Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Sorted by date Results 271 - 295 of 457
On Tuesday, May 4, police were called to respond to a call to remove a trespasser from a carport in the 1400 block of 16th Street. They arrived, together with a Mental Health Clinician from the LA County Department of Public Health and discovered a male individual on the premises without permission. Upon a search of the trespasser's belongings they found a large cache of methamphetamine, but more importantly, an unmarked and unregistered loaded handgun. It is fortunate that...
Every eight years, California's Department of Housing and Community Development comes up with a magic number of additional residents moving to the state for which the area must plan. The way they arrive at this number is shrouded in mystery and bureaucratese. For the future period of 2021 to 2029, HCD decided that Southern California had to plan for an additional 1.34 million more housing units. Officials all over the region were ordered to figure out how to shoehorn in this m...
The Centers for Disease Control released new guidelines regarding masks, distinguishing between people who are vaccinated and those who are not. The Los Angeles County Health Department has reluctantly agreed to align with the new guidelines. Revealing that the government is as godawful at marketing as they are at producing, distributing, and creating, the federal agency recommended vaccinated people still wear masks in outdoor settings where 6 feet of distance can not be...
April 27, 2021 The Los Angeles County Health Department announced today that the area is enjoying case numbers and test positivity rates that set it on course to move from the orange to the less restrictive yellow tier. Should the numbers hold up for another week, the region may be able to enter the yellow tier as early as May 5. For over a year, LA County was stuck in the most restrictive purple tier. Then, as the January surge subsided and vaccinations began, the county bega...
A bill to create a single financial fund for all health care in the state was shelved in the California State Legislature last week. AB 1400 did not make it out of the Assembly Rules Committee in time to be heard by the legislature in 2021. The proposed legislation, authored by State Assembly members Kalra, Lee, and Santiago would establish a "comprehensive universal single-payer health care coverage" for all state residents. The bill is co-authored by, among others, Lorena...
Our legislators' hunger for more and more housing units in the region ignores one remarkably significant limiting factor: water supply. Over recorded history in the region, California has suffered multiple droughts, many of the more recent episodes requiring strict rationing of residential water supply. Los Angeles is currently at only 46% of average rainfall for the Water Year according to the California Department of Water Resources (DWR). Riverside is at 50%, and other...
State Senator Josh Newman, a Democrat, is pulling from consideration his proposal to allow the objects of a recall petition access to the names and contact information of those who signed the petition. Newman, reelected in 2020, was himself the victim of a recall election in 2018 - which he lost. He says the present system of privacy for those who sign a recall petition allows for potential fraud. Those who sign the recall petition may not realize what they are signing. The...
As the trial of Derek Chauvin begins to draw to an end with the jury beginning its deliberations this week regarding the death of George Floyd, Santa Monica's Police Chief, Jacqueline Seabrook, delivered a message addressing concerns of possible civil unrest. "There have been no threats or any activities specifically targeting our community," Seabrook wrote although she acknowledged "concerns happening in the broader environment." Apparently because of those concerns (and poss...
Santa Monica Police arrested two suspects on Thursday, April 8th, near 7 pm for possession of marijuana for sale. One of the suspects was found to have a 9mm handgun with a high-capacity 9 mm magazine loaded with 16 rounds. This suspect had a prior conviction for 1st degree manslaughter and was additionally charged for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. SMPD officers first observed an apparent hand-to-hand purchase of marijuana near Ocean Avenue and Colorado...
As Los Angeles County moved into the Orange Tier on Monday and following the latest CDC directives, public health officials issued new guidelines regarding travel. Now travelers who are fully vaccinated do not need to quarantine upon their entry into the county. Travelers who are not vaccinated must still quarantine. However, they have a choice. If they take a COVID-19 test 3-5 days after their arrival that is negative, they only need to quarantine for 7 full days after their...
After more than a year of forced closure, the Pacific Park amusement park on the Santa Monica Pier has reopened. With the county entering the red, and then the orange tiers of public health restrictions, more sectors of the economy have been allowed to resume operations. However, continued fear over COVID-19 and the constant refrain of the rise of virus variants places restrictions on capacity and some aspects of business reopenings. The amusement park on the pier, for...
How does one get a free room with oceanfront view, no taxes to pay, and no building codes to follow? According to Los Angeles Councilman Mike Bonin, be a vagrant. The controversial councilmember is already routinely lambasted on social media for the unsanitary and dangerous conditions caused by vagrants in his district. His proposal to allow the homeless to legally camp in the beach parking lots at Will Rogers and Dockweiler Beach and next to Fisherman's Wharf was met with a...
UPDATE/CORRECTION: The Santa Monica Shines program does not involve inspections from city of Santa Monica code inspectors. Sustainable Works conducts the walk-throughs to grant the Assurance Seal and they are a separate entityt hired by the city. The empathy course that seems so mysterious involves guidance in how to interact with business customers or guests who do not want to follow the county's safety guidelines, i.e. are refusing to wear a mask or socially distance. Half...
Two suspects apprehended by the Santa Monica Police Department on March 28 have been charged with assault by the LA District Attorney. The two men were among a group of three males who allegedly accosted a couple who were riding scooters late at night in the 1700 Block of Ocean Avenue, near the fancy beach hotels. One of the men lifted his shirt to show the couple he was armed with a gun. Another of the men took the woman's cell phone and three it to the ground so that she...
It took LAPD 15 minutes to respond to a bystander's call for help to stop a man molesting a three-year-old girl by the Ocean Front Walk bike path in Venice, according to a social media post found in Facebook's Venice United, Venice Community Group and on Nextdoor. The incident occurred a little after 6 pm on Sunday while it was still light outside, just south of Brooks. The individual who posted about it witnessed the crime taking place as they were riding their bicycle north...
Public Health is happy to see eligibility for the COVID-19 vaccine expanded by the State, starting April 1, for individuals age 50 and older, and starting April 15, for individuals age 16 and older. Public Health continues to be an advocate, partner and provider in the vaccine efforts, including vaccinating people who live in areas hard-hit by this pandemic. The County hopes the expansion of eligibility carries with it increased doses of vaccine coming into L.A. County. L.A....
"My parents were told to go on with their lives, without me." So begins Cody LaScala's story on the Napa, Intensive Therapy, website. On his first birthday, he was found lifeless at the bottom of a swimming pool. He remained in a coma for months. When he finally came out of it, he was left with cerebral palsy. He remains paralyzed and only able to speak with great difficulty. And yet now at age 33, LaScala has just completed a film, "Breaking Cody," completed within the 5-day...
Los Angeles County may be moving into the Orange Tier of Covid-19 lockdown restrictions in early April if case numbers continue to remain at their current low levels. The county finally moved out of the most restrictive Purple Tier on March 22, after a full year in that situation. If new case numbers remain low, the county may only remain in the next, Red Tier, for only a few weeks. The County needs to maintain less than 3.9 cases per 100k people for three weeks in order to...
March 23, 2021 - Almost exactly a year since the County of Los Angeles Department of Public Health shut them down, bars and wineries not serving meals are now allowed to open - as long as guests remain outdoors. Establishments offering meals along with alcohol can open indoors at 25% capacity. Guests at outdoor bars are restricted to 90-minute stays, which begs the question if Public Health is thinking about unintended consequences. Those same people hastily guzzling their...
A bill that would upend the state's health insurance industry was introduced in the California State Legislature on the last possible day, February 19. The proposed legislation, authored by State Assembly members Kalra, Lee, and Santiago would establish a "comprehensive universal single-payer health care coverage" for all state residents. The bill is co-authored by, among others, Lorena Gonzalez, who was responsible for the legislation gutting the state's gig economy. AB 1400...
March 11, 2021 The City of Santa Monica on Tuesday joined the County and City of Los Angeles in adopting an ordinance granting an additional $5 per hour "hero pay" to workers at large grocery chains and drug retailers. The law takes effect immediately and is supposed to sunset after 120 days. The Covid-19 virus began sweeping through the local population last spring, with several plateaus and surges during the year since. Throughout this whole time, "essential workers" at...
March 9, 2021 - The California Department of Corrections, which runs the state's prisons quietly began offering Covid-19 vaccines to the staff and also incarerated individuals at the state's prisons on December 22, 2020. Vaccinations for frontline workers, the first given in the state, only began shortly before this date. Individuals over 65 years old were not eligible to sign up to get the vaccine until mid-January. As of March 7, there have been 42,397 inmates who have...
Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District reached an agreement with the teachers' union to 'reopen' the elementary schools with a target date of March 15. Reopening does not mean a full-on return to in-person instruction, however. Each site will have its own plan. According to Gail Pinsker, district spokesman, "schools are starting with one or two days a week" for the two weeks preceding Spring Break, which begins March 29. She said she was "unable to confirm" how much time...
A recent Gallup poll showed that 58 percent of America's workers are now doing so remotely. Lockdowns from the pandemic caused much of this migration from the office to the home, but in California, some might be tempted to maintain a situation that avoids commuting once traffic starts to pick up again. The idea of bypassing the need for a long and painful commute can be alluring, but do the numbers pan out? To work at home effectively over the long haul might require sizing...
With the nation's death toll from Covid-19 passing half a million this week and nearly 20,000 deceased in Los Angeles County, a group of artists and individuals sought to find a way for the country to grieve. The result this March 1 will be the installation of a heart-shaped garland of felt roses at the Building Bridges Art Exchange at Bergamot Station. The groups involved include the Floral Heart Project, conceived by artist Kristina Libby. Concerned about the number of...
