Gov Signs Gummed Up Malibu Speed Camera Bill

California Governor Gavin Newsom slipped into Malibu last week … to sign the Malibu speed camera bill.

City officials and the news media were not notified that the governor drove up to Fire Station 70 … whipped out his pen … took a selfie video … and drove off.

70639 SPEEDCAM NEWSOM 

“We’ve lost 60 lives just since 2010. This is one of the most iconic freeways in the country, the Pacific Coast Highway has frequent issues around Public Safety that we’ve been trying to address for years and years.”

State Senator Ben Allen wrote the bill … and he says it had to be watered down significantly to make it into law.

Drivers are not ticketed.

The owner of the car is.

No points against a license. 

In fact … the driver is not even identified.

And the tickets are not only cheap … as low as 10 dollars for someone who makes a low income … but only incredibly stupid drivers will get caught. 

State Senator Ben Allen. 

70640 BENALLEN 

“it’s radar technology that’s monitoring your speed as you’re going along, and it will flash – it will tell you what your speed is, and if you keep going at that speed, it will take a picture of your car from behind, not in the front because of our private concerns from people.”

A sheriff’s deputy will review the picture and the radar, and then send a notice to the owner of the car that it was caught speeding. But not a ticket. 

The ticket comes the second time that the car gets caught speeding.

70640 BENALLEN

“And then word gets out that people are getting speeding tickets for grossly speeding and endangering peoples lives, then people are going to slow down.”

The governor … as we said … did not let the news media or Malibu official know about signing the Malibu speed bill … in Malibu.

By making the signing ceremony a state secret … Newsom avoided members of the press … asking pesky questions like … is a ten or twenty dollar warning really going to do anything … or is it just a show for Tik Tok. 

Malibu Has ‘Holes’ In High-Tech Security  Camera System

You may have seen the TV station reports last Friday .. about the high tech surveillance camera system over at the Malibu Lost Hills sheriffs station. 

How will it actually work??

Sheriff’s Captain Jennifer Seetoo showed off the computer screens and software last Friday. 

All the LA TV stations were there … nut this is not the first real time come center in Southern California. 

LAPD already operates four of them.

Cameras at stores and shopping centers … and mounted on traffic lights … will feed video automatically over to the sheriff’s command post. 

Not from private houses … at least … not yet.

At the sheriff’s command post … a computer connected to the 911 dispatch system will get activated when a major crime is reported … and it will zoom in to the five closest cameras. 

Captain Jennifer Seetoo says the cameras are only available from businesses … not from private homes.

70636 SEETOO STREAM 

“We take those cameras and we basically live stream it into the (intelligence) center.

“And I know what you’re thinking, you’re thinking ‘wow how can one person look at that many cameras. That doesn’t make sense.’

“No, we have a system, we have this software that we use. 

“If there is a burglary at one of my shops, it will actually go to my dispatch, and immediately the first five cameras pull up in my center, automatically. 

“And we can look at those cameras and we can say ‘oh you know what no, that was just the manager,’ or we can tell the deputies: ‘deputies this is a burglary is happening now and here is all the descriptions.’ 

“That way we can let them know if there any weapons. That way deputies get there quicker, safer and can protect the community.” 

As KBUU News reported last week … there is a major flaw in the system … so far as Malibu is concerned. 

Malibu does not have any automatic license plate readers … like they do in four cities over the hill. 

Malibu has purchased cameras that will not only feed video … but also take note of license plate data.

Malibu’s automatic license plate camera are still sitting in boxes. 

Southern California Edison will not let the city install them on power poles. 

The automatic license plate reader system already functions in Beverly Hills.

Last year … a Los Angeles man who had killed three homeless people just happened to be driving through Beverly Hills.

They have 50 license plate scanners … one o them spotted the car driven by the wanted murder suspect … Jerrid Powell. 

Meanwhile. … Malibui officials are trying to find places other than Southern California Edison poles to hang their automatic license plate readers …. Which are an integral part of the sheriff’s real time crime information center

DA Calls His Opponent ‘Trumpist’ And Opponent Calls Gascon Soft On Crime

With 36 days left in the election … the biggest local race may be the L A County district attorney’s campaigns.

George Gascon was first elected four years ago … supported by progressive voters after outrage against police overkill following the death of George Floyd in Minnesota.

He says crime is down.

His opponent … Nathan Hochman … is running as tougher on crime … 

His opponent in the race, however, says public safety in L.A. County has gotten worse under Gascón’s leadership.

Hickman says he is running on what he calls the “hard middle.”

The two men spoke at a debate last night … hosted by KABC-TV. 

Name calling punctuated the event.

George Gascon.

70635 GASCON 

“My opponent, in a very trumpist way, continues to use slogans and calling names. 

“When he was running as a Republican in 2020 for the California Attorney General, he talked about a spiral of lawlessness. Now he talks about the golden Age of criminals and now he’s going into name-calling. The reality is that Mr. Hockman does not understand the work. He doesn’t understand juvenile law.”

They challenger is Nathan Hochman .

70634 HOCHMAN 

“I have 34 years of criminal justice experience as a prosecutor and as a defense attorney.  That’s 34 in my column.

“He’s not gonna run on his record of public safety because it’s a record of public safety failure. 

“Instead what he is going to try to do is to try to divide us. 

“He wants to run as a Democrat against a former Republican.

“But let me set the record straight… I was a Democrat for the first 34 lives of my life and then I was a Republican for the next 20. 

“Now I’m running as an independent because that’s exactly how I am going to run the office, which is independent of politics.”

Nathan Hochman criticized the incumbent as being too lenient with criminals … while Gascón repeatedly linked his opponent with former President Donald Trump.

Local Firefighters Say US Forest Service Is Causing Big Fires By Leaving Fire Trucks Unmanned

Local firefighters are pointing the finger at the U S government … for failing to help put out a small brushfire when it broke out east of Santa Ana.

That was one of three major fires that broke out two weeks ago … during a major hot weather spell. 

Te fire in Orange County was sparked by a county work crew … placing boulders to close a road due to fire danger.

But the nearest fire station … the U.S. Forest Service’s Trabuco Station … was not staffed.

The federal government does not have enough firefighters. 

And that causes local fire agencies … including there Los Angeles County fire department … to have to send hundreds of firefighters to fight fires on federal responsibility lands.

LA County fire chief Anthony Marrone says the three big fires so far this fall … on federal lands … meant fewer air tankers and ground crews for the Malibu area. 

And that makes him nervous.

70638 MARRONE 

“I’m nervous every year ,for western LA county and the Santa Monica mountains. 

“We have a long history of fires in this area and those fires are the most challenging and the toughest and the most destructive when the winds come.

“And that’s gonna be this fall season in October, November, and December when we have Santa Ana winds. 

The large number of major fires in Southern California three weeks ago strained the statewide firefighting system.

L A County … which was handed much of the job of putting out the National Forest Service’s fire near Wrightwood … had trouble getting aerial resources … firetrucks … even getting feeding stations for the firefighters.

Te problem is exacerbated because the federal government is leaving fire station unstaffed …. Initial responses are slow .. fire trucks are too far away. 

The Los Angeles Times reports that Forest Service fire stations all across Southern California are frequently sitting empty because there is no one to supervise them, according to the fire chiefs. 

The day that the big orange County fire started 14 out of the National Forest Service’s 28 engines down there were unavailable due to lack of staff,.

Of the roughly 25 Forest Service stations in San Bernardino County, only 11 or so are staffed at any given time.

That means LA County has to send crews into federal lands to battle big ones … instead of the federal government putting out firers when they are small.

Back in the local mountains … LA County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone says that leaves him worried. 

70637 RESOURCES

“We have limited resources here in Southern California for fighting wildfire. And we are all in competition for those aspects, especially the aerial app as assets. We are certainly not out of the woods as fall as we await the annual return of the Santa Ana winds.”

Offshore Quake Rattles Malibu Saturday, 6 Miles Off Pt Dume

A small earthquake rocked Malibu Saturday afternoon.

But that one was off Point Dume … about six miles offshore.

Magnitude 3.2 … Saturday afternoon at 2:38.

We also had a pretty good aftershock to the series of quakes under Kanan Road .

That was magnitude 2.8 … Friday evening. 

Kris Kristofferson, Longtime Malibu Homeowner, Dies at 88 In Hawaii

Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.

Kris Krisoferson wrote and recorded those words. 

Janis Joplin made them famous.

Kristofferson died at the age of 88 yesterday.

Kristofferosn had a house in malibu since 1974.

He was a Rhodes scholar … a helicopter pilot in Vietnam … a movie star … 

He died at his house near Hana Maui yesterday.