In Division 3 baseball, Garden Grove defeated Paramount Cathedral City 2-1 behind Eddie Carranza’s pitching, yielding only four hits. The Argonauts are 22-3 and have won 10 straight games.

Also in Division 3, Westminster beat Paramount 3-0, settling the outcome with two runs in the bottom of the seventh. Tyler Mahle improved his record to 8-1.

In Division 1 softball, Pacifica defeated El Modena 7-2, keyed by Nicole DeWitt’s grand slam in the fourth inning. The Mariners improved to 25-5 and won their 17th consecutive game.

Other local softball teams were less successful. In Division 4 action, Los Amigos was hammered by Segerstrom 20-0, while Rancho Alamitos lost 18-0 to Los Amigos.

Garden Grove did a little better, falling 5-1 to Temple City.

On Wednesday, in Division 3 baseball, Santiago lost 12-3 to Bishop Amat.

Second round games will be Tuesday.

Also on Wednesday, Garden Grove’s boys volleyball team lost 3-0 to Saddleback Valley Christian in the Division 5 semifinals, but La Quinta swept San Gabriel Academy 3-0 to advance to the championship round.

That game will be today (Friday) at Santiago Canyon College.

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Don Alexander

Okay, it’s been several years since my last “bah-humbug” column. This is where I shed my usual jovial self and complain about stuff. Can’t help it. It piles up and I have to do it.

First, those umpires who don’t know a rulebook from the directions on a beer bottle. These are major league umpires! They should know that any pitcher announced in the game must pitch to at least one batter. It is the same in Little League, Pony League and girl’s softball leagues.

So in the top of the 7^th inning in Chicago last week, White Sox manager Bo Porter (when did he start managing?) took out a pitcher that had not faced a batter after Mike Scioscia replaced a pinch hitter with another pinch hitter. That’s okay to do with hitters.

Scioscia, whose team trailed by two at the time, protested the game after crew chief Fieldin Culbreth and his merry crew, Brian O’Nora, Bill Welke and Adrian Johnson, apparently said they never heard of the rule and let the game proceed with the illegal pitcher on the mound.

Now readers, this is a simple rule – 5.03(b) – and even sports writers know it. I think it is inconceivable Porter didn’t know it and I can’t think of a word to describe how I feel about the umpires not knowing it.

The Angels won the game so there was not an official protest but all the umpires were fined and Culbreth suspended for two games. Two games? Do the umpires even know there is a rulebook? Bah-humbug.

And now I see O.J. Simpson is back in court in Las Vegas and wants a new trial for his armed robbery conviction because, he says, his lawyers were incompetent. He’s been jailed for four years. Now his lawyers were bad? Bah-humbug!

Now I hear the best manager in the world has his job in jeopardy. Mike Scioscia, Angel’s manager, has seen his high priced group of players fall on their, uh, shields. Let’s just say their halos are not shinning brightly. They should return their salaries.

But now fans are calling for Scioscia’s head. Hey, is this the same guy who won Manager of the Year in 2002 with the Anaheim Angels? Is it the same manager who won Manager of the Year with the Los Angeles Angels in 2009? Bah-humbug.

And what about those pathetic Dodgers. They lost eight straight, the last one to Miami who has a $35 million payroll. The Dodgers seemingly pay their batboys more than that. This is another story of high priced talent with guaranteed contracts taking the year off. I hope they rebound and I hope the Angels do too.

But right now I can’t watch another loss in the last inning. But darn it, if you con the owners into big contracts you have to perform. Even if means you come out early to the ballpark to play baseball. Even if you have to watch more film. Even if you have to try harder. If you can’t do it, return some of your paycheck. Bah-humbug.

I won’t even talk about the Lakers and Clippers! That’s more bah-humbug than I can take.

The Kings made the Stanley Cup, 2^nd round playoffs. A brief respite from my bad mood. Congratulations Kings.

Now, the hard part. I don’t know if the Ducks made the second round by deadline. So here are two stories, One if they made it and one if they didn’t. You pick the right one.

DUCKS WIN! Congratulations to the Duck’s for winning the first round against Detroit to advance to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs against the Kings. This should be the most exciting series in the history of hockey. Both are great teams and split the abbreviated season series at two apiece.

The Ducks will have the home-ice advantage and that might be the difference in this rivalry that will be even more intense because of what’s a stake.

DUCK LOSE: Just what I needed. Another of my teams biting the dust. There was nothing but high expectations for this team and they would have been playing the Kings in round two of the second-layer playoffs. Bah-humbug!

 Don’t contact Don Alexander at Journaldon@aol.com until he cools off. That should be in a few days. He will return to his jovial self next week.

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Jim Tortolano

In Providence, Rhode Island, where I was born, there’s an area known as Federal Hill. In a state with the highest concentrations of Italians in the whole country, “the Hill” is ground zero for pasta, wise guys and Sinatra music.

It represents the traditional pattern of immigration in American history. People come here for a better life and initially cling to their cultural roots, speaking and reading in the language of the Old Country and regarding the nation to which they have moved with one part awe, one part disapproval.

But if you drive or stroll through Little Italy, you’ll see that all the signs are in English.  Everyone speaks English, even if they tend to punctuate it with some hand gestures and the occasional swear word more common in Naples than Nantucket.

The same, of course, would not have been true when the first generation of Italians came here in the late 19th century.  Like most immigrants, they were reluctant to change life-long habits. What changed them, and their children, was the great American public school system.

Schools brought together kids from all backgrounds. There were lots of Italians, but also Poles, Portuguese, French, Greeks, etc.  The education system (and its associated activities) taught everyone English along with baseball, prom night and pop music.

Everybody has to learn English because that’s the de facto American language. Being fluent in English meant becoming fully American.

Today, it’ s more than that. It’s the world language. In science, aviation and many other fields you have to learn English to function at all. No other tongue comes close to its influence and utility.

Now comes a proposal that may just be an attempt to roll back the central role of American English in unifying our melting pot public. As you may have read in the Journal,  a group of people led by Bao Nguyen, a member of the Garden Grove Unified School District Board of Education, is seeking to introduce “immersion education” in Vietnamese in local schools.

“Immersion” means just what it sounds like: you are dunked into the language completely, to sink or swim. The U.S. military and foreign service use the immersion approach and it works very well for people who need to become fluent in a language in a hurry.

But why would children in the GGUSD need to become fluent in Vietnamese?

If you’re looking at the languages (other than English), which have an increasing presence on the national and world stage, the obvious choices are Spanish and Chinese (Mandarin or Cantonese).  An argument can even be made for French, which is still a cultural force and is the primary language in many parts of Africa and the South Pacific, as a remnant of France’s colonial empire.

Certainly the Vietnamese economy is growing, but there is much greater potential for trade with Japan, India (Hindi) and Brazil (Portuguese).

No, the reason behind this idea is both cultural and political.  Many of the older generation of refugees from Vietnam, as first generation immigrants commonly do, tend to look backward to the Old Country. They want to retain the food, customs, mores and above all, the language from where they came.

This is understandable. If I were forced to move to Germany, I would probably find a Burger King and spend my time there eating Whoppers and speaking in CaliforAmerican instead of eating bratwurst and speaking German.

But when the second generation comes along, a desire to fit in and join the great American mainstream begins to take over. By the third generation, the battle is over.  You’re an American and the place you came from is a footnote in your past.

This is what, I believe, is behind the immersion concept.  A last-ditch battle against assimilation into what some older folks still see as an alien culture.  It’s doomed to fail, but there are political reasons why it might be attempted.

In Garden Grove and Westminster, bloc voting is still with us.  A candidate with a Vietnamese last name will often (not always, but often) count on support from his or her countrymen as a political base.  Ginning up enthusiasm for an ethnocentric program such as this appears to be can be touted as a defense of a culture under siege, especially to older voters.

If you go to this organization’s website, www.iviet.org, you get an idea of how inclusive it is. It’s entirely in Vietnamese.

Immersion, from what I can see, looks an awful lot like a prescription for voluntary segregation.  The vast majority of students in it would be Vietnamese, I’m guessing. It has the potential to be divisive and distract from the primary mission of public schools, which is to not only to educate, but to also enculturate.

And where does it all end? Will we have immersion programs in Spanish, Korean and Arabic soon after? I suppose we will if the votes are there, regardless of the absence of any apparent educational benefit.

What, also, about the cost? You’d have to buy books in every subject in the foreign language. Are there many calculus or U.S. history textbooks in Vietnamese?  Can we afford to hire dozens, perhaps hundreds of teachers because they have that fluency?

The whole thing just makes me want to say “basta!” (enough!).  That’s what the old folks in Federal Hill might say. But the younger ones, bless their Americanized hearts, wouldn’t know what that means.

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Wild card games were played Tuesday and most first round contests are set for today (Thursday).

In Division 1 softball, Empire League champion Pacifica will host El Modena, the third place team from the Century League today.

In Division 4. Rancho Alamitos, champs of the Garden Grove League, will host the winner of Tuesday’s wild card game, won by Ocean View 15-0.

Garden Grove, which was second in the GGL, will travel to play Temple City, champions of the Rio Hondo League.

Three other local teams started with wild card games Tuesday, Los Amigos hosted Coachella Valley and won 5-4.  La Quinta visited Whittier Christian and lost 10-0.

Westminster visited Valley Christian and lost 8-0

In Division 2 baseball, defending CIF champion Pacifica began Tuesday with a road game against San Juan Hills and lost 3-2, eliminating any chance of back-to-back titles.

Division 3 action today has Westminster at Paramount. Santiago visited Bishop Amat Wednesday, with results too late for our deadline.  Garden Grove, the GGL titlist, will host the winner of the wild card game between Warren and Cathedral City, the latter winning 5-0 to advance.

In wild card play Tuesday, Rancho Alamitos hosted St. Paul; the result was not available at our deadline.

Second round play for both baseball and softball will be Tuesday, May 21.

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By Jim Tortolano/

Wi-fi Internet connections as public utility is an increasingly common feature of many cities, but Stanton isn’t quite ready to hook up.

At Tuesday’s meeting of the city council, Gene Curcio of WiFi Wireless Inc. of Aliso Viejo spoke about the company’s hopes for creating a “model program” in Stanton.

“We’re willing to do this on our own dime,” said Curcio. “We want to see it done right” and to serve as a template for the “rest of the country.”

The wi-fi network would provide “low-cost communications” for Stantonites.

But the council majority was less enthused. Although Mayor David Shawver expressed interest, three of the five were not willing to consider such a project, for now.

“I don’t want to burden the staff at this time,” said Councilman Brian Donahue. “We are getting ahead of ourselves.”

The council did vote unanimously Tuesday night to give final approval to an ordinance that would ban most outdoor collection boxes in the city.

Also Tuesday night, Shawver announced he wanted the city to consider a moratorium on massage parlors in Stanton.

Additionally, he announced that the state Department of Finance wanted to take $9 million from Stanton’s general fund. “We thought the robbery was over,” he said. “We worked very hard to build up the city’s reserves to a place where we felt comfortable and now they’re back for more money.”

According to Shawver, sending $9 million back to Sacramento would slash the city’s general fund reserves by 72 percent. He added that the state also planned to take $4 million from the Stanton Housing Authority.

The post Stanton hangs up on wifi, for now appeared first on Garden Grove Journal.

Charles Patrick Drew

A registered sex offender being held in the 2012 brutal rape and murder of a 29-year-old woman in Stanton will now face the possibility of a sentence of death.

Last Thursday Charles Patrick Drew, 63, a transient, was indicted for the special circumstances surrounding the death of the woman.

The Orange County Grand Jury issued indictments on one felony count of special circumstances murder in the commission of rape, sodomy, oral copulation and sexual penetration with a foreign object.

Additionally, he was indicted for the rape, sodomy, oral copulation and sexual penetration by foreign object of an unconscious person, as well as assault with a deadly weapon.

Drew has two previous convictions from 1995 for forcible rape and assault with a deadly weapon. If convicted, he faces a minimum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. The special circumstances make him eligible for execution.

He is being held without bail at Orange County Jail and is scheduled for a pre-trial trial-setting conference on June 7 at Central Justice Center.

Drew is accused of assaulting the victim while at a Motel 6 on Beach Boulevard in Stanton May 17-18, 2012.  Authorities say the suspect asked a passerby to call 911 when the victim became unresponsive.

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By Jonathan Smith/

Medical marijuana advocates took up most of the Garden Grove City Council meeting Tuesday as councilmembers heard from several members of the community frustrated over the city’s decision ordering closures of medical dispensaries within the city limits.

The City of Garden Grove sent letters to more than 60 dispensaries last week, stating that they must close operations on Tuesday or face fines of $1,000 each day and possible criminal charges.

The city banned dispensaries in 2008, but never enforced the ban until now.

The California Supreme Court recently ruled May 6 that local municipalities can legally ban medical marijuana dispensaries.

Although there was no item related to medical marijuana on the agenda, several people, on both sides of the spectrum, spoke passionately about the issue.

“I beg of you don’t throw the baby out with the bath water,” said Mary Locken. “Please don’t take away my quality of life.”

Michael Evans also spoke in opposition to the city’s decision. Michael Evans asked the city to consider giving more time for the dispensaries to properly move their collectives.

“I’m asking you to reconsider the seven-day period in which you are choosing to shut down the dispensaries,” he said.

While most people spoke in opposition, some people attended the meeting praised the city council for intervening.

Dan Gleason of the Garden Grove Drug-Free Coalition also supported the city’s decision, stating that the decision will keep marijuana away from children.

“I just want to applaud you guys for your action to close the dispensaries,” he said “We think you guys are doing the right thing.”

People who spoke in opposition to the city’s decision suggested the city try to regulate or tax the dispensaries. However, Mayor Bruce Broadwater said the opposition should be directed to higher government entities.

“What you need to do is get ahold your congressman and get a hold of the state and federal legislation and tell them to straighten this mess out in this country,” he said.

“All we are saying is you want to smoke marijuana, you want to do this, do it somewhere other than Garden Grove,” he added. “The law is the same. We just notify you that we are not putting up with you any longer.”

On the agenda items, the council held a public hearing regarding the 2013-2014 Annual Action Plan for the use of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Most of the concern during the public hearing dealt with accessibility for Garden Grove’s resident with the Fair Housing Foundation, a non-profit organization contracted by the city.

The criticism dealt with the organization’s communication with the city’s Vietnamese-speaking residents.

Councilwoman Dina Nguyen said she received several concerns that the agency does not adequately provide the necessary services for the Vietnamese community in Garden Grove.

“I do believe staff may be working well with this new agency, but maybe the people we serve are not working well with the agency,” Nguyen said.

April Overlie, the director of education and outreach for the Fair Housing Foundation, said that the organization has been visible in the city even though the headquarters of the organization is in Long Beach.

She also said that over the past 10 months there were no issues of language barriers.

“We come to the city,” she said. “We are present in the city probably once a week.”

The city’s former agency, FaIr Housing Council of Orange County, was the former provider for fair housing services.

However, Allison Mills said that communication with the agency was very difficult.

“Phone calls went unanswered,” she said.  “E-mails went unanswered. It was very difficult to communicate with them.”

The council approved the resolution 5-0.

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“The Great Gatsby” is too glitzy.

By Christy Lemire/AP Movie Critic

If any piece of classic American literature should be depicted on film with wildly decadent and boldly inventive style, it’s “The Great Gatsby.’’ After all, who was the character of Jay Gatsby himself if not a spinner of grandiose tales and a peddler of lavish dreams?

And Baz Luhrmann would seem like the ideal director to bring F. Scott Fitzgerald’s story to the screen yet again, to breathe new life into these revered words, having shaken up cultural institutions previously with films like “William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet’’ and “Moulin Rouge!’’ This is the man who dared to stage the iconic balcony scene in a swimming pool, so mixing in a little Jay-Z amid the Jazz Age standards strangely makes sense.

But in Luhrmann’s previous films, there still existed a fundamental understanding of the point of the stories he was telling; beneath their gorgeous trappings, they still reflected the heart and the purpose of the works from which they were drawn. His “Great Gatsby’’ is all about the glitter but it has no soul –and the fact that he’s directed it in 3-D only magnifies the feeling of artificiality. His camera rushes and swoops and twirls through one elaborately staged bacchanal after another but instead of creating a feeling of vibrancy, the result is repetitive and ultimately numbing. Rather than creating a sense of immersion and tangibility, the 3-D holds you at arm’s length, rendering the expensive, obsessive details as shiny and hollow when they should have been exquisite.

(We should point out that the clothes, especially the dresses Carey Mulligan wears as the elusive, ethereal golden girl Daisy Buchanan, are magnificent, though _ the work of Luhrmann’s wife and frequent collaborator Catherine Martin, who serves as both production and costume designer. Watching “The Great Gatsby,’’ the film, makes you wonder whether all of this might have functioned more effectively as “The Great Gatsby,’’ the Vogue magazine spread.)

Luhrmann’s adaptation, which he co-wrote with Craig Pearce, lacks the sense of melancholy and longing that emanated from the novel’s pages, even though the script invokes Fitzgerald’s prose early and often through voiceover from Tobey Maguire as our narrator, guide and Fitzgerald stand-in Nick Carraway. Sometimes, as in the book’s famous, final sentence, the words pop right up on screen and linger in the air.

But there’s something about hearing and seeing them in this fashion that depletes them of the power they provide when we experience them on the written page. It’s a reminder that one of the most celebrated novels of our time, at its core, is a melodramatic tale of love and loss, jealousy and betrayal.

Gatsby himself, played with well-coifed panache by Leonardo DiCaprio, too often comes off as a needy, clingy stalker rather than a tragic figure and a victim of the American dream. But in general, though, Luhrmann’s “Gatsby’’ doesn’t get the fact that the book was intended as a critical look at a crumbling dream. It gets too caught up in the buzz of the party.

The plot, real quickly, in case it’s been a while since 10th-grade English class: The year is 1922, and young Nick Carraway has moved into a cottage on the nouveau riche Long Island enclave of West Egg with dreams of making it big on the New York Stock Exchange. Across the bay is the old-moneyed community of East Egg, where Nick’s cousin, the dazzling socialite Daisy, lives with her cheating, blue-blooded husband, Tom (Joel Edgerton).

But everyone, regardless of where they’re from, gathers each weekend for wild parties at Gatsby’s palatial abode _ which happens to be next door to Nick’s humble house. The normally mysterious Gatsby befriends Nick with hopes of reconnecting with Daisy, the one who got away five years earlier. Mulligan’s Daisy is more of an idea than a fully fleshed-out person, but then again, maybe that’s always been the point: that she’s alluring but tantalizingly out of reach.

DiCaprio, meanwhile _ despite the usual depth and edge he can bring to a role _ comes off here as a parody of a Fitzgerald character, tossing around Gatsby’s jovial greeting of “old sport’’ so often in his affected accent, it could make for a dangerous drinking game. Now that would truly be intoxicating.

“The Great Gatsby,’’ a Warner Bros. Pictures release, is rated PG-13 for some violent images, sexual content, smoking, partying and brief language. Running time: 141 minutes.

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Garden Grove, the GGL champs and the fourth-seeded team in the tournament, will host Saddleback Valley Christian Wednesday, while La Quinta will visit San Gabriel Academy on that day.

The winners will meet on Saturday, May 18 for the title.

The Argos reached the final four with victories over Southland Christian, St. Bernard and Arrowhead Christian.

La Quinta advanced with wins over Pilibos, Loma Linda Academy and Mary Star of the Sea.

If the two GGL teams met in the finals, the Argos would have to be considered the favorite. They are 21-4 and already own two wins over the Aztecs. Saturday’s win over Arrowhead Christian 3-1 was Grove’s 16^th straight win.

The Aztecs are 14-2, with their only losses to GGHS. They have a seven-game winning streak underway.

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