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Stand Together! Join TRAA and Others at the Hands Off! Rally on April 5

Join at Torrance City Hall April 5 to help stop the destruction of the EPA and other institutions. Indivisible and other organizations have organized an event to tell the Administration to keep their “Hands Off” all the things Americans need. Care for the EPA? Protect our air, water and food quality? Keep the FAA funded so our planes can fly safely? Keep our National Parks, Monuments and Forests open? How about PBS and NPR? Or Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid? If any of these are important to you then show your support on April 5. This is one of many Hands OFF! rallies scheduled across the country. All are welcome. Bring your friends, and spread the word by posting the news on your social media.

Time: 12 to 2 p.m., April 5

Details: website and sign-up form

Venue: Torrance City Hall

Trump’s cruel rampage: why?

While Trump makes friends of enemies and vice versa internationally, at the heart of his pro-billionaire strategy is the demoralization of U.S. workers, including immigrants. He seeks to make the working class powerless to resist his onslaught on behalf of the top 1%.

By Andrea Bauer, April 2025

https://socialism.com/fs-article/trumps-cruel-rampage-why/

It’s perfectly understandable that people in the U.S. are tuning out the news these days. Chaotic mass firings, survival programs like Social Security and Medicaid in jeopardy, the Constitution being shredded: who wants to watch a real-life horror show?

What people do not get from the mainstream media purveyors of doom is a real explanation of why this is happening. Is there a motive to the madness?

The point is fear

Thousands of government employees have already lost their jobs and tens of thousands are living in the shadow of the ax. (See “Attacks on federal workers are an injury to all.”)

Sudden unemployment and the financial hardship that comes with it is devastating. Also hurtful is the cavalier and humiliating way the layoffs are being imposed. Donald Trump and his hatchet man Elon Musk are treating productive, longtime public staffers as just so much trash.

What is the purpose of such cruelty?

Uruguayan author and social justice champion Eduardo Galeano has said about torture, “The purpose is not getting information. It’s spreading fear.” The same is true about Trump’s firing of huge swaths of the workforce. It’s not about efficiency. It’s about spreading terror.

Trump’s goal is to get workers used to the arbitrary and inhumane exercise of power. To strip away any expectation that government exists to help them. And to soften them up for an even more extreme form of social control if the ruling class comes to believe this is necessary.

The U.S. is not yet under fascist rule. But Trump is encouraging the advance of fascist groups, and he and outfits like the Proud Boys are “standing by.”

Hand in hand with Trump’s campaign against ordinary workers is his purge of top leaders in the FBI, CIA, and military. Trump wants the whole government subservient to him to carry out his mission — protecting and enlarging the profits of billionaires — without impediment.

A fatally troubled economy

Consumer confidence and spending in the U.S. are falling, prices are still rising, unemployment is ticking upward, and the stock market is vacillating wildly, with huge drops based on Trump’s tariff chaos. Talking heads are beginning to raise the specter of recession.

In many other countries the situation is worse. Growth is stagnant in Europe; Germany, the region’s biggest economy, is especially struggling. (See “German far right surges with anti-migrant racism.”) Growth is slowing even in China.

Capitalism’s problems are not transitory, but built in. The profit system relies above all on the ability to expand. But today it is coming up against the barriers of finite resources and finite markets.

Decades of neoliberalism — “free” trade, deregulation, privatization, a race to the bottom in the areas of wages and labor and environmental protections — haven’t solved the problem. This failure means stepped-up international competition, from trade wars to hot wars.

Because of his extremism and his evil-clown persona, Trump can seem like a political outlier. His goal, however, is the same as every other president since the U.S. rose to global dominance: vie to keep the country on top. This explains his aggressively “America First” international policies, even though they will provoke still more economic problems. Whatever one might say about Trump’s intelligence, he understands that capitalism is a game of winners and losers.

Moreover, the ruling class is facing political challenges as well as economic ones. Class conflict has been rising since the militant, women-led, successful teacher strikes in Southern “red states” in 2018. So has popular discontent, exemplified by the massive Black Lives Matter protests against police violence after George Floyd’s murder in 2020. Strikes and labor organizing have increased dramatically over the past five years.

Trump’s illegal and undemocratic attacks aim to pulverize opposition from any quarter, from labor or feminist or LGBTQ+ activists to defenders of Palestine or voting, civil, and immigrant rights. But history shows that repression generates resistance. Trump is playing a dangerous game.

How did we get here?

First, let’s note that capitalist democracy is not “democracy” — at least not in the abstract or idealized way it’s presented to us. It’s democracy within the framework of class rule — meaning that ordinary people have only those rights that won’t upset the status quo.

On top of that, in a decades-long trend, the executive branch has been amassing greater power at the expense of the other branches of government. Handwringing over the “imperial presidency” is, unfortunately, nothing new — although Trump is pushing the limits beyond anything seen before.

Also leading to this crisis point is the lack of an independent political voice for working people. Life without a labor party means that voters’ only choices are Democrats or Republicans. Thus “lesser evil” politics prevail time and again while workers’ conditions worsen — until an angry and disenchanted portion of the electorate is ready to accept the promises of a strongman to come to their rescue.

There is no reason to despair. Workers and oppressed people have incredible untapped power. Alongside the multitude of legal challenges to Trump’s outrages — from his vicious deportations to his sellout of Ukraine — are the rumblings of a grassroots resistance. This is where the fight will be won, with the aid of democratic united fronts that bring together people of different political persuasions in the pursuit of a common working-class goal: dump Trump and stop fascism.

Finally, one more takeaway from this debacle: reforms are fragile. If we the majority want a good life on a planet that can sustain us, revolutionary change is the only answer.

 

St. Mary Medical Center Grants Over $200,000 to Support Local Nonprofits Through Community Health Initiative

 

LONG BEACH— March 28, 2025 – Dignity Health – St. Mary Medical Center or SMMC hosted its annual community grant awards luncheon this week, reaffirming its commitment to improving health and well-being in the greater Long Beach area. The event, held at the hospital, showcased SMMC’s dedication to addressing the health needs of the community. During the luncheon, the hospital awarded more than $200,000 to three local nonprofits, further supporting initiatives that positively impact the region.

“A core element of our mission is giving back, and we take pride in sustaining our support for organizations that go the extra mile to address the diverse needs of our community,” said Carolyn Caldwell, Hospital President and CEO. “These collaborations empower us to take on the intricate health and human challenges faced by our Long Beach community.”

First, Long Beach Rescue Mission received funding to support its continued operations, which include providing shelter, food, and essential services to individuals experiencing homelessness. The mission offers a range of programs aimed at helping individuals rebuild their lives, including job training, addiction recovery support, and educational resources. The second grantee, Mental Health America of Los Angeles, received funding for its HealthLink program. This program provides comprehensive mental health services and support to individuals who are uninsured or underinsured, helping to improve access to essential care. The third recipient, Precious Lamb Preschool, was awarded a grant to support the continuation of essential services for families experiencing homelessness in Long Beach. These services include grief counseling workshops for parents facing homelessness, as well as trauma-informed workshops for staff.

“Through our investments in these organizations, we aim to cultivate a sense of inclusion and comprehensiveness,” continued Caldwell. “Our objective is to provide the community with the necessary resources and support essential for leading healthy, prosperous lives, while also minimizing the likelihood of significant future health interventions.”

Dignity Health’s community health improvement grants program has awarded over $100 million to support health improvement projects since its inception in 1991. This long-standing initiative has been instrumental in addressing the diverse health needs of communities across the region.

Details: https://www.dignityhealth.org/about-us/community-health

Senate Judiciary Chair Tom Umberg Responds to Anaheim Stadium Audit

 

(Sacramento, CA) – Senator Thomas J. Umberg (D-Santa Ana), Chair of the California Senate Judiciary Committee, issued the statement below in response to findings released March 27 from the California State Auditor regarding the City of Anaheim’s lease agreement with the Angels ownership.

“This audit confirms what we have long suspected. The Angels have been operating under a sweetheart deal, negotiated and signed by previous city officials, that in no way, shape, or form benefits the residents of Anaheim. In fact, it may put them at risk of physical harm.

The audit uncovered that, unbelievably, the worse the Angels do, the less they need to pay in rent (the city’s share of revenue is tied to attendance). The failure of the Angels to put a decent product on the field means that the city is basically paying the Angels to play baseball in their stadium.

To add insult to injury, the city has no authority to inspect the stadium for health and welfare, public safety, or earthquake standards. A safety inspection hasn’t occurred in over 30 years.

It’s clear that compared to other California cities that own professional sports facilities (San Diego, Santa Clara), the former city council of Anaheim was railroaded by the Angels for decades.

The value of the land where the stadium sits is substantial. Any discussions of further lease extensions with a losing sports franchise that refuses to publicly associate their name with Anaheim while exploiting the city and endangering its residents should be dramatically reshaped.

I look forward to working with the current mayor and city officials to help put this relationship on more solid footing — complete with transparency, maximized revenue sharing, and harm mitigation to the actual owners of the Anaheim stadium — the city’s residents.”

The audit was requested by Senator Umberg and Assemblymember Avelino Valencia in August of 2024 (attached) in response to federal criminal indictments surrounding the attempted sale of Anaheim Stadium.

Mayor Bass Unveils Upgraded MyLA311 System for City Services

 

LOS ANGELES – Mayor Karen BassMarch 28 announced the launch of a new MyLA311 system, which aims to make Los Angeles cleaner and safer with improved city services. The new system will make it easier for more Angelenos to get graffiti removed, potholes filled and abandoned couches removed from the curb.

Angelenos can download the new app here. A video tutorial / b-roll about how to use the new MyLA311 system is available here.

Residents can still call 311, but the app and website are faster and easier to use. 311 operators will also be using a new and improved system. The new platform will offer 86 different types of service request types, including 15 new and 25 consolidated service request types.

Mayor Bass called for the modernization of the MyLA311 system in her fifth executive directive, which focused on making it easier for Angelenos to get basic city services. The new MyLA311 system delivers better customer service, provides more communication about the status of requests and streamlines processes within city departments.

The new MyLA311 system replaces an outdated app and web page that is years past its lifecycle, creating technical issues and glitches that impacted the platform’s functionality and caused outages.

Improvements to the MyLA311 System Include:

Easier to Request Services

  • App and website adds new features including chat, uses photos and image recognition to better identify, confirm and communicate the type of service requests. This helps ensure that service requests are referred to the correct department for completion and makes it easier for departments to refer to outside agencies as needed.
  • Enhances the customer experience for requests submitted through the platform, with improved notifications for service completion
  • Leverages Google mapping to “drop a pin” to auto-populate the service request location, which is helpful when an address is unavailable (parks, along the LA River, alleys, etc.).
  • New ability to report accessibility service requests that were previously unreportable through the outdated 311.

Improves Customer Service

  • Surveys users to measure customer satisfaction and make improvements.
  • Increases language access by making 311 available in 243 languages.
  • Creates new ability to “Follow” or “Subscribe” to a service request and receive email notifications on the progress of your request.
  • Be informed when others have made the same service request at the same location.
  • Features an enhanced “Knowledge Base” for self-service users to find information and answers on their own.

Details:The MyLA311 App Tutorial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrQ7UuKoTn8

LA Sues Group for $62M Over Short-Term Rental Violations, Price Gouging

 

Los Angeles — City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto March 28 announced that her office has filed a civil enforcement action against a group of individuals and their related companies accusing them of operating a sprawling illegal multi-million dollar rental property scheme and violating the city’s short-term rental ordinance (“STR Ordinance”). In addition, the defendants exploited vulnerable Angelenos by illegally raising the price of their rental properties in the wake of the wildfires, violating California’s Anti-Gouging Law.

Feldstein Soto’s lawsuit, filed for violations of California’s Unfair Competition Law (“UCL”), seeks a permanent injunction barring the individuals and their associated companies from engaging in short-term rental activity in the city, except that which is authorized by the STR Ordinance, a permanent injunction barring them from engaging in price gouging, restitution to tenants impacted by the illegal activity, and tens of millions of dollars in civil penalties.

“The scale of the alleged activity – the illegal short-term rentals and the wildfire-related price gouging – is outrageous,” said Hydee Feldstein Soto, Los Angeles City Attorney. “The defendants not only exacerbated a severe housing shortage but took advantage of Angelenos at their most vulnerable time. California has clear laws to protect renters from such unscrupulous actions for a reason, and I will always enforce these laws to safeguard our communities.”

Feldstein Soto’s lawsuit accuses the group of advertising and engaging in the short-term rental of dozens of properties for thousands of rental nights without city-required permits, including rent-stabilized units that cannot legally be used as short-term rentals. The defendants allegedly used deceptive tactics, including fake host identities, and falsely advertised properties as being located outside of the City in Beverly Hills and West Hollywood to evade enforcement and continue profiting illegally.

According to the complaint, the defendants include:

  • Akiva Nourollah;
  • Micah Hiller;
  • Haim Amran Zrihen;
  • Rachel Florence Saadat;
  • Hiller Hospitality LLC, a California limited liability company;
  • Hiller Hospitality Group LLC, a California limited liability company;
  • 1070 Bedford LLC, a California limited liability company;
  • Red Rock 70 LLC, a Nevada limited liability company registered with the California Secretary of State to do business in California; and,
  • Coastal Charm LLC, a Nevada limited liability company registered with the California Secretary of State to do business in California.

In December of 2018, the city enacted the STR Ordinance to address the negative consequences of short-term rentals, which include the reduction of housing stock, increased nuisance activity, and a potential negative impact on neighborhood quality of life. The STR Ordinance went into effect on July 1, 2019, and prohibits any person from offering, advertising, booking, facilitating, or engaging in short-term rental activity in a manner that does not comply with the STR Ordinance.

Feldstein Soto encourages Angelenos who believe they are victims of price gouging to let the City know by submitting this complaint form or calling 311. Reports may be filed anonymously. She also encourages Angelenos to visit the LA City Emergency Management Department for the latest recovery resources.

The Public Rights Branch within the City Attorney’s Office is managing this litigation.

Case #25STCV07712

The People of the State of California vs. Akiva Nourollah, Micah Hiller, Haim Zrihen, Rachel Saadat, Hiller Hospitality LLC, Hiller Hospitality Group LLC, 1070 Bedford LLC, Red Rock 70 LLC, and Coastal Charm LLC.

Link to press release online: https://shorturl.at/KEv2X

L.A. County Public Defender Condemns Sheriff’s Use of Faulty DNA Kits

LA County Public Defender Ricardo D. García issued the following statement on the LA County Sheriff’s Department’s use of faulty DNA kits:

“The Sheriff’s Department’s use of faulty DNA testing kits for several months impacts the integrity of the entire prosecution of a criminal case. This is a problem that has a far-reaching impact on countless pending and adjudicated cases. This kind of negligence is a violation of due process and further erodes trust in the entire criminal legal system.

It is another stark reminder of why the death penalty can never be justified. If we cannot trust the criminal legal system to handle DNA evidence properly, we certainly cannot trust life or death decisions that come from it. Faulty DNA kits have long fueled wrongful convictions, and when the punishment is death, those mistakes can never be undone.”

Governor’s Briefs: Newsom Signs LA Rebuild Order, Announces Key Appointment

Gov. Newsom Signs Executive Order to Accelerate LA Rebuild and Strengthen Wildfire Prevention

LOS ANGELES – Gov. Gavin Newsom March 27 signed an executive order to suspend unnecessary permitting and review requirements to accelerate the rebuild of Altadena, Malibu, and Pacific Palisades following the devastating January fires.

The executive order expedites the process of repairing and replacing electric, gas, water, sewer, and telecommunication infrastructure in communities damaged by the fires. The order also speeds the process of “undergrounding” utility equipment to help communities recover more quickly while building resilience to preventing similar catastrophic fires in the future.

The letters sent to Southern California Edison and Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, urged the utilities to rapidly develop rebuilding plans for the communities of Altadena, Pacific Palisades, and Malibu, including plans for undergrounding electric distribution infrastructure by the end of March.

Further suspends the Coastal Act

Previously, Gov. Newsom signed an executive order reiterating that permitting requirements under the California Coastal Act are suspended for rebuilding efforts and directing the Coastal Commission not to issue guidance or take any action that interferes or conflicts with the Governor’s executive orders.

This directive expands upon that effort and by removing regulatory hurdles that could otherwise prevent utilities from rebuilding quickly and hardening and upgrading equipment following fires.
Track LA’s recovery, including the latest air quality results, at CA.gov/LAfires.

Details: Read the Executive Order: https://tinyurl.com/Build-LA-prevent-fires

 

Gov. Newsom Announces Appointment

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom March 19 announced the following appointments:

Suzy Shuster, of Beverly Hills, has been appointed to the California Film Commission. Shuster has been co-host and executive producer of Women’s Sports Now on RokuChannel since 2025, co-host of the What the Football Podcast since 2023, and guest host on The Rich Eisen Show since 2014. Shuster was a host/reporter for University of Southern California Trojans Pregame Show on ESPN 710 from 2003 to 2009. Shuster was a reporter for ABC Sports from 2003 to 2006. She was a reporter for the NBA on TNT from 2004 to 2006. Shuster was a reporter/host of Fox Sports Net and Fox Sports West from 2000 to 2002. She was a producer for Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel from 1988 to 1999. Shuster was a Producer for ESPN’s SportsCenter from 1997 to 1999. She is a member of the Board of Hillel at Columbia. Shuster earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and Art History from Columbia University. This position does not require Senate confirmation, and there is no compensation. Shuster is a Democrat.

 

Port Invests $1.1 Million in Community Sponsorships to Boost Local Initiatives

 

The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners March 24 awarded $1,138,300 in sponsorships to 320 local nonprofit organizations through the Port of Long Beach community sponsorship program, marking the largest award and highest number of recipients in a single call to date.

The community sponsorship program supports events and projects centered on the environment, education, social justice, the arts and historic preservation while also informing residents about port operations and initiatives.

A list of the approved sponsorships can be found here.

“The sponsorship program provides us with an opportunity to showcase how the Green Port benefits the community while also serving as a partner to our local nonprofit groups,” said Port of Long Beach CEO Mario Cordero. “It’s an honor to support the diverse programs and events staged by these dedicated organizations.”

The port received a record high of 345 applications in January for this round of sponsorships, 41% of which were first-time requests. The Harbor Commission has approved a $3 million sponsorship budget for fiscal year 2025, with applications accepted in January, May and September.

The next open application period for sponsorships will be May 1-30.

Details: www.polb.com/sponsorships.

Trump-Musk Order Will Cost 21 Million Their Vote

 

No joke. On Tuesday, (March 25) President Donald J. Trump issued an extraordinary Executive Order that would give “the DOGE Administrator,” that is, Elon Musk, access to the voter files of every state for the purpose of purging millions of Americans from voter rolls as suspected “non-citizens.”

The Executive Order, with its Orwellian title, “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections,” will require every American to prove their citizenship when they register or re-register to vote. The justification: Trump claims that the Democratic Party has registered three to five million non-citizen voters. But after four years of intense hunting by his prior Justice Department, Trump’s alien-voter hunters haven’t charged even three.

The Brennan Center reports that 21 million Americans, otherwise legal voters, don’t have access to citizenship ID. All would lose their vote if they attempt to register or RE-register (as 31 million Americans do each year).

Most Americans can only prove citizenship with either a passport or an ORIGINAL birth certificate (no copies).

The real issue is, WHO will be excluded from voting under this new edict?

  • Only 34% of Black Americans have passports to prove citizenship. Indeed, only 42% of whites have a passport.
  • 69 million women who took their husband’s last name cannot use their birth certificate as proof of citizenship.
  • Military ID is NOT proof of citizenship. But thank you for your service.
  • A driver’s license is NOT proof of citizenship (except in five states that permit you to add citizenship to the “Real” ID).

These facts suggest that 21 million may be the low end of the estimate of voters at risk.

Crosscheck Climbs out of its Crypt

According to Barbara Arnwine, who taught voting rights law at Columbia University, Trump and Musk are trying to get around the 10th Amendment to the Constitution. Arnwine, founder of the Transformative Justice Coalition, notes that the Tenth Amendment requires an act of Congress to change federal election law. The Trump-Musk Order tries to end-run the Constitution by pretending this is only a change in a federal form, the national mail-in registration form that almost all Americans use.

We’ve been there before: In the 2016 election, Kansas launched a registration form that required proof of citizenship. Kris Kobach, Trump’s “Voter Fraud Tsar” and then Secretary of State of Kansas, admitted in court that there was not one non-citizen among the 36,000 Kansans who lost their vote because of this prove-you’re-a-citizen registration form.

Not coincidentally, most of the voters blocked by Kansas were students, i.e. Democrats.

The Trump-Musk Order also threatens the return of the infamous Interstate Crosscheck purge program. Courts had already struck down Crosscheck because it wildly tagged over three million Americans as potential “multiple” voters.

In imitation of the Crosscheck program, Trump’s order authorizes Musk’s DOGE-hounds to go into voter files and cross-check names between the states to tag potential double voters. They won’t find any, because, according to Professor Lorraine Minnite, author of “The Myth of Voter Fraud,” the chance of someone voting twice is far less than the chance of being killed by lightning. Despite the facts, Interstate Crosscheck cost several hundred thousand voters their rights in 2016. (Now you know how Trump won that one.) Trump-Musk wants to do it again.

Not incidentally, the three million voters targeted by Interstate Crosscheck (and now, the new Executive Order) were overwhelmingly Americans of color. (Fun fact: 90 of the 100 most common surnames in the US, according to the Census, are “minority” names – Garcia, Jackson, Ho, etc.—so any name-matching purge algorithm will wrongly capture non-white voters by a factor of several hundred percent.)

And who came up with the Interstate Crosscheck program, clearly the model for the new Order? Once again, Kris Kobach, now Kansas Attorney General, who was the vote-fraud “expert” at the Heritage Foundation, the chaps who gave us Project 2025.

Trump Goes Postal

And there’s more tucked into this omnibus of Jim Crow tactics. The Order would also block the counting of mailed-in ballots that arrive after Election Day, no matter when they are mailed or postmarked. The GOP is more than aware that Democrats are 51% more likely than Republicans to vote by mail. Whether your vote will count will now be up to the Postal Service… which Trump intends to privatize.

While the President may be trouncing the 10th Amendment and the Voting Rights Act, don’t count on the courts, newly Trump’d, to defend your right to vote.

For now, the Palast Investigations Team will be on the case, providing expert vote suppression data to our partners at the RainbowPUSH Coalition, NAACP of Georgia, Black Voters Matter Fund, and the Transformative Justice Coalition.