long

Let’s go back in time to the day when parents sent all their children to the same neighborhood public school, one brother after another, one sister after another. Coaches were thrilled. The youngest couldn’t wait to follow the big brothers, especially in football, to the school where they were once ball boys.

Fast forward to Thursday night at Davidson Field in Newport Beach. The quarterback for La Serna High was Grady Long. He’s the last of the Long brothers playing for La Serna. First was Dylan, a quarterback who went to Cal Poly Pomona to play baseball. Second was Jake, a quarterback who just got drafted by the Angels this year. Third was Owen, a 225-pound linebacker for Arizona State.

On the other team was junior quarterback JD Annett of Corona del Mar. Eldest brother Kaleb is the backup quarterback at Central Florida. Middle brother Brady is playing quarterback at Eastern Washington. JD made his first varsity start last week, then came Thursday night when he and Grady engaged in an entertaining duel that deserved to be on TV. Corona del Mar won 30-24 in a game that had four lead changes in the second half.

Long passed for 347 yards and two touchdowns. Annett passed for a career-high 289 yards and two touchdowns. He also ran for two touchdowns. Each had best friends help them. Landon Armenta had nine catches for 221 yards and one touchdown for La Serna. Nolan Scott caught seven passes for 115 yards and one touchdown for Corona del Mar.

The game ended with drama. Long was driving La Serna to a potential game-winning score when he completed a pass to the 24-yard line on fourth down. The clock showed 0.00 on the scoreboard. Just like the Michigan-Western Michigan college game earlier this season, the officials put one second back on the clock for a final play. The La Serna crowd was getting excited. But then the officials realized La Serna was just short of a first down. Corona del Mar took possession and ran off the one second to win.

“It was a great football game,” La Serna coach Andy George said. “We ran out of time. Both teams played hard. Nothing but growth from here.”

It was a game between two 4-0 teams. One had to lose but it was fun for all, each team answering the other until time ran out.

As Annett was leaving the field with a big smile, he said he was going to FaceTime his brothers. In defeat, the 6-foot-4 Long, who’s also a star pitcher for the baseball team, held his head high speaking to family and friends, showing despite a loss he’s ready for the next game, the next challenge.

Even though the Longs have no more boys arriving at La Serna, there’s a sister who will be freshman next year at La Serna. And the brothers say she’s the best athlete in the family.

Can you say flag football?

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.

ITV’s Long Lost Family is back for another emotional episode on Thursday night

A Long Lost Family guest breaks down in tears as he receives news about his sister.

The emotional ITV series, hosted by Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell, sees the hosts strive to reunite family members who have never met, including twins separated at birth and young mothers who had to give up their babies.

On Thursday’s episode, the show hears from Jake, 36, who lives in Australia but was born and grew up in the UK in a single parent family. Jake always knew that he was the result of an extra marital affair. His mother had been a nurse and had met his married father when he was a doctor at the same hospital.

Jake recalled that when he was a newborn, his father occasionally visited, bringing his two children Katie and Tom, who were aged five and three at the time. One of Jake’s most precious keepsakes are two photographs of his brother and sister holding him as a baby.

However, sadly, his mother’s relationship with their father did not last, and Jake never saw his siblings again. When he was 14, Jake and his mum emigrated to Australia.

Despite not seeing his siblings since he was a child, Jake has been desperate to find them and contacted Long Lost Family for help, emotionally saying: “I feel like I always missed out. I missed out on something, that, you know, was really a connection that I craved really. I’ve always somewhat felt a little bit alone. And I just need that connection.”

Sadly, Jake was unable to successfully meet his father after attempting to track him down and therefore unable to learn any more about his siblings. Jake had also tried multiple other avenues to find his siblings, but Katie and Tom appeared to have vanished off the face of the earth.

Even Long Lost Family struggled locating the siblings through their conventional searches. However, the team soon discovered in the series’ files something surprising after receiving thousands of applications.

Months before Jake had applied to the show, Long Lost Family received an application from a woman in Canada called Katie, who was looking for a birth father – with the same surname as Jake’s father. Following a DNA test, it confirmed that Katie was Jake’s half-sister, in an incredible discovery.

Katie is a lawyer who now lives in Toronto and she had no idea that she even had a younger brother. The duo’s brother, Tom, supports Katie’s decision but has chosen not to be involved in any filming at this time.

In an exclusive clip obtained by the Mirror of Thursday’s episode, it sees host Davina share the news with Jake, who breaks down in tears over the discovery.

Asking where his siblings live, Davina explains: “So… Katie, her mum met her stepdad. They moved to… Australia!” Jake is left floored by this discovery as he too moved from the UK to Australia. The guest exclaims: “No way, you’re kidding! No way!” before wiping away tears.

Jake adds: “So they weren’t even that far away. I can’t believe it!” Davina then adds that Katie is a lawyer and she has since moved to Toronto.

The guest then asks: “Did they enjoy Australia? Were they happy?” with Davina responding: “They’ve had good lives, I think the family situation, it’s been difficult for all of you, I think, in different ways.

“I think it’ll be really nice for you to be able to speak together about it. Weirdly, we found her because… she applied to Long Lost Family to find your dad.” This piece of information leaves Jake in tears as he exclaims: “Wow!”

Viewers will have to tune into Thursday’s episode to see the two siblings have an emotional reunion.

Long Lost Family continues on Thursday 17th September at 9pm on ITV and ITVX

Avril, 77, was recently reunited with her daughter Eleanor after 60 years on Long Lost Family after being told she’d never find her child

A Long Lost Family star has made an emotional admission after being told for years that she would never find her daughter.

Avril, now 77, was only 15-years-old when she became pregnant, her mum then shipped her off to a mother and baby home in Carlisle, where she gave birth to a baby girl she called Michelle.

At only eight-weeks-old, Avril gave Michelle up for adoption and she was renamed Eleanor. Avril sought the help of Long Lost Family’s Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell, who travelled to Newcastle, to find her daughter, where she was emotionally reunited after 60 years apart on the ITV show.

However, this wasn’t Avril’s, who also has daughter Sharon, first attempt to reconnect with her first child, having previously contacted a rival programme to assist her in finding her long-lost daughter.

Speaking to Express.co.uk, Avril admitted that The Trisha Goddard Show rejected her because they believed they would never locate her. She explained: “I was listed on a couple of adoption agencies. I tried The Trisha Goddard Show, and she used to help people find their family.”

The ITV programme, which broadcast on Channel 5 from 2004 to 2012, regularly featured emotional family reunions, deep-rooted family secrets or disputes concerning adopted children.

But after reviewing Avril’s case, Channel 5 bosses conceded that even with the programme’s resources, they wouldn’t be able to trace her daughter, reports the Express.

She recalled: “Basically, I was told that I would never be able to find her because she had been issued a new birth certificate.

“So that led me to believe that there wouldn’t be an original birth certificate, and I was told that by two or three different professional people. But after 30 years, you just think, ‘Well, there’s not much else I can do. Hopefully, she might be able to find me’, but you just don’t know.”

The TV star went on to share that her other daughter, Sharon, proved to be her greatest supporter when she considered approaching another television programme for assistance. She said: “I have another daughter, Sharon, and I told her about Michelle.

“She was the one who said, ‘Yes, you should do it’. So that’s what I did. I wrote to Long Lost Family, and it went from there.”

The mother and daughter were eventually reunited on Eleanor’s birthday, with Avril telling her: “There aren’t any words to tell you, Eleanor. That I’ve always loved you and that you’re still mine. You’re my child.”

It comes as the reunited mother and daughter recently appeared on This Morning, where Avril said of meeting for the first time and if they had an instant bond: “Yeah, she was back in my arms where she belongs.”

WELL, it’s officially long-haul season.

There is a specific point every September when the rain starts in the UK that I accept summer’s officially over.

Then I find myself looking beyond my usual European resort searches, and wondering just how much further the exact same holiday budget could take me on my next one.

Conveniently, right now is also a brilliant window for you to start hunting.

Airlines are releasing their fresh seat availability for the next 12 months, hotels are opening up their early-bird room rates, and some properly absurd package prices are dropping onto holiday sites.

When you break a full package down into a nightly cost per person – including flights, hotels, and sometimes full all-inclusive – long-haul stops start looking like an unattainable luxury.

I tracked down direct London half-term flights to New York with a 4-star hotel for £578pp, nine nights in Bali for £630pp, and a 4-star Caribbean all-inclusive break for under £500pp.

So whether it’s bagging some sunshine this winter or getting booked ahead for next year – here are nine long-haul holidays you can bag for seriously cheap prices.

1. Oistins, Barbados – £127pp per night

Barbados carries a reputation for high-end price tags, but target the lively south coast and the maths changes completely.

Oistins and Christ Church give you pristine white sand, local rum shacks, and direct access to the legendary Friday night fish fry without the West Coast luxury premium.

And unlike a lot of long haul beach destinations, self-catering works brilliantly here – grab breakfast at a local bakery, then use your savings to eat fresh seafood by the beach.

If you did fancy a deal for Barbados, I’d keep an eye on Virgin Atlantic and British Airways for direct Heathrow slots, or TUI for regional departures.

I found a seven-night self-catering stay at the 3-star Butterfly Beach Hotel from £890pp, flying direct from London Heathrow on 9 June 2027.

That breaks down to just over £127pp per night for direct flights and a beachfront stay… in Barbados!

2. New York, USA – £116pp per night

If Manhattan has been sitting on your bucket list, February is the absolute golden window to grab a budget package.

Yes, you’ll need a proper winter coat, but you get much smaller crowds, shorter queues at headline attractions, and room rates that drop by hundreds of pounds compared to peak autumn or Christmas.

Skip the inflated hotel blocks right on Times Square: Lower Manhattan puts you steps from Chinatown, Little Italy, and Soho, with quick Subway links everywhere else.

Plus, airlines fiercely compete on this route, driving package prices down when new seat blocks open up.

I even clocked five nights at the 4-star Wyndham Garden Chinatown over February half-term – departing 14 February 2027 – for £578pp, flying direct from London Heathrow.

When you break it down, that works out to less than £116pp per night for five nights in the Big Apple.

3. Tokyo, Japan – £101pp per night

February is an underrated time to explore Tokyo, in my opinion.

It’s dry, crisp, and significantly calmer than the cherry-blossom season.

You can wander through historic temples, ramen alleys, and neon cityscapes without fighting through wall-to-wall tour groups.

To maximise your budget, target hotels slightly outside the main tourist hubs of Shinjuku or Shibuya. And because Tokyo’s rail network is unmatched, staying a few stops out slashes your hotel bill without adding any stress.

The 4-star Tokyo Bay Shiomi Prince Hotel sits in the quiet bay area with direct rail links into central Tokyo and Disney Resort.

And it’s where I found a seven-night package for £805pp, including flights from Manchester with hold luggage included, departing 17 February 2027 – working out to a little under £101pp per night.

4. Hanoi, Vietnam – £95pp per night

Hanoi is where you head if you want a long-haul trip that feels like a genuine adventure.

It’s a sensory overload of ancient temples, bustling night markets, and amazing street food stalls.

There’s also a brilliant local coffee culture, serving as the ultimate launchpad for overnight cruises around Ha Long Bay.

June brings tropical warmth and greener mountain landscapes, unlocking some of the lowest package pricing on the board.

You can grab seven nights with breakfast at the 5-star Lucien Hanoi Lakeside Hotel and Rooftop for £758pp, with indirect Manchester flights and hold luggage departing 6 June 2027.

That’s a full 5-star south-east Asian escape for just £95pp per night.

5. Jumeirah Village Circle, Dubai – £75pp per night

Dubai is the ultimate option if you want guaranteed long haul sunshine without committing to a two-week journey.

A seven-hour flight gets you world-class dining, rooftop pools, and massive shopping malls.

The single biggest insider trick to saving money in Dubai is looking just past the expensive beach strip.

Inland developments like Jumeirah Village Circle offer far higher hotel specs for a fraction of the cost.

Plus these spots have plenty of cheap, frequent taxis connecting you to the beach in 15 minutes.

Our booking data shows Dubai is dominating long-haul demand right now too.

It’s no wonder either, because I found a seven-night bed and breakfast stay at the 4-star The First Collection at JVC for £598pp, including direct Gatwick flights and hold luggage, departing 20 June 2027.

That comes out to just £75pp per night, which is a pretty extraordinary price for a Dubai holiday of this quality.

6. Patong, Phuket – £72pp per night

Thailand remains the reigning champion for ground-level value.

While long-haul flights require an upfront investment, everyday costs in Thailand – from street-food meals to local transport – cost pennies once you arrive.

Patong is Phuket’s lively epicentre, packing hundreds of restaurants, beach bars, and night markets into a walkable strip.

But connecting flights via Dubai, Doha, or Abu Dhabi keep the package prices remarkably low throughout autumn.

So I managed to track down a seven-night stay at the 3-star Red Planet Phuket Patong for £650pp, including indirect Heathrow flights and hold luggage departing 5 October 2026.

That delivers a week under the Thai sun for an incredible £72pp per night.

7. Playa del Carmen, Mexico – £71pp per night

Mexico’s Riviera Maya serves up the perfect balance of Caribbean beaches, a bit of history, and incredible food.

And Playa del Carmen is ideal because it combines palm-lined beaches with a buzzing, walkable strip along 5th Avenue.

That said, all-inclusive is a must here for keeping your spending under control, particularly for families.

Autumn sits in the tropical shoulder season, unlocking huge package drops while still delivering daily sunshine.

I flagged what I think is a bit of a pricing loophole right now: seven nights all-inclusive at the 4-star The Reef Coco Beach, including direct Manchester flights departing 5 October 2026, for £500pp.

That’s full all-inclusive on a Caribbean beach for £71pp per night – tough to beat!

8. Kuta, Bali – £70pp per night

Bali is unbeatable if you want an extended, laid-back break where your spending money goes miles further.

Kuta and neighbouring Legian are a convenient, high-value base packed with beachfront cafes, surf spots, and local markets.

It’s worth ticking this paradise island off your bucket list while prices are low, and in Kuta you can try everything from surfing to ticking off amazing temples.

The Sevn Legian hotel is an ideal base to book, with modern rooms, a great pool and a swim-up bar.

I clocked seven nights at the 4-star Sevn Legian for £630pp, including indirect London Heathrow flights and hold luggage departing 25 February 2027.

That works out at just £70pp per night for seven nights in Bali. Run, don’t walk…

9. Punta Cana, Dominican Republic – £68pp per night

If your goal is a classic Caribbean beach break with no extra spending once you arrive, Punta Cana easily takes the number one spot in my list.

All inclusive dominates this coastline – 97% of Punta Cana bookings with On the Beach opt for it – and our recent data shows package prices sitting at near-record lows (down 14% fortnight-on-fortnight).

You get turquoise water, swaying palm trees, and expansive 4-star beachfront resorts for three-star European prices.

And even better, I found a seven-night all-inclusive stay at the 4-star Sunscape Coco Punta Cana for just £478pp, including direct Manchester flights departing 6 October 2026.

That’s flights, 4-star accommodation, all meals, and all drinks in the Caribbean for a staggering £68pp per night.

This is definitely the one I’d be booking right now.

For an issue that received so much publicity at its peak — images of prisoners in triple bunk beds and overflowing into multipurpose rooms — the end of California’s prison crisis came quietly last week, when the state brought home the last of its inmates held in a private lockup northwest of Tucson.

Making good on a pledge by Gov. Gavin Newsom to finish the process begun in 2012, state prison officials have wrapped up the contracts with all out-of-state prisons. California’s prison overcrowding problems are now a thing of the past.

“At one point, at the height of our overcrowding, we had nearly 10,400 inmates out of state,” said Ralph Diaz, secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. “To me, that meant 10,400 inmates away from their families, away from California. It was just a place we didn’t want to be.”

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The use of private prisons — six facilities in states as far away as Mississippi — began in 2006. Inmates were shuttled away at various intervals over the 13 years that followed, a cost that was unavoidable to help resolve a problem that was years in the making.

Lawsuits challenging conditions inside California’s crowded prisons resulted in a fixed cap on the inmate population, one imposed by federal judges in 2009 and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2011 and again in 2013. Those decisions came in the wake of a 2006 announcement that outside experts would run the state’s prison healthcare system. Some of that independent oversight continues, though the state has made strides to resume control of health services.

Prison spending in the state’s new fiscal year will total some $15.7 billion — a $2.6-billion increase in the last four years and only slightly lower, by percentage, than what the budget earmarks for colleges and universities.

How the inmate population came down, though, is a story of criminal justice programs that sought to limit prison time to those convicted of the most serious and violent felonies. In the year before a major realignment of criminal justice services to California’s counties, 58% of new prison sentences were for property or drug crimes.

But the changes that shifted many of those crimes away from prison — keeping more offenders in local jails, reducing penalties for property crimes and a sweeping expansion of parole — have not come without controversy. Critics have said too many lower-level offenders have been responsible for new crimes. And a vocal coalition of victim advocates drafted a plan for voters to change those parole rules through a measure that has qualified for the November 2020 ballot.

State prison officials said last week the total population across 34 facilities now stands at just under 126,000 inmates — below the maximum number allowed by the courts. But the room for growth is not sizable enough to return to the era of long prison sentences, a shift that would require the state to do something almost unheard of in recent years: build more prisons.

Nor will it be as cheap to house those inmates in California. Corrections officials said it cost an average of $31,106 per inmate sent out of state last year — but those in state cost an average of $82,910 a year.

Still, the end of the out-of-state transfers marks an important moment. Diaz, who was appointed by the governor in March to run the prison system, said it sends an important message about accountability.

“It feels a lot better when I’m able to pick up the phone and send someone directly within a day to a prison under my care,” he said.

john.myers@latimes.com

Follow @johnmyers on Twitter and sign up for our daily Essential Politics newsletter

A man from London was determined to find his sister, following the death of their mother

A brother and sister have finally been reunited after they both applied to appear on the ITV show.

The latest episode of Long Lost Family, which aired on Thursday (September 10), followed Michael, 56, who was trying to find his older sister, whom he had never met. The retail worker from South East London was determined to fulfill his mother’s dying wish to track down his sister, who had been given up for adoption as a baby.

Mary had been in a Catholic mother and baby home when she took care of her daughter, Angela, for three months before she was placed for adoption. But Michael explained that his mother didn’t think she had a choice.

Their mother, Mary, died of cancer eight years ago at the age of 74, and she had asked Michael to find his sister, Angela, for her. “She said, could you please try and find Angela for me please?” Michael shared. Ever since then, he has been desperate to find her.

Two years ago, in an attempt to find his sister, Michael took a DNA test and got a match with a woman named Gemma. The DNA report suggested that she was his half-sister. He assumed that Gemma was Angela’s new adoptive name and messaged her, however, he never received a reply.

“It’s made me happy, but in another way, it’s made me sad because obviously she’s been looking. It makes me think, why is she not on here, she’s given up. I’m so close now,” he said.

Michael went on: “I’m so close. And it’s like just a brick wall is just there. But I want to knock this brick wall down, but it’s very difficult.” In a twist, the Long Lost Family team discovered that Gemma, who had been named Angela at birth, had also contacted the show in the past to find her biological family.

Gemma was told about her mother’s death off-screen before host Nicky Campbell informed her that she had a brother, and passed on an emotional message. “Your brother, Michael, wanted to tell you that she didn’t want to give you up for adoption. She thought about you every day. She always, always loved you, and she wanted to tell you that. She wanted to see you and tell you that”, Nicky told Gemma.

Later in the episode, Davina McCall informed Michael of the wonderful news that Gemma had been found. This left him feeling incredibly emotional to hear that his sister wanted to have contact with him.

Davina explained: “She has been looking for 30 years. She was really sad to hear that your mum had died, but she was so grateful that someone was looking for her. She applied for Long Lost Family, so it’s incredible.”

Michael couldn’t wait to meet her but wistfully said, “I just wish my mum was here. 30 years? Oh god, if only I had knew.” Gemma traveled from Manchester to London to meet her brother, and when they came face-to-face, they could not stop crying. “This has been the best day of my life. It’s like a dream come true, I finally met my sister,” Michael added.

Long Lost Family is available to stream on ITVX

THE Office star Lucy Davis has tackled a terrifying zip-wire challenge amid her terminal cancer fight.

The 53-year-old announced last month that she’s been diagnosed with incurable stage four breast cancer.

She admitted “I don’t know how long I have left” as she revealed the tragic news with her followers in a video on social media.

However, Lucy said she was determined to have as much fun as she can during the time she has left and she’s doing exactly that.

The daredevil shared her pride on Wednesday after completing a gruelling hike followed by a scary zip line through a California canyon.

She took to Instagram to share pictures of herself on the hike as well as video of the moment she bravely took on the zip line.

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Lucy penned: “I loved this #zipline and I was a bit proud of myself for doing it because they said to be prepared for a 25 minute walk, so I took my pain meds an hour before in preparation.

“In previous zip lines, I’ve always been driven up to the first line, and the walking is in between the lines.

“But no. This was a legit hike up to the first zip. It took me one hour and 15 minutes.

“I was so grateful for the support of the guides and my friend @jharris1231 who helped me up, and the other people on the hike that never judged me or made me feel stupid. Thank you.”

Her fans flocked to the comments section as one expressed: “Still living to the fullest and experiencing life. Good on you!”

Another person commented: “Oh wow, you’re fabulous Lucy. Still chokes me up though.”

Somebody else gushed: “You are such an inspiration. Also, whenever I see you I remember Aunt Hilda, she was so comforting as a character.

“You really played her so well, you’re truly amazing. So talented and inspiring.”

Yet another added: “My gosh Lucy, so much courage! You are such an inspiration.”

Lucy took to Instagram last month to share her heartbreaking news.

She wrote: “Hi friends:) I wanted to share something with you all that I’ve kept to myself for a while but for various reasons would like to share now.

“A year and a half ago I was diagnosed with Stage 4 Breast Cancer, which has metastasized to my bones. Specifically to my spine, right hip, and my ribs. The cancer is incurable, and too late for chemo.

“The initial lump that I felt, wasn’t a ‘lump’ as such; rather a kind of hard spot. Really tiny.

“I almost didn’t bother getting it checked. So I guess I’m saying don’t ignore anything – get everything checked out.”

Lucy told her fans that she’s at peace with “whatever comes next,” as she shared the clip of her ringing the cancer treatment bell.

While she rang the bell, Lucy confessed she has been told by doctors it’s “too late” for her to receive Chemotherapy.

Lucy is best known for playing Dawn Tinsley in Ricky Gervais’ comedy The Office.

Dawn was a receptionist at Wernham Hogg’s Slough branch in the original UK version of The Office.

Her character battled an unfulfilling engagement, failed dreams of becoming an artist and a will-they-won’t they relationship with her colleague Tim.

KATIE Price’s fans are convinced she’s photoshopped her latest social media photo as she posed in a skimpy outfit.

The former glamour model, 48, shared a picture of herself wearing a fluorescent yellow lace-up bodysuit.

Katie put her slim figure on display as she posed for snaps alongside a fan at Yours bar in Manchester.

The star showed off her tanned and heavily tattooed legs, but some eagle-eyed followers spotted a blunder with the photo.

Fans pointed out that Katie’s right arm looked unusually long.

One wrote: “Her arm is about 10ft long.”

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A second said: “Arm extensions.”

A third commented: “Well noticed, now I can’t unsee it.”

“What’s really weird is that her foot is about 10 arms,” a fourth added.

The Sun revealed last week how Katie had finally ended her seven-month marriage to Dubai-based Lee, 43, after learning the extent of his financial deceit. 

During their short-lived relationship, the former glamour model had two tattoo tributes to him.

As well as having his name inked on her hand Katie also etched the words ‘owned by Lee’ on her ribs. 

Following her split from Peter Andre in 2009, the mum-of-five waited just a few weeks before inking a black cross through his name on her wrist, so it shouldn’t be long before she’s keen to get rid of every trace of Lee. 

To have just the words on her ribs lasered off, Katie is looking at between eight and 10 painful sessions which could set her back upwards of £2,500.

Katie had Lee’s name tattooed on her hand days into their whirlwind romance in January.

She later revealed the shocking words ‘owned by Lee’ on her ribs in August.

The Sun revealed this week how the final straw for Katie came when she discovered Lee had just £2.22 in his crypto bank account – not the £37million he had promised. 

A handful of aviation photographers got a suprise eyeful of a very sleek and large aircraft silhouette on Thursday night at Long Beach Airport. One of them was Ricky Schol, who saw the mysterious airframe emerge from a hangar, prompting a double take. It was the first time in his 16 years of aviation photography at the historic airport he’d ever seen anything like it.

“I was driving home past my local airport Thursday evening here in Southern California when I saw a bright light coming from a hangar I haven’t seen open in a long time, so I doubled back to check it out,” Schol told us. “I was blown away when I pulled over and saw the future in front of my eyes. I had no clue what I was looking at. I jumped out of my vehicle and started taking pictures immediately.”

“At first glance I thought it was an F-117 Nighthawk when driving by,” said Schol, a plumber by trade. “That’s why I doubled back to see. And to my surprise I saw something I’ve never seen before, having no cockpit. It left me with a very curious feeling.”

Schol said he did some asking around and learned more details. He would soon learn that the mysterious aircraft design was the RAVN X, an aircraft meant to launch payloads into space, made by Aevum Aerospace of Huntsville, Alabama. Schol was kind enough to share some of the photos he took of the aircraft, which he said he saw from about 100 feet in the distance. You can find his work on Instagram at @aggressoraviation_.

As you can see from the images below, the aircraft bears the FAA N Number N567RX, which has been reserved by Aevum to an address at the airport, but it appears to be a mockup — one we have likely seen before.

A mockup of the drone was introduced online with great fanfare in 2021 and described at the time by company CEO Jay Skylus as the “mothership” for a two-stage rocket able to carry a payload of just over 1,000 pounds. 

From our story when the RAVN X was unveiled: “The twin-engine Ravn X drone — described by the company as the first stage of the system — reportedly weighs 55,000 pounds, is 80 feet long, and has a wingspan of 60 feet — roughly the size of an A-5 Vigilante. The sleek drone… has seemingly been tailored for speed.” 

During the mockup roll-out, the company described what we noted back then was a “very ambitious, if not almost bizarre timeline” for getting Ravn X into the air. The plan was to start with “vehicle-level testing” to obtain the required airworthiness certification and launch licensing for operations, a process that should take 18 months, Skylus claimed. From there, Aevum planned to secure airworthiness certification for the first-stage drone from the Federal Aviation Administration. 

Following that, the next step was to commence orbital launch tests from Cecil Spaceport in Jacksonville, Florida, by late 2021. 

Aevum Ravn X Autonomous Launch Vehicle Rollout

It is unclear whether AEVUM achieved any of its goals. There are no details on the company website and the most recent information about RAVN X is from Gunter’s Space Page, a website that tracks launches.

“In December 2020 Aevum rolled out a mock-up of the Ravn-X carrier plane (although claimed to be a real prototype), but no further activities have been noticed so far,” noted Gunter’s Space Page. “It is doubtful, that any real hardware has been produced so far. By August 2024, all activities seem to have stopped.”

We reached out to Skylus and Aevum for more details.

Given that RAVN X has all but disappeared from public notice, Schol and a few other photographers at the airport caught a rare glimpse.

“I was there from the time they pulled it out to the time they pulled it in,” he told us. “They lined it up on the runway. It moved a little bit, but not much.”

Schol said he didn’t hear the engines or see any exhaust.

“I don’t know exactly what they were testing or trying to accomplish that night,” he proffered.

Mockups can be modified for limited ground tests and other important work, which could be the case here. Regardless, RAVN X does appear to be still alive as a program.

If we find out any details, we will pass them along.

Contact the author: howard@twz.com

California lawmakers have voted to shift a state forest system away from commercial logging and pave the way for tribal co-management, delivering a win to a movement rooted in the historic timber wars.

Managed by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, the state’s 14 demonstration forests are currently required to produce and sell timber to show — or “demonstrate” — sustainable practices, while considering factors like recreation and wildlife.

AB 2494 eliminates what’s often cast as a logging mandate, instead prioritizing values such as carbon storage, wildfire resilience and biodiversity conservation. There could still be logging, but it would need to support those principles.

It also directs state officials to seek agreements with Native American tribes to integrate their traditional knowledge into managing the land. The bill now heads to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk.

“We don’t need more demonstrations of what clear cutting does to a forest — we have plenty of those,” said Assemblymember Chris Rogers (D-Santa Rosa), who authored the bill. If the forests are being used to show how to boost commercial logging gains, “then that is not how we want to use our public assets.”

At the center of the discussion is Jackson Demonstration State Forest, spanning nearly 50,000 acres in Mendocino County. For decades, loggers and environmentalists have clashed over the fate of its stately redwoods.

About five years ago, tensions reignited when community members caught wind of plans to cut towering trees near the coastal town of Caspar.

Tribes whose historic homelands fall within the forest became leading voices in the effort to halt logging, with the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians’ Priscilla Hunter emerging as a major force. She has since passed away but her legacy looms large in the movement.

While running for his assembly seat representing the North Coast, Rogers heard from constituents and local politicians who wanted to see the forest run differently. The bill grew in part out of those discussions.

Polly Girvin, Hunter’s former partner and a retired lawyer focused on Native American issues, called AB 2494’s passage by the Legislature “nearly miraculous.”

“We’re at a time right now where scientists are going to have to reach across the table to the Indian voice,” she said. “They feel they have a sacred obligation to manage their forest, not for commercial logging per se. So I think it’s really a meeting of science and the sacred.”

Some backers say the bill offers a new economic path forward for communities behind the so-called redwood curtain. With the decline of logging and cannabis as livelihoods, they see income from tourists attracted by ultramarathons, mushroom foraging and other outdoor activities as a financial savior.

But the push to reshape forest management is fiercely opposed by loggers and mill owners, who say their work is sustainable and provides blue-collar jobs in a region where they’ve dwindled. Already California imports most of its wood from Oregon, Washington and Canada.

The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors has supported the bill, but it’s opposed by the Rural County Representatives of California, an advocacy group representing 40 counties.

Staci Heaton, senior policy advocate for the organization, said they’re concerned that the new management goals are so vague they would expose forest projects — including wildfire research — to costly lawsuits.

“We’ve experienced the majority of the largest wildfires across the state over the last decade, and it is paramount that research and forest management knowledge be fostered in these demonstration state forests so that it can be used statewide,” Heaton said.

Currently, money from logging — roughly $8.5 million a year — pays for management of the demonstration forests. Under the latest iteration of AB 2494, it will remain one source of funding but not the only one, Rogers said.

Cal Fire’s Kevin Conway believes that if the bill becomes law, it will, in practice, limit funding. So they’d likely look to bring in money by charging day-use and other new recreation fees.

Conway, who is the agency’s chief for resource protection and improvement, added that some aspects of their mission wouldn’t change; the land would remain “actively managed.” For instance, he called wood products “a big part of our climate strategy in the built environment” and suggested it would still be prudent to understand how they’re produced in California.

“We don’t think that just locking up your forest and making a tree museum longterm will deliver biodiversity, carbon, recreation — all these things,” he said. Cal Fire has not taken a position on the legislation.

Newsom has until Sept. 30 to sign or veto the bill.

Texts lit up my phone this morning from friends who had wasted most of their lives rooting for the Angels: Arte Moreno finally was selling the team.

“First order of business: it’s the Anacrime Angels,” Nelson Rodriguez cracked before sending a meme of Stringer Bell in “The Wire” wearing an old-school California Angels cap and saying, “I want you to put the word out there that we back up.”

“This news honestly made my year,” texted Anaheim City Councilmember Natalie Rubalcava, who graduated a year ahead of me from Anaheim High and whose daughter works at my wife’s restaurant. “Excited to leave the controversy and negativity behind and look forward to a new era of Anaheim baseball.”

“Shame this didn’t happen when [Shohei] Ohtani was an Angel,” the Mountain shared on a group text thread of childhood friends who call each other by long-standing nicknames — I’m the Consigliere.

“I get invited to the games but hell no,” replied the Butcher, who’s been a fan since the days of Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan in the 1970s.

“I’ll finally go back” to a game in person, my cousin Plas added. “A Trumper [Latino] what could’ve gone wrong …” he wrote, referencing Moreno, before asking if Kurt Suzuki was still manager because “that’s how little I’ve kept up with the team.”

Those are the texts I can print in a family newspaper.

Moreno is selling to Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke, whose company also owns perennial contenders in the NBA (Denver Nuggets), NHL (Colorado Avalanche) and England’s Premier League (Arsenal). Sources told my colleagues that the price was $4 billion, which would be a baseball record and speaks to the Halos’ untapped potential.

Major League Baseball still needs to approve the deal, but I guarantee that Commissioner Rob Manfred and the 29 other team owners are reacting with the silly swaying dance that Dodgers players do every time they get on base.

“The Moreno Family has been honored to steward the Angels for 23 years,” the soon-to-be-ex-Angels owner said in a statement.

You stewarded nada, Arte: You destroyed.

You started with so much hope and ended up with fans like my friends shooting venom at you like pissed-off cobras. There’s a reason why you’ll leave as one of the most loathed owners in baseball history. Your underperforming reign makes the McCourts of Dodgers infamy seem as amazing and beloved as the O’Malleys.

Not even Shohei Ohtani, at spring training when he played for the Angels in 2023, could change the team’s fortunes under Moreno.

(Morry Gash/Associated Press)

The Tucson native, who made his billions in the billboard industry, bought the Angels from Disney in 2003, the year after they won their sole World Series championship. At a festive press conference, Moreno handed a sombrero to then-skipper Mike Scioscia to wear, then announced that the first order of business was to cut beer prices.

The new owner quickly signed the best players in baseball — slugger Vladimir Guerrero and pitcher Bartolo Colón. Moreno walked Angel Stadium during games to ask fans what they wanted, what they needed, what they dreamed of. That first decade, he made the Angels what they never had been for a prolonged period: winners.

Fans packed the stands — more than 3 million each year from 2003 to 2019, the third-longest streak in baseball. Anaheimers donned Halos jerseys and hats like never before. More incredibly, Moreno was at the cusp of the impossible: convincing a generation of Latino baseball fans in Orange County to side with the Halos instead of the Dodgers.

But there were always signs that something was off.

Moreno renamed the team the Los Angeles Angels two years after he bought them, a ridiculous moniker that made them a national punchline. The renaming also cost Anaheim millions of dollars in legal fees after the city unsuccessfully sued to force Moreno to keep my hometown in the team’s name.

Moreno openly talked about moving the Angels to a city that would build him a new stadium. He also fell into the terrible habit of signing conservative-leaning, past-their-prime ballplayers like Josh Hamilton, Albert Pujols and Anthony Rendon to massive contracts that weighed down the team for years, like one of Angel Stadium’s legendary cinnamon rolls.

Die-hards like my pals trudged on, buoyed by generational talent Mike Trout and the occasional flash-in-the-pan prospect. But even they were turned off by the last three years.

Former Anaheim mayor Harry Sidhu pleaded guilty in 2023 to federal tax evasion charges stemming from accusations that he solicited an illegal $1-million campaign donation for an attempted sale of city-owned Angel Stadium to a Moreno-led company.

That same year, the Halos let Ohtani — who was on his way to a second most valuable player award and already had established himself as one of the most talented baseball players ever — walk away as a free agent while gaining nothing in return.

This season kicked off with Moreno telling the Orange County Register about a survey supposedly revealing that winning wasn’t “a top priority” for Angels fans. The Angels hadn’t made the playoffs in 11 years, hadn’t finished with a winning record since 2015, had landed in last place in their division for the last two years — and that’s what he offered as a speck of hope? No wonder the team is on pace to lose 100 games for the first time in franchise history. No wonder disgusted fans have protested both inside and outside Angel Stadium all summer.

At the only game I went to this year — a sparsely attended afternoon snoozer against the Chicago White Sox — I found the stadium more beat-up than ever: peeling paint, beat-up seats, tinny PA system. For about $25 each, my friends and I bought tickets behind the first-base dugout that would have cost hundreds of dollars at Dodger Stadium.

Billboards along Southern California freeways have broadcast the Angels’ desperate attempts to draw in fans via pathetic promotions. Fireworks every Saturday. A bobblehead giveaway of light-hitting shortstop Zach Neto, who never has made an All-Star team. A “yard sale” that sounds like a giant casting off of crappy memorabilia a week away from the trash can.

Angels fans wave signs and urge owner Arte Moreno to sell the team to an ownership group willing to invest more in winning during a pregame protest at Angel Stadium.

(Joaquin Ruiz / For The Times)

I never cared for the Angels, but I always wanted them to do well. Any success they achieved rubbed off on my hometown, as it did during that magical 2002 run.

I also wanted Moreno, the first Latino to own a major professional sports team, to succeed, so his fellow Trump supporters might know that our kind can excel at the highest echelons of American society, if only we get the chance.

But for the last few years, I cheered each time the Angels lost. I wanted them to tank, to forever seal Moreno’s legacy as a loser. To serve as a warning to all professional sports owners that they can abuse a host city and its fan base for only so long before people revolt by just not caring.

Good luck to Kroenke as he tries to resuscitate a franchise deader than a stump in the Petrified Forest.

The ITV show followed Natasha Carr and her sister Lee-Ann four years after their initial reunion

Two siblings were given tragic news about their biological father during the latest episode of ITV’s Long Lost Family: Born Without a Trace.

Natasha Carr was just one week old when she was abandoned in a toilet at St Thomas’s Hospital, Lambeth, in 1989. She turned to the ITV show for assistance in tracing her biological family in 2018, having no knowledge of her life prior to being fostered and ultimately adopted at the age of two.

While the show was unable to locate her biological parents, it uncovered, after three years of searching, that Natasha has a full sister named Lee-Ann, who is just 18 months older than she is.

Sharing 51 percent of Natasha’s DNA, Lee-Ann was also a foundling, having been left in the staff toilets at St James’s Hospital in Balham when she was just a few days old.

At the time of their reunion in 2022, Natasha told host Davina McCall: “It’s so lovely to have someone who has the same experience. No one will ever understand unless you’re in the exact same situation, and she literally was in the same situation,” reports MyLondon.

On Monday evening (August 24), the ITV show broadcast an update to Natasha and Lee-Ann’s story in Long Lost Family: What Happened Next, eight years after their initial search began.

While the team searched for further relatives of the sisters, they learned that their father had passed away only a few years earlier, following a battle with cancer. Natasha and Lee-Ann received the heartbreaking news away from the cameras.

“I’m on my way to give Natasha and Lee-Ann major information; sadly, their birth father has died, which we’ve told them away from the cameras,” Davina revealed.

Yet the sisters faced another stunning development as Davina confirmed their birth mother had been traced. “She’s still alive, and she would really like the chance to meet them and to start building a relationship,” she added.

Throughout Davina’s conversation with Natasha and Lee-Ann, she disclosed that their father was born and brought up in Jamaica until he was 14 years old.

“It’s really interesting to know our background and where we come from and who we are”, Lee-Ann shared, “That’s what started my journey, I wanted to know what flag.”

The siblings also learned their biological mother was alive and had additional children, leaving them both astounded.

Lee-Ann became visibly emotional and received support from Natasha as Davina confirmed their mum’s desire to reconnect with her two daughters.

Subsequently, in the episode, Natasha confirmed she had encountered her birth mum while Lee-Ann was still coming to terms with the revelation.

Long Lost Family: What Happened Next is available to stream on ITVX