=. 4 landslides are blocking highways near Malibu … Caltrans says …  Wait for them to  out.

=. Another small rainstorm may drop a quarter inch of rain this weekend.

=. 300 people meet with LAPD on Zoom … to talk about teenaged boys running amok.

=. State Farm is going to shed more policyholders … it’s hemorrhaging money.

=. And natural gas is related to low weight babies and premature births in the San Fernando Valley.

Caltrans Waiting For Rain To Stop, Hills To Drain, At 4 Landslide Closures

Traffic in the Malibu area remains snarled day and night .. as four landslides continue to block sections of state highway in the area. 

Three pinch points are on Pacific Coast Highway … westbound … causing epic traffic jams every evening.

And the big closure is Topanga Canyon Boulevard … closed until further notice … which is a story unto itself.

At pinch point number one … on PCH … just past Sunset Boulevard … mud and rocks from a landslide have been creeping towards the traffic lanes for decades.

But this winter … the hillside has taken over the entire right lane.

Caltrans officials tell KBUU that water is still leaching out from the hillside at Porto Marina Way … and there is a possibility of more rain Saturday from 3 a.m. to noon. 

State crews are concerned that if dirt/rocks are cleared from roadway more of the hillside will fall on the highway.

Only after the hillside dries out … can a geologist determine when it’s safe to clear roadway. 

The lane closure … where three lanes become one just past Sunset … is there for an unknown duration.

Pinch point number two … is the rockslide on PCH at Big Rock. 

There is a potential for more rocks to fall off the cliff … and that hillside is not yet stable enough for repairs. 

Traffic heading towards Malibu had been squeezing through in the center median.

This week … the k-rail has been moved back to open the left lane 

But the empty the median lane will not be used for through traffic. 

Posts have been drilled atop the k-rail to install fencing as a safety precaution … to prevent rocks from bouncing over the concrete wall into traffic. 

Again … Caltrans says pinch point 2 will be there for an unknown duration … until the  hillside will be determined stable.

Pinch point number three is west of Corral Canyon Road.

Although rockslide from February has been cleaned up … Caltrans is worried about large boulders atop the hillside … which are now jutting out over the highway cut.

The right lane will remain closed there …with barriers as a safety precaution. Unknown duration when that lane will reopen.

 

Topanga Canyon Blvd Closures May Be With Us A Long Time

Days, weeks or months.

That’s the estimate for when Topanga Canyon Boulevard will reopen … 

It’s still coming down landslide 1.8 miles north of PCH.

And until the tock fall stops … it’s pointless for survey crews to get on the site to determine the best course of action.

Every time the hillside has activilty it requires a reassessment and resets the process. … the state officials say,

If they can not safely get on the mountain, they can not survey the slide and can not estimate the course of action or what the timeline for opening might be – days, weeks, months.

Yesterday … they again flew a drone over the slide area to see if they can determine how bad it is .

At a community meeting Wednesday in Topanga Canyon … residents asked for additional law enforcement for traffic control at Tuna Canyon Road at PCH, in Malibgu.

Tuna Canyon is a detour for cars trying to get from the Valley via the open part of Topanga Canyon Boulevard.

Narrow and twisting … it’s one way downhill towards a stop sign in Malibu.

Impatient drivers have been daring to pass the do not enter signs and brave an uphill drive … into oncoming traffic.

And big lines of downhill cars accumulate at the stop sign … waiting to turn left onto PCH. 

Some Topangans asked for Tuna Canyon to be made one way northbound … for traffic going home … in the afternoons. 

That would be an LA County decision … and it would route a lot of traffic through the winding streets of the Fernwiood Pacific area … a possible problem for residents there. 

Bottom line from all this … we’re stuck … for a long time … with these closures.

 

State Farm To Drop 30 Thousand Homeowner Policies In High Fire Risk Areas Of Calif

State Farm insurance is in deep financial trouble … and State Farm has plans to drop 30 thousand homeowners insurance policies in California … partly due to fire risk, the company has announced.

Another 42 thousand apartment complex fire insurance policies will not be renewed this year… State Farm said in a declaration to California’s insurance department.

That’s about 2 percent of its customers …. But they are all in high fire risk areas … like Malibu.

State Farm lost $6.3 billion in 2023 … and $6.7 billion the year before,

Wildfires in California … hurricanes in Florida … ice storms in texas … it all adds up.

State Farm is headquartered in Illinois … where rules require the company to give regulators a plan on how to restore the company’s financial condition by April 15. 

If State Farm does not improve its finances … its home insurance policies might get rejected by mortgage companies … as lack of collateral.

That could mean a real crisis in the real estate segment.

State Farm  stopped writing new homeowners policies in the state last year and then raised rates by an average of 20% for remaining customers. 

State Farm is California’s largest home insurer — the cuts represent about 2% of its total California policies

 

300 Palisades Residents Meet With LAPD Over Roving Teen Delinquents

Six juvenile males in Pacific Palisades have been cited for attacking two smaller boys … in attacks that were videoed. … and that have infuriated hundreds of Pacific Palisades residents … 

300 of the residents …  had a zoom meeting with LA police over a gang of teenagers who are terrorizing kids and adults in that part of LA.

Circling The News … a Palisades news web page … says residents are furious about the kids … who have been videoed beating two smaller boys into unconciousness. 

LAPD juvenile detectives say they have acted on the videos … but cannot comment on whether charges were broight.

There are numerous reports of Pacific Palisades High kids who have had to go to the hospital because of beatings.

But the Senior Lead police Officer for the Palisades said only three police reports have been filed.

No police report means there’s very little LAPD can do.

LAPD did not reveal if any charges were filed against the six juveniles.

The buoys have been banging on storefront windows … stealing from supermarkets .. firing off explosives … and using their electric bikes to rip up grass in Pacific Palisades … according to Circling the News. 

 

Pepperdine Seeks To Gut Athletics Arena, Needs Coastal OK

Pepperdine University goes before the California Coastal Commission in two weeks … asking for permission to rebuild and expand the existing Firestone Fieldhouse athletics building.

Pepperdine right now is building a gigantic parking garage … topped with a student athletics facility … in the heart of the campus.

The current project is to build an athletics, events, fitness, and wellness complex that will serve as a hub and gathering place for students.

The next project …. Is almost completely inside the field house … which is basically a basketball arena.

Te school plans to remodel the inside … build some usable space under the grandstands by digging out 1,500 cubic yards of dirt to install concrete footings  for the new level inside the structure. 

Outside … the project includes the replacement of one existing exterior stairway. 

And it would bring Pepperdine in line with the Coastal Commission’s oputdoor lighting standards. 

The project would not increase the enrollment at the University, nor would it change the overall number of parking spaces required or available on the campus.

Pepperidne University is not in the City of Malibu.

The proposal goes before the Coastal Commission April 10th.

 

Unpaid Bills, Unpaid Taxes Follow Steve Garvey Into Senate Race

California Republican Senate candidate Steve Garvey confesses to being a tax cheat … according to documents that he filed this week in Wshington.

Garvey owes state and federal taxes from 13 years ago … totaling at least $350,000 and as much as $750,000, according to his February financial disclosure statement. Extremely rare for a US Senate candidate to make such a confession … says Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonpartisan watchdog group. 

The LA Times has reported that Garvey has left a strong of unpaid bills … large and small.

Dozens of people who either worked for them or sold them merchandise wondering if they were ever going to get paid.

Garvey told the Times that the debt was caused by a mix of tax liabilities, financial support for most of his children and expensive personal and business-related legal battles.

 

Natural Gas Spill in Valley Caused Premature Births And Underweight Babies: UCLA Study

A UCLA study of pregnant women shows a higher chance of premature births and low-weight newborns for women who lived near a big natural gas leak.

In 2015 … the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility near porter Ranch had a gigantic blowout.

It’s the latest indication that natural gas is not the clean green energy source that there American petroleum Institute would have you believe. 

Southern California Gas and its parent company Sempra did not notify the public about what became the largest petrochemical spill in recent Southern Cakjfoirnia history.

There gas was odorless and colorless …. But it infiltrated homes at the north end of the San Fernando Valley.

Women who lived near Aliso Canyon during the massive gas leak had a 50% higher chance of having babies with low birthweights than mothers in other Los Angeles County communities.

Women who lived near the Aliso Canyon facility and conceived their babies right after the persistent gas leak was finally plugged in 2016 had premature births at a rate that was about 50% higher than expected.

The findings were reported by Dr. Kimberly Paul, an epidemiologist and an assistant professor of neurology at UCLA.

Te findings were reported by the Los Angeles Daily News.

The 2015 leak spewed gas for four months, released nearly 100,000 metric tons of methane.

It was the largest methane gas release in U.S. history. 

Residents reported nosebleeds, dizziness and respiratory problems.

A Southern California Gas representative threw shade on the study.

He said any comment at this stage would be premature because the study’s methods, analysis and results are preliminary, subject to change and have not been peer-reviewed.

Southern California Gas is a subsidiary of Sempra … the nation’s largest natural gas trader.