Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Sorted by date Results 94 - 118 of 570
After hearing a number of speakers, the Oakland City Council declared Hamas' October 7th massacre of 1200 Israelis, mostly civilians, as "a hoax." "Calling Hamas a terrorist organization is ridiculous," said one female speaker. Dozens of residents showed up to DEFEND Hamas. Some claimed calling them a terrorist organization is racist. Others denied the Oct 7 attack ever happened. The Council unanimously approved resolution calling for ceasefire in Gaza, becoming second city in...
Today I listened to Patrick Kingsley's report on his visit to Gaza on the NY Times " The Daily". The reporting showed a clear double standard by Kingsley in favor of Hamas. Why? Kingsley and the NYT accept facts and figures reported by Hamas as "true" while demanding a higher level of proof from Israel. This is now a systemic tool of NYT reporting. When shown the entrance to a deep and well constructed tunnel entrance, right next to Shifa Hospital, Kingsley said that he...
On Sunday morning, the Los Angeles Times endorsed George Gascón in the District Attorney's race. Their justification? Voters should "reject the nonsense and keep Gascón on the job and criminal justice reform in place." The editorial board returned to that theme in their closing sentences. "Voters were right to pick him in 2020," they wrote. "They ought to keep him in place for another term." Notice that language: "Keep him in place." Their editorial was not what one would call...
New state laws initiated January 1st are going to allow building up to 20 stories in Santa Monica and add 67,000 residents. Land use lawyers for developers have already begun pulling and resubmitting housing project plans to the City in order to take advantage of the huge increases in size allowed by the new law. What’s the vision for Santa Monica? Is it Miami Beach? Residents, read this excellent article that spells out what’s coming: (https://www.surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site...
These Observer pages have long chronicled decades of mismanagement by Santa Methica's governing bodies, the accumulated misdirection and incompetence having led the city to the death spiral in which it currently finds itself. However, there is likely agreement among not only Observer regulars, but, residents and tourists alike, that there is at least one thing in which Santa Methica has always excelled: terrorizing all who dare to drive a car here, by handing out very expensiv...
Arthur Jeon writes: This is the truth being obfuscated by anti-police activists (a tiny but vocal minority): 2438 people were arrested in Santa Monica last year. 180 of those 2400 had Santa Monica addresses (many repeat offenders using SAMOSHEL as an address). This means that approximately 92% of arrestees were NOT FROM SANTA MONICA. So comparing racial identities with Santa Monica residents is intellectually dishonest at best, or a lying manipulation by defund activists at wo...
Gascón Abandons All Murder Victims' Families In the criminal justice system, a prosecutor's role of seeking justice extends beyond the courtroom; it involves a profound responsibility to victims' families, ensuring their voices are heard and their concerns addressed. Under District Attorney George Gascón, this fundamental duty has been abandoned. Instead of championing the rights of victims and their families, the Gascón administration has opted for a disheartening ap...
Los Angeles (CA)--The California Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board (Board) released its Report on Police Stop Data for 2022 made by California law enforcement agencies. The Los Angeles Police Protective League and the San Francisco and San Jose Police Officers Associations issued this joint statement in response: "This latest RIPA report takes the easy way out by relying on a dizzying number of charts, figures and statistics instead of presenting a serious public po...
Santa Monica DOES NOT have a police brutality or bias problem. After being attacked twice in a year within a block of my house, I don't care that the first attacker was white and the second one was black. It was their behavior that was the problem. But if we're clocking immutable and random differences in pigmentation, I did notice that the responding officers were female, Hispanic, and in the second attack, majority black. I didn't care what their skin color was either; I...
Thanks for sharing these videos, Santa Monica Coalition. This is my neighborhood. Council et al, Really watch these two videos and what these women are saying. Take whatever opinions you have about where the videos came from and simply absorb them. I did. Right behind my fury came a surprising and deep sadness. These women, with babies, just trying to live their lives at the local park. The addicts, allowed to disintegrate and die on the streets under the empty promises and...
Dear Northeast Neighbors and friends: Last night sparks flew as the City Council discussed the proposal of internationally renowned public park design firm Sasaki Associates to design a Great Park at Santa Monica Airport. City Staff presented and recommended a six-point Action plan for the agreement with Sasaki. Councilmember de la Torre was absent, but a discussion and vote ensued. Sasaki made an impressive presentation of its past projects converting airports to parks. Then...
The Board of Directors of the Association of Deputy District Attorneys ("ADDA") has adopted the recommendation of its Endorsement Committee to endorse Eric Siddall to be the next District Attorney of Los Angeles County. This endorsement is the product of an exhaustive, months-long, fact-based analysis of District Attorney candidates by the ADDA's Endorsement Committee, a process outlined in the Association's Endorsement Protocol. The Committee, which was composed of Deputy vol...
Los Angeles (CA) –Today, Black Lives Matter Los Angeles and other activist groups filed a lawsuit against the LAPD attempting to prohibit car stops of suspected stolen vehicles. The Los Angeles Police Protective League issued this statement in response: "If successful, the latest legal stunt by the police abolitionist group BLM-LA will serve no other purpose than to allow car thieves to get away with stealing more cars and place police officers in further danger as they a...
The repeal of existing law (Costa Hawkins Act) and rent freeze effort by the Aids Foundation has been defeated twice before. Polling shows it will be defeated again. This initiative to freeze rents on vacant units is on the November '24 ballot. It is bad for RENTERS, bad for our city, bad for homeowners, bad for condo owners, bad for prospective tenants, bad for new construction, and bad for our apartment supply . Since vacancy decontrol/recontrol was fully implemented in...
December 19, 2023 - In an email, John Alle of the Santa Monica Coalition, supplied comments from Santa Monica residents regarding the proposed ten percent increase in the salary of City Manager David White, and they are not in favor. The Santa Monica Coalition is a group of residents, property owners, and businesses that advocate restoration of safety, cleanliness, and prosperity to the city. The proposal to be considered at tonight's city council meeting is to raise White's s...
Email to City Manager David White and Lori Gentles Dear David and Lori. You have generally been highly responsive to inquiries from me, so I believe you will reply to this urgent email today. The issue of the increase in David's salary comes before Council only 6 days after it was announced in yesterday's Council meeting Agenda for Tuesday., so time is extremely of the essence. The public and media should know your thoughts now on an issue that might be significant( both on...
December 14, 2023 - California State Senator Scott Wiener tweeted on X today his horror at hearing bystanders shout "Free Palestine" at him in Union Square at a Hanukkah celebration there. "Harassing Jews celebrating a holiday has nothing to do with the war & everything to do with antisemitism," he wrote. One wonders what planet Wiener has been living on. Does he still think those who oppose the Jewish State of Israel separate their feelings about Israel from those about...
In Early November, I had an illuminating conversation about Santa Monica on American 2916 heading west from LaGuardia to Dallas/Ft. Worth. The middle seat on the Airbus was empty and the 60ish gentleman sitting in the aisle seat was well groomed and well dressed. Quiet at first, he began to chat somewhere over Kentucky. Introduced himself as Paul K., a lifetime New Yorker, proud of his humble southern Italian origins and subsequent success in the restaurant/food business. He...
In the previous article, I brought to the public's attention a covert plan orchestrated by Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón aimed at securing the release of a convicted cop killer and prominent figure within the Mexican Mafia from state prison.[Previous article can be found at https://www.smobserved.com/story/2023/12/04/opinion/gascns-secret-scheme-to-release-a-convicted-cop-killer-and-mexican-mafia-shot-caller/7959.html] Earlier this week, in response to...
As the sun rises over our beautiful Santa Monica beaches, marking the end of Mayor Gleam Davis's tenure and the beginning of Mayor Phil Brock's, there's a palpable sense of hope and anticipation in the air. Today, we stand at the threshold of a new era, an era where the voice of the residents reverberates through the corridors of City Hall, promising a future that aligns with the dreams and aspirations of those who call Santa Monica home. Mayor Phil Brock, a true son of Santa...
I learned from someone with first person knowledge of the @Harvard president search that the committee would not consider a candidate who did not meet the DEI office's criteria. The same was likely true for other elite universities doing searches at the same time, creating an even more limited universe of DEI-eligible presidential candidates. Shrinking the pool of candidates based on required race, gender, and/or sexual orientation criteria is not the right approach to...
December 7, 2023 - At a congressional hearing before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on Tuesday, the presidents of three Ivy League universities declined to admit that calls for genocide against Jews violated their policies against bullying and harassment. The presidents of Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology all called on the primacy of free speech in a university setting and stated that only when speech was...
On May 29, 1979, Jesse Gonzales murdered Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff Jack Williams and left William's two daughters -- then 11 and 12 -- without a father. Those daughters have missed their dad every day for 44 years. But now Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón and a former public defender he brought on to gut the county's most heinous and serious murder convictions are just days away from letting Gonzales out of state prison. And they are trying to do it...
November 15, 2023 - The President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sally Kornbluth, released a public statement to the community, including parents of students and alumni, that attempted - and pathetically failed - to address recent events on campus that have made national headlines and TV and Internet news reports. In her cover email letter, she claimed she was going to include a written update that "clears up some false rumors and answers some common questions...
UPDATED: to include Barbara Phillips's contact information. Behold, this is the story of Barbara Phillips. We call her "Ms. Bobbie" here on the prison women's prison yard. Ms. Bobbie is here with an LWOP sentence with 26 years down. As California courts implement new resentencing laws, male prisoners regularly get relief from the courts and ultimately leave BEFORE female prisoners. Younger prisoners also get relief before older ones. Now, honestly, you should know that I...
