LOS ANGELES – A San Fernando Valley man who planned the bombing of a political rally in Long Beach in 2019 was sentenced Nov. 1, to 25 years in federal prison.
Mark Steven Domingo, 28, of Reseda, was sentenced by United States District Judge Stephen V. Wilson.
At the conclusion of a five-day trial, a federal jury on August 11 found Domingo guilty of one count of providing material support to terrorists and one count of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.
Judge Wilson sentenced Domingo to 15 years’ imprisonment on the providing material support count and 25 years in federal prison for attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction – both sentences to be served concurrently. The court also ordered Domingo to be placed on supervised release for a term of 20 years once Domingo completes his prison sentence.
Domingo has been in federal custody since his arrest in April 2019.
The investigation into Domingo was prompted by his online posts and conversations in an online forum in which he expressed support for violence, specifically a desire to seek violent retribution for attacks against Muslims, as well as a willingness to become a martyr. After considering various attacks – including targeting Jewish people, churches, and police officers – Domingo decided to bomb a rally scheduled to take place in Long Beach in April 2019.
As part of the plot, Domingo asked a confederate – who actually was working with the FBI as part of the investigation – to invite a bomb-maker into the scheme. Domingo then purchased and provided to the confederate and the bomb-maker – who in fact was an undercover law enforcement officer – several hundred 3½-inch nails to be used as shrapnel for the bombs. Domingo specifically chose those nails because they were long enough to penetrate organs in the human body.
The affidavit also stated that Domingo initially planned to target the white nationalists. Then he learned that United Patriot Front possibly canceled the rally. Domingo also discussed attacking Santa Monica Pier with the FBI source. The FBI source told Domingo that event would still happen and Domingo planned on placing the bomb among the protesters of the white nationalist group.
Leading up to the attack, Domingo called for an event similar to the October 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas. Following an attack on Muslims in New Zealand in March 2019, Domingo called for retribution in an online post.
Domingo selected the Long Beach rally as his target. Demonstrators were there to counter-protest a rally organized by the United Patriot Front, a white nationalist group at Bluff Park in Long Beach. That white nationalist group removed the event from their Facebook page more than two weeks prior and never showed up.
In April 2019, Domingo drove his confederate and the undercover officer to Long Beach to scout the location he planned to attack. While there, Domingo discussed finding the most crowded areas to place the bombs so he could kill the most people. On April 26, 2019, Domingo received what he thought were two live bombs, but actually were inert explosive devices delivered by an undercover law enforcement officer. He was arrested that same day with one of the bombs in his hands.
Kaiser Permanente SoCal Pharmacy Unionists Join National Strike Preparations as Contract Expires
They join thousands of professional and technical KP employees across the country organizing for a potential strike if contract negotiations continue to stall. Just this past Saturday, Oct. 30, thousands of Kaiser employees rallied and marched in Pasadena calling on Kaiser to “come to its senses.”
Pharmacy employees, who are members of six UFCW locals in Southern California, are holding strike preparation assemblies this week including picket captain and member meetings to discuss plans for a potential strike.
UFCW locals are members of the Alliance of Healthcare Unions, a coalition of 21 labor organizations with over 50,000 Kaiser Permanente employees.
On Oct. 20th, an overwhelming majority, 96% of UFCW Kaiser Permanente employees in Southern California, authorized a strike should the healthcare giant fail to reasonably address the workers’ demands.
“Kaiser has called us heroes and now they are wanting to give us contract offers that are ridiculous. In this economy that we are in today, getting a 1% increase per year for the next three years is unsustainable – in California or anywhere else Kaiser employees live and work.” says Teresa Almora-Sorosjinda, a Pharmacy Assistant at Kaiser Permanente-Antelope Valley.
Protest by Employees of McDonald’s and Fast Food Chains at California Restaurants Nov. 9
Fast food workers at stores throughout California plan to leave work on Nov. 9 and demonstrate in front of McDonald’s locations in San Diego, Los Angeles, San Jose, Oakland and Sacramento.
The protest is an effort to expand legal liability beyond individual franchisees to their corporate franchisors and protesting health and safety conditions in the workplace.
The protests are aimed at pressuring state legislators to support proposed AB 257.
The bill would hold fast food corporations accountable to ensure their franchisees comply with a variety of employment and public health and safety orders, including those related to unfair business practices, employment discrimination.
The bill would make violations of labor laws by franchisees equally enforceable against the franchisor.
There are approximately 76,000 franchise establishments in California with a total of 728,900 jobs.
Low-wage workers, who have experienced decades of stagnant or declining wages and benefits, are fed up.
Franchises have also long hampered collective bargaining in the fast-food industry.
Taxi Drivers, Allies Enter 2nd Week of Hunger Strike Against Crushing Medallion Debt
New York City taxi drivers entered their second week of hunger striking Oct. 28 outside City Hall to demand that the mayor grant debt relief for thousands of drivers impacted by the taxi medallion price crash. Many drivers purchased taxi medallions, the permits required to drive a taxi, for upwards of $1 million.
After the incursion of ride-sharing apps like Uber and Lyft, as well as more recent plummeting demand for taxis due to the pandemic, they are now only worth about $100,000. Faced with massive debt and financial ruin, at least nine drivers have died by suicide. So, the medallion, for decades, has been worth between $130,000 to $200,000. The medallion system is the licensing by which cabs are allowed to pick up passengers from across the five boroughs. And this was created in the early 20th century.
Taxi driver Augustine Tang, who has been on hunger strike for six days and personally knew one of the drivers who committed suicide, told Democracy Now that he is striking for medallion owners who “went into financial ruin” and saw that “there was no way out.”
“Well, I’ve been on hunger strike before the 6,000 families that has been affected by this medallion crisis. These men and women have invested in the city and drove 20, 30, 40 years of their lives, just to have their retirement taken away from them and also having – about to lose their homes and their jobs, as well, too.”
Zohran Mamdani, a New York State assemblymember who joined drivers in the hunger strike said, “It’s important for us as legislators to bring to light what it is that people are suffering from out of view of those in the political elite.”
After worker walkouts and protests denouncing low pay, staff shortages and workplace abuse, the Chicago, tortilla manufacturer El Milagro is ending its seven-day workweek giving employees Sundays off starting next month.
Puerto Rican Electrical Workers Union Fights Privatization of Island’s Grid
The people and workers of Puerto Rico are suffering the consequences of the privatization of the electricity system, which was handed over to a new company, LUMA Energy, a subsidiary of Houston-based Quanta Services and Canadian firm ATCO.
UTIER—the Puerto Rico Electric and Irrigation Industry Workers Union—has been fighting for months against the disastrous contract that the Puerto Rican government signed with LUMA to operate the grid for15 years.
Privatization has dismembered the electrical system’s workforce in a transparent attempt to break up the union.
LUMA was not required to hire employees of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority—the public company whose assets were privatized. Nor did LUMA comply with the existing collective agreements between PREPA and its unions. Instead, LUMA offered reduced benefits and job protections, so many skilled workers did not apply…leaving less trained and skilled workers and management to try and run the operation
Parents, students and teachers protest planned closing of Trinity Elementary
Parents, children, students, and teachers at Trinity Elementary in South Central Los Angeles vehemently rejected the possible closure of the campus in a protest October 28.Protesters said they have already collected more than 3,000 signatures supporting their effort.
With “Save Trinity” banners; “Mónica García, ashamed of you”, “Mónica García, don’t ignore us”, “Save my school, this way you save my future”, or “Hypocrites, stop selling our schools”, the protesters denounced the probable negative effects of the closure of the educational institution.
LAUSD Central Local District superintendent, Frances Báez announced the forthcoming closing June 24. About 230 students will be affected. “I have come “to the difficult, but necessary conclusion that continuing to operate [Trinity] at current enrollment levels will not allow us to provide the quality services, supports and resources that our students and staff deserve.” “It is a lie, because in five years we have only had five fewer students,” teachers retorted.
Despite the fact that 98% of the families at Trinity Elementary are mostly Spanish-speaking, the little information they have received has been only in English.
“There is no benefit to students, parents, and teachers in closing a school that has served its community for more than 117 years. There is no benefit in displacing hundreds of students from the school they love and in which they feel safe, “Cecily-Myart Cruz, president of the Union of Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA), told La Opinion.
“There is no benefit in separating students from teachers who supported them during distance learning and are now supporting them in their return to in-person learning.” The LAUSD school district plans to turn over the building to a charter school, which is not required to admit any of the students currently attending Trinity.
Photo by Mark Satinoff
Amazon Organizers Deliver Union Cards in New York City For Election
Led by Chris Smalls, fired by amazon in NYC for efforts to protect co-workers from pandemic, Amazon warehouse workers filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board to hold a union election. It’s the second time this year Amazon workers attempted to form the company’s first-ever U.S. union. The Bessemer, Alabama organizing effort fell short due to company harassment of workers, illegal interventions.
“That’s it,” Smalls said. “Yeah, we did it. It’s officially done. Notice to employees will be sent out in a matter of a week. Everybody in their facilities will be notified that the petition has been filed.” Smalls was met by cheers after filing the petition with the NLRB.
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or EPA Nov. 2, took an important step forward to advance President Biden’s commitment to action on climate change and protect people’s health by proposing comprehensive new protections to reduce pollution from the oil and natural gas industry – including, for the first time, reductions from existing sources nationwide.
The proposed new Clean Air Act rule would lead to reductions in methane emissions and other health-harming air pollutants that endanger nearby communities. As part of the action, to inform a supplemental proposal, EPA is seeking comment on additional sources of methane to further strengthen emission controls and increase reductions from oil and gas operations. EPA is issuing the proposal in response to President Biden’s executive order on Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis.
Pollution from oil and gas activities can occur in or near communities where people live, work and go to school – including minority and low-income communities, which are especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Based on an analysis of populations exposed to oil and gas pollution, EPA believes the proposed rule is likely to reduce these harmful effects.
EPA’s regulatory impact analysis estimates the value of cumulative net climate benefits from the proposed rule, after taking into account the costs of compliance and savings from recovered natural gas, is $48 to $49 billion from 2023 to 2035 - the equivalent of about $4.5 billion a year. The climate benefits are estimated using the social cost of greenhouse gases and represent the monetary value of avoided climate damages associated with a decrease in emissions of a greenhouse gas. In addition to these benefits, EPA estimates that from 2023 to 2025, the proposal would reduce VOC emissions by 12 million tons and hazardous air pollution by 480,000 tons.
It would accomplish this through 1) updated and broadened methane and VOC emission reduction requirements for new, modified, and reconstructed oil and gas sources, including standards that limit emissions from additional types of sources (such as intermittent vent pneumatic controllers, associated gas, and well liquids unloading) for the first time under the Clean Air Act; and 2) requirements that states develop plans to limit methane emissions from hundreds of thousands of existing sources nationwide, along with presumptive standards for existing sources to assist in the planning process.
Key features of the proposed rule include:
a comprehensive monitoring program for new and existing well sites and compressor stations;
a compliance option that allows owners and operators the flexibility to use advanced technology that can find major leaks more rapidly and at lower cost than ever before;
a zero-emissions standard for new and existing pneumatic controllers (with a limited alternative standard for sites in Alaska), certain types of which account for approximately 30 percent of current methane emissions from the oil and natural gas sector;
standards to eliminate venting of associated gas, and require capture and sale of gas where a sales line is available, at new and existing oil wells;
proposed performance standards and presumptive standards for other new and existing sources, including storage tanks, pneumatic pumps, and compressors; and
a requirement that states meaningfully engage with overburdened and underserved communities, among other stakeholders, in developing state plans.
EPA also is requesting information on additional sources of methane for the Agency to consider in developing a supplemental proposal to reduce emissions even further. In addition, EPA is taking comment on how to structure a community monitoring program that would empower the public to detect and report large emission events for appropriate follow-up by owners and operators for possible further development in a supplemental proposal. EPA intends to issue the supplemental proposal in 2022, and to issue a final rule before the end of 2022.
EPA will take comment on the proposed rule for 60 days after it is published in the Federal Register. The Agency also will hold a virtual public hearing, and will host virtual trainings to help communities, Tribes and small businesses learn more about the proposed rule and participating in the public comment process. Those trainings begin Nov. 16.
Oct 25, the Portsof Long Beach and Los Angeles announcedthey will begin assessing a surcharge to ocean carriers for import containers that dwell on marine terminals.
Under the new policy, the ports will charge ocean carriers for each container that falls into one of two categories.
For containers scheduled to move by truck, ocean carriers will be charged for every container dwelling nine days or more. For containers moving by rail, ocean carriers will be charged if the container has dwelled for three days or more. Beginning Nov. 1, the ports will charge ocean carriers with cargo in those two categories $100 per container,
Two days after the ports announcement, in a case of a mayoral candidate trying to claim credit where it isn’t due, L.A. City Councilmember Joe Buscaino’s office reported the councilmember used city council emergency powers to address the crisis at the Los Angeles port. According to the press release, the council member’s actions were “to allow the Port of L.A. to begin assessing an escalating fee starting Nov. 1, on cargo left sitting on the docks.”
It went on to note that this work has been conducted as a joint effort with the Newsom and Biden administrations. Satellite cargo facilities are also expected to be brought online in the coming weeks.
Buscaino’s motion noted the proposed policy was developed in coordination with the Biden-Harris Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force, U.S. Department of Transportation and multiple supply chain stakeholders.
Buscaino wrote that immediate action is necessary to waive review of the anticipated approval of the temporary order to amend the Port of Los Angeles Tariff No. 4 so the new policy can go into effect on Nov. 1.
The councilman moved that the council determine that “there is a need to take immediate action on this matter” and that the need for action came to the attention of the city council subsequent to the posting of the agenda for Oct. 27, council meeting.
Councilman Buscaino further moved that the council waive review of the anticipated actions of the Board of Harbor Commissioners Oct. 29, to approve the temporary order — which the ports previously implemented — to begin charging ocean carriers these fees.
The motion expedited a process already anticipated to be approved by the city council.
Isabelle Lutterodt, 46, of Los Angeles, has been appointed deputy director for development and chief curator at the California African American Museum.
Lutterodt has been art center director III at the City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs since 2015. She was director of visual arts at Angels Gate Cultural Center from 2010 to 2015. She held several positions at the University of San Diego, University Art Gallery from 2007 to 2012, including exhibition manager and exhibition coordinator. She earned a master of arts degree in art museums and gallery studies from the University of Leicester and a master of fine arts degree in photography and media from the California Institute of the Arts.
This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $128,400. Lutterodt is registered without party preference.
Gov. Gavin Newsom Oct. 29, the California Homeless Coordinating and Financing Council or HCFC released the application for $50 million in funding for the brand-new Encampment Resolution Grant program. These funds will be available on a competitive basis to local governments that commit to addressing specific, persistent encampments by using these resources to provide pathways to permanent housing for individuals experiencing unsheltered homelessness.
Created in the 2021-22 state budget, the program provides targeted grants to fund selected proposals submitted by eligible cities, counties and continuums of care or CoCs.
The $50 million Encampment Resolution Grant program is a part of Gov. Newsom’s broader $12 billion homeless package, which includes $2 billion in flexible homelessness aid directly to local governments, and a $5.8 billion expansion of the Homekey program. All of these funds come with strong accountability and planning requirements that the State of California has ever had for homelessness spending.
Investments to address homelessness will provide housing and treatment for more than 44,000 individuals. In addition, the Governor created a new $1.1 billion Clean California program, which provides matching grants to local governments to assist them in their efforts to address encampments and restore public rights-of-way.
HCFC designed the program to fund projects across the state that:
Prioritize the most unsafe and/or persistent encampments around the state, per the Governor’s direction to focus on high priority encampments that pose the greatest threat to health and safety.
Provide services for people in those encampments to address the immediate crisis of unsheltered homelessness and provide a path to permanent housing.
Support the sustainable restoration of public spaces to their intended uses while safeguarding the needs of unhoused people seeking shelter.
Applications for the competitive grants are due Dec. 31, and HCFC will announce awards for the first projects in the spring of 2022.
Falea’Ana Meni ran for mayor of Carson in 2020 against three candidates with greater name recognition and resources. Furthermore, she was a vociferous Trump-supporter, a quality that should have made her anathema for Democrats in the city to support. But her reputation as an organizer and community activist and the endorsement of city council candidate and Democrat Brandi Murdock seemed to outshine her support for the former president. Meni still placed last in that race, but garnered more than 5,000 votes or 12 percent of the electorate. This year, she is running for city clerk.
Random Lengths News recently interviewed Meni, a longtime city staffer and former president of Local 809 of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, about her desire to hold public office in Carson. Her answer was quite simple: she believes the current members of the city council pose an existential threat to the city residents via cronyism and sheer incompetence.
This past month, however, Meni has been most visible organizing demonstrations and pressuring the elected officials in Carson and Los Angeles County for action and transparency regarding the stench from the Dominguez Channel.
Meni believes that city officials is to service the community. She said it was beyond frustrating to live a half-mile from the channel and get the runaround from elected leaders, who put up their hands and say, “It’s not us;it’s the county.
“I had to tell them it doesn’t matter if the city is not responsible for the maintenance of the channel, you have responsibilities to us,” she said. “Anything that happens within these incorporated borders, is your responsibility.”
Meni noted that the city didn’t take resident complaints about the stench seriously. When the subject started bubbling up, Carson responded with social media pages on Facebook. People who don’t live close to Dominguez Channel and thus weren’t exposed to the full intensity of the stench accused her of using the issue to criticize the sitting members of the city council. This led to the creation of a separate Carson page focused on concerns about the Dominguez channel but also other issues specific to fourth district residents.
Meni was appalled that the city didn’t more quickly to establish an Emergency Operations Center and instead treated the stench as a nuisance.
“They should have called a special meeting the first week and declared an emergency to kick off the process,” Meni said. “They didn’t call their first meeting until Oct. 11 and even then they wouldn’t declare it an emergency. The stench began Oct. 4. “[This created a] domino effect within the business community. They couldn’t even send their workers home because according to their company’s guidelines from the Department of Public Health, the city has only declared it a nuisance. Therefore, they should still work. We weren’t getting any help.”
Regarding mayoral race in 2020, Meni said the final straw was when the city council decided not to use the reserve funds to cover the deductible to defend an $80 million lawsuit lodged against the city over the 157 acres project by Cam-Carson, a joint venture of Simon Property Group and Macerich, which accused the city of “gross financial and project mismanagement.” The developers claim Carson had not fulfilled its pledge to utilize $27 million to clean up the site which was previously a toxic landfill. Instead of dipping into the reserves to pay the deductible, Meni said, the city took the money from the operating budget (which pays the salaries of city hall staffers and supplies).
“We were already strained with staffing,” Meni explained. “This was the case] ever since 2002-2003 when we had a mass exodus after a golden handshake, an arrangement in which experienced city staffers were given a severance package to retire early in an effort to trim the city budget.
Meni said the city never balanced the workforce with the workload, but through attrition and modernization after a staff person resigned or retired, a reassessment of whether or not to fill the position or to reorganize would occur. As a result, Meni explained, the city was able to avoid laying off workers. But she cautioned that could change if the council makeup remains the same.
“The general public doesn’t know because of the way the City Council would buffer [attrition rates] by not filling budgeted positions,” Meni said. “It was very stressful the last five-plus years [for] the work force.”
But the work wasn’t going away. If anything, [the work] was increasing.
Meni said she sensed that eventually the city was going to begin talking to city workers about potential layoffs.
“It had nothing to do with something catastrophic like the housing crash, [which] we went through with furloughs and everything,” she said.
She said her bargaining unit asked her to restructure departments, find cost savings, and institute furloughs so that everyone’s jobs remained secure.
Meni has worked at Carson’s City Hall for 17 years, starting first under the tutelage of the late great city clerk Helen Kawagoe. During that time, Meni has amassed a near encyclopedic knowledge of Carson and during the course of the interview, demonstrated that knowledge.
Meni had been working in City Hall right up to January 2021 when she was let go.
She started off as a summer youth worker in the city clerk’s office under Kawagoe and worked there for many years before she was promoted into the finance department.
The Sitting Council’s Big F#@* You to Fourth District Residents Meni is happy that the city has turned district voting. In fact, she was one of the plaintiffs alongside Vera Robles DeWitt in the lawsuit filed by the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project
She said she agreed to the lawsuit because change would not come to her side of town otherwise.
“I live in the patch area… We’re sandwiched between the channel and the commercial district and refineries. We’re ignored year after year. Yet the money comes in right through our area. But it doesn’t stay here whatsoever. I wanted accountability,” she said.
Like most of the candidates, Meni didn’t like the final maps that were drawn. She described a the shape of the fourth district as being shaped as a penis, but the reality looked more like big “fuck you” to fourth district residents.
“It was very clear, the gerrymandering. They …. even got another demographer, because they did not like what the [the first] demographer was [drawing],” Meni said.
She noted that with her district being on the east side of the city, the fourth district is geographically separated from everybody.
“They literally cut the very north tip around [Councilman] Cedrick Hick’s block, his house, and they included it with the whole east side. So he went from there, the refinery lands, which are the largest parcels of land in the city and on the east side of the city, east of the patch in the Dominguez area.. And for [Mayor] Lula, they carved around her block. Meni said the fourth district map looks like a dick.
She said she’ll never be able to unsee the dickmove that literally cuts around Mayor Davis-Holmes neighborhood and goes straight down and it has the base.”
The gerrymandering, however, isn’t the most egregious part of the whole mapmaking process. The egregious part for Meni has been that the city has been terrible about educating Carson’s residents about districting and the making of the maps.
“To this day, I still have residents who don’t understand why going down to Anita {Street], why they are in two separate districts when they’re the same neighborhood,” Menis said. “But they had to snip it off so that they could create a [contiguous] that includes [Mayor Davis Holmes’] residence.”
Hitting the Ground Running She said fourth district residents should know that she is the only candidate who understands the function of the city clerk’s office aside from Vera DeWitt, who is also running for City Clerk. She said she wouldn’t need an elections consultant to show her the ropes due to her tenure working in the city clerk’s office and overall tenure at city hall.
Meni noted that with the exception of DeWitt, none of the other candidates understand that the city clerk’s office is a fully operating department and that in order to do its job, from the record-keeping and legislative action, the city clerk has to know what all the departments do. This special election is to fill a seat for one year. That means the city clerk coming in will immediately be behind doing all the paperwork, the resolutions and all the legislative actions leading up to the next election in 2022, Meni explained.
Meni said she is the only candidate who would have a good understanding of the job of city clerk and the different state mandates that has to be followed.
“The other three candidates have no idea with the voters rights act that is being implemented under our provision,” Meni said. “We don’t want to end up like the city of Compton, where they have a [multi-]million dollar budget deficit.”
Meni continued, explaining that non of the remaining candidates for city clerk have knowledge of the various financial components that need to be addressed with the job. She predicted that city could wind up needing to hire an election consultant firm to help, them.
Meni argues that council should have done that to help the interim deputy city clerk, John Carroll, a hired city clerk with allegedly no prior experience other than in his home state of Mississippi.
“They could have done that,” Meni said of the city council. “But they were adamant about no, no, no. This is our guy. We don’t have the luxury to sit there and play this wait-and-see game for these other individuals to come around the learning curve.”
Meni was referring to the fall out of interim city clerk John Caroll who was hired to fill in after Donesia Gause-Aldana resigned this past April to take a similar position in the city of Riverside.
In the run up to the November special election there have been a number of complaints by candidates about Caroll’s handling of deadlines and campaign filings. Meni said she is in the process of submitting all her documentation of the Caroll’s alleged mishandling of the filings.
It should be noted Carson’s elections are still conducted by Los Angeles County.
Meni noted the fact that many of the candidates didn’t show up for all of the candidate forums if any, should be a disqualifying factor.
“These individuals can’t even show up for a forum because they are afraid to face people. So as a resident, I’m bothered by that,” Meni said. “This is what happens when you hire elected officials. When the time comes when we need them, you end up suffering and that’s where we’re at right now and that’s the image that a lot of us residents really view all of our elected officials.”
Meni said the city council has failed Carson residents, but the failure now is impacting residents’ health and their is no forgiveness for the city council.
The video at the very top begins at the beginning of the interview. This video is the second half of the interview with Falea’Ana Meni.
On Oct. 24, attendees of Dia de Todos Santos (or All Saints Day) celebrated a day full of fun with mariachi troupes showcasing their skills, crafters making keepsakes and food truck offering delicious food. The Garden Church on 6th Street put on a Tree Of Life memorial featuring the children’s folklorico, Mariachi and traditional Ofrendas. There was also a free screening of the film, Coco,at the Warner Grand Theatre.
Each year provides more choices for enthusiasts of the holiday rooted in pagan practices. Bonfires and scary stories, haunted ships and, of course, a cemetery tour should always be on your list of things to do.
We may not often recall the history, but the festival marked the end of harvest for the Celtics and the beginning of the ‘darker half’ of the year. When Christianity came to Ireland an uneasy truce was created to meld the holiday with All Saints Day.
When I moved into my mother’s house, supplies for multiple cats were cramming available space and I only needed enough for two cats. I used freecycle.org to find people who wanted the extra beds, scratching posts, litter pans, toys, and carriers. I was already a long-time user of the site. I continue to use it for oddball items that occupy a twilight zone between too usable to trash, but too junky or bulky or simply not in demand for resale outlets.
When you want to give away something (such as holiday decorations), you can go to the Freecycle site and post a listing about what you have to “offer.” You can also use the site for “wanted” postings. When someone responds to your listing, you usually arrange with that person for a porch pick-up or drop-off. The site’s organized by communities called “town groups” so people who want to pick up or drop off items don’t have far to go. However, you can sign up for multiple communities—I’m active with eight different town groups.
Some local communities with freecycle.org groups include Carson, Long Beach, Anaheim, Garden Grove, Torrance, Santa Ana, Lawndale, Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, and Palos Verdes. Some groups are more active than others. The Long Beach group, for example, is quite lively, while some other groups see little or no activity. These sites are strictly set up and run by volunteer moderators, so each town’s group rules vary.
Recently, for example, I saw a woman’s “wanted” post, for wreaths for each month. I had a plain braided wreath—willow, maybe—in my mother’s garage, so I messaged her and suggested she could decorate it. She lived in San Pedro and worked in Anaheim, so it was easy for her to pick the wreath up from my porch. She later kindly sent me a photo of the wreath decorated for Easter.
One of my happier Freecycle experiences concerns a bag of wooden clothes hangers. Years ago a woman posted how she was considering throwing the whole bag away if she got no response. I thought, “You can always use good-quality clothes hangers,” and picked the bag up. My mother’s closets, though, proved to be jammed with hangers already, so the bag got stashed away.
Then recently I saw a woman in Long Beach who wanted wooden clothes hangers, and also art supplies. I bagged up some odd supplies from the family craft cabinet, grabbed the bag of wooden hangers, and dropped both bags off on her porch.
I don’t know if anyone has noticed, but there is an abundance of fun and creative museums to go to with great food all around Los Angeles, from ice cream to donuts. Now there’s a coffee museum, called Coffee World, located in Torrance. The world’s first coffee pop-up establishment brings a whole new realm of vibrant colors and fun. Created by brother and sister, Kashin and Divya Papel, as well as Nishant Sehgal and Tran Ngo, the pop-up museum provides an immersive, interactive experience for the price of a few cups of fine coffee. For $25, you can have the experience of becoming a cup of coffee from bean to brew.
Divya, the founder and the artistic mind of all, walked me through a curated coffee-inspired art show alongside a fully immersive social media experience. This, while teaching about the process and history of this bean we love so much.
Kishan and his sister Divya wanted to bring something new and interesting that brought Angelenos together. Their answer was coffee — the greatest product consumed globally on a daily basis ever, reflected in the cultures that make up Los Angeles. At Coffee World, the light and the dark and a splash of artistic vision (puns intended) of coffee are showcased.
The museum idea that’s been in the works since 2018 was first brought to life in March 2020 until temporarily shut down due to the pandemic, but reopened in May 2021. Since reopening, business has been booming and attracting people from all over neighboring cities, including San Pedro locals like myself. Kishan helped me imagine ten different rooms that would showcase the entire coffee process.
Rather than the old-school way of going to museums to look around and read, here you’re interacting with what’s around you, and each room represents a step in the coffee process from farm to cup. This museum is not only for the coffee lovers, but great for all ages, kids, adults and even people who don’t drink coffee but just enjoy pictures with life size whimsical art.
The tour of Coffee World begins in the seeding room, which became my personal favorite. The zen environment and colorful artwork around the walls and ceiling offered a sense of peace and groundedness.
In the second room, two different types of processing occur — the dry method and the wet method.
Through another door was a beautiful art exhibit of hanging strings that represent the cherry going through the de-pulping process. A coffee bean is a seed of the coffea plant and the source for coffee. The cherry is the pip inside the red or purple fruit.
In subsequent rooms, it was apparent that each space was curated using specific artists from all over the world. As the tour continued there were many fun things to keep yourself entertained, including a game of cup pong and a giant ball pit that made you feel like a coffee bean being roasted. We continued on to the seventh room, which was dedicated to sustainability, using used coffee cups to build an art piece, showcasing recycling in the process and making it beautiful.
The remaining rooms can be left to the imagination until your visit, but the fluorescent colors of each section flow radiantly, and there is plenty to learn. One fact interesting to me, I discovered through an art piece on their wall that said “THANK GOAT FOR COFFEE.”
According to a legend, a young Ethiopian herder named Kaldi noticed his older goats bouncing around with high energy all over hillsides, so he followed them and discovered they had been eating a bright red cherry. Curious enough, he ate one too and suddenly became energized, and thus coffee was discovered.
One more surprise is you can’t have coffee at their establishment just quite yet, however, based on this success, there are rumors about another location opening up. So be on the lookout for Coffee World, an interactive experience that makes you feel like a kid experiencing coffee for the first time all over again. If coffee is your love language, definitely stop by.
Venue: Coffee World, 3525 W. Carson St., Suite #173, Torrance
Time: Thursday through Friday 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday 2 p.m. to 7 p.m.
