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.
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Issue No. 93 - January 21, 2022
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- Hey now, AB 1400, the California Guaranteed Health Care for All Act, has passed out of the Appropriations Committee and now heads for a floor vote in the state Assembly! Here’s the toolkit to easily write your assemblymember asking for their support, as shared by the DSA-LA Healthcare Justice Committee.
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- A petition to recall Councilmember Mike Bonin seemed like it might have gathered the required number of signatures to force a vote, but an entire third of the signatures were found to be invalid, and it failed to meet the threshold.
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- The LAUSD Board of Education meets Tuesday, to approve over $620 million in service and procurement contracts and to discuss tentative agreements with the Teamsters and California School Employees Association, among other unions. Up for announcement: Board Members propose a resolution on “Climate Literacy,” to commit LAUSD “to transforming our teaching of climate change to meet the scale and urgency of the crisis.”
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- Video: Pete White and General Dogon of LA CAN dismantle Councilmember Kevin de León’s assertion that the reason he has failed to care for the unhoused in his district is that activists are bribing unhoused people to decline services.
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Police Violence and Community Resistance
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- Whistleblower reporting from L.A. Taco revealed that the increase of package thefts off of Union Pacific trains was preceded by the railroad slashing its security budget. The public will pick up that check from here on out, as Governor Newsom has announced a new “multi-agency” task force to prevent rail theft.
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- Residents of the city of Carson are suing several local warehouses and a refinery over air pollution after the South Coast Air Quality Management District failed to hold anyone accountable for pollution. Air quality gets so bad there that, in the words of one plaintiff, “when you’re driving through your city, you have no option but to slam on the brakes, bust open the door, and start throwing up on the road.”
- CalGEM is deploying drones to detect methane leaks from oil and gas facilities. However, with only one drone patrolling all of Southern California, some sites might be monitored only once every two to three years.
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History of the Ruling Class
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- Former Wall Street Journal editor Ronald Schafer tells a little bit of Los Angeles history this week in a story about the oil baron Edward Doheny and the 1923 Teapot Dome corruption scandal. That library on the USC campus that bears Doheny’s name? The donation came after USC President Rufus B. von KleinSmid testified as a character witness at Doheny’s trial for bribing the Department of Interior for oil leases.
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