The Brief

Anaheim is set to release the results of a nearly year-long independent investigation into potential corruption and influence-peddling in city government.

City spokesperson Mike Lyster told LAist the final report will be posted on the city's website in late July or early August.

Nearly a year ago, the Anaheim City Council voted to hire an outside investigative firm after FBI documents revealed an allegedly nefarious relationship between Anaheim city government officials and powerful business interests.

Corruption watchdogs hope the results of the investigation will lead to changes in city rules regarding campaign finance and lobbying.

"Giving the election back to residents and back to the voters instead of special interests," said Ely Flores, executive director of the nonprofit Orange County Communities Organized for Responsible Development (OCCORD).

The FBI investigation that cracked open city hall

In May 2022, the FBI accused former Mayor Harry Sidhu of planning to solicit a $1 million campaign contribution in exchange for sharing confidential information with representatives from the Angels baseball franchise to help them seal a deal to purchase Angel Stadium.

Sidhu resigned under pressure, although he still denies wrongdoing and he has yet to be publicly charged with a crime. The stadium deal was canceled.

Around the same time, the FBI released an affidavit accusing then-president of the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce Todd Ament and Melahat Rafiei, a former Orange County Democratic party leader, of scheming to defraud cannabis clients and funneling the money into their own accounts, among other alleged crimes. Both pleaded guilty to crimes in connection with the plot.

The FBI documents also point to alleged widespread influence-peddling in Anaheim involving representatives of the city's big business interests, including Disneyland. In the Ament complaint, an FBI agent lays out evidence of a "covert group of individuals that wielded significant influence over the inner workings of Anaheim’s government."

But the FBI has revealed little else since last spring. To try to fill in those gaps and restore public confidence, Anaheim's city council voted in August 2022 to hire an outside legal and investigative firm, JL Group, to conduct an independent investigation into potential wrongdoing at city hall. They also hired a retired judge as a neutral party to oversee the investigation.

Recently, an L.A. Times profile of former city councilmember Jordan Brandman shed additional light on the tight relationships between government officials and prominent business leaders, including a Disney executive. The Times detailed several occasions where Brandman's votes on city council appear to be directly influenced by people with whom he had social and business connections. Brandman didn't return a voicemail left by LAist on his cell phone.

What’s the focus of the city-commissioned investigation?

The independent investigators' scope of work included:

• Identifying campaign contributions to the current and former mayors, and city councilmembers, and potential correlations between those contributions and city business. 
• Identifying potential correlations between consultants and lobbyists who were selected for city work and contributed to local election campaigns.
• Looking into developments and projects where campaign contributions may have influenced city decision-making. 
• Investigating potential violations of the Brown Act, which regulates public meetings. 
• Identifying whether and which city staff may have been involved in misconduct. 
• Recommending potential changes to local ordinances, and policies to improve transparency and accountability. 

The city paid JL Group $1.5 million for the work, Lyster said, although the total cost will be higher because the city also hired an outside lawyer to review the report. That work is ongoing.

What do city officials and residents say about the investigation?

LAist reached out to Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken and all six Anaheim city councilmembers by email but didn't hear back from any in time for publication. Lyster said city officials are trying to reserve judgment about the investigation until it's released.

Aitken campaigned on a platform of reform following the scandal surrounding her predecessor. She told LAist in December 2022 that she wanted to look into tightening lobbying restrictions and campaign finance rules to "make sure that we are being responsive to the residents' needs and not allowing just a few people to kind of corrupt the system."

Flores said he hasn't seen any related action from the mayor or current city council.

"No one is championing any campaign finance reform ideas or proposals at all," he said. "That's business as usual."

David Duran is an Anaheim-based community activist and co-founder of the People's Homeless Task Force, which sued the city in 2020 for allegedly violating the Brown Act in relation to the Angel Stadium negotiations. They lost that case, and it’s currently under appeal.

Duran shares Flores' disappointment in what he described as a lack of action to reform Anaheim politics and hold wrongdoers accountable. But he said he was "cautiously optimistic" that the report would shed light on the ways that outside groups influence city decision-making.

"Public information, I think, is key. I'm hoping that, at least, at a minimum, is what comes out of this," Duran said. "And then we leave it to the judges and courts and district attorneys and all those who do what they do to decide if anybody should be charged."

Will the public get to see the whole investigation?

The city has said it has to black out some names to comply with California labor law and city privacy rules. Lyster said the final report from investigators is currently under review by an outside attorney, the Anaheim city attorney, and the city's human resources director.

He said the city manager, mayor and councilmembers have yet to see the report. "It's meant to be an independent report without influence," Lyster said. "We're going to get it pretty much when you all get it."

However, he said the city council would get to see an unredacted version, unlike the public, which raises concerns for some.

"We would like to know names," said Flores from OCCORD.

"We know that there are people on the city council currently that were there while this corruption was taking place," he said, adding that the same goes for some city staff. "So we want to know if there needs to be more done to rectify what took place."

The city council has pledged to share the full, unredacted results with the FBI, the California Attorney General and the Orange County District Attorney.

About that FBI investigation

Larry Rosenthal, a law professor at Chapman University, said in an email that the way the FBI has handled the Anaheim probe is "troubling," especially with regard to the former mayor, Sidhu.

Rosenthal was critical of the time that’s lapsed – more than 14 months – since the FBI first made public its investigation.

"Those who have been publicly accused of misconduct should be either charged or cleared with reasonable promptness," he said.

Rosenthal commended Anaheim for following through with its own investigation.

"Anaheim has good reason to seek a broader investigation that assesses the pertinent policy and ethical issues, as well as potential violations of state law. A federal investigation will not address those issues, and no city should outsource supervision of its ethical and policy issues to federal criminal investigators," he wrote.

William Contreras hit a tying homer in the fifth and singled home the go-ahead run an inning later as the Milwaukee Brewers defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 7-4 on Monday in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series.

Four relievers combined to retire the last 15 Dodgers batters in order as the Brewers took a 2-0 lead over the two-time defending World Series champions in this best-of-seven series, which heads to Los Angeles for Game 3 on Wednesday.

The Brewers are chasing their second pennant and first in the NL. They made their lone World Series appearance in 1982, when they were in the American League.

Los Angeles is trying to become the first NL team to win three straight World Series. The Dodgers last rallied from a 2-0 deficit to win a series in 2020, when they beat the Atlanta Braves in a seven-game NLCS before going on to win the World Series.

The Dodgers will need more punch from their lineup to have a chance at getting back to the Fall Classic. They mustered just three hits Monday and went 0 for 4 with runners in scoring position to drop to 2 for 26 in those situations this postseason.

Los Angeles couldn’t even get a boost from Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who entered 8-1 with a 2.14 ERA in 11 career playoff appearances. Yamamoto lasted just 2 2/3 innings for his shortest postseason start.

The Dodgers took the lead on three occasions in the first five innings. Milwaukee responded each time, the last coming when Contreras tied the game with a 436-foot homer to center off Kris Bubic in the fifth.

That turned the game into a battle of the bullpens, where the Brewers again had the edge.

Dustin May, JoJo Romero, Abner Uribe and Aaron Ashby combined to shut down the Dodgers after Logan Henderson’s early exit.

The score was tied 4-all when Milwaukee’s David Hamilton was hit by a pitch from Brock Stewart to lead off the sixth. Stewart attempted a pickoff throw that went off the glove of first baseman Freddie Freeman and into foul territory for an error, advancing Hamilton to second.

After Jackson Chourio grounded out, the right-handed Stewart walked the left-handed-hitting Brice Turang to face the right-handed Contreras, who had homered in his previous plate appearance.

Contreras singled to left this time to bring home Hamilton with the go-ahead run.

Turang and Jake Bauers added RBI singles in the eighth to extend Milwaukee’s lead.

Neither starter lasts long

The anticipated pitchers’ duel between Yamamoto and Henderson didn’t work out according to plan.

In three previous playoff starts following Dodgers losses, Yamamoto had gone 3-0 with a 1.23 ERA. When he faced the Brewers in last year’s NLCS, he threw the first playoff complete game since Justin Verlander did it in 2017.

This time, Yamamoto couldn’t even make it out of the third inning before leaving with the Dodgers behind 3-2.

Henderson entered Monday having not allowed more than three runs in any of his 24 career starts (including the postseason). That streak ended when he allowed four runs over four innings.

Because Henderson committed two errors — matching his previous career total — only two of the runs were earned.

Milwaukee trailed 2-1 in the third when Bauers capped a 12-pitch plate appearance by taking a 3-2 offering in the dirt to load the bases with a walk. Christian Yelich followed by lining a single up the middle that brought home two runs and knocked Yamamoto out of the game.

Los Angeles bailed out Yamamoto by scoring twice in the fifth.

After Kyle Tucker hit a leadoff double, Tommy Edman sacrificed him to third. Henderson fielded the bunt and made a wild throw to first, enabling Tucker to score and moving Edman to second.

Edman advanced to third when Mookie Betts grounded out, and scored on Freeman’s sacrifice fly.

Henderson also had made a wild throw to first on a pickoff attempt in the third inning that allowed Edman to score from third.

Up next

Robert Gasser (5-5, 3.87 ERA) is expected to start for Milwaukee in Game 3. Gasser allowed one run over five innings when the Brewers won 3-1 at San Diego to clinch their NL Division Series.

The Dodgers hadn’t announced their Game 3 starting pitcher.

Actor and disability rights advocate RJ Mitte, who brought a lifetime of experience with cerebral palsy to fictional family struggles in an essential role on “Breaking Bad,” died Monday at age 34, authorities and his representatives said.

Cameron County Justice of the Peace Cyndi Hinojosa told The Associated Press she declared Mitte dead at about 1:30 p.m. at what she believed was his home in Brownsville, Texas. She said she was unable to provide a cause, but an autopsy will be performed.

Mitte played Walter White Jr., the son of Bryan Cranston’s chemistry teacher-turned-meth dealer Walter White on nearly every episode of the five seasons of the AMC show, which recently ranked as the best of the 21st century in a New York Times poll.

Diagnosed at age 3, Mitte told the AP in 2014 that his disability and the surrounding struggles with physical therapy, family problems and exorbitant medical bills — all key subjects on the show — made him better at his job.“You develop a different mentality and you develop a different look at how the world sees you and how you see the world,” he said. “You’re able to use that. And I think it’s an asset instead of something that would hinder.”

Mitte was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi.

He landed small guest roles on sitcoms after moving to Los Angeles to act in 2006. Like his character, he was in his mid-teens when he began his work on “Breaking Bad,” starting in 2007. The show ran from 2008 to 2013.

“Mitte brought authenticity to the role and built a platform on disability awareness and inclusion,” the actor’s representatives said in a statement announcing his death. The statement said he used “his platform to challenge stereotypes and promote greater representation.”

His later credits included the ABC Family series “Switched at Birth” and the superhero satire series “Guardians of Justice.”

He was also a producer of several independent films.

As an advocate, he served as an ambassador for United Cerebral Palsy and Shriners Children’s. He was also president of his own Mitte Foundation supporting philanthropic and community initiatives around disabilities.

The drumbeat of monster hurricanes in the Pacific has broken a record for nasty long-lasting storms east of the international date line, turbocharged by nature’s supersized El Niño, scientists said.

“Since September 20th, when Odalys formed, it’s been berserk,” said Colorado State University researcher Phil Klotzbach, who forecasts and studies storm activity. “This year just everything that forms is just lasting a long time and getting really powerful.”

One of the key measurements meteorologists use to judge hurricane seasons is called accumulated cyclone energy, or ACE, which includes a storm’s wind speed and longevity. On Sunday, a section of the Pacific east of the date line, which brews storms headed for Hawaii, Mexico and the U.S. West Coast, passed the old mark set in 2018. The area is still going strong with Hurricane Simon and appears on the verge of spawning another one that will really ramp up in strength, Klotzbach said.

On Tuesday, the Pacific will tie a record for most days with a hurricane spinning and is likely to break it soon after that, Klotzbach said.

“It feels like almost everything that can spin up does spin up,” said University of Arizona atmospheric scientist Kim Wood.

El Niño and warm water are boosting Pacific hurricanes

Several meteorological factors have come together to supercharge the Pacific, chief among them the El Niño, Klotzbach and other hurricane researchers said. An El Niño weakens and shifts the high altitude vertical winds that otherwise can dampen or even decapitate storms. In the Pacific, that wind shear runs east to west, generally with the direction storms travel, so it’s like riding a bicycle with a tail wind, Klotzbach said.

Meanwhile, the weather pattern has dampened hurricanes in the Atlantic, where the ACE is less than 18% of what’s normal for this time of year. El Niño makes the wind shear in the Atlantic like riding into a headwind, he said.

Another factor is warm water, which serves as hurricane fuel. By definition El Niño is a warming of the equatorial Pacific that changes weather worldwide. In the Pacific storm basin, it’s several degrees Fahrenheit warmer than normal, said Kristen Corbosiero, a professor of storm atmospheric sciences at the University at Albany in New York.

Usually in the Pacific, the extra warm storm-friendly water doesn’t run as deep as it does in the Atlantic. So when one storm goes over a patch of water, it brings up cold water and makes it hard for a subsequent storm in the same area to stay alive, Wood said. But not this year.

Hurricane Rachel, whose remnants swamped Las Vegas over the weekend, didn’t suffer as it went over, churned up by Category 5 Hurricane Polo, Wood said. She said the waters are warm from both El Niño and climate change from the burning of coal, oil and gas.

Another factor in recent storms was a counterclockwise atmosphere spin over Central America — called a gyre — that spits out seeds of stormy weather that can form into hurricanes. It spit out both the Atlantic’s Isaias and the Pacific’s Simon at about the same time, Corbosiero and Klotzbach said.

Five major hurricanes in a row

The last five Pacific hurricanes — long-lasting Nolo, Odalys, Polo, Rachel and Simon — have all reached major status with winds of at least 111 mph (178.6 kph). Nolo, Odalys and Simon hit Category 4, while Polo set the record for time spent at Category 5 at two-and-a-half days.

When Klotzbach made those calculations on the record-breaking activity of the eastern and central Pacific, he looked at all storms east of the date line.

That’s a slightly different approach from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which breaks that broad area into two regions. Neither NOAA-defined region is quite at record levels for ACE yet; put together they are.

Part of that is because often when one of those subregions is more active, the other isn’t quite as crazy, but in 2026 they both are hyperactive, Wood said.≠

“This is the first year that both sides have been this active together,” Wood said. “Usually it’s kind of focused more on one or the other, so that speaks to just the wide extent across this region of where there’s been that lower shear, those warmer waters, and that higher moisture.”

Off the Mexican coast is a disturbance that the National Hurricane Center gives a 90% chance of becoming Tropical Storm Trudy, which then could power up to something big, Klotzbach and Corbosiero said.

“It seems like that area is just one after another. So I would not be surprised to have another storm,” Corbosiero said. “This year, because of the El Niño, we do have very favorable conditions. So as long as there’s some sort of the seeds either from the gyre or from remnant ends of cold fronts, it seems like this is going to continue for a bit.”

California students enrolled in public colleges and universities are now eligible to apply for CalFresh, the state’s food benefits program, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday.

Students enrolled in a degree program at a California Community College, California State University or the University of California may be eligible for up to $300 a month to spend on food at grocery stores and farmers markets.

“We can’t expect students to learn if they’re hungry, and in California, there is no reason for them to be, whether they’re in kindergarten, high school, or college,” Newsom said in a Friday statement. “You shouldn’t have to jump through hoops to get the food benefits you’re entitled to, and now you don’t have to.”

Those who are enrolled in an associate or bachelor’s degree program, at least half time, can apply here. Newsom said that the state expects more than 200,000 additional students to enroll in CalFresh after program expansion.

“This is what government is supposed to do: help the people we serve. It is my hope that these changes will continue to make it easier for students to access CalFresh, the largest anti-hunger program in the country,” California Department of Social Services Director Jennifer Troia said in a Friday statement.