A wearable technology project is offering up to EUR2.4m (US$2.6m) in funding for teams of art, design, technology or engineering practitioners and businesses to co-develop the next generation of sustainable wearables and e-textile ideas.

Sporting giant Nike could be able to enter the athleisure market after filing a patent for “architecturally reinforced denim”.

Albee Weiss was kind of a feast-or-famine guy his first two seasons at CSUN. He had five home runs and drove in 22 as a freshman, but batted just .199. He had six home runs and 25 RBIs as a sophomore, but hit .219.

Not only are his power numbers better – the junior catcher/DH leads the Big West Conference with nine home runs and 38 RBIs – Weiss was batting .288 ahead of Tuesday’s nonconference game against Loyola Marymount.

Weiss on Monday first discussed his ever-improving power numbers.

“I think it’s just having an understanding of what it is to kind of narrow down an approach at the plate and have an idea of what you want to do up there every day,” he said. “The home runs, they kind of happen on their own, and really all I’m trying to do is capitalize with those runners in scoring position and understand that the pitchers probably aren’t going to give me a lot of good pitches to hit.”

Weiss said learning to take the curveball the opposite way, and not trying to do too much with good pitches to hit, also figure large.

“I think the simplicity in the approach has really helped me a lot this year,” he said.

He said his maturity as a hitter has allowed him to properly execute that approach, which he said has also elevated his average.

“So now instead of kind of being a one-dimensional hitter where I had to hit the fastball to the left side of the field, I’ve been able to open it up a bit and been able to go the other way with a breaking ball or even pull a breaking ball and hit those things,” Weiss said.

Weiss batted .412 as a junior at Agoura High and .330 as a senior.

“But you get to D1 baseball on the West Coast here and it’s definitely a learning curve,” he said. “You’ve gotta be able to adjust to really good pitching and this conference is pretty heavy on that.”

Perhaps the most dramatic rise in Weiss’ numbers is his slugging percentage – from .338 as a freshman and .323 as a sophomore to .562 this season.

Weiss isn’t the only home-run hitter on a rising Matadors team. Teammate Kevin Riley has seven. CSUN sits in fourth place alone with a 7-5 record (20-21 overall) after a weekend sweep of UC Riverside.

THIS AND THAT

Long Beach State is now the highest-ranked team in the Big West by Baseball America. The Dirtbags (25-13, 10-2) moved from No. 12 to No. 9 after sweeping three games at UC Irvine over the weekend. Cal State Fullerton, which went 1-2 at Cal Poly, dropped from No. 8 to No. 14. … It was a tough weekend for junior Keston Hiura of UC Irvine. He entered a three-game series against Long Beach State batting .423 with seven home runs, 31 RBIs and on-base and slugging percentage averages of .535 and .748, respectively. Hiura went 0-for-7 with four walks. … Junior right-hander Connor Seabold of Cal State Fullerton leads the Big West in strikeouts with 69 in 71 innings.

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
The Dirtbags’ Darren McCaughan on Monday was tabbed Pitcher of the Week by the Big West for his performance Friday in a 4-0 victory at UC Irvine. McCaughan threw a three-hit shutout, striking out five and walking none.

It was McCaughan’s second consecutive complete game – his third of the season – and the second shutout of his career.

McCaughan wore a big grin afterward when asked if this is an exciting time for his team, which is in first place with a 10-2 conference record.

“Oh, yeah, we love it,” he said. “I like this year’s team and every weekend we’re fired up, every game we’re fired up.”

The Big West Field Player of the Week award went to sophomore Alex McKenna of Cal Poly, which took two of three from Cal State Fullerton over the weekend. McKenna went 7-for-11 in the final two games – 13-6 and 8-4 victories – with a two-run triple and a home run.

Melissa Etheridge is a lot of things: a Grammy-winning singer-songwriter with more than three decades of music tucked under her belt and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a breast cancer survivor, a mother of four, a gay-rights advocate and a noted cannabis supporter. She’s always shot from the hip and written from the heart.
Now, Etheridge is on tour and paying homage to some of the music that influenced and inspired her with “Memphis Rock and Soul,” her latest release. The album features covers of legendary Stax Records recordings, such as Sam & Dave’s “Hold On, I’m Comin’” and Albert King’s “Born Under a Bad Sign.”
She made the trip to Memphis, Tenn., to fully immerse herself in the culture and history of Stax Records, even recording the album at Willie Mitchell’s iconic Royal Studios with Mitchell’s son, Lawrence “Boo” Mitchell, and using Al Green’s original microphone.
Etheridge will bring her biggest hits plus captivating renditions of such oldies to the 20th annual Doheny Blues Festival in Dana Point. The two-day fest features a robust roster, with the Eagles’ Joe Walsh headlining May 20 and Etheridge on May 21.

Coast: I don’t think there’s a more perfect album than “Memphis Rock and Soul” to celebrate the 20-year milestone of blues and soul here in Orange County.
ME: Oh, cool. I’m really enjoying playing these blues festivals, and I’m enjoying really getting to such a core of rock ‘n’ roll and the music that I love and this music that had influenced me for so long.

Coast: The Doheny Blues Festival lineup this year is pretty spectacular with you on it, Joe Walsh and a legend like Mavis Staples. Did you get to hear her new album last year, “Livin’ on a High Note?” It’s fantastic.
ME: Yes! And yes, it’s going to just be really a great day. I love how with blues music so many people can just celebrate, and to get to enjoy the music of Mavis, it’s going to be such a glorious time.

Coast: Making “Memphis Rock and Soul,” what was that like digging into that really rich history of the music, paying homage to Stax Records? Back in their day some of these songs were controversial or went under the radar because they were considered “race” music.
ME: Yeah, “race” music. Well, you know, there’s still hints of that today with,
like, hip-hop music that’s still considered that sort of thing even though we absolutely don’t call it that anymore. But this music, it’s the backbone to rock n’ roll, it’s the backbone to country music. It all comes from that. We all love beat and we love that feeling, the soul part of it. That’s what we’ve loved about it for so long, and it’s so funny to have it be divided by the color of our skin. I think that’s ridiculous.

Coast: With the vast catalog of music that comes from Stax Records, how did you figure out what you wanted to do for this album?
ME: Probably the hardest part was narrowing it down, because I said, “OK, here’s the Stax catalog and all 100 million songs.” I actually took a really long time, listening and considering each song. When I considered them, it had to be like, “OK, does this song move me first of all, is this something I want to sing and can I add something to this?” There were a lot of songs that were very popular that other people had covered, and I didn’t feel like I could add anything new to it, so I left those alone, and even picked ones that were so obscure that the Stax people had trouble trying to remember them. It was just a real joy to pick songs and really find the ones that resonated with me.

Coast: Listening to these songs again as you were going back to artists in that Stax catalog and the artist that recorded at that studio, do you feel like this music is just as relevant today as it was back then?
ME: Yes, oh yes, absolutely yes. I mean, I did “Respect Yourself,” which was by the Staple Singers and one of their huge hits, and I went in with Priscilla Renea and updated some of the lyrics, but still the very core of the song, you know, if you don’t respect yourself, how is anybody going to respect you? Come on, let’s treat each other with respect, and that starts with treating ourselves with respect. Just how very relevant it is to today is just proof that history will repeat itself and there are things we still need to really get behind us, and this music is right up there singing to that.

Coast: You actually went to Memphis to record this album and played with musicians who were experts in this style. Was it important to you to take those steps to make this as authentic as possible?
ME: Very much so. I didn’t want to just cover the Memphis songs and leave it at that. I wanted to immerse myself in Memphis. Memphis is amazing, and it is filled not only with great food, which was one of the most delightful parts of it, but the people, the history – it’s still recovering from Dr. King being shot there. It’s still recovering because it was like ground zero of the racial issues, and you see the struggle even still. It’s just starting to break out of that, and it’s really an amazing place.

Coast: It also wasn’t such a bad deal that you got to put this album out on Stax Records.
ME: Oh, that was the best part. That sealed the deal for me when they said “and you get to make it on Stax Records,” and I said, “You’re kidding me! I get to have the little Stax logo up in the corner?! I’m in!”

Coast: You’ve got this great crop of new songs off this record, but will you also be doing some of the hits when you’re at Doheny? I love the way a crowd lights up when you do “Come to My Window” or they try to keep up with you when you do “I’m the Only One” and they run out of breath.
ME: That’s exactly what happens! That’s funny. I love how those songs sit so well next to the Stax songs. When I play “I’m the Only One,” I’ll go into “Rock Me Baby,” and it’s just perfect because you can actually see like, “Oh, she was influenced by this blues and soul music.”

Coast: The last time we talked you said your favorite things were being at home, cooking home-cooked meals and building jigsaw puzzles with your family. I have to say, I’ve recently found that staying home on a Friday night with a big glass of red wine and a puzzle can really be a treat.
ME: I’m telling you, that is therapy!

Doheny Blues Festival, 11 a.m. May 20 and 21 | Doheny State Beach, 25300 Dana Point Harbor Drive, Dana Point | $150 single-day VIP and $250 Gold VIP admission
:: dohenybluesfestival.com

A 29-year-old Los Angeles man was arrested on suspicion of sending messages to a 13-year-old girl and then planning to meet at a motel, Santa Ana police said Tuesday, April 25.

German Martinez was arrested Saturday. The Santa Ana girl was on Facebook when Martinez messaged her to introduce himself.

“The messages became highly inappropriate, soliciting sex from the victim,” Santa Ana police said in a statement. “Martinez was well aware the victim was underage.”

At some point after, detectives became involved and started using the girl’s cellphone to communicate with Martinez. On Saturday, Martinez went to El Salvador Park in Santa Ana to purportedly meet with the teen to go to a motel for sex but instead detectives were waiting and arrested him.

He was jailed on suspicion of sending harmful matter to seduce a minor and communicating with a minor to commit lewd acts. He was in custody in lieu of $100,000 bail.

Investigators ask anyone who has had similar encounters with German Martinez to call detectives at 714-245-8351.

By SUDHIN THANAWALA

SAN FRANCISCO  — A federal judge on Tuesday blocked a Trump administration order to withhold funding from communities that limit cooperation with U.S. immigration authorities, saying the president has no authority to attach new conditions to federal spending.

U.S. District Judge William Orrick issued the temporary ruling in a lawsuit against the executive order targeting so-called sanctuary cities. The decision will stay in place while the lawsuit works its way through court.

The Trump administration and two California governments that sued over the order disagreed about its scope during a recent court hearing.

San Francisco and Santa Clara County argued that it threatened billions of dollars in federal funding for each of them, making it difficult to plan their budgets.

“It’s not like it’s just some small amount of money,” John Keker, an attorney for Santa Clara County, told Orrick at the April 14 hearing.

Chad Readler, acting assistant attorney general, said the county and San Francisco were interpreting the executive order too broadly. The funding cutoff applies to three Justice Department and Homeland Security Department grants that require complying with a federal law that local governments not block officials from providing people’s immigration status, he said.

The order would affect less than $1 million in funding for Santa Clara County and possibly no money for San Francisco, Readler said.

Republican President Donald Trump was using a “bully pulpit” to “encourage communities and states to comply with the law,” Readler said.

In his ruling, Orrick sided with San Francisco and Santa Clara, saying the order “by its plain language, attempts to reach all federal grants, not merely the three mentioned at the hearing.”

“The rest of the order is broader still, addressing all federal funding,” Orrick said. “And if there was doubt about the scope of the order, the president and attorney general have erased it with their public comments.”

He said: “Federal funding that bears no meaningful relationship to immigration enforcement cannot be threatened merely because a jurisdiction chooses an immigration enforcement strategy of which the president disapproves.”

The Trump administration says sanctuary cities allow dangerous criminals back on the street and that the order is needed to keep the country safe. San Francisco and other sanctuary cities say turning local police into immigration officers erodes trust that’s needed to get people to report crime.

The order also has led to lawsuits by Seattle; two Massachusetts cities, Lawrence and Chelsea; and a third San Francisco Bay Area government, the city of Richmond. The San Francisco and Santa Clara County suits were the first to get a hearing before a judge.

San Francisco and the county argued in court documents that the president did not have the authority to set conditions on the allocation of federal funds and could not force local officials to enforce federal immigration law.

They also said Trump’s order applied to local governments that didn’t detain immigrants for possible deportation in response to federal requests, not just those that refused to provide people’s immigration status.

The Department of Justice responded that the city and county’s lawsuits were premature because decisions about withholding funds and what local governments qualified as sanctuary cities had yet to be made.

The sanctuary city order was among a flurry of immigration measures Trump has signed since taking office in January, including a ban on travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries and a directive calling for a wall on the border with Mexico.

A federal appeals court blocked the travel ban. The administration then revised it, but the new version also is stalled in court.

For many annual events, a 10th anniversary means a look back at the past, but the Hard Summer Music Festival is looking ahead.

This year’s celebration, which promises the top current electronic and hip-hop artists in addition to a healthy crop of up-and-comers, will be held at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana Aug. 5 and 6.

Over two days you can catch more than 100 acts, including electronic artists DJ Snake, Zeds Dead, What So Not and Cashmere Cat, and rap stars, such as Migos, Rae Sremmurd and Ty Dolla $ign. The women of this music scene are not to be ignored with vocalists and rappers, like Charli XCX, Tinashe and Uffie, and producers and DJs, such as Nina Las Vegas, Gina Turner, Masha, Jubilee, Whipped Cream and Deux Twins. The highlight of HSMF will be Snoop Dogg, who will perform his album “Doggystyle” in its entirety.

Artists including DJ Snake, Justice, Jai Wolf, Skepta, Anna Lunoe and What So Not are fresh off playing the 2017 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, too.

The event is only open to those 18 and older and tickets go on sale at 9 a.m. Friday, April 28, via www.hardsummer.com. VIP tickets are limited to fans 21 and older.

Saturday Aug. 5

DJ Snake

Justice (DJ set)

Rae Sremmurd

Zeds Dead

Tchami

Cashmere Cat

Skepta

Ty Dolla Sign

Malaa

A-Trak

Mobb Deep

Yehme2

Doctor P

Anna Lunoe

Kayzo

E-40

Brodinski

Charli XCX

Mercer

Busy P

AC Slater

Nina Las Vegas

Wax Motif

Soul Clap

Ellen Allien

Wiwek

Chris Lake

Chris Lorenzo

Amine Edge and Dance

Drezo

Mustdie!

Saymyname

Problem

Uffie

Egyptian Lover

Ghetts

Gina Turner

Nick Monaco

Vincent

Uncle Jxmi

DJ Heather B2B Collette

Doc Martin

Sita Abellan

Oshi

Josh Pan

Mad Zach

GG Magree

Cray

Jubilee

Oski

Qrion

Phlegmatic Dogs

Nukid

Masha

Whipped Cream

Sunday, Aug. 6

Snoop Dogg

Dog Blood

Bassnectar

Migos

Jai Wolf

Snakehips

Claude Vonstroke

What So Not

Baauer

Kill the Noise

JME

Mike Will Made It

Destructo

12th Planet

Tinashe

Madeintyo

Brillz

Party Favor

Shibasan

MK

Ekali

Giraffage

Jackmaster

Jimmy Edgar

J. Phlip

Floating Points (DJ set)

Motez

Kim Ann Foxman

Whethan

Thug…

Kap G

LA Leakers

Graves

4B

24Hrs

Dave

AJ Tracey

London on Da Track

Nancy Whang

Louisahhh

Tink

Walker & Royce

Hotel Garuda

Christian Martin

Madam X

Kittens

J. Worra

Lookas

Uniiqu3

Volac

Brohug

LDRU

Colby J

Deux Twins

Sabrina Dahan drew inspiration from her California beach lifestyle and offered traditional, feminine gowns with a twist. One big ballgown featured a swimsuit-inspired top. Another came in an ombré from ivory to seafoam — suggesting waves hitting the sand.
 

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Rita Vinieris approached her two collections, Alyne Rita Vinieris and Rivini Rita Vinieris, as “a journey thorough the pink looking glass.” Indeed, there were multiple gowns in a lovely dusty rose hue, while others in classic silhouettes received such whimsical and playful touches as fluttering sleeves, slit details and beautiful low backs. Vinieris named each dress after a word she felt described the modern woman. The standouts were titled “Gorgeous,” “Dainty,” “Harmony” and “Feisty.”

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Made is back for a second helping. Made L.A., the two-day, two-night fashion, music and cultural event, today announces its return to L.A. Live on June 9 and 10. This year’s highlights include consumer-facing fashion shows and live performances from Opening Ceremony and Wiz Khalifa, respectively.
The event will also feature unique, independent fashion brands, designers and activations set in a special retail section called Shop Small at Made L.A., presented and co-curated by American Express. Tickets will go on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. PST on May 1; with a pre-sale for American Express Card members that began today.
“We’re excited to return to the West Coast for the second edition of Made L.A.,” said Catherine Bennett, senior vice president and managing director at IMG Fashion. “From Opening Ceremony and Wiz Khalifa headlining to the burgeoning brands and designers being featured at Shop Small at Made L.A., we’re welcoming a group of unique talent in the fashion and music industry to our stage. We’re excited to continue celebrating the increasing intersection of fashion and entertainment in L.A.”
While Opening Ceremony is no stranger to throwing events in L.A., Friday evening’s showcase will be the brand’s first Los Angeles fashion

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