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Adored the world over, the Australian koala has now been honoured with its own official koala tartan for the first time in history. To celebrate this milestone, the Australian Koala Foundation (AKF) have launched an international raffle to win a beautiful, handcrafted throw made from the unique koala tartan design. The Australian weavers who designed the koala tartan, Fred and Marie Lawson, have already created 10 registered tartans before turning their attention to the...

First of all, thank you (to DTSM) for all your help during these last two years of the pandemic. Unfortunately, we have now been dealt another business threatening blow by the city. We've been notified that the city intends to demo parking lot 3 and rebuild it as a homeless structure. This will be devastating to our business as well as every other business on 3rd Street Promenade. First of all, this takes away the primary parking location for most of our customers and staff....

February 4, 2022 - Demolition has once again been stayed for Parking Garage #3 in downtown Santa Monica. Following the dismissal on a technicality of a lawsuit brought by the Santa Monica Bayside Owners Association against the demolition, the City of Santa Monica hastily scheduled demolition of the structure for February 14, ten days from now. The city reportedly did not give proper notification to the Air Quality Management Board of the demolition, nor did they have a...

According to a post on NextDoor, dognappers attempted to steal a French Bulldog from an owner in Santa Monica. The three teenagers pinned the owner on the ground. But he beat them off through use of pepper spray. Lady Gaga's bulldogs were famously the subject of a theft in 2021. Los Angeles County is currently experiencing a crime wave, as are other areas of the US. The Nextdoor post reads as follows: "*DOG THIEVES IN OCEAN PARK* I was just jumped in broad daylight by 3...

February 2, 2022 - Squalid conditions downtown and on the Third Street Promenade appear to be causing much of the vacancies in retail spaces visible there today. The downtown and Promenade area were already ailing before the lockdowns of 2020, with an increasing presence of vagrants who appeared to need drug rehabilitation or mental health services. But once the Covid-19 lockdowns closed all retail businesses that weren't labeled essential and after the riot on May 31, 2020,...

The City of Santa Monica is wasting no time to demolish Parking Structure 3. The City is rushing to demolish the structure to create facts on the ground, and to discourage the property owners who oppose its replacement by a high end homeless shelter. The doomed structure won a reprieve in December, when Superior Court Judge Michael Beckloff granted an injunction against demolition, on grounds that CEQA had not been complied with by the City. However, two can play at the...

January 28, 2022 - Of the Covid deaths tabulated by the LA County Department of Public Health over the last two weeks, 80% are noted as involving underlying conditions. Now health officials have admitted that they do not actually know if these individuals died from the fact they had Covid or from the underlying condition. As long as the death was not from a traumatic accident, the "Covid" label is applied based solely on whether or not the death occurred less than 30 days...

2/1/22: I've never really warmed up to Whoopi Goldberg. Aside from culturally appropriating my own ethnicity (her real name is Karen Henry); she just isn't that funny. She also walks with a heavy helping of self righteousness. She speaks about topics of which she has no particular knowledge. Nowhere was that more evident than when she said that the Holocaust in WWII was not a reflection of Racism, because it was white people killing other white people. Anyone who has read...

Courts & Rulings Calif. DAs win temporary restraining order preventing corrections dept. from awarding 66% 'good conduct credits' to second-strikers The California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation recently enacted so-called "emergency" regulations to allow for additional "good conduct credits" to be awarded to serious and violent felons, and not based upon these felons completing any rehabilitation programs, or in essence, proving their good conduct. California...

2/1/22 UCLA has been closed to in person classes today, after disturbing posts and emails from a former UCLA Lecturer of Philosophy. Matthew Harris posted videos glorifying the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting, and saying that he would or might do the same thing at UCLA. Harris sent emails to faculty and students, linking to the video. Police are looking for Harris, and again the school is closed to in person classes. An online review of Harris described him as emotional, prone...

UPDATE: LA County Department of Public Health has explained that deaths are regarded as from Covid rather than the underlying condition if any non-accidental/traumatic death occurs less than 30 days of a positive covid test (used to be less than 60 days until recently). January 27, 2022 - Health officials at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health sporadically release statistics regarding whether deaths listed as from Covid involved underlying conditions. They do...

Danny Alvarez has been appointed as the new Fire Chief of the Santa Monica Fire Department, city officials announced on Thursday. Alvarez comes to Santa Monica from fellow ISO Class 1-rated Burbank Fire Department where he has spent the last 25 years and currently serves as Deputy Fire Chief. He will start his new post on February 28 with an annual salary of $282,048. "We had an exceptionally strong talent pool for our next Fire Chief, but ultimately, Alvarez rose to the top...

The federal government recently announced that every home in the U.S. is eligible to order 4 free at-home COVID-19 tests. The tests are completely free and can be now ordered at covidtests.gov. Orders typically ship in 7-12 days. Click the banner below to place your order. Insurance companies are also now required to reimburse you for 8 tests per month for each individual on the plan up to $12 per individual test. Your health plan may cover the cost of your test if they hav...

Sounds overly simplistic, but it's true. Recapturing the precious minerals locked inside the 500 million dead or dormant phones estimated to exist in the U.S. alone would drastically reduce the need for mining in the Congo, where the activity has wreaked havoc on gorillas and other animals that share their embattled habitat. When cell phones are tossed in the trash, the problem is compounded-and the effects hit closer to home. Electronic devices in landfills leach arsenic and...

Citing his battle with clinical depression, Westside Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Bonin released a video Wednesday night announcing that he will not seek re-election. The father of LA's uber tolerant attitude toward the homeless, who are allowed to encamp pretty much where ever they want; Bonin was the subject of a recent attempt to recall him from office. Bonin represents the 11th district. Bonin took office on July 1, 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, he is...

Early Friday morning I met an unhoused person charging his phone on the 3rd level of Garage 4. He gave me his permission to record our conversation. We spoke for 40 minutes, sitting between one filthy water drain and a phone charging outlet. His answers and information corroborate my other interviews with the homeless in our garages. The following is information he volunteered (that we already know) - - 1) Garages 3, 4 and 6 are the places to charge one's phone. Garage 6 is be...

January 21, 2022 - Matters can always change over the next few weeks, but a comparison of the same 6-week period spanning the New Year shows 10 times less deaths for the number of Covid-19 cases this winter over last winter. The surge of Covid-19 occurred over the same basic period of time last year as this year. Using a span of 6 weeks, approximately the length of time it could take a Covid-19 patient to move from diagnosis to death, the following numbers were recorded by...

LA was shocked to hear on January 13th, that a young woman working at a high end furniture store on La Brea, was stabbed and killed by a homeless man. Police made an arrest Monday in the murder investigation surrounding the murder of Brianna Kupfer. Pasadena police arrested Shawn Lavall Smith, 31, on Fair Oaks Blvd. TMZ is reporting that Wednesday morning, a citizen thought he recognized Smith on the street and called police. The homeless man was filmed walking into the...

The LAPD has named a homeless man as the prime suspect in the stabbing murder of Brianna Kupfer, 24. The murder has shocked Los Angeles and the rest of the United States. The 24 year old graduate student was working alone at a furniture store in the high end part of Hancock Park, an area that had been regarded as safe previously. "31-year-old Shawn Laval Smith has been identified in connection with the murder of Brianna Kupfer, which occurred in the 300 block of North La Brea...

Update 1/14/22: The LAPD now describes the suspect as "homeless," adding that it is unlikely the victim and perpetrator knew each other. Separately, departing LA mayor Eric Garcetti asserted that Los Angeles crime statistics were still much better than they were in 50 years. 1/13/22: Los Angeles police are seeking a suspect who stabbed and killed a 24 year old woman from Pacific Palisades, as she worked alone in a furniture store on La Brea Avenue in LA's Fairfax Corridor. The...

If you didn't get that laptop you ordered on Amazon, I think I can explain why. A video posted to twitter shows men looting a freight train as it stops in a Chicago rail yard. This problem which has recently come to light in Los Angeles, appears to be affecting other rail yards in other towns as well. It is one of the causes of the supply chain crisis in the United States. A crowd of men loot a freight train in Chicago in a video posted by @ronmilnerboodle, which may be seen...

Waves from an undersea eruption near the island nation of Tonga, came ashore Saturday morning in Santa Cruz, California. The waves reportedly raised water levels a full 3 feet in some areas. The tsunami caused minor flooding in Santa Cruz, California. https://twitter.com/BNONews/status/1482389879304642565?s=20 In Neskowan, Oregon, the Tsunami came ashore as a three foot wave as well. https://twitter.com/BNONews/status/1482415410674868235?s=20 A tsunami advisory was issued for...

January 11, 2022 - Health officials at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health have only recently released statistics regarding whether deaths listed as from Covid involved underlying conditions. They do not give such data every day. Over the last week, LACDPH officials specified on five days how many of the deaths listed as from Covid involved underlying conditions: January 4: Of 24 deaths, 20 individuals had underlying conditions January 5: Of 27 deaths, 18...

January 14, 2022 - While the rate of the vaccinated contracting Covid-19 remained somewhat below the rate of the unvaccinated contracting the disease, 36% more of the vaccinated caught Covid last week compared to the previous week. On Thursday, the county hit a new record, with 45,584 new Covid cases. The percent of the vaccinated population who'd contracted Covid was 1% on September 30. That percent has steadily been increasing. As of January 8, 4.6% of the vaccinated...

9: LASC Judge Mitchell Beckloff has ordered the City of Santa Monica not to demolish parking structure 3 and replace it with homeless housing, unless and until certain procedural requirements to do so have been met. The Superior Court order is a major setback in the City's continuing campaign to replace parking with homeless services. Referring to 2006 and 2011 Environmental Impact Reports filed by the City, the Court ruled: "For purposes of this motion, the court finds...