Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Sorted by date Results 51 - 75 of 431
January 19, 2023 - Amazon announced in an email yesterday that they are ceasing the Amazon Smile program that donates 0.5% of the purchase price of qualifying products to a charity of the consumer's choice. The program required customers to choose a qualifying charity and then sign in with their regular Amazon password on the Smile.Amazon.com site. The shopping experience was identical to Amazon.com. Amazon will officially end the program on February 20, 2023. Over a million 501(c)...
January 19, 2023 - The luxury beachfront hotel, Loews Santa Monica Beach, has announced it is "temporarily" suspending operations effective March 4. The 320 workers at the hotel will be laid off. The hotel, which opened in 1989, replaced an earlier low-profile motel, sits cater-corner to Tongva Park and two blocks from the Santa Monica Pier. Both of these locations have been plagued by crime and violent incidents over the past few years. For example, in October, 2018, a homeless man was...
December 21, 2022 - In September, health officials across the United States began administering and encouraging a "bivalent booster" shot for Covid-19 that was supposed to protect against both the older variants of the virus and also against the newer BA.4 and BA.5 variants of Omicron that had become prevalent over the summer. Anyone over age 12 who had not had a booster shot within two months was eligible to receive this new injection. Los Angeles County Health Department data showed that...
December 12, 2022 - The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health is issuing a rain advisory regarding all Los Angeles County Beaches due to the recent rainfall. Rain allows bacteria, chemicals, debris, and trash to discharge from area storm drains directly into the ocean without any filter. The danger is greatest near storm drain discharges, such as those at the ends of Chautauqua and Pico Boulevard. LADPH's press release warns that "individuals who enter the water in these areas could...
November 30, 2022 - The City of Santa Monica plans to swear in new members of the city council and other elected office before the county has finalized the election results on December 8. "Elected officers will be sworn in at the December 6 City Council meeting," reads the city's website. But the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder has until December 8 to complete official results and send them to the Secretary of State - who then has until December 16 to certify the election. The city...
November 17, 2022 - Santa Monica Measure GS, which would increase property transfer taxes on property over $8 million is squeaking ahead in the polls with 52.46% of the vote - only 1,431 votes - as of November 16. But the effects of the new tax could be large. Measure GS raises the tax from $6 per $1,000 of value to $56 per $1,000 of value. This is an increase of 833%. Critics of the measure say the burden of the new tax will fall largely on homeowners since there is no inflation mechanism in...
November 15, 2022 - Today the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health announced that they are partnering with Crypto.com Arena, the Los Angeles Lakers, the LA Clippers, and LA Kings to arrange a free vaccination site to be available at the arena during the professional sporting events. Vaccinations can be received from the time doors open until 30 minutes following each game. The service will be available until the end of December. The vaccination site will be located near Blaze Pizza on...
November 17, 2022 - Democrats won big in statewide offices in the November 8 election in California as was expected, but the lead by which they are winning is closer than in 2018. Races for the governor, attorney general, secretary of state, and controller are all tighter this year than four years ago. The numbers below are from unofficial election results posted on the Secretary of State website on November 16. Gavin Newsom won by an awesome 23.8 percentage points in his initial bid for...
November 17, 2022 - The results below from the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder are as of November 16 at 3:20 pm. 35.5% of eligible voters's ballots have been received so far. There have been no changes in which candidates have won seats or which measures have won or lost since the last update on November 11. Measure GS, which would significantly increase property transfer taxes in Santa Monica very slightly increased its lead, now at 1,431 more votes in favor than opposed. MEMBERS OF THE...
November 16, 2022 - Official results of the General Election that took place on Tuesday, November 8 will not be certified by the California Secretary of State until December 16. With universal mail-in ballots now sent to every voter, many take advantage of the convenience. Ballots only need to be postmarked on or before election day and reach their county recorder seven days after that. A large number of mail-in and provisional ballots remain to be processed. There are an estimated 2,180,974...
November 15, 2022 - The results below from the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder are as of November 15 at 3:41 pm. 33.63% of eligible voters's ballots have been received so far. There have been no changes in which candidates have won seats or which measures have won or lost although leads generally lengthened slightly since the last update on November 11. Measure GS, which would significantly increase property transfer taxes in Santa Monica is currently ahead by only 1,173 votes - out of...
November 11, 2022 - The results below from the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder are as of November 10 at 4:23 pm. With 25.8% of registered voters' ballots received, it is unknown how many Vote-by-Mail Ballots are outstanding and only a few hundred votes separate some candidates and measures. Only 563 votes separate Santa Monica City Council candidate Lana Negrete from her closest challenger, Natalya Zernitskaya, votes that could cost Negrete her seat on the council. Numbers in parentheses...
November 9, 2022 - The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder released election results as of 3:35 am this morning. Results will be updated on Friday November 11. Some of the local results may change as only a few hundred votes separate some candidates and measures. Numbers in parentheses are raw votes for the candidate or measure. Members of the City Council (top 3 vote-getters) Caroline Torosis 18.91% (8,327) Jesse Zwick 16.63% (7,321) Lana Negrete 12.48% (5,494) Ellis Raskin 11.36% (5,002)...
November 2, 2022 - The Santa Monica Police Department reports that two homeless men have been arrested in connection with a shooting on October 29 at the 7-11 located on the corner of Lincoln Boulevard and Pico Boulevard in Santa Monica. The 7-11 is a block away from Santa Monica High School. On Saturday night, October 29 around 9:35 pm, police responded to a report of shots fired at the convenience store. They found the glass door and an adjacent glass window shattered. Two on-duty employees...
October 20 - Votes by mail can start immediately and in-person voting centers will open on October 29. Here's how to cast your ballot in a way to best help our larger community. Or, in the case of our insane California legislature and the largely dysfunctional County Board of Supervisors, do the least damage possible. Here are our recommendations. US SENATE PARTIAL TERM Mark P. Meuser (R) US SENATE FULL TERM Mark P. Meuser (R) It's about time California had some political balance in our...
October 20, 2022 - Mail-in ballots have arrived in mail boxes and voting centers are open starting October 29. How can you cast your ballot in a way that will benefit the community, bringing health, security, and prosperity to all? Or, in the case of Soviet Monica, do the least damage possible? Here are our recommendations. Santa Monica City Council: Bullet vote for two; there is no third candidate we can recommend: Armen Melkonians Melkonians is the anti-overdevelopment advocate who prevented...
October 20 - Here's how to vote to support one of the most populous counties in the country, restoring as much safety and prosperity as possible from that stolen by a largely dysfunctional County Board of Supervisors and ultra-woke District Attorney. SHERIFF Alex Villanueva There is absolutely no question about this vote. Villanueva is the only power in the entire county that is willing to deal with drug-addicted vagrancy. Nobody else is willing to clean up encampments and deal with those...
October 12, 2022 - Lana Negrete was appointed to the Sant Monica City Council in June 2021 to replace longtime councilmember Kevin McKeown who had resigned. She is now running for a place on the council in her own right. Why are you running for Santa Monica City Council? "To continue the work I started!" Negrete immediately answered. When she was appointed a year ago, "I told myself if I can effect change, I will get on the council and work for change." What are your priorities in your present...
September 30, 2022 - Multiple student groups at UC Berkeley's School of Law began the school year by adopting a bylaw written by the Law Students for Justice in Palestine (LSJP) agreeing to boycott Israel and any entity supporting Israel. In addition, the new bylaw would prohibit the group adopting it from inviting any speaker who "expressed or continued to hold views...in support of Zionism, the apartheid state of Israel, and the occupation of Palestine." The groups adopting the bylaw also...
September 1, 2022 - Today, Barbara Ferrer, Director of Public Health, announced that doses of the new booster shot targeting Omicron will be arriving in the county between September 6 and 9. The Federal Drug Agency has given Emergency Use Authorization of the new vaccine that can be given to anyone over age 12 who has not had a Covid vaccine within the past two months. The bivalent boosters are not to be used as a primary series, but only as a booster following at least one full series of...
August 24, 2022 - At the Santa Monica City Council meeting last night Santa Monica Police Chief Ramon Batista vigorously disputed what he called the "falsehood" that there are no police officers working at night. SMPD works "around the clock," he said and then displayed a slide showing the first names of 48 officers who he said "work at night." Another slide showed 34 officers had overtime assignments that "work most often at night, and a third slide showed 30 other officers, including command...
August 24, 2022 - Santa Monica Police Chief Ramon Batista gave a rosy picture of strides forward made by the department in cutting crime over the past few months at a City Council meeting last night. Along with adding additional officers to the downtown area, SMPD conducted five "Public Health and Safety Operations" that had been conducted with various subdepartments in the police force over the past month. Over the span of 8 weekends, in which these operations were conducted during the last 3...
August 22, 2022 - A man talking on his cell phone on the sidewalk near 2nd Street and Washington Avenue in Santa Monica after midnight on Sunday morning was approached by three men who held a gun to his head, beat him, and stole his wallet and phone. They drove off in a car that pulled up to help them flee. The entire incident was witnessed by a resident who provided security camera footage of the crime. Police arrived and about 30 minutes later caught the criminals who were not quite 2 miles...
August 22, 2022 - The Los Angeles County Public Health Department claims that 31,291 residents have died of Covid-19 as of August 22 since the pandemic began in March, 2020. But have that many people actually died from the effects of becoming infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus? Given the loose definition health officials use for a Covid death, it is not at all clear. "We don't categorize deaths as 'because of' Covid vs. 'with Covid,' health officals wrote us. "All Covid deaths reported by...
August 17, 2022 - Having failed in their attempt to make Ethnic Studies a high school requirement for admission to a University of California campus, proponents of "critical" ethnic studies are turning their attention toward training K-12 teachers in their politically trendy version of the nation's history. This version, in which people are divided into oppressor versus oppressed classes, has been accused by the AMCHA Initiative as "inherently anti-Jewish" and "can't help but promote animus...
