LOS ANGELES — On Nov. 8, members of United Food and Commercial Workers or UFCW Locals 5, 135, 324, 648, 770, 1167, 1428 and 1442 voted to ratify a new three-year contract with CVS Pharmacy. The agreement was reached after months of negotiations, a three-day ULP strike, and active participation from thousands of California pharmacists, pharmacy clerks, and technicians.
The eight UFCW Locals released the following statement:
“Today, by ratifying this contract, CVS workers have secured significant wage increases for all workers, more secure staffing levels, and a more affordable healthcare plan for members who were struggling with the high cost of the company’s health plan. After countless hours at the bargaining table and a strategic strike in seven Southern California pharmacies protesting the company’s illegal actions, the hard-working members of UFCW stood together for their families and each other and secured a strong contract. This contract is a concrete and direct result of the tireless work of the member-led bargaining committee. Together, our members are fighting for a more promising future, and this contract will help to achieve that goal.”
Background
Key provisions of the agreement include:
Wage increases for all workers each year of the contract. Initial increases will be retroactive to July 7, 2024.
New longevity rates at 10 and 15 years resulting in wage increases of close to 20% over three years.
Elimination of two-tier wage scale for store associates and associate Rx classifications.
Increased healthcare bonus for employees who were struggling with the high cost of the company plan.
Protection of health benefits for those employees who are in the union-managed health plan.
This contract will go into effect immediately for over 7,000 essential pharmacy workers in CVS locations across California.
Groundhog Day is one of the more memorable comedies of the 1990s partly because of its novel premise: nasty weatherman Phil Connor is forced to relive the same February 2 ad infinitum until finally he does it right (ostensibly — we’re left in the dark about how/why the loop starts/ends). But it’s also partly because of Bill Murray, and because (as the great James L. Brooks taught us) adding a dash of pathos really flavors the laughs.
Considering that every goddamn thing has been turned into a musical since its release, Groundhog Day was bound to get a turn, even though no less an authority on the musical form than Stephen Sondheim balked at the idea. “It cannot be improved,” he said in 2008. “It’s perfect the way it is.”
Nonetheless, in 2016 Tim Minchin (music/lyrics) and Danny Rubin (book) took a shot. And now, courtesy of Long Beach Landmark Theatre Company, Groundhog Day: The Musical makes its SoCal debut. And because improvement isn’t necessarily the point (sorry, Stephen), despite being devoid of even a single tune you’ll walk away humming, it’s a thoroughly satisfying — even touching — lark.
Part of that success is on the page. Because Rubin co-wrote the original Groundhog Day screenplay with director Harold Ramis, he understands that yuks aren’t enough if you want to make an impact. Thus, he and Minchin lean into the wistful right from the start and regularly reprise the idea that eventually things will get better. “Tomorrow, there will be sun / But if not tomorrow, perhaps the day after.”
Well, not everything. Although there’s a ton of hokey jokey stuff from the film you’ve long forgotten, I’ll bet you remember Phil Connors trying to save the old homeless man from dying on that February 2, again and again, trying but never succeeding. It’s a poignant idea, but couple it with one of the musical’s best songs (“Night Will Come”), and wow.
This isn’t to imply that Rubin & Minchin go short on yuks, but because on this front the script was bound to fall short of the screenplay (and let’s face it, almost nobody buying a ticket won’t know the film), the show would fall flat if Long Beach Landmark Theatre Company weren’t able to layer in some funny that’s all theirs.
The highlight here is a long sequence near the end of Act 1 starting with “Nobody Cares”, where Phil (Jay Dysart) laments his stuckness to a pair of drunks (Joey Krumbein and Charlie Carlos). Although the conceit of expanding their film roles by giving them a song that fleshes out their backstory is clever in and of itself, the real tickle is getting this tandem show-stopper from a pair of actors we thought were only bit players.
“Nobody Cares” is so good that you’d think there’s no way to keep the momentum, but the ensuing stick-puppet car chase (part and parcel of the mise en scène’s winsome DIY aesthetic) does the job.
Then comes “Strut (Philandering)”, where Phil finds the loop has opened doors for his more ignoble instincts. This may be where director/choreographer Megan O’Toole leaves her most indelible mark. Needless to say, initially establishing Phil’s loop is a relatively simple matter of having everyone around him repeat their lines and blocking verbatim. But once Phil’s attitude changes, O’Toole has everyone around him adapt their repetition as a sort of living objective correlative. Wonderful stuff.
O’Toole is lucky to helm a big cast where even those in the smallest roles fulfill their duties with alacrity. For example, maybe opening night’s biggest laugh was generated by Doug Emslie mugging for a trice before delivering a particular line for the third or fourth time, a wink at the audience showing the actor’s (as opposed to the character’s) consciousness of being stuck in a loop. Hilarious.
Although this is a team win, ya gotta have a strong Phil, and Jay Dysart might’ve won the part on merit even if he weren’t the producer. Especially admirable is his stamina, as from curtain to curtain he brings total energy to whatever the moment requires — comedy, humanity, singing. It’s a task made all the more demanding by the fact that O’Toole’s blocking has Dysart in almost perpetual motion, including during a droll bit of misdirection where he seems to be everywhere at once.
While Minchin’s music may be the least of Groundhog Day: The Musical’s charms, the fact that the most tuneful songs (“Hope”, “Night Will Come”) come after intermission helps us not mind. And while this is not a cast full of technically strong vocalists, most of this material would probably sound odd if it weren’t character-sung. Although there were several mic problems opening night, overall the sound was as about as good as you could hope for a show in a 110-year-old church with an 11-member band (ably led by Curtis Heard) playing their hearts out in the basement.
That above-mentioned church, First Congregational, is indeed a Long Beach landmark (in addition to being a “liberal, progressive” haven “welcoming of all” and “passionately committed to social justice,” God bless ‘em) and a helluva unique place to see a show. Not that that matters if the show sucks. But Groundhog Day: The Musical doesn’t. In fact, it’s far more than mere nostalgia trip. If you can’t find a lot to like here, then you’re doing it wrong.
Groundhog Day: The Musical at Long Beach Landmark Theatre Company
Times: Fri–Sat 7:30pm, Sun 7pm The show runs through November 17. Cost: $35–$65 Details: (562) 856-1999,lblandmark.org Venue: First Congregational Church of Long Beach (241 Cedar Ave., Long Beach)
Understood. Common sense, facts and character no longer matter. Lies, hate, greed and money rule the day. Thanks in part to RFK and Musk.
Personally, I’m relieved that the choice has been made. I no longer have to worry about who will win. Now I have to deal with my own emotional and empathetic feelings about what might happen next.
Just glad I’m not pregnant or an immigrant but sad for America as a country.
Richard Pawlowski, Depoe Bay, OR.
CHC Chair Barragán Condemns Hateful Rhetoric Against Puerto Rico, Latinos and Migrants by Trump Allies
“Hateful rhetoric has real-world consequences. When political leaders, influencers, and those with a large social platform choose language that dehumanizes communities, families get hurt, and hate crimes rise.
The shameful rhetoric displayed by Donald Trump and his allies at Madison Square Garden—where Puerto Ricans, migrants, and Democratic leaders were openly vilified—is not only divisive but dangerous. Labeling Puerto Rico ‘a floating island of garbage’ in a city home to the largest Puerto Rican community on the mainland is a direct attack on countless hard working Americans. Immigrants were also targeted and subjected to baseless attacks that undermine their dignity and invaluable contributions. This type of language emboldens prejudice, encourages violence, and undermines the values of unity and respect that our country is built on. It’s deeply troubling to see Republican leaders celebrate this rhetoric instead of promoting unity and truth.
Puerto Ricans have made invaluable contributions to this country, serving in our military, leading in government, and excelling in sports, the arts, and sciences. From distinguished public servants who sit on the Supreme Court to renowned athletes and artists who have inspired millions, the Puerto Rican community continues to shape and elevate America.
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus stands firmly with those who were targeted this past weekend, including our Puerto Rican familia and all immigrant communities, and calls for accountability to end this cycle of harmful, hateful lies.
Hahn Opposes County Plan to Abandon Civic Center
Colleagues, as you are aware, a yes vote on this item authorizes the purchase of the Gas Company Tower. But we also must go into this clear-eyed that a yes vote will also be the start of a ripple effect that we may not be able to undo.
Last month, when a similar item appeared on the agenda, I heard from some of my colleagues that you were confused about the item and thought or assumed it was simply to post the desire of the County to purchase a building.
But this vote sets the stage for the demise of the Hall of Administration. It is the first phase of a plan to move County employees out and abandon this building and the Civic Center. I’m not sure the public knows this. I’m not sure if employees who work in this building know this or not because this has all been done behind closed doors.
What is laid out today in this board letter is a plan to take $66 million of funding previously set aside for investments in this Hall of Administration – for the seismic retrofit, for the renovation of the 7th floor, for the replacement of the electrical system, and for other necessary work. So once that money is transferred for the purchase of this skyscraper – there is no plan to replenish those funds. There will be no pathway forward for keeping this Hall of Administration open and keeping the County home in the Civic Center.
Our public buildings have meaning, not just to me, but to our employees who call these buildings home, and to the people who come visit this building to find justice, a common purpose, and most of all, unity, in our diverse County.
I want to read a part of an email I received from a concerned resident and former staffer for another Supervisor:
“The Hall of Administration is part of a Civic Center that defines Los Angeles. The Civic Center is exactly what its name describes: a composition of buildings and public spaces, with City Hall at one end and the Department of Water and Power at the other, both landmark structures, and Gloria Molina Park in the middle. It is a tangible, physical expression of our desire for unity as a community, of our history and our aspirations for the future. It is a symbol of our democracy. It is the gathering place where ‘democracy happens.’”
I went by the proposed building the other day and I felt nothing. It is a soul-less building in the middle of a bunch of tall buildings. That isn’t what County Government should look like. I don’t think we need to be in a skyscraper, we need to be near the people.
Gloria Molina Grand Park is exactly where our seat of government should remain. How many times have you strolled out in the park with employees looking at the fountain, eating together, celebrating.
This building, the Hall of Administration, was designed by renowned Black architect Paul Williams. Many of his buildings have historic designation. His work is appreciated around the world and the homes he designed are sought after. We should recognize the gem we have here and we should not take it for granted and throw away our history for a short-term financial win.
It started out as a real estate transaction. But it has turned into the beginning of the demise of this building. And by the way there have been previous attempts to destroy our civic buildings. There was an idea to destroy City Hall at one point but higher minds prevailed, the money was raised, and City Hall was saved.
I also want to point out that this plan before us has not gone through the typical cluster process that is to be expected for board letters. Some of our staff were briefed, but no member of the public was made aware of this until the October 8th Board Meeting. In all my years as an elected official, this is the most closed-door, off the record plan to come into fruition that I have witnessed.
I just want everyone to know what we are voting for. The money being used for this purchase are being stolen from funds that were meant for this Hall of Administration. We are robbing Peter to pay Paul. It will start a domino effect that will lead to the demise of this building and something we may not be able to undo.
In 2024, downtown San Pedro had one gallery close in September, the Menduiña Schneider Gallery or MS Gallery, run for nearly 10 years by husband and wife team Alejandra Menduiña and Jorge Schneider. It was a sad loss to the longstanding arts district, which has been designated as one of 14 California Cultural Districts. But this November, San Pedro welcomes the first new gallery to open after many years. ‘solo.’ and Peter Scherrer present an inaugural exhibition featuring paintings by Nancy Crawford. Curated by artist Ron Linden, Nancy Crawford at solo. will begin with an artist’s reception on Nov. 17 and will run through Jan. 12.
Artist, curator Ron Linden called Nancy Crawford a painter of moods and atmospheres; of seas and skies occasionally punctuated by isolated, dream-like, solitary figures. “Her work invites the viewer to enter a near-cinematic space, a space of anticipation or longing, an in-between space ripe with possibility.”
For her part, Crawford describes her process, saying that she begins each subject matter with a series of paintings, an exploration of light and color.
“I am never sure where the journey will take me. I try to leave room for the viewer to enter this world and share my excursion.”
Crawford attended San Jose State University, Chouinard Art Institute, and the Art Center College of Design. Her work has been exhibited in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and Atlanta.
Gallery owner Peter Scherrer said the name “solo.” is a nod to the gallery showing a solo show every two months. Scherrer looks forward to having six shows a year, mainly from local artists who he admires. solo. may also include a few people from Los Angeles.
“We have all these artists and talent here and a lot of them just do their work, but don’t really promote it,” said Scherrer, who himself is an artist and graphic designer.
Scherrer is trying to make it worthwhile — and to work — for the artists. This opening exhibition of Crawford’s works is a good example of what he’d like to show. It renders the look of a serious gallery, “that the art is important, not a ton of pieces,” he said. “I deliberately wanted Ron to curate the first show here and I wanted to have someone for the first show [to be] from this building [of studios]. And Ron, for me, is sort of the ‘Don’ of all the artists.”
Over time he hopes for people to feel like he is doing something important here, and that they will also come from farther away. He never intended to have a gallery. but when the space opened up, he said he was going to try it.
The owner, Robin Hinchliffe, treats this building as a gift to the arts district in part by keeping the rent reasonable, Scheerer noted. He wants to support this gallery for the arts district.
“The talent is here, San Pedro has great artists,” Scherrer said. “I feel this place has the potential to be an arts destination where people want to come to see different artists and galleries. Seventh Street could be like Gallery Row.”
Nancy Crawford has exhibited in Los Angeles, West Hollywood, Hollywood, Pasadena, Santa Barbara, San Francisco, Chicago and Atlanta. Sheexplained that Scheerer told her he was interested in getting an artist from the building that the gallery is housed in for the first show.
Nancy Crawford in her studio. Photo by Guillame Zuili
“It was First Thursday (the night of San Pedro’s monthly ArtWalk) and he said he was going to do this gallery,” said Crawford. “He asked me if I’d do a show. I said, ‘Sure.’”
Crawford has lived and worked in San Pedro for 20 years, about 10 years in her current studio, and before that, she had a studio right across 7th Street for 10 years. Her arrival coincided with the nascent San Pedro arts district. She echoed Scheerer’s comments about Hinchcliffe regarding the gallery building, but Crawford also noted that the artist was instrumental in starting the First Thursday ArtWalk.
“I moved here before there was an arts district,” she said. “People opened their studios but it was really casual and friendly and more informal.”
The Works
When asked how she would describe her works, Crawford discussed their process of evolution.
“It’s like you start something and you think you know what it is, and sometimes that’s what happens,” she said. “Other times, it kind of gets a life of its own and becomes something else.
Like, if I have any commission, it’s a job. I’m still painting, using the same tools, but it’s a job. When you’re painting or doing music or writing or anything creative for yourself,it can take apath of its own and that’s the part of it that I like. But it’s sometimes hard to get to that place. And it’s not always that way and, you know, you have to make a living.”
The television and film industries have bought or rented many of Crawford’s pieces. But lately, she said, the film industry seems to have slowed down and many production companies have moved out of town.
“I feel like I’ve been fortunate that I’ve been able to make a living from painting,” she said.
Crawford said, quite humbly, that most of her recent work is “pleasant,” including the pieces in this show. But it used to be much edgier. She described one of those (untitled) edgier pieces in the show as one of her better pieces. In part, we see a ghost-like woman lying supine on a bench. The faceless figure is distinctive for its ethereal form and shroud draped over her body. Both are soft and pink and appear to be dripping like dissipating paint. It’s beautifully peaceful and softly eerie.
“I like that painting,” Crawford said. “I won’t say that about everyone. But I think that there’s some mystery or something to it.
“Painting can be really meditative,” Crawford said. “You’re spending a lot of time alone, so you’re conversing but not verbally. But it takes on a life of its own somehow and then you want to get back there. If you get interrupted, it’s difficult to get back to that space. And for me, it’s easiest if I listen to a piece of music … repetitively because that helps you get back there, if you do. Sometimes you just never do. Sometimes you’re just executing something. And sometimes it has meaning.”
Crawford appreciates different kinds of music, especially Glenn Gould, a pianist who often plays Johann Sebastian Bach. Usually, when she starts a painting, it helps her go back to that state.
A few of the paintings in this show are structures or portions of them. Crawford said she enjoys juxtaposing elements or pieces within them. In Windows I & II,located on the gallery’s back wall, Crawford’s blend of brown, black, and tan creates mysterious shadows with an industrial feel to it. Boxed sections are contrasted by small silhouette figures within them (one in an overcoat) walking through each window-pane rectangle as if inspecting the interiors; mystery men surveilling.
“It’s not a surprise, but I don’t know how to describe it,” she said of the figures. “It just seemed like a good idea at the time. I mean, you’re composing something and you want it to work. It’s like windows in an old loft or industrial building. But without the figures, it wouldn’t be as interesting.”
In another piece, Highlands, Crawford examined it and said she was thinking of the Chinese landscapes where the perspective is different. It’s one that incorporates shifting perspectives with multiple planes of view. She said it’s not like Western art — with a fixed perspective — as she held her arms out in front of her torso. Rather, she said, “It’s like this,” as her arms raised up as if hovering over a scene.
“I just do things, you know, when you’re thinking about it, you just do it,” Crawford said. “Then later, you read it or look at it and become more reflective. [First]I put some color. I usually start out with Prussian blue and then see [what comes to mind] then I go from there, adding and subtracting.”
“Midnight” by Crawford. Photo by David Winthrop Hanson.
Also on view is Midnight, Crawford’s painting of the Manzanar relocation camp (one of the American concentration camps, where more than 120,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II from 1942 to 1945). The location is now a state park in Owens Valley. Crawford’s serene scene depicts a large deep blue sky horizon and a single barrack structure casting shadow on soft white terra firma, bleeding into a blue that reflects its sky. One border of the painting appears foggy and obscure, like a vignette.
“My family all went there,” she said. “And so [the painting] is the feeling when I used to go there before they made it a state park. It takes you to a different place. But it’s like there’s a sadness there, or there used to be. And it was windy. There’s not much in that painting, but it’s not empty either. I don’t like to do things that are really obvious.”
As for this show, Crawford said, “I think Peter’s done a fabulous job. I’m amazed at what he does, really. And he’s still so nice.”
When asked what inspires her, the artist said, “Anything.” Many of her paintings include common themes of mystery and the solitary. Dreamlike indeed, Crawford paintings will draw you in, offering a melange of possibilities. A very talented painter, Nancy Crawford’s works, including her use of color, have a lot to say and many places to take her viewers. Join the discussion at solo. on Nov. 17.
The gallery is open Saturday and Sunday afternoons or by appointment.
Time: 3 to 7 p.m., Nov. 17
Details: For additional information call 310-913-5492 (Peter Scherrer) or 310-600-4873 (Ron Linden); www.solosanpedro.com
“I’m not running against Kamala, I’m running against an evil Democrat system. These are evil people.”
— Donald Trump
“Unlike Donald Trump, I don’t believe that people who disagree with me are the enemy, who — he wants to put them in jail. I’ll give them a seat at the table.”
— Kamala Harris
Traditionally, the last two weeks of a campaign see newspapers across the country endorse candidates for president as part of the process of clarifying the choices before the American people.
But this time, two leading news institutions — the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post — abdicated their roles. Social media influencers stepped up to fill the gap. But it wasn’t enough to prevent Trump from returning to the White House.
Most notably, they reminded voters of Trump’s toxic racism and malign neglect of Puerto Rico — blocking $20 billion in emergency relief after Hurricane Maria — and of his violent misogyny, revealed in the Access Hollywood tape, where he bragged about casually sexually assaulting women. Puerto Ricans are a key voting block in several battleground states — most notably Pennsylvania — while many, if not most first-time voters have never heard the tape, and are incredulous that Trump could be elected in 2016 after it was released. Both were painful typical examples of issues the media has either forgotten or ignored.
It’s the purpose of journalism to make the world legible, to make issues and choices clear, so the people collectively can decide what course of action to take. While the Times and the Post betrayed that purpose, social media influencers stepped up to fulfill it. It was a signature example of how elite institutions have failed, and how the people themselves are responsible for saving democracy —a task that’s now far more daunting than ever. .
When the two billionaires — Pat Soon-Shiong at the LA Times and Jeff Bezos at the Washington Post — stepped in to silence their editorial boards and sow confusion in the electorate, there were prominent resignations and subscription resignations in response. The Post lost more than 250,000 subscribers — 10% of its paid base — within a few days. But the true face of the campaign was evident almost immediately afterward, that Sunday when Trump held his “closing argument” rally at Madison Square Garden. It drew immediate comparisons to an infamous 1939 pro-Nazi rally held there with similar anti-democratic themes: demonization of immigrants and political enemies, invocation of strongman leadership, threats of violent retribution, denunciations of the press, and more. Trump’s childhood friend David Rem called Harris “the Antichrist” and “the devil.” Businessman Grant Cardone said that Harris “and her pimp handlers will destroy our country.” Radio host Sid Rosenberg called the Democratic Party, “The whole party — a bunch of degenerates, lowlifes, Jew-haters and lowlifes, every one of them.” To kick it all off, a “comic” Tony Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico “an island of garbage,” and to conclude it, Axios summarized, “Trump himself used Nazi-inspired language like ‘occupied country’ and ‘enemy from within.”
It was, in short, a self-evident hate-fest, that Trump afterward repeatedly referred to as “a lovefest.” To say Trump was lying about the nature of his event would be an understatement, at the very least. But more than that, it’s a fundamental misunderstanding of what he is up to.
Yes, Trump lies. All the time. The Post itself chronicled more than 30,000 lies and false statements that Trump made in office. But simply counting lies doesn’t provide much insight into what is going on. Daniel Dale for CNN debunked “16 false claims Trump made at Madison Square Garden,” which is all well and good, but does nothing to provide insight into why Trump is lying, and what all this lying is leading toward. And this is what the corporate media has repeatedly failed to do.
There are three different things Trump engages in: lying, bullshitting, and gaslighting. It’s important to understand each.
Lying is deceiving people about the state of the world, a frequent Trump habit. Bullshitting is deceiving people about one’s motives, using true or false claims indiscriminately to achieve one’s ends. This is much more characteristic of how Trump routinely operates.
But when Trump calls a hatefest “a lovefest,” he’s doing something more: He’s gaslighting. Gaslighting undermines people’s whole sense of reality on which reasoning depends, and imposes an invented reality on its victims.
“The hate you saw was really love and if you can’t see that, then you’re the hate-filled one!” Trump said. That’s the gaslighting “logic” behind Trump’s claim that his hate-fest was a love-fest, and it echoes a similar logic that’s routinely found in abusive relationships. Trump’s articulation of this logic is core to his misogynistic appeal — something that women, particularly in the wake of the #MeToo movement, have been instinctively aware of, even as the male-dominated punditocracy has ignored it.
Building on that, gaslighting has been the foundation of everything in Trump’s life — from the manufactured illusion of his business brilliance to the key political narratives he’s ridden to power and used to hold onto it. For Trump the election turns on five key feats of gaslighting: climate denial, the Great Replacement theory (evil elites are flooding America with an invasion of dangerous immigrants), the myth of mass voter fraud, his gaslighting Roe (pretending it’s what everyone always wanted, sending abortion “back to the states”), and portraying himself as great for the economy, while Democrats would be disastrous (23 Nobel economists say the opposite in a recent letter, calling Harris’s agenda “vastly superior to the counterproductive economic agenda of Donald Trump.”).
If you fall for these five feats of gaslighting, seeing the world in broad-brushed ways directly contrary to fact, then you’ll be primed for swallowing a sixth: that Democrats are the threat to American democracy, and Trump alone is its savior. In his gaslighting narratives, Trump’s always the hero, and his enemies are lying about everything. He specializes in sweeping declarations — what’s “horrible” or “never seen before” — with a pathological aversion to facts. The was seen once again the fallout from his Madison Square Garden rally.
Of all the despicable things said there, the so-called comic’s remarks, calling Puerto Rico “a floating island of garbage” stood out above all else, prompting waves of outrage on social media. Puerto Rican artists Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin, and Bad Bunny — with a combined audience of over 314 million Instagram followers — all responded by expressing support for Harris, posting a video from Harris’s official account outlining her vision for Puerto Rico.
“I will never forget what Donald Trump did and what he did not do when Puerto Rico needed a caring and competent leader,” Harris said in the clip. “He abandoned the island, tried to block aid after back-to-back devastating hurricanes, and offered nothing more than paper towels and insults.”
Trump’s appalling, racist mistreatment of Puerto Rico has remarkably been forgotten in public memory, like so many other examples of Trump’s scandalous and reckless behavior. But the Madison Square Garden rally and the celebrity/social media response brought it all back and made it top of mind for many via social media.
Typically, Trump responded with two classic gaslighting tropes he uses all the time: he disclaimed any association or responsibility for the joke — even though this campaign had vetted it — and he claimed he’d done more than anyone for Puerto Rico when in reality he’d blocked $20 billion in aid after Hurricane Maria. Both attempts fell flat. But his third gaslighting attempt hit paydirt — sort of.
Biden inartfully tried to say that the only garbage was that coming out of the Trump-supporting comedian’s mouth, and the Trump campaign jumped on it, claiming that Biden was calling all Trump supporters “garbage.” It made the front page of the New York Times, and Trump tried to give the gaslighting more legs by doing a campaign appearance with a garbage truck. But even though it was catnip for the #bothsides media, that was not how it played in the Puerto Rican community, where the lack of an apology said everything that needed to be said.
But that wasn’t the only forgotten part of Trump’s record to suddenly re-emerge via social media that week, as summed up in a Teen Vogue story, “Gen Z Is Listening to the Trump Access Hollywood Tape on TikTok for the First Time.” The tape in which Trump bragged, “When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ‘em by the pussy. You can do anything,” almost destroyed Trump’s 2016 campaign, and many young voters today, hearing it for the first time, can’t believe that it didn’t.
Teen Vogue focused on Soleil Golden, a 22-year-old creator with 591.5k followers, who posted a video of herself and a friend reacting to the tape. “‘I moved on her like a b*tch,’ Trump can be heard saying as the two TikTokers shake their heads, cover their eyes, and hold their fingers to their temples as though they have a migraine,’’ Teen Vogue reported.
“I’m automatically attracted to beautiful… I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait,” the tape continues. “And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ‘em by the pussy. You can do anything.”
The Washington Post also reported that “This week, many said on the social network they were shocked by the former president’s words and confused why the episode wasn’t a dealbreaker in 2016.”
For a day or two it had looked like it would be: the party might abandon him. But Trump did something he’s never done before or since: he apologized. Sort of. He apologized while attacking his enemies, trivializing it as “locker room banter” (athletes vehemently disagreed), and saying it was long in the past. “These words don’t reflect who I am,” he lied and went on to say, “I’ve said some foolish things, but there is a big difference between the words and actions of other people. Bill Clinton has actually abused women and Hillary has bullied, attacked, shamed, and intimidated his victims.”
But then, in the next two weeks at least 11 women came forward accusing Trump himself of sexual assault or misconduct — a number that would subsequently more than double. Trump accused them all of lying to hurt his campaign, and threatened, “All of these liars will be sued after the election is over.” But, of course, that was just another lie. Trump never sued any of them. It was all just bullshit and bluster on his part. And the media let him get away with it.
Now, eight years later, that pattern continues with a vengeance. Trump’s gaslighting on climate denial, the Great Replacement theory, mass voter fraud, abortion, and the economy have been normalized by our media. Their job is to make the world legible, and instead, they’ve helped Trump do just the opposite: make it impossible to truly make sense of.
Neighborhood Councils and Community Groups Urged to Stay Engaged as Bridge Project Nears
By Rosie Knight, Columnist
After multiple community hearings and 90 days of public comment, Caltrans has released its final Environmental Impact Report on the upcoming Vincent Thomas Bridge repairs project. Following suggestions from local community advocates and neighborhood councils, Caltrans will pursue a “single-stage construction” schedule to close the bridge completely for at least 16 months. The full closure of the Vincent Thomas Bridge will have a massive impact on the Harbor Area community. However, the report doesn’t reflect or make concrete promises on how Caltrans will deal with that aspect of the construction.
A statement from Councilman Tim McOsker’s office highlighted that he was glad Caltrans chose the single-stage construction option and that they’d engage the community advisory committee and technical advisory committee. But he was less pleased about the lack of accountability the report promised to the community.
“There were other demands that Caltrans brushed off with ambiguity and a lack of commitment,” McOsker explained in a released statement. “For instance, I raised the issue of road conditions, stressing that all detour routes must be adequately repaired before and after the Caltrans closure, which will add significantly more truck and commuter trips daily throughout the construction.”
McOsker excoriated Caltrans’ response, “The repair of local streets is not within the jurisdiction of Caltrans; however … Caltrans will work with local jurisdictional agencies to find opportunities to repair detour routes before and after construction,” saying that it lacked any accountability.
“This non-response offers little assurance to a community that will bear the brunt of this project,” McOsker said. “This is but one example of a lack of specificity or enforceability in the final EIR. I will use the coming days and weeks to advocate for accountability and concrete commitments within the Caltrans responses to our comments.”
Those worries were echoed by community advocate and former member of the LA Harbor Commission Diane Middleton, who told Random Lengths over email, “The Final EIR supports closing the bridge entirely to do the necessary work. This allows the shortest time for the bridge to be closed (totally nonusable) and also makes it easier to adjust (hopefully shorten) the construction schedule. The EIR does not really address mitigating the community impacts particularly the burden it will place on those neighborhoods where the traffic is redirected. Many communities adjacent to the bridge already suffer from poorly maintained roads due to the industrial traffic from the Port. Those roads should be repaired before the bridge closure adds more traffic to the already overburdened roads. The EIR is short on those details.”
Luckily, the fight isn’t over though, as McOsker told Random Lengths.
“Caltrans is responsible for making good on the vague promises they’ve made in the document, many of which are good but vague and unenforceable. So, I’ve reached out to our state assembly member, Mike Gipson, who’s an excellent representative of our area, to ask him to participate — which he’s happy to do — I’ve reached out to Janice Hahn our supervisor,” McOsker said.
This is part of McOsker’s multi-pronged approach, keeping the pressure on as the project progresses.
He wants to convene a group of state legislators, county legislators and local legislators; and then, allow Caltrans to provide specific plans they will implement to ensure the mitigation measures happen.
“So it’ll be the political response first, asking them — for example — to give us the details of the traffic mitigation plan,” McOsker said. “Give us the details and facts for advertising about the ‘Harborgeddon.’ Give us the details of all of the issues, one by one by one, where we’ve made comments.” McOsker said. “They’ve given these well-intentioned but vague responses. Then in a public setting, we have a public opportunity for folks to hear and see all of the plans and information on all of the actors involved: Caltrans, the responsible district, and our names and numbers.”
That accessibility and public-facing conversation is key to how McOsker plans to hold Caltrans accountable and get the repairs, clarity of communication, and responsibility that the community deserves and has called for on multiple occasions. “We need to continue to have the Technical Advisory Committee operate, the Community Advisory Committee operate. There’s a commitment that I want to flesh out — that Caltrans has made — that there will be essentially a committee that will review the traffic plans and the traffic mitigation. So we need to get all of these plans in the next year before the construction starts, get all of these plans in place and made available to the public with contact information, for example, who’s responsible for implementing things, like when vehicles break down on the bridge today, we know that there’s a rapid response to go remove those vehicles and getting traffic flowing. Who is going to be responsible for making sure the detour routes are available, as an example? And we need phone numbers, and we need to make sure that we push all that information out,” McOsker said.
Invoking the now infamous LA traffic news story “Carmageddon” again, McOsker is keen that the affected neighborhoods in District 15 be given the same amount of support, news coverage, and communication that the affected areas got when there was a ten-mile closure of the 405 Freeway in 2011. As he fights to make that happen — as well as more transparency and support from Caltrans as they embark on the project, which is currently slated to begin in early 2026 — he has advice for local community members who want to get involved.
“The best thing for them to do is to hold me accountable, for starters,” McOsker said. “To make sure that we have public spaces in Wilmington and San Pedro and Harbor City, to make sure that we are having these open forums and information. And then also to get the information we’ll make public on the phone numbers and the electronic spaces to track all of this. Then to comment on the plans, yeah, stay active and involved. They can do it today through neighborhood councils, and that’s important space but I think we also need to be working with the neighborhood councils to create specialized times and spaces to talk specifically about this plan over the next year as we know the construction is slated to start in early 2026 so this, all of this work needs to happen — it sounds like a long time, but it’s not — through 2025 to get specificity on plans, and then folks should review the plans, comment on them.”
He also called for neighborhood councils, homeowners groups, and neighborhood watch groups to share the information and review these plans, along with unions like the ILWU and organizations like the Pacific Maritime Association. “I also think we need to get our chambers of [commerces] in Wilmington and San Pedro to get information out to their networks. So everyone needs to be actively engaged and ready for this as if, as if it’s ‘Harborgedden,’ which I think it could well be, and it could also be avoided,” McOsker said.
If a famous chef hands you a caviar’d cracker, it doesn’t prove anything of their skill. Like, of course it tastes good. It’s freakin’ caviar.
True culinary brilliance is revealed by the creation of extraordinary food from the most humble of building blocks. For example, the butternut squash ravioli that stole the show at the Whitefish Food and Wine Festival last month is an example. Nothing more than flour, egg, cream, squash, almonds and Parmesan (of which the chef noted you can never have too much), those succulent and nubile stuffed noodles, frosted with brown butter foam, were arguably more delicious than the wagyu meatballs drenched in wagyu demi-glace at the adjoining serving table.
I am pop food culture illiterate. I haven’t watched food TV since Julia Child was on, in my teens. I had maybe heard the name Todd English, but would not have guessed Italian to be his specialty. Without being prepped by his rep, I was able to meet the guy with no preformed opinions. I’d yet to even sample his ravioli.
A server handed me a small plate of wild mushrooms on polenta, and suddenly I could feel the chef behind me. Not as much Chef English as the bubble of fanboys and girls that drifted into my personal space as he made his way past me to the polenta.
I turned around to see a man who appeared unlike the East Coast fancy pants Englishman flown in to preside over the inaugural convening of this festival, and more like a redneck who just crawled out of an out building in Hungry Horse. In other words, someone I wanted to party with. His cheffing done for the day, English wore a pair of greasy jeans and what appeared to be a buckskin vest.
The Toddfather, fattening his goslings. Photo by Ari LeVaux
I introduced myself and told him that I hoped to nerd out about food with him. Gravely, arms folded across his barrel chest, he nodded in agreement. Then he motioned the server to add more balsamic reduction to my chanterelles.
English, an Italian master of the Irish Goodbye, quickly vanished, leaving me to contemplate how perfectly the balsamic reduction enhanced the chanterelles. I felt like I was eating music. Then I sauntered over to the wagyu meatball table, where, after washing down some tender orbs with the closest glass of red I could find, I concluded it doesn’t get any better than this. And then I met the ravioli that changed my life.
In my first bites of those fragrant clouds, my weekend peaked. Possibly my life. At the very least, I should have retired from eating right then, while I was at the top. Because nothing that has followed compares to those plump, fluffy, creamy squares.
Later that evening I cornered the chef at the bar, where we proceeded to nerd out. “Music is just noise until it hits your brain,” he said. “It’s your brain that perceives all of those sounds together as music. And it’s the same with food. When it lands on our palate, our brain translates it into a symphony of flavors.”
“I love a good symphony, with cellos and violins and clarinets. But I also like a simple quartet, be it classical or….” he trailed off.
I was waiting for him to say “AC/DC,” obviously, but just then his sensors tripped. He pushed away the glasses on the bar in front of him as two pizza pies were set down. The chef grabbed the red meaty one and absconded.
The night was young, as was the long weekend of total wine and food-fueled debauchery. A 12-course brunch seemed to include every type of sugar, fat, amino acid and alcohol known to man. Several local mammals were served nose to tail in their own juices, including lamb and wagyu, and there was a mountaintop caviar and champagne tasting. Yet still those ravioli remained a singular highlight.
The last time I saw The Toddfather was in the ski lodge atop Big Mountain. Like a true Montanan, he was grumbling about not being able to find any ranch dressing. His vision was to use ranch to bind caviar onto some onion rings, and as soon as the ranch appeared he got to work. The fanboys and girls lined up like geese waiting to have their livers fattened, and one by one the famous chef placed a ranch’d, caviar’d onion ring into our mouths. It turns out that when a famous chef hands you some caviar, sometimes it does prove something.
Weeks later, when the wine-stains had long dried, my son Remy and I recreated that ridiculous ravioli, following the recipe that English had so generously given me. With a pasta roller attachment to the Kitchenaid, we rolled out sheets of fresh pasta and filled the ravioli with a regal mixture that was more intoxicating than the contents of any bottle at the festival. Those ravioli are a true symphony, created from the simplest of notes. Possibly discordant until they reached my brain, where the array of flavors was understood to be a masterpiece. I will never look at a squash the same way again.
Butternut Squash Ravioli a la Todd English
I only have space to discuss the filling and browned butter sauce. Follow the ravioli rolling and shaping recipe of your choice. The artistry here is in the filling and sauce.
Filling
2 tablespoon unsalted butter
6 cups butternut squash (or Hubbard or kabocha squash)
1/2 cups ground amaretti cookies (or crushed almonds)
1/2 cups fresh bread crumbs
1/2 cups finely grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat and add the butternut squash. Cook until the squash is just starting to caramelize and becomes golden brown — about 10 minutes. Add water to cover and cook until squash is tender, about 20 minutes. Transfer squash to a food processor with a fitted blade. Add the amaretti, bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Blend until smooth.
Brown Butter Sauce
1/4 pound butter
1/8 pound Parmesan grated
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
Fresh sage leaves
Heat some olive oil and fry the sage leaves on medium-high heat until crisp but not burnt. Meanwhile, melt the butter in pot, reduce heat to medium, whisk until milk solids cook to a golden brown. Add cream and bring to simmer. Add grated Parmesan. Strain through fine mesh sieve. Whip with emulsion blender, spoon foam over top of pasta. Garnish with crispy sage leaves and serve.
Five days in the battleground of the 2024 election
Atlanta, GA– There’s a reason I couldn’t sit on the sidelines in California and watch this election like a spectator sport, I could just feel that something important was going to happen here. To be a witness to history that you just don’t get looking at on TV. I am here at the invitation of the nationally recognized investigative journalist Greg Palast who has just produced a documentary on voter suppression in Georgia. Aside from outright attacks and procedural hurdles that suppress the vote and give Republicans an edge, there is another two-pronged attack in the Republicans’ war to preserve minority white rule in America. The first prong is that a faction of Republicans wants to find a new answer to the broad question, “Who deserves representation in the United States?”And late on election night in Georgia it looks like the MAGA Republicans have won it against all the best efforts to stop Trump.
In the early morning of Nov. 5, there were five bomb threats on polling places around Atlanta in Fulton County and another in a town south of here called Camilla where they had to move the polling place for security reasons. There have also been some 340,000 challenges of specific voters by a handful of political operatives that is documented in Palast’s film Vigilantes Inc. which is a name that the Klu Klux Klan used in the 1940s to similarly suppress the Black vote in the South.
In response to potential threats to the election, the National Guard has been put on alert in ten states and the FBI has been activated to respond to domestic terror threats at the polls. Did any of this scare voters from the polls? It didn’t seem so given the exuberance of the Harris/Walz campaign election watch party at the Park Tavern Restaurant just east of the capital. Some 3,000 volunteers and local celebrities showed up to hear Sen. Ralph Warnock (D-GA) speak and watch the Morehouse College marching band perform. But by the end of the night, it turned out that this wasn’t the Blue Wave the Democrats were hoping for.
On the day of the election, I had the opportunity to interview C.K. Hoffler, the lead lawyer for Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow PUSH organization… one of the leading civil rights groups in Georgia, and she has been heading up the National Transformative Justice Coalition to protect the vote in this state. Her group of lawyers and law students feverishly fielded calls from all over the nation on election violations. How is this even possible that the candidate who espoused a fascist agenda for America can even get this close to winning? The phrase that when fascism comes to America it will come draped in the flag and carrying a Christian cross may well come to pass as a prophecy.
What I can tell you is that of all the people I have interviewed who were undecided, they are like people who watch a football game without understanding how the game is played and why it comes down to a contest between two competing teams. I believe that half of this country either doesn’t understand the rules or values money over the basic ideals of democracy. With a candidate like Kamala Harris who has five times the experience as the man in this race, it is perhaps the height of sexism that a woman loses to a convicted misogynistic criminal. This can’t be the American idealism that I believe in.
As the 45th president becomes the 47th, it appears we are in for the rise of white Christian nationalism and a whole lot more racist rhetoric from the bully in the bully pulpit at the Oval Office. How it is that 71 million voters have fallen for another Trump campaign full of rambling, repeated lies only makes me wonder how 51% of the voters can be so completely gullible or easily duped. It appears that Vice President Kamala Harris has lost the popular vote by some five million votes, the majority of those cast in the rural areas. This election only explains how deeply divided the nation still is with over 66 million people (48% of the votes) going for Harris.
This certainly is a day when America has decided to turn back the clock on progress and turn its back on what could have been a much more inclusive future. This ends up being a dark night in Georgia and for America, it’s like the worst version of Back to the Future that I can imagine.
The early calling of Florida and Georgia for Trump, and Ted Cruz weathering the Democratic blitz to reclaim reelection was the harbinger of things to come. America voted for fascism to preserve White Supremacy. This analysis will be born out by exit polling. Random Lengths sent a reporter to the California Democratic Election Night party on Olympic downtown Los Angeles where many San Pedro Democrats congregated, alongside Councilman Tim McOsker, District Attorney George Gascon, and others.
Councilman Tim McOsker made it to the California Dems election watch party in downtown Los Angeles. Photo by Arturo Garcia-Ayala
The night began with hope and promise, but by midnight, hope and promise turned into dread and despair, causing some to go home to drown some of that despair in alcohol. Rather than a long drawn-out affair to determine who would be in the White House for the next four years, It was quickly resolved, saving us all from the specter of electoral uncertainty and likely electoral violence.
The most competitive race was for State Senator Steven Bradford’s seat between former Congresswoman Laura Richardson and Michelle Chambers. After the polls closed and the results started pouring in, Chambers appeared to lead if not run neck and neck with Richardson. But as the night wore on, Richardson’s lead grew. As of Wednesday morning, Richardson’s lead stood at about 4,500 votes.
In any case, there’s going to be a lot of Wednesday-night quarterbacking over the wisdom of changing candidates midstream and recriminations for not ensuring Donald Trump paid for his crimes. Regardless of the despair, the sun will still rise, and there’s work that still needs to get done.
Election Results
United States Senator – Full Term
ADAM B. SCHIFF (D)1,560,96163.64%
United States Senator – Short Term (Unexpired Term Ending January 3, 2025)
ADAM B. SCHIFF (D)1,555,14363.38%
United States Representative, 36th District
TED W. LIEU (D)174,33666.92%
US Representative, 42nd District
ROBERT GARCIA (D)101,07265.25%
US Representative, 44th District
NANETTE DIAZ BARRAGÁN (D)106,93468.70%
State Senator, 33rd District
LENA A. GONZALEZ (D)138,73867.19%
Member of The State Senate 35th District
LAURA RICHARDSON (D)82,12851.40%
Member Of The State Assembly, 65th District
MIKE GIPSON (D)59,11368.99%
Member Of The State Assembly, 66th District
AL MURATSUCHI (D)94,73258.28%
Member Of The State Assembly, 69th District
JOSH LOWENTHAL (D)79,75866.23%
Los Angeles County District Attorney
NATHAN HOCHMAN (N)1,406,45261.42%
Los Angeles County Judges
Seat #39: GEORGE A. TURNER JR. (N)1,180,35457.30%
Seat #48: ERICKA J. WILEY (N)1,104,92055.00%
Seat #97: SHARON RANSOM (N)1,260,08264.32%
Seat #135: GEORGIA HUERTA (N)1,100,78256.49%
Seat #137: TRACEY M. BLOUNT (N)1,063,52654.70%
Carson City General Municipal Election
Mayor
LULA DAVIS-HOLMES (N)15,22759.21%
Carson City General Municipal Election
District 1
JAWANE HILTON (N)6,283100.00%
Carson City General Municipal Election
District 3
CEDRIC HICKS SR. (N)4,50067.64%
Lomita City General Municipal Election
Member Of The City Council, 2nd District
WILLIAM D. UPHOFF (N)50449.75%
WADE KYLE (N)37336.82%
Lomita City General Municipal Election
Member Of The City Council, 4th District Vote
BARRY M. WAITE (N)868100.00%
Long Beach City General Municipal Election
Member Of The City Council, 4th District
DARYL SUPERNAW (N)10,21459.65%
Palos Verdes Estates City General Municipal Election
City Treasurer
MARTIN J. PETERSEN (N)4,327100.00%
Palos Verdes Estates City General Municipal Election
Member Of The City Council
DEREK LAZZARO (N)4,13240.65%
CRAIG QUINN (N)3,45133.95%
STATE MEASURE(S)
Prop. 2– Authorizes $10 billion in state general obligation bonds for repairing, upgrading, and constructing facilities at K–12 public schools (including charter schools) and community colleges.
Yes5,220,36556.9%
Prop. 3– Repeals Prop. 8, removes the constitutional language indicating that marriage is between a man and a woman and affirms the fundamental right to marry.
Yes5,646,86361.2%
Prop. 4– Increases funding for critical climate protections and environmental infrastructure projects.
Yes5,356,61358.0%
Prop. 5– Makes it easier to pass local bonds and taxes to fund affordable housing and public infrastructure development. Reduces current 2/3 supermajority requirement to 55%.
No5,055,67755.8%
Prop.6– Eliminates involuntary servitude or slavery of any form as a criminal punishment that the state can use. Allows the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to issue credits to incarcerated people for accepting voluntary work assignments during their incarceration.
No4,941,89154.8%
Prop. 32– Raises the minimum wage to $18 in stages. For employers with 26 or more employees, to $17 immediately, $18 on January 1, 2025. For employers with 25 or fewer employees, to $17 on January 1, 2025, and $18 on January 1, 2026.
No4,805,83452.0%
Prop. 33– Prohibits state limitations on local rent control. Restores local democracy and protects renters.
No5,634,47361.6%
Prop. 34– Initiative financed by many of the largest corporate landlords in the nation to silence housing advocacy work on rent control and other tenant protections currently provided by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation in Los Angeles.
Yes4,567,84851.5%
Prop. 35– Would make permanent the tax on Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) and require the tax proceeds to be used to support only Medi-Cal and other health programs – making that money unavailable for other priorities and making it difficult to respond to future changes to Medi-Cal.
Yes6,089,33466.8%
Prop. 36–Allows felony charges for possessing certain drugs and for thefts under $950, if the defendant has two prior drug or theft convictions.
Yes6,471,99970.4%
COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES
COUNTY MEASURE G– Would create a new, elected countywide executive; expand the five-member Board of Supervisors to nine, and would create a purportedly independent ethics commission, in addition to some minor additional transparency measures. Still too close to call.
YES1,117,90650.29%
COUNTY MEASURE A– Will generate an estimated $1.1 billion in annual revenues to fund affordable housing, services for the unhoused, rental support for tenants, and other much-needed programs. Revenue will come from a new, permanent 0.5% sales tax, which will replace a 0.25% sales tax scheduled to expire in 2027.
YES1,316,05155.75%
COUNTY MEASURE E– Proposes a parcel tax of $0.06 per square foot to raise an estimated $152 million per year to hire/train firefighters/paramedics, upgrade/replace aging firefighter safety equipment, fire engines, helicopters, facilities, lifesaving rescue tools, and 911 communications technology.
YES466,63353.37%
Los Angeles City-
CHARTER AMENDMENT DD– Establishes an independent redistricting commission to redraw Council district lines every ten years.
YES589,72872.86%
CHARTER AMENDMENT HH– Requires that at least one member of the Board of Harbor Commissioners live in San Pedro and another live in Wilmington; Defines the subpoena and investigative authority of the LA City Attorney; Clarifies the LA City Controller’s audit authority over city contractors/subcontractors; Requires commission appointees to file financial disclosures that help screen for conflicts of interest before they’re confirmed; Provides additional time to evaluate the fiscal impacts of laws proposed by ballot initiatives.
YES645,77780.24%
CHARTER AMENDMENT II– A collection of City Council-passed charter amendments: to clarify that the El Pueblo Monument and the Zoo are park property; clarify that departments may sell merchandise to support City operations; include gender identity in non-discrimination rules applicable to employment by the City; clarify the Airport Commission’s authority to establish fees and regulations; and make other changes and clarifications.
YES569,94871.34%
CHARTER AMENDMENT ER– A minor but worthy improvement to the Ethics Commission, it will increase the ethics code violation penalty from $5,000 per violation to $15,000.
YES589,57574.17%
CHARTER AMENDMENT FF– Moves the pensions of non-LAPD city police officers from the LA City Employees’ Retirement System (LACERS) to the Fire & Police Pension Plan at a cost of over $100 million.
YES470,91158.36%
Los Angeles City and Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) – (1)
CHARTER AMENDMENT LL –Establishes an independent redistricting commission to redraw LAUSD district lines every ten years.
YES688,11974.17%
Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD)
Local Public Schools Safety and Upgrades Measure US: To update school facilities for 21st-century student learning and career/college preparedness; improve school facilities for safety, earthquakes and disability access; upgrade plumbing, electrical, HVAC; replace leaky roofs; provide learning technology; and create green outdoor classrooms/schoolyards; shall Los Angeles Unified School District’s measure be adopted authorizing $9,000,000,000 in bonds at legal rates, levying approximately 2.5¢ per $100 of assessed valuation (generating $456,123,000 annually) until approximately 2059, with audits/citizens’ oversight?
Gov. Newsom Convenes a Special Session of the Legislature to protect California values
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom Nov. 7 issued a proclamation convening a special session of the California Legislature to safeguard California values and fundamental rights in the face of an incoming Trump administration. The special session will focus on bolstering California legal resources to protect civil rights, reproductive freedom, climate action and immigrant families.
This is the first of several actions by the Newsom Administration, in partnership with the Legislature, as the Governor begins shoring up California’s defenses against an incoming federal administration that has threatened the state on multiple fronts.
Special session
The special session responds to the public statements and proposals put forward by President-elect Trump and his advisors, and actions taken during his first term in office — an agenda that could erode essential freedoms and individual rights, including women’s rights and LGBTQ+ rights. A special session allows for expedited action that will best protect California and its values from attacks. The special session will begin Dec. 2, when the Legislature convenes. The Governor has outlined several urgent priorities to be defended in this special session by bolstering legal defenses against federal actions. The Governor’s proclamation calls for legislation to provide additional resources to the California Department of Justice and other state entities to pursue robust affirmative litigation against any unlawful actions by the incoming Trump Administration, as well as defend against federal lawsuits aimed at undermining California’s laws and policies. The funding will support the ability to immediately file litigation and seek injunctive relief against unlawful federal actions.
Gov. Newsom Issues Executive Order Tackling Rising Electric Bills
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom on Oct. 30 signed an executive order designed to reduce electric costs for Californians.
The Governor’s action encourages electric bill relief while maintaining the state’s commitment to achieving carbon neutrality and 100% clean electricity by 2045. The action comes as millions of Californians received an average credit of $71 on their October electric bills from the California Climate Credit, provided by the state’s Cap-and-Trade program.
Tackling rising electricity costs
While California has been successful in keeping electric bills lower than many other states on average thanks to decades of work advancing energy efficiency standards, Californians have seen their electric bills rising in recent years. A major driver has been critical utility wildfire mitigation efforts that have accelerated to match the pace of the climate crisis, as well as several programs added over time.
The executive order addresses both of these cost drivers by zeroing in on some programs that could be inflating customer bills and evaluating utility wildfire mitigation expenses for potential administrative savings.
The executive order:
Encourages electric bill relief. The executive order asks the California Public Utilities Commission or CPUC to identify underperforming programs and return any unused energy program funds back to customers receiving electric and gas service from private utilities as one or more credits on their bills.
Maximizes the California Climate Credit. The executive order directs the California Air Resources Board or CARB to work with the CPUC to determine ways to maximize the California climate credit, which is a twice annual credit that shows up on many Californians’ electric and gas bills in the spring and fall and is funded by the state’s Cap-and-Trade program.
Manages and reduces electric costs for the long term. The executive order asks the CPUC to evaluate electric ratepayer-supported programs and costs of regulations and make recommendations on additional ways to save consumers money. It also asks the CPUC to pursue any federal funding available to help lower electricity costs for Californians. Additionally, the executive order directs the California Energy Commission or CEC to evaluate electric ratepayer-funded programs and identify any potential changes that could save Californians money on their bills.
Smarter wildfire mitigation investments. The executive order directs the office of energy infrastructure safety, and requests the CPUC, to evaluate utility wildfire safety oversight practices and ensure that utility investments and activities are focused on cost-effective wildfire mitigation measures.
Gov. Newsom Announces Appointment
SACRAMENTO – Gov. Gavin Newsom Oct 30 announced the following appointment:
Yvette Roland, of Los Angeles, has been reappointed to the State Bar Court of California, where she has served since 2014. Roland was a Partner at Duane Morris LLP from 2006 to 2014 and at Hancock, Rothert & Bunshoft LLP from 1990 to 2005. Roland was an Associate at Baker & Hostetler/McCutchen, Black, Verleger & Shea from 1986 to 1990. She was a Law Clerk for the Honorable Terry J. Hatter, Jr. at the U.S. District Court, Central District of California from 1985 to 1986. Roland was a Law Clerk for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in 1981. She is a member of the National Council of Lawyer Disciplinary Boards, the California Association of Black Lawyers, the Black Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles County Bar Association, and the John M. Langston Bar Association. Roland earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, a Master of Education degree from Stanford University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and English from the University of California, Riverside. This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $222,772. Roland is a Democrat.
