| LA County aims to boost local water supply and rely less on expensive, faraway sources – Daily News |
| LOS ANGELES — The Board of Supervisors adopted a “water plan” Tuesday for Los Angeles County in an effort to bolster local water supplies and reduce reliance on more costly imported water. [Article] |
| by , Los Angeles Daily News. 2023-12-05 |
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| It’s hard to find available shelter beds in LA due to poor LAHSA data, says LA controller – Daily News |
| LOS ANGELES — An analysis of interim housing and shelter bed data found that data quality issues make it nearly “impossible” to find available shelter beds, according to Los Angeles City Controller Kenneth Mejia’s first full audit released Tuesday. [Article] |
| by , Los Angeles Daily News. 2023-12-05 |
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| Retirement Without a Net: The Plight of America’s Aging Farmworkers - The New York Times |
| Esperanza Sanchez spends eight hours a day, Sunday to Friday, crouched down to the ground, trimming and picking leafy greens and packing them into boxes.
She pauses only if a dizzy spell throws her off balance, which she chalks up to high blood pressure, something she learned about last year when a raging headache prompted her to visit a doctor for the first time in recent memory.
“I feel tired,” she said, seated at her mobile home’s kitchen table after a day’s work. “I feel like stopping, but how can I?”
At 72, Ms. Sanchez is the oldest on her crew working in California’s Coachella Valley. She is among tens of thousands of undocumented farm workers who have spent decades working in the United States — doing the kind of sweaty, backbreaking work that powers much of the country’s farming industry — but are ineligible for Social Security, Medicare or the other forms of retirement relief that would allow them to stop working. [Article] |
| by , . 2023-12-05 |
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| Man charged with 4 murders had $700,000 settlement from Santa Monica - Santa Monica Daily Press |
| Prosecutors charged a man Monday with four counts of murder in the fatal shootings of three homeless men in Los Angeles and a suburban resident last month. [Article] |
| by , . 2023-12-05 |
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| L.A. rodeo ban vote leads to cultural backlash, some exceptions - Los Angeles Times |
| The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to ban rodeos in the city despite opposition by some in L.A.’s Latino equestrian community, who painted the crackdown as an attack on their culture.
Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, who represents the west San Fernando Valley, led the council in passing the ban, describing in graphic detail the broken bones and pain endured by rodeo animals.
The vote, which passed 14 to 0 with Councilmember Nithya Raman absent, asks the city attorney’s office to draft an ordinance outlawing rodeos in the city.
Just before the vote, Blumenfield introduced an amendment that was co-sponsored by the most vocal public opponent of the measure, Councilmember Monica Rodriguez, who represents the east Valley.
The amendment — a combination of two separate amendments, one written by Blumenfield, the other by Rodriguez — attempted to assuage concerns that the ban would prevent cultural events such as charrería, which is popular in Mexico, as well as the Bill Pickett Rodeo, a national event for Black riders scheduled for February in the City of Industry. [Article] |
| by , Los Angeles Times. 2023-12-05 |
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| COP28 goes local: LA scientists are racing to reverse climate effects |
| Through December 12, Dubai is hosting the United Nations’ COP28, where world leaders and scientists are discussing the implications of our warming planet and how to reduce climate effects, which are affecting the Golden State. [Article] |
| by , . 2023-12-05 |
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| Strike averted at LA hospitals as supervisors close contract loophole – Daily News |
| In April, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors thought they had required all employers contracted by the county for non-medical hospital personnel to provide employer-paid, healthcare benefits. [Article] |
| by , Los Angeles Daily News. 2023-12-05 |
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| Urban Illusions: Unveiling segregation in America’s supposed melting pots – Daily News |
| America’s sprawling urban landscapes, often celebrated as melting pots, hide a surprising truth: rather than being bastions of diversity, they are hotbeds of segregation. This revelation, presented in a groundbreaking study published in Nature, titled “Human mobility networks reveal increased segregation in large cities,” overturns the long-standing notion of inherent urban diversity. By tracking the movements of 9.6 million people through mobile phone data, the research reveals a startling fact: contrary to common belief, larger cities exhibit greater segregation than smaller ones. [Article] |
| by , Los Angeles Daily News. 2023-12-05 |
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| Port of Long Beach’s plan for offshore wind-turbine assembling terminal to be vetted – Press Telegram |
| Two events that will provide information — and take public comment — on a proposed 400-acre terminal for assembling and deploying offshore wind turbines are planned by the Port of Long Beach for Dec. 13 and Jan. 10. [Article] |
| by , Long Beach Press Telegram. 2023-12-05 |
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| Scores of mentally ill people referred for CARE services in program’s first 2 months – Daily News |
| CARE is not for everyone experiencing homelessness or mental illness. To qualify, people must be at least 18 years old, experiencing severe untreated mental illness (diagnosed as a schizophrenia spectrum disorder or other psychotic disorder), not clinically stabilized or in ongoing voluntary treatment, and in deteriorating condition, unlikely to survive safely without supervision. A CARE plan would have to be the least restrictive alternative to ensure the person’s recovery and stability.
Officials stress that the program is voluntary, but civil libertarians worry that people will be compelled into treatment against their will.
Sen. Tom Umberg, D-Santa Ana, has said that’s not going to happen. Umberg helped shepherd the CARE Act through the legislature, and said that the only mandatory part of the program rests with the public agencies themselves, who are now required to provide resources.
California has about 170,000 people living on the streets — nearly one-third of the nation’s homeless population — and about 10,000 of them are expected to qualify for CARE plans. An initial 100 petitions is not necessarily a slow start to what’s supposed to be a game-changer, Ghaly said. [Article] |
| by , Los Angeles Daily News. 2023-12-05 |
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| The Compost: How to join the Forest Corps 🌲 – Daily News |
| It’s like the Peace Corps, but for forests.
A few months ago, President Joe Biden announced formation of an American Climate Corps, which aims to hire 20,000 young people in its first year to work on projects that can help prevent climate change and ease its impacts. On Friday, applications launched for the Forest Corps. [Article] |
| by , Los Angeles Daily News. 2023-12-05 |
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| LA Overdose Deaths Climb |
| A record 3,220 people died of drug overdoses in Los Angeles County in 2022. That’s about eight to nine people per day, fueled primarily by fentanyl and methamphetamine, according to a report from the L.A. County Department of Public Health. [Article] |
| by , . 2023-12-05 |
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| Bob Rawitch: The decline of local print newspapers is a blow to our democracy – Daily News |
| American democracy is in grave trouble. Some would say it is because former President Donald Trump has exhibited an authoritarian, anti-democratic streak. Others blame radical right terrorists or those who are simply anti-government. And of course, the right blames the far left.
All may share some “credit.” Long term though, I have a greater concern about the growing vacuum in reliable, truthful information caused by the continuing winnowing and death of the printed newspaper.
Are they perfect? Far from it. Some are biased or tend to the sensational. But there is a built-in system of editors and gatekeepers who generally adhere to established professional standards of presenting truthful information to the best of their abilities.
But that infrastructure has basically collapsed in the last 20 years and one can hear the gasps to stay alive. Just how bad is it: [Article] |
| by , Los Angeles Daily News. 2023-12-05 |
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| We can't solve homelessness by institutionalizing people - Los Angeles Times |
| One of the greatest challenges facing the United States is the number of residents who do not have a place to live, one of the most basic, foundational necessities for well-being.
In 2022, the Department of Housing and Urban Development counted 582,000 Americans experiencing homelessness. That’s roughly 1 in 556 people, a third of whom live in California.
There are myriad, conflicting narratives about what has caused the homelessness crisis and what will resolve it. Because so many unhoused people also live with severe mental health challenges, mental illness is often a part of their stories. An estimated one-third of people who are chronically unhoused live with a severe mental health condition, most often schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.
A Group Therapy reader sent us a question about this intersection of marginalization: “I would love to read a discussion about how we’re failing with the homeless population. When we still had mental institutions, homelessness wasn’t really a problem. Now we seem to just let people with severe mental problems wander the streets. I believe it would be kinder to house them in institutions for treatment. What do you think?”
I want to acknowledge that this question will inevitably bring up a lot for people, depending on your background and political positioning. My hope is to unpack it through a a lens of compassion and curiosity, and the assumption that the majority of us want to find a humane solution to the homelessness crisis — and not only because it is uncomfortable, frightening or inconvenient.
In this newsletter, we’ll briefly look at the history of deinstitutionalization in the U.S., and we’ll investigate the common assumption that mental illness is at the root of the homelessness crisis. [Article] |
| by , Los Angeles Times. 2023-12-05 |
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| Idle Oil Wells Are A Problem For Health And Climate. Who Should Pay For Cleaning Them Up? | LAist |
| There are more than 35,000 idle oil wells in California, according to state data. Idle wells are wells that haven’t produced any oil for two years or more and have yet to be properly plugged or put back into production. [Article] |
| by , . 2023-12-05 |
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| Redondo Union High School on lockdown for 2nd straight day - Los Angeles Times |
| A day after a sophomore at Redondo Union High School started the week by carrying a loaded firearm and a high-capacity magazine onto campus, the school was locked down for the second consecutive day on Tuesday during a search, police say.
Officers arrested the 15-year-old male student at the school Monday after he brought the firearm onto campus. They said he did not appear to have plans for shooting the weapon at the school.
On Tuesday morning, Redondo Beach police detained a second person at the campus after conducting a search, leading to a lockdown of the school until 10 a.m. Authorities did not initially comment on whether Tuesday’s arrest was connected to Monday’s investigation. [Article] |
| by , Los Angeles Times. 2023-12-05 |
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| Editorial: Three murders underscore vulnerability of homeless - Los Angeles Times |
| It’s a relief that police, aided by other law enforcement agencies, swiftly arrested a suspect in the murders of three homeless men in the city of Los Angeles. Police allege that over the course of four days, Nov. 26-29, the suspect, Jerrid Joseph Powell, went from South Los Angeles to the Arts District to the Lincoln Heights area, gunning down men he found alone in the dark hours of the early morning.
Jose Bolanos was sleeping on a couch in an alley. Mark Diggs was leaning against a wall, and a third man, whose identity had not been released pending notification of his family, was sleeping on a sidewalk. Footage that captured the suspect shooting Diggs showed an indifference that Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore called “chilling.” Powell, the suspect, had already been arrested in the follow-home robbery and murder of Nicholas Simbolon in San Dimas. [Article] |
| by , Los Angeles Times. 2023-12-05 |
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| Prosecutors drop charges in gun case linked to LAPD Mission Division gang unit scandal - Los Angeles Times |
| Los Angeles County prosecutors have dismissed a gun possession charge against a man who was stopped by police officers from a scandal-plagued gang unit within the LAPD’s Mission Division, one of the first instances of a case being compromised by the department’s latest corruption scandal.
The decision came after a preliminary hearing Thursday for Raphael DeLeon on a felony charge of having a concealed unregistered firearm in a vehicle, according to his attorney, Ninaz Saffari.
After the defense argued the gun was recovered during an illegal stop, Saffari said Monday, prosecutors told the court they couldn’t proceed because three of the officers involved in the stop would not be available to testify because of a pending investigation.
Saffari said DeLeon was pulled over because of his race, and she believes prosecutors dropped the case because the officers would have been called to testify about why they made the stop.
“Latino guy driving around, and basically police officers were going on a fishing expedition and they say let’s pull this guy over,” she said. “I think that it’s a pattern of conduct and I think that they got caught this time.”
In a motion filed before the hearing, Saffari argued the gun charge should be thrown out because the officers had no probable cause to search DeLeon’s car after pulling him over for reportedly failing to signal while making an improper lane change. [Article] |
| by , Los Angeles Times. 2023-12-05 |
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| LA’s Proposed Dodger Stadium Gondola Could Cost $500 Million | LAist |
| Metro’s final environmental impact report for the proposed gondola project that would connect Union Station to Dodger Stadium was released Monday with at least two “significant and unavoidable” effects. [Article] |
| by , . 2023-12-05 |
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| Could a monthly treatment prevent fentanyl overdoses? - Los Angeles Times |
| Scientists have developed an antibody treatment that shows promise in blocking the potentially deadly effects of fentanyl for nearly a month, raising hopes for a new tool to combat overdoses.
Tests in animals found that the treatment could effectively block the effects of fentanyl, laying the groundwork for assessing whether the medication will prove effective in humans, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.
The antibodies are too big to cross the blood-brain barrier, so when they bind to fentanyl in the bloodstream, they stop the powerful opioid from reaching receptors in the brain, researchers explained. The experimental treatment, dubbed CSX-1004, was administered to animals via an intravenous infusion.
Andrew Barrett, chief scientific officer for Cessation Therapeutics, the company that developed the treatment, likened the way it works to “Pac-Man” snapping up fentanyl in the blood, which “prevents fentanyl from ever getting to the brain where it produces its effects,” both pleasurable and dangerous.
Among its possible uses: The infusion could be given as a preventive measure to patients who complete an inpatient detoxification program “to try to prevent a death in the event of a relapse,” Barrett said.
Finding such a tool has been especially urgent as the number of American lives lost to drug overdoses has climbed to more than 100,000 a year, according to federal data. The bulk of those deaths have been linked to synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, a potent drug that has also been found in counterfeit pills and is often mingled with other drugs such as methamphetamine. [Article] |
| by , Los Angeles Times. 2023-12-05 |
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