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  • Look Who’s Talking—Code.org Founder and CEO Hadi Partovi on the Hype and Hope of AI in edtech

    Look Who’s Talking—Code.org Founder and CEO Hadi Partovi on the Hype and Hope of AI in edtech

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    In true grand finale fashion, #CoSN2024 will wrap up #CoSN2024 with a pair of industry heavyweights talking through what might be the most momentous point in edtech history. You can listen and read Mike Trucano’s thoughts further down the page. Here, Hadi Partovi shares some preliminary insights for what will undoubtedly be a highlight of events next week. Have a listen:

    Hadi Partovi is a tech entrepreneur and investor, and CEO of the education nonprofit Code.org.

    Born in Iran, Hadi grew up during the Iran-Iraq war. After immigrating to the United States, he spent his summers working as a software engineer to help pay his way through high school and college. Upon graduating from Harvard with a Masters degree in computer science, Hadi pursued a career in technology starting at Microsoft where he rose into the executive ranks. He founded two tech startups that were acquired by Microsoft and Newscorp respectively, and he has served as an early advisor or investor at many tech startups including Facebook, Dropbox, airbnb, and Uber.

    Read more: Look Who’s Talking—Code.org Founder and CEO Hadi Partovi on the Hype and Hope of AI in edtech

    In 2013 Hadi and his twin brother Ali ‘94 launched the education nonprofit Code.org, which Hadi leads full-time as CEO. Code.org has established computer science classes reaching 30% of US students, created the most broadly used curriculum platform for K-12 computer science, and launched the global Hour of Code movement that has reached hundreds of millions of students spanning every country in the world.

    In the spirit of the topic, we had ChatGPT assess the interview.

    The transcript captures a conversation between two speakers, primarily focusing on the implications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education. Speaker 1, identified as Hadi, provides insights into the current state and future prospects of AI in the educational landscape. Key points discussed include the potential of AI to revolutionize education, the evolving role of teachers, challenges related to student safety and ethical considerations, and the necessity for schools and educators to adapt to technological advancements proactively.

    List of Takeaways:

    • Impact of AI in Education: Hadi emphasizes that the impact of AI in education is significant and likely underestimated. Drawing parallels to past technological advancements like the personal computer and the smartphone, he asserts that AI is of a comparable scale, if not larger.
    • Diverse Nature of AI: AI is not a singular technology but a diverse field encompassing various rapidly progressing software. The evolution of AI will continue to introduce new capabilities that will reshape educational practices.
    • Changing Perceptions: Addressing concerns about AI, Hadi argues that the fear of AI replacing human teachers or facilitating cheating should prompt a reevaluation of educational goals and standards. Rather than viewing AI as a threat, it should be embraced as a tool for enhancing learning outcomes.
    • Role of Teachers: While AI may automate certain tasks, Hadi believes that the role of teachers will evolve to focus more on personalized mentorship and coaching rather than content delivery. AI can alleviate the burden on teachers, enabling them to engage more meaningfully with students.
    • Administrative Considerations: School administrators need to adopt a proactive approach towards integrating AI into education. This involves providing teacher training on AI usage, ensuring student safety, and revising educational practices to accommodate technological advancements.
    • Ethical Concerns: While acknowledging the benefits of AI, Hadi stresses the importance of addressing ethical considerations, particularly concerning student safety and AI bias. Schools should implement safeguards to prevent negative consequences of AI usage.
    • Preparedness for Change: Schools must recognize that AI represents an ongoing technological shift rather than a one-time event. Embracing change and preparing for continual advancements in AI is essential for ensuring the relevance and effectiveness of education in the future.

    Below is a machine-generated transcript of the interview.

    00:00:04 Speaker 2 

    OK, Hadi. Thanks so much for your time. I really appreciate it. 

    00:00:08 Speaker 1 

    Thank you for inviting me. It’s wonderful to speak with you. 

    00:00:11 Speaker 2 

    Let’s jump right into it next week you will be down in Miami at CoSN of 2024 talking about, I guess I would say, what else? But AI, the the topic is certainly something that has taken the oxygen out of the room for a lot of other topics when it comes to education, technology, hugely important but. 

    00:00:31 Speaker 2 

    As I mentioned to Mike, sometimes I wake up in the morning and I and I wonder if. 

    00:00:35 Speaker 2 

    Maybe it’s not all being overblown, but then other mornings I wake up and say no. Of course that this is the the the the, you know, the greatest thing since sliced bread. Maybe we can start off by talking about where you you find yourself in with this topic after so many decades of being on the on the cutting edge of of innovations when it. 

    00:00:55 Speaker 2 

    Comes to this stuff. 

    00:00:57 Speaker 1 

    That’s a great question. I I would say I think the impact of AI and education is probably being under blown overblown and I don’t want to sound like I. 

    00:01:08 Speaker 1 

    You know, I I’ve lived in the world of technology for decades, so I’ve seen many hype cycles of things that were hyped up that turned out much smaller than the than they turned out to be. But I’ve also seen things that turned out to be much bigger than anybody imagined, you know. And if you think about. 

    00:01:27 Speaker 1 

    The invention of the personal computer, the World Wide Web, the smartphone AI is of that scale and larger. The other thing I would say with AI is you know. 

    00:01:40 Speaker 1 

    AI isn’t 1 technology, it’s like an entire body of work that is progressing quite rapidly, and it’s not one thing. It’s not like it’s a it’s not like this. There’s this weaker, intelligent thing that was becoming smarter. It’s like a whole bunch of people creating all sorts of different software that are going to be able to do things that. 

    00:02:00 Speaker 1 

    Software was never able to do and the pace at which they’re progressing is accelerating and so how big of an impact it has on education depends on how far out you look. So the today’s chatbot interface is going to look prehistoric compared to. 

    00:02:16 Speaker 1 

    The the conversational Avatar version that we’ll have by the end of the decade. And if you think about, for example, the smartphone, when the first iPhone came out, that iPhone looks prehistoric compared the version we got 10 years later. It didn’t have. It couldn’t take video. People don’t remember that the first iPhone. 

    00:02:36 Speaker 1 

    Couldn’t take video, it didn’t have an App Store. Literally. The App Store came after the iPhone. Either #2 or #3, so we are still in the early days. 

    00:02:49 Speaker 2 

    So. 

    00:02:49 Speaker 1 

    What I’m saying is less about the hype of the current AI we have, but where things are going. 

    00:02:54 Speaker 2 

    Yeah. How about when it comes to kind of the the popular perceptions and I think this happens with a lot of new technologies that there’s a certain level of fear that that creeps in at the beginning with with when there’s not a lot of knowledge. So you know the, the the boogeyman of. 

    00:03:10 Speaker 2 

    A students being able to cheat better than they could ever cheat before and nobody will actually study anymore and B the idea that AI will somehow take over the role of a human teacher. Can you tackle both of those in terms of what you see as a a threat or promise? 

    00:03:29 Speaker 1 

    Sure, there’s a third which is less about education, which is AI will take all our jobs. 

    00:03:36 Speaker 1 

    And and I’ll start with that one first before talking about whether it’s cheating or whether it’s going to replace teachers. You know, in the short term, it’s not AI that’s going to take people’s jobs. It’s somebody who knows how to use AI better, will take your job. And so teaching students and teaching. 

    00:03:56 Speaker 1 

    Everybody how to create with AI how to do the work you’re currently doing, but doing it better, more productively, more efficiently, more creatively, just doing a better job with AI is going to be one of the most valuable types of education. 

    00:04:10 Speaker 1 

    And and if you think about that, then working back to the students and is it cheating and we need to redefine the the definition of what cheating means or redefine the goal posts of what our school system should be teaching students. Because where one person might see a student that’s cheating. I see a student that’s learning how to use AI. 

    00:04:31 Speaker 1 

    And the the. 

    00:04:34 Speaker 1 

    That student is going to be much more employable than the student who didn’t do any cheating, but also didn’t learn at all how to use AI. And so we change what we think teaching is trying to what the goal is, and I’m not trying to suggest that students should learn nothing and just let AI do everything for them, because obviously as we know. 

    00:04:54 Speaker 1 

    Today’s AI has lots of shortcomings, but learning those shortcomings, learning how to work around them, and how to combine the knowledge the students brings to the table, plus how they can harness this technology to its best use. That’s going to be what we need to be teaching. And when it comes to teachers. 

    00:05:14 Speaker 1 

    First of all, we have a teacher shortage globally, so if anything can offset the work done by teachers by reducing their workload, that’s not replacing their jobs. That’s just softening the extreme. The difficulty of the global teacher shortage. We’re far from a world of having wow, there’s so much. 

    00:05:34 Speaker 1 

    Teaching being done by AI that that we don’t need teachers, that’s that’s, that’s not the we’re worried about. I do think the role of a teacher is going to shift from being the content expert to being the human connection, the facilitator, the coach, the mentor at. 

    00:05:52 Speaker 1 

    And honestly, if you ask lots of teachers, they find that their day-to-day time is being spent, not one-on-one with students, not in a way where they’re connecting with the students. But it’s like grading homeworks, preparing lesson plans, doing paperwork, and then doing this one to many lecture where they don’t have enough time for that to really teach that individual. 

    00:06:13 Speaker 1 

    Kid, because there’s so many of their kids and so we should, with AI, get to a point where the student is getting more personalized education and more personal personal time with their teacher. 

    00:06:26 Speaker 2 

    Yeah. 

    00:06:28 Speaker 2 

    So you think about the, uh, the audience, that you’re going to have there at at cozen next week and you know our, our readers and listeners who are. 

    00:06:36 Speaker 2 

    Executives and school districts, you know, around the country around the world, how should they be thinking about this topic? I mean, how does this really affect their day-to-day administrative say of a of a school or a district? And how could they take these ideas and apply it to what they’re doing every day? 

    00:06:59 Speaker 1 

    The first thing I’d say, and most people already know this, but it’s really important to dwell on realizing that AI isn’t a thing that is now here and now you just and we’re done. And now we need to react to it. It’s a thing that’s coming. It’s like it’s come a little bit and there’s going to be more and more and more and more. 

    00:07:19 Speaker 1 

    You know, we just went through this. 

    00:07:22 Speaker 1 

    Quite terrible pandemic that arrived in March of 2020 and changed our lives. And then like now, we’re recovering from this thing that happened. AI is not a negative, it’s a positive. It’s going to make so many parts of education better, but it’s not arriving on one date, it’s. 

    00:07:42 Speaker 1 

    Imagine if somebody told you that over the next 10 years there’s going to be waves of improving and rapidly changing technology that are going to change education, making it more personalized for students, more engaging for students and helping teachers. 

    00:07:58 Speaker 1 

    You know, reduce their workload and giving them more of a chance to mentor students. And that’s there’s going to be changes every year, that mentality of being comfortable with change is the most important change that school administrators need to do, recognizing that it’s not just about chat LGBT, it’s about, you know, Co pilots being built into all of the office. 

    00:08:06 

    Right. 

    00:08:19 Speaker 1 

    And productivity tech that you use. 

    00:08:22 Speaker 1 

    AI being added to every bit of Edtech? Then what are we going to do to reinvent homework so that it’s not considered cheating to use AI with it would actually. It’s considered required to use AI when you do homework. How do we change assessments? We’re going to need to change the learning standards, the goal posts of what students need to learn, and we don’t need to do all those things. 

    00:08:43 Speaker 1 

    Because of the ChatGPT that came out a year ago, we’re going to need to be doing those things because of stuff that’s going to be coming out every year over the next 10 years and beyond. 

    00:08:51 Speaker 2 

    Now, how how much do you think we need to worry about the students themselves? I mean, you made the point about, you know, the first version of the iPhone not having those tech and tools. And I remember writing articles back then about, you know, the the. 

    00:09:06 Speaker 2 

    The dangers of. 

    00:09:07 Speaker 2 

    Phones in schools and the the. 

    00:09:10 Speaker 2 

    The use of these devices students are using these devices whether we like it or not. All the time now. Is it the same thing with AI? I mean is it will? Will this the kids themselves not see this as much of A novelty as just something that’s always been around and are comfortable with? 

    00:09:28 Speaker 1 

    First, I would say that student safety is something schools should take seriously. I mean, schools both in this country and internationally are suing the technology companies for having created technology that addicted their children and different people are making arguments about whether that’s having a negative impact on those kids. 

    00:09:48 Speaker 1 

    And you know. 

    00:09:51 Speaker 1 

    Ultimately, the schools are responsible for the kids, schools and parents bear that responsibility. Tech companies aren’t necessarily the ones you know. They’re their responsibility as a profit motive, ultimately. And so it’s really important to to think how to make sure this is embraced in a way that’s. 

    00:10:11 Speaker 1 

    Safe for kids, ethical as well. But safety is even more important. Yeah, ethics is hard to define and different people have different opinions about what is ethical. But we don’t want kids to get addicted. We don’t want kids to get badly misinformed to get indoctrinated, because who knows what AI might teach kids if it’s not? 

    00:10:32 Speaker 1 

    If it’s done without guardrails and you know indoctrination means different things to different people. But all of these types of things, AI bias in One Direction or the other are all negatives. 

    00:10:46 Speaker 2 

    Yeah. 

    00:10:47 Speaker 1 

    But I do believe the greatest risk is doing nothing. So the greatest risk is pretending that you know one of the most important technological shifts in the history of humanity isn’t happening, and we’re just going to keep doing everything the way we always happen. That’s that’s not going to work. But. 

    00:11:06 Speaker 1 

    When it comes to figuring this stuff out, that there’s some very obvious things schools should be doing, providing teacher training on on just what is. 

    00:11:14 Speaker 1 

    The AI using AI to save teachers time. There’s no risk there. We have a teacher shortage. AI is a solution to save teachers time so that our existing teachers aren’t feeling as overworked and underpaid. Those are some really obvious things. Teaching students how AI works and what its shortcomings. 

    00:11:35 Speaker 1 

    That’s also a real no brainer. You know the idea that you’d graduate from school and not learn how AI works, but you’re still learning. 

    00:11:43 Speaker 1 

    Or. 

    00:11:44 Speaker 1 

    The other subjects in science that teach you. 

    00:11:46 Speaker 1 

    How the world? 

    00:11:47 Speaker 1 

    Works seems seems outdated. These are the obvious things schools should do and then buckle up for more change. 

    00:11:53 Speaker 2 

    Yeah. Well, howdy. I want you to keep your powder dry for next week. There’s a lot of great ideas here, and I know you and Mike will put on a good show when it comes to helping the the, the audience and by extension, our readers and our listeners to kind of wrap their their hands around this. So again, I appreciate your time and look forward to. 

    00:12:14 Speaker 2 

    To seeing you next week. 

    00:12:15 Speaker 1 

    All right. Thank you so much. It will be great to see you. 

    00:12:17 Speaker 2 

    Right. 

    00:12:18 Speaker 1 

    Bye bye. 

    Kevin Hogan
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  • Trans man beaten and arrested by sheriff’s deputy asks judge to be declared innocent

    Trans man beaten and arrested by sheriff’s deputy asks judge to be declared innocent

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    For more than two hours, Emmett Brock waited outside a Downey courtroom. He sat, he stood, he fidgeted, he paced in the emptying hallway. Finally, he heard his name and went inside.

    It was March 8, 2024, exactly 392 days after he’d been beaten by a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy in front of a 7-Eleven, then arrested and accused of biting the lawman who pummeled him. Afterward, he’d been sent to the Norwalk station lockup and booked for three felonies and a misdemeanor. By the time prosecutors dropped the case seven months later, he’d already lost his high school teaching job.

    It had been a painful year, and to put it behind him Brock wanted a judge to declare him innocent. His lawyer had filed the paperwork, and now Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Evan Kitahara was going to decide on the request.

    Twenty minutes after entering the courtroom, Brock walked out an innocent man.

    Just over a week later, he filed a federal lawsuit accusing the deputy of “felony crimes” and alleging the department had covered them up.

    “I can finally exhale,” Brock told The Times after learning of the judge’s decision. “It felt like I’d been holding my breath for over a year.”

    Even if the new developments bring some peace of mind for the Whittier man, they could signal trouble for the deputy who arrested him. When Deputy Joseph Benza made the February 2023 arrest, he signed a declaration under penalty of perjury saying Brock had bitten him.

    At this month’s hearing, Kitahara determined there was “no evidence” of that.

    Benza is “susceptible to being decertified,” said Brock’s attorney, Thomas Beck, suggesting the deputy could lose his California peace officer certification for alleged dishonesty and be banned from working in law enforcement. “And on the use-of-force issue, he could be prosecuted.”

    According to documents Beck filed in court, the FBI has been looking into the case since last year. The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office confirmed to The Times this week that local prosecutors are reviewing the matter as well.

    Attorney Tom Yu, who is representing Benza, has maintained for months that his client did not do anything wrong. And records show a Sheriff’s Department review last year cleared the deputy’s use of force.

    “I wholeheartedly disagree with Mr. Beck’s representation of what occurred,” Yu wrote to The Times in an email. “I am confident that the federal judge will throw all of the suspect’s claims out during this litigation.”

    The Sheriff’s Department said in a statement Monday that it had not been served with the lawsuit but confirmed the incident had been investigated and the findings are under review.

    “Our top priority is the safety of everyone involved in any encounter,” the statement said.

    On the morning of Feb. 10, 2023, Brock had just left work at Frontier High School when he spotted a deputy who appeared to be berating a woman on the side of the road. As he drove by, Brock casually threw up his middle finger, thinking the deputy wouldn’t see it.

    Emmett Brock was driving home from his job as a teacher when he was stopped and beaten by a deputy outside of a 7-Eleven.

    (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

    According to the lawsuit filed this week, the deputy abandoned the roadside confrontation, hopped in his cruiser and started tailing Brock. Each time Brock made a turn, the cruiser mirrored his move — but the deputy inside didn’t turn on the lights or sirens and didn’t try to pull him over, Brock said.

    Fearing he was being followed by someone impersonating a police officer, Brock called 911 and asked what to do.

    “If he hasn’t pulled you over, he hasn’t pulled you over,” the dispatcher said, according to a recording of the call shared with The Times.

    But a few minutes later, Brock pulled into a 7-Eleven parking lot on Mills Avenue in Whittier. As he stepped out to buy a drink, the deputy approached him.

    “I just stopped you,” Benza said, without explaining why.

    “No, you didn’t,” Brock replied, according to an audio recording captured by the deputy’s body camera.

    “Yeah, I did,” the deputy said, grabbing Brock’s arm. The deputy then “overwhelmed young Brock,” according to the lawsuit, and “without uttering another word, violently took Brock to the pavement.”

    For the next three minutes Brock struggled as the deputy held him down, all of it captured on the 7-Eleven’s surveillance camera.

    “You’re going to kill me! You’re going to f— kill me,” Brock shouted, screaming for the deputy to stop.

    “Instead Benza rained at least 10 closed fist punches at Brock’s head and face,” the suit says, “while Benza used his greater body weight to pin the plaintiff to the ground as he continued to angrily pummel Brock with both fists, scraping his knuckles in the process.”

    After Brock was in handcuffs, the deputy put him into the back seat of his cruiser. Brock was bloodied and his glasses were broken but, according to the lawsuit, the deputy still hadn’t explained why he’d stopped him.

    When a sergeant arrived on scene, Brock told him he’d been beaten in retaliation for giving a deputy the finger — an act that could have been a violation of the department’s policy explicitly banning the use of force in retaliation for disrespect.

    “Instead of immediately recognizing Benza had committed a felony crime of assault against Brock,” the suit said, the sergeant “purposefully ignored plaintiff’s complaints and took no action.”

    As other deputies arrived, Benza showed them his bruised knuckles and blamed Brock — but he didn’t say anything about being bitten, according to the lawsuit. When paramedics arrived, the suit says, he didn’t tell them anything about a bite, either.

    Before leaving to go back to the station, Benza and several sergeants walked into the 7-Eleven, according to a 32-page innocence petition Beck filed in court on Brock’s behalf. The lawmen went into the store’s camera room and stayed there for a little over 10 minutes, “presumably screening the audio-free 7-Eleven video recording of the assault,” Beck wrote in the petition.

    “With knowledge of this damaging evidence,” Beck continued, the deputy drove back to the station and “falsely reported” to a supervisor that he’d only thrown punches because Brock had bitten his hands.

    Then, the petition says, Benza went to urgent care and said he’d been bitten on his right hand — though the physician assistant who treated him wrote in his report that there was bruising but “no bite marks.”

    After he left urgent care, Benza filed his declaration under penalty of perjury saying he’d been bitten on his left hand. He said the incident started when he’d been on a routine patrol and decided to stop Brock after spotting an air freshener dangling from the rearview mirror. He left out any mention of stopping a woman on the side of the road and said nothing about Brock giving him the finger.

    In an interview with The Times last year, Benza’s attorney said that’s because the person Brock passed on the side of the road wasn’t his client, but another law enforcement officer probably from another agency.

    Now, Beck said, there’s evidence to disprove that.

    “I have been advised that the FBI has downloaded Benza’s cell phone GPS data and was able to corroborate Mr. Brock’s claim of being pursued along the route Benza claimed he never took,” Beck wrote in the innocence petition. (The FBI told The Times this week that it does not confirm or deny the existence of investigations.)

    When he was taken to the Norwalk station for booking — on offenses including mayhem and injuring an officer while resisting arrest — Brock was asked to give a statement, during which he explained he is transgender. One jailer asked if he was a girl, he said, and another asked to see his genitals before deciding to put him in a women’s holding cell.

    Though his family bailed him out, Brock said, he lost his job when state authorities notified the school of his arrest. County prosecutors initially charged him with two misdemeanors, but dropped the case in August.

    Last fall, Beck said, federal prosecutors reached out, handing over some of the materials he hadn’t been able to get from the Sheriff’s Department and asking to interview Brock. With the new materials, Beck filed a petition asking a court to declare his client innocent.

    Now in graduate school, Brock showed up to the hearing this month flanked by his mother, several classmates and a professor. Dressed in a black suit and a green tie, he stood in front of a judge as his lawyer explained the case, arguing for a declaration of “factual innocence.” The prosecutor agreed, and the judge entered a tentative ruling finalized last week.

    “Though I am happy that I am factually innocent, I don’t think it will ever be over for me in my heart,” Brock told The Times. “It’s something that I still think about every single day.”

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  • Best Photos of the Week! (100 Photos)

    Best Photos of the Week! (100 Photos)

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  • 1,000 Gaza protesters rally in Hollywood ahead of Oscars, block traffic

    1,000 Gaza protesters rally in Hollywood ahead of Oscars, block traffic

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    About a thousand protesters converged on Hollywood on Sunday ahead of the 2024 Academy Awards ceremony to call for an immediate cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war.

    Their presence frustrated Oscars organizers and traffic control when roughly 15 minutes before the ceremony was set to begin dozens of tinted black vans carrying ceremony attendees stood at a standstill on Highland Avenue .

    “Go go go!” one organizer yelled at cars as he frantically waved at them to move through the intersection at Sunset Boulevard and Highland near the Dolby Theatre, where the ceremony was set to start at 4 p.m.

    Three hours earlier, demonstrators had begun gathering by the hundreds at the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Ivar Avenue, a few blocks east of the theater on Hollywood Boulevard. .

    An Israel supporter stands on the sidewalk as a protester shares views Sunday in Hollywood.

    (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

    Demonstrators spilled out onto Sunset Boulevard waving Palestinian flags, completely occupying the eastbound side of the street. Where traffic was blocked at Highland Avenue, some Oscar attendees in suit and tie ditched their cars and walked toward the ceremony. Police dispersed the protesters around 3:30 p.m.

    About 40 police in riot gear stood vigilant at the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Las Palmas Avenue, just one block west of the crowd, which was making slow progress toward officers.

    “Free free Palestine!” the crowd chanted to a drumbeat as they waved dozens of posters showing a movie slate — painted in black, white, green and red, the colors of the Palestinian flag — with a message addressed to the Oscar audience: “While you’re watching, bombs are dropping.”

    Demonstrators also gathered earlier around the Hollywood Boulevard exit off the nearby 101 Freeway and at the intersection of Sunset and Vine, while still others rallied on La Brea and Franklin avenues, near the Dolby Theatre, waving signs with the words “Cease-fire now.”

    “Let’s shut it down!” protesters chanted as they swarmed Sunset Boulevard. The crowd began moving westward on the boulevard led by a white van with half a dozen people on top chanting into a microphone and megaphone.

    Security is tight in and around the theater. Los Angeles police bolstered patrols in the area in anticipation of protests, and ticketholders for the ceremony and after-party events must pass through three checkpoints and a number of steel barriers before approaching the red carpet.

    Miguel Camnitzer, a member of Jewish Voice for Peace of Los Angeles, said he only recently joined the pro-Palestinian cause. As the grandson of Jews who fled Germany during the Holocaust, the 44-year-old said he could not stand by while Palestinians were the targeted victims of another genocide.

    “I just can’t sit home today watching an awards show when a genocide is going on in the name of my people and with a previous genocide having happened to my people,” he said. “I was raised believing it’s a collective responsibility from preventing that from anyone else.”

    For Sarah Jacobus, a mentor for young writers, protesting the Israel-Hamas war is more about getting much-needed food, water, and other necessities to her mentees, some of whom are in Rafah, a Palestinian city in Southern Gaza.

    “They’re hanging on for dear life,” Jacobus, 72, said. “Two are in Rafah, one in a tent with his family and another in a room with about 50 people. ”She said one of her mentees needs diapers for his two-month old baby, but “what they need more than anything is freedom.”

    Joining the demonstration on Sunset, several members of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television Radio Artists showed their support for Palestinians and a cease-fire, holding up a large SAG-AFTRA poster at the front of the crowd.

    One of the protesters was a 35-year-old actress, whose aunt and uncle she said were sheltering in a church in Gaza as the war continued. She requested anonymity in fear of retaliation against her family in Gaza and herself in the entertainment industry.

    “Hollywood is complicit,” she said, as she marched west toward the Dolby Theatre along with the rest of the crowd. “We have fellow SAG members who are Zionists … so there is this racist ideology running rampant inside the union and there is no punishment for it.”

    She said Palestinian Americans who voiced support for Gaza had been unfairly retaliated against in the entertainment industry, including a fellow actor friend who was dropped by the individual’s manager after posting pro-Palestinian messages on social media.

    “We are feeling the effects of speaking up against genocide and for humanity,” she said. She urged the union to make a statement in support of a cease-fire.

    Demonstrators have held numerous rallies and marches around the world in recent months calling for an end to the war.

    Israel launched its airstrikes and a ground invasion of Gaza after Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking more than 240 hostages. The death toll in Gaza has since passed 30,000, with most of the casualties women and children, according to the World Health Organization.

    International mediators had been working unsuccessfully for weeks to broker a pact to pause the fighting before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins Sunday. Officials were hoping a deal would allow aid to reach hundreds of thousands of desperate Palestinians in northern Gaza who are under threat of famine.

    Officials have been warning for months that Israel’s siege and military attacks were pushing the Palestinian territory into famine. At least 20 people have died from malnutrition and dehydration at the north’s Kamal Adwan and Shifa hospitals, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory.

    Recent airdrops of aid by the U.S. and other countries provide far fewer aid supplies than truck deliveries, which have become rare and sometimes dangerous. UNRWA, the largest U.N. agency in Gaza, says Israeli authorities haven’t allowed it to deliver supplies to the north since Jan. 23. The World Food Organization, which had paused deliveries because of safety concerns, said the military forced its first convoy to the north in two weeks to turn back last week.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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    Ashley Ahn

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  • U.S. Senate and White House Honor ‘National Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Week’ with Bipartisan Resolution, Presidential Letter

    U.S. Senate and White House Honor ‘National Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Week’ with Bipartisan Resolution, Presidential Letter

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    CHICAGO – This week, the U.S. Senate introduced a bipartisan resolution designating March 4-8, 2024 as ‘‘National Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Week’’ to recognize the critical role SEL plays in supporting the academic success and overall well-being of students, educators, and families. The resolution was introduced by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) and Susan Collins (R-ME). 

    President Joe Biden also recognized “National SEL Week” in a letter this week underscoring the importance of SEL to support the academic, social, emotional, and mental well-being of students that were a critical part of the Biden Administration’s two signature legislative achievements—the American Rescue Plan Act and the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. 

    This second annual “National SEL Week” comes at a critical time for students’ academic recovery and social and emotional development. With COVID-relief funds ending, education leaders are increasingly seeking sound, evidence-based investments in students’ learning and development. 

    A robust body of evidence demonstrates the effectiveness of SEL on academic outcomes. A 2023 meta-analysis led by Yale University reviewed more than 400 studies and found that students participating in SEL at school had higher “school functioning,” including grades, test scores, attendance, homework completion, and engagement. The research further demonstrates that SEL creates better conditions for learning as it found students saw decreases in aggression and bullying, anxiety, stress, depression, suicidality;  felt safer at schools, and reported higher levels of inclusion, connectedness and healthy relationships.

    Statement from U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) 

    “In America, we are facing a national youth mental health crisis, with children facing trauma and significant stress at home, in the community, and in school settings. We must focus on social and emotional learning to help students succeed both inside and outside the classroom. That begins with providing teachers with the tools needed to help students develop life skills. I’m introducing this resolution to designate this week as National Social and Emotional Learning Week and raise awareness around the need to support students’ social and emotional well-being.”

    Statement from U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME)

    “Every child deserves a learning environment that is welcoming and enriching. By showing students how to develop their empathy skills, express themselves, and respect others, social and emotional learning can help students achieve academic success, build strong relationships, and prepare for a lifetime of success.”

    Statement from CASEL President & CEO Dr. Aaliyah A. Samuel

    ​​“We find ourselves in the aftermath of a global pandemic, in the wake of a youth mental health crisis and ongoing academic recovery. Social and emotional learning has never been more important to help address the challenges facing our students, and this bipartisan resolution demonstrates our nation’s shared commitment to the learning and well-being of all students. I want to thank Senators Durbin and Collins for their leadership, and call on leaders across the country to follow the evidence and support students’ academic, social and emotional needs.”

    Celebrating National SEL Week 2024

    Across the country, there is overwhelming support and demand for social and emotional learning (SEL). Young people, educators, families, business leaders, and others are focused on the critical skills and environments needed for academic success, healthy relationships, and brighter futures. National SEL Week is a time to come together in support of our nation’s students and showcase the powerful combination of support and evidence for SEL, culminating with International SEL Day on March 8. 

    This year’s celebrations for National SEL Week and International SEL Day focused on Today’s Students, Tomorrow’s Leaders. To see how some districts are celebrating, check out this video from North Carolina and this story from New Jersey. 

    CASEL is a nonpartisan, nonprofit that founded the field of social and emotional learning. Today, we collaborate with leading experts and districts, schools, and states nationwide to drive research, guide practice, and inform policy. https://casel.org/

    eSchool News Staff
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  • Cloudy skies, cooler temperatures and light rain expected across L.A. County this week

    Cloudy skies, cooler temperatures and light rain expected across L.A. County this week

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    After several days of sun, L.A. County is expected to see mostly cloudy skies and light rain this week, according to forecasters.

    There’s a chance of rain late Monday into early Tuesday, but the shower should only bring a quarter of an inch or less, said Mike Wofford, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

    “It should be quite a bit weaker than most of the storms we’ve had recently. No significant impacts are expected with it,” Wofford said.

    Temperatures are expected to range from the high 50s to the high 60s throughout much of the week, according to the weather service.

    The region is expected to see some sunny skies on Wednesday and Thursday before a stronger storm system rolls in on Friday, with temperatures dropping into the 50s over the weekend. Saturday is expected to remain mostly cloudy with a 40% chance of rain across the Los Angeles County area.

    Wofford said the Santa Monica Mountains, Hollywood Hills and hillsides in Palos Verdes will be the most vulnerable to landslides, but the risk won’t be as great as it was earlier this month, when monster storms pummeled the region.

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    Jack Flemming

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  • L.A. Port Police nabs 3 suspects amid string of bronze plaque thefts

    L.A. Port Police nabs 3 suspects amid string of bronze plaque thefts

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    After the theft of hundreds of bronze plaques in the last few months across Los Angeles County, investigators say they are making progress in recovering some of the stolen plates that tell the history of the region.

    On Tuesday, police recovered two stolen plaques during a traffic stop, the Los Angeles Port Police announced.

    Since early December, bronze plaques commemorating the history of the ports have been ripped and pried off from several memorials, including the American Merchant Marine Veterans Memorial erected in 1989, law enforcement said in a news release.

    A plaque stolen from Terminal Island in San Pedro honors members of the local Japanese American fishing community who were imprisoned during World War II.

    Both those plaques remain lost.

    After pulling over a vehicle during the traffic stop Tuesday, L.A. Port Police found a cemetery marker stolen from a site in Long Beach and a plaque taken from St. Joseph Catholic Church in Long Beach, Port Police Chief Thomas Gazsi said.

    Police arrested Dionzay Tisby, 42; Brittany Draper, 37; and Deona Jackson, 28 on suspicion of grand theft, authorities announced.

    The arrests are part of an ongoing investigation, and the suspects could face additional charges if police are able to connect them to other thefts.

    “We all took it very seriously,” Gazsi said about the thefts. “We believe they are responsible for additional thefts. I’m appreciative of the lengthy investigation that involved significant field and forensic work from our investigators.”

    Los Angeles City Councilmember Tim McOsker, who represents the district that includes the Harbor area, called the thefts “heartbreaking” and said the community views the whole situation as a “great disrespect to the fishermen, the industries who built the ports.”

    There are plans to replace the plaques if they cannot be recovered, said McOsker, who is talking with port officials to help with the effort.

    Los Angeles Port Police is the lead agency in the investigation, which extends outside their jurisdiction.

    In January, more than 100 bronze plaques were stolen from Lincoln Memorial Park Cemetery in Carson. About a week before, thieves toppled over gravestones and stole metal plaques from Woodlawn Memorial Park in Compton, according to volunteers at the cemeteries and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

    Perhaps the most egregious of the bronze plaque thefts happened in Manhattan Beach, where Los Angeles County returned a piece of land to the family of Willa Bruce, who sought to create a beach resort for a Black community in 1912.

    The city rededicated the site last year with a new plaque that told the history of racism the family faced in Manhattan Beach. In late January, the large bronze plaque was pried off its base, according to the Manhattan Police Department.

    Anyone with information about the thefts can contact Los Angeles Port Police detectives at (310) 732-3500.

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    Nathan Solis

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  • After a brief reprieve more wet weather is on the way for Southern California

    After a brief reprieve more wet weather is on the way for Southern California

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    Crisp morning temperatures will make way for sunny skies across Southern California this week, but don’t stash those umbrellas and rain boots away quite yet. More wet weather is on the horizon.

    Temperatures throughout the week are expected to range from the mid- to upper 60s along the coast, right around normal for February, said Mike Wofford, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

    An offshore flow, which keeps air moving from land to sea, will weaken in the coming days, allowing for a chilly sea breeze to sweep across the region and drop daytime high temperatures a degree or two into the mid-60s. Overnight temperatures are expected to be particularly brisk, dropping to the low to mid-40s in some areas, according to the weather service.

    “It’ll be kind of chilly in the morning, but it’s going to be a pretty nice week for the most part,” Wofford said.

    Forecasters anticipate a storm system will begin showering the region with rain by Sunday. It’s not clear how much precipitation it could bring, but Wofford said early estimates show anywhere from 2 to 4 inches of rain in the valley and coastal areas.

    Last week an atmospheric river, brought five days of drenching rain and heavy snow to California. The storm, made more severe because of El Nino and climate change, is the largest so far in the state this winter.

    Strong downpours triggered more than 500 mudslides in the city of Los Angeles alone. It damaged more than 45 homes or buildings, flooded roads, forced dozens of evacuations and knocked out power to residents, sometimes for days. Nine people died in the storm.

    It’s still too early to determine what all this wet weather will mean for California’s water supply.

    Recent storms have filled the state’s largest reservoirs to 118% of their historical average. Statewide precipitation is 102% of average for the date, with more than 13 inches falling since the start of the water year on Oct. 1, according to state data.

    The storms also haven’t brought enough snow to replenish the Sierra Nevada snowpack, which remains a key component of the state’s water supply. Snow is anticipated in this weekend’s storm, but it’s not clear just how much, forecasters say.

    The latest series of storms boosted the snowpack statewide to to 76% of average for the date. But, it remains only about halfway to its April 1 peak, according to data provided by the California Department of Water Resources.

    “It’ll be a decent storm and certainly an above average storm,” Wofford said of the system moving into California over the weekend. “We’re not confident yet if it’s going to be anything like what we saw last time, but there’s some potential of that.”

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    Hannah Fry

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  • Two arrested in connection with tagging graffiti-covered L.A. skyscraper across the street from Grammys venue

    Two arrested in connection with tagging graffiti-covered L.A. skyscraper across the street from Grammys venue

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    Two people were arrested, cited and released this week in connection with spray painting graffiti across more than two dozen stories of an unfinished skyscraper in downtown Los Angeles, according to authorities.

    On Tuesday around 12:43 a.m., Los Angeles Police Department officers responded to a vandalism call on South Figueroa Street, the site of the unfinished and long-idle Oceanwide Plaza development, the department said in a news release. The LAPD’s Air Support Division reported seeing more than a dozen suspects trespassing and possibly spray painting the building.

    By the time more officers arrived, all the suspects except for two had fled the location, authorities said. The two — Los Angeles residents Victor Daniel Ramirez, 35, and Roberto Perez, 25 — were arrested and transported to the Central Area station, where they were cited for trespassing on private property and released.

    Two days later, officers returned to the construction site around 12:52 p.m. to respond to another vandalism call, this time involving spray painting on the 30th floor, according to the news release. Officers were told by the site’s security guards that the suspects fled the building in a car.

    Police found a car matching the description they’d been given and told the driver to stop, but the driver didn’t yield, the department alleged. Officers eventually found the vehicle a short distance away and the driver was cited for failure to yield to an officer.

    The investigation is still ongoing.

    Taggers spray painted at least 27 floors of the building this week, judging by aerial footage of the building.

    Oceanwide Plaza was once one of the biggest real estate development projects in Los Angeles, but construction was halted five years ago when its Chinese developer ran out of money. The project was supposed to feature hotel and retail space as well as luxury condominiums and apartments.

    The buildings have remained unfinished ever since in the popular LA Live complex, which includes shops, restaurants and the Grammy Museum. Crypto.com Arena anchors the complex and will host the 66th Grammy Awards on Sunday.

    Nella McOsker, president and chief executive of the Central City Assn., condemned the taggers in a statement.

    “We are disturbed by the images of the vandalism of Oceanwide Plaza,” said McOsker, whose organization advocates for businesses and nonprofits in downtown Los Angeles. “This is a representation of the very real neglect that DTLA has gone through over the past decade. We see it every day with the number of unhoused Angelenos experiencing mental health crises in the streets, the shuttered businesses we walk past and lack of public safety that we hear of too often.”

    Not everyone condemned the graffiti as senseless crime, however.

    Stefano Bloch, a former graffiti writer and a professor of geography at the University of Arizona, expressed admiration for the taggers making use of abandoned space.

    “It’s graffiti writers who find value in these spaces and enliven them,” he said. “That’s not to romanticize it as art or to demonize the crime. Someone was making use of this building and it wasn’t the builder or the occupants.”

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    Summer Lin

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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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  • ‘Everything was rushing out’: Riverside couple describe harrowing midair blowout on Alaska Flight 1282

    ‘Everything was rushing out’: Riverside couple describe harrowing midair blowout on Alaska Flight 1282

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    Three weeks ago, retirees Joan and Gilbert Marin were traveling home to Riverside aboard a Boeing 737 Max 9 on Alaska Airlines. Suddenly, they heard a loud explosion and saw a gaping hole in the side of the plane two rows in front of them.

    “The wind, the noise, the roar,” said Joan Marin, 71. “Everything was rushing out.”

    Just ahead of the couple, a young man holding his cellphone had it sucked out of the plane, and the tremendous wind ripped the shirt off his back, she said. Joan’s husband looked down at their dog, Toby, who was in a carrier at his feet.

    “His eyes were bulging out,” said Gilbert, 74. He lunged to hold onto their 13-year-old dog, fearing the force from the blowout “was going to suck him right under the seat and everything.”

    This week, Federal Aviation Administration officials announced that Boeing 737 Max 9 planes would be allowed to fly again, following an inspection and maintenance process for the 171 aircraft grounded following the Jan. 5 flight. Most of those planes belong to Alaska Airlines and United Airlines.

    Alaska’s first Max 9 flight since the blowout departed Friday, landing in San Diego in the early evening.

    “Let me be clear: This won’t be back to business as usual for Boeing,” FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker said in a statement Wednesday.

    “The quality assurance issues we have seen are unacceptable,” he added. “That is why we will have more boots on the ground closely scrutinizing and monitoring production and manufacturing activities.”

    As airlines prepare to return planes to service, the National Transportation Safety Board investigation into the Flight 1282 midair cabin panel blowout is ongoing.

    “Our long-term focus is on improving our quality so that we can regain the confidence of our customers, our regulator and the flying public,” Stan Deal, Boeing Commercial Airplanes president and chief executive, wrote in a message to employees Friday evening. “Frankly, we have disappointed and let them down.”

    Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 passengers Gilbert Marin, 74, and Joan Marin, 71, pictured with their dog.

    (Courtesy of Joan and Gilbert Marin)

    Boeing has promised to cooperate with the investigation. Following the incident, Chief Executive David Calhoun acknowledged that “a quality escape” had occurred, telling employees, “This event can never happen again.”

    “This blowout — we’ve seen this pattern before. Something big happens, and Boeing makes all of these promises,” said Ed Pierson, a former senior manager at the company’s 737 factory. “Then what happens is that it fades in memory, and then Boeing asks for special exemptions and special treatment from the FAA. And the cycle continues.”

    The safety problems on the Boeing Max planes go far beyond this one incident, said Pierson, the executive director of the Foundation for Aviation Safety, a watchdog group that has tried to bring public attention to issues related to Boeing 737 Max 8 crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people. In September, the group published a study that found airlines filed more than 1,300 reports about serious safety problems on Max 8 and Max 9 planes to the FAA.

    “These same issues that were there in 2018 and 2019 [at Boeing] that were the precursors to the accidents are still there,” Pierson said. “This is a culture where money is everything. They measure success by how many airplanes are delivered, instead of how many quality airplanes are delivered. … When you factor all of this together, it’s just a disaster waiting to happen.”

    Boeing did not comment on Pierson’s remarks.

    Alaska Airlines announced Friday that it had completed inspections on a first group of Max 9s that were returning to service, starting with Flight 1146 from Seattle to San Diego on Friday afternoon. The flight departed more than an hour late, according to FlightAware.

    “Each of our 737-9 MAX [planes] will return to service only after the rigorous inspections are completed and each plane is deemed airworthy according to FAA requirements,” Alaska said in a statement.

    On Wednesday, United Airlines told employees that the company planned to return their Max 9s to the skies on Sunday. Both it and Alaska had reported finding loose bolts on Max 9 planes during in-house inspections in the weeks following the Jan. 5 flight.

    “In the days ahead, our teams will continue to proceed in a way that is thorough and puts safety and compliance first,” United Chief Operations Officer Toby Enqvist wrote in a message to employees.

    Deal, the Boeing executive, said the company had taken “immediate actions to strengthen quality assurance and controls across our factories.”

    “We are deeply sorry for the significant disruption and frustration for our customers, some of whom have been publicly and unfairly criticized,” he wrote to employees.

    Meanwhile, the Marins said they’re still reliving the incident and want answers.

    “What we want to see is the airline and Boeing step up and accept responsibility and say, ‘This is what went wrong, this is how we’re going to make sure it never happens again,” said Nick Rowley, an attorney representing the Riverside couple, who noted they had not taken any legal action as of yet.

    Next week, Joan Marin plans to fly on Alaska again, this time from Los Angeles to Hawaii.

    “I did look to see what kind of plane it was to make sure it wasn’t a Max 9,” she said.

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    Kiera Feldman

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  • ‘Southern Charm’ Reunion Part 2, and Swim Week on ‘Miami’

    ‘Southern Charm’ Reunion Part 2, and Swim Week on ‘Miami’

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    ‌
    Chelsea and Zach are back! They start the episode with a recap of and reaction to the second and final reunion episode of Southern Charm Season 10 (01:48). Within the recap, they give a quick update on the News of the Week (08:04). Then, they recap The Real Housewives of Miami Season 6, Episode 12 (19:32).

    Host: Chelsea Stark-Jones
    Guest: Zack Peter
    Producer: Ashleigh Smith
    Theme Song: Devon Renaldo

    Subscribe: Spotify

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    Chelsea Stark-Jones

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  • CSU and faculty reach surprise tentative agreement, ending massive strike after one day

    CSU and faculty reach surprise tentative agreement, ending massive strike after one day

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    The union representing California State University faculty reached a tentative agreement with the university system late Monday, putting an end to a planned five-day strike after one day.

    “In case anyone forgot, STRIKES WORK! After months of negotiations and two strike actions, our movement for a #betterCSU has paid off!” the union announced on Instagram.

    Faculty are expected to resume teaching Tuesday and students were advised to look for messages from their instructors. The agreement, which must be ratified by union members, includes higher salary floors for the lowest-paid workers, safer workplaces and an expansion of parental leave. In an email to faculty members, union leaders said the agreement includes a 5% salary increase retroactive to July 1, 2023, among other benefits.

    “I am extremely pleased and deeply appreciative that we have reached common ground with CFA that will end the strike immediately,” CSU Chancellor Mildred García said in a statement. “The agreement enables the CSU to fairly compensate its valued, world-class faculty while protecting the university system’s long-term financial sustainability.”

    The unanticipated announcement came after faculty at all 23 campuses of CSU, the nation’s largest four-year university system, staged a massive walkout Monday, the first day of the term for most students.

    While faculty members marched in chilly rain throughout much of the state, students navigated a dizzying mix of instructions: Classes are canceled, classes are temporarily on Zoom, class is in session; assignments are online, assignments are scratched for a week. Official email communication with professors was cut, leaving some unsure if classes were taking place.

    Neither university administrators nor the union had an official tally of the number of shuttered classrooms. But students throughout the system said faculty did not show up to most, if not all, of their classes.

    The university said it did not cancel classes and clarified what it called “misinformation” about the status of instruction.

    “Classes are not canceled. Individual faculty members who decide to strike will cancel their own classes,” a message said Monday. “If students have not heard from their instructor that their class is canceled, they should assume that it is being held as scheduled and go to class.”

    The message said the two sides were “in communication with each other over the weekend” but did not share details.

    The strike by the California Faculty Assn., which represents 29,000 professors, lecturers, counselors, librarians and coaches, culminated months of increasing tension between the union and CSU administration. It was the latest California walkout in higher education and TK-12 school districts as faculty and other workers — many stressed or burned out after the pandemic years — have demanded higher salaries amid escalating costs of living.

    Just over a year ago, about 48,000 University of California academic workers, teaching assistants, researchers and postdoctoral scholars walked out for about five weeks, ultimately winning significant improvements in wages and working conditions. The Los Angeles Unified School District shut down for three days in March 2023, when teachers walked off the job in solidarity with school support staff, who won pay increases. A month later, L.A. teachers agreed to a contract that provides a 21% wage increase over about three years, averting a second strike.

    Union demands

    The CSU faculty union had pushed for an across-the-board, 12% wage increase for the 2023-24 academic year and wanted to raise the minimum salary for full-time faculty to $64,360 from $54,360. The union also sought improvements such as smaller class sizes, gender-inclusive restrooms and a full semester of expanded parental leave.

    The tentative agreement falls short of the full slate of demands. In addition to the retroactive pay, the agreement includes another 5% increase on July 1 that is contingent on state funding. It raises the minimum salary for faculty by $3,000, increases paid parental leave from six to 10 weeks and improves access to gender-inclusive restrooms and lactation spaces, the email said.

    It also extends the current contract, which was slated to end in June, by one year.

    “This historic agreement was won because of members’ solidarity, collective action, bravery, and love for each other and our students,” said Antonio Gallo, an associate vice president of lecturers, in the email. “This is what People Power looks like. This deal immensely improves working conditions for faculty and strengthens learning conditions for students.”

    Scenes on campus

    The one-day strike left CSU campuses nearly empty.

    About a dozen people lingered in the Cal State L.A. student union in the morning, as faculty members in red ponchos picketed outside. The normally crowded campus Starbucks was devoid of customers.

    “Normally the line would be out the door,” said Jordyn O’Connell, a student who works as a barista.

    All of O’Connell’s classes had been canceled because of the strike. The 20-year-old psychology major supported the strike but had been looking forward to resuming classes after the winter break.

    “I’ve been really eager to get back,” she said. “I just hope that we get this figured out. I’m ready to start the semester.”

    For some students, it was not clear which classes were canceled. Moments before heading into the student center at Cal State Fullerton on Monday, Leslie Segundo, an arts major, learned that a professor who had been scheduled to teach one of her classes had moved the start date to next week because of the strike.

    Segundo hadn’t heard from all of her professors and assumed that those who had not emailed her were going to hold classes.

    “I will attend the classes that are available,” said Segundo, who commutes to campus from Orange. “As far as the teachers that are on strike, they haven’t emailed me in clear detail about it. I don’t think I’ve been assigned any readings.”

    Around lunchtime, Karen Carrillo, president of the Associated Students Inc. at Fresno State University, said there wasn’t a typical rush at the campus food court. Three of her five professors canceled classes this week, a move she supported.

    “We are still learning, even if it’s not in the classroom,” Carrillo said. “We’re learning from professors how to lead by example and how to fight for what they believe is right.”

    Michael Lee-Chang, a second-year student at Sacramento State, said the campus looked like a ghost town. A friend sent him a picture of one class in progress; the only people in the room were the student and the professor. Lee-Chang said he feels that most students support the strike.

    Cal State officials had circulated online forms, asking students to report classes that were canceled. Lee-Chang said many were reluctant to “snitch on their faculty, because it’s faculty they know and care about.” Some students were filling in the forms with spam, reporting on the status of fictional classes such as “Evil 101.”

    The rain did not keep Stevie Ruiz, a Cal State Northridge professor in the Chicana and Chicano studies department, from protesting. He said the vast majority of students stayed away from campus. Ruiz added that about half of Northridge’s student body is Latino, and many are the first in their families to attend college.

    “This is a working-class struggle. We’ve been really amazed by the outpouring of support from students. What happens to us affects them,” he said. “They care about us, and we care about them.”

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    Debbie Truong, Gabriel San Román, Howard Blume

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  • Hazbin Hotel, Found, Reacher, and more new TV this week

    Hazbin Hotel, Found, Reacher, and more new TV this week

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    Often we come to you with these TV dispatches with a focus on the biggest premieres of the week — which we are now doing again. But this week also sees a whole host of finales, all of big shows that started in the tail end of 2023. While none of these three shows made our top 50 of the year, they’re all pretty big in their own way.

    Noah Hawley’s Fargo is ending its fifth season this week, concluding yet another chapter of exploring American greed and the violence it spawns. There’s also Reacher, TV’s biggest guy, with what’s sure to be an action-packed finale for the second season (and hopefully teeing up the already greenlit season 3). And then there’s Found, the new splashy procedural following a woman who locates missing people (and with a few dark secrets of her own).

    There’s more new and premiering TV to watch, of course — in addition to whatever ongoing shows you might be following, like True Detective: Night Country — but it’s a good reminder that there’s plenty of television worth catching up on, even without the urgency of the new episode.

    Here’s the best of those new finales and premieres to watch on TV this week.

    New shows on Netflix

    Love on the Spectrum season 2

    Genre: Finding romance reality show
    Release date: Jan. 19
    Relationship coach: Jodi Rodgers
    Cast: A group of people on the spectrum looking for love

    Netflix is back with another reality dating show, this time a second season of Love on the Spectrum, a show about exactly what it sounds like: people on the autism spectrum navigating the dating world. Season 2 of the show features some new cast members, alongside some folks from season 1.

    New shows on Hulu

    Death and Other Details

    Genre: Murder mystery
    Release date: Jan. 16, with two episodes
    Showrunner/creator: Mike Weiss and Heidi Cole McAdams
    Cast: Mandy Patinkin, Violett Beane, and more

    A locked-room murder mystery on a cruise ship, filled with plenty of staggeringly rich people who all have a motive. Also on board, conveniently: Rufus Cotesworth (Mandy Patinkin), a washed-up detective, who leaps into action — with the help of his also conveniently present former protege Imogene (Violett Beane). Very quickly, though, they learn there’s more to this murder — and its victim — than meets the eye.

    Fargo season 5 finale

    Photo: Michelle Faye/FX

    Genre: Crime drama
    Release date: Jan. 16
    Showrunner/creator: Noah Hawley
    Cast: Juno Temple, Jon Hamm, and more

    It’s all coming to a close, as Dot (Juno Temple) hopes to reassert control over her life and rid herself of her megalomaniac ex-husband, Sheriff Roy Tillman (Jon Hamm). The body count has been rising, and the penultimate episode saw government forces gear up to raid Tillman Ranch, setting up what should be an action-packed, violent finale.

    New shows on Prime Video

    Hazbin Hotel

    Genre: Animated goth theater kid musical
    Release date: Jan. 19, with four episodes
    Showrunner/creator: Vivienne Medrano
    Cast: Stephanie Beatriz, Kimiko Glenn, Keith David, and more

    Charlie Morningstar (Erika Henningsen) is the princess of hell, and has her heart set on doing the impossible: rehabilitating sinners in her hotel so well that they’ll be accepted into heaven. It isn’t long before she finds this task is harder than she thinks — luckily, she has a cast of characters who are there to help her (if not fully believe in her mission). Also: It’s a musical!

    Reacher season 2 finale

    A close up of Jack Reacher, a very large man, wearing a jacket and looking off in the distance, probably at someone smaller than he

    Photo: Brooke Palmer/Prime Video

    Genre: Big guy spy action
    Release date: Jan. 19
    Showrunner/creator: Nick Santora
    Cast: Alan Ritchson, Serinda Swan, Shaun Sipos, and more

    The Big Man’s back for his final episode of the second season. The penultimate episode ended in quite the cliffhanger, with multiple team members held hostage by Robert Patrick’s Shane Langston. No big deal, though — Reacher is still Reacher, and last we saw him, he was sauntering through the front gate ready to dole out some punishment.

    New shows on Paramount Plus

    The Woman in the Wall

    Genre: Broody detective story
    Release date: Jan. 19, with one episode
    Showrunner/creator: Joe Murtagh
    Cast: Ruth Wilson, Daryl McCormick, and more

    When a woman wakes up to find a dead body in her house, she’s got two problems: The first — well, obviously, she has a dead body that is in her house. But the second is more important: She has no idea how it got there.

    The Woman in the Wall picks up from there for what Showtime calls a “psychologically and emotionally compelling detective story shot through with dark humor,” using six episodes to reexamine one of Ireland’s biggest scandals, the Magdalene Laundries.

    New shows on Peacock

    Found season 1 finale

    Shanola Hampton as Gabi Mosely in a close-up, sitting and looking steely

    Photo: Steve Swisher/NBC

    Genre: Dramatic procedural
    Release date: Jan. 16
    Showrunner/creator: Nkechi Okoro Carroll
    Cast: Shanola Hampton, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Kelli Williams, and more

    Gabi (Shanola Hampton) has been finding people — and hiding the secret of having her own kidnapper in her basement — all season. And it’s been a pretty wild ride, with plenty of flair for the dramatic. So I’m guessing the season finale of Found will deliver a helluva cliffhanger, particularly since it’s already been greenlit for season 2.

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    Zosha Millman

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  • Austin Pets Alive! | Emergency Response Needed For Outdoor Shelter…

    Austin Pets Alive! | Emergency Response Needed For Outdoor Shelter…

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    We need your help this week! The Austin and surrounding areas are expected to reach freezing temperatures this weekend so shelter pets in outdoor enclosures need help by this Sunday! Here’s how you can support them NOW.

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  • 7 days sober

    7 days sober

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    I know it’s not really a big feat but I’ve not gone a full week without drinking in about 2 months. I’m shooting to stay sober all of January, and maybe February too. So far, so good. Will see how it goes but I kinda wanted to tell someone because I’m proud of myself

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  • Top Comments of the week are back and ready to conquer! (60 Photos)

    Top Comments of the week are back and ready to conquer! (60 Photos)

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    Bob

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  • Column: Tinkering with Prop. 47 won't lower crime. Fixing San Quentin will

    Column: Tinkering with Prop. 47 won't lower crime. Fixing San Quentin will

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    In 2020, after the tragic murder of George Floyd, there was a moment when it seemed as if America, California included, was ready to reform our broken and discriminatory criminal justice system.

    In 2024, as the California Legislature returns from vacation, criminal justice is once again at the forefront. But now, the proverbial pendulum has swung and a new tough-on-crime era seems to be creeping up through the cracks of our good intentions.

    Proposition 47, which helped lower California’s prison population by changing certain nonviolent crimes from felonies to misdemeanors, is likely to be rolled back, if not undone this year.

    The California Highway Patrol has been called in to stop retail theft, despite the fact that no one is entirely sure just how big a problem it is.

    Drug dealers are being charged with murder as deaths from fentanyl overdoses continue to spike, a new tactic in a new war on drugs, little different from the one that led to overincarceration of Black and brown people during the crack epidemic of the ’80s when we insisted we could arrest our way out of poverty and addiction.

    It is a troubling reversal of both attitude and reform that, as history has proven, will not lead to the safer communities we all want.

    But what is about to happen inside San Quentin State Prison has the potential to fundamentally change crime and punishment in the Golden State, and beyond.

    Because as much as we want to believe that a single law, more police or a tougher sentence can protect us, the truth is that the best way to cut crime is to stop it from happening in the first place — not with the pounding fist of punishment that for decades has left us with jails and prisons where more than a third of people return within a few years of release.

    But instead by helping people to find other paths, and giving them opportunities to survive in ways that uplift rather than prey upon our communities — an approach with proven results both in the U.S. and other countries, where incarceration decades ago embraced rehabilitation not as an option but a mandate.

    Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that he wanted to transform San Quentin, California’s oldest and most famous prison, into a new kind of incarceration facility modeled after Scandinavian principles of rehabilitation, where that mandate for changing lives is written into law.

    With his love of catchphrases, he dubbed it the California Model and left the details for later. On Friday, a long-awaited explanation of what the California Model will look like in practice was released, providing both an ideal and a blueprint for what is a radical, subversive and important shift in what it means to be in prison.

    “This is a big deal,” Darrell Steinberg told me. He helped chair the committee that created the recommendations, and is the mayor of Sacramento, a city as plagued as any by the drug addiction, mental illness and homelessness that have driven much of the shift in attitudes around crime. So he knows as well as any that voters want results, not experiments.

    “This will enhance public safety for the self-evident reason that when people have the tools to succeed on the outside they will have better lives and are much less likely to commit another crime,” he said.

    It is visionary, he said, but also doable.

    A core part of the transition involves changing the job of correctional officers from enforcers and adversaries to participants in rehabilitation, a metamorphosis that the union representing correctional officers supports. Under the plan, officers would take college-level classes on trauma-informed practices, and be expected to interact with inmates as mentors and guides.

    San Quentin itself would also receive a makeover, albeit one curtailed by our current economic realities. Cramped cells that currently house two people in 46 square feet, about half the size of a decent bathroom, would be removed to allow for single-occupancy spaces that Steinberg said are the minimum dignity demands.

    Correctional officers would also see an upgrade. Housing prices are so high in Marin County, where San Quentin is located, that it is impossible for many to live close enough for a daily shift (a two-bedroom averages more than $3,000 a month), leaving them with hours-long commutes.

    So some officers have resorted to “dry camping” in trailers with homeless-like conditions that lack running water, electricity or even sewers. They are packing a week’s worth of work into a few days just to get by. The new plan would give correctional officers a campground with basic facilities and access to showers and safe spaces to relax — perhaps making the job less stressful.

    For incarcerated people, the change will mean that on Day 1 of their sentences, there is a coordinated effort to arrange services — mental health care, education, job training, substance abuse treatment. And that there are people to implement those plans, and support them.

    While that seems basic, it doesn’t happen now. People are largely left to their own devices to navigate an opaque and inefficient system that is so archaic that some of it isn’t even computerized. Wait lists are long and information can be hard to come by.

    If the ideas laid out in the plan makes it through the upcoming budget negotiations (in a year with a large and unexpected deficit), it will be a culture change inside the most infamous prison in the country’s second-largest state prison system (Texas is the only state with a larger incarcerated population).

    Though taking the California Model from paper to practice is the work of years, the proposal for San Quentin has the potential to be the largest and most meaningful criminal justice reform in decades — if we get it right, which of course is always an if when it comes to government.

    But it is a big swing with the potential for real payoff — not the knee-jerk anger and fear of proposals like gutting Proposition 47, which will only repeat the mistakes of the past.

    There will always be predators and there will always be crime. And admittedly, it all sounds touchy-feely and nebulous, like we are about to spend a bunch on money on holding criminals’ hands while they talk about their childhoods and get their GED.

    And to be honest, that’s part of it, one we shouldn’t ignore.

    At its root, the California Model is about dignity and compassion, creating policy around the belief that healing isn’t just for the innocent, and it isn’t soft.

    Fixing humans, especially ones broken enough to hurt others, is the hardest of tasks.

    But it can be done.

    And if California turns San Quentin into a place where that happens, we will all be safer.

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    Anita Chabria

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  • Netflix’s The Brothers Sun, the Golden Globes, and more new TV this week

    Netflix’s The Brothers Sun, the Golden Globes, and more new TV this week

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    Brand-new year, brand-new TV! We’re not totally done with last year’s television, though: This Sunday will be the Golden Globe Awards, honoring a lot of the best films and TV shows of 2023 (along with some duds — award shows, what’re you gonna do?). That will be airing at 8 p.m. EST/5 p.m. PST, and will be streaming at the same time it’s on CBS.

    But that’s not the only big offering in television this week — Michelle Yeoh is back on TV! This time, she’s the mom in Netflix’s The Brothers Sun, a charming action comedy about how little you know your family (sorta).

    Here are all the best new TV premieres this week to start off 2024:

    New shows on Netflix

    The Brothers Sun

    Genre: Action comedy family drama
    Release date: Jan. 4 with all episodes
    Showrunner/creator: Byron Wu and Brad Falchuk
    Cast: Michelle Yeoh, Justin Chien, Sam Li, Highdee Kuan, Alice Hewkin, Jon Xue Zhang, and more

    After somebody takes out a hit on his dad, Charles (Justin Chien) flees to make sure that his mom (Michelle Yeoh) and brother Bruce (Sam Li) in America are safe. Only, Bruce didn’t know his family was rich… let alone the head of a Taipei gang.

    Gyeongseong Creature

    Photo: Lim Hyo Sun/Netflix

    Genre: Horror
    Release date: Dec. 22
    Writer: Kang Eun-kyung
    Cast: Park Seo-joon, Han So-hee, Soo Hyun, Kim Hae-sook, Jo Han-chul, Wi Ha-joon, and more

    Part 2 of this show arrives, and not a moment too soon — the final three episodes are here to conclude the mystery of the strange creature haunting Gyeongseong in 1945, as Jang Tae-sang (Park Seo-joon) and Yoon Chae-ok (Han So-hee) try to untangle the mystery around its existence.

    New shows on Hulu

    The Great North season 4

    The central family in The Great North acts in surprise at something while wearing very warm clothing

    Image: Fox

    Genre: Animated comedy
    Release date: Jan. 7 on Fox; on Hulu Jan. 8
    Showrunner/creator: Lizzie Molyneux-Logelin, Wendy Molyneux, and Minty Lewis
    Cast: Nick Offerman, Jenny Slate, Will Forte, Dulcé Sloan, Paul Rust, Aparna Nancherla, and more

    Beef Tobin (Nick Offerman) is just trying to look after his four kids in the remote, fictional town of Lone Moose, Alaska. He loves his family and tries his best — which is the perfect premise for a good ol’-fashioned family sitcom.

    New shows on Paramount Plus

    The 2024 Golden Globes

    81st Golden Globe Awards Nominations Announcements

    Photo: Michael Buckner/Penske Media via Getty Images

    Genre: Awards show
    Release date: Jan. 7 at 8 p.m EST/5 p.m. PST
    Host: Jo Koy

    The 2024 Golden Globes will be airing live on CBS. But they’ll also be streaming on Paramount Plus and in the CBS app. Comedian Jo Koy will be making his hosting debut for the program.

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    Zosha Millman

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  • Rain, snow and possibly another round of big waves headed for Southern California this week

    Rain, snow and possibly another round of big waves headed for Southern California this week

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    Back-to-back storms off the Pacific Ocean will bring rain and snow to Southern California this week, along with the potential for another round of big waves.

    The swells that closed beaches and piers up and down the California shore eased up over the weekend, but high surf advisories remained in place in several counties as officials warned the public to avoid swimming or walking on rocks near the beach.

    Public health officials in Los Angeles County also issued a warning about high levels of bacteria from storm runoff at some local beaches, including parts of Malibu, Santa Monica, Venice and Redondo Beach.

    The Channel Islands Harbor in Oxnard saw 12-foot waves on Sunday, according to the National Weather Service. The area was pounded last week by waves, including large swells in Ventura that injured several onlookers who had to scramble to safety after ocean water surged over barriers and into the streets.

    In the town of Capitola in Santa Cruz County, several seaside restaurants were damaged Thursday when the rising waters swept in. It’s the second time in less than a year that Capitola has been damaged by flooding. In January, large waves and high tides destroyed parts of the town’s wharf.

    The waves are “trending down, it will continue to trend down through Tuesday,” said Ryan Kittell, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Oxnard.

    At the popular surfing break known as Mavericks near Half Moon Bay, the waves were smaller Sunday after swells that reached highs of 30 feet last week, according to the National Weather Service.

    “We’re coming down pretty good,” said weather service meteorologist Dalton Behringer, who noted that waves from Sonoma County to Monterey County were about 10 to 11 feet Sunday.

    Rain is expected in Southern California and the Central Coast, with scattered showers arriving by Sunday afternoon and widespread rain arriving Tuesday night and Wednesday.

    Also, people headed to the Rose Parade in Pasadena on Monday may want to pack a raincoat or umbrella in case of possible showers. It is expected to be partly cloudy with a 20% chance of rain in the morning, according to the National Weather Service.

    Snow will fall later in the week, with mountain areas above 5,000 feet in L.A. and Ventura counties expected to get 4 to 8 inches of snow, according to the weather service.

    The weather could impact traffic. Lower elevations, including the Grapevine area along Interstate 5, could see an inch or 2 of snow, Kittell said.

    Another round of big waves in L.A. and Ventura counties could start Jan. 7, Kittell said.

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    Dakota Smith

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