BRUSSELS >> Salah Abdeslam, the top suspect in last year’s deadly Paris attacks, was discharged Saturday from a Brussels hospital, and quickly made it clear he will fight efforts to ship him to France for trial.

“I can tell you that he is collaborating with Belgian justice and that we will refuse the extradition to France,” Sven Mary, Abdeslam’s lawyer, said.

Mary spoke to joualists after he and Abdeslam met with a Belgian investigating magistrate who will decide whether to issue a formal arrest warrant against the Brussels native accused of playing a key role in the Nov. 13 attacks on a rock concert, cafes and a stadium that killed 130 people.

Abdeslam, 26, was shot in the leg and a suspected accomplice also injured when they were captured by Belgian police on Friday. Yvan Mayeur, the Brussels mayor, aounced on Twitter that “the two presumed terrorists” had been discharged from CHU St. Pierre hospital Saturday moing.

Abdeslam, a French national, is subject to a European arrest warrant issued by France. His seizure in the Brussels neighborhood of Molenbeek after four months on the run brought relief to people who have seen his “wanted” poster all over two countries for months.

Beard Cazeneuve, the French interior minister, said Saturday he hopes Abdeslam can be brought to France to face justice. He spoke after French President Francois Hollande held an emergency security meeting in Paris.

Hollande has waed that more arrests will come as authorities try to dismantle a network involved in the attacks that is much larger than originally suspected. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the Paris caage.

Cazeneuve called Abdeslam’s arrest a “major blow” to the Islamic State group in Europe, but waed the threat of new attacks remains “extremely high.”

Belgium’s prime minister also said “the fight is not over,” and the Belgian govement aounced the nation’s terrorism alert level would remain unchanged at 3 on a 4-point scale.

Belgian federal prosecutor Eric Van der Sypt said the investigating magistrate has 24 hours following a detention to issue an arrest warrant, though that deadline can be prolonged for another day. Then Abdeslam will have to appear before a pretrial court, which will decide whether he stays in jail for up to another month.

Advertisement

“If he starts talking then I presume it will mean he stays longer in Belgium,” Van der Sypt told The Associated Press. But whether the suspect fights extradition or not, “sooner or later he will be extradited to France,” the prosecutor said.

Mary, Abdeslam’s attoey, said, “firstly the legality of the arrest warrant, the European arrest warrant, has to be checked carefully. There is a case file open in Belgium and maybe there should be less genuflecting for the sake of compensating for the sense of guilt that we feel, the guilt we feel with respect to France. Maybe this should stop.”

Asked by reporters about the state of his client, Mary said: “He was hurt by a bullet in the leg.”

Asked what he and Abdeslam spoke about, the lawyer said, “I don’t think it’s important what he told me.”

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel told a news conference Saturday that his govement has no “political objections” to handing Abdeslam over to the French, but wants to fully respect Belgian judicial procedure which “can take at least a couple of weeks.”

French and Belgian anti-terrorism prosecutors were plaing a teleconference call Saturday during which matters including Abdeslam’s extradition were to be be discussed, Belgian Federal Prosecutor’s Office spokesman Thierry Werts said.

A 2002 agreement among European Union member states speeds up the extradition process, making it a purely judicial process and removing any political aspect. For especially grave crimes, such as terrorist acts, the procedure goes even faster.

Hollande, speaking next to Michel, the Belgian prime minister, said at a joint news conference in Brussels on Friday he was sure “the French judicial authorities will send an extradition request very soon” and that “the Belgian authorities will answer it as favorably as possible, as soon as possible.”

The shared French language between France and Belgium will help make the process even smoother. Abdeslam could appeal the extradition, but under the European principle of mutual recognition of judicial decisions, that would only give him a short respite.

Samia Maktouf, a French lawyer for several survivors and relatives of Paris attack victims, is urging immediate extradition. “Apart from his (medical) condition, I don’t see what might delay his extradition,” she told The Associated Press.

Survivors and victims’ families “relief is mingled with bitteess” because some suspects are still on the run and belong to an organized and sprawling network that has yet to be stopped, Maktouf said. “Our young people found death for no reason. Today, their families have empty chairs next to them, they have a phone that doesn’t ring any longer,” she said.

Abdeslam is a childhood friend of the suspected ringleader of the attacks. Investigators believe Abdeslam drove a car carrying a group of gunmen who took part in the shootings, rented rooms and shopped for detonators. Most of the Paris attackers died on the night of the attacks, including Abdeslam’s brother Brahim, who blew himself up.

After the bloodbath, Salah Abdeslam evaded a dragnet to retu to Brussels. He was believed to have slipped through police fingers multiple times despite an inteational manhunt. At one point, Belgian authorities locked down their capital for several days but failed to find him.

Abdeslam and four other suspects were detained in Friday’s raid, including three members of a family that sheltered him. Abdeslam was not armed but did not immediately obey orders when confronted by police, Van der Sypt said.

Belgian prosecutors said they were not sure of the identity of the presumed accomplice arrested with Abdeslam. They said he is believed to have used fake Syrian and Belgian documents bearing two different names.

It was possible Abdeslam had spent days, weeks or months in the Molenbeek apartment, according to Van der Sypt.

Two other people believed linked to the attacks were still being sought, including fellow Molenbeek resident Mohamed Abrini and a man known under the alias of Soufiane Kayal.

Abdeslam’s role in the attacks has never been clearly spelled out. The car he drove was abandoned in northe Paris, and his mobile phone and an explosive vest he may have had were later found in the Paris suburb of Montrouge, raising the possibility that he aborted his mission.

Sotto reported from Paris. Raf Casert in Brussels and Sylvie Corbet in Paris assisted.

WASHINGTON >> President Barack Obama will open a new era in the United States’ thoy relationship with Cuba during a history-making trip that has two seemingly dissonant goals: locking in his softer approach while also pushing the island’s communist leaders to change their ways.

Obama’s 2½ day visit starting Sunday will be a crowning moment for the ambitious diplomatic experiment that he and President Raul Castro’s govement aounced barely a year ago. After a half-century of acrimony, the two former Cold War foes are now in regular contact. American travelers and businesses are eagerly eyeing opportunities on the tiny nation 90 miles south of Florida.

Joined by his family, Obama will stroll the streets of Old Havana and meet with Castro in his presidential offices — images unimaginable just a few years ago. He will sit in the stands with baseball-crazed Cubans for a historic game between their beloved national team and Major League Baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays.

Obama also will meet with political dissidents. Their experiences in the one-party state help explain why some Cuban-Americans see Obama’s outreach as a disgraceful embrace of a govement whose practices and values betray much of what America stands for. Increasingly, though, that’s becoming a minority view among Cuban-Americans, as well as the broader U.S. population.

White House officials are mindful that Obama caot appear to gloss over deep and persistent differences. Even as the president works toward better ties, his statements alongside Castro and dissidents will be scrutinized for signs of how aggressively he is pushing the Havana govement to fulfill promises of reform.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez rebuked Obama ahead of the trip for suggesting that he would use the visit to promote change. Rodriguez said that many of Obama’s policy changes have essentially been meaningless, and he dismissed the notion that Obama was in any position to empower Cubans.

“The Cuban people empowered themselves decades ago,” Rodriguez said, referring to the 1959 revolution that put the current govement in power. He said if Obama was preoccupied with empowering Cubans, “something must be going wrong in U.S. democracy.”

Obama’s aides and supporters in Congress brushed off such tough talk from Cuban officials. They argue that decades of a U.S. policy of isolation that failed to bring about change in Cuba illustrated why engaging with the island is worthwhile.

Yet Obama’s opponents insist he is rewarding a govement that has yet to show it is serious about improving human rights and opening up its economy and political system. Though Obama has been rolling back restrictions on Cuba through regulatory moves, he has been unable to persuade Congress to lift the U.S. trade embargo, a chief Cuban demand.

Advertisement

“To this day, this is a regime that provides safe harbor to terrorists and to fugitives,” said House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis. “Unfortunately, it is doubtful that the president will bring up the need for reform during his visit.”

Two years after taking power in 2008, Raul Castro launched economic and social reforms that appear slow-moving to many Cubans and foreigners, but are lasting and widespread within Cuban society. The changes have allowed hundreds of thousands of people to work in the private sector and have relaxed limits on cellphones, Inteet and Cubans’ comfort with discussing their country’s problems in public, for example.

The Cuban govement has been unyielding, however, on making changes to its single-party political system and to the strict limits on media, public speech, assembly and dissent.

While in Havana, Obama will attend a state dier in his honor and lay a wreath at a memorial to Jose Marti, a Cuban independence hero. He will give a speech at the Grand Theater of Havana — carried on Cuban television. White House aides said Obama will lay out a vision of greater freedoms and economic opportunity.

Ahead of his trip, Obama aounced moves to further lift U.S. restrictions on Cuba, including easing travel restrictions for Americans and restoring Cuba’s access to the global financial system. Cuba has been slower to approve U.S. businesses operating in Cuba and to take other steps sought by the U.S. But Cuba did aounce plans to lift a 10 percent conversion fee on U.S. dollars.

The jubilation that surged through Cuba in the early days of detente has been tempered by the absence of tangible improvement in most people’s lives. Obama is well-regarded in Cuba, and though his trip has spurred excitement in the country, few Cubans expect to see Obama in person. The Castro govement has aounced a virtual shutdown of Havana during Obama’s stay.

“I don’t think things are going to improve here,” said Rosa Lopez, 52-year-old food stand worker. Gesturing at her wo-out sandals and soft drinks for sale, she added, “All this is here, in this country, and the United States is way over there.”

Obama’s trip comes in the midst of a heated U.S. presidential election in which his willingness to talk to America’s foes — not only Cuba, but also Iran — has been a focus.

Democratic front-ruer Hillary Clinton has embraced much of his foreign policy agenda, including the Cuba opening. But Republican candidates describe Obama’s outreach to Castro as part of a patte of naïve overtures to enemies that has yielded little in retu.

Against that backdrop, Obama aims to avoid glaring missteps that could make a rollback of his Cuba policy more palatable to Americans. He hopes a successful trip will make that impossible, even if a Republican is elected in November.

“We very much want to make the process of normalization irreversible,” said Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser.

Associated Press writer Michael Weissenstein in Havana contributed.

MOSCOW >> A Dubai airliner with 62 people on board nosedived and exploded in a giant fireball early Saturday while trying to land in strong winds in the southe Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, killing all aboard, officials said.

Several planes had trouble landing at the airport at the time of the crash, with one trying to land three times before giving up and diverting to another airport, experts said.

Russia’s Emergencies Ministry said the Boeing 737-800 operated by FlyDubai was carrying 55 passengers, most of them Russians, and seven crew members. FlyDubai confirmed there were no survivors and said four children were among those killed.

It was FlyDubai’s first crash since the budget carrier began operating in 2009. Its fleet consists of mint 737-800 aircraft like the one that crashed.

Closed-circuit TV footage showed the plane going down in a steep angle and exploding. The powerful explosion left a big crater in the runway and pulverized the plane but investigators quickly recovered both flight recorders. The cause of the crash wasn’t immediately known, but officials and experts pointed at a sudden gust of wind as a possible reason.

“By all appearances, the cause of the air crash was the strongly gusting wind, approaching a hurricane level,” said Rostov regional Gov. Vasily Golubev.

According to weather data reported by Russian state television, when the FlyDubai plane first tried to land, winds at ground level weren’t dangerously strong, but at an altitude of 500 meters (1,640 feet) and higher they reached a near-hurricane speed of around 30 meters per second (67 miles per hour).

Later, when the plane crashed, winds near the surface reached 22 meters per second (49 miles per hour) and could have been even stronger at altitude.

Several planes had landed in Rostov-on-Don shortly before the Dubai airliner was scheduled to touch down, but other flights later were diverted.

Ian Petchenik, a spokesman for the flight-tracking website Flightradar24, told The Associated Press that the FlyDubai plane missed its approach, then entered a holding patte, circling for about two hours before making another landing attempt. It said a Russian Aeroflot plane scheduled to land around the same time made three landing attempts but then diverted to another airport.

Advertisement

Flightrader24’s data indicated that the Dubai plane began climbing again after a go-around when it suddenly started to fall with vertical speed of up to 6,400 meters per minute (21,000 feet/min).

“It was an uncontrollable fall,” said Sergei Kruglikov, a veteran Russian pilot, said on Russian state television. He said that a sudden change in wind speed and direction could have caused the wings to abruptly lose their lifting power.

He said the pilots would have understood seconds before the crash that they were going to die, but “passengers and the cabin crew likely didn’t realize they were facing imminent death.”

FlyDubai CEO Ghaith al-Ghaith said the plane attempted to land in line with established procedures. He added that the pilots hadn’t issued any distress call and hadn’t attempted to divert to an alteate airport.

“As far as we know, the airport was open and we were good to operate,” he said, adding that the plane couldn’t have landed without air traffic controllers’ permission.

“Our primary conce is for the families of the passengers and crew who were on board. Everyone at FlyDubai is in deep shock and our hearts go out to the families and friends of those involved,” he added.

Al-Ghaith said the plane’s pilots, who were from Cyprus and Spain, had 5,965 and 5,769 hours of flying time respectively, making them “quite experienced.” The cabin crew included two Russians and citizens of the Seychelles, Colombia and Kyrgyzstan.

The plane was built in 2011 and underwent a detailed maintenance inspection known as a C check in January, he added.

President Vladimir Putin offered his condolences to the victims’ families and top Russian Cabinet officials flew to the crash site, 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the Russian border with Ukraine, to oversee the investigation.

Alexander Neradko, head of the Russian state civil aviation agency, Rosaviatsiya, said it was up to the pilot to decide if weather conditions allowed the landing and said that traffic controllers in Rostov-on-Don acted in line with standard instructions.

“Our air traffic controllers were acting in full accordance with inteational rules and there is no reason to talk about any flaws in their work,” he said in televised remarks from Rostov-on-Don.

A local online newspaper, Donday.ru, released what it said was the recording of conversations between the Dubai plane’s crew and air traffic controllers, in which the pilot, who sounded calm, was inquiring about weather conditions. The authenticity of the tape couldn’t be independently confirmed.

Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov, who also arrived in Rostov-on-Don, said the airport fully conformed to mode standards.

“(The airport’s) complete overhaul was completed last year, and it has received all the necessary clearances, including inteational ones,” he said.

Pilot Vitaly Sokolovsky told Rossiya 24 television that a sudden gust of wind could be particularly dangerous at low altitude while the plane was flying slowly at low power and the pilot was throttling up the engines to make another attempt at landing.

Emirati authorities including the president, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, sent condolences to Putin. Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who also serves as the Emirates’ vice president and prime minister, expressed his regrets on his Twitter feed.

In a statement expressing “shock and grief,” Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades confirmed that the pilot was a Cypriot, Aristos Socratous from Limassol.

Officials said the plane and bodies of the victims were blown into small pieces by the powerful blast, making identification long and difficult. Investigators, however said the plane’s cockpit conversation recorder and another one recording flight data were in satisfactory condition.

The airline was launched in 2008 by the govement of Dubai, the Gulf commercial hub that is part of the seven-state United Arab Emirates federation. It has expanded rapidly in Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union.

Dubai is a popular destination for Russian vacationers, and many Russian expatriates live and work in the city. The carrier has been flying to Rostov-on-Don since 2013. The airline says, in all, it operates more than 1,400 flights a week.

FlyDubai has a good safety record. In January 2015, one of its planes was struck on the fuselage by what appeared to small-arms fire shortly before it landed in Baghdad. That flight landed safely.

Schreck reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Jim Heintz in Moscow, Jon Gambrell in Dubai, Menelaos Hadjicostis in Nicosia, Cyprus, and Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report.

COMPTON >> Deputies conducted a DUI/License checkpoint in Compton that gaered six arrests and four vehicles that were impounded, according to the sheriff’s department.

The operation at Central and Rosecrans avenues ran from 6 p.m. Friday to 3 a.m. Saturday, according to sheriff’s Sgt. Daniel Dail of the Traffic Services Detail.

A total of 1,079 vehicles were screened, Dail said. Deputies arrested two people for allegedly driving under the influence of marijuana, one for suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol and marijuana, two for illegal possession of narcotics and one person for knowingly allowing an unlicensed motorist to drive.

Dail said 12 people were also cited, five for driving with a suspended or revoked license and seven for being unlicensed. Four vehicles were also impounded.

The checkpoint was funded by a grant from the Califoia Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Advertisement

LOS ANGELES >> The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in Los Angeles County rose Saturday for the 23rd consecutive day, increasing 1 cent to $2.775.

The average price has risen 41.4 cents over the past 23 days, including nine-tenths of a cent on both Thursday and Friday, according to figures from the AAA and Oil Price Information Service. It is 8.2 cents higher than one week ago and 33.3 cents greater than one month ago.

However, the average price is 59.8 cents less than one year ago, after dropping 71.4 cents during the stretch of 49 decreases in 50 days that immediately preceded the increases.

The average price dropped to its lowest amount since May 6, 2009, before the increases began.

The Orange County average price also increased for the 23rd consecutive day today, rising 1.6 cents to $2.765. It has risen 41.9 cents over the past 23 days, including a half-cent on both Thursday and Friday.

The Orange County average price is 7.3 cents higher than one week ago and 33 cents greater than one month ago.

However, it is 57.9 cents less than at this time last year after dropping 72.3 cents during the stretch of 49 decreases in 50 days that immediately preceded the increases, falling to its lowest amount since May 5, 2009.

Factors for the rising prices include increased demand and higher oil prices, according to Jeffrey Spring, the Automobile Club of Southe Califoia’s corporate communications manager.

LOS ANGELES >> The presidential contest is dominating headlines, but the toughest campaign in Califoia might be two years away.

The race to replace Gov. Jerry Brown in 2018 is emerging as a potentially historic competition that could bring the state its first Asian goveor, the first Hispanic in mode times or the first woman.

Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is expected to become a candidate shortly.

Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom is banking cash in advance of a run, and state Treasurer John Chiang sounds like he’s getting in.

Former eBay executive Steve Westly is giving it a look, as is climate activist Tom Steyer.

Democrats will be favored in a state where the party controls every statewide office, but some Republican names are circulating, including San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin.

Advertisement

Live updates: Regional Championship Basketball – Saturday, March 19

SANTA ANA >> A federal judge has granted a temporary restraining order blocking Tribune Publishing Co.’s purchase of Southe Califoia newspapers the Orange County Register and the Press-Enterprise of Riverside.

The move late Friday from U.S. District Judge Andre Birotte Jr. comes a day after the U.S. Department of Justice requested the restraining order in its antitrust lawsuit against the purchase by the owner of the Los Angeles Times, the dominant newspaper in the region.

In his ruling, Birotte said the govement has shown “a likelihood of success on the merits of its claim,” the Los Angeles Times reported. He wrote that many online websites don’t produce original content, but “primarily post links to stories on the websites of other content generators - including local newspapers like the Register or the Press-Enterprise.”

Tribune said in court filings opposing the order earlier Friday that the temporary restraining order may well kill the $56 million deal entirely. That would make second bidder Digital First Media the likely new owner.

“The govement’s request, if granted by this court, effectively removes Tribune altogether from the proceedings in the Bankruptcy Court,” Tribune said according to the papers filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. “A temporary restraint on Tribune will ensure that it will not acquire the properties.”

A hearing in bankruptcy court is scheduled for Monday, and the longer-term implications of the restraining order were not immediately clear.

Tribune aounced Thursday it had prevailed in the bankruptcy auction, but the Justice Department the same day moved to prevent the sale, saying it would give Tribune a monopoly over newspaper sales in the region.

The Tribune already operates the Times and San Diego Union-Tribune, which it purchased last year.

If the sale to Tribune goes forward, it would give the company control of the four largest daily newspapers in Southe Califoia, with as many as 1,000 joualists covering an area that stretches from Los Angeles to the Mexican border. It’s a region of 18 million people.

In its Friday objections, Tribune criticized the Justice Department’s “eleventh hour” interest in the deal, given that the media conglomerate was open about its interest as bankruptcy proceedings unfolded.

The company also complained that the govement was relying on “severely outdated” notions of the media market and had cited 50- and 60-year-old legal cases from an era before digital publication in its bid to block the sale.

The Justice Department fired back in court papers late Friday, saying that 200,000 residents of Orange and Riverside counties buy daily newspapers despite the advent of digital publications and the additional cash the higher bid would provide for creditors does not justify the loss of media competition.

Advertisement

The bankruptcy must close by March 31, when temporary private financing keeping the two newspapers afloat will dry up.

Freedom Communications now operates both publications.

The judge operates independently but has the discretion to consider the Justice Department’s conces, said Tom Campbell, a Chapman University law professor and former director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Competition.

That could make the ruer-up bidder, Digital First Media, the wier, Campbell said.

The judge “could say, ‘I don’t know if it’s a big antitrust problem or not, but I have two bidders who don’t have an antitrust problem and one who does,’” Campbell said. “The likeliest outcome is he would award it to the second bidder. That’s what I would predict.”

That would end regulators’ conces, but the Tribune surely would appeal, as would creditors, who would get less money from the deal, he said.

Digital First, which owns nine Southe Califoia papers and websites, including this one, made a $45.5 million “stalking horse bid” for the newspapers.

An investor group led by Freedom Communications’ managers pulled out of bidding.

If the deal were approved, Tribune would control 98 percent of daily English-language newspaper sales in Orange County and 81 percent in Riverside County, the Justice Department estimated.

Freedom Communications filed for bankruptcy protection in November. It followed a series of layoffs and buyouts after an aggressive expansion of print joualism that included starting daily papers in Los Angeles and Long Beach and buying the Press-Enterprise for $27 million.

The Associated Press is among the creditors in Freedom’s bankruptcy proceedings.

Associated Press writer Andrew Dalton contributed to this report.

Later this month, the U.S. Geological Survey will say goodbye to retiring seismologist Lucy Jones.

While the federal agency is losing one of its best-known figures, her next role is a win for Southe Califoia.

Jones, the face of the USGS following most major earthquakes in the past 30 years, isn’t retiring from her work on earthquakes. Instead, she wants to start a nonprofit where she can bridge the gap between the scientific and political worlds to help policymakers make more informed decisions.

“First, I was a researcher, then I moved toward communication, and then, recently, I’ve moved closer to the policymaker, really holding their hand and feeding them information,” she said. “Essentially, I want to keep that process going and really be there in that implementation gap.”

Her work might help Southe Califoia cities protect their aging infrastructures from devastation in an earthquake and could help save thousands of lives in the event of a massive one. She said she wants to educate policymakers about earthquakes and climate change, then help them implement changes.

Over the years, Jones has become synonymous with earthquakes. In 1992, she famously gave television interviews following the 6.1-magnitude Joshua Tree earthquake while holding her sleeping son. Since then, she’s become the media’s go-to expert following most temblors.

Recently, her stint as the earthquake czar for Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti showed her how science could be used more effectively in policy decisions. But, she can’t do more of that type of work while she’s a federal employee, she said.

USGS explicitly tells its scientists when they’re writing papers to avoid making policy recommendations, she said.

“There are a lot of good research scientists; they don’t need me doing that,” she said of her retirement from USGS. “We have a wonderful team of young scientists that are doing amazing work, and when I’m not here, they’re going to step in and fill that role.”

CHANGE FROM INSIDE

For decades, scientists have worried about how Los Angeles and surrounding communities would hold up when the “Big One” hits. They wrote paper after paper showing the need for stronger construction standards, retrofitting and community preparation. Their message was simple, but scary: fix this, or thousands could die. It wasn’t always heard, or understood.

Advertisement

Jones often carried that message to lawmakers and the public, but she couldn’t push for specific policies.

But last year, the USGS tried something different. It embedded Jones in Los Angeles’ city hall, where she worked closely with Garcetti’s administration. She met with stakeholders and policymakers to explain the dangers directly.

And it seems to have paid off.

In October, the city unanimously passed a monumental retrofitting plan that mandates the strengthening of nearly 15,000 structures likely to collapse during a strong earthquake.

“We’ve known there has been a problem for 40 years,” said Tom Heaton, a professor of geophysics and civil engineering at Caltech. “This is the most solid progress I’ve seen, in the last year, and quite a bit of that progress has been made with Lucy’s involvement.”

The buildings in question — nonductile concrete and soft-story structures — could collapse from a Northridge-type earthquake. That particular quake in 1994 destroyed 200 soft-story buildings. The damage at one apartment complex killed 16 people.

The retrofitting in Los Angeles could prevent even more deaths.

“As Dr. Lucy Jones has famously said, ‘Earthquakes are inevitable, but disasters are not’,” Garcetti said in a statement. “Her work with us over the past two years was essential to L.A.’s passage of the nation’s strongest retrofitting ordinance. I wish her the best in her retirement from the U.S. Geological Survey, knowing she will bring her passion to new and pressing challenges.”

Those challenges, however, mean that Jones has to retire.

“What I leaed from working in the city of Los Angeles is the power of actually changing outcomes,” she said. “There’s 192 other cities in Southe Califoia that could use the same information, the same approach.”

Some of those cities have been reaching out to the USGS. However, it doesn’t have the funding or authority to tackle that problem, she said.

“Many cities have come to us wanting help like we did with Los Angeles. That’s not what Congress wants us to do,” she said. “So what I’m looking forward to is being able to see who wants to fund it locally and creating whatever size program the community wants. Obviously, I can’t do that as a federal employee and I can’t start the fundraising.”

A LITTLE BREAK

Though she’s taking on a new challenge, Jones also is looking forward to more free time, she said.

The 61-year-old seismologist is the same age as her mother when she died. Jones’ son is reaching an age where grandchildren seem likely, she said. Her retirement not only opens up new opportunities, it gives her more time with her family and her other passions.

There’s a book she’s been wanting to write and music she wants to perform, she said.

Though she’s staying on as a visiting researcher at Caltech, her colleagues at the USGS office on campus said she’ll be missed.

“Lucy has been a great inspiration to me as a scientist,” said Kate Scharer, a research geologist with the USGS. “Her direct approach to problems and her willingness to compromise to achieve results is impressive.”

Scharer said she’s worked with Jones for 15 years, first as a Ph.D student, then as a colleague at USGS. Jones’ ability to break down complex science into easy to understand information has made her invaluable, to both the agency and the public.

Jones leaves behind some big shoes to fill, Scharer said. Though Scharer said she did not want to speak for Jones about the seismologist’s future, she said Southe Califoia is prominent in that next step.

“I think Southe Califoia will continue to benefit from Lucy’s activities,” she said.

It might be easier to score 20 points against Harrison Boer than it would be to get the senior Long Beach Poly basketball player to talk about himself. Asked to do so, he furrowed his brow and considered the request.

“I keep to myself, mostly,” he said simply.

If Long Beach Poly’s fans want a win Saturday when the Jackrabbits face J.W. North in the CIF State Division II SoCal Regional championship in Long Beach State’s Walter Pyramid, they’ll need Boer to be the player he has been for the past two years.

The game starts at 11 a.m., and the wier will travel to Sacramento for next weekend’s CIF State Division II championship. The Jackrabbits have won 20 CIF Southe Section championships but only two state titles (in 1921 and 1984), and they are looking to make history with another pair of wins.

To get them, they’ll once again need solid offensive and defensive games from Boer, one of the area’s most complete players. Despite starting every single game for the Jackrabbits his junior and senior years, and despite averaging 13 points per game, Boer has flown under the radar, likely a result of his steady demeanor.

He’s an anomaly in the hyper-competitive, hyper-emotional world of high school sports — a gifted player who doesn’t draw attention to himself. On the rare occasion that he blows a defensive assignment, he doesn’t come to the sideline and slap his chair during a timeout. On the much more frequent occasions that he hits a big three, he doesn’t celebrate all the way down the court — instead he finds the player he’s defending and gets back to work on defense.

“I’m not shy, I’m just not really outgoing either,” said Boer. “I don’t like to talk much. I’ve always been that way.”

That kind of mentality can rub some coaches the wrong way. Some coaches want a senior leader who’s yelling all the time, leading with emotion rather than execution. Fortunately for Boer, Poly head coach Shelton Diggs is just fine with who he is on the floor.

“He reminds me of me in high school, actually,” said Diggs. “It’s easy for me. I can tell him something and I know he gets it.”

Diggs said he and assistant coach John Atkinson haven’t tried to change Boer this year and have largely stopped bothering to give him pointers mid-game, since they found he was making the same adjustments on his own that they’d ask him to.

Advertisement

Boer has been Poly’s best one-on-one defender, and has almost always guarded an opponent’s best player over the past two years, which means he’s often faced off against future Division 1 talent. While he may prefer to stay silent, his record on the defensive end of the court speaks for itself.

Last week in the state playoffs he guarded Los Alamitos’ Eyassu Worku, the best player in the area (and the highest-scoring) and held him to 16 points, the fifth-lowest total of the season for the UC Irvine signee. Earlier this year in a matchup against J.W. North he held UC Riverside signee Dikymbe Martin to 11 points, his sixth lowest tally of the year. And early this season he held Cal commit Jemarl Baker (who scored 30 points against the nation’s top team, Chino Hills) to just six points, his lowest total of the year.

His length (6-foot-4 with an even bigger wingspan) and athleticism allow him to guard just about any type of scorer on the perimeter, and to do so without fouling.

“He’s locked up a lot of kids with offers, while scoring 15 or 20 points himself,” said Diggs. “And he likes playing defense — there’s not a lot of kids like that.”

Boer has the perfect mentality for a defensive stopper, similar to that of a great pitcher. If something goes well, he might nod a little, but he’s not going to get so excited that he has a lapse. And if something goes wrong, he has an easy time pushing it from his memory and focusing on the next play.

“I just enjoy playing defense, and I take pride in not letting my man score more on me than I do on him,” he said.

This year he’s also leaed to be more aggressive offensively, something he’s had to do with the number of injuries Poly has had to deal with. He’s evolved from a quiet defensive force into a steady scorer as well, forming the third leg of Poly’s scoring trio alongside Zafir Williams and Drew Buggs.

Diggs and Boer are hoping the senior lands a late mid-major or Division 2 offer, and they know that playing in a state championship would help with that.

“Right now though, all I’m focused on is wiing,” said Boer.

To have a shot at the team’s first state title in more than 30 years, they’ll need a big game from Boer and the rest of the roster. But don’t be surprised if after they get that win, Boer lets the rest of the roster do the talking.

Ticket Info

One ticket will get you into both Poly basketball games at the Pyramid Saturday, the boys at 11 a.m. and the girls in the Open Division championship at 5 p.m.

General admission pricing for the day’s games will be $18 for adults and $10 for any seniors, children, and students with a valid ASB card. Tickets are available online at LongBeachState.com/CIF or from the Pyramid box office.

The massive SoCalGas leak detected in October in Aliso Canyon, which forced thousands from their Porter Ranch-area homes for months, apparently wasn’t the only source of methane in the air at the time.

State regulators on Friday aounced that they’ve slapped a $75,000 fine on Long Beach-based The Termo Co., which has several wells at the Aliso Canyon gas storage facility, for what officials called an apparently “intentional” effort to hide “venting” gas.

The Califoia Division of Oil, Gas, & Geothermal Resources levied $25,000 penalties for each of three violations, including unreasonable waste of gas, improper disposal of oil field waste and failure to maintain and monitor the production facility.

Termo Co. officials were reviewing the penalty order Friday.

“This afteoon we received notice from DOGGR regarding a January 23rd gas release that was generated by a safety backup system at our Del Aliso lease,” according to a statement from Ralph Combs, manager of corporate development at The Termo Co. “Our technical team is currently reviewing the order and has identified several discrepancies by the state, which we are evaluating. We look forward to resolving this issue in a timely maer.”

According to regulators, the venting gas was discovered when monitors from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and South Coast Air Quality Management District flew over the field on Jan. 23. Using an infrared camera, regulators were dispatched to the site and found the source of what they presumed was a leak, according to regulators.

“Someone clearly made an effort to conceal the pipe because even though we knew from aerial readings where it was generally, our field staff had to search carefully before finding it behind a tree, state Oil and Gas Supervisor Ken Harris said in a statement on Friday. “If it wasn’t for the aerial surveillance, the illegal discharge could have continued indefinitely.”

The source of the venting gas was the terminus of a pipeline measuring about 2½ inches in diameter, regulators said in the Friday aouncement.

What usually happens is that Termo transmits gas to SoCalGas to inject into the massive underground storage reservoir at Aliso Canyon. But a Termo employee conveyed to inspectors that the Termo pipeline at issue was part of an emergency relief system, regulators said. It was being used, according to the Termo employee, because gas injections were halted during the SoCalGas leak, regulators said.

Regulators said Friday that in dealing with the issue, the valve on the pipeline at issue was closed, however, that only reduced the flow of gas. It did not halt the gas.

Advertisement

Inspectors retued on Jan. 28.

In their aouncement Friday, regulators said they found that the operator had removed the pipeline, which had been coected only to a wellhead. That indicated that the venting of the well was intentional, according to the regulators. That’s why regulators aren’t calling the venting methane a leak, because it was intentional, officials said.

In essence, once the pipeline was discovered, the well operator “destroyed the evidence of its existence before division persoel could fully inspect it,” according to the regulator.

“The brazen nature of this violation shows that (the) operator held little to no regard for the statutes and regulations or, more importantly, public health and safety,” they added.

Regulators continue to investigate the incident and more allegations are possible, officials said, adding that it was unclear how long the leaking occurred or how much gas was vented.

Regulators said the law caps the penalty amount the division can assess at $25,000 per violation.

Tribune refuted federal antitrust conces related to its bid to buy the Orange County Register and Riverside Press Enterprise, arguing that newspaper monopolies are outdated.

Lawyers for Tribune Publishing responded in a brief Friday to a lawsuit filed a day earlier by the U.S. Department of Justice, seeking to keep Tribune from acquiring the two newspapers in a bankruptcy auction Monday.

“In this day and age, newspapers caot be reasonably considered to be their own relevant product market, notwithstanding the cases from the 1950s and 1960s cited by the govement,” a brief filed by Tribune’s lawyers reads in part.

A Tribune subsidiary, Orange County Media LLC, bid $56 million late Wednesday for Freedom Communications. That beat Digital First Media — which owns nine daily newspapers in Southe Califoia, including this one — and a group that includes current Freedom Communications President and CEO Rich Mirman.

The DOJ wants a court order to stop Tribune’s bid.

“Without such an order, Tribune will take control of The Register and Press-Enterprise newspapers, immediately harming consumers through this lost competition,” the department’s motion continues. “Tribune could also begin to integrate its newly acquired assets into those of the Los Angeles Times and take actions at odds with preserving a competitive marketplace, including accessing Freedom’s confidential competitive information, firing employees, and shuttering operations.”

Not so, according to Tribune’s brief.

“Tribune and Freedom sell newspapers and online content to readers, and sell advertising (display advertising and pre-printed inserts) to advertisers. There are multitudes of other sources that provide content and advertising,” Tribune’s brief continues. “In addition to numerous other print publications in Southe Califoia, there are numerous radio and television outlets and a multitude of online sources of content and advertising.”

Tribune’s brief even quotes the former chief of the Department of Justice’s antitrust division, Christine Vaey.

“The advent of the Inteet has meant increased competition for readers and advertising dollars,” which has “left many newspapers in perilous financial straits, with a few closing and others forced to undertake drastic cost cutting,” Vaey said in 2011, in remarks made to the Newspaper Association of America. “Many new sources of news and commentary are emerging and the Inteet has enabled the broader dissemination of news and analysis.”

In other words, Tribune’s brief reads in part, “technology has fundamentally altered the place of newspapers in American society.”

Advertisement

“The Inteet has exploded with new news and information sites. If readers want news on any particular topic, they can look to Google News, Apple News, numerous search engines, or various media. For local news in Orange County, they can tu to numerous on-line local sources,” the brief reads in part. “For leading national or inteational news, they can easily look to a world of sources, from the New York Times to CNN’s web site to the Financial Times or BBC in London to sites in most every major city. For business news, they can easily click on the Wall Street Joual or MarketWatch or CNBC or Forbes or Yahoo Business. For classifieds they can look to Craigslist. For better or worse, the court and the govement need only look at the phone in their pocket to understand that the trend toward digital content is accelerating.”

As a result of these changes, “Freedom is in bankruptcy for the second time in less than a decade. The Los Angeles Times has seen its advertising revenue fall significantly.”

How bad have things gotten?

“The newspaper industry has taken a beating as it faces competition from sources of digital information and from other sources of advertising, including Inteet, magazines, TV, radio, local cable, direct mail, shared mail, and outdoor advertising,” economist William Hall wrote in an analysis of the proposed acquisition that was entered into evidence by Tribune Publishing on Friday. “The Times has seen its advertising revenue fall from $435 million in 2010 to $249 million in 2015. The revenue is projected to fall again in 2016 to $222 million. This dramatic fall in its advertising revenue is not simply due to other newspapers, as most newspapers have seen the same type of decline. The lost revenue has gone to the other sources of advertising, and it is against those different types of media that the Times continues to compete.”

And, Tribune argues, there’s not a lot of time to debate the issue:

“If Tribune caot close by March 31 – the date on which Freedom has told the bankruptcy court it must close the sale or risk liquidation – then Freedom must revert to the next bidder’s back-up bid, which affords between $3 million and $13 million less value to Freedom’s bankruptcy estate,” the brief reads in part.

Bankruptcy courts are intended to serve the best interests of creditors.

Although first responders worked quickly and cooperatively during the Dec. 2 terrorist attack in San Beardino, there was room for better communication and more equipment, local public safety officials said Friday during a state committee hearing held at the San Beardino County Govement Center.

San Beardino police Lt. Michael Madden, who was the first to arrive at the scene of the mass shooting at the Inland Regional Center, said one of the most troubling things about that day was that police radio communications were broadcast live, in real time, nationwide — on YouTube and other network systems — for all to hear, including potential suspects.

“That’s an extremely precarious position for first responders of an incident of this magnitude to be put in,” Madden said during the hearing of the state Assembly’s Joint Legislative Committee on Emergency Management, held in the county Board of Supervisors chambers.

Madden encouraged encrypted radio frequencies and said the county is overhauling its radio communications system for first responders, which will include radio-encrypted frequencies.

“I strongly encourage the state to provide any and all assistance that you can in providing those necessities for law enforcement,” Madden said. Officers in the field have become reluctant to broadcast over radio out of conce that civilians and criminals are monitoring the frequencies, he said.

“That’s a dangerous situation to find ourselves in,” Madden said.

Assemblyman Freddie Rodriguez, D-Chino, is the chairman of the Joint Legislative Committee on Emergency Management and presided over Friday’s hearing, the topic of which was “The San Beardino Incident: Lessons Leaed.”

Others who testified Friday include San Beardino County Sheriff John McMahon; Dr. Michael Neeki, an ER doctor at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center and trained sheriff’s SWAT team member; San Beardino County Fire Division Chief Kathleen Opliger; David Malloy, operations manager for American Medical Response in Redlands; and Michael Antonucci, director for the county’s Office of Emergency Services.

McMahon said communication among law enforcement agencies has improved significantly since the 2013 standoff between sheriff’s deputies and former LAPD officer Christopher Doer in the San Beardino Mountains near Angelus Oaks.

Unlike the Doer incident, where self-deployment of officers and deputies from across the state created a logistical mess, that did not happen in the San Beardino mass shooting, McMahon said.

The Washington, D.C.-based law enforcement think tank Police Foundation, which prepared an after-action report on the Doer pursuit and standoff, is now preparing an after-action report on the IRC shooting, which should be ready in the next couple of months, McMahon said.

Advertisement

“As we move through the Police Foundation review, I’m sure we’ll find some things we could improve on,” McMahon said.

One thing McMahon said law enforcement could use more of is equipment conducive to active shooter and mass casualty attack scenarios, including bulletproof vests and armored vehicles.

Another area of deficiency, McMahon said, was a shortage of bomb technicians available during the search of the shooters’ Redlands townhouse, where a cache of pipes and bomb-making materials were found during a search.

Shortly before 11 a.m. Dec. 2, Syed Rizwan Farook, an environmental health specialist for the county, and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, stormed the Inland Regional Center and killed 14 people and wounded 22 others in a mass shooting the FBI declared the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11.

Farook, 28, and Malik, 29, were radicalized Muslims who had been preparing for a mass casualty attack, authorities said. The Redlands couple was killed in a shootout with police hours after the attack.

Most of those killed in the attack were Farook’s colleagues in the county’s environmental health services division who were attending a training seminar in a rented conference room at the center.

The county-run Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton, roughly 3 miles west of the IRC, admitted five victims with gunshot wounds to the chest, abdomen, legs and arms between 11:44 a.m. and 12:02 p.m., Neeki said.

Among the issues that presented themselves for medical staff that day included poor communications from the field regarding patients.

“We do training, but we want to get better, so radio communication may be one of the issues that we have,” Neeki said, adding that joint training among law enforcement, emergency medical persoel and other partner agencies has become a top priority since Dec. 2.

If there was one thing all the first responders who testified Friday wanted, it was more state funding for equipment and vehicles so they could do the job more safely and more efficiently during active shooter and mass casualty events.

“Ultimately, the people who are going to respond to these situations need to be protected. It’s not going to do any good if they can’t get there safely to protect us and care for us,” Rodriguez said following the hearing. “These are the type of incidents that we are facing that we never thought we would face years ago. How do we prepare better ourselves, to train ourselves, to equip ourselves, to respond to these incidents?”

Gregory Claybo, father of Sierra Claybo, a county environmental health specialist who died in the shooting, said federal law enforcement needs to take a more proactive and less reactive approach to investigating terrorism, and accused federal agencies of being in a continual state of inteal conflict that hinders investigations.

“Maybe people won’t have to die and become what we call collateral damage,” Claybo said. “I don’t believe anybody is collateral damage. I believe if everybody did their jobs properly, we wouldn’t have to have these meetings. Maybe in these lessons leaed, they will actually lea them.”

When Los Angeles County residents complained earlier this year about higher-than-normal bills from Southe Califoia Gas Co., the utility blamed the charges on cold winter weather and increases in gas usage.

Now questions are being raised about the utility’s response.

In a statement Friday, SoCalGas acknowledged billing errors and said a meter reading schedule change was to blame. The change resulted in a one-time longer billing cycle —up to 49 days— for some customers, rather the typical month-long cycle.

Also, SoCalGas has to “estimate bills due to access issues or scheduling changes,” utility spokeswoman Trisha Muse said, which could lead to higher charges.

Those explanations weren’t given to the Daily News last month by SoCalGas after questions were first raised about the bills at a Los Angeles City Hall hearing.

Amid complaints from customers across the county, the Los Angeles City Council in early February asked the Califoia Public Utilities Commission, which regulates gas issues, to look into the bill complaints.

Los Angeles Councilman Mitch Englander held up a stack of SoCalGas bills at that meeting sent to his office by angry customers, saying he’s seen bills that were “double and triple” the normal amounts.

The Orange County Register first reported SoCalGas’s acknowledgement of the billing errors. Orange County gas customers received higher gas bills because of errors related to the rollout of a new SoCalGas meter system, according to the paper.

The issue wasn’t the meters themselves, but had to do the with human error, said SoCalGas’s Muse in a statement Friday about the report.

“At the Orange County Register’s request and with the permission of the customers involved, SoCalGas reviewed two customer bills and found a human error in each of the bills that necessitated corrections,” Muse said.

SoCalGas spokesman Javier Mendoza told the Orange County Register that some SoCalGas customers received bills for a longer cycle, such as 49 days, rather than the typical 29-to-32-day billing term.

Letters were sent last month to affected customers explaining the change, according to SoCalGas.

Advertisement

Englander on Friday blasted the utility, which is already contending with fallout from the recent Aliso Canyon gas leak. The councilman called for SoCalGas to credit Los Angeles County customers.

The billing errors are “another example of the lack of honesty and disclosure on the part of SoCal Gas,” Englander said.

Later this month, the U.S. Geological Survey will say goodbye to retiring seismologist Lucy Jones.

While the federal agency is losing one of its best-known figures, her next role is a win for Southe Califoia.

Jones, the face of the USGS following most major earthquakes in the past 30 years, isn’t retiring from her work on earthquakes. Instead, she wants to start a nonprofit where she can bridge the gap between the scientific and political worlds to help policymakers make more informed decisions.

“First, I was a researcher, then I moved toward communication, and then, recently, I’ve moved closer to the policymaker, really holding their hand and feeding them information,” she said. “Essentially, I want to keep that process going and really be there in that implementation gap.”

Her work might help Southe Califoia cities protect their aging infrastructures from devastation in an earthquake and could help save thousands of lives in the event of a massive one. She said she wants to educate policymakers about earthquakes and climate change, then help them implement changes.

Over the years, Jones has become synonymous with earthquakes. In 1992, she famously gave television interviews following the 6.1-magnitude Joshua Tree earthquake while holding her sleeping son. Since then, she’s become the media’s go-to expert following most temblors.

Recently, her stint as the earthquake czar for Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti showed her how science could be used more effectively in policy decisions. But, she can’t do more of that type of work while she’s a federal employee, she said.

USGS explicitly tells its scientists when they’re writing papers to avoid making policy recommendations, she said.

“There are a lot of good research scientists; they don’t need me doing that,” she said of her retirement from USGS. “We have a wonderful team of young scientists that are doing amazing work, and when I’m not here, they’re going to step in and fill that role.”

CHANGE FROM INSIDE

For decades, scientists have worried about how Los Angeles and surrounding communities would hold up when the “Big One” hits. They wrote paper after paper showing the need for stronger construction standards, retrofitting and community preparation. Their message was simple, but scary: fix this, or thousands could die. It wasn’t always heard, or understood.

Advertisement

Jones often carried that message to lawmakers and the public, but she couldn’t push for specific policies.

But last year, the USGS tried something different. It embedded Jones in Los Angeles’ city hall, where she worked closely with Garcetti’s administration. She met with stakeholders and policymakers to explain the dangers directly.

And it seems to have paid off.

In October, the city unanimously passed a monumental retrofitting plan that mandates the strengthening of nearly 15,000 structures likely to collapse during a strong earthquake.

“We’ve known there has been a problem for 40 years,” said Tom Heaton, a professor of geophysics and civil engineering at Caltech. “This is the most solid progress I’ve seen, in the last year, and quite a bit of that progress has been made with Lucy’s involvement.”

The buildings in question — nonductile concrete and soft-story structures — could collapse from a Northridge-type earthquake. That particular quake in 1994 destroyed 200 soft-story buildings. The damage at one apartment complex killed 16 people.

The retrofitting in Los Angeles could prevent even more deaths.

“As Dr. Lucy Jones has famously said, ‘Earthquakes are inevitable, but disasters are not’,” Garcetti said in a statement. “Her work with us over the past two years was essential to L.A.’s passage of the nation’s strongest retrofitting ordinance. I wish her the best in her retirement from the U.S. Geological Survey, knowing she will bring her passion to new and pressing challenges.”

Those challenges, however, mean that Jones has to retire.

“What I leaed from working in the city of Los Angeles is the power of actually changing outcomes,” she said. “There’s 192 other cities in Southe Califoia that could use the same information, the same approach.”

Some of those cities have been reaching out to the USGS. However, it doesn’t have the funding or authority to tackle that problem, she said.

“Many cities have come to us wanting help like we did with Los Angeles. That’s not what Congress wants us to do,” she said. “So what I’m looking forward to is being able to see who wants to fund it locally and creating whatever size program the community wants. Obviously, I can’t do that as a federal employee and I can’t start the fundraising.”

A LITTLE BREAK

Though she’s taking on a new challenge, Jones also is looking forward to more free time, she said.

The 61-year-old seismologist is the same age as her mother when she died. Jones’ son is reaching an age where grandchildren seem likely, she said. Her retirement not only opens up new opportunities, it gives her more time with her family and her other passions.

There’s a book she’s been wanting to write and music she wants to perform, she said.

Though she’s staying on as a visiting researcher at Caltech, her colleagues at the USGS office on campus said she’ll be missed.

“Lucy has been a great inspiration to me as a scientist,” said Kate Scharer, a research geologist with the USGS. “Her direct approach to problems and her willingness to compromise to achieve results is impressive.”

Scharer said she’s worked with Jones for 15 years, first as a Ph.D student, then as a colleague at USGS. Jones’ ability to break down complex science into easy to understand information has made her invaluable, to both the agency and the public.

Jones leaves behind some big shoes to fill, Scharer said. Though Scharer said she did not want to speak for Jones about the seismologist’s future, she said Southe Califoia is prominent in that next step.

“I think Southe Califoia will continue to benefit from Lucy’s activities,” she said.

Baltimore Ravens coerback Tray Walker, who played one season in the NFL, died Friday of injuries from a dirt bike crash in Miami.

His godmother confirmed the 23-year-old Walker’s death, according to the Ravens.

Walker was riding a Honda dirt bike with no lights and wearing dark clothing when he collided with a Ford Escape on Thursday night, Miami-Dade Police said. He had been in Jackson Memorial Hospital in critical condition.

A fourth-round 2015 draft pick, Walker played in eight games last season, mostly on special teams.

Ravens coach John Harbaugh wrote a heart-felt letter to his players Friday before Walker died. Later, in a statement, Harbaugh said, “Tray was a young man with a good and kind heart. He was humble and loved everything about being part of the Ravens’ team. He loved his teammates the practice and the preparation and that showed every day. ... I’ll never forget that smile.”

General manager Ozzie Newsome, who drafted Walker, said, “Tray was one of the most humble persons we brought in for a pre-draft visit. That was striking. After we drafted him, he and his family were so excited to receive the call that he was about to become a Raven. It was one of the calls I will always remember. There was such joy for Tray and his family.”

Walker made only one tackle with Baltimore, but he made a lasting impression on those around him.

“Tray was a young man who was full of energy and promise,” quarterback Joe Flacco said. “This is very hard to wrap my head around, and I am devastated.”

Walker played high school football at Miami Northweste High School before enjoying a four-year career with Texas Southe. He was second-team All-Southweste Athletic Conference in 2014.

“Tray had a hard shell,” Ravens coerback Jimmy Smith said, “but once you broke through that, you found a person who was leaing how to become a man and was so eager to be a great person and professional. I am heartbroken for his family.”

Walker’s death was felt throughout the organization, all the way to the top.

“We have two sons not too much older than Tray, and we can’t imagine how much his family is suffering,” team owner Steve Bisciotti said. “This is so sad. The right words are hard to find at a time like this. As much as we can comfort Tray’s mom and the rest of his family, we will.”

Advertisement

City officials are easing some parking restrictions ahead of Saturday’s Beach Streets Downtown bike festival.

Tasha Day, manager of special events and filming for Long Beach, said city crews finished pulling down parking restriction signs Friday afteoon on some side streets in Alamitos Beach, Bluff Park and the East Village near the festival’s route along Broadway. Any signs still posted need to be obeyed because parking violators will be towed, according to the city.

The following areas have officially been reopened for parking:

• The west side of Cherry Avenue between 2nd Street and Ocean Avenue

• Both sides of Junipero Avenue between 2nd Street and Ocean Avenue except for a marked bus stop area

• Keebec Avenue between 1st and 3rd streets except for the first 30 feet closest to Broadway, which will still have signs

• Redondo Avenue between 3rd Street and Broadway except for the first 30 feet closest to Broadway

• Coronado Avenue between 2nd and 3rd streets except for the first 30 feet closest to Broadway

• Temple Avenue from 2nd to 3rd street

• Molino Avenue between Broadway and 3rd Street except for the first 30 feet closest to Broadway

• The east side of Junipero Avenue between Carroll Park and Broadway

• Wisconsin Avenue between Broadway and 3rd Street except for the first 30 feet closest to Broadway

• Falcon Avenue from Broadway to 3rd Street except for the first 30 feet closest to Broadway

• Esperanza Avenue from Broadway to 3rd Street except for the 30 feet closest to Broadway

• Orange Avenue has been totally reopened to parking

• Lime Avenue between 2nd and 3rd streets except for the first 30 feet on each side of Broadway

• 4th Street between Elm and Linden avenues has been reopened to parking

City officials emphasize that if a “No Parking” sign is posted, the parking restriction remains in effect, Day said.

Any cars left on the 4-mile route — on Broadway between Pine and Euclid avenues, plus additional side streets — will be towed after 6 a.m. Saturday. Parking on the route will resume at 6:30 p.m.

The festival route will be completely closed to through traffic except at designated vehicle crossing areas, which can be found on the city’s website.

Advertisement

Residents in neighborhoods surrounding the festival route will be able to drive in and out via side streets, Day said.

Some Verizon Wireless customers were unable to make calls on their phones Friday in Los Angeles and throughout Southe Califoia, and company officials said they were working to resolve the problem.

The outage began around 1 p.m. and extended from Santa Barbara down to San Diego, including Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties, along with parts of the Inland Empire, according to the website DownDetector.com.

“Verizon is currently experiencing a service disruption affecting voice service in parts of Los Angeles and San Diego and surrounding communities,” company spokeswoman Heidi Flato said in an emailed statement. “Technicians are on site and working to resolve (the problem) as quickly as possible.”

Flato did not specify a cause or a number of affected customers.

Advertisement

Although first responders worked quickly and cooperatively during the Dec. 2 terrorist attack in San Beardino, there was room for better communication and more equipment, local public safety officials said Friday during a state committee hearing held at the San Beardino County Govement Center.

San Beardino police Lt. Michael Madden, who was the first to arrive at the scene of the mass shooting at the Inland Regional Center, said one of the most troubling things about that day was that police radio communications were broadcast live, in real time, nationwide — on YouTube and other network systems — for all to hear, including potential suspects.

“That’s an extremely precarious position for first responders of an incident of this magnitude to be put in,” Madden said during Friday’s hearing of the state Assembly’s Joint Legislative Committee on Emergency Management, held in the county Board of Supervisors chambers.

Madden encouraged encrypted radio frequencies and said the county is overhauling its radio communications system for first responders, which will include radio-encrypted frequencies.

“I strongly encourage the state to provide any and all assistance that you can in providing those necessities for law enforcement,” Madden said. Officers in the field have become reluctant to broadcast over radio out of conce that civilians and criminals are monitoring the frequencies, he said.

“That’s a dangerous situation to find ourselves in,” Madden said.

Assemblyman Freddie Rodriguez, D-Chino, is the chairman of the Joint Legislative Committee on Emergency Management and presided over Friday’s hearing, the topic of which was “The San Beardino Incident: Lessons Leaed.”

Others who testified Friday include Sheriff John McMahon, Dr. Michael Neeki, an ER doctor at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center and trained sheriff’s SWAT team member, San Beardino County Fire Division Chief Kathleen Opliger, David Malloy, who is the operations manager for American Medical Response in Redlands, and Michael Antonucci, director for the county’s Office of Emergency Services.

McMahon said communication among law enforcement agencies has improved significantly since the 2013 standoff between sheriff’s deputies and former LAPD officer Christopher Doer in the San Beardino Mountains near Angelus Oaks.

Unlike the Doer incident, where self-deployment of officers and deputies from across the state created a logistical mess, that did not happen in the San Beardino mass shooting, McMahon said.

The Washington D.C.-based law enforcement think tank Police Foundation, which prepared an after-action report on the Doer pursuit and standoff, is now preparing an after-action report on the IRC shooting, which should be ready in the next couple of months, McMahon said.

Advertisement

“As we move through the Police Foundation review, I’m sure we’ll find some things we could improve on,” McMahon said.

One thing McMahon said law enforcement could use more of is equipment conducive to active shooter and mass casualty attack scenarios, including bulletproof vests and armored vehicles.

Another area of deficiency, McMahon said, was a shortage of bomb technicians available during the search of the shooters’ Redlands townhouse, where a cache of pipes and bomb-making materials were found during a search.

Shortly before 11 a.m. Dec. 2, Syed Rizwan Farook, an environmental health specialist for the county, and his wife Tashfeen Malik, stormed the Inland Regional Center in San Beardino and killed 14 people and wounded 22 others in a mass shooting the FBI declared the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11.

Farook, 28, and Malik, 29, were radicalized Muslims who had been preparing for a mass casualty attack, authorities said. The Redlands couple was killed in a shootout with police hours after the attack.

Most of those killed in the attack were Farook’s colleagues in the county’s environmental health services division who were attending a training seminar in a rented conference room at the center.

The county-run Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton, roughly 3 miles west of the IRC, admitted five victims with gunshot wounds to the chest, abdomen, legs and arms between 11:44 a.m. and 12:02 p.m., Neeki said.

Among the issues that presented themselves for medical staff that day included poor communications from the field regarding patients.

“We do training, but we want to get better, so radio communication may be one of the issues that we have,” Neeki said, adding that joint training among law enforcement, emergency medical persoel and other partner agencies has become a top priority since Dec. 2.

If there was one thing all the first responders who testified Friday wanted, it was more state funding for equipment and vehicles so they could do the job more safely and more efficiently during active shooter and mass casualty events.

“Ultimately, the people who are going to respond to these situations need to be protected. It’s not going to do any good if they can’t get there safely to protect us and care for us,” Rodriguez said following the hearing. “These are the type of incidents that we are facing that we never thought we would face years ago. How do we prepare better ourselves, to train ourselves, to equip ourselves, to respond to these incidents?”

Gregory Claybo, father of Sierra Claybo, a county environmental health specialist who died in the shooting, said federal law enforcement needs to take a more proactive and less reactive approach to investigating terrorism, and accused federal agencies of being in a continual state of inteal conflict that hinders investigations.

“Maybe people won’t have to die and become what we call collateral damage,” Claybo said. “I don’t believe anybody is collateral damage. I believe if everybody did their jobs properly, we wouldn’t have to have these meetings. Maybe in these lessons leaed, they will actually lea them.”

Is your bracket busted?

Don’t worry, you’re not alone.

According to the Associated Press, 27.3 percent of brackets in Yahoo! pools and 22.3 percent in ESPN pools had Michigan State wiing it all. Not making it to the Final Four— No. Wiing it all. Ouch.

Only Kansas was a more popular choice.

To help you get through these tough times, here are 13 reactions to Michigan State’s loss to Middle Teessee.

Having trouble seeing story on your mobile device? Click here.

Advertisement

On a rainy night off the coast of Vietnam, two brothers said goodbye to everything they knew.

The Vietnam War had ended in 1975, but in 1981 life was still dangerous under the communist regime, so Kiet Huynh, 13, and Chi Huynh, 11, were sent off to America to find their older brother and seek out the opportunity for a better future.

“My mom took me to the temple and gave me a little ‘God bless,’ a paper that was supposed to protect me and my brother, and I put it in my pocket,” Kiet Huynh said. “We got on a boat with no idea where we were going.”

Under cover of darkness, the boys, along with more than 40 others, slipped out of Vietnam crammed on a tiny boat. But a few hours into the jouey the boat’s engine died, leaving them adrift at sea. After several days, the group was rescued, given clean water to drink and allowed soothing showers.

The joy and relief quickly dissipated, however, as they realized that their saviors were actually pirates who took what little of value they had and put the group back on their small boat in the middle of the ocean.

“I had long pants and when I got to land they were short, because I cut off the pants to bu them and make a signal for people to see and rescue us,” Kiet Huynh said. “We had pirates and after a while we were afraid to see any boat coming close, because they might harm us or hurt us. So we ignored them and waited to die.”

Without power, the boat was at the mercy of the seas. As for its passengers, they found themselves without food or water except for what they could collect from occasional rainfall. Almost two weeks passed before a small fishing boat steered near to them and its captain offered to tow their vessel to shore.

Kiet Huynh and Chi Huynh ended up in a refugee camp in Thailand, where the brothers foraged for food and water to survive.

“Chi was little so he would sneak out of the camp and help the fishermen picking out the fishes, and they would give him a little bag of fish,” Kiet Huynh said.

Kiet Huynh tried his luck at this, but he was older so the fishermen would chase him off, telling him to go back to camp.

Finally, Church World Service reunited the boys with their older brother, who had resettled in America and was living in Rosemead.

Advertisement

Dropped into the unfamiliar surroundings of their new country, Kiet and Chi had no choice but to move forward, trying to lea their new language and culture.

“It was hard, because you get kids making fun of you, because you don’t speak the language,” Kiet Huynh said. “You’re just different and they don’t understand, so they make fun of you. You hope one day they will understand.”

The Huynhs’ father had been a jeweler, and the boys had spent time in his workshop before the communists took everything the family had. They also knew their dad wanted something different, something better for them than working in the jewelry business. Despite these career expectations, Chi Huynh followed his heart and left Califoia to attend art school in Maryland.

His brother Kiet, however, said he “tried to be a good kid” and went to Cal Poly Pomona to study engineering. But after two years, his passion for jewelry making won out, and he quit the program. In 1989, Kiet Huynh opened a small jewelry store in San Dimas with a cousin.

And then the brothers started creating.

Today, Kiet is a master goldsmith and the owner of Adamas Jewelers in San Dimas. Chi is an accomplished painter and an iovator in the pearl industry with his company, Galatea Jewelry by Artist, also in San Dimas. The brothers work together as jewelry designers creating the pieces on display in Kiet Huynh’s store.

“Actually, I didn’t care that much about pearls when I went into the jewelry business, but one day I decided to make jewelry to give to my fiancee before I got married,” Chi Huynh said. “I decided I wanted to express the meaning of love, what love really means to me.

“I think it’s easy for people to love in the good times, when everything is perfect, but when it’s the difficult time of your life and you still love that person, that’s really love. I thought of a gem, the only gem that is created by an animal is a pearl and a pearl is created because of the pain, the discomfort, and the oyster decided to polish it so that it doesn’t hurt itself and in time it makes a beautiful pearl.”

To make his gift extra special, Chi Huynh decided to drill a hole into a pearl and fill it with a diamond. Several pearls cracked in the process, but Chi noticed the striking difference of the ier layers. Inspired, he began carving pearls, carefully grinding through their shiny exteriors and creating intricate pattes by exposing the matte nuclei inside.

Chi Huynh has now been carving pearls for 17 years.

“Carving a pearl is taboo,” Chi said. “The value of a pearl is how smooth it is, so to any person in the jewelry business thinking of carving a pearl is insane. You don’t do that. But I’m an artist, so I’m interested in expressing what it means to me rather than the value.”

An artist also is intrigued by color, so Chi Huynh tried painting the exposed areas on the pearls and then thought how beautiful his work would be if his carving would reveal a colorful gemstone inside. He contacted pearl farmers to try to do this and every one he asked told Chi that his idea wasn’t possible. He kept thinking about it and finally came up with a process to trick the oysters into accepting the gems and coating them, creating an outer pearl around the gem.

Chi traveled to Tahiti to work on what would become the Galatea Pearl. It took five years to fully develop and test his process, as it takes about 18 months for an oyster to produce a pearl. But as beautiful as his creations were, he could not bring them into the United States because of the Pearl Rule, a law which states that only natural, white shell nucleus pearls from Mississippi may be used in the American jewelry industry.

“I don’t feel like I’m doing something wrong; I’m an inventor,” Chi said. “Unfortunately, they made this law before I existed, so I have no place to go.”

As Chi Huynh worked to get the law changed, he retued home to the China Sea of Vietnam and continued working with his pearls. He believes that it’s a mix of his perseverance and the flagging economy that finally led to an amendment of the Pearl Law in 2010, which allowed him to bring his work to the United States.

Since then, Chi has won numerous awards for his Galatea Jewelry by Artist line, including the Cultured Pearl Association of America’s Inteational Pearl Design Competition’s Designer’s Award in 2012 and Visionary Award in 2013.

For his work, it takes two to six hours for Chi Huynh to carve each pearl freehand.

“The reason you have to do it by hand is that every pearl is not the same,” Chi said. “You caot put it through a machine. It doesn’t know the shape, and every shape is different.”

He uses a small motorized etching knife to slowly chisel a design into the pearl, gradually revealing its plain matte nucleus or a gemstone, such as amethyst, topaz, citrine or turquoise. All of his designs are inspired by nature.

The iovative side of Chi Huynh hasn’t been idle, either. While doing research for a business application, he leaed about near field communication technology, and over the past two years he has been incorporating the wireless technology into his jewelry line.

A tiny chip is placed in the pearl through farming or by drilling. The person who purchases the finished jewelry then uses their cellphone to download a photo, video or recorded message onto the chip, allowing the jewelry recipient to play back the message by lightly tapping the piece to their phone. The data can be updated or moved to another piece of similarly enabled jewelry at a later time. It is only compatible with Android products.

“It is a fairly interesting way for you to record the history of your life,” Chi Huynh said. “Imagine 50 years from now when you give it to your son: You say, ‘Son, everything about the day you were bo is in here.’u2009”

Galatea Jewelry by Artist manufactures in both the United States and Vietnam, employing more than 150 people and sells to around 1,500 retail jewelers across America. Its pieces start at $75 for one carved pearl on a silver chain.

The Huynh brothers can easily be called an American success story, but they are still working hard to nurture the dream that was thrust on them.

“You just try to look beyond what people think, because if you get discouraged and you get mad it doesn’t do you any good because I’m already here,” Kiet Huynh said. “My parents sent me away and I didn’t know why. I slowly understood that it’s better for me so I tried to accept it. ... I found out that it’s not that difficult if you try. If you try, you will succeed.

“Whatever you do, do it from your heart. There will always be a sad part to anything, but lea to accept life, accept what has come to you and try to make a better thing out of it.”

BOYLE HEIGHTS — Crisis counselors are at a Boyle Heights elementary school today, one day after a fifth grade boy was stabbed by another fifth grader who was arrested by school police and taken to juvenile hall.

The stabbing occurred at Bridge Street Elementary School on Thursday, according to school police. The youngster was stabbed with a pocket knife.

“The entire L.A. Unified family is saddened by the tragic incident involving two students at Bridge Street Elementary School yesterday,” Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Michelle King said in a statement. “Student safety is paramount and remains our top priority. Our thoughts go out to the entire school community, especially the victim.

“While the law enforcement investigation continues, the District is providing support for students and staff, including those who may have witnessed the incident,” King said. “Crisis counselors are at the school today. All schools have a Safe School Plan in place, and this plan will be included in the recovery process at Bridge Street Elementary School.”

Sgt. George Sandoval of the LAUSD police said the injured boy was hospitalized in stable condition. There’s no word on what prompted the attack.

“Right now our detectives will be meeting with LAPD detectives to decide who will take the case to the District Attoey’s office,” Sandoval said. “Right now that still hasn’t been decided.”

Advertisement

There was a near collision with a drone today at Los Angeles Inteational Airport, Federal Aviation Administration officials said.

A Lufthansa A380 pilot reported that a drone passed about 200 feet over the aircraft while it was approaching to land on an LAX runway. The plane was at about 5,000 feet altitude when the incident occurred at about 1:30 p.m.

It was not known how many passengers were on board but the jet’s capacity is about 500 according to the airline’s website.

Los Angeles Police Department air support has been notified by the FAA and no other details were immediately available.

Advertisement

Police arrested a Long Beach man this week accused of robbing a downtown business at knifepoint last month.

Jeremiah Shadale Edwards, 26, allegedly entered a business in the 900 block of Long Beach Boulevard Feb. 27, brandished a knife and demanded money from the cashier before fleeing with an undisclosed amount of cash, police said. The cashier was not injured.

Bike unit officers saw Edwards Tuesday in the 400 block of Pacific Avenue and arrested him.

He was charged by the Los Angeles County District Attoey’s Office Thursday with one felony count of commercial robbery and two enhancements, that he used a knife and that the crime was a violent felony, police said.

Court records show Edwards pleaded not guilty Thursday and that his next court date will be March 24.

He is being held at Los Angeles County Men’s Jail on $170,000 bail, police said.

Anyone who might have information about Jeremiah Shadale Edwards, is urged to contact Long Beach Police Robbery Detective Steenhausen at 562-570-7464. Anyone wishing to remain anonymous may call 1-800-222-TIPS (8477), or text TIPLA plus your tip to 274637 (CRIMES), or visit http://www.lacrimestoppers.org.

Advertisement

On a rainy night off the coast of Vietnam, two brothers said goodbye to everything they knew.

The Vietnam War had ended in 1975, but in 1981 life was still dangerous under the communist regime, so Kiet Huynh, 13, and Chi Huynh, 11, were sent off to America to find their older brother and seek out the opportunity for a better future.

“My mom took me to the temple and gave me a little ‘God bless,’ a paper that was supposed to protect me and my brother, and I put it in my pocket,” Kiet Huynh said. “We got on a boat with no idea where we were going.”

Under cover of darkness, the boys, along with more than 40 others, slipped out of Vietnam crammed on a tiny boat. But a few hours into the jouey the boat’s engine died, leaving them adrift at sea. After several days, the group was rescued, given clean water to drink and allowed soothing showers.

The joy and relief quickly dissipated, however, as they realized that their saviors were actually pirates who took what little of value they had and put the group back on their small boat in the middle of the ocean.

“I had long pants and when I got to land they were short, because I cut off the pants to bu them and make a signal for people to see and rescue us,” Kiet Huynh said. “We had pirates and after a while we were afraid to see any boat coming close, because they might harm us or hurt us. So we ignored them and waited to die.”

Without power, the boat was at the mercy of the seas. As for its passengers, they found themselves without food or water except for what they could collect from occasional rainfall. Almost two weeks passed before a small fishing boat steered near to them and its captain offered to tow their vessel to shore.

Kiet Huynh and Chi Huynh ended up in a refugee camp in Thailand, where the brothers foraged for food and water to survive.

“Chi was little so he would sneak out of the camp and help the fishermen picking out the fishes, and they would give him a little bag of fish,” Kiet Huynh said.

Kiet Huynh tried his luck at this, but he was older so the fishermen would chase him off, telling him to go back to camp.

Finally, Church World Service reunited the boys with their older brother, who had resettled in America and was living in Rosemead.

Advertisement

Dropped into the unfamiliar surroundings of their new country, Kiet and Chi had no choice but to move forward, trying to lea their new language and culture.

“It was hard, because you get kids making fun of you, because you don’t speak the language,” Kiet Huynh said. “You’re just different and they don’t understand, so they make fun of you. You hope one day they will understand.”

The Huynhs’ father had been a jeweler, and the boys had spent time in his workshop before the communists took everything the family had. They also knew their dad wanted something different, something better for them than working in the jewelry business. Despite these career expectations, Chi Huynh followed his heart and left Califoia to attend art school in Maryland.

His brother Kiet, however, said he “tried to be a good kid” and went to Cal Poly Pomona to study engineering. But after two years, his passion for jewelry making won out, and he quit the program. In 1989, Kiet Huynh opened a small jewelry store in San Dimas with a cousin.

And then the brothers started creating.

Today, Kiet is a master goldsmith and the owner of Adamas Jewelers in San Dimas. Chi is an accomplished painter and an iovator in the pearl industry with his company, Galatea Jewelry by Artist, also in San Dimas. The brothers work together as jewelry designers creating the pieces on display in Kiet Huynh’s store.

“Actually, I didn’t care that much about pearls when I went into the jewelry business, but one day I decided to make jewelry to give to my fiancee before I got married,” Chi Huynh said. “I decided I wanted to express the meaning of love, what love really means to me.

“I think it’s easy for people to love in the good times, when everything is perfect, but when it’s the difficult time of your life and you still love that person, that’s really love. I thought of a gem, the only gem that is created by an animal is a pearl and a pearl is created because of the pain, the discomfort, and the oyster decided to polish it so that it doesn’t hurt itself and in time it makes a beautiful pearl.”

To make his gift extra special, Chi Huynh decided to drill a hole into a pearl and fill it with a diamond. Several pearls cracked in the process, but Chi noticed the striking difference of the ier layers. Inspired, he began carving pearls, carefully grinding through their shiny exteriors and creating intricate pattes by exposing the matte nuclei inside.

Chi Huynh has now been carving pearls for 17 years.

“Carving a pearl is taboo,” Chi said. “The value of a pearl is how smooth it is, so to any person in the jewelry business thinking of carving a pearl is insane. You don’t do that. But I’m an artist, so I’m interested in expressing what it means to me rather than the value.”

An artist also is intrigued by color, so Chi Huynh tried painting the exposed areas on the pearls and then thought how beautiful his work would be if his carving would reveal a colorful gemstone inside. He contacted pearl farmers to try to do this and every one he asked told Chi that his idea wasn’t possible. He kept thinking about it and finally came up with a process to trick the oysters into accepting the gems and coating them, creating an outer pearl around the gem.

Chi traveled to Tahiti to work on what would become the Galatea Pearl. It took five years to fully develop and test his process, as it takes about 18 months for an oyster to produce a pearl. But as beautiful as his creations were, he could not bring them into the United States because of the Pearl Rule, a law which states that only natural, white shell nucleus pearls from Mississippi may be used in the American jewelry industry.

“I don’t feel like I’m doing something wrong; I’m an inventor,” Chi said. “Unfortunately, they made this law before I existed, so I have no place to go.”

As Chi Huynh worked to get the law changed, he retued home to the China Sea of Vietnam and continued working with his pearls. He believes that it’s a mix of his perseverance and the flagging economy that finally led to an amendment of the Pearl Law in 2010, which allowed him to bring his work to the United States.

Since then, Chi has won numerous awards for his Galatea Jewelry by Artist line, including the Cultured Pearl Association of America’s Inteational Pearl Design Competition’s Designer’s Award in 2012 and Visionary Award in 2013.

For his work, it takes two to six hours for Chi Huynh to carve each pearl freehand.

“The reason you have to do it by hand is that every pearl is not the same,” Chi said. “You caot put it through a machine. It doesn’t know the shape, and every shape is different.”

He uses a small motorized etching knife to slowly chisel a design into the pearl, gradually revealing its plain matte nucleus or a gemstone, such as amethyst, topaz, citrine or turquoise. All of his designs are inspired by nature.

The iovative side of Chi Huynh hasn’t been idle, either. While doing research for a business application, he leaed about near field communication technology, and over the past two years he has been incorporating the wireless technology into his jewelry line.

A tiny chip is placed in the pearl through farming or by drilling. The person who purchases the finished jewelry then uses their cellphone to download a photo, video or recorded message onto the chip, allowing the jewelry recipient to play back the message by lightly tapping the piece to their phone. The data can be updated or moved to another piece of similarly enabled jewelry at a later time. It is only compatible with Android products.

“It is a fairly interesting way for you to record the history of your life,” Chi Huynh said. “Imagine 50 years from now when you give it to your son: You say, ‘Son, everything about the day you were bo is in here.’u2009”

Galatea Jewelry by Artist manufactures in both the United States and Vietnam, employing more than 150 people and sells to around 1,500 retail jewelers across America. Its pieces start at $75 for one carved pearl on a silver chain.

The Huynh brothers can easily be called an American success story, but they are still working hard to nurture the dream that was thrust on them.

“You just try to look beyond what people think, because if you get discouraged and you get mad it doesn’t do you any good because I’m already here,” Kiet Huynh said. “My parents sent me away and I didn’t know why. I slowly understood that it’s better for me so I tried to accept it. ... I found out that it’s not that difficult if you try. If you try, you will succeed.

“Whatever you do, do it from your heart. There will always be a sad part to anything, but lea to accept life, accept what has come to you and try to make a better thing out of it.”

Attoeys for Apple said Friday the technology company will provide expert testimony at next week’s hearing in its case against the Department of Justice involving the San Beardino shooter’s iPhone.

Attoeys for Apple said they were surprised to lea of a request late Wednesday by the Department of Justice calling for cross-examination at Tuesday’s hearing, a move they say should have been made weeks ago.

The technology company will make available cryptologist and architect, Erik Neuenschwander, as well as Lisa Ollie, who dealt directly with the FBI during the investigation, attoeys for apple said Friday in a conference call with media.

In his declaration to the court, Neuenschwander said once Apple creates the software requested by the FBI, it would take only minutes for Apple or a “malicious actor with sufficient access” to perform the necessary engineering work to install it on another device of the same model.

The govement will make available two FBI agents, Apple said. All the witnesses have provided declarations to the courts, Apple attoey said.

Magistrate Judge Sherri Pym is expected to open the hearing with her own statements.

The Department of Justice is seeking that the technology giant build software that would allow the FBI to unlock the encrypted work-issued iPhone 5C used by San Beardino mass shooting gunman Syed Rizwan Farook. Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, killed 14 people and wounded 22 others on Dec. 2 at the Inland Regional Center in San Beardino, in what has been called the deadliest terrorist attack on US soil since 9/11. The couple were killed in a shootout with police hours later.

Apple argues that building the software sought by the FBI will create a “master key” enabling hackers to unlock millions of other iPhones and breach data security of its customers.

Both sides will have about two hours to cross-examine witnesses before oral arguments begin.

In court, attoeys for Apple say they will continue to stress that All Writs Act is not a “limitless license” for law enforcement to compel third parties to do what the FBI is requesting.

The hearing is set for 1 p.m. Tuesday in Riverside Federal Court.

MORE TO COME

Advertisement

ST. LOUIS — No. 15 seed Middle Teessee State sent the biggest shock yet through the NCAA Touament on Friday, topping second-seeded Michigan State 90-81 in the first round.

Reggie Upshaw scored 21 points to lead the balanced Blue Raiders (25-9), who shut down player of the year candidate Denzel Valentine. Middle Teessee never trailed the Spartans (29-6) in one of the biggest upsets since the touament began seeding teams in 1985.

It was the eighth time a No. 2 seed beat a No. 15, and first since Florida Gulf Coast beat Georgetown in 2013. The Eagles went on to reach the Sweet 16.

The stuing upset left many people, well, upset.

According to the Associated Press, 27.3 percent of brackets in Yahoo! pools and 22.3 percent in ESPN pools had Michigan State wiing it all. Only Kansas was a more popular choice.

The Blue Raiders will try to pull of another upset against No. 10 seed Syracuse on Sunday.

Matt Costello matched a career-best with 22 points for the Spartans, but it wasn’t enough to offset Valentine’s miserable afteoon. The senior had 13 points and 12 assists, but he also had six tuovers — one of them coming with the Spartans trailing 79-76 and less than three minutes to go.

Advertisement

Metro unveiled an ambitious list of rail, road and bike projects Friday, part of a $120 billion tax measure proposed for the November ballot.

Projects prioritized for the first 15 years include: a people-mover into LAX; completing the subway to Westwood; toll lanes on the 105 Freeway and a second extension of the Gold Line Foothill train from Azusa to Claremont.

The project list and tax measure will go before the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) in June.

One project not included in the plan is extension of the 710 Freeway.

Metro’s most recent extension to its rail system, the Foothill Gold Line Extension that debuted earlier this month, was funded through the half-cent sales tax increase in Measure R now runs from Pasadena to Azusa.

Metro wants to extend Measure R to raise billions more to fund its next projects. That proposal will be on the November ballot.

Here’s Metro’s entire plan that was revealed on Friday.

Staff writer Joshua Cain contributed to this report.

Advertisement

Dr. Lucy Jones, the “Earthquake lady” aounced Friday that she’s leaving the United States Geological Survey. Since she joined Twitter in 2014, Jones has continued to be a calming voice of reason for all things seismology related. Here are her best moments from the last two years of Twitter.

If you’re reading this on a mobile device, try using this link for the full story.

Advertisement

Assemblyman Freddie Rodriguez, chairman of the Assembly’s Joint Legislative Committee on Emergency Management, will conduct a hearing today in San Beardino on the Dec. 2 terrorist attack, where first responders will weigh in on what was leaed and what can be done better in the future.

The hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. in the Board of Supervisors chambers, on the first floor of the San Beardino County Govement Center, 385 N. Arrowhead Ave. The hearing topic: “The San Beardino Shooting; Lessons Leaed.”

Sheriff John McMahon, San Beardino police Lt. Michael Madden - the first to arrive at the scene of the shooting - and Dr. Michael Neeki, an emergency room doctor at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center and a trained SWAT team member who was also one of the first to arrive at the scene, are among those scheduled to testify at the hearing.

“Tragedy struck our community on December 2nd and the emergency responders from throughout the Inland Empire performed heroically,” Rodriguez said in a statement. “Reviewing the emergency response after a major incident such as this is important. I want to hear directly from the first responders to find out what went well, what could have been done better and how we can improve emergency preparedness across the state.”

Shortly before 11 a.m. on Dec. 2, Syed Rizwan Farook, an environmental health specialist for the county, and his wife Tashfeen Malik, stormed the Inland Regional Center in San Beardino and killed 14 people and wounded 22 others in a mass shooting the FBI declared the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11.

Farook, 28, and Malik, 29, were radicalized Muslims who had been preparing for a mass casualty attack, authorities said. The Redlands couple was killed in a shootout with police hours after the attack.

Most of those killed in the attack were Farook’s colleagues in the county’s environmental health services division who were attending a training seminar in a rented conference room at the center.

The Joint Legislative Committee on Emergency Management holds informational hearings to determine how Califoia’s emergency response system can be improved to prepare for incidents.

A livestream of the hearing will be available on www.asmdc.org/rodriguez

Advertisement