Last spring, Assemblymember Isaac Bryan received a letter calling for him to be lynched because of a bill he introduced to change how ballot measures are presented to California voters. It’s not the only time he’s been subjected to threats or harassment. Bryan said he and fellow Assemblymember Mia Bonta received hundreds of threats when they didn’t vote in a committee on a bill increasing penalties for child trafficking, until it added language that he said would protect victims. “The one that I’ll probably forever remember is a suggestion that my fiancé and mother should be human trafficked ..read more

There’s been an uneasy feeling across the Los Angeles area about the state of housing, and that feeling has become tangible in the answers of a recent area-wide survey. This past month, the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies released its annual Quality of Life Index, which polls a cross-section of Los Angeles County residents on the quality of about 40 aspects of life organized into different categories. Alongside the questions, each survey also addressed what the study called “timely issues,” such as the looming presence of homelessness in the a ..read more

As counterprotesters tore at barricades, threw fireworks, and beat and pepper sprayed pro-Palestine protesters at UCLA overnight Tuesday, no law enforcement officers took action to stop the violence or made any arrests. In stark contrast, by tonight, UC Police declared that anyone who remains in the “unlawful” encampment would be arrested. The reason for such a mixed response from law enforcement: haphazard adherence to UC President Michael Drake’s 2021 UC Campus Safety Plan. Encampments at a growing number of universities across the state and nation are sparking battles between students’ fre ..read more

It’s been one year since the Ocean Ave. dining scene was taken to the Mediterranean, and the occasion brought out local stakeholders in the business community. On Tuesday, Mon Ami at 1541 Ocean Ave celebrated its one-year anniversary with a ribbon cutting ceremony alongside the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce, with Director of Events Courtney Lawrence and Executive Chef Daniel Ulrich letting Chamber members and the public know about its celebratory plans for the anniversary. Beginning Sunday at 3pm, the restaurant will be combining its anniversary party with a Cinco de Mayo celeb ..read more

Executive Director at the Santa Monica Pier Corporation, Jim Harris — arguably the most informed, most appropriate and most impassioned individual to take on such a task — has written his second book detailing the rich history of the popular Pacific protrusion. Entitled Santa Monica Pier: America’s Last Great Pleasure Pier, it features a foreword by Robert Redford and an afterword by Arnold Schwarzenegger.  “My first attempt to document the life of the Pier was released over 14 years ago and we [Harris and his publisher] really thought we had a complete, comprehensive history ..read more

Santa Monica resident and realtor extraordinaire Winston Bernard Cenac Jr. passed away on January 22, 2024 at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara, California, aged 73. Despite some significant health-related setbacks early in life, Cenac was blessed as a natural creative thinker, and he began his professional life with an early career in music working with the likes of Motown Records and then CBS Records before managing punk band The Ratz, later renamed The Knack. Cenac was also a screenwriter and novelist, but that was all before he founded Bulldog Realtors based first at 1501 Main Street then ..read more

Robots: Santa Monica families dove deep into the local arts scene this past weekend with a technological twist. On April 27, Virginia Avenue Park hosted the 2024 Arts & Literacy Festival, the 10th festival held by the City of Santa Monica in collaboration with Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District. This year’s theme was “The Robots Are Here,” with a bevy of booths showcasing robot-themed activities and demonstrations. The SaMo Tech Robotics team provided demonstrations of their latest autonomous robot projects, Santa Monica Resource Recovery Recycling’s “Curby the Robot” was on-hand ..read more

Dueling groups of protesters clashed overnight at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), shoving, kicking and beating each other with sticks after pro-Israel demonstrators tried to pull down barricades surrounding a pro-Palestinian encampment. Hours earlier, police burst into a building occupied by anti-war protesters at Columbia University, breaking up a demonstration that had paralyzed the school. After a couple of hours of scuffles between demonstrators at UCLA, police wearing helmets and face shields slowly separated the groups and quelled the violence. The scene was calm as da ..read more

The nation’s most populous state is growing again, ending a trend of population decline that had dogged Gov. Gavin Newsom through much of his tenure. California gained just over 67,000 people last year, the first increase since 2019, according to an estimate released Tuesday by the state Department of Finance. After joining the United States in 1850 on the heels of a gold rush, California was a demographic marvel for its first 169 years — adding population every year as people flocked to the Golden State for its stunning terrain, weather and super-sized economy, which is larger than those of ..read more

The US Drug Enforcement Administration will move to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug, the Associated Press has learned, a historic shift to generations of American drug policy that could have wide ripple effects across the country. The proposal, which still must be reviewed by the White House Office of Management and Budget, would recognize the medical uses of cannabis and acknowledge it has less potential for abuse than some of the nation’s most dangerous drugs. However, it would not legalize marijuana outright for recreational use. The agency’s move, confirmed to the AP on Tues ..read more