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The City of Santa Monica just released it's proposed 2017-18 fiscal year budget. I hope you're sitting down, because it's much bigger even than last year's $621 million budget. "The overall proposed budget is $773.7 million in FY 2017-18 and $802.1 million in FY 2018-19. This budget reflects the operating and capital activities of 31 funds across 15 departments and approximately 2,300 permanent and temporary full-time equivalent positions," says the City in a press release....

After an underground electrical vault exploded and burned, 34 Santa Monica Police and firemen put out a structure fire at Broadway and Lincoln Blvd. on Monday night, May 8th. Two injured residents were taken to local hospitals in stable condition The fire began in the parking garage at the 1447 Lincoln building, managed by Lincoln Property Company . "The situation is static," said Captain Patrick Nulty the Santa Monica Fire Department's Public Information officer. "They experi...

Update, Friday morning, 11:30: “I can confirm that there was a flash event last night,” said David Song, SCE’s public affairs officer. “It did not involve a transformer.” “First there was what we at Edison call a maintenance outage, meaning we shut off the power to a limited area, in order to perform maintenance.” “When our crew re-energized the system, there was a flash event. Two men who were working in the basket area of the hydraulic lift, were injured during the flas...

Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron, 39, will be the next President of France. He is projected to get 66.1% of the French vote, Le Pen will receive 33.9% according to exit polls. Macron is in favor of European integration. He wants France to remain in the E.U., The Eurozone, and NATO. He is a French politician, senior civil servant, and former investment banker. Ideologically he is characterised as a centrist and a liberal. A wild celebration ensued when the exit polls w...

5/1/17: Riverside County Superior Court Judge Sharon Waters denied the Corona Cemetery Association's motion to stay a civil, class action lawsuit against it pending the outcome of a criminal investigation. Apparently seeking records to prove an allegation that bodies were improperly buried in the "Corona Sunnyslope Cemetery," aka Corona Cemetery Association, the Riverside County Sheriff's Department last week served a search warrant on the Corona Cemetery. The cemetery moved...

When the entire British royal family was been summoned to a meeting at Buckingham Palace, the initial response was someone must have died. No, tweeted the Royal Press Office. The Queen and Prince Phillip were alive and well. What then? Lord Voldemort has returned? Flags at the Palace were not at half mast. The entire staff was also been summoned. Emergency meetings of this nature do happen, but are uncommon. After what seemed like a long wait, it was announced that at 95,...

We have warned before that the Santa Monica City Council has declared all out war on the automobile. Specifically, they intend to remake Lincoln Blvd south of the 10 freeway, so it looks as much as possible like Montana Avenue or Ocean Park Blvd. The Santa Monica City Council has now approved a concept for Lincoln Streetscape Re-DesignLINC including the following change: - Street parking will be eliminated at peak traffic hours on the corridor to make way for municipal buses,...

Peggy Clifford died on March 1, 2017, of congestive heart failure at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center. The nationally known author of "To Aspen and Back" was 87. She had a hand in founding the Mirror Newspaper in 1998, after editing the first issue of the Santa Monica Observer. That last fact is seldom noted; she is the one person who tied together the Observer and Mirror. She also founded a local news website, The Santa Monica Dispatch, after being fired from the Mirror in...

The Riverside County District Attorney wants to know where the bodies are buried. Apparently seeking records to prove an allegation that bodies were improperly buried in the "Corona Sunnyslope Cemetery," aka Corona Cemetery Association, the Riverside County Sheriff's Department has served a search warrant on the Corona Cemetery. "Our Real Estate Fraud Task Force is conducting an ongoing and open investigation. At this time, no arrests have been made and no charges have been fi...

Monsignor Torgerson lead an over flow crow of parishoners in prayer at Saint Monica's Catholic Church North of Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica on Sunday morning, April 16th. The main church holds 926 people, 100 or so more standing in the back. The building will be the site of 8 masses today, at 75 minute intervals. There are also masses to be held in the Pavilion, and in the Gym. So one can arrive pretty much anytime and join in prayer. The holiday celebrates, of course,...

If you're affluent enough to pay $695 a seat, you can helicopter from Santa Monica Airport to the Coachella Music Festival this weekend. But some people will not be happy for you. Several local residents have complained about commercial helicopter passenger service, between Santa Monica Airport and the Coachella music festival. They claim that while charter flights are legal, regularly scheduled passenger service out of a general aviation airport like Santa Monica, is not perm...

In the last election, City Councilmember Kevin McKeown said that if the public voted down a restrictive measure that would have required voters approve any new development, he would slow down the rapid pace of local development. The City Council approved a couple of measures that will cost property owners money, unless they own single family homes. New developments can't use any more energy than their predecessors--was this the LUVE compensation that City McKeown promised?...

Exterminators executing a death contract against school termites, called the Santa Monica Police on a few school moms observing pesticide fumigation tenting proceed at a local elementary school. The moms arrived as employees of the fumigation company, US Superior, began to wrap the campus buildings in plastic tarps. They broke a promise to not use these toxic substances at the school, said Sherry Martini, mother of a former Roosevelt student. They went directly to chemical...

Roosevelt Elementary school plans to tent school buildings this Saturday, April 1, 2017, and spray for termites. But some parents think the plan is for the birds, and dangerous to the birds, bees and kids. "Did you know that raising the temperature inside the walls to 120 degrees Farenheit will kill termites?" asks Jill Hawkins. She is part of a group of Roosevelt Elementary School parents, lobbying the SMMUSD to put away the poison. She thinks there are less dangerous...

In what may be the most ill conceived traffic plan ever created by civil employees paid more than $250,000 a year, the City of Santa Monica is pushing a plan to narrow Lincoln Blvd into one lane in each direction. "Auto-Centric businesses" such as auto parts and mechanics, would be encouraged to leave town. Commuters would be discouraged from using Lincoln Blvd, since it would flow at about 10 miles an hour between the 10 freeway and Ozone Avenue, 1.5 miles south. Update:...

America's latest tech billionaire Evan Spiegel grew up surfing in LA. Then he went to Stanford, where he met Reggie Brown and Bobby Murphy. Together, they designed a social media app that allows users to share images and videos, which will then vanish. Snapchat has 30 million monthly active users, and Wall Street just rewarded Snap with an IPO that made them rich beyond their wildest dreams. What exactly is wrong with Spiegel, Murphy and Brown living their American dream? We a...

It has long been known that Santa Monica gives it's employees stupendous wages and benefits. 112 City of Santa Monica employees make more than $250,000 per annum. SMPD Beat policemen make on average, $102,000 a year, and can retire with a full pension at 55 years of age. The City Manager makes $425,000 a year (no, that's not a typo). And so on down the line. Now pensiontracker.org has ranked California cities by pension debt per household. We would like to report that Santa...

The wind toppled a large eucalyptus tree onto a pathway at the golf course at the Genesis just before noon. The tree appears to have fallen on no one but startled onlookers. The annual tournament, formerly known as the Northern Trust open or the Los Angeles open, has been held today on the rainiest day in Los Angeles in 15 years. The event is held at the Riviera country club in Pacific Palisades, California. 20 minutes after the tree fell, play was temporarily suspended due...

It seems apparent that the Trump Whitehouse was not told in advance of Saturday's announced closure of the Santa Monica airport, as of 1/1/2029. That's because Donald Trump would never have agreed to it. At a hastily called Saturday meeting, the City Council approved a settlement with the FAA restricting SMO's use until 2029, followed by its closing and turning over of the land to the City. The timing of the announced settlement, one week after the swearing in of a new...

Santa Monica Airport is the oldest airport in Los Angeles County and at 110 years old, the fifth oldest in the State of California. It would appear that this afternoon, the City Council has negotiated with the FAA for the authority to close the airport on New Year's Day, 2029. Closing the airport has become a popular cause in Santa Monica. Airport opponents point out that due to the airports unique history as the Douglas aircraft headquarters until 1972, nowhere in America is...

Update: Coach Kampmann's Memorial is set for Feb. 4, 2017 at 11 am at University High School's Stivelman Theater. Coach Richard Kampmann, University High School's beloved track and cross country coach who later coached track and cross country distance running at Pepperdine University, is near death, says his son, Bill Stimming. He was (and remains) a role model for hundreds of boys and girls over the years. Kampmann was the coach from 1962 to 1987 at UniHi. "They just...

Update: Coach Kampmann's Memorial is set for Feb. 4, 2017 at 11 am at University High School's Stivelman Theater. 2/23, 2 pm PST: With deep sadness, this message is to inform you that Coach Dick Kampmann passed away this afternoon at 2:12 p.m. at his home in Santa Monica. He was with family at the end and at age 92, lived a full and meaningful life. He and Deb are now once more united, forever. Bill Stimming is now busy making the necessary arrangements and there will be a...

Susan "Spooky" Schueler, 51, taught high school English at Culver City High. But in 2015 she left the public education system in order to become a professional psychic medium. While a psychic involves herself in a soul to soul connection with people in order to help them with life issues, a medium connects people to their loved ones on the other side, according Schueler. All mediums are psychics, but not all psychics are mediums. She is both psychic and medium and always has...

One year ago, the City of Santa Monica launched a program to add a strip of concrete down the center of 75 alleys. This allows rainwater to percolate through the strip and into the groundwater, then out to sea. The problem is, that center strip visibly wears out more quickly than the surrounding black asphalt. The City launched an "Alley Renewal Program" which, over 20 years, will "improve the condition and functionality of 75 of the City's most worn alleys. Project work...

The Tuareg people inhabit the Sahara desert, in a vast area stretching from far southwestern Libya to southern Algeria, Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso. It is one of the world's most remote and little known countries. Santa Monica Dance Studio's Benedicte Schoyen Clark recently travelled to Niger to visit Leslie Clark, Ned Clark's aunt, and the founder of The Nomad Foundation. Bringing their friend, Cooper Bates, the three of them completed a 4-week journey into the poorest,...