12-13: Another SUPER-SPIKE in OC Covid cases!

✅ Coronavirus: Orange County surpasses 100,000 cases, with 3,121 new ones, 14 new deaths on Dec. 13 

There were 1,236 patients in local hospitals with the coronavirus on Sunday – breaking a July record. 

—OC Reg

[See DtB graph below]

✅ Hiltzik: 2020 was the year that American science denial became lethal -- It’s hard to pinpoint when the Republican Party’s long-cherished hostility to scientific facts went, shall we say, viral. Michael Hiltzik in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 12/13/20 

✅ Walters: High school ethnic studies – the third version -- Will the third time be the charm for California’s tortured effort to write a model ethnic studies curriculum for high school students? Dan Walters CalMatters -- 12/13/20 

✅ ‘An Indelible Stain’: How the G.O.P. Tried to Topple a Pillar of Democracy -- The Supreme Court repudiation of President Trump’s desperate bid for a second term not only shredded his effort to overturn the will of voters: It also was a blunt rebuke to Republican leaders in Congress and the states who were willing to damage American democracy by embracing a partisan power grab over a free and fair election. Jim Rutenberg and Nick Corasaniti in the New York Times$ -- 12/13/20 

✅ Several UC chancellors call for tuition increase amid pandemic-fueled budget crisis -- As the pandemic throws the University of California into one of the worst financial crises it has ever collectively faced, top leaders at the majority of campuses say it’s time to consider a tuition increase for fall 2022. Teresa Watanabe in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 12/12/20

✅ Orange County healthcare system ‘in crisis’ as COVID-19 hospitalizations hit record 

—LA Times

✅ ‘Covid-19 has an odour, and the dogs are detecting it’: meet the canine super-squad sniffing out the virus 

They’re loyal, diligent – and have unbeatable noses. Could dogs play a key part in the fight against the pandemic? 

—The Guardian

12-11: Community colleges hardest hit as college enrollment among high school graduates falls nationally; Rush Limbaugh's startling notion; More OC Covid spikery

✅ Thanksgiving Coronavirus Cases Begin to Rock Orange County Hospitals 

—Voice of OC 

     Orange County’s soaring coronavirus hospitalizations and daily case increases are at the highest levels ever, so far, while some public health officials and epidemiologists fear Thanksgiving cases will worsen the situation. 

     “Duct tape your underpants,” UC Irvine epidemiologist Andrew Noymer said in a Thursday phone interview. 

     Noymer, a public health expert, said the situation is going to continue to get worse. 

     “We’re breaking records on the daily here,” he said. “Thanksgiving is starting to bite. Thanksgiving was a fortnight ago, exactly.”…. 

     OC managed to shatter two records in one day: overall hospitalizations and the number of people in intensive care units. 

     As of Thursday, 1,025 county residents were hospitalized, including 257 people in intensive care units, according to state data. 

     That’s a 460% increase since Nov. 1, when 183 people were hospitalized, including 60 in ICUs. OC eclipsed its previous record from the July 14 peak, when 722 people were hospitalized, including 239 in intensive care units. 

     “It’s the first time we set a record on both of these statistics since July,” Noymer said. “These numbers look really bad.”…. 

     During the peak July hospitalization period, OC was averaging a little over 800 new cases a day. By the end of the month, the seven-day average was 470 new daily cases. 

     Now, OC is averaging over 1,800 new cases a day. When December began, the average seven-day average was 790 new cases a day. 

     The virus trends forced county Emergency Medical Services Medical Director, Dr. Carl Schultz, to issue a directive to hospitals late Wednesday evening, urging them to activate surge plans and halt non-emergency surgeries…. 

     Without intervention, county officials warn that Orange County’s emergency medical services could collapse…. 

     Meanwhile, Supervisor Michelle Steel railed against the regional shut down at the weekly Thursday OC news conference. 

     “As I have said since the very first stage of this pandemic, we must take a balanced approach to slowing the spread of this virus while ensuring the least economic harm to families,” Steel said…. 

     Steel said Gov. Gavin Newsom “Has frankly created an inconsistent mess … moving the bar each time to justify their actions with no scientific base.” 

     But public health experts like Noymer said the order should’ve gone a step further and close down all nonessential retail, like malls and department stores. 

     “It’s more important now than March. I would’ve rather seen the malls open in March than now, of course that’s easy to say in hindsight,” Noymer said. “I would say yeah, indoor shopping needs to shut down. We’re really in a crisis.”…. 

     “So two cases cause four, four cases cause eight and eight causes 16,” Noymer said. “Thanksgiving set in train a series of infections that are going to set in train a new series of infections. It’s not like Thanksgiving is done — it takes an explosion and makes it an even worse explosion … it’s not a road bump, it’s a mountain.”…. 

✅ Chapman professor draws attention, reprimand as Trump’s lawyer in Texas lawsuit 

"I think it’s really troubling when you have millions of people who believe that the election was stolen when there’s no good evidence to support that." Rick Hasen, law professor at UC Irvine. 

—OC Reg 

✅ Some Orange County ambulances with patients are ‘waiting hours’ for ER beds -- The rising flood of coronavirus patients has prompted Orange County’s Health Care Agency to warn that emergency room backups have had some ambulances waiting “hours” to offload patients and the county’s critical care network “may collapse unless emergency directives are implemented now.” Ian Wheeler, Roxana Kopetman in the Orange County Register -- 12/11/20 

✅Secession? Rush Limbaugh floats a startling notion — then quickly backs off. 

The conservative radio titan has been a fierce advocate of President Trump’s baseless election claims. This week, he took the talk a step further. 

—WashPo

✅ New data sheds light on parent debt burden for college students -- The new information gives new insight into intergenerational debt. Experts argue that the federal loans taken out by low-income parents can be a net negative for the family. Mikhail Zinshteyn CalMatters -- 12/11/20 

✅ Community colleges hardest hit as college enrollment among high school graduates falls nationally amid the pandemic -- Community colleges have seen the sharpest drop among colleges in high school graduates enrolling this fall, a likely effect of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to an annual report published Thursday by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Betty Márquez Rosales EdSource -- 12/11/20 

✅ To spring break or not? California colleges weigh options as pandemic worsens -- Like a number of colleges across California, USC is swapping its traditional spring break for five single-day breaks scattered throughout the semester, in hopes of cutting down on the spread of COVID-19. Meghan Bobrowsky, Matthew Reagan and Emily Forschen CalMatters -- 12/10/20 

✅ Power Differentials 

Professor who studies pederasty sues students who've said he's sympathetic to pedophiles. Fellow classicists argue that he's treading into dicey legal and ethical territory in trying to police expression.

—Inside Higher Ed 

     A professor who does controversial research on age of consent is suing a graduate student who publicly criticized his writing and pedagogical choices. The new libel lawsuit parallels two others the professor filed earlier this year. Both of those were against undergraduate students. 

     The professor, Thomas Hubbard, a classicist at the University of Texas at Austin, says he’s been unfairly maligned to the point of becoming a target of violence. As proof, he points to an early-morning protest outside his home last year, during which his property was vandalized. He says he so fears for his safety in Texas that he’s relocated to California. 

     Many scholars following the case say that they don’t condone physical violence or threats by any means. But they argue that Hubbard is now seeking to limit the very freedom of expression that affords him the right to study what he does…. 

     Indeed, Hubbard’s lawsuits are very much about language. Among other topics, Hubbard studies pederasty, or sexual activity involving a man and a male youth. The practice occurred with some regularity in ancient Greece, and Hubbard has argued that U.S. age of consent laws should be re-examined with that tradition in mind. He points to contemporary statutory rape laws in parts of Europe where the age of consent is as young as 14, and argues that these thresholds may be different for young men and women. Age of consent laws are gender neutral in the U.S., but Hubbard has argued that young men may require less legal protection, or merit a lower age of consent, than young women….

✅ Progress Slows on California Remedial Education Reform 

—Inside Higher Ed 

     Some colleges are falling behind on making progress in remedial education reform just two years after California enacted legislation on the issue. 

    The latest report from the California Acceleration Project and Public Advocates shows that only three of California's 116 community colleges have achieved complete implementation of the changes listed in Assembly Bill 705 for both English and math. 

    The bill, which took effect in 2018, requires community colleges to use high school grades for placement, restricts colleges from requiring students to take remedial courses and requires colleges to place students in the English and math courses that will maximize the likelihood of students completing transfer-level coursework in those areas within a year. 

     Research has shown that students are more likely to complete transfer-level English and math courses if they begin in transferable courses, rather than remedial courses that tend to not earn students credit…. 

✅ Colleges Are Canceling Spring Break. In Its Place: ‘Wellness Days’ 

—CHE

Today's OC Covid numbers

Today's OC Covid numbers: the spike to end all spikes (Thanksgiving surprise!)

Today's OC Covid numbers.
Early on, I discerned the OC Reg's (et al.) game, which is to report these numbers without providing the all-important context. So I've provided the context, which is where these numbers have been over the months.
The picture is clear: we're MASSIVELY FUCKING UP. Week after week of disturbing numbers go by, and there's no reaction, no public reflection and judgment. On the contrary, the loons are declaring that they will defy the rules anew!
If you were to keep track of the trends, you'd have known for some time that our hair is on fire.

Southern California ICU capacity slips to 9% in latest state update 

State officials are using the metric to determine which regions are subjected to the most recent stay-at-home order 

—OC Reg 

California has its most coronavirus deaths in a single day 

Until this past week, the state had topped 200 daily coronavirus-related deaths only four times. That number has been exceeded twice in the last five days. 

—LA Times

Regional ICU capacity shrinks to 9% as Orange County reports highest single-day coronavirus totals yet

—LA Times

THE TRUMPIANS (aka "slack-jawed louts")

I'll say it: they're selfish and stupid and UTTERLY IRRESPONSIBLE; and they're
threatening everyone's well-being, and boy am I sick and tired of it!

12-9: Fullerton police, again; Coronavirus vaccines are near; Hospitals overwhelmed; Community Colleges’ Chronic Challenges

✅ A Fullerton Police Shooting Draws Neighborhood Outrage to Department’s Doorstep 

—Voice of OC 

     …The chain of events began in May, when officers responded to a frantic 15-year-old’s 9-1-1 call about his drunk step father threatening family members and firing off a gun in their house. 

    Through body-worn camera footage released by police, officers arriving on scene May 27 could be heard shouting orders at Hector Hernandez, 34, as he stood outside his home on the west side of town. 

     He complied, according to police statements, but started pacing. Then, police set a dog loose on him. 

     By the time the canine’s handling officer caught up, Hernandez had stabbed the animal with a pocket knife — injuring but not killing it — and Hernandez, a U-Haul employee and father of two kids, was lying on the ground. 

     Standing above him, the footage shows the officer fired multiple rounds into Hernandez, who later died at a hospital. 

     Then the department’s public relations team got to work. 

     Police posted the step son’s 9-1-1 call and body cam footage to YouTube the next month, overlapped by officials’ statements detailing Hernandez’s allegedly violent behavior that night, such as claims he assaulted his girlfriend after a night out and threatened his own son when they got home. 

     Meanwhile, friends argue Hernandez, despite his behavior, didn’t deserve what they say was a highly unnecessary and brutal death. 

     In turn, a small band of enraged neighbors — some of whom knew Hernandez and watched the events unfold that night — took their anger to the department’s front door on Saturday…. 

     “I’m not somebody that wants to come stand out on the corner of the police station,” [neighbor Bill Brown] said. 

     “This is something I felt I was just forced to do,” Brown added. “I can’t sit around and watch my family and my kids depressed and sad and just say, ‘Oh, well, we’ll just trust that the police will do what’s right.’”…. 

✅ Coronavirus vaccines are near; 25,350 for Orange County expected next week 

Orange County has an order out for perhaps the most important package its pandemic-weary hospital workers will get this December: 26 boxes containing 25,350 coronavirus vaccines. Expected delivery date: Tuesday, Dec. 15. 

—OC Reg 

✅ Orange County’s coronavirus case rate has never been worse 

—OC Reg 

✅ California shatters more coronavirus records as officials warn rapidly filling hospitals ‘may be overwhelmed’ -- One day into a sweeping new shutdown, an explosion of new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations signaled California could be entering the darkest chapter yet of the state’s public health crisis with no quick end in sight. Nico Savidge, Evan Webeck in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 12/9/20 

✅ Mixed messages? UC Berkeley closes residence halls while urging students to heed stay-at-home orders -- UC Berkeley recently released travel guidelines for students planning to return home for the holidays, but some feel the university is sending mixed messages by urging students to follow new stay-at-home guidelines that restrict travel while it closes most on-campus housing during winter break. Vanessa Arredondo in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 12/9/20 

✅ Library Leaders Brace for Budget Cuts 

Academic library survey reveals widespread budget cuts during the COVID-19 pandemic and concern about long-term financial recovery. 

—Inside Higher Ed 

✅ Rating Agencies Issue Dour Higher Ed Outlook for Next Year 

Two bond rating agencies on Tuesday issued pessimistic outlooks for the U.S. higher education sector for 2021 as the coronavirus pandemic continues to strain enrollment and revenue, heighten long-term pressures, and hit certain types of institutions harder than others. 

—Inside Higher Ed 

✅ Report: $1 Billion Needed to Improve Hispanic Institutions 

—Inside Higher Ed 

     Hispanic-serving institutions received only $87 in federal funding per Latinx student in 2019, compared to $1,642 historically Black colleges and universities received for each of their students, according to a Center for American Progress study. And it would take an additional $1 billion in funding just to bring HSIs' funding level up to half that of HBCUs. 

     Increasing funding for HSIs is particularly important at a time when enrollment by Latinx students is rising rapidly and faster than their growth in the U.S. population, wrote Viviann Anguiano, the progressive group’s associate director for postsecondary education, and Marissa Navarro, special assistant for postsecondary education…. 

✅ Report Chronicles Changes in Law Education 

—Inside Higher Ed 

     The Law School Survey of Student Engagement, released Tuesday, chronicles changes in law education in the United States from 2004 to 2019. While law education has become more diverse in terms of race and ethnicity, those gains have been unequal. For example, Black men doubled their percentage of the total number of law students -- from 3 to 6 percent -- in the 15 years of the survey, while Black women saw no similar gains. White men are still the majority of law students, though that group fell from 86 percent of total students in 2004 to 74 percent in 2019....

✅ A Pitch to Turn Prison Into College 

—Inside Higher Ed 

     A former Wisconsin governor who oversaw the expansion of the state's prison system now wants to turn a prison into a college. 

     Tommy Thompson, now the interim president of the University of Wisconsin system, wants to start with a class of 315 inmates, according to Wisconsin Public Radio. He estimates the project, called the UW System Prison Education Initiative, will cost about $5 million to get started. Thompson is working to secure funding, he told WPR, but he also expects to have inmates pay some money back in the form of student loans.... 

✅ What Attacks on Science Get Wrong 

—CHE 

✅ How the Pandemic Worsened — and Highlighted — Community Colleges’ Chronic Challenges

Two-year public institutions nationwide suffered the largest fall undergraduate-enrollment decrease of any higher-education sector. 

—CHE

The Celebrated Boiling Frogs of Orange County, California (Red Emma)

Red Emma

     Recall the classic tale of Jim Smiley, celebrated con man of Calaveras County, real or mythical, but outsmarted, or out-conned, by an even more clever and duplicitous flimflammer. Now substitute, for the stranger-feller who came to town the slickest civic grifter we reckon has come up in these-here parts, our very own 3rd district Orange County Supervisor. He’s that local elected official whose bait and switch – Wagnerian, you might call it – makes celebrated boiling frogs of us all, his unconstituents.
     Now that I’ve commenced to a-doin’ some first-rate bowdlerizin’ aimed in the direction of the great Mark Twain, why not introduce this nearly unbelievable updating of his famous ole yarn by reminding all who read this tall tale that, yes, reports of the demise of Super-dupervisor Donald Wagner’s OC Republican party are indeed greatly exaggerated. This, friends, neighbors, and fellow frogs a’boilin’, is easily evidenced in the local GOP’s impressive contribution to the rising temperature in the pan-demic (read: boiling frog contest) administered by Chef Don, who never held an elected position where he could accomplish either a whole lot of colorful nothin’ or, as of late, worse than nothin’.
     Yup, Don and his pardner Michelle Steel are doin’ what they do best: turnin’ up the heat. Not just on the big kettle o’ COVID, which the miserable and pitiful Democrats and the Blacks and the gays and teachers and pointy-headed intellectuals and them scientist-types say is a darn-tootin’ real life-and-death public health crisis but, in what you might call further ironing, on the whole idee of governification itself! Why, it’s a sure-fired GOP two-fer: Holler out to the Trumpy, Q-Anon, anti-vax, anti-tax, Boogaloo, Tea Party and John Birch crowd, feedin’ ‘em what them Sunday morning jawers call “red meat,” then sit back and watch while they go a protestin’ agin Doc Nichole Quick, the county’s public health boss, about how she’s takin’ away their bidness, flags and guns.

     Never you mind that two months ago most of these good folks couldn’t have picked out Don Wagner in a crowd, not even a line-up of B-1 Bob Dornan, Bill Dannemeyer, Surfin’ Dana Rohrabacher, John Briggs (look ‘em up!) or even Ronald Reagan, who had trouble sayin’ the letters “AIDS” and “HIV” aloud so long that somebody had to write it down for him on a cue card and give him time to practice.
     And why’s that, you wonder, with us all cookin’ together, the virus spikin’ higher? It’s on account of what them newspaper and internet scribblers call a “down-ballot race.” Which leads to frog hoppin’, frog boilin’ and the mystifyin’ Mr. Wagner. See, friends, it begins when the ambitious founder of an outfit called the OC Federalist Society, so right-wing it flies in circles, gets to runnin’ for a community college race, of all things.

     Sure enough, after winnin’ a seat at South Orange County Community College District, he’s elected president, by golly, then commences to tantalizin’ voters with attacks on a suspect crew called the American Association of University Women and cancelling the district subscriptions supportin’ another unlikely gang callin’ themselves the American Library Association or some-such, all while gettin’ endorsements and lucre aplenty from a rival bunch called the Education Alliance, funded by a crazy millionaire. 
     Then it was on to the California Assembly, advocatin’ with considerable uselessness but plenty of hoopla and no-cost mailers, to the folks back home pro-gun, anti-immigrant, anti-same sex marriage and LGBTQ rights laws, and, just for the heck of it, speechified agin’ birthin’ control for women-folk and those gosh-darned uppity teachers’ unions.
Why, the next thing you know, Don W. is on the Irvine City Council, then mayor. His amazin’ trajectory is blessed all along with complete unscrutinization by the press, voters, auditors or investigative-type journalists, with his curriculum vitae – Spanish for resume – just listing all them other positions where he’d showed up only to vote for whatever that feller Shawn Steel – yup, Michelle’s hubby – or Devin Nunes, Mitchell McConnell or them good old boys at the NRA told him to until Irviners got sick and tired of him but then got a job where he could, with a straight face, tell good Judge Carter it’d be a winning idea to erect a homeless shelter in the canyons, havin’ forgot to check via the Googlizer that there was already a public library there, far from bus stops, provisions, health services or other accoutrements of civilization. 

     Here’s what you might call the funny part, if you didn’t know better, and plenty voters don’t. With the legislature and Congressional reps gone blue, the real power in this county – funding, policy and infrastructurin’ – still falls to the red side. All that historical ballot-casting for Sacramento and D.C.? Why, those same voters plum forgot to vote for judges, water district officials, community college board members and Supes. I swear, most of the good people I talk with can’t tell you what them Supervisors even do until they hear on the national news that one of them is acting like the biggest con man of all, a feller named Trump. 
     That’s the tale of Don Wagner, a real character. He’s a-fixin’ to reopen the County, cuz he don’t like masks and what you call social distancing. Why, he’s just like that stranger who forced buckshot down the gullet of a famous frog, and won the bet. Ceptin’ for that amphibious critter lived, and the stranger-feller weren’t never seen again. Meanwhile, you and I set and figger how much longer Don Wagner’s gonna turn up the flame, murderize more of our kinfolk and then get hisself re-elected! —RE

Andrew Tonkovich

Today's Covid-19 number: I think we're gonna need a bigger mask!

See today's data

The government Covid-19 page included this (perhaps obscure) caveat:

The latest number: UH-OH, Spike City!

See today's County Covid Count

     That number is 1,028, by far a new high.
     The County used to provide this kind of chart (above), indicating case numbers per day going back to early May—plus the 7-day average (in orange) per day, a very important metric.

     Well, a week or so ago, they stopped providing that kind of chart (with that extent of info), so I've recreated it myself (using one of the county's old charts, plus updating).
     Plainly, the OC Supes—4 Republicans and 1 Democrat—don't want us to know the trends, covid-19-wise. They're all about opening things up for the sake of commerce. They're pro-commerce and not especially anti-death, evidently.
     Bastards!

     By my calculation (366 [deaths]/17,882 [cases]), about 2% of cases [in OC] result in death.

This just in:

Coronavirus: 1,028 new positive cases reported in Orange County as of July 6 - OC Register

And now, a blast from the past:

I recently came upon this graphic from an old DtB post. Long before Don Wagner became a member of the notoriously right-wing OC board of supervisors, he was a trustee (starting in December, 1998) in our notoriously right-wing board of trustees (at SOCCCD).

Don Wagner running for South Orange County Community College District Board of Trustees, 1998:

Wagner's comments to the contrary notwithstanding, Wagner succeeded in the 1998 election thanks to a flier paid for by the corrupt SOCCCD faculty union—the same group that successfully sponsored Holocaust denying candidate Steve Frogue in 1996 (and 1992).

(See also this — and Studying the lessons of Steven J. Frogue, November 25, 1996.)

Trumpian @ IVC

"If I am doing a business lunch, I like Javier’s. The food is fantastic
and service is business schedule sensitive. It can be loud, but I like the energy."
—I wonder if he knows he works at a college?

"I hadn't ever lived in Orange County before, and it is a really different culture."
The Saddleback College Prez was recently fired. How come?

The Sinking of the Shooting Star: the amazing FBI files

     I became interested in the "Shooting Star" story because of Tom Fuentes, a legendarily wily and nasty operator in OC Republican politics—at least until 2005, when he was forced to step down as OC GOP chair, a position he held for about twenty years, owing to pressure from the Rich Guys contingent of the OC Party, who sought to shed the county of its knuckle-dragging image. In their view, Fuentes wasn't helping.
     And, of course, during the last dozen years of his life, starting in the summer of 2000, he was a trustee of the SOCCCD board here in South County. I knew a little about him before that. But, starting that summer, he brought a deep dark realpolitik to the good ol' SOCCCD. It was like Satan decided to come live in the neighborhood.
     He was pretty complicated. In his youth in the late 50s and early 60s, he worshipped Richard Nixon, and not because of Dick's love of puppies. Fuentes especially admired Nixon's no-holds-barred approach to the opposition, which was already evident in his run against Helen Gahagan Douglas in 1950.

     While Fuentes led the OC GOP to ever greater heights of staunchitude, he proudly served as the head PR flak for the OC Catholic Diocese—during the years when pedophile priests, and not their victims, were routinely protected by the church hierarchy.
     What's up with that? asks Gustavo Arellano.
     Despite his right-wing politics, Tom remained in good standing with Catholic officials—until 1988, when his political tactics became too visibly Nixonian: he hired uniformed "guards" to stand outside of polling places to intimidate Latino voters. Catholic officials took a dim view of that. It smacked of racism. Tom lost his Diocese gig. There was litigation; the party paid a huge settlement.
     Once in a while, Tom would get outed like that for the bastard he was.
     Fuentes was a self-loathing Chicano—and a self-loathing gay man to boot. Self-hatred plus the other-directed kind seemed to be at his core.
     He hated women. With Fuentes in charge, only seriously old school gals could find a place on Team GOP,  baking cookies or something.
     Essentially, he made his living as a lobbyist for a series of firms. He'd wine and dine local politicians to make them agreeable to doing business with his GOP business cronies. He made a fortune doing that. But that kind of work is a kind of sausage-making. It's best kept buried in the incessant OC noise.
     One time, the spotlight caught him providing perks for members of a water board. It was all very embarrassing. He even had to quit the company he worked for. But, generally speaking, Fuentes made his expensive sausages quietly, behind the scenes, connecting his pals with thick veins of public money.
     Sorry about the mixed metaphors.
     Despite his notorious piety, he plainly loved being wealthy and spent every spare hour at his beloved Balboa Bay Club, drinking, smoking cigars, ordering around the help, and doing who-knows-what with promising young Republican man-boys.

     The "Shooting Star" tragedy occurred in 1974, when Fuentes was about twenty-five years old. It  took the lives of Fuentes' bosses: OC Supervisor Ron Caspers, who had just won reelection and for whom Fuentes served as chief aide, and Fred Harber, the old timer of the bunch, and the apparent brain behind a kind or OC "shadow government" that controlled OC politics, starting around 1970 or so or maybe earlier. Caspers wanted to celebrate his victory by flying some of his pals down to La Paz (just north of the tip of Baja, Cabo), and then via charter to Cabo San Lucas, where they boarded Harber's power yacht, the Shooting Star. From there, they would sail up the coast toward California, fishing and enjoying the scenery.
     Fuentes was among the gang that flew down to La Paz and then Cabo, but, oddly, he did not join the cruise, owing to some alleged complaint or illness. He left a large icebox filled, he said, with decadent goodies for his boss, Caspers. Who knows what was in that box.
     It is not entirely clear just who was on the boat as it sailed from Cabo. Some among this group bailed at ports along the way back to California.
     Eventually, the yacht got pretty far up the Baja coast to Turtle Bay, where Harber decided to stop for fuel, provisions, etc. For some reason, at that point, the group seemed to be in a big hurry to get back to California. Their apparent route took them through some rough waters, which, later, puzzled investigators. Rough seas did develop there; the boat was forced to issue a Mayday. The Shooting Star and all hands were never heard from again. No bodies were every recovered, despite a massive search. Only small fragments of the boat were found.

     The story, once filled out, is pretty odd and hinky. Many of you already know most of it. Caspers and Harber were then involved in shaking down contractors and developers—laying' down the old "pay to play," something that Harber had been caught (or nearly caught) doing years earlier as city manager of Cypress. Back then (1966), Harber had agreed to testify in exchange for immunity, but the case had to be abandoned when Harber's apparent co-conspirator, City Councilman Job Denni, died in a plane crash. Harber and Denni's scheme involved receipt of $2,000 a month from a developer—the same arrangement that, according to Jordan, Harber and Caspers offered to him eight years later. (See Harber and Caspers attempt to bribe a developer, but then they die instead.)
     Back to 1974: One such "mark," Richard Jordan, decided to fight back, contacting the OC DA, Cecil Hicks, a Republican enemy of Caspers and his unsavory (mostly Democratic) crowd, including Harber and the infamous "Dick and Doc," i.e., land developer Dick O'Neil and mysterious political operator (and medical doctor) Louis Cella. Not long after the Shooting Star disaster, Dick and Doc's run as Big Political Donors ran afoul of the law—Cella, it turns out, was engaging in massive fraud at hospitals—which eventually landed Cella in prison. Within a few years, several other major OC politicians joined him there. The corruption was pretty thick.
     Fuentes managed to sail through it all, unscathed, though he was widely reputed to have been "Caspers' bagman." When Caspers died, Tom hoped to be appointed as his replacement, but when that fell through he decided to quit politics and become a priest. His seminary time lasted about a year. Soon, he was back wining and dining rich people for the good ol' OC GOP. And he became rich.
     Naturally, the Shooting Star disaster was a terrible tragedy for the 10 people on board and their families. This group included three young men from the Klein family of Utah. (One of the Klein boys was an administrative assistant for a member of the OC Board of Supes.) Clearly, this peculiar tragedy devastated the Klein family and left lots of unanswered questions. Too few in OC seemed interested in finding the answers.
     There was a huge effort to recover survivors, find bodies, and so on, funded by Cella. For a while, it was run by—you guessed it—the dark souled Mr. Fuentes. These efforts produced virtually nothing. The tragedy was mostly blamed on bad weather and poor decisions. But many observers clearly saw the whole episode as very strange. Perhaps suspicious. But, it seemed, all the evidence had sunk to the bottom of the ocean. People moved on.

     NOT LONG AGO, a Ms. S*****—a younger and internet-savvy member of the family that lost the Klein brothers in the tragedy—requested information concerning the "Sinking of the Shooting Star" from the FBI via the Freedom of Information Act. On November 14, 2017, she received the information with a cover page that explained needed "exemptions" (i.e., deletions), and the relevant FOIA "statute headings." The relevant part of that cover page is here:

The relevant sections (of FOIA) are here:

     I received the documents from Ms. S, but they were in files that included pages that sometimes did not seem to match. I made an effort to put them in some kind of order. I fill in some of the blanks where I can. Here they are: pages 4, 5, and 6 are especially interesting.

This page doesn't make much sense to me, given what follows.

I think that the redacted name is Frank Vessels, Jr.,
owner of the Los Alamitos Racetrack. Vessels shot himself in the
head with a shot gun six months later (probably unrelated).
Nobody's quite sure why he did that. His wife was standing just
a few feet away.

Again, I think the redacted name is Frank Vessels, Jr.
This was Caspers' second boating tragedy. Back in the mid-50s a boating
 accident involving his yacht killed his then-wife. See 1954: 
"Shooting Star" was Caspers' second boating tragedy. The first was also a doozy

The "land developer" was Richard Jordan. His tale was finally reported in 
May of 1978 (See). The telephone call was likely from Caspers' assistant, Tom Fuentes, 
who was (in 1978) reported to have spoken with Jordan, eventually informing him that Shirley
Grindle, an "honest government" advocate and planning commissioner, was asking questions 
about Jordan's project. Fuentes then arranged for Jordan's meeting with Spendlove, Caspers' hand-picked
 planning commissioner. 
Spendlove died in a plane crash (taking his whole family, including four kids) in Utah in September
 of 1975, a year after having been fired by Caspers' successor, Tom Riley.

More of the Jordan story. The planning commissioner mentioned above ("her") is Shirley Grindle,
widely known for her crusades for clean and open government. She was appointed by
OC Supervisor Ralph Clark in 1973 and she remained on the Commission until 1977. (See OAC.)
The meeting taken on May 6th or 
7th is taken by developer Jordan. The amount of cash Harber and Caspers demanded from Jordan
—$2K a month—was the same amount demanded in the scheme Harber and Denni pursued back in 1966.
 (See note above.) 
The person declining the Mexican trip was the developer, Jordan.
WHO was interviewed on May 9th of 1978? Golly!
And who did the interviewing?
I have found a reference to an officer/agent ("special agent"?) of the FBI named Stanley J. Fullerton
 (here; p. II-109). And so Fullerton represents the FBI in the interview. What's SA? I suspect it abbreviates
Special Agent.
The OC DA who went after Cella was the celebrated Cecil Hicks.
I have no idea who this Marine Major is. I'll do some digging.

Curious investors: Camelot card club, Anaheim (c. 1977)

I have found news reports concerning the Camelot "card club" in Anaheim c. 1976-7. The owner, Joseph G. London,
ran afoul of city regulations. Some local officials seemed to feel that the club was detrimental to citizens' welfare. A "James Grover" (aka "Jimmy 'Bad Boy' Williams") of Las Vegas had ties to the club; evidently, he was an ex-convict with underworld connections, which worried Anaheim officials when London attempted to expand the business in the city. (The
Register's 9-12-77 article about Camelot is amazing.)

Someone overheard a conversation by ? in which "covering...tracks" was discussed—in connection
with the sinking of the Shooting Star. Relative to tracks-covering, this Marine, is (?) a local gambler in debt to this "card club."
The next bit of verbiage (on page 5) refers to participants of the conversation "wanting CASPERS 'taken out'"

CELLA wants Caspers taken out? Over knowledge of a hinky funding source?
Who is the BAGMAN? I know that Larry Clark worked for Schmitt (OC Board of Supers 1975-78)—
but it seems unlikely that he would be a bagman for anyone.
I'm gonna have to work on this, see if I can identify the names.
Two hookers on the Shooting Star! WTF!

OCDAO — that's likely the OC District Attorney's Office.
Could the redacted mystery man be Lyle Overby? Overby served as
a Supervisor's executive aide at the time, I believe. He was on the Shooting Star on
that fateful (not fatalistic) trip—but bailed at some point at Cabo San Lucas. (See My correspondence 
with passenger Lyle Overby.) 
Overby later became a successful OC lobbyist. (He is a Republican.)
LARRY SCHMITT was an OC Supervisor from 75-78 or so. He was a part of
Harber's "shadow government." Larry Clark, who wrote a fine piece about the 
Shooting Star tragedy, told me that he was Schmitt's executive aide—and he was told
that his job was to "keep him [Larry] out of jail." Clark was the one who told me that Overby
was the passenger who bailed on the trip perhaps at Cabo.

Let me know what you make of all this. 

I've got more documents that I haven't sifted through yet.

I'll get back atcha. —RB