Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Sorted by date Results 346 - 370 of 457
The Catholic church must go to trial over funds appropriated from cemetery maintenance fees. On Friday, July 31, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles lost a summary judgment motion to dismiss a lawsuit against them by an estimated 90,000 class action victims regarding their failure to maintain cemetery grounds for the eleven cemeteries in the Los Angeles area. The lawsuit centers around a decision the Archdiocese made in 2007 to transfer $80 million from their cemeter...
Declaring they were "building community," the Santa Monica City Council voted on additional rules to try forcing out Airbnb-type rentals. Under the new law, landlords could not offer a lease for less than a year. The lease would have to be made to a "natural person" rather than a corporation. And furnished units would be forbidden. To advertise any unit that does not comply with these regulations would also be prohibited. The stated goal of the new regulations is to prevent...
8/27/20: On Monday, the City of Santa Monica issued its 22nd Local Emergency Supplement, that is, yet another order restricting citizens' rights. This time, the city threatens to fine property owners for holding any gathering of over 20 people and to shut off their utilities. In addition, the violators could be charged with a misdemeanor. Fines would be $500 for a first violation, $750 for a second and $1,000 for a third violation committed within one year. Gatherings of any...
Power outages due to lack of supply affected nearly half a million customers in California last weekend. The shortage of available power was at least in part due to the state's commitment to clean power, closing fuel-generating plants and investing in unreliable solar and wind power. Almost a year ago, the California Independent System Operator, the nonprofit agency charged with maintaining the power grid, had warned there would be shortages this summer. Nothing was done...
Over the weekend, the state's California Independent System Operator, the overseer of the state's power grid, instituted the first rolling blackout due to power shortage in 20 years. Three of the utilities under CAISO's governance, Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison, and San Diego Gas & Electric, cut power on Friday evening to more than 410,000 businesses and homes. Customers experienced outages for about an hour over a 3-1/2 hour period. A second outage...
A woman was shot and killed and four others sustained wounds after an unknown number of gunmen fired multiple rounds at a house party in the exclusive Beverly Crest neighborhood. The shooting occurred Tuesday around 1:15 am after the party had already attracted the attention of the neighbors, LAPD, and local news agencies for its flagrant violation of county health orders. An estimated 200 people filled the 3-story rented mansion, none of them wearing masks. Party-goers were...
On Wednesday, the City of Los Angeles and Santa Monica issued further emergency orders in apparent reaction to the infamous house party held Monday night in Beverly Crest for an NFL football player. The party was filmed from news helicopters and showed hundreds of people disporting in the 3-story luxury mansion, none of them wearing masks. Ignoring the salient but apparently irrelevant fact that a woman was killed by gunfire at the party, local officials took action to stem...
Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Superintendent Ben Drati sent an email to parents and the public outlining the district's plans to combat racism, including a website of parent resources, social justice standards for different grade levels, a revised United States History curriculum, and the future participation of the district in a Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action in February. Although some elements of the plan appear to have been in the works for...
The State Legislature has been working hard to attempt to squeeze 1.8 million more units of housing into the state before 2029 by producing at least nine land-use proposals this year, each of which either enable, incentivize, or require cities to build more densely. Specifically, these bills end single-family-home neighborhoods. That is not an exaggeration. It is the stated goal of the proposed legislation. The authors of these bills and, presumably, the majority of state...
Between the State Senate and the State Assembly, nine bills are under consideration that would drastically change the balance of power regarding land use and zoning in California. Each bill seeks to solve the state's "housing crisis" with attacks against local zoning ordinances, in particular those that restrict some areas to single-family homes. Stripping local governments of their ability to decide their own physical appearance, these laws give the state government power to...
In a preview of good times to come should voters fail in November to revoke SB 10, California's No-Cash Bail law, a Huntington Park man stole over a dozen cars in twelve separate incidents - after being released from jail on his own recognizance each time. Emergency orders reducing bail to zero were instituted in Los Angeles County during the last week of March, while all non-essential businesses were ordered closed. A week later, the entire state followed suit. Concern was...
All over the United States, local and national leaders debate the possibility of opening school in the fall. In many areas, officials and teachers are reluctant to invite children to congregate and act as their usual petri dishes, distributing a variety of viruses to each other and their families. This year, the virus in contention is SARS-CoV-2, a germ that has already killed 138,000 in the U.S. to date. Though the risk from COVID-19 to the children themselves is low, it is...
The County of Los Angeles has ordered the immediate closure of almost every type of business that had been allowed to reopen during June. All indoor operations of gyms and fitness centers, offices of non-critical infrastructure sectors, places of worship, personal care services, hair salons, barbershops, and malls are now closed again. Basically, the only businesses allowed open are the "essential" services we were allowed to visit after March 19. Earlier today, Governor...
Today staff at the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District recommended learning occur solely from a distance when school reopens in August. The SMMUSD School Board will decide at their July 16 meeting if they want to take staff's recommendation, but it is unlikely they will disagree. Schools in Santa Monica closed in mid-March due to the growing epidemic of COVID-19 in the county. They did not reopen for in-person instruction but moved to an online-only format. In a...
Today the Second District Court of Appeal issued a ruling in favor of the City of Santa Monica in the California Voting Rights Act case brought by the Pico Neighborhood Association. The plaintiff had argued that the city's at-large system of voting for city council members disenfranchised voters from a protected minority group because their votes became 'diluted' by the majority of voters. The city maintained that Latino voters had not been unduly affected by the city's...
In time for the Independence Day weekend, a time when citizens of this great nation celebrate the freedom of our constitutional republican form of government, local and state officials issued a renewed and strengthened set of restrictions based on a "spike" in coronavirus cases. Beaches in Los Angeles and other counties are closed for the Fourth of July weekend - a huge weekend for visiting the shore. Bars and indoor seating at restaurants, both recently reopened, have been...
Today the Second District Court of Appeal issued a tentative ruling in favor of the City of Santa Monica in the California Voting Rights Act case brought by the Pico Neighborhood Association. The plaintiff has argued that the city's at-large system of voting for city council members disenfranchises voters from a protected minority group because their votes become 'diluted' by the majority of voters. The city maintains that Latino voters have not been unduly affected by the...
The Los Angeles County District Attorney has made sure to tell the press that she is charging the owner of a South Pasadena bar with a misdemeanor for opening his pub on Saint Patrick's Day in defiance of the then-new lockdown order. In post-COVID-19 Los Angeles, no one charged with a misdemeanor is held in jail. Since the county moved to empty the jails to prevent an outbreak of the virus among prisoners, nobody even convicted of a non-violent misdemeanor is serving any jail...
The Ocean Park Association (OPA), which has run Santa Monica's Fourth of July parade for thirteen years, announced on Wednesday that they have cancelled this year's festivities. For over a decade, the parade has marched down Main Street, an amalgamation of home-made car floats, school marching bands, and other local groups. Spectators are residents of all ages who are willing to get up by 9:30 am, the parade's start time. This year, however, organizers decided there were too...
Close to 60,000 signatures have been gathered as of this writing asking for the recall of Santa Monica Police Chief Cynthia Renaud. Most residents of the city are furious about the wide-scale looting that occurred during and after the "mostly peaceful" protest that paraded from Montana Avenue and down Ocean Avenue early in the afternoon. The City of Santa Monica has received 350 damage reports with 150 retail businesses claiming significant damage from the unrest on Sunday,...
In a County wracked by looting, arson, and rioting during the end of May and beginning of June; LA County's chief law enforcement officer, District Attorney Jackie Lacey, declined to file charges for curfew violations or failure to disperse. Curfews were imposed for several days during this period, both county-wide and within cities. In Santa Monica, curfews were imposed as early as 1:30 pm on June 1 and 2:00 pm on June 2. Obviously, these curfews were a severe imposition on...
On Sunday, a protest in Santa Monica regarding the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police shifted toward violence and looting later in the afternoon and on into evening. Fires were set, windows were smashed, graffiti spray painted, and stores trashed and looted. So far, the City of Santa Monica has received 350 damage reports with 150 retail businesses claiming significant damage. Widely publicized video from Sunday night shows scores of ecstatic individuals...
Ever since the COVID-19 disease began spreading through the world, countries and localities have been publicizing the number of cases and deaths from COVID-19. In Los Angeles County, this metric is updated daily. As I write this, with a click to the county website, I can discover there have been a total of 47,822 cases of COVID-19 in Los Angeles and purportedly 2,143 deaths due to the virus. These numbers are presumably given in order to inform the public, but like many statis...
On May 14, the City sent out one of its dreaded "updates." This one required citizens to wear face masks when outdoors, even when exercising. Previously, masks had not been required while exercising. Before that, masks outdoors had only been advised and not required. We wondered if there was any science behind the new restriction, which had been instituted the same day by the City of Los Angeles. Both Los Angeles and Santa Monica point to a May 13 Los Angeles Department of Pub...
Every day, the city of Santa Monica sends out at least one "Covid-19 Update." The word 'update' is a euphemism for a new commandment. In fact, there is often more than one 'update' per day. These so-called updates from the ruling class graciously inform we lesser orders what activities we may engage in, where we may engage in such permitted activities, and how we must be outfitted in order to be permitted such unexpected boons. Never do these orders cite any studies or data...
