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Serineh Baghdasarian is a partner at Sklar Kirsh LLP in the Real Estate Department. Her practice experience includes extensive representation of real estate private equity funds, developers, and institutional and non-institutional investors in all areas of transactional real estate and real estate finance, including: construction, permanent, securitized, and mezzanine financing; the acquisition and disposition of vacant land, office buildings, apartment complexes, and other commercial, residential and mixed-use properties; the formation and representation of limited liability companies, general partnerships, and other joint ventures; the syndication of real estate investments; and the representation of commercial tenants and landlords in connection with office, retail, and other commercial leasing transactions.
Baghdasarian also has an entrepreneurial background. Prior to joining Sklar Kirsh, she was an associate in the Real Estate Practice Group of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher where she worked on cutting-edge real estate and real estate finance transactions.
Jasmin Bhandari maintains a regulatory and litigation practice primarily focused on labor and employment law. She provides advice and counsel to clients on compliance with state and federal employment laws, including termination and on-boarding issues. She also represents businesses in a broad range of disputes, including discrimination, harassment, wrongful termination, wage and hour, and trade secret matters.
Bhandari’s experience further includes defending companies in wage and hour class actions against meal and rest break, overtime, and timely payment of wage claims, including extensive experience with PAGA cases in both litigation and arbitration. Bhandari has obtained a dismissal of class claims in arbitration, drafted briefs for cases at the California Court of Appeal and successfully brought a motion to dismiss the appeal. Jasmin also has significant experience drafting and revising handbooks, pay plans, break and leave policies, employee surveys and confidentiality agreements.
JOSHUA BRIONES Member; Managing Member, Los Angeles Office Mintz
Joshua Briones has served as lead defense counsel on over 600 alleged nationwide class actions in state and federal courts across the country. He and his team have successfully defended many bet-the-company class actions that threaten a company’s brand, reputation, business model and bottom line. A skilled negotiator, Briones has a long record of securing dismissals and extremely favorable settlements for his clients.
Notably, under Briones’ leadership, Mintz’s Los Angeles office has more than tripled in size and developed additional capabilities in specialty practice areas including IP and Health Law. He also brought in a highly regarded products liability team from Sedgwick and a talented real estate team from Pritcher. Recently, in a class action case alleging false advertising, Briones and his team successfully won a Motion for Sanctions against the plaintiff’s counsel leading to the plaintiff’s dismissal of class action claims.
The streets of Detroit are buzzing as the highly anticipated Detroit Fashion Choice Awards returns to the iconic Garden Theater on February 4th, 2023. This star-studded event is a celebration of the creativity, talent, and innovation that define Detroit’s vibrant fashion industry.
The Detroit Fashion Choice Awards is a prestigious platform that recognizes and honors the outstanding contributions of designers, models, stylists, and fashion influencers who have made a significant impact in the industry. With its rich history and stunning architecture, the Garden Theater provides the perfect backdrop for this celebration of style and creativity.
Guests can expect an evening filled with elegance and sophistication, starting with a red carpet experience that will set the stage for the night’s festivities. The event will feature captivating fashion showcases, highlighting the best of Detroit’s fashion scene, and culminate in the announcement of the award winners across various categories.
The Detroit Fashion Choice Awards is committed to promoting inclusivity and diversity within the fashion industry. It celebrates the unique voices and perspectives that contribute to the rich tapestry of fashion in Detroit. The event serves as a platform for emerging designers to gain recognition and established designers to showcase their latest collections, ensuring a dynamic and diverse representation of the city’s fashion landscape.
Tickets for the Detroit Fashion Choice Awards are available for purchase. Given the immense popularity of this event, it is advisable to secure your tickets early to avoid missing out on this extraordinary celebration of fashion, talent, and creativity. For more information and ticket details, please visit the official website at http://DetroitChoiceAwards.com
Mark your calendars for February 4th, 2023, and join us at the Garden Theater for an unforgettable night of fashion, as we honor the remarkable individuals who have shaped Detroit’s fashion industry and celebrate the city’s unique style and creativity. The Detroit Fashion Choice Awards promises to be a night to remember, where the best of Detroit’s fashion scene takes center stage.
Beverly Hills, an epicenter for state builder’s remedy projects, now faces the biggest of them all: a plan by Crescent Heights to build a 20-story residential tower looking down on the affluent city.
The Miami-based mega-developer has filed preliminary plans for a 199-unit residential highrise at 8844 Burton Way, Urbanize Los Angeles reported, citing a city memo. It would replace a former Temple Emanuel youth center.
Crescent Heights bought the block-wide building on nearly two thirds of an acre in 2019 for $27.4 million. The property was marketed as eligible for the construction of 42 residential units.
The developer’s preliminary application indicates it will employ the state builder’s remedy that allows developers to bypass local zoning rules in cities such as Beverly Hills that have failed to win approval for a state-mandated housing plan.
Under the legal loophole in state housing law, such projects must include at least 20 percent affordable housing.
Plans by Crescent Heights call for a tower with 199 apartments or condominiums. It’s just the latest project filed under the builder’s remedy that could remake a city famous for its regal mansions and designer shops.
Under state law, Beverly Hill must plan for 3,104 new homes, three-quarters of them affordable to low- and middle-income residents, by 2029.
But the city’s housing element plan has failed to pass muster with state housing regulators, who have rejected five housing blueprints from Beverly Hills since summer 2021, including one last month.
That left it open to be among the first in the state targeted by developers for builder’s remedy applications.
This month, a judge determined that the penalty for Beverly Hills failing to plan for affordable housing would be a moratorium on home improvement permits, even for celebrity mansions.
Developer Leo Pustilnikov has filed project plans for more than six developments through builder’s remedy; together they would total more than 1,200 apartments. They include a 19-story, 200-unit tower at 125-129 South Linden Drive, just off Wilshire Boulevard.
Not all office buildings have trouble finding new money.
The California State Teachers’ Retirement System has scored a $70 million loan to refinance its 337,400-square-foot office building at 11755 Wilshire Boulevard, according to property records filed with Los Angeles County.
Wells Fargo Bank provided the senior mortgage — of which $51.5 million is slated to be packaged into a commercial mortgage-backed securities deal, according to a KBRA report and Trepp data. The CMBS pool, expected to total about $519 million, is set to close next month.
The loan, which expires in 2029, was used to pay off previous debt from Northwestern Mutual, according to KBRA. CalSTRS also put in about $960,000 to help pay off the loan and fund reserves for tenant improvements.
Brokers, investors and developers all say lenders are extremely picky right now when it comes to lending on office properties, given the prominence of remote work and tenants continuing to shrink space.
The lenders out there are handing out debt at lower loan-to-value ratios, requiring owners to front more equity.
On the Wilshire deal, Wells Fargo disclosed to KBRA that it gave out the loan at a 43 percent loan-to-value ratio. In 2019, the National Association of Realtors reported that about 70 percent of loans had loan-to-value ratios of 75 or 80 percent.
As of this month, the office building was 63 percent leased, with average rents of about $60 per square foot a year — higher than West L.A.’s average asking rents of about $56 a foot in the third quarter.
The property’s largest tenant, Kinetic Content, has a lease expiring in 2026, but has a five-year renewal option.
In June, an entity linked to LaSalle Investment Management, which manages the building on behalf of CalSTRS, filed a lawsuit against Braunstein & Braunstein, claiming the law firm owed $920,000 in back rent at the building.
Cash flow at the property has risen steadily since 2021, when it took a hit, according to the KBRA report.
The building reported net cash flow of $7.9 million from January through October last year, up from $7.7 million for the entire 12 months of 2022.
MELBOURNE, Australia — Jannik Sinner upset Novak Djokovic to reach the Australian Open men’s final, ending the 10-time champion’s career unbeaten semifinal streak at Melbourne Park.
The 22-year-old Italian broke Djokovic’s serve twice in each of the first two sets but missed a match point in the third set of a 6-1, 6-2, 6-7 (6), 6-3 victory Friday (Thursday night PT) that earned him a place in a Grand Slam singles final for the first time.
On his second match point, 55 minutes later, he made no mistake and completed his third win in four head-to-head encounters since a straight-set loss to Djokovic in last year’s Wimbledon semifinals.
“It’s always nice to have this kind of player who you can learn from,” Sinner said in his on-court TV interview. “I lost last year in the semifinals in Wimbledon and I learned a lot from that. The confidence from the end of last year has for sure kept the belief that I can play the best players in the world.”
The youngest player to reach the men’s final in Australia since Djokovic’s first title in 2008, Sinner will play either third-seeded Daniil Medvedev or No. 6 Alexander Zverev for the championship on Sunday (late Saturday night PT).
Djokovic’s bid for a record-extending 11th Australian and 25th major title overall will have to wait.
He hadn’t lost a match at Melbourne Park since 2018 and was on a 33-match winning streak at the season’s first major. Every previous time he’d won a quarterfinal in Australia, Djokovic had gone on to win the hardcourt title.
“He’s deservedly in the finals. He outplayed me completely,” Djokovic said. “Look, I was, in a way, shocked with my level – in a bad way. There was not much I was doing right in the first two sets.
“Yeah, I guess this is one of the worst Grand Slam matches I’ve ever played. At least that I remember.”
Sinner took the first two sets in less than 75 minutes in an astonishing start to the match.
But Djokovic picked up his service percentage, cut down his unforced errors and upped the pressure on Sinner in the third.
Djokovic was serving at 5-5 and at deuce when play was interrupted while a spectator received medical help in the stands. After ambulance officers helped the man walk out, Djokovic held serve and saved a match point at 5-6 in the tiebreaker.
Djokovic won three straight points to force a fourth set, but he was immediately in trouble again on his serve.
He fended off three break points to hold from 15-40 down in the second game of the fourth but Sinner got a decisive service break in the fourth game, winning five straight points from 40-0 down to take a 3-1 lead.
Continuous chants of “Nole, Nole, Nole, Nole” echoed around Rod Laver Arena between big points from Djokovic fans encouraging their champion, giving it a football vibe.
It helped lift the intensity of both players.
The chair umpire asked spectators three times to keep quiet with Sinner serving for the match.
The loss to Djokovic at Wimbledon has become a turning point in their rivalry. After losing the first three meetings, Sinner won two of the next three – all in November – in the group stage of the ATP Finals in Turin and in the Davis Cup semifinals.
Sinner was the only player in the final four who didn’t drop a set in the tournament, and he spent almost four fewer hours on court through five rounds than Djokovic, who was taken to four sets three times.
Still, the odds were stacked against fourth-seeded Sinner.
But he played calm, nearly flawless tennis in the first two sets and piled pressure on Djokovic’s serve in a relatively cool 70 degrees and a light breeze.
He was holding his serve with relative ease against a player contesting a 48th Grand Slam semifinal.
Djokovic rallied, as he always does, to make Sinner win it. But he had few chances and didn’t get a look at a break point in the match – the first time he’s experienced that in a completed Grand Slam match.
The 36-year-old Serbian star missed his first chance to be just the third person in history to win 11 titles at any Grand Slam event – Rafael Nadal has 14 French Open titles and Margaret Court won 11 Australian Open women’s titles.
LOS ANGELES (KABC) — A new report details a pattern of child abuse and neglect cases happening in the Antelope Valley more frequently than in other parts of Southern California.
The desert communities have become notorious for several highly-publicized cases involving abuse and deaths of young children, including 8-year-old Gabriel Fernandez in 2013 in Palmdale, 10-year-old Anthony Avalos of Lancaster in 2018 and 4-year-old Noah Cuatro of Palmdale in 2019.
Data from the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services show the Antelope Valley had the highest rate of child deaths of the county’s eight service areas from 2015 to 2023. DCFS reported 23 such cases during that period, for a rate of 21 cases per 100,000 children living in the region.
“The tragedies in the Antelope Valley reflect a critical need for community resources and a critical need for agencies to work together,” said Deanne Durfee, executive director of the Inter-agency Council on Child Abuse and Neglect.
Durfee says her organization is teaming up with other agencies to target and stop child abuse. She says there needs to be more community outreach to prevent children from being abused or killed.
ICAN hosted its annual policy committee meeting in downtown Los Angeles, joined by law enforcement and other agencies, including Sheriff Robert Luna.
“I don’t want to see one of these (cases) again,” Luna said. “One is way too many. As you sit here through this meeting you’ll hear conversations – we’ll challenge each other and just make sure that we’re pushing each other to the point where we’re protecting every child in this county.”
ICAN says the aim is to focus more attention on getting DCFS and other agencies under one big tent to prevent more children from being abused or killed. The organization also says the crisis in childhood depression, drug use, mental illness and suicide must be addressed and solutions found.
Dating back to last summer, the rescheduling vibes had been in the air. But Matt Zorn getting his hands on the Department of Health and Human Services’ recommendation letter to the Drug Enforcement Administration put the hype levels into overdrive.
First and foremost, this isn’t some kind of finish line for anything. The real endgame that comes out of this is cannabis being that much easier to research and then push off the controlled substances list period. But it’s a tricky thing to get excited about. NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano reminded everyone that no drug that has not gone through the FDA approval process has ever been made Schedule III in an interview with Forbes last week.
He also emphasized descheduling as an end goal. And that’s fair, as many have noted over the last few weeks, alcohol isn’t even on the controlled substances list. That’s despite over 10,000 people a year losing their lives in accidents involving drunk drivers. In total, there are roughly 95,000 alcohol-related deaths annually in the country.
We hit on many of the core parts of the conversation last week when covering the 13 state attorney generals that came out supporting rescheduling. Those included tax deductions, housing, and immigration rights, and bank accounts for the cash-heavy industry in constant fear for its safety.
But there are plenty of other parts of the discussion. Moving out of Schedule I is like beginning the walk to the starting line for the international distribution of California cannabis. Sure, it’s still a good distance away, but any kind of progress on the subject had to start with this first step. Here we are a decade removed from legalization first starting to pop up in North America. Who would have thought countries like Canada and Colombia would beat us to shipping products to Europe?! But here we are.
There was no hope at the end of the tunnel of that changing anytime soon, but if rescheduling makes it through the DEA despite the lack of FDA approval, there will be at least a flicker.
The conversation on rescheduling in recent weeks has been very business-oriented. But what impact would it have on the people still serving time for cannabis convictions?
We reached out to Luke Scarmazzo a few weeks ahead of him celebrating a year since his release from federal prison. Scarmazzo ran a state-legal cannabis dispensary in Modesto until he got raided in the 2000s and went on to serve 14 years of a 22-year sentence.
He was quick to agree with the wider descheduling sentiment but the move to further normalization will certainly benefit those still serving time.
“It’s not perfect, but it’s a step in the right direction. And it’s a step towards the descheduling, which is where we ultimately need to be,” Scarmazzo told L.A. Weekly. “As far as how rescheduling affects people that are in the justice system, it is nuanced.”
Scarmazzo went on about how much of the time you hear people talking about Schedule I — you hear them speaking on what is seen as the two primary qualifiers. Those are the high risk of addiction and no recognized medical value.
“It’s the highest potential for abuse, no efficacy, no medical use, but also, it’s supposed to carry the highest penalties, because it’s the most dangerous,” Scarmazzo noted.
He thinks a combination of a move to Schedule III and the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s move last November to modify how compassionate release works could really be beneficial to cannabis offenders still in prison.
We asked Scarmazzo if he was someone still incarcerated, would he wait to push for a compassionate release until after the smoke clears around the Schedule III move.
“You wait. Absolutely. If I were an attorney advisor, I’m not, if I were an attorney advising someone and they’re fighting an old cannabis offense right now, I would absolutely tell them to wait at least until a few months before the election,” Scarmazzo replied. “I think we’re going to see a rescheduling before the election happens.”
He argued a lot of the lifetime-appointed federal judges are very by-the-book. That’s how they got there. So if they have a new book to work with in a few months, cannabis offenders may very well be a lot better off in their attempts at getting home.
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SoulCycle, the indoor cycling gym where a 45-minute class costs $40 a session, is accused of failing to pay rent on an “abandoned” location in Downtown L.A.
Onni Group, which owns 888 South Olive Street, sued SoulCycle last month, claiming the fitness studio owes $1.2 million in back rent, according to a complaint filed with L.A. Superior Court.
“After March 2020, defendants stopped making payments to Onni that were due and payable under the lease and have been in default of their contractual obligations,” Onni said in its complaint. SoulCycle, which is owned by high-end gym Equinox, has not responded to the suit.
Vancouver-based Onni claims that SoulCycle exited its 4,200-square-foot location in March 2020, despite having a lease through October 2031. SoulCycle also had agreed to pay $1,300 a week to use a portion of an outdoor deck at the building from August through October 2020, to host outdoor classes.
Since then, Onni has never waived nor forgiven SoulCycle’s default, the landlord alleges.
Many commercial landlords went after tenants for back rent in 2020 and 2021, when the City of L.A.’s eviction moratorium on commercial property was still in effect, though these suits are not unusual.
SoulCycle signed its 15-year lease in 2016, and agreed to pay $250,620 in annual base rent for the first five years, according to documents filed with the suit.
SoulCycle agreed to pay $288,213 a year for the following five years and $331,445 the final five years.
The gym does not list its Downtown L.A. location on its website — only locations in Brentwood, Manhattan Beach, Pasadena, Santa Monica and West Hollywood.
Onni Group’s 888 South Olive is a 35-story tower in Downtown L.A.’s South Park neighborhood. The company operates the building as an extended-stay apartment building under the Level Hotels & Furnished Suites brand.
That’s the premise of a new bill in the California Senate that would require vehicles sold in the state to be equipped with speed governors to limit how fast they can go.
The proposal from Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) is part of a package of bills that he hopes will reduce traffic injuries and deaths in the Golden State.
“There’s no reason why people should routinely be allowed to drive more than 10 miles per hour above the speed limit,” Wiener said in an interview with The Times. “You can want whatever you want. But that doesn’t mean you’re allowed to do it and that doesn’t mean you should be physically able to do it.”
The measure, Senate Bill 961, would require every passenger vehicle, truck and bus manufactured or sold in California to have speed governors starting in 2027. The devices would use GPS technology or cameras to verify the speed limit in a particular area and slow a speeding vehicle down if it approaches 10 mph over the limit.
Wiener said he is open to changes in the bill — for example, whether to require active or passive speed governors.
Active speed governors would actually reduce the speed of cars that hit the 10 mph limit, while passive ones would make some sort of annoying sound or buzz to warn drivers to slow down.
The European Union passed legislation that will require passive speed governors in all cars sold in member countries starting in July.
The legislation is likely to be met with some opposition from certain trucking groups that have similarly opposed federal legislation regarding speed governors.
Todd Spencer, president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Assn., opposes the legislation, which he believes is not the correct way to make roads safer. Spencer advocates for increased police presence to monitor speeders, but said that changes in speed are sometimes necessary to drive safely.
“There are times drivers may want to speed up enough to switch lanes, to move away from certain unsafe situations. Our preference is for drivers to have the maximum ability to do that. We don’t think technology or even most well-intentioned regulations should obstruct that,” Spencer said.
But Wiener says surging traffic deaths in California — 4,400 people died in crashes in 2022, a 22% increase from 2019 — make the legislation a safety imperative.
In Los Angeles, there were more traffic deaths in 2023 than homicides — the first time that has occurred in a decade.
“This is a technology that exists. It’s in operation right now, and it will save lives,” Wiener said.
While the senator acknowledged there would be pushback, he noted that every car safety requirement has run into some degree of opposition when proposed, before becoming a given. Wiener cited requirements for seat belts, child car seats and motorcycle helmets as examples.
Weiner’s package of bills introduced this week — which he has dubbed Speeding and Fatality Emergency Reduction (SAFER) on California Streets — would also require underride guardrails on trucks to prevent cars and motorcycles from being pulled under the bigger vehicles in a crash.
Detroit in the 1920s proved to be the Paris of the West for many—including Catherine McIntosh and Robert Sage. These two law school students are as passionate about each other as they are their dreams.
From a poor family in the neighborhood of Corktown, Catherine learned early on, the necessity of being resilient. She becomes one of the first women in Detroit to obtain a law degree. Bob, the ‘battling barrister,’ boxes in order to pay for law school. Despite his gruff and tough-boy personality, he is a friend to all: judges, cops, and even a couple members of the notorious Purple Gang. The couple becomes legendary in legal circles for their commitment to social justice causes—as well as notorious in the local speakeasies and dance halls.
At first, their optimism seems boundless, as it had for many following an era of trauma and challenges that included the 1918 flu pandemic. It isn’t long before their passionate courtship turns into a tempestuous marriage. Then the Great Depression hits and their lives are forever changed.
Beacon Audiobooks has just released “Dancing in the Ring” written by author Susan E. Sage and narrated by Ali Gifford.
Oliver James is turning the page on a new chapter in his life and inspiring others after learning to read at the age of 35.
James began receiving support from thousands of strangers after sharing his story on TikTok and letting everyone know it’s never too late to start anything.
“Hey, what’s up! I can’t read but that’s OK because we are on a journey to fix that,” said James in a video posted on TikTok.
The father of two said he struggled with ADHD, making school difficult for him. James was still able to finish his education, graduating high school despite not knowing how to read.
“Looking at it now, I can say it honestly, no one wanted to take the blame. Then they pass you to the next grade,” said James.
The real test for James would come outside of the classroom, as his inability to read began taking him down the wrong path. James served five years in prison for gun trafficking. When he was released, he knew that the only way out of isolation and into a new life was through a different path.
James made the move to Orange County with his longtime partner, Anne, who encouraged him to begin posting his story. It was there that many got inspired by James’ vulnerability, increasing his follower account on TikTok from 400 followers to 85,000.
His account @OLIVERSPEAKS1 on TikTok now has over 300,000 followers and he spends most of his time speaking about his mission, which he believes is inspiring others.
“It made me feel like I was put in this position to do exactly what I was supposed to do,” said James. “The dude that needs to talk about his struggles in reading and what’s going on. I felt like ok this is my mission then.”
Harvey Brownstone conducts and in-depth interview with the Legendary Marie Osmond on this episode of Harvey Brownstone Interviews.
Marie Osmond, is a superstar who’s been dazzling audiences since she was 3 years old, as the only daughter in the legendary Osmond family.
At the age of 12, she recorded her first solo album “Paper Roses”, making her the youngest female to reach the #1 spot on TWO Billboard charts. She was also the youngest female to co-host a television show, “Donny & Marie”, with her brother, Donny Osmond, which is one of the most popular and beloved TV variety shows of all time.
She’s a multiple gold and platinum selling recording artist, with 12 solo albums and numerous Billboard chart-topping singles including “Paper Roses”, “In My Own Little Corner of the World”, “Who’s Sorry Now”, “There’s No Stopping Your Heart”, “Read My Lips”, and her iconic duets, not only with Donny, but “You’re Still New to Me” and “Sweet Life” with Paul Davis, “It Wasn’t Love Before” with Lee Greenwood, “The Way You Do the Things You Do” with Tom Jones, and, of course, “Meet me in Montana” with Dan Seals, which won the 1986 CMA Award for Duo of the Year.
Marie Osmond has hosted numerous TV talk shows, she’s had her own radio show, she’s starred on Broadway in “The King and I”, and did national tours of “The King and I” and “The Sound of Music”, she’s written THREE New York Times Bestselling books, she’s starred in THREE Lifetime movies, she ran her own company for 25 years designing and sculpting the most beautiful dolls in the world, and her long running show with her brother Donny in Las Vegas won the award for the #1 Best Show for THREE years in a row.
Marie Osmond is also a renowned philanthropist. She co-founded the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, raising over 9 billion dollars and helping over 12 million children in local hospitals every year.
In 2018 she received “The Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service”. She’s currently on a North American concert tour playing to sold-out audiences and getting rave reviews.
Her latest album, entitled, “Unexpected”, debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Classical Crossover chart, and has re-entered Billboard’s Top Ten a staggering 29 times. And I can’t resist adding that Marie Osmond was the FIRST celebrity Barbie doll created by The Mattel Toy Company.
After a distinguished legal career, Harvey was appointed a judge at the age of 38 in 1995. He has presided in family and criminal courts. He has been a trailblazer in several ways. He was the first openly gay judge in Canada. He was the first sitting judge in the world to write a national best seller and to host a TV talk show.
Harvey has been a role model and icon in the LGBTQ community. When same-sex marriage was legalized in Canada in 2003, he was the only judge to make himself publicly available to officiate at weddings for lesbian and gay couples travelling to Toronto from all over the world to get married. In 2007, he officiated at the wedding of Edith Windsor and Thea Spyer, the American couple whose marriage triggered the 2013 United States Supreme Court decision overturning the definition of “spouse” in the federal Defense of Marriage Act.
In February 2021, Harvey launched his online talk show “Harvey Brownstone Interviews” on his own YouTube channel. He saw this as an interesting hobby. Within several months, the show attracted hundreds of thousands – and then eventually, millions – of viewers. Because of the overwhelming success of the show, Harvey decided to retire from the judiciary on December 31, 2021 after having presided as a full-time judge for 26 1/2 years. Free from the constraints imposed upon judges regarding the expression of opinions and the endorsement of private enterprise, Harvey now happily devotes his full-time attention to hosting “Harvey Brownstone Interviews” as a regular member of the public – albeit one with a rather illustrious and unique career history.
Watch Marie Osmond on Harvey Brownstone Interviews on Youtube here:
Get “The Talk Show Blend” – Coffee For The Modern Day Trailblazer! By Harvey Brownstone from Breakfast At Dominique’s available at https://www.HollywoodBlends.com
For more information about Harvey Brownstone, here’s his Wikipedia page:
REVOLUSHN will be performing for the “Love Bomb Party” taking place at Universal Bar & Grill in North Hollywood, California on Saturday 2/3/24.
REVOLUSHN will be sharing the stage with Doctor Striker, Big Chompers and Clem Darling & The Astronauts.
REVOLUSHN is an American protest rock band from California, USA. They stand for the underdog, the outsiders, for freedom of thought and for the freaks that don’t fit in. You Can’t Stop Them!!!
REVOLUSHN consists of NO Mansfield on fire guitar and vocals, drummer and lyrical prodigy DEKAY (David Kendrick), the visionary Neil Nyberg on bassist/vocals, and rounding out the incredible line-up is a former Doctor in the Red Army, a master video artist as well as a concert pianist Olga Ilene Schubert. REVOLUSHN is Revolushnary!!
Don’t miss REVOLUSHN at the “Love Bomb Party” at Universal Bar & Grill on Saturday, February 3rd, 2024.
Investors who once saw shimmering profits in Palm Springs Airbnb rentals have hit an impasse.
A cap on short-term rentals in the Coachella Valley hub has all but frozen the housing market in high-demand neighborhoods, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Homes sit unsold for months and investors who gobbled up Palm Springs properties during the pandemic now face hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses.
When the Airbnb platform launched in 2008, it transformed the rental market by making it easier for homeowners to rent out houses and rooms. But then cities started to notice how much housing was lost to short-term rentals.
Critics said Airbnbs strip affordable housing from the market, while neighbors complained of waves of tourists and loud, late-night parties, in addition to disputes between hosts and renters.
As a result, some cities put the kibosh on short-term rentals, according to the Times.
New York allows such rentals only if the host remains present for the entire stay. L.A. adopted a Home Sharing Ordinance that requires a license allowing hosts to use only their primary residence to rent for up to 120 days per calendar year, providing owners live there at least six months of the year.
Coachella Valley cities such as La Quinta, Cathedral City and Indian Wells have banned new short-term rental permits entirely. Palm Springs, a mecca for tourism, tried a different strategy to safeguard its identity in the era of Airbnb, Vrbo and RentCafe.
In 2022, the City Council adopted an ordinance that capped the number of rental certificates in any neighborhood to 20 percent of its homes.
Ten Palm Springs neighborhoods are now over the limit, with owners on a waiting list for a rental license that may take years. Homeowners with licenses who sell their properties can’t pass them down to buyers.
Of the 66 organized neighborhoods in Palm Springs, the 10 over the limit include Desert Park Estates, El Mirador, El Rancho Vista Estates, Gene Autry, Lawrence Crossley, Movie Colony East, Racquet Club Estates, Ranch Club Estates, Sunmor and Vista Las Palmas.
For the many Palm Springs buyers who snapped up properties to list them on Airbnb, owning one they can’t rent out has negated their plan. And the new ordinance is killing home values in those 10 neighborhoods, real estate agents say.
Michael Slate, a local agent with Equity Union, said most agents don’t even bother hosting open houses for listings in capped neighborhoods.
“No one shows up,” Slate told the Times. “Buyers are aware of the cap, and properties on the market in those neighborhoods don’t get a lot of activity.”
Slate has one client who paid $1.1 million for a home and poured $300,000 into renovations before the cap kicked in. Now, she’s not sure if she could get $1 million.
Michael Copeland, a real estate agent for Keller Williams based in Seattle, bought a home in March 2022 in the Gene Autry neighborhood for $1.8 million. He obtained a rental license before the ban.
But now he wants to sell the home, and Gene Autry has the longest waiting list of any neighborhood in Palm Springs, with 32 applications in limbo, according to the Times.
Copeland listed the home for $1.725 million, then cut the price to $1.595 million. After more than a year on the market, it still hasn’t landed a buyer.
“One of the things Palm Springs did wrong with this ordinance is not letting licenses transfer when you sell a home,” Copeland told the newspaper.
Some have tried to persuade the City Council to overturn the cap, but most locals have accepted the new way of life, Copeland said.
As a compromise, the city has introduced a junior vacation rental certificate that anyone can apply for, whether they live in a capped neighborhood or not. It costs $642 and allows homeowners to rent out a property six times per year.
“Poor Things” star Emma Stone has sold her century-old bungalow in Westwood — a day before she was nominated for an Oscar for her performance.
The actress sold the 3,300-square-foot house 10 days after listing it for almost $4 million at 1711 Ensley Avenue, the Wall Street Journal reported. The buyer and the contract price were not disclosed.
The “La La Land” and “Cruella” star bought the four-bedroom, four-bathroom home in 2019 for $2.3 million.
The two-story, Spanish-style house with a tiled roof and sage trim, built in 1926, is in the Comstock Hills.
After she bought the property, Stone added a guest house and renovated the main house, expanding the home while preserving original details such as its beamed ceilings and tiled courtyard.
More than 100 people attended an open house the first weekend, listing agent Eric Lavey of Sotheby’s International Realty – Beverly Hills Brokerage, told the WSJ. The property received multiple offers.
Though L.A.’s real estate market has cooled, Levy said demand is strong for such move-in ready homes priced below $5 million. During the third quarter of 2023, the number of L.A. single-family home sales dropped 2.3 percent year-over-year, while the median sale price dropped 5.2 percent, according to appraisal firm Miller Samuel.
In addition to Stone’s celebrity status, the Westwood home generated buzz because houses in this neighborhood trade infrequently, Levy said.
“To be honest, people were just really enthralled with the property,” Levy told the newspaper. “I just think the property spoke.”
In 2022, Stone sold her Malibu home for $4.425 million a month after listing it.
Stone, 35, who has a child with husband Dave McCary, had been using the Westwood home when she and her family were in L.A.
An Arizona native, Stone bought a house in Austin, Texas. She also has an apartment in Manhattan she bought in 2018 for $3.56 million.
In addition to the Oscar nod, Stone won a Golden Globe for her role in “Poor Things.” She’s set to appear in the upcoming Yorgos Lanthimos’ movie, “Kinds of Kindness.”
When I heard Venita Blackburn had a novel coming out, my desire to read it was palpable, a hunger. Her work is distinctive—it’s sharp, smart, and imaginative, often pushing voice and form—and her debut novel, Dead in Long Beach, California, is no exception.
The novel follows Coral, a lonely author of a dystopian novel who discovers her brother’s body after he dies by suicide. Aside from the EMTs who clear Jay’s body, Coral is the only person who knows of his death. She takes his unlocked cell phone and begins responding to his texts as if she is Jay, as if he’s still alive. None of these correspondences carry as much weight as the ones to his daughter, Coral’s niece. Told in first-person plural and set over the course of a grief-stricken week as Coral attends a comic convention and attempts to date, the novel has an eerie, otherworldly quality from the very first sentence: “We are responsible for telling this story, mostly because Coral cannot.”
As Coral slips from reality, her dystopian novel, “Wildfire,” swirls to life, amid her attempts to keep Jay alive to those who don’t yet know he’s dead. Dead in Long Beach, California examines trauma, desire, grief, hunger, loss, and our society at large in an inventive, form-shifting novel that truly no one but the singular Venita Blackburn could’ve written.
I had the pleasure of talking to Venita Blackburn about voice, hunger, humor, and more.
Rachel León: The premise of this novel is compelling, and like all your work, the voice is distinct and strong. This particular voice has an enigmatic quality. I don’t want to discuss who exactly is narrating because not knowing right away makes for an alluring reading experience, but I’m curious which came first—the premise or the voice?
Venita Blackburn: Definitely the voice came first. I usually don’t write anything without having the sound of the narrator established. The most interesting parts of stories for me aren’t necessarily plot oriented. I’m most moved by characters and relationships. No character is real enough to me to put in motion until they sound real. They have to have a speech pattern, a rhythm that matches their personality and psychoses perhaps. It’s fun.
RL: You’re such a master of voice that I suppose that first question was too obvious. It’s one of the things I love about your work. Plus you often play with form, which you do here with “Wildfire.”But I’d argue it’s used differently than most novels within novels… At what point did “Wildfire” come in?
VB: I had the essence of the main story ready, but I did find it difficult to write much of it, so I spent a lot of the early drafting period working on the story within the story. I also wrote a lot of it during the pandemic in long stretches of isolation where I wanted to be far away from the realities of that time, so writing the “Wildfire” sections gave me that escape. I also rewatched a lot of Star Trek during that period for the same reason. Going into distant speculative sci-fi fantasy worlds offers the illusion of safety from modern troubles and makes every trauma a little more manageable because the future promises reprieve, right? Of course good sci-fi acts as a reflection of humanity and parallels most modern concerns and bad habits at the core. Eventually, I had to cut a lot of the material I wrote for the “Wildfire” sections because they were not what the real story and situation were about. I don’t have a hard time cutting, but those sections were comforting to me for a while, dreaming in a land via a lesbian assassin with a solid fashion sensibility. I couldn’t fantasize forever and had to face the hard part of the book.
RL: That blending of fantasy and facing hard reality hits at the core of the novel. I think most of us can slip into fantasy pretty easily, but Coral is the perfect character for this story.
VB: Coral does not handle the situation well at all. What would the ideal reaction to that kind of horror be? I don’t know. I do know that every reaction is legitimate, and eventually we have to be accountable for those actions. The story though is not about healing or excellent coping skills at all. The story happens in the space between the event and acceptance, that point where our emotions, our sense of reality loses all clarity. I wanted to put images and meaning to that space of grief.
RL: I think the way the novel also explores hunger and desire somehow makes that space of grief more profound. Do you think the two are related—hunger and grief?
VB: Absolutely. On a literal level there are probably psychological studies to confirm this link, but it is definitely something I’ve observed and experienced. Hunger is something I wanted to put language around. Coral has a real struggle to feed herself sometimes in hilarious ways, but that is a reality of grief that we’ve understood forever; it is an ancient reality that the body will not always take care of itself well under the pressure of catastrophic loss. The need to be fed will be there though, and manifests in awkward ways for Coral from standing in an alley eating cheap tacos or failing to order pizza in an almost cruel but funny way.
RL: And that brings us to the humor. While the novel does deal with catastrophic loss, that’s balanced nicely with humorous moments like what you mentioned, as well as funny insights. Was the humor always there or did it come in later?
Going into distant fantasy worlds offers the illusion of safety from modern troubles and makes trauma a little more manageable because the future promises reprieve, right?
VB: The humor was probably always there because of my natural instincts. So much of life is absurd but we take it seriously, and that is the ultimate formula for ridiculousness. During the early drafts though I wasn’t always laughing. When writing some of the harder scenes and material where I really had to remember what it was like in my own body when experiencing the shock of grief I had no awareness of the humor taking place. During the later reads and assessment stages did I see some really wild things happening. I thought I must be insane or this is just hilarious or both. I’m fine with that too. I’ve also read some pieces to different audiences at this point and found that the audience laughs at times I didn’t think were funny, but my delivery is also part of the experience. It has been a ride going from a private idea of the story to its public presentation.
RL: Can you tell me more about that ride?
VB: Well, this book is the first one I’ve ever written on contract where I sold it as an idea instead of a completed project, which I did for the first two story collections. So, I had expectations I’ve never had before and a commitment to a single story that I’ve never had to have before. I usually write whatever is troubling me and I either finish it or I don’t and I publish it or I don’t. This time I had to follow through with the concept and I had a lot of eyes and minds waiting on the other side. The editing process was great and super easy. I’ve been lucky to have such a solid relationship with my editor Jackson Howard. He’s young and brilliant. A lot of the emotional “ride” has been with myself in the process, self-imposed pressure. I don’t know if I’ll ever do another book under these circumstances where the manuscript doesn’t exist before I sell it. Who knows.
RL: So did this novel originate with something troubling you?
Every story I write originates with something troubling me, and I encourage everyone short on content to do the same.
VB: Every story I write originates with something troubling me, and I encourage everyone short on content to do the same. I won’t attempt to put anything on a page unless it is material that is sacred to me, nags at my heart and brain for any number of reasons. I like to say that all stories are grief stories these days. They’re also love stories too. Having experienced significant personal loss at various states of my life, I was able to tap into those experiences to understand the emotional core of the novel, that nameless shaking place of trauma, the sudden emptying out of expectations and possibilities. The novel started with the sense of grief and loss of possibilities that I’ve had with family and circumstances then cascaded out into wider observations of our civilization.
RL: I loved those wider observations of our civilization. Like the part about human evolution and the commodification of Later, and how that both came from More and had to be filled by it. This kind of commentary adds a fascinating layer to the exploration of loss. Grief can make our world feel so small, but these wider observations offer a backdrop, or context, to the physical space we’re in as we’re grieving. Was that your intent as the novel cascaded out? Or was it one of those happy accidents that come from following the novel where it wants to go?
VB: I didn’t always know what kinds of concepts I would use from moment to moment while writing, but I knew the voice and the psyche of the novel needed to look far away from the current moment of crisis. That was in a way an act of self-preservation for the character because the crisis was unbearable if it existed alone in a bubble of time, but as one bead on a long chain of events no given tragedy seems so daunting. That’s how my mind works at least. That sense of organization is anxiety reducing though I can imagine for some it could be overwhelming and have the opposite effect. It was important for me to allow the voice, which was acting as a filter for Coral’s own mind, to travel to places where we have everything figured out, where we can quantify our madness, greed, vanity, curiosity, devotion and all the rest then neatly put them away into files. That way the worst sudden explosion of horror seems like less of a catastrophe. Even though we have to get close and feel our pain eventually, I wanted to acknowledge how for a moment that we can lean back, way back. From far away our nightmares can be funny or pretty or almost nothing at all.
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The “P5” panel of US particle physicists says that work on developing a future muon collider could allow the US to regain the “energy frontier”, as Michael Allen reveals
One for the future A muon facility could potentially be much more compact than a proton collider and perhaps cheaper to build. (Courtesy: CERN)
The US should explore building a muon collider and pursue “aggressive” research and development into the technologies required for such a facility. That is the conclusion of a high-profile committee of US and international particle physicists following a year of meetings to discuss the future of US high-energy physics research. The scientists acknowledge, however, that significant technical challenges would have to be overcome to build a muon collider.
The potential development of a muon facility is part of a long-term, 20-year vision for particle physics that was released in early December by the Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel, or P5 (see box below). Since 2003 the P5 has met every decade to evaluate large- and medium-sized physics research projects. It then passes its recommendations to funding agencies such as the US Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Science Foundation.
Following the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012 at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, particle physicists began planning to build a so-called Higgs factory that would collide electrons with positrons to allow more detailed investigation of the properties of the Higgs boson and other particles. Some of these designs call for a 90 km-long tunnel that would first collide electrons with positrons in the mid-2040s before being repurposed later this century as a 100 TeV proton–proton machine to search for new physics.
Yet moving to these energies – and potentially even higher – is complicated. At energies approaching 1 TeV in a circular accelerator, electrons lose lots of energy through synchrotron radiation. This is not such a problem for protons, but reaching higher energies than 100 TeV requires an even larger ring than 90 km and would probably need new technologies too. One alternative option is to collide muons – cousins of electrons that are 200 times heavier. Given that muons are much heavier than electrons, energy loss would be less of an issue in a muon collider.
Daniel Schulte, study leader of the International Muon Collider Collaboration, who was not on the P5 committee, says that synchrotron radiation is “reduced by a factor of more than a billion” in a muon collider. “[Muons] are interesting because they could replace [electrons and positrons] directly and having a 10 TeV muon collider is roughly equivalent to having a 100 TeV proton collider in terms of physics reach,” says Schulte whose collaboration consists of more than 60 institutes, including CERN, that are drawing up a blueprint for an advanced muon facility. Any future muon facility could potentially be much more compact and perhaps cheaper to build – a muon collider with the same reach as a 100 TeV proton collider would fit on Fermilab’s existing site, for example.
Referring to it as “our muon shot”, the P5 committee states that a muon accelerator programme would fit with the US’s ambition to host a major international collider facility, allowing it to lead global efforts to understand the fundamental nature of the universe. The P5 panel now recommends that the US builds major test and demonstrator facilities for such an advanced collider within the coming decade. The report also recommends that the US participate in the International Muon Collider Collaboration and “take a leading role in defining a reference design”.
Karsten Heeger, a physicist at Yale University who co-chairs the P5, told Physics World that the muon collider recommendation came from a desire to think about the long-term future of particle physics in the US, beyond the current crop of planned and developing projects. According to Heeger, this research and development recommendation has generated “a lot of excitement” in the US particle-physics community, particularly among younger scientists. “They feel that being able to pursue R&D to think about a future collider facility is really exciting, especially if we might be able to host it in the US,” he adds.
Challenges ahead
A muon collider, however, faces major technical challenges and it would be decades before any decision to build one could be made. One problem with muons is that they decay in barely 2.2 microseconds during which they would need to be captured, cooled and accelerated. “It is really pushing the technical frontiers in all elements,” says Heeger. “The magnet development, the acceleration technology, the beam focusing; all of these things are going to be critically important, and they have to be improved over where things are right now,” he adds.
Schulte agrees that if it were not for the muon’s limited lifetime, a muon collider would be “straight forward”. He says that one of the biggest challenges will be developing the required magnet technology. For instance, once the muons have been produced by proton collisions, high-temperature superconducting magnets will be needed to cool and slow them down. And this technology will need to be squeezed into a tiny space to reduce muon loss. High-speed magnets that can be cycled very fast will then be needed to accelerate the muon beam.
The trouble is, much of this technology does not yet exist or is in its infancy. Despite these challenges, Heeger is confident a muon collider could be built: “Particle physicists and accelerator physicists have shown incredible ingenuity over recent years and decades, and so I am optimistic,” he says. But even if such a facility is not feasible, working towards it would build on current US strengths in particle physics and feed into improvements in proton and neutrino beam facilities. It would also likely have broad benefit to society including medical isotope production, materials science and nuclear physics, so Heeger believes it would be an “investment well spent”.
The development of high-temperature superconducting magnets, for example, would have important implications beyond particle physics. They could be useful for nuclear fusion reactors and may improve the performance of wind turbines. Schulte also believes that working towards a muon collider will offer substantial benefits when it comes to training the next generation of scientists. “This is a great project because things are new, there is room for inventions, for creativity, the spirit is very different from a project that is re-doing something that we did in the past in a bigger way,” he adds.
Plotting the future course of US particle physics
The P5’s report – Pathways to Innovation and Discovery in Particle Physics – builds on the output of a Snowmass conference, which gathered particle physicists and cosmologists from around the world in Seattle for 10 days in July 2022 to discuss research priorities and future experiments. The P5 report aims to create a research portfolio that studies nearly all the fundamental constituents of the universe and their interactions, covering both the cosmic past and future.
In terms of existing projects, the P5 committee’s top priority is the completion of the High-Luminosity upgrade at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider as well as the first phase of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) in Lead, South Dakota, which will study a high-energy beam of neutrinos produced at Fermilab as they travel 1280 km through the Earth. DUNE is due to begin operating around 2030. Other recommended priorities include Fermilab’s Proton Improvement Plan II and the Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile, which is expecting first light in 2025 and will conduct a 10-year survey of the southern sky.
Other recommendations include the CMB-S4 experiment – an array of ground-based telescopes, located at the South Pole and in the Chilean Atacama Desert that would observe the cosmic microwave background to probe the physical processes in the universe immediately after the Big Bang. The P5 also recommends that the US collaborates with international partners on a Higgs factory; a next-generation dark-matter direct-detection experiment; and the IceCube-Gen2 observatory, which will provide a 10-fold improvement in sensitivity to cosmic neutrinos over the current IceCube observatory at the South Pole.
“We tried to strike a balance between running the current programme, starting new projects and laying the groundwork in terms of R&D for the future,” says P5 co-chair Karsten Heeger. He adds that it was important to consider what comes after projects like the Higgs factory and completing DUNE for particle physics as well as for the next generation of scientists in the US. “If we fully focus right now just on executing the projects that are under way then we might find ourselves in 10–15 years not having laid the groundwork for what comes beyond,” he says.
Today #TheSimonettaLeinShow continues its highly anticipated 6th Season as the show welcomes American actress and producer, Katie Leclerc! You would recognize Katie for any of her hit series, from “Switched at Birth” to “The Big Bang Theory”! She has also guest starred in the series ‘Veronica Mars’ all the way to ‘CSI”. Leclerc has done commercials for popular products and brands like Pepsi, Comcast, Cingular and GE as well. Katie started learning American Sign Language at 17 and at age 20 was diagnosed with Ménière’s disease, which leads to hearing loss. Katie has received the “TwoCentsTV Award for Drama Queens” for “Switched at Birth,” and was also nominated for a Teen Choice Award for her performance in the same!
The Simonetta Lein Show is hosted by Celebrity TV Host and Top Woman Influencer Simonetta Lein. The show brings entrepreneurs, influencers, celebrities, and top executives to inspire and entertain audiences worldwide.
Simonetta’s prominent profile on Instagram has earned her more than 18.7 million followers, and she continues to grow her following by demonstrating her commitment to making a difference in her adopted city of Philadelphia and all around the world.
Originally from the north of Italy, Simonetta modeled for Vogue Italia, Vanity Fair Italy and Cosmopolitan while building a career as a renowned fashion influencer and spokesperson. She’s been a contributor for Vanity Fair Italy, La Repubblica, and La Voce Di New York, Forbes, Entrepreneur and Huffington Post. Her Book, “Everything Is Possible: A Novel About the Power of Dreams,” is a testament to her unwavering commitment to empowering her peers and herself.
Watch Katie Leclerc on The Simonetta Lein Show on SLTV here:
