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Metro board OKs plan to explore creating own police force

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:52 GMT

Policing on the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority's buses and trains has been a contentious issue over recent months, though a vote by Metro's board Thursday could simplify what has been a complex solution.The board voted 11-1 to extend its ongoing contracts with the Los Angeles Police, Los Angeles County Sheriff's and Long Beach Police departments while moving forward with exploring the creation of its own police force.The vote comes amid a spike in overdoses and violence on Metro buses and trains, one factor that many believe is contributing to declining ridership. Meanwhile, Metro is spending hundreds of millions on contracts with law enforcement agencies, even though an audit found that deputies and officers were rarely riding the trains, instead often choosing to remain in their squad cars near Metro stations.While most of the board was in favor of continuing the current contracts while exploring the creation of a new force, Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey...

Outer Edge LA puts NFT tech on display

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:52 GMT

Outer Edge LA is a conference dedicated to what’s next on the Internet. The event was held this week in the Los Angeles Convention Center."We wanted to create an innovation festival that celebrated all the incredible convergent technology that are coming together that this special moment in time," said Joshua Kriger, a co-founder of the show and host of the Edge of NFT podcast.On display: Blockchain, the metaverse and NFT tech.While many mainstream crypto investors are still reeling from recent downs, those involved in the tech side of things still believe that blockchain database technology holds a lot of promise."The value will come from the intrinsic value and the utility value of the products as opposed to the speculative hype which we saw in this last wave of the market cycle," explained Jack O'Holleran, co-founder of Skale Labs.NFT Artwork on display at Outer Edge LA 2023Some of the interesting tech I came across included HelloVacay, sort of a AAA using blockchain tech. They s...

Gonzaga tops UCLA 79-76 in Sweet 16

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:52 GMT

Gonzaga and UCLA played one NCAA Tournament game that left the Zags' star player bawling, and another game that stunned the Bruins. Add another to the list. Maybe the maddest one in March yet.Julian Strawther hit a 3-pointer with 7.2 seconds left to answer a 3-pointer by UCLA's Amari Bailey, lifting Gonzaga to a wild 79-76 win over UCLA Thursday night in the Sweet 16.“It’s moments like that you can’t make up,” said Strawther, a Las Vegas native. “Those are literally the moments you dream of. To even make a shot like that in March Madness and just to be back home in Vegas is like the cherry on top.”The Bruins (31-6), the West Region’s No. 2 seed, stormed back from an eight-point deficit in the final 1:05 and took a 76-75 lead on Bailey's 3-pointer with 12.2 seconds left.The Zags (31-5) brought the ball up the floor and Strawther stepped into a 3-pointer after a drop pass from Hunter Sallis, sending Gonzaga fans to their feet.“As soon as it came off, it looked like it was on line,” St...

California, Oregon face Pacific salmon fishing ban

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:52 GMT

As drought dried up rivers that carry California’s newly hatched Chinook salmon to the ocean, state officials in recent years resorted to loading up the fish by the millions onto trucks and barges to take them to the Pacific.The surreal and desperate scramble boosted the survival rate of the hatchery-raised fish, but still it was not enough to reverse the declining stocks in the face of added challenges. River water temperatures rose with warm weather, and a Trump-era rollback of federal protections for waterways allowed more water to be diverted to farms. Climate change, meanwhile, threatens food sources for the young Chinook maturing in the Pacific. Now, ocean salmon fishing season is set to be prohibited this year off California and much of Oregon for the second time in 15 years after adult fall-run Chinook, often known as king salmon, returned to California's rivers in near record-low numbers in 2022.“There will be no wild-caught California salmon to eat unless someone has still...

Celebrating Latina Jefas – Qusqo Bistro and Gallery’s Lucy Haro

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:52 GMT

PepsiCo launched year two of its signature Jefa-Owned campaign in support of Latina small business owners this week honoring Lucy Haro at her little corner of Peru, Qusqo Bistro and Gallery in West Los Angeles.In partnership with celebrity chef and restaurateur Lorena Garcia, and powered by PepsiCo Juntos Crecemos (Together We Grow), the five-year $50 million program aims to provide access to business-building resources, opportunity and capital for Latina-owned businesses.   “Since the beginning of time, men have always led kitchens as the professionals and the women cook in the house for the family,” Garcia told L.A. Weekly over a brunch of chica juice, platanos, fried yucca, ceviche, lomo saltado and warm rice pudding. “Over time, women became inspired and empowered to start their own businesses, but statistically most kitchens and restaurants are owned and run by men. Then when our parents or our children get sick, we are the ones who end up taking care of everyone. I’m the...

CBD Oils Have A 50 Percent Chance Of Matching Posted Levels, New Study Suggests

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:52 GMT

In today’s CBD market, customers can’t be too skeptical. Since there’s no FDA-approved method for scanning CBD supplements, it’s up to each company to submit third-party lab tests. Unfortunately, there’s never a guarantee your CBD item has the cannabinoid concentrations posted on its label.A recent trial from the University of Kentucky suggests the accuracy of posted CBD concentrations in hemp extracts is even worse than many imagined. According to this trial, customers have about a 50/50 chance that their CBD oil has the cannabinoid concentrations on the label. If consumers want the max benefit from their CBD oil, they must understand the implications of this latest trial.Just How Off Are Today’s CBD Oil Labels? — The Latest Review On CBD Oil AccuracyIn the University of Kentucky’s latest test, scientists bought 80 CBD oil products from various brands. Before scanning each product in their lab facility, researchers recorded the advertised c...

Vanity Mirror Reflects on the White Stripes

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:52 GMT

Vanity Mirror Reflects on the White Stripes: Johnny Toomey of power-pop project Vanity Mirror told us about his White Stripes experience.Johnny Toomey: I would have to say the White Stripes first L.A. show at Al’s Bar in 2000.If anyone remembers Al’s Bar, it was a total hole of a venue. Small, smelled horrible, and you had to kiss anything in your parked car goodbye. This was downtown L.A. before the yuppie lofts. This was still the Skid Row area back then.There were about 15 people in attendance including myself. The first LP had just come out and I only heard it once at a friend’s house. I was super into the Go and knew that Jack White played with them for a short time. That was the extent of my knowledge on the White Stripes prior to seeing this show.Everyone there could tell that they were witnessing something that was going to be huge. It was raw and stripped down to the basics of rock music. Something that had been missing for a long while. They looked like t...

Spring Wine Trolley Tour tickets still available

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:52 GMT

Shuttles will take visitors to Brentwood’s wineries on Sunday spotlighting eight wineries in this growing viticulture region.Hosted by the Contra Costa Winegrowers Association, the Spring Wine Tasting Trolley Tour will allow visitors to meet the winemakers and vintners and sample wines from both bottles and barrels. The shuttles begin picking up participants at noon, making stops every 30 minutes with the last stop at 3:45 p.m.Tickets can be purchased online at Eventbrite.com for $105 and include the shuttle ride to the participating wineries, souvenir glass, wine tote, live music, and small bite appetizers, with additional food available for purchase. Visitors can start at any winery and will be returned back to that location.There’s also a $75 option for those who have designated drivers and don’t need the trolleys, which also can be purchased online at Eventbrite.com.East County wineries participating this year include Bloomfield Vineyards, Campos Family Vineyards, Fa...

Boichik’s massive Berkeley bagel plant, cafe and retail store opens today

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:52 GMT

A year and a half in the making, Emily Winston’s mega bagel facility with the custom bagel-slinging robot arm is opening at 7:30 a.m. today, March 24, in Berkeley, where Boichik Bagels fans will no doubt wait in long lines to catch a glimpse of BakerBot and nibble on Pumperthingles. The new Boichik Bagels will be open until 1 p.m. daily, or until sold out.As we’ve been reporting since 2021, the 18,000-square-foot warehouse and mechanical dough line was designed by Winston, a mechanical engineer by training, to fuel Boichik’s growing mini-empire. The plant will serve as the production facility for Boichik’s wholesale accounts, the tiny College Avenue and Palo Alto shops and forthcoming bagel outposts, including Santa Clara. The new Boichik offers a similar menu to the other locations — bagels sandwiches, house-mixed schmears, lox, whitefish salad and coffee — in addition to some new baked goods.The retail kitchen area of the new Boichik Bagels prod...

Record snowpack, nearly full reservoirs: Here’s the state of California’s drought after an epic winter

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:52 GMT

By Rachel Ramirez and Brandon Miller | CNNCalifornia has faced an onslaught of powerful, atmospheric river storms this winter, which has led to record-breaking snowpack, nearly full reservoirs and overflowing watersheds.At this time last year, all of California was caught in a drought. But according to the latest US Drought Monitor released Thursday morning, just over a third of California remains in some level of drought — the lowest amount since the drought began — with severe drought only covering 8% of the state.For the last three years, the state has been in desperate need of some rain and snow. Just a month ago, more than 33 million people in California, including in the major metropolitan areas of Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego, were facing an unrelenting drought. Years of unfavorable precipitation trends and more intense heat waves have fed directly to the state’s prolonged, historic megadrought that has triggered dire water shortages.Now, that nu...