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Authorities have identified the 3-year-old boy whose neck was slashed in Lancaster earlier this week, and the investigation is continuing into his death.
Deputies responded just before 11 p.m. Tuesday to the 43400 block of 57th Street West, south of Avenue K, on a medical rescue call, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. When they arrived, deputies found a victim described only as a “male juvenile” suffering from a “laceration to the neck.”
David Jacques Hernandez of Lancaster died at a hospital, the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner reported.
Sheriff’s officials were investigating the death as a homicide. The Los Angeles Times, citing unnamed sources, said the boy was found in a bathtub with his throat cut. The body was found by a family friend who went to the home at the behest of one of the boy’s relatives, the paper reported.
According to the sheriff’s department, deputies who responded to the home also found Rena Naulls, 39, at the home suffering from a “medical emergency.” Naulls, the live-in boyfriend of the child’s mother, tried “to take his own life” at the home, sheriff’s officials said.
Naulls was taken to a hospital, where he is considered to be in stable condition, according to the sheriff’s department.
“Mr. Naulls has been identified as a person of interest in this matter,” sheriff’s officials said in a statement. They stressed that no arrests have been made.
The biological father of the toddler, Herbett Hernandez, said he is utterly devastated over his child’s death and is in disbelief.
“What did he do for this psycho, monster, whoever, did that to my baby?” the elder Hernandez said.
The grieving father was in an on-again, off-again relationship with the boy’s mother for the last 13 years. They had been separated for the last four months.
According to the sheriff’s department, there were three other children in the home. All were unharmed and were placed in the custody of the County Department of Children and Family Services. The Times reported those children are ages 9, 11 and 14.
Anyone with information on the case was urged to call the Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500, or Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS. Tipsters may also use the website http://lacrimestoppers.org.
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or chat live at 988lifeline.org. You can also visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional support.
Jack Nourafshan, CEO of Los Angeles-based Reliable Properties, is the buyer that took home a $36 million mansion in Beverly Hills from the daughter of a former Uzbekistan president, The Real Deal has learned.
Chelsea View, a limited liability company controlled by Nourafshan, bought the property, according to state business and property records.
Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva, the daughter of former Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov and her husband, Timur Tillyaev, sold the two-story mansion at 900 North Crescent Drive earlier this month. The home was developed by famous spec home builder Mohamed Hadid.
Drew Fenton at Carolwood Estates brokered the deal on behalf of the seller. Broker Lea Porter of The Beverly Hills Estates represented the buyer along with Zac Mostame of Carolwood Estates.
Nourafshan bought the property using a $26.1 million mortgage from Deutsche Bank, according to loan documents. The mortgage has an adjustable rate, meaning it fluctuates based on the U.S. Treasury Index.
Reliable Properties mostly builds multifamily properties and was one of the largest developers in L.A. in 2020, according to TRD data. The firm also owns a number of retail properties.
Nourafshan’s new home includes a 15,000-square-foot basement with a ballroom that can seat 250, a Turkish-style bath and a 50-seat movie theater. It also has a 60-foot-long infinity pool.
The home was first on the market for $58 million in 2021.
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PEARBLOSSOM, Calif. (KABC) — A Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy shot and wounded a suspect at a gas station Thursday morning in Pearblossom.
Deputies responded about 6:45 a.m. to a “call for service” in the 13000 block of Pearblossom Highway, just west of Longview Road, the Sheriff’s Department said.
The unidentified suspect was believed to be armed, possibly with a knife, and was uncooperative before the shooting occurred, authorities said.
The wounded individual was transported to a hospital in unknown condition.
Video from AIR7 HD appeared to show blood on the ground near the entrance to a convenience store at a Shell gas station at the scene.
DEVELOPING: More details will be added to this report as they become available.
Rupert Murdoch’s Fox is pressing ahead with plans to redevelop its 50-acre Fox Studio Lot in Century City.
The New York-based entertainment giant run by Rupert’s son Lachlan Murdoch has applied for state environmental approvals to add 2 million square feet of soundstages, new production facilities and offices at 10201 West Pico Boulevard, CoStar News reported, citing state documents.
Fox’s application comes 11 months after the firm announced plans to add nine soundstages and a 24-story office tower to the nearly century-old studio lot once run by 20th Century Fox. Some 465,500 square feet of buildings would be demolished.
The plan would increase the entertainment studios’ footprint by 88 percent, according to state documents. A timeline for construction was not disclosed.
The expansion project, dubbed Fox Future, would bring the total number of soundstages to 24. It would also add post-production facilities, base camps and media campus offices for film and television production in the digital age.
With Fox Future, Fox could seek a development partner to transform the northeast portion of the lot along Avenue of the Stars into a building with 35 floors of office above seven floors of parking.
The expansion will take place where classic movies such as “Miracle on 34th Street” and “Sound of Music” were shot, and where the Fox broadcast network was launched, live sports broadcasting was transformed, and Bart Simpson began his mischief.
Century City was built on Fox’s backlot in 1956, when studio executives sold off that land to remedy the runaway budget of “Cleopatra” in the middle of a big development boom.
Since then, motion picture and television production has fundamentally changed. The expansion project aims to ease a shortage of premium studio space in Los Angeles, which has driven production outside the region.
Fox joins CBS, NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery in looking to upgrade their Hollywood studios to compete with new soundstage and entertainment-related construction around the globe, according to CoStar.
Greater Los Angeles has 6.5 million square feet of soundstages, more than in any other U.S. city. Another 3.5 million square feet of soundstages are in the pipeline, according to a new FilmLA report. Soundstages across the region were 90 percent occupied in 2022, down from 93 percent in 2021.
In today’s challenging economy, private equity firms are struggling to find qualified talent with experience in managing not only finance and accounting but also operations. This historic problem has only worsened in recent years, with many professionals retiring and fewer people graduating with accounting degrees. Also, many individuals left the financial profession during the pandemic to pursue other aspirations. It’s created a void that firms are striving to fill.
This topic served as the backbone of a recent Q&A with Baker Tilly industry leader Damon Houterman as he examined the state of private equity in 2024.
Which 2023 PE trends do you anticipate will make the most impact in 2024?
Rising interest rates have been one of the biggest factors influencing PE deals, and we expect the current high-interest environment to continue for an extended period.
As a result, we’re seeing more structure around a deal, with more earnouts and seller notes. Sellers have been rolling more equity into a deal structure, which has tended to have less debt than in previous years, and buyers are thus more likely to retrade deals.
Before, PE firms focused less on earnings and more on working capital and debt items, as those two areas had a greater impact on the net purchase price. Earnings were important, but buyers wouldn’t necessarily retrade based on a discrepancy that turned up in due diligence. That isn’t the case anymore. Consequently, sellers are more likely to adopt sell-side preparation to preserve value.
A more recent development involves entrepreneurs and family-owned businesses.
Typically, when interest rates start to climb, these types of businesses wait for the market to turn in their favor, so the bid-ask spread on deals can be fairly wide, based on the expectation that the spread would decrease with changing interest rates. Since the end of Q3, we’ve seen capitulation from private and family-owned sellers. The bid-ask spread has tightened to the point wherein PE firms have opportunities to negotiate for purchase and to close deals.
Given current economic pressures and slowdowns in exits combined with rising costs of capital, what mitigating tactics do you see PE fund managers deploying with their portfolio companies?
In 2023, PE firms focused on enhancing the values of current investments. They enhanced the technology base, upgraded their talent base, and focused on the metrics associated with key performance indicators.
To illustrate this point, in a more active merger and acquisition (M&A) environment, we spend most of our time — often 70% or more — talking with investment professionals versus operating professionals. Today, we spend at least 70% of our time talking to operating professionals who want to enhance the performance of currently held businesses.
Supporting this effort, PE firms are starting to investigate and adopt technologies based on AI (artificial intelligence) and machine learning (ML). Overall, the sector is curious about the new technology, and some players are implementing systems or processes related to AI. It remains to be seen what the adoption rate will be — and whether the payoff for the investment ultimately matches the hype.
Of the concerns that your colleagues and PE clients worked on in 2023, which do you think are still underdiscussed or underrated, and why?
Due diligence is taking longer, and sellers are finding the process more tedious than in years past. Think about the periods that companies review when evaluating a potential acquisition — typically, two years and a stub. For most businesses, those were turbulent times, with many factors — positive and negative — affecting companies’ financial performance. PE firms need to sift through the noise to uncover that baseline business they can count on in 2024, 2025, and beyond. Due diligence now requires a lot more work than it did in pre-pandemic and recovery years, so there’s a level-setting of expectations going on.
Also, with the increase in retrading, we’re seeing more conversations with the previous owners of portfolio companies. Because the acquisition process can be difficult, these individuals aren’t always the best salespeople for the PE firms that bought their businesses, and these increasingly common conversations add another layer of complexity to the process.
One key area that has been underdiscussed is the prevalence of cyberattacks and contemporaneous cyber work within the current portfolio. In quiet conversations, operating partners will admit to breaches — whether it’s ransomware, malware, phishing, spoofing, or any other derivative cyberattack.
In our experience, many firms lack a thoughtful, portfolio wide policy on concurrent security evaluation and testing. Failure to establish a foundational cybersecurity policy is pure folly, particularly given the increased exposure of migrating to cloud-based processes and systems.
With the current geopolitical unrest, the most effective way for foreign actors to attack a country is by destabilizing confidence in the commerce system. Cyberattacks will only increase, jeopardizing not only the portfolio company and its performance but also the fund’s performance and investor confidence.
What interests you most in the current PE landscape, and why? Which concerns do you think are overblown?
We’re very interested in seeing how PE firms use AI and ML — specifically, whether the technology will deliver, disrupt or distract PE buyers.
Will it deliver sustainable, tangible results equal to the hype that’s in the marketplace? Will it disrupt business models, potentially creating new models or cannibalizing existing models? Will it distract firms by attracting huge inflows of capital to technology with an elusive or indiscernible investment thesis? Consider the example of robotic process automation, which was a hot topic for quite a while, yet we still don’t know whether the technology has delivered the results investors hoped for.
Regarding overblown concerns, we believe the PE sector is more resilient than credited. People are saying that PE is oversaturated and can’t survive in this environment, but we disagree. Firms have reoriented their focus and are waiting for the right timing. Historically, PE outperforms public equities during crises and recovers more quickly. Funds launched in this tepid environment could have similar results to those launched during the global financial crisis (GFC), which outperformed funds preceding the GFC.
Damon Houterman is a partner in Baker Tilly’s transaction advisory practice. Learn more about how Baker Tilly can assist with your private equity needs here or contact Damon at damon.houterman@bakertilly.com.
Guitars flutter, an accordion wheezes and a singer unwinds the triumphant tale of Fernando Ochoa Jauregui, a Modesto-area builder of food trucks and trailers.
“He still parties just because he feels like it,” the lyrics go. “But what he enjoys the most is partying with a banda at festivals in his town with a beautiful lady by his side.”
In a video accompanying the Spanish-language corrido, images flash of Ochoa beaming in front of shiny cars and atop jet skis. In some, he wears hats with the logo of his company: 8A Food Trucks. It ends with footage of stacks of cash and a money-counting machine.
The narrative ballad, titled “El del 8A” on YouTube, gives the impression that Ochoa is a kingpin at the helm of a burgeoning empire — one who “gives thanks to his father for making him a good kid.”
But unhappy 8A Food Trucks customers across California — from Sacramento to Salinas and San Bernardino — tell their own stories. They describe toiling as cooks, custodians and construction workers, saving for years to get a chance at starting their own business, only to have their dreams dashed. In a rough and tumble industry, largely secluded in poor, immigrant neighborhoods and farming communities, they allege Ochoa stands out for his callousness.
In lawsuits and interviews, former clients accused Ochoa and his company of not delivering trucks or trailers they ordered and refusing to return their partial or full payments. Others alleged that they received vehicles so poorly built that they couldn’t be used. And some have accused Ochoa of taking back trailers they’d purchased from him.
All told, 15 alleged victims claimed more than $475,000 in losses, according to a Times analysis.
In an interview, Ochoa, 28, disputed several of the allegations and acknowledged some mistakes, chalking them up in part to his inexperience in business, which he said led to delays in completing projects for customers. “I’m trying to deal with this scandal so I can make my business better again — I had a real company,” he said. “I’m not a business expert. I just know how to build trucks.”
Ochoa has become a symbol in Spanish media of the perils that lurk in the mobile food industry. In a 2023 report on him, a Univision news anchor warned those entering the business to exercise extreme caution. The controversy comes at a fraught moment for vendors in Southern California. Several in the L.A. area were robbed by gunmen last summer in brazen attacks that highlight the risks of selling food on Southland streets.
Alejandro Gonzalez was in a dispute over payment for a trailer when an old Toyota Camry pulled up to the drive-through window of Mi Casita Purepecha, his San Bernardino restaurant, on Feb. 1.
“Are you Alejandro?” the front-seat passenger asked Gonzalez, who was standing at the window.
The restaurateur said he was — and the man pulled out a gun and pointed it at him.
In the confusion of the moment, Gonzalez said, he turned to help customers inside the Mexican restaurant and the Camry sped away. Gonzalez, 44, didn’t recognize the men. But he said he fears that they are connected to Ochoa. Asked about the incident, Ochoa said he did not send armed men to Mi Casita Purepecha.
Gonzalez and his wife, Paulina Quintal, had contacted 8A Food Trucks in early January about building them two trailers so they could start a mobile food business. Ochoa delivered a trailer to their home two weeks later. Gonzalez said that he and his wife paid for it in full, and gave the builder a check for the down payment on a second one.
San Bernardino resident Alejandro Gonzalez said that this mobile food trailer, which he purchased from 8A Food Trucks, was stolen from his driveway in January.
(Alejandro Gonzalez)
Soon, however, men working for Ochoa appeared at Mi Casita Purepecha to dispute Gonzalez’s ownership of the trailer he’d bought days earlier, he said. Then, after the couple’s check for the second trailer didn’t clear, a third party passed along what Gonzalez said was a threatening voicemail from Ochoa.
On Jan. 21, Gonzalez said he returned from an errand to find his trailer had been stolen from his driveway. Seeking answers, he said he traveled to 8A Food Trucks’ headquarters in Ceres, Calif., but found the site deserted. The next day, Gonzalez said, the men with the gun visited him.
Gonzalez filed reports with the San Bernardino Police Department over the theft and the run-in at his restaurant. Regarding Ochoa, Gonzalez said, “I don’t know how he sleeps.”
Ochoa denied stealing the trailer from Gonzalez and Quintal’s home — “I would never do that,” he said — and alleged that they had not fully paid for it, saying that the check that bounced was meant to go toward the money they owed on it. Ochoa said he had sent two people to Mi Casita Purepecha to address those matters — and not to intimidate the couple.
“None of my people are armed,” he said. “We are businessmen; we dedicate ourselves to working and building trailers.”
Though the dollar amounts in most of the cases involving Ochoa are not large, for fledgling operators trying to break into the mobile food industry — many of them working-class immigrants — it’s enough to sidetrack their business dreams. And their predicaments highlight the vulnerability of California’s food industry workers, many of whom lack a financial safety net or the time and experience required to navigate the legal system. Some are undocumented and fear speaking to authorities.
“There were nights that we would cry, my husband and I,” said Adriana Nicanor, a San Joaquin resident. She and her husband filed a lawsuit against Ochoa and 8A Food Trucks last year that asserted he never delivered a trailer and claimed he refused to return their $20,000 deposit. They secured a default judgment, court records show, but have been unable to collect on it.
“It’s very frustrating,” Nicanor said. “My brother lent me that money. There were times we would struggle. Who asks for this?”
For many of Ochoa’s clients, making a down payment on a truck or trailer — both of which typically include kitchens — was an important first step in fulfilling a long-held entrepreneurial ambition. Some said that the alleged losses were especially painful because they came at the hands of one of their own: a Mexican immigrant who lived in the Central Valley and previously worked at an industrial shop before founding 8A Food Trucks in 2019.
He’s taking advantage of “the campesinos — the farmworkers,” said activist Alicia Espinoza, a Moreno Valley resident who has helped organize some of Ochoa’s accusers. “My dad, when he came to this country, he was a strawberry picker. It just hurts me that this guy could take advantage of people like him.”
Ochoa said he has many happy customers and has gone out of his way to help them achieve their aspirations, noting, for example, that he has sometimes accepted payment in installments. “Not many businesses do that,” he said. “You know, we’re not a bank.” As for the Nicanors, Ochoa denied that he failed to meet an agreed-upon deadline for delivery, and said he plans to pay them back.
Mi Casita Purepecha owner Alejandro Gonzalez said a car pulled up to the restaurant’s drive-through window and a passenger pulled a gun on him Feb. 1.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Several of those making allegations against Ochoa reside in Stanislaus County, an agricultural hub whose biggest city is Modesto. Wendell Emerson, a deputy district attorney for the county, confirmed that his office is conducting “an active criminal investigation” of Ochoa. He declined to comment further.
After the incident at Mi Casita Purepecha, Gonzalez closed the restaurant and left San Bernardino, relocating his family — he and his wife have three children — to a place they feel safe.
“I don’t know how long it is going to be,” Gonzalez said. “I feel like I lost everything.”
Lawsuits reveal a pattern
Ochoa is an entrepreneur of the internet age.
Food industry workers who’ve done business with the Colima, Mexico, native said that they found him via social media, where his posts depict a professional at the helm of a prosperous company.
The Instagram account for 8A Food Trucks includes several images of gleaming vehicles, their stainless steel kitchens spotless under bright lights. The “8A” in the company’s name is a play on words: pronounced in Spanish, it sounds like “Ochoa.”
A recently divorced father of two young girls, Ochoa has positioned 8A as a brand beyond the world of food services: There are Instagram pages for a hat company with 8A in the name, and another for a jet-ski rental service. It’s all part of a slick image that Ochoa has cultivated online, where it’s easy to find his self-aggrandizing corridos and photographs of him posing in front of his black Chevrolet Corvette.
“Now they see me living well,” the lyrics of one song go, “driving around in a Corvette, buzzing.”
Ochoa’s flaunting of his success has infuriated customers with whom he’s tussled.
For Norma Estevez and her husband, Sebastian Delgado, entering the mobile food trade was a step toward realizing an important goal: owning a business they could pass onto their three children. But Estevez and Delgado, both Mexican American, believe they lost more money than any of Ochoa’s other alleged victims.
The Salinas couple contacted Ochoa in 2021 to build a pair of trailers, selecting him, Estevez said, because he was Latino. “He didn’t have many clients,” she said, “and you could tell he has this aspiration to succeed.”
Estevez needed the trailers for a big opportunity: She had signed a contract with a produce company in nearby Watsonville to feed 70 field workers for 10 months beginning in February 2022. The owner had predicated the deal on her securing a trailer and having proper permits.
Ochoa told her that each trailer would cost $41,000, and promised to complete construction by the end of January, according to Estevez, who showed The Times invoices that documented the deal.
She and her husband sent Ochoa $60,000 over the course of several months, and as the deadline approached, they scheduled a day to pick up the trailers from 8A Food Trucks’ shop, Estevez said. But Ochoa canceled on them, she said, explaining that “his mother had arrived from Mexico and that he needed to pick her up from the airport.” They rescheduled, but he again put them off.
By then, Estevez’s contract with the Watsonville company had begun, and she scrambled to honor it. She was forced to buy meals for the workers, spending about $37 per person a day for the next week and a half — an all-in cost of nearly $26,000. Eventually, she rented a kitchen for $800 a week, and did so until the contract concluded, turning only a small profit on the deal.
And without the trailers, Estevez wasn’t able to renew the contract. “I felt embarrassed … like we had lost a great opportunity,” she said.
Ochoa acknowledged that he didn’t meet the agreed-upon deadline — and that the situation was similar to that of other clients who didn’t receive their vehicles on time. But, he said, others were willing to wait. “Norma’s situation was that if she didn’t get the trailers by a certain date, then she wasn’t going to need them,” he said.
Estevez and Delgado filed a lawsuit against Ochoa for breach of contract and other claims in July 2022. Months later, the parties agreed to a settlement that called for Ochoa to pay Estevez and Delgado about $70,000, including attorney’s fees, according to court documents. Estevez said that Ochoa has only paid $30,000, leaving her deeply disillusioned.
“We were like him, we came to this country to better our lives,” she said. “He knew our dream and ambitions — we told him how hard we worked for it.”
Gonzalez, meanwhile, isn’t the only person who alleged that a trailer purchased from Ochoa was later taken back by him.
Shelly Lopez and her husband, Jesus Avalos, said they paid Ochoa $37,000, and after nine months of delays — and their appearance in a Univision 19 Sacramento segment to discuss them — the Sacramento couple received a trailer in January 2023.
A man Shelly Lopez identified as Fernando Ochoa Jauregui came to her Sacramento home, she said, in February 2023 to take the trailer that 8A Food Trucks had recently sold her.
(Courtesy of Shelly Lopez)
After just a week, though, Ochoa told Lopez that he needed to take it back to his shop to make some adjustments, she said. A video that Lopez provided to The Times shows a man she identified as Ochoa connecting the trailer to the back of a pickup truck in February 2023.
“I didn’t want to let him take it,” Lopez said. “But my husband said, ‘It’s OK, he’ll make the repairs and bring it back to us.’”
It was the last time Lopez and Avalos saw the trailer.
“We had so many fights after that,” she said. “It would come up whenever we were driving and saw people running their businesses, selling food. I would blame him for it.”
Ochoa said that Lopez hadn’t paid for the trailer in full, and that she was making payments in installments. He said that he only retrieved the trailer after she told him it needed repairs. After seeing her negative public comments about him, Ochoa said that he decided to void the payment plan, and resolved to return her funds.
Lopez said she has not gotten the money back.
‘He’s been laughing at us’
In recent days, Ochoa has come under attack online by disgruntled customers — and his former mother-in-law.
Gisela Macias, 48, said that strangers began showing up at her Modesto home over the summer in search of Ochoa. They came, she said, to demand he pay them back for vehicles they’d purchased but never received. The visits were so frequent that she began recording interviews with some of the people to post on TikTok.
Ochoa said that the internet activism and local TV news stories have led to an exodus of clients, which has imperiled his ability to pay back customers like Estevez. He said that he can only make payments in $1,000 increments. “I know it’s not much,” he said, “but I have no business due to everything that’s being said about my company.”
He said he had to close 8A Food Trucks’ headquarters in Ceres because angry clients kept going there to confront him. But his braggadocio is still easy to find on the internet. A 2023 corrido about Ochoa titled “Por 8A Me Conocen” includes the boast that “business is steady and we’re never going to stop.”
“I fought hard and little by little grew the empire that I founded,” the singer trills.
It incenses Estevez. “He’s been laughing at us — the people who had dreams, who worked hard to save money to make those dreams a reality,” she said.
These days, the equipment that Estevez and her husband bought for their two trailers — ovens, cooking wares and more — is mothballed in their garage. It’s hard for her to enter the space without crying.
“That’s our dream right there, collecting dust,” she said.
Times researcher Scott Wilson and columnist Gustavo Arellano contributed to this report.
A man died late Thursday following a fight in which he was pepper-sprayed by another man on a Metro bus in Los Angeles’ Koreatown area.
Officers were called at about 11 p.m. Thursday to the intersection of Western Avenue and Olympic Boulevard. A man who had been pepper-sprayed on the bus was unresponsive, but breathing, when officers arrived, according to the LAPD.
Paramedics performed CPR, but the man died at the scene.
No arrests were reported early Friday. The person who pepper-sprayed the victim, a man in his 60s, was identified only as a man in his 30s.
Details about what led to the confrontation were not immediately available.
The IM-1 lander “Odysseus” in lunar orbit on Feb. 21, 2024.
Intuitive Machines
A U.S. company has gone to the moon – and into the history books.
Intuitive Machines IM-1 mission reached the moon’s surface on Thursday evening, in the first American lunar landing since the Apollo era.
The company’s Nova-C cargo lander, named “Odysseus” after the mythological Greek hero, is the first U.S. spacecraft to land on the lunar surface since 1972. Adding to the feat, Intuitive Machines is the first company to pull off a moon landing — government agencies have carried out all previously successful missions.
“We are on the surface and we are transmitting. Welcome to the moon,” Intuitive Machines’ CEO Steve Altemus said from mission control.
There was a delay, as expected, between the landing and when engineers were able to assess its success.
A few minutes after the expected landing time, Intuitive Machines’ mission control was still trying to reconnect communications with the spacecraft to confirm whether it landed. The company’s mission control ultimately picked up a signal and announced its lander was on the surface.
“What we can confirm, without a doubt, is that our equipment is on the surface of the moon and we are transmitting. So congratulations, IM-1,” Tim Crain, Intuitive Machines’ CTO and IM-1 mission director, said.
“Odysseus has found his new home,” Crain added.
Two hours after the landing, Intuitive Machines said in a statement that “flight controllers have confirmed Odysseus is upright and starting to send data.”
The company’s stock surged in extended trading Thursday, after falling 11% in regular trading to close at $8.28 a share.
The lander began a series of maneuvers about one hour before touching down, starting with “Descent Orbit Insertion.
An illustration of the IM-1 mission, with milestones from launch to landing.
Intuitive Machines
IM-1 landed in the “Malapert A” crater, about 300 kilometers from the moon’s south pole. After landing, Intuitive Machines aims to operate Odysseus on the surface for up to seven days.
The mission launched on a SpaceX rocket on Feb. 15. It is carrying 12 government and commercial payloads — six of which are for NASA under an $118 million contract.
Intuitive Machines and NASA leaders showcase a mockup of the company’s Nova-C lunar lander during a presentation on May 31, 2019.
Aubrey Gemignani / NASA
The hexagonal lander is 4.3 meters (or about 14 feet) tall, and its legs spread 4.6 meters (or about 15 feet) wide, making the spacecraft about the size of an SUV stood on its end.
NASA leadership emphasized before the launch that “IM-1 is an Intuitive Machines’ mission,it’s not a NASA mission.” IM-1 marks the second mission under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, which aims to deliver science projects and cargo to the moon with increasing regularity in support of the agency’s Artemis crew program.
“Today, for the first time in more than a half century, the U.S. has returned to the moon. Today, for the first time in the history of humanity, a commercial company and an American company launched and led the voyage up there,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said on the livestream
Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lunar lander on display at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
IM-1 is also the latest move in a broader geopolitical race to the moon. While Intuitive Machines represents the latest American effort, other nations – both U.S. rivals and allies – are pouring money into lunar programs.
Last month, Japan became the fifth country to land on the moon, following Russia, the U.S., China and India.
Governments and private companies alike have made more than 50 attempts to land on the moon with mixed success since the first attempts in the early 1960s, and the track record has remained shaky even in this century. But that’s not deterring the modern moon race that’s now well underway.
NASA expects U.S. companies to launch additional missions this year, while China plans to launch its next lunar lander in May.
COSTA MESA — Greg Roman recalled one of his first meetings with Jim Harbaugh, one that left a lasting impression on one of them but apparently not both. Roman, as he retold the story Thursday, was an assistant with the Carolina Panthers at the time and Harbaugh was a veteran quarterback.
“True story,” Roman said. “He’s out warming up one day. It’s his last year as an NFL quarterback (in 2001). I’m out there on the field. He says, ‘You know, Greg, someday when I’m a head coach, I’m going to hire you.’ Here I was, going, ‘Who is this guy, telling me he’s going to hire me?’
“True story. He doesn’t remember it, of course.”
Harbaugh didn’t just hire Roman once he became a head coach.
“When I accepted that job at Stanford, I immediately got a job offer from a very good NFL team with a Hall of Fame coach at the time,” Roman continued. “I thought about it and I said, ‘I think I’m going to go work for Jim.’ That was a great decision. Very good coach. Very good person.”
Now Roman and Harbaugh are together again, tasked with transforming the Chargers’ offense into something more than a statistical marvel. Their challenge is to allow quarterback Justin Herbert to meet and, ideally, surpass his remarkable potential while at the same time creating an engine for victories.
Roman and Harbaugh would seem like a natural fit, having coached for six seasons together. Roman also served as the Baltimore Ravens’ offensive coordinator from 2019-22, working on the staff of head coach John Harbaugh, Jim’s older brother. Roman didn’t coach this past season.
Roman and Herbert would seem like a mismatched pair. Roman, 51, is short and stocky, built more like a wrestler and looking very much like the football lifer that he has become since his Carolina days. Herbert, 25, is tall and lean, listed at 6-foot-6 and easily mistaken for a basketball player.
The Chargers’ goal is to establish an offense that relies on the running game as much as the passing game. An effective ground game has been absent for many seasons for the Chargers, something that Roman has vowed to change in the years to come while still taking advantage of Herbert’s arm.
So, what is Roman’s vision for the Chargers’ offense?
“Oh man,” he said, “it’s a team that when other teams see us on the schedule, they go, ‘Oh, God, we’ve got to play these guys? I’m going to get blocked from every different direction. Herbert’s going to be back there firing dimes. This player is going to be making plays. Trying to stop the run, they’re just going to be gashing us.’
“We’re trying to create that conflict. That’s the vision.”
COACHING HIRES
Virginia Tech’s Jeff Carpenter joined the Chargers’ staff as an offensive quality control/wide receivers coach, one of four additions to Harbaugh’s staff that the team announced. A fifth, running backs coach Kiel McDonald, reportedly was set to join the Chargers from USC.
Jonathan Goodwin, a former NFL offensive lineman, was hired as an offensive assistant/quarterbacks coach. Nick Hardwick, a former Chargers Pro Bowl offensive lineman, was hired as an offensive line assistant. Will Tukuafu was hired as an assistant defensive line coach after leaving the Seattle Seahawks.
In addition, defensive assistant Mike Hiestand and offensive assistant Phil Serchia were retained from Brandon Staley’s staff.
ADDITIONAL STAFF
The Chargers hired Ben Herbert as their executive director of player performance after he spent six seasons with Harbaugh at the University of Michigan. Devin Woodhouse, Ben Rabe and Lincoln DeWolf also joined the sports performance staff. In addition, Jonathan Brooks remained on staff.
Senator Anthony J. Portantino (D – Burbank) introduced SB 1147, a measure that will require the study of the health impacts of microplastics in drinking water.
“SB 1147 is an important public health measure that will increase the safety of drinking water,” stated Senator Portantino. “Microplastics have been identified in rain, drinking water, soil, and air. That’s why more research and action is necessary to understand how to deal with their impact on our health.”
In 2018, there was an average of 325 pieces of microplastics identified in a liter of bottled water.
SB 1147 would require the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) to study the health impacts of microplastics in drinking water, including bottled water, in order to identify safe and unsafe levels of microplastics. The bill would also require that public health standards and goals be developed and delivered to the state board by January 1, 2026. In addition, SB 1147 would require the California State Water Board to adopt and implement those public health standards and goals by January 1, 2028, and to provide those public health standards and goals to local water agencies.
SB 1147 would also require the state board to establish testing and reporting requirements for an annual testing of microplastics in bottled water sold in or into California.
“Research is increasingly showing that the rapid growth of microplastics presents an existential threat to human health and the environment,” Nick Lapis, Director of Advocacy for Californians Against Waste. “This measure builds on the pioneering work of Senator Portantino’s SB 1422 and SB 1263 to go beyond testing and planning to actually adopt protective standards for the water we drink, and it can’t come fast enough.”
President Joe Biden met with the widow of Alexei Navalny, Yulia Navalnaya, and his daughter, Dasha, on Thursday during the president’s trip to California.
Navalny, the longtime Russian opposition politician and critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died in prison last week at 47 years old. After her husband’s death, Yulia Navalnaya accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of being involved in his death and has vowed to continue his work.
President Joe Biden meets with Yulia and Dasha Navalnaya on Feb. 22, 2022.
@POTUS/X
“The President expressed his admiration for Aleksey Navalny’s extraordinary courage and his legacy of fighting against corruption and for a free and democratic Russia in which the rule of law applies equally to everyone,” the White House said in a statement. “The President emphasized that Aleksey’s legacy will carry on through people across Russia and around the world mourning his loss and fighting for freedom, democracy, and human rights.”
President Joe Biden meets with Yulia and Dasha Navalnaya on Feb. 22, 2022.
@POTUS/X
Images of the meeting posted on the president’s X show him speaking with the two women and hugging Yulia Navalnaya during their meeting in San Francisco.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Mansions perched on the edge of oceanfront cliffs in Dana Point. Homes red-tagged across shifting soil in Rancho Palos Verdes. Mudslides hurling debris into homes in Studio City.
The river of storms sending buckets of rain across Southern California this month have caused slope collapses and shifting ground, placing homes into harm’s way, The Washington Post reported.
With the damage from floods, mudslides, sinkholes and coastal erosion has emerged striking images of three mansions atop the cliffs of Dana Point — stubbornly clinging to the precipice.
Lewis Bruggeman, owner of the multimillion-dollar house nearest to the landslide, has told reporters that his house is stable despite its perilous appearance, while city officials insist the home is firmly anchored to bedrock.
But an executive with an engineering firm that inspected the property after the slide said future rainstorms are “going to continue to eat away at the slopes.”
“That’s going to need major, major work to stabilize that property,” Kyle Tourjé, executive vice president of Alpha Structural, a Los Angeles-based engineering firm that specializes in soil and structural work, told the Post.
Tourjé said his firm has responded for emergency assessments and repairs for more than 60 landslides over the past week in Southern California.
“We’re seeing more damage, and I think we will continue to see more significant damage,” he said. “Between back-to-back years of heavy saturation, these houses, these properties … they just can’t take this kind of beating.”
The land has shifted and slumped, damaging homes and causing water and gas pipe leaks. Crews have worked to fill in fissures, while engineers have described the movement as unprecedented.
“Areas that were only moving in inches are now moving in feet per year,” Rancho Palos Verdes Mayor John Cruikshank told the Post.
The upscale city has confronted landslides for decades, but two rainy winters have accelerated the movement.
In recent months, two homes have been red-tagged — deemed unsafe for occupancy — and the city closed eight miles of trails because of safety issues from open fissures, according to the mayor. Wayfarers Chapel, a famous ocean-view wedding spot known as the “glass church,” also closed earlier this month because of the shifting dirt.
“Clearly with that much glass above the temple area and being so precarious, you just can’t leave that open,” Cruikshank said. “That would be way, way too dangerous.”
Cruikshank said the city will ask Gov. Gavin Newsom to declare a state of emergency for Rancho Palos Verdes.
The latest storm slammed counties along the coast with more than 10 inches of rain over three days in some places, including hilly areas that have already been soaked by earlier downpours.
Alpha Structural officials said they visited the Scenic Drive landslide site in Dana Point at Bruggeman’s request. The firm said it couldn’t provide a detailed report on its assessment or recommendations for the Orange County home.
Tourjé blames much of the problem to development decades ago under insufficient building and grading codes.
Residents also make problems worse, he said, by directing roof downspouts or pool runoff pipes onto vulnerable slopes.He and his colleagues have been racing to Malibu beachfront homes with the sand below them scoured away, train lines wiped out by landslides, homes knocked down, swimming pools filled with mud.
“It seems to be getting progressively worse, year after year,” Tourjé told the newspaper.
All dogs may go to heaven, but California landlords aren’t as accommodating.
Pet owners can have a tougher time finding apartments because of the surfeit of landlords who don’t allow dogs, cats or other animals in their buildings. A new bill, however, seeks to open more apartments to renters with pets.
The legislation, in fact, would allow landlords to ask about pet ownership only after a tenant’s application has been approved, says Assemblymember Matt Haney (D-San Francisco), author of the bill.
Haney’s proposal would end blanket bans on specific pets, he said, adding that the measure would help ease California’s housing crisis.
Haney introduced Assembly Bill 2216 earlier this month, which he said in a news release requires landlords to “have a reasonable reason[s] for not allowing a pet in a rental unit.”
“I’ve heard from many constituents about the incredible hurdles and challenges they faced in finding homes simply because they own pets,” Haney told The Times on Wednesday. “They’ve been repeatedly denied because they have a dog — even if their dog is an emotional support animal — and they need accommodations.”
Haney said he found inspiration from a British bill introduced in Parliament in May that makes pet ownership “an implied term of an assured tenancy,” unless “the landlord reasonably refuses.”
Haney said that landlords’ restrictions on pets are crippling for the majority of California renters.
He noted that nearly 70% of the state’s 17 million renting families are pet owners and, of those, nearly 3 million live in Los Angeles County.
Statistics on pet ownership vary.
The American Veterinary Medical Assn. said that, in 2020, 45% of all U.S. households owned dogs and 26% owned cats. Among those, 39% of all renters favored canines and 29% preferred felines.
What is indisputable, Haney said, is the low number of rentals in California that say they are “pet friendly.” His staff identified daily listings over the course of a week on real estate website Zillow that showed 21% of available rentals in San Francisco allowed pets, and 26% in Los Angeles.
“California pet owners are over two-thirds of renters, and they’re excluded from units,” Haney said. “I’m a huge supporter of building access to housing, and this is a housing issue.”
Andrea Amavisca, a senior legislative advocate at the California Immigration Policy Center, said she and her partner spent more than a month trying to find a two-bedroom rental unit in Sacramento that permitted their small mixed-breed dog.
“Landlords that initially liked our application would suddenly stop answering our calls once they found out we had a dog,” Amavisca said in a statement. “Or others would require a pet deposit close to $1,000 that would put the unit totally out of our budget.”
Amavisca said it was unfair that nearly every landlord “had a different pet policy with fees that varied based on discretion,” meaning they could charge what they pleased. Some charged only $20 a month, while others asked for $100 and some wanted four-figure cleaning deposits.
Haney’s bill does not address fees, and the legislation wouldn’t bar landlords from excluding certain types of pets.
“We’re not saying every landlord should have to accept every animal,” Haney said.
Haney’s bill defines “a common household pet” as “a domesticated animal, including a dog or cat, that is commonly kept in the home for pleasure rather than for commercial purposes.”
When asked if boa constrictors, lizards, fish or other legally acquired pets met the definition, Haney said the bill was centered on “companion animals” such as dogs or cats.
Calls and emails to the California Apartment Assn. and the Apartment Assn. of California Southern Cities seeking comment on this bill were not returned.
California Oaks Property Management, which manages residential and commercial properties in Ventura County, listed a series of cons regarding pet ownership in a 2023 post to landlords that included property damage, noise complaints and liability issues from possible animal attacks.
California Oaks recommended that landlords charge an added deposit of $250 to $500 depending on breed.
Haney said he expected to receive some pushback from landlords.
“I understand some will be concerned about the potential of taking on renters with pets that do damage in ways they want to avoid,” he said. “I’m open to dialogue.”
The bill is in its infancy and has yet to be referred to an Assembly committee, according to state legislative records, although it may come up for a hearing March 9.
Priya Living, a chain of senior living facilities, sold Cypress Village Apartments in northwestern Orange County to Newport Real Estate Partners on Feb. 4, according to a deed reviewed by TRD.
The buyer paid $34.4 million for the Buena Park property, according to a statement issued by Northmarq, which brokered the sale and arranged financing for the deal.
The apartment complex, which was built in 1963 and renovated last year, includes 88 two-bed, two-bath units. The 5.1-acre property is located at 6343 Lincoln Avenue.
The property is currently 95.5 percent occupied.
Newport Real Estate Partners’ purchase price works out to $390,625 per unit.
Northmarq’s Shane Shafer represented Priya in the deal. Nate Prouty, Briana Harney DeHaan, Andrew Deaver and Soraya Rios in Northmarq’s San Francisco office arranged $19.7 million in acquisition financing for the buyer.
Voya Investment Management is listed as the lender that provided the $19.7 million conventional loan for the transaction, according to public property records accessed by TRD.
The sale “shows the continued interest into 2024 for Orange County multifamily,” Shafer said in a statement, noting that “locations like Buena Park are in high demand for investors, are highly sought after and rarely trade.”
Priya Living, founded by Arun Paul, has been expanding in the U.S. over the last few years, targeting 13 cities, Quartz reported in 2020. Its website lists three locations in Northern California and one in India.
Newport Real Estate Partners is a Newport Beach-based real estate private equity firm. Its investment strategy focuses on “change of use, repositioning of assets, rehabilitation and redevelopment,” according to its website.
Priya Living, Newport Real Estate Partners and Voya Investment Management did not respond to a request for comment.
A Texas company’s robotic spacecraft will attempt to land on the moon Thursday, a historic feat that, if successful, will make not only mark America’s first return to the lunar surface in 50 years, but also the first private outfit to do so.
Intuitive Machines’ lander, nicknamed Odysseus, is expected to attempt a landing at about 4:24 p.m. ET near Malapert A, a small impact crater about 190 miles from the moon’s south pole, according to NASA.
A smooth touchdown would put the U.S. back in business on the moon for the first time since NASA astronauts closed out the Apollo program in 1972.
Launched last week, Odysseus fired its engine on the back side of the moon while out of contact with Earth. Flight controllers at the company’s Houston headquarters had to wait until the spacecraft emerged to learn whether the lander was in orbit or hurtling aimlessly away.
Intuitive Machines confirmed its lander was circling the moon with experiments from NASA and other clients. The lander is part of a NASA program to kickstart the lunar economy; the space agency is paying $118 million to get its experiments on the moon on this mission.
On Thursday, controllers will lower the orbit from just under 60 miles to 6 miles — a crucial maneuver occurring again on the moon’s far side — before aiming for a touchdown near the moon’s south pole. It’s a dicey place to land with all the craters and cliffs, but deemed prime real estate for astronauts since the permanently shadowed craters are believed to hold frozen water.
If successful, it would also become the first privately built craft to ace a moon landing. Another U.S. company — Astrobotic Technology — tried to send a lander to the moon last month, but it didn’t get there because of a fuel leak. The crippled lander came crashing back through the atmosphere, burning up over the Pacific.
In a sweeping narrative of crime across Burbank, the community faced a series of incidents that underscored the challenges facing the local police force. From thefts and DUIs to more severe cases of assault, robbery, and arson, the city the following criminal activity that spanned from early February to the latter half of the month.
The incidents began to gain notable momentum on February 6, 2024, with a theft/larceny case reported at 1300 Block N Victory PL at 2:35 PM. This event marked the onset of a troubling trend that would escalate in the days to follow.
By February 12, the city saw two instances of fraud, one at 700 Block S Main ST at 6:00 PM and another at 900 Block S San Fernando BL at 3:58 PM, signaling a growing concern for financial crimes within the community.
The trend of theft continued on February 14, with significant incidents including a motor vehicle theft at N San Fernando BL/N Ontario ST at 3:00 PM, followed by theft/larceny at 1700 Block N Victory PL at 5:42 PM and another theft/larceny at 200 Block W Spazier AVE APT 209 at 6:12 PM, indicating a persistent issue with property crimes.
February 15 saw a motor vehicle theft at 500 Block S Buena Vista ST at 2:30 PM, adding to the series of auto-related crimes plaguing the city.
The situation seemed to intensify on February 16, beginning with a robbery at 2200 Block W Olive AV at 8:42 AM, an arson incident at W Alameda AV/S Flower ST at 10:08 AM, and an assault at 200 Block N Third ST at 10:30 AM. The day also saw multiple instances of theft/larceny, vehicle break-ins, and a DUI arrest, illustrating a day fraught with various criminal activities.
February 17 brought more challenges, starting with an assault at 600 Block E Verdugo AV at 3:00 AM, followed by a string of vehicle-related crimes, including break-ins and a motor vehicle theft, and culminating in a vandalism report at 200 Block W Olive AV at 12:00 PM.
The crime wave showed no signs of abating as the city moved into the week of February 18, with a DUI reported at 1700 Block W Olive AV at 1:15 AM, signaling ongoing issues with impaired driving.
February 19 was particularly troubling, with incidents ranging from motor vehicle theft early in the morning at 700 Block N Ontario ST at 6:28 AM, to fraud, theft/larceny, and another robbery at 2400 Block W Victory BL at 5:05 PM, and ending with drugs/alcohol violations at W Olive AV/N Lake ST at 6:20 PM.
These incidents, chronicled in detail, paint a vivid picture of the criminal landscape in Burbank over a short span, highlighting the diverse and complex nature of the challenges faced by the Burbank Police Department and the community at large.
Plans to move unhoused residents residing in the L.A. Grand Hotel to the Mayfair Hotel are going “smoothly,” the acting director of interim housing for the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority told a City Council committee on Wednesday, Feb. 21.
The first phase began on Feb. 7, focusing on linking about 77 unhoused residents at L.A. Grand Hotel to limited subsidies and other permanent, supportive housing resources.
According to Fernandez, the second phase will begin April 8, focusing on interim housing transfers — some 56 individuals who do not have existing linkages to housing navigation, time limited subsidies or other permanent housing resources, and who will not be moving to the Mayfair.
The third phase is set for May 1, when about 300 L.A. Grand Hotel residents will move out to the Mayfair.
Fernandez said while the homeless services authority is aiming to complete moving homeless individuals out of the L.A. Grand Hotel by June 30, it has until the end of July to do so.
Fernandez noted there were initially 433 residents at the L.A. Grand Hotel, but as of Feb. 14, there were 440, citing Bass’ efforts to continue enrolling individuals while also connecting new participants to housing resources. Four residents left the program, he added.
While committee members expressed their appreciation for the verbal presentation, they criticized the absence of a written report.
Fernandez was unable to answer all the council members’ questions, prompting them to ask for a follow-up report in two weeks around the outcomes for those 77 and 56 individuals, who would not be transferring to the Mayfair Hotel.
According to a recent Homelessness Emergency Account report — which monitors funding for Bass’ Inside Safe initiative and other efforts to address homelessness — the council extended the lease on the L.A. Grand Hotel through July 31, retaining 481 units for interim housing.
Since June 2023, the Weingart Center has provided services at the hotel, and will continue through the extension. The extension is estimated to cost $20 million — about $13.9 million for the lease and food and $6.8 million for services.
With the lease a few months away from ending, city officials are looking to use the Mayfair Hotel for interim housing transfers from the Grand and Skid Row some time in May.
Councilman Bob Blumenfield, who sits on the housing committee, questioned whether the city would be on hook for services at both the L.A. Grand and Mayfair hotels during demobilization efforts.
A representative for the City Administrative Office explained that financial commitments would overlap until July, unless the transfer is completed faster.
Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez, another member of the committee, firmly stated she expected a written report that outlined the projected cost expenditures associated with the ramp up of Mayfair Hotel as opposed to the ramp down of the L.A. Grand Hotel.
“I just wanted to get clarity because it’s about as clear as mud,” she noted.
About 301 participants qualify for expanded services under the state’s Encampment Resolution Fund award — covering costs specifically for unhoused residents from Skid Row. The other 135 participants are lower-acuity and non-Skid Row residents, who benefit from Homelessness Emergency Account funds.
Recently, the Los Angeles Times reported that Dana Hammond, founder of the Academy of Media Arts, a school that operated within the L.A. Grand Hotel, filed a breach of contract claim with the hotel’s owner, Shen Zhen New World, LLC.
Hammond also criticized the Inside Safe program for negatively impacting the school and students, citing break-ins, drug paraphernalia on the school premises and other safety concerns.
Clara Karger, a spokeswoman for Bass, told The Times that the city addressed those issues by bolstering security at the hotel, among other efforts.
Workers at the L.A. Grand Hotel, represented by SEIU Local 721, went on strike last week, calling on city officials to intercede on their behalf for better wages and support with the owner. Some workers also criticized the use of the hotel for Inside Safe.
The City Council approved the acquisition and rehabilitation of the Mayfair Hotel in August 2023. The site, which was previously used for Project Roomkey, like the L.A. Grand Hotel, will be used for Inside Safe, providing 294 rooms with a three-level, 183-spot parking garage.
Fernandez said the Mayfair Hotel is expected to serve 300 to 400 people, with some rooms being used for two-person households.
According to the status report on the Homelessness Emergency Account, the L.A. Grand Hotel lease extension will allow for a “successful” transition for those participants who are to be relocated to the Mayfair Hotel, while renovation plans are also complete.
For those who aren’t being relocated, city officials are working to place them in other interim housing sites or provide them with permanent housing.
Funding for use of the Mayfair Hotel as housing for homeless individuals comes from Community Development Block Grants, federal money for projects aimed at improving the quality of life for people with low or moderate incomes; Proposition HHH, the bond measure approved by Los Angeles voters in 2016 to fund housing and facilities to address the homelessness crisis; Municipal Housing Finance funds; the city’s general fund; Inside Safe funding; and closing credits from the deal.
The Mayfair Hotel must serve unhoused Angelenos from Skid Row for two years before taking in unhoused people from other parts of the city, as required of the encampment resolution grant.
Electric vehicle maker Tesla failed to secure a vote among locals in favor of authorizing a major factory expansion for the company’s battery and car assembly plant in Brandenburg, Germany.
German state-owned broadcaster DW first reported on the vote and that Tesla needed to cut down approximately “250 acres of forest in the rural community of fewer than 8,000 residents near a nature conservation area” for the expansion.
Plans for the Tesla expansion in Grünheide, which is in the Brandenburg district about an hour drive from Berlin, had included designs for a rail freight depot and storage facilities that could help Tesla avoid reliance on other logistics providers including existing freight rail and help them avoid production pauses due to parts shortages.
The vote is nonbinding, according to The New York Times, which reported that local officials would try to find another solution.
On Wednesday, Tesla’s Vice President of Public Policy Rohan Patel wrote in a post on X, the social network owned by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, “There is zero impact on any future expansion plans. We fully respect the referendum.” He emphasized that Tesla plans to “redouble our work with the community and all stakeholders.”
The German factory temporarily halted production for approximately two weeks earlier this year with executives citing a local component shortage, caused or exacerbated by Houthi militant attacks on ships in the Red Sea.
In the fourth quarter of 2023, Tesla reported that this facility, which it refers to as its Berlin-Brandenburg site, has an annual capacity to produce 375,000 of the company’s Model Y vehicles. The company also said in its most recent quarterly filing that its international manufacturing facilities, including in Germany, allow Tesla “to increase the affordability” of its vehicles for customers in local markets by “reducing transportation and manufacturing costs and eliminating the impact of unfavorable tariffs.”
While Tesla has remained a top-selling brand in Europe, it faces competition from more battery electric models than ever in and beyond the region.
Sales of new battery electric passenger vehicles in Europe increased 29% year over year in Europe in January, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association. Germany and France currently represent the two biggest markets for fully electric vehicles in Europe.
Tesla’s sales represented 1.7% of the total passenger car market in Europe in January including fully electric, hybrid and internal combustion engine models.
Tesla shares are down more than 20% year to date but were trading nearly flat on Wednesday to close around $195 per share.
GARDEN GROVE, Calif. (KABC) — An Amber Alert has been issued for a 2-year-old girl in Orange County who was allegedly abducted by a 21-year-old woman, authorities said.
Harmony Talley was last seen Wednesday around 11:16 a.m. in the Garden Grove area, according to the California Highway Patrol.
The suspect was identified as 21-year-old Ileane Shelton. She’s being described as a 5-foot-2 woman with brown hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a black sweater and black pants with white Nike shoes.
The video featured in the media player above is the ABC7 Los Angeles 24/7 streaming channel
The toddler was last seen wearing a purple dress. She has black hair with brown eyes and weighs about 50 pounds.
The relationship between the woman and child is unknown at this point.
Investigators say the child and suspect may be in a white Toyota RAV4, though a license plate number was not immediately available.
Anyone with information is urged to contact authorities.
This is a developing story. This article will continue to be updated as more information becomes available.
