With the primaries officially underway, election workers put the first batch of test ballots through Orange County’s voting system on Thursday, Feb. 8. Inside the spacious and drafty warehouse at the Orange County Registrar of Voters headquarters in Santa Ana, around 10 workers, each with multiple stacks of test ballots, fed them one by one through the ballot scanning devices.

Related: Orange County Register’s March 5, 2024 Primary Election Voter Guide

By the end of the day on Friday, the 40 machines that had been tested this week were deemed to be working properly, according to the Registrar’s Office.

“We’ve never had any discrepancies in the vote count,” said Registrar of Voters Bob Page.

Thursday officially kicked off the testing of all ballot scanning devices that will be used in the primary election. It is called, according to the Secretary of State, the “logic and accuracy test,” mandated by the state to “ensure that every device used to tabulate ballots accurately records each vote.”

Accuracy testing of Orange County’s voting system started with the preparation of test ballots and will continue until all devices have been included in the test, said Page. The Registrar’s Office wants to ensure every device accurately counts ballots before they are put into use, he said.

If a device, during testing, is found to be counting ballots inaccurately, it won’t be put to use, Page said.

As in years past, voters have several ways to vote, Page said. Ballots can be mailed through the U.S. Postal Service, dropped off at a ballot box or delivered in person at a vote center. Voters can also vote in person at any vote center.

The 406 test ballots used in the “logic and accuracy test” this week cover every scenario in which a voter could submit a ballot, whether it’s a pre-printed ballot that is mailed out to voters or ballots created by marking devices at a vote center, Page said.

Test ballots were marked to replicate how voters could vote, and election workers fed them through the ballot scanning devices, called Hart InterCivic Verity Voting. When the ballot is inserted, the screen shows the message: “Please wait, the device is processing your ballot.”

Once the ballot has been processed, the device chimes, and the screen shows a blue background with an American flag.

At the end of the logic and accuracy test, about 400 machines will have gone through testing, said Page. There will be two ballot scanning devices at each of the 183 vote centers in the county — 37 of which will open on Feb. 24, followed by another 146 on March 2 — and at least 20 extra just in case.

Hart machines, used by 12 other California counties, allow voters to either fill out their ballot by hand or digitally and then scan and cast their ballot using a touch-screen operated ballot scanning device.

The test, along with other election activity, is open to the public to observe. Being transparent about election activity to the public allows people to see for themselves that the elections system works accurately, Page said.

“This has always been part of the process,” he said. “We will continue to make sure that conduct transparent elections.”

A lack of confidence in the election system and whether votes will be counted correctly is a concern many Republican voters hold, according to a December poll by The Associated Press – NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The poll found that about three in 10 Republicans nationwide have a “moderate” amount of confidence and three in 10 have “only a little” or “none at all.” On the other hand, 72% of surveyed Democrats said they are confident their votes will be counted correctly.

Starting in this election, Page said, voters could return their vote-by-mail ballot at a vote center and have it “processed and counted like a nonprovisional ballot cast in person,” according to legislation signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom last year.

Page said the greeter at a vote center will ask every voter who comes in to deliver a vote-by-mail ballot whether they would like to simply drop off the ballot or vote it as an in-person ballot. If the voter chooses the latter, their status will be changed from a vote-by-mail voter to an in-person voter, and they will be required to sign the roster for the voting location. After, they will be given a secrecy folder and directed to a ballot scanning device, Page said.

To ensure voters know where their ballot is, the Registrar has a tool that allows voters to track their ballot. Voters can sign up at ocvote.gov/track to receive notifications about the different steps in the process, Page said. Those who are signed up now will receive a notification when their ballot has been mailed. A notification will also be sent when ballots are returned to the Registrar, and when ballots are accepted for counting, the system will notify voters who have issues with their ballot, for example, forgetting to sign the envelope.

Herbert Wigwe, co-founder of Access Bank, was among the victims, family members from his home village of Isiokpo said. Abimbola Ogunbanjo, who was president of the National Council of the Nigeria Stock Exchange from 2017 to 2021, and served as the group chairman of the Nigerian Exchange Group Plc from 2021 to 2022, also was confirmed dead by a family member in Lagos.

The Federal Aviation Administration said a Eurocopter EC helicopter crashed at about 10 p.m. on Friday with six people on board.

“The scene of the crash was determined to be east of the 15-Freeway, near Halloran Springs Road,” the San Bernardino County Sheriff-Coroner Department said in an emailed statement on Saturday. “No survivors have been located.”

The helicopter went down near Baker, a town of 700 people about 95 miles southwest of Las Vegas, said Peter Knudson, a spokesperson for the National Transportation Safety Board.

The helicopter took off from Palm Springs Airport around 8:45 p.m. and was en route to Boulder City, Nevada, when it crashed, according to the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department. Sheriff’s officials told KABC-7 that they have not been able to locate any survivors and the cause of the crash is unknown.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending a team to the site to investigate the crash. A news conference is scheduled for 6 p.m. Saturday.

“It has been confirmed all six people on board the aircraft are deceased,” the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department said Saturday afternoon. “The identities of the deceased will be released once positive identification has been made and next of kin notifications have been made.”

On his X account, Wigwe posted in January: “Today and always, let us remember that life is a precious gift – a chance to breathe, feel, love, experience and connect.  Let’s honor this gift by living with purpose, kindness, and gratitude, making every moment count … Let us number our days.”

Logs from the California Highway Patrol show there was rain and snow in the area at about the time of the crash.

Halloran Springs Road crosses over Interstate 15 in an area known to travelers for an abandoned gas station with a sign declaring “Lo Gas” and “Eat.” It’s located in a remote area of the Mojave Desert, with an elevation of nearly 3,000 feet

The crash comes less than a week after a U.S. Marine Corps helicopter crashed in the mountains outside San Diego on Tuesday during historic downpours. Five Marines were killed.

Boulder City is about 26 miles southeast of Las Vegas, where the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers are set to play in Super Bowl LVIII on Sunday.

Bloomberg, the Associated Press and staff writer Hunter Lee contributed to this report.

On Monday, Feb. 5, about 8 million gallons of raw waste flowed into the Dominguez Channel and from there, into the ocean at Cabrillo Beach. Just before and just after that event, at least four smaller spills hit Seal Beach, Palos Verdes and Doheny Beach among other places.

All of the spills were rain-related and all posed measurable threats to public health.

But, collectively, the spills also exemplified the stakes in what many experts describe as a race to save the ocean off Southern California, a race that’s shaped by global warming, public money and time.

Either cities and counties will redesign the century-old network of underground pipes, cemented rivers and culverts used to control sewage and storm runoff in much of Southern California, or, experts say, we’ll suffer as climate change causes enough huge storms to pull us back to a time when the Pacific Ocean was the region’s de-facto toilet.

“Stormwater is the number one source of pollution to the ocean and all our regional waterways, including rivers and lakes,” said Katherine Pease, director of science and policy for Heal the Bay, a Santa Monica-based non-profit that produces an annual “Beach Report Card” and advocates for cleaner waters in the ocean and elsewhere.

“That’s a big concern,” Pease added.

“Our storm drain and sewer systems, which for the most part have been working for many years, have become aged. Now, when we see events like this week’s storm, we see a huge pollution problem.”

That certainly played out this week. In each of the spills, health officials found that bacteria and viral counts, and evidence of fecal matter, were all high enough in the ocean off Los Angeles and Orange counties to close beaches from San Pedro to as far south as Anaheim Landing.

In that sense, experts said, this week’s spills were yet one more thing — a glimpse of one possible future.

New direction?

Depending on the time period you’re talking about, and the type of pollution you’re measuring, the local ocean is either a lot healthier today than it used to be, or it’s an ecosystem in decline.

And most shifts in ocean health, experts say, are connected to the ways that water, sewage and garbage are handled on land.

“We’re better than we were in a lot of ways,” said Garry Brown, founder and executive director of OC Coastkeepers, a Costa Mesa-based watchdog group that has pushed for ocean health for several decades.

Specifically, Brown said, water districts, cities and the county are working to prevent physical chunks of garbage from flowing through rivers, streams and water channels down into the ocean. Water agencies and others now routinely use devices that block and/or capture debris before it reaches any beach.

It hasn’t ended the problem. Brown noted that his organization held 84 beach clean-up days last year, largely related to garbage that hit the ocean. “The good news is we had 84 of them,” Brown said, laughing. “That’s also the bad news. We needed 84 of them.”

But, bigger picture, he said the debris issue isn’t as profound as it once was.

“We’ve learned tricks. We’ve invented best management practices. Cities, now, are required to manage stormwater runoff, and that’s true for counties and anybody that produces runoff.

“We’re just generally a lot better at reducing some types of pollution,” he added. “And people really care about it.”

But Brown and others said that when it comes to other types of pollution, including sewage, industrial pollutants or even fertilizer from community parks and greenbelts — stuff that heavy rains carry from cities and suburbs and farms into pipes and drainage channels — progress has been slower and, in some cases, has reversed.

“We started to plateau in this, generally, probably just before the recession, around 2005 maybe ’07,” Brown said. “A lot of people just started to say ‘No, we can’t afford to do more.’

“It’s why people are focused on fixing pipes. The resistance from (polluters) is pretty strong.”

Twin systems

In much of urban Southern California, storm runoff and wastewater are handled by two separate but closely related networks of pipes — a storm drain system and sewer lines. The storm drains handle rain and urban runoff, which can include everything from motor oil to diapers. The sewage system handles what comes from toilets and home taps.

Critically, most of these byzantine networks — which have grown to include thousands of miles of pipes and drainage channels and huge underground cisterns — were designed decades ago, when the ocean was viewed as an appropriate terminus for all that foul water.

“It was based on gravity,” Brown said. “Basically, pipes were built so the water would flow to the lowest point.”

Often, that was the beach.

As a result, even though most people now see storm and sewer water getting into the ocean as a bad thing, the design of our water infrastructure makes it hard to avoid. When 8 million gallons of sewage flowed into Cabrillo Beach this week it was, in a sense, what the system was designed to do.

That, experts said, is changing quickly.

“Look, when Heal the Bay was formed (in 1985), the major issue that our founder saw was that the Hyperion (Wastewater Treatment Plant) was releasing partially treated sewage directly into the ocean, as a matter of policy,” said Pease.

“That’s not happening anymore. And part of that is because changes are being made, as possible, here and there, but as quickly as they can be made.”

It’s unclear how much work is needed. Pease and others say water agencies are working appropriately on aging and vulnerable points.

Another unknown is money. Though voters nationally differ strongly on the need for environmental mitigation, some recent events suggest Southern California taxpayers are willing to finance water improvements as needed.

Brown pointed to how Orange County voters in 2006 approved a change in Measure M, so that some of the county’s half-cent sales tax can be used for filters on storm drains and other infrastructure that help clean up the ocean.

And Pease noted a property tax called Measure W — billed as the “Safe, Clean Water Act” because it pays for projects aimed at capturing and treating recycled rainwater — was approved by two-thirds of the voters in 2018 in a special district of Los Angeles County.

“Nobody likes rate hikes or higher fees,” Pease said. “But there is public support for cleaner water. We do need to make it clear what the true costs are for water pollution, and hold polluters accountable.”

The accountability side of that was on display this week.

A day after the new 8-million-gallon spill was reported at Dominguez Channel, the state announced a deal with the Los Angeles County Sanitation District over a massive 8.5 million-gallon spill that hit the same area over New Year’s weekend in late 2021. (And that spill was the biggest in a series of 14 incidents that hit the area from 2018 through ’21.)

As part of the deal, Los Angeles Sanitation will spend about $6 million to create a water capture system and improve groundwater treatment at Calas Park, a recreation area in Carson that state officials said has been “unfairly burdened” by multiple sewage and storm water system failures.

But spending can only improve how excess water is handled or stored. What it can’t do is prevent the water from coming.

Even in an era when big, weird storms seem to be more common, the atmospheric river that hit Southern California this week was particularly big and weird. As much as 11 inches of rain landed in some parts of Los Angeles County during a single 24-hour period.

Nobody is suggesting that size of storm is the region’s new normal.

But the nature of the storm — warmer than usual for winter, wetter and intense for a brief period — is expected to become more frequent.

And the size of this storm, while outlandish, is part of a broader trend.

Until recently, even one-inch rains were rare in Southern California. In the 1930s — a decade that saw massive flooding and prompted the creation of the Prado Dam and moves to pour concrete under the Los Angeles and the San Gabriel rivers — federal weather records show just five years in which Los Angeles and neighboring counties saw a single storm that generated an inch or more of rain.

After this week, Southern California has seen storms of an inch or more in 14 of the past 15 years.

Such storms generate more water than engineers or politicians imagined a century ago. Now, experts say, it’s a reality that could determine the future health of our local ocean.

“Rain is a good thing,” Pease said. “And in an era when drought will be a lot more common, we should be able to embrace it fully.”

Part of that embrace is for water agencies to get better at capturing stormwater. Pease noted that public works projects in Los Angeles County are believed to have captured about 3.6 billion gallons of rain this week, a sliver of the estimated 85 billion gallons hit the area.

Much of the excess, whatever it was, flowed into the ocean.

“Most of our systems are being designed to be at overcapacity, at times. And that’s great. If rain is coming in shorter, more intense bursts, we have to figure out how to handle it,” she said.

“But we’re not quite there yet in terms of infrastructure.”

The 1969 mural had been on the facade of a former Home Savings in Santa Monica for 50 years. In 2019, with the building facing demolition, the mural was painstakingly removed, in sections, and crated up.

Reassembled, it’s now been installed outside its new home, the Hilbert Museum of California Art in Orange.

When I visited in late January, at the museum’s invitation, the mural was in place but largely obscured behind three tiers of scaffolding.

“It’s been quite a project,” Brian Worley, the restoration artist, told me.

As careful readers will recall, I visited Worley last August as he made repairs to the mural. The Claremont artist had laid out the 41-foot-by-16-foot artwork on the expansive floor of what was once the Claremont High gym. There, I saw only enough of the mural to get a sense of it.

In Orange on Jan. 25, I met up with Worley and Mark Hilbert, the museum’s founder and namesake. Hilbert explained how he’d come to acquire the mural.

In Palm Springs, his wife, Janet, saw watercolor versions of several murals by Sheets, including “Pleasures Along the Beach,” which she’d liked best. Wouldn’t it be great, she suggested, if the real mural ever became available?

Hilbert phoned Tony Sheets, the artist’s son. Serendipitously, the mural was coming down imminently and needed a home.

Hilbert could provide one. The museum, which was established in 2016 and which is owned and operated by Chapman University, was starting a major expansion that is adding a second building, with a plaza in between.

Visually linking the two buildings, the mural is held aloft on a steel structure.

“This mural weighs 12 tons or thereabouts,” Worley said. “You need a lot of steel to support it.”

Anyone visiting the museum will walk under the mural. Orange’s Metrolink stop is within view of it. “I suspect this will become a landmark in Orange County,” Hilbert said.

The mural’s theme ties in perfectly with the theme of the museum, which is a showcase for California art, particularly narrative works, Hilbert said.

“People having fun on the beach, families having fun on the beach. It’s so California,” Hilbert enthused. “It represents California so well.”

Sheets, whose work is in the Smithsonian, lived and worked in Claremont, where he painted watercolors, designed buildings and produced mosaics. He might be best known for the striking series of Home Savings and Loan branches he designed from the 1950s into the 1980s with murals and other art that reflected the community.

Worley, now 74, is one of the last surviving artists from the studio of Sheets, who died in 1989.

“He was a genius. There are people at the time who likened him to Walt Disney,” said Worley, explaining that Sheets was a savvy businessman as well as an artist who thought big.

“He believed art was for the public. It should be everywhere,” Worley said. “It was like air.”

Hilbert, who made his millions as a real-estate investor, was a latecomer to art. He bought his first piece, a California scene painting, in the early 1990s. Paging through a book on California art, he realized he liked almost all of it.

“I thought, I want to collect this,” he recalled.

The museum is largely drawn from Hilbert’s personal collection of 5,000 artworks. Hilbert, 79, likens the museum to the Norton Simon in his hometown of Pasadena.

Hilbert walked me through both wings of the museum, then still under renovation or construction, but almost ready to welcome the public. The opening is Feb. 23. Most of the art was in place, but without labels.

With 26 galleries and 21,000 square feet, and free admission, “I think we’re going to be one of the most popular museums in Southern California,” director Mary Platt said.

One of the nine exhibits focuses on — who else? — Millard Sheets, a retrospective of 40 of his paintings from over a half-century. I was especially pleased to see the original of the evocative “San Dimas Train Station.”

“A Matter of Style: Modernism in California Art” is a survey of postwar painting. Represented are Susan Hertel, who was the lead artist on many of the Sheets mosaics, and Karl Benjamin, a former Claremont neighbor of mine.

Agnes Pelton, a Cathedral City painter who was the subject of a profile-raising Palm Springs Art Museum show in 2020-21, is seen via three paintings that had been in the basement of a Silicon Valley college. “They haven’t been seen in 50 years,” Hilbert said.

Other exhibits focus on Navajo blankets, Disney art and Orange County scenes. Another is devoted to Norman Rockwell. “Here’s another unknown artist,” Hilbert deadpanned.

“Most of our paintings are upbeat, positive,” Hilbert told me. “We like for people to leave happy. We’re a respite from the rest of the world.”

Outside on a high wall is a sculpture of a girl riding joyfully on the back of a dolphin. It’s by John Svenson, who was well-known around Upland. Like “Pleasures Along the Beach,” the dolphin was also uprooted from the Santa Monica Home Savings.

Like a lot of former coastal residents, they’ve both moved inland.

A few days after my visit, the scaffolding that blocked the mosaic was removed and the mural unveiled. With column deadlines pressing, I couldn’t make a special trip. But on Feb. 3, a friend’s birthday in Santa Ana provided an excuse for me to stop in Orange.

There stood “Pleasures Along the Beach,” unfettered. The scene is a shoreline near sunset, colors deepening, as people toss a beach ball, sunbathe, walk or hold oars near a rowboat and a flock of birds careens past.

The figurework is a bit stiff, honestly. But the piece’s preservation is welcome.

It was afternoon and what sun there was — depending on your viewpoint, it was either partly sunny or partly cloudy — hit the thousands of pieces of glass.

The next day brought that deluge of rain. That’s how it goes in Southern California. But “Pleasures Along the Beach,” like the activities depicted, should be eternal.

David Allen writes Sunday, Wednesday and Friday, a mosaic of columns. Email dallen@scng.com, phone 909-483-9339, like davidallencolumnist on Facebook and follow @davidallen909 on Twitter.

“It’s like a funeral,” he said, mourning his beloved surf spot on the empty beach this week during a brief break in storms. “It seems like 100 years of history and culture is gone.”

Surfers and countless beachgoers with fond memories of the tucked-away oasis have been in shock over the access road washing out recently at the popular beach wedged between San Diego and Orange County, a place so coveted that people wait hours in line to get a parking spot right on the sand on summer days – or any time a swell hits.

While the dirt road may be repaired in coming months, the sudden closure of the parking lot into San Onofre puts a spotlight on what’s at stake as negotiations continue over who should manage this popular surf spot and surrounding beaches, trails and campgrounds.

A 50-year lease between the military and California State Parks, a gift to the public by President Richard Nixon in 1971, expired three years ago and since then officials have been negotiating the fate of the land just south of San Clemente.

A three-year lease extension sunsets in about six months, on Aug. 31, and the question remains: Will State Parks continue to be the stewards to the land, or will the military take it back – and if they do, what does that mean for the public’s access?

“It’s a family beach, it’s always been that way,” said Don Craig, a 75-year-old San Onofre Surf Club member who has been riding waves there his entire life. “We just want to keep it that way.”

A sweet deal

San Onofre State Park doesn’t stop at the iconic Surf Beach where early-era wave riders discovered long, rolling Waikiki-like waves in the late 1920s.

There are two campgrounds, an expansive network of trails for hikers and bikers, and a string of other surf breaks, including Lower Trestles, where the world’s best surfers have battled for their championship title the last three years.

Originally, it was the native Acjachemen who called the land home, but by the turn of the century the beach was a popular fishing camp, then a surfing camp.

The Marine Corps bought the land during World War II from private landowners for $4.7 million, with about 160 square miles – plus 16 miles of coast starting at San Clemente’s southern border down to Oceanside – acquired in the deal, much of it becoming Camp Pendleton.

A growing number of surfers flocking to the tucked-away beach to ride waves as the sport grew in the ’40s was causing conflicts with the military. So in 1952, surfers created the San Onofre Surf Club, a select group that were allowed on the military property provided they had a sticker on their windshield to access the surf beach.

It wasn’t long before surfers discovered the perfect, peaky waves at nearby Lower Trestles, but that area was still off limits. Military personnel who chase away the surfers, sometimes confiscating surfboards or handing out citations.

When Nixon set up his “Western White House” on San Clemente’s southern border in 1969, the idea was raised to open a portion of the Camp Pendleton land to the public.

It would become the first in Nixon’s “Legacy of Parks” program, which sought to give the public a place to escape urban sprawl, a way to make use of surplus federal land that wasn’t being used.

The San Onofre Surf Club lobbied to also add Trestles to the State Parks jurisdiction.

In 1971, the State Parks system got a sweet deal from the Department of Navy for 6.5 miles of coast, plus some inland space to create the San Mateo campgrounds and trails  – the lease was $1.

Over the next 50-some years, the area became a respite from urban overdevelopment, a quick escape to nature that draws an estimated 2 million visitors per year.

Surfing nirvana

Talk to just about any old-timer at the beach at San Onofre, and they’ll tell tales of long summer days on the sand, a place filled with community and culture like no other surf spot they know.

Craig’s father, Doug, was one of the early surfers in the area – he was on the beach in 1941 when Pearl Harbor was bombed. Growing up there was a “kid’s nirvana,” Craig said.

The masses have taken up surfing. Sprinter vans and campers line the area as “van life” gains in popularity and families mix in on the sand.

Craig, now 75, shows up nearly every day, watching the crowds from the sand or sitting on his surfboard waiting to catching waves at “The Point” or “Old Mans,” as he’s done for so many decades.

“Surfing is the fountain of youth,” he said. “I think we’re hopefully passing on this legacy to the younger generations and they will pass that on to their children.”

When it comes to California surf culture – the state’s official sport – San Onofre is as important as the famed Malibu surf break, Craig said.

“It’s an iconic place,” he said. “People from around the world come here.”

San Onofre was the reason Gerardi moved to San Clemente from Canada more than two decades ago.

“This is where we landed. This is what I think of when I dream of California in the ’50s. It’s the most special place in the world,” he said, looking at the empty beach left by the washed-out road.

San Onofre, like many other spots along the Southern California coastline, has had its share of erosion, with strong swells and high tides shrinking the sand space.

But one area that became apparently worrisome in recent months was near the Surf Beach’s entrance.

By late November, yellow caution tape was up as the beach eroded so much it cut into the dirt road. A concrete slab at the beach shower fell, palm trees toppled.

The section of beach was becoming vulnerable not just from the strong surf hitting it, but likely from a drainage system meant to keep the bluff above from eroding where a fairy shrimp vernal pool habitat existed, officials believe. The Navy had attempted repairs in November.

While, in theory, the system would help slow bluff erosion by diverting water, it couldn’t withstand the massive amounts of water from recent storms, said State Parks environmental scientist Riley Pratt.

The trifecta of big swells, heavy rain fall and a failed drainage system was too much for the road. By Tuesday, it was gone.

Environmental teams from State Parks and Camp Pendleton met on Friday to discuss fixes to the drainage pipes and the road damage, Pratt said. Repairs will likely be a collaboration, but it won’t be a quick fix, as they still have to figure out permitting and hire contractors.

“I think everyone is in agreement that it’s an urgent matter and we need to fix it as soon as we can and restore public access to the surf beach,” he said.

A swell of concern

Then there is the looming Aug. 31 lease deadline, with no word from either parties about how the negotiations are going or any plans set yet, said Steve Long, founder of the San Onofre Parks Foundation.

Seven years ago, the foundation started a lease renewal task force to be a liaison between the state and military.

Both sides are tight-lipped on the matter, unable to give details due to ongoing negotiations.

There’s two likely scenarios: either the land continues with a lease to State Parks, or the military choses to operate the area themselves, Long said.

What if the military opts to not allow, or to limit, public access?

“There would be a tremendous outcry if access is restricted,” Long said.

Surfers on the sand are starting to buzz about the looming deadline, wondering about what the future holds.

“We are concerned that we’re not hearing anything. The public isn’t hearing anything,” Long said. “I monitor the  grapevine from the beach, people want to start writing letters and if necessary, having public gatherings.”

Long said he hopes it doesn’t come to that. The surfers, state and military have always been amicable in their partnership, and he hopes that continues.

“We’re not adversaries, but we just wish to hear something,” he said. “I know there’s so many things the Department of Navy deals with, but this is critical. The time is growing short. We’re at a point where there’s a very real sense of urgency.”

San Onofre is where Congressman Mike Levin had his family holiday card taken this year, a place he, too, grew up visiting as a kid.

While he can’t speak to the details of the current negotiation, Levin said he is in constant contact with both the state and military officials.

“I do know all parties want a resolution to extend a lease,” he said. “And I’ve expressed my desire that a long-term lease is agreed upon.

“I think we have to come to an agreement so the military can continue their operations without disruption and the State Park can maintain the public access as a result of the extension,” he said. “I hope that they can work this out.”

As kickoff nears for what could be the most watched Super Bowl in many years, we’re stumped by the surge in popularity. After all, many former fans walked away from the sport and declared We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together. Others had no interest whatsoever.

Now? They can’t get enough.

Related: Super Bowl LVIII: How the Chiefs and 49ers compare statistically

Maybe they’re drawn to the main color associated with the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers. What was it again?

Red.

Regardless, hardcore football fans will share couch space and fake cheese dips with relative newbies as they watch Super Bowl LVIII – the lesson on Roman numerals follows the word problem involving when a certain flight leaves Tokyo and arrives in Las Vegas.

So we offer the public service of 13 things every fan should know before the Chiefs and 49ers play the season’s End Game.

Love Story: We’ve surmised it’s probably the reason casual fans will watch. He’s a blue-collar guy who raves about her talent as an artist. She’s his biggest fan despite all the recent acclaim she’s received. Niners fullback Kyle Juszczyk and his fashion designer wife Kristin, who created jackets for a couple prominent Chiefs fans early in the playoffs and just secured a licensing agreement with the NFL, are the adorable couple who will be magnets for TV cameras throughout the game. Of course.

Bad Blood: This is the second Super Bowl meeting in five seasons between the Chiefs and 49ers. San Francisco took a 10-point lead into the fourth quarter in Super Bowl LIV, but Kansas City scored 21 points in the final 6:13 to win the franchise’s second Super Bowl and first in 50 years.

Superstar: The big names won’t all be in uniform. Before the game, the scheduled singers are Reba McEntire (national anthem), Post Malone (“America the Beautiful”) and Andra Day (“Life Every Voice and Sing”). And Usher will be the latest the halftime show performer to fall far short of Prince’s 2007 spectacle. By the way, a fun wager with your friends is on the over/under for McEntire’s rendition. Sports books have it as low as 86.5 seconds and as high as 90.5 seconds, but she’s gone as short as 66 before a World Series game.

Back to December: Few expected the Chiefs would be in the Super Bowl after they lost 3 of 4 in a rough December stretch. And there were questions about the 49ers after their Christmas night demolition by Ravens. Now the Chiefs are on a five-game winning streak, and the 49ers’ only loss since then was a meaningless one against the Rams to end the regular season.

Hits Different: If you hear the names Fred Warner and Nick Bosa a lot during the game, it’s a good sign for the 49ers. They are difference makers on defense and nightmares for quarterbacks. Warner was a unanimous all-pro selection and often will be much closer to Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce than anyone else has been this week. And Bosa was the 2022 defensive player of the year who could make life miserable for a certain Taylor – Chiefs tackle Jawaan Taylor, the most penalized (by far) offensive lineman in the league this season.

Run: Conversely, if CBS analyst Tony Romo spends the day gushing about Isiah Pacheco – and Romo does gush about players he admires – the Chiefs could be well on their way to another title. Pacheco, a second-year running back, has a touchdown in each of Kansas City’s three playoff victories this season and was most impressive with 6.5 yards per carry against Buffalo.

I Forgot That You Existed: San Francisco quarterback Brock Purdy was the last player selected 2022 NFL draft, also known as Mr. Irrelevant. He hardly was expected to be a star. Then he took advantage of injuries to become a starter and has excelled. Former NFL quarterback Cam Newton dissed Purdy as his team’s 10th best player. He’s one victory from being called a Super Bowl champion.

Anti-Hero: Chris Jones’ season started with him holding out for a better contract and watching from a suite while his Chiefs teammates lost to the Lions. It could’ve turned ugly for the all-pro defensive tackle, but he landed a one-year deal and was a key to a surprisingly strong defense. By the way, the Chiefs drafted him with a pick they got in a trade with the 49ers.

Shake it Off: 49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel is different with his combination of strength and speed, and defenders tend to fly off of him. When Samuel is a big part of the game plan, it usually bodes well for the 49ers; they won all eight games in which he scored a touchdown this season. He was out with injuries or was held to fewer than 60 total yards in all five of their losses.

Mastermind: Both coaches – Kansas City’s Andy Reid and San Francisco’s Kyle Shanahan – draw praise as offensive geniuses, but only Reid has championships to accompany the admiration. This one is huge for both their legacies. A third Super Bowl win would thrust Reid into legendary company as just the fifth coach with that many, and a first could launch a new phase of Shanahan’s ascent.

Gold Rush: The 49ers were the NFL’s team of the ’80s when they won four of their five Super Bowls. But they’ve lost in their three most recent championship appearances. With a victory, they would tie the New England Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers for the most Super Bowl titles with six.

Superman: The 49ers already were quite good, but when running back Christian McCaffrey arrived from another planet – one inhabited by the lowly Carolina Panthers – in a 2022 trade it returned them to an elite level. The newly minted offensive player of the year tied for the league lead with 21 touchdowns scored in the regular season and he ran for two scores in each of the 49ers’ playoff victories. Added bonus: He’s got an origin story that includes an adorable picture of him at 2 years old on the field celebrating his dad Ed’s Super Bowl XXXIII victory with the Denver Broncos.

Fifteen: Quarterback Patrick Mahomes, No. 15 for the Chiefs, has numbers that can’t be avoided – much like his ubiquitous commercials. In seven seasons in the NFL – six as a full-time starter – he is 14-3 in the playoffs and is about to make his fourth Super Bowl appearance in the past five seasons. He could become just the fifth quarterback to win three Super Bowls and could tie Tom Brady and Troy Aikman with three before the age of 30. Mahomes, by the way, is only 28.

Editor’s note: Yes, the author realizes he used Taylor Swift song titles throughout, her favorite number is 13 and she’s dating some football player. It’s her world, and we’re all living in it. Be kind, Swifties.

You better get there early in the markdowns to get a deal of selection and price. The longer you wait, the higher the price gets, but the selection wanes until your only choice is an XS purple long-sleeve tee.

But … The price is unbeatable. If you’re like I am, an XS tee only has once use — that of a dish rag. But I digress.

Much has been ballyhooed about the amount of industrial space coming back to the market, so I did a little research. My trusty spreadsheet is not quite as robust as Jonathan Lansner’s, but I made it work.

As a quick review, a sublease is a remnant sale of sorts. When an occupant originates a lease agreement, the contracts vary in length.

Depending on the size of the premises, lease terms range from two to 10 years. Many times, smaller buildings mean shorter leases. If an occupant can’t — or doesn’t choose to — fulfill the term obligation, they’re faced with three choices: A buyout from the owner, a default or a sublease.

A buyout is best for the tenant as they are relieved of the remainder for a fraction of the cost. Since the owner takes the risk and expense of finding a replacement, the situation must be quite compelling.

A default is least palatable for both parties while subleasing is a nice compromise. The tenant markets the excess space in hopes of locating a surrogate to live out its lease term.

So, on to the numbers.

Presently, in all of Orange County, there exist 92 listings in excess of 50,000 square feet. Of these 92, 12 are subleases or 13%.

Los Angeles County came in at 497 listings with 73 subleases or 14.6%. Inland markets, spanning that vast swatch of industrial space to our east, clocked in at 245 listings, of which 34 were subleases or 13.8%.

Most of the givebacks appear in square footage above 100,000 square feet. In the IE that percentage jumps to 16%!

OK, you might be wondering, why does this matter? Allow me to expand on a few reasons.

Market impact

The most valuable subleases in the industrial market closely mimic that of a direct lease.

By that, I mean the term is long enough for an occupant to spread his moving costs over time.

Using our Nordstrom half-yearly sale as an example, a beautiful suit in your exact size at a 30% discount is much more appealing than one two sizes too big, which will then need expensive alterations.

Your savings are eaten up by the expense of making the suit fit. Plus, in some cases, all sales are final, and you can’t take advantage of a generous return policy. Subleases are similar because all sales are final. Your benefit is in the discounted price, not in other concessions such as tenant improvements.

Additionally, subleases have a downward push on market lease rates.

Of the 12 buildings available for sublease in Orange County, all will trade at a rate significantly less than than direct listings. With a few of these, the discounts can be explained as anomalies.

However, if a large percentage of leasing activity is within these remnants, an adjustment of pricing occurs because the pricing is driving demand.

Occupant considerations

In a sublease arrangement, the tenant becomes the sub-landlord, and the surrogate becomes a sub-tenant.

Many occupant/sub-landlords price their sublease at a slight discount vs. a direct lease with an owner. In my opinion, this is a mistake, because a sub-lease needs to pop and provide a shock and awe price to attract demand.

To affect a sublease, you must seek and gain approval from the owner of the property. This approval may not be unreasonably withheld, but it’s a step that must be accomplished. An unauthorized sublease can create a default, which is never advisable.

With your surrogate in place, don’t forget that you, as the tenant, are still ultimately responsible for the lease obligation. Yes, you’ve located someone to pay the rent in your stead. However, if they fail to pay rent or break another lease covenant, the owner may look to you for a remedy.

Owner considerations

If your tenant is financially viable and has simply outgrown your building, thus the need for a sublease and your position is generally pretty solid.

If, however, your occupant is struggling for other reasons, such as a downturn in business or an industry collapse, it’s important to pay close attention to their process of locating a surrogate.

Depending on your tenant’s lease rate compared with current market rents, it might make business sense to allow your tenant to buy out of their obligation.

Under this circumstance, the owner takes the risk of finding a new occupant but avoids a potential bankruptcy by a tenant, which could tie up the real estate for several months.

Ultimately, the owner has the right to approve anyone seeking to sublease his or her building. As mentioned in the paragraph above, this cannot be unreasonably withheld, but it’s well within an owner’s purview to require a use compatible with your building to be sought along with a financially viable group.

Allen Buchanan is a principal and commercial real estate broker at Lee & Associates, Orange. He can be reached at 714.564.7104 or abuchanan@lee-associates.com. 

Refugio Manuel Jimenez Jr. pleaded guilty to a felony involuntary manslaughter count for the death of firefighter Charlie Morton and two felony counts of recklessly causing a fire to an inhabited structure. He has been sentenced to two years of felony probation, one year in county jail, and 200 hours of community service.

Morton, a Forest Service firefighter on a Big Bear hotshot team, died after he became trapped against a wall of flames in the El Dorado fire.

Angelina Jimenez pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor counts of recklessly causing a fire on another person’s property. She was sentenced to a year of probation and 400 hours of community service.

The Jimenez’s also have been ordered to pay $1.7 million in restitution, according to the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s office.

The couple was charged in 2021. They both pleaded not guilty, and requested that all charges be dismissed. One charge was dismissed in January.

“Resolving the case was never going to be a win,” District Attorney Jason Anderson said in a press release. “The Defendants’ reckless conduct had tremendous impact on land, properties, emergency response resources, the displacement of  entire communities, and resulted in the tragic death of Forest Service Wildland Firefighter Charles Morton. All these factors were given an extraordinary amount of consideration throughout every step of investigation, the Grand Jury process, and court proceedings.”

Residents of Mountain Home Village, Forest Falls, Angelus Oaks, Seven Oaks, Barton Flats and Oak Glen were among those evacuated. The fire also burned in Cherry Valley in Riverside County. The fire burned 22,680 acres, destroyed five homes and damaged four others.

In addition to the criminal charges, the couple also faced a lawsuit from the U.S. Forest Service over the illegal fireworks that allegedly started the fire.

Edin Alex Enamorado, 36, is being held at High Desert Detention Center in Adelanto on charges of kidnapping, making criminal threats, assault with a deadly weapon, being a felon in possession of a firearm, false imprisonment and conspiracy. In all, eight people were charged, but one person was granted bail because he faced lesser charges.

Judge John Wilkerson, with about 40 of Enamorado’s supporters in the courtroom, said he could not come up with conditions such as ankle monitoring that he believed would protect the public from the defendants and guarantee their appearance at trial if they were released.

Ten deputies stood guard in the courtroom, more than twice what is normally seen at murder trials.

“Are they afraid (the defendants) are terrorists?” one of the defense lawyers, Damon Alimouri, said afterward.

Enamorado’s attorney, Nicholas Rosenberg, said he plans to appeal the judge’s decision. He spoke with his client after the hearing and relayed this statement from him: “I am not surprised by today’s ruling but this continues to prove San Bernardino County is corrupt.”

His supporters have said the so-called Justice 8 are being prosecuted partly because Enamorado has taken on people in authority including Fontana Mayor Aquanetta Warren, whose city has cracked down on non-permitted vendors. He also used a bullhorn to protest outside the home of a deputy who was videotaped body-slamming a 16-year-old girl who authorities say reached for an officer’s pepper ball launcher during a melee.

Enamorado has a large following on YouTube.

San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus has said the defendants’ actions go beyond those protected by the First Amendment. He said they were responsible for assaults during protests in San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties, and that they videotaped themselves threatening and humiliating their victims.

The seven other defendants are residents of Upland, Riverside, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Ontario.

The next hearing is scheduled for March 1.

Since the contracts were terminated Monday, Feb. 5, physicians at Prime have reported prolonged, agonizing wait times for patients, the company’s president and chief medical officer said in a Friday letter to Dr. Mark Ghaly, California secretary of health and human services. In some cases, patients have walked out of emergency rooms in disgust and been refused transfers to other nearby CalOptima hospitals, wrote Dr. Sunny Bhatia.

“On behalf of patients, we ask that Department of Health Care Services hold CalOptima accountable to its responsibility to ensure access, continuity, and care to patients and include the safety net hospitals patients have relied on for decades,” states the letter. “These terminations are already negatively impacting patient safety, quality care, and outcomes for the vulnerable patients dependent on CalOptima, very literally putting their lives at risk.”

Ontario-based Prime operates 44 hospitals nationwide, including Garden Grove Hospital and Medical Center, Huntington Beach Hospital, La Palma Intercommunity Hospital and West Anaheim Medical Center.

In a statement Friday, Feb. 9, DHCS said Medi-Cal managed-care plans like CalOptima have the right to voluntarily terminate their contractual relationships with network providers with a 60-day prior notice.

Following termination of the Prime contract, the DHCS said, “emergency services and post-stabilization care continue to be covered” by the company.

CalOptima, which has 954,000 members and is the largest health insurer in Orange County, provides coverage to its members through three programs, Medi-Cal, OneCare, and the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly. Its contract with the four hospitals had been in effect for more than 15 years.

The termination of Prime’s contract has sent shock waves through physicians and patients at the four hospitals, some of whom protested outside CalOptima’s headquarters last week.

“Hundreds of patients, representing the tens of thousands cared for at these hospitals, pleaded with CalOptima to allow them to continue their care at these hospitals,” Bhatia said in the letter to Ghaly. “These were the hospitals they trusted, the care that provided them dignity, the quality that saved their lives, and the access and continuity they need and deserve. Despite their pleas, CalOptima unilaterally decided for them that they do not need these hospitals.”

CalOptima claims misrepresentation

CalOptima Chief Executive Officer Michael Hunn has cited under-utilization of the hospitals as a chief reason for the termination of Prime’s contract.

From Dec. 1, 2022, to Nov. 30, 2023, 15,604 members accounted for 26,290 visits to the four Prime hospitals, with 98.6% being emergency room visits, according to data collected by CalOptima. Many members went to the ER more than once. There were 2,800 CalOptima inpatient admissions and 364 visits for elective care at Prime hospitals during the year.

Additionally, CalOptima delegates the care of approximately 750,000 members to large, managed-care medical groups, but there is no evidence of Prime contracting with any of those providers, Hunn said.

Seven other CalOptima hospitals within five miles of Prime facilities can absorb patients, he told the Southern California News Group, adding that the termination of the contract should have little impact on patients.

“We stand against activities that detract from this focus, especially the misrepresentations related to CalOptima Health’s contract change with Prime hospitals,” CalOptima said in a statement Friday. “Those misrepresentations are not consistent with what is actually occurring with CalOptima Health members who have received care at Prime hospitals since our contract ended on February 5.”

CalOptima said it is providing Prime hospitals a clinical response within 30 minutes for those patients who may need post-stabilization hospital services.

“We are collaborating closely with our state regulators, who are aware of our unwavering commitment to quality care for members, delivered by our strong network that includes 39 acute and rehab hospitals across Orange County,” the company said.

Prime reports delays, angry patients

However, in the letter to Ghaly, Bhatia said Prime’s worst fears about delays and care for patients are being realized.

“Despite CalOptima CEO Michael Hunn’s assurances that he does not need these hospitals for network adequacy and can effectively transfer and care for patients requiring inpatient care, patients are suffering and denied the quality care and continuity they deserve,” Bhatia said.

According to the letter, in just three days following termination of the contract, documented evidence shows insufficient bed capacity at other CalOptima hospitals and the inability of Prime physicians to transfer stable patients. In some cases, Bhatia said, patients have reportedly left Prime hospital emergency departments, against the advice of doctors, with untreated medical conditions due to lengthy transfer wait times.

At least 37 Prime CalOptima patients have required transfers since Monday, with an average wait time in the ER of 30 hours, with some experiencing much longer delays, according to the company.

In one instance, a 57-year-old woman who went to a Prime ER with nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea waited 60 hours but could not be transferred to another CalOptima hospital because of a lack of inpatient beds and had to be admitted to the Prime facility’s intensive care unit, the letter says

Fourteen patients had clinical conditions that deteriorated while awaiting transfer, requiring urgent inpatient or ICU admission at Prime hospitals, the letter stated.

“This could have been avoided if these patients were allowed to be admitted promptly while stable and receive the quality, inpatient care that had always been provided,” the letter states. “Patient clinical outcomes have been unnecessarily and negatively impacted, causing irreparable harm as a result.”

A physician reported that a 45-year-old woman who had an acute flare of Crohn’s disease went to a Prime hospital and was denied a transfer to Orange County Global Medical Center.

Orange County Global Medical said Friday it could not comment because of patient privacy regulations and does not speak on behalf of decisions made by physicians who are independent contractors.

Dr. Kevin Truong, an emergency medicine physician at Garden Grove Hospital, said in a phone interview that earlier this week a man came to the ER complaining of shortness of breath and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. However, after waiting for 31 hours to be transferred to another CalOptima facility, the man angrily stormed out of the ER, describing the lengthy delay as the worst service he had ever experienced.

The man’s frustration is understandable, Truong said, adding the ER is a “loud, noisy environment and is not good for inpatient care.”