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a public dashboard of settlements between the county and its executives, including their names, settlement amounts, approval dates and links to the agreements. The unanimous action also directed that going forward, the county will make sure all such settlements are reported to the public on meeting agendas after they’re finalized.
“Los Angeles County residents deserve full transparency into how their taxpayer dollars are spent — including on legal settlements,” Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, who proposed the changes, said in a statement. “I will continue leading common-sense reforms that strengthen accountability and build trust with our communities.”that two months earlier, current county CEO Fesia Davenport had quietly gotten a $2 million settlement payment. Davenport’s settlement deal was labeled “confidential” and kept secret even though it’s required to be disclosed to the public upon request under state law.Davenport was one of several county executives to receive sizable settlement payouts over the past few years. Four additional county executives received payouts — including a $1.5 million payout to her predecessor — according to Davenport’s claims that led to her settlement.. A lawyer for the county has called the suit “baseless,” saying the settlement served a “legitimate public purpose" by avoiding potential litigation.Mar Vista was once a sleepy neighborhood adjacent to Venice with a low key dining scene, but now its excellent restaurants include a cool coffee community gathering spot, an airy Australian-inflected casual cafe, and a relaxed French bistro run by a veteran chef. LAist senior editor Suzanne Levy, a resident, shares her faves.We firmly believe that the best way to find a good restaurant in an unfamiliar neighborhood is to ask the real experts — people who live there.With the opening last year of Electric Bleu, a laid-back French bistro with fine-dining food, Mar Vista is getting serious attention.I’ve lived in Mar Vista on and off for 13 years, and I knew we’d hit the mainstream when a character in“You didn’t tell me it was in Mar Vista!” someone moans, implying that it’s just too far from their East side bubble. Yes, it was dissed, but the fact that it was even mentioned in a hip sitcom tells you about its current incarnation. Once a quiet family neighborhood adjacent to Venice, over the years it’s individuated and become a destination in its own right, with plenty of restaurants, a lively farmers market and great views from its hilly contours. As for those restaurants, there’s a whole range of options to choose from. Here’s three of my favorites.Alana’s takes coffee seriously, roasting coffee beans from around the globe on the premises, , while also allowing for a little fun But it also takes community seriously, seeing itself as a local gathering place, with a wall of flapping flyers, and polaroids of customers’ pooches. Sometimes there’s an impatient line for coffee in the mornings, sometimes it’s chill, but either way, you get to admire a gamut of croissant and croissant-adjacent pastries as you wait.Out front there’s benches on the wide sidewalk for a catch up with a friend, and a delightful back area with a charming old airstream-like trailer , which doubles as a stage for its popular open mic nights. I’ve found that breakfast can easily morph into an all-morning stay, so be warned.Bluey’s opened just a few years ago and it’s been full ever since. The space itself is delightfully airy, with white walls and off-beat art, a spacious back patio and sidewalk tables and umbrellas in the front. The food is excellent, a tight menu of sandwiches, tartines and bowls, and some great tea and coffee. I recently became addicted to their Valentine’s day Strawberry Matcha with a yummy foam, only to be told at the beginning of March that it was no longer being served. I howled. One of my favorites is the Whirley Bowl,"chimichurri dressed cauliflower rice, market fish, avocado, arugula, fermented cabbage, yogurt tartar, and hand chopped pineapple salsa", according to the menu, but you don't have to make it that complex — there's also the Basic Bitch Brekkie, two eggs, bacon and country toast, sold all day. There’s no WiFi, which only adds to the charm… people are actually talking to each other. It's all part of the relaxed vibe, with families, friends and colleagues happily hanging out.I remember driving last year up Centinela Avenue and noticing an eye-catching exterior painted a very specific, kinda groovy, blue. Turns out it was a famous shade,created by French artist Yves Klein in the 50’s, which was a nice calling card for the about-to-be opened restaurant, Electric Bleu. .a favorite of co-owners veteran chef Craig Hopson , and his wife, creative director Mai Sakai, .Wanting to hang out their own shingle, they’ve used their top-notch skills to create a relaxed eaterie that just happens to serve excellent food. . It’s a French restaurant, but not in the way you might imagine — less white tablecloth snooty and more casual neighborhood bistro. The stand out and main stay is the roast chicken. Despite having had roast chicken in many many places, this is honestly some of the best I’ve had. What alchemy is this, Chef Craig? The hidden bonus is the potatoes snuggled underneath the chicken… full of schmaltzy flavor, I’d say come for the chicken, stay for the potatoes. Don’t let the price give you sticker shock — you get so much you’ll happily have the leftovers for lunch for days. There are lovely touches, like a warm baguette, placed directly on your table in a paper bag with a small dish of French butter. The menu changes regularly, depending on which vegetables are in season at the farmers' market, with duck, steak and fresh seafood often making an appearance. The desserts are delicious, with the chocolate mousse particularly to die for. In less than a year, the place has already been included in various"Best of L.A." lists. General Manager Benjamin Phan will effusively welcome you, speaking English a mile a minute with his extravagant French accent, making you feel you really are in Paris, rather than a humble spot on a residential road with local Mar Vistans savoring simple, really good food.Residents along the Western Avenue corridor, from Koreatown to Larchmont, say sex trafficking in their neighborhoods has become a major issue.The Los Angeles Police Department plans to install 18 cameras along Western Avenue between Olympic and Santa Monica boulevards by the end of the year, part of a broader effort to address human trafficking activity — but which sex worker advocates fear will lead to increased surveillance and pushing them into dangerous situations.The plan comes on the heels of officials launching a citywide task force earlier this year to disrupt sex trafficking of women and minors along the corridor. Police say they will target traffickers and not adult sex workers, but it’s unclear how officers will access the footage and how it will be used in the law enforcement operation.The planned camera network would cover a stretch of Western Avenue that runs through LAPD’s Olympic and Hollywood divisions, an area police say has seen ongoing sex trafficking activity, including near schools and residential neighborhoods.The Los Angeles Police Department plans to install 18 cameras along Western Avenue between Olympic and Santa Monica boulevards by the end of the year, part of a broader effort to address human trafficking activity — but which sex worker advocates fear will lead to increased surveillance and pushing them into dangerous situations. The plan comes on the heels of officials launching a citywide task force earlier this year to disrupt sex trafficking of women and minors along the corridor. Police say they will target traffickers and not adult sex workers, but it’s unclear how officers will access the footage and how it will be used in the law enforcement operation. At the March 9 meeting of the Wilshire Center-Koreatown Neighborhood Council, LAPD Officer Lucy Bermudez said the department is working toward deploying the cameras before year’s end. “The goal is for someone to monitor these cameras at any given time,” Bermudez said, “and get plates and make arrests of individuals taking advantage of these women.” The planned camera network would cover a stretch of Western Avenue that runs through LAPD’s Olympic and Hollywood divisions, an area police say has seen ongoing sex trafficking activity, including near schools and residential neighborhoods. LAPD Cpt. Rachel Rodriguez, who oversees the Olympic Division, declined to answer questions about the system, including the vendor, cost or how the cameras would operate. But she was clear that the cameras won’t be Flock cameras, and that any data collected would remain within LAPD and wouldn’t be broadly shared. The company Flock Safety operate license plate readers, surveillance cameras and gunfire locator systems for law enforcement agencies across the country. The LAPD’s cameras along Western Avenue would be “something entirely different,” Rodriguez said, and part of a pilot program. But the department will not release any additional information until the contracts are finalized. Some local residents and advocates say the added surveillance could have unintended consequences for vulnerable women. Soma Snakeoil, co-founder and executive director of The Sidewalk Project, a street-based harm reduction organization, said that targeting traffickers through surveillance also means adult sex workers are being looked at by police. “This creates less safety for sex workers, especially migrant sex workers,” she said. “We are very much against that surveillance apparatus. They really want to make certain bodies hypervisible to the state. We’re concerned about this on a deeper systemic level than personal privacy.” Snakeoil added efforts like this often push sex workers out of one area into another without addressing the underlying issues, like housing instability. During a community meeting last month, city officials said the police crackdown on human trafficking along the Figueroa Street corridor in South L.A. may have pushed activity into nearby neighborhoods. “Displacement of sex workers is part of preparing for the Games,” she said. “If we really cared about people, we would increase housing, we would increase basic income. Instead, we’re creating expensive task forces and expensive cameras that are about surveilling people.” LAPD officials say the cameras are part of a broader strategy to address concerns raised by residents and to prevent human trafficking.She described the cameras as a tool to support officers in the field, particularly as resources are stretched. “Given that we do have a lack of resources, technology, in any form or fashion, is something that we would like to enhance our ability to assist our officers out in the field,” Rodriguez said. The cameras are not meant to replace officers in the field, Rodriguez said, but could provide insight about the situation on the ground. “In terms of surveillance, I know that is always a concern too, but realistically speaking, we don’t have the personnel to sit and watch cameras all day,” Rodriguez said. “We are responding to radio calls, we are handling protests, we are investigating these human trafficking incidents that are out there. And so I don’t want folks to think that we are just sitting at a camera all day and monitoring everybody’s interactions throughout their day. That is not our mission. That is not our goal.” Instead, the cameras would be used in specific cases, particularly those involving suspected trafficking. The ultimate goal, Rodriguez said, is to “get rid of the corridor” and deter human trafficking. “What needs to be differentiated is some women voluntarily enter this lifestyle, whereas some other women are being kidnapped and forcibly made to become prostitutes,” she said. “And if we can change and save those women, that is the goal.” But Jayme Kusyk, a Koreatown resident and member of the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, said the timing of the proposal raises concerns. “The reason for this increased policing both downtown and now Koreatown as well, specifically on Western Avenue Corridor, is motivated by the major world events coming here,” Kusyk said. “They’re trying to gentrify and clean up areas around Wilshire and Western where a lot of folks will be staying for the Olympics.”If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less.United Farm Workers President Teresa Romero speaks to a crowd of protestors during a rally against H-2A wage cuts in front of the Robert E. Coyle Federal Building in Fresno on March 18, 2026.United Farm Workers President Teresa Romero said the rape allegations against the late labor leader César Chávez were “very difficult to hear,” and not something the organization expected.Chávez is widely-recognized as one of the most influential labor leaders in U.S. history, known for founding the United Farm Workers and for leading national boycotts to improve working conditions for farmworkers.an investigation naming three women who accused Chávez of using his position of power to sexually assault them. Two were the daughters of union leaders. They told the Times they were abused as girls.United Farm Workers President Teresa Romero said the rape allegations against the late labor leader César Chávez were “very difficult to hear,” and not something the organization expected. Chávez is widely-recognized as one of the most influential labor leaders in U.S. history, known for founding the United Farm Workers and for leading national boycotts to improve working conditions for farmworkers.an investigation naming three women who accused Chávez of using his position of power to sexually assault them. Two were the daughters of union leaders. They told the Times they were abused as girls., from local school board members to state lawmakers, called to erase his name from parks, schools, streets, libraries and community events UFW announced it is not going to participate in any events named after the organization’s former leader. In an interview with CalMatters, Romero urged the public to respect the women who came forward and give them “the space they deserve to process this.”Even as the allegations came to light, the union stayed locked in a high-stakes legal battle over wages for farmworkers. Romero made the comments outside a Fresno courtroom, after a judge heard arguments in the case that highlights the ag industry’s dependence on immigrant labor. The Trump administration is proposing addressing a farm labor shortage by making it cheaper to hire temporary foreign workers. UFW is suing the Trump administration over its plan to lower the minimum wage for the H-2A agriculture visa program, a change that would cut take-home pay for many California farm workers. That program allows U.S. employers to hire temporary workers from abroad, mostly from Mexico, for agricultural jobs that domestic workers do not fill. In addition to two women who said they were raped when they were children, the other woman who broke her decades-long silence about the abuse was Chávez’s partner in the labor movement, Dolores Huerta, according to the New York Times. Huerta, 96, co-founded the farmworker labor union with Chávez. She told the Times that Chávez had raped her and that she had given birth to two children after encounters with him. Romero said the union is looking into ways to ensure survivors can come forward safely and independently. “We’re learning from this,” Romero said. “We’re going to try to get a system where any victim or anybody who wants to talk about it would be able to do it in a safe space, not necessarily talking to us directly, but to an independent organization that has dealt with victims of sexual abuse for years.”Published March 19, 2026 9:00 AM A Honda dealership is seen on March 12, 2026, in San Marcos, Texas. About 60% of the Honda vehicles sold in the U.S. last year were assembled in the United States, according to Honda, which means they could be eligible for a new tax provision allowing buyers to deduct the interest paid on their auto loans.There's a brand-new tax deduction in place this filing season: Taxpayers who bought a new car in 2025 can, in some cases, deduct interest on their auto loan.If your car loan was taken out before Dec. 31, 2024, you won't be able to benefit. If you purchased a used car, you're also out of luck. There's a brand-new tax deduction in place this filing season: Taxpayers who bought a new car in 2025 can, in some cases, deduct interest on their auto loan.The deduction applies to new cars purchased after Dec. 31, 2024If you purchased a used car, you're also out of luck. The deduction phases out for single tax filers with a modified adjusted gross income, or MAGI, of $100,000 or more. The phaseout begins at $200,000 for a married couple filing jointly.certain deductions from your gross income, like tax-deductible retirement contributions. And because the deduction is phased out gradually, if you are close to the cutoff you might still be able to deduct a portion of the interest you paid.To get the deduction, a vehicle must have gone through its final assembly process in the United States, which you can determine using your Mark Gallegos, a tax partner at Porte Brown Wealth Management in Chicago, says he's had to remind clients that buying a vehicle"made in the U.S." isthe same as simply buying an"American" brand. A Ford, Chevy or Jeep might be assembled outside the U.S., he says, while"you may have a Japanese or a Korean or a German manufacturer, and that may be final assembly in the U.S." There's no substitute for checking the VIN.If you and the vehicle both qualify, you can deduct up to $10,000 in interest paid per year For this tax season, you'll have to look at your paperwork for your auto loan — check your last statement for 2025 — to see how much interest you paid in total. You will not get a separate tax document in the mail from your lender. Gallegos also reminds clients that a deduction is not the same as a tax credit. A tax credit reduces how much tax you must pay, dollar for dollar, like a refund or a rebate. A deduction reduces how much of your income is taxable, which means your actual savings are smaller than the deduction. For example, if you paid $1,000 in interest, and can deduct all of it,"That doesn't mean I get $1,000 back in my pocket," Gallegos says."It's cents on the dollar." Exactly how much you save depends on your tax bracket; if you're in the 22% bracket, for instance, that $1,000 deduction is worth $220.Unlike most tax deductions — including the mortgage interest tax deduction — this one is available for taxpayers who are taking the standard deduction and not otherwise itemizing their deductions.The policy is not likely to be a major boost to domestic manufacturing Under the Biden administration, the federal government leaned heavily on tax policy to incentivize domestic manufacturing, particularly of electric vehicles. A hefty tax credit forNow, under the Trump administration, those tax credits are gone — but high tariffs on vehicles and parts from overseas are serving as a different kind of pressure to get companies to shift production to the U.S. Will this tax deduction add even more pressure? Probably not, says Ivan Drury, head of insights at the automotive data company Edmunds.big of an incentive, he says. It doesn't apply to leases and provides no benefit at all to buyers who used 0% financing or didn't take out loans. It helps some buyers for sure, he says, but it's more of a nice-to-have than something that is likely to sway buyers' decisions when weighing a car that's built in the U.S. against one that isn't. As a result, he says, it's not likely to be that motivating to automakers."This isn't going to cause any automaker to suddenly say, 'Hey, two years from now for the sole purpose of this tax deduction, we'll start building that in the United States," he says. But it will be a modest financial boost to some buyers, he says. And, he points out,"This isn't bad for anybody." Even if you don't qualify, you're no worse off than you were before.
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