=.  Three days of Santa Anas are aiming at Malibu … winds up to 40 start after midnight.

=.  Malibu’s schools are turning the corner against Coronavirus … but it’s a lot of work.

=.  Compliance with mandatory mask orders is around 90 percent in some LA business sectors.

=.  Electric bills are skyrocketing … CPA says it’s not them … they blame Edison distribution charges.

=.  Sonic boom alert in Malibu… SpaceX is going to launch a rocket up the coast tomorrow.

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This is Malibu’s Only Local Daily News … the Tuesday edition … I’m Hans Laetz reporting. 

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Developing story down at UCLA.

A former lecturer in the philosophy department has sent out an 800 page manifesto a

A mild Santa Ana wind storm is going to develop tonight. 

The national weather service is calling for a five Mile bar pressure difference between Bakersfield and LA. That’s good enough for peak winds of 40 miles an hour … at times and in places … starting after midnight tonight. 

Tomorrow morning will be quite windy… And wins will continue into Thursday .

Friday may see strong winds again.

no no no digging carpets no digging carpets no you are a pest you are a pest.

Malibu High Has Coronavirus Contagion Under Control, Principal Says

Testing for coronavirus will again be done at Malibu’s public schools this morning. And if the trends continue… Fewer and fewer cases of coronavirus positivity will be detected. Last week… only three cases of coronavirus positive results were detected at Malibu high school… and zero at Malibu middle school. 

The two elementary schools also tested well… with only two cases detected at Malibu elementary school on point Dume… and zero at Webster elementary.

Malibu High School principal Patrick Miller says the disease is not sweeping through at school.

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“And we simply have not seen the transmission within the school setting. We saw a little bit of it that led to our outbreak right before winter break. But largely, if somebody in the house is getting positive eventually the whole house is getting positive, it’s not happening in the classrooms.”

The Malibu high school principal said the total number of families of students and staff that had to be contacted… warned… and counseled was enormous. 

162 positive student cases at the two schools since the winter break. 

Add in family exposures … and that means they had to deal with 284 for contact tracing cases since the first of the year.

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“You add all of those together we’ve done case management for 284 cases … that does not include the emails or phone calls for other social exposures or family exposures. Even if those cases take 15 minutes to manage which is not really realistic… 30 minutes would probably be more realistic… at 284 cases that’s been nearly 150 hours of additional work for our admin team are health services team and our office staff.”

But the Malibu schools have turned the corner. 

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“Our case numbers are much lower now through the last two weeks. We’ll see how we do after tomorrow’s testing. But things are progressing in a good way and that should be celebrated.”

Malibu High School principal Patrick Miller. 

90% Compliance For Masks In Most LA County Businesses, Public Health Finds

One reason why the omicron surge is passing has been pretty good compliance with mask orders in the Southland.

The City of LA is requiring businesses to require patrons to wear masks.

And despite the fact that not one single business has been cited for violating that rule … in the City of Los Angeles… compliance appears to be quite high.

LA County Public Health has for two weeks required that all employers provide well-fitting medical masks, surgical masks, or higher-level respirators to workers.

These upgraded masks are better at blocking virus particles, providing additional protection to workers and customers.

And LA County Public Health says they continue to see high compliance across many different business sectors.

In the last week of January… Public health inspectors onducted more than 1,400 site inspections to assess mask and vaccination compliance across a variety of L.A County businesses.

Compliance was near or above 90% among restaurants, bars, night clubs, lounges, breweries, food markets, hotels, and food manufacturing plants for customer wearing masks, employees wearing upgraded masks, and vaccination verification when applicable.

Compliance for customer and employee mask wearing was around 80% in gyms, and compliance for employee mask wearing at garment manufacturers was 74%.

Expect Feds To OK C-19 Shots For Infants And Toddlers Today

Coronavirus vaccines for children younger than 5 could be available far sooner than expected — perhaps by the end of February — under a plan that would lead to the potential authorization of a two-shot regimen in the coming weeks, people briefed on the situation said Monday.

Pfizer and its partner, BioNTech, the manufacturers of the vaccine, are expected to submit to the Food and Drug Administration as early as Tuesday a request for emergency-use authorization for the vaccine for children 6 months to 5 years old, which would make it the first vaccine available for that age group. Older children already can receive the shot.

The FDA urged the companies to submit the application so that regulators could begin reviewing the two-shot data, according to the knowledgeable individuals, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

CPA Points Finger at SCE For Transmission Rate Hikes, Says CPA Power Rates Have Not Gone Up

Electric bills are skyrocketing. 

People are saying their bills have jumped … doubled.

Clean power alliance officials are saying don’t look at them. 

CPA supplies electric generation for nearly all of Malibu … delivering their power via lines owned by Southern California Edison. 

And those SCE delivery costs appear to be responsible for much of the jump.

The rest … increased use. ‘

Or using power at the wrong time of day … many customers have been shifted to time of day usage charges.

The Clean Power Alliance says its charges for the generation portion of its customers’ bills were last set in July 2021. 

And they have not changes … with the exception of some special Time of Use rates that were  discontinued in December.

Not only has CPA’s rates not changed since this past summer . But next month their rates will go down about 6 percent.

That’s because the state is no longer requiring CPA customers to pay into a special fund … which reimburses Edison for certain disastrous business decisions that it made several years ago.

Edison in 2018 spent way too much on wholesale power purchases … and the state required CPA customers to join SCE customers in paying off that debt.

So why are CPA customers seeing their bills go up?

Bills from December are showing increased consumption of power due to the holidays. 

And this December was particularly cold and rainy, which can also lead to increased usage.

Bottom line … solar is looking better and better.

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You are listening to the latest news from Radio Malibu.

Support for KBUU’s radio covers from Orbit Homes Inc.

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 .

 

SMMUSD Nearly Out Of Old Bond Money, Now Is $6 Million Into Measure M Funds

Bills are still being added in to the total costs for the Malibu Middle School construction project.

On Thursday night … the school board will approve what looks to be the final contract amendment with the contractor … the McCarthy Building Companies. 

Various changes and additions that came up during the project must go before the school board.

The project so far has cost just over 70 million dollars.

The latest work including demolishing the old special education and shop building … north of the middle school quad. 

Portable classrooms now housing high school classes on the Juan Cabrillo campus will be moved soon to that space.

That will allow the demolition of Cabrillo School to begin … with all the high school students shifted onto what most of us would call the high school campus. 

That will make way for the 160 million dollar high school to be built … at the Cabrillo site. 

For this of you keeping track … the 70 million spent so far mostly came from a pair of bond issues dating back 20 years … bond issues that primarily benefitted Santa Monica schools to the burden of Malibu taxpayers.

Those two bond issues are just about all spent now.

The new Malibu-only bond issue … measure M … is beginning to pay for construction now. 

It has 195 million dollars in approved bonds … from Malibu taxpayers and legally designated for Malibu schools only.

Nearly 6 million dollars in Measure M funds has been spent so far. 

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You are listening to the latest news from Radio Malibu … FM 99.1 … KBUU.

Support for KBUU Radio also comes the the Malibu Association of Realtors.

When choosing someone to represent you when you buy … sell or rent a house … local knowledge is very important.

Malibu zoning rules … Coastal Commission rules …

Members of the Malibu Association of Realtors are local experts.

The Malibu Association of Realtors …  supporters of our local community … and supporters of local radio 99.1 KBUU.

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Fed-Ex Landing Cargo Ships At Port Hueneme, 25 Miles Upcoast From Malibu

In news from up the coast… The international shipping and delivery company FedEx has begun moving cargo to Port Hueneme… 25 miles of the coast for Malibu.

The US Navy is allowing the private shipper to use its navy docs at the small port… Which is the only deep water Harbor between San Pedro and San Francisco. FedEx chartered a freighter and landed 184 containers at Port Hueneme this week. Supply chain material like electronics car parts and clothing are in the containers… According to the Ventura county star.

Fed Ex says it can cut transit time by more than 20 days by docking its chartered ships at the Port of Hueneme rather than at the ports of Los Angeles or Long Beach.

Port Hueneme is controlled by the US Navy’s construction battalion… The Seabees.

They’ve made an agreement with the Oxnard Harbor District to allow the civilian shippers to use a wharf and 31 acres of land to put the containers and trucks.

That story is reported by the Ventura County Star.

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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

 

 

Expect Sonic Booms Wed At Lunchtime As SpaceX Launches Spy Sat At Space Force Base

A SpaceX rocket I sshceudled to be launched a hundred miles up the coast … and that Wednesday event may cause sonic booms here in Malibu.

Not the launch …. The landing. 

SpaceX has a contract to put a U-S spy satellite into orbit. 

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is set to lift off from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 12:18 tomorrow afternoon.

If weather conditions permit, the 12:18 p.m. launch may be visible throughout much of the region. 

SpaceX has a first stage rocket booster that returns to earth … for reuse.

Landing the mission’s reusable booster back at Vandenberg Air Force Base will generate two sonic booms which will be heard throughout the region.

12:18 Wednesday afternoon … boom boom.

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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.

Snow Levels Dismal In Malibu Supply Mountains

Winter is not over … and it rained a lot in December. 

Snow levels in California have fallen from their December glory after an extraordinarily dry January, stoking fears that the drought will not only continue but worsen in a third difficult year.

State officials, who will conduct the second snow survey of the season Tuesday, will find snowpack in California’s mountains measuring just shy of average for this time of year. 

Meanwhile, snowpack across the whole of the Sierra Nevada and the north state’s Mount Shasta and Trinity mountains on Monday measured 93% of average for this time of year, according to the California Department of Water Resources.

While average is better than the modest accumulation seen the past two winters, it’s a disappointing drop from the 160% of average recorded a month ago.

Snow typically constitutes nearly a third of the state’s water supply. It’s particularly important because this bounty of melted water usually comes at the end of the wet season, in late spring and early summer, when demand for water begins to peak.

What happens over the next two months will determine whether the state faces another year of crippling water shortages and whether the situation becomes even more severe than it’s been. Most of California’s precipitation occurs between November and March, and the snow that falls during this period makes or breaks water levels in the reservoirs that provide water to millions of people. Most forecasts now lean toward a dry end to this wet season.

Normally .. more than half of the state’s snow has fallen by this time of the year. 

February March and April are the wettest months. 

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