Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
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The Santa Monica City Council voted to approve a temporary pay increase of $5 per hour for grocery and drug store employees in the city. A similar measure in Long Beach resulted in Kroger (parent company of Food-4-Less and Ralphs) closing two stores in less affluent parts of Long Beach. Sponsored by Kevin McKeown last week, the "Hero Pay" measure is similar to a temporary urgency ordinance that Los Angele County Supervisors approved on Jan. 26. It applies to unincorporated...
Los Angeles's new district attorney, George Gascon, announced yesterday that he is seeking a life sentence for Tracy Walker, 56, accused of murdering three transients between June 7, 2020 and February 7, 2021. The defendant, an ex-felon, will face additional charges for possession of a firearm although a knife was also used in all three murders. Gascon's choice to apply sentencing enhancements and attempt gaining a life sentence for the defendant is a surprising break from...
2/17: A bill was introduced yesterday in the California State Assembly that would limit the ability of government agencies that are not health departments from using information collected in contact tracing. According to AB 814, introduced by Marc Levin (D-Marin County), no law enforcement personnel would be allowed to engage in contact tracing. Nor could data collected in the course of contact tracing for carriers of disease be "used, maintained, or disclosed for any purpose...
Over the weekend, California Governor Gavin Newsom agreed to change the current lockdown guidelines regarding places of worship in which all indoor worship is prohibited. Newsom's change in policy follows a United States Supreme Court Ruling in favor of South Bay United Pentecostal Church and against the State of California. The court, split 6-3 along ideological lines, ruled that the government cannot ban indoor worship. The government may, however, restrict capacity to 25%...
2/8/21: Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James C. Chalfant ruled in favor of the Association of Deputy District Attorneys for Los Angeles County (ADDA) in a lawsuit against District Attorney George Gascón. The ADDA brought a civil lawsuit against the District Attorney to seek a court ruling to clarify Deputy District Attorneys' legal obligations in light of the District Attorney's directives. It is not about the District Attorney's beliefs on what criminal laws should...
The Recall George Gascon Campaign is prepared to file a Notice of Intention and serve Los Angeles County's new district attorney with the papers on March 8. This is the earliest possible date, 90 days after Gascon was sworn into office. Gascon ran on a justice reform platform, promising to straddle, somehow, the rights of victims with a rehabilitative approach to criminals. As soon as he entered office, he made good on his campaign promises to eliminate cash bail and drop all...
A group called Protect Ballona Wetlands, has filed a Petition for Writ of Mandate with the LA Superior Court. The lawsuit seeks to restrain the Calif. Dept of Fish and Wildlife from approving a project to “restore, enhance, and establish native coastal wetland and upland habitats on approximately 566 acres within the Ballona Reserve.” The group alleges that the State’s description of the plan as restoration is “disingenuous.” They say that the plan will actually harm wildlife,...
On Sunday, a crowd of about 30 demonstrators met at the Santa Monica Pier to protest the arrest of Alexei Navalny. He was sentenced today to two and a half years in Russian prison on a parole violation. Alexei Navalny is a Russian opposition leader, politician, lawyer, and anti-corruption activist. He came to international prominence by organizing demonstrations and running for office to advocate reforms against corruption in Russia, president Vladimir Putin, and Putin's gover...
February 1 - Today Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon gave the oath of office to Robert Arcos, who will serve as head of the Bureau of Investigation. The Bureau of Investigation comprises 300 peace officers who provide investigative work for the 1,000 deputy district attorneys working on prosecuting criminals. Or are they? Gascon's statement on Arcos's appointment stressed the former assistant chief of the LAPD's commitment to "reform." According to Gascon,...
Los Angeles (CA) Last night, Chief Michel Moore released new statistics on the shocking increase in shootings so far this year, compared to last year, with South Los Angeles suffering from the largest impact in the surge in violent crime (as shown in the LAPD charts above). The Los Angeles Police Protective League issued this statement in response: "Two pandemics are ravaging Los Angeles right now; both are dangerous and deadly. COVID is spreading rapidly in L.A. while...
After eleven months of varying stages of lockdown in the State of California and during a botched local delivery of COVID vaccine, a campaign to recall Governor Newsom appears to be gathering steam. Newsom has been the target of recall efforts almost since he took office, but this one appears to have legs. With 1,495,709 valid signatures required, over a million signatures have already been collected. The campaign has until March 17 to reach its goal. "Voters are angry, and...
Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Bonin continued his attack on the city's police union January 12, with an emailed statement claiming the police union alone is standing in the way of the metropolis regaining financial solvency. According to Bonin, the Los Angeles Police Protective League, alone of all employee unions in the city, is refusing to delay taking contracted pay raises. The Los Angeles Police Protective League quickly released their own statement, which saw matters...
State Assemblymember Richard Bloom announced he will run for Los Angeles County Supervisor in 2022. There are five county supervisors, representing roughly 10 million people in Los Angeles county. Incumbents are generally voted back into office but present supervisor Sheila Kuehl has said she will not seek a third term when her service ends at the close of 2022. This gives an opportunity to the progressive Westside Bloom, currently representing District 50 in the State...
The Santa Monica City Council unanimously voted on Tuesday to establish a Public Safety Reform and Oversight Commission which would "promote best practices in community-based policing for the fair treatment and safety of all." The new panel will be comprised of 11 residents of Santa Monica, appointed by the Council, and tasked to provide oversight of the Santa Monica Police Department and work with SMPD to recommend "appropriate proposed reforms to its policies and practices."...
LA County District Attorney George Gascon announced today that he is charging two "young adults" with one count of murder each in the fatal beating of David McKnight-Hillman, a counselor at the Wayfinder Family Services facility. McKnight-Hillman was responsible for the care of the residents at the youth hall and was reportedly trying to break up a fight at the home when seven teenagers turned on him and beat him. McKnight-Hillman succumbed to his injuries later at the hospita...
The person with the nuclear codes has been deemed too dangerous to have a twitter account, as the Social Media giant locked down the president's account for 12 hours. "I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order – respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you!" tweeted @realdonaldtrump at 11 am EST. "I can assure you that my departure from office is going to be very boring." Tweeted A...
The most expensive U.S. Senate race in history was that of incumbent Sen. Lindsey Graham and his Democratic challenger, Jaime Harrison, where between the two $238 million was spent in South Carolina prior to November 3, 2020. In the third quarter Harrison alone raised $57.9 million which became the record for a three month effort-until now. In the past two months, since November 3, all four Georgia U.S. Senate contenders have raised more than this. Challenging Democrats Jon...
UPDATE: The Association of Deputy District Attorneys dispute Gascon's interpretation of today's court ruling as a victory. In fact, says the ADDA, the court ordered Gascon to show cause why an injunction against his behavior should not be issued. Gascon has until January 15 to file papers supporting his position, and a hearing will be held on February 2, 2021. December 30, 2020 After a month of suffering under the radical leadership of new Los Angeles District Attorney George...
The state's Stay Home Order has been extended past the 3-week term originally given at the beginning of December. This is no surprise. Officials warned us when they instituted the additional restrictions on activities that the Stay Home Orders would automatically extend so long as ICU capacity fell or remained below 15% for a region. Los Angeles County currently claims to be at 0.0% capacity in the area's hospital ICUs. By now, California residents are used to officials...
A group of law professors from prominent, left-leaning California law schools sent out a press release preemptively striking against a yet-to-be-filed lawsuit by the Los Angeles Association of Deputy District Attorneys against newly installed District Attorney George Gascon. The press release claims the ADDA will not prevail in their coming restraining order against Gascon to prevent him from forcing his deputies to drop sentencing enhancements in charging criminal...
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...
In the present year of COVID-19 tyrannical governors shut down religious services, a 1st Amendment right, as fast as they could. During the summer months Antifa defaced and with ropes tore down statues of our past national heroes included those who made America free, as for example, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and they even threatened to destroy statues of Christ. They also set afire churches, one St John's Episcopal, located near the White House. In these states...
In a move that shows elections have consequences, the Santa Monica City Council voted 4 to 3 Tuesday night to end exclusive negotiations with OMA, the developer of the Plaza Project. The move reflects the new priorities of Council members Christine Parra, Phil Brock and Oscar de la Torre. The council voted in late July to negotiate with the Plaza Developer, and a 99 year lease of the City land seemed to be in the offing. A majority of 4 council members voted to break off...
On the surface, the bill Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer (D-Los Angeles) plans to propose that will raise the requirements to enter a police force in California sounds like a good idea. Requiring recruits to either have a four-year college degree or be 25 years old seems like it would create a more mature, level-headed police force. In defending the proposed law, Jones-Sawyer cites a 2010 study that showed college-educated police officers in two different cities were less...
The state government reversed its ban on outdoor playgrounds on Wednesday, December 9. Playgrounds were one of the sectors closed when the state's Stay Home Order went into effect on the Monday of that week. The Stay Home Order was triggered by the remaining ICU capacity in the Southern California region falling below 15%. No discussion was entertained and no reasons offered for closing playgrounds via the Stay Home Order. Children under the age of 18 are not at high risk of d...
