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L.A. City Council approves purchase of Mayfair Hotel for homeless housing

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:21:37 GMT

Today, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and the L.A. City Council approved the acquisition of the 294-room Mayfair Hotel in Westlake, a building that will be used for homeless housing. The purchase is an expansion of the Inside Safe program to help combat the homelessness crisis in L.A. by bringing people inside from tents and encampments and preventing encampments from returning.Participants of the Inside Safe program will have access to onsite support services and care and social facilities, in addition to 24/7 onsite security inside and outside of the Mayfair.  Mayor Karen Bass launches Inside Safe program in Hollywood “We need to do all that we can to get Angelenos off the streets and into temporary housing as fast as possible while permanent housing is still being built,” said Mayor Bass. “The proposed purchase of the Mayfair is an important step toward that goal.”Programming plans for the Mayfair are still in the early stages of development and Mayor Bass will work with the comm...

Family men or cruel cops? Indictments expose Antioch officers’ stunning dark side

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:21:37 GMT

ANTIOCH – From the “Meet Your Beat” welcome pages the Antioch Police Department once posted on Facebook, officers Eric Rombough and Morteza Amiri look like awfully nice guys.Rombough, young and blond in his photos, is described as a family man, who enjoys wine tasting, cooking with his Traeger smoker and playing with his four dogs, including a Chiweenie.Amiri, who grew up in Antioch, loves dining out on sushi with his wife and young son. On his days off, he goes swimming with Purcy, the K9 he handles on the job. Every day he puts on his uniform, he says in the Facebook video, he wants to “make sure this community is safe for other families just like mine.”It all seemed so sweet – until federal agents in armored tanks with flash bang grenades pulled into their driveways before dawn Thursday. Authorities dragged them out of their homes, indicted them on charges of civil rights violations and released a trove of new text messages between Rombough and Amiri and a slew of other East Cont...

SFMTA: Over 1 million riders reported over Outside Lands weekend

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:21:37 GMT

(KRON) -- Last weekend's Outside Lands festival was sold out, but the success of the three-day festival didn't stop there. One public transit agency enjoyed a busy weekend.More than 1 million riders were reported to use Muni, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency tweeted. A total of 1,116,500 riders used Muni from Aug. 11-13 -- a 26% increase in systemwide ridership from last year's festival. Body found at Golden Gate Park near Outside Lands identified as SF woman SFMTA posted photos of crews directing traffic for pedestrians walking toward the festival (below).(SFMTA)(SFMTA)(SFMTA)(SFMTA) Outside Lands closes SOMA tent for ‘safety’ of festival audience This came on a weekend when Cruise cars halted traffic in the city Friday night. The autonomous vehicle company says the reason for the Cruise cars malfunctioning is "wireless connectivity issues" linked to Outside Lands.The three-day festival drew approximately 75,000 attendees per day.

QB Desmond Ridder impressive in preseason debut, Falcons settle for 13-13 tie with Bengals

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:21:37 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — Desmond Ridder and all those young offensive weapons gave a glimpse of what they they can do for the Atlanta Falcons.A bunch of yellow flags slowed their progress.Ridder led an impressive but penalty-plagued drive in his preseason debut, and the Falcons settled for a field goal with 2 seconds left for a 13-13 tie with the Cincinnati Bengals on Friday night.After sitting the starters last week in a 19-3 victory at Miami, the Falcons (1-0-1) went with the No. 1s for their opening possession.That included their last three first-round picks: tight end Kyle Pitts, wide receiver Drake London and running back Bijan Robinson. Ridder, heading into his first full season as the starting quarterback, got all of them involved. London hauled in two passes for 33 yards. Robinson carried four times for 20 yards and snared a 6-yard completion. Pitts, coming back from a knee injury, made a one-handed grab.“They’ve put playmakers around me,” Ridder said. “It’s up to me to le...

Schoen: DeSantis-Newsom debate could boost both pols

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:21:37 GMT

No rivalry embodies the current divide in American politics more than the one between Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and California Governor Gavin Newsom. The two big-state governors, diametrically opposed to what the other stands for, have spent the past year escalating their attacks on one another – and soon, their contention will come to a head in a much anticipated live debate.While the final rules and topics are up in the air, Fox News’ Sean Hannity is set to moderate the discussion this fall in the swing-state of Georgia. We can expect the event to be a no-holds-barred slugfest, as both governors are desperately seeking the national spotlight and vying to sell themselves to their respective parties as the ‘Plan B’ 2024 presidential candidate.There is little chance that Democrats will nominate someone other than President Biden, just as Former President Trump appears poised to win the Republican primary in a landslide. However, should any one of the multiple indictments and inve...

Biden goes west for his second vacation of the month

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:21:37 GMT

GLENBROOK, Nevada (AP) — President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden arrived in Nevada late Friday for more rest and relaxation.The first couple is renting a private home on Lake Tahoe, the massive alpine lake that abuts California and Nevada and is a tourist attraction, particularly in the winter for its ski resorts. The president flew there from Camp David, where he hosted a summit Friday with the leaders of South Korea and Japan.The home in the Glenbrook community belongs to Tom Steyer and Kat Taylor. Steyer is an investor, climate activist and Democratic donor. He ran for president in 2020.The Bidens are renting the home for fair market value, the White House said, and will spend about a week in the area.The Bidens will halt their vacation for a day on Monday to visit Maui, where a wildfire ripped through the historic town of Lahaina and killed at least 114 people. They will meet with survivors, first responders, and local officials while surveying the damage.Biden vacationed ...

Maui town ravaged by fire will ‘rise again,’ Hawaii governor says of long recovery ahead

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:21:37 GMT

LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said Friday that what’s rebuilt from the ashes of the devastating wildfires on Maui will be determined by the people. “Lahaina will rise again,” Green said during a livestreamed evening address from Honolulu. The seaside town will be rebuilt as a living memorial to those lost — a number that increased by three on Friday to 114 — while preserving and protecting Native Hawaiian culture, he said. His wife, Jaime Kanani Green, stood next to him and cried as she described Lahaina as a vibrant community rich in history and culture. “Tragically it took less than a single day for us to lose Lahaina in the deadliest fire our country has seen in more than a century,” she said. Native Hawaiians and others from Lahaina said earlier Friday they worry Hawaii’s governor is moving too quickly to rebuild what was lost while the grief is still raw.“The fire occurred only 10 days ago, and many people are still in shock and mourning,” Tiar...

Would a Texas law take away workers’ water breaks? A closer look at House Bill 2127

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:21:37 GMT

As unrelenting heat set in across Texas this summer, opponents of a sweeping new law targeting local regulations took to the airwaves and internet with an alarming message: outdoor workers would be banned from taking water breaks.Workers would die, experts and advocates said, with high temperatures topping 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) and staying there for much of the past two months.But a closer look at the law, and the local ordinances requiring water breaks, reveals a more complicated picture.At least one political analyst said the dispute is less about worker protection and more about politics, as conservative Republicans and progressive Democrats battle for control of local governments. House Bill 2127, passed by the Republican-dominated Legislature in April and set to take effect Sept. 1, blocks local governments from enforcing legislation clashing with existing state law. Cities and counties would be required to demonstrate that their policies are in compliance...

Georgia Medicaid program with work requirement off to slow start even as thousands lose coverage

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:21:37 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed paperwork creating a new state health plan for low-income residents to much fanfare at the state Capitol three years ago. But public health experts and advocates say since it launched on July 1, state officials appear to be doing little to promote or enroll people in the nation’s only Medicaid program that makes recipients meet a work requirement. The Georgia Department of Community Health, which has projected up to 100,000 people could eventually benefit from Georgia Pathways to Coverage, had approved just 265 applications by early August.“If we’re talking about directed outreach to the population that would most likely be eligible and interested, I haven’t seen anything,” said Harry Heiman, a health policy professor at Georgia State University.Heiman and other experts say the program’s slow start reflects fundamental flaws missing from Medicaid expansions in other states, including the extra burden of submitting and verifying work hour...

Emerging economies are pushing to end the dollar’s dominance. But what’s the alternative?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:21:37 GMT

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Business has vanished at Kingsley Odafe’s clothing shop in Nigeria’s capital, forcing him to lay off three employees.One culprit for his troubles stands out: The U.S. dollar’s strength against the Nigerian currency, the naira, has pushed the price of garments and other foreign goods beyond the reach of local consumers. A bag of imported clothes costs three times what it did two years ago. The price these days is running around 350,000 naira, or $450. “There are no sales anymore because people have to eat first before thinking of buying clothes,” Odafe said.Across the developing world, many countries are fed up with America’s dominance of the global financial system — especially the power of the dollar. They will air their grievances next week as the BRICS bloc of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa meet with other emerging market countries in Johannesburg, South Africa.But griping about King Dollar is easier than actually deposing the de facto w...