Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
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Here is our interpretation of what Chancellor Block really meant in his message about the takedown of the encampment on campus that conducted activities directly contrary to university policy and whose participants were shown on multiple videos harassing and restricting movement of Jewish students, clear violations of Federal Title VI. Translations of his statement are between brackets. May 2, 2024 Around 1:40 pm, UCLA Chancellor Gene Block shared the following message about...
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Well-known American historians Dr. Elizabeth Cobbs of San Diego State University and Dr. David Kennedy of Stanford University have submitted a letter to Congress, cosigned by 55 academic and independent historians, calling for passage of legislation in the 118th Congress to award a Congressional Gold Medal to the Hello Girls, America's First Women Soldiers. The letter, attached to this release here, urges the Senators and House Members to cosponsor S.815 a...
If you've been to the grocery store recently you've been approached, as I have, by well-meaning appearing individuals who want you to 'help apartment owners.' The message below from the Santa Monica Coalition for a Livable City (not to be confused with the Santa Monica Coalition) explains why you should not sign and allow this to be put on the ballot. April 23, 2024 Dear Friends of SMCLC, Paid signature gatherers will soon be asking Santa Monica residents to help qualify an...
[EDITOR'S NOTE: Ms. Teran has already been scrubbed from the official District Attorney website, her position filled now by another individual.] Friends in High Places Teran Affair Raises Questions, Reveals Limited Standard of Accountability for Those in Gascon's Inner Circle Who Commit Bad Acts As you all know by now, the Attorney General of California has charged Diana Teran, George Gascón's handpicked Assistant District Attorney for Ethics and Integrity, with 11 felony...
April 12, 2024 - Faculty groups supporting the rights of Palestine have proliferated on college campuses, with nine University of California campuses each having a chapter of Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FJP)and yet more chapters in nearly 100 other campuses across the country. These groups support the right of those called Palestinians with no regard for the rights of Israelis - and particularly of Jewish Israelis, who they call "colonists." More than 60 percent of the...
Open letter to the Santa Monica City Council and the City Manager Much has been made about the needle exchange program conducted by the Los Angeles Department of Public Health in our city streets and parks. So I cleared my Friday morning to spend two hours listening to their abysmal defense of the program, which is really a needle distribution program, because, as even the mad doctor Gary Tsai acknowledged, only 60% of needles gets returned. (How he arrived at that figure...
Dear Council, After attending the Friday meeting with LA County Health officials, I was given this vague and unsubstantiated "joint statement" from LA County and Santa Monica regarding the needle distribution in our parks (attached). How disappointing to learn that Santa Monica has supported this deeply confused policy, against the wishes of its residents, all along. The following word salad paragraph in particular has NO connection to reality or science that I can see, (and...
Amazon won't deliver bear spray to my Santa Monica address. Why not? LA County's Department Of Public Health and Santa Monica's City Manager are delivering drugs and needles to my Santa Monica address. Malibu and Beverly Hills and Skid Row and the Palisades are delivering drug addicts to my Santa Monica address. LA's District Attorney is delivering hardened criminals to my Santa Monica address. Santa Monica's Police Department and Santa Monica's City Government are delivering...
Hello City Attorney Sloan and City Manager White, Since the City Council is about to discuss an update to the business license/tax ordinance, this is to request that the City clarify whether non-profit organizations are subject to the City business license requirement or not. Last year when I enquired about this issue with the City Attorney's Office, the following response was offered: "In general, a nonprofit is exempt from paying the City's business license tax, but is...
March 26, 2024- - Today, Rescue California announced that the official recall petition to remove Gavin Newsom from office has been approved by the Secretary of State. 75,000 petitions have been requested by angry residents in almost every county. "Exactly one month ago we started the process of recalling Gavin Newsom because he has abandoned the state to advance his Presidential ambitions, leaving behind a $73 Billion budget deficit that is climbing and a public safety, immigr...
Dear Council, Walking last night with my wife to a spontaneous dinner at Tocaya on Wilshire, we counted 14 addicts and/or mentally ill people in the 4 blocks from 9th street to 5th street. They were trudging to our alleys and carports, or already holed up in empty storefronts, or heading to Reed Park, or hanging out in the parking lot of the 7/11, or getting ready to bed down wherever. They were high, unstable, and neither of us felt safe. Some were doing drugs, one was...
Dear City Attorney Sloan, Are all emails sent by constituent residents and business owners to you and/or individual Councilmembers, and our City Manager, received unscreened by a 3rd party or City Staff Member? Are the email addresses listed next to our Santa Monica Mayor and Santa Monica City Council Members, and City Manager, correct, and are their email addresses received and read first by each of them? It is my understanding that over 18,000 letters sent over the last 6 mo...
In yet another example of how the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) wastes money, we learned that its board of directors is holding its spring meeting at the fancy Fairmont Hotel in Georgetown, the ritzy neighborhood in Washington, D.C. It's a helpful, if unintentional, contrast with how little the group gives to help shelter pets. For HSUS executives and directors, life is comfortable. HSUS CEO Kitty Block made over $600,000 in 2022, while 140 staffers received more...
Hi Jesse, I noticed you put out a newsletter where you said: "As 2024 kicks into gear I'm happy to report a number of exciting accomplishments and events on the horizon in Santa Monica. From bringing people experiencing homelessness indoors to making our streets safer for all, we're making progress on the issues residents care most about, while our overall economic recovery is proceeding faster than anticipated." That statement is a complete lie Jesse. You're not making Santa...
I want to thank our police department for their work in apprehending this felon (picture below). Great work in catching up to him within 24 hours of his attack-proactive policing at its best. He was on parole in San Bernardino and didn't check in, which is a violation. I don't know what he was originally in prison for, but these days you practically have to kill somebody to go to jail (the last person who attacked me was set free the same day). In Santa Monica, this transient...
Editor's note: This is a response to the SMMUSD's recent appeal for private donations, at https://www.smobserved.com/story/2024/03/06/news/span-classbrnwsbreaking-news-spansmmusd-school-superintendent-shelton-appeals-to-community-for-donations/8150.html Dear Dr. Shelton and Esteemed Members of the SMMUSD Board of Education, We hope this letter finds you well. We are writing to you not just as concerned parents within the SMMUSD but as active community members deeply invested...
WASHINGTON DC, March 8 -- Not long ago many of us greeted veterans and active-duty soldiers, sailors and marines with a heartfelt "thanks for your service." It made us feel good. But perhaps it should make us feel sad now that HUD, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, is reporting that there's been a 7.4% increase in veteran homelessness. According to the Epoch Times, it means that "nearly 13 percent of the homeless adult population are veterans." Yet, the...
Dear Neighbors, TIME TO "MAKE GOOD TROUBLE! I am writing to ask you to show up and use your voices and simple presence to "make good trouble" tomorrow night, Monday, Feb. 4th, regarding the oversized Gelson's development at the Architectural Review Board meeting at City Hall at 7 pm. Alternatively you could WRITE A LETTER to the ARB to be received by 12 pm tomorrow, the 4th, pleading, yelling, singing out that residents’ concerns must be respected. What we want is good for f...
February 1, 2024 - Can you imagine Santa Monica without drug addicts exposing themselves while you're waiting for a bus? Where vagrants are not allowed to take up residence in your garage? Where those who commit retail theft actually get charged and go to jail? Jonathan Hatami can imagine that. A veteran of the United States Armed Forces and a Los Angeles County prosecutor for the past seventeen years, Hatami is running for District Attorney, the job George Gascon has...
Tuesday evening February 20th I attended the Santa Monica City Council's Audit Sub-Committee Meeting. The Audit Subcommittee is not a City commission or board. It is supposed to provide an alternative way for employees, taxpayers or other citizens to confidentially report suspected illegal, improper, wasteful or fraudulent activity and provide periodic review and selection of external auditors. It is supposed to act in an 'advisory' capacity and review all City audit reports,...
(Editor’s note: Gleam Davis is not termed out and could run for one more term). Gleam Davis will term out on the City Council this year. Why are Santa Monica taxpayers paying to send a lame duck Council Member to Vienna, Austria for a week in April for a housing conference? Find out (or not) when the City Council addresses the Budget at its Tuesday, February 27 meeting. ____ Nobody else could go? But the City is already sending Council Member Torosis. Is Caroline’s att...
Let me tell you about the time Ruth Bader Ginsburg saved Donald Trump $355 million plus interest. It was Feb. 20, 2019, and Justice Ginsburg delivered the opinion of the court in the case of Timbs v. Indiana. In that case, police in Indiana had seized Tyson Timbs' Land Rover SUV, which he bought for $42,000 with money he received from a life insurance policy when his dad died. The state sought civil forfeiture of the vehicle because Timbs had pleaded guilty to drug dealing...
Editor's note: We received the following letter sent to Los Angeles County's top Department of Public Health officials from a Santa Monica resident: To Dr. Tsai and Dr. Ferrer, I've lived within two blocks of Reed Park for 25 years and lived firsthand the destruction of our commons under all sorts of "harm reduction," and decriminalization social experiments. I just caught Dr. Tsai's presentation to the Santa Monica Recreation and Parks Commission and your answers to their exc...
The photos you see here were taken on the same day, Sunday January 21, a mere 40 minutes and about 25 miles apart. The $5.79 "high water mark" was the Chevron on Cloverfield; the low water mark, my favorite Sinclair station in North Long Beach. My absolute fave station, it even offers same price, cash or credit; and, no, I don't make a special trip down there to buy gas. But when I'm passing through on the way back from points south, I take a very short detour and fill up. A...
To the Residents of Santa Monica: Remember the names of our City Council members: Gleam Davis Lana Negrete Phil Brock Christine Parra Jesse Zwick Caroline Torosis Oscar de la Torre The City of Santa Monica has many problems. Ample and affordable housing. Public safety. Commerce. Education. Traffic. The homeless. Infrastructure. Taxes. A limited budget. There are many ways to learn about housing and other planning issues and solutions. We have many world class universities i...
