyward said. “Because if you can only throw one for a strike, it’s going to be kind of easy to sit on it and get some good swings off. He made pitches when he needed to.”

The Dodgers’ only run came on a solo home run by Freddie Freeman in the eighth inning.

Tuesday night’s comeback win was the eighth time this season the Dodgers have scored eight or more runs in a game. But they have suffered a hangover in the overserved aftermath, losing six of the eight games that followed those breakouts and scoring a total of just 23 runs in those games.

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​ Orange County Register 

Hoornstra: Baseball’s biggest changes start on the mound, not the rulebook

• April 27, 2023

If you think it’s difficult to score runs in today’s game, imagine being a baseball fan in the ’70s.

The 1870s, that is.

This was an era when overhand pitches were illegal, batters could request a pitch come in high or low, and professional teams routinely appeared and disappeared from noted metropolises such as Troy (New York) and Middletown (Conn.). And, in the span of a couple of years, teams couldn’t hit their way out of a paper bag.

From 1873 to 1875, the total runs per game in the National Association of Base Ball Players – the first professional baseball league in the world – sank from an average of 21 to 12. One rule change seems especially responsible. Beginning in 1872, pitchers were allowed to “snap” their wrist while delivering a pitch. The curveball, such as it was, became legal.

If you’re still with me, this part will be less difficult to imagine. The game fans grew to love in 1871 came to be dominated by pitching in the span of a few short years. Men reminisced about the bygone days when 11-10 games were the norm and, just maybe, they asked an intelligent question about who was to blame for the change: the pitchers or the rule makers?

This week I received a note from a reader written in the form of an open letter to Major League Baseball. It was 1,684 words long. The author effectively argued that any attempt to deter baseball from its natural evolution amounted to “ruining” the sport altogether. It’s easy to presuppose that rules empower changes to the game, not the other way around, especially when a game is force-fed several new rules at once. But this was only true at the beginning of baseball’s origin story – at the origin of any sport, perhaps.

In 1864, when “professional” and “baseball” were mostly disparate pursuits, something called a “base on balls” had to be introduced as a pace-of-play measure. Without a penalty against throwing the ball out of the strike zone, a pitcher could throw only pitches no batter could hit, theoretically turning nine-inning games into all-day affairs.

The legal introduction of walks and curveballs have something important in common. Each was a countermeasure to the evolution of the game – a response to a disturbance in equilibrium between offense and defense.

I was reminded of how much the equilibrium has shifted in the last decade when an interview with Hall of Famer Chipper Jones on Bally Sports South went viral this week. “I don’t have a problem saying I would hit a solid .200 in today’s game,” said Jones, who retired after the 2012 season with a .303 career batting average.

Jones wasn’t reflecting on any of the new rules. He was reflecting on the brilliance of Atlanta Braves pitcher Spencer Strider. He went on: “Spencer’s a perfect illustration of what the game has come to: incredible arm, incredible secondary stuff. This guy, I’m glad he’s on our squad because he’s going to be a number-1 starter for many years to come.”

Had Rod Carew given an interview during Shohei Ohtani’s start against the Kansas City Royals last Friday, he might have said all the same things. Ohtani would almost certainly appear to the 1872 Middletown Mansfields as a god among men. For our purposes today, he’s a fantastic illustration of the kind of changes to the game Jones was referencing.

In 2018, Ohtani threw 185 pitches that broke at least 10 inches away from the hitter. Already this season he’s thrown 116. In 2021, Ohtani threw 256 pitches at 97 mph or harder. In a little more than one season since, he’s thrown 552.

But let’s not fall prey to making an example of the game’s most extreme talents. In Jones’ final season, 2012, only 0.5% of all pitches were 97 mph or harder and broke 10 inches or more away from the batter. Already, that percentage has more than doubled.

If you (realistically, your great-great-great grandparents) thought it was difficult to hit a baseball 150 years ago, just consider the last decade. Tweaking the rules to make it easier for batters to beat shifts, or for baserunners to steal a base, amounts to bringing a knife to a gunfight against the advances made by pitchers in the last 10 years.

This is an imperfect analogy. Maximizing pitch movement and velocity required the near-extinction of complete games, the proliferation of eight-man bullpens, and turning position players pitching into regular occurrences. It isn’t just that today’s pitchers are gods among men; they’re not being asked to throw nearly as many innings as their 19th-century counterparts.

That’s why one of the rules being tested in the Atlantic League this season will require teams to keep their starting pitchers in the game for at least five innings, or else be forced to sacrifice their designated hitter: MLB has the data. The rule makers know that only by reversing the trends that enabled superhuman pitching performances – not by banning shifts and throws to first base, or instituting pitch-clock penalties – can baseball reverse the biggest changes to the game enough to make someone like Chipper Jones a .300 hitter again.

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​ Orange County Register 

Alexander: With everything else going on, it’s NFL draft night

• April 27, 2023

In a crazily busy sports springtime in the most diverse market on this continent, with the NBA and NHL playoffs and baseball going full tilt and the LPGA tour making a second visit to L.A. within a month on this weekend, among other things … well, of course we’re talking football. The NFL never takes time off, you know.

So, what is there tangible to discuss in the run-up to Thursday night’s draft in Kansas City?

The Chargers have the 21st pick. Most of the mock drafts seem convinced it will be used on defensive help or another target for Justin Herbert. And the last we heard, General Manager Tom Telesco was noncommittal about whether he was going to lug the surfboard that seems to be his lucky draft talisman to the team’s draft party Thursday at the Westfield Century City Atrium.

“I haven’t even thought about that yet,” Telesco said at his pre-draft availability earlier in the week. “I’ve been pretty busy.”

The surfboard made its first appearance during the 2020 proceedings amid the pandemic, when Telesco was working from home and the team-branded board appeared over his shoulder while he was interviewed after picking Herbert with the No. 6 pick overall after the Miami Dolphins had selected Tua Tagovailoa at No. 5. With that success in mind, the board made it to the draft room at the Chargers’ Costa Mesa facility in 2021 and to their draft party at SoFi Stadium last April, both of which have been bountiful drafts.

We’re guessing it’ll somehow find its way to Century City, where the war room will be set up and Telesco and Coach Brandon Staley will be available after Thursday night’s pick is announced.

As for the Rams? They’ve again secured a house to use as their draft “lab,” this time in Tarzana. The 10,000-square foot residence includes a movie theater, putting green, pool, outdoor bar and fire pit, and given that the Rams will be idle on Day 1 barring an unexpected (read: shocking) trade that gets them back into the first round, those amenities might be useful.

The Rams also have a huge gap between their third-round pick, No. 77, and their fifth-round selection, No. 167. They have 11 picks all told, four compensatory selections for the losses of free agents, and all but three come in the final three rounds.

“I think a lot of people on our staff would love for us to at some point move back to cover some of that gap,” General Manager Les Snead said this week. “It’s always a beneficial option based on accumulating more picks, maybe filling that gap. But you can always trade up too from the fifth round into those gaps so there’s many ways to accomplish that.

“And at the end of the day, it’s going to be, ‘Hey, when we get on the clock is there a trade partner? Is there not? Is there a player in that moment that we really feel good about and we want to make a Ram.”

The dilemma: The Rams could be in the market for a quarterback, which sounds funny considering that Matthew Stafford won them a Super Bowl two seasons ago and appears to be back to full health. But Stafford is also 35 and has 14 seasons of tread on his tires. Snead is daring enough to try to get into the first round, but daring enough to trade a batch of future first-round picks to get a shot at, say, former Rancho Cucamonga High and Ohio State standout C.J. Stroud, Florida’s Anthony Richardson, or Kentucky’s Will Levis?

Forget Alabama’s Bryce Young, the former Mater Dei High standout who is expected to be the No. 1 selection. Carolina spent plenty to get that pick – specifically, sending wide receiver D.J. Moore, two first-round picks and two second-rounders to Chicago – and the only way the Rams could wrest that away might be to trade Cooper Kupp, Aaron Donald, and two or three future No. 1’s to the Panthers. Better, maybe, to wait a year and take a run at USC’s Caleb Williams next spring when they’ll have their own first-rounder to spend?

For the Chargers’ Telesco and his staff, at 21 there are options.

A survey of 35 mock drafts – out of, what, hundreds of lists that professional and amateur draft geeks have compiled and will be revising right up to Thursday night’s first pick – revealed a little bit of consensus. Twelve different players were listed as probable/potential/bear-with-me-because-I’m-guessing picks, and Boston College wide receiver Zay Flowers (9), USC’s Jordan Addison (6), and tight ends Dalton Kincaid of Utah and Michael Mayer of Notre Dame (5 apiece) were on the most lists. Penn State cornerback Joey Porter Jr. (3) was the only other player listed more than once.

As to the suggestion that the Chargers might be looking at additional running back help while Austin Ekeler’s trade request plays out, Telesco said at his pre-draft briefing that Ekeler’s situation wouldn’t change the team’s approach. Part of that likely goes back to the idea that running backs – even high-production ones – are replaceable in today’s NFL. And part of it is the idea that some players need a year or two to find their footing, as Ekeler once did.

“We had Joshua Kelley and Larry Rountree (III) here, then we drafted Isaiah Spiller last year,” Telesco said. “Isaiah kind of fits in the category of players from previous drafts having to step up and fill needs.

“Typically, like in this year’s draft, not a lot of these guys are going to come in and (immediately) fill a need. When you look at the draft, when you draft players in the third, fourth, fifth, sixth round, people think that they are going to come in and immediately fill a need. You hope that they come in and earn a role. But you’re really looking for players from previous draft classes to rise up, (for safety) JT Woods, (defensive back) Ja’Sir Taylor, Isaiah Spiller and some other guys, have those guys step into roles. We think that it’s a pretty good room right now, so I wouldn’t necessarily look at it like that.”

It’s worth noting that Kelley was a fourth-round pick in 2020, Rountree a sixth-rounder in ’21 and Spiller a fourth-rounder in 2022. In other words, for Telesco and particularly the Rams’ Snead, the real work will occur Friday and Saturday and the report card likely won’t be filled out until two to three years down the road.

Bottom line, given that strange things can happen in any draft? Be ready. (And, in Telesco’s case, bring the surfboard.)

[email protected]

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​ Orange County Register 

Orange County launches new office to assist immigrants and refugees

• April 27, 2023

Iryna Sobianina arrived in Orange County nine months ago with two bags of personal belongings, her 12-year-old daughter and the anxieties that come with having to build a new life in a foreign country.

When she arrived from her home in Ukraine after the whirlwind of leaving following the Russian invasion, she faced the new challenge of navigating the United States and supporting herself and her daughter. Among other things, Sobianina was worried about how her broken English would affect her ability to find a job.

“We just need a little bit of support and somebody who can show us… where to go,” Sobianina said.

That’s exactly what the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs (OIRA) in Orange County will be designed to do.

Proposed by District 4 Supervisor Doug Chaffee and District 1 Supervisor Andrew Do, the Orange County Board of Supervisors agreed this week to establish the new office, which will connect immigrants and refugees with housing, legal support and other necessary resettlement resources.

The office will be located at the county’s Community Service Center in Westminster.

“When refugees arrive, their most basic needs are missing,” Chaffee said during a press conference Wednesday announcing the new program. “They need food, housing, transportation, education, medical services and jobs. With more than 930,000 of our Orange County residents being foreign-born, our immigrant population is strong, growing and instrumental to our county’s success.”

He said this new office will ensure immigrants and refugees have access to basic services and resources and it will be streamlined under one roof. Collaboration between the county and community organizers will be pivotal, he said.

“We plan on hiring a director for the office with the input of numerous community-based organizations already working with our immigrant and refugee community,” Chaffee said. “We have a draft of a proposed mission statement and vision. We want them, through workshops, to work over and make certain we all agree on where we are going.”

Van Tran, chief of staff for Do, said resettlement programs and resources already exist in the county, but the office is centralizing everything to make it easier and more effective for immigrants and refugees to access.

“I stand here today a former refugee, an immigrant, serving as the chief of staff for Vice Chairman Andrew Do, who, like me, is also a former refugee from Vietnam,” Tran said. “We know what it means to flee a violent and oppressive regime. We understand what it means to live as refugees.”

More than 50 speakers voiced support for creating a centralized office when the Board of Supervisors was deciding on it Tuesday, and they shared what they hope to see, including support for all immigrants regardless of legal status and that the office be independent of other government entities.

“We’re hoping that the office will allow for better coordination and collaboration between the county, local cities and nonprofits,” Masih Fouladi, deputy executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR-LA, said. “We hope that there will be the opportunity for the county to take advantage of federal philanthropic funding to better support immigrant and refugee populations within the county.”

The office will be reporting directly to the County of Orange’s CEO office, which Fouladi said makes sense for the time being, however added, “Ultimately, we would like the office to be an independent office, just like the Social Services Agency.

“The reason for that is immigrants and refugees touch every part of the county, and putting this office in any one particular department would potentially limit its ability, its capacity, its budget, to be able to touch all of those different facets of immigrant and refugee life,” he said. “So for now, being directly under the CEO makes sense because those limitations don’t come with current placement. And then we hope that it either stays under the CEO’s office and outside of other departments, or it eventually becomes its own department when the time allows.”

The cost of the new office is unknown, however Chaffee said his office will be donating $500,000 from his discretionary funds and the county will be applying for grants to help with costs.

For Second District Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento, the approval of this office is also personal.

“This is especially significant because when our family arrived back in 1965, (it was a) much different county. No services, no support, a very small immigrant population,” Sarmiento said of his immigration from Bolivia. “The county, like any other place in the country, has had some challenges with immigrants. There is still hostility out there. There is still some negativity toward immigrants.

“I hope this office will rise up and make sure we address (that),” he said, “and we make sure that we’re humane to one another, that we’re civil to one another and provide resources in a way that is befitting of who we are.”

Sobianina, who had been invited by officials to participate in Tuesday’s press conference, said she is thankful for how the local government and community organizations helped her find the resources she needed, including Uplift Charity, an organization dedicated to helping immigrants and refugees where she now works as a digital marketing specialist.

“I’m happy to be very useful,” she said, “and to know I’m making a difference for other people.”

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​ Orange County Register 

Amid bans, Black parents seek schools affirming their history

• April 26, 2023

By Cheyanne Mumphrey | Associated Press

DECATUR, Ga. — Every decision Assata Salim makes for her young son is important. Amid a spike in mass killings, questions of safety were at the top of her mind when choosing a school. Next on her checklist was the school’s culture.

Salim and her 6-year-old, Cho’Zen Waters, are Black. In Georgia, where they live, public schools are prohibited from teaching divisive concepts, including the idea that one race is better than another or that states are fundamentally racist.

To Salim, the new rules mean public schools might not affirm Cho’Zen’s African roots, or accurately portray the United States’ history of racism. “I never want to put his education in the hands of someone that is trying to erase history or recreate narratives,” she said.

Instead, Cho’Zen attends a private, Afrocentric school — joining kids across the country whose families have embraced schools that affirm their Black heritage, in a country where instruction about race is increasingly under attack. At Cho’Zen’s school, Kilombo Academic & Cultural Institute in an Atlanta suburb, photos of Black historical figures hang on the walls. And every single student and teacher identifies as Black or biracial.

In recent years, conservative politicians around the country have championed bans on books or instruction that touch on race and inclusion. Books were banned in more than 5,000 schools in 32 states from June 2021 to June 2022, according to free-speech nonprofit PEN America. Instructional bans have been enacted in at least 16 states since 2021.

Even when a topic isn’t explicitly banned, some teachers say the debates have caused them to back away from controversy. The situation has caused more Black families to leave public schools, opting for homeschooling or private schools that embrace their identity and culture. Public school enrollment of Black students between pre-K and 12th grade has declined each year measured in federal data since 2007.

“I think it is important to teach those harsh moments in slavery and segregation, but tell the whole story,” said Salihah Hasan, a teaching assistant at Kilombo Institute. “Things have changed drastically, but there are still people in this world who hate Black people, who think we are still beneath them, and younger children today don’t understand that. But that is why it is important to talk about it.”

Kilombo goes further, focusing on the students’ rich heritage, from both Africa and Black America. “I want him to know his existence doesn’t start with slavery,” Salim said of her son.

The private, K-8 school occupies the basement of Hillside Presbyterian Church just outside Decatur, an affluent, predominantly white suburb. Families pay tuition on a sliding scale, supplemented by donations.

Classrooms feature maps of Africa and brown paper figures wearing dashikis, a garment worn mostly in West Africa. In one class, the students learn how sound travels by playing African drums.

The 18-year-old school has 53 students, up a third since the start of the pandemic. Initially, more parents chose the school because it returned to in-person learning earlier than nearby public schools. Lately, the enrollment growth has reflected parents’ increasing urgency to find a school that won’t shy away from Black history.

“This country is signaling to us that we have no place here,” said Mary Hooks, whose daughter attends Kilombo. “It also raises a smoke signal for people to come home to the places where we can be nourished.”

Notably, the student body includes multiple children of public school teachers.

Simone Sills, a middle school science teacher at Atlanta Public Schools, chose the school for her daughter in part because of its smaller size, along with factors such as safety and curriculum. Plus, she said, she was looking for a school where “all students can feel affirmed in who they are.”

Before Psalm Barreto, 10, enrolled in Kilombo, her family was living in Washington, D.C. She said she was one of a few Black children in her school.

“I felt uncomfortable in public school because it was just me and another boy in my class, and we stood out,” she said.

Racial differences are evident to babies as young as three months, research has shown, and racial biases show up in preschoolers. Kilombo provides a space for kids to talk about their race.

“I’m Blackity, Black, Black!” said Robyn Jean, 9, while spinning in a circle. Her sister, Amelya, 11, said their parents taught them about their Haitian American heritage — knowledge she thinks all children should have. “I want them to know who they are and where they come from, like we do,” Amelya said. “But in some schools, they can’t.”

Last year, Georgia passed a bill known as the Protect Students First Act, which prohibits schools from promoting and teaching divisive concepts about race. Elsewhere, bills that restrict or prohibit teaching about race- and gender-related topics passed in states including Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. In other states, such as Arkansas, restrictions have come via executive orders.

Proponents say the restrictions aim to eliminate classroom discussions that make students feel shame or guilt about their race and the history and actions of their ancestors.

The bills have had a chilling effect. One-quarter of K-12 teachers in the U.S. say these laws have influenced their choice of curriculum or instructional practices, according to a report by the RAND Corporation, a global policy think tank.

At Kilombo, daily instruction includes conversations about race and culture. Founder Aminata Umoja uses a Black puppet named Swahili to welcome her students, ask how they are doing and start the day with morals and values rooted in their African heritage.

The puppet might say: “‘Let’s talk about iwa pele. What does that mean?’ and then one of the children will tell us that it means good character,” said Umoja, who teaches kindergarteners through second graders.

Teaching life skills and values, Umoja said, has its roots in freedom schools started during the Civil Rights Movement, in response to the inferior “sharecropper’s education” Black Americans were receiving in the South.

The school follows academic standards from Common Core for math and language arts and uses Georgia’s social studies standards to measure student success. But the curriculum is culturally relevant. It centers Black people, featuring many figures excluded in traditional public schools, said Tashiya Umoja, the school’s co-director and math teacher.

“We are giving children of color the same curriculum that white children are getting. They get to hear about their heroes, she-roes and forefathers,” she said.

The curriculum also focuses on the children’s African heritage. A math lesson, for instance, might feature hieroglyphic numerals. Social studies courses discuss events in Africa or on other continents alongside U.S. history.

When she was in public school, Psalm said she only learned about mainstream Black figures in history, such as Barack Obama, Martin Luther King Jr. and Harriet Tubman. Now, she said, she is learning about civil rights activist Ella Baker, journalist Ida B. Wells and pilot Bessie Coleman.

Said Psalm: “Honestly, I feel bad for any kids who don’t know about Black history. It’s part of who we are.”

Data journalist Sharon Lurye contributed reporting from New Orleans.

​ Orange County Register