Cannabis Cafes, A.I. And Parking: How New California Laws Could Affect You In 2025

Hundreds of new laws take effect in California on Jan. 1 (Los Angeles Times photo illustration; photos via Getty Images)

BY ANABEL SOSA

SACRAMENTO, CALIF. (LOS ANGELES TIMES) - California lawmakers passed roughly 1,200 bills last year, including some that resulted in unforeseeable wins by Republicans, promising protections for consumers and small strides for those in the entertainment industry.

In the end, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed about 84% of the bills he received. Many of those laws take effect today, Jan. 1, as California rings in a new year. Here are a few you should know heading into 2025:

Cannabis

Cannabis cafes are legal: You can now hang out at dispensaries like you would a restaurant or cafe, thanks to AB 1775. The new law brings an Amsterdam-style approach to marijuana use, by allowing cannabis retailers to make and sell food and nonalcoholic beverages at what will be known as cannabis cafes or lounges. Before this law, customers could smoke in some dispensaries but the businesses were only allowed to sell prepackaged snacks and drinks. Some who are concerned with the health component call the law a step backward, given the risks of secondhand smoke.

Artificial Intelligence

Actors are protected from AI imitations: It is now required to create a contract to specify the use of artificial intelligence to replicate an actor’s voice or likeness. Assembly Bill 2602 aims to protect performers’ and actors’ careers by preventing artificial intelligence from replicating their voice or likeness without permission. In the summer of 2023, actors' and writers' unions shut down Hollywood during a months-long strike, ultimately negotiating new contracts around the use of artificial intelligence in their industry. Last year, courts also began to question the business of selling deepfakes of celebrities' voices and Scarlett Johansson raised concerns about an AI voice that sounded similar to hers.

Dead actors’ voices won’t be exploited: People will be subject to a $10,000 fine for using the voice of a dead actor or one that sounds like their voice without the consent of their estate.AB 1836 was sponsored by SAG-AFTRA and introduced in light of the advancements made in artificial intelligence that, the union said, can “easily clone human voices.”

Deepfakes with sexually explicit imagery are banned: Current revenge porn law is now expanded under SB 926 to prohibit the unauthorized distribution of artificially created sexually explicit images of a real person. The law applies specifically if there is intent to cause serious emotional distress to the person that is depicted in the image. Earlier this year, Laguna Beach High School officials investigated a student who circulated A.I.-generated sexually exploitative images, and in Beverly Hills, a group of eighth-graders was expelled for their involvement in superimposing pictures of their classmates’ faces onto simulated nude bodies through artificial intelligence.

Social media platforms will make reporting deepfakes easier: Social media platforms are now required to have a reporting mechanism for users who are portrayed in a sexually explicit video or image without their knowledge thanks to SB 981. The Los Angeles District Attorney's office, a sponsor of the bill, said that pornographic deepfakes are becoming a "growing threat" to adults and teens on social media.

Wages and Personal Finances

No more overdraft fees: State-chartered banks and credit unions are now barred under AB 2017 from charging overdraft fees, also known as nonsufficient fund fees, when customers try to make a withdrawal, purchase something on their debit card, or transfer payment but do not have enough funds and the transaction is declined. This was inspired by a similar proposal the Biden administration made early last year.

The minimum wage is going up: Workers paid the statewide minimum wage will get an annual increase to their hourly wages from $16 in 2024 to $16.50. This pay scale could vary depending on what city or county you are in and what industry you work in. The minimum wage for fast food workers is now $20 an hour and several cities, including Los Angeles, require minimum wages in other sectors that top $17 an hour.

Workers taking family leave will get more money: Workers who earn less than $63,000 a year will get 90% of their pay during leave to bond with a new baby or care for a sick family member, while workers making more than that will get 70% of their pay under SB 951, which passed in 2022. Previously, lower-paid workers were eligible for 70% of their pay during family leave, which made it impossible for many to take the time off, even though they were paying into the disability insurance system that covers the benefit. The new, higher replacement wage is paid for by all workers who pay into the state disability income program; they will have 1.2% of their pay deducted in 2025, up from 1.1% in 2024.

Housing

More time to respond to eviction notices: Tenants now have double the time to respond in writing to an eviction notice. The previous legal time to respond before legal action is taken was five business days, but it has now increased to 10 business days because of AB 2347. The bill's author said giving tenants only five days to respond was "uniquely short" and could often result in a landlord winning a case, without the tenant getting a day in court. Extending the response time, the author said, allows tenants more time to seek advice, gather evidence and file an appropriate response.

Healthcare

Medical debt won't be included in your credit score: Credit agencies can no longer include medical debt on people’s credit reports under SB 1061. An estimated 40% of Americans are burdened with some form of medical debt that they are unable to pay off. Advocates for this law argued that medical debt is a poor predictor of a person’s credit risk and can prevent individuals or families from finding housing, or getting employed, among other necessities.

Incarcerated women don't need permission to obtain menstrual products: Women in prisons and jails now have full access to period-care products like pads and tampons under AB 1810. The law allows women to obtain those products without having to ask prison guards for permission, which has been tied to reports of sexual harassment.

Education

Children will learn about pivotal California history: Public schools will now be required under AB 1805 to teach Mendez vs. Westminster, a 1947 court case involving a Mexican family from Orange County that fought to end segregation across California. The bill's author stressed the importance of teaching students about this court case to help them "learn of the civil rights challenges faced by Mexican Americans in this state."

Gender expression in schools: A first-in-the-nation law now bans school districts from requiring staff or teachers to disclose to parents if a student starts using a new pronoun or identifies as a different gender. AB 1955 will also protect school staff from retaliation if they refuse to notify parents of a child's gender preference. The policy was introduced in response to more than a dozen conservative-led school board policies that required teachers to notify parents if their child changed their names or pronouns. The issue set off heated debates in the state Capitol and across school districts, as some parents felt outraged that the state wanted to keep parents in the dark, while LGBTQ+ activists said mandatory notification promotes an "unsafe" environment by forced outing of students.

Safety

Parking will get harder, and walking will get safer: California has stricter parking rules underAB 413. Police can now ticket drivers who park within 20 feet of the crosswalk, which is around the length of a car. Drivers must abide by these rules regardless if the curb is painted red. The purpose of the law is to increase pedestrian visibility at busy intersections. The law has technically been in effect since the start of 2024, but police will begin fining drivers in January.

New laws to curb retail theft: Over the summer, the Legislature passed a sweeping package of 11 bills meant to address retail theft. Seven of them are now taking effect. Those include: retail stores can request restraining orders against people who repeatedly steal from their stores; prosecutors can coordinate and charge people with crimes across different counties and handle them in a single court and those who commit arson in the act of stealing will receive stiffer sentences. Read The Times' extensive coverage of these new laws.

REAAD ORIGINAL STORY HERE

LA County Public Defender Among 10 Released In Venezuela Prisoner Exchange Announced By The White House

Eyvin Hernandez (Photo via LA Magazine, Hernandez family)

WASHINGTON (CITY NEWS SERVICE)

Eyvin Hernandez, a Los Angeles County public defender who had been imprisoned in Venezuela since March 2022, was on his way back to the United States today as part of a prisoner-exchange announced by the White House.

President Joe Biden said a total of 10 Americans who had been detained in Venezuela were released as part of the deal, including six "wrongfully detained Americans."

"These individuals have lost far too much precious time with their loved ones, and their families have suffered every day in their absence," Biden said in a statement. "I am grateful that their ordeal is finally over and that these families are being made whole once more."

A senior administration official confirmed to reporters in Washington that Hernandez was among those released in the exchange, which also included the extradition of convicted military contractor Leonard Glenn "Fat Leonard" Francis, who escaped home arrest in San Diego last year after pleading guilty to bribing Navy officials.

Garrett Miller, president of the Los Angeles County Public Defenders Union, Local 148, said in a statement he was "thrilled that Eyvin will be coming home and that this ordeal is finally over."

"I can't even imagine how traumatizing this has been for Eyvin, and our union will do all it can to support him in the coming months,'' Miller said. "Eyvin has been deeply missed by his fellow Local 148 members, and we can't wait to see him again. I'm grateful to Eyvin's family for their tireless advocacy and also want to thank Local 148 board member Drew Havens who worked alongside them, advocating for Eyvin's release.''

Hernandez, an L.A. County deputy public defender for 15 years, was on vacation in Colombia when he joined a friend on a trip to the Colombian-Venezuelan border to resolve a passport issue involving the friend's stay in Venezuela.

At the border, Hernandez and his friend were intercepted by what has been described in various reports as either a paramilitary group, a gang or official Venezuelan forces. Hernandez and his friend were eventually turned over to Venezuelan security forces and jailed in a maximum security prison in Caracas.

Hernandez was accused of criminal association and conspiracy, which are punishable by up to 16 years in jail in Venezuela.

Over the past nearly two years, various public officials have sent letters to the White House urging the administration to secure Hernandez's release. The county Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a motion last year asking the administration and other federal elected officials to work for his release. The Los Angeles City Council took similar action earlier this year.

Reps. Sydney Kamlager-Dove and Nanette Barragán, both D-Los Angeles, joined Rep. Young Kim, R-Orange County, and Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, introduced a resolution earlier this year calling on the Venezuelan "regime" to immediately release Hernandez.

In December 2022, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass joined Barragán and other congressional representatives in sending a joint letter to Biden, asking his administration to work to free Hernandez.

In exchange for the release of Americans, the United States agreed to release Alex Saab, a close ally of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Saab had been awaiting trial on money laundering charges.

Four Years After Fire Engulfed California Scuba Dive Boat Killing 34 People, Captain’s Trial Begins

National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) shows the wreckage of the dive boat Conception on a dock in Southern California...(NTSB via AP, File)

BY STEFANIE DAZIO

LOS ANGELES (AP) — By the time the scuba dive boat sank off the Southern California coast after catching fire, 34 people had been killed in the deadliest maritime disaster in recent U.S. history.

The Labor Day tragedy in 2019 spurred changes to maritime regulations, congressional reform and civil lawsuits. Four years later, a federal trial for the Conception’s captain, Jerry Boylan, was underway Tuesday with jury selection in federal court in Los Angeles. Boylan watched as the judge questioned potential jurors.

It’s been a long, frustrating wait for the families of the dead.

“The past four years have been like living in a nightmare that you don’t wake up from,” said Kathleen McIlvain, whose 44-year-old son Charles was killed.

The 75-foot (23-meter) boat was anchored off the Channel Islands, 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Santa Barbara, on Sept. 2, 2019, when it caught fire before dawn on the final day of a three-day excursion, sinking less than 100 feet (30 meters) from shore.

The National Transportation Safety Board blamed Boylan for the tragedy, saying his failure to post a roving night watchman allowed the fire to quickly spread undetected, trapping the 33 passengers and one crew member below.

Those on board included a new deckhand who’d landed her dream job and an environmental scientist who did research in Antarctica, along with a globe-trotting couple and a Singaporean data scientist.

Susana Solano Rosas lost her three daughters Angela, Evan and Nicole Quitasol, who were onboard the Conception with their father, Michael Quitasol, and his wife, Fernisa Sison. Solano Rosas waited with other relatives for jurors to be chosen.

“We’ve been waiting for this for a long time,” she said. “We want to start some healing.”

U.S. District Judge George Wu on Oct. 12 granted Boylan’s request to bar most if not all references to “victims” — which the captain’s attorneys say is a prejudicial term that jeopardizes his right to a fair trial. It was the latest setback for the prosecution.

A grand jury in 2020 initially indicted Boylan on 34 counts of a pre-Civil War statute colloquially known as “seaman’s manslaughter” that was designed to hold steamboat captains and crew responsible for maritime disasters. Each count carries up to 10 years in prison in a conviction, for a total of 340 years.

Defense lawyers sought to dismiss those charges, arguing the deaths were the result of a single incident and not separate crimes. Prosecutors got a superseding indictment charging Boylan with only one count.

Then in 2022, Wu ruled the superseding indictment failed to specify that Boylan acted with gross negligence, calling that a required element to prove the crime of seaman’s manslaughter. He dismissed that indictment, forcing prosecutors to go before a grand jury again.

Boylan is now charged with one count of misconduct or neglect of ship officer. The single count means he faces only 10 years behind bars if convicted.

He has pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing. His federal public defenders did not return The Associated Press’ repeated requests for comment, and a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment.

Some of the dead were wearing shoes, prompting investigators to believe they were awake and trying to escape. Both exits from the below-deck bunkroom were blocked by flames. Coroner’s reports list smoke inhalation as the cause of death.

What exactly started the fire remains unknown. Early official scrutiny appeared to focus on a spot where divers plugged in phones and other electronics. But a Los Angeles Times story, citing a confidential report by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said the blaze began in a plastic trash can on the main deck. An official cause remains undetermined.

Boylan and four crew members sleeping in the upper deck told investigators they tried to save the others but were ultimately forced to jump overboard to survive. Boylan made a mayday call before abandoning ship.

Dozens of family members have since formed “Advocacy34” to push for strengthened boating regulations. While seeking answers, they’ve comforted each other during loved ones’ missed birthdays and mourned each anniversary.

“We have no idea when we’ll get those answers, or if we ever will,” McIlvain said.

The NTSB faulted the Coast Guard for not enforcing that requirement and recommended it develop a program to ensure boats with overnight passengers have a watchman.

Victims’ families have sued the Coast Guard in one of several ongoing civil suits.

At the time of the fire, no owner, operator or charterer had been cited or fined for failure to post a roving patrol since 1991, Coast Guard records showed.

The Coast Guard has since enacted new, congressionally mandated regulations regarding fire detection systems, extinguishers, escape routes and other safety measures.

Three days after the inferno, Truth Aquatics Inc., which belongs to the Conception’s owners, Glen and Dana Fritzler, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles under a pre-Civil War provision of maritime law that allows it to limit its liability to the remains of the boat, which was a total loss. The time-tested legal maneuver has been successfully employed by the owners of the Titanic and other vessels, and requires the Fritzlers show they were not at fault.

The couple’s attorneys did not respond to requests for comment.

In response to the families’ outcry, federal lawmakers last year updated the Limitation of Liability Act of 1851 so owners could be held liable for damages regardless of the boat’s value afterward. The law is not retroactive, however, and will not apply in the Conception fire.

Associated Press Photojournalist Damian Dovarganes in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

LAPD Celebrates 100 Years Of Forensic Science And Technical Investigations

LAPD Scientific Investigation Division. Image: Facebook

BY CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

LOS ANGELES (MY NEWS LA) -- The Los Angeles Police Department Monday celebrated 100 years of work performed by the LAPD’s Forensic Science and Technical Investigation divisions.

According to the LAPD, theirs was the first such crime lab in the country, and it is now the second-largest in the nation, behind only the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

LAPD Chief Michel Moore and other department officials gathered for a Monday afternoon commemoration event at the Los Angeles Police Museum.

The department’s first crime lab was established in July of 1923 under then-LAPD Chief August Vollmer, according to the LAPD.

“Chief Vollmer believed that scientific analysis of evidence had a place in police work, so he ordered formation of the first crime lab in the United States,” the LAPD said. “The FBI crime laboratory was not established until seven years later.”

Vollmer reorganized the LAPD, laying the groundwork for what eventually became the Scientific Investigation Division, which later became to the current Forensic Science Division.

During the 1930s and 1940s, the crime lab grew and diversified — adding criminalists, fingerprint specialists, and forensic photographers to the staff — and the personnel became part of the Scientific Investigation Division.

During the 1950s, the Los Angeles City Council allocated funds for the building of new police facilities citywide. As soon as the Police Administration Building, later known as Parker Center, was completed in downtown Los Angeles, SID moved into the building and the unit expanded.

By 1990, SID had been divided into three entities: the Criminalistics Laboratory, the Technical Laboratory, and the Explosives Section. The Firearms Unit was reorganized into the Criminalistics Laboratory and began civilianization, with criminalists replacing police officers.

By 2000, plans were initiated to create a regional crime lab facility to house the SID Criminalistics Laboratory as well as portions of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Scientific Services Bureau.

Construction of the regional crime laboratory facility was completed in 2007, and the facility was officially named the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center, located at 1800 Paseo Rancho Castilla.

The criminalistics laboratory is comprised of seven specialized units: the Field Investigation Unit, the Firearm Analysis Unit, the Narcotics Analysis Unit, the Serology/DNA Unit, the Toxicology Unit, the Trace Analysis Unit, and the Quality Assurance Unit. The criminalistics laboratory is accredited by the ANSI National Accreditation Board, and has been continuously accredited since 1998.

The LAPD Technical Investigation Division is headquartered at the C. Erwin Piper Technical Center, 555 Ramirez St. The Technical Laboratory is comprised of five specialized units: the Latent Print Unit, the Photographic Unit, the Polygraph Unit, the Electronics Unit, and the Quality Assurance Unit. Most Technical Laboratory personnel operate out of Piper Technical Center, but some field services operate out of the Van Nuys Community Police Station.

California Bails Out Distressed Hospitals, Offers Interest-Free Loans To 17 Troubled Providers

A road sign announcing the closure of the emergency room and the rest of Madera Community Hospital outside the main entrance on Jan. 2, 2023. Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local

BY ANNA B. IBARRA

CALMATTERS

Seventeen financially distressed California hospitals — including three that filed for bankruptcy earlier this year — will receive close to $300 million in interest-free loans, state officials announced Thursday.

Madera Community Hospital, which closed its doors in January, stands to receive the biggest chunk, $52 million. The money comes from the Distressed Hospital Loan Program, which the Legislature created to support rural and independent hospitals that faced financial challenges coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Madera hospital had requested $80 million, but the money it received is expected to be enough to fund a reopening for the rural hospital about 25 miles north of Fresno.

Adventist Health, which operates hospitals in four West Coast states, last month announced a proposal to take over Madera’s operations through a management agreement, contingent on it receiving the state funds. In a letter outlining its terms, Adventist projected needing $55 million to reopen and another $30 million to sustain operations in the second year.

Madera will initially receive $2 million to cover immediate operating costs. Officials at Adventist Health and Madera Community will have to submit a “comprehensive hospital turnaround plan” and, if approved, will then become eligible to receive the remaining $50 million.

“This financial assistance is an important step in the right direction to help Madera Community Hospital reopen its doors to the community. We have more work to do, but I’m proud to have led this effort,” said Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria, a Fresno Democrat whose district includes Madera and who authored legislation that led to the loan program.

Adventist Health in a written statement said it is working with “community partners and stakeholders in developing a thoughtful, comprehensive hospital turnaround plan.”

Beverly Hospital, located east of Los Angeles, will receive $5 million to cover operations while it is in bankruptcy. The hospital applied for $35 million, but it is now set to be bought by Adventist Health White Memorial. A bankruptcy judge last week approved Adventist’s $39 million purchase of Beverly.

Another bankrupt hospital, Hazel Hawkins Memorial, will receive the $10 million it requested. It’s the only source of emergency care in San Benito County, a rural community east of Monterey.

“The hospitals approved for this program have shown a detailed plan for financial recovery and these funds will help them keep the doors open so they can keep serving their communities,” said State Treasurer Fiona Ma, whose office is helping administer the funds. Ma said her team has already begun providing instructions and assistance to the awarded hospitals.
Biggest loans to distressed hospitals

The Department of Health Care Access and Information reviewed applications and selected hospitals for the program. Thirty hospitals applied for loans.

Other hospitals that will receive significant funding include:TriCity Medical Center in San Diego will receive $33.2 million. The hospital recently announced plans to suspend its labor and delivery services amid “financial losses.”
Kaweah Delta Health Care District in Visalia will get a $20.8 million loan. This hospital laid off 130 employees late last year.
El Centro Regional Medical Center in Imperial County, which in January closed its maternity ward, will receive $28 million.
Pioneers Memorial Healthcare District, Imperial County’s only other hospital, also is set to receive $28 million.
Dameron Hospital in Stockton, now also being managed by Adventist Health, will be loaned $29 million.
Vulnerable California hospitals

Most California hospitals are part of large networks that can navigate turbulent financial periods. A number of community and independent hospitals have struggled for years, especially after the peak of the pandemic. Some recently reduced services or laid off staff.

Hospitals have pointed to a number of factors for their distressed state — increased labor costs, and inadequate reimbursement from public insurance programs, Medicare and Medi-Cal, and in some cases private insurance.

Some hospitals began to ask the state for help late last year, but the closure of Madera Community Hospital prompted more urgency from lawmakers. It shut its doors after Trinity Health, a large Catholic health system, pulled out of negotiations to purchase the hospital.

Madera Community Hospital in the San Joaquin Valley was the only general acute care hospital in the county of about 160,000 people. The closest emergency rooms are about 30 and 40 minutes away in Fresno and Merced.

The Distressed Hospital Loan Program closes at the end of 2031. Hospitals will get an 18-month grace period and then will have to repay loans over a six-year period.

Supported by the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF), which works to ensure that people have access to the care they need, when they need it, at a price they can afford. Visit www.chcf.org to learn more.

New COVID-19 Variant Sends Cases Climbing As School Year Begins

The concentration of SARS-CoV-2​ detected in the county's wastewater has doubled since July 19. Image via Patch

Cases have been climbing for weeks fueled by the now dominant EG.5 variant. Here's what parents should know about COVID and the school year.

BY PAIGE AUSTIN

LOS ANGELES, CA (PATCH) — A new coronavirus subvariant is now dominant in California, sending new cases climbing as half a million students prepare for the new school year in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Compared to the annual winter surge, COVID-19 cases in Los Angeles and across the state remain low. However, cases have been climbing for four weeks fueled by the EG.5 variant, which now makes up a dominant 16.2 percent of cases across the West, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In Los Angeles County, the transmission rate remains low — wastewater samples show a SARS-CoV-2 concentration rate at just 19 percent of the totals during last winter's surge, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. Still, the concentration of SARS-CoV-2 detected in the county's wastewater has doubled since July 19. That mirrors a small spike in the number of cases reported in the county, averaging 333 new cases per day compared to 202 cases per day in mid-July.

Similarly, California Walgreens stores confirmed a sharp uptick in positive COVID-19 test results with a positivity rate of 48.3 percent, the highest it's been since January, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The uptick comes just a day before Los Angeles County rescinds an order requiring employees in healthcare facilities to wear masks when providing care or when in patient care areas. Healthcare workers will still be urged to wear masks while providing care to vulnerable patients and to stay up to date on COVID-19 vaccines.

COVID-19 strains currently circulating descend from Omicron XBB, and county health officials expect that current protections will remain effective to prevent severe illness or death.

As students head back to the classroom next week, county healthy officials urged coronavirus testing to reduce the risk of outbreaks.

"Even when rates of COVID-19 are low, the back-to-school season can bring greater risk of COVID-19 spread," health officials warned in a written statement. "Last August and September, TK-12 schools reported more than 1,100 COVID-19 clusters, groups of potentially connected cases, over an eight-week period. To help reduce transmission among students and staff, Public Health is working with schools to distribute COVID-19 tests and...encourages staff and students, especially those with recent exposures, travel or any symptoms, to take an at-home antigen test the night before or the morning they return to school."

The county health department is offering guidance for navigating the new school year as the pandemic nears its fourth full year:

If a student tests positive for COVID-19 and was at school two days prior to a positive test or the start of COVID symptoms, parents should immediately inform school officials.
Students and staff who test positive for COVID-19 must stay home and isolate regardless of symptoms and vaccination status.

While those infected with COVID are required to isolate for a minimum of five days, it is not necessary to stay home away from others after an exposure to COVID unless you have symptoms and/or test positive after an exposure.

Individuals who have been exposed should test as soon as possible after an exposure and again three to five days after exposure.

Masking for 10 days after an exposure when indoors around others remains a best practice.
Those who develop symptoms and test negative should repeat the test after 48 hours and remain away from others while symptomatic.

Children who are sick should not attend school.

Nation’s First All-Electric Street Sweeper Comes To Los Angeles

L.A. City Councilmember Bob Blumenfield and other city officials unveiled the city’s first electric street sweeper on Thursday, August 10, 2023. Nick Gutierrez, general services, and Councilmember Bob Blumenfield test drive the sweeper. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

At pricey $800,000, purchase is part of 'LA100' initiative to achieve 100% clean energy by 2035

BY LINH TAT

LOS ANGELES (LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS) -- Los Angeles city officials on Thursday, Aug. 10, unveiled the city’s first all-electric street sweeper, putting the city one step closer to reaching its goal of transitioning to 100% clean energy by 2035.

Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, who serves on the City Council’s Energy and Environment Committee, unveiled the city’s latest green vehicle at the West Valley Municipal Center in Reseda. As chair of the council’s Budget, Finance and Innovation Committee, Blumenfield has also been working with various departments to electrify the city’s fleet.

He said in an interview afterward that L.A. is the first in the nation to acquire a 100% electric street sweeper.

“Today was a big step” forward, Blumenfield said. “Other cities hopefully will be getting this next year. We’re going to be using this one, testing it out. The price will come down on it, I’m sure, by next year, and then we’ll probably buy a few more, and a few more.”

The all-electric street sweeper cost a bit over $800,000 — almost double the cost of a conventional gas-fueled street sweeper, Blumenfield said. But he anticipates some savings in terms of fuel purchases and less expensive maintenance.

The purchase of the all-electric street sweeper is the latest in the city’s efforts to reduce its carbon footprint. Last year, the city rolled out a pair of hybrid-electric street sweepers.

The City Council in 2021 adopted the LA100 plan with the stated goal of transitioning fully to clean energy by 2035 – 10 years ahead of what had previously been scheduled.

The council also approved an Electric Vehicle Master Plan in spring 2022, instructing city departments to eventually swap out the 10,000-plus city-owned vehicles for carbon-neutral ones. At the time, the city’s fleet consisted of 124 electric sedans, 46 plug-in electric hybrids and two hybrid electric street sweepers.

Santa Barbara News-Press Declares Bankruptcy, Ceases Publication After More Than 150 Years

BY BCONNOR SHEETS

SANTA BARBARA, CA (LOS ANGELES TIMES) - The Santa Barbara News-Press is no more. After more than 150 years of newsgathering, the Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper has posted its last online edition a month after the News-Press ceased publication of its print newspaper and went all-digital.

The death knell for the once-mighty but long-floundering News-Press came in the form of a bankruptcy filing last week by Ampersand Publishing LLC, the entity by which the newspaper does business.

Ampersand’s Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing was authorized during a meeting “on or about” May 1, nearly three months before it was filed Friday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for California’s Central District, according to federal court records.

The move also comes about three months after the newspaper relocated its operations and staff from the landmark building on Santa Barbara’s De la Guerra Plaza — where it had been housed for the last 101 years — to its printing plant in Goleta, the Santa Barbara Independent reported.

As of Sunday evening, the News-Press’ website appeared to include no mention of the bankruptcy or cessation of operation. There was also no mention on its Twitter feed, Facebook page or Instagram account, the bio of which still reads “Publishing since 1855 — the longest running daily newspaper in Southern California.” Friday’s is the most recent online edition of the publication posted on its website, which features a red-lettered banner stating that “The News-Press is entirely digital” and directing readers to its online edition. The Friday edition is the last the News-Press will issue, according to the Independent.

Dave Mason, the newspaper’s managing editor, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday evening.

Mason wrote in an email to News-Press employees that Wendy McCaw, the company’s owner since 2000, “filed for bankruptcy on Friday,” the Independent reported. “They ran out of money to pay us. They will issue final paychecks when the bankruptcy is approved in court.” The contents of the email could not be independently verified on Sunday.

Neither Jerry Namba, the bankruptcy trustee, nor Levene, Neale, Bender, Yoo & Golubchik, the law firm identified in the bankruptcy filing as representing Ampersand, responded to requests for comment via telephone or email on Sunday. A voicemail left on the News-Press’ main office line went unreturned Sunday evening.

The outfit is in dire financial straits, according to Ampersand’s Chapter 7 filing. A meeting of the company’s creditors — of which there are from 200 to 999, per the Friday filing — is scheduled for Sept. 1. But “no property appears to be available to pay creditors,” according to the document, meaning it’s unlikely the company, which claims to have less than $50,000 of assets, will make good on its $1 million to $10 million of liabilities.

Joshua Molina of Noozhawk, a Santa Barbara-based online news outlet, claimed credit for breaking the story in a tweet Sunday afternoon.

Homelessness Is A Crisis In California But We Can’t Treat It Like An Emergency

Local governments in the Los Angeles area declared a state of emergency on homelessness this year to spur action and marshal resources. But there are drawbacks to applying an emergency label to this issue.

BY PETER LAUGHARN AND MIGUEL SANTANA

As her first official act as the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass declared a state of emergency over homelessness. She was later joined by the mayors of neighboring Long Beach, Santa Monica and Culver City, and the L.A. County Board of Supervisors.

Following these five declarations, the supervisors also announced the largest-ever investment in the county’s homeless response: $609 million dollars over the next fiscal year. In May, the L.A. City Council approved a record $1.3 billion for homelessness programs.

For the 10 million people living in L.A. County, home to the worst of the state’s homelessness crisis, this feels like a turning point – one that all of California can get behind.

We witnessed how emergency declarations escalated the response during the pandemic when FEMA covered the cost of filling motels and hotels with vulnerable unhoused people, and the state allocated substantial funding for housing and emergency services.

Just as the pandemic sparked action, these declarations can unlock resources at a moment when everyone is eager for change.

But there are drawbacks to applying an emergency label to homelessness. For one, it gives the impression that homelessness is a natural phenomenon like an earthquake rather than the result of policies that should not be repeated.

It can also imply a need for temporary solutions and short-term funding. A one-time infusion of cash can’t overcome a systemic failure that is decades in the making. We demand long-term accountability from our homeless service providers but fail to make the long-term financial commitment they need to budget, plan and build on their successes.

The crisis frame can also push resources toward temporary shelters and away from permanent housing. That would be a mistake, since permanent housing has proven to be the most effective intervention. According to a recent report, 92% of supportive housing residents stay housed after six months.

Shelters certainly have a role to play, but they shouldn’t distract us from achieving true success.

These emergency declarations are a phenomenal way to electrify our stalled approach to homelessness, but they will ultimately fail if we do not think in terms of permanent change. That means permanent funding for service providers, permanent homes for people living on the streets, and permanent reform to our tangled web of interconnected bureaucracies.

To start with, creating a more collaborative way for local governments to work together could improve how quickly housing is permitted and services are delivered. This approach has succeeded elsewhere: Houston made a 60% reduction in homelessness in four years by aligning all levels of government and the civic community on a single plan of action.

That level of collaboration would be a paradigm shift in sprawling L.A. County, where a hundred different quarterbacks call their own plays and then look for someone to blame for system failings. If we succeed here, as they have in Houston, other California cities could follow.

History has shown us that urgency cannot be taken for granted. Indeed, the city of Los Angeles’ declaration is scheduled to expire on Monday. Without real structural change, we will find ourselves where we started before these emergencies were declared, with a fragmented and fitful approach to our most difficult challenge.

In fairness, our actions so far have laid a critical foundation. It’s a testament to the many individuals working to solve homelessness that over the last five years: 84,000 unhoused people in L.A. County moved into permanent housing. Thanks also to investments by taxpayers and philanthropy, L.A. is rehousing more people every year than any other large city in California.

Significant progress has been made, but we cannot expect Californians to see it that way when the scale of homelessness remains enormous.

Homelessness is both an emergency and an ongoing challenge. It’s good to hear our leaders recognize it. Let’s take this energy and get to work creating a lasting model for change that can inspire cities and counties across the state.

READ ORIGINAL STORY HERE

Why Rain On Snow In The California Mountains Worries Scientists

BY KEITH MUSSELMAN

Another round of powerful atmospheric rivers is hitting California, following storms in January and February 2023 that dumped record amounts of snow. This time, the storms are warmer, and they are triggering flood warnings as they bring rain higher into the mountains – on top of the snowpack.

Professor Keith Musselman, who studies water and climate change at the University of Colorado’s Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, explained the complex risks rain on snow creates and how they might change in a warming climate.

What happens when rain falls on snowpack?

For much of the United States, storms with heavy rainfall can coincide with seasonal snow cover. When that happens, the resulting runoff of water can be much greater than what is produced from rain or snowmelt alone. The combination has resulted in some of the nation’s most destructive and costly floods, including the 1996 Midwest floods and the 2017 flood that damaged California’s Oroville Dam.

Contrary to common belief, rainfall itself has limited energy to melt snow. Rather, it is the warm temperatures, strong winds and high humidity, which can transport substantial energy in the form of latent and sensible heat, that predominantly drive snowmelt during rain-on-snow events.

Snowpack has air spaces that water can move through. As the rain falls, the water can travel relatively rapidly through the snowpack’s layers to reach the underlying soil. How streams respond to that runoff depends on how much water is already flowing and how saturated the soil is.

When the soil isn’t yet saturated, it can dampen or delay a flood response by soaking up rain and melting snow. But when the ground is saturated, snowmelt combined with rain can lead to fast and devastating flooding.

One of the challenges for dealing with these rain-on-snow events is that the flood risk is hard to forecast.

To predict whether a flood will occur requires knowledge of weather and hydrological conditions. It requires knowing the soil moisture and snowpack conditions before the storm, the elevation at which rain transitions to snow, the rainfall rate, the wind speed, air temperature and humidity, and estimates of how those factors contribute to snowmelt. Additionally, each factor varies in time during a storm and varies in complex ways, especially across a mountainous landscape.

This is why rain-on-snow floods are characterized as compound extreme events. Despite the extensive damage they can cause, it may be surprising how little is known about how they vary in time, spatial extent and intensity.

California is getting another atmospheric river, with more rain on snow expected. How does the rain-on-snow effect differ by elevation in the mountains there?

In the California mountains right now, it’s the middle elevations that people need to pay attention to.

The lower elevations have primarily seen rainfall rather than snow, so there is less snowpack to melt. And in the highest elevations, colder temperatures promote the continued accumulation of deep snowpack and rainfall is less likely.

In the middle transition zone – where either substantial rainfall or snowfall can occur – rain-on-snow events are most common, causing both melting and risk of roof collapses.

If all storms were created equal, there would be well-defined rain zones and snow zones, and the rain-on-snow flood risk would be low. But that isn’t what happens. Instead, not only does the snow zone elevation vary during an event, but it also varies substantially from one storm to the next.

The most destructive rain-on-snow events occur when rivers are already running high and soils are saturated, which can occur in response to a series of warm atmospheric rivers interacting with a deep snowpack – like California’s mountains have right now. The order in which these storms occur – or the storm sequencing – is especially important for assessing flood risk because these events are, in part, caused by rapid shifts between cold periods of snow accumulation followed by warm rainfall events.

What does research show about the future risk of rain-on-snow events in a warming climate?

Even less is known about how rain-on-snow flood risk may respond as the planet warms.

In a warmer climate, there will be less risk of rain falling on snow in the lower elevations as the snowpack declines, particularly in warmer regions such as the Pacific Northwest.

But at higher elevations, more frequent rain-on-snow events are expected. While warmer temperatures are expected to increase rainfall intensity, research shows that’s not the most important driver of this risk. Much of the expected increase in rain-on-snow flood risk is a result of the rain-snow transition zone expanding higher in elevation to include alpine areas that historically received predominantly snowfall.

Flood control and reservoir management systems in these mountainous regions will have to consider these future changes in rain-on-snow events – in addition to changes in rainfall intensity and storm sequencing – to fully understand and prepare for the local flood risk as the planet warms.

So, will projected increases in precipitation extremes and winter rainfall increase rain-on-snow occurrence and the associated flood risk? Or will less snow cover and larger soil moisture deficits reduce rain-on-snow flood risk in a warmer climate?

In a future climate, the response of rain-on-snow flood risk is expected to change in complex and often contradictory ways. The projected changes are likely to vary by region, season, climate model, emissions scenario and future time horizon. It’s a costly risk that requires more research.

READ ORIGINAL STORY HERE

Just How Segregated Is Los Angeles? And Do Proposed Fixes Make Things Better Or Worse?

BY DICK PLATKIN

From the 1930’s through the 1960’s, many Los Angeles banks redlined minority neighborhoods by deliberately denying mortgages to their residents.

The Fair Housing Act of 1968 barred all forms of housing discrimination, including redlining and bias by real estate and rental agents. Nevertheless, a recent rationale for up-zoning affluent neighborhoods desired by real estate speculators is that increasing the permitted density of new real estate projects (i.e., up-zoning) counters segregated racial patterns linked to redlining.

But, like bogus claims that up-zoning reduces homelessness and economic inequality, the argument that it also reverses segregated housing patterns is flat-out wrong. Up-zoning affluent neighborhood does not reduce racial and ethnic patterns because it increases the value of local properties and creates windfall profits for property owners and developers.

Big surprise that up-zoning makes Los Angeles an even more unequal city and exacerbates racial and economic segregation.

Fair Housing Laws

Current State and Federal fair housing legislation has noticeably reduced racial and ethnic isolation in Los Angeles. California’s 1963 Rumford Fair Housing Law preceded the Federal Fair Housing Act of 1968 by five years. California’s Fair Housing Law was then strengthened in 1988 by the Fair Housing Amendments Act (FHAA).

Since the adoption of these laws, LA’s segregated neighborhoods have dramatically shrunk. According to a 2017 Brookings study, LA’s once redlined neighborhoods now have 580,000 non-Black residents and 40,000 Black residents. In fact, the Black population of the old redlined areas was 6.5 percent, compared to 9 percent for the rest of Los Angeles.

These demographic changes resulted from the phenomenal growth of LA’s Latino population, many of whom moved into formerly Black neighborhoods. This has been confirmed by CSUN maps. documenting the dispersal of LA’s Black population from South Central Los Angeles to other neighborhoods between 1990-2010, largely a result of fair housing laws and Latino migration. Furthermore, these demographic trends continued from 2010 to date.

Lobbying hard for the deregulation of LA’s zoning laws, the YIMBY (Yes in my backyard) group, Abundant Housing calls for up-zoning well-off Los Angeles neighborhoods in order to, they say, reduce racial segregation.

“Only by building more housing can we achieve this goal for people of all backgrounds and needs. Existing exclusionary zoning and land use policies exclude people and are historically rooted in racial and economic segregation. AHLA believes in equity and racial justice as a core part of WHERE and HOW we upzone–that is why we support housing distribution plans that concentrate housing objectively in high-opportunity, job-rich, and transit-served neighborhoods.”

Camouflaged by obfuscating language, LA’s new 2021-2029 General Plan Housing Element offers 136 implementation programs, some of which would up-zone affluent neighborhoods. For example, implementation program 124: Promote and affirmatively further fair housing (AFFH) states;

“Promote and affirmatively further fair housing (AFFH) opportunities throughout the community in all housing, planning and community development activities.

Take a variety of actions to overcome patterns of segregation and foster inclusive communities free from barriers that restrict access to opportunity to promote diverse communities that grant all Angelenos access to housing. Increase place-based strategies to encourage community revitalization and protect existing residents from displacement through various policies, programs, and goal setting (e.g., AFH Plan).”

Why these policies will backfire

If implementation programs to monitor housing conditions in Los Angeles eventually appear, they will reveal the folly of up-zoning well-off neighborhoods to achieve racial integration, reduce homelessness, and increase economic equality.

Why? Up-zoning increases property values by allowing real estate developers to automatically build larger, taller, denser buildings with minimal parking. Property owners and real estate developers would no longer require zone variances, zone changes, and density bonuses to reel in lucrative windfall profits. As a result, owners of up-zoned parcels could flip them for immediate financial gain. Alternatively, they could turn to developers to demolish existing buildings and replace them with the highly profitable luxury apartment buildings mushrooming throughout Los Angeles.

This is the essence of the up-zoning programs contained in LA’s new Housing Element. They create instant wealth for property owners and enhanced opportunities for real estate investors and developers. This is one reason why economic inequality continues to rise in LA, and with it, reinforced patterns of racial and ethnic separation.

If the Housing Element’s monitoring programs ever appear, I expect them to fully document these trends. It would pound yet another nail into the coffin of up-zoning’s false promises.

READ ORIGINAL STORY HERE

LA Wins In California’s $2.5 Billion Award For Local Transit

BY HILLEL ARON

SACRAMENTO, CALIF. (COURTHOUSE NEWS SERVICE) — California Governor Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday that the Golden State is awarding more than $2.5 billion to 16 different local transit projects throughout the state.

“The projects funded represent critical transportation and will provide alternatives to driving with access to a modernized, public transit system,” Newsom said in a statement. “California is unwavering in our commitment to our world-leading climate agenda, including record levels of investments in public transportation projects to electrify fleets, expand and improve service, and spark ridership growth.”

Much of the money will go to two projects in what have generally been considered less-fancied parts of the Los Angeles area: Inglewood and the East Valley. The East San Fernando Valley Transit Corridor, a 6.7 mile section of light rail in the northern part of Los Angeles, will receive $600 million, while the Inglewood Transit Connector, a 1.6-mile people mover — an automated, elevated rail line that will connect the K Line with SoFi Stadium and other entertainment venues — will receive $407 million, with an eye toward completing it by 2028 when LA will host the Summer Olympics.

Los Angeles and its surrounding cities are in the midst of an ambitious expansion of the area's rail network. The county's regional transit agency Metro hopes to have a number of projects completed by the time LA hosts the Games for the third time.

“These historic investments in transit and intercity rail projects will help get these transformative projects over the finish line and into operation so the people of California can enjoy more of the mobility, safety, environmental and equity benefits that come with riding transit,” said California Transportation Secretary Toks Omishakin in a statement.

The grant money also includes $375 million for extending the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) through to downtown San Jose and Santa Clara.

State transit officials said they would be awarding another $1.14 billion to "new transit projects and improvements at high-priority intersections where rail lines and public streets meet by the end of April."

Funding comes from California's cap-and-trade scheme and a transit infrastructure bill passed in 2017.

Flood forecasts in real-time with block-by-block data could save lives – a new machine learning method makes it possible

BY VALERIY IVANOV

The extreme flooding and mudslides across California in recent weeks took many drivers by surprise. Sinkholes swallowed cars, highways became fast-moving rivers of water, entire neighborhoods were evacuated. At least 20 people died in the storms, several of them after becoming trapped in cars in rushing water.

As I checked the forecasts on my cellphone weather apps during the weeks of storms in early January 2023, I wondered whether people in the midst of the downpours were using similar technology as they decided whether to leave their homes and determined which routes were safest. Did they feel that it was sufficient?

I am a hydrologist who sometimes works in remote areas, so interpreting weather data and forecast uncertainty is always part of my planning. As someone who once nearly drowned while crossing a flooded river where I shouldn’t have, I am also acutely conscious of the extreme human vulnerability stemming from not knowing exactly where and when a flood will strike.

About two-thirds of flood-related fatalities in the U.S. are classified as “driving” and “in water.” If people had known the likelihood of flooding in those locations in real time – via a cellphone app or website – it’s possible some of these deaths could have been avoided.

Yet even emergency management personnel currently operate with surprisingly little information about when and where flooding is likely to strike. They know where flooding may occur, particularly along rivers. But each flood is different, and key questions, such as which roads can safely be used and which populations are exposed, still require firsthand observation.

I have been working with colleagues to develop a method that gets around the current roadblocks to that kind of forecasting. Using “probabilistic learning” – a type of machine learning – the method can create local flood hazard models that can pinpoint conditions street by street using real-time storm forecasts.
The flood forecast challenge

Computer programs that can predict what happens to rainwater after it hits the ground are the ultimate tools for predicting in real time where and when floods will strike.

However, such flood models require immense amounts of computing power. Currently there is no means to quickly predict flooding in real time just anywhere. The level of detail relevant to human decisions – representing buildings, evacuation routes or infrastructure assets – is out of reach.

A second challenge is the high uncertainty in precipitation forecasts and many other inputs of flood models.

Research over the past decades explored the possibilities of solving these formidable challenges using “brute force” approaches: faster computers and more computers. Ultimately, it suggests a need to rethink how we forecast floods.

Designing effective local flood forecasts

The approach we developed tackles these challenges by using a sophisticated flood model to develop and train simpler models that can then mimic flood behavior in local environments at nearly the same level of accuracy as their more powerful teacher. Importantly, we have shown in studies that even a personal computer can then use these simpler models to forecast flooding in real time. Perhaps even a cellphone.

To forecast flooding, one needs to predict how flooding starts and evolves in urban communities – with a high level of detail and an understanding of the bounds of uncertainty around the prediction.

Our approach builds on key information that many cities already have: detailed data on topography of their communities and the surrounding watershed, how land is used, the layout of buildings and roads, and the characteristics of stormwater drains and pipes, such as how much water they can carry. Pavement and outdated stormwater infrastructure in particular can affect how water flows and which areas flood in an urban environment.

We then use one of the most up-to-date, sophisticated flood models available to train simpler models.

These simpler models are faster and require far less computing power because they use extremely simple functions, and each focuses on a single variable at a given location and time such as, for example, inundation level or water flow velocity. Thousands of them can provide a remarkably accurate picture of likely flooding when real-time weather forecast information is added.

The crucial point is that these simpler models are developed in the “off time” – well before the storms. These analyses can be performed using a freely available toolkit developed by the Department of Energy.

This approach replaces the nearly impossible burden of computation in real-time with the easier task of using previously trained, simple models of the local community.

We demonstrated the approach in a study using the 2017 flooding in Houston from Hurricane Harvey. The results showed that a computational problem that would otherwise take years to run on a typical computer can be executed in just a few seconds with a comparable level of accuracy.
Looking ahead

As global warming increases rainfall intensity and populations grow, flood risks will rise. Another increasingly recognized problem is that the standards of how communities manage stormwater are based on the climate of the past. Existing storm drains and pipes simply cannot handle the additional water, increasing the costs of flood damage.

While further work is needed to put this into wide use, we believe the method opens avenues for making flood forecasting more relevant, detailed and accurate. It also offers the means of assessing the adequacy of existing stormwater infrastructure and can be restyled to assess the impact of other hard-to-quantify natural hazards, such as landslides and fires.

Cities with high home values are likely to see more flood-forecasting services from the private sector. However, government agencies could use this kind of novel modeling to expand their forecasting mission to assist everyone. One could envision counties, with the right skills and resources, providing local flood forecasting. Who, if not the local communities, is most vested in the effective flood response management and mitigation?

READ ORIGINAL STORY HERE

Storm-Battered California Gets More Wind, Rain And Snow

Pedestrians carrying umbrellas crossing in front of Cable Cars in San Francisco, Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

BY JOHN ANTCZAK

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Storm-battered California got more wind, rain and snow on Saturday, raising flooding concerns, causing power outages and making travel dangerous.

Bands of rain with gusty winds started in the north and spread south, with more storms expected to follow into early next week, the National Weather Service said.

More than 68,000 utility customers were without electricity Saturday morning, a number that was cut by more than half during the afternoon, according to poweroutage.us.

Flood warnings were issued for the region north of San Francisco Bay, including Marin, Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino counties.

To the south, warnings were posted for parts of counties including San Mateo and Santa Cruz, where the tiny community of Felton Grove along the San Lorenzo River was ordered evacuated. Residents of semirural southeastern Sacramento County were warned that overnight flooding was likely and to be ready to leave.

The swollen Salinas River swamped farmland in Monterey County, and to the east, flood warnings were in effect for Merced County in the agricultural Central Valley, where Gov. Gavin Newsom visited to take stock of storm problems.

“The reality is that this is just the eighth of what we anticipate will be nine atmospheric rivers —- we’re not done,” Newsom said at a briefing with local leaders where he urged people to be vigilant about safety for the next 24 to 48 hours.

“This is happening all across California but I want to say ... you guys are disproportionately taking the brunt of it, and if you feel that way you’re right,” Newsom said.

Slick roads, snow and whiteout conditions plagued highways through the Sierra Nevada.

The UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab tweeted Saturday morning that it received 21.3 inches (54 centimeters) of snow in 24 hours and that its snowpack of about 10 feet (3 meters) was expected to grow several more feet by Monday.

A backcountry avalanche warning was issued for the central Sierra, including the greater Lake Tahoe area.

A series of atmospheric rivers has dumped rain and snow on California since late December, cutting power to thousands, swamping roads, unleashing debris flows, and triggering landslides.

At least 19 storm-related deaths have occurred, and a 5-year-old boy remained missing after being swept out of his mother’s car by flood waters in San Luis Obispo County.

Half of the deaths have involved motorists, and some could have been prevented if drivers had heeded road closure signs, said Sean Duryee, acting commissioner of the California Highway Patrol, during a briefing by state and federal officials on Friday.

In Santa Barbara County, where a massive debris flow through the community of Montecito killed 23 people on Jan. 9, 2018, residents were told that new evacuations were not expected but that they should be prepared.

Montecito and adjacent areas were most recently ordered evacuated last Monday, the fifth anniversary of what is locally remembered as the “1/9 Debris Flow.” But the community perched on foothills of coastal mountains escaped serious harm.

In a visit to Montecito on Friday, Newsom asked residents to exercise caution, and to heed warnings from public safety officials.

“I know how fatigued you all are,” Newsom said. “Just maintain a little more vigilance over the course of the next weekend.”

Dry days are in next week’s forecast for California starting on Tuesday.

“Question will then become do we stay dry through the end of month?” the San Francisco Bay Area weather office wrote.

AP reporter Janie Har contributed from San Francisco. AP/Report for America writer Sophie Austin contributed from Mather, California.

Karen Bass Launches New Housing Program To Help Tackle Homelessness In Los Angeles

BY SHANNON DAWSON

LOS ANGELES (NEWS ONE) -- Karen Bass is already making powerful moves in her new role as the Mayor of Los Angeles. On Sunday, the 69-year-old politician announced plans to move the city’s homeless from tent encampments into hotels and motels through a new housing program set to launch Tuesday.


During an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Bass shared more details about the forthcoming initiative, noting how the program would not “address everybody, but it is going to address, hopefully, a significant number,” according to AP News. Under the plan, none of the city’s homeless community will be forced to move from their current location, Bass clarified. “This is not coercing people. This is not ticketing people or incarcerating people. This is moving people from tents to hotels or motels,” she added.



Homelessness is a big issue in Los Angeles



Solving the city’s homelessness crisis has been at the top of Bass’s priority list. On her first day as mayor, Bass promised to build more housing to help quell the issue, allocating nearly $1.2 billion of the city’s budget. Nearly 40,000 people experience homelessness in Los Angeles. The crisis disproportionately impacts Black, Latinos, and the formerly incarcerated.

Under the initiative, Karen Bass hopes to house over 17,000 homeless people in her first year. Upon taking office, the former House representative said that she would work closely with officials to train outreach workers to move homeless communities off the streets. The teams will include trained outreach workers, medical and mental health professionals, and social workers. The program will also create job opportunities for the formerly unhoused to work directly with street teams. “As individuals with lived experience, they play a vital role as trusted messengers in helping others find the same stability they did,” her website notes.

Karen Bass’s passion for homelessness advocacy extends back to her early days with the Community Coalition. The former social worker helped push for converting motels into housing for the homeless in the 1990s, decades before COVID-19 spawned the creation of Project Roomkey, a federally funded homeless relief initiative in the state of California.

Nation’s Largest Water Supplier Declares Drought Emergency

FILE - A sprinkler waters the lawn of a home on Wednesday, May 18, 2016, in Santa Ana, Calif. T On Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2022, the Metropolitan Water District declared a regional drought emergency for all of Southern California. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The nation’s largest water supplier has declared a drought emergency for all of Southern California, clearing the way for potential mandatory water restrictions early next year that could impact 19 million people.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California provides water to 26 different agencies that supply major population centers like Los Angeles and San Diego counties.

It doesn’t rain much in Southern California, so the district imports about half of its water from the Colorado River and the northern Sierra Nevada via the State Water Project — a complex system of dams, canals and reservoirs that provides drinking water for much of the state.

It’s been so dry the past three years that those water deliveries have hit record lows. Earlier this year, the district declared a drought emergency for the agencies that mostly depend on the State Water Project, which covers about 7 million people.

On Tuesday, the board voted to extended that declaration to cover all Southern California water agencies. They called on agencies to immediately reduce how much water they import. By April, the board will decide whether to make those cuts mandatory if the drought continues.

“Some Southern Californians may have felt somewhat protected from these extreme conditions over the past few years. They shouldn’t anymore. We are all affected,” said Gloria D. Gray, chair of the Metropolitan Water District’s Board.

State officials recently announced that water agencies like Metropolitan will only get 5% of their requested supplies for the start of 2023 due to lower reservoir levels. Some agencies may get a little bit more if its necessary for drinking, sanitation or other health and safety concerns.

The drought declaration comes as Colorado River water managers are meeting in Las Vegas to discuss growing concerns about the river’s future after more than two decades of drought. Scientists say climate change has contributed to sustained warmer and drier weather in the West, threatening water supplies. The river’s two largest reservoirs — Lake Mead on the Nevada-Arizona state line and Lake Powell on the Arizona-Utah border — are each about one-quarter full.

In California, despite a recent run of storms that have dumped heavy rain and snow in the Sierra Nevada and Central Valley, reservoirs are all well below average for this time of year.

“I think Metropolitan is being very proactive in doing this,” said Dave Eggerton, executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies. “It’s really the right thing to do.”

Up to 75% of all water used in Southern California is for irrigating yards and gardens. Water agencies dependent upon imported water from the state have had restrictions for much of the year, including limiting outdoor watering to just one day per week.

Last year, California Gov. Gavin Newsom called for residents and businesses to cut their water use by 15%. But since then, residents have reduced water use by just 5.2%, according to the State Water Resources Control Board.

Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Water District is investing in what could become the world’s largest water recycling system. Known as Pure Water, the initiative would recycle wastewater instead of sending it out into the ocean.