Health officials on Monday, July 30, closed a stretch of the shoreline in Long Beach to beachgoers because of a spill over the weekend of 9,000 gallons of sewage.

All swimming areas west of the Belmont Pier to the Los Angeles River were closed because of potential contamination caused by the 1 p.m. spill Sunday 17 miles north of the city in Commerce, officials said.

“It appears that there was a blockage in a main sewage line that’s maintained by Los Angeles County Public Works and it was caused by tree roots,” said Nelson Kerr, Long Beach’s environmental health bureau manager.

Kerr said any potential contamination from the spill out of a manhole on Gage Avenue in Commerce likely would not have reached Long Beach waters via the L.A. River until late Sunday evening.

“When we start approaching getting close to 10,000 gallons of sewage, things get serious in terms of protecting public health, so that’s why we just wanted to take a precaution and not let folks come in through the water until we can show that it’s clean,” he said.

Two water samples have been collected and officials are waiting for test results to determine when it is safe to reopen the beaches.

The waters east of the Belmont Pier are unaffected, Kerr said.

For up-to-date beach closure information, visit longbeach.gov/beachwaterquality or call 562-570-4199.

Reality star Kristin Cavallari is back on television with a new E! series, “Very Cavallari.” The Laguna Beach High grad is now married to the former NFL quarterback Jay Cutler, and the series focuses on her new lifestyle brand, Uncommon James, as she launches her flagship store in Nashville.

Cavallari gained fame in the MTV reality series “Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County,” (inspired by Fox’s hit series “The O.C.”) where she was in a spicy love triangle with Lauren Conrad and Stephen Colletti. She went on to the series’ spinoff, “The Hills,” still portraying a bad girl. Cavallari talked with Coast about “Very Cavallari,” which premiered in July.

COAST: When did you decide you were ready to be back on reality television?

KRISTIN CAVALLARI: It’s been almost eight years since we wrapped “The Hills,” so it’s been a decent amount of time where I could be ready to have cameras back. So much has happened during that time; I am married and have three kids. I am living in one place now, and I have this lifestyle business.

With Jay being done with football, I’m finally able to do a show. Our lives for the past seven years have really revolved around Jay’s schedule. Everything has lined up for me to be able to do this show, and I’m excited to let the world back in.

COAST: Do you come back often to the OC?

KC: My dad is in San Clemente, and I have been back a few times. Outside of that, I am here for work, but because of my children, I only visit for a short time. I brought them out here last September, and my dad took them to a football game. I wish I could get back more. When my kids are older, I will take them more.

COAST: What’s your favorite memory from “Laguna Beach”?

KC: The good thing about the shows is that it forced me to try new places that maybe I wouldn’t have normally. I always felt like we were checking out the best places to eat, which was fun. But honestly, the Surf and Sand of Laguna Beach will always stick out in my mind, because of that black-and-white party episode we did!

COAST: You are wearing an executive producer hat now.

KC: Yeah, I sort of have this security blanket, where I know at the end of the day, if I really wanted to get something taken out, I know that I can. And that was a very freeing, very great feeling to have, coming from “Laguna Beach” and “The Hills,” where I really had no control and no say over anything.

COAST: What will we see on your show?

KC: “Very Cavallari” is the first time people will get to see the real Kristin. It’s every area of my life. So it’s me as a wife, it’s me as a best friend, and it’s me as a boss, as a business woman. The “bitch” persona — I think I’ve been able to channel that into being the boss and owning my own company. And then you get to just see who I am with the people that I love the most.

I’m really excited for people to finally see me after so many years of being in reality TV. This is the first time that I can really get behind it saying, “This is 100 percent me.”

COAST: Reality TV has changed dramatically since the days of you and your cast members shooting in Laguna Beach.

KC: It has really changed. When we did “Laguna Beach,” we didn’t even know what we were really doing, but I was very proud to be a part of that.

We were living our lives and maybe we were forced into certain situations we wouldn’t normally be in, but for the most part, it was a very innocent show.

COAST: In what way will you prepare your children to be on TV?

KC: My kids are not going to be on the show. We were filming sometimes and they would watch the monitors. They loved being around it, but we want to keep our kids, kids. I don’t even really show them on social media. If I post them, it’s of the back of their head or something to that degree. When they’re old enough to decide if they want a camera following them around, that’s one thing, but they’re 5, 3 and 2, and I want to keep them that way.

COAST: What did your husband say about being a part of a reality series?

KC: It took a lot of convincing on my part. Yes, he’s used to (public attention). But at the end of the day, he really just wanted to play football and didn’t want to deal with the media aspect of it all. It was an adjustment for him to have cameras in the home.

We put parameters on what we could and couldn’t film, and we talked about, as a couple, what we were willing to put out there. And certain things we didn’t want to put out there. I care more about my family than I do about the show, so I just really wanted to make sure that he was comfortable. And season one was great — a few little hiccups here and there, but overall everyone’s happy. Still married!

I think this is going to be great for Jay. People are going to see this very funny side to him that they haven’t seen before.

COAST: Is your husband really done with football?

KC: I said yes a year ago, and then he ended up in Miami. I don’t know! I think he is, but we will see …

COAST: Do you ever watch old episodes of “Laguna Hills” and think, “Oh, my God, that was really me?”

KC: No, I do not go back and watch them! I know what happened on them, and I don’t need to go back and watch. There are moments I am not necessarily proud of, but overall, I don’t regret anything and I wouldn’t change anything. As clichéd as it is, everything from my experience being on those shows and being younger, has shaped who I am today.

COAST: Did you like being known as the bad girl?

KC: Yes, I really enjoyed “The Hills.” I remember executive producer Adam DiVello asked if I was cool with the whole, “Bitch is Back” slogan. And I was like, “Yeah, if I’m going to do it, let’s do it.” Even on “Laguna Beach,” at the end of the day, we were filming a show. It has to be entertaining, I get that. I am here to make a good show, too.

It’s cool that I have these reality experiences, and now that I am an executive producer, I’m able to apply what I learned. Working with people who really value my opinion and care about my creative direction for the show is such a good feeling. ■

Behind California’s status as the fifth-largest economy in the world is the troubling reality that the Golden State is also one of the most impoverished in the nation.

About one in five Californians “lacked enough resources to meet basic needs” in 2016, according to a measure of poverty developed by the Public Policy Institute of California and the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality.

Using the California Poverty Measure, which “accounts for the cost of living and a range of family needs and resources, including social safety net benefits,” according to a recent PPIC publication, 7.4 million Californians lived in poverty in 2016.

This includes 19.4 percent of Californians overall and 21.3 percent of children.

Using the measure, 24.3 percent of Los Angeles County residents lived in poverty in 2016. In Orange County, the figure is 20.9 percent. In the Inland Empire, Riverside County and San Bernardino County respectively the poverty rates are 18.3 percent and 18.2 percent.

In addition to geographical disparities, PPIC has reported racial disparities.

Latinos, for example, make up 39.2 percent of California’s population, but make up 52.8 percent of the poor. Using the CPM, 26.1 percent of Latinos lived in poverty in 2016, down from 30.9 percent in 2011.

Poverty rates for African Americans (18.9 percent) and Asian Americans (17.6 percent) were also higher than those for white Californians (13.5 percent).

Notably, poverty is commonly experienced by working Californians.

According to the PPIC, 2 million out of 16 million working Californians lived in poverty in 2016. Of the working poor, nearly half were poor even though they worked full time and worked year-round.

Statewide, about 12.7 percent of working adults experienced poverty in 2016.

In Los Angeles County and Orange County, the proportion of working adults in poverty exceeded the state average, with respective rates of 16.3 percent and 14.3 percent.

In the Inland Empire, about 11.7 percent of working adults were in poverty in 2016.

Figures like this should be a wake-up call to policymakers and voters that the status quo is not working for far too many Californians.

For all of the economic potential and reality of California, it is undeniable that California has left too many behind.

Coupled with California being one of the highest-taxed and most-regulated states in the country, it is apparent that California’s politicians have been unable to spend their way to prosperity.

If anything is going to change, it is critical that the state’s leaders be held accountable for the tremendous inequality and poverty they have presided over.

To turn things around, California’s leaders must evaluate the real-world consequences of their policies.

If the cost of housing is too high, perhaps the state should repeal obstacles to developing more housing.

If there aren’t enough good-paying jobs for the working poor, perhaps California should make the state more business-friendly.

These might sound like simple fixes, but the establishment has been too focused on pipe dreams like single-payer health care or boondoggles like the bullet train to focus on what the state actually needs.

HUNTINGTON BEACH — Kanoa Igarashi looked out at the water at Huntington Beach, where a year ago he was hoisted above the cheering crowd of thousands of people, a victorious day that marked the pinnacle of his professional surfing career to date.

“I think about it nearly every day. It’s one of those things, I get chicken skin just thinking about it,” Igarashi said on Monday morning. “That moment is so vivid and clear to me. I have a photo of that moment in my living room. It’s hard not to think about it.”

Igarashi, 20, will once again go up against some of the world’s best surfers in his hometown of Huntington Beach at the U.S. Open of Surfing this week, the reigning champ hoping for a repeat performance to his 2017 win.

But with small surf in the forecast – and hungry surfers who have traveled from around the world to compete at the prestigious event – the U.S. Open of Surfing title is anyone’s to clinch.

The men’s main event began Monday in 2- to 3-foot surf, with surfers struggling to find waves on the south side of the pier.

San Clemente surfers started strong and continued to dominate throughout the day. The trials for the women’s main event were held early Monday with local surfer Kirra Pinkerton earning a wild card slot in the World Tour event. Pinkerton will face current World No. 1 Stephanie Gilmore and defending U.S. Open champ Sage Erickson when competition begins.

Fellow San Clementian Kei Kobayashi, 19, won the first heat of the men’s event, then repeated a first-place finish as he competed a second time later in the day in Round 2, earning a 7.17 and 6.13 to win his second heat.

“The waves were pretty small and there was a good (shorebreak) on the inside, I figured I’d stay busy,” he said. “I’m just surfing heat by heat and trying to stay in the zone. I’m really stoked to make it through another heat.”

Santa Barbara surfer Parker Coffin got an early start in his heat, putting two scores on the board, a 6.50 and a 3.83.

Nearly halfway through the 30-minute heat, he was the only competitor with a score on the board, the other three surfers sitting and waiting, looking out to the flat ocean.

“That was pretty much the story of that heat, I was the only one that caught a real wave,” he said. “The first wave was everything… when it’s slow, you gotta not be nice and take your wave.”

Hawaiian surfer Keanu Asing had the same strategy, staying close to find small-wave opportunities.

“I knew if I could find two good turns, I could get a score,” he said.

This week’s small surf could give locals who know these waves an advantage.

“Huntington is a place where it’s always going to produce waves,” said Igarashi, who will surf his first heat when the men’s event resumes. “We’re so lucky to live in a place, no matter how small the forecast is, the waves are there and it’s always contestable. That’s an advantage we have as locals. We surf on days like this all the time, we know how to read the waves. To be honest, it may even benefit us more.”

San Clemente surfer Kolohe Andino is no stranger to Huntington’s surf, competing here regularly as an amateur as he moved up the ranks. Andino, 24, used his local knowledge to keep busy and put scores on the board, leading the pack throughout his Round 2 heat.

He kept busy, riding 11 waves and posting high scores of 6.4 and 6.23, despite a strong wind chop that made for challenging conditions.

“I was just trying to ride a bunch of waves. My plan wasn’t to look at the biggest ones, but the ones with the best shape. The bigger ones closed out … I was just trying to analyze the wall.”

Two more San Clemente surfers, Tanner Gudauskas and Griffin Colapinto, also advanced out of Round 2.

“It’s a bit lackluster, but honestly it did look really fun,” Gudauskas said. “There’s a little bit of juice in the water and I was just excited to ride a lot of waves out there. That’s what my goal was even though I didn’t know which waves were good or bad and it all worked out for the best. It’s all a state of mind and when you have a bunch of people looking down from the pier you realize this is the big show so for us on the QS it’s great to have these big events.”

Colapinto nearly matched the day’s highest single-wave score (7.83), finishing second in his heat to Hawaii’s Joshua Moniz, who turned in the day’s top heat total (14.57) and single-wave score (7.90).

Organizers will assess conditions early Tuesday morning to determine who will compete. More info: vansusopenofsurfing.com

CAMP PENDLETON — A general – credited with an incredible work ethic and team leadership – relinquished command of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, and its some 50,000 Marines and sailors, during a change of command ceremony Monday, July 30, at this seaside base.

Call it the passing of the baton from one combat-tried infantryman to another. Call it a ceremony of mutual respect.

Lt. Gen. Lewis Craparotta, who deployed to Middle East multiple times as a commander,  handed oversight of the fighting force to Lt. Gen. Joseph L. Osterman in a ceremony marked with traditions – including ceremonial flags, cannon fire and a parade of some of the force’s finest units. Osterman, a Bronze Star awardee, most recently served in Tampa, Fla., as deputy commander in the United States Special Operation Command.

The 1st Marine Corps Expeditionary Force is the largest of the three active Marine Expeditionary Forces. It is Camp Pendleton’s largest tenant and the Marine Corps’ premier crisis response force.

Attendees at the ceremony included military brass, enlisted Marines, friends and families of the two generals, as well as civic organizations from Camp Pendleton’s surrounding cities including San Clemente, Vista and Oceanside.

Among his strengths, Craparotta was lauded for helping transition the fighting force from a focus on the fighting-style of counterinsurgencies, such as finding improvised explosive devices in Iraq and Afghanistan, to more modern threats the United States might face from countries with similar military capabilities, such as surface-to-ship missiles, locating an enemy’s missiles on the coast and amphibious assaults.

“They are global and ready,” said Lt. Gen. David Berger, commander of U.S. Forces Pacific. “They have rehearsed all the way to mobilization and embarkation, which we probably haven’t done in 15,16 years.”

Berger commended Craparotta’s vision and his ability to turn that vision into a reality.

“It takes a lot of energy and the ability to build a team,” Berger said. “Gen. Craparotta has both in spades. He has work ethic and knows how to build a team. The (Marine Expeditionary Force) is the largest Marine Air Ground Task Force we have. It’s the most capable, the most lethal and now it’s the most ready.”

Craparotta took over the expeditionary force in 2016 after serving as commanding general of the Marine Air Ground Task Force Training Command and Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms. He leaves Camp Pendleton to become the commander of the U.S. Marine Corps Forces Pacific in Hawaii.

He thanked the Marines and sailors who served with him. He also spoke to their families.

“It’s about the team, it’s about all the Marines and sailors that served in this (expeditionary force) that put their best foot forward everyday,” he said. “Across the staff, from the colonels down to the lance corporals and the PFCs. I’d also like to acknowledge their families.”

“This is the Marine Corps’ globally deployable war-fighting (expeditionary force),” he added. “This (expeditionary force) is one of the most competent combat formations available to our nation. You should never forget that.”

After the ceremony, the two generals greeted their guests – including chatting with Carla and Jim Hogan, Gold Star parents from San Clemente.

The Hogans founded Socks For Heroes after the death of their son, Lance Cpl. Donald J. Hogan, in Afghanistan in 2009. The group, which works to improve the lives of Marines deployed in harsh environments, has sent 573,000 socks to Marines deployed overseas.

“He was a great leader and built on the architecture … to not only get Marines ready for today’s but also tomorrow’s fight,” Jim Hogan said. “We’ll miss him a great deal.”

With four seconds to go in the first quarter of the Sparks’ 78-76 loss to the Indiana Fever on July 20, Karlie Samuelson entered the game for Chelsea Gray.

At that moment, approximately six rows up in Staples Center Section 112, Karlie’s parents and sister Katie Lou rejoiced. While Karlie has received limited playing time, the family regularly attends Karlie’s games, making the trip from Orange County to downtown LA.

Samuelson has relished her opportunities on the floor, and the game against the Fever proved to be no exception. She began the quarter on the court, and after committing a turnover, redeemed herself on the other end when Candace Parker found her 26 feet away from the basket. Samuelson caught the ball, feet set, and released a high-arching shot that went in.

Her family members nearly jumped out of their seats, applauding Karlie’s 3-pointer. Karlie’s stint, however, was again brief as she returned to the bench after playing just six minutes. Her sister Katie Lou, who has starred at UConn and likely will enter the WNBA as a top pick in the 2019 draft, has enjoyed the experience of seeing Karlie play on a regular basis.

“I think she’s done her part every game, and she knows that if they call on her and they need her that she’s going to be ready to go,” Katie Lou said. “Just seeing what she’s done and seeing that it’s at home, and our whole family can really enjoy it … it’s amazing.”

“It’s seriously a dream come true,” Karlie Samuelson added after the team’s game against the Atlanta Dream last Tuesday. “Every time I walk into Staples Center, it’s like, ‘Wow!’ Like, I’m playing here. Like, I grew up here. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. My family gets to come, my friends get to come, it’s cool.”

Samuelson, who attended Stanford and played for Hall of Fame head coach Tara Vanderveer, was released four games into the 2018 season when Jantel Lavender returned from overseas. She was re-signed before June 24, based partly on her potent 3-point shot.

Sparks coach Brian Agler said the decision to bring Samuelson back was an easy one.

“I really like what she brings in regard to her perimeter shooting, her savviness, and her court awareness,” Agler said. “Her ability to take on a scout and apply it to play, very much a team player. So all those things are positives for us.”

During the Dream game last week, Katie Lou was honored during the game as a member of a small contingent of Team USA athletes commemorating the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which get underway in two years.

This time, Katie Lou did not sit with her parents, but instead took in the game behind the Dream bench. When her name came up on the jumbotron, Samuelson enjoyed the opportunity to see her sister recognized for the hard work she’s put in throughout her career.

“It was awesome, she deserved it,” Samuelson said. “It was a timeout and they say “Oh, Katie Lou Samuelson on the board.” And I’m like, ‘My sister is getting recognized at my game.’ It’s pretty cool.”

The game, unfortunately for Samuelson and the Sparks, did not go their way, losing their fifth consecutive home game going into the All-Star break.

And while Samuelson played just one minute, her family relished every second of it.

LAGUNA NIGUEL — Maya Davis is a lot like most 9-year-old girls—she enjoys listening to Taylor Swift, playing Pokémon and going to the beach.

However, most 9-year-old girls aren’t national reigning USAT taekwondo silver medalists in sparring.

Maya competed in her first USAT National Championships July 2-9 in Salt Lake City and made quite the impression. She competed in the 8- and 9-year-old heavyweight category and won her first two matches before being bested by three-time national champion Amaya Matus of Desert Hot Springs.

“It was my first nationals so I think I did great,” Maya said. This will potentially be the first nationals of many, as Maya sees a long run for herself in taekwondo.

Maya, a fourth-grader at Moulton Elementary, admits it was a little scary at first because the girls were so much bigger than her. But she persevered by sticking to basics and using her strength, speed and agility to her advantage.

Her favorite color is black — fittingly — because she is only two belts away from becoming a black belt and hopes to one day become an instructor and a grand master.

Maya’s home studio is National TKD on La Paz Road in Laguna Niguel, owned by Master Jimmy Graesser.

“Maya is a bold and bright student; we are so proud to see her apply the self-discipline and techniques learned here in such an intimidating new arena.  We look forward to great things from her,” Graesser said.

Dawn Davis, Maya’s mother, said Maya’s martial arts journey has done wonders for Maya’s health, intellect and confidence.

“Maya’s confidence, behavior and ability to focus have improved thanks to the doctrines of self-discipline, respect and honor learned in taekwondo,” Davis said.

Maya receives a lot of support at home, and practice. Having four older brothers means she gets plenty of extra training. She credits her strong mentality to her 12-year-old brother, Trey.

“He’s pretty much the reason why I’m so tough, because he didn’t know how gentle babies were.”

She finds taekwondo to be fun and has plenty of friends who do it as well, but her competitive nature has contributed to her success.

“I did soccer, but I don’t think it’s really fair that you only get a participation trophy,” she said, displaying her silver medal around her neck.

Taekwondo keeps her busy, as she practices about six days a week. Maya likes being able to progress in taekwondo and level up in belts because it gives her the ability to defend herself and her family.

“Ever since I was a white belt I’ve had a lot of potential — that’s what Master Graesser says — because I was the loudest yeller in the white belt class.”

Maya believes in herself and hopes that her success can motivate other girls to believe they can compete, grow and excel not just in sports but in life. Maya’ signature hairstyle — short on one side, a shock of red sweeping the other — is self-designed and meant to empower other girls so they know that they are strong and should always “believe in themselves.”

“Boys always say that they’re stronger than girls, but I beat up my brothers a lot. I think that just because they say they’re stronger doesn’t mean that they are.”

By Thabat Dahdoul

Contributing columnist

Having grown up in a war zone, I witnessed firsthand how a lack of knowledge and a poor infrastructure in public health can lead to an uncountable number of medical mistakes — ones that, ultimately, could increase the mortality rate.

At a young age, I realized that a better health care system was needed to help those who survived the multiple attacks that occurred between the Palestinians and the Israelis. My enjoyment of mathematics was my outlet from this situation.

Since immigrating to the United States, I have continued to enjoy mathematics and have used it to help me become comfortable communicating in English, as well as allowing me the chance to blend into American society. Now that I am well-acclimated to life in the U.S., I have continued to further my studies in mathematics and statistics at Cal State Fullerton. It is my goal to pursue a career in a field where I can use my mathematical skills to approach problems in biology in a data-driven way.

This passion has led me to pursue several research opportunities focused on the application of mathematics and statistics to medical and public health fields. While preparing rigorously for a graduate education, I have attempted to take advantage of every research opportunity that has crossed my path, with a particular focus on the role statistics plays in the intersection of biology and mathematics. One such opportunity was working with Donna Neuberg, a professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, on a study examining patients with severe sickle cell disease. These patients participated in Stage 1 and Stage 2 clinical trials in which they received a bone marrow transplant.

I was also given the opportunity to work with Michael Reed, a professor at Duke University, on a study designed to examine one-carbon metabolism differences between men and women of childbearing age. The project started with analyzing the physiology of methionine and folate cycles in liver cells and modeling the interaction of the two cycles using ordinary differential equations. Important differences between men and women were discovered in the concentrations of some enzymes. Particularly, we found a doubling of phosphatidylethanolamine N-methyltransferase in women relative to men, which upregulates the trans-methylation rate, with even greater upregulation during pregnancy. Also, we were able to understand the mechanism of the higher levels of homocysteine, which are associated with a higher risk of coronary artery disease in men relative to women.

In addition to these research experiences, I am also a recipient of the National Science Foundation Graduate Readiness and Access in Mathematics Scholarship. With this scholarship, I have worked with two CSUF faculty members, Kevin Nichols, associate professor of mathematics, and his then-department colleague Reza Ramezan, on paleo-climatology models used to estimate hydro-climatology features of the Western Hemisphere.

I believe in the positive impact that mathematics and statistics can play in the field of medicine. My desire to pursue graduate research in statistics arises from my love of statistics, along with a personal desire to improve the public health system worldwide. I am especially interested in statistical aspects of clinical trials and study design focused on helping high-need communities. Coming from a developing country myself, I am aware of how far the small gestures of a study, such as giving free examinations during the process of collecting data, can go in high-need communities.

It hurts me to say that supporting women’s education in the way I was able to experience it at CSUF, and through my travels to other institutions for research and conferences, is uncommon in my culture. I am lucky to be married to a man who made this possible by being my advocate, teaching me all the English that I speak and write, offering constant guidance on networking and building relationships, and at the same time, allowing me the space that I needed to grow and become the person that I am today. My husband, Ahmed, and I were able to break the cultural cycle of what is expected from women in my culture and hope others are inspired to do the same.

Having considered admission offers from UCLA and the University of Michigan, I have elected to pursue a Ph.D. in statistics at UC Irvine in the fall of 2019, and with that, I will continue the journey of making my dream come true.

Thabat Dahdoul graduated summa cum laude from Cal State Fullerton in May with a near-perfect GPA, earning a B.A. in mathematics with a concentration in statistics. She was among the first six students selected for the Graduate Readiness and Access in Mathematics scholarship and went on to earn multiple honors this spring from the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. They include: a GRAM Scholars Recognition Award, a Mathematics Academic Achievement Award at the Undergraduate Level, as well as special recognition for undergraduate research in mathematics. She was cited as having “one of the most extensive series of presentations in biomathematics in the last year that one of our undergraduate students ever had.” Dahdoul presented her work at the Mathematical Biosciences Institute and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, among other academic events. She is expecting her first child in the fall.

Fundraising has started to include a bronze monument in Westminster’s Mendez Tribute Park, a small park breaking ground in January to memorialize to the 1947 ruling with local ties that banned the segregation of Mexican American children in California schools.

The City Council approved the park project in March, committing the $160,000 it will cost to convert a vacant lot at Westminster Boulevard and Olive Street into a pleasant oasis of trees and benches. However, the planned monument will need to be privately funded, officials said.

Last week, Westminster launched the fundraising website, mendeztribute.com, aiming to bring in about $100,000.

Councilman Sergio Contreras said he hopes the park and statues will introduce his hometown’s landmark desegregation case to children at a young age.

Contreras grew up in Westminster. Even so, he was a student at Cal State Long Beach before he ever heard “Mendez et al v. Westminster.”

“I was working on a research paper and came across a blurb about it in a book,” Contreras recalled. “I had no idea.”

Although less famous, the Mendez ruling paved the way for the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision eight years later in Brown v. the Board of Education – which ordered an end to school segregation nationwide.

“Integration of schools started right here in Westminster,” Contreras said. “Ordinary people can make extraordinary things happen.”

Glendale artist Ignacio Gomez, whose sculptures include a large memorial to Cesar Chavez in Riverside, has been hired to design and create a set of bronze statues.

“I went through public schools experiencing prejudice,” Gomez said. “This memorial will raise awareness about the struggle for civil rights.”

The statues will feature a six-foot likeness of Gonzalo Mendez, who fought for his three children to attend a school reserved for whites only. Behind him will be a large book and in front of him two students.

“My parents weren’t doing it for publicity, but for their children,” said Sylvia Mendez, who was 11 years old when the lawsuit on her behalf prevailed. “But I know they would be so proud of this memorial.”

Mendez Tribute Park is the second of two memorials recognizing Westminster’s pivotal chapter in history. In November, the city announced plans for a 2.5-mile bike path named The Mendez Historic Freedom Trail. Running along Hoover Street, the trail’s construction will be funded by a state grant.

Donations will pay for informational plaques along the trail, Contreras said.

“Everything just came together all at once for us to finally commemorate the important case that put us on the map,” Contreras said. “It’s as though this has been waiting to happen all these years and only needed a little nudge.”

It’s sneaky, and it’s costly, and it’s probably headed for the California Supreme Court. The practice of overcharging for municipal utility services and then transferring the extra money to a city’s general fund may soon be out the window.

Challenges to the cash transfers have dotted the courts in recent months. In May, a California appellate court threw out a challenge to the city of Riverside’s transfer of electric utility revenue to its general fund, but only because the lawsuit was determined to be past a 120-day time limit for filing it. Another lawsuit is pending against the city of Oxnard, which is accused of illegally transferring revenue from utilities to pay for street improvements and public safety.

In Los Angeles, the city-owned Department of Water and Power has just been sued, again, over the annual “city transfer” of 8 percent of the revenue from electricity sales, about a quarter-billion dollars every year.

An earlier lawsuit over the DWP transfer, Patrick Eck v. city of Los Angeles, was recently settled without really settling anything. The city agreed that it would no longer transfer 8 percent of the most recent five-year increase in electricity rates, but the transfer of 8 percent of the rest of the revenue would continue.

The new lawsuit is Humphreville v. City of Los Angeles. It was filed by a longtime critic of the DWP, Jack Humphreville, with help from the nonprofit organization Consumer Watchdog.

At the press conference announcing the lawsuit, Humphreville, who is the president of the Neighborhood Council Coalition’s DWP Advocacy Committee, quoted a character from the 1976 movie “Network.”

“I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore,” he said.

Like screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky’s mad anchorman, Humphreville speaks for millions of people. Los Angeles residents have suffered through rate hike after rate hike, always said to be needed to maintain the electrical service infrastructure, while service has become increasingly unreliable.

The utility’s credibility isn’t helped by the fact that the annual “city transfer” is roughly equivalent to the extra revenue collected annually from the five-year rate hike that was approved by the City Council and signed by the mayor in 2016.

City officials have said the L.A. City Charter allows for the transfer of “surplus” funds from the municipal utility to the city treasury. But the old city charter has been superseded on that point by the state constitution.

In 2010, state voters passed Proposition 26, which prohibits municipalities from charging more for a service than it costs to provide it and then using the surplus money to pay for unrelated government expenses.

In December, the city of Los Angeles transferred $241.8 million from the DWP’s electricity revenues to the city treasury. Humphreville is suing to force the city to return that money to the DWP so it can be spent for the purpose stated when it was collected: providing electricity to utility customers. Humphreville says the DWP might also find the money useful for paying down the power system’s debt, which “has increased to almost $10 billion, up from $4 billion ten years ago.”

Incidentally, the funds transferred from the DWP to the city are in addition to the 10 percent city utility tax, which cost ratepayers $385 million last year. This year, the utility tax and “city transfer” are estimated to grab a combined $650 million from the money that L.A. residents have to pay to keep the lights on.

Of course, when you put a tax on the ballot, people ask questions.

For example, they might ask why pension and retirement contributions for city employees make up the city’s fastest-growing expense. Or why DWP employees were granted generous raises in 2017 despite city reports showing that the DWP’s labor force was already paid far more than workers in comparable jobs. The new contract with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 18 includes six pay raises over five years while ratepayers continue to pay 100 percent of the cost of health insurance with no employee contribution, and it was approved by the council without a single committee hearing.

Apparently there’s more than one kind of power revenue.

Susan Shelley is a columnist for the Southern California News Group. Reach her at Susan@SusanShelley.com. Twitter: @Susan_Shelley.

Orange County veterans have been fighting for a veterans cemetery here for almost 20 years. Sadly, they have recently also been used as pawns in a disgraceful political battle that parallels the mistreatment of returning Vietnam veterans.

Since the closure of the El Toro Marine Air Station, veterans have been promised a final resting place at the historic air base time and again. However, just as that promise was about to be fulfilled, the former mayor of Irvine seized the opportunity to make the proposed veterans cemetery a political wedge issue.

Citing traffic concerns and unfair advantages for a local real estate developer, he launched a vicious attack against the planned veterans cemetery. The attack culminated in a ballot initiative that limited county-wide input by allowing only Irvine residents to vote on building the cemetery. The plan to prevent the veterans cemetery from becoming a reality was based on a misleading public campaign driven by false assertions about traffic, costs, veteran preferences, developer profits and the purpose of the initiative itself. The result of these attack — veterans lost the cemetery they had earned with their service to country.

The disrespect for Orange County’s veterans didn’t stop there. At a recent Irvine City Council meeting, the council discussed a cemetery scheme that would cost $80 million and ultimately bury any real chance of a veterans cemetery being built. Veterans who spoke in opposition were subjected to booing, screaming and verbal attacks that were strikingly similar to the attacks many of them were exposed to upon their return from Vietnam.

But hope remains for the veterans and the veterans cemetery they deserve. An Orange County veterans advocacy group, Veterans Alliance of Orange County, asked the Board of Supervisors to step in and help make the veterans cemetery a reality. In response to that request, the board has agreed to study the issue and review a potential county-owned site for the cemetery near the 91 Freeway and the 241 toll road. This site is already zoned for a cemetery and has cleared initial environmental studies.

The county cemetery site gained more support last week when the Anaheim City Council unanimously voted to participate in the county study. The Anaheim City Council meeting provided a stark contrast to the prior week’s Irvine council meeting. The entire Anaheim City Council was supportive and enthusiastic about pursuing the county site for the veterans cemetery. The public speakers in attendance spoke proudly about how they would be honored if a veterans cemetery was located in or adjacent to their city.

It is not uncommon for my column to criticize or challenge the Board of Supervisors. But in this instance the board members have acted as true leaders, not just voicing support for the county’s veterans, but backing up that support with concrete action. The Anaheim City Council has done the same, and it is my hope that public bodies throughout the County will follow their lead.

We cannot erase the embarrassing and disrespectful attacks that veterans suffered at that Irvine City Council meeting, but we can help ensure that the veterans cemetery they have long been promised finally transcends political gamesmanship and becomes a reality.

Jennifer Beuthin is the general manager of the Orange County Employees Association.

Editor’s note: The is the second in a series of three stories looking at the battle at USC to replace Sam Darnold at quarterback this season. Read Part 1

On a blacktop driveway, between the football field at San Clemente High School and the bungalows used as coaches offices, Jaime Ortiz pulled Jack Sears aside for a few minutes on an August afternoon in 2015.

It was one day before the Tritons were to open their season at San Juan Hills High School, and the coach wanted to impart some encouragement and words of wisdom to Sears, then a junior who had just been named the team’s starting quarterback.

“We trust you, we’re giving you the keys to the car,” Ortiz said. “Don’t worry about being anyone else. Just be yourself.”

The brief speech was prompted by the program’s recent history of talented signal callers. Sears was succeeding Sam Darnold, who had led San Clemente to the CIF-SS Southwest Division championship game the previous fall, and Darnold was headed to USC, a Pac-12 program like one of his predecessors, Travis Wilson, who matriculated to Utah.

During the next two years, Sears measured up to the passers and carved his own legacy. He emerged as one of the top-ranked players in his recruiting class as a touted dual-threat quarterback, threw and ran for a combined 92 touchdowns and led the Tritons to their first-ever state football title during his senior season.

Now, Ortiz’s words seem befitting for a similar occasion.

Sears is for a second time in position to follow Darnold — this time as USC’s starting quarterback after Darnold left early for the NFL upon steering the Trojans to their best run of success since the Pete Carroll era. When training camp begins Friday, Sears will be in the mix with heralded incoming freshman JT Daniels and Matt Fink, a redshirt sophomore who was Darnold’s backup last season.

Despite an absence of college experience, those close to Sears believe the redshirt freshman carries the requisite poise and savvy needed to win the starting job by the season opener on Sept. 1 against UNLV.

Sears is confident too. He has walked in Darnold’s shadow before.

“If you perform,” Sears said, “then maybe the next guy is being compared to you.”

***

He showed leadership in heartbreak.

Late in 2015, a year before a state title, Sears’ junior season at San Clemente ended in the CIF-SS Southwest Division title game, a second straight defeat in the final, when La Habra upended the Tritons, 39-36, on a touchdown pass as time expired. The final score erased Sears’ effort after he led an 11-play, 84-yard touchdown drive the previous series, throwing what appeared the winning scoring toss with 20 seconds left.

“A lot of our players, after that, threw a fit on the sideline,” said Tucker Scott, an offensive lineman. “We were all bummed of course.”

Troy Kopp, the offensive coordinator, recollected how relaxed Sears seemed. He consoled desolate coaches and teammates.

“That’s what we should be doing,” Kopp thought. “While we’re going through our funk, he had the maturity to say we’re going to be back and get it done next year.”

Sears made good on his word in his final season.

During the state title run, Sears was one of the most visible players throughout the beach community. He and teammates led the annual homecoming parade down Avenida Del Mar. When they returned to the high school campus from Sacramento after winning state, about 3,000 fans greeted their buses in the parking lot. Ortiz spoke to the assembly, as did Sears. The quarterback remarked to Ortiz, “This is like Friday Night Lights. Straight out of the movie.”

Ortiz said Sears was groomed to be the face of their program, a common emphasis for his quarterbacks. Two years ago, a recruiter from a Pac-12 school told Ortiz they liked to recruit San Clemente’s players because “they know what it’s like to lead a program.”

“Jack Sears was a big man on campus here and in the community,” Ortiz said. “It’s no different than Sam. When they go to places like L.A., they go to Utah, they go to Boise State, they know what it’s like to not only represent your last name but also the school and the community.”

If Sears, who turned 20 in April and is only four months younger than the redshirt sophomore Fink, might seem a bit older, it comes from his upbringing.

The start of high school years was delayed after Sears, an only child, and his parents lived abroad for a year in Australia until the summer of 2013.

His father, Paul, a general contractor, and his mother, Kristin, a hairdresser, found business slow in the years following the Great Recession and sought a new life experience.

“I thought it would be a good opportunity to see the world,” said Paul, who had previously lived in Australia for a time in his 20s and appreciated the country’s healthy work-life balance.

The family traveled much of the country, along with visiting New Zealand, the Indonesian islands and the Great Barrier Reef, but set up in Torquay, a coastal town about 60 miles southwest of Melbourne, and near Bells Beach, a popular surf spot.

The year abroad exposed Sears to a new culture and new activities. Sears attended an extra semester of eighth grade at Surf Coast Secondary College and took new classes such as home economics, learning to cook. His best dish is panna cotta, a creamy Italian dessert, according to his mother. He learned to play more sports. He surfed and golfed, continuing the latter as a pre-game Thursday night ritual in high school when he would visit the Talega Golf Club with backup quarterback Logan Manning for its “twilight” rounds. He was a pitcher on a baseball team from the state of Victoria that competed in the National Youth Championships against other top Australian state teams. Sears and his teammates posed for photos featured on the front page of the local newspaper. Among his teammates was Liam Spence, the younger brother of former San Diego Padres reliever Josh Spence.

“It was just a pivotal moment in his life,” Paul said. “People said how mature he was when he showed up to school.”

After returning to the San Diego area, Sears attended Cathedral Catholic High School for his freshman year, before moving to San Clemente in 2014.

***

Here is the present situation at USC.

In spring practice, Sears and Fink split repetitions with the first-team offense. Between the two scholarship quarterbacks, Sears was the former blue-chip recruit with the more accomplished prep pedigree.

He is no longer the flashy newcomer.

Daniels, the former five-star passer at Mater Dei, graduated from high school a year early in time to enter the quarterback competition in training camp.

Had Daniels not arrived, Sears might have been the more talked-about young passer this summer. So what did he make of Daniels’ early arrival?

“You come to USC with the understanding they’re going to get one of the top quarterbacks in the class each year,” Sears said. “If you come here thinking they’re not, then obviously you don’t know the history of USC quarterbacks. It’s no surprise they brought in a big quarterback.”

Sears downplayed their past accomplishments.

“Stars are great,” Sears said. “So are high school stats. You can’t take those away from anybody. College is a different world.”

After 15 spring practices, neither Sears nor Fink had an obvious edge on the other, and USC’s coaches declined to say if there was a pecking order among them.

“In all honesty, it would have been nice to see him separate himself a little bit,” Ortiz said. “I know JT is coming in. In my opinion, I think JT is a great high school quarterback. He had a great career at Mater Dei. And I think making that jump to USC is going to be a bit of a change for him and he’s going to have his ups and down as well.”

As with Darnold, Sears was tutored at San Clemente by Kopp, the offensive coordinator and a former quarterback in the Arena Football League and Canadian Football League. Kopp encouraged the quarterbacks to rely on their instincts and make plays outside the pocket, at times deviating from the script. They were put through the same movement drills. Both were athletic. Sears, like Darnold, was a wide receiver on San Clemente’s varsity team as a sophomore.

“Sam and Jack can throw out of any position,” Kopp said.

When Sears, who was previously committed to Duke for several months, backed out to sign with USC after the 2016 season, it was in part due to how the Trojans’ coaching staff had developed Darnold and the creative freedom he was given. Sears flipped his commitment during USC’s final nine-game winning streak.

Ortiz acknowledged some of the similarities — to a point.

Sears stands 6-foot-3, an inch smaller than Darnold, and about 20 pounds lighter. He doesn’t have the same arm strength that comes with a bigger body. He might not be as instinctive, either — “Sam has the ability to make plays that most guys can’t make and that’s why he’s the No. 3 pick in the NFL draft,” Ortiz said. But Sears is a little quicker. He rushed for 1,135 yards during his senior season in high school.

Ortiz added one more thing.

“Both guys are winners,” he said. “That’s the bottom line. When you’re a college coach, an NFL coach, you want a guy who can win.”

If there’s any government agency that might best embody the worst of government, it’s probably the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Inefficiency and a reluctance to innovate are longstanding hallmarks of the California DMV.

That “their field offices remain a cross between a bus station and a Soviet bread line,” as columnist Steven Greenhut put it, is only amplified by the long, aggravating wait times experienced by many.

It’s a problem that is apparently getting worse, according to the Sacramento Bee.

Statewide, wait times at the DMV have increased 46 percent over the past year, from 48 minutes to 69 minutes.

Some areas, like Sacramento, have seen even sharper increases of as much as 60 percent. That translates to increases in wait times from 64 minutes to 102 minutes.

Clearly, this is unacceptable.

A good starting point to deal with this problem: audit the DMV.

On July 2,  Assembly members Phillip Chen, R-Brea, Jim Patterson, R-Fresno, and Matthew Harper, R-Huntington Beach, submitted a letter to Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi, D-Torrance, requesting an audit to get to the bottom of the problem.

Muratsuchi is the chair of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee.

A hearing on the matter is set for Aug. 8.

We urge bipartisan support for what should be a nonpartisan issue.

When a government entity is failing to properly serve the public, it is imperative that the public and the public’s representatives be provided with as much information as possible in order to make informed choices about how to resolve the problem.

Underscoring the need for an audit on this answer is a remarkable story recently reported by the state auditor.

For nearly four years, a DMV employee was known to sleep at her desk for hours a day, but little was ever done about it.

“From February 2014 through December 2017, the employee misused more than 2,200 hours of work time as a result of sleeping on the job, costing the State more than $40,000,” the auditor reported.

A closer look at the wait-time problem and how the DMV is addressing it is a clear step in the right direction.

“We are going to keep the pressure on the DMV until these outrageous wait times disappear,” Patterson said in May. “That’s the DMV’s responsibility and it’s what they’ve been given millions of dollars to do.”

We encourage the public to reach out to members of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee and urge them to approve the audit as requested.

Government agencies work for the public. They should be held accountable for their failures and be willing to adjust as needed.

Turmeric root, which grows wild in Southeast Asia, originally emerged from India. It also has a long history of medicinal use that dates back 4000 years. While commonly used as a spice in cooking, turmeric has held a revered place in religious ceremonies. Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine have harnessed its power for years. It contains high levels of manganese, iron, fiber, vitamin B6, potassium, vitamin C, and magnesium. Nutritionists and healers celebrate turmeric for its rejuvenate properties.

The ingredient, which is member of the ginger family, is found in numerous curry dishes around the world. But, more recently it has resurfaced in popularity. With emergence of golden milks, lattes and teas, plus a new wave of chefs incorporating it in new ways, turmeric is seeing a resurgence.

Newport Beach nutritionist Risa Groux shares her take on turmeric with Coast Magazine. Scroll down to grab her recipe for soothing Golden Milk.

Why we should love turmeric?

Turmeric has an amazing reputation for its anti-inflammatory properties.  Curcumin is one of several active curcuminoid compounds found in turmeric. Curcumin is largely responsible for assisting in the prevention of several types of cancer, obesity, metabolic syndrome, heart disease, degenerative disorders, and Alzheimer’s. In addition, curcumin and turmeric are safe to use and have very few side effects.

What are some benefits?

• Fights inflammation
• Prevents or slows the formation of blood clots
• Improves acne and psoriasis
• Decreases pain
• Neutralizes free radicals
• Reduces depression

Wait! Before you start devouring turmeric supplements, what else do you need to know?

With all the outstanding benefits of turmeric, it can be very difficult to absorb into the bloodstream. Piperine, which is found in black pepper, is necessary to absorb the curcumin. Make sure to always include it into whatever you are cooking. The same holds true for ingesting it in supplement form.

Can you give us some tips?

1) I personally use a liquid supplement that already has black pepper in it. It is highly absorbable. Currently, I already use it daily. But, my intake will increase in the event of injury or inflammation.

2) Be careful when using turmeric. It stains!

Golden Milk with turmeric and coconut 

Ingredients:

2 cups unsweetened full fat coconut milk

2 tablespoons coconut oil

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Pinch of black pepper

Optional: 1 tablespoon of honey (Omit this ingredient if you are following any of the following diet plans: AIP, Low FODMAP, and Keto)

Method:

Place all ingredients into a sauce pan and heat while stirring until fully combined.  Serve warm.

Note: You can use fresh turmeric and ginger root, just strain after cooking.

:: risagrouxnutrition.com

Consensus box of picks come from Bob Mieszerski, Art Wilson, Terry Turrell and Eddie Wilson. Here are the picks for Wednesday, Aug. 1 at Del Mar.

LOS ANGELES — Two highly anticipated championship rematches headline UFC 227 on Saturday at Staples Center, but neither might be the showdown fans are buzzing about afterward.

In the co-main event, Demetrious Johnson will make his UFC record 12th consecutive flyweight title defense when he clashes with top-ranked Henry Cejudo. In the main event, bantamweight champion T.J. Dillashaw defends his belt for the first time in his second championship reign against former champ Cody Garbrandt.

But who will fight whom next?

Provided Johnson beats Cejudo again – “Mighty Mouse” knocked out the 2008 Olympic gold medalist wrestler in less than three minutes in 2016 – both 135-pounders are ready to test themselves against the fighter many consider the best pound-for-pound in the UFC and one of the greatest the sport has ever seen.

“I feel like the stars have aligned themselves perfectly,” Dillashaw said.

Garbrandt said when he was the bantamweight champion, he and manager Ali Abdelaziz sat down with UFC president Dana White and matchmaker Sean Shelby to discuss a superfight with Johnson.

Only in November, Garbrandt got knocked out in the second round of a blistering rivalry against Dillashaw, his former teammate at Team Alpha Male in Sacramento.

“I lost a fight and we’re back. Plans change,” Garbrandt, 27, said. “But I wanna go in there, fight T.J., knock him out, get my belt back, sit down with Dana, see what they want to do moving forward.”

For his part, Dillashaw said he also was in talks to fight the 125-pound king – until Johnson underwent surgery to clean up his left shoulder in January.

The former Cal State Fullerton wrestler, who now lives in Orange and has opened The Treigning Lab in Anaheim, sounds a lot like his heated rival when discussing a Johnson bout.

“It’s gonna be perfect,” Dillashaw, 32, said. “I get to come back out, finish this bad blood with Team Alpha Male and knock Cody out again, and then see if (Johnson) decides to step up.”

Johnson, meanwhile, says his sights are set firmly on Cejudo. He hasn’t fought since October, when his stunning suplex-to-armbar fifth-round finish of Ray Borg at UFC 216 won him several honors for Submission of the Year.

He scoffs at the notion of either Dillashaw or Garbrandt dropping down 10 pounds and automatically getting a title shot.

“That’s like me saying I’m going to 145 and getting an automatic title shot. Or I’m going to 155 and getting an automatic title shot,” Johnson said. “It makes sense if I go up to 135 because I beat everybody in my division, but they’ve got guys like Marlon Moraes, who deserves a title shot. They’ve got guys like Raphael Assuncao. It’s not like they don’t have contenders in that division, know what I mean?”

But should he defeat Cejudo on Saturday, Johnson doesn’t care about the opponent as much as the potential superfight payday.

“Just as long as there’s a lot of zeroes and commas that I’m used to seeing,” said Johnson, 31, who lives with his wife and two sons in Parkland, Wash. “I’ve got a family to feed.”

While the UFC is less than a month removed from only its second double champ after light heavyweight titlist Daniel Cormier moved up to dethrone heavyweight champ Stipe Miocic at UFC 226, both bantamweights said they’re prepared to drop down to claim another belt.

“I’m a small 35er. Very easy for me to make weight. I can make 25,” Dillashaw said. “Gonna be work, but I can make it and make it very healthily. I don’t think I’m that much bigger than (Johnson), so I’d like to do it at his weight so there’s no excuses.”

Said Garbrandt: “I’m more than happy to go down to 125 pounds to fight Mighty Mouse, but I’ve got a task at hand this Saturday and that’s smashing T.J.”

UFC 227

Main event: Bantamweight champion T.J. Dillashaw vs. top-ranked former champion Cody Garbrandt

Co-main event: Flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson vs. top-ranked Henry Cejudo

When: Saturday

Where: Staples Center

TV: Pay per view

In an era of miraculous innovation in the state that invented the contemporary digitally connected world, it is always something of a marvel in itself how poorly California government agencies make their decisions when it comes to computer hardware and software.

Remember the Los Angeles Unified software system MiSiS, billed on the LAUSD website as “the next generation of the district’s solution for entering, managing, analyzing and reporting all data connected to every single student”? It was supposed to cost $15 million or so. Fixes after the software crashed for years on end pushed it up to more like $85 million and counting.

Now the Sacramento Bee reports that “California’s brand new $290 million system for collecting sales tax is off to a rocky start with a key filing deadline just days away. A customer service center for the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration is swamped with complaints. Small business owners are leaving snarky comments online, and Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration is preparing to waive penalties for people who file their returns late because of technical errors.”

All state businesses are required to report their sales taxes from the second quarter of the year this week, but many say they are having trouble doing so. And it seems that, as is so often the case with changes in computing systems, communication and user-training problems are at the heart of the issue more than mere machines are. The state says it sent out ample warnings about the changes coming for this year in the form of emails, banner ads on its websites and promotions on its telephone lines. But one tax attorney told the Bee: “Nothing. No training. No education.” And he used to work for the Board of Equalization.

Much of the problem lies in the complexity of the new online tax-reporting forms. Very small businesses that don’t have that much data to input are required to jump through the same hoops as huge firms are. Two CPAs told the Bee it now takes them 90 minutes to file a return, up from 30 minutes previously.

Legislators anticipated this problem last year, passing a bill giving relief to late-filers with system problems. Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed it, saying remedies are already available. Government needs to make sure that relief is easy to take, especially for small businesses.

Clippers coach Doc Rivers finalized his coaching staff for the 2018-19 season Wednesday, hiring Rex Kalamian and Casey Hill as assistant coaches and promoting Natalie Nakase to the player development team and Brian Adams to coach of the franchise’s Ontario-based G League team.

Kalamian was an assistant coach with the Clippers from 1995-2003. He spent the past three seasons as an assistant with the Toronto Raptors. He also has been an assistant with the Oklahoma City Thunder, Minnesota Timberwolves and Denver Nuggets.

He is a Cal Poly Pomona graduate.

Hill coached the Clippers’ G League team last season and served as the Clippers’ coach during the NBA Summer League last month in Las Vegas. He also coached the Golden State Warriors’ G League team, the Santa Cruz Warriors, for four seasons.

Hill is the son of former NBA coach Bob Hill.

Nakase, who played at Marina High, served as one of Hill’s assistants with the Agua Caliente Clippers last season, her sixth with the organization. She will be one of only three women assistants in the NBA next season. She also has been the Clippers’ assistant video coordinator for three seasons.

Adams was an assistant coach at Marist and Harvard before joining the Clippers in 2014-15. He spent the past three seasons as a coaching associate/video scouting director. He also spent five seasons with the Boston Celtics, including four as their video scouting director.

In the Bible, God spoke directly to Abraham. He spoke directly to Moses. He spoke directly to Paul. After that, he went silent for a couple of thousand years.

Then all of the sudden he decided to come out of his shell, and the first person he called was … Congresswoman Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles!

While addressing an audience at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles, Auntie Maxine implied that her newfound role as Queen of the Resistance was directed by God.

“You’ve gotta know that I’m here to do the work that I was sent to do, and as pastor said to me when I came in this morning, ‘When God sends you to do something, you just do it!’… So, I have a message. I’m going back to Washington tomorrow morning. I’m going to tell them pastor told me to come here and just do it!”

I’ve always thought when we talk to God, it’s called prayer, but when God talks to you, that’s more likely mental illness.

Waters’ main beef with President Trump appears to stem from her belief that federal authorities will conclude that the president colluded with the Russians.

“Here you have a president who I can tell you and guarantee you is in collusion with the Russians to undermine our democracy. Here you have a president that has obstructed justice. And here you have a president that lies every day,” Waters told attendees at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Town Hall on Civil Rights in Washington, D.C.

Waters said that this belief was cemented after a classified meeting with then-FBI Director James Comey.

But Congresswoman Waters didn’t always have the utmost faith in federal law enforcement.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Waters aggressively pushed a now-debunked conspiracy theory that the CIA was behind the flow of crack cocaine into America’s cities.

Waters’ rage was sparked by a series of articles in the San Jose Mercury News, written by Gary Webb and titled “Dark Alliance,” which was later adapted into a book that Waters wrote the foreword to.

According to The New York Times, “Its central assertion was that a pair of Nicaraguan drug traffickers with CIA ties had started the nationwide crack trade by selling drugs in black neighborhoods in the 1980s. Their goal, the series said, was to help finance the CIA-backed rebels, or contras, then fighting the Sandinista government in their homeland.”

As the leading cheerleader of the loony-toon allegation, Waters traveled the country demanding to know, “Who knew what? When did they know it? And how high did it go?”

While speaking at a Baltimore Urban League dinner Waters declared, “It doesn’t matter whether [the CIA] delivered the kilo of cocaine themselves or turned their back on it to let somebody else do it … They’re guilty just the same.”

There’s only one problem: The story turned out to be fake news.

After an exhaustive internal review, the executive editor of the Mercury News, Jerry Ceppos, said that the most sensational implications of the series were not supported by the facts, and wrote, “I feel that we did not have proof that top CIA officials knew of the relationship. I believe that part of our contract with our readers is to be as clear about what we don’t know as what we do know.”

Additionally, reporting by The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times produced no clear evidence of any direct link between the drug dealers and the CIA.

When confronted with the new information by The New York Times, Waters told the Old Gray Lady that Ceppos’ column did not alter her belief that the agency had been involved with the crack cocaine trade.

No apology. No retraction. Nothing.

Just lay low for a bit and latch on to the next indignation that will get you booked on TV.

Or maybe, just wait for God to give you a ring.

John Phillips can be heard weekdays at 3 p.m. on “The Drive Home with Jillian Barberie and John Phillips” on KABC/AM 790.

While Cal State Fullerton strategic management students were learning and touring in China this summer, their schoolmates have been having other adventures. Here are a few:

A sobering stay in Cambodia

Social justice was on the minds of 12 students who studied in Cambodia this summer. They learned about the war-torn country — its history, culture and civilization — then visited sites associated with the Cambodian Genocide of 1975-79, including the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and the Killing Fields, as well as Apopo, a nonprofit that trains rats to find mines leftover from the war.

Students also toured the temple ruins of Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom, met with Cambodian students and business owners, and traveled in Siem Reap, Battambang and Phnom Penh.

“Cambodia is developing very rapidly, so the country has a whole range of really interesting challenges surrounding the environment, health, education and reconciliation following the genocide,” said Saul Tobias, program coordinator and associate professor of liberal studies. “It’s a really good place to think about the possibilities of social justice work, but also some of the problems that international and local organizations face.”

Students taught English to elementary school students.

“The service learning not only humbled me more as an individual, but also pushed me to fight for the rights of children,” said Jhadira Mercedes Guzman, a sociology major with a concentration in social inequalities.

Political science major Cristell Chouy, whose parents escaped from the Khmer Rouge, was able to see the influence Cambodia had over her parents and grandfather, who live in California. “I never realized that my grandpa planted specific trees, flowers and fruit — banana, grapefruit, lychee and a variety of flowers — that reminded him of his homeland that he loved so dearly. His love for Cambodia is now a love I share.”

The “Culture, Development and Social Justice in Cambodia” study abroad program will be offered again in summer 2019. For more information, visit the College of Humanities and Social Sciences website.

Digging into volcanoes

Students of Cal State Fullerton geochemist Vali Memeti have been spending the summer at Yosemite. But unlike most visitors to the park, the young researchers are investigating what caused the area’s ancient volcanic eruptions.

They planned to backpack into the wilderness with llamas to carry gear and rock samples. By examining the growth rings of the crystals that formed out of the hot magma — the molten rock beneath the earth’s surface that we call lava when it surfaces — they hope to find out what caused these specific eruptions.

Graduate student Melissa Chambers and undergrads Ryan Bremer and Jackson Flanagan, for example, planned to study large feldspar crystals that formed from magmas 88 million years ago 6 miles down and are now exposed at the surface. Chambers also is spending six weeks at Princeton University to analyze the age and growth rate of these megacrysts with experts in age dating.

This work connects with the recent eruptions in Hawaii and Guatemala, said Memeti. The Guatemala eruption is the same phenomenon that researchers believe occurred at Yosemite, she said.

“Volcanic eruptions are a lot more common than most people think,” Memeti said. There is about one eruption each week somewhere in the world.

Nursing students experience another world

Also venturing into the countryside this summer were CSUF graduate-level nursing students.

The students worked in mountain clinics in Lake Arrowhead and Running Springs as part of a partnership among Cal State Fullerton’s School of Nursing, Mountains Community Hospital and Rural Health Clinics that is supported by a two-year federal grant.

For many, it was their first time working outside of a hospital.

“Working in a rural clinic made me realize how much I don’t know,” said Ayesha Walden, who has served the past two years in labor and delivery.

Walden explained how, in a hospital, a test can be evaluated right away, whereas in a rural setting the test must be performed and sent to a lab elsewhere. “It may take up to two to three days to get results, so treating symptoms right away is important.”

Jamie Ray, who drove two hours to serve in a clinic, said she didn’t expect the older and low-income population. “It’s a bit of a culture shock.”

There’s a great need for primary care providers in rural areas, said Ruth Mielke, CSUF associate professor of nursing and women’s health care concentration coordinator. “The hope is that if a student has a positive clinical experience training in an underserved site, that student may be more likely to consider working in that site or a similar site after graduation.”

“It’s really good to work in this situation and see that it works,” Ray added. “It has changed how I see things for the future. It makes me more aware.”

Headed to a doctorate

Mercy Tran-Dubongco’s parents, who came to the United States as Vietnamese refugees, had long stressed that education was essential to her success in America.

Mom and Dad were right. Tran-Dubongco graduated in May and is spending the summer conducting research at the University of Michigan, where she will begin the doctoral program in developmental psychology in the fall. She will research how parents, peers and media influence youth’s ethnic-racial, gender and sexuality identities.

“A product of the outstanding research mentorship I received as an undergraduate student at CSUF, my goal as a future professor is to pay it forward by mentoring diverse first-generation college students like myself,” said Tran-Dubongco.

She was named a Sally Casanova Scholar in the CSU Pre-Doctoral Scholars Program, which ensures that traditionally underrepresented students have more access to doctoral-level degrees and aims to broaden the pool of talented faculty members inclined to teach in the CSU system.

Says Tran-Dubongco: “This award has tremendously shifted my thinking from, ‘I can’t get a Ph.D.’ to ‘I can’t wait to get my Ph.D.!’”

Tran-Dubongco was also in CSUF’s Ronald McNair Scholars Program, which helps low-income, first-generation and underrepresented students prepare for transition to a master’s or doctoral program, and the Chancellor’s Doctoral Incentive Program, which aims to increase the pool of doctoral students applying for faculty positions in the CSU system by offering forgivable loans and mentorship.

Teaching language, valuing identity

CSUF teacher credential students spent part of their summer in high school classrooms — co-teaching students learning English as a second language.

This is the second year Cal State Fullerton’s Summer Language Academy taught in the Anaheim Union High School District and the first year in the Newport-Mesa and the Escondido districts.

Last year’s program had 88 participants from 17 countries who spoke 14 languages — from Arabic and Korean to Pashto.

“The curriculum was written to help students explore who they are — their language and culture — and how to become part of their new communities without having to give up their identity and their sociocultural and linguistic capital in a new country,” said Fernando Rodríguez-Valls, CSUF associate professor of secondary education, who designed the curriculum of the four-week programs with input from the Anaheim district.

“The biggest impact for CSUF students is having the opportunity to work in a program that differs from the regular school classroom,” he said.

CSUF News Media Services contributed to this report.