| LA council recognizes California Community Foundation CEO Antonia Hernandez – Daily News |
| LOS ANGELES — Antonia Hernandez, president and CEO of California Community Foundation, announced Friday that she would be retiring from her position during a special recognition of her work by the Los Angeles City Council. [Article] |
| by , Los Angeles Daily News. 2023-06-02 |
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| Data, funding gaps threaten public health pandemic efforts - Los Angeles Times |
| Timely, comprehensive data and sufficient financial support are among the major resources necessary to prepare for future pandemics, a cadre of California public health officials said Thursday during a meeting with a top member of the Biden administration.
But in the post-emergency phase of COVID-19, both have become scarcer — a reality acknowledged by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.
“Without good data, it’s like trying to dispense healthcare in the blind,” he said during a discussion with leaders at the hospital, city, county and state levels.
The one-two punch of data and dollars is particularly vital to safeguarding public health, attendees of the Long Beach panel said. Data on how a disease is progressing or the sort of pressure it’s exerting can inform how staff, equipment and other resources should be positioned.
And funding would ideally continue flowing both to support systems that proved their worth during the three-year-long pandemic and to tackle inadequacies it laid brutally bare.
“From a public health standpoint, I think we did learn a lot,” Long Beach City Health Officer Dr. Anissa Davis said. “I think we learned what it takes to be able to respond. I think we learned that you can get out in the community and really rapidly respond, vaccinate, test, set up treatment.”
But the recent end of emergency declarations that had been issued during COVID-19’s early onset also has diminished some of the available resources.
Congress, which already had proved reluctant to authorize additional funds the Biden administration sought for COVID vaccinations and treatment, is also now moving to claw back billions in unused emergency relief funding as part of a federal debt limit deal. [Article] |
| by , Los Angeles Times. 2023-06-02 |
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| Montebello breaks ground on affordable housing in the name of late LA-area labor leader – San Gabriel Valley Tribune |
| In the name of a revered community labor leader, officials and leaders broke ground Friday, June 2, on a new affordable housing community soon to house Montebello families in need. [Article] |
| by , San Gabriel Valley Tribune. 2023-06-02 |
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| Question of reparations raises skepticism, hope in Black L.A. - Los Angeles Times |
| Carolyn Peters grew up during a time when Compton was a mostly white middle-class suburb, and she was part of her generation’s vanguard, as one of the first Black students to integrate the city’s Roosevelt Middle School. Their reception was cold and often cruel.
“There were teachers that had problems with Black children there. And we met resistance not only from other children but from their parents,” Peters said, recalling that era almost 60 years ago.
Teachers insisted that Black students use salutations like “sir” or “ma’am,” but allowed white students to reply to their questions with a simple “yes” or “no.” In Peters’ opinion, educators appeared to prefer working with white children. She spent 38 years as a teacher, trying to rectify that.
In town, Black women had to wear dresses or face persecution, Peters remembers. And she and her peers were not allowed to sit anywhere but upstairs while watching movies at the Compton theater.
Still, Peters is proud of the life she built as a homeowner in South Los Angeles — and acutely aware that she has never had a level playing field.
And now, as California readies to finalize a discussion on reparations that could shape the lives of millions in the Golden State, Peters and other Black Angelenos are skeptical they will ever see the restitution they feel is deserved.
After almost two years of meetings, California’s Reparations Task Force decided last month to recommend that the state issue a formal apology for the pervasive harms of slavery and discrimination and potentially provide billions of dollars in cash payments in a historic effort to make amends.
The group’s final report, due to the state Legislature by July 1, will act as a guide for lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom, who will determine if the harms of slavery and lasting discrimination are worthy of reparations.
The current task force report offers reparations only to Californians who are descendants of enslaved Americans and calculates their monetary losses in three categories of community harms: health disparities, African American mass incarceration and over-policing, and housing discrimination.
And while the prospect of reparations has been the subject of much public discourse, the process is only vaguely understood in many of the communities that stand to benefit the most. [Article] |
| by , Los Angeles Times. 2023-06-02 |
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| Another appeal of 8.5-acre McCann commercial cannabis project permits – Times-Standard |
| Three groups have filed for an appeal from the Humboldt County Superior Court for a commercial grow project near McCann, a remote area in Southern Humboldt. This is following lawsuits and appeals by the groups that have yet to change conditional use permits for Rolling Meadow Ranch, issued in January 2021.
Larry Glass, executive director of the Northcoast Environmental Center said three judges who have heard previous appeals of the 8.5-acre project have thus far deferred to the Humboldt County Planning Commission’s decision. NEC is one of the petitioners of the appeal.
“We want the appeals court to set the record straight again — we feel like we’re going to be successful,” he said.
Glass said the groups want to see a full California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, analysis of the project. The appeal is for alleged violation of CEQA and Humboldt County’s General Plan.
The six conditional permits granted to Rolling Meadow Ranch involve less stringent environmental rules than a full CEQA analysis. They were approved through a mitigated negative declaration, which is intended for projects that could not result in significant environmental impacts. [Article] |
| by , Eureka Times-Standard. 2023-06-02 |
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| What San Diego’s Water Divorce Might Cost You | Voice of San Diego |
| Two small farming communities want to bail on buying water in San Diego because it’s too expensive, but that means everyone else would have to pick up part of their tab. [Article] |
| by , . 2023-06-02 |
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| California is closing its last youth prisons. Will alternatives work? - Los Angeles Times |
| After a two-year wind-down, California is in the final weeks of closing its notoriously grim youth prison system, a landmark moment that arrives as juvenile crime hovers at near-record lows and state leaders call for a shift in focus from punishment to rehabilitation.
Juvenile justice reformers might otherwise be celebrating the June 30 shutdown of the last two youth prisons in the once-sprawling 10,000-inmate system, except for their deep anxiety about what comes next.
The 11 lockups the Division of Juvenile Justice once operated will be replaced by an array of programs devised by probation departments in California’s 58 counties — many of which have little experience with the long-term care of young people convicted of serious crimes.
Youth advocates fought for years to revamp the state’s juvenile justice model, which operated as a sort of halfway point between county juvenile halls and adult state prisons for youths convicted of serious felonies, including murder. They lambasted the state system for fostering a culture of violence, ethnic conflict and gang intimidation. But they now worry the county replacements are no better prepared to provide the kind of education, recreation and support services most conducive to rehabilitation.
Many of the youths being transitioned out of the Division of Juvenile Justice will land in secure youth treatment facilities, units of local juvenile systems that some advocates describe as “concrete jails.” Concerns about the lockups are running especially high in Los Angeles County, where last month an 18-year-old died of an overdose inside a razor-wired treatment facility that sports the nickname “the Compound.”
Both youths and officers have been assaulted inside the unit in recent months, part of a broader pattern of mismanagement by the Los Angeles County Probation Department that led a state oversight board in May to order the closure of two of the county’s juvenile halls. [Article] |
| by , Los Angeles Times. 2023-06-02 |
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| Can 3D-printed homes solve California’s housing crisis? – Orange County Register |
| Homes now rising from a dusty subdivision in Desert Hot Springs may be at the forefront of future homebuilding.
Unlike the dozens of houses surrounding this 20-home development on the east side of town, these houses aren’t made from wood and stucco. [Article] |
| by , Orange County Register. 2023-06-02 |
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| It’s time to modify Proposition 98 education funding – Orange County Register |
| In his 1911 reforms, progressive Gov. Hiram Johnson intended referendums and recalls to “place in the hands of the people the means by which they may protect themselves” from government. But there was one flaw: the government itself abusing the system to mandate spending – “ballot-box budgeting.” [Article] |
| by , Orange County Register. 2023-06-02 |
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| Crime is down as L.A. plans to spend $3.2 billion to expand LAPD - Los Angeles Times |
| As Los Angeles prepares to expand its police force with a boost in spending and plans to hire hundreds more officers, new data show that crime in the city has dropped moderately in 2023.
Through May 20, L.A. experienced a drop of more than 10% in violent crime this year compared with the same period in 2022. Property crime fell by slightly more than 1%, and arrests were up 4.4%, according to Police Department data.
By contrast, violent and property crimes both spiked in the first five months of 2022; the decline in violent crime this year brings the total for 2023 close to its 2021 level, but property crime remains significantly higher than it was two years ago.
The Police Department posted additional positive numbers in a tweet Tuesday: Hate crimes dropped nearly 6%, homicides declined more than 27%, and the number of shooting victims decreased 17%. Fatal traffic crashes, however, were up almost 7%.
Larceny arrests nearly doubled from 2022 to 2023, while arrests for homicide and motor vehicle theft declined by 19% and 27% respectively.
Los Angeles is not the only California city to report a drop in crime.
San Francisco — despite a wave of criticism after the killing of Cash App founder Bob Lee — has experienced an overall drop of nearly 7% in crime in the first five months of the year, according to police statistics. San Jose reported a drop of about 8% in violent and property crimes in the first three months of 2023.
In West Hollywood, the most serious crimes — known as Part 1 offenses, including rape, murder, grand theft and vehicle burglary — were down 9% from October to April compared with the same period in 2021 and 2022, according to the Sheriff’s Department. Armed robberies dropped 40%.
But even as Los Angeles enjoys a decline in serious crimes, Black women and girls remain at higher risk of being victims than any other demographic, according to a report by the city’s civil rights department. [Article] |
| by , Los Angeles Times. 2023-06-02 |
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| Turning The Page on Low Literacy Rates in Orange County |
| For most, it’s part of their everyday life.
Reading.
People read menus, billboards, magazines and social media every single day.
But for many adults, it’s not that easy.
More than 43 million adults across America cannot read above a third grade level, according to Prosperity for America. [Article] |
| by , Voice of OC. 2023-06-02 |
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| Lake Hodges reopens to San Diego community after yearlong closure | KPBS Public Media |
| The Lake Hodges dam is old — over 100 years old, in fact. It opened in 1918, so it has dealt with some wear and tear over the years, and recently needed critical repair work to keep it up and running.
Now, it has been reopened to the community. [Article] |
| by , KPBS - San Diego. 2023-06-02 |
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| Real estate news: 2 north OC apartment complexes sell for combined $15M – Orange County Register |
| The 36-unit Birch Terrace Apartments in Brea sold in recent weeks for $13.6 million or $378,000 per unit.
The property at 601, 613 and 617 East Birch St. was sold by an unidentified LLC, according to Marcus & Millichap, which represented both sides of the transaction.
The buyer was only identified as an individual investor. [Article] |
| by , Orange County Register. 2023-06-02 |
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| Long COVID takes heavy toll on health, even as pandemic fades - Los Angeles Times |
| One in 10 people infected with the coronavirus during the Omicron era suffered from long COVID, according to preliminary data from a new study — indicating the syndrome remains a notable threat even in the pandemic’s post-emergency phase.
The initial finding, published May 25 in the Journal of the American Medical Assn., was based on 2,231 patients who had their first coronavirus infection on or after Dec. 1, 2021, when the Omicron strain started to dominate the nation.
Of them, data indicate that 224 patients, or 10%, were classified as having long COVID six months after their acute infection. The categorization was made after scientists developed their own data-based definition of the syndrome, based on a number of symptoms that were more likely to be seen in patients with a prior coronavirus infection.
The effort, scientists said, was an important step toward better defining long COVID, which can be hard to pinpoint because it can’t be easily diagnosed or tested for — unlike, say, a heart attack.
“It’s trying to help all of us — both patients and doctors — figure out: How do we tell if someone has long COVID?” said Dr. Joann Elmore, a professor of medicine at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, who wasn’t affiliated with the study.
The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health. The agency said in a statement that the results “are based on a survey of a highly diverse set of patients and are not final. Survey results will next be compared for accuracy against an array of lab tests and imaging.”
The findings, if later substantiated by further research, would add weight to the idea that long COVID represents “a major clinical and public health concern,” as the syndrome was characterized by the study’s authors.
“This is a substantial morbidity,” Elmore said. [Article] |
| by , Los Angeles Times. 2023-06-02 |
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| 'Housing First' program criticized by group of local elected officials | KPBS Public Media |
| The numbers are not what anyone wants to see; data from both the city of San Diego and the county show rising numbers, month after month, of people on the streets and in shelters. [Article] |
| by , KPBS - San Diego. 2023-06-02 |
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| Ways to help children with financial literacy | KPBS Public Media |
| Parents often hear that children should be given a more comprehensive financial education earlier on to better prepare them for their future — but literacy in matters of personal economics can be hard enough for adults. [Article] |
| by , KPBS - San Diego. 2023-06-02 |
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| California goat herders’ salary rules leave risk of wildfires - Los Angeles Times |
| Increasingly in recent years, Californians have put goats’ voracious and almost indiscriminate diets to work, minimizing fuel for wildfires across the state — a method that has been heralded as sustainable, economical and effective at reducing underbrush that can become dangerous in the hot summer months.
But goat ranchers worry a recent change in state labor requirements for herders could jeopardize the future of the industry — which some have said is particularly important this year, after an extremely wet winter left behind even more fuel for wildfires.
Goat herders were recently reclassified by California labor regulators, differentiating them from sheep herders — a new distinction that means goat herders will no longer be eligible for a monthly herders’ compensation, set at a minimum of $2,755 plus required overtime. Instead, employers will be required come Jan. 1 to compensate goat herders at an hourly rate, now set at $15.50 for farmworkers, plus required overtime.
And given the nature of a goat herders’ job, which is considered on-call 24/7, industry leaders and the California Farm Bureau estimate that change would come out to almost $14,000 a month.
“We can’t afford that; cities can’t afford that,” said Tim Arrowsmith, the owner and manager of Western Grazers in Red Bluff, who employs a few dozen herders for his several thousand goats. He said that monthly salary is almost four times what he currently pays his goat herders, which he already considers a fair wage, noting that they are also provided with housing, groceries, cellphones and clothes. [Article] |
| by , Los Angeles Times. 2023-06-02 |
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| Remembering The East LA Walkouts, More Than 55 Years Later | LAist |
| At Garfield High School, a plaque was unveiled Wednesday to commemorate the 55th anniversary of the East L.A. Walkouts. [Article] |
| by , . 2023-06-02 |
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| The Boundary Referees Deciding San Diego’s Water District Divorce | Voice of San Diego |
| Two small farming communities want to divorce the San Diego County Water Authority and buy cheaper water from Eastern Municipal Water District in Riverside County. [Article] |
| by , . 2023-06-02 |
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| How slow is LA-Orange County homebuying? Sales 45% below average – Daily News |
| House hunters in Los Angeles and Orange counties are still squeamish about buying as April’s sales pace ran at nearly half its historic pace. [Article] |
| by , Los Angeles Daily News. 2023-06-02 |
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