Flix and Chill While on Lockdown
By Melina Paris, Arts and Culture Writer and Terelle Jerricks, Managing Editor
Many of us are familiar with the cheap alternative to date night called “Netflix and Chill.” Some of us place more emphasis on the chill than Netflix. But in this period of COVID-19 public gathering restrictions, “Netflix” and “chill” have taken on whole new meanings.
While we are all safer at home we have plenty of time to chill, so the Random Lengths News editorial staff pulled together a list of shows, films and documentaries of note to which you should pay attention. This list includes the films and shows that are informative, inspirational and or downright funny. But perhaps more than anything else, these options can help you spend time to take in a deeper understanding of the world we live in.
Self Made: Inspired by the life of Madame C.J. Walker
Self Made is a fictionalized Netflix series depicting black hair care pioneer and mogul Madam C. J. Walker and how she overcame hostile turn-of-the-century America, epic rivalries, tumultuous marriages and some trifling family to become America’s first black, self-made female millionaire.
Gentefied
A comedy-drama series centered on three cousins who band together to keep their grandfather’s popular Boyle Heights taco shop in business, Gentefied chronicles the family’s story as the old neighborhood becomes gentrified. In the first season, the cousins confront their differences in their connections to their community, their heritage and their commitment to the family business, all
while navigating larger themes of gentrification and the marginalization of Latinx’s in America.
Who Killed Malcolm X
This in-depth docu-series on Netflix revisits questions about the official story of the February 1965 assassination of Malcolm X — positing that his killer freely walked the streets in Newark, New Jersey — an assertion first made in Manning Marable’s biography on the black liberation leader.
At the center of the series is Abdur-Rahman Muhammad, a Washington, D.C. historian and expert on Malcolm X working with Marable in 2005 on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book Malcolm X, A Life of Reinvention. Marable died in 2011.
“There were so many stones left unturned,” Muhammad says in the new docu-series, adding that he was never able to look at the original crime scene evidence or files of the district attorney at the time. “And it just kept bugging me and bugging me.”
13th
Ava DuVernay’s documentary film, 13th, explores the “intersection of race, justice and mass incarceration in the United States. The film is titled after the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution, adopted in 1865, which abolished slavery throughout the United States” and ended involuntary servitude except as a punishment for conviction of a crime.
The documentary makes the case that slavery has been perpetuated since the end of the American Civil War through criminalizing behavior and enabling police to arrest and force poor freeman to work for the state under convict leasing. Duvernay examines the prison-industrial complex and the emerging detention-industrial complex, discussing how much money is being made by corporations from such incarcerations.
This film features several activists, academics, political figures from both major U.S. political parties and public figures, including Angela Davis, Bryan Stevenson, Van Jones, Newt Gingrich, Cory Booker, Henry Louis Gates Jr. and others.
When They See Us
Another Ava DuVernay film, this one is a drama series on Netflix inspired by the story of the Central Park Five. Based on events of the 1989 Central Park jogger case, the series explores the lives and families of the five male suspects who were falsely accused then prosecuted on charges related to the rape and assault of a woman in Central Park, New York City.
John Leguizamo’s Latin History for Morons
In this one-man Broadway show, actor and comedian John Leguizamo finds humor and heartbreak as he traces 3,000 years of Latin history in an effort to help his bullied son. Leguizamo debuted Latin History for Morons in 2017 and premiered at the Public Theater before moving to Studio 54. Latin History for Morons was nominated for the 2018 Tony Award for Best Play.
Miles Davis: The Birth of the Cool
Miles Davis: Horn player, bandleader, innovator. Discover the man behind the legend. With full access to the Miles Davis Estate, the film features never-before-seen footage, including studio outtakes from his recording sessions, rare photos and new interviews.
Trigger Warning with Killer Mike
In this funny and provocative Netflix series, rapper and activist Killer Mike puts his revolutionary ideas about achieving social change into action. In each episode of this six-episode series, Killer Mike conducts a different social experiment, including only spending money in the black community for three days, helping the Crips (a national federation of street gangs that identify as Crips) cash in on its personal brand by launching a line of soda and rethinking public school’s approach to education. Killer Mike puts forward powerful, controversial ideas to help reshape perception in America.
Oceans
This 2009 documentary covers the vital relationship that the oceans play in the overall health of the planet. Nature has the power and potential to move us to tears, this film is no different.
Dirty Money
This Netflix original series tells stories of corporate corruption, securities fraud and creative accounting. All six one-hour long episodes began streaming on Netflix on Jan. 26, 2018. The show’s executive producers include Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney. Each episode focuses on one example of corporate corruption and includes interviews with key players in each story. A second season of the show premiered March 11.
Homecoming: A Film by Beyoncé
A behind-the-scenes look at Beyoncé’s 2018 Coachella performance, which was written, directed and executive produced by Beyoncé herself. This is an intimate, in-depth look at the celebrated performance that pays homage to America’s historically black colleges and universities. Interspersed with candid footage and interviews detailing the preparation and powerful intent behind her vision, Homecoming reveals the emotional road from creative concept to cultural movement.
What Happened, Miss Simone
This film examines the career of Nina Simone, the acclaimed singer, songwriter and activist whose tumultuous life influenced her fierce and dynamic artistry — but, at times, proved too intense for Simone herself. Praised for its archival, never-before-seen footage, the film also gives Simone her due as an activist for civil rights.
Get Me Roger Stone
A close-up look at the right-wing tormenter who helped shape the 2016 presidential election.
Before he was indicted in the Mueller probe, Roger Stone had a long career as a right-wing dirty trickster, dating back to his work with Richard Nixon. The film chronicles the transformation of American conservatism throughout the years since the arrival of Stone’s generation.
Period. End of Sentence.
Rousing and brave, in this award-winning 2018 short film, a group of women in India fight the stigma against menstruation and champion the making of low-cost sanitary pads. For generations, these women had no access to pads, leading to health problems and girls missing school or dropping out entirely. When a sanitary pad machine is installed in the village, the women learn to manufacture and market their own pads, empowering the women of their community.
Nobody Speak
When documentary filmmaker Brian Knappenberger began work on Nobody Speak: Trials of a Free Press, few people really believed that Donald Trump would become president. The film explores how the role of journalism has grown increasingly more relevant under a Trump presidency.
Not Without My Jamon
By Ari LeVaux, Flash in the Pan Columnist
About halfway through our family trip to Andalusia, the United States restricted air travel from Europe and Spain and declared a state of emergency. The geopolitical and pandemic crosscurrents at play were difficult to read, even from the rooftop terrace of our house in Guajar Faraguit, a quiet village in the hill country above the Strait of Gibraltar. We tried to sniff the breeze for guidance, but all we could smell were lemon blossoms.
I sipped red wine into mouthfuls of manchego and jamon. My wife took her manchego with vegetables, while the children munched avocado toast and drank home-squeezed orange juice. We were surrounded by clean water, carefully-tended groves of olive, citrus, almond and avocado and not much else. If an algorithm were programmed to find the perfect location in which to weather a pandemic, it would find places like Guajar Faraguit, in the sparsely populated, dead-end valley of the Toba river.
Our flight home was scheduled in just over a week and there was a growing possibility of being trapped in Spain for an undetermined amount of time. But the journey home looked like a slow motion nightmare of terminals clogged with long lines of coughing, irate passengers and every other circle of airport hell Dante couldn’t have imagined.
After a few days in the mountains, we went shopping in Lanjaron, a village in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. As we walked toward the municipal market, the police stopped us and sent my wife and kids back to the car. It was a drag to shop alone, but I was glad to see Spain determined to not become the next Italy.
The Lanjaron market is a stage for the finest ingredients Andalusia and Spain have to offer. This includes citrus, peppers, artichokes, a diversity of avocados, two boxes of strawberries, black tomatoes, pomegranates, potatoes and oyster mushrooms from a produce stand, bread and pastries from the bakery, a side of lamb ribs from the butcher, a sack of seafood from the fishmonger: mackerel, red shrimp and flying squid (capable of launching 100 feet through the air).
My arms were burning when I made it back to the car, itself on the verge of spontaneous combustion from the friction within. We drove to Jamoneria Santiago and double-parked on the narrow street in front of my favorite jamon store in Spain.
Santi had my order prepared, headlined by the jamon serrano, the local ham cured in multi-story structures in the mountain communities of the Sierra Nevada, a region called the Alpujarra. To go with my jamon, there was a final round of Alpujarran sheep milk cheese, some local wine, a jar of olives, two sacks of oranges, freshly picked from Santi’s tree and tins of olive oil from the Lanjaron press. Everything was wrapped and rung up, including my new wine sheep’s bladder wine sack and a locally crafted chess board made of walnut and lemon woods, wrapped carefully for protection and also discretion — the police had zero tolerance for “non-essential” purchases. In front of his shop, Santi and I hastily bowed goodbye.
That night we ate grilled mackerel and flying squid on our salads. Flying squid tastes like non-flying squid. We pondered flying. We pondered not flying.
The next day we hiked along ancient Moorish roads and irrigation ditches above Guajar Alto at the top of the dead-end Toba valley. I picked handfuls of wild thyme, fennel and rosemary. As the kids played by a creek, I checked the phone, and the world.
The death toll in Spain had doubled again, to about 500. Italy was closing its borders and shutting down air travel and the American Airlines representative we reached by phone said our scheduled flight home might be cancelled.
“When is the next flight out of Spain?” I asked.
“The next morning, out of Madrid,” she said.
Madrid is a six-hour drive from Guajar Faraguit. We made the change and gathered the children.
Our plane left in 12 hours. The kids showered, my wife made salads and I rubbed olive oil into those lamb chops, along with sea salt, garlic and freshly gathered wild thyme and rosemary. I got to grilling one last time on that Andalusian rooftop, and we feasted on lamb, salad and leftover soup. Then we cleaned up the kitchen, gave the rest of our food to our neighbors, did the idiot check and bailed.
The road to Madrid was fast and, except for trucks, completely empty. The toll booths were empty and open. The rental car company didn’t answer the phone, so we left the car in the Budget lot, six days early and in the wrong city.
We had these extra toxic death wipes that sterilize anything and used them to wipe down a corner of the empty Madrid airport for us to doze until morning. I nibbled on leftover lamb ribs, finally able to wash them down with the rest of our wine and pined for a microwave.
The plane to Dallas was bright, clean and nearly empty, with a crew of spunky flight attendants in good spirits. I fell into a deep state of chill and awoke remembering Santiago’s jamon. Customs would not allow Spanish pork into the United States, so I had work to do. Noticing my project, my impish flight attendant placed the entire bottle of red wine on my tray table.
“Tengo mucho jamon,” I said, gratefully, and a little helplessly. (I have a lot ham.)
“I’ll get some bread,” he replied matter-of-factly in Spanish, the only language he appeared to speak.
The two of us were still in Spain, somewhere above Louisiana. We were high above COVID-19, but not for long, wherever the plane were to have landed. I asked if he wanted any jamon for the road. “I can’t bring it in either,” he said.
I had assumed the plane would return to Madrid, but it turns out neither plane nor crew were going back any time soon. AA 37 was the last American Airlines flight out of Spain. The rest were cancelled.
Port of Long Beach’s Downtown Office Closed
PortandTerminal.com, April 2, 2020
LONG BEACH, CA – The Long Beach Post is reporting that the 10th floor in the Port of Long Beach’s Downtown office building has been closed for cleaning after an employee tested positive for coronavirus.
The Port building sits in the new Long Beach Civic Center across from City Hall. Employees who work on the building’s 10th floor were told via email on Tuesday night to work from home because the floor would be closed for cleaning, according to multiple sources.
The floor houses the Port’s communications, business development and government relations departments and includes some employees who have also worked in the city’s Joint Communications Center, an emergency communications hub for coronavirus information.
Port of Long Beach Executive Director Mario Cordero said in a statement that the employee who tested positive hasn’t been to any Port facility since mid-march.
“The person is self-quarantined at home, and is recovering from symptoms,” he said. “The exposure, according to the Long Beach Health and Human Services Department investigation, is not thought to have occurred in the workplace.”
Cargo continues to flow through the Port, according to Cordero, and the closure hasn’t significantly affected trade operations.
CDC Now Recommends Face Coverings in Addition to Social Distancing
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or CDC, has announced that they recommend That people use face coverings when in public settings during the COVID-19 emergency.
CDC Information:
CDC continues to study the spread and effects of the novel coronavirus across the United States. We now know from recent studies that a significant portion of individuals with coronavirus lack symptoms (“asymptomatic”) and that even those who eventually develop symptoms (“pre-symptomatic”) can transmit the virus to others before showing symptoms.
This means that the virus can spread between people interacting in close proximity-for example, speaking, coughing, or sneezing-even if those people are not exhibiting symptoms. In light of this new evidence, CDC recommends wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain (e.g., grocery stores and pharmacies) especially in areas of significant community-based transmission.
It is critical to emphasize that maintaining 6-feet social distancing remains important to slowing the spread of the virus. CDC is additionally advising the use of simple cloth face coverings to slow the spread of the virus and help people who may have the virus and do not know it from transmitting it to others. Cloth face coverings fashioned from household items or made at home from common materials at low cost can be used as an additional, voluntary public health measure.
The cloth face coverings recommended are not surgical masks or N-95 respirators. Those are critical supplies that must continue to be reserved for healthcare workers and other medical first responders, as recommended by current CDC guidance.
COVID-19 Raises Concerns for Renters and Borrowers
By Angelica Mozol, Editorial Intern
Harbor Area residents, like the rest of America, are beset with worries— from toilet paper and food shortages to job losses to the rising likelihood of being sickened by the COVID-19 virus to dying from it. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought all of these worries to the front. As days progressed, the old worries, such as paying rent or mortgages, have gotten a lot worse.
“As of right now, I haven’t heard anything from my landlord, but my rent is coming up and I’ve barely been working,” said renter Eduardo Cervantes, who lives in Los Angeles. “It’s a struggle since I’m not full time and I don’t receive many benefits like those who are, such as vacation pay. So, I gotta go more out of my way to figure out how to get funds.”
Cervantes, who works part time for O’Reilly’s Auto Parts, mentioned that his dad, who is a homeowner, is struggling to make ends meet since it’s been dead at his job as a mechanic, leaving them both struggling and wondering how they’re going to make it.
On March 16, Gov. Gavin Newsom provided Californians with a sigh of relief by issuing an executive order protecting renters and homeowners from evictions, foreclosures and utility shut offs to offset the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic — the businesses that have closed, the reduction of working hours (read: paychecks), the layoffs and the losses of jobs.
These closures came on the heels of emergency orders by local mayors, such as Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia, to protect the public and to stop the spread of the virus. The mayors issued a temporary moratorium on evictions for non-payment of rent for tenants due to the loss of work due to business closures adhering to emergency orders and precautions from other institutions.
Nevertheless, renters and homeowners are concerned and dreading the first of the month. The executive order does not release tenants from their obligation to pay rent or the landlord’s ability to recover rent due. It merely protects tenants and borrowers through May 31, unless extended, from evictions and foreclosures. The executive orders also allow for tenants to make delayed or missed rent payments up until November.
On March 19, Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered California residents to stay at their places of residence to slow the spread of the virus. This order was in place until further notice and covered the entire state of California and stated that all individuals stay home except as needed to maintain continuity of operations.
Once the order was put in place, many tenants started to grow concerned as the beginning of the month was quickly approaching. Although rent and eviction prohibitions were put into play, many still had the concern of how they were going to be able to pay it off in the long run.
“I’m worried about my bills,” said renter Erick Galvez, who works for a T-Mobile retailer and lives in Los Angeles. “My hours haven’t been reduced yet but come April we have no idea what’s going to happen…. Are we going to have to do unemployment or not? Long story short, yes, it’s a very stressful situation.”
On March 17, the Long Beach City Council unanimously voted to approve an ordinance that will prohibit residential and commercial evictions if a renter or business owner has lost income because of the public health crisis and is unable to pay rent.
“Locally, please know we are not going to turn off your utilities, you cannot be evicted during this time … from your home or apartment,” said Garcia during an online update March 27.
For homeowners, Newsom announced in a live stream on March 25 that four out of five big banks — U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase — along with several other banks and credit unions agreed to hold off on collecting mortgage payments for up to 90 days for those who have documented proof they have been affected by COVID-19. Bank of America had agreed upon a 30 day period.
For additional information and the latest updates, the ca.gov website has set up a page on steps to take if you’re in need of financial assistance.
There have been resources set up to provide assistance to those who are out of work or have been affected by COVID-19.
What to do if Behind on Payments
You may qualify for a loan modification under the Making Home Affordable Modification Program if:
- your home is your primary residence;
- you owe less than $729,750 on your first mortgage;
- you got your mortgage before January 1, 2009;
- your payment on your first mortgage (including principal, interest, taxes, insurance, and homeowner’s association dues, if applicable) is more than 31 percent of your current gross income;
And you can’t afford your mortgage payment because of a financial hardship, like a job loss or medical bills.
If you meet these qualifications, contact your servicer. You will need to provide documentation that may include:
- information about the monthly gross (before tax) income of your household, including recent pay stubs.
- your most recent income tax return.
- information about your savings and other assets.
- your monthly mortgage statement.
- information about any second mortgage or home equity line of credit on your home.
- account balances and minimum monthly payments due on your credit cards.
- account balances and monthly payments on your other debts, like student loans or car loans.
- a completed Hardship Affidavit describing the circumstances responsible for the decrease in your income or the increase in your expenses.
Phone: 888.995.4673
Avoiding Default and Foreclosure
If you have fallen behind on your payments, consider discussing the following foreclosure prevention options with your loan servicer:
Reinstatement: You pay the loan servicer the entire past-due amount, plus any late fees or penalties, by a date you both agree to. This option may be appropriate if your problem paying your mortgage is temporary.
Repayment plan: Your servicer gives you a fixed amount of time to repay the amount you are behind by adding a portion of what is past due to your regular payment. This option may be appropriate if you’ve missed a small number of payments.
Forbearance: Your mortgage payments are reduced or suspended for a period you and your servicer agree to. At the end of that time, you resume making your regular payments as well as a lump-sum payment or additional partial payments for a number of months to bring the loan current. Forbearance may be an option if your income is reduced temporarily (for example, you are on disability leave from a job, and you expect to go back to your full time position shortly). Forbearance isn’t going to help you if you’re in a home you can’t afford.
Loan modification: You and your loan servicer agree to permanently change one or more of the terms of the mortgage contract to make your payments more manageable for you. Modifications may include reducing the interest rate, extending the term of the loan, or adding missed payments to the loan balance. A modification also may involve reducing the amount of money you owe on your primary residence by forgiving, or canceling, a portion of the mortgage debt. Under the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007, the forgiven debt may be excluded from income when calculating the federal taxes you owe, but it still must be reported on your federal tax return. For more information, see www.irs.gov. A loan modification may be necessary if you are facing a long-term reduction in your income or increased payments on an Adjustable Rate Mortgages.
Before you ask for forbearance or a loan modification, be prepared to show that you are making a good-faith effort to pay your mortgage. For example, if you can show that you’ve reduced other expenses, your loan servicer may be more likely to negotiate with you.
Selling your home: Depending on the real estate market in your area, selling your home may provide the funds you need to pay off your current mortgage debt in full.
Bankruptcy: Personal bankruptcy generally is considered the debt management option of last resort because the results are long-lasting and far-reaching. A bankruptcy stays on your credit report for 10 years and can make it difficult to get credit, buy another home, get life insurance, or sometimes, get a job. Still, it is a legal procedure that can offer a fresh start for people who can’t satisfy their debts.
If you and your loan servicer cannot agree on a repayment plan or other remedy, you may want to investigate filing Chapter 13 bankruptcy. If you have a regular income, Chapter 13 may allow you to keep property, like a mortgaged house or car, that you might otherwise lose. In Chapter 13, the court approves a repayment plan that allows you to use your future income toward payment of your debts during a three-to-five-year period, rather than surrender the property. After you have made all the payments under the plan, you receive a discharge of certain debts.
To learn more about Chapter 13, visit the U.S. Trustee Program, the organization within the U.S. Department of Justice that oversees bankruptcy cases and trustees.
If you have a mortgage through the Federal Housing Administration or Veterans Administration,
GOVERNMENT MORTGAGE RELIEF PROGRAMS
Loan Modification
The purpose of a mortgage loan modification is to get your monthly payment to a more affordable level. An “affordable” mortgage payment is typically defined as 31% of the borrower’s monthly gross income. This is achieved by modifying one or more components of your mortgage:
- Lowering the interest rate
- Extending the life of the loan
- Lowering the loan principal
- Learn more about loan modification programs, qualifications, and how to apply.
Hardest Hit Fund Programs
The US Treasury administers the Hardest Hit Fund, which provides aid to the states that were most impacted by the economic crisis. Each of these states have local agencies that help homeowners in various ways, including mortgage payment assistance for the unemployed, principal reduction, and transactional assistance. This helps people either afford the homes they’re in or move to more affordable housing.
Home Affordable Unemployment Program
The Home Affordable Unemployment Program reduces or suspends mortgage payments for 12 months or more for homeowners who are unemployed. If you qualify, your mortgage payments may be reduced to 31% of your income or fully suspended.
Principal Reduction Alternative
The Principal Reduction Alternative encourages your mortgage lender to reduce the amount of principal you owe. Currently, there are over 100 loan servicers participating in this program.
The Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives Program
The Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives program is for borrowers who, although eligible for the government Home Affordable Modification Program, are not able to secure a permanent loan modification or cannot avoid foreclosure. The Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives Program provides protection and money to eligible borrowers who decide to do a Short Sale or a Deed-in-Lieu of Foreclosure.
Second Lien Modification Program
The Second Lien Modification Program helps homeowners with a second mortgage on their home. This applies to properties where the first mortgage was modified under the Home Affordable Modification Program
https://www.homeownership.org/government-mortgage-relief-programs
Editorial Intern Jordan Darling also contributed to this article.
COVID-19 Testing Sites in South Bay
As of April 3, there are several new COVID-19 drive-thru testing sites now open in LA County.
One of these is at the parking lot of the South Bay Galleria in Redondo Beach. LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn’s office worked with the LA County Fire Department, the Redondo Beach Fire Department and Police Department, and the Beach Cities Health District to get this facility up and running as quickly as possible.
At this time, tests are limited to LA County’s most vulnerable residents.
You can be tested if you meet at least one of the following criteria:
– You have symptoms and are 65 and older
– You have symptoms and have chronic health conditions
– Testing is also prioritized for certain critical front-line workers who interact with the public while working (even with no symptoms)
Priority for the same or next day testing is still given to people with symptoms, such as fever, cough, shortness of breath, chills, muscle pain, headaches, sore throat, or a new loss of sense of smell.
You are subject to a mandatory 14 day quarantine period due to a confirmed COVID-19 exposure (with more than 7 days of quarantine remaining)
Make sure to book an appointment online before going, Here: https://lacovidprod.service-now.com/rrs
If you do not have an appointment, they will not be able to test you.
Random Letters: 4-2-20
Pandemic Coverage
One of the CNN news hosts referred to the ignorance of a looming and predictable pandemic by the US government as constituting “willful blindness”. Certainly, I agree.
That same “willful blindness” applies to the City of LA and State of California who are fully aware of the highly explosive risk being presented to an over 3-mile blast radius from the Plains All American Pipeline operated Rancho LPG LLC storage facility in San Pedro.
This facility stores over 25 million gallons of highly explosive butane and propane gases. It sits within mere feet of pre-existing homes, schools, shopping centers and on the precipice of the port. The tanks at this site were “exempted” from regulations in 1973, and sit directly within an extremely vulnerable earthquake rupture zone with two converging faults there having a magnitude potential of 7.3 and 7.4. The tanks, built “without” LA building permits, were built to a “purported” seismic substandard of 5.5 .
After years of fully acknowledging and shirking responsibility to take action on the high risk of the site, the city approved over 700 new homes currently being constructed in the shadow of those tanks.
The “willful blindness” in this case is NOT against the “invisible enemy” (the virus), but engaged and employed against one that is “highly visible” and every bit as lethal.
Janet Gunter, San Pedro
Safe at Home
(Editor’s note: This letter was submitted March 20)
California and local cities have issued a “safer at home” order which in effect will close down many businesses for a couple of weeks. Time will tell if the state has moved too little, too late. Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti was telling people not to hoard supplies, then he said people should not stockpile supplies; however, the CDC has specifically said that seniors and other persons at risk should stockpile supplies. Over 80,000 people have applied for unemployment in Los Angeles county; Mayor Garcetti said almost nothing about offering financial relief to those not able to pay their bills or those who cannot find a job. Grocery shopping today, I found many shelves half or more than half empty.
Garcetti stressed that the order is not a “shelter-in-place” directive and is not a lockdown, those are terms, he said, that should be reserved for incidents like school shootings. That’s funny because “shelter in place” and “lockdown” is exactly what other countries have been doing in response to COVID-19, unless Garcetti does not comprehend this?
It is interesting reading to see who the “Safer at Home” applies to and who it does not. If you look at the list of what government services and businesses will remain open, there will still be a good number of people still on the streets. The population of LA County is over 10 million. The population of the City of Los Angeles is about 5 million. I will just pick a few jobs because the list of workers the order does NOT apply to (“exempt”) is humongous.
The Order does not apply to the over 36,000 homeless people; the order does not apply to the city of Los Angeles 50,000 government workers; it does not apply to 22,000 county health department workers; it does not apply to city 5,000 primary care physicians and 11,000 medical specialists; it does not apply to 28,000 state wide dentists. So the order, for starters, does not apply to 152,000 people. I wonder if any of those people could carry the virus to their loved ones? Will this affect the middle and lower wage earners more? Stop trying to pull the wool over my eyes!
Juan Johnson, Los Angeles
Long Beach Senior Center Under Threat
This letter pertains to first the threatened closure of, then the threatened movement of our —the seniors’—beloved gift shop at the Long Beach 4th Street Senior Center in order to, according to management hierarchy of Long Beach Parks, Recreation and Marine, put a “technological learning center” in its place.
I want to be clear from the start: I and my fellow seniors have no objection to this proposed learning center. What we object to are two specific items:
Where do they want to place this center. One hundred and ninety-five signatures on a petition against the closure of the gift shop and 195 signatures against the moving of it to put in their learning center were collected, which is almost the entire population of the senior center.
The manner in which they are attempting to pursue this project. There were two attempts to surreptitiously drive the gift shop out and replace it with their learning center. We, seniors, learned of it by scuttlebutt, without any advance notice whatsoever. Of course, there are employees who oppose the seniors’ resistance. One individual claimed that letters were sent to the consignees. [Items are consigned by the seniors and the proceeds are then divided between them and the center]. In response, I will state emphatically that I have never received any such letter, and I challenge that person to prove that letters have been sent out.
In conclusion, then, this is an extremely brief description of this issue. We, seniors, have been fighting it since Dec. 4, 2018, and it’s still on-going. I have full documentation of everything stated here and if any of your staff wishes to investigate further and write an article about it, I will gladly meet with him or her to discuss it and show that person all of my documentation.
Thank you for allowing me to express my views on the matter.
Donna Attwood, Long Beach
Donate a Meal to Local ER Staff and First Responders
As the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to grow, the Turner Family Restaurants are giving back to our local emergency room staff and first responders and invite you to join us. We do this to thank those who continue to work daily to save lives and flatten the curve while putting themselves at risk.
Any donation is greatly appreciated and every $15 received will provide one additional meal to the ER team, Police & Fire Departments. Through this effort, we’ll continue to provide employment for our restaurant staff and share our gratitude in the process. Visit theturnerfamilyrestaurants.square.site
Much love from your friends at The Local Yolk, Sabra Beirut Mix, Mongol King and Marie Callender’s in Gardena and San Pedro.
John Turner, Rancho Palos Verdes
Keep Up the Good Work
James, just a note to let you know how much I enjoy reading your paper and especially your column. As a former resident of San Pedro [43 years] it keeps me in touch with our great neighborhood now that I am a full-time resident of the desert. I still subscribe and look forward to receiving it in the mail each month. Keep up the great work you do with the publication.
Al Richter, La Quinta
Governor Newsom Signs Executive Order to Provide Expanded Access to Child Care for Essential Workers During COVID-19 Response
SACRAMENTO – Governor Gavin Newsom, April 4, signed an executive order that will facilitate child care for children of essential workers by allowing the California Department of Education and California Department of Social Services the flexibility to waive certain program and administrative requirements in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The waivers will focus on current eligibility and enrollment priorities that prevent child care and afterschool programs from serving children of essential infrastructure workers. The waiver will allow eligibility for child care to prioritize essential workers, including health care professionals, emergency response personnel, law enforcement, and grocery workers.
The order states that the Department of Education and the Department of Social Services shall jointly develop and issue guidance on how the essential worker prioritization will roll out, including guidance on how child care programs and providers can safely provide care. This guidance will be issued no later than April 7, 2020.
Priority for abused and neglected children will not be impacted.
The order also allows the state to take advantage of new federal flexibility to provide pandemic Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to children.
A copy of the Governor’s executive order can be found here, www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/4.4.20-EO-N-45-20.pdf
Learn more about the state’s ongoing COVID-19 response efforts here. www.gov.ca.gov/california-takes-action-to-combat-covid-19
Visit covid19.ca.gov for critical steps Californians can take to stay healthy, and resources available to those impacted by the outbreak.
L.A. County Continues to Ramp Up COVID-19 Drive-Up Testing Sites
Los Angeles, CA – L.A. County is adding more COVID-19 drive-up mobile testing sites to serve all residents of our communities. New sites are planned to open this week at Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital and in East Los Angeles and Santa Clarita. The county is also in discussions with AltaMed to bring several urgent care facilities into the county’s testing network in underserved areas.
The county and city of LA now offer multiple drive-up mobile testing sites. For a full list of locations and answers to questions about testing, go to covid19.lacounty.gov/testing.
The first step to getting a test is visiting lacovidprod.service-now.com/rrs to determine if you are eligible and to register for an appointment. People who can’t use a computer or access the internet can dial 2-1-1 for help making an appointment.
Health equity is central to Los Angeles County’s mission to bring this important service to areas of the County where there are testing service gaps. LA County is working to build a network of testing sites that are free and open to any member of the public who qualifies for testing; no one will be turned away regardless of immigration status or lack of insurance coverage.
To ensure testing sites help those who need it the most, people with insurance should first contact their medical providers to request COVID-19 testing through their own networks which are also providing testing in a variety of locations throughout the county.
Follow @CountyofLA for more information and visit covid19.lacounty.gov for the most up-to-date information about the COVID-19 response in LA County.