What it means that “rebellious” Republicans are forcing an immigration vote, 7.3-million international tourists visited SoCal last year, San Diego's tide light show.
California Republicans go against GOP to push immigration vote
California is home to more than 240,000 DACA recipients. All of them are waiting for the courts to decide the future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program after President Trump ended the program last year.
Trump gave legislators in Washington D.C. a March 5 deadline to pass new immigration laws but that deadline has come and gone and the House has yet to pass anything.
Impatient with the immigration debate stalled in the House, a group of Republicans, led by California Congressman Jeff Denham, are trying to force the process along. They're invoking a bit of an unconventional political maneuvering called a Discharge Petition which may lead to a Queen of the Hill vote.
While the terms sound like dialogue from "The Crown," they're actually not totally unheard of in American politics. If Rep. Denham can recruit 214 members to sign his Discharge Petition, a Queen of the Hill vote will be triggered, meaning Congress would be forced to immediately vote on four proposed immigration bills.
Forcing the hand of fellow Republicans
Rep. Denham and his Republican colleagues are certainly stirring the pot within the GOP. Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, has markedly not taken up the immigration debate. Some fellow California Republicans have voiced criticism of the Discharge strategy, but Denham said D.C. has had its chance to make reform on its own.
"We've been waiting for things to take their course for 30 years now," said Rep. Denham. "Both parties have had control of both houses and the presidency and never take this issue up."
Denham is up for re-election this year in a district that voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. Democrats are working hard to unseat representatives like Denham, and with his narrow win of five percentage points in 2016, sticking his neck out over immigration will catch voters' attention.
Bucking mainstream Republicans does not appear to faze Denham. "I'm willing to stand up to my party when they're wrong," said Denham. "I'm not here to keep a job. I'm here to find solutions."
Ryan rejects effort to force DACA vote
— POLITICO (@politico)
Ryan rejects effort to force DACA vote https://t.co/jKhu7rG6Sk pic.twitter.com/QnGgPc5IkY
— POLITICO (@politico) May 10, 2018
Denham has historically been in support of protecting DACA and cited the contribution to the California workforce made by program recipients.
"To come out of the shadows and put yourself out there like that, we're driving for a permanent fix," said Denham. While bucking against many within the GOP in his support of DACA, Denham takes a more conventional stance on border security.
"Over the last decades, there's been a promise from both Republicans and Democrats," added Denham. "Now's the time to get it done."
Both DACA and border security will be at the forefront of future immigration reform.
Finding a middle ground on immigration
Compromise appears to be elusive in Washington these days, but that's what will, at least in part, need to happen to pass any new legislation around immigration. Enforcement of current immigration laws and strengthening border security will attract Republican support.
Fixing our nation’s broken immigration system shouldn’t be a partisan issue. That’s why, I signed a Discharge Petition to force the House of Representatives to vote on critical immigration policy. We must repair our system, protect DACA recipients, and secure our borders.
— Rep. David Valadao (@RepDavidValadao)
Fixing our nation’s broken immigration system shouldn’t be a partisan issue. That’s why, I signed a discharge petition to force the House of Representatives to vote on critical immigration policy. We must repair our system, protect DACA recipients, and secure our borders. pic.twitter.com/9T4z9KCiMN
— Rep. David Valadao (@RepDavidValadao) May 9, 2018
Denham is hopeful protection for DACA will garner bipartisan support.
"This is not a red state-blue state issue as much as members going home and talking about it in their district," Denham said.
The Discharge Petition establishes a new deadline for lawmakers to pass immigration legislation. If a vote is not scheduled in the coming weeks, the Discharge Petition can set into motion as early as June 25. Denham and his colleagues present the end of June as a hard deadline for the legislature to take action.
"The real question is, 'What do you want to do to get a solution here on immigration policy?'" asked Denham. "Even if there are differences between members on what their solution is, they've got to at least be able to drive the debate, and that's exactly what we're trying to do."
Psychotropic drug use up sharply as jails house more people with mental illness
Listen here to Anna Gorman discuss her story on KQED.
A sharp increase in the use of psychotropic drugs in California’s county jails coincides with a growing population of inmates who suffer from mental illness.
There are various reasons why more people with mental health problems have landed in jail in recent years. A 2011 federal order requiring California’s state prisons to reduce overcrowding generated a big influx of inmates — many with psychiatric conditions — into county jails. A state proposition three years later reclassified some felonies as misdemeanors, which sent the perpetrators to jails rather than state prison.
Moreover, a shortage of community mental health services — and of psych beds — have turned jails into repositories for people with acute mental illness. Jails and state prisons now house far more people with mental health needs than psychiatric hospitals, and L.A. County’s jail system is considered the largest mental health institution in the United States.
Housing so many hard-to-manage people in such tight spaces is an immense challenge for jail officials. Inmates often resort to violence, self-mutilation, even suicide. In some cases, inmates don’t get sufficient medication to keep their conditions in check. Or medication might be used to sedate and calm difficult inmates.
This thorny problem was the subject of a story by Anna Gorman that ran May 4 on California Healthline. She discussed the topic in an interview Friday with Tara Siler of KQED News.
Homeless housing: OC to pay non-profit $1.6 million to help 60 of the most vulnerable
Back in February, officials in the OC dislodged about 700 homeless people who were camped along the Santa Ana Riverbed. In April, another 200 were moved from the city's Civic Center. Many were housed in motels before getting placed into shelters.
Now, Supervisors in Orange County will set aside $1.6 million over the next six months to put about 60 of those people on track for permanent housing. But the way they're doing it is a little bit different.
The funds will go to an Irvine-based non-profit organization called The Illumination Foundation — a group that Supervisor Andrew Do says touts a 90% success rate after a year of treatment.
To track their progress, the county set a goal: if the group can get 36 people, or about 60%, into permanent housing by late October, the county could renew the program for another six months.
Supervisor Do says they'll target the people who are most challenging to help.
Most of them an interplay of multiple conditions, whether it be a physical ailment, or substance abuse, or addictions, or mental, behavioral health issues. When we treat individuals with occurring conditions, it's hard to tease out if we have to go to separate providers to provide different kinds of care. There is no coordination, and so the patient ends up being caught in between.
The concept with the Illumination Foundation is recuperative care, meaning wrap-around services, doing whatever it takes to overcome their conditions.
Check your mirrors: May is Motorcycle Awareness Month
If you're driving anywhere in California this weekend, you might see those electronic highway message signs encouraging you to "Share the road. Look twice for motorcyclists."
It's a reminder the state puts out every year during Motorcycle Awareness Month because "we don't have the metal cage around us that an automobile or a truck driver would have," said Peter Horst, a spokesman with the American Motorcyclist Assn. That's the organization that launched the Awareness Month back in the '80s because drivers of cars and trucks often don't see them.
May is Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month and the CHP along with the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) will work together to help reduce the number of fatal and injury collisions involving motorcyclists by encouraging roadway safety through education and awareness. pic.twitter.com/aEuuMLkSuj
— CHP - West Valley (@CHPWestValley) May 1, 2018
And the reason they don't see them is because motorcycles are small and easily hidden in a vehicle's blind spots. But there's another problem: distracted driving.
It's already one of the leading causes of crashes between vehicles. Nearly 3,500 lives are lost every year to drivers who divert their attention from the road even for a few seconds. More than half of all motorcycle crashes involve another vehicle, often with dire consequences.
"If you look at collisions involving multiple vehicles, often the other vehicle that strikes a motorcyclist violates the right of way," said Rob Gladden, vice president of the Motorcycle Safety Foundation in Irvine.
Motorcyclists make up just 3 percent of all registered vehicles and less than a single percent of vehicle miles traveled in the U.S., according to the National Safety Council. But motorcyclists accounted for 13% of all traffic fatalities in 2016.
"We anecdotally hear from our members all the time about how much more aware they are of distracted driving taking place around them," said the AMA's terHorst again.
More than two in five drivers reported reading text messages or emails while driving in the past 30 days, and nearly one in three drivers admitted to typing text messages or emails while driving. That's according to the 2016 Traffic Safety Culture Index compiled by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.
Because of that, terHorst said the AMA supports stricter penalties.
"We support legislation at the state level that would include enhanced penalty options … an enhanced fine, license suspension for the operator, points assessed on an operator's record, community service or even potentially imprisonment."
But good luck proving it. In California, which already has laws banning texting while driving and prohibiting driving while using handheld cell phones, enforcement is a challenge. Because the laws don't prevent distracted driving, per se, but the behaviors it may cause – like speeding, reckless driving or unsafe lane changes.
So how can all road users do what California's electronic billboards will be asking us to do this weekend, to share the road and look for motorcyclists?
Motorcyclists can slow down and wear the right safety gear.
And drivers? They can check their mirrors and blind spots before changing lanes, maintain a safe distance when following motorcycles and pay particular attention when making left turns, according to the AMA.
"Look beyond the motorcycle and look at the human being operating the motorcycle," said Gladden, with the MSF.
"Inside that helmet is somebody's dad, somebody's mom, somebody's brother or sister, their child, maybe their favorite teacher at school."
San Diego beaches are glowing in the dark. Here's why
Down toward San Diego, the ocean is glowing. For the past several days, after the sun sets, waves from La Jolla to Carlsbad have been lit up in a bright neon blue.
"If you're in the water swimming, you see all these sparkles of light from the individual organism," says Michael Latz, a marine biologist specializing in bioluminescence at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego.
A red tide offshore San Diego is bringing a spectacular display of #bioluminescence to beaches at night, as captured in this photo by John H. Moore. Scripps scientist Michael Latz said the red tide is due to massive numbers of dinoflagellates including Lingulodinium polyedra. 🌊 pic.twitter.com/JnSlXGBuEs
— Scripps Institution of Oceanography (@Scripps_Ocean) May 8, 2018
The cause is a rare red tide algae bloom filled with microscopic glow-in-the-dark plankton.
They illuminate as a defense mechanism against predators.
"So a predator grabs them to try and eat them," says Latz, "and they respond with a flash of light to disrupt the feeding."
But any strong force will trigger this response, including being tossed around by breaking waves.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bij9Sk4l4pH/?taken-by=evgenyyorobephotography
Researchers don't know much about the conditions that can cause this because it happens infrequently – the last instance was a week in 2013. So it's hard to predict.
When it does happen, it can be difficult for scientists to drop everything that they're currently working on to focus on it. And it's uncertain how long this current event will last.
"We're having the weather change now where it's not nice, bright and sunny," says Latz.
The lack of daylight might affect how much of that glow-in-the-dark plankton gathers near the surface.
But citizens can help out while it's here.
Latz asks that people contact him to say where they're seeing the lights and how bright they are.
"We don't know the full spatial extent of the event," he says. "I've heard it reported as far north as Carlsbad, but maybe it's further north."
LA tourism didn't drop after Trump's travel ban because of this country
The L.A. Tourism and Convention Board was worried last year. It feared that foreign tourists would no longer feel welcomed in the U.S. after President Trump announced a travel ban on visitors from certain countries.
On top of that, the board thought the heightened debate on illegal immigration would discourage visitors from Mexico, too.
So it projected L.A. could miss out on roughly $220 million without those tourist dollars.
But not only did people keep coming to Los Angeles, 7.3 million international tourists visited Southern California last year – a 3.2 percent increase over the year before.
"Asia is really, really the bright spot for us," says Ernest Wooden, CEO of the L.A. Tourism and Convention Board.
Visits from Mexico did dip – though not as much as feared.
However, a jump in tourists from China (and to a lesser extent South Korea) mitigated any losses.
Approximately 1.2 million Chinese visitors came to L.A. in 2017, an 11 percent increase over the year before.
"We project that within the next four to five years, Chinese visitation to Los Angeles may actually exceed our number one visitor, which is Mexico," Wooden says.
Tourism from South Korea increased 15.3 percent over the same period, too, with 341,000 visitors.
"Around the Pacific Rim, we're sort of a bucket-list destination," he explains. "People will say, 'One day, I want to come to Hollywood.'"