An Alcatraz takeover, and snow comes to SoCal
Native Americans gather to remember their takeover of Alcatraz Island. Cities move to protect renters from being evicted just weeks before new rent-control laws go into effect.
It's Wednesday's news.
Arlene Martinez writes In California, a daily roundup of stories from newsrooms across the Paste BN Network. Subscribe here.
50 years ago: 19 months at Alcatraz
On this day in 1969, dozens of Native Americans began a 19-month takeover of Alcatraz to demand the U.S. government recognize an 1868 treaty with the Sioux and turn over the island. They were also protesting federal policies that sought to eliminate tribes’ culture and language, and strip them of their land. The stay ended when occupiers were forcibly removed. In the end there would be no island ownership, but the effort "galvanized Native American activists, raised awareness of tribes’ treaty rights and spurred a shift in federal policy toward their self-determination," the Associated Press noted. In June 1971, the federal government announced plans to turn the former prison into a national park. “A dozen parks won’t solve the basic issue of why we took Alcatraz in the first place,” John Trudell, 25, an Indian spokesman, said at the time. “The government has always lied to us and ripped off our rights.”
Native Americans gather on the 50th anniversary of the Alcatraz takeover.
See AP's full Alacatraz 1969 coverage.
A criminal nanny, a crushed dog, medical help
A California nanny promised children would be 'safe' in his care. Instead, he used them in porn videos.
A Venice family says a FedEx driver threw a package over a fence, crushing their tiny dog.
Nonprofit health clinics work to meet health needs of undocumented Koreans.
School's out, but why?
As if schools didn't have enough days off — and BTW, it appears summers off didn't actually stem from farming operations — wildfires and blackouts have led to many more shuttered classrooms. During one week in October alone, more than 460 schools serving an estimated 238,000 students planned to close for at least one day because of PG&E's scheduled outages and the Saddleridge Fire, CalMatters reported. When the Thomas Fire raged into Ventura in 2017, area schools closed for 15 days; it was seven days for some schools near the Woolsey Fire in 2018. That got us wondering: Just how do schools decide to open or close?
Cities move to ban evictions until Jan. 1
Jesse Soll and Angelina McCormick-Soll were preparing to convert a small office to a bedroom for their 9-month-old son when the 90-day eviction notice arrived. And it's not just the growing family who's now scrambling to find a place as the holidays arrive — all 12 tenants at their Ventura apartment complex got the same notice. It's a similar story up and down the state, with advocacy groups reporting a rise in evictions ahead of a new law that caps annual rent increases to 5% plus inflation. More than two dozen cities, including Los Angeles, have banned evictions until Jan. 1. Ventura's elected officials will consider an eviction moratorium of their own on Dec. 2.
What we're talking about
Desert Hot Springs to roosters: Take your cock-a-doodle-doo's outta here.
Oh, the skunky smell: Residents call for end to hemp grows in parts of Ventura County.
Impeachment news: Late-night comic takes aim at Tulare Republican Devin Nunes. (Video)
Straight outta 'Frisco
A group of residents has started the effort to recall San Francisco Supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer, who grabbed the mic during an election night party for District Attorney-elect Chesa Boudin and began a chant: "F--- the POA!" The S.F. POA (police union) spent more than $650,000 trying to defeat Boudin, who ran on a platform of eliminating cash bail, directing resources from misdemeanors to felonies and in general creating a more equitable criminal justice system. Fewer apologized to officers in the San Francisco Police Department the next day, but said the “organization continues to incite fear in our city.” Recall efforts in the city are rarely successful.
Our first snow (and driving in rain is hard)
Snow fell Wednesday on Mount San Jacinto, right around when it made its first appearance last year, said National Weather Service meteorologist Alex Tardy. "This is our first legitimate rain or snow. It feels late and it is late but compared to last year it’s similar," she said. Other parts of Southern California were under a flash-flood watch as the first significant rain fell in the midst of a rash of wildfires and unrelenting preemptive power cutoffs. Central and Northern California saw no relief, and Pacific Gas & Electric began to cut power to more than 300,000 residents of 18 counties. Downtown Los Angeles had not seen measurable rainfall in almost two months before Wednesday. A low-pressure system approaching the California coast was bringing "significantly cooler and showery conditions" to the Los Angeles and San Diego areas, the National Weather Service said. As is so often the case when those elusive drops fall, people tweeted excitedly.
Here to help: The LA Times So Cal guide to driving in the rain.
In California is a roundup of news compiled from across Paste BN Network newsrooms. Contributing: Associated Press, CalMatters, LAist, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, USC Center for Health Journalism, Sacramento Bee.