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Federal Judge Rules City of LA Failed to Fulfill Agreement to Provide Shelter for Homeless People

Reporters Desk
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Federal Judge Rules City of LA Failed to Fulfill Agreement to Provide Shelter for Homeless People

 

On June 24, Federal Judge David O. Carter issued a ruling stating that the City of Los Angeles failed to meet a previous settlement agreement to create housing for homeless people in the city, the LAist reported. The LA Alliance for Human Rights sued the city for not reaching a previous settlement agreement, and the court stated that the city breached it by missing milestones on creating 12,915 shelter beds by June 2027, as well as failing to provide plans on how it would achieve this. Carter’s ruling also stated that the city did not correctly report encampment reductions and did not provide correct data when requested.

To remedy the agreement, Cater’s ruling stated that the city must provide a bed plan by Oct. 3, 2025, as well as provide milestones of how it will meet the agreement by June 2027. In addition, it must provide encampment data meeting the court’s definition each quarter, and provide more details of housing units that already existed physically prior to the settlement, and how the city converted it to housing for homeless people. In addition, it ruled that the city and the LA Alliance for Human Rights agree to a third-party monitor to oversee the progress and ask questions on behalf of the public.

“Every day, the people of Los Angeles wake up to the sight of human suffering in every part of the City—people sleeping on sidewalks, searching for safety, shelter, or just a place to use the bathroom,” Carter wrote in his ruling. “And every day, those living on the streets wake to another morning of uncertainty, exposed to danger, stripped of privacy, dignity, and hope.”

Carter wrote that these remedies are progress, not punishment.

Details: https://tinyurl.com/Carter-ruling

RPV Land Movement Update: Preliminary Wayfarers Chapel Transfer and Landslide Disaster Bill Advance

Reporters Desk
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RPV Land Movement Update: Preliminary Wayfarers Chapel Transfer and Landslide Disaster Bill Advance

City Requests Rep. Lieu Explore NDAA for Potential Land Transfer

The city and Wayfarers Chapel continue to work to identify potential pathways to reconstruct the landslide-damaged National Historic Landmark to an ideal site near the Ken Dyda Civic Center. As part of these efforts, last week, the city submitted a request to the office of Rep. Ted Lieu for his staff to explore the feasibility of transferring the Coast Guard-owned Battery Barnes property adjacent to the Civic Center to the city by securing language in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). This was done successfully in late 2024 by Rep. Lieu and Rep. Nanette Barragán for the cities of Los Angeles and Lomita to enable them to take ownership of ball fields at the Navy’s Defense Fuel Support Point (DFSP) on Western Avenue. This strategy of transferring federal land via an act of Congress was pursued due to a change in Department of Defense policy that would have resulted in charging youth sports organizations fair-market user fees. While talks of potentially using the NDAA for the relocation of Wayfarers Chapel to the Battery Barnes site are preliminary and informal at this point, the city is hopeful that its federal representatives will help to explore every avenue to potentially bringing Wayfarers to Battery Barnes, so it can remain in its historic community in perpetuity as a historic landmark, educational site, and community gathering space.

In May, the City and Wayfarers sent a joint letter to Rep. Lieu additionally requesting assistance in securing federal discretionary funding in the range of $25-30 million to help rebuild the chapel and establish the envisioned public campus.

AB 986 Headed to State Senate

AB 986, Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi’s landslide legislation, is headed to the State Senate after passing the Assembly floor on June 3, 2025. On June 18, the bill was referred to the Senate governmental organization committee. AB 986 would amend the California Emergency Services Act to include landslides as a natural disaster that may be eligible for disaster assistance, giving affected communities, such as Rancho Palos Verdes, a clearer path to declare emergencies and take action to protect public safety and infrastructure. The City is a co-sponsor of AB 986, and Mayor Dave Bradley and City Manager Ara Mihranian testified in support of the bill at an Assembly Emergency Management Committee meeting in April. The City thanks Assemblymember Muratsuchi for his continued leadership and advocacy on this issue.

Landslide Emergency Update. July 1, 7 p.m., Hesse Park and Via Zoom.

July 1, City Council Meeting Announcements

On July 1, the RPV city council will receive an update on the landslide emergency, the latest land movement data, and the city’s remediation efforts.

Current Conditions

Between April 5 and June 3, the average land movement rates decelerated considerably, continuing the downward trend of movement over the past four months. This is believed to be largely due to significantly below-average rainfall through mid-June, the positive effects of the major winterization efforts and the ongoing dewatering efforts by the city and abatement districts.

PVDS Toll Road Study

Following previous direction from the city council, staff continues to analyze the possibility of converting a portion of Palos Verdes Drive South through the landslide into a toll road. Staff has reached out to firms for proposals to assess the feasibility of this project and will present a proposed contract of a toll road feasibility study for the city council’s consideration at its July 15 meeting.

FY 2025-26 Budget

On June 17, the city council adopted the fiscal year 2025-26 budget that includes $17.75 million for landslide mitigation and remediation projects. Of this amount, almost $13.7 million is funded by the CIP funds and $4 million is from Special Revenue (Restricted) funds.

Grant Update

Cal OES recently notified the city that it is eligible to apply for a FEMA hazard mitigation grant for the Portuguese Bend landslide remediation project, covering a similar scope of work as planned under the discontinued BRIC grant. The city will move forward with a grant application for submission to Cal OES by September 15, 2025.

Finally, the council will consider extending by 60 days the local emergency declarations in the landslide area and the temporary prohibition of bicycles, motorcycles, and other similar wheeled vehicles from an approximately 2-mile stretch of Palos Verdes Drive South.

A staff report (PDF) with more information is available on the city website at:: https://tinyurl.com/RPV-city-council-report

Meeting Info:

The meeting will take place at 7 p.m., July 1, in McTaggart Hall at Hesse Park and via Zoom. Watch live on RPVtv’s YouTube channel, at rpvca.gov, or on Cox 33/FiOS 38. To participate in public comment during the meeting, complete a form online at rpvca.gov/participate to participate in person, virtually, or leave a pre-recorded voice message. Email your comments on this topic to cc@rpvca.gov.

Port of Los Angeles to Expand Exports Through Central Valley

Terelle Jerricks
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Port of Los Angeles to Expand Exports Through Central Valley

 

LOS ANGELES – June 26, 2025 – The Port of Los Angeles June 26 signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the City of Shafter, Calif. and The Wonderful Company to promote more efficient two-way trade connections with California’s Central Valley, with a focus on bringing more U.S. exports through the port and its terminals.

Central to the agreement is the Wonderful Logistics Center, a 3,400-acre, master-planned industrial development owned by The Wonderful Company. Located strategically along the BNSF rail mainline in Shafter — a fast-growing economic area near Bakersfield — the logistics hub and container depot already serves multiple Fortune 100 companies, including Ross, Amazon, Target, Walmart, among others, and is uniquely positioned to support exports from the San Joaquin Valley and beyond.

“Both The Wonderful Company and the City of Shafter have a well-planned vision for creating jobs and promoting economic growth in the Central Valley, and the Port of Los Angeles stands ready to help,” said Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka. “This agreement represents our commitment to support faster and more efficient service to and from the Central Valley right to our terminals and to markets across the world.

Specifics of the agreement include a pledge to promote sustainable and efficient two-way domestic and international trade connections between the Wonderful Logistics Center and the port; conduct exporter outreach in the Central Valley; strategize on ways to develop mutually beneficial business opportunities; collaborate and educate supply chain stakeholders on the partnership benefits to the state and national economy; and share best practices on goods movement workforce training and development.

The Wonderful Company will also be adding a new international rail terminal at the center, scheduled for completion in 2026. Serving importers and exporters with a dedicated shuttle train running between the San Pedro Bay port complex and Shafter, the rail terminal will increase efficiency and capacity, and deliver environmental benefits by reducing truck traffic and streamlining container movement. Nearby housing, job training and other community amenities are also planned to support the Center’s expansion.

Signing of the agreement supports recent efforts by the Port of Los Angeles to better leverage the surplus of empty containers at its terminals, and more efficiently position those for agricultural exporters. The Wonderful Company is one of the largest agriculture, real estate, and consumer packaged goods companies in the U.S, and one of the largest owners and operators of farming and business properties in the Central Valley.

E Pluribus Unum

James Preston Allen
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E Pluribus Unum

 

As the mad Orange King divides, he succeeds in uniting us

“E pluribus unum” is the Latin phrase meaning “Out of many, one.” It was the original motto of the United States. It was created by the Founding Fathers to reflect the idea of a unified nation formed from the original 13 colonies, because in the beginning, they were not very united, except in one common purpose, opposition to mad King George. It appears on the Great Seal of the United States and is often associated with the concept of national unity and diversity.

The one out of many has transformed through the decades to include the diversity of the people who immigrated here from many corners of the world, searching for freedom and liberty. And it is this ideal of freedom codified in our Bill of Rights and subsequent amendments and guarantees that are supposed to protect us against a “mad king.”

It has taken this nation 250 years to confront our own worst enemy, and he now comes draped in the flag, holding the cross, which just happens to be the prediction of how fascism will come to America. And if the immigration raids and the use of the military on the streets of Los Angeles have shown us and the world anything, it’s that we are now facing the American nightmare — homegrown fascism. Everything that this wannabe dictator has done is the direct opposite of our national motto.

The Orange Felon’s strategy is just the opposite: Divide et impera. Divide to rule.

In his efforts to squelch dissent on the War on Gaza, he has unified a wide contingent of students, including many American Jews. In his war on immigrants, he has united an unprecedented outpouring of protest across Los Angeles and the nation, decrying “No Kings.” And the immigration raids have left many industries vacant of workers, turned many areas into virtual ghost towns overnight, and generated a growing number of lawsuits from states, cities and individuals over civil rights violations and abuse of power.

The resistance to the Orange Felon grows with every misstep — dropping bombs on Iran without Congressional approval, ignoring court orders on immigration, and then the cross-eyed miscalculation of tariffs, which has left the twin ports of the San Pedro Bay nearly empty. He has created hardships in agriculture, retail and logistics. The Port of LA says that imports are down 35% and yet when I look out over the main channel on any given day, I see only one large cargo ship being worked and many cranes at other terminals standing idle. Which means hundreds of dock workers and teamsters are out of work. It means some retailers will be hurt.

What all of this exposes is how interdependent we all are, not just between undocumented immigrant workers and those of us with documents, but also internationally between nations.

I once called LA the Athens of the Pacific Rim, and as of this year, the California economy has risen to fourth among nations, surpassing Germany. This status is now threatened by nearly every delusional twist that the Orange Felon takes in attempting to “Make America Great Again” and force California to capitulate to his whims. So excuse me, but if this is what making America great again looks like, I’ll take a little less great with a whole lot more compassion.

What some true believers are beginning to perceive is that all the gaslighting, bullying and blather coming from Truth Social or the multitude of rightwing media is just the opposite of what the Orange Felon is actually doing. The real social truth will come out from the loss of Medicaid benefits, the rise in pharmacy prices, higher food costs, the loss of funding for education, and ultimately, bringing the nation to the brink of an economic recession. All for what purpose? To give tax breaks to billionaires and corporations.

What will unify the resistance to the fascist regime more than it has done in just the first five months, you may ask? When they go after Social Security and attempt to bankrupt the social safety net. You see they have spent an inordinate amount of time and money with DOGE trying to eke out a few hundred millions from the federal budget, but the one area of the budget which is taboo is the defense department and since the beginning of the post-9/11 wars that department has never been able to accurately produce an audit! So, according to military spending reports from 2000 to 2023, the defense budget has eaten up some $15.245 trillion of your tax dollars, which has gone unaudited. But Elon Musk hunted for fraud in SNAP and welfare payments. Notably, the U.S. is the world’s largest military spender, and continues to dominate the rankings by up to 62.3% of the global top five military spenders, followed by China and Russia with 18.6% and 8.8%, respectively.

And what will unite Americans more than anything else across this country is when the Orange Felon uses the U.S. military against its own citizens and violates our First Amendment rights. That confrontation is already here. You’ve witnessed the reaction and will continue to be distracted by it, while the Republican party robs us with the new tax bill in Congress. Don’t be fooled. There is strength in diversity — E Plurbis Unum.

Letters to the Editor: Media Misinformation, Public Uprising, and the Power of Collective Action

Reporters Desk
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Letters to the Editor: Media Misinformation, Public Uprising, and the Power of Collective Action

Misleading Media Coverage

TV coverage of today’s No Kings demonstrations in Torrance, elsewhere in Southern California, and across the country offered a clear example of how the mainstream media is failing us.

A free press is critical in a democracy, but the media needs to do a much better job than it has been doing over the past several years.

I attended the demonstration outside Torrance City Hall along with about 10,000 others.

I went home and turned on the TV to see how the demonstrations across the nation were covered, only to be at first disappointed and then angered at the sparse coverage of these events. Instead, it was outsized coverage of the isolated clashes with police in downtown LA late in the afternoon.

I was sadly hypnotized by how bad the coverage on KCBS was, and so did not check out the other stations. I have no reason to think it was much different.

From 4-6 p.m., their coverage was exclusively of the roughly 200 agitators and protesters in a small section of downtown LA who were confronting police and subsequently tear gassed and ordered to disperse. No injuries reported.

That was it. The No Kings demonstrations were mentioned briefly without details. But by applying the “if it bleeds, it leads” mindset to the coverage of the demonstrations, it misrepresented the day’s events and failed to provide viewers with analysis and significant takeaways from today’s events such as:

TURNOUT: Crowds at the Southland demonstrations were massive, bigger than they’ve ⁹qpppbeen in the previous two months. They were people from all walks of life, hardly agitators and certainly not paid. They were mainly left-leaning, but their politics, like their ages, covered a broad spectrum. That means a lot of plumbers, office workers, teachers, and just plain folks, who likely affiliate with no party, were concerned enough to come out and voice their unhappiness. That matters.

The demonstration in Torrance, and from what I can tell uniformly across the Southland, were uniformly peaceful and the mood was almost festive. People said they were heartened to find others who felt the way they did.

LOW-KEY POLICING: There were virtually no law enforcement personnel at the Torrance demonstration despite the large crowd. The handful that were present stayed on the fringe and were treated with respect and courtesy. There were no confrontations. That matters, because it suggests that the heavy-handed tactics employed by the LAPD and President Trump by calling in the National Guard and Marines to LA likely triggered the violence.

FALSE IMPRESSIONS; This twisted coverage, akin to siren chasing, further divides our country. The Right sees the agitators and police going at it and criticizes the left for being violent; liberals see it as inflammatory. The vast majority in the middle are either misled into thinking violence and chaos were the norm at the demonstrations, or frustrated that the media is missing the most significant aspects of the day’s events.

I’m retired now but I’ve been a journalist and media watcher for half a century, and believe the media has done us a tremendous disservice over the past decade.

The common perception is that the media slants its coverage to the left. I think that is wrong. The mainstream media is almost totally owned by large corporations, who have significant holdings in sectors beyond the media. Nearly all of them are major contributors to Trump and other GOP candidates who they feel can help them in media matters and other realms.

The mainstream media failed us the first time Trump ran because it should have made more clear how unqualified Trump was to lead. He was a good story, an outsider who made fun of Hillary Clinton. But shouldn’t most Americans have known that this “rt of the Deal mastermind had in fact bankrupted six different businesses?

It took most of the mainstream more than 3 years of his first Administration to summon the guts to call a lie a lie. Until then it was the president bending the truth, or exaggerating, or playing fast and loose with the truth. Where would we be if, from the start, Trump’s deliberate and relentless lies were labeled just that?

Todd Cunningham

Lomita, CA

 

Democracy Depends on an Informed Public

By now you’re likely familiar with the scenes unfolding in Los Angeles. As demonstrators took to the streets to protest immigration enforcement raids, they were regularly met with excessive force by the Los Angeles Police Department and other law enforcement agencies.

We know this because journalists were there, on the scene, covering the protests and LAPD’s response. We’ve seen the photos, video, and news stories. But despite laws that specifically protect press rights, journalists have been shoved, detained, shot with rubber bullets, trampled with police horses, and forcibly prevented from doing their jobs. Sometimes these abuses have happened on live television.

So today, representing the L.A. Press Club and the media outlet Status Coup, FAC sued LAPD to protect journalists’ rights under the U.S. Constitution and state law. We’re proud to co-counsel in this case with Carol Sobel and Weston Rowland of the Law Office of Carol Sobel; Susan Seager; the Law Office of Peter Bibring; and the firm of Schonbrun, Seplow, Harris, Hoffman & Zeldes LLP.

Last week, with 24 other organizations, we sent a letter to the LAPD and L.A. County Sheriff’s Department reminding them of their obligation to respect press rights under state and federal laws. We noted in the letter: “It is likely that the actions of the LAPD … will already subject them, and local taxpayers, to significant [legal] liability. You cannot change what has already happened but you can take measures to not make the problem worse.”

It appears LAPD did not heed this warning.

We are living in a time of constant upheaval and uncertainty. We need journalists, now more than ever, to be able to do their jobs and report the news. As Carol Sobel, lead counsel for the plaintiffs said when we filed today’s lawsuit: “Our democracy depends on an informed public. When press rights are threatened, it’s the public that suffers.”

Thank you for supporting our work.

David Snyder
Executive Director
First Amendment Coalition

 

Baby Delivery

President Trump said he wanted more babies in the United States.

The major group that produces the most babies per woman is … Latinas. Even Latinas are not procreating at replacement level.

Trump has a dilemma. Is he going to remove large numbers of Latinos, or is he going to deliver the babies?

Or he could push for things like child care, which, “we gotta have.”

Michael Madrid.

San Pedro

 

Mass Protests and Union Strikes Make Change

Only mass protests in the streets and ultimately strikes by our unions will win any of these fights.

I applaud all of the activities that you do, and contribute financially, but we are beyond legal redress.

Bourgeois law no longer exists in the US. The sooner we recognize that the sooner we will develop a winning strategy that does not go through the courts.

This is 1930’s Germany and Trump controls the legal system, which is not our venue anyway. IT IS THEIR LEGAL SYSTEM, NOT OURS.

So the thousands of lawsuits that you and others are involved in are basically a waste of time and energy.

Let us learn from successful social struggles, mass protests like the No King’s day and strikes by the unions are our weapons of choice.

Mark L. Friedman

 

Troops in American Streets, Breaking the Law — and Getting Away With It

Thom Hartmann
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Troops in American Streets, Breaking the Law — and Getting Away With It

If you think this ends with L.A., you haven’t been paying attention. This is Portland 2.0 — but scaled up, and aimed at the soul of American democracy…

 

Trump: Well, we’re going to have troops everywhere.

Reporter: What’s the bar for sending in the Marines?

Trump: The bar is what I think it is.

The 2026 and 2028 elections may have just gotten a lot more distant. First, the backstory.

It was around 2 a.m. on July 15, 2020, when Mark Pettibone, then 29, was walking home from a relatively calm Black Lives Matter protest in downtown Portland. He hadn’t done anything more provocative than wearing a black shirt; no slogans, no mask, no glimmers of violence. Yet moments later, an unmarked minivan pulled up alongside him. Out jumped several armed men in camouflage, with no insignia, slipped a bag over his head and kidnapped him.

“I was terrified,” Pettibone told reporters, his voice trembling with the memory. “It was like being preyed upon.”

He was shoved into the van, blindfolded, driven to the federal courthouse, interrogated, and held — with no Miranda rights, no paperwork, no explanation — for nearly 90 minutes before being released without charge or citation.

No uniforms, no accountability, no transparency, yet a citizen was stripped of his rights and dignity in a blurry high-stakes operation. And around the same time in Washington, DC, Trump was trying to talk General Mark Millie into having the National Guard shoot at protesters in that city.

This was not some fringe vigilante action. It was federal agents wielding brute force under cover of Trump’s executive order, agents whose silence spoke louder than any badge. The ACLU of Oregon called it an unconstitutional kidnapping; legal scholars said probable cause was nowhere to be found.

Yet Merrick Garland decided it wasn’t worth investigating or prosecuting. Let’s just move on. And so here we are.

As Donald Trump this week levels attacks on Los Angeles — sending in federal forces to “restore order” amid unrest provoked by ICE’s illegal tactics — Portland’s secret‑police saga shouldn’t just echo, it should ring alarm bells. If you thought that unmarked vans and invisible state power were confined to dystopian fiction, Pettibone’s story proves they already stalk our cities.

Trump and his neofascist sidekicks sending the National Guard into Los Angeles may look, on the surface, like another “law and order” stunt from a man whose political brand depends on hate and fear. But beneath the posturing lies something far darker and far more dangerous to American democracy.

This is not even remotely about suppressing unrest. Instead, it’s about setting an unconstitutional, anti-democratic precedent: that the President of the United States can deploy military force on a whim, against his political enemies, without state or local consent.

It’s about turning a democratic republic into an authoritarian stronghold. It’s about ending federalism — what political scientists and our Founders called our form of government — as we know it.

This is a test and a dress rehearsal. If he gets away with it, he will probably use this exact same formula — create a crisis worthy of television, bring in the feds, declare a state of emergency — to accomplish what he really wants to do.

For example, suspending the 2026 election. Yeah, that. Otherwise, Democrats might take the House and begin investigations of him that could lead to more prosecutions and convictions for his various crimes. And there’s no way he’s going to peacefully allow that.

For nearly 250 years, America has been guided by a simple democratic principle: that power flows from the people upward, not the other way around. When Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, he was unambiguous:

“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”

We elect our sheriffs, our mayors and city councils, our governors and legislatures; those elections are our form of “consent.” They are closest to us, most accountable, and best positioned to determine how and when to protect public safety.

With very few exceptions having to do with the Civil War, World War II, and the defense of Civil Rights protestors, “keeping the order” through law enforcement has always been handled at the most local level possible so the people whose lives and daily activities are directly impacted have a say and can hold police and the people guiding them accountable.

But Trump has never cared for accountability. And now, like the autocrats he so admires — Putin, Erdoğan, Orbán — he is showing us that he sees local government not as a partner in governance, but as an obstacle to be crushed.

Let’s be clear: sending the National Guard into Los Angeles, especially when done over the objections of California’s governor and L.A.’s mayor, is a direct assault on one of the foundational principles of American democracy: local control.

This is the classic blueprint for dictatorship — using federal military power to override the will of elected local leaders — and it reflects the way fascism has begun in nearly every nation that has lost their democracy over the past century.

Even more glaring proof that this isn’t about “law and order” is the simple reality that Trump isn’t responding to a rebellion or foreign invasion. He’s responding, instead, to protests against ICE arresting people without warrants, a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment itself that says:

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

Trump is attacking the very same protests that are explicitly protected by our Constitution, reflecting the saying so often attributed to Voltaire (it actually came from his biographer) that it’s become an all-America cliché: “I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

As the First Amendment makes explicit:

“Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

That’s what makes this move so chilling. When a president treats constitutionally-protected protest as insurrection and sends in federal troops over the objections of state and local elected officials, he’s not preserving order: he’s causing disorder and, in the process, destroying our democracy.

We’ve seen this movie before; as mentioned, in 2020, Trump deployed federal agents in unmarked military gear to Portland and D.C. They tear-gassed peaceful demonstrators, beat and shot journalists, and abducted citizens off the streets. Americans shrugged. The media called it “controversial.” Merrick Garland decided other things were more important.

But the lesson Trump took from it was simple: it worked. He faced no consequences. The courts barely blinked and when Biden came into office Merrick Garland looked the other way. So now Trump’s doing it again, only this time bigger, bolder, and with clearer political intent.

Sending the Guard to L.A. sends a message to every mayor and governor in the country: If you oppose Trump, he can bring troops to your doorstep. And it sends a message to every American: If you protest, if you dissent, if you organize, you may one day be staring down the barrel of a gun flown in on orders from Washington, DC.

This is not hypothetical. It’s not alarmism. It’s a dry run for the eventual suppression of all dissent that seriously threatens the Trump regime. Just like in Russia, Hungary, or Turkey.

Deploying the National Guard for political purposes chills the First Amendment. Giving them the power to assault and arrest protestors breaks the Fourth Amendment. It tells the American people: stay quiet, or the military might show up.

That’s not democracy; that’s authoritarianism in plain sight.

Yes, Title 10 gives the president the power to federalize the National Guard during times of invasion, insurrection, or to overcome obstacles to enforcing federal law.

But Trump is taking it a step farther, giving Guard members the power to make arrests and point their guns at civilians, a clear and outrageous violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, enacted in 1878 in response to the violations of civil rights being perpetrated on civilians by the military during the post-Civil War occupation of the South.

That law explicitly forbids the military from turning their guns on civilians. Nonetheless, Congresswoman Maxine Waters is now so concerned that she’s begging Guard troops not to shoot at protesters. This should deeply shock every American.

As California governor Newsom posted to Xitter:

“We didn’t have a problem until Trump got involved. This is a serious breach of state sovereignty — inflaming tensions while pulling resources from where they’re actually needed.”

And let’s not pretend this is about safety. The same man who praised the “very fine people” who killed Heather Heyer when marching with torches in Charlottesville, who pardoned violent insurrectionists and murderers on January 6, who routinely echoes Hitler when he calls his political opponents “scum,” “animals,” and “vermin” does not care about public peace. He cares about control.

He wants to exercise domination and revenge against anybody (like California Governor Newsom) who dares stand up to him. And he’s now using federal armed forces to flex his power to lord over the rest of us in ways that would make our Founders puke…or revolt.

If Trump is allowed to again normalize the use of federal troops against American cities — particularly progressive cities that vote against him — it won’t stop with Los Angeles. Tomorrow it’s Chicago. Next month, New York. Then Seattle, Atlanta, Philadelphia. It becomes a pattern, then a doctrine: the president as enforcer-in-chief, sending muscle into any jurisdiction that refuses to obey.

That’s not federalism or anything remotely resembling law and order. That’s fascism.

And it’s not “coming” or “on its way.” It’s here, now.

And if he gets away with it, future presidents will do the same. The precedent — already weakly established here in Portland in 2020 — will be locked in. The checks and balances will have been destroyed.

That’s assuming there even are elections in the future.

As former Trump insider Lev Parnas said:

“According to my sources, there are discussions happening right now—within Trump’s most trusted circle—about invoking martial law if the protests ‘get out of hand.’ They’re looking for any excuse. Any video. Any act of violence. Any disruption. That’s all they need to justify a crackdown.

“And it gets worse. What I’m being told is that Trump allies—including elements connected to Proud Boys, III Percenters, and other far-right militia networks—are planning to infiltrate the June 14th protests. Not to support them. To sabotage them. Their goal? Create chaos. Spark confrontation. Trigger a response from law enforcement. And then hand Trump the justification he needs to clamp down.”

America is at a crossroads. We can pretend this is just another Trump stunt, something to be laughed at or dismissed, or we can recognize it for what it is: a direct assault on civilian government, an unconstitutional power grab, and a warning shot at the heart of democracy.

It’s time to stop normalizing the abnormal. Troops in the streets of American cities should send chills down our spine, not shrugs across the airwaves or the pathetic cheerleading we see on the billionaire-owned Fox “News.”

When a president uses the military against his own people to score political points, democracy itself becomes collateral damage.

And if Trump gets away with this like he did here in Portland in 2020, every new act of violence against the Constitution and people who disagree with him (Hegseth is now threatening to deploy Marines) will become less scandalous, more “normal,” and more likely to lead to the next crackdown.

And then the state of emergency. And then the suspension of elections.

The time to speak out is now, not after Trump’s seized a dozen more cities and imprisoned thousands of us. Call your members of Congress, and I’ll see you in the streets next Saturday.

Pass it along.

A Leap of Faith and a Latte

Terelle Jerricks
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A Leap of Faith and a Latte

 

Aventurero Coffee Carves Out a Third Space in the Heart of the Harbor

In the heart of the Los Angeles Harbor, just off Palos Verdes Drive North and Western Avenue, Aventurero Coffee has become more than just a neighborhood coffee shop — it’s a growing third space reminiscent of the community-centered cafes of decades past.

Of the many coffeehouses I’ve experienced in the Harbor Area, late Saturday mornings at Aventurero come closest to the vibe I once found at Fifth Street Dick’s in the mid-1990s and Sacred Grounds in the 2000s when it stood at the southeast corner of 6th and Mesa.

And that’s no accident.

Aventurero Coffee opened in July 2023 and is quickly approaching its second anniversary. Before Kevin Cardenas and his wife took over the space at 1704 Palos Verdes Drive North, the location was a Kung Fu Tea boba shop. While the previous tenant had a Japanese teahouse-inspired interior, Aventurero now features Andean terracotta, Spanish touches and a warm earth-tone palette — giving the shop a serene, cross-cultural ambiance.

Cardenas admits the design was a compromise between his maximalist tastes and his wife’s more minimalist sensibilities.

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A cup of Americano coffee and coffee cake. Photos by Terelle Jerricks

The couple runs the shop together and has created an intentionally simple menu of coffee, lattes, smoothies, pastries and bagels. A coffee roaster may be added next year to allow for a more sophisticated brewing process and a broader menu for aficionados. For now, the highlight might just be the coffee cake, which I can confidently say is A-1 certified.

“When we first started, it was really scary,” said Cardenas, who left a six-figure banking job to pursue the dream of owning a coffee shop. “We had like two customers a day, if we were lucky.” Now, they’re building a steady community of regulars and new visitors each day.

Cardenas’ journey into coffee didn’t begin with a business plan — it started with a leap. After saving some money, he quit his job without a clear next step. He moved into a small apartment in Lincoln Heights, where he found a job at B Twentyfour Coffee just two blocks away.

“I was just there working it because I liked doing it,” he said. “Then I got to talking to the owner, and she kind of influenced me too. ‘Hey, you should think about opening up your own shop,’ she said.”

That conversation sparked what had previously only been a dream.

Cardenas, now just 30, started his adventure at 24. His biggest challenge was convincing his wife, Mia Cardenas, to leap with him. Together, they’ve built more than a coffee shop — they’ve built a creative hub. Nearly everything for sale inside the shop, from paintings to candles and hand-knitted crafts, is produced by local artists who also happen to be loyal customers.

“Those are the people I look out for,” said Cardenas. “The ones who have been with us from the beginning.”

At monthly team meetings, Cardenas repeats a mantra to his staff: “Don’t take any customer for granted, even if they come every day. There are thousands of reasons why someone might stop coming — whether it’s a new job, a move, or school. Let’s not be the reason they don’t want to come back.”

Simple menu. Comfortable third space. Community engagement. Excellent service. It’s all by design — and all part of the adventure.

Aventuro Coffee

Time: Monday 7:30 a.m. – 10 p.m., Tuesday – Friday 7:30 a.m.. – 6:30 p.m., weekends 8 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Details: https://www.aventurerocoffee.com/

Location: 26640 S. Western Ave. Suite N., Harbor City

City Stonewalls Public Records Request

Greggory Moore
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City Stonewalls Public Records Request

 

Only Complies After Months of Pressure

The California Public Records Act (CPRA) requires that government records (defined as “any writing containing information relating to the conduct of the public’s business prepared, owned, used or retained by any state or local agency regardless of physical form or characteristics”) be disclosed to any member of the public upon request (with specific exemptions for privacy and/or public safety issues) within 24 calendar days.

Last December, the Bureau of Engineering (BOE), the City of Los Angeles department responsible for the refurbishment of the historic Warner Grand Theatre in San Pedro, responded to a November 21 request from Random Lengths News for “any and all records, communications, correspondence, etc. […] pertaining to the refurbishment of the Warner Grand Theatre” from the prior three months by providing 17 pages of records.

But because these 17 pages did not include multiple pertinent e-mails sent from BOE staff — including to and from project manager Marcus Yee, and with phrases such as “Warner Grand Theatre” and “WGT Renovation Project” in the subject line — Random Lengths News was able to independently verify that the BOE had not fully complied with their CPRA obligations.

Nonetheless, on four separate occasions, the BOE attempted to close RLn’s request without disclosing all records, making explicit claims to both RLn and even L.A. City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto’s office that no additional records existed.

After five months of back-and-forth, the City ultimately produced nearly 1,400 pages of pertinent records — over 99% more than the BOE claimed to exist.

A brief timeline:

  • Nov. 21 – Public Records Request submitted to the BOE.
  • Dec. 9 – Request closed after the release of 8 pages of records. Request reopened after I suggested this could not be everything.
  • Dec. 26 – Request closed with the release of an additional 9 pages of records. Request reopened after I again suggested that this could not be everything.
  • Jan. 2 – I inform the City Attorney’s Office that it appears the BOE is not complying with California law regarding disclosure of records.
  • Jan. 6 – Request closed with no additional records released (“We have again verified with our divisions and the Bureau of Engineering has no additional records to provide at this time”).
  • Jan. 7 – Statement from Deputy City Attorney Bethelwel Wilson: “I have had exhaustive communications with the BOE regarding this request and the determination that was arrived after numerous searches is that you have been provided all responsive records and there is nothing further for BOE to provide.” I reply that I am in possession of material proving this is not the case, citing one example. “In light of your latest email,” Wilson replies, “I have asked BOE to conduct a more comprehensive search of staff emails.”
  • Feb. 11 – Having received no further communications or additional records, I follow up with the City Attorney’s Office.
  • Feb. 12 – Request reopened; I receive approximately 100 pages of additional records — though the above-mentioned BOE staff e-mails are absent.
  • Feb. 28 – I follow up with the City Attorney’s Office. Wilson: “I understand BOE is reviewing the final batch of emails. Let [me] check with them again for an estimate.”
  • Mar. 11 – Having received no further communications or records, I follow up with the City Attorney’s Office.
  • Mar. 25 – I again follow up with the City Attorney’s Office.
  • May 6 – Wilson: “In light of BOE’s delay I will personally ensure you receive nonexempt records before week’s end.”
  • May 7 – I receive approximately 1,300 pages of additional records.

It is unclear whether the BOE’s gross misrepresentation of the existence of pertinent records was intentional or not. (The BOE did not reply to numerous requests for comment.) What is certain, however, is that the City failed to comply with the California law.

“This sounds like a classic example of an inadequate search,” says David Loy, legal director of the First Amendment Coalition. “I can’t read minds as to whether it is malice or incompetence, but it definitely should not be this way. The duty of conducting a search is not perfection, it’s reasonableness — but that is not a blank check not to do due diligence. […] If you requested e-mails, doing a keyword search on e-mails is Search 101 stuff, so there’s no excuse not to produce any records that have the project name in the subject line.”

City Attorney Feldstein Soto did not respond inquiries concerning whether she is troubled with such an egregious failure to comply with state law; what safeguards are supposed to be in place to ensure that the City complies with its legal obligation and how/why these safeguards failed so completely; whether the City take any action against the person(s)/department(s) responsible for this failure; whether the City will conduct any research/audit of its responses to prior records requests to ascertain how prevalent such failures are; and whether the City make any changes to its methodology concerning disclosure of requested public records.

Mexican Hollywood Part II — Weathering the Depression

Reporters Desk
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Mexican Hollywood Part II — Weathering the Depression

 

By Jaime Ruiz, Staff Writer

On June 7, the City of Los Angeles commemorated the memory of Mexican Hollywood at the Cruise Ship Terminal, the historic site of the beloved neighborhood that thrived from the 1920s to the 1950s. The event honored the rich cultural legacy of the Mexican-American community in the Los Angeles Harbor Area. The following is Part II of Random Lengths News‘ reprint of an updated version of reporter Jaime Ruiz’s 2005 story. It is a part of the larger immigrant story of Los Angeles that now seems relevant once again. The editors

Tough choices faced Mexican communities during the Depression. Like today, their labor proved crucial to the lifeblood of key industries in the U.S. economy, but during economic downturns, they become scapegoats for structural deficiencies inherent in capitalism.

In the late 1920s and ’30s, most Mexicans like the Gonzales family, who had lived and contributed for decades, stayed in El Norte and continued their struggle to survive. Others had no choice, as the U.S. and Mexican governments collaborated to force nearly a half-million residents and U.S. citizens of Mexican descent back to Mexico in a process known as “Repatriation.”

Families such as the Salazars tried their luck in Northern California picking fields. But Don Eduardo Sanchez decided to return to his birthplace with his family. After losing everything, including all his bank savings, coupled with being labeled an “undesirable” for spending time in jail on a cockfighting charge, Frank Sanchez recalls his father saying, “No, no me voy para mi Mexico.”

The Sanchez family spent the next two years in Nogales, Mexico where “we almost died of hunger.”

Louie Gonzales learned early about survival and working for the family. For extra cash, he began shining shoes and selling newspapers by the age of 10. Like other boys his age, Gonzales woke up at 4 a.m. when Navy men docked in the harbor and needed their shoes shined for inspection.

“So you’d go over there with your shinebox and shine shoes for five cents,” Gonzales explained. “But you had to go early in the morning because they had to be aboard ship by seven. A lot of them didn’t want to shine their own shoes. So we shined them.”

During the epic 1934 coastwide longshore strike, Gonzales, still carrying his shoe shine box, watched and waited for scabs. He recalls that “longshoremen would get the scabs, beat them up, and throw their money in the air.” Gonzales and the other kids would then pick up the money.

“We used to go into like Todd Shipyard ― they had a press and punched a hole that would have a piece of steel an inch thick round, and we used to make slingshots and throw them at the scabs,” Gonzales recalled.

Longshoremen appreciated the show of solidarity. “The longshoremen had a big tent on 11th Street and there was a big cafeteria. So they’d give us a pass for a free lunch for throwing the steel at the scabs.”

When he was 16, Gonzales told the principal he was 17 to work in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camps, earning money for himself and the family as the government sent back a portion.

The only jobs available to Mexican Americans were in lumber, fish canning and parts of the waterfront. Mexicans were often assigned some of the dirtiest and most dangerous workarounds. However, the predominately Mexican scaler’s union followed the path of the longshoremen, first as a non-unionized shape-up hiring to a union with a dispatcher. Before the union, “They used to go to the corner of Ancon and O’Farrell in a truck and pick you, you and you. Get in the truck,” Gonzales recounted.

A scaler’s work, as Gonzales explained, was dirty.

“You come out dirtier than hell. Anything dirty, the scalers used to do it. You come out full of oil, or you come out full of soot or full of paint or any god darn thing that was a filthy job, that was it. But it paid good,” Gonzales said. “That’s the only type of work Mexican people could get.”

With the United States’ entry into World War II, the port transitioned into a wartime economy as Uncle Sam called on draftees and volunteers to serve.

Like other Mexican Americans, Mexican Hollywood boys served in the military. Gonzales volunteered after his cousin Fabian Gonzales was drafted and soon after killed in action. Mr. Sanchez ended up in the Battle of the Bulge, was captured, and nearly died as a German prisoner of war. Joe Salazar was a part of the second wave of the Normandy Invasion.

On the eve of WWII, Mexican Hollywood had structurally and culturally stabilized into a permanent barrio. The relative permanency allowed children to receive an education, a journey that took them from Barton Hill Elementary, Dana Junior High and San Pedro High.

The New Deal and the Works Project Administration (WPA) built a sewage system and the streets in Mexican Hollywood were paved with asphalt.

Across from Barton Hill, Holy Trinity (Now St. Peter’s) Church served the community’s religious needs. Although primarily Catholic, Mexican Hollywood did have at least one Baptist family that held “hallelujahs” in the garage.

Toberman Settlement House, which began operating out of San Pedro in the 1930s ― maintained a clubhouse in Mexican Hollywood. Toberman offered activities for parents and children alike and was well-appreciated by the Mexican community for its work.

Lillie Nuño remembers the indispensable role that Toberman played in her childhood.

“I remember we had a big playground,” recalled Lillie. A playground was built in a big empty lot next to the clubhouse, complete with monkey bars, swings, a baseball diamond and a basketball court. Lillie still remembers the director, Mrs. Clark.

“She was always reading to us, and teaching us how to sew, and how to do little girl things,” Nuño said.

Each Christmas, Toberman House gave gifts to the community’s children ― either a truck for a boy or a doll for a girl.

One of the lead authors of Mexican American Baseball, journalist Ron Gonzalez noted that Mexican baseball teams flourished throughout San Pedro, from the little neighborhood of La Rambla hugging nearby hillsides to Mexican Hollywood.

According to “Mexican American Baseball in the South Bay”“ Young Mexican men – and women – “organized teams that played at Myers Field at the southeast corner of Ancon and O’Farrell streets in Mexican Hollywood.”

The neighborhood’s original team name was the Hollywood Mexicans, which took to the field in 1931. Team members soon voted to rechristen themselves as the San Pedro Internationals, competing under that name until 1934. Among its managers was longtime baseball aficionado Mike Lomeli Sr., who lived on Ancon Street. Other Mexican teams used the field too, including the San Pedro International Girls, the Hermosa Athletic Club, the Sonora Club and the San Pedro Sharks.

Mexican teams from throughout the South Bay and Los Angeles County played there, as did teams representing U.S. Navy ships. Mexican Hollywood teams played against many squads fielded along other racial and ethnic lines, including Italians, Croatians, Filipinos, Chinese and African Americans.

Union Rallies Against Patriot Environmental Over Labor Disputes

Terelle Jerricks
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Union Rallies Against Patriot Environmental Over Labor Disputes

 

SAN PEDRO, California — The ILWU Local 56 Shipscalers Union escalated its campaign against Patriot Environmental Services on June 13, with a rally in front of the APM Terminal at the Port of Los Angeles. The union alleges that the company and its parent company, Crystal Clean LLC, have engaged in anti-labor practices.

ILWU Local 56 members, who are specially trained to handle hazardous materials, are typically hired for cleanup and environmental remediation work at ports and industrial sites. The union maintains a collective bargaining agreement with Patriot Environmental Services (PES), but claims the company has repeatedly violated it by denying members job opportunities at ports and other locations.

“We have been fighting for a fair contract for five years,” said ILWU Local 56 President Albert Ramirez. “We are asking the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to stand with environmental and hazmat workers in our demand that Patriot Environmental and their parent company, Crystal Clean, respect our current contract and meet industry standards.”

Ramirez added that Local 56 members provide essential services to the harbor community and the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, cleaning up hazardous waste and environmental hazards.

The union is demanding parity with other union signatories that have contracts with similar firms and insists that Patriot Environmental respect its members. “In the end,” the union said in a statement, “the employer is harming our members and their families.”

State Assembly candidate Shannon Ruiz Ross joined union leaders and workers at the June 13 rally in a show of solidarity.

In February 2025, PES was hired by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a subcontractor for Phase 1 hazardous materials removal during the wildfire cleanup in Altadena, Eaton and Pacific Palisades.

The company also has federal contracts. In 2022, PES was awarded a blanket purchase agreement by the U.S. Air Force’s 412th Civil Engineer Group for spill response and cleanup services. The agreement, valued at up to $2 million, runs through Dec. 30, 2026. So far, $70,600 has been obligated.

PES was also deployed in 2024 to respond to an oil spill from a ruptured pipeline in Wilmington that released about 8,000 gallons of produced water and crude oil into a storm drain and port waters. The company set up a 1,200-foot boom, conducted high-pressure washing and sorbent cleanup, removed oiled vegetation and debris, and completed cleanup by Feb. 12, 2024.

In 2022, Heritage-Crystal Clean Inc. acquired Patriot Environmental Services. Crystal Clean provides parts cleaning, oil re-refining and hazardous and nonhazardous waste services to small and mid-sized businesses.

Crystal Clean is also named in a class-action lawsuit originally filed in California in 2015. The suit alleges the company failed to pay wages for on-call standby time, manipulated start and stop times, underreported labor, and denied legally mandated meal and rest breaks.

In a written statement, Ramirez said the National Labor Relations Board has always been a tool for workers to build power, but emphasized that it is not the only means for resolving labor disputes. The union continues to demand that both Patriot Environmental and Crystal Clean meet industry labor standards.

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