$7.2 million wall to be built along train tracks in San Clemente after latest landslide

• February 21, 2024

A $7.2 million “catchment wall” will be built at a landslide area in northern San Clemente to hold back the slipping hillside and get passenger train service running through to San Diego again.

The California Transportation Commission has committed the funding to the Orange County Transportation Authority, which owns the railroad tracks, to build the wall and repair the area of slope that collapsed in January – first onto the city’s Mariposa pedestrian bridge and then onto the tracks below, cutting off passenger service through San Clemente.

After the rain clears this week and the site dries, the dimensions of the wall and construction schedule will be finalized, Metrolink spokesman Scott Johnson said in an e-mail. The OCTA owns the tracks, and Metrolink manages the right-of-way.

The wall between the tracks and the hillside will be similar to one built below the city’s historic Casa Romantica last year after a landslide there threatened the railway and halted service for many months, Johnson noted.

The latest landslide also damaged the pedestrian bridge at Mariposa Point that is part of the city’s popular beach trail; it is unclear at this time what will happen with the bridge where it is adjacent to the tracks. A section has to be demolished because of the damage.

Discussions have taken place between the OCTA and San Clemente city officials about the bridge, “but the primary focus right now is the wall and protecting the right-of-way,” Johnson said.

The railway is part of the 351-mile Los Angeles-San Diego-San Luis Obispo Rail Corridor, or LOSSAN, and is used by both passenger and freight trains – sections run beachfront in San Clemente.

The California Transportation Commission previously kicked in $2 million in emergency funding for debris removal and other preconstruction services, Johnson said.

The latest costs put the total price tag due to landslides in the past two years for the OCTA and the state near $37 million, which includes various cleanups, repairs, installing tie backs with steel cables into bedrock to secure an initial landslide further south two years ago and the wall construction below the Casa Romantica last year.

In addition, the city has also spent an estimated $8.5 million to secure the slope at the Casa Romantica. Officials are expecting the removal of the demolished Mariposa bridge to cost about $70,000.

Metrolink signed a design-build contract for the new wall at Mariposa Point last week with Condon-Johnson & Associates, a construction firm that has worked with the OCTA on previous emergency rail protection efforts in San Clemente.

Ahead of this week’s rain, Metrolink and OCTA project teams – in coordination with the city and private property owners –  laid out more protective plastic along the hillside.

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The team is continuing to observe hillside movement and daily removal of debris from the right of way, Johnson said.

BNSF is moving freight trains through the area between 9 p.m. and 4 a.m., and the late-night trips are “expected to continue as the project team closely monitors the slope and right of way to ensure safety,” according to Metrolink.

As storms continue to batter the region, it is becoming increasingly common for California’s coastal transportation infrastructure to suffer storm-related damage, forcing closures and delays, Metrolink officials said in a recent statement.

In addition to the troubles in San Clemente, Pacific Coast Highway north of Malibu is closed indefinitely during nighttime hours due to storm damage along stretches of the roadway.

​ Orange County Register 

Gavin Newsom’s new budget is already leaking red ink as revenues fall behind

• February 21, 2024

While Gov. Gavin Newsom gallivants around the country as a campaign surrogate for President Joe Biden – and to burnish his own national image – the state budget he proposed just six weeks ago is falling apart at the seams.

Last week, his Department of Finance indirectly acknowledged the budget’s problems, reporting that through January revenues were running $5.9 billion behind the new budget’s assumption for the current fiscal year.

On Tuesday, the Legislative Analyst’s Office, which advises the Legislature, increased its estimate of the budget’s deficit, which Newsom had originally pegged at $38 billion, to an eye-popping $73 billion after toting up Newsom’s proposals and decreasing its revenue estimate.

If the downward revenue trend continues, the 2023-24 budget could wind up in a deep hole and there will be much less money available for the 2024-25 fiscal year that begins on July 1.

The shortfall was particularly acute in January, a key month on the fiscal calendar because quarterly payments for personal income taxes were due. The month’s income tax payments were $5 billion below the $20.4 billion the administration expected to collect.

When he unveiled his 2024-25 budget in January, Newsom proposed a series of fiscal maneuvers to close the gap, very few of which were actual spending reductions.

He tapped the state’s emergency reserve and dug deeply into the bag of tools that the state has historically used to paper over deficits, including spending deferrals, loans from special funds and accounting tricks, such as a maneuver involving school aid.

The Legislature’s budget analyst, Gabe Petek, had originally estimated the deficit at $68 billion, largely due to revenue projections about $15 billion lower than the governor’s over the three-year “budget window,” from 2022-23 through 2024-25. He later declared that Newsom’s action could offset a $58 billion shortfall. On Tuesday, however, Petek’s staff added $15 billion to the estimated deficit, bringing it to $73 billion.

The new revenue numbers and projections imply that Petek’s scenario is much closer to reality than Newsom’s. They also imply that, if Newsom is trying to skate through the final three years of his governorship without making some basic fiscal adjustments, he’ll leave a big mess for his successor.

The deficit, whatever its true dimensions, appears to be detached from California’s underlying economy, and is rather what fiscal mavens call a “structural deficit” – one in which baseline revenues and baseline spending are fundamentally imbalanced. And in fact both Newsom’s budget and Petek’s analysis agree that the state faces deficits of roughly $30 billion a year at least for the remainder of his governorship.

The state’s economy may not be booming, but it is generally positive, with low unemployment. Nevertheless, Newsom wants to tap the “rainy day” reserves that are meant to offset a serious economic downturn.

Using reserves now and employing other short-term actions would merely postpone the day of reckoning and worsen its impact.

That danger is illustrated by the aforementioned school aid maneuver, which would, Petek’s office says, “allow schools to keep $8 billion in cash disbursement above the minimum requirement without recognizing the budgetary impact of those payments.”

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“This proposed maneuver is bad fiscal policy,” the analysis continues, saying it “creates a binding obligation that will worsen out‑year deficits and require more difficult decisions in the future.”

If revenues continue to fall behind the Newsom budget’s relatively rosy projections, avoiding hard decisions to cut spending and/or raise taxes would require even more elaborate budgetary tricks like the school finance sleight-of-hand that would make future budgets even more imbalanced.

Petek wants his bosses in the Legislature to get real with true cuts in spending, particularly money for items that had been budgeted but not yet spent. But doing so means they would have to reduce spending that their allies, such as public employee unions and advocates for educational, health care or social services, want to preserve, or raise taxes that are already among the nation’s highest.

That’s why they will be tempted to adopt a bag of tricks, regardless of future impact.

Dan Walters is a CalMatters columnist.

​ Orange County Register 

John Stossel: Our phones are spying on us. Should we care?

• February 21, 2024

The government and private companies spy on us.

My former employee, Naomi Brockwell, has become a privacy specialist. She advises people on how to protect their privacy.

In my new video, she tells me I should delete most of my apps on my phone.

I push back. I like that Google knows where I am and can recommend a “restaurant near me. I like that my Shell app lets me buy gas (almost) without getting out of the car.”

I don’t like that government gathers information about me via my phone, but so far, so what?

Brockwell tells me I’m being dumb because I don’t know which government will get that data in the future.

Looking at my phone, she tells me, “You’ve given location permission, microphone permission. You have so many apps!”

She says I should delete most of them, starting with Google Chrome.

“This is a terrible app for privacy. Google Chrome is notorious for collecting every single thing that they can about you … (and) broadcasting that to thousands of people … auctioning off your eyeballs. It’s not just advertisers collecting this information. Thousands of shell companies, shady companies of data brokers also collect it and in turn sell it.”

Instead of Google, she recommends using a browser called Brave. It’s just as good, she says, but it doesn’t collect all the information that Chrome does. It’s slightly faster, too, because it doesn’t slow down to load ads.

Then she says, “Delete Google Maps.”

“But I need Google Maps!”

“You don’t.” She replies, “You have an iPhone. You have Apple Maps … Apple is better when it comes to privacy … Apple at least tries to anonymize your data.”

Instead of Gmail, she recommends more private alternatives, like Proton Mail or Tuta.

“There are many others.” She points out, “The difference between them is that every email going into your inbox for Gmail is being analyzed, scanned, it’s being added to a profile about you.”

But I don’t care. Nothing beats Google’s convenience. It remembers my credit cards and passwords. It fills things in automatically. I tried Brave browser but, after a week, switched back to Google. I like that Google knows me.

Brockwell says that I could import my credit cards and passwords to Brave and autofill there, too.

“I do understand the trade-off,” she adds. “But email is so personal. It’s private correspondence about everything in your life. I think we should use companies that don’t read our emails. Using those services is also a vote for privacy, giving a market signal that we think privacy is important. That’s the only way we’re going to get more privacy.”

She also warns that even apps like WhatsApp, which I thought were private, aren’t as private as we think.

“WhatsApp is end-to-end encrypted and better than standard SMS. But it collects a lot of data about you and shares it with its parent company, Facebook. It’s nowhere near as private as an app like Signal.”

She notices my Shell app and suggests I delete it.

Opening the app’s “privacy nutrition label,” something I never bother reading, she points out that I give Shell “your purchase history, your contact information, physical address, email address, your name, phone number, your product interaction, purchase history, search history, user id, product interaction, crash data, performance data, precise location, course location … “

The list goes on. No wonder I don’t read it.

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She says, “The first step before downloading an app, take a look at their permissions, see what information they’re collecting.”

I’m just not going to bother.

But she did convince me to delete some apps, pointing out that if I want the app later, I can always reinstall it.

“We think that we need an app for every interaction we do with a business. We don’t realize what we give up as a result.”

“They already have all my data. What’s the point of going private now?” I ask.

“Privacy comes down to choice,” She replies. “It’s not that I want everything that I do to remain private. It’s that I deserve to have the right to selectively reveal to the world what I want them to see. Currently, that’s not the world.”

Every Tuesday at JohnStossel.com, Stossel posts a new video about the battle between government and freedom.

​ Orange County Register 

Palos Verdes Peninsula coast may have low-level radioactive materials, new study says

• February 21, 2024

The seafloor off the Palos Verdes Peninsula may contain low levels of radioactive materials, according to new research, which also confirmed previous reports that the harmful insecticide DDT is spread across the ocean there at high concentrations.

There is only circumstantial evidence for the cause of the radioactive materials, though nuclear testing and waste disposal are among the potential culprits, researchers said this week. Yet, the now-banned DDT is potentially the bigger ecological threat, researchers said — perhaps even being the reason bald eagles disappeared from Catalina Island for a time.

Those findings were published on Wednesday, Feb. 21, in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. The research that culminated in the journal article represents another step in the evolution of marine scientists’ understanding of the contaminants that litter the seafloor off the Peninsula — a process that began more than a decade ago.

Researchers now have “indirect circumstantial evidence” that low-level radioacting waste was dumped in the Pacific Ocean by the same now-defunct company that disposed of DDT in the Peninsula waters, said David Valentine, one of the article’s authors.

But even with this new evidence, the expanse of DDT “worries me quite a bit more ecologically” than the radioactive materials, Valentine said. Valentine is a professor of microbiology and geochemistry at UC Santa Barbara — and the scientist whose discovery of barrels off the Peninsula, initially thought to contain DDT, launched years of study into ocean contaminants there.

“I think that we have to recognize that, well, it’s disturbing and it’s not good to dump low-level radioactive materials into the ocean,” Valentine said in a phone interview this week. “(But) it’s probably substantially worse to dump large amounts of DDT waste from an ecological effects perspective.”

The greatest harm from DDT, Valentine said, is that it “biomagnifies.”

Biomagnification, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is when toxic chemicals such as DDT get dumped into the ocean and cause health issues in wildlife, from disease to birth defects.

That happens through a simple, yet destructive, process. Toxins that settle on the seafloor end up in the food chain and works their way up. Eventually, according to the NOAA, “higher-level predators — fish, birds and marine mammals — build up greater and more dangerous amounts of toxic materials than animals lower on the food chain.”

“(Biomagnification) can impact a whole host of animals,” Valentine said. “We’re seeing (that) now with California sea lions, with California condors. There’s so much DDT that has been dumped off California, that we’re seeing effects in those animals.”

Valentine and a team of scientists initially discovered more than 60 barrels on the ocean floor in 2011 and 2013 while exploring the Peninsula seafloor with a remotely operated vehicle.

Since that initial discovery, the research has grown and scientific understanding has become more complex.

In 2021, for example, survey researchers from UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography discovered approximately 27,000 barrels on the ocean floor. They, like Valetine, initially thought the barrels potentially contained DDT. The insecticide, which has been banned for years, had been legally dumped by a local company, the now-defunct Montrose Chemical Corporation, for decades.

But in January, Scripps discovered that those barrels were mostly discarded World War II-era military munitions. A whale graveyard was also found.

The Scripps survey mapped 135 square miles of the San Pedro Basin, about halfway between the Palos Verdes Peninsula and Catalina Island. The technology that allows ocean-floor mapping has advanced so much in just a few year that scientists could now distinguish between barrels and munitions.

But just because those barrels did not contain DDT does not mean the insecticide wasn’t present off the Peninsula. Rather, scientists discovered in 2022 that until regulations curtailed the practice, DDT had been directly into the ocean for years.

“Substantial amounts of DDT remain in these sediments, which are largely unaltered after more than 70 years,” according to the Wednesday journal article, titled “Disentangling the History of Deep Ocean Disposal for DDT and other Industrial Waste off Southern California.”

Valentine is a corresponding author of the article. Other scientists from UC Santa Barbara, Oleolytics, LLC, USC’s Earth science department and elsewhere also contributed to the article.

The Environmental Protection Agency, according to the article, discovered 15 offshore dump sites for disposing “radioactive wastes, refinery and oil drilling wastes, chemical wastes, military munitions, filter cakes, and refuse.”

Montrose had legally dumped DDT from 1948 to around 1961, according to the article.

Montrose contracted with California Salvage Company to dispose of the “strong acid waste offshore and discharge it into the ocean” by barge, the article said.

“Located immediately offshore from the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach,” the article said, “the San Pedro Basin received substantial input of these wastes leading to high DDT concentrations recorded in select sediment samples.”

Montrose, based near Torrance, built an acid recycling plant, which began the decline of Cal Salvage waste dumping for the chemical company.

“There was no record of ocean disposal of Montrose sulfuric acid wastes after 1961,” the article said, “the same year Cal Salvage’s operation became regulated by a regional water quality board and a formal dumpsite was assigned to them.”

But Cal Salvage, the article said, continued dumping industrial waste for other clients. Montrose reportedly disposed of 1.5 million gallons of other industrial wastes from 1965 to 1972.

Cal Salvage, meanwhile, continued ocean disposal until the mid 1970s when permitting was not allowed, Valentine said.

No samples of the barrels on the seafloor provide evidence of radioactive waste disposal, the article said, but there is circumstantial evidence that such dumped may have occurred — and doing so may not have run afoul of the law.

“The historical record,” the article said, “points to a scenario in which Cal Salvage was potentially able to openly operate as an offshore radioactive waste disposal company without triggering oversight.”

The trail, though, is cold, Valentine said.

“I don’t actually know when, as a corporation, it dissolved,” Valentine said of Cal Salvage, “or how they were even set up.”

But there is evidence in the sediments that the peak of offshore disposal was the mid 1950s. The evidence, though, also includes fallout from nuclear weapons testing.

There was a “low level fallout of certain radioisotopes all over the planet” from when nuclear testing was conducted above ground by the United States and the Soviet Union.

Researchers, Valentine said, compared the peak concentration of DDT and the amount of radioisotopes to determine when the bulk of DDT was dumped. Carbon-14 dating was also a component used in the dating.

“It was a lot of detonations that released these nuclear products directly into the atmosphere,” Valentine said. “And they then spread on winds as small particles until they settled out. And they settled out all over the planet.”

Radioactive waste, though, does not have the same impact on the environment, Valentine said, since there is “no concentrating effect” like with DDT and the isotopes of the radioactive waste “would have decayed away.”

“There was this offshore disposal of the DDT and that remains largely as DDT today,” Valentine said, “and it’s buried down to two inches two and a half inches beneath the seafloor.”

There are also derivatives of DDT that have broken down and can still be found closer to the surface of the seafloor, Valentine said.

DDT has had a significant impact on wildlife, Valentine said — including on the bald eagle.

The bald eagle effectively disappeared from Catalina Island in the 1950s, Valentine said, in large part because of DDT, even though “we don’t have direct evidence for it.”

There was abundant DDT that was “dumped into the surface water, into the ecosystem,” where the bald eagle got its food, he said.

DDT, he said, is “well known for its properties of eggshell thinning.”

The bald eagle has since been reintroduced to the island.

Studies still need to be done on the World War II munitions that were recently found, Valentine said.

“I’m not aware of of anything in them that would have the kind of effects that DDT would,” he said, “but I think it’s still worth looking into.”

That’s why U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla and Rep. Salud Carbajal, along with 20 other California lawmakers, said in a press release this week that they are urging the Office of Management and Budget to include “robust, long-term funding” to research DDT and other harmful chemicals dumped into the ocean, as well as the impact on the Southern California environment, and human and wildlife health.

The late Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Padilla helped secure nearly $12 million over two fiscal years, 2022 and 2023, to help survey Southern California DDT dumpsites, according to the press release.

“While DDT was banned more than 50 years ago, we still have only a murky picture of its potential impacts to human health, national security and ocean ecosystems,” the lawmakers said in the press release. “We encourage the administration to think about the next 50 years, creating a long-term national plan within EPA and NOAA to address this toxic legacy off the coast of our communities.”

​ Orange County Register 

Regional transportation plan critical to Orange County’s future

• February 21, 2024

Regional transportation planning is about more than reducing traffic congestion. It’s about economic viability, equity, air quality and, ultimately, where and how we live.

It’s also true that the mobility and quality-of-life challenges we face do not end, or begin, at the county line, which is why the Connect SoCal 2024 Regional Transportation Plan/Sustainable Communities Strategy is so important to our future. A draft version of the plan, developed by the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG), provides a long-term vision for how Orange County and its neighbors to the east, west and north can thrive in the decades ahead.

The plan identifies $750 billion in transportation strategies and improvements for the six-county SCAG region over the next quarter-century. Among the projects listed, 219 are located here in Orange County, including a master plan for arterial highways ($8.1 billion), a countywide bikeways network ($3 billion), mixed-flow and high-occupancy toll lane additions on Interstate 405 ($2 billion) and the OC Streetcar project between Santa Ana and Garden Grove ($526 million).

Every four years, SCAG planners analyze data and work with local communities to develop Connect SoCal, the purpose of which is to improve mobility, meet air-quality goals, create economic opportunities and enhance the quality of life for all residents. Notable in Connect SoCal 2024 are new strategies for addressing the housing crisis, adapting to climate change and investing in underserved communities.

That’s a lot to take on, but it’s critical that we do so if Orange County and Southern California as a whole are to maintain their standing as a desirable and dynamic place to live, work and own a business. Regional transportation planning is central to that collective success, by connecting communities, closing the gap between where people live and work, supporting key industries while attracting new businesses and economic opportunities, and improving health outcomes for everyone.

Orange County’s role in all of this is significant. At SCAG’s recent Southern California Economic Summit, Wallace Walrod from the Orange County Business Council noted that the OC is a major economic driver, boasting the six-county region’s lowest unemployment rate, highest educational attainment and highest median household income.

Investments in transportation infrastructure, Walrod said, will be a key to sustaining the county’s strength.

To that end, the 219 OC-specific projects included in Connect SoCal 2024, if fully implemented, would reduce per-person traffic delays by 33% by 2050, even with the county’s population projected to grow by 7% during that time. Reduced traffic delays would be made possible through direct investments in infrastructure, an emphasis on transit-oriented development and other land-use strategies to reduce the live-work gap, increased transit and ride sharing options, and more.

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Connect SoCal 2024 also offers significant economic and environmental benefits. In Orange County alone, the investments included in the plan would generate 61,300 jobs each year, directly and indirectly. If fully implemented across Southern California, the 25-year plan would create 480,000 jobs per year and generate $2 in economic benefits for every $1 spent, while helping Southern California meet its state-mandated greenhouse-gas emissions reduction target of 19% by 2035.

Achieving these benefits assumes full implementation of the projects included in Connect SoCal 2024. 

In April, Connect SoCal will go to SCAG’s Regional Council, and then onto the state and federal governments for their approval. Its adoption is critical to the future of Orange County and Southern California as a whole, ensuring that we’re able to grow the right way and fulfill our own piece of the California dream.

Art Brown is the Mayor of Buena Park and President of the Southern California Association of Governments’ Regional Council.

​ Orange County Register 

Newsom’s fracking ban is just a feel good gesture that won’t do much

• February 21, 2024

Environments are all atwitter about Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2021 phase out of hydraulic fracking for oil finally being implemented. The California Department of Conservation’s Geologic Energy Management Division recently issued a notice of a proposed regulation amendment under which it “will not approve applications for permits to conduct well stimulation treatments.” A hearing is set for March 26.

Fracking injects fluid into rock formations to force out gas and oil. The oil industry says it’s safe. Environmentalists maintain it hurts the environment and the health of local residents. Spokesperson Jacob Roper said the change will boost the department’s “ability to prevent damage to life, health, property, and natural resources,” and cut greenhouse gas emissions. Actually, the last permits were issued in 2021 in anticipation of this change.

The fracking ban won’t have much effect on prices at the pump because the California oil industry swims in a global market, explains Robert Michaels, a professor of energy economics at Cal State Fullerton.

“Banning fracking is basically just a gesture because it’s not a very big part of California energy supplies,” he said.

Last December the department’s Geologic Management Energy Division estimated the state economy would lose $190 million over 10 years, with supposed increases in health and other benefits of $140 million. The ban will cut state income tax receipts by $53 million a year. Fracking only occurs in Kern County, whose property tax revenues will drop less than 1%.

This is part of the state’s ban on new gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035. As Newsom said in 2021, “I’ve made it clear I don’t see a role for fracking in that future and, similarly, believe that California needs to move beyond oil.”

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But that’s not going to happen, Michaels said. “It’s something California does to feel good.” EVs currently comprise 20% of the state’s vehicles. But for the first time sales dropped in the second half of last year, reported the Los Angeles Times. Problems include Americans’ preference for large SUVs, which need bigger and heavier batteries, and not enough chargers. The California Energy Department calculated only 93,855 chargers are online compared to the 250,000 the state planned for by 2025.

Further, solar energy, which is supposed to replace plants powered by coal and gas, continues to be dominated by China — which has problems with the United States over Taiwan and other issues. President Biden’s protectionist Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 put high tariffs on Chinese solar panels. That backfired. The Feb. 6 Wall Street Journal reported Chinese companies shifted production to Mexico – where the plants get U.S. taxpayer subsidies under the IRA.

The fact is these feel good policies might look good for politicians seeking higher office — in Newsom’s case, eventually the highest office in the land. But they have little practical effect. As the 2035 100% renewable deadline approaches, drivers and car dealers will pressure the politicians to push that policy off a cliff.

​ Orange County Register 

Why DJ Chris Lake is so pumped for Insomniac’s Skyline Fest in Downtown L.A.

• February 21, 2024

As Chris Lake walked out to a sea of thousands of fans standing along Hollywood Boulevard for a special show with DJ and friend, Fisher, dubbed Under Construction Los Angeles in October 2023, a wave of nostalgia swept over him before his hands even reached the decks.

At that moment, time seemed to stop, the 41-year-old British DJ and producer recalled during a recent phone interview. He found himself reflecting on the long journey that had carried him to that point and more so the small studio apartment he owned that started it all with music, located less than a block away from where this particular show was unfolding.

It was a poignant realization that his dream of venturing to California to pursue music and one day grace the stages of Southern California’s biggest festivals had finally become a reality.

“You know, I really consider Los Angeles my home, and at this point, I know the city like the back of my hand and I wouldn’t trade that for the world,” Lake said. He’s set to headline the East Stage of Insomniac Events’ Skyline Festival at Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday, Feb. 24. The fest continues with Carl Cox, Vintage Culture, Klangkuenstler and more on Sunday, Feb. 25.

“I’ve laid so many roots here, it’s been my home base for the past 13 years, where I’ve been able to grow so much as an artist,” he continued. “And I feel that for whatever reason, this part of the world holds so much energy for electronic music in America and I love that I get to be apart of that.”

ALSO SEE: Insomniac Events’ Pasquale Rotella reflects on 30 years of festival production

That wasn’t the first time Lake has paused to reflect during a monumental moment. The three-day, two-weekend Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in April 2023 marked a significant turning point as he and Fisher closed the Outdoor Stage each weekend. As the crowd responded fervently, Lake observed a surge in his following, igniting a fresh wave of enthusiasm for his music. All of this paved the way for him to be able to earn a top spot on this year’s Skyline Festival lineup.

Presented by Insomniac’s techno brand Factory 93 and house brand Day Trip, the third annual two-day electronic music festival will feature Lake alongside Adam Ten, Adiel, Bakke, CamelPhat, Carl Cox, Chris Stussy, Cinthie, Deborah de Luca, Heidi Lawden, Hot Since 82, Indira Paganotto, Juliet Mendoza, Klangkuenstler, Laolu, Life on Planets, LP Giobbi, Marco Carola, Mason Collective, Mind Against, Nico Moreno, Palma, Pawsa, Prunk, Rossi and Vintage Culture.

For the first time, the fest is taking over four blocks of Downtown Los Angeles to bring fans two stages of live entertainment that will showcase newer acts, while remaining true to the roots of the underground techno and house genres. And for Lake, the new layout and location feel “right at home.”

It’s not his first time participating in an Insomniac Events festival either, and certainly not the last, he said. Lake expresses his genuine affinity for the brand, happily involving himself almost every year. With notable appearances at EDC 2023 in Las Vegas and Beyond Wonderland in Monterrey, Mexico, in 2022, it “always feels better and bigger,” Lake said. “And it feels kind of fitting that we go and play Skyline Festival with the city backdrop once again. I played the festival a couple of years ago, and they have such a good thing going on, and I’m just happy to be back again. I’m playing in Los Angeles; I can’t complain about that one.”

This year, Lake has an abundance of new material for fans, much of which they may experience during Lake’s set at Skyline. Among these offerings is his latest track, “Somebody,” a collaboration with Fisher. The song serves as a remix of the popular and indie-rock cult classic that was released by Gotye in 2011. On the flip side, Lake sees this upcoming performance as an opportunity to experiment with new sounds.

“I feel like I’m always using my fans as a guinea pig for my new material,” he shared with a laugh. “I’ve been putting in so much work the last few months, and it’s always nice to have the opportunity to test things out. It’s funny because I think people, at this point, expect that from me. I always just want the crowd to have a great time, and I’m always determined. If I’m playing a two-hour set, I want people to dance for 120 minutes and forget about (actually) being on their feet (for that long) until minute 121, when they realize their feet are covered in blisters. That’s really all I’m trying to do.”

Insomniac Events’ Skyline Festival

When: 2 p.m.-12 a.m. Feb. 24; 3 p.m.-11 p.m. Feb. 25

Where: Gloria Molina Grand Park, 200 N Grand Ave., Los Angeles

Tickets: Two-day general admission passes start at $189; One-day passes start at $119-$169; Two-day VIP passes start at $339 at Skylinefest.com.

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​ Orange County Register 

Commute the death sentences for county fair animals in California?

• February 21, 2024

Cedar the goat’s death must not be in vain!

Bruce, raised by a Fullerton Union High FFA student, went to the Farm Sanctuary in Acton rather than to slaughter in 2019. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

A new bill in Sacramento, sponsored by an Orange County nonprofit and introduced by a San Jose legislator, would see to that.

Cedar was raised by Jessica Long’s 9-year-old daughter, E.L., and entered in the Shasta District Fair in 2022. At some point in the process E.L. decided she loved the little goat and didn’t want him to end up as barbecue on someone’s plate. At the fair, she wept in his pen. And her family spirited him away.

What happened next has, literally, become a federal case, with the Long family suing in U.S. District Court and California Attorney General Rob Bonta countersuing to hold the Longs liable. Grand theft, officials called it.

Spoiler alert: Cedar is dead. After tremendous outcry, Bonta dropped the counterclaim. And, now, Assembly Bill 3053 would change the rules so kids can enter animals in county fairs without sentencing their beasts to death and their people to drawn-out legal battles.

“A few years ago, we spent $5,000 trying to find a home for pigs after kids had a change of heart,” said Judie Mancuso of Social Compassion in Legislation, an animal rights nonprofit based in Laguna Beach and the bill’s sponsor. “Then came the Cedar debacle. The CDFA (California Department of Food and Agriculture) had blood on its hands. We said, ‘The timing is right. Let’s do this bill.’ “

On Feb. 16, Assemblymember Ash Kalra, D-San Jose, introduced AB 3053. Attitudes about school farm programs clearly are changing.

$902

You go to the county fair, you see the pigs and cows and goats in their pens, you see the kids caring for them, you uncomfortably acknowledge that there will be an auction at fair’s end and that these living, breathing animals will be dinner. It’s an educational refresher about California’s agricultural roots, and about where food really comes from and what it takes to get it to the table.

Playful piglets at OC Fair and Event Center Centennial Farm in 2022. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Long enrolled E.L. in the local 4-H chapter’s youth livestock program in Shasta County in the fall of 2021. She bought E.L. a goat, which they named Cedar, and she filled out the forms to enter Cedar in the 2022 Shasta District Fair. Perhaps Long didn’t fully comprehend the legal minutiae behind the “terminal sale” verbiage — which means the animals would be sold to the highest bidder and slaughtered for meat.

The youth livestock auction was on June 24, 2022. Cedar was sold to Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Dahle and California Assemblymember Megan Dahle for $902. The fair was to get $63.14 of that, with $838.86 going to the Longs. Cedar’s meat was to be used at the annual Shasta Fair Association and 4-H barbecue on July 9.

But on June 25, shortly after the auction but before the transfer of Cedar for slaughter, E.L. “exercised her statutory rights as a minor under Cal. Fam. Code §6710 to disaffirm any contract that may have existed with respect to Cedar,” court paperwork says. “Mrs. Long and E.L. then removed Cedar from the Shasta District Fair.”

And that’s where things got crazy.

Long worked in good faith to settle the dispute, court documents say. She offered to reimburse the district fair for its troubles, but the fair was having none of it. The 4-H volunteer who organized the annual barbecue insisted that it owned Cedar’s meat. The fair’s livestock manager called Long on June 26 and demanded Cedar be returned for slaughter — or the Longs could face felony charges of grand theft.

“Desperate to avoid the prospect of even frivolous criminal charges,” court documents say, Long contacted the Dahles, who agreed to forego the sale and slaughter of Cedar. Long then sent the fair’s CEO a letter offering to pay damages. But fair officials were getting angry: The battle over Cedar hit social media and thousands upon thousands of calls and emails were flooding in, calling officials nasty names and beseeching them to spare Cedar’s life.

A cow awaits auction at the OC Fair’s annual Junior Livestock event in Costa Mesa in 2023. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

On June 28, the fair CEO rejected Long’s offer to pay damages, saying “the social media [response to Cedar] has been a negative experience for the fairgrounds as this has been all over Facebook and Instagram, not the best way to teach our youth the value of responsibility.”

‘No one needs to know’

Long submitted a claim stating her intention to sue over all this, which she maintains should have frozen further action on Cedar’s life until the dispute was resolved.

But the fair called the Shasta County Sheriff’s Department to investigate theft. Two deputies drove 500 miles “at taxpayer expense, and crossed approximately six separate county lines, all to confiscate a young girl’s beloved pet goat….”

They went first to Bleating Hearts Sanctuary in Napa. Cedar wasn’t there. They tracked him down to Billy’s Mini Farm in Forestville, where they seized the goat (without a warrant) and turned him over to fair officials who, court documents maintain, held him for weeks before slaughter.

During that period, in July of 2022, court documents show there were flurries of texts between fair and 4-H officials.  “Talked to sheriff and he said to wait until he talks to DA before we kill goat,” the fair livestock manager texted to the 4-H Club volunteer. “Bowman is killing goat today finally.” “… no one needs to know about this. U me and Kathy are only ones. It got killed and donated to non profit if anyone asks.”

Baby chickens at the Centennial Farm at the OC Fair and Event Center in Costa Mesa in 2018. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

The Longs sued in federal court last year. “This case concerns damages… arising out of well-established violations of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, as well as an egregious waste of police resources,” filings say.

Compounding the state’s unfathomably tone deaf response, Attorney General Rob Bonta — acting as the attorney for the fair, which is part of the California Department of Food and Agriculture — filed a counterclaim against the Longs, demanding the Longs pay the government’s attorneys’ fees and reimburse the Shasta District Fair for damages.

The Longs’ attorney, Vanessa Shakib of Advancing Law for Animals, filed a special motion to strike the AG’s counterclaim as a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, or SLAPP suit. “We argued the Attorney General’s counterclaim was legally frivolous and intended to chill the First Amendment rights of the Long family,” Shakib said by email.

After that filing, the AG backed off. 

“Existing California law already allows families to walk out of terminal auctions. That is the heart of our civil rights litigation on behalf of the Long family,” Shakib said. “In Cedar’s case, a group of government officials transformed a $63 civil dispute into felony theft to create a false pretense for an unlawful search and seizure. These officials drove hundreds of miles at taxpayer expense, and stopped at nothing—including the United States Constitution—to ensure a child’s animal was illegally slaughtered without due process.”

Legislative fix

In this 2015 file photo, Bruno Barba, 16, with Lola, the pig he raised through the Future Farmers of America program at Fullerton Union High. (COURTESY FARM SANCTUARY)

E.L. is certainly not the first kid to recoil at the prospect of sending her farm project to its death.

In 2015, Bruno Barba was in Fullerton Union High School’s Future Farmers of America program. Intellectually, he understood he was raising piglet Lola to be auctioned off for bacon. But pigs are smart, and whenever Lola saw Barba, even from a distance, she’d start squealing with joy. He just couldn’t make her a porkchop. When he began casting about for an alternate ending, teachers and classmates discouraged him, urging him to finish what he started. But Barba found a a home for Lola on a Northern California farm, and there Lola went.

“I think it’s very different to see firsthand,” his mother said back then. “To see the life of the animal, as opposed to seeing it at the market and thinking, ‘Here’s dinner.’ “

In 2019, Bruce, Pam, and Kevin (goats) and Shawn and Phry (sheep) went to Farm Sanctuary in Acton rather than to the fair’s livestock auction. The animals were raised by Fullerton High Future Farmers of America students who shared Barba’s anti-slaughter sentiment.

AB 3053 would make such alternate endings easier. Junior exhibit entries in county fairs could be withdrawn at any time before offsite transport, and winning bidders could choose to pick up live animals rather than slabs of meat.

“We applaud proposed legislation allowing successful bidders to take their animals home alive,” said Shakib, the Longs’ attorney. “The government shouldn’t force people to kill their animals. This commonsense language is an important step in protecting property rights.”

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