Raymond Kappe’s first attempt to shape the future of California architecture ended in failure. After starting the architecture program at Cal Poly Pomona in 1968, he was fired as the department’s chairman. Kappe said it was because his program was too “free-swinging.”

Undaunted, he recruited six faculty members — future Pritzker Prize winner Thom Mayne, Ahde Lahti, Bill Simonian, Glen Small, Jim Stafford and Kappe’s wife, Shelly — to open a progressive architecture school. The New School, soon to become the influential Southern California Institute of Architecture, or SCI-Arc, opened in 1972 with 75 students at its original Santa Monica campus.

Kappe, who died Thursday at age 92, laid out SCI-Arc’s mission by placing an emphasis on social and cultural concerns. He used his stellar reputation in his role as founding director to attract faculty and students and served as director for the first 15 years and as chairman from 1998 to 2002.

Nearly 50 years later, alumni of the school — now an anchor of downtown L.A.’s Arts District in its location adjacent to the Los Angeles River — include architects Michael Rotondi, Dean Nota and John Souza, members of the so-called Santa Monica School of modern architecture, as well as Shigeru Ban, whose Naked House was named the Best House in the World by the World Architecture Awards in 2002.

“SCI-Arc would not have been possible without Ray Kappe,” said Rotondi, who went on to serve as SCI-Arc’s director, in a statement on Kappe’s passing. “His personality and character, his ideas, and most of all his visions were unique. Many of us would not have been possible without SCI-Arc.”

Kappe (pronounced KAP-ee) was also a prolific architect in his own right. He worked on more than 200 architectural projects, many of them embodying the California ideal of seamless indoor/outdoor living. Decades ahead of his time, his graceful modern houses were to advance the benefits of green building and, in some cases, revitalize communities.

“I design from the inside out,” Kappe told The Times in 1987. “My main concern is how a building works for the user and how it relates to and incorporates its surroundings.”

Experimentation boom

Kappe began his architectural career in the early 1950s, a golden time for residential and commercial experimentation in booming Southern California. And he remained a force until his death, passionately promoting prefabricated homes as an environmentally friendly, economic solution for hilly urban lots and flat desert outposts.

In 2006, Kappe unveiled an elegant, tiered house in Santa Monica made of 11 steel modules wrapped in sustainable cedar siding and glass. Ever the teacher, he wanted to show that a new breed of prefab boxes could be built quickly and efficiently in a factory, then delivered on a flatbed truck to the site and assembled by cranes on several levels. He was able to remove walls between rooms by staggering floors, a technique he used on his own Pacific Palisades residence, which allowed him to look up from his home office and see into his living room.

His 4,000-square-foot house, which he started designing in 1965 and had lived in since 1968, levitates on six concrete towers over a small stream, touching ground on only 600 square feet. He was able to buy the steep lot in 1962 for $17,000 because it had been deemed unbuildable.

The now-famous redwood dwelling was designated a historic cultural monument by the city of Los Angeles and has appeared in numerous publications and architectural books, including his 1999 monograph, “Themes and Variations: House Design Ray Kappe Architects/Planners (House Design, 3),” which he wrote with Michael Webb.

On the same Pacific Palisades street are six more of his keenly engineered houses, creating what was referred to as the Kappe Colony.

“I’m very into the idea of regionalism, trying to make places more appropriate to their location,” he once said. “People [in Southern California] are rather informal. We were attempting to be much more democratic and open after World War II, and L.A. exemplifies that.”

Ray Kappe

For most of his half-century career, his approach to modern was less about cold steel and more about arranging horizontal bands of Douglas fir and other wood to bridge gullies and creeks. He was adept at adapting multistory designs to slopes instead of cutting into hillsides and leveling the ground.

In many of his houses, walls of windows pressed against the branches of mature trees outside, creating a feeling of living in nature. He once told a reporter, “You know, architecture doesn’t have to do it all. The natural layer should show through too.”

Joe Addo of the A+D museum said before a 2004 exhibit of Kappe’s work, “His houses don’t shout at you, ‘I’m sexy.’ … Ray’s is not only architecture, it’s home.”

Although he distinguished himself by designing timeless houses, Kappe took pride in his public and community projects. He practiced what he taught his students: Everyone benefits from thoughtful urban design and planning.

While he was with Kahn Kappe Lotery Boccato Architects/Planners in Santa Monica from 1968 to 1981, the firm created revitalization programs for Inglewood, a 255-unit affordable housing project in Pasadena, a conservation and land use plan for the city of San Clemente, a master plan for the Watts Community Arts Center and the Ramona Gardens Park with Barrio Planners, which was started by a group of Kappe’s former Cal Poly Pomona students.

Not one to pump the ego-stroking and sometimes career-making publicity machine, Kappe was well rewarded by architecture organizations such as the prestigious American Institute of Architects, but he sometimes felt overlooked by writers for national publications. He took offense in his soft-spoken way at journalists who elevated the role of 2005 Pritzker Prize winner Mayne in starting the private, tuition-funded SCI-Arc.

But no one at the school doubted his dedication to SCI-Arc. Often, he sacrificed his private practice and pay for his students. He once traded his consultation fee from modern furnishing retailer Design Within Reach for $31,000 in furniture for the SCI-Arc library, which he started in 1974 with a collection of his art and architectural books. In the early 1990s, it was named the Shelly & Ray Kappe Library.

Architect and former SCI-Arc director Eric Owen Moss mourned his colleague’s passing in the form of a poem: “Ray Kappe: The toughest task. Make something. From nothing. Not many do that. SCI-Arc, No, To SCI-Arc, Yes. An aspiration. Realized. Teach it. Draw it. Exhibit it. Lecture on it. Build it. Make it new. Ray Kappe: SCI-Arc. From nothing to something. History became the history he wrote.”

And in 2002, Mayne said, “Ray Kappe, long ago my mentor, had the vision, commitment and energy to initiate a totally unique … educational model. Without his selflessness and his ability to mediate the diverse personalities necessary for a vital and creative architectural discourse, SCI-Arc could not have emerged into the institution it is today. His imprint remains at the core of this continuing experiment.”

Modern man

Kappe started his career in education in the early 1960s when he taught classes at USC. In 1977, he gave the keynote address at the national American Institute of Architects convention on the future of architectural education. Six years later, he founded SCI-Arc’s European program in Vico Morcote, Switzerland. In 1990, he received the Topaz Medallion, the highest award for excellence in architecture education, from the American Institute of Architects and the Assn. of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. In 2000, he helped secure a Santa Fe Railway freight depot building for SCI-Arc’s main campus downtown. And in 2006, he was given the Lifetime Achievement Award in Education at the American Institute of Architects convention in Los Angeles.

Kappe didn’t like the term “modernist” because he felt it was too trendy; he wanted his contributions to last. He embraced the term “modern” instead because it represented a desire to be current with the latest ideas, technologies and materials, he said. In the 1960s, he designed modular, prefabricated student housing for Sonoma State University that was never built. And in the 1970s, before the first Earth Day, he used recycled redwood and energy- and water-saving systems in houses. His prefab Santa Monica house for LivingHomes in 2006 was the first residence to receive the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design highest rating from the U.S. Green Building Council.

Kappe was born Aug. 4, 1927, in Minneapolis. As a child, he liked to draw and did well in math and science. He grew up living in an apartment and told reporters that he would often stand at the windows looking out. “It’s been kind of a theme in my work, to extend out to the views,” he said. “I’ve always sought out the edges … and a feeling of expansiveness. That’s the common denominator in my architecture.”

After graduating from UC Berkeley in 1951, he worked for the San Francisco firm of Anshen + Allen, a designer of modern houses for middle-class buyers built by Joseph Eichler in the Bay Area and Southern California. He also worked for Los Angeles modern architect Carl Maston, who designed apartment buildings.

Kappe opened his own practice in Santa Monica in 1953, and while living with his wife in Sherman Oaks, he built post-and-beam houses with living rooms that lead into patios in the San Fernando Valley.

After dissolving his partnership with the other urban planning architects at Kahn Kappe Lotery Boccato Architects/Planners in 1981, he continued his private practice under the name of Kappe Architects Planners. From 1985 to 1990, he partnered with his two sons, Ron Kappe, an architect who now has a community and residential practice in San Rafael, Calif., and Finn Kappe, who is a Santa Monica-based supervising architect for LivingHomes. The father-and-sons firm worked on the University Faculty Office building for Cal State San Bernardino, the Hilton Beach Hotel in Oxnard, a mixed-use project in Oakland and several custom homes.

Kappe’s death came after contracting pneumonia, according to the Architect’s Newspaper. His passing was confirmed by SCI-Arc.

In addition to his sons and wife Shelly, whom he married in 1950 and collaborated with throughout their careers, Kappe is survived by his daughter, Karen Kappe, a psychologist and artist in Vancouver, Canada.

When his sons launched their own firms, Kappe went back to his one-man shop specializing in custom residences and prefabricated modular housing.

“I think it’s easier to do a lot than a little,” he once said. “You use your support better. And I always designed quickly. Houses are a great laboratory for experimenting with design and construction ideas.”

In 2007, when many named architects were seeking the highest bidder for their archives, Kappe donated thousands of his drawings, wood-block models and notes to the Getty Center to make them accessible to designers, students, homeowners and neighborhood preservation groups.

Before the Getty Research Institute took possession of the archive, head of special collections Wim de Wit said the Getty was willing to repair, store and open the archive to the public because “Ray Kappe is incredibly important and his importance will grow. He designs beautifully detailed wood structures and he was one of the earliest to use sustainable materials and to understand that we can live in an environment without damaging it.”

Eastman is a former Times staff writer. Randall Roberts contributed to this report.

Dolly’s reach

In her profile of Dolly Parton [“Here to Lift You Up,” Nov. 17], Meredith Blake writes that Parton is “a figure beloved in equal measure by drag queens and devout Christians.”

I wish the media would stop using “devout Christians” as a synonym for “evangelical and fundamentalist Christians.” A person can be a highly devout Christian and also a drag queen.

Certainly, not many mainline, nonfundamentalist Christians are also drag queens, many are LGBTQ supportive.

Rachel Howard
Nevada City, Calif.

LACMA plan: Love it, hate it

Regarding Christopher Knight’s column “LACMA Has No One Else to Blame” [Nov. 14]: The Los Angeles County Museum of Art does have someone to blame: Director Michael Govan, who over the years has squandered LACMA’s resources by not having the foresight of what a great museum’s destiny should be.

Mies van der Rohe’s saying “less is more” does apply to art, but in the museum’s case, it should read, “Less is less.” What a colossal waste of resources.

Adam Mekler
Pasadena

::

As director of the MCA San Diego from 1983 to 2016 and president of the Assn. of Art Museum Directors from 1998 to 1999, I’ve had a ringside seat observing the impressive growth of art museums in Los Angeles over the last three and a half decades.

I’ve also grown tired of reading Knight’s criticism of Govan and the planned expansion of LACMA. As a museum professional, I applaud the selection of Pritzker prize-winning architect Peter Zumthor and will welcome his dramatically contemporary replacement of most of the museum’s lackluster East campus.

Knight is obsessed by the thought of the permanent collection being presented in “theme exhibitions” rather than old school, rote chronological and geographical review.

Knight’s histrionic imploring to abandon the project seems purely ad hominem rather than pro culture in Los Angeles. Govan is arguably the most visionary art museum director of his generation, and I trust and enthusiastically support his daring vision for the new LACMA.

Hugh M. Davies
San Diego

::

Knight is too kind in his assessment of the cause of LACMA’s fundraising problem for the new building. Breaking up the collection, reducing the size of the museum and covering the entire campus and Wilshire Boulevard with a limp organ propped up on stilts is not a project any intelligent donor would want to have their name on.

Our county supervisors should show some real leadership and halt this disaster now.

John Sherwood
Topanga

::

Why on earth would anyone want to build a museum over the most hated thing in L.A.: traffic? And wait. What? You are spending $700 million on a smaller building?! Will I be able to visit my favorite Picasso. Cézanne, Singer Sargent and Rivera? Or will I have to go to a satellite museum in Springfield to view my favorites because there won’t be any room at LACMA anymore?

Go ahead, one-percenters, enjoy your museum.

Chris Armstrong
Los Angeles

::

Fundraising for LACMA’s new — and smaller — Wilshire campus and overall scheme to parcel out its collections to parts unknown throughout the county has stalled out.

Let’s be honest. When the LACMA leadership decides what collection will go where, who other than the people in the community to which they’ve assigned that collection is going to go see it? The architect for this “Well-it-sounded-good-at-the-celebrity-studded-cocktail-party” idea is not an Angeleno. He doesn’t know how difficult it is to get from one place to another within one’s own city, let alone from one city to the next. I might really want to go see Exhibit X in Cerritos, say; but that’s a long drive there and back for what for me would be about 90 minutes of art viewing at best. I’d probably just Google the art on view, read up on it and avoid the drive.

Paul Crehan
Los Angeles

::

Thank you again to Knight for sounding the alarm on LACMA’s horrendous redesign. How can the county justify giving all that prime real estate to this low-slung, ink-smear, squashed-fly of a design? I’d much rather see them build a couple of beautiful multistory structures, give the museum as many floors as it could ever need and open the rest to affordable housing.

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Joel Ronkin
Los Angeles

::

I am writing to offer a different point of view on the new LACMA building. As a longtime member, I have watched the museum evolve with a rapidly changing Los Angeles and believe in Govan’s vision to open up LACMA to L.A.’s neighborhoods. I disagree with the comment about an “ill-defined scheme for future satellite facilities.” Both the Vincent Price Art Museum in Monterey Park and Charles White Elementary School in Los Angeles have hosted LACMA exhibits recently. What is wrong with taking great art out of the building and bringing it into the neighborhoods?

Karen Hayes
Santa Monica

::

Unlike New York’s MoMA, which recently opened its new 40,000-square-foot addition (built for $450 million), LACMA is going to pay $650 million (and probably more) to lose 53,000 square feet of gallery space.

A competent, professional board would have altered its course years ago, but it did not, and we are left with this boondoggle of a plan for a museum that could have — and should have — been built and open by now. Thirteen years to design a very expensive, one-story blob-shaped building that is still years away from groundbreaking, let alone opening, is more than unacceptable, it is outrageous.

Victoria Dailey
Los Angeles

::

Whether Knight is right or wrong about LACMA’s new building project (and I largely agree with him), by his position as a critic for the main home-town newspaper and the top-of-the-page posting of this latest hyperbolic bellow, the result sadly rings of old-fashioned bullying.

The power of the press on display, for better or for worse.

David Weaver
San Juan Capistrano

::

Actions speak louder than words. Apparently major donors are not making contributions because of concerns about the unsightly and ill thought out plans for the new museum space. I hope that this reticence will encourage museum leadership to take another look to ensure a remodeled museum that enhances the community rather than distracts.

Ann C. Hayman

Westwood

This is a grossly underfunded project doomed to fail. And yet plans move forward to demolish the existing, still useful museum buildings. Just last week, a City Council committee approved the air rights needed if the new building is to bridge Wilshire Boulevard.

We, of the nonprofit Save LACMA, believe the museum’s ill-conceived project (a publicly owned building built on publicly owned land to house a publicly owned collection) is not in our community’s best interest. Spending at least $300 million in public funds, a portion of which could be better used elsewhere, is neither wise nor prudent.

We urge LACMA’s board of trustees, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors and the City Council to withhold these funds, permits and approvals and pause this project until LACMA presents a much more viable plan.

In the interim, the museum should reopen its galleries, turn on the lights, unpack the art and showcase the public’s world-class encyclopedic collection.

Rob Hollman,
Save LACMA
Valley Village

Winning review of winning film

In his review of “Ford v Ferrari” [“All Cylinders,” Nov. 15], Kenneth Turan wonderfully captures the film’s dynamics as well as the relationships among the individuals involved in the story. I was moved to tears. Not by the racing, but by the conflict between those with vision and skill versus the disconnected and self-interested power brokers.

John Dishon
San Diego

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@pattonoswalt made a tweet that showed Trump’s handwritten notes and the caption was simply “Morrissey voice:”. ‬ ‪Needless to say, I got inspired and put WAY too much effort into this. ‬

A post shared by RuPaul Giamatti (@benjamminash) on Nov 20, 2019 at 10:08pm PST

An economically devastating citrus disease has been detected for the first time in San Bernardino County, expanding an already large quarantine area aimed at keeping the malady from hitting the commercial groves centered in the southern San Joaquin Valley, according to California agricultural authorities.

Just one tree near the city of Montclair was stricken with citrus greening disease, or Huanglongbing, a bacterial infection spread by a tiny insect, the Asian citrus psyllid, according to the state Department of Food and Agriculture.

An existing quarantine sparked by previous detections in Los Angeles and Orange counties has been expanded by 93 square miles, creating a contiguous 1,015-square-mile area. Another quarantine is in effect in Riverside County.

The measure imposes strict prohibitions on transporting citrus trees and fruit. No fruit that is not commercially cleaned and packed, including residential citrus, can be moved from the property on which it is grown, although it may be processed or consumed on the premises.

Officials plan to inspect, remove and spray citrus trees within 400 meters of the infected tree in San Bernardino County.

The HLB bacteria attack the citrus tree’s vascular system, resulting in fruit that is hard, bitter and misshapen. They do do not pose a health threat to humans.

Authorities confirmed the first California case of HLB in Hacienda Heights in 2012, and again in 2015 in San Gabriel, about 20 miles away. Both were residential areas.

California’s nearly $4-billion citrus industry has been concerned about the spread of the disease since it first was detected in Florida, in 2005, about seven years after the psyllid was first found there. Federal, state and private efforts to combat it include releasing an exotic wasp that preys on the psyllid, as well as a genetic engineering of citrus trees to add disease-fighting capabilities.

The first psyllids in California were found in the U.S.-Mexico border region of San Diego and Imperial counties in 2008 and have crept northward, largely aided by people transporting infested trees and fruit, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

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CDFA officials are urging anyone who suspects insect or bacterial infestation to call the agency’s toll-free pest hot line at 1-800-491-1899 or visit their website.

In some ways, El Segundo can feel like the South Bay’s forgotten beach town, lacking the popularity of Manhattan Beach’s posh storefronts and Hermosa Beach’s sometimes raucous nightlife. But overlooking El Segundo’s idyllic Main Street area is a mistake. With plenty of restaurants, watering holes, shops and Mayberry-esque charm, downtown El Segundo just might be one of coastal L.A.’s best-kept secrets.

3 p.m.: Fuel up for your afternoon with a stop at Blue Butterfly Coffee Co., 351 Main St. The 23-year-old neighborhood mainstay was named for the El Segundo blue butterfly, native to the area’s sand dunes. With its friendly baristas and bright atmosphere, its ambience seems to embody El Segundo’s de facto mascot. If you’re in the mood for a drink that doubles as a snack, opt for the minty Green Goodness smoothie. Those with a serious sweet tooth will appreciate the turquoise Blue Butterfly Tea — yes, it’s actually turquoise. Take it out back to enjoy on the cafe’s sunny patio.

3:30 p.m. Just a block away, at 337 Richmond St., lies Studio Antiques — a wonderland of turntables, teetering stacks of china, and more knickknacks and trinkets than the average antique store can boast. The depth of the shop’s record collection is impressive, with seemingly every genre represented. “We’ve got everything. … We have every type of record you can imagine,” said Judy Dudman, a clerk at Studio Antiques. The organized chaos gives way to true pandemonium as you make your way to the shop’s outdoor area, called “Old El Segundo Ghost Town” by the owners. Dudman assured me they have no actual ghosts out back — that she knows of. “But if we do, they’re friendly,” she said with a laugh. With mannequins and chairs attached to the garden shed’s roof, visitors shouldn’t miss exploring every corner of Studio Antiques, inside and out. Keep an eye out for Zelda, the calico rescue cat who calls the shop home.

4:15 p.m. Despite El Segundo’s small-town feel, it’s not without some high-brow culture. The El Segundo Museum of Art at 208 Main St. is small compared with art museums in Los Angeles, but what it lacks in size it makes up for in experimentation and creativity. The museum calls itself an art laboratory, which “enables us to experiment with new ways a visitor can experience an artwork,” Director of Education Holly M. Crawford said. As soon as I walked into the museum, a friendly staff member gave me a rundown of the exhibitions, such as “Plant” by artist Amely Spoetzl, which explores nature. Another highlight to catch: Los Angeles artist Jasmine Nyende’s interactive piece “A Love Letter to the California Coast,” which visitors are encouraged to touch and alter using embroidery. Both exhibits run until Jan. 25.

5 p.m. Swap heady art for heady brews and make your way across the street to El Segundo Brewing Co. at 140 Main St. The brewery specializes in hop-forward beers like its classic Mayberry West Coast IPA and the Broken Skull IPA, the latter made by the brewery in collaboration with former professional wrestler Steve Austin. Don’t be shy; I’ve found that despite the general bustle of the brewery, bartenders are happy to chat with customers about their beers and make recommendations.

6 p.m. If a few beers spiked your appetite, you’re in luck. Jame Enoteca, a pint-size Californian-Italian restaurant, lies kitty-corner from the brewery, tucked inside a nondescript strip mall at 241 Main St.

Begin your meal with Brussels sprouts and cauliflower before enjoying one of the restaurant’s hand-rolled pastas. Food & Wine called it “one of the best new places to eat pasta in all of Los Angeles.” The cacio e pepe pasta — called “tonnarelli” on the menu — is simple but deeply satisfying. While other restaurants’ takes on this classic dish are richer, Jame Enoteca’s tastes like you could enjoy it every day. Top off your evening with dessert; you won’t be disappointed with the restaurant’s bread pudding.

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An army descended on Hollywood this week. However, in lieu of camo and fatigues, they sported strong-shouldered blazers, striped sweaters and slouchy leather pants. This army, of course, was the “Balmain army,” the title Olivier Rousteing has given to fans of the French luxury label he designs, and the crowd had come to celebrate the launch of Puma X Balmain, a collaboration between the two labels with an assist from model-actress Cara Delevingne.

The event attracted celebrity friends including G-Eazy, Alessandra Ambrosio, Bella Thorne and Eva Longoria as well as other guests who sipped on cocktails and snacked on fresh popcorn while roaming around the cavernous interior of Milk Studios, which was outfitted with sequined punching bags and stacks of boxing gloves.

In the center of the room was a dramatically lit boxing ring surrounded by metal bleachers, which later served as the stage for an energetic dance performance by an agile troupe wearing pieces from the sportswear-inspired collection (think slinky tanks, sports bras, boxing shorts, chunky sneakers and tracksuits). An initial 35-piece collection, ranging from $45 to $650, is available in-store and on puma.com. Some pieces will be available at Balmain boutiques and select retailers. (Another six pieces, produced by Balmain, will be featured as part of the luxe brand’s spring 2020 looks.)

Before Thursday’s performance, Delevingne and Rousteing cozied up on a couch backstage where they discussed their working relationship, why they chose a boxing theme and what they hope fans take away from this collection. Below are excerpts from that conversation.

You two were already close friends before collaborating. So were you nervous at all about working together in a professional context?

Cara Delevingne: No, because not to be cheesy, but we’re both quite pure hearts. And we were both so open to each other‘s ideas. Even if I had the worst idea in the world, I think Olivier would have lied and said it was OK and made me feel good about it.

Olivier Rousteing: That’s not true! Well, you didn’t have a bad idea, but my role was, when you had something in your mind, to help you make it happen. She was really the genius of this collab.

CD: I’ll take it!

A genius — that’s some high praise.

OR: She was! She had all the ideas from the clothes to the marketing to the campaign. Everything. Me? I had my own vision, which I shared with her, but she had such a strong point of view that when she was telling me, I was excited. But I would challenge her. She’d tell me something and I’d say, “Yeah, but how do we make that?”

CD: Yeah, he would make me think not just of the end goal but of how to get there. That was really helpful. It really grounded me. Instead of just shooting off random ideas or not being as involved as I would want to be, he would say, “No, that’s actually a good idea, and I want you to be run with it and be involved with it.” He made me feel like my ideas were valid.

That’s amazing because it can be scary to be creative and share your ideas.

CD: Yeah, and you have to take risks. And with Olivier, I’m very comfortable, so I can feel like I can be wrong — even though there’s no such thing as being wrong, you know? But we probably had some not-great ideas but I never felt like I was wrong.

Is there a piece that you’re particularly proud of?

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OR: I’m proud of the whole collection because, you know I work for Balmain, which is one of the most expensive brands in France, a luxury brand. Cara is someone who is really precise with what she likes fashion-wise, and I’m really precise with my cut and quality. So we were challenged to make this feel luxurious, good quality, a good price. People love Balmain. People love Cara, but the reality is we wanted to make this affordable. And Puma really helped us with that, and you still feel like you get some luxury at the same time.

In this collection, there’s Balmain, there’s Puma, there’s Cara, and then you guys threw in the whole boxing theme. Where did that come from?

OR: She boxes. I box. We love boxing. What’s so interesting about boxing, though, is she called me and said, “You know, I want to be in the ring — boxing. I want to be fighting for something, not fighting against…”

CD: It was the idea of violence or what we perceive violence to be. Like boxing or self-defense, it’s not about violence. It’s about how you prepare for someone being violent. How you deal with conflict, with inner conflict. When you’re fighting someone, if you’re second-guessing yourself, you’re going to get knocked out — and that’s how life is. For me, the idea was about fighting yourself. It’s easier to fight yourself than love yourself. A lot of my fans are teenagers, and I wanted to create something that they could afford and that spoke to that teenage angst, that frustration. It feels like a passion project, and it speaks to people’s rights. You know, it’s funny because when we talk about boxing, I always think your strongest weapon isn’t your fists. It’s actually your voice.

What do you hope your fans take away from this collection?

CD: I hope it’s the idea behind the collection. It’s about self-belief, love, community, communication. The relationship you have with yourself. That everyone deserves to feel good and beautiful.

OR: Yes, exactly. Not just the collection itself but what it stands for.

ORLANDO, Fla. — 

With billions in federal aid and seats in Congress at stake, some states are dragging their feet in carrying out one of the Census Bureau’s chief recommendations for making sure everyone is counted during the 2020 census.

Five states — Florida, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Dakota and Texas — have not set up “complete count committees” that would create public awareness campaigns to encourage people to fill out the questionnaires.

In some of those states, politicians argued that a statewide body would be unnecessary, since local committees, cities and nonprofit organizations are already working to publicize the census. In others, state leaders didn’t see any urgency to act.

The once-a-decade count of the U.S. population starts in January in a remote area of Alaska. The rest of the nation takes part starting in the spring.

“We are encouraging others to join in,” Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham said this month. “The clock is ticking, and the time to join is now.”

Six states — Iowa, Maine, Tennessee, Vermont, West Virginia and Wisconsin — only got on board in the past several weeks.

Officials say the committees can separate census winners from losers.

“Complete count committees are extremely effective,” said Albert Fontenot, an associate director at the Census Bureau. “It’s in the states’ interests in that they get a funding flow and congressional seats.”

Of the holdout states, all but Louisiana have Republican governors.

In Texas, a measure to create a committee died in the GOP-dominated Legislature earlier this year even though the second most populous state has the most to gain from the census — up to three congressional seats.

Some Texas lawmakers were worried about losing their seats during redistricting if population surges favoring Democrats were found in urban and suburban areas, said Luis Figueroa, legislative and policy director at the Center for Public Policy Priorities in Austin.

Also, at the time, the Trump administration was pushing to add a citizenship question to the form, and some lawmakers didn’t want to take a stand on the issue by promoting the census, he said. The U.S. Supreme Court later blocked the question.

Twenty-six state governments are appropriating nearly $350 million to reach people and get them to respond to the census. The amounts range from California’s record $187 million to Montana’s $100,000, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. New York City is committing $40 million.

States led by Democrats have spent more per capita. Of the 11 states spending at least $1 per resident, all but North Dakota have Democratic governors, according to an Associated Press analysis.

California, which stands to lose a seat in Congress, is spending $4.73 per person, using the money to target certain ethnic communities, provide educational materials to schools and identify community leaders who can personally encourage participation in the most populous state.

Spending on outreach offers a great return on investment, said Ditas Katague, director of the California Complete Count-Census 2020 Office.

“You have to look at how many programs will suffer and how much money we will lose,” Katague said.

In 2000, when California spent $24 million, 76 percent of residents returned the questionnaires by mail, outstripping the national average. In 2010, in the aftermath of the recession and budget cuts, California spent only $2 million, and the mail response rate dropped to 73 percent, below the national average.

In Florida, the third most populous state, bills establishing a statewide committee died in the GOP-controlled Legislature. With an influx from such places as Puerto Rico and Venezuela, Florida has gained about 2.5 million people since 2010 and could pick up two more congressional seats.

A spokeswoman for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he is still reviewing what action should be taken to help get a full head count. “The governor takes the census seriously,” spokeswoman Helen Ferre said.

In Nebraska, Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts vetoed a bill to create a complete count committee, saying that local committees are already doing the work and that the legislation would have given a University of Nebraska program authority to create the panel without guidance from the state.

The number of congressional seats for Nebraska is expected to remain unchanged.

Still, “ultimately I think this will be a loss for Nebraska, especially in terms of receiving federal funds,” said state Sen. Matt Hansen, a Democrat from Lincoln who sponsored the legislation. “Specifically, I am concerned children, racial and ethnic minority populations, homeless persons, and those who live in rural and isolated areas will be undercounted.”

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WASHINGTON — 

Negotiations on a package of spending bills to fund the federal government have produced a key breakthrough, though considerably more work is needed to wrap up the long-delayed measures.

Top lawmakers of the House and Senate Appropriations committees on Saturday confirmed agreement on allocations for each of the 12 spending bills, a step that allows negotiations on the $1.4-trillion budget bundle to begin in earnest to try to pass the measures by a Dec. 20 deadline.

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), and Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), announced the agreement through aides.

The measures would fill in the details on this summer’s hard-won budget and debt deal. The pact is sought by a broad spectrum of GOP defense hawks, Democrats pressing to maintain recent gains in domestic programs, and a dwindling cadre of Washington pragmatists eager to demonstrate that they can make divided government work in an increasingly toxic atmosphere.

The talks come as the Democratic-controlled House is driving toward impeaching President Trump, whose demands for billions of dollars more for additional wall construction along the U.S.-Mexico border have slowed the process.

Trump has appeared to have little interest in the often-arcane appropriations process, other than to obtain wall funding and to boast about record Pentagon funding. The annual spending bills are, however, a top priority for top lawmakers like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who have wrestled over appropriations for decades.

Trump has been limited in success in winning wall funding from Congress, where there is relatively little enthusiasm for the project among his GOP allies and strong opposition from most Democrats. Congress provided $1.4 billion in wall funding last year.

The president has won considerably more money through transfers from Pentagon accounts by exploiting budget rules. He is seeking $8.6 billion, including $5 billion for the Department of Homeland Security, but would win far less under the tentative accord.

Lawmakers passed a stopgap measure this week to fund the government through Dec. 20. Saturday’s pact opens the door to a final agreement by that date, though the spending bundling is probably more likely to spill over into next year.

TOKYO — 

The Vatican’s Caritas Internationalis charity says it learned in 2017 of pedophilia concerns involving its Central African Republic director, but left it for his superiors to investigate and he remained in place and in ministry until this year.

CNN revealed the scandal over the Rev. Luk Delft this week, reporting that the Belgian Salesian priest was appointed to lead the Vatican’s main charity in the poverty-stricken country despite a 2012 criminal conviction in Belgium for child sexual abuse and possession of child pornography.

CNN identified two new alleged victims in Central African Republic since he was posted there.

Michel Roy, former secretary-general of Caritas Internationalis from 2011-2019, said in a statement Saturday that he didn’t know about the criminal conviction until this year.

But he said he had been informed in 2017 by a therapist that Delft shouldn’t be in contact with children.

“I informed Caritas CAR about the therapist’s letter and asked them to ensure that the issue was followed up with his order,” Roy said in a statement. “I was told that the issue had been resolved.”

Bangui Archbishop Cardinal Dieudonne Nzapalainga was in charge of Caritas Central African Republic at the time, and Delft was its country director. Roy relayed the concerns in the therapist’s letter to Nzapalainga, who relayed them to the Salesians.

The letter contained information from a therapist who reported that a patient had “concerns” but not evidence of pedophilia involving Delft, and said he shouldn’t be allowed to be around children given his past, said Andrew Azzopardi, the head of safeguarding and integrity for Caritas Internationalis.

Azzopardi said the Salesians in 2017 informed Nzapalainga about the 2012 conviction, but he was left in his position, and in ministry, until the new Caritas Internationalis secretary-general was appointed this year. A new complaints committee reviewed the case, and Caritas Internationalis told Nzapalainga he should be removed, and he was soon thereafter.

“A person with this background should have never entered the Caritas family let alone be a director,” Azzopardi said. “Not enough was done in 2017.”

CNN identified two alleged victims of Delft in Central African Republic, which would mean he had continued to abuse after he was sent to the country by the Salesians. He was appointed country director in 2015 by Nzapalainga. It wasn’t clear what, if any, information the Salesians provided him about Delft’s background at the time.

Roy said he had told Filipino Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, president of Caritas Internationalis and the archbishop of Manila, what he planned to do with the therapist’s letter in 2017. But Roy said he didn’t update Tagle, “who considered then that the issue was resolved.”

Caritas Internationalis is a confederation and doesn’t have the authority to appoint or fire staff at its autonomous national organizations, which are headed by national bishops’ conferences.

In 2017, its policies were to inform those responsible for Delft’s employment — in this case the Bangui archbishop and head of the Central African Republic bishops conference — and ensure the allegations were investigated.

New safeguarding policies were approved in 2018 at Caritas Internationalis, including the creation of a complaints committee and the appointment of Azzopardi as a safeguarding officer this year.

Azzopardi said a canonical investigation has been launched against Delft, as well as a criminal investigation.

NAGASAKI, Japan  — 

Pope Francis demanded world leaders renounce atomic weapons and the Cold War-era doctrine of deterrence, saying Sunday the stockpiling of nuclear arms decreases security, wastes money and threatens humanity.

Francis criticized the demise of arms control treaties while visiting Nagasaki, the site of the second of the two U.S. atomic bombings of Japan in 1945.

After laying a wreath of flowers and praying at the foot of the memorial to the victims, Francis said the place stands as a stark reminder “of the pain and horror that we human beings are capable of inflicting upon one another.”

“Convinced as I am that a world without nuclear weapons is possible and necessary, I ask political leaders not to forget that these weapons cannot protect us from current threats to national and international security,” he said.

The mood was somber and silent, darkened by the downpour that drenched the terraced fields and rice paddies of Nagasaki and the thousands of Japanese who came out in plastic raincoats to witness the second pope to pay his respects to victims of the bomb.

Francis visited Nagasaki — and later Hiroshima — at the start of his three-day trip to Japan aimed at emphasizing his call for a global ban on atomic weapons. Nagasaki was the perfect place to begin his visit, the birthplace of Christianity in Japan and ground zero of the bomb.

The Holy See was among the first countries to sign and ratify the new United Nations nuclear prohibition treaty, and Francis himself has gone further than any pope before him in saying not only the use but also the mere possession of atomic weapons is “to be condemned.”

Although Francis didn’t repeat his 2017 condemnation Sunday, he made a similar point.

“One of the deepest longings of the human heart is for security, peace and stability,” he said. “The possession of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction is not the answer to this desire; indeed they seem always to thwart it.”

The first U.S. atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, killing 140,000 people. The second one was dropped three days later on Nagasaki and killed an additional 74,000 by the end of the same year. Many of the survivors have suffered the lasting effect of radiation exposure and developed various forms of cancer.

Under the 1957 government law to support A-bomb survivors, or “hibakusha,” more than 370,000 people were recognized as eligible for government support, including medical and welfare assistance, depending on how far they were from ground zero.

“In a world where millions of children and families live in inhumane conditions, the money that is squandered and the fortunes made through the manufacture, upgrading, maintenance and sale of ever more destructive weapons, are an affront crying out to heaven,” Francis said.

He lamented the “climate of distrust” that is eating away at nonproliferation efforts and the arms control framework, a reference to a series of violated treaties and the demise this year of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a landmark Cold War-era arms control agreement. The U.S. formally withdrew from the treaty in August after accusing Russia of developing a missile system prohibited under it.

Gerard Powers, director of the Catholic Peacebuilding Network at the University of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute, said Francis didn’t break any new ground on the morality of deterrence in his Sunday remarks, after he shifted the church’s position in 2017.

“Instead, the pope reinforces the church’s long-standing efforts to delegitimize the nuclear status quo and convince the world that nuclear disarmament is not only a moral imperative but should be a policy goal,” he said in an email.

Starting in 1982, St. John Paul II had held that nuclear deterrence could be morally acceptable in the interim “so long as it is used as a step toward mutual, verifiable nuclear disarmament.” But the Holy See has come to realize in recent years that the policy was becoming a permanent condition and not leading to disarmament. By condemning nuclear deterrence, Francis pleased liberals and agitated conservatives, perhaps informing his more nuanced remarks Sunday.

Japanese who came out to see Francis were grateful, regardless.

“I think he is a person who can deliver the message of peace without inhibition,” said Negoro Fumiyo, a 62-year-old Christian from Osaka.

Fumiyo waited for hours in the rain for Francis’ Mass, celebrated in Nagasaki’s baseball stadium before a crowd of some 35,000 — and the remains of a wooden statue of the Virgin Mary rescued from a cathedral destroyed in the 1945 atomic bomb.

The statue, which was remarkably well preserved despite the blast, was featured on the altar.

Francis’ visit to Nagasaki also gave him the chance to honor Christian missionaries and martyrs centuries after St. Francis Xavier first brought Christianity to the archipelago in 1549.

He laid a second wreath of flowers at the memorial of 26 Nagasaki martyrs, who were crucified in 1597 at the start of the two-century wave of persecution of Christians by Japanese rulers.

The example of the missionaries and martyrs, and the so-called Hidden Christians who kept their faith alive underground for generations, helped inspire a young priest named Jorge Mario Bergolio to be a missionary in Japan.

“May we never forget their heroic sacrifice!” Francis said in remarks at the memorial.

Shingo Fukaura, from the Goto Islands off Nagasaki, where the Hidden Christians survived during the time of persecution, traveled to Nagasaki bearing gifts he hoped to give the pope at Mass.

“I also brought this branch of the camelia tree, which has been on my island since the time when we, Christians, were hiding our faith,” he said. “I am hoping he could give his blessing to this tree … and I could take it back to the islands to make it a symbol of peace.”

Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.