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Huntington Beach beats JSerra in nine innings in National High School Invitational final

Orange County baseball standings: Saturday, April 1

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Huntington Beach in showdown with JSerra in the National High School Invitational baseball final

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22. La Habra 8-2-2

Previous ranking: 24

23. Capistrano Valley Christian 9-7

Previous ranking: Not ranked

24. Corona del Mar 8-8

Previous rankingL 20

25. Woodbridge 13-3

Previous ranking: 23

Orange County Register

7 ways to use your tax refund to fight inflation

April 3, 2023

The investing information provided on this page is for educational purposes only. NerdWallet does not offer advisory or brokerage services, nor does it recommend or advise investors to buy or sell particular stocks, securities or other investments.

If inflation has eaten away at your budget the way waves erode a beach, then your tax refund might just provide a much-needed protective barrier.

As of March, prices are up 6% over the past 12 months, according to the most recent consumer price index. At the same time, just over half of filers (55%) are expecting tax refunds for the 2022 tax year, with an average expected refund of $2,205, according to the 2023 Nerdwallet Tax Report. Financial experts say consumers can use that windfall — which is really just a delayed paycheck that you already earned — to help offset the strain of those higher prices.

“Tax refunds are going to arrive at just the right time for many consumers this spring,” says Drew Wessell, a certified financial planner at Fiduciary Financial Advisors in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Unload high-interest debt

With rising interest rates, variable-rate debt becomes more expensive — including credit cards. That’s why many financial experts put paying off debt at the top of the priority list, even considering it a type of investment.

“Using your tax refund to pay off a credit card debt with a 20% interest rate gives you an instant, tax-free 20% return on that investment. It’s not a creative idea, but the math makes it the most impactful action that a consumer can take,” Wessell says.

Save in a high-yield account

Rising rates also mean rising yields on savings accounts, so you can save your refund and earn more on it. “If you already have a high-yield savings account, you can also look at CDs,” says Marguerita Cheng, a certified financial planner and the founder of Blue Ocean Global Wealth in Gaithersburg, Maryland. CDs, or certificates of deposit, offer higher yields in exchange for less liquidity.

Wessell advises saving enough to start or boost an emergency fund, which could help you in the event of a sudden unexpected expense or job loss. “Life is full of surprises, and having an emergency fund helps you avoid going into another debt spiral,” he says.

Fund long-term goals

Because higher prices have cut into long-term savings goals like retirement and college, a refund can offer an opportunity to get back on track, Cheng says. “You don’t have to put a lot in, but it can be the seed money,” she adds, noting that her son is using his first refund as he begins his career to open a Roth IRA.

Similarly, you could take care of other delayed financial tasks, such as buying life insurance. “Revisit your family situation,” Cheng urges, especially if you have younger children.

Upgrade your home

In many real estate markets, rising home prices along with the higher interest rates make it harder to buy your dream home. Instead, use your refund to improve your current home, suggests Ryan Greiser, a certified financial planner and the founder of the financial firm Opulus in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. New flooring, energy-efficient appliances or improved windows can boost your home’s energy efficiency as well as increase its value.

“We love the idea of people loving the space they live in,” Greiser says, especially when they’re priced out of buying a new home.

For your outdoor space, invest in a chicken coop and gardening supplies to harvest eggs and vegetables — all of which have become pricier at the grocery store — suggests Tim Melia, a certified financial planner who is the principal and financial planner at Embolden Financial Planning in Seattle. If you have neighbors with skills such as carpentry, you could barter with them for additional savings.

Create more income

Remodeling a room in your home to create a rental unit could generate income that helps offset inflation for years, says Melia, who operates a couple of short-term lodging options through vacation rental website Airbnb. He says upfront investments could include better furniture and decor: “You want to be able to stand out.”

Similarly, investing in yourself by taking classes for a new skill or certification could increase your income. “It increases your potential to earn and can allow you to step into a more lucrative career or take the next step in your existing career,” Melia adds.

Find small ways to treat yourself

While air travel and other bigger splurges might be prohibitively expensive, your refund can give you more affordable pleasures, even after taking care of other priorities, Cheng says. She indulges in listening to audiobooks (most recently “Spare” by Prince Harry). “I was getting anxiety watching the news at the gym, so instead, I listen to audiobooks,” she says.

Adjust your withholdings

Lastly, if you’re receiving a refund, it means you overpaid taxes in 2022. You might be better off adjusting your withholdings so you receive more in each paycheck instead. “If you’re getting more than $3,000, then you probably want to revisit your withholdings because that could be $200 to $300 a month,” Cheng says.

And that could help offset those higher gas, restaurant or grocery bills all year long.

This article was written by NerdWallet and was originally published by The Associated Press.

Kimberly Palmer is a personal finance expert at NerdWallet and the author of “Smart Mom, Rich Mom.” Email: kpalmer@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @KimberlyPalmer.

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Orange County Register

Man in another car fatally shot driver in La Mirada last week, detective says

April 3, 2023

Detectives believe the driver killed last week on Rosecrans Avenue in La Mirada was shot by a man in another car, a lieutenant said.

The coroner’s office identified the victim as Nestor Tlahuel Mendez, 30.

“It appears to be a random shooting,” sheriff’s Lt. Mike Gomez said.

The victim was driving when another car apparently pulled up near him and the suspect opened fire, Gomez said. A passenger wasn’t hit.

The shooting was reported at 9:16 p.m. on Wednesday, March 29, in the 13900 block of Rosecrans. Mendez was struck int the torso, according to the coroner’s office.

The Sheriff’s Department asked that anyone with information about the shooting to call deputies at 323-890-5500. Anonymous tipsters can contact Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477 or at lacrimestoppers.org.

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Orange County Register

Pomona’s history-making astronaut Glover will be on NASA moon mission next year

April 3, 2023

This combination of photos shows, from left, astronauts Victor Glover, Jeremy Hansen, Christina Koch, and Reid Wiseman. On Monday, April 3, 2023, NASA announced the three Americans and one Canadian as the crew who will be the first to fly the Orion capsule, launching atop a Space Launch System rocket from Kennedy Space Center no earlier than late 2024. (NASA, CSA via AP)

NASA on Monday, April 3, named the four astronauts who will fly to the moon by the end of next year — one woman and three men, including pioneering astronaut and Pomona native Victor Glover.

The three Americans and one Canadian were introduced during a ceremony in Houston, home to the nation’s astronauts as well as Mission Control.

“This is humanity’s crew,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.

— Victor Glover (@AstroVicGlover) April 3, 2023

The four astronauts will be the first to fly NASA’s Orion capsule, launching atop a Space Launch System rocket from Kennedy Space Center no earlier than late 2024. They will not land or even go into lunar orbit, but rather fly around the moon and head straight back to Earth, a prelude to a lunar landing by two others a year later.

The mission’s commander, Reid Wiseman, will be joined by Glover, an African American naval aviator; Christina Koch, who holds the world record for the longest spaceflight by a woman; and Canada’s Jeremy Hansen. All are space veterans except Hansen.

Glover, who was born in Pomona and graduated from Ontario High School, served as pilot and second-in-command for the Resilience SpaceX Crew-1 Dragon before his return from the International Space Station in May, 2021.

Glover tweeted an image of our NASA space suits — three bearing patches of the U.S. flag and one with a Canadian maple-leaf patch.

“This is a big day. We have a lot to celebrate and it’s so much more than the four names that have been announced,” said Glover.

This is the first moon crew to include a woman and someone not from the U.S. — and the first crew in NASA’s new moon program named Artemis. Late last year, an empty Orion capsule flew to the moon and back in a long-awaited dress rehearsal.

During Apollo, NASA sent 24 astronauts to the moon from 1968 through 1972. Twelve of them landed. All were military-trained test pilots except for Apollo 17′s Harrison Schmitt, a geologist who closed out that moon landing era alongside the late Gene Cernan.

Provided this next 10-day moonshot goes well, NASA aims to land two astronauts on the moon by 2025 or so.

NASA picked from 41 active astronauts for its first Artemis crew. Canada had four candidates.

The Artemis II crew with NASA administrator Bill Nelson, from left, Jeremy Hansen, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman and Christina Koch.. Photo: Screenshot, NASA TV

Hometown hero Glover, 44, grew up in Pomona, graduated from Ontario High and earned his Bachelor of Science degree from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (he’s also got three Masters degrees). Glover is married to Dionna Odom, and they have four children.

Glover, a Navy commander, aviator and test pilot, became the first Black astronaut to serve on the International Space Station last year, arriving on a Crew Dragon capsule built by Hawthorne-based SpaceX on Nov. 16, 2020.

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Glover was first selected an astronaut in 2013 and logged just under 3,000 hours flying 40 different aircraft before landing that role.

MSNBC named him one of the 23 most influential Black Americans alive today, a list that included Vice President Kamala Harris.

During his time on board the space station, Glover kept in touch with the world below through Twitter and through direct contacts with schoolkids and other engagements over livestream broadcasts. He said he was captivated as a kid by rockets and the early Space Shuttle missions, and the same holds true for young people today finding inspiration.

“The shuttle was an amazing thing to watch as a kid. The SpaceX boosters coming back and landing on the ships. Those things captivate people. That grabs their heart and then you have the opportunity to fill their brains,” he told students in 2021 during a livecast from the space station. “Be resilient, be lifelong learners and be good teammates. I think those things are recipes for success no mater what you do… You can look at the news and see that the world needs the best that we can muster. It needs the best that we can offer each and every day.”

Glover is often referred to by his counterparts as Ike, a nod to a call sign a former commanding officer gave him that stands for “I know everything.”

The New York Times and The Associated Press contributed to this report

Orange County Register

Status Update: San Juan’s River Street Marketplace signs 22 food, retail shops

April 3, 2023

Nearly two dozen tenants have signed leases at River Street Marketplace, a retail and dining center coming this fall to a former nursery in San Juan Capistrano.

Shoppers can expect a farmhouse-style space with gourmet eats and locally-owned boutiques. Renderings offer a sneak peek of the 60,000-square-foot concept with walkways lined with native plants and water features while the buildings carry peaked, flat or arched rooflines.

Property owner Almquist, formerly Frontier Real Estate Investments, is developing the center, which should be completed by October-November.

We asked Dan Almquist, the managing partner/developer, a few questions about the center.

McConnell’s Ice Cream, a 70-year-old California ice cream brand, is opening its first scoop shop at River Street Marketplace this fall in San Juan Capistrano. (Courtesy of McConnell’s Ice Cream)

Hudson’s Cookies, a local bake shop known for hefty, gooey treats meant to be enjoyed “medium rare,” is coming to River Street Marketplace this fall in San Juan Capistrano. (Courtesy of Hudson’s Cookies)

Toes on the Nose, a family-owned and operated surf apparel company based in Laguna Beach, signed a lease at River Street Marketplace in San Juan Capistrano. The outdoor retail center opens in fall 2023. (Courtesy of Toes on the Nose)

SALT, an independent eyewear brand, is among the myriad retail merchants coming to River Street Marketplace this fall in San Juan Capistrano. (Courtesy of SALT)

River Street Marketplace, a retail and dining center coming this fall to a former nursery in San Juan Capistrano, has signed 22 new tenants. The 60,000-square-foot outdoor center will feature a farmhouse style with native plants and water features. (Rendering courtesy of Bickel Group Architecture)

Pick Me Flowers is among the new merchants coming to River Street Marketplace this fall in San Juan Capistrano. (Courtesy of Pick Me Flowers)

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Q: Is this akin to a food and retail hall?

A: River Street Marketplace is going to be a sprawling outdoor retail and dining center with a mini food hall component called Rodeo River Street. There will be several retail storefronts, standalone restaurant pads and a large, barn-like structure that will house Rodeo River Street food hall with 10 fast-casual food tenants.

Q: What was there before the development of River Street started?

A: The site was previously home to Ito Nursery, which closed at the end of 2021.

Q: How many or how much of the property will be ready by fall? Is the structure built yet? How much is expected to open in 2024?

A: We anticipate that 70 percent of the tenants will be ready to open by fall. All the buildings are framed out with sidings. All buildings are technically built, just site work needs to be done now. Projected openings will begin in October this year going into Q1, with all tenants fully open by or before spring 2024. They have about 5 spaces left available to lease that can be either restaurant or retail.

Retail merchants that have signed leases include:

Common Thread, a locally-owned womenswear boutique.

Fermentation Farm, a probiotic concept that sells sauerkraut, pickles, long-fermented sourdough bread, bone broths and kombucha

Free People, a women’s brand that sells apparel, intimate wear and accessories.

Hudson’s Cookies, a local bake shop known for hefty, gooey treats meant to be enjoyed “medium rare.”

Kozan Teahouse & Boba offers a wide variety of specialty beverages.

McConnell’s Ice Cream, a 70-year-old California ice cream brand, is opening its first scoop shop. The company is known for making ice creams with local and organic ingredients sourced from local orchards and ranches.

Seager, an 8-year-old San Clemente clothing brand that sells apparel, outdoor gear and experiences with a style that embraces the Old West.

SALT, an independent eyewear brand.

Toes on the Nose, a family-owned and operated surf apparel company based in Laguna Beach.

Wildfire Mercantile, a boutique offering Western lifestyle clothing and apparel such as cowboy hats and boots along with accessories, home goods and gift items.

Restaurants include Bred’s Hot Chicken, Capistrano Brewing, Finca by David Pratt, La Vaquera, Gueros Cevicheria, The Meat Cellar Market and Steakhouse, Mendocino Farms, Nana’s Fish Chippery, Shootz Hawaiian and Ubuntu Café.

Stay tuned for more details on those eateries from the Register’s food reporter Caitlin Antonios.

Urban Air Adventure Park opened April1, 2023, at Fullerton Metrocenter at the corner of Harbor Boulevard and Orangethorp Avenue. (Courtesy of Urban Air Adventure Park)

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Adventure park for kids debuts in Fullerton

An indoor bounce, jump chase and climb for children (and anyone else who loves to scramble) has debuted in Fullerton.

Urban Air Adventure Park opened Saturday, April1 at Fullerton Metrocenter at the corner of Harbor Boulevard and Orangethorp Avenue.

Attractions include a warrior course, virtual reality, laser tag, climbing walls, ropes course and Sky Rider.

Owner Parag Laddha described Urban Air as a place where families can “disconnect from a busy outside world and cherish the joy of laughter and giggles through play.”

Address: 1515 S Harbor Blvd. Unit 10, Fullerton, CA, 92832.

The Anaheim Vintage Toy Buying Show this week features Joel Magee, a Disney expert featured on the TV Show “Pawn Stars.” (Courtesy of Anaheim Vintage Toy Buying Show)

Vintage toy show continues this week

The Anaheim Vintage Toy Buying Show started April 2 and continues through Thursday.

Toy collectors are encouraged to bring their classic collections so that Joel Magee, a Disney expert featured on the TV Show “Pawn Stars,” can review and maybe even make on-the-spot cash offers.

The show runs daily this week at two locations from 10-5 p.m.

Monday: Residence Inn, 700 W Kimberly Ave, Placentia

April 4-6: Hilton Garden Inn, 11777 Harbor Blvd., Garden Grove

Admission and parking for the show are free.

For toy or doll questions or for more information about the show, check out toyscout.com, or contact Joel Magee at 561-628-1990 and fxtoys@aol.com.

On the move

Julio E. Martinez has joined Gilson Daub, a workers’ compensation defense and subrogation law firm, as managing partner of its headquarters office in San Clemente. He has been managing teams and handling workers’ compensation claims since becoming an attorney in 2007. Most recently, in August 2022, Martinez was appointed to the board of the Hispanic Insurance & Risk Management Association as their director of legal affairs.

On board

Providence Mission Hospital welcomed six new members to its Community Ministry Board. The board is composed of educators, healthcare workers and community services workers. They are James C. Bastian Jr., lawyer; Elizabeth Jensen, chief financial officer for Goodwill of Orange County; Jeremy Laster, president of Rancho Mission Viejo; Raul Marquez, a Providence Mission Hospital doctor; Michael Moodian, Chapman professor; Linda Sieglen, Providence Mission Hospital’s former chief medical officer.

Good works

Beyond Blindness’ raised $252,874 at its sixth annual Vision Beyond Sight Gala at the Marconi Automotive Museum in Tustin. The nonprofit will use the money to support children with visual impairments and other disabilities. Beyond Blindness also has a new strategic plan for the next five years that will expand early intervention, education and enrichment and family programs. By 2027, the organization plans to serve more than 2,600 children and families.

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Orange Coast raised $42,000 at its sixth annual Women of Greatness Brunch & Bubbly, which celebrated women who made a significant impact in the lives of Orange County youth and their families. BGC of Central OC will use the money to continue providing mentorship to youth and comprehensive services to families.

Status Update is compiled from press releases by contributing writer Karen Levin and edited by Business Editor Samantha Gowen. Submit items and high-resolution photos to sgowen@scng.com. Allow at least one week for publication. Items are edited for length and clarity.

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Orange County Register

She always bounces back: Wheelchair tennis star aims for Paris

April 3, 2023

Brazilian Paralympian tennis player Natália Mayara works with students at the Banneker Career Transition Center in Los Angeles on Dec. 12, 2022, as part of Ready, Set, Gold, a program in which former Olympians and Paralympians mentor Southern California students. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Los Angeles, CA – December 12: Brazilian Paralympian tennis player Natália Mayara works with student Yoeln Martinez at the Banneker Career Transition Center in Los Angeles on Dec. 12, 2022, as part of Ready, Set, Gold, a program in which former Olympians and Paralympians mentor Southern California students. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images)

Brazilian Paralympian tennis player Natália Mayara is part of the Ready, Set, Gold, a program in which former Olympians and Paralympians mentor Southern California students. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Natália Mayara is pictured as a child. (Photo courtesy of Make Waves Communication)

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Among the newspaper and magazine clippings, photographs and postcards, medals and ribbons, and the mementos, both fading and radiant, one document stands out for Natália Mayara.

Illustrating the hard path that has taken wheelchair tennis player from poverty and tragedy in Recife, a port city on Brazil’s northeast coast, to the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and the national spotlight is a blank autopsy report with Mayara’s name on it.

On an evening in 1996, Mayara, then 2, was run over by a city bus and dragged down the block before being left for dead beneath a wheel by the vehicle’s driver as he tried to flee the scene.

“I remember that as the doctor was taking her into the surgery room, he came back out and said he would advise we have another kid,” Rosineide Maria Azevedo, Natália’s mother, recalled.

Doctors were so skeptical of Mayara’s chances of survival they prepared the form for the government agency that would list her cause of death.

“I have a document already with my name on it,” Mayara said. “(Doctors) said I had a two percent chance of survival. I don’t know. I guess I clung to those two percent.

“That’s all I had.”

In the ensuing weeks and months as their daughter underwent a double amputation and a series of follow-up surgeries, as Azevedo and her husband Carlos Costa tried to make sense of a swirl of emotions – denial, anger, despair, fear, hope, uncertainty – Azevedo found herself bound to a mother’s sense of loss for her child.

All these years later, Azevedo remembers a day nursing Natália after the final surgical procedure had been completed. She looked down at what was left of her daughter’s legs in a sense of denial, convinced she could will Natália whole again.

“I couldn’t stop staring at her legs, with that feeling that something was missing, almost as if I looked for long enough everything would be back to normal,” Azevedo said. “That’s when the bandage fell from her leg and I stiffened at the sight. I was having a panic attack but trying to be still so she wouldn’t notice and would keep breastfeeding her. But she noticed my nervousness and put her little hand on my cheek turning my face towards her, and told me that it was OK, that everything would be OK, and for me to not be nervous that God was looking after us.

“That was incredible to see, a 2-year old that had just lost her legs was actually the one comforting me and saying things that only an adult would. Even as a child, from the first moments, I knew she was a strong and blessed child because she fought a lot to survive, she never let herself down and always taught me to be strong with her.”

Rosineide would not be the last person touched by a life spent defying the odds.

Natália Costa Mayara Azevedo is convinced her existence is a “miracle” so she lives it with sense of divine purpose. She is above all else a woman whose life was forever altered by near-fatal tragedy yet refuses to view herself as a tragic figure.

“It’s just crazy,” said Mayara, 28, who lives and trains in Southern California. “It makes me want to live life like never before. Every day I really have this concept of living every day like it’s your last day. I only have a chance to do everything I want to and reach my goals and pursue the things that I love and to be happy and you only have today. You don’t know what’s about to happen tomorrow. So I feel like … I live intensely. I live, everybody who knows me, knows I’m crazy, I’m goofy. I don’t care about what people think. I’ll live my life and I’ll be happy no matter what.

“It’s just like all these little things, if you had told me when I was young, still living in Recife, I would tell you I was crazy and it’s just wild how everything has happened, and how far I was able to go with all the adversities in the way and again I’m still not done. I still want more.”

Mayara is determined to compete in the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris, undeterred that she has been without funding from the Brazilian government since 2019 and presently is without a coach or regular access to practice courts.

“There’s always a mountain out there,” Mayara said. “It’s boring if you just climb one and sit on the top for the rest of your life. You always have some mountains to climb and that’s what I’m working toward: being ready for whatever mountain that comes through.”

Mayara was raised in Brasilia, the nation’s capital, but she is very much a child of Recife, a reflection of the city’s resiliency and a belief that rebirth can be found beneath the surface of tragedy if you look hard enough.

Recife’s survival depends on its resiliency. Known as the “Brazilian Venice,” the metropolis of more than 4 million sits next to a vast floodplain and is defined by a series of waterways and the Capibaribe and Beberibe rivers as they flow into the Atlantic Ocean. This, along with torrential rains, makes Recife vulnerable to severe flooding.

During part of the 2014 World Cup, much of the city was under several feet of water. Many in the city, especially in Recife’s poorer sections, find themselves in this cycle of flooding and rebuilding. But the Capibaribe and Beberibe have also the rich, black soil ideal for growing sugar cane, which has made the region for five centuries one of the world’s top sugar producers.

Another daughter of Recife, late Brazilian author Clarice Lispector, whose life like Mayara’s was shaped by tragedy, wrote in her novel, “The Passion According to G.H.”: “The mystery of human destiny is that we are fated, but that we have the freedom to fulfill or not fulfill our fate: realization of our fated destiny depends on us.”

Even from a young age, Mayara has had an innate sense that her fate rested with her, bound not to a sense of loss or the poison of bitterness, but focused on the opportunities still ahead of her, no matter the obstacles in between.

A REAL LIFE ROLE MODEL

For her second ascent of Mount Olympus, the pursuit of a second Paralympics, Mayara is determined to bring others along on the climb with her. Mayara works with the mentor program with “Ready, Set, Gold!”, a community health, fitness and social and emotional learning program that promotes healthy and active lifestyles to children in Southern California schools and is a public-private partnership between the Southern California Committee for the Olympic Games, the Foundation for Global Sports Development, and several local public school districts.

In Mayara, students have found inspiration.

“The first time she came to the school and she talked to the entire school and she talked about her story and you could see how much it touched the staff and the students,” said Danny Shollenberger, a physical education teacher at the Banneker-Doyle Career and Transition Center, a school in the Los Angeles Unified School District that provides vocational training and instructional programs for students between 18 and 22 with moderate to severe disabilities.

“So many of them wanted to stay after and talk more, so I think … they became comfortable with her and she was able to be vulnerable with everybody and I think that made them feel comfortable and they got excited when I told them that she was coming back,” Shollenberger said.

Mayara in turn has been energized by her visits to the schools.

“Their reaction impacts me still,” she said. “Even the first time I went to the Banneker school, one of the kids came and talked to me and said, ‘Look I have autism and I have some attacks sometimes and I don’t know how to deal with them. But I don’t want to give up and I wanted to ask you what I could do to not give up.’ And I was so touched by, that she trusted me to help her with that. There was a kid who told me that I motivated him to keep going. There was a kid who came to me and said I was thinking about giving up but after yesterday listening to your story, I’m never going to give up. There was a kid who asked me what was my motivation for keeping going every day because he is trying to find his.

“It’s so impactful for me that that’s literally what I love to do the most. When I’m there with them and share my experiences with them, it just makes me so happy. This is helping me so much in changing my life and the fact that I’m being able to change other people’s lives too is massive for me.”

On a recent afternoon, Mayara was at Banneker-Doyle, climbing out of her wheelchair to lead the students through a series of exercises at workout stations spread out through the school’s P.E. area.

Through the sit-ups and push-ups, Mayara’s message was clear.

“Believe in yourself,” said Francisco Estrada, a student at Benneker. “Yeah, never give up.”

Jazmin Flores said Mayara encouraged her “to do a good job and step outside of your comfort zone.

“And I did,” Flores continued. “I did push-ups, sit-ups without being embarrassed.”

After commiserating with Mayara about Brazil’s quarterfinal exit from the World Cup, Banneker principal Christopher Eaton talked about Mayara’s impact on the school.

“For me, the huge benefit for our students is to see someone who has a physical disability who has risen above the challenges and has been incredibly successful in the realm of athletics and in life in general and I think, we have students in the moderate to severe special ed eligibility range,” Eaton said. “In that student population, we have students who have cognitive delays but also physical disabilities and I know that they have been incredibly inspired by her story and I think it helps them to see what’s possible for themselves. That for me in a nutshell is the absolute beauty of having Natália here.

“For (students) it sparks imagination and it plants that seed to be able to see a real life role model. It plants that seed in their minds that they really are capable of anything they set their minds to and that the real limitations are the ones that they place on themselves.

“So much of the work we do here is about instilling in them the belief in themselves, and research shows that our students make incredible employees once they get their foot in the door and it’s that thing of convincing employers. And I think when you get your foot in the door, you have to go in with the mindset that you’re not going to be limited. When you see yourself as limited, so do other people.

“It is a universal message.”

Everyone, Shollenberger said, “is going to be inspired by her story.”

A TERRIBLE NIGHT

It was about 6 p.m. on Sept. 26, 1996, when Carlos Costa received a telephone call at the Coral paint plant where he worked as a security guard. A local hospital was calling. His daughter had been run over by a city bus.

“At that moment, I went crazy and desperate,” Costa said.

The accident had happened an hour earlier right in front of the hospital. Costa’s wife and daughter had just left the Hospital da Restauracao where Mayara was examined by a pediatrician for an allergy on her feet. Mayara had been on her mother’s lap at the bus stop before Azevedo put her daughter down briefly to retrieve a ticket out of her backpack.

“That’s when I felt a very strong wind gust with noise,” Azevedo said, “then I saw the bus had lost control and hit her and taken her meters away from me.”

The bus had come to the bus stop at too high of speed and the driver lost control as he tried to stop. The bus jumped the curb striking Mayara and then dragging her another 200 meters as the driver tried to race away. Passengers finally forced the driver to stop only to have him flee the scene, running off down the street with the bus on top of Mayara.

“I ran screaming for her,” Azevedo said. “I went into shock and then I just remember she was trapped under the wheels trying to get out and crying a lot, calling for me.”

Somehow the passengers were able to lift the bus off Mayara’s legs and one of them scooped the small child up and ran with her to the hospital.

Costa arrived at the hospital to find Mayara in the emergency room.

“When I saw my daughter in that situation, I ran through the hospital corridors looking for support to get my daughter out of general admission and take her to an ICU with better conditions for survival treatments,” Costa said.

A doctor at the hospital pulled Costa aside. If it were his daughter, the doctor told Costa, he would move her to another hospital. Hospital da Restauracao was not equipped to perform the procedure Mayara needed.

“If she had undergone her surgery at that hospital, she wouldn’t make it out alive,” Azevedo recalled the doctor telling her husband.

Costa scrambled frantically to get his daughter admitted into a better-equipped hospital. She was transferred, still hooked up to a blood transfusion, later that night to Real Hospital Portugues, a sprawling private facility. Just past midnight, Mayara underwent surgery to amputate both her legs near the knees.

“It was a terrible night for all of us,” Costa said.

The family’s ordeal, however, was just beginning. After 35 days at Portugues, Mayara still needed five more surgeries and extensive rehabilitation. Costa called a friend in Coral’s human resources office, pleading for assistance in getting Mayara admitted to Sarah Kubitschek Hospital, a rehabilitation facility known for treating persons with physical and motor problems located in Brasilia.

The treatment, however, was expensive. So was the cost of traveling back and forth to Brasilia, a 2½ hour flight or 29-hour drive from Recife.

“It was a constant struggle because I no longer had the financial conditions for anything and so I resorted to air transport companies, hotel chains, etc., always asking for help to carry out my daughter’s treatment, because the hospital did the necessary treatments,” Costa said. “It was a constant, relentless struggle.”

Costa and Azevedo also knew, given Brazil’s record of treating the disabled, especially disabled children, the struggle for them and their daughter was just beginning.

“Too often children with disabilities end up in Brazil’s institutions because families struggle to take care of them without resources and adequate community services,” Carlos Ríos-Espinosa, a senior disability rights researcher at Human Rights Watch, wrote in a 2018 report, ‘They Stay until They Die’: A Lifetime of Isolation and Neglect in Institutions for People with Disabilities in Brazil.”

“All children have the right to grow up in a family, and government resources should support families and children, not tear them apart.”

Among the report’s findings was that low-income children with disabilities were often placed into institutions at young ages and remained institutionalized for their entire lives. In these institutions, which the report compared to detention centers, individuals were routinely denied adequate food and hygiene as well as educational and personal development opportunities. Patients were not able to marry or have children. Some residents are tied to their beds and given sedatives to control them, the report stated.

Azevedo said she was worried about her daughter’s “development in general, including social inclusion in society, and her psychological development.”

“At that time I was a young poor girl from the country,” Azevedo said. “I never had any experience with people with disability and in my mind, I was very scared about how I was going to be able to help her through life.”

Costa shared her concerns. Financially, physically and emotionally drained from commuting between Recifice and Brasilia, he decided to move the family to the capital city.

“We were pretty poor and we didn’t have any money at all,” Mayara said. “So my dad basically decided to move me to one of the hospitals in Brasilia and sell everything they had. They sold the bed, the fridge, the TV, everything to pay for that bill.”

Even so, Costa felt he had no choice.

“I worried a lot about my daughter’s future,” he said. “I didn’t want to see my daughter like many people with special needs in Brazil, who live on the streets begging and surviving on the government’s minimum wage. And in the face of this situation, I had the objective of seeing my daughter in other better conditions of life. I always ran after scholarships in the best schools of Brasília, I sent letters to the schools like La Salles, Centro de Educação Católica and others always looking for a better education for Natália.”

The family continued to struggle financially. While the bus driver was fired soon after the incident, it would be eight years before the bus company agreed to a $40,000 settlement with the family. Costa and Azevedo used the money to buy a small home in Brasilia.

Despite hard times, Azevedo and Costa continued to find strength from their daughter’s courage and resiliency as she continued to emerge through the long and painful years of rehabilitation.

Azevedo recalled the day after returning home from the hospital following an amputation surgery.

“She went to the ground and started crawling and playing with her friends as if nothing happened,” Azevedo said.

“When Natália was undergoing treatments at the Sarah Kubitschek hospital in Brasília, she already showed a lot of determination, and independence and was always smiling and determined in every way, even when she was at the end of the treatments,” Costa said.

WHERE SHE HAD FOUGHT TO GET TO

That treatment included swimming and Mayara would emerge as one of the top Paralympic Youth swimmers in South America.

“She soon started to practice sports in swimming and she always won the prizes, tournaments,” Costa said, “and it grew with each passing day and then we came to the conclusion that Natália really had a lot of personality in all senses and aspects and was always independent because we never treated Natália with pity or as an incapable person, on the contrary, always giving everyone freedom to come and go without restriction.”

“But,” Costa added, “we know that any and all developments she has are her own nature and intelligence.”

At age 11, Mayara started playing tennis as well. For a year, she juggled the two sports before deciding to focus on tennis.

“The complexity of it,” Mayara answered when asked what attracted to her to tennis. “The fact that no match, no practice, no ball is the same as the other. The fact that you have the mental game is immensely impactful in how you play and how strategic you have to be about it and all the little moving parts. A lot of technique, a lot of intensity, everything is like a very intense chess match and I fell in love with that. Because I was actually a swimmer before. I was getting pretty established as a swimmer. I went to the Junior World Cup for swimming. I won three medals there. When I got back, I decided I couldn’t do it anymore because I loved tennis much more.”

By 2011, Mayara was 17 and the No. 2-ranked girls Paralympic player in the world. Between 2013 and 2016, she won 20 tournaments, including the 2013 South American Games and the 2015 ParaPan American Games.

Mayara won her opening match at the Paralympic Games in Rio, dispatching Turkey’s Busra Un 6-1, 6-0.

“Packed stadium, everyone chanting my name, which was insane,” Mayara said. “I was very touched by it. After the game after I stepped out, people were swarming around me and wanting photos.

“After all the hard work you’ve put in with that one goal in your mind and it starts getting closer and closer, I feel like that game was one step closer to me and it felt amazing to have the support of my family and friends and my country.”

The next morning, Costa was at a newsstand when he looked up to find a large photo of his daughter on the front page of Correio Brasiliense, a national newspaper. He broke down sobbing in the newsstand, overwhelmed by the enormity of the family’s journey and the realization that the nation was seeing in his daughter what he and Azevedo has witnessed for years.

“No one knew why I was crying. It was very emotional,” he said. “Now she gets to share her strength with others.”

Mayara lost in the next round, but there was no way she and her family would consider Rio as anything but a triumph.

“That she was where she had fought to get to, just as she had fought to survive in the immediate aftermath of the accident,” Azevedo said. “And that winning or losing she was already victorious. She had gone much farther than any of us could have predicted, and all by herself, with her dedication and determination. I felt like that was what that feeling was telling me about when she had her accident, that she would be big!”

Besides, Mayara was only 22 and had every reason to think she would be a medal contender four years later at the Tokyo Paralympics.

NOW WHO AM I?

She kept winning in 2017, the Israel Open among her four tournament titles.

But Mayara and her coach, Wanderson Cavalcante, also came to believe that if she was going to reach the medal podium in Tokyo she couldn’t stay in Brazil.

“After Rio, we decided to take next step and really focus my entire life on sports and tennis,” she said. “We saw an opportunity of moving to the U.S.”

Mayara, Cavalcante and his family moved in 2018 to Orlando, where she would have access to a U.S. Tennis Association facility with more than 100 courts and additional coaching. Higher level tournaments would be more accessible to her in Florida than Brazil.

Cavalcante, Mayara said, decided “everything that I eat, when I sleep, what I’ve been doing, practicing twice a day every day with him. It was pretty intense. Preparing for Tokyo. Bigger goal behind all that.”

Then it disappeared.

Brazil found itself in a deep recession between 2014 and 2017 in which the nation’s economy shrunk by 7%. By 2018, the economy was still growing by only 1.1%. In response, the federal government began slashing funding to a wide range of state-financed programs. Among those cut was Bolsa Atleta Podium, a government program operated by the Ministry of Sport in conjunction with the Brazilian Olympic and Paralympic committees to provide funding to athletes with Olympic or Paralympic medal potential.

Mayara had used the $2,500 she received each month from Bolsa Atleta Podium to help cover food and training and traveling expenses.

“Everything,” she said.

“It was a significant amount that I couldn’t really depend on anymore,” Mayara said. “So because of that, I couldn’t have a normal life. I still have to pay rent, I still have to buy food. You have to start working and by working you basically lose the time to practice. Tennis is a sport where you have to travel a lot and I didn’t have funding for travel, I didn’t have funding for paying a coach or anything like that. So that’s basically kind of what happened. I found myself having to choose and I had to figure it out and start working.”

Returning to Brazil wasn’t an option. Her parents divorced when she was 18, Azevedo returning to Recife to be closer to her family.

“I felt helpless basically,” Mayara said. “I saw myself not be able to do anything to fix it. It’s rough because I was by myself in a country that is new to me, that I’m still learning about. The language is not my first language. I have sacrificed everything, left everything thing behind to pursue that dream. So it was hard. It definitely felt like the rug was pulled out from under me. There’s nobody to blame or anything like that. It was just the circumstances at that time. But it was rough because I dedicated my whole life to this sport. It’s like I never … the worst part is that it’s not you who chooses to stop. Like I never chose to stop. That’s what hurts the most I feel like.”

Eventually, she took a job selling toy balls at a stand at an Orlando outlet mall, working for $7 an hour, sometimes from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.

“Squishy balls,” she said. “Toys you throw against wall and they become square and then you pull them off and they regain shape.

“It was rough because if you are almost a little embarrassed because you if have a failure, like I was a Paralympic tennis player and had all that athlete life, traveled the whole world and now I’m calling out to everyone in the outlet mall to try squishy balls. That was really rough. I remember that I saw somebody that I knew from a tennis tournament once, everybody was playing the tournament, and I remember one of them came up to the outlet and I saw them from afar and I just hid because I was too embarrassed to be seen in that situation.”

Unlike the toy balls she sold, Mayara couldn’t bounce back. For the first time in her life, she felt lost and without purpose.

“It’s tough when that happens because tennis was all I thought about,” she said. “People ask me what tennis means to me and it’s always hard to describe because tennis was my life. I didn’t do anything besides tennis. I never got to have a regular job, a regular life. Since I was 12, I was playing tennis, and I was practicing every day, traveling my whole life, never thought about anything other than that. And when it happened, it’s almost like they took your identity away. So as a Paralympic athlete people would come say, ‘Oh, who are you? What do you?’ And I was like, ‘I’m a Paralympic tennis player.’ And now who am I?

“I don’t know what I like to do besides that. I don’t know what I want to do besides that. I felt completely lost, very hard to deal with that situation. In a country completely new. Not that many people around me that I knew. So I had to deal with a little bit of depression, anxiety, crying every day, pretty much. Trying basically to find myself in a way. Trying to understand who I am now and what do I do and almost the feeling of failure. That I was working so hard toward something and I couldn’t get there and it’s hard again when it wasn’t my choice to not get there and stop. So it was really hard, so much so that I gained weight, I was not very active at all. I was in pretty rough shape and then I just basically couldn’t do it anymore.”

Instead of winning a medal in Tokyo, the Paralympic Games in 2021 went on without her.

“Honestly, I didn’t watch too much,” Mayara said. “I just, it hurt me to watch it. I tried watching it and then for the first day. Then I decided to put a little blind eye towards it because it was still hurting me a lot. There was a point in my life looking at my tennis chair would make me cry.

“And then Tokyo was the reason I was in the U.S., the reason I moved here, the reason I made all these changes and everything and see that happening through the TV first time since I started playing, it was like I was pretty hurt, so I didn’t follow it too much.”

A FIRST STEP BACK

The disappointment of missing the Tokyo Games, however, provided a wake-up call for Mayara.

She moved to Santa Monica and began coaching and training again, grabbing court time whenever and wherever she could find it.

She decided to stop hiding and feeling ashamed. She would tell her story.

“I can’t just be basically waiting for something to happen,” she said. “I’m somebody who lives intensely and I’m going to be happy no matter what and I’m going to live every day like it’s my last day. So I had to take that first step and start taking care of myself again, and find a way back, So I’ve been doing everything I can since then. Changed my diet better than even when I was playing. My workout routines are better than whenever I had it, even when I was in my top shape. My life routine is better than it’s ever been.

“I had to flip that switch and start having that hope again. I’m not just, like, ‘Sure that it will happen.’ I’m just, like, ‘If it happens, I will be ready.’”

She will find her mountain and its summit, whether it’s the Eiffel Tower and the iconic red clay courts of Roland-Garros at the Paris Games next summer or a peak just as daunting, just as majestic.

She won’t be alone on the climb.

In some of her darkest days since her name was written on an autopsy report, the first glaring underestimation of her will in a lifetime full of them, she has summoned others to join the ascent, pushing them out of the boxes life and they have put themselves in, over the obstacles, up their own mountains, a guide once again reaching up from tragedy and heartache to touch their souls, leading them forward.

“She is my light,” Azevedo said, “and has taught me everything about life through this incredibly hard journey.”

Orange County Register

Newsom wins feud with oil industry – or did he?

April 3, 2023

So, the third time was the charm for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s crusade to punish oil companies for what he described as price-gouging – sort of.

Newsom spent six months vilifying the oil industry after retail gasoline prices surged last year to as much as $2.60 a gallon over the national average, and initially proposed a tax on windfall profits.

However, that didn’t wash with enough Democrats in the Legislature to pass, since new taxes require a two-thirds vote. Newsom then exchanged the tax for penalties, but while they would have required only a simple-majority vote, legislators were also cool to deciding what profit margins would be allowed.

Finally – and almost in desperation – Newsom cut a deal that would dump the whole issue onto the California Energy Commission to gather data about refinery operations, establish a reasonable profit allowance and assess penalties for exceeding it.

“Finally, we’re in a position to look our constituents in the eye and say we now have a better understanding of why you’re being taken advantage of,” Newsom said last week as he signed the bill. “There’s a new sheriff in town in California, where we brought Big Oil to their knees. And I’m proud of this state.”

It was a characteristic bit of hyperbole on Newsom’s part. It will take months, and perhaps years, before the energy commission takes any action to set profit margins, much less enforce them.

“Nothing is going to happen in the short term,” Newsom acknowledged. “Gas prices are not going to drop immediately.”

Industry officials indicated that they would sue if they consider some of the proposed regulations too onerous, which could tie things up indefinitely.

“We need to wait and see what becomes of this,” a spokeswoman for the Western States Petroleum Association said.

Another caveat: The legislation is aimed at regulating “gross gasoline refining margins.” However, the state’s foremost expert on the subject, Severin Borenstein of UC Berkeley’s Energy Institute, told legislators at a hearing for Newsom’s second version of the crackdown that most of the sharp hikes in retail prices occurred as gasoline was being moved from wholesalers to the retail level. Thus, limiting profits on refining might not have a major effect on retail prices.

Finally, the last few passages of the legislation, which got almost no media attention, indicate that the energy commission will not only regulate refinery profits but must strive to ensure the industry’s ability to supply enough fuel over the next few decades for a “reliable, safe, equitable, and affordable transition away from petroleum fuels” to battery-powered vehicles.

That could be the trickiest aspect of the whole issue, and one with the greatest potential impact on the motoring public.

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The new law essentially transforms the refining industry into a public utility, much like the suppliers of electricity and natural gas. That means not only attempting to regulate prices but making sure the industry earns enough money to keep it in business for two or three decades, while some Californians continue to drive gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles.

Newsom has banned the sale of such vehicles after 2035, but that doesn’t mean they will suddenly disappear. Moreover, the technology to replace diesel-fueled trucks that carry freight into and out of the state is still in its infancy, and residents of other states seeking to drive into California will expect that they can fuel their cars.

How will California regulate petroleum fuel prices while simultaneously trying to both eliminate refiners and make sure they continue to produce enough fuel to meet demand indefinitely?

CalMatters is a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s state Capitol works and why it matters. For more stories by Dan Walters, go to Commentary.

Orange County Register

Titan Voices: CSUF’s impact starts before arrival on campus

April 3, 2023

By Oscar O. Garcia Ortiz, contributing writer

Cal State Fullerton’s impact on my college and career development began nearly 10 years before I became a CSUF student and employee.

Throughout my time at Anaheim High School, I participated in CSUF’s Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs. Established to increase high school graduation rates and encourage postsecondary education among middle or high school students in low-income communities, GEAR UP offers a variety of college prep services and support. As a student, the mentorship and skill-building opportunities I was afforded propelled me through high school with a focus on my future.

Proudly, I became a GEAR UP success story, graduating from high school and going on to UC Santa Cruz. Despite my wonderful time as a Banana Slug, my earlier experiences had played a pivotal role in shaping my educational journey and I returned home with a bachelor’s degree and invitation to work for CSUF’s GEAR UP program. As an alumnus and academic coordinator for the program, I recognized the solutions required to advance the local community in an ever-changing work environment. In this role, I coordinated services and activities that engaged students, parents, teachers, faculty and administrators while cultivating a college-going culture and equipping students for success.

While I have painted houses for the elderly, beautified poverty-stricken neighborhoods and served meals to the homeless, I feel the direct service programs offered by CSUF’s GEAR UP are far more effective in creating sustainable change by fostering positive educational experiences for local youth. My understandings of educational activism, civic engagement and ways to bridge the gap between private and public sectors through collaborative relationships stem from CSUF’s commitment to serving the underserved.

Inspiring youth on their academic endeavors only fueled my own motivation for increased public service and I enrolled in Cal State Fullerton’s Master of Public Administration program in fall 2021.

Shortly after becoming an official Titan, I was encouraged by an MPA classmate to apply for the position of senior coordinator of Parent & Family Relations at Cal State Fullerton. In this new role, I manage the delivery of services, communication, resources, scholarships and events to CSUF families so they can better participate in and support their student’s college journey. Most recently, our team raised $6,000 for scholarships that will provide three Titans with financial support this spring.

The diverse connections I’ve made with CSUF over the last decade have amplified my knowledge and empowered me to develop effective policies and programs that serve others in meaningful ways. As I strive to improve the quality of service and support I bring to CSUF students and families, it is rewarding to combine the skills I derive from my new position with the theories and models I learn in the classroom. Likewise, ongoing engagement in the Municipal Management Association of Southern California enhances my research and analytical skills and expands my leadership abilities as I prepare myself for a managerial position in public service.

The CSUF MPA program maintains deep-rooted values that foster government leaders with an emphasis on “a diverse and changing workforce and citizenry.” Inspired by this, my professional dreams continue to flourish at Cal State Fullerton. After graduation, I aspire to become an associate professor in political psychology and link my passions as an educator and administrator. If education serves as a tool for social mobility, CSUF is a guiding blueprint that plans, prepares and transforms dreams into reality. Go Titans!

Oscar O. Garcia Ortiz is a graduate student in Cal State Fullerton’s master of public administration program and serves as senior coordinator for the Parent & Family Relations team within the Department of Central Development at CSUF. He is a member of the Anaheim High School Alumni Association, Municipal Management Association of Southern California, Psi Chi honor society and the National Council for Community and Education Partnerships’ Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs Alumni Association.

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