Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 873
A slew of recent announcements suggests that the self-driving cars of the future have arrived. Google sibling Waymo is rolling out paid autonomous taxi rides in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Elon Musk announced plans to unveil Tesla's robotaxi this October. This momentum is enough to make city planners hopeful for an imminent transformation. But widespread adoption of autonomous vehicles could be a long time coming. Before self-driving cars can live up to their potential, we need major changes...
Letters and Commentaries are the opinion of the individual writers and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the newspaper. The Culver City Observer takes positions on issues and will be marked as editorials. E-mail letters are required. E-mail letters to: letters@culvercityobserver.com Letters provide a community forum open to all. Due to space limitations we ask letter writers to limit their topics to local concerns, Letters should be limited to 400 words or less. Letters must be received...
Dear friends, Welcome to "Antics with Semantics." Concerned Culver City residents have pointed out for months that current City Council Candidates Bryan "Bubba" Fish and Nancy Barba are involved with the lawsuit that's stopping the city from changing the pilot project, MOVE Culver City. Bubba Fish and former mayor Alex Fisch have taken issue, saying this claim is "false." A keen eye will understand they're playing with semantics. Here are some facts: ● Bubba Fish created the GoFundMe page d...
Dear Editor, In the "letters to the editor" section of the Culver Crossroads, on July 22, 2024, a letter by Dr. Yolata Oszkay Febres-Cordero was posted which asserted that neither Bubba Fish nor Nancy Barba were involved in the Friends and Family of MOVE Culver City (FFMCC) (https://culvercitycrossroads.com/2024/07/22/dear-editor-calling-out-lies-on-move-lawsuit/). The main portion of this letter was originally sent to Culver Crossroads as a reply, but the editor, Judith Martin-Straw, refused...
The representative association for the employers most likely to pay a starting wage today called on voters to reject Proposition 32, the ballot initiative that would raise California's minimum-wage rate to $18 an hour. "Progressives have once again proven their utter failure to grasp Main Street economics in the Golden State, advancing deeply flawed policy that will shutter even more small businesses and employment opportunities for struggling Californians," said John Kabateck, California state...
Supervisor Holly Mitchell provided the following statement in regard to the ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of City of Grants Pass v. Johnson: "This morning the Supreme Court ruling on Grants Pass unfortunately opens the door to penalize people who are unhoused. The ruling came on the same day that the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) reported a slight decrease in the number of people across the Los Angeles County. LA County is leading with what works – connection t...
“Transparency in government is paramount,” said Assemblywoman Gail Pellerin, D-Santa Cruz, proving that hypocrisy in government is clearly the rule in California. As chair of the Committee on Elections and Redistricting, Pellerin praised “transparency” as she voted to kill a bill that would have banned non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) from the bill-making process. The bill, Assembly Bill 2654, was in response to a report by KCRA’s Ashley Zavala, who broke the news that special interest...
I've never believed that a veteran should start the claims process with paying for representation. The Department of Veterans Affairs has a duty to assist, yet in many cases, I've seen veterans needlessly pay for results that they could have achieved at no cost from DAV. But when it comes to unaccredited representatives who charge unnecessary fees to veterans, their families and their survivors, we can all agree that criminal penalties should exist. And that's why DAV strongly supports the...
I’ve never believed that a veteran should start the claims process with paying for representation. The Department of Veterans Affairs has a duty to assist, yet in many cases, I’ve seen veterans needlessly pay for results that they could have achieved at no cost from DAV. But when it comes to unaccredited representatives who charge unnecessary fees to veterans, their families and their survivors, we can all agree that criminal penalties should exist. And that’s why DAV strongly supports the GUARD VA Benefits Act. This important legis...
Asbestos use was prevalent in the U.S. armed forces during the 20th century, as the WWII war effort demanded accessible materials for producing military equipment quickly and in large amounts. It made exposure to this toxic material an ongoing worry for all veterans, including those among Culver City's veteran population. The Navy exploited asbestos the most, putting naval personnel at an outstandingly high risk of asbestos exposure. Even so, this doesn't exclude other military bases from being...
Letter to the Editor The Culver City School Board has been severely negligent in handling their budgets for decades. When I was asked to run for the School Board in the 1990's, while I decided not to, I helped someone run instead. As an ex-accountant and business efficiency expert at that time, I did a deep analysis of the School District's budget. What a hot mess. Even back in the 1990s, I found around a million dollars that they had squandered that they could have retained with just a few...
Taggers have graffitied what appears to be more than 25 stories of a downtown Los Angeles skyscraper that's been sitting dormant for several years. Construction on Oceanwide Plaza, a $1 billion mixed-use retail and luxury apartments project with three towering unfinished structures, stalled in January 2019 after the Beijing-based developer lacked the funds to complete it. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times) Taggers have graffitied more than 25 stories of a downtown L.A. skyscraper in the abandoned Oceanwide Plaza development. (Robert Gauthier...
The Culver City Observer welcomes letters from l points of view in our city. Letters must be typed and emailed to: publisher@culvercityobserver.com We request letters be under 500 word and may be edited for length or libel. Hate letters are not accepted. Readers are welcome to blog us on items in the us Culver City Observer at wwww.culvercityobsever.com Letters from announce candidates for political office are not ed however we encourage supporters to submit letters....
With the sunsetting of COVID relief funds, CCUSD is faced with the same budget concerns that all districts up and down the state are. While CCUSD is not currently in deficit-spending, a projected deficit is anticipated if we don't make adjustments that account for no longer having access to these one-time funds. As a district, we are committed to meeting the needs of our students and families by providing sustainable programs to secure the resources our students need to thrive in a nurturing...
Letter to the Editor re: CCUSD Budget Stabilization Plans With the sunsetting of COVID relief funds, CCUSD is faced with the same budget concerns that all districts up and down the state are facing. While CCUSD currently has sufficient reserves for this fiscal year, and we are meeting our financial commitments, we anticipate that reserves will be below the state's 3% reserve requirement during the next two years. Therefore we must make adjustments and develop plans to reduce spending. As a...
At Monday's City Council meeting, a seismic shift in city governance occurred, though if you blinked, you may have missed it. Buried inside a list of seemingly mundane proposed changes to the city's committees, boards and commissions (CBCs) was a clause to enable the removal of a CBC member "with or without cause... upon a majority vote of the City Council." The previous policy required a 4/5 vote, a much more difficult threshold to meet. The "Council majority," referring to Mayor Vera and Counc...
Thank you for the calls you've made to tell the legislature that ACA 13 and ACA 1 are attacks on Proposition 13 that must be stopped. Your help is needed again as these two dangerous measures come up for a vote on FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 1 in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. We're asking all HJTA members and supporters to please call the members of the committee and urge them to vote NO on ACA 13 and NO on ACA 1. Please call as soon as possible! Here's all the information: NO on ACA 13 ACA 13...
Late last year, I termed out of my role as a member of the Culver City Fiesta Committee. One of the most surprising (and disappointing) things about the experience was that there was no formal or informal orientation process when appointed by the City Council, and no exit interview when I, and two of my fellow Fiesta Committee members completed our terms. Unlike many previous members of Culver City's commissions and committees, I wanted to be proactive and share my experiences and thoughts on...
Dear Editor, I am a concerned Culver City resident who regularly appreciates your publication. I realize that politics is so important these days, just not to me…but here are my quick thoughts on recent Culver City issues that impact CC residents’ daily life: 1) Eliminating Single Family Zoning is an affront to all that invested in CC before us, and all that currently pays for CC infrastructure, schools and services. The idea that increasing the density of available housing will help anybody who can’t currently afford CC is silly at best....
We have officially filed the Repeal the Death Tax initiative with the Attorney General's office and the public comment period is open! You can tell the Attorney General, "I support Initiative 23-0005." This important initiative will restore the ability of parents to transfer their home and a limited amount of other property to their children without any change to the property tax bill. It will also restore the same rights for grandparents if the children's parents are deceased. As you know,...
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...
