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| Reform LA Health hosts forum to advocate for building new medical school - Daily Bruin | | A UCLA Health dermatologist and student organizers urged the Westwood community to advocate for the creation of a new medical school in Los Angeles County on Nov. 10. [Article] | | by , . 2025-11-20 | | | | Trump administration plans to open Pacific Coast to oil drilling for first time in more than 4 decades - Los Angeles Times | | The Trump administration on Thursday announced plans to open the Pacific Ocean to new oil and gas leases for the first time in more than four decades.
The draft plan released by the U.S. Department of the Interior confirms rumors that have been swirling for weeks. The proposal would see as many as 34 offshore lease sales across 1.27 billion acres of federal waters in the Outer Continental Shelf through 2031, including six areas along the Pacific Coast, 21 off the coast of Alaska and seven in the Gulf of Mexico.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced the plan with an order titled “Unleashing American Offshore Energy,” which directs the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to terminate former President Biden’s much more limited plan, which called for only three new oil and gas leases through 2029, the lowest number ever and only in the Gulf of Mexico.
“The Biden administration slammed the brakes on offshore oil and gas leasing and crippled the long-term pipeline of America’s offshore production,” Burgum said in a statement. “By moving forward with the development of a robust, forward-thinking leasing plan, we are ensuring that America’s offshore industry stays strong, our workers stay employed, and our nation remains energy dominant for decades to come.”
California has about two dozen oil platforms in state and federal waters off the coast, but most are considered at or near the end of their productive life. The state has not seen new oil leases in federal waters since 1984, largely due to public opposition following a disastrous oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara in 1969.
“This draft plan is an oil spill nightmare,” said Joseph Gordon, campaign director with the nonprofit ocean conservation organization Oceana. “The last thing America needs now is a massive expansion of offshore drilling that could shut down our shores with catastrophic oil spills.” [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-11-20 | | | | A $6M grant aims to rebuild an Altadena bungalow court lost to the Eaton Fire | LAist | | Can rebuilding 14 affordable rental units on one lot in Altadena be a model for building back more equitably? The Altadena Builds Back Foundation and its partners think so. [Article] | | by , . 2025-11-20 | | | | Border Patrol is monitoring U.S. drivers and detaining those with 'suspicious' travel patterns - Los Angeles Times | | The U.S. Border Patrol is monitoring millions of American drivers nationwide in a secretive program to identify and detain people whose travel patterns it deems suspicious, the Associated Press has found.
The predictive intelligence program has resulted in people being stopped, searched and in some cases arrested. A network of cameras scans and records vehicle license plate information, and an algorithm flags vehicles deemed suspicious based on where they came from, where they were going and which route they took. Federal agents in turn may then flag local law enforcement.
Suddenly, drivers find themselves pulled over — often for reasons cited such as speeding, failure to signal, the wrong window tint or even a dangling air freshener blocking the view. They are then aggressively questioned and searched, with no inkling that the roads they drove put them on law enforcement’s radar.
Once limited to policing the nation’s boundaries, the Border Patrol has built a surveillance system stretching into the country’s interior that can monitor ordinary Americans’ daily actions and connections for anomalies instead of simply targeting wanted suspects. Started about a decade ago to fight illegal border-related activities and the trafficking of drugs and people, it has expanded over the last five years.
The Border Patrol has recently grown even more powerful through collaborations with other agencies, drawing information from license plate readers nationwide run by the Drug Enforcement Administration, private companies and, increasingly, local law enforcement programs funded through federal grants. Texas law enforcement agencies have asked Border Patrol to use facial recognition to identify drivers, documents show.
This active role beyond the borders is part of the quiet transformation of its parent agency, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, into something more akin to a domestic intelligence operation. Under the Trump administration’s heightened immigration enforcement efforts, CBP is now poised to get more than $2.7 billion to build out border surveillance systems such as the license plate reader program by layering in artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies.
The result is a mass surveillance network with a particularly American focus: cars. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-11-20 | | | | LA County proposes major cuts to homeless services for next year. What we know so far | LAist | | Facing a $303 million deficit next fiscal year, L.A. County officials propose cutting roughly a third of homelessness programs and services.
The plan, which is not yet finalized, would gut prevention, outreach and supportive services to maintain temporary shelter beds and absorb rate increases previously covered by other funding sources. [Article] | | by , . 2025-11-20 | | | | Local Governmental Agencies Partner to Ensure Financial Stability of Healthcare in Modoc County - Modoc Record | | The Modoc County Board of Supervisors and the Office of the Treasurer-Tax Collector announced a series of coordinated actions approved during the Board’s special meeting on November 10, 2025, aimed at supporting Surprise Valley Healthcare District (SVHCD), safeguarding taxpayer resources, and refining the County’s investment practices.
The special meeting of the Modoc County Board of Supervisors was held following a request for help from SVHCD to obtain funding that would allow them to participate in a supplemental reimbursement program called the Voluntary Rate Range Program (VRRP). This is a program, that most district hospitals in the State of California participate in, that utilizes funding from hospitals to draw down federal funds to help supplement or enhance the reimbursement that those hospitals receive for providing services to MediCal beneficiaries in our community throughout the year. [Article] | | by , . 2025-11-20 | | | | Fire marched toward west Altadena hours before official accounts, new report shows - Los Angeles Times | | The Eaton fire was marching toward west Altadena even earlier than previously believed, a state-commissioned report confirmed this week, raising further questions about why it took L.A. County officials so long to order evacuations in the neighborhood where 18 people died.
The fire erupted Jan. 7 at 6:18 p.m., fueled by hurricane-force Santa Ana winds that pushed flames into neighborhoods with great speed. Within about an hour, the county issued evacuation orders for many of the foothill communities near the fire’s origin, including the eastern side of Altadena. But as The Times first reported in January, evacuation orders were not issued for west Altadena until after 3 a.m., well after the fire had threatened the area. Evacuation warnings for the area never went out.
All but one of the Eaton fire’s 19 deaths occurred in west Altadena.
The Fire Safety Research Institute report, released Thursday morning, doesn’t analyze why alerts were delayed, but provides the most detailed timeline yet of the night of the fire, including new timestamps that show there were signs the fire was moving toward west Altadena almost six hours before the area received any evacuation alert.
The report notes that there was “fire spread to the west” as early as 9:30 p.m. on Jan. 7, pointing to several spot fires west of the fire origin.
By 10:22 p.m., and through the next hour, there were multiple radio calls reporting the fire was spreading west toward North Lake Avenue, the report said. Just before 11 p.m., as The Times has previously reported, there were signs of flames in west Altadena — more than four hours before officials issued evacuation orders for that area. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-11-20 | | | | Los Angeles’ last cow slaughterhouse closes in Pico Rivera. Advocates want to keep it that way – Whittier Daily News | | Animal protection advocates are celebrating the closure of Manning Beef in Pico Rivera, the last cattle slaughterhouse in Los Angeles county limits. It marks what they said is a significant victory for animals, workers, and the nearby community. [Article] | | by , Whittier Daily News. 2025-11-20 | | | | San Clemente finalizing long-term lease for Border Patrol to install cameras on a hilltop and possibly at the pier – Orange County Register | | A federally operated maritime surveillance system that would deploy cameras and other monitoring sensors on a hilltop in San Clemente and likely at the city’s pier could be up and running as soon as the City Council signs off on an up-to-30-year lease with U.S. Customs and Border Protection. [Article] | | by , Orange County Register. 2025-11-20 | | | | LA County proposes major cuts to homeless services for next year. What we know so far | LAist | | Facing a $303 million deficit next fiscal year, L.A. County officials propose cutting roughly a third of homelessness programs and services.
The plan, which is not yet finalized, would gut prevention, outreach and supportive services to maintain temporary shelter beds and absorb rate increases previously covered by other funding sources. [Article] | | by , . 2025-11-20 | | | | Kratom, linked to 6 county deaths, was banned. But its health risks remain a mystery - Los Angeles Times | | Recently, the Los Angeles County Public Health Department reported it had linked the deaths of six L.A. County residents over the last spring and summer to the use of kratom, a widely available but unregulated supplement sold as a remedy for all sorts of health issues.
The deaths prompted public health officials to announce Nov. 7 that they would red-tag and pull from store shelves all products containing either kratom or the synthetic alkaloid 7-Hydroxymitragynine, also known as 7-OH, which is derived from kratom. Both are currently unregulated and not approved for use in the United States or the state of California as a drug product, dietary supplement or an approved food additive, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Unsurprisingly, business owners who sell kratom feel that the health department has overstepped, going too far without understanding how the supplement is helping many L.A. residents. The deaths, they say, are not necessarily due to kratom products, but to interactions with other substances.
Perhaps more important are the benefits that kratom users and some experts claim the drug provides. Many say the problem is with 7-OH — a highly concentrated, synthetic version of natural kratom that is subject to adulteration and fraudulent marketing — and that banning the sale of all kratom products could create an even more dangerous underground market of both kratom and 7-OH.
Indeed, many kratom sellers and users would welcome better regulation, so that they could continue to use the affordable, widely available substance as a way to treat physical pain and mental health issues with more confidence in the efficacy and safety of the products they are selling and buying.
During the months of April and July, a total of six L.A. County adults between the ages of 19 and 39 died with kratom and 7-OH in their bodies, along with other substances including alcohol, prescription sedatives and muscle relaxers, and cocaine.
In the medical examiner’s reports, the cause of death for five of the deceased was listed as a consequence of “mixed drug effects”; the sixth was listed as being caused by an overdose of cocaine. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-11-20 | | | | California Adopts Tougher Methane Rule for Landfills to Curb Planetary Warming | KQED | | Your trash, or the place where it ends up, is also one of the most serious contributors to global warming. [Article] | | by , . 2025-11-20 | | | | Cal State trustees lift salary caps on executive compensation - Los Angeles Times | | Amid protests from employee unions, California State University trustees on Wednesday approved the elimination of salary caps for top executives, allowing for higher pay packages as they recruit for presidents at five campuses.
The new pay structure, approved 16 to 1, scraps a previous policy that limited the salary of a newly hired president to no more than 10% above their predecessor. It calls for executive salaries to be based on market analyses conducted at least every three years.
The policy also introduces bonuses, which will be capped at 15% of base pay. The bonuses, contingent on whether the executives meet their goals, will be funded through what one finance official described as “campus-based auxiliaries,” which include philanthropic sources and private fundraising, rather than state or tuition funds.
CSU’s chancellor, vice chancellors and university presidents will also receive enhanced retirement benefits, and housing stipends for campus presidents will be increased.
The plan drew vehement opposition from university union members and some students, who protested Tuesday. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-11-20 | | | | 18 prisoners seek reduced sentences under state's Racial Justice Act - Los Angeles Times | | When California lawmakers approved the Racial Justice Act in August 2020 — just months after a Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd — many backers had high hopes it would help undo years of disproportionately lengthy sentences handed down to people of color.
The law allows convicted defendants to challenge the length of their prison terms if they can demonstrate racial disparities or discriminatory practices in the California jurisdiction where their case was prosecuted.
But five years after its passage, the law has hardly been used, according to an analysis of newly obtained sentencing data by the Stanford Law School Three Strikes Project and NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund.
Across California “there has been no finding by any judge of disparate sentencing” as outlined by the law, according to Michael S. Romano, director of the Stanford Law project.
On Monday, the Stanford Law group and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund announced the filing of 18 new petitions between five counties — including Los Angeles and Riverside — citing “gross racial disparities in sentencing for low level common crimes under the Three Strikes law.”
In L.A. County, the Stanford group said sentencing data showed that, compared with white defendants, more than 13 times as many Black people are serving life for attempted robbery under Three Strikes.
One of the state prisoners seeking a reduced term is John Crawford, who was sentenced in L.A. County to 45 years to life for attempted second-degree robbery. In 2018, Crawford, who is now 41, “approached a man on the street and asked for his wallet and phone, and the man ran away,” according to his petition. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-11-20 | | | | Another judge rejects ex-sheriff's lawsuit over 'do not rehire' label - Los Angeles Times | | A state judge has thrown out a lawsuit filed by former Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva that alleged the county defamed him, violated his rights and unfairly flagged his personnel file with a “do not rehire” tag.
In a 26-page order, Superior Court Judge Gary D. Roberts on Wednesday granted a request by the county to reject the lawsuit under California’s Anti-SLAPP law, writing that Villanueva’s claims lack “minimal merit.”
The case’s dismissal is “a major victory,” according to Jason Tokoro, an attorney for the county.
“We are pleased that the Court agreed with the County that former Sheriff Alex Villanueva’s claims are barred by California’s anti-SLAPP statute and had no merit,” he wrote in an emailed statement Thursday. “The County can now close this chapter.”
The decision marks the third time a court has dismissed Villanueva’s assertions that the county had treated him unfairly and caused him to suffer “humiliation, severe emotional distress, mental and physical pain and anguish, and compensatory damages.”
The complaint in Villanueva’s lawsuit filed in June said it was an “attempt to clear his name, vindicate his reputation, and be made whole for the emotional distress defendants’ actions have caused him.”
Villanueva previously tried to sue in federal court. In September 2024, a judge in the Central District of California rejected the former sheriff’s $25-million federal lawsuit over the allegations, then did so again in May after Villanueva refiled the case.
Villanueva did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday. The Sheriff’s Department declined to comment.
The dispute began after Inspector General Max Hunstman claimed in 2022 that Villanueva engaged in a “racially based attack” by insisting on calling Huntsman by the name he was given at birth, Max-Gustaf. Villanueva also described Huntsman as a Holocaust denier, an allegation for which he did not provide any evidence and which the inspector general has denied.
The county investigated Huntsman’s allegation and slapped the former sheriff with the “do not rehire” label. Each year, a county panel recommends dozens of government employees be disciplined for a wide range of unethical behavior ranging from theft to privacy violations by adding “do not hire” or other restrictions to their personnel files. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-11-20 | | | | Waymo joins Metro's Mobility Wallet program with discounted trips. Here's how to catch a ride | LAist | | Metro’s Mobility Wallet riders can catch Waymo rides through L.A.’s 120-mile service area for a discount, starting today. The offer is only for two rides.
How it works: Riders get either a digital or physical “debit” card. They can access the funds digitally or by swiping and tapping. Mobility Wallet riders can get 20% off two Waymo rides. [Article] | | by , . 2025-11-20 | | | | Why autistic kids are far more likely to struggle with depression, anxiety and suicide - Los Angeles Times | | When Anthony Tricarico was diagnosed at 7 with autism spectrum disorder, his parents, Neal and Samara, were told that he might need extra support at school, so they made sure he got it. When doctors suggested therapies for his speech and motor skills, they sought those out too.
But when their kind, popular, accomplished boy began to experience depression and suicidal ideation as a teenager, no one told them that the same thinking patterns that powered many of Anthony’s achievements might also be amplifying his most harmful thoughts, or that the effort of masking his autism could be hurting his mental health.
None of the people or organizations they contacted for help said Anthony might benefit from therapies or safety plans adapted for autistic people, or even that such things existed. They did not say that he might not show the same warning signs as a non-autistic teenager.
And only after he died from suicide in May 2024 did the San Diego County couple discover that autistic kids — particularly those like Anthony, whose disability is not immediately apparent from the outside — are more likely to think about and die from suicide, and at earlier ages, than their neurotypical peers.
“Our son has always been different. So why wouldn’t how we approach suicide be different?” Neal said.
Suicide is a leading cause of death in the U.S. for kids aged 10 to 18. Prevention strategies that take neurodiversity into account could go a long way toward reducing the number of young lives lost too soon.
Autism researchers and advocates are working to develop better screening tools and interventions based on the unique strengths and differences of an autistic brain. A crucial first step is educating the people best positioned to help kids when they’re in crisis, like parents, counselors, pediatricians and social workers.
“These are kids that are experiencing all sorts of heightened risk,” said Danielle Roubinov, an associate professor and director of the Child and Adolescent Anxiety and Mood Disorders Program at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “We’re aware of the need for tailored approaches. We’re doing this research. We’re trying to get the word out. And [suicidality] is something that is treatable. This is something that responds to intervention.”
The percentage of U.S. children with an autism diagnosis has risen steadily in recent decades, from 1 in 150 8-year-olds in 2000 to 1 in 31 in 2022.
The diagnostic definition has changed dramatically in that time, inscribing children with a broad range of abilities, needs and behaviors within a single term: autism spectrum disorder.
Today, the diagnosis includes children whose autism was previously overlooked because of their propensity for “masking,” the act of consciously or unconsciously suppressing autistic traits in order to blend in. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-11-20 | | | | How a retired construction worker finished Altadena’s first home on a lot burned by the Eaton Fire | LAist | | Jose Rodriguez wasn’t trying to be the first person in Altadena to finish a new home after suffering a loss in the Eaton Fire. [Article] | | by , . 2025-11-20 | | | | Housing Tracker: Southern California home values rise slightly in October - Los Angeles Times | | Southern California home prices rose in October, stopping a five-month skid that saw the average home value fall more than $14,000 since April.
In October, the average home price across the six-county region climbed to $860,773 — a 0.01% increase compared to September. However, prices were still down 1.4% compared to October 2024.
Economists and real estate agents say a variety of factors have slowed the market, including high mortgage rates, rising inventory and economic uncertainty stemming from tariffs. The same factors continued in October, but the uptick reflects a slight dip in inventory as more sellers choose to hang on to their homes. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-11-20 | | | | Contempt-of-court hearing begins in federal case over city of LA's homelessness response | LAist | | A downtown hearing kicked off Wednesday, during which a federal judge will consider holding the city of Los Angeles in contempt of court. The hearing is the latest step in a long-running legal saga regarding the city's response to the region’s homelessness crisis.
The hearing was ordered by U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, who has been overseeing a settlement in a lawsuit brought against the city by the L.A. Alliance for Human Rights, a group of downtown business and property owners. L.A. Alliance sued the city, and county, in 2020 for failing to adequately address homelessness. [Article] | | by , . 2025-11-20 | | |
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