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Reproductive health care rally hits courthouse – Times-Standard
This Friday, local supporters and advocates met on the steps of the Humboldt County courthouse to rally in support of reproductive rights as the Superior Court prepared to entertain a motion to dismiss California v. Providence St. Joseph filed in December on behalf of the hospital. [Article]
by , . 2025-02-14
 
LA County tribe’s lawsuit over ‘desecrated’ remains is dismissed – Press Telegram
A Native American tribe’s lawsuit alleging that the remains of more than 100 of its ancestors were mishandled and “desecrated” during construction of a downtown Los Angeles museum has been thrown out by a judge. In May, the Kizh Nation sued the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Los Angeles County and the nonprofit LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes and others involved in the construction more than a decade ago.  [Article]
by , Long Beach Press Telegram. 2025-02-14
 
Trump contract freeze slows safety measures in fire zones - Los Angeles Times
President Trump has insisted that “raking” of the forests and other fuel reduction measures would help prevent wildfires from devastating the West. But early actions by his administration have frozen one of the key programs to complete that sort of work, weeks after a pair of giant fires devastated broad stretches of Altadena and Pacific Palisades. The administration’s block on some Bureau of Land Management contracts comes at the same time that it has frozen most federal government hiring — an action that has led to confusion at the U.S. Forest Service, where the hiring of some firefighters has been postponed. A White House spokesperson said the Department of Interior, which oversees the BLM, is reviewing funding decisions to ensure they are consistent with Trump’s executive orders. That review is focusing, in part, on spending approved under President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act. A pair of firefighter unions and dozens of Democrats in Congress have condemned the Trump administration’s hold on the contracts and the hiring delay, saying the actions defy common sense and Trump’s own admonitions about the way to reduce the threat of wildfires. California’s two U.S. senators, Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, joined a dozen other Western senators in demanding that the BLM lift its hold on the wildland “treatment” contracts that pay private companies to remove brush and trees in fire-prone areas. Fifty-seven House members — including Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) and Scott Peters (D-San Diego) — joined in demanding restoration of the fire prevention work and resumption of hiring of firefighters by the chronically understaffed Forest Service. “It’s a slap in the face. It’s completely disrespectful,” Steve Gutierrez of the National Federation of Federal Employees, the union representing firefighters, said of the administration actions, noting that the onboarding of some firefighters last week was stopped because of the hiring freeze. “Do they not care about the work we are doing? Does the government not have my back?” Brian K. Rice, president of the California Professional Firefighters union, also expressed dismay, noting that nearly half of the state is federal land, including “some of the wildest, most burnable areas of our state.” “President Trump has acknowledged very recently that vegetation management is a major driver in the prevention of devastating firestorms, so it’s disappointing to see his orders to stop work on fuel reduction, as well as the hiring freeze,” added Rice, whose organization represents 35,000 firefighters and emergency medical workers. “The consequences are well within everyone’s imagination after the destruction experienced in Los Angeles County since the New Year.” In an interview with the Associated Press, a White House spokesperson downplayed the impact of the actions. “Just because there’s a review doesn’t mean there’s not a desire for this work to get done,” said Harrison Fields, a deputy press secretary in the White House. “Proper oversight of the dollars is just as important as ensuring that California gets restored.” Fields also said that “there has been no bigger advocate for restoring California to its natural beauty than President Trump, which is why he made it a point to visit the region in his first week in office and he’s continuing to put tremendous pressure on state and local government to reduce the barriers in restoring the area.” McLaurine Pinover, a spokesperson for the federal Office of Personnel Management, said firefighters are exempt from the hiring freeze because they are public safety workers. A White House spokesperson said the administration will “hire key positions that will continue to protect public and tribal lands, infrastructure, and communities from the impacts of wildfires through hazardous fuels management, wildfire preparedness, and close collaboration with interagency partners.” [Article]
by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-02-14
 
City Planning Commission approves high-rise at 1105 S. Olive Street in DTLA
Mack Real Estate Development's has hit another key milestone for its plan to build a high-rise apartment building at the intersection of 11th and Olive Streets in Downtown Los Angeles, receiving the approval of the City Planning Commission at its February 13 meeting. [Article]
by , . 2025-02-14
 
Donald Shoup, renowned parking guru and UCLA professor, dies at 86 - Los Angeles Times
Over more than a half century of clear writing, clever quips and exhaustive scholarship, Donald Shoup became one of the world’s foremost experts and influencers on a topic seemingly as mundane as it is universal: parking. Shoup, an economist and distinguished professor emeritus of urban planning at UCLA, died Feb. 6 after a brief illness. He was 86. Shoup’s central argument, published most expansively in his 700-page seminal work “The High Cost of Free Parking,” was that everything that most people think about parking was wrong. Free street parking, Shoup wrote, makes parking and driving worse. The low cost creates a scarcity of spaces that leads people to spend time and fuel circling blocks in misery. And city planners’ efforts to solve this problem by mandating that homes and businesses provide more cheap parking only worsen the situation. According to Shoup, this parking conundrum is foundational to many of the ills in modern urban life: congestion, sprawl, pollution and high housing costs. Shoup presented his ideas with a cheerful countercultural undercurrent and sprinkle of quirky history. In a 2014 interview with The Times, Shoup noted that the first parking ticket for an expired meter was given to a Protestant minister in 1935. The fine was dismissed, Shoup said, “on the then-novel explanation that the minister had gone to get change for the parking meter.” Shoup’s message, persistence and style gained him legions of followers around the globe. The most ardent called themselves “Shoupistas.” The professor embraced the attention and happily accepted a playful moniker for himself, “Shoup Dogg.” Michael Manville, chair of urban planning at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, said Shoup leaned into the spotlight because he realized it would help spread his ideas and because he just liked talking to people about parking. “He spent so much time with his writing because he wanted to make it accessible,” said Manville, who first met Shoup as a UCLA graduate student in 2001. “He spent so much time with presentations because he wanted to make them entertaining. He built a method where he was always ready to explain to an activist group or a politician, ‘Hey, the missing part here is parking.’” Shoup acknowledged that inveighing against free parking was not popular. He began a 2006 article in academic journal Transport Policy by nodding to parking conventional wisdom through a quotation from George Costanza, the obsessive sidekick from the 1990s sitcom “Seinfeld.” Parking at a garage, Costanza said, was “like going to a prostitute.” “Why should I pay when, if I apply myself, maybe I can get it for free?” Costanza said. [Article]
by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-02-14
 
LA County Sheriff Luna says immigration enforcement is not in his jurisdiction – Daily News
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said on Thursday that despite recent crackdowns on immigration during President Donald Trump’s administration his department’s policies on enforcement and assistance have not changed. Luna reinforced his position that immigration enforcement is not part of the sheriff’s department’s jurisdiction. [Article]
by , Los Angeles Daily News. 2025-02-14
 
What will Altadena look like after it rebuilds?
Altadena’s history as a streetcar suburb that for most of its existence lacked standard zoning codes and urban planning allowed it to organically grow. It’s a “live free or die kind of a place,” says Michele Zack, a local historian and journalist. [Article]
by , . 2025-02-14
 
LA County’s homeless count returns next week after wildfire-induced postponement – Daily News
After being postponed because of the recent wildfires, the Los Angeles County Homeless Services Authority’s 2025 tally of people who are homeless is slated for next week. The count was originally scheduled to take place over three days last month, starting on Tuesday, Jan. 21. But because of the devastation wrought by the Eaton, Palisades and other fires, the county moved the tally back. [Article]
by , Los Angeles Daily News. 2025-02-14
 
Los Angeles City Council approves $3M to support victims of domestic violence – Daily News
The Los Angeles City Council approved more than $3 million to support survivors of domestic violence prompted by concerns that local organizations would not receive state and federal funding. In a 13-0 vote on Friday, Feb. 14, council members signed off on seven contracts totaling $2.1 million  with agencies that provide case management and supportive services for women, survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking, as well as transitional-aged youth. [Article]
by , Los Angeles Daily News. 2025-02-14
 
Insurance commissioner rejects State Farm's request for 22% rate hike - Los Angeles Times
California’s insurance commissioner on Friday turned down a request by State Farm General for an emergency 22% hike of its home insurance rates due to the Los Angeles wildfires, saying the increase wasn’t warranted. Commissioner Ricardo Lara said the state’s largest home insurer has failed to prove it needs the increase or explain how the additional premium dollars would affect its prior decisions to stop writing new home policies in the state and not renew existing policyholders. “My goal is to make sure policyholders do not have to pay more than is required. In light of the recent Los Angeles wildfires, State Farm’s customers need real answers about why they are being asked to pay more and what responsibility the company’s leadership is taking to get its financial house in order,” he wrote in a letter to State Farm posted on the insurance department’s website. The insurer asked for the emergency rate hike earlier this month — as well as increases of 38% for rental dwellings and 15% for renters and condo owners — with the new rates taking effect May 1. The company said it needed the funds to replenish its capital due to the costs of the fires as it awaits a decision on an outstanding request for a rate hike filed last year. The insurer, a subsidiary of State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. of Bloomington, Ill., said it has already received at least 8,700 claims and paid more than $1 billion to customers. S&P Capital IQ estimates the losses will total $6.5 billion, prior to reinsurance payments. “We have gone to great lengths to clearly answer the questions outlined by the Commissioner. While we’re positioned to handle all of the claims associated with the most recent wildfires, State Farm General must seriously consider its options within the California insurance market going forward,” State Farm General said Friday. Last March, the company announced it would not renew 72,000 home, apartment and other property policies in California, citing wildfire risks and other concerns. That followed its decision in May 2023 to stop writing new business, homeowners, and other personal property and casualty insurance in the state, with the exception of personal auto policies. Then last June, State Farm asked for a 30% rate increase for its homeowners policies and other rate hikes that have yet to be decided. That request took state officials by surprise, with Lara saying at the time it raised “serious questions about its financial condition.” [Article]
by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-02-14
 
Housing advocates suing city of LA over rezoning requirements | LAist
A pair of housing advocacy groups filed a lawsuit Thursday accusing Los Angeles city leaders of not doing enough to zone for new housing. [Article]
by , . 2025-02-14
 
Over $600M in tax dollars will start rolling in soon under Measure A. Here’s how you can weigh in | LAist
L.A. County voters recently approved a sales tax increase to fund homeless services, affordable housing and resources to help low-income renters keep their homes. Now come the decisions on how it should be spent. A spending proposal is scheduled to be discussed at a public meeting at 2 p.m. today (Thursday, Feb. 13), which allows public comment remotely or in person. (Here’s a link to the agenda.) [Article]
by , . 2025-02-14
 
Insurance commissioner Lara Seeks meeting with State Farm on rate request – Daily News
After State Farm, California’s largest insurer, filed a request for an emergency 22% rate hike for homeowner policies, Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara on Friday requested a meeting with the company so they can explain their need for such an increase. In a letter to the insurer, Lara said under Proposition 103, State Farm has the burden of explaining why the rate hike is needed now — which he says the company has “not met.” [Article]
by , Los Angeles Daily News. 2025-02-14
 
Long Beach returns $5.6 million grant funding after not finding a location for tiny homes project – Press Telegram
In an effort to find as many possible ways to address homelessness, Long Beach looked into providing more interim housing through a tiny homes project. But after nearly three years of planning and working to find where to best accommodate the project, the city will instead return a $5.6 million grant to the state because officials couldn’t find a location for the tiny homes, which Long Beach had already acquired. Last week, the City Council approved returning the money, but officials will continue looking for ways to use the housing units. [Article]
by , Long Beach Press Telegram. 2025-02-14
 
Has homelessness changed under Mayor Bass? Here’s what you told us | LAist
This year’s Greater L.A. Homeless Count, which kicks off Tuesday, will give us the most concrete data we have yet to understand whether the region is making progress on reducing homelessness. There are big stakes — in particular for L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, who took office in late 2022 on a pledge to make reducing homelessness her top priority. Whatever the official results are, the policies pursued in the future — and the people we put in charge to implement them — will also depend heavily on how Angelenos feel about the way things are going. [Article]
by , . 2025-02-14
 
After L.A. fires, two experts agree: How we think about fire is wrong - Los Angeles Times
Soon after catastrophic fires swept through Pacific Palisades and Altadena, wildfire experts Stephen Pyne and Jack Cohen were in high demand. Respected for their historical and scientific expertise, they provided commentary and perspective. Although neither live in California, they are familiar with its topography, its devil winds and hillsides ready to combust, and their message was clear. As tragic as these fires were, the greater tragedy is that they didn’t have to be this bad. “The astonishing thing is not that Los Angeles burns but that so much of its development has enhanced rather than blunted the threat from fire,” Pyne wrote last month. Currently a professor emeritus at Arizona State University and living outside of Phoenix, Pyne is the author of numerous books that explore the cultural role that fire has played shaping human history. Cohen, a retired research scientist with the U.S. Forest Service, is an authority on the dynamics of home ignition and has worked with the Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory in Missoula, Mont., where he lives. “Uncontrollable extreme wildfires are inevitable,” he wrote five years ago, “however, by reducing home ignition potential … we can create ignition resistant homes and communities.” Frustrated by the continual ineffectiveness of firefighting efforts over the decades, both advocate for a more sophisticated understanding of fire and the ecosystems that foster urban and wildland blazes. Fire is so often viewed as a crisis and emergency that it is divorced from many factors that contribute to its destructive nature — factors that, if addressed, could mitigate the destruction. [Article]
by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-02-14
 
Long Beach is meeting state housing laws, work of creating more homes continues, report says – Press Telegram
Long Beach is currently in compliance with state housing laws, according to a recent staff report presented to the City Council this week. Through the city’s comprehensive rezoning program, it has been able to facilitate its regional housing needs allocation of 26,502 housing units, but some sites still need rezoning, Long Beach officials said. Long Beach’s General Plan Land Use Element, which the council adopted in 2019, anticipated building approximately 28,000 housing units across the city. [Article]
by , Long Beach Press Telegram. 2025-02-14
 
Nonprofits allege Los Angeles plan to boost housing development - Los Angeles Times
Two housing advocacy organizations sued the city of Los Angeles on Thursday, alleging its recent plan to boost home building is inadequate and fails to comply with state law. In their lawsuit, the groups, Yes In My Back Yard and Californians for Homeownership, allege that the city has not demonstrated its plan can accommodate an additional 255,000 homes as required, in part because the city failed to change the underlying zoning in many neighborhoods. In a news release, Yes In My Back Yard, or YIMBY, said the need for more housing is even more pressing after January’s fires wiped away thousands of homes in Los Angeles. “Angelinos are expecting their government to deliver the housing and infrastructure they need to thrive,” Sonja Trauss, YIMBY executive director, said in a statement. “We need to rebuild quickly and efficiently.” Economists generally blame a lack of home building as the main driver of California’s high prices and rents. The lawsuit filed Thursday covers a complicated process cities go through to try to ensure enough housing can be built. Under the state-mandated process, known as the Housing Element, the city of Los Angeles needed to find land where an additional 255,000 could realistically be built over an eight-year period. To hit that goal, the city changed the underlying zoning in a few communities, including downtown, but relied mostly on a series of new incentive building programs known collectively as the CHIP ordinance, which it approved last week. Under CHIP, while underlying zoning rules stay the same, developers can exceed those limits on size, height and unit count if they include a certain percentage of affordable units. In general, the incentives can only be used in commercial and existing multifamily zones, not areas reserved for single-family houses. In the lawsuit brought by YIMBY and Californians for Homeownership, which is funded by the California Assn. of Realtors, the groups allege the city previously committed to changing the underlying zoning of more neighborhoods, and in failing to do so, violated state law. [Article]
by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-02-14
 
Judge sets April hearing to consider shutdown of Los Padrinos juvenile hall | LAist
State authorities said this week that they were still finalizing a re-inspection of Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey. A judge is waiting on those results before deciding whether Los Angeles County will be forced to move the youths housed there to other locations. During a morning hearing Friday, L.A. County Superior Court Judge Miguel Espinoza heard further comments from Probation Department officials then set a new court date for April 18, when he could make a ruling. [Article]
by , . 2025-02-14
 
Hiltzik: Why does Donald Trump disrespect science? Here's why - Los Angeles Times
Why does Donald Trump disrespect science? The question arises because so much of his attempted dismantling of the federal government has been aimed at scientific agencies. His nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is a leading anti-vaccine activist and an exponent of loopy, fact-free scientific theories and health remedies that are unproven or those that have been proved useless (such as hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin as COVID-19 treatments). He has spoken out against the fluoridation of drinking water, which the CDC has identified as one of the 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century, along with vaccination, family planning and recognition of tobacco’s health dangers. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was ordered to take down web pages that provided patients and healthcare providers with crucial information about a panoply of medical conditions, and its crucial Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, an indispensable statistical publication, didn’t go out as scheduled for the first time in its 60-year history. The most comprehensive sally, of course, is the administration’s drastic and abrupt cut in funding for the National Institutes of Health. On Feb. 7, the NIH announced that its payments for “indirect” research costs, which sometimes come to 60% or more of grants’ direct costs, would be cut to 15%, a cutback of billions of dollars from the budgets of leading academic institutions. The cuts were to go into effect three days later, leaving grant recipients thunderstruck. Indirect costs include overhead for maintaining buildings that house labs and general administration expenses. On the surface, these attacks make no practical sense. They can only erode America’s standing as a paragon of leading-edge science; the CDC is a source of indispensable information about disease outbreaks, and the NIH the world’s largest funding source for biomedical research — “the greatest engine of biomedical research ever created,” in the words of oncologist and veteran pseudoscience debunker David Gorski. Whether the NIH can retain that distinction is now in question. Trump’s actions threaten to trigger a brain drain from the U.S., as researchers in important laboratories have begun looking for jobs abroad or started to field recruitment offers. “There’s a fire sale on American academics right now,” Carl Bergstrom of the University of Washington told STAT News. Others suggested that the funding cuts would open the door to more scientific leadership by America’s global competitors, specifically China. [Article]
by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-02-14
 
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