Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Sorted by date Results 246 - 270 of 457
June 30, 2021 - Around 4:20 am, a man smashed in a window at a residence on Urban Avenue and entered the home, terrorizing a woman and her juvenile daughter. Both mother and daughter locked themselves in their rooms and each called 911. When Santa Monica police arrived, they found a shattered window and established a perimeter around the residence. They were able to observe a suspect inside the home. Officers were able to take him into custody. The residents told officers...
6/29: Yesterday, the Los Angeles County Health Department, headed by Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, changed their mind - yet again - about the efficacy of the various Covid-19 vaccines. Noting that the Delta variant now comprises half of all sequenced variants sequenced across the county, the department is now recommended that everyone, regardless of vaccination status, wear a mask when in a public indoor setting. They did not go so far as to issue an order, but just wait....
Courtesy of the brainiac who is pushing to densify our neighborhoods, California State Senator Scott Wiener, Senate Bill 519 to legalize psychedelic drugs, including LSD, was approved by the state's upper house. It will now move to the State Assembly where a similar vote is likely. Citing numerous studies touting the potential health benefits of methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), Wiener said "it makes no sense to criminalize" their use....
A group of parents, residents, and alumni are opposing the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board's decision to demolish the historic History building, circa 1930s, and use bond money to build an over-priced "21st century" replacement. The district is under pressure to spend the bond money they apparently needlessly foisted on the city's taxpayers, or it will look like they hadn't really needed it. Financial penalties might also ensue. Also, if it turns out they...
At first the city simply wouldn't help the pickleball players set up their courts. Then they pushed them out of the courts they'd been setting up on their own. And now they won't let them even do that. Pickleball was invented in the 1960s as a backyard sport, using solid paddles and a light plastic wiffle ball. It uses one quarter of a standard tennis court. After setting up the nets, 16 players can use one tennis court to play pickleball. But this sport, with adherents in...
While the number of Covid-19 cases in Los Angeles County have continued to remain the lowest since the start of the pandemic, with a test positivity rate today of 0.4%, officials are clearly hesitant to relax the restrictions they have placed on the public in the name of public health. However, with obvious reluctance, new guidelines were publicized today the county's Department of Public Health to align with updated requirements of California's Divison of Occupational Safety...
On Memorial Day in the late afternoon, when family picnics were winding down and folks were heading home to watch the baseball game, an observant individual noticed a man roaming the area near the 7-11 on 16th Street and that the man had a handgun stuck in his waistband. Police arrived and were able to confront the armed man, who turned out to be an ex-felon from Las Vegas. He had a .45 caliber Glock semi-automatic in his waistband and was wearing a bulletproof vest. His...
There will be a Gelsons at the eventual megalith development that is replacing Martin's Cadillac on Olympic Boulevard near Bundy. Hines development company, who is constructing the eight-story mixed-use project, thinks that learning this exciting news will make up for the increase in traffic that 200,000 square feet of offices and 600 apartments will bring to an already crowded area. "Securing a retail anchor of Gelson's caliber is a true testament to our place-making plan,"...
May 31, 2021 - A 3.0 earthquake gently rocked Santa Monica early in the morning of Memorial Day. The epicenter was located 11 kilometers south of Santa Monica, directly south of Pepperdine University and in the middle of Santa Monica Bay. The depth was 10.1 kilometers, according to the United States Geological Survey. The exact location of the epicenter was 33.931N 118.697W. The earthquake was the fourth of a series of small, early Memorial Day earthquakes in California...
UPDATE: From the Los Angeles Fire Department blog: CONTAINED: Firefighters have hand lines around the perimeter as helicopters continue to conduct water drops to assist with the efforts. The burn area is approximately 2 acres on a steep hillside. No structures threatened and no injuries reported. Crews will remain on scene for approximately two more hours conducting mop up operations and traffic on PCH will remain affected. No further details. May 24, 2021 - A brush fire is...
The Santa Monica-Malibu(for now) School District seeking to demolish the art moderne History building in the center of the Samohi campus teaches the public an important civics lesson. Never vote in favor of school bond measures. You may have five children in the district - you still shouldn't vote for them. Here's why. School bond money cannot be used for the things your children actually need: more teachers, smaller class sizes, high-quality teaching staff. It can't even be...
May 18, 2021 After taking the weekend to mull the matter, Governor Newsom and the California Department of Public Health decided that California would not be following the guidelines put forward May 13 by the Centers for Disease Control regarding masks. On Thursday, the federal CDC declared that vaccinated people could safely remove their masks in all situations: indoors or out, crowded or not. But on Monday, California officials, ruling over a state with one of the lowest...
May 18, 2021 Authorities today identified a suspect they had arrested on Sunday in connection with the Palisades wildfire that burned over the weekend and is only 32% contained as of this morning. Ramon Santos Rodriguez, 48, a homeless individual, was detained and treated for smoke inhalation on Sunday. He is being held on $75,000 bail. Speculation locally had been rife that the culprit was a convicted arsonist on probation who makes his home in the Palisades bluffs, paints...
Although California officials have repeatedly said they have no plans to institute a "vaccine passport" system in the state, apparently a lively trade in counterfeit vaccination cards has presumed they will not honor their word. How unreasonably suspicious of them! Adding to the completely unreasonable suspicion that access to public and private places will soon hinge on proof of vaccination, California Attorney General Rob Bonta stresses in a recent press release the dire...
May 20, 2021 - The Los Angeles Fire Department announced last night that the Palisades brush fire that began on Friday, May 14, is at 66% containment. "Firefighters have turned the corner on this fire," reads a tweet from Wednesday night. Nevertheless, "We won't let our guard down just yet," the fire department said. "Small heat signatures still remain near the fire line." No structures were damaged and 1 injury has so far occurred in the fire which as burned 1,158 acres of...
May 19, 2021 The Los Angeles County Fire Department lifted evacuation orders for residents of Pacific Palisades at 1:00 pm Tuesday afternoon. Earlier that day, they lifted evacuation orders for residents of Topanga Canyon as an air assault on the brush fire appeared to gain them control over it. On Sunday, a suspect was arrested in connection with the fire that burned over the weekend and through Tuesday. His identity was withheld until Tuesday. Ramon Santos Rodriguez, 48, a...
May 18, 2021 - In the early hours of the morning on Monday, a man who was openly carrying a handgun in his waistband walked into the AM PM market at 3rd and Pico together with a woman companion. Police were alerted and arrived to detain the man as he exited the store. They successfully disarmed him and discovered he was a convicted felon. For most people, it is illegal to carry a firearm in California. It is an additional crime to carry a gun if you are an ex-felon. The woman...
May 18, 2021 A fire that is suspected arson that started Friday night was 32% contained as of 9 am Tuesday morning, according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department incident report. Evacuation orders were lifted for Topanga residents but remain in place for residents of the north portion of the Palisades Highlands. A thousand residents had to be evacuated for the fire which has so far burned 1,158 acres. Better mapping decreased an earlier estimate of 1,325 acres. At a...
In a move that appears calculated to kill what little retail life is left in the Third Street Promenade and downtown, city officials are asking the California Coastal Commission to approve their proposal to tear down Parking Structure 3 in downtown Santa Monica. Officials wish to replace the 337-car structure with "affordable" housing for low-income tenants. Since 1968, the parking structure has served Santa Monica and the tourists who come here. Pre-pandemic, all of the...
SMPD arrested an 50-year-old white male arson suspect in the early hours of Monday morning, who had allegedly set fire to an umbrella outside Stefano's Pizzeria on the Third Street Promenade. The suspect was cited for the crime and would have been released due to the zero bail Covid-19 regulations, but was instead placed on a 5150 involuntary psychiatric hold. The Los Angeles Fire Department estimates an average of 24 fires a day occurring at homeless encampments. Below is...
In an email sent by anti-development group Santa Monica Coalition for a Livable City, victory was declared over the city's attempt to put a large mulit-use building on what is now mostly a ground-level parking lot, used seasonally as an ice skating rink. "Located on 2.5 acres of City owned land between 4th and 5th Street downtown, just south of Arizona Avenue; the Plaza would have included 11 stories of office space, luxury hotel rooms and underground parking. The proposed...
May 14, 2021 - On Thursday the Centers for Disease Control changed their guidelines regarding the wearing of masks for vaccinated people. As of yesterday, the nation's top disease authority announced that they believed it safe for people who are fully vaccinated to dispense with masks in all situations, indoors and outdoors, crowded or not. Los Angeles County's Department of Public Health is not ready to go along with these new guidelines, a situation that would allow...
On Monday, May 10, a federal judge modified an earlier injunction restricting the Los Angeles Police Department's use of less lethal 40-millimeter and 37-millimeter projectile launchers as a means of crowd control. Headlines around the region proclaimed that U.S. District Judge Consuelo B. Marshall had granted Black Lives Matter LA's request for the injunction against this arsenal in the police's use of force. In reality, the judge expanded the circumstances already allowed un...
Paula Goldman is looking for the artist in you, Santa Monica. With a grant from the Art of Recovery, an initiative of Santa Monica Cultural Affairs, Goldman is tasked with the mission of seeking the public's response to a year of Covid-19 and our hopes for the post-pandemic world. She wants as many people as possible to visit the "Journal of The Plague Year" website (https://covid- 19archive.org/s/archive/item) and post their text, image, video, or oral history. From these,...
During the Covid-19 lockdown, at least one person noticed the increased workload on the delivery personnel, the drivers for Amazon, FedEx, UPS, and the post office. During the summer heat wave, Eileen Tennant-Grant was unable to watch the delivery workers come and go without feeling that something should be done to help them out. So Eileen took to keeping cold bottles of water in the refrigerator, which she handed out to every delivery person who came to the door. Using the...
