The Orange County Tribune Dec. 28, 2022

Wednesday: 65/51 partly cloudy Thursday: 62/51 cloudy Friday: 63/55 cloudy

By Jim Tortolano Orange County Tribune

After the trauma of the previous two years, roiled by a continuing pandemic and a contentious political year, 2022 promised to be a breath of fresh air with a return – somewhat –to a more normal life, in which terms like “social distancing” and epic angry political infighting would recede into history.

Certainly, in the nation at large and West Orange County in particular, there was some relaxation, a welcome return to what used to be called “normalcy.”

The Tribune’s coverage area is the cities of Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, Stanton and Westminster. All those cities had to cope with not only a cautious relaxation from the strict and often controversial public health

measures prompted by the COVID-19 disease and persistent crisis of homelessness.

In the former case, by spring and summer, the worst of the crisis seemed over. The Strawberry Festival returned to Garden Grove’s Village Green park in May, attracting what seemed to be record crowds, and the Fourth of July parade in Huntington Beach filled Main Street with music and merrymaking.

In 2022 there was progress to be reported in coping with the

unsheltered. Huntington Beach’s Navigation Center will be evolving into “permanent supportive housing” and Garden Grove has found a location for its own navigation center, which will be operated in conjunction with Fountain Valley and Westminster. The creation of new state mental health courts offer hope of new legal tools to move the mentally ill from street corners and parks.

2022: Year of Normalcy, Division Inside The Tribune 10 locals named to all-county football Reviews: “Babylon,” “Puss in Boots”

After considerable footdragging, the Westminster City Council allowed voters to decide on whether to extend its onecent sales tax. Over 70 percent of them cast ballots in favor and avoided what seemed to be a path toward possible municipal bankruptcy.

After a working through sev-

eral interim city managers, the council there finally settled on the talented and personable city clerk, Christine Cordon as the new city manager, a choice that was widely applauded.

However, on most other issues, the council was bitterly divided, battling not only over the tax, but also the controversial proposed Quang Tri monument. The results of the 2022 election produced another 3-2 split, with angry words already being exchanged.

A veritable local political earthquake hit Huntington Beach on Nov. 8, as a majority of four new conservative candidates were elected to the city council and quickly began promoting their views on homelessness and pushing back against unpopular

GONZALO AND FELICITAS MENDEZ, honored for their role in ending racial segregation in public schools not only in California and – ultimately – across the U.S. The dedication of the Mendez Historic Freedom Trail and Monument in December was a highlight of 2022 (Orange County Tribune photo).

The local Year 2022 in Review

vard.

state laws.

The 4-3 split saw the council skip the typical practice of electing a new mayor based on seniority and chose one of their own, Tony Strickland, as mayor. In Garden Grove and Stanton, the waters seemed a bit calmer.

Long-serving incumbent mayors Steve Jones and David Shawver were re-elected, and both cities continue to see robust development, including approval in The Big Strawberry of a 500-room Nickelodeonthemed hotel on Harbor Boule-

Some local sports history was made as the Garden Grove High School boys’ basketball team won a CIF-SS basketball title for the first time in the school’s century-old history, and the Bolsa Grande High School football team qualified for the playoffs for the first time in 34 years.

Next week: A look ahead at what 2023 might hold for the West Orange County area.

E-paper replica of The Tribune is published every Wednesday and Saturday (with a few exceptions).

The Orange County Tribune is published on Wednesdays and Saturdays with some exceptions. Address is 9402 Luders Ave., Garden Grove, 92844.

E-mail : orangecountytribune@gmail.com. Website: www.orangecountytribune.com. Phone: (714) 458-1860.

Established Aug. 6, 2016. All opinions expressed in The Tribune, unless otherwise stated, are those of the individual writer or artist and not necessarily those of The Tribune.

A member of The Associated Press, and Garden Grove Chamber of Commerce.

Reminder: No OC Tribune issue this Saturday, Dec. 3. Next Saturday issue will be on Dec. 10

JIm Tortolano Editor and Publisher

Marilyn Lewis Tortolano General Manager

Pipe-Wielding Man Is Shot By Westminster PD

A man armed with a metal pipe who allegedly tried to attack Westminster police officers early Saturday morning was shot and has been hospitalized in critical but stable condition.

According to Sgt. Eddie Esqueda, the incident took place around 12:57 a.m. in the 9100 block of Bolsa Avenue (east of Magnolia Street). Police received a report of a possible vandalism incident. Officers found the suspect, who was holding the pipe.

According to Sgt. Esqueda, officers attempted de-escalation tactics, but the man refused to drop the pipe. A Taser was used but without success.

When the man tried to hit of-

ficers with the pipe – according to Sgt. Esqueda – he was shot. Medical aid was rendered and the man was transported to a hospital. The pipe was recovered at the scene.

The man, believed to be homeless, was identified only as being 29 years old. He faces a charge of assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer.

The incident is under investigation by the WPD and the Orange County District Attorney’s office.

Anyone with additional information, surveillance video or who may have seen the incident is asked to contact the WPD at (714) 548-4570.

Vacant Stanton eatery hit by early evening fire

A fire ravaged a closed restaurant on Christmas Day in Stanton.

The Orange County Fire Au-

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thority responded at 5:53 p.m. to a call of smoke reported in the 10700 block of Beach Boulevard south of West Cerritos Avenue.

Firefighters found fire established in the “void spaces” of the building and had it knocked down in 40 minutes. There were no injuries and investigators are looking into the cause of fire.

Assistance at the scene was provided by the Anaheim Fire Department and sheriff’s deputies from the Stanton station.

No Saturday paper

Because of the New Year’s holiday, The Orange County Tribune will not be publishing on Saturday, Dec. 31.

We will resume our regular publishing schedule with our issues of Jan. 4 and 7.

Elevator

rescue of nine in B. Park

What could have been a miserable Christmas Eve turned out somewhat merry as Orange County Fire Authority firefighters rescued nine people stuck in an elevator in Buena Park.

According to OCFA Capt. Steve Concialdi the distress call came in around 9:45 on Saturday from a building in the 7300 block of Artesia Blvd.

It took firefighters from the Buena Park station about 20 minutes to rescue the trapped people through the top hatch of the elevator, which had developed “a significant hydraulic leak.”

No one was injured, and the nine – a couple from Monterey, Mexico and a family from Tahiti – came to the station to give thanks to the firefighters for the rescue.

OCFA FIREFIGHTER CUTS THROUGH A DOOR to gain access to the inside of the restaurant (OCFA photo).

RESCUED THANKING OCFA FIREFIGHTERS

Border crossing rule in place, at least for now

“Title 42,” the pandemic rule that restricted migrants from crossing the border into the U.S., will remain in place for the present.

The U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday stopped a trial judge’s lifting of the rule, according to The New York Times. The court split 5-4

NewsUpdate

on the issue.

The high court will take up the matter when it meets in February and will consider whether the 19 states wanting to keep Title 42 could continue their challenge to the lower court decision.

In face of winter storms Southwest cancels flights

In the face of strong winter storms across the U.S., Southwest Airlines has cancelled 4,500 flights in two days, about twothirds of their schedule.

Customers whose flights are cancelled may rebook for a later date or request a refund.

Also in the news … George Santos, a Republican elected in

November to a seat in the House of Representatives from New York State, admitted on Monday that he had lied about his job experience and college education during the campaign.

Sports: J.J. Watt will retire from pro football

Future Hall of Famer J.J. Watt (at right) – now a defensive end with the Arizona Cardinals – announced on Tuesday his plans to retire from professional football at the end of the current season.

He’s been named the NFL Defensive Player of the Year three times, and won the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year award in 2017.

Weather: Some clouds, and some rain

The unseasonably warm weather we’ve had in the West Orange County area recently is giving way to cloudy and rainy days.

The forecast calls for clouds and some light rain on Wednesday with a daytime high of 65 and an overnight low of 51.

Thursday may be a bit cooler at 62 (51), with Friday similar at 63 (55).

Saturday should bring a 92 percent chance of rain with a daytime high of 63 and a nighttime low of 51.

For the latest weather forecast, go to www. weather.gov.

Arts&Living

Take A Wild Trip to “Babylon”

Riotous times at rise, fall of old Hollywood

By Jake Coyle AP Film Writer

“Perhaps the ballyhoo meant nothing,” Kevin Brownlow wrote in his defining history of the silent film era, “The Parade’s Gone By.”

It’s probably true that even avid moviegoers have increasingly drifted away from the films of what Brownlow called, with good reason, “the richest in cinema’s history.” In 1952, the Sight and Sound poll of critics had seven silents in the top 10 films of all time. The recent, much debated Sight and Sound list had just one.

In “Babylon,” Damien Chazelle’s feverish and sprawling celebration of those halcyon Hollywood days and their abrupt termination, the director of “La La Land” has, with orgiastic zeal, sought to bring back the ballyhoo.

Yet Chazelle’s three-plus hour

Movie Review

extravaganza isn’t the dutiful, nostalgic ode you might expect of such a Tinseltown period piece.

It’s much messier and more interesting than that. In resurrecting the silent era and the onset

of the talkies, “Babylon,” like Stanley Donen’s “Singin’ in the Rain” before it, has trained its focus on a transitional moment in moving images, painting a picture of how technological progress doesn’t always equal improvement.

Here, in unrelenting excess and

“Puss In Boots” is the cat’s meow

By Lindsey Bahr AP Film Writer

Quick, without looking, guess how long it’s been since there’s been a Shrek movie or even a Shrek-adjacent one. Over a decade seems too long for such a popular franchise, right? And yet here we are, 11 years later, welcoming back Antonio Banderas’s swashbuckling feline in “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,” which opens in theaters Wednesday.

No wonder he’s forced to think about his own mortality in this one – certain segments of the audience will be too when

hedonism, is the manic, madcap energy of the movies and the crushing maw of the medium’s perpetual evolution. That early freewheeling frenzy is snuffed out (ironically) by the advent of sound and other forces that seek to domesticate the movies. In that way, “Babylon” may be most addressed to our current movie era.

Today’s film industry is similarly wracked by forces of change that may be sapping its bigscreen verve. “Babylon” is about how the movies are always reborn, but brutally so. Though it may be a chaotic shamble, Chazelle’s film makes this one point brilliantly clear: Cinema will be tamed for only so long; the parade will go on.

This is, to be sure, not a strictly accurate history. Chazelle has taken a “print the legend” approach to ‘20s Hollywood, drawing partly from the precode scandals and myths of

MARGOT ROBBIE and Diego Calva in “Babylon” (Paramount Pictures)

Good: HHH

ANTONIO BANDERAS voices the title character in “Puss In Boots: The Last Wish.”

Movie review: “Babylon”

Continued from page 5

Kenneth Anger’s “Hollywood Babylon.” His film, a romp and tragedy at once, is sometimes enthrallingly, often exhaustingly played at a manic pitch, careening from set piece to set piece. Striving to impress the wildness of the time, “Babylon” overdoes it, striking a cartoonish over-the-top note from the start, and then, for three hours, trying vainly to sustain its drugfueled fever dream of bygone

Hollywood. That makes for an overstuffed and – especially by the increasingly wayward third act – meandering film.

But it’s also an insistently alive one that’s hard to look away from, with flashes of brilliance. For a director known for more tasteful and sentimental excursions, “Babylon” is a lurid descent into debauchery. Sometimes it’s an unnatural fit. It’s too showy and too long. But Chazelle’s film is something to

reckon with, and the kind of ambitious swing that a young director of talent deserves credit for daring.

“Babylon” a Paramount Pictures release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for strong and crude sexual content, graphic nudity, bloody violence, drug use, and pervasive language. Running time: 189 minutes.

Movie review: “Puss In Boots”

Continued from page 5

they realize how much time has passed. It wasn’t for lack of trying, but things were happening behind the scenes with various directors coming and going. then Universal acquired DreamWorks and they went back to the drawing board under new leadership. Somehow television spinoffs kept coming.

The good news is that the character is evergreen. And as soon as Banderas starts speaking, and singing, as his playfully egotistic character, it’ll feel like hardly any time has gone by at all. In “The Last Wish,” the ever-confident Puss in Boots is shaken to discover that he’s used up eight of his nine lives and, for the first time, has started worrying about his own death.

It might seem a little dour for a children’s animated comedy, but when you start to think about other kids’ movies, it’s actually a quite common theme. Are they the anxieties of the middle-aged creators creeping out or an empathy machine for kids to think about the adults in their lives? Both? Does it matter? It’s a device to rattle our hero, who has a bounty on his head and a big, bad wolf (Wagner Moura) on his tail.

First he tries out retirement life in a home with Mama Luna (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), in which he’s forced to behave like a cat – using a litter box (“so this is where dignity goes to die,” he says) and eating cat food as opposed to his stovetop cooking as a cover of The Doors’ “The End” plays in the background.

Movie Review

But he gets a lifeline in the legend of a single wish in a star that’s fallen to earth and is waiting to be granted, sending him, Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek Pinault) and a gratingly earnest dog (Harvey Guillen) on an adventure to get said wish.

This is where the movie really finds its groove, with the introduction of Goldilocks (Florence Pugh) who is a kind of crime lord to her family of bears, Mama (Olivia Colman), Papa (Ray Winstone) and Baby (Samson Kayo), and, separately, a no longer little Little Jack Horner (John Mulaney) who are all after the wishing star too.

The vocal cast is an embarrassment of riches, especially Pugh, Colman, Winstone, who are right out of a PG-rated Guy Ritchie movie and should get their own spinoff. Mulaney, too, is a perfect adult brat, bitter about his origin being just a nursery rhyme and not a full fairy tale. He’s another kind of crime brute, collecting and stealing famous fairy tale items to compensate for his own lack of magical powers and uses them to fun ends.

Directed by Joel Crawford, with Januel Mercardo as codirector, “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” has enough good jokes (script by Paul Fisher and story by Tommy Swerdlow and Tom Wheeler) to keep anyone amused for an afternoon at the movies. The animation is exactly what you need it to be too and

avoids too much of the frenetic anarchy of a lot of kids movies that mistake chaos for excitement.

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter how much time has lapsed, Banderas is welcome back as the “leche-whisperer” whenever he wants.

“Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,’’, is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association for “rude humor, language, action/ violence and some scary moments.”

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Rams’ “Super” win over the Denver Broncos

and the Rams routed the Denver Broncos 51-14 for their second victory since mid-October.

Mayfield went 24 of 28 for 230 yards in another standout performance for his second win in three starts with the Rams (5-10), who produced the best game of their dismal season on

Christmas.

“That’s what you work toward,” Rams coach Sean McVay said. “To see it come to life on a night like this, you’re really happy for them. They deserve that.”

Rookie Cobie Durant punctuated the festivities when he returned his second interception 85 yards for a touchdown,

picking off Brett Rypien with 4:08 left to cap the Rams’ first 50-point performance under McVay since their famed 5451 victory over Kansas City in 2018.

For at least one more week, Los Angeles avoided becoming the first defending champion to lose 11 games. Even with the NFL’s 32nd-ranked offense coming in, Los Angeles is now the second team to score 50 points this season, joining Dallas earlier this month.

“To play a complete game like this is really special,” Mayfield said. “Everything was there for us today.’’

In his Los Angeles debut, Larrell Murchison made 2 1/2 of the Rams’ six sacks of Wilson, who passed for 214 yards with three interceptions for Denver (4-11). The beleaguered Wilson was not sharp in his return from a one-game absence with a concussion, throwing interceptions to end Denver’s first two drives.

“We haven’t really had an experience like that (where) we were trying to catch up like that so far here,” Wilson said. “Just became a snowball effect. . The bottom line is that I let us down. It can’t happen, and it’s been disappointing.”

The Rams improbably racked up 261 of their 388 yards before halftime and eventually scored on their first eight drives

against Denver’s above-average defense, already matching their full-game season high in points with their 31-6 halftime lead.

Akers continued his late-season surge by producing the Rams’ first 100-yard rushing game of the season, while Higbee led the passing attack with 94 yards on nine catches for an offense missing its top three wideouts due to injury.

Higbee became the Rams’ career franchise leader in scoring catches by a tight end with his TD catch in the first quarter for his 19th career score. Akers then scored two snaps after Wagner made a long return of his interception across the middle.

The Rams’ 17-point first quarter was their highest-scoring opening period since Week 6 of McVay’s first season in 2017. They subsequently scored touchdowns on four consecutive drives for the first time in McVay’s tenure.

Los Angeles led 31-3 at halftime, and Ramsey picked off Wilson’s long heave to the end zone on Denver’s opening drive of the second half. The Rams’ pressure on Wilson improbably was led by Murchison, who signed with Los Angeles 13 days ago after Tennessee cut him.

UP NEXT Rams: At Chargers on Sunday.

Chargers back in playoffs

Austin Ekeler scored on two 1-yard runs and Los Angeles clinched its first postseason berth since 2018, intercepting Nick Foles three times to beat the overmatched Colts 20-3 on Monday night.

“We’re in it, now let’s go win it!,” one player screamed before reporters were allowed into the locker room.

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The bash included second-year coach Brandon Staley handing a game ball to owner Dean Spanos, whose organization earned its second playoff spot since 2014, a little less than a year after a brutal overtime loss at Las Vegas in last season’s finale game kept LA out of the

postseason. Justin Herbert threw for 235 yards and Cameron Dicker made two short field goals for the Chargers (9-6), who won their third straight after getting the help they needed this weekend from Las Vegas, Miami, New England and the New York Jets. When all four lost, the Chargers simply needed a win to clinch a playoff spot, and they did their part.

“It’s been a while,” receiver Keenan Allen said after catching 11 passes for 104 yards, his sixth straight 100-yard game on the road. “The playoffs are never guaranteed, so when you get in, it feels good. Now the season starts.”

TheSportsPage

Ten Locals Are All-County For Football

Edison had 5 players named

Ten athletes from West Orange County high schools have been named to All-Orange County football teams.

The teams are compiled by The Orange County Register and are the only all-county squads announced annually.

Five of those selected were from Edison High of Huntington Beach, which won the Sunset League title and advanced to the CIF-SS playoffs.

From schools serving the The Tribune’s coverage area of Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, Stanton and Westminster, those honored were:

First Team Offense

• Offensive lineman Zachary Gruwell, Edison, Jr.

Second Team Offense

• Quarterback Parker Awad, Edison, Sr.

• Offensive lineman Nathan Gates, Edison, Sr.

• Offensive lineman Makai Sagiao, Edison, Sr.

• All-purpose: Kobe Boykin, Orange, Jr. Third Team Offense

• Running back Malachi Bey, Garden Grove, Sr.

• Wide receiver Ashton Hurley, Edison, Sr.

• Wide receiver AJ. Vandermade, Huntington Beach, Sr.

• All purpose Phu Nguyen, Bolsa Grande, Sr. Third Team Defense

• Linebacker Dom Lopez, Edison, Jr.

Prep Hoops Scores

Tuesday (boys)

Orangewood 78, Anaheim 30

Los Amigos 61, Vista del Lago 59

Ocean View 64, Temecula 41

Tuesday (girls)

Northwood 66, Garden Grove 15

Portola 61, Edison 34

Huntington Beach 54, Arcadia 48

Los Altos 61, La Quinta 16

Monday (boys)

Loyola 75, Orange 31

Marina 90, California 59

Monday (girls)

Bravo 49, Westminster 44

BOBBY WAGNER HAD A LOT TO CELEBRATE

He intercepted former teammate Russell Wilson as the Los Angeles Rams thumped the Denver Broncos 51-14 (Rams photo).

Rams looked Super in win over Denver Broncos

By Greg Beacham AP Sports Writer

INGLEWOOD (AP) –Bobby Wagner and Russell Wilson got back together Sunday, near the end of their first season apart following a decade together. Wagner and his Los Angeles Rams were the only ones who enjoyed the holiday reunion.

Wagner first intercepted a pass by his longtime Seahawks teammate, setting up the Rams’ second touchdown drive in their 31-point first half. Wagner also sacked the Broncos quarterback right before halftime, settling a longstanding bet between these good friends.

“I told him that if we ever played against one another, I’d get him,” Wagner said with a grin. “It was cool to do that. It was cool to pick him

off as well on Christmas. I appreciate the presents.” Wagner’s holiday cheer was only part of a com-

prehensive thrashing delivered by the Super Bowl champions who haven’t given up on their lost season just yet.

Baker Mayfield threw two touchdown passes to Tyler Higbee, Cam Akers rushed for 118 yards and a career-high three TDs

Chargers nail down playoff spot with win

By Michael Marot AP Sports Writer

INDIANAPOLIS (AP)

– The Los Angeles Chargers tried to keep their postgame playoff celebration private.

No such luck. After shaking hands and walking off the field in Indianapolis, players jogged through a tunnel to blaring music,

high-fives and hugs and headed into a first-time locker room scene for many of these Chargers – a playoff party.