The Orange County Tribune March 25, 2023

The fifth annual “Art in the Park” was held last Saturday at the Village Green in downtown Garden Grove at Main and Euclid streets. It featured the best in art from students in the Garden Grove Unified School District, with several of the most eye-catching works displayed on easels for motorists and pedestrians to get a chance to appreciate the creativity of local pupils. The one image depicting strawberries is a reminder of the Strawberry Festival coming to that park on Memorial Day weekend (Orange County Tribune photo).

n WESTMINSTER CITY COUNCIL Planning commission appointed for 2023-25

Five persons were appointed to serve on the city planning commission by the Westminster City Council on Wednesday night.

The five were nominated by the mayor and each district’s councilmember and approved 5-0 by the whole council.

They are:

• District 1 (Amy Phan West): K.C. Wolbert

Navigation Ctr. Progress Hits A Speed Bump

Plans for Garden Grove – and partners Fountain Valley and Westminster –to establish a “navigation center” to house and assist the homeless have hit a bump in the road.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the Garden Grove City Council is expected to reject all construction bids for the project and start the bid process over.

According to a staff report, two bids were received for the project, one for $4.8 million and another for $6.9 million. But “both bids have irregularities and may lead

to protests.” City staff recommends rejecting both bids and re-advertising the project.

The proposed center is on a 0.41-acre site at 13871 West Street in an industrial area northwest of Harbor Boulevard and Westminster Avenue. It would accommodate as many as 80 people.

Garden Grove will be the lead agency and will operate the center in combination with the cities of Fountain Valley and Westminster.

Getting the center built

n HUNTINGTON BEACH COUNCIL

• District 2 (Carlos Manzo): Don Anderson

• District 3: (Kimberly

Ho): Jamison Power

• District 4: (NamQuan

Nguyen): Tony Bui

• Mayor (Chi Charlie Nguyen): Alin Hamade. Planning commissions make decisions on zoning matters, requests for site plans, planned unit developments, requests for variances, etc.

Continued on page 8

The City of Huntington Beach’s ongoing tussle with the State of California over housing took a time-out this week.

At Tuesday’s meeting of the council, it was decided to table until the April 4 meeting a decision on whether to accept the state-mandated housing element update revision.

Three of the four conservative members of the

council voted against the element update, but fell short of a majority when Councilmember Casey McKeon announced he would recuse himself from voting because of a potential conflict of interest.

A 3-3 tie is nevertheless not the majority needed for passage.

Continued on page 2

Huntington Beach City Council

Continued from page 1

At issue is the city’s Regional Housing Needs Assessment, which calls for Huntington Beach to zone for – but not necessarily build – 13,338 new homes over the next 10-year period as a way of alleviating the state’s housing shortage.

The council did vote 5-2 (with Councilmembers Gracey Van Der Mark and Pat Burns opposed) to continue to accept and process applications and permits

for accessory dwelling units and SB 9 (allowing lot splits in single family zones), a reversal of an earlier decision to refuse to accept new applications.

All this happens against a backdrop of lawsuits by the city against the state, and the state against the city over housing requirements imposed by the California legislature.

The next meeting of the council is set for Tuesday, April 4.

n STANTON CITY COUNCIL

Should mayor’s post be subject to term limits?

Should the position of mayor of Stanton be subject to the same term limits as other members of the city council?

Councilmember Gary Taylor has raised that issue and it will be discussed at Tuesday’s meeting of the council. David Shawver has been on the council since 1988 and served several terms as mayor, winning the office most recently in 2022 with no opposition.

In 2016, Stanton voters approved Measure RR, which limited council members to two

New cases of COVID-19 fall

As the month of March approaches its conclusion, two of the four major metrics on the coronavirus pandemic in Orange County show improvement, while two others are static.

According to the county health care agency, the latest report on March 23 shows 808 confirmed new cases. That compares to 1,314 reported on March 2. Hospitalizations dropped from 177 to 121.

However, deaths were unchanged at 21 and the number of persons being treated for coronavirus in intensive care units stayed the same at 19.

To date, OC has had 715, 259 cases of coronavirus, and 8,009 deaths.

Garden Grove City Council

Continued from page 1

and up and running is a priority for all three cities as anticamping ordinances can only be enforced if there’s a place for the

unhoused to be sheltered.

The council will meet at 6:30 p.m. in the Community Meeting Center, 11300 Stanford Ave.

terms. The margin was 75.24 percent “yes” to 24.76 percent “no.”

Also on the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting is a discussion on the city’s current district-based election systems as requested by Shawver.

For most of the city’s history, council members were elected at large, but since 2018 that system was replaced with a district setup, in which council members are chosen by voters in each of four districts with the mayor elected by voters citywide.

The council will meet in its chambers at City Hall at 7800 Katella Ave. at 6:30 p.m.

JIm Tortolano Editor and Publisher Marilyn Lewis Tortolano General Manager

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, the Garden Grove Downtown Business Association and Garden Grove Chamber of Commerce.

GGHS

students win Congressional prize for app creation

Three students from Garden Grove High School are the winners of the 2022 Congressional App Challenge of the California 46th District.

Henry Vu, Jessica Nguyen and Jasmine Chau created an app called “MnewNote” to enable students to study more efficiently. It includes proven study techniques, a timer and other productivity tools.

Our Towns

“They each embody the next generation of STEM [science, technology and math] leadership, and I’m so proud of each of them. There is no limit to what they will accomplish,” said Rep. Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana).

That old college try honored

Local students from colleges and universities have been recognized by their schools recently. They include:

• Katy Pham of Westminster has participated in the National Residency Matching Program as one of 152 senior medical students from the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa.

• Sarah Jang of Garden Grove has been named to the dean’s list for the fall 2022 semester at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennysylvania.

Cherry Blossom Festival in HB

The annual Cherry Blossom Festival will be held at Central Park in Huntington Beach (Talbert Avenue and Goldenwest Street) from Friday, April 14 to Sunday, April 16. The free event will feature a celebration of Japanese culture, food, music and more.

Hours will be 5-10 p.m. on Friday, 10 a.m to 10 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday. For more information, go to OCCBfest.com.

The price of slavery and what you pay at the pump

We’re back from our spring hiatus that took The Tribune staff for a cruise down the Mississippi River from Memphis to New Orleans and – other than lots of really good (and too much) food on the American Countess boat – a couple of interconnected impressions emerged strongly from the journey.

The first one is that many parts of that Southland that we saw were somewhat, well, impoverished, compared to Southern California.

Once you got out of the big cities, such as Memphis and Nawlins, there was a vast panorama of empty land, narrow asphalt roads, rundown buildings and more, all the legacy of a region still struggling to overcome its past.

A century and a half after the freeing of the slaves and more than a half-century after the end of Jim Crow segregation, much of the old Confederacy lags behind the rest of the nation in literacy,

Retorts

Jim Tortolano

high school test scores, college attendance and graduation and is at the top in teenage pregnancy, heart disease, obesity and more.

A society long built on immense wealth for the few and harsh toil for the rest – white and Black – has left the legacy of a region which in some ways is limping along trying to catch up with the rest of the nation while looking back at its past.

In Natchez, Mississippi, we visited Stanton Hall, a gorgeous and impressive mansion which is the capstone of a

financial empire built on the forced labor of 700 slaves.

The impact of an essentially free work force undercut the economic value of wages for everybody else, and many of the effects of those traditions remain stubbornly in place.

Californians like to complain about the gasoline tax they pay at the pump, but the road network outside the big cities in the South is pretty shabby.

Many areas in what would be considered middle class neighborhoods there lack curbs, gutters, sidewalks and storm drains.

I’d rather pay an extra buck a gallon for my Golden State unleaded than have to navigate roads that haven’t improved that much since Sherman marched through Georgia.

To sum up, the price is often high for living cheap.

HENRY VU, Jessica Nguyen and Jasmie Chau of Garden Grove High School won the Congressional Challenge for their app.

STANTON HALL in Natchez, Mississippi is beautiful but the capstone of an empire built on the forced labor of 700 slaves (Orange County Tribune photo)

U.S./China in island dispute

The disputed Paracel Islands in the South China Sea have become the focus of an international dispute over just who those islands belong to. According to the Associated Press, the U.S. has twice sailed the USS Milius – a guided missile destroyer – in the vicinity of the islands, bringing sharp protests from China. The Chinese have occupied the islands but they are also claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam. The Chinese government warned of “serious consequences” in the wake of the American actions which Washington termed “freedom of navigation” operations.

Situation in Syria continues to heat up

One day after American air strikes hit Iranian-backed militias fighting in Iran in retaliation for a drone attack that killed a U.S contractor and wounded six other Americans, more drone and rocket attacks were launched.

According to The New York Times, President Joe Biden – in the Canadian capital of Ottawa – said, “The United States does not, does not, I emphasize, seek conflict with Iran. But be prepared for us to act forcefully to protect our people.”

Also in the news … American labor unions scored a victory on Friday when the Michigan state legislature voted to repeal that state’s “right to work” law, which had outlawed the “closed shop” under which all persons represented by a union had to belong to that union.

Sports: Lakers defeat Oklahoma Thunder

Anthony Davis scored 47 points as the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder 116-111 on Friday night to bring their record up to .500 and improve their playoff hopes.

With the win, the Lakers are

37-37 and have the tie-beaker over the Thunder in case of a deadlock in the standings. Davis hit on 15-of-21 shots and 7-of-11 free throws. He also grabbed 15 rebounds.

Weather: It’s sunny days for us ... mostly

The West Orange County area is done with the rain … for a while. The forecast calls for sunny and mostly sunny days until Wednesday brings showers. Saturday should have a daytime high of 66 with an overnight low of 43. Sunday will be slightly warmer with 67 (44) and the start of three days of “mostly sunny.”

‘John Wick 4’ Stylish as Paris

This installment is among the best in the series

By Mark Kennedy AP Entertainment Writer

A trip to Paris should be on everyone’s bucket list, even John Wick. The Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre - what better way to refresh your soul, even as you kick everyone else’s bucket?

The un-retired assassin does indeed dive into the City of Lights in the inventive and thrilling “John Wick: Chapter 4” a sequel which elevates and expands the franchise. The fourth installment is more stylish, more el-

Movie Review

egant and more bonkers - kind of like Paris itself.

When we last saw Wick, he was half dead in the gutter after being shot and tumbling several stories off the Hotel Continental in New York. He was on the blacklist with a $14 million price on his head. (Inflation has even hit this franchise: The bounty swells to $40 million by the end of part four.)

Wick, as always played with monosyllabic and brooding intensity by Keanu Reeves, leaves his customary trail of death, but there’s a shift here. So often the prey in the previous movies, Wick is on the offense in the fourth, taking his demands directly to The High Table, the

group of shadowy crime lords that keep order.

This time, the Table’s sadistic frontman is a dandy called the Marquis, played with coiled menace by Bill Skarsgård, who spouts things like: “Second chances are the refuge of men who fail.” But he’s a secret coward, so feel free to boo loudly.

The nine-fingered Wick wants to end his nightmare, naturally, by killing everyone. His toocool frenemy, Ian McShane’s Winston, challenges him to think differently: “Have you learned nothing?” he asks the man who, to be honest, he shot in the last movie. “You’ll run out of bullets before they run out of heads. “

Returning writer Shay Hatten, along with co-writer Michael Finch, have come up with a pos-

Good: HHH

sible solution for Wick: Win an old-fashioned duel with the Marquis. Win and be free, lose and be buried.

Not so fast, of course. Along the way, Wick must somehow handle the blind martial arts master Caine, played by Donnie Yen, bringing humor and verve to a fighter who is tasked with either slaying his one-time friend or have his daughter killed.

There’s also Killa, a jumbosized card shark played by martial arts star Scott Adkins, and The Tracker, a very talented bounty hunter played by Shamier Anderson. Don’t forget

KEANU REEVES is back as the hero-assassin in “John Wick 4” (Lionsgate).

A stylish ‘John Wick 4’ in Paris

a swarm of Paris-based amateur bounty-hunters and armored ninjas who seem as plentiful as the city’s baguettes.

All the touches you expect from a Wick flick are here - a cool dog, hand-to-hand combat amid glass display cases, candles and Christian iconography, galloping horses, the screech of metal swords and a new way to hurt someone, in this case, a single playing card. We visit Germany, Japan and end in France, even going to a disused subway platform.

Returning director Chad Sta helski loves combining neon with gloom and now has the budget to rent out space in the Louvre. Of the 14 action sequences - yes, 14 - a few are truly mind-blowing, like a fight

in the middle of the traffic circle around the Arc de Triomphe and a drone capturing a complicated set piece in a building involving what is being called a dragon’s breath shotgun. Repeating that last bit: dragon’s breath shotgun. If there was a bit of a slog through would-be assassins in “John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum” - you know, shoot, stab, repeat - there is none here. One sequence on a set of outdoor stairs in Paris is almost riotously funny as knives and guns blast away, while the filmmakers add water and fire to a nightclub rave scene that puts clueless dancers next to axe-throwing murderers.

A shout-out to costume designer Paco Delgado, who has outfitted the baddie gunmen in lightcolored three-piece suits and combat boots, and the executive baddies in fitted elegance with

extravagant cravat-style ties.

One of the film’s saddest parts is saying goodbye to Lance Reddick, who played Continental Hotel concierge Charon and died on the eve of the movie’s debut.

How does this all end? Actually, on something of a deflating note. Earlier in the film, Wick’s Japan-based friend Shimazuplayed awesomely by Hiroyuki Sanada - had asked a question that eternally hangs over this franchise: “Have you given any thought to how this ends?”

This chapter ends in death, of course. But that’s also how it lives.

“John Wick: Chapter 4,” a Lionsgate release that hits theaters Friday, is rated R for “pervasive strong violence and some language.” Running time: 169 minutes. MPAA definition of R: Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

Great stars, great matchup in World Baseball Classic

for the ending.

“I just would have liked to have seen Mike hit a 500-foot homer,” he said.

Ohtani had given a pregame pep talk in Japan’s clubhouse.

“Let’s stop admiring them,” he said, according to a Los Angeles Times translation of

the video posted on the website Samurai Japan. “If you admire them, you can’t surpass them. We came here to surpass them, to reach the top. For one day, let’s throw away our admiration for them and just think about winning.”

Japan then joined the Dominican Republic in 2013 as

the only unbeaten champions of baseball’s premier national team tournament. The Samurai Warriors went 7-0 and outscored opponents 56-18, reaching the final for the first time since winning the first two WBCs in 2006 and 2009. No other nation has won the title more than once.

Trea Turner put the U.S. ahead in the second against Shota Imanaga (1-0) with his fifth home run of the tournament, tying the WBC record set by South Korea’s Seung Yuop Lee in 2006.

Munetaka Murakami tied the score on the first pitch of the bottom half off Merrill Kelly (0-1) driving an up fastball 432 feet into the right-field upper deck, a 115.1 mph bullet. Japan loaded the bases and Lars Nootbaar, the first non-Japaneseborn player to appear for the

Samurai Warriors, followed with a run- scoring groundout off Aaron Loup for a 2-1 lead.

Okamoto boosted the lead in the fourth when he sent a flat slider from Kyle Freeland over the wall in left-center for another solo homer. Kyle Schwarber pulled the Americans within a run when he went deep in the eighth off Yu Darvish.

Ohtani was Japan’s designated hitter and first went to the bullpen ahead of the sixth inning. He returned to the dugout and beat out an infield single in the seventh before again walking down the left-field line to Japan’s bullpen and warming up for his third mound appearance of the tournament.

He walked big league batting champion Jeff McNeil to begin the ninth, then got six-time AllStar Mookie Betts to ground into a double play.

That brought up Trout, the U.S. captain, a 10-time AllStar and a three-time MVP.

“I saw him take a big deep breath to try and control his emotions,” DeRosa said. “I can’t even imagine being in that moment, the two best players on the planet locking horns as teammates in that spot.”

Ohtani started with a slider low, then got Trout to swing through a 100 mph fastball. Another fastball sailed outside and Trout missed a 99.8 mph pitch over the middle. A 101.6 offering, the fastest of Ohtani’s 15 pitches, was low and way outside.

Ohtani stepped off the mound and blew on his pitching hand. He went back to a offspeed option, a slider.

Trout grimaced after his futile swing, his 12th strikeout of a tournament in which he hit .296 with one homer and seven RBIs.

Ohtani raised both arms and threw his glove, then his cap, as teammates mobbed him.

Angel Stars Made History in Vegas

Baseball’s two greatest stars in a great finish

By Ronald Blum AP Baseball Writer

MIAMI (AP) – Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout had dreamed of this moment, along with millions of fans throughout Japan and the United States: the two biggest stars on the planet, longtime teammates, facing each other at 60 feet, 6 inches, the world title at stake. Of course, the count went full. And then Ohtani got Trout to swing under a slider on the outside corner, sealing Japan’s 3-2 win Tuesday night and its first World Baseball Classic title since 2009.

“This is the best moment in my life,” Ohtani said through a translator.

Ohtani, the two-way star who has captivated fans across two continents, was voted MVP of the WBC after batting .435 with one homer, four doubles, eight RBIs and 10 walks while going 2-0 with a save and a 1.86 ERA

on the mound, striking out 11 in 9 2/3 innings.

“I think every baseball fan wanted to see that. I’ve been answering questions about it for the last month-and a-half,” said Trout, Ohtani’s Los Angeles

Angels teammate since 2018. “Did you think it was going to end in any other way?”

Watching the eighth and ninth innings unfold, Japan first baseman Kazuma Okamoto was in disbelief.

After the rains, it’s back to “play ball!”

The rains came to the West Orange County area over the past two weeks and scrambled the schedules for area high school baseball and softball teams.

Now that Mother Nature has let up and provided some sunshine, games are back underway although athletic directors and coaches are poring over iPads and clipboards to figure out just how to patch together their game dates for the rest of the season.

Friday’s action saw a mix of

league and tournament games.

Pacifica’s baseball team improved its record to 11-2 with a 3-1 win over Marshall High of Los Angeles. The Mariners will begin Empire League play on Tuesday when they host Valencia (2-8).

Also on Friday, the Pacifica softball team (9-3) thumped El Modena 12-1 in a non-league contest.

The M’s rolled up a 9-1 lead before the mercy rule was invoked

after five innings.

The Mariners will start EL play on Thursday, March 30 hosting Crean Lutheran (9-2-1).

Garden Grove League baseball action saw Loara defeat La Quinta 15-0 to remain at the top of the GGL race at 3-0 (4-4 overall). The Aztecs are 1-3 and 3-7.

In the Wave League, Edison opened baseball conference play with a 1-0 win over Marina. The Chargers are 6-5 overall and the Vikings are 5-9.

“I thought it was like a Manga,” he said through an interpreter, referring to a Japanese comic book.

U.S. manager Mark DeRosa savored the matchup – except

Continued on page 7

Prep Sport Scores

Friday, March 24 (baseball) Edison 1, Marina 0 Orange 5, St. Margaret’s 4 Savanna 12, Western 3 Loara 15, La Quinta 0 Pacifica 3, Marshal 1

Friday, March 24 (softball) Westminster 3, Ocean View 2 Pacifica 12, El Modena 1

Thursday, March 23 (baseball) Arlington 1, Ocean View 1 Marina 4, Corona del Mar 2

SHOHEI OHTANI and other Japan players celebrate after defeating the United States 3-2 in the World Baseball Classic final at Loan Depot park in Miami, Florida, on March 21, 2023. (Kyodo via AP Images).