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Local Restaurants Mostly Silent on Proof of Vaccination Status

Melina Paris
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Local Restaurants Mostly Silent on Proof of Vaccination Status

If you have recently dined out, you may have been asked a simple question. Can you provide proof of vaccination?

In the City of Los Angeles, proof of COVID-19 vaccination must be shown at indoor restaurants, gyms, entertainment and recreational facilities, personal care establishments and some city buildings.

The Los Angeles City Council’s requirement went into effect Nov. 8. On Nov. 29, enforcement measures began.

Random Lengths News set out to learn just how the local restaurants are dealing with the new law. The response was, well, untelling. Other than one restaurant, we did not hear from any of the independently owned and operated establishments we contacted.

Buono’s Pizzeria

Frank Buono, owner of Buono’s Pizzeria on 6th Street in downtown San Pedro and on Ocean Boulevard in Long Beach replied enthusiastically to this request. Thank you, Frank.

Buono reiterated that his establishment is required to check the vaccine status of its patrons if they are eating inside. Outside, they do not have to check. Buono said 90% of his customers are “good.” The other 10% get mad and leave.

Buono said he does not appreciate being the “police” for the unvaccinated but he always invites them to eat outside, where heaters are lit to help keep his customers comfortable. He noted, when people are coming for take-out, the restaurant doesn’t have to ask for proof of vaccination.

When asked what help his business has received from the County of Los Angeles to implement these rules, Buono said on their last inspection someone asked him how he felt about having to ask for proof of vaccination. Buono only said that he is not going to share what his answer was with this reporter. Aside from that, he said there hasn’t been any help.

The Other Side of The Pond

A quick check, after talking to someone who recently returned from Paris, France, confirmed that the city of lights has streamlined this process for restaurants to expeditiously check customers’ vaccination status and move hungry clientele to their tables.

In Paris, restaurants have an app they can download which allows them to scan the QR code of the clients vaccination status, and then they can tell if it’s valid or not. If it’s valid, they can enter. If it’s not valid, they cannot serve them. It would seem that in LA County — in the country — the technology to do this is available. However, the key is having widespread support and cooperation for the digital technology that could help those who greet and want to serve their customers at the hundreds of great restaurants Los Angeles has to offer.

This is a straightforward way for restaurants to confirm vaccination status and get on with the business of serving customers. To ask about this, RLN contacted both the County and the City of Los Angeles and the Economic Workforce Development Department in response to the city’s direction, but otherwise, did not hear back before press time.

For now, Supervisor Janice Hahn’s office said that Los Angeles City Council authorized the Department of Building and Safety to issue administrative citations to businesses that violate the ordinance, which will include a $1,000 fine for a second violation, $2,000 fine for a third violation and a $5,000 fine for a fourth and subsequent violations.

Advanced Enough

Upon bringing this process used in Paris to the attention of Frank Buono, he retorted, “We would love to think that we are so advanced, we’d provide that … but we have to use our voice.”

The pizza man said this sucks and he and his employees are tired of it. He noted most people are polite and they understand. Buono said if people are dining in, he asks for proof of vaccination 100% of the time.

It remains to be seen if LA is going to skate by this process, or if a significant enough portion of Angelenos can support restaurants that want to share their hospitality and exciting cuisine with the customers who love to frequent them.

AGCC’s ‘Artists At Work Initiative’ Provides Year-long Residencies

Melina Paris
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AGCC’s ‘Artists At Work Initiative’ Provides Year-long Residencies

Angels Gate Cultural Center or AGCC will be serving as a cultural hub as part of the Artists At Work or AAW initiative.

AGCC will host artists Nancy Woo and Taylor Griffith for year-long artist residencies, and work with AltaSea at the Port of Los Angeles and Strength Based Community Change or SBCC as its social impact partners. AAW is organized by The Office Performing Arts + Film with the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture, through $3 million in funding from the Mellon Foundation.

The Office, in collaboration with the FreshGrass Foundation, conceived AAW early in the pandemic, as artistic communities were ravaged, careers were halted, and dire financial struggles ensued. AAW was inspired by Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Depression-era Works Progress Administration or WPA and its Federal Project Number One, and addresses an urgent need to reimagine the culture sector and how society values the artists’ role — a need that the pandemic has starkly revealed, and that will continue as the public health crisis abates.

Artists At Work is a workforce resilience program designed to support the rebuilding of healthy communities through artistic civic engagement. The program pays artists to keep making art; gives support to cultural organizations (Culture Hubs) and arts workers in that community to host and work with those artists; and connects both artists and cultural organizations to local social impact initiatives in areas such as youth mental health, suicide prevention, food justice, prison reform, at-risk youth, sustainability, and environmental justice.

Sixteen artists will work with eight cultural organizations and 16 community-based social impact initiatives across LA County’s five supervisorial districts. Participating artists receive a salary, calculated using the MIT Living Wage Calculator for their respective region, for a period of one year, as well as full healthcare benefits. Artists working in any artistic discipline qualify for the program; they must be local to the region, and actively interested in a social practice.

Details: www.theofficearts.com/portfolio/artistsatwork

The Weekend Before Christmas

James Preston Allen
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The Weekend Before Christmas

And all was asleep except…

‘Twas the weekend before Christmas

while the moon was full.

From ship to crane in a harbor that’s full,

the port’s humming and workers are draying toys meant for stores.

Hustling and bustling at breakneck speed

to fulfill promises that stockings would be

filled from toe to knee

With merchandise we all adore.

The officials say that it’ll be months before

the backlog of goods are taken from our shores.

They blame Covid.

They blame consumers.

They say Amazon and eBay goods are just that good,

but they can’t explain the calamity of their
logistics chain that started the year before.

There’s talk about a shortage of truckers,

But silent on why truckers aren’t paid employees.

There’s talk about a shortage of warehouse space,

But silent on workers and their lack of union needs.

They don’t talk about the shipping companies

or their avarice or greed.

A 20-foot container from China-

$20,000 it exceeds.

It’s not about the people,

either on the Waterfront or the road.

It’s not about workers

who have worked through the fjord,

while sacrificing their lives at corona death’s door

The world once hailed them “heroes.”

Now they are ones preferred not seen and unheard.

No one seems to know the cause or the cure.

It’s been two years of struggle

between what people need and

what some others believe for sure.

There’s conflict and no resolution;

there’s a hunger for change and courage is needed.

but no one is sure what it exactly means.

We are at a crossroads

and the measure isn’t sure.

By whatever measure,

we will bleed.

The time is nigh,

which side do you believe?

It’s easy to be led astray these days.

Fake news and disinformation keeps our wits at bay.

With so much information,

it is hard to be sure of the ground

on which we stand.

So we sit in our shelters

and think we are safe and secure.

We buy Christmas presents

and sing carols in the choir.

But after the revelry is gone,

we’ll still have to reckon

with the things not in song.

There’ll be a pause on January 6,

our darkest day we’ll recall

that it must be fixed

hoping we don’t fall for grift or tricks.

We’ll cry for justice

But it could just get nixed.

So the full moon rises

over Port of LA

Ships are backed beyond Catalina isle

and the most that they can say is:

24/7, we’re working on it.

Help is one the way.

Year In Review: RLn’s Most-viewed Local Stories

Hunter Chase
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Year In Review: RLn’s Most-viewed Local Stories

Carson Mobile Home Closings,Port Litigation and Pet Clinic Protest top Most-Viewed Stories of the Year

It’s been a busy year for the Harbor Area. In 2021, three of the highest-viewed stories on Random Lengths News’ website featured Carson. Number one featured residents of Imperial Avalon Mobile Estates being forced out, number four focused on beloved diner Ted’s Burgers, and number 10 addressed the terrible smell that lingered on the city for two months. Three stories put a spotlight on San Pedro, all involving alleged crimes or protests. Two focused on Long Beach, one on their dining program and another on the lack of response to complaints about police.

  1. Mobile Home Residents Forced Out

Two new apartment buildings are set to begin construction in Carson, one with 300 units and the other with 19. Unfortunately, to build these developments mobile home residents are being forced out of their homes. Residents of Imperial Avalon Mobile Estates were given 12 months to leave after Faring Capital bought the land to convert it into a mixed-use development. More than 400 residents are seniors on a fixed income.

Faring Capital hired an appraiser for each mobile home, but Claire Condon Anderson, mobile home owner since 1983, was not happy with the results.

“He and his associate grossly undervalued my home at $37,000 when I have records of similar homes selling recently for $150,000 to $200,000 locally and some were even in this same park,” Condon Anderson said. “If this park must be closed, we want the fair market value for our homes and not just the value of a scrap pile.”

Residents own the actual homes, which are called coaches, and pay mortgages on them. But their mortgages are usually cheaper than rent in the area, and there is nowhere they can take them.

Residents of Imperial Avalon can return and live in the new building once it’s finished, and pay the same rent they were previously. However, they will need to find somewhere else to live in the remaining three to four years.

In July 2021, residents of Imperial Avenue and their supporters held a protest outside Carson City Hall. Residents of Park Avalon Mobile Estates, Rancho Dominguez Mobile Estates and Park Granada Trailer Lodge Mobile joined them, as they were facing a similar situation.

In late May 2021, residents of Park Granada were given two months to leave their homes. Tina Delgadillo is moving from her mobile home to a smaller place where she will rent, instead of being a homeowner. Her rent is a 517% increase from what she was paying at the park.

  1. Casual Longshoreman Sued by POLA

Carlos Saldana attended several protests in person holding satirical signs mocking the harbor commissioners who approved automation by APM Terminals at Pier 400 in July 2019. Shortly afterwards, the Port of Los Angeles filed 20 counts of cyber harassment against Saldana, even though he only carried satirical signs in person.

Saldana found out about the criminal charges in December 2019. In November 2020, the charges against him were quietly dismissed. But before then, Saldana had already spent more than $10,000 in legal fees, and was taking medication for the stress from the lawsuit.

“There was no evidence and there was no merit,” Said Mark Coleman, Saldana’s lawyer. “That’s why the charges were dismissed. Oftentimes the charging authority will throw everything at the wall and see what will stick. And this is one of those situations where they had a statute that trumps the first amendment.”

Saldaña is currently in litigation against the port for its harassing him over his protests, Coleman said.

As of December 2021, Saldana no longer lives in the Harbor Area. On April 20, 2021, he posted on his Facebook page that he was selling his house.

“Due to the harassment from the Port of Los Angeles the Saldaña family has had no choice but to sell the home of over 40 years in the Harbor Area of Los Angeles,” Saldana wrote.

  1. San Pedro Pet Clinic Criticized, Sues Protestors

A veterinarian clinic came under criticism earlier this year, with customers accusing the clinic of overcharging and treating customers and animals poorly. Two protests were held near the clinic in August, and the clinic’s owner, Dr. Anyes Van Volkenburgh, is suing the protestors for $21.5 million.

Treslyn Britton, who attended the protest, shared the story of how her dog died at the clinic. She brought her otherwise healthy dog in for constipation, but Van Volkenburgh said it needed surgery for a tumor. Four hours later, Britton saw her dog lying with a tube in its mouth.

“I asked her to show me what she did, she rolled him over and he was cut from the very top of his body all the way down to his groin area. Butchered, stapled, still half alive,” Britton said.

Britton asked Van Volkenburgh to help the dog, and she “picked him up and started shaking him and then told me that she could give me the phone number for the cremation place and walked away.”

In response to a flood of negative reviews, Van Volkenburgh posted a message on the clinic’s website, but the date it was posted is unclear.

“Instead of yelping about me, why don’t you look at your own integrity and ethics and consider whether you deserve to own a pet,” Van Volkenburgh wrote. “Because you probably don’t.”

The lawyer that represents the protestors that Van Volkenburgh is suing filed a motion to have the case dismissed under anti-SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation) legislation. He argued that the things Van Volkenburgh accused the protestors of doing were protected under their constitutional right to free speech, and that Van Volkenburgh will not be able to prove she can win the case.

The anti-SLAPP motion will be heard on Jan. 20.

  1. Ted’s Burgers is Oasis for Carsonites

Ted’s Burgers has served Carson for more than 60 years, and for nearly 20 years, one face has remained consistent — Rossmary Palatos. She began working there as a waitress in 2002, and in 2012, she bought the restaurant with her husband.

Palatos enjoys speaking with her customers and will remember names and conversations from weeks ago.

“I don’t want them to see it as a restaurant, but as if they were coming to a relative’s house,” she said.

When the take-out only order came in March 2020, Palatos had to decide whether to keep the diner open. The restaurant continued running, thanks to loyal customers and the drive-thru.

  1. Outdoor Dining Space Created in Long Beach

In February 2021, the City of Long Beach expanded its Open Streets Pilot Project, giving more street space for businesses to use. In January, the city narrowed one lane in each direction in Atlantic Avenue between Claiborne Drive and Armando Drive. This space was used for outdoor dining, after Gov. Gavin Newsom’s dining ban was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Then in February, the city used the sidewalk of Atlantic Avenue and parking lots to help businesses expand.

According to the city’s website, the Open Streets program will continue until June 2022, or until outside physical distancing is no longer required.

  1. Murder Suspect Paul Flores Arrested in San Pedro

Paul Flores has been accused of murdering Kristin Smart, a Cal Poly University student who disappeared in 1996. Flores was living in San Pedro for several years until police arrested him on April 13, 2021. They had raided his San Pedro home twice before this. Flores was charged with first degree murder of Smart, and his father Ruben Flores was charged with accessory after the fact.

While he had always been a suspect in the case, investigators could not find enough evidence and Flores was never charged with a crime beforehand. That changed when a podcast called In Our Backyard interviewed witnesses involved in the case, which led to new search warrants.

Both men pleaded not guilty. Their tentative trial date is April 25, 2022.

  1. The Epoch Times and the Profitability of Propaganda

The Epoch Times is a right-wing newspaper that claims it is “without spin” which is tied to a spiritual movement called Falun Gong. Falun Gong is opposed to the Chinese Communist Party because the party outlawed the movement in the ’90s. The paper is not shy in criticizing China.

The publication regularly prints stories that are pro-Donald Trump and anti-Democrats, such as when it called Trump’s impeachment trial a “witch hunt” and complained that Democrats brought “cancel culture” to Congress.

The Epoch Media Group spent $11 million on Facebook ads in 2019, but was banned from advertising on the platform in August 2019 after not abiding by its political transparency views.

According to ClimateWire, The Epoch Times became more right-wing while Trump was in office. And since then its revenue stream has steadily increased. It made $15.5 million in revenue in 2019, $12.5 million in 2018, $8.1 million in 2017 and $3.9 million in 2016.

In August 2021, Chinese authorities arrested 11 people for contributing to the publication, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. If convicted, they may face life in prison.

  1. Former Owner of OC Wastewater Treatment Company Indicted

Tim Miller, the former owner of Klean Waters, Inc., was indicted along with his former company for allegedly discharging untreated waste into the Orange County sewer system. Both Miller and the company were charged with participating in a conspiracy and discharging without a permit into a publicly owned facility.

According to the conspiracy charge, Miller and the company started doing this in 2012. Klean Waters allegedly discharged water that had firefighting foam and metals, and released water that was not tested. If convicted, Miller could face eight years in prison, and Klean Waters could pay $300,000 in fees.

  1. Less than 1% of Police in Long Beach are Disciplined After Complaint

The Citizens Police Complaint Commission, or CPCC, investigated 487 separate allegations of improper use of force from citizen complaints from 2015 to 2018, but sustained only three. These were overturned by Pat West, who was city manager at the time. Police officers are only punished with things like suspension or termination in cases that are sustained by the city.

In 2019, the CPCC investigated 60 use-of-force allegations and sustained eight, and West overruled six of them. In the second half of the decade, the CPCC sustained 2% of complaints, and the city sustained 0.37%.

The city contracted with Polis Solutions to review CPCC, and the city and Polis presented their recommended changes on Dec. 14. They suggested a restructured oversight model which would give more authority and transparency to the CPCC, which currently holds no authority to discipline officers. Time will tell if this will bring any change.

  1. Foul Smell in Carson

Hydrogen sulfide was detected in the Dominguez channel in Carson at the beginning of October 2021. It smelled like rotten eggs and caused intense headaches, stomachaches, nausea and vomiting in Carson residents, and lingered for nearly two months.

Many criticized the city and county’s response to the smell. Coalition for a Safe Environment called for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to take over the investigation of the odor in early November, after a month had passed with no solution.

According to a press release issued by the South Coast Air Quality Management District on Dec. 3, the alleged cause of the smell was a fire on a warehouse property operated by Virgin Scent, Inc. dba ArtNaturals and Day to Day Imports, Inc and owned by Liberty Properties Limited Partnership and its parent company, Prologis, Inc. Large quantities of beauty products stored there, including ethanol, flowed into the Dominguez Channel during attempts to contain the fire. The SQAMD issued five notices of violation to the previously mentioned companies and the County of Los Angeles on Dec. 2

2021: The Year of the Coup

Paul Rosenberg
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2021: The Year of the Coup

2021 was the Year of the Coup, its aftermath, aftershocks, and recurrent antecedents. Even before the year began, Random Lengths News warned that Donald Trump’s denialist reaction to his 2020 election loss was both a grift — raising hundreds of millions of dollars with zero accountability and only the vaguest semblance of rationale — and a coup, noting at the time: “While many observers have resisted such talk, it’s important to realize that a failed coup is a coup nonetheless, even a comically inept one. What’s more, even a comically inept coup can sometimes succeed.”

We also went on to note that, “however anomalous, atypical and quixotic Trump’s attack on our democracy might be, it is echoed by a framework of constitutional structures that are inherently hostile to the one-person/one-vote spirit of democracy we nowadays take to be fundamental to our democracy. What’s more, between these two extremes — the atypical Trump and the foundational constitutional structures — there lies an extensive middle ground in which democracy must battle for its very life.”

After the coup attempt came to a head on Jan. 6, we warned, “It was dangerous not just because it left five people dead — and could have left many more — but because it may well be only the beginning.”

This message was highlighted again in August, in response to congressional hearings and new revelations in books. “There was an attack carried out on Jan. 6, and a hitman sent them,” Officer Harry Dunn said in the first House hearing on the insurrection. “I want you to get to the bottom of that.” But, we noted, “The guardrails of democracy that held this last time have already been severely eroded in the past six months,” citing voter suppression laws, escalating attacks on election administration, and opposition to even hearing from Dunn. “The illusion that the insurrection is behind us could be even more dangerous than the illusion that the COVID pandemic is behind us as well.”

While many more details have emerged since then, with the promise of extensive public hearings next year, Republican support for subverting future elections has only grown stronger since then.

Meanwhile Democrats tried to make democracy work. On March 11, President Joe Biden signed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, which we called “the most consequential and most popular rescue package since the New Deal.” Although no Republicans in Congress voted for it, it was so popular that even a majority of Republican voters supported it. “It could be the harbinger of a new era — like the New Deal — in which Americans see government playing a crucial role in bettering their lives, thus restoring faith in our democracy,” and there were already a string of bills passed by the House to do just that. But, “that faith could be strangled, rather than restored,” we warned, “if Republicans have their way — relying on the Senate filibuster and a wave of over 250 voter-suppression bills in 43 states. … We could be headed the way of India or Brazil.” Unfortunately, that has been the dominant direction in Washington this past year.

Biden’s more long-term “Build Back Better” agenda was split into two bills. The bipartisan infrastructure bill, eventually signed in November, and the still-delayed “human infrastructure” bill that “makes major investments in childcare, education, healthcare and housing just to bring America in line with its international competitors,” as we described in October, adding, “Its climate agenda and broader environmental agenda will benefit families far beyond the 10-year time-frame.” Failure to pass it this year is perhaps the biggest missing story of the year — other than preventing the next coup.

Just before Christmas, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin reversed months of public promises and declared he would not support the bill — despite enormous benefits to his home state.

But Washington wasn’t the only place where nationally-important events unfolded this year. Two kinds of nationally significant events that occurred nationwide reverberated specifically in California and the Southland as well: extreme weather events, reflecting the climate crisis, calling out for action, and more localized pro- and anti-democratic struggles, catalyzed by various hopes and fears.

In mid-February a winter storm enveloped most of the continental U.S., but hit Texas especially hard. “The state’s climate denialism, free market deregulation, and lack of infrastructure investment all contributed significantly to the singular catastrophe that struck Texas,” we noted, while California “is seen as a beacon of climate enlightenment.” But that was highly misleading, we reported, “according to the just-released ‘Environmental Scorecard’ from the California League of Conservation Voters” (which changed its name this year to California Environmental Voters), which gave the state a score of 74%, a barely-passing grade. And our local ports vividly illustrated the problems. “Neither climate policy (involving CO2 and methane, primarily) nor air quality policy (ozone, NOX, SOX and VOCs) are comprehensively addressed, much less is there an integrated plan dealing with both,” we reported.

This year — as drought conditions covered 95% of the western states, and Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a drought state of emergency in 50 of California’s 58 counties, while calling Californians to cut water usage by 15% — activists and lawmakers advanced a much more ambitious and comprehensive agenda. Again, it was often stymied by fossil-fuel interests. But the sheer volume of legislation and supporting activism resulted in significantly more progress this year, with some measures incorporated into the budget process, an additional $15 billion plus invested in the California Comeback Plan’s climate package, and an executive order by Gov. Newsom directing the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to evaluate achieving carbon neutrality by 2035, a full decade faster than current state policy requires.

In March, Costa Mesa Mayor Katrina Foley became the first Democratic woman on the Orange County Board of Supervisors, and the first Democrat to hold the Second District seat since 1894. It was a local reflection of a nationwide phenomenon, seen most vividly last year with Democratic victories in Georgia’s two U.S. Senate races following Joe Biden’s victory in November. But such proactive reflections of democratic hope were relatively few compared to the barrage of fear-based anti-democratic attacks, the most prominent of which were decisively beaten back.

Newsom made national news as the target of a recall effort that was one facet of the GOP’s scorched-earth attack on democratically elected Democrats, following in the footsteps of Trump’s failed coup. We also reported on the failed attempt to recall Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón, as well — an attempt funded by two billionaires listed on the LA Business Journal’s list of “Wealthiest Angelenos,” one of them a $2 million Trump megadonor.

“The Gascón recall campaign is also an attempt to overturn the 2020 election, but in more local sense, revolving around race and criminal justice reform,” we reported. Gascón’s election was just one of several fronts in this fight locally: “County Measure J, dedicating funding to redress racial injustice — including alternatives to incarceration — passed by almost 15 points, and Proposition 17, restoring parolees voting rights, passed by 17 points, while Proposition 20, which would have rolled back several important criminal justice reforms, was defeated by 16 points.”

Exaggerated fear of rising crime is a perennial conservative weapon, wildly out of touch with a 27-year trend of declining rates of violent and property crime, but “social organizing, particularly the Movement for Black Lives, has profoundly unsettled the assumptions that masqueraded for so long as ‘commonsense’: that policing and prisons are the inevitable response to social harm,” historian Julilly Kohler-Hausmann explained. As conservatives worked to mount a backlash, we examined how this most recent wave of fear-fanning contrasts with reality. Other kinds of crimes are commonly ignored.

For example, domestic violence is almost as common as stranger violence, “Yet, for most of American history, domestic violence wasn’t even regarded as a crime, unless it reached the level of homicide, and parents hitting children is commonly seen as ‘discipline,’ not ‘violence,’” we noted. Wage theft via avoiding the minimum wage victimized 4.5 million people, according to one study, for an average of $3,300 per victim, “well above the threshold for felony theft in every state,” but wage theft isn’t even a crime (except in Colorado and Minnesota), it’s merely a tort, something you can sue for, but not call a cop. More broadly, “White-collar crime is thought to involve an annual economic loss of more than $700 billion annually from corporate fraud, professional fraud, employee theft, and tax evasion and an annual toll of at least 100,000 deaths,” according to the book, Social Problems: Continuity and Change. Both the cost and death tolls dwarf the figures from official crime statistics.

While the Gascón recall never got off the ground, the Newsom recall gained national attention, though he ended up winning handily, almost duplicating his near-record 2018 election victory. But our coverage shed light on two major problems: the need for significant reform of the recall process, and the deeply pernicious, neo-fascist politics of the GOP’s leading candidate, Larry Elder, who was both the mentor and career promoter of Trump’s chief immigration ideologue. Their shared underlying ideology is best expressed by the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory, promoted on Fox News by Tucker Carlson. “You have one people, and in the space of a generation you have a different people,” its originator, French conspiracy theorist Renaud Camus explained, “thus equating immigration not just to invasion, but to genocide, and requiring genocidal violence in response,” we explained.

Shortly before Newsom’s victory, Proposition 22 — which stripped gig workers of almost all workers’ rights — was declared unconstitutional, a major victory for working people nationwide. Gig companies spent $220 million promoting Prop 22, utterly obscuring its anti-labor provisions, including its prohibition of the right to organize, which was “utterly unrelated to its stated common purpose,” the judge ruled, and thus violated the California constitution’s requirement that an initiate have a single common purpose. It also prohibited the legislature from enacting workers’ compensation protections, which was also found unconstitutional.

The deceptive way Prop 22 was originally passed echoed some of the problems with the initiative process exposed by the Newsom recall. A serious effort to reform one or both of them could be on the ballot next year.

The day after Newsom’s recall victory was the 20th anniversary of 9/11, which we marked by noting that after 9/11, a world-spanning Gallup poll of 34 countries found the vast majority wanted justice, not war in response, favoring extradition and trial by more than 5-to-1. The U.S. was one of just three exceptions, with a slight majority—54%—favoring military action, but that came with virtually no exposure to contrary views. “A study conducted by Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting found 44 op-eds in the New York Times and the Washington Post favoring war in the first three weeks after 9/11, compared to just two op-eds opposed,” we noted. Had we had a free, uncensored discussion in the press, a vast ongoing tragedy could have been completely avoided.

Nightmare Alley: Guillermo Del Toro’s Noir Morality Play

Greggory Moore
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Nightmare Alley: Guillermo Del Toro’s Noir Morality Play

Guillermo Del Toro is something of a known quantity. Whether it’s monsters, superheroes, or Disney folk (look for Pinocchio coming to a Netflix account near you), you can always count on a dose of the mythic and a dark, dank atmosphere.

Nightmare Alley is exactly what you’d expect from the auteur behind Pan’s Labyrinth and The Shape of Water adapting a post-WWII psychological noir novel about a little bad carny trying to scam his way in the big bad world.

Out of a murky past, Stan (Bradley Cooper) finds his way to Ten-in-One carnival. After the proprietor (Willem Dafoe) and a husband-and-wife mentalist team (David Strathairn and Toni Collette) take a shine to him, Stan learns the tricks of the trade so well that fetching fellow carny Molly (Rooney Mara) runs off with him, confident they’ll find a bigger, better life. Two years later they’ve found it, with two shows a night in a ritzy Buffalo supper club. But when the opportunity for big money comes a’knocking, Stan can’t resist going against the advice of his mentors and trying to pass himself off as more than mere entertainer.

Plenty happens during the first act of Nightmare Alley, but for the entire hour you can’t shake the feeling that this is all a set-up to the main action, which gets underway once we trade the shadowy interiors and stormy skies of Stan’s carny life for the art deco fantasy in which he gets mixed up with a psychologist with a heart of pitch (Cate Blanchett).

Although the ride isn’t half-bad, with Cooper and Blanchett positively smoldering with amorality, ultimately we’re derailed by character choices that seem contrived to drive us to a preordained destination rather than informed by internally consistent logic — an especial failing in a film that explicitly draws attention to its characters’ psyches and motivations.

Verisimilitude, however, is never at the top of Del Toro’s to-do list. The man is a fabulist, and Nightmare Alley is at heart a morality play. A reviewer intent on maximizing brevity and concerned only for theme could summarize the whole kit-and-kaboodle in seven words: A crooked man walks a crooked mile. With all his gifts, Stan is a bad man, and you reap what you sow.

But deploying such laconicism would be to overlook Del Toro as stylist, which is his strongest suit. Not only does Nightmare Alley drip with his signature ambience, but Del Toro displays more attention than ever to the subtleties of sound design — the tick of a watch, the ringing of a crystal glass. Like him or not, there’s little to say against Del Toro’s craftsmanship.

Because its surface is the best thing Nightmare Alley has going for it, if you’re going to see this, you would do well not to wait until you can bring it home. Not every film suffers equally from being viewed at home rather than in a theater, but this one probably isn’t much without immersion. On the big screen, at least, it’s a universe you inhabit. From the inside, it’s easy enough to forgive all that it’s not.

Nightmare Alley is playing at the Art Theatre of Long Beach through Dec. 30 and other theatersnear you.

Seedy Thoughts: Two Out of Three Sisters

Ari LeVaux
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Seedy Thoughts: Two Out of Three Sisters

Foods that grow together go together, so goes the old saying. It’s become the locavore’s anthem, your cue to coax whatever plant life you can from your home ground, and figure out how best to cook it all. And live happily ever after.

The seed catalogs that will soon arrive in the mail will tempt you to dream big, and you should. But in which direction? We can’t plant everything. Planning, and alas choosing, is an important part of gardening. You can’t order your seeds if you don’t know what you want to plant, which means you must ponder what you want to eat, and what you can’t get anywhere else. I can always buy carrots at the farmers market, summer and winter, so I don’t need to grow carrots. But it’s harder to get red cranberry beans, to choose one of many heirloom vegetable varieties that one might choose to grow. If I want to eat beans like that I might just have to grow them myself. Luckily, they grow well in my area. And I know where to get seed.

My friend David Lau is a seed farmer, which sounds pretty lonely, even by farmer standards. I kept him company one afternoon at his operation, called Red Tail Seeds, in a field behind a self-serve farm stand on the outskirts of Missoula.

His rows have an overgrown, gone-to-seed look to them from a distance. That’s the point, of course. But up close the plants are less messy looking, and appear to be more actualized. Full grown tomato bushes, never harvested and laden with fruit, staked against the weight, look like what Norman Rockwell would paint if he painted gardens. The seed heads of flowered lettuce towered over the garden, larger than life like Popeye after a can of spinach. And pods of cranberry beans, cascading from the plants in their unharvested bounty, dried slowly in the August heat.

Lau sells the cranberry bean seed to Fedco Seeds, which calls them “one of the very best baking beans.” After they had dried and cured, Lau dropped off a sack for me to play with. The beans were small and dark, reminiscent of black beans but with an unmistakable ruby glow. They cooked up creamy, without disintegrating, and have a mild, slightly nutty flavor.

Then I added a bunch of meat and winter pantry staples like onion, carrots, potatoes, and finally squash, and called it creamy bean stew.

Beans and squash are two of the so-called Three Sisters, a Native American version of “what grows together, goes together.” In the field, the squash covers the ground between the corn, which blasts into the third dimension, with the beans climbing the corn into the sky while their roots add nitrogen to the soil.

Sister corn is absent from this dish, although you could easily add it in the form of corn tortillas to make tacos or enchiladas. Otherwise, it’s fine without corn. We can’t do everything all of the time. And with cousins potato, carrot and onion in the mix, this stew has plenty of local representation.

Squash Bean Stew

When I cook this stew I aim for each component to be perfectly soft, but I don’t want it to dissolve together into mush. That means adding the ingredients one by one, starting with the beans, in order of how much time they need. This way every component of the equation is perfect and full of its own unique flavor, and the whole thing adds up to a dish that is simple but full of diversity and texture. Some might call it boring, but when your ingredients are top notch you want to fully experience the flavor of each one.

This dish is flexible at every step of the way. In the spices you add, in the various wintry vegetables you choose, and with what you serve it. I scooped it on some tamales the other day to make the circle of sisters complete.

1 cup dried cranberry beans, or a similar small dark bean

Optional: a piece or two of bacon or a ham hock

Optional: stew meat like beef or venison, however much you feel

A sprig or two of thyme or oregano, or a few bay leaves

Cube of bouillon or tablespoon Better than Bouillon paste

2 medium sized carrots, cut into rounds about an inch long

1 large potato cut into cubes or several smaller or medium

1 onion, cut in half around the equator

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 small kabocha squash

Cook the beans in two quarts of water.

I can’t tell you exactly how long it will take to cook your beans in the equipment you have at home. I can tell you it will go quicker if you soak the beans overnight, and if you use a pressure cooker. You are ultimately responsible for cooking your beans to the point where the cell wall and oligosaccharide carbohydrates break down from the heat. Otherwise, the bacteria in your gut will have to break down those carbon chains. For a price.

I cook the bacon and meat with the beans. Meanwhile, I cut a squash in half and bake it on a cookie sheet for an hour at 350, seeds and all, with the cut sides facing down.

After the meat and beans are soft, add the herbs, bouillon (or stock), carrots, potato, onion and oil. Bring to a simmer. After 20 minutes, add salt and pepper to taste.

After about 45 minutes, season one final time and ladle the stew into bowls. Scoop out balls of squash and add them to each bowl.

Gov. Newsom Announces New Actions to Protect Californians from COVID-19

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Gov. Newsom Announces New Actions to Protect Californians from COVID-19

SACRAMENTO – Gov. Gavin Newsom Dec. 22, announced new booster requirements and testing measures to better protect all Californians as the Omicron variant becomes the dominant COVID-19 strain in the nation

The COVID-19 booster requirement for health care workers will mitigate potential staffing shortages while helping to safeguard the state’s hospital capacity and protect the health and safety of Californians. Combined with the new federal policies announced yesterday, these actions will help ensure everyone in California has access to testing throughout the holiday season and that K-12 public school students can return to school safely.

By Feb. 1, health care workers and all employees in high-risk congregate settings, including nursing homes, will be required to get their booster. In the interim, all health care staff that have not received their booster must test for COVID-19 twice weekly until they are up to date on their vaccines.

To help mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in our schools, the state is also increasing the availability of at-home COVID-19 tests across California so K-12 public-school students can be tested as they return to school from winter break. In early December, the California Department of Public Health or CDPH distributed approximately 2 million tests to schools for this purpose. CDPH will expand those efforts by providing 1 to 2 rapid tests for every student. CDPH will work with local education and health partners to distribute those test kits as quickly and efficiently as possible.

To ensure every Californian has access to testing, the state will also be expanding antigen test availability and expanding hours of operation at state-sponsored OptumServe sites that are already at capacity. Today, 90% of the population lives within a 30-minute driving distance of a site. Over the course of the pandemic, the state has established 6,288 testing sites statewide, comprising 31% of the nation’s testing sites. In support of this effort, since August, the state has purchased over 12 million over-the-counter tests. CDPH is distributing an additional 6 million tests to community partners serving disproportionately impacted Californians and 4 million to local health jurisdictions.

California has led the nation’s fight against COVID-19, implementing the most robust vaccination and testing programs in the country. To date, California has administered over 64 million vaccination doses and over 116 million tests, with an average turn around of just 48 hours. In recent months, Governor Newsom implemented a series of measures to slowD the spread of COVID-19, including first-in-the-nation vaccine and masking measures requiring that workers in health care settings be fully vaccinated, announcing plans to add the COVID-19 vaccine to the list of vaccinations required to attend school in-person when fully approved, requiring masking in schools and implementing a standard that all school staff and all state workers either show proof of full vaccination or be tested. These decisive actions have resulted in California being labeled the safest state to live in during COVID-19 and a national leader in preventing school closures.

As Californians are still learning about the severity of illness caused by Omicron, it is clear that individuals who are up to date on their vaccines, including a booster, are most protected. To help slow the spread of COVID-19, Californians are encouraged to get vaccinated, get boosted, wear a mask indoors and get tested if sick.

High Rate of Boosters at Skilled Nursing Facilities Show Vaccines Can Offer the Best Protection

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High Rate of Boosters at Skilled Nursing Facilities Show Vaccines Can Offer the Best Protection

LOS ANGELES — As Omicron cases continue to spread, Public Health data shows that vaccines remain one of the most powerful protections against COVID-19 transmission, especially at skilled nursing facilities.

For the week ending Dec.17, outbreaks rose in every sector Public Health tracks, except skilled nursing facilities. Outbreaks increased by 118% in the education sector, 83% in congregate/group housing, 13% in settings serving people experiencing homelessness, and 24% at worksites/places of worship. Over the same period, outbreaks at skilled nursing facilities decreased by 11%.

Although masking compliance and vaccination rates are high in most of the settings, Public Health’s most intensive work to ensure widespread booster administration occurred at skilled nursing facilities. Currently, 84% of eligible skilled nursing facility residents and 50% of eligible staff have received booster shots (90% of residents and 97% of staff are fully vaccinated).

Public Health DEc. 20, confirmed 60 new Omicron cases, 3,258 new cases of COVID-19 and an additional 7 deaths. The numbers reported today reflect weekend reporting delays. There are 743 people with COVID-19 currently hospitalized.

Public Health would like to remind residents that getting vaccinated or boosted remains critical as holiday traveling and gatherings begin. Additionally, all residents across L.A. County should continue:

  • Getting tested to help reduce the spread, especially if you traveled for the holidays, have had a possible exposure, or have symptoms, or are gathering with people not in your household.
  • Adhering to masking requirements when indoors or at large outdoor mega events, regardless of vaccination status.

Residents are also reminded that they are legally required to be isolated if they have a positive COVID test result and that vaccinated close contacts with symptoms and unvaccinated close contacts need to be quarantined.

COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective and are recommended for everyone 5 years of age and older to help protect against COVID-19. Vaccinations are always free and open to eligible residents and workers regardless of immigration status. Appointments are not needed at all Public Health vaccination sites and many community sites where first, second, and third doses are available.

To find a vaccination site near you, or to make an appointment, please visit:

www.VaccinateLACounty.com (English) or www.VacunateLosAngeles.com (Spanish).

If you need assistance, you can also call 1-833-540-0473 for help:

  • Finding an appointment
  • Connecting to free transportation to and from a vaccination site, or
  • Scheduling a home visit if you are homebound.

Details: For information on: COVID-19 sector protocols & best practices, COVID-19 Vaccine Dashboards and COVID-19 Surveillance Interactive and, Recovery Dashboards go to www.publichealth.lacounty.gov

 

Rep. Barragán Asks CA to Revise Rules to Establish 3,200-foot buffer between Oil & Gas Extraction and Homes

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Rep. Barragán Asks CA to Revise Rules to Establish 3,200-foot buffer between Oil & Gas Extraction and Homes

SAN PEDRO — Congresswoman Nanette Díaz Barragán Dec. 20, urged the California Geologic Energy Management Division to revise its draft rule on oil and gas production in residential neighborhoods to include existing wells in the proposed 3,200-foot buffer and to end all permits for extraction until the rule goes into effect.

In a letter to California Geologic Energy Management Division or CalGEM Oil and Gas Supervisor Uduak Joe-Ntuk, Congresswoman Barragán wrote: “While the Draft Rule would prevent drilling of new oil and gas production sites within 3,200 feet of homes, schools, health centers, and other sensitive sites within California, it falls short of protecting frontline communities who presently live, study, and work near existing fossil fuel wells.”

In the letter, Barragán pointed out the connection between increased risk of asthma and other respiratory diseases and proximity of oil and gas wells.

In August, Barragán led U.S. EPA Administrator Michael Regan on a tour of her district to point out environmental justice issues and highlighted the proximity of working oil wells to homes, schools and playgrounds in Wilmington.

“The environmental racism impacting Wilmington is tragically all too common throughout California, where oil and gas wells are predominantly located within communities of color,” Barragán wrote in her letter to Joe-Ntuk.

“I strongly urge CalGEM to consider the health and safety of our communities by revising the Draft Rule to establish a 3,200-foot setback distance between all new and existing oil and gas extraction sites, and to end all permitting for fossil fuel extraction within the 3,200-foot setback zone until the rule goes into effect,” she concluded in her letter.

Details: www.barragan.house.gov/wp-CalGEM-Oil-Gas-Production-Draft-Rule.pdf

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