Embroiled LA County judge is removed from the bench for ‘severe misconduct’
Judge Robert Draper(Courtesy the campaign)In an extraordinary turn of events, the state’s judicial watchdog has removed Judge Robert Draper, 84, from the Los Angeles County Superior Court after 14 years of service. He faced several counts of misconduct prior to losing reelection earlier this year.The California Commission on Judicial Performance concluded Tuesday in an 87-page decision that Draper engaged in 17 instances of behavior that made him no longer fit for office. He hasn’t heard a case since 2023 because of the issues.“Judge Draper persistently violated the standards governing judicial behavior and engaged in extensive and severe misconduct,” the commission said in a statement, adding that it was “aggravated by his refusal to accept responsibility for his misconduct, and his lack of insight or remorse for his misconduct and its effect on others.”Draper previously admitted to some of the claims and denied others in interviews with LAist earlier this year. In a statement this we
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California’s 'record-shattering' marine heat wave means threat of coastal flooding will stick around
Flooding inundated coastal communities around Southern California this week, including Orange County's Sunset Beach.(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)Topline:El Niño is making the California coast much warmer than usual, and scientists are concerned about coastal flooding.Unseasonably warm waters: The ocean temperatures along a stretch of coast from Sonoma County down to Ensenada, Mexico, are 10 degrees warmer than average. In a webinar Thursday, University of California climate scientist Daniel Swain stressed how unusual the current heat wave is, describing it as “mind-boggling” and “record-shattering.” “I'm using all the superlatives in the book because I think they're appropriate,” Swain said.Exceeding records: The water temperatures in nearly every location are higher than any measured during the cold season in recorded history. “Not only is the water warmer than it's ever been at this time of year, but in fact it is warmer than it has ever been at any point aft
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Jailhouse informant probe warrants more scrutiny of Long Beach case and others, attorney argues
A Long Beach Police squad car is seen in this 2014 file photo.( Benjamin Brayfield / LAist)The attorney who uncovered the Orange County jailhouse informant scandal is arguing in new court filings that an investigation into the Long Beach Police Department shows “shocking deficiencies” with the oversight of paid civilian jailhouse informants that could implicate hundreds of criminal cases in Los Angeles County.The internal investigation found a veteran homicide detective allowed a civilian jailhouse informant to remove his GPS tracking ankle monitor, in violation of a court order, during the 2015 Christmas holiday and then lied about it to authorities. According to internal investigators, that raised questions about why he was allowed to remove the monitor. And defense attorney Scott Sanders says the decision to not follow through with a wider inquiry casts doubt on the informant system as a whole.Sanders would know; he’s the attorney who uncovered the Orange County jailhouse informant
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Advocacy groups sue AI giants to freeze new models, warning of ‘catastrophic’ risks
Attendees gather at the OpenAI DevDay 2026 conference, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026, in San Francisco(Jeff Chiu / Associated Press)A coalition of online safety and consumer advocacy groups on Thursday sued five of the world’s leading artificial intelligence companies to halt further development, alleging the tech giants can’t prevent their own creations from causing “catastrophic” harm.The lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court follows a midterm election that could bring a moment of reckoning for the fast-moving AI industry, as Democrats who won back control of Congress stress the need to regulate the technology.The filing, first reported on by The Associated Press, asks a judge to stop Anthropic, Google, Meta, OpenAI and SpaceXSI from developing or deploying new AI models, pointing to documented examples of cyberattacks and other harmful actions by AI systems and the companies’ own alarming acknowledgments that their technology has the potential to someday destroy humanity.“No other indus
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Trump proposed a 'secret weapon' to police colleges. It will soon become reality
(Laurent Hrybyk / NPR) The Trump administration has made many changes to education policy that are hard to miss: cutting the U.S. Education Department's workforce by roughly half, canceling research funding, uprooting special education staff, upending student civil rights protections, overhauling student loan repayment plans, scaling back graduate school loans — the list goes on. But the latest change — one President Donald Trump has called his "secret weapon" — has gone largely unnoticed, even as it's set to take effect in July. That's because it's hidden inside one singularly boring word: Accreditation. "The time has come to reclaim our once great educational institutions from the radical left," Trump said in a 2023 campaign video. "Our secret weapon will be the college accreditation system." Specifically, he pledged to overhaul it — a notably wonky threat from a politician who usually disdains wonkery. Now, the Education Department has kept Trump's promise. What is accreditation? I
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Nithya Raman’s big Olympics promise: Reduce street homelessness by 50%
Mayor-elect Nithya Raman while campaigning at a rally on the UCLA campus.(Apu Gomes / Getty Images)When Nithya Raman becomes mayor of Los Angeles next month, she’ll have just a year and a half to deliver on a huge promise she made with a summer 2028 deadline.Raman has laid out a plan for moving people off the streets that she says will cut street homelessness by 50% in time for the Olympics and eliminate long-term encampments by the end of her first term.That may have some Angelenos feeling déjà vu. Soon after then-Mayor Eric Garcetti made the deal for the city to host the Games, in 2018 he promised to all but eliminate street homelessness before the Olympics.More than eight years later, homelessness remains the city’s most visible crisis, with more than 29,000 unsheltered people in Los Angeles, according to the latest point-in-time count. Under Mayor Karen Bass, unsheltered homelessness in L.A. has dropped by around 11% overall since its 2023 peak, but rose this year, per the homeless
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Agency overseeing Amtrak Pacific Surfliner to get $1 million from state to study improvements
(Amtrak Pacific Surfliner)Topline:The Los Angeles — San Diego — San Luis Obispo (LOSSAN) Rail Corridor Agency, which oversees Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner, is getting $1 million from the state to look at how to make the service more reliable between San Luis Obispo, Los Angeles and San Diego.Why it matters: It will fund an update to a 2022 study reflecting changes in things like service schedules, infrastructure improvement plans and how passenger and freight trains share tracks. It will also look at how the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles could affect rail operations and service needs. The money is part of a larger state grant of more than $66 million dollars to rail agencies across California.The backstory: The Pacific Surfliner has dealt with several closures in recent years along a stretch of the line in San Clemente where the track along the coastline has eroded. Earlier this month, state coastal regulators approved construction of a seawall along a section of the l
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Several local races are still too close to call. Could we see recounts?
Ballots are sorted the day after California’s primary election at the L.A. County Ballot Processing Center on June 3, 2026, in the city of Industry.(Jae C. Hong / Associated Press)The governor’s race was decided minutes after polls closed on Election Day, but on the local level, we still have quite a few eye-poppingly close contests that have yet to settle.That includes the race for the Los Angeles City Council’s District 9 seat, which is teetering on fewere than 200 votes, and another City Council race in Costa Mesa’s District 3 that flipped earlier this week by one vote.While the count is well underway statewide, we still have several thousand ballots to tally. Could some of these close races end up in a recount? Here’s what the rules say.How recounts startCalifornia does not have a recount threshold. That means no matter how close a race is, nothing will automatically set off a recount.Instead, our recount system relies on voters. Any registered voter in the state, including a candi
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Best things to do in LA and SoCal: Nov. 11-17
'The Importance of Being Earnest' is at the Wallis.(Courtesy The Wallis)A big thank you to all the service members who’ve served our country this Veterans Day. There’s lots going on to honor them, including a ceremony on the beach in Santa Monica, a celebration at the VA and more.Elsewhere on LAist, you can learn about one couple who chose the LAUSD coffee cake for their wedding, come hang out with us at CicLAvia in Pasadena and grab tickets for FilmWeek’s screening of Sideways.MusicLicorice Pizza has your music picks for the week ahead — it is Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction time, after all — including:Wednesday Bonobo begin their two-night run at the WilternAustralian EDM star Ninajirachi begins her four-night run at the Fonda Theatre Thursday The Smashing Pumpkins performing ‘Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness’ in full at the ForumSparta at Sid The CatFriday Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds at the WilternE-40 with Too $hort, Mack 10 & more at the YouTube TheaterBand of Horse
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Naples Boat Parade canceled as El Niño season threatens dangerously high tides over Christmas week
The homes along the Naples canals are shine bright Thursday, Dec. 22, 2022. The canal homes are a popular holiday destination, with most elaborately decorated for most of December each year. (Cheantay Jensen / Long Beach Post)r homExpect silent nights in Naples’ channels this holiday season.The Naples Improvement Association announced this year’s Naples Island Holiday Boat Parade, a Long Beach tradition since 1946, has been canceled over expected high tides and heavy surf that organizers said would make the event unsafe for visitors and participants.It’s the first time in six years — since the onset of the COVID pandemic — that the parade has been canceled. What began as a small procession of decorated barges filled with singing church choirs has grown into local tradition with more than 100 entries, from Duffys to dragon boats, and 60,000 spectators.Ben Fisher, the association president, said the decision came after weeks of deliberations and a 600-respondent survey that found most wa
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