Good morning! It’s Wednesday, Oct. 29. I’m Carol Cormaci, bringing you this week’s TimesOC newsletter with a look at some of the latest local news and events from around the county.
Just about anyone who has ever written a term paper, or a (legit) news article, or anything else that is supposed to be researched and turned in by the time an unforgiving deadline comes around, is likely familiar with the stomach-knotting pressure that scenario produces. Ah, but in these days when we are seeing exponential growth in the fascinating field of artificial intelligence, some might wonder just how much labor they should bother putting into intellectual tasks that lie before them.
Like the sirens’ song that lured unwitting sailors to their deaths in Homer’s “Odyssey,” AI beckons some souls with the tempting promise of help in the form of anonymous work that might safely be passed off as their own. But a word to the wise: No matter how friendly, even caring, AI bots may seem, there are hidden dangers in trusting the quality and accuracy of their output.
Exhibit A, if you will, of the pitfalls of taking such shortcuts came to us last week in the form of a story written by City News Service’s Paul Anderson, a veteran reporter, about a courtroom procedure. We published it in the Daily Pilot; you can find it here.
Anderson was covering a defamation lawsuit that names Orange County resident Chris Epting brought by Chris Kluwe, a former NFL punter and activist from Huntington Beach. Kluwe, you may recall, was taken into custody in February for an act of civil disobedience at a public meeting of his hometown’s city council. Kluwe was critical of the councilmembers and their push for a MAGA plaque to be installed on the city’s library, not only to their faces the night he was arrested, but also on social media.
Epting amplified Kluwe’s postings, framing them in a way that made it seem Kluwe was espousing violence. That, Kluwe alleges, led to his subsequent firing from the coaching job he held at Edison High in Huntington Beach Union High School District.
According to Anderson’s article, Kluwe’s attorney, Daniel Sasse, discovered the court briefs presented by Epting’s lawyer, William J. Becker Jr., cited “three cases that didn’t exist at all,” which indicated “Becker did not check the work produced by the artificial intelligence at all. Sasse counted 22 examples of incorrect citations to legal precedence,” Anderson writes.
Citing bogus cases provided to Becker by AI did not amuse U.S. District Judge Fred Slaughter, according to the article. The judge asked Becker what sanctions he believed he deserved. Here’s the exchange, as reported by Anderson:
“I don’t believe monetary sanctions are appropriate,” Becker said.
“So zero is the answer?” Slaughter replied.
“Zero is the answer,” Becker said.
Becker argued that the “humiliation” alone in being admonished for the misstep was punishment enough.
Slaughter said it was “unacceptable” to submit court briefs with fictitious cases for arguments on precedent.
“There’s no excuse for this,” Slaughter said.
The article goes on to report Becker admitted to feeling ashamed, but he put the blame on the budget his nonprofit, Freedom X Law, operates under. He told the judge the briefs in question were prepared “in haste,” because, “I have zero resources. [And] in this case, I’m up against a big, big law firm.”
By the time I got that far into the story, I found myself wondering less about how Kluwe’s defamation lawsuit itself was proceeding and more about whether or not the judge would sanction Becker for relying heavily on AI. But I’ll have to wait for another day, as the article ends with a note that Slaughter would rule on that later.
MORE NEWS 
Westminster Mall is being redeveloped. The site could soon offer 3,000 housing units and at least 600,000 square feet of upscale retail space.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
• Most of the shops at Westminster Mall are expected to shut down today, Oct. 29, when their leases expire, according to the Westminster city manager. The site could soon offer 3,000 housing units and at least 600,000 square feet of upscale retail space, under a project approved in 2022, the Los Angeles Times reports. JCPenney, the mall’s oldest anchor store, is slated to close by Nov. 21. Best Buy and Target are expected to remain open for a few more years as the property undergoes redevelopment.
• Amid a slowdown in demand for electric vehicles possibly caused by the recent expiration of a federal tax credit that saved customers $7,500 on new electric vehicles and $4,000 on used ones, Irvine-based e-truck/SUV manufacturer Rivian is laying off hundreds of employees (about 4.5% of its workforce), according to this Times article.
• Newport Beach-based Chipotle Mexican Grill has agreed to pay $246,000 to settle a consumer protection lawsuit alleging that it wouldn’t allow California customers to cash out gift cards with a balance of under $10, authorities announced last week.
• Nearly 300,000 low-income Orange County residents receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to purchase their groceries. With the federal shutdown blocking upcoming disbursements of those benefits, there is concern widespread hunger is looming as this month’s allotments are used up. “Advocates warned of a tidal wave of need as home pantries and CalFresh cards run empty — which they said is no longer a risk but a certainty,” this article on the subject by a team of Times staff writers notes.
• The U.S. Department of Justice plans to monitor polling sites in Orange County as well as four other California counties during the Nov. 4 special election in which voters will decide whether to approve Proposition 50, a temporary statewide redistricting aimed at adding more Democrat representation in Congress. State Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said Monday he anticipates the Trump administration will use false reports of voting irregularities to challenge the election’s results. Orange County voters in search of information about the election can find it here.
• The Huntington Beach City Council voted last week in closed session to appeal an Orange County Superior Court judge’s order that the city return books the council had caused to be moved to a youth-restricted area back to their original locations inside the city’s Central Library.
PUBLIC SAFETY & CRIME 
Concrete Corning technicians on Thursday at the scene of methane gas leak at 3606 Marcus Ave., Newport Beach
(Susan Hoffman)
• Seven Newport Beach homes were evacuated a week ago after methane gas, which originated from crude oil that had been oozing up into a Marcus Avenue house since the summer, was detected by officials checking on the property. The oil has been seeping from a vintage 1920s oil well 800 feet underground that had been capped long ago. Most of the evacuees were allowed back home this week, but the house experiencing the seepage will remain red-tagged indefinitely until a permanent solution is identified and implemented by the homeowner, city officials announced Monday.
• A small airplane in distress made an emergency landing Thursday night on the sand in Huntington Beach, between lifeguard towers 11 and 13. The pilot and the sole passenger escaped safely.
• A bat found Oct. 16 on a sidewalk on the west side of South Main Street in Orange tested positive for rabies. Health officials caution residents to avoid contact with wild animals and seek medical help if they may have been exposed to the virus.
• Four people who were found dead in a Fullerton apartment last Tuesday, after a friend called police saying he believed the group had overdosed on drugs, were identified by officials as Ramon Louis Luera, 28, of Chino; Melissa Angela Lopez, 29, of Pomona; Victor Alfonso Herrera, 41, of Los Angeles and Christipher James Satterfield, 51, of Anaheim. The deceased were members of the same softball team, according to the report.
• Jurors last Wednesday convicted 34-year-old Camden Burton Nicholson in the 2019 killing of his parents and their housekeeper in Newport Beach, completing the first phase of his trial. The second phase requires them to determine if he was criminally insane at the time, which will determine whether he will go to prison for life, or to a mental institution for an indefinite period.
• The Orange County district attorney’s office issued a report that determined sheriff’s deputies acted properly when they returned fire and killed a retired police officer who had just shot and killed three patrons and injured six at Cook’s Corner, a landmark Trabuco Canyon biker bar, on Aug. 23, 2023.
• Carlos Ramierz Valdez, a Santa Ana pastor, was sentenced Friday to 45 years to life in prison for sexually assaulting three girls he met through churches in Garden Grove, Santa Ana and Riverside. The 61-year-old Valdez was given credit for 1,723 days behind bars and was ordered to register as a sex offender.
• A Los Angeles man who had been behind the wheel of an Infiniti that was reportedly speeding on the Santa Ana (5) Freeway died at about 8:30 a.m. Monday after being involved in a three-vehicle crash on the northbound side of the freeway near Sand Canyon Avenue in Irvine, City News Service reported. On Tuesday, at around 5:45 a.m. on the southbound San Diego (405) Freeway, also in Irvine, a motorcycle rider was killed after his bike went down and was struck by several vehicles.
SPORTS 
From top right: the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani, Blake Snell and Tommy Edman, and the Blue Jays’ George Springer, Trey Yesavage and Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
(Photos by Associated Press and Getty Images; Photo illustration by Tim Hubbard / Los Angeles Times)
• How about those Dodgers making the World Series, in which they are now tied 2-2 with Toronto? Alas, since Shohei Ohtani left our collective home base for a greener diamond up the freeway, he is no longer a perfect fit for our TimesOC newsletter. But here’s an article that is: Times sportswriter Bill Shaikin muses about a different Angels’ missed opportunity that took place10 years ago, when they could have hired Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who today is a star player for the Blue Jays.
• More Shaikin musings on the Halos can be found in this piece, published online Sunday: “Would MLB make Arte Moreno sell Angels in wake of Tyler Skaggs trial?”
Corona del Mar High flag football player AnnaSofia Dickensrecently wrote the book, “We Run This House,” a Girls Guide to Flag Football,” which was released Tuesday.
(Don Leach / Daily Pilot)
• Shifting from MLB to a high school story about flag football, a sophomore at Corona del Mar High hopes to empower other girls to excel in the sport she and her family love. To that end, AnnaSofia Dickens recently wrote “We Run This House: The Girls’ Guide to Flag Football.” The book is designed to offer tips from Dickens’ own experience, as well as that of NFL standouts and women’s football greats, according to this Daily Pilot feature story by Matt Szabo.
• Maury Young, a senior distance runner for Ocean View High, ran the 3-mile course at Oak Canyon Park in 14 minutes 36.2 seconds during the Oct. 18 Orange County cross-country championships. Young’s time gave him the school record previously set in 1986 by Haissam Sabra at the Dana Hills Invitational.
LIFE & LEISURE 
Jerry McGraw sits below deck in the living space of his boat, the Po’oino Roa.
(Elizabeth Carroll)
• As part of a deeper dive they took into the subject of people living aboard their boats along the SoCal coastline, a group of USC Annenberg master’s journalism students prepared for the Daily Pilot this story, for which they interviewed a few mariners who find living in Newport Harbor a dream. Part of the allure is lower housing costs, but the overarching sentiment is that they love living on the water.
Pan de Muerto, a matcha concha and puerquitos cookies are traditional and non-traditional Mexican sweet breads found at Pan Y Cafe in Santa Ana.
(James Carbone)
• Santa Ana has a new panaderia, writes my colleague Sarah Mosqueda. “Our main goal is good bread at an affordable price,” Samuel Ruiz, Pan Y Cafe owner, told the reporter in a recent interview. “But I also want to get other cultures to enjoy what is such a nostalgic thing for me and a lot of Mexicanos.” Pan Y Cafe is located at 324 West 4th St., Santa Ana. Hours are 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.
CALENDAR 
Robert Petkoff and the company of the 2025 touring production of “Moulin Rouge! The Musical.”
(Matthew Murphy)
• “Moulin Rouge! The Musical” opened last night at Segerstrom Center for the Arts and will continue through this Sunday. The Tony Award-winning show is inspired by director Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 film, “Moulin Rouge.” Tickets start at $44 and are available at scfta.org.
• The Coast Film and Music Festival opens Saturday in Laguna Beach and will run through Nov. 9. Ninety-six films are scheduled to be showcased this year, according to this feature article about the festival. For tickets, visit coastfilmfestival.com.
• Although it is a year-round offering, Halloween week seems like an ideal time to check out the “Ghost Hunter” escape room experience in Lake Forest. The premise, according to this story by Daily Pilot contributor Jessica Peralta, is this: After you are admitted into a nondescript building you are part of a group that must investigate a mission by a team of amateur ghost hunters, who started hours ago but lost contact with headquarters. “Ghost Hunter” is recommended for a group of six but can host from four to 12 people. It is recommended for ages 13 and up.
That’s all I’ve got for you this week. On a personal note, you may have noticed that John Canalis, my kind boss, stepped in at the last minute to write last Wednesday’s newsletter on my behalf when I was sidelined by a mishap. I was so grateful for his help, but am pleased to be back in the saddle.
Until next Wednesday,
Carol
KEEP IN TOUCH
We appreciate your help in making this the best newsletter it can be. Please send news tips, your memory of life in O.C. (photos welcome!) or comments to carol.cormaci@latimes.com.