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Due to some recent incidents on some of our campuses, particularly incidents targeting our LGBTQIA students, I felt it was important to re-emphasize our commitment to foster respect and understanding of one another, of who we are individually and collectively as members of our community. We are committed to providing all staff and students with teaching and learning environments that are safe and welcoming for all. Student learning is optimized when they feel safe to engage and are comfortable...
In California politics, there are three major movements to the annual budget Kabuki Dance. In January of each year, the governor announces a proposed budget for the next fiscal year beginning July 1st. The dance move just executed last week was the “May Revise,” a revision of the previous proposed budget, leading up to the passage of the final budget by June 15th. As this column has previously revealed, all phases of the budget dance are fake insofar as they are subject to substantial ame...
Today the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) will be holding a public forum to hear from ratepayers on the gas rate increase request from SoCalGas. If approved, this rate increase would take effect in January 2024 and impact monthly ratepayer bills by an estimated 13.2% per month. Activists and community members are urging the CPUC to deny SoCalGas’s request for a rate hike and to instead transition California away from fossil fuels. Regarding the public forum, Food & Water Watch’s California Director Chirag Bhakta issued the followi...
In recent months, there has been an epidemic of gun violence in California and throughout the nation. Why is this so? According to CNN, dated June 2, 2022, there are 393 million privately owned firearms in the United States. The population of the United States as of 2021 was 331.9 million. In other words, there are more firearms than people in the United States! In a study conducted by the American Journal of Public Health, dated November 2013, they stated, "We find a robust relationship between gun ownership and firearm homicide rates." What...
By Jon Coupal President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association There’s an old joke about the origins of the word “expert.” The story is that it is a combination of the word “ex” – meaning a has-been – and “spurt” – defined as a drip under pressure. Therefore, “expert” means a has-been drip under pressure. Like it or not, we all rely on experts in our daily lives. But Americans are losing trust in experts, according to the Pew Research Center. Trust in scientists and medical scientists, ini...
By Jon Coupal President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association There’s an old joke about the origins of the word “expert.” The story is that it is a combination of the word “ex” – meaning a has-been – and “spurt” – defined as a drip under pressure. Therefore, “expert” means a has-been drip under pressure. Like it or not, we all rely on experts in our daily lives. But Americans are losing trust in experts, according to the Pew Research Center. Trust in scientists and medical scientists, ini...
By Jon Coupal and Scott Kaufman As the Legislature gavels in for another session of taxpayer abuse, we can look back at the last session and cheerfully report, it could have been worse. The Legislature sent Gov. Gavin Newsom 1,166 bills last year. He signed 997 and vetoed 169. Fortunately, the midterm elections served to concentrate the minds of lawmakers, taming many of the Legislature’s more radical proposals. However, several bills that were signed by the governor are still a cause for c...
Dear Editor, In her letter of Jan. 5, 2023, Ms. Alexander belittles the role of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee, stating it is “involved in making recommendations on the use of the public right of way”. When I chaired the BPAC we actively tried to support staff who are implementing the Bicycle and Pedestrian Action Plan adopted by City Council in June 2020. The plan is extensive, and available on our city website. Ultimately of course, the BPAC can only listen, discuss, req...
By Jon COUPAL President Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association I sincerely hope that readers aren’t turned off by the title of this column. While most taxpayers aren’t directly responsible for paying unemployment insurance taxes, the truth is we all pay and, in California, we pay a great deal more than we should. Last week I received an email from a dentist who operates a small dental office and is required to pay the unemployment insurance tax and, sadly, is paying much more than he should bec...
Dear Editor, In a democracy, vigilance is required. Over the last decade, the City Council has created three Advisory Committees, in the areas of Bicycle & Pedestrian, Equity and Human Relations, and Finance. In a progressive worldview, these citizen groups would be used as a catalyst for public engagement and public transparency. (As an eight-year member and Chair of the Finance Advisory Committee, I can attest that public fiscal transparency was front and center in the work we did.) In the...
Dear Editor, In my former life as a Catholic nun (I left the convent at 27), I dealt with a lot of difficult and controversial issues. But I didn’t really think about abortion at all — until a family member needed one. Catholics for Choice has helped me realize that pro-choice Catholics like me aren’t alone — in fact, we’re in the majority. Will you join us today? The more I examined my conscience, the more I realized I had absorbed the onslaught of messaging from the all-male Catholic hier...
by Larry Sand President of the California Teachers Empowerment Network It’s no secret that the teachers’ unions have control over most aspects of public education in the U.S. The school boards, which negotiate with unions over salary, work rules, etc. are particularly important for the unions to dominate. Michael Hartney, a fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, recently quantified the unions’ stronghold on the all-important boards. Hartney asserts that union-endorsed candidates win about 70% of all competitive school board r...
As a retired engineer, having worked for the Metropolitan Water District (MWD) for 29 years, I have been following this story along with fellow retirees and employees. I'm at a loss as to why MWD is seemingly covering up this story, as I've heard from employees and have observed by the dearth of reporting on such an investigation. Of particular interest, I would think, is the unexpected announcement yesterday that Brent Yamasaki - the MWD manager responsible for operation of the entire...
On November 17, 2022, our new councilmember-elect Dan O’Brien described his plan for addressing homelessness in an interview with Culver City News. It’s incomprehensible. O’Brien starts with the premise that not enough housing is available for the homeless, that “providing housing is a long term game,” and so until that housing is available we need “enforcement of encampment laws.” He wants to approach unhoused people with services and housing and if they refuse say, “I’m sorry you can’t b...
Dear Editor, Avoid a Holiday Tragedy The holiday season comes with family gatherings, social time with friends, and office parties. These joyful events can lead to life-altering consequences, like drunken driving. When I was 16 years old in 1992, a drunken driver hit me. I had a four-month coma, broken bones, paralysis and brain injuries. My gait and speech are affected and I lost my driving and hearing abilities. For 30+ years, I read lips and cannot enjoy holiday music anymore. Drunken...
There are far too many atrocities that both have occurred in recent times and that continue to occur. They need to be reported upon, discussed, and universally condemned. Moreover, we need to do what we can to punish those who are behind the atrocities and eradicate the seeds that sow them. However, the Holocaust can not be the comparison when an atrocity does not rise to the level of genocide. Even Wikipedia starts out its description of the Holocaust by saying that “[t]he Holocaust, also known...
As a lifelong Feminist/Progressive/Pro-choice Democrat, I am writing to ask you to vote by November 8th for Dan O’Brien and Denice Renteria for Culver City Council. I believe that in our nonpartisan local election, they are the leaders we need to represent our wonderful community. As members of the Creative Community (Dan is a film editor/director and Denice is a properties artist), both Dan O’Brien and Denice Renteria show through their actions that the way to bring people together and solve pr...
I’m writing to voice my strong and unwavering support for Alex Fisch in this critically important upcoming election for City Council here in Culver City. The actions the next council takes on the issues we face as a city; homelessness and our housing crisis, climate change, mobility and transportation and more, will leave a lasting imprint on our city and I am proud to support Alex for another term on our council, to help our city continue to lead our region and state on these issues and m...
I feel the need to share that Dan O'Brien, candidate for City Council for Culver City is incredibly responsive and involved with his residents and business owners in Culver City. I felt the need to approach him via email about a month ago to see if he would help us with our new Culver City Cuisine located in 5660 Selmaraine Dr. Not only is located at an isolated/industrial zone, but struggles with a few areas for improvement such homelessness, lighting zones, cleanliness, etc. I was not sure...
We are currently experiencing a ‘spiral of silence’ in Culver City. It can and should be stopped. In 1974, Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann, a political scientist, coined the phrase ‘spiral of silence’ to describe a situation in which an individual’s willingness to express his or her opinion in public is a function of what he or she perceives the public opinion to be. More precisely, people who believe that they hold a minority viewpoint on a public issue will “remain in the background where their commu...
I decided not to run for Culver City Council this year for a few reasons. In the last election cycle for Culver City Council 2020, I received 2,163 votes which in previous off years would have been a very good showing. However, I was outspent by more than 15 to 1 by the winning candidates that year. I couldn’t compete against the money machines supporting their candidates of choice. I was told I was a “volatile” candidate and could not win. I asked a prominent Culver City resident why I was cons...
I feel compelled to canvass and support Dan O’Brien and Denice Renteria for the Culver City council race. They are the only candidates that can help turn the course of our city back into a safe community again. Never before have I felt so horrified by the actions of our current city council majority to let crime increase making our city unsafe. They have taken away the ability of our police to proactively police. Our community is filled with homeless encampments. Our downtown once beautiful i...
Measure BL, on Culver City’s November ballot, is a proposal to raise the annual business license tax on Culver City businesses based on what category the business falls into and its gross revenues. Because Culver City’s business license tax is based on the gross revenue of the business – not the profit from operations – a business could be operating at a loss but still receive a huge tax bill from the city. While the proposal exempts businesses with gross revenues below $200,000 annuall...
Dear Editor, A developer in Santa Monica is pushing through 4500 units of housing, and in Redondo Beach over 2300 units are proposed to replace the beachfront AES power plant, and for that reason (among many others) I will be voting for Alex Fisch and Freddy Puza for City Council. What happened in those towns? They failed to do what Culver City did under Alex Fisch and his colleagues Daniel Lee and Yasmine McMorrin. Thanks to those three Culver City passed a legitimate Housing Element and...
Dear Neighbors, If you have not already voted, I ask that you vote for Alex Fisch and Freddy Puza for City Council. Electing any of the other candidates will create a conservative majority on the Council which will slow or reverse environmental protection, workers' rights, regulations which have kept renters in their homes, and long-term strategies to address homelessness. Some of the other candidates may say things that superficially sound good on these issues, but they are backed by conservative elected officials and business groups who are...
