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Twenty-one species, including birds, a bat and several mussels, have been labeled extinct, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said this week.
The backstory: The species were previously on the national list of threatened and endangered species.
Where things stand: There are now 650 species that have gone extinct in the U.S., according to the Center for Biological Diversity, which says factors such as climate change, pollution and invasive species contribute to species loss.
Twenty-one species, including birds, a bat and several mussels, have been labeled extinct, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Monday.
The species were previously on the national list of threatened and endangered species.
The extinct species include:
"Our determinations of whether the best available information indicates that a species is extinct included an analysis of the following criteria: detectability of the species, adequacy of survey efforts, and time since last detection," the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife first proposed the species be taken off the endangered and threatened list in 2021, as they had not been seen since as early as 1899 and as late as 2004.
There are now 650 species that have gone extinct in the U.S., according to the Center for Biological Diversity, which says factors such as climate change, pollution and invasive species contribute to species loss.
Between 2004 and 2022, climate change effects contributed to 39% of amphibian species moving closer to extinction. About 3 billion birds have been decimated in North America since 1970, Fish and Wildlife said.
Still, 99% of the animals on the endangered and threatened list have not reached extinction. Fifty-four have been taken off the list due to recovery efforts, while 56 have been downgraded from endangered to threatened, Fish and Wildlife said.
"Federal protection came too late to reverse these species' decline, and it's a wake-up call on the importance of conserving imperiled species before it's too late," Fish and Wildlife Director Martha Williams said. "As we commemorate 50 years of the Endangered Species Act this year, we are reminded of the Act's purpose to be a safety net that stops the journey toward extinction. The ultimate goal is to recover these species, so they no longer need the Act's protection."
The Hawaiian honeycreepers are now extinct due to their forest habitat being cut down for development and agriculture. Mosquitoes, which are not native to Hawaii, also spread avian pox and avian malaria.
Other Hawaiian birds, such as the 'akikiki, are also on the brink of extinction, with as little as five known pairs in the wild, the Center for Biological Diversity said.
According to the Center for Biological Diversity, the Bachman's warbler was also lost to habitat destruction and the bridled white-eye and Mariana fruit bat was lost to an invasive brown tree snake.
The Mariana fruit bat was also compromised by agriculture and overconsumption as food. The San Marcos gambusia suffered from water overuse that impacted groundwater supply and spring flow. The scioto madtom was lost to runoff and silt buildup from dams.
Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit npr.org.
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L.A. County District Attorney Nathan Hochman promised attendees of a town hall Tuesday night that MacArthur Park will see “amazing progress” in public safety before the 2028 Olympic Games.
The backstory: Joint drug enforcement operations by the LAPD and federal agencies targeted the area for months earlier this year. Law enforcement officials and community members told LAist they saw improvements after the operations but have seen crime return to the park in recent weeks.
Call for community involvement: Hochman told residents to “feel free to put the fire under the feet of our politicians” to keep their attention on safety issues at the park. He also urged community organizations to hold regular events there to “take the park back,” making it known as a place for families rather than open-air drug use.
Read on ... for more about issues discussed at the town hall.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman promised at a Tuesday night town hall that MacArthur Park will see “amazing progress” in public safety before the 2028 Olympic Games.
Several community members told LAist they have seen crime return to the Los Angeles park after months of joint drug enforcement operations by the Los Angeles Police Department and federal agencies. Those efforts led to dozens of arrests for alleged drug sales in the area.
An LAPD captain attending the town hall confirmed to LAist that the department is aware of renewed safety problems.
Hochman acknowledged those concerns and said the recent operations made progress and created an opportunity for lasting change.
“If we keep this focus and the energy on this area, MacArthur Park, Skid Row and everything in between,” Hochman said, “then we will see amazing progress before the Olympics, and that is actually a promise.”
Hochman previously promised, during a drug enforcement operation on June 4, to have a picnic at the park on Labor Day. Hochman told attendees he kept that promise when he held an event at the park on Sept. 5 with other local and federal law enforcement officials.
As district attorney, Hochman works with law enforcement agencies to prosecute criminal cases in L.A. County. He said that it will take more work from policymakers and community members to remove the open-air drug market that has been entrenched there for decades.
The area is represented by L.A. City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, County Supervisor Hilda Solis, state Assemblymember Mark González and state Sen. María Elena Durazo. Staff members from some of those offices, and the mayor’s office, sat in on the town hall organized by the local nonprofit California Rising.
“Feel free to put the fire under the feet of our politicians,” Hochman told about two dozen residents who attended. “All too often it is easy to spend some effort on something and then get distracted and spend some effort somewhere else.”
Some residents and business owners agreed with Hochman that the large-scale drug enforcement operations from March through June made the area feel safer, at least for a while.
“It was temporary, but we got to see, actually, families at the bus stops with their kids — before it wasn't like that,” Elaine Alaniz told LAist Tuesday. “I think it does help us, but on the other hand I still think that we need more help. It's not just a one, two, three-day thing.”
Alaniz lives nearby and is the president of the Westlake North Neighborhood Council, which begins a block northeast of MacArthur Park.
She said she has seen some crime move away from the park and into the surrounding neighborhoods.
Capt. Ben Fernandes, who leads LAPD’s Rampart Division, said the earlier operations were successful, but there have been some setbacks.
“We made a lot of headway in the beginning,” he said. “There are some issues that we've had some repopulation, especially with addicts.”
Fernandes said that the department will continue to arrest people suspected of selling drugs near the park, while connecting people who are addicted with services to help them get sober and off the streets.
Hochman and Fernandes each emphasized that making MacArthur Park a safe and welcoming place can’t be done by law enforcement alone.
“My advice: take the park back — it's your park,” Hochman said at the town hall, calling for community organizations to plan regular outings there. “That starts to send a message that the community really cares about this park.”
He asked that performers like Justin Bieber, who played an impromptu set in the park last month, have more events there as well.
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Fernandes said people can get involved to change perceptions about MacArthur Park so it's no longer thought of as a place to go to score drugs.
“What we need to do is — we as a community — come together and show [people using drugs] that it's not their place to go,” he said. “That you're going to be there with your children, with your parishioners, with your friends, with your family.”
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Early reservations for the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center open to the public next week, the California Science Center announced Wednesday. The center is space shuttle Endeavour’s new permanent home in Exposition Park.
When: Members of the museum will get first access starting at 9:30 a.m. Monday, Oct. 19. The general public can make reservations starting at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 21.
The details: You’ll be able to make a reservation online here or by calling 213-744-2019 when the time comes. You can make up to 19 individual reservations for each entry time. Guests with 20 or more people need to call the number above for a group reservation.
The cost: General admission is free, but reservations are strongly encouraged. A $4 reservation service fee will be applied per person. The fee is waived for California Science Center members, which you can learn more about here.
The backstory: The new center is a 200,000-square-foot addition to the California Science Center. Endeavour is the towering centerpiece — standing about 20 stories tall in the Samuel Oschin Shuttle Gallery, one of three main galleries filled with hands-on exhibits and authentic aerospace artifacts.
“The Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center fulfills a decades-long dream and provides us with our biggest platform yet to stimulate curiosity and inspire science learning in everyone,” Jeff Rudolph, president and CEO of the California Science Center, said in a statement.
What's next: The Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center officially opens Nov. 13.
Go deeper: California Science Center visitors will see space shuttle Endeavour in launch position this fall
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Inglewood city officials are launching an audit of their financial relationship with SoFi Stadium and claiming the stadium could owe years of ticket taxes, one month after a judge voided the 2015 contract that brought the stadium to Inglewood.
Why it matters: Millions of dollars are at stake for both the city and the stadium businesses. City officials say that the ruling means a cap that limited the amount of admissions tax that Inglewood could collect no longer applies. They also plan to investigate the authenticity of $376 million worth of infrastructure bills Hollywood Park claims the city owes. The findings of the audit could also factor into discussions of how the city will address its current $30.8 million deficit. Admissions tax has been a sizable revenue stream for the city — bringing in an average $20 million a year since SoFi Stadium opened — but city officials have said it could be significantly bigger. A city analysis of Measure AT estimated that getting rid of the cap could bring in as much as an extra $50 million in future years. The city did not estimate how much admissions tax revenue it has missed out on while the development agreement was in effect.
The backstory: Since last summer, the city and stadiums have been slugging it out in a complex series of court cases over the stadium’s contract and Inglewood’s network of video billboards. The conflict has spilled over into the Nov. 3 election via ballot measures that would change the city’s commercial advertising and ticket tax rules.
Inglewood city officials are launching an audit of their financial relationship with SoFi Stadium and claiming the stadium could owe years of ticket taxes, one month after a judge voided the 2015 contract that brought the stadium to Inglewood.
The Inglewood City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to commission the audit. Mayor James Butts said the move is a necessary next step after the court ruling, which threw the terms of the financial relationship between the city and Hollywood Park stadium development into question.
Millions of dollars are at stake for both the city and the stadium businesses. City officials say that the ruling means a cap that limited the amount of admissions tax that Inglewood could collect no longer applies. They also plan to investigate the authenticity of $376 million worth of infrastructure bills Hollywood Park claims the city owes. The findings of the audit could also factor into discussions of how the city will address its current $30.8 million deficit.
The City Council motion — put forward by Butts and co-sponsored by Councilmember Dionne Faulk — requires the city attorney to retain an accounting firm to conduct the audit and report back to the public on its findings within 30 days. It set aside $325,000 from the city’s General Fund to pay for the audit. You can read the city’s full explanation of the audit here.
Butts, who was at the city’s helm a decade ago when developer Stan Kroenke brought his Hollywood Park pitch to Inglewood, said city officials built what they thought was a partnership with their stadium counterparts.
But that partnership has crumbled. Since last summer, the city and stadiums have been slugging it out in a complex series of court cases over the stadium’s contract and Inglewood’s network of video billboards. The conflict has spilled over into the Nov. 3 election via ballot measures that would change the city’s commercial advertising and ticket tax rules.
The audit approved by the City Council on Tuesday will dig into the entire financial relationship between the stadium and city since 2015, unpacking what is owed and what was received from taxes on everything from tickets to parking. City officials plan to continue auditing the taxes on a quarterly basis into the future.
Still, it’s not guaranteed the city would be able to force the stadium development to pay any debt the audit does claim. Hollywood Park could still appeal the court ruling that voided its contract with Inglewood, while Butts said the city wants to negotiate a new contract to replace it.
A Hollywood Park spokesperson said the stadium development has lived up to its financial obligations, including paying all of its taxes.
“This is yet another thinly veiled attempt to distract from scrutiny surrounding the City’s own fiscal mismanagement and the questionable actions of its Mayor,” the spokesperson wrote in a statement.
Some locals at Tuesday’s meeting said during public comments they were baffled why the city hadn’t set up an audit process earlier.
“We have needed an audit from day one. We can’t sit here and claim we didn’t know or have an inkling what we were doing with Hollywood Park,” Diane Sambrano said.
Speaking during the meeting, Butts said the audit was triggered because of the void left by the development agreement and because major events including the 2027 Super Bowl and 2028 Olympics are about to hit Inglewood.
The mayor first claimed the development agreement was illegal in a letter written directly to Stan Kroenke last year, saying the city’s lawyers made the determination while researching billboard litigation.
After the judge ruled in agreement with the city, Butts told The LA Local that city officials were still researching the specific implications of the court’s ruling. In Tuesday’s council motion, city staff highlighted what they say is one major change they’ve discovered: There’s no longer a limit on how much admissions tax the city can collect.
Inglewood collects a 10% tax on tickets sold at SoFi Stadium, but the 2015 initiative that brought the stadium to the city put a cap on that revenue, starting at $15 million a year and increasing annually with inflation.
The admissions tax cap also happens to be the subject of the current ballot Measure AT. WOW Media, the billboard operator allied with the city in its dispute with the stadium, is funding a campaign in favor of the initiative.
Admissions tax has been a sizable revenue stream for the city — bringing in an average $20 million a year since SoFi Stadium opened — but city officials have said it could be significantly bigger. A city analysis of Measure AT estimated that getting rid of the cap could bring in as much as an extra $50 million in future years. The city did not estimate how much admissions tax revenue it has missed out on while the development agreement was in effect.
The Inglewood audit seeks to clarify basic questions about how taxes are assessed on ticket sales and whether those taxes are actually forwarded to the city. Officials say it will provide transparency about ticket sales, pricing and fees, which have been heavily scrutinized in recent years across the state.
Councilmember Gloria Gray attempted to amend the audit motion Tuesday, asking the city manager to also audit the revenue the city gets from billboard fees.
“I believe the same standard of financial transparency should apply to every city agreement,” Gray said.
Though her motion didn’t receive a second, Councilmember Eloy Morales said he’d support putting a billboard revenue audit on the council’s agenda in the future.
“I think we all support all those audits,” Morales said.
Gray’s move was a rarity for a council that seldom debates motions during public meetings and almost always votes unanimously. The councilmember is currently running for mayor against Butts.
Inglewood pulls in as much as $8 million a year from billboards, according to budget records. Much of that comes from a series of deals the city cut with WOW Media, allowing the billboard company to construct and operate the billboards on public medians and sidewalks. In return, WOW gives the city a cut of ad revenue along with other concessions.
The post Inglewood is investigating if SoFi Stadium owes years’ worth of ticket taxes appeared first on LA Local.
Topline
The Downtown Los Angeles Residents Association will host a mayoral forum Thursday night. It's open to the public.
The details: Incumbent L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and her challenger, City Councilmember Nithya Raman, will appear separately. Each will have 40 minutes to answer questions “directly sourced from downtown residents about the future of our neighborhood,” according to an announcement.
The backstory: Bass is seeking a second four-year term leading the nation’s second largest city. Raman, a one-time Bass ally, is looking to topple her.
Bass has said Raman is too extreme for L.A. — a “risky choice” for voters. Raman has countered that Bass has mismanaged the city and should be ousted.
The event: Organizers say this is a nonpartisan community civic engagement event with a goal of helping downtown voters make informed decisions at the polls. It's also designed to “ensure the Mayor of LA is developing and executing a resident-centered vision for a vibrant, thriving DTLA.”
The forum will be held at Clifton’s at 648 S. Broadway in Los Angeles. It starts at 6 p.m.
RSVP: Space is limited. You can RSVP here. RSVPs close Thursday at noon.
