San Gabriel Sun_5/27/2024

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MONDAY, MAY 27- JUNE 02, 2024

Scenes from a MAGA meltdown: Inside the ‘America First’ movement’s war over democracy

By Andy Kroll, ProPublica

Standing in a cafe decorated with tiny American flagsandantique cabinets as big as bodyguards, Peter Meijer paused as he considered what to say to the man in the “Stand for God” shirt who had just called for his bodily harm.

It was a snowy morning in February. Meijer was the keynote speaker at a coffee-and-donuts meeting hosted by the Republican Party chapter in Kent County, Michigan, the most populous county on the west side of the state. Dressed in a candidate-casual uniform of jeans, a flannel shirt and an outdoorsy blazer, Meijer was seeking the Republican nomination for an open U.S. Senate seat, a race that could determine control of Congress’s upper chamber, in a state that could decide the presidential election. If

Republicans wanted to win in November, Meijer told the 40-odd people in attendance, they needed to move on from the past and focus on their shared enemy.

“Is there anyone who thought that Jan. 6th was good for the Republican Party?” he asked. “Did it help us win in 2022?”

“We weren’t gonna win,” someone yelled. “It was rigged.”

“The election was stolen,” another person said. “It doesn’t matter.”

I watched this exchange from a table near the back of the room. Until that moment, the crowd met Meijer’s stump speech with polite nods and gentle applause. But when he brought up elections and Jan. 6th, the mood turned from Midwest nice to hostile.

Not long ago, this setting was friendly terrain for Meijer. For decades, voters here rewarded sensible, probusiness, avowedly conservative politicians. Meijer fit the archetype of a West Michigan Republican when he first ran for Congress in 2020. He was also basically Michigan royalty as an heir to the Meijer grocery store fortune. In one of the state’s most competitive districts, he won his debut congressional race by a comfortable 6-point margin.

At the Kent County event, however, many attendees seemed to feel nothing but scorn for him. That anger flowed from a single decision Meijer had made in Congress: He voted to impeach then-President

Donald Trump. In response, he faced a far-right primary challenger who had served in the Trump administration and said Biden’s 2020 victory was “simply mathematically impossible.” Meijer narrowly lost. Now, as a Senate candidate, he was trying to make amends, even pledging to vote for Trump — whom he had once called “unfit for office” — if the former president won the Republican nomination. But to some, he was still a traitor.

“How did you vote to impeach Trump when he said in his [Jan. 6] speech, ‘I want a peaceful demonstration,’” a man angrily asked. “You don’t have to go any further than that to know that he was right and

LA County nighttime recreation program finds success, UCLA study finds

Afree Los Angeles County program that provides a safe space for people during evening hours has achieved its goals by fostering stronger feelings of community and closer connections, according to a report released Wednesday by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

According to the report, 96% of people surveyed said the Parks After Dark program provides a sense of belonging within their communities, and 94% said the program helped them get to know their neighbors better.

“Research shows that parks and public green spaces are crucial for health because they provide places for outdoor recreation and exercise,” Nadereh Pourat, director of the UCLA CHPR’s Health Economics and Evaluation Research Program, said in a statement. “Parks After Dark is designed to increase safety of parks and provide programs that everyone can enjoy.”

Overall, the program had more than 405,000 unique visits throughout its eight-week run in summer 2023, and the most popular activities were movie nights, concerts, and sports clinics and games, according to the report.

The Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation introduced Parks After Dark in 2010 in neighborhoods that had higher-than-average rates of crime,

By City News Service

This story was originally published by ProPublica. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.

Breach at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. | Photo courtesy of Brett Davis/Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Foam party at a Parks After Dark event. | Photo courtesy of County of Los Angeles Department of Parks & Recreation

OC releases annual spending plan for fiscal year 2024-25

By Paul Anderson, City News Service

Orange County officials Wednesday released a proposed $9.5 billion budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year, marking a slight increase from the current year’s $9.3 billion spending plan.

The general fund budget, which is the more flexible part of the spending plan, is $4.8 billion, down from last year’s $4.9 billion. The rest of the money in the budget is generally restricted by law, giving county officials little ability to change its use.

The 2% increase in the overall budget -- or $182 million -- is owed mostly to increasing costs for staff and infrastructure improvements, most notably at John Wayne Airport. Under the proposal, the county would eliminate 322 jobs, which are already vacant. No layoffs of staff are anticipated.

Revenue for general purpose funding is pegged at about $1.1 billion, an $89.6 million increase over last fiscal year, mostly due to a projected $60.8 million boost in property taxes.

Funding for law enforcement, which comes from the half-cent sales taxes from Proposition 172, is projected to be $438.6 million, with 80% going to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and 20% to the District Attorney’s Office. It nets out to a 3.7% increase over the current fiscal-year budget, which is about on pace with the rate of infla-

tion.

“It’s a lean budget,”

Orange County CEO Frank Kim told City News Service.

Kim said the county consults with economists from Cal State Fullerton and Chapman University, and there is optimism a recession will be avoided.

“The economists we speak to don’t see a recession in this coming year,” Kim said. “They don’t see revenue growth, but they don’t see a recession.”

Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do said the county must hold the line on spending to prepare for how Prop. 1 will affect state funding for mental health programs. The proposition approved by voters in March will lead to a change in priorities when it comes to funding programs for the mentally ill, with a focus on substance abuse treatment and housing.

He said the county will “have to start planning for that eventuality” of state funding for mental health services in the county being reduced.

Funding for affordable housing wasn’t part of state funding for mental health services in the past, but now it will account for about one-third of it, Do noted. The concern is that the new proposition will reduce funding for counties’ existing mental health services programs as some of the priority shifts to housing.

The Prop. 1 effect won’t be felt until 2026, Do said.

“So what we’re doing now is basically trying to get ready to make the adjustments necessary right now to prepare for that eventuality,” Do said.

Kim noted that “the other component of it that is creating challenges” is that the amount of funding from income taxes on the wealthiest Californians has been trending down, and those funds pay for the mental health programs.

“So the overall pod of money is shrinking because there are fewer tax filers in California required to contribute the additional one percent,” Kim said.

But the county has for several years been investing in affordable housing, particularly since efforts to take down the homeless encampment along the Santa Ana riverbed led to federal litigation that was settled, Kim said.

“We’re already doing that,” Kim said. “For a long time -- many years -we’ve been investing (state mental health funding) money into housing that supports our existing mental health clients in Orange County.”

A major focus of this year’s spending plan is on funding for programs to help people leaving jail to get back on their feet, because officials believe it will save money in the long run, Kim said. That is

all part of the county’s OC Cares initiative, he said.

Kim noted that the new Be Well Irvine behavioral health campus planned on county property will officer help for those with substance abuse problems.

The proposed spending plan also focuses on infrastructure projects like a planned razing of the old Orange County district attorney’s offices and replacing them with various offices for other county agencies.

“We’re looking at flattening that entire block,” Kim said.

The previous district attorney office complex is

“largely vacant... and it’s in bad shape. That building probably gets demolished.”

The proposed county budget also reflects a focus on providing money for new green technologies and environmentally sustainable projects, Kim said.

“It’s important to identify the practical path to having a lighter touch on the environment,” Kim said.

County officials want to improve recycling and educate residents on how to reduce waste, given that the Brea landfill will probably be shut down in 2026, leaving only two landfills in the county. The cost of trucking waste out

of the county is expensive, he said.

“Our ability to get out and meaningfully educate and drive change in behavior takes a long time and money,” Kim said.

The biggest question will be how the state budget affects the county’s spending plan, Kim said.

“We don’t want to overreact to it,” he said.

But by the fall the county will revisit the budget to reflect any changes in state funding, he said.

The county board will likely take straw votes on the budget June 11 with final approval scheduled for June 25.

LAPD report reveals 91% decrease in investigations of terrorism in 2023

By City News Service

There was a 91% decrease in investigations into suspiciousactivity related to terrorism in Los Angeles in 2023, a stark drop compared to the 246 reports processed in 2015, according to an annual report released Tuesday.

The Los Angeles Board of Police Commission unanimously approved the Nationwide SAR Initiative, a report mandated in 2009 for all law enforcement agencies in the United States as ordered by the 9/11 Commission. The report is intended to encourage the sharing of information across multiple levels of government to prevent terrorism and other criminal activity.

LAPD began collecting SARs in 2008 to document reported or observed activity that was believed by officers to have a nexus to foreign or domestic terrorism. Usually, the reports detail occurrences of “suspicious activity” -- defined or observed behavior reasonably indicative of pre-operational planning related to terrorism or other criminal activity.

Earlier this year, the LAPD’s Office of Inspector General conducted a review of the 45 Suspicious Activity Reports, also known as SARs, between 2022 and 2023. The report found that SARs processed since 2015 decreased by 91% -- from 246

the department’s current policies. The report also included recommendations to improve the department’s SAR Process, including the creation of a log to account for all SARs received and processed in chronological sequence; and to ensure that any officers involved in a SAR investigation activate their body- worn camera. Of the 45 SARs processed, 16 reports were unfounded and 29 had been affirmed of being activity related to terrorism. LAPD is tasked with reporting to the Joint Regional Intelligence Center, which has the responsibility of preparing and presenting SARs

to the FBI for further action.

Some members of the board raised concerns over how the process can negatively impact Black, Latino, Muslim and other ethnic communities. Officers or residents of L.A. can report what they perceive as suspicious activity meaning there lies room for prejudice or racism to influence a report.

LAPD officers assured commissioners that criteria for accepting and processing an SAR does not include race, language, and other things. Law enforcement officials emphasized that there are clear guidelines that determine what activity calls for an SAR.

County Administration North, | Photo courtesy of Orange County

SARs in 2015

| Photo by Eric Richardson CC BY 2.0 DEED

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Two orphaned black bear cubs released into wild after stay at Wildlife Center

By City News Service

Two California black bear cubs are back in the wild after spending 10 months growing up at San Diego Humane Society’s Ramona Wildlife Center, it was announced Wednesday.

The bears, who are brothers, were released by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife in the San Bernardino National Forest last week, near where they were first found.

In July 2023, CDFW began tracking the cubs once they located the bears’ deceased mother. At five months old, the cubs would have been too young to survive on their own, a statement from the SDHS said.

Black bear cubs typically need to stay with their mother, or sow, for up to 17 months. The first cub was rescued by CDFW on July 4, 2023, and the second,

Aof Los Angeles, State of California. The Baldwin Park Press has been adjudicated as a newspaper of general circulation in court case number KS017174 City of Baldwin Park, County of Los Angeles, State of California.

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smaller cub, on July 7, 2023. Since those dates, San Diego Humane Society’s wildlife rehab specialists have watched over the bears with minimal contact to ensure they would not become habituated to humans, the statement continues. The bears were kept in an outdoor enclosure mimicking their natural environment with native plants and substrate, such as California live oak, pine, clover, mulberry branches, fruit tree branches, mulch, hummingbird sage, sumac, chamomile flowers and herbs.

According to the humane society, they were fed plenty of fruits, vegetables, nuts, peanut butter and bear chow daily. Once the bears showed they could successfully forage for food and survive on their own, they were ready for release.

“It’s a delicate skill to raise wild bears in captivity,” said Andy Blue, campus director of San Diego Humane Society’s Ramona Wildlife Center. “Bears eat more than 10 pounds of food per day, so to ensure they are fed without our staff ever being seen, and that they have plenty of

enrichment to exhibit their natural behaviors without leaving human scents behind, takes meticulous planning.”

The bears have been microchipped, fitted with GPS collars and given a clean bill of health from San Diego Humane Society’s wildlife veterinary team.

Hunter Biden tax case in LA delayed until September

federal judge in Los AngelesWednesday granted Hunter Biden’s request to postpone his federal criminal trial on tax charges until September.

President Joe Biden’s son is now scheduled to go on trial Sept. 5 in Los Angeles federal court on nine tax counts for allegedly refusing to pay his tax bill.

His attorneys successfully argued that the trial should be postponed from June 20 to Sept. 5 based on scheduling conflicts with an unrelated felony gun case Biden faces in Delaware in two weeks.

Prosecutors in the office of special counsel David Weiss objected to the postponement.

The president’s son was charged in an indictment returned in December. He faces three felony counts, including tax evasion, and six misdemeanor counts of failure to pay taxes.

Hunter Biden, 54, of Malibu, “spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle rather than paying his tax bills,” the indictment alleges.

Last week, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the younger Biden’s request to revive a bid to have the tax charges against him tossed.

By City News Service

Hunter Biden’s lawyers wrote in legal filings that they believe the tax case was brought “in direct response to political pressure.” His attorneys wrote that the defendant has since paid his tax bill, plus fines, to the government.

Regarding the tax charges, the 56-page indictment says that between 2016 and Oct. 15, 2020, “the defendant spent this money on drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing, and other items of a personal nature, in short, everything but his taxes.”

His attorney, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement when the tax case was filed that “based on the facts and the law, if Hunter’s last name was anything other than Biden, the (firearms) charges in Delaware, and now California, would not have been brought.”

Lowell said, “Now, after five years of investigating with no new evidence -- and two years after Hunter paid his taxes in full -- the U.S. Attorney has piled on nine new charges when he had agreed just months ago to resolve this matter with a pair of misdemeanors.”

In October, the president’s son pleaded not guilty

in Wilmington, Delaware, to three counts related to lying on a federal form to acquire a Colt Cobra handgun in 2018 and for being an illegal drug user in possession of the gun.

The Delaware case alleges that Hunter Biden broke laws against drug users having guns in 2018. In July, he had agreed to plead guilty there to two misdemeanor tax counts and acknowledge a firearms violation without a conviction, receiving no jail time. But the deal collapsed when the judge questioned its terms and refused to sign off on it.

Described in the indictment as a Georgetown- and Yale-educated lawyer, lobbyist, consultant and businessperson, Hunter Biden served on the board

of a Ukrainian industrial conglomerate and a Chinese private equity fund during the time of the tax allegations.

“He negotiated and executed contracts and agreements for business and legal services that paid millions of dollars of compensation to him and/or his domestic corporations, Owasco PC and Owasco LLC,” according to the indictment. In addition to his business interests, the defendant was an employee of a multinational law firm, the document states.

At the time of the now-defunct plea deal in Delaware, Biden said he had forgotten to pay his taxes during a period when he was in the grip of drug addiction.

Bear cub brothers released. | Photo courtesy of San Diego Humane Society

Hunter Biden walks behind President Joe Biden (center) and Dr. Jill Biden (front). | Photo by Ben Stanfield CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED

Joe Biden’s top 2024 campaign contributors

By Joe Taglieri joet@beaconmedianews.com

President Joe Biden leads all 2024 presidential candidates in fundraising with more than $282.3 million, according to the latest campaign finance data. Citing figures from the Federal Election Commission released April 22, the nonprofit Open Secrets reported these top financial contributors to Biden’s reelection bid: Future Forward USA Action - $9,019,574

This super PAC is a major financial player in the 2024 election. The nonprofit is based in Washington, D.C., and supports Democrats. A CNN investigation found that in 2022, the George Soros-linked Open Society Policy Center gave $15.2 million to Future Forward USA Action; a nonprofit tied to James McClave and Emily Berger from the New York trading firm Jane Street gave $7.2 million; while other left-leaning nonprofits such as the League of Conservation Voters and the Fund for a Better Future each gave $2.5 million along with $1.55 million from the Hopewell Fund.

Greylock Partners

- $9,009,400

This behemoth venture capital firm began in the 1960s in Boston, then relocated to Silicon Valley where it focuses on technology investments in artificial intelligence and notable technology companies including Airbnb, Coinbase, Instagram, LinkedIn, Meta, Nextdoor, Okta, Redfin and Workday, according to the firm’s website.

Newsweb Corp. - $5,009,400

Newsweb Corp. publishes ethnic and alternative newspapers. The company, founded by Fred Eychaner in

1971, also owns several radio stations in the Chicago area, where it is based.

Democracy PAC - $4,050,000

Billionaire George Soros launched this super PAC in 2020, and it continues to help fund Democrats’ campaigns during this election cycle.

American Bridge 21st Century - $3,181,654

This PAC was founded in 2010 by David Brock, a former conservative turned liberal commentator and political consultant. American Bridge 21st Century bills itself as “the largest research, tracking, and rapid response operation in the Democratic Party” that this year is focusing on “tracking Republicans’ antiabortion positions, protecting democracy by focusing on extremist down-ballot Republicans threatening our elections, and touting the Biden administration and Democrats’ record of results for families and businesses.”

Arista Networks Inc.$2,628,580

Arista Networks is headquartered in Santa Clara and works in sectors that include datacenter, cloud computing, high-performance computing and high-frequency trading. In March founder and former Chairman Andreas Bechtolsheim agreed to pay almost $1 million to settle insider trading charges, according to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Sequoia Capital - $2,506,600

Sequoia Capital is a venture capital firm founded in 1972 by Don Valentine and based in Menlo Park that invests in technology companies. The company is big into clean tech, consumer internet, crypto, financial services, healthcare, mobile

and robotics, according to published reports.

Euclidean Capital$2,506,600

Details on this New York City investment fund are murky, but it is reportedly the family office of Jim Simons, founder of Renaissance Technologies. Simons was said to have launched the fund as he stepped down as CEO of Renaissance in 2010. Euclidean Capital’s current portfolio totals nearly $780 billion, according to the firm’s March 31 SEC filing.

Laborers Union - $2,111,288

The Laborers’ International Union of North America is a longstanding labor union with about 420,000 American in construction and other trades. Brent Booker is the general president, and Michael F. Sabitoni is the secretary-treasurer.

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers - $1,571,664

This union represents 820,000 workers in the United States, U.S. territories, Canada and Panama. The president since last year is Kenneth W. Cooper, and also elected in 2023 was Secretary-Treasurer Paul A. Noble.

Open secrets provided this explanation of the data: “The money came from the organizations’ PACs; their individual members, employees or owners; and those individuals’ immediate families. At the federal level, the organizations themselves did not donate, as they are prohibited by law from doing so. Organization totals include subsidiaries and affiliates.”

The remaining top 20 Biden donors are listed on the Open Secrets website: https://tinyurl.com/y77xtjtt.

President Joe Biden in the Oval Office. | Photo courtesy of the White House

Donald Trump’s top 2024 campaign contributors

By Joe Taglieri joet@beaconmedianews.com

Former President Donald Trump is the Republican front-runner in the 2024 election, and according to the Federal Election Commission his campaign has raised $124.2 million. Citing FEC figures released April 22, the nonprofit Open Secrets reported these top Trump contributors: Bigelow Aerospace$9,188,600

Founded by entrepreneur, hotelier and real estate investor Robert T. Bigelow, the Las Vegas-based company designs and builds “habitable space structures for private enterprise and government use,” according to its website.

America First

- $6,009,540

This Republican super PAC gave 97% of its 2024 contributions to Trump’s PAC Make America Great Again. McMahon Ventures

- $5,250,000

McMahon Ventures is a consulting firm owned by husband-and-wife Linda and Vince McMahon, who are the founders of World Wrestling Entertainment. Linda McMahon served in Trump’s cabinet as head of the Small Business Administration. Hendricks Holding Co.$5,000,225

This corporate conglomerate spans the construction, the film, insurance, real estate, dining and transportation and logistics

industries. Conservative billionaire Diane Hendricks and her late husband Ken Hendricks founded the firm in 2001. Diane Hendricks was an economic advisor to Trump’s 2016 campaign.

Laura & Isaac Perlmutter Foundation$5,000,000

This philanthropic foundation invests in a wide range of health care, social justice, arts and community-oriented initiatives, according to the organization’s website. After nearly 40 years since its founding, the Perlmutters and the foundation have donated more than $78 million.

Crownquest Operating - $5,000,000

Based in Midland, Texas, Crownquest Operating was founded in 1996 and drills oil and gas wells. Its CEO is Timothy Dunn and Robert W. “Bobby” Floyd is the president.

RAI Services Co.$3,500,000

Part of the Reynolds American Inc. tobacco conglomerate behind brands such as Camel, Newport and Natural American Spirit, RAI Services Co. is based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission. David Waterfield is the president and CEO.

GH Palmer Associates -

$2,013,200

G. H. Palmer Associates currently owns a more than $6 billion portfolio of 15,039 Southern-California apartment units, valued in excess of $6 billion, according to the company. The owner is Geoffrey Harrison Palmer, a California builder and attorney.

Southern Waste Systems - $1,303,300

Southern Waste Systems is based in South Florida, and is a subsidiary of Waste Management Inc. The company collects residential, commercial and industrial solid waste and does recycling.

Dan Newlin Injury Attorneys - $1,100,000

This personal injury law firm is based in Orlando, Florida, and claims to have recovered billions of dollars for clients.

Open secrets provided this explanation of the data: “The money came from the organizations’ PACs; their individual members, employees or owners; and those individuals’ immediate families. At the federal level, the organizations themselves did not donate, as they are prohibited by law from doing so. Organization totals include subsidiaries and affiliates.”

The remaining top 20 Trump donors are listed on the Open Secrets website.

President Joe Biden in the Oval Office. | Photo courtesy of the White House

Energy-efficient home improvements that can lower taxes in 2025

By Lauren Nowacki, Stacker

In 2021, Americans collectively paid $2.2 trillion in income taxes, according to the most recent data from the Tax Foundation. On average, individuals paid $14,279. Needless to say, the days leading up to April 15 can be expensive.

As this year’s tax season wraps up, people may be looking for ways to save when they file in 2025. One popular way to do that is through a tax credit, which offers taxpayers the opportunity to directly deduct from their tax liability, or the amount of taxes they owe.

Homeowners looking to earn a tax credit through home improvements when they file next year should consider energy-efficiency. With tax credits rewarding clean energy initiatives and energy-efficient home improvements, homeowners could annually subtract thousands of dollars from their taxable income.

Who can take advantage? According to a Rocket Loans study conducted in 2023, about 42.7% of homeowners anticipated doing some kind of home improvement that will help increase their property’s energy-efficiency. For those homeowners — and

Rocket Loans calculated the average amount a homeowner could pay for such improvements and the tax credit they could receive based on that estimated cost. Along with tax savings, they could also save on utility costs by using less energy.

The government lists eligible improvements under one of two credits: the Energy Efficient Home Improvement Tax Credit and the Residential Clean Energy Tax Credit. Energy Efficient Home Improvement Tax Credit

The Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit allows homeowners to claim 30% of qualified expenses up to $3,200, each year they make improvements. That means homeowners can claim credit for multiple improvements up to a total of $3,200. Under that umbrella amount, specific home improvements have a max amount people are allowed to claim annually.

Based on the average cost of each improvement listed, the table above shows the tax credit a homeowner could receive, the maximum amount they can claim and how much they could save in utilities.

battery storage technology.

Other than fuel cell property, there is no limit for these credits — both annually and lifetime until the credit begins to phase out in 2033.

Based on the average cost of each clean energy improvement listed, the table above shows the tax credit a homeowner may receive, how much they could save in utilities and how much it may increase their home value.

If the homeowner is leasing solar panels, they do not qualify for the tax credit.

The average costs of each improvement for the energy-efficient and clean energy home improvements listed were sourced from the most recent data from Angi as of March 2024. The average annual utility savings are based on the $2,060 average annual amount a U.S. family spends on home utilities, according to EnergyStar. This number was used as the base number from which we multiplied the average percent of savings for each energy improvement.

Other money-saving incentives for energyefficient updates

anyone else planning to make their home greener — tax savings could be in their future.

How much energyefficiency can save the average homeowner

While the upfront cost of many eligible home improvements may be high, there are a few different ways homeowners can get some of that money back.

The Residential Clean Energy Tax Credit is equal to 30% of the costs of any new improvement that changes how a home receives power using clean energy. These must be qualified improvements and may include the following: solar panels, wind turbines, geothermal heat pumps, fuel cells and

any financial incentive on their project may need to subtract the money saved from the total cost of any improvement project they’re claiming. The amount after the financial incentive is deducted is what should be reported for the tax credit. For more information, speak to a tax attorney.

Financing energyefficient home improvements

Energy-efficient updates to the home can be expensive — some costing tens of thousands of dollars. Luckily for homeowners,

timeline, location and financial situation.

Several ways to finance home improvements

Along with federal tax credits, there are also state and local subsidies, incentives and rebate programs available for homeowners who wish to make their homes more energy-efficient. Homeowners should speak with their local and state energy offices and/ or program administrators to learn more about what’s available in their area.

Those who receive

in addition to what is paid on the primary mortgage.

Closing costs are not included. While credit cards are revolving debt, with no set term, this example uses a borrower’s goal of paying the loan off in 10 years.

Summary: Improvements can be expensive, but there are ways to save Energy-efficient improvement costs run the gamut from a few hundred to tens of thousands of dollars. But there are ways to save on costs, finance the project and financially benefit from these improve-

there are a few different ways to finance such projects. The right option will depend on the homeowner’s financial situation and goals.

While a breakdown of each financing option can help with understanding how much one may expect to pay each month and in total, keep in mind, the numbers will be different depending on the project,

The example above uses estimated average interest rates as of March 20, and is for a home improvement project costing $25,000. This will be the amount financed for each scenario. The loan amount, interest rate and loan term were plugged into the Rocket Loans Simple Loan Calculator to get the monthly payment and total interest paid, rounded to the nearest dollar.

Since the cash-out refinance would roll the current mortgage in, the total amount borrowed would be the original balance owed, plus the $25,000 borrowed for the project. It’s important to keep in mind, too, that a home equity loan is a second mortgage. Because of this, the monthly payment, interest, term and total interest paid will all be

Residential Clean Energy Tax Credit

| Image courtesy of Rocket Loans/Stacker

| Image courtesy of Rocket Loans/Stacker

| Image courtesy of Rocket Loans/Stacker

Trio of suspects admit conspiring in regional retail theft ring

By City News Service

Three members of a Jurupa Valley family involved in a string of retail thefts throughout Riverside County and neighboring locations pleaded guilty to felony charges Wednesday, resulting in the ringleader receiving nearly three years in state prison and his relations receiving terms of probation.

ThomasEdward Balandran, 51, Breeanna Marie Balandran, 19, and Sherri Marie Alvarez, 48, all admitted organized retail theft with intent to resell merchandise under separate plea agreements with the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office. Thomas Balandran additionally admitted charges of conspiracy and grand theft, along with probation violations.

Prosecutors dropped related felony counts against Breeanna Balandran and

Alvarez in exchange for their admitting the organized retail theft allegation.

During a hearing Wednesday at the Riverside Hall of Justice, Superior Court Judge Jeff Zimel certified the terms of the plea deals, imposing a stipulated sentence of two years, eight months in state prison on Thomas Balandran. The women were each sentenced to two years’ felony probation. Zimel also ordered both to serve between four to six months in a sheriff’s work release program, during which time they’ll have to remain gainfully employed or attend vocational or similar programs.

The judge directed the Department of Probation to determine the amount of victim restitution that the defendants should be required to pay.

According to Sgt. Josh

Hephner of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, the trio were arrested, along with a 17-year-old boy whose identity was not disclosed, on May 13 at a residence in the 6800 block of Valley Way, where a search warrant was served based on an investigation that began during the last week of April.

The teenager was released to the custody of relatives.

Hephner said the defendants came to the attention of investigators following an April 24 theft in the 32100 block of Temecula Parkway, where a retail establishment was targeted and $1,000 worth of goods were stolen.

“Throughout the investigation, it was confirmed the suspects were responsible for at least 10 separate thefts throughout Riverside, San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties,” the

sergeant said. “In total, they were responsible for over $7,000 in losses, and it is believed there are additional unidentified incidents of theft.”

He said detectives soon identified other “residences believed to be involved in knowingly buying stolen goods with the intent to resell them for profit, also known as ‘fencing.’”

Search warrants served at a Moreno Valley residence netted “over $3,000 of additional stolen merchandise,” according to Hephner.

Only the defendants were arrested.

Court records show Thomas Balandran has prior convictions for possession of controlled substances and shoplifting, while Sherri Alvarez has a prior for petty theft. Breeanna Balandran has no documented priors in Riverside County.

Disneyland’s ‘Fantasmic!’ show returns

By City News Service

Disneyland’spopular

“Fantasmic!” returned Friday, nearly a year after it went on hiatus due to a fire that engulfed the attraction’s giant prop dragon.

The show includes a “reimagined battle scene between Sorcerer Mickey and Maleficent,” according to the park.

“In the reimagined battle scene between Sorcerer Mickey and Maleficent, Mickey gathers all his magical powers, creating colorful swirls of light as sparkling pyrotechnics bolt from his fingers,” according to a statement from the park. “Cloaked in her dark gown with her powerful scepter in hand, Maleficent ascends to a height of 35 feet as she appears to ignite the Rivers

of America in flames.”

The “Fantasmic!” show has been on hold since April 2023, when a fire erupted during a performance and burned the Maleficent dragon during the performance’s finale. The Anaheim Fire Department responded, and all Disney guests and employees were safely evacuated from the area. No injuries were reported.

The blaze prompted Disney to suspend its use of fire effects at select shows in parks worldwide.

The original “Fantasmic!” show opened in Frontierland in 1992 and featured fireworks, various Disney characters, live actors, water effects, pyrotechnics, lasers, music, audio-

animatronics, searchlights, decorated boat floats and mist screen projections.

The show went inside Mickey Mouse’s imagination as he battled various Disney villains, including Maleficent in her dragon form, which was about 45 feet tall.

Disneyland officials said the revamped show maintains the original premise -- minus the dragon -- and “brings back the iconic `Peter Pan’ scene and introduces The Lost Boys as they join Peter Pan and Wendy to battle Captain Hook on a pirate ship that sails into view on the Rivers of America. They execute a stunning series of spectacular duels and falls during this swashbuckling sequence.”

| Photo by SteveAllenPhoto999/Envato Elements

Mickey during “Fantasmic!” | Photo by Carlos CC BY-NC 2.0 DEED

Feds to spend $34M cleaning up California orphaned oil, gas wells

By Staff

Morethan200 orphaned oil and gas wells in California will be cleaned up with $35.2 million from the federal government, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced May 17.

The cleanup funds come through President Joe Biden’s Investing in America agenda to continue reclaiming and restoring orphaned oil and gas wells in California, according to the department. With this new funding, the state expects to plug and remediate 206 high-risk orphaned oil and gas wells and decommission 47 production facilities with about 70,000 feet of pipelines.

Interior Department officials also announced new guidance on matching grants for states to access $30 million each in additional funding for cleaning up orphaned wells.

“President Biden’s Investing in America agenda is creating jobs and revitalizing local economies while cleaning up harmful legacy pollution sites throughout the country,” said Depart-

ment of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement. “I’ve seen firsthand, including right here in Los Angeles, the urgent need to address these hazardous sites, many of which are actively leaking oil and releasing methane gas. With this historic funding, states like California are making significant progress in plugging wells and protecting communities. These investments are good for our climate, for the health of our communities and for American workers.”

LA Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement, “This is an issue of environmental justice. Today we are locking arms across the city, state and federal governments to continue our work to end neighborhood oil drilling in the City of Los Angeles to protect the health of Angelenos and advance our vision of Environmental Justice.”

Orphaned oil and gas wells pollute backyards, recreation areas and public spaces nationwide. The wells create serious health and safety

threats by contaminating surface and groundwater, emitting air pollutants and leaking methane, which officials said was a

“super pollutant” that is a key contributor climate change and many times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere. Cleaning up orphaned wells in in line with other efforts by the Biden administration under the U.S. Methane Emissions Reduction Action Plan.

Through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Interior Department is delivering the largest investment in mitigating legacy pollution in American history, including $4.7 billion for plugging orphaned fossil-fuel wells, officials said. Since August 2022, the Department has awarded $565 million to 25 states, including $25 million to California, to start plugging and cleaning up wells. So far, California’s Geologic Energy Management Division has plugged 156 wells and did surface restoration of well sites.

Haaland made the announcement following a briefing by the California Geologic Energy Management Division on the impact of the funding the state has received to date. Bass, California Deputy Secretary for Energy Le-Quyen Nguyen, labor representatives and environmental justice advocates were present for Haaland's grant announcement.

The secretary visited LA in December 2021 to draw

attention to the "devastating and long-lasting effects of legacy pollution," according to the Interior Department statement.

California's grant is part of $660 million that will be released on a rolling basis, officials said. California will use its $32.5 million to detect and measure methane emissions from orphaned wells and test for adverse impacts to groundwater and surface water. Priority will be given to orphaned wells near "overburdened and disadvantaged" areas.

The grants are part of Biden's Justice40 Initiative, which aims to deliver 40% of the overall benefits of certain federal investments to disadvantaged communities that have been historically marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law also provides $1.5 billion for state performance grants, which fall into two sub-categories: matching grants and regulatory improvement grants.Today, Secretary Haaland announced final guidance to states on how to apply for the up to $30 million in matching grant funding available to each state to create jobs and clean up polluting and unsafe orphaned oil and gas wells.

Eligible states may receive a matching grant from the Department equal

to what the state commits to spend each fiscal year if that amount is greater than the average spent by the state between 2010 and 2019. By incentivizing states to increase their own spending on plugging and reclaiming orphaned wells, these grants will help address even more of the wells littered across the country. The guidance released today is a result of robust engagement with state partners and public stakeholders and reflects feedback provided on the draft that was released in February 2024.

According to a StoryMap recently released by the Interior Department, well plugging is happening across the country. Since the enactment of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, states have plugged more than 7,700 orphaned wells and reduced about 11,530 metric tons of possible methane emissions. In addition to providing funding to states, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law allocated $250 million to clean up well sites in national parks, national forests, national wildlife refuges and other public lands. Nearly $150 million has been allocated over the past three years. This funding for states and federal land managers is in addition to the close to $40 million awarded to Native American tribes in September.

U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, accompanied by Mayor Karen Bass, at right, and California Deputy Secretary for Energy Le-Quyen Nguyen, announces funding to clean up orphaned oil wells. | Photo courtesy of the city of Los Angeles

El Monte City Notices

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING

NOTICE TO EL MONTE PROPERTY OWNERS AND OTHER INTERESTED PARTIES OF THE CITY’S INTENT TO CONDUCT A JUNE 04, 2024 MAJORITY-PROTEST PUBLIC HEARING TO CONSIDER AND POTENTIALLY APPROVE A PROPOSALTO INCREASE THE CITY’S EXISTING SCHEDULE OF ANNUAL SEWER SERVICE CHARGE RATES ASSESSED TO REAL PROPERTY PARCELS WITHIN THE CITY AND COLLECTED ON THE ANNUAL TAX ROLL

TUESDAY, JUNE 04, 2024 BEFORE THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF EL MONTE

TO: All Members of the Public and All Other Interested Parties FROM: City Council of the City of El Monte

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN as required by Section 5473.1 of the Health & Safety Code and Section 6066 of the Government Code, the El Monte City Council hereby gives notice that a public hearing will be held on TUESDAY, JUNE 04, 2024 at 6:00 P.M. to determine for the purpose of considering and taking action to approve the following:

APPROVAL A PUBLIC HEARING CONSIDER AND APPROVE SOUGHT: AN URGENCY ORDINANCE AMENDING PROVISIONS OF CHAPTER 3.01 (SEWER CHARGE FUND) OF THE EL MONTE MUNICIPAL CODE AND RELATED MAJORITY PROTEST PUBLIC HEARING TO RECEIVE WRITTEN PROTESTS IN OPPOSITION TO THE PROPOSED SEWER SERVICE CHARGE INCREASE; AND CONSIDER AND APPROVE A RESOLUTION IMPLEMENTING A PROPOSED SCHEDULE OF INCREASED SEWER CHARGES ALONG WITH RELATED SUPPORTING MATERIALS.

The City of El Monte (“City”) proposes increases to the City’s existing schedule sewer service charge rates for users of the City’s sewage and wastewater collection and transmission system. The sewer service charge is levied upon real property parcels within the City, including real property record of owner based on the last equalized secured property tax assessment roll.

The charges for which City staff and the Consultant have recommended increases qualify as so-called “property related fees and charges” within the meaning of Article XIIID of the California Constitution and as such require the conduct of a majority protest public hearing carried-out in accordance with the noticing and hearing requirements of Article XIIID, Section 6 of the California Constitution and the Proposition 218 Omnibus Implementation Act (Government Code Section 53750 et seq.) Article XIIID, Section 6 of the California Constitution requires that prior to levying a new or increased property-related fee or charge, a public agency shall provide a minimum of 45 days prior written notice by mail of any proposed increase to a fee or charge to the record owner of each real property parcel affected by the increase to the fee or charge. The Prop 218 Public Notice was deposited with the U.S. Postal Service: April 19, 2024.

The City Council will consider all written materials, including the 2024 Rate Analysis, and oral testimony concerning the proposed sewer service charge rate increase. If you oppose the proposed increase, you may submit a written protest in opposition to the increase, subject to the rules and procedures described in City Council Resolution No. 10526 dated April 2, 2024. The public hearing will be open to the public and anyone interested may address the City Council as part of the public hearing, including the record owner(s) of real property parcels affected by the rate increase.

For more information about the proposed sewer service charge rate increase or to obtain the Prop 218 Public Notice in Vietnamese, Mandarin or Spanish, visit the City’s internet webpage by clicking https:// elmonteca.gov/705/2024-Sewer-Rate-Study.

THE PUBLIC HEARING WILL BE HELD AT: El Monte City Hall–East, City Council Chambers, 1333 Valley Boulevard, El Monte, California.

Persons wishing to comment upon the matter may do so orally at the time of the public hearing or in writing submitted prior to the close of the public hearing. For further information or questions regarding this matter please contact the Public Works Utility Division at 626580-2250, Monday through Thursday (excluding legal holidays), between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.

Published: May 20, 2024 and May 27, 2024 Gabriel Ramirez,City Clerk City of El Monte

Publish May 20, 2024 and May 27, 2024

EL MONTE EXAMINER

San Gabriel City Notices

PUBLIC NOTICE SAN GABRIEL UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING ON THE 2024-2025 LOCAL CONTROL AND ACCOUNTABILITY PLAN (LCAP)

NOTICE IS HERBY GIVEN that the Governing Board (“board”) of the San Gabriel Unified School District will hold a public hearing on the Local Control and Accountability Plan for 2024-2025, PRIOR TO Final Adoption as required by Education Code 42103 and 52062. The Public Hearing of the San Gabriel Unified School District is to be held June 11, 2024 at 7:00 p.m. The public is cordially invited to attend this meeting.

The Governing Board meeting agenda is accessible by visiting: https://tinyurl.com/sangabrielboardagenda

The Local Control and Accountability Plan will be on file and available for public inspection should members of the public wish to review a hard copy of this plan prior to the public hearing at the following location: 408 Junipero Serra Drive, San Gabriel, and posted on our website at the link below from May 28, 2024 to June 11, 2024.

The Local Control and Accountability Plan is also accessible at: https://www.sgusd.k12.ca.us/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ ID=413602&type=d&pREC_ID=2063508

Any questions regarding the public hearing should be directed to James Symonds, Superintendent at (626) 451-5400.

Published on May 27, 2024 SAN GABRIEL SUN

Probate Notices

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF KHANH HOANG NGUYEN aka KENEY NGUYEN

CASE NO. 24STPB05117

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of: KHANH HOANG NGUYEN aka KENEY NGUYEN

A PETITION FOR PROBATE has been filed by KEVIN NGUYEN and EDWIN NGUYEN in the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles.

THE PETITION FOR PROBATE requests that KEVIN NGUYEN and EDWIN NGUYEN be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent.

THE PETITION requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act with full authority . (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.

A HEARING on the petition will be held on 07/15/2024 at 8:30 AM in Dept. 67 located at 111 N. HILL ST. LOS ANGELES CA 90012 STANLEY MOSK COURTHOUSE.

IF YOU OBJECT to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney.

IF YOU ARE A CREDITOR or a contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined in section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you

consented to the proposed action.)

The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.

A HEARING on the petition will be held in this court as follows: 06/21/24 at 8:30AM in Dept. 5 located at 111 N. HILL ST., LOS ANGELES, CA 90012

IF YOU OBJECT to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney. IF YOU ARE A CREDITOR or a contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined in section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code.

Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law.

YOU MAY EXAMINE the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk.

Attorney for Petitioner

DONALD L. SCOGGINS - SBN 167359

ATTORNEY AT LAW 9190 W. OLYMPIC BLVD. 414 BEVERLY HILLS CA 90212

Telephone (323) 591-0144 5/27, 5/30, 6/3/24 CNS-3816910# ROSEMEAD READER

of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law.

YOU MAY EXAMINE the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk.

Attorney for Petitioner: VICKIE D. LE, ESQ., Bar No. 143310

Law Offices of Vickie D. Le 9039 Bolsa Avenue, Suite 218 Westminster, CA 92683

Telephone No. (714) 379-6449

Fax No. (714) 379-4779

Email Address: lawofficesofandrelam@gmail.com

Attorney for: Kevin Nguyen and Edwin Nguyen, Telephone: (714) 379-6449 5/20, 5/23, 5/27/24 CNS-3814870# EL MONTE EXAMINER

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF: DIANA TREECHIN WOO AKA DIANA TREECHIN WU CASE NO. 24STPB05681

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the WILL or estate, or both of DIANA TREECHIN WOO AKA DIANA TREECHIN WU.

A PETITION FOR PROBATE has been filed by MARY A. WOO in the Superior Court of California, County of LOS ANGELES.

THE PETITION FOR PROBATE requests that MARY A. WOO be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent.

THE PETITION requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or

tion 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law. YOU MAY EXAMINE the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk. Attorney for Petitioner J. PETER WAKEMAN, ESQ. - SBN 116317 WAKEMAN LAW GROUP, INC 4500 E THOUSAND OAKS BLVD #101 WESTLAKE VILLAGE CA 91362

Telephone (800) 366-1186 5/27, 5/30, 6/3/24 CNS-3817066# MONROVIA WEEKLY

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF:

PATRICIA LOU WILLIAMS AKA PATTY WILLIAMS CASE NO. 24STPB05623

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the WILL or estate, or both of PATRICIA LOU WILLIAMS AKA PATTY WILLIAMS. A PETITION FOR PROBATE has been filed by KIMBERLY SEGO in the Superior Court of California, County of LOS ANGELES. THE PETITION FOR PROBATE requests that KIMBERLY SEGO be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent.

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF: MARC THOMAS JACOBS AKA MARC T. JACOBS CASE NO. 24STPB05459

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the WILL or estate, or both of MARC THOMAS JACOBS AKA MARC T. JACOBS.

A PETITION FOR PROBATE has been filed by MOLLY E. JACOBS AND ANDREW J. JACOBS in the Superior Court of California, County of LOS ANGELES.

THE PETITION FOR PROBATE requests that MOLLY E. JACOBS AND ANDREW J. JACOBS be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent.

THE PETITION requests the decedent’s WILL and codicils, if any, be admitted to probate. The WILL and any codicils are available for examination in the file kept by the court.

THE PETITION requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.)

The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.

A HEARING on the petition will be held in this court as follows: 06/27/24 at 8:30AM in Dept. 44 located at 111 N. HILL ST., LOS ANGELES, CA 90012

IF YOU OBJECT to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney.

IF YOU ARE A CREDITOR or a contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined in sec-

THE PETITION requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act with limited authority. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.

A HEARING on the petition will be held in this court as follows: 06/17/24 at 8:30AM in Dept. 99 located at 111 N. HILL ST., LOS ANGELES, CA 90012

IF YOU OBJECT to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney.

IF YOU ARE A CREDITOR or a contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined in section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law. YOU MAY EXAMINE the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk. Attorney for Petitioner

LARRY D. STRATTON, ESQ.SBN 116955 LAW OFFICES OF LARRY D. STRATTON 35 NORTH LAKE AVENUE, SUITE 710 PASADENA CA 91101 Telephone (626) 447-1446 5/23, 5/27, 5/30/24 CNS-3816230# ARCADIA

that he shouldn’t have been impeached.”

“I was there,” another man called out. “We were peaceful.”

“No shouting now,” the emcee said.

One audience member accused Meijer of taking a bribe in exchange for his impeachment vote.

Another challenged him to name five “political prisoners from Jan. 6” who were “sitting in prison and falsely accused.” I watched Meijer struggle to complete a sentence before being cut off.

A third person pointed a finger at him as he questioned whether Meijer was actually in the Capitol complex on Jan. 6, 2021, as he’d claimed.

“I have a photo I took in the House,” Meijer said, trying to defend himself without sounding defensive. Mostly, he listened wideeyed, sipping coffee from a Styrofoam cup.

An older woman asked, in a gentler tone, if Meijer would redo his impeachment vote if he could. Would he at least have abstained instead of voting “yes”?

Meijer responded by saying that when he was in Congress, someone had once joked that they’d throw him off a bridge if he ever voted “present.”

A deep voice rang out on the far side of the room. The man in the “Stand for God” shirt.

“Sorry?” Meijer said, not hearing him.

The man repeated himself: “You should’ve gotten thrown off the bridge.”

The System Falls Apart

What divides the Republican Party of 2024 is not any one policy or ideology. It is not whether to support Donald Trump. The most important fault line in the party now is democracy itself. Today’s Republican insurgents believe democracy has been stolen, and they don’t trust the ability of democratic processes to restore it.

This phenomenon is evident across the country, in Georgia and Nevada, in Arizona, Idaho and Florida. But it’s perhaps the starkest in Michigan, a place long associated with political pragmatism and a businessfriendly GOP, embodied by governors George Romney, John Engler and, most recently, Rick Snyder. It was a son of Michigan, former President Gerald Ford, who once said, “I have never mistaken moderation for weakness, nor civility for surrender.”

I grew up in Michigan. My own political educa-

tion and my early years as a journalist coincided with a stunning Republican resurgence in my home state. Over several decades, Michigan’s dynastic families — the DeVoses and Meijers and Van Andels on the west side, the Romneys and Fords on the east — poured money and manpower into the Michigan Republican Party, building it into one of the most vaunted political operations in the country. They transformed Michigan from a bastion of organized labor that leaned Democratic into a toss-up state that, until recently, had a right-to-work law and put Republicans in control of all three branches of government for eight of the last 14 years. Michigan Republicans were so successful that other states copied their tactics. As Dick DeVos, heir to the Amway fortune and a prolific Republican donor, once told a gathering of conservative activists, “If we can do it in Michigan, you can do it anywhere.”

Several years ago, however, my home state stopped making sense to me. I watched as thousands of political newcomers, whose sole qualification appeared to be fervor of belief, declared war on the Republican establishment that had been so dominant. Calling themselves the “America First” movement, these unknowns treated the DeVoses and other party leaders as the enemy. I had covered the DeVoses and the Michigan Republican Party long enough to know that they were not just pro-business but staunch conservatives who wanted to slash taxes, abolish regulations and remake the public education system in favor of vouchers and parochial schools. Yet the new “America First” activists disparaged prominent Michigan Republicans as “globalist” elites who belonged to a corrupt “uniparty” cabal. That cabal had denied Trump a rightful second term and needed to be purged from the party. With a consequential election looming, I traveled back to Michigan earlier this year to understand how this all happened. I sought out the activists waging this struggle, a group of people who don’t trust institutions or individuals except Trump and one another — and sometimes not even that. Could they triumph over the elites? I found chaos, incompetence, strife, a glimpse of a future post-Trump Republican Party and, all around me, danger for our system of government and the state of the country.

“We can’t keep going through election after election like this where a large plurality of the country just does not accept the outcome of the majority and refuses to abide by it,” said Jeff Timmer, a former executive director of the Michigan Republican Party who now works with the anti-Trump Lincoln Project. “That’s when the system falls apart.”

A Call From God

After Peter Meijer’s event in Kent County, I drove west toward Lake Michigan to meet a plumber named Ken Beyer for lunch. Barrel-chested and with a neatly trimmed goatee, Beyer is in his late 50s but looks younger. He’s disarmingly earnest, the kind of guy who’d offer to help you fix a flat tire in a snowstorm. In less than two years, Beyer had risen from a political nobody to a district chair in the state GOP and a leader of the “America First” movement in Michigan. He is known for his fiery videos, in which he might equate a rival to Adolf Hitler or warn that “the storm is upon us.”

Like many of his “America First” allies, he questions whether democracy still exists in this country. “I don’t know if any election is fair anymore,” he said.

Over chicken tenders and iced tea, Beyer, a church-going Christian, told me about a series of what he saw as divine revelations that had delivered him to this point. The pandemic and 2020 election had shaken him. He no longer

believe that his home state had been central to the Democrats’ plan to steal the 2020 election.

In his free time, Beyer urged Republican lawmakers to investigate the allegations of fraud made by Trump and his allies. Most Republicans brushed him off. A few, like Peter Meijer, had openly turned on Trump, voting for impeachment or dismissing Trump’s stolen-election theories. Beyer couldn’t understand it. “Why weren’t they fighting for him?” he said.

According to more experienced people in the party, there was a simple answer: Many of the claims brought forward weren’t true. A long-awaited investigation by a Republican-led state Senate committee found “no evidence of widespread or systematic fraud” in Michigan.

“I believe that He’s using people like me throughout the United States to become the re-founding fathers,” he told me.

The precinct strategy proved successful. In Michigan, thousands of new activists, many recruited by “America First” groups, became precinct delegates in 2022. In Ottawa County, a deeply conservative enclave along Lake Michigan, the number of delegates leapt from 170 to 330. The same trend played out in other battleground states. “The Trump apparatus did very little correct except infiltrate the party right down to the precinct level,” said Timmer, the former executive director of the Michigan Republican Party. “Not just in Michigan but all over.”

recognized his own country. He feared that the moment had come, he said, “where freedom and the American dream end.”

His next revelation happened on Jan. 6, 2021. Because he was convinced that Democrats stole the White House from Trump, he had gone to Washington to make his voice heard and show support for the president. Standing on the steps of the Capitol, he encountered a reporter with the conservative outlet Newsmax who needed help carrying gear. Beyer grabbed a tripod and backpack and filled in as a makeshift field producer for one of the biggest events of the 21st century. “What God wanted me to do,” he later said, “was help capture the history of what’s happening and get the truth out of what really was going on there.”

Back in Michigan, Beyer enlisted the help of a young videographer who had produced content for Beyer’s plumbing business, and together they churned out videos about COVID-19 (overblown), election fraud (rampant) and the “truth” of Jan. 6 (“a big prayer meeting”). He read about disturbing allegations about voting-machine software changing votes. He listened to poll workers allege that mysterious suitcases of mail-in ballots had arrived overnight at the state’s largest ballot-processing site in downtown Detroit (a claim that was later debunked). The more he heard, the more he came to

If Republicans wouldn’t act, Beyer reasoned, then they were just as bad as the Democrats. Trump supporters in other states had also encountered Republican indifference in response to Trump’s fraud allegations. What were they supposed to do now?

TheRe-Founding Fathers

A solution arrived in the form of the “precinct strategy.” It was a plan promoted by former Trump adviser Steve Bannon to ensure that the political establishment in both parties didn’t “steal” future elections. Precincts are the smallest geographical unit in American elections. In Michigan, there are roughly 4,700 precincts typically made up of a few thousand active registered voters. Each precinct elects at least one delegate as its representative to a county convention, and sometimes three or four. In all, there are upwards of 8,000 delegate positions in Michigan.

If a state political party is a pyramid with a chairperson at the top, precinct delegates occupy the lowest, broadest tier. Until recently, it was an obscure position. Thousands of the seats often sit empty. If enough Trump supporters filled them, Bannon said, they could form a majority within the party, elect allies to leadership positions and, eventually, take control.

Ken Beyer had never heard of a precinct delegate until he stumbled across the website for MI Precinct First, a group inspired by Bannon’s plan. He decided to run. He believed that this, too, must be part of God’s plan for him.

The first test for the new “America First” delegates came in late August 2022. In Michigan, the voters select most nominees for elected office in a normal primary election. But for two key positions with oversight of elections — attorney general and secretary of state — the precinct delegates decide the party’s nominees at a statewide convention. These conventions were often sleepy affairs, the outcome predetermined. But this time, when the party’s chair, a wealthy donor and former U.S. ambassador named Ron Weiser, took the stage, the cavernous ballroom filled with boos and jeers.

“How many of you believe we can sweep in November?” Weiser asked.

“With the new people!” a woman wearing a “Keep America Great” hat yelled. “With ‘America First’!”

Over the opposition of Weiser and other longtime party operatives, the “America First” contingent nominated two election deniers for attorney general and secretary of state. Matthew DePerno, a combative lawyer who had promoted a viral yet baseless theory about voting fraud in tiny Antrim County, Michigan, vowed to use the power of the attorney general’s office to investigate election crimes. Kristina Karamo, a tall, commanding woman in her late 30s with a breathless speaking style, was the “America First” pick for secretary of state. A community college instructor and live-trivia host, Karamo had come to prominence after she testified before the Michigan Legislature about irregularities involving ballot counting and voting machines she said she’d witnessed as a

Peter Meijer. | Photo courtesy of Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

poll challenger in Detroit in 2020.

As a show of political force, nominating DePerno and Karamo was impressive. As an electoral strategy, it was disastrous. Both candidates were trounced in November, and Michigan Democrats won control of all three branches of government for the first time in more than 30 years.

DePerno conceded defeat right away. Karamo did not. To outside observers, her stance was laughable: She had lost by 615,000 votes, roughly the population of Detroit. But Beyer and many other “America First” delegates saw Karamo’s actions as brave and principled, the opposite of DePerno’s cowardly and hypocritical concession. Several months later, she and DePerno ran against each other to be the next chair of the Michigan Republican Party. DePerno won endorsements from Trump and Mike Lindell, the MyPillow CEO and a funder of the election-fraud movement. But the delegates rallied behind Karamo and delivered her the victory. In just two years, Bannon’s precinct strategy had gone from a quixotic scheme to a reality.

No sooner had Karamo won than paranoia set in. Standing on the convention floor just before her victory, a well-connected precinct delegate approached Beyer to deliver a message. “He says, ‘Leadership is going to let you guys have this one,’” Beyer recalled. Karamo would be chair, in other words, because party leaders let it happen. Why’d they do that, Beyer asked. “Because they believe that they can make her fail quicker than they can Matt DePerno.”

File Number One

A state political party is like the HVAC unit of American politics. When it does its job, you don’t think about it. It hums away in the background, as unsexy as it is essential. State parties recruit candidates to run for office. They mobilize voters. They raise money that helps candidates spread their message and win elections.

Karamo had other priorities when she took over the Michigan Republican Party. Top of the list: “election integrity.” She created a new “election security operations” team to recruit hundreds of volunteers as poll challengers, dropbox monitors and recount specialists, and to serve on county canvassing boards, which certify the final vote count. To oversee this work, she enlisted grassroots activists best known for filing a lawsuit that

accused Detroit’s election clerk of running an “illegal election” in 2022. (A judge dismissed the case, calling it “frivolous” and “rife with speculation.”) Training and embedding “America First” activists in every part of the election process was critical to the future of the party and the state. “Otherwise,” one of Karamo’s advisers told a group of activists, “the big money is going to come right back in and start doing all this for us and selecting all the candidates for us again.”

Karamo’s plan to “secure” elections had two objectives: Not only did she and her team hope to catch future cheating by the Democrats, but they sought revenge against the Republican establishment. To do that, Karamo turned to a lawyer and political outsider named James Copas. He was given a special project: write a new constitution for the state Republican Party that would give as much power as possible to precinct delegates. People like Ken Beyer. There was no greater priority for Karamo’s team. “If you were to look in my records, I opened 82 different project files,” Copas told me. “The constitution was file number one.”

Karamo showed little interest in the day-today work of running the party. Bills went unpaid, emails unanswered. When members of the party’s state committee, in effect the board of directors, questioned her, she ignored them or removed them from leadership positions. Even her allies were critical. “I can tell you unequivocally that there was no chance that Kristina was qualified to be the chair,” Copas said. “So what? She was elected.”

(Karamo did not respond to multiple requests for comment.)

Near the end of 2023, Copas circulated a draft of his proposed overhaul of the party constitution. The new constitution proposed a radical change: Eliminate open primary elections and replace them with closed caucuses. Under the current system, about a million people voted in an August GOP primary to choose nominees for local elected offices, state legislative seats, judgeships and federal House and Senate races. Instead of those million or so voters casting ballots, fewer than 10,000 precinct delegates — the same precinct delegates who had powered Karamo to victory — would meet behind closed doors and select the candidates.

The aim of this proposal, said Joel Studebaker, who was Karamo’s chief of staff, was to break up the “corruption club” that had ruled Michigan Republican politics for far too long. “We want something that’s pure,” he told me. “The best answer for that is putting power in the hands of the people.” The irony, critics pointed out, was that Karamo’s proposal would disenfranchise far more people than it empowered.

There was another reason the closed-caucus model appealed to the “America First” faithful: It meant there was no need for voting machines, mail-in ballots, high-speed scanners or any of the other technologies that electionfraud believers had spent the last two years railing against. “You’re eliminating cheating in the election system,” Beyer told me.

The backlash was fierce. “Nothing says ‘we respect democracy’ like cutting out millions of Michigan voters,” wrote one prominent Michigan conservative activist.

Karamo’s proposed voting reforms and the party’s dire finances plunged the organization into turmoil with the 2024 elections less than a year away. Even some of Karamo’s own supporters turned against her. Privately, a group of delegates discussed whether to urge her to step down for the good of the party. Karamo had no plans to resign. If her enemies wanted her gone, they would have to try to remove her.

And so they did: On Jan. 6, 2024, a group of antiKaramo delegates on the Republican state committee invoked party bylaws and voted to remove Karamo as chair. Two weeks later, the same faction elected former U.S. representative Pete Hoekstra to replace her.

Up From the Ashes

By the time Trump walked onstage in Waterford Township, Michigan, in mid-February with his red hat pulled low, the Michigan Republican Party was a national punchline. Karamo had refused to leave office, saying the vote to oust her was “illegitimate.” An unsigned statement issued by the state GOP called it a “political lynching.” Her critics filed a lawsuit in state court to enforce the removal vote, and Karamo said only a judge’s order could make her leave. In the meantime, she urged her followers to travel to Detroit on March 2 for a special convention. There, they would vote on her controversial plan to

rewrite the Michigan GOP’s constitution.

At his mid-February rally, Trump waded into the chaotic mess that was the Michigan Republican Party despite his supporters urging him not to. He described Hoekstra as “your new Michigan Republican Party chairman,” a line that was greeted with a mix of cheers and boos. The boos continued as Trump said he’d recommended Hoekstra for the job. “I said, ‘Do you think you could ever get this guy Hoekstra? He’s unbelievable,’” Trump said.

The Trump campaign seemed to recognize that the longer Karamo remained in charge, the weaker the state party was and the less chance he had to win Michigan. For both Trump and Biden, Michigan is arguably a must-win state.

Still, some of Trump’s most ardent supporters saw his support for Hoekstra as a betrayal. “I’m not happy with Mr. Trump right now,” one voter said at a Republican town hall I attended. “I think he should keep his nose out of Michigan politics.” When I asked Beyer what he thought, he said he suspected Trump was playing a double game. “If you know anything about election integrity, you know it’s a rigged program here,” he said. For Trump to win, “he’s gotta join the riggers.” I heard a Karamo supporter say she had read on “Truth” — meaning Truth Social, the social media platform partly owned by Trump — that Trump hadn’t even written the endorsement of Hoekstra that appeared on his account.

Around the time of Trump’s visit to Michigan, I went to hear Karamo speak in Saginaw County, an hour and a half north of Detroit. The event was part of a barnstorming tour of the state meant to rally her supporters and assure them that she remained the party’s legitimate leader. To her supporters, the date of the vote to remove her, Jan. 6, 2024, had taken on a mythological quality — it was the new Jan. 6. Their Jan. 6. The audience sat rapt as Karamo told them that it wasn’t just 2020 and 2022 that were rigged. “Our election system has been corrupted for decades. There’s an entire network protecting the corrupt system.”

At the end of her remarks, she reminded her supporters to go to Detroit on March 2. The date had taken on an outsize significance. Not only would delegates choose which presi-

dential candidate received Michigan’s 39 remaining delegates on the path to the Republican nomination, but they would vote on Karamo’s constitution plan. Hoekstra, who was calling himself the rightful chair, was planning a separate event on the same day in Grand Rapids. The schism in the party would be on full display.

A few days before the dueling conventions, a judge issued a preliminary ruling that Karamo had been properly removed. The Detroit convention was called off, and her constitutional overhaul was shelved for the time being. With Karamo’s event canceled, Beyer, now a regional GOP chairman as well as a delegate, said he would carry the torch for the “America First” movement. In an act of defiance aimed at “Adolf” Hoekstra, as Beyer called him, he and Studebaker announced their own miniconvention.

On the morning of March 2, Beyer picked me up at a Wendy’s on the drive to his breakaway convention. A deluge of text messages lit up his phone as we drove down the highway. Beyer told me that the theme for Hoekstra’s convention was “Up From the Ashes.”

“It’s fitting,” he said. “Because they lit the match. They don’t like the new group of people that have come in over the last two years.” He paused. “They’re burning down the Republican Party to get rid of people like me.”

After Beyer and Studebaker had run their protest convention, they jumped in Studebaker’s truck and drove to Hoekstra’s event in Grand Rapids. There, Studebaker ran into some operatives aligned with Trump’s team in Michigan. Studebaker was furious with them and with Trump for abandoning Karamo and for, as he saw it, thwarting the will of the delegates.

“He’s going to lose Michigan if he keeps doing this,” Studebaker said. The delegates will still vote for Trump, he added, but they’re not going to knock doors and they’re not going to give money. They might tune out of state and national elections and focus on local races.

The operatives were unmoved. “We gotta go,” one of them said. “Trump stuff.”

A Future Without Trump

Not long afterward, Trump disappointed his grassroots followers again.

In Michigan’s high-stakes Republican Senate contest,

Trump endorsed Mike Rogers, a former representative, all but assuring that Rogers would clinch the nomination in the August primary.

As for Peter Meijer, that throw-you-off-thebridge exchange in the cafe in February had proved prophetic: His comeback bid was doomed. In late April, he dropped out.

Trump’s endorsement of Rogers left his supporters mystified. Like Meijer, he had been a vocal critic of Trump, once calling the former president “more gangster than presidential.” He had chaired the powerful House intelligence committee, which led Trump followers to label him a member of the “deep state.” A former aide to Trump had tweeted: “Can’t imagine a worse or more dangerous ‘Republican’ candidate for Senate than Mike Rogers.” Jim Copas, who quit his role with the party shortly before Karamo was forced out, told me he was disgusted with Trump’s actions. “I’ve lost complete faith in the state GOP and I’ve lost complete faith in the national GOP,” he said. Speaking of Trump, he added: “To be honest, I think Don has learned a little bit about being a politician and he’s forgotten his soul.”

Beyer hadn’t given up on Trump. He still “loved” the man, he said, but he wasn’t taking direction from Trump. “I’m not gonna always listen to him,” Beyer told me. “I’m not part of a cult.”

He had his own plans. In one of our last conversations, he laid out a more religious, more uncompromising version of the “America First” movement. He had started his own PAC called Faith Family Freedom and he planned to target the precinct delegates around the state who had opposed Karamo and replace them with “America First” allies in the next round of delegate elections this August. He had already signed up 350 supporters in various counties, he said, to help with his efforts. If the Republican establishment — the DeVoses and the Meijers, Pete Hoekstra and the people who had voted to remove Karamo — fought him and his compatriots, Beyer stood ready. “They’re not after Trump. They’re not after Kristina,” he told me. “They’re after me. They’re after everybody like me. That’s what this is all about.”

Republished with Creative

BLVD SUITE 6, NORTH HILLS, CA 91343 LOS ANGELES. Mailing address if different: N/A. Articles of Incorporation or Organization Number: 6169909. The full name(s) of registrant(s) is/are: CRACOVIA LA CORP, 8774 SEPULVEDA BLVD SUITE 6, NORTH HILLS, CA 91343 (State of Incorporation/Organization: CA). This business is conducted by: CORPORATION. I declare that all information in this statement is true and correct. (Aregistrant who declares as true information which he or she knows to be false is guilty of a crime.) Signed: MARCIN BAUER, SECRETARY. The registrant commenced to transact business under the fictitious business names listed above on (date): 05/2024. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles County on (Date) 05/21/2024. NOTICE: This fictitious name statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the office of the county clerk. Anew fictitious business name statement must be filed before that time. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state, or common law (see Section 14411 et seq. Business and Professions Code). Publish: 05/27/2024, 06/03/2024, 06/10/2024, 06/17/2024. ARCADIA WEEKLY. AAA1255900.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT 2024110309

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: B&D CLEANING & MAINTENANCE SERVICES, 7022 SAN LUIS STREET, PARAMOUNT, CA90723 LOS ANGELES. Mailing address if different: N/A. Articles of Incorporation or Organization Number: C6226463. The full name(s) of registrant(s) is/ are: B&DLSERVICES INC, 7022 SAN LUIS STREET, PARAMOUNT, CA90723 (State of Incorporation/Organization: CA). This business is conducted by: CORPORATION. I declare that all information in this statement is true and correct. (Aregistrant who declares as true information which he or she knows to be false is guilty of a crime.) Signed: BRENDAJ. LOPEZ, CEO. The registrant commenced to transact business under the fictitious business name listed above on (date): 05/2024. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles County on (Date) 05/22/2024. NOTICE:

This fictitious name statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the office of the county clerk. Anew fictitious business name statement must be filed before that time. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state, or common law (see Section 14411 et seq. Business and Professions Code). Publish: 05/27/2024, 06/03/2024, 06/10/2024, 06/17/2024. ARCADIA WEEKLY. AAA1255902. FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT 2024110592 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LAS PESCADILLAS, 232 W 80TH ST, LOS ANGELES, CA90003 LOS ANGELES. Mailing address if different: N/A. The full name(s) of registrant(s) is/are: FATIMACHALE, 232 W 80TH ST, LOS ANGELES, CA 90003. This business is conducted by: INDIVIDUAL. I declare that all information in this statement is true and correct. (Aregistrant who declares as true information which he or she knows to be false is guilty of a crime.)

Signed: FATIMACHALE, OWNER. The registrant commenced to transact business under the fictitious business name listed above on (date): 05/2024. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles County on (Date) 05/22/2024. NOTICE: This fictitious name statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the office of the county clerk. Anew fictitious business name statement must be filed before that time. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state, or common law (see Section 14411 et seq. Business and Professions Code). Publish: 05/27/2024, 06/03/2024, 06/10/2024, 06/17/2024. ARCADIA WEEKLY. AAA1256011.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT 2024110472

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BE UNIQUE SHOES BOUTIQUE, 6370 HOLLYWOOD BLVD, LOS ANGELES, CA90028 LOS ANGELES. Mailing address if different: N/A. The full name(s) of registrant(s) is/are: COSMO SMOKE SHOP, INC., 6370 HOLLYWOOD BLVD, LOS ANGELES, CA90028 (State of Incorporation/Organization: CALIFORNIA). This business is conducted by: CORPORATION. I declare that all information in this statement is true and correct. (A registrant who declares as true information which he or she knows to be false is guilty of a crime.) Signed: MONIKAELIZBARYAN, PRESIDENT. The registrant commenced to transact business under the fictitious business name listed above on (date): N/A. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles County on (Date) 05/22/2024. NOTICE: This fictitious name statement expires five years

from the date it was filed in the office of the county clerk. Anew fictitious business name statement must be filed before that time. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state, or common law (see Section 14411 et seq. Business and Professions Code). Publish: 05/27/2024, 06/03/2024, 06/10/2024, 06/17/2024. ARCADIA WEEKLY. AAA1256012.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT 2024110469

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CALWEST DISTRIBUTION, 8124 MAMMOTH AVE, PANORAMACITY, CA91402 LOS ANGELES. Mailing address if different: N/A. The full name(s) of registrant(s) is/are: CALWEST TRUCKING INC, 8124 MAMMOTH AVE, PANORAMACITY, CA91402 (State of Incorporation/Organization: CALIFORNIA). This business is conducted by: CORPORATION. I declare that all information in this statement is true and correct. (A registrant who declares as true information which he or she knows to be false is guilty of a crime.) Signed: ROBERT G TUFENKJIAN, PRESIDENT. The registrant commenced to transact business under the fictitious business name listed above on (date): N/A. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles County on (Date) 05/22/2024. NOTICE: This fictitious name statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the office of the county clerk. Anew fictitious business name statement must be filed before that time. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state, or common law (see Section 14411 et seq. Business and Professions Code). Publish: 05/27/2024, 06/03/2024, 06/10/2024, 06/17/2024. ARCADIA WEEKLY. AAA1256013.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT 2024110987

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HYPNOSIS HEALTH CENTER, 4269 E LIVE OAK AVE, ARCADIA, CA91006 LOS ANGELES. Mailing address if different: N/A. The full name(s) of registrant(s) is/are: KELONG WU, 4269 E LIVE OAK AVE, ARCADIA, CA91006. This business is conducted by: INDIVIDUAL. I declare that all information in this statement is true and correct. (Aregistrant who declares as true information which he or she knows to be false is guilty of a crime.) Signed: KELONG WU, OWNER. The registrant commenced to transact business under the fictitious business name listed above on (date): 05/2024. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles County on (Date) 05/22/2024. NOTICE: This fictitious name statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the office of the county clerk. Anew fictitious business name statement must be filed before that time. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state, or common law (see Section 14411 et seq. Business and Professions Code). Publish: 05/27/2024, 06/03/2024, 06/10/2024, 06/17/2024. ARCADIA WEEKLY. AAA1256095.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT 2024111256

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: OREA’S GARDENING, 5822 LOCKHEED AVE, WHITTIER, CA 90606 LOS ANGELES. Mailing address if different: N/A. The full name(s) of registrant(s) is/are: MARINASANCHEZ DE OREA, 5822 LOCKHEED AVE., WHITTIER, CA90606. This business is conducted by: INDIVIDUAL. I declare that all information in this statement is true and correct. (Aregistrant who declares as true information which he or she knows to be false is guilty of a crime.) Signed: MARINASANCHEZ DE OREA, OWNER. The registrant commenced to transact business under the fictitious business name listed above on (date): 01/2024. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles County on (Date) 05/22/2024. NOTICE: This fictitious name statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the office of the county clerk. Anew fictitious business name statement must be filed before that time. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state, or common law (see Section 14411 et seq. Business and Professions Code). Publish: 05/27/2024, 06/03/2024, 06/10/2024, 06/17/2024. ARCADIA WEEKLY. AAA1256167.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT 2024111897

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: A& B CUT, 4704 E COMPTON BLVD, COMPTON, CA 90221 LOS ANGELES. Mailing address if different: N/A. The full name(s) of registrant(s) is/are: BRENDAGAIL SMITH, 1520 S WILMINGTON AVE APT A, COMPTON, CA90220. This business is conducted by: INDIVIDUAL. I declare that all information in this statement is true and correct. (Aregistrant who

LEGALS

declares as true information which he or she knows to be false is guilty of a crime.) Signed: BRENDAGAILSMITH, OWNER. The registrant commenced to transact business under the fictitious business name listed above on (date): 09/2018. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles County on (Date) 05/23/2024. NOTICE: This fictitious name statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the office of the county clerk. Anew fictitious business name statement must be filed before that time. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state, or common law (see Section 14411 et seq. Business and Professions Code). Publish: 05/27/2024, 06/03/2024, 06/10/2024, 06/17/2024. ARCADIA WEEKLY. AAA1256290.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE NO. 2024110972 NEW FILING. The following person(s) is (are) doing business as (1). HANDIAN CONSTRUCTION (2). HANDMARK SERVICES (3). HANDIAN HOMES , 2335 N Fair Oaks Ave, Altadena, CA 91001. This business is conducted by a corporation. Registrant commenced to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed herein on May 2024. Signed: Handian Corporation (CA-272774434, 2335 N Fair Oaks Ave, Altadena, CA 91001; Mark Handian, President. The statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles on May 22, 2024.

NOTICE: This fictitious business name statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the office of the County Clerk. A new fictitious business name statement must be filed prior to that date. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state or common law (See Section 14400 et seq., Business and Professional Code).

Pub. Monrovia Weekly 05/27/2024, 06/03/2024, 06/10/2024, 06/17/2024

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE NO. 2024 099780 NEW FILING. The following person(s) is (are) doing business as (1). SSD RECORDS (2). SAL-SOUND RECORDS , 13609 Las Vecinas Dr, La Puente, CA 91746. This business is conducted by a individual. Registrant commenced to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed herein on January 2024. Signed: marco salcedo, 13609 Las Vecinas Dr, La Puente, CA 91746 (Owner). The statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles on May 8, 2024. NOTICE: This fictitious business name statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the office of the County Clerk. A new fictitious business name statement must be filed prior to that date. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state or common law (See Section 14400 et seq., Business and Professional Code).

Pub. Monrovia Weekly 05/27/2024, 06/03/2024, 06/10/2024, 06/17/2024

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE NO. 2024110564

NEW FILING.

The following person(s) is (are) doing business as HAZELNUT PHOTOGRAPHY, 10822 Huston Street, North Hollywood, CA 91601. This business is conducted by a individual. Registrant commenced to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed herein on December 2008. Signed: Jordana Taylor Hazel, 10822 Huston Street, North Hollywood, CA 91601 (Owner). The statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles on May 22, 2024. NOTICE: This fictitious business name statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the office of the County Clerk. A new fictitious business name statement must be filed prior to that date. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state or common law (See Section 14400 et seq., Business and Professional Code).

Pub. Monrovia Weekly 05/27/2024, 06/03/2024, 06/10/2024, 06/17/2024

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE NO. 2024107726

NEW FILING. The following person(s) is (are) doing business as OPTICA VISION SERVICES, 10129 Flallon Ave, Santa Fe Springs, CA 90670. This business is conducted by a individual. Registrant commenced to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed herein on May 2024. Signed: Alex Aguilar, 10129 Flallon Ave, Santa Fe Springs, CA 90670 (Owner). The statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles on May 17, 2024. NOTICE: This fictitious business name statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the office of the County Clerk. A new fictitious business name statement must be filed prior to that date. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state

of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state or common law (See Section 14400 et seq., Business and Professional Code).

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FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE NO. 2024109127

NEW FILING.

The following person(s) is (are) doing business as (1). OUR JOURNEY COACHING (2). COACH HEATHER NICHOLS , 1370 Valley Vista Drive Suite #200, Diamond Bar, CA 91765. This business is conducted by a individual. Registrant commenced to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed herein on May 2024. Signed: Heather Nichols, 1370 Valley Vista Drive Suite #200, Diamond Bar, CA 91765 (Owner). The statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles on May 21, 2024. NOTICE: This fictitious business name statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the office of the County Clerk. A new fictitious business name statement must be filed prior to that date. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state or common law (See Section 14400 et seq., Business and Professional Code).

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FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE NO. 2024106479 NEW FILING.

The following person(s) is (are) doing business as MCR BARBECUE, 12625 Califa Street, valley village, CA 91607. This business is conducted by a limited liability company (llc). Registrant commenced to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed herein on January 2024. Signed: Thorman-Rosen Enterprises (CA-‭202356910786‬, 12625 Califa Street, valley village, CA 91607; Michael C Rosen, CEO. The statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles on May 16, 2024. NOTICE: This fictitious business name statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the office of the County Clerk. A new fictitious business name statement must be filed prior to that date. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state or common law (See Section 14400 et seq., Business and Professional Code).

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FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE NO. 2024109810 NEW FILING.

The following person(s) is (are) doing business as LAW OFFICES OF TANYA D. S. HEHIR, 1451 Calle Del Bravo, La Verne, CA 91750. This business is conducted by a individual. Registrant commenced to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed herein on January 2011. Signed: Tanya D. Sizemore Hehir, 1451 Calle Del Bravo, La Verne, CA 91750 (Owner). The statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles on May 21, 2024. NOTICE: This fictitious business name statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the office of the County Clerk. A new fictitious business name statement must be filed prior to that date. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state or common law (See Section 14400 et seq., Business and Professional Code).

Pub. Monrovia Weekly 05/27/2024, 06/03/2024, 06/10/2024, 06/17/2024

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE NO. 2024110003 NEW FILING.

The following person(s) is (are) doing business as LARK SOUNDWORKS, 716 N Fairview St, Burbank, CA 91505. This business is conducted by a individual. Registrant commenced to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed herein on May 2024. Signed: Eli Staub, 716 N Fairview St, Burbank, CA 91505 (Owner). The statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles on May 21, 2024. NOTICE: This fictitious business name statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the office of the County Clerk. A new fictitious business name statement must be filed prior to that date. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state or common law (See Section 14400 et seq., Business and Professional Code).

Pub. Monrovia Weekly 05/27/2024, 06/03/2024, 06/10/2024, 06/17/2024

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE NO. 2024088446 NEW FILING. The following person(s) is (are) doing business as CMJ SOLUTIONS, 13654 Victory Blvd #582, Van Nuys, CA 91401. This business is conducted by a individual. Registrant has not yet begun to transact business under the fictitious business name or names

listed herein. Signed: Maria J Ponce, 13654 Victory Blvd #582, Van Nuys, CA 91401 (Owner). The statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles on April 24, 2024. NOTICE: This fictitious business name statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the office of the County Clerk. A new fictitious business name statement must be filed prior to that date. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state or common law (See Section 14400 et seq., Business and Professional Code).

Pub. Monrovia Weekly 05/27/2024, 06/03/2024, 06/10/2024, 06/17/2024

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE NO. 2024111666

NEW FILING. The following person(s) is (are) doing business as ASTRELLE JOHNQUEST DESIGN, 5501 Poplar Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90032. This business is conducted by a individual. Registrant commenced to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed herein on May 2024. Signed: Astrelle Johnquest, 5501 Poplar Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90032 (Owner). The statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles on May 23, 2024. NOTICE: This fictitious business name statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the office of the County Clerk. A new fictitious business name statement must be filed prior to that date. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state or common law (See Section 14400 et seq., Business and Professional Code).

Pub. Monrovia Weekly 05/27/2024, 06/03/2024, 06/10/2024, 06/17/2024

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE NO. 2024087437

NEW FILING.

The following person(s) is (are) doing business as THE MORTGAGE COMPANY, 3505 E Chapman Ave Suite C, Orange, CA92869. This business is conducted by a corporation. Registrant commenced to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed herein on April 2024.

Signed: Equity Smart Home Loans, Inc, (CA-C4811164, 3505 E Chapman Ave Suite C, Orange, CA92869; Catherine Natividad, President. The statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles on April 23, 2024. NOTICE: This fictitious business name statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the office of the County Clerk. Anew fictitious business name statement must be filed prior to that date. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state or common law (See Section 14400 et seq., Business and Professional Code).

Pub. Monrovia Weekly 05/27/2024, 06/03/2024, 06/10/2024, 06/17/2024

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE NO. 2024110777 NEW FILING.

The following person(s) is (are) doing business as YW HAIR DESIGN, 18520 Marimba St, Rowland Heights, CA 91748. This business is conducted by a individual. Registrant commenced to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed herein on April 2024. Signed: YING YEE WU, 18520 Marimba St, Rowland Heights, CA91748 (Owner). The statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles on May 22, 2024. NOTICE: This fictitious business name statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the office of the County Clerk. A new fictitious business name statement must be filed prior to that date. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state or common law (See Section 14400 et seq., Business and Professional Code). Pub. Monrovia Weekly 05/27/2024, 06/03/2024, 06/10/2024, 06/17/2024

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE NO. 2024112202 NEW FILING.

The following person(s) is (are) doing business as APPLUMBING SERVICE, 206 N Dalton Ave, Azusa, CA91702. This business is conducted by a individual. Registrant has not yet begun to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed herein. Signed: Alfonso Pap Coc, 206 N Dalton Ave, Azusa, CA91702 (Owner). The statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles on May 23, 2024. NOTICE: This fictitious business name statement expires five years from the date it was filed in the office of the County Clerk. A new fictitious business name statement must be filed prior to that date. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state or common law (See Section 14400 et seq., Business and Professional Code). Pub. Monrovia Weekly 05/27/2024, 06/03/2024, 06/10/2024, 06/17/2024

Glendale City Notices

NOTICE OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR DECISION

ADMINISTRATIVE USE PERMIT CASE NO. PAUP-003116-2024

LOCATION: 1133 WEST GLENOAKS BOULEVARD, UNIT A

APPLICANT: Will Nieves

ZONE: “C2” - Community Commercial

LEGAL DESCRIPTION: Lot 13, 14 and Lot 15, Tract No. 11150

APN: 5328-026-028

PROJECT DESCRIPTION Application for an Administrative Use Permit (AUP) to allow the on-site sales, service, and consumption of beer and wine (ABC License Type 41 at an existing fast-food restaurant (Fresh Grill Cafe).

CODE REQUIRES

1) The sale of alcoholic beverages requires an Administrative Use Permit in the C2 (Community Commercial) Zone. (GMC 30.12.020, Table 30.12-A).

APPLICANT’S PROPOSAL

1) To allow for the on-site sales, service and consumption of beer and wine at an existing fast-food restaurant.

ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINATION

The project is exempt from CEQA review as a Class 1 "Existing Facilities" exemption, pursuant to Section 15301(e) of the State CEQA Guidelines because the discretionary permit request is to allow the on-site sales, service, and consumption of beer and wine at an existing restaurant within an existing commercial space and there is no additional floor area proposed.

PENDING DECISION AND COMMENTS

Copies of plans, staff analysis, and proposed decision letter are available on the City’s website at: http://www.glendaleca.gov/planning/pending-decisions.

If you would like to review plans, submit comments, or be notified of the decision, please contact case planner Eric Ji at (818) 937-8178 or Eji@GlendaleCa.gov

DECISION

On or after June 05, 2024, the Community Development Director will make a written decision regarding this AUP request.

APPEAL

After the Director has made a decision, any person may file an appeal within 15 days of the written decision. Appeals may be filed online at www.glendaleca.gov/Permits, click “Apply,” “Skip..”, and search for “Appeal.”

Dr. Suzie Abajian, The City Clerk of the City of Glendale Publish May 27, 2024

GLENDALE INDEPENDENT

NOTICE OF ADOPTION OF ORDINANCE

On May 21, 2024, the Council of the City of Glendale, California adopted Ordinance No. 6028 entitled “AN ORDINANCE ADOPTING THE 2022 CALIFORNIA BUILDING CODE AS VOLUME IA, THE 2022 CALIFORNIA RESIDENTIAL CODE AS VOLUME IB, THE 2022 CALIFORNIA EXISTING BUILDING CODE AS VOLUME IC, THE 2022 CALIFORNIA PLUMBING CODE AS VOLUME II, THE 2022 CALIFORNIA MECHANICAL CODE AS VOLUME III, THE 2022 CALIFORNIA ELECTRICAL CODE AS VOLUME IV, THE 1997 UNIFORM HOUSING CODE AS VOLUME V, THE 2022 CALIFORNIA FIRE CODE AS VOLUME VI, THE GLENDALE SECURITY CODE AS VOLUME VII AND THE GLENDALE COMMERCIAL, INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY MAINTENANCE CODE AS VOLUME VIII, AND THE 2022 CALIFORNIA GREEN BUILDING STANDARDS CODE AS VOLUME IX ALL OF WHICH COMPRISE THE BUILDING AND SAFETY CODE OF THE CITY OF GLENDALE, 2023.” A copy of said Ordinance is on file and available for public inspection in the office of the City Clerk.

In substance, said Ordinance modified the Building and Safety Code of the City of Glendale by removing three local amendments, and instead adopting provisions contained in the 2022 California Building Standards Code, Title 24 of the California Code of Regulations as to: 1. Section IA-38, TABLE 1004.1.2, Maximum Floor Area Allowances Per Occupant (defines an occupant load factor for billiard/pool tables and garment manufacturing); 2. Section IA-39, TABLE 1006.2.1 Spaces With One Exit or Exit Access Doorway (defines a second exit threshold for garment manufacturing); and 3. Section IA – 104. Appendix F Rodent Proofing (establishes protection to building and structures from rodents). Said Ordinance also modified one local amendment (Section IA – 73., 2113.1 General, which defines the requirements for a partial repair of an existing masonry chimney) by removing a previously adopted administrative justification for such local amendment, and instead adopting of a geotechnical justification. Ordinance No. 6028 will take effect on June 21, 2024.

Suzie Abajian, Ph.D. City Clerk of the City of Glendale Publish May 27, 2024 GLENDALE INDEPENDENT

Probate Notices

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF:

MICHAEL LEONARD ALLIN

CASE NO. 24STPB05474

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the WILL or estate, or both of MI-

CHAEL LEONARD ALLIN.

A PETITION FOR PROBATE has been filed by JADIE DELGADO in the Superior Court of California, County of LOS ANGELES. THE PETITION FOR PROBATE requests that JADIE DELGADO be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent. THE PETITION requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and

LEGALS

tory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk.

Attorney for Petitioner

LESLIE E. RILEY - SBN 265987

VARNER & BRANDT LLP

3237 E. GUASTI RD. SUITE 220 ONTARIO CA 91761

Telephone (909) 931-0879

5/20, 5/23, 5/27/24

CNS-3814712# PASADENA PRESS

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF Hatsu Takemoto

CASE NO.

30-2024-01396695-PR-LA-CMC

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of: Hatsu Takemoto

A PETITION FOR PROBATE has been filed by Yoshikazu Takemoto in the Superior Court of California, County of Orange.

THE PETITION FOR PROBATE requests that Yoshikazu Fukagawa be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent.

THE PETITION requests the decedent’s WILL and codicils, if any, be admitted to probate. The will and any codicils are available for examination in the file kept by the court.

THE PETITION requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act with full authority . (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.

A HEARING on the petition will be held on 07/11/2024 at 1:30 p.m. in Dept. CM07 located at 3390 HARBOR BLVD COSTA MESA CA 92626

COSTA MESA JUSTICE CENTER.

NOTICE IN PROBATE CASES

The court is providing the convenience to appear for hearing by video using the court’s designated video platform. This is a no cost service to the public. Go to the Court’s website at The Superior Court of CaliforniaCounty of Orange (occourts.org) to appear remotely for Probate hearings and for remote hearing instructions. If you have difficulty connecting or are unable to connect to your remote hearing, call 657-622-8278 for assistance. If you prefer to appear in-person, you can appear in the department on the day/time set for your hearing.

IF YOU OBJECT to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney.

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF:

CHRISTOPHER CARL

SALINAS AKA CHRIS CARL SALINAS AKA CHRIS SALINAS

CASE NO. 24STPB05665

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the WILL or estate, or both of CHRISTOPHER CARL SALINAS AKA CHRIS CARL SALINAS AKA CHRIS SALINAS.

A PETITION FOR PROBATE has been filed by ASHLEY M. SALINAS in the Superior Court of California, County of LOS ANGELES.

THE PETITION FOR PROBATE requests that ASHLEY M. SALINAS be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent.

THE PETITION requests the decedent’s WILL and codicils, if any, be admitted to probate. The WILL and any codicils are available for examination in the file kept by the court.

THE PETITION requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act with limited authority. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.

A HEARING on the petition will be held in this court as follows: 06/21/24 at 8:30AM in Dept. 9 located at 111 N. HILL ST., LOS ANGELES, CA 90012

IF YOU OBJECT to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney.

IF YOU ARE A CREDITOR or a contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined in section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law.

they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.

A HEARING on the petition will be held in this court as follows: 06/21/24 at 8:30AM in Dept. 11 located at 111 N. HILL ST., LOS ANGELES, CA 90012

IF YOU OBJECT to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney.

IF YOU ARE A CREDITOR or a contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined in section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law.

YOU MAY EXAMINE the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk.

Attorney for Petitioner ALEXANDRA SMYSER - SBN 258181

SCHWEITZER LAW PARTNERS, APC 201 SOUTH LAKE AVENUE, SUITE 800 PASADENA CA 91101

Telephone (626) 683-8113

5/27, 5/30, 6/3/24

CNS-3816892#

GLENDALE INDEPENDENT

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF:

RODANTHI C. KITRIDOU CASE NO. 24STPB05697

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the WILL or estate, or both of RODANTHI C. KITRIDOU.

A PETITION FOR PROBATE has been filed by KAREN D. KARPOUZAS in the Superior Court of California, County of LOS ANGELES.

an attorney knowledgeable in California law. YOU MAY EXAMINE the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk. Attorney for Petitioner RICHARD L. CHINEN, ESQ. - SBN 105407 BARBARO, CHINEN, PITZER & DUKE LLP 301 EAST COLORADO BOULEVARD, SUITE 700 PASADENA CA 91101

Telephone (626) 793-5196

5/27, 5/30, 6/3/24

CNS-3816815# PASADENA PRESS

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF: FREDERICK WILLIAM LESEMANN AKA FREDERICK W. LESEMANN CASE NO. 23STPB07822

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the lost WILL or estate, or both of FREDERICK WILLIAM LESEMANN AKA FREDERICK W. LESEMANN. A PETITION FOR PROBATE has been filed by PAULA CORSETTI in the Superior Court of California, County of LOS ANGELES. THE PETITION FOR PROBATE requests that PAULA CORSETTI be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent. THE PETITION requests the decedent’s lost WILL and codicils, if any, be admitted to probate. The lost WILL and any codicils are available for examination in the file kept by the court. THE PETITION requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.

shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.

A HEARING on the petition will be held in this court as follows: 06/21/24 at 8:30AM in Dept. 11 located at 111 N. HILL ST., LOS ANGELES, CA 90012

IF YOU OBJECT to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney.

IF YOU ARE A CREDITOR or a contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined in section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law. YOU MAY EXAMINE the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inven-

IF YOU ARE A CREDITOR or a contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined in section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law.

YOU MAY EXAMINE the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk.

Attorney for Petitioner: Ryosuke Togi (#343851) 1029 Northoak Dr Walnut Creek, CA 94598

Telephone: (949) 404-5515

5/23, 5/27, 5/30/24

CNS-3814999#

ANAHEIM PRESS

YOU MAY EXAMINE the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk. Attorney for Petitioner ROBERT L. COHEN, ESQ. - SBN 150913, LAW OFFICES OF ROBERT L. COHEN, INC. 8081 ORANGETHORPE AVE. BUENA PARK CA 90621

Telephone (714) 522-8880 5/27, 5/30, 6/3/24 CNS-3816402# PASADENA PRESS

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF: NANCY LOU CLAFF

CASE NO. 24STPB05603

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the WILL or estate, or both of NANCY LOU CLAFF.

A PETITION FOR PROBATE has been filed by SAMUEL A. LUTZ in the Superior Court of California, County of LOS ANGELES. THE PETITION FOR PROBATE requests that SAMUEL A. LUTZ be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent. THE PETITION requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless

THE PETITION FOR PROBATE requests that KAREN D. KARPOUZAS be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent.

THE PETITION requests the decedent’s WILL and codicils, if any, be admitted to probate. The WILL and any codicils are available for examination in the file kept by the court.

THE PETITION requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.

A HEARING on the petition will be held in this court as follows: 06/21/24 at 8:30AM in Dept. 9 located at 111 N. HILL ST., LOS ANGELES, CA 90012

IF YOU OBJECT to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney.

IF YOU ARE A CREDITOR or a contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined in section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with

A HEARING on the petition will be held in this court as follows: 06/21/24 at 8:30AM in Dept. 99 located at 111 N. HILL ST., LOS ANGELES, CA 90012

IF YOU OBJECT to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney. IF YOU ARE A CREDITOR or a contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined in section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law.

YOU MAY EXAMINE the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk. Attorney for Petitioner

CHARLES J. STAVELEY - SBN 298971 PABST AND STAVELEY, A P.C. 3436 N. VERDUGO RD., STE 220 GLENDALE CA 91208

Telephone (818) 957-8800 5/27, 5/30, 6/3/24 CNS-3817067#

GLENDALE INDEPENDENT

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF:

Metro board takes steps to enhance safety amid recent stabbings, assaults

By Jose Herrera, City News Service

Following recent violent attacks tied to the region’s transit system, Metro’s Board of Directors on Thursday approved two motions to bolster public safety on buses, rails and stations by deploying more officers and exploring ways to incorporate technology to prevent crimes.

The board voted unanimously to approve a motion introduced by Karen Bass, Los Angeles mayor and Board of Directors chair, and a second motion introduced by Los Angeles County Supervisor and Metro board member Lindsey Horvath.

“In March, there were nearly a million weekday riders, but the recent crime threatens to derail this progress if we cannot ensure the safety of those who want and need to use the bus and rail system,” Bass said. “We have to act to protect that progress by keeping riders safe.”

Bass had previously directed an immediate surge of law enforcement personnel across the transit system. Her motion adds to her call by instructing an increase in “daily planned deployment of public safety personnel on Metro and direct public safety personnel to be physically present on buses and trains and proactively patrol areas as well.”

Metro staff will also take steps to establish a “unified command” of the various law enforcement agencies who police the system — including Metro security, the Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and Long Beach Police Department. She also highlighted

that while the transit agency contracts with law enforcement agencies

Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins is “not authorized” to request status reports on deployment to provide oversight to ensure that officers are visibly deployed and be where they are needed.

Bass noted that there is an organizational deficit that they have to think about and emphasized a need to ensure cell services. Riders and Metro workers, everyone, should help to keep one another safe by being another set of eyes and ears, she added.

Horvath’s motion instructs Metro staff to conduct a cost analysis of all public safety entities that patrol the system “to inform what visible presence is not only neces-

Nighttime program

sary, but most effective to make our system safer for everyone,” she had said.

“The current strategy simply isn’t working and the financial straits this agency is experiencing with a looming $1.5 billion operating deficit forecasted for fiscal year 2027,” Horvath said. “We’re not in a position to continue shouldering the budget shortfalls.”

LA County Supervisor and Metro Director Kathryn Barger supported Horvath’s motion, calling it a “long-term solution.” Barger has previously called for a crackdown on fare-evaders, and she expressed her goal of not to criminalize those individuals.

“That’s the furthest thing from my mind,” she said. “I’ve said not all fare

evaders are criminals. But every crime that has been committed has been by someone who has evaded paying fair.”

She hopes that by having discussion with law enforcement agencies they can assist transit officers to get the job done.

Inglewood Mayor and Metro Director James Butts while agreeing with his colleagues also criticized the agency’s failure to act sooner to address safety concerns on the system.

“We need to make sure that the only people that get on buses or trains are people that have paid the fair, period,” Butts said. “We need to have access barriers at the gate as Director Barger has said on many occasions.”

He also urged the agency implement facial

recognition technology to add to their surveillance.

“This is something that I’ve been talking about for nine years, but what it takes is all these (tragedies) that happen in a short period of time,” Butts added. “The amount of crimes that occur are minimal, but because it’s Metro, every one of them will be reported. It will shape public perception.”

Concerns about safety on the Metro system have escalated in response to the highly publicized crimes, despite statistics showing an overall drop in crime tied to buses and trains over the past year.

Metro officials have wrestled in recent years over the best way to police the transit system. Three years ago — in the postGeorge Floyd-protest era

of calls for reductions in law enforcement spending — Metro opted to vastly expand its use of “ambassadors,” who are essentially customer service representatives positioned across the transit system to provide support and information to riders and a resource for people to report maintenance or safety issues.

According to Metro’s own website, however, the ambassadors “are not security officers and do not replace existing security personnel or law enforcement. Rather, they are an added workforce that collaborates with other Metro departments in order to maintain public safety and help make the system feel safer for our riders.”

It was unclear how much the law enforcement increase being sought by the board members would cost the transit agency.

Metro’s Board of Directors on April 29 approved an emergency procurement declaration to speed up acquisition and installation of protective barriers for drivers on about 2,000 buses due to the “sudden, unexpected increased severity of assaults on operators.”

The board also pushed for a review of other potential safety improvements, including an examination of measures such as securing all transit station entrances and exits, increasing security cameras on the system and making use of facial recognition technology.

Some bus drivers recently staged a “sick out” in protest of recent attacks on drivers.

poverty and obesity. The program has grown from three parks when it began to 34 in 2023.

Since 2010, there has been an estimated reduction of 74 serious and violent crimes, such as robbery, and 43 nonviolent crimes, such as vandalism, in participating parks and their surrounding communities, according to the report.

Parks After Dark also had positive health impacts. Among attendees who did not meet the recommended activity guidelines for their

age, 72% participated in physical activity in the program, the report showed.

“Our study highlights the importance of public investments in parks to improve health, particularly in areas of Los Angeles County with above- average crime rates and among populations with limited resources and at higher risk of chronic diseases,” Pourat said.

Parks After Dark leaders added goals in 2023 to expand youth development opportunities and engage more older adults.

“Now in its 14th season, the L.A. County Parks After Dark initiative is elevating our commitment to programming based on feedback from our attendees,” said Norma Edith García-González, director of Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation. “This summer, we’re thrilled to introduce an exciting lineup of events, including an eight-week concert and movie series, sports leagues for all ages, senior social hours, teen zones, and an incredible lineup of aquatic experiences for the whole family.”

An LA Metro bus drives through North Hollywood. | Photo courtesy of Han Zheng/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Children play basketball at El Cariso Park, top left; families do cap decorating at El Cariso Park, top right; program participants paint posters at Earvin “Magic” Johnson Park, bottom left; and children follow an instructor on the biking course at Loma Alta Park, bottom right. | Photos courtesy of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research

UCLA police chief reassigned following campus unrest

By City News Service

Three weeks after law enforcement cleared a massive pro-Palestinian encampment from the UCLA campus and arrested more than 200 people, the university’s police chief has been removed from his job and reassigned.

Chief John Thomas confirmed the move late Tuesday in a text message to the Daily Bruin campus newspaper.

“There’s been a lot going on and I learned late yesterday (Monday) that I’m temporarily reassigned from my duties as chief,” Thomas told the paper.

There was no immediate word on what position Thomas had been assigned to. He has been the campus police chief since January.

In a statement, UCLA Vice Chancellor for Strategic Communications Mary Osako said Gawin Gibson has been named acting chief.

“John Thomas has been reassigned temporarily, pending an examination of our security processes,” Osako said. “As we said on May 5, UCLA created a new Office of Campus Safety that is leading a thorough

examination of our security processes aimed at enhancing the wellbeing and safety of our community.”

UCLA received national attention in early May when a group of largely masked counter-protesters launched a violent attack on the proPalestinian encampment on campus, leading to criticism of a slow police response to the assault that left several people injured.

The next night, hundreds of law enforcement officers from various agencies descended on the campus and cleared the encampment, arresting 209 people. The university was forced to close for a day, then temporarily shift to remote learning in the aftermath of the unrest.

Days after the encampment clearing, UCLA Chancellor Gene Block announced that he had appointed Vice Chancellor Rick Braziel as the head of a newly created Office of Campus Safety, with oversight of the police department.

Block, who is set to retire at the end of July, is scheduled to testify before a congressional committee on

Thursday about the university’s response to antisemitism on campus. Meanwhile, the chair of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce sent a letter last week demanding that the UC system turn over all communications and documents relating to alleged campus antisemitism since Oct. 7, the date of the Hamas attack on Israel.

University of California President Michael Drake said the university system has begun an independent investigation of the UCLA response to the violence. The UC hired 21st Century Policing Solutions -- a policetactics consulting firm -- to lead the university system’s probe of actions taken at UCLA.

Block, meanwhile, said

Braziel was leading a hightech investigation in an effort to identify the people who attacked the encampment the night before it was cleared.

The Federated University Police Officers Association, the union that represents UC police officers, has laid blame for failures in the response to campus unrest on university administrators. Union president Wade Stern reiterated that point Wednesday in response to news of Thomas’s reassignment.

“The UCLA administration owns the failure of any protest response, and the public should reject their attempts to shift blame to law enforcement,” Stern said in a statement. “UC guidelines ... require a trained senior administrator at UCLA to decide how to respond to protests, guided by an existing plan that had been rehearsed and scenario planned with both UCLA PD and outside law enforcement agencies.

“What unfolded at UCLA calls into question whether UCLA complied with the guidelines to have in place senior administra-

tors trained in crowd control response, with written plans for response that were the product of scenario training and consultation with its police department and outside law enforcement agencies,” he said.

Meanwhile, unionized graduate students at UC campuses across the state have been threatening to conduct rolling strikes in response to the handling of pro-Palestinian protests. Workers have already been striking at UC Santa Cruz, and the union has suggested walkouts could occur at other campuses. The union and the UC system have traded allegations of unfair labor practices.

The union is demanding amnesty for employees and students who took part in protests and are facing disciplinary actions, along with guarantees of free-speech protections and the right to political expression on campus. The UC system said any strikes based on such demands would be illegal, since they are non-labor issues that fall outside the scope of the union’s labor agreement.

Long Beach grants over $800,000 for health equity programs

By Staff

The Long Beach health departmenthas granted $811,000 for projects that intend to improve health care access in underserved communities that the pandemic hit hardest, officials announced Wednesday.

The city’s Health and Human Services Department awarded grants to 14 organizations to implement Health Equity Community Projects, according to the city’s announcement. Applicants’ individual project budget estimates averaged just over $98,000, and a total of nearly $4.8 million was requested.

The projects chosen to receive funding address the causes of coronavirus hospitalizations and the impacts of COVID-19 on communities where residents experienced disproportionately negative medical outcomes, officials said.

“This work complements the City’s overall efforts toward creating a healthier and more equitable future for all Long Beach residents,” Mayor Rex Richardson said in a statement. “By investing in

these projects, we can uplift our residents and ensure better health outcomes in our communities.”

The health department received 52 applications for the second round of Health Equity Community Projects funding, of which 48 met the minimum criteria, according to the city statement. A panel of staff members from the health and economic development departments, evaluated the applications based on the city’s Health Equity Investment Framework.

Services in five focus areas will be offered via the funded projects, and a list of grant recipients is on the city’s website.

In the focus area of “Economic Inclusion and Resiliency,” four projects totaling $250,010 aim to boost financial literacy, “advance future economic opportunity” and provide “services that foster the awareness and understanding of work opportunities and provide linkages to education and training,” according to the city.

Another focus area is “Chronic Disease Management and/or Health Education and Outreach,” officials said. Two projects totaling $125,000 will promote early screening for and prevention of diseases and health ailments “in culturally affirming spaces such as barber shops and salons, neighborhoods and community events.” The projects will

also address environmental pollution that threatens health in communities and “connect residents to healthy home and insurance benefits or health care rights” through efforts including “community fairs or trainings, case workers and referral programs, smoking cessation, or healthy eating and physical activity programs.”

“Mental Health Support

or Trauma-Informed Responses” is another focus area of the Health Equity Community Projects, according to the city. Five initiatives totaling $285,490 in this category aim to help foster mental health wellbeing via support groups for mental health and grief and bereavement, “trauma-informed care training” and raising awareness about “intergenerational trauma.”

The “Physical Activity and Engagement” focus area features two projects totaling $75,500 for after school programs, nature exploration, group classes for older adults and other cultural activities such as dance, sports and yoga.

The project geared toward “Safe Neighborhoods and Violence Prevention” totals $75,000. It aims to strengthen social bonds within the community and promote positive youth development through “culturally affirming events and activities” including neighborhood group activities, street teams or canvassing, activities that

improve physical and mental health, anti-bias training and other racial healing practices and reentry services, officials said.

“These grants will enable and empower the selected organizations to implement impactful initiatives and projects that will address critical needs and ultimately improve the quality of life for our residents,” health department Director Alison King said in a statement.

This latest round of funding follows more than $3 million the city awarded in 2022 in the first round of the Health Equity Community Projects initiative, according to the city. Funds for the health equity grants come from several sources, including the Long Beach Recovery Act and the City’s Racial Reconciliation Initiative. The Long Beach Recovery Act is the city’s “plan to fund economic and public health initiatives for Long Beach residents, workers and businesses critically impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic,” officials said.

Chief John Thomas. | Photo courtesy of UCLA

The Long Beach Health Equity Investment Framework is officials’ guide for choosing grant recipients. | Image courtesy of the city of Long Beach