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After weeks of tumult at the University of Southern California, administrators have announced updated commencement plans, with increased security and modified festivities. The plans are in lieu of the university’s main graduation ceremony, which the school had canceled, citing security concerns. The university said it would host a “Trojan Family Graduate Celebration” on Thursday at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the famed venue where its football team plays home games. More than 100 school-specific graduations and smaller receptions are set to take place on campus as planned, but with tighter access. For scheduling reasons, the university will be able to use only a portion of the stadium, so each graduate will receive up to six tickets.

Persons: ” Organizations: University of Southern, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, team Locations: University of Southern California

Local news footage and social media images showed scenes of chaos: Members of the clashing groups threw punches and wrestled each other to the ground. At about 3:30 a.m., officers wedged themselves between the groups, and the violence began to de-escalate. As the campus awoke early Wednesday, students and other curious onlookers leaned against the barricades at the encampment, silently taking videos or snapping photos. A police helicopter continued to hover overhead, and a large Palestinian flag at the center of the camp swayed in the wind. Detritus from a night of chaos — trash, broken pieces of wood, trampled clothing — speckled the ground.

Persons: counterprotesters, ”, Ms, Salem, “, Michael Nasir, Sergio Garcia Organizations: California, Patrol

☆ Mudslides and Flooding Reported Across Los Angeles
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-05 | by ( Jill Cowan | More About Jill Cowan | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Mudslides and severe flooding were reported in Los Angeles on Sunday evening, as a storm that made its way to Southern California after pummeling northern areas of the state was forecast to bring more heavy rain and winds for another day. “If you’re worried about the north, I’m more worried about the south and what’s to come.”There were mudslides on all canyon roads in and out of Malibu, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. And in the Studio City neighborhood, firefighters had evacuated six people from two homes as water dragged debris down into the area, the Los Angeles Fire Department said. Officials warned that the worst was likely still to come, with heavy rain expected for at least the next 24 hours. The danger, they said, was not primarily from winds lashing power lines or trees (although thousands were without power as of Sunday night).

Persons: Dr, Daniel Swain, I’m, Rather Organizations: University of California, Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Los Angeles Fire Department Locations: Los Angeles, Southern California, what’s, Malibu, Angeles, Studio

The distinction is politically significant as the public has become increasingly frustrated over homeless camps in Los Angeles and other California cities, seeing them as a blight on neighborhoods and a threat to public safety. Some critics were quick this weekend to suggest that homeless campers might have been responsible for the latest blaze, which shuttered a freeway traversed by about 300,000 vehicles daily. “It’s an ongoing issue, but I don’t want to conflate it with the source of this fire,” Mr. de León said. “We need to see where the investigation goes.”Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles similarly urged caution and asked the public to refrain from jumping to conclusions about who had set the fire. There is no reason to assume that the origin of this fire or the reason this fire happened was because there were unhoused individuals nearby.”

Persons: Kevin de León, Mr, de León, Karen Bass, ”, “ Locations: Los Angeles, California, Angeles

☆ The Latest Target for California Conservatives? Local School Boards
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-30 | by ( Jill Cowan | More About Jill Cowan | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

They see legal disputes as an opportunity to plead their case to judges they believe are more sympathetic than California’s legislators — especially judges at the federal level. But he allowed the district to notify parents if children ask to change their school records. The current legal dispute is not the test case that conservatives might have wished for, because it is a matter of state, not federal, law. But one of the California notification policies may eventually be contested in a federal venue, said Erwin Chemerinsky, an expert in constitutional law and the dean of the law school at the University of California, Berkeley. But, in his view, asking to be treated as a different gender doesn’t directly involve physical safety, while sharing that information without a child’s consent could put the child at risk.

Persons: —, ” Mr, Essayli, Bonta, Shaw, Erwin Chemerinsky, Chemerinsky Organizations: San Bernardino Superior Court, University of California Locations: Chino Valley, California, Berkeley

Instead, the city has quietly avoided the kind of emergency that has strained shelters and left officials pleading for federal help in New York, Chicago and Massachusetts. Los Angeles officials are relieved to have avoided major problems so far, especially considering that their city has faced so many other challenges lately, from a homelessness emergency to a prolonged Hollywood labor strike. “Luckily, we have the infrastructure.”Officials at homeless shelters in Los Angeles report that they have not seen a significant increase in recent migrants seeking temporary housing. A major reason California has avoided a crisis is that the state no longer attracts as many migrants as it did decades ago when it was a top destination for people moving to the United States. Although Los Angeles is home to the largest undocumented population in the United States, most have been living in the city for at least a decade.

Persons: ”, Hugo Soto, Martinez Organizations: Massachusetts ., ”, Sun Locations: New York, Chicago, Massachusetts, Massachusetts . Los Angeles, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Mexico, Texas, California, United States, Angeles

Nithya Raman turned into a political celebrity almost overnight when she emerged as the face of a rising progressive vanguard to campaign for the Los Angeles City Council in 2020. With a master’s degree in urban planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and experience working with slum dwellers in India, Ms. Raman zeroed in on the city’s soaring housing prices and promised to give renters and homeless people a seat at the political table — her seat. Ms. Raman, 42, wound up receiving more votes than any council member in the city’s history and began to draw comparisons to the progressive New York congresswoman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — “LAOC,” one local critic derisively called her. Barely a year later, though, Ms. Raman ran into an adversary her grass-roots army was powerless to confront: the bruising power politics involved in running a city of 3.8 million people. The City Council had embarked on its once-a-decade redistricting process, and Ms. Raman, who had few allies among the city’s old-guard politicians, was threatened at one point with losing virtually all of the constituents who had elected her.

Persons: Nithya Raman, Raman, Alexandria Ocasio, Cortez Organizations: Los Angeles City Council, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New York, The City Council Locations: India, Alexandria

In this Southern California town, residents are grappling with the fear that their way of life may be fleeting. Fishermen cast their lines from the long, wooden pier. “Every day here feels like the most perfect summer day,” Mercedes Murray, 38, said as she lounged at Buccaneer Beach, a spot popular among locals. Where residents once played beach volleyball at Buccaneer, there are now berms of natural cobblestones that clatter around in the surf like pennies in a washing machine. Visitors who could once sprawl on wide stretches of sand near the pier must now compete for space on a narrow stretch studded with rocks.

Persons: ” Mercedes Murray Organizations: Fishermen, Buccaneer Locations: Southern California, Oceanside, San Diego, Buccaneer

☆ Striking Workers in California Could Get Unemployment Pay Under New Bill
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-23 | by ( Jill Cowan | More About Jill Cowan | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In a state where screenwriters, housekeepers and school janitors have already gone on strike this year, Democratic lawmakers in California have introduced a bill late in the legislative session that would allow such workers to receive unemployment benefits while on the picket line. Supporters of the bill, including the powerful California Labor Federation, say they hope to seize on the momentum created by a wave of high-profile walkouts that have taken place in the state this year. The proposal, introduced by influential Democrats this week, would allow employees engaged in labor disputes to apply for unemployment insurance pay after two weeks off the job. Right now, workers who choose to strike are not eligible for unemployment benefits and must rely on savings or strike funds set up by unions to pay their bills. The proposal could give workers in California greater incentive to go on strike over pay and conditions, as well as greater financial ability to extend a walkout, though it would not take effect until January.

Persons: housekeepers, janitors Organizations: Democratic, California Labor Federation, Business Locations: California, Southern California

As sunshine returned to Southern California on Monday, residents and officials said the region had avoided catastrophic damage from Tropical Storm Hilary, which broke records for August rainfall as it passed into California on Sunday but was much diminished from the fearsome Category 4 hurricane that had alarmed meteorologists days earlier when it was over the Pacific Ocean. Under sheets of rain, some neighborhoods in the desert cities east of Los Angeles became a soupy mess and at one point on Monday the mayor of Palm Springs said the city was cut off by road closures. In San Bernardino and Riverside Counties, videos showed creek beds filled with sludge-colored torrents that ominously carried boulders and tree trunks. Yet in one of the most heavily populated parts of the country — Los Angeles and San Diego Counties alone have a combined population of more than 13 million — there were no reports of deaths related to the storm as of Monday afternoon.

Persons: Hilary Organizations: Riverside Counties, San Locations: Southern California, California, Los Angeles, Palm Springs, San Bernardino, San Diego

Some Hawaii residents who lost their homes and jobs said they could not see how they would be able to stay. Many said they feared Lahaina would simply re-emerge as another Waikiki, dominated by corporate-owned luxury brands and packed with tourists. Four of her employees lost their homes. Already, a friend who ran a jewelry business in Lahaina told her that he planned to move his family to Kentucky. She said she hoped officials would approve building permits for reconstruction and allow people to reopen businesses that employ workers quickly.

Persons: Angie Leone Organizations: Leones Locations: Hawaii, Lahaina, Waikiki, Kentucky

The wildfires that leveled the town of Lahaina on Maui wiped out shops, restaurants and a hotel built more than century ago, burning across some of the most spectacular and wealthiest enclaves of the state. High-profile billionaires including Oprah Winfrey, Peter Thiel and Jeff Bezos all have homes on Maui. But the deadly blaze also destroyed something less visible yet vital to this island’s economic survival: modest houses and apartments where many workers running Maui’s booming tourism industry lived. The destruction in Lahaina has highlighted Maui’s longstanding challenge with housing for the people who work in its hotels and on its golf courses, without whom the island could not function as a beloved destination for visitors from around the world. “We already had a housing crisis,’’ said Leslie Wilkins, president of the Maui Economic Development Board.

Persons: Oprah Winfrey, Peter Thiel, Jeff Bezos, ’ ’, Leslie Wilkins, ” Organizations: Maui Economic Development Board Locations: Lahaina, Maui

The losses in Lahaina from the fire now include the historic Baldwin Home, which houses the restoration foundation’s main office and was considered the oldest house still standing on the island of Maui. It was built between 1834-35 by the Rev. Ephraim Spaulding, a missionary from Massachusetts who prized its proximity to the waters where whaling ships once anchored. The home contained the wooden rocking chairs that the family of the Rev. Unlike others in Lahaina whose families in the area stretch back generations, Ms. Morrison, 75, from Berkeley, Calif., happened upon the town while sailing around the Hawaiian islands in 1975.

Persons: Baldwin, Ephraim Spaulding, Dwight Baldwin, Morrison, Mark Twain, ”, “, — Organizations: East Coast Locations: Lahaina, Maui, Massachusetts, East, Berkeley, Calif, ”

Two Navy sailors in Southern California were arrested and accused of providing military secrets and sensitive information to Chinese intelligence officers, according to a pair of federal indictments unsealed on Thursday. Jinchao Wei, known as Patrick Wei, 22, was charged with spying for the Chinese under the Espionage Act. As a machinist’s mate, investigators said, he had clearance that gave him access to sensitive national security information. Already, the extent of Chinese spying, including cyberbreaches, has prompted top national security officials to sound the alarm. director, Christopher A. Wray, warned, “There’s no country that presents a more significant threat to our innovation, our ideas our economic security, our national security than the Chinese government.”

Persons: Jinchao Wei, Patrick Wei, Wei, Wenheng Zhao, Thomas, Zhao, Christopher A, Wray, “, ” Organizations: Naval Base San, Pacific Fleet, Naval Base Locations: Southern California, Essex, Naval Base San Diego, Naval Base Ventura County, Port Hueneme, Pacific, China

☆ They Checked Out Pride Books in Protest. It Backfired.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-22 | by ( Jill Cowan | More About Jill Cowan | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Conservative groups nationwide have pushed to ban books that discuss L.G.B.T.Q. issues from libraries and schools, saying that parents should be able to control what their children are being taught. The group has promoted a “Hide the Pride” campaign that encourages supporters to check out or move books that depict L.G.B.T.Q. Organizers have described such material as pornographic and obscene and said it should not be available to young library patrons. Both were checked out by the protesters in San Diego.

Persons: Amy M, Vance, Martha Martin, ”, Brian Burch, “ Morris Micklewhite Organizations: Rancho Peñasquitos Library, Catholic Locations: San Diego, Indiana, Coney

☆ Los Angeles Hotel Employees Return to Work but Warn of Additional Strikes
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-06 | by ( Jill Cowan | More About Jill Cowan | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Business groups say that asking employers to shoulder the burdens of California’s housing crisis, particularly acute in places like Los Angeles, is unfair. Background: Hotel workers want multiple raises over three years. Members of Unite Here Local 11, the union representing some 15,000 hotel workers in Southern California, authorized a strike last month, as their contract was expiring. Union leaders say workers need such increases to afford living costs in Los Angeles, where housing is scarce and expensive. The union has also asked that hotels impose a 7 percent fee on guests to help fund worker housing.

Persons: Kurt Petersen, picketers, “, ”, “ They’re Organizations: Union Locations: Los Angeles, Southern California, ”

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