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  • The Reality is Our Neighborhood Has Been Invaded by Drug Dealers and the Addicts They Service

    Arthur Jeon, Special to the Observer|Jan 1, 2024

    Thanks for sharing these videos, Santa Monica Coalition. This is my neighborhood. Council et al, Really watch these two videos and what these women are saying. Take whatever opinions you have about where the videos came from and simply absorb them. I did. Right behind my fury came a surprising and deep sadness. These women, with babies, just trying to live their lives at the local park. The addicts, allowed to disintegrate and die on the streets under the empty promises and failed policies of...

  • Association of Deputy District Attorneys Board Endorses Eric Siddall for District Attorney

    Association of Deputy District Attorneys|Dec 28, 2023

    The Board of Directors of the Association of Deputy District Attorneys ("ADDA") has adopted the recommendation of its Endorsement Committee to endorse Eric Siddall to be the next District Attorney of Los Angeles County. This endorsement is the product of an exhaustive, months-long, fact-based analysis of District Attorney candidates by the ADDA's Endorsement Committee, a process outlined in the Association's Endorsement Protocol. The Committee, which was composed of Deputy volunteers, received a...

  • Police Union Opposes BLM Lawsuit to End Traffic Stops on Suspected Stolen Vehicles

    Board of Directors, Los Angeles Police Protective League|Dec 28, 2023

    Los Angeles (CA) –Today, Black Lives Matter Los Angeles and other activist groups filed a lawsuit against the LAPD attempting to prohibit car stops of suspected stolen vehicles. The Los Angeles Police Protective League issued this statement in response: "If successful, the latest legal stunt by the police abolitionist group BLM-LA will serve no other purpose than to allow car thieves to get away with stealing more cars and place police officers in further danger as they attempt to investigate c...

  • Repealing Costa-Hawkins Vacancy Decontrol Will Hurt Renters - and Almost Everyone

    Jay Johnson, Special to the Observer|Dec 28, 2023

    The repeal of existing law (Costa Hawkins Act) and rent freeze effort by the Aids Foundation has been defeated twice before. Polling shows it will be defeated again. This initiative to freeze rents on vacant units is on the November '24 ballot. It is bad for RENTERS, bad for our city, bad for homeowners, bad for condo owners, bad for prospective tenants, bad for new construction, and bad for our apartment supply . Since vacancy decontrol/recontrol was fully implemented in 1999, 24 years ago,...

  • Councilmember Gleam Davis Proposes Building Housing On the Santa Monica Airport After it Closes in 2028

    Tricia Crane, Chair, Northeast Neighbors|Dec 28, 2023
    1

    Dear Northeast Neighbors and friends: Last night sparks flew as the City Council discussed the proposal of internationally renowned public park design firm Sasaki Associates to design a Great Park at Santa Monica Airport. City Staff presented and recommended a six-point Action plan for the agreement with Sasaki. Councilmember de la Torre was absent, but a discussion and vote ensued. Sasaki made an impressive presentation of its past projects converting airports to parks. Then Gleam Davis made a...

  • Wiener Whines About an Antisemitism He Helped Create

    Corva Corvax, A Logical Opinion|Dec 25, 2023

    December 14, 2023 - California State Senator Scott Wiener tweeted on X today his horror at hearing bystanders shout "Free Palestine" at him in Union Square at a Hanukkah celebration there. "Harassing Jews celebrating a holiday has nothing to do with the war & everything to do with antisemitism," he wrote. One wonders what planet Wiener has been living on. Does he still think those who oppose the Jewish State of Israel separate their feelings about Israel from those about Jews? Jewish university...

  • Santa Monica Voters React to Proposed Salary Increase for City Manager David White

    Alyssa Erdley, Observer Staff|Dec 25, 2023

    December 19, 2023 - In an email, John Alle of the Santa Monica Coalition, supplied comments from Santa Monica residents regarding the proposed ten percent increase in the salary of City Manager David White, and they are not in favor. The Santa Monica Coalition is a group of residents, property owners, and businesses that advocate restoration of safety, cleanliness, and prosperity to the city. The proposal to be considered at tonight's city council meeting is to raise White's salary from $ $365,9...

  • Raising Base Salary of Santa Monica City Manager- Urgent Questions

    Stan Epstein, Special to the Observer|Dec 25, 2023

    Email to City Manager David White and Lori Gentles Dear David and Lori. You have generally been highly responsive to inquiries from me, so I believe you will reply to this urgent email today. The issue of the increase in David's salary comes before Council only 6 days after it was announced in yesterday's Council meeting Agenda for Tuesday., so time is extremely of the essence. The public and media should know your thoughts now on an issue that might be significant( both on its own merits and...

  • A Convo About Santa Methica, 35,000 Feet Above Kentucky

    Jon Berg, Special to the Observer|Dec 21, 2023

    In Early November, I had an illuminating conversation about Santa Monica on American 2916 heading west from LaGuardia to Dallas/Ft. Worth. The middle seat on the Airbus was empty and the 60ish gentleman sitting in the aisle seat was well groomed and well dressed. Quiet at first, he began to chat somewhere over Kentucky. Introduced himself as Paul K., a lifetime New Yorker, proud of his humble southern Italian origins and subsequent success in the restaurant/food business. He three years ago...

  • A New Dawn in Santa Monica: Embracing Mayor Phil Brock's Vision for a Revitalized City

    Houman Hemmati, Special to the Observer|Dec 18, 2023

    As the sun rises over our beautiful Santa Monica beaches, marking the end of Mayor Gleam Davis's tenure and the beginning of Mayor Phil Brock's, there's a palpable sense of hope and anticipation in the air. Today, we stand at the threshold of a new era, an era where the voice of the residents reverberates through the corridors of City Hall, promising a future that aligns with the dreams and aspirations of those who call Santa Monica home. Mayor Phil Brock, a true son of Santa Monica, takes...

  • Gascón's Audacious Bid to Overturn Cop Killer's Conviction Foiled

    Kathleen Cady, Association of Deputy District Attorneys|Dec 18, 2023

    In the previous article, I brought to the public's attention a covert plan orchestrated by Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón aimed at securing the release of a convicted cop killer and prominent figure within the Mexican Mafia from state prison.[Previous article can be found at https://www.smobserved.com/story/2023/12/04/opinion/gascns-secret-scheme-to-release-a-convicted-cop-killer-and-mexican-mafia-shot-caller/7959.html] Earlier this week, in response to tenacious reporting that...

  • Ivy League University Presidents: If Hateful Anti-Semitic Free Speech Must be Countered with More Free Speech, Where is the Latter?

    Corva Corvax, A Logical Opinion|Dec 13, 2023
    2

    December 7, 2023 - At a congressional hearing before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on Tuesday, the presidents of three Ivy League universities declined to admit that calls for genocide against Jews violated their policies against bullying and harassment. The presidents of Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology all called on the primacy of free speech in a university setting and stated that only when speech was "directed and severe...

  • Harvard President Claudine Gay Has Published Not One Book, And Yet She Leads Our Most Prestigious University. How Did That Happen?

    Bill Ackman and Geoffrey Miller, Twitter|Dec 13, 2023
    3

    I learned from someone with first person knowledge of the @Harvard president search that the committee would not consider a candidate who did not meet the DEI office's criteria. The same was likely true for other elite universities doing searches at the same time, creating an even more limited universe of DEI-eligible presidential candidates. Shrinking the pool of candidates based on required race, gender, and/or sexual orientation criteria is not the right approach to identifying the best...

  • Gascón's Secret Scheme to Release a Convicted Cop Killer and Mexican Mafia Shot Caller

    Kathleen Cady, Association of Deputy District Attorneys|Dec 4, 2023

    On May 29, 1979, Jesse Gonzales murdered Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff Jack Williams and left William's two daughters -- then 11 and 12 -- without a father. Those daughters have missed their dad every day for 44 years. But now Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón and a former public defender he brought on to gut the county's most heinous and serious murder convictions are just days away from letting Gonzales out of state prison. And they are trying to do it in secret. We...

  • Mysteriously, MIT Thinks It Can Stop Campus Antisemitism Without Addressing Whether it's Wrong to Say "Intifada Revolution" and "From the River to the Sea"

    Alyssa Erdley, News with Attitude|Nov 30, 2023
    1

    November 15, 2023 - The President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sally Kornbluth, released a public statement to the community, including parents of students and alumni, that attempted - and pathetically failed - to address recent events on campus that have made national headlines and TV and Internet news reports. In her cover email letter, she claimed she was going to include a written update that "clears up some false rumors and answers some common questions about what...

  • Gaza War Reporting by the New York Times "The Daily," Reveals a Bias in Favor of Hamas and Against Israel.

    Phil Isaac, Letter to the Editor|Nov 27, 2023

    Today I listened to Patrick Kingsley's report on his visit to Gaza on the NY Times " The Daily". The reporting showed a clear double standard by Kingsley in favor of Hamas. Why? Kingsley and the NYT accept facts and figures reported by Hamas as "true" while demanding a higher level of proof from Israel. This is now a systemic tool of NYT reporting. When shown the entrance to a deep and well constructed tunnel entrance, right next to Shifa Hospital, Kingsley said that he couldn't verify that it...

  • The Story of Barbara Phillips: A Potentially Innocent Woman with 26 Years Behind Bars

    Amber S. Jackson, Special to the Observer from Chino Institute for Women|Nov 20, 2023
    1

    UPDATED: to include Barbara Phillips's contact information. Behold, this is the story of Barbara Phillips. We call her "Ms. Bobbie" here on the prison women's prison yard. Ms. Bobbie is here with an LWOP sentence with 26 years down. As California courts implement new resentencing laws, male prisoners regularly get relief from the courts and ultimately leave BEFORE female prisoners. Younger prisoners also get relief before older ones. Now, honestly, you should know that I don't care about either...

  • Your Loan is Between You and Your Bank

    Glenn Mollette|Nov 17, 2023

    November 9 - Many years ago I took out a second mortgage on my home. The house had grown in value and had at least $30,000 of equity. At that time, I had multiple reasons. The second mortgage added a second monthly payment to my already very tight budget. I made both the original payment and the second mortgage payment for a couple years until I was able to refinance both loans into a ten-year fixed interest rate loan. Fortunately, I was able to pay off the ten-year loan in about six years. Let...

  • Santa Monica Police Reform Commission Votes to Disallow Police Pretextual Stops Citing Fears of Racism

    Arthur Jeon, Special to the Observer|Nov 13, 2023

    Letter to the editor: I am appalled by the City's "Police Reform Commission" that voted 6-4 against allowing our police to make pretextual stops because they think the Santa Monica police are making traffic stops based on race. You have gamed the statistics and revealed yourselves as out of touch with reality. This will soon come up as a vote by the city council. Residents will be watching. Because yet again Santa Monica, held hostage by a tiny group of people with an anti-police ideology, is...

  • UC Ethnic Studies Faculty Justify Hamas' Brutality in Israel

    Oct 31, 2023

    SANTA CRUZ, CALIFORNIA, Oct. 25 – After learning of an appalling letter sent from the University of California Ethnic Studies Faculty Council that justifies Hamas' brutal murder, mutilation, beheading and burning alive of women, children, babies, the elderly, the disabled and others, 115 organizations today demanded that the University of California (UC) reject a proposal for a UC ethnic studies admissions requirement. The faculty who wrote this letter are the same faculty tasked with d...

  • Santa Monica is Able to Hire Police Officers After Ending Vaccine Mandate

    Adnan Safadi, Special to Observer|Oct 31, 2023

    Santa Monica's Police Department recently hired a bunch of new sworn officers. Why now? Why didn't Santa Monica's police department hire a bunch of new sworn officers in December of 2021? Well, because the City Of Santa Monica was mandating an experimental MRNA treatment for new police recruits. The experimental MRNA treatment causes heart attacks in some people. So for the entire term of the vaccine mandates Santa Monica has had an impossible time hiring new sworn officers. Santa Monica was...

  • Columbia Professor Shai Davidai Pleads with University to Protect Jewish Students by "Taking a Clear Stand Against Murder."

    Shai Davidai, Columbia University NYC|Oct 28, 2023

    I am an assistant professor at Columbia Business School. I am a father, a husband, an uncle, and a son. I am a forty-year-old man, and last week I found myself crying in front of a group of complete strangers. In a video that has since gone viral, I stood on Columbia University's main campus and pleaded with my employer to protect me and help me protect the thousands of Jewish students whose lives and safety have been entrusted to us by worried parents all across the United States. I pleaded...

  • Cash Bail Will Help Santa Monica's Residents and Business Owners

    Adnan Safadi, Special to the Observer|Oct 28, 2023

    Last Tuesday, Santa Monica City Council Woman Caroline Torosis delivered a scripted speech about cash bail. She said that she has "Seen first hand" how cash bail "destroys families." No she hasn't. She's reading from a script she didn't write. Caroline Torosis said that cash bail "criminalizes poverty." No it doesn't. It criminalizes criminals. Caroline Torosis said that cash bail resulted in "either below or similar to historical average" failure to appear in court. That is lawyer speak for...

  • Israel Backs Down: IDF Ground Invasion of Gaza to Remove Hamas is No Longer Imminent or Likely

    Stan Greene, Observer Staff Writer|Oct 26, 2023

    For those waiting for the show, you're about to be disappointed. US President Joseph R. Biden, in his trip to appears to have convinced Benjamin Netanyahu, to punt. No Gaza invasion despite the buildup of tanks and troops. "Let's be clear: President Biden and his administration are the only things holding Netanyahu back from absolutely leveling Gaza," said one armchair analyst on Twitter. "While Biden has rightly stood firm with Israel, he has also called for restraint, reflection, and everyone...

  • The Election of Mayors and City Councils who side with criminals, homeless, outsiders, unions, over taxpayers is Killing California

    Houman Hemmatti MD PhD, Special to the Observer|Oct 26, 2023

    Steve Hilton wonders how California has gone so far in the wrong direction. "California has gone from the pinnacle of the American Dream to the place that everyone can't wait to leave. How did that happen in a matter of decades?" he writes. Here's my brief take: 1. Election of Newsom, an empty shell of a handsome spokesman, who turned California into a piggy bank and playground for the special interests who own/control him (see below). 2. Election of Soros-backed DAs (Gascon, Boudin, others)...

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