Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Sorted by date Results 375 - 399 of 590
March 11, 2021 The City of Santa Monica on Tuesday joined the County and City of Los Angeles in adopting an ordinance granting an additional $5 per hour "hero pay" to workers at large grocery chains and drug retailers. The law takes effect immediately and is supposed to sunset after 120 days. The Covid-19 virus began sweeping through the local population last spring, with several plateaus and surges during the year since. Throughout this whole time, "essential workers" at...
During an alarming surge in the number of homicides committed in Los Angeles, with the majority of victims people of color, Black Lives Matter-LA has begun a campaign to deplatform and abolish unions protecting law enforcement officers. At a news conference held during a protest outside the Los Angeles Police Protective League office, BLM-LA made it clear this is just the first step in their determination to completely eliminate law enforcement. The LAPPL is the union...
February 26, 2021 Community health clinics think the answer to solving vaccine rollout disparity is to let them administer more vaccines. At a webinar on February 24, representatives from health clinics and the President of Chares R. Drew University of Medicine and Science made the case for allocating more doses to health clinics that service poor communities. "Advancing equity is in our DNA," said Louise McCarthy, President of the Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles....
I have read with disappointment the Staff Report accompanying Item 8.A. The report is long on process narrative but entirely deficient on hard objectives and measurable milestones to achieve those objectives. The City must stop focusing on the process and focus on quantifiable OBJECTIVES and the measurable milestones required to achieve them. The Staff Report does not provide any indication of the total amount being either received nor spent on the unhoused issue in Santa...
If you are wondering how your tax dollars are spent on addressing the homeless crisis in Santa Monica, do not ask the City as they would likely not be able to answer. They would probably even think it is impolite of you to ask. The lack of oversight and accountability in homeless services has been brought up to the City's attention by advocates and former and current clients of homeless services for years now. Such inquiries routinely fell on the City's deaf ears or were met...
February 22 District Attorney George Gascon issued a statement today explaining why his office accepted a plea bargain from convicted sex offender Kenneth Rasmuson for the murder of two 6-year-old boys rather than seek the death penalty. Rasmuson pled guilty to two counts of murder and admitted the special circumstance allegation of multiple murders. A recent court ruling would not allow the special circumstance to be dismissed. The defendant admitted he killed 6-year-old...
In their daily email to the public on Saturday, February 13, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health appeared to be moving toward a mandate of double masking. On February 3, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease and the de facto czar of national coronavirus policy, asserted that double-masking could be a method of helping to prevent the spread of COVID-19. On Saturday, the county reiterated this message. According...
February 10 - On Monday, the Los Angeles County Public Health Department released statistics regarding the demographics of those who have received the Covid-19 vaccine. Of all the doses given so far in Phase IA and for seniors over 65 years old, 25% were given to White residents, 25% to Latino residents, 18% to Asian, 17% to multi-racial and 3.5% to African Americans. According to the LAC DPH, these statistics "highlight a glaring inadequacy" in the vaccine roll-out process....
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...
At an intimate Zoom gathering I attended recently, a medical doctor, an educated woman who considered herself well-informed, told the group that nothing short of a war could have killed as many Americans as Covid-19. Nobody dared contradict the doctor. I don't think anyone considered the statement inaccurate. Of course, it was completely false. As we end one year of pandemic and begin the next one that will undoubtedly also be marred by the effects, direct and indirect of the...
Starting in late November, state and county officials have been locking down increasing sectors of economic and daily life in California, and particularly in large and populous Los Angeles County. A curfew was placed, banning leaving one's home between the hours of 10 pm and 5 am except for essential activities. Outdoor dining was banned, followed quickly by the closure of personal care services and even playgrounds. Perhaps most significantly, residents were told they could...
George Gascon, brand-new District Attorney for the County of Los Angeles, issued a press release today defending his actions to eliminate bail requests for most crimes committed in his jurisdiction. His rationale is flimsy but emotionally appealing. Sometimes people charged with minor offenses will plead guilty even if they believe themselves innocent in order to avoid a night (or more) in jail. However, when the no-money bail experiment was run during the early days of the...
First, digital conversations on "matters of public concern," legally the centerpiece of First Amendment jurisprudence, were consistently blocked by partisan social media operators throughout the 2020 election cycle. That alone is arresting; it has changed public access to information and calls for action. Social media moved from offering a "public forum" (with concurrent legal duties, including openness) to a "content editor" (typically imposing higher liability, such as for...
A Demand to Cure and Correct alleges a Brown Act violation regarding the selection of Council leadership, calls for Council to conduct new vote without participation of Councilmember McCowan. Letter sent on December 18, 2020 to Mayor Himmelrich, City Councilmembers, Interim City Attorney Cardona, Interim City Manager Dilg and City Clerk Anderson-Warren reads: Dear Mayor Himmelrich and Santa Monica Councilmembers, Pursuant to California Government Code Section 54960.1, I am...
WASHINGTON, DC, Dec 11 -- Here's a scary thought courtesy of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission: "China is the world's largest producer of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). The United States is heavily dependent on drugs that are either sourced from China or include APIs sourced from China. This is especially true for generic drugs, which comprise most prescriptions filled in the United States. Drug companies are not required to list the API...
The couple is always shocked and horrified when cat whisperer Jackson Galaxy shines a blacklight on their bedroom walls to reveal where their problem feline has been leaving its urine. Without the blacklight, the wall looks clean, even pristine. But the ultraviolet radiation reveals the walls are splashed with dirty cat pee. President Donald Trump has served as the nation's blacklight from the moment he entered office. Only because of Donald Trump has the American public...
This month, President Trump signed an executive order to reduce Medicare spending on prescription drugs. For each medication, Medicare will pay no more than the lowest price available in other developed countries. President Trump has been true to his campaign promises. I voted for him in 2016, and will again in 2020. However, in this case, the administration identified the right problem, but chose the wrong solution. Drugs cost less in other nations for one simple reason --...
The federal and California state governments sent subtly, but distinctly, different messages to the media regarding steps they are taking to provide election security. Both state and federal officials pledged to use their authority to ensure a free and fair election. But the state government, represented by Mark Ghilarducci, California's Homeland Security Advisor, stressed its concern over the spread of "misinformation" by foreign actors. The U.S. government, represented by...
As the election season progresses this fall, the calls for censorship of free speech - and actual censorship - progress right along with it. Proponents of censorship claim such action is necessary in order to protect the democratic process of the election. Inaccurate and damaging misinformation will sweep through and sway the gullible and poorly educated masses, you see. In fact, the election of Donald Trump in 2016 proves this already happened! Therefore strong measures must...
As a student in the Santa Monica-Malibu school district in the 1980s and 90s my classmates and I were blessed to experience a public education second to none. I formed tight life-long bonds not only with my classmates but with our devoted teachers. Up until COVID I was still following around iconic choir director Mrs.Linda Anderson, my beloved mentor, role model and surrogate Mother. I still talk to legendary Samohi English teacher Berkeley Blatz, fully mesmerized by his...
Governor Newsom released a new "equity metric" last week that adds to the requirements necessary before a county can move to a less restrictive tier. The census tracts in the lowest quartile of the Healthy Place Index (HPI) must now meet a threshold close to that of the county as a whole. The HPI is defined by the California Department of Public Health as "a composite measure of socioeconomic opportunity applied to census tracts that includes 25 individual indicators across...
Throughout Santa Monica, about 1,488 residents currently live in subsidized housing known as Section 8, a federal program administered by the Santa Monica Housing Authority (SMHA). These are the extremely low income Santa Monicans – families, seniors, and individuals living with disabilities. One would think that a city which represents itself as a liberal stronghold fully invested in affordable housing would have concern for its most vulnerable residents and their rights. B...
The Black Lives Matter organization (not to be confused with the idea that black lives matter) recently removed a page from their website that outlined the beliefs of the group. The page, titled "What We Believe," set forth a number of Marxist and radical LGBTQ tenets that could hardly be deemed relevant to their generally perceived goal of combating racism and uplifting the black community. "We are self-reflexive and do the work required to dismantle cisgender privilege and u...
The California State Legislature passed AB 331 in September, a bill requiring a semester of ethnic studies for high school graduation. A model curriculum, hundreds of pages long, is available for public comment and will be approved in March of next year if the governor signs the bill into law. 80 groups, spearheaded by the Amcha Initiative, an organization opposing anti-Semitism on campuses, signed a letter urging the governor to veto the bill. While the authors of AB 331,...
The Santa Monica City Council on Tuesday will be presented with suggestions from The Black Agenda for ways to spend the $200,000 already earmarked in June for efforts to support racial justice. The Black Agenda is comprised of a group of the city's Black community leaders (capital letters are theirs) whose steering committee includes Barry Snell, a former SMMUSD Board member and current Santa Monica College Board Trustee. Also on the steering committee are Dr. Karen Gunn, a...
