Calabasas QB Jaylen Thompson scrambles away from JSerra’s Siale Suliafu in a nonleague football game at JSerra High Friday, Sept. 20, 2019. (Photo by Michael Fernandez, Contributing Photographer)
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Two more JSerra football standouts have confirmed their enrollment at St. Bernard of Playa del Rey, a small school of about 185 students that is seeking a coach.
Ultra-quick wide receiver Earnest McDaniel (5-8, 166) and bruising defensive lineman Siale Suliafu (5-11, 260) each confirmed Tuesday that they have enrolled at St. Bernard, which played in CIF-SS Division 13 last season.
The duo will join All-County safety New Zealand Williams of JSerra at St. Bernard.
The three juniors were standouts on a Lions team (6-5) that finished fourth in the Trinity League last season and lost to Centennial of Corona 56-0 in the first round of the Division 1 playoffs.
McDaniel, a second-team All-Trinity League selection in 2019, was recently offered by Arizona State. He led the Lions with 28 receptions.
Suliafu, a first-team All-Trinity League pick last season, was considered a team leader and showcased a strong motor at defensive tackle. He was the team’s fourth-leading tackler last season and led the Lions in tackles for loss.
McDaniel and Suliafu raise the Lions’ list of major offseason departures to five, including sophomore Keyan Burnett, a receiver, tight end and defensive end, and junior lineman Ross Maseuli, who transferred to JSerra last season but didn’t play in any games.
St. Bernard is looking for a new coach to replace Joe Torres and hopes to have a replacement by mid-February, athletic director Kelly Evans said Tuesday. The Vikings finished 4-6 last season, losing 23-0 to Santa Monica in the first round of the Division 13 playoffs.
Southern California home price hit a record-high $550,000 in December as buying jumped 22% in a year, CoreLogic/DQ News data indicates.
Cheaper mortgage rates, a shrinking supply of existing homes to choose from, plus a resilient economy got house hunters in a buying mood as 2019 ended. Here are 13 local housing trends within the report …
1. Regional sales: 19,337 residences — new and existing — sold in December in six SoCal counties. That’s up 22.1% in a year, the biggest jump in 37 months. But the region’s latest sales count still is 17% off the December average of 23,317 since 1988.
2. Price: SoCal’s median was $550,000 — up 7.2% over 12 months, the biggest jump in 22 months. That breaks the record of $549,000 set in July 2019.
3. Single-family houses: 12,873 sold in the six counties, up 20.1% in a year. The median selling price was $570,000 — an 8.6% increase over 12 months.
4. Condos: 4,133 sales across the region, up 27.2% over 12 months. Median? $470,000 — a 6.8% increase in a year.
5. Newly built: Local builders sold 2,331 new homes, up 25.3% in a year. Median? $578,750 — an 0.8% increase over 12 months.
6. Builder share: 12.1% of SoCal sales vs. 11.7% a year earlier. Between 1998 and 2018, new homes accounted for 13.4% of all homes purchased.
7. County by county: Sales rose in six SoCal counties in the past 12 months while prices rose in five.
8. Los Angeles County: 6,293 sales, up 18.4% over 12 months. Median? $628,250 — a 7.4% year’s increase.
9. Orange County: 3,109 sold, up 36.9%. Median? SoCal’s highest at $732,750 — a 3.2% increase.
10. Riverside County: 3,473 sales, up 17.9%. Median? $401,250 — a 6.9% increase.
11. San Bernardino County: 2,411 sold, up 21.5%. Median? SoCal’s cheapest at $355,000 —a 7% increase.
12. San Diego County: 3,282 sales, up 24.1%. Median? $575,000 — a 4.5% increase.
13. Ventura County: 769 sold, up 14.9%. Median? $569,000 — a 1% decline.
Let’s not forget that for much of late 2018 and early 2019, higher mortgage rates and a cooler economy suggested the housing market might tumble.
That brief period of homebuying angst is a key reason why last year’s 228,884 regional sales total was 1% below 2018’s pace and was below the 234,091 annual average since the Great Recession ended in 2009.
Still, as 2020 started, the region’s tight inventories continue, but that’s not deterring house hunters, according to ReportsOnHousing. It tracks brokers’ listing services to gauge existing homes are for sale and pending sales contracts.
Here are conditions as of Jan. 9 in the six-county region …
Listed for sale: 30,242 residences on the market, down 28% in a year.
New escrows: 10,273 deals signed in the previous 30 days, up 16% in a year.
Selling speed: 86 days of “market time” — listings vs. escrows — down 56 days in a year.
NEW YORK — Harvey Weinstein went on trial Wednesday in a landmark moment for the # MeToo movement, with prosecutors painting him as a sexual predator who used his movie-magnate stature to abuse women for decades, while his lawyers sought to discredit his accusers and portray the encounters as consensual.
Prosecutor Meghan Hast told the jury of seven men and five women that the former studio boss was “not just a titan in Hollywood — he was a rapist” who screamed at one victim that she “owed” him sex, used injections to induce an erection before an assault and pushed his way into the apartment of another woman and assaulted her.
“It is for his complete lack of empathy that he must be held accountable,” Hast said.
Weinstein lawyer Damon Cheronis countered by laying out plans to use friendly-sounding emails, calendar entries and other evidence to call the accusers’ accounts of being attacked into question.
The opening of the rape trial more than two years after a barrage of allegations against Weinstein gave rise to #MeToo was seen by activists as a milestone in the global reckoning over sexual misconduct by powerful men. Weinstein’s lawyers, though, have portrayed the case as the result of a climate of accusation run amok.
Weinstein, 67, said little as he arrived at court. Asked whether he believed he would have a fair trial, he said yes: “I have good lawyers.”
Guided by aides and lawyers, he wasn’t using the walker he has leaned on lately after a summer car crash and subsequent back surgery. He said he was feeling better.
The once-powerful and feared executive who brought to the screen such Oscar-winning movies as “Pulp Fiction,” “The King’s Speech,” “Shakespeare in Love” and “Chicago” has insisted any sexual encounters were consensual. He could get life in prison if convicted.
Though scores of women have accused Weinstein of sexually harassing or assaulting them over the years, the New York charges are limited to two allegations: that Weinstein raped an aspiring actress in a New York City hotel room in 2013 and forcibly performed oral sex on another woman in his apartment in 2006.
The rape accuser found a needle in the hotel room bathroom after the alleged assault and realized Weinstein had injected himself to get an erection, Hast said.
Another time, after the woman told him she had a new boyfriend, Weinstein dragged her into a bedroom, “all the while screaming at her that he owed her one more time,” Hast said. “He ripped her jeans off so forcefully that it left scratch marks.”
The prosecutor said Weinstein later told the woman, “I just want to apologize for what happened earlier. I just find you so attractive, I couldn’t resist you.”
In addition to the two women he is charged with attacking, prosecutors plan to call to the stand four other accusers — including actress Annabella Sciorra — in a bid to portray Weinstein as a monster who lured women with offers of career help, then forced himself on them.
“They will each describe their fear, their shame and their humiliation — the struggle each went through to push their trauma down and show a brave face to the world,” Hast said.
Hast detailed allegations that Weinstein sexually assaulted Sciorra around 1993 after giving the “Sopranos” actress a ride home to her Manhattan apartment and forcing his way inside.
“She told him to get out. She told him no. But Harvey Weinstein was undeterred,” Hast said. She said the actress eventually stopped fighting Weinstein, “hoping it would end,” and was left “emotionally and physically destroyed, passed out on the floor.”
Weinstein’s lawyers made clear they intend to go on the offensive.
Cheronis said the 2013 rape accuser sent Weinstein a request that year asking for “time privately” with him and another message letting him know, “I got a new number. I just wanted you to have it. … Always good to hear your voice.”
Cherinos said: “These aren’t our words. They’re hers. It is not a relationship based on fear, you are going to see that.”
The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they have been victims of sexual assault, unless they come forward publicly.
Weinstein’s trial could take more than a month, Judge James Burke said. Judging from the arduous two weeks of jury selection, it could be a hotbed of protests and intense media coverage.
In a failed last-minute push to get the trial moved, Weinstein’s lawyers said protesters’ chants of “The rapist is you!” at street level earlier this month could be heard in the courtroom, 15 floors above.
Jennifer Peltz in New York and Maryclaire Dale in Philadelphia contributed to this report.
SAN DIEGO — He beat Rickie Fowler in a U.S. Amateur, went 3-0-1 on a Walker Cup team, and became Alabama’s first 3-time All-American men’s golfer.
That was before Bud Cauley got into the back seat of a BMW driven by a guy who had just turned his bloodstream into a distillery.
Cauley would love to pour that night into the drain of history, but he can’t. He gets reminded with every backswing. He has four metal plates in his right rib cage, and they won’t let him swing as hard as he once did, and they don’t let him onto the course until Cauley and his therapists have stretched out all the connective tissue.
And in some ways, Cauley would love to discuss that wreck again. That would mean he’s playing well enough to get asked.
Cauley shot 66 at the American Express at La Quinta on Sunday and finished at 20-under-par. Andrew Landry won, but Cauley finished third, his best since the accident in May 2018.
Cauley now plays in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.
He’s a 28-year-old who has a complicated relationship with time. True, he missed what could have been several million dollars’ worth of tournaments. He also learned to cherish simple things. Like life.
“I’ve lost a little speed,” Cauley said. “I’m glad I’m hitting the ball about as far as I used to, but I’m always going to feel it. Maybe I can get a little bit here and there.”
Cauley, 5-foot-7, averaged 295 yards off the tee in 2018 and ranked 100th in driving distance. This year, he is averaging 295 yards again, but ranks 125th.
“It’s hard to keep it out of your mind,” he said. “It’s pretty tight, where those plates are. I just have to do a lot of stretching, and when I get loose my swing speeds up. But it’s pretty weather-dependent.
“It’s not something that I just forget about and say, ‘Well, I’m out of the woods now.’ I don’t know if I’ll ever get to that point. I knew that I could still do this, but I want to play this game in some form for a long time. What about five or 10 years from now, who knows how I am going to feel? It’s a big concern of mine, but right now there are no plans to take out those plates.”
The wreck itself was a haunting reminder that life is not a guaranteed contract. Day-to-day? Cauley’s world exploded in a second.
He was at the Memorial Tournament, outside Columbus, and had just missed the cut. It was Friday night, with no tee time for Cauley the next day, no reason not to explore the night.
Cauley was staying at the home of James Wisniewski, the former Ducks defenseman who lives in the extended Muirfield Village complex and has been the club champion more than once.
Wisniewski, Cauley, a pharmacy student named Tommy Nichols and a surgeon named David Crawford got into Crawford’s car and headed toward a local bar. Justin Thomas, who followed Cauley to Alabama and is the No. 4 player in the world, stayed home because he was on the verge of contention.
Unbeknownst to everyone, Crawford’s blood-alcohol level was at .155. At least that was how it tested five hours after Crawford had gunned the BMW as he left Wisniewski’s driveway, and got to 78 mph before the car hit a culvert, flipped and banged into a tree. It crash-landed next to a home owned by Brendan Dubinsky of the Blue Jackets and not far from Urban Meyer’s house.
Cauley broke six ribs, fractured a bone in his leg, and suffered a punctured and collapsed lung. Nichols broke 23 bones, lacerated a kidney and collapsed a lung. Wisniewski broke ribs, too, and cut his head.
Crawford made a plea deal and never went to jail. He did lose his driver’s license for four years and his medical license for six months, and did pay for most of Nichols’ medical bills, according to The Athletic.
Five and a half months later, Cauley was back on tour. Last May, he returned to Memorial and finished ninth. This season, he has been under par in 14 of 20 rounds and has finished in the Top 15 three times, thanks to a productive putter (36th in strokes gained/putting).
“I think about those days quite a bit,” he said. “How sad could it have been? What could I have done in the tournaments I missed? So there’s a lot of excitement when I come to an event, but once I’m out there, it’s the same stuff.”
Editor’s note: This is the Wednesday, Jan. 22 edition of the Purple & Bold Lakers newsletter. To receive the newsletter in your inbox, sign up here.
A Lakers’ media availability last February delivered another reminder of LeBron James’ role as a superstar — and as a superstar spokesman, the leading voice on matters related to his sport and fellow superstars alike.
Because Zion Williamson had just blown through his shoe in the opening minute of Duke’s game against North Carolina the previous night (a frightening, freaky incident that resulted in a Grade 1 mild right knee sprain), James was asked about it.
“When I first saw it I was like, ‘Oh sh–,’ like everybody else,” James said. “He ripped through his shoe making a routine move that he’s made countless times. Second thing that went through my mind was kind of the same injury that I had on Christmas day. My other side slipped and the other side took the punishment. His left foot slipped and busted out his shoe and his right knee …
“I have no comment on what he should do for his future,” James went on, in regard to whether he thought Williamson should forego the remainder of the college season. “If he needed any advice, he could find a way to find me. But it’s not for you guys; it’s not for someone to go sit across the table and say, ‘LeBron said this about this kid.’”
Fair enough. But because the kid — perhaps you’ve heard? — officially will be lacing ’em up tonight for the first time as an NBA player today when the New Orleans Pelicans face San Antonio (6:30 p.m., ESPN), let’s consider some of what James has said about him.
Before Williamson was hurt last February, James made the 35-minute aerial commute to Charlottesville, Virginia, with agent Rich Paul and Lakers teammates Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Rajon Rondo to catch Williamson’s second-ranked Blue Devils defeat the No. 4 Cavaliers.
“What strikes me? His agility and his quickness,” James said then to ESPN. “For his size, how strong he is, to be able to move like the way he moves, he’s very impressive. I mean, everybody can see the athleticism. That’s obvious, that’s ridiculous. But the speed and the quickness that he moves (with) at that size is very impressive.”
And then last May, on his HBO show “The Shop,” James shared more thoughts on Williamson, whose play and potential has generated buzz fit for The King, earning high praise and the high pressure that come with those regular comparisons.
“I’ve watched him a lot over the last year,” said James of Williamson, who was on the verge of leaving college to become the No. 1 overall pick in last summer’s draft. “Obviously I was with everybody (in regard to) him coming out of high school. I was like, ‘OK, all this competition that he’s playing against, these little short-a– white kids, he’s dunking on them, dunking over (them) every single time. Can he play? Can he play, like can he play ball?’
“And you know, the one thing that I noticed with his one year at Duke, that his energy was infectious, man,” James said. “Every possession it seemed like he could make a difference on the outcome of the game.”
Finally, after the 6-foot-6, 284-pound forward missed the Pelicans’ first 44 games while recovering from a surgically repaired lateral meniscus tear in his right knee, James — whose Lakers face the Knicks today Madison Square Garden — and the rest of us will start to learn how Williamson’s game translates in the NBA.
“I’m always open for guys like that, I know a little bit of what he’s going through,” James said before this season’s opener, soon after the news broke that Williamson would need knee surgery.
“If he wants some guidance and tips, I got him. But I’m not gonna do it for you guys.”
The Lakers (34-9) are 2-0 this season against a Zion-less Pelicans (17-27) squad. The teams will face each other twice more, on Feb. 25 at Staples Center and March 1 in New Orleans.
– Mirjam Swanson
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More than 600 homes, including a 64-unit affordable apartment complex for seniors, will replace the Nakase Nursery near the 241 Toll Road in Lake Forest.
The City Council on Tuesday, Jan. 21, unanimously approved developer Toll Brothers’ five-neighborhood project, saying the new homes would help address the region’s housing crisis and assist the city in meeting the state’s mandate for more homes.
“This to me seems like a very nice and promising project,” Mayor Neeki Moatazedi said at the meeting. “To say we shouldn’t build anything anywhere is not really realistic.”
The project is expected to provide seven parks totaling 11 acres, as well as homes from 1,800 square feet to 3,500 square feet, said Rick Nelson, Toll Brothers’ division president. A resident-only recreation center is also a part of the plan.
Nelson said the 605-home project will provide the city with more than $25 million in development fees, as well as $2.5 million to improve traffic in the area.
The plan to redevelop the 122-acre nursery into homes received unanimous support from the city’s Planning Commission in November.
Toll Brothers and SVUSD in December signed a memorandum of understanding, giving the district until 2024 to accept the developer’s donation of a site for a school.
“We can’t force them to build a school, but I think they want to, more than they have in the past,” Councilman Dwight Robinson said. “This is an area that really needs a school.”
If the district doesn’t accept the donation, the developer could build homes there. But the entire project is capped at 776 homes, with 675 market-rate units.
Despite uncertainty about the school, many of the residents who spoke at the meeting urged the council to approve the project, echoing councilmembers’ comments about a need to provide more housing in the area.
“Our community is definitely in need of more housing to attract younger families into our communities,” El Toro High swim and water polo coach Tim Teeter said. “A project like this would bring more young families.”
Toll Brothers could begin building homes at the site by 2022, Nelson said.
There figure to be few, if any, surprises Thursday night during the 49th annual Eclipse Awards ceremony at Gulfstream Park.
In addition to Horse of the Year, won last year by Triple Crown champion Justify, Eclipse Awards will be handed out in 16 equine and human categories. The Moment of the Year, voted on by fans, will also be revealed.
The ceremony begins at 5 p.m. PT and will be televised by TVG and the Racetrack Television Network via all its platforms, including Roku.
Bricks and Mortar, unbeaten in 2019, is a virtual cinch to be named Horse of the Year, while other categories figure to be won handily:
• Maximum Security, disqualified from his victory in the Kentucky Derby, is favored to be named top 3-year-old male off victories in the Florida Derby, Haskell Invitational and Cigar Mile.
• Midnight Bisou, a strong Horse of the Year contender until her second-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, will most likely walk away with an Eclipse for top older dirt female after winning seven graded stakes, including three Grade Is, last year.
• Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner Mitole is expected to be named top male sprinter after winning six of seven races in 2019, including four Grade I stakes. He’s also a finalist for Horse of the Year.
• Irad Ortiz Jr., far and away the leader in money won last year, is favored to win his second consecutive Eclipse as the nation’s top jockey. He won the Bill Shoemaker Award, given annually to the top rider at the Breeders’ Cup, for the second consecutive year last fall.
• Chad Brown most likely will take home his fourth consecutive title as the nation’s top trainer. He was the conditioner for Bricks and Mortar, whose connections could enjoy a big night.
Ortiz was the regular rider for Bricks and Mortar, a cinch to be named best male turf horse, and the horse’s owner, William Lawrence of Klaravich Stables, is one of the three finalists in his category.
In addition to honoring the 17 winners in the horse and human categories, Scott Coles will receive the Eclipse Award as the 2019 Horseplayer of the Year and members of the media will be honored for outstanding coverage in six categories.
The Eclipse Awards are voted upon by Equibase field personnel callers and racing officials representing the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, members of the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters and staff from Daily Racing Form.
ECLIPSE AWARDS
When: 5 p.m. Thursday
Where: Gulfstream Park, Hallandale, Fla.
What: Awards given out to horses and humans in 17 categories, including Horse of the Year.
HOY favorite: Bricks and Mortar.
How to watch: TVG and the Racetrack Television Network.
Not many of us qualify for needing to gain weight, but imagine if that was you. Actors, sumo wrestlers and offensive linemen come to mind as those who might require packing on some pounds for a certain role.
Newport Harbor High’ Carter Mathisrud has committed to play football at the University of Washington. (Courtesy of Carter Mathisrud)
Newport Harbor High senior left tackle Carter Mathisrud, who has committed to play football at the University of Washington, is one of the lucky few who will not turn down a milk shake or seconds at the dinner table.
“(The Huskies) want me to be at 275 pounds or 280 by the time I get there, which isn’t until Aug. 1,” said Mathisrud, a skinny freshman at 6-foot-1, 155 pounds and now 6-4, 260 – 10 pounds heavier than the weight he carried last season for Coach Peter Lofthouse’s Sailors, who finished 9-4 and reached the CIF Southern Section Division 9 semifinals.
“They said I can put on some more good weight. Obviously there’s always a little fat on an offensive lineman, because you need some extra mass on you,” he said. “It’s weird to think about, after being a little skinny kid four years ago and now I’m going to be a big one.”
Mathisrud is one of seven local senior football standouts selected to play for the South all-star team in the 61st annual North-South Orange County All-Star Classic on Saturday at Orange Coast College. Kickoff is 7 p.m. The game is sponsored by the Los Angeles Chargers and managed by Costa Mesa United.
The other locals in the all-star game are offensive lineman Tanner Tomlinson, wide receiver Bradley Schlom, defensive lineman Mason Gecowets and defensive back/kick returner Zack Green of state champion Corona del Mar and quarterback Andrew Johnson and cornerback/wide receiver Jack Pigot of Laguna Beach.
“I’m super excited about the game,” said Mathisrud, a first-team All-Sunset League and third-team All-Orange County selection, as well as an All-CIF Division 9 pick for the Sailors.
Mathisrud, who had a handful of offers from small schools prior to the Huskies recruiting him as a preferred walk-on, attended Mater Dei as a freshman and played football mainly for social reasons. It was his first time playing tackle football, while volleyball was his best sport. Upon transferring to Newport Harbor his sophomore year, Mathisrud played beach volleyball in the fall and indoor volleyball in the spring.
But Mathisrud got inspired to play football in 2018 from a friend’s dad as word spread on campus that Lofthouse, a first-year coach at the time, was looking for players.
“The first time I played tackle football, I didn’t do it for the football part, I did it for the social part,” Mathisrud said. “But my junior year was my first time really being into it, and I also ended up playing lacrosse, because I thought lacrosse would be better cross-training for football. Lacrosse is more physical (than volleyball) and there are more lateral movements.”
Two weeks before the 2018 season, Mathisrud was switched from defensive end to offensive tackle and started every game at left tackle the past two years. He weighed 210 pounds as a junior.
In 2019, Mathisrud helped protect quarterbacks Cole Lavin and Nick Kim and opened holes for All-CIF junior tailback Justin McCoy as Harbor started 7-0 for the first time in 25 years.
“I would say a season highlight was our trip to Aptos up in Santa Cruz,” Mathisrud said. “We went up there in the summer during our week-zero game and had a great win up there and an awesome trip. The team really bonded.”
In addition to their exciting 31-28 victory, the Sailors’ week-long trip included a visit to Google headquarters, a tour of Alcatraz Island, a Giants-Diamondbacks baseball game and a hike in the Redwood Forest.
“Aptos was a great experience,” Lofthouse said, “just from the standout point of team camaraderie.”
Is it possible that Cirque du Soleil’s creativity gas tank is running on empty, or at least on fumes? You might think so after seeing its latest tent creation, “Volta,” the least magical, least imaginative, most recycled show the company has ever assembled and taken on the road.
Since its creation in 1984 and first appearance here in 1987 as the opening act of the Los Angeles Festival, Cirque du Soleil has transformed from a one-tent troupe of traveling gymnasts and clowns with an abundance of theatrical flair into a world-wide behemoth worth billions of dollars.
In the process, Cirque completely redefined the circus experience both under the big top and with its fantastical built-to-order stage shows in Las Vegas — shows so specialized and technically dazzling they can only be seen in one place. What Cirque du Soliel does in Vegas, stays in Vegas.
But after seeing “Volta,” the question that arises is whether Cirque’s voracious need to produce more and more product has led to a dilution of its creative mandate? Worst of all, “Volta” can be seen as a succession of been-there-done-that acts that have been uncomfortably shoehorned in a glossy new package. And it should be noted that there were numerous empty seats after intermission, a condition I have never witnessed at a Cirque performance.
With “Volta,” Cirque is also trying to reach out to a young generation raised on hip-hop, social media and BMX bikes. Half the performers look like the lost soul grunge warriors from “Mad Max.” The others look like 1960s flower children skipping through Golden Gate Park. They roller-skate, they jump rope, they break dance, they swing on the rings — it’s basically the same stuff you can see for free in Santa Monica on any weekend.
Where’s the magic? Where’s the bold inventive sense of theater merged with acts of physical wonder? The answer as it relates to “Volta” is they’re essentially missing.
The show only has two acts that are capable of raising your heart rate: a revolving set of double trampolines where leapers and bouncers defy gravity; and the show’s BMX ramped up flying bikes X Games finale.
In contrast, there is only one moment in the entire show that evokes that type of circus/theater/magic we’ve come to expect from Cirque. An exotic young woman, lithe as a reed and costumed like an Indian goddess, sits in a cross-legged yoga position at the center of the stage illuminated by shafts of ruby light. Her long jet-black hair is gathered into a tightly knotted bun and attached to a cable.
Then, with the transcendent grace of Hindu temple dancer, she levitates slowly above the stage, the weight of her body supported entirely by her hair. At first she is only inches off the ground. But in a series of balletic movements and fluid body extensions, she gradually ascends until she is flying and spinning through the air, only to disappear into the darkness like an ethereal spirit.
Cirque du Soleil “Volta” (Photo by Matt Beard/Courtesy Cirque du Soleil)
Cirque du Soleil’s “Volta” (Photo by Matt Beard/Courtesy Cirque du Soleil)
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Cirque du Soleil’s “Volta” (Photo by Matt Beard/Courtesy Cirque du Soleil)
Cirque du Soleil’s “Volta” (Photo by Michael Kass/Courtesy Cirque du Soleil)
BMX bike riders take flight in Cirque du Soleil’s “Volta” (Photo by Matt Beard/Courtesy Cirque du Soleil)
Jumping rope in Cirque du Soleil’s “Volta” (Photo by Benoit Z. Leroux/Courtesy Cirque du Soleil)
Cirque du Soleil’s “Volta,” featuring a variety of gravity-defying acts, is the 18th show the troupe has performed under the big top. “Volta” continues in the Dodger Stadium parking lot though March 8 before moving to the Orange County Fair & Event Center. (Photo by Benoit Z. Leroux/Courtesy Cirque du Soleil)
What a contrast from the mundane nature of the rest of the show with it’s recycled acts that often feel like filler, and the single reasonably funny clown whose routines go on far too long.
By the time the flying BMX bikes do their thing, it’s exciting and X Games impressive, but also too little, too late.
Cirque du Soliel’s last traveling tent show, “Luzia,” represented the company tradition at its best. It was culturally diverse, spectacular in its staging and filled with magic. “Volta” pales in comparison.
Jim Farber is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer.
Cirque du Soleil’s ‘Volta’
Rating: 1.5 stars
Where: Dodger Stadium parking lot (west entrance), 1000 Vin Scully Ave., Los Angeles
When: Continues through March 8
Tickets: $42 and up ($25 parking)
Suitability: All ages
Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes, with one intermission
By MICHAEL R. SISAK, TOM HAYS and JENNIFER PELTZ | Associated Press
NEW YORK — “Sopranos” actress Annabella Sciorra confronted Harvey Weinstein from the witness stand Thursday, telling a jury in a quivering voice that the burly Hollywood studio boss barged into her apartment in the mid-1990s, overpowered her and raped her as she tried to fight him off by kicking and punching him.
She said that a month later, she ran into him and confronted him about what happened, and he replied: “That’s what all the nice Catholic girls say.”
Then, she told the jury, Weinstein leaned toward her and added menacingly: “This remains between you and I.”
Harvey Weinstein arrives at a Manhattan courthouse for his trial on rape and sexual assault charges, Thursday, Jan. 23, 2020, in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
Harvey Weinstein, center, arrives at a Manhattan courthouse for his trial on rape and sexual assault charges, Thursday, Jan. 23, 2020, in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
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Members of the media photograph Harvey Weinstein, center, as he arrives in court for his trial on rape and sexual assault charges, Thursday, Jan. 23, 2020, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
Harvey Weinstein arrives at court for his rape trial, in New York, Thursday, Jan. 23, 2020. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Files arrive at court for the Harvey Weinstein rape trial, in New York, Thursday, Jan. 23, 2020. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Actress Annabella Sciorra, center, arrives as a witness in Harvey Weinstein’s rape trial, with Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi, right, in New York, Thursday, Jan. 23, 2020. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Actress Annabella Sciorra, right, arrives as a witness in Harvey Weinstein’s rape trial, in New York, Thursday, Jan. 23, 2020. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Assistant District Attorneys Meghan Hast, left, and Joan Illuzzi leave the Harvey Weinstein rape trial during the lunch break, Thursday, Jan. 23, 2020, in New York. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Attorney Gloria Allred speaks to reporters during a lunch break in Harvey Weinstein’s trial on rape and sexual assault charges, Thursday, Jan. 23, 2020, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
“I thought he was going to hit me right there,” Sciorra testified.
At other points in the 1990s, she said, Weinstein sent her packages with Valium and a box of chocolate penises and turned up early one morning at her Cannes Film Festival hotel room door “in his underwear with a bottle of baby oil in one hand and a videotape in the other.” She said he eventually left after she started frantically pushing buttons on the room phone to summon help.
The 59-year-old actress became the first of Weinstein’s accusers to testify at his trial, where the movie mogul whose downfall gave rise to the #MeToo movement is charged with forcibly performing oral sex on former “Project Runway” production assistant Mimi Haleyi in his New York apartment in 2006 and raping an aspiring actress in a hotel room here in 2013.
Weinstein is not charged with attacking Sciorra, whose accusations date too far back to be prosecuted. Instead, she testified as one of four additional accusers prosecutors intend to put on the stand to show that the powerful Hollywood producer had a pattern of preying on women. Weinstein, 67, could get life in prison if convicted.
The executive behind such Oscar-winning movies as “Pulp Fiction” and “Shakespeare in Love” has insisted any sexual encounters were consensual.
Recounting an accusation she said she kept largely secret for decades, Sciorra testified that after raping her, Weinstein went on to try to perform oral sex on her, saying, “This is for you,” as her body “shut down.”
“It was just so disgusting,” she said. She said she started to shake: “I didn’t even know what was happening. It was like a seizure or something.”
The defense tried to seed doubts about Sciorra’s allegations, and she gave a slightly different version under their questioning, testifying that when the producer initially pushed her onto her bed, “he was kind of, in a friendly way, trying to cajole me” into having sex. She refused and soon found herself trying to get him off of her, she said.
Weinstein lawyer Donna Rotunno noted that Sciorra never went to police or a doctor about the alleged rape.
“At the time, I didn’t understand that that was rape,” Sciorra said.
Rotunno also suggested that Sciorra’s judgment and recollection were clouded by drinking. The actress said she remembered having only a glass of wine with dinner and had kicked a Valium habit that developed after Weinstein sent her pills.
In opening statements on Wednesday, another Weinstein lawyer, Damon Cheronis, argued the encounter was consensual, not rape, saying Sciorra once told a friend that she “did a crazy thing and had sex with Harvey Weinstein.”
The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they have been victims of sexual assault, unless they come forward publicly.
Sciorra drew acclaim for her part in Spike Lee’s 1991 movie “Jungle Fever” and her role as a pregnant woman molested by her doctor in 1992’s “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” the next year. She later appeared on “The Sopranos.”
She said she met Weinstein at an industry event in Los Angeles in 1990 or 1991. By 1993, she had starred in one of his company’s movies — the romantic comedy “The Night We Never Met.”
She said the rape happened in late 1993 or early 1994, after Weinstein dropped her off from a movie-business dinner and then appeared, uninvited, at her door a few minutes later.
Sciorra said afterward, she started to cut herself and feel she didn’t want to leave her house. At the same time, she said, she struggled with understanding that what happened to her was a crime.
“I thought he was an OK guy. I felt confused. I felt like I wished I never opened the door,” she said. She said she told no one at first, not even her brothers.
“I wanted to pretend it never happened. … I wanted to get back to my life,” she told the jury. She did not come forward publicly until 2017.
Then came the champion, the only featherweight titleholder Bellator has ever known.
Cris Cyborg and Julia Budd stood in the middle of the cage Sept. 28 at The Forum, shaking hands and smiling for a collegial staredown absent any bravado or trash talk, real or imagined.
In the same arena Saturday night, the pleasantries will come to an end as Cyborg will try to make MMA history while Budd looks to cement her 145-pound legacy in the Bellator 238 main event.
For Budd, however, it’s not just four months in the making.
“Ten years,” said the Canadian champion from Vancouver, who made her pro MMA debut in 2010.
“When I first started MMA, (Cyborg) already had a big name in the sport. And so, knowing that and knowing we were always gonna fight one another, it was gonna come, the day was gonna come. I’ve been studying her for a very, very long time.”
That’s the thing about Cyborg. There is no shortage of footage of her ferocity.
For 14 years, the Brazilian bomber has fought in several organizations. She has viciously vanquished 21 opponents. Only four of those lasted the entire fight.
On Saturday, she hopes to become the first fighter, male or female, to claim four major world titles in the same weight division. In the past 10-plus years, Cyborg (21-2, 1 NC) became the inaugural featherweight champion in Strikeforce, Invicta FC and the UFC.
Those three belts are individually encased on the wall in her private gym in Huntington Beach. “Obviously, I always have space for more belts,” Cyborg, 34, said with a smile.
During a recent open workout at her gym, Cyborg strode to the mats as the 1996 classic from The Fugees played: “Ready or not, here I come, you can’t hide. Gonna find you and take it slowly.”
Taking it slowly hasn’t exactly been Cyborg’s forte in the cage. During a 10-fight stretch from 2009 to 2016, seven foes crumbled in the first round.
Budd (13-2) concedes some of those fights were a fait accompli for some of Cyborg’s opponents, but not for her.
“I feel like a lot of her fights, she’s gone in and absolutely demolished them. And that was a lot about breaking people before they get into the cage,” said Budd, 36, Bellator’s champion since 2017. “The intimidation factor. The fear factor. She relies a lot on that. That’s something that I’m prepared for as well.”
“After one loss, it’s very difficult. You have to work really hard and put a lot of things behind you, even if your boss is against you, trying to damage your brand during your fight, during the camp, ” Cyborg said. “But I never think about proving anything. I think I prove everything every time in the gym. Train every day and everything I do inside the gym, I’m gonna do inside the cage.”
Cyborg has also been presenting a more human side to the public.
For the second fight camp in a row, Cyborg has traveled to Africa to train, free of distractions, and do missionary work. She has plans to help build water wells in her native Brazil.
After her devastating KO loss to Nunes resulted in her first loss since her pro MMA debut in 2005, Cyborg was a picture of grace and composure at the postfight press conference.
“I always know a loss can happen. I do sports all my life, I know this. But it’s not the end of the world,” Cyborg said last week. “I know a lot people have a lot of struggles in the world. You lose, it’s just one fight, there’s another day. I lose and I can be an example for other people how to take the loss.
“I think it’s no quit. Keep it going.”
Budd has endured those harsh realities. She has won 11 in a row over the course of seven years, but that didn’t start until after 2011 when the former Muay Thai fighter was knocked out by Nunes and later her arm snapped by Ronda Rousey.
“It was like, ‘OK, if you want to continue this, you’ve gotta get good at these parts. You’ve gotta really study this and become a better mixed martial artist and learn,” Budd said. “That’s what it’s been, I believe. It’s been constant learning and constant evolution and learning with my team and my family.”
The smiles will vanish come Saturday night, but the respect will be mutual.
Budd relishes the satisfaction of a longtime dream fight coming to fruition. Cyborg, having learned patience in 2019, anticipates a more active 2020 in a fight promotion with a considerably deeper roster of 145-pound women.
It starts with becoming champion again, though the mindset will remain the same.
“I respect the champion. I respect Julia, but I’m training really hard,” Cyborg said. “I think like a challenger because the girls will always come 100 percent to beat you. I stay a longtime champ like this, but you do have to do it with the attitude of a challenger.”
BELLATOR 238
Main event: Featherweight champion Julia Budd vs. Cris Cyborg
When: Saturday (prelims 4:30 p.m., main card 7 p.m.)
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration lifted federal protections Thursday for some of the nation’s millions of miles of streams, arroyos and wetlands, completing one of its most far-reaching environmental rollbacks.
The changes will scale back which waterways qualify for protection against pollution and development under the half-century-old Clean Water Act. President Donald Trump has made a priority of the rollback of clean-water protections from his first weeks in office. Trump says he is targeting federal rules and regulations that impose unnecessary burdens on businesses.
Chiefs of the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers signed the new rule before appearing at a builders’ convention in Las Vegas.
“EPA and the Army are providing much needed regulatory certainty and predictability for American farmers, landowners and businesses to support the economy and accelerate critical infrastructure projects,” EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said in a statement.
The changes had been sought by industry, developers and farmers, but opposed by environmental advocates and public health officials. They say the changes would make it harder to maintain a clean water supply for the American public and would threaten habitat and wildlife.
The administration says the changes would allow farmers to plow their fields without fear of unintentionally straying over the banks of a federally protected dry creek, bog or ditch. But the government’s own figures show it is real estate developers and those in other nonfarm business sectors that take out the most permits for impinging on wetlands and waterways, and stand to reap the biggest regulatory and financial relief.
Wheeler specified the changes lift federal protections for so-called ephemeral waters — creeks and rivers which run only after rainfalls or snow melt. Such streams provide a majority of the water for some dry Western states, including New Mexico.
The final rule will be published in the Federal Register in the next few days and become effective 60 days after that.
The rollback is one of the most ambitious of the Trump administration”s wide-ranging cuts in federal protections on the environment and public health. While many rollback efforts have targeted regulations adopted under the Obama administration, the draft clean-water plan released earlier would lift federal protections for many waterways and wetlands that have stood for decades under the Clean Water Act.
That includes protections for creek and river beds that run only in wet seasons or after rain or snow melt. “That’s a huge rollback from way before Obama, before Reagan,” said Blan Holman, a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center.
State officials in New Mexico have particular concerns given that the Rio Grande, which provides drinking water and irrigation supplies for millions of people in the Southwest and Mexico, depends largely on the types of intermittent streams, creeks and wetlands that could lose protection under the rule draft released earlier. The Rio Grande is one of North America’s longest rivers.
Jen Pelz, the rivers program director with the New Mexico-based environmental group WildEarth Guardians, said the Rio Grande would be hard hit.
“It defies common sense to leave unprotected the arteries of life to the desert Southwest,” Pelz said.
Trump has portrayed farmers — a highly valued constituency of the Republican Party and one popular with the public — as the main beneficiaries of the rollback. He claimed farmers gathered around him wept with gratitude when he signed an order for the rollback in February 2017.
The federal protections keeping polluters and developers out of waterways and wetlands were “one of the most ridiculous” of all regulations, he told a farmer convention in 2019.
“It was a total kill on you and other businesses,” Trump said at that time.
Environmental groups, public health organizations and others say it’s impossible to keep downstream lakes, rivers and water supplies clean unless upstream waters are also regulated federally. The targeted regulations also protect wildlife and their habitats.
Associated Press writer Susan Montoya in Albuquerque, New Mexico, contributed to this report.
The late Friday night was becoming an early Saturday morning, and UCLA women’s basketball head coach Cori Close was on a red-eye flight out to the East Coast for recruiting.
The No. 10 Bruins had just lost their first game all season. Their program-record perfect start had come to an end in double-overtime against crosstown rival USC on Friday night at the Galen Center.
Despite the loss, Close’s phone kept buzzing with notifications of text messages from her players. One by one, the Bruins reached out to her, saying they were not going to let the loss get to them, they wanted to be better, and knew they could.
“This is a really competitive group, they want to do well, they want to fight for and with each other,” Close said. “[I’m] really thankful that we have young women that have teachable hearts and a mindset to really use every opportunity to learn and grow.”
After last week’s thrilling double-overtime 70-68 loss to the Trojans, the Bruins (16-1, 5-1 Pac-12) have allowed the defeat to humble themselves. And now, a week later, they are ready to move on and improve their weak spots as they host Washington (10-7, 2-4) Friday night.
“I’m focusing on responding to what got exposed,” Close said. “We have some certain habits that maybe winning was masking. I don’t think we had been responding to some of those things as effectively as we needed to and we got caught. … I think their hearts were definitely softer and ears a little bit bigger.”
Friday’s loss marked UCLA’s first game in two years without star forward Michaela Onyenwere. The junior suffered a sprained ankle in practice in the week leading up to the game at USC and had to watch the sideline in street clothes while her team fought hard to fill her void on the court.
Onyenwere remains listed as day to day. Close said she participated in a few reps of practice drills Wednesday.
Close thinks Onyenwere’s absence will help the team grow and see the advantage of utilizing everyone’s unique talents. She said players became accustomed to watching Onyenwere instead of developing their own roles.
“I think that it’s a compliment to Michaela, but we can’t be a one-person team and Michaela doesn’t want that either,” Close said. “We have kids who have earned it, they are really capable in their own right. I think knowing in their role how they can create easier shots and plays for each other. I think this is forcing us to deal with that at a more in-depth level.”
The Huskies bring a four-game losing streak to Westwood. Yet, their only loss on the road has been to a then-ranked No. 5 Stanford. Senior guard Amber Melgoza leads Washington with 15.4 points per game, while sophomore forward Haley Van Dyke leads with 6.2 rebounds per game. Van Dyke also leads the conference with 2.6 steals per game.
No. 10 UCLA (16-1, 5-1) vs. Washington (10-7, 2-4)
A year ago, the United Teachers of Los Angeles went on strike, paralyzing the second-largest school district in America. Some 30,000 teachers walked out on 600,000 students. When the strike ended with a deal, union President Alex Caputo-Pearl declared his union had achieved a “historic victory.”
A year later we know the truth. Today it’s safe to say the L.A. teachers union win in 2019 has made it harder to teach, harder to learn and harder to live in L.A.
Criticism of the deal came early — as soon as union members read the 40-page agreement. Thousands of them jumped on the UTLA Facebook page to ridicule the union leadership, the agreement, the scant few hours members were given to read and vote on that deal, even the seven-day strike that preceded it.
“This agreement is horrible,” wrote a teacher who expressed the frustration of many. “It was not worth striking 7 minutes let alone 7 days!!! Our union has let us down once again.”
Union loyalists were upset because the settlement agreement was nearly identical to L.A. Unified’s pre-strike offer. The 6 percent pay hike that Caputo-Pearl had dismissed as “insulting” just days before? That was in the final deal. Class sizes would be reduced at the same rate as in the pre-strike offer, and in line with the previous contract. Yes, district officials agreed to increase modestly the number of school nurses (a good thing), but refused to cap the growth of the public charter schools that are an increasingly popular alternative to failing and dangerous union-controlled schools.
So, teachers got almost nothing from the strike. And however generous or miserly, what district officials ultimately gave teachers is financially unsustainable.
Before the strike, L.A. County’s Department of Education declared the district so close to insolvency that its proposed pay package would topple the district; in fact, the DOE declared, cuts were in order. State officials joined in, warning that if the looting continued, the district would likely find itself with its pants pockets pulled inside-out; that would lead to a state takeover of LAUSD and the imposition from Sacramento of harsh International Monetary Fund-style budget cuts.
State Sen. John Moorlach, R-Costa Mesa, the only CPA in the statehouse and the man who predicted Orange County’s then-record 1994 municipal bankruptcy, concluded the failing school district is so large that its collapse could take down California, the fifth-largest economy in the world.
Far from being “historic,” then, the 2019 strike resolution merely sanctioned a decades-long pattern of corruption. After the pay increase, capitulating to financial reality, L.A.’s political establishment — including teachers union leaders — immediately rolled out their solution: Measure EE, a district-wide tax on property that would help cover the pay hike. But, see, all of us — even teachers — have to live somewhere, and if you raise property taxes, you’re ultimately raising our cost of living. Perhaps understanding this, L.A. voters in June killed Measure EE.
Since that ballot-box failure, the district and union leaders have thrown their weight behind a new revenue stream, the November 2020 “split roll” measure — a high-sounding but really uncomplicated plan to raise taxes on commercial property owners throughout California.
In a recent interview, Superintendent Austin Beutner acknowledged all of this and said the strike deal has forced LAUSD to tap its meager reserves to pay the higher payroll costs. But those savings are running out, he admitted. Trapped between difficult financial reforms and higher taxes, Beutner and the rest of the political establishment have chosen higher taxes.
Beutner told EdSource’s Louis Freedberg that he isn’t concerned about “the source of new revenue.” Politicians rarely are. But they should be. And that goes for L.A.’s teachers, too. Because here’s the Iron Law of Taxation: Businesses don’t pay taxes. Their customers do.
If they’re honest about their concern that the high cost of living in L.A. made the 2019 teacher pay increases necessary, they will admit that raising taxes will only accelerate the affordability crisis. In that crisis, the union’s 2019 strike “victory” will increasingly look historic indeed, but only in the worst way.
At that point, the UTLA’s tub-thumping will sound more like the disjunct motion of a sad, sad flugelhorn, or one of those gag guns that shoots not bullets but a pathetic little flag that says “bang.”
Will Swaim is president of the California Policy Center and co-host of National Review’s Radio Free California podcast. Tweet him @WillSwaim.
Federal regulators have slapped former Wells Fargo Chief Executive John Stumpf with a $17.5 million fine for his role in the bank’s sales practices scandal.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency also announced Thursday it was suing five other former Wells Fargo executives for a combined total of $37.5 million for their individual roles in the bank’s poor practices. Two other executives also settled with the OCC, paying million-dollar fines as well.
This is the first time regulators have punished individual executives for Wells Fargo’s wrongdoing. The San Francisco-based bank has paid hundreds of millions of dollars in fines and penalties for encouraging employees to open up millions of fake accounts in order to meet aggressive sales goals. Executives like Stumpf did give up tens of millions of dollars in bonuses and pay, but those actions were taken by Wells Fargo itself.
In its investigation, the OCC laid the blame of Wells Fargo’s failures directly at the feet of its former management in its suit against the executives. As part of their settlements and lawsuits against these Wells’ executives, the OCC seeks to ban all of them from ever working in the banking industry again.
“The root cause of the sales practices misconduct problem was the Community Bank’s business model, which imposed intentionally unreasonable sales goals and unreasonable pressure on its employees to meet those goals and fostered an atmosphere that perpetuated improper and illegal conduct,” the OCC said in its complaint.
“Community Bank management intimidated and badgered employees to meet unattainable sales goals year after year, including by monitoring employees daily or hourly and reporting their sales performance to their managers, subjecting employees to hazing-like abuse, and threatening to terminate and actually terminating employees for failure to meet the goals.”
The highest-profile former executive the OCC is suing is Carrie Tolstedt, who was head of Wells Fargo’s community banking business until her resignation in 2016. Tolstedt was the executive most directly in charge of Wells’ consumer bank, and has been largely blamed for Wells’ poor banking culture.
The OCC has sued Tolstedt for $25 million for her role in the bank’s scandal, a suit that Tolstedt’s lawyers say they intend to fight. Stumpf’s fine of $17.5 million is less than Tolstedt because Stumpf settled with the OCC.
“Throughout her career, Ms. Tolstedt acted with the utmost integrity and concern for doing the right thing,” said Enu Mainigi, a lawyer who represents Tolstedt. “A full and fair examination of the facts will vindicate Carrie.”
The two other executives who settled with the OCC and will pay a fine include Hope Hardison, the bank’s top human resources executive, and Michael Loughlin, who was the bank’s chief risk officer. Hardison will pay a $2.25 million fine and Loughlin will pay a $1.25 million fine.
Wells Fargo, which has cycled through two permanent CEOs and a host of interim ones since the scandal occurred, agreed with the OCC’s decision.
“The OCC’s actions are consistent with my belief that we should hold ourselves and individuals accountable,” said Charlie Scharf, who became Wells Fargo’s CEO late last year. “They also are consistent with our belief that significant parts of the operating model of our Community Bank were flawed.”
A 42-year-old Temescal Valley man was charged with murder and attempted murder Thursday, Jan. 23, after prosecutors said his angry pursuit of a car full of teens who played a doorbell ringing prank at his home ended with three of the boys dead and three injured.
Anurag Chandra was scheduled to enter his plea Thursday afternoon in downtown Riverside County Superior Court. He is charged with three counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder, the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office said.
Anurag Chandra (Courtesy California Highway Patrol)
The prosecutor’s office said the boys were having a sleepover Sunday and, on a dare, drove in a Toyota Prius to a nearby home on Mojeska Summit Drive to ring a doorbell and run.
Chandra, who lived in the home where the prank was played, got into his Infiniti sedan and chased the youths in the Prius, authorities said
The California Highway Patrol said Chandra intentionally rammed the back of the Prius, forcing the driver to lose control and hit a tree at Temescal Canyon Road near Trilogy Parkway. Temescal Valley is a county area south of Corona.
The Riverside County Coroner’s Bureau identified those killed as Daniel Hawkins, 16, Corona; Drake Ruiz, 16, Corona; and Jacob Ivascu, 16, Riverside. The district attorney’s office on Thursday said the survivors included two boys ages 13 and 14, and the driver, who is 18.
Chandra remained in custody Thursday on a no-bail hold at Robert Preseley Detention Center in downtown Riverside.
A driver accused of causing a 2015 crash in Irvine that killed a woman and her granddaughter is once again on trial for second-degree murder, less than a year after a juror caused a mistrial by changing her mind from a guilty verdict.
Alec Scott Abraham faces two counts of murder in connection to the deaths of Katherine Hampton, 54, and Kaydence Hampton, 2, during a June 10, 2015 crash at Alton and Barranca parkways that also left the girl’s mother and brother injured.
During opening statements Thursday at the Orange County Superior Courthouse in Santa Ana, Senior Deputy District Attorney Whitney Bokosky told jurors that Abraham was racing another vehicle in his black Ford Mustang at more than 75 mph when he swerved into a left-turn lane to get around cars stopped for a red light, speeding into the intersection and T-boning the vehicle occupied by the Hamptons.
Bokosky said Abraham has a history of reckless driving, showing the jury what she said was a video Abraham took of himself driving his Mustang at speeds up to 140 mph on a freeway; the video included a view of the odometer. Co-workers at a Huntington Beach car dealership Abraham worked at had admonished him about the video, as well as his habit of speeding through the business’s parking lot and nearby streets, the prosecutor added.
“The defendant consistently drove recklessly and fast,” Bokosky told jurors.
After the crash, Abraham checked on the occupants of the other car, borrowed another driver’s cellphone, called his father to pick him up and then fled leaving his car behind, Bokosky said.
Police arrested him the next day in his Costa Mesa neighborhood.
Eric Renslo, Abraham’s attorney, denied that his client was racing another car or driving recklessly, telling jurors that Abraham was confused by an “interesting” intersection. He said Abraham left the scene of the crash in fear after being confronted by a witness.
Renslo told jurors that there were no witnesses who could prove that the vehicle occupied by the Hamptons was driving through the intersection on a green light. The defense attorney also described the people who had complained about Abraham’s driving in the past as “disgruntled ex-employees,” comparing them to “online trolls.”
“It’s this crazy situation,” Renslo told jurors. “From having no record at all to being charged with murder for a traffic accident.”
Abraham shook his head repeatedly during his attorney’s opening statements. During his earlier trial, Abraham testified against his previous attorney’s wishes, and repeatedly spoke out loud during court breaks when the judge, and at times the attorneys, were back in chambers.
Customers can look forward to something new in Taco Bell restaurants, and it’s not the latest version of Nacho Fries.
The Irvine-based chain will have recycling bins, composting bins, and packaging without certain harmful industrial chemicals.
A pledge to be more eco-friendly is at the top of Taco Bell’s initiatives for 2020, and it’s not surprising.
Eco-friendly packaging is one of the trends the National Restaurant Association and industry watchers such as data firm Technomic, Forbes, and QSR Magazine have pegged to be big in 2020.
The National Restaurant Association’s “What’s Hot 2020 Culinary Survey” and other reports pull together some of the bright ideas restaurants are exploring in the coming year, including environmentally friendly packaging, meatless proteins, a focus on mobile ordering and delivery, ghost kitchens and bowls filled with mostly healthy ingredients.”]
1. Rethinking packaging
Look for chains like Taco Bell to use less plastic and more compostable containers. Not only does it keep them in line with what consumers want, it keeps them ahead of regulators.
Diners are becoming more aware of what foods they are consuming and how they are consuming them, according to industry experts like the National Restaurant Association.
Even though people are taking their business to quick service restaurants that use a lot of disposable cartons, cups, lids, straws and plastic bags, they’re also thinking about the impact on the planet.
In addition to Taco Bell, Chick-fil-A has launched a new bowl for soups and sides that it says will reduce its plastic use by 8.5 million pounds annually. And Pizza Hut came up with a round box that used less packaging than the traditional square delivery box and was made of compostable materials.
The Cheesecake Factory, a full-service restaurant, spent three years working on its packaging, and not just for recycling, but also for the dining-at-home experience said chief culinary officer Donald Moore.
“You take the lid off and you feel like you’re in a restaurant.”
2. Being delivery and pick-up friendly
Restaurants are striving to make home delivery and takeout the same experience as dining in, which means serving food that travels well as well as finding better ways to transport entrees, sides, and beverages.
Juice It Up! has created a carry-out box that can handle 12 small or 6 medium beverages.
Chipotle Mexican Grill adapted its menu a year ago to offer Lifestyle Bowls specifically for delivery and online customers. This year it’s exploring how it can adapt its restaurants to speed deliveries and pick-up orders while improving the experience of dine-in customers.
The redesigned Chipotle on Bison Ave in Newport Beach, CA features a counter with views of the open kitchen. Photographed on Friday, January 17, 2020. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A digital pick-up shelf for take-out orders and delivery services is at the entrance of a redesigned Chipotle on Bison Ave in Newport Beach, CA on Friday, January 17, 2020. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)
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Customers will see a redesigned dining room at Chipotle on Bison Ave in Newport Beach, CA. Photographed on Friday, January 17, 2020. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The redesigned Chipotle on Bison Ave in Newport Beach, CA features a counter with views of the open kitchen. Photographed on Friday, January 17, 2020. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Customers will see a redesigned dining room at Chipotle on Bison Ave in Newport Beach, CA. Photographed on Friday, January 17, 2020. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Customers will see a redesigned dining room and new artwork at Chipotle on Bison Ave in Newport Beach, CA. Photographed on Friday, January 17, 2020. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)
It is testing restaurant designs in four new locations in Chicago, Cincinnati, and Phoenix, and retrofitted a couple of others, including one in The Bluffs Shopping Center in Newport Beach.
“It’s a very no-fuss design,” chief development officer Tabassum Zalotrawala said in a phone interview.
Features include walk-up windows, pickup racks separated from dine-in ordering lines, and putting out bottled beverages for customers to serve themselves rather than keeping them in coolers behind the cash registers.
Some prototypes include “Chipotlanes” for standalone restaurants or those that are end caps, restaurants with drive-thrus that are at the end of strip of stores. But Chipotlanes are intended for pickup of mobile orders rather than placing new orders.
The Newport Beach retrofit includes a counter with views of an exposed kitchen, which Zalotrawala said improves the dine-in experience.
3. The rise of the ghost kitchen
Ghost kitchens are facilities set up entirely or primarily for food delivery. They’re not necessarily equipped to deal directly with diners. They go by other names, including virtual kitchen and cloud kitchen.
Chains that are exploring ghost kitchens include Famous Dave’s and Dog Haus, which opened its first virtual kitchen in Chicago last fall and plans to open 10 this year.
Man vs. Fries, based in Northern California, recently began serving Cali burritos through DoorDash in Fontana, Chino Hills, and Upland. But a Chili’s Grill & Bar in Upland has made its kitchen available to the startup, and diners can pick up their orders there.
4. Dine-in alternatives
Restaurants will complement their delivery and take-out strategies by providing diners with reasons to dine in, according to research firm Technomic. Incentives might include “over-the-top” limited time offers or buy-one-get-one deals.
BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse is currently offering $6 heat-at-home entrees to people who spend $9.95 or more on dine-in food purchases. The selection includes grilled chicken alfredo, spaghetti and meatballs.
California Pizza Kitchen has introduced bake-at-home pizzas at its restaurants, separate from the frozen CPK pizzas in supermarkets. There are 20 Take and Bake Pizzas, and they’re made to order with hand-tossed crust, according to a news release.
5. Expanding innovation kitchens
Forbes said restaurants will open up their experiments to customers, noting that even 7-Eleven opened a “lab store” in Dallas where people could get made-to-order smoothies and croissants baked in-house.
Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa in Palm Desert offers what it calls “T&T” Time & Temperature Innovation Kitchen on Fridays and Saturdays with an “ever-changing five-course tasting menu.”
Panda Express has an innovation kitchen in Pasadena where it tests, among other things, wraps and handheld items. The chain is currently testing Golden Chicken Dumplings at some of its Southern California locations after trying them out at the Innovation Kitchen. It features fried chicken cabbage dumplings tossed in soy garlic sauce with red bell peppers, green onions, dried chiles, rice wine and Asian basil oil.
6. Plant-based proteins expand
Products such as Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat were on a roll in 2019 with their meatless beef patties.
Now they’re pushing pork.
This month, Impossible Foods put its new Impossible Pork to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where it made a big impression last year with its Impossible Burger 2.0.
Pork is the main source of meat in many cultures throughout the world, and Impossible Foods needs to offer a pork product to have an impact in those markets, chief executive Pat Brown said in a promotional video.
Burger King, which recently launched an Impossible Whopper nationwide, is testing Impossible Foods’ sausage in a breakfast sandwich called the Impossible Croissan’wich. It’s available in five cities.
Meanwhile, Beyond Meat has Snoop Dogg promoting its products. In November, he worked behind the counter at a Dunkin’ restaurant on Crenshaw Boulevard in Los Angeles, promoting its Beyond Sausage Sandwich, and for a week in January it served a special limited time “D-O-Double G” version of the sandwich made with a glazed doughnut instead of bread.
Although plant-based proteins are marketed to people who like meat but want to reduce their meat consumption, plant-based products are showing up on menus in other ways. Yogurtland is offering a vegan yogurt flavor called Salted Chocolate Souffle. Dunkin’ is serving oat milk lattes, and Starbucks has added coconut milk lattes and flat whites with almond milk to its menu.
7. Being healthy in a bowl
It appears Chipotle was ahead of the curve with its Lifestyle Bowls, this year El Pollo Loco is in the midst of a big promotion of its new limited time Pollo Fit Bowls, and full-service restaurants are have also added them to their menus for New Year’s resolutions.
Bowls typically include meat or some other protein, rice or other grains, and vegetables.
Slater’s 50/50, known for the beef and bacon blend of its burgers, has four bowls with varying degrees of healthiness. Its Power Bowl features quinoa veggie patty with edamame, blueberries, mixed greens, carrots, pumpkin seeds, tomatoes, quinoa, avocado and wildflower honey vinaigrette. Its Cheeseburger Bowl is mixed greened topped with Angus beef, with cheddar cheese, caramelized onions and bacon jam.
Punch Bowl Social’s Superfood Grain Bowl includes a poached egg, farro, quinoa, kale, radishes, sprouts, shiitake mushrooms, and a miso ginger vinaigrette.
Guests like bowls because they can see what they are consuming, according to Sheamus Feeley, Punch Bowl Social’s chief culinary and beverage officer.
Bowls are also adaptable to popular diets, such as keto, which emphasizes high-fat and low carbs; paleo, which promotes lean meats, nuts and plants; and Whole30, which cuts out such items as sugar, dairy and alcohol for 30 days.
“There isn’t any mystery; it’s all spelled out for you,” Feeley wrote in an email. “You can consume more of what you want and need, and less of what you don’t.”
Q: Kelly, how much notice is required regarding place and time for monthly board meetings? — C.B., Redondo Beach.
A: Under Civil Code 4920(a), four days’ notice must be provided before board meetings, unless the meeting is solely in closed executive session (in which case two days’ notice is required by Civil 4920(b)(2)). If the meeting qualifies as an emergency board meeting under Civil 4923, no advance notice need be announced.
Q: Our HOA has a rule that only homeowners listed on the title can attend a board meeting as meetings are not open to the public. My husband and I recently married, and he is not listed as an owner since it is only in my name. He would like to attend the meetings. Can they legally keep him from attending? — M.W., Irvine
When we have an HOA meeting it is always announced that “If anyone here is not an owner, please leave the room” Since these are ‘open meetings’ I was wondering if this is in accordance with Davis-Stirling. — H.D., Cathedral City
A: The Open Meeting Act only gives association members the right to attend open meetings of the association board. Civil 4925 states “Any member may attend board meetings…” So, tenants, family members of owners or owner representatives do not have the right to attend. The SB Liberty v. Isla Verde case, decided in 2013, involved owners who transferred their unit to their limited liability company, then sought to have their attorney attend board meetings on that company’s behalf. The court confirmed the law only gives the right of attendance to members.
Some associations do not have bylaws or rules which state who can attend board meetings. To avoid possible confusion and embarrassing situations, associations should have a written meeting policy confirming whether non-members may attend.
Q: A member of our board of directors has been writing to all board members about one issue or another asking them to call that director about it before the next meeting. This seems to be a way around email chains. — J.N., Coronado
A: Civil 4090 defines a board “meeting” as any time a quorum of directors discusses anything within the board’s authority. So, a chat, phone call, group text or video conference involving a board quorum is a “board meeting.”
With the growing (if not predominant) use of email, Civil 4910 anticipates electronic communication by specifically banning electronic transmissions as a method of making decisions. So, a group text or a group email involving a quorum of the board regarding HOA business would violate the section.
Technically, could a director on a five-member board make calls or send separate emails to each of the other directors to advocate their view? Yes, because it is not specifically prohibited. However, conducting secret discussions will at some point be discovered, damaging the membership’s trust in the board. Furthermore, do directors want always to be “on duty,” or would it be better to hold discussions until board meetings?
The Open Meeting Act doesn’t only protect the membership, it also protects the board from being “on duty” 24 hours 7 days a week.
Kelly G. Richardson Esq., CCAL, is a Fellow of the College of Community Association Lawyers and a Partner of Richardson | Ober | DeNichilo LLP, a California law firm known for community association advice. Submit questions to Kelly@rodllp.com.
Sports bar 360 Sports is among the places at Southern California’s casinos hosting an event for Super Bowl 54. (File photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
The biggest day of the year for football fans, the Super Bowl, is coming up and if you’re still planning where you’re going to watch the San Francisco 49ers take on the Kansas City Chiefs, we’re here to help with a list of Southern California casinos broadcasting the game. Many casinos will not only show the game from the casino floor, but will also have special watch parties, giveaways and food and drink specials. Read more.
A non-gaming Native American tribe is hoping to make up to $3 million a year by leasing some of their land for hemp production. The Santa Rosa Band of Cahuilla Indians hopes to eventually use its land to grow cannabis — which is much more lucrative — but legal uncertainty around growing the plant led them to opt for hemp for the time being. Hemp, which contains far less THC than cannabis, is used for items such as textiles and paper. Read more.
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