One day after California green-lighted a massive expansion of driverless robotaxis in San Francisco, the implications became clear.

At about 11 p.m. Friday, as many as 10 Cruise driverless taxis blocked two narrow streets in the center of the city’s lively North Beach bar and restaurant district. All traffic came to a standstill up Vallejo Street and around two corners on Grant. Human-driven cars sat stuck behind and in between the robotaxis, which might as well have been boulders: no one knew how to move them.

The cars sat motionless with parking lights flashing for 15 minutes, then woke up and moved on, witnesses said.

A pedestrian counts ten Cruise robotaxis bricked in North Beach late Friday night.

Aaron Peskin, who represents North Beach on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, was flooded with texts, emails and videos from constituents as the robotaxis, programmed with artificial intelligence software, sat unresponsive. In one video, zeroing in on a robotaxi’s “driver” seat, a man says “this is what our country has come to.”

Cruise blamed cell phone carriers for the problem. At 11:01 p.m. Friday, Peskin sent a text message to Cruise government affairs manager Lauren Wilson. At 8:25 a.m. Saturday, she texted back: “As I understand it, outside lands impacted LTE cell connectivity and ability for RA advisors to route cars.” Outside Lands is a three-day music festival held in Golden Gate Park, four miles from North Beach.

The situation is loaded with irony, as the California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday voted 3-1 amid great public controversy to allow a massive robotaxi expansion. The vote allows General Motors-owned Cruise and Waymo, owned by Google’s Alphabet, to charge fares for driverless service and grow the fleet as large as they’d like. Cruise has said it plans eventually to deploy thousands of robotaxis in San Francisco.

City officials in San Francisco, from the mayor’s office down, have been fighting the move, with officials saying the robotaxi industry needs to fix problems that endanger the public first before further expanding the business. The city’s fire department has logged more than 55 cases of robotaxis interfering with first responders. Fire Chief Jeanine Nicholson has repeatedly said Cruise and Waymo are getting in firefighters’ way and their technology is “not ready for prime time.”

The CPUC decided to go ahead anyway. One of the three yes votes was cast by Commissioner John Reynolds, who served as head lawyer at Cruise before appointed to the CPUC by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The no vote came from Commissioner Genevieve Shiroma, who said the companies should explain the problems and how they plan to fix them first.

“This is what our country’s come to,” says a man inspecting a stranded robotaxi.

Peskin said city officials are pursuing “every means” to have the CPUC decision reversed, and are discussing whether to seek a court injunction. Another option: fining Cruise and Waymo thousands of dollars for each robotaxi road blockage.

The CPUC, and Newsom, in Peskin’s view, are putting big money ahead of basic public safety. The CPUC “has not been held in high esteem by the people of California for a very long time,” Peskin said. All five CPUC commissioners were appointed by Newsom, including the former Cruise attorney.

“If you’re looking for an example of regulatory capture, you’re seeing it now,” Peskin said. “It’s unethical and immoral but legal,” he said. “Bottom line, this all goes to Gov. Gavin Christopher Newsom.”

Representatives for Newsom and the CPUC could not be immediately reached for comment. In a Twitter post Saturday, Cruise said, “We are actively investigating and working on solutions to keep this from happening again.”

I’m a heterosexual cis woman in a monogamous marriage. My husband and I have always struggled to connect sexually, mostly because he has extreme anxiety that makes doing anything new or different difficult. He’s been in therapy since before I met him, but it doesn’t seem to be helping much. His anxiety has caused him to shut down every sexual ask I’ve ever made because he’s afraid he won’t “do it right.” He’s a PIV-and-nothing-more kind of guy, but I’m not asking for varsity-level stuff, just boring things like talking about fantasies, a little role-play, staying in bed on a Sunday just to have sex, etc. All of it is off the table. I understand he has a right to veto sex acts, but isn’t this all pretty basic, run-of-the-mill stuff? He’ll still get his PIV; I just want there to be other elements before the PIV starts. It’s still a no. Talking to him about this sends him into a depressive episode wherein I have to spend hours telling him he’s not a bad person, so I’ve stopped bringing it up. I’ve tried to talk to therapists about navigating this issue, but most change the subject. One actually told me that it was good we don’t have good sex, because if we did, we wouldn’t have good communication in other areas. (I never went back to that one.) This has gone on for so long that I’ve lost all interest in sex. My libido, which used to be very high, has vanished. Whenever he wants sex, I do it—but I dread it. Do you have any ideas on how I can navigate this topic with my husband so he doesn’t shut down? How can I make him understand that it’s okay to experiment sexually and it will be okay if it’s not perfect?

Lost And So Sad

You’re going to have to call your husband’s bluff, LASS, and power through the predictable meltdown. That means raising—again—your unhappiness with your sex life, explaining your need for some pre-PIV intimacy and play, informing him this is no longer a desperate request but a non-negotiable demand, and then refusing to shift into caregiver mode when his depressive episode starts.

I’m not suggesting your husband’s anxiety and depression are an act, LASS, or that being made aware of your unhappiness isn’t a trigger. But if depressive episodes get your husband out of conversations he’d rather avoid—and if they allow him to dictate the terms of your sex life and treat your pussy like a Fleshlight—then his subconscious could be weaponizing those depressive episodes. And if you shift to caregiver mode every time—so long as you’re willing to spend hours reassuring him that he’s not a bad person—then your grievances will never be addressed, much less resolved. So even if it means spending an extremely unpleasant evening, weekend or few weeks with him, you’re going to have to raise the issue and refuse to reassure your husband. Line up whatever support you think he might need before you make your stand—you could also make your stand during a couples counseling session—and give him maybe one “You’re not a bad person, really!” and then refuse to back down.

And when he shuts down, LASS, it will be his therapist’s job to pry him back open, not yours.

And the sex you’re currently having? The sex you dread and don’t enjoy? The sooner you stop having it, LASS, the sooner your husband will come to understand that he’s going to have to give a little (so very little!) if he wants to have sex at all. If and when he does, then you can borrow a page from the varsity-level kinkster handbook: Take baby steps. In the same way people who are turned on by, say, more intense bondage scenes (suspension, immobilization, etc.) start with lighter bondage scenes (hands behind the back, spread-eagled on the bed, etc.), you can start with something small and easy for him to get right, such as 20 minutes of cuddling in bed together on a Sunday morning before progressing to PIV sex.

I’m a bisexual trans woman living in Europe. A couple of months ago, I began an amazing relationship with a woman who works as an escort. For a while, everything was as good as it gets, until I said something inconsiderate about her job and she took offense. We were having a conversation about “what we were” (girlfriends? lovers? partners?) and any rules we’d like the other to observe, and I said I’d rather not see her after she’d been with a client; I’d rather wait until the next day. She took this as me thinking her job was “dirty,” which was absolutely not my intention. I explained that I’d spent 10 years in open relationships and it was just a habit I was used to. (If you sleep with someone else, go home, take a shower, sleep off the emotions, see you tomorrow.) She said that her clients were not lovers, it’s completely different, and it would make seeing her complicated, as we work different hours. I immediately realized how she was right and said so. She was aloof for a few days afterward, and she eventually told me that she didn’t feel like she could be with someone who understood so little about her job. I pleaded with her to give me a second chance and told her that I’d never even met a sex worker before, so there was a learning curve for me, and she agreed that we could carry on seeing each other. But she remained distant, canceling plans and not replying, until she eventually told me that she was just too scared of getting hurt because it’s happened so many times before. I was absolutely shattered. I spent the next few days drinking in bed and licking my wounds. I was falling in love with this woman, and I ruined it with my big mouth. After a couple of days, I started going about my life again. And soon enough, she started texting me, asking me how my day was, casual stuff, and it’s just really painful. I don’t know how to reply to her. If she has changed her mind, then I’ll date her again in a heartbeat, given how freaking amazing she is. But if she’s just (kind of inconsiderately) making conversation, then I can see myself getting my heart broken all over again. I’m torn between asking her to stop texting me and carrying on with the casual texting to see if anything comes of it. Any advice?

Tearful Escort’s Ex Getting Really Lonely

If you two couldn’t handle a simple misunderstanding, TEEGRL, how are you going to resolve a serious conflict? Or forgive a profound betrayal? You know, the kind of shit people in LTRs do?

Actually, I’m being unfair: You seem perfectly capable of handling this misunderstanding, TEEGRL, it was your ex-whatever-she-was (girlfriend? lover? partner?) who wasn’t able to handle it. But in fairness to her—I need to be fair to everybody—sex workers are often shamed by romantic partners who pretended, at the outset of the relationship, to be fine with their jobs. Your comment about not wanting to see her after she was with a client could reasonably be interpreted as whorephobic. But your explanation—it was a rule in all your past open relationships—was reasonable, and your ex-whatever-she-was, if she were a reasonable person, should have been able to see that.

And perhaps she is reasonable, TEEGRL. Maybe she started texting you about casual stuff because she feels bad about pulling away and sees now that she overreacted. To determine whether that’s the case—and to determine whether she’s still open to dating you—you’ll have to risk asking the dreaded direct question: “Hey, it’s great to hear from you! I’d love to pick up where we left off, if you’re still interested. Are you? Please let me know!”

On the Lovecast (savagelovecast.com), shy lady doms rise up! With Midori. Contact Dan via ma**@sa********.net, follow him on Twitter @fakedansavage, and visit ITMFA.org.

By CLAIRE RUSH, TY O’NEIL and JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER | Associated Press

Survivors witnessed a surreal landscape of flattened homes, blackened hulks of burned-out cars and ashy lots where buildings once stood as they took stock of their shattered lives in the aftermath of a fast-paced wildfire on the Hawaii island of Maui that authorities say killed at least 80 people.

Anthony Garcia assessed the devastation as he stood under Lahaina’s iconic banyan tree, now charred, and swept twisted branches into neat piles next to another heap filled with dead animals: cats, roosters and other birds killed by the smoke and flames. Somehow it made sense in a world turned upside-down.

Also see: Irvine man recounts harrowing escape from Maui wildfire

“If I don’t do something, I’ll go nuts,” said Garcia, who lost everything he owned. “I’m losing my faith in God.”

Garcia and other residents were faced with catastrophic destruction resulting from the wildfires that tore through parts of Maui this week and were still not fully contained Friday night.

Maui County raised the number of confirmed deaths to 80 in a 9 p.m. statement Friday. Gov. Josh Green had warned the death toll would likely rise as search and rescue operations continue. Authorities set a curfew from 10 p.m. until 6 a.m. Saturday.

“The recovery’s going to be extraordinarily complicated, but we do want people to get back to their homes and just do what they can to assess safely, because it’s pretty dangerous,” Green told Hawaii News Now.

Cadaver-sniffing dogs were deployed to search for the dead, Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen Jr. said.

A new wildfire Friday evening triggered the evacuation of Kaanapali in West Maui, a community northeast of the area that burned earlier, but crews were able to extinguish the fire before 8:30 p.m., authorities said.

Also see: Maui residents had little warning before flames overtook town

Attorney General Anne Lopez announced plans to conduct a comprehensive review of decision-making and standing policies impacting the response to the deadly wildfires.

“My Department is committed to understanding the decisions that were made before and during the wildfires and to sharing with the public the results of this review,” Lopez said in a statement.

The wildfires are the state’s deadliest natural disaster in decades, surpassing a 1960 tsunami that killed 61 people. An even deadlier tsunami in 1946, which killed more than 150 on the Big Island, prompted development of a territory-wide emergency system with sirens that are tested monthly.

Many fire survivors said they didn’t hear any sirens or receive a warning giving them enough time to prepare, realizing they were in danger only when they saw flames or heard explosions.

“There was no warning,” said Lynn Robinson, who lost her home.

Hawaii emergency management records do not indicate warning sirens sounded before people had to run for their lives. Officials sent alerts to mobile phones, televisions and radio stations, but widespread power and cellular outages may have limited their reach.

Also see: How to help those affected by Maui wildfire

Fueled by a dry summer and strong winds from a passing hurricane, at least three wildfires erupted on Maui, racing through parched brush covering the island.

The most serious blaze swept into Lahaina on Tuesday and left a grid of gray rubble wedged between the blue ocean and lush green slopes. Associated Press journalists found the devastation included nearly every building on Front Street, the heart of historic Lahaina and the economic hub of Maui.

There was an eerie traffic jam of charred cars that didn’t escape the inferno as surviving roosters meandered through the ashes. Skeletal remains of buildings bowed under roofs that pancaked in the blaze. Palm trees were torched, boats in the harbor were scorched and the stench of burning lingered.

“It hit so quick, it was incredible,” Kyle Scharnhorst said as he surveyed his damaged apartment complex.

Summer and Gilles Gerling sought to salvage keepsakes from the ashes of their home. All they could find was the piggy bank Summer Gerling’s father gave her as a child, their daughter’s jade bracelet and watches they gifted each other for their wedding. Their wedding rings were gone.

They described their fear as the strong wind whipped the smoke and flames closer, but said they were happy to have made it out alive with their two children.

“Safety was the main concern. These are all material things,” Gilles Gerling said.

The wildfire is already projected to be the second-costliest disaster in Hawaii history, behind only Hurricane Iniki in 1992, according to disaster and risk modeling firm Karen Clark & Company. The fire is the deadliest in the U.S. since the 2018 Camp Fire in California, which killed at least 85 people and destroyed the town of Paradise.

The danger on Maui was well known. Maui County’s hazard mitigation plan updated in 2020 identified Lahaina and other West Maui communities as having frequent wildfires and several buildings at risk. The report also noted West Maui had the island’s second-highest rate of households without a vehicle and the highest rate of non-English speakers.

“This may limit the population’s ability to receive, understand and take expedient action during hazard events,” the plan stated.

Maui’s firefighting efforts may have been hampered by limited staff and equipment.

Bobby Lee, president of the Hawaii Firefighters Association, said there are a maximum of 65 county firefighters working at any given time with responsibility for three islands: Maui, Molokai and Lanai.

The department has about 13 fire engines and two ladder trucks, but no off-road vehicles to thoroughly attack brush fires before they reach roads or populated areas, he said.

For political observers, the debate between conservative and progressive politicians over the impact of various policies can be entertaining as well as enlightening. Of course, politicians tend to either stretch the truth or cherry-pick various statistics to support their positions.

Take, for example, arguments related to poverty. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the official poverty rate compares income to a poverty threshold that is adjusted by family composition. But the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), first released in 2011 and produced with support from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), modifies the official poverty measure by including the value of government programs for low-income families. The SPM also accounts for geographic variation, such as cost of living, in poverty thresholds.

Which of the two methods of calculating poverty is used makes a huge difference for California. Under the unadjusted poverty rate, California ranks right in the middle, 25th out of 50. But when cost of living is taken into account, California ranks dead last, 50th out of 50.

The disparity among comparative metrics is so pervasive it is difficult to discern the truth about which states perform better than others. But the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) produces an annual report entitled “Rich States, Poor States,” which ranks the economic competitiveness of states based on fifteen categories. It is intended as a resource for state lawmakers and other policy leaders for critical decision making.

Hardcore California haters might believe that the Golden State ranks worst in all possible measurements, but that simply isn’t true. What is true, however, is that California ranks poorly in most of the metrics and that the trends for the future are not encouraging. Of the fifteen categories, here are some of the more salient.

Income taxes: California ranks 48th worst with the highest state marginal tax rate in the nation. But because some local governments in other states impose income taxes – California does not – the state dodged that dead last position. Nonetheless, California did rank last (50th) in the progressivity of its income tax structure.

Property taxes: Notwithstanding the protections of Proposition 13, California ranked 28th in property tax burdens. The methodology used by “Rich States, Poor States” measured revenues from state and local property taxes per $1,000 of personal income using the latest available Census Bureau data. (Interestingly, the Tax Foundation – another reliable source for data – ranked California 14th out of 50 states in per capita property tax collections. Either way, both measurements belie the myth that California is a low property tax state).

Sales Tax Burden: For Californians, the ranking of sales tax burden is a surprisingly reasonable 23rd. Although California has the highest state sales tax rate in America at 7.25%, with local add-ons that push the rate over 10% in many jurisdictions, the methodology used by “Rich States, Poor States” moderates that ranking. Specifically, rather than relying on the tax rate, they look at sales tax revenues per $1,000 of personal income. One could quibble with this methodology given that California has a lot of super wealthy individuals which could disguise the true impact on the middle class.

Estate Tax: Under the “good news” category, California ranks 1st in Estate Tax burden. This is not surprising given that we don’t have an estate tax. But rather than thank our political leaders, thank statewide voters who passed Proposition 6 in 1982 repealing the estate tax. Moreover, while a number-one rank looks good, California shares that rank with 33 other states, all of which have no estate tax.

As it so often is, Lahaina’s Front Street was set on Saturday to be a scene celebrating the Hawaiian culture that is so deeply rooted on the storied strip of shoreline.

Hundreds were expected to flood the historic street on Maui for the town’s annual hula festival, a commemoration of a renowned hula performer, the late Emma Farden Sharpe, whose ancestral home was where the corner of Front and Shaw streets now sit.

Now it is the site of one of the worst disasters in Hawaiian history. The wildfire that killed at least 67 people this week leveled much of the National Historical Landmark District, razing the town’s cultural treasures.

Like no other place in the archipelago, old Lahaina connected the modern era of tourism to Hawaii’s deeper, more textured past — both independent and colonial — an old wooden seaport that was once capital of a kingdom, next to its modern twin, Kaanapali, one of the state’s biggest hotel and condo destinations.

The old courthouse, which usually serves as a backdrop for the hulu festival, was gutted. The Baldwin House, nearly two centuries old and home of the first missionaries to the island, was flattened, as was the 122-year-old Pioneer Inn, whose guests included Mark Twain, Jack London and the Hawaii’s last queen, Liliuokalani.

Locals and tourists alike are praying for the iconic banyan tree, which formed its own little jungle canopy with multiple trunks — a quarter mile in circumference. Images show the tree blackened, but it’s unclear if the roots will survive.

Hailama Farden, Sharpe’s great-nephew and former president of the Hawaiian Historical Society, said the waterfront blocks where the celebration of life was meant to take place are now a scene of total destruction.

“I’m mourning,” said Farden, who was supposed to fly in Friday to emcee the festival. “Generations of people sat under that tree. My great-grandparents were there. My grandparents played under the tree. We played under that tree. It’s generations.”

While the death toll keeps mounting, those with deep ties to Lahaina say they’re just beginning to grapple with the historic gems they have been lost.

Nowhere in on the island chain was history so well preserved — and nowhere is the immense cultural loss now more apparent — than the Front Street area.

Kalei Nuʻuhiwa, who grew up in Lahaina, said she would always take visitors to the street to point out the landmarks: the banyan tree — planted a century and a half ago to commemorate the area’s first Protestant mission. The harbor, whose calm, deep waters made it a destination for the American whaling fleets in the 19th century. The old courthouse, which long ago served as a custom house for trade ships.

“We just use that street as a touching point on how we came to be and who we are,” Nuʻuhiwa said. “It’s devastating that that’s no longer there.”

Lahaina is far more than a tourist hub.

After unifying the Hawaiian islands into one kingdom at the start of the 19th century, King Kamehameha established his royal residence in Lahaina. The coastal town would become the capital of the kingdom from 1820 to 1845, according to the National Park Service.

“It became a center of political power,” said Davianna McGregor, a retired professor of ethnic studies at the University of Hawaii, Manoa.

In the early 1800s, fleets of American whaling ships began to make port in Lahaina, reshaping the economy as sailors flooded the town. At the height of the whaling industry in the 1850s, more than 400 whaling ships docked in Lahaina each year. At the same time, missionaries from New England arrived to convert the Hawaiians to Christianity (and often clashed with drunken whalers). They founded the Wainee Church next to a pond in 1823 and locals have worshiped there ever since.

The most recent chapel, rebuilt after a fire in 1894 and renamed Waiola, burned to the ground this week. Its cemetery holds the remains of many of Hawaii’s kings, queens, high chiefs and princesses.

When the whaling industry collapsed, a new industry of sugar production began to take hold. Pioneer Mill, one of Hawaii’s first sugar mills, opened in 1860, helping make sugar cane a fixture of the West Maui economy.

Thousands of Chinese immigrants came to Maui during this time to work on the plantations, according to the Lahaina Restoration Foundation, a nonprofit that maintains a number of historic structures in Lahaina, including the Old Lahaina Prison, the Plantation Museum and the Wo Hing Museum. In the early 1900s, they formed the Wo Hing Society and later built the historic two-story temple that served as a gathering place for the island’s expat community.

Lahaina Restoration Foundation Director Theo Morrison told ABC News the wooden Wing Ho temple is “completely gone.” Satellite images show most of the buildings in the historic district completely destroyed.

“These are structures that can’t be replaced,” she said.

The town’s heritage was infused in the old buildings, which looked like they came from an old cowboy movie: wooden, creaky, and extremely flammable.

“It was all boarded buildings, wooden buildings, storefronts, but all very close together. Maybe just an alleyway between them,” McGregor said. “So of course, it just went up like a matchbox.”

The long history of Lahaina is not just a story of changing industry but also one of extreme resilience from Native Hawaiians, said Kamanamaikalani Beamer, a professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa‘s Center for Hawaiian Studies.

The same communities hit hardest by these fires are the ones that fiercely battled the diversions of water to sugar and pineapple plantations, which dried out their land, and the downside of a booming tourism industry, which left them priced out of their own homes.

“They’re such a strong, resilient community,” Beamer said. “If there is a community that’s an example of resilience and battling these structures for so many generations … I think it’s them.”

When Yubi Kim left his Irvine home on Aug. 3, nothing seemed out of the ordinary in his quiet corner of one of the nation’s safest cities.

It was only later he learned that, just down the block, a 19-year-old man had been gunned down in broad daylight.

“It was really scary because I heard the incident happened around 12:30 [p.m.], and I left around 12,” he said. “I don’t know if I drove by them.”

The ambush, which authorities allege was premeditated and stemmed from a drug dispute, left the victim’s family mourning after a “senseless act of violence” and residents grappling with unfamiliar pangs of uneasiness in a community long renowned for its safety.

“I do feel like it is still a safe place to live, and I’m trying to remind myself this was a very targeted situation and no one who actually lives here was being targeted,” said Tracy Jorgenson, 36, who also lives in the neighborhood where the shooting occurred. “We’ve just all had the question of, like, why here?”

According to Irvine police officials, on Aug. 3, a woman baited Nicholas Alistair Neaimi-Pour into her car on Athel Avenue, a well-groomed street lined with single-family homes.

Once Neaimi-Pour got into the passenger side of the car, two other suspects — one armed — pulled up alongside the vehicle and opened fire, authorities allege.

Neaimi-Pour later died at a hospital.

Jorgenson called 911 after hearing pleas for help from a nearby street, not realizing what had happened until minutes later when she saw a man who was trying to help Neaimi-Pour covered in blood.

“My mind was kind of racing: ‘Is there a gun still out there, is this man a shooter, is there a shooter nearby?’” she said, thinking about the safety of her young children.

The panic of the day continues to flood her memory as visitors stop by a makeshift memorial at the scene of the shooting, marked by a row of candles, a photo and some wilting roses.

“We’re definitely upping our security,” Jorgenson said, echoing many of her neighbors’ plans to invest in cameras. “It’s just very unexpected. It kind of puts into perspective that anything could happen at any time.”

It’s not clear why the quiet neighborhood, just blocks from College Park Elementary, was chosen for the ambush, said Irvine Police Department spokesperson Sgt. Karie Davis, adding that three suspects have been arrested.

Authorities identified them as Jayden Browndorf, 21, of Irvine; Noah Farmer, 22, of Tustin; and Hailey Angelique Rangel, 20, of Lake Elsinore.

“They didn’t have any connection to this actual neighborhood, but we know that Browndorf lived over the wall from where this happened,” Davies said.

Browndorf and Farmer, whom Davies described as girlfriend and boyfriend, were arrested the day after the shooting. Browndorf is accused of luring Neaimi-Pour to her vehicle, and Farmer is the alleged gunman, according to police.

Rangel, who Davies said was an acquaintance of the couple, was arrested days later. She is accused of driving Farmer to the location and waiting nearby until Neaimi-Pour arrived.

All three remain in custody without bail.

It wasn’t clear if Neaimi-Pour knew the three, but Davies said it appears they ran in the same circles and that the shooting followed a dispute over drugs.

Mayor Farrah Khan sent her condolences to the family of Neaimi-Pour. She called the violence in the case chilling and said she was especially shaken by how young everyone involved was.

“We just lost a 19-year-old life,” Khan said. “And then to see the three suspects arrested being in their early 20s, they pretty much ruined the rest of their lives.”

According to the criminal complaint filed by the Orange County district attorney’s office, the three suspects worked to “conspire together and with another person, whose identity is unknown,” but Davies said there are no outstanding suspects. A spokesperson for the district attorney’s office did not respond to questions about a potential fourth suspect.

Neaimi-Pour’s family declined to speak with The Times this week, asking for privacy as they plan his funeral. But his father wrote on Facebook that they are still trying to process the loss.

“Sadly, his life was taken by a senseless act of violence,” Ali Neaimi Pour wrote. “Words cannot explain how much we will miss him. … Thank you to everyone who was a good friend to Nick. We are forever grateful for the impact you made on his life.”

While homicides are not unheard of in Irvine, Davies called such a killing “pretty rare.” She said their detectives usually handle one or two a year.

FBI statistics from 2021 — the most recent year available — show only two homicides in Irvine, a city of about 300,000.

Irvine’s violent crime rate of 71 per 100,000 people was the lowest that year of any U.S. city with at least 250,000 residents, marking the 17th consecutive year the city notched that distinction, according to data from city officials. Such crimes include homicide, rape, aggravated assault, robbery, burglary, arson, certain theft cases and human trafficking.

Crime statistics haven’t been released since 2021, but information put out by Irvine police show only a few other more recent killings.

“One thing I am confident in saying: The city of Irvine is still an incredibly safe community,” said Khan, Irvine’s mayor. “With isolated incidents like this, we never know when or where they might occur, but we know our police chief, Michael Kent, and our officers are committed to maintaining the high standards that our community expects.”

Multiple neighbors said they appreciated how quickly police responded to the shooting and made arrests.

“We don’t have control over when incidents like this occur, but we do have control over what we do next,” Khan said.

Police leaders are working to increase enforcement efforts since the shooting, presenting at a council meeting this week plans to add security cameras at parks and community centers, as well as expanding Irvine’s pilot real-time crime center, which embeds crime analysis staff in the emergency communications center.

“We’re taking the next steps to go even beyond what we’ve already accomplished in our city,” Khan said. “It’s always about letting people know what’s going on, what we’re doing and how we’re going to continue being the safest city.”

The venerable publishing house Simon & Schuster will soon be owned by one of the nation’s biggest private equity firms, KKR. For a glimpse of their future — and tips on how to fight back — Simon & Schuster authors and employees might want to chat with the former workers of Toys ‘R’ Us. There are 33,000 of them, and their company was driven into bankruptcy five years ago by a clutch of Wall Street firms led by KKR.

That’s a common script. Private equity is a 40-year-old Wall Street creation that thrives on cost-cutting, wealth extraction, short time horizons, and financial engineering. It bought, sold, and liquidated its way through the American retail sector years ago, and is now jumping into traditional book publishing, a business that demands patience, an appetite for risky new authors and deft marketing. Can Simon & Schuster survive, as KKR is infamously known, the “barbarians at the gate”?

The private equity model is to loot and flip, not to invest or run companies well — an ominous history for any acquisition, but especially for a business requiring long-term commitments, like book publishing. That said, there are policy options for change, from Washington to Sacramento, and models for workers to fight back.

Private equity firms raise money from pension funds, endowments and wealthy individuals and use a slice of that money plus a lot of leverage to buy companies that are then saddled with the debt. The Simon & Schuster transaction will leave the publisher $1 billion in hock, ratcheting up pressure to repay the debt — and turn a profit.

Those former Toys ‘R’ Us employees can attest to how that goes. When a group led by KKR bought Toys ‘R’ Us for $6.6 billion in 2005, it used $5 billion in debt. Then it kept squeezing. The new owners eliminated positions and offloaded responsibilities onto other employees, while pressuring workers to sign up customers for high-margin sweeteners like credit cards and “payment protection plans.”

KKR and its partners sold off Toys ‘R’ Us real estate, pocketed the money and forced the retailer to lease back its buildings. Along the way, KKR and the other firms paid themselves $250 million in “management fees” and big bonuses to hand-picked executives — right before Toys ‘R’ Us entered bankruptcy.

KKR’s story tracks the march of private equity through the American economy. Retail proved lucrative for KKR and other private equity firms, but 52,000 workers paid the price in California alone.

Healthcare has also proved a juicy target; KKR bankrupted Envision Healthcare, a staffing service for emergency rooms, with a heavy debt load. KKR, Blackstone and others have contributed to the housing crisis through their ownership of single-family homes, further excluding, especially, Black Americans from homeownership. An investigation of KKR ownership of care facilities for disabled people revealed appalling conditions, including at its California locations, part of a broader problem of private equity in the care economy.

Wall Street is no stranger to the creative industries. Blackstone, a private equity rival to KKR, has wrangled with recording artists over its ownership of companies that pay royalties. If KKR seeks a bigger slice of the income pie at Simon & Schuster — as opposed to growing the pie with new authors and titles — pressure on authors could go the same way.

Because debt both lubricates the private equity machine and raises pressure to slash costs and curb investment, any solution must realign incentives so that executives who load up a company with debt end up responsible for it. The Stop Wall Street Looting Act, introduced in 2018, would pierce the liability shield between private equity firms and the companies they purchase, giving creditors recourse to recover debt from Wall Street dealmakers.

Other measures could curb the worst abuses. Proposals in Congress would eliminate tax deductions for big corporate landlords to reduce incentives to bid up the cost of housing. Measures by health industry regulators could limit reimbursements to private equity-owned providers to deter harmful ownership forms. More states could also pass mandatory severance laws — New Jersey has led the way — to cushion the impact of mass layoffs. Minnesota’s state attorney general, Keith Ellison, is suing a private equity-owned home rental company for failing to maintain its properties.

And workers can fight back. Former employees of Toys ‘R’ Us won a $20-million severance fund after its bankruptcy through an astute mix of people power and political pressure. Tenants are organizing in San Diego to combat abuses by Blackstone, which has tried to outflank rent stabilization laws by driving existing tenants out through eviction or neglect.

Don’t worry about the folks at KKR. Its founders, Henry Kravis and George Roberts, are each worth about $11 billion after long careers on Wall Street. But based on their track record, the outlook for Simon & Schuster, publisher of important authors like Ernest Hemingway, Siddhartha Mukherjee and Doris Lessing, darkened considerably this week.

Aliya Sabharwal is a campaigns manager for private equity at Americans for Financial Reform and a former organizer of laid-off Toys ‘R’ Us employees.

If your parents were anything like mine, then you probably remember last-minute grocery-store runs to pick up a circular brick of pie for Thanksgiving. It was always one of three options—pecan, apple, maybe pumpkin—encased in a cage of plastic and aluminum with a white sticker label that seemed to announce that no, your parents didn’t cook anything, and, yes, this pie cost exactly $6.99, you’re welcome, now please pass the gravy.

While those days still exist—and honestly, I hope they always do (that was some damn-good pie)—the business of making pie has become a bit more involved. Last year, The New York Times dedicated an entire spread to making homemade, from-scratch pies, and more bakeries than ever are taking pride in pies in which everything from the crust to the filling is from fresh, organic ingredients without a hint of corn syrup.

I thought about this as I stepped into Pop Pie Co.’s carefully curated shop. From the neon “In Pie We Crust” signage to the meticulously stacked cardboard boxes covering the main wall, it’s clear what you’re in for. You won’t find bricks in plastic cages here! The store deals in both sweet and savory handheld pies fresh from the kitchen.

Founded by Steven Torres and chef Gan Suebsarakham, Pop Pie Co. is an extension of their mini phenomenon that first started in San Diego’s University Heights, where lines regularly creeped out the door. Pop Pie Co.’s newly minted Costa Mesa location on 17th Street once housed the similar concept Pie Not. And while the specialties here are savory, handheld meat pies—the Green Hog and Cheese, with Torres’ mother’s own tomatillo recipe and heaping stacks of tender, braised pork shoulder in every forkful, is really a dream—the vegetable-forward options are almost as good.

The vegetarian mushroom-risotto pizza pot pie is made with a generous helping of perfectly cooked mushrooms, olives and onions—supple, not soggy—and a light use of ricotta and mozzarella cheeses. The crust, which is painstakingly hand-rolled layer by layer, is hearty and buttery, but flaky, too. Upon looking at the robust, compact pie, you might think you’re in for a knockout nap after, but the dish is surprisingly light.

If you’re keen on something vegan, luckily the sole option is done superbly. Coated in an almond-milk wash, the roasted-veggies-and-yellow-curry pie houses a torrent of spices and herbs, with an aroma that’ll cause anyone in your near vicinity to crane their necks in your direction. Cauliflower is roasted alongside soft, smoky sweet potatoes, mushrooms and squash, and coconut milk creates the base soaking up the curry spices and enveloping the whole thing in a creamy layer.

There’s also an excellent vegan apple crumble pie, but if you can manage it, try the key lime, which cuts like silk and finds that elusive balance between tart and sweet.

And for those who plan on stopping by the supermarket on the way to Thanksgiving dinner, Pop Pie Co. also offers freshly made pecan and pumpkin pies. It’ll cost you more than $6.99, but I guarantee none of your fellow dinner guests will mind.

Pop Pie Co., 270 E. 17th St., Ste. 17, Costa Mesa, (949) 524-3015; poppieco.com.

Charisma can usually be found eating cake with a cup of hot coffee for breakfast or walking around the OC with Toto, her awesome corgi-chihuahua.

Three men and two women were arrested in connection with a series of burglaries of Orange County UPS stores in recent weeks, authorities said Friday.

On Aug. 3, deputies and task force teams located five people suspected of burglarizing stores in Laguna Niguel, Mission Viejo, Aliso Viejo and Laguna Woods, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. The dates of the crimes and description of the items taken were not disclosed.

In the course of the investigation, thousands of items were discovered containing identifying information belonging to other people, as well as a pair of firearms and more than 250 grams of fentanyl, according to sheriff’s officials.

Authorities arrested 33-year-old Irvine resident Mahmoon Ali; 40-year-old Whittier resident Cody James Boardman; 38-year-old Santa Ana resident Irineo Rosas Carrillo; 22-year-old Huntington Beach resident Paige Virginia Rose Brinton; and 37-year-old Escondido resident Lindsay Nicole Pandorf.

The suspects were booked into the Orange County Jail. Their bail information was not immediately released.

Anyone with information regarding the commercial burglaries was urged to contact the Orange County Sheriff’s Department at 714-647-7000. Tipsters who prefer to remain anonymous can call Crime Stoppers at 855-TIP-OCCS.

HOUSTON — A few days before Reid Detmers took the mound against the Houston Astros, Phil Nevin spoke confidently about the work he’d done in between starts.

So much for that.

Detmers gave up seven runs in the Angels’ 11-3 loss to the Astros on Friday night, continuing a slump that has left the team searching for answers for the 24-year-old left-hander.

Detmers has a 10.30 ERA in his last six starts, lifting his season ERA to 5.27. It’s been a discouraging step back for a pitcher who threw a no-hitter on his way to a 3.77 ERA last year.

When Nevin and general manager Perry Minasian have been asked about Detmers lately, their answers both included a reference how young he is. A first-round pick in 2020, Detmers has started 51 games in the majors.

On Wednesday, Nevin said Detmers had worked with pitching coach Matt Wise on having “a different mindset,” that included “not trying to strike everybody out.”

“You have some struggles, and you’re going to try to do too much to get out of it,” Nevin said on Wednesday. “Get back to basics of what made him successful.”

As recently as June, Detmers seemed to have turned his season around, allowing just five runs in a span of five starts.

Since then, though, in his best starts he’s gotten knocked out early by his pitch count, and in his worst ones by too many hits and runs.

Detmers got through the first inning on Friday, working around a hit and a walk. He took the mound in the second with a 1-0 lead after C.J. Cron hit a homer, but he gave it back quickly.

Detmers gave up back-to-back singles to start the inning and then he threw a 2-and-0 fastball over the inside corner and Jon Singleton smoked it over the right field fence.

Detmers then gave up a single, a double and a walk before finally getting the first out of the inning.

He allowed five runs in the first, and then two more when he gave up another homer to Singleton, this time on a slider off the inside corner. That ended his night with the Angels down 7-2.

If the Angels want to try something else with Detmers — optioning him or sending him to the bullpen — they have Griffin Canning available. Canning is on the injured list because of calf tightness, but the Angels and Canning said he’s ready to pitch in a game. The only question was whether it would be a rehab game or a major league game.

The Angels also could skip this rotation spot entirely because of an off day next Thursday.

After Detmers was out of the game, left-hander Kenny Rosenberg and worked the five innings of mop-up duty to preserve the bullpen for the rest of the trip.

More to come on this story.

As search-and-rescue efforts continued on Maui after a fast-moving wildfire tore through the island and killed scores of people, residents steeled themselves to return to the historic town of Lahaina after it was left in smoldering ruins.

Maui County said those with proof of residency or hotel reservations could return to Lahaina beginning at noon Friday. A curfew from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. was in place, and barriers restricting access to certain areas — including the historic center — were in place because of hazardous conditions.

Hawaii Gov. Josh Green told local television station KHON-2 that residents would face “destruction like they’ve not ever seen in their lives.”

“Everyone please brace themselves as they go back,” Green said.

The fire’s confirmed death toll rose to 67 as of Friday afternoon.

Green said the blaze is probably the state’s deadliest natural disaster in decades. The catastrophe spurred President Biden to declare a major disaster in Hawaii, opening the door to federal aid and assistance.

About 1,000 people are missing, according to federal sources who were not authorized to speak publicly about the fires.

The Lahaina fire, one of three that broke out Tuesday on Maui, was said to be 80% contained. Residents and tourists described harrowing efforts to escape the blaze, with some people rushing into the ocean for safety. Many did not know about the fire until they saw flames and smoke, raising questions about official alerts and warnings about the blaze.

Records indicate that neither the state nor the county activated sirens Tuesday, said Adam Weintraub, a spokesperson for Hawaii Emergency Management. Weintraub described Hawaii’s integrated outdoor siren system as the largest in the world, with about 400 sirens spread across the state. It is traditionally used in disasters and other threats, such as hurricanes or coastal hazards, to advise people to seek more information — not to call for evacuations or advise that people seek shelter — Weintraub said.

Three other public warning systems were used, Weintraub said: wireless emergency alerts to cellphones, broadcasts through radio and television stations and alerts that residents can sign up to receive through a local emergency alert system. But power outages and communication issues may have impacted those alerts.

Much of the west side of Maui remained without internet, power and water Friday morning, although officials said some cellphone service was available.

Federal sources with knowledge of the fires but who were not authorized to speak publicly told The Times that a breakdown in emergency communications cost precious time, and a number of people in the historic town of Lahaina learned too late about the oncoming fire. Many of those killed were believed to have died in their vehicles, those sources said. The death toll is currently tied to the most urbanized areas, with some bodies recovered from the harbor, they said.

In an interview on the “Today” show Friday morning, Maui County Mayor Richard T. Bissen Jr. he could not “comment on whether or not the sirens sounded.” He called the fires “an impossible situation.”

“I know that fires came up so quickly and they spread so fast,” he said.

Bissen said the death toll so far reflects only those who were found outside of buildings.

“We have not yet searched the interior of the buildings,” he said, adding that authorities are awaiting search help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

State and local agencies were assisting with search-and-rescue efforts.

Progress against the Upcounty fire, which broke out in a rural area on the island, was still being assessed. A third blaze, the Pulehu fire, was at 70% containment, officials said. Firefighters were continuing their efforts to secure the perimeters and battle all the blazes.

A colossal banyan tree rises amid the devastation of Lahaina on Thursday.

(Rick Bowmer / Associated Press)

“Maybe these things happen a lot in California,” said Maui resident Andrew Kayes, “but I’ve lived here 15 years and have never seen anything like this.”

Kayes, 49, lives in Maui’s Upcountry region, where one of the fires began. He watched from his backyard Tuesday night as the blaze grew into a swell of orange flames that glowed against the black sky.

“It looked like a lava flow,” he said.

The fires overtook and closed many roads, which became congested and stranded hundreds of people as they raced to the island’s only major airport, Kahului, where tens of thousands of visitors have left on flights, officials said.

Thomas Leonard rests on an air mattress at an evacuation center in the community of Wailuku. His Lahaina apartment was destroyed.

(Rick Bowmer / Associated Press)

Green estimated that as many as 1,700 buildings have been destroyed in the fires, hundreds of them in Lahaina. Even some of the vessels in Lahaina Harbor were burned.

Maui’s famed Banyan Tree, a 150-year-old tree with deep significance that is a popular tourist attraction on the island, was “smoldering at the base, but still standing,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) wrote on Twitter.

Green had been traveling out of state but returned to Maui on Thursday to assess the damage. He said during a public briefing that he expected the cost of the recovery to be in the “billions of dollars.” Accuweather had a preliminary estimate of damage and economic loss at $8 billion to $10 billion.

Search-and-rescue teams, some equipped with cadaver dogs, from local and state agencies are assisting in the aftermath. California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday deployed urban search-and-rescue personnel and other resources.

The search also unfolded online, where many turned to a spreadsheet on Google Drive to search for loved ones. By Thursday evening, the spreadsheet grew as new rows for the missing were added and loved ones marked dozens of family members as “found.” The link to the sheet repeatedly crashed because of high traffic.

Denise Youngblood Coleman, a Honokowai resident who has lived a few miles north of Lahaina for two decades, has been searching for names she recognizes on the Google spreadsheet. Coleman was in Los Angeles when the fires broke out, but said that based on satellite imagery, her home appears to be standing. She said she has not heard from two of her elderly neighbors, whom she described as her “ohana,” or family.

“They’re like my surrogate parents, and I don’t know where they are and that worries me greatly,” Coleman said. “Every person I know in Lahaina is homeless. There’s nothing left. That’s a huge thing to come to terms with.”

Although the rest of the state remains open to visitors, officials have asked nonresidents to leave Maui and urged others to avoid nonessential trips to the island.

The sun shines through clouds over burned-out Lahaina.

(Rick Bowmer / Associated Press)

The cause of the blaze has not been determined, but a number of factors — including high winds, low humidity and dry vegetation — probably contributed, said Maj. Gen. Kenneth Hara, adjutant general for the Hawaii State Department of Defense.

The weather service had issued a red flag warning ahead of the fires, indicating that warm temperatures, very low humidity and stronger winds were expected to combine to produce an increased risk of fire danger. But Hara said wind strength — forecast at 50 to 55 mph — far exceeded the predictions, shooting up to 85 mph.

Experts also said that climate change was increasing the likelihood of more extreme weather and that the changing landscape of unmanaged, nonnative grasslands from declining agriculture is a contributing factor to fire risks.

Entire blocks were razed by fire in the historic area of Maui.

(Tiffany Kidder Winn / Associated Press)

Jayme Gomes, a 29-year-old Wrightwood, Calif., resident whose father was born on the island and lives in Lahaina, told The Times she didn’t hear from her father until Thursday afternoon. His house had burned and he was separated from relatives during the evacuation, but he made it to the other side of the island and found a phone charger.

“It’s truly devastating,” Gomes said. “The whole town is gone. It’s not just a tourist destination. It’s home to many people.”

Gomes’ family is now staying with friends in Hawaii.

“I know that many people in Hawaii are going to help each other, because that is what aloha is,” she said. “That’s how everybody is there.”

Times staff writers Jeremy Childs and Jack Herrera contributed to this report.

Soon after pulling a handgun from his ankle holster and fatally shooting his wife, prosecutors say, Orange County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ferguson alerted his staff that he wouldn’t be taking the bench at the Fullerton courthouse to handle the next day’s calendar.

“I just lost it. I just shot my wife. I won’t be in tomorrow. I will be in custody. I’m so sorry,” the judge texted his clerk and bailiff, according to documents filed late Thursday by the Orange County district attorney’s office.

The documents provide the clearest picture so far of the case against the 72-year-old judge, who has been charged with murder.

He was arrested on Aug. 3 after his adult son called emergency dispatchers to say that his mother, 65-year-old Sheryl Ferguson, had been shot in the couple’s Anaheim Hills home.

Investigators load boxes of ammunition they removed from the home of Orange County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ferguson, who was arrested on suspicion of murder in the fatal shooting of his wife at their Anaheim Hills home.

(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

The judge was taken into custody, spent one night in jail and posted $1-million bail.

On the evening of the slaying, according to papers filed by prosecutors, Ferguson and his wife got into an argument over dinner at a restaurant, where he threatened her “by making a hand gesture indicative of pointing a gun at her.”

The argument continued when the couple returned home, where Sheryl Ferguson said, “Why don’t you point a real gun at me?” or something similar, prosecutors said in the court papers.

The judge, intoxicated, pulled a Glock .40-caliber pistol from his ankle holster and shot her in the chest, the bullet exiting her back and hitting the wall behind her, prosecutors said.

The judge’s son, who called 911 and tried to perform CPR on his mother, said his father had been drinking too much, prosecutors said.

The judge himself later called 911 to say his wife needed a paramedic, but when asked if he had shot her, he said he didn’t want to talk about it, prosecutors said.

Ferguson smelled of alcohol and was still wearing the empty ankle holster when police took him into custody, prosecutors said.

He asked officers to shoot him, according to prosecutors, and made remarks that were captured by police body camera: “What an ass— I am,” “Oh, man, I can’t believe I did this,” and “I guess I’m done for a while.”

Investigators remove evidence from the home of Orange County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ferguson.

(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

Police took a sample of the judge’s blood to measure its alcohol content seven hours after the shooting, by which time it measured 0.06%, below the legal limit for intoxication, according to court papers.

Ferguson’s son told police that his mother had once talked the judge out of shooting himself, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors will ask the court to impose additional bail conditions on Ferguson. Among their concerns: a missing rifle.

Though Anaheim police confiscated 47 firearms in a search of the judge’s home, plus more than 26,000 rounds of ammunition, detectives were unable to find a .22-caliber rifle that is registered in his name, according to the district attorney’s office.

Police missed still another rifle in their search of the judge’s home, though Ferguson’s defense attorney later found it and handed it over, the D.A. said.

Among the extra bail conditions, prosecutors will ask that Ferguson surrender his passport and his permit to carry a concealed weapon, possess no guns and wear an ankle monitor.

In a motion to set Ferguson’s arraignment, Deputy Dist. Atty. Chris Alex asked the court to limit contact between the defendant and the son, described in court papers as the only eyewitness to the homicide, in order “to prevent any degree of risk or undue influence upon Son.”

Prosecutors will also ask that the judge avoid alcohol altogether.

Though its prosecutors appeared before the judge regularly until last week, the Orange County district attorney’s office is handling the case, citing a decision by the state attorney general’s office that there is no conflict.

Ferguson, who was a local prosecutor for more than three decades before becoming a judge in 2015, faces 40 years to life in prison if convicted.

“This is a tragedy for the entire Ferguson family. … It was an accident and nothing more,” Ferguson’s attorneys, John Barnett and Paul Meyer, said in a statement, according to City News Service.

At the request of the presiding judge of the Orange County Superior Court, where Ferguson is employed, the case has been transferred out of county.

It has been reassigned to the courtroom of Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Ricardo Ocampo, according to court records.

Ferguson is scheduled to be arraigned there Sept. 1.

It’s hot, sweaty and built on solidarity: Los Angeles has become a city of picket lines this summer, with more than 100,000 workers out on strike in the region.

Each set of workers — screenwriters, actors, hotel employees, city staffers and more — is fighting its own particular fight, but organized labor is having a moment on the streets of L.A.

“There’s a perception that we have little in common, but we’re both fighting for our future,” playwright Sam Chanse said recently as she walked a picket line alongside hotel workers.

But is this hot labor summer just a perfect storm of organizing, economics and contract expiration? Or is this a new normal?

Strike activity in the U.S. has quadrupled since last year, and Los Angeles is the work stoppage capital for 2023, largely because of the huge number of L.A.-area writers and actors represented by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA unions.

Nationally, however, this level of labor action is a return to pre-pandemic form. More than 400,000 workers went on strike in both 2018 and 2019, which saw the “Red for Ed” teacher strikes and a major work stoppage at General Motors. This year’s picket population has topped 300,000 so far — but still has time to set a recent record, if the nearly 150,000 workers at the Big Three automakers go out on strike after their contracts expire in September.

On a longer timescale, the last decade has seen significantly less industrial action than most decades of the 20th century, when union membership was much higher across the U.S. And despite a wave of new union organizing at companies such as Starbucks and Amazon, workers have had a difficult time bargaining first contracts and fending off anti-union tactics from employers.

Still, it’s hard to deny that there’s something in the air this season. Johnnie Kallas, a doctoral candidate at Cornell University who runs the Cornell-ILR Labor Action Tracker that keeps tabs on labor actions nationwide, points to the pandemic as a proximate cause.

“For a lot of these workers, this is the first contract that they’re negotiating since the beginning of the pandemic,” Kallas said.

Meanwhile, the cost of living has been jumping, which means even standard raises are still tantamount to pay cuts; corporate profits have been on the rise across the economy since 2020; and unemployment has remained low, giving workers more bargaining power.

That potent combination of factors, Kallas said, has made workers willing to fight.

“The pandemic had the effect of delegitimizing management in every which way,” said Nelson Lichtenstein, who teaches labor history at UC Santa Barbara.

Especially in the early days of the pandemic, managers “were discredited whether or not they tried to do the right thing,” Lichtenstein said. Office workers learned that they could have been working from home the whole time, even before lockdown rules made it necessary. “Essential workers,” who had to report to work in person, learned that their health was less important than the bottom line.

Then, as the COVID-19 recession turned into a stock market boom, rising prices ate away at the spending power of the average employee while many of the companies they worked for reported blockbuster earnings.

“Corporations lost their credibility,” Lichtenstein said, “and it was very intimate. It wasn’t something like a Madoff or big banks doing something. It was right there in everyone’s face.”

Los Angeles in particular sits at the vanguard of two trends: increasingly expensive housing and an increasing amount of cross-union solidarity.

Unite Here Local 11, the union representing workers on strike at dozens of hotels across the region, has explicitly tied its demands at the bargaining table to housing issues. In negotiations, the union has asked hotel owners to charge customers a new fee that would feed into a fund to help workers obtain affordable housing and support a 2024 ballot measure that would require Los Angeles hotels to rent vacant rooms to unhoused people.

The decades-long decay in regular residual payments and show staffing has also put housing costs front and center for writers and actors who are on strike.

Even the group representing local businesses agrees that housing costs are contributing to labor unrest.

Maria Salinas, president of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, said that her group is “very concerned about the affordability issues, mainly in housing” and that it advocates for regulatory changes to increase housing construction.

According to a recent informal poll of about 100 chief executives, Salinas said, “the top issue was housing affordability, followed by tightness in the labor market,” both of which are making it difficult to recruit and retain workers in Los Angeles.

Kent Wong, director of the UCLA Labor Center, noted that housing costs also motivated the statewide UC graduate student worker strike last year, with workers facing “tremendous difficulty making ends meet, especially given the rising cost of housing.”

“The other major factor is that Los Angeles is an important focal point for the new American labor movement,” Wong said. Since Miguel Contreras assumed the leadership of the L.A. County Federation of Labor in the mid-1990s, the local labor movement has been at the forefront of organizing immigrant workers, nonunion workers and young workers across industries to push for political change, such as raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour and beyond.

The L.A. labor movement is working together more than it has in past years. In March, L.A. school teachers represented by United Teachers Los Angeles coordinated a joint three-day strike with L.A. school workers represented by SEIU Local 99. Within weeks of the joint action, both unions secured contracts with major raises — 21% for the teachers and 30% for the workers represented by SEIU. This year is also the first time since 1960 that screenwriters and actors are simultaneously on strike, and the local Teamsters have committed to honoring their picket lines.

But still, organized labor in the U.S. is relatively weak compared with earlier decades — and efforts to organize new groups of workers and get them under union contracts has faced stiff opposition from employers.

“Normally when you think of moments of mobilization and discrediting of the old order, from the ‘30s to the ‘60s and ‘70s, organization expands,” Lichtenstein said. “But right now that’s not happening.”

To explain the gap, Lichtenstein points to weaker labor laws and management hostility.

“The management strategy now is basically to not recognize the union and wait it out, even if they take a reputational hit, and that’s often successful,” Lichtenstein said. “The playbook works, given the current state of the labor laws,” which hit employers with small penalties for violations and have little power to force employers to the bargaining table.

“In this country, management is very antagonistic to the idea of unions and collective bargaining, even when it could be in their interest or lead to good outcomes,” said Kallas, the Cornell researcher. Starbucks workers, for instance, have organized unions at more than 300 coffee shops, but the company has waged an intense campaign to avoid recognizing them or bargaining a first contract.

But if hardball tactics from management keep colliding with a workforce that’s losing purchasing power, losing their homes and losing their patience, then workers could keep organizing and keep resorting to strikes when negotiations fall apart.

The summer’s strikes are “a reflection in an upsurge in worker consciousness and a reflection of a deep dissatisfaction with a status quo that is not working for most workers,” Wong said.

Wong added that economic inequality in California grew during the pandemic despite the ostensibly pro-labor makeup of the state government. “More workers are seeing the necessity of organizing, mobilizing and fighting for better wages and conditions at the work site.”

There have been times when we wanted to head to the Recess Room for a midday meal but forgot it was only open for dinner service. Turns out we weren’t the only ones who thought this way. As of early November, operating hours changed for the better. From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Tuesday through Friday, chef Nikko Marquez and his Fountain Valley crew are ready to feed your need for their modern Asian fare. Offering a quick-service setup as most are short on time, diners need only browse the chalkboard wall upon arrival, then place their request and pay the host, then claim a table indoors or along the patio. Ranging from $9 for a Korean barbecue tofu and kimchi bowl to $16 for one sizzling meat fest, there’s enough variety to please—particularly if you don’t count calories.

In lieu of day drinking, inquire about the agua fresca, which changes daily. Our tall blend of fresh strawberries, pineapple and rose water would complement the flavors we’d encounter while grazing the lunch menu. Pickled cucumbers and crispy shallots kept Thai barbecue pork ($12) from being a one-note dish. A plentiful farmers’ market salad ($10) evolves with what’s in season; on the day I visited, the mix included golden beets, Asian pear and watermelon radish. Opt for a side of protein or choose among the secondary leafy greens ($12), featuring tandoori chicken tossed in yogurt-herb dressing.

Folks not familiar with Recess might consider the hearty “Fili” cheesesteak (a nod to the chef’s Filipino heritage for $14) as their gateway meal. Provolone and grilled onions guarantee a messy good time as they mingle with beef. Also worthy of your attention: an upgraded bone-marrow burger ($12), featuring a compound butter infused with the good stuff that evenly melted over our grass-fed patties and bacon jam. Pair it with taters spiced with tamarind, galangal, kaffir lime and ginger. Or go ooey gooey-style, and they’ll come blanketed in a velvety, classic Mornay sauce.

However, the Most Valuable Platter award belongs to Marquez’s sizzling riff on steak and eggs. Cognac black pepper and soy sauce flavor an albondigas meatball, longanisa sausage and filet mignon, while baguette rounds add necessary carbs and fried egg lends a yolk-y ooze. Per co-owner Viet Pham, the skillet brings international flavors together in a combo similar to the Vietnamese dish bánh mì chao. Sent to the table still steaming, it’ll satisfy your carnivore cravings and make you the envy of this dining room.

The Recess Room, 18380 Brookhurst St., Fountain Valley, (714) 377-0398; www.therecessroom.com.

A contributing writer for OC Weekly, Anne Marie freelances for multiple online and print publications, and guest judges for culinary competitions. A Bay Area transplant, she graduated with a degree in Hospitality Management from Cal Poly Pomona. Find her on Instagram as brekkiefan.

The Los Angeles County Probation Oversight Commission is launching an investigation into the “major disturbance” late last month at the newly reopened Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall, during which 13 detainees attacked staff in an escape attempt.

Local law enforcement agencies arrived in riot gear and surrounded the facility in response to the juvenile hall’s call for help on July 28. One youth scaled a wall during the chaos at the Downey facility and nearly escaped.

Oversight Commissioner Dolores Canales requested the investigation to clear up discrepancies between media accounts and the county Probation Department’s own statements. A number of early reports described the incident as a “riot,” though probation officials now say it never rose to such a level.

“It is in the best interest of the Probation Oversight Commission and the public to understand what happened at Los Padrinos on July 28, 2023, and to use the incident as a learning opportunity,” Canales wrote in her motion.

Canales originally asked for the Los Angeles County Office of Inspector General to carry out the investigation, but the inspector general was unable to take the lead due to short staffing. Instead, Probation Oversight Commission employees will direct the probe, with the OIG assisting with any portion that requires confidentiality.

Report expected in 30 days

The investigation will examine what occurred in the days prior to the attack, review security camera footage and determine if staff shortages and the facility’s physical conditions contributed to the scale of the incident. The commission expects a report back on the findings within 30 days.

Albert Banuelos, the facility’s new superintendent, called the disturbance “something we haven’t really experienced.” The fight began about 8 p.m. Friday, July 28, when seven youths assaulted staff members and broke an exterior door attached to their living area. They then broke the window of a second unit, allowing six others to join them on the facility grounds.

The oldest in the group, an 18-year-old, climbed a wall and escaped onto an adjacent golf course, according to the Probation Department, which recommended that the escapee be charged as an adult.

Neither side suffered serious injuries. Banuelos said there was no blood drawn or bones broken. “I’m grateful we didn’t get to that,” he said. “But there was still damage to everybody involved.”

Banuelos described the attack as traumatic for the employees targeted by the group. Internally, he said, the department is conducting its own investigation into the matter.

Pepper spray redeployed

One part of the commission’s separate probe will review whether the incident warranted the redeployment of pepper spray at Los Padrinos.

Interim Probation Chief Guillermo Viera Rosa reinstated the use of oleoresin capsicum spray (OC spray), a type of pepper spray, the day after the attack. Los Angeles County has attempted to phase out the use of the spray in the juvenile halls for years and officials originally touted that none would be used at Los Padrinos when it reopened last month.

Probation officers, meanwhile, have criticized the phase-out, saying that the removal puts officers at risk, by forcing them to physically intervene in situations that could be halted immediately with the spray.

Viera Rosa stated at the time that he would reevaluate his decision in the next few days. Banuelos was unable to provide an update on the status of that evaluation at the oversight commission meeting Thursday, Aug. 10.

A report provided to the commission indicates OC spray was deployed nine times at Los Padrinos from July 29 to Aug. 6. Four deployments stopped youth-on-youth violence, while the other five prevented attacks, or attempted attacks, on staff, according to the report.

Staffing issues persist

The past few months have been particularly tumultuous for the county Probation Department, which has struggled to maintain adequate staffing levels at its facilities.

In early May, a youth at the Secure Youth Treatment Facility (SYTF) in Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall died from a suspected overdose, casting a spotlight on the department’s ongoing struggle to prevent drugs and other contraband from entering its facilities.

Then, days later, the Board of State and Community Corrections ordered the closure of Nidorf and Central juvenile halls within 60 days due to the “unsuitable” conditions at the two facilities. In response, the county scrambled to renovate and prepare Los Padrinos, which had been closed since 2019, to house the roughly 275 youth, and moved the last of the group just days before the deadline.

It was supposed to be a fresh start, but the newly reopened facility almost immediately began experiencing problems. The air conditioner broke during one of the first visitation weekends. Visitors described smelling mildew and seeing signs of bug infestations. Detainees didn’t have access to any forms of entertainment and weren’t receiving enough time outdoors, creating a sense of restlessness that some youth blamed for their drug abuse.

The July 28 lockdown was the second in a week. The first was prompted by the discovery of an unsecured firearm in a staff area on July 21. That matter is still under investigation.

Fentanyl could be smuggled

Meanwhile, drugs have continued to enter the facilities, with officials acknowledging during a county Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday that the security in place isn’t effective enough at detecting pills and other narcotics that might be hidden on someone’s person.

“If someone was to put fentanyl, a little tiny pill, in an inside jacket, could that be detected?” asked Supervisor Janice Hahn.

“With the technology that we have right now, the honest answer is no,” responded Eric Strong, the Probation Department’s chief safety and security officer.

At the meeting, Strong said the department has taken several steps to increase security, including implementing a clear-bag policy, providing additional training for staff, deploying drug-sniffing police dogs and doubling the number of contracted security officers working in and around the facilities.

The agency is pursuing airport-style, full-body scanners to replace the metal detectors used now and wants to install nets along the perimeter that would combat contraband from being thrown over the walls, he said.

It is worrying that drugs are still getting smuggled in despite the department’s efforts, Hahn said at the meeting.

“If this security company can’t do it, then let’s find one that can,” she said. “Because first and foremost, we have to keep drugs from coming into these facilities, then we can really focus on programming and healing.”

Inspections looming

The Probation Department might not have long to implement reforms. The Board of State and Community Corrections is set to begin inspecting both Los Padrinos and the SYTF at Barry J. Nidorf for suitability this month. If Los Angeles County fails those inspections, it could find itself facing more shutdowns within the next year.

Sean Garcia-Leys, a probation oversight commissioner, put it bluntly at the commission’s Aug. 10 meeting.

“I see in six to nine months the BSCC shutting down Los Padrinos unless there is something radically different done, and I don’t see any plans to do anything radically different,” Garcia-Leys told officials from the department. “I just see a lot of plans to keep working harder until we get things a little bit better and that’s not going to be sufficient.”

DC Gorilla Oarfare raised their oars above their heads and sang Queen’s “We Are the Champions” during a victory lap around the Rivers of America as the home team successfully defended their turf and claimed the Disneyland Canoe Races championship once again.

Disneyland crowned a familiar champion on Thursday, Aug. 10 before the Anaheim theme park opened to the public as the team made up of Davy Crockett’s Explorer Canoes employees hoisted the Fastest on the River trophy.

SEE ALSO: Disneyland attendance rises and visitor spending increases thanks to higher ticket prices

More than 1,000 employees from Disneyland, Walt Disney Imagineering and from throughout the company take part in the canoe races each year. This year, 84 teams participated – with eight to 16 members on each team.

It’s an arduous commitment. Practices began in June with races starting in July and winners crowned in August. All of the practice and competition time on the water takes place when the park is closed – typically in the early morning hours just before and after dawn.

It was a hard-fought victory this year for the Davy Crockett’s Explorer Canoes team that is so strong and dominant that they field varsity and junior varsity squads. The DC in Gorilla Oarfare’s name stands for Davy Crockett and the tandem teams take pride in winning the top two spots in the annual employee competition they started 60 years ago.

The varsity DC team crossed the finish line in 3:58.24 – completing the single circuit along the Rivers of America in just under four minutes. That’s right. These races are tracked down to the hundredths of a second.

If you’re wondering, the average lap around Tom Sawyer Island on one of the few Disneyland rides with no motor or track takes the average crew of 20 visitors about eight to 10 minutes.

The junior varsity DC Gods of Oar came in second at 4:02.49 – a difference of less than five seconds behind the varsity team.

But the story this year was all about Smoke on the Water – the Disneyland Fire Department team – that emerged as a new contender for the title of Fastest on the River. Smoke on the Water finished in 4:07.07 after flirting with a sub-four minute time during the preliminary heats last week.

“Smoke on the Water came out of nowhere and stole our place from us last week,” said Gods of Oar’s Aries Law. “We smoked them this time.”

Law cheered on his Gorilla Oarfare teammates from the banks of the Rivers of America while decked out in a team T-shirt, gold leaf headband and war paint on his face.

“Dig DC! Dig!” shouted Law, 27, of Anaheim. “Get it DC!”

SEE ALSO: Disneyland to turn Steakhouse 55 restaurant into a bar and lounge

The Davy Crockett’s Explorer Canoes teams viewed the Disneyland Fire Department as their chief competition in this year’s race, Law said.

“They have good reason to worry,” said Disneyland firefighter John Simpson. “We’re to be reckoned with.”

Smoke on the Water didn’t shrink from the fight.

“For firemen, we’re pretty competitive to begin with,” Simpson said after the race. “We were really hoping we’d beat them this year. If we had won, I was going to say, ‘We beat you on your home court.’”

SEE ALSO: Disneyland is already decking the halls for the Christmas holiday season

Simpson didn’t want to make excuses, but he had a few at the ready.

“We were down a person this year,” said Simpson, 62, from Irvine. “The average age of our team was 50. We’re a little older than most of them.”

Racers making the counterclockwise full loop around Tom Sawyer Island paddle in the opposite direction of Disneyland visitors. The lone concession is really the only way to strip an otherwise unfair advantage from the race teams made up of Davy Crockett’s Explorer Canoes employees.

Nonetheless, Davy Crockett’s Explorer Canoes employee teams dominate the standings every year. Pride is on the line, after all. It’s their job to know the river. Plus they get to be out on the Rivers of America every day of the year.

The teams are fairly evenly split between the ultra-competitive and fun-loving, said Disneyland Canoe Races event coordinator Ashley Oertle.

“There’s always new teams that have no idea what they’re doing out there. They’re excited to have fun with each other,” Oertle said via a video interview after the finals. “But there’s also the teams that have been around for quite a few years and they’re in it to win it. You can definitely tell that they’re giving it their all every week.”

Disneyland handed out medals on Thursday morning to the top three finishers in four divisions named for the waterways represented in the Rivers of America – Mississippi, Columbia, Missouri and Rio Grande.

Qualifying teams that didn’t reach the finals competed in a separate sprint competition on Wednesday, Aug. 10.

In the sprint competition, the Batuu Barrel Runners beat Duck Dodgers, You’re Welcome and Plaidstics to reach the final where they outraced A-Row-Ha.

The “Barrel” in the Batuu team’s name refers to the floating barrels at the corners of the “Fantasmic” fountain platforms marking the strictly enforced out of bounds area of the race course. The Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge team was disqualified last year for going inside a barrel and incorporated the sour memory into their name as inspiration.

Many of the team names are inside jokes that only make sense to Disneyland cast members – Disney parlance for employees.

Galaxy’s Edge fielded several teams with clever names like Batuuan Canuuans and Racing Rancors. This year’s inside baseball puntastic team names included the AnimatOars, Third Shift Trash Bandits, Canoe Take a Picture, Rowsort Enhancers, Guest Rowlations and Rivers of FAMerica. The FAM stands for Facilities Asset Management, the team that manages all the facilities across the 500-acre theme park resort.

FAMerica was the hero story of the competition rising from near the bottom of the standings when the time trials began to finish in first place in the Columbia division at 4:18.77 – finishing with the fourth best time in the finals behind Smoke on the Water.

The first canoe was on the water at 5:45 a.m. on Thursday.

Competitors traded high fives with co-workers watching from the sidelines as they headed down to the dock for each heat. The airhorn at the start of each race was quickly followed by the chants of “row, row, row” from the competitors as colleagues and family cheered from the Hungry Bear restaurant patio. The ducks floating on the river didn’t seem to mind all the excitement while watching the races from the best seat in the house.

SEE ALSO: Disneyland’s busted pipes add to crowd control headaches in Adventureland

The four first place winners from each of the divisions took a victory lap just before 7 a.m. followed by an awards ceremony on dry land. A check for $2,500 was presented to the Tierney Center for Veteran Services non-profit organization, part of Orange County’s Goodwill chapter.

By 7:30 a.m., nearly all signs of the canoe race were gone and Disneyland opened for early entry to Disneyland hotel guests.

The canoe races that started 60 years ago at Disneyland have become a beloved summer tradition for employees that has been exported to Disney parks around the globe.

The Disneyland canoe races began in the summer of 1963 when Indian War Canoes foreman Ray Van De Warker and Jungle Cruise foreman Bob Penfield watched a visitors’ canoe filled with athletes charge around the Rivers of America at top speed.

A debate ensued and challenges followed. Soon Frontierland and Adventureland employees were battling it out on the water to see which themed land was the king of the river.

The Disneyland canoe races are one of the many unique perks of working at the Happiest Place on Earth, a bucket list experience for many employees and the reason some apply for the job in the first place.

Most of the pinch-yourself Disney Cast Life moments take place during the wee hours between closing time and the morning rope drop when the park is typically teeming with overnight workers. Sleeping Beauty Castle sunrise yoga sessions start just before daybreak. Minnie’s Moonlit Madness trivia and scavenger hunt takes place after midnight.

The goal: Build community and friendships among employees while having fun at work. Of course, there’s a competitive aspect as well. Winning helps. Losing hurts. But the camaraderie and teamwork endures.

Oertle, the first year coordinator for the annual event, has been coming to the Disneyland Canoe Races since she was an infant to watch her aunt Laura Iwasaki compete. As a kid, Oertle enjoyed the doughnuts, hot chocolate and Disney characters as much as the races. She joined her aunt’s Duck Dodgers team when she started working at Disneyland.

Oertle will finally get to rest after two months of 4 a.m. call times for pre-dawn canoe race practices and heats.

“I’m taking a vacation day tomorrow and I’m sleeping in past three in the morning,” said Oertle, who works with Disneyland’s cast activities program. “The early mornings were a bit of a struggle for me. I’m not the biggest morning person, but I love the event.”

The Hawaiian island of Maui is asking visitors to stay away as it tries to recover from devastating wildfires.

Officials said Thursday morning that two of the three fires on Maui were largely contained. But the damage to portions of the island is extensive, particularly in the tourism-heavy region of West Maui, where fire appears to have incinerated much of the historic town of Lahaina.

The Kahului Airport on Maui remains open, at least in part because of all the people being evacuated (officials have asked all visitors on “non-essential” trips to leave). With the wildfires causing more than 50 deaths and an estimated $8 billion to $10 billion in damage and economic losses, the Hawaiian government is strongly discouraging tourists from coming to the island.

If you had a vacation planned, this is what you need to know.

Should I cancel my trip to Hawaii?

The state tourism authority emphasized that most parts of Hawaii continue to welcome visitors. “Travel to Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi” and parts of Hawaiʻi Island other than the Mauna Kea resort area “are not affected at this time,” the authority said on its website Wednesday. By Thursday, the Mauna Kea Resort on the big island was open again after three fires in the area were brought under control, the authority said.

Maui, and particularly West Maui, is a different story. The tourism authority said Wednesday night that visitors bound for West Maui in the coming weeks “are encouraged to consider rescheduling their travel plans for a later time.”

“In the days and weeks ahead, our collective resources and attention must be focused on the recovery of residents and communities that were forced to evacuate their homes and businesses,” the authority said.

Will my hotel charge me a fee to cancel my stay in Maui?

Under normal circumstances, many hotels penalize last-minute cancellations by charging fees that can be considerable. Some in West Maui are waiving those fees at the moment, but figuring out the policy at the hotel you’ve booked can be a challenge — the closer it is to the fire, the more likely that its power and phone lines are down.

The Hyatt family of hotels is waiving cancellation fees for arrivals “in the coming days,” the company said in a statement. It suggested that guests with reservations call its customer support line at 800-233-1234 “for additional details and assistance in alternate accommodations.” It also noted, however, that canceled reservations made through online booking sites and other third parties may be governed by those sites’ policies.

If you’re headed for other parts of Maui or the Mauna Kea resort area on the island of Hawaii, the state tourism authority says, you should talk to the hotel you booked for updates about how you might be affected.

Hotels in Maui may still be taking reservations, and some are providing refunds up to the date of travel. For example, you could book a room for next week at the Outrigger Kaanapali Beach Resort on Thursday afternoon, even though the power and phone lines at the resort were out, according to a reservation agent.

What can I do about my flight to Hawaii?

Some major airlines offer customers the ability to obtain refunds for travel to Maui in the coming weeks, as well as the option to reschedule their flights. The exact terms depend on the airline.

At United Airlines, if you had paid for a flight to Kahului Airport between Aug. 11 and Aug. 31, you can cancel and get a refund, according to the United website. You can also reschedule your trip and the change fees and fare differences will be waived under certain circumstances.

If your new trip is after Aug. 31 or is to a destination outside Hawaii, United will still waive any change fees, but you may have to pay a fare difference, depending on the flight.

At Delta Airlines, customers who can’t reschedule their trips to Maui may cancel their reservations and apply the ticket cost to the purchase of new flight — but that flight has to be booked no more than a year after the Maui ticket was purchased, the airline’s website says.

If you schedule a new flight on or before Aug. 18 at the same level of service as the Maui flight, Delta’s website says it will waive the change fee and any difference in fare. After that, only the change fee will be waived.

The American Airlines site suggests that refunds are possible for flights to or through Maui if you cancel by Aug. 13. You can apply for one on the airline’s website.

If you want to reschedule your flight, American will waive the change fee if you rebook by Aug. 13, but you may have to pay any difference in the fare. To see if your flight is eligible for a refund or fee waiver, use the “Find your trip” tool on the airline’s website. If you can’t change your trip online, call Reservations for help.

At Alaska Airlines, if you’d purchased a ticket to or from Maui by Aug. 9, you can obtain a refund as long as you cancel before the original flight’s departure date, the airline’s website says. You can also reschedule onto a new flight to or from Maui or three other Hawaiian airports through Aug. 31 at the same fare if you stay in the same cabin. But you have to exchange their tickets prior to the departure of their original flight.

Hawaiian Airlines is allowing customers to cancel their flights in exchange for a refund or a credit for future flights, or to change their flights to a different island, its website says. To change or cancel your flight, call the airline’s reservations line at 800-367-5320.

A spokesperson for the airline said, “We ask guests with non-urgent inquiries to please call back later so that we can assist travelers with immediate needs. Guests traveling through Kahului should continue to check their flight status on our website or app before coming to the airport.”

Can I cancel my Vrbo or AirBnb?

Vrbo told The New York Times that wildfires and other natural disasters do not override its cancellation policies. But it also said that it had waived host penalties for canceled bookings on Maui and parts of the Big Island from August 9 through 16, hoping to give hosts an incentive to provide refunds.

Vrbo suggests that guests reach out to the hosts they booked with for more information on their specific situation, while also consulting their travel insurance provider to see if they can be reimbursed for their rental.

AirBnb customer service says that they will provide penalty fee cancellations for hosts and guests who request them. However, people need to call their customer service line at (844) 234-2500 to make sure that they are eligible.

Will travel insurance cover me?

According to the insurance comparison site Insuremytrip.com, “If a wildfire that affects your trip is known before you purchase a plan, your coverage may be extremely limited.” So if you are thinking of purchasing travel insurance now for a trip in the coming weeks, don’t bother.

What you can do is see if wildfires fall under the definition of “natural disaster” on your travel insurance policy. You may also be eligible for coverage under “trip delay” if your flight is canceled, “trip interruption” if your accommodations or primary residence are damaged, or “trip cancellation” if your destination has been evacuated, Insuremytrip says.

An Orange County mother of two turned to social services when she suspected something was awry with her young boys in 2011.

While at preschool, her 4-year-old son simulated sex acts a child his age shouldn’t comprehend — alarming his teacher.

The mother’s plea for help prompted a visit from a county social worker. The child said he had been inappropriately touched by a longtime family friend.

The mother’s husband, separated and living with his parents, claimed the story was a ruse to secure sole custody of the boy and his 1-year-old brother.

The social worker ultimately found the allegations lacking and closed the case. But that was far from the end of the ordeal.

In a closed-session meeting last week, Orange County supervisors voted 4 to 1 to pay the mother $4.5 million to settle a lawsuit she filed against the county in August 2018.

According to court documents, the mother alleged negligence by county workers and that they failed to contact authorities to investigate the allegations, as was required.

That misstep, the mother alleged, led to years of additional sexual abuse by Alex Padilla Beltran, 56, who was eventually arrested in 2018.

“It’s been a long road for the boys who didn’t even realize at the very beginning what was going on,” said the mother’s attorney, Christopher Taylor of Pasadena-based Taylor Labor Law. “They’ve been stressed about it and this trial.”

A friend of the family for 20 years, Beltran initially admitted he had pinched the 4-year-old’s butt but characterized it as nothing more than “roughhousing,” according to court documents.

The mother, however, alleged the incident was part of a pattern in which Beltran would abuse the boys when they were left in his care while their father went out to drink, court records show.

Beltran remains in custody at the Theo Lacy Facility. He is awaiting trial on 26 counts of sexual abuse over a 17-year period dating back to 2000 including alleged lewd and lascivious acts with minors.

He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Taylor said the boys, one now in high school and the other in middle school, struggled with having to endure psychological testing and depositions for the case and are ready to move on.

“The mother is very happy because when this all started years ago, nobody believed her, including [child protective services] and relatives who didn’t want to admit this longtime family friend had been doing this,” Taylor said.

Orange County supervisors did not publicly comment on the settlement, which was first reported by the Orange County Register, after Tuesday’s closed session. But in a statement to The Times, Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento said he felt compelled to act even though the allegations happened well before he was elected.

“I believe that the settlement will help find closure and provide funds for future medical care to address the trauma suffered by the victims,” he said in the statement. “I’m also confident that with this settlement, and changes to the reporting standards within [the] O.C. Social Services Agency, we will not have complaints of child abuse go unanswered.”

In an interview, Supervisor Katrina Foley said, “Ultimately, we must make sure we take care of kids.”

“I voted in favor of the settlement because we were informed our county had a basic bureaucratic failure to send over a report to the Sheriff’s Department that caused there not to be an investigation by the sheriff,” Foley said.

She said she thinks the chances of such a reporting failure happening again are “a lot less,” and her main concern was the “victims were compensated and the perpetrator held to account.”

Calls to the Orange County Social Services Agency were not returned.

The only vote against the settlement came from board Chairman Don Wagner. He did not respond to a call or email requesting comment, but he told the Register he “felt that the argument that the county had done something wrong that justified paying such a large settlement was very weak.”

Get ready, San Francisco: The state government on Thursday approved a major expansion of driverless robotaxi service throughout the city.

And get ready, Los Angeles: The industry is planning to push for driverless rides here as soon as it gets permits to do so.

The state’s green light, on a 3-1 vote by the California Public Utilities Commission, signals a historic turning point for the robotaxi business as it evolves from fascinating experiment to commercial reality. It also marks the beginning of a grand experiment in public safety as thousands of multi-ton vehicles operated via artificial intelligence attempt to safely negotiate the hills and narrow streets of San Francisco.

It highlights California’s messy multiagency regulation of new automobile technology: Two agencies are in charge of the robotaxi business, the CPUC and the California Department of Motor Vehicles. And it shines a spotlight to expose Silicon Valley’s influence on California government.

Although the approval delights the industry and proponents of rapid technological innovation and economic growth, it’s provoked anxiety among automotive safety advocates and local public officials, who have little regulatory power over the vehicles.

San Francisco’s robotaxis have become notorious for “bricking”— or coming to a dead stop — in traffic, clogging lanes for emergency vehicles, blocking firetrucks from exiting stations, stopping on fire hoses and driving directly into emergency scenes where Police and Fire Department lights are flashing, rather than going another way.

“They’re not ready for prime time,” San Francisco Fire Chief Jeanine Nicholson told The Times recently.

The Fire Department made public reports of 55 such incidents over the last year and a half, most of them occurring just in the last several months.

The CPUC, which approved the measure, regulates rides for hire. The CPUC also regulates ride-hailing services Uber and Lyft. Both companies plan over time to replace their human drivers with robot cars.

The approval allows robotaxi companies Waymo and Cruise to charge fares and expand operations to all parts of the city, 24 hours a day. Each has deployed several hundred vehicles in the first phase of the commercial rollout. With the expansion, that will grow to thousands of vehicles, Cruise Chief Executive Kyle Vogt recently said on an earnings call.

The sole no vote was cast by Commissioner Genevieve Shiroma, who said the commission shouldn’t allow rapid expansion before Waymo and Cruise are required to explain why their vehicles keep interfering with emergency responders and what they’re going to do about it. “The commission lacks at present sufficient information … to evaluate the safety aspect of this,” she said. “It is premature to approve these resolutions today.”

Voting in favor were Commissioners John Reynolds and Darcie Houck, and commission Chair Alice Reynolds. Commissioner Karen Douglas was absent. All five commissioners were appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

John Reynolds, who came to the CPUC after serving as top lawyer at Cruise, said safety is the DMV‘s concern. He called the dozens of Fire Department incidents “anecdotal data analysis lacking sufficient rigor.” He added that earlier deployment rules passed by the CPUC are set in stone and can’t be changed without a lengthy rulemaking process.

Although Reynolds recused himself from voting on those rules, he did help Cruise advise the CPUC in the early stage of the rules’ creation. Reynolds said before his vote that his professional role has now switched to “consumer advocate.”

Shiroma took issue with describing the emergency responder data as “anecdotal” and asked how those pushing for an immediate vote would feel if “a member of your family was trapped in a burning building.”

She made clear she wasn’t opposed to robotaxi deployment, but more time was needed for the industry to explain why its software gets confused in emergency scenes, and how it’ll be fixed. “Given their financial backing” it’s reasonable to ask Cruise and Waymo to take the time to get things right before a major expansion.

The driverless industry has a reputation as a bunch of scrappy startups, but the key companies are all owned by corporations with deep pockets. Cruise, by General Motors; Waymo, by Google’s Alphabet; Motional, by Hyundai; and Zoox, by Amazon.

City officials fought hard to delay an expansion until the companies could figure out how to program their vehicles to prevent interference with first responders. They won a two-month delay, but on Thursday the CPUC made its decision. Opponents, meanwhile, won an acknowledgment that their concerns are real.

In its lengthy resolution, the official document approving the expansion, the commission said it “acknowledges continuing and emerging challenges related to passenger and public safety.” It said “we remain concerned about potential risks, known and unknown, to passenger and public safety as driverless [automated vehicles] scale up.”

No concrete plans to address those issues were mentioned. The commission did say that it “will engage with stakeholders” and that “we see the need for continued development in our approach to AV regulation and policy.”

The resolution also addressed city officials’ concerns about lack of local control over safety and traffic flow not only in San Francisco but also in Los Angeles and Santa Monica. The commission noted that cities are allowed to issue traffic tickets.

The CPUC did signal an intention to review California government’s spotty rules around safety data collection and address the driverless industry’s propensity to keep stats out of public view sometimes with the help of the state’s own regulators. In 2021, after the DMV received a public records request for Waymo crash data, the agency invited the company to seek a court injunction to prevent the DMV from releasing full crash reports.

After the injunction was granted, the DMV and Waymo cut a deal to keep the basic crash information concealed on the grounds of protecting company trade secrets. California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta helped the DMV and Waymo craft the deal, which was approved by a state court.

The robotaxi expansion was supported by state and local chambers of commerce, merchants’ associations, advocates for the disabled, and California Assemblyman Evan Low, who represents Silicon Valley. A large number of individuals spoke in favor or against the move before the CPUC vote. Several blind people testified in favor. Several others in wheelchairs were opposed, noting that current robotaxis cannot accommodate them, and that human taxi drivers are able to help them in and out of their vehicles.

This story exists because I listened to two women. The three of us were chatting on my lunch break, and one of them started telling me about her recent experience dealing with a stalker. It was creepy and scary, but she insisted that she refuses to live in fear. When she was done, the other women immediately shared her own equally frightening experience with a stalker.

I wondered how common these experiences were. “Ask other women you know,” one of them said. “I think you’ll be surprised.”

The Centers for Disease Control estimate that 15 percent of women and six percent of men have been stalked at some point in their lifetimes. This seems low, especially given that the Justice Department defines stalking so broadly, as “engaging in a course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to fear for his or her safety or the safety of others or suffer substantial emotional distress.”

While researching why stalking happens, I kept running into the same word: Entitlement.

“Although stalkers say they do it because they feel so helpless that they have to resort to those desperate measures, it’s also because they feel entitled to, as if the woman is ‘his,’ and he has the right to know every little thing she does,” Michael Kaufman and Michael Kimmel wrote in their 2011 book The Guy’s Guide to Feminism.

Six years later, Kate Manne addressed this in her book Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny. “When men are privileged, or long have been, they may proceed with a sense of not only legal impunity but also moral entitlement–secure in the idea that what they seize is theirs for the taking, and sometimes trying to wreak revenge on women who fail to uphold their end of history’s bad gendered bargain,”she wrote.

That Manne is currently working on a new book on misogyny, simply titled Entitlement, is a big tip-off here. Entitlement–a feeling that a woman’s attention or even body is a possession of a man’s–is everything.

It’s thus no surprise that women are, as researchers H. Colleen Sinclair and Irene Hanson Frieze wrote in a 2002 paper, “far more likely than men to report that the stalking behaviors had caused them fear.” Further, Sinclair and Frieze found a variety of studies showing that “women are more likely to experience intimate violence and to notice violence generally in close relationships.” What’s more, Sinclair and Frieze noted that research showed that women reported more stalking behavior than men did. “As men’s actions are more threatening to women than vice versa, women may report higher frequencies because one tends to attend to information that is potentially threatening to one’s survival,” the researchers wrote.

It doesn’t help that so many popular movies romanticize stalking. Movies like Say Anything, The Notebook, Love Actually, High Fidelity, Wedding Crashers and There’s Something About Mary all include male characters who exhibit stalking behavior towards women, but are portrayed in a positive light.

“These male characters all refuse to respect women’s boundaries, women’s personal space, or women’s privacy,” Jonathan McIntosh says in the YouTube channel Pop Culture Detective. “They don’t listen to women’s words, and they ignore all signals of disinterest or rejection. In short, they refuse to take ‘no’ for an answer.”

The South African writer Tauriq Moosa went even further in a 2017 op-ed for The Guardian. “Instead of teaching men to respect women’s boundaries, however painful rejection may be, the media teach us that our feelings, our sense of entitlement, matter more,” Moosa wrote. “As men, we’re told to disregard women as people and view them instead as goals to pursue, view rejection as an obstacle to overcome, view boundaries as fences to wear down.”

Taking my friend’s advice, I asked women I know around Orange County and Long Beach if they’ve ever dealt with a stalker. Some said yes immediately; others said no, then a few minutes later came back to me and said my question had jogged an old memory. Very few said they’d never had a stalker.

Here are 10 of their accounts, all given anonymously, with all identifying details removed, save the city they live in. Though each woman’s experiences are different, the accounts all share one stark commonality: they happened because a man felt entitled to a woman’s body, affection and attention.

Buena Park

I won a beauty pageant a few years ago. The first time I saw him, I didn’t know he had already been following me. I was with my sister at CVS, and we were in the beauty aisle. He approached me, then said I looked familiar, that maybe he saw me in the newspaper. I didn’t think anything of it because I had done so many appearances and had been in the papers.

The second time I saw him I was running, in the late morning. He started following me in his car. He tried to get my attention, to talk to me, but I ran home. That scared me. The third time I saw him I called the cops, because I knew something was up. But since he hadn’t threatened me, they said there was nothing they do, beyond talk to him–tell him to leave me alone–which apparently they did.

Nothing happened for two years, and I thought that was it. But then I was out running, and I saw him start following me. I freaked out and ran home. I locked the doors, closed the blinds and called the cops. Again, they said they would talk to him. At that point, I was just trying to create a paper trail.

We got his address–which was in my neighborhood–and my boyfriend at the time wanted to confront him. He went over to the guy’s house and knocked on the door, but there was no answer.

He left me alone after that, until about three years ago, when I was out voting in my neighborhood. He wasn’t there when I got to the polling place, but he just happened to be leaving at the same time I was. Again, he tried to get my attention. I just got in my car and drove away.

Another time I was out walking my dog, and he drove up to me and again tried to get my attention. By this point, I just cursed him–I told him to leave me the f*** alone at the top of my lungs. I wanted everyone in the neighborhood to hear me. He looked shocked, and then drove away.

I was leaving work in early October and saw him again–I was on a main street, waiting to make a left turn, and he pulled up next to me. I was terrified–now he knows where I work, I thought. This was also the first time he ever approached me at night, and it was a main street.

I went home, and once again closed the blinds and locked myself inside. Now I carry a Taser and pepper spray. Years ago I stopped running at night, but now I never run at sunset either. And when I do go running, I vary the times I leave so there isn’t a pattern. And I never run near the street where he lives.

Santa Ana (I)

I was in high school color guard with the marching band. There was this boy who was really into me. One night after a tournament we were sitting on the bus. We made out, but then he thought we were to be together. I didn’t really feel that way about him.

He would follow me around school, and wait for me after class. He also wrote me a bunch of letters, and would send poems to me. But he was passing off poems that he found on the internet as his own. I called him out on it. He said he was sorry. I also told him gently that I wasn’t interested in him, and didn’t want a relationship. He said okay, but he continued to follow me to classes. He would follow behind where I wouldn’t notice him, but my friends saw him and told me about it. This went on I think for a whole school year.

It finally fizzled out because he latched onto another girl and got her pregnant. They have babies now.

Irvine

I was officially his supervisor, and he somehow got fixated on me, even though I’d only met him once and he didn’t work in my building. He started sending emails to me. At first they were creepy, but they got more threatening as time went on.

I made my employer hire a threat assessor. The assessment came back that yes, he was a threat, but the way to deal with him was to not deal with him, in hopes that he would just go away. This felt wrong to me–by staying silent, I didn’t feel empowered. And, as it turned out, he didn’t go away.

He started contacting other people about me. He sent emails to my co-workers, and to others. Then he started going into my social media, and sending notes to my friends and followers. He was especially nasty to women.

Everyone was getting upset, but I had to tell them not to respond. I started to feel really bad, because not only did I have to relive this each time, but now these women–some of whom had their own sexual harassment and stalking experiences–were dealing with this.

The organization later separated from this man, but he got a great deal of money to go away. They didn’t do anything to protect me, except tell him that he couldn’t come to work anymore.

I ended up stepping down as supervisor. I felt that one of the reasons he was targeting me so aggressively was because I was his boss. I also worried that I was putting my kids at risk. It just wasn’t worth it.

I still resent that. I was good at my job, and was the first woman in the organization to hold that position. Now, a man has it again. I don’t like that just because there’s a woman in authority, a man can threaten her and the organization won’t protect her.

The anger just doesn’t go away. I did everything I was supposed to do, and he still got to do what he wanted.

Huntington Beach

I was 20, working at a mortgage company in Utah. He was 40, working IT. He was just the IT guy at work, 20 years older than me. There was no other reason for him to be in my life. I would only talk with him when my computer crashed. Then I moved to California. That’s when he started following me on Instagram. For five years, he kept hitting me up on Instagram, sending me messages. I never replied. Then one day he said he was flying to San Diego. Soon after, he drove all the way to the bar where I worked. I was washing dishes when he walked in. I saw him, then asked a regular to distract him while I left out the back. I haven’t seen him since.

Another time, I was working at Wal-Mart and my manager started messaging me on Instagram. He was just my manager–we never went out. He also looked up my address and started sending flowers and chocolate-covered strawberries to my house. Even today, he still sends me Instagram messages saying “Hey, I miss you” and “I love you.”

Long Beach

I met him at the end of 9th grade. He was a friend of a friend. I always knew he had a crush on my, but I never hung out with him one-on-one. He was on the water polo team, and he was tall. I’m tall, and I still had to look up to him. We went to different high schools, in completely different neighborhoods. He started spreading a rumor that I was his girlfriend, even though we never went out, and I never gave him my phone number.

I confronted him at a party and told him that I wasn’t his girlfriend, wasn’t interested in being his girlfriend, but he laughed it off, and still told his friends that I was “his girl.” Then one of my friends ended up giving him my phone number. He tried to call me, but I sent the messages to voicemail. Eventually, I just blocked his number.

Then it escalated to the point that he would drive up beside me as I was walking home from school. He asked if he could take me home. “No, you aren’t taking me home,” I told him. He must have been skipping school to do this, because I got out earlier than other students. Anyway, I stopped walking home, and had my dad pick me up after school.

This went on throughout high school. One time, he found out where I lived, and he started showing up outside my house. That’s when I went to the police, but they told me they couldn’t do anything unless he threatened me or our property. Plus, my dad wasn’t taking it seriously–he thought I was leading him on, even though I wasn’t.

One night during the winter of 12th grade, I was at home, reading in bed, and I heard tapping on my window. Soon it got louder, and then it turned into pounding. “I know you’re there,” he said. “I can see you reading.” I ran out and locked myself in another room. The pounding had gotten so loud that it woke up my dad, and he called the police. He ran away before they arrived, but at least I was able to file a report and get a restraining order against him.

I didn’t have any further contact with him until I was about 21, when he found me on Facebook. He said, “I miss you. How are you? I have a girlfriend now, but I can’t stop thinking of you.” I responded, and told him to leave me alone. But it so disgusted me that a week later I deleted my Facebook page.

Santa Ana (II)

In high school, there was a guy I’d hang out with. He wasn’t my boyfriend, and we were never intimate, but he was always asking me to hang out. It was all the time. At one point I told him that I didn’t want to hang out.

That’s when he started obsessively calling the house. Like nonstop. He would also show up places to see me, and he started asking my friends about me. What finally stopped it was that my dad got on the phone and put him in his place. I think my dad just got sick of his always calling.

It lasted about three weeks. At first it was just a nuisance, but then it became weird. Like I said, we weren’t intimate, and at the time I didn’t understand what he was after.

Fullerton

I knew this guy about seven years ago. We hung out in the same social groups. He wasn’t a close friend–more like an acquaintance. I’m very active on social media, posting what I’m doing, and then one day he just randomly showed up at a bar where I was hanging out with a friend. No warning. “How did you know we were here?” I asked him. “I saw your post,” he said.

That was a red flag. Then I started seeing him all the time. Once, at a bar, I got a little drunk, and he made a pass. It was too much, and I made him aware that I wanted to stop all contact. I blocked him on all social media. He tried to reach out, say he was sorry, but I blocked him. I’m still watchful, even kind of paranoid.

But there was another time, a one-off incident, that still shakes me. I was at the bar of a really packed club. There were tons of people around me. All of a sudden, this guy grabs my arm and starts pulling me. I have no idea who it is–I can’t even see his face because it’s so crowded. I start yelling at him to stop, but he keeps pulling me. He pulls me all the way to the door. I’m screaming at this point, but no one can hear me because it’s so loud.

He pulls me outside, where it’s a lot quieter. I’m still yelling. People are standing around looking at us, kind of wondering if they should do something, or he’s just my boyfriend. He starts trying to drag me down an escalator. I know if he does that, there’s just no hope for me. Then out of nowhere my friend who I was with shows up and starts asking what’s going on. The guy just disappears.

That really shook me up. I couldn’t go out after that. Even today I get super defensive about people touching me. I’ve been really shaken up since that incident.

Irvine (II)

I was 18 at the time. I was in college, eating in the dining hall. When I got up, I accidentally bumped into this guy. “It’s so funny,” I told him, “you look like Mac DeMarco.” We talked briefly about DeMarco’s music, and then I said, “It was nice meeting you” and left. I wasn’t expecting anything to happen after that. About an hour later, I got a Facebook friend request from the guy. I had no idea how he found me–we had no mutual friends–but I had been wearing a jacket that had my first name printed on the back.

I accepted the friend request, and then he sent me a link to Mac DeMarco’s new album, and links to MP3 files for his music. Then he asked me if I was free to hang out that night. I thanked him for the music, but said I already had plans to go to a Wes Anderson film festival at the school that night. I suggested that he should go, and that maybe we’d see each other.

He did show up, and ended up sitting next to me, but I spent the whole time watching the films. He walked me back to my dorm when it was done, and we talked about surface-level things. At my dorm, he asked me if I wanted to go out another time. I said I wasn’t interested. He said he understood, and left.

Five minutes later, he sent me the song “Friend Zone” by Thundercat. I think I thumbs-upped it. I didn’t talk to him again for a while, but then every week he started sending me songs. A lot of them were about breakups. I eventually blocked him, and I stopped wearing that jacket that had my name on it.

Long Beach (II)

When I was 13, I lived in a group of condos. My friends and I would walk through the neighborhood to go to the park. One day, this guy followed us in his car. He looked like he was lost, because he was just circling. Finally, he drove up to us. He pulled up and asked us where this store was.

We couldn’t hear him because he was still sitting in his car, so we moved closer. That’s when I saw that he was naked from the waist down, touching himself. Some days later, we saw his car again in our neighborhood. I didn’t even get the car’s license plate, because I was freaked out. I also didn’t think things like that actually happened in real life.

That scarred me for a long time. After the school bus dropped me off, I had to walk a few blocks to get home. I got scared, and super-vigilant about every man everywhere who came near me. I also forced myself not to look into cars that were near me. For a long time I thought that all men were disgusting, and it made me angry when I wondered if he had done that to my other friends.

I told my dad, and he gave me this tiny screwdriver and told me to carry it with me all the time, even put it in my bra if I had to, so I could grab it if I needed to. He was a single father, and he had to work–he couldn’t pick me up after school and take me home. I guess this was the best he could do at the time.

Dana Point

There was this guy who was a friend of a friend. We had one of the only apartments just out of high school, and he came to all our parties. There were three of us living there at the time. He had a red car, and he would drive by the apartment all the time. If the lights were on, he would stop and come up, and the front door was often unlocked.

He was creepy. It was his shyness, combined with the way he stared. I don’t know who’s friend he was. He never asked any of us out, but this went on a long time–over a year. He never hurt anybody, but he made me very uncomfortable. I was always afraid he would knock on the door when I was home by myself. What do you do then? You can’t say you’re not home. When I was home alone, I’d sometimes keep the lights off. He would drive by all the time. It became a fear of red cars–any time we’d see one, we’d stop.

There was another guy, a very tall, very strange guy. He found out I was acting in this particular theater and he’d come to the plays and stay after. I think he was schizophrenic, but he did pretty well. He came to at least three plays, which were months and months apart. He would just stare at me–again, never asked me out. He would just be there, not doing anything. He would also bring a joint and we’d pass it around. A friend admonished me for this–saying I was just using him for his marijuana, but he’d also smoke it.

I always wore sturdy shoes when I lived in the city, so I could run if I needed to.

If you feel you’re being stalked and need help, call Safe Horizons at 1-800-621-4673.

Anthony Pignataro has been a journalist since 1996. He spent a dozen years as Editor of MauiTime, the last alt weekly in Hawaii. He also wrote three trashy novels about Maui, which were published by Event Horizon Press. But he got his start at OC Weekly, and returned to the paper in 2019 as a Staff Writer.

LOS ANGELES — Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw delivered a 90-mph fastball to the first batter he faced, Jurickson Profar, at 7:10 p.m. on Thursday night. He flashed a new pitch before his five innings against the Colorado Rockies were over. Otherwise, Kershaw picked up right where he left off.

The Dodgers’ offense didn’t pick up until Kershaw had thrown his final pitch.

After being shelved for 44 days with a shoulder injury, Kershaw allowed only one run in five innings in the Dodgers’ 2-1 victory over the Colorado Rockies. He allowed three hits, did not walk a batter, and struck out four before an announced crowd of 45,933 at Dodger Stadium.

Rockies pitcher Ty Blach was every bit Kershaw’s equal. The veteran lefty threw six innings, allowed three hits, walked two, and took a 1-0 lead into the seventh inning.

Max Muncy’s solo home run in the seventh inning, and his bases-loaded walk in the eighth, provided both of the Dodgers’ runs.

The win kicked off a 10-game homestand on the heels of a 5-1 road trip that allowed the Dodgers (67-46) to separate themselves atop the National League West. They have won nine of their past 11 games and lead the second-place San Francisco Giants by 6½ games, with the Rockies (45-70) comfortably buried in the division cellar.

Colorado’s underwhelming lineup made for a soft landing for Kershaw, who looked comfortable throughout an efficient 67-pitch outing. Despite not making a minor league rehabilitation appearance after hurting his shoulder on June 27, Kershaw only made one mistake: a hanging slider to Elehuris Montero that the Rockies’ designated hitter planted in the left-center field bleachers for a home run in the fifth inning.

Kershaw complemented his 90-92 fastball, curveball and slider with a new fourth pitch. He threw the apparent splitter/changeup hybrid three times, each time for a strike. Kershaw lowered his ERA to 2.51 in 17 starts.

Muncy led off the seventh with a home run of his own, launching a 90-mph fastball into the Rockies’ bullpen. His 28th homer of the season ended a six-pitch at-bat. That was the last of Blach’s 83 pitches. Tied 1-1, the game belonged to the bullpens.

Left-hander Ryan Yarbrough (5-5) threw three scoreless innings in relief of Kershaw. He allowed only one runner to reach base, when Ezequiel Tovar singled in the sixth inning, then picked him off first base for the second out of the inning. The decision to throw over was critical: if he hadn’t been picked off, Tovar would have been awarded second base because it was the third time Yarbrough disengaged with the pitching rubber during the plate appearance.

In the eighth inning, the Dodgers loaded the bases against Rockies reliever Tommy Doyle on walks by David Peralta and Freddie Freeman, sandwiched around a Mookie Betts single.

Tovar, the Rockies’ shortstop, made a spectacular catch in left-center field on a Will Smith fly ball for the second out of the inning. But Muncy watched a 3-and-1 fastball from Doyle miss the inner edge of Erich Bacchus’ strike zone, drawing a walk to force in the Dodgers’ second run.

Brusdar Graterol pitched a scoreless ninth inning to record his fifth save of the season.

More to come on this story.

After watching from afar as flames ravaged the Hawaiian island of Maui this week, Riverside Fire Department Division Chief Michael Staley will see the destruction firsthand.

“Devastating. I’ve been through other wildfires in California. (It’s) something you’d never think of happening to Hawaii,” Staley said Thursday, Aug. 10, shortly before he and seven other urban search-and-rescue specialists left the city’s fire training center for Los Angeles, where on Friday they are scheduled to fly to Maui.

As of Thursday night, nearly five dozen deaths have been attributed to the fire, which started Tuesday night and was pushed through the west end of Maui by 70-mph winds from Hurricane Dora. Some 1,000 homes and landmarks have been destroyed.

President Joe Biden on Thursday mobilized three Federal Emergency Management Agency task forces in California: Task Force 6 in Riverside County and others in Oakland and Sacramento counties. There are 28 such task forces in the country, including eight in California.

Task Force 6 is made up of firefighters from Riverside, Cal Fire/Riverside County, Corona, Hemet, Murrieta and the Pechanga Band of Indians. Team members have searched the rubble and assisted in other ways at disasters such as the World Trade Center attacks, a mudslide in Washington state and Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana.

The eight people headed to Maui are all from the Riverside Fire Department, and their role will be to support those managing the disaster response.

The team has 10,000 hours of training in radio communications, hazardous materials and driving trucks, said Capt. Paul Seawright, a department spokesman. Any of them could be called to the front lines for a hazmat situation.

“My heart goes out to those affected by that erratic fire behavior. It’s tragic that we have to respond, because lives have been lost. But we are highly trained and we thrive in that opportunity to serve,” Seawright said.

The team loaded a 16-wheeler with radios, batteries,  medical gear and shelters that will be flown to Maui, Staley said. Team members could be tasked with setting up satellite and Wi-Fi communications, as well as radios to link the various task forces.

Hawaii is familiar ground for Staley; his father was born in Hawaii and still has family there, on the Big Island. Staley, however, sounded focused on the task at hand.

“I’m there to support the mission,” he said. “That’s my job.”