Friday, November 11, 2022

Luna Maintains Lead in Battle for LA County Sheriff

CITY NEWS SERVICE

Former Long Beach police Chief Robert Luna maintained and even slightly extended his lead Thursday over incumbent Alex Villanueva in the race for Los Angeles County sheriff.

Updated totals from the Tuesday election showed Luna with nearly 58% of the vote, and Villanueva with just over 42%. Semi-official results released early Wednesday morning had Luna with 57% and Villanueva with 43%.

The updated total released Thursday had Luna with a total of 770,084 votes and Villanueva with 563,482.

The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s office on Wednesday estimated that roughly 1 million ballots still remained to be counted — 985,000 vote-by-mail ballots, 21,000 conditional voter-registration ballots and 300 provisional, or questioned, ballots.

The update released Thursday included a tally of 134,099 of those outstanding ballots, according to the county. Another update is expected to be released Friday, then every Tuesday and Friday until all ballots are counted — a process that could last until the end of the month.

Wednesday, November 2, 2022

LA County to Explore Purchasing Student Debt of Some Employees

CITY NEWS SERVICE

Los Angeles County will look into ways the county can purchase student loan debt that is unpaid or defaulted on by county employees who earn less than the median income of the area they live in, after a Board of Supervisors vote Tuesday.

Introduced by Supervisors Hilda Solis and Holly Mitchell, the motion requires the county government to report back to the board in 120 days with suggestions of how to purchase county employee’s student debt, what the most appropriate debt to purchase is, criteria that county employees will have to meet, ways the county can recoup debt payments if an employee leaves the county within five years of the debt being purchased, and ways to fill job vacancies by implementing the initiative.

According to the county’s Department of Consumer and Business Affairs, 9.8% of Californians have some form of student debt. The motion from the Board of Supervisors states that “Black women in particular are most severely impacted”

Tuesday, November 1, 2022

County Board of Supervisors Proclaims Nov. 13-19 “United Against Hate Week”

CITY NEWS SERVICE

The county Board of Supervisors Tuesday proclaimed Nov. 13-19 as “United Against Hate Week.”

Proposed by Supervisor Hilda Solis, the week is meant to increase awareness of the county’s “L.A. vs Hate” program, including its hotline for reporting hate crimes, discrimination and bullying and its work to connect people to counseling services.

The declaration is designed as a sign of “solidarity with targeted communities through a robust public campaign, utilizing traditional and ethnic media outlets, digital media, community-based organizations, and virtual and in-person community events,” according to the motion.

L.A. vs Hate will be sponsoring events throughout the county to celebrate United Against Hate Week.

According to the motion, the L.A. vs Hate reporting line logged 1,235 cases of hate, discrimination and bullying in its first two years of existence, from 2019 to 2021. The line received 491 reports from October 2019 to September 2020, and then 744 reports from October 2020 to September 2021,

Tuesday, November 1, 2022

County Backs Policy Requiring All-Gender Bathrooms in New Buildings

CITY NEWS SERVICE

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a policy Tuesday requiring the inclusion of single-user, all-gender bathrooms at all newly built, leased or renovated county buildings.

The move follows a 2016 vote by the board that required all existing single-user restrooms in county facilities to be converted to all-gender restrooms, a requirement that was later echoed in state law.

The policy approved Tuesday requires that single-user, all-gender bathrooms be installed during construction of new county buildings or renovation of existing buildings. They will also be required in any buildings leased by the county.

A report to the board noted that despite the 2016 vote requiring that all single-user restrooms be considered all-gender, there was previously no official county policy requiring such facilities to be included in new, renovated or leased facilities.

Wednesday, October 19, 2022

Assemblymember Chris Holden Presents Budget Check to the Altadena ($1.5 million)

Assemblymember Chris Holden presented his legislative update to the Altadena Town Council which included local budget victory for the La Vina Trail Completion for 1.5 million.

The effort to reconnect the western side of the Altadena Crest Trail has gone on for nearly two decades. On June 30th, the Legislature and Governor Newsom approved $1.5 million for the La Vina Trail Completion in Altadena. The Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA) in their pursuit of creating two new trails that will provide public access for all to the Altadena Crest Trail, Chaney Trail, and the Angeles National Forest’s extensive network of trails.

The Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, Los Angeles County, and Outward Bound Adventures are partners on this project. The trails are rooted in community, including community leaders from the Altadena Crest Trail Restoration Working Group, who advocated that the trails be built. Outward Bound Adventures will lead the effort to actualize the trails.

“This budget victory for Altadena helps create open spaces in Assembly District 41 for families,

Wednesday, October 19, 2022

Girl, 11, Reported Missing in Altadena

[CITY NEWS SERVICE]

An 11-year-old girl was reported missing in Altadena Tuesday.

Lea Fonseca was last seen about 8 a.m. in the 2100 block of Lake Avenue, near Eliot Arts Magnet, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Lea is Hispanic, 4 feet 9 inches tall and weighs 134 pounds, with long black hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and blue pants, and was carrying a black backpack.

Anyone with information on Lea’s whereabouts was asked to contact the LASD Missing Persons Unit at 323-890-5500. Anonymous tips can be called in to Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477 or submitted online at lacrimestoppers.org.

Tuesday, October 18, 2022

LA County Looks to Partner With Metro to Reach Homeless Aboard Trains, Buses

CITY NEWS SERVICE

The county Board of Supervisors Tuesday called on its Homeless Initiative staff to work with Metro to explore ways of coordinating outreach and service delivery to growing numbers of homeless people who seek shelter aboard trains and buses and at rail stations.

The board backed a motion introduced by Supervisor Janice Hahn that calls for the county and Metro to discuss ways of expanding outreach teams to the homeless who take advantage of the Metro system, and to consider development of round-the-clock “navigation hubs” within the Metro system where the homeless can be connected with social services.

Such hubs could potentially be used to provide direction to shelters for homeless people who exit trains at the end of the service day — a response to recent concerns expressed by Long Beach residents describing an influx of homeless who exit Metro A (Blue) Line trains in that city’s downtown area when the trains stop running in the early morning hours.

Friday, September 30, 2022

COVID is Dwindling, but Could LA County Have a Bad Flu Season?

CITY NEWS SERVICE

With COVID-19’s impact generally easing, although still deadly, could Los Angeles County be on the verge of a nasty flu season?

That was the concern expressed Thursday by the county’s Public Health director, who said the intense infection-control measures put in place to combat the pandemic also led to a dramatic reduction in flu cases over the past two years.

As a result, however, residents could potentially be more susceptible to flu infections, particularly if the area is hit with an infectious influenza strain being tracked in countries like Australia.

Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said the county is “likely to see more influenza than we’ve seen in the past two years,” since most of the COVID-era restrictions — particularly mask-wearing requirements — have been lifted.

“The big worry is most of us haven’t seen any flu for a couple years now,” she said, noting that such a lack of exposure could also lead to more infections this winter —

Monday, September 19, 2022

Supervisor Barger Allocates Discretionary Funds For Homeless Outreach

Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger announced today that she has allocated $2.3M from her discretionary funds to increase homeless outreach services across the Fifth District communities she represents.

The services will be provided by the Sheriff’s Department Homeless Outreach Services Team (HOST), and Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority (LAHSA) Homeless Engagement Team professionals who specialize in engaging people experiencing homelessness.

“Lifting people out of homelessness requires both expertise and perseverance,” stated Supervisor Kathryn Barger. “I’ve heard loud and clear from my constituents that more needs to be done to address homelessness in their communities. These funds will procure the services of additional deputies and outreach professionals who know how to compassionately engage people experiencing homelessness. Their model and approach works.”

With this funding, four new outreach teams will offer services exclusively in the Fifth Supervisorial District, with a special focus on the Antelope Valley, Santa Clarita Valley, portions of the San Fernando Valley, and the San Gabriel Valley. A fourth team will rove between these regions,

Tuesday, September 13, 2022

Settlement of LA Homelessness Lawsuit Against County Announced

By FRED SHUSTER, City News Service

A coalition of downtown Los Angeles business owners and sheltered and unsheltered residents announced a preliminary settlement Monday with the county aimed at providing services for thousands of unhoused people — a pact that would effectively end the L.A. Alliance for Human Rights’ often-contentious court battle over the local government response to the homelessness crisis.

Under the agreement, the county would commit $236 million to fund increased services, outreach and interim housing for the most vulnerable people experiencing homelessness. That amount will be on top of the $532 million in Measure H and state funds the county has committed this year to prevent and address homelessness, officials said.

The settlement would also provide county operational and service support in every shelter and housing project established by the city; give access to unlicensed beds for homeless people suffering from mental illness within the city; add 300 licensed mental health/substance use disorder beds; and increase the number of outreach teams to help the unhoused in areas with the highest need.