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Supervisors Act to Address Food Insecurity with Creation of Food Equity Roundtable

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Supervisors Act to Address Food Insecurity with Creation of Food Equity Roundtable

LOS ANGELES — The LA County Board of Supervisors Feb. 10, approved a motion authored by Supervisor Janice Hahn and co-authored by Supervisor Sheila Kuehl to address food insecurity in LA County through the creation of a Food Equity Roundtable.

Though food insecurity has been a growing problem within LA County for decades – with regular assessments conducted since 2002 showing that at least 20% of low-income households experience food insecurity in any given year – the COVID-19 pandemic has amplified the scale of the problem. Now, at least 1 in 4 households in LA County struggles with food insecurity.

In June 2020, Hahn authored a motion with Kuehl to address this problem by instructing the county’s Chief Sustainability Office or CSO to bring together county, city, non-profit, and philanthropic partners to develop a plan with cross-sector coordination that would combat – and ultimately end – food insecurity in LA County.

In response to Hahn’s motion, the CSO partnered with the California Community Foundation and the Annenberg Foundation to form a working group that reviewed best practices, assessed the county’s food insecurity situation, and gathered stakeholder input to make recommendations on how best to address the issue.

The resulting report back recommended that the county establish a two-year LA County Food Equity Roundtable that includes a diverse mix of public-private stakeholders. The roundtable would be co-led by the county and its philanthropic partners, that would meet regularly to advance a mission of ending food insecurity by building capacity for LA County’s food distribution programs, promoting and strengthening access to food programs like Calfresh and Special Supplemental Nutrition for Women, Infants, and Children and advancing food justice overall.

Today’s motion directs the CEO’s Chief Sustainability Office to adopt the report’s recommendations and create the Food Equity Roundtable. The Roundtable will be tasked with giving semi-annual updates to the Board of Supervisors with policy recommendations, grant opportunities, and data on food needs and resources (including an examination of food inequities across the County) – all with the goal of ending food insecurity in LA County.

Hahn and Kuehl’s motion also instructs the County’s Chief Executive Office and Chief Sustainability Office to explore the willingness of the county’s philanthropic partners to provide funding to support the Roundtable’s initial two-year incubation period — and longer if the Roundtable is recommended to continue.

Sorry, USC, My Mother Two-Timed You

Lyn Jensen
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Sorry, USC, My Mother Two-Timed You

My mother willed her body to medicine — twice — first to University of Southern California’s School of Medicine. Apparently without withdrawing that donation (which is supposed to be done in writing, or at least with witnesses), near her life’s end she turned around and donated herself to UC Irvine School of Medicine. 

When I tried to talk to my mother about the USC donation — the only one I was certain about — I only got, “No! No! Not USC! UCI! UCI!” When I asked about the change, that only got more, “UCI! UCI!” When I asked about a phone number or paperwork, “You don’t need that! UCI! It’s UCI!”

I knew about the USC donation because I remembered my parents discussing it. Motivated more by the possibility of a tax write-off than altruism, they agreed to donate their bodies to USC in 1977. My father, when facing his last days, was at least conscientious enough to give me a phone number. 

When a hospital employee asked me about the disposition of my mother’s body, I could only guess a donation to UCI best represented her wishes. I didn’t have a phone number but the hospital provided one. 

When I called the number and explained, there was a pause, a clicking of keys, then, “She’s not in our system.”

I was about to hang up and call USC, when the person on the other end of the line said they could take the information and make arrangements over the phone. So I did.

USC had offered me the option of returning my father’s remains. Getting his remains back and determining their final resting place proved complicated. I weighed my options: scatter his ashes and dispose of the container myself, pay a professional service such as the Neptune Society, or inter the ashes in a cemetery. Since he was entitled to be interred in a veteran’s cemetery, all expenses paid, that’s what I did. 

My mother wasn’t covered by veteran’s benefits, but this time the solution was simple. UCI doesn’t offer the option of returning the remains. It sees to the scattering of the ashes.

I found records of the donations to both schools only when I moved into my mother’s house and tackled the job of clearing away a lifetime of papers. The USC paperwork is dated May 18, 1977 and witnessed by the next-door neighbors at the time. The UCI paperwork is dated Dec. 8, 2013 and witnessed by the current next-door neighbor and his wife — the one my mother insisted she didn’t know. Under next-of-kin, my mother put, “Self.” A donor card was provided to be carried in one’s wallet, billfold, or purse. Obviously it wasn’t.

Two things bother me: that the UCI woman couldn’t find my mother in her system — perhaps the paperwork was never properly processed — and that I had to apologize to USC for my mother stiffing its willed-body program.

Living In A Blast Zone

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Living In A Blast Zone

President Chuck Hart of the San Pedro Peninsula Homeowners United, Inc. expressed on behalf of the homeowner membership the urgency for Congressman Ted Lieu to finally support the interest to ensure the public safety and the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach against domestic terrorism in butane and propane gas storage facilities in the San Pedro area.

Within the three-mile blast zone of the Plains All American Pipeline and Rancho LPG, LLC, cities such as San Pedro, Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills, Harbor City, and Torrance are more in danger being near the over 25-million-gallon storage facilities.

The letter expressed an alarming comparison of the energy of 25-million-gallon storage facilities to the explosion that killed over 200 people in August 2020 in Beirut with the equivalent energy of only 77,000 gallons of butane gas.

Assigned as a “Tier One – Soft Target of Terrorism” by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the highly explosive facility can be triggered with a high-power rifle. Designed as an offsite storage location, it is easily targeted being established over 48 years ago.

With the local support of Congresswoman Nannette Diaz Barragan and Congressman Alan Lowenthal, any future legislative action will be dismissed without Congressman Ted Lieu’s support having Plains All American Pipeline and Rancho LPG, LLC facilities located in his jurisdiction.

Cheech Marin’s Long-Awaited Chicano Art Museum Secures City Approval and $1 Million in Annual Funding

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Cheech Marin’s Long-Awaited Chicano Art Museum Secures City Approval and $1 Million in Annual Funding

From Artnet News

Comedian and actor Cheech Marin is a man of many interests— he is one half of the legendary comedy duo Cheech and Chong. He is also an avid trivia player (he won the first Celebrity Jeopardy! tournament) and art collector, having put together a 700-work collection of Chicano art, which is thought to be the largest of its kind in the world.

Now, after years of planning, the long-awaited Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art and Culture of the Riverside Art Museum in Riverside, California, has finally received the green light from the city.

The Riverside City Council voted last week to approve plans to renovate the former city library to house the center, and to provide $1 million in annual funding to cover operating costs under a 25-year contract.

A city-funded management fee has been part of the deal since the initial 2017 agreement between the museum and the city, a representative of the center told Artnet News in an email. (Conder abstained, while two other members who own nearby businesses or property recused themselves.)

LA County Explores Using New Federal Guarantee to Expand Project Roomkey

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LA County Explores Using New Federal Guarantee to Expand Project Roomkey

LOS ANGELES — After the Biden Administration announced plans to reimburse 100% of what counties and cities spend on non-congregate shelters, Supervisor Hahn wants to explore expanding LA County’s Project Roomkey program to use empty motel and hotel rooms to get more people indoors during the pandemic.

Project Roomkey was launched in March 2020 as part of the State of California and LA County’s effort to protect vulnerable residents from COVID-19. The program uses hotels and motels as short-term shelters for homeless residents over 65 or with serious health conditions.  Previously, FEMA policy was to reimburse cities and counties for 75% of the costs of the program. On Jan. 21, President Biden issued an executive action increasing the FEMA reimbursement rate, to 100%.  

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Feb. 9, passed a motion authored by Supervisors Hahn and Hilda Solis. The motion directs the LA County CEO and LAHSA to report back to the board in 15 days with opportunities for extending, renewing, or expanding county-contracted Project Roomkey sites. Importantly, the motion specifies including hotels and motels with fewer than 100 rooms which had not been eligible for the program.

Importantly, the Hahn-Solis motion also directs the County’s advocates in Washington, DC to write a letter to the Biden Administration urging them to provide upfront the funding for non-congregate shelters. One obstacle to taking advantage of the FEMA reimbursement is the length of time the County must wait to be reimbursed.  FEMA can take a year or longer to reimburse local entities, straining local budgets. 

Details: www.tinyurl.com/3uotplgm 

Torrance Refinery Action Alliance Meeting And Assessor Jeffrey Prang Presentation On Changes In Property Tax Benefits From Prop. 19

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Torrance Refinery Action Alliance Meeting And Assessor Jeffrey Prang Presentation On Changes In Property Tax Benefits From Prop. 19

Feb. 10

TRAA Meeting

Hear about the latest information about the refineries, and our plans for the coming year.

This month’s TRAA meeting will be held February 10, lasting for an hour (+- 30 minutes). It will again be a virtual meeting. 

If you can’t attend the meeting, please consider volunteering to help in our efforts. Several activities are in the works, and can always use whatever assistance you can give.

Time: 7 p.m. Feb. 10

Details: For ZOOM information, please email Steve Goldsmith at sgoldsmith84@gmail.com.

Feb. 17

Presentation Featuring: LA County Assessor Jeffrey Prang

In November 2020, California voters passed Proposition 19, which makes changes to property tax benefits for families, seniors, severely disabled persons, and victims of natural disaster in our state. In response, the Assessor’s Office has consolidated resources, including video tutorials, frequently asked questions, forms and reference links to help you understand and prepare for the upcoming changes

LA County Assessor Jeffrey Prang will be speaking to the Lomita Chamber of Commerce on Feb. 17, to provide an informative session and Q&A on:

• An introduction to the LA County Assessor’s Office

• Property Tax Cost Savings Programs

• How COVID-19 has affected the structure of our office, market rates, property values

• How Proposition 19 will impact operations of the Assessor’s office, businesses, and homeowners

Time: 3 p.m. Feb 17

Details: www.us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/prop19-changes

Hidden in Plain Sight: The “Unimpeachable” Offenses

Norman Solomon
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Hidden in Plain Sight: The “Unimpeachable” Offenses

Impeachment dramas on Capitol Hill have routinely skipped over a question that we should be willing to ask even if Congress won’t: “What about a president’s unimpeachable offenses?”

The question is the flip side of one that Republican Gerald Ford candidly addressed when he was the House minority leader 50 years ago: “What, then, is an impeachable offense? The only honest answer is that an impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history.”

By narrowly defining which offenses are impeachable, political elites are implicitly telling us which offenses aren’t.

So, when the House approved two articles of impeachment on Donald Trump in December 2019 and one impeachment article last month, the actions were much too late and much too little.

On Feb. 6, 2017, less than three weeks into Trump’s term, I wrote in The Hill newspaper: “From the outset of his presidency, Trump has been violating the U.S. Constitution in a way that we have not seen before and should not tolerate. It’s time for members of Congress to get the impeachment process underway.” I pointed out that “the president continues to violate two ‘emoluments’ clauses in the Constitution. One prohibits any gifts or benefits from foreign governments, and the other prohibits the same from the U.S. government or any U.S. state.”

But, at the outset, treating President Trump as unimpeachable — despite those flagrant violations of the Constitution —greased the wheels for the runaway madness of his presidency in the years that followed. As Trump’s destructive joyride went on, reasons to impeach him proliferated. Researchers easily drew up dozens of articles of impeachment. But in the eyes of political elites, as with previous presidents, Trump’s offenses were seen as unimpeachable.

Two decades earlier, President Bill Clinton became the second impeached president in U.S. history. The frenzy was akin to vilifying Al Capone for tax evasion. “We all seem to have lost our sense of proportion,” historian Howard Zinn wrote five weeks before Clinton’s impeachment. “Why are the political leaders of the United States and the major media talking of impeaching Bill Clinton for lies about sex, surely not the most important sins of his administration?”

Writing in November 1998, Zinn added: “If Clinton is to be impeached, why do it for frivolous reasons? I can think of at least 10 reasons to impeach him, for acts far more serious than his dalliance with Monica Lewinsky or his lies to Kenneth Starr. I am speaking of matters of life and death for large numbers of people.”

Zinn cited such matters as missile attacks on Iraq, Afghanistan and Sudan; Clinton’s refusal to accept a Canadian proposal to ban land mines; continuation of “embargoes on Cuba and Iraq, causing widespread misery in Cuba for lack of food and medicine, and hundreds of thousands of deaths in Iraq according to U.N. statistics”; and squandering vast funds on the U.S. military while people were suffering and dying at home and abroad due to lack of health care, nutrition and housing.

There was no second impeachment of Clinton after he used a “diplomatic” scam called the Rambouillet accords to justify launching intensive U.S.-led NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in the spring of 1999, without congressional authorization. Clinton persisted with a continuous air war for more than two months — making history by blatantly violating the War Powers Resolution.

Trump — like Barack Obama and George W. Bush before him — was able to order missile strikes and deploy troops in numerous war-torn countries without congressional constraints. And there was no reason to be concerned that Congress might impeach him for war crimes. The reasons for such impunity are rooted in the history of “unimpeachable” offenses.

Consider the proceedings in Congress that forced President Richard Nixon to resign when impeachment was imminent in mid-1974. The House Judiciary Committee approved three articles of impeachment — focusing on Nixon’s obstruction of justice after the Watergate break-in by operatives for his re-election campaign, misuse of federal agencies to violate citizens’ constitutional rights, and noncompliance with congressional subpoenas.

Unmentioned in the Nixon impeachment articles: the Vietnam War that he had prolonged with a vengeance while claiming to seek peace. With methodical deception, Nixon inflicted a massive horrendous war — but his crimes against humanity were judged to be completely unimpeachable.

Also entirely excluded from the Nixon impeachment articles was the merciless U.S. bombardment of northern Laos that slaughtered people who lived on the Plain of Jars, making Laos “the most heavily bombed country per capita in history.” The impeachment articles likewise made no mention of Nixon’s ordering of the secret and illegal carpet-bombing of Cambodia, which began two months into his presidency and persisted year after year.

On July 31, 1973 — nearly a full year before Nixon’s resignation — Democratic Rep. Robert Drinan introduced an impeachment resolution. He said it was triggered by the “recent revelation that President Nixon conducted a totally secret air war in Cambodia.”

As journalist Judith Coburn noted, “The secret bombing of Cambodia involved the same abuse of power and political manipulation of government agencies as Watergate, but only a few congressional representatives like John Conyers, Elizabeth Holtzman, and Edward Mezvinsky supported Drinan’s Cambodia article, which was soundly defeated by the House impeachment committee 26-12.”

Gerald Ford’s “only honest answer” — acknowledging that an impeachable offense is only “whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history” — foreshadowed the impeachment proceedings against Nixon, Clinton and Trump.

If what’s impeachable is only what members of Congress say it is, constituents should insist that egregiously narrow definitions must no longer prevail. Otherwise, the operative standard for presidents will continue to be what they can get away with — in tandem with a collectively feckless Congress.

For now, the presidential offenses that are routinely considered unimpeachable — and therefore ultimately acceptable — tell us a lot about Congress. And about U.S. mass media. And maybe about ourselves.

_______________________________

Norman Solomon is the national director of RootsAction.org and the author of many books including War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death. He was a Bernie Sanders delegate from California to the 2016 and 2020 Democratic National Conventions. Solomon is the founder and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy.

Farmwork In the Era of COVID-19

David Bacon
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Farmwork In the Era of COVID-19

The Progressive, On the Line, 2/5/21

https://progressive.org/magazine/on-the-line-farmwork-COVID19/

https://davidbaconrealitycheck.blogspot.com/2021/02/farmwork-in-era-of-covid-19.html

The infection rate from the COVID virus is much higher in the rural counties of California than it is in the cities.  In Tulare County, more than 40,000 people had contracted the virus as of mid-January, and more than 500 people had died.

Yet throughout this summer and fall, farmworkers went into the county’s orchards to harvest fruit.  Workers are essential, since if they didn’t do this work the grapes, pluots and persimmons would rot on the trees, and supermarket shelves would be bare.  But being essential during the COVID era also means that workers are forced to put themselves at risk of infection in the orchards because they have no money to pay rent or buy food if they don’t.

In the trees and under the vines farmworkers do the best they can to take care they don’t get sick.  Most wear masks or bandannas, although women especially have always worn bandannas at work.  In addition to protecting against infection, they filter out dust.  Most important for many, they provide a kind of shield against unwanted attention from men.

Even in a good crew with a responsible foreman, workers almost invariably have to bring their own shears, bags and masks.  Summer temperature in the Tulare fields get up to 110 degrees.  The masks are hot and uncomfortable, but workers are already challenging accepted wisdom by wearing many layers of clothing, which they say does a better job of insulating against the heat than showing up for work in a teeshirt.  

Still, wearing protection and being uncomfortable – cold in November’s persimmons and hot in July’s pluots and August’s grapes – is not really a choice if you have a family to support.  And if it’s the price of not getting sick, then workers pay it.

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POPLAR, CA – 11AUGUST20 – Victor Tabino takes the picked bunches and puts them into a plastic bag, ready for the supermarket.
POPLAR, CA – 21NOVEMBER20 – Farmworkers pick persimmons in a field near Poplar, in the San Joaquin Valley, in a crew of Mexican immigrants. Maria Madrigal is a picker in the crew.
POPLAR, CA – 21NOVEMBER20 – Next to his ladder, Pedro Rodriguez cuts each persimmon with a shears, placing it carefully in the box strapped to his shoulders.
POPLAR, CA – 21NOVEMBER20 – At the truck, a loader stacks the boxes. The boxes can’t be filled to the top, or the soft fruit will be crushed.
POPLAR, CA – 13JULY20 – Carmen, another picker, balances on a ladder while she fills her bag she carries on her shoulder.
POPLAR, CA – 13JULY20 – Sara Toledo reaches through the branches and leaves for the pluots she intends to pick.
POPLAR, CA – 13JULY20 – A worker empties her bag of fruit into the bin.

From Democracy Now: Rep. Cori Bush Denounces White Supremacist Violence from the Capitol Insurrection to Ferguson

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From Democracy Now: Rep. Cori Bush Denounces White Supremacist Violence from the Capitol Insurrection to Ferguson

With former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial set to begin in the Senate this week, Democracy Now featured the speech Democratic Congressmember Cori Bush of Missouri made Thursday on the floor of the House of Representatives to demand accountability for the attack on the U.S. Capitol. 

Transcript This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

REP. CORI BUSH: Madam Speaker, St. Louis and I rise to reflect on how our office experienced the white supremacist attack on our nation’s Capitol on January the 6th. Everybody’s experiences are different, and everybody’s experiences must be validated. Everybody’s experiences.

I remember sitting up in the gallery, listening to floor speeches, knowing that there was supposed to be a protest happening outside, seeing people outside and thinking that this was just part of the day, until something happened, and I just felt the need to stand up and walk out. I walked out, and I walked over to the — I went to the steps. I went down a flight, and I went to the steps. And I went to look to see what’s happening outside.

And I saw the tip top of flags. And then I saw more of the flags, and I could read words. And then, after I could read words, I could see people. And then I realized that people were approaching. So I hopped on the nearest elevator and left and made it back to my office safely. And when we came back into our office, we walked in, and we started to see on our televisions people breaching doors. And I remember thinking, “Is this actually what’s happening?”

The more I watched — and people were calling this a “protest.” Let me say this: That was not a protest. I’ve been to hundreds of protests in my life. I’ve co-organized, co-led, led and organized protests, not only in Ferguson, Missouri, alongside the amazing Ferguson frontline that most people don’t even acknowledge. They don’t even know their names. They don’t even know who died. They don’t even acknowledge the amazing people that put their lives and livelihoods on the line for our safety, believing that Black lives matter, because they actually do. And we shouldn’t have to say it; it should just be true. But it’s not evident in our society, when we have to continue to say, “My life matters,” and then they hit us with things like this.

And so, I remember sitting in the office with my team and just thinking to myself, “I feel like I’m back, at this very minute. I feel like I’m back.” I feel like this was one of the days out there on the streets when the white supremacists would show up and start shooting at us. This is one of the days when the police would ambush us from behind, from behind trees and from behind buildings, and all of a sudden now we’re on the ground being brutalized. It felt like one of those days. And I just remember taking a second, thinking, “If they touch these doors, if they hit these doors the way they hit that door, if they hit these doors and come anywhere near my staff” — and I’m just going to be real honest about it — my thought process was, “We bangin’ ’til the end. I’m not letting them take out my people. And you’re not taking me out. We’ve come too far.”

So, Madam Speaker, St. Louis and I rise with a message for our Republican colleagues. On January 6th, I thought about January 3rd, and I thought about how we all raised our right hands up and took an oath, each and every one of us. On this very floor, we swore that we would support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic, even though that Constitution wasn’t written for people who look like me, even that Constitution wasn’t written by people who look like me, and even though that Constitution cemented an unjust nation for people like me.

My team and I got to work, and we unveiled legislation to investigate and expel those who were responsible for inciting this attack, so that we could defend it, because we have a duty to fight for a more perfect union, because we cannot stand up to white supremacy in this — because if we cannot stand up to white supremacy in this moment as representatives, then why did you run for office in the first place?

No matter what district you represent, no matter where you live, no matter Democrat or Republican, you represent a district that is, on average, about 700,000 people, meaning you have to represent those who love you, those who despise you, those who voted for you, those who swear they’ll never cast a vote for you, people who talk like you, and people who don’t look like you.

Building better communities, building better lives, building a better society, it’s not a Democratic or Republican issue. We can’t build a better society if members are too scared to stand up and act to reject the white supremacist attack that happened right before our eyes. How can we trust that you will address the suffering that white supremacy causes on a day-to-day basis in the shadows, if you can’t even address the white supremacy that happens right in front of you in your house? “Does your silence speak to your agreement?” is the question.

In St. Louis, the COVID-19 pandemic is disproportionately hospitalizing and killing Black and Brown people. Well, I’ve lived that. We have people dying from gun violence, a crisis that stems from decades of economic disinvestment and disruption, from an overreliance on policing, that this very chamber has continually voted to endorse. I’ve cried those tears. You don’t know what that’s like.

So I ask you today, take a moment to think about what it’s like to live what we live through. If you cannot do what’s right in the face of a blatant, heinous, vile white supremacist attack like the one we just saw, how will you do right by the Black and Brown people you represent who just want to know that our children will have safety, that our children will have life, and that they will have shelter, because you represent us, too?

So, on January 3rd, we stood together to swear our oath to office, to the Constitution. We swore to defend it against all enemies foreign and domestic. Well, it was attacked by a domestic enemy called white supremacy, and we must stand together now, today, to uphold that oath and hold every single person who helped incite it accountable. Thank you, and I yield back.

Details: https://www.democracynow.org/2021/2/8/cori_bush_speech_us_capitol_attack

Random Letters: 2-4-21

RLn
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Random Letters: 2-4-21

A Little Gratitude Goes a Long Way

My husband and I are generous to the local community nonprofits. We do this because we are blessed: roof over head, food on the table and money in the bank. I went back through my donation receipts from last year, which were substantial in numbers, if not in dollars. Especially Giving Tuesday. We gave to most who asked. I received about 30 printed tax forms and two hand written notes. My children and those two organizations who had the time to hand write a note (whether it was for $5, or $5,000) are going to be happy. I have reached a point in my life where kindness and gratitude are essential. 

Buy some note paper and have your children write notes, send a photo, do something personal to be remembered.

Arlene Dickey, San Pedro

Absurd Prop. 19 Deadline

I am writing to express extreme displeasure with the legislature’s decision to impose a Feb. 16 deadline on California homeowners to transfer property to their children, or face massive property tax increases. Giving families a three-month window to decide whether to transfer their homes, in the middle of a global pandemic and national vaccine rollout is, quite frankly, absurd. This short window of time shows how clueless our Sacramento legislators actually are.

How can anyone find out the necessary information to learn about a 35 year old rule change in the middle of a pandemic? All of the county’s offices are closed to the public! Some estate planning firms are charging anywhere from $1,000 to $2,700, just for the consultation alone. One local law firm estimates that getting the actual work done for Prop. 19 planning is a minimum of $12,000. Is it reasonable to expect low or middle income families to be able to seek adequate counsel at these prices in the middle of a global pandemic and national vaccine rollout? 

Why not extend the deadline until families can better understand how these changes will affect them? The Los Angeles County Assessor said on Friday this rule change is the biggest change to property tax administration since Prop. 13 was passed in 1978! The additional stress created on families to meet this ridiculous deadline is unfair and inappropriate, and any legislator who voted in favor of ACA 11 should be ashamed of themselves.

Christopher Yang, San Pedro

Prop. 19 has now passed in California, and with it brought changes to how property tax is reassessed for some purchases, effective April 1, 2021. The new law replaces Prop. 60 and Prop. 90, affecting replacement property by homeowners who are over 55, severely disabled, or whose home has been substantially damaged by wildfires or natural disaster. It allows the homeowners to transfer their original home’s taxable value to a replacement property. It’s unclear as of yet how properties sold prior to April 1 will be treated if the replacement purchase occurs after this date. Regardless, the replacement purchase must occur within two years of the original property’s sale. Under prior law, this type of reassessment could only be applied if the purchase was made in the same county as the prior residence or in specific counties. Under new law, it applies throughout California. Additionally, prior law required the replacement home to have equal or lesser value than the original home. Prop. 19 has provisions for an adjusted rate in a circumstance where the value is greater. The adjusted rate is calculated as the original home’s taxable value plus the difference between the replacement home’s purchase price and the original home’s sale price. This reassessment can be applied up to three times, or indefinitely any time that it is applied under the provisions for substantial property damage. With Prop. 19 also came a change to intergenerational transfers. Previously, a child or grandchild could inherit a property with no change to the property tax amount. Effective Feb. 16, 2021, that exemption from reassessment applies only while the heir is using the property as their primary residence, and only if the heir claims a homeowner’s or disabled veteran’s exemption within one year of the transfer. The new law also requires that the property continue to be used as the child or grandchild’s primary residence. Once the property is no longer their primary residence, the property will be reassessed.

If the value of the inherited property is more than $1 million greater than the original purchase value, there will be a partial reassessment. Essentially, the heir is allowed to use the original purchase value, plus $1 million as the baseline property value. Above that, normal property taxes are applied.

In addition, family farms are now also included in properties that can retain their taxable value when transferred. Farms are not subject to the primary residence test, however all other qualifications and exemptions apply.

By Marlowe Clark from  BeachChatter

Anti-Vaxxer Protest

From the folks who brought us the Dodger Stadium anti-vaxxer protest—now  the recall Gavin Newsom Petition.

They’d rather have Ron De Santis as our governor. Funny there’s no mention of Saturday’s Dodger Stadium protests. They got press coverage all over the world: WAPO, NYT, CBS, ABC, NBC, BBC,Al Jazeera, Jerusalem Post RT, Democracy Now!, India Times, I did screenshots of the news. coverage if anybody wants them.

They got all that coverage but not a word appears about their event on Saturday in this, their latest email blast. 

No LAPD Arrests like the ones on Xmas and New Years either. The covidiots are organized.

Charles LaMont, San Pedro

Death for Donald

Jan. 6, 2021 — a day that will live in infamy!  Or should I say — insane stupidity? Speaking of infamous idiocy, traitor Donald Trump deserves to die. 

Now, let me be clear — I am not calling for anyone to do anything, nor would I ever be willing to be the hand of fate myself. But rest assured, unless Orange Hitler and his crackpot criminal family hide out in Nazi-friendly Argentina for the rest of their washed-up lives, demonic Donald and/or his evil brood will eventually pay the ultimate price.

It’s about time we had an honest, unfiltered public conversation about whether or not demagogue Donald Trump deserves the death penalty for his treason against our democratic republic and for his treacherous crimes against humanity. 

Trump unofficially implemented a genocidal strategy of herd immunity during the still worsening COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to deranged Donald’s disastrously failed, lunatic lynch mob coup d’etat attempt by his murderous, marauding, hateful hillbilly fascist fan club.

Hundreds of thousands of your fellow Americans are now needlessly dead, because demented Donald Trump wanted it that way!  The still grieving family members deserve swift justice, not the usually disgraceful, typical outcome whereby rich psychopaths are able to buy their way out of any and every crime they commit. 

The day domestic terrorist traitor Donald Trump dies by natural causes or otherwise, there will be a spontaneous, massive worldwide party and all are invited, except for you inbred, insurrectionist neo-Confederate Nazi creeps.

Considering the fact that the blood of so many Americans is on the tiny hands of genocidal domestic terrorist Donald Trump, the death penalty for diabolical Donald is absolutely necessary!  The only question left now is the method of execution.  Firing squad on 5th Avenue, perhaps?  Wouldn’t that be ironic?

Jake Pickering, Arcata, CA

Trump’s Trial is Constitutional

Sen. Rand Paul is trying to do a clever maneuver to supersede our laws and regulations and hide behind the Constitution to avoid addressing one of the most serious violations of our Constitution and misbehavior of any president in history. Rand Paul is using his faulty statements in order to avoid impeachment for Donald Trump.

This is brute force politics in which in which former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the Republicans have practiced for over 5 years. McConnell had closed the Senate until Jan. 19, preventing a second Trump impeachment trial from beginning while the former president trump was still in office.

This political maneuver was a moot point because in 1876 when President Grant’s Secretary of War, William W. Belknap, resigned just before he was to be impeached for corruption, the House went ahead anyway and so did a Senate trial, neither of which actions fit Paul’s reasoning.

If the Republican senators acquit the former president on spurious jurisdictional grounds, they have neglected their highest duty to our constitution which they are supposed to uphold. The Constitution demands that they act to preserve our democracy for future generations. Impeaching and trying Trump are the first steps toward ending domestic terrorism and restoring civil order.

John Winkler, San Pedro

Let’s Hope…

Thanks for the Random Lengths’ insightful news coverage of the national election. Congratulations to President Joseph Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.  

Harris does not have a good record on civil rights, fair housing or police reform. I hope that is not the reason she was elected. I had personal litigation experiences with her in 2016 when as California Attorney General she opposed my efforts to assure full and equal housing privileges for tenants across the state. 

It will take more than a change of two leaders at the White House to make a difference in the status quo and its trickle down effect. Let’s hope that the Vice President’s heritage and gender will help her to become a better elected official than is expected. Good luck to us all.

G. Juan Johnson, Los Angeles

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Real people. Real news. Random Lengths is the Los Angeles harbor area's remaining independently owned progressive news magazine. We cover news in Carson, Wilmington, Long Beach, Lomita, Torrance, Rancho Palos Verdes and San Pedro.

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