Articles written by Alyssa Erdley
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Large Jump in Coronavirus Cases Countywide Attributed to Greatly Increased Testing
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health reported 421 new COVID-19 cases today at a press conference. Dr. Barbara Ferrer, director of the Department, attributed the large increase in known...
8 Days That Shook the World: From the LA Marathon to Closing All Gyms in Santa Monica
The response of public officials to the increasing cases of COVID-19 accelerated greatly since twenty-three thousand athletes and even more spectators descended on the city to participate in the Los...
Coronavirus Crisis Highlights the Dangers of Urban Density, Especially in LA County
On Friday, March 20, local authorities urged the stay-at-home populace to go out hiking for exercise and mental refreshment. The hundreds of miles of trails in the mountain recreation areas surroundin...
Big Jump in LA County Coronavirus Cases Today. Number of New Coronavirus Cases had been 40-60 per day.
3/23- At a live-stream press conference today, LA Department of Public Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer reported 128 new cases of known Coronavirus patients in LA County. Since Tuesday, March 17, th...
Additional Death Reported in LA County Department of Public Health News Briefing
At a streaming press conference today, LADPH Director Barbara Ferrer announced the second death to occur in the county from the COVID-19 virus. The individual reportedly lived in a small community nea...
SMMUSD Hides Behind Federal and Local Agencies in Coronavirus Response
An email sent out Tuesday by Dr. Ben Drati, School Superintendent for the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, seeks to explain the response of the district to the outbreak of the Covid-19...
Santa Monica and Coronavirus: No Plan for the Homeless and Covid-19
The city's Chief Resilience Officer and its Communication Officer reported on the state of the city's response to the COVID-19 outbreak at the Santa Monica City Council meeting on Tuesday. Other than...
California's New Voting System Became A Long-Line Mess And Don't Blame the Victim
Last month I wrote that California should wait before laughing at the Iowa Caucus debacle. The state decided that the voting method that had worked seamlessly for over a century should be changed for...
California Democratic Presidential Primary, We Recommend Anybody but Bernie Sanders
Voting started in California on February 22 but continues through to the official election day, March 3 - Super Tuesday. We were asked by our whip-cracking publisher to provide a guide to voting for...
261 Parents File Objection to SMMUSD Settlement Affecting 11,000 Students
On Monday, 261 parents, led by former Rent Control Chairperson Joel Koury and Joseph Pertel, both attorneys, filed an objection to a class action settlement between the Santa Monica-Malibu School...
PETA Kills 84% of the Animals Brought to their Virginia Center, Within 24 Hours
PETA, the acronym for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, bills itself as an "animal rights" organization. Founded in 1980 by Ingrid Newkirk, a former animal shelter worker and deputy sheriff...
George Gascon of San Francisco Wants to be Your County District Attorney, but You Don't Want Him
George Gascon, a Havana-born former police officer, resigned his position as San Francisco District Attorney in October, at the same time announcing his intention to run for the same office in Los...
California Should Wait Before They Laugh at Iowa Caucus Debacle
On Monday, the much-anticipated results of the Democratic Iowa caucus were not available once the event ended. An app that had been designed to report results automatically from the phones of the...
Only Someone Who's Crazy Would Vote for Rachel Rossi for LA County DA. Literally
Rachel Rossi, currently a criminal defense lawyer at Cohen Williams, a fancy downtown Los Angeles law firm, has announced her candidacy for Los Angeles County District Attorney. You read that right....
Measure R Connects Citizen Oversight of the Sheriff and Inmate Release
Ballot Measure R, also known as Reform LA Jails, will be on the ballot this March. Somewhat confusingly, the measure tackles two disparate issues. The first issue is assuring that the Sheriff...
Thanks to the American Bail Coalition We Still Have Cash Bail in California
In the November 2020 election, Californians will have a chance to give an up or down to vote on legislation that ends cash bail. Back in August of 2018, Jerry Brown signed SB 10, "The Money Bail Refor...
AB-5: California's Gig Economy Law Reveals Who Brokers Power in Sacramento
The short list of winners under California's gig economy law and the long list of exceptions to it act like a neon sign announcing who controls the power in this state. The winners are the government...
Trump Administration Acts to Protect Jews at UCLA Using Title VI
The Trump administration made it clear this week how they were going to act on the president's executive order that included Jews as a protected group under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. The U.S....
From Earthquakes to Murders and elections, 2019 was one for the record books.
The news stories happening in Santa Monica this year ranged from the highly unusual to the highly typical. Here's our take on the year that was. The Unusual The Ridgecrest Earthquake A...
City Council Sells Out Santa Monica to SCAG (Southern California Association of Governments)
Radical changes are coming to the cityscape of Santa Monica within the next three months, according to comments made at the City Council meeting December 10. The council was struggling to react to an...
Who Says Santa Monica has to build 9,000 Housing Units? An Unelected Group With No Real Power, That's Who
In November, news broke that the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) had declared Santa Monica must build 9,118 housing units before 2029, 69 percent of which have to be affordable....
#SCOTUS Lets Stand Pro-Homeless Ruling Against Boise. But it's Not as Bad as They're All Saying
The U.S. Supreme Court on December 16 declined to take up a case regarding homeless outdoor sleeping. The Court's rejection of the case lets stand a Ninth Circuit ruling that governments cannot make...
Embarrassed City Council Halts Construction at the Santa Monica Airport
Following a unanimous resolution by the Santa Monica Airport Commission opposing construction of a 'temporary' facility for the city's Public Landscape Division (PLD) at the airport, and numerous...
Santa Monica City Yard Modernization is a Waste of Money
The City of Santa Monica is spending over $116 million to modernize (i.e., rebuild) their City Yards near Bergamot Station, but the project, on which construction began in July, is already exposing...
Coffee with a Cop at the Holiday Substation on the Santa Monica Promenade
We had a nice chat with Lieutenant Bill Heric of the Santa Monica Police Department at the "Coffee with a Cop" event Tuesday morning held at the holiday pop-up substation on the Third Street...
