Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
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The main purpose of this letter is to urge the City Council and Councilmember McCowan to reconsider Mr. Cardona's position as stated in his January 6, 2021 response to Olga Zurawska's Demand to Cure and Correct. Mr. Cardona's position invites a dangerous precedent for democracy by normalizing Brown Act violations In his letter, Mr. Cardona claims that the very fact that Councilmember McCowan had publicly disclosed her serial meetings with the Council majority prior to the...
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...
We received the following letter by Third Street Promenade property owner John Alle to City Manager Lane Dilg regarding unsafe and unsanitary conditions at the once-popular outdoor shopping area in downtown Santa Monica. Dear Lane, I have been arriving at my property on the Promenade for the last several days during early morning hours to supervise interior cleaning and maintenance. This last Friday and Saturday I walked the Promenade and surrounding streets. The pictures and...
UPDATE: After winning election as the District Attorney for the County of Los Angeles by 53.53%, Gascon has set about doing every single thing he promised in the below article. While 53.53% may sound like a lot, it leaves a possible 4,647,000 people extremely unhappy with his policies. He hardly has a mandate and will soon discover as much. George Gascon, a Havana-born former police officer, resigned his position as San Francisco District Attorney in October, at the same time...
Courts & Rulings Juvenile justice reform's legal challenge impacts Santa Cruz child murder case Adrian "A.J." Gonzalez, now 21, was arrested and charged with murder as a 15 year old. The California Supreme Court will soon weigh a case with implications for whether Gonzalez and others like him should face the adult or juvenile justice system. Oral arguments begin at 9 a.m. Tuesday in San Francisco in the "O.G. vs The Superior Court of Ventura County" case, challenging the...
In an appearance on FoxNews, newly elected George Gascón laid out initiatives for his first term as Los Angeles County District Attorney Los Angeles District Attorney-elect George Gascón outlined the initiatives for his upcoming term including stopping the practice of trying minors as adults and ending the use of the death penalty. After serving eight years as district attorney for San Francisco, Gascón was elected as the new Los Angeles County district attorney, replacing Ja...
Courts & Rulings Officers who arrested man for photography have immunity The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed an order denying summary judgment to three Department of Veterans Affairs police officers who were sued by a man they arrested on two consecutive Sundays in June 2016 for taking photographs at the Great Lawn Gate entrance to the Los Angeles National Veterans Park, in alleged violation of a regulation, holding that they are entitled to qualified immunity...
SANTA MONICA, CA-The Santa Monica College (SMC) Board of Trustees unanimously passed a resolution at their meeting on Tuesday night, Oct. 6 that urges Congress to approve HR 763: Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act. This legislation, if passed, would impose a fee on carbon emissions at their source, with costs passed on to the consumer and fees collected distributed to American households in the form of a dividend. HR 763 is projected to reduce the nation's carbon...
The Santa Monica Transparency Project has written an open letter accusing SM City Council member Gleam Davis of a conflict of interest regarding the proposed expansion of the Miramar Hotel, a project which has been in the works for about a decade. "Ms. Davis' husband John Prindle is a highly paid, long-term senior executive at Dell Technologies. See Ms. Davis' Schedule C, Form 700 filings from at least 2013. Indeed, he is Global Accounts Manager," says the letter. Michael...
In June, the Santa Monica Coalition for a Livable City (SMCLC) served the City with legal objections to proceeding with plans to privatize public land at 4th and Arizona for a massive commercial project until it had complied with a state law known as the Surplus Land Act. Under the Act, before negotiating and disposing of public land for commercial uses, the City must notify interested parties to see if the 25-acre parcel could be used as open space or for affordable housing....
Citing budget constraints and Covid-19, Stanford University has announced that it will eliminate eleven sports for 2020. These include fencing, field hockey, lightweight rowing, men's rowing, co-ed and women's sailing, squash, synchronized swimming, men's volleyball, and wrestling for next year. Eleven sports in total will disappear. Nationally, experts have commented that swimming pools are unlikely to open this summer, given the potential for spread of coronavirus. " In cons...
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has announced its plans for Fall semester 2020. In light of ICE's plan to deport foreign college students who are only enrolled online, MIT will invite all foreign students. Also Seniors are allowed to live at MIT and take classes conventionally. US Immigration has announced that it would deport students who outstayed their Visa's, if they are only taking classes in the US online. The theory is that they could just as easily take...
Close to 60,000 signatures have been gathered as of this writing asking for the recall of Santa Monica Police Chief Cynthia Renaud. Most residents of the city are furious about the wide-scale looting that occurred during and after the "mostly peaceful" protest that paraded from Montana Avenue and down Ocean Avenue early in the afternoon. The City of Santa Monica has received 350 damage reports with 150 retail businesses claiming significant damage from the unrest on Sunday,...
With people protesting worldwide against police violence, the most liberal city in the United States will likely be experiencing major changes over the coming months. What specific direction the movement will take is unclear, but what is clear is that Santa Monica Police Chief Cynthia Renaud will not be around for the final destination. Her days at the top of local law enforcement are numbered whether it be by her choice or the city manager's. The Observer has no special...
It's 2020, and all sorts of arts and educational programs are looking for ways to continue teaching, in a time of social distancing. Santa Monica's Westside Ballet has some brave and innovative continuation plans, in the face of Covid19. "We were to have a benefit performance honoring Patricia Neary 5/15, and then 5/16, our Spring Performance, two show times, at The Broad Stage," explains Jewels Solheim-Roe, press coordinator for WB. "Up until last week, Westside Ballet was st...
Earlier this year back in a time when we were able to touch each other, then-City Attorney (now city manager) Lane Dilg put a halt to The Plaza at Santa Monica, a mixed-use development proposed for a City-owned property at the corner of Arizona Avenue and Fourth Street that will positively transform the Downtown. Dilg said in February that the project, favored by people wanting to see a city progress for the better and opposed by those who reject change, possibly violated a...
Dear City Manager and City Council, While reading Pro Developer Group Santa Monica Forward's letter about our city's finances, we're reminded of Naomi Klein's seminal work, The Shock Doctrine. In it, Ms. Klein posits that crises are often used as tools by those with power to push through agendas they had long sought but were unable to achieve through democratic means. A crisis provides the disruption and turmoil powerful interests need to accomplish long sought but unpopular...
Starbucks coffee company has begun to close locations on the pricey Westside. A sign in the window at the 15th and Montana Avenue location says the store will not reopen after Covid-19 ends. The letter says that the store will be closing permanently. It refers patrons to the locations on 11th and Wilshire, 26th and San Vicente, and 7th and Montana Avenue. It is signed by Michael Haddad, District Manager. Some experts expect the lockdown to continue on and off throughout 2020....
Coronavirus has led to numerous conspiracy theories. Below is a summary of Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai's sweeping conspiratorial claims contained in a Youtube video, left. At bottom is Wikipedia's critique of Shiva Ayyaddurai. On the video, Ayyaddurai says: "There's this bogeyman called the virus. And you need the vaccine to save you. Bill Gates, Hillary Clinton and the Clinton foundation will bring it to you. "The truth is, your own immune system could save you. There is this third...
Madrid (dpa) - Spain's former king Juan Carlos has announced that he will be withdrawing from public life this coming Sunday, five years after his retirement. In a letter to his son, King Felipe VI, that was published by the Spanish royal family on Monday, the 81-year-old former monarch says that from June 2 he will no longer be available for representative duties. "I think the time has come to open a new page in my life and withdraw completely from public life," the former...
General Motors announced last July that it intended to close 4 plants in North America, including the Lordstown Ohio facility employing, at one time, 14,500 UAW workers. Only about one third that number work there now, with the plant cut to just one shift. American drivers have turned away from sedans like the Cruze, preferring SUVs, trucks and cross overs. The number of cars sold in America fell from 12 million to just 4 million units, while simultaneously the number of SUVs...
In a Superior Court lawsuit filed by the Pico Neighborhood Association against the City of Santa Monica, Superior Court Judge Yvette M. Palazuelas has issued a Tentative ruling against the City. She is inclined to find that the City is in violation of the California Voter Rights Act, and the Equal Protection Clause of the California Constitution, in having Citywide representation rather than City Council districts. She ordered further briefing, and set another hearing for...
California's Pacific waters could be in peril if Trump's proposal to open up sensitive coastlines becomes a reality. Oceana's Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Sharpless, said, "Offshore drilling and oil spills threaten entire ecosystems." At last Saturday's "Offshore Oil Drilling's Threat to Our Coast," forum, presented by Malibu Township council, the panelists discussed the environmental and economic impact Trump's Adminstration's drilling plan could have on Southern...
A few weeks ago Edible Skinny was lucky enough to tour the wine wonders of Paso Robles. Now we've done California vino before with jaunts to Napa, Sonoma, Santa Barbara, and Temecula, but this was our first delving into the world of Paso. It was an uncharted wine getaway, the perfect excuse for Kat and Kelly to hop in the car and discover all that this growing wine region has to offer. Paso Robles is located approximately halfway between the cities of Los Angeles and San...
A week ago Edible Skinny was lucky enough to check out Astro Doughnuts and Fried Chicken while in hubbub of DTLA and they are Super (with a capital letter S) Fab (with a capital letter F)! Now Stop! I know that every Angeleno rolls their eyes at the idea of another sweet shop in LA; I mean, once Sprinkles premiered its Cupcake ATM we thought everything had been done... But Astro does some Darn Fine missing hole sweetmeats! And the originally from DC Astro, which opened its LA...
