By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN | Associated Press

DURANGO, Mexico — Passengers and officials say a strong burst of wind hit an Aeromexico jetliner on takeoff, moments before it crashed, leaving those aboard with mere minutes to evacuate the burning plane.

The plane tried to take off from Durango city in a severe storm Tuesday, but smacked down on its belly in a nearby field. With the engines torn off, it began to burn.

“It was really, really ugly,” said Lorenzo Nunez, a passenger from Chicago who fled the plane with his two sons and wife. “It burned in a question of seconds,” he told reporters, snapping his fingers for emphasis.

Survivors said the Embraer 190 plane burst into flames right after it hit the ground.

“We felt the flames coming quickly … there was a lot of smoke,” Jaquelin Flores told the newspaper El Sol.

Romulo Campuzano, head of a political party in Durango state who was on the plane, told Foro TV that both wings were on fire as he bolted from the aircraft.

Durango state Gov. Jose Aispuro said a gust of wind hit flight AM2431, which was heading to Mexico City just as it was lifting off the tarmac, forcing the pilot to abort takeoff.

Passengers said they heard a loud noise as the plane’s left wing banged to the ground, and both engines tore loose. The plane stayed upright, though, and the escape slides activated.

All 99 passengers and four crewmembers made it off the plane, but the pilot was severely injured.

About 49 people were hospitalized with injuries. Some people had burns on a quarter of their bodies, said Durango state Health Ministry spokesman Fernando Ros.

Aispuro said all were expected to live.

An Illinois priest was on the plane. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago said the Rev. Esequiel Sanchez suffered some injuries, but was alert and resting.

Aispuro said it was too soon to speculate on the cause of the crash. Mechanical failure and human error could be factors, but certainly the weather wasn’t favorable. Strong wind and heavy rain with marble-sized hail lashed Durango city, even damaging hangars at the airport.

“The most important thing in the seriousness that is an accident of this nature is that there were no deaths — that’s what is most encouraging for us,” Aispuro said at a news conference.

After the accident, several passengers walked away from the plane before first responders arrived. Some sought medical help, while others rushed home to loved ones. Officials spent much of the afternoon tracking down survivors to ensure that everyone was accounted for.

Aeromexico Chief Executive Officer Andres Conesa described the day as “very difficult” and credited the timely reaction of crew and passengers for the lack of fatalities.

Conesa said the passengers included 88 adults, nine children and two babies and the crew consisted of two flight attendants and two pilots.

He said the jetliner had been sent for maintenance in February and the crew was well-rested, having started their work day in Durango.

LOS ANGELES COUNTY

Oklahoma!

Actors’ Repertory Theatre of Simi performs the musical by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, based on the play “Green Grow the Lilacs” by Lynn Riggs.

When: 8 p.m. Aug. 3. Show runs 8 p.m. Aug. 4; 2:15 p.m. Aug. 5; dates through Sept. 2.

Where: Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center, 3050 Los Angeles Ave.

Tickets: $25; $22 ages 60 and older; $18 ages 12 and younger.

Information: 805-583-7900, www.simi-arts.org

The Road Theatre Co. Summer Playwrights Festival

These play readings are a fundraiser for the company’s 27th season. Check website for playwrights, descriptions and venues.

Performances: 8 p.m. Aug. 3; 11 a.m. and 8 p.m. Aug. 4, and also 2 and 8 p.m. Aug. 5.

Tickets: $15.

Venues: Historic Lankershim Arts Center, 5108 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood, and also The Road on Magnolia at the NoHo Arts Colony, 10747 Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood.

Information: 818-761-8838, roadtheatre.org

Waitress

The musical by Sara Bareilles and Jessie Nelson, based on the 2007 film written by Adrienne Shelly, about an unhappily married woman and a pie contest.

When: Opens 8 p.m. Aug. 2. Show runs 8 p.m. Aug. 3; 2 and 8 p.m. Aug. 4; 1 and 6:30 p.m. Aug. 5; 8 p.m. Aug. 7-9; dates through Aug. 26.

Where: Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood.

Tickets: $48 and up (plus fees).

Information: 323-468-1770, 800-982-2787, www.hollywoodpantages.com

ORANGE COUNTY

‘End of the Rainbow’

Angela Ingersoll has won many plaudits for her portrayal of Judy Garland in this Tony Award-nominated play that presents the singer’s ill-fated attempt at a comeback in 1968 with pathos, savage humor, music and insight.

Where: Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach

When: Opens Wednesday, Aug. 8 with dates through Sunday, Sept. 2. 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays, 1 and/or 5:30 p.m.

Tickets: $81-$111

Information: 949-497-2787; lagunaplayhouse.com

‘The Merry Wives of Windsor’

Shakespeare By the Sea stages the Bard’s comedy in three Orange County cities this week as well as in Encino (Saturday, Aug. 4) and  Beverly Hills (Thursday, Aug. 9). All performances are outdoors.

Where: Potocki Center for the Arts, 27301 La Paz Road, Mission Viejo; Eisenhower Park, Main Street and Ocean Avenue, Seal Beach; Soka University, 1 University Drive, Aliso Viejo

When: 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 3 (Mission Viejo); 7 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 5 (Seal Beach); 7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 8 (Aliso Viejo)

Tickets: Admission is free; no tickets required

Information: shakespearebythesea.org

‘Big Fish’

This musical adaptation of Daniel Wallace’s novel and Tim Burton’s film has been extended due to popular demand.

Where: Chance Theater, 5522 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim

When: 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 3, 3 and 8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 4, 3 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 5

Tickets: $40 general admission

Information: 888-455-4212; chancetheater.com

RIVERSIDE COUNTY

‘Red, White & Bard! A Celebration of William Shakespeare in America’

Shakespeare in the Vines actor Rob Crisell wrote, directed and will star in this one-man comedic show. Apparently he brings Shakespeare to life with the help of props and Keanu Reeves.

When: 7:30 p.m. Aug. 3 and 4

Where: Inside Carol’s Restaurant at Baily Vineyard & Winery, 33440 La Serena Way, Temecula

Tickets: $20 general admission, $15 for students, seniors and military with ID.

Information: www.shakespeareinthevines.org

‘Richard II’

Shakespeare in the Vines debuts the history play that kicks off the Bard’s tetralogy on Aug. 9. It can get chilly in the vineyard at night, so bring a blanket or a jacket.

When: 7:30 p.m. Aug. 9-12, 16-19, 23-25.

Where: Baily Vineyard & Winery, 33440 La Serena Way, Temecula

Tickets: $22 general admission; $30 reserved seating; $17 for seniors (55 and older), students and military with valid photo ID.

Information: www.shakespeareinthevines.org; 951-402-7488

SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY

Redlands Theatre Festival

The 46th season of the Redlands Theatre Festival is underway nearly nightly through Aug. 18 at the Avice Meeker Sewall Theater in Prospect Park. This year’s productions are “Sweeney Todd,” “Hay Fever,” “The Pajama Game,” “Circle Mirror Transformation” and “Stupid … Bird.” The latter is a revamp of Anton Chekhov’s “The Seagull,” and as you might have guessed by expletive in the title, it’s for adult audiences.

When: 8:30 p.m. through Aug. 18. The festival is dark Aug. 5 and 6 and Aug. 13 is a special event.

Where: Prospect Park, 1399 Prospect Drive, Redlands

Tickets: $16 Monday-Wednesday; $21 Thursday-Sunday

Information: 909-792-0562; rtfseason.com

‘Beau Jest’

The Redlands Footlighters kicks off its 2018-19 season with a production of the James Sherman play directed by Phillip Gabriel. The romantic comedy includes an aspiring actor pretending to be a boyfriend and overbearing parents. The play opens Aug. 4 and runs through Aug. 26.

When: 8 p.m. Aug. 4, 10-11, 17-18, 24-25; 2 p.m. Aug. 5, 12, 19, 26.

Where: 1810 Barton Road, Redlands

Tickets: $15, unless otherwise noted. Students save $5 with ID.

Information: 909-793-2909, redlandsfootlighters.org

On a hot Saturday morning in July, Brian Timm stepped out of a red Ferrari 458 Italia and pulled off his helmet.

A smile flashed across his face.

The 57-year-old Culver City man had just completed five laps on the winding 1.2-mile racetrack at Exotics Racing, which sits in the shadow of the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. The speedway, one of a handful of similar experiences to be found across Southern California, puts amateur drivers behind the wheel of a supercar.

“When you drive on the freeways in L.A. long enough, you want to take it up another level,” said Timm, whose Toyota 4-Runner sat in the parking lot while he roared around the course under the supervision of a professional driving instructor riding shotgun.

Timm was among the car enthusiasts in Fontana on this day for a test drive, from $99 for two laps in the front passenger seat of any class of car – Lamborghini, McLaren, Porsche – to $499 for five laps in a Ferrari 488 GTB.

Passenger or driver, the experience begins with a 20-minute class. The person then gets a feel for the track with a ride in a Porsche Cayenne – they’re called “Discovery Laps.” The person next climbs into the car of his or her choice and, after a few reminders, enters the course.

“It’s a pretty quick way to check off a lifetime goal,” said Kevin Madsen, the lead instructor. “How many folks, when they’re little kids, want to own a Ferrari or drive a Ferrari? That was, for sure, me. And now, I’m sharing my passion with everybody else.”

At the Porsche Experience Center in Carson a few days later, Chief Driving Instructor Johnny Kanavas explained the 4.1-mile track made up of 8 modules that he helped design.

It includes an acceleration straight, downhill “Ice Hill” epoxy surface, and a paved handling area where drivers navigate through specialized exercises. All of the cars in the fleet are from the current model line, including a 718 Boxster, 911 Turbo and GT3, with prices starting at $385.

Each experience includes a private coach.

“You can’t see what these cars are capable of doing driving around the streets, especially in Los Angeles,” Kanavas said. “There are multiple racetracks around Southern California and canyon roads. But this is a safe environment where people can come play.”

Melina Chao of Manhattan Beach was among a group of women who came to play at the Porsche Experience Center, and it wasn’t her first time zipping around the course.

About a year ago, she drove a 911 Turbo here and “loved it!

“I couldn’t get it out of my system,” Chao said.

A short while later, Chao said she went out and bought herself a silver 911 Turbo S.

“It was hard to justify the price, but you only live once,” she said as she scrolled through the images on her phone to show off pictures of the car she described as “exhilarating, wicked fast.”

Also open to the public is the BMW Performance Center West near Palm Springs where drivers learn to maneuver the “Ultimate Driving Machine” in any number of situations.

The center offers different programs, but the $299 BMW Performance Center Drive – a two-hour driving experience on a course with different modules capped off with a “hot lap” featuring an instructor behind the wheel – is popular among tourists.

“What makes us special is we provide more than a driving experience,” said Stephen Saward, operations manager. “It enables you to develop your skills, so that if you ever get into a situation you have the skills to work your way through it and avoid an accident. That’s a valuable skill.”

And it’s seriously fun.

Back in Fontana, people pose for photos in the driver’s seats of Exotics Racing’s fleet of cars as they wait their turn. When the sound of an engine from a Dodge SRT embellished with the word “Police” revs up, the crowd gathers, phone-cameras ready to capture the shriek and smoke from spinning wheels as it tears around the track.

Timm’s family was scheduled to go for a drive-along in the hellcat police car after his Ferrari experience, which he admitted was “intimidating to start.

“Here I am in control of a high-performance vehicle that I’ve never driven before, and I don’t want to lose control of it and spin it out,” he explained. “I was reluctant on the first lap but, after that, you get comfortable with the turns and it feels natural.”

“It could turn on a dime,” said J.R. Stephens, 37, of Chino Hills after taking a charcoal McLaren 5705 for a spin. “That car is amazing.”

And for Jackson “Jack” Burgoyne, a La Verne boy who was turning 12, getting to ride in the passenger seat of an apple green Lamborghini Huracán RWD and a red Ferrari 458 Italia a piece had already proved to be a memorable birthday present from his parents. Children can go on a ride-along if they’re at least age 11, 85 pounds and 57 inches tall.

“Just the speed of them and the sound was thrilling,” said Jack. “I don’t know if you could top this.”

You save up and splurge on a nice resort vacation with all the amenities. As you marvel at your room’s inspiring, practical and creative comforts, you think, “Why can’t this be my life all the time?”

In many ways, it can be. As you travel this summer and beyond, you can take home the inspiration from your hotel stay and incorporate elements in your own surroundings.

The key takeaways from the best hotel rooms and spaces? The feeling of clean simplicity through the use of neutrals with pops of color and natural materials, along with their embrace of the local surroundings.

“What hotels are great at is giving you that clutter-free feel, where you feel that zen and there isn’t too much lying around,” says Chris Givan, the owner of Christopher James Interiors in Costa Mesa, who has designed hotel spaces in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

Andrea DeRosa, co-founder of Avenue Interior Design in Downtown Los Angeles, says a hotel room “should have a certain level of ease to it. It should feel unique and aspirational.” Her firm’s projects include the Jeremy Hotel in Hollywood, La Serena Villas in Palm Springs, the Ramble Hotel in Denver and several SLS properties, including in Las Vegas.

The boom in boutique hotels, especially in Southern California, has put innovative and hip design front and center. The next time you check in, you can check out some of these key trends, elements and tricks of the trade.

Luxurious minimalism in bedrooms and bathrooms

The hotel industry’s trend toward focusing on airy guest rooms with stylish essentials and large communal spaces, as noted at HotelManagement.net, can be applied to your own space by playing up the basics in your bedroom and emphasizing trendy functionality.

“Bedding is very important,” Givan says. “You want it to look and be comfortable, with a soft, inviting feel. There are tricks they [hotels] do to make the bed less ‘hard,’ with down mattresses and pillows and high-quality sheets.”

Other tips include using white on all bed linens to highlight the “clean” feeling and lots of accent pillows for added luxury and bright-color accents.

Beyond the bed, many hotel guest rooms include a focal wall that creates a unique feel without adding to the “stuff” in a room. This can be done with wallpaper, wall treatments, large headboards or other design elements.

“In hotel spaces, commercial vinyls are pretty much our go-to” for wall coverings, Givan says, because they are so easy to maintain. “In more upscale settings, in homes, we use a lot of Venetian plaster” for visual interest.

For bathrooms, the overwhelming trend is for a “spa-like” feel in hotels and homes alike. In hotels, you are likely to find neutral colors in the materials with bright accessories, clean lines, lots of glass and cabinetry that allows essentials to be stylishly displayed.

Environmental awareness

Hotels set the scene in two key ways: by bringing the outdoors in and highlighting what’s going on in the surrounding area.

“Indoor/outdoor living [is] an essential component to SoCal living,” DeRosa says.

It is accomplished with lots of wood, stone and other natural materials throughout the hotel and lobbies and other public spaces with enormous open doors and walkways, large plants and even water features. The unwritten rule is to stay true to the outside environs; a tropical waterfall would look out of place in a hotel lobby in Aspen, Colo., for instance.

The same can be said for your own home: the zen comes from creating spaces that are at one with the natural environment, so work with what surrounds you. For example, just as hotel rooms highlight the outside with floor-to-ceiling windows and sliders, you can do the same at home by ensuring you frame a treasured view, point-of-pride garden or decked-out front patio.

Besides the scenery, hotels also excel at incorporating the local scene in their spaces to give guests a “sense of place.” Most feature elements and artwork that highlight the area or are the work of nearby artists. A couple of pieces of décor you pick up from a local artisan or specialty shop can create the same feeling at home.

DeRosa offers one last tip: Whatever inspiration you glean from your vacation spot to redo your own space, “let the design unfold organically and be a true expression of yourself. Don’t feel the need to adhere to one pre-defined style.”

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — For the first time all season, an injury is keeping Mike Trout out of the lineup.

Trout jammed his right wrist on a slide into third on Wednesday night, an injury that left him “pretty sore,” he said, on Thursday morning. He said he underwent X-rays and an MRI exam that showed just inflammation.

Trout said he’s hoping he’ll be able to play on Friday in Cleveland, and he even left open the possibility that he could pinch-hit later in Thursday’s game.

Earlier this season, Trout hurt his right index finger, but he could still hit. He was limited to DH duty for nine straight games.

In the first inning on Wednesday night, Trout took off to steal third. Pitcher Tyler Glasnow threw to third and the ball was there well before Trout, so he tried to slide around the tag.

He ended up sliding awkwardly, jamming his right wrist.

Trout said he told Angels trainer Adam Nevala that it was sore. They taped it up and he stayed in the game. He went hitless in his last three at-bats.

“I was definitely thinking about it,” Trout said. “I didn’t feel it at the plate, but on deck when I was warming up, I was feeling it with the weight on my bat.”

Last year Trout missed about seven weeks after tearing a ligament in his left thumb on a head-first slide. He now wears a protective glove on his left hand, but this time he hurt the other hand.

“They are joking that now I have to wear two,” Trout said.

Apple has become the world’s first publicly traded company to be valued at $1 trillion.

The milestone marks the financial fruit of stylish technology that has redefined society since two mavericks named Steve started the company 42 years ago.

The peak reached Thursday seemed unimaginable in 1997 when Apple teetered on the edge of bankruptcy, with its stock trading for less than $1.

Jobs eventually introduced such popular products as the iPod and iPhone that have driven Apple’s rise.

Apple shares rose 2.7 percent to an all-time high of $207.05 around midday. They’re up 22 percent so far this year.

Which other companies have hit the trillion-dollar mark? According to Bloomberg, PetroChina Co. crossed the $1 trillion mark in late 2007, but slumped quickly as oil prices collapsed in the financial crisis. Other tech giants are not far behind Apple today, with Amazon.com Inc., Alphabet Inc. and Microsoft Corp. worth more than $800 billion each.

Modern-dance pioneer Isadora Duncan was a quintessentially American creation – a San Francisco-born free spirit whose extravagant life and lurid death almost eclipsed her accomplishments as the first artist to free choreography from its balletic straitjacket more than a century ago. Like so many 19th century residents of the wild and untamed Western U.S., she was a rebel and a pioneer.

So it seems imperative to ask why a couple of Russians would want to create a ballet that celebrates Duncan’s life.

“She is very revered in Russia, as she is everywhere dance is appreciated,” said choreographer Vladimir Varnava, who is working on a ballet about Duncan that will receive its world premiere Friday, Aug. 10 through Sunday, Aug. 12 at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa. “She has strong associations with Russia at a very important time in the development of Russian dance.”

“She is known both for her revolutionary dancing and for her romantic relationship with a great Russian poet whom everybody knows,” said Natalia Osipova, the beloved Russian ballet star who will play Duncan in the full-length work. “For us, she represents the beginning of modernism, when dance freed itself from the restrictions of classical ballet.”

Though her fame has dimmed in recent decades, Duncan was world famous until her life was cut short at 50 in a gruesome accident – her long scarf got caught in the rear wheel of a sports car, strangling her instantly. During her three-decade career she rose from humble beginnings to revolutionize the world of dance, rejecting the prescribed idioms of ballet to create a more freely expressive style. Duncan eschewed tutus and toe shoes for bare feet and free flowing, diaphanous costumes that revealed a lot of skin, at least for that era.

UNDER-APPRECIATED TALENTS

Duncan’s life offstage was famously tumultuous.

Her parents divorced when she was a baby and her mother, formerly the wife of a prosperous banker, struggled to make ends meet as a seamstress and piano teacher.

Duncan dropped out of school at 10 to help the family by teaching dance, which was her passion from an early age. “I followed my fantasy and improvised, teaching any pretty thing that came into my head,” she later recalled.

Duncan left San Francisco in her late teens and ended up in New York, but her talents weren’t appreciated there.

Europe was more receptive. Upon moving to London at 21 in 1898, she found work dancing for wealthy patrons and refined her approach after studying Greek culture and art at the British Museum. Gaining fame and fortune, she started a studio and began performing in concert halls.

In 1902 she joined forces with Loie Fuller, another modern-dance pioneer, touring Europe and establishing her reputation as a groundbreaking artist.

Duncan also spent time in Russia and its later incarnation, the Soviet Union, where she set up a school and briefly married respected poet Sergei Yesenin. She was still famous, though past her prime and suffering from financial hardships, when she met her untimely demise in 1927.

IN THE RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME

Varnava emphasized that his examination of Duncan, set to the score of Sergei Prokofiev’s “Cinderella,” isn’t strictly autobiographical. He’s more interested in her art and legacy. “There is so much to explore besides the details of her life, which I think are sometimes paid too much attention. I’m more interested in what she achieved as an artist.”

Osipova agreed. “It’s not our goal to have me match perfectly with Isadora Duncan. That’s not the story we’re trying to tell. For us it’s more about what was behind her fame – who she was, what inspired her, why she became such a great performer.”

To help flesh out Varnava’s vision, producer Sergei Danilian described robust resources for the two-act work: around 20 dancers, a complex lighting system, even a 1927 Bugatti roadster (located in Wisconsin and shipped to Costa Mesa) to help re-enact the dancer’s last moments. Danilian’s company, Ardani Artists Management, is co-producing “Isadora,” which will go to Moscow in September.

“We will have a lot of videography,” Danilian said. “We will have five video cameras with very strong, wide lenses, and we will create video that helps create a very detailed and convincing atmosphere. We will show her fascination with water and the ocean, with the Greek style, with the Bolshoi Ballet.”

Many of the people in Isadora’s life, both famous and obscure, will be represented too, Danilian said. “You will meet her family – her father, mother, sister, brother, and her child, which she lost. She even encounters Lenin as an angel.” An angel? “Yes, because for her he was an angel. He created a country where everyone was equal, at least ideally.”

As a committed leftist and an atheist, Duncan fit in well in the Soviet Union.

Osipova said she hopes people come away with a fuller understanding of a woman who she believes doesn’t get her due.

“Her independence, her talent, her revolutionary spirit – I think these things all were present in her. Also, she was a pioneer of feminism. She appeared in the right time and the right place to spread all these important ideas.”

‘Isadora: A Tribute to Isadora Duncan in Two Acts

Where: Segerstrom Hall, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

When: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 10, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 11, 1 p.m Sunday, Aug. 12

Tickets: $29-$169

Information: 714-556-2787; scfta.org

Wells Fargo agreed Wednesday to pay a $2.1 billion fine to settle allegations it misrepresented the types of mortgages it sold to investors during the housing bubble that ultimately led to the 2008 financial crisis.

The amount is relatively smaller than the fines paid by Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and other big banks in the years following the financial crisis to settle similar allegations. Wells Fargo is one of the last remaining big banks to settle charges related to its role in the subprime mortgage crisis.

The fine is unrelated to the more recent scandals that have plagued Wells in the last three years, such as the opening of millions of fake accounts for customers without their authorization in order to meet unrealistic sales quotas, or the bundling of auto insurance policies on to auto loans when customers did not need them.

The government accused Wells and many other big banks of understating the risk and quality of the mortgages they sold to investors at the height of the housing bubble, in Wells’ case between 2005 and 2007. These investors bought up tens of billions of dollars in mortgages from Wells and other banks, and experienced massive losses when borrowers failed to repay and housing prices collapsed nationwide.

The Department of Justice said Wells Fargo sold at least 73,500 loans that had poor underwriting standards to investors. Half of those loans defaulted, resulting in billions of dollars in losses to investors.

“This settlement holds Wells Fargo accountable for actions that contributed to the financial crisis,” said Acting Associate Attorney General Jesse Panuccio, in a statement.

In earlier settlements with the Justice Department, Bank of America paid a $5 billion fine to authorities in 2014 for similar allegations, and Citigroup paid a $4 billion fine.

Wells Fargo said in a statement it was “pleased to put behind us these legacy issues” and said it had previously set aside the money to cover the settlement.

Baseball, you might have heard, is in trouble. On life support, even.

Its target audience is aging. TV ratings are a shadow of what they used to be (although the same can be said for plenty of other programming). All of the devices meant to cater to millennials haven’t roused them from Fortnite, Snapchat, etc.

We are overreacting a bit, aren’t we?

The reports of baseball’s demise are premature, but there are signs of concern, especially from within. Baseball people might be the most self-critical creatures in professional sports when it comes to examining their game and ways to improve it. That’s the genesis of pace-of-play initiatives and rumbling about infield shifts and what in the world do we do to make Mike Trout as popular elsewhere in America as he is in Orange County?

May I offer some suggestions? I mean, I’m sure if you follow the game you’ve thought of what you would do if you were Rob Manfred for a week or even a day.

Today it’s my turn, and here’s my platform:

1. TV exposure – widen it!

The Dodgers/Time Warner-Spectrum/DirecTV fiasco seemed to have been a tipping point in the relationship between baseball and cable networks, a warning of the dangers of overreaching … but rumblings are that the Cubs are thinking of going a similar route and launching their own network in the Chicago area. That, too, could get ugly.

Here’s a fix that solves two problems and should have been implemented years ago: Remove the “out-of-market” designation from the MLB.TV streaming service and the Extra Innings cable package. You pay, you get every single MLB game, home teams included, local commercials and all – including the Facebook Watch weekday games since there is no reason why that platform should have blanket exclusivity.

Opening up those platforms would give folks in L.A. who currently don’t have Spectrum another option. Additionally, it would remove what are patently ridiculous coverage restrictions in various regions. For example, people in Hawaii – 2,500 miles or so from California – can’t stream Dodgers, Angels, Giants, A’s and Padres games. Those in Las Vegas are prevented from watching all of those plus the Diamondbacks. And those in Des Moines are shut out of the Cubs, White Sox, Royals, Twins, Brewers and Cardinals. Absurd, isn’t it?

Another fix: Mandate that every MLB team put 40-50 games on local over-the-air TV, even if they’re simulcasts with the cable network. As we’ve often said in This Space, the first lesson of business is to seek out potential customers instead of forcing them to find you, and that includes cord-cutters. What sense does it make to limit your audience for the benefit of someone else’s bottom line?

2. Bring back the high strike.

With great fanfare, baseball reduced the strike zone 50 years ago from top of shoulders/bottom of knees to armpits/top of knees. Twenty years after that, with less fanfare, the top of the strike zone was lowered to the midpoint between the letters and the belt, meaning the top of the strike zone is now a couple of inches above the belly button.

Moving that upper boundary back to at least the pre-1988 limit will force hitters to swing the bat. The result: More action and a quicker pace.

3. The universal DH.

I never thought I’d write this, and people who have known me for a long time might be wondering what medication I’ve been taking. But it’s time to either adopt one set of rules for both leagues, or go to a 28- or 29-man roster in the National League as pitching staffs continue to expand.

After all, what’s more excruciating to watch? Pitchers hitting, aside from the Madison Bumgarners of the world? Or a position player pitching?

4. The electronic strike zone.

This is another innovation I didn’t expect I’d agree with, but the extreme variance – i.e., inconsistency – in various umpires’ strike zones suggests that its time has come.

Plus, a bonus: It will eliminate the emphasis on pitch framing. You can’t steal strikes if you can’t fool the electronic eye.

5. Banning, or limiting, shifts.

I know. This is the nuclear option. But a large part of the reason why baseball has become a Three True Outcomes sport – homer/walk/strikeout or nothing – has been data-driven defensive strategy, which has become so effective as to skew the game. Mandating two players on each side of second base would at least restore some of that balance.

6. Allow exuberance to flourish.

The complaints about how individual players are marketed – such as the apples/oranges question of why Trout can’t be as popular as LeBron James – don’t take into account the old-school “play the game the right way” mentality that remains so pervasive. If you are too flamboyant, show too much personality or otherwise violate the unwritten but sacred “code,” someone in either your clubhouse or your opponent’s will complain. (Or you’ll get a fastball in the ribs.)

It’s time to lighten up. Bat flips and celebrations are not a sin. Games in the World Baseball Classic between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, where everyone celebrates and no one gets mad, are as much fun as anything you’ll see on a baseball field. What can possibly be wrong with that?

And the more players’ personalities emerge, on and off the field, the easier it is to market them. Feel free to check with people in the NBA offices about the way that works.

One final thought: It is popular to assume that younger people aren’t so interested in baseball. I would argue that if you go to a game and sit in the stands, you’ll see evidence to the contrary.

jalexander@scng.com

@Jim_Alexander on Twitter 

By Ellen Knickmeyer and Tom Krisher, The Associated Press

The Trump administration on Thursday proposed weakening Obama-era mileage standards designed to make cars more fuel efficient and less polluting, a major rollback already being challenged in the courts by California and other states.

The administration also served notice that it wants to revoke states’ long-standing authority to set their own, stricter mileage standards.

Attorneys general from 19 states and the District of Columbia said they would go to court to stop the proposal. California and New York are among the states signing on to a statement Thursday pledging legal action against the Trump administration’s action on fuel efficiency.

The group of attorneys general says in a statement that relaxing the nation’s mileage standards will make Americans “breathe dirtier air and pay higher prices at the pumps.”

The Trump administration says it wants to freeze mileage standards at 2020 levels. The administration argues that should make new cars cheaper, and get newer, safer cars on the roads quicker as a result.

Easing requirements that cars be more fuel efficient should make them both cheaper and safer, getting vehicles with the latest safety developments in the hands of consumers, officials said.

It’s got “everything to do with just trying to turn over the fleet … and get more clean and safe cars on the road,” EPA assistant administrator Bill Wehrum said.

Transportation experts question the reasoning behind the proposal.

The proposal would freeze U.S. mileage standards at 2020 levels, when the new vehicle fleet will be required to hit an average of 30 miles per gallon in real-world driving.

California Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday called the Trump administration proposals “an assault on the health of Americans everywhere. Under his reckless scheme, motorists will pay more at the pump, get worse gas mileage and breathe dirtier air. California will fight this stupidity in every conceivable way possible.”

California and 16 other states filed suit over the fuel efficiency standards in May, anticipating the new regulation.

The Obama administration had planned to keep toughening fuel requirements through 2026, saying those and other regulations on vehicles would save 40,000 lives annually through cleaner air. The argument remained on the EPA’s website Thursday.

According to Trump administration estimates, the Obama fuel efficiency standards would raise the price of vehicles by an average of $2,340. That would price many buyers out of the new-vehicle market, forcing them to drive older, less-safe vehicles that pollute more, the administration says.

Heidi King, deputy administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said the freeze would reduce highway deaths by 1,000 per year “by reducing these barriers that prevent consumers from getting into the newer, safer, cleaner, more fuel-efficient cars.”

But private transportation experts say there are so many factors involved that the 1,000 lives saved figure is questionable. The affordability argument ignores thousands of dollars of saving in fuel costs for each driver over the life of a car, opponents of the rollbacks said.

President Donald Trump had directed the rethink of the mileage regulations, saying in March 2017, “If the standards threatened auto jobs, then common-sense changes” were needed. Auto jobs were not a major part of administration officials’ case Thursday for the rollbacks.

California has had the authority under the half-century-old Clean Air Act to set its own mileage standards to combat its chronic smog problem.

More than a dozen states follow California’s standards, amounting to about 40 percent of the country’s new-vehicle market.

Automakers view the new proposal as a starting point for negotiations with California, with hopes of keeping one fuel efficiency standard for the entire nation.

It’s costly for companies to design and build vehicles for California and states that follow its rules, and a different set for the rest of the country. Automakers have said they want improved efficiency but also want standards that account for the massive shift from cars to trucks and SUVs.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a main industry group, said Thursday that the Trump proposal means it’s time for negotiations to begin. “We urge California and the federal government to find a common sense solution that sets continued increases in vehicle efficiency standards while also meeting the needs of American drivers.”

In 2012, when the standards were first adopted, cars were about 50 percent of new-vehicle sales. Now they’re only about one-third, with less-efficient trucks and SUVS making up the rest.

Q: We want to plant garlic in our fall and winter garden. The garden catalogs sell garlic for planting at very high prices and the shipping is costly, too. There are lots of interesting varieties offered, but we can’t spend $20 or more just to grow some garlic. Can’t I just plant some supermarket garlic which is much cheaper?

A: Garlic is a relative of onions and shallots and can be grown quite easily in the garden. I have planted cloves of supermarket garlic with good results when I couldn’t find them at a nursery. Your best opportunity for success is with bulbs produced for garden use because they have not received the treatments to delay sprouting that supermarket garlic cloves have received.

In recent years I have seen garlic in local nurseries in the fall, so I suggest that you ask at your favorite nursery if they will be carrying it before resorting to grocery store garlic cloves. Most importantly, the variety of garlic cloves that your local nursery offers will have been selected to perform well in our climate. In Southern California, the soft-neck garlic varieties, planted in the fall, will grow very well for you.

At planting time, break apart the garlic head into individual cloves, trying not to damage the base of the bulbs where the roots will eventually grow.  Do not remove the papery covering on the bulbs either.  Plant the individual bulbs in a light, fertile soil with their tips barely covered. Space the bulbs about four to six inches apart, to allow sufficient space and air movement around the mature plants.

Within a few weeks of planting, slender green leaves will appear. The bulbs will grow steadily during the winter and reach maturity by early summer, and the tops will begin to yellow and die. Harvest the bulbs and allow the outer skin to dry in a cool, shady area. Rub off the soiled outer skins and remove the dried tops before storing.

If you plant a lot of garlic cloves, you may want to try your hand at constructing a garlic braid. The soft-neck varieties are the best for braiding. You will have to braid the tops while they are still flexible. For braids, harvest the garlic as soon as the tops begin to turn yellow. Wash the soil from the bulbs as thoroughly as possible and trim the roots to about one-half inch long or less. Let the garlic rest in a shady area for a day or so until the tops become limp but not dry. Braid them as soon as they become limp, and then allow your braids to complete the drying process.

Q: We planted a hybrid Bermuda grass lawn to reduce water use and mowing. I know that it requires periodic de-thatching, but when is the best time to do it and how often?

A: Thatch should be removed about once a year to prevent a buildup that becomes a breeding ground for diseases and insects and inhibits water penetration. The best time to de-thatch Bermuda grass lawns is when it’s actively growing. Late summer is a good time to do this. For large lawns, vertical mowers can be rented from equipment supply companies. For small areas, you can use a specially designed thatching rake. When done at the proper time, your lawn will recover rapidly from the process.

SOCAL’s 16-and-under boys and 18-and-under girls, featuring some of Orange County’s top high school water polo players, captured gold medals at the recent Junior Olympics at Stanford.

In the 16-and-under boys finals, the Tustin-based club beat Contra Costa United 9-6 to finish 8-1 in the tournament. SOCAL was seeded 10th.

Coach Paden Mitchell’s team consisted of Whittaker Worland, Anthony D’Ambra, Frank Hulick, Solan Kedzie, Dylan Patist, Garret Griggs, Guillermo Ocasio, Evan Cain, Gage Pranajaya, Zsombor Gyemant, Riley Pittman, Jack Sigloch and Alec Isaacman.

Pittman, a junior at Woodbridge, was selected tournament MVP. Kedzie, Isaacman and Patist also play for Woodbridge.

In other boys results, Vanguard placed third in the 18-and-under tournament, which was won by United Cozy Boys. Vanguard’s 14-and-under boys edged SOCAL, 11-10, in another final.

In the girls 18-and-under final, SOCAL beat 680 Drivers, 8-5.

Lake Forest-based SET won the girls 16-and-under crown while Ocean View High-based Riptide beat Laguna Beach for the 14-and-under girls title.

The SET team, coached by Ethan Damato and Trevor Lyle, consisted of Jenna Dickstein, Emma Singer, Quinn Winter, Caroline Christl, Grace Houlahan, Mara Laughlin, Savannah Burns, Morgan Van Alphen, Rachael Carver, Kenedy Corlett, Jessie Rose, Kori Bento, Emma Lineback, Nicole Struss and Molly Renner.

SET edged Santa Barbara 805, 7-6, in the final. Riptide defeated Laguna Beach, 9-4.

Please send water polo news to Dan Albano at dalbano@scng.com or @ocvarsityguy on Twitter

Headed to the fair today? Here are some things to know.

Hours: Noon to midnight

Admission: $12 adults; $7 ages 60 and older, $7 ages 6 to 12; free 5 and younger

Deals:

• Military members and veterans get free admission daily.
• Seniors pay $5 admission all day and ride the Ferris wheel or merry-go-round once for free.
• $2 rides and $2 games are available until 4 p.m. on Fridays.

Things to do:

• New to the midway this year is Konga, which gives riders high-speed, side-to-side movement along with a water feature.
• The Centennial Farm is the fairground’s own year-round working farm; stop by and meet its residents, some born within the last month.
• Walk through the exhibits of Heroes Hall, a museum on the fairgrounds dedicated to Orange County’s veterans.
• Playing at the Hangar: BOSTYX featuring David Victory, formerly of Boston; requires a ticket
• Playing at the Pacific Amphitheatre: UB40 featuring Ali, Astro and Mickey and Freddie McGregor; requires a ticket
• Action Sports Arena: Extreme Rodeo; requires a ticket

Look ahead:

• The 10th annual OC Fair Fun Run 5K is Sunday, Aug. 5; register and get information at ocfair5k.com
• On Sunday, Aug. 5, The Hangar will feature Mariachi Sol de Mexico de Jose Hernandez; requires a ticket
• The Action Sports Arena again hosts Broncs & Bulls Rodeo on Saturday, Aug. 4; requires a ticket

By AMIR SHAH | Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan — Two suicide bombers attacked a Shiite mosque in eastern Afghanistan during Friday prayers, killing at least 29 people and wounding another 81, officials said.

Abdullah Asrat, spokesman for the governor of Paktia province, said the heavily armed attackers, disguised in the all-encompassing burkas worn by conservative Afghan women, opened fire on private security guards outside the mosque in the city of Gardez. Then they slipped inside and set off their explosives among around 100 worshippers.

Five of the seriously wounded were small children, he said.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan has targeted Shiite worshippers in the past. The group has also warned Afghanistan’s minority Shiites that their houses of worship would be targeted.

Syed Sufi Gardezi, the most senior Shiite cleric in Gardez, put the death toll at 30. He described a scene of panic and distress outside the Imam-e-Zaman mosque as news of the explosion spread and relatives gathered.

Gardezi said the wounded were screaming for help and body parts of the dead were scattered throughout the single story mosque. The dead were all men and boys, he said.

Dr. Mohammad Wali Roshan, a physician at a local hospital, said some of the relatives, armed with sticks and guns, were furious at the lack of security and began beating people, even medical personnel who arrived to help the wounded.

“They were shouting that there was no security and screaming for their loved ones,” he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Gardezi blamed the Islamic State affiliate. He said the Taliban have a strong presence in the area but have never attacked Shiites in the past and have never threatened them.

Both the Taliban and the Islamic State group are made up of radical Sunni Muslims who want to overthrow the Western-backed government and impose a harsh form of Islamic law. But they are fiercely divided over leadership, ideology and tactics, and have clashed on a number of occasions. IS views Shiites as apostates deserving of death.

In the last two years, IS has attacked 24 Shiite cultural centers, mosques and schools, said Mohammad Jawad Ghawary, a member of the Shiite cleric council.

“In Afghanistan they are the biggest threat for Shiites,” he said. He called on the Afghan government and the international community to do more to protect Shiites.

By JOE McDONALD | AP Business Writer

BEIJING — China on Friday announced a $60 billion list of U.S. goods including coffee, honey and industrial chemicals for retaliation if Washington goes ahead with its latest tariff threat.

The Finance Ministry accused the Trump administration of damaging the global economy after it proposed hiking duties on $200 billion of Chinese goods in the second round of a dispute over technology.

“China is forced to take countermeasures,” said a ministry statement. It said the retaliatory duties of 25 percent, 20 percent, 10 percent or 5 percent on 5,207 products will be imposed “if the U.S. side persists in putting its tariff measures into effect.”

Washington imposed 25 percent duties on $34 billion of Chinese goods on July 6 in response to complaints Beijing steals or pressures companies to hand over technology. Beijing retaliated by imposing similar charges on the same amount of U.S. products.

Earlier Friday, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman called on Washington to “come to its senses” and settle the dispute.

Chinese leaders have offered to narrow their politically sensitive trade surplus with the United States by purchasing more American goods. But they have rejected changing technology development plans they see as a path to prosperity and global influence.

The escalating dispute, with no settlement in sight, has fueled fears it might chill global trade and economic growth.

Friday’s threat targeting a smaller amount of U.S. goods reflects the fact that Beijing is running out of products for retaliation due to its lopsided trade balance with the United States.

China’s imports from the United States last year totaled $153.9 billion. After the earlier action against $34 billion of U.S. goods, that left about $120 billion available for retaliation.

The highest penalties in Friday’s list would be imposed on honey, vegetables, mushrooms and chemicals, targeting farming and mining areas that supported President Donald Trump in the 2016 election.

The list included products as varied as snow blowers and 3-D printers, suggesting Chinese authorities were struggling to find enough imports their own economy can do without.

Beijing’s earlier round of tariffs appeared designed to minimize the impact on the Chinese economy by targeting soybeans, whiskey and other goods available from Brazil, Australia and other suppliers.

Trump earlier proposed 10 percent tariffs on an additional $200 billion of Chinese imports. He told trade officials this week to consider raising that to 25 percent.

Chinese authorities warned earlier that if the dispute escalated, they would adopt unspecified “comprehensive measures.” That prompted concern among American companies that retaliation might expand to disrupting their operations in China.

The United States and China have the world’s biggest trading relationship but official ties are increasingly strained over complaints Beijing’s technology development tactics hurt American companies.

Trump’s tariffs target goods the White House says benefit from industrial policies such as “Made in China 2025,” which calls for developing Chinese competitors in robotic, artificial intelligence and other fields. China’s trading partners complain those might violate its market-opening pledges by subsidizing or shielding Chinese companies from competition.

The dispute is part of broader U.S. complaints about global trading conditions that have prompted Trump to raise duties on steel, aluminum, washing machines or solar panels from Canada, Europe, Japan and South Korea.

The foreign ministry spokesman appealed to Washington to negotiate but could not confirm reports the two sides were setting up talks.

“We urge the United States to come to its senses, correct its erroneous acts and create the necessary condition for a proper settlement as soon as possible,” spokesman Geng Shuang said.

Baseball fans have a chance to rub shoulders with Angels shortstop and three-time Gold Glove recipient Andrelton Simmons at a meet-and-greet at Pechanga Resort Casino from 7-9 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 9.

The first 500 people at the free event will have the opportunity to have one item signed — excluding bats — and say hello to the baseball star inside the Pechanga Summit.

Simmons made his Major League debut in June 2012 and was named as the winner of the National League Platinum Glove Award as the best fielding player at any position in the league in 2013 before being traded from the Atlanta Braves to the Angels in 2015.

Guests attending the event must be at least 18 years old or accompanied by an adult. No posed pictures will be allowed.

For more information visit, pechanga.com.

When Leslie Schwartz walked into a Los Angeles County jail to serve her sentence for DUI and battery in early 2014, there were many things the novelist and teacher feared.

But there was one thing that gave her hope: a list of books she’d arranged to have sent to her there.

At least, Schwartz thought, if she could read, she might endure the time the court had ordered her to serve, 90 days, of which she ultimately spent 37 locked up.

What she didn’t know was that each of the books would arrive at seemingly the exact moment she needed their words and stories and lessons most. Or that when she returned to her life, her home, her family and friends, these books — and the stories of other women she met inside — would change her life forever.

“The Lost Chapters: Finding Recovery & Renewal One Book at a Time” is the just-published memoir of Schwartz’s time inside the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood, a place she arrived after a 414-day relapse into alcohol addiction ended with her arrest. It is a loving ode to the beauty and power of reading and literature, but also a powerful broadside against society’s treatment of addicts and the mentally ill, the poor and people of color, dispatching them to incarceration instead of treatment, a cycle destined to fail and repeat.

“The idea definitely did not come about before or during Lynwood, because that was a desert of creativity and badness at the time,” Schwartz says of the book’s origins. And in fact, this wasn’t the first book she wrote about her experience, having first investigated the long periods of blackout and missing time she lost in her year-plus of relapse.

“As I was writing that book, I just kept thinking of the books I had read in jail and the women I had met there,” she says. So when the first book failed to find a publisher, she switched gears and in nine months “The Lost Chapters” was finished.

“The books kind of started to show up exactly when I needed them and the subject matter,” Schwartz says. “It was this magical literary experience for me that definitely didn’t seem that way at the time.”

In her writing, Schwartz describes those serendipitous moments when a book she was reading offered insight into the experience she was living in jail. A collection of Mary Oliver’s poetry helped her feel the freedom and transformative power of the natural world. In Ruth Ozeki’s novel, “A Tale for the Time Being,” she realized how damaging shame is to the human spirit, and how one’s conscience is a guiding light.

On and on, through Laura Hillenbrand’s non-fiction tale of the endless heroics of Olympian and WWII prisoner of war Louis Zamperini in “Unbroken,” Maya Angelou’s poetic “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings,” Maxine Hong Kingston’s blend of autobiography and mythology in “The Woman Warrior,” and Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s masterful magical realism in “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” Schwartz explores the links between the books she read in her cell with her own life’s story.

“It was clear to me what books were essential and helping me heal and be strong and brave,” she says. Living among women who were mostly from circumstances far different than her own taught her more still.

“The stories that the women told me about their lives were life-changing to me in a way,” Schwartz says. “Through their stories, I’m unable to unsee the truth.”

She understood before jail that the prisons and jails of the United States have many problems, she explains.

“When I was inside, I realized there’s something morally reprehensible about what this country does to people of color,” Schwartz says. “It was the women in jail who opened my eyes to how we segment them and the poor to ensure that they have no power.

“The shame in all this, it occurred to me, wasn’t us as addicts and alcoholics who made these mistakes when we were loaded and not in our right minds, but on the system that perpetuates the problem by locking these women up and not providing services,” she says.

While her own journey ends with hope and healing, those of the women she shared her jail time with do not. Wynell, a young prostitute with whom she read Maya Angelou’s book, returns to jail, the streets, and ultimately ends up pregnant. Others, like Duckie, a meth addict who lost her children along the way, are equal parts lovable and heartbreaking in Schwartz’s writing.

Only Qaneak, who arrived in Schwartz’s life in a moment of magical realism akin to the Marquez book she was reading at the time, remains a close friend, though they are separated by the many years Qaneak is serving for the drunken-driving death she caused, an outcome Schwartz knows could have been her fate, too.

“I do think that writing both these books, this one and the one that didn’t get published, were instrumental in healing from that feeling inside myself that I should be ashamed by this,” she says, making the point as she does in the book that while what she did, driving drunk, was wrong, addiction is an illness and the addict is not inherently bad.

“I really saw that I was a free person in many ways because of the discoveries I made in those books,” Schwartz says. “And they taught me the truth. No one has to be ashamed of what happens in their lives, there’s no reason for that, but people are.

“That wasn’t for me,” she says. “I didn’t come all the way back to go back to my cage.”

Leslie Schwartz book event

What: In conversation with Father Greg Boyle and Celeste Freeman

When: 7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 14

Where: Vroman’s Bookstore, 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena

For more: Leslieschwartz.com or Vromansbookstore.com

The Howard Johnson Anaheim Hotel & Water Playground this year completed an $8 million dollar renovation of 111 guestrooms in its Building #1 Tower.

The renovation was the first phase of a $12 million dollar overhaul at the hotel, which is in the Disneyland Resort district. Phase two includes the redesign of 100 guestrooms. The total redesign project should be completed in 2019, representatives said.

The redesigned guestrooms feature a retro-inspired look circa 1965 in honor of the year Howard Johnson Anaheim first opened its doors.

The rooms include blue wall coverings, family-centric design touches, and vintage Disney themed art on the walls.

Technology improvements include speedy Wi-Fi access points in every guestroom and the Enseo TV entertainment system with Netflix and Pandora streaming. The guestrooms and suites are all now available including connecting and bunk bedroom choices.

The HoJo also offers two water play areas: the Garden Pool and the “Castaway Cove,” a pirate-themed water playground with a 30-foot pirate ship, 200-gallon drench bucket, waterslides and water cannons.

New look in Tustin

Ware Malcomb has finished work on ABM Industries’ newly renovated office building at 14201 Franklin Ave. in Tustin.

Ware Malcomb from its office in Irvine provided architectural and interior design services for the project. ABM wanted an alternative workplace strategy, which resulted in an open office environment. Private offices were replaced with conference rooms and benching stations to promote collaboration while maximizing the floor space.

The 40,000-square-foot, two-story building had been vacant for years before being redeveloped by Long Beach-based Harbor Associates.

ABM Industries is a facility management provider with 130,000 employees and 350 office locations across the U.S.

Transactions

The Bascom Group in Irvine has acquired Island Apartments, a 78-unit apartment community in Southeast Los Angeles for $12.5 million. The community at 8222 Rosemead Blvd., Pico Rivera was built in 1957. Mike Krantz of Brentwood Realty Partners brokered the transaction. Erich Pryor of Talonvest arranged $9,660,000 of debt financing through California Bank & Trust.

“The property and submarket have seen very little to no new construction of multifamily communities over the past several years,” Jim Singleton, vice president of acquisitions at Bascom, said in a statement. “We see this purchase as a great opportunity to complete some modest improvements, yet still offer tenants an attractive and affordable place to live.”

Development outside of CA

An Arizona project conceived by Irvine-based Shopoff Realty Investments has been approved by the city of Buckeye.

Desert Moon Estates allows for future construction of a medium-density residential housing community with 739 single-family home lots on a nearly 200-acre site.

New Ventures

Rancho Santa Margarita-based Park West recently completed landscape construction services for three office buildings owned by FivePoint Communities in the large Irvine complex conceived originally by Broadcom. A prominent feature of the approximately 1 million-square-foot project is a dry creek bed running throughout the property at a length of some 2,000 feet. Another is a wide bridge spanning an adjacent roadway and integrated into the landscape of the property. The project was managed by Spurlock Landscape Architects of San Diego and DPR Construction.

C.W. Driver Companies has broken ground on the Crown Valley Park Community Building, a 30,000-square-foot, three-story building in Laguna Niguel. The $25 million project marks the final phase of a three-tier improvement plan for Crown Valley Community Park. Completion is expected in spring 2020. The new facility will include offices, a multi-purpose room, a kitchen, classrooms and other spaces designated for art, technology, dance and fitness, and a rooftop patio overlooking the adjacent community pool.

Irvine-based Brandywine Homes has broken ground at Candlewood Villas, a 53-townhome community on nearly 4 acres at 13900 Telegraph Road in Whittier. The project is scheduled to open for sale by March 2019. Candlewood Villas are next to the Candlewood Country Club, a private, member-owned community with a golf course that will be offering new Candlewood Villas homeowners a one-year free social membership to the country club. The two- and three-story townhomes, ranging from 1,300 to 1,800 square feet, will have three bedrooms and two and a half baths.

People in Real Estate

Jay Quinn has joined Faris Lee Investments in Irvine as senior managing director of capital markets. Quinn will focus on origination, structuring, and marketing of debt and equity finance transactions across the U.S. Quinn in his career has completed roughly $800 million of development transactions and approximately $3.4 billion in financing, capital market transactions and debt/equity placements.

Baker Morphy, a 15-year commercial real estate veteran, has joined Greenlaw Partners, an Irvine-based real estate operating company. Morphy will source, manage and lease new real estate investments for the company.

Astrid Valdivia has joined the Yorba Linda office of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage as an affiliate agent. Previously she was the marketing specialist for Graypoint Construction Inc.

Tune out

Jeff Lazerson’s radio show on KLAA 830AM is on hiatus this weekend. Stay tuned. He’ll be back with more guests in the weeks ahead.

Lazerson, a contributing writer on mortgages for the Southern California News Group, airs a one-hour talk show on the Angels radio station. His weekly “Mortgage Grader” radio show airs at 10 a.m. on 830AM.

If you have a question for Lazerson’s radio show, keep this dial-in number handy: 714-283-0830.

The real estate briefs are compiled by contributing writer Karen Levin and edited by Business Editor Samantha Gowen. Submit items to sgowen@scng.com. High-resolution images also can be submitted. Allow at least one week for publication. Items are edited for length and clarity.

Q: This year our HOA dues increased 20 percent. The reason given was plumbing issues due to sewage backups.  When I asked about just having a special assessment to cover the plumbing issues, I was told a special assessment would require a vote by association members. What can homeowners do to prevent this from continuing? — J.L, Newport Beach

A: Most CC&R’s or bylaws limit increases in regular assessments by boards to no more than 20 percent per year. Per Civil Code 5605(b), governing documents cannot impose any smaller assessment limits to board power. Some boards, discouraged by lack of participation, address major expenditures by using the maximum increase in assessments for a few years, eliminating the need for a special assessment.

While expedient, this does create a few issues. Since members are not voting on it, boards often skip the critical step of having town hall meetings and newsletter bulletins to inform members of the reasons for the expenditure. Also, once the need for the increase ends, will the board remember to reduce the assessment amount? Members really should be more involved in their associations, and it is discouraging for a board to try to have to avoid member votes simply because the members won’t vote.

Q: Recently, I signed up for e-statements, by which my monthly statement is available online. I asked my HOA if I could still receive my monthly assessments through the mail as well as being signed up for e-statements. Their reply to me was that I could only choose one way or the other. Is this allowed? — J.K., Irvine

A: Civil code does not specifically require homeowners receive assessment statements. Civil Code 5615 requires associations give members 30-60 days advance notice of assessment increases. That notice must be given by individual delivery under Civil Code 4040, which means a simple announcement or general posting is insufficient. Notice must be individually sent to each member. Associations under Civil Code 5655(b) must provide a receipt when the member requests it. Also, per Civil  Code 5650(b) assessments are not delinquent until past due for 15 days (unless the HOA rules state a longer period).

Q: My management company has not sent coupon books in time for monthly assessment payments. They sent the address after the late fee date, resulting in adding late fees which they refuse to waive saying only the board can reverse the fees at a board meeting. Once they indicated the next meeting was 11 months later. Is this an ethical way to do business? — S.S., Carlsbad.

Dear S.S.: Civil Code 5655(c) requires associations notify owners in writing of the address to send assessment payments, and that notice must also be part of the Annual Policy Statement distributed to members. The law actually does not require that coupon books or invoices be sent for monthly assessments. If your assessment payment was late simply because you didn’t have the right payment, hopefully, the board reversed the late charge. However, 11 months is too long to wait for a board meeting. Your board must meet at least quarterly (unless pending legislation, Assembly Bill 2912, passes, requiring monthly meetings of all HOA boards).

Kelly G. Richardson, Esq. is a Fellow of the College of Community Association Lawyers and Senior Partner of Richardson Ober PC, a California law firm known for community association advice. Submit potential column questions to Kelly@Richardsonober.com. 

The dim sum mystery has been solved at Diamond Jamboree.

Just three months after Capital Seafood made its exit, a new dumpling maker has swooped in to stake its claim at one of Orange County’s trendiest Asian food meccas.

Tim Ho Wan, a Cantonese-style dim sum house from Hong Kong, is expanding its U.S. presence. This week the chain announced new restaurants are bound for Irvine, Las Vegas and Hawaii. Its first and only restaurant in the U.S. so far is in New York City.

Fans often wait hours to snare a spot at the Tim Ho Wan’s table, which touts an affordable menu. Nothing on the paper mat menu is priced over $6. The restaurant eschews the traditional dim sum cart for made-to-order dumplings to ensure their freshness.

“It’s not immediately apparent why fans were willing to stand on Fourth Avenue in the cold for hours last December simply to put their names and phone numbers on a list for the privilege of being called a few hours after that, when a table was finally free,” wrote New York Times’ food writer Pete Wells last summer.

Wells wrote that while Tim Ho Wan’s dim sum are good, “very few are throw-half-the-day-away good, and some have a rote quality that tends to creep into all but the most vigilant chains.”

We have calls in with Tim Wan Ho for more details, but for now all we know is the eatery is due to open sometime this winter.

Stay tuned.

Collectible McDonald’s coins honor Big Mac’s 50th

McDonald’s is marking the 50th anniversary of the Big Mac by minting 6.2 million collectible “MacCoins.”

Distribution of what McDonald’s calls “the world’s first fully food-backed currency” begins in 50 countries on Aug. 2, according to a news release. The coins are made from brass sourced in the United States.

McDonald’s customers can get them while supplies last by purchasing a Big Mac or a Big Mac Extra Value Meal. There is no additional charge for the coin.

MacCoins can be saved or redeemed for free Big Macs, the signature burger that went on the fast food chain’s national menu in 1968.

As people exposed to a McDonald’s jingle from the 1970s know, the Big Mac consists of:

Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions and a sesame-seed bun

There are five MacCoin designs, one for each 10 years of the Big Mac’s existence. The coin representing 1968-1978 has a psychedelic sun and flowers, while the 2008-2018 coin is covered with emojis.

A fresh look at Goodwill

A Goodwill of Orange County store in Santa Ana has gotten a makeover.

The store, which closed July 7 for the renovation, reopened July 23 to a new, open floor plan and a number of updates to its interior. Highlights include a fresh paint, concrete flooring, updated in-store graphics, reclaimed wood wall accents and new fitting rooms.

The remodel is part of Goodwill’s retail expansion plan for 2018, which includes remodels, relocations and new store openings.

Address: 2118 S. Bristol St. Hours of operation: 9-9 p.m. Monday – Saturday; and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday.

Kids event at Kaleidoscope Center

Kaleidoscope’s annual Kaleido Kids Carnival is coming back to the Mission Viejo retail center from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 7. The event will benefit Make-A-Wish® Orange County and the Inland Empire.

The event will have inflatables, games, a juggler and stilt walker, face painting, a balloon artist and shaved ice. Tickets are $1 each, $5 for six and $10 for 15.

Guests who bring a new toy (no guns, please) or new backpack to donate to Make-A-Wish will receive five free game tickets for “Spin to Win.”

Pizza Press in Buena Park

The build-your-own-pizza movement continues to expand, this time with a new Pizza Press in Buena Park.

The franchisee-owned store at 6930 Beach Blvd. opens Thursday, Aug. 9.

The Pizza Press, founded in Anaheim, is framed around a 1920s Americana newspaper theme. Buena Park “editors” will help guests create custom pizzas or select one of the signature pizzas named after major newspapers such as The Times, The Tribune, The Chronicle, and others.

Mr. Stox makes a one-night-only comeback

Do you miss Mr. Stox?

You’re not alone. The restaurant, which enjoyed a loyal clientele for more than 40 years, will make a one-night-only comeback at the Anaheim White House.

Restaurateur Bruno Serato has invited former Mr. Stox owner Chick Marshall and his general manager Curtis Springer to host a pop-up on Thursday, Aug. 16. They’ll be serving a prix fixe menu of signature Mr. Stox dishes such as crab cakes, lobster bisque, osso buco and New York cheesecake for $85 per person.

Dinner service starts at 7 p.m. that night, for reservations call 714-772-1381. The Anaheim White House is at 887 S. Anaheim Blvd.