The Grapevine: 2/8/23
Correction (2/8/2023): The original version of this newsletter used an intro paragraph from a previous day's newsletter. This post has been updated to include an accurate introduction.
Good morning. A new amendment to the California constitution aims to let inmates vote from prison, a storied housing nonprofit in Los Angeles' skid row is poised to go belly-up, and a $400,000 check is stolen from a city government. Here's what you need to know:
- A state constitutional amendment proposed by California Assemblymember Issac Bryan (D-Los Angeles) would allow inmates to vote while serving time in prison. (https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/california-prisoners-vote-17769381.php)
- Wells across California's most rural communities are drying up as groundwater levels drop to record lows, leaving behind communities that have run out of water entirely. The fix, experts say: Pump less water. (https://calmatters.org/environment/water/2023/02/california-depleted-groundwater-storms/)
- The Skid Row Housing Trust, a nonprofit that provides low-cost, subsidized housing to thousands of tenants in a neighborhood of LA with a notoriously large unhoused population, is facing financial collapse, the consequence of rising maintainence costs and years of deficit spending that depleted its cash reserves. (https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-02-07/los-angeles-skid-row-housing-trust-financial-trouble)
- A check from the city of Santa Clarita for more than $400,000, meant for LA's regional rail operator, was stolen, endorsed, and successfully deposited into a Bank of America account. (https://signalscv.com/2023/02/city-metrolink-await-answers-in-stolen-check-investigation/)
- The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to include stringent new labor standards as a condition for janitorial contracts, after county janitors went on strike in January over the firing of a colleague who said she had been forced to use caustic chemicals without protective equipment. (https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/politics/story/2023-02-07/board-of-supervisors-janitor-policy)
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