Toshiba’s board signed off Wednesday on selling its computer chip business to a group led by Bain Capital Private Equity, but the deal’s future remains unclear as Toshiba’s U.S. joint venture partner Western Digital opposes it.

Japanese electronics and nuclear company Toshiba Corp., which needs the sale to survive, said it hopes the deal, estimated at $18 billion, will close by the end of next March.

Toshiba announced last week that it has entered into an agreement with the Bain Capital group. But San Jose-based Western Digital immediately said it opposed the sale of the NAND flash-memory SanDisk joint venture, stressing it will continue with legal action.

Western Digital, which was founded in Santa Ana and long based in Lake Forest, said in a statement Wednesday said it was “disappointed that Toshiba would take this action despite Western Digital’s tireless efforts to reach a resolution that is in the best interests of all stakeholders.”

The company, which acquired SanDisk for $19 billion in 2016, said it was confident arbitration would help resolve conflicts posed by Toshiba’s chip division sale.

“It is troubling that Toshiba would pursue this transaction without SanDisk’s consent, as the language in the relevant JV agreements is unambiguous, and courts have entered multiple rulings in favor of protecting SanDisk’s contractual rights,” the company stated Wednesday.

Toshiba has been battered by massive losses related to its U.S. nuclear operations at Westinghouse Electric Co., which filed for bankruptcy earlier this year. Its decline, including earlier scandals centered on inflated bookkeeping, is one of the most dramatic downfalls of a major Japanese company long known for quality.

The chosen consortium also includes South Korea’s SK Hynix and other Japanese and foreign companies, and $3.2 billion will be invested to stabilize the chip business operations, Toshiba said in a statement. The deal will go through regardless of the legal wrangling with Western Digital, it said, without elaborating.

Toshiba’s massive red ink began with reactors it has been building in the U.S. which are still unfinished, partly because of beefed-up safety regulations following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.

Toshiba’s earnings reports initially failed to get endorsements from its auditors, meaning that it could have been delisted.

But the auditors finally signed off in August after an investigation that centered on whether Toshiba had known in advance about the losses that emerged related to Westinghouse’s acquisition of CB&I Stone & Webster, a nuclear construction and services business.

Toshiba has sunk deep into the red, although it is promising to return to the black for the fiscal year ending in March 2018.

Toshiba, whose sprawling business included everything from TV sets to high-speed trains, faces the main responsibility of keeping under control and decommissioning the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in northeastern Japan. Three reactors there suffered meltdowns after a massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011.

Cauldron Ice Cream, a Santa Ana-based dessert concept, is growing through franchising with new stores opening over the next year in Southern California.

The scoop shop sells small batch ice cream made on-site using liquid nitrogen. The first shop opened in 2015 in Santa Ana near South Coast Plaza. It earned buzz for its Instagram-worthy presentation using its signature “OG Puffle Cone.”  The large puffy cone has a pancake-like texture and big, outward facing dimples that resemble bubble wrap.

The founders say the Puffle Cone is similar to waffle cones sold as street food in Hong Kong. The cones have lit up social media and been the subject of stories in Bon Appetit and People magazines.

The store sells anywhere from 500 to 1,000 Puffle Cones per day.

The company’s second store opened this month in Artesia. Its first franchise store is opening later this year in Glendale, followed by a Chino Hills store in spring 2018 and a San Diego shop in late 2018.

“I love this brand so much. I want to see it grow,” said Tran, a franchise consultant who formerly worked with Newport Beach-based Fransmart, a franchise development firm.

The timing appears to be right for indulgent desserts. Retail sales of frozen yogurt and nondairy ice cream dropped 10 percent in the last two years, reaching about $299 million in 2016, according to Mintel, a market research firm. But sales for ice cream and frozen dairy desserts jumped 7 percent from 2014 to 2016, reaching $6.8 billion.

An oceanfront San Clemente house that once was the home of Surfer Magazine founder and filmmaker John Severson is for sale at $15.995 million.

Set in the gated Cyprus Shore community, the bluff-top, 3,361-square-foot house sits on a third of an acre.

Five bedrooms include a master retreat “tucked into the side of a cliff,” as the agent describes it, evoking the feeling of being on a boat.

The house, built in 1965, includes midcentury modern post and beam construction, travertine floors and a chef’s kitchen with a large island, two sinks, upscale appliances and a wine fridge.

More than 1,500 square feet of wrap-around deck envelop the home, at 405 Calle Alicia, located up the beach from the famous Trestles surf spot.

Gary Ward of Century 21 Award is the listing agent.

Severson, who died last May at age 83, is known as the father of surf media.

In addition to starting Surfer Magazine, his films included “Surf,” “Surf Safari” and “Big Wednesday.”

Life on the bluff became less peaceful and secluded after President Richard Nixon and his large entourage moved to nearby Cotton Point in 1969.

See also: Nixon’s Western White House in San Clemente for sale again – now at $63.5 million

Severson sold Surfer Magazine in 1972 and moved with his wife and two daughters to Maui, wrote Drew Kampion, a former editor at the magazine.

Severson released a book called “Surf” in 2014 and was inducted into San Clemente’s Sports Wall of Fame in 2015.

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L.A. Chargers GM scores Newport Beach home of ‘O.C. Housewife’ Meghan Edmonds

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. won’t be hunting for seasonal workers this holiday season, even as it gears up for a surge of shoppers.

Instead, the company is expecting its current staff to add hours and earn more money during the Christmas season — an approach Wal-Mart says was popular with employees last year.

The move contrasts with Target Corp.’s plan for the holidays. The retailer expects to add 100,000 temporary workers — a record for the chain — and is holding a nationwide hiring event next month. The number is more than 40 percent higher than last year’s 70,000.

Amazon.com Inc. hired about 120,000 temporary workers last year, but it hasn’t laid out its plans for the current holiday season.

Wal-Mart believes that enhanced training programs will help its existing staff step it up during the holiday rush, said Judith McKenna, chief operating officer of U.S. operations. The Bentonville, Arkansas-based company also has a far bigger U.S. workforce to draw on, with about 1.5 million workers.

“As we head into our busiest time of the year, we know associates are ready to deliver,” she said in a statement.

Job fair Thursday: Merchants at Outlets at San Clemente seek 1,500 seasonal hires

Need a job? Target to hire 100,000 seasonal employees across 1,800 stores

MIAMI — Jake LaMotta, the former middleweight champion whose life in and out of the ring was depicted in the film “Raging Bull,” for which Robert DeNiro won an Academy Award, has died, his fiancee said Wednesday. He was 95.

LaMotta died Tuesday at a Miami-area hospital from complications of pneumonia, according to fiancee Denise Baker.

The Bronx Bull, as he was known in his fighting days, compiled an 83-19-4 record with 30 knockouts, in a career that began in 1941 and ended in 1954.

LaMotta fought the great Sugar Ray Robinson six times, handing Robinson the first defeat of his career and losing the middleweight title to him in a storied match.

In the fight before he lost the title, LaMotta saved the championship in movie-script fashion against Laurent Dauthuille. Trailing badly on all three scorecards, LaMotta knocked out the challenger with 13 seconds left in the fight.

LaMotta threw a fight against Billy Fox, which he admitted in testimony before the Kefauver Committee, a U.S. Senate committee investigating organized crime in 1960.

“I purposely lost a fight to Billy Fox because they promised me that I would get a shot to fight for the title if I did,” LaMotta said in 1970 interview printed in Peter Heller’s 1973 book “In This Corner: 40 World Champions Tell Their Stories.”

LaMotta was “stopped” by Fox in the fourth round on Nov. 14, 1947, in Madison Square Garden. He didn’t get a title shot until 10 fights later.

On June 16, 1949, in Detroit, he became middleweight champion when the Frenchman Marcel Cerdan couldn’t continue after the 10th round.

Of the claim that Cerdan had to quit because of a shoulder injury, LaMotta said in 1970: “Something’s bound to happen to you in a tough fight, cut eye, broken nose or broken hand or something like that. So you could make excuses out of anything, you know, but you got to keep on going if you’re a champ or you’re a contender.”

Renowned for his strong chin, and the punishment he could take, and dish out, LaMotta was knocked down only once — in a 1952 loss to light-heavyweight Danny Nardico — in his 106 fights.

LaMotta’s first defense was supposed to be a rematch with Cerdan, but the Frenchman was killed when a plane en route to the United States crashed in the Azores in 1949.

So in his first defense, LaMotta outpointed Tiberio Mitri on July 12, 1950, in New York, then on Sept. 13, he rallied to knock out Dauthuille at Detroit.

LaMotta’s title reign ended on Feb. 14, 1951, when Robinson stopped him in the 13th round in Chicago. In a fight that became known as the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, LaMotta gave as good as he got in the early rounds, then took tremendous punishment. He would not go down.

In their second match, on Feb. 5, 1943, in New York, LaMotta won a 10-round decision, giving Robinson his first defeat in the 41st fight of his illustrious career.

LaMotta was born July 10, 1921, on New York City’s Lower East Side but was raised in the Bronx. After retiring from boxing in 1954, he owned a nightclub for a time in Miami, then dabbled in show business and commercials. He also made personal appearances and for a while in the 1970s he was a host at a topless nightclub in New York City.

The 1980 film “Raging Bull,” based on LaMotta’s memoir written 10 years earlier, was nominated for eight Academy Awards. Though director Martin Scorseese was passed over, DeNiro, who gained 50 pounds to portray the older, heavier LaMotta, won the best actor award.

In 1998, LaMotta, who had four daughters, lost both of his sons. Jake LaMotta Jr., 51, died from cancer in February. Joe LaMotta, 49, was killed in plane crash off Nova Scotia in September.

A funeral in Miami and a memorial service in New York City are being planned, Baker said.

“What’s this?” I ask, when the woman at the counter who just called my name hands me two bulging sacks of food, one of which is starting to reveal a few splotches of grease leaking through the brown paper.

“Sandwich and fries,” she says, double-checking the ticket.

“Just one of each, though, right?” I ask.

I grab the paper sacks and lift them off the counter. I’m confused by their weight. Each bag feels like it weighs two pounds. I rush to a table with my loot, feeling like a bandit, certain that there’s been a mistake yet all-too-willing to accept whatever might be hidden inside.

I open the first bag. It’s just a single sandwich, albeit one of the heaviest I’ve held in my hands in a long time. I open the other bag, the far bulkier of the two, to find a pot of pure gold. It’s the biggest single order of french fries I’ve ever seen. And they are beautiful: fresh-cut russet potatoes, thickly sliced and twice-fried. Each piece is so heavy, if you pick it up by the end it snaps in the middle of its own weight.

“Ooh, those look so good,” says a woman seated at a nearby table.

“Oh, they are,” I say as I stuff another one into my mouth as if I hadn’t eaten in weeks.

She looks longingly at my giant pile of fries. “I’m going to have to order some of those next time,” she says.

For a split second, I think about giving her half of my overflowing bag. But then someone behind the counter calls her name, and she gets up to retrieve her takeout order, then leaves without saying another word.

In a way, I’m relieved that I don’t have to share. But I’m also wondering how the heck I’m going to eat all these fries by myself. Impressively, I make it happen.

Nate’s Korner

Where: 3960 S. Main St., Santa Ana

When: Breakfast and lunch daily

Cost: $3.98

Phone: 714-545-5772

Online: nateskorner.com

Rosh Hashana, the start of the Jewish new year, begins at sunset on Wednesday, Sept. 20 and ends at nightfall on Friday, Spet. 22. Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, begins at sunset on Sept. 29.

Jewish denominational identity

Rosh Hashana

At sunset on Wednesday, the Jewish calendar will change to year 5778.  Rosh Hashana (the Jewish New Year) is packed with mitzvahs, special foods and traditions.

Rosh Hashana means “head of the year” in Hebrew. It is a time for reflection and repentance, and is referred to as the “day of judgment” or the “day of repentance.”

Rosh Hashana begins the High Holy Days or Ten Days of Penitence, which end with Yom Kippur.  During this time, Jewish people attend synagogue services and refrain from working.  It is also customary during this time to wear new clothes and get haircuts.

Another popular practice is to eat apples dipped in honey, symbolizing the hope for a good year to come. Also, challah bread in round loaves instead of braided loaves is dipped in honey instead of salt.  Pomegranates are eaten because the seeds are symbolic of the many commandments in the Torah.

Another popular ritual is to walk to a river or stream and recite special prayers of penitence. Afterward, one throws bread crumbs in the river, to symbolically cast away sins.

Yom Kippur

On Sept. 29 just a few minutes before sunset, Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar will be observed. Yom Kippur is known as the “Day of Atonement” and the following five things are to be avoided:

• Eating or drinking
• Wearing leather shoes
• Applying lotions or creams
• Washing or bathing
• Engaging in conjugal relations

Shofars

The shofar (ram’s horn) is possibly the most ancient and iconic Jewish ritual object. It is traditionally blown in synagogues on Rosh Hashana as well as other occasions.

Related: Accidental Talmudist comes to Downtown Disney to blow his shofar (ram’s horn) ahead of Rosh Hashana 

“The blast of the shofar is intended as a wake-up call, telling us to take the time to regenerate and reflect so that we can channel new blessings and bring focus to our life in preparation of a new year,”
– Rabbi Shmuel Fuss, Chabad Jewish Community Center of Riverside executive director

Throughout the shofar service, four different sounds are called out:

• Tekiah – One long blast
• Shevraim – Three medium blasts
• Teruah – Nine or ten short staccato sounds
• Tekiah Gedolah – One extra long note

In many communities, the tekiah gedolah has become an epic part of the shofar service with the blaster attempting to elongate the final blast as long as possible, especially at the end of the final service on Yom Kippur.

Having a blast

According to Guinness World Records, the largest shofar ensemble involved 1,022 participants at an event organized by The Partnership for Jewish Learning and Life in Whippany, N.J on Sept. 21, 2014.

It’s customary to say, “shanah tovah” which conveys the hope for a good year on Rosh Hashana.

You do that kudu that you do so well

Most shofars are made from a ram’s horn. However, many are much longer as the one pictured below, which comes from an African animal called a kudu.

There are some halachic concerns regarding their acceptability.

African Kudu are found in eastern and southern Africa and can weigh 600 pounds.  Their horns have been made into shofar for centuries in Yemen and when the Jews of Yemen first traveled to Israel, the Kudu shofar went with them.

The person who blows the shofar is called a Tokea (which literally means “blaster”)

National and state profiles

Overall, there are 4.2 million adults, or 1.8 percent of the U.S. adult population, who identify as Jewish when asked about their religion. Adjustments to account for Jewish adults who do not identify as Jewish when asked about religion and for children results in a total population estimate of at least 7.2 million Jewish adults and children in the United States.

You can see an interactive version of the map here.

Source: Steinhardt Social Research Institute at Brandeis University

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We are working on the issue and expect it to resolved as soon as possible.

In the meantime, readers can reach us by emailing customerservice@scng.com.

By MATTHEW PENNINGTON and JONATHAN LEMIRE

NEW YORK — President Donald Trump said Thursday the U.S. will impose new sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear weapons buildup, speaking just days after he threatened to “totally destroy” the country if forced to defend the U.S. or its allies.

The president placed the threat posed by North Korea at the center of his debut at this week’s U.N. General Assembly, escalating his rhetoric against North Korea amid a monthslong crisis over Kim Jong Un’s expanded missile testing program. National security adviser H.R. McMaster said Thursday the new measures would stop “short of war.”

Trump was asked during a meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations about new punishments for the rogue nation and said new sanctions were coming. Details were to be announced later Thursday.

Vice President Mike Pence told Fox News Channel on Thursday: “We do not desire a military conflict. But the president has made it very clear, as he did at the U.N. this week, that all options are on the table and we are simply not going to tolerate a rogue regime in Pyongyang obtaining usable nuclear weapons that could be mounted on a ballistic missile and threaten the people of the United States or our allies.”

Trump, in his Tuesday address to the U.N., said it was “far past time” for the world to confront Kim, declaring that the North Korean leader’s pursuit of nuclear weapons poses a threat to “the entire world with an unthinkable loss of human life.”

“Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself and his regime,” Trump said, mocking the North Korean leader even as he sketched out potentially cataclysmic consequences. The president spoke of his own nation’s “patience,” but said that if “forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea.”

The president was set to meet with and have lunch Thursday in New York with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who represent the nations most imperiled by North Korea’s aggression.

Trump’s overheated language was rare for a U.S. president at the rostrum of the United Nations, but the speech was textbook Trump, dividing the globe into friends and foes and taking unflinching aim at America’s enemies. It drew a sharp rebuke from the North’s Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, who said “It would be a dog’s dream if he intended to scare us with the sound of a dog barking.”

Despite Trump’s rhetoric, his administration insists it is seeking a diplomatic resolution. Any military intervention designed to eliminate the North’s nuclear and missile arsenal would almost surely entail dire risks for U.S. allies in the region, particularly South Korea, lying in range of the North’s vast stockpiles of weaponry.

Fears of a military confrontation are increasing. North Korea conducted a series of provocative launches in recent months, including a pair of intercontinental missiles believed capable of striking the continental United States and another pair that soared over Japanese territory. It also exploded its most powerful nuclear bomb to date. Prodded by Washington, the U.N. has responded with the toughest economic sanctions on North Korea yet.

Still, the impasse is no closer to being resolved. Russia and China, which backed the new sanctions, want the U.S. to seek dialogue with the North. American officials say the time isn’t right for any formal diplomatic process.

But other than using economic pressure to try to compel Pyongyang to give away its nuclear weapons — a strategy that has failed for the past decade — Trump’s administration has yet to lay out a strategy for a possible negotiated settlement. In recent weeks, the administration’s lack of direction has been all too apparent, as Trump and other top officials have vacillated between bellicose talk of possible military action and, at one point, even praise for Kim for a brief lull in missile tests.

___

Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed reporting.

Now that Congress has returned to the Capitol, there is a critically important opportunity for the Senate to pass legislation with sensible regulatory changes that will help banks of all sizes — in particular, our community and mid-size regional banks — better serve their communities and foster greater economic and job growth.

Current economic conditions reinforce the urgent need for Congress to act. In June, the Treasury Department reported that the U.S. economy’s recovery from the 2008 recession is the slowest of the postwar period. Loan growth, which is up only 25 percent, has been similarly slow, compared to prior recoveries, with home mortgages showing only 10 percent growth since 2010.

While there may be many factors holding back the economy, one is undoubtedly the impact of several hundred new financial regulations that were put in place over the past several years after the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010. Often these regulations have taken a one-size-fits-all approach, being applied equally across all banks, regardless of their business models or risk profiles.

In fact, a report by Federal Financial Analytics confirms that these one-size-fits-all banking regulations are negatively impacting banks’ abilities to serve their customers, finding that regional banks spend at least $2 billion a year complying with Dodd-Frank, which has the potential impact of reducing lending by $14 billion to $20 billion over five years.

California’s banking community urges the Senate to pass the TAILOR Act (S. 366) now. This measure would require financial regulators to consider bank risk profiles and business models when taking regulatory actions, and take a tailored approach to rulemaking. California bankers believe that if regulations were more tailored, there would likely be more capital to lend, which would foster new business formation and existing business growth, support employment, and encourage the flow of more money into local economies.

We are also in strong support of H.R. 3312, the Systemic Risk Designation Improvement Act of 2017, which addresses the arbitrary asset thresholds put in place by Dodd-Frank. We should not be treating all banks the same way, as all banks do not pose the same risks to the financial system. By determining regulations based upon an arbitrary asset threshold, banks with a lower risk profile are often spending more time complying with regulations than serving their customers. We need a properly calibrated regulatory environment that accounts for differences in banking business models by looking at a number of factors and capturing each institution’s true risk.

Support for a new tailored approach to the current regulatory system has generated broad support from several regulators and policymakers, including former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke,  Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and even Dodd-Frank co-author Barney Frank.

Finally, we urge Congress to pass H.R. 2226, the Portfolio Lending and Mortgage Access Act, which permits the safe expansion of portfolio mortgage lending. Portfolio lending involves making mortgage loans and holding those loans in the bank’s portfolio. It is a banking practice that is among the most traditional and lowest-risk lending in which a bank can engage. Loans held in a bank’s portfolio are well underwritten, as the bank carries all of the credit and interest rate risk of that loan until it is repaid. But, existing mortgage rules are too restrictive, and have made it difficult — and, in some cases, impossible — for creditworthy borrowers to obtain safe and sound loans from portfolio lenders. H.R. 2226 would treat any loan made by an insured depository and held in that lender’s portfolio as compliant with the ability to repay and qualified mortgage requirements in existing law. This measure would provide an important, and much-needed, safe and sound correction to the unnecessarily restrictive standards that currently exist, which will help increase the availability of mortgage loans to consumers.

Across the country, banks employ more than 2 million individuals, with nearly 200,000 of them working here in California. Lending is an integral part of banking, and helps drive our economy forward. Fulfilling that mission has become increasingly difficult in recent years, with ever-increasing compliance burdens placed on banks. We urge the Senate, including California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris, to support common-sense regulatory relief that maintains the safety and soundness of our banking system, and allows banks to better serve their customers and communities, while encouraging economic growth.

Simone Lagomarsino is president and CEO of the California Bankers Association.

Put away those bikinis and boardshorts, and dust off the snow gear.

The summer season officially ends Thursday, Sept. 21, and what better way to say goodbye to the season than with a little snowfall.

While Orange County woke up to gray skies as we transition into fall, Mammoth Mountain was getting its first snow of the season — and slope enthusiasts hope an early showing of snow means an epic season like the last one, which kept the lifts running until August.

The longest the resort has ever stayed open was in the mid-’90s, when skiers and snowboarders hit the slopes until Aug. 13.

The longer-than-normal ski season last year was due to a winter that pounded the region with snow, bringing more than 600 inches total for the season, with about 800 inches at the summit.

The figures were just shy of breaking the record of 668 inches, set in the 2010-2011 season.

The resort plans to open Nov. 9.

More info: mammothmountain.com 

Be prepared to pay up for housing in Anaheim, where the typical deal goes for above what sellers were asking for.

Here are homebuying highlights for Anaheim and Anaheim Hills from ReportsOnHousing for August. This house-hunting data tracks resales of existing detached and attached residences in the community.

Analysis includes August trends based on closed sales: sale counts; average price vs. average list price; high and low price paid in the month; average cost per square foot and average size; plus, based on broker listing networks stats on Sept. 7, the “market time” metric comparing supply of listings to new escrows opened in past 30 days.

In Anaheim …

Sales: 164 sold vs. 132 a year ago.

Average sales price: $559,416 that ranked No. 38 out of 46 Orange County markets tracked and was up 14.2 percent in a year.

Compared to list: Sellers got 102 percent of what they typically asked for — highest sales-price-to-list-price among the 46 markets tracked.

Range: High sale of $4,000,000 vs. the $181,000 low.

Sizing: On average, buyers paid $371 per square foot on a 1,508 square-foot residence. This pricing metric was up 9.4 percent in a year.

Market speed: 53 days, listing to escrow opened vs. 67 days a year ago and 55 days two years ago.

Meanwhile, in Anaheim Hills …

Sales: 63 sold vs. 59 a year ago.

Average sales price: $775,850 that ranked No. 22 out of 46 Orange County markets tracked and was up 15.1 percent in a year.

Compared to list: Sellers got 99 percent of what they typically asked for, ranking No. 14 of the 46 markets.

Range: High sale of $1,850,000 vs. the $332,500 low.

Sizing: On average, buyers paid $343 per square foot on a 2,263 square-foot residence. This pricing metric was up 2.6 percent in a year.

Market speed: 55 days, listing to escrow opened vs. 63 days a year ago and 77 days two years ago.

Compare those patterns to countywide trends …

Sales: 3,110 sold vs. 3,069 a year ago, up 1 percent.

Average sales price: $831,964 — up 5.8 percent in a year.

Compared to list: Sellers got 98.1 percent of what they asked for.

Range: High sale of $21 million vs. $58,500 low.

Sizing: $447 per square foot (on a 1,863 square-foot residence), up 5.6 percent in a year.

Market speed: 64 days vs. 78 a year ago and 80 two years ago.

CHECK OUT Jon Lansner’s daily economic-number-to-watch at http://facebook.com/econopuppy

Train congestion has led to major delays for Orange and Riverside counties Metrolink commuters Thursday morning, according to Metrolink social media posts.

Metrolink began reporting the delays around 6:30 a.m. and appears to be affecting several lines including those to Irvine and Los Angeles.

IEOC Line 805 to Irvine is delayed 45-60 mins due to coupling up to train 701 that had mechanical issues.

— Metrolink (@Metrolink) September 21, 2017

Update: 91/PV Line 700 to Riverside Downtown is delayed 1 hour 45 minutes due to train congestion.

— Metrolink (@Metrolink) September 21, 2017

Rancho Santa Margarita resident Fred Beato could never have guessed nine years ago that one day he would be standing in front of nearly 900 people in the auditorium of his alma mater, baring his soul.

It happened Saturday, Sept. 9, at Torrance High School’s “Concert of the Century,” celebrating the school’s centennial.

Beato, 65, and David Pack, a fellow 1970 graduate of Torrance High who had been in a nine-piece rock band with Beato in the late 60s, performed “Cuba BC.”

B.C., in this case, means “Before Castro.” It recalls Beato’s happy young life in Cuba before dictator Fidel Castro came to power. The song is a rock anthem that Pack, co-founder of the 1970s/80s band Ambrosia, wrote in his friend’s honor.

The song tells how Beato arrived in Miami in 1962, alone on a plane, a 10-year-old Cuban refugee. His mother had wanted to get him off the island. Castro was seizing property and jailing dissidents, including Beato family members.

Cory Beato, sending her son away to be raised by relatives, didn’t know if she would see him again. Seven years later, managing to leave Cuba, she found him living in Torrance. He had grown to be the drummer in a high school rock band, The Symbols of Tyme, that had won the national Battle of the Bands in 1968.

Soon after, the band split up, its nine talented members going their own ways, pursuing an alphabet soup of professions.

All of this came full circle at the Torrance High School concert. Pack performed a string of his Ambrosia hits. He and Beato, performing as The Beato Band, delivered a stirring “Cuba BC.” Eight of the nine members of The Symbols of Tyme reunited to play on stage for the first time since 1968.

The concert, produced by Pack, was a hit. “The reception from the audience was incredible,” said Kitti Beato, Fred’s wife. “I think it was beyond their expectations … the energy put out by the band from the moment they started playing together.”

The alumni response on social media since the concert has been phenomenal, she said.

Kitti sat in the audience beside 88-year-old Cory Beato, Fred’s mother. Mom tapped her feet, proud of her son.

Pack and Fred Beato also sang a second track from their 2016 Beato Band CD. Titled “My Old Friend,” the song celebrates their youthful years at Torrance High and how their friendship rekindled 40 years later. Beato found Pack’s website and reached out to him by e-mail. The two old friends were astonished to discover they were living only a few miles apart, Pack in Ladera Ranch.

When they reconnected, Pack noted the “Cuba BC” license plates on Beato’s cherry red 2004 T-Bird convertible. The plates’ message inspired Pack to write a song and do a music video and CD.

“I can’t put into words how much this meant to all of us,” Pack said of the Torrance High reunion concert. “It was epic to all of us that were there.”

Now living in Napa Valley, Pack said “it was really a celebration of life … and the commonality that we all started our foundations starting at the great Torrance High.”

After Ambrosia, Pack built a successful career as a solo artist, record producer and music director of gala worldwide events, including President Clinton’s inaugurations.

“I spent more time and work on that than the two Clinton inaugurals,” Pack said of the Torrance High concert.

Pack produced a video retrospective of the Symbols of Tyme. He tracked down the band members, some living out of state. He convinced keyboardist Susie Allen Lopez of Palos Verdes to reconnect with the keyboard after 40 years and overcome the fear factor of trying to play it again on stage.

Eight of the nine high school band mates performed at the concert. The ninth had a medical issue, Beato said.

Bringing four rock and soul songs back to life from the Symbols of Tyme’s 1960s play list, they didn’t miss a beat, after just one rehearsal together.

“Well, you’ve got to remember that we grew up in the Renaissance of rock ‘n roll,” Beato said. He likened it to riding a bicycle, something you never forget.

Beato said there is talk of the band reuniting again next summer to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Battle of the Bands victory it won at Atlantic City.

“Maybe we’ll do a full-blown concert with 20 or 25 songs,” Beato said.

For more of the story, see beatoband.com.

Daniel Hernandez made 19 saves and attacker Miles Abbott added three goals as Sunny Hills’ boys water polo team opened Freeway League play by defeating La Habra, 8-7, in overtime Wednesday night at Troy.

Chris Hwang added two goals for Sunny Hills, which knocked off the second-ranked team in Division 5.

In a nonleague match:

Mater Dei 17, Huntington Beach 6: Jack Seybold scored five goals, Wyatt Benson drew seven exclusions and Cameron Reagan made five steals to lead the visiting Monarchs (8-1).

It’s been a bad few weeks for natural disasters. A series of hurricanes ripped through Texas, Florida and the Caribbean, killing hundreds and racking up hundreds of billions of dollars in damage. Wildfires are raging in the Western U.S., and a pair of powerful earthquakes have battered Mexico.
Amid the terrifying recent events is a worrisome finding from a new report: The parts of the U.S. most at risk of natural disasters are also the places where property values are highest and increasing most quickly.
The data comes from Attom Data Solutions’ natural hazard index, which matches geographic areas to government data on risk of flood, earthquake, tornado, wildfire, hurricane, and hail.
California is driving the trend toward higher prices in more perilous locales. Earthquake risks abound throughout the state, while robust job growth and restrictive housing policies have driven rapid home price appreciation.
The riskiest 20 percent of U.S. counties have the most homes, the highest average home values, and the greatest price appreciation in recent years. Why? Buyers who pay premiums for ocean views and mountain lookouts may be getting some additional disaster risk as part of the bargain, said Daren Blomquist, senior vice president at Attom. Those kinds of geographical attributes are likely secondary factors in driving price appreciation, though. More importantly, Attom’s list of disaster-prone areas overlaps with engines of economic activity.
“The primary reason people buy a home somewhere is that there are jobs there,” said Blomquist.
In the aftermath of hurricanes such as Harvey and Irma is a tendency to question the wisdom of building population centers in low-lying areas unequipped to handle flooding caused by those storms. In recent years, however, homebuyers in flood-prone parts of the country appear to be factoring in the risk of such disasters, according to Blomquist. For example, the riskiest parts of Florida and Louisiana have been appreciating more slowly than safer parts of those states.

If you like Starbucks products like mugs, cups, coffee presses and such but you don’t like the inflated prices, then get ready to jump for joy. If you buy now, you can save up to half or even more, because the online Starbucks store is shutting its doors on Oct. 1.

I don’t want to utter the “C” word just yet, but these could be good holiday gifts to stash away for that person on  your list obsessed with the bean.

Gee, I know you need that 16 oz. stainless steel tumbler adorned with Swarovski crystals for a mere $37.49, marked down from the already bargain price of $124.95.

Too glitzy for your taste? Your basic stainless steel tumbler is marked down from $18.95 to $11.37, or a 17-oz thermal bottle from $25.95 to $15.57. If any of my friends are reading this, I wouldn’t mind having one of those, hint hint.

The double wall ceramic travel mug with a festive green holiday stripe is marked down from $19.95 to $5.99–a good choice for you-know-what-that-I’m-not-mentioning-yet-because-it’s-only-September.

Now, they’re going to charge you $5.95 for shipping, but it’s still cheaper than if you bought it in store, which by the way is not offering these sale prices. And, if you spend $50, shipping is free.

Clearly, the online business wasn’t paying off or they wouldn’t be shutting it down, though Starbucks continues to expand in the grocery market.

“We’re continuing to invest in amplifying Starbucks as a must-visit destination and are looking across our portfolio to make disciplined, thoughtful decisions,” Starbucks spokesperson Maggie Jantzen recently told Business Insider about the decision to shutter its online store. Whatever that means. Clear as its coffee, right?

Learn more about the big Starbucks online product sale here.

More money-saving tips from the Deals Diva:

12 ways to save on restaurant meals

Get a lifetime guarantee on these backpacks that really works

10 ways to save on foreign travel

Half price movies on Tuesdays at Cinemark

The truth about wine tastings

5 free things you can get for your birthday

Riverside County Animal Service officers on Wednesday seized 14 horses that they say were underweight from a Nuevo property owner previously investigated for animal neglect last year.

Sgt. Lesley Huennekens, the same investigator who impounded 23 horses in March 2016, served the owner, Joseph Guy Vachon, with a search warrant and he voluntarily relinquished the horses, according to the statement.

“Last year, Mr. Vachon was somewhat combative and uncooperative,” Huennekens said in the release. “But on Wednesday he appeared to want to do what was right for the animals.”

The 14 taken off the property Wednesday had been on the property during last year’s investigation, officials said. The ones left with Vachon – mostly stallions – were in better condition than the 23 previously seized by officers, according to county authorities. Investigators said it appears Vachon failed to care for the remaining animals.

Last year, Vachon defended his treatment of the horses, saying the animals were on the thin side because of their age, not because they had been underfed. Older horses, he said, tend to be thinner.

He has pleaded not guilty to the animal cruelty charges in the March 2016 case and was set to be back in court on those counts in October.

During Wednesday’s operation, a mare did not want to be trailered, according to officials. A video from the seizure shows the animal running from officers, but they eventually manged to get her inside the trailer without injuring the animal, authorities said.

Rescuers took the 14 horses seized Wednesday to two county shelter locations: the San Jacinto Valley Animal Campus in San Jacinto and the Western Riverside County/City Animal Shelter in Jurupa Valley.

Animal Services will now begin searching for homes for the horses through various equine rescue groups, officials said. All horses are immediately available for adoption. Officials ask experienced horse owners who may want to adopt the horses to call 951-358-7387.

Most entrepreneurs might be understandably leery about opening a brewery right now. The industry looks about as saturated as a bar towel after a keg spill.

Between 2012 and 2016, the number of craft beer makers nationally more than doubled to 5,234 from 2,420, according to craftbeer.com. San Diego County alone has more than 140 of them. Even Orange County, which came late to the party, is now home to almost 40 craft breweries, thanks to a flurry of openings in the last couple of years.

But Brett Lawrence isn’t like most entrepreneurs. When Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait draws the inaugural draft Friday, Sept. 22 at Towne Park Brewery & Taproom in west Anaheim, it will instantly become one of Orange County’s largest.

“I’m not worried about it,” Lawrence said of the crowded state of the industry as he led a tour of his 20,000-square-foot facility, which includes a banquet room and a brewing system that can produce 20,000 barrels a year. “I think the drinkability of our beer is going to make us stand out.”

With a 30-barrel brewhouse, a couple of 60-barrel fermenters and a 2,000-square-foot cold box (the space near the tasting room where draft beer is kept), Towne Park has been built to make and serve a lot of beer. Size is important since Lawrence recently completed a handshake deal with Southern Wine & Spirits that makes Towne Park one of only three Southern California craft breweries in the massive distributor’s portfolio.

A beer kit started it all

Lawrence, 35, is new to the beer business, but he’s no neophyte in the world of hospitality. He’s the son of Jeannie Lawrence, who with her late husband Rick bought Rancho Las Lomas, an upscale event center in Silverado Canyon, about 40 years ago. “I was born into the business,” Lawrence said.

After a stint owning and running nightclubs and restaurants in Los Angeles, he returned to Rancho Las Lomas after his father passed away in 2005 to help his mother run the facility.

Lawrence’s first experience with beer happened much more recently. “My staff got me a little beer kit in 2013 for Christmas. I brewed my first batch in 2014 – a blonde ale. In 2015 we started contract brewing. I finally decided to control my own destiny and build my own brewery.”

Anaheim is an increasingly popular spot for aspiring craft brewers. Tait, an avid beer fan, has streamlined the permitting process for small breweries in an effort to turn his city into a magnet for the industry. “Looking around the country, I see that cities like Denver and Portland, Oregon and San Diego have really benefited from being centers for beer making. I want [Anaheim] to be the brewery center of the Southland.” Tait estimates there will soon be 20 craft breweries in his city. “We’re well on the way.”

Movies, yoga and more

From the beginning, Lawrence envisioned something more ambitious than a storefront with a bare-bones tasting room. “For the last two years we’ve been conceptualizing this, and so we knew exactly what we wanted when we started construction six months ago.”

His team found an ideal place on Lincoln Avenue just west of the I-5 freeway – a former tire store with plenty of space for storage and other uses. “We wanted room for canning, bottling and kegging lines. We can do 12-ounce cans, 16-ounce cans, 12-ounce bottles and 22-ounce bottles on the premises.”

Thanks to the distribution agreement with Southern, Towne Park beer will be available in many popular O.C. restaurants, including North Italia in Irvine, Bandera in Newport Beach, and Sea Legs and its sister restaurant, Sea Salt, in Huntington Beach. Some beer fans are already familiar with Towne Park’s brews. “We’ve been selling kegs at Hi-Time (a popular wine, beer and spirits store in Costa Mesa) for about two years now,” Lawrence said.

Though Towne Park opens to the public on Saturday, brewmaster Jeremy Mayo and his team have been making beer at the facility since the beginning of August. “We’ve already produced about 1,200 barrels,” Lawrence said. “We wanted to build inventory for Southern.” The first shipments through the distributor start this week. The beers will be available for purchase at most stores starting Oct. 2.

The tasting room is set up for 16 different drafts (five additional taps pour coffee, kombucha, craft soda and tea). Towne Park is offering 10 beers to start, including a sour and a double IPA. A blonde ale, a white ale, a lager, an IPA, a pale ale, and an amber ale are available by bottle or can. All six-packs are $9.99 except the IPA, which is $10.99.

Lawrence plans to maintain a festive atmosphere where beer is part of a larger experience.

A dedicated food truck space on the patio can accommodate more than one vehicle. A banquet room with a built-in sound system next to the tasting room can seat almost 100, and Lawrence envisions movie nights and even yoga classes there. (It doubles as a barrel-aging room.) Each weekday will be themed: Monday will be industry night, Tuesday is for taco lovers, Wednesday is trivia night, Thursday will be reserved for cask beer on tap.

Lawrence even wants to make light of the trains that occasionally pass noisily nearby. “We’ll ring this whenever it happens,” he said, pointing to a large bell behind the bar, “and maybe do $1 beers for 10 minutes – something crazy and fun like that.”

Towne Park Brewery & Taproom

1566 W Lincoln Ave, Anaheim, 714-844-2492, towneparkbrew.com

Hours:

Monday-Thursday 4 p.m.-10 p.m.

Friday 4 p.m.-midnight

Saturday 11 a.m.-midnight

Sunday 11 a.m.-10 p.m.

You could call British director and choreographer Sir Matthew Bourne the Great Revisionist. He can look a classic in the eye and create from it a brilliant new vision.

Los Angeles audiences have known that since 1997 when Bourne presented his cutting-edge, homoerotic take on “Swan Lake.” It was a production that fired a shot across the bow of all traditionalists who believe ballet must remain forever frozen in aspic.

Bourne’s latest re-vision for his company, New Adventures, is inspired by the classic 1948 film, “The Red Shoes,” which juxtaposes Hans Christian Andersen’s 1845 fairytale with the backstage world of an international ballet company in the 1940s.

The American premiere of Bourne’s “The Red Shoes” took place Tuesday at the Ahmanson Theatre where it will play only through Oct. 1.

Stunning in every way (with sets and costumes by Lez Brotherston), the production premiered on Dec. 2, 2016, at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London and will end its U.S. tour in New York in November.

The film, written and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, starred a luminous Moira Shearer as the aspiring ballerina, Victoria Page, and featured dance legend Leonide Massine. It’s a wonderful movie and you really should try to see it before going to the production. It will provide a perfect inroad to what you are about to see.

Bourne’s staging is much more than a balletic homage to the movie. It’s a before-the-curtain and behind-the-scenes look at the world of a dance company on the road — a world Matthew Bourne knows well.

It also offers the perfect opportunity for Bourne to incorporate a vast variety of choreographic vocabularies — from starched tutu classicism (with a smirk), to expressive modernism a la Stravinsky and Cocteau.

There’s high-stepping swing dancing as the company lets its hair down at a French café and frolics on the beach in Monte Carlo. But the centerpiece is “The Red Shoes” ballet which culminates the first act in a surreal multimedia tour de force of dancing and visualization.

When it came to the music, Bourne could have stayed with the Academy Award-winning score by Brian Easdale, but he found it insufficient to support the scope he had in mind.

Instead, he looked to the film scores of Bernard Herrmann, finding in his music for “Citizen Kane,” “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir,” “Journey to the Center of the Earth” and “Fahrenheit 451” a wide variety of expression. Working with orchestrator Terry Davies, they created a symphonic landscape that could be propulsive and rhythmically driving one moment, jazzy and lighthearted the next, as well as lushly romantic.

The dancers are superb in every way, capable of executing the most complex and challenging choreography in myriad dance styles. But Bourne is also a man of the theater (and the movies) who expects his dancers to not only dance their roles but convey the inner reality of their characters. And they do.

Opening night’s cast featured a luminous performance by Ashley Shaw as the aspiring ballerina Victoria Page, inheritor of the red shoes. She was by turns (and lifts) lithe, luxuriant, powerful and assertive as if she was channeling the spirit of Moira Shearer. Her two duets with Dominic North, as the composer Julian Craster she gives up her career for, were brilliant as dance and drama.

The role of the domineering impresario, Boris Lermontov, was danced by Sam Archer. Glenn Graham gave a superbly demonic performance as the devilish figure who fashions the red shoes. The haughty prima ballerina was danced with divine condescension by Michela Meazza. The Premiere Danseur was Lian Mower.

Matthew Bourne’s “The Red Shoes” is a visionary dance/theater experience. SEE IT! It also features the best entrance by a machine since “Miss Saigon.”

Jim Farber is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer.

‘The Red Shoes’
Rating: 4 stars
Where: Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles
When: 8 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday through Oct. 1
Tickets: $30-$165
Running time: 2 hrs., with one intermission
Suitability: All audiences
Information: 213-972-4400, www.centertheatregroup.org