Thorn West: Issue No. 168
State Politics
- CalMatters details early industry spending on 2024’s public ballot initiatives, including a massive expenditure from the fast-food industry on a measure that would overturn a state law establishing a fast-food workers’ council to set wages and work safety standards.
Police Violence and Community Resistance
- Measure J was an LA County ballot measure that mandated 10% of the county budget be spent on social services, and not police or jails. After it passed in 2020, a lawsuit successfully had it overturned in the courts. Now, in a reversal, Measure J has been found constitutional on appeal. “Measure J was our response to what we think public safety is and what it should look like,” said Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, who co-chaired the electoral campaign for the ballot measure.
- The mayor’s office and the Los Angeles Police Protective League have come to a tentative agreement over the next labor contract for the LAPD. The agreement includes a 13% increase in starting pay for new officers, who will now start near $86,000. This is meant to address the fact that the number of LAPD officers has dropped by 1,000 as it has struggled with recruitment. The decrease in police officers has not corresponded with an increase in crime.
- Los Angeles took another step toward initiating a pilot program based on the CAHOOTS model of unarmed response to people experiencing mental health crises. A funding mechanism passed this week, as the city council returned from summer recess.
Incarceration
- LA Public Press has continued in-depth coverage of last week’s planned disruption of a Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors meeting demanding the closure of Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall. The protest captured more attention this week after several of the children interned at the facility attempted to escape.
Labor
- Today, representatives from the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers met for an hour, the first such meeting since the writers strike began, three months ago. The meeting lasted one hour.
- Hotel workers in UNITE HERE Local 11 continue to organize walkouts as they seek fair contracts from 60 area hotels. This week, the union, along with many California politicians, called on singer Taylor Swift to delay her Los Angeles tour dates this weekend, in solidarity.
Housing Rights
- The LA Times editorial board asks if City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto is deliberately obstructing the construction of a supportive housing project on a city-owned parking lot in Venice.
- A town hall meeting to discuss 30 proposed units of interim shelter in CD 5 was overrun by opponents of the units.