Coachella 2023: How to livestream performances from all of the festival stages

• April 4, 2023

This year, promoters of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival are bringing the fans that couldn’t attend the event in-person the most extensive livestreaming coverage it’s ever offered.

Goldenvoice has once again teamed up with YouTube to livestream performances during the annual festival, which is taking place April 14-16 and April 21-23 at the Empire Polo Field in Indio with headlining sets by Bad Bunny, Blackpink and Frank Ocean. Unlike in previous years, the 2023 livestream will include coverage of all six stages during both weekends of the festival.

Fans will be able to tune in to Coachella’s official YouTube channel, pick which stage they want to watch and, if they can’t watch it live, the performances will be on repeat after the evening’s final performance and until the live show picks up again the next day.

There’s also all kinds of exclusive content on the channel, including backstage interviews with artists, behind-the-scenes bits and views of the sprawling festival grounds, the fans, art installations and other attractions.

Those that join the livestream can also interact with each other through a live chat option and purchase exclusive merchandise from more than a dozen artists through YouTube Shopping. Premium subscribers will also have access to backstage pre-parties.

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​ Orange County Register 

Donald Trump set to be arraigned in historic court moment

• April 4, 2023

By MICHAEL R. SISAK, ERIC TUCKER, JENNIFER PELTZ and WILL WEISSERT (Associated Press)

NEW YORK (AP) — An extraordinary moment in U.S. history will unfold in a Manhattan courthouse on Tuesday: Former President Donald Trump, who faces multiple election-related investigations, will surrender and be arraigned on criminal charges stemming from 2016 hush money payments.

The booking and appearance before Judge Juan Merchan should be relatively brief — though hardly routine — as Trump is fingerprinted, learns the charges against him and pleads, as expected, not guilty. Merchan has ruled that TV cameras won’t be allowed in the courtroom.

Trump, who was impeached twice by the U.S. House but was never convicted in the U.S. Senate, will become the first former president to face criminal charges. The nation’s 45th commander in chief will be escorted from Trump Tower to the courthouse by the Secret Service and may have his mug shot taken.

Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina said Tuesday that the former president wouldn’t plead guilty to lesser charges, even if it might resolve the case. He said he didn’t believe the case would ever make it to a jury, but conceded, “Really, there’s a lot of mystery here because we’re doing something that’s never been done before.”

“I think there will be a typical processing, which does not take long, 20-30 minutes. There won’t be handcuffs,” Tacopina told ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “But, yeah, he’ll be processed the way anyone else would be — to a degree.”

New York police are braced for protests by Trump supporters, who share the Republican former president’s belief that the New York grand jury indictment and three additional pending investigations are politically motivated and intended to weaken his bid to retake the White House in 2024.

Trump, a former reality TV star, has been hyping that narrative to his political advantage, saying he raised $8 million in the less than a week since the indictment on claims of a “witch hunt.” He has assailed the Manhattan district attorney, egged on supporters to protest and claimed without evidence that the judge presiding over the case “hates me” — something his own lawyer has said is not true.

Trump is scheduled to return to his Palm Beach, Florida, home, Mar-a-Lago, on Tuesday evening to hold a rally, punctuating his new reality: submitting to the dour demands of the American criminal justice system while projecting an aura of defiance and victimhood at celebratory campaign events. At least 500 prominent supporters have been invited, with some of the most pro-Trump congressional Republicans expected to attend.

A conviction would not prevent Trump from running for or winning the presidency in 2024.

Inside the Manhattan courtroom, prosecutors led by New York’s district attorney, Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, are expected to unseal the indictment issued last week by a grand jury. This is when Trump and his defense lawyers will get their first glimpse of the precise allegations against him.

The indictment contains multiple charges of falsifying business records, including at least one felony offense, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press last week.

After the arraignment, Trump is expected to be released by authorities because the charges against him don’t require that bail be set.

The investigation is scrutinizing six-figure payments made to porn actor Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal. Both say they had sexual encounters with the married Trump years before he got into politics. Trump denies having sexual liaisons with either woman and has denied any wrongdoing involving payments.

The arraignment will unfold against the backdrop of heavy security in New York, coming more than two years after Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in a failed bid to halt the congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s win.

Though police said they had no intelligence suggesting any violence was likely, they were on high alert for any potential disruptions.

“While there may be some rabble rousers thinking of coming to our city tomorrow, our message is clear and simple: Control yourselves,” Mayor Eric Adams said. He also singled out Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of Trump’s staunchest supporters in Congress, who is organizing a rally Tuesday at a park across from the courthouse: “While you’re in town, be on your best behavior,” Adams said.

Trump pollster John McLaughlin said the former president would approach the day with “dignity.”

“He will be a gentleman,” McLaughlin said. “He’ll show strength and he’ll show dignity and … we’ll get through this and win the election.”

But Trump was also defiant. In a post late Monday night on his social media network he lashed out at Biden, suggesting the current president should be facing legal troubles of his own.

Despite that, the scene around Trump Tower and the courthouse where Trump will stand before a judge was mostly quiet. There were some arguments, but police tried to keep protesters supporting the former president and those opposing him apart, confining them to separate sides of the nearby park using metal barricades.

Signs that were also pro- and anti-Trump were stuck to nearby posts. One urged passers-by to donate to help fund Trump’s presidential library while another showed a shouting Trump behind bars.

The public fascination with the case was evident Monday as national television carried live images of Trump’s motorcade from his Mar-a-Lago club to a private, red, white and blue Boeing 757 stenciled with his name. From there, Trump was flown to New York, where cameras followed his motorcade into Manhattan and he spent the night at Trump Tower as he prepared to turn himself in.

The former president and his aides are embracing the media circus. After initially being caught off guard when news of the indictment broke Thursday evening, Trump and his team are hoping to use the case to his advantage. Still, they asked the judge in a Monday filing to ban photo and video coverage of the arraignment.

Though prosecutors routinely insist that no person is above the law, bringing criminal charges against a former president carries instant logistical complications.

New York’s ability to carry out safe and drama-free courthouse proceedings in a case involving a polarizing ex-president could be an important test case as prosecutors in Atlanta and Washington conduct their own investigations of Trump that could also result in charges. Those investigations concern efforts to undo the 2020 election results as well as the possible mishandling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.

Top Republicans, including some of Trump’s potential rivals in next year’s GOP presidential primary, have criticized the case against him. Biden, who has yet to formally announce that he’s seeking reelection next year, and other leading Democrats have largely had little to say about it.

Prosecutors insist their case against Trump has nothing to do with politics.

___

Tucker and Weissert reported from Washington. Associated Press journalists Jill Colvin, Bobby Caina Calvan, Larry Neumeister, Karen Matthews, Larry Fleisher, Deepti Hajela, Julie Walker, Ted Shaffrey, David R. Martin, Joe Frederick and Robert Bumsted in New York and Colleen Long and Michael Balsamo in Washington contributed to this report.

___

Follow the AP’s coverage of former President Donald Trump at https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump.

​ Orange County Register 

Try these kitchen storage alternatives instead of single-use plastics

• April 4, 2023

The environmental issues caused by single-use plastics are plentiful: The items have short lifespans, don’t biodegrade and require fossil fuels to produce them.

Reducing the reliance on single-use plastics at home is a challenging task, however. Take the kitchen as an example, where single-use plastics are frequently the default materials used in food packaging and storage.

“In the 1970s, we started using single-use plastic for everything, and it’s just become the nature of our consumer market,” explains Emily Parker, coastal and marine scientist for Heal the Bay. “It’s hard to find products that aren’t made out of disposable plastic that are useful. That’s a major hurdle, that a lot of these products just don’t exist.”

However, it’s becoming easier to find replacements for items like plastic baggies and plastic wrap, which can’t be recycled and pose major problems when they enter our waterways.

“What’s tricky about plastic films and thin plastic bags is that they are hard to see, hard to clean and they’re often easily mistaken for food,” says Parker, noting that this can harm animals like sea turtles, who feed on jellies. “These plastic bags are easily mistaken in the wild for jellies and are then consumed and they can cause all kinds of problems for the digestive tract, which is majorly problematic.”

There are alternatives. Food-grade silicone storage bags from Stasher, which come in a variety of sizes and colors, can be a good, long-term substitute for plastic bags. Beeswax wrap, which has become more accessible in recent years, can take the place of plastic wrap.

The drawback, though, can be the upfront cost.

Julie Darrell, owner of Bring Your Own Long Beach, holds up a large, green Stasher bag during a recent Zoom call.

“This one here is $22,” she says. “It’s really expensive – but then it’s made from food-grade silicone, so you’re using it for several years, probably ten years minimum if it’s taken care of.”

While the cost might make sense in the long run, it’s not necessarily something that everyone can afford to budget right now, especially if you need multiple bags. But as both Darrell and Parker point out, there are other options.

“You can use simple things like a jar, a pasta jar, instead of plastic baggies,” says Darrell.

“In my home, I try really, really hard to reduce the amount of single-use plastic that I use. Instead of using things like Ziplock baggies or wrap,” says Parker. “I keep all the containers from the grocery store that my food comes in, the ones that are keepable, I wash them and I reuse them over and over again.”

To cover food, beeswax wrap and food huggers — food-grade silicone caps that fit snuggly over cut fruits, cans and jars and are sold at BYO Long Beach — are worthy alternatives. But like Stasher bags, they might not be the most budget-friendly option for people who want to reduce plastic waste at home.

Parker points out that DIYers can make beeswax wrap at home. For beginners, there are plenty of tutorials available online. As well, Darrell holds up a plate and a bowl as the easiest, environmentally-friendly solution for covering food. “Instead of putting Saran Wrap on your bowl, just putting a plate on top before you put it in the fridge is the most simple thing you can do that costs no money,” she says.

Another area where you might want to make a plastic-free swap is around the sink. Darrell uses a loofah instead of a sponge. Her dish brush, which is sold at BYO Long Beach, has a wood and metal handle with a replaceable head that can be composted.

Both Darrell and Parker stress that the most important thing is using what you already have on hand at home.

“We don’t want you to go home, throw everything away and start all over plastic-free,” Darrell says. “Use what you have first and then you can make those small steps to make replacements along the way, instead of spending the money to replace everything at once. It’s just small steps.”

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In fact, when people stop by BYO Long Beach to refill dish soaps and shampoos at the store, it is sometimes with plastic bottles left over from previous purchases. “We encourage them to bring whatever container they want,” says Darrell.

Parker points out that sustainability at home can take shape in many different ways. “People think of reuse culture as this sort of white-washed, Instagram-perfect kind of behavior, but it doesn’t have to be,” says Parker. “You can be incredibly sustainable and opt to use refillable products in a way that costs little to no money,” she says.

And it doesn’t have to be stressful. “If you’re feeling stressed about reducing plastic in your home. Take it one step at a time,” says Parker. “The most sustainable thing you can do is use what you already have.”

​ Orange County Register 

Finland joins NATO, dealing blow to Russia for Ukraine war

• April 4, 2023

By LORNE COOK and MATTHEW LEE

BRUSSELS — Finland joined the NATO military alliance Tuesday, dealing a major blow to Russia with a historic realignment of the continent triggered by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Nordic country’s membership doubles Russia’s border with the world’s biggest security alliance and represents a major change in Europe’s security landscape: The nation adopted neutrality after its defeat by the Soviets in World War II. But its leaders signaled they wanted to join the alliance just months after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine sent a shiver of fear through Moscow’s neighbors.

The move is a strategic and political blow to Putin, who has long complained about NATO’s expansion toward Russia and partly used that as a justification for the invasion.

Russia warned that it would be forced to take “retaliatory measures” to address what it called security threats created by Finland’s membership. It had also warned it would bolster forces near Finland if NATO sends any additional troops or equipment to what is its 31st member country.

The alliance says it poses no threat to Moscow.

Neighboring Sweden, which has avoided military alliances for more than 200 years, has also applied. But objections from NATO members Turkey and Hungary have delayed the process.

Alarmed by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine last year, Finland, which shares a 1,340 kilometer (832 mile) border with Russia, applied to join in May, setting aside years of military non-alignment to seek protection under the organization’s security umbrella.

“I’m tempted to say this is maybe the one thing that we can thank Mr. Putin for because he once again here precipitated something he claims to want to prevent by Russia’s aggression, causing many countries to believe that they have to do more to look out for their own defense and to make sure that they can deter possible Russian aggression going forward,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said just before accepting the documents that made Finland’s membership official.

The U.S. State Department is the repository of NATO texts concerning membership.

Earlier, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said the country “will be forced to take military-technical and other retaliatory measures to counter the threats to our national security arising from Finland’s accession to NATO.”

It said Finland’s move marks “a fundamental change in the situation in Northern Europe, which had previously been one of the most stable regions in the world.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, meanwhile, Tuesday that Finland’s membership reflects the alliance’s anti-Russian course and warned that Moscow will respond depending on what weapons NATO allies place there.

But Peskov also sought to play down the impact, noting that Russia has no territorial disputes with Finland.

It’s not clear what additional military resources Russia could send to the Finnish border. Moscow has deployed the bulk of its most capable military units to Ukraine.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg earlier said that no more troops would be sent to Finland unless it asked for help.

“There will be no NATO troops in Finland without the consent of Finland,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters at the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels a few hours before the country joins.

The country is now protected by what Stoltenberg called NATO’s “iron-clad security guarantee,” under which all member countries vow to come to the defense of any ally that comes under attack.

But Stoltenberg refused to rule out the possibility of holding more military exercises there and said that NATO would not allow Russia’s demands to dictate the organization’s decisions.

“We are constantly assessing our posture, our presence. We have more exercises, we have more presence, also in the Nordic area,” he said.

Meanwhile, Finland’s Parliament said that its website was hit with a so-called denial-of-service attack, which made the site hard to use, with many pages not loading and some functions not available.

A pro-Russian hacker group known as NoName057 (16) claimed responsibility, saying the attack was retaliation for Finland joining NATO.

The claim could not be immediately verified.

The hacker group, which has reportedly acted on Moscow’s orders, has taken party in a slew of cyberattacks on the U.S. and its allies in the past. Finnish public broadcaster YLE said the same group hit the Parliament’s site last year.

Finland’s entry, to be marked with a flag-raising ceremony at NATO headquarters, falls on the organization’s very own birthday, the 74th anniversary of the signing of its founding Washington Treaty on April 4, 1949. It also coincides with a meeting of the alliance’s foreign ministers.

Finland’s president, foreign and defense ministers will take part in the ceremony.

Turkey became the last NATO member country to ratify Finland’s membership protocol on Thursday. It will hand over the document officially enshrining that decision to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken before the ceremony.

Finland’s membership becomes official when its own foreign minister hands over documents completing its accession process to Blinken. The U.S. State Department is the repository of NATO texts concerning membership.

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​ Orange County Register 

54 ghost guns seized as part of unique California program

• April 4, 2023

By STEFANIE DAZIO

LOS ANGELES — California law enforcement took away 54 so-called ghost guns last year from people who can’t legally own firearms, a 38% jump in the number of the hard-to-trace weapons seized since 2021 under a unique state program, officials said Monday.

The ghost guns, which are privately made firearms without a serial number, were part of nearly 1,500 guns taken statewide last year through an only-in-California program called the Armed and Prohibited Persons System, known as APPS.

The California registry cross-matches databases to find people who legally purchased weapons but are now banned from ownership because they have been convicted of felonies or a violent misdemeanor, or have a history of domestic violence or mental illness. State and local authorities then can move to seize the weapons under the program, which began in 2006.

Generally, firearms manufactured by licensed companies are required to have serial numbers that allow officials to trace the gun back to the manufacturer, the firearms dealer and original purchaser. That’s how the registry can find the people who are prohibited from having guns, as well as the weapons linked to them.

Ghost guns, however, are made of parts and are then assembled together — without the serial numbers that can be used to follow the gun’s path. Law enforcement working to find the legal firearms listed on the state registry coincidentally found the ghost guns and seized those as well.

The number of ghost guns discovered by law enforcement through their APPS work has jumped dramatically in recent years. In 2018, officials seized just eight ghost guns through their work on the registry, Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office said.

Bonta has ordered the state’s Department of Justice to focus more on ghost gun investigations in general after years of increased illegal activity.

Guns without serial numbers have been used in deadly violence over the past year, including in New York, where a teenage girl was killed outside a high school in the Bronx, and in Sacramento, when a man fatally shot his three daughters inside a church.

The APPS registry included 23,869 people as of Jan. 1, including nearly 9,300 active cases. The remaining cases — almost 15,000 — include people who are incarcerated, have moved out of state or cannot be located after multiple attempts, Bonta’s office said.

In one case, an attempt to contact a man in Costa Mesa led to an eight-hour armed standoff in Southern California after he fired at the officers. The suspect was on the state’s list because he had a misdemeanor conviction for domestic violence, as well as an active misdemeanor arrest warrant. He eventually surrendered and authorities recovered a rifle, a shotgun and multiple handguns, the attorney general’s office said.

Last year, the total seizure included 712 handguns, 360 rifles, 194 shotguns, 80 assault weapons, three short-barreled shotguns and a machine gun, as well as more than 281,000 rounds of ammunition, according to a report released Monday.

That’s roughly comparable to seizures in 2021, when 1,428 firearms — including 39 ghost guns — were taken by law enforcement under the APPS program.

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​ Orange County Register 

Long drought seals San Diego State’s fate in title game against UConn

• April 4, 2023

By KRISTIE RIEKEN AP Sports Writer

HOUSTON — A magical journey put San Diego State in its first Final Four.

A thrilling buzzer-beater by Lamont Butler landed the Aztecs one win away from a national title.

Hot early shooting on Monday night helped them race to an early lead against the mighty UConn Huskies.

Then things fell apart.

For more than 11 tortured minutes in the title game, no matter what they tried, the Aztecs could not make a field goal in their 76-59 loss.

“It’s difficult to play like that,” Butler said.

Fighting against a stifling defense, they missed hook shots, had layups blocked, badly missed wide-open 3-point attempts and saw easy jump shots fall short.

The Aztecs (32-7) took shot after shot – 14 in all as the clock ticked and ticked – but no matter what they tried nothing would fall.

“We were talking about it for sure,” Butler said. “And we were trying to figure out what we can do to stop the scoring drought and create advantages for ourselves. We tried but things weren’t working.”

By the time Darrion Trammell mercifully made a jump shot with about 5½ minutes left in the first half, the Aztecs had seen a four-point lead turn into a 26-17 hole.

A team that got here on the strength of its vaunted defense was in the end done in by an offense that went cold at the worst possible moment.

“It’s the national championship game, a lot of things had to go right on our end in order to win,” guard Matt Bradley said. “And when you’re missing shots and turning the ball over and even when you’re playing hard on defense, it’s not going to be enough. So we learned that tonight for sure.”

The Aztecs rallied from a 14-point deficit to beat Florida Atlantic in the national semifinal, with Butler’s game-winner at the buzzer marking the first time in Final Four history that a buzzer-beater took a team from trailing to a victory.

This time there would be no such heroics. They did go on a second-half run to make it interesting, though.

San Diego State used a 14-4 spurt, with the first four points from Jaedon LeDee, to get within 60-55 with about five minutes to go.

But Jordan Hawkins made a 3-pointer seconds after that to start a 9-0 run that shut the door on any designs the Aztecs had on another remarkable comeback.

Though their defense had been the star of this Cinderella’s tournament run entering Monday night, their offense had done plenty to complement it.

Through their first five games in the tournament, the Aztecs shot an average of 42.48%. In the biggest game in school history Monday night, they shot a tournament-low 32% – a number significantly lowered by their 28.6% first half.

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It was their second-lowest shooting percentage of the season, behind the 31.7% they shot in a 62-57 victory over Utah State in the Mountain West Conference tournament title game. Their 24 first-half points were the second-fewest they’d managed all season.

There were no tears in San Diego State’s locker room after the loss that snapped a nine-game winning streak, but rather a bunch of guys who were proud of how far they got, even if they came up short.

“We were the only ones who believed we could get here,” Trammell said. “We surpassed our expectations honestly.”

Added Keshad Johnson, who led the team with 14 points Monday night.

“I’m sure we put our school’s name on the map and I’m proud of that,” he said.

​ Orange County Register 

Dodgers explode for 13 runs in victory over Rockies

• April 4, 2023

LOS ANGELES ― Five days into the new season, the Dodgers’ offense has demonstrated a feast-or-famine quality. On a cold and windy Monday night at Dodger Stadium, they feasted.

Most of the Dodgers’ runs in their 13-4 victory over the Colorado Rockies scored with two outs in the fifth inning. Rockies starter Ryan Feltner (0-1) was one out away from leaving in line for a win when he loaded the bases on two walks and a double by Freddie Freeman.

Valencia native Jake Bird took over on the mound, and the floodgates opened. Four straight hits led to seven runs against the former UCLA standout, capped by Jason Heyward’s first home run as a Dodger.

Will Smith and Chris Taylor also hit home runs into a whipping wind, and James Outman became the first Dodger to hit two triples in a game in seven years.

The Dodgers’ 13 runs and 13 hits were both season highs. They scored eight and 10 runs in their two wins against the Arizona Diamondbacks and only one run in each of their two losses.

The beneficiary of their latest outburst was starting pitcher Michael Grove, who was in line for a loss in his 2023 debut until the Dodgers’ big two-out rally. Grove actually exited the game with a 2-1 lead in the fifth inning, but consecutive walks followed by an Elias Diaz double ended his night and left Yency Almonte with two runners in scoring position.

Harold Castro belted Almonte’s first pitch to right field, scoring two runs and giving the Rockies a 3-2 lead. The Rockies scored once more before the inning was over to take a 4-2 lead.

Grove was charged with three runs, all earned, in four innings. He walked two batters and struck out four. After Almonte finished out the fifth inning, the Rockies couldn’t muster a run against Alex Vesia, Phil Bickford, or Shelby Miller.

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The offense did the rest. Freeman went 3 for 4. Outman, Heyward and J.D. Martinez collected two hits each. All nine Dodger starters reached base at least once.

Outman became the first Dodger to triple twice in one game since Yasiel Puig did so on July 25, 2014. The rookie outfielder has collected the Dodgers’ first home run, stolen base and triple of 2023.

Dodgers second baseman Miguel Vargas was hit on the right thumb by a 92 mph fastball from Connor Seabold in the seventh inning but remained in the game. He suffered a hairline fracture of his right pinkie finger fielding a ground ball in February, an injury that left him unable to swing a bat in games for much of spring training.

More to come on this story.

​ Orange County Register 

Villa Park vs. Servite, Cypress vs. Foothill in National Classic

• April 4, 2023

Cypress, Foothill, Servite and Villa Park won their first round games Monday in the first round of the National Classic.

Their victories set up these two quarterfinals games Tuesday: Cypress vs. Foothill at El Dorado High at 10 a.m.; Servite vs. Villa Park at Fullerton College at 1 p.m.

The Orange County top 25 has Villa Park (13-3) at No. 5, Cypress (13-4) at No. 7, Foothill (9-8) at No. 8 and Servite (10-8) at No. 9.

Villa Park on Monday beat Utah’s Jordan 12-1. Spartans senior shortstop Gavin Grahovac homered and drove in four runs and senior first baseman Zack Brown homered and had two RBIs.

Servite beat South Hills, the No. 2 team in the CIF Southern Section Division 2 top 10, 4-3. Kyle Buchanan had two RBIs and Roman Martin homered for the Friars.

Abbrie Covarrubias and Matthew Thomas drove in two runs each for Cypress in a 6-2 win over Liberty of Arizona.

The tournament semifinals are Wednesday at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. at El Dorado. The championship game is at Amerige Park in Fullerton on Thursday at 7 p.m.

​ Orange County Register