Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Sorted by date Results 421 - 445 of 457
President Donald Trump swept through Los Angeles last Friday after a trip to Calexico to discuss the situation at the border with Mexico. Multiple roads throughout West Los Angeles were closed at various times during the afternoon and early evening - peak rush hour - causing delays and frustration for motorists. As other presidents, such as President Barack Obama, have done, Trump landed at Los Angeles International Airport, helicoptered to Santa Monica Airport, and from...
On Tuesday, the Santa Monica City Council voted to institute an emergency ordinance that would require sidewalk vendors to acquire licenses and permits. They would also be barred from operating in certain high-traffic zones, including the Santa Monica Pier, the Third Street Promenade and Transit Mall, Santa Monica State Beach, and Palisades Park within 500 feet of the Pier. The council portrayed the law as humane and inclusive. It is largely in response to a new state law, SB...
On April 3, Brunei put into effect Islamic Sharia laws that allow for amputation for theft and stoning to death for adultery and homosexual sex. These laws have been on the books since 2014 but were only put into effect on Wednesday. Even before 2014, homosexuality was punishable by a jail term of up to 10 years. Brunei is a sultanate located on the north coast of the Island of Borneo off the South China Sea. Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah has held his regal position since 1967. He...
Ground broke on Tuesday for a new structure, dubbed the Discovery Building, at the Santa Monica High School campus. Its function is to replace the Science and Technology buildings which were demolished last summer. The building will form a U around an interior courtyard. Planned to open at the end of 2021, it will contain 38 classrooms, offices for the M and O houses, 3 multipurpose rooms, some common areas, and a full kitchen and cafeteria. A rooftop garden will serve as...
The LA County District Attorney's office announced yesterday that they had secured a two-year sentence for the so-called "Bomber Robber." Robert Abalov of Los Angeles was initially charged with attempted robbery, criminal threats, malicious possession of a false bomb with intent to cause fear, false imprisonment, hit and run, and grand theft. This week, Abalov pleaded no contest to one count of attempted second-degree robbery. Second degree robbery occurs if the perpetrator ca...
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors banned the use of any glyphosate-type weed killer on county property pending more information about the chemical's potential health and environmental effects. Glyphosate is the active ingredient in the popular weed-killer Roundup, a product of Monsanto. To date, two California juries have determined that glyphosate caused the cancer alleged by plaintiffs. In 2018, Dewayne Johnson was awarded $289 million for the terminal cancer he...
An Information Item sent from Santa Monica City Manager Rick Cole to the city council seeks to explain what achievements staff has made over the past year to address homelessness. In late November of 2017, the council allocated $1.4 million from general funds for one-time seed money for staff to implement strategies to address homelessness. Staff intends to discuss what they’ve done with the money at the March 26 council meeting. Much of that information is contained in the I...
The California Court of Appeal offered temporary relief to Santa Monica's current City Councilmembers, who were facing a special election this summer. Justices Elizabeth Grimes, Maria Stratton, and John Shepard Wiley of the appeals court signed an order staying an earlier ruling by a trial court that the city must hold special elections for city council via newly-drawn districts by August 15. The order to create voting districts in the city comes from a California Voting...
The weedkiller Roundup, a product of Monsanto, continues to be used in Santa Monica's public spaces despite a recent $289 million dollar judgment against Monsanto for the terminal illness of school groundskeeper Dewayne Johnson. The active ingredient in Roundup is glyphosate. In July, 2017, glyphosate was added to the State of California's Proposition 65 list of chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects, or other reproductive harm. In an email, Dean Kubani, Assistant...
In a video address to citizens on Facebook on Wednesday, January 29, Police Chief Cynthia Renaud explained the 8.8 percent increase in Part 1 Crime in 2018. Part I crimes range from murder through aggravated assault to larceny-theft. Last year there was an increase of 450 more Part 1 crimes (also known as "serious crimes") than the previous year. Renaud pointed out this averages 1.23 more crimes per day. Between 2015 and 2018, there has been an increase of 29 percent in...
On Monday around 1:00 pm, a small house fire in the 1300 block of the Pacific Coast Highway closed all southbound lanes and the number one northbound lane. Around the same time, police were called for a suspected house break-in. The suspect was seen fleeing to the roof of a building adjacent to the fire. The police managed to talk the suspect off the roof and take him into custody. Meanwhile, the Santa Monica Fire Department put out the fire, which is described as minimal. Sau...
Superior Court Judge Yvette Palazuelos ruled on Wednesday that the City of Santa Monica must hold special elections via districts by July 2. Current members of the Santa Monica City Council are prohibited from serving past August 15. Palazuelos's ruling came as an answer to a Monday request for clarification from the city, who is appealing the judge's Feb.15 ruling that the city's current at-large voting system violates the California Voting Rights Act. The initial CVRA...
We dutifully separate our recyclables and put them in a separate container for the waste trucks to pick up, but the fact is that little of that material is currently getting recycled. "In California, less than 15 percent of single-use plastic is recycled, and the cost of recycling exceeds the scrap value of the plastic materials," writes California State Senator Ben Allen on his website on February 21, the day he and fellow senators Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) and Scott Wiener...
By January 8, when the City Council voted to increase water rates in the city, there had already been well-above-average rainfall throughout California. To date, California has received 18 trillion gallons of rain this season. This is nearly half the volume of Lake Tahoe. However, the Santa Monica City Council voted to approve city staff's recommendation for a 9 percent hike in water rates. This increase is estimated to raise the monthly bill for single-family home by $4.33....
A proposal by the Santa Monica City Council to halve public speaker time from two minutes to one minute has roused vigorous criticism. The current Rules of Order for council meetings allows a speaker 2 minutes per item with a total of 6 minutes per speaker. Speakers are allowed to accept one donation of 2 minutes from another speaker. However, certain items already restrict a speaker to 1 minute. A further proposal is to limit multiple applicants/appellants to a time of 10 min...
2/28/19 This month, Community Corp. of Santa Monica was awarded a $10.7 million-dollar 'loan' from the Santa Monica Housing Trust Fund to acquire property at 1819 Pico Boulevard, across the street from Santa Monica College. Currently, two 2-story apartment buildings and a church occupy the property. The church, formerly housing the Mount Hermon Baptist congregation, has been there since 1967. A demolition sign is now posted on the iron fence surrounding its parking lot....
In a video released on Thursday, Santa Monica Police Chief Cynthia Renaud promised to discuss traffic and what the police department is doing about it. However, Renaud - understandably - shied away from discussing what residents really want to know about traffic: How can we reduce it, and where can we park? Instead, Renaud and two of her staff, Lieutenant Candice Cobarrubias and Sergeant Joe Cortez, discussed what the police department is doing about traffic safety. Oh, and...
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted on Tuesday, February 12, to change a plan to rebuild the Men's Central Jail into a plan to build at least one mental health treatment facility. The original $2.2 billion proposal, changed on Tuesday, was to tear down the 1963 Men's Central Jail and build a rehabilitation-focused center called the Consolidated Correctional Treatment Facility on the old building's footprint. This facility was supposed to house 3,885 "inmate...
by Alyssa Erdley In a video released on Wednesday, Santa Monica Police Chief Cynthia Renaud informed the public of the steps being taken by her department regarding the homeless on the street. The department's Homeless Liaison Program (HLP) consists of 8 police officers, one sergeant, and a worker from the Department of Mental Health. The unit now operates 7 days a week, often starting as early as 4 am. In the video, Sergeant Erika Akulfi explains that the mission of the HLP...
On Monday, the Los Angeles County Homeless Initiative awarded $4.5 million to five different organizations in a contest to propose "game-changing creative and scalable permanent housing solutions for those experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles County." Voters of LA County approved Measure H in March, 2017. This law added a 1/4-cent sales tax throughout Los Angeles that was to be devoted to homeless services and programs. It is projected to generate $355 million each year...
A San Diego politician lost his federal lawsuit challenging California's Voting Rights Act. Don Higginson, former mayor of Poway, a city in San Diego County, had sued in 2017, claiming the drawing of new districts in his area was effectively gerrymandering and was designed to discriminate against him and other whites. Higginson was represented by the nonprofit Project on Fair Representation, a legal defense firm concerned with challenging racial and ethnic classifications and...
To the surprise of no one, the Santa Monica City Council appointed longtime resident and community activist Ana M. Jara to fill the city council seat vacated by Tony Vazquez. Vazquez resigned in January to take on his newly-elected duties at the State Board of Equalization. The remaining council members were then obliged to appoint a replacement. 76 applicants threw their hat into the ring, but many observers predicted the council would pick an Hispanic for the seat. Earlier...
On Wednesday night, volunteers in Santa Monica and across Los Angeles County conducted the annual Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count. From 10:30 pm until 2:30 am, volunteers in teams canvassed the streets to count the people they could see sleeping in public spaces. While the 300-plus volunteers went through the city by foot or by car, area shelters, transitional programs, and hospitals also counted the homeless in their facilities. Joining as volunteers for the count were...
In response to our article of December 26, (In the Face of E-Commerce, Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade Struggles to Remain Relevant), we were contacted by Downtown Santa Monica, Inc., the public-private entity that manages the downtown, for a tour of the 3rd Street Promenade and a discussion of how it is and will remain relevant for the foreseeable future. We're always up for a tour, so last Friday I met with Kathleen Rawson, CEO of DTSM, Inc., and she schooled me about...
A news story in the SM Daily Press about the arrest of Alfonso Flores, 45, in the early hours of January 12 has sparked a firestorm on social media platforms Nextdoor and Facebook regarding actions taken by the Santa Monica Police Department. According to the news report, on January 12 in the early hours of the morning, a woman walked up to police officers at 3rd Street and Broadway and requested assistance regarding a man who'd been following her. The police discovered, upon...
