Month: June 2022

Thorn West: Issue No. 114

State Politics

• This morning, the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in a 6–3 ruling ruling. Though it is not clear how this decision will impact California law, which includes some of the country’s strongest protections of abortion access, Californians will demand that reproductive freedom be maintained and expanded nationwide. DSA-LA’s statement here.

• In Los Angeles, a planned protest at Pershing Square has brought to mind the police-instigated violence and kettling of protesters that occurred at the same location when the draft of this decision was leaked.

• Also this week, a separate Supreme Court ruling struck down laws in New York which require that applicants demonstrate a “special need” before being issued a concealed carry permit to carry a firearm outside the home. This ruling is likely to impact similar laws in California.

City Politics

• Eunisses Hernandez has declared victory in her campaign for City Council! Though incumbent Gil Cedillo has not yet conceded, the estimated number of all uncounted ballots would not be enough to overcome his deficit.

• With mail-in ballots leaning so far left, the Huffington Post was early to acknowledge that the reflexive media narrative had jumped the gun, under the headline “As Votes Role In, It Suddenly Doesn’t Seem Like Californians Rejected Criminal Justice Reformers.”

Housing Rights

• The Homelessness and Poverty Committee voted 3–1 (with Councilmember Nithya Raman opposed) to advance a further revision to 41.18 that would create an automatic ban on sitting, lying, or sleeping within 500 feet of any school or daycare center in Los Angeles. The new anti-encampment zones will not be marked with signage; people will simply be expected to be aware of the new revision to the municipal code.

Incarceration

• An amendment to the state Constitution that would have prohibited involuntary servitude in all California prisons fell seven votes short of passing in the state senate, and so will not appear before voters on ballots this November.

• Last March, a report from county-level workgroup dedicated to planning the closure of the decrepit Men’s Central Jail concluded that, with a minimum additional 3,600 additional mental health treatment beds, enough inmates could be safely diverted away from the prison system to close the jail within two years. Although programs already exist that could scale up to add that many beds, the county has yet to commit the necessary funding, including in the currently proposed budget for the next fiscal year. A rally this week led by JusticeLA and other activist groups demanded a more urgent response.

Environmental Justice

• High Country News spoke with residents of the Wilmington area of Los Angeles about the day-to-day realities of living surrounded by multiple active oil fields.

• The LA Times reports that regulations curbing water usage have been effective since their introduction on June 1.

• Hearings were held this week to discuss the California Air Resource Board’s five year scoping plan for reaching carbon neutrality by 2045.

Issue No. 113 – June 17, 2022

City Politics

• As mail-in ballots continue to arrive in Los Angeles County, the updates from this week have been delightful almost across the board. The big news is that DSA-LA–endorsed candidate for city council Eunisses Hernandez took the lead over incumbent Gil Cedillo on Tuesday. That lead has widened with today’s update; she would win the seat outright if the lead holds. DSA-LA’s other endorsed candidate for City Council, Hugo Soto-Martinez, has widened his lead heading into a runoff with incumbent Mitch O’Farrell. Progressive candidates Kenneth Mejia, Faisal Gill, and Karen Bass have also widened their leads in their respective races. Live results here include additional little morsels of good news.

Housing Rights

• Los Angeles City Council passed a motion, plainly targeted at the unhoused, that prohibits the number of bicycles and bicycle parts that can be stored on public property. The motion’s supposed intention is to break up bicycle “chop shops,” though as Councilmember Nithya Raman pointed out while opposing the motion, stealing bicycles is already illegal. The new motion empowers the police to harass people by criminalizing normal activity that proponents have asserted correlates with bike theft. The motion passed 13-3 (with the unsurprising support of Cedillo and O’Farrell), and will receive one final vote next week.

Labor

• An 8-1 Supreme Court ruling has curtailed a legal work-around, unique to California, that allowed employees to sue their employers even when they had waived those rights and agreed to resolve disputes solely through private arbitration as part of the terms of their employment.

• Smithfield Foods is closing its pork processing plant in the city of Vernon, citing “the escalating cost of doing business in California,” without further clarification. Smithfield was fined $100,000 following large-scale COVID outbreaks at the Vernon facility in 2020.

NOlympics

• Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE) pushes back on Olympics boosterism in the LA Times, arguing that the public transportation projects that have been tied to the Olympics schedule are more likely to be privatized and rushed.

• Relatedly, SoFi stadium in Inglewood has just been approved as a site for the 2026 World Cup. Think Outside the Ball details the “human and moral cost.”

Environmental Justice

• A coalition of tribal, environmental, and community groups has withdrawn its support for the Los Angeles River Master Plan, approved by the LA County Board of Supervisors this week. The group called for more naturalization of the river, with less concrete, and criticized the county plan as, in the words of one spokesperson, “nothing more than a flood control channel.”

• The “net metering” debate has reopened to the public, following outcry in reaction to a California Public Utilities Commission proposal to lower subsidies for customers who install solar panels, who tend to already be higher-income. Utility Dive explains the different issues that remain unresolved.

• CalMatters reports on the “unaddressed epidemic of PTSD and suicidal thoughts” among the firefighters who are dealing a steadily intensifying wildfire season.

Thorn West: Issue No. 112

Elections

• A significant number of ballots remain to be counted from the June 7 primary, with ballot count updates scheduled into next week.

• In CD1, the race between DSA-LA-endorsed Eunisses Hernandez and incumbent Councilmember Gil Cedillo, which will be decided in this primary, remains too close to call, with today’s update cutting Cedillo’s lead to 720 votes.

• In CD13, today’s update puts DSA-LA-endorsed candidate Hugo Soto-Martinez ahead of incumbent Mitch O’Farrell! The two will head to a runoff election, but a first-place finish against an incumbent would already be a rare accomplishment.

• Progressive candidates in other city races have fared well (all current results here). Erin Darling in CD11 and Faisal Gill, who is running for city attorney, are currently leading their races, with Darling more certain to finish in the top two for a runoff. In the controller race, Kenneth Mejia heads to a runoff having cruised to first place. DSA-LA-endorsed Fatima Iqbal-Zubair will head to the runoff of her State Assembly race. All four members of the Defenders of Justice slate are also currently in the top two of their respective races for judgeships. Knock LA recaps a promising result for “grassroots progressives and socialist organizers.”

• These local results are important, as the story receiving the most nationwide attention is the successful recall in San Francisco of reformer District Attorney Chesa Boudin. CalMatters is already deflating the heavily-promoted myth that the recall, extremely well-funded though it was, represents a popular rebellion against humane criminal justice reform. The LA Times confronts this as well.

• As expected, the Los Angeles mayoral race heads to a runoff between Rick Caruso and Representative Karen Bass. The Los Angeles Times editorial board notes that, thus far, both campaigns have been defined by making impossible promises to reactionaries.

• Sheriff Alex Villanueva, plagued with scandals throughout his first term in office, will face a runoff election. His opponent will likely be Robert Luna, who was endorsed by the LA Times; Luna’s own scandals as chief of the Long Beach Police Department were reported on by Knock LA. State law requires a law enforcement background for all candidates for sheriff, making it difficult for a left candidate to emerge. LASD Lieutenant Eric Strong, who most clearly identified as a reformer, finished solidly in third place in a crowded field.

• Though voter turnout in the statewide primary election was widely reported as low, UnrigLA argues that this was not the case in Los Angeles County.

Environmental Justice

• CNN reports on how the failure of California cities to curb water usage is impacting rural areas, with some having their groundwater supply near being tapped out. On Wednesday, California’s Water Resources Control Board announced cutbacks that will affect about 4,500 water rights in the Delta watershed, including 400 or more held by 212 public water systems.

• The California Air Resources Board continues to agonize over the feasibility of instituting a ban of gas-powered vehicles by 2035.

Thorn West: Issue No. 111

State Politics

• California’s reparations task force released a 500-page report detailing the state’s history of racism and its lingering effects and recommending several methods by which reparations could be made to Black Californians. Full report here. On page 19 are the preliminary recommendations that are expected to be expounded upon in a second report in 2023, following multiple community listening sessions.

City Politics

• Voting in the statewide primary election closes June 7. You can register to vote same-day at your local polling place. DSA-LA is making a big weekend push to get out the vote for endorsed candidates Eunisses Hernandez (CD1), Fatima Iqbal-Zubair (AD65), and Hugo Soto-Martinez (CD13). And of course, the DSA voting guide is here.

• Los Angeles County is on a trajectory to cross the threshold into “high” COVID-19 community transition level within a few weeks, which would mean the current outbreak has begun to put stress on hospitals.

Housing Rights

• The city council voted 13–2 to request a law be drafted banning any encampments within 500 feet of any school or daycare facility in the city. Last year’s revision to 41.18 provided a mechanism through which a 500’ enforcement zone could be requested; it would now be automatic. As has become typical with the city’s actions against the unhoused, the council violated democratic norms in the process. The motion was not agendized for discussion, in violation of the Brown Act. It also did not pass through the Homelessness and Poverty committee, and instead was brought directly to the floor by Council President Nury Martinez, with the direct involvement of newly appointed school Superintendent Albert Carvalho.

Police Violence and Community Resistance

• Struggling to meet signature requirements, backers of the effort to recall District Attorney George Gascon have poured money into directly mailing recall petitions countywide.

• A UCLA study of ten years of autopsy records found that more than half of the people who died in LA. County jails and had their deaths classified as “natural” showed evidence of physical harm.

Environmental Justice

• New water restrictions limiting outdoor watering to twice a week went into effect on June 1 across Los Angeles. The new regulation, first of its kind, is a response to unprecedented drought conditions.