| Shasta County Files Legal Action Over Proposed Ballot Measure to “Reform” Elections – Shasta Scout |
| A group of five local community members have submitted paperwork to the Shasta County Elections Office in hopes of amending the County’s new charter, a document that outlines specifics about how the County is governed. [Article] |
| by , . 2025-03-21 |
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| LA County Sheriff Robert Luna Challenges Subpoenas from Oversight Body – Pasadena Now |
| In a heated discussion, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna Thursday refused to comply with subpoenas issued by an oversight body that requested information related to possible deputy misconduct and use of force. [Article] |
| by , . 2025-03-21 |
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| Trump administration ends funding for migrant children's legal aid - Los Angeles Times |
| President Trump’s administration on Friday ended a federal contract that provides legal representation to nearly 26,000 migrant children who entered the United States without a parent or guardian, a move immigration attorneys say will leave children vulnerable to rapid deportation.
The contract provided funding for attorneys to represent minors who are under the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement — at least 4,000 of whom reside in California — in immigration court.
Many of these children do not read or speak in English and some are too young to read or speak at all, according to Joel Frost-Tift, an immigration attorney with Public Counsel.
“It’s going to have a devastating effect on our clients,” Frost-Tift said. “Immigrants are five to six times more likely to succeed in their case if they’re represented by an attorney, so if they lose representation, that’s going to be really damaging for their case.”
Public Counsel currently represents around 200 unaccompanied migrant children in Southern California. Frost-Tift said attorneys will continue to fulfill their ethical duty to assist with these cases for now, but without new funding it’s unclear how long they will be able to do so.
It’s a quandary that around 100 legal aid organizations across the country now find themselves in after learning that the federal contract for children who cross the border without a guardian — which was up for renewal on March 29 — was terminated. [Article] |
| by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-03-21 |
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| Solana apartments completed at Duarte Station | Urbanize LA |
| Just north of the A Line's Duarte Station, construction is complete for a new multifamily residential development from MBK Rental Living. [Article] |
| by , . 2025-03-21 |
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| Pro-Palestinian demonstrators sue UCLA over its ‘failure to protect activists’ – Daily News |
| UCLA activists, including students and faculty, announced Thursday that they are suing the school, alleging administrators failed to protect protesters at a campus pro-Palestinian encampment last school year. [Article] |
| by , Los Angeles Daily News. 2025-03-21 |
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| What you need to know about LA’s $1 billion budget shortfall – Daily News |
| Los Angeles is staring down a staggering $1 billion budget shortfall for the 2025-2026 fiscal year, a financial crisis that could lead to deep service cuts, fee increases and thousands of potential layoffs. [Article] |
| by , Los Angeles Daily News. 2025-03-21 |
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| Court orders East L.A. Area Planning Commission to reverse denial of Boyle Heights project |
| In March 2024, the East Los Angeles Planning Commission voted 3-2 to grant an appeal blocking the construction of a mixed-use project which calls for redeveloping parcels including rent-stabilized housing in Boyle Heights. One year and one lawsuit later, the Commission is scheduled to meet again to undo that action. [Article] |
| by , . 2025-03-21 |
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| Bass issues order to expedite rebuilding of more fire-resistant homes in LA – Daily News |
| LOS ANGELES — Mayor Karen Bass on Friday, March 21, issued an executive order to expedite the rebuilding of homes and businesses in ways that better prepare for wildfires and other climate-fueled emergencies. [Article] |
| by , Los Angeles Daily News. 2025-03-21 |
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| Proposed gutting of Department of Education worries Southern California educators, activists – Daily News |
| President Donald Trump’s executive order calling for the elimination of the U.S. Department of Education was met with uncertainty Friday at some Southern California school districts, where educators and activists worry any federal funding cuts could impact already cash-strapped budgets and threaten programs for disadvantaged students. [Article] |
| by , Los Angeles Daily News. 2025-03-21 |
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| California school vaccine rates fell; some students are vulnerable to measles - Los Angeles Times |
| Despite having some of the nation’s strictest school vaccination laws, California reported a decline last year in the share of kindergarten students who were immunized against measles, including in 16 counties where students no longer have herd immunity against one of the most contagious diseases.
New data from the California Department of Public Health show that last year, 96.2% of California students in transitional kindergarten and kindergarten were vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella in the 2023-24 school year, down from 96.5% the year before. And 93.7% of kindergarten students were up to date on all their immunizations, down from 94.1% in the same period the previous year. Data on vaccination rates for first-grade students, which are usually higher, were not yet available. [Article] |
| by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-03-21 |
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| Long Beach moves to approve citywide inclusionary housing rules • Long Beach Post News |
| In hopes of curtailing a housing shortage that locals say prices many of them out of their own city, the Long Beach City Council gave preliminary approval Tuesday to a citywide inclusionary housing ordinance. [Article] |
| by , . 2025-03-21 |
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| L.A. approves first permits for rebuilding homes after Palisades fire - Los Angeles Times |
| The city of Los Angeles has cleared the way for three Pacific Palisades homeowners to begin rebuilding on their properties.
The approval of the projects, one to repair a damaged home and two for full rebuilds, according to the Department of Building and Safety, represents a key milestone in the recovery from January’s devastating wildfires. The first permit was issued March 5, less than two months after the Palisades fire destroyed or seriously damaged more than 6,000 homes in Pacific Palisades and surrounding areas.
“We want this to be happening on your lot, too,” said Mayor Karen Bass at a news conference in the Palisades on Friday.
Bass and L.A. County leaders have pledged to streamline permitting procedures for property owners who want to rebuild. The Eaton fire, which ignited the same day, displaced 6,900 households from Altadena and nearby communities. The city and county have opened one-stop permitting centers for fire victims and waived discretionary hearings and other zoning reviews for those who want to build new homes that are roughly the same size as they were before. [Article] |
| by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-03-21 |
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| Angelenos learn to schmooze, kvetch, and kvell in Yiddish | KCRW |
| Inside Der Nister Downtown Jewish Center, a hybrid bookstore and synagogue on the 14th floor of an old bank building in Downtown Los Angeles, a small crowd focuses on the space’s co-founder, Zach Golden, 33. He stands at a podium between ceiling-high shelves of Jewish books, and begins to read a poem penned nearly a century ago, by a Jewish immigrant from modern-day Ukraine. It’s titled “California.” [Article] |
| by , . 2025-03-21 |
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| California now has more EV chargers than gas nozzles, Newsom says | KTLA |
| California officially has more public and shared private electric vehicle chargers installed statewide than gasoline nozzles, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Thursday. [Article] |
| by , . 2025-03-21 |
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| Why California spent $13 million on controversial freeway only to abandon it | LAist |
| Southern California is a land of freeways. We love to hate them, but they help us get around our sprawling car-dependent region. [Article] |
| by , . 2025-03-21 |
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| Food bounties and gang brawls: Behind the 'gladiator fights' in L.A. juvenile halls - Los Angeles Times |
| The teenager didn’t always have to eat the drab grits and sausage at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall.
For kids like him — kids willing to fight — there was another breakfast option.
The teenager said a few L.A. County probation officers often approached him about kids they were struggling to control.
“There’s a meal on his head,” an officer would tell him.
“It’s basically a bounty,” recounted the teenager, now 18, who asked that his name not be used for fear of retaliation. “We stomp on the kid, and then we get our food.”
If the teenager dished out a beating to a misbehaving kid — someone who cursed at officers or defied orders — he was rewarded with his pick from a fast-food smorgasbord of In-N-Out, Jack in the Box, McDonald’s or Chick-fil-A, he said.
Concerns about probation officers encouraging fights inside L.A. County’s beleaguered juvenile halls gained a spotlight last year after The Times published video footage showing officers standing by as at least six youths took turns pummeling a teenager inside Los Padrinos.
The video sparked an investigation by the California Department of Justice, ending with 30 officers indicted on criminal charges this month. Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said officers either coordinated or allowed 69 brawls, which he referred to as “gladiator fights,” between July and December 2023. [Article] |
| by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-03-21 |
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| Curren Price Secures $4.2 Million Grant to Enhance South LA Wetlands Park – Los Angeles Sentinel |
| L.A. Councilmember Curren Price is celebrating a significant win for the District 9 community, announcing that his office has successfully secured a $4.2 million grant for the South Los Angeles Wetlands Park. [Article] |
| by , . 2025-03-21 |
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| A new desalination technology is undergoing testing in California - Los Angeles Times |
| Californians could be drinking water tapped from the Pacific Ocean off Malibu several years from now — that is, if a company’s new desalination technology proves viable.
OceanWell Co. plans to anchor about two dozen 40-foot-long devices, called pods, to the seafloor several miles offshore and use them to take in saltwater and pump purified fresh water to shore in a pipeline. The company calls the concept a water “farm” and is testing a prototype of its pod at a reservoir in the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains.
The pilot study, supported by Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, is being closely watched by managers of several large water agencies in Southern California. They hope that if the new technology proves economical, it could supply more water for cities and suburbs that are vulnerable to shortages during droughts, while avoiding the environmental drawbacks of large coastal desalination plants.
“It can potentially provide us Californians with a reliable water supply that doesn’t create toxic brine that impacts marine life, nor does it have intakes that suck the life out of the ocean,” said Mark Gold, director of water scarcity solutions for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “If this technology is proven to be viable, scalable and cost-effective, it would greatly enhance our climate resilience.” [Article] |
| by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-03-21 |
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| Citing incomplete data, LAHSA announces drop in homelessness as county considers taking control of funding | LAist |
| Preliminary results of last month’s Los Angeles County homelessness count show a year-to-year drop in the number of people living outdoors, according to data released months earlier than usual. [Article] |
| by , . 2025-03-21 |
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| Trump judge offers gun-toting YouTube dissent in California gun case - Los Angeles Times |
| A Trump-appointed appellate court judge who disagreed with a decision by his colleagues to uphold California’s ban on large-capacity ammunition magazines responded in a highly unusual way Thursday, posting a “dissent video” to YouTube of him manipulating firearms in his judicial chambers.
At the start of the nearly 19-minute video, Judge Lawrence VanDyke — who was confirmed to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2019 — blasted his colleagues’ conclusion that the state ban on magazines holding more than 10 rounds is constitutional because it essentially restricts an accessory to semiautomatic firearms, not the firearms themselves.
“I think anyone with a basic familiarity with firearms could show you that this attempted distinction is simply inconsistent with reality,” VanDyke said — before quickly making it clear that he would be providing such a tutorial himself.
“I originally planned to explain all of this in writing in my opinion on why the argument doesn’t make sense, but it occurred to me that in this instance, showing is much more effective than telling,” VanDyke said. “As the old saying goes, a picture is sometimes worth a thousand words. And here I hope you will agree that a video is at least worth that much.”
The move immediately drew the ire of VanDyke’s colleagues, who called the video “wildly improper” and blasted VanDyke for somehow misconstruing his role as an “expert witness” instead of a member of the panel deciding the case on its legal merits. It also drew sharp criticism from outside legal scholars, one of whom said judges “shouldn’t be striving to be social media influencers.”
Dressed in his black judicial robe and seated at a desk with a gun mounted on the wall behind him, VanDyke said it was his first time making such a video, and apologized for the poor quality.
He said he had “rendered inoperable” all the guns he was about to use in his demonstration. And he said he was making the video “not to supplement the factual record that we are using to decide this case” — something that would be squarely outside the scope of his authority as an appellate judge — but to provide a “rudimentary understanding” of why his colleagues in the court’s majority were wrong in their own analysis of the facts. [Article] |
| by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-03-21 |
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