A volunteer has been charged with embezzling more than $1 million dollars from nonprofits in Anaheim and Long Beach.

Jose Antonio Urrutia, 64, of Placentia is facing more than 175 felony counts of forgery and grand theft connected to suspected embezzlement from the Junior Youth Soccer Association of Anaheim and the International Seafarers Center in Long Beach, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.

Prosecutors say Urrutia, a certified public accountant who worked in the finance department at the Port of Long Beach, served as a volunteer treasurer for the Junior Youth Soccer Association, where he is alleged to have embezzled more than $850,000, and the International Seafarers Center, where he is accused of stealing more than $370,000.

Neither organization responded Thursday to requests for comment.

According to the DA’s Office, Urrutia, between April 2008 and September 2013, wrote false checks and took money and personal property from the soccer association.

Prosecutors said the funds were discovered missing in November 2014 after Urrutia didn’t respond to a request to complete payroll, and an employee of the Junior Youth Soccer Association logged on to the charity’s bank account and learned there was no money to cover the organization’s obligations.

The organization attempted to contact Urrutia again, prosecutors said, at which point Urrutia is accused of just emailing in his resignation.

Urrutia, arrested Thursday, is scheduled to appear in court for an arraignment on Friday, Sept. 7. If convicted, he faces up to 130 years in state prison.

Imagine a lake in Orange County so peaceful, so wild, that deer and mountain lions alike sip from cool waters while fisher folk cast for bass in summer and trout in winter; where kids play along the shore while moms and dads prep the barbecue.

Until a few years ago, you didn’t have to imagine. The real deal existed at Irvine Lake. For a few bucks and a little gas, you came into an oasis of tree-lined tranquility and old-fashioned fun.

But for the last two years, the gate has been perpetually locked. Bands that once played are silent. Formerly coveted campsites are infested with weeds. The once-cozy cafe gathers dust.

Compared to the glistening 750-acre expanse that existed only three years ago, the lake itself is little more than a big puddle.

How could something like this happen in our county of paradise?

Some blame a small handful of governmental agencies that can’t get their act together. But after several years of giving up camping and fishing in exchange for nothing more than memories, it’s time to blame ourselves.

After all, it’s citizens like us who choose the leaders that head up the three governmental agencies that determine the fate of places such as Irvine Lake.

Accordingly, it’s arguable that people like you and me have allowed political squabbling and petty bickering to muck up what should be a jewel in Orange County’s recreational crown.

Going fishing

I started visiting Irvine Lake two decades ago. Every time I rode my bicycle on Santiago Canyon Road, I couldn’t help but stop and take in the view, check out a band, watch people fishing.

Later, a mountain bike racing outfit called “Over the Hump” started offering weekly races in summer. It was hard riding, but it was always more about family than blood sport.

In an age in which families sit down to dinners where smartphones are the focus rather than conversation, it felt like one thing was always certain — Irvine Lake would never change.

An old brochure accurately describes this gem: “A quiet, scenic fishing lake nestled at the base of the Cleveland National Forest (with) steep rocky cliffs, shallow coves, deep creek channels, submerged high spots, overhanging trees.”

Some folks were just fine never venturing past the shoreline. Others simply enjoyed the peace one finds sitting in a boat. Then there were true fishermen and fisherwomen.

When lures and bait aligned, there were memorable records on the lake: rainbow trout, 22.6 pounds; steelhead trout, 17 pounds; channel catfish 50 pounds; largemouth bass, 14.7 pounds; sturgeon, 47 pounds.

There also was a history of progress.

Built in 1929 with the construction of a dam, the lake filled within two years. At first, the water was for the local farming communities. Then, fishing opened in 1941. Next came water for irrigation and drinking.

Only a few years ago, you could still rent a rod for $10, hop in a motor boat for $55, fish for $22. Best, the memories were priceless.

A review this week of dozens of photographs of men, women and children holding up fish at Irvine Lake finds smiles in every photo.

Blame game

Oddly, the bad blood over how to handle Irvine Lake started with a gift from the Irvine Company to the County of Orange. It included 2,500 acres of wildland near Irvine Lake.

But soon, sticking points arose over future revenues and what to do with 25 acres of lakefront as well as an RV park reported to rake in over $300,000 a year.

Along with the county, two entities with clout remain involved: the Irvine Ranch Water District and the Serrano Water District.

The county tells me there is little it can do.

“The reality is that the county does not currently have water or land rights and will not have those rights until the water districts involved are able to resolve their differences,” county spokeswoman Molly Nichelson says.

She describes the blocked progress this way: “The county has repeatedly facilitated discussions with the water districts in an effort to move things forward and continues to encourage the parties to come to agreement so that the county can open the area for public use.”

At the same time, Irvine Ranch Water District states, on its website, “We do not manage and are not responsible for any recreational activities.”

IRWD Treasurer Rob Jacobson this week went so far as to add, “We’re actively working with Serrano, the Irvine Company and the county to reach an agreement to transfer recreation rights to the county.”

But like the county, Serrano Water District has a different take.

Serrano Water District General Manager Jerry Vilander maintains the county is stalling. He says the county hasn’t approached the district for a year.

There’s a lot of work to be done before anything can happen, Vilander says. There’s no infrastructure, roads need to be worked on, docks are in disrepair, the cafe is gutted.

Both the county and the water district have been dealing with more pressing issues, Vilander says. He adds he expects progress within the next year, but estimates it will take several years before there is boating.

“At the end of the day,” Vilander says, “we have to protect the water supply.”

The county counters, “Serrano Water District controls 25 percent of the recreation rights to the water, but has not agreed to a 25 percent share of net profits from any water-based activities.

Instead, the county contends, “The district has indicated that they expect a significant guaranteed annual payment.”

Serrano’s demand, the county explains, “would undermine the revenue stream that was intended and negotiated to restore the open space and construct lake-adjacent public amenities.”

Voting rights

Water districts are strange beasts. Every few years, many of us stare at water district ballots and realize we know absolutely nothing about the people we’re supposed to elect.

We either skip the list entirely or vote for an unknown candidate with a name we happen to like.

But, of course, water district boards are very real.

Right now, for example, the Irvine Ranch Water District — which uses water in Irvine Lake — is moving from at-large elections to district elections. The deadline to submit comments and conceptual maps is Oct. 15. Who knew?

Serrano Water District — which carries the big stick at Irvine Lake — describes its makeup this way: “Special districts are one of the most basic forms of local government, created by the people within the district to provide a specialized service.

“Because they are localized, special districts tend to be very responsive and accountable to the voters.”

I hear there’s an election coming up in November.

The Justice Department is investigating potential employee fraud at Wells Fargo & Co.’s wholesale banking unit, according to a published report.

Citing unnamed people familiar with the probe, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that investigators are trying to determine whether management at the bank pressured employees to improperly alter customer information without consent.

The investigation stems from revelations that employees in the wholesale banking unit, which caters to corporate customers, added Social Security numbers, dates of birth and other customer information to documents in a bid to beat a regulatory deadline, the newspaper said.

The matter initially involved Well’s business banking group, which focuses on companies with annual sales of $5 million to $20 million, but further reviews by the bank discovered that the problems were more widespread, according to the Journal’s report.

Wells Fargo declined Thursday to comment on the investigation or to go into details about what happened in its wholesale banking unit. But Wells spokesman Alan Elias said the matter involved a new process and a new required document that the bank’s employees had to complete “to help ensure we know our customers.”

“We’ve recognized that in certain circumstances additional training and new procedures were needed and have now been applied,” Elias said, adding that the matter “has not negatively impacted our customers.”

The Justice Department did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday.

San Francisco-based Wells Fargo has been plagued by scandals in recent years, including employees opening millions of fake accounts for customers without their authorization and the bundling of auto insurance policies on to auto loans when customers did not need them.

Last month, the lender agreed to pay a $2.1 billion fine to settle allegations it misrepresented the types of mortgages it sold to investors during the housing bubble that ultimately led to the 2008 financial crisis.

Wells Fargo shares slid 1.7 percent to $57.93 Thursday. The stock is down 4.5 percent this year.

LOS ANGELES — A former high school and college football player from Anaheim was sentenced Thursday to four years behind bars in connection with a man’s beating death during a brawl outside a Hollywood nightclub after a birthday celebration.

Dietrich Canterberry — who played for Lynwood High School and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas — was convicted June 26 of involuntary manslaughter involving Devion Jelkes’ death in October 2016.

Jurors acquitted the 36-year-old Anaheim resident of second-degree murder for the 28-year-old man’s death.

A second defendant, Cordell Shields, 37, is awaiting trial in connection with the killing, along with two counts of assault causing great bodily injury. He was initially being tried along with Canterberry, but the judge declared a mistrial in his portion of the case.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William N. Sterling denied the defense’s motion for a new trial for Canterberry, finding that there was “more than sufficient evidence” for jurors to conclude that Canterberry struck the victim “not in self-defense, but in an aggressive manner.”

The judge — who imposed the maximum term and denied the defense’s request for probation — noted that the defendant was “much bigger” and “much heavier” than Jelkes.

“But for an injury he might have been a professional football player,” Sterling said, noting that the victim was a “little guy who’s fleeing for his life.”

“I have no doubt that Mr. Canterberry has led a good life,” the judge said. “But on that night, at that moment, and I believe what he said, I think it was about alcohol … The video is very clear that he was an active participant.”

Canterberry told the judge that he wanted to “apologize and express my deepest condolences” to Jelkes’ family. He said he wanted to rededicate himself to community programs and “pay my debt to society.”

Some of his family members said he has also expressed remorse to them for what happened, with one of his cousins saying that Canterberry has mentored a lot of students.

The victim’s grandmother, Celestine Wilburn, said her grandson had a gift for singing and sang at churches and weddings.

“Everybody loved him. He got along with everyone,” she told the judge.

Deputy District Attorney Seth Carmack told the judge that Jelkes came to the aid of his sister who had been knocked unconscious and was “running away from a fight” when he was “blindsided,” while defense attorney Rick Richmond countered that his client “played a minor role” in what occurred and had less than a second to respond to a man “about to collide with him.”

In his opening statement, the prosecutor told jurors that Canterberry and Shields were among a group of people celebrating the 30th birthday of the victim’s brother, Brandon Jelkes, and that Jelkes’ sister, Laporscha Marks, got into a shouting match with Shields.

Shields punched the woman in the face and “knocks her unconscious,” the prosecutor said, showing jurors video of the scene from security cameras at the club.

Two other men then rushed at Shields, who allegedly punched one of them, knocking him to the ground, according to the prosecutor.

Devion Jelkes then went running over, prompting several other people to go after Jelkes while “Devion Jelkes is running away,” according to the prosecutor. While Jelkes was on the ground, “you can see Shields run up and stomp him in the head,” the prosecutor told jurors.

Canterberry’s attorney countered that Canterberry was “not guilty of any crime at all.”

The fight happened in a “handful of seconds” and Canterberry was quietly waiting and smoking a cigar next to the party bus and “did not move … until after Laporscha Marks was knocked out … until after at least three men were attacking Cordell Shields,” Richmond said. “What the video footage will show you (is that) Dietrich came to the aid of someone who was already under attack.”

Canterberry’s lawyer told jurors that “Shields fought back when he was attacked” but also said that Shields punched Jelkes in the face three times, threw him down on the street, kicked him twice and stomped on his head.

Jelkes then got up and ran off toward Canterberry and “collided” with him, according to Richmond.

Before the mistrial was declared in his client’s portion of the case, Shields’ attorney, Killain Jones, characterized the fight as “one giant piece of chaos” with “multiple people coming at Mr. Shields” and said Jelkes crashed into Canterberry and then struck his head.

Jones called the prosecution’s case “lacking.”

Twitter is permanently banning right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his “Infowars” show for abusive behavior.

Twitter says Jones won’t be able to create new accounts on Twitter or take over any existing ones. Twitter says Jones posted a video on Wednesday that is in violation of the company’s policy against “abusive behavior.” The video in question shows Jones shouting at and berating CNN journalist Oliver Darcy for some 10 minutes during congressional hearings about social media.

Jones had about 900,000 followers on Twitter. “Infowars” had about 430,000.

Twitter had previously suspended Jones for a week. But until now it had resisted muzzling Jones further. Other tech companies have limited Jones by suspending him for longer periods, as Facebook did, and by taking down his pages and radio stations.

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By KEN THOMAS, ZEKE MILLER and JONATHAN LEMIRE

The Associated Press

FARGO, N.D. — President Donald Trump declared Friday the U.S. Justice Department should work to identify the writer of a bitingly critical New York Times opinion piece, purportedly submitted by a member of an administration “resistance” movement straining to thwart his most dangerous impulses.

Trump cited “national security” as the reason for such a probe, and he called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to open the investigation in comments to reporters. He also said he was exploring bringing legal action against the newspaper over publication of the essay two days earlier.

“Jeff should be investigating who the author of that piece was because I really believe it’s national security,” Trump said. If the person has a high-level security clearance, he said, “I don’t want him in those meetings.”

It’s all but unthinkable that the Justice Department could open an investigation into the op-ed article. Though it was strongly critical of Trump, no classified information appears to have been revealed by the author or leaked to the newspaper, which would be one crucial bar to clear before a leak investigation could be contemplated.

Still Trump’s call is the latest test of the independence of his Justice Department, which is supposed to make investigative and charging decisions without political interference from the White House.

A day earlier, Trump’s top lieutenants stepped forward to repudiate the op-ed in a show of support for their incensed boss, who has ordered aides to unmask the writer.

By email, by tweet and on camera, the denials paraded in from Cabinet-level officials — and even Vice President Mike Pence — apparently crafted for an audience of one, seated in the Oval Office. Senior officials in key national security and economic policy roles charged the article’s writer with cowardice, disloyalty and acting against America’s interests in harsh terms that mimicked the president’s own words.

In an interview Thursday with Fox News, Trump said the author “may not be a Republican, it may not be a conservative, it may be a deep state person who has been there for a long time.”

There is a long list of officials who plausibly could have been the author. Many have privately shared some of the article’s same concerns about Trump with colleagues, friends and reporters.

With such a wide circle of potential suspicion, Trump’s men and women felt they had no choice but to speak out. The denials and condemnations came in from far and wide: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis denied authorship on a visit to India; Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke chimed in from American Samoa. In Washington, the claims of “not me” echoed from Vice President Pence’s office, from Energy Secretary Rick Perry, from Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman from Dan Coats, director of national intelligence, and other Cabinet members.

The author professed to be a member of that same inner circle. So could the denials be trusted? There was no surefire way to know, and that only deepened the president’s frustrations.

A White House official said Trump’s call for the Justice Department investigation was an expression of his frustration with the op-ed, rather than an order for federal prosecutors.

“The department does not confirm or deny investigations,” said Sarah Isgur Flores, a spokeswoman.

Some people who agreed with the writer’s points suggested the president’s reaction actually confirmed the author’s concerns, and Democrats were quick to condemn the president’s call for a federal investigation.

Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware said, “President Trump continues to show a troubling trend in which he views the Department of Justice as the private legal department of the Trump organization rather than an entity that is focused on respecting the Constitution and enforcing our laws.”

But Rudy Giuliani, the president’s attorney, suggested that it “would be appropriate” for Trump to ask for a formal investigation into the identity of the op-ed author.

“Let’s assume it’s a person with a security clearance. If they feel writing this is appropriate, maybe they feel it would be appropriate to disclose national security secrets, too. That person should be found out and stopped,” Giuliani said.

And Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a key ally of Trump’s, called for the president to order those suspected of being the author to undergo lie-detector tests.

“People are suggesting it,” Trump said Friday, steering clear of explicitly endorsing the proposal. “Eventually the name of this sick person will come out.”

As the initial scramble to unmask the writer proved fruitless, attention turned to the questions the article raised, which have been whispered in Washington for more than a year: Is Trump truly in charge, and could a divided executive branch pose a danger to the country?

Former CIA Director John Brennan, a fierce Trump critic, told NBC, “This is not sustainable to have an executive branch where individuals are not following the orders of the chief executive. … A wounded lion is a very dangerous animal, and I think Donald Trump is wounded.”

The anonymous author, claiming to be part of the resistance “working diligently from within” the administration, said, “Many Trump appointees have vowed to do what we can to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr. Trump’s more misguided impulses until he is out of office.”

“It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that there are adults in the room,” the author continued. “We fully recognize what is happening. And we are trying to do what’s right even when Donald Trump won’t.”

First lady Melania Trump issued a statement backing her husband. She praised the free press as “important to our democracy” but assailed the writer, saying, “You are not protecting this country, you are sabotaging it with your cowardly actions.”

Down Pennsylvania Avenue, House Speaker Paul Ryan said he did not know of any role Congress would have to investigate, though Republican Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina, a Trump ally, said the legislative body could take part.

The writer said Trump aides are aware of the president’s faults and “many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations. I would know. I am one of them.”

___

Miller reported from Washington and Lemire reported from New York. AP writers Mike Balsamo, Mary Clare Jalonick, Eric Tucker, and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed reporting.

___

Follow Thomas on Twitter at http://twitter.com/@KThomasDC, Miller on Twitter at http://twitter.com/@zekejmiller and Lemire at http://twitter.com/@JonLemire

Water is a bridge – a part of nature that bonds people, even if they have different beliefs.

That’s how Blessing of the Waves organizer Dave Garofalo described the multi-religious event happening Sunday, Sept. 9 on the north side of the Huntington Beach Pier, a gathering that draws an estimated 1,000 people to share traditions and give tribute to the sea.

“It brings everyone together,” Garofalo said. “It’s a reflection of how important the environment is to us, particularly in Huntington Beach. In every religion, water plays some part.”

Now in its 11th year, the event is put on by the Greater Huntington Beach Interfaith Council, which aims at joining various religious groups together to share their beliefs and to educate others on their traditions.

There are two words Garofalo uses when he thinks of the annual event:

Better together.

“There’s no doubt, everyone looks at their own religion as their own way of life,” he said. “We don’t really care what you call your god – your god is your god. We’re more better together because we believe in something. I think that’s what brings us together.”

Remembering late leaders

In addition to various religions sharing their beliefs and talking about how water and the ocean play a part in their religions, a special tribute will be made to two leaders in the religious and surfing community who passed away earlier this year.

Pastor Sumo Sato, who ran H20 in Huntington Beach and who died of colon cancer in March, and Rev. Christian Mondor of Sts. Simon & Jude Catholic Church, known as the “surfing padre” and who died the following month, will be remembered with a bronze statue to be placed on the pier near lifeguard tower zero.

“Both of them were an integral part of our community, particularly of our surfing community,” Garofalo said.

Sato, an avid surfer from Hawaii and chaplain for Huntington’s Marine Safety Department, could be found on most day riding waves on his longboard on the north side of the Huntington pier.

Sumo spoke at the 2016 Blessing of the Waves after learning he had been diagnosed with cancer.

He talked about surrendering to God, and told a story about nearly dying in Hawaiian surf in October, at first panicking but then recognizing he was being cared for by a higher power. At that event, he thanked the crowd for their prayers as he battled cancer.

Mondor rode waves until a heart attack at age 88, but continued to be a spiritual voice in the surfing community by leading prayer at community events such as the Surfing Walk of Fame each year.

Each year at the Blessing of the Waves, Mondor would bless the crowd with rosemary branches soaked in salt water:

“We ask your blessing upon all the creatures that inhabit the sea, from the smallest plankton to the formidable sharks and humpback whales, for they all have a place in the order of your creation…

“But please keep the great whites always in their space, and not in ours,” he said, drawing a chuckle from the crowd.

Mondor would then lead a group down to the water, saying a prayer before surfers gathered for a paddle-out, where they hold hands in a circle.

He would often talk about the ocean’s beauty.

“It’s God’s great gift to us all,” Mondor said in front of the crowd in 2103. “It’s wonderful to have this opportunity to say thank you to a lovely God who has given us this great gift.”

‘Walk away smiling’

With the surf expected to be strong – in the 4-7 foot range with some larger sets – it’s unclear whether surfers will hold the paddle out in the ocean after the ceremony in the Pier Plaza.

“But it’s the weather – when is the weather ever right?” Garofalo asked.

Even if the paddle-out doesn’t happen, those who attend will learn much about how the ocean plays a part in various religions from around the world, he said.

“When people do that, you learn you have more in common than you have differences. I never in my life would have gone to a synagogue, a temple, a mosque – and I’ve been able to do that by participating in the Interfaith Council, because we visit all those places,” he said. “You walk away smiling, even if you do things differently.”

When: Sunday, Sept. 9, 8:30 a.m.

Where: North side of the Huntington Beach Pier in the Pier Plaza

More info: ghbic.org

Dozens of reader emails and online comments poured in following my recent column about the decision of my 89-year-old mother to take her life.

In case you missed that column, I’ll explain that when my mother, Alice Whiting, was about 60 years old she announced to the family that when she felt the quality of her life was no longer worth living she would take control of her death.

Mom did just that two years ago and she was not alone in what is a small but growing movement of aging seniors who choose to decide the when and how of their fate.

Understand, this is not about depression but about living and control. From Mom’s point of view — as well as for a number of organizations and psychologists — there is something called “reasoned suicide.”

Here is a sampling of reader thoughts on the ultimate decision:

Pam Leary, Newport Coast:

Tear drops sprinkled my paper while reading your story — tears for my mother and me. My mother was losing ground to dementia and there were no options for in-home care. Words cannot describe how difficult that last two years of Mom’s life was for her, Dad and me. Mom’s dementia was progressing at a fast rate and she had sufficient cognition to be aware of her dwindling mental and physical state. So many times, she would cry and tell us, “I just want to die.”

Dad and I didn’t know what to do. We couldn’t legally pursue assisted suicide. It was agonizing to watch her endure so much physical pain and lose all capacity to communicate. If my mother had been able to take her life before so much suffering, I know in my heart that it would have been the best thing she could have done. It would have been the one thing she would have had control of.

Mary McEvoy, San Clemente:

To die by killing yourself is not dignified. Rather, it is a violent act no matter how it is done. Further, if something is legal does not make it moral, as in the case of abortion.

Life is a gift and to live into old age is a privilege denied to many many millions of our fellow human beings. Your mother’s act of ending her life the way she did was a very selfish act, leaving her husband and family grieving before their time and denying them the joy of her presence.

Steve Cienfuegos, Laguna Niguel:

I lost my parents within two years from one another and until someone has to personally care for someone they love, they cannot understand and appreciate a request that “it’s time.” My father didn’t want to be a burden and endure the humiliation of having us clean him up — which I gladly did as he cleaned my diapers when I was a child and provided all that I could ever want. His cancer was swift.

Unfortunately, my mother suffered a major stroke with effects that lingered for nearly a year. Personally, I subscribe to quality of life vs. grinding it out every day to the bitter end, and I hope to be able to make that choice. This conversation needs to continue.

Myra Payne, Fullerton:

Your Saturday column on the death of your mother was very Sad. For your father – no goodbyes. For her children and grandchildren — how very sad and what a lasting impression it will leave with them that suicide is a choice, a way out at any age.

I cared for my youngest son, severely handicapped, for 30 years. He died at home. I then cared for my aging parents in our home. My mother died at 85 with congestive heart failure at home. My father died at 90 of prostate cancer at home.

As a family, we accompanied them in their final years and in their dying. Family and friends had time with them to talk, pray and say goodbyes, “I love you.” We have a strong faith in God. Each of our loved ones had a purpose in life even in their weaknesses, sufferings and dying. Each left us with a lasting, loving impression of the dignity of life and of death.

Pat Soldano, Anaheim Hills:

I totally understand your mother’s position and think she was very brave to do what she believed was right and take control of her passing with dignity. I have seen too many people in my life suffer and pass without dignity; it is very painful to watch.

Louise Allard, Laguna Woods:

Suicide’s impact on others is very significant. To excuse the loved one from taking such a drastic step, we robe our language with distortions or half-truths. The dying process may bring psychological and/or physical suffering, but it does not subject us to a loss of our worthiness or respect. Facing the aging process requires courage.

The fact that suicide did not stem from a rash decision but a deliberate one does not confer special respect for the act. What is suicide? It is the premeditated act of murdering oneself.

“Reasoned” suicide — or more aptly “willful” suicide — does not mean that the person had all the correct information to make an informed decision. Often, as in the case of your mother, she was exposed to propaganda some 30 years ago. It had such an impact on her, that she lived the last third of her life re-assessing her quality of life. Was her life worth living or was she just taking up space? These thoughts were subtle but destructive.

Barry Wasserman, Huntington Beach:

I faced a similar decision with my mother who lived to the age of 98. She was ill from falling down numerous times and beseeched my brother and I to help her end it. She outlived all of her friends and wanted to die saying “enough is enough.”

We need to be more proactive when the quality of life is no longer there and find legitimate ways to end it. It is a hope of many that in the not too distant future, people will have the autonomy to make decisions over ending their lives legally with respect and dignity.

It is not being selfish to leave this Earth on your own or with the help of an assemblage of others. If one believes God is the creator of all living things and has bequeathed us with a higher intelligence to that of an animal, then one must assume it is not inconceivable or dishonorable to Him for His children to make the decision to leave life as we know it and be risen up to His side.

By JUANA SUMMERS and SARA BURNETT

The Associated Press

URBANA, Ill.  — Former President Barack Obama issued a scorching critique of his successor Friday, blasting President Donald Trump’s pattern of pressuring the Justice Department, his policies and reminding voters that the economic recovery — one of Trump’s favorite talking points — began on his watch.

Obama’s speech at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was delivered less than two months before midterm elections that could determine the course of Trump’s presidency. The remarks amounted to a stinging indictment of political life in the Trump era.

“It did not start with Donald Trump,” Obama said. “He is a symptom, not the cause. He’s just capitalizing on resentments that politicians have been fanning for years.”

Noting the history of former presidents avoiding the rough and tumble of politics, Obama acknowledged his sharp critique of Trump was something of a departure from tradition. But he said the political moment required a pushback and called for better discourse.

“Appealing to tribe, appealing to fear, pitting one group against another, telling people that order and security will be restored if it weren’t for those who don’t look like us or don’t sound like us or don’t pray like we do — that’s an old playbook,” he said. “It’s as old as time. And in a healthy democracy, it doesn’t work. Our antibodies kick in and people of good will from across the political spectrum call out the bigots and the fear-mongers and work to compromise and get things done and promote the better angels of our nature.”

But, Obama added, when there is a vacuum in democracy, “other voices fill the void. A politics of fear and resentment and retrenchment takes hold.”

Obama called Trump “the symptom, not the cause” of division and polarization in the U.S.

Trump, meanwhile, claims he fell asleep watching Obama’s speech.

“I’m sorry, I watched it, but I fell asleep,” Trump said at a campaign appearance in Fargo, North Dakota. “I found he’s very good for sleeping.”

Trump said Obama was trying to take credit for this “incredible thing that’s happening to our country.”

Even as he has largely remained out of the spotlight, Obama made clear he’s paid close attention to the steady stream of headlines chronicling the Trump administration and said the news is a reminder of what’s at stake in the November midterm elections.

“Just a glance at recent headlines should tell you this moment really is different,” Obama said. “The stakes really are higher. The consequences of any of us sitting on the sidelines are more dire.”

He later added: “This is not normal.”

He was especially stern in his condemnation of Trump’s pattern of pressuring law enforcement officials, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The president has repeatedly called on Sessions to fire special counsel Robert Mueller and earlier this week blamed the Justice Department for indicting two incumbent Republican members of Congress, arguing the moves could jeopardize their seats.

“It should not be a partisan issue to say that we do not pressure the attorney general or the FBI to use the criminal justice system as a cudgel to punish our political opponents,” Obama said. “Or to explicitly call on the attorney general to protect members of our own party from prosecution because an election happens to be coming up. I’m not making that up. that’s not hypothetical.

As Obama spoke, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he believed Sessions should investigate the identity of the author of an anonymous New York Times opinion piece that was sharply critical of his leadership, saying the essay a “national security issue.”

Obama, reacting to the op-ed account, said “that’s not how our democracy is supposed to work.”

“The claim that everything will turn out OK because there are people inside the White House who secretly aren’t following the president’s orders, that is not a check,” Obama said. “I’m being serious here. That’s not how our democracy is supposed to work. These people aren’t elected. They’re not accountable.”

Obama also jabbed Trump on the issue the current president frequently heralds as one of his greatest achievements: The strong economy. Obama reminded the audience that the economic recovery began during his administration and defended his handling of the 2008 economic collapse.

“When you hear how great the economy’s doing right now, let’s just remember when this recovery started,” he said.

He also criticized Trump’s response to the violence last year at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that resulted in the death of one person.

“We’re supposed to stand up to discrimination,” Obama said. “And we’re sure as heck supposed to stand up clearly and unequivocally to Nazi sympathizers. How hard can that be, saying that Nazis are bad?”

The speech was a preview of the argument that Obama is likely to make throughout the fall. On Saturday, the former president will stump for House Democratic candidates from California at an event in Orange County, a conservative-leaning part of California where Republicans are at risk of losing several congressional seats.

Next week, Obama plans to campaign in Ohio for Richard Cordray, the Democratic nominee for governor, and Ohio Democrats.

Obama’s campaign activity will continue through October and will include fundraising appearances, according to an Obama adviser. The adviser was not authorized to discuss Obama’s thinking publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. While the former president will be visible throughout the general election, the adviser said that Obama will not be a daily presence on the campaign trail.

Republicans said voters won’t find Obama’s argument appealing.

“In 2016, voters rejected President Obama’s policies and his dismissiveness towards half the country,” Republican National Committee spokesman Michael Ahrens said in response to the Friday speech. “Doubling down on that strategy won’t work in 2018 either.”

Meanwhile, Michelle Obama is also stepping up her political involvement ahead of the November midterm election. She will headline voter registration rallies in Las Vegas and Miami later in September as part of a week of action by When We All Vote, the new nonpartisan organization that she co-chairs.

Summers wrote from Washington. Associated Press writer Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.

COSTA MESA — The Chargers will open the 2018 season without their star defensive end.

Joey Bosa has been ruled out for Sunday’s 1:05 p.m. kickoff against Kansas City, a blow to a team that was hoping to build on last year’s top-three defensive performance. Bosa wore a protective walking boot at the start of Friday’s practice, the first time he had been spotted doing so during an open portion of practice.

Coach Anthony Lynn did not delve into the specifics of the injury, but said that Bosa’s foot is not broken.

Joey Bosa is in a walking boot. Not looking good for his chances to play in Chargers' season opener. pic.twitter.com/En3c2e3H2z

— Jack Wang (@thejackwang) September 7, 2018

Bosa first injured his left foot on Aug. 7, leaving practice during the second week of training camp with what was described as soreness. His condition did not appear to be serious, despite being held out of the entire preseason. After an exhibition loss to the Saints on Aug. 25, Lynn said Bosa would “absolutely” be ready for the regular-season opener.

That original injury healed, but the Pro Bowl defensive end returned to practice Wednesday and sustained a different injury to the same foot. He was held out entirely on both Thursday and Friday.

“That’s why we were being so cautious, because we didn’t want anything else to happen,” Lynn said. “It’s football. It’s unpredictable sometimes. He was just on the field going through drills. That’s when he felt it.”

Isaac Rochell will replace Bosa in the starting lineup. The 2017 seventh-round pick product made only three appearances as a rookie — recording one sack — but has generated some buzz among teammates and coaches for his offseason improvement.

“He’s grown like a weed,” Lynn said of Rochell. “I told him it’s a hell of an opportunity for him. I believe he’ll step up and get the job done.”

Kansas City is also expected to enter StubHub Center without one of its defensive stars. Safety Eric Berry, who missed most of last season with a torn Achilles tendon, is doubtful to play due to a sore heel.

Restaurants and other food businesses closed by health inspectors in Orange County from Aug. 31 to Sept. 7, 2018:

Golden Flower Veggie, 14942 Bushard St., Garden Grove

• Closed: Sept. 7 (report)
• Reason: Rodent infestation

Eat Thai Cuisine, 25482 Marguerite Parkway, Suite 102, Mission Viejo

• Closed: Sept 7
• Reason: Cockroach infestation

Kitchen at The Pearl Laguna, 21095 Raquel Road, Laguna Beach

• Closed: Sept. 5 (report)
• Reason: Insufficient hot water
• Reopened: Sept. 6 (report)

Milky Snow Bar, 9764 Chapman Ave., Garden Grove

• Closed: Sept. 5 (report)
• Reason: Cockroach infestation
• Reopened: Sept. 6

Santouka at Mitsuwa Marketplace, 665 Paularino Ave., Costa Mesa

• Closed: Sept. 5 (report)
• Reason: Cockroach infestation

Thach Che Hien Khanh, 9484 Westminster Ave., Garden Grove

• Closed: Sept. 5 (report)
• Reason: Cockroach infestation
• Reopened: Sept. 6

Blaze Pizza at MainPlace Mall, 2800 N. Main St., Suite 196B, Santa Ana

• Closed: Sept. 5 (report)
• Reason: Cockroach infestation

Miyabi-Tei at Mitsuwa Marketplace, 665 Paularino Ave., Costa Mesa

• Closed: Sept. 4 (report)
• Reason: Cockroach infestation

El Mercado, 301 N. Spurgeon St., Santa Ana

• Closed: Sept. 4 (report)
• Reason: Cockroach infestation
• Reopened: Sept. 6 (report)

El Pollo Loco, 11025 Warner Ave., Fountain Valley

• Closed: Sept. 1
• Reason: Fire damage
• Reopened: Sept. 5 (report)

P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, 800 The Shops Blvd., Mission Viejo

• Closed: Sept. 1 (report)
• Reason: Sewage overflow
• Reopened: Sept. 2

Charley’s Philly Steaks, 1008 The Shops Blvd., Mission Viejo

• Closed: Sept. 1 (report)
• Reason: Sewage overflow
• Reopened: Sept. 2

Updates since last week:

Mansion at 841 Baker St., Costa Mesa, closed Aug. 31 because of insufficient hot water, reopened Aug. 31 (report).

Velvet Lounge at 416 W. Fourth St., Santa Ana, closed Aug. 30 because of a rodent infestation, reopened Aug. 31 (report).

Kitchen at Hilton, 777 W. Convention Way, Anaheim, closed Aug. 30 because of a cockroach infestation, reopened Aug. 31 (report).

This list is published online every Friday with closures from the previous seven days. Restaurant status updates are published in the following week’s list. Links to inspection reports provided when available. Source: OC Health Care Agency database.

As the French indie band Phoenix kicked off a sold-out residency at the Fonda Theatre on Thursday I couldn’t escape the feeling that the 1,200 or so of us lucky enough to make it into this intimate Los Angeles venue for the first of five nights were getting away with something.

After all, add up five nights at the Fonda, throw in a bonus show at the Observatory in Santa Ana on Wednesday, and you get a total of about 7,000 tickets, or the rough equivalent of one night at the Greek Theatre, and much, much smaller than the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the Forum, and the Hollywood Bowl, the previous places Phoenix played in Southern California in the last year.

But in a venue of any size the fans would have been just as fired up because Phoenix, after extensive touring behind its most recent album “Ti amo,” is at peak power right now. You felt that as Phoenix opened the show with “J-Boy,” the song’s disco-inspired beats setting off a dance party on the floor and in the balcony, and that sense of a band filled with strength and confidence carried on through the 20 songs and 90 minutes that followed.

“Una notte molto speciale con Phoenix!” read the marquee outside the Fonda, and if you’re thinking that’s Italian, not French, for “A very special night with Phoenix,” well, you’re right. But like the “Ti amo” album, which Phoenix has said was inspired by summer and Italian discos, these twin residencies in Los Angeles and earlier Brooklyn celebrate Italy as much as France, with the theater decorated in Italian signs and flags, the after-party serving pizza and gelato and a DJ playing vintage European dance tracks.

Early in the set Phoenix — singer Thomas Mars, guitarists Laurent Brancowitz and Christian Mazzalai, and bassist Deck D’Arcy, plus a touring drummer and keyboard player — offered up some of its biggest hits, songs such as “Entertainment” and “Liztomania,” the latter of which got its usual audience sing-along on the choruses. But older tracks, including “Rally” and “Long Distance Call,” popped up too and most of the fans seemed to know these just as well given the big responses they got.

Mars barely spoke to the audience for the first hour of the show, waving his thanks quickly between songs in the seamless set, but the benefit of big band in a small venue was on display often. Not only could you see all six of them clearly from nearly anywhere in the theater but during at least four songs Mars went into the crowd — to sing, crowd surf, be lifted aloft, and on the song “Telefono,” to start the song from an Italian-labeled “telefono” booth along one wall — giving everyone a chance see him up close, and in the case of the crowd-surfing, very personal.

While wistful love songs, bittersweet indie-pop melodies, and dance-floor beats make up much of Phoenix’s appeal, the band occasionally dipped into a heavy psychedelic vibe as on the mostly instrumental “Sunskrupt!” which could have been a Pink Floyd number if Floyd knew how to dance.

Most of the Brooklyn residencies stuck to the same set list that Phoenix played at the Observatory on Wednesday and at the Fonda on Thursday, but at least two song slots seem to get swapped out regularly from night to night. At the Fonda, Mars brought out the Italian rock musician Giorgio Poi, the night’s opening act, to duet on the Phoenix song “Lovelife.”

Then, after the main set ended with a floor-vibrating performance of “Ti Amo,” the encore switched up past sets by opening with Mars and Mazzalai performing “Playground Love,” a song that Mars co-wrote and sang with the French duo Air for the soundtrack to the film “The Virgin Suicides,” which was directed by in 1999 by Mars’ now-wife Sofia Coppola.

The encore also included songs such as “Fior di Latte,” its name shared with a sweet and milky Italian gelato that was available at the after-party on the Fonda’s rooftop patio, “1901,” another of the hits from Phoenix’s 2009 breakthrough album “Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix,” and finally, one last venture by Mars into the crowd for the instrumental jam of “Ti amo di più.”

Phoenix

When: Thursday, Sept. 6

Where: The Fonda Theater, Los Angeles

Continues: Friday, Sept. 7, then Monday, Sept. 10-Wednesday, Sept. 12

Information: Wearephoenix.com or Fondatheatre.com

By CHAD DAY

The  Associated Press

WASHINGTON — George Papadopoulos, the Trump campaign adviser who triggered the Russia investigation, was sentenced to 14 days in prison Friday by a judge who said he had placed his own interests above those of the country.

Papadopoulos, the first campaign aide sentenced in special counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing investigation, said he was “deeply embarrassed and ashamed” for having lied to FBI agents during an interview last year and acknowledged that his actions could have hindered their work.

“I made a dreadful mistake, but I am a good man who is eager for redemption,” Papadopoulos said.

The punishment was far less than the maximum six-month sentence sought by the government but also more than the probation that Papadopoulos and his lawyers had asked for.

Papadopoulos, who served as a foreign policy adviser to President Donald Trump’s campaign, has been a central figure in the Russia investigation dating back before Mueller’s May 2017 appointment. He was the first to plead guilty in Mueller’s probe and is now the first Trump campaign adviser to be sentenced. His case was also the first to detail a member of the Trump campaign having knowledge of Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election while it was ongoing.

U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss said that Papadopoulos’ deception was “not a noble lie” and that he had lied because he wanted a job in the Trump administration and didn’t want to jeopardize that possibility by being tied to the Russia investigation.

“In some ways it constitutes a calculated exercise of self interest over the national interest,” the judge said.

Memos authored by House Republicans and Democrats , now declassified, also show that information about Papadopoulos’ contacts with Russian intermediaries triggered the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation in July 2016 into potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign. That probe was later taken over by Mueller.

According to a sweeping indictment handed up this summer, Russian intelligence had stolen emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign and other Democratic groups by April 2016, the same month Papadopoulos was told by a professor that Russian officials had told him they had “dirt” on Clinton in the form of “thousands of emails.”

Papadopoulos later used his connections with the Maltese professor, Joseph Mifsud, and other Russian nationals in an attempt to broker a meeting between then-candidate Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

He admitted last year to lying to the FBI about those contacts. In court papers filed ahead of the sentencing, prosecutors say those lies caused irreparable harm to the investigation during its early months.

Prosecutors wrote that those false statements, made during a January 2017 interview with federal investigators, caused the FBI to miss an opportunity to interview Mifsud while he was in the United States.

“The defendant’s lies undermined investigators’ ability to challenge the Professor or potentially detain or arrest him while he was still in the United States,” they wrote, noting that Mifsud left the U.S. in February 2017 and hasn’t returned.

In court Friday, prosecutor Andrew Goldstein said Papadopoulos’s cooperation “didn’t come close to the standard of substantial assistance.”

“It was at best begrudging efforts to cooperate and we don’t think they were substantial or significant in any regard,” he said.

He said Papadopoulos’s deception required investigators to scour more than 100,000 emails and gigabytes of data to reconstruct the timeline of his contacts with Russians and Russian intermediaries.

Defense lawyer Thomas Breen said his client was affected by Trump’s cries of “fake news” ahead of the interview and was torn between wanting to cooperate with investigators and wanting to remain loyal to the president.

“The president of the United States hindered this investigation more than George Papadopoulos ever could,” Breen said.

Even after his arrest and plea agreement last year, prosecutors say Papadopoulos continued to be difficult with investigators, only providing information after being confronted with documents such as emails and text messages.

In response, Papadopoulos’ attorneys have acknowledged his offense was “unquestionably serious,” but they downplayed any damage he caused. His attorneys, Breen and Robert Stanley, said their client lied to save his career and to “preserve a perhaps misguided loyalty to his master,” a reference that is not fully explained in court papers.

Stanley and Breen also argued that their client “cooperated fully.” He participated in four proffer sessions, they said, and “was willing to answer any questions posed.”

“His arrest and prosecution served as notice to all involved that this was a serious investigation,” the attorneys wrote. “He was the first domino, and many have fallen in behind.”

Can a Republican lawmaker in Riverside and San Diego counties keep his job while under indictment? Will key congressional districts in long-Republican Orange County go Democratic? Will L.A. County’s U.S. House delegation be all Democratic after the Nov. 6 election?

Yes, maybe, and maybe according to a huge and growing world of political forecasters who’ve published predictions for the midterm congressional elections.

Southern California has more competitive races than usual this year, with Democrats hoping to capture Republican-held House seats in six districts where more voters supported Hillary Clinton than Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. Democrats are campaigning hard against GOP incumbents Steve Knight of Palmdale (25th District), Mimi Walters of Irvine (45th), Dana Rohrabacher of Huntington Beach (48th) and Duncan Hunter of Alpine (50th). And they’re trying to take advantage of the retirements of Republicans Ed Royce of Fullerton (39th) and Darrell Issa of Vista (49th).

At the same time, there have never been more election forecasters purporting to make sense of it all.

There are traditional analysts: Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball, the Cook Political Report House Ratings, the Roll Call Election Guide. Cable networks’ analysts: Fox News’ Midterm Power Rankings, CNN’s Race Ratings. Sports-style analytics sites, like FiveThirtyEight.com‘s House forecast. Gambling sites such as the PredictIt.com and MyBookie. And ordinary public opinion surveys.

After 2016, when many forecasters were ridiculed for overrating Clinton’s chances in the presidential race, some are being more cautious about declaring clear favorites in individual elections and the parties’ nationwide battle for control of the House, currently held by Republicans.

“A little bit of humility in talking about [expectations] is warranted,” said Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics, which still rates four of Southern California’s six pivotal races as “tossups.”

“We’re trying to reflect the doubts.”

Most House handicappers are less cautious.

We looked at predictions for Southern California’s half-dozen key races from the forecasters listed above — plus a tenth, the London-based The Economist magazine, for a foreign view — and found a range of predictions. Often a range of predictions within the same race.

50th District: To show you how much room there is for argument about expectations for the November elections, the forecasters’ biggest point of agreement is that Rep. Duncan Hunter will cruise to re-election. It’s possible to picture this popular pick going horribly wrong, in that Hunter and his wife Margaret were indicted late last month for allegedly taking campaign funds for personal use.

Polls after the indictments were announced still favored Hunter over Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar in the heavily Republican district. FiveThirtyEight’s stew of data gives Hunter an 86.4 percent chance of winning as of Friday morning, while the prediction-market bettors at PredictIt give Hunter a much narrower 58 percent chance. All of the analysts give Hunter the edge, with the most certain-sounding descriptions coming from Roll Call and Fox (“likely”), CNN (“solid”) and The Economist (“safe”).

The forecasters’ current consensus: Hunter is the likely winner.

49th District: This is the other race in which the 10 forecasters agree. All have Democrat Mike Levin defeating Republican Diane Harkey to flip the Orange and San Diego county seat long held by Republican Issa. They just don’t favor Levin as clearly as they favor Hunter in District 50.

There are exceptions: While the traditional analysts describe the Democrat’s edge in tepid terms (“leans,” “tilts”), FiveThirtyEight’s statistical model gives Levin an 82.4 percent chance and bettors at PredictIt give Levin a 78 percent chance.

Consensus: The forecasts lean toward Levin.

48th District: There’s a real difference of opinion about the re-election chances of Rohrabacher, who has been under fire for ties to Russia. The Economist and MyBookie strongly favor Rohrabacher’s chances in a district where Republicans hold a 10.5 point registration advantage over Democrats. But FiveThirtyEight and PredictIt make Rouda’s chances of winning 66.8 percent and 62 percent, respectively.

Will Jennings, head of public engagement for PredictIt, said the website’s percentages can provide valuable insight because they reflect opinions of customers risking real money on the outcomes of elections and other political events.

“People with skin in the game are much more inclined to sit and think about the nuances,” Jennings said. “Anytime I look at [the percentages on] PredictIt and contrast that with some of the stuff you read, it gives me a little more pause.”

Consensus: The race is a tossup.

45th District: Democratic challenger Katie Porter is favored slightly by FiveThirtyEight (which gives her a 57.1 percent chance), but Roll Call, CNN and Fox say this race in Orange County “leans” toward incumbent Republican Mimi Walters, and Cook and Sabato’s Crystal Ball call the contest a tossup.

The Crystal Ball’s Kondik said the races rated as tossups will be moved into one or the other candidate’s column before election day.

Kondik said it’s “challenging” to predict what will happen in the Orange County congressional districts that used to be Republican strongholds but now see voter registration percentages shifting.

“The one thing I’m sure of is that these seats will be more competitive than they have been in the past,” Kondik said.

Consensus: The forecasts lean toward Walters.

39th District: The forecasts reflect a very competitive race to succeed Republican Ed Royce, who is stepping down from representing a district that touches parts of Orange, Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties. The gamblers at PredictIt and MyBookie give Democrat Gil Cisneros about a 60 percent chance of defeating Republican Young Kim, but most of the experts still see it as a tossup.

Consensus: The race is a tossup or leans toward Cisneros.

25th District: The 39th and 25th are rare congressional districts partly in L.A. County that are held by Republicans. The 25th District race between Republican incumbent Steve Knight and Democratic challenger Katie Hill shapes up as another tight one, according to the forecasters.

Cook and Sabato call it a tossup, Roll Call has it tilting toward Knight, and FiveThirtyEight give solid edges to Hill.

FiveThirtyEight used the 25th District race as the example in explaining how its forecasts for all 435 House elections work. It showed how, even though Knight has been ahead in the polls FiveThirtyEight tracks, Hill has a bigger advantage in “fundamentals” (“non-polling factors like fundraising and a district’s voting history”) that influence elections’ outcomes.

Consensus: tossup.

Election forecasting is as old, it’s safe to say, as elections. But the forecasting industry has boomed in recent election cycles. The rise of politics as team sport has intensified public interest in who will win elections and factors such as the internet, the availability of data and analytical innovations like those popularized by Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight, have all helped add to the hunger for predictions.

Kondik said he hopes interest in election predictions will lead to — rather than distract from — interest in the substance of public policy.

What do campaign professionals think of the forecasters’ work?

“They can predict the future, but they don’t know the future,” said Matt Fleming, communications director for the California Republican Party. “It doesn’t change our calculus.”

Fleming added: “I’m not trying to bash them, either. I certainly think it’s entertaining to read.”

Metrolink 111 was right on time.

The commuter train pulled out of Union Station just after 3:30 p.m. on Sept. 12, 2008, carrying mostly workers and college students heading home on a Friday afternoon.

An engineer and a conductor, both contracted through Connex Railroad, were at the reins as the train rolled northwest through the San Fernando Valley on its way to the Moorpark station on the Ventura County rail line.

Though he knew he was prohibited from using his cell phone while in the locomotive’s cab, 46-year-old engineer Robert Sanchez, throughout the journey, texted a friend, a teenager from Chatsworth who loved trains. Twice before, federal records show, he had been spotted on the phone and warned.

Sanchez apparently didn’t notice the yellow signal, before pulling into the Chatsworth station, telling him he might need to stop up ahead. Or the red one just beyond that station and before the route switches from two tracks to one.

He was to stop and wait, giving up the single track.

Barreling eastbound was the Leesdale Local, a Union Pacific freight train. Emerging from a tunnel, its crew spotted Metrolink 111 – and engaged the emergency brakes two seconds before impact.

At 4:22 p.m., Metrolink 111 collided with the Leesdale Local, each train traveling at about 40 mph.

Passengers, emergency officials and locals rushed to the mangled metal and fire to help. Dazed and bloodied victims wandered away from the three coaches. Bodies had to be pulled from the twisted wreckage.

In all, 25 were killed, including Sanchez. None of the dead were from the freight train. And 135 others were injured.

A decade later this Wednesday, the area is again pristine here on a bend in this part of Chatsworth, a corner of rustic Stoney Point Park and over the fence from a school. Plenty of pain remains, but at least changes were made to reduce the odds that such a tragedy will ever happen again.

‘Blood on their hands’

Kipp Landis just has to turn his right forearm for a reminder. A long scar marks where his surgeon cut into his wrist to put shattered bones back together again.

The doctor told him the effect of the impact was similar to what would have happened if he had fallen off of a three-story building directly onto his wrist.

“He did five hours of surgery,” Landis said. “He told me it was just like putting baby powder back together.”

Years, and hundreds of physical therapy sessions later, Landis was able to regain half of the strength in his forearm.

A 52-year-old lawyer and longtime planning commissioner for Moorpark, he was one of the few to survive Metrolink 111’s first passenger car. The crash telescoped the train’s locomotive into that car, pushing a wall of metal two-thirds of the way through.

Besides his wrist, many bones in Landis’ upper body were broken – every rib, two bones in his back, his shoulder, and his right arm.

Throughout his recovery, Landis marked milestones, such as being able to throw a baseball again at a Pepperdine University alumni game.

“I now sort of tell history and time based on the event,” he said. “Was it before the accident, or after the accident?”

Keith Millhouse was a member of the Metrolink board representing Ventura County when the collision occurred. He was elected chairman three months later.

Improving Metrolink, to ensure a similar crash could never happen again, consumed his life for years.

He counts Landis as a good friend and knows the mother of Maria Elena Villalobos, an 18-year-old student at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in downtown L.A. who was killed.

“It was absolutely a gut punch to both Simi Valley and Moorpark,” said Millhouse, now 58. “It hit so hard, and so close to home.”

Improvements on the railway

Every weekday, about 20,000 people from all over Southern California hop aboard the 25-year-old rail service’s trains, often for the long commutes to and from work. Last fiscal year, Metrolink’s budget was $243 million, about 35 percent of that coming from fares. The rest was paid through subsidies from L.A., Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside and Ventura counties.

Like other railways, Metrolink was slow to adopt positive train control, technology that both Millhouse and National Transportation Safety Board officials said could have prevented the Chatsworth crash.

The crash prompted the NTSB to set a deadline for all passenger trains and freight trains carrying hazardous materials to install positive train control by 2015. Metrolink met that deadline in June of that year. According to Millhouse, that set the standard for other railways to do so across the nation. Some railways have continued to request delays. The current deadline is this December.

Here is how positive train control works:

Now, Metrolink’s system links onboard computers on each of its trains with its communication network, allowing its dispatch centers and centralized computer system to know the locations of all of its locomotives. That helps the system predict if a collision is about to occur.

And the onboard computers can take over automatically if an engineer stops responding to warnings of an impending crash, or if the train is going too fast.

Union Pacific followed, in 2017, adopted the system for all of the tracks it shares with Metrolink trains.

Other safety upgrades were adopted immediately after the Chatsworth crash as well. Millhouse pushed for the installation of cameras in every locomotive cab to ensure engineers weren’t distracted. And signals across the region were replaced with brighter LED lights.

Before the Chatsworth collision, after a 2005 crash in Glendale, Metrolink replaced its fleet of cars with new models featuring crumple zones, areas at the front and rear of the car designed to absorb the force of a collision. The Chatsworth crash also led Metrolink to install tables that crumple more easily, after more rigid tables crushed the abdomens of some victims in the 2008 collision.

The technology to automate some processes of the tracking and operating of trains had been around for decades. But many railways balked at the cost, leading to a delay that attorney Ron Goldman, a partner at Baum, Hedlund, Aristei & Goldman, which represented some of the Metrolink crash victims, called “outrageous.”

Goldman said the reason for delays came down to prioritizing money over the lives of passengers.

“Every time they (ask for a delay), there’s blood on their hands,” Goldman said.

(In 2011, a judge approved a $200 million settlement for 122 families and individuals affected by the Chatsworth crash.)

Millhouse said finding other railways refusing to attack the problem with the same “tenacity” as Metrolink was frustrating: “People have died as a result.”

Despite satisfaction with his eight years on the Metrolink board, the Chatsworth accident has haunted Millhouse.

“I just somehow wish that everything could be reset and we could change the outcome,” he said. “That’s what’s frustrating. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about the people on the train, and the victims and their families.”

‘Every time you heard the train, you jumped’

That afternoon, Carol Shibel was one of three staff members still at Chatsworth Hills Academy, that school over the fence, which serves pre-kindergarten through eighth grade on a sprawling campus with ample green spaces and small wood buildings.

A field at the school became a makeshift triage area, where injured passengers were taken. The campus itself became a temporary command center for 24 hours.

For about one year, students were not allowed to use the field — officials feared the ground was hazardous from the blood of the wounded.

A recent day, through a line of trees on a small hill on the campus, Shibel pointed to the crash site — 10 years ago, it was easier to see, when the trees were still small. A whistle sounded from an approaching train, and a Union Pacific freight train rumbled by.

On the day of the crash, Shibel, a math teacher, sat with about 20 students inside a building on campus for an hour, trying to keep them calm while not revealing too much about what had just happened. Another teacher went to the triage area and sat with victims for hours.

“It’s hard, it’s extremely hard,” said Shibel, who now is the middle school principal in addition to teaching math. “For a while, every time you heard the train, you jumped.”

Mitch Englander, then a chief of staff for L.A. Councilman Greig Smith and a reserve police officer, was one of the nearby residents who went to the scene after hearing a massive explosion.

He and a friend jumped a wall separating homes from the tracks. They found the fiery freight train and the mangled Metrolink 111, and victims pleading for help.

“It was just chaos,” Englander said. “There were bodies strewn everywhere. People were stuck in the train and screaming.”

Englander and others rushed to the Metrolink train and began pulling victims, dead and alive, from the wreckage. As they found the bodies of the dead, they set up an area to place them until the coroner could get there. Some prayed over the bodies and administered last rites.

For the first year after the crash, Englander was often unable to sleep through the night, and he obsessively searched online for information about each of the dead.

In recent weeks, Englander has been reaching out to families of those victims to invite them to a memorial on Wednesday at a three-acre horse ranch in the shadow of Stoney Point, just south of the site of the collision.

The conversations have been emotional, he said, and recounting his memories of the day have brought back intense feelings.

“The imagery is so vivid,” he said. “It’s not just telling a story of something that happened. It feels like it happened last night.”

Metrolink 

1988-1990: Residents of Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside and Ventura counties pass a series of sales-tax measures to fund rail improvements and new projects. L.A., O.C. and San Bernardino countries purchase 173 miles of right-of-way from the Southern Pacific Railroad.

1991: The five counties choose the name Metrolink.

Oct. 26, 1992: Metrolink service begins. Routes on three lines are offered — the Ventura County, San Bernardino and Santa Clarita lines.

June 1993: Metrolink opens the Riverside Line.

March 1994: The Orange County Line opens as the longest line in the system.

October 1995: The Inland Empire-Orange County Line opens, with officials calling it the nation’s first suburb-to-suburb line..

2002: The 91 Line, from Riverside to downtown L.A. through Fullerton, opens.

Jan. 26, 2005: 11 people die when a Metrolink train collides with an SUV left at an at-grade crossing in Glendale. Metrolink begins developing train cars with crush zones and other technology to mitigate collisions.

Sept. 12, 2008: A Metrolink train and a Union Pacific freight train crash head-on in Chatsworth, killing 25 people and injury many others. The crash is the worst train collision in modern California history, and results in state and federal legislation mandating safety upgrades.

Feb. 24, 2015: 30 people are injured when a Metrolink train collides with a truck near Oxnard.

June 2015: Metrolink becomes the first rail system in the country to adopt positive train control across an entire network of tracks.

CHARGERS vs. KANSAS CITY

When: Sunday, 1:05 p.m.

Where: StubHub Center

Line: Chargers by 3

TV/Radio: Ch. 2; 640-AM, 980-AM (Spanish)

CHARGERS OFFENSE vs. KANSAS CITY DEFENSE

Philip Rivers threw 10 interceptions last season. Kansas City was responsible for six of them — and Marcus Peters, for three. But the cornerback was traded to the Rams this offseason, which gives the Chargers offense a chance to find its rhythm early. This offense led the NFL in passing yards last season, and Keenan Allen returns as the star of one of the league’s best receiving corps. The addition of a healthy Mike Williams, last year’s No. 7 overall pick, should help Rivers on third downs and in the red zone. Facing Kansas City’s defense could be a good test run for their chemistry, as starting safeties Eric Berry and Daniel Sorensen are currently sidelined by heel and knee injuries. EDGE: CHARGERS

CHARGERS DEFENSE vs. KANSAS CITY OFFENSE

Kareem Hunt might owe the Chargers a thank you. No team was as generous during the rookie’s march to the NFL rushing title, surrendering 327 of the 1,327 yards he collected last season. But starting linebacker Denzel Perryman missed most of both games due to injury, and his return should bolster the Chargers’ run defense.

On the other hand, there’s now an even bigger hole thanks to Pro Bowl defensive end Joey Bosa’s foot injury. Melvin Ingram is still a pass-rushing terror on the opposite side, but Bosa’s absence could limit how creative coordinator Gus Bradley can be with his scheme. That’s good news for Patrick Mahomes, a big-armed quarterback making just his second career start. Less pressure off the edge means more time to get the ball to Tyreek Hill and Sammy Watkins, two of the fastest receivers in the league. The Chargers will also be without defensive tackle Corey Liuget, who is serving a four-game PED suspension. EDGE: KANSAS CITY

SPECIAL TEAMS

Poor kicking didn’t cost the Chargers in their two losses to Kansas City last season, but that’s neither game was close. If this one goes down to the wire, newcomer Caleb Sturgis will presumably be an upgrade over last year’s placekicking carousel — but his counterpart, Harrison Butker, converted 38 of 42 field goals as a rookie. Another difference-maker is Hill, who has returned three punts for touchdowns since joining Kansas City in 2016. EDGE: KANSAS CITY

COACHING

Andy Reid is entering his 20th season as an NFL head coach. Anthony Lynn is entering his second. Reid has made 13 trips to the playoffs. Lynn barely missed his first shot last year on a tiebreaker. But the novice head coach showed his potential nevertheless, holding the Chargers together after an 0-4 start. Lynn has earned his team’s trust, and keeping his staff intact could pay off in the season opener. EDGE: EVEN

INTANGIBLES

MATCHUP TO WATCH

Chargers cornerback Casey Hayward vs. Kansas City receiver Tyreek Hill: The last time these two met, Hill toasted Hayward for a 64-yard touchdown catch, flashing a peace sign on his way to the end zone. “Deuces.” For what it’s worth, Hayward took the celebration in stride. Not many NFL players can keep up with Hill even on their best day, and the Chargers’ Pro Bowl cornerback was playing through a calf injury in that Week 15 loss. With both players now healthy, the rematch should be fun.

Of note: Chargers running back Melvin Gordon recently named Hill the sixth-best player in the AFC West. Topping his list? Hayward.

PREDICTION

The streak ends at eight. After four straight years of losses to their division rival, the Chargers finally get themselves over the hump. Rivers takes advantage of the playmakers around him, while the defense does enough to fluster Mahomes in his second career start. Chargers 35, Kansas City 27

Sometimes tragedy can be a vehicle for change. Ten years ago the deadliest train accident in Metrolink’s history spurred a transformation in both passenger and freight rail operations throughout America, but it came at a steep price.

On Sept. 12, 2008, a Metrolink commuter train crashed head-on with a Union Pacific freight train near Chatsworth. Twenty-five people were killed and more than 100 injured. These were parents, spouses, sons and daughters, co-workers and friends. Their lives ended too soon, but they left an enduring legacy.

As a result of this tragedy, Metrolink introduced safety advances that have made its operation in Southern California safer and also set an example for the rail industry. Innovations like passenger rail cars with crumple zones that cushion the impact of crashes and installing inward- and outward-facing cameras to monitor engineers in the locomotive cab and train movement are two examples.

In June 2015, Metrolink became the first railroad in the nation to have Positive Train Control (PTC), a crash avoidance system, operational on all its trains throughout its six-county territory. Metrolink also is the first railroad in the United States to achieve PTC interoperability with other rail passenger and freight trains that share its track.

Positive Train Control is GPS-based safety technology that can stop a train and prevent train-to-train collisions, over-speed derailments, unauthorized incursion into work zones and train movement through switches left in the wrong position. PTC alerts train crew members if a train must be slowed or stopped. If the warning is ignored, onboard computers will activate the brakes and safely stop the train.

According to the Federal Railroad Administration, human error is responsible for nearly 40 percent of train accidents. PTC intervenes to override human error. In that context, it is a major safety advance that can potentially help safeguard millions of rail passengers, track workers and others as well as freight movement.

In Metrolink’s case, in the first year of PTC operation there was not one signal violation.

The Metrolink staff, CEO and Board of Directors all aligned to deliver PTC ahead of the federally mandated schedule. To date, Metrolink has invested more than $225 million for developing, installing, testing and deploying PTC and several hundred million more for safer Crash Energy Management passenger rail cars, locomotives, grade crossing and other safety enhancements as well as significant ongoing costs for operations.

Coupled with the capital investment, Metrolink has adopted a safety first culture. There are strict procedures that govern every aspect of Metrolink activity from handling hazardous materials to prohibiting cell phones and other electronic devices in the locomotive cab.

All the capital investment wouldn’t make much difference if Metrolink failed to adopt a safety first culture. I’m pleased to report it has. The Chatsworth crash reminded us what counts — People.

It’s sad that it took a horrific crash to prompt change, but out of the tragedy, a new Metrolink emerged, one that will never lose its singular focus on safety.

Art Leahy is CEO of Metrolink.

The journeyman quarterback stepped into his throw, in need of a miracle. That Case Keenum was there at all, really, was its own surreal sort of serendipity. He’d been left behind in Houston and passed up in Los Angeles. But in Minneapolis, his career had been renewed, and with 10 seconds left in a divisional matchup with the Saints, it soon would be immortalized.

As Stefon Diggs caught his dart in mid-air and spun around, he saw nothing but open field. It felt like destiny. A Super Bowl, in their home stadium, was just one win away.

We don’t often talk about what happens after a miracle. In this case, that’s when it all came apart. A week after their last-second triumph, the Vikings allowed over 450 yards and were trounced by 31. The Eagles had decked destiny right under the chin. Minnesota was sent home to subsist on its memory of the Miracle all offseason. Philadelphia, meanwhile, won a Super Bowl.

A new NFL season begins Sunday, and with it, many teams – nearly all in the NFC – with more than a Hail Mary’s chance of winning it all. The Eagles are still soaring. The Rams are rising. The Saints are as strong as ever. Aaron Rodgers returns in Green Bay, and the Falcons continue to fly under the radar. And then, there’s the AFC, which, I guess, will have to send someone to the Super Bowl. (Who are we kidding – probably the Patriots.)

Among the true contenders, though, one stands above the rest. This team boasts the league’s deepest defense, with the league’s best defensive scheme and the league’s best defensive-minded coach calling the shots. It has a young, electric running back and two ascending star receivers. And now, it even has a Pro Bowl quarterback, one that won’t need any divine or cosmic intervention to lead his team to league supremacy.

The Vikings may have needed a miracle a year ago. But this year, they’re going to win the Super Bowl without one.

That Minnesota went 13-3 in 2017 in spite of being ravaged by injuries is pretty stunning if you stop to think about it. The Vikings were without two (!) quarterbacks for most of the season, while dynamic rookie running back Dalvin Cook tore his ACL one month in. An offense led by Keenum and Latavius Murray won 13 games.

That’s a serious credit to an unmatched and underappreciated defense, which coach Mike Zimmer has turned into a nightmarish blitzkrieg of complicated pressures and mixed coverages. That unit, which led the league in yards allowed and scoring defense, managed to improve at pretty much every level in the offseason. They added a Pro Bowl defensive tackle in Sheldon Richardson to fortify an already impenetrable front. After drafting another first-round corner – and then signing a top safety, George Iloka, to be a rotation player – the Vikings are also cavernously deep in the secondary. Four of their top five corners are former first-round picks. The other, Mackensie Alexander, was a second-rounder.

But the best way to contend for a Super Bowl is, as its always been, with a franchise quarterback. The Vikings knew Keenum was a long shot to lead them that far. They let him leave for Denver, thanked him for his service, and promptly gave Kirk Cousins the largest guaranteed contract in the history of the NFL.

It was a worthy gamble. Cousins, like Keenum, operates best within a system, and in former Eagles quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo, he has a coordinator capable of magnifying his strengths. But Cousins is taller than Keenum with a better arm and a mastery of play action. His ceiling is as high as any Vikings quarterback since Daunte Culpepper. And Cousins has never had the fleet of weapons that he will in Minneapolis.

He also won’t have the offensive line that he had in Washington. Keenum was the third-most pressured quarterback in the league a year ago, and already, the Vikings are dealing with injuries up front. Like any team with Super Bowl ambitions, Minnesota is going to need a few things to go right.

But the fact that a quarterback like Cousins became available for a team just a quarterback away … well, that sure seems like destiny, doesn’t it?

PROJECTING THE REST OF THE PLAYOFF PICTURE

AFC West: Chargers; AFC North: Bengals; AFC East: Patriots; AFC South: Texans

NFC West: Rams; NFC North: Vikings; NFC East: Eagles; NFC South: Falcons

AFC Wildcard: Chiefs, Jaguars

NFC Wildcard: Saints, Packers

AFC championship: Patriots over Texans

NFC championship: Vikings over Rams

BEST BET FOR WEEK 1

RAMS (-4) OVER RAIDERS: Every Sunday this season, as part of my NFL preview column, I’ll be offering up my best bet for that week of the football slate. This week, I’ll keep it local. The Rams look like one of the NFL’s best teams. The Raiders just traded away the best player on their roster. No one quite knows what to expect from Jon Gruden, but we have a reasonable idea what to expect from Sean McVay. The talent disparity here is worth more than a 4-point spread.

FANTASY PLAY OF THE WEEK

Andy Dalton, QB, Bengals: Before I lose all of my fantasy credibility, allow me to explain. Dalton is surrounded by a fleet of weapons, all of which are finally healthy. The Bengals offensive line is reportedly looking better than it did a year ago. And in a matchup with a Vegas point total of 48.5, a shootout appears likely. If you’re streaming quarterbacks or your QB has a tough matchup, you could do much worse than counting on Dalton for 250 yards and a few scores.

TOP FIVE … NFL TEAMS MOST LIKELY TO IMPLODE IN 2018

5. Browns: Even with all the talent, these are still the Browns we’re talking about.

4. Cowboys: Jerry Jones decided Dallas didn’t need receivers. Wonder how Dak feels about that.

3. Seahawks: An SI deep-dive into your fractured locker room isn’t exactly an ideal way to start a season.

2. Raiders: You’ve just traded your best player. Your coach is convinced it’s 1994. This could be a dumpster fire.

1. Bills: Nathan Peterman is Buffalo’s quarterback. You could set your watch to their implosion this season.

Joshua Hamlin sat on the shoulders of his father Joseph in the Santa Margarita locker room.  Head coach Rich Fisher was giving his team a pregame speech about Joshua, the honorary captain for Friday’s game.  Fisher told his team about Joshua’s struggle with pediatric cancer. “I want you guys to go out there and be at least half as brave as Joshua.”

“I’m glad he wasn’t on my shoulders,” said Joshua’s mom Vanessa. “The coach’s speech makes me weak in the knees,” she said, fighting back tears.

“Josh is my hero every day,” she said. “I’ve never thought he’d be thought of as someone’s else’s hero.”

Santa Margarita High School teamed up with the Jessie Rees Foundation to make Joshua an honorary captain for their game against Mayfair High School.  The foundation helps raise awareness about pediatric cancer and has as their motto, “Never Ever Give Up”

Joshua walked to midfield with Santa Margarita’s four co-captains for the coin toss.

Back on the sidelines, Joshua watched the players take the field.  Santa Margarita’s J.T. Thomas turned back and gave Joshua a high-five and promised Joshua: “Tonight I’m going to score two touchdowns for you.”

Thomas kept his promise.

He scored five.