Median Removed At Corral Cyn Rd, Detour About To Be Set Up

Caltrans crews were out last night … removing the center median on PCH at Corral Canyon Road.

And as son as tomorrow night … they will be out in force resrtrioping the road and moving the lanes all the way over to the inland side of the highway.

Lanes wil be narrow … shoulders will be eliminated .. and there will be no room for bicycles except in traffic lanes.

The traffic shift will be implemented overnight, and will be in place through at least  next spring.

And as we have reported … this is the first of three different detours that will be set up while the road is dug up and a bridge installed to replace a failing culvert.

The lane realignment will probably take place Thursday night.

Caltrans is warning that motorists should anticipate potential delays and be alert for crews at work.

 

Sheriff Worries About 8 Suicides In Department Over 1 Year

The number suicides amongst L A County sheriff’s department employees in the past year has now hit 8.

Sheriff Robert Luna says he is losing his people to the stress of law enforcement work.

 … compounded by a severe staffing shortage and mandatory overtime.

8SUICIDES RL

“Going through eight suicides this year I don’t need a report to tell me that we have some challenges at and I believe a lot of that it is tied could be tied to mandatory overtime.”

The sheriff’s department is in the midst of a critical staffing shortage … caused in part by the Covid epidemic interrupting years of training classes … and a large number of early retirements.

In Malibu … the area was rocked two years ago by the suicide of a popular deputy who had served as the department’s neighborhood liaison for years.

Deputy Michael Treinen was a familiar face everywhere in the community.

He took his life two years ago.

The Malibu sheriff’s captain says she is painfully ordering mandatory overtime days to put additional deputies on PCH to patrol the road … balancing ocvmmunity demand with the impact on her people.

At the headquarters in Los Angeles  … Luna says the department is trying to help.

LASD DOCS

“We have hired additional three additional psych doctors total to above 20 now that is important. We funded a mobile employee wellness trailer that we can take to different locations around the county … that will be helpful in reducing that staffing and overtime.

“I think will also be positive and impacting our employees so they can spend more time with their families.”

Robert Luna … has been sheriff for one year. 

He says a bog part of change is opening communications with the board of supervisors … which holds the budget controls.

Luna says all five supervisors are on the department’s side.

But the sheriff says his own department needs change from within.

LASD HELP

“And honestly a lot of it is fundamental, is making sure that warmer and talking about mental health that we’re openly talking about it and we tell people there’s no shame in raising your hand and saying I need help I need to talk to somebody.

“Because our employees see things on a daily basis that people are they handle situations that are very tense, chaotic, evolving rapidly, and we need to make sure that we’re doing what we can for them.”

LA county sheriff Robert Luna. 

 

Fire Spray Company Ordered To Stop Claiming It Stops Fires

Can a spray applied to a house really prevent it from burning down in a brushfire?

No … says a California judge … in the case of a company called Sun Fire Defense and its product … called SPF 3000 Clear Spray.

A judge in Santa Barbara has agreed with the city attorney in Los Angeles … that the fire spray does not work as advertised. 

The company “falsely and misleadingly implied that an application of SPF 3000 on the exterior of a residence would prevent ignition and spread of wildfire on (it)” wrote Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Colleen Sterne 

The stuff supposedly suppressed fire at temperatures up to 3 thousand degrees.

It does not. 

The judge says the evidence indicates the product “has no apparent fire prevention or (protection against) fire spreading … on exterior surfaces.”

The San Francisco Chronicle reports Judge Sterne also barred the company from continuing to advertise its product as non-toxic and environmentally friendly … or that it lasts for five years.

 

Judge Gives OK To 180 Units On Kanan Road

A massive real estate development at the gateway to the Malibu mountains has won a major decision in court.

The multistory building is proposed for the vacant lot at first traffic light on Kanan Dume Road … heading north to the 101 Freeway. 

Many Santa Monica Mountains residents … and Malibu people … had opposed the 180 residential units … atop a 58-hundred-square-foot commercial center.

They said it would tie the already-crowded intersections approaching the 101 freeway up in knots … particularly during fire evacuations. 

The Acorn newspaper reports that Calabasas lost its case before a Los Angeles County Judge.

He found that the Calabasas City Council acted unlawfully and in bad faith when it denied New Home Company’s proposed development, called West Village, in May 2021.

The judge wrote that “The disapproval was entirely without merit.”

City leaders had said that the extensive grading and excavation required would violate open space protections.

And that 500 residents tin the canyon to the south lacked sufficient evacuation routes … presenting an unacceptable safety risk. 

The proposed site burned during the Woolsey fire five years ago.

This story was based on reporting by the Acorn newspaper in the Congo Valley. 

 

Hate Crimes On Westside Increase 143% Over 10 Years

The number of hate crimes reported in the area that includes Malibu is surging.

And its worse on the westside of LA County than in many places.

929 hate crimes county-wide were reported last year … 

And over 10 years… the number of hate crimes has seen a 143% jump.

State law defines a hate crime as any type of criminal act motivated by the victim’s real or perceived protected social group.

Things like disability, gender, nationality, race or ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation.

72% of reported hate crimes were violent, the second-highest rate in at least 20 years.

And the westside is seeing hate crimes at a per capita rate that’s nearly double that of other suburban areas … like the San Fernando Valley.

 

LA County CARE Court Opens For Homeless Mentally Ill

Los Angeles County just opened up its CARE Court system – one year ahead of the deadline – to help severely mentally ill people get into a treatment plan.California’s largest county has just opened the new CARE Court system – designed to get help for severely mentally ill people in Los Angeles. CARE stands for “Community Assistance, Recovery and Empowerment,” a court where families, roommates, social workers, first responders and clinicians can petition a judge to get people the assistance they need. L-A County Superior Court Presiding Judge Samantha Jessner says a person must be 18 or older, and participation is voluntary.

:17  “They must be diagnosed within the ‘schizophrenia and others’ psychotic disorders class. They must be unlikely to survive safely in the community without support. Participation in a CARE plan must be the least restrictive alternative.”

Tag:  The National Alliance on Mental Illness in California supports the CARE Courts, noting that people suffering from schizophrenia are sometimes unable to recognize their diagnosis, are resistant to treatment, and too often end up homeless and fighting addiction. Some disability rights groups have expressed concern that people could be forced into treatment.

Second Cut: Janice Hahn is chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

:16  “Families are at the end of their ropes, and communities are frustrated. And leaders up and down the state have felt like our hands have been tied. It’s a tool we will use to get people the care that they so desperately need.”

Tag:  People can contact their county CARE Court to start the process. 

People can contact the helpline on the website, ‘CAparentyouthhelpline.org,’ or call or text them at 855-427-2736.

 

‘Malibu Mafia’ Member Normal Lear Dies At 101

American hero Norman Lear died overnight at the age of 101… at his home in Brentwood.

Lear was the TV producer who created All Inn The Family … and others TV shows that changed American society in the 1970s and 80s.

Norman Lear founded People For the American Way … a left wing counterbalance for a time to the sweeping religious fundamentalism taking over the right wing. 

Norman Lear was part of a group that dubbed itself the The “Malibu Mafia” … was an informal group of wealthy American Jewish men who donated money to liberal and progressive causes and politicians during 1960s–1990s.^[1]

^[3] Founded in opposition to the Vietnam War,^[4] the group often met at Norman Willens’ beachfront house on Malibu Colony Road

The Malibu Mafia were known for funding the failed George McGovern 1972 presidential campaign, the legal defense of Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, the successful 1973 campaign by African-American politician Tom Bradley to become the mayor of Los Angeles.

They also funded the Nuclear Freeze movement of the 1980s.

Normal lear’s political group was called the “Malibu Mafia” by Newsweek magazine in 1978.

Actors Paul Newman and Warren Beatty were associated peripherally with the Malibu Mafia, as was singer and Malibu resident Barbra Streisand.

Norman Lear … passed away in his sleep last night in Brentwood. 

He was 101.