What’s happening today?
The Santa Ana winds are keeping officials on alert today as firefighters continue to fight the Bryson fire in the Malibu area that started burning in the late afternoon on Thursday. LA County officials gave an update this morning saying that the fire was at 70% containment.
A motion that’s seeking to restrict what the Board of Transportation Commissioners can do is now in front of the full City Council, which is meeting today. That commission – which is made up of appointed members – was until recently a roadblock in getting the now long-delayed Venice Dell affordable housing project built. But the motion’s author, Council member Eunisses Hernandez, assures that this motion was not aimed at that project. Hernandez says she’s more concerned about some other affordable housing projects that she says she’s had trouble getting scheduled before that panel.
The new LA County Ethics Commission is holding its first meeting at noon. The first three members of the commission are expected to spend this and upcoming meetings sorting out who will be the four remaining members of their commission. The Ethics Commission’s website is here.
What just happened?
Results from a new poll commissioned by Angela Gonzales-Torres, who is challenging Rep. Jimmy Gomez in the 34th Congressional District, say she is 10 points ahead of Gomez, and her lead goes up when more information is provided.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman says he’s charging a Los Angeles Department of Water employee and three others for a year’s worth of graffiti vandalism in which they climbed tall buildings, some of them historic, to spray paint them “not artistic expression but money and social media eyeballs.” The LADWP employee is an electrical craft helper who has worked for the LA city utility since 2018, Hochman’s release said. More in the LA Times story here.
LA City Council member Traci Park, who has not endorsed anyone in the mayoral race, says she is begrudgingly voting for Mayor Karen Bass.
Mar Vista Voice writes that data contracts in Culver City are raising concerns about the city’s ability to protect immigrants.
And the Los Angeles Daily News has endorsed Proposition 39, which would require people to show their IDs in order to vote.