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Tag: JOB

  • Commentary: The immigration raids are crushing L.A.’s fire recovery and California’s economy

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    The crew had just poured a concrete foundation on a vacant lot in Altadena when I pulled up the other day. Two workers were loading equipment onto trucks and a third was hosing the fresh cement that will sit under a new house.

    I asked how things were going, and if there were any problems finding enough workers because of ongoing immigration raids.

    “Oh, yeah,” said one worker, shaking his head. “Everybody’s worried.”

    The other said that when fresh concrete is poured on a job this big, you need a crew of 10 or more, but that’s been hard to come by.

    “We’re still working,” he said. “But as you can see, it’s just going very slowly.”

    Eight months after thousands of homes were destroyed by wildfires, Altadena is still a ways off from any major rebuilding, and so is Pacific Palisades. But immigration raids have hammered the California economy, including the construction industry. And the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling this week that green-lights racial profiling has raised new fears that “deportations will deplete the construction workforce,” as the UCLA Anderson Forecast warned us in March.

    There was already a labor shortage in the construction industry, in which 25% to 40% of workers are immigrants, by various estimates. As deportations slow construction, and tariffs and trade wars make supplies scarcer and more expensive, the housing shortage becomes an even deeper crisis.

    And it’s not just deportations that matter, but the threat of them, says Jerry Nickelsburg, senior economist at the Anderson Forecast. If undocumented people are afraid to show up to install drywall, Nickelsburg told me, it “means you finish homes much more slowly, and that means fewer people are employed.”

    Now look, I’m no economist, but it seems to me that after President Trump promised the entire country we were headed for a “golden age” of American prosperity, it might not have been in his best interest to stifle the state with the largest economy in the nation.

    Especially when many national economic indicators aren’t exactly rosy, when we have not seen the promised decrease in the price of groceries and consumer goods, and when the labor statistics were so embarrassing he fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics and replaced her with another one, only to see more grim jobs numbers a month later.

    I had just one economics class in college, but I don’t recall a section on the value of deporting construction workers, car washers, elder-care workers, housekeepers, nannies, gardeners and other people whose only crime — unlike the violent offenders we were allegedly going to round up — is a desire to show up for work.

    Now here, let me give you my email address. It’s steve.lopez@latimes.com.

    And why am I telling you that?

    Because I know from experience that some of you are frothing, foaming and itching to reach out and tell me that illegal means illegal.

    So go ahead and email me if you must, but here’s my response:

    We’ve been living a lie for decades.

    People come across the border because we want them to. We all but beg them to. And by we, I mean any number of industries — many of them led by conservatives and by Trump supporters — including agribusiness, and hospitality, and construction, and healthcare.

    Why do you think so many employers avoid using the federal E-Verify system to weed out undocumented workers? Because they don’t want to admit that many of their employees are undocumented.

    In Texas, Republican lawmakers can’t stop demonizing immigrants, and they can’t stop introducing bills by the dozens to mandate wider use of E-Verify. But the most recent one, like all the ones before it, just died.

    Why?

    Because the tough talk is a lie and there’s no longer any shame in hypocrisy. It’s a climate of corruption in which no one has the integrity to admit what’s clear — that the Texas economy is propped up in part by an undocumented workforce.

    At least in California, six Republican lawmakers all but begged Trump in June to ease up on the raids, which were affecting business on farms and construction sites and in restaurants and hotels. Please do some honest work on immigration reform instead, they pleaded, so we can fill our labor needs in a more practical and humane way.

    Makes sense, but politically, it doesn’t play as well as TV ads recruiting ICE commandos to storm the streets and arrest tamale vendors, even as the barbarians who ransacked the Capitol and beat up cops enjoy their time as presidentially pardoned patriots.

    Small businesses, restaurants and mom and pops are being particularly hard hit, says Maria Salinas, chief executive of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. Those who survived the pandemic were then kneecapped again by the raids.

    With the Supreme Court ruling, Salinas told me, “I think there’s a lot of fear that this is going to come back harder than before.”

    From a broader economic perspective, the mass deportations make no sense, especially when it’s clear that the vast majority of people targeted are not the violent criminals Trump keeps talking about.

    Giovanni Peri, director of the UC Davis Global Migration Center, noted that we’re in the midst of a demographic transformation, much like that of Japan, which is dealing with the challenges of an aging population and restrictive immigration policies.

    “We’ll lose almost a million working-age Americans every year in the next decade just because of aging,” Peri told me. “We will have a very large elderly population and that will demand a lot of services in … home healthcare [and other industries], but there will be fewer and fewer workers to do these types of jobs.”

    Dowell Myers, a USC demographer, has been studying these trends for years.

    “The numbers are simple and easy to read,” Myers said. Each year, the worker-to-retiree ratio decreases, and it will continue to do so. This means we’re headed for a critical shortage of working people who pay into Social Security and Medicare even as the number of retirees balloons.

    If we truly wanted to stop immigration, Myers said, we should “send all ICE workers to the border. But if you take people who have been here 10 and 20 years and uproot them, there’s an extreme social cost and also an economic cost.”

    At the Pasadena Home Depot, where day laborers still gather despite the risk of raids, three men held out hope for work. Two of them told me they have legal status. “But there’s very little work,” said Gavino Dominguez.

    The third one, who said he’s undocumented, left to circle the parking lot and offer his services to contractors.

    Umberto Andrade, a general contractor, was loading concrete and other supplies into his truck. He told me he lost one fearful employee for a week, and another for two weeks. They came back because they’re desperate and need to pay their bills.

    “The housing shortage in California was already terrible before the fires, and now it’s 10 times worse,” said real estate agent Brock Harris, who represents a developer whose Altadena rebuilding project was temporarily slowed after a visit from ICE agents in June.

    With building permits beginning to flow, Harris said, “for these guys to slow down or shut down job sites is more than infuriating. You’re going to see fewer people willing to start a project.”

    Most people on a job site have legal status, Harris said, “but if shovels never hit the ground, the costs are being borne by everybody, and it’s slowing the rebuilding of L.A.”

    Lots of bumps on the road to the golden age of prosperity.

    steve.lopez@latimes.com

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    Steve Lopez

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  • California lawmakers pass SB 79, housing bill that brings dense housing to transit hubs

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    California lawmakers just paved the way for a whole lot more housing in the Golden State.

    In the waning hours of the 2025 legislative session, the state Senate voted 21 to 8 to approve Senate Bill 79, a landmark housing bill that overrides local zoning laws to expand high-density housing near transit hubs. The controversial bill received a final concurrence vote from the Senate on Friday, a day after passing in the California assembly with a vote of 41 to 17.

    The bill had already squeaked through the state Senate by a narrow margin earlier this year, but since it was amended in the following months, it required a second approval. It will head to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk in October.

    One of the more ambitious state-imposed efforts to increase housing density in recent years, the bill was introduced in March by Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), who stresses that the state needs to take immediate action to address California’s housing shortage. It opens the door for taller, denser housing near transit corridors such as bus stops and train stations: up to nine stories for buildings adjacent to certain transit stops, seven stories for buildings within a quarter-mile, and six stories for buildings within a half-mile.

    Single-family neighborhoods within a half-mile of transit stops would be subject to the new zoning rules.

    Height limits are based on tiers. Tier 1 zoning, which includes heavy rail lines such as the L.A. Metro B and D lines, allows for six- to nine-story buildings, depending on proximity to the transit hub. Tier 2 zoning — which includes light rail lines such as the A, C, E and K lines, as well as bus routes with dedicated lanes — allows for five- to eight-story buildings.

    An amateur map released by a cartographer and fact-checked by YIMBY Action, a housing non-profit that helped push the bill through, gives an idea of the areas around L.A. that would be eligible for development under SB 79. Tier 1 zones include hubs along Wilshire Blvd., Vermont Ave., and Hollywood Blvd., as well as a handful of spots in Downtown L.A. and the San Fernando Valley.

    Tier 2 zones are more spread out, dotting Exposition Blvd. along the E line, stretching toward Inglewood along the K line, and running from Long Beach into the San Gabriel Valley along the A line.

    Assembly members debated the bill for around 40 minutes on Thursday evening and cheered after it was passed.

    “Over the last five years, housing affordability and homelessness have consistently been among the top priorities in California. The smartest place to build new housing is within existing communities, near the state’s major transit investments that connect people to jobs, schools and essential services,” said Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva (D-Orange County) in support of the bill.

    Other assembly members, including Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland), Juan Carrillo (D-Palmdale) and Josh Hoover (R-Folsom) voiced their support.

    Proponents say drastic measures are necessary given the state’s affordability crisis.

    “SB 79 is what we’ve been working towards for a decade – new housing next to our most frequently used train stations. This bill has the potential to unlock hundreds of thousands of new multi-family homes,” said YIMBY Action California director Leora Tanjuatco Ross.

    Critics claim the blanket mandate is an overreach, stripping local authorities of their ability to promote responsible growth.

    Assemblymember Rick Zbur (D-West Hollywood) argued against the bill, claiming it will affect lower-priced neighborhoods more than wealthy ones since land prices are cheaper for housing developers.

    The vote came a few weeks after the Los Angeles City Council came out against the bill, voting 8 to 5 on a resolution opposing it.

    Councilmember Traci Park, who co-authored the resolution with Councilmember John Lee, called SB 79 a “one-size-fits-all mandate from Sacramento.” Lee called it “chaos.”

    The resolution called for L.A. to be exempt from the upzoning since it already has a state-approved housing plan.

    The bill has spurred multiple protests in Southern California communities, including Pacific Palisades and San Diego. Residents fear the zoning changes would alter single-family communities and force residents into competition with developers, who would be incentivized under the new rules to purchase properties near transit corridors.

    However, support for SB 79 surged in recent days after the State Building and Construction Trades Council, a powerful labor group that represents union construction workers, agreed to reverse their opposition in exchange for amendments that add union hiring to certain projects.

    In a statement after the deal was struck, the trades council president Chris Hannan said the amendments would provide good jobs and training to California’s skilled construction workforce.

    Wiener, who has unsuccessfully tried to pass similar legislation twice before, said the deal boosted the bill’s chances.

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    Jack Flemming

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  • At Labor Day rallies, speakers decry Trump

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    Thousands of union members and others participated in marches, rallies and picnics on Labor Day throughout the Los Angeles region and across the country on Monday, decrying actions by the Trump administration that they say weaken unions and harm workers while strengthening and emboldening major corporations and the wealthy.

    A White House proclamation Monday said President Trump’s actions are “reversing decades of neglect and finally putting American Workers first” by rewriting tax laws and creating a better economic climate for businesses.

    His critics say he is undermining, in historic ways, the government and labor-union infrastructure established to protect workers — and therefore hurting individual workers.

    Participants at a massive Wilmington rally and parade — organized by the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor — united over a common foe: Trump.

    “Donald Trump has gone too far,” said state Sen. Maria Elena Durazo (D-Los Angeles), as she and others linked typical Labor Day rhetoric directly to immigration raids. “On this Labor Day, we have an American president who takes parents from their children and workers from their jobs.”

    The raids are no longer about border security, Durazo said, but “about breaking the backbone of our economy and terrorizing families.”

    ”Fighting for workers’ rights means fighting for immigrant rights,” said Angelica Salas, the executive director of the immigrant advocacy group CHIRLA.

    The Trump administration, meanwhile, marked Labor Day by extolling the American worker and calling attention to new trade policies — including widespread tariffs — intended to spur a return of manufacturing to the United States.

    “Every day, my Administration is restoring the dignity of labor and putting the American worker first,” Trump said in a Labor Day proclamation. “We are making it easier to buy American and hire American, breathing new life into our manufacturing cities, and securing fair trade deals that protect our jobs and reward our productivity. … Under my leadership, we are bringing jobs back to America — and those jobs are going to American-born workers.”

    Tariff chaos at port

    The effect of tariffs and their uneven rollout is widely debated, including within Trump’s Republican Party, although a Congress controlled by Republicans has not acted to stop them.

    Trump’s tariffs — and the threat of them — have triggered unpredictable boom-and-bust cycles at L.A.’s ports, Mickey Chavez, president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Southern California District Council, said Monday.

    Standing with his French bulldog Gucci under an ILWU tent after the Wilmington parade, the union foreman described how the mood has fluctuated dramatically at the nearby union hall where ILWU members wait for work.

    “It’s been chaotic, more than anything, with the tariffs,” Chavez said as smoke from a barbecue a few tents over curled past his ILWU beret. “Either the workers really get a lot of work because they’re trying to beat the tariffs, or then [Trump] sets out more tariffs and the work slows down.”

    The uncertainty has made it difficult for workers to plan, particularly those at the lowest level, who are most affected by slowdowns.

    “If he sends out a tweet or makes a decision, we never know if there’s going to be work or not, so it’s been in flux,” the fourth-generation ILWU member said.

    Chavez’s great-grandfather first joined the union in the 1940s and his family has worked at the ports ever since. But he has never experienced anything like this before, where work is so dependent on the whims of a single man, he said.

    Trump bans most federal bargaining

    On the same day as his Labor Day proclamation, Trump issued an order banning collective bargaining at the International Trade Administration and the Patent and Trademark Office within the Commerce Department; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service, and the National Weather Service; as well as at NASA and the U.S. Agency for Global Media.

    Trump cited national security concerns as providing legal grounds for the unilateral edict. The latest action follows a March order outlawing collective bargaining for a majority of the federal workforce, citing the same justification.

    Unions immediately filed suit, putting Trump’s action on hold.

    A study from the left-leaning Center for American Progress estimated that Trump’s orders have stripped 82% of civilian federal workers of their right to bargain. The total number of workers whose contracts Trump has abrogated exceeds 1 million, an estimated one-fifteenth of American workers covered by a union contract.

    In addition, Trump fired National Labor Relations Board member Gwynne Wilcox, although the National Labor Relations Act stipulates that board members serve for five years and her term was not to end until August 2028. Her dismissal has paralyzed the labor board by leaving it without a quorum. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to stop her dismissal as part of ongoing litigation.

    At least one speaker at the Wilmington rally spoke of the need for organized labor to support California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s efforts to redraw state congressional districts to flip as many as five seats from Republican to Democrat — a strategy to offset actions taken in Texas — urged on by Trump — to do exactly the opposite.

    Labor groups have already put millions of dollars behind it and have committed to help lead voter-mobilization efforts.

    Unlike in Texas, Newsom’s plan must be approved by voters, who will have the opportunity to support it by voting for Proposition 50.

    Passage of the measure at the ballot box is essential, state Assemblyman Mark Gonzalez (D-Los Angeles) said at the Wilmington event, because Trump is already “destroying the fabric of the labor movement” months into his second term.

    California Republicans point out that the measure unravels reforms meant to make California districts more representative and competitive. Opponents of the retaliatory gerrymander include former California Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

    Festive vibes

    In Wilmington, although the thousands of union members and allies were fired up, the rally and parade retained a festive vibe.

    On a truck at the front of the procession, leaders of local and state labor groups danced with elected officials as Bob Marley and the Wailers sang about standing up for rights over a loudspeaker.

    Hammerhead cranes at the nearby port facilities dotted the horizon as classic cars turned down E Street, and posters and T-shirts in the crowd advertised membership in an alphabet soup of union locals.

    Children sharing space with political fliers in oversized wagons blew bubbles, and teenage girls from a local high school twirled pom-poms.

    At the helm of a massive shiny black truck bearing the Teamsters insignia, a driver clenched a cigar between his teeth as he steered with one hand and pulled an overhead horn with the other. Representatives from the local branch of the sheet metal workers union carried a carefully crafted, welded brown California bear in the back of their truck.

    Alongside carpenters and nurses and dockworkers, there were also representatives from a cadre of entertainment industry unions representing actors, writers and production workers.

    Rallies across the Southland and the country were united under the banner of May Day Strong, a partnership of labor, political and environmental organizations. The targets of the rallies included federal agencies carrying out immigration raids, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

    “The billionaires continue to wage a war on working people, with their cronies in the administration, ICE and law enforcement backing up their attacks,” according to the organizers’ toolkit. “This Labor Day we will continue to stand strong, fighting for public schools over private profits, healthcare over hedge funds, shared prosperity over billionaire-bought politics.”

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    Julia Wick, Howard Blume

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  • States begin to see job losses from Trump’s cuts, housing and spending slowdowns

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    Cars are flooded in Petersburg, Va., in July. Many of the canceled federal contracts that have contributed to job losses in the state involved flooding control. (Photo courtesy of Petersburg Fire Rescue & Emergency Services)

    Virginia and New Jersey may be among the states most affected by the hiring slowdown that enraged President Donald Trump when it appeared in an Aug. 1 jobs report showing the United States had 258,000 fewer jobs than initially reported in May and June.

    Such revisions to earlier reports are based on more up-to-date payroll data and are routine. But the scale in this case was shocking — showing the smallest monthly job gains since pandemic-era December 2020 and the largest jobs revision, outside recessions, since 1968.

    In response, Trump declared the numbers were wrong, fired the Bureau of Labor Statistics chief, and offered as a replacement E.J. Antoni, a loyalist who has proposed suspending the jobs report. Trump falsely said in a Truth Social post that the revised jobs numbers were “RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad.”

    Beyond those attention-grabbing actions, though, the numbers demonstrate the real effects of Trump’s work slashing the federal government.

    A Stateline analysis of the data shows how several states, especially Virginia and New Jersey, shed jobs in the second quarter of this year, which includes May and June.

    In Virginia, there were job losses blamed on canceled federal contracts in Northern Virginia as part of cuts made by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE. Meanwhile, a slow housing market shuttered a plywood factory in the southern part of the state, and DOGE efforts canceled flooding control contracts on the coast.

    Jay Ford, Virginia policy manager at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, told a state legislative committee in June that $50 million in contracts were slashed in the Hampton Roads area near the coast, causing a spike in unemployment claims.

    That included $20 million to address flooding in Hampton, where almost a quarter of homes are in flood zones, and $24 million to repair a Portsmouth dam that could fail in a major storm, he said.

    “This is work that you desperately needed,” Ford said at the committee hearing. “There was a real focus on certain buzzwords like ‘climate’ or ‘resilience,’ and I think people conflated some of these projects as somehow unnecessary.”

    For instance, the American Institutes for Research announced 233 layoffs in Virginia in May and 50 in Maryland since the beginning of the year. The not-for-profit organization’s projects include working with school districts to solve achievement gaps and absenteeism, creating AI-driven workforce training, and addressing health care issues such as improving kidney disease care while reducing Medicare costs and strengthening access to health care by keeping rural hospitals open.

    “The changes occurring in the federal government have brought significant challenges for many federal contractors, including AIR,” said Dana Tofig, the company’s spokesperson.

    Other recent layoffs in Virginia: 442 workers at Northern Virginia’s Mitre, which manages federally funded defense research centers and faced $28 million in canceled federal contracts; and 554 workers at a shuttered plywood factory in Southern Virginia.

    “Housing affordability challenges and a 30-year low in existing home sales are impacting our plywood business, as many of our plywood products are used in repair and remodel projects, which often occur when homes change ownership,” Georgia-Pacific said in a May news release.

    Stateline looked at two state jobs surveys for the second quarter that sometimes have quite different results: the so-called payroll survey of businesses that the Bureau of Labor Statistics uses for its monthly report, which has yet to be revised at the state level, and the BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics program, which estimates job changes based on monthly household surveys.

    The LAUS estimates are often called the “household” survey because they rely mostly on surveys of households, asking how many people are employed. They include jobs the payroll survey can’t get, such as contract and agricultural jobs, and capture jobs where people live rather than states where employers are located.

    In a state like Virginia with a high number of federal employees and contract workers, lost jobs may show up sooner in the household survey since many federal jobs are not reflected on state-level payrolls if they are done by subcontractors, if the agency or contractor is based in another state, or if DOGE cuts allowed people to stop work but stay on the payroll until September. Those people might report being unemployed in the household survey but wouldn’t show up in other surveys until October.

    The household survey shows about the same number of slowing job gains as the revised national payroll report, so it may be a window into the trends, many caused by Trump administration cuts in government, health care and foreign aid, and also by slowing sales in stores and housing markets.

    Both surveys rely on small samples and are often revised later, said Charles Gascon, an economist and research officer at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. The more definitive Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, set for release Dec. 3 for the second quarter, will show state patterns more conclusively, he said.

    The household surveys show Virginia with the largest job losses in the country for the second quarter, down about 43,000, and job losses every month since February. Before that, the state gained jobs every month since the height of pandemic job losses in April 2020.

    New Jersey, which had the most job losses — 15,400 — in the separate second-quarter payroll survey, has suffered layoffs in retail stores hit by a slowdown in consumer spending, increased shoplifting and, among drugstores, lawsuits for their role in the opioid epidemic.

    Walmart announced 481 layoffs at its Hoboken, New Jersey, corporate office, and Rite Aid drugstores laid off 1,122 amid Chapter 11 bankruptcy affected by opioid crisis lawsuits that also hit Walmart and other pharmacy chains. Pharma firms Bristol Myers Squibb and Novartis also have announced hundreds of layoffs in New Jersey, citing patent expirations on popular drugs.

    Wobbly state finances

    Rising unemployment combined with weak revenue growth suggests “economic fragility” for state finances, said Lucy Dadayan, a principal research associate for the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center who tracks state tax revenue.

    Nationally, unemployment was at 4.2% in July, the same as July 2024 but up from recent lows of 3.4% in April 2023, with the largest increases in Mississippi, Virginia and Oregon.

    Unemployment has dropped the most compared with July 2024 in Indiana, Illinois, New York and West Virginia.

    The states with the highest unemployment rates in July were California (5.5%), Nevada (5.4%) and Michigan (5.3%), while the lowest were in South Dakota (1.9%), North Dakota (2.5%) and Vermont (2.6%).

    “I think the dramatic May and June jobs revision signals economic fragility. State-level warning signs suggest the impacts will show gradually,” Dadayan said. “And of course states are facing fiscal challenges caused by One Big Beautiful Bill Act tax and spending decisions.”

    State finances are a mixed picture, with income tax collections rising because of a strong stock market and sales tax growth weak as consumers retreat on spending, Dadayan said.

    State layoff figures are giving us an early read.

    – Amanda Goodall, a workforce analyst known as ‘The Job Chick’ on social media

    In Virginia, the economically distressed area around Emporia will suffer aftershocks from the plywood plant closing, said Del. Otto Wachsmann, a Republican who represents the area in the state House of Delegates. The area is already reeling from the indefinite closure of a nearby Boar’s Head lunch meat plant that employed 600 people after a listeria outbreak there last year.

    The community, part of the southern “Wood Basket” region, has a large logging industry that will now struggle to find new markets farther away with higher costs for trucking, Wachsmann said. “We’re working hard to find new industries to come here.”

    Layoff rates in April, as calculated by the online human resources platform Techr, showed New Jersey, Vermont and Virginia with the highest rates.

    Amanda Goodall, a workforce analyst who calls herself “The Job Chick” on social media, said the layoffs reflect restructuring in major corporations as well as federal cutbacks. She wrote about the layoff rates in a recent post.

    “These are not statistical flukes. They reflect real corporate moves, in New Jersey and Virginia especially,” Goodall wrote in an emailed statement to Stateline. “The bigger issue is that nobody on the ground cares what the unemployment rate says if they can’t find an interview for a job they’re qualified for. State layoff figures are giving us an early read.”

    California and Texas

    California and Texas saw the biggest jobs gains in both surveys in the second quarter.

    Texas added 42,700 jobs in the payroll survey, with the largest increase coming in the category of private educational services, 14,400 jobs, as the state approved a plan for school vouchers to start next year, according to a statement to Stateline from the Texas Workforce Commission.

    California added 25,300 jobs. But the household survey showed an increase of almost 111,000 jobs, the highest in the country.

    A Public Policy Institute of California blog post in July called the state’s labor market “at best, in a hold-steady pattern this year,” citing the state’s stubbornly elevated unemployment rate of 5.4% but also its jobs improvement over last year.

    “A hold-steady pattern is a welcome change from a year ago,” said the post, written by Sarah Bohn, a senior fellow at the institute.

    Stateline reporter Tim Henderson can be reached at thenderson@stateline.org.

    Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org.

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  • Brevard Schools fast-track students into careers with hands-on programs

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    Brevard Public Schools showcased several programs at local schools meant to get students on a faster path to a career in medicine, engineering, culinary arts and even space.WESH 2 got an exclusive look at the career-centered programs giving these students hands-on experience to do crucial jobs.“I love this program, I wish my parents would have had this growing up,” senior Madison Fostvedt said.Her parents are both in the medical field. She’s part of the nursing program at Melbourne High School. It recently partnered with Health First to streamline students directly to jobs at their hospitals.“I’m gonna apply at Holmes Regional to start as a CNA,” Fostvedt said. “Then I’m gonna go to Eastern Florida or Keiser to start getting my nursing degree.”Over in the kitchen, the culinary program at Melbourne High has students catering local events. They whipped up some chocolate chip cookies and bananas Foster on Thursday.We then went to Palm Bay Magnet High School. Students in their fire academy practice search and rescue, and later this year, students like Bryce Medina will have an opportunity to complete a live burn for the first time.”This gives you a jumpstart more than anyone just joining,” Medina said. “It’s a great opportunity.”The school also has an engineering program that partners with NASA. It’s called the HUNCH program: High Schools United with NASA to Create Hardware. It was one of NASA’s first engineering programs in Brevard County.”You see the big companies like SpaceX. You see big companies like Blue Origin– not just NASA jobs but commercial jobs because we are changing the way information moves right here in Brevard County,” Congressman Mike Haridopolos said. “These students are gonna have a bright future because high-paying jobs are waiting for them.”Congressman Haridopolos toured the programs on Thursday to see the impact of public dollars going toward our students.”To have this hands-on training, learning firsthand from the professionals who actually do it, really remarkable thing,” Haridopolos said.VyStar Credit Union is also partnering with the district to bring a business program to Melbourne High School.

    BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. —

    Brevard Public Schools showcased several programs at local schools meant to get students on a faster path to a career in medicine, engineering, culinary arts and even space.

    WESH 2 got an exclusive look at the career-centered programs giving these students hands-on experience to do crucial jobs.

    “I love this program, I wish my parents would have had this growing up,” senior Madison Fostvedt said.

    Her parents are both in the medical field. She’s part of the nursing program at Melbourne High School. It recently partnered with Health First to streamline students directly to jobs at their hospitals.

    “I’m gonna apply at Holmes Regional to start as a CNA,” Fostvedt said. “Then I’m gonna go to Eastern Florida or Keiser to start getting my nursing degree.”

    Over in the kitchen, the culinary program at Melbourne High has students catering local events. They whipped up some chocolate chip cookies and bananas Foster on Thursday.

    We then went to Palm Bay Magnet High School. Students in their fire academy practice search and rescue, and later this year, students like Bryce Medina will have an opportunity to complete a live burn for the first time.

    “This gives you a jumpstart more than anyone just joining,” Medina said. “It’s a great opportunity.”

    The school also has an engineering program that partners with NASA. It’s called the HUNCH program: High Schools United with NASA to Create Hardware. It was one of NASA’s first engineering programs in Brevard County.

    “You see the big companies like SpaceX. You see big companies like Blue Origin– not just NASA jobs but commercial jobs because we are changing the way information moves right here in Brevard County,” Congressman Mike Haridopolos said. “These students are gonna have a bright future because high-paying jobs are waiting for them.”

    Congressman Haridopolos toured the programs on Thursday to see the impact of public dollars going toward our students.

    “To have this hands-on training, learning firsthand from the professionals who actually do it, really remarkable thing,” Haridopolos said.

    VyStar Credit Union is also partnering with the district to bring a business program to Melbourne High School.

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  • A top detective alleges the LAPD is toxic toward women. Will her lawsuit bring change?

    A top detective alleges the LAPD is toxic toward women. Will her lawsuit bring change?

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    Even as a young street cop trying to work her way up the ranks of the Los Angeles Police Department in the mid-90s, Kristine Klotz says she was quick to call out sexism on the job. Right is right and wrong is wrong, she used to tell herself, knowing that she would ruffle some feathers in the process.

    So she didn’t hesitate to speak up last summer when she learned that a male supervisor in the vaunted Robbery-Homicide Division where she worked had allegedly compared female detectives to sex workers on Figueroa Street.

    To make it in the LAPD, department veterans say, you need a thick skin. But Klotz, 54, alleges the Figueroa comments were just the tip of an iceberg of verbal abuse women in the unit faced.

    Klotz said that after repeated complaints about her mistreatment at the hands of department officials went ignored, she and another female Robbery-Homicide detective reached out for help from the Board of Police Commissioners, the LAPD’s civilian oversight body. For weeks, they heard nothing.

    A response eventually came, just not the one Klotz expected.

    In a whistleblower lawsuit filed this year in Los Angeles County Superior Court, Klotz claims the LAPD retaliated against her. She alleges she was demoted, reassigned and put under internal investigation in the span of a few months.

    The lawsuit accuses several current senior LAPD officials, including Deputy Chief Marc Reina, and Capts. Scot Williams and Robin Petillo of inflicting emotional distress and creating a hostile work environment. The suit names two women, Petillo and Lt. Blanca Lopez; the rest of the defendants are men. A follow-up letter to the Police Commission names the supervising detective who allegedly made the Figueroa comments, Christopher Marsden.

    Emails from The Times to the work accounts of the officials singled out in the suit went unreturned.

    The LAPD said it doesn’t discuss pending litigation and referred questions to the city attorney’s office, which didn’t respond to an email seeking comment. A private law firm that is representing the defendants, including the city, has asked a judge for more time before responding to Klotz’s suit in court.

    A 29-year department veteran with a long list of high-profile criminal investigations to her name, Klotz said she had no choice but to turn to the court system while fighting to restore both her career and reputation. The months-long ordeal, she said, “opened my eyes to a completely different way of thinking when there was so much pride I had in this organization.”

    Tackling persistent sexual harassment complaints will be among the pressing issues facing incoming LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell, who was appointed to the job this month, pending City Council approval. He will also be expected to overhaul a disciplinary system that some argue seems to penalize the accuser more than the accused.

    Since 2019, the city of Los Angeles has paid out at least $11 million in damages for cases of discrimination, retaliation and other workplace strife based on gender brought by LAPD officers, according to a Times review of data obtained through a public records request. That figure doesn’t include at least $12 million in damages awarded by juries to women at the LAPD that the city is appealing after having been defeated in court.

    In addition, a dozen or so cases involving complaints by female officers about harassment and discrimination are pending. Several claims have previously gone unreported, including a sergeant who says she was denied a transfer in “direct retaliation” for cooperating with an Internal Affairs investigation into a former assistant chief accused of planting a tracking device on the car of his former domestic partner, a fellow LAPD officer.

    In another case, an auto theft detective says she was tormented by a male colleague after their relationship fell apart. And in the Hollenbeck Division, which has seen investigations and leadership changes in recent months, several sworn and civilian female employees alleged they faced retaliation for reporting misconduct.

    While some longtime LAPD observers argue that decades of damning reports and court orders have forced the department to confront the problem, others, including civil rights attorney Connie Rice, say a crude, misogynistic culture still exists and women in uniform continue to face obstacles to advancement.

    Much of the abuse has moved online to pro-LAPD social media groups that feature a “frat-boy sort of MAGA misogyny thing going on,” she said.

    “I think that the DNA of the culture is still ‘Women shouldn’t be here,’” Rice said. “There’s not a welcome mat, it’s more like a no-trespassing mat.”

    Toward the end of her time at Robbery-Homicide, Klotz said, she felt as though she had a target on her back.

    Klotz contends that she was ordered to perform menial tasks and forced to check in whenever she left the office, much like a high-schooler requesting a hall pass. If she stepped away to rinse out her coffee mug or use the copier, she said, her supervisor would text her demanding to know where she was. Then one day last summer, she showed up to work to find that her keycard access had been revoked.

    Determined not to take the humiliation “sitting down,” Klotz and a colleague, Det. Jennifer Hammer, wrote a letter to the Police Commission in September 2023 asking it to intervene in “the recent harassment, discrimination, and retaliation she and other female officers had endured.”

    “The misconduct has not stopped and has increasingly worsened,” the letter said. Hammer has filed her own complaint against the department.

    Klotz has been the subject of at least two internal investigations. She says the complaints against her — one for allegedly making an inappropriate gesture to another officer and the other for accosting a civilian employee — were “fabricated” as a way of punishing her for speaking out.

    In January, she was demoted to a lower-ranking detective position, sent to an auto theft unit in the San Fernando Valley. She took an 18% pay cut and now reports to a younger detective previously under her command.

    Even after years on the job, Klotz has maintained her uncommonly cheerful manner. But her jaw clenches and voice thickens with emotion when she describes the humiliation she felt walking into the Van Nuys police station for the first time earlier this year, and feeling the stares from her colleagues.

    The last few months have taken a heavy mental toll, she said. She started smoking again, nearly a decade after quitting cold turkey. More than once, she said, she has broken down and cried in her car outside of work.

    “I didn’t think at the end of my career I would be subjected to the ongoing harassment, the retaliation that I have endured by upper management and command officers,” Klotz said.

    Growing up in Long Beach on a steady diet of “Charlie’s Angels” reruns, Klotz dreamed of going into law enforcement from an early age. A high school class on courts and the law further piqued her interest. She said she had job opportunities at other area departments in her early 20s, but she held out for an offer from the LAPD.

    Her dream was always to work her way up to detective, preferably investigating murders. She eventually achieved her goal, joining a Valley-area homicide unit. That led to her first encounter with what she alleges is a toxic culture.

    Before blowing the whistle at Robbery-Homicide, Klotz was among a group of female detectives who sued over what they described as a frat-like atmosphere in the Valley, where some male colleagues were vulgar and abusive toward women in the office.

    Klotz and other women said they were routinely referred to as “tourists” who didn’t belong. One male detective allegedly boasted of sexual exploits with the wife of a now-deputy chief and was accused of sending an inappropriate email from his work account to a female Los Angeles County deputy district attorney.

    The city has denied the allegations raised in the suit, which remains under litigation.

    Klotz said the experience in that case taught her to document everything, including the numerous pleading emails she sent to department higher-ups asking them to intervene at Robbery-Homicide.

    Like other women who have reported misconduct, she said she has mostly learned to tune out the office gossip and rumors about her demotion. Some of the grapevine talk has gotten back to her — how she’s a loose cannon or stirring the pot to cover up for complaints accusing her of misconduct.

    None of it is true, she says. And she’s not looking for a payday either, she says, rebutting another common criticism of department whistleblowers.

    Corinne Bendersky, a UCLA professor of management and organizations who studied work culture across city of Los Angeles departments, said the poor handling of complaints by women and ethnic minorities is not isolated to the LAPD.

    “Race relations are worse in the Police Department, gender relations are worse in the Fire Department,” said Bendersky, who performed surveys, focus groups and interviews with thousands of city employees. She said the surveys revealed strong resentment across gender and racial lines toward the Police Department’s ongoing efforts to hire more women and officers of color.

    Klotz said the department conducted investigations into her complaints and deemed them unfounded, despite evidence she presented that she was the subject of retaliation for reporting misconduct committed by higher-ups.

    Last week — after The Times inquired about her case — Klotz was summoned to a meeting with Deputy Chief Emada Tingirides. Klotz says she was informed that she was being returned to her previous detective rank, which restores her pay. She remains stationed in the Valley, investigating car thefts.

    She is planning to retire at the end of the year, but Klotz said she will continue to fight in court to bring accountability after years of the LAPD failing to improve itself.

    “The damage is done, they have harmed me and they can never take it back. They will never be able to repair me,” she said before her old rank was restored. “They’ve ruined me at the end of my career.”

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    Libor Jany

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  • We Asked: “How Do You Get to Your Restaurant Job?”

    We Asked: “How Do You Get to Your Restaurant Job?”

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    A version of this post originally appeared on September 9, 2024, in Eater and Punch’s newsletter Pre Shift, a biweekly newsletter for the industry pro that sources first-person accounts from the bar and restaurant world. Subscribe now for more stories like this.

    While Chicago’s public transit system isn’t as reliable as New York’s, it’s not as scarce as LA’s. Last year, the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) provided 279 million rides, many of which were for hospitality staff, getting them to and from their place of employment. The Bear found a friend in the CTA, and for three seasons, the FX-produced TV show has relied on the city’s public transit system for plenty of footage, showing Chicago’s famous elevated train system, the El. Much of Season 3, Episode 6 is spent showing Tina Marrero (played by Liza Colón-Zayas) relying on trains and buses during her frantic job search.

    But the CTA has drawn much ire in recent years. Low-wage workers like Tina rely on the system, but the city’s network of buses and trains hasn’t proved worthy. That’s especially true on the South and West sides, areas where the network doesn’t fully extend. For example, restaurant owners in Hyde Park, a South Side neighborhood where the University of Chicago is located, have shared that it’s been challenging to lure experienced hospitality workers. They’d rather work on the North Side, where there are more restaurants and it’s easier to get home at night.

    While many restaurant workers also depend on their cars for their daily commute, despite Lake Michigan’s infamous spine-chilling winter winds, the city has its share of all-season cyclists, too. We connected with restaurant staff about their commute, talking about convenience, parking, and the power of bike lanes.

    Diana Dávila at Mi Tocaya Antojería.
    Nick Fochtman

    Name: Diana Dávila, chef and owner, Mi Tocaya Antojería
    Length of commute: Two miles
    Mode: Bike

    “I have been a biker for — it’s crazy — the past 20 years. The first place I started biking was [now-closed] Butter. When I moved to D.C., I biked to work… I remember the bike rides when there weren’t bike lanes and I would take different routes, and that was part of the fun, finding which ways to take.

    “It’s funny, I never nerded out about bikes. I would just go into the bike store and pick out which one looked nice. Shit, I’ve never been depressed, I’ve always been a super positive person, as a default. But once I didn’t feel like getting out of bed and I didn’t want to see anybody… Those 10-minute rides made such a big difference. It is a service to myself and is 100 percent a stress de-escalator at work for me — open air and sunlight or moonlight.

    “Most of our employees live super close, and not everyone has cars. Cars eat income, which is why so many of us cooks ride bikes! Cars are a big responsibility, with permits, parking, insurance, tickets. Bike riding, scooting, and carpooling are great solutions. Just like what we used to do in school.”

    Rishi Manoj Kumar from Mirra

    Rishi Manoj Kumar from Mirra.
    Barry Brecheisen/Eater Chicago

    Name: Rishi Manoj Kumar, chef, Mirra
    Length of commute: Two blocks
    Mode: Walking

    “The market to find apartments right now is horrible. The Bucktown neighborhood was hard, but I just kept searching and searching, and then suddenly, one day, I found what I’m living in now. It’s a block behind Mirra. It was a duplex and a duplex at two grand. Shit, this is unheard of in Chicago. So even before looking at it, I knew the proximity, I knew what it would bring for my peace of mind, like avoiding the traffic and even being able to go in on my days off. I can just walk through the restaurant and just check on things while I’m walking my dog, you know. And that proximity gives you so much freedom mentally, too. So it’s pretty dope.

    “Avoiding a bad commute gives you a peace of mind coming to work. Otherwise you spend so much time getting ready, or getting stuck in traffic, like, ‘Oh shit, I’m stuck, I’m an hour late because of something like Lollapalooza going downtown.’ It takes forever to get downtown. For me, I worked eight years downtown, like, just getting to work meant preparing an extra 45 minutes just to make sure I’m turning up on time. That mental burden is gone once you can just, like, wake up, change, go to work in two minutes. It’s a whole different lifestyle.”

    Billy Zureikat at a pop-up at Pequod’s.
    Barry Brecheisen/Eater Chicago

    Name: Billy Zureikat, pop-up chef, Tripping Billy
    Length of commute: Varies
    Mode: Car

    “I drive everywhere. I don’t take public transportation anymore because it’s just too hard to navigate crowds. I got invited to the Windy City Smokeout and I’m like, ‘I’m gonna pass on that.’ It’s just too hard navigating with a cane [having limb girdle muscular dystrophy]. In an electric car, if I take my foot off the gas, the car will come to a straight-up complete stop. It regenerates your brakes, saving and repowering the battery, and is wonderful for me because I don’t have to pick up my legs and move around as much… It’s so much more comfortable and I feel safer when I drive.

    “I have to allow myself more time. There’s a big lack of available parking, especially accessible parking. I’m not trying to walk three or four blocks to get to a pizzeria to do a pop-up. I’m going to circle that block for a while until I find a spot that’s fairly close, because many times I have to carry lots of equipment. And I can’t walk multiple blocks carrying a bunch of heavy things, so I have to allow myself time to get parking.

    “I work remotely, so I can do my day job from anywhere. And that allows me the freedom to do these collaborations and pop-ups where I can go in the mid-morning, middle of the day — when it’s maybe a little quieter, traffic-wise — to get something done, or I can do it later in the evening. I have flexibility, and because I have a disability, my body has kind of changed over the years.”

    exterior of Obélix

    The exterior of Obélix.
    Chris Peters/Eater Chicago

    Name: Gustavo Lopez, food runner, Obélix
    Length of commute: Five miles
    Mode: Bike

    “Recently, I got a Divvy [bikeshare] membership. I dragged my heels about it, but I thought, I’ll get it for the gimmick, because those e-bikes really interested me. I hopped on one, like, ‘Oh, wow. This is amazing.’ There’s so much power in those electric bikes. Since then, I’ve been on Divvy for about three years. The docking stations are sprawled all over the city, so it’s very convenient. I can get to my destination within minutes.

    “If you want to bike [to the restaurant], and you’re chronically late, it’s more of a time management issue. I’m giving you a little leeway, but if you’re not here at the set time you’re supposed to be, then it just ruins the flow with the rest of the team. It doesn’t matter what the position is: server, expediter, food runner… We just pick up plates and just clear the table. The servers have to pick up the slack. It does add up. If there’s an event with traffic, I’m usually pretty vigilant about checking the news on Facebook and Instagram. I’ll avoid the busy streets. But, you know, you always have residual traffic. Thank God for bike lanes.”

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    Ashok Selvam

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  • Police Commission forwards three LAPD chief finalists’ names for mayor’s consideration

    Police Commission forwards three LAPD chief finalists’ names for mayor’s consideration

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    The Los Angeles Police Commission has forwarded the names of three finalists for LAPD chief to Mayor Karen Bass — but like much else about the search process, the identities of the front-runners have been kept a secret.

    The announcement came as the commission returned from closed session at the end of a special meeting Wednesday. Commission President Erroll Southers said the board had “discharged its duties as set forth in the city charter…and will be forwarding a list of recommended candidates to the mayor,” according to a recording of the meeting.

    He then made a motion to adjourn the meeting, without further comment. The brief announcement went largely unnoticed outside the commission, which did not issue a news release or otherwise publicly announce the decision.

    The move brings the city one step closer to ending what has been a months-long search for what is widely considered one of the most high-profile and challenging jobs in law enforcement. The post has been vacant since February, when former Chief Michel Moore retired.

    Under the city charter, the commission — a five-member civilian body that acts like a board of directors for the LAPD — is required to select three finalists for Bass to consider. But if the mayor is unsatisfied with the choices, she can ask commissioners to send additional names or continue the search. Whomever she picks will then need to be confirmed by the full City Council.

    Bass has declined through a spokesman numerous requests for comment from The Times about her priorities for chief, and she did not reschedule an earlier interview about the topic that she had canceled.

    Zach Seidl, a spokesman for the mayor’s office, said in a text message there was “[n]othing to share about the search at this time other than the Mayor is continuing to work with urgency on this search and her work to make LA safer.” He did not respond to a follow-up question about whether the mayor had started considering the finalists.

    Wednesday’s announcement squares with a previous timeline given by commissioners, who said they hope to finish evaluating what could be dozens of candidates and offer Bass their top three suggestions by the end of August.

    That hasn’t stopped fevered speculation among LAPD rank-and-file and command staff about who their next leader will be.

    There were at least 25 applicants for the job.

    Among the outside executives who received second interviews, according to sources, were Jim McDonnell, a one-time LAPD assistant chief and former Los Angeles County sheriff; former Houston and Miami chief Art Acevedo; and Robert Arcos, a former LAPD assistant chief who works for the L.A. County district attorney’s office. A high-profile former chief from a West Coast department was also said to have applied, but that name has never been confirmed.

    Those entries, confirmed by multiple sources, add another dynamic to what many consider a wide-open race to be the city’s next top cop.

    The department veterans who received second interviews, sources said, are: Assistant Chief Blake Chow, who oversees LAPD special operations; Deputy Chief Emada Tingirides, commanding officer of the department’s South Bureau; Deputy Chief Donald Graham, who heads the Transit Services Bureau; Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton, head of the Detective Bureau; and Cmdr. Lillian Carranza of the Central Bureau.

    Finding the city’s next police chief is one of the most closely watched decisions made by any mayor.

    Bass and commissioners have in recent months embarked on a citywide listening tour to canvass residents, officers and business owners about what they want to see in the next chief. The mayor has also made regular visits to police roll calls across the city.

    During the community forums, many attendees pushed for the selection of an insider who is attuned to policing in a city as vast and diverse as L.A.

    Others talked about the importance of picking someone who understands the complicated history between the department and the communities it policies. And yet, unlike in other recent chief searches, a growing number of people within the LAPD are pushing for an outside candidate to breathe new life into the organization.

    The process has been shrouded in an unusual level of secrecy.

    Although the names of candidates have occasionally been withheld to protect the identities of those working in other cities, officials this time have also declined to reveal how many people applied for the position, only saying that the number was “more than 25.” Sources have since told The Times that the number was more than 30.

    In the absence of information, the search has been the subject of almost daily rumors inside the department. A LinkedIn post by a former LAPD sergeant-turned-policing consultant went viral after it claimed to reveal a list of semi-finalists. Among those named in the post was Anne Kirkpatrick, the current police commissioner in New Orleans, who quickly issued denials of any interest in the LAPD job.

    At stake is the chance to lead the country’s third-largest local police force at a crucial time in its history. Whoever gets the job will be inheriting a wary department eager for clear leadership and a city worried about crime and the use of force.

    One of the key questions facing Bass is whether an outsider would be better at introducing reforms in the organization, rather than someone who has come up through the ranks here and already understands the political and labor landscape.

    The Los Angeles Police Protective League, the powerful bargaining body for the city’s rank-and-file officers, has not publicly staked out its position on the insider-outsider debate.

    One of Moore’s former assistant chiefs, Dominic Choi, was picked as interim leader. Moore has stayed on as a consultant on the chief search, and Choi has said he will not seek the job permanently.

    More risk management than crime-fighting, the job of running the LAPD — a vast, multibillion-dollar organization with more than 10,000 employees that operates under an intense microscope — involves balancing demands that are often at odds:

    Even though violent crime numbers have started to level out, with the exception of robberies, anxiety over public safety remains high among many Angelenos; the number of police shootings has also increased, raising concerns from the Police Commission. Meanwhile, any new leader, particularly one from the outside, will be expected to be a quick study and hit the ground running.

    Prognosticators have said Bass’ selection will indicate a lot about what direction she thinks the department is headed. Picking someone from within the organization to follow in Moore’s footsteps would signal that the mayor is looking to continue some of the reforms he started but would stop short of the wholesale changes that some have called for.

    Choosing an outside candidate would signal that the mayor is seeking a new direction for the department, some observers say. The city has hired only two outside chiefs in the past 75 years: Willie L. Williams and William J. Bratton. Both selections followed seismic scandals: the Los Angeles uprising in 1992 and the Rampart scandal of the late 1990s that saw more than 70 police officers implicated in unprovoked shootings, assaults and evidence-planting.

    Experts say the LAPD job is one of the toughest in law enforcement.

    Any serious candidate will have to have a proven track record as an experienced leader. The chief must be comfortable speaking extemporaneously — and often in front of cameras — about the work of the police department through the progressive lens of the city’s elected leaders, including the mayor and City Council.

    Whoever gets the job will need to navigate through many challenges at once, while dealing with the myriad issues confronting the city, including homelessness and the fentanyl crisis.

    The next chief will also have to recruit and inspire a new generation of officers, some of whom weren’t even born when the department was forced to undergo sweeping changes in the wake of the Rampart scandal and who grew of age in the Black Lives Matter era.

    The Olympics and the World Cup also loom as security challenges in coming years. Others are keen to see how the next chief will tackle a much-maligned discipline system that, depending on whom one asks, either lets too many bad cops off or has been weaponized to favor the well-connected.

    In March, the city hired the Northern California-based headhunter Bob Murray & Associates to conduct the nationwide chief search — the same firm that helped pick Bratton more than two decades ago.

    Joel Bryden, a vice president for the firm, said he could not discuss the search, referring questions to city officials.

    “It’s our hard and fast rule,” said Bryden, one of the two main recruiters on the chief search. “We at least have kept everything confidential even though leaks have occurred, some accurate, and some not.”

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    Libor Jany

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  • Faith’s Workstation

    Faith’s Workstation

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    You know faith is a tricky thing. It is constantly under attack, and if you’re not careful, you will lose your faith out of simple weariness from constant grief. Life has a way of making you think that some things are just not worth the trouble. One answer to life’s tribulations, if not the answer, is to quit simply. You can quit your job. You can end a relationship. You can simply not come around anymore in those situations where coming around is reminiscent of an unpleasant experience. But in the question of faith, there seems to be a concrete solution to any and all that ails us. It’s called work. By work, I mean work in the name of the Lord. How often have you gotten yourself out of the doldrums because you helped someone else? How often have you been able to be genuinely thankful for what you have because God has shown you that it could be much worse? 

    Like I said, this faith thing can be tricky. When does it kick in that now is the time, now is the test, now comes temptation that challenges your faith? There are no road maps that I can see that say Faith Test Ahead. More often than not, we certainly recognize a faith red light or stop sign only after we’ve run through it. I guess I should take some solace in the fact that I at least had a chance to practice my faith yesterday, two weeks ago, or a few minutes ago. But it doesn’t make me feel any better knowing I should have handled a particular situation better than I did. I still botched the opportunity to practice what I preach, to talk the talk and walk the walk. That’s the tricky part. At the end of the day, a review will show you dozens of chances to forgive, witness, profess, help, and serve. At the end of the day, you’ve run stop sign after stop sign, red light after red light.

    But as we all know, God is more than a God of a second chance. He is a God of another chance. You get another crack at it because you’re still alive, and the opportunities to serve are multiplied daily. If you missed it this morning, don’t worry. You’ll have another opportunity to try again this afternoon. The faith struggle is remedied by what you do as a result of knowing you can always do more. You can always do better. Real faith mandates a change

    in you. You can’t do the same things, in the same way with the same people, once you accept Jesus into your life. Therefore, even though you might make the same mistakes, you realize and accept them as mistakes. Now what?

    “So watch yourself. If your brother sins, rebuke him; if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day and comes back to you seven times and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him. The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith.’” Luke 17:3-5.Do you know how hard that is? Increase your faith by forgiving those who repeatedly come against you. So, the dutiful response to the turmoil of this earth is to act upon your faith as a member of a family whose center is not of this earth. Can you spell tricky? To work, you have to be rooted in the Word. You can understand the rules. You must know when the rules have been broken and try in earnest never to break them intentionally. You know the routine. We walk by faith and not by sight. The deed is the thing. The intent is to act on your faith. Forgive and serve. Now that’s spreading the Word. That’s working. It’s the work, stupid. Remember that it’s not the stop sign you run through that’s the issue. It’s the one you see clearly that will make the difference.The more you see. The more you stop. The more you stop, the more you serve.

    May God bless and keep you always.

    This column is from “Spiritually Speaking: Reflections for and from a New Christian” by James Washington. You can purchase this enlightening book on Amazon and start your journey towards spiritual enlightenment.

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    James Washington

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  • Best Ways To Make The First Part Of The Week Positive

    Best Ways To Make The First Part Of The Week Positive

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    The first part of the is filled with work, to-do things and prepping for 5 days of jobs stuff.  Going into the work week, some people experience sadness, anxiety, or lack of motivation which can be a routine, which is not healthy. While Boomers and Gen X were raised in a world with fewer life options and work was just a thing you had to do, younger Millennials and Gen Z’ers were given a somewhat different take.  Gap Years, working abroad, flex schedules and work at home gave them an option to craft a work environment suited to their needs. But as that falls away, stress and anxiety have increased. Some 39% of Gen Z feel regular anxiety. And roughly half of Gen Zs (52%) and millennials (49%) feel burned out by their job. So what are the best ways to make the first part of the week positive?

    RELATED: The Most Popular Marijuana Flavors

    Food

    Weekends are made for fun, indulgences and treats. Each week decide Monday or Tuesday will be fun or favorite food night. It can be something easy like Sloppy Joes, a speciality salad, a great steak, but something to look forward to and enjoy. Also, make it something easy but transforms Tuesday into something special. Food also releases mood-boosting serotonin and dopamine, which can brighten the earlier part of the week.  Food especially rich in those two include fish, grains, lean meats, olive oil and fruits and vegetables.

    Summer Lifestyle Photos 2023

    Swap beer for marijuana

    All studies show marijuana is healthier for the body than beer. Fewer calories, less boating, no hangover.  While California Sober has become a thing, more people are drinking less beer Monday-Wednesday and just having a couple of hits of a vape or a gummy.  They get the chill without the extra weight or hangover. Canada did a study on the trend, but ultimately it helps you maintain energy for the rest of the week.

    Plan something fun

    Everyone looks forward to the weekend as a chance to relax and do fun things. Why not put Monday or Tuesday night as a special activity night. Anything from bing watch 3 favorite shows, trying a new video game, a long soak in the tub, or an early dinner with friend. Transform Monday or Tuesday into “Fun Day” by either planning or spontaneously doing something enjoyable for 1-3 hours?

    RELATED: This Natural Cannabinoid Makes You Feel Happy

    Sleep

    Think about reversing the weekend sleeping in to sleeping early. Think about listening to calming music, read a book and just soak up snuggling in the bed. Avoid your phone and just relax and allow your body to unwind for a solid night’s rest.

    Hopefully these tips will transform the first part of the week into a self care enjoyable time…and give you the energy and a positive outlook for the rest of the week.

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    Sarah Johns

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  • Opinion: Despite noble intentions, California’s environmental law is hurting Latinos

    Opinion: Despite noble intentions, California’s environmental law is hurting Latinos

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    Latinos in California face significant disparities in income, homeownership and education compared with their counterparts in other states with substantial Latino populations such as Texas and Florida.

    Our state’s housing crisis is a big part of the explanation, and one cause of the crisis is the perversion of a well-intentioned 1970 law, the California Environmental Quality Act, known as CEQA. It has evolved into the most potent legal tactic to stifle housing development, contributing to high costs and limited affordability. Even when a proposed development can overcome the legal barriers, the homes finally approved are unaffordable to working families because a complex web of regulatory environmental mandates and fees add hundreds of thousands of dollars to the cost of each new home or apartment.

    This is an obstacle to upward mobility for all Californians, especially young people — which in this state means especially Latinos, who are 40% of the population and make up more than half of residents under 18. CEQA needs to be reformed to put the American dream back within reach for young Californians.

    The value of homeownership is profound, providing both housing and the long-term stability of being part of a neighborhood and school community, not to mention generational wealth and a nest egg. However, California is a hard place to achieve that dream. In 2022, only 46% of Latino households here owned their homes, compared with 51% nationwide. Rates were 59% in Texas, 55% in Florida and more than 70% in New Mexico.

    With median California home prices soaring past $900,000 in April, California’s housing policy choices have made homeownership a distant dream for most younger residents and for most hard-working Latino families, many of whom do not inherit wealth from their parents’ home equity and who are not on a path to pass along appreciated home equity to their children.

    CEQA, intended as a progressive environmental policy, now clearly undermines the economic potential of California’s Latino population. This process began in the 1970s, when a largely white, upper-class environmentalist movement emerged as a dominant political force. CEQA was enacted to minimize environmental harm from public works projects such infrastructure, but a 1972 court ruling expanded it to cover home building. After thousands of subsequent CEQA lawsuits, it now even applies to home remodeling.

    This law has strayed far from its intended purpose and needs to be reined in. Virtually anyone — even those with no direct interest in the project or the environment — can sue to block housing for any reason. Cases can be filed anonymously. Sometimes one real estate company even sues to block another’s project for competitive reasons.

    The state government’s Little Hoover Commission has urged the Legislature to exempt all infill housing from CEQA, which would allow more homes to be built on underutilized lots in areas that already have many homes. The commission also called for an end to anonymous CEQA lawsuits, a ban on lawsuits filed for non-environmental reasons, and the clarification and expedition of the CEQA process.

    Although California’s Legislature has enacted almost 200 laws since 2017 intended to boost housing supplies and reduce bureaucratic costs and delays, lawmakers have not reined in CEQA abuse. They also never authorized most of CEQA’s judicial mission creep. In its current interpretation, the law has come to be biased against changes to private views, against temporary construction noise during daytime hours and against common urban species such as seagulls and robins. Housing policies designed to overcome these CEQA obstacles, such as prioritizing infill high-density housing near transit, are economically infeasible in almost all of California while more affordable homes, in areas where Latino homeownership is actually increasing, continue to be pummeled by anti-development advocates.

    The upside-down mindset of current environmental policy ends up being anti-people and anti-environment. The California Air Resources Board, whose policies are enforced via CEQA, counts jobs and people who move out of a city or county as “greenhouse gas emission reductions” — even when these jobs and people relocate to states and even countries with far more lax environmental standards. California’s lost jobs and population would most likely increase global greenhouse gas emissions. So much for California’s climate change “leadership.”

    Agencies and advocates promoting this “de-growth” agenda through CEQA share the “no growth” dogma of the environmentalists of the 1970s, which then and now really means “no growth of ‘those people.’” The intention is racist, and the effect is racist. The housing crisis hits Black and Latino Californians hardest, as even CARB and the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst Office now expressly acknowledge.

    California cannot address its housing and homelessness crisis without building millions of new homes that are actually affordable to California’s working families — and doing so much faster, without the counterproductive legal barriers that add delays and costs.

    CEQA reform is key to this. A good start would be an immediate moratorium on CEQA lawsuits based on any theory not expressly authorized by a statute or regulation. The governor simply needs to direct agencies, and urge the courts, to follow the law and reject those claims.

    Today’s far more diverse Legislature ought to be able to do more as well, serving all Californians better than the sea of white male leaders and judges who have for so long been captured by NIMBY environmentalists.

    It’s time we admit the failures of CEQA’s expansion and start making the policy changes needed to restore the American dream of homeownership for a younger, more diverse California.

    Soledad Ursúa is an elected board member of the Venice Neighborhood Council. Jennifer Hernandez is a partner at the law firm Holland & Knight. Ursúa is the lead author of, and Hernandez is a contributor to, the recent report “El Futuro es Latino.”

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    Jennifer Hernandez and Soledad Ursúa

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  • LAPD chief candidate field narrows to about 10, a mix of outsiders and insiders

    LAPD chief candidate field narrows to about 10, a mix of outsiders and insiders

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    After an initial round of interviews, the number of contenders to be the next Los Angeles police chief has been narrowed to about 10 names, according to multiple sources familiar with the nationwide search.

    The pared-down list is divided between department veterans and outsiders, including several who have deep ties to Southern California law enforcement.

    Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell, right, at a mayoral campaign event for Rick Caruso, center, in 2022. At left is former LAPD chief William J. Bratton. McDonnell, a one-time LAPD assistant chief, is said to be among the candidates for police chief.

    (Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times)

    Among them is Jim McDonnell, a one-time LAPD assistant chief and former Los Angeles County Sheriff, whose name has circulated around LAPD headquarters and City Hall for months as a possible candidate. His entry, confirmed by at least three sources, adds another dynamic into what is considered by many to be a wide-open race to be the city’s next top cop.

    The sources agreed to speak to The Times on the condition their names not be used because the search process is supposed to be confidential.

    The department veterans who received second interviews, according to sources, are: Assistant Chief Blake Chow, who oversees LAPD special operations; Deputy Chief Emada Tingirides, commanding officer of the department’s South Bureau; Deputy Chief Donald Graham, who heads the Transit Services Bureau; Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton, head of the Detective Bureau; and Cmdr. Lillian Carranza of the Central Bureau.

    LAPD Deputy Chief Emada Tingirides.

    LAPD Deputy Chief Emada Tingirides speaks at an event in August.

    (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

    LAPD Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton

    LAPD Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton speaks at a news conference in April.

    (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

    Capt. Lillian Carranza

    LAPD Capt. Lillian Carranza during a news conference at police headquarters in 2018.

    (Gary Coronado/Los Angeles Times)

    The outside candidates who are also scheduled to be interviewed are former Houston and Miami chief Art Acevedo and Robert Arcos, a former LAPD assistant chief who works for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. Two female policing executives from outside agencies are also said to have received second interviews.

    Art Acevedo, former police chief of Miami, Houston and Auston, speaks during a protest.

    Art Acevedo, former police chief of Miami, Houston and Auston, speaks during a protest near Capitol Hill in Washington in June 2022.

    (Susan Walsh / Associated Press)

    LAPD Deputy Chief Robert Arcos

    LAPD Deputy Chief Robert Arcos at an inspection of officers in 2017.

    (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times)

    Recruiters are scheduled to conduct another round of interviews with the 10 or so contenders behind closed doors over the next few weeks, according to the sources.

    The process has been shrouded in an unusual level of secrecy.

    Although the names of candidates have occasionally been withheld to protect the identities of those working in other cities, officials this time have also declined to reveal how many people applied for the position, only saying that the number was “more than 25.” Sources have since told The Times that the number was more than 30.

    At stake is the chance to lead the country’s third-largest local police force at a crucial time in its history. Whoever gets the job will be inheriting a wary department eager for clear leadership and a city worried about both crime and the use of force.

    One of the key questions facing Mayor Karen Bass is whether an outsider would be better at introducing reforms in the organization, rather than someone who has come up through the ranks here and already understands the political and labor landscape.

    Bass and members of the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners have embarked on a citywide listening tour to canvass residents, officers and business owners about what they want to see in the next chief. During the public forums, many attendees pushed for the selection of an insider who is attuned to policing in a city as vast and diverse as L.A.

    Others talked about the importance of picking someone who understands the complicated history between the department and the communities it policies. And yet, unlike in other recent chief searches, a growing number of people within the LAPD are pushing for an outside candidate to breathe new life into the organization.

    The Los Angeles Police Protective League, the powerful bargaining body for the city’s rank-and-file officers, has not publicly staked out its position on the insider-outsider debate.

    The search began with the February retirement of former Chief Michel Moore. One of his former assistant chiefs, Dominic Choi, was picked as interim leader. Moore has stayed on as a consultant on the chief’s search, and Choi has said he will not seek the job permanently.

    More risk management than crime-fighting, the job of running the LAPD — a vast, multibillion-dollar organization with more than 10,000 employees that operates under an intense microscope — involves balancing demands that are often at odds: Violent crime such as homicides and robberies are up from this time last year; the number of police shootings has also increased, raising concerns from the Police Commission, the department’s civilian watchdog. Meanwhile, any new leader, particularly one from the outside, will be expected to be a quick study and hit the ground running.

    The pool of contenders is more diverse and generally less experienced than in the recent past. At least four women are rumored to have made the cut, and all but two candidates are people of color. A woman has never been in charge in the LAPD’s long history. Nor has there ever been a Latino chief, in a city and department that are both now more than half Latino.

    Commission officials have insisted publicly that race and gender will not be deciding factors in the selection process. Commission President Erroll G. Southers and the body’s other members have repeatedly said they are focused on picking the most qualified candidate instead of “checking any boxes.”

    Southers declined to comment through a spokesperson.

    Prognosticators have said Bass’ selection will say a lot about what direction she thinks the department is headed. Picking someone from within the organization to follow in Moore’s footsteps would signal that the mayor is looking to continue some of the reforms he started but would stop short of the wholesale changes that some have called for.

    Choosing an outside candidate would signal that the mayor is seeking a new direction for the department, some observers say. The city has hired only two outside chiefs in the past 75 years: Willie L. Williams and William J. Bratton. Both selections followed seismic scandals: the Los Angeles uprising in 1992 and the Rampart scandal of the late 1990s that saw more than 70 police officers implicated in unprovoked shootings, assaults and evidence-planting.

    The two current contenders with the most experience are both outsiders. After starting his career with the LAPD, McDonnell left to take the police chief job in Long Beach before a successful run for L.A. County Sheriff. He has worked at USC for the past few years, alongside Southers. Acevedo once served as California Highway Patrol chief for the Los Angeles Basin, before being tapped to be top cop for Austin, Houston, Miami and, most recently, Aurora, Colo.

    The second round of interviews marks a key step in the months-long search. City officials initially said the hire would be finalized by late August or early September, but that timeline could stretch into the fall.

    Bass will hire the next chief, choosing from nominees provided by the commission and an outside hiring firm. The deadline to apply closed late last month; initial interviews with candidates started a few days later.

    Bass has repeatedly said that the feedback she receives will factor into her decision.

    City Councilmember Tim McOsker said he understands the need for discretion around the search process, much like when, as a young City Hall staffer, he took part in the nationwide search that led to the hiring of Bratton. At the same time, he said, he thinks it’s important that Bass lays out her expectations before picking a chief, which is “one of the most important, and politically loaded decisions for a mayor.”

    He pointed to the letter Bass sent the Council before her reappointment of Moore, in which she listed her expectations, from reducing violent crime to boosting community policing and holding officers accountable. McOsker said he thought the mayor should be equally clear about what she wants in the next chief.

    The mayor’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.

    Experts say the LAPD job is one of the toughest in law enforcement.

    Any serious candidate will have to have a proven track record as an experienced leader. The chief must be comfortable speaking extemporaneously — and often in front of cameras — about the work of the police department through the progressive lens of the city’s elected leaders, including the mayor and City Council.

    Whoever gets the job will need to navigate through many challenges at once, while dealing with the myriad issues confronting the city, including homelessness and the fentanyl crisis.

    The next chief will also have to recruit and inspire a new generation of officers, some of whom weren’t even born when the department was forced to undergo sweeping changes in the wake of the Rampart scandal and who grew of age in the Black Lives Matter era. Others are keen to see how the next chief will tackle a much-maligned discipline system that, depending on whom one asks, either lets too many bad cops off or has been weaponized to favor the well-connected.

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    Libor Jany, Richard Winton

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  • Deathbed Motivation: The Top 5 Regrets of the Dying

    Deathbed Motivation: The Top 5 Regrets of the Dying

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    If you were on your deathbed right now, what would your biggest regrets be? The answer can change the way you decide to live the rest of your life.

    Thinking about death can change how we live our lives. Our time on Earth is limited, and this realization can completely shift our perspective. It puts our real values and priorities into sharp focus, causing us to step back and re-evaluate if we are living our current lives in the best way possible.

    When I was going through a period of depression in college, I would take the bus to the local cemetery by myself with nothing but my camera. I’ve always been comfortable with solitude and doing things alone, but these cemetery walks were an especially meaningful and humbling experience for me. Walking among the graves and reading the names of people I’d never know showed me that life is much bigger than my ego. The realization that death is a necessary part of life sparked me to reevaluate and see the bigger picture behind my choices and actions.

    These cemetery walks were a powerful reminder that I would be dead one day too – but not yet – and that filled me with a sense of power and responsibility so long as I’m still breathing.

    How people think about death can have a profound effect on their psychology. Some people face the prospect of mortality by ignoring it and engaging in escapist behaviors driven by materialism (“buy more things”) or hedonism (“seek more pleasure”). Others embrace the prospect of death and recognize that it means they need to make the most of their time here before it’s too late.

    In the popular book The Top Five Regrets of the Dying: A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing, Bronnie Ware documents her experiences in palliative care, working closely with those who had terminal illnesses or were approaching the end-of-life. She identified five main regrets of the dying based on conversations and confessions with those on their deathbeds.

    This article will outline her main findings along with my personal thoughts on each one.

    Deathbed Motivation: Top 5 Regrets of the Dying

    According to Bronnie Ware, the five most common regrets shared by people nearing death were:

    “I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.”

    It’s cliché but true: you only have one life to live.

    Many people cave to social pressures to choose paths in life that are expected of them, such as what school to attend, or what career to pursue, or what types of relationships to cultivate. However, what brings one person happiness isn’t necessarily what brings another person happiness. If we only try to make others happy, we often end up neglecting our own needs, wants, passions, and ideals.

    Understanding your core values is one of the most important steps you can take in life. Knowing what you really want will help you make choices that are harmonious with what you really care about, not just what you think you “should do” or “ought to do.” One interesting study published in the journal Emotions found that our most enduring and long-lasting regrets are usually “ideal-related,” such as personal goals and aspirations.

    Our biggest regrets are often the things we didn’t do but always wanted to, like starting a rock band, or writing a book, or traveling to a place we always wanted to visit.

    “I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.”

    Most people don’t lay on their deathbeds thinking, “I wish I spent more time at my job.”

    Work is important and it can be fulfilling, but many people in today’s world become myopically focused on advancing in their jobs/careers or making more money by any means necessary (sometimes even in unhealthy, destructive, or unethical ways).

    We wrongly believe that wealth is the only real measure of value in life, and thus we get distracted from other important things like spending more time with family, taking care of our health, giving back to our community, or pursuing personal passions.

    In our materialistic and consumerist culture, nothing seems more important than “working hard” and “making money,” but as the saying goes, “You can’t take it with you when you die.”

    “I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.”

    We often have trouble expressing our true feelings toward people because we see emotions as weakness or we don’t want to risk being vulnerable.

    This is especially true when it comes to feelings of love, gratitude, and appreciation. There are some families, cultures, and couples where it’s rare to hear the words, “I love you,” or “I appreciate you.” The feelings are taken for granted, but they are never explicitly said.

    It’s important that we learn to express love and appreciation toward others while we still can (including toward family, friends, loved ones, or mentors), because we will often regret it if we miss our chance.

    Recently I wrote my mom a thank you letter for her birthday. It helped me communicate a lot of feelings that I’ve always had but were difficult to say out-loud. It felt like an emotional weight was lifted off my shoulders once I finally expressed my tremendous gratitude for her and everything she’s done for me.

    There are also people I’ve lost in life whom I was never able to tell that I appreciated them. Those are regrets I’ll have to live with – the crucial lesson is don’t miss the opportunity to tell people you love them while you still can.

    “I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.”

    One common theme in life is that relationships come and go.

    Our circle of friends often changes dramatically throughout high school, college, and into adulthood, especially when we move to new places or leave our hometowns. We tend to lose touch with people over time. Those who were once “best friends” we now go years without even speaking to.

    In theory, it’s easier to stay in touch with people now more than ever; old friends and family are just a call, text, or email away, yet we rarely take advantage of these opportunities.

    It’s never too late to check in on past connections. It can seem awkward at first to reach out to those we haven’t seen in years, but often they will appreciate the gesture and you both will enjoy reconnecting and reminiscing about your shared past.

    The simple act of checking in on people on a regular basis (such as holidays, birthdays, reunions, etc.) can preserve our social connections over time and remind us all the positive relationships and social support we have. Each person you stay in touch with is another layer of meaning in your life.

    “I wish that I had let myself be happier.”

    People are too busy these days to be happy.

    We get easily trapped in the hustle and bustle of daily life with work, school, chores, family, and other responsibilities and obligations. In the midst of all this, many forget the simple art of stepping back and finding happiness in the moment.

    You don’t need to wait for something life-changing to be happy. Many people don’t realize that happiness is in their control and you can start finding it in little things, like savoring positive experiences, counting your blessings, having things to look forward to, and prioritizing positive activities. These are habits that are available to anyone no matter what their current situation is in life. You don’t need to be rich or famous; in fact, sometimes those people are the most distracted and least happy.

    If happiness is a skill, then it’s something that’s worth learning. It isn’t magic, it’s a direct result of how you think, act, and view your world.

    The Time That Remains

    If you are reading this right now, then you still have power over how you live the rest of your life. Every new breath is a symbol of this power.

    Which of the big five regrets do you relate to the most? Living too much by other people’s expectations, focusing too much on work, not communicating your true feelings, losing touch with old friends and family, or simply not finding time for more happiness?

    These are important questions worth reflecting on. Take a moment to imagine yourself on your deathbed, which regrets would hurt the most? What can you still do about it?


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    Steven Handel

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  • Need a background check in California? Changes at the courts are causing long waits

    Need a background check in California? Changes at the courts are causing long waits

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    Significant delays in the processing of background checks are causing headaches across California, leaving applications for jobs and housing stuck in limbo while making it harder for employers and landlords to screen for criminal records.

    The situation stems from a state appellate court ruling more than three years ago, which industry experts say has blocked background screeners and any court researcher from using date of birth or driver’s license information to narrow down search results as they investigate an individual’s criminal history.

    The 2021 decision in All of Us or None of Us vs. Hamrick arose from a case brought by criminal justice reform advocates who have long argued that background checks lead to discrimination against formerly incarcerated people.

    A panel at the 4th District Court of Appeals determined that Riverside County’s Superior Court website, which allowed users to input dates of birth and driver’s license numbers while searching for criminal records, was in violation of a state court rule that says such information should be excluded from court “indexes” accessible to the public through “electronic means.”

    “After considering the text, history, and purpose” of the rule, the judges found that state courts should limit search criteria for the public, effectively eliminating the use of birth dates and license numbers.

    Those personal identifiers had long been used to match individuals to their records, and without them it has proved nearly impossible to conduct searches that involve common names, industry experts say.

    “This was an interpretation that no one had ever seen before or seen coming,” said Melissa Sorenson, executive director of the Professional Background Screening Assn. “Each of the courts is trying to figure out how to comply.”

    Delays are particularly bad in Los Angeles County, where background check firms receive about 100,000 screening requests each month.

    “Right now, L.A. County is an example of something that’s not sustainable,” Sorenson said.

    Residents with common names or those with a long history in the area may have to wait for months or even years for their background check to be completed, Sorensen said, if it’s possible for it to be completed at all.

    It has taken time for courts to adjust since the 2021 appellate ruling was handed down. The Superior Court of Los Angeles announced its changes in February.

    “All the background screener can do is plug in Jose Rodriguez, for example, and because it’s a relatively common name in L.A., you could get back hundreds to thousands of results,” Sorenson said. “We have no way to filter based on any other identifier.”

    Dates of birth are contained within physical court files, the Superior Court of Los Angeles said.

    “These restrictions require background checkers seeking information on commonly named individuals to visit the courthouse where the physical court file is located to determine if the information they obtained in an electronic criminal record search applies to the person about whom they are inquiring,” the court said in an email.

    The court limits the number of case files it will retrieve for a requester to five per day at any courthouse. For names with thousands of results, it’s not practical to check each physical file.

    At the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center, the county’s busiest criminal clerk’s office, additional court service assistants have been assigned to assist with file viewing requests. The current wait time to pull multiple files at a time is three to five days, the court said.

    In a message reviewed by The Times, the background screening firm Sterling sent out a notice to clients explaining the situation earlier this year.

    “With this change, the L.A. County court has made it significantly more challenging to accurately identify individuals during background checks,” the firm said. “Delays for criminal checks in L.A. County are expected to increase. … Some searches were closed as unperformable.”

    Sterling did not respond to a request for comment. On the online forum Reddit, Los Angeles residents shared concerns that their background checks were not getting completed in time.

    “Sterling is not able to get it done!” one user wrote. “Seriously anxious and have been unemployed for a month now,” said another.

    In 2022, Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed Senate Bill 1262, which would have allowed court researchers to use date of birth to search for an individual without making the date publicly available.

    “This bill would override a 2021 appellate court decision and current court rules that strike a fair balance between public access to court records, public safety, and an individual’s constitutional right to privacy,” Newsom wrote after shutting down the bill.

    The nonprofit Legal Services for Prisoners with Children pushed for the veto, arguing the bill “was sponsored by commercial background check companies … with no regard for the interests of formerly incarcerated or convicted people.”

    Eric Sapp, a staff attorney at the Oakland-based organization, pointed out that when background checks are authorized and required by law, local authorities are obligated to provide the relevant information and assure compliance.

    “There’s no need for a background check company to intervene in those circumstances,” he said.

    “We definitely believe that background checks are overused and are often useless for the purposes for which they’re used,” he said. “The criminal background check as it currently exists today might not be a viable model in the near future.”

    Joshua Kim, lead attorney for the plaintiffs in the Hamrick case, said he wasn’t aware of holdups with housing and job applications — but said any such issues would be the fault of the background check industry, not the courts complying with the law.

    “If there is in fact a delay that affects people’s opportunity for housing and employment because of the background check company’s inability to do their job, then that could potentially create another legal liability for them,” he said.

    Thirty-seven states have adopted what is known as a “ban the box” policy that prohibits investigation into a job candidate’s conviction history before making an offer of employment, but many employers still seek to vet candidates, especially for jobs that require working with vulnerable populations or involve access to sensitive data.

    “The fundamental question that we’ve been asking in the reentry law community is whether background checks are effective in screening out dangerous employees,” Kim said.

    But some Angelenos have been frustrated by the current state of affairs.

    South Pasadena mother Erin Chang had been stuck waiting months for her disabled son’s summer camp aide to get approved for work. The background check had to clear in order for the state to cover the cost of the aide, Chang said.

    Although the check cleared just before camp began, Chang had to pay out of pocket for the aide and said she will seek reimbursement.

    “Camp is over next week, and we’re still not sorted out,” Chang said. “They offered the explanation that she had a common name and that there is a backlog.”

    Outside Los Angeles, other counties are making similar changes to comply with the court rules. San Luis Obispo County announced last month that it is redacting access to date of birth and driver’s license information in court search engines, and Orange County is rumored to be making the same move soon, said Sorenson of the background check trade group.

    “It is more than just an L.A. County issue,” she said. “If an employer has a candidate with California history, they may have to move on to a different candidate.”

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    Caroline Petrow-Cohen

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  • After ‘whites only’ job posting, Va. tech company hit with fine from the Justice Department – WTOP News

    After ‘whites only’ job posting, Va. tech company hit with fine from the Justice Department – WTOP News

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    A tech company based in Ashburn, Virginia, has been fined by the Department of Justice after it advertised that it was seeking “white” candidates for an open job posting.

    A tech company based in Loudoun County, Virginia, has been fined by the Department of Justice after it advertised that it was seeking “white” candidates for an open job posting.

    The job posting by Ashburn-based Arthur Grand Technologies Inc. was published in March 2023 and said that the company was only looking for “U.S. Born Citizens [white] who are local within 60 miles from Dallas, TX [Don’t share with candidates],” according to a Justice Department news release.

    The Civil Rights Division’s Immigrant and Employee Rights Section opened an investigation in May 2023 and “determined that Arthur Grand discriminated based on citizenship status and national origin after a recruiter working for Arthur Grand’s subsidiary in India posted the advertisement on the job website Indeed.”

    Following that posting, the advertisement was widely circulated online. An investigation by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs determined that the company advertised for an open business analyst position in Dallas through a public online hiring site.

    “It is shameful that in the 21st century, we continue to see employers using ‘whites only’ and ‘only US born’ job postings to lock out otherwise eligible job candidates of color,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in the release. “I share the public’s outrage at Arthur Grand’s appalling and discriminatory ban on job candidates based on citizenship status, national origin, color and race.”

    As part of a Justice Department settlement, Arthur Grand will pay a civil penalty and will train its personnel on the INA’s requirements, revise its employment policies and be subject to departmental monitoring.

    Arthur Grand must also pay compensation to those who filed complaints with the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs.

    Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.

    © 2024 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

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    Valerie Bonk

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  • The Best 6 Ways To Increase Creativity At Work

    The Best 6 Ways To Increase Creativity At Work

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    You spend 40 hours there most weeks..why not have fun and make a difference.

    Work is part of most people’s life, and some days it can be a chore. But finding a way to make it interesting and engaging can make a huge life difference. Globally, people who enjoy their work are also more likely to be thriving in their lives. Getting creative helps you find way to keep your brain engaged and satisfied. Finding fresh or different ways accomplishing things tends to be personally rewarding. Here are the best 6 ways to increase creativity at work.

    RELATED: 5 Morning Activities To Help You Feel Happier

    Even in a remote job, or one where you work from home or in a car, creativity inspires employees to work with each other. The creative process encourages collaboration. Continuous learning encouraging people to seek new information, knowledge and different ways to do things.  Many unique ideas come from a person but they are developed by a team to become fully formed. With the ability to think creatively and outside of the box, people are more likely to come up with unique and innovative solutions to obstacles they encounter.

    Photo by VIKTOR HANACEK via picjumbo.com

    Take time to think

    Even with mundane tasks, there are ways to make it better.  Carve out 5-10 minutes in a walk or taking a break to think about ways to improve you tasks or at least make them more enjoyable.  As you daydream about possiblities or consider outside the box ideas, you are more likely to come up with unique and innovative solutions to problems.  Don’t be afraid of asking questions – frame them with “How did this start”.

    Don’t be afraid to fail

    One of the biggest hurdles to success is a fear of failure. Every person who has improved their job or built something and then gone on to bigger and better things has failed. If you think something could work, talk with you manager and explain the pluses and minuses and then try to give a go.  You will learn about problem solving and yourself.

    Brainstorm more often

    We brainstorm ideas constantly, whether we’re alone or with others, sometimes without even noticing it. One small upgrade to make brainstorm sessions more efficient is to add a whiteboard, a notepad or someplace where you can pin ideas down, even if they sound silly or unorthodox. This list doesn’t need to be perfect, it just needs to reflect your ideas so you won’t forget about them.

    Follow through on your ideas

    While ideas are great, it’s also important to follow through. Find a way of holding yourself accountable, whether by writing it down and pinning it on your board or, in a more extreme move, discussing your idea with your boss and eliminating escape routes. Do what works for you, but remind yourself that it’s often very easy to avoid disrupting your workload by sticking to what works, which can make you feel bored and uninspired.

    RELATED: 5 Ways To Schedule Your Day When Working From Home

    Shake things up

    When working a 9 to 5 job, it’s common for people to find a groove and stick to it. This is good, because it means that you know how to do your job and are comfortable in managing the everyday challenges of your positions. But it’s also something that holds a lot of people back, stopping them from trying out new activities and approaches that can be more fulfilling and result in better work. Don’t be afraid to speak up in your meetings and to pitch your ideas. The more you do it, the more comfortable you’ll become and the more your presence will be valued.

    Go for a walk

    Outdoor walks, where you get to see and smell the beauty of nature, are some of the most useful routines when channeling creativity, especially if you’ve been spending most of your time working indoors. Ideas can come from the most random interactions and things, especially if you’re actively on the lookout for them and are ready to engage with the world in different ways.

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    Sarah Johns

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  • Has Sydney Sweeney Been Lying About Her Relatable Pre-Stardom Hollywood Job?! – Perez Hilton

    Has Sydney Sweeney Been Lying About Her Relatable Pre-Stardom Hollywood Job?! – Perez Hilton

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    Fans think they may have caught Sydney Sweeney in a lie!

    In multiple interviews, the 26-year-old has shared that long before becoming famous, she was a struggling actress who had various jobs to help pay the bills — including working as a tour guide at Universal Studios. Sydney recently opened up about that time in her life during her appearance on Hot Ones, saying:

    “I was a struggling actor in high school, and I had to pay all my own bills because my mom…. I’d pay my own phone bill, car insurance, everything – gas. I’m so glad she did because I’ve learned how to budget and save my money and know what’s important in life. I love tour guides at Universal. I memorized the entire thing, so I was there for a little bit, and then I actually booked Sharp Objects.”

    It’s a classic Hollywood rags-to-riches story! Pay your dues with one of those less prestigious jobs, and you too can hit it big!

    Related: Glen Powell Reveals Why Sydney Sweeney Cheating Rumors Were So Hard For Him!

    HBO‘s Sharp Objects came out in 2018 and was critically acclaimed — and Sydney has been booked and busy ever since! Watch the interview moment (below):

    @dawson.jfk

    From Universal Studios Tour Guide to Hollywood Star #firstwefeast #sydneysweeney #actress #hollywood

    ♬ original sound – Dawson JFK

    So Sydney went from working as a tour guide at Universal to being a big star in Hollywood. Damn. It’s a great story! Better than the idea she immediately found success without any normal job whatsoever, that’s for sure. However, not everyone is buying it!

    Photographer and TikToker Becca Murray — who worked as a tour guide in Universal for 7 years — 100 percent believes the Euphoria star is “lying.” Her reasons? For starters, it’s a long and difficult process to get the job as a Universal tour guide. They have to audition, take a memorization test, interview, get accepted into a class, and go through weeks of training. It’s actually pretty exclusive — and Sydney didn’t mention any of that. Another big reason she doubts the Anyone But You star’s story? She pointed out that Universal Studios loves to bill the job as getting a “foot into the entertainment industry.” If Sydney had worked as a tour guide briefly and then made it into the business right away, she reckons Universal would have used her success story to help market the job:

    “They hold onto it. They claim it. They use it as marketing. They will not shut the f**k up about it. If Sydney Sweeney did even one tour, if she made it through all of the like getting the job, doing the class, passing the tests, was sitting, in uniform, on a tram with her little mic, did one tour, and then got a call from her agent and was like ‘Oh my God, you guys I booked a job. Bye.’ They would claim that. That would be lore. People would still be talking about it.”

    Check out the video (below):

    @thebeccamurray

    welcome to the universal studios tour, my name is becca and i will be your guide today as we lift the veil of secrecy on some of hollywood’s hottest filming locations

    ♬ original sound – becca

     

    Has Sydney Sweeney been lying all this time?! Well, there’s more… In the comments of the video, other employees even took to the comments section to say they’d never seen her working at Universal before:

    “Worked in costumes for the park for ten years and knew a ton of guides and never once saw her.”

    “Also a tour guide here! Our department manager looked it up in the database and she never even applied!”

    “naur bc i know there would be guests who would have a photo of and with her”

    Yet another TikToker who works as a tour guide echoed the points made by Becca in her own video, noting Sydney continues to give a “weird, vague, non-answer” when talking about her job at Universal. She even shared that several of her colleagues would have been working with the Madame Web star around the time she would have been employed at Universal — and they never saw her on the job. Check it out (below):

    @tranganhdong

    I LOVE my job but ive never lied about having it!! #fyp #foryou #sydneysweeney #hotones #kellyclarksonshow #anyonebutyou #tourguide

    ♬ original sound – trang

    Of course, everyone should take these accusations with a grain of salt. We can’t verify everything folks on TikTok say. But is it convincing? Yeah…

    But if Sydney did lie, we have to ask, as many other fans are now wondering… why risk it? It’s a great story, but she could have said she was a barista at one of the dozens of cafes that have opened and closed in El Lay in the past decade. Why lie about having a very specific job like that where people could check? She had to have known she would’ve been caught eventually! We need someone at Universal to pull out the records and confirm whether Sydney is telling the truth or not… STAT!

    Reactions, Perezcious readers? Let us know in the comments below!

    [Image via First We Feast/YouTube, Trang/Becca Murray/TikTok]



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    Perez Hilton

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  • 6 Aspects Of A Balanced Person: A Complete Picture of Well-Being

    6 Aspects Of A Balanced Person: A Complete Picture of Well-Being

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    What are the six aspects of a balanced person? Physical, mental, emotional, social, work/financial, and meaning/spiritual. Learn more about each one and how to improve it!

    In life, there isn’t one single area that we need to focus on that is going to magically fix all of our problems.

    Instead there are multiple dimensions behind every “good life.” Each dimension requires our attention and each contributes to our overall happiness and well-being.

    Here are six aspects of life that come together to create a “balanced person.” By being more aware of these different dimensions in life, we can determine which areas we need to focus on more and work to improve.

    The different aspects of a balanced person include: 1) Physical, 2) Mental, 3) Emotional, 4) Social, 5) Work/Financial and 6) Meaning/Spiritual.

    If we focus too much on any one area, then we risk neglecting another one. For example, if you become solely focused on just work and money, you may end up spending less time taking care of your physical and mental health, or less quality time with family and friends.

    This is a common trap people fall into. They focus all of their energy and effort into one area in life while completely ignoring another. Often they need to reconfigure their core values and priorities before making a meaningful change.

    This is why practicing balance in all things is so important.

    Each of these areas is one piece of a much larger puzzle, and only when you have all of these areas working together harmoniously can you finally build a complete life that serves all of your needs.

    Here’s a detailed breakdown of each aspect of a “balanced person,” along with tips, tools, and practical advice on how you can start improving each one.

    While reading ask yourself, “Which aspect do I need to focus on the most right now? What’s one small change I can make to improve that area?”

    Now let’s dive in…

    1. PHYSICAL WELL-BEING

    health

    The “physical” aspect of life is all about taking care of our health, especially exercise, diet, and sleep.

    This includes what types of foods and drinks we consume on a daily basis, how often we exercise and keep our bodies moving, personal hygiene and cleanliness, as well as minimizing alcohol, smoking, and other harmful habits to our physical health.

    Our body is one of the most precious gifts we have – and without it we can’t exist. If we don’t stay healthy, we often can’t fully enjoy all the other aspects of life such as family, work, traveling, or leisure.

    Our health can often have a spillover effect into all the other aspects of our lives – for that reason, taking care of our physical health is often an essential first step on any road to self-improvement.

    No matter what the current state of our health is, it’s never too late to start changing our habits, even if it’s something small like stretching in the morning, taking daily walks outside, or starting an active hobby like Yoga, marathon running, or playing sports.

    A healthy body is a healthy mind. When we take better care of our bodies, we also feel more confident, motivated, and energized overall. That’s the beginning of bringing out your best self.


    Things to do:

    • Identify small ways to be more physically active. Often our days are filled with opportunities to be more active, we just need to take advantage of them. Try to cultivate an “everything counts” mindset when it comes to exercise, even if it just means taking a walk around the block, or stretching in the morning, or doing push-ups before lunch. Any physical activity is better than none at all – so seek out small and convenient ways to keep your body moving throughout the day. If you find yourself sitting for long periods of time, get up and do chores, take a walk around the office, or make a phone call while standing up. A sedentary lifestyle is one of the biggest risk factors when it comes to poor health, so finding any reason to stand up more is better than sitting.
    • Find exercise that “clicks” with you and your personality. Different things work for different people. Some people need to commit themselves to a gym membership to get themselves off the couch, while others prefer to work out in the comfort of their own homes. Your personality shapes what exercise you like, so it’s important you find activities that resonate and “click” with you, rather than trying to force yourself to do something you really don’t enjoy. All you need is that one hobby to take your fitness to the next level, whether it be finding an enjoyable sport (like Tennis, or Baseball, or Basketball), or even exercising through video games (such as Wii Fit or Dance Dance Revolution). Try to think of physical activities you enjoyed as a kid, that can often be a good place to rekindle motivation.
    • Keep a healthy and consistent sleep schedule. Sleep is one of the most important habits when it comes to your overall physical and mental health. Research shows that those who don’t get sufficient sleep (between 6-10 hours every night) often suffer worse health outcomes like a weaker immune system, higher risk of obesity, lower energy and stamina, and more stress and anxiety. If your sleep habits aren’t healthy or consistent, it will likely have a negative “ripple effect” on almost every other aspect of your day. When you’re tired and fatigued, you’re more likely to make mistakes at work or argue with your spouse. It’s important not only to get between 6-10 hours of sleep each night, but also to maintain a consistent schedule. If you don’t sleep much on the weekends, it’s difficult to “catch up” on those lost hours throughout the week. Try to go to bed and wake up around the same time each day if possible. Here are more important lessons behind a good night’s sleep, including recognizing that some people are natural “early birds” or “night owls,” and that’s something you need to recognize and work with.
    • Pay attention to your food and diet. There are many different diets out there to choose from – and people can have long debates about which one is better – but the most important thing is to not eat too much, especially junk food, fast food, soda, sweets, and lots of processed food. Use your commonsense. Experiment with different diet changes and see what works best for you. Different diets work better for different people – so there’s no “one size fits all” solution to what exactly you should eat or not eat. One simple diet change is to substitute all your soda/juice/sugary drinks with water instead. Drinking plenty of water is never a bad place to start – most people don’t recognize how dehydrated they can be throughout the day and how it effects them. If you’re trying to lose weight, one popular option you can consider is intermittent fasting where you allow yourself to eat for an 8 hour window each day and fast for the remaining 16 hours. You can also try the “One Meal A Day” approach, where you restrict yourself to just one big meal (with minimal snacking). In general, pay attention to how your body responds to the things you eat: What foods leave you tired and feeling like crap? What foods make you energized and feeling good?
    • Take care of personal hygiene and cleanliness. Proper hygiene is another important aspect of physical health. While it can seem like commonsense, basic habits like taking a shower, brushing your teeth, getting a haircut, trimming your nails, and washing your face are are all important things not to neglect. Not only does cleanliness prevent you from catching germs and getting sick, you also feel better about yourself when you present yourself in the best way possible (and smell good). Often we are surprised by how much better we feel after a fresh new haircut, or clean new clothes, or new cologne/perfume. When mental health is low, we sometimes neglect these basic habits out of laziness or apathy, which is why they are a crucial first step in self-improvement if we aren’t paying enough attention to them.
    • Minimize your bad habits. No one is 100% perfect and we all have a couple bad habits, whether it be eating too many sweets, or drinking alcohol, or staying up late, or smoking cigarettes. In general, it’s important to quit (or minimize) our unhealthy habits as much as possible. “Choose your crutches wisely.” Keep in mind the long-term consequences of your habits – while it may not feel like they are hurting you right now, their effects can often catch up to you in the future. When trying to quit any bad habit, identify your triggers and work from there to change to change your patterns. Often by creating more boundaries between you and your bad habits, you can overcome your urge to do them (until it’s no longer an automatic habit anymore). If you find that you have a serious problem with addiction or drug abuse, consider professional help (such as a therapist, psychologist, or counselor) – there are often local resources available in your area if you do a quick search.

    Please don’t underestimate the importance of keeping your body in the best shape possible. As Socrates famously said, “No man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.”

    Physical health is about much more than just looking and feeling good about yourself – it’s about living a life of vitality and longevity. You can have everything else in your life figured out, but if you don’t maintain your health you won’t be around very long to use or enjoy it.

    2. MENTAL WELL-BEING

    mental

    If you don’t take care of your body then it will slowly deteriorate – and the same is true for your mind.

    Just because you don’t have to go to school anymore doesn’t mean you can’t keep learning new things, keeping your brain sharp, and challenging your intellect.

    Reading books. Learning about new topics. Having deep conversations. Attending lectures and workshops. Following the news. These are all commonsense ways to keep our minds active and continue to update our knowledge and belief system as we move through life.

    Learning is a lifelong endeavor. Balanced people are always seeking new things to dig into and learn more about like a new hobby, new game, or new skill such as painting, chess, learning a new language, or playing a musical instrument.

    In addition, research shows that continuing to challenge our brain is an important way to prevent cognitive decline as we get older, including lower the risk of dementia and memory loss.


    Things to do:

    • Read more books. Reading is one of the best ways to keep your mind sharp and learn new things. Nonfiction books about science, history, philosophy, or self help can grow your knowledge and broaden your perspective on life; and reading fiction has been shown to have many cognitive benefits such as boosting empathy, creative thinking, and expanding your vocabulary. If you haven’t read a book in awhile, try to make it a goal to read at least one book this year. You can start with a book you already own but never got a chance to read, or ask a friend for a book recommendation, or get a card from your local library and explore countless books for free. Find a topic or subject that interests you and start there!
    • Learn a new skill. Learning multiple skills is a hallmark of being a balanced and well-rounded person. It’s never too late in life to dive into something completely new, such as playing a musical instrument, learning a new language, writing poetry, painting, or playing chess. A jack of all trades mindset can make you stand-out from others in unique ways. Many people have a talent or passion for at least one thing, but when you start combining talents and cultivating multiple interests it shows your range and flexibility as a person. Don’t limit yourself. There’s no pressure to become a “professional” or “expert” in everything you do, just stay on a learning path, have fun while doing it, and enjoy seeing the growth as you go.
    • Watch documentaries. Documentaries are a fun and easy way to explore new topics and learn about interesting things you otherwise wouldn’t experience. Depending on what you like, there are many different subjects to choose from: history, sports, biographies, science, inspirational stories, or nature documentaries (which have also been shown to boost positive emotions like joy, gratitude, and awe). I’ve made a lengthy list of recommended documentaries which I try to keep updated as I discover new ones. Check it out and choose one that catches your eye!
    • Monitor your information diet. Our current world is overloaded with information, including a lot that is wrong, misleading, or straight up lies and propaganda. Now more than ever we need to pay close attention to the information we consume on a daily basis. Try to find trustworthy news and educational sites where you can easily verify what they are saying from other sources. Beware of going down esoteric “rabbit holes” where people only confirm their own biases and beliefs. Actively seek out information from multiple sides so you’re at least aware of different perspectives and counter-arguments. The information pyramid is a great guide on how you should prioritize certain sources over others. In general, a peer-reviewed scientific study should be given more weight than some random influencer on social media. Keep in mind it’s also possible to consume too much and become an information junkie, where you’re addicted to learning new things, but you never act on it or put it into practice.
    • Spend time in active reflection. Give yourself time to think and digest, even if it’s just for 10 minutes while sitting with your first cup of coffee in the morning. You don’t always need to be filling your brain with facts to be a smarter person, you also need to know how to step back and contemplate what you know. Active and engaged minds are always taking advantage of opportunities for everyday reflection when sitting on the bus, taking a shower, or walking the dog. Often your best ideas and insights come in moments when you’re not trying to solve a problem directly but just mulling it over in your mind. Schedule time for solitude every now and then and don’t be afraid to sit alone with your thoughts.
    • Learn how your mind works. One essential component to being a more intelligent thinker is knowing how your mind works. We naturally believe we understand ourselves best, but psychology and neuroscience can sometimes reveal counter-intuitive facts and tendencies. To start, our minds are very susceptible to cognitive biases and logical fallacies that can muddy our thinking and understanding of reality. One of the most common errors is black and white thinking, where we believe a situation needs to be either “A” or “B,” but a third perspective, “C,” is the more accurate view. Our minds like to over-simplify things when reality can often be more nuanced and complex. Show intellectual humility. Be open to being wrong and be open to changing your mind in the face of new evidence and experience.

    Take your education seriously. Maintain a healthy and active brain. Even if you were never a good student in school, that doesn’t mean you can’t improve your knowledge and intelligence, especially once you find subjects you are deeply passionate about. Benjamin Franklin once said, “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”

    3. EMOTIONAL WELL-BEING

    emotional

    In the “Mental” section we covered how to keep our brains active and be more intelligent thinkers, but there’s also a whole other side of our psychology that we need to pay attention to as well: our “Emotional” side.

    Emotions can often seem like something that we have limited power over, but being a more emotionally intelligent person means becoming more self-aware and learning how to better respond to our emotions in the moment.

    We can’t ignore our emotions or push them aside forever, they are a necessary facet of life and we must learn to navigate our emotional world effectively if we want to live the best life possible.

    Remember that emotions are a resource, not a crutch. Every emotion serves a function or purpose, and if we channel our emotions in a constructive direction we can make great things happen.

    One important lesson is that even negative emotions like sadness, anger, guilt, or fear are helpful to a better life if we approach them from the right perspective.


    Things to do:

    • Learn the basics of emotional intelligence. There are 4 fundamental pillars of emotional intelligence that we need to cultivate: 1) Self-awareness (recognizing our emotions when they happen), 2) Self-regulation (knowing how to respond to our emotions and channel them in a positive direction, 3) Empathy (being aware of other people’s emotions and internal states), and 4) Social Skills (knowing how to respond to other people’s emotions in a healthy and constructive way). Certain people may be strong at some of these and not for others. For example, someone may be really empathetic and caring, but not know how to regulate their own mood and emotions, leading to burnout and emotional fatigue. An emotionally intelligent person must work on all four of these pillars.
    • Improve body awareness. All emotions have a physical component to them. When you learn how to identify the physical sensations behind each emotion, you’ll be much more attuned to your feelings in the moment as you’re experiencing them. This helps you to be more aware of your feelings before acting on them, and to recognize how emotions often want to push or pull you in a certain direction (“do this” vs. “don’t do that”). Every feeling serves a different function depending on its emotional valence (“positive” vs. “negative”) and arousal level (“high energy” vs. “low energy”). With practice, this improved body awareness can also boost your intuition, making you a better reader of your “gut feelings” and what they are telling you.
    • Learn to channel negative emotions. Negative emotions can serve a positive function if you know how to respond to them in a constructive way. If you struggle with any specific negative emotion (sadness, fear, guilt, or anger), then create a plan for how you will respond to it the next time it arises. For example, “If I’m angry, then I’ll go exercise,” or “If I’m sad, then I’ll write in my journal.” Emotions are energy that can be channeled in multiple directions. Write a list of the many ways you can respond to any negative emotion. Remind yourself you have a choice, and you don’t have to keep following the same pattern between negative emotion → negative behavior. One popular technique is opposite action, where you intentionally do the opposite of what a feeling is telling you to do (to reverse the cycle of negativity).
    • Practice meditation and daily mindfulness. Meditation is a great avenue for better understanding and regulating your emotions. It teaches you how to step back and just observe your thoughts and feelings without needing to immediately react to them. This space between “feelings” and “actions” is crucial for being a more emotionally intelligent person; it’s the main principle behind discipline, willpower, and self-control. Never forget that just because you feel a certain way doesn’t mean you need to act on it. If you’re completely new to meditation, start with the 100 breaths meditation – a simple exercise where you just focus on your breathing. It’s also helpful to learn grounding techniques for when you feel overwhelmed, such as mindful stretching or a 5 senses meditation.
    • Embrace creative expression. It’s difficult to describe many emotions with only words so it’s important to embrace other ways of expressing yourself, such as through music, photography, dance, painting, drawing, acting, or film. Often when I meet people who don’t feel fully connected to their emotional self, they usually lack ways of expressing themselves through art and creativity. A creative outlet is often a prerequisite to better understanding and navigating your emotional world, even if you don’t typically think of yourself as a “creative person.”
    • Savor all of your positive experiences. Life is filled with many joys and pleasures throughout the day and we should try to savor them as much as possible. We have many positive emotions to choose from – joy, gratitude, peace, awe, excitement, laughter, and wonder – and there are a variety of activities that can lead to more positive emodiversity in our lives. Don’t just chase after the same positive experiences over and over again, seek new experiences, new hobbies, and new ways of enjoying life. Learn how to savor happiness as much as possible by being more present in the moment, creating positive memories, and reminiscing on good times.
    • Relax and manage daily stress. Last but not least, it’s necessary we cover stress management as an essential component to mental health and emotional intelligence. Stress is a normal part of everyday life, but if you don’t know how to manage it in a healthy way it can often have a negative influence on your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors by making you more sensitive, irritable, angry, and bothered (even by little things that don’t really matter). Recognize when to push yourself vs. when to step back and recharge. In the complete guide on daily stress, you’ll find a great framework for reframing your “fight, flight, or freeze” response by viewing stress as a signal to pay attention to and guide you throughout the day. Don’t underestimate the importance of your comfort zone and use it as a place to recharge after a challenging or overwhelming day.

    Emotions can “make us” or “break us” depending on how emotionally intelligent we are. They are a fundamental part of life, but we often have more power over them than we realize. Learn how to channel your emotions in a healthy and constructive way – become a master of them, not a slave to them.

    4. SOCIAL WELL-BEING

    social

    Healthy and positive relationships are an essential ingredient to happiness and well-being.

    No matter who you are, you crave some type of social connection; even the most introverted person on the planet will have a tough time finding happiness all by themselves.

    There used to be a time when I believed “I don’t need people to be happy, all I need is myself.” But over the years I’ve learned more and more that having social support and a sense of belonging is a basic human need that can’t be avoided.

    How strong is your current social circle? Here’s advice to get you started.


    Things to do:

    • Stay connected with friends and family. You should try your best to stay in touch with people who you already have a strong relationship with, especially family and old friends. There’s a simple power in checking in on people and preserving social connections you’ve already established. It doesn’t take much time or effort to show you’re thinking about someone: a simple text, email, or phone call is all you need to let people know you still care and value your relationship with them. You’d be surprised by how much other people appreciate you reaching out to them, even if you haven’t spoken to them in a really long time.
    • Embrace small social interactions. Every time you leave your home, there is opportunity for social interaction. To build your social muscles, embrace the power of 10 second relationships, such as saying “Hi,” to a neighbor or coworker, small talk with a cashier or cab driver, or sparking up a quick conversation while waiting for the train or bus. Research shows even super tiny social interactions can boost positive emotions and feelings of social connectedness. This can also be a great exercise for people who are very introverted (or have a lot of social anxiety) and want to start being a more social person. Make a plan to have a pleasant interaction with at least one new person every day.
    • Learn how to have endless conversations. One big concern for people when it comes to meeting new people is, “What do I say? What if I run out of things to talk about?” One popular technique known as conversation threading provides an excellent framework so that you never run out of topics to talk about. The basic idea is that every sentence contains multiple “threads” we can go down, and often the art of good conversation is being able to 1) Listen to what people say, and 2) Choose a thread to talk more about. Rinse and repeat and a conversation can go on forever. Also consider improvisation exercises so that you can be a faster and more creative thinker in the moment.
    • Improve communication and conflict resolution. It’s a cliché, but communication is everything in relationships. If you don’t know how to express your thoughts and feelings in an honest and constructive way, you’ll have trouble building genuine and healthy connections with others at home, work, or wherever you need to cooperate and work together with people. In romantic relationships, it’s important to know how to communicate your feelings without manipulating or being dramatic. In family and work environments, it’s important to know how to defuse heated arguments before they spiral out of control. The truth is people can be difficult and you’re not going to like everyone’s company. That’s natural. Conflicts have the potential to arise in any social situation, because people have different beliefs, values, and personalities that may be incompatible with each other. What’s most important is to teach yourself the best methods for conflict resolution so you can better navigate the complexities of your social world.
    • Find opportunities to meet new people. Most people make friends through work or school. Once we get older, it can become more difficult to find new connections or become a part of new social circles. Recent research shows that most adults claim to have “less than 5 close friends.” If you’re looking to expand your circle, there are many opportunities available to you. Depending on your likes, hobbies, and interests, consider going out more to music shows, bars, coffee shops, workshops, church/religious services, bowling leagues, adult education classes, sports events, or book clubs. Seek out local groups in your area or volunteer somewhere. You can also take advantage of websites like Meet Up to connect with like-minded people who live close-by. All it takes is one new friend to introduce you to an entirely new social circle. Be patient and don’t worry if you don’t initially hit it off with the first couple people you meet. Finding the right relationships that fit into our lives can take time.
    • Use social media and the internet to connect. The internet can be a great place to connect with like-minded people who we’d never meet in the real world. Online communities on social media, message boards, or video games can often provide a valuable source of social interaction, especially for people who don’t have many “real life” friends. The internet can be particularly helpful for connecting with others who have rare or eccentric hobbies, such as fans of a specific author, athlete, music genre, or comic book franchise. Unfortunately, many online communities can also become negative, competitive, and toxic (see the online disinhibition effect), so it’s necessary you build a positive digital environment that works for you. That doesn’t mean hiding in your own “echo chamber,” but it does mean cultivating a feed and followers who ultimately add value to your life and don’t subtract it. First focus on topics you’re naturally interested in such as science, technology, sports, or movies. Try not to be a passive consumer of information, actively enter conversations by asking questions or sharing knowledge with others. Often times we can build meaningful connections with people online that are just as important as those we find in the real world. However, while online relationships can have many benefits, we shouldn’t see them as a substitute for real world “face to face” interactions.

    Always remember that quality of relationships > quantity of relationships.

    You don’t need to be super popular or the life of the party to have a healthy social life. All you need is a couple really close friends who support you, trust you, and enjoy your presence. That’s everything you need to be socially satisfied.

    Healthy relationships are a fundamental aspect of happiness and well-being for everyone. Our need to belong to a “tribe” or group is hardwired into our brain, biology, and evolution. Like every other aspect of a balanced person, it can’t be ignored.

    Are your daily social needs being fulfilled?

    5. WORK / FINANCIAL WELL-BEING

    work

    Another fundamental aspect of a balanced person is work, money, and material concerns.

    At the most basic level, we depend on food, clothing, shelter, healthcare, and other necessities so we can live a healthy and dignified life.

    People that struggle to make a living can often hurt in many other areas: physical health (can’t afford good foods, healthcare, or medicine), relationships (can’t support family, no money for dating), as well as our mental and emotional well-being (stress, anxiety, and low self-esteem).

    Unless you win the lottery or have someone else to provide for you, finding a steady job or career is often one of the most focused on areas in life. From childhood up until we finish high school or college, we are constantly asked, “What do you want to do for a living?”

    A few people find jobs they love, many find jobs they like, and most find jobs they can at least tolerate. Balancing psychological needs with financial needs can be a difficult task depending on your current situation.

    While we don’t always get a choice in what we do for a living, there are important ways to give ourselves more power over our work life and financial life. Here are important guidelines to keep in mind.


    Things to do:

    • Focus on your strengths. Everyone has a place in this world where they add value. Before you decide what type of work you’d like to do for a living, it’s important to know what your natural strengths, skills, and talents are. If you’re friendly and good with people, you may excel at managing, customer service, or human resources type jobs. If you’re more introverted and creative, you may want to focus on writing, graphic design, computer programming, or freelance work. What type of activities are you typically good at (or at least above average)? What were your best subjects in school? What do you enjoy doing and why? Complete the strengths worksheet to discover more about your natural skillset. Ultimately, knowing your strengths will influence what types of jobs or career choices will suit you best – including where you contribute the most value.
    • Value education and experience. No matter what your job is, there are always new ways to learn and improve. The best workers in life are those who are always growing and mastering their craft. College is still an important part of education, but what’s even more important is to stay self-motivated and continue learning after school. Many people I know have landed successful jobs that had virtually nothing to do with what they studied in college. In several cases, they were people who taught themselves coding/programming, built a portfolio to show their work to potential employers, and climbed their way up the company ladder from there. All self-taught. You can also consider going to trade schools, workshops, mentorships, internships, and other forms of gaining knowledge and experience that are outside of the traditional college model. Any work experience is better than none at all – you just need to start somewhere and begin building yourself up.
    • Make the most of your job. While it’s rare for any of us to get our “dream job,” we can always make the most of our work life by being a good employee and doing our best. Use nudges to keep yourself motivated and productive throughout the day, learn mental strategies for getting things done that you normally “don’t like” doing, and make friends at work with bosses, coworkers, clients, or customers, because those are the people you’re going to be spending a lot of time with and it’s crucial you have healthy and functioning relationships with them. No matter what your job is try to see the underlying purpose or meaning behind it. What value does it add to the world? Are you proud of the work you do?
    • Live within your means. Regardless of how much money you make, one of the most commonsense rules for financial well-being is living within your means. This includes keeping a budget that you can maintain (for food, rent/mortgage, bills, gas, clothes, and leisure expenses), and not buying too much stuff you can’t immediately afford. Debt can be common at some point in our lives (due to student loans, credit card debt, medical emergencies, etc.), but try to be mindful to not put yourself in a hole that you can’t climb out of. Avoid luxury expenses that put you at financial risk. We sometimes over-extend ourselves due to social comparison and a “keeping up with the Joneses” mentality. We think if our friend or neighbor gets a brand new car or goes on an expensive trip, then we need to “one-up” them with a similar purchase. Many times people fall into massive debt because they are trying to chase status, fame, luxury, or exorbitant pleasures. In general, keep track of all your monthly expenses and find ways to cut back on spending that isn’t necessary. Learn about spending biases that can lead to overconsumption (like the allure of “FREE!,” the “Relativity Trap,” and “One Click” purchases). Big corporations are masters of psychology and persuasion. If we aren’t vigilant about our spending habits (especially if you enjoy retail therapy), then we’ll often fall for tricks that cause us to spend more money than we should.
    • Create a healthy relationship with material things. This article is about being a balanced person. Work and money are very important aspects of life, but materialistic beliefs can also backfire to hurt us. No one lays down on their deathbed wishing they spent more time in the office. Work-a-holics can end up focusing so much on their career that they neglect giving enough attention to their family, health, and well-being. Never forget that there is a lot more to a good life than just money and material things, despite what you may see glamorized in movies, TV shows, or commercials. Psychology research shows that after a certain point, increased wealth and income has very little effect on our overall happiness and life satisfaction. Being rich sounds awesome, but it won’t necessarily make you any happier than if you earned less with a stable and secure life. Take the materialism quiz to see if you have a healthy relationship with money and stuff.

    Remember, money is important but it isn’t everything.

    Financial well-being will often look radically different depending on the person. Certain people may be content with modest and minimal living, while others crave more luxury, adventure, and pleasure. Whichever lifestyle you choose, it’s necessary that money finds the proper role in your life without being completely consumed by it.

    One succinct way to define true financial well-being is “not needing to think about money all the time.”

    6. MEANINGFUL / SPIRITUAL WELL-BEING

    spiritual

    The meaningful or spiritual aspects of life can often be overlooked.

    We may occasionally ask ourselves big questions like, “Who am I?” “Why am I here?” or “What’s my purpose?” but we rarely translate these questions into our daily lives through action.

    For many people, religion is their main source of spirituality and meaning. Attending church, being part of a local community, prayer, and volunteering or giving to charities are common ways people boost meaning in their daily lives. Religion has been shown to improve happiness and well-being by creating a strong sense of purpose and community.

    However, we don’t need religion to have a meaningful life. There are many other sources of meaning, including art, culture, philosophy, literature, music, relationships, activism, introspection, and creativity.

    Where do you get your meaning in life?


    Things to do:

    • Learn the pillars of a meaningful life. One excellent guide on how to live a meaningful life outlines five different pillars to focus on, including 1) A sense of belonging (having healthy relationships with those around you), 2) A sense of purpose (feeling that you contribute to a larger whole), 3) Storytelling (the life story we tell about ourselves, as well as stories and myths about the world we live in), 4) Transcendence (experiencing “awe” and “inspiration” in the presence of great things), 5) Growth (having a sense that you are evolving and moving forward as a person). All five pillars contribute to a rich and meaningful existence.
    • Spend more time in nature. Nature reminds us that we are part of something larger than ourselves, a whole process known as “life.” Nature is a fantastic source of meaning because it continuously inspires positive emotions like joy, amazement, gratitude, and awe. The best part is that nature is all around us – we don’t need to plan a weekend camping trip to experience it – instead just pay attention to everyday nature that is all around you: trees on the drive to work, birdwatching in your backyard, or spending time in your garden over the summer. Having pets to care for is another easy and wonderful source of nature and connection, even if it’s just a small fish tank to maintain. Nature also includes enjoying the beauty of a nice view such as sunrises, sunsets, mountaintops, storm watching, and star-gazing.
    • Take a complete picture perspective. Finding meaning requires being able to look at things from a big picture perspective. What influence do your actions have in the long-term? What type of impact will you leave on the world after you die? When you keep the complete picture in mind, you recognize that even super small actions can add up and have big results in the future. Your life doesn’t begin at birth nor end at death, you are part of an intergenerational chain of cause-and-effect that has stretched thousands of years. That’s a powerful thought if you can see the true significance behind it.
    • Embrace art, music, and culture. Artists are the creators of new meanings, especially famous painters, musicians, filmmakers, photographers, authors, playwrights, and dancers. Pursuing a creative hobby of your own is one fantastic way to infuse new meaning into your life. You can also embrace art and culture more by going to museums, art galleries, music concerts, and theaters. A lot of beautiful art is archived in online art and cultural exhibits, so you can discover a lot of new inspiration by just sitting in the comfort of your own home. Artists of all forms teach us how universal the human condition is. It’s a huge inspirational boost when you realize a book written over a hundred years ago resonates exactly with how you feel today. One of my strongest memories is attending a music concert of my favorite band with thousands of others listening and singing along. Creativity is one of humanity’s greatest gifts and there’s a lot of wisdom, beauty, and feelings of universal connection it can offer us.
    • Signs, symbols, and synchronicity. A meaningful life can be more about feeling inspiration and empowerment rather than thinking only logically and factually about the world. Embrace things you can’t always explain. If you feel like you’re getting a “sign” from the universe, accept it. Our minds often think unconsciously through the power of symbols, especially through reoccurring dreams or nightmares that may be trying to tell you something important. Meaning can be created anywhere if you have the right perspective. Many of my favorite moments in life are when I experience synchronicity, which is finding a connection between two things that seem completely unrelated at first. For example, if I start reading a book and then someone brings up the same book randomly the next day, I try to see that as a sign that I’m on the right path. It may or may not be true, but it is a simple and easy way to add more meaning to the little things in life.
    • Have faith that life is good. Faith may not have any role in science, but it does play an important role in good living. At the end of the day, one of the most important beliefs we can have is that “life is good” and things will generally work out in the end. One of my personal favorite quotes is, “Pray to God, but row to shore.” It shows us to have hope and faith in life, but still take action and try our best in the moment. Both faith and action are necessary ingredients to a happy and fulfilling life. A belief in God or a higher power can make this whole process easier. However, even if you can’t bring yourself to accept “metaphysical” or “supernatural” ideas, at least try to sense the oneness and interconnectedness of all things. These ideas are an endless source of power, strength, and resilience, even in the face of incredible hardships and tribulations.

    A “meaningful life” can be one of the most difficult areas of life to improve, especially while living in a world that is filled with nihilism, hedonism, and materialism.

    However, once you build a strong spiritual core you can withstand almost any difficulty or hardship. It can empower you to a whole new level that non-spiritual people don’t usually have access to.

    CONCLUSION

    To sum things up we must invest time and energy in all six of these aspects if we want to live a happy and balanced life.

    Once again, these six aspects of a balanced life include: 1) Physical, 2) Mental, 3) Emotional, 4) Social, 5) Work/Financial, and 6) Meaningful/Spiritual.

    Which area are you the strongest in? Which area are you the weakest in?

    Keep this framework in mind as you embark on a lifetime of self-improvement. Try the Daily Routine (PDF) exercise and use this resource as a guideline.


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    Steven Handel

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  • Homeless in L.A.: Not every life is a ‘success story,’ but everyone deserves dignity

    Homeless in L.A.: Not every life is a ‘success story,’ but everyone deserves dignity

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    How many times have you heard successful people talking about the obstacles they overcame, the discouraging chapters they endured, the “rock bottom” from which they rose up? Maybe you see your own life in similar terms. It’s a particular narrative that ends with success, and anyone who has lived it would tend to think other people’s lives can, with work, conform to this arc. We need to get away from that assumption. Some people’s lives aren’t on an upward trajectory and may never be, and those people also deserve respect and dignity.

    Early this month I met with three of my unhoused neighbors in Venice, one who has been on and off the street for 20 years, one who has autism, and one whose life was upended by a toxic relationship. They agreed to share their stories with The Times on condition that their last names not be used.

    Governments and nonprofits pour untold sums into caring for the unhoused through myriad programs, but in speaking with unhoused people, I often hear that their needs are not very complex. Even a modest monthly check would be transformative to the lives of many. What if a big piece of the solution to homelessness were simply a universal basic income? — Robert Karron

    Brandon

    My name is Brandon, and I’m 37 years old. I grew up in Lancaster, in the Antelope Valley. I was 9½ weeks premature — only a bit over 3 pounds. I’ve made up for it since then. But my first year of life I had lots of seizures.

    “I didn’t understand why I had this unfulfilled feeling,” Brandon said of an early job he had. “My father had a face of fulfillment after a day’s work. Why didn’t I? I wanted to achieve that but didn’t know how.”

    (Courtesy of Robert Karron)

    I graduated from high school early, when I was 15. I did independent study, because school was becoming increasingly strange. There was violence and gang activity. Kids would get kicked out of L.A. County, then transfer to ours, in Kern County. I remember one kid shot and killed another in the eighth grade. They knew each other from L.A., and they had a beef from then. It happened in front of my math teacher’s house. For years, you could see the bullet holes in the wall. That kid was tried as an adult and got two life sentences. It’s like the school was a training camp for jail.

    It was also a racial political zone. I celebrate Hanukkah, and there was a group of kids that chose to call me names. I put myself out there, telling people I celebrated — I didn’t have to do that. But I didn’t realize it was going to be something that would be detrimental to my social well-being.

    So I took classes at home. It was good because I could go at my own pace, but it was bad because I got too familiar with my parents; we could have used more distance. I didn’t get along with my mom, and we clashed.

    After high school, I thought I’d go to the Marines — my grandfather was a decorated war hero — and they accepted me into the deferred entry program, but they found marijuana in my drug test, so that didn’t work out. I was exposed to drugs early; it was rampant at my high school. You were pressured to take them because the kids who were selling were depending on it for their livelihood; in their families, they were the earners. It seemed glamorous then, but I don’t see any glamour in it now.

    I just use these blankets. It’s not enough, but people steal so frequently, it’s hard to keep stuff.

    — Brandon

    I started working for an insurance company, and I stayed for seven years. I was also taking college classes at Antelope Valley College, music classes, my passion. I didn’t think of music practice as “practice,” because when you’re getting so much pleasure out of something, “practice” isn’t in your mind-set. But when the money started coming in, I let all that slide.

    I had lots of jobs within the company, but mainly I was a patient service associate. By the time I was 17, I had my own apartment; my parents helped me furnish it, super sweet of them, but I wasn’t ready for that kind of responsibility. Even though I was making money, it was a miserable existence. It was a dark period for me. I kept feeling empty at the end of each day. I didn’t understand why I had this unfulfilled feeling. My father had a face of fulfillment after a day’s work. Why didn’t I? I wanted to achieve that but didn’t know how.

    At 18, I fell in love with a woman who was 22 years older than me. I was with her for seven years. She was an amazing artist. Eventually I quit my job and worked as a butler for her friends. When I left her, I sought therapy, because I’d lost my grip on society. I tried to get into music then, but there weren’t many opportunities.

    I’ve been on and off the streets for 20 years. I just use these blankets. It’s not enough, but people steal so frequently, it’s hard to keep stuff. I’d like to get my own space, but I’m not sure how. I’m putting one foot in front of the other. It’s hard because I have a stomach bug and all these wounds on my leg and hand that never heal. They’re in a constant state of infection.

    Garrick

    My name is Garrick, and I’m 56 years old. I’ve been in L.A. for nine months. Before that I was in New York City for 11 years (128 months). I’m scheduled to move again 39 days from now, on Tuesday, Feb. 20, and I need to find a place where I can spend the day before — from 8 in the morning till 8 at night — getting cleaned up. I don’t know where that will happen. Do you have any ideas? Is there a gymnasium in L.A. that has army cots and a big bathroom with showers and sinks and commodes where you can go and leave anytime you want as long as you sign your name? I’m asking because I’ve never heard of such a thing.

    A bearded man in a sweater standing outside

    “What I’d like for after my bus trip is a CD player,” Garrick said of his plan to move to Boston. “Then I need a CD with every song Led Zeppelin ever sang.”

    (Courtesy of Robert Karron)

    I’m moving to Boston, but I need someone’s smart device to check Greyhound for the bus that makes stops in Phoenix, El Paso, Dallas, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and three stops in South Carolina: Anderson, Greenville and Spartanburg. Then I need to see what time the bus arrives in Boston. If I know the time, I can plan out my first day.

    I’m moving because Boston has everything I need. In L.A. I’m laying on the sidewalk with chiggers. It’s better than New York by a long margin, but in Boston I’ll have better prospects because I know the neighborhoods and resources and trains and shopping centers. I lived there for four months, before moving to New York. In between, I was in Providence, for two days and two nights.

    There are a lot of variables when you come from a broken home, and you have high-functioning autism, and your stepfather was drafted in the Vietnam War and was an authoritarian figure who moved you and your mother to Ohio.

    My mother and I identify with each other and idolize each other. We could always work things out, if it was just the two of us. But that went down the toilet when my mother let people deter things between us, when they talked a line to her. When she was manipulated, things went in different directions.

    Jobs? If you have high-functioning autism, you can’t hold a job.

    — Garrick

    I like heavy music, specifically the songs from the summer and fall of 1972 and the winter, spring, summer and fall of 1973. The utmost prime example of that is music by Led Zeppelin — by a long margin, my favorite singing group. What I’d like for after my bus trip is a CD player without earphones (those always make the player fall apart) that operates on batteries. I can pay for the batteries. Then I need a CD with every song Led Zeppelin ever sang.

    Jobs? If you have high-functioning autism, you can’t hold a job.

    I have three main sleeping spots. One of them is here. Last night it dipped down to 46 and 47 degrees. To keep warm I use linens I stash behind those bushes.

    Cynthia

    My name is Cynthia, and I’m 59 years old. I was born in Ohio but raised in Wisconsin. I completed junior high, but at 15 I quit school because I got pregnant. The father was a family friend in his 20s who my mother had asked to watch us when she took classes to become a certified nursing assistant. He ended things when he found out I was pregnant.

    A woman in a purple jacket with a tent in the background

    “I took the bus to Union Station in Pasadena, where they help you find a place,” Cynthia said. “But soon I was on the streets.”

    (Courtesy of Robert Karron)

    By 17 I was having problems with depression, and the state took my daughter away. It’d be illegal now: They threatened to cut off my mother’s welfare checks if I didn’t sign the papers. I got pregnant again at 21 and have a son who loves me to death; he’s in Kentucky now with his dad, my ex-fiance. We were going to get married, but he wanted me to live in his mother’s house for a year; I said no and moved back in with my mom. He came to get the engagement rings. That made me mad, so I threw them into the front yard. He searched for two hours but eventually found them.

    I went back to school and got my GED. I was taking college business courses, but the man I was married to then couldn’t hold a job, so I quit and started working at a company that sent out cheese and candy packages.

    Later I was engaged to someone who moved me to Minneapolis, where I worked at a Greek restaurant. When I found him in bed with another man, I had to find another place to stay. The owner of the restaurant, who liked me, was going to put me up, but his wife got jealous. So I had to move back home again.

    I met my boyfriend Greg. We got to talking, and by nighttime he was cuddled up next to me.

    — Cynthia

    When I was living at home, I began a 10-year relationship with someone I saw a few times a year. He said he was in the armed services and was always traveling. After 10 years I was 53, and he asked me to move in with him in Los Angeles. I’m two hours on the bus when I call him. He says he’s in trouble and needs $500. I say I don’t have it. He says, get it any way you can. When I couldn’t get it, he stopped taking my calls. I took the bus to Union Station in Pasadena, where they help you find a place — but soon I was on the streets.

    I was protected by this great guy called Tennessee (he was from Tennessee), and two weeks later, I met my boyfriend, Greg. We got to talking, and by nighttime he was cuddled up next to me. Tennessee gave him a blanket, but at midnight I told him to leave — it was going too fast. But it all worked out. We’ve been together 5½ years, and we’re going to get married after we move in together.

    Robert Karron teaches English at Santa Monica College.

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    Robert Karron

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  • Fashion Bulletin: Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown auctions stylish wardrobe for good cause

    Fashion Bulletin: Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown auctions stylish wardrobe for good cause

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    Legendary California politician Willie Brown, the brash liberal with a devilish grin as wide as a $100 bill, will be remembered as not just a powerbroker and master fundraiser, but also as a clothes horse with few peers.

    “I’ve spent more time in the closet than any straight man in San Francisco, but that’s just to choose my wardrobe,” the dapper former mayor of the city says in his 2008 memoir, “Basic Brown.”

    Brown, 89, whose popularity was due, in part, to his mere presence on stage, in powerhouse restaurants, and the innermost circles of Democratic party leadership, recently donated a portion of his wardrobe to San Francisco Bay Goodwill.

    “We are honored to have Willie Brown as a supporter of the good work we do,” Andy Simons, associate vice president of e-commerce for the charity organization, said in an interview on Saturday.

    Proceeds from the “Willie Brown Collection” will help fund Goodwill’s mission to provide job and career training for people in need of a second chance. The clothes are up for sale on eBay.

    “Own a Willie Brown fashion piece by shopping the exclusive collection online, while supplies last!” the nonprofit announced on Thursday, along with opening prices ranging from $24 to more than $300.

    The 7-day auction, which lasts until Wednesday, features a taupe Kiton overcoat, a black Salvatore Ferragamo pea coat, a brown Brioni silk single-breasted blazer, and a multicolored hoodie with images of Brown printed on it.

    If anyone was destined to wear $6,000 Italian suits, it was Brown. A great-grandson of Southern slaves, the Texas-born Brown never let anger get in the way of his determination to live large and for a purpose.

    Over the course of his improbable life story, he was a two-term mayor of San Francisco after becoming the longest serving Assembly speaker in California history.

    Through it all, Brown cultivated his image as connoisseur of the high-life whose daily fashion choices generated a steady stream of fashion bulletins in the media. His snap-brim fedora, for example, triggered a San Francisco-wide run on men’s dress hats.

    “You really have to have more than just a good heart,” he told 60 Minutes correspondent Harry Reasoner in a 1984 interview. “You also have to have some style.”

    “California is an image state. California is where it happens. You really — you really have to project something.”

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    Louis Sahagún

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