The Brief

All week, delivery trucks filled with pieces of imagineered buildings have been dropping off precious cargo at the OC Fair and Event Center in preparation for the Orange County Sustainability Decathlon.

It's a competition inspired by the Department of Energy’s own Solar Decathlon, which the agency has been hosting biennially since 2002. Much like their predecessor, the OCSD will be tasking teams of college-age students with not just designing, but building “sustainable homes.”

The inaugural event will be held in two waves — Oct. 5-8 and Oct. 12-15 — featuring the usual conference fare: speakers, art installations, workshops for children and parents alike, and refreshments. But it’s the main event — the Decathlon itself — that its organizers hope will be a big draw and keep people coming back for years to come.

How it started

Mike Moodian and Fred Smoller are Chapman University professors and co-founders of the OCSD. Smoller told LAist's daily news program "AirTalk," which airs on 89.3 FM, that if you want to make a difference, starting in Orange County is the perfect place.

“My mantra…if you want to change the world, you change the United States, you want to change the United States, you change California, and if you want to change California, you start in Southern California," Smoller said.

The pair didn’t necessarily set out to make Orange County the site of their competition. Moodian says he and Smoller “went up and down the state…we were kicked out of every single big city mayor’s office” looking for a legislative champion, but it was their own backyards where their idea eventually took root.

They said once Democratic State Sen. Dave Min, who represents cities like Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach, caught wind of the project, he was quick to join them on the journey and secured a $5-million budget appropriation to begin the project.

Meet the contestants

Applicants chosen from 14 schools across California and the country were given $100,000 in seed money, and a year-and-a-half to raise more and put together the engineering teams to fully realize their home builds. Now, they'll be competing to see which squad built the most sustainable home, and winners of the Decathlon will get the satisfaction of victory over some of their best and brightest peers.

The teams are comprised mostly of college students, some of them local like Cal Poly Pomona, UC Irvine, and CSU Long Beach, but the competition also includes students from as far east as Virginia and Tennessee — even one team from China — who have traveled to Costa Mesa to show off their engineering skills.

Industry professionals will judge the teams across six categories: sustainability, architecture, engineering, marketing, innovation, and market potential. Four other categories of energy efficiency, water use, health, and lighting will be graded on their performances. So, 10 total categories — hence, a decathlon.

Students at work constructing their "sustainable home" for the California State University, Long Beach team.

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Courtesy Mike Moodian

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One of the schools competing is a trade school from Salinas in Northern California made up of underprivileged youth between 16 and 24 years old. The Rancho Cielo Construction Academy shipped their home to the events center in three sections, and are now using the strength of the entire team to stitch it back together. Once the competition is over, the house will be shipped back to Salinas and installed as housing for a staff member on campus.

A 'Scudder Roofing' pickup truck is parked in front of Ranchio Cielo Construction Academy's submission into the Orange County Sustainability Decathlon. 'Scudder Roofing' is one of the companies that partnered with the RCCA in the build of their home.

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Courtesy Mike Moodian

)

Other teams like the UC Santa Cruz EcoHus are presenting more unconventional projects. “UC Santa Cruz is designing what we could best describe as a house within a greenhouse that's completely off the grid,” Mike Moodian said.

The University of California Santa Cruz's EcoHus under reconstruction. OCSD co-founder Mike Moodian described it as a "house within a greenhouse."

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Courtesy Mike Moodian

)

Minting the next generation of sustainable engineers

The competition also presents students with opportunities to show off their work both to the consuming public and industry stewards. A job fair will take place on Oct. 13 for students looking to break into the sustainable engineering business, and attendees to the free conference can tour the one-story, twelve hundred square feet designs on selected dates during the competition.

Moodian and Smoller say if all goes well, they want to host the event in Orange County again in 2025. Ultimately, they said, their goals sit at the cross-section of sustainable development in the face of a growing climate crisis and their passion for educating younger generations through the direct application of skills they’re paying so much to learn in college.

“Most teachers recognize that if you want students to really learn, you give them an outrageously difficult challenge…like build a home in two years and bring it to Orange County to show," Smoller said.

Listen to the conversation

With contributions from Matt Dangelantonio.

This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

It’s official: Eight Democrats and two Republicans say they have filed paperwork for the June 2 primary ballot in the California governor's race, setting up a wide-open contest in which two Republicans who have consistently led in polls could shut out all other Democrats.

Here are the 10 candidates:

• Xavier Becerra, Democrat, former U.S. Health and Human Services secretary and former California Attorney General
• Chad Bianco, Republican, Riverside County Sheriff
• Steve Hilton, Republican, Fox News contributor and former adviser to conservative British prime minister David Cameron
• Matt Mahan, Democrat, mayor of San Jose
• Katie Porter, Democrat, former U.S. representative representing Orange County
• Tom Steyer, Democrat, billionaire entrepreneur and former presidential candidate
• Eric Swalwell, Democrat, U.S. representative from the Bay Area
• Tony Thurmond, Democrat, state superintendent of public instruction
• Antonio Villaraigosa, Democrat, former mayor of Los Angeles and former Assembly Speaker
• Betty Yee, Democrat, former state Controller

Steyer became the last to officially file on Friday, the deadline for submitting candidacy paperwork.

Former Assembly Majority Leader Ian Calderon exited the race earlier this week, endorsing Swalwell instead.

What's next?

The secretary of state’s office says it will verify the paperwork their campaigns submitted and publish an official list of primary candidates by March 21.

The top two vote recipients in the primary, regardless of party, will advance to the general election. But the two Republican frontrunners enjoy more consolidated support from their base than their Democratic counterparts, who risk fragmenting the Democratic vote. At the February state Democratic Party convention, delegates were so split that no candidate earned enough votes for the party endorsement.

With the current field, there’s a 27% chance of a Republican faceoff in November, according to statistical modeling by Democratic strategist Paul Mitchell.

The prospect is worrisome for many Democratic leaders, including state party leader Rusty Hicks, who earlier this week penned an open letter calling for those without a “viable path” to victory to drop out before the Friday deadline to file paperwork. And for those who remained, he pleaded, drop out by April 15 at the very latest if they couldn’t make “meaningful progress.”

The call appeared to fall on deaf ears, as eight of the nine announced Democratic candidates stayed in. Even if someone drops out now, their name will still appear on the primary ballot as long as they qualify, risking siphoning votes away from other Democrats.

Discounting the risk

When asked about the risk of a November shutout at a Thursday gubernatorial forum, several Democratic candidates brushed it aside while insisting they each would be voters’ best choice.

Villaraigosa told CalMatters the GOP base will coalesce behind just one candidate when President Donald Trump makes an endorsement.

“When that happens, that person is going to surge up and the other (Republican is) going to go down, it’s as simple as that,” he said.

Of the Democratic attendees at the forum, only Porter acknowledged the risk of a crowded field of Democrats.

“I think it is terrifying to think about what Trump would do to Californians if we had a governor who at every turn cooperated with him rather than stood up for our California values,” she said. “So I don’t think it’s a certainty, but I do think it’s a risk, and I think the stakes are very, very, very high.”

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

James A. Garfield High School in East Los Angeles is headed to state after winning the Los Angeles Unified School District’s 45th annual Academic Decathlon.
The Eastside school claimed the top prize — the Superintendent’s Trophy — earning 44,336.10 points out of 60,000 points. Abraham Lincoln High in Lincoln Heights scored 40,181.70 and is among the eight LAUSD schools advancing to the state competition.

The LAUSD teams will compete at the California Academic Decathlon on March 19-22 in Santa Clara. 

Decathletes representing Garfield High are Derek Dominguez, Ana Santos, Davian Valladares, Joseph Villa, Liana Lopez, Julie Lopez, David Ventura, Kimberly Palacios, and Briana Zuniga.

Villa was among the top students who earned the highest district-wide scores, coming in third with 8,267.5 points out of 10,000 points.

Board member Rocío Rivas, who represents East LA, said Garfield’s win “reflects the real progress taking shape across our district and the momentum we’re

building as they represent our communities at the California Academic Decathlon.”

The district said it holds 23 state titles – more than any district in California – and 19 national titles. 

“At Los Angeles Unified, we are proud to represent one of the most diverse student communities in the nation,” said Academic Decathlon Regional Director Dr. Neena Agnihotri in a statement.

“Our Decathletes come from many cultures, languages, and life experiences, and that diversity is one of our greatest strengths,” Agnihotri said.

Also competing in the California Academic Decathlon are: Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies, Van Nuys High School, John Marshall High School, Bell High School, The Science Academy STEM Magnet and Dr. Richard A. Vladovic Harbor Teacher Preparation Academy.

This story appeared first on LA Local.

FIFA World Cup organizers expect more than 150,000 extra visitors to flood the Los Angeles area during eight World Cup games this summer, and all of them are going to need places to sleep.

AirBnB, the short-term rental giant, is kicking up its efforts to recruit more properties to the platform by offering a $750 bonus to first-time hosts in World Cup cities.

The company courted new hosts with lunch and a special workshop Thursday at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, where the games will be played. Other short-term rental companies — like Vrbo and Booking.com — are also promoting rentals near World Cup stadiums.

Renting out houses, apartments and rooms in Los Angeles and Inglewood is less of a cavalier process than it was a decade ago.

Lawmakers in many places have developed tighter short-term rental regulations in hopes of cracking down on neighborhood disruption, collecting more tax dollars and preventing scarce housing stock from being converted into full-time vacation rentals.

If you’re a local who is hoping to make a few extra bucks by renting out your place this summer, here are three tips to get you started, straight from active short-term rental hosts and property managers.

Get the ball rolling soon

It takes time to get a space properly listed for short-term rental.

Many local governments, including the city and county of L.A., as well as Inglewood, require hosts to apply for permits. Approvals can take two to four weeks in the city of L.A., said Lisa Giuntoli, whose company Nonpareil Stays manages 45 short-term rentals in the area.

Giuntoli said short-term rental listings perform better in web searches the longer they remain online, and for the World Cup, in particular, visitors are booking places well in advance.

“It takes a minute to get up to speed,” she said. “If you’re interested, do it now.”

Do your homework on local rules

Each local government sets its own guidelines for short-term rentals. Several have revamped their ordinances in recent years.

Hosts can bear some responsibility for how their rentals affect the neighborhood. Inglewood, along with the city and county of L.A., requires permitted hosts to keep their renters up to speed on noise regulations and other local rules.

Not everyone can get a permit. Inglewood requires permit applicants to have lived within the city for 10 consecutive years. In the city of L.A., secondary residences and rent-stabilized properties aren’t eligible to become short-term rentals.

Perrita King, a Leimert Park resident, said she has still been able to keep her extra space listed by renting to people looking to stay longer than a month, such as traveling nurses.

If you live in the city of LA, you can check here to see if your property falls under rent stabilization.

If the logistics seem daunting, consider a specialist

If you’re not interested in waking up at 1 a.m. to help out a renter who lost their key, there are a few different ways to hire a specialized short-term rental manager.

Companies like Nonpareil Stays manage portfolios of dozens of short-term rentals. King, the Leimert Park host, said she goes through a web-based company called Fairly.

You can also narrow your search through Airbnb’s co-host network, which allows you to filter prospective managers by location and other factors.

Longtime Republican Rep. Darrell Issa will not seek reelection, he announced Friday.

His decision comes four months after his San Diego-area congressional district was redrawn to favor Democrats and shortly after San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond, a Republican, filed papers to run in the same district.

Issa, a longtime GOP stalwart, said he was endorsing Desmond in a statement announcing his decision to retire.

“This decision has been on my mind for a while, and I didn’t make it lightly,” he said. “But after a quarter-century in Congress — and before that, a quarter-century in business — it’s the right time for a new chapter and new challenges.”

A history of reshuffling

Issa represented the San Diego area in Congress for more than 20 years. He briefly retired in 2019 when his seat, now represented by Democrat Mike Levin, became more competitive. He returned to Congress in 2021 after winning a seat in the 50th District, which was redrawn after statewide redistricting later that year. He moved to his current seat in the 48th District in 2023.

The newly configured seat attracted a slew of Democratic challengers after it became more competitive when voters approved Proposition 50 last fall. The redistricting measure was designed to give Democrats up to five additional seats in the U.S. House and counter similar redistricting efforts in other states that favored Republicans.

Desmond had previously announced that he would run in the 49th District against Levin.

“They drew me into this district, but the truth is I’ve been serving this community for years,” Desmond said in a statement to CalMatters. Prior to Prop. 50, Desmond lived in the 49th District. He now lives in the 48th. “I’ll fight every single day to make life more affordable, more safe and more free.”

Crowded field of Democrats

In the 48th District, two Democratic candidates — Ammar Campa-Najjar, a former opponent of Issa's, and San Diego City Councilmember Marni von Wilpert — lead a crowded field eager to flip the district blue. No candidate garnered enough support for the party’s endorsement last month.

California Republicans have been reshuffling for months as their districts were redrawn.

Republican Rep. Ken Calvert, one of the longest-serving members in Congress, is now running in the 40th District against Republican incumbent Young Kim of Orange County. His present district, the neighboring 41st, was moved entirely out of conservative pockets of Riverside County to Los Angeles County.

Issa briefly contemplated a congressional run in Texas in December after the new districts were created but decided against it.