Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Sorted by date Results 76 - 100 of 132
Courts & Rulings Commissioner Campos says DA's policy doesn't override CA's remand order Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Benjamin Campos on Friday reconsidered his March 3 order that dispositional proceedings involving a man who was convicted in 2016, at age 22, of a murder committed six years earlier, while a minor, will take place in Juvenile Court, deciding that, instead, he will conduct a "transfer hearing" to determine if the case did belong in the criminal court,...
The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District has just announced it will officially reopen its campuses for full-time, in-person instruction on April 19 for elementary students and on April 26 for secondary students. In a letter to parents, posted online over the weekend, SMMUSD Superintendent Ben Drati said the newly-released, distancing guidance from County Department of Public Health – which allows students to sit three feet apart in classrooms instead the old r...
Courts & Rulings Grieving family shocked as getaway driver freed in bloody murder of USC grad student from China: 'Reluctant' judge has 'no discretion' Saying he had no choice under a new narrower felony murder rule, a judge Monday changed the conviction against the getaway driver involved in the beating death of a USC graduate student from China to attempted robbery from second-degree murder and sentenced him to time served. MyNewsLA State appeals court won't hear DA's...
Courts & Rulings Court narrows law used to target white supremacists A federal appeals court on Thursday struck down portions of an anti-riot law used to target white supremacists. Still, the ruling found enough of the law constitutional to reinstate charges against four men prosecuted under the statute. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision overturned a district court judge's ruling in 2019 that found key sections of the Federal Anti-Riot Act violated the First...
ADDA Lawsuit Association of Deputy District Attorneys on LA DA Gascón's reforms (Audio) Last month, we spoke with Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón about his various criminal justice reforms which were meant to address incarceration and racial inequity. Today, we follow that conversation with Michele Hanisee, president of the Association of Deputy District Attorneys for Los Angeles County. Plus, we'll contextualize with our criminal justice correspondent F...
ADDA Lawsuit Judge blocks some of LA district attorney's reform policies A judge has decided some of Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon's justice reform policies aimed at reducing punishment for some of the most serious crimes were, "unlawful," and cannot be implemented as the new DA ordered. L.A. Superior Court Judge James Chalfant said in a ruling Monday Gascon cannot direct prosecutors to dismiss sentencing enhancements for certain prior convictions, or...
Courts & Rulings Sementilli judge torpedoes LADA's scheme to go easy on accused black widow A Toronto family is breathing easier after a Los Angeles judge torpedoed a gambit from the city's new soft-on-crime district attorney to cut an alleged black widow sentencing slack. Superior Court Judge Ronald Coen refused to dismiss the special circumstance clause that can potentially send a convicted felon to prison for life without the possibility of parole. Toronto Sun Judge...
Courts & Rulings Allegation of strike as to one count applies to others The Court of Appeal for this district, in a 2-1 opinion, held on Friday that where an information alleged in connection with three counts a prior which, under the Three Strikes Law constituted a "strike," the trial judge did not err in doubling the sentence under another count although a strike had not been pled as to that count. Metropolitan News-Enterprise Requiring daily visits to probation officer by...
The main purpose of this letter is to urge the City Council and Councilmember McCowan to reconsider Mr. Cardona's position as stated in his January 6, 2021 response to Olga Zurawska's Demand to Cure and Correct. Mr. Cardona's position invites a dangerous precedent for democracy by normalizing Brown Act violations In his letter, Mr. Cardona claims that the very fact that Councilmember McCowan had publicly disclosed her serial meetings with the Council majority prior to the...
Newly installed LA County District Attorney George Gascon was forced to reverse his initial shot at eliminating all sentencing enhancements in charges filed against criminal defendants last week. On Friday, he sent out a public letter claiming he wanted to be responsive to "input" from the community and was therefore making "some adjustments to my initial directives." He ended up agreeing to apply enhancement in charging to cases involving children, the elderly, and for hate c...
We received the following letter by Third Street Promenade property owner John Alle to City Manager Lane Dilg regarding unsafe and unsanitary conditions at the once-popular outdoor shopping area in downtown Santa Monica. Dear Lane, I have been arriving at my property on the Promenade for the last several days during early morning hours to supervise interior cleaning and maintenance. This last Friday and Saturday I walked the Promenade and surrounding streets. The pictures and...
UPDATE: After winning election as the District Attorney for the County of Los Angeles by 53.53%, Gascon has set about doing every single thing he promised in the below article. While 53.53% may sound like a lot, it leaves a possible 4,647,000 people extremely unhappy with his policies. He hardly has a mandate and will soon discover as much. George Gascon, a Havana-born former police officer, resigned his position as San Francisco District Attorney in October, at the same time...
Courts & Rulings Juvenile justice reform's legal challenge impacts Santa Cruz child murder case Adrian "A.J." Gonzalez, now 21, was arrested and charged with murder as a 15 year old. The California Supreme Court will soon weigh a case with implications for whether Gonzalez and others like him should face the adult or juvenile justice system. Oral arguments begin at 9 a.m. Tuesday in San Francisco in the "O.G. vs The Superior Court of Ventura County" case, challenging the...
In an appearance on FoxNews, newly elected George Gascón laid out initiatives for his first term as Los Angeles County District Attorney Los Angeles District Attorney-elect George Gascón outlined the initiatives for his upcoming term including stopping the practice of trying minors as adults and ending the use of the death penalty. After serving eight years as district attorney for San Francisco, Gascón was elected as the new Los Angeles County district attorney, replacing Ja...
Courts & Rulings Officers who arrested man for photography have immunity The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed an order denying summary judgment to three Department of Veterans Affairs police officers who were sued by a man they arrested on two consecutive Sundays in June 2016 for taking photographs at the Great Lawn Gate entrance to the Los Angeles National Veterans Park, in alleged violation of a regulation, holding that they are entitled to qualified immunity...
SANTA MONICA, CA-The Santa Monica College (SMC) Board of Trustees unanimously passed a resolution at their meeting on Tuesday night, Oct. 6 that urges Congress to approve HR 763: Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act. This legislation, if passed, would impose a fee on carbon emissions at their source, with costs passed on to the consumer and fees collected distributed to American households in the form of a dividend. HR 763 is projected to reduce the nation's carbon...
The Santa Monica Transparency Project has written an open letter accusing SM City Council member Gleam Davis of a conflict of interest regarding the proposed expansion of the Miramar Hotel, a project which has been in the works for about a decade. "Ms. Davis' husband John Prindle is a highly paid, long-term senior executive at Dell Technologies. See Ms. Davis' Schedule C, Form 700 filings from at least 2013. Indeed, he is Global Accounts Manager," says the letter. Michael...
In June, the Santa Monica Coalition for a Livable City (SMCLC) served the City with legal objections to proceeding with plans to privatize public land at 4th and Arizona for a massive commercial project until it had complied with a state law known as the Surplus Land Act. Under the Act, before negotiating and disposing of public land for commercial uses, the City must notify interested parties to see if the 25-acre parcel could be used as open space or for affordable housing....
Citing budget constraints and Covid-19, Stanford University has announced that it will eliminate eleven sports for 2020. These include fencing, field hockey, lightweight rowing, men's rowing, co-ed and women's sailing, squash, synchronized swimming, men's volleyball, and wrestling for next year. Eleven sports in total will disappear. Nationally, experts have commented that swimming pools are unlikely to open this summer, given the potential for spread of coronavirus. " In cons...
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has announced its plans for Fall semester 2020. In light of ICE's plan to deport foreign college students who are only enrolled online, MIT will invite all foreign students. Also Seniors are allowed to live at MIT and take classes conventionally. US Immigration has announced that it would deport students who outstayed their Visa's, if they are only taking classes in the US online. The theory is that they could just as easily take...
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,...
With people protesting worldwide against police violence, the most liberal city in the United States will likely be experiencing major changes over the coming months. What specific direction the movement will take is unclear, but what is clear is that Santa Monica Police Chief Cynthia Renaud will not be around for the final destination. Her days at the top of local law enforcement are numbered whether it be by her choice or the city manager's. The Observer has no special...
It's 2020, and all sorts of arts and educational programs are looking for ways to continue teaching, in a time of social distancing. Santa Monica's Westside Ballet has some brave and innovative continuation plans, in the face of Covid19. "We were to have a benefit performance honoring Patricia Neary 5/15, and then 5/16, our Spring Performance, two show times, at The Broad Stage," explains Jewels Solheim-Roe, press coordinator for WB. "Up until last week, Westside Ballet was st...
Earlier this year back in a time when we were able to touch each other, then-City Attorney (now city manager) Lane Dilg put a halt to The Plaza at Santa Monica, a mixed-use development proposed for a City-owned property at the corner of Arizona Avenue and Fourth Street that will positively transform the Downtown. Dilg said in February that the project, favored by people wanting to see a city progress for the better and opposed by those who reject change, possibly violated a...
Dear City Manager and City Council, While reading Pro Developer Group Santa Monica Forward's letter about our city's finances, we're reminded of Naomi Klein's seminal work, The Shock Doctrine. In it, Ms. Klein posits that crises are often used as tools by those with power to push through agendas they had long sought but were unable to achieve through democratic means. A crisis provides the disruption and turmoil powerful interests need to accomplish long sought but unpopular...
