Tuesday, August 11, 2020

L.A. County Board Priorities May Run Headlong Into Financial Constraints

By ELIZABETH MARCELLINO, City News Services

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors’ ability to fund or expand new programs designed to support an anti-racist, pro-social justice policy stance may be limited this year, as illustrated by a report available on the county’s website Tuesday.

Last month, Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas proposed scaling up a three- person unit within the Public Defender’s Office to better track misconduct and the use-of-force by law enforcement officers countywide.

“The epidemic of police shootings of unarmed individuals is an unrelenting outrage that has rightfully provoked a much larger conversation around the twin objectives of promoting public safety and investing in community well-being,” Ridley-Thomas said at the time.

The board called for a report back in 30 days, a fairly tight timeline indicating an interest in moving quickly to implement change.

In response, the Public Defender’s Office produced an analysis — posted to the county website Monday — requesting 11 new positions and roughly $2.3 million annually to expand the unit.

Monday, August 10, 2020

LA County COVID-19 Rent Relief to Launch Aug. 17

STAFF REPORT

In an effort to assist renters with limited means affected by the COVID-19 crisis – including Pasadena residents – the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has provided $100 million in CARES Act funds to create a COVID-19 Rent Relief program, operated by the Los Angeles County Development Authority (LACDA).

The program is set to launch on Monday, Aug. 17, and will remain open for a two-week period, closing on Aug. 31, according to an announcement Monday by the LACDA.

The program’s goal is to assist between 8,000 to more than 9,000 households.

The emergency rental assistance being provided is intended to meet the needs of low-income renters who have struggled to pay their rent and those behind on paying rent due to the economic impacts caused by the pandemic. Those who are most at need will be targeted with more assistance.

The program is available to all county residents who qualify, with the exception of residents living in the city of Los Angeles.

Tuesday, August 4, 2020

Altadena Libraries Meet Critical Community Needs During Social Distancing

In this new world of social distancing, the Altadena Library District has quickly adapted to meet critical needs for connection, access to information, and technology in the few short months that COVID-19 has drastically changed life as we know it.

Within days of the release of the first Safer at Home orders in March 2020, the Altadena Library team called a virtual meeting with local stakeholders to form Altadena Connections, an informational email service designed to provide hyper-local COVID-19 updates and highlight the efforts of local groups to respond to the pandemic. Throughout the spring, Altadena Connections distributed over 20 informational updates to over 13,000 people highlighting safety, public health, business, civic engagement, and financial resources. More information can be found at www.altadenanews.org.

“It is in challenging periods like this that our community gets to see how adaptive and relevant libraries continue to be,” said Marketing & Community Engagement Manager Chloé Cavelier. “Your local library is a caring connector – a neighbor – that is continually curious about what its community needs and how we in libraries can continue to evolve and respond.”

The libraries’ digital presence did not stop there.

Friday, July 31, 2020

County Confirms 2,628 New Cases of the Cornavirus on Thursday

CITY NEWS SERVICE

County health officials reported 41 deaths and 2,628 cases of the Coronavirus on Thursday bringing the fatalities to 4,559 and the cases to 186,036.

The new deaths lifted the county’s overall death toll to 4559.

Los Angeles County Health Officer Dr. Muntu Davis again urged residents to sign up for an ongoing text-message-based survey designed to track residents’ health. The system sends participants occasional inquiries about how they are feeling and if they are displaying any symptoms of the virus, in an effort to track health trends. Davis said more than 8,300 people have already signed up for the program.

To register, text @protect to 35134.

Despite the large numbers of cases and deaths reported this week, health officials offered a generally positive portrayal of key statistics in recent days. Davis said the county’s seven-day average positivity rate had dropped to around 8.2%, which is down from double-digit levels earlier this month but still above the state standard of 8%.

Tuesday, July 28, 2020

Altadena Bank of America Branch Shuts Down Due to Pandemic

The Bank of America branch in Altadena was temporarily closed Monday as a result of the ongoing pandemic, representatives said.

The Bank of America Financial Center at 2345 Lake Ave., south of Altadena Drive, may remain closed through the rest of the week, according to Bank of America spokeswoman Colleen Haggerty said.

“We expect to be able to reopen the Altadena financial center next week,” she said.

A message on the branch’s website advised customers to “visit one of our neighboring ATMs or utilize Online and Mobile Banking, all of which are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”

Those wishing to make an appointment to access a safe deposit box during regular business hours were instructed to email their full names, addresses and phone numbers to safebox@bofa.com,” the statement added.

“We continue to take several steps to support our clients and employees during the health crisis, which may include briefly closing a financial center,” Haggerty said. 

Thursday, July 23, 2020

County COVID-19 Numbers Still Concerning, But Improving

CITY NEWS SERVICE

Rising coronavirus cases and fatalities remain concerning with four dozen more deaths confirmed on Thursday, but there are signs Los Angeles County is beginning to turn the corner in efforts to slow the spread of the Coronavirus according to the county’s top health officer.

On Thursday, the county confirmed another 2,014 cases, pushing the overall total to 166,848 since the start of the pandemic.

The county also announced another 49 deaths.

A total of 4,262 people have now died as a result of the virus, according to the county.

“At least this week, we’re still seeing concerning data,” county health officer Dr. Muntu Davis told reporters in an online briefing. “There are still high case counts, hospitalizations have exceeded 2,200 people for at least the last four days in a row and tragically people are still dying from COVID-19. But I hope this week marks a turning point, and that we’ll start to see the results of our collective actions to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Tuesday, July 21, 2020

L.A. County Board Set to Vote on Antiracist Policy Platform

CITY NEWS SERVICE

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is set to vote Tuesday on a strategic plan to craft antiracist policies and practices aimed at helping Black people in Los Angeles County.

Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas authored a motion requesting that the board declare racism a matter of public health and prioritize eliminating biases from county operations and programs.

“It is incumbent upon those of us who sit in positions of authority to begin dismantling systemic racial bias within the entities for which we are responsible,” Ridley-Thomas said last week when he previewed the proposal. “It’s no longer sufficient to support diversity and inclusion initiatives. The county has made great strides toward addressing and eliminating implicit bias. It is time to advance to the next level.

“The county must move to identify and confront explicit institutional racism to set the national standard and become a leader of antiracist policymaking and program implementation.”

If approved,

Monday, July 20, 2020

L.A. County May Support Worker Councils to Monitor COVID-19 Compliance

CITY NEWS SERVICE

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is scheduled Tuesday to consider a proposal to facilitate worker-led “health councils” to monitor business compliance with public health orders.

Supervisors Sheila Kuehl and Mark Ridley-Thomas co-authored a motion recommending that the county reach out to labor leaders and business representatives and quickly come up with effective ways to monitor compliance with mandates to wear facial coverings, install protective shields and disinfect workplaces.

“Workplace and community transmission have been significant factors contributing to the spread of COVID-19 in communities across the region,” the motion reads in part. “While many businesses have been diligent in their efforts to comply with public health requirements, many others have not. This creates a public health risk not only for the businesses’ employees and customers but for the communities in which the businesses are located and in which their customers and employees live.”

Kuehl and Ridley-Thomas suggested that workers could be certified to monitor violations and report them to public health investigators for follow- up.

Saturday, July 11, 2020

County Courts Presiding Judge: Jury Trials in Criminal Cases Postponed Until August

CITY NEWS SERVICE

The presiding judge of Los Angeles County’s court system announced Friday that jury trials in criminal cases will not resume until August as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Jury trials — which have been on hold in Los Angeles County since March 17 — are now set to begin resuming Aug. 10, according to the court.

“Throughout this unprecedented public health crisis, the court has implemented measures designed to protect the public it serves while safeguarding the rights of all participants in court proceedings,” Presiding Judge Kevin C. Brazile said in a statement released late Friday afternoon. `The court continues to evaluate this balance as the novel coronavirus contagion rate in Los Angeles County increases and public health authorities provide more guidance about how to slow its spread.

In Pasadena, the courthouse is at 300 E Walnut Street, in the block directly north of Pasadena City Hall.

The Los Angeles court system got approval from California’s Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye to issue the latest emergency order,

Thursday, July 9, 2020

Coronavirus Infections Continue Upward Trend in L.A. County; Record Number of Deaths Reported by State

By BRIAN DAY

The COVID-19 pandemic showed no signs of slowing down in Los Angeles County on Thursday as the state reported a record number of deaths.

California Department of Public Health officials reported 149 new fatalities due to the novel coronavirus and 7,031 new infections. Over the past week, the state averaged 8,043 new infections per day.

The state has seen an average of 73 deaths per day over the past seven days, Gov. Gavin Newsom said. He urged the public not to focus too much on daily figures, which can fluctuate greatly day-by day, in favor of weekly and bi-weekly averages.

State officials reported 114 deaths on Wednesday and 111 on Tuesday.

Prior to Thursday, the deadliest day of the pandemic had been April 22, when 115 deaths were reported, according to state data.

The average positivity rates in the state over the past seven-day and 14-day periods were both 7.3% on Thursday,