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This story first appeared on The LA Local.

A privately owned green space along busy Wilshire Boulevard in Koreatown could become a city park.

The property is Liberty Park, which sits next to Beneficial Plaza and around the corner from The Wiltern. Councilmember Heather Hutt, who represents a large swath of Koreatown, wants the city to acquire the space in a private sale with the property owner.

The proposal will come before the Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners on Thursday, when commissioners will consider whether to authorize the department to begin the acquisition process for several properties in Council District 10.

Hutt is also pursuing other efforts to add green space and recreation opportunities in Koreatown, according to a spokesperson for her office.

Liberty Park and the adjacent Beneficial Plaza were designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 2018 after Koreatown residents organized to preserve the property from a proposed 36-story residential tower.

The park has long served as a gathering place for the community and recently hosted World Cup watch parties.

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Jamison Properties, which owns the site, is now seeking to convert the 11-story office building at 3700 Wilshire Blvd. into 370 apartments through adaptive reuse.

If the city acquires Liberty Park, it would become public park land. Council District 10 does not yet have specifics on what it would do with the park, spokesperson Devyn Bakewell said.

The park’s historic designation also limits what can be changed. Any changes would need to preserve the park’s defining historic features, according to Adrian Fine, president and CEO of the Los Angeles Conservancy.

“Liberty Park could theoretically be altered, but any changes would need to preserve its character-defining features — its deep setback, open lawn, grove of Canary Island pines, plaza design, and Liberty Bell replica,” Fine said.

The push to add more park space comes as Koreatown faces a significant shortage of green space. The city’s 2025 Park Needs Assessment identified a one-mile area in Koreatown as a priority for new park space. About 18,000 people, or 37% of the area’s 48,561 residents, live more than a 10-minute walk from a park.

That number is projected to grow to 21,783 by 2050.

Earlier this year, the city moved forward with a pocket park at 355 S. Kingsley Drive, a roughly 7,400-square-foot vacant lot at the corner of Kingsley Drive and 4th Street. The project grew out of a partnership with the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust, which previously owned the property.

Council District 10 is now looking to acquire the parcel directly across Kingsley Drive. The second property would allow the city to create a roughly one-acre park between the two sites, according to Bakewell.

The empty lot on Kingsley Drive and 4th Street in Koreatown will likely become a park in the coming years after it’s transferred to the city of Los Angeles.

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The district plans to hold community workshops with residents, the Wilshire Center-Koreatown Neighborhood Council and local community advocates after the city acquires the properties to “design each park to fit the community’s needs,” Bakewell told The LA Local.

Council District 10 is also looking for a large property for a new arts and recreation center in Koreatown and is considering potential sites, including parcels at 621-643 S. Vermont Ave. and 3201-3213 W. Wilshire Blvd., both within walking distance of the Wilshire/Vermont Metro station. Nothing has been finalized, and the district has not selected a site.

“We are looking for a location that is state-of-the-art, and big enough to fit the community’s needs,” Bakewell said. “In order to properly build an Arts & Recreation Center, the city needs to acquire a large piece of property accessible to the public — a difficult task within the densest community in the city.”

The city is looking into the feasibility of building a Koreatown Arts and Recreation center on an open lot on Wilshire Boulevard and Vermont Avenue.

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The proposal also includes several properties in the Mid-City and South L.A. areas, which Hutt also represents.

The city is moving forward with the acquisition process, but funding is still a big question mark.

“It is unknown at this time if there is sufficient funding available to complete these proposed acquisitions,” a Recreation and Parks report says. “Funding for the acquisitions and all related costs will be determined after approval of this Report.”

The council district plans to use Quimby funds, along with other funding sources, to pay for the properties. Quimby funds come from fees paid by developers of new residential projects and can be used to acquire or improve parks and recreational facilities.

The acquisitions would also mean more work for Recreation and Parks to maintain the properties, which would require additional money through the department’s regular budget process, according to the report.

If commissioners approve the proposal Thursday, the Department of Recreation and Parks can continue the work needed before any purchases can be completed. The department would later return to the Board with proposed purchase agreements for final approval.

This story first appeared on Long Beach Post.

For 22 years, the Scorpion patrolled the Pacific as an attack submarine of the Soviet Navy. For 17 years, it stood guard beside the Queen Mary, welcoming aboard visitors eager to learn about the hidden world of undersea warfare.

Now the sub may be facing its final mission: a one-way trip to the scrap yard.

Long Beach is probing the local market for the possible cost and difficulty of towing the 55-year-old submarine out of the water and to an accredited disposal facility.

It’s not a formal bid request, city officials say, but a request for information — asking qualified ocean towing operators to respond by Sept. 16 with a sense of the scope of work, the permits required and the likely price tag.

If enough qualified vendors respond, the city says it could issue a bid for the job.

The Russian Scorpion submarine tail end deteriorates in Long Beach, Wednesday, August 19, 2026.

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Officials say the outer skin of the 1970s-era Foxtrot-class vessel has been deteriorating for some time, its once sleek profile disfigured by holes, rust and protective netting. Saltwater and the occasional severe storm have not been kind.

How did the sub get here?

Commissioned by the Soviet government in 1971, the Scorpion spent its working life searching for and tracking enemy forces in the Pacific before it was decommissioned in 1994. After a three-year stint at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney, it was bought by Palm Springs resident Ed Skowron and towed to Long Beach as a tourist attraction in 1998.

For years, it drew about 8,000 visitors a month, its own lure alongside the Queen Mary.

A file photo of the Scorpion during better times.

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But after its hull ruptured and a ballast tank flooded, the sub closed to the public in 2015. It has sat empty and deteriorating ever since, and raccoons eventually moved in, according to past reporting from the Long Beach Post.

Since then, Long Beach’s Public Works Department says the sub has seen significant deterioration along its outer hull, along the topsides and waterline.

“In the interest of safety, water quality, and to mitigate any risk of damage to the Queen Mary, the vessel has been identified by the City as an abandoned asset for removal, pending any future legal or administrative actions required for its removal,” wrote Public Works spokesperson Jocelin Padilla.

In a preliminary assessment of the submarine, the city says the sub can handle a landside or waterside removal. “However, further analysis has to be conducted to determine the most appropriate course of action, taking into account safety, risk, impacts, and costs,” Padilla wrote.

The Russian Scorpion submarine is now closed to visitors and sits next to the Queen Mary.

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Ownership of the Scorpion has grown murky after years of legal disputes among the companies that leased and operated it. The submarine’s most recent owner, an Australian company called NEWCO Pty Ltd., dissolved in 2020, leaving no one to answer the city’s demand letters. With no one to take responsibility for it, Long Beach may end up paying for the sub’s removal.

How hazardous would it be to move?

At one point, there was concern the sub could sink and damage the Queen Mary, but a more recent survey by engineering firm Moffatt & Nichol found the vessel still watertight and unlikely to roll toward the ship. City officials say further analysis is needed to settle on a removal method and account for any potential hazards.

Curtin Maritime Corp., a marine construction and salvage company with an office at the Long Beach seaport, is among the firms weighing whether to take on the job.

Ralph Botticelli, the company’s director of business development, said the first question is whether the Scorpion can even be moved safely. Wherever the sub ends up, it won’t be near the Queen Mary — Botticelli estimated it would be towed at least four or five miles offshore before any cutting begins to disassemble it.

The sub’s batteries, asbestos piping, the thickness of the steel and its overall condition would all factor into whether crews put a towline on it or lift it out with a crane, he said. If hazardous materials need to come out first, Curtin would likely bring in a third-party environmental cleanup contractor, Botticelli said. Soviet-era diesel submarines like the Scorpion typically carry lead-acid battery banks, residual fuel and oil, asbestos insulation and sometimes PCBs.

The Russian Scorpion emblem remains visible on the submarine’s side as it deteriorates in Long Beach on Wednesday, August 19, 2026.

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Finding a hazardous-waste facility equipped to handle the job should also be manageable, he said, since Southern California has a number of pre-approved sites for that kind of material. It’s just a matter of finding the right one.

But without a full assessment, it’s difficult to say exactly how the sub would come apart — likely in sections, cut along its watertight bulkheads so the remaining pieces in the water don’t sink. “There’s no rule of thumb,” he said. “It’s just what is deemed appropriate at the time and most cost-effective and most safe.”

“Thirty years in this business and I’ve never seen anything like this,” Botticelli said, calling the Scorpion “a museum piece.”

Starting Jan. 1, 2028, Californians ages 80 and older can opt-out of jury service permanently due to a medical condition, without needing a note from a health care provider.

The change comes after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1359 on Monday, which enables seniors to request a permanent exemption by attesting that they have an impairment that renders them incapable of performing jury service. Further medical documentation will not be required. Seniors who still want to serve on a jury can still do so.

Assemblymember Patrick Ahrens, a Cupertino Democrat, said he introduced the bill after a constituent — Dianne McKenna, a former Santa Clara County supervisor — relayed to Ahrens the difficulties she faced helping her elderly husband get an exemption from jury service.

“Seniors are great jurists that can and will continue to serve if they’re willing and able to,” said Ahrens in an email to CalMatters. “But if they cannot, they will no longer have to jump through hoops to permanently opt out.”

Unlike some other states including Florida and Texas, California doesn’t have a blanket age of exemption for jury service. It’s 70 in Florida and 75 in Texas.

Californians 70 years and older can be excused due to a medical impairment without a doctor’s note, but they still must inform the local jury’s office that they’re unable to serve with a written excuse. But under current law, this is a one-time exemption and residents must repeat this process each time they’re selected for service.

Proponents of the measure argue that repeatedly seeking exemption can put significant stress on older individuals — particularly those with mobility issues and chronic health conditions, or those who don’t have regular access to a computer or internet. A third of adults over 80 will have difficulties staying home without assistance, and one in five will experience self-care limitations, according to a 2025 report by the Public Policy Institute of California.

The measure would be especially beneficial for people living with Alzheimer’s disease and do not have a caretaker who can assist them, said Andrew Mendoza, the director of state affairs for the Alzheimer's Association, during a June hearing.

“This bill can assist vulnerable populations avoid what would otherwise be a stressful process to obtain documents and explain their condition as a disability during a time of great circumstantial change,” he said.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

Police forces at California’s K-12 schools have quietly been purchasing and using military equipment for decades — and some have yet to comply with a state law requiring them to disclose that to the public.

In 2014, public records revealed the Pentagon had armed California public school police agencies with surplus military gear. The Los Angeles School Police Department, supplied with grenade launchers, assault rifles and an armored vehicle, faced strong criticism from local civil rights groups and relinquished its federally-donated armory by 2016.

But beyond the Pentagon’s surplus program, law enforcement agencies including school police have the option to purchase military-grade equipment on their own. Nine of California’s 21 public school police forces have bought their own stashes of military-grade equipment, including semi-automatic rifles, less-lethal launchers and smoke grenades. Under the state’s Penal Code, less-lethal weapons are devices meant to incapacitate or stun someone without killing them, though some of these devices have maimed and killed in the past.

Five of the school police forces have not disclosed their inventory to the public this year, in spite of a 2021 state law requiring them to do so annually. Two of them, at San Diego Unified School District and Montebello Unified School District, published up-to-date inventory reports after CalMatters asked for them. The remaining two police departments, at Twin Rivers Unified and Santa Ana Unified, released reports for the first time in 2026 after owning the weapons for years.

School districts say these weapons improve police ability to respond to critical incidents and threats, apprehend violent suspects, and help with crowd control. In April, Twin Rivers school police in Sacramento County brought out its military-grade patrol rifles while responding to a shooting at an out-of-district high school where a teenager was killed. At that time, the police department did not have a military equipment policy in place.

Some of the districts with police forces initially denied owning military equipment in response to CalMatters’ questions, but changed their answers when asked to double-check since they had policies listing the equipment.

Los Angeles School Police possess 112 semi-automatic rifles and 104 bean-bag shotguns, according to information provided by district spokesperson Christy Hagen. Hagen did not respond when asked if they plan to report that publicly as required by the 2021 law.

“This equipment is used only in limited, high-risk situations where it is necessary to help protect students, staff, community members, and officers,” Hagen wrote in an email to CalMatters. “It is deployed when needed to safely de-escalate dangerous incidents, reduce risk to everyone involved, and help bring critical situations to a safe resolution.”

The 2021 law does not require police to track or report non-military weapons, such as tasers and “standard issue” semi-automatic rifles. However, district governing boards overseeing school police can subject any additional items of their choosing to the same oversight. Some districts told CalMatters they don’t consider tasers and rifles military equipment despite listing those items as such in their policies.

School security armed with AR-15s

The Twin Rivers Unified School District Police Department has owned military equipment for over 20 years. But the district’s board of trustees didn’t approve an equipment use policy until May.

District Police Chief David Lugo said at the board meeting that the policy simply brought the department into compliance with state law, rather than granting police newfound authority to be armed.

However, state law requires a governing body’s permission if police want to use or buy military equipment. Permission can only be granted if the desired equipment is cost-effective, the police agency has developed an equipment policy that safeguards civil liberties, and there is no other way to maintain civilian safety. The policy must be approved by the same governing board before the equipment is used, re-approved at least annually, and posted online as long as the equipment is usable.

These requirements, and many more, took effect when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 481, which aimed to limit the “risks and impacts of police militarization,” especially in low-income and marginalized communities. The law took effect on Jan. 1, 2022, giving police a five-month grace period to comply.

The Twin Rivers district does not perceive a conflict between this law and what Lugo said at the meeting, district spokesperson Zenobia J. Gerald wrote in an email to CalMatters.

Military tools “are not used in the Department’s day-to-day support of District campuses,” Gerald wrote. “They are only used to respond to extraordinary situations such as the presence of firearms or other serious threats on school campuses and active shooter situations.”

Lugo did not respond to repeated interview requests.

Parents split on military equipment

At Twin Rivers’ board meeting in May, 14 people used their public comment time to speak about the school police’s equipment inventory. Six attendees, including parents and teachers, protested the adoption of the policy. The other eight commenters, all parents or local residents, spoke in strong support of the district’s military arsenals. Most proponents argued that student safety comes first and school police should take any means necessary to deflect a school shooter.

“The policy is not about militarizing our schools,” said Dianne Kieffer, a board member of a local neighborhood organization. “It’s about preparedness, accountability, transparency, and making sure that the people responsible for protecting our children and our staff and our schools have clear rules, training, oversight and the proper tools if the worst day imaginable ever comes to happen.”

Dean Broussard, the CEO of a security services company, said taking care of the district’s children is more important than people’s personal ideas about police equipment.

“If the time comes, and I hope and pray it never happens, that these officers need to go into a shooting incident, and they don’t have the tools, and they call for (local police) backup, and officers are 15, 20 minutes away … that’s not good,” he said at the meeting. “The immediate response is what we need.”

Parents Kevin and Tricia Hedahl opposed the proposed policy, citing the extensive preparation necessary to safely deploy less-lethal tools and assault rifles usually reserved for war. State law requires the military equipment policy to list necessary training, if there is any, for each weapon.

Kevin Hedahl served in the U.S. Army’s Second Ranger Battalion’s Special Ops unit from 1999 to 2003, and said in an interview that he used the same type of weapons used by Twin Rivers school police in Afghanistan and in the Middle East to breach doors and in combat.

“To be trained to utilize them in a way that we wouldn’t be just randomly killing people was a 24-7 amount of training. We were doing live fire drills on a weekly basis,” he said. “The idea that a police force has access and is able to use these weapons with just this tiny little bit of training just blew me away.”

Others argued that arming campus cops could signal to families that the district sees their kids as dangerous. Diane Roberts, an English teacher at Grant Union High School, said the board should consider how families of Black and Latino students — who comprise over half of the district — feel about assault weapons on campus.

“I think really, really well-trained teachers and school counselors who can do interventions ahead of time is going to be more impactful and help students so much more than (military weapons),” Tricia Hedahl said in an interview. “Conflict resolution and focusing on de-escalation is going to keep so many more people safe and keep it from happening in the first place.”

Colleges, K-12 schools break the same rules

In July, CalMatters uncovered a massive inventory of military-grade weapons and tools owned by police at the state’s public colleges and universities, and determined that many of the campuses had failed to abide by the state’s strict transparency rules. CalMatters’ continued investigation shows similar failures among K-12 district police forces.

Once military-grade equipment — like less-lethal shotguns, flashbang grenades and drones — is in police hands, that department is required to compile an annual report containing an updated inventory, a summary of equipment uses and filed complaints, the year’s maintenance costs, and an index of planned equipment purchases. The report, filed with the governing body, must also be posted online. Within 30 days of publication, the department must hold a forum where the public can discuss the report and ask questions.

Before CalMatters asked for these reports, five K-12 school police forces — Apple Valley, Fontana, Los Angeles, San Bernardino and San Diego — had not published them in the past year.

Stockton and Montebello published reports in 2025. But even though Montebello held a meeting in April this year, it only published its 2026 report online for public viewing after several inquiries from CalMatters in July. The Stockton Unified School District communications office declined to comment on whether its police department held an equipment forum in 2025.

Twin Rivers police held the mandated forum this year. The Santa Ana school police department, which released its first equipment report this year, did not respond to repeated phone and email inquiries into whether its district held the required meeting. This district’s report also did not list the currently-owned quantities of rifle and bean bag munitions or quantities of less-lethal launchers the department plans to buy.

A Santa Ana Unified School District Police Department equipment summary from 2026 lists M4 rifles, ammunition, 12-gauge less-lethal bean bag rounds, command vehicles and firearm supplies in its arsenal.

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Santa Ana, Twin Rivers and Montebello’s equipment policies also do not state how civilians can submit feedback and complaints, which the law requires.

Dan Garcia, Montebello’s Administration Services director, told CalMatters the public can express concerns at police town halls and district board meetings. Gerald at Twin Rivers said complaint forms can be mailed or delivered in-person at school. Santa Ana school police did not respond to repeated inquiries about their policy’s missing details.

Some districts are uncertain over what qualifies for reporting

State law requires military equipment documents to be available online, but the Fontana and Apple Valley school districts both said CalMatters would have to get the documents through public record requests.

Initially, on Aug. 4, Fontana’s public records department stated campus police do not own any military equipment. When CalMatters asked if they were certain, the district responded on Aug. 10 that they would update their 2024 equipment report and submit it to their district board of education this September.

San Bernardino school police also said at first that they have no military equipment. When CalMatters asked again, the district sent an equipment report a few days later.

Under the law, all pieces of military equipment need to be listed in a use policy, along with manufacturer descriptions, necessary training, costs and rules for using the items. The policy must also spell out possible penalties for policy violations.

Campus cops do not have to reveal their taser inventory to the public under the military equipment law. For example, the El Rancho Unified School District told CalMatters that campus police carry Axon TASER 7 devices, which they say provide a less-lethal option if force is necessary, but this information is not required to be disclosed.

However, a 2025 policy from Apple Valley Unified categorizes its tasers, semi-automatic rifles, sponge launchers and munitions as military equipment, but lists no other information about those devices. The district told CalMatters its police department has never produced an inventory report, adding that its tasers and rifles are exempt from the state law, which only requires police to report non-standard semi-automatic rifles and Taser Shockwave devices.

Along with the aforementioned districts, 11 other California public school districts — plus Victor Valley Union High School — operate their own police departments. Several of them, including Victor Valley and the Clovis and Hesperia districts, have published military equipment policies but told CalMatters they don’t own such equipment nor plan to purchase it. Compton Unified attracted criticism from local residents in 2014 when it authorized campus police to carry AR-15s, though district spokesperson John Stouffer said the department never bought them.

Fontana and San Bernardino both told CalMatters they would make and publicize the necessary reports as the school year begins. So did San Diego school police, which submitted a new report to its district’s board of education in August after two years without one.

Phoebe Huss is a contributor with the College Journalism Network, a collaboration between CalMatters and student journalists from across California. CalMatters higher education coverage is supported by a grant from the College Futures Foundation.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.