The Thorn West

Thorn West: Issue No. 132

State Politics

• In response to gas prices, Governor Gavin Newsom has called for a new “windfall profit” tax on oil companies, and has even vowed to convene a special legislative session in early December to focus on the new tax. CalMatters offers a preliminary cost-benefit analysis.

City Politics

• Los Angeles City Councilmembers Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo have continued to ignore widespread calls for them to resign. This week, the council voted to censure them, after which Council President Paul Krekorian said the council had exhausted its options and it was up to the people to “step forward with a recall.” A recall petition against De León was filed later in the week.

• The physical space of council chambers remains significant, as large groups of protesters continue to disrupt meetings, demanding that De León and Cedillo resign and preventing a return to “business as usual.” The city’s responses have ranged from expressing qualified empathy to instituting hybrid public comment, threatening the use of less lethal ammunition, and, today, blocking protesters from entering the meeting because it was “at capacity.”

• Councilmember Nithya Raman introduced a motion to adopt recommendations made by the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission to strengthen the city’s municipal lobbying ordinance. The recommendations were submitted in April but never agendized by former Council President Nury Martinez.

• Ballot return is low so far, implying that the vote count will once again take some time after the November 8 election. The DSA-LA voter guide is here. Knock-LA has also released a voter guide, here. The LA Times endorsed Hugo Soto-Martinez in CD13 (echoing DSA-LA), after endorsing Kate Pynoos in the primary.

Housing Rights

• In Councilmember De León’s district, the housing reclaimers who had won the right to stay in vacant homes owned by Caltrans have received eviction notices at the end of their original two-year lease.

• Councilmember Mike Bonin’s motion to make it easier for nonprofits and religious organizations to offer temporary shelter to people experiencing houselessness was approved to be drafted as legislation, 10–2. This is another motion that was left waiting to be agendized under Nury Martinez.

Environmental Justice

• L.A. Taco reports on the poor labor conditions at the cleanup of the toxic Exide battery plant in Vernon (the industrial-use-only city that Kevin de León protected from disincorporation when he represented the city in the state Senate).

Local Media

• Mike Davis, the Marxist historian whose writing is essential to a humane understanding of Los Angeles, has died. As many of his remembrances note, although his vision was sometimes bleak, he always urged hope. In honor of his work, his publishers have made his collection of essays City of Quartz free to download.

Thorn West: Issue No. 131

State Politics

• Governor Newsom’s office announced Monday that, despite concerns over a winter surge, California’s COVID-19 state of emergency will end February 28, 2023. The governor will seek to codify some elements into law. This may trigger an end to eviction protections in San Francisco and Oakland. (Los Angeles didn’t wait.)

City Politics

• Last week, a leaked recording of three councilmembers engaged in racist gerrymandering revealed to Angelenos a widespread malignancy in city government. Over the weekend, Knock LA analyzed another recording leaked at the same time, which doesn’t feature any councilmembers. In this recording, made just this September, LA County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera and a former Mitch O’Farrell staffer discuss Hugo Soto-Martinez, the CD13 race, and the importance of “buying” endorsements from local Democratic clubs. A surprising response from the current president of the Stonewall Democratic Club illuminated how influence was used to sway that club’s endorsement toward O’Farrell over internal objections.

• On Tuesday, though Councilmembers Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León had still ignored the calls to resign coming from every corner of Los Angeles, City Council held a meeting. It was held via Zoom to avoid being shut down by the many activists who have been demanding that meetings halt until the resignations are in (though the stated reason was COVID-19 precautions). Only 10 members attended. This included the council’s progressive wing, despite pressure on them to refuse to attend, and their own expressed doubts — now quashed — about continuing city business without resignations. At the doors of City Hall, a protester was assaulted by an LAPD officer.

• At Tuesday’s meeting, in reaction to the corruption revealed on the recording, two motions to draft 2024 ballot measures — which would, respectively, implement independent redistricting and expand the size of City Council — were approved.

• Additionally, the council voted on a new president to replace Nury Martinez, who resigned last week. San Fernando Valley councilmember (and landlord) Paul Krekorian was chosen unanimously — suggesting that much council business is still coordinated out of the public view.

• Councilmember Mike Bonin later wrote a lengthy thread explaining how the coalition led by Nury Martinez has stymied progressive legislation in Los Angeles for years.

• Wednesday, Kevin de León announced that he will refuse to resign from the CD14 seat. Recall petitions are already being discussed, including at a forum held this week by DSA-LA on the way forward: recording here. Black Lives Matter Los Angeles, alongside other Black-led and -allied organizations, have been holding a protest at De León’s Eagle Rock residence for the entire week, demanding De León’s immediate resignation.

Housing Rights

• The resignation of Nury Martinez and, eventually, of Kevin De León might impact the city’s recent settling of the LA Alliance lawsuit, which those two councilmembers spearheaded, and which has the potential to reshape the city’s homelessness policy. Details here.

• At Tuesday’s meeting, Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson joined with Councilmembers Bonin and Nithya Raman in voting against another new 41.18 zone. Due to the few number of members in attendance, this protest vote actually caused the measure to fall one vote below the threshold for action. However, Harris-Dawson then changed his vote, and the motion carried.

• The City of Santa Monica’s flouting of state housing laws has brought the city significant consequences. The city’s failure to submit a compliant Housing Element triggered a penalty that removed local control over development approval. Developers noticed, and by the time the city regained compliance this week, plans for an estimated 4,000 units of housing had been automatically approved. More on the Chauceresque “builder’s remedy” in Slate, which picked up the story nationally.

Labor

• Workers at Amazon’s air freight fulfillment center in San Bernardino, the company’s third-largest in the US, walked off the job last Friday over what they say are insufficient wages and unsafe working conditions. This is the second worker strike at the air hub since August.

Environmental Justice

• Last year, an LA Times investigation found that California has chronically underestimated heat fatalities even as heat waves become more frequent and more deadly. The California Legislature recently agreed to the creation of a system that will collect real-time data from emergency departments.

• In a study published on Thursday, researchers estimated that over 4 tons of benzene per year are being leaked into the atmosphere from pipes that deliver the gas to buildings around California — the equivalent to the benzene emissions from nearly 60,000 vehicles. And those emissions are unaccounted for by the state.

Thorn West: Issue No. 127

City Politics

• With the election in six weeks, debates have picked up again. Candidates for mayor and sheriff met this week. @UnrigLA maintains a calendar of upcoming events, including a debate in the CD13 race in which DSA-LA–endorsed candidate Hugo Soto-Martinez is running.

Health Care

• In response to the overdose death of a student, the lifesaving overdose-reversal medication naloxone (Narcan) will be made available at all LAUSD K–12 schools.

Transportation

• Governor Newsom has signed AB 2097, blockbuster legislation that restricts the off-street parking requirements municipalities can impose on new developments that are near transit corridors. Advocates anticipate the bill enabling denser housing and lower rent, while removing some of the incentives from owning a car. Newsom’s signing statement here.

• After years of delays, Metro surprisingly announced that the official opening of the K Line will be October 7. The light rail line will initially service seven stations throughout several Los Angeles communities, including Leimert Park and Baldwin Hills, as well as the city of Inglewood. In recognition of the accomplishment, Metro will suspend all fares across the transit system October 7-9.

• Los Angeles City Council is in the process of approving a new vendor contract for bus shelters, for the first time in 20 years. Next City looks at how Los Angeles, which is failing to provide shade for bus riders compared with other cities, can improve.

Housing Rights

• The previously unhoused tenants of the LA Grand Hotel, which is “demobilizing” as a Project Roomkey site, have released a statement and a list of demands, which include an end to evictions until all tenants have been provided with and accepted permanent housing.

• L.A. Taco reports on United to House LA, or ULA, the November city ballot measure that would institute a “mansion tax” on all property sales over $5 million and use the money to fund a variety of potentially transformative housing programs intended to combat houselessness. More here.

Labor

• Proposition 22, which exempts rideshare apps from some labor laws, has yet to go into effect. In the meantime, a study conducted in partnership with Rideshare Workers United shows that under Prop 22’s payment plan drivers would make a median wage of $6.20 an hour.

Police Violence and Community Resistance

• Attorney General Rob Bonta has taken over the investigation opened by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department into two prominent critics of the department.

Environmental Justice

• Governor Newsom signed 40 climate-related measures into law on Friday. The legislation includes a mandate that the state achieve carbon neutrality by 2045 as well as a 3,200-foot setback requirement between new oil wells and homes, schools, and other locations. Other provisions include expedited solar permitting, record-keeping requirements for EV charging station reliability, and a ban on enhanced oil recovery using carbon sequestration.

Thorn West: Issue No. 126

State Politics

• This Saturday and Sunday in Los Angeles, the California Reparations Task Force will be holding its first public meeting since the release of their interim report in June. The task force’s final recommendations are still scheduled to be delivered in July of 2023. this weekend’s agenda here.

City Politics

• Marilyn Flynn, the USC dean who was facing corruption charges alongside suspended councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas (as his co-defendant), has agreed to plead guilty. Ridley-Thomas’ trial was scheduled for November 15. Pending the outcome, he would either be reinstated or a special election will be called to fill his seat, currently filled by appointment.

Housing Rights

• Despite recent reports suggesting that state protections during the pandemic were instrumental in slowing the growth of houselessness in Los Angeles, this week on back-to-back days the county Board of Supervisors and City Council Housing Committee (in a particularly chaotic and contentious meeting) set in motion rollbacks of tenant protections that may go into effect at the end of the year.

• As expected, Governor Newsom signed CARE Court into law. Newsom dismissed the coalition of activists who oppose the program, which facilitates the state forcing people experiencing mental health issues into carceral forms of care, as “groups … holding hands talking about the way the world should be.” CalMatters details the massive tasks that lie ahead if the law is actually to be put into practice.

• Los Angeles County has settled its part of a lawsuit initiated by a coalition of landlords and business owners frustrated with the city’s failure to control the presence of unhoused people in Downtown Los Angeles. The city settled several months ago, agreeing to build more temporary shelters, which the county has now agreed to partially fund.

• Nice interview with a volunteer from KTown for All, discussing the state of services for unhoused people in Los Angeles.

Police Violence and Community Resistance

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies executed search warrants at the homes of Supervisor Sheila Kuehl and Civilian Oversight Commissioner Patti Giggans, who have both been outspoken critics of LASD. Attorneys have challenged the legality of the warrant, which was issued by a judge with a close relationship with LASD. This is part of a pattern of the LASD under Villanueva using its power to harass critics, including the families of victims of LASD killings. Bad.

Incarceration

• The ACLU has filed for an emergency order that would force the county to improve “barbaric” conditions at the Inmate Reception Center of the LA County jail, where people are held while awaiting trial.

Environmental Justice

• Last weekend’s heavy rains caused significant mudslides in burn-scarred areas of the San Bernardino mountains. There has been one confirmed fatality.

• KQED writes about the success of an innovative and volunteer-powered response to a failing water system in Allensworth, a historically Black community in California’s Central Valley.

Thorn West: Issue No. 125

State Politics

• With the legislative session closed, here is everything that passed and awaits the governor’s signature or veto.

• President Biden endorsed AB 2183, the California bill that would enable union organizing among farm workers. The bill passed through the Legislature last week, but Governor Newsom already vetoed an earlier version of this same bill and has yet to sign this one. Biden’s surprise endorsement is speculated to be political gamesmanship aimed at Newsom, a potential 2024 primary challenger.

• Newsom did sign AB 257, which would establish a Fast Food Council to regulate wages at large chain restaurants. The restaurant industry is fighting back, and announced intentions to put a referendum on ballots overturning the law, which now may not be able to go into effect until the referendum is resolved. Via Who Gets the Bird, more labor analysis on the impact of this measure.

Health Care

• The newly developed COVID vaccine that is more effective against the prevalent BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of the omicron strain is now available in Los Angeles County to all adults. Book an appointment here, or through most major pharmacy chains. Vaccines remain free of cost.

Housing Rights

• After several delays, LAHSA has released a census report on the county’s unhoused population, for the first time since COVID began. The numbers reveal a 4.1% increase in the total population in LA County, and a 1.7% increase in the city of Los Angeles, with continued overrepresentation of Black and Latine people among the unhoused. This represents a smaller increase than in previous years, largely attributed to a slower rate of people falling into homelessness. County representatives suggest that this is likely due to COVID-related assistance programs and eviction protections.

• The Housing Committee of the Los Angeles City Council will discuss ending COVID-related eviction protections at its next meeting, following the Housing Department’s fulfillment of a request for a report, which recommends that most citywide eviction protections sunset on December 31, 2022.

• Knock LA continues its in-depth reporting on the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Campus, where many tiny homes developed for unhoused veterans remain empty. A fire destroyed several of these homes this week, though no one has been reported injured.

Environmental Justice

• The record-breaking heat wave that has gripped California since last week may finally end, with a dramatic near-miss hurricane. The heat also caused record-breaking power-usage that prompted an emergency request urging Californians to conserve power “if health allows,” or rolling blackouts would be ordered. This warning effectively curbed consumer usage, averting the need for drastic action.

• Curbed uses the heat wave as a prompt to talk about lack of shade on LAUSD campuses. LA Taco reports on industrial pollution at Jordan High School in Watts, where students report being advised not to drink the water.

Thorn West: Issue No. 124

State Politics

• The two-year state legislative session closed this week amid a flurry of activity. When the Legislature returns it will have many new members. CalMatters tracks, with more below.

• Despite substantial public support, the VISION Act, which would prevent prisons from transferring incarcerated people who have completed their sentence to ICE for deportation, failed by three votes in the Senate, after being approved in the Assembly. Statement from the ICE Out of California coalition here.

• SB 1338, also known as “CARE Court,” passed on Wednesday. The bill makes it easier to coerce people with mental health disabilities into treatment, and is targeted at the unhoused. The bill also contains a TBD plan to manifest the massive amount of resources that would be needed to treat so many new patients. It passed unanimously in the Senate and 62–2 in the Assembly despite overwhelming opposition from disability rights and civil liberties groups.

City Politics

• The contentious fight to fill the council seat in CD 10 escalated quickly, as this week City Council President Nury Martinez agendized a series of motions to rapidly appoint Heather Hutt. A minority of councilmembers advocated for a more transparent and deliberative process delaying the approval, but that resistance collapsed Friday, and Hutt’s appointment passed 12–2 with only Councilmembers Mike Bonin and Monica Rodriguez opposed.

Labor

• AB 2183, which would allow farm workers to vote by mail in union elections, has passed through the Legislature and to the governor to sign. Last year Newsom (who owns vineyards) vetoed an earlier version of the bill, citing “procedural issues.” This year, in support of the bill, a group of farm workers marched from Kern County to Sacramento and are holding a vigil until the governor signs.

• The Legislature has passed AB 257, a bill creating a council to regulate wages and working conditions for all California workers in large fast food chains. Read a little more about AB 257 — the first bill of its kind nationwide — in the context of sectoral bargaining here.

• AB 1577, which would allow workers in the Legislature the right to collectively bargain, passed through the senate, but was blocked from a vote in the assembly by the Assembly Public Employment and Retirement Committee.

Housing Rights

• The Legislature overwhelmingly approved an amendment repealing Article 34 of the state charter, which requires onerous local elections to approve any form of public housing. The bill, widely understood to have been originally pushed by racist segregationists, is among the last laws of its kind on a state charter. In Los Angeles, many council districts are nearing the limits of affordable housing authorized in the last Article 34 citywide ballot measure, and the city failed to put reapproval on the ballot. The amendment will still need to be approved by the public in 2024.

Environmental Justice

• Temperatures will continue to reach triple digits in many areas of the state through Labor Day, breaking records and straining the power grid. In Los Angeles, the city has opened very few cooling centers to help unhoused and other vulnerable people manage the heat, and many libraries are closed for Labor Day. The Kenneth Mejia campaign provides some analysis and calls attention to some programs that are providing mutual aid.

• Citing searing summer temperatures and expected energy shortages, California lawmakers approved legislation aimed at extending the life of the state’s last-operating nuclear power plant. The Diablo Canyon plant — the state’s largest single source of electricity — had been slated to shutter by 2025. The New York Times covers this and other California climate bills from the busy week.

• A fire ignited just after noon on Wednesday and has spread to cover 5,2000 acres near Castaic, in Los Angeles County.

Issue No. 122

State Politics

• Governor Newsom vetoed a pilot program for safe-injection sites to prevent drug overdoses. The veto is being covered nationally, widely interpreted as an attempt to cater to moderates and Republicans in advance of a presidential run. The pretext for the veto was that the program as designed had a dangerously broad scope, even though it was only slated to run for five years in three cities.

• Newsom did sign a law giving more latitude to legislative bodies to remove members of the public from meetings for being “disruptive.”

• And, with the state legislative session ending on August 31, CalMatters looks at which bills will have their fate come down to the wire, and which have already been placed in the suspense file.

City Politics

• Herb Wesson has officially resigned as interim councilmember in CD 10. Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez quickly drafted (and scheduled) a motion to appoint Heather Hutt, Wesson’s appointed district caretaker. Though there had been some local support for appointing Hutt, simply to fill the seat, this Our Weekly editorial argues that giving the seat to “the appointee of an appointee” is undemocratic. A competing motion earlier today from Councilmembers Bonin, Harris-Dawson, and Rodriguez calls for a more transparent process.

Labor

• After a years-long battle with ownership, workers at Chateau Marmont have voted to unionize with Unite Here Local 11!

• The Observer takes a deeper look at the organizing that led to the strippers at Star Garden voting to unionize with Actors Equity, contextualizing it within the history of sex worker organization.

Transportation

• Thanks to the hard work of signature gatherers, Healthy Streets LA, a measure which compels the city to comply with its own frequently ignored street safety guidelines, will be on the ballot in 2024. City Council had a window to directly approve the measure, making it effective immediately, but though councilmembers spoke extensively in support of the measure’s goals, they voted unanimously against approval, in favor of a competing measure that has yet to be drafted. Streetsblog LA has the details.

Police Violence and Community Resistance

• A jury awarded $31 million to Vanessa Bryant and Christopher Chester in their lawsuit against Los Angeles County. The suit was for damages caused by employees of the county sheriff and fire department sharing photos of the deceased victims of the helicopter crash that killed family members of Bryant and Chester. The court found that sheriff’s deputies habitually share the photos of deceased people.

Environmental Justice

• On Thursday, the California Air Resources Board adopted the world’s most stringent rules for transitioning to zero-emission vehicles –– all new cars, pickup trucks, and SUVs must be electric or hydrogen by 2035.

• A proposal circulated Friday by California Democratic legislators would reject Governor Newsom’s plan to extend the lifespan of the state’s last operating nuclear power plant — and instead spend over $1 billion to speed up the development of renewable energy.

• In 2023, residents of Imperial County are projected to experience 102 “dangerous” days with a heat index exceeding 100, according to nonprofit First Street Foundation’s peer-reviewed model.

Issue No. 121

City Politics

• A united front of unhoused people and advocates once again obstructed a vote to expand 41.18 zones. This week, Los Angeles City Council escalated the confrontation with the public, bringing riot police to the meeting, ejecting people for going over their public comment time, and clearing the chambers when activists shouted down councilmembers. Two arrests were made and a bobblehead fell off of a desk. The motion passed 11–3 again, with only the three councilmembers opposed staying in chambers through the recess. In the aftermath, numerous councilmembers who voted for the (likely unconstitutional) measure lashed out, as if their own choices had been exonerated, or at least made immaterial, by the breach in decorum, and they could safely focus only on what they felt had been done to them. @UnrigLA makes the valuable point that the most recent council, chaired by Herb Wesson, though ideologically similar, was able to gracefully hear out criticism.

• In an interview in Capital and Main with incoming councilmember Eunisses Hernandez talks about her plans once she is seated in December, and touches on 41.18 and the protests: “I’m an organizer. My background is in trying to persuade and move the government to do the right thing. Part of that has been to stop meetings. It’s a tactic.”

• Activists were able to dismantle a significant length of the fence around Echo Park Lake, repurposing it as a statement on behalf of community self-determination. It was reconstructed as a fence the next day. At a CD 13 candidate forum, DSA-LA–endorsed challenger Hugo Soto-Martinez and Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell discussed the fence, along with other issues related to the environment.

• DSA-LA members have voted to endorse an additional round of candidates and ballot measures for the November elections! These are: Estefany Casteñeda for Centinela Valley Union HS District Board Member, Ricardo Martinez for La Puente City Council, Rocio Rivas for LAUSD School Board, and the Los Angeles City ballot measure United To House LA.

• The Empowerment Congress West Area Neighborhood Council voted to request that Heather Hutt, who currently serves as the “caretaker” of CD 10 but is not able to vote along with city council, be officially appointed to the seat. CD 10 has been largely without representation since the indictment of Mark Ridley-Thomas and subsequent court intervention blocking the interim appointment of Herb Wesson. The Los Angeles Sentinel is covering.

• The second attempt to put a potential recall of Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón on ballots has failed. Whistleblowers in the recall committee have alleged that personnel systematically forged signatures on unsigned attestation forms.

Labor

• The dancers at Star Garden, a Los Angeles strip club, have filed a petition to unionize with Actors’ Equity, which represents stage performers. The petition follows months of protests staged outside the club after a number of workplace safety concerns went unaddressed.

Transportation

• The Healthy Streets L.A. initiative has officially qualified for the 2024 ballot! If approved by the public, this would compel the city to comply with its own Mobility Plan, installing bike and bus lanes whenever it repaves streets. The city council, in response, has drafted its own watered-down version of the measure. Streetsblog LA compares the two, while Streets For All, which drafted the ballot measure, urges the public to support the original version in the critical next few weeks with the following tool kit.

• A ban on cars along a dangerous stretch of road in Griffith Park, piloted after the death of a cyclist, has now been made permanent.

Environmental Justice

• A NASA-funded study published on Monday showed that “dry lightning,” or lightning without rain, has been a driver of the increasingly destructive California wildfires, and is more likely to occur under climate change conditions.

• Governor Gavin Newsom sent a memo to the heads of both California legislative chambers pushing legislators to enact a slate of proposals strengthening the state’s climate goals. But with the legislative session ending on August 31, there is some question as to whether the governor’s goals are realistic.

Issue 120

City Politics

• L.A. Taco breaks down a report on how the city spent its $1.28 billion in federal COVID relief, finding that it largely was used to pay salaries for government employees, with the biggest chunk taken by the LAPD. The report itself describes the disbursement as “allocated in support of initiatives that will directly benefit Los Angeles communities.”

• It’s official: the LA County Board of Supervisors voted 4–1 to put a measure on the November ballot that would give a 4/5 majority of the Board the power to remove the sheriff. Ordinance here.

• Knock LA continues their reporting on the decision to reinstate cash bail in Los Angeles County, having just heard back on a records request into the secretive Bail Committee that makes these decisions behind closed doors.

Healthcare

• The Board of Supervisors declared a local state of emergency to combat the spread of monkeypox. Though the order will allow the accelerated distribution of vaccines, dosages remain in short supply. The portal to schedule a vaccine appointment has been closed since Tuesday; you can sign up here to be notified as that changes.

Housing Rights

• Pete White of Los Angeles Community Action Network (LACAN) talks about the numerous shortcomings of Project Roomkey, the COVID-related emergency program to use hotel rooms as temporary shelter for unhoused people. It ends in September, despite the fact that very few project participants have been able to take the next step into permanent housing, and many are unsure if they’ll have a place to go.

• Los Angeles City Council held another vote on the proposed escalation of 41.18 anti-sit/lie/sleep enforcement. After Councilmembers Mike Bonin and Nithya Raman spoke against the motion, the public in attendance, essentially unanimous in opposition, chanted over Councilmember Joe Buscaino, the motion’s author. In response, the council called recess. With chambers to themselves, those remaining, most of them unhoused people and advocates, held an extended “public comment” session for people who had not gotten a chance to speak during the original public comment lottery. After an hour the space was ceded back to the council, who voted on their motion before a largely empty house. It passed 11–3 with Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson joining the opposition. “I don’t think it’s constitutional,” he said of the blanket ban. This was expected to be the last of several votes on this measure, but a last-minute amendment means it will need another vote, scheduled for Tuesday. Entire session live-tweeted by Jon Peltz here.

Labor

• In July the city passed an ordinance guaranteeing a $25 minimum wage for healthcare workers in private hospitals. The healthcare industry is attempting to overturn this via a public ballot measure being framed as pro-worker. SEIU is urging people to be extra careful not to sign the petition for this anti-worker ballot measure; if the measure even gets on the ballot, it will delay the implementation of the pay increase until November.

Environmental Justice

• Governor Gavin Newsom pressured lawmakers to approve an energy plan that aimed to expedite and streamline construction of new clean energy facilities. Included is a controversial clause that lets developers bypass local permitting, and leaves rural populations out of the conversation for projects planned in their counties.

• The Klamath River wildfire has claimed two more lives, raising the death toll to four in the state’s largest blaze of the year.

Thorn 119

State Politics

• The current state legislative session will close on August 11, leaving the fate of several bills with a dwindling window of time to be passed. Streetsblog Cal urged support for AB 2438, which aligns transportation policy with climate goals. A reader brought our attention to AB 2632, which significantly regulates the use of solitary confinement in California prisons. Both bills have passed the Assembly but need to be passed in the state Senate by the deadline.

Healthcare

• A Los Angeles County indoor mask mandate, scheduled to go into effect today, has instead been paused. The county has been in a “high” state of community transmission for two weeks, triggering a mandate according to the CDC’s revised guidelines. The County Board of Health has pointed to a recent decline in hospital infection rates to explain the reversal.

Police Violence and Community Resistance

• A town hall was convened on Zoom to address widespread concerns about the LAPD shooting of Jermaine Petit, who was unarmed and was shot in the back. LAPD representatives were unable to coherently answer community questions about the incident and abruptly ended the Zoom. Petit has inexplicably been charged with felony assault with a deadly weapon. Knock LA has been covering.

• On Monday, Sheriff Alex Villanueva was again scheduled to testify before the Civilian Oversight Commission about deputy gangs. He once more canceled his appearance at the last minute, this time refusing to comply with his subpoena until a list of formal demands were met, including the right to cross-examine witnesses.

Housing Rights

• With a crowd of protesters outside Los Angeles City Hall to denounce the City Council’s proposed expansion of 41.18 anti sit/lie/sleep zones, the vote was continued until August 2.

• Council also discussed the Declaration of Local Emergency, which is currently one of the only things preventing a flood of evictions in Los Angeles, and which must be extended monthly. The council voted to extend for another month, but Counclimember Bob Blumenfeld pulled the item for discussion and spoke ominously about the need for an “exit strategy” for “mom and pop housing providers.”

Labor

• Frequently, newspapers devoting disproportionate attention to property crimes are asked why they don’t report on wage theft committed by employers. This week, CalMatters did some reporting on wage theft.

Transportation

• LAPD shutdowns and councilmembers bickering over graffiti: agony over the new Sixth Street Bridge continued to deepen and intensify this week. L.A. Taco recaps from a community perspective.

Environmental Justice

• Reuters published an investigation focused on the radioactive contamination from Santa Susana Field Lab just outside LA, but also broadly surveying the way corporations such as Boeing are granted “conservation easements,” which critics see as a tool for companies to limit their toxic waste cleanup responsibility.

• The LA Times interviewed Max Gomberg, who this month resigned in protest from the California State Water Resources Control Board over Governor Newsom’s inaction in combating the state’s worsening drought.