The LAPD media relations department released the video on Aug. 20 officer-involved shooting in front of Stanley’s Liquor Store on 17th and Pacific Avenue. The 18-minute video included footage from the liquor store and both officers.
The patrol officers rolled up on the parked vehicle in a handicapped parking spot in front of Stanley’s liquor. When the officers asked the driver for his license, he replied he didn’t have it and that the vehicle belonged to the young woman in the front passenger seat who then provided her driver’s license and documentation for the vehicle. The remaining occupants provided their identification. The driver of the vehicle was ordered out of the vehicle first. He was searched and moved to the passenger side of the vehicle alongside the female passenger who was seated behind the driver’s seat. The pair were made to stand facing the liquor store.
The second male passenger, Russell Douthit, who was seated in the right passenger seat was ordered out and was searched with his hands behind his head. The patrol officer searching Douthit removed a handgun from Douthit’s waistband. The officer handed the gun to his partner who was standing at a safe distance away, enabling him to keep his eye on Douthit, the two occupants facing the liquor store and the female in the front passenger seat.
Up until the discovery of the gun taken from Douthit, the interactions between the police officers and the car occupants were relaxed and cooperative. After the gun was removed from Douthit, the officers’ interactions with the car’s occupants became tense. The officer standing at a distance ordered the two passengers already facing the liquor store to get on their knees and hands behind their heads. He then asked for backup. The officer closest to Douthit ordered the 20-year-old to stand on his knees with his legs crossed and his hands behind his back.
The two car occupants who were now on their knees facing the liquor store (following instructions from the officers standing at a distance) began asking what happened. The car’s occupants struggled to understand to whom instructions were being given as the officers shouted at them.
After asking Douthit his first name, they asked Douthit (by name since the two other occupants were also on their knees at this point) to shuffle to the right to put distance between the car and Douthit. The 220 lbs Douthit complained of discomfort as he sat on his knees with his legs crossed. The body cam footage of the officer standing at a distance seem to show Douthit attempting to comply with the officers’ orders only to fall over to the left into the still open back passenger door out of which he exited. The LAPD, however, said Douthit lunged into the car. Regardless, the officer standing at a distance fired at Douthit wounding Douthit’s hand. Douthit reacted by jumping to his feet and running a few feet away before stopping and complying with the officers’ instructions not to run and to get down on his stomach.
The video then shows the camera footage of officers who arrived at the scene after the shooting. Douthit was cited for illegally carrying a concealed firearm. The LAPD said a Glock-17 handgun and a magazine clip were taken from Douthit and booked into evidence while the District Attorney’s office decides whether to take up the case.
Alfonso Guevara, an H-2A worker, uses a short-handled hoe, the “cortito,” that has been banned in California because repeated use causes damage to the spine. California’s agricultural wage order says: “Weeding or thinning with short-handled hoes is prohibited when the hoe is used in a stooping, kneeling or squatting position.” This photograph was taken in Oregon. In California AB 857 would require his crew boss to give him a list of his rights, including the prohibition of this kind of work that can cause damage to the spine.
Two bills awaiting Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature — or veto — would broaden protections for an estimated 300,000 foreign contract workers laboring in California on work visas. While the documented abusive conditions in “guest worker” visa programs have led to calls for their termination, these bills would offer some improvements to the workers involved.
AB 364, authored by Assemblymember Freddie Rodriguez (D-Pomona), seeks to regulate the recruitment of many workers brought to the U.S. under contract labor visas. AB 857, coauthored by State Assemblymember Ash Kalra (D-San Jose) and State Senator María Elena Durazo (D-Los Angeles), would give guest workers on H-2A visas (contract workers in agriculture) notification of their rights under state law, making it easier for them to go to the Labor Commissioner if those rights are violated.
“Congress has failed to act to protect workers who are recruited abroad through temporary work visa programs,” explains Daniel Costa, director of Immigration Law and Policy Research at the Economic Policy Institute. “The abuses of labor recruiters have included requiring the payment of illegal fees to obtain jobs, which can result in debt bondage, as well as cases of wage theft, discrimination, human trafficking and other abuses. But since these U.S. work arrangements are being set up abroad, it is difficult to regulate the behavior of recruiters.”
Protections that AB 364 would provide include a prohibition of recruitment fees by labor recruiters operating outside the U.S., and a requirement that they give workers a written contract specifying their wages and working conditions when they’re recruited. Because it’s difficult for workers to get paid for violations by a recruiter operating abroad, the recruiters would have to have a California address and post a bond.
Rodriguez’s legislation was written to expand state protection to work visa holders omitted in a previous bill, SB 477, signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2014. That law only applies to workers in one of the smallest visa categories, the H-2B visa program. They make up less than 1% of temporary work visa holders in California. H-2B workers are employed in jobs often called “low-skilled,” but not agriculture — primarily hotel and hospitality, meatpacking, domestic and home care, and landscaping jobs. Assemblymember Rodriguez’s AB 364 would cover all work visa holders — those on A-3, B-1, H-1B, H-1C, H-2A, H-2B, L-1, O-1, 1, P-3 and TN visas — except for students on J-1 visas who also work.
Nationally, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security estimates the number of temporary work visa holders is 1.6 million, while Costa believes it’s closer to 2 million. The DHS says about 300,000 work in California, a number they admit is not a direct count but an estimate. Costa estimates that AB 364 would cover at least 310,500 workers.
Farmworkers brought to the U.S. in the H-2A visa program harvest melons in July 2021 in a field near Firebaugh, California. At 9 in the morning, it was more than 95 degrees, and would soon surpass 110. It was the second day of work in the U.S. for the indigenous Cora workers from Nayarit, Mexico; they were not yet accustomed to the high temperatures. One worker fainted and got a nosebleed from the heat. They worked for the labor contractor Rancho Nuevo Harvesting in a field that belongs to the Fisher family, a large California grower.
Workers come to California to work in several basic industries or job categories. The H-2A visa program covers farmworkers. They can only stay for less than a year, and if they are fired by the contractor or grower who brought them, they must leave the country. Growers were certified to bring more than 317,000 H-2A workers to the U.S. in 2021, three times the number eight years earlier. Of these, 32,333 were brought to California. Three large California-based companies, Fresh Harvest, Foothill Packing and Rancho Nuevo Harvesting, accounted for 12,974 workers. One company alone, CSI Visa Processing (formerly Manpower of the Americas), says it recruits more than 25,000 workers from 12 offices in Mexico every year.
Some of the most egregious examples of recruitment abuse involve farmworkers on H-2A visas. One Texas grower, Larsen Farms, charged 100 Mexican workers as much as $1,500 each for a visa, and workers couldn’t leave the job until they’d paid their debt. In November 2021, the U.S. Attorney in Georgia filed a case against 24 growers and labor contractors for abusing H-2A workers. The complaint included two deaths, rape, kidnapping, threatening workers with guns, and growers selling workers to one another as though they were property.
While the federal government sets regulations and is responsible for enforcement, effective oversight hardly exists. According to the Cato Institute, the Department of Labor fined, on average, 2% of all employers from 2008 to 2018. Most fines averaged $237 for minor infractions, and the maximum fine was only $115,624. On average, fewer than 20 employers a year were suspended or banned from the program, an annual rate of 0.27%.
The annual cap for the recruitment of H-1B workers is set at 85,000 per year, and because these visa holders can stay in the country for multiple years, the total number of H-1B workers in the U.S. was 583,420 in 2019. Those workers are considered “high skilled,” some holding advanced degrees, and work in the technology industry, health care, and even as teachers in the school system. There is no annual cap on the L-1 visa, supposedly intended for transfers of people within a corporation into the U.S. from outside the country, and there are no education or skill requirements.
When an H-2A worker is fired for protesting, not meeting production quotas, or for no reason at all, he or she loses their visa status and must leave the country.
The record of abuse of people with these work visas is as extensive. According to a 2021 report from the Economic Policy Institute, “Thousands of skilled migrants with H-1B visas working as subcontractors at well-known corporations like Disney, FedEx, Google and others appear to have been underpaid by at least $95 million. Victims include not only the H-1B workers but also the U.S. workers who are either displaced or whose wages and working conditions degrade when employers are allowed to underpay skilled migrant workers with impunity.” The recruiters are large corporations. One, HCL Technologies, made $11 billion in revenue in 2020.
A federal bill, the H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act of 2022, would go after recruitment abuse in this category, especially the use of H-1B workers to replace workers in the U.S. It was introduced in March but has not passed either house. Terry FitzPatrick, co-chair of the Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking, urged California legislators, “Despite ATEST advocacy at the federal level for more than 10 years on these issues, a lack of comprehensive and consistent federal oversight and regulation means temporary workers continue to be exploited and trafficked.”
AB 857 is directed specifically at farmworkers coming to the U.S. under the H-2A visa program, responding to a long history of false and misleading claims by recruiters denying farmworkers’ rights under state law. California’s workplace standards and minimum wages and benefits are governed by a series of wage orders, part of the state labor code. In recent years, farmworkers have won coverage in those orders for overtime pay and sick leave, as well as break times and other protections. State law does not exclude workers from the protection of those regulations, regardless of whether they have legal immigration status, or if they are laboring under work visas like H-2A.
Nevertheless, according to a California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation fact sheet, in a review of 280 job offers used to recruit more than 22,000 H-2A workers, 172 falsely claimed employers didn’t have to pay travel time, 144 denied workers tenants’ rights and 131 claimed that H-2A workers couldn’t receive outside visitors in company housing. Although workers are covered by sick-leave benefits, many came into legal-aid offices complaining that their employers wouldn’t pay them, even when they got the COVID-19 virus during the pandemic.
Contract work visas have been controversial since the bracero program, which brought millions of Mexican workers into U.S. fields from 1942 to 1964.
Federal H-2A program regulations require recruiters to give workers a copy of their job offer, or contract. But they’re not required to notify workers of their protections under California state law, which are much broader. AB 857 would require recruiters and employers to notify workers, in Spanish and in writing, about those protections. It also specifically requires that workers be notified about emergency disasters — critical information for farm laborers who toil in the smoke and heat during the heat dome and fire seasons, and in emergencies stemming from the pandemic. The bill, according to CRLAF, would cover 110 employers and recruiters, and more than 25,000 workers.
One right enumerated by the bill states, “An employer shall not retaliate against an employee for complaining about working conditions or for organizing collectively.” When an H-2A worker is fired for protesting, not meeting production quotas, or for no reason at all, he or she loses their visa status and must leave the country. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, recruiters then can, and do, blacklist them. The bill would prohibit this, although it is not clear how this right might be enforced.
Ultimately, however, given the abuses that can and do happen to people on work visas, both bills simply try to impose a degree of regulation and protect at least some rights. Neither bill addresses the impact of the work visa programs on the surrounding workforce. “The power that visa programs give employers, and the individuals and companies that they contract with to recruit workers, is then used to undercut wages and labor standards,” warns Costa.
Contract work visas have been controversial since the bracero program, which brought millions of Mexican workers into U.S. fields from 1942 to 1964. Farm labor advocates, including Cesar Chavez and Bert Corona, accused growers of using braceros to replace farmworkers already living in the U.S., and keeping the braceros isolated in camps where they were vulnerable to exploitation. Congress finally ended that program during the civil rights era.
One worker advocate, who for legal reasons didn’t want to be identified, concludes, “When you look at where our agricultural system is headed today, what’s growing is the worst possible alternative. We’re creating a permanent underclass of workers with fewer rights, isolated from the communities around them. While we’re trying to limit some of the worst abuses, these programs should really be abolished.”
TRAA Urgent Action Request: Urge the EPA & White House to Require HF Refineries to Convert.
The EPA proposal does not require refineries to phase out hydrofluoric acid orHF, but leaves it up to the owners to determine if they need to convert.
This can still be changed.
HF is exceptionally dangerous because it can cause mass casualties. See an HF cloud up close in this video. Urgent action is needed to let them know that their proposed safety rule is insufficient and does not protect us.
Information You Will Need to Urge the EPA & White House to Require HF Refineries to Convert
Here is a Sample Letter to get you started, and an easy link to submit your comments on-line directly or by attaching your letter (or even videos). If you do submit it on-line, please email a copy to TRAA at info@traa.website.
EPA Rule findings and recommendations
The agency stated “An accidental release of HF from one of these industrial facilities could have severe consequences. HF is toxic to humans, flora and fauna in certain doses and can still be lethal as demonstrated by documented workplace accidents. HF can travel significant distances downwind as a dense vapor and aerosol under certain accidental release conditions. Because HF can exist as an aerosol, the cloud can contain a substantially greater quantity of the chemical than otherwise would be the case. Thus, the potentially high concentration of HF in these dense vapor and aerosol clouds could pose a significant threat to the public, especially in those instances where HF is handled at facilities located in densely populated areas. Prompt and specialized medical attention is necessary to treat HF exposure properly.
“However the risk to the public to exposure to HF is a function of both potential consequences and the likelihood of occurrence of accidental release: and the likelihood of an accidental release of HF can be kept low if facility owners/operators exercise the general duty and responsibility to design, operate, and maintain safe facilities.”
Read more of the PDF of EPA’s hydrogen fluoride study report to Congress: https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPDF.cgi/10003920.PDF?Dockey=10003920.PDF
Videos courtesy of TRAA
President Joe Biden on preventing chemical disasters: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#search/TRAA/FMfcgzGqQcrDZjZwMDmfRzKkJXgmBVCM?projector=1
Cloud of Fire; June refinery explosions in Philadelphia Pennsylvania: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#search/TRAA/FMfcgzGqQcrDZjZwMDmfRzKkJXgmBVCM?projector=1
EPA virtual public hearings are easy to join (register below). If you want to make an Oral Comment please select “yes” when asked.
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health cautions residents who are planning to visit the below Los Angeles County beach to avoid swimming, surfing, and playing in ocean waters:
BEACH CLOSURE:
On September 07, 2022, Public Health issued a beach closure and posted closure signs due to sewage discharge affecting all swim areas around:
RAT (Right After Torrance/Redondo) Beach, located at the southernmost section of Torrance Beach
Samples taken Sept. 17 show bacteria levels continue to exceed state standards. Sampling is being done daily. This closure will remain in effect until two consecutive test results indicate that bacterial levels meet health standards.
These warnings have been issued due to bacterial levels exceeding health standards when last tested.
Recorded information on beach conditions is available 24- hours a day on the County’s beach closure hotline: 1-800- 525-5662. To view map of impacted locations and for more information visit: PublicHealth.LACounty.gov/Beach/.
On Sept. 9, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority released the results of its 2022 homeless count, revealing a 4% increase in the homeless population in Los Angeles County, a 2% increase in the City of Los Angeles, and a 5% increase in Council District 15. The day prior, the two candidates for Los Angeles City Council District 15, Danielle Sandoval and Tim McOsker, took part in a forum on their plans to tackle homelessness.
In response to the homelessness report, Councilman Joe Buscaino, who represents CD15, issued a press release. He said there was a 41% increase in the number of people who accepted the city’s transitional housing, as 323 people were in the city’s shelters as of 2020’s count, and there were 457 in 2022.
“The most recent homeless count shows that transitional housing is working,” Buscaino wrote in the press release. “In Council District 15, people experiencing homelessness are saying yes to interim housing which is serving as a necessary step on the path to permanent housing.”
Homelessness increased by 5% in his district, as there were 2,257 homeless people in 2020 and 2,373 in 2022, according to LAHSA’s count. He also pointed out that there was a slight decrease in street homelessness, as there were 1,934 people living on the streets of CD15 in 2020, and 1,916 in 2022.
Of all the homeless people living in CD15, only 19% were in the city’s transitional housing.
Buscaino, who has been accused by critics of being anti-homeless, finished his press release by indirectly referencing section 41.18 of the Los Angeles Municipal Code, which bans homeless people from sleeping on certain sidewalks.
“While this year’s count shows progress, the City — and every other city in LA County — must maintain basic rules and regulations in the public right of way while simultaneously investing in every type of housing to tackle this ongoing crisis,” Buscaino wrote.
In August, Buscaino voted with the rest of the city council, which passed 11-3 an expansion of Section 41.18 to within 500 feet of all schools and daycares in the city, effectively banning unhoused people from 20% of the city. Previously, the city had to put up signs banning unhouse people from specific locations, but these are no longer needed near schools.
Sandoval and McOsker, the two candidates vying to replace Buscaino, differed in their opinions on 41.18.
“It’s a tragedy when anyone has to live on the street,” McOsker said. “But there are some areas that are more sensitive than other areas and are less appropriate for folks to be on the street. And in fact, in and around schools and carrying a safe passage to a school is one such area. So, I do support 41.18 and a protected zone around schools.”
McOsker said it was important to remain committed to outreach towards the people in encampments every time the city puts up a sign to enforce 41.18, but he did not mention these signs are no longer necessary within 500 feet of schools.
“We need to make sure, under Boise, and because it’s the right thing to do, that we have beds available for folks,” McOsker said.
He was referencing Martin v. Boise, a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit that homeless people cannot be punished for sleeping outside on public property in the absence of adequate alternatives.
McOsker said he would not commit to adding or removing any signs that ban homeless people, but that he would evaluate them on a case-by-case basis.
Sandoval said that 41.18 is poorly written and reactionary.
“The only reason why we have some of these sites under 41.18 is because it’s a reactionary response to the people that don’t want encampments near their homes,” Sandoval said. “It’s a form of NIMBYism.”
Sandoval said there are encampments with dangerous people, but others are just people trying to shelter themselves from the elements, and they should be protected.
“This ordinance should not have been put in without a plan,” Sandoval said. “Temporary housing, tiny home villages, micro-housing, shared housing, bridge homes, all of the proper resources should have been in place before we enacted any ordinance that criminalizes homelessness.”
Sandoval said that schools should be protected against crime, but that the ordinance only criminalizes homeless people. While on the board of neighborhood councils, she would receive emails from parents who had to take their children past the McCoy encampment while taking them to school.
“I did contact our senior lead officers and ask for extra patrols,” Sandoval said.
Laurie Jacobs, former vice president of the Northwest San Pedro Neighborhood Council, spoke to the candidates about the high-turnover rate of outreach workers. This is because of low wages, and Jacobs asked what the candidates would do.
Sandoval said she has advocated for years for the city to have its own health department, instead of relying on the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. She wants it to have its own services and outreach workers.
“We need to have direct services,” Sandoval said. “And outreach workers need to build that trust. In order for someone to accept services, they have to trust the worker that they’re working with. And in order to build that trust, we cannot have the high turnover that we have, because then we’re just starting all over again.”
Tim McOsker pointed out that LAHSA recently raised the salaries of its outreach workers, but this created a problem. LAHSA partners with service providers, nonprofit organizations that help homeless people. Since these providers still did not pay very well, outreach workers left them to work for LAHSA instead.
“It is terrible for those folks experiencing homelessness when there’s a turnover of staff, when an outreach worker is there for a couple of weeks then gone,” McOsker said. “I’ve had the experience of being in encampments and talking to folks and seeing a stack of cards from different people who showed up and disappeared.”
McOsker said that he wants the city, as part of LAHSA, to require that service providers show their retention numbers.
In his closing remarks, McOsker stated his intentions to bring services to homeless people.
“We also need to make sure that we are working for as long as it takes, for as hard as it takes, to be in the street, where people are, and bringing to them in the community those mental health services, those addiction services, and those opportunities to come in and then navigate through a system so that everyone has the opportunity to come in and have a healthy, fruitful life,” McOsker said.
Sandoval said the city needs to do more, as there are homeless people who haven’t seen outreach workers in a long time, or do not know where to go for resources. She also said there are people who are frustrated because ballot initiatives have passed, but they haven’t been able to prevent homelessness.
“I understand both the homeowners and them feeling like they have agreed for the solutions,” Sandoval said. “And I understand those who are unhoused and need those solutions.”
Sandoval said she has lived experience, as she was homeless herself at one point.
“Our representatives don’t understand the fear of going into temporary housing,” Sandoval said. “The fear of having to choose whether to pay their rent or pay for food, because they may become homeless one day.”
Federal prosecutors Sept. 14 filed criminal charges against nine defendants – seven of them dockworkers at the Port of Long Beach – who allowed more than $2.1 million in fraudulent claims to be submitted to their labor union’s health insurance plan for sexual services or for physical therapy that never was provided.
The conspiracy’s ringleader, Sara Victoria, 46, of San Pedro, is charged in an information filed today with one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. The plea agreements for Victoria and the other eight defendants were filed Sept. 14 in United States District Court, and they are expected to make their initial court appearances in the coming weeks.
According to her plea agreement, from January 2017 to August 2021, Victoria owned and operated three businesses: Back to Life Wellness Center LLC and The Chiroman Wellness Center – both based in San Pedro – and the Wilmington-based Waterfront Wellness Center Inc. These companies offered patients chiropractic services, acupuncture treatments, and also sexual services.
Victoria knew that dock workers and others involved in the shipping industry in Long Beach had health insurance under the International Longshore and Warehouse Union – Pacific Maritime Association (ILWU-PMA) benefit plan. This plan generally covered all chiropractic services with no deductible and without requiring plan members to contribute any copay amount or out-of-pocket services.
Victoria hired women to provide sexual services to dock workers at her companies and recruited them through referrals and from strip clubs in the Long Beach area. In exchange for obtaining sexual services for themselves and their friends, ILWU-PMA plan members authorized Victoria to submit false claims for reimbursement for services not actually rendered, including chiropractic and physical therapy, using their names or the names of their family members, such as their spouses and children. Victoria also agreed to pay ILWU-PMA plan members cash kickbacks in exchange for authorization to submit false claims for reimbursement for services not actually rendered.
Victoria also admitted to using someone else’s identity without the person’s consent during the commission of the health care fraud conspiracy.
In total, Victoria submitted approximately $2,110,920 in claims to the ILWU-PMA plan, for which the plan paid approximately $551,810.
After Victoria enters a plea of guilty, she will face a statutory maximum sentence of 12 years in federal prison.
Also charged this week was Cameron Rahm, 39, of Pico Rivera, a Long Beach longshoreman and ILWU member whom a federal grand jury charged in an indictment with one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, two counts of health care fraud, and one count of making false statements to federal investigators.
Rahm allegedly was one of the customers of Victoria’s businesses and agreed to have her submit to the ILWU-PMA plan fraudulent claims for services not rendered or for sexual services. He also allegedly lied to FBI agents investigating this case when he denied allowing anyone to bill his health insurer for sexual services. He is expected to appear for this arraignment this afternoon in United States District Court in Los Angeles.
If convicted of all charges, Rahm would face a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison for the conspiracy and health care fraud counts, and five years in federal prison for the false statements count.
The other nine defendants listed from the plea agreement:Maricruz Mendoza Sillas, Rodolpho Bojorquez, Cesar Delgadillo, Joel Lizarraga, Simon Ramirez, Cameron Rahm, Rogelio Martinez, Clifford Hopson and Lawrence Robles. https://tinyurl.com/plea-agreement
Rahm pleaded not guilty Sept. 14. A trial date scheduled for Nov. 8 in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld, Jr., in Los Angeles. Rahm is free on $20,000 bond.
Port of Long Beach Previews Path to Zero Emissions
The Port of Long Beach and its industry partners showed Sept. 13 how one port trucking company is converting to a full zero-emissions trucking fleet three years from now, a full decade before the 2035 zero-emissions goal set by the Clean Air Action Plan.
The announcement was made at 4 Gen Logistics in the Port of Long Beach, where Electrify America will install 60 public charging stations by the end of 2023 to serve its own fleet of electric trucks, as well as other companies’ trucks. 4 Gen will also purchase 41 Volvo and 20 Kenworth electric heavy-duty trucks, with plans eventually calling for a 100-vehicle zero emissions fleet. In addition, 4 Gen’s site in Rialto will host 30 charging stations. Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia, port officials, and representatives from Volvo, Kenworth, Electrify America, the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the California Air Resources Board and CALSTART gathered to celebrate the company’s plans.
Mayor Robert Garcia said the changeover to cleaner trucks at the port complex will be supported by the clean truck fund rate, which is expected to generate $90 million in its first year, or $45 million each for the Port of Long Beach and Port of Los Angeles.
Port of Long Beach executive director Mario Cordero noted the progress being made by the port in the quest for zero emissions. For example, about $70 million in grant funding has been secured to support $150 million in demonstration projects that are deploying zero-emissions and near zero-emissions cargo handling equipment and trucks at Port of Long Beach terminals and on the roads of Southern California.
SAN PEDRO — After record-breaking cargo volume in 2021 and the first half of 2022, the import surge at the Port of Los Angeles slowed in August. The port handled an estimated 806,000 Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) in August, approximately 15% less than the same period a year ago.
While official August cargo volume will be available soon on the Port’s website, Seroka offered estimates that are expected to change only slightly when final.
August 2022 loaded imports reached an estimated 404,000 TEUs compared to the previous year, a decrease of about 17%. Loaded exports reached an estimated 100,000 TEUs, a 1% increase drop compared to last August. Empty containers landed at an estimated 301,000 TEUs, an 18% decline compared to last year.
Eight months into 2022, the Port of Los Angeles has moved an estimated 7.2 million TEUs, about 1.6% down from last year’s record pace.
The City of Rancho Palos Verdes and the Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy have partnered in the creation of a 96-acre wildlife corridor on the peninsula. The conservancy has also launched a $30 million “Go Wild For the Peninsula” fundraising campaign to provide for the corridor’s restoration.
The 96-acre coastal wildlife corridor connects coastal land to the contiguous Palos Verdes Nature Preserve. The “Go Wild” campaign will provide benefits for the community, support threatened species, reduce fire risk and contribute to California’s 30X30 goal of conserving 30% of state lands and coastal waters by 2030.
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service contributed $12.6 million to the conservancy — the largest grant in the nation from the cooperative endangered species conservation fund. The Wildlife Conservation Board added $4.8 million in matching funds towards the wildlife corridor. The conservancy noted this award demonstrates the national importance of the lands and ecosystems of drought tolerant and fire-resistant plants that support the endangered, threatened and sensitive species in habitat managed by the land conservancy.
The City of Rancho Palos Verdes has contributed $1.3 million and the Los Angeles County Regional Park and Open Space District has awarded the land conservancy a competitive grant for $1 million from Measure A. So far, $19.7 million in public funds have been raised.
Conservancy executive director Adrienne Mohan spoke toRandom Lengths Newsabout its partnership with the city and the conservancy’s efforts to protect this natural habitat. She noted the land conservancy and the city have partnered for many years to protect open space in the city of Rancho Palos Verdes and have protected 1,400 acres of open space with the nature preserve.
“We are excited to have partnered to launch this acquisition and restoration of a wildlife corridor,” said Mohan. “This 96-acre piece of land is one of a kind. There’s not many open space areas along the coast, especially in Los Angeles county. We have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to protect and restore undeveloped coastal California land on the peninsula.
“[The] corridor links a lot of the preserved land [along] the upper portions of the peninsula hilltops all the way down to the coast, to the Abalone Cove reserve, which is already protected. It’s a corridor of land and connectivity that wildlife need in order to move around and expand their habitat and their populations.”
The wildlife corridor itself is the “crown jewel” of another big announcement made by the land conservancy; the $30 million initiative “Go Wild For The Peninsula.” The initiative helps to raise community support and funding to restore this wildlife corridor and then to enact other restoration projects throughout the peninsula lands that the conservancy serves.
The total amount of the initiative is $30 million. Now, at two-thirds of its target, the conservancy has $10 million left to raise. It will rely on public and private donors to reach its goal. Mohan said that $30 million is a fun coincidence in that it’s a play on California’s 30X30 environmental initiative.
“This project serves as a local example of the state’s 30X30 goal to preserve 30% of open space by 2030,” she said. “Protect[ing] this open land is our small local way to help the state achieve that goal.”
Raising $10 million is no small feat, but Mohan said that there’s a lot of community support for it.
“We’re confident we’ll be able to reach our goal, but we certainly need the community’s help,’’ Mohan said. “We are hoping that people will consider a contribution or become a monthly member with us, or volunteer too.”
The website:www.gowildpv.orgfeatures videos showing the land and projects to be enacted on it, which includes fire reduction.
Further, the conservancy will bring goats in, during the spring, to help eliminate the weeds on this tremendous sized piece of property. Once the weeds are gone, the conservancy will plant more native species and native seeds with wild flowers local to the area.
“Go Wild For The Peninsula is centered around this wildlife corridor as an example of the work that we’re hoping we can proliferate throughout the peninsula and also inspiring people to think about ways that they can ‘Go Wild,’ so to speak, in their homes,” Mohan said.
The conservancy’s other big effort is to help raise awareness about the beauty and benefits of bringing native plants into your home garden spaces. Mohan noted, in this time of drought it underscores how helpful native plants can be as communities face water issues going forward.
“People will start to see their landscapes suffer if they are not ready for drought tolerance,” Mohan said. “It is a sign of what’s to come with water restrictions and [everyone] being asked to do our part. This is a sort of fun way that [we hope] folks think about ‘Going Wild’ at home by putting native plants in.”
Native Wildlife
The conservancy grows and sells native plants from its local nursery, in San Pedro, as a resource for the community. Located within the Navy’s Defense Fuel Support Point on Gaffey Street, the conservancy propagates about 50,000 plants a year at the location and uses them for restoration projects at White Point and other locations.
Blue Butterfly Release.01.jpg • PV WK 13 2009 A male Blue Butterfly rest on the native Deer weed after it’s release. PHOTO: TOM UNDERHILL
This area is where the Palos Verdes blue butterfly was rediscovered after being believed to be extinct. The rediscovery launched the effort to raise these butterflies in captivity and release them onto their historical lands on the peninsula.
Other protected wildlife included in this effort are rare local species like raptors, owls, and countless other birds and land mammals like the gray fox and the El Segundo blue butterfly, which is also Federally endangered. They live along the bluffs on the peninsula, all the way up to Los Angeles International Airport. Threatened bird species within the corridor include: the California gnatcatcher and the cactus wren, which builds its nest and rears its young within tall stands of native cactus — prickly pear cactus.
The addition of drought-tolerant native plants local to the area will provide food and habitat for native birds and butterflies connecting the coast and land above in this wildlife corridor.
On Sept. 1 of this year, President Joe Biden stood at the podium at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, the very place where the Declaration of Independence was proclaimed and delivered a blistering primetime speech aimed at the former president. It wasn’t carried on the major networks. “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic!” he exclaimed.
“They do not respect the Constitution. They do not believe in the rule of law. They do not recognize the will of the people. They refuse to accept the results of a free election,” he said.
“They look at the mob that stormed the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, brutally attacking law enforcement, not as insurrectionists who placed a dagger at the throat of our democracy, but … as patriots,” Biden noted. “And they see their … failure to stop a peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 election as preparation for the 2022 and 2024 elections.”
“They’re working right now, as I speak, in state after state to give power to decide elections in America to partisans and cronies, empowering election deniers to undermine democracy itself,” he explained.
This wasn’t a great revelation to the majority of this country or to the world, but to a significant number of Republican loyalists (loyalists to Donald J. Trump), this was blasphemy, treason and or fascism. This of course is coming from those who have been defending Trump through the Robert Mueller investigation, two impeachments, the capital insurrection and now Mara-a-Lago-Gate.
The usual suspects from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to former governor-turned-pundit Mike Huckabee called Biden’s address “pure hate speech.”
And the talking heads over at FauxNews went crazy too, reporting that Joe Biden came to Philadelphia to give the most vicious, hateful, and divisive speech ever delivered by an American president.”
And Trump told a raucous crowd on the campaign trail in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, while stumping for Republican candidates two nights later, “Vilifying 75 million citizens, plus another probably 75 to 150 if we want to be accurate about it, as threats to democracy and enemies of the state… He’s the enemy of the state if you want to know the truth.”
Now of course this is just another of his exaggerations to inflame the MAGA crowd, but it is what it is: a lie from a professional liar. It does however delineate the battle lines of the conflict. While most people are conflict avoidant, choosing to block each other on social media rather than speaking up, the orange guy is riling up the white nationalists and neo-Nazis on Twitter — Biden’s speech said what was on many peoples’ minds — Trump is a danger to this republic. Thank you, President Biden for saying it out loud.
At this point, most of my friends and associates refuse to engage the true believers in the MAGA crowd, believing these Trump loyalists will just dry up and blow away in the southern wind on a parched desert. I’m afraid that this is not how this is going end.
There is even some not so veiled talk of “civil war” in that crowd. Though the Republicans probably have far more guns than the Democrats, I doubt that they would stand a chance against the United States armed forces and National Guard units. What we will see more of is armed idiots shooting up schools and grocery stores in a bid to incite a rebellion. Clearly, the party of “law and order” has been flipped with the MAGA leader himself the chief criminal.
It was none other than radical Malcolm X who presented the proposition in his famous “The Ballot or the Bullet” speech. And it is the challenge of our times that if we want to avoid a civil war there has to be a massive turnout at the ballot box. This means that the conflict between the left and right in America cannot be politely avoided, cannot be excused as impolite conversation at the cocktail party or dinner table. It needs to be addressed straight on. Don’t let them gaslight you. And don’t “step outside to settle it” either.
The blunt force of the law as expressed by the FBI search of Mar-a-largo and the 40-some-odd subpoenas issued to Trump’s associates and the upcoming Jan. 6 Congressional hearings will, in the end, take down the Grifter-in-Chief. We have to believe that, or the whole notion about the “rule of law” will appear as fiction, like the Law and Order TV show.
Do come armed with the facts. Don’t get mired down in the inevitable, What- about-Hilaryisms. Trump did attempt a coup d’état on our own government. Steve Bannon, Michael Flynn, Roger Stone and William Barr are all accomplices along with everybody else who has been convicted for the Jan. 6 insurrection. But Donald J. Trump needs to go to jail!
Biden’s speech was cautionary.
“Now, I want to be very clear up front: Not every Republican, not even the majority of Republicans, are MAGA Republicans. Not every Republican embraces their extreme ideology…But there is no question that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven, and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans, and that is a threat to this country.”
It is the light of liberty that has led this nation through abolition, the Civil War, suffrage, the Great Depression, two world wars and civil rights; with courage and conviction our nation will come to a new resolve — a resolution to this conflict.
With this one speech, Biden flipped the political narrative of the midterm election from inflation and culture war to a referendum on Trump — a battle that’s been won more than once.
Anyone with a smartphone is just one swipe away from casual acts of violence and sexuality of nearly every persuasion … lies, misinformation, and half-truths all mixed in with small kernels of fact and truth. The kicker is that it’s all packaged as entertainment. Yet conservative politicians and school boards are once again banning books from classrooms and libraries. Does this all sound familiar in the culture war over content? It should. It’s happened before.
Last year, author George M. Johnson defended his critically acclaimed book, All Boys Aren’t Blue, after it was targeted by a Florida school board for removal. The author noted that if these state legislators are ready to ban every other medium or context that discusses sex and sexuality, they should be prepared to ban television and the Bible.
In Johnson’s All Boys Aren’t Blue, he writes about growing up Black and queer in New Jersey. The book deals with homophobia, transphobia and racism. In November 2021, a school board member in Flagler County asked the County Sheriff’s Office to criminally prosecute whoever allowed the book in school libraries. The complaint led to the book being removed from the school system.
At the school board meeting, Johnson noted that at the age of 3 or 4, the ’80s sitcom Murphy Brown prompted him to ask his mother what the term “lesbian” meant and noted that he learned about prostitution at the age of 6 in Sunday school. Johnson said his book was geared toward young people ages 14 to 18, grades 10th to 12th.
“The book does have two sections where I do describe sex, which is the time I was sexually abused as a 12-year-old and my first time losing my virginity,” Johnson said. “The parts that are being left out is, I lost my virginity at age 20, so I was an adult, and that both of those chapters are really teaching about consent, about agency, giving students the language to understand their bodies, to understand the power they have and to truly understand that because they don’t have sex education, they are having to go to other sources, which can make that — put them at risk and make them more vulnerable and susceptible to not only STIs, like HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, but also to potential harm.”
Just last month, it was announced that the Justice Department is investigating several of the Southern Baptist Convention’s major entities following the denomination’s release of a 288-page report by an SBC sexual abuse task force earlier this year. The report was the result of a seven-month-long independent investigation, which uncovered disturbing details of how denominational leaders mishandled sexual abuse claims and mistreated victims.
School districts and Republican-controlled state legislatures have rapidly intensified efforts to ban certain books about race, colonialism, and gender identity from public classrooms and libraries while placing sharp limits on what can be taught in schools.
Earlier this year, Pacifica Radio’s Democracy Now! anchors, Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, interviewed Johnson over the controversy. The author noted that Black storytelling has often been targeted for bans. Authors such as Toni Morrison (The Bluest Eye), Maya Angelou (I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings), and James Baldwin (Go Tell It on the Mountain) have multiple books targeted for bans through the decades.
Banned Books Week, an annual event celebrating the freedom to read, is from Sept. 18 to Sept. 24. Banned Books Week brings together the entire book community — librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types — in shared support of the freedom to seek and express ideas, even ideas that are unpopular. But the threat isn’t just to books and unorthodox ideas, state legislatures and school boards are imposing educational gag orders that aim to restrict teaching, training, and learning in K–12 schools and higher education. The legislation is generally targeting discussions of race, gender, sexuality, and U.S. history.
This past August, PEN America released a report entitled, America’s Censored Classrooms, by Jeremy C. Young, Ph.D. and Jonathan Friedman, Ph.D. The report’s key highlights include that:
• This year, proposed educational gag orders have increased 250% compared to 2021. Thirty-six different states have introduced 137 gag order bills in 2022, compared to 22 states introducing 54 bills in 2021. While there has been a decline in new gag order laws passed from 12 last year to seven this year, overall, legislative attacks on education in America have been escalating — fast.
• The report’s authors have noted that this year’s bills are strikingly more punitive. In 2022, proposed gag orders have been more likely to include punishments, and those punishments have more frequently been harsh: heavy fines or loss of state funding for institutions, termination or even criminal charges for teachers.
• While most gag order bills have continued to target teaching about race, a growing number have targeted LGBTQ+ identities. This includes Florida’s HB 1557 — the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill — and 22 others. Attacks on LGBTQ+ identities have increasingly been at the forefront of educational censorship.
• Bills introduced this year have targeted higher education more frequently than in 2021, part of a broader legislative attack on colleges and universities. Thirty-nine percent of bills in 2022 have targeted higher education, compared with 30% last year. At the same time, bills focused on diversity training at government agencies have decreased. Educational gag order bills have become focused almost entirely on educational institutions. And for the first time, some bills have targeted nonpublic schools and universities, too.
• Consistent with last year’s trends, Republican legislators have overwhelmingly driven this year’s educational gag order bills. Only one bill out of the 137 introduced so far this year has had a Democratic legislative sponsor. Just a few years ago, Republican legislators were championing bills protecting free expression on college campuses; many are now focused on bills that censor the teaching of particular ideas.
• Meanwhile, conservative groups and education officials are working to broaden the interpretation of existing gag order laws. Lawsuits have begun to appear that ask courts to interpret gag orders as broadly as possible, while state boards of education have handed down draconian penalties in excess of what the laws require.
• In 2023, PEN America anticipates that the assault on education will continue. More gag order bills will be filed in states where they failed narrowly this year. Based on current trends, the report’s authors predict that other legislative attacks on education, such as “curriculum transparency” bills, anti-LGBTQ+ bills, and bills that mandate or facilitate book banning are also likely to increase.
America’s Censored Classrooms conclude that more educational gag orders are going to be filed in America’s statehouses in the next year considering the conservative enthusiasm for the tactic.
“State lawmakers will begin pre-filing their bills in the run-up to the November 2022 midterm elections, especially in states where Republicans failed to pass an educational gag order despite controlling both legislative chambers and the governor’s mansion — states such as Alabama, Arizona, Indiana, West Virginia and Wyoming, all of which came close to passing gag order bills during their 2022 legislative sessions but ultimately failed to do so,” the report’s authors said. “In these states and others, a new wave of educational gag order bills seems probable.”
The report says it is also likely that future gag order bills will continue to target instruction related to LGBTQ+ issues and identities. Bills of this type have drawn increased interest from lawmakers through the spring and summer, mainly because of media attention surrounding Florida’s HB 1557, which has spawned similar bills in several other states, some of which have added further provisions. More bills will likely also be introduced that target private K–12 schools and higher education.
Supporters of free expression aren’t taking these attacks lying down. So far, two lawsuits challenging Florida’s HB 1557 have been filed: Falls v. DeSantis and Honeyfund.com v. DeSantis.
Another pair of suits, Equality Florida v. DeSantis and Cousins v. the School Board of Orange County, have been brought against Florida’s HB 1557. They join lawsuits already underway in New Hampshire and Oklahoma against last year’s laws. Finally, a group of parents have sued the Forest Hills School District in Ohio to block a district-level educational gag order. The report said more lawsuits opposing gag orders are likely.
The report’s authors noted that the future of educational gag orders will likely unfold as part of a broader legislative campaign of educational censorship. This includes “curriculum transparency” bills and tip-line-style reporting mechanisms at the K–12 level, which have become more common in legislative proposals, as well as bills that make it easier for parents to file challenges for the removal of books from school libraries.
In higher education, educational gag orders are just one of the ways lawmakers are increasingly seeking to undermine academic freedom, shared governance and faculty tenure. In 2022, bills and policies weakening tenure have been adopted in Mississippi and Florida, with similar efforts underway in Texas and Louisiana. The Wyoming State Senate attempted to defund the gender studies program at the University of Wyoming. And Florida adopted SB 7044, a law that undermines the system of higher education accreditation and makes it more difficult for colleges and universities to retain access to federal student financial aid.
The report’s authors noted that such legislation will likely have a chilling effect on teachers and exacerbate tensions between educators and the communities they serve.
The report’s authors highlighted an April report from a group of students at Iowa’s Johnston High School that there was “a different atmosphere at the school” after the state’s gag order became law. So much so that one teacher who was explaining the history of redlining felt compelled to deny in class that they were trying to make students feel guilty. Another teacher felt unable to explain the motivations behind the Three-fifths Compromise in the Constitution without violating the state’s educational gag order law. According to a new survey by the RAND Corporation, a quarter of teachers nationwide have been directed by school administrators “to limit discussions about political and social issues in class.”
