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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. 145 - February 24, 2023

State Politics

• February 17 was the deadline to propose state legislation for this year’s session. While there was no complete “CalCare” or universal single-payer healthcare bill introduced, AB 1690, proposed by Ash Kalra, is a “spot bill” stating an intent to create a statewide universal health care system. With the spot bill introduced, Kalra, who authored the 2021 version of Calcare,  can amend his bill to insert language establishing CalCare to be voted on by the Assembly in 2024. Bill can be read here. Statement from the California Nurses Association here. CalMatters rounds up some of the bills that made the deadline here.

• This week, the state Senate’s Energy, Utilities, and Communications committee began discussing Governor Gavin Newsom’s plan to limit oil industry price gouging. Streetsblog CA covers the meeting, with the takeaway that no one is certain where gas price spikes come from — because of a lack of data from oil companies.

City Politics

• Former councilmember Mike Bonin has been talking one-on-one with the candidates in the CD 6 special election on his podcast, What’s Next, Los Angeles.

Police Violence and Community Resistance

• City Charter Amendment C, passed in 2017 (despite warnings from activists), gave LAPD officers facing termination as a result of wrongdoing the option of being disciplined by an all-civilian Board of Rights. These civilian boards, their membership heavily influenced by the Police Commission, have demonstrably been far more lenient than those made up of high-ranking officers that had been in place. A new motion from Councilmembers Hugo Soto-Martinez and Tim McOsker would undo Amendment C, and would solicit alternative methods of creating civilian boards that might apply actual oversight. Statement from Soto-Martinez here.

• SB 50, introduced by state senator Steven Bradford, would prohibit the police from pulling people over for low-level infractions — “pretextual stops” — and would also allow municipalities to introduce unarmed traffic enforcement, which current state law prevents. You can read the bill here.

• Nearly two years after the LAPD’s botched detonation of illegal fireworks destroyed many homes on a South LA street, residents are still living in hotels, waiting for a permanent solution. Now, the city plans to evict them. “They’ve had it good living in the hotel rent free for several months,” said Councilmember Curren Price.

Housing Rights

• In the middle of a vicious winter, Capital and Main spoke to many people who have experienced homelessness in Los Angeles, to chronicle this city’s particularly egregious disregard for keeping unhoused people safe in cold weather.

• Capital and Main also published an eye-popping account of a “landlord self-defense class,” which trains landlords and property managers for violent confrontations with tenants.

Environmental Justice

• A first blizzard warning — the first in Southern California since 1989 — will be in effect for the mountains from Friday afternoon through Saturday. So much snow is forecast that the National Weather Service is warning travelers to stay away from the mountains this weekend.

• Angering environmentalists, the state’s water board decided that cities and farmers would get more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta while flows for endangered salmon and other fish would be restricted. The move came after Governor Newsom suspended key environmental laws.