Governor Newsom Hires $200K Personal Photographer

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In a state grappling with a $47 billion deficit, critics are baffled by this decision: Governor Newsom has hired a personal director of photography with a $200,000 annual salary.

Award-winning photojournalist Charles Ommanney is now on staff, paid to document Newsom's every move, from his recent trip to China to Newsom cleaning up homeless encampments across Los Angeles.

• Ommaney's website features a past list of “who’s who” he’s worked with, including former president Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton, amongst other big democratic names and assignments.

The Fallout

• At $200k/year for Ommanney’s salary, he is among the top earners in the Newsom administration (Newsom himself makes about $235k/per year).

  • Newsom of course isn’t going on the record, but his office did release a statement that reads in part:

Where’s Newsom?

Meantime, the Governor is talking to his “bros” on the Politickin’ Podcast, which he finds time to record (likely) weekly on the iHeartmedia network.

In their most recent episode, they spoke to Jimmy Kimmel about which celebrity recently emailed the late-night talk show host, very important stuff.

HOMELESS BAN VOTE IN VISTA

Now to some issues that are important to residents of California….

The City of Vista may be the latest city in San Diego County to enforce a ban on homeless encampments. This evening, the Vista City Council will vote on several options, potentially enforcing an encampment ban. The meeting takes place at 5:30 pm- and they will take public comment before the vote.

CELL PHONE BAN IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS?

As students return for the new school year, school districts across the state are trying to crack down on cell phone use.

Governor Newsom has sent a letter to all public schools, urging administrators to restrict smartphone use in classrooms. In that letter, he also praised districts like Los Angeles Unified for already implementing such measures and highlighted the mental health, academic, and social risks of cell phone use in classrooms.

The San Francisco Gate reports that the costly plan to roll out the cell phone ban at a few Bay area School is not going so great.

PLEA TO ELON MUSK FOR HELP

Residents of Rancho Palos Verdes are urgently appealing to Elon Musk for assistance in their fight to protect their homes from an escalating landslide threat.

These residents have been contending with this danger for years, but now face the possibility of losing power and water as utility companies warn it is too hazardous to continue providing services to the area.

Quick Catchup

📌The landslide complex forms around Abalone Cove, Portuguese Bend, and Klondike Canyon areas of Rancho Palos Verdes

📌About 400 homes sit atop the landslide complex, an area covering about a square mile.

📌Back-to-back years of heavy rainfall after a severe drought have ignited the landslide dangers (it first formed back in the 1950s).

📌The utility has already cut power to three homes in the upper Portuguese Bend neighborhood, where up to a foot of land movement per week has been recorded.

📌When the water goes out then it’s “game over “ for these residents (as many have said this is when they will need to move).

What’s Next

• The Mayor of Rancho Palos Verdes has written a letter to Musk asking for assistance, in the form of solar panels and power wall batteries to help residents.

• The mayor has said Musk’s team of advisors at Tesla is reviewing their request.

• They also have had offers from other businesses for assistance.

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ICYMI:

THE “HEADLESS” HONKING CARS

Sounds like something out of Brothers Grimm Novel- In San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood, neighbors say repeated honking from Waymo driverless cars is disturbing their sleep.

Waymo started testing its fully autonomous vehicles with no human driver in the San Francisco Bay Area recently and it’s not going exactly as planned.

• Multiple residents in high-rise buildings have reported that they’ve been hearing Waymo vehicles honking in a nearby parking lot for the past several weeks.

• The problem is, this happens mostly at 4am. The Waymos appear to go to the lot to rest in between rides.

• Videos from residents of these incidents show Waymo cars filing into the parking lot, and then attempting to back into spots, which appears to trigger honking from the other Waymo cars.

Waymo Freeway Tests

This week, Waymo is going to start testing its driverless cars on San Francisco freeways- so you’ve been warned. The company’s employees will be its first passengers during this test phase.

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE

Tom Cruise's electrifying stunt at the 2024 Paris Olympics Closing Ceremony left the world buzzing. Before his jaw-dropping leap from the top of the Parisian stadium, Cruise even treated fans to a rare selfie, adding a personal touch to his thrilling performance.

SoCal Planning

Few realize that this jaw-dropping stunt was more than a year in the making, originating in Southern California. For the full story behind the spectacle, NBC Los Angeles’ Robert Kovacik has the scoop—it's worth a watch