3+ day, 19+ hour ago   (281+ words) The hospitality workers union UNITE HERE Local 11 is urging voters to support four candidates for Santa Monica City Council ahead of November's election — Mayor Caroline Torosis, Rent Control Board member Danny Ivanov, Brett Morrow and Doug Trussler — while explicitly opposing…...

3+ day, 18+ hour ago   (225+ words) A first-in-the-nation bill that would establish low-interest loans to help Californians pay for wildfire retrofitting has been sent to Gov. Newsom. SB 894, introduced by state Sen. Ben Allen, D-Pacific Palisades, received unanimous, bipartisan support from the Senate and Assembly before…...

3+ day, 20+ hour ago   (542+ words) Americans finally found something to agree on: concern about the rapid proliferation of data centers. A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found that only 1 in 3 Americans approves of the current pace of data center construction, and most would oppose a facility…...

4+ day, 18+ hour ago   (223+ words) State Sen. Ben Allen, D-Pacific Palisades, has advanced two bills aimed at protecting insurance ratepayers from losing coverage unnecessarily or being harmed by bad business practices. Both now head to Gov. Newsom. "California ratepayers have faced an increasingly difficult insurance…...

5+ day, 18+ hour ago   (352+ words) The Santa Monica Democratic Club has endorsed Brian Goldsmith for state Senate District 24, adding the largest Democratic club in the district to his coalition. Goldsmith won nearly 60% of the endorsement vote, which followed a head-to-head candidate debate. During the debate,…...

1+ week, 1+ day ago   (288+ words) State Sen. Ben Allen, D-Santa Monica, and Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur, D-Hollywood, have introduced AB/SB 186, a budget trailer bill aimed at protecting middle-class jobs tied to film and television production in the state. The measure is designed to mitigate…...

1+ week, 1+ day ago   (256+ words) The Santa Monica City Council has appointed Walfred Solorzano as the city's next city clerk, concluding a national recruitment that began earlier this year and was overseen by a council ad hoc committee. Solorzano succeeds Interim City Clerk Denise Anderson-Warren,…...

1+ week, 5+ day ago   (333+ words) Student homelessness in Los Angeles County climbed nearly 30% in a single school year, far outpacing state and national trends, according to new UCLA research warning that the crisis is deepening just as the funding built to address it runs dry....

1+ week, 5+ day ago   (531+ words) There was a time, not too many years ago, when drafting and enacting California’s budgets was a fairly transparent and straightforward process. It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly when the process became opaque and the budget became a hodgepodge of phantom…...

1+ week, 6+ day ago   (345+ words) A last-minute effort to exempt a Frank Gehry-designed downtown development from California Coastal Commission review has died, ending a monthslong fight that pitted a politically connected developer against environmental advocates, neighborhood groups and the city's state representatives. Language that would…...