California
California cities rattled by prostitution, human trafficking in broad daylight as cops pin blame on new law
Ladies carrying thongs in broad daylight on avenue corners, pimps following moms taking their youngsters to highschool, and prostitutes twerking at visitors have turn out to be frequent scenes in California.
Native leaders declare human trafficking and prostitution are rampant within the Golden State after a brand new legal justice reform that its creator stated goals to guard transgender girls from being unfairly focused by regulation enforcement.
“It’s completely uncontrolled and harmful — not only for the intercourse employees however for the neighborhood,” San Francisco Supervisor Hillary Ronen informed the San Francisco Chronicle this week.
A highway within the coronary heart of San Francisco’s Mission District has turn out to be lined with prostitutes and pimps, prompting metropolis officers to put in barricades as residents hold forth that not solely do they really feel much less secure – particularly at night time – however that they’re frightened concerning the girls working the streets.
“From the window proper there, I’ll see three [people] ganging up on a lady,” one San Francisco resident informed the Chronicle whereas pointing towards a bay window that overlooks an intersection. “They’ll be hitting her.”
CALIFORNIA PROSTITUTION LAW ALLOWS SEX ABUSE TO ‘RUN RAMPANT’ IN LOS ANGELES STREETS, VICTIM ADVOCATES WARN
A person carrying a guitar seems for a spot to play music within the Mission District in San Francisco. (Reuters / Robert Galbraith / File)
“I name the cops; nobody comes. There’s nothing I can do,” the unidentified girl stated.
The difficulty isn’t remoted to simply San Francisco, with different main cities comparable to Los Angeles and Oakland reporting the identical.
An officer of the Los Angeles Police Division’s vice squad, proper, speaks to 2 just lately arrested girls within the 77th Division police headquarters in Los Angeles. (Robert Nickelsberg / Getty Photos / File)
Pimps in Oakland have reportedly stationed prostitutes exterior a Catholic grade college, the place dad and mom stated they stroll their youngsters to highschool previous girls carrying subsequent to nothing – and even bare.
“It is daily, throughout all durations of the day,” mom Rosa Vargas informed ABC 7. Vargas claimed that pimps have even adopted Vargas down the road on a few events. Among the prostitutes look very younger and are doubtless underage, in accordance with residents and native leaders.
SUSPECTED PROSTITUTION RING MOVES INTO CA NEIGHBORHOOD OUTSIDE CATHOLIC SCHOOL: ‘PIMP IS BLOCKING MY DRIVEWAY’
Police departments and Republican leaders within the state are pinning blame for the overt prostitution on a brand new regulation that went into impact on Jan. 1. Senate Invoice 357 repealed a earlier regulation that banned loitering with the intent to have interaction in prostitution.
“California Democrats’ coverage of legalizing crime is creating extra victims by the hour,” GOP Meeting chief James Gallagher stated in a press release.
“Below Democratic rule, households and companies are transferring out, whereas human traffickers are transferring in,” Gallagher added. “It was clear from the get-go that this regulation would encourage and allow human trafficking, however that was apparently an appropriate outcome for the lawmakers who backed it.”
CALIFORNIA PROSTITUTION LAW ALLOWS SEX ABUSE TO ‘RUN RAMPANT’ IN LOS ANGELES STREETS, VICTIM ADVOCATES WARN
The unique invoice was launched by Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener, who argued it would defend transgender girls whom he stated are disproportionately focused by police.
“[The previous law] allowed law enforcement officials to arrest an individual, not primarily based on what they did, however primarily based solely on how an individual seems,” Wiener just lately informed KGO-TV. “So, an officer may arrest somebody as a result of they have been carrying tight clothes, excessive heels and further lipstick.”
California state Sen. Scott Wiener (Scott Wiener)
Wiener harassed to Fox Information Digital earlier this week that prostitution and human trafficking points have lengthy plagued sure areas of California, and he referred to as what persons are seeing in Oakland “unacceptable.” However he stood by the reform.
“The police’s arms should not tied,” Wiener informed native media. “They’ll arrest individuals for soliciting, they will cite automobiles which are stopped in the midst of the road, they will arrest ‘johns,’ they will arrest pimps.”
The Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking (CAST), which is likely one of the largest and oldest direct service suppliers for intercourse and labor trafficking survivors within the U.S., threw its assist behind the invoice and informed Fox Information Digital that it endorsed repealing the previous coverage “as a result of we all know that lowering the criminalization of survivors will assist stop human trafficking.”
“Traffickers depend on our techniques to criminalize victims in order that they’re unable to entry security because of their data and are susceptible to continued exploitation,” Leigh LaChapelle, CAST’s affiliate director of survivor advocacy, informed Fox Information.
“The influence of those encounters with regulation enforcement reinforce already heightened stigma when somebody is arrested for this offense because of the difficulties securing employment and secure housing with an arrest report referring to the intercourse commerce,” LaChapelle added. “Violation of this discriminatory regulation additionally places immigrants in jeopardy of deportation, lack of residency or denial of reentry because of a misdemeanor conviction.”
LaChapelle famous that the regulation has solely been in impact for little over a month and stated leaders within the state “want to take a look at the bigger, long-standing systemic points which are contributing to any potential rise in trafficking in California, comparable to homelessness.”
However Los Angeles police sources who spoke to Fox Information Digital stated the regulation is “undoubtedly” handcuffing them from cracking down on prostitution. The police stated that due to the reform they will solely make arrests if a suspect admits to prostitution, which they stated is a rarity.
L.A.’s Figueroa Avenue, often known as “The Blade,” has turn out to be inundated with prostitutes and pimps, in accordance with the police. Legislation enforcement officers offered social media accounts to Fox Information that confirmed younger girls carrying thongs and fishnets, typically with their breasts uncovered whereas standing – and even twerking in broad daylight on avenue corners.
Los Angeles police sources who spoke to Fox Information Digital say the brand new reform regulation is handcuffing them from cracking down on prostitution. (Robert Nickelsberg / Getty Photos / File)
Police stated with the emboldened prostitution rings come robberies, shootings, aggravated assaults and different crimes. Most of the pimps are gang-affiliated and take no problem with beating girls or going after rival pimps who attempt to poach one of many employees, they stated. Some even report the beatdowns as a result of they “suppose it’s humorous,” police stated.
NATIONWIDE PUSH TO LIBERALIZE PROSTITUTION LAWS PROMPTS CONCERNS ABOUT HUMAN TRAFFICKING
The Oakland Police Division informed Fox Information Digital that the brand new regulation “now hinders officers’ enforcement throughout the state.”
Previous to the regulation going into impact, the division’s “visitors unit and patrol officers performed excessive visibility patrolling,” noting that the officers’ “hope is that the elevated presence in several areas by these officers deter exercise and don’t revictimize those that are victims of human trafficking.”
An officer with the Los Angeles Police Division’s vice squad oversees the loading of 13 girls arrested earlier within the day right into a van in Los Angeles. (Robert Nickelsberg / Getty Photos / File)
LaChapelle argued that police nonetheless have “many factors of intervention accessible” to “examine trafficking with out arresting those that haven’t dedicated against the law,” and so they stated that “jail shouldn’t be outreach, and it definitely shouldn’t be companies.”
“Utilizing arrest as a gateway to receiving companies is dangerous and creates mistrust in our communities,” LaChapelle stated. “One factor that CAST has heard from our purchasers on numerous events is that being arrested was not solely traumatizing and revictimizing however created insurmountable boundaries to in search of employment, secure housing and immigration reduction.”
Oakland Metropolis Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas has been centered on human trafficking points in her district since 2019, when she took workplace. She informed Fox Information Digital that she is engaged on the foundation causes of human trafficking and to not merely transferring the prostitution rings to a different neighborhood.
“It is a large problem. It is a difficulty that impacts many communities in California and outdoors California and has been happening for many years,” Fortunato Bas stated. “And so my method has been to take a look at a complete method that features regulation enforcement that’s centered on the exploiters.”
Oakland Metropolis Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas (Metropolis of Oakland)
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She stated she has zeroed in on exploiters and highlighted that the police division is working with the district lawyer’s workplace to construct up sufficient proof for prosecution. Town has elevated the price range for its Division of Violence Prevention to deploy extra violence interrupters on the streets, she added.
Her workplace has additionally labored to put in pace bumps and higher lighting on sure streets and launched different “Crime Prevention By Environmental Design” initiatives, comparable to visitors diverters.
Oakland Metropolis Corridor in California (Google Maps)
“Violence prevention and the outreach to supply victims companies, together with housing, job coaching, even meals, in addition to working with the district lawyer to supply extra safety for victims who’re keen to talk out” is paramount in her combat in opposition to human trafficking and girls being exploited, she stated.
LaChapelle added in a remark to Fox Information Digital that the difficulty of funding amid discussions on prostitution and human trafficking should be taken into consideration.
“In June of 2021, the California legislature handed CAST’s $30 million request to fund human trafficking sufferer service suppliers over three years,” LaChapelle stated. “This extra $30M got here at a time when numbers of pressing human trafficking instances are at an all-time excessive.
The group is advocating for the funding to be prolonged, she stated.
“Arresting survivors shouldn’t be the reply once we are struggling to fund sufficient shelter beds and companies,” LaChapelle stated.
CALIFORNIA MOVIE PRODUCER PLEADS GUILTY IN PROSTITUTION CASE
Fortunato Bas stated it’s “untimely” to make a declaration on the alleged problems with the reform as the brand new regulation has solely been in impact for roughly a month.
However police sources equated the brand new regulation to California’s Proposition 47, which lowered felonies to misdemeanors for theft of products valued at $950 {dollars} or much less. Critics argued that sparked a shoplifting and smash-and-grabs explosion throughout the state, with a number of cases of flash mobs operating into high-end shops with crowbars and bats to interrupt show instances and run off with ritzy merchandise.
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For now, police stated they’re bracing for the problems to solely worsen and have referred to as on state and metropolis leaders to go on ride-alongs to see the criminal activity for themselves.
California
Another batch of raw milk from a trendy California brand just tested positive for bird flu
- Two batches of raw milk from a trendy California brand have tested positive for bird flu this week.
- Bird flu has been spreading rapidly among cattle in the US.
- Experts say drinking raw milk is dangerous, and can cause food poisoning.
Another batch of raw milk just tested positive for bird flu in California.
Last Sunday, Fresno-based Raw Farm voluntarily recalled a first batch of cream top whole raw milk with a “best by” date of November 27. By Wednesday, the California Department of Public Health announced that a second batch of Raw Farm cream top, with a “best by” date of December 7 had also tested positive for bird flu, based on retail sampling.
“We’re not making a big deal about it, because it’s not a big deal,” Kaleigh Stanziani, Raw Farm’s vice president of marketing, said in a short video posted on YouTube after the farm’s first voluntary recall was announced earlier this week.
She said there had only been an indication that there might be a “trace element of something possible,” emphasizing that there had been no reported illnesses of Raw Farms cows or positive tests from the cattle.
Raw Farm owner Mark McAfee later told the LA Times that the California Department of Food and Agriculture had requested that his company “hold delivery of further products” until Friday, after conducting thorough testing of two Raw Farms and one creamery on Wednesday. (McAfee could not immediately be reached for comment by Business Insider during the Thanksgiving holiday.)
Raw milk may be helping bird flu spread — but not in the way you might think
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Scientists suspect that cross-contamination of raw milk between animals may be one reason the H5N1 virus is spreading rapidly among cows in the US — and could even contribute to the human spread of the virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cautions that dairy workers might be able to contract bird flu by infected raw milk splashed into their eyes.
There is no definitive evidence yet that humans can get bird flu from drinking contaminated raw milk. Instead, health authorities generally recommend avoiding raw milk because of other serious health risks, including food poisoning with bacteria like Salmonella, E.coli, or Listeria.
There are no known health benefits of drinking raw milk. Instead, all evidence suggests that pasteurized milk is just as nutritious, and is safer to consume.
Still, raw milk has become a trendy product among some influencers. Gwenyth Paltrow says she has it in her coffee in the morning.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Trump’s pick for Health and Human Services secretary, says he wants the US Food and Drug Administration to stop its “war” against raw milk.
Over the summer, “Carnivore MD” Paul Saladino released a raw milk smoothie in partnership with the elite Los Angeles health foods store Erewhon featuring unpasteurized (raw) kefir from Raw Farms, and powdered beef organs.
California has some of the loosest rules around raw milk in the country; it’s generally fine for California retailers like health foods stores and grocers to sell it, raw milk products just can’t be transported across state lines, per FDA rules.
Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Michael Payne, a researcher at the Western Institute of Food Safety and Security, told The Guardian that people consuming Dr. Paul’s $19 smoothie were “playing Russian roulette with their health,” and ignoring pasteurization, “the single most important food safety firewall in history.”
California dairy farms have been seeing an uptick in bird flu cases since August. The state has reported 29 confirmed human cases of bird flu, and all but one of those was sourced back to cows.
Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the first confirmed case of bird flu in a California child from Alameda County. The child had no known contact with infected farm animals, but may have been exposed to wild birds, the California health department said in a statement.
The child had mild symptoms and is recovering well after receiving antiviral drugs.
Southern California’s bosses added 80,700 workers in the past year to a record 8.06 million jobs – but that hiring pace is roughly half of the pre-pandemic job market’s gains.
My trusty spreadsheet – filled with state job figures for Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties – compared employment changes for the region and 15 industries in the year ended in October with the average yearly hiring pace before coronavirus upended the economy.
Yes, there have never been more Southern Californians employed. However, the recent hirings that created the all-time high staffing are far below the average job creation of 159,600 a year in 2015-19.
This is one of many signals of cooler business trends. It’s a chill significantly tied to the Federal Reserve’s attempts to slow what was once an overheated economy.
But Southern California bosses have another challenge – a shortage of workers. The region’s workforce, a measure of labor supply, is basically flat comparing 2024 to 2015-19. Fewer choices of workers have added difficulty for local businesses trying to meet their staffing needs.
Think of that when you learn that among the 15 Southern California business sectors tracked – hiring in 10 industries is below pre-pandemic years compared with five industries with improvements.
The downs
First, contemplate the 10 industries where the hiring pace has weakened, ranked by the size of the decline …
Professional-business services: 1.14 million workers in October – down 4,600 in a year vs. 24,100 annual gains in 2015-19. This net downturn of 28,700 jobs is unnerving because this white-collar work typically pays above-average salaries.
Construction: 378,700 workers – down 3,100 in a year vs. 16,200 annual gains in 2015-19. A building slowdown due to lofty mortgage rates created this 19,300 reversal.
Logistics-utilities: 820,800 workers – up 6,800 in a year vs. 25,800 annual gains in 2015-19. What’s at least a temporary oversupply of warehouses in the region may be behind this 19,000 slowdown.
Manufacturing: 558,400 workers – down 15,300 in a year vs. 4,100 annual cuts in 2015-19. This 11,200 drop is continued losses of local factory work tied to high cost of doing business in the region.
Fast-food restaurants: 359,400 workers – up 3,400 in a year vs. 12,400 annual gains in 2015-19. Weaker consumer spending and a hike in the industry’s minimum wage contribute to this 9,000 drop.
Hotels/entertainment/recreation: 268,300 workers – up 3,400 in a year vs. 9,600 annual gains in 2015-19. This 6,200 cooling reflects worker shortages.
Full-service eateries/food service: 339,100 workers – up 1,600 in a year vs. 6,600 annual gains in 2015-19. Inflation making shoppers pickier is part of this 5,000 cooling.
Information: 214,200 workers – down 100 in a year vs. 3,700 annual gains in 2015-19. Weakness in tech businesses and Hollywood productions created the 3,800 net downturn.
Personal services: 266,600 workers – up 500 in a year vs. 3,200 annual gains in 2015-19. Again, it is hard to find people to do this work. Thus, a 2,700 cooling.
Government: 1.03 million workers – up 11,600 in a year vs. 12,500 annual gains in 2015-19. This 900 dip is status quo.
The ups
Ponder the five industries where the hiring pace rose in the past year, ranked by the size of the gains …
Social assistance: 512,300 workers – up 28,200 in a year vs. 18,300 annual gains in 2015-19. The 9,900 addition comes as more folks need help at home for healthcare and child care.
Healthcare: 836,700 workers – up 30,100 in a year vs. 20,900 annual gains in 2015-19. The 9,200 growth parallels the region’s aging population and its need for medical services.
Retailing: 748,300 workers – up 8,300 in a year vs. 300 annual cuts in 2015-19. This somewhat surprising 8,600 improvement may be consumers tiring of online commerce and wanting to get out to shop.
Financial: 364,100 workers – up 4,400 in a year vs. 3,900 annual gains in 2015-19. The minor 500 improvement is a return to normalcy. Super-heated hiring came in the pandemic days thanks to a brief drop in mortgage rates to historic lows.
Private education: 215,700 workers – up 5,500 in a year vs. 5,100 annual gains in 2015-19. This 400 uptick reflects the growing interest in alternatives to public schooling.
Bottom line
While it’s rare for all industries to be growing at the same time – minus, say, just after an economic downturn – this 2024 edition of the winners vs. losers list raises an important issue.
It appears much of the past year’s job creation is coming from industries that historically pay meager wages. That’s an especially worrisome trend in high-cost Southern California.
Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com
The California Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big. Here’s a look at Nov. 27, 2024, results for each game:
Powerball
01-06-07-13-40, Powerball: 05, Power Play: 5
Check Powerball payouts and previous drawings here.
Daily 3
Midday: 7-1-0
Evening: 4-9-6
Check Daily 3 payouts and previous drawings here.
Daily Derby
1st:11 Money Bags-2nd:3 Hot Shot-3rd:8 Gorgeous George, Race Time: 1:47.44
Check Daily Derby payouts and previous drawings here.
Fantasy 5
03-10-12-29-33
Check Fantasy 5 payouts and previous drawings here.
Daily 4
6-1-3-2
Check Daily 4 payouts and previous drawings here.
SuperLotto Plus
03-05-15-16-42, Mega Ball: 24
Check SuperLotto Plus payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Desert Sun producer. You can send feedback using this form.
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