Summer is just about tapped out, and the season for scholars has arrived. As we turn the page to fall, we’re tilting our attention to new ideas, new challenges, new classes, and yes… new books.

Speaking of which, the next few weeks boast a handful of excellent events for the L.A. book lover, including kid-friendly literary festivals, a bookish celebration of teachers at Vroman’s, special readings for Banned Books Week, and a rare books spectacle at Union Station. They’re (almost) all free to attend and (definitely) all Metro-accessible. And that last bit reminds us about one of our favorite reasons to get around town using public transit: You can read while you ride!

Now let’s take a look at where you might be headed.

2024 Los Angeles Kids Book Festival (Sep 8)

The 2nd Annual Los Angeles Kids Book Festival is back at West Hollywood Park on September 8 with a full day of programming and entertainment. Expect 70+ exhibitors, live book readings by celebrated authors, interactive storytelling sessions, musical performances, meet-and-greets with authors, face painting, photo booth, arts and crafts, and more. Free to attend! Go Metro: Take Line 4 to San Vicente / Santa Monica or Take Line 16 to San Vicente / Santa Monica.

REMINDER: This is a good time to shout out the Metro GoPass program, which lets students of participating L.A. County K-12 schools or community colleges ride all Metro buses and trains for free. The free rides also extend to a group of regional transit agencies including Antelope Valley Transit Authority, City of Commerce Transit, Culver CityBus, Foothill Transit, Glendale Beeline, GTrans, LADOT Dash, La County Shuttles, Long Beach Transit, Montebello Bus, Norwalk Transit, Pasadena Transit, Santa Monica Big Blue Bus and Torrance Transit!

Teachers’ Night Out! at Vroman’s in Pasadena (Sep 14)

Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena celebrates the return of fall semester with their annual celebration of teachers and librarians featuring an evening snacks, beverages, staff recommendations, special discounts and goodies (including books!) to give away. The event starts at 6 p.m. and is free to attend, but RSVP is required. Go Metro: Take Line 180 to Colorado / Oak Knoll.

LéaLA (Sep 19-22)

The University of Guadalajara USA Foundation’s LéaLA returns to LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes for 2024 with a four-day literary festival promoting reading and books in Spanish and celebrating culture and the arts for the Latino community. the Expect a packed lineup of children’s workshops, performances, readings, and presentations, all free to attend. Go Metro: Take the A, B or D Lines to Union Station.

ALOUD in Revue: Banned Books (Sep 22)

Banned Books Week is an annual awareness campaign promoted by the American Library Association and Amnesty International, which runs from September 22-28 for this year. Here in Los Angeles, the week kicks off with a special presentation of ALOUD hosted at Central Library’s Mark Taper Auditorium featuring guest actors (including Sharon Stone, Amy Brenneman, Jason Butler Harner, and Stephen Tobolowsky) live reading selections from a few of the more than 4,000 books that have been banned in our country from public and school libraries. Program starts at 3 p.m. Make sure you reserve your free ticket in advance. Go Metro: Take the A, B, D, E, or J lines to 7th Street / Metro Center Station.

Los Angeles Libros Festival (Sep 28)

Capping off Banned Books Week, the 6th annual Los Angeles Libros Festival hosts full day of entertainment featuring Spanish-language and bilingual storytelling, musical performances, authors, workshops, books, and community. Free and open to the general public. Runs 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Go Metro: Take the A, B, D, E, or J lines to 7th Street / Metro Center Station.

Rare Books L.A. (Oct 5-6)

If old school books are more your style, swing over to Union Station for Rare Books LA. Hosted at the the historic Ticket Concourse, the two-day event boasts 50+ exhibitors showcasing antiquarian books, maps, and ephemera. Programming features a slate of Saturday talks, including a presentation from Metro Archivist Claire Kennedy on the ways in which Metro’s collections speak to the rich human narratives of life in Los Angeles. Admission is $23.18 on Saturday, $15 on Sunday, or $28.52 for a weekend pass. Go Metro: Take the A, B or D Lines to Union Station.

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A prominent portion of the Southern California coastline has been closed for more than 1,000 days because of sewage pollution flowing across the border from Mexico.

Beaches on the Imperial Beach coastline, in the southern part of San Diego County, have been closed since Dec. 8, 2021, Assemblymember David Alvarez, who represents the Imperial Beach area, said in a news release. While occasional dirty-water warnings are common in California, a multiyear closure is certainly not.

In the past five years, more than 100 billion gallons of contaminated sewage have flowed from the Tijuana River into the Pacific Ocean.

The California Legislature recently passed a resolution calling for the federal government to declare a state of emergency for the ongoing sewage crisis. This isn’t even the first time Imperial Beach has had to deal with such contamination issues. According to Assembly Joint Resolution 12, the pollution has gone on for decades.

The water quality along the Imperial Beach coastline has been linked to 34,000 annual illnesses, and approximately 76% of those illnesses are related to sewage pollution, the resolution said, citing research from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Assemblymembers said the contaminated waters have caused health problems, such as headaches, rashes, infections and breathing problems, for some in the area. The continuous flow of untreated sewage has also decreased tourism, hurt local business and lowered property values, according to the legislation.

City officials in San Diego and Imperial Beach have declared a state of emergency several times over the years and are asking the United States Congress and President Joe Biden to provide more funding for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s plan, which was implemented to address the crisis.

Last month, federal officials approved a $600 million project that would fund the repairs and rehabilitation of the main wastewater treatment plant for the sewage. The sewage is supposed to be filtered through the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant in San Diego County, which filters the water from Tijuana, Mexico, before it’s pumped into the Pacific Ocean.

The repairs, though, on the nearly three-decade-old plant could take up to five years.

In a letter addressed to Calif. Governor Gavin Newsom, Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre said that timeline is “unacceptable.” Aguirre asked Newsom’s office to assist in proposing a solution to the sewage crisis and declarea state of emergency.

“Imperial Beach and residents in south San Diego County are slowly being poisoned by this crisis, and our voices are not enough,” Aguirre said in a news release. “We need the state to stand with us and demand a comprehensive solution.”

Sep 4, 2024 Photo of Madilynne Medina

Madilynne Medina is a news reporter for SFGATE. Born and raised in the Bay Area, she earned a B.S. in journalism from San Jose State, where she served as executive editor for the Spartan Daily, and has also worked at NBC Bay Area. When she’s not out in the field reporting, she’s likely trying a new workout or listening to The Weeknd. You can contact her at madilynne.medina@sfgate.com.

After years of lobbying by local officials and advocates for more public transportation in the San Fernando Valley, L.A. Metro announced an $893-million federal grant that will help fund a new rail line for residents there.

The 6.7-mile light rail project is set to stretch along Van Nuys Boulevard and run through Van Nuys, Panorama City, Arleta and Pacoima, communities that local officials on Friday said have often been forgotten in L.A. transportation plans.

It will connect to local and regional bus services, including the Metro G Line express bus, as well as the Van Nuys Metrolink/Amtrak station, officials said.

“This is a region that has been overlooked,” Veronica Vanterpool, acting administrator for the Federal Transit Administration, said during a news conference Friday announcing the grant. “This will be the first rail line in the heart of a region that has called for high-quality transit for a long time.”

The grant, from the U.S. Department of Transportation, will be delivered to Metro during a multiyear agreement under the Federal Transit Administration’s Expedited Project Delivery Pilot Program.

The rail project, slated to be finished by 2031, would bring rail service back to the Valley more than 70 years after the last rail car from the Pacific Electric San Fernando Valley Line carried passengers there in 1952.

The grant, which will complete funding for the rail system, brought out local, state and federal dignitaries Friday to celebrate a longtime effort to improve public transportation in the area.

“This, for me,” said U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), “it’s personal.”

A native of Pacoima, Padilla said he and his family often relied on public transportation.

Padilla would later go on to serve on the Los Angeles City Council and California Senate. Trying to expand public transportation was a priority, though bringing rail service to the San Fernando Valley proved to be a challenge, he said.

“I heard things like, ‘The rail system reaches the Valley,’ ” Padilla said. “Well, a stop at Universal [Studios Hollywood] may be reaching the Valley, but it’s not serving the Valley.”

The Metro G Line does run from North Hollywood to Chatsworth, but Padilla noted that for decades, residents reliant on public transportation had no system running from north to south, except for bus services.

For years, local advocates have complained that when it came to public transportation, cities in the Valley were often overlooked.

“This is the transportation that the east San Fernando Valley has deserved for decades, and it’s coming to fruition,” said Los Angeles Councilmember Monica Rodriguez, who represents the 7th District.

When finished, the line is expected to serve nearly 19,000 riders daily who currently take the bus, Vanterpool said, reducing their commute by up to 15 minutes.

About 35% of residents in the area, she said, don’t own or have access to a car.

“This line will be a game changer for the Valley for generations to come,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, who also serves on the Metro board.

The total project cost is expected to be $3.57 billion. It is partially funded through Measure M, which was approved by voters in 2016, and other grants. In February 2023, the California State Transportation Agency, or CalSTA, awarded $600 million for the project.

Metro is set to start on minor street improvements and utility adjustment work later this year.

The new line will include 11 stations.

In a statement, Mayor Karen Bass thanked the Metro board and the Biden-Harris administration for the funding.

“Through their dedication, the East San Fernando Valley Light Rail is taking another important step toward a reality that connects East San Fernando Valley communities to our growing transit network which means access to more opportunities, jobs and attractions across the region.”

Metro is still studying a 2.5-mile extension of the corridor that would take the line farther out from Pacoima to the Sylmar/San Fernando Metrolink station.

California cities, counties may need to consider wildlife connectivity in development plans A haggard and scruffy looking mountain lion.

The famed and now deceased mountain lion known as P-22 developed mange after eating rat poison in 2014, and was captured and treated for the illness. One of two bills approved recently by the California lawmakers would place restrictions on the use of certain rat poisons.

(National Park Service)

California lawmakers have passed a pair of bills aimed at making the landscape safer for wildlife threatened by habitat fragmentation and ubiquitous rat poison.

AB 1889, known as the Room to Roam Act, directs cities to consider and protect wildlife connectivity in their land-use plans. Meanwhile, AB 2552, dubbed the Poison-Free Wildlife Act, puts restrictions on certain types of rat poison, including removing them for over-the-counter purchase and limiting their use in wildlife areas.

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“Our wild neighbors should have the freedom to find food, mates and shelter, and should not be sickened or killed by reckless use of poisons, and so we owe it to ourselves and California wildlife to find ways to coexist,” said J.P. Rose, urban wildlands policy director at the Center for Biological Diversity, which sponsored both bills.

The bills, which now go to the governor’s desk for final approval, were authored by Assemblymember Laura Friedman (D-Glendale). They cleared the state Legislature late last month and build on previous laws she spearheaded.

Cars, lack of connectivity and poison are the top threats to imperiled mountain lions in Southern California’s Santa Monica Mountains. The late, famed cougar P-22 was struck by a car toward the end of his life a few blocks south of Griffith Park and a subsequent exam revealed an old injury that may have been caused by another collision. He was also exposed to rat poison and developed mange.

Efforts to boost wildlife connectivity in the Golden State have gained momentum in recent years. What’s billed as the largest wildlife crossing in the world is rising over a 10-lane freeway near Los Angeles, while last month saw the launch of an initiative seeking to leverage public and private resources to build more safe passages for critters across the state.

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Room to Roam arrived about two years after the passage of a law that directed the California Department of Transportation to explore wildlife connectivity when it builds or expands roadways. (As required by that law, Caltrans recently released its wildlife connectivity report.) The new bill “addresses the land-use side of the coin,” Rose said.

Mari Galloway, California program director for the Wildlands Network, a co-sponsor of both connectivity bills, said there was concern that a local government might allow development in an area where Caltrans invested taxpayer money to make it passable for animals.

The new bill aims to avoid that headache by fostering coordination among various agencies and requiring local leaders to consider how development affects the movement of wildlife and habitat connectivity.

“The intention of the bill is to try to get everybody moving in the same direction in trying to identify where these landscapes need to remain permeable to ensure that we can continue to have this biodiversity,” Galloway said.

Cities and counties decide where development goes through long-term planning documents, known as general plans. This bill would mandate that local leaders “identify where these wildlife connectivity areas are in their general plan and then avoid, minimize and mitigate impacts to that area to be a functional linkage for wildlife,” Galloway said.

Proponents say wildlife movement isn’t currently considered until the end of the planning process — missing the opportunity to view the issue from a regional standpoint.

“What this bill seeks to do is front-load consideration of wildlife connectivity, so planners, builders and communities have a clearer picture of which areas are safer to build for both people and wildlife,” Rose said.

Although the bill does not require wildlife crossings to be built or set aside land, Friedman’s office said it was expected to result in the creation of passages, wildlife-safe fencing and reclaimed land or water.

In a statement, Friedman underscored the potential benefits to people: “Preserving wildlife connectivity and restoring degraded habitat and open space also helps ensure that all Californians have equitable opportunities to experience the physical and mental health benefits of nature.”

If passed, the soonest local governments would need to comply with the directives is Jan. 1, 2028.

Rose said the California Building Industry Assn. initially opposed the bill unless it was amended, and withdrew the opposition after its concerns were addressed.

Although previous laws have limited the use of certain rat poisons, others remain widely available. The Poison-Free Wildlife Act would place restrictions on additional types.

“This bill is an attempt to get some of those off the shelves so that people aren’t going to Home Depot and buying these super toxic rodenticides and unknowingly poisoning wildlife,” Rose told the Times earlier this year.

The poisons being targeted — chlorophacinone and warfarin — are known as first-generation anticoagulant rodenticides. They stop a rat’s blood from clotting and stay in the animal’s system after it dies. When an unsuspecting mountain lion or owl gobbles a dead or sick rat — or another animal that ate a tainted rat — the toxic substance is passed on.

Rose called the effects “really heartbreaking.” He said poisoned predators don’t always die right away; sometimes they “slowly bleed to death from the inside.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom has until Sept. 30 to sign the billls.

Under California law, anyone caught diverting water in violation of a state order has long been subject to only minimal fines. State legislators have now decided to crack down on violators under a newly approved bill that sharply increases penalties.

Assembly Bill 460 was passed by the Legislature last week and is among the water-related measures awaiting Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature. Other bills that were approved aim to protect the state’s wetlands and add new safeguards for the water supplies of rural communities.

Supporters say increasing fines for violations will help the State Water Resources Control Board more effectively enforce its orders to curtail water use when necessary.

“It helps the water board enforce the laws that they have on the books,” said Analise Rivero, associate director of policy for the group California Trout, which co-sponsored the bill.

The bill, which was introduced by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D-Orinda), is intended to prevent the sort of violations that occurred in 2022 in the Shasta River watershed, when farmers and ranchers who belong to the Shasta River Water Assn. defied a curtailment order for eight days and diverted more than half the river’s flow, flouting requirements aimed at protecting salmon.

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The state water board fined the association the maximum amount for the violation: $4,000, which worked out to about $50 for each of its members. Those small fines didn’t deter farmers and ranchers from reducing the river’s flow to a point that threatened salmon and affected the supplies of downstream water users.

The case in Siskiyou County led to widespread calls for larger fines and stronger enforcement powers.

The legislation increases fines for violations of state water curtailment to as much as $10,000 per day, plus $2,500 for each acre-foot of water diverted. (An acre-foot is 325,851 gallons, or enough to cover one acre a foot deep.)

“This bill closes that loophole and makes the existing law stronger, and it’s an important step in disincentivizing water theft,” Rivero said.

Rivero said being able to impose larger fines is important as California grapples with the effects of climate change on water supplies.

Leaders of a coalition of environmental groups urged Newsom to sign the bill. In a letter, they said enforcing harsher penalties for violators is crucial for the state water board to “fulfill its mission of protecting fish, water, and people.”

Bauer-Kahan said that for too long, breaking the law and paying the fines have been seen as the cost of doing business by some illegal water diverters.

“Although we did not go far enough in ensuring that our water rights system functions in times of scarcity, we did take an important step,” Bauer-Kahan said.

The legislation raises penalties to “better hold those who steal water accountable,” she said. “Water is a precious resource, and we must do everything possible to ensure its protection.”

Proponents of the bill made some sacrifices to secure sufficient support in the Legislature, dropping a provision that would have given the state water board authority to act faster in emergencies to prevent “irreparable injury” to streams, fish or other water users.

The result was a relatively modest reform, but one that serves an important purpose, said Cody Phillips, staff attorney for the group California Coastkeeper Alliance.

“Being able to get the California Legislature to agree to increase fines in water is a major deal for the practical consequences of preventing water theft, but also to show that we can change these important details about our water rights system, and the sky doesn’t fall,” Phillips said.

Other proposals have recently encountered strong opposition from agricultural groups and water agencies.

Phillips and other environmental advocates supported another bill, AB 1337, which sought to clarify the state water board’s authority to issue curtailment orders for all diverters, including senior rights holders that use a large portion of the state’s water. But that bill didn’t secure enough support to pass this year in the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee.

“Water is often referred to as the third rail in California politics, and we’ve seen that any changes, even modest changes, like 460 and frankly 1337, are met with ferocious pushback,” Phillips said. “But we can’t avoid these issues — climate change, overallocation, they’ve all led to a system where the way that we deal with water just doesn’t work.”

Some legal experts said the bill is a step in the right direction.

“We know that water is the single most important resource in the state, and yet we do not have a clear understanding of who uses it, where, and when, and we do not have a robust system for correcting unlawful use,” said Jennifer Harder, a professor at University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law.

Harder said the state needs to continue improving collection of water use data and should adopt measures to improve oversight of water rights. She said she is optimistic that “local water suppliers will come to understand that state-level standards can support and enhance local management.”

One of the other water-related measures passed by the Legislature included a bill intended to protect California’s wetlands after the rollback of federal protections under a Supreme Court decision last year. The court’s ruling in Sackett vs. EPA rewrote the federal definition of wetlands and removed federal protections for many streams that do not flow year-round, leaving ephemeral streams vulnerable to development and pollution.

If signed by Newsom, the bill, AB 2875, will codify an executive order that then-Gov. Pete Wilson issued in 1993 establishing a state policy of “no net loss” of wetlands and calling for a long-term increase in the acreage of wetlands. Despite that policy, the state has continued to lose more wetland acres to development during the last three decades.

“We have wetlands that only flow certain times of year, and they are seasonal, ephemeral streams that were stripped of protections, and yet they are really, really important biologically and for habitat,” said Assemblymember Laura Friedman (D-Glendale), who introduced the legislation.

Wetlands and a riparian forest are sustained by groundwater at the National Audubon Society’s Kern River Preserve.

Friedman and other supporters of the measure have stressed that because more than 90% of California’s original wetlands have already been drained and destroyed, strong protections for those that remain are vital. They say since the Supreme Court has scaled back the Clean Water Act’s federal protections for wetlands, the state will need to play a bigger role.

“We care about our state’s natural resources here in California, and it’s a shame that we right now have a Supreme Court that doesn’t seem to be very concerned about the kind of destruction that we’re seeing to our environment,” Friedman said. “It falls on states to really play whack-a-mole and catch up, because we have relied for a long time on existing, long-standing federal regulations.”

Scientists have documented major declines in North American bird populations since the 1970s, and they cite causes including the loss of habitats and warmer, drier conditions driven by climate change, among other factors.

The bill was sponsored by leaders of Audubon California, who called the measure an important step toward protecting wetland habitats that birds need to survive.

The bill doesn’t create a new regulatory framework but does make “a strong statement that California will protect and add wetlands,” said Mike Lynes, Audubon California’s director of public policy. “We’ve already lost so much of our natural wetland habitat. We’ve seen a decline in biodiversity, and there’s a ton of benefits by creating wetlands, not only for ecosystems, but also for flood control and for recreational opportunities, whether it’s birding, hunting, just hiking out in wetland areas.”

Another bill that was approved, AB 828, is aimed at improving safeguards for managed wetlands that are sustained by groundwater pumping, as well as rural communities that depend on wells. The bill, introduced by Assemblymember Damon Connolly (D-San Rafael), would allow these managed wetlands and small communities to temporarily continue to pump amounts of water in line with historical averages without facing mandatory reductions or fees imposed by local agencies under the state’s groundwater law.

Supporters said they proposed the change after several local agencies proposed groundwater allocations that would excessively limit supplies for communities or wildlife areas while also limiting pumping by agricultural landowners who are the largest water users.

“It sets a pause on pumping restrictions for small community water systems and managed wetlands, and on some fees, until those issues and their needs are considered,” Lynes said.

Some communities in the Central Valley have faced unworkable requirements to cut water use dramatically and start paying high fees for exceeding those limits, said Jennifer Clary, state director for the group Clean Water Action.

“We wanted a long-term exemption, but there was a lot of concern in the Legislature about that,” Clary said.

A federal judge on Friday ordered the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to build more than 2,500 units of housing for low-income veterans on its West Los Angeles campus.

In a 124-page decision following a non-jury trial, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter also ruled that leases to UCLA, the Brentwood School and others on the VA property are illegal because they don’t primarily serve veterans.

UCLA’s Jackie Robinson baseball stadium is on 10 acres leased from the VA, as is Brentwood School’s 22-acre athletic facility and a 12-acre L.A. city park.

Carter castigated the VA for abusing its mission to use the 388-acre campus to “principally benefit veterans and their families.”

“Over the past five decades, the West LA VA has been infected by bribery, corruption, and the influence of the powerful and their lobbyists, and enabled by a major educational institution in excluding veterans’ input about their own lands,” he wrote.

Carter wrote that the VA has in effect sold the land off, by allowing lease holders to construct concrete facilities on it and then arguing that tearing those facilities down would be wasteful.

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“The VA must remediate its mishandling of this resource so that the land may once again be available for its intended purpose: the housing of veterans,” Carter wrote.

Carter’s order requires the VA to build 750 units of temporary housing within 12 to 18 months and to form a plan within six months to add another 1,800 units of permanent housing to the roughly 1,200 units already in planning and construction under the settlement terms of an earlier lawsuit.

Carter also ordered the VA to increase its street outreach staffing and to increase the number of referrals it makes to local housing authorities to qualify veterans for housing subsidies.

He is also requiring the VA to begin construction of a town center, including such amenities as a cafe and general store, on the property within 18 months.

The ruling did not specify what should happen to the leases the VA has with UCLA, Brentwood School and others but said the “court will determine an exit strategy” after more hearings.

The U.S. Department of Justice, which represented the VA in the trial, declined to comment.

In closing statements at the trial, Department of Justice attorney Brad Rosenberg argued that the VA has been making progress in ending veteran homelessness and that the judge’s proposal to house more veterans on the campus would be financially burdensome and fundamentally alter the way the VA houses homeless veterans.

“Plaintiffs want to shift VA’s scarce resources to a single location to house people with high needs,” he said. “Whether or not the court thinks that is a good idea, we think it’s a bad idea.”

The Department of Justice declined further comment. UCLA and the Brentwood School did not immediately responded to requests for comment.

The three-week-long trial in downtown federal court reprised litigation going back to 2011 that challenged the leases and asserted an unmet need for veteran housing. In the earlier case, a federal judge ruled that several leases were illegal. Under the West Los Angeles Leasing Act of 2016, some were terminated and others renewed.

Subsequently, the VA’s inspector general found that leases to the Brentwood School, as well as land containing oil wells and parking lots, did not comply with the leasing act’s requirement to “principally benefit veterans and their families.”

The VA disagreed and retained the leases. A Brentwood official testified in the recent rial that the school pays rent of $850,000 annually to the VA and provides more than $900,000 in “in-kind” services, including meals for veterans and a shuttle service so they can use the campus.

In a 2015 settlement, the VA agreed to develop a master plan for the campus. A draft plan, completed in 2016, called for 1,200 units of housing in new and rehabilitated buildings with a commitment to complete more than 770 units by the end of 2022. Only 54 of those units were completed by the deadline, and only 233 are currently open.

“In the years since 2011, the Obama administration, the Trump administration, and the Biden administration have each promised that they would act swiftly to eradicate veteran homelessness in America,” Carter wrote in his ruling released Friday. “Yet, today, approximately 3,000 homeless veterans live in the Los Angeles area alone.”

Acknowledging the plaintiffs’ argument that a lack of enforcement had allowed the failures to occur, Carter said he would appoint a court monitor to ensure that terms of his ruling are met.

In a rebuke of the VA’s practice of contracting with developers whose use of cumbersome tax credits has delayed the construction of housing, Carter ordered the VA to “employ the most efficient, affordable, and time sensitive conventional financing of its housing projects.”

The decision followed testimony in which plaintiffs recounted the history of Veterans Row — the collection of tents that sprung up along San Vicente Boulevard just outside the VA grounds during the pandemic.

Rob Reynolds, an Iraq war veteran who did not live in Veterans Row but became an advocate for veterans who did, testified to the squalor, despair and deaths, as well as the neglect by VA staff who never came outside the fence to offer aid.

Reynolds traced the evolution of the VA’s response to Veterans Row from initial neglect to a plan to bring the vets inside to a village of pup tents and then to their current accommodations in 8-foot by 8-foot tiny homes, which he described as “the boxes that they live in.” He attributed the VA’s increased attention to media coverage.

On Friday, Reynolds said he was thankful for the decision.

“I felt all along if this went in front of a judge, he would see what we have all seen for years,” Reynolds said. “The facts are indisputable. I think this is a great start to end veteran homelessness and get this property back to its original intended use as a soldiers’ home.”

In California, it’s relatively easy to recycle aluminum cans, newspapers or glass bottles. But for one of the most commonly used household products — clothes — options are few.

Every year, tons of unwanted shirts, jeans, dresses, jackets and other garments end up in landfills across the state. Almost none are recycled. Some are donated to thrift stores, but thrift stores often re-sell to companies that ship them to developing nations, such as Ghana and Chile, where they are piled in mountains as high as 50 feet in deserts and along rivers.

On Friday, state lawmakers sent a bill to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk that would require companies to set up the nation’s first mandatory take-back program for unwanted clothes.

If Newsom signs the bill, SB 707, as expected, companies that make clothing and other textiles sold in California, including drapes, sheets and towels, will be required to create a non-profit organization by 2026 that would set up hundreds of collection sites at thrift stores, begin mail-back programs and take other steps in all of California’s 58 counties to take back and recycle their products by 2030.

“All across America, there are closets full of clothing that never gets worn,” said Mark Murray, executive director of Californians Against Waste, an environmental group based in Sacramento that supports the bill. “It is surrounding us. Look around your house. It’s the biggest waste problem that we’re ignoring.”

The accumulation of clothing waste is being made worse by “fast fashion,” a trend in which clothing companies make low-cost clothes intended to be worn only a few times as fashions shift.

“We have no use for things that aren’t in fashion, or don’t fit, or are worn out, and they often have no place left to go but the landfill,” Murray said.

The numbers are daunting.

In 2021, roughly 1.2 million tons of clothes and textiles were disposed of in California, according to the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, known as CalRecycle. While 95% of them are reusable or recyclable, only 15% currently are.

The bill is the latest in a trend of California lawmakers requiring companies that make difficult-to-dispose-of products to take responsibility for recycling and reusing them, rather than leaving the cost and challenge up to local city and county governments.

One example: Under state law since 2018, consumers are charged $10.50 when they buy a new mattress in California. That money helps fund an industry-led program, the Mattress Recycling Council, that has opened 240 collection sites and now recycles 85% of old mattresses in the state.

Similar “extended producer responsibility” programs with paint and carpet have been put in place in recent years. Newsom signed a landmark law in 2022 that will require the packaging industry to take back plastic packaging in the next few years.

The idea is to shift the burden away from consumers and government — which have to pay to expand and build landfills — to industry, which profits from selling the products in the first place, said State Sen. Josh Newman, a Fullerton Democrat, who wrote the clothing recycling bill.

“If I produce something as a manufacturer, I have a responsibility to participate in the full life cycle of that product, with the goal of minimizing the impact on the environment,” Newman said.

Lawyer Paulin Silva shows clothes dumped in the desert, in La Pampa sector of Alto Hospicio, about 10 km east of the city of Iquique, Chile, on November 11, 2022. – Hills of clothes from the United States, Asia and Europe; used cars from Japan or Korea and thousands of tires contaminate extensive areas of the immense but vulnerable Atacama desert in northern Chile, which has become the planet’s “backyard”. (Photo by MARTIN BERNETTI/AFP via Getty Images)

France, center of the world’s fashion industry, already has a mandatory clothing recycling program. Other states around the U.S. are watching California to see if this one will work.

Industry groups at first opposed the bill, led by the California Chamber of Commerce and the American Apparel and Footwear Association, which represents more than 300 large clothing companies. After negotiating some changes with Newman, including allowing the industry group to do an assessment and work with CalRecycle to set recycling targets, they shifted to neutral.

“The biggest challenge is that apparel brands are not waste-management providers,” said Chelsea Murtha, the association’s senior director of sustainability. “This isn’t their area of expertise. Building out a system that doesn’t exist in a state this big is going to be a challenge. It’s ambitious. We are hopeful we can rise to the challenge.”

Murtha said the nonprofit group the industry is required to set up will likely operate in or alongside thrift stores in big counties and set up collection bins in rural counties. The costs will be passed on to consumers in the price of the clothing, she said, adding that it’s too early to provide an estimate.

Newman said he expected the law will only add “pennies” to the cost of new clothing.

Murtha said clothes in good condition will probably be resold or recycled. Damaged or worn garments can be recycled fairly easily if they are made of wool, cotton or other natural fibers. The fibers can be reused and spun into new fabrics.

Some old clothes will be shredded and used to stuff pillows or provide insulation for other products, she said. Garments made of mixed fabrics, such as polyester and spandex, can be broken down by a chemical process in which the basic materials are recycled.

The industry has not been pleased to see many old clothes ending up in landfills or waste piles in African and South America, Murtha added.

“That’s not something that any designer or sustainability team at an apparel brand wants,” she said.

UCLA, riven by violent protests over the Israel-Hamas war last spring, on Thursday unveiled a plan to rebuild campus trust and connections with enhanced safety measures, broader dialogue across differences, free speech guidelines and stronger efforts to support diversity.

UCLA drew global attention in April, when video footage captured a violent nighttime attack on a pro-Palestinian encampment by counterprotesters armed with metal pipes, wooden planks, fists and fireworks. Law enforcement forcibly dismantled the encampment shortly afterward, arresting 231 people, including about 90 students. The security lapses prompted UCLA to reassign the police chief. Faculty members outraged by the police actions held votes to censure and express no confidence in then-Chancellor Gene Block, which failed.

Meanwhile, a congressional committee summoned Block to grill him on his handling of antisemitism and three Jewish students sued UCLA for failing to protect their access to campus walkways and buildings, which they said Palestinian supporters blocked after asking if they were Zionists.

In an effort to move forward, Hunt said his four-point plan would aim for a “safer, stronger UCLA” featuring reviews of policing practices, campuswide efforts to build community and updated guidelines on free speech activities.

“As a campus that promotes inclusive excellence, we must protect the ability for Bruins of all backgrounds and identities to feel safe, welcome, respected and able to participate fully in campus life,” Hunt wrote. “We may not always see eye-to-eye on important and topical issues, but if we engage one another with respect and empathy, we can both grow as people and maintain a healthy academic environment for everyone.”

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UCLA’s new free speech guidelines are in line with strict new University of California guidance on protest management. All 10 UC campuses have been directed by UC President Michael V. Drake to post rules around free speech and notify students about them before their fall terms begin, a move to comply with a state legislative mandate. UCLA and six other UC undergraduate campuses begin instruction the week of Sept. 23; UC Berkeley and UC Merced started last month.

UCLA’s policies, issued Wednesday, are effective immediately as interim rules until they are finalized after a 60-day public review process. They specify approved free speech zones, omitting Royce Quad as one of them. The quad was a major conflict zone last spring as the site of both the Palestine Solidarity Encampment and a pro-Israel area featuring a massive jumbotron that projected video loops of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants on southern Israel.

The free speech zones include Bruin Walk and Plaza outside the student union and Pauley Pavilion, along with the east lawn area next to the Janss steps.

The rules prohibit tents, campsites and other temporary structures on UCLA property without prior approval and blocking of access to walkways and buildings. Amplified sound will be banned during marches but otherwise generally allowed with some restrictions. Concealing one’s identity while breaking laws or rules will be prohibited. In addition, the rules detail procedures for holding campus events and reiterate that the campus will be closed from midnight to 6 a.m. for activities with limited exceptions.

In addition to new free speech policies, the plan includes a renewed focus on campus safety and well-being. After the melee overnight on April 30, UCLA created a new Office of Campus Safety, hired former Sacramento Police Chief Rick Braziel to head it and moved all policing and emergency management programs to that office. The office, along with the University of California, is reviewing the safety protocols and police response to the protests last spring.

But Hunt said the office will expand its responsibilities beyond protest management. A 2022 report on campus safety noted that students, faculty and staff expressed concerns not only about campus policing but also mental health, protection from COVID, racism and sexism, active-shooter and earthquake preparedness and sexual assault. UCLA will include such broader issues in the expanded charge as it continues with listening sessions, Hunt said.

UCLA will also launch several programs aimed at building understanding between those who disagree. Across the UC system, many students, faculty and administrators say the differences over the Israel-Hamas war have ripped their campuses apart in unparalleled ways. Hunt said a first step in healing those divides is “seeing one another as real people shaped by complex backgrounds and experiences — not as simple stereotypes.”

UCLA will roll out a new speaker series this fall offering “challenging but empathetic conversations” on topical issues. The first event will feature Yasmeen Abu Fraiha, an Israeli Bedouin physician and fellow with the Middle East Initiative at Harvard’s Kennedy School.

“Speaking Across Conflicts” workshops will aim to strengthen skills for constructive conversations across charged political differences. New programs for student internships and teaching fellowships about effective dialogue are also planned. Many of the expanded programs will be housed in the UCLA Bedari Kindness Institute and headed by David Myers, a professor of Jewish history who has long been involved in bridge-building efforts.

“In a diverse community such as ours, part of our learning and growth comes from engagement with viewpoints we may not agree with or readily understand,” Hunt wrote. “While this may be uncomfortable, it is also what helps us deepen our thinking, weigh different approaches and consider new ways of looking at an issue. Ultimately, it advances truth, knowledge and understanding.”

Hunt also said UCLA would continue to look for ways to foster greater support for its diverse community. Its Office of Civil Rights, for instance, is currently reviewing reports of antisemitism, along with anti-Arab and Islamophobic discrimination, to understand how that affected student experiences.

“UCLA is a spectacular place but it is by no means perfect,” Hunt said. “A commitment to rigorously studying the challenges we have faced and how we have addressed them — and making changes based on those findings — is essential if UCLA is to best serve its important academic mission and meet the needs of its students, faculty and staff.”

Election Day is Nov. 5.

In early October, vote-by-mail ballots will sent to voters in California.
The voter registration deadline is Oct. 21 for vote-by-mail.

Election Day is two months away, but some important California election dates and deadlines are just around the corner.

One of the milestones on the path to Nov. 5 is in early October when county elections offices begin mailing vote-by-mail ballots. The voter registration deadline arrives later next month with vote centers open for early voting in the weeks prior to Election Day.

When it's all over, some time after Nov. 5, voters will have decided statewide ballot propositions, county and city office races and who will be the next President of the United States.

Here are some important election dates and deadlines to know.

Aug. 29: Voters can start using the My Voter Status tool to confirm their mailing address and voting status. Anyone planning to vote should verify and, if needed, update their voter registration. Re-registration is required if you've moved or changed your address, changed your name, or would like to change your political party affiliation.

Sept. 26 to Oct. 15: This is when the California Secretary of State and county election officials will mail voter information guides.

Oct. 7: County elections offices will begin mailing vote-by-mail ballots. California mails every active registered voter in the state a vote-by-mail ballot, a practice that began during the COVID-19 pandemic. You can check on your ballot here. Early voting sites also open.

Oct. 8: County elections officials will open ballot drop-off locations by this date. Find a location here. The locations will stay open through Election Day.

Oct. 21: The voter registration deadline for vote-by-mail. As of July 5, there were 26.8 millions eligible voters in California, 22.1 million of whom are registered to vote.

Oct. 22 to Nov. 5: Same day voter registration will be available, including on Election Day. Voters who choose this option are "conditionally" registered and cast a provisional ballot.

Oct. 26: Voter's Choice Act counties open vote centers.

Nov. 5: Polls open throughout California from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day. After Election Day 2024

The work is far from done for elections officials in California's 58 counties on Election Day.

After polls close Nov. 5 at 8 p.m., county elections officials begin reporting results. The county offices conduct a semifinal official canvass of votes with totals reported to the California Secrety of State every two hours until the process is complete.

Nov. 12: Ballots returned by mail must be postmarked on or before Election Day and received by a county elections office to be counted.

Dec. 3: Counties send a statement of results in the race for U.S. President to the Secretary of State.

Dec. 5: This is the last day for county elections offices to certify election results.

Dec. 6: County elections officials send electronically a complete copy of the general election returns to the Secretary of State.

Dec. 7. This is the last day for the Secretary of State to analyze votes given for presidential electors and certify to the governor the names of the candidates having the highest number of votes.

Dec. 13: The statement of vote is certified by the Secretary of State. Southern California county elections offices

Your county elections officer is the go-to source for information on voting in the 2024 General Election. Find a link to your county office below.

Los Angeles County

Orange County

Riverside County

San Bernardino County

Ventura County

All California county elections offices

California officials are turning the screws on the city of Beverly Hills, where approval of a new hotel and apartment complex is moving too slowly for state housing bosses and the governor.

The lightning rod is a planned mixed-use development near Wilshire Boulevard that has been brought forth under a state law intended to force cities to add more housing whether they like the proposals or not.

The 19-story building on Linden Drive by local developer Leo Pustilnikov would be big by Beverly Hills standards and include a 73-room hotel and restaurant on the first five floors. Plans call for the higher floors to contain 165 apartments including 33 units reserved for rental to lower-income households.

The project so far has failed to pass muster with city planning leaders, who say Pustilnikov hasn’t provided all the details about the project that the city requires to consider approval.

Pustilnikov has pioneered a novel interpretation of a state law known as the “builder’s remedy” to push cities to allow development projects at a size and scale otherwise barred under zoning rules.

As part of their efforts to tackle California’s housing shortage and homelessness crisis, legislators recently beefed up the law, by giving developers leverage to get large proposals approved so long as they set aside a percentage for low-income residents.

Last month the state Department of Housing and Community Development backed Pustilnikov in a “notice of violation” to the city, saying it was violating state housing laws by holding up the project.

“The City Council should reverse its decision and direct city staff to process the project without further delay,” the state notice said, referring to a council vote in June to delay the approval process.

Gov. Gavin Newsom piled on in a statement, saying that the city is violating the law by “blocking” the proposal and referring to opponents of the project as NIMBYs — a highly charged acronym for “not in my backyard” that refers to homeowners who resist development projects in their neighborhoods.

“We can’t solve homelessness without addressing our housing shortage,” the governor said. “Now is a time to build more housing, not cave to the demands of NIMBYs.”

Beverly Hills already faced pressure to approve the Linden project before the state’s letter. In June, Californians for Homeownership, a nonprofit affiliated with the California Assn. of Realtors, sued the city in Los Angeles County Superior Court for not advancing the development.

Some residents in the neighborhood south of Wilshire Boulevard are up in arms about the scale of the project that is designated to fill a parking lot at 125-129 S. Linden Drive between a five-story office building and low-rise apartment buildings.

“None of us are opposed to affordable housing,” said Kenneth A. Goldman, president of the Southwest Beverly Hills Homeowners Assn., but “you don’t have to be a NIMBY to say that’s just so far out of line.”

It would be almost four times taller than the five-story height limit the city has on its books and could threaten the neighborhood’s “quiet lifestyle,” Goldman said. The construction period would be “hell,” he added.

The city has until Sept. 20 to respond to state housing officials and indicated in a statement that the delay was due in part to Pustilnikov changing the original all-residential proposal to include the hotel. It is a switch that could offer a financial coup for the developer in a tourist-friendly city, where getting permission to build a new hotel is a tall order.

Last year Beverly Hills voters decided to rescind the City Council’s approval of an ultra-opulent hotel called Cheval Blanc on the edge of Rodeo Drive after French luxury retailer LVMH spent millions of dollars planning the project.

Of the Linden Drive proposal, the city said in a statement, “The project has not been denied.”

“What was originally submitted as a purely residential project has now morphed into a 73-room hotel and restaurant project with 35 fewer residential units, including a reduction of 7 affordable units,” it said.

When the application is complete, the city said, a public hearing will be held, followed by Planning Commission review and potential approval by the City Council.

That process may be complicated by Pustilnikov’s stated intention to sell his interest in the Linden Drive property as part of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding involving another of his real estate projects.

In 2018, Pustilnikov purchased a 50-acre parcel on the Redondo Beach waterfront that is the site of a defunct power plant. The property is controlled by entities owned by Pustilnikov and a business partner, Ely Dromy. Using the builder’s remedy law, the pair has advanced a massive mixed-use project for the site with 2,700 apartments as its centerpiece. In court documents, Pustilnikov estimates that the development, if completed, would be worth $600 million.

The effort has been stymied amid fights with the city of Redondo Beach, the California Coastal Commission and AES Corp., the owner of the power plant. In late 2022, AES threatened to foreclose on Pustilnikov. To stave that off, one of the entities that own the site filed for bankruptcy.

In a recent filing in the case, Pustilnikov and Dromy said they will sell the Linden property for $27.5 million to help preserve their ownership of the power plant site.

However, a representative for Pustilinkov, Adam Englander, said in a statement that is not necessarily the case.

Instead, more investors may be brought in to the Redondo Beach property and a developer with luxury hotel experience may become a partner in the Linden project, Englander said.

“It is not anticipated,” Englander said, that the Linden project “in its current form, will be sold prior to completion.”

Pustilnkov has put forward plans to build nearly 3,500 apartment units — 700 of them dedicated as low-income — across a dozen projects in Beverly Hills, Redondo Beach, Santa Monica and West Hollywood under the builder’s remedy. The Linden project is one of seven he’s planning in Beverly Hills alone.

The builder’s remedy provides few avenues for city councils to deny the developments. But because it’s legally untested and separate state environmental laws still apply, projects are not a slam dunk. None of Pustilnikov’s proposals have been approved.

Cities are subject to the law if they do not have state-approved blueprints for future growth. Every eight years, the state requires communities to design a zoning plan accommodating specific numbers of new homes, including those set aside for low- and moderate-income families.

In the current eight-year cycle, Beverly Hills struggled to get a plan that passed muster. Elected officials and residents balked at the city’s requirement to make space for 3,104 homes, saying that doing so would unalterably change the community’s character.

The city blew multiple deadlines and was sued by Californians for Homeownership. In December, a L.A. County Superior Court judge ruled that Beverly Hills could no longer issue any building permits — including those for pools, kitchen and bathroom remodels and other renovations — because of its failure.

The city appealed the ruling and continued to process permits in the meantime, but the decision sparked alarm among civic leaders. In May, the state approved a revised housing plan for Beverly Hills, ending the threat of the permit moratorium.

latimes latimes latimes beverlyhills.org

All too often, there are reports on children in the foster care system are abused, or worse. But there are success stories as well, many of them thanks to non-profit agencies that find good homes for kids.

But those agencies are facing a crisis that could force them to shut down.

There are nearly 45,000 children in the California foster care system, the vast majority have been separated from their parents due to neglect or abuse. Roughly 9,700 of those kids are placed in resource family homes supported by nonprofit foster family agencies (FFAs) like Five Acres in Altadena.

"FFAs are a critical component in the continuum of care in the child welfare system. They do the work that the counties are simply not set up to do," explained Jodi Kurata, the CEO of the Association of Community Human Service Agencies.

Working with foster children exposes FFAs to liability risks that requires insurance coverage.

Currently, a single insurer provides coverage in California for 90% of ALL FFAs - 26 in just L.A. County. But in spite of pending legislation in Sacramento intended to resolve liability concerns, that insurer recently announced it will no longer provide coverage to FFAs.

Kurata says the impact could be devastating,

"Foster family agencies cannot operate without insurance and today we understand the problem to be an availability problem not a cost problem."

Chanel Boutakidis is the CEO of Five Acres, and like other FAAs, can only wait to see what happens in Sacramento.

"It's heartbreaking for us to think that our programs would be in jeopardy alongside all the others in California who operate foster care agencies, but without us you're gonna see a lot of families who really never find their way to a child," said Boutakidis.

Families such as Erich Schneider and Alana Gentry, who found their daughter with the help of Five Acres.

"There's something in me that knew, 'oh, you're going to find your daughter here'," Alana said as she held back tears of joy.

Gentry and Schneider came to Five Acres when they wanted to learn about adoption and were inspired through the Five Acres orientation program.

"It was like, full body chills when they were talking. It just felt like this is where we we're meant to be," Gentry said.

"We also didn't know about the need for it... just in L.A. County alone how many children needed homes," Schneider added.

Initially, they were a foster family before adopting their now 3-year-old daughter.

In L.A. County, 1,700 children are being cared for by FFA resource families - who are trained and supported by an FFA social worker, who can visit families every week because the case load is roughly half that of a county social worker.

Laura De La Cruz, who is a program supervisor for Foster Care and Adoption, explained why that matters.

"The child fell and scraped their knee, they call us. The child got suspended from school today, they call us. We answer the phone. We know what's happening at all times. Oversight is very important to keep kids safe and that's what a foster family agency can offer."

Without a solution, FFAs will begin losing insurance as early as October and it will likely cascade across the industry through the fiscal year of 24-25.The risk to the foster care system is hard to imagine.

"If 90% of FFAs were to go away in the coming year, counties would face severe crises in finding safe family settings for children and so there would be a number of children without anywhere to go," said Kurata.

Boutakidis echoed that sentiment.

"I would say I'm very concerned that, should agencies like us not exist, you're gonna get children who never find permanency and end up just rotating from family to family and emancipating out, and then who knows what system they enter and I think that's one of the greatest worries I have with this."

Schneider says he hopes something will be done to keep foster family agencies protected.

"The road was rough getting to this point, but at this point it feels meant to be... like, she was always our daughter and Five Acres is a huge part of that," Schneider said.

Tuesday, September 3, 2024 8:27pm

CALABASAS, Calif. (KABC) -- A mountain lion was euthanized after it attacked and injured a 5-year-old boy at Malibu Creek State Park over the weekend.

A family group from Woodland Hills, consisting of several adults and a few children, was having a picnic at the park when the attack happened Sunday afternoon, according to a statement from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The children were playing near the group's picnic table when the mountain lion attacked the boy, wildlife officials said. At least one of the adults charged at the lion, who then released the boy and ran up a nearby tree. Mountain lion euthanized after attacking 5-year-old boy at Malibu Creek State Park

"The adults were able to respond. They scared off the mountain lion," California Department of Fish and Wildlife spokesperson Steve Gonzalez said.

When California State Parks rangers and L.A. County sheriff's deputies arrived at the scene, the large cat was still in the tree.

After consulting with wildlife officers, they "deemed the mountain lion a threat to public safety and a ranger euthanized it via firearm."

"It was deemed a public safety issue. Anytime an animal - a wildlife animal - attacks a human, the animal is euthanized," Gonzalez said.

The 5-year-old suffered significant injuries and was airlifted to the Northridge Hospital Medical Center after the attack. He was released Monday morning.

Gonzalez said the boy is expected to make a full recovery. No other injuries were reported.

Mountain lion encounters are rare, especially during daylight hours. The big cats usually avoid human contact and do most of their hunting at night. Experts say the odds of another cougar attack are low.