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Gov. Newsom Signs Comprehensive Immigration Bill Package

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Gov. Newsom Signs Comprehensive Immigration Bill Package

 

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Newsom Sept. 20 signed an immigration bill package championed by the California Latino and Asian American and Pacific Islander or AAPI legislative caucuses. These bills push back against the injustice of reckless federal immigration raids that are causing deep fear and confusion across the state. They were signed on the heels of a recent decision by the US Supreme Court essentially greenlighting discriminatory tactics being used by federal immigration agents such as stopping people based on their perceived race, the language they speak or where they work.

The bills signed today by the Governor include:

AB 49 CA Safe Haven Schools Act (Asm. Muratsuchi, Asm. Ortega, Asm. Celeste Rodriguez, Sen. Gonzalez)

  • Prohibits immigration enforcement officers from entering a nonpublic area of a school site for any purpose without providing valid identification and a valid judicial warrant, judicial subpoena or court order, or unless required by state or federal law. The bill would also prevent local education agency (LEA) personnel from disclosing the education records or any information about a pupil, pupil’s family and household, school employee, or teacher to an immigration enforcement officer without a judicial warrant.

SB 81 Ensuring Healthcare Spaces are Safe (Sen. Arreguín)

  • Requires healthcare providers to create nonpublic areas to ensure they continue to be safe spaces for our communities and support patient care. This bill would also require healthcare provider entities to prohibit immigration authorities from accessing a facilities’ nonpublic area without a valid judicial warrant or court order. Additionally, this bill strengthens privacy protections for immigrants by recognizing that immigration status is part of a patient’s medical record.

SB 98 Sending Alerts to Families in Education (SAFE) Act (Sen. Pérez)

  • Requires K-12 schools and public higher education institutions to notify students, staff, and other campus community members when immigration officers are present on campus.

SB 627 No Secret Police Act (Sen. Wiener)

  • Prohibits local and federal law enforcement from concealing their faces while conducting operations, with limited exemptions, such as for medical or fire-related reasons.

SB 805 No Vigilantes Act (Sen. Pérez)

  • Requires law enforcement to clearly identify themselves, by displaying their agency name and officer’s name or badge number.

Details: latinocaucus.legislature.ca.gov.

Barragán Responds to Democratic Funding Bill Focused on Health Care Funding

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Barragán Responds to Democratic Funding Bill Focused on Health Care Funding

 

Washington, D.C. — Rep. Nanette Barragán (CA-44) Sept. 18 released the following statement on House Democrats’ funding bill created to address the Republican health care crisis:

“House Democrats step up, once again, to stop the Republican health care crisis. House Democrats have proposed legislation that cancels the cuts to health care, lowers the costs, and saves your health care.

Legislation should work for the people, not against them.”

On Sept. 19 the Associated Press reported the Senate rejected competing measures to fund federal agencies until the new budget year begins on Oct. 1, increasing chances for a partial government shutdown on that date.

The Democratic proposal would have extended enhanced health insurance subsidies set to expire at the end of the year, plus reverse Medicaid cuts that were included in Republicans’ big tax breaks and spending cuts bill enacted earlier this year.

The Senate action came after the House earlier in the day passed the Republican-led funding bill. The measure would extend government funding generally at current levels for seven weeks. The bill would also add about $88 million in security funding for lawmakers and members of the Supreme Court and executive branch in the wake of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

The Senate moved after the House vote to take up the measure plus the Democratic counter. Both fell short of the 60 votes needed to pass. Now, it’s unclear how things will end up.

Pier G Container Recovery Moves Forward as Joint Information Center Transitions

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Pier G Container Recovery Moves Forward as Joint Information Center Transitions

 

LONG BEACH —The unified command continues to make progress in salvage operations at the Port of Long Beach following the cargo vessel Mississippi container incident that occurred Sept. 9.

The Container Recovery Group, working alongside salvage crews and members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union or ILWU, recovered 54 containers from the pier and water, up from 32 containers as of Sept. 14. Crews continue to conduct operations shoreside and waterside to safely recover the remaining containers.

In addition, unaffected containers aboard the cargo ship Mississippi are being unloaded to safely access to the damaged emissions control barge. When the barge is cleared away, salvage crews and longshore workers will be able to focus on removing damaged containers from the Mississippi. Coast Guard safety officers remain on scene to oversee operations and ensure all movements are carried out safely.

The Captain of the port approved 55 commercial vessels as of Sept. 17, to safely pass through a 500-yard safety zone that the Coast Guard had placed around the Mississippi.

The safety zone established by the Coast Guard remains in effect to safeguard navigation and is enforced by Coast Guard small boat crews, Port of Long Beach Harbor Patrol and the Long Beach Police Department. The U.S. Coast Guard and National Transportation Safety Board continue to lead the investigation into the cause of the incident.

To submit a non-cargo claim related to the Pier G Container Incident, please call 877-430-6361 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. PDT, Monday through Friday or e-mail submission@piergincidentclaims.com.

Non-cargo claims refer to issues not involving the goods carried in the ship’s containers. Cargo-related claims — for those shipping materials or products on the vessel — should be submitted to the appropriate party listed in the appropriate shipping documents, such as a bill of lading or transport contract. For more information on both non-cargo and cargo claims, visit www.piergincidentclaims.com.

Pier G Container Incident Joint Information Center Transition

LONG BEACH — The joint information center for the Pier G container incident transitioned to agency-managed public information support Sept. 16 under the unified command’s approval.

The transition reflects how public inquiries will be handled going forward as recovery and salvage operations move into the next phases. Salvage operations are continuing with a focus on safety, cargo recovery and environmental stewardship.

The unified command remains in place to coordinate and direct salvage operations for containers aboard and around the cargo ship Mississippi.

“Call Freedom: Artists Speak” Art & Literary Exhibition Closing Reception

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“Call Freedom: Artists Speak” Art & Literary Exhibition Closing Reception

 

“Call Freedom: Artists Speak” presented by Angel City Culture Quest in collaboration with Range Projects Gallery in Los Angeles will feature a powerful Call to Freedom during its closing reception, Sept. 27.

In a refreshing twist highlighting literary art, the closing reception will be presenting readings by the poets who submitted works, juried by Melina Paris, plus other prominent Los Angeles based poets. Join this salon and view more than 30 visual and literary artists’ expressions on freedom.

“Call Freedom: Artists Speak” invokes humanity’s inalienable right to ‘CALL FREEDOM’ and thereby actualize it and speak it, in our communities and our lives. The exhibition explores the ways humanity reaches for and lives in freedom, both inwardly and in the world. Most importantly, it reminds people of their collective power.

Featured Artists Include:

Literary: Nancy Lynée Woo, Steven T. Bramble, Spencer Seward, S. Greggory Moore, Audrey Shih, Ajala Sen, Jai Hudson, Eden S. Gonzalez, Macuilquiahuitl Ixeh, Helena Donato-Sapp.

Visual: Peggy Sivert Zask, Karena Massengill, Eric Almanza, Michael Davis, Peggy Reavey, Veronica Giorgetti, Lowell Nickel, Cora Ramirez-Vasquez, Sung-Hee Son, Samantha Son, Chun Son, William Vaughan, Lucretia Tye Jasmine, Nida Amin, Terence Toy, Martin Bustamante, Hirotaka Suzuki, Margie Rust, Javier Proenza, Adrianna S.-T, James Muscarello, Minna Philips, Silvia Wagensberg, Franky Garcia, Cherry Wood, Jai Hudson.

The Sept. 27 event will include beverages featuring a curated wine selection.

Any donation is deeply appreciated to support ACCQ in championing its vital role in the community. ACCQ is a labor of love and does not do any advertising. Instead, the show focuses deeply on the artists and their works.

Additionally, 10% of all proceeds will benefit these select ART nonprofits: Angels Gate Cultural Center, (AGCC) Armory Center for the Arts and Collage: A Place for Art and Culture. Your contributions are invaluable and help ACCQ continue to provide meaningful experiences and opportunities for artists and the community alike. In the interest of full disclosure, Melina is a board member at Collage and has written previously about artists at AGCC.

Range Projects Gallery hours: Friday, 12 to 3 pm and Saturday, 12 to 4 pm, or by appointment, 323-528-6839.

Time: 12 to 4 p.m., Sept. 27

Cost: Free

Details: https://www.rangeprojects.art

Venue: Range Projects Gallery, 3718 West Slauson Ave., Los Angeles

How Immigrant Communities Are Reclaiming Media on Their Own Terms

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How Immigrant Communities Are Reclaiming Media on Their Own Terms

 

https://www.projectcensored.org/immigrant-communities-reclaiming-media/

In an age of relentless misinformation, immigrant communities in the United States are not just resisting—they are rebuilding. While corporate and legacy news outlets often filter immigrant experiences through sensationalism, victimization, or meritocratic tropes, independent and bilingual media are quietly transforming how stories of migration are told. And in doing so, they’re also restoring something journalism has long struggled to offer immigrant communities: trust.

When official channels fail, whether due to linguistic barriers, legal repression, or outright neglect, immigrants turn to each other. From Spanish-language radio to WhatsApp news bulletins, the rise of community-rooted journalism shows that mutual aid is not only about sharing food, shelter, or legal advice. It’s also about sharing information—fast, culturally attuned, and free from the fear of state surveillance.

The Need for New Narratives

Traditional narratives about immigrants often fall into two categories: the idealized “model immigrant” (valedictorians, doctors, and entrepreneurs) or the demonized “illegal alien.” This binary leaves little room for the majority of immigrants whose lives fall outside those extremes—day laborers, domestic workers, asylum seekers, families navigating mixed-status households.

Frustrated by this lack of nuance, many immigrant communities have built their own storytelling ecosystems. These are not just emergency alternatives to most news. They are long-standing infrastructures that predate the digital age and have evolved into powerful networks of survival, culture, and resistance.

The Subversive Power of Spanish-Language Radio

Take, for instance, Spanish-language radio. In places like the US-Mexico borderlands and immigrant-heavy neighborhoods across the country, radio has become a lifeline. As reported in High Country News, Spanish-language stations often serve as hyperlocal information hubs, broadcasting everything from ICE raid alerts to tenant rights, COVID-19 safety updates, and neighborhood organizing meetings. What makes these broadcasts powerful isn’t just the information, but the tone: intimate, familiar, and deeply rooted in community values.

For many undocumented listeners, this format offers something the government and corporate media cannot: safety. Unlike online platforms like Facebook or Twitter, which are surveilled by ICE through data brokers and keyword-tracking software, radio remains difficult to monitor en masse. What’s more, many stations allow for anonymous call-ins or listener requests, preserving both privacy and participation.

WhatsApp Journalism

While radio lays the groundwork, messaging apps like WhatsApp have exploded in popularity among immigrant communities as trusted news delivery systems. Why? Because they are encrypted, peer-to-peer, and resistant to algorithmic censorship. In cities like Miami, Houston, and Los Angeles, organizers use WhatsApp groups to circulate flyers about know-your-rights workshops, eyewitness updates during ICE raids, or rapid-response legal resources. Sometimes, these groups reach hundreds of members in minutes.

One standout example is El Timpano, an Oakland-based outlet that has pioneered Spanish-language, text-message-based reporting tailored to the city’s Latino immigrant population. Their reporters use survey tools and direct outreach to ask residents what they want to know about housing, jobs, and local politics, and then deliver the answers right to their phones.

This method flips the traditional journalism model on its head. Rather than assuming what audiences want, El Timpano lets the audience lead.

Grassroots Media as Mutual Aid

This participatory, community-first model echoes mutual aid philosophies that have guided immigrant survival for decades. During the pandemic, groups like Make the Road NY and Mijente didn’t wait for traditional media to validate their concerns. They built their own communication networks, livestreams, newsletters, and social media blasts that combined real-time reporting with calls to action.

What ties these projects together is a deep respect for the lived knowledge within immigrant communities. Outlets like Prism Reports, El Tecolote in San Francisco, and Documented NY don’t parachute in to cover a story—they already live it. Their reporters are often first-generation themselves, multilingual, and understand the stakes firsthand.

Rebuilding Trust, One Story at a Time

One of the most insidious effects of anti-immigrant policies, from surveillance tech to detention center gag rules, is the erosion of trust. When ICE agents impersonate police or social workers, when newsrooms repeat official statements without scrutiny, immigrants learn to keep their heads down and stay silent. Restoring that trust means going hyperlocal, multilingual, and deeply relational.

These independent immigrant-led media outlets are working. They’re informing. They’re protecting. And they’re reminding us that journalism at its best is not a spectacle, it’s a service.

Lessons for the Wider Media Landscape

There’s much that legacy outlets can learn from these efforts. First, abandon the savior narrative. Immigrants are not waiting to be “given a voice,” they’re already speaking, loudly and clearly. Second, invest in multilingual reporting not as a side project, but as central to newsroom equity. And finally, respect local knowledge. The people most affected by immigration policy are often the most equipped to explain its impacts.

Journalism schools and philanthropic funders, too, have a role to play. Support youth storytelling projects, such as 826 Valencia, Define American, and Radio Pulso. Train and hire more bilingual reporters. Fund community media with the same urgency given to big tech “misinformation” efforts. Because the misinformation that harms immigrant communities often isn’t just falsehoods, it’s omission, dehumanization, and erasure.

A Media Future Rooted in Dignity

In the face of deportation raids, algorithmic surveillance, and the constant threat of detention, immigrants are doing more than surviving; they’re documenting. And they’re doing it on their own terms.

When traditional media ask how to regain trust, the answer isn’t just better fact-checking or polished podcasts. The answer may lie in a WhatsApp chain warning neighbors of an unmarked ICE van. In a late-night radio broadcast about workers’ rights. In a text from a community reporter who listens before they report.

In these everyday acts of media-making, dignity persists. And so does resistance.

About the Author

Elizabeth Insuasti is a Summer 2025 Project Censored student intern. She is a senior at the University of Florida studying History and Media Production. Her work focuses on immigrant rights, human rights law, and storytelling that amplifies underrepresented voices.

First Human Cases of West Nile Virus Reported in Los Angeles County for 2025

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First Human Cases of West Nile Virus Reported in Los Angeles County for 2025

Public Health has identified the first cases of human West Nile virus or WNV infection in Los Angeles County for the 2025 season. Four persons were hospitalized with WNV illness beginning in late July through late August and are recovering. The identified cases reside in the Antelope Valley, San Fernando Valley, and central Los Angeles areas.

West Nile virus spreads through the bite of an infected mosquito. Symptoms may include fever, headache, nausea, body aches, and a mild skin rash. WNV can affect the nervous system and result in meningitis, encephalitis, paralysis and even death.

While everyone is at risk for West Nile Virus, adults over the age of 50 years and people with chronic health problems are at higher risk of severe illness. Although not all mosquitoes carry this virus, the type of mosquito that spreads this virus is found throughout Los Angeles County.

Public Health recommendations to reduce the risk of West Nile virus infection:

  • Avoid getting mosquito bites
    • Avoid mosquito-infested areas at dawn and dusk as this is when mosquitoes that spread WNV are most active.
    • Use insect repellant. Use Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-registered repellents containing DEET, picaridin, IR3535, oil of lemon eucalyptus (OLE), para-menthane-diol (PMD), or 2-undecanone. When used as directed, EPA-registered insect repellents are proven safe and effective, even for pregnant and breastfeeding women. Find the right insect repellent for you by using EPA’s search tool.
    • Cover up. Consider wearing long-sleeved shirts and long pants when you are outdoors, particularly at the times and in areas where more mosquitoes are present.
  • Keep mosquitoes out of your home
    • Use tight-fitting screens on windows and doors. Check for and repair holes in screens to keep mosquitoes outdoors.
  • Prevent mosquito breeding
    • Eliminate standing water where mosquitoes can lay eggs. Once a week, empty and scrub, turn over, cover, or throw out items that hold water, such as tires, buckets, planters, toys, pet bowls, flowerpot saucers, rain barrels, or other containers. These are where mosquitoes lay eggs.
    • Empty and wash birdbaths and wading pools weekly.
    • Clean and chlorinate swimming pools; drain any water collecting on pool covers.
    • Stock garden ponds with mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis), goldfish, Koi or other mosquito-eating fish. These feed on mosquito eggs and larvae.

Details: http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/acd/vectorwestnile.htm. To find a local vector control district, visit http://www.socalmosquito.org.

Sen. Padilla Leads Effort to Repeal Executive Orders Undermining Federal Unions

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Sen. Padilla Leads Effort to Repeal Executive Orders Undermining Federal Unions

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), and Tim Kaine (D-Va.) Sept. 17 introduced the Protect America’s Workforce Act, which would repeal two union-busting executive orders and restore collective bargaining rights and workplace protections for federal workers.

This legislation comes in response to a pair of executive orders issued earlier this year by President Trump. These executive orders revoked collective bargaining rights for a majority of federal employees under a false national security pretext. While federal employee unions do not negotiate pay or benefits, collective bargaining agreements protect them from retaliation, discrimination, and illegal firings, while promoting resources for whistleblowers and veterans.

California has among the highest number of federal employees in the nation, many of whom have lost their labor rights under the Trump Administration.

The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 (CRSA) grants the president authority to limit collective bargaining agreements when there is a national security concern. President Trump’s executive orders, however, sought to take advantage of the CRSA by inappropriately classifying two-thirds of the federal workforce as having national security missions in order to claim the authority needed to cancel valid union contracts.

The Protect America’s Workforce Act also affirms that any collective bargaining agreement in effect as of March 26, 2025, the day before the first executive order, will be in full force.

Details: Full text of the bill is available here.

“Predictor” an entertaining history of the at-home pregnancy test

Greggory Moore
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“Predictor” an entertaining history of the at-home pregnancy test

The United States put a man on the fucking moon before a woman could find out whether she was pregnant without consulting a doctor — and not because the necessary technology didn’t exist previously. In 1967, Margaret “Meg” Crane developed a prototype for an at-home pregnancy test, combining creativity and common sense to package the necessary elements so women could know what’s what privately.

But it would be a full ten years until the test became available to the public, and almost half a century before Crane would receive due credit. Jennifer Blackmer’s Predictor tells the tale entertainingly rather than didactically, a smart choice the Garage Theatre dials up to the max.

Twenty-something Meg (Carly Tilson-Lumetta) is a graphic designer freelancing for Organon Pharmaceuticals, which does big business in pregnancy tests for doctors. Despite having no background in science, Meg quickly grasps that the simplicity of the chemistry involved means there’s no reason why a woman shouldn’t be able to perform the test on her own. No good reason, at least. Once Meg designs a simple, elegant, cost-efficient in-home test, she’s confronted with an obstacle course of terrible reasons, all of which boil down to sexism.

The last two or three decades have seen a glut of plays telling true stories of women who made contributions to science &c. in societies structured to hide their light under a bushel. But however worthy the topic, more often than not these histories are rendered as if their real-life significance moots the need to be artful in the storytelling.

While that just-the-facts approach is fine for Wikipedia and such, perhaps you want more from theatre. If so, Predictor is for you. Opening as an episode of an imaginary ‘60s gameshow called Who Made That?, the story of Meg and her invention are charmingly adumbrated before we launch into the narrative proper, a narrative that never progresses too far down any one track before switching it up. Flashbacks, fantasy sequences, a sitcom, that wacky gameshow — a farrago of scenes that collide and interpenetrate ceaselessly, rhythms breaking against contrary rhythms. There’s nothing meta here, no intellectual rationale, no logic other than Blackmer’s aesthetic sense, but Predictor is no less effective for that, unfolding as a sort of engaging chaos that never loses the plot.

This is where director Jessica Variz excels. Back at the Garage for the first time since back in the day (in 2009 and 2011 she helmed two of the very best things the company has ever done), Variz groks both the substance and style of Blackmer’s script and has the cast jumping through all the right hoops to deliver the goods.

Needless to say, Tilson-Lumetta is the heart of the show, turning her conspicuous youth (which I had some misgivings about before coming to find that she actually bears a resemblance to the baby-faced Crane circa 1965) into an asset for driving home the overwhelm Meg feels at finding herself in the middle of a game whose high stakes she fully understands but whose convoluted, misogynistic rules are beyond her ken. A particularly heartbreaking scene occurs near play’s end, when a coworker from the typing pool (Taylor Popoola) comes asking for one of the tests, which Meg is powerless to deliver even though a stack of them sit idly in the next room.

But it’s the supporting cast who bear the most responsibility for generating Predictor’s constantly shifting modes and moods. Variz may have told them what to do and where to do it, but there are a fuck-ton of opportunities for them to drop any one of the many balls they have to keep in the air, what with each actor taking on a variety of roles, sometimes changing from one to another in the blink of an eye, and having to execute a lot more blocking than you typically see in a non-musical. The biggest hiccups I caught were the occasional dropped beat or overextended pause — remarkably little to speak in a work so chock full of angular shifts. (And this was opening weekend, so I’m guessing it only gets better from here.)

After an unusual mise-en-scène stumble during their last show, the Garage production crew is back in form. Despite seating on four sides — including basically onstage — there isn’t a bad seat in the house, as the cast utilizes every inch of available space to constantly refocus the audience’s attention. Noemi Barrera’s lighting underlines all those energy shifts, and Rob Young’s elegantly simple set is as aesthetically apt as it is functional, with the red ring at its base acquiring deep significance as the play progresses.

Blackmer’s script isn’t perfect. Why, for example, doesn’t Meg fetch the coworker a test or make her one — we’ve been told repeatedly how simple and affordable they are — or at least say why she can’t? And while no doubt Meg encountered plenty of sexism in the Organon offices, Blackmer lazily personifies via a snarling caricature of a misogynistic ad man (played by Craig Johnson with a gusto that’s all the more notable for how quickly he downshifts into completely different characters), when in fact the most gut-wrenching such stuff in her script concerns the subtle insidiousness of the patriarchal milieu, such as when we’re forced to look on helplessly as Meg signs away the monetary rights to her invention. Then there’s the final scene, a pat peroration that’s much too on-the-nose (even if it does convey info we want to know).

But these shortcomings are not enough to blunt the historical interest, emotional force, and sheer entertainment value of Predictor. Margaret Crane’s contribution to the world we live in today deserves telling. And it deserves to be told this well.

Predictor at the Garage Theatre
Times: Thursday–Saturday 8 p.m.
The show runs through October 11.
Cost: $23–$28 (Thursdays 2-for-1); closing night w/afterparty: $40
Details: thegaragetheatre.org
Venue: The Garage Theatre, 251 E. 7th St., Long Beach

Historic Warner Grand Theatre slated for digital makeover, won’t reopen until 2027

Greggory Moore
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Historic Warner Grand Theatre slated for digital makeover, won’t reopen until 2027

In January 1999, San Pedro’s Warner Grand Theatre was added to the National Register of Historic Places. On page 7 of its NRHP Registration Form, the following line comes in the first paragraph of the narrative detailing why the property qualifies for the distinction: “The Warner Grand […] retains its exterior and interior form and features essentially intact from its original construction.”

But the theater’s historic exterior is slated to change in a big way, as the City of Los Angeles has decided that a digital marquee will replace the classic sort that’s been there since the theater opened in 1931.

This replacement was not planned when the theater closed for renovations at the end of 2024. In fact, the approved plans’ only reference to the marquee indicated the contrary: “MARQUEE TO REMAIN, RESTORE DECORATIVE PAINT BEHIND NEON TO ORIGINAL COLORS, REPAIR AND REPLACE NEON AS NEEDED TO RESTORE NEON SIGNAGE.”

But the Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA), which operates the Warner Grand, claims that difficulty obtaining replacement marquee letters necessitates going digital.

“Yes, there will be a modification to the marquee,” replied DCA’s Nicki Genovese to a concerned area resident. “Snap Lok letters will soon be obsolete, and replacements will [no] longer [be] available. Additionally, placing the letters on the tracks has always been an awkward — and occasionally dangerous — task. Only the panels of the marquee will be converted to LED, making it possible to replicate the Snap Lok look of the old marquee, as well as providing opportunities for more creative signage, including high-res graphics and designs. The marquee itself, and the vertical sign will not be affected, although we do hope to be able to ‘refresh’ the paint colours.”

The Bureau of Engineering, the City department responsible for the renovation, confirms the change.

“DCA found out that Snap Lok letter manufacturing has been winding down since the pandemic, making replacing the old letters difficult, if they were to fall off or become damaged, which happens frequently,” says BOE Director of Communications Mary Nemick. “Because of this, we will need to convert to a digital sign, much as the City did at the Vision Theatre Performing Arts Center and the Madrid Theatre. These marquees provide the option of replicating the look of Snap Lok letters as well as displaying more elaborate signage graphics.”

However, a simple web search for “Snap Lok letters” yields over a dozen vendors saying they have Snap Lok letters in stock, along with dozens more apparently selling generic versions. (Snap Lok is a trademarked brand.)

Nonetheless, plans for the replacement have proceeded so quickly that the nonprofit Grand Vision Foundation, the “Official Friends’ Group to the Warner Grand Theatre,” somehow not only acquired the Warner Grand’s marquee letters but was advertising their sale in promotional material for a theater fundraising event to be held on September 19: “At ‘A Wunderfully Grand Evening,’ you can buy a letter of your very own — to support the Warner Grand Theatre.” The Grand Vision Foundation also posted an Instagram video featuring Executive Director Liz Schindler Johnson touting the sale, showing off several of the letters, complete with what she said were “certificates of authenticity.”

But questions quickly arose about the ownership of the letters and permission to sell them. When contacted by a concerned constituent, Councilmember Tim McOsker stated that he had “asked my Chief of Staff, Jeanne Min, to get background information on whether and when Cultural Affairs might have donated the letters to the nonprofit. I will know more after they have reviewed that history and authority.” (Min did not reply to RLn’s request for comment.)

However, DCA spokesperson Juan Garcia said that prior to being contacted by Random Lengths News for this article he was unaware that such a sale was taking place and promised to investigate the matter.

For her part, Johnson declined to comment on whether the Grand Vision Foundation has obtained either ownership of the letters or permission to sell them. In any case, it appears the sale has been canceled, at least for now: last week the above-mentioned video was removed from Instagram, and days later all references to the marquee letters and their sale were scrubbed from online promotional material for “A Wunderfully Grand Evening.”

According to the City, although presently there is no cost estimate for a change order covering the installation of a digital marquee, the contingency fund built into the project should cover the additional cost.

The City estimates that this additional element of the renovation will extend the project duration by two to three months. But because of the City’s consistently mixed messaging regarding the project duration, it is unclear when the renovations will be complete. Between 2020 and 2023, the figure generally circulated by the City was that the project would take “18 to 24 months.” However, internal communications revealed that in October 2023 project manager Marcus Yee estimated that the renovation would take a full two years. Nonetheless, by summer 2024 the City’s standard line was that the project would take “approximately 500 calendar days,” even though as of November 2024 the Project Information Report listed the “Expected Duration [as] From 9/20/2024 to 11/1/2026,” or approximately 770 days. In January, the PIR was updated to correspond to “approximately 500 calendar days.”

Most recently, the expected duration has been updated to “9/20/2024 to 8/1/2026,” or approximately 680 days. By this estimate, considering that the renovation work did not commence until January 2025, the theater is not scheduled to reopen prior to January or February 2027.

West Coast States Issue Unified Vaccine Recommendations

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West Coast States Issue Unified Vaccine Recommendations

 

SACRAMENTO – Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, Governor Tina Kotek of Oregon, Governor Bob Ferguson of Washington, and Governor Josh Green of Hawaii Sept. 17 announced coordinated winter virus vaccination recommendations through the West Coast Health Alliance or WCHA. These recommendations include the 2025–26 COVID-19, influenza, and RSV vaccines.

In addition, Governor Newsom signed AB 144, authorizing California to base future immunization guidance on independent medical organizations rather than the CDC’s increasingly politicized advisory committee on immunization practices.

Vaccination is safe, effective, and the best protection available against respiratory viruses like COVID-19, influenza, and RSV. Seasonal vaccination is also a critical public health tool to reduce serious illness, community transmission, and strain on hospitals.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ZlMGLeCtK1E

States stepping in

Alliance states are fighting back against the Trump administration’s assault on science — sharing a commitment to ensuring that health recommendations are guided by safety, efficacy, transparency, access, and trust. To develop these recommendations, health officers, who are all medical doctors, and subject matter experts from each of the WCHA states reviewed guidelines from national medical organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics or AAP, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists or ACOG, and the American Academy of Family Physicians or AAFP. Our alliance believes that all clinically recommended vaccinations should be accessible to the people of our states.

The WCHA will continue to build its structure, evaluate new evidence and recommendations as they become available, and determine how to ensure the review process is transparent. WCHA will share any updated assessments with its communities.

Details: To learn more about these updated recommendations, click here.

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