Restaurants and other food vendors ordered to close and allowed to reopen by Orange County health inspectors from July 10 to July 17.

Liquor Locker, 34092 Doheny Park Road, Dana Point

• Closed: July 17
• Reason: Cockroach infestation
• Reopened: July 18

Hiro Ramen & Udon, 5252 Beach Blvd., Buena Park

• Closed: July 16
• Reason: Cockroach infestation
• Reopened: July 17

AA Food To Go, 13900 Brookhurst St., Garden Grove

• Closed: July 14
• Reason: Cockroach infestation
• Reopened: July 14

College Drive-In, 425 S. State College Blvd., Anaheim

• Closed: July 11
• Reason: Rodent infestation
• Reopened: July 12

This list is published weekly with closures since the previous week’s list. Status updates are published in the following week’s list. Source: OC Health Care Agency database.

Want to laugh? Go see Master Hypnotist Mark Yuzuik: He performs at the Action Sports Arena from Aug. 13 through Aug. 17. His shows are at 4, 6 and 8 p.m.

Go dancing at night at the Plaza Pacifica Stage: Swing dancing with a live band on Fridays 8:30-11:30 p.m., DJ West Coast Dave on Saturdays 8:30-11:30 p.m., Latin Dancing to a live band Sundays from 7:30-10:30 p.m.

See the mama pig and babies: You have to do this, don’t you think? There’s a sow who’s due to deliver the first week of the fair, and also another due the last week of the fair. Pigs typically have litters of 8-14 piglets. You can find them in Centennial Farm.

See a show at the Action Sports Arena: You have to pay for reserved seating, but there is limited general admission seating or standing as well. Yes, go watch those monster trucks tear up the ground.

Stay hydrated for free: You can refill your own water bottles at six chilled water stations around the grounds for free. Stations are at the main carnival, Kidland carnival, Fair Square near Blue Gate, livestock near the Western Saloon,  carnival, Family Fairway near Green Gate and Park Plaza near pig races.

Free carnival rides for kids: Most carnival rides aren’t free, of course, but kids ages 5-11 who read three books and sign up for the Read & Ride program can get a QR code valid for two free rides in the Kidland area only. Only one per child. Here’s how to sign up.

Hang with some cute animals at the petting zoo: Near the Yellow Gate, find a petting zoo with goats, sheep, pigs and more.

Root for the All-Alaskan Racing Pigs: You can’t miss those, can you? These piglets travel in a custom “Piggy Penthouse” trailer that’s heated and air conditioned. And, yes, they just love to run. Racecourse is between the Family Fairway and the Plaza Pacifica. Wed, Thurs & Fri: 2, 3:30, 5, 6:30 & 8 p.m.; Sat & Sun: 12:30, 2, 3:30, 5, 6:30 & 8 p.m. ocfair.com/oc-fair/things-to-do/animals/pig-races/

Explore interesting animals in the Livestock Area, near the Yellow Gate (and there are more animals too!)

• Pygmy goats: Yes, how cute are they? Pretty darn cute.  They can reach heights of 22 inches and weigh 50-70 pounds. They’ll be in the barn from July 18 to July 20.
• Llamas: No, you don’t have to go to South America. There will be dozens of them in the livestock areaJuly 18-20.
• Miniature donkeys: Less than 36 inches tall, they’re fun and friendly to their owners. In the barn July 29 to Aug. 3.
• Barnyard fashion parade: Take in this runway show at 6 p.m. Aug. 6  in the livestock show ring.
• Friesian Horse Club of Southern California: Two of these gorgeous animals will be on display Aug. 13-17. Their owners will be there daily to share and talk to people about the breed. Other horses are also expected to be exhibited.
• Learn more: ocfair.com/oc-fair/things-to-do/animals

Go see the milking demonstrations with dairy cows:  Head over to the Millennium Barn to see cows milked at 2:15 and 4:15 p.m daily.

See a show free at the Hangar until 5 p.m.:  Daily performances including folklorico and belly dancing, choirs, martial arts demonstrations and clog dancers. Located at the main mall between the Family Fairway and the Action Sports Arena. Note: After 5 p.m. you have to pay for seats but it’s free to stand. Learn more: ocfair.com/oc-fair/entertainment/community-entertainment/

Free live music all day long on the Meadows Stage: Performers will include Sean Oliu & The Coastline Cowboys, Lousy Little Gods, Ashley Felton Trio, Morrison King,  Lucky Coot & The Band of Bobs, Front Street Troubadours. Located between Centennial Farm and Fair Square. Learn more: ocfair.com/oc-fair/entertainment/community-entertainment/

Lots to enjoy at the OC Promenade Stage: Magician Frank Thurston performs at 2, 4 and 6 p.m. Evening shows will include Suemy G, Danny Maika & Trio, John Kraus & The Goers, Wimberley Bluegrass Band, Mariachi Juvenil Herencia Michoacana and more. Located off the main mall. Learn more: ocfair.com/oc-fair/entertainment/community-entertainment/

Hear the nightly performance of “Taps”: The military tune will be played at 6 p.m. at Heroes Hall. Located between the Blue Gate and the Pacific Amphitheatre.

Look out for the Red Light Brass Band: The combo will roam the fair from noon until 6 p.m. daily.

Enjoy the exhibits: This year, they’re divided into culinary arts, hobbies and handicrafts, horticulture, livestock, table settings, visual arts, wine and woodworking. This encompasses many specialties, including floral arrangements, sugar arts and confections (yum), photography, miniatures, embellished clothing, wood carving, quilts, cosplay costumes, scrapbooking, upcycled handicrafts, livestock animals and lots more.

The Anaheim Union High School District Board of Trustees approved the consolidation plan in 2023, citing declining enrollment and long-term financial challenges. The district has lost about 5,500 students since the 2014-15 school year and, according to district staff, expects to lose another 3,900 by 2026-27. District officials have also said average daily attendance — which determines how much funding schools receive — has dropped, while costs tied to pensions, special education and other staffing issues continue to grow.

Orangeview most recently enrolled about 650 students, while Western High had 1,660, according to the latest figures from the California Department of Education.

Anaheim Union isn’t the only district making changes. As enrollment continues to drop across Orange County, other districts are also closing or considering the consolidation of schools. Last year, the Ocean View School District shut down Spring View Middle School and move its students to other campuses, and Orange Unified has also started exploring possible consolidations in response to declining enrollment.

“K-12 enrollment in Orange County has declined steadily over the past decade, with the most recent three-year drop totaling more than 22,000 students in traditional public schools — a trend largely driven by the high cost of living and declining birth rates,” Orange County Department of Education spokesman Ian Hanigan said in a statement.

District staff and educators in Anaheim Union said the school will adopt a more personalized, community-centered education model.

“We are at the forefront of rethinking what schools should be, and can be,” Bindi Crawford, co-principal of the new Orangeview-Western school, said during an update to the Board of Trustees meeting this week ahead of the start of school on Aug. 6.

District staff said the redesign introduces new academic structures aimed at boosting both learning outcomes and student well-being. That includes an eight-period block schedule on Mondays, three days of an advisory period each week, and twice-weekly late starts on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“On Mondays there will be a single block anchor day in which students will be able to go to all of their eight classes and check in with their teachers. On the other days, they will have a four-block period,” said Sean Fleshman, a longtime history teacher at Orangeview.

“The team felt very strong that it would be important to start off the week where each teacher saw each of their students at least once,” Crawford added. “These are shorter periods, but each student will go through every single one of their periods, including advisory, to kick off the week. Each period will be approximately 35 to 40 minutes.”

The idea behind advisory, according to Yamila Castro, a Spanish teacher at Western, is to build smaller learning communities and ensure each student has consistent contact with a trusted group of teachers. At the new school, students will meet in small, consistent advisory groups multiple times a week to build relationships and receive academic and emotional support.

“It ensures every student is known by name, assets and needs,” Castro said.

Another key component of the new school program, modeled after Hillsdale High in San Mateo, is what teachers call “Kid Talk.”

“When we visited Hillsdale, one of the practices that we learned at Hillsdale is this opportunity for students, support staff, administrators, counselors to do a preliminary intervention discussion about student needs and strengths,” Castro said. “So teachers come together twice a month and discuss students that they have questions about, that they would like to learn more about, maybe they’re having an attendance issue.”

“So this is a discussion with all of the teachers and support staff before it gets to the next level of intervention,” she said. “This way, every teacher has the opportunity to discuss students in a structured way.”

On Tuesdays, staff will use the late start time for Kid Talk and advisory planning, Castro said. Thursdays will be used for staff meetings, department check-ins or committee work.

Students will also be able to start career technical education (CTE) classes as early as eighth grade.

District officials said they expect the new model to yield stronger academic, behavioral and emotional outcomes.

“We’re going to likely be doing this with other schools as we move forward,” Superintendent Michael Matsuda said. “We learn together.”

Crawford said the team is focused now on getting to opening day, but also the work won’t stop there.

“This is just Year 1. And what we told our community is that Year 1 should not look like Year 2. This is a cycle of continuous progress and improvement,” she said.

Board President Brian O’Neal agreed.

“I’m really looking forward to seeing what happens when the school opens and then how it is at the end of this first year,” he said.

The district is also planning another major campus move. Hope School is expected to close later this year and reopen on the former Orangeview campus in the 2026-27 school year, once that site is vacated.

“We have a committee working on thinking through the process of what will happen to that property,” Trustee Katherine Smith said.

“It is sitting on my desk right now for review,” Bondi answered. “That’s been a directive by President Trump.” Bondi said she was also reviewing the John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King files. “That’s all in the process of being reviewed,” she said.

That was on Feb. 21.

On July 6, a Sunday, the FBI and the DOJ released a joint statement saying there was no “Epstein client list,” he really did commit suicide and all the files that they could or would release had already been made public.

This did not sit well with the roaring conservative podcaster demographic, which has been drawing crowds online with ever-wilder stories. Apparently Epstein was some sort of flying television director super-spy running a CIA honey trap for pedophiles on a remote island, controlling the world’s rich, famous and powerful by secretly recording blackmail tapes through pinholes. Trump and his once-trusted team, the keyboard cops raged, had become part of the cover-up.

Trump tried cajoling, ridiculing and disowning them, but the uproar just grew louder.

Thursday night, the president posted this message online: “Based on the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein, I have asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval. This SCAM, perpetuated by the Democrats, should end, right now!”

What’s the real story here? Is there a Democratic conspiracy? Is there a non-conspiracy explanation for not releasing “everything” from the Epstein files?

One thoughtful explanation comes from former federal prosecutor William Shipley, now a defense attorney, who writes about politically charged legal issues on a Substack called Shipwreckedcrew’s Port-O-Call. “There are thousands of victims who extend far beyond the minor girls who were personally abused by [Epstein],” he wrote. “Every minor depicted in a pornographic image or video that Epstein accumulated is a victim, and every transfer or republication of an electronic file or hard copy is an new crime that re-victimizes that person. That material should never be made public, and never will be.”

In other words, the Department of Justice is not going to publish a vile collection of child pornography just because people with podcasts demand to see “everything” from the Epstein files.

But what about the victims who were personally abused by Epstein and his associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, and perhaps by others?

“The vast majority have been interviewed by law enforcement, and many have told their stories either publicly or under oath in depositions as part of litigation that has gone on for nearly a decade,” Shipley wrote. “Those who have not spoken out publicly have made that choice deliberately. Material concerning them — even if it involves uncharged third parties — cannot be made public due to their privacy rights and the fact that much of that material is sealed by court order at their request.”

Sealed records prevent the government from releasing “everything.” Longtime defense attorney Alan Dershowitz, who represented Jeffrey Epstein and helped negotiate a plea deal for him in 2008, told NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo on Monday, “many of the things that are being suppressed are being suppressed by two judges in Manhattan, and they’re doing it largely to protect the alleged accusers who are, in the view of the judges, victims, even though we don’t know what their actual status is.”

Dershowitz said there is no “client list,” only redacted FBI affidavits “that accuse various people of having improper sex.” He said he knows who they are, because he did the investigations. Some of the accused were formerly in public office, some are dead, none are currently holding a public office. “The redactions could be undone if you go to court,” Dershowitz said.

Now Trump has directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to go to court and ask to have Grand Jury testimony released. It probably won’t be, but at least the exercise will demonstrate that it’s the courts, not the president, “covering up” the Epstein files.

And speaking of going to court, Trump said Thursday night he will sue Rupert Murdoch and “his third rate newspaper,” the Wall Street Journal, for publishing what Trump says is a “FAKE” letter. The Journal reported that Trump sent the letter to Epstein in 2003 to be included in a commemorative book for Epstein’s 50th birthday.

The letter shown to the Journal is reportedly typewritten, refers to a “secret,” and shows a line drawing of a naked woman with the scribbled signature “Donald” in marker, placed in a suggestive location.

“These are not my words, not the way I talk,” Trump said. “Also, I don’t draw pictures.”

The letter sounds like it could have come from the same political communications shop that invented the “prostitutes peeing on a bed in Trump’s Moscow hotel room” story. That tale appeared in the Steele dossier, an unverified and now-discredited pile of anti-Trump “research” paid for by the Hillary Clinton campaign.

According to Fox News, former CIA Director John Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey are currently under federal criminal investigation, possibly related to lying to Congress, and to their use of the Steele dossier in an Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) ordered up at the very end of the Obama administration to look into allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

A new CIA review of the “tradecraft” of that ICA found serious problems with it, including the fact that Brennan was unusually insistent on including the Steele dossier in the assessment, overruling analysts who said it wasn’t up to the agency’s standards.

The Intelligence Community Assessment became the basis for a politically damaging, multi-year investigation into Trump’s ties to Russia, which were non-existent. Now, Sen. Chuck Grassley and others on Capitol Hill are painstakingly digging out the truth.

By total coincidence, the roar over the Epstein files is covering it up.

Write Susan@SusanShelley.com and follow her on X @Susan_Shelley

If you could hire a skilled hunter who was able to kill up to 40 rodents a night, would you do it? What if that hunter had friends and they were all willing to work for free? 

Your neighborhood owls are those hunters.

A barn owl can kill 10-15 rodents per night. If there’s a nesting pair with youngsters, they can kill many more than that. A great horned owl can kill 40 rodents a night. This makes them far more effective than any rodenticide or trap. Many people resort to poison because they think that is the most effective solution to their rat (or mouse or gopher) problem. Unfortunately, poison (any poison) is killing owls and other predators. Even the “safer” rodenticides are harmful to non-target wildlife and pets due to their cumulative effect.

A poisoned rat is going to seek out water, so if you have an outdoor water feature (or pet water dish), you’re likely to find a dead rat nearby. As you’ve discovered, poisoned rodents can become disoriented and will often seek cover in sheltered spots like inside that box of stuff in your garage or even within interior walls. 

So, if you don’t poison the rats, the owls should be able to help with the problem. (Old-fashioned snap traps can also be effective.)

Q. Is there a more effective way to control weeds besides just pulling them out? I am trying to get rid of bindweed, but the vines are hard to pull out.

Any kind of vining weed can be a pain to pull out because you often end up pulling out or damaging neighboring plants in the process. In many cases, the weeds have extensive root systems that make weed-pulling a never-ending task.

Mix up a half-strength solution of weedkiller (Round Up) and fill several floral water picks (plastic tubes designed to hold water so flowers can stay fresh in a floral arrangement). Cut the weed stem and place the ends into the pick. The plastic cap should contain the solution so it won’t spill and kill neighboring plants. Poke the pick into the ground and refill the solution when it gets low. You want to use dilute herbicide so the plant has a chance to take up enough to kill the root system. If you use full-strength weedkiller, you may end up killing the stem before the roots are affected.

Los Angeles County

mglosangeleshelpline@ucdavis.edu; 626-586-1988; http://celosangeles.ucanr.edu/UC_Master_Gardener_Program/

Orange County

ucceocmghotline@ucanr.edu; http://mgorange.ucanr.edu/

Riverside County

anrmgriverside@ucanr.edu; 951-955-0170; https://ucanr.edu/sites/RiversideMG/

San Bernardino County

mgsanbern@ucanr.edu; 909-387-2182; http://mgsb.ucanr.edu

It was all out of some old-fashioned allegiance to the idea of amateurism. Guys play in college for fun and maybe some glory, right? Maybe impress some girls.

If you go on to become a professional athlete, more power to you. And that’s where the money is.

No more. The fancier quarterbacks, running backs and shooting guards have for a couple of years now been able according to NCAA rules to make big bucks “from third parties using their personal brand, often referred to as their name, image and likeness,” the college sports organization says. “The NCAA fully supports these opportunities for student-athletes across all three divisions,” from big schools to small.

The apparent way forward is for members of all the big college sports teams to be able to ka-ching their way through school whether or not they ever go pro.

In California, this means that football players, for instance, at even schools with crummy recent records such as my  Cal  Golden Bears have, will pull down on the order of $200,000 a year.

That’s not NFL money, much less Shohei Ohtani money.

But, around campus? That’s Champagne money on a formerly beer budget. More on which in a sec.

Back to Jim Thorpe. The citizen of the Sac and Fox Nation, one of the greatest American athletes ever, won two Olympic gold medals in the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm in classic pentathlon and the decathlon. Then those medals were stripped from him after it was revealed he had picked up a little scratch for his enormously poor family by playing a few games of semi-pro baseball before joining the U.S. team.

Generations later, the medals were “restored” to him, 30 years after his death.

That kind of “pure amateur” nonsense was nothing more than upper-middle class White American tut-tutting. It was cool that the greatest American golfer of the early 20th century, Bobby Jones, remained an amateur through his career. One reason why? He came from the right Atlanta circles, and had the chance to make an opportune investment in Coca-Cola and practice gentlemanly part-time law.

Jim Thorpe didn’t have such connections. But he did recover from the ignominy of having his medals stripped to star both as a professional baseball player and early NFL great — and even led a barnstorming Native American basketball team. Before he died young of alcoholism.

The lesson of Jim Thorpe was that the over-enforcement of the elite amateur notion is the definition of classism.

Still and all, I remember being ticked when NBA players were first allowed to play Olympic basketball — just as foreign players began to get as good as the Yanquis at the game. For decades, sending our best college hoops players to the Games worked out fine.  Even when they weren’t pulling down 200 large in the collegiate ranks.

The new formula has not quite been figured out. But: “As of last week, California’s top universities can pay their athletes directly — a dramatic shift in college sports that blurs the line between amateur and professional play. Schools have yet to say how much individual students will actually make or when checks might arrive, though a CalMatters estimate suggests some student-athletes at UC Berkeley could make roughly $200,000 a year. … At public universities, such as UC Berkeley, schools could use taxpayer dollars to make these payments.” No one’s pretending it’s the water polo players who’ll rake it in. First is football, then men’s basketball, then women’s basketball — the cash cows.

I’m just trying to figure out the lifestyle changes. Full scholarships and nice weight-training facilities don’t put folding money in the wallet. This does. Will BMOCs rent penthouse suites rather than live in the dorms? Dine at Chez Panisse rather than Top Dog? Take their dates to Cabo for the weekend rather than the movies? Make a down payment on the Lambo now rather than on draft day?

Larry Wilson is on the Southern California News Group editorial board. lwilson@scng.com.

“That was astonishing to me, because almost all of the detainees that I saw were in either orange or red,” Obernolte said Thursday, July 17. “There were hardly any blue uniforms.”

The high percentage of detainees classified as criminals at the Adelanto ICE center is an exception, however, according to the agency’s own data.

About every two weeks, ICE releases updated data on those it detains. According to data released on July 7, 69% of the 213 detainees at the High Desert center Obernolte visited on July 11 were criminals. The classification includes both convicted criminals and those with pending criminal charges.

But statewide, only 28.26% of the 3,284 people currently in detention are criminals, according to ICE.

That’s not unusual. Nationwide, there were 47,238 people being detained by ICE as of July 7. According to the agency, 13,656 of those detained — 28.9% — were categorized as criminals.

ICE did not respond to repeated requests for comment on this story.

Threat levels

President Donald Trump‘s administration has repeatedly said it’s targeting “the worst of the worst” — including terrorists, gang members and violent criminals — in the immigration sweeps that began soon after his second inauguration on Jan. 20.

But ICE is detaining more than violent criminals, according to its own data.

The agency sorts those it detains into four “threat levels.”

“Threat level is determined by the criminality of a detainee, including the recency of the criminal behavior and its severity,” the footnotes in ICE’s Detention Statistics spreadsheet explains. “A detainee can be graded on a scale of one to three with one being the highest severity. If a detainee has no criminal convictions, he/she will be classified as ‘No ICE Threat Level.’ “

As of July 7, 36.43% of the detainees at the Adelanto ICE center were categorized “Threat Level 1.”

“These numbers confirm what we’ve been seeing for years, that the overwhelming majority of people in ICE detention do not pose any threat to public safety,” Javier Hernandez, executive director of the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, wrote in an email on Thursday, July 17.

“In fact, only a small fraction are classified as ‘Threat Level 1,’ and even that designation is often vague and not always based on actual convictions,” he continued.

California detainees

The Adelanto ICE center had a higher percentage of both criminals and those categorized as “Threat Level 1” among its detainees than California’s five other ICE detention centers.

As of July 7, there were 3,284 detainees in the six detention facilities combined, according to ICE. The agency characterized 28.26% of them as criminals and 10.81% as “Threat Level 1.” And 83.7% of the detainees in California were categorized as “No ICE Threat Level.”

According to the data:

• The Adelanto ICE Processing Center had 213 detainees, 69% of them classified as criminals and 36.43% characterized as “Threat Level 1.”
• The Desert View Annex in Adelanto had 412 detainees, 35.14% of them classified as criminals, 3.62% characterized as “Threat Level 1.”
• The Golden State Annex in McFarland had 582 detainees, 50.76% of them classified as criminals, 22.55% characterized as “Threat Level 1.”
• The Imperial Regional Detention Facility in Calexico had 667 detainees, 13.63% of them classified as criminals, 5.12% of them characterized as “Threat Level 1.”
• The Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center in Bakersfield had 60 detainees, 88.83% of them classified as criminals, 49.85% of them characterized as “Threat Level 1.”
• The Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego had 1,360 detainees, 14.57% of them classified as criminals, 4.97% of them characterized as “Threat Level 1.”

On July 2, the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, along with other local advocacy groups, sued the Department of Homeland Security — which administers ICE — accusing the federal government of unconstitutionally arresting and detaining people for the sake of meeting arrest quotas. In May, Trump aide Stephen Miller directed ICE to make 3,000 immigration arrests per day.

“The objective of this draconian crackdown is to eviscerate basic rights to due process and to shield from public view the horrifying ways ICE and Border Patrol agents treat citizens and residents who have been stigmatized by our government as violent criminals based on skin color alone,” Mark Rosenbaum, senior special counsel for strategic litigation at Public Counsel, representing the plaintiffs, said in an ACLU news release.

Meanwhile, the number of immigrants detained by ICE in California is the highest it’s been since Trump’s first term:

• In 2019, the agency detained 4,375 people in nine facilities.
• In 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic, that number fell to 966 people in seven facilities.
• In 2021, after the election of President Joe Biden, and as the pandemic continued, the number fell further to 794 in eight facilities.
• In 2022, the number of people detained by ICE in California rose to 1,530 in seven facilities.
• In 2023, ICE held 1,955 people in six California detention centers.
• And in 2024, the agency held 2,664 people in six California facilities.

Gaps in data

The data ICE releases about twice each month doesn’t include information on who is detained in each center, what specific crimes they’ve allegedly committed, if they’ve been convicted of those crimes or other details. The reports also exclude those being detained in hospitals, hotels, Office of Refugee Resettlement or Mexican Interior Repatriation Program facilities.

The lack of clarity in the data the agency releases is no accident, according to Graeme Blair, an associate professor of political science at UCLA.

“ICE in particular does not want to release this information,” he said.

The agency’s traditional lack of transparency has been a concern for Blair, and is now heightened by Trump’s return to office.

“A group of us came together in the fall, and realized that given what kind of promises and threats Donald Trump was making around immigration, it was going to be important to be able to fact-check what they’re saying,” he said.

Blair and others created the Deportation Data Project, which publishes data obtained through federal Freedom of Information Act requests from ICE.

The data the project has received, in three waves as of mid-July, has underscored that the White House rhetoric around the detentions doesn’t match what ICE’s own records are saying.

Among “the (detainees) that do have offenses, the biggest category is traffic infractions,” Blair said. “Only 8% of detainees have been convicted of violent crimes and that’s a far cry from what (the White House’s) claims are.”

“I would certainly like to work with my colleagues in Congress to fix our broken immigration system,” he said. “But we should be able to agree that the law ought to be enforced.”

Despite the United States being deeply divided politically, Blair thinks releasing accurate and more detailed information on who ICE is detaining is important — and it’s making a difference.

Joe Rogan, the most popular podcaster in America and a supporter of Trump’s reelection, called ICE rounding up migrant workers whose only crime was being in the country illegally “insane.”

“Not cartel members, not gang members, not drug dealers. Just construction workers. Showing up in construction sites, raiding them. Gardeners. Like, really?” Rogan said on his July 2 show.

“I think when you have the ACLU and Joe Rogan both saying there’s something wrong with these arrests,” Blair said, “hopefully these conversations will break through and help people understand what it means to arrest 3,000 people a day and who’s being arrested.”

More about ICE’s California detention centers

• 3 Southern California Democrats denied entry to a high desert ICE detention center Sunday
• 5 Southern California Democrats demand ICE detention center improve conditions for detainees
• California Republicans ask President Trump to focus immigration efforts on ‘violent criminals’ rather than ‘non-criminal migrants’
• What the data say about who ICE is arresting in San Diego
• Two Democrats and a Republican visited ICE Adelanto detention center. Only one got in

After all, there was a chance — if a Texas immigration judge ruled their way — that her family was about to be reunited.

After a month apart, Murillo’s husband, and the father of their children, was on the cusp of finally coming home.

Until he wasn’t.

Jose Luis Zavala, a gardener, was one of thousands of immigrants swept up last month in President Donald Trump’s massive nationwide immigration crackdown. Now detained in a Texas detention center, his journey halfway across the country is a reflection of many with a now elusive path to freedom.

It’s a path that runs through an increasingly complex federal immigration system, already unclear to many Americans, where attorneys, families and detainees face a pipeline of evolving interpretation of rules and expanded federal authority, claimed by a new presidential administration.

As Zavala’s attorney said: “Be prepared for surprises.”

Those surprises, as Zavala and his family learned this week, could impact how long detainees could be in custody, whether they will remain in this country or rejoin families in the U.S.

For weeks, Zavala and his family have found themselves among the targets of the government’s mammoth legal battle to deport millions of immigrants in the country illegally — an effort fueled by relentless reminders by the president and his officials to use federal law enforcement to purge the “worst of the worst” felons from the nation.

• Also See: First came the immigration agents, then came the text. Pomona family’s day turns into a nightmare

For the Trump administration, Zavala’s 20-year-old DUI charge — which had been cleared from his record — and his undocumented status, count him as among the “worst,” despite the charge having been cleared and a record of raising a family, with a job, in the U.S. for years.

Like many, recent weeks have been full of uncertainty, as days turn into weeks in federal custody, and as expanding interpretations of long-standing federal rules cast a shadow over a detainee’s fate.

As his family waited, Zavala was in the crosshairs of the Trump administration’s massive expansion of a federal drive that put he and millions in jeopardy of being detained indefinitely.

Against all that, nearly one month after he was apprehended, Zavala took a big step toward walking out of an El Paso detention center, with his eldest son and daughter to fly home to Pomona.

But in a span of 48 hours, joy turned to sorrow after the government applied the breaks, his family and attorneys said.

It’s a glimpse at the kind of turbulence Southern California immigrant families face against a backdrop of a mammoth removal strategy designed to deport millions.

Rewind to June 18: From LA’s B-18 to El Paso

On June 18, Zavala was on his lunch break on a La Mirada gardening job when federal immigration agents converged.

“I’m (expletive)” he texted his wife, but in Spanish.

Within moments, he was ushered into the rear seat of an SUV and taken to the basement of the Edward R. Roybal Building, the downtown Los Angeles ICE detention center where in a facility called – B-18- scores of detainees – fathers such as Zavala, mothers, aunts and uncles — have been taken and processed since raids began all over the region in early June.

• Also See: A day outside an LA detention center shows profound impact of ICE raids on families

It’s the first stop in processing detainees, during which officers verify their identities before transporting them to detention centers. It’s also where their families and lawyers have come in search of their loved ones.

On June 18, Murillo and her daughter were among them. They’d come to see Zavala and give him vital medication for his diabetes. Murillo was lucky to get in after repeated tries, for a fleeting moment with the patriarch of the family of Murillo and their four children.

They left in tears, amid the early uncertainty of the raids blanketing Southern California. What did he do wrong, they wondered? Would he simply be deported on the spot? Would he get any kind of medical care?

For ICE and the Homeland Security, what Zavala did was crystal clear.

“Jose Luis Savala Ramirez was encountered by CBP in 2002 and agreed to return to Mexico rather than face a final order of removal or other penalties,” said Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at DHS Tricia McLaughlin said at the time. “He then illegally entered the country again and in 2006 he was encountered by CBP with falsified immigration documents. Ramirez has a Felony DUI conviction from 2005, but California dangerously created a program in 2021 to dismiss these to prevent conviction as criteria for removal.“

While immigration advocates caution that undocumented immigrants are more deportable if they have a conviction, immigrants have indeed benefited from state laws that dismiss convictions under certain circumstances.

In 2017, California Penal Code §1473.7 took effect, erasing the adverse impacts that very old convictions can have on people.

People could vacate an old conviction or sentence if newly discovered evidence proved their innocence; if it was brought over racial or ethnic prejudice or bias; or if there was prejudicial error damaging an accused person’s “ability to meaningfully understand, defend against, or knowingly accept the actual or potential adverse immigration consequences of a conviction or sentence.”

Echoing the Department of Homeland Security stance, agency attorneys have argued that convictions vacated under the state’s law remain “convictions” for immigration purposes.

About a week after the arrest, Murillo would learn that her husband was being transferred out of L.A. to the detention center in El Paso, Texas.

The uncertainty heightened, now so many miles away.

Expansion of federal rule casts shadow

More uncertainty would come.

That’s when Todd M. Lyons, acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, wrote employees on July 8 that the agency was revisiting its “extraordinarily broad and equally complex” authority to detain people. It was effective immediately, meaning people would be ineligible for a bond hearing before an immigration judge. Instead, now, they cannot be released unless the Homeland Security Department makes an exception.

The directive, first reported by The Washington Post, signaled a wider use of a 1996 law to detain people who had previously been allowed to remain free while their cases wind through immigration court.

He told officers that immigrants should be detained “for the duration of their removal proceedings.” The action was a huge hit to those fighting deportation, because, according to immigration lawyers, those proceedings could take months or years and could effect millions.

Zavala was among those millions. His attorney, Arturo Burga, knowing his client, Zavala, was requesting a bond hearing at the El Paso federal hub after weeks in detention, was getting worried.

“Yeah. I definitely was concerned. I went from very confident, to ‘oh no. I hope they don’t mention that.”

The July 15 hearing in front a Department of Justice administrative law judge would be a pivotal moment. At stake was whether Zavala could walk out on $5,000 bond. If he loses, he stays in and the government would gain a victory in efforts to deport him.  If he wins, the outlook is bright – as release could help him fight in his deportation proceedings – a defense against deportation, his attorney said.

For Burga, the ICE memo was a jolt, despite confidence his client had a strong case.

“I’m like, ‘what is going on? This is going to be so hard to overcome.”

Traditionally, at least in California, clients who were not a threat were released on bond, and could continue their deportation proceedings, with their attorneys and families, all outside of the confines of a federal detention center.

But the government — nationalizing an approach said to become a growing practice among some immigration judges in the nation to jail people for prolonged prolonged periods – appeared intent on doubling down, even on folks who many said are not the hardened criminals — the “worst of the worst” — that officials pledged to deport.

Asked by the Associated Press last week to comment on the memo, McLaughlin said. “The Biden administration dangerously unleashed millions of unvetted illegal aliens into the country — and they used many loopholes to do so. President (Donald) Trump and Secretary (Kristi) Noem are now enforcing this law as it was actually written to keep America safe.”

The initiative would apply to anyone who crossed the border illegally, and to people who have lived in the country for years, even decades.

But even in the shadow of the Lyons memo, Murillo, back in Pomona, held on to a semblance of faith.

Good news, bad news, 48 hours

Lyons wrote in his memo that detention was entirely within ICE’s discretion, but he acknowledged a legal challenge was likely. For that reason, he told ICE attorneys to continue gathering evidence to argue for detention before an immigration judge, including potential danger to the community and flight risk.

It would come back to Zavala’s case.

On Tuesday, Murillo and her family were preparing for a reunion. Yes, they would reunite with a visibly thinner Jose Luis Zavala, aged by weeks inside two federal detention centers thousands of miles away from each other.

Nevertheless, she and her family could taste the moment when Zavala would hug is 11-year-old again. They were counting the moments until he could see the signs they’d made for his return.

“Bienvenido para de nuevo a casa”! Welcome back home.

Only one thing needed to happen: The Texas judge had to sign off on releasing him on the $5,000 bond. Only then could he get on a plane and go home.

Murillo stayed back home, but two of their eldest children flew to El Paso. Their mission, their hope: Bring their father back.

But this wouldn’t be easy. They’d have to endure a “redetermination” hearing, where government attorneys would bear down, bringing the legal might of a powerful push to deport millions of immigrants, fueled by a president’s pledge to deport the “worst of the worst” and the countless depictions of rapists, the gang members, the murderers.

Zavala felt the full brunt of that might as Department of Homeless Security attorneys focused on his past. But it was a past that been cleared. The DUI charge that the government keyed in on had long been dismissed, Burga said.

According to Burga, the government did not mention the the memo in its arguments — “luckily,” he said.

Burga said the conviction has been dismissed.

The bond hearing happened at 9 a.m. Tuesday. By 11 a.m., the judge had ruled in Zavala’s favor. He would be released on $5,000 bond.

For an anxious family, it was a first moment of pure joy since before June 18, the day when Zavala was picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents while he was on a job in La Mirada.

“Honestly, we just started celebrating and crying and hugging each other,” Murillo said of the moment the family got word. “Our first reaction was ‘thank God for this.”

Bad news Wednesday

The next day, the reverberations of the government’s expansive policy appeared to be playing out, deflating Murillo’s hopes for her husband’s release.

As Murillo’s daughter worked to finalize the release on the ground in El Paso, she hit a glitch. She had to go online to pay the bond, a practice Zavala’s lawyer said the government is making “everybody” do now. The request bounced back — denied.

According to family and the lawyer, the government had “reserved” the case for appeal.

“In the same way we we so happy the day before, we were back to ‘why are they doing this to us,” Murillo said. “We went back to square one, basically. What’s the point of having a bond, if you can’t get released.”

Because of the government’s intent to appeal, Zavala would stay in custody, at least for 30 more days. If they don’t appeal in that window, he’ll be released in mid August. If the government does appeal, the case will be decided by the Board of Immigration Appeals, an administrative body within the Department of Justice that interprets and applies immigration laws.

That process could take weeks, months, even a year, Burga said.

‘Worst of the Worst’

Zavala’s case is another that has shined a harsh light on the administration’s “worst of the worst” pledge.

Murillo has always acknowledged that back in the early 2000s, her husband initially crossed illegally. She also acknowledged he once had a DUI on his record, back in 2005. But while he was once detained on a charge of DUI, that charge and case was dismissed by a court, Gordo said, adding that he has no criminal record.

But worst of the worst?

“Not everyone of the people detained are criminals,” Burga said. “Mr. Zavala, his record was clean. It’s just the simple fact that he appeared undocumented was the simple reason he got detained.

“I think they are just trying to find different methods of finding their goal of mass deportation,” he said.

• Also See: Nearly 2,800 undocumented immigrants have been detained in LA area since early June, DHS says

But McLaughlin, the DHS spokesperson, has called the assessment that ICE isn’t targeting immigrants with a criminal record “false” and said that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has directed ICE “to target the worst of the worst — including gang members, murderers, and rapists.”

She counted detainees with convictions, as well as those with pending charges, as “criminal illegal aliens.”

The latest ICE statistics show that as of June 29, there were 57,861 people detained by ICE, 41,495 — 71.7% of whom had no criminal convictions. That includes 14,318 people with pending criminal charges and 27,177 who are subject to immigration enforcement, but have no known criminal convictions or pending criminal charges.

Each detainee is assigned a threat level by ICE on a scale of 1 to 3, with one being the highest. Those without a criminal record are classified as having “no ICE threat level.” As of June 23, the latest data available, 84% of people detained at 201 facilities nationwide were not given a threat level. Another 7% had been graded as a level 1 threat, 4% were level 2 and 5% were level 3.

“The government appears to be doing everything in its power to try to jail people under the authority of the immigration laws,” said Ahilan Arulanantham, professor of practice and co-director of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at UCLA School of Law.

But the rhetoric is not matching reality, he said.

“Citizens get DUIs and they then receive whatever punishment the criminal legal system deems appropriate,” Arulanantham said. “Nobody is more dangerous because of where they were born. So the basic concept that we need to engage in immigration enforcement to make us safer is kind of at war with the way we know the criminal justice systems works at the most basic level.”

Arulanantham said the majority of people being arrested in this wave of enforcement operations are people who do not have a conviction, or who have minor convictions.

“Given that the Trump administration is saying over and over again that we’re going against the worst of the worst, touting alleged arrests of people with criminal histories in their past … it’s important to note they are not telling the truth about that,” he said.

“That someone committed a DUI 20 years ago does not mean they have to be deported now to make us safe. That makes no sense.”

‘Another waiting game’

Back in Pomona, Murillo reeled from the emotional rollercoaster of a month of starts and stops.

She has hope in her husband’s case and that the judge’s decision will stand. But it’s mixed with concern that the government will find something, some morsel of a blemish that would enable them to deport her husband.

“It’s like another waiting game,” she said. “That’s a whole month to gather information… to look for stuff against him, I really doubt they are going to find. They know he has a possibility to win a case. I’m just scared. They could, out of nowhere, find something and put stuff on his case that could effect him.”

Her 11-year-old appears to be taking the brunt of it emotionally. Murillo said she had to take her to the emergency room about a week after the arrest for a condition that appeared to start with anxiety.

“I have to have the mentality to stay strong for them, but also for him,” she reminds herself, referring to her family.

They are able to talk to Zavala.

The theme in their conversations: “He’s gonna stay strong for us, and hopefully he will be released and we can bring him home.”

For now, the reunion will have to wait.

“We were ready to have a little gathering with the family,” she said. “Make some food for him. My daughter had made big posters of “Welcome Back Daddy. We missed you!”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Pop Mart has struck it rich. The Chinese company that caters to toy connoisseurs and influencers said this week that it expects profit for the first six months of this year to jump by at least 350% compared with the prior-year period, largely because of its smash hit plush toy, the Labubu. Pop Mart joins a small list of companies that have tapped into the zeitgeist, drawing in millions of buyers who, for one reason or another, simply must get their hands on a toy or gadget of the moment.

But what makes the Labubu a must-have, or any toy for that matter, is a decades-old question that toy makers have yet to figure out.

Here’s a look at some of the most popular toys over the years.

Cabbage Patch Kids

Cabbage Patch Kids began as chubby-faced dolls with yarn hair that came with adoption papers. During the 1980s the dolls were so popular that parents waited in long lines at stores trying to get a hold of them. More than 90 million Cabbage Patch Kids were sold worldwide during their heyday.

Cabbage Patch Kids, which were created by Xavier Roberts and initially sold by Coleco, were relaunched in 2004, looking to take part in the successful return of other popular 1980s toys including Strawberry Shortcake, Care Bears and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

A Cabbage Patch Kid museum named BabyLand General Hospital still exists in Cleveland, Georgia. The dolls entered the National Toy Hall of Fame in 2023.

Beanie Baby

Beanie Babies captivated consumers in the mid-1990s. The cuddly $5 toys were under-stuffed for maximum hug-ability, stamped with cute names on their Ty Inc. tags, and given limited edition runs.

Many people collected, traded and sold the toys with the hopes that their value would just keep going up at the dawn of the e-commerce age. It made some people money, and the founder, Ty Warner, a billionaire in three years.

In 2014 Warner learned that he would not go to prison for hiding at least $25 million from U.S. tax authorities and instead received two years’ probation. Warner, one of the highest profile figures snared in a federal investigation of Americans using Swiss bank accounts to avoid U.S. taxes, had pleaded guilty to a single count of tax evasion.

Tamagotchi

Looking for a pet without the real-life responsibilities? Well then the Tamagotchi electronic pet from Bandai was for you. Consumers were hooked on the egg-shaped plastic toy that first launched in Japan in 1996 and became a craze worldwide in the late 1990s and 2000s.

Users were tasked with taking care of their virtual pet by pressing buttons that simulate feeding, disciplining and playing with the critter on screen. If a Tamagotchi is neglected, it dies.

In 2013 Tamagotchi was reborn as a mobile app, duplicating the experience of the plastic handheld toy. The toy was inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame in May.

Fidget Spinner

Fidget spinners — the 3-inch twirling gadgets that took over classrooms and cubicles — were all the rage in 2017. The toy was considered somewhat of an outlier at the time, given that it wasn’t made by a major company, timed for the holiday season, or promoted in TV commercials. Fidget spinners were more easily found at gas stations or 7-Eleven than at big toy chains.

Fidget spinners had been around for years, mostly used by kids with autism or attention disorders to help them concentrate, but they became more popular after being featured on social media.

While hot toys are often made by one company, fidget spinners were made by numerous manufacturers, mostly in China. The toys were marketed as a concentration aid but became so popular among children that many schools started banning them, saying that they were a distraction.

Labubu

The Labubu, by artist and illustrator Kasing Lung, first appeared as monsters with pointed ears and pointy teeth in three picture books inspired by Nordic mythology in 2015.

In 2019 Lung struck a deal with Pop Mart, a company that caters to toy connoisseurs and influencers, to sell Labubu figurines. But it wasn’t until Pop Mart started selling Labubu plush toys on key rings in 2023 that the toothy monsters suddenly seemed to be everywhere, including in the hands of Rihanna, Kim Kardashian and NBA star Dillon Brooks. K-pop singer Lisa of Blackpink began posting images of hers for her more than 100 million followers on Instagram and on TikTok, where Labubu pandemonium has broken out.

Labubu has been a bonanza for Pop Mart. Its revenue more than doubled in 2024 to 13.04 billion yuan ($1.81 billion), thanks in part to its elvish monster. Revenue from Pop Mart’s plush toys soared more than 1,200% in 2024, nearly 22% of its overall revenue, according to the company’s annual report.

Woodie Wagon Day is today and since a lot of us are heading to the beaches, what better time to explore the world of woodies.

CLASSIC OR JUST COLLECTIBLE?

So, are those polished and shiny Ford woodies from 1949 classic? Technically, no. The Classic Car Club of America has a list of approved models, and there are no Fords, Chevys or Dodges. The club’s definition of a classic is a fine and distinctive automobile produced between 1915 and 1948. That means there are a few woodies that make the list – say, a Chrysler Town & Country made between 1941 and 1948. It’s technically a classic, and you could also say it’s cherry and boss.

This 1948 Chrysler Town & Country is technically a classic.

CARRIAGE-LIKE CARS

In the 1920s, cars with wood paneling were mostly done by custom shops. Henry Ford bought 400,000 acres of forest land in Michigan in 1920 and shipped the wood out to be milled and assembled until Ford began milling in 1934.

General Motors used a separate company to make its woodies. The 1930 Ford at right sold for $30,800 this month. Trains, boats and cars were mostly made of wood in the 1920s and 1930s. The earliest woodies looked a lot like the wagons and coaches they replaced. By 1932, during the Great Depression, General Motors was selling about a third as many cars as it had three years earlier. Consumers began to regain confidence by 1935 and sales of woodies picked up, including luxury models like Packard’s wood-bodied cars for a premium price.

The original SUV

This ad for a 1939 Ford states the station wagon combines beauty with utility.

1940 Fords came in Standard and Deluxe models; this changed to Deluxe and Super Deluxe for the 1941-1948 lines. The structural framework was mostly maple, birch, mahogany or gum wood panels. Basswood was used for the longitudinal roof slats. In 1940, Ford built over 500,000 passenger cars, and of those about 8,700 were wood-bodied station wagons. Ford never used ash wood, but GM and Chrysler did. During World War II, domestic car production was essentially on hold. After the war, car companies began to produce new cars and since wood was readily available more wood-bodied cars came off the production line in the first few months after the war than in years past.

The look of woodies changed a lot in the late 1940s, not because of the wood, but because of steelmaking advancements. The all-steel roofs replaced the fabric roofs of the past. End of the production line By 1947, woodies had started to become unprofitable because of the labor needed to produce them. Chevy’s eight-seat woodie was its most expensive model and did not sell well. By 1951, Chevy stopped making wood-bodied cars. 1949 was the last year Oldsmobile made woodies. They were high-end family cars with a list price of $3,295, equivalent to about $34,000 now. Approximately 1,355 were built. A restored 1949 model sold for $78,100 in 2006.

This 1953 Buick recently sold for $55,000. It is one of only 1,830 made and has a V8 engine. It was made in the last year Buick constructed cars with real wood.

The downfall of wood

The wood that made the cars desirable was also their undoing. The demand for woodies declined rapidly in the 1950s because the wood panels required a lot more maintenance than steel bodies.

In my woody I will take you

By the 1960s, young surfers who needed a cheap car to transport their 10-foot boards latched on to the discarded wagons that were no longer mainstream. One man’s trash became the surfers’ treasure.

1960s SURF MUSIC

“Surfin’ Safari”

Early in the morning we’ll be startin’ out Some honeys will be coming along We’re loading up our woody With our boards inside And headin’ out singing our song -Released in 1962, the song was the Beach Boys’ first release with Capitol Records and first hit single, peaking at No. 14. Woody or Woodie? The Beach Boys used woody, but the National Woodie Club says they spelled it wrong.

“Surf City”

I bought a ’30 Ford wagon and we call it a woody (Surf City, here we come) You know it’s not very cherry, it’s an oldie but a goody (Surf City, here we come) Well, it ain’t got a back seat or a rear window But it still gets me where I wanna go Written by Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys and Jan Berry of Jan and Dean, the song became the first surf song to hit No. 1 on the charts, in 1963.

This 1952 Mercury was estimated to sell for $70,000 to $90,000 prior to it being auctioned in 2013. The car wound up being sold for $135,000. Some woodies can fetch more than $150,000.

Sources: Classic Car Club of America, Barrett-Jackson.com, Classic-car-history.com, Southern California Woodie Club, National Woodie Club, RM Auctions, Photos: Staff and Wiki Media Commons