Gov. Gavin Newsom was on location in Hollywood on Sunday, where he unveiled a proposal to more than double the tax credit the state offers to producers of films and TV shows that shoot in California.
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City News Service
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CVS pharmacy clerks and technicians are entering their fourth day of a strike Monday after walking off the job and onto picket lines at four locations in Los Angeles and another three in Orange County as their union pushes for a new contract and alleges unlawful labor practices.
Meanwhile, store officials insist they are negotiating in good faith and have already reached tentative deals with the union on several key issues.
TODAY: Kaiser mental health workers go on strike Monday across Southern California
CVS Pharmacy workers, represented by United Food and Commercial Workers Local 770 in Southern California, declared a strike at 7 a.m. Friday and began picketing. The union represents nearly 7,000 CVS workers, and its members last month voted to authorize a strike.
Workers are picketing at the following locations:
— 1701 S. Western Ave., Los Angeles
— 4707 Venice Blvd., Los Angeles
— 1843 S. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles
— 5985 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles
— 3401 Katella Ave., Los Alamitos
— 270 W Lincoln Ave., Anaheim
— 7065 La Palma Ave., Buena Park
CVS officials told City News Service that the stores “remain open and are serving customers and patients.”
“We’re disappointed that our UFCW member colleagues have gone on strike at seven locations in the Los Angeles area. We’ve had more than a dozen good faith negotiating sessions with the UFCW over the last several months, including six since the contract expired in June,” the company said in a statement provided to CNS on Sunday.
“Over the course of these discussions, we’ve made progress on finalizing a contract and have already reached tentative agreements that will increase the rate of pay for store associates, with additional increases for colleagues with 5+ years of service and colleagues with 10+ years of service. In addition, we’ve agreed not to reduce any benefit they currently have and offered to increase the amount of money CVS Health contributes toward the cost of health insurance for those enrolled in company-sponsored health insurance.
“There’s more to do, but we’re committed to working together. We look forward to reconvening with UFCW to continue negotiations and hope to finalize an agreement soon.”
Union leaders say they are protesting what they call unlawful activities that have interfered with bargaining and prevented employees from reaching a fair deal. UFCW officials allege CVS has engaged in illegal surveillance of workers, retaliation for union activities and prohibiting workers from engaging in union activities. The allegations came amid continuing labor talks for a new contract to replace one that expired in June.
According to the union, the average CVS clerk makes less than $20 an hour and can’t afford to buy insurance from CVS, a health insurance company. Pharmacy technicians, who are required to complete an extensive CVS Pharmacy Technician Training Program as well as satisfy all registration, licensing and state certification requirements, currently make only $24.90 an hour after five years, union officials said.
Roughly 3,500 Rite Aid workers in California have also voted to authorize a strike, and they could soon form their own picket lines if negotiations fail to produce a new contract.
City News Service
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COLLEGE PARK, Md. — At long last, after a season scorned by losses, after the “few plays away” that had defined USC’s season, they seemed set to close a football game on the steady leg of Georgia Southern transfer kicker Michael Lantz.
41-yard try. Two minutes left. USC up six. Snap. Kick. Ballgame, it should’ve been.
But Lantz’s boot never quite made it in the air.
Maryland’s Donnell Brown burst through and deflected the field-goal attempt, the loose football scooped up by the Terrapins’ Caleb Wheatland, and a USC program that’s shown a complete inability to simply close games in 2024 left the door open just long enough for a fleet of red to streak through.
They’d all been bad. They’d all been heartbreaking. There was the gut-wrencher in Ann Arbor, and the frustration in Minneapolis, and the Penn State madness at the Coliseum last week, and yet nothing quite compared to the sheer bafflement that unfolded in College Park on Saturday afternoon as USC fell 29-28 to Maryland.
First came the blocked kick after a second half of calamities, and then a Maryland drive that gave the Terrapins a stunning lead in the span of but five plays, and then a final USC drive that seemed momentarily destined for glory until Miller Moss dropped back on fourth down.
Needing two yards to set up another Lantz try, with 10 seconds left, he darted a ball over the middle to the normally steady-as-a-rock Woody Marks.
The ball popped out, off a Maryland tackle, the kind of break that’s never gone USC’s way in a shocking 3-4 start – and 1-4 Big Ten – that somehow, some way, could still be 7-0.
Moss put his hands to his helmet, and two plays later, these Trojans trudged off the field again as a thin crowd of Terrapins red stormed the field.
Again, a strong first half was flushed down the drain. Again, Lincoln Riley refused to turn heavily to the running game as time wound down in the second half. Again, a fourth quarter and an eventual loss had come down the “few plays away” that have defined Riley’s time in Southern California.
Things looked just peachy at the end of the first half, when Moss found tough-handed sophomore Makai Lemon – rapidly becoming a favorite target – for a 24-yard gain over the middle, Marks punched in a touchdown after a couple handoffs, and USC held a 21-7 lead. After a season of youthful inconsistency for USC’s sophomore receiving corps, they put on a 30-minute clinic, Lemon totaling five first-half catches and young Megatron Ja’Kobi Lane somehow twisting on one second-quarter ball from Moss for a one-handed TD grab that defied all of Isaac Newton’s scientific epiphanies. And after a couple weeks of iffy performances, Saturday’s first two quarters saw the return of the Moss that fans saw in the Holiday Bowl, a gunslinger who dotted his way to a 196-yard first half.
But even in his best games of 2024, even as Riley stuck with self-described “zero question” to Moss as his starter, the junior’s been prone to head-scratching mistakes that have doomed USC’s fortunes. And with USC moving in the third quarter, another brutal decision set disaster in motion, firing off his back foot and floating an interception that resulted in a Maryland score not a play later.
After another ineffectual USC drive, cornerback Jaylin Smith momentarily played superhero, skying for a remarkable one-handed pick on a fourth-and-goal to put the Trojans back in the driver’s seat. With momentum at the start of the fourth quarter, buoyed by a steady ground attack from Marks, Moss found Duce Robinson for a 26-yard push into the end zone for another sophomore-starring moment.
Maryland retaliated with a score, as USC too often strayed away from handing the ball to Marks. But on what seemed a last-gasp Maryland drive with three minutes to go, D’Anton Lynn’s defense – so often lambasted for their lack of pressure and weakness at closing on fourth downs – sent ballhawk Kamari Ramsey flying off the edge, bringing down Edwards Jr. for a sack.
It seemed the clincher. It seemed, at long last, that USC could close.
Only for a kick to be sent dribbling, and a season to continue slipping.
Luca Evans
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The first U.S. presidential election occurred 235 years ago, in 1789. It was a small election (about 28,000 voters) without attack ads, noisy political conventions, assassination attempts and vice presidents taking over the campaign a few months before voters decide.
In 1789 only White men who owned property had the right to vote. Thirteen years after the American Revolution began in 1776, the nation had its first presidential election. Washington won in a landslide without having to campaign. After serving as commander of the Continental Army and president of the Constitutional Convention, Washington was a national hero.
Unlike today, when a candidate nominated to run for president by their political party can select a vice presidential running mate, the vice president was determined by who came in second in the electoral vote. Between Dec. 15, 1788, and Jan. 10, 1789, states held elections and chose presidential electors, who according to the Constitution at the time had two votes. The Electoral College convened Feb. 4, 1789, and the election results were determined. Washington took the presidential oath of office April 30 at Federal Hall in New York City, the first U.S. capital.
John Adams finished second with 34 electoral votes in 1789 and became the first vice president of the nation.
There were no Republicans or Democrats, only Federalists who favored the Constitution, Anti-Federalists who opposed it and Washington, who ran as an independent. Washington presided over the Constitutional Convention, which devised the federal government.
North Carolina and Rhode Island had not ratified the Constitution and did not participate; New York did not choose electors due to an internal dispute.
Washington received all 69 electoral votes. No other president has come into office with a universal mandate to lead.
There are 54 electoral votes in California in 2024, the most of any state.
Washington was both a national hero and the favorite son of Virginia, the largest state at the time. Washington ascended to the presidency with the practical leadership experience of his Continental Army and Constitutional Convention roles.
The inauguration for this year’s election will be in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20, but Washington was sworn in during the spring. On April 30, 1789, Washington took the presidential oath of office. The chancellor of the state of New York, Robert Livingston, administered the oath to the first chief executive and exclaimed, “Long live George Washington, president of the United States!”
The 12th Amendment to the Constitution (ratified in 1804) mandated that presidents and vice presidents be elected together. Thomas Jefferson was the first president to be inaugurated in Washington, D.C. Jefferson simply walked to the Capitol for the oath-taking and returned to his boardinghouse afterward for dinner. After his second inauguration, he rode on horseback from the Capitol to the White House amid music and a spontaneous gathering of workers from the nearby Navy Yard – a procession that grew into today’s Inaugural Parade.
Sources: National Archives, Mountvernon.org, Virginia Museum of History and Culture, electproject.org, Vital Statistics of American Politics
Kurt Snibbe
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Five things to do in the garden this week:
Fruit Trees. If you are considering planting apple trees, but are unsure if your winter is cold enough to promote flowering and fruit growth, select one Anna and one Ein Shemer tree. They require less winter cold than any other varieties to produce abundant crops. Both varieties were developed in Israel and, although self-fertile so either one will produce a crop on its own, you will get more apples and of a larger size when the two trees are planted side by side and pollinate one another.
Vegetables. You can have lettuce ready to pick throughout the year since one kind or another is appropriate for planting in every month, although you will want to locate lettuce in a somewhat shady exposure during the hottest months. Lettuce seeds are easy to germinate. Sprinkle them on the soil surface and cover with a tiny bit of compost. Leaf lettuce — whose popular varieties include Oak Leaf, Black-Seeded Simpson, and Salad Bowl — is easiest to grow and some types are ready to harvest in 50 days. Romaine lettuce takes 75 days from seed to harvest and crisphead types such as Iceberg will be ready to pick in 50-90 days, depending on the variety. (Yes, there are many Iceberg varieties and they mature at different times of the year.) The advantage of the crisphead types is their resistance to bolting or going to seed in warm weather. Incidentally, Los Angeles was the first place in this country where Iceberg was grown commercially, after arriving here from France in 1902. its original name was Los Angeles Market lettuce and it was grown throughout the year in this city, from where it was shipped to every corner of the United States. Keep in mind that leaf lettuces can be harvested multiple times in a season by cutting off the outer leaves or cutting back the whole plant by removing up to two-thirds of its growth. With crispheads, on the other hand, the entire plant is harvested all at once.
Herbs. Garden sorrel (Rumex acetosa) is a long-lived perennial that flourishes in the dry garden. It requires scant attention and produces leaves that, added to any salad, eliminate the need for vinegar, lemon juice or any other comparably tart flavoring agent. Its seeds germinate without any fuss. The taste of French sorrel (Rumen scutatus) is slightly more refined. The related bloody dock (Rumex sanguineus) sports foliage with red-veined leaves. Keep in mind that all of these sorrels are edible but since they contain oxalic acid should not be consumed in large quantities.
Ornamentals. Plant Iceland poppies now from nursery-grown stock to add special magic to your winter and early spring flower garden. Iceland poppy (Papaver nudicaule) flowers are wide-rimmed like Margarita glasses and appear in pink, orange, salmon, and yellow. In addition, their fat, nodding flower buds impart a whimsical look. To keep Iceland poppies blooming, apply a water-soluble 20-20-20 fertilizer every other week and make sure their soil stays moist. Water should only be applied from below since the fragile stems will easy bend from the force of overhead irrigation. Removing faded flowers on a daily basis will significantly extend the plants blooming period..
If you are planting a tree, remove its stake immediately after it is in the ground. That stake makes it easier to move the tree around in the nursery and during transport. It also serves to resist bending or breaking the trunk when planting. If you need a stake to support a tree after it is planted, the tree is not in balance and should not have been planted in the first place. Some production nurseries cut off all side growth along the trunk to quickly force a large canopy to develop on top. But this may come at the expense of a weak trunk and paltry root system that cannot support the canopy. If you need to stake a tree when it is planted, it may never be able to stand straight and tall on its own.
Do you have a garden insect experience you would like to share with readers of this column? If so, please send it along to joshua@perfectplants.com. Your questions and comments, as well as garden problems and successes, are always welcome.
Joshua Siskin
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Q. How do I start and maintain a compost pile/bin? Is there a certain type of composter you recommend?
I love composting because it’s a way you can take something that would normally be waste and turn it into something very useful.
If you have a yard, even a small one, you can set up and maintain a compost bin. The simplest setup would just be a big pile or a few smaller piles. The major drawback to the pile method is that you may get some unwelcome visitors if you’re not careful. Rats, mice, raccoons, skunks, and opossums will find an open compost pile irresistible, especially if there are any food scraps present. I would only try this method of composting if you live on a large property and can locate it far away from any buildings.
There are several commercially available compost bins that are designed to be rodent-proof. An enclosed compost tumbler is effective at excluding pests and containing odors. In some municipalities, this is the only type of compost bin allowed. Look for one that is sturdy enough not to sag or warp and does not have metal parts that come into contact with the composting material, since they will rust and break eventually.
The stacking-type composters are convenient and make turning the pile easy. Sadly, these are difficult to find.
When starting a compost pile, add several inches of brown material before introducing green material. Brown material is carbon-rich and includes sawdust, shredded paper, dried plant material, hay, straw, and any kind of dry bedding. Green material is nitrogen-rich and includes kitchen scraps, coffee grounds, fresh grass clippings, green yard waste, freshly pulled weeds, and manure (cow, chicken, rabbit, or horse). Try to alternate layers of brown and green since you want to avoid accumulating a large mass of solid green material. Since green material tends to be higher in water content, it tends to mat and form dense pockets. Too much moisture and/or green material will encourage the growth of anaerobic bacteria, which will produce a foul smell.
If there is too much brown material and/or not enough moisture, there won’t be enough microbial activity to break everything down. In hot weather a compost pile can dry out quickly, so you may have to water it to get things going. Ideally, compost should feel like a well squeezed-out sponge – not too wet and not too dry.
Turning the pile, either by using a fork or rotating the drum on a tumbler-type bin, aerates and mixes the material so beneficial bacteria can thrive. After turning and watering, the compost should increase in temperature as the microbes become more active. Our compost will usually reach 160 degrees F, then eventually cool off as it matures. Finished compost should smell earthy.
If you have very little space, you could simply bury kitchen scraps in the garden and they will break down within a week or two.
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; https://ucanr.edu/sites/RiversideMG/
San Bernardino County
mgsanbern@ucanr.edu; 909-387-2182; http://mgsb.ucanr.edu
Laura Simpson
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SAN DIEGO — Like rescuers linking arms in a human chain to save someone in danger of drowning, the Dodgers’ bullpen linked arms, ventured out on the thin ice of Game 4 and kept their season from going under.
Achieving peak 2024, the Dodgers resorted to a bullpen game in an elimination game. Their backs to the wall, eight pitchers wore a path from the bullpen to the mound at Petco Park on Wednesday night – then forced San Diego Padres hitters to wear a path back to their dugout.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts stitched together a seven-hit shutout with those relievers and the Dodgers’ offense piled up runs to stave off elimination with an 8-0 victory in Game 4 of their National League Division Series.
The Dodgers’ two victories in this series have featured 15 scoreless innings from their relievers.
Roberts’ maneuvering wasn’t even limited to the pitchers. He moved Kiké Hernandez and Chris Taylor between third base and center field. Hernandez went to center when fly ball pitchers like Michael Kopech and Alex Vesia were on the mound. Taylor went to center with Hernandez at third when ground balls were more likely.
This Surfliner Series heads back north for Game 5 at Dodger Stadium on Friday night. The Dodgers have not taken a postseason series to the limit since beating the San Francisco Giants in five games in their 2021 NLDS – also the last time they won a postseason series.
The Dodgers never trailed in the game thanks to the October rebirth of Mookie Betts, who homered in the first inning for the second consecutive game. This time, he didn’t hit it anywhere near Jurickson Profar – and didn’t hesitate going into an animated home run trot, pumping his fist as he rounded second base.
Two more runs in the second inning chased Padres right-hander Dylan Cease, who started on three days of rest but was pulled by Manager Mike Shildt after just five outs. Shohei Ohtani and Betts gave the Dodgers a 3-0 lead with back-to-back RBI singles – their largest lead at the end of a postseason inning since they led 5-0 midway through Game 1 of their 2022 NLDS against the Padres.
In the third inning, the Dodgers made it 5-0 on a 432-foot, two-run home run by Will Smith. It was the Dodgers’ biggest lead at the end of a postseason inning since Game 1 of their 2022 NLDS against the Padres.
Ohtani cost them a chance to pad that lead with poor baserunning in the fourth inning. He drew a walk with one out then tagged up and went to second on a fly out by Betts. Teoscar Hernandez bounced a ground ball down the third-base line that Manny Machado tried to backhand as the ball bounced just across the foul line. It glanced off Machado’s glove, bounced up and hit third-base umpire Mark Ripperger.
Third-base coach Dino Ebel threw up a stop sign when he saw the ball hit Ripperger, but Ohtani’s head was down and he kept going. Machado was able to recover the ball quickly and threw Ohtani out at home.
The Dodgers’ relievers were able to avoid any drama for most of the game. The Padres didn’t have a baserunner with fewer than two outs until David Peralta led off the fifth inning with a single off Alex Vesia.
Vesia walked Jake Cronenworth to put two runners on with no outs, but he struck out Kyle Higashioka and got Luis Arraez to fly out.
Evan Phillips picked up from there, retiring all four batters he was tasked with. By the time, Daniel Hudson took the mound for the bottom of the seventh, the Dodgers had broken the game open with three more runs on a squeeze bunt by Tommy Edman and a two-run home run by Gavin Lux.
More to come on this story.
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Bill Plunkett
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Take a look at the great plays and exciting moments from the Week 6 football games Friday, Oct. 4.
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OCVarsity sports staff
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Q. I have seen California license plates with red lettering and a black background. What would be the consequence of getting caught modifying your license plates?
– Trung Le, Riverside
A. Honk saw one of those just last week. Sweet-looking, yes?
And illegal.
Motorists use vinyl wrap, which is pretty accessible, to create that color scheme, said Casey Ramstead, an officer and spokesman for the California Highway Patrol out of its Woodland Hills station house. There are other colors, too, used to creatively gussy up a ride.
A popular choice is white lettering with a black background, albeit the Department of Motor Vehicles does allow those colors if digital plates produced by an approved company.
“It gives us an easy reason to stop someone,” Ramstead said of illegal plates. “That is the silly thing. … Why are you drawing attention to yourself?
“You are not allowed to alter your plates, period.”
Officers can write either of two California Vehicle Codes for such a license-plate violation.
“First is a fix-it ticket, and the other one is for trying to avoid the law,” Ramstead said, adding vinyl users would likely get hit with the first one as the covering can just be pulled off. “I have heard that (second) one can be for over $1,000.”
Officers with a keen sense of traffic laws can easily spot the illegal ones.
“When you are looking up plates all day, you tend to notice things,” Ramstead said.
Q. Anaheim lowered speed limits recently on many streets. An example is Katella Avenue, between Brookhurst and Euclid streets, where it was lowered from 40 mph to 35. This is a six-lane, divided road with no facing houses and some mostly not-very-busy businesses. The rest of the road remains at 40 mph. Today, I drove along West Street, a two-lane street with a yellow stripe, lined with houses. The posted limit is also 35 mph. It doesn’t make sense. When the changes were made, no special signage was posted to call attention to them, and I’m sure that many like me who have been driving Katella for years don’t think to read the new signs. The whole thing screams SPEED TRAP to me. Who can I contact in Sacramento to look into this?
– Mark Hosmer, Anaheim
A. In Anaheim, the City Council approved 169 stretches of roadway getting reduced speed limits, mostly by 5 mph, in the name of safety. In the wake of a state law making it easier for municipalities to reduce speed limits, the traffic engineer had a study done and recommendations were taken to the council, with signs getting changed this past summer.
The Katella stretch you mentioned, Mark, has a lot of driveways and pedestrian usage, said Mike Lyster, a city spokesman, among the factors considered when lowering speed limits. Another factor is if a school is about.
He said that Anaheim officials tried to get the word out by helping TV and print reporters tell the public about the changes and by deploying social media. Lyster insisted it wasn’t about issuing tickets to raise revenue; in the end, he said, that doesn’t pencil out.
“Speed traps are illegal,” Lyster said.
A speed trap, he said as an example, could be a change from 50 mph to 25 at the bottom of a hill, not a 5 mph decrease with a study providing a good reason for a drop.
For speed-limit specifics, in Anaheim or elsewhere, Honk suggests ringing up the traffic engineer in the town’s public works department.
To ask Honk questions, reach him at honk@ocregister.com. He only answers those that are published. To see Honk online: ocregister.com/tag/honk. Twitter: @OCRegisterHonk
Jim Radcliffe
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My late father-in-law was an avid gardener.
He was a pleasantly calm man but his feathers would ruffle when he found evidence of gophers in his garden. He spent hours every weekend trying to outsmart them. The only time I ever heard him utter an expletive was when his latest defense against them failed.
I thought of him this morning when I discovered two neatly sculptured dirt mounds in my front yard. I don’t recall ever having seen an actual gopher before. I had just witnessed the aftermath of the damage they did. So I knew what the mounds meant. Now I finally understood my father-in-law’s frustration when, in the short time it took me to walk to the driveway and pick up the newspaper, another little mound had popped up.
“What are you doing down there?” I barked into the hole at the top at the mound. Picturing gophers in the underground tunnels turning my front yard into food storage pantries, I was wondering about the set up. Do they live in little apartments? Is it a condominium with a homeowner’s association? Should they be paying me dues?
Listen, guys, if you are here now, could you make some kind of sound to let me know? Maybe you can teach me gopher speak
Remembering how my father-in-law took personal offense when the G-guys messed with his fruit trees, I panicked that my lemon tree could be in danger. It’s ridiculous how much I love that tree.
I tip-toed up the driveway so they couldn’t hear me coming. This was the first sign that I was unraveling. Would I be driven to set painful traps and spray poisonous deterrents, things to which I am morally opposed?
“Have they been here?” I demanded of the ripening lemons. There was no evidence, at least not yet. Would the tree be sinking into an underground tunnel by the time I awoke in the morning?
Should I set up a lookout point on the deck where the lemons overhang the trellis?
I imagined a flurry of furries digging around the concrete footings that George had so carefully poured when he built the deck 35 years ago. Over time the deck has unwittingly hosted coyotes, squirrels, a raccoon and an opossum with a shockingly long snout. Maybe the gophers got jealous.
Email patriciabunin@sbcglobal.net. Follow her on X @patriciabunin and Patriciabunin.com
Patricia Bunin
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There is a blueprint of sorts by San Diego County transportation officials calling for managed lanes on the 5 over the U.S. Marines’ base.
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Jim Radcliffe
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LOS ANGELES — A historic 50-50 season is coming so fast now, even the home runs are leaving the field quicker than ever.
Shohei Ohtani hit a line-drive home run to right-center field at 118 mph off the bat as the leadoff batter in the first inning.
He added a stolen base in the third.
And even with the Dodgers hitting four home runs in the first inning, they still had to fend off the Chicago Cubs’ late rally for a 10-8 victory.
“There might be one guy on the planet, and he’s playing for the Yankees, that could probably do that,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Aaron Judge, when talking about Ohtani’s laser home run. “It was also top spin. So for him to hit the ball 118 mph at that degree, it’s usually a double, but for Shohei it’s a home run.
“He’s playing tremendous baseball. You can see he’s picking us up big time.”
Tommy Edman added two home runs, to give him four home runs in a mere 24 hours, as the former St. Louis Cardinals fan favorite continued to show disdain for the hated rival of his previous club.
The Dodgers are looking for somebody to take charge in the bottom of the order and Edman has raised his hand, hitting home runs from both sides of the plate Wednesday after hitting two from the right side Tuesday.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever done that before in my life,” Edman said of his consecutive multi-homer games. “I feel like I’ve kind of gotten locked into a good routine in the cage, working on mechanics and having consistent movements in my swing and the results are paying off.”
Edman said it was the first time he had home runs from both sides of the plate in the same game.
Ohtani’s home run was his career-high 47th on the season, while the stolen base was his 48th. He now has 16 regular-season games remaining to pull off his 50-50 proposition.
“We all definitely know what is going on,” Smith said of Ohtani’s historic run. “It’s fun to watch. It’s fun to be a part of and see every night. I think he’ll do it and we’ll enjoy it as he tries to get there. But more importantly, he’s trying to help us win ballgames.”
The most home runs ever hit in a 40-40 season before this year were 46 by Washington’s Alfonso Soriano in 2006. Atlanta’s Ronald Acuña Jr. is the only player to ever have more than 50 stolen bases in a 40-40 season when he had 73 last season to go along with 41 homers.
Along with Ohtani’s early blast, three first-inning home runs came in succession from Edman, Will Smith and Max Muncy (on his bobblehead night). The Cubs, who rallied for a victory with five runs in the eighth inning Tuesday, hardly were demoralized.
The Cubs’ Cody Bellinger reminded everybody that he used to be the one launching home runs into the night at the ballpark atop the hill, rallying the Cubs with a three-run home run off of Bobby Miller in the fifth inning.
Chicago tied it with a fourth run in the fifth inning, aided by another Dodgers error when Chris Taylor booted a potential double play grounder. One batter later, Pete Crow-Armstrong singled for a 7-7 tie.
Miller continues to see his chances of appearing on the playoff roster slip away. The right-hander gave up six runs on five hits and four walks (three with two outs) over 4⅓ innings and has allowed 13 runs over his last two starts (9⅓ innings). Miller’s ERA ballooned to 8.17.
“I think he’s grinding; I see it,” Roberts said of Miller. “He’s competing as much as he can. I think today it was easy to see that he didn’t have feel for the curveball. They were taking good swings at the fastball as we’ve talked about.”
The victory seemed to be a formality when Ohtani hit a two-run single in the third inning for a 7-3 lead, but the Dodgers have lacked a straightforward gear of late.
Even when they took a 10-7 lead into the ninth they had to endure their own self-created drama when right-hander Michael Kopech walked the first three Cubs batters of the inning. He managed to give up just one run with a little help when Seiya Suzuki was thrown out trying to steal third base for the second out of the inning. Former Dodger Michael Busch struck out swinging to end the game as Kopech eked out his 13th save (fourth with the Dodgers).
With the victory, the Dodgers (87-59) remained five games up on the second-place Arizona Diamondbacks (82-64) and moved 5½ games up on the San Diego Padres (82-65). The Dodgers’ magic number to clinch their 11th National League West title in 12 seasons is 11.
“The most important thing was to come out with a win today,” Muncy said when asked about the Cubs nearly stealing another game in the series. “It was frustrating again but it’s baseball.
“Not everything is going to be clicking at the same time. That’s the unfortunate part of it, but it felt like guys were battling up there and good to see guys not giving up until the very end.”
HR NO. 47
A NEW CAREER HIGH FOR SHOHEI OHTANI! pic.twitter.com/aFE1QBmca2
— MLB (@MLB) September 12, 2024
Tommy Edman gives the #Dodgers the lead! pic.twitter.com/iZkr3htd97
— SportsNet LA (@SportsNetLA) September 12, 2024
Will Smith extends the lead! pic.twitter.com/uvdRCwSVUk
— SportsNet LA (@SportsNetLA) September 12, 2024
Back-to-back-to-back home runs! 💣 Dodgers lead 5-2! pic.twitter.com/8tmLCtSztF
— SportsNet LA (@SportsNetLA) September 12, 2024
Shohei Ohtani has a HR and SB in the same game for the 12th time this season ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/X2CcERzURd
— MLB (@MLB) September 12, 2024
Tommy Edman again! 💣💥 pic.twitter.com/PcXCtRQQEG
— SportsNet LA (@SportsNetLA) September 12, 2024
Dave Roberts discusses how great the offense was tonight and Bobby Miller’s performance. pic.twitter.com/7bXeOghiCz
— SportsNet LA (@SportsNetLA) September 12, 2024
Tommy Edman speaks on his 2 home runs tonight and the win over the Cubs. pic.twitter.com/ci5Clcuct4
— SportsNet LA (@SportsNetLA) September 12, 2024
Bobby Miller discusses his performance tonight. pic.twitter.com/12a6UgaHJN
— SportsNet LA (@SportsNetLA) September 12, 2024
Max Muncy talks about tonights win and how special his bobblehead night was. pic.twitter.com/VNrA0Fr7qs
— SportsNet LA (@SportsNetLA) September 12, 2024
Originally Published:
Doug Padilla
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We adore our grandchildren. We share photos and tout their accomplishments. These may include some of their many “firsts,” such as their first tooth, their first day at school or making the team or the first ballet recital. It might be their first day of high school or moving into their college dorm. As little ones, we attach their drawings on our refrigerator and save their hand-made birthday cards.
In 1979, President Jimmy Carter made sure that grandparents were honored and remembered by declaring the first Sunday after Labor Day as National Grandparents Day. This special day has three purposes: to honor grandparents, to give grandparents an opportunity to show love for their grandchildren and help children become aware of the strength, information and guidance older people can offer.
In the U.S., roughly 70 million adults are grandparents. They are generous, spending $179 billion per year on their grandkids.
If you wonder why we care so deeply for our grandchildren, it all began a million years ago in the plains of Africa, writes geriatrician Dr. William Thomas, the author of “What Are Old People For? How Elders Will Save the World.” “A mother gave birth to a hominid child after a long and exhausting labor. She barely had enough energy to nurse her baby and not enough energy to feed or care for her other children.”
“A miracle occurred,” writes Thomas. “The maternal grandmother came to the rescue and intentionally shared her food with her grandchildren. It was a defining moment that created a new pattern of support that carried over to other families.” Humans are one of the species with grandparents who deliberately help raise their grandchildren. Orca whales and elephants do the same.
This is relevant today as grandparents often are our unsung heroes. Almost one-third of grandparents live with their grandchildren under age 18 and are responsible for their care, according to U.S. census data. They often become primary caregivers because of their adult children’s divorce, drug addiction, teenage pregnancy and even death.
I had the opportunity to speak with a few grandparents about the highlights of their grandparenthood. Here are some of their responses.
“I love being part of my boys’ lives in a way that was not possible for me raising my own children. That was when I had to balance my own work schedule with their schedules, when every minute was accounted for.”
“I feel fortunate to have grandchildren. I just received a text from my 18-year-old grandson. ‘It’s time for us to do dinner together. I love you,’” he wrote. “That’s the best. My grandchildren make the world brighter and a more beautiful place.”
“My grandchildren don’t live near me so every time we get together it’s a party. I was thrilled when my 18-year-old grandson in Italy was studying architecture. He had no idea that one of my careers was as a trained architect. It was a sudden joy. Now I have someone to give my architecture books.”
Some mentioned the advantage of returning their beloved grandchildren back to their parents. But not all.
“I love seeing my son in my granddaughters. It brings back memories of when my kids were little. It’s the joy of walking into a room and they are so excited to see you. You love them and then give them back to their parents.”
“If they have a problem, I can step back. They just need to call me later and tell me they are OK. I don’t need to know about the ice pack, etc. I’ve done my job. Whatever they do, I don’t get myself in a dither.”
“We are not responsible for their discipline. When they do crappy things, we can ignore it. I don’t worry about their manners or what they are wearing. We just have to love them unconditionally, even if they turn up with terrible clothes.”
“I just love my interactions with them. My 10-year-old grandson interviewed me for a class project. And I talked baseball with my six-year-old grandson. He likes the Cubs; I like the Dodgers. Some grandparents want to give them back to their parents at the end of the day. Not me, I’ll take them and just want even more time with them.”
Grandparents are an important influence – as guardians of family traditions, as a unique friend to grandchildren and as teachers and giver of gifts.
Let’s celebrate our beautiful treasures and savor our moments with them.
Stay well everyone and know kindness is a way of life.
Helen Dennis is a nationally recognized leader on issues of aging and the new retirement with academic, corporate and nonprofit experience. Contact Helen with your questions and comments at Helendenn@gmail.com. Visit Helen at HelenMdennis.com and follow her on facebook.com/SuccessfulAgingCommunity
Helen Dennis
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Q. Next week, I will celebrate my 84th birthday. When did I get so old? Every time I turn around it’s Friday. Time seems to go by so quickly, the older I get. Is there a reason for this? Many thanks. D.L.
Many would agree with you. We often hear people asking, “Where has the time gone? It just seems like yesterday.”
Can you remember sitting through a boring lecture? Five minutes may have felt like an hour. Or how about a boring sermon? That hour may have seemed like it was forever. Contrast that sense of time to being at a party. Time sprints by when having a good time, working on something you love and being engaged in new experiences.
We know time does not slow down, it’s our perception of it that does. This is not a new concept. Psychologist William James wrote about the phenomenon of time perception in his Principles of Psychology in 1890.
Here are some theories that affect our perception of time:
Theory No. 1: Years are relatively smaller. As we age, each year is a smaller proportion of our time. For a 10-year-old, that birthday represents 1/10 of life which is a big portion. For an 80-year-old, University of Michigan psychology professor Cindy Lustig told the Huffington Post, that birthday is 1/80 of life which is a smaller portion that contributes to the feeling that it went by quickly. Each year feels shorter compared to the total time we have lived and therefore seems to go by faster.
Theory No. 2: Theory of firsts. When we’re young, Diana Raab wrote in a Psychology Today piece, we encounter a lot of “firsts.” They might be our first kiss, our first love, getting our first car or the first day of college. It might be learning to swim or falling off a bike. We pay attention to the details of our unique and memorable experiences. The more details we can recall, the better we remember them. As we age, we have similar experiences over and over again, perceived time goes more quickly.
Theory No. 3: Brain function. This helps explain the theory of firsts. Our brain lumps time together when the days or weeks are similar. So, for an 80-year-old who may be doing the same or similar things daily, time gets blended together in one’s mind, making it feel like it went by quickly. What seems new and exciting in a single day is what makes a day or month feel different, slowing our sense of time. (Note: Many 80-year-olds also experience new and familiar experiences daily).
Theory No. 3a: More on brain function. Adrian Bejan, professor of mechanical engineering at Duke University, has a theory based on neural signal processing. With age, he notes the rate we process visual information slows down, contributing to our experience of time speeding up. In other words, “time does not go faster, we just go slower, cognitively speaking,” as quoted in a 2024 Huffington Post piece.
So how to live a life where time moves more slowly?
So, yes, time seems to go by quickly with age. But that can change by filling our lives with new activities, learning something new, being reflective, enjoying nature and doing something that makes us feel useful and productive. Then we will not be going through the motions of life; rather we will savor our moments, days and months with satisfaction and pleasure.
Thank you, D.L., happy birthday and thank you for your good question. Time is our gift. Let’s use it well. And let’s all make kindness the norm.
Helen Dennis is a nationally recognized leader on issues of aging and the new retirement with academic, corporate and nonprofit experience. Contact Helen with your questions and comments at Helendenn@gmail.com. Visit Helen at HelenMdennis.com and follow her on facebook.com/SuccessfulAgingCommunity
Helen Dennis
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Both operations rely on a chemical known as ethylene oxide to sterilize equipment, but the carcinogen can lead to an increased risk of lymphoid and breast cancers.
Originally Published:
Jason Henry
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A veteran Los Angeles County prosecutor alleges he faced retaliation from District Attorney George Gascón for exposing misconduct in the widely publicized case of child molester Hannah Tubbs, who began identifying as a transgender woman after her 2014 arrest for the sexual assault of a 10-year-old girl in Palmdale.
Deputy District Attorney Shea Sanna, 36, said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday, Aug. 13, in Los Angeles Superior Court that Gascón and his administration pressured him to suppress information about Tubbs’ use of gender identity as a ploy to gain more favorable jail treatment and retaliated against him when he refused to comply.
The lawsuit, which also names Los Angeles County as a defendant, alleges Sanna faced further retaliation after reporting and resisting Gascón’s unethical directives.
“For the past two years, Gascon has tried to silence me,” Sanna said in a statement. “He has suspended me without pay, threatened my livelihood, attacked my credibility, tarnished my reputation, demoted me, investigated me and harassed me, all so I would obey him; so I would stay quiet; so I wouldn’t speak up on behalf of those most affected by his misguided political policies.”
Sanna, who has worked for the District Attorney’s Office since 2018, was suspended for five days without pay in February 2023 for misgendering Tubbs. In October 2023, he was demoted and transferred to the Santa Clarita office, resulting in a pay cut and less meaningful cases, the suit states.
Tubbs was just two weeks shy of her 18th birthday when she was arrested after DNA evidence showed that she sexually assaulted a 10-year-old girl in the stall of a women’s bathroom inside Denny’s restaurant in Palmdale on New Year’s Day in 2014.
She was sentenced to two years at a juvenile facility after Gascón’s office declined to move the case to adult court.
In a statement, the reform-minded Gascón reaffirmed that he believes juveniles should not be tried as adults, but said he has learned from the Tubbs case that adjustments sometimes are warranted.
In an unrelated case, Tubbs was charged with murder in Kern County for allegedly beating a fellow survivalist group member to death with a rock in 2019. She pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced in December 2023 to 15 years in prison.
Sanna was assigned the Palmdale sexual assault case against Tubbs on Oct. 28, 2021.
Less than a month later, Tubbs telephoned his father from a Los Angeles County jail indicating that he planned to claim he was transgender to obtain favorable housing in a female juvenile facility, according to the suit.
“On the recordings, Tubbs and his father laughed and joked about his transition and his chosen name of Hannah,” the suit states.
Tubbs allegedly informed his father that although it might be difficult, he needed to refer to him by that name in court and use female pronouns. At all other times, Tubbs’ acquaintances used male pronouns when referring to her during phone calls from jail, the suit says.
Tubbs was convicted of the Palmdale sexual assault on Nov. 30, 2021.
After the hearing, the court bailiff and custody staff notified Sanna that a search of Tubbs’ property bag revealed she had not taken any of the hormone tablets given her to assist with gender transition, as each remained undisturbed in foil packaging.
Due to a directive from Gascon ending the practice of sending any juveniles to the adult court system, Sanna’s “hands were tied,” prompting him to request that Tubbs be sentenced to a maximum of two years in a secure youth facility, the suit states.
Sanna alleges he was blocked from presenting to the court 256 jail calls detailing Tubbs’ alleged deception and portraying him as a racist, deviant, dangerous sexual predator.
Sanna was removed from the Tubbs case on Feb. 1, 2022, a day after allegedly emailing the jail call recordings to Assistant Head Deputy Frank Santoro and Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Gowan.
The case was assigned to Gowen, who did not review the recordings before authoring a report for a multidisciplinary treatment hearing largely based on the representations of Tubbs, his attorney and his father, the suit says.
“The court did not ask any questions, which Gowen likely would not have been properly prepared to answer, and rubber-stamped the report,” the suit states.
Sanna has acknowledged that in April 2022, after he was removed from the Tubbs case, he asked Larry Droeger, a bureau director for the District Attorney’s Office, for permission to alert the court of Tubbs’ deception.
“My question to you now is this,” Sanna wrote to Droeger, “what do you expect me to do when, as a prosecutor who took an oath to abide by ethical obligations, I am on the sidelines, prohibited from notifying the court of a matter as to which I have relevant material information?”
Sanna has been an outspoken critic of Gascón’s handling of other cases, including one involving convicted murderer Andrew Cachu, who was released from custody in 2021 after serving just six years of a 50-year prison sentence when the D.A.’s former special assistant, Alisa Blair, refused to call witnesses during a disposition hearing.
Cachu originally was tried in adult court even though he was two months shy of his 18th birthday when he shot and killed 41-year-old Louis Amela outside a Palmdale restaurant in March 2015. Under changes in state law since then, however, he was entitled to a retroactive transfer hearing to determine if his conviction should be in juvenile or adult court.
While waiting in jail for his case to be resolved, Cachu was told by his mother Bertha Cachu, in a phone conversation that Blair had agreed to intervene on his behalf.
“That’s Gascón’s special adviser,” Bertha Cachu explained to her son in a recording of the call obtained by the Southern California News Group. “Oh my God! She’s going to be coming in your case. Did you hear that, man? She’s good. She’s the one I’ve been emailing back and forth.”
Originally Published:
Scott Schwebke
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In 25 years of standup comedy, Sebastian Maniscalco has played every kind of stage where jokes are told.
“Some of these venues definitely have a history behind them,” says Maniscalco, whose It Ain’t Right Tour brings him to the new Intuit Dome for its first-ever comedy show on Saturday, Aug. 17. “Like the Hollywood Bowl or Madison Square Garden.
“I grew up in Chicago, so when I go to the United Center, I have the memories of the Chicago Bulls winning championships there,” he says. “So sometimes it’s a personal connection to the venue, and sometimes it’s just an historic one.
“For me, moving out here in 1998, I did all these little rooms all over town,” Maniscalco says. “Performing at the Comedy Store on Sunday. There used to be a place called Miyagi’s near there, had sushi and comedy on Tuesdays. I never really thought that it would reach to where it has in the sense of performing at these arenas.
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“I mean, yeah, sometimes you go to a city and it’s just another arena that happens to be in that city,” he says. “Then you go to the Intuit Dome and see what’s behind it and how much money was spent to make the experience really beautiful for the fans.
“To be part of the grand opening weekend is special for me.”‘
Maniscalco’s popularity as a comedian has exploded over the past decade. He’s also slipped into movie and TV roles, such as the current Max series “Bookie” and the 2023 feature film “About My Father” in which he played a version of himself and Robert DeNiro portrayed his father.
“For me, TV and film is more of a muscle I have to get used to, and I see myself doing more of it. But as far as standup, put it this way: If I got a Saturday night standup show, I’m chomping at the bit to get up on stage. If I have a six o’clock call time, not so much. It’s a different feeling.”
In an interview edited for length and clarity, Maniscalco talked about his biggest tour yet, planning its staging and material, and how he worked his way up from waiting tables in Los Angeles to comedy fame.
Q: You’re playing all these big arenas now, like four sold-out nights at Madison Square Garden. This must be one of your largest tours yet.
A: I’ve never done a full arena tour in the past. It’s always been a mix of arenas and theaters. But this time around we thought why don’t we just do an all-arena tour, since we’re going to be out there anyway and the production behind it is more than I ever did in the past.
Q: What can you share about this tour’s production?
A: I like to perform in the round, but I found that the round stage was a little bit cumbersome as far as me being a physical performer. I like to have some edges on the stage so we took the in-the-round and made it a triangle and then replicated that above me on the screens.
And I made the stage lower to the audience and put steps on the stage where, if I wanted to come down into the audience, that’s available to me. In the past, I just felt like I was kind of on an island up there. And, you know, coming up in comedy clubs you like the audience right there, right at your feet.
I try to make it as good as possible for the audience. I’m coming out on a Vespa. There’s a whole pre-show video with me on a Vespa and I’ll enter the arena on a Vespa. So there’s some fun little production things that I’ve added. But, you know, ultimately it comes down to when people leave, did they laugh for an hour and a half? I think that’s the most important thing.
Q: You touched on something I wanted to ask – how do you keep the intimacy of a comedy show in an arena? Certainly Intuit Dome’s cutting-edge technology will help, too.
A: Yeah, I mean, we grew up in a world where we’re always looking at a screen anyway. I’ve noticed, even in my own shows, that the people in the third row are looking up at the screen even though I’m right there. So screens are very important. As well as lighting. I’ve also tweaked the lighting where it brings a little bit more of a dramatic look to the stage. So it’s almost as if we’re shooting a special every night in terms of the way the arena is lit.
It really took some time in trying to make this more of an event than it has been in the past. I like my shows in the past, and I’ve had pyrotechnics and smoke when I come on stage. It’s not like I’m new to production, but this was looked at from a different angle.
Q: Let’s talk about how you put the material together for a new tour. How far back does the work go to create a new show? What’s your process?
A: I’ve probably been working on it for two years. It’s not like I go in some room and start writing down funny things. It’s more of living my life, extracting the humor in everyday occurrences whether it be me hanging out with my kids at Universal Studios or my take on Amazon.
Or something new just happened to me recently where I was out to dinner. And we’re not a screen family. I got two kids, five and seven, and we don’t bring our the iPads to dinner. But that being said, if you don’t bring out iPads you, the parent, basically become the iPad and are just doing whatever you can at the dinner table to entertain your kids.
Even going back as far as that slap game where the kids put their hand on top of yours and you try and slap it. I’m doing things from the ’80s to try and entertain my kids. Like, that’s a little morsel of something that I might be working on.
And what you’re seeing now is not what you’re going to see at the end of the tour in April. Because as I live life, material kind of comes. This Olympics, that’s something I want to talk about this next weekend when I’m in Texas. Any current events maybe I’ll touch. Also what I’ve noticed as a comedian, it seems that people really enjoy crowd work.
Q: Why is that? What do they like about the comedian interacting with them?
A: Well, crowd work has been a part of standup comedy since it began. It’s nothing new. I’ve been doing crowd work for years. I’m like, you know what? Let me lean into the crowd work a little bit. I think it personalizes the show a little bit more.
You’ve got to know where to put it. I’ve noticed just from trial and error if you put it too early during the set, people all of a sudden think they’re part of the show, and they maybe yell stuff at you or what have you. So it’s kind of a science where you drop it in.
Q: How has your material changed since your last tour? How is it still the same?
A: This evolution of the material has been over a two-year time period. And I think it kind of corresponds to what I’m dealing with in life: Being a parent, being a husband, being a son. I stay away from politics. I’ve never really dove into that just because I always thought whatever my father is doing is funnier than whatever president that’s in office.
And I don’t think people necessarily want to hear that. I mean, they’re bombarded with it all day long, and they’re looking for an outlet or something to forget about life. They just want to be taken away for a little bit.
Q: I rewatched a few of your Netflix specials and you do talk often about your family members. How do they like that? Do they ever ask you not to use something?
A: No, no. My father, he loves it. He wants more of it. He’s really enjoying when he gets talked about on stage. My mother is wondering why she’s never in the act. She’s like, ‘How come you never made fun of me?’ So you get that aspect of it.
And then my wife’s side of the family, they’ve been great sports about it. I’m not up there making anybody embarrassed or anything like that. It’s just these situations I find myself in. I haven’t gotten any blowback from any of my family members because I would never put them in a situation where they would feel that they were being punched down upon. It’s all in good fun.
Q: I know you’re from Chicago, but tell me about your decision to move to L.A. in 1998 as opposed to starting your standup career in Chicago or New York City or anywhere else?
A: I mean, a lot of it was ignorance. It was just like if you want to get into the entertainment business you go to where entertainment is, which is Hollywood. So it was kind of a no-brainer for me. I didn’t really even look into doing standup in Chicago at all.
I came out here in ’98 not knowing a thing about entertainment. Didn’t grow up in an entertainment family. Watching TV and movies growing up I often asked myself where are these people? It looks like a different world. You just kind of look at Hollywood and go, ‘Does that even exist?’
So I came here and kind of hit the ground running with a standup class at the Comedy Store, where I eventually became a regular. That’s kind of my gym to this day. It’s where I go and work out new material and play around.
So yeah, it’s been a long road. It hasn’t been easy. You know, you don’t become the CEO overnight. You’ve got to work your way up. I started waiting tables at the Four Seasons Hotel for seven years while I was doing standup comedy. And here we are playing the Intuit Dome, 25 years later.
Originally Published:
Peter Larsen
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TORRANCE — A Fin whale roughly 35 to 40 feet in length was found inside the surf line near Torrance Beach on Saturday night and died before rescuers arrived.
Lifeguards discovered the whale around 6 p.m. inside the surf line near the beach between Redondo Beach and Malaga Cove, according to a Los Angeles County Lifeguards post on X.
The Marine Mammal Care Center and National Marine Fisheries Service responded and the experts determined the whale had died, lifeguards said.
“Due to its size & location it is expected that the whale will remain on the beach while responders create a plan to remove it,” the statement said. “If you are in the area please give the animal & responders plenty of space to work!”
Originally Published:
City News Service
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“Deadpool & Wolverine” barreled through the $200 million benchmark, cementing the blockbuster as the record holder for the highest-grossing opening weekend for an R-rated movie.
According to studio estimates, “Deadpool & Wolverine” — the 34th movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe lineup — has grossed $205 million dollars in domestic sales and $438.3 million globally in its debut.
The first Deadpool movie set the record for the highest-grossing opening weekend for an R-rated film when it was released in 2016 to roughly $132 million, and “Deadpool 2” cinched the second-place spot with $125 million in domestic sales in 2018. But even adjusted for inflation, both films pale in comparison with the third installation’s debut.
“Deadpool & Wolverine” is now also among the top opening weekends ever, ranking at No. 8 — a hair’s breadth below 2012’s “The Avengers” ($207 million) and just above 2018’s “Black Panther” ($202 million).
Of the 10 biggest debuts, six are Marvel properties. With “Deadpool & Wolverine” joining the ranks, Marvel movies are now worth more than $30 billion combined, Disney announced Sunday, making Marvel the highest-grossing film franchise of all time.
Still, MCU has been trying to find its footing after its wildly popular “Infinity Saga” culminated with 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame,” a movie that still holds the record for biggest opening weekend by a margin of nearly $100 million. Since then, several of Marvel’s offerings in recent years have left fans and critics alike unmoved.
Could “Deadpool & Wolverine” reinvigorate the franchise?
“We should continue taking each film on its own terms with varying thresholds of success, especially as the MCU rebuilds with several films next year before the anticipated return of Avengers films,” Shawn Robbins, founder and owner of Box Office Theory, told CNN.
The fifth and sixth “Avengers” movies are slated for 2026 and 2027, giving Marvel a runway of four new movies through which to build momentum.
“Still, there’s no denying ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ is a massive win in its own right, with a unique hook that’s attracting die-hard Marvel fans and casual audiences alike,” Robbins added. “This release is the breath of fresh air Marvel has been working toward and it sets the stage for a new era in the overall brand. It’s a win all around for Disney, Marvel, theater owners, and moviegoers.”
According to Box Office Pro data, the excitement surrounding “Deadpool & Wolverine” has propelled demand for theater showings, increasing the number of times the movie is being screened at movie theaters across the country. It currently holds 43% of the showtime market share across the United States.
“We are thrilled to see ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ bringing people to theatres for the biggest opening weekend ever for an R-rated movie,” said Michael O’Leary, president and chief executive officer of the National Association of Theatre Owners. “This is the kind of movie you want to experience on the big screen and the historic level of enthusiasm this weekend reminds us yet again that audiences know there is no experience like theatrical. We also know that when people go to the movies, they want to come back — so we are excited to capitalize on this weekend’s energy with a robust theatrical slate in months to come.”
While the summer box office had a lackluster start after a lukewarm spring, there have been several blockbusters pumping new life into the industry.
“Since June, there has been a nonstop parade of over-performing blockbusters starting with ‘Bad Boys: Ride Or Die,’ and continuing with ‘Inside Out 2,’ ‘A Quiet Place: Day One,’ ‘Despicable Me 4,’ ‘Twisters,’ and now ‘Deadpool & Wolverine,’ making for one of the most notable string of hits in summer movie history,” Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore, told CNN on Saturday.
Last week, Disney announced “Inside Out 2” had become the highest-grossing animated film of all time, raking in $1.46 billion at the global box office and dethroning former record holder, 2019’s “Frozen 2.”
Until the film’s release on June 16, domestic sales had been lagging more than 25% behind 2023’s performance, according to Comscore data. But less than three weeks after its release, the year-over-year domestic box office revenue deficit shrunk from 27% to 19%.
Now, the deficit stands at 16.9% and it could keep shrinking depending on how “Deadpool & Wolverine” finishes its run in theaters. This time last year, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” was the top film with a domestic gross of more than $574 million. Meanwhile, the enduring success of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” — both released on July 21 — helped to push the cumulative 2023 domestic box office revenue past $9 billion, the highest it’s been since the pandemic.
Although analysts have forecast a dip in revenue for 2024, the better-than-expected summer movie slate has narrowed the the gap.
“This weekend’s performance certainly makes us more optimistic for the box office prospects for 2024, but we have a long way to go before the end of the year and year-over-year comparisons will keep us on a seesaw of ups and downs,” said Dergarabedian, estimating the full-year box office will land between $8.2 and $8.7 billion. “The fact that we will likely wind up at $8 billion plus, considering how weak first quarter and April were in terms of revenue, is quite impressive.”
Originally Published:
Cnn Com Wire Service
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By STEPHEN HAWKINS AP Baseball Writer
ARLINGTON, Texas — Dodgers outfielder Teoscar Hernandez won the Home Run Derby when he edged local star Bobby Witt Jr. of the Kansas City Royals, 14-13, in the final round on Monday night.
The 31-year-old Hernández hit 49 homers over three rounds that totaled 3.98 miles and became the first Dodgers player to win the derby. Kansas City has never had a winner.
Witt, needing one to tie with one out remaining, drove a ball to one of the deepest parts of the park in left-center, where it hit halfway up the wall.
Both finished their two-minute final round with 11 homers, before bonus swings were added. Witt came up short of his first two bonus swings, then hit two homers in a row – one a 457-foot drive that got him one more swing.
Witt was the No. 2 overall pick by the Royals in 2019 out of Colleyville Heritage High School, about 15 miles north of Globe Life Field. It was his first time in the derby, but he was the high school home run champion in Washington in 2018 – and is the only player to compete in both contests.
Hernández beat Philadelphia’s Alec Bohm 16-15 after a tiebreaker when both got three swings – Hernández hit two out, and Bohm one. They were tied at 14 after the three-minute segment and their bonus rounds, and Bohm came close to avoiding that, but the last ball he hit then landed on the warning track in left-center field.
Witt had knocked out Cleveland switch-hitter José Ramírez 17-12 in the semifinals.
Ramírez and Bohm both hit 21 homers to pace the first round. Witt started with 20 homers and Hernández had 19.
The New York Mets’ Pete Alonso fell short in his bid to join Ken Griffey Jr. as a three-time derby champion when he hit only 12 homers in the first round.
Instead of a single-elimination bracket like last year, the four hitters with the most homers in the first round advanced to the semifinal round. It then became a bracket-style competition.
Alonso hit a 428-foot homer to left-center field on his first swing, but couldn’t get into a rhythm. The others knocked out after the first round were hometown favorite Adolis García of Texas, Atlanta’s Marcell Ozuna and Baltimore’s Gunnar Henderson.
“It’s disappointing, but for me, I think it’s really just a blessing and it’s just of fun being out there,” Alonso said. “At the end of the day, it wasn’t my day.”
Ozuna did have the longest homer of the night at 473 feet. Angels star Mike Trout in 2022, and Oakland’s Seth Brown in 2021 have both hit 472 feet homers in games at the stadium that is now in its fifth season.
Bohm, one of a franchise-record eight Phillies named All-Stars, has only 11 homers this season – the fewest among the eight derby competitors. He said he was going to try to hit as many balls as he could to left field and did – pulling all 21 of his homers that way in the first round.
“Who would have thought?” Bohm said after the first round about advancing.
Ramirez hit left-handed, a change from what he has done when hitting in past home run contests, and what he had planned until a round of batting practice Monday.
It still felt like 100 degrees outside the ballpark when the derby began, but the retractable roof was closed on the stadium that opened in 2020. When the Rangers hosted the 1995 All-Star Game across the street in their old stadium without a roof, the derby wasn’t yet a prime-time event and was held in the sweltering mid-afternoon heat.
Frank Thomas won in 1995 with 15 homers over three rounds in a different format. Albert Belle finished with a total of 16, then a Home Run Derby record, but Thomas beat him 3-2 in the final round.
With García knocked out, there remain only three players who have won the title in their home ballpark. The last was Bryce Harper when he was still with the Washington Nationals in 2018, after Cincinnati’s Todd Frazier in 2015 and Ryne Sandberg of the Chicago Cubs in 1990.
More to come on this story.
Originally Published:
The Associated Press
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