MPR reports on a lawsuit seeking an injunction to bar most medical and surgical abortions alleging “Minnesota’s process for abortion consent is too loose and that its legal protections for medical providers are too lenient.”
Via Duluth News Tribune: “A decision on whether to reissue a permit to mine for the company vying to open Minnesota’s first copper-nickel mine is on hold after the company behind it said it is studying potential changes to the controversial project’s design.”
Bring Me the News reports Hennepin County has reached a tentative agreement with its union following a rally earlier this month of employees seeking higher wages.
Fox9 reports Anoka-Hennepin schools need to reduce their budget for the 2025-2026 school year by $21 million. “The district blames multiple factors for the shortfall, including the elimination of pandemic relief funds, higher than budgeted employee contract settlements, and the impact of inflation on transportation and other operations.”
Also in school budget news: Post Bulletin reports Chatfield Public Schools is considering moving to 4-day weeks to reduce costs.
KARE reports the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board has received a $120,000 donation from the Margaret A. Cargill Foundation Fund of the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation to “enhance climate resilience in economically disadvantaged and environmentally justice designated neighborhoods in Minneapolis.”
Star Tribune reports the Minneapolis Downtown Council has unveiled their 10-year plan to revive the city’s downtown. “The next decade could bring downtown Minneapolis a marquee outdoor ice rink, a Michelin star, consistent skyway hours and thousands more residents, if the Downtown Council’s 10-year plan comes to fruition.”
Prospective new owners intend to revitalize the vintage Mt. Waterman ski resort in the Angeles National Forest — in part by selling exclusive access to coveted powder days to well-heeled customers and ferrying them to the mountains in chartered helicopters.
But there’s a snag: The federal agency that has the final say on what can be done at the homey 390-acre resort hasn’t approved such a plan and said it would be hesitant to sanction anything that smacked of exclusivity.
“I’m pretty confident we would not allow … any kind of exclusive use,” said the U.S. Forest Service’s Justin Seastrand, who oversees the public services staff area of the Angeles National Forest.
That could throw a wrench into the business plan of the prospective owners, known as Angeles Mountain Partners LLC. They say the proceeds from what they call the Waterman100 club — a nod to the number of members — could bankroll improvements that would benefit all visitors. The words “exclusive,” “exclusively” and “exclusivity” appear at least 20 times in a presentation aimed at potential members.
Beyond the “country club-style” membership, Angeles Mountain Partners co-founders Joshua Shelton and Scott Towsley envision transforming the no-frills, more than 80-year-old resort into a contemporary outdoors playground replete with glamping, mountain coaster, tubing hill, high-end dining and snowmaking capabilities.
Club members would get to claim the mountain for themselves on “powder days,” or blue bird days immediately following a storm when conditions are peak, Shelton said. He acknowledged, however, that the owners can’t guarantee snow.
“The risk they’re willing to take will help us underwrite our entire winter season and the resort as a whole,” Shelton, an attorney, said of prospective members.
His partner Towsley is a winter resort industry veteran who operates alpine coaster parks in Big Bear and Arizona.
How to get around the fact that heavy snowfall often closes the serpentine stretch of Highway 2 leading up to the resort? “The solution is a helicopter,” the presentation says, pointing to an on-site helipad where chartered flights could quickly ferry snow seekers up to the mountain.
Shelton describes a plan to enlarge the helipad at the resort and transform it into a scenic point for visitors.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
A business plan provided to The Times pegged the price for the first 25 members at $100,000. The cost rises by $50,000 for each additional 25 members, so that members 76 to 100 pay $250,000, according to the plan. That adds up to $17.5 million in revenue — in addition to annual membership dues of $5,000 per member, per the plan. Shelton said the membership costs are not finalized, and that these figures were used for modeling.
He also believes Forest Service officials misunderstood his plans for the club, saying they thought the intent was to sell the land to those people and totally shut out the public. “That’s the furthest from what we’re hoping to do here,” he said.
Shelton’s team has since pulled down a description of Waterman100 from a web page for the club, citing an “overflow of submissions” and a plan “to make small language edits.”
A grand plan — but not guaranteed
What’s billed as the closest resort skiing to millions of residents in the L.A. Basin began with a modest rope tow in 1939, according to the resort website. That same year, Highway 2, also known as Angeles Crest Highway, breached the San Gabriel Mountains, paving the way for crowds. The resort located right off the highway expanded over time, opening its first chairlift in 1941 and then two more over 40 years. But the digs remain rustic and bare-bones.
Shelton stands with Bodhi, his Bernese Mountain Dog, near the base of the resort right off Angeles Crest Highway.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
The resort — including three chair lifts, ticket booth, warming hut with a full kitchen and a handful of snowcats and snowmobiles — was listed earlier this year for $2.3 million.
Shelton said Angeles Mountain Partners has entered into a purchase agreement with the owners, a group of friends led by Rick Metcalf, who grew up in the foothills neighborhood of La Cañada-Flintridge and learned to ski at the resort as youngsters. A press release put out by Angeles Mountain Partners in October said the group had acquired the resort. Shelton said in an interview that the sale hasn’t yet closed.
The resort, topping out at more than 8,000 feet of elevation, is located on federally owned national forest land, and anyone who hopes to operate a business on it needs a special-use permit from the Forest Service.
As of last week, Seastrand said the agency hadn’t received an application for a permit, though the prospective buyers had begun discussions with the agency and started handing over documents and other information.
Marc Ramirez, listing agent and longtime resort employee, said he’s excited by the prospect of a reinvigorated business under the prospective owners. “You go down in L.A. and 10 out of 100 people only know of Mt. Waterman,” he said. “What the heck is that?”
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Providing a place for people to hit the slopes is a “good use” of the land, Seastrand said, though the benefit of gliding down powder needs to be balanced with visitor safety, as well as protecting plants and wild animals.
Shelton stressed that his group is committed to working closely with the federal land manager and moving through all the required steps. Pointing to his legal background, he called regulations “a guide to how to do things the right way for us.”
Seastrand said the agency looks forward to working with the prospective owners. Messages may have gotten crossed, and “that’s OK,” he said. “We want what’s best for the public that can come and use the land, and we want what’s best for our business partners, too.”
Hope for a hidden gem fallen into disuse
Newcomb’s Ranch, a former restaurant located down the road from the ski resort, is closed, but some say it could reopen under new ownership. “In theory,” an activated resort “would help them,” the U.S. Forest Service’s Justin Seastrand said.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Shelton, a lifelong snowboarder, grew up in the L.A. area but never ventured into the majestic mountains dotted with fragrant pines to the north, let alone cruised down the slopes of Mt. Waterman. When he saw the resort come up for sale, it instantly piqued his interest.
“I felt like this weird vibration that I’d somehow be involved,” Shelton said. Towsley is a neighbor of his in a Mojave Desert community, and when they encountered one another they both brought up the listing, he recalled.
Shelton, now a resident of Seal Beach in Orange County, said he has experience working out deals in a variety of industries. And Towsley, a skier, boasted resort operation credentials.
While Angeles Mountain Partners’ plans raised eyebrows — an SF Gate headline said the historic ski area was poised to “become a haven for the rich” — many have pointed out that it hasn’t exactly been a paradigm of public access under previous owners.
When Metcalf and company scooped up the resort in 2006, it hadn’t operated for several years and was on the verge of losing its Forest Service permit altogether, according to the resort website.
“Our goal was to save the place,” said Craig Stewart, 62, one of the current owners. “We all learned to ski here. This is our backyard.”
But it never became a reliable haven for ski-minded Angelenos, only opening occasionally to the public over the years, said Marc Ramirez, the listing agent for the property. Ramirez, a longtime resort employee, said he’s “excited to see it come back to what it can be.”
Not all local skiers are jazzed about the plans for the resort. “It’s been the butt of jokes in every group ski chat I’ve participated in,” Highland Park resident Ethan Ayer said of the idea for heli-skiing, the term for plopping skiers on mountaintops via helicopter.
Helicopter rides aren’t cheap, and those who heli-ski are often whisked to harrowing peaks in Alaska or British Columbia. “If you’re going to invest that much money, you would likely be a passionate skier, and the terrain at Waterman isn’t for passionate skiing,” Ayer, 46, said.
Craig Stewart, a co-owner of the ski resort, called the mountain where he learned to ski “our backyard.” The goal of purchasing the property many years ago was to save it from shuttering for good.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Making up for Mother Nature
Perhaps the biggest possible impediment to the team’s success is the region’s frequent lack of snow — and a current lack of snowmaking capabilities to make up for what Mother Nature doesn’t provide. Two other resorts in the San Gabriels — Mountain High and Mt. Baldy — can manufacture powder.
Waterman’s prospective owners say they intend to bring in snowmaking, which could expand a season from a couple of weeks to almost half a year.
However, it is another aspect of the vision that isn’t assured. Seastrand, a supervisory natural resource specialist for the Forest Service, said there was reason to be optimistic it could pan out but it would hinge on finding a water source.
“It’s a relatively dry part of the forest,” he said. “There’s not a giant river anywhere around there.” Typically, a well would be the answer, but “you’re not guaranteed to just go drill a well and tap sufficient water.”
Shelton said his team feels “very comfortable with the available water supply on the mountain.” Ramirez said there are three wells on the property, as well as a 4-million-gallon reservoir. Towsley has expertise in the matter, having designed and installed snowmaking systems for ski resorts across the U.S., according to company documents.
It wouldn’t happen overnight, though.
The first step would be securing conceptual acceptance from forest officials as part of a long-term planning document. Before installing lines and developing a water source, they’d need to go through environmental and other review, officials said.
Shelton estimates it would take at least three years from their launch date. Until then, he expects to open for about 18 to 20 days for general public use.
Dreaming of a shiny new future
On a recent visit, Shelton walked the humble grounds and began painting a picture of what could be, with his 154-pound Bernese Mountain Dog, Bodhi, ambling amiably by his side. He gestured toward a patch of land off a path covered in pine needles and construction vehicles. That’s where he says 20 yurt-style tents will go.
At the edge of a precipice, a flat surface formed a small helipad. Their intention is to expand it so it will double as an overlook offering sweeping views of the mountains that seem to repeat endlessly until they fade into the crisp blue November sky. That would make it more worthwhile for folks who take the lift up, he reasoned.
“This I think could kind of tie that together with, like, let’s go up there, have a glass of wine and sit on the edge of the scenic point,” he said.
Shelton stands with his dog, Bodhi, inside the no-frills warming hut.
A proposal to radically reshape how the county spends billions of dollars on homelessness will be before the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.
Responding to long-standing dissatisfaction over the effectiveness of homelessness programs, Supervisors Lindsey Horvath and Kathryn Barger are proposing a new county department that would take over hundreds of millions of dollars of contracts currently overseen by the much-maligned Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority and consolidate programs scattered among several county agencies.
The intent of the proposal is to reduce the functions of the city-county joint authority to those mandated by the federal government: maintaining a homeless database, conducting the annual point-in-time count and providing limited services, including the winter shelter program that was recently expanded into a year-round emergency response effort.
But, if approved, the Horvath and Barger motion would not immediately take effect.
Instead, it would require the county chief executive to provide three reports: a feasibility report in 60 days, an analysis of which county and LAHSA programs would be absorbed by the new department in 90 days and a fiscal and staffing plan in 120 days.
A new vote would then be required to proceed.
LAHSA Chief Executive Va Lecia Adams Kellum, who came on board in March of 2023 with a mandate to reform the agency, said in an interview Monday that she would not oppose the measure but looked forward to working with the county on ways to “continue to fix the agency and not end it.”
Adams Kellum said she has worked well with Horvath, who appointed herself to the LAHSA commission after her 2022 election, to reform the agency’s well-known deficiencies.
“I appreciate the thoughtfulness of the supervisors to give this some time of reflection over the next 60 days,” she said.
The proposal was timed to the release of an audit last week that found flaws in LAHSA’s handling of contract money from Measure H, the quarter-cent homelessness sales tax approved by voters in 2017.
The audit, ordered by the supervisors in February, found no fraud or significant abuse, but identified systemic issues, including failure to recover millions of dollars advanced to contractors, late payments to contractors and inadequate monitoring of contracts.
In support of their motion, Horvath and Barger cited the passage of Measure A, doubling the homelessness sales tax, with a commitment to “increased transparency and accountability” as a signal that “now is the appropriate time for Los Angeles County to make meaningful changes called for by the public to more efficiently and effectively administer public funds and solve the homelessness crisis.”
LAHSA officials contested many of the findings, saying the audit identified issues that had already been, or were being, fixed under Adams Kellum.
Created in 1993 as part of a settlement of a lawsuit between the city and county, LAHSA was given limited powers, with a mission of ending the bickering between the city and county over federal dollars for homeless housing and services.
In recent years, its mission has expanded into contract administration and direct services as county funds from Measure H and an exploding L.A. City homelessness budget have swelled its budget to $875 million this year.
The county motion does not make clear how the county funds would be untangled from the remainder of LAHSA’s budget, which includes $306 million from the city, $145 million from the state and $73 million from the federal government.
Reaction from city leaders was mixed. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was skeptical.
“New urgency has been at the core of our work to bring people off the street, not the creation of new bureaucracy,” Bass said in a statement. “We can’t afford to just create new paperwork or slow momentum to reduce encampments and connect people with housing and mental health treatment.
“Collaboration is key — we must avoid a return to the failed past when the county and the city of L.A. operated in silos.”
The idea of a new department intrigued Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, who has frequently criticized LAHSA but also said he thinks Adams Kellum has been 1,000% better than past administrators and is making progress.
“I’m always worried about more government as opposed to ‘streamlined’ government,” Blumenfield said. “God knows we have enough layers on homelessness. I can’t keep track. There are so many layers of governance and organization that streamlining is music to my ears if we can actually do it the right way. Whether this is the right way, that’s yet to be seen.”
But Councilmember Monica Rodriguez, who has introduced a motion calling for a Los Angeles city department of homelessness, sent Horvath a letter of support Monday.
“For too long the county and the city have relied on the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority to administer homeless funds and that has come at our great peril as revealed by a recent audit. My goal is for the departments to partner more efficiently and effectively administer public funds and actually solve the homelessness crisis.”
Adams Kellum said she attributes the reduction in street homelessness recorded in the 2024 count to the recent trend of the city and county working cooperatively under Mayor Karen Bass and the supervisors.
The proposal would implement two recommendations of a Blue Ribbon Commission on Homelessness appointed by the board in 2021 to study LAHSA’s governance structure. The commission’s report in March 2022 called for creation of a county entity to consolidate homeless services and the “streamlining” of LAHSA to “transition away from direct services.”
Adams Kellum said she took the helm at LASHA well aware of the board’s frustration and the commission recommendations.
“We’ve known about these issues,” she said. “We’ve been able to make impact quickly with a new leadership team because we came in with some idea of what was already in need of great repair.”
The Blue Ribbon Commission’s other recommendation, creating a new county entity, “would integrate funding, programs, oversight and implementation and administration of the complex network of services dedicated to addressing homelessness,” the motion said.
An indication of the breadth of the proposal is a list of other county agencies that have assumed responsibility for homelessness. It includes the Department of Mental Health, the Department of Health Services, the Department of Public Health, the Department of Children and Family Services and the Department of Public Social Services.
Times Staff Writer David Zahniser contributed to this report.
Drive through enough neighborhoods in Los Angeles, and you might notice an odd phenomenon: In front of some newer apartment and commercial buildings, the street is slightly wider, and the sidewalk meanders around the indentation. If several properties on a block have been recently redeveloped, the street begins to look like a jigsaw-puzzle piece, widening and narrowing repeatedly.
That’s because new developments are often automatically required to dedicate part of their property to the city for road expansion — even if the road isn’t congested.
In theory, these spot street widenings are supposed to improve traffic flow. In practice, because development happens sporadically, the parcel-by-parcel widenings end up taking out mature trees, parkways and sidewalk space while providing little to no congestion relief.
Worse, the mandate needlessly drives up the cost of housing. In an analysis of L.A.’s street dedication ordinance published in 2016, UCLA urban planning professor Michael Manville surveyed several developers and estimated that the road widening cost them about $11,000 to $50,000 per unit.
“I’ve studied urban regulations for 20 years, and this is probably the dumbest regulation I’ve ever encountered,” Manville said recently.
Lawmakers are finally beginning to see spot street widening requirements for what they are: zombie regulations that don’t accomplish what was intended but are really hard to kill.
The state Legislature started trying to slay the zombie this year. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill by Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo (D-Los Angeles) to limit local governments’ power to require that housing developers widen the roads in front of their projects. Agencies may still require street dedications if they can demonstrate their necessity.
A Google Street View image of 1747 S. Barrington Ave. shows the road widening in front of a new apartment building.
(Google Maps)
And this month, the Los Angeles City Council approved reforms designed to greatly reduce the number of spot street widenings. Proposed two years ago, the reforms will limit the circumstances when roadway widening is required. For example, the Bureau of Engineering will no longer automatically mandate spot widening in established neighborhoods.
The council also adopted a recommendation to change the municipal code so that road and sidewalk changes are required only if they’re needed for good street design, environmental reasons or to improve the experience of pedestrians and cyclists as well as motorists.
That’s important. For decades, Los Angeles prioritized drivers above all other road users — and vehicle speeds over safety and quality-of-life concerns.
The city began requiring street dedications in 1961. Even then, the Department of Building and Safety warned that the spot widenings would lead to irregular street alignments, “thus hindering maintenance, drainage, and traffic flow,” Manville wrote in his analysis. The idea was that properties would be continuously redeveloped and that the streets would eventually reach new, consistent widths.
Sixty-three years later, that hasn’t happened. But builders have been ordered to chop down trees, tear out grass parkways, move streetlights and power poles, and even reduce sidewalk space — and for what? A couple of extra feet of asphalt that may not even be wide enough for street parking.
Plus, there is increasing recognition that wider streets encourage motorists to speed, which is not ideal for safe, walkable and pleasant streets.
Los Angeles needs more housing and safer streets. The city can’t afford to keep zombie regulations that defeat those goals on the books.
RENO — Weeks before election day, more than 150 volunteers boarded early morning buses in Sacramento and traveled east, through the towering mountains of the Humboldt–Toiyabe National Forest and across the Nevada border to convince voters to approve a ballot measure that they, as Californians, could not vote on themselves.
When the group of mostly women landed 130 miles later in eclectic Reno, “the biggest little city in the world,” they set out on foot to knock on doors in unfamiliar neighborhoods, asking for support on an initiative to enshrine abortion rights in the Nevada constitution.
It was all part of Democrat Maggy Krell’s strange campaign for the California Assembly. Facing a sleepy race against an often missing-in-action Republican contender for the legislative seat that represents Sacramento County, the former Planned Parenthood attorney pivoted her energy and supporters to a battleground state fighting for the same protections California voters approved two years ago.
“This is my adopted campaign,” Krell said amid the chimes of slot machines, wearing a hot pink blazer and matching tennis shoes at a makeshift volunteer headquarters inside a Reno casino last month.
RENO, NEVADA SATURDAY OCTOBER 19, 2024 –Maggy Krell, a candidate for California Assembly, pivoted her campaign to focus on abortion rights in Nevada instead of state issues in her sleepy legislative race on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. (Scott Sady / For The Times)
(Scott Sady/For The Times)
Her risky plan worked. Not only is Krell, a former deputy attorney general for the California Department of Justice, poised to be sworn into the state Legislature on Dec. 2 but the Nevada abortion measure passed overwhelmingly.
The way Krell saw it, the California voters that believed in her would understand why protecting their neighbors’ abortion rights was important. In 2022, California voters passed a similar measure to enshrine abortion access in the state constitution after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a federal right to the procedure.
“I don’t think it was a wacky strategy at all,” Krell said earlier this month. “I’m really glad I did it. I felt like it was the most important thing I could be doing with my time.”
The unique campaign strategy was prescient, as even Republican voters who helped Trump win the presidential election supported abortion rights measures across the country, solidifying the issue as one that crosses political and cultural lines.
Volunteers for Maggy Krell, a candidate for California Assembly, prepare to campaign on abortion rights in Nevada.
(Scott Sady / For The Times)
“Nevada voters reaffirmed an undeniable truth: Reproductive freedom is a winning issue that mobilizes voters in historic numbers,” Reproductive Freedom for All President and Chief Executive Mini Timmaraju said in a statement following the election.
Krell, 46, has never been in public office before but considered a run for Sacramento mayor this year and unsuccessfully ran for county district attorney a decade ago.
She won more than 65% of the vote in Assembly District 6, a safely Democratic district that includes downtown Sacramento, home to the California Capitol, against young Republican newcomer Nikki Ellis. Ellis, who works for the state Chamber of Commerce, ran an unusually quiet campaign and reported no fundraising or spending activity to the state.
Krell will replace Kevin McCarty, a Democrat who served in the state Legislature for a decade who is poised to be elected mayor of Sacramento.
As a former prosecutor, Krell worked in the California Department of Justice under Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, then state attorney general, and helped to take down Backpage, a classifieds website that allegedly facilitated sex trafficking.
Krell will take part in a special legislative session called by Gov. Gavin Newsom focusing on how to further “Trump proof” California, including when it comes to protecting abortion rights.
“The best defense that we really have at this point is state constitutional rights,” Krell said. “In light of what’s happened nationally, there’s definitely more work that we need to do.”
Tameiko Heim, of Sacramento, rode four hours round trip on Krell’s bus and knocked on doors in Reno in part because she was concerned about how Trump’s abortion policies could impact maternal deaths, especially among Black women who are at higher risk than most.
“It’s important for us to not rest on our laurels,” she said. “No one should tell me what to do with my body, point blank, period.
As Californians descended on Reno in late October, a place where gamblers and outdoorsmen collide as tourists, it offered them a chance they don’t often get back home in the deep blue state where elections are typically won by a solid Democratic majority without fanfare.
“I wanted to go somewhere where I could knock on a door and make a real difference,” said Talia Smith of Lodi, who does not live in Krell’s district and therefore couldn’t vote for her but is passionate about abortion rights. “This is a rare opportunity for us.”
The campaign also offered a glimmer of hope to some Nevadans who opened their doors weeks ahead of the election, worried that its outcome could risk abortion access nationwide.
Trump was ultimately again elected president, and while he has said he does not plan to impose a national abortion ban, activists have urged caution, pointing to his flip-flopping record and his appointment of U.S. Supreme Court judges who overturned the federal right to abortion two years ago, leaving it up to states.
Maggy Krell, left, speaks with Patricia Lynch of Reno while out canvassing in support of Measure 6.
(Scott Sady / For The Times)
Patricia Lynch, 76, stood on her front porch in her quiet neighborhood near Reno High School and choked up talking about how, decades ago, she too had spoke out about abortion rights.
She graduated from law school in 1973, the same year that the Supreme Court ruled that abortion is a constitutional right, striking down limitations in states. She met Sarah Weddington, the young Texas attorney who won the landmark Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court case, solidifying abortion as a fundamental right.
In 1990, she helped convince voters to pass a referendum safeguarding Nevada’s abortion laws amid concerns then that politicians could roll back the right.
The self described “old feminist,” wearing a flannel and jeans, held back tears as she placed her hand on Krell’s shoulder — another female attorney fighting for reproductive rights more than 50 years later.
“I’m just thinking back on all the battles. It’s been a long time,” Lynch said. “I can’t believe we’re back and we’re still fighting.”
Donald Trump won’t be sworn in as our 47th president for two more months, but he’s already pleasing his base in one way:
Undocumented immigrants and their allies are running scared.
The former and future commander in chief repeatedly vowed during his campaign to start mass deportations the moment he enters office. Those affected are taking Trump at his word. Nonprofits and community leaders dedicated to helping immigrants are strategizing about how to mount a defense. Sanctuary cities such as Los Angeles and Santa Ana are readying for lawsuits by the Trump administration or the withholding of federal funds.
Meanwhile, the migrants themselves are prepared for the worst. I know people who are making plans to leave for their home countries, U.S.-born children in tow, by Inauguration Day. The terror of not knowing what’s coming is leaving too many people I care about depressed and with little to no hope for the future.
As the son of a man who first entered this country in the trunk of a Chevy in the 1960s, I have lived a life where people without papers were the norm instead of a Fox News talking point, and I’m angry. I’ve spent my career as a journalist — in articles and books, on radio and television — trying to convince skeptics through stats, anecdotes and appeals to reason that people who entered the country illegally are no different from native-born citizens in the content of their character. That nearly all of them embody the spirit of those who came here under the gaze of the Statue of Liberty so long ago, no matter how much Trump and his future vice president, JD Vance, railed to the contrary.
With sentiment against undocumented immigrants higher than it has been in decades — especially among Latinos — writing positive stories about the estimated 11 million U.S. residents who aren’t supposed to be here can feel as futile as screaming into a hurricane.
That doesn’t mean I’m giving up.
That’s why, as this country readies for Thanksgiving, I want to give gracias to undocumented immigrants. It’s a sentiment they don’t hear nearly enough.
Young migrants line up for a class at a “tender-age” facility for babies, children and teens, in San Benito, Texas, in 2019.
(Eric Gay / Associated Press)
Thank you to the estimated 42% of farmworkers who lack legal authority to work in this country, according to the latest U.S. Department of Labor’s National Agricultural Workers Survey. There’s a good chance that the bounty on your table this Thursday passed through their hands.
Thank you to the undocumented immigrants who pay $96.7 billion in federal, state and local taxes in 2022, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, which also found that they paid $25.7 billion into Social Security and $6 billion into Medicare. They contribute to systems that they cannot benefit from but that critics of illegal immigration tap into without a second thought.
Thank you to the estimated half-million Mexican nationals and their American-born children spurred to leave this country by federal and local officials during the Great Depression because undocumented immigrants weren’t worthy of economic relief. Those repatriated people left behind nearly everything but their dignity.
To the hundreds of thousands of Mexican men deported in the 1950s under Operation Wetback, a federal program Trump has praised despite its offensive name: Thank you for not keeping quiet about the abuse and humiliation you all endured.
To the Cubans who entered the U.S. on makeshift rafts, knowing you wouldn’t get deported if you landed in Florida while the same privilege wasn’t extended to Haitians: Thank you for exposing the hypocrisy of this nation’s immigration policy.
To the unaccompanied minors who have come from Central America for the last quarter of a century: Thank you for showing more bravery in your young lives than anyone in Trump’s administration can ever dream of.
To the so-called paper sons and daughters, Chinese nationals who stayed in the U.S. by pretending you were related to American citizens: Thank you for the ingenuity you showed in circumventing sanctioned racism.
Thank you to the Chinese migrants escaping mass lynchings during the Mexican Revolution, whose mere intent of entering this country led to the creation of the Border Patrol — you showed how Americans welcome persecuted people only if it suits the political climate.
To the so-called ship jumpers, migrants from Southern and Eastern Europe — but especially Greece — who arrived at port cities and sneaked past immigration authorities after the U.S. in effect barred migration from the region in 1924: Thank you for the reminder that this country discriminated against people we now consider white but who were seen as subhuman at the time.
To the people who came here without papers as children — long known as Dreamers — who are culturally American and now face the prospect of being sent to countries you have only faint memories of, or no memories at all: Gracias for forcing politicians to carve out protections for ustedes, protections Trump’s cronies have vowed to end even as their boss has expressed some sympathy in the past.
To Marine Cpl. Jose Angel Garibay, Orange County’s first casualty of the Iraq war: You came here illegally as an infant, grew up in Costa Mesa as a legal resident and became a citizen only after losing your life in 2003: Thank you for your sacrifice.
To the undocumented people who were and are my friends, my classmates, my interns and co-workers: Thank you for teaching me that citizenship is usually wasted on the ungrateful and not granted enough to those who deserve it.
Thank you to the thousands who are planning to take to the streets in the coming days and weeks, hoping against hope that mass protests will make a difference to a man with a shriveled heart and the people who elected him. Hope must spring eternal even in the face of gloom — especially in the face of it.
And to my father, of course, who came to this country illegally multiple times, who still proudly calls himself a mojado — a wetback — as a reminder of where he came from and how.
Papi: Gracias for leaving Mexico as an 18-year-old ne’er-do-well with no chance of getting a green card through the proper channels and proving that anyone can succeed in this country if they have the drive.
I can never forsake undocumented immigrants because of all of you, public opinion be damned.
TIPTON, Calif. — It was a late fall morning and hundreds of cows — black and white splattered Holsteins and cappuccino-colored Jerseys — milled about a San Joaquin Valley dairy farm in the largest milk-producing state in the nation.
Nearby, workers herded some of the animals onto a rotating platform within the farm’s milking parlor and quickly attached pumping equipment. The machines buzzed and whirred as the cows were carried in a lazy arc to the parlor’s exit, where they were detached from milk hoses and sent on their way.
The scene seemed utterly unremarkable — except for the fact that five days earlier, the H5N1 bird flu virus that has ravaged California’s dairy herds for the last three months, had been confirmed on the farm. Although dozens of cows were sick, and their owner expected that number to climb, none of the farm’s workers wore personal protective equipment and vehicles from off site were let in and out with nary a hint of concern.
As H5N1 bird flu infects a growing number of California dairy farms, dead cows are becoming an increasingly common site in some areas of the Central Valley.
(Tomas Ovalle / For The Times)
The farm was just one of more than 400 California operations that have been confirmed to have suffered outbreaks of H5N1, but interviews with Central Valley dairy farmers, dairy workers and a recent study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests the virus may be more widespread in people than the CDC’s official numbers suggest. Although authorities have been urging dairy farms and workers to take precautions against spreading infection, there is little evidence their cautions are being heeded.
No expert will say that H5N1 bird flu is going to become the next global pandemic, and government health officers say the virus poses a low risk to the public. However, some experts warn that nearly all the conditions needed for the virus to develop a threatening mutation are now present in many dairy farms: Lax testing protocols; close, unprotected contact between humans and animals; a general failure to take the threat seriously enough; and the approach of human flu season.
Since this particular clade of H5N1 virus (2.3.4.4b) first appeared in North America at the end of 2021, it has infected more than 600 dairy herds across 15 states, hundreds of millions of wild and domesticated birds, and at least 48 mammal species — such as dolphins, seals, cats and dogs.
“We are in a soup of virus. I mean, there’s virus everywhere around us at this point,” said Dr. Marcela Uhart, a wildlife veterinarian with UC Davis’ One Health institute, who is based in Argentina, speaking at symposium held by the O’Neill Institute at Georgetown Law recently. (11/15) “This virus is circulating left and right in mammals and in birds, as far as we can tell, some of them are not showing any signs of disease.”
In October, The Times visited Tipton, a dairy town in Tulare County, and spoke with several residents, including Elodia Ibañez, who said the number of reported human cases in California — which in mid-October was 16, and is now 23 — sounded too low. She said her husband, a dairy worker, told her that two of his co-workers had red, swollen eyes, but they had continued working despite displaying bird flu symptoms.
“It’s an illness that they know the cows have, and many cows have died. But the boss cared about the cows, not the workers,” Ibañez told The Times. “They never told them they have to go to the doctor to get a check-up.”
People often continue to work because they feel they have no other choice, she said. “Even though they say there are laws that protect them, there are still a lot of people who are fearful … They’re scared of losing their jobs.”
Anthony, also a Tipton resident, said he would talk, but did not want to share his last name; he has family members who work in dairies, and he feared impacting their employment by speaking out.
“My dad and uncle have told me there’s a bunch of dairies that have had outbreaks,” Anthony said. He said his dad and uncle take steps to stay safe, but many workers likely are not reporting getting sick because they don’t want to get in trouble.
“Some of them are here not legally. They’re relying on that job, they don’t want to jeopardize that,” he said.
In early November, the CDC published a study that looked for H5N1 antibodies in the blood of dairy workers in Michigan and Colorado. The agency sampled blood from 115 people; eight — or 7% — had antibodies. Only three dairy workers in those two states — one in Colorado, two in Michigan — have been positively identified as having the disease.
It’s this blindness to — and ignorance of — the virus’ reach that has infectious disease and health experts concerned.
And as human flu season approaches, and infected wild birds continue their southward migration down the North American flyways — stopping to rest in lakes, ponds, farms and backyards throughout the United States — experts worry conditions are becomingly increasingly ripe for a large “spillover” event.
If a virus — whether it’s a bird flu, a human influenza virus or a coronavirus — is given the opportunity to spread within and between organisms, the virus will evolve, adapt and mutate. Sometimes these mutations have little effect on its ability to transmit between organisms or cause severe disease. But sometimes, they do.
Then there’s the concern that the bird flu virus will find another flu virus that’s circulating — a human, swine or even other bird flu — and swap genetic material with it, potentially creating a new “super flu” that can spread easily between people, make its hosts very sick, or carry immunity to the antiviral medications used to treat infected patients.
In the 1970s, when the understanding of flu viruses was still being developed, Robert Webster, a researcher at St. Jude’s Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., conducted an experiment at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Plum Island Research Station, off the coast of Long Island.
He put a human flu virus — H3N2 — into one pig, and a swine flu virus — H1N1 — into another. He then put the two pigs in a pen with four other pigs. Seven days later, he and his team detected reassorted viruses — H3N1 and H1N2 — in one of the other pigs.
The viruses had swapped genes and created new combinations.
Jersey cows drink water at sunrise.
(Tomas Ovalle / For The Times)
The work of Webster and others led to the discovery that several of the nastier historical flu pandemics have been the result of this kind of reassortment. For instance, the 1918 flu outbreak — which killed approximately 50 million people worldwide — is believed to have been a recombined version of a bird and human flu.
It happened again in 2009, when a human and swine flu switched genes, unleashing the H1N1 swine flu outbreak that killed roughly 500,000 people.
Already there is evidence this virus is swapping genes. The birds currently traveling south from the Arctic are carrying a slightly different variant of H5N1 — called D1.1 or D1.2 — that has an altered take on the several of the flu’s viral segments.
It’s this strain that has put a Canadian teenager into critical condition at a British Columbia hospital. Health authorities don’t know where or how the child picked it up, except to note it wasn’t from cows or poultry. And they don’t know yet whether it has acquired the ability to move easily between people — although early and initial testing suggests it may have acquired some new and ominous traits, including changes that would make it easier to infect people.
Even so, as of this moment, there is no evidence that the H5N1 bird flu circulating among dairy cows and workers — known as B3.13 — has achieved the ability to move efficiently from human to human, or to cause severe illness. But with human flu season approaching — and the possibility that retail customers were drinking infected raw milk — the chances increase.
In an effort to spread awareness among dairy farms and potentially lure workers in for testing and decrease the chances for this virus to acquire mutations that could make it widespread and deadly in people, state health, agriculture and workers safety experts held a workshop at the Tulare Expo Center in late October, with help from the dairy trade group, Western United Dairies.
About 20 dairy workers and farmers sat through the two-hour session, which included English and Spanish presentations from the different state agenciess and dozens of slides
Dr. Erica Pan, California’s State Epidemiologist, told the audience her agency recommended personal protective equipment at work, and urged people to protect their eyes. She also told the audience to stay up to date on their recommended vaccines and refrain from consuming raw milk and undercooked beef, “especially ground beef.”
Eric Berg, Deputy Chief of Health and Research and Standards at CalOSHA said that farms under quarantine needed to establish restricted areas for infected animals. Workers, he said, should wear protective clothing, including coveralls, gloves and “and very important … eye protection and also respirators indoors.”
Eduardo Mondragon sat near the front of a conference room, nodding along as experts discussed safety protocols for dairy workers. As a manager of multiple dairy farms, Mondragon had watched the bird flu rip through the farms he oversaw in Tulare County and the cows he and his colleagues were tasked with caring for as they became sick.
Milk production fell as hundreds of cows became sick and about a dozen died, he said, but the dairy’s owner provided protective gear, including gloves and goggles, which workers were used to wearing daily.
At the dairy farm, Mondragon said they worked quickly when cows started getting sick over the summer to try and stop the spread. His boss sent him to the seminar in Tulare to learn more about the bird flu.
“For weeks, we never stopped,” he said, with many workers working weekend shifts to care for the cows. “We had a good handle on the flu, and because of that we didn’t suffer that many losses. Milk production yes, but animals, no.”
Mondragon knows that while his dairy farm saw the worst of the bird flu hit over the summer, none of the workers reported getting sick. He said friends in the industry in other countries were not yet affected like dairies in Tulare County.
After the seminar, Mondragon loaded up his white pickup truck with boxes of N95 masks, face shields and goggles to take back to his job site and share with the other workers.
Two people were injured when a small plane hit a tree Monday during an emergency landing along an Orange County roadway, authorities said.
Prior to the crash landing, a pilot mentioned to air traffic controllers experiencing engine turbulence but didn’t ask for assistance, according to audio of the incident. About a minute later, however, he suddenly announced an emergency landing.
The plane, a Mooney M20 with two passengers, climbed to about 2,100 feet and 110 miles per hour before rapidly losing altitude about 1:45 p.m., according to its flight track log. It crashed just east of Fullerton Airport along Artesia Boulevard, according to the Fullerton Fire Department. The passengers had moderate injuries and were taken to a hospital.
It wasn’t the aircraft’s first flight of the day — it had just been flown from an airport in La Verne. The plane had recorded more than a dozen flights since Nov. 12, most under an hour.
The Federal Aviation Administration will investigate and aims to have a preliminary incident report Tuesday, a spokesperson said.
KTLA-TV photos showed firefighters swarming the plane. A tree appeared to protrude near the cockpit.
Artesia Boulevard was closed in both directions Monday evening between Gilbert Street and Dale Street while authorities investigated.
Vandals broke into a South Los Angeles elementary school for the sixth time since July over the weekend, causing an estimated $115,000 in damages and adding to a steady toll of recent losses due to theft and vandalism in the L.A. Unified School District.
This semester alone there have been 171 incidents of burglary and vandalism in the nation’s second-largest school system, with Wadsworth Elementary, the site of a Monday news conference, especially hard hit. Districtwide the damage is in the millions of dollars annually, officials said, although they did not release specific figures.
L.A. schools Supt. Alberto Carvalho conceded it was a problem that the school system would typically avoid highlighting.
Officials inspect damage from a break-in at Wadsworth Elementary School.
(Howard Blume / Los Angeles Times)
“We don’t want negative news, right?” Carvalho said. “We don’t necessarily talk about it, but to target, burglarize, vandalize, steal from poor schools — that is reprehensible. So I want to make sure that the community would know about it, and hopefully somebody provides information.”
The damage estimate could rise at Wadsworth once an inventory is completed, which might have to wait for several days because schools have begun their weeklong Thanksgiving break.
The break-in occurred sometime Sunday. Principal Jenny Guzman-Murdock said she had been at the school as recently as Saturday.
Although the campus gets locked up tight, it lacks a burglar alarm, and security cameras have arrived but have not yet been installed. Some schools already have such systems and there are plans to install them at all campuses at significant expense.
The vandals apparently used heavy tools to pry open dead-bolted, metal-reinforced doors — doing major damage to the doors. In all, 24 rooms were broken into, Guzman-Murdock said.
Some staff members showed up to quickly clean up, including community representative Maricela Almaraz, who restored order in the parent center because, she said, she didn’t want the parents to see the damage.
No one had yet gotten to a second-floor classroom that was in disarray, with crayons, books and papers dumped on the floor and chairs overturned. Graffiti marred a wall just outside the classroom.
Parent Bertha Cuevas said the vandalism made her angry and apprehensive.
“It’s like the kids are going to have too much trauma in their brains,” said Cuevas, who stood outside the campus with her third-grade son and first-grade daughter. “And I don’t think that’s right. I think this school needs to have security cameras on the street, every part of the school.”
Cuevas praised the school for being attentive to children with special needs.
Among LAUSD schools, Wadsworth Elementary has been especially hard hit.
(Howard Blume / Los Angeles Times)
Keeping buildings and property secure is one more challenge added to the school system’s safety puzzle.
Student activists and some parents have called for eliminating all school police — saying that education dollars should be spent on counselors, mental health and achievement programs instead. In response to such calls, the Board of Education voted in 2020 to slash school police funding by 30%.
But even at its largest, the school police force was never big enough for around-the-clock patrols at some 1,000 campuses in the sprawling district. Instead, Carvalho said, campus security had to be enhanced with a combination of measures.
“I think the solution is one of additional supervision, better community relations, additional information brought to us by members of the community,” he said. “We have a pretty good idea that these are not outsiders — from outside of the community — coming in. These are individuals who probably live in the community. And we’re hoping that this appeal results in somebody who knows something bringing information to us.”
He called special attention to the district’s LASAR app, which stands for Los Angeles Schools Anonymous Reporting. Carvalho emphasized that leads reported on LASAR could remain anonymous.
Stolen laptops are clearly marked as L.A. Unified property and can be shut down remotely, he added, making them of little use to thieves. But when they are taken — even when they are later dumped — they still must be replaced at considerable cost, becoming lost educational dollars.
Some incidents appear to be professional jobs “largely driven by organized crime,” Carvalho said. “So the stealing of copper, the stealing of catalytic converters. There are adult, criminal entities that organize that, and we want to create community awareness about that as well, which may help “bring those who are responsible to justice.”
There’s really no one to monitor security cameras at schools, but they are potentially helpful for deterrence and gathering evidence after the fact. Burglar alarms also are a deterrent.
The school police department — even in its reduced form — has vacant positions. The current strategy is to use officers almost entirely for patrols and emergency situations during school hours.
Los Angeles Unified has been hit by increased crime and violence since students returned to in-person learning after the campus closures of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Even if a large group of pro-police parents prevail in preserving the police department, there currently are not enough officers to patrol campus at the level prior to the reductions. And there’s only a skeleton crew after hours.
An April report listed 382 police department positions, of which 323 were filled.
Carvalho said he may need to deploy some officers around the clock to sensitive areas, including bus yards, to protect such assets as the catalytic converters on buses.
Californians traveling for the Thanksgiving holiday will face frustrating crowds and congestion, whether they drive, fly or take a train to get away.
The worst place to be in California on Wednesday night will be driving northbound on Interstate 5 between Los Angeles and Bakersfield, where travel time is expected to double to almost four hours, the transportation analytics firm INRIX said.
The Automobile Club of Southern California predicted that 6.6 million Californians will travel more than 50 miles for the holiday, a 2.8% increase from the 2023 travel season, and 3.3% more than 2019, before the pandemic. INRIX expects traffic in Southern California to spike Tuesday from 1 to 7 p.m., with an average of 38% increase in travel time, the auto club said in a release.
Roads are expected to clear up on Thanksgiving day until travelers hit the road again after the holiday.
Nationally, AAA projects almost 80 million Americans will travel between Tuesday and next Monday, setting a new record, it said in a release. AAA extended its usual holiday travel period to include the Tuesday before the holiday and the Monday after, breaking from past holiday estimates that only looked at Wednesday through Sunday.
A rainy start to the week from the remnants of an atmospheric river storm that surged across the state may turn roads slippery for motorists driving throughout Southern California on Monday and Tuesday. A National Weather Service meteorologist said travelers could avoid the rain by leaving Wednesday or Thursday morning instead, when roads and skies will be drier.
The California Department of Transportation suggested motorists check their vehicles for maintenance issues before leaving, avoid distractions like texting, allow extra time to reach your destination and bring a phone charger for the drive.
Amtrak also expects to welcome a surge of travelers at train stations ahead of the holiday. Last year, more than 50,000 people traveled through Los Angeles Union Station between Nov. 18 and 26, a 35% increase from 2022, it said in a release. The busiest day to take a train will be Sunday, based on the 132,000 people who rode Amtrak last year. Amtrak didn’t predict the number of train riders for this holiday weekend.
LAX expects more than 2.2 million passengers to fly through it between Thursday and Monday, with the busiest travel day expected to be Sunday, airport officials said in a release. Passengers should arrive two hours before their departure time, or three hours if traveling internationally, and book parking ahead of time to ensure a spot on days where parking structures are expected to reach capacity.
But for those who got an early start to the holidays, the scene at the nation’s second busiest airport was more hectic than usual Monday as unionized workers who clean planes and handle baggage held a demonstration at LAX to demand higher wages. The protest at the airport Monday was followed by a food drive for workers who the union says can’t afford quality groceries or holiday meals because of low wages. The L.A. City Council punted a pay raise decision to December over worries that increasing pay for hotel and airport workers might hurt the city’s tourism industry.
