The Thorn West is a state and local news roundup compiled by members of DSA-LA. Our goal is to provide a weekly update on the latest developments in state and local politics, and to track the issues that are most important to our membership.

Issue No. 24 - August 21, 2020

Coronavirus Response

• The California Judicial Council’s statewide eviction moratorium is set to expire on September 1. The state’s legislative branch, though controlled by Democratic supermajorities in both houses, has been unable to move forward on meaningful legislation to address tenant relief in the fall.

• At this week’s meeting of Metro’s Operations, Safety, and Customer Experience Committee a planned vote on whether to cut bus service hours by 20% was cut for time. The item was postponed to next Thursday. The advocacy group Streets For All is encouraging those who oppose a cut to bus service to attend that meeting and give public comment.

• There has been some positive news on the COVID-19 front: active hospitalizations in Los Angeles County have dropped below 1,400 and health officials say that there has finally been a decline in the infection rate among Black and Latinx residents, though they are still higher than that of white residents. Should this trend continue, officials say that LAUSD schools could begin the process of reopening, though school board member Jackie Goldberg has stressed the importance of having a testing and tracing program in place across the district before any applications are considered.

Labor

• In the wake of last week’s California court decision classifying Uber and Lyft drivers as employees rather than “independent contractors,” as well as those companies’ resulting threats to shut down operations in the state, an appeals court has given the companies until early September to determine how to comply with the order. In the interim, the hundreds of thousands of employees of the companies will continue to be classified as contractors, even as both companies continue to fight against the order.

Climate

• California is scrambling to keep up with 367 new fires that have broken out over the past week, and the state is running out of resources. Firefighting crews are depleted due to the coronavirus outbreak, which hit California prisons hard. The state depends on its inmates, who are paid $1/hour, to fight fires. Twelve firefighter camps have been forced into quarantine, and only half of the authorized “inmate crews” are available. Right now, about 6,900 firefighters are deployed. Gov. Newsom is planning to hire 858 additional seasonal firefighters through October, and the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection is seeking to bring in hundreds more from out of state, which will require heightened safety precautions.

• Rising seas are threatening California’s shoreline, farmers, and also areas once considered less vulnerable to flooding — like Marin City, a predominantly Black and working-class community.  California scientists and urban planners say that lawmakers “cannot afford to defer all preparation” until after the state recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, and predict that the sea could rise more than 6 inches in just the next decade.

Police Violence and Community Resistance

• From Garcetti to Hertzberg to Lacey, protesting in front of city officials’ houses has become common in SoCal in 2020. Less common is when those officials actually open their doors and respond. Pasadena Mayor Terry Tornek did just that when BLM protesters gathered at his house in the name of Anthony McClain, who was killed by Pasadena police this week. The mayor promised them that he would bring a proposal to the city council on Monday for a police oversight commission. That proposal has been criticized by officials and activists alike, who say it does not go far enough.

• Councilmember Herb Wesson has called for an investigation into the “swatting” hoax that sent armed police officers to Black Lives Matter - Los Angeles co-founder Melina Abdullah's house last week. Abdullah described what happened to The Nation.

Elections

• ICYMI: Here is a finalized list of all the propositions that will appear on California ballots statewide this November.

• The Trump administration has backed away from many of its more egregious curtailments of the United States Post Service, but it’s unclear if the related multi-state lawsuit against the administration, joined by California, will continue. Testifying before Congress today, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said that the mail sorting machines removed under his leadership will not be reinstalled.

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