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| Data centers in Silicon Valley stand empty, awaiting power - Los Angeles Times | | Two of the world’s biggest data center developers have projects in Nvidia Corp.’s hometown that may sit empty for years because the local utility isn’t ready to supply electricity.
In Santa Clara, Calif., where the world’s biggest supplier of artificial-intelligence chips is based, Digital Realty Trust Inc. applied in 2019 to build a data center. Roughly six years later, the development remains an empty shell awaiting full energization. Stack Infrastructure, which was acquired earlier this year by Blue Owl Capital Inc., has a nearby 48-megawatt project that’s also vacant, while the city-owned utility, Silicon Valley Power, struggles to upgrade its capacity.
The fate of the two facilities highlights a major challenge for the U.S. tech sector and indeed the wider economy. While demand for data centers has never been greater, driven by the boom in cloud computing and AI, access to electricity is emerging as the biggest constraint. That’s largely because of aging power infrastructure, a slow build-out of new transmission lines and a variety of regulatory and permitting hurdles.
And the pressure on power systems is only going to increase. Electricity requirements from AI computing will likely more than double in the U.S. alone by 2035, based on BloombergNEF projections. Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and OpenAI’s Sam Altman are among corporate leaders who have predicted trillions of dollars will pour into building AI infrastructure.
“The demand has never been higher, and it’s really a power-supply problem that we have,” Bill Dougherty, executive vice president for data center solutions at real estate brokerage CBRE Group Inc., said in an interview.
The Santa Clara projects are relatively small compared with the massive complexes for large-language model AI developers, which are now being built in Texas, Pennsylvania, Louisiana and New Mexico, where the cost of electricity is lower but the power sources are often still works in progress. The smaller centers serve local cloud clients who pay a higher price for real estate and power to reduce latency caused by long-distance transmissions — think high-frequency traders or autonomous-vehicle operators who need information in microseconds.
“There are portions of data-center demand that need to be as close as possible to population centers,” Dougherty said. “That is the demand that needs to be in California. They can’t bring it online because there’s constraints on power.” [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-11-10 | | | | A Guide to Getting Around Hollywood Without a Car | | Hollywood has long portrayed L.A. as a city enamored with driving. Think of Steve Martin hopping in the car to go to his next-door neighbor’s house in 1991’s L.A. Story or Kevin Connolly getting mocked for pounding the pavement in the 2015 Entourage film.
But behind the scenes, some workers in the entertainment business make a point to avoid cars, at least when they can. As Gen Z shies away from cars (according to McKinsey, the age group is shaping up to be less interested in driving than previous generations), the young Hollywood workforce can take a page from veteran industry commuters. [Article] | | by , . 2025-11-10 | | | | California AmeriCorps programs adapt to funding uncertainty - Los Angeles Times | | For programs across California that rely on federal AmeriCorps funding to provide services such as mentoring and tutoring, it’s been a year of dramatic ups and downs.
In April, California AmeriCorps programs lost millions of dollars in federal funding, which was then restored in late August as a result of a multistate lawsuit. Programs now face an existential threat with a Trump administration budget proposal to dismantle the agency.
Amid this roller coaster, those who run AmeriCorps programs say they are learning how to adapt. Many have established contingency plans to keep their programs running if funding is pulled again. Others have turned to fundraising. And in some cases, out of fear of losing funding, programs have closed.
“The federal government has infused a high level of chaos that creates a lot of anxiety and uncertainty for our programs,” said Josh Fryday, director of the Governor’s Office of Service and Community Engagement (GO-Serve), which oversees California Volunteers — the state service organization that receives most AmeriCorps grant funding and disburses it to schools, nonprofit organizations and other entities.
AmeriCorps, an independent agency of the U.S. government, supports volunteer and service efforts in California and across the country by addressing issues such as academic support for students, youth mentoring, homelessness, food insecurity, health and other key areas.
For many AmeriCorps programs, they have to look back only a few months to know what disruption feels like. When the federal government, under the Trump administration, slashed hundreds of millions in funding across California and the nation earlier this year, local and statewide programs were forced to either use their own funding to continue services or shutter their doors. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-11-10 | | | | L.A. fire survivors want CA insurance chief Ricardo Lara to resign - CalMatters | | Survivors of the deadly Los Angeles County fires, some of whom have been unable to rebuild because their insurance claims have been delayed or denied, are calling for California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara to resign.
Lara, a former state lawmaker, has one year left in his second term. [Article] | | by , CalMatters. 2025-11-10 | | | | L.A. air officials approve port pollution pact - Los Angeles Times | | Southern California air officials voted overwhelmingly Friday to give themselves the power to levy fines on the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach if they don’t fulfill their promises to transition to cleaner equipment.
The ports remain the largest source of smog-forming pollution in Southern California — releasing more emissions than the region’s 6 million cars each day.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District’s governing board voted 9-1 in favor of an agreement that commits the ports to installing zero-emission equipment, such as electric truck chargers or hydrogen fuel pumps, to curb air pollution from the heaviest polluters. The plans will be submitted in three phases: heavy-duty trucks and most cargo-moving equipment by 2028; smaller locomotives and harbor crafts by 2029; and cargo ships and other large vessels by 2030.
If the ports don’t meet their deadlines, they would be fined $50,000 to $200,000, which would go into a clean-air fund to aid communities affected by port pollution. The AQMD, for its part, forgoes imposing new rules on the ports for five years.
Many environmental advocates voiced disappointment, saying the agreement doesn’t contain specific pollution reduction requirements.
“I urge you not to sign away the opportunity to do more to help address the region’s air pollution crisis in exchange for a pinky promise,” said Kathy Ramirez, one of dozens of speakers at Friday’s board meeting. “This is about our lives. I would encourage you to think about why you joined the AQMD board. If not for clean air, then for what?”
Port officials and shipping industry officials lauded the decision as a pragmatic way to transition to a zero-emissions economy. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-11-10 | | | | LA County’s juvenile hall staffing crisis isn’t simply a numbers issue, monitor testifies – Daily News | | On most days now, L.A. County’s largest juvenile hall has “adequate numbers” of probation staff, yet it still struggles to provide the services and activities required by law, according to the independent monitor overseeing the county’s compliance with a series of reforms.
Michael Dempsey, executive director of the national Council of Juvenile Justice Administrators and a court-appointed monitor for the last five years, testified in court Friday, Nov. 7, that the issue is not just how many probation officers show up for work, but rather who they are and how they’re deployed. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Daily News. 2025-11-10 | | | | LA County Public Health urges removal of illegal kratom, 7-OH products from shelves to end overdose risk – Daily News | | Los Angeles County health officials are inspecting smoke shops, convenience stores and gas stations for kratom and 7-OH products that can be addictive as opioids and are illegal, and must be removed from the shelves, the county reported.
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (DPH) this week began cracking down on the sale of these products that are illegal dietary supplements and are being used as substitutes for opioid drugs, such as Oxycontin and fentanyl by addicts looking to get high. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Daily News. 2025-11-10 | | | | Planning commission OK’s natural burial cemetery | | Thursday, the Humboldt County Planning Commission unanimously approved a permit for a proposed Kneeland natural burial cemetery known as Sacred Groves. The cemetery’s nonprofit has seen hundreds express interest in being placed in a shroud and buried in a natural environment, their decomposition aided by biological processes in the soil.
Michael Furniss, founder and executive director of Sacred Groves, told the planning commission 492 people have signed up and are following the organization’s progress.
Furniss said the green burial practice “involves interning an unembalmed body in a simple, biodegradable shroud or casket.”
“The body is placed in a relatively shallow grave with no concrete vault or plastic liner so as to promote aerobic composition,” he said.
People can choose between being buried amid grassland, forest or alongside a native sapling in an oak savanna restoration area, each without an aboveground marker.
Furniss, a soil scientist, said the rural site off Kneeland Road has ideal conditions to host a natural cemetery. [Article] | | by , Eureka Times-Standard. 2025-11-10 | | | | Editorial: New law bodes poorly for CEQA reform agenda – Daily News | | California lawmakers have been passing an impressive number of laws in recent years that attempt to streamline the California Environmental Quality Act process for approving new housing developments. That’s an admirable development given that CEQA is a prime culprit for the state’s housing-affordability crisis. The 1970 law not only adds costs to most projects, but allows any “stakeholder” to file a lawsuit to slow projects or gain costly concessions. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Daily News. 2025-11-10 | | | | California women celebrate reprieve on losing SNAP food benefits - Los Angeles Times | | For Zuri Crawford, the last several weeks have been an emotional whirlwind — swinging from fears to frustration to now partial relief.
A 20-year-old single mother and community college student in the Inland Empire, Crawford depends on the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to buy groceries for herself and her young son. Earlier this week, she braced herself for the possibility that — because of the federal shutdown — she would not receive the $445 that typically gets loaded onto her state-issued debit card on the sixth day of every month.
“I really feel like I’m going to be burnt out. I feel like it’s going to be hard on me because I am a single mom,” she said on a recent afternoon. “I have to push through, but I am going to be overwhelmed.”
On Thursday, however, Crawford was surprised to learn that the $445 payment had showed up on her card. Soon after, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that, because of a court victory, “food benefits are now beginning to flow back to California families” — at least temporarily.
Crawford is one of roughly 5.5 million statewide who depend on this food aid — known in California as CalFresh — and one of 42 million people nationwide. In recent weeks, this group has been caught in the crosshairs of a political battle that has shifted from Congress to courtrooms amid a federal shutdown that has now lasted more than five weeks.
As of early Friday, two federal judges had ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture to use billions of dollars in contingency funding to continue providing SNAP support — the reason Crawford and many others nationwide received their full benefits Thursday. On Friday the Trump administration asked a federal appeals court to block one of those orders. The appeals court let the order stand, and then late Friday the Trump administration succeeded in persuading the Supreme Court to block the judicial rulings and — at least temporarily — withhold food benefits from millions of Americans.
Many recipients in California already have their payments, but the legal drama late Friday may add to their anxieties. Many were already improvising, and may have to do so again. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-11-10 | | | | L.A. County stores must stop selling kratom and 7-OH, health agency says - Los Angeles Times | | Los Angeles County officials are set to pull kratom and its synthetic extract, sometimes called 7-OH, from shelves immediately.
Inspectors will be sent to retailers next week to begin red-tagging illegal products containing the compounds, the L.A. County Department of Public Health said in a news release Friday morning. Shops that don’t comply could be hit with fines or other penalties.
Kratom is an herbal extract from the leaves of Mitragyna speciosa, a tree native to Southeast Asia. It is sold in shops and online in a variety of forms, including powders, pills and liquid extracts. Brands selling kratom often make claims that it can address pain, anxiety and mood disorders.
Matthew Lowe, executive director of the Global Kratom Coalition, said natural kratom has been used in the U.S. for more than 50 years and according to a 2020 Johns Hopkins Survey, people have been using it to alleviate anxiety and treat chronic pain. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-11-10 | | | | The SNAP-funding mess makes L.A.'s food-insecurity crisis clear - Los Angeles Times | | A strange scene unfolded at the Adams/Vermont farmers market near USC last week.
The pomegranates, squash and apples were in season, pink guavas were so ripe you could smell their heady scent from a distance, and nutrient-packed yams were ready for the holidays.
But with federal funding in limbo for the 1.5 million people in Los Angeles County who depend on food aid from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — or SNAP — the church parking lot hosting the market was largely devoid of customers.
Even though the market accepts payments through CalFresh, the state’s SNAP program, hardly anyone was lined up when gates opened. Vendors mostly idled alone at their produce stands.
As thousands across Southern California lined up at food banks to collect free food, and the fight over delivering the federal allotments sowing uncertainty, fewer people receiving aid seemed to be spending money at outdoor markets like this one.
“So far we’re doing 50% of what we’d normally do — or less,” said Michael Bach, who works with Hunger Action, a food-relief nonprofit that partners with farmers markets across the greater L.A. area, offering “Market Match” deals to customers paying with CalFresh debit cards.
The deal allows shoppers to buy up to $30 worth of fruit produce for only $15. Skimming a ledger on her table, Bach’s colleague Estrellita Echor noted that only a handful of shoppers had taken advantage of the offer.
All week at farmers markets where workers were stationed, the absence was just as glaring, she said. “I was at Pomona on Saturday — we only had six transactions the whole day,” she said. “Zero at La Mirada.”
CalFresh customers looking to double their money on purchases were largely missing at the downtown L.A. market the next day, Echor said.
“This program usually pulls in lots of people, but they are either holding on to what little they have left or they just don’t have anything on their cards,” she said.
The disruption in aid comes as a result of the Trump administration’s decision to deliver only partial SNAP payments to states during the ongoing federal government shutdown, skirting court order to restart funds for November. On Friday night, Supreme Court Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson temporarily blocked the order pending a ruling on the matter by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
But by then, CalFresh had already started loading 100% of November’s allotments onto users’ debit cards. Even with that reprieve for food-aid recipients in California, lack of access to food is a persistent problem in L.A., said Kayla de la Haye, director of the Institute for Food System Equity at USC.
A study published by her team last year found that 25% of residents in L.A. County — or about 832,000 people — experienced food insecurity, and that among low-income residents, the rate was even higher, 41%. The researchers also found that 29% of county residents experienced nutrition insecurity, meaning they lacked options for getting healthy, nutritious food.
Those figures marked a slight improvement compared to data from 2023, when the end of pandemic-era boosts to state, county and nonprofit aid programs — combined with rising inflation — caused hunger rates to spike just as they did at the start of the pandemic in 2020, de la Haye said. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-11-10 | | | | The first SB 79 battle | | Now that SB 79 is the law of the land (thanks, LA City Council!), cities across California are scrambling to figure out how to implement it. The law is a sprawling beast - it was amended 15 times as it wound its way through the state legislature. If you need a refresher, Aaron Eckhouse and Nolan Gray of California YIMBY wrote a great breakdown of what’s in the law, and Streets For All made the best map of where in LA it will likely apply. [Article] | | by , . 2025-11-10 | | | | Eunisses Hernandez called homeless encampment sweeps "inhumane." Then, she joined LA City Council and things changed. | | Days before taking office in 2022, then-City Councilmember-elect Eunisses Hernandez took to social media to praise a news article citing LA County data showing that encampment sweeps rarely lead to permanent housing for the tens of thousands of people living outside.
Hernandez called encampment sweeps “a failed and inhumane tactic of dealing with the crises of people experiencing homelessness.” [Article] | | by , . 2025-11-10 | | | | The LAPD is hiring more officers than it can pay for - Los Angeles Times | | L.A.’s elected leaders took a dramatic step to cut police spending this year, chopping in half the number of officers that Mayor Karen Bass had been hoping to hire.
In May, the City Council voted to give the LAPD just enough money to recruit 240 officers this year, down from the 480 requested by Bass. They did so not just to close a $1-billion budget shortfall, but also to prevent other city workers from being laid off.
But on Tuesday, council members learned that the LAPD is on track to blow way past its budget allocation by adding 410 officers by summer 2026, the end of the fiscal year. That would mean hiring as many as 170 officers who lack funding in this year’s budget.
Councilmember Tim McOsker voiced frustration, saying the LAPD’s overspending represents “everyone’s worst fear about a department running rogue.”
“The budget has to mean something,” McOsker said during a Budget and Finance Committee meeting on Tuesday. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-11-10 | | | | As a century-old oil field winds down, what's next for Baldwin Hills? A sprawling park or housing? | | The 342-foot climb from Culver City streets to the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook is a monster, but the payoff is sublime: panoramic views from Santa Monica Bay to the San Gabriel Mountains.
Almost sublime, that is. The foreground is a scar of denuded earth, storage tanks and bobbing pumpjacks — the legacy of oil discovered a century ago when only farmhouses were scattered over the surrounding flatlands.
A long and inevitable clash came when suburbia closed in around the 1,000-acre Inglewood Oil Field, as occurred at oil facilities all over the region. Now that conflict is coming to a resolution. A state edict, if it holds up in court, would require drilling and pumping to stop by the end of the decade.
What hasn’t been resolved is what will then become of one of the region’s last great pieces of undeveloped land.
One day, those denuded slopes could be a premiere addition to the Los Angeles region’s needy park systems, adding wildlife habitat, hiking trails and sports facilities to the majestic views.
Or, they could be dotted with multimillion-dollar mansions boasting Malibu-like views in the heart of the city. Or, the valley below could become a village of affordable housing. Or it could be some mix of all of the above.
For a quarter century, the state has pursued a policy of acquiring that land and retaining it as park and open space. But progress toward that goal has faltered because of insufficient funding and unwilling sellers.
As priorities change, in and out of government, the conversation over the future of Baldwin Hills is widening to include scenarios that set aside some of that land to address the region’s other urgent need: housing.
“Now the need for housing is so strong that the opportunity exists to create an amazing new walkable community,” said Michael Anderson, an architect who focuses on economic development of challenged communities.
“You could combine an affordable revised version of the urbanist movement elements like how Playa Vista was developed where you have parks every half or quarter-mile. But in this case you could still have larger open spaces instead of those little small one-, two-acre parks.
So far, the public officials who would have the final say are treading cautiously, saying the communities around the Baldwin Hills should decide its future.
Supervisor Holly Mitchell, whose 2nd District includes the oil field, said she is working to get the wells shut down and is reserving judgment on what comes next.
“It has been a long ongoing fight to phase out drilling at the Inglewood Oil Field and transition workers to [new jobs],” Mitchell said. “Once we achieve this, it is my expectation that the future of what becomes of the oil field is informed by the communities on the front lines that have been most impacted.” [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-11-10 | | | | CA Supreme Court strikes down warning on LAPD complaint forms- CalMatters | | A warning that people see before filing complaints against Los Angeles police officers creates a barrier to free speech, the California Supreme Court ruled today in a long-running lawsuit over the language.
The high court ruled 6-1 in favor of the city of Los Angeles and against the union that represents its police officers in finding that the admonishment describing penalties for filing false has the potential to deter “citizens from filing truthful (or at least not knowingly false) complaints of police misconduct”. [Article] | | by , CalMatters. 2025-11-10 | | | | What will replace L.A.'s largest oil field as shutdown looms? - Los Angeles Times | | After a century of oil extraction in Baldwin Hills, pressure is mounting to free the 1,000-acre oil field for a better use. But long-held plans for a park may face competition from the need for housing. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-11-10 | | | | LAPD failed to fully disclose officer domestic violence allegations - Los Angeles Times | | The Los Angeles Police Department took more than a year to begin fully disclosing domestic abuse allegations against officers after the state passed a law that mandates reporting and can trigger permanent bans from police work in California.
The revelation came out through testimony at an administrative hearing last month for a rookie LAPD officer who was fired after the department alleged she committed time card fraud and physically assaulted her former romantic partner, a fellow cop.
A sergeant from the LAPD’s serious misconduct unit testified in a proceeding against Tawny Ramirez, according to Ramirez’s attorney and evidence from the closed-door hearing reviewed by The Times. The sergeant said the department did not start reporting certain domestic abuse cases to the state until after Ramirez was terminated in early February 2024. That is more than a year after rules took effect requiring the LAPD and other police agencies to promptly report officers accused of “serious misconduct” to the state’s police accreditation body, which grants authorization to work in law enforcement.
Senate Bill 2, passed in 2021, made domestic violence one of the nine categories of “serious misconduct” — including excessive force, dishonesty, sexual assault and acts of bias on the basis of factors including race, sexual orientation and gender — that police agencies are obligated to report to the state’s Commission on Police Officer Standards and Training, or POST.
The LAPD sergeant testified that the reporting practices were based on guidance from POST’s former compliance director, who said at a training session that agencies did not have to “report first-time misdemeanor domestic violence,” according to Ramirez’s attorney Nicole Castronovo and the hearing evidence reviewed by The Times.
Ramirez appealed the basis for her firing and has maintained she did not commit any misconduct. She denied allegations she abused her former partner.
LAPD officials believed that partially reporting incidents went “against best practices” and tried to get the directive in writing, the sergeant testified, but still went along with what the official advised, according to Castronovo and the hearing evidence. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-11-10 | | | | Eric Preven, TV writer who became citizen watchdog, dies at 63 - Los Angeles Times | | Eric Preven, one of L.A. County’s most prominent citizen watchdogs, has died at 63, according to his family.
Preven, a well-known government transparency advocate, garnered a reputation as an eagle-eyed observer of local meetings, a savvy wielder of the state’s public records act, and a reliable thorn in the side of his government.
Relatives said Preven died Saturday in his Studio City home of a suspected heart attack.
The term “gadfly” often is bandied about local government to describe those who never miss a public meeting. But politicians and his family say the term doesn’t quite do Preven justice.
“You may not agree with him, but it wasn’t just like [he was] shooting from the hip. He would do his research,” said Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who watched Preven testify for more than a decade. “He would let the facts speak for themselves.”
In 2016, Preven and the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California took a lawsuit all the way to the California Supreme Court, which ruled in his favor, finding the public had a right to know how much the county was paying outside lawyers in closed cases. Three years later he successfully forced the city to expand its rules around public testimony after he argued he’d been unlawfully barred from weighing in on a Studio City development.
Many attendees of local public meetings tend to drift into offensive diatribes that have little to do with the matter at hand. Preven never did.
Instead he fine-tuned the art of presenting minute-long, logical arguments on everything from budget shortfalls to seemingly excessive settlements. He could be cutting but he always had a point to make.
And he never missed a meeting. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-11-10 | | |
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