Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
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SANTA MONICA - A large fight on the Santa Monica Pier erupted into gunfire Sunday night, leaving two people with non-life-threatening gunshot wounds and prompting a swift arrest by Santa Monica police.The incident occurred at approximately 9:00 p.m. on March 15, 2026, when officers responded to reports of shots fired on the iconic pier following a brawl involving multiple individuals, according to the Santa Monica Police Department. One victim sustained a gunshot wound to the...
The Oscars, once Hollywood's premier celebration of cinematic artistry, have increasingly come under fire for prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) mandates over pure merit and storytelling excellence. Titled "Why the Oscars Suck: Diversity, Equity Inclusion Standards Fail Art," this critique highlights how the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Representation and Inclusion Standards-introduced in 2020 and fully enforced for Best Picture eligibility...
Mountain Lion Kittens Spotted in the Santa Monica Foothills (February 2026) Trail cam footage from the Santa Monica Mountains recently captured something rare and adorable: a mother mountain lion leading her two spotted kittens across a fire road at dusk. The family, part of the local puma population monitored by the National Park Service, appeared healthy and well-fed, likely thriving on deer in the chaparral. The sighting thrilled biologists, who note that mountain lion...
Insert the usual disclaimer her about everyone being innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. But facial recognition tools like the Sherlock app have publicly identified the alleged perpetrators as Bruneil "Neil" Chamaki, Roma Akoyans, and Ramon Akoyans The brutal assault on two Israeli-American men in broad daylight at Santana Row in San Jose has shocked the Bay Area community, with San Jose police investigating the March 8, 2026, incident as a possible antisemitic...
New York City - Federal authorities have charged two teenagers from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, with terrorism-related offenses following an attempted bombing during a chaotic protest outside Gracie Mansion, the official residence of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, on Saturday, March 7, 2026. Emir Balat, 18, of Langhorne (Middletown Township), and Ibrahim Kayumi, 19, of Newtown, both U.S. citizens, face multiple federal counts, including attempting to provide material...
New York, March 8, 2026 – Crude oil markets continued their explosive rally today, with benchmark futures surging dramatically as the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran enters its second week, severely disrupting global energy supplies through the Strait of Hormuz and forcing production cuts across the Gulf region. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures for April delivery settled at $108.68 per barrel on March 8, up $17.78 or approximately 19.56% from the previous close, m...
Tensions reached a fever pitch in Los Angeles following the joint U.S.-Israel military strikes on Iran over the February 28–March 1, 2026 weekend, which resulted in the reported death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In Westwood-home to one of the largest Iranian American communities in the world, often called "Tehrangeles"-thousands of Iranian Americans converged near the Wilshire Federal Building (at 11000 Wilshire Blvd.) on March 1 and 2. The gatherings turned i...
3/3/26: In a move that reeks of desperation and dynasty-building, Iran's shadowy clerical elite has reportedly crowned Mojtaba Khamenei—the second son of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei—as the Islamic Republic's new Supreme Leader. It should be noted that there are contrary reports that he has been killed; what's left of the Iranian government is in no position to confirm or deny anything. According to opposition-linked Iranian media and sources close to the regime, the Ass...
March 3, 2026 – Dramatic developments in the escalating Middle East conflict emerged Monday when U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed that three U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jets were lost over Kuwait in an apparent friendly fire incident. All six aircrew members—three pilots and their three weapon systems officers—ejected safely, were recovered by local forces and civilians, and are reported to be in stable condition. The incident occurred at appro...
Based on historical patterns from prior Israel-Iran escalations, an Israeli attack on Iran like the one reported on February 28, 2026, is more likely to lower the US stock market on Monday (the next trading day after the weekend event), at least initially, though the decline is typically short-lived and modest unless the conflict broadens dramatically. Geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, particularly direct Israel-Iran strikes, have consistently triggered risk-off...
February 23, 2026 – Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico – A massive wave of retaliatory violence from the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) has paralyzed parts of Mexico, including the popular tourist hub of Puerto Vallarta, following the death of its longtime leader, Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, alias "El Mencho." Mexican authorities confirmed that Oseguera Cervantes, 59, was fatally wounded during a high-profile military operation in Tapalpa, Jalisco, on Sunday, Febr...
A concerned reader from Coconut Creek, Florida, has brought to the Santa Monica Observer's attention what he describes as a growing wave of deceptive AI-generated Instagram profiles featuring attractive women portrayed as law enforcement officers, military personnel, border agents, and other authority figures-profiles that amass hundreds of thousands of followers while potentially setting the stage for romance scams or other fraud. In a submitted news tip, Neal Williams...
London, 11 February 2026 – With just three months until voters head to the polls in crucial local, Scottish, and Welsh elections on 7 May, immigration policy has emerged as the single most pressing issue for much of the British public, overshadowing even the economy in many surveys and posing a major headache for Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour government. Recent polling paints a stark picture of widespread unease. A Gallup survey released this week shows the United K...
February 6, 2026 -- Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has strongly denied allegations that she intervened to soften or alter key sections of an official after-action report on the devastating January 2025 Palisades Fire, which claimed multiple lives and destroyed thousands of structures across the Westside. A Los Angeles Times investigation published February 4 cited sources familiar with the mayor's office who claimed Bass flagged early drafts of the report as potentially exposing...
Santa Monica, CA - February 9, 2026 - A group of local residents and neighborhood organizations has formally questioned the validity of a December 17, 2025, Santa Monica City Council vote approving development agreements for an affordable housing project with the Hollywood Community Housing Corporation (HCHC). The vote, listed as Agenda Item 11.A, approved a 99-year ground lease on city-owned land at 14th Street and committed $13.5 million from the city's Housing Trust Fund...
Minneapolis, MN – January 28, 2026 - Newly surfaced video footage has revealed an earlier confrontation involving Alex Jeffrey Pretti, the 37-year-old intensive care nurse fatally shot by federal agents during an immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis on January 24, 2026. The video, which appears to have been recorded on January 13, 2026-11 days before Pretti's death-shows a man identified by multiple sources as Pretti engaging in aggressive behavior toward U.S. I...
The U.S. Department of Justice has intervened in a federal lawsuit accusing the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) of using race as a factor in its admissions process, in violation of federal civil rights laws and California's long-standing ban on affirmative action.In a statement released on January 28, 2026, the Justice Department announced it was joining the existing class-action suit originally filed in May 2025 by Students...
January 25, 2026 - A massive winter storm unofficially named Winter Storm Fern by The Weather Channel has unleashed heavy snow, freezing rain, ice, and Arctic cold across a vast swath of the United States, impacting more than 230 million people from Texas and the Southwest to the Northeast and parts of Canada. The storm, which originated from an upper-level low developing over the Pacific near Baja California around January 22, has traversed much of the country, prompting...
San Jose, CA – A five-day rampage of armed robberies, carjackings, and high-speed pursuits came to a violent end on January 21, 2026, when 30-year-old Muhammed Hussein of Davis opened fire on San Jose police officers, seriously wounding a sergeant before being struck by a patrol vehicle and killed in a downtown shootout. According to San Jose Police Department officials, Hussein – identified following the incident – began his crime spree on January 17 in Sacramento, where...
LOS ANGELES — It took ten years just to approve the plan for a long awaited train from Van Nuys to Westwood, along the 405 Freeway. It'll add half a cent to LA's sales tax, and there still isn't nearly $25 billion to fund it. They tell us it will take eight years to build it, but it will really take say, 25. But finally the MTA said yes. On January 22, 2026, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) Board of Directors unanimously approved the L...
Santa Monica Observer – January 22, 2026 In an incident widely reported on social media, a homeless woman gave birth directly on a downtown Santa Monica sidewalk late last week, with the aftermath still visible two days later. According to witnesses and local business owners along Main Street, the woman - who appeared to be experiencing significant distress and was reportedly not wearing pants - exited a nearby Starbucks and walked a short distance before collapsing near a t...
My brother was discharged from St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica after a week of treatment for a serious liver condition. Just days later, his hemoglobin had plummeted to a dangerously low 6.6 (normal levels are around 13–17 for men). His primary care doctor urgently directed us to the emergency room at UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center in Westwood. What we encountered was shocking - a scene that felt more like a war zone than a state-of-the-art hospital. Beds lined the c...
Scott Adams (June 8, 1957 – January 13, 2026) was an American cartoonist, author, and commentator best known as the creator of the Dilbert comic strip. Early Life and Career--Born in Windham, New York, Adams began drawing cartoons as a child, inspired by Peanuts. He earned a BA in economics from Hartwick College (1979) and an MBA from UC Berkeley (1986). He worked in corporate roles, including as a teller at Crocker National Bank (where he was held up at gunpoint twice) and l...
January 8, 2026--A 24-year-old Santa Monica woman has been formally charged with murder and felony assault on a child causing death in connection with the killing of her young daughter earlier this week. Carmen Anita Degregg (born February 1, 2001) faces one count each of murder and felony assault on a child under eight causing death in case 26CJCF00125, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office. If convicted as charged, she faces a maximum sentence of 25...
For those of us on the political right, it's hard to understand why protesters in multiple US cities risk arrest or worse to prevent deportations of people who are in the country illegally, and in many cases are criminals. We simply think people like Renee Good are insane to block armed federal officers from doing their job, in freezing weather no less. Leftists are from Venus and conservatives are from Mars. We seemingly don't speak the same language anymore. So we thought...
