KBUU NewsScript Mon Jan 10 – High Surf and Santa Anas – Covid PCR Test Backlog – School Funding Formulas May Change
Written by 991KBU on January 10, 2022
KBUU NEWS 7:15 AM MONDAY Jan 10
POSTED 7:20PM MONDAY JAN 10
=. High surf alert – tomorrow evening into Wednesday – swell from west up to 8 feet.
= Cold Santa Anas growing from 35 today to 45 tomorrow – will blow into Wednesday,
=. Labs are backed up … schools are unable to get timely COVID PCR test results.
=. Some many kids are dropping out of schools that the state may change how out funds districts.
=. Could that affect a Malibu Independent school district?
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This is Malibu’s Only Local Daily News … the day edition … I’m Hans Laetz reporting.
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Los Angeles County reached another daily level of coronavirus cases… almost 46 thousand positive cases reported yesterday.
And that figure does not include thousands and thousands of home tests.
Malibu has exploded to 1393 officially counted cases.
But the labs are backed up.
Local schools that did PCR testing last Tuesday still do not have results from those tests … four days after they were supposed to get them.
The death toll remains 13 in the city of Malibu.
And 18 dead in the surrounding Santa Monica Mountains communities.
So many people are in hospitals now … that the state’s Department of Public Health now says that health care workers who test positive for the virus can remain on the job if they are not showing symptoms.
The need to keep hospitals functioning during the current surge means positive cases …. That are asymptomatic … need to work.
There are critical staffing shortages across the health care continuum.
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California’s legislature is about to change the way schools are funded …. and that might have a profound impact on efforts to create an independent Malibu school district.
Here’s why,.
In California … all property tax money goes to the state government … which sends it back to the districts based on their student enrollment figures.
The exceptions are very-rich places like Malibu … where the property tax payments are so large that the schools don’t use enrollment figures. … and instead get a straight percentage of property tax sent back from Sacramento.
Malibu has been able to tell L A County officials that the small number of students in any new independent school district is not a financial problem … because Malibu has such rich property tax streams.
But statewide … the pandemic has caused the number of enrolled kids to plummet.
Parents are keeping their kids at home.
Three years ago …California schools statewide lost about 23,000 students.
In the last two years … public school enrollment in California dropped by nearly seven times that figure, with more than 160,000 students dropping out.
Counting enrollment means that schools that use attendance to compute state money are about to take a major budget hit.
That means the state Legislature and the governor are going to have to make changes.
Calmatters reports that the state’s huge budget surplus means overall … the amount of revenue going to schools is not likely to decrease.
But the way that Sacramento computes how much each school district gets …. Is going to have to change.
Only a very few school districts in very wealthy areas currently get a fixed portion of their property tax revenues … instead of per pupil calculations.
It looks like the assumptions that Malibu is making … that Malibu can afford its own school district … those assumptions may be in play.
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Support for KBUU Radio comes from the Malibu Brewing Company.
Malibu Brewing Company is a locally owned craft brewery, proudly supporting our community, and local public radio.
Just released: a limited, holiday-spiced Winter Ale … a perfect fireside companion.
It makes a special gift for the beer-lovers on your list.
Find Malibu Brewing Company premium craft beer in select retailers, or order direct at brew malibu dot com
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The congresswoman who’s represented much of the Santa Monica Mountains above Malibu says she’ll seek re-election … even though her district has been configured to make it harder for her to win.
Democratic Congresswoman Julia Brownley of Westlake Village says she will run in the newly-drawn the 26th Congressional District.
The Democrat has picked up more conservative Simi Valley… but lost Ventura and Ojai.
She has also picked up Agoura Hills and Calabasas
Congresswoman Julia Brownley used to be a member of the Santa Monica Malibu school board …. Redistricting has kept moving her district out into Ventura County.
No Republicans have emerged publicly to challenger her … nut with the 26th Congressional District turning a but less blue … expect a race the summer and fall.
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As the midterm elections approach this fall – experts are warning that political violence could flare up – not necessarily another attack on the Capitol, but outbursts based on state or local issues.
The director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino is worried.
Professor Brian Levin says the lights are flashing yellow.
“I know people are talking about civil war, but what I’m more concerned about in the short term is regionalized conflicts and aggressions which get punctuated by plots or mass attacks or even attempts to injure or kill public officials.”
Levin says that =grievances have devolved into aggression and conspiracy, fueled by social media.
Flash points are school mask requirements … what’s being taught in schools … public health regulations, and the way local election officials do their jobs.
Levin says insurrectionist doctrine has radicalized people, who increasingly see these disputes as tyranny, leading some to feel justified in making threats, stockpiling weapons or worse.
Levin warns that this aggressive behavior will lead to a shortage of civil servants.
:12 “It still has a corrosive intimidation aspect where people will say, ‘Why should I count ballots? Why should I be on school boards? Why should I be in the public-health sphere when I can go into the private sector?’ “
Professor Brian Levin … director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino.
He was interviewed by the California News Service.
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You are listening to the latest news from Radio Malibu.
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Prefabricated homes are the future of construction. Easy to get permits. Fast to build and install. Cost effective … little construction waste.
In Malibu, Orbit Homes has a showroom between City Hall and the Malibu racquet club.
Fire victims can check them out in person … and visit them on the web at www.orbithomes.us .
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Support for KBUU Radio comes from the Malibu Foundation.
The Malibu Foundation underwrote the KBUU solar panels and batteries at the transmitter … which keeps KBUU’s FM transmitting on 99.1 during storms and blackouts… 24 seven… on clean renewable Malibu sunshine.
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Two significant public meeting in Malibu this week.’
A major motel project at the Malibu Pier tomorrow …
But first tonight …. The city council meets.
We’ve told you about the Verizon wireless pole appeal …
The city council looks like it will reject … again … a request by the wireless company to install a new antenna on top of a streetlight near the Malibu Pier.
The city says Verizon does not need the pile to improve service.
The company says that its single is good there already … but they need more capacity.
Verizon has already filed a federal court lawsuit over a similar city rejection of a wireless antenna on top of an office building on PCH at Kanan Dume.
This one looks like it is heading to federal court as well.
A vocsalk group of anti-5G activists has cmaopainged against expanded or improved wireless services in malibu … they say no one wants or needs more wireless signal access.
The wireless company point to outage and bad signal … and they say customer demand and federal law are on their side.
And tomorrow night at 6:30… The planning commission holds a hearing on a controversial proposal for a multi story hotel across the street from the Malibu pier.
Just about everything about the proposed hotel is a lightning rod for criticism from people concerned about Malibu’s supposed real character.
The hotels retaining wall… Chopped into the hill beside behind it… is 53 feet high according to opponents. 46 feet high according to the builder.
The hotel would be for stories high… A parking garage… Two stories of hotel… And a rooftop lounge. Know that only counts for two stories high… According to the builder.
The proposed hotel needs four variances … one of them for a massive amount of dirt that the owners want to dig outing haul way.
As many as 875 heavy haul truck loads of dirt would have to be carted off.
The Project would require four variance approvals for grading, slope construction, retaining wall height, and surface parking setback.
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