LOCAL NEWS
- California has been in a state of emergency over COVID-19 since March 5. There are 32 confirmed cases in Los Angeles County at press time, though the real number is undoubtedly far higher. The Los Angeles Unified School District will close all schools as of Monday. Mayor Garcetti has recommended canceling events of over fifty people; the city has curtailed travel on official business; and the city has seen a series of cultural events and institutions close down or be postponed. UCLA and USC have ended in-person classes, joining Caltech, CSU-Long Beach, and Pepperdine.
- The statement from DSA on COVID-19 can be found here.
- City Councilman John Lee (CD-12) is facing calls to resign after his former boss and the man who he replaced on the city council Mitchell Englander surrendered to federal authorities for “criminal charges of obstructing a federal investigation into allegations that he accepted cash, hotel rooms, costly meals and the services of a female escort during 2017 trips to Vegas and Palm Springs from an unnamed businessman.” Lee was chief of staff to Englander and accompanied him on the trip to Las Vegas, but claims he was not aware of his boss’ activities and did not say whether he is “City Staffer B,” who is identified in the federal indictment as receiving some of the same perks as Englander. News of the charges emerged after Lee narrowly secured a majority on March 3rd to avoid a runoff in November.
- State Sen. Scott Wiener, the San Francisco lawmaker behind the defeated SB50 housing bill, is trying again with a new bill that he calls a “light touch” approach. The new bill, SB902, would push for more residential units in single-family neighborhoods without local government approval and would provide incentives for larger cities to allow for 10-unit projects.
- The California Labor Commission’s office hit the owners of a KBBQ chain with a $2.1 million fine over wage theft. An investigation into Genwa restaurants found that workers were not allowed rest or meal breaks and that many of them were not paid minimum wage or shorted on overtime pay while working 11-hour shifts. The Los Angeles Times’ Frank Shyong published a column last July about the poor conditions for restaurant workers throughout Koreatown.
- Neighborhood organizations in Bel-Air are preparing to take action against L.A. Metro in an effort to stop plans to build a rail line through the Sepulveda Pass that would connect the Orange Line in the San Fernando Valley to the Expo Line between Santa Monica and Culver City and the extended Purple Line at UCLA. The Bel-Air Association Board is calling for “continued financial support” and is “prepared to wage war and protect our land and property values.”
ELECTIONS
- Bernie Sanders has received 210 out of California’s 415 delegates, with 22 delegates remaining to be allocated. Block-by-block results from the state’s 58 counties are viewable on this map, which will be updated until the count ends.
- DSA-LA member and DSA-LA endorsed candidate Nithya Raman is headed for a November runoff with incumbent David Ryu, after gaining 39.44% of the vote in the Los Angeles City Council’s 4th District. As Los Angeles municipal elections now coincide with the November presidential election date, the campaign will continue for an unprecedented eight months.
- Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey appears to be headed for a runoff election in November after her share of votes fell below 50%. She is expected to run against former San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon, who leads public defender Rachel Rossi with 27.6% of the vote to 22.4%. The county registrar is updating the vote count today.
- A big win for Measure R, co-written by the Reform L.A. Jails Committee, which provides stronger civilian oversight by allowing the Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission to investigate misconduct using subpoenas and requires the development of a plan to reduce the jail population.
- Proposition 13, a $15 billion bond measure that would have funded school construction has been defeated. The CA School Boards Association believes a major factor in its defeat was voters confusing it with the 1978 Prop 13 that severely limited property tax increases.
- California and Los Angeles once again suffered debilitating problemson election day last week as “[i]nadequate staffing, poor communications and balky technology” resulted in voters waiting longer than four hours in some cases. The problems this year are consistent with previous years in California as well as issues experienced in multiple other states this year.
DSA-LA
http://www.dsa-la.org/