Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 428
September 6, 2023 - The Los Angeles County Health Department claims they have no idea how deadly Covid-19 is any more. "We are unable to calculate the case fatality rate for COVID-19 using our disease surveillance data because many cases are not reported to Public Health," they wrote in response to a media query. Health officials say that, because of home testing kits, they have no idea how many people actually have had Covid and therefore do not have an accurate denominator to use in order to...
September 7, 2023 - Artist Sandra Frankel looks at California, and paints it, in her own, unique way, with bold colors and passionate brushstrokes. Raised in what she describes as a "rundown beach house" in Malibu, she believes art was something intrinsic to her soul. By age three, she'd already declared she would become an artist. Today, Frankel has an intaglio print, "Players in the Game," in the permanent collection of the Tweed Museum in Duluth, Minnesota. Other paintings of hers hang in...
August 18, 2023 - The County Health Department, which oversees the distribution of free needles to the homeless drug-addicted, has advice regarding an apparent increase in transmission of the Covid-19 virus, including a recommendation to get the new Covid-19 booster that is to be considered for approval next month. The health department admits that hospitalizations due to Covid are at near-record lows but cautions that individuals over the age of 80 are five times more likely to be hospitalized...
August 10, 2023 - A new sign warning tourists and shoppers on the Santa Monica Promenade was erected today by the Santa Monica Coalition, a group of property and business owners dedicated to restoring law and order to the troubled city. "Santa Methica is Not Safe," reads the sign, pointing out the dominant drug of choice among the near-thousand homeless individuals who inhabit the public and some private spaces in the city. "Our city manager Supports the Needle & Meth Pipe Distribution Program...
August 9, 2023 - "Justice Reform" Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon announced yesterday a ten-year prison sentence for rap artist Tory Lanez for shooting another musical artist, Megan Thee Stallion in a 2020 incident in the Hollywood Hills. Tory Lanez's legal name is Daystar Peterson and Megan Thee Stallion's legal name is Megan Pete. Gascon has advanced a soft-on-criminal approach since taking office in December 2020. His theory is that long prison sentences do not stop...
August 9, 2023 - The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health appears to have given up on getting addicted residents off of drugs. In a recent press release warning of the potential presence of the veterinary anesthetic xylazine in illicit drugs, the Department included one sentence in a 700-word press release that advised people not to use illicit drugs. The next six paragraphs described ways to "minimize the risk." Nowhere in the press release did the Department list phone numbers, websi...
The man accused of stabbing to death another man outside a Santa Monica beach public restroom has a long history of arrests beginning about two years ago. Juan Evarastico Bahena, 48, identified by the Santa Monica Police Department as homeless, is accused of stabbing and killing a 27-year-old male in the breezeway next to the men's restrooms shortly after 2 pm on Monday in the 2000 block of the beach. According the the SMPD presse release, "Witnesses told officers that they heard an argument...
July 25, 2023 - The Santa Monica Police Department has confirmed the details of an email circulating regarding a 66-year-old man getting beaten by a group of six people on scooters in Palisades Park. According to Myesha Morrison of the SMPD, officers were called to the 800 block of Palisades Park on Friday night around 9:20 pm. A large group of people on scooters drove by a 66-year-old man who was approaching his vehicle. When one of the scooters rode over the man's foot, he reportedly pushed...
June 2, 2023 - According to Fox News, a report shows that Los Angeles County is handing out free pipes that can be used to smoke crack cocaine, methamphetamine and other opioids. Included in the kit with the pipes are also clean needs and "supplies" to avoid or reverse a drug overdose. Between 2020 and 2021, there were 1,500 homeless individuals who died of drug overdoses. More than half of them tested positive for having fentanyl in their systems. In recent years, the county has grown their...
June 6, 2023 - On Friday afternoon, three members of the Santa Monica Coalition and one journalist observed Los Angeles County-contracted workers hand out hypodermic needles, synthetic meth, and other alleged health aids to whoever was in the public park, including offering the kits to non-drug users who happened to be sitting in Reed Park. The Santa Monica Coalition, a group of local business owners and leaders who are concerned about humanitarian, public safety, and crime issues, decided on...
May 28, 2023 - At a meeting with member of the Santa Monica Coalition, Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer defended her program to distribute needles to drug addicts in public places in Santa Monica even as she was unable to answer questions about the program's effectiveness or safety. The Santa Monica Coalition is a group of local business owners and leaders who are concerned about the humanitarian, public safety, and crime issues present in the city. Armed with a list of...
May 2, 2023 - The Santa Monica Coalition released a YouTube video this week outlining four city-owned properties that could be used for what they term "short and near term safe sleeping sites" for the over 800 homeless last counted on the city's streets. An email sent out with the video claims that there are no overnight shelters in Santa Monica or within an hour's drive that will accept the homeless for refuge between 5 pm and 8 am. "So they remain on our streets, in our parks and in our...
April 26, 2023 - Santa Monica Auctions, a longtime art business in Santa Monica, will be holding a two-day auction which will include the original canvas artwork for the iconic “Hope” poster of Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign for president. Two later versions of the image were created by Los Angeles artist Shepard Fairey, but that to be auctioned is the sole original work of art for the campaign poster. Of the later versions, one is in the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery...
April 26, 2023 - A petition demanding change to the altered nature of 17th Street between Pico and Wilshire has garnered 637 signatures in a few day and received the attention of Santa Monica City Councilmember Phil Brock. Brock the city's Director of Transportation have agreed to meet with those concerned about 17th Street on Thursday, April 27, at 5:30 pm at the corner of 17th Street and Broadway. The petition is in reaction to the city installing concrete islands to separate bicyclists from...
April 21, 2023 - Officers of the Santa Monica Police Department reportedly declined to help a young woman who was threatened by an apparently homeless man while she was taking a tennis lesson at Reed Park. In an email sent by the girl's mother to the Santa Monica Tennis Collective, she described a man who approached the court fence and screamed obscenities at the girl. He reportedly told her to "get the fuck out of [his] park" and added, "don't think I won't rape you." He then moved to the door...
April 19, 2023 - A Ninth Circuit United States Court of Appeal in San Francisco overturned the city of Berkeley's ban on installing gas piping in new construction. Santa Monica and roughly 70 other California cities have instituted similar bans. The federal court's ruling applies to the entire area within its jurisdiction, which includes all of California and other Western states. Santa Monica will have to abide by the ruling unless it is appealed to a higher court. Last fall, Santa Monica...
April 12, 2023 - Citing out-of-touch leadership and mismanagement of funds, 54 business and property owners on the Third Street Promenade have hired an attorney to create their own business district, apart from Downtown Santa Monica Inc, with no city government participation. Currently, DTSM operates the downtown area, including the Third Street Promenade and from Second Street to Lincoln Boulevard and the 10 Freeway. They are to maintain the area, keep it secure, and institute programs and...
March 24, 2023 - The City Council of Los Angeles is one vote away from passing a law to create penalties of 6 months in jail or $1,000 in fines for each catalytic converter theft. A person would be assumed to be in possession of the stolen auto part if they can not prove ownership. The proposal, authored by Councilmember John Lee passed 8-4 but must return to the council for a final reading on April 11 before it can be made into law. Current law requires the government to prove the converter...
March 9, 2023 - In an email to the Library Board, Santa Monica business and property owner John Alle included dozens of sobering photos and video clips illustrating the unsafe and unclean conditions at the main library and downtown generally. "GOOD GUARD SECURITY is the new security guard firm the City hired to replace ALLIED UNIVERSAL SECURITY. Good Guard Security is doing a lousy job, worse than Allied Universal Security," Alle wrote. Alle had attended the Library Board's meeting the previous...
February 2, 2023 - In a 32-page report dated January 26, 2023, the Affordable Homeownership Subcommittee of Santa Monica's Housing Commission outlined the compelling reasons the city should make urgent changes to prioritize home ownership rather than affordable renting. Affordable homeownership, rarely available in Santa Monica, reads the report, "uplifts those on lower incomes, enhances stability and multigenerational wealth and is a weapon against discrimination." The report points out that a...
February 2, 2023 - A suspect in an armed robbery that occurred in the 200 block of Broadway in downtown Santa Monica was arrested when he showed up in court for an unrelated case. The armed robbery occurred at 4:35 pm on September 25, 2022. The victim told responding Santa Monica Police officers that two males had pointed handguns at him and robbed him of his Rolex watch. The suspects were seen fleeing in an awaiting vehicle. After reviewing the evidence, SMPD's Robbery Homicide Division...
January 25, 2023 - Citing a budget that is heavy on salaries and failed programs, incompetent leadership, and the economically and physically depressed state of the Third Street Promenade, property owner and business leader John Alle is calling for the disbanding of Downtown Santa Monica Inc (DTSM). DTSM is a "private" non-profit organization that is supposed to work with the City government to manage services and operations in downtown Santa Monica. The 13-member board of DTSM is made up of 6...
January 19, 2023 - Amazon announced in an email yesterday that they are ceasing the Amazon Smile program that donates 0.5% of the purchase price of qualifying products to a charity of the consumer's choice. The program required customers to choose a qualifying charity and then sign in with their regular Amazon password on the Smile.Amazon.com site. The shopping experience was identical to Amazon.com. Amazon will officially end the program on February 20, 2023. Over a million 501(c)...
January 19, 2023 - The luxury beachfront hotel, Loews Santa Monica Beach, has announced it is "temporarily" suspending operations effective March 4. The 320 workers at the hotel will be laid off. The hotel, which opened in 1989, replaced an earlier low-profile motel, sits cater-corner to Tongva Park and two blocks from the Santa Monica Pier. Both of these locations have been plagued by crime and violent incidents over the past few years. For example, in October, 2018, a homeless man was...
December 21, 2022 - In September, health officials across the United States began administering and encouraging a "bivalent booster" shot for Covid-19 that was supposed to protect against both the older variants of the virus and also against the newer BA.4 and BA.5 variants of Omicron that had become prevalent over the summer. Anyone over age 12 who had not had a booster shot within two months was eligible to receive this new injection. Los Angeles County Health Department data showed that...
