Newsletter: TimesOC: Another effort by Democrats to revamp California’s recall elections is signed by Gov. Jerry Brown

Good morning. It’s Wednesday, Aug. 30. Here’s what’s been happening around O.C.

Top story

Another effort by Democrats to revamp California’s recall elections is signed by Gov. Brown

Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a second version of new rules governing California recall elections, a bill passed hours earlier by Democrats seeking to stop the removal of an Orange County state senator. The bill, introduced in the Legislature just three days before its passage, would impose new waiting periods before a special recall election is held. Los Angeles Times

Around the county

Refugee kids in Orange County start friendships on a soccer field

A group of two-dozen children sprinted up and down the soccer field behind Sarah McGarvin Intermediate School in Westminster, kicking the ball and shouting to each other in a mixture of Arabic, Farsi, Pashtu, Spanish and English. The kids, ranging in age from 5 to 17, are all refugees, born in countries spanning the globe from Syria and Iraq to Afghanistan, Tunisia, Lebanon and Mexico. TimesOC

Back from the dead, old radios are saved from landfills by a La Palma collector

When La Palma resident John Eng looks at a piece of what some call “dead technology,” he doesn’t think of something that no longer works. Instead, he envisions the devices’ heyday. TimesOC

Life & arts

‘Once’ will open SCR’s season with an unconventional musical love story

A girl walks down a Dublin street and meets a guy singing with a guitar, busking for perhaps the last time. That’s how both the 2007 movie “Once” and the current musical version, which made its Broadway premiere in 2012, start. TimesOC

Food

Lido Bottle Works chef focuses on ingredients true to Newport Beach

The chef of Lido Bottle Works — the newly opened Newport Beach restaurant that serves locally grown food and 15 beers on tap — is in the kitchen, lacing up an apron and talking about his special for the day. TimesOC

Sports

Mater Dei is new No. 1 team; six Trinity League schools make top 25

After one week of high school football season, there’s a new No. 1-ranked team in The Times’ top 25. Santa Ana Mater Dei has taken over the No. 1 spot after St. John Bosco’s loss in Florida. Los Angeles Times

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