Latest news with #Angelenos
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump Team Pissed as L.A. Juries Refuse to Indict ICE Protesters
It seems the city that rose up to protect its neighbors from Immigration and Customs Enforcement is similarly protective of its protesters—especially when they're being tried on trumped-up charges. Donald Trump's federal prosecutor in Los Angeles is struggling to get indictments for protesters arrested in anti-ICE demonstrations earlier this summer, the Los Angeles Times reported. Grand jury indictments only require probable cause that a crime has been committed—a lower bar than the standard for a criminal conviction. And even so, out of the 38 felony cases filed by Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, only seven have resulted in indictments. In a recent case, the grand jury refused to indict a protester accused of attacking federal law enforcement officials. And Trump's prosecutor was not happy: The Times described 'screaming' that was 'audible' from outside the grand jury room coming from Essayli. According to legal experts interviewed by the Times, it's incredibly rare that a grand jury wouldn't indict in cases like these—which indicates weak cases brought by an attorney whose goal may be to promote Trump's anti-immigration agenda rather than go after real crime. Meghan Blanco, a former federal prosecutor in L.A., said the cases are 'not deserving of prosecution.' Some may have even been based on faulty intel from ICE agents, the supposed victims of the alleged crimes. Either 'what is being alleged isn't a federal crime, or it simply did not happen,' she told the Times. In June, thousands of Angelenos took to the streets to protest ICE raids that saw the federal anti-immigration officers arresting people attending mandatory check-ins at a federal building and snatching people from Home Depot. Though the protests were largely peaceful, some escalated as ICE and the Los Angeles Police Department used tear gas and 'less-lethal' munitions on the crowd. Community organizer and protester Ron Gochez said at the time that it was 'brutal violence' but that 'what they didn't think was going to happen was that the people would resist.' To the Times, former prosecutor Carley Palmer said that Essayli's struggle to get his cases through was 'a strong indication that the priorities of the prosecutor's office are out of sync with the priorities of the general community.' Yet again, the Trump administration has likely underestimated L.A. residents' appetite for resistance.
Time Out
13 hours ago
- Climate
- Time Out
USC wants to make an increasingly hot L.A. a little shadier by the 2028 Olympics
It's a tall order, to cool a city down—like, literally, to shave a few degrees off the temperature. But we've all noticed how much more tolerable a hot day is when the sun goes behind a cloud, or when we step into the shade of anything other than a palm tree. Shade really does help, and a new initiative in Los Angeles called ShadeLA wants to apply these principles so that by the time the Olympics are here in three years, the city is a relatively cooler and more refreshing oasis for everyone, including the athletes and spectators. The group behind this innovative thinking is spearheaded by the University of Southern California and involves collaboration between a bunch of different schools, agencies and community organizations aiming to not just cool down for the Olympic and Paralympic Games but also for the World Cup in 2026, the Super Bowl in 2027 and, even more importantly, to leave a lasting legacy for Angelenos in a rapidly warming climate. So how does one go about cooling an entire city? For one thing, you add more shade. That means trees and built structures like canopies and awnings that help protect schoolyards, sidewalks, parks and spaces where people tend to gather that would otherwise be exposed to hot sun. And you make sure that existing shade gets to stay. ShadeLA (primarily a collaboration between the USC Dornsife Public Exchange and the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation) works with caretakers and public agencies to make sure everyone's on the same page about upkeep. A third component is using science to figure out where shade is most needed, and how to prioritize more urgent placements over others. The final part is trying to make the entire process easy and streamlined so that everyone can take part. 'Creating more built and natural shade will not only benefit visitors, but will pay dividends for vulnerable residents for generations to come,' said Rita Kampalath, chief sustainability officer for Los Angeles County. Los Angeles is for sure heating up. From 1961 to 1990, there were on average two extreme heat waves a year. From 2011 to 2040, we are experiencing, and are projected to experience, eight heat waves per year. And after 2051 and going into 2080, that number leaps to 14. It's scary to contemplate, especially if you're part of a household struggling to stay on top of bills. Only 41 percent of residents in South L.A. have air conditioning, as compared to 68 percent of average L.A. residents—and 64 percent of South L.A. households live below the poverty line, as compared to 37 percent of average L.A. residents. That means many households will be sweltering and trying to figure out how to live in oppressive heat rather than simply turning on the cold air conditioning as more financially-fortunate Angelenos are able to do. So does a tree really work? It may seem like throwing a toothpick at a charging tiger. But actually, studies show that shaded areas—below a tree, canopy, awning or bus shelter—can feel up to 70 degrees cooler than in the sun. That's wild! And the more trees we plant, the more square footage of the sidewalks cool and the park benches cool so we can sit down in shorts without burning the back of our thighs and everything is better. A slightly less surprising statistic: L.A. County contains less shade than the national average. In urban sections, there's only 21 percent shade at noon (when the sun is directly overhead and sizzling away), while in the rest of the country, that number is 27 percent. That's according to the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation's National Shade Map. And that number varies wildly depending on your location; Compton has a composite score of shade of 63, while Beverly Hills, lush with plantings, has a composite score of 90. 'This campaign addresses heat not just as an environmental issue, but as a public health, infrastructure and community challenge. We're designing solutions to protect lives—during major events and every day,' said Monica Dean, climate and sustainability practice director at USC Dornsife Public Exchange.
Time Out
16 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Time Out
The summer edition of Dine LA is finally back—and here are our favorite deals
Beginning tomorrow, Dine LA is back. Now in its 17th year, L.A.'s biggest restaurant week offers prix-fixe menus starting from $15 per person, though many places now opt to offer menus in the priciest, wide-ranging category: $65 and above. For the next two weeks, Angelenos can score a handful of small discounts at restaurants across the city, including a few of what I consider the city's best restaurants. For those who were going to splurge anyway, you can even score a two-Michelin-star meal at a $75 discount over at Mélisse in Santa Monica. For all of those hunting for an actual bargain, I've found 17 different places across Los Angeles that I'd consider a good deal, in one way or another. My personal favorites include the pair of $25 and $35 meal deals from Koreatown's Soban, home to L.A.'s best soy-marinated crab and one of the best banchan selections in the city. (Any genuine lover of Korean cuisine knows that the complimentary side dishes provided with your meal are one of the best representations of a given restaurant's true culinary capabilities.) Did I mention Soban is also one of the city's best restaurants? Another truly great option is the $65 prix-fixe menu from the Girl & the Goat in the Arts District, which includes five family-style dishes and a matcha tres leches with rhubarb-strawberry sorbet for dessert. While Top Chef alum Stephanie Izard's globally inspired small plates restaurant often gets overlooked with all the other amazing options in the destination restaurant-heavy neighborhood, the Dine LA menu might just remind you why this brick-lined, plant-filled restaurant is a great option to keep in your back pocket for your next night out in greater Downtown L.A. Until Somni reopened last November and upstaged all other restaurants in West Hollywood (it also recently got three Michelin stars!), Ardor was my top dining pick in the city-neighborhood, and it's also participating in Dine LA. The swanky hotel restaurant inside the West Hollywood EDITION offers a vegetable-forward menu within its cinematic dining room and verdant outdoor patio. The $65 prix-fixe menu nets you the eatery's signature tomato-topped milk bread, plus your choice of Spanish octopus or tandoor carrots as an appetizer. For mains, choose between skirt steak, king crab tagliatelle or Ardor's standout sweet potato curry. While I've yet to personally try the chocolate espresso torte on Ardor's Dine LA menu, I've loved every dessert I've tried at the restaurant, so it's likely a safe bet as well. Finally, I'd like to recommend bookmarking two restaurants that have yet to release their Dine LA menus: Mr. T in Hollywood and Sushi Kisen in Arcadia. Both restaurants will be offering menus in the $65 and over category. Mr. T offers République alum Alisa Vannah's rendition of modern Parisian cuisine. Co-owned by music mogul Jay-Z (whose offices are located upstairs), it's one of the best French restaurants in the city, with a gorgeous patio full of string lights and a fire pit. As for Sushi Kisen, the San Gabriel Valley sushi restaurant is one of my favorite places for sushi in L.A. County. Even on a regular day, the omakase at the counter is a relative bargain. Despite the fact it takes over an hour for me to drive there in normal traffic, I spent my birthday weekend shlepping to Arcadia for the restaurant's second anniversary kaisendon, which came topped with blue crab, ikura, sea urchin and shrimp. The set also came with a side of marinated sashimi. While Sushi Kisen has yet to publish its Dine LA menu, you can rest assured that whatever they're offering will be a steal in terms of fish quality and overall value. While it's true that the vast majority of Dine LA prix-fixe menus aren't really deals anymore, these handful of options will be more than enough to keep you happy during the summer edition. Bon appétit!
Los Angeles Times
a day ago
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
Group seeks to repeal L.A.'s $800-million business tax, citing ‘anti-job climate'
A group of business leaders submitted paperwork on Wednesday for a ballot measure that would repeal Los Angeles' gross receipts tax, delivering some financial relief to local employers but also punching an $800-million hole in the city budget. The proposed measure, called the 'Los Angeles Cost of Living Relief Initiative,' would strip away a tax imposed on a vast array of businesses: entertainment companies, child care providers, law firms, accountants, health care businesses, nightclubs, delivery companies and many others, according to the group that submitted it. Backers said that repealing a tax long reviled by the business community would help address the city's economic woes, creating jobs, allowing businesses to stay in the city and making the economy 'more affordable for all Angelenos.' 'This initiative is the result of the business community uniting to fight the anti-job climate at City Hall,' said Nella McOsker, president and CEO of the Central City Assn., a downtown-based business group. McOsker, one of five business leaders who signed the ballot proposal, said city officials have 'ignored the pleas of small- and medium-sized businesses for years.' As a result, scores of restaurants and other establishments, including the Mayan Theater, are closing, she said. The filing of the ballot proposal immediately set off alarms at City Hall, where officials recently signed off on a plan to lay off hundreds of city workers in an attempt to balance this year's budget. The city's business tax generates more than $800 million annually for the general fund — the part of the budget that pays for police patrols, firefighters, paramedic response and other core services. 'Public safety is almost exclusively paid for by the general fund,' said City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo, in an email to The Times. 'This measure is an assault on public safety. Proponents of this measure will be directly responsible for cutting police or fire staffing in half if it passes.' McOsker, asked about L.A.'s financial woes, said the city had a $1-billion shortfall this year and still succeeded in balancing the budget. She is the daughter of City Councilmember Tim McOsker, who sits on the five-member budget committee. The proposed measure is backed by executives and board members with various groups, including the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, the Greater San Fernando Valley Chamber of Commerce and VICA, the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn. VICA president Stuart Waldman said the city's economy has faltered amid a spate of increased taxes, higher city fees and new regulations. The most recent, he said, is the ordinance hiking the minimum wage for hotel employees and workers at Los Angeles International Airport to $30 per hour by 2028, which was approved by the City Council over objections from business leaders. 'We're usually playing defense,' said Waldman, who also signed the ballot proposal. 'We've decided the time has come to play offense.' The business tax proposal is part of a larger ballot battle being waged this year between businesses and organized labor. Last month, a group of airlines and hotel industry organizations turned in about 140,000 signatures for a proposed ballot measure aimed at overturning the newly approved hotel and LAX minimum wage. L.A. County election officials are currently verifying those signatures. Unite Here Local 11, which represents hotel employees, responded with its own package of counter measures. One would require a citywide election on the construction or expansion of hotels, sports stadiums, concert halls and other venues. Another would hike the minimum wage for all workers in the city, raising it to the level of hotel and airport employees. Two other measures from Unite Here take aim at companies that pay their CEOs more than a hundred times their median employee in L.A., either by forcing them to pay higher business taxes or by placing limitations on their use of city property. The ongoing ballot battle is 'escalating in ways that are reckless and disconnected from the real work of running a city,' said Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, who heads the council's budget committee. Yaroslavsky, in a statement, said the fight is 'unproductive and needs to stop.' 'We just closed a billion-dollar budget gap, and basic services are already severely strained,' she said. 'You don't fix that by removing one of our largest revenue sources with no plan to replace it. We have to fix what is broken and that requires working together to offer real solutions.' Josue Marcus, spokesperson for the Los Angeles City Clerk, said proponents of the latest ballot measure would need to gather about 140,000 valid signatures for it to qualify. The next city election is in June 2026. McOsker, for her part, said she believes that state law sets a lower threshold — only 44,000 — for measures that result in the elimination of taxes. Industry leaders have long decried L.A.'s business tax, which is levied not on profits but on the gross receipts that are brought in — even where an enterprise suffers financial losses. Former Mayor Eric Garcetti argued for eliminating the tax more than a decade ago, saying it puts the city's economy at a competitive disadvantage. Once in office, he only managed to scale it back, amid concerns that an outright repeal would trigger cuts to city services. Organizers of the latest proposal said it would not rescind business taxes on the sale of cannabis or medical marijuana, which were separately approved by voters.
Los Angeles Times
a day ago
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
Did the state of California turn on In-N-Out, or did the burger chain turn on it?
Southern Californians, we have not been betrayed. In-N-Out Burger is not moving its headquarters to another state, despite all the panic and performative outrage over recent comments by the fast food chain's owner and chief executive, Lynsi Snyder. Last week, on the 'Relatable' podcast, Snyder told conservative commentator Allie Beth Stuckey that she's leaving the Golden State for Tennessee. 'There's a lot of great things about California, but raising a family is not easy here. Doing business is not easy here,' said Snyder, who became president of the family-run chain in 2010 at age 27, making her one of the country's youngest billionaires. It must be rough. Her comments set off a disinformation blitz, launching the Double-Double into the middle of a red-state/blue-state culture war where, clearly, nothing is sacred. Anti-Cali factions incorrectly posted, podcast and crowed about yet another business fleeing the West Coast. More proof that Gov. Gavin Newsom's 'failing' state sucks! It appeared that In-N-Out was following Tesla and Charles Schwab, companies that cited regulatory challenges and operational costs among their reasons for relocating. Chevron also fled. Perhaps it was the high gas prices. Many Californians, particularly those in SoCal, felt abandoned and disrespected. They, after all, propped up the chain for 76 years, only to be told by its owner that the place that made her family's business — their home — is no longer to her liking. On X, Oracle Park Seagull posted ''Not easy for In N Out to do business in California…' Said the person who became a billionaire doing business almost exclusively in California. So much so, it was a point of pride for the chain. Gotcha.' Snyder's grandparents opened their first In-N-Out in Baldwin Park in 1948, and for decades, the chain was renowned for serving a magical burger that could only be found in Southern California. Locals felt, and still feel, a sense of pride and ownership in the successful, homegrown business. It's a symbol of West Coast entrepreneurship, its cups and packaging decorated with images of palm trees. And if we're honest, the mere suggestion of In-N-Out leaving the state triggered a primal fear among Angelenos. Where else were we going to sit in a milelong drive-thru line at midnight waiting for a delicious burger and debatable fries? Newsom even chimed in, starting his X post with, 'For those interested in the facts, rather than fiction, In-N-Out is expanding East — creating a second HQ in Tennessee.' In SoCal, the company is shutting down its office in Irvine, consolidating its corporate operations to Baldwin Park. Today, In-N-Out operates in more than 400 locations across eight states. Snyder responded Monday to the kerfuffle in an Instagram post: 'Where I raise my family has nothing to do with my love and appreciation for our customers in California.' It's not the first time In-N-Out has made its stance clear on polarizing issues and politics. The company made news in 2021 when it pushed back against Newsom and California's COVID-era proof-of-vaccination mandates. In-N-Out's packaging also includes Bible verses, a practice started in the late '80s by Snyder's uncle, co-founder Rich Snyder. John 3:16 can be found on the bottom of the In-N-Out soda cup. The milkshake cup features Proverbs 3:5: 'Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.' On your next visit, you can check for a verse in your fries container. That is, if there is a next time. Instead of the memory of a tasty burger, many lifetime In-N-Out loyalists have been left with a bitter taste in their mouths.
