A pedestrian died from injuries suffered in a DUI accident nearly two months ago and the alleged DUI driver has been arrested, authorities said.

The accident happened at about 6:30 p.m. on May 30 on Wilmington Avenue just north of Greenleaf Boulevard, said Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials.

The victim, 42-year-old Marvin Jones, was hospitalized in critical condition, officials said.

The driver, 58-year-old Reginald Ross of Long Beach, was arrested for suspicion of DUI at the time but released after the district attoey’s office said it needed more evidence.

Jones died in the hospital from his injuries on July 7, sheriff’s officials said.

Investigators gathered more evidence on the crash and prosecutors agreed to file the case. Ross was re-arrested on Wednesday and booked at the Century Regional Detention Center for suspicion of vehicular manslaughter and DUI.

He is now held at the Inmate Reception Center in lieu of $250,000 bail with no arraignment set yet, according to inmate records.

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LOS ANGELES — Southwest Airlines issued an apology today after passengers in the Southland and at airports across the nation were forced to deal with extensive delays and cancellations caused by a computer failure.

Southwest “began experiencing intermittent performance issues” Wednesday afteoon, which prompted a temporary halt to all flights that had not yet left the gate, according to the airline. The ground stop was lifted around 1 p.m., but delays continued throughout the day.

In a statement released this moing, Southwest spokeswoman Linda Rutherford said more than 221 flights had been canceled.

“I want to start off by once again apologizing to our customers and reiterating that your experience throughout the past 24 hours is not the service you should expect from Southwest Airlines,” Rutherford said. “Most of our systems are back online this moing following yesterday’s technology outages, but recovery will take some time.”

Rutherford said additional cancellations and delays would be possible as the airline positioned its aircraft and crews.

At Los Angeles Inteational Airport shortly before 7 a.m. today, two arriving Southwest flights were listed as delayed, but two others arrived on time, according to the airport website. One departing flight was on time, but one departing flight was canceled. No Southwest delays or cancellations were reported at Long Beach Airport or at Bob Hope Airport, but several Southwest flights were listed as canceled at Orange County’s John Wayne Airport.

“Thank you for hanging in there with us,” Rutherford said. “We will have more information later regarding flexible rebooking, and we will continue to work with each and every affected customer to make this right.”

On the day Donald Trump secured the Republican nomination for president, a miniature wall appeared around the former reality TV host’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Tourists stopped Tuesday to snap photos of the 6-inch gray wall that was topped with razor wire and plastered with “keep out” signs. The tiny wall was gone by Wednesday moing.

• PHOTOS: Artist Plastic Jesus places wall at Donald Trump’s star at Hollywood Walk of Fame

It was the work of an artist who calls himself Plastic Jesus, known for posting “No Trump Anytime” signs on street coers earlier this year. His web site says his art is influenced by news and culture.

During his campaign Trump drew cheers by vowing to build a single wall along the U.S.-Mexico border to stem illegal immigration and drug smuggling.

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It’s Tuesday, so Gloria Alva is going through her weekly routine as manager of A Shop Called Quest: She’s getting ready for new comic book Wednesday.

Boxes of the latest issues are waiting to be put into their proper spots in the small comic book shop that sits at the coer of Orangeu2009Street and Citrusu2009Avenue in Downtownu2009Redlands.

Steeped in the delicious, musty smell of books and paper, A Shop Called Quest is a haven for those who prefer to leaf through the pages of comic books rather than swipe across a cold, glass screen. Among those fans are a growing number of women and girls.

“I’ve seen all kinds of people — because who doesn’t love comics, right,” smiled Alva after she slid several boxes behind the counter. “But yes, I have seen more women and girls, and I think that’s because there are more stories, especially from the independent publishers like Image, that are creating stories that open the door with superheroes without capes.”

A couple of hours from Alva’s shop, that message will resonate today as fans of super-hero-steeped publications, movies and TV converge at Sanu2009Diego’s Comic-Con. Powerful women are snaring top billing more than ever. Female fans are soaring, too.

Along with such titles as Valiant’s “Faith” or Image’s “Saga,” once such comic series is BOOM! Studio’s “Lumberjanes” which follows a group of girls at a summer camp who encounter strange creatures and supeatural phenomena. The story, created by Noelle Stevenson, Shaon Watters and Grace Ellis, was such a critical and financial hit that the originally plaed limited series was quickly made into an ongoing series.

Another sought-after book is “DC’s SuperHero Girls.” The series follows several young female characters — Wonder Woman, Batgirl and more — as they make their way through Super Hero High School.

“I’ve had so many parents and moms coming in looking for those books specifically,” said Alva pointing to a small table showcasing several of the books.

The popularity of the ‘Superhero Girls’ suggests that young girls are not only into comics, but are a demographic worthy of being cultivated.

The number of female comic book consumers has been steadily rising over the last few years. In a Publishers Weekly survey from 2014, retailers reported the fastest-growing segment in the comics market is women ages 17 to 30. That trend continued last year, according to the report.

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“I really like Wolverine,” said 10-year-old Alena Aguayo as she and her brother, Jesus, 7, eyed the Redlands shop’s walls. “I really like Batgirl too, because she fights with Batman.”

Her love of superheroes was fostered by her father, comic book fan Jesus Aguayo of Redlands.

“I’m glad all my kids, my two girls, too, like comics,” he said. “And why not? They’re good stories that help with creativity.”

Many reviewers and fans saw Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman as the lone bright spot in this year’s “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” and while it’s promising to see the industry taking notice of women, it’s been a long road.

“It certainly took a long time for a big chunk of folks to take notice,” said Shaon Eric Denton, a producer and director at Con Man Productions who’s been in the industry for roughly two decades. “It took Linda Carter’s Wonder Woman. It took “Star Trek’s” Uhura ... It took Buffy. It took Xena. It took “Tomb Raider’s” Lara Croft. It took Storm, Rogue, Jubilee, and Jean Grey in the X-Men cartoon that I was working on when I met my wife. Our Teen Titans animated series had Starfire and Raven — from Marv Wolfman and George Perez’s comics run — (which) introduced powerful and cool female characters to a new generation.”

Alva said she and other female fans have had to battle misconceptions about women and comics, including the idea that they are just buying for a boyfriend or male family member.

“I just think that’s silly,” she laughed. “Who doesn’t love reading and great art? And why wouldn’t a woman want to come in and read a good story? It’s about reading and finding a story that reaches out to you.”

For some, it’s not that women have suddenly discovered comics, but that comic book creators have finally taken notice of them.

“The industry has known of women readers for years, but sometimes it takes a concentrated push of conceed folks both inside and outside of the industry,” said screenwriter Brandon M. Easton. “I’m seeing a lot of incredible women creators, and comics with women heroes, getting strong attention and enjoying solid sales and it can only get better from here.”

Easton, an Eisner Award-nominated and respected industry writer, has also seen a welcome shift behind the scenes when it comes to female creators.

“There have been some changes in terms of hiring practices and editorial direction but there’s so much further to go,” he said. “There needs to be at least 40 percent employment of women at all levels of the industry and that number isn’t close to being met. However, I’m working with companies that have women in multiple levels like IDW (Publishing) and Lion Forge and my former bosses on [ABC television series] “Agent Carter” are strong, talented and intelligent women. So that’s my status quo, and I’m 100 percent okay with that.”

CLEVELAND >> Undercutting calls for Republican unity, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz stubboly refused to endorse Donald Trump on Wednesday night as he addressed the GOP convention, igniting thunderous boos from furious delegates as he encouraged Americans to simply “vote your conscience” in November.

Later, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence accepted the party’s nomination for vice president. A favorite of evangelicals, Pence swiftly displayed the conservative credentials that secured his place on the ticket. He framed the November presidential race as crucial to defining the makeup of the Supreme Court for the next 40u2009years, promised to defend the Second Amendment and “the sanctity of life” and declared Hillary Clinton the “secretary of the status quo.”

Pence described his new boss as his own man, an independent spirit and someone who “just doesn’t quit.” Borrowing one of the billionaire’s catch phrases, Pence vowed that under Trump, change in the country will be “huge.”

But, taking the edge off the evening of party togetheess, Cruz withheld his endorsement, ignoring noisy pleas from delegates. In a surreal moment, Trump unexpectedly walked into the arena just as Cruz was wrapping up his remarks. Delegates chanted Trump’s name and implored Cruz to voice his support for the businessman, to no avail.

“Vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend our freedom and to be faithful to the Constitution,” Cruz said. While he backed some of Trump’s policy proposals, including building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, he mentioned the GOP nominee by name only once.

Cruz’s defiance ripped open party divisions anew, on the summer’s biggest political stage. Trump allies were infuriated, including New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who said Cruz’s decision was “totally selfish.”

The remarkable moment upended what was shaping up to be the convention’s most successful night, and overshadowed Pence’s national convention debut as Trump’s ruing mate.

“You have nominated a man for president who never quits,” Pence said. “Until now, he’s had to do it all by himself against all odds, but this week, with this united party, he’s got backup.”

Trump joined Pence on stage, applauding his new political partner and humorously leaning in to nearly give him a kiss on the cheek.

The campaign had hoped Pence’s address would quiet Republican doubts about Trump. Unlike the celebrity businessman, Pence is an experienced politician, favorite of conservatives and ally of party leaders.

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But Cruz’s appearance left the arena unsettled for the night’s closing speakers. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich tried to quiet the anger as he took the stage, going off script to try to explain away the senator’s lack of support for the nominee.

“Ted Cruz said you can vote your conscience for anyone who will uphold the Constitution,” he said. “In this election there is only one candidate who will uphold the Constitution.”

Cruz told Trump in a phone conversation two days ago that he would not endorse him during his speech, according to Cruz aide Jason Johnson.

Still, Trump’s campaign invited Cruz to speak — in a headliner role, no less. That decision was sure to spark a new round of second guessing about the campaign’s management of the convention and preparedness for a bruising general election against Democrat Hillary Clinton.

In a late night tweet, Trump said he had seen Cruz’s speech two hours before he took the stage but let him speak anyway. “No big deal!” Trump wrote

Clinton’s campaign, seeking to take advantage of the GOP divisions, echoed Cruz on Twitter, writing, “Vote your conscience” and linking to her website.

Trump did get a boost from Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, one of the 16 Republicans whose White House dreams were vanquished during the primary. Still, Walker suggested he was driven as much by a desire to keep Clinton out of the White House as admiration for his party’s nominee.

“Let me be clear: a vote for anyone other than Donald Trump in November is a vote for Hillary Clinton,” Walker said.

After two nights of mostly low-energy speeches, the crowd packed into the arena was noticeably more energetic Wednesday night, dancing in the aisles and waving signs reading, “America Deserves Better Than Hillary.”

Lye Patton, a longtime Trump employee, spoke movingly about the businessman’s strong family. Patton, who is black, said she was proud to support Trump “not just in spite of the color of my skin, but in fact because of the color of my skin.”

Trump’s campaign had hoped that by the convention’s end, voters would look past the gathering’s rough start, including the plagiarism charge involving Melania Trump’s opening address. After 36 hours of denials, the campaign moved to put the matter to rest Wednesday, releasing a statement from a speechwriter who took blame for including lines from a Michelle Obama speech in the remarks.

Trump and Cruz have had a complicated relationship throughout the presidential campaign. Cruz first allied himself with the businessman, banking that Trump’s campaign would collapse and he would be able to scoop up his supporters.

But as Trump rattled off primary wins, tensions rose between the candidates. Trump sparked rumors about Cruz’s wife and father. Cruz criticized Trump as a “pathological liar” and “utterly amoral.” Trump began calling Cruz “Lyin’ Ted” at every opportunity.

Cruz arrived in Cleveland with an eye on his own political future, holding a rally with hundreds of supporters who greeted him with chants of “2020” — suggesting his backers have no interest in seeing Trump become a two-term president.

In his convention address, Cruz spoke at length about the recent stretch of violence across the country. He urged Americans to fight for the families of five police officers killed in Dallas, as well as the family of Alton Sterling, a black man killed by police in Louisiana.

Republicans kept up their harsh attacks on Clinton, painting an apocalyptic vision of America if she should win and aggressively challenged her character. While Clinton has been a target of GOP ire for decades, the harshness of the attacks has been striking.

For a third straight night, the crowd repeatedly chanted, “Lock her up.” Though anti-Clinton sentiment is an easy way to bring Republicans together, the negativity crossed the line for some in the party.

“Certainly races can be won based on focusing on the opponent,” said Sen. Bob Corker of Teessee. “But I think we’re at a place in our country’s evolution where it’s particularly important now, with all that’s happened and the conces that people have, for a positive vision to be laid out.”

Trump’s family also kept up their efforts to rebrand the brash candidate as a warm husband and father. Eric Trump, the candidate’s 32-year-old son, took the stage near the evening’s end, praising his father as other family members had earlier in the week.

“Vote for the one candidate who does not need this job,” he said.

CLEVELAND >> The Millard Fillmore Library, which is actually a bar, played Mike Pence’s speech on both of its televisions Wednesday night, even as a local singer wrapped up a somewhat politically-charged music set that was decidedly unfriendly to Donald Trump.

“How many people are voting for Trump?” Istvan Medgyesi asked.

“I’m voting for Nader,” someone yelled out.

Medgyesi laughed before launching into a song. While he played his acoustic guitar, a guy in the audience, Eric Miller, sat with his eyes cast upward.

Miller didn’t know much about Pence, but he knew quite a bit about Trump. He’s found the real estate mogul perplexing and the past few days at the Republican National Convention in this rust belt host city haven’t really cleared things up, either. He’s also not been terribly impressed with the GOP’s showcase in Cleveland either.

Perhaps Pence could make the convention great again?

“I want to vote conservative,” he said. “But Trump is just one of those guys who tries to appeal to emotions. Then you actually listen to what he says and it’s just not realistic. I want to see more about Pence.”

The 57-year-old would seem to be one of those targets for Trump in the November election. He’s white. He’s felt the sting of the Great Recession after his house was foreclosed on and he bemoans the loss of jobs in Ohio’s manufacturing economy.

Miller is also one of those voters who people in Califoia will wonder about, think about and fret about as the Buckeye State once again finds itself in the position of being a key decider for the presidential election.

But as it’s happened with Ohio for the past several elections, it’s hard to tell which way things will go.

PENCE PULL?

Cuyahoga County is overwhelmingly Democrat and President Barack Obama carried it over Mitt Romney by about 40 points. Statewide, Obama beat Romney by 2 points in 2012.

Justin Buchler, associate professor of political science at Case Weste Reserve University in Cleveland, said the state will likely break the way votes break in most states — urban voters versus rural voters.

He doubted Pence, whose speech Wednesday night was his first as the vice presidential nominee, would swing anyone in the state.

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“I don’t see him moving any state. Indiana is already Republican and Ohio is different to Indiana,” he said. “Pence will just make some of the party leaders less nervous and some of the evangelical leaders less nervous.”

Kiely Cronin, a 58-year-old from Cleveland, barely watched any of the convention and said the choice between Trump and Democratic presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton wasn’t much of a choice at all. He said he’d look at Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate.

Pence, he said, didn’t mean much at all. And Trump?

“He’s embarrassing — like he’s the Sham-wow man, but ruing for president,” Cronin said. “He doesn’t seem to believe in logic.”

WORST PRESIDENT?

Jim Caldwell opened the Millard Fillmore Library about 15 months ago — an idea bo of entrepreneurship and a quirky sense of humor.

“We were brainstorming and came up with a president that nobody really remembers and isn’t really known for doing much and always ranks really low in public opinion,” Caldwell said. “I couldn’t find a library named after him, so we just came up with the Millard Fillmore Presidential Library.”

There is a Millard Fillmore House in Aurora, New York. And the 13th president of the United States is known for being the last president to not be a Republican or Democrat.

Cronin said he’d like to see the political process open up to more parties — a small point he gave to Fillmore.

George Vukmanovich, 69, from Cleveland said Fillmore didn’t do a lot and can rattle off all of his successors. Of course he can, he’s got a degree in History from Cleveland State University. He said President James Buchnanan was awful.

“Most in history consider him the worst in history,” Vukmanovich said, leaning on a walker. “That can soon be eclipsed by the ones ruing now — Trump and Hillary Clinton.”

Pence wasn’t much of a salve either.

“He makes it even worse,” he said. “Pence — this is a right wing bozo. Indiana is a conservative state and it’s not the same as Ohio.”

Watching the convention on television, he wasn’t impressed either.

“It’s just a pain.”

‘GOODBYE’

Pence wrapped up his speech, but deep into it, many at the bar had stopped watching. Medgyesi took the stage. He looked up at the televisions. He tweaked his guitar.

The people at the bar watched him and he made a joke about Melania Trump’s controversy about plagiarizing part of her speech Monday. Then he played a few chords.

“Goodbye RNC,” he said. “We’ll be glad when you’re gone.”

The people at the bar cheered.

Councilman Rex Richardson was elected vice mayor of Long Beach by his peers on the City Council on Tuesday night during a reorganization of the council after Suja Lowenthal’s departure.

At 32, the councilman is the youngest person in city history to hold the position (Mayor Robert Garcia was the youngest in city history when he was elected to the vice mayor position in 2012, when he was 34). He is also the first black male to serve as vice mayor (Doris Topsy-Elvord was elected to the position as the first black female in 1992) .

“I am honored to have my colleagues’ confidence to serve as our city’s vice mayor,” Richardson said in a written statement. “I accept this as a recognition of our entire community’s progress since taking office two years ago. I look forward to working with Mayor Garcia and each of my fellow council members as we continue to build a better Long Beach.”

Also nominated for the role was 6th District Councilman Dee Andrews, who just began his third term on the dais. The council vote was split 5-4 in favor of Richardson.

First District Councilwoman Lena Gonzalez, who nominated Richardson, said she was proud to see him ea the title.

“Rex has done an outstanding job tuing North Long Beach into one of the most active areas in our city and has been a strong voice for working men and women in this city,” she said in a statement. “I am looking forward to working alongside him to continue to move Long Beach forward.”

The primary duties of vice mayor include ruing the council meetings when the mayor is not present and performing functions of the mayor if he or she is not able.

Richardson has served on the nine-member council for two years. Lowenthal was termed out this month after serving on the council for 10 years.

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Cooler weather and a roomier waterfront venue will greet the three-day Port of Los Angeles Lobster Festival when the aual San Pedro tradition opens Friday, more than two months earlier than usual.

Since 1999, the festival has been staged in and around Ports O’ Call Village. But with plans underway to realign Sampson Way as the port prepares to redevelop that area, the Lobster Festival was moved north.

The Friday-through-Sunday event this weekend will be set up off of Harbor Boulevard between the Battleship Iowa and the World Cruise Center just south of the Vincent Thomas Bridge. Large tents for dining and a wide span of open wharf space will provide festivalgoers with more room than they had in Ports O’ Call, said Jim Hall, the festival’s producer.

“It was like trying to hold a giant event with 30,000-some people in a cul-de-sac,” Hall said of the former arrangement. “It was way too crowded.”

Now that the festival has moved north near the Battleship Iowa, he said, “we’ve doubled the (indoor and outdoor) seating capacity to over 3,000.”

The festival also was moved from its late September calendar date to mid-July.

That puts the event more central to the summer tourist season, Hall said, and will better coordinate with the many other summer offerings at the Port of Los Angeles.

It also should guarantee some cooler — by a little bit, anyway — temperatures.

“September has become ungodly hot,” he said. Two years ago the festival played out amid blistering record-setting 109-degree temperatures. Last year it was in the 90s.

While this weekend won’t be exactly cool — the forecast calls for highs in the 80s — it should be more comfortable than a stifling September heat wave.

The timing also hits at the peak of the Maine lobster season, causing some unexpected price increases. Lobster meals this year will cost $25, up $2 from last year’s price.

Festival admission also will go up by $2 over last year, to $12. Military veterans with ID, both active and retired, will be admitted free.

The new venue may take getting used to, Hall said.

“This is a very linear layout,” he said. “It’s our first time at this venue so (the layout) might change next year. The food line will still be on the left” at the north end.

Security also will be tight this year, Hall said, following recent terrorist attacks, including the one in Nice.

But it’s nothing the festival hasn’t dealt with before.

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“It’s on everyone’s mind,” Hall said. “But we were the first (city) event to go on as plaed after 9/11.”

This year will feature a bigger push to sell tickets in advance online — go to www.lobsterfest.com — and there have been 6,000 more lobsters ordered this year, for a total of 38,000.

The menu also is more diversified with lobster tacos, lobster quesadillas and even lobster mac and cheese.

Bands this year include Kitten, The Colourist and Honey County. The full entertainment lineup can be found at www.lobsterfest.com/music-info/.

Visitors from out of the area are being advised to exit the 110 Freeway at Gaffey Street and then to continue south, tuing left on 22nd Street. There will be parking and traffic assistance from there, along with nine shuttles ruing between the festival and parking lots to the south.

The festival this year also will ramp up its live tweets (@PoLALobsterFest) and Facebook posts to help with directions and to keep festivalgoers informed in real time.

Election season got off to a fiery, lawsuit-riddled start in Carson this week as Mayor Al Robles faced off against a faction of former Mayor Jim Dear’s supporters during a City Council meeting that Dear himself didn’t even attend.

Instead, Dear’s controversial girlfriend, Monette Gavino, went head-to-head with Robles while flanked by Dear’s friends and brother West Basin Municipal Water District director Don Dear.

“You are worse than Donald Trump,” Gavino said. “I am just a lawful, common resident of Carson. I am a victim of a nasty and disgusting politician who is sitting there temporarily in the mayor’s seat.”

Dear and Robles are both seeking the mayor’s position in the Nov. 8 election. Candidate filings will be accepted through Aug. 12.

Gavino, who previously worked for the city as a council aide, has been slapped with a restraining order preventing her from approaching City Clerk Donesia Gause, whom she is accused of harassing during a prior election in which Dear won the clerk’s post. Dear was subsequently recalled by voters and council members appointed Gause, a certified municipal clerk, back to the job.

In April, Gavino filed a lawsuit alleging Robles touched her legs and buttocks and kissed her against her will while she was a city employee. She dropped the suit this month when depositions were about to begin. City Attoey Suy Soltani said Gavino’s attoeys essentially withdrew their representation just before she dropped the suit.

“The appointed mayor asked me if I can be his secret girlfriend,” Gavino told the City Council on Tuesday night. “Now, people of Carson tell me, can you trust this guy? Of course not. No. A big N-O. That guy attacked me and harassed me, sexually assaulted me. You don’t know how much I suffered. It’s very disgusting, very nasty, and I can never forget it.”

After she spoke, Robles fired back: “By the way, that’s a (legal) complaint there. I’m suing you for malicious prosecution and defamation. You’ve been served. Thank you.”

Later, Robles complained that “there is nothing Jim Dear would not do to destroy me in order to become mayor again.”

Dear and Robles were political allies until Dear sought the city clerk’s position, which pays more than five times what part-time council members receive, in 2015. Dear, who was mayor for 11 years before that, won the election but was recalled from office in February after a contentious year in which he was censured by the City Council for aggressive, disruptive behavior at City Hall.

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Since he was appointed mayor last year by his council colleagues, Robles has aligned himself with all but one of them against the former mayor, while Dear has vowed to make a triumphant retu to elected office. He is still strongly supported by the city’s politically influential Filipino community.

After reiterating that Gavino’s attoeys refused to take the sexual harassment lawsuit against him any further, Robles compared Dear to Republican presidential nominee Trump.

“Donald Trump likes to boast about himself. Donald Trump likes to say how bad America is. And Donald Trump likes to call his opponents corrupt,” Robles said. “When you add the fact that ... (Dear) made racist Idea, is a bully and a misogynist, he’s almost a twin of Donald Trump.”

Robles reiterated that he intends to fully pursue his suit against Gavino.

Accusations made in court last year that he sexually harassed a fellow member of the Water Replenishment District of Southe Califoia in 2013 were dismissed. However, the Los Angeles County District Attoey’s Office is challenging his right to serve on the water board, arguing it conflicts with his Carson City Council duties. The state Fair Political Practices Commission also is seeking fines against Robles for 17 campaign finance violations since 2012.

Councilwoman Lula Davis-Holmes asked the city attoey to investigate claims that Gavino committed immigration fraud when she obtained U.S. citizenship after she married Dear’s close friend, Ray Green.

“This is a bad situation,” Davis-Holmes said. “We should not have to defend a lie.”

Former Mayor Vera Robles-DeWitt, who spearheaded the campaign to recall Dear from office, said the controversy is likely just the tip of the campaign-season iceberg.

“We’re getting into the silly season again. There’s another election coming along,” Robles-DeWitt said. “I fear that any of you can be subject to these phony accusations, and it’s very painful to your families. The common denominator in all of these, especially against the mayor, is the Dear brothers.”

The possibility remains that beaches in Long Beach and Seal Beach — closed since a Monday sewage spill originating in Los Angeles made swimming a hazardous proposition — may reopen Thursday.

Health officials need to record two consecutive days of clean test results to let beachgoers back into the water. Water samples taken from Long Beach the day after the sewage spill showed that bacteria levels that exceeded Califoia public health standards, but at levels that would not have required a closure had this week’s sewage spill not occurred, Long Beach environmental health operations Keith Allen said.

Long Beach’s next round of test results may be available at about 10:30 a.m. Thursday.

“If they’re acceptable we could open the beaches at that time,” Allen said.

The Orange County Health Care Agency is responsible for testing the water near Seal Beach. Anthony Martinez, a program manager for the agency, said one of Seal Beach water samples taken on Tuesday showed slightly elevated contamination levels. Seal Beach’s next test results may be known about lunch time on Thursday.

Orange County officials also plan to look at Long Beach’s test results before determining if the ocean waters near Seal Beach are safe, Martinez said. If it tus out that Long Beach’s next round of results are in the danger zone, the beaches in Seal Beach may also stay closed.

“We can’t be more definitive than that, given the volume of the spill and proximity to Seal Beach,” Martinez said.

In Long Beach, officials have closed ocean-facing coastal beaches. Places like Mothers Beach and other beaches facing inward to Alamitos Bay, however, remain open.

Seal Beach’s coastline has been closed from the San Gabriel River to the Anaheim Bay Breakwater, according to Orange County health officials.

Progress made on repairs

As of Wednesday, Los Angeles Public Works officials estimated some 2.4 million gallons of sewage flowed into the Los Angeles River after a 5-foot sewer pipe near the intersection of Sixth Street and Mission Road, in an industrial area near the east bank of the river, failed at about 2 p.m. Monday afteoon.

L.A. officials further reported that debris fell into the damaged pipe, causing the spillage. Adel Hagekhalil, assistant director of city sanitation, said about 750,000 gallons of spilled sewage had been recaptured, and officials were still working to determine exactly how much had spilled.

Workers stopped the spill about 1:50 p.m. Tuesday, roughly 24 hours after it began.

Repair crews in Los Angeles continued to work on fixes on Wednesday, saying they were performing work that normally takes two weeks, and hoped to have it completed within 24 hours. Crews were installing a pair of 18- inch-diameter pipes along with pumps as a bypass system.

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“We’re confident that by this afteoon we should have everything contained,” Hagekhalil said.

“This is an old sewer, an aging sewer that was plaed to be repaired,” he said. “... This one, we had a plan and it did not wait for us, it collapsed. Our record is very good in the city of Los Angeles. ... We spent over $2 billion in the last 10 years in (upgrading) our sewers.”

Local responses

Long Beach City Attoey Charles Parkin said city staffers have begun the task of figuring out whether they can file a claim for any costs related to the spill.

“We will certainly look to collect our costs, if possible,” he said.

In a similar incident, Parkin said the city filed a federal lawsuit against Houston Plains All American to recover cleanup costs that the city claimed stemmed from a crude oil spill originating from a company-owned pipeline in Santa Barbara County caused “tar balls” to appear on Long Beach’s shoreline in June 2015. The oily globules also showed up on South Bay beaches.

Parkin said a settlement is in the works that is expected to result in Long Beach receiving $15,000. The city spent about $18,000 to clean up the beaches after the tar ball incident.

Plains All American could not be reached immediately for comment.

Seal Beach Marine Safety Captain Joe Bailey said any sewage spill-related costs for his city are unknown as of Wednesday. His department likely saved on labor costs, since fewer lifeguards are needed to keep on eye on city beaches while the ocean is off-limits.

Bailey also observed, however, that shutting down the beaches and having fewer visitors venturing to the city’s shoreline may create an economic cost for Seal Beach. He said the number of beachgoers at Seal Beach appeared to be about a quarter of the amount of people who would typically congregate there on a July day.

“There’s some people on the sand, but not many, and obviously nobody’s in the water,” he said.

Staff writer Tim Grobaty and City News Service contributed to this report

He was remembered as a loyal colleague, a faithful friend and a loving family member.

Hundreds of mouers, including police officers from across the region — many accompanied by their K-9 partners, came to a memorial service Wednesday for Credo, a Long Beach Police Department police dog killed June 28 in an officer-involved shooting in the Zaferia neighborhood that left one man dead.

Retired police Cmdr. Steve Ditmars, president of the nonprofit Long Beach K-9 Officers Association, fought tears as he described the relationship a police officer has with his K-9 partner.

“As someone who spent six years as a police service dog handler, I understand the bond between the handler and the K-9,” Ditmars said to those gathered at Long Beach Police Officers Association Park. “You spend many long hours training and patrolling, and then when you finally get home, your partner’s still with you. The truth is you spend more time with your dog than you do your family. For this, you are rewarded with a loving, dedicated partner.”

Police say Credo — a 4-year-old Belgian Malinois who served with 23-year LBPD veteran Officer Mike Parcells for two years — was killed by friendly fire after 27-year-old Barry Prak charged at a SWAT team with a knife in the 2800 block of East 15th Street and used the dog as a shield. Both were killed.

In honoring Credo’s service, Police Chief Robert Luna touched on the recent violence against police officers across the country, in the wake of officer-involved shootings. After inviting the audience to share a moment of silence with him for officers who have died on duty, Luna cited an online Officer Down Memorial Page statistic that 19 police officers in the United States have been killed in the line of duty since Credo died.

“These are police officers who came to work, doed their uniform to serve, to protect, to make a positive difference in our communities no matter who, what or where you come from,” Luna said. “They lost their life for a very noble cause.”

The shooting

Authorities sought Prak in coection with a January 2014 gang-related shooting that injured three people in Cambodia Town.

Luna said members of a U.S. Marshals Service task force, which includes Long Beach police, spotted Prak, who ran from the area of 16th Street and Temple Avenue to the apartment of an acquaintance. During a several-hour standoff, the Long Beach Police SWAT team ordered Prak to exit the apartment, but when he came outside, Prak ignored officer commands and charged police. According to Luna, Prak was considered armed and dangerous.

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Officers deployed a 40mm rubber baton round, and Credo tried to stop Prak’s charge. Prak wielded a knife as he fought Credo, and advanced toward officers, using the dog as a shield while the K-9 hung off his left arm, Luna said.

An officer fired his weapon to protect himself and other police officers, Luna said, and Prak and Credo were each hit with gunfire.

Luna said Credo did not retreat in the face of danger and performed his duty with courage and honor.

“Credo’s actions slowed down the suspect’s attack on the SWAT officers, giving them time to react to this deadly threat, ” Luna said. “Credo’s actions saved lives, making him a hero.”

Friends of Prak gathered for a march in his honor on Saturday, saying he was unjustly shot by police. A Justice for Barry Prak petition circulating online and signed by 800 people demands an investigation by the district attoey’s office.

Prak was involved in protests October 2013 after Long Beach police shot and wounded Sokha Hor, one of his friends. Hor’s family claimed they were denied visitation for 10 days after the shooting.

Credo’s handler

After the June standoff, Parcells, the handler for Credo, transported the dog to Signal Hill Pet Hospital, where he died from his injuries.

A K-9 handler for 16 years, Parcells previously lost another police dog partner, a 3-year-old Belgian Malinois named Ranger. The dog was shot fatally Oct. 2, 2005, by a paroled gang member during a shootout with police that began as a SWAT search.

Luna said Credo served in narcotics and patrol and worked more than 30 apprehensions.

“Some may argue that a police K-9 is just a tool,” Luna said. “But please understand, to Mike, his wife, Lisa, and their children Justin and Ryan, Credo was a part of your family. And we are here today to share in your pain, and in your loss.”

In a lighthearted moment, Luna relayed a story Parcells told him about Credo, the family dog. The family went on a trip, and a mischievous Credo found a way inside the house, which he ransacked.

“Apparently he found out where Mike’s uniforms were, and he did a number on his uniforms,” Luna said.

Donations pour in

The death of Credo was met with condolences from police departments and K-9 unit supporters from across the country.

Ditmars said as donations to the LBPD have rolled in, the department will be able to buy almost $30,000 in eight new ballistic vests for police dogs, which are lighter and not as hot.

Ditmars then paused for several seconds as he choked back tears.

“We will also purchase a new partner for Mike . . .” he said.

Credo’s memorial service included a flag ceremony and the playing of taps and “Amazing Grace” before a walking procession to the K-9 Cemetery, where the dog’s headstone was placed.

During the service, K-9 Officer Bill Kift recited a police K-9 prayer in honor of Credo, which began:

“I will lay down my life for you, and expect nothing but love in retu. I protect all officers with my life, and would gladly take a bullet in their place.”

It took an urban search-and-rescue team to get an injured man down from a refinery tower in Carson, authorities said today.

Los Angeles County firefighters were summoned at 10:12 p.m. Tuesday to the refinery in the 22600 block of South Wilmington Avenue, Dispatch Supervisor Miguel Oelas said.

The team got the man off of the tower just before midnight, and he was taken to a hospital for treatment, Oelas said. He did not know the nature of the man’s injury.

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Basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar will headline a conference this weekend in Long Beach where county leaders from across the country will gather for four days of inspirational talks and policy discussions.

Abdul Jabbar, a six-time NBA champion, is scheduled to deliver the keynote speech Saturday at the National Association of Counties 81st convention at the Long Beach Convention Center.

The event, which begins Friday and ends Monday, will also feature:

• Jack Dangermond, co-founder and president of Esri, the geographic information systems firm that is the fourth largest privately-held software company in the world.

• Jon Meacham, presidential historian and author.

• Diana Nyad, a record-breaking athlete, sports broadcaster and author.

Topics to be discussed include the nation’s opioid crisis, fighting the Zika virus, mental health in county jails and preparing for active shooter scenarios.

For information, visit www.naco.org.

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CLEVELAND — Straining to shore up Republican unity, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence will vouch for Donald Trump’s conservative values Wednesday night as he makes his national convention debut as Trump’s ruing mate.

But much of the attention will be on Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a favorite of the right who is yet to endorse Trump.

Meanwhile, Trump’s campaign was also still trying to quiet a plagiarism controversy involving Melania Trump’s convention address two nights earlier. A Trump Organization writer took blame for including lines from a Michelle Obama speech in Mrs. Trump’s well-received remarks — after 36 hours of campaign denials that there was anything wrong with the overlap.

• PHOTOS: The GOP National Convention - Day 3

The gulf between Pence’s hearty embrace of Trump and Cruz’s reluctance is emblematic of the turmoil still roiling the Republican Party. A day after Trump formally became the party’s presidential nominee, some delegates at state gatherings around Cleveland were still struggling to come to terms with their unorthodox new standard-bearer.

Iowa delegate Cecil Stinemetz called Trump “the worst nominee that we have put forward for the Republican Party in the history of the Republican Party” and said he didn’t plan to retu to the convention floor the rest of the week.

Cruz had been similarly tough on Trump during the waning weeks of their primary battle, calling the businessman a “pathological liar” and “utterly amoral.” He arrived in Cleveland with an eye on his own political future, holding a rally with hundreds of supporters who greeted him with chants of “2020” — suggesting Cruz’s backers have no interest in seeing Trump become a two-term president.

Cruz is expected to continue sidestepping a formal endorsement of Trump during his convention remarks. Top Trump aide Paul Manafort said the senator will at least “suggest” that he is backing the nominee, with other Republicans saying Cruz will also argue the importance of keeping Democrat Clinton out of the White House.

That message is sure to be well-received in the convention hall, where Clinton has been under constant attack. Speakers have painted an apocalyptic vision of America if she wins the White House and have aggressively challenged her character. While Clinton has been a target of GOP ire for decades, the harshness of the attacks was still striking.

Former GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson coected Clinton with Lucifer. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie implored delegates to shout “Guilty!” in response to various accusations of Clinton wrongdoing. At multiple points throughout the first two nights of speeches, the crowd started chanting, “Lock her up.”

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For at least some delegates, the negativity crossed the line.

“What happened to professionalism, maers and humanity in our politicians and citizens?” said Bill Pickle, a South Carolina delegate.

Trump has shown little conce for maintaining any modicum of political decorum. Yet Pence, the Indiana goveor and Trump’s new political partner, has spoken out against negative campaigning and was put on the Republican ticket in part to provide a temperamental contrast.

The Trump-Pence ticket was off to an awkward start, with some Republicans whispering that the businessman was gripped by last minute doubts about his pick. What was billed as a joint appearance Saturday tued into the Trump show, with the nominee speaking for 29 minutes — almost exclusively about himself — while Pence waited offstage.

The campaign hoped for better imagery Wednesday. Pence and his family, along with Trump’s adult children, greeted the billionaire as his helicopter landed by Cleveland’s picturesque lakefront.

“What begins in Cleveland will end in the White House, I’m convinced,” Pence declared as they greeted a small group of supporters.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who was a top vice presidential contender, was also scheduled to address the convention. Two of Trump’s other vanquished primary rivals — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio — were also speaking, though the latter was addressing the convention via video.

Trump’s family will also continue efforts to show a softer, more personal side of the real estate mogul. At least one family member was scheduled to speak each night of the convention, with 32-year-old Eric Trump taking the stage during Wednesday’s program.

Mrs. Trump was the first in the family to address the convention, warmly casting her husband as kind and loyal. But her speech was quickly subsumed by the plagiarism charges, overshadowing nearly all of the campaign’s other messaging.

After the campaign spent 36 hours dismissing the dustup as absurd — and any similarities with Mrs. Obama’s speech as coincidence — Meredith McIver said Wednesday she had included passages from the first lady in Mrs. Trump’s address. McIver said she offered her resignation over the incident, but Trump rejected it.

The matter revived persistent questions about the sturdiness of Trump’s campaign operation and distracted from the attempts to reshape his image. But by Wednesday, Trump embraced the swirling attention.

“Good news is Melania’s speech got more publicity than any in the history of politics especially if you believe that all press is good press!” Trump said on Twitter.

AP writers Kathleen Heessey and Steve Peoples in Cleveland, Barbara Rodriguez in Des Moines, Iowa, John Haa in Topeka, Kansas, and Meg Kiard in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.

The city wants residents to consider approving a tax measure on medical and recreational marijuana to help offset enforcement costs should voters pass one or more citizen-backed ballot measures come November.

Vice Mayor Rex Richardson said the city needs to consider putting a safeguard in place to capture tax revenue because, if approved, a local medical marijuana ballot measure includes provisions that would repeal taxes related to sale and cultivation that were previously adopted by voters in 2010, and significantly reduce voter-approved taxes on medical marijuana.

The City Council on Tuesday asked City Attoey Charles Parkin to compile a four-part tax measure back to council for a vote on Aug. 2, the final date for the city to place an initiative the Nov. 8 ballot. The measure also prepares for financial hurdles the city may face should Califoia voters approve Proposition 64, a citizen-backed initiative that would regulate and tax recreational marijuana for adults 21 and older statewide.

The city tax measure would need to receive more votes than the local initiative in order to pass. Parkin said it would apply only to the taxation, leaving other sections related to regulation of medical marijuana untouched.

Here is what the city proposed:

• Establish a gross receipts tax of 6 percent on medical marijuana dispensaries, with an option for council to increase the tax to a maximum rate of 8 percent;

• Establish a gross receipts tax of 8 percent on the recreational sale of marijuana for adult use with an option to increase the tax to a maximum rate of 12 percent;

• Establish a gross receipts tax of 6 percent on any business located in Long Beach that engages in the manufacture, testing, processing, distributing, packaging or labeling of marijuana or caabis-related products, medical or non-medical, for wholesale to other retail marijuana businesses that sell those products to customers, with an option to increase the tax to a maximum rate of 8 percent. If such a business conducts retail sales, the gross receipts tax identified above on retail sales in Long Beach will apply in lieu of the taxes in this section;

• Establish a tax of $12 per square foot of space dedicated to the cultivation of marijuana over the canopy area with an option to increase that tax to a maximum rate of $15 per square foot.

“This approach is balanced, it’s modest, and it assures that the tax revenue is captured to ensure that the city of Long Beach does receive public benefit should the voters move forward with adopting this medical marijuana ordinance,” Richardson said on Tuesday.

Third District Councilwoman Suzie Price also asked the city attoey to come back at a later date with a resolution declaring intent to set aside revenue for public safety costs, which will likely include curtailing illegal drug operations.

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“Our police chief has indicated very publicly that our police department caot handle additional responsibilities ... that illegal operations would bring,” Price said. “What we’ve seen in the city of Los Angeles, for example, is there is 135 legal dispensaries and 1,000 illegal ones. It is going to place strain on our police department, that’s just a reality.”

Former Councilwoman Tonia Reyes-Uranga, speaking during public comment, cautioned the council to be conservative when it comes to taxing medical marijuana.

“If it was my preference, I would not tax medical marijuana at all but put the burden on recreational,” she said to the council on Tuesday. “Have some consideration for those people who actually use this to alleviate their pain and to use it because they need it. It is an economic burden as well as a physical one.”

Parkin said he would retu with a tax measure on Aug. 2 and bring back some options for the council to discuss its intent to direct revenue from marijuana taxes toward law enforcement, code enforcement or any other area the city may see fit.

With a heat wave hitting the region today, the ocean at all coastal beaches in Long Beach and a portion of Seal Beach remained off limits to swimmers and surfers due to millions of gallons of sewage that spilled from a ruptured pipe near downtown Los Angeles and cascaded to the coastline.

According to Long Beach city officials, sewage from the broken pipe entered the Los Angeles River, which carried it to the ocean.

More than 2.4 million gallons have spilled from the pipe, according to the Los Angeles Department of Public Works, but officials said the sewage was continuing to flow while emergency repairs were being conducted.

Adel Hagekhalil, assistant director of city sanitation, said about 750,000 gallons of spilled sewage had been recaptured, and officials were still working to determine exactly how much had spilled.

According to public works officials, the top of a sewer pipe collapsed at about 2 p.m. Monday at Sixth Street and Mission Road. Debris from the collapse fell into the pipe, causing the overflow.

Dr. Mauro Too, acting health officer for the city of Long Beach, ordered the beach closure, saying the ocean water will be off limits until testing shows the water is safe. Beaches in Seal Beach were closed from the San Gabriel River Mouth to Anaheim Bay, according to the county Health Care Agency.

Meanwhile, repair crews in Los Angeles continued work to expedite repairs, saying they were performing work that normally takes two weeks, and hoped to have it completed within 24 hours. Crews were installing a pair of 18- inch-diameter pipes along with pumps as a bypass system.

“We’re confident that by this afteoon we should have everything contained,” Hagekhalil said.

“This is an old sewer, an aging sewer that was plaed to be repaired,” he said. “... This one, we had a plan and it did not wait for us, it collapsed. Our record is very good in the city of Los Angeles. ... We spent over $2 billion in the last 10 years in (upgrading) our sewers.”

He said there are about 6,700 miles of sewer lines across the city, and “we haven’t had a major collapse for a long, long time.”

The National Weather Service predicted temperatures today of 87 in downtown Los Angeles, 90 in Long Beach, 93 in Fullerton, 98 in Pasadena and 101 in Woodland Hills.

Temperatures are expected to gradually increase over the next few days, rising about four to five degrees by Saturday.

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Liar. Lucifer. Lock her up.

Republicans may have mixed feelings about nominating Donald Trump for president, but one thing they can all rally around is a deep dislike for Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Convention speakers have “prosecuted” Clinton at a mock trial, accused her of being a serial liar and even linked her to the Devil himself. Throughout the campaign, Trump has reveled in referring to his opponent as “Crooked Hillary.”

The attacks are an echo of the 1990s when conservatives denounced President Bill Clinton as the chief executive dealt with scandal and impeachment.

The most blistering assault at the GOP convention came Tuesday night when New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie took on the role of prosecutor and put Clinton on trial “for her performance and her character.” The audience responded with chants of “Lock her up! Lock her up!”

But others have piled on. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McCoell told the crowd scandal follows Clinton and former President Bill Clinton “like flies.”

“She lied about her emails. She lied about her server. She lied about Benghazi. She even lied about sniper fire. Why, even she lied about why her parents named her Hillary,” McCoell said.

And Wednesday, Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort said the airport meeting between former President Bill Clinton and Attoey General Loretta Lynch last month probably helped Clinton’s wife escape criminal charges over her use of a private email server as secretary of state. He told ABC that Lynch “probably” gave Bill Clinton special information that helped his wife.

Manafort even tried to blame Clinton for the controversy over Melania Trump lifting passages of her convention remarks from a speech that Michelle Obama delivered in 2008.

“For people to try and disparage that speech and say that it was something that it wasn’t is once again politics,” he told Fox News. “It’s Hillary Clinton once again feeling threatened by a woman and trying to destroy the woman and demean her as a way of positioning her own fate.”

Perhaps the wildest attack on Tuesday came from former GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson, who told the crowd that one of Clinton’s “role models” — community activist Saul Alinsky — “acknowledges Lucifer” in a 1971 book.

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“So are we willing to elect someone as president who has as their role model somebody who acknowledges Lucifer?” Carson said. “Think about that.”

Clinton wrote a college thesis about Alinsky and has said she agreed with some of his opinions on social change, but disagreed with his view that the system could only be changed from the outside.

Some Republicans are wary of going too far. Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, one of the more prominent Trump skeptics, Tweeted late Tuesday: “@HillaryClinton now belongs in prison? C’mon. We can make the case that she shouldn’t be elected without jumping the shark.”

Bill Pickle, a talk radio host and South Carolina delegate, expressed frustration at what he called “name calling and childish behavior” among some of the speakers.

“I personally hate, I mean hate, all of the negativity,” Pickle said. “What happened to professionalism, maers and humanity in our politicians and citizens?”

But attacking Clinton may be the most effective tactic with polls showing high unfavorable ratings for both candidates. An Associated Press-GfK poll this month found that three-quarters of voters say their pick for president is motivated by a desire to cast their ballot against Clinton or Trump.

Manafort told reporters at a convention briefing that anger was not the tone of the convention but acknowledged it “may be an undertone.” He defended the “Lock Her Up!” chant, saying it “probably reflects the attitude of a lot of people in America.” The chant is popular among Trump supporters who say Clinton should have been prosecuted over the email issue.

“They don’t understand why justice wasn’t done,” he said. “Frankly, that plays right into the narrative of why things need to change in Washington, because there’s special justice for some and it’s not equal justice.”

FBI officials called Clinton’s email practices “careless,” but the Justice Department aounced earlier this month there was not enough evidence to charge her with a crime.

Associated Press writers Steve Peoples in Cleveland and Meg Kiard in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.

Councilman Rex Richardson was elected vice mayor of Long Beach by his peers on the City Council Tuesday night during a reorganization of the council after Suja Lowenthal’s departure.

At 32, the councilman is the youngest person in city history to hold the position. He is also the first African American male to serve as vice mayor (Doris Topsy-Elvord was elected to the position as the first African American female in 1992) .

“I am honored to have my colleagues’ confidence to serve as our city’s vice mayor,” Richardson said in a written statement. “I accept this as a recognition of our entire community’s progress since taking office two years ago. I look forward to working with Mayor Garcia and each of my fellow councilmembers as we continue to build a better Long Beach.”

Also nominated for the role was 6th District Councilman Dee Andrews, who just began his third term on the dais. The council vote was split 5-4 in favor of Richardson.

First District Councilwoman Lena Gonzalez, who nominated Richardson, said she was proud to see him ea the title.

“Rex has done an outstanding job tuing North Long Beach into one of the most active areas in our city and has been a strong voice for working men and women in this city,” she said in a statement. “I am looking forward to working alongside him to continue to move Long Beach forward.”

The primary duties of vice mayor include ruing the council meetings when the mayor is not present and performing functions of the mayor if he or she is not able.

Richardson has served on the nine-member council for two years. Lowenthal was termed out this month after serving on the council for 10 years.

LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles-based former professional cyclist, who is baed for life from competition due to doping violations, is expected to be sentenced today for selling performance-enhancing drugs imported from overseas in violation of federal law.

Nick Brandt-Sorenson, 35, faces up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine on the misdemeanor count of introducing a misbranded drug into interstate commerce, but could receive a probationary sentence, according to documents filed in Los Angeles federal court.

Defense attoey Marilyn E. Bednarski said her client regrets his involvement with the baed substances.

“The experience of the investigation and prosecution has been significant for this young man,” the attoey said. “He’s in a very different place than he was at the time. This experience has had a huge impact on him.”

Brandt-Sorenson pleaded guilty to the charge in March, admitting to selling a vial of erythropoietin, a hormone known as EPO that boosts endurance by increasing the number of red blood cells in the circulatory system, for $631 to an athlete in Colorado, according to federal prosecutors.

In 2011, Brandt-Sorenson created the “Anemia Patient Group” website “under the guise” of providing information about various performance-enhancing drugs and substances, according to the plea agreement.

In fact, Brandt-Sorenson sold Actovegin, a derivative of calf’s blood which is not approved for any use in humans, EPO and other baed substances through his blog, according to prosecutors, who said the drugs were imported from online pharmacies in China and Europe.

Brandt-Sorenson, who designs made-to-measure cycling apparel for his namesake fashion line, is a multi-time Califoia State Criterium Champion and was briefly ranked top 20 in the country, according to the company’s website.

On July 11, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency aounced that Brandt-Sorenson had accepted a lifetime ban for his second and third doping offenses.

In the summer of 2013, just prior to the conclusion of Brandt-Sorenson’s first period of ineligibility, the agency said it obtained non-analytical evidence indicating that the cyclist had engaged in additional prohibited doping conduct, both prior to, and subsequent to, USADA’s aouncement of his first doping violation on January 2012.

USADA said this month that it had concluded that Brandt-Sorenson was involved in marketing and distributing prohibited and illegal substances to fellow athletes through the “Anemia Patient” website.

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Under the agency’s code, “a lifetime period of ineligibility is the appropriate consequence for a third anti-doping rule violation,” USADA said in a press release.

Brandt-Sorenson is retired from competition, according to his website.

MOSCOW — Russia’s top Olympic official expects a final decision by Sunday on whether the entire Russian team will be baed from next month’s games in Rio de Janeiro over allegations of state-sponsored doping.

The Inteational Olympic Committee is examining the legal options of a blanket ban following a report by World Anti-Doping Agency investigator Richard McLaren that accused Russia’s sports ministry of overseeing doping of the country’s Olympic athletes.

“The issue will be finally resolved by the end of this week, probably on Sunday,” Russian Olympic Committee president Alexander Zhukov said Wednesday at a meeting of the ROC.

Zhukov said his committee did not discuss the McLaren report at its meeting, although he also did not rule out legal action if Russia is hit with a total ban from the games.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport will issue its verdict Thursday on Russia’s appeal to overtu the IAAF ban on its track and field athletes for the games. The IOC will take that ruling into account before making its own decision.

Zhukov said he was hopeful of wiing the appeal, adding that Russia’s plans for the Olympics assumed the track and field team would be allowed to compete. Russia plans to send a total of 387 athletes, including 68 in track and field, he said.

“Of course we hope for a CAS ruling in our favor,” Zhukov told state TV. “It would be, I’d say, a serious precedent for the other federations’ decisions.”

Regardless of how the various doping-related cases tu out, Zhukov said a Russian Olympic boycott was out of the question.

“These boycotts just lead to a breakup of the Olympic movement,” he said. “I think that Russia will never take part in any boycott.”

The Soviet Union boycotted the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, retaliating for the U.S.-led boycott of the 1980 Games in Moscow that followed the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Earlier Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman said a meeting between Putin and Russia’s Olympic athletes, previously scheduled for Thursday, would no longer take place.

The IOC executive board held a meeting by teleconference on Tuesday to consider its steps in the wake of the McLaren report, which found that 28 summer and winter Olympic sports were affected by state-operated cheating in Russia.

WADA and other anti-doping officials urged the IOC to consider the unprecedented step of excluding the entire Russian team from the Rio Games.

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The IOC said it “will explore the legal options with regard to a collective ban of all Russian athletes for the Olympic Games 2016 versus the right to individual justice.”

The IOC also started disciplinary action against Russian sports ministry officials and others implicated in McLaren’s report, and said they would be denied accreditation for the Rio Games. The list includes Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko.

The IOC is expected to hold another executive board meeting in the next few days, possibly on Sunday, to consider whether to ban the Russian team. The IOC can also let individual inteational federations decide to ban Russians in their own sports.

The inteational rowing federation said Wednesday it was investigating whether Russian rowers’ places at the Rio Olympics could be reallocated to athletes from other countries “if there would be a blanket ban on the Russian team or any other ban.”

Russia has five rowing crews entered for the Olympics after a sixth crew was disqualified earlier this month for a doping violation in qualifying.

World Rowing also said it “is undertaking a complete review of testing of Russian rowers since 2011” and has asked WADA for any evidence related to doping by Russian rowers. The McLaren report alleged 11 failed drug tests in rowing had been covered up by Russian officials.

LONG BEACH — A memorial service will be held today for a Long Beach police dog who was fatally shot while working to apprehend a knife-wielding suspect who was also killed in the gunfire.

Credo, a 4-year-old Belgian Malinois, was killed June 28 as police were trying to arrest a suspect wanted in coection with a December 2014 gang-related shooting. Credo had been with the department for about two years.

The memorial service will be held at LBPOA Park, 7390 E. Carson St. Police noted that parking is limited at the site, and encouraged people plaing to attend to carpool or take alteate transportation. They also discouraged people from bringing pets to the service, since numerous police dogs will be in attendance.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Credo’s memory to the Long Beach K9 Officers Association by visiting its website at www.lbk9oa.org or mailing to P.O. Box 17366, Long Beach, 90807.

Credo was killed while police worked to arrest Barry Prak, 27, of Long Beach, who had been spotted by members of a U.S. Marshals Service task force that includes Long Beach police. He ran from the area of 16th Street and Temple Avenue to the apartment of an acquaintance in the 2800 block of East 15th Street, according to the LBPD.

The area was surrounded and a Long Beach police SWAT team was summoned.

Nearby residences were evacuated and the suspect was ordered to exit the apartment, police said.

The man exited, but failed to comply with verbal commands and instead “began to aggressively charge the officers,” according to police.

Officers deployed “intermediate force options,” including a 40mm rubber baton round and the canine Credo, who was attached to the SWAT team.

Credo tried to stop the man’s advance toward officers and as the dog fought with the suspect, the man produced a knife and one officer fired at the suspect -- striking him and Credo. A knife was recovered at the scene.

Following the shooting, an officer was seen carrying Credo’s limp body from the scene and placing the canine on a sidewalk.

The officer, believed to be the dog’s handler, Officer Mike Parcells, was visibly angry and shaken, ripping off his helmet and hurling it away before burying his head in his hand.

The dog was then placed into a patrol car and driven by Parcells to a nearby animal hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The suspect was treated by paramedics at the scene and was later pronounced dead at a hospital.

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Parcells has been a K-9 handler for 16 years. Another of his police dog partners, a 3-year-old Belgian Malinois named Ranger, was fatally shot Oct. 2, 2005, while police tried to flush an armed parolee from a hiding spot under a porch.

“These K-9s are not just dogs. These are police officers. This dog was injured in the performance of his duty and that’s going to weigh heavily on the Long Beach police family,” LBPD Deputy Chief Richard Conant said.

Credo worked patrol and narcotics operations primarily, and was involved in more than 30 apprehensions in his police career.

LOS ANGELES — The Southland’s mild weather will give way to a mini heat wave begiing today, with forecasters predicting temperatures well above normal by week’s end.

High pressure is expected to settle over the area begiing today, lessening the marine layer and ushering in warmer weather.

“By Friday, highs in the 95 to 105 range will be common away from the coast, with coastal areas at the mercy of the ebbs and flows of the marine layer,” according to the National Weather Service. “Oveight low temperatures will also be on the rise, with above-normal lows by Friday moing and a few 70s popping in.”

For today, the NWS predicted temperatures of 87 in downtown Los Angeles, 90 in Long Beach, 93 in Fullerton, 98 in Pasadena and 101 in Woodland Hills.

Temperatures are expected to gradually increase over the next few days, rising about four to five degrees by Saturday.

“Although the air mass will be dry, these types of temperatures will bring serious conces to sensitive populations and those working outdoors,” forecasters said.

NWS officials noted, however, that there’s not much chance of any heat records being broken.

“Friday through Sunday mark the 10-year aiversary of one of the hottest events on record for any month -- Woodland Hills hit 119 on July 22, 2006, the all-time high for any of our climate stations,” according to the Weather Service.

Inland areas could see higher-than-normal temperatures as late as next Tuesday, although coastal areas should see some cooling begiing Sunday, forecasters said.

In 2008, Jean Perry left the GOP and joined the Democratic Party as part of her support for Barack Obama. Four years later, she voted to re-elect him.

This year, she’s a Republican again. And she’s an enthusiastic delegate for Donald Trump.

“I’m a flipper,” said the resident of Baldwin Hills, southwest of downtown Los Angeles.

“Barack Obama was right for his time. He broke a ceiling.

“I believe Donald Trump is right for this time.”

An appeal across party lines is what many Trump backers predict will carry their candidate to victory in November. Perry represents that type of voter — one who responds to individual candidates.

“He’s willing to say what other people are thinking but won’t say,” said Perry, 69, a retired elementary school teacher who also was the first black reporter at New York’s Daily News in the 1970s. “He’s voicing my thoughts.

“Because of the times and the economy — I don’t think we’ve ever recovered from the recession — we need a business person. We need somebody who can bring back jobs.”

She said Trump could bring in experts to advise him on issues he’s less familiar with, adding she hoped he would place a renewed emphasis on vocational education because some people aren’t suited for college.

As for Obama’s two terms leading the country, Perry wouldn’t say whether or not she was satisfied with the job he’s done.

“I don’t believe in looking back and analyzing,” she said.

Virus watch

A dozen Califoia convention staffers have the norovirus and have been isolated in their rooms until they are healthy, state delegates were told at their breakfast meeting Tuesday.

The contagious intestinal virus is thought to have come from Califoia with the staffers. There were no reports Tuesday of delegates or alteates showing symptoms or being infected.

Delegates were told to wash their hand frequently and to report any intestinal illness promptly. They also were told that if they got sick, they should not ride on the buses that transport the state delegates to and from their hotel but call the delegation staff for a car.

The virus causes extreme vomiting and diarrhea and has been known to speed through people in closed places, such as cruise ships, schools and nursing homes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The delegates from Califoia are staying at the Kalahari Resort in Sandusky, Ohio, nearly 60 miles away from Cleveland.

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Kasich mum on Trump

Ohio Gov. John Kasich filled the 2,000-capacity Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with supporters on Tuesday afteoon, and you couldn’t guess from his speech that his party’s nominating convention was being held a mile away.

Donald Trump? Not mentioned. A presidential election in November? Not a peep.

Kasich was one of the last three Republican candidates, before he and Sen. Ted Cruz dropped out of the race in May.

Kasich, whose campaign emphasized job creation and a balanced budget, was the most moderate of the final candidates and many polls showed him the strongest GOP contender against presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

But Kasich said he had no regrets as he thanked his supporters, who were treated to live classic rock and free food and drinks.

“I’ve never been more satisfied with my life,” he said.

He has no plans to appear at the convention, which prompted Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort to say Kasich was “embarrassing his party.”

Kasich acted like he’d never heard the criticism, emphasizing his campaign hewed to “the things I believe in. The things you believe in have to come from your soul.”

He didn’t mention his weak primary results when explaining his decision to drop out of the primary.

“To go forward, I would have had to tell people things that weren’t true,” he said.

Kasich was warmly received, even among some of his supporters were now backing Trump.

“My candidate is no longer in the race,” Ohio delegate Tracey Winbush said of her decision.

Any reservations about her party’s nominee?

“He’s better than Hillary,” Winbush said.

Late night, some diversion

After a long first day of the Republican National Convention on Monday, Califoia delegates arrived back at the Sandusky resort on buses around midnight to food stations and an open bar.

That probably explains why, after a packed brunch on Monday moing, breakfast in the Kalahari Ballroom was only about a third full Tuesday moing.

Amrit Bhandari of Irvine wasn’t complaining.

“It was a very long day and a great day,” said Bhandari, an alteate delegate who was among the first to show up for breakfast.

Delegates had the option Tuesday of going to the nearby Cedar Point theme park (owned by the same company that owns Knotts Berry Farm), the Football Hall of Fame or sleeping in. An informal survey of hallway activity indicated many took advantage of the latter option.

CLEVELAND >> In Cuyahoga County, as in most of Ohio, Gov.u2009John Kasich had broad support on the way to his Marchu200915 Republican primary win over Donald Trump.

Trump, who won the official nomination Tuesday during the roll call at the Republican National Convention, lost Ohio to Kasich by 11u2009points. In Cuyahogau2009County, Trump lost by twice that amount.

But in one coer of Cuyahoga County, just about 30u2009minutes from the convention’s home at Quicken Loans Arena, there was a place that bucked the Buckeye State’s will, giving Trump his highest vote total in a precinct win.

Hello, Northu2009Royalton.

It’s a patch right off State Road, not far from an expansive McDonald’s, a shiny new City Hall, a Kentucky Fried Chicken and two gas stations.

This area went to Trump 186-146. It would’ve had the highest vote total overall for Trump in Cuyahoga County if not for the Broadview Heights precinct casting 189u2009votes for the real estate magnate in the losing effort to Kasich.

Both towns were anomalies: Trump got 47,061u2009votes total in Cuyahoga County while Kasich racked up 78,712.

Northu2009Royalton resident Beadette Busch and her sister, Evelyn Busch, were pleased to cast votes for Trump over Kasich. They didn’t like their goveor in March and they’re even less thrilled with him now because he’s decided not to attend the Republican Party Convention. Plus, Kasich has declined to endorse Trump.

“We haven’t had good luck with goveors,” said Evelyn Bush, 77. “Kasich hasn’t been great. We have the lottery to help schools, but then the schools want to raise taxes.

“When you’re on a fixed income, it’s difficult,” she added. “Especially when the cost of everything keeps going up.”

The sisters decided to back Trump in December and, sitting on the porch Tuesday afteoon, plaed to watch their pick become the standard bearer for the Republican Party.

“He is a businessman,” Beadette Busch said. “He can straighten things out.”

Just past Trumpeter Boulevard (swan and duck-themed, not Donald-themed) of State Road, Ruth Leissa stood in her garage and said she was voting for Trump as well.

The 88-year-old said her husband died of cancer in 2012 and she has been living alone since then. They were married 61u2009years, and Leissa said she’s struggled with the loss, often feeling scared to be by herself.

She said Trump’s brand of tough-talk and hard-line stances against immigrants makes her feel less afraid. Leissa also said terrorism by Muslims is her biggest fear, though she rejected a suggestion by a friend to purchase a gun under Ohio’s liberal firearms laws.

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“I wouldn’t even know what to do with it,” she said. “I’m a Christian. I’m not going to shoot. God will look out for me.”

As she spoke, her neighbor, 20-year-old Dena Schadenfroh, walked up the driveway with her dog, Myrt. Schadenfroh said she voted for Vermont Sen. Beie Sanders in the primary, and she believes Trump’s rhetoric against Muslims and other minority groups is wrong.

While Leissa got some dog treats for Myrt, Schadenfroh said she worried about Trump.

“He just blames the immigrants and minorities for everything, and it’s not right,” she said. “Look at the shooter in Orlando. He wasn’t an immigrant.”

Leissa listened. She nodded her head.

“Sometimes he says things he shouldn’t say,” she said. “He doesn’t always know when to stop talking.”

Leissa has lived in Cuyahoga County her whole life. She met her husband at a dance in Cleveland. They raised two kids in neighboring Parma. Her husband served in World Waru2009II and her large blue sedan bears a bumper sticker that reads “Land of the Free Because of the Brave.”

Both Schadenfroh and Leissa expressed reservations about presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

“She’s a crook and belongs in jail,” Leissa said. Schadenfroh didn’t agree but said she had a lot to think about between now and November.

When Schadenfroh headed back to her house, Leissa headed inside hers, to watch the convention and the state-by-state delegate roll call to formally nominate Trump.

“The world is a crazy place,” she said.

CLEVELAND >> Cementing an extraordinary political takeover, Republicans nominated Donald Trump on Tuesday night as their presidential standard-bearer, hitching their hopes of keeping Democrat Hillary Clinton out of the White House on an unorthodox candidate who has sown divisions within the party and across the nation.

While it was Trump’s night, Clinton was frequently the focus.

New Jersey Gov.u2009Chris Christie energized the crowd with a full-throated takedown of Clinton, imploring delegates to shout “Guilty!” as he ticked through numerous accusations of wrongdoing.

Trump addressed the convention briefly in videotaped remarks, thanking them for formally nominating him as the party’s White House candidate.

“This is a movement, but we have to go all the way,” he said.

For Trump, the celebrations were a much-needed opportunity to regroup after a chaotic convention kickoff that included a plagiarism claim involving wife Melania Trump’s address on opening night. There were no big missteps Tuesday, but the event was void of the glitzy, Hollywood touch Trump promised, with a series of Republican officials parading on stage to level sharp, but repetitive, criticisms of Clinton.

The evening’s program ended on an unusual note, with an actress-tued-avocado farmer delivering the closing speech — a spot normally reserved for prominent speakers.

Trump’s family again took center stage, underscoring the campaign’s urgent task to reshape the image of a candidate seen by large swaths of voters as harsh and divisive. Two of Trump’s children testified to his character, casting him as a man undeterred by challenges.

“For my father, impossible is just the starting point,” said Donald Trump Jr., the oldest of the Republican nominee’s five children.

For some Republicans, the night also offered a glimpse of what could have been. House Speaker Paul Ryan, who resisted calls to jump into the presidential race, made a vigorous call for party unity — though his message focused more on the risks of letting Democrats keep the White House and make gains in Congress than a rationale for Trump.

“Let’s compete in every part of America, and tu out at the polls like every last vote matters, because it will,” Ryan said.

Many Republican leaders stayed away from the convention, still wary of being associated with the divisive candidate and unsure how his nomination impacts their own political futures.

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The crowd gathered in the caveous convention hall reflected the growing dissatisfaction among some Republicans with party elites. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McCoell, who has been a lukewarm supporter of Trump, was greeted with a smattering of boos as he took the stage.

It was one of the occasional flurries of dissent on the convention floor, including jeers as states that Trump did not win recorded their votes during the nominating roll call vote. Still, Trump far outdistanced his primary rivals, and his vice presidential pick, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, was also formally nominated.

Trump was put over the top by his home state of New York. Four of his children joined the state’s delegation on the convention floor for the historic moment and appeared overwhelmed with emotion.

Tiffany Trump, the candidate’s 22-year-old daughter with ex-wife Marla Maples, sprinkled her remarks with rarely heard anecdotes about her father, including the handwritten notes he left on her childhood report cards.

“My dad is a natural bo encourager, the last person to ever tell you to lower your sights,” she said.

Melania Trump was praised for making progress in highlighting her husband’s personal qualities during her Monday night address. She spoke of his “simple goodness” and his loyalty and love of family — while noting the “drama” that comes with Trump in politics.

But her speech was quickly overtaken by claims that it included two passages — each 30u2009words or longer — that matched a 2008 Democratic convention address by Michelle Obama nearly word-for-word.

Trump’s campaign offered no apologies, with top adviser Paul Manafort telling The Associated Press the matter had been “totally blown out of proportion.”

Still, the plagiarism controversy and other unforced errors by the campaign cast a shadow over the convention and raised fresh questions about Trump’s oversight of his campaign, which gives voters a window into how a candidate might handle the pressures of the presidency.

Clinton pounced on the tumult, saying the Republican gathering had so far been “surreal,” comparing it to the classic fantasy film “Wizard of Oz.”

“When you pull back the curtain, it was just Donald Trump with nothing to offer to the American people,” Clinton said during a speech in Lasu2009Vegas.

Trump’s campaign did succeed in tamping down late efforts by dissident delegates to derail the convention, including during Tuesday’s roll call vote. Campaign officials invested significant time arguing to delegates about the importance of presenting a united front during the televised convention.

“United we stand, divided we fall,” said Johy McMahan, a Trump delegate from Arkansas.

But Colorado’s Kendal Unruh, a leader of the anti-Trump forces, called the convention a “sham” and waed party leaders that their efforts to silence opposition would keep some Republicans on the sidelines in the fall campaign against Clinton.

Six months after a $1.6 billion Powerball lottery jackpot set records, the holder of the wiing ticket bought at a Chino Hills 7-Eleven has finally come forward.

Marvin and Mae Acosta were aounced as the wiers in a tweet from the Califoia Lottery Tuesday moing. Their home town was not revealed, but a property search and neighbors confirmed they lived in Eastvale — until last week.

The couple wants “to remain as private as possible,” the tweet says.

The drawing Jan. 13 set off a nationwide frenzy, with three tickets poised to share the jackpot, or $528.8 million apiece. When word got out that Califoia’s wiing ticket was sold at the 7-Eleven at 4092 Chino Hills Parkway, owned by Balbir Atwal, the store quickly filled with people celebrating the win — but the actual wier was not among them.

The wiers from Teessee came forward almost immediately, while the Florida wiers took about a month to reveal themselves.

Meanwhile, Chino Hills waited and wondered.

“We finally know who our mystery wiers are,” Califoia Lottery Director Hugo Lopez said in a statement. “It may have taken six months for them to come to one of our offices, but these wiers did just what we tell all our wiers to do — they read our Wier’s Handbook and then assembled a team of legal and financial advisers to help them make the most of this windfall.”

Lopez added that he “couldn’t be happier for them and are thrilled they took the time to assemble the right team before coming in to claim.”

According to the Califoia Lottery, the Acostas declined a 30-year auity worth $528.8u2009million before federal taxes, opting instead for a one-time payment of $327.8 million, as the Teessee and Florida couples did.

The couple is refusing all interviews and requests for photographs, according to lottery officials. They did release this statement:

“We are thankful and blessed for the rare gift that has been placed in our care. We have engaged a team of advisers to educate and guide us through this process so that we can be good stewards of these new resources.

“While many decisions are still to be made, we have committed nearly all of this new resource to a trust and to charities that are important to us,” their statement continues. “While we are very grateful for the wonderful wishes and encouragement we’ve received, it is not our intention to become public figures, and we ask for and appreciate privacy going forward. Thank you.”

For about seven months, Marvin and Mae Acosta kept to themselves in a home in a quiet cul-de-sac in Eastvale with their neighbors unaware that the couple held a multimillion-dollar wiing Powerball ticket.

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The couple, who appeared to be in their 40s, moved in around last December but did not interact with other neighbors, said Rodrigo Jiminez, 67, who lives in a house nearby.

“They don’t say hi, they don’t say nothing,” Jiminez said.

Jiminez said he saw two large moving trucks pack up the house and leave Friday.

A next-door neighbor, who would only give her name as Emily, said Marvin Acosta would sometimes wave to her, but she didn’t know much about the family.

They had two children, a girl who appeared to be 15 and a boy of 4 or 5, she said. The girl would sometimes play basketball out front,

Emily said.

She, like other neighbors, was surprised to lea that the Acostas won the lottery.

“I’m very happy for them,” said Maria Franco, 67, who said she never spoke to them once.

The cul-de-sac is part of the Brooke Terrace neighborhood not far from Roosevelt High School in Norco. No cars were in the driveway or in front of the Acosta home, a tan and brown-trim colored stucco home with a brown tile roof. The grass and bushes out front were neatly manicured.

“For having that much money I’m surprised they lived here,” said another neighbor, Josh Schreter, 37.

The wiers remained shrouded in mystery for months. Initially, several hoaxters claimed ownership of the golden ticket. Meanwhile, Atwal collected his $1 million for owning the business that sold the ticket, and the clerk who handled the transaction, M. Faroqui, enjoyed his 15 minutes of fame, landing a guest spot on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”

Approached by reporters Tuesday moing with the news, Atwal asked: “Are you sure?”

After hearing that the news came from state lottery officials, he added that he’s “so happy for them. And I’m glad that they play here.”

Powerball is played in 44 states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. Unlike the Califoia-only SuperLotto Plus jackpot wiers — who must come forward with their ticket within 180 days of the draw date — Powerball wiers have a year to stake their claim.

Since news spread about the history-making ticket, business is booming, Atwal added. He’s seen a 30 percent uptick in sales overall, with an 80 percent increase in lottery ticket sales.

Asked if people feel lucky in Chino Hills, he said, “Yes, they are.”

Staff writer Neil Nisperos contributed to this report.