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| Fairview housing plan eyes 4,000 units, road through golf course - Los Angeles Times | | Costa Mesa is continuing to clarify its vision for affordable housing, amenities and open space at the state-owned Fairview Developmental Center, with officials last week agreeing to consider between 2,300 and 4,000 residential units.
Councilmembers during an Oct. 21 regular meeting supported a land use plan further allowing for up to 35,000 square feet of retail/commercial development and seeking a minimum of 14 acres of open space on the site, which could ultimately house from 5,744 to 10,232 people.
Residents have weighed in at a number of City Council and Planning Commission workshops and meetings, stating their preference for a lower number of units. But staff last week reiterated only a project closer to 4,000 units would be economically feasible for a developer. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-10-29 | | | | Vertical construction underway for trio of apartment buildings near Expo/Bundy Station | Urbanize LA | | Just south of Expo/Bundy Station in Sawtelle, the arrival of two orange tower cranes are the latest sign of progress on the construction of a trio of developments from Carmel Partners. [Article] | | by , . 2025-10-29 | | | | Anaheim Considers 3% Tax on Disneyland Tickets | | Anaheim voters are unlikely to decide whether Disneyland customers should pay a 3% admission tax to help patch a public budget that city staff predict could be in a deficit by the end of the decade. [Article] | | by , Voice of OC. 2025-10-29 | | | | Need food assistance? Where to go when CalFresh and WIC benefits are delayed | LAist | | Food banks across Southern California are stepping in to meet the surge in need for food assistance after the Trump administration announced last week that it would not tap emergency funds to keep food benefits afloat. [Article] | | by , . 2025-10-29 | | | | Report asks why LAPD mental health specialists defer to armed officers - Los Angeles Times | | A new report from the city controller’s office questions the effectiveness of the LAPD’s signature crisis response program, saying clinicians trained in de-escalation too often are forced to defer to armed patrol officers.
For years, Los Angeles Police Department officials have touted the success of the Systemwide Mental Assessment Response Team, or SMART. But critics say the program, which pairs licensed specialists with officers in unmarked cars, is failing in the crucial initial minutes of encounters when multiple police shootings of mentally ill people have occurred.
Dinah M. Manning, chief of strategic initiatives and senior advisor in the controller’s office, said the report found an “inherent contradiction” in the SMART program.
Even though its purpose is to send in clinicians and tap their expertise to avoid killings, LAPD policy still requires armed patrol officers to clear a scene of any potential threats beforehand.
Traditional police units almost always take charge, even on calls in which no weapon is involved, such as a person threatening to commit suicide, Manning said.
Referring to SMART as a co-response program “is pretty much a misnomer in this case,” she said. “How is it that we’re ending up with so many fatalities?”
An LAPD spokesperson declined to comment in response to questions about the report. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-10-29 | | | | Federal election observers will be watched, California AG Rob Bonta says – Daily News | | The Trump administration is planning to send election monitors to observe California’s special election on redistricting — but those observers will themselves be watched, the state’s top law enforcement official said this week.
“Of course, there will be observers of the election monitors,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta told reporters during a press conference. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Daily News. 2025-10-29 | | | | LA County‘s last wooden boardwalk is going bye bye | LAist | | It’s about 9 feet wide and 3,600 feet long, the length of 10 football fields. It’s made out of wooden boards and people who know about this long-time Long Beach mainstay say they like it, splinters and all. [Article] | | by , . 2025-10-29 | | | | Humboldt County Head Start programs safe from Nov. 1 funding loss | | This week, AP News reported that as many as 65,000 children may lose access to Head Start funding for early childhood education programs should the government shutdown continue through Saturday, Nov. 1. More than 130 Head Start programs throughout the country will be without funds distributed on Nov. 1.
Thankfully for Humboldt County, though, programs throughout the county have had their funds distributed on a different schedule. Northcoast Children’s Services, one of the largest providers of Head Start programming in the county, is funded from Aug. 1, 2025, through July 31, 2026.
“Our current program is funded through the 2025 fiscal year,” Northcoast Children’s Services Executive Director and Head Start Program Director Rodney Oien told the Times-Standard via telephone Wednesday afternoon. Oien said that the program should be funded “as long as a budget passes by July of next year.”
Still, he said that, though the organization has been able to access its grant funds in past government shutdowns, because the the Department of Education has consolidated regional offices this spring, shutting down services out of San Francisco that deal with Head Start and furloughing employees, he said that it’s potentially unclear who would address any issues with disbursing funds should they occur. [Article] | | by , Eureka Times-Standard. 2025-10-29 | | | | SCE launches Eaton fire compensation fund, increasing eligible homes and payments to children – Daily News | | Southern California Edison began accepting claims Wednesday, Oct. 29, for its Eaton fire compensation program after expanding the number of victims eligible to receive payment and increasing the amounts given to children.
Critics, however, say the revised plan still shortchanges victims. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Daily News. 2025-10-29 | | | | Newport Beach Approves Gutting Golf Course, Making Way for New Surf Park | | One of Newport Beach’s cheapest golf courses is about to get cut in half after city council members unanimously approved a new surf park on the site that’s set to stretch over 15 acres with a new surf lagoon, a spa, and a three story clubhouse featuring a restaurant and bar. [Article] | | by , Voice of OC. 2025-10-29 | | | | LAPD mental health teams should take lead at crisis events instead of patrol officers, city controller says | LAist | | The Los Angeles City Controller’s Office made several findings about police responses to mental health crisis calls, including that patrol officers often are first to respond to calls for service instead of the department’s mental health teams. [Article] | | by , . 2025-10-29 | | | | Most of California's public K-12 schools offer virtually no shade - Los Angeles Times | | The vast majority of urban, public grade schools in California are paved-over “nature deserts” sorely lacking in trees or shade — leaving most of the state’s 5.8 million school-age children to bake in the sun during breaks from the classroom as rising global temperatures usher in more dangerous heat waves.
That’s the conclusion of a team of California researchers from UCLA, UC Davis and UC Berkeley who studied changes in the tree cover at 7,262 urban public schools across the Golden State between 2018 through 2022.
The ongoing joint project, which drew from urban tree canopy maps developed by study partners the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and the U.S. Forest Service, revealed that 85% of the schools lost about 1.8% of tree cover on average in that four-year span.
The situation appears to be just as worrisome today, the team said.
The researchers also collaborated with the nonprofit Green Schoolyards America, which found in its own 2024 study that California’s public K-12 schoolyards have a median tree cover of just 6.4%. And more than half of that canopy exists only as decoration at school entrances, in parking lots and along campus perimeters.
“Extreme heat is becoming a major public health concern in California and across the country, and trees can play a really big role in helping us cool down those schools and also build climate resilience,” said Kirsten Schwarz, the research lead at UCLA.
Results from the 2018 to 2022 study, which was funded by the U.S. Forest Service, were recently published in the journal Urban Forestry and Urban Planning. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-10-29 | | | | Demolition begins at Valley Plaza, once the largest mall on the West Coast – Daily News | | Demolition crews on Wednesday began tearing down parts of Valley Plaza, once touted as the largest shopping center on the West Coast when it opened in 1951, marking a turning point for the long-neglected North Hollywood landmark.
The teardown follows an Aug. 19 vote by the Los Angeles Board of Building and Safety Commissioners to declare six buildings on the site a public nuisance. The decision had come at the urging of Councilmember Adrin Nazarian, who represents the area, and has pushed for action after years of stalled redevelopment and rising safety concerns. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Daily News. 2025-10-29 | | | | Glendale Pressed to Comply With State ADU Laws | Glendale News Press | outlooknewspapers.com | | The California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) recently requested that the city of Glendale align its accessory dwelling unit ordinance (ADU) with state laws and regulations. [Article] | | by , . 2025-10-29 | | | | SNAP delays will stress Latinx families most. These groups are trying to help - Los Angeles Times | | As the federal shutdown marches along into its fourth week with no foreseeable end in sight, November’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits will be delayed for some 5.5 million Californians.
Gov. Gavin Newsom blamed President Trump for the shutdown and the disruption of SNAP, noting that the timing seems especially cruel as Thanksgiving creeps up.
“Trump’s failure to open the federal government is now endangering people’s lives and making basic needs like food more expensive — just as the holidays arrive,” Newsom said last week. “It is long past time for Republicans in Congress to grow a spine, stand up to Trump and deliver for the American people.”
Furthermore, Newsom and state Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta announced Tuesday that California is joining other Democrat-led states in suing the Trump administration to force SNAP payments through the use of contingency funds. But the litigation — even if successful — won’t prevent all the disruptions.
To combat the losses that many Californians will feel, the governor is attempting to fast-track $80 million in state funds to aid in food bank resources. Newsom has also mobilized the California National Guard and California Volunteers to provide support to food banks throughout the state. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-10-29 | | | | Immigration agents are raiding California hospitals and clinics. Can a new state law prevent that? - Los Angeles Times | | In recent months, federal agents camped out in the lobby of a Southern California hospital, guarded detained patients — sometimes shackled — in hospital rooms, and chased an immigrant landscaper into a surgical center.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents also have shown up at community clinics. Health providers say officers tried to enter a parking lot hosting a mobile clinic, waved a machine gun in the faces of clinicians serving the homeless, and hauled a passerby into an unmarked car outside a community health center.
In response to such immigration enforcement activity in and around clinics and hospitals, Gov. Gavin Newsom last month signed SB 81, which prohibits medical establishments from allowing federal agents without a valid search warrant or court order into private areas, including places where patients receive treatment or discuss health matters.
But while the bill received broad support from medical groups, health care workers and immigrant rights advocates, legal experts say California can’t stop federal authorities from carrying out duties in public places like hospital lobbies and general waiting areas, parking lots and surrounding neighborhoods — places where recent ICE activities sparked outrage and fear. Previous federal restrictions on immigration enforcement in or near sensitive areas, including health care establishments, were rescinded by the Trump administration in January.
“The issue that states encounter is the supremacy clause,” said Sophia Genovese, a supervising attorney and clinical teaching fellow at Georgetown Law. She said the federal government has the right to conduct enforcement activities, and there are limits to what the state can do to stop them. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-10-29 | | | | Edison Announces Details of Direct Payments to Wildfire Survivors; Criticism Mounts – Pasadena Now | | Southern California Edison launched a voluntary compensation program on Wednesday for survivors of the deadly Eaton Fire, promising payments within months while facing accusations that its offers fall short of what victims deserve and surrender too much control to the utility itself. [Article] | | by , . 2025-10-29 | | | | How Trump pressures the world into burning more oil and gas - Los Angeles Times | | The world was on the brink of a climate milestone: adopting a global carbon tax for the shipping industry. Countries had spent years crafting the plan, hoping to throttle planet-warming pollution from cargo vessels. They had every reason to think the measure would pass when the International Maritime Organization met in mid-October.
Enter Donald Trump. After returning to the White House for a second term, the president and his top officials undertook a monthslong campaign to defeat the initiative. The U.S. threatened tariffs, levies and visa restrictions to get its way. A battery of American diplomats and Cabinet secretaries met with various nations to twist arms, according to a senior U.S. State Department official, who asked for anonymity to speak candidly. Nations were also warned of other potential consequences if they backed the tax on shipping emissions, including imposing sanctions on individuals and blocking ships from U.S. ports.
Under that Trump-led pressure — or intimidation, as some describe it — some countries started to waver. Ultimately, a bloc including the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Iran voted to adjourn the meeting for a year, killing any chance of the charge being adopted anytime soon.
The U.S. “bullied otherwise supportive or neutral countries into turning against” the net-zero plan for shipping, says Faïg Abbasov, a director at the European advocacy group Transport & Environment. With its intense lobbying at the International Maritime Organization, the Trump administration was “waging war against multilateralism, UN diplomacy and climate diplomacy.”
At first glance, it might look like the U.S. has exited the climate fight. The president is once again pulling the country out of the Paris Agreement, and he may not send an official U.S. delegation to next month’s COP30 climate summit in Brazil. But don’t be confused: America is still in the arena; it’s just fighting for the other side.
Since his return to Washington, Trump has used trade talks, tariff threats and verbal dressing-downs to encourage countries to jettison their renewable energy commitments (and buy more U.S. oil and liquefied natural gas in the process). Just 10 months into his second term, the campaign is showing surprising success as key figures and countries increasingly buckle under the determined pressure.
Trump was elected to implement a “common sense energy agenda,” says White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers. He “will not jeopardize our country’s economic and national security to pursue vague climate goals that are killing other countrie [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-10-29 | | | | In controversial move, LADWP says it will shift its largest gas power plant to hydrogen | | The board of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power on Tuesday approved a controversial plan to convert part of the city’s largest natural gas-fired power plant into one that also can burn hydrogen.
In a 3-0 vote, the DWP board signed off on the final environmental impact report for an $800-million modernization of Units 1 and 2 of the Scattergood Generating Station in Playa del Rey.
The power plant dates to the late 1950s and both units are legally required to be shut down by the end of 2029. In their place, the DWP will install new combined-cycle turbines that are expected to operate on a mixture of natural gas and at least 30% hydrogen with the ultimate goal of running entirely on hydrogen as more supply becomes available.
The hydrogen burned at Scattergood is supposed to be green, meaning it is produced by splitting water molecules through a process called electrolysis. Hydrogen does not emit planet-warming carbon dioxide when it is burned, unlike natural gas.
The city-run utility says Scattergood’s conversion is integral to L.A.’s goal of reaching 100% renewable energy by 2035.
“This project is critical to LADWP’s clean energy transition as it helps us preserve a key power system asset, meet our clean energy goals, and ensures reliability for our customers,” Senior Assistant General Manager David Hanson said. “The Scattergood modernization project is the No. 1 priority on the power system’s ‘Top 10’ priority list. This project is essential.”
But the plan has many detractors, including a number of local environmental groups who say it will prolong the life of the city’s fossil fuel infrastructure when L.A. should be investing heavily in more proven clean technologies such as solar, wind and battery energy storage.
“I’m very skeptical that progress looks like maintaining reliance on gas plants,” said Julia Dowell, a senior campaign organizer with the Sierra Club. “When this project initially comes online, there likely won’t actually be any hydrogen in the mix, so we’ll still just be burning 100% methane for potentially an indeterminable amount of time.”
Nearly 50 people spoke up at Tuesday’s meeting, with detractors also expressing concerns about water use and pollution from burning the gas. Although burning hydrogen does not produce CO2, the high-temperature combustion process can emit nitrogen oxides, or NOx, a key component of smog.
“For the communities living near these power plants, it’s really an environmental justice issue,” Dowell said. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-10-29 | | | | World used record amount of fossil fuels last year, scientists say - Los Angeles Times | | Industries and individuals around the world burned record amounts of oil, gas and coal last year, releasing more greenhouse gases than ever before, a group of leading scientists said in a new report, warning that humanity is hurtling toward “climate chaos.”
The surge in global use of fossil fuels in 2024 contributed to extreme weather and devastating disasters including heat waves, storms, floods and wildfires.
“The planet’s vital signs are flashing red,” the scientists wrote in their annual report on the state of the climate. “The window to prevent the worst outcomes is rapidly closing.”
Some of the most alarming of Earth’s “vital signs,” the researchers said, include record heat in the oceans ravaging coral reefs, rapidly shrinking ice sheets and increasing losses of forests burned in fires around the world. They said the extreme intensity of Hurricane Melissa this week is another sign of how the altered climate is threatening lives and communities on an unprecedented scale.
“The climate crisis has reached a really dangerous stage,” said William Ripple, the report’s co-lead author and a professor at Oregon State University. “It is vital that we limit future warming as rapidly as possible.”
There is still time to limit the damage, Ripple said. It means switching to cleanly made electricity and clean transportation, and consuming less beef and dairy and reducing other sources of harmful gases. These transitions are happening in some places, though not nearly fast enough.
For example, fossil fuel use actually fell in China in the first half of this year, a remarkable change for a country that remains the world’s biggest climate polluter. Renewable energy is being built out at a furious pace there, dwarfing installation in rest of the world. And in California, clean energy provided two-thirds of electricity in 2023.
Yet total use of fossil fuels rose 1.5% in 2024, the researchers said, citing data from the Energy Institute. Energy-related emissions of carbon dioxide and other planet-heating gases also reached an all-time high — exactly the opposite of what needs to be happening to address climate change.
The report notes that hotter temperatures are contributing to growing electricity demand.
“Avoiding every fraction of a degree of warming is critically important,” the scientists wrote. “We are entering a period where only bold, coordinated action can prevent catastrophic outcomes.” [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-10-29 | | |
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