latimes--2020-08-28--California vs. Trump hits the 100-lawsuit mark with new challenge to environmental rules

California reached a milestone Friday in its long-standing feud with President Trump when Atty .
Gen. Xavier Becerra announced he has filed his 100th lawsuit against the administration , this time challenging changes in environmental rules .
Becerra said the lawsuit filed Friday , like the 99 others , challenges the Republican president ’ s authority to change federal policies in ways that harm California and its residents .
The attorney general , who was first appointed to the post in 2017 and was elected in 2018 , said he did not expect to have to file so many lawsuits @ @ @ @ @ @ @ president in any administration would at least 100 times be caught red-handed violating the law , ” Becerra said in an interview with The Times .
“ I am not surprised we have had to sue , because we have to protect our people , our resources and our values , and we use the rule of law to do that.
” The barrage of lawsuits since 2017 has included challenges to Trump administration policies on immigration , healthcare , education , gun control , consumer protection , the census , the U.S @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
More than half of them , including Friday ’ s lawsuit , claim that the Trump administration has undermined or failed to comply with federal environmental rules .
The latest legal challenge alleges that the administration is improperly weakening a requirement that federal agencies review and assess the effects of their actions on the environment .
The rule change announced July 15 would limit review of environmental justice and climate change impacts , Becerra said .
The lawsuit , which was jointly filed with Washington state Atty .
Gen. Bob Ferguson , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the National Environmental Policy Act will limit public participation in the review process , including input from communities of color .
The review process has allowed state agencies to have input into federal proposals including the project to raise the level of the Shasta Lake reservoir .
“ This rule would short-circuit the process for review , ” Becerra said .
“ It would let developers and development projects go through a shortcut that deprives communities that live in these areas the right to provide their input.
” The new federal lawsuit follows @ @ @ @ @ @ @ last month that challenged Trump administration policies on the census , high-interest loans and predatory lenders , and the United States Postal Service .
Capitol observers say Becerra ’ s record has helped establish him as a chief litigator against the president , which could benefit him politically in heavily Democratic California .
GOP strategist Mike Madrid said he is surprised only that Becerra has not filed more than 100 lawsuits .
“ Establishing yourself as the most anti-Trump politician in California certainly has its benefits in the state , and he ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , with the arguable exception of the governor , ” Madrid said .
“ It ’ s like the Trump administration is giving the attorney general an in-kind contribution to his next campaign.
” Though Newsom has to be careful about upsetting a president who controls how much money the state gets in disaster aid , Becerra faces no such constraints , said Claremont McKenna College political science professor Jack Pitney .
“ There is very little downside to fighting Trump in a state where he got only 32 % of the vote @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s causes , especially environmental protection , are popular with Californians.
” California has taken the Trump administration to court far more than Republicans did in Texas during the Obama years , when nearly 60 lawsuits were filed , garnering national attention .
Republican leaders in California have accused Becerra of spending too much time in court suing the president .
Becerra has not given enough attention to solving problems in California , including rising property crimes , while “ promiscuously and reflexively filing these scattershot lawsuits , ” said Harmeet K. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ California and co-chair of the Republican National Lawyers Assn .
“ The attorney general ’ s job is to make Californians ’ lives better , not pick quixotic battles with a faraway leader whose political agenda and power affect only a sliver of California ’ s issues , ” Dhillon said .
In addition , some liberal activists have said the attorney general has not done enough to address problems of excessive force by the police in California .
Becerra has won 59 of the cases filed against the administration so far , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the attorney general ’ s office spent $ 16 million on federal matters , or 1.47 % of its total budget .
Becerra said the victories have had a positive effect on the lives of Californians .
“ Can you imagine how bad things would be with the census , as bad as they are , if it also included a question on citizenship ?
” Becerra asked .
“ Can you imagine where we would be if we had close to 200,000 ‘ Dreamers ’ in California being told that they would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Becerra sued to challenge the repeal of an Obama-era order that protected immigrants who came to the U.S. as children and grew up without legal status , known as Dreamers , from deportation .
In June , the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the Trump administration ’ s plan to repeal the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program .
The attorney general also won a court decision that blocked U.S. Department of Justice conditions that could have reduced funding to local law enforcement agencies in California that adopted so-called sanctuary city laws limiting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the wins have been in the courtroom .
After California and other states sued to challenge a policy limiting travel to the U.S. from countries with large Muslim populations , the Trump administration changed the policy .
The administration also dropped plans to add a citizenship question to the U.S. census after California and other states sued to challenge the proposal .
There have also been losses .
A judge denied the state ’ s motion to block construction of a border wall in San Diego and Imperial counties , although that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not been shy about capitalizing politically on the flood of litigation .
His campaign often sends fundraising appeals to supporters that tout his lawsuits , most recently when he announced plans to sue over threatened cutbacks at the U.S .
Postal Service .
“ The postal service is critical .
Our right to vote , your paycheck , your prescription medicines — you can ’ t get more serious than that , ” said a July 30 email from the Becerra for Attorney General 2022 campaign committee .
“ If you ’ re @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump , team , can you make a contribution today ?
” The attorney general said his political activities are separate from his actions in the courtroom .
“ A lot of folks are interested in what ’ s going on , ” he said of the emails .
“ I appreciate that some of the folks that are out there wish to be supportive of me , but those are obviously two different things — the work we do officially and the work we do unofficially.
” Becerra ’ s name is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a possible appointment to the U.S. Senate by Gov .
Gavin Newsom should Sen. Kamala Harris be elected vice president in November and vacate the seat .
Becerra declined to say whether he is interested in the post .
“ I am thrilled to see Kamala Harris have a chance to become the next vice president , ” the attorney general said .
“ And I ’ m going to be cheering Gavin Newsom as he gets to make some of those tough calls .
He has got to make a lot of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all that goes .
”

California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra said he has filed his 100th lawsuit against the Trump administration.
California reached a milestone Friday in its long-standing feud with President Trump when Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra announced he has filed his 100th lawsuit against the administration, this time challenging changes in environmental rules.
Becerra said the lawsuit filed Friday, like the 99 others, challenges the president’s authority to change federal policies in ways that harm California and its residents.
The attorney general, who was first appointed to the post in 2017 and was elected in 2018, said he did not expect to have to file so many lawsuits.
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“I am surprised that any president in any administration would at least 100 times be caught red-handed violating the law,” Becerra said in an interview with The Times. “I am not surprised we have had to sue, because we have to protect our people, our resources and our values, and we use the rule of law to do that.”
The barrage of lawsuits since 2017 has included challenges to Trump administration policies on immigration, healthcare, education, gun control, consumer protection, the census, the U.S. Postal Service and civil rights issues.
More than half of them, including Friday’s lawsuit, claim that the Trump administration has undermined or failed to comply with federal environmental rules.
The latest legal challenge alleges that the administration is improperly weakening a requirement that federal agencies review and assess the effects of their actions on the environment. The rule change announced July 15 would limit review of environmental justice and climate change impacts, Becerra said.
The lawsuit, which was jointly filed with Washington state Atty. Gen. Bob Ferguson, also alleges that the rule change involving the National Environmental Policy Act will limit public participation in the review process, including input from communities of color.
The review process has allowed state agencies to have input into federal proposals including the project to raise the level of the Shasta Lake reservoir.
“This rule would short-circuit the process for review,” Becerra said. “It would let developers and development projects go through a shortcut that deprives communities that live in these areas the right to provide their input.”
The new federal lawsuit follows a flurry of others filed in the last month that challenged Trump administration policies on the census, high-interest loans and predatory lenders, and the United States Postal Service.
Capitol observers say Becerra’s record has helped establish him as a chief litigator against the Republican president, which could benefit him politically in heavily Democratic California.
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GOP strategist Mike Madrid said he is surprised only that Becerra has not filed more than 100 lawsuits.
“Establishing yourself as the most anti-Trump politician in California certainly has its benefits in the state, and he’s best positioned to be that person, with the arguable exception of the governor,” Madrid said. “It’s like the Trump administration is giving the attorney general an in-kind contribution to his next campaign.”
Though Newsom has to be careful about upsetting a president who controls how much money the state gets in disaster aid, Becerra faces no such constraints, said Claremont McKenna College political science professor Jack Pitney.
“There is very little downside to fighting Trump in a state where he got only 32% of the vote,” Pitney said. “Becerra’s causes, especially environmental protection, are popular with Californians.”
California has taken the Trump administration to court far more than Republicans did in Texas during the Obama years, when nearly 60 lawsuits were filed, garnering national attention.
Republican leaders in California have accused Becerra of spending too much time in court suing the president.
Becerra has not given enough attention to solving problems in California, including rising property crimes, while “promiscuously and reflexively filing these scattershot lawsuits,” said Harmeet K. Dhillon, Republican National Committee member for California and co-chair of the Republican National Lawyers Assn.
“The attorney general’s job is to make Californians’ lives better, not pick quixotic battles with a faraway leader whose political agenda and power affect only a sliver of California’s issues,” Dhillon said.
In addition, some liberal activists have said the attorney general has not done enough to address problems of excessive force by the police in California.
Becerra has won 59 of the cases filed against the administration so far, a representative said. Last year, the attorney general’s office spent $16 million on federal matters, or 1.47% of its total budget. Becerra said the victories have had a positive effect on the lives of Californians.
“Can you imagine how bad things would be with the census, as bad as they are, if it also included a question on citizenship?” Becerra asked. “Can you imagine where we would be if we had close to 200,000 ‘Dreamers’ in California being told that they would be deported?”
In September 2017, Becerra sued to challenge the repeal of an Obama-era order that protected immigrants who came to the U.S. as children and grew up without legal status, known as Dreamers, from deportation. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the Trump administration’s plan to repeal the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
The attorney general also won a court decision that blocked U.S. Department of Justice conditions that could have reduced funding to local law enforcement agencies in California that adopted so-called sanctuary city laws limiting cooperation with immigration agents.
Not all of the wins have been in the courtroom. After California and other states sued to challenge a policy limiting travel to the U.S. from countries with large Muslim populations, the Trump administration changed the policy.
The administration also dropped plans to add a citizenship question to the U.S. census after California and other states sued to challenge the proposal.
There have also been losses. A judge denied the state’s motion to block construction of a border wall in San Diego and Imperial counties, although that decision is on appeal.
Becerra has not been shy about capitalizing politically on the flood of litigation. His campaign often sends fundraising appeals to supporters that tout his lawsuits, most recently when he announced plans to sue over threatened cutbacks at the U.S. Postal Service.
“The postal service is critical. Our right to vote, your paycheck, your prescription medicines — you can’t get more serious than that,” said a July 30 email from the Becerra for Attorney General 2022 campaign committee. “If you’re with us in the fight to stop Trump, team, can you make a contribution today?”
The attorney general said his political activities are separate from his actions in the courtroom.
“A lot of folks are interested in what’s going on,” he said of the emails. “I appreciate that some of the folks that are out there wish to be supportive of me, but those are obviously two different things — the work we do officially and the work we do unofficially.”
Becerra’s name is among those raised in political circles as a possible appointment to the U.S. Senate by Gov. Gavin Newsom should Sen. Kamala Harris be elected vice president in November and vacate the seat.
Becerra declined to say whether he is interested in the post.
“I am thrilled to see Kamala Harris have a chance to become the next vice president,” the attorney general said. “And I’m going to be cheering Gavin Newsom as he gets to make some of those tough calls. He has got to make a lot of tough calls. We will see where all that goes.”


latimes--2020-08-28--Mail delivery suspended at L.A. public housing complex with over 1,800 residents

Mail delivery has been suspended at Mar Vista Gardens , a public housing complex with more than 1,800 tenants in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Del Rey , forcing residents to pick up mail and packages at a Culver City facility over a mile away .
Culver City Post Office Postmaster Roderick Strong told officials at the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles this week that mail delivery was immediately being put on hold because of safety issues at the 43-acre housing complex .
Strong had previously cited safety issues as a reason to set up centralized banks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of delivering mail to each door , an idea that troubled residents of the complex .
Tenant leaders had raised concerns about voting in the upcoming elections and questioned why the same changes were not happening in wealthier areas .
In a Wednesday email to city staffers , Strong said that after two incidents reported by postal employees this week — one involving a threatening tenant , another an “ uncontrollable dog ” — he was suspending mail delivery to Mar Vista Gardens until the new centralized banks of mailboxes are set up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was “ due to these unsafe actions that cause my employees to be in a very harmful unsafe situation while trying to do their jobs , ” Strong wrote .
A U.S .
Postal Service spokeswoman said she did not have any information about how quickly the new banks of mailboxes would be installed .
“ Until such time safe mail delivery can be made in the Mar Vista Gardens complex , ” spokeswoman Evelina Ramirez said in an email , residents can pick up mail and packages at a Culver City post @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will continue to work with the complex management and the Housing Authority to affect a safe solution.
” The Jefferson Boulevard site is more than a mile away .
Daisy Vega , president of the resident advisory council at Mar Vista Gardens , said that picking up mail there would be especially difficult for elderly residents living alone , tenants who do not have cars , and residents who work nights and sleep during the day .
“ People have been told to stay home so they don ’ t get sick ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Spanish .
Now , she said , they have to leave their apartments to get mail about immigration appointments , court cases and other crucial issues .
“ This is marked discrimination ... a political attack on the Latino and African American community.
” The decision comes amid widespread concerns about disruptions and slowdowns in mail service under President Trump , who has talked openly about trying to limit voting by mail .
Housing authority spokesman Eric Brown said that , although Strong has repeatedly spoken of threats to mail carriers at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ still have not received a valid report on his accusations.
” The housing authority had already objected to the USPS setting up banks of mailboxes at the facility , where a quarter of tenants are elderly or disabled , instead of delivering mail to their doors .
Suspending mail delivery and redirecting residents to the Culver City post office is “ an extreme impediment to our residents , ” Brown said .
City Councilman Mike Bonin , who represents the area , had previously complained that centralizing the mailboxes at Mar Vista Gardens @ @ @ @ @ @ @ during the pandemic .
Bonin denounced the decision this week to suspend mail delivery as “ shameful ” and “ outrageous , ” saying that “ this appalling action by USPS disenfranchises people , and denies them access to essentials , such as their income , medicine , and voting and election information.
” “ Aggressive dogs or threats upon a mail carrier are unacceptable and clearly need to be remedied .
But surely there is a large menu of remedies far short of your extreme action , which denies mail service to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ...
I insist that you reverse this decision immediately , ” Bonin added in a Friday letter to the postmaster .
Rep. Karen Bass ( D-Los Angeles ) , whose district includes Mar Vista Gardens , also called the move “ absolutely unacceptable ” and said in a statement Friday that she was “ working to get to the bottom of these changes.
” This isn ’ t the first time that mail delivery has been suspended at the Del Rey housing complex .
The USPS halted delivery there for months in 2008 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ safety issues , spurring protests from residents and then-Councilman Bill Rosendahl , the Argonaut newspaper reported .

Daisy Vega, president of the resident advisory council at the Mar Vista Gardens public housing complex, said having to pick up mail off site is especially difficult for elderly residents.
Mail delivery has been suspended at Mar Vista Gardens, a public housing complex with more than 1,800 tenants in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Del Rey, forcing residents to pick up mail and packages at a Culver City facility over a mile away.
Culver City Post Office Postmaster Roderick Strong told officials at the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles this week that mail delivery was immediately being put on hold because of safety issues at the 43-acre housing complex.
Strong had previously cited safety issues as a reason to set up centralized banks of mailboxes at Mar Vista Gardens instead of delivering mail to each door, an idea that troubled residents of the complex. Tenant leaders had raised concerns about voting in the upcoming elections and questioned why the same changes were not happening in wealthier areas.
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In a Wednesday email to city staffers, Strong said that after two incidents reported by postal employees this week — one involving a threatening tenant, another an “uncontrollable dog” — he was suspending mail delivery to Mar Vista Gardens until the new centralized banks of mailboxes are set up at the housing complex.
The decision was “due to these unsafe actions that cause my employees to be in a very harmful unsafe situation while trying to do their jobs,” Strong wrote.
A U.S. Postal Service spokeswoman said she did not have any information about how quickly the new banks of mailboxes would be installed.
“Until such time safe mail delivery can be made in the Mar Vista Gardens complex,” spokeswoman Evelina Ramirez said in an email, residents can pick up mail and packages at a Culver City post office on Jefferson Boulevard. “We will continue to work with the complex management and the Housing Authority to affect a safe solution.”
The Jefferson Boulevard site is more than a mile away. Daisy Vega, president of the resident advisory council at Mar Vista Gardens, said that picking up mail there would be especially difficult for elderly residents living alone, tenants who do not have cars, and residents who work nights and sleep during the day.
“People have been told to stay home so they don’t get sick” during the COVID-19 pandemic, Vega said in Spanish. Now, she said, they have to leave their apartments to get mail about immigration appointments, court cases and other crucial issues. “This is marked discrimination ... a political attack on the Latino and African American community.”
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The decision comes amid widespread concerns about disruptions and slowdowns in mail service under President Trump, who has talked openly about trying to limit voting by mail.
Housing authority spokesman Eric Brown said that, although Strong has repeatedly spoken of threats to mail carriers at the Del Rey complex, “we still have not received a valid report on his accusations.”
The housing authority had already objected to the USPS setting up banks of mailboxes at the facility, where a quarter of tenants are elderly or disabled, instead of delivering mail to their doors. Suspending mail delivery and redirecting residents to the Culver City post office is “an extreme impediment to our residents,” Brown said.
City Councilman Mike Bonin, who represents the area, had previously complained that centralizing the mailboxes at Mar Vista Gardens would put vulnerable residents at added risk during the pandemic.
Bonin denounced the decision this week to suspend mail delivery as “shameful” and “outrageous,” saying that “this appalling action by USPS disenfranchises people, and denies them access to essentials, such as their income, medicine, and voting and election information.”
“Aggressive dogs or threats upon a mail carrier are unacceptable and clearly need to be remedied. But surely there is a large menu of remedies far short of your extreme action, which denies mail service to more than 600 low-income families of color ... I insist that you reverse this decision immediately,” Bonin added in a Friday letter to the postmaster.
Rep. Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles), whose district includes Mar Vista Gardens, also called the move “absolutely unacceptable” and said in a statement Friday that she was “working to get to the bottom of these changes.”
This isn’t the first time that mail delivery has been suspended at the Del Rey housing complex. The USPS halted delivery there for months in 2008 after a fatal shooting and other reported safety issues, spurring protests from residents and then-Councilman Bill Rosendahl, the Argonaut newspaper reported.


latimes--2020-08-28--Preschoolers are mask-licking germ bombs — yet few catch the coronavirus, data show

The infection starts with a sniffle .
Next comes a barking cough .
Soon , there ’ s a fever , maybe vomiting and diarrhea , possibly an ear infection or tonsillitis or pink eye .
These are common symptoms in preschool , where viral outbreaks are as ubiquitous as finger paints and apple juice .
In a typical year , an otherwise healthy preschooler will bring home 12 to 18 upper respiratory infections — at least six to eight colds , two cases of croup and , more often than not , a bout of the flu , among @ @ @ @ @ @ @ typical year , and SARS-CoV-2 — the technical term for the novel coronavirus — is no day-care germ .
Now , with hundreds of large centers reopening across California , many families are asking : Is preschool safe ?
“ That ’ s the big question , ” said Dr. Nava Yeganeh , a pediatric infectious disease specialist at UCLA and a preschool mom .
“ We can ’ t mitigate risk down to zero , but it seems like in general preschools have done very well.
” Though scientists can still only @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of evidence suggests preschoolers are uniquely resilient to the novel coronavirus .
Recent studies from the U.S. , U.K. , Singapore and Australia , among others , suggest they are far less likely to contract and spread the illness than older children , and dramatically less likely to get sick from it than children even slightly older or younger .
“ This is the most bizarre virus , ” said Dr. Naomi Bardach , a professor of pediatrics at UC San Francisco .
“ Normally we think about kids getting coughs and colds @ @ @ @ @ @ @ each other all the time , and [ giving ] it to their teachers .
In this disease , it ’ s a totally different model.
” Los Angeles County recorded half the number of infections in children under 5 compared with those aged 5 to 11 .
Nationally , just 8.7 % of children hospitalized with COVID-19 in the U.S. were between 2 and 4 , while more than 40 % were between 12 and 17 and almost 20 % were newborns aged less than 3 months , an Aug. 7 study @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Prevention indicated .
Children 18 and under make up about 0.01 % of patients hospitalized with the virus , and 0.0005 % of associated mortalities , data show .
About one and a half times as many children died of the 2018-2019 flu , though that flu killed 80 % fewer people overall .
Those statistics are even more striking because unlike infants and older children , hundreds of thousands of preschoolers have been in their classrooms since March .
In California alone , 33,773 preschools and day cares are open — almost @ @ @ @ @ @ @ yet state data show that only about 450 students have tested positive for the virus in the past six months .
Even when caregivers and parents are counted , the overwhelming majority of preschools and day-care centers have not reported a single case .
“ California has been really very cautious and very thoughtful , ” Yeganeh said .
“ We are being very strict and trying to mitigate risk as much as possible.
” In fact , California has instituted some of the most stringent viral containment measures in the country , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ preschoolers have fallen sick here than in Texas or Florida , despite those states ’ smaller populations and fewer open child-care centers .
Here , parents are barred from the classroom , rugs and soft toys are frowned upon , and children 2 and up are expected to wear masks at all times .
“ We had them practice at home so it wasn ’ t their first experience with wearing a mask , ” said Paola Cervantes , executive director of Voyages Preschool in Mar Vista , who reconfigured her classrooms so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ outside .
“ They tell us at this point , ‘ I touched my mask , can I have hand sanitizer ?
’ [ or ] ‘ I licked it , can I have a clean one ?
’ ” The toddlers playing in Voyages ’ outdoor “ mud kitchen ” on a recent sunny morning seemed to have no trouble keeping their masks on or sharing their excitement from six feet apart — to them , Cervantes explained , masks have become like helmets or seat belts , beyond reproach .
Students @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to one another and stand in distanced chalk hearts while they wait to wash for lunch .
Few seem to notice that the bathroom is sanitized each time they use it , or that toys disappear the moment they drop them .
“ We have a lot of the same materials , so we split them , ” Cervantes said .
“ It ’ s kind of like TV magic — while these are disinfecting , I bring the other ones out.
” Le Petit Gan in Beverly Hills has taken this practice @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Toddlers rush to deposit their Magna-Tiles and plastic dinosaurs into the “ dirty box ” the moment they ’ ve finished playing with them .
“ They go in the oven , ” 3-year-old Henry explained as he tossed plastic vegetables into a pot at the preschool ’ s play kitchen .
“ And then they go in the washing machine.
” So far , the precautions appear to be working .
In L.A. County , more than 7,000 child-care facilities are open and fewer than 100 students have tested positive for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pandemic .
Among staff , that number is closer to 150 .
The ratio is similar statewide .
Only a fraction of a percent of the child-care workforce has contracted the virus , yet infected teachers far outnumber infected students , although students are many times more numerous .
“ What we don ’ t know from the data is whether , or the extent to which , cases have been transmitted among adults in child-care settings , or whether the adults have been exposed elsewhere , ” said Lea Austin , director @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Child Care Employment .
( Experts say child-to-adult transmission appears rare . )
Still , many parents wavered .
Unlike in some other states , California ’ s preschools and day cares are open to all families , not just those of front-line workers .
Statewide , 6 % of open programs serve no essential workers at all , and many parents who can work from home have debated keeping their preschoolers home with them , especially after large school districts across the country announced they would not return to classrooms in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were not going to open , that was a huge trigger for parents , ” said Luisa Donati , executive director of Cassidy Preschool in Santa Monica and head of the Los Angeles Preschool Partnership , a consortium of 150 local preschools .
“ I had to explain to them , when state officials say ‘ schools , ’ you think they ’ re talking about your preschooler , but to the government , ‘ school ’ is K-12.
” About 10 % of Donati ’ s former students will be learning remotely @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Voyages also offer remote programming to children whose parents say they will not go back until they are vaccinated .
While rare , preschool outbreaks do happen .
In the Singapore study , 16 teachers were infected at a single preschool , yet 77 children in their care all tested negative for the virus .
( Eight of those children were symptomatic , meaning they probably had one of the 12 to 18 upper respiratory infections that preschoolers typically cycle through . )
Scientists know young children can catch SARS-CoV-2 , and there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ symptoms may have the same viral load as adults .
So why don ’ t more of them get sick ?
And why don ’ t they spread it — either to each other or to caregivers — the way they spread colds and flus ?
Some experts think the answer may lie in ACE-2 , an enzyme sometimes likened to a “ keyhole ” through which the coronavirus enters the body .
Children under 10 have less of the enzyme in their nasal passages , which could be a source of their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be more prevalent in small children than we realize , but that they may not be big enough to spread it through droplets or strong enough to aerosolize it when they cough and sneeze .
While the cause may still be a mystery , the effect is increasingly clear , experts say .
There is a growing consensus among researchers that young children aren ’ t coronavirus “ superspreaders , ” and that their return to classrooms is unlikely to change the course of the pandemic , even in places where overall transmission @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is , if we let preschools stay open , are we increasing the risk of transmission beyond what would normally happen , ” Bardach said .
“ And the data does not suggest that.
” Still , many parents fear the worst , especially since the emergence of the terrifying Kawasaki-like multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children , or MIS-C. “ There was a lot of concern around that , ” Donati said .
But here , too , experts say fears may be inflated .
`` [ MIS-C ] got reported a lot @ @ @ @ @ @ @ scary , but it ’ s very , very , very rare , ” Bardach said .
“ There are kids that get into the ICU with MIS-C , but our therapies are good enough that it doesn ’ t lead to death.
” So far , just 94 of the more than 180,000 Americans who have died from COVID-19 have been minors .
As with hospitalizations , the majority have been in older children , though national mortality data do not distinguish between kindergarten children and teenagers .
MIS-C , though still @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cluster among slightly older children .
Almost all of them have recovered , experts said .
“ There is treatment available , ” Yeganeh said .
“ If a child has any of the symptoms — prolonged fever , red eyes , abdominal pain — they should come in.
” Far more worrying than the syndrome ’ s prognosis is its prevalence in children of color , who make up a disproportionate number of those hospitalized with COVID-19 , Yeganeh said .
People of color are “ overrepresented in front-line occupations ” where @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and more likely to bring it home to their children , the CDC noted .
Black and Latino children in the Aug. 7 study were also more likely than white ones to have at least one underlying medical condition .
But those inequities are only amplified by keeping preschoolers out of classrooms where children of essential workers have been cared for since March and far less than 0.01 % of students have been sickened , Yeganeh said .
“ Studies have suggested that distance learning does not work as well for younger kids @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for those who most need it , the doctor said .
“ The children who are most vulnerable are being left behind .
”

The infection starts with a sniffle. Next comes a barking cough. Soon, there’s a fever, maybe vomiting and diarrhea, possibly an ear infection or tonsillitis or pink eye.
These are common symptoms in preschool, where viral outbreaks are as ubiquitous as finger paints and apple juice. In a typical year, an otherwise healthy preschooler will bring home 12 to 18 upper respiratory infections — at least six to eight colds, two cases of croup and, more often than not, a bout of the flu, among others.
But 2020 is not a typical year, and SARS-CoV-2 — the technical term for the novel coronavirus — is no day-care germ. Now, with hundreds of large centers reopening across California, many families are asking: Is preschool safe?
“That’s the big question,” said Dr. Nava Yeganeh, a pediatric infectious-disease specialist at UCLA and a preschool mom. “We can’t mitigate risk down to zero, but it seems like in general preschools have done very well.”
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Children do activities at separate tables at Voyages Preschool. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Though scientists can still only guess at why, a growing body of evidence suggests preschoolers are uniquely resilient to the novel coronavirus. Recent studies from the U.S., U.K., Singapore and Australia, among others, suggest they are far less likely to contract and spread the illness than older children and dramatically less likely to get sick from it than children even slightly older or younger.
“This is the most bizarre virus,” said Dr. Naomi Bardach, a professor of pediatrics at UC San Francisco. “Normally we think about kids getting coughs and colds all the time and giving it to each other all the time, and [giving] it to their teachers. In this disease, it’s a totally different model.”
Los Angeles County recorded half the number of infections in children younger than 5 compared with those ages 5 to 11. Nationally, just 8.7% of children hospitalized with COVID-19 in the U.S. were 2 to 4 years old, while more than 40% were 12 to 17, and almost 20% were newborns less than 3 months old, an Aug. 7 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicated.
Children 18 and younger make up about 0.01% of patients hospitalized with the virus and 0.0005% of associated mortalities, data show. About one and a half times as many children died of the 2018-19 flu, though that flu killed 80% fewer people overall.
Those statistics are even more striking because, unlike infants and older children, hundreds of thousands of preschoolers have been in their classrooms since March. In California alone, 33,773 preschools and day cares are open — almost 80% of the pre-pandemic total — yet state data show that only about 450 students have tested positive for the virus in the last six months. Even when caregivers and parents are counted, the overwhelming majority of preschools and day-care centers have not reported a single case.
A child wears a mask while playing at Voyages Preschool. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
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“California has been really very cautious and very thoughtful,” Yeganeh said. “We are being very strict and trying to mitigate risk as much as possible.”
In fact, California has instituted some of the most stringent viral containment measures in the country, which is why experts believe many fewer preschoolers have fallen sick here than in Texas or Florida, despite those states’ smaller populations and fewer open child-care centers.
Here, parents are barred from the classroom, rugs and soft toys are frowned upon, and children 2 and older are expected to wear masks at all times.
“We had them practice at home so it wasn’t their first experience with wearing a mask,” said Paola Cervantes, executive director of Voyages Preschool in Mar Vista, who reconfigured her classrooms so that children could spend the whole day outside. “They tell us at this point, ‘I touched my mask, can I have hand sanitizer?’ [or] ‘I licked it, can I have a clean one?’”
Children socially distance while waiting to wash their hands at Voyages Preschool in Los Angeles. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
The toddlers playing in Voyages’ outdoor “mud kitchen” on a recent sunny morning seemed to have no trouble keeping their masks on or sharing their excitement from six feet apart — to them, Cervantes explained, masks have become like helmets or seat belts, beyond reproach. Students quickly learned to “blow hugs” to one another and stand in distanced chalk hearts while they wait to wash for lunch. Few seem to notice that the bathroom is sanitized each time they use it or that toys disappear the moment they drop them.
“We have a lot of the same materials, so we split them,” Cervantes said. “It’s kind of like TV magic — while these are disinfecting, I bring the other ones out.”
Le Petit Gan in Beverly Hills has taken this practice one step further since reopening in May. Toddlers rush to deposit their Magna-Tiles and plastic dinosaurs into the “dirty box” the moment they’ve finished playing with them.
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“They go in the oven,” 3-year-old Henry explained as he tossed plastic vegetables into a pot at the preschool’s play kitchen. “And then they go in the washing machine.”
So far, the precautions appear to be working. In L.A. County, more than 7,000 child-care facilities are open and fewer than 100 students have tested positive for the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic. Among staff, that number is closer to 150.
The ratio is similar statewide. Only a fraction of a percent of the child-care workforce has contracted the virus, yet infected teachers far outnumber infected students, although students are many times more numerous.
“What we don’t know from the data is whether, or the extent to which, cases have been transmitted among adults in child-care settings, or whether the adults have been exposed elsewhere,” said Lea Austin, director of the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment. (Experts say child-to-adult transmission appears rare.)
Still, many parents wavered. Unlike in some other states, California’s preschools and day cares are open to all families, not just those of front-line workers. Statewide, 6% of open programs serve no essential workers at all, and many parents who can work from home have debated keeping their preschoolers home with them, especially after large school districts across the country announced they would not return to classrooms in the fall.
“When LAUSD said they were not going to open, that was a huge trigger for parents,” said Luisa Donati, executive director of Cassidy Preschool in Santa Monica and head of the Los Angeles Preschool Partnership, a consortium of 150 local preschools. “I had to explain to them, when state officials say ‘schools,’ you think they’re talking about your preschooler, but to the government, ‘school’ is K-12.”
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About 10% of Donati’s former students will be learning remotely this fall. Le Petit Gan and Voyages also offer remote programming to children whose parents say they will not go back until they are vaccinated.
Though rare, preschool outbreaks do happen. In the Singapore study, 16 teachers were infected at a single preschool, yet 77 children in their care all tested negative for the virus. (Eight of those children were symptomatic, meaning they probably had one of the 12 to 18 upper respiratory infections that preschoolers typically cycle through.)
Children play at Voyages Preschool in Los Angeles. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Scientists know young children can catch SARS-CoV-2, and there’s evidence that those who show symptoms may have the same viral load as adults. So why don’t more of them get sick? And why don’t they spread it — either to one another or to caregivers — the way they spread colds and flus?
Some experts think the answer may lie in ACE-2, an enzyme sometimes likened to a “keyhole” through which the coronavirus enters the body. Children younger than 10 have less of the enzyme in their nasal passages, which could be a source of their resistance.
Others think that the virus may be more prevalent in small children than we realize but that they may not be big enough to spread it through droplets or strong enough to aerosolize it when they cough and sneeze.
Though the cause may still be a mystery, the effect is increasingly clear, experts say. There is a growing consensus among researchers that young children aren’t coronavirus “super-spreaders” and that their return to classrooms is unlikely to change the course of the pandemic, even in places where overall transmission is high.
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“The real question is, if we let preschools stay open, are we increasing the risk of transmission beyond what would normally happen,” Bardach said. “And the data does not suggest that.”
Children socially distance while playing in an outdoor kitchen at Voyages Preschool. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Still, many parents fear the worst, especially since the emergence of the terrifying Kawasaki-like multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, or MIS-C.
“There was a lot of concern around that,” Donati said.
But here, too, experts say fears may be inflated.
MIS-C “got reported a lot because it was new and it was scary, but it’s very, very, very rare,” Bardach said. “There are kids that get into the ICU with MIS-C, but our therapies are good enough that it doesn’t lead to death.”
So far, just 94 of the more than 180,000 Americans who have died of COVID-19 have been minors. As with hospitalizations, the majority have been in older children, though national mortality data do not distinguish between kindergarten children and teenagers.
MIS-C, though still vanishingly rare, has also appeared to cluster among slightly older children. Almost all of them have recovered, experts said.
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“There is treatment available,” Yeganeh said. “If a child has any of the symptoms — prolonged fever, red eyes, abdominal pain — they should come in.”
Far more worrying than the syndrome’s prognosis is its prevalence in children of color, who make up a disproportionate number of those hospitalized with COVID-19, Yeganeh said.
California The children who need preschool the most are getting the least As many private preschools prepare to reopen for the school year, many of California’s poorest and neediest children are stuck at home, waiting for public preschools to reopen or offer distance learning, which is far from ideal for a 4-year-old.
People of color are “overrepresented in front-line occupations” where they are more exposed to the virus and more likely to bring it home to their children, the CDC noted. Black and Latino children in the Aug. 7 study were also more likely than white ones to have at least one underlying medical condition.
But those inequities are only amplified by keeping preschoolers out of classrooms where children of essential workers have been cared for since March and far less than 0.01% of students have been sickened, Yeganeh said.
“Studies have suggested that distance learning does not work as well for younger kids,” and its failures are compounded for those who most need it, the doctor said. “The children who are most vulnerable are being left behind.”


latimes--2020-08-28--LAUSD's liberal student attendance policy raises eyebrows

Taking attendance at Los Angeles schools amid online learning is more complicated — and a lot more liberal — than students simply responding “ here ” when their name is called .
In a policy that has raised flags among some teachers and principals , but appears to be permitted by state law , students in the nation ’ s second-largest school district have several relatively easy ways to be counted as present for a day of school : • If a student does nothing more than send an email , text or talk to a teacher on the phone @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the student will be counted as present .
This communication does not have to be with the student — it can also take place between a parent or guardian and the teacher .
• If a student appears in a live session with a teacher or classmates on Zoom , however briefly , the student is counted as present for the day .
• If students skip these live sessions , but turn in work , they are also credited for attendance .
• If a student simply logs in to an online @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it ’ s likely that the student also will be counted as present .
“ I have a problem with that , ” said a teacher in reference to the log-in policy during a training session that The Times witnessed via Zoom .
Making sure that students attend class and keeping a record of that attendance are important and required tasks , state officials say .
“ Ensuring that we are reaching and engaging every student is more critical than ever to ensure students already at greater risk of falling behind can stay @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Daniel Thigpen , director of communications for the California Department of Education .
The key component of being marked as present is that daily engagement — in whatever form — must take place during the same school day before midnight .
If at 12:01 a.m. a student has been silent in all ways , the student will be definitively absent .
The new practices , although not demanding of students , represent a return to formal attendance-taking .
When schools closed in mid-March during the onset of the coronavirus emergency , state officials @ @ @ @ @ @ @ attendance .
But both anecdotal reports and episodic tracking indicated that student engagement sagged — and also that some teachers provided limited learning opportunities .
Los Angeles Unified reported that 78 % of middle school students logged in three times or more per week several weeks after schools closed .
And an internal report showed disparities in engagement along lines of race , ethnicity and family income — with students from low-income families and Black and Latino students participating in fewer learning activities than peers from higher-income families and white and Asian students @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the start of the new school year , the state established rules that mandate daily live lessons , restored requirements for minimum instructional minutes and reinstated taking roll .
One principal complained in an interview with The Times that a superior told her that if a student logged in for one minute , that student was present for the day .
“ Would that be fraud ?
” the principal wanted to know .
Another principal advised her teachers that she wanted them to consider the content of an email contact before accepting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ student or parent to explain why the student could not attend class — and the explanation or the excuses should not be considered evergreen .
Teachers can ’ t allow students to be marked as present simply because they send an email every day claiming that they were unable to log in , she said .
The names of principals interviewed have been withheld because they were concerned about talking freely without permission from the school district .
The principals do not have tenure protection in their assignments and they said they feared @ @ @ @ @ @ @ discuss the topic — even though the L.A. County Office of Education , an oversight agency , could not identify any improper practices based on an explanation of the policies provided by The Times .
Given a week to confirm information about attendance-taking practices , which The Times gleaned from interviews and documents , the district refused to make anyone available to explain the content of the teacher trainings or the attendance policy and would not review information submitted for verification .
Instead , the school system supplied a brief statement .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are in compliance with SB98 and CDE guidelines ” — referring to Senate Bill 98 , which established teaching guidelines for the fall , and the state Department of Education .
The district reported that first-day-of-school attendance rates last week were 86 % this year compared with 90 % last year .
Officials refused to provide attendance numbers for any additional days .
Taking attendance is important because districts must comply with compulsory education requirements , which also allows the state “ to track things like chronic absenteeism , ” said H.D .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ s Department of Finance .
Attendance and enrollment numbers also could affect future budgets .
In short , fewer students in class typically translates to reduced state and federal funding .
State rules mandate daily live interaction and suggest that it must be meaningful .
“ All students are required to receive daily live interaction with both a certificated employee [ like a teacher ] and their peers for the purpose of instruction , progress monitoring and school connectedness , ” according to guidelines from the Department of Education .
“ Teachers may @ @ @ @ @ @ @ alone does not meet the requirements for daily live interaction .
The minimum standard should be the same for all students ... , ” the guidelines say .
“ Every effort should be taken to determine the amount of interaction that is needed for students to progress academically and remain engaged in learning and connected to the school community.
” Students who are absent for three days in a school week are supposed to receive special attention , according to the state .
Principals interviewed by The Times insisted they would closely monitor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or other intervention regardless of what ’ s on the official roll sheet .
One teacher commented that she felt as if she needed to keep two sets of books to guide her instructional strategy — one for the official and , in her view , inflated tally of attendance and one that represented reality .
One quandary leads to another .
“ How do I tally tardies ?
” one teacher asked in a training .
The principal had no ready answer .
One principal noted that past district policy suggested that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to turn in homework because conditions at home could be hindering a student .
Yet now all work must be completed at home .
Teachers must turn in their roll by 3 p.m. every school day .
But student contact can still happen after that — as long as it ’ s before midnight .
Teachers then have four days to update their roll , changing an absent to a present .
If a counselor calls and reaches an absent student rather than a teacher , does that student get marked as present @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The principal promised to return with more information .
Principals stressed that students who show up only briefly online might be officially present , but they wouldn ’ t learn the material needed to pass a class .

History teacher Alice Lee had near full attendance for the first day back of online classes last week at Eagle Rock Jr./Sr. High School. Teachers have had to learn new rules for taking attendance.
Taking attendance at Los Angeles schools amid online learning is more complicated — and a lot more liberal — than students simply responding “here” when their name is called.
In a policy that has raised flags among some teachers and principals, but appears to be permitted by state law, students in the nation’s second-largest school district have several relatively easy ways to be counted as present for a day of school:
If a student does nothing more than send an email, text or talk to a teacher on the phone at any point in the day, the student will be counted as present. This communication does not have to be with the student — it can also take place between a parent or guardian and the teacher.
If a student appears in a live session with a teacher or classmates on Zoom, however briefly, the student is counted as present for the day.
If students skip these live sessions, but turn in work, they are also credited for attendance.
If a student simply logs in to an online school account but does nothing further, it’s likely that the student also will be counted as present.
“I have a problem with that,” said a teacher in reference to the log-in policy during a training session that The Times witnessed via Zoom.
Making sure that students attend class and keeping a record of that attendance are important and required tasks, state officials say.
“Ensuring that we are reaching and engaging every student is more critical than ever to ensure students already at greater risk of falling behind can stay connected to their learning,” said Daniel Thigpen, director of communications for the California Department of Education.
The key component of being marked as present is that daily engagement — in whatever form — must take place during the same school day before midnight. If at 12:01 a.m. a student has been silent in all ways, the student will be definitively absent.
The new practices, although not demanding of students, represent a return to formal attendance-taking. When schools closed in mid-March during the onset of the coronavirus emergency, state officials did away with requiring teachers to take attendance.
But both anecdotal reports and episodic tracking indicated that student engagement sagged — and also that some teachers provided limited learning opportunities.
Los Angeles Unified reported that 78% of middle school students logged in three times or more per week several weeks after schools closed. And an internal report showed disparities in engagement along lines of race, ethnicity and family income — with students from low-income families and Black and Latino students participating in fewer learning activities than peers from higher-income families and white and Asian students.
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With most California campuses closed for the start of the new school year, the state established rules that mandate daily live lessons, restored requirements for minimum instructional minutes and reinstated taking roll.
One principal complained in an interview with The Times that a superior told her that if a student logged in for one minute, that student was present for the day.
“Would that be fraud?” the principal wanted to know.
Another principal advised her teachers that she wanted them to consider the content of an email contact before accepting it for attendance. She expected the student or parent to explain why the student could not attend class — and the explanation or the excuses should not be considered evergreen. Teachers can’t allow students to be marked as present simply because they send an email every day claiming that they were unable to log in, she said.
The names of principals interviewed have been withheld because they were concerned about talking freely without permission from the school district. The principals do not have tenure protection in their assignments and they said they feared retaliation.
District officials were unwilling to discuss the topic — even though the L.A. County Office of Education, an oversight agency, could not identify any improper practices based on an explanation of the policies provided by The Times.
Given a week to confirm information about attendance-taking practices, which The Times gleaned from interviews and documents, the district refused to make anyone available to explain the content of the teacher trainings or the attendance policy and would not review information submitted for verification.
Instead, the school system supplied a brief statement. “Los Angeles Unified’s attendance practices are in compliance with SB98 and CDE guidelines” — referring to Senate Bill 98, which established teaching guidelines for the fall, and the state Department of Education.
The district reported that first-day-of-school attendance rates last week were 86% this year compared with 90% last year. Officials refused to provide attendance numbers for any additional days.
Taking attendance is important because districts must comply with compulsory education requirements, which also allows the state “to track things like chronic absenteeism,” said H.D. Palmer, spokesman for the state’s Department of Finance.
Attendance and enrollment numbers also could affect future budgets. In short, fewer students in class typically translates to reduced state and federal funding.
State rules mandate daily live interaction and suggest that it must be meaningful.
Advertisement
“All students are required to receive daily live interaction with both a certificated employee [like a teacher] and their peers for the purpose of instruction, progress monitoring and school connectedness,” according to guidelines from the Department of Education.
“Teachers may meet individually with students, but this alone does not meet the requirements for daily live interaction. The minimum standard should be the same for all students...,” the guidelines say. “Every effort should be taken to determine the amount of interaction that is needed for students to progress academically and remain engaged in learning and connected to the school community.”
Students who are absent for three days in a school week are supposed to receive special attention, according to the state. Principals interviewed by The Times insisted they would closely monitor a student’s need for counseling or other intervention regardless of what’s on the official roll sheet.
One teacher commented that she felt as if she needed to keep two sets of books to guide her instructional strategy — one for the official and, in her view, inflated tally of attendance and one that represented reality.
One quandary leads to another.
“How do I tally tardies?” one teacher asked in a training. The principal had no ready answer.
One principal noted that past district policy suggested that students should not be penalized for failing to turn in homework because conditions at home could be hindering a student. Yet now all work must be completed at home.
Teachers must turn in their roll by 3 p.m. every school day. But student contact can still happen after that — as long as it’s before midnight. Teachers then have four days to update their roll, changing an absent to a present.
If a counselor calls and reaches an absent student rather than a teacher, does that student get marked as present? a teacher asked in one session. The principal promised to return with more information.
Principals stressed that students who show up only briefly online might be officially present, but they wouldn’t learn the material needed to pass a class.


latimes--2020-08-28--50 years after the Chicano Moratorium, a Mexican American veteran on what it meant to fight in the w

50 years after the Chicano Moratorium, a Mexican American veteran on what it meant to fight in the war

As helicopters and C-130s flew over a mountaintop bunker in Vietnam , an Army soldier flipped through a copy of Time magazine and asked Tomás Sandoval two questions .
Are you from Los Angeles ?
How about Mexican ?
Sandoval said yes to both .
“ Look what your boys are doing to your city , ” the soldier said , tossing Sandoval the magazine , turned to an article with the headline : “ Chicano Riot.
” The story detailed how thousands of demonstrators marched through East Los Angeles for the National Chicano Moratorium Against the Vietnam War .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ rally , the article stated , “ ended in violence and tragedy.
” To 21-year-old Sandoval , it felt “ like my people didn ’ t give a damn about me.
” It was the summer of 1970 , and as Sandoval fought in a war he ’ d been drafted into , activists back home protested a system that sent so many Mexican Americans like him to fight in Vietnam .
Latinos in the U.S. had proved their patriotism for generations by fighting in this country ’ s major conflicts going all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Veterans returned to join the middle class , to fight for civil rights and a better future for their children .
But with the Vietnam War , a new sentiment swept across barrios nationwide : skepticism .
“ You had young activists recognizing that this was an unjust war , and recognizing it was taking an unjust toll on people of color in the United States , ” said Lorena Oropeza , a history professor at UC Davis who wrote a book about Chicano protest to the Vietnam War .
“ What @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tradition of saying , ‘ We served , treat us right , treat us as equals ’ and said , ‘ Why do we have to die to be treated as equals ?
’ ” But back in Vietnam , the young soldier from L.A ’ s Eastside wrote an angry letter to his wife that read , in part , “ What ’ s come over everyone .
They ’ re all trying to prove something .
But what ?
” Today , Sandoval knows the Moratorium , and the Chicano movement @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bring attention to inequalities .
Half a century later , there ’ s something familiar in the renewed mass of humanity turning out to protest , in the signs demanding justice and peace ; in the anger and maybe , too , the hope .
“ We ’ re 50 years beyond that ... march , ” Sandoval said .
“ I still think more needs to be done.
” The Sandoval family is no stranger to military service .
Two of Tomás Sandoval ’ s uncles served , one in World War @ @ @ @ @ @ @ War .
His father tried to enlist but was denied because of back issues .
Instead , Sandoval ’ s father helped assemble Airstream trailers and raised his sons in a “ working-class family.
” The parents rented apartments before settling in a three-bedroom home in Lincoln Heights .
But , like with so many other Mexican Americans on the Eastside , the Vietnam War came for them .
Manuel , Tomás ’ older brother , was drafted in December 1965 .
After growing disillusioned with East L.A. College , Manuel had let @ @ @ @ @ @ @ getting a deferment .
The next year , in June , he left for Vietnam .
It was the first time the new Marine had been on an airplane .
At that point , there weren ’ t many protests .
“ It was still a patriotic thing to fight , ” Manuel said .
“ The older generation , the Second World War people , were behind it all ... .
I found that it was because you were Chicano , you had to prove yourself a little more than a gabacho.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Tomás was drafted , Rep. Edward Roybal entered an article into the congressional record entitled “ Mexican American Casualties in Vietnam.
” Twice as many people with Spanish surnames were dying in the war in proportion to their population in the Southwest , according to studies by academic Ralph C. Guzman , a future deputy assistant secretary of State .
“ Historically , Mexican Americans have been a suspect , ‘ foreign minority , ’ ” Guzman wrote .
“ Like the Japanese Americans during World War II they have been under great @ @ @ @ @ @ @ States.
” The next month , La Raza — the most influential Chicano magazine of its era — ran the article in its entirety .
Printed at the bottom : “ Support Moratorium on War.
” The first Chicano Moratorium protest in East L.A. came on Dec. 20 , 1969 .
It was promoted in La Raza , which printed that the moratorium would be held in honor of Chicanos “ channeled into the death pits ” of Vietnam .
“ Chicanos have for a long time been helping to keep America free @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but America in return keeps Chicanos enslaved in poverty and misery , ” the article stated .
That month , Tomás Sandoval celebrated Christmas in Vietnam .
The soldiers decorated the tree with gum wrapper foil .
He was one of three Latinos in the platoon .
Many of the other soldiers “ didn ’ t even know what the heck a Mexican was , ” he said .
“ What are you ?
” they ’ d ask and then joke , “ Oh , you ’ re like those guys with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Another soldier , from Alabama , couldn ’ t pronounce his last name and called him “ Sal-Vayno.
” The next year brought more protests in the U.S .
In the jungle , Sandoval spent months dodging bullets .
In the summer of 1970 , he experienced horrors during the invasion of Cambodia : soldiers dying around him , intense firefights , close calls .
By the time Sandoval returned to Vietnam , “ all of us kissed ground.
” It became clear soon enough , though , he said , that they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ communism.
” Manuel had been back in Lincoln Heights since 1967 and witnessed firsthand the protests against the war .
At first , he derided the protesters as “ long-haired freaks.
” Coming back as a Vietnam veteran hadn ’ t been easy .
When he went to clubs and women asked about his buzz cut , he preferred to say he ‘ d been in jail rather than admit he served .
When Manuel went for job interviews and said he ’ d just returned from Vietnam , the interviewer would ask @ @ @ @ @ @ @ night ?
” On Aug. 29 , 1970 , Manuel was in East L.A. when he heard that the protesters were marching down Whittier Boulevard .
He and his friends stood on the outskirts and watched as people carried signs that read “ Stop the war.
” Later that day , he watched on TV as the demonstration ended in violence .
Hundreds were arrested , and Los Angeles Times columnist Ruben Salazar was one of three people killed .
“ I was against all that protesting .
It wasn ’ t until @ @ @ @ @ @ @ helped end the war , ” Manuel said .
“ It helped change the consciousness of the country.
” For Manuel , that perspective shifted the longer the war dragged on .
Every year more men were killed “ and we weren ’ t advancing.
” Tomás came back from Vietnam in time for another walkout in 1971 .
But at that time , he had a pregnant wife and needed to focus on supporting his family .
It wasn ’ t until years later that he learned about the educational inequities and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ those issues to light .
He knew some of the veterans who marched and their wives who were involved in the movement .
“ I didn ’ t understand the full focus of it , ” he said .
“ It took me a while.
” Fifty years later , Tomás ’ son , Tomás Summers Sandoval , teaches history and Chicanx-Latinx studies at Pomona College .
He ’ s conducted oral histories with Latino veterans of the Vietnam War , transforming their words into a public history exhibit , a play and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s a personal thing , ” he said .
“ But in the world of Chicanx studies , everything is sort of personal.
” There were veterans who came back from Vietnam and became involved in antiwar movements and others who were hostile to those politics .
Summers Sandoval interviewed one veteran who went to the moratorium and fought a cop because he was hitting someone else .
Most of those returning , he said , were just trying to “ grapple with all the issues that they ’ re dealing with after @ @ @ @ @ @ @ very little to integrate you back into society at that time period.
” Today , Hispanics are the fastest-growing minority population in the military , according to the Pew Research Center .
The issues from decades ago still remain , says Oropeza .
She questioned how equitable education is in California and throughout the U.S. “ If people really want to serve , I say go for it , ” Oropeza said .
“ But I like people to have options , and oftentimes they go to the military because college is just @ @ @ @ @ @ @ now 74 years old , works as a security officer .
In recent months , he listened as co-workers talked about attending Black Lives Matter protests .
They called for some of the same things protesters had demanded as they marched in 1970 .
“ The same guy that wrote the signs then , he wrote the signs now , ” he said .
His brother , long ago retired from a Latino business center , praised the strides achieved by Chicano Moratorium activists .
“ I just wish more changes could have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ and that we wouldn ’ t have some of the same issues today .
”

Vietnam veteran Tomás Sandoval lived in Lincoln Heights and was in Vietnam during the Aug. 29 Chicano Moratorium march.
As helicopters and C-130s flew over a mountaintop bunker in Vietnam, an Army soldier flipped through a copy of Time magazine and asked Tomás Sandoval two questions.
Are you from Los Angeles? How about Mexican? Sandoval said yes to both.
“Look what your boys are doing to your city,” the soldier said, tossing Sandoval the magazine, turned to an article with the headline: “Chicano Riot.”
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The story detailed how thousands of demonstrators marched through East Los Angeles for the National Chicano Moratorium Against the Vietnam War. What was intended to be a quiet rally, the article stated, “ended in violence and tragedy.”
Keepsakes of Vietnam veteran Tom Sandoval, a young man from Lincoln Heights who was overseas during the Chicano Moratorium, include dog tags and a tape recorder he used to dictate letters home. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
To 21-year-old Sandoval, it felt “like my people didn’t give a damn about me.”
It was the summer of 1970, and as Sandoval fought in a war he’d been drafted into, activists back home protested a system that sent so many Mexican Americans like him to fight in Vietnam.
Latinos in the U.S. had proved their patriotism for generations by fighting in this country’s major conflicts going all the way back to the Civil War. Veterans returned to join the middle class, to fight for civil rights and a better future for their children.
But with the Vietnam War, a new sentiment swept across barrios nationwide: skepticism.
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“You had young activists recognizing that this was an unjust war, and recognizing it was taking an unjust toll on people of color in the United States,” said Lorena Oropeza, a history professor at UC Davis who wrote a book about Chicano protest to the Vietnam War. “What they really did was flip this military tradition of saying, ‘We served, treat us right, treat us as equals’ and said, ‘Why do we have to die to be treated as equals?’”
But back in Vietnam, the young soldier from L.A’s Eastside wrote an angry letter to his wife that read, in part, “What’s come over everyone. They’re all trying to prove something. But what?”
Tom Sandoval keeps a stack of letters he wrote to his wife while serving in Vietnam. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Today, Sandoval knows the Moratorium, and the Chicano movement as a whole, was necessary to bring attention to inequalities. Half a century later, there’s something familiar in the renewed mass of humanity turning out to protest, in the signs demanding justice and peace; in the anger and maybe, too, the hope.
“We’re 50 years beyond that ... march,” Sandoval said. “I still think more needs to be done.”
The Sandoval family is no stranger to military service.
Two of Tomás Sandoval’s uncles served, one in World War II and the other in the Korean War. His father tried to enlist but was denied because of back issues.
Instead, Sandoval’s father helped assemble Airstream trailers and raised his sons in a “working-class family.” The parents rented apartments before settling in a three-bedroom home in Lincoln Heights.
But, like with so many other Mexican Americans on the Eastside, the Vietnam War came for them.
Manuel, Tomás’ older brother, was drafted in December 1965. After growing disillusioned with East L.A. College, Manuel had let his credits drop — preventing him from getting a deferment.
Vietnam veteran Tom Sandoval, wore a rosary on a helmet he decorated with a peace sign while overseas in 1970. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
The next year, in June, he left for Vietnam. It was the first time the new Marine had been on an airplane. At that point, there weren’t many protests.
“It was still a patriotic thing to fight,” Manuel said. “The older generation, the Second World War people, were behind it all.... I found that it was because you were Chicano, you had to prove yourself a little more than a gabacho.”
Three years later, the year Tomás was drafted, Rep. Edward Roybal entered an article into the congressional record entitled “Mexican American Casualties in Vietnam.”
Twice as many people with Spanish surnames were dying in the war in proportion to their population in the Southwest, according to studies by academic Ralph C. Guzman, a future deputy assistant secretary of State.
“Historically, Mexican Americans have been a suspect, ‘foreign minority,’” Guzman wrote. “Like the Japanese Americans during World War II they have been under great pressure to prove loyalty to the United States.”
The next month, La Raza — the most influential Chicano magazine of its era — ran the article in its entirety. Printed at the bottom: “Support Moratorium on War.”
Vietnam veteran Tom Sandoval, front row, fourth from right, with the men he served with in 1970. (Courtesy of Tom Sandoval)
The first Chicano Moratorium protest in East L.A. came on Dec. 20, 1969. It was promoted in La Raza, which printed that the moratorium would be held in honor of Chicanos “channeled into the death pits” of Vietnam.
“Chicanos have for a long time been helping to keep America free by dying for her in wars, but America in return keeps Chicanos enslaved in poverty and misery,” the article stated.
That month, Tomás Sandoval celebrated Christmas in Vietnam. The soldiers decorated the tree with gum wrapper foil. He was one of three Latinos in the platoon. Many of the other soldiers “didn’t even know what the heck a Mexican was,” he said.
“What are you?” they’d ask and then joke, “Oh, you’re like those guys with the big hats and the bullets.”
Another soldier, from Alabama, couldn’t pronounce his last name and called him “Sal-Vayno.”
Vietnam veteran Tom Sandoval, center, took copious amounts of photos while overseas in 1970. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
The next year brought more protests in the U.S. In the jungle, Sandoval spent months dodging bullets. In the summer of 1970, he experienced horrors during the invasion of Cambodia: soldiers dying around him, intense firefights, close calls. By the time Sandoval returned to Vietnam, “all of us kissed ground.”
It became clear soon enough, though, he said, that they were not there “saving anyone from communism.”
Manuel had been back in Lincoln Heights since 1967 and witnessed firsthand the protests against the war. At first, he derided the protesters as “long-haired freaks.”
Coming back as a Vietnam veteran hadn’t been easy. When he went to clubs and women asked about his buzz cut, he preferred to say he‘d been in jail rather than admit he served.
When Manuel went for job interviews and said he’d just returned from Vietnam, the interviewer would ask, “How do you sleep at night?”
On Aug. 29, 1970, Manuel was in East L.A. when he heard that the protesters were marching down Whittier Boulevard. He and his friends stood on the outskirts and watched as people carried signs that read “Stop the war.”
Later that day, he watched on TV as the demonstration ended in violence. Hundreds were arrested, and Los Angeles Times columnist Ruben Salazar was one of three people killed.
Vietnam veteran Tom Sandoval lived in Lincoln Heights and was in Vietnam during the Aug. 29 Chicano Moratorium march. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
“I was against all that protesting. It wasn’t until much later that I understood that they helped end the war,” Manuel said. “It helped change the consciousness of the country.”
For Manuel, that perspective shifted the longer the war dragged on. Every year more men were killed “and we weren’t advancing.”
Tomás came back from Vietnam in time for another walkout in 1971. But at that time, he had a pregnant wife and needed to focus on supporting his family. It wasn’t until years later that he learned about the educational inequities and how the movement was necessary to bring those issues to light.
He knew some of the veterans who marched and their wives who were involved in the movement.
“I didn’t understand the full focus of it,” he said. “It took me a while.”
The Chicano Moratorium: 50 years later 50 years ago, the Chicano Moratorium made an indelible impact on L.A. culture and civil rights. Explore the LA Times project.
Fifty years later, Tomás’ son, Tomás Summers Sandoval, teaches history and Chicanx-Latinx studies at Pomona College. He’s conducted oral histories with Latino veterans of the Vietnam War, transforming their words into a public history exhibit, a play and an upcoming book.
“It’s a personal thing,” he said. “But in the world of Chicanx studies, everything is sort of personal.”
There were veterans who came back from Vietnam and became involved in antiwar movements and others who were hostile to those politics. Summers Sandoval interviewed one veteran who went to the moratorium and fought a cop because he was hitting someone else.
Most of those returning, he said, were just trying to “grapple with all the issues that they’re dealing with after war, in a military that does very little to integrate you back into society at that time period.”
Today, Hispanics are the fastest-growing minority population in the military, according to the Pew Research Center. The issues from decades ago still remain, says Oropeza. She questioned how equitable education is in California and throughout the U.S.
“If people really want to serve, I say go for it,” Oropeza said. “But I like people to have options, and oftentimes they go to the military because college is just not in their purview.”
Manuel, now 74 years old, works as a security officer. In recent months, he listened as co-workers talked about attending Black Lives Matter protests.
They called for some of the same things protesters had demanded as they marched in 1970.
“The same guy that wrote the signs then, he wrote the signs now,” he said.
His brother, long ago retired from a Latino business center, praised the strides achieved by Chicano Moratorium activists.
“I just wish more changes could have been made,” Tomás said, “and that we wouldn’t have some of the same issues today.”


latimes--2020-08-28--Monopoly, video games, study groups: How COVID-19 is spreading at USC

A game of Monopoly among friends .
A study group with a few classmates .
Dinner while chatting in the comfort of their apartment .
These are the small group gatherings that are the source of the ongoing surge of COVID-19 infections among students at USC .
As the university enters its second week of classes , it ’ s not large shoulder-to-shoulder parties that are the top worry .
It ’ s the common , day-to-day interactions among groups of 10 or fewer friends and housemates who live in thousands of privately owned apartments and houses that surround the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other colleges in California face as classes resume this fall , including UCLA , where classes begin Sept. 28 .
Dr. Sarah Van Orman , chief health officer for USC Student Health , said that since her last update on Monday , 104 new cases of coronavirus have been confirmed — including the first three on campus — marking 147 total cases this week .
The cases represent a tiny fraction in a county where more than 1,636 new cases and 38 deaths were reported on Thursday alone .
But there has been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ripe for COVID-19 spread .
Of the new infections at USC , three students tested positive after getting together to play Monopoly .
Four more were infected as they gathered to study .
“ Some of what ’ s difficult is while we hear reports of large parties here and there , that ’ s actually not the majority of the situations where we are encountering students who are infected , ” Van Orman said .
“ It is five to 10 people getting together sharing a meal ; it ’ s study @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said problems occur because students in these smaller settings will often eat and drink together , thus shunning COVID-19 protections such as facial coverings and social distancing .
The community spread then takes place when these students who congregated to play video or board games then return to an apartment shared with four to six others .
“ One case can lead to multiple infections because of the larger groups in which students live , ” Van Orman said .
Van Orman is aware many USC students live in apartments they share with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ many with even higher numbers .
She advises those students to “ make a commitment to each other ” to wear masks and socially distance when they leave their immediate bubble and to consider lower-risk activities that can be held outside .
“ When you have 10 people packed into an apartment eating and drinking , it ’ s very easy [ for the disease ] to spread , ” she said .
The COVID-19 cases has taken place despite USC offering only online education .
There are about 700 students living on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but of that group , only three positive tests were confirmed and that was within the last 24 hours .
As of Saturday , the USC Health Center has conducted 4,241 tests with a 5.2 % positive rate among students .
On Monday , USC issued a community health advisory in which Van Orman spoke of an “ alarming increase ” in the rise of COVID-19 cases in students .
“ The numbers were lower on Monday , but we were all concerned that this was the direction we were heading in , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ where the numbers are right now , ” Van Orman said .
Of the 104 new cases since , eight included members of the school ’ s football and men ’ s water polo teams .
Workouts in both sports have been suspended until at least Monday .
Of the 104 positive tests , 73 cases involved students who showed some signs of COVID-19 , while 31 were asymptomatic .
Van Orman said it was incumbent on students to change their behavior because there were two paths in which the spread would result @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we can continue with the intensive testing and really get the message out to the students and the community about safety that we can start to see the numbers decline , ” she said .

Small gatherings have led to a surge in COVID-19 cases at USC lately.
A game of Monopoly among friends. A study group with a few classmates. Dinner while chatting in the comfort of their apartment.
These are the small group gatherings that are the source of the ongoing surge of COVID-19 infections among students at USC.
As the university enters its second week of classes, it’s not large shoulder-to-shoulder parties that are the top worry. It’s the common, day-to-day interactions among groups of 10 or fewer friends and housemates who live in thousands of privately owned apartments and houses that surround the campus.
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The situation underscores the challenges other colleges in California face as classes resume this fall, including UCLA, where classes begin Sept. 28.
Dr. Sarah Van Orman, chief health officer for USC Student Health, said that since her last update on Monday, 104 new cases of coronavirus have been confirmed — including the first three on campus — marking 147 total cases this week.
The cases represent a tiny fraction in a county where more than 1,636 new cases and 38 deaths were reported on Thursday alone. But there has been growing concerns nationally of campuses being particularly ripe for COVID-19 spread.
Of the new infections at USC, three students tested positive after getting together to play Monopoly. Four more were infected as they gathered to study.
“Some of what’s difficult is while we hear reports of large parties here and there, that’s actually not the majority of the situations where we are encountering students who are infected,” Van Orman said.
“It is five to 10 people getting together sharing a meal; it’s study groups and board games.”
Van Orman said problems occur because students in these smaller settings will often eat and drink together, thus shunning COVID-19 protections such as facial coverings and social distancing.
The community spread then takes place when these students who congregated to play video or board games then return to an apartment shared with four to six others.
“One case can lead to multiple infections because of the larger groups in which students live,” Van Orman said.
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Van Orman is aware many USC students live in apartments they share with groups of three to six students, many with even higher numbers.
She advises those students to “make a commitment to each other” to wear masks and socially distance when they leave their immediate bubble and to consider lower-risk activities that can be held outside.
“When you have 10 people packed into an apartment eating and drinking, it’s very easy [for the disease] to spread,” she said.
The COVID-19 cases has taken place despite USC offering only online education.
There are about 700 students living on campus in dorms and school property, but of that group, only three positive tests were confirmed and that was within the last 24 hours.
As of Saturday, the USC Health Center has conducted 4,241 tests with a 5.2% positive rate among students.
On Monday, USC issued a community health advisory in which Van Orman spoke of an “alarming increase” in the rise of COVID-19 cases in students.
That day, 43 cases were announced.
“The numbers were lower on Monday, but we were all concerned that this was the direction we were heading in, and I’m not surprised with where the numbers are right now,” Van Orman said.
Of the 104 new cases since, eight included members of the school’s football and men’s water polo teams.
Workouts in both sports have been suspended until at least Monday.
Of the 104 positive tests, 73 cases involved students who showed some signs of COVID-19, while 31 were asymptomatic.
Van Orman said it was incumbent on students to change their behavior because there were two paths in which the spread would result.
“We are hopeful that if we can continue with the intensive testing and really get the message out to the students and the community about safety that we can start to see the numbers decline,” she said.


latimes--2020-08-28--Heffernan: Kimberly Guilfoyle shows our way of looking at high society and power is broken

I can ’ t get that uncanny image of Kimberly Guilfoyle out of my mind .
You know — bold , glamorous , raven-haired Kimberly Guilfoyle with the heavy-hitting law resumé and the very , how to put it , confident voice .
There she is in my mind ’ s eye , consort to a high-placed politician , soaking up both his love and the love of fans while ... lying on a Tabriz carpet in an opulent San Francisco parlor chockablock with antiques and graced with a spectacular view of the bay .
Right — I ’ m @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from Monday night at the Republican National Convention .
I don ’ t mean the heavily parodied freeze-frame in which she stood , arms outspread , as a woman who evidently would not be crucified on a cross of libs .
No — I mean the image of a recumbent Guilfoyle in Harper ’ s Bazaar from September 2004 , when her political companion was , of course , not her current companion — far-right presidential son Donald Trump Jr. — but the then-mayor of San Francisco and now-governor of California , Gavin @ @ @ @ @ @ @ piece dubbed Guilfoyle and Newsom “ The New Kennedys.
” The bizarre Bazaar image ( if you can resist looking it up , please do ) shows bare-shouldered Guilfoyle folded in Newsom ’ s arms , inexplicably on the floor of an extravagant , gilded dwelling straight out of “ Dynasty.
” Their awkward-as-hell asana can only be called “ SNL ” bait .
From my own days at fashion magazines , I remember that power-couple profiles like this one were considered jackpots , especially in thick September issues .
The article would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ California politics ) for an eye-candy extravaganza .
And the photo spread would convey that earnest public servants spend their days not in budget meetings but in erotic , consumerist splendor , making out on carpets in revealing eveningwear .
You can bet that Kimberly and Gavin were not likened to the Kennedys for their commitment to the Peace Corps .
They were “ Kennedys ” because they were hot .
And spent money .
And though the marriage — and Guilfoyle ’ s commitment to anything like liberal politics — lasted only @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shining Camelot days are frozen for all time in that spread , as if the image were shot through with eternal Botox .
My hope this week , as the sound and fury of Trump ’ s macabre Republican National Convention roars on at a deafening volume , is not just that Trump will be soundly defeated in November .
I also hope that the reign of this century ’ s bipartisan obsession with vulgar preening will be bookended by these two photos of Guilfoyle .
The 2004 shot of 35-year-old Democrat Guilfoyle @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And the 2020 YouTube download of 51-year-old Republican Guilfoyle , as she screams on behalf of President Trump , “ The best is yet to come !
” Guilfoyle now disparages California as “ a land of discarded heroin needles in parks , riots in streets and blackouts in homes.
” She says Democrats made it that way , in whose ranks she must include her ex .
But I don ’ t see her as a once-good Democrat who somehow turned into a bad Republican .
She , like so many aspiring @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — and money , power and a mate-on-the-rise .
It may be hard to remember , but it wasn ’ t always this way .
The Kennedys with their Camelot were an exception to the reigning idea that the American role model , the president , eschew consumerism and extravagance in favor of dignity , thrift and diligence .
President Coolidge allegedly said the American people wanted a “ solemn ass ” for president .
So , the opposite of a sexy centerfold .
And Camp David , the presidential getaway , gives @ @ @ @ @ @ @ meant to be : horseshoes , billiards , reading and of course chapel attendance , all amid castoff furniture and mosquitos .
Not a celebrity hairstylist or tanning bed in sight .
In this century too many in politics — and media , academia , the law — seem to have lost their way .
They became , or at least mixed with , the overclass .
The TED set , the Gulfstream set , the Davos set , the can-I-get-you-a-glass-of-champagne-milord set .
The greed set .
Look , I see the allure @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in a Gulfstream , I did attend , as an assistant , photo shoots like the one Newsom and Guilfoyle did for Bazaar .
You could eat from vast sushi spreads .
You ’ d get free lipsticks and could even go to wrap parties .
If someone had proposed to write a magazine profile of me as the new Jackie Kennedy , come on , I might have even said yes .
But I was never asked , so I never did .
And that ’ s just as well .
Because @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are now in an uneasy spot , whatever their political party .
Trumpism — in all its gaudiness and brutality — has exposed the false idols of the Gulfstream set over the last decades .
And Guilfoyle ’ s cringe-inducing performance on Monday night represents a kind of limit case for how haywire “ glamour ” can go .
In addition to the success so far of Joe Biden ’ s not-so-glamorous bid for the presidency , there ’ s another sign that the excesses of the era might be coming to an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which had been in print since 1867 , closed up several of its editions just last month .
No one even noticed .

I can’t get that uncanny image of Kimberly Guilfoyle out of my mind. You know — bold, glamorous, raven-haired Kimberly Guilfoyle with the heavy-hitting law resumé and the very, how to put it, confident voice.
There she is in my mind’s eye, consort to a high-placed politician, soaking up both his love and the love of fans while ... lying on a Tabriz carpet in an opulent San Francisco parlor chockablock with antiques and graced with a spectacular view of the bay.
For the record: An earlier version of this column said Harper’s Bazaar had closed up shop; not all of its editions have closed.
Right — I’m not talking about the meme of Guilfoyle from Monday night at the Republican National Convention. I don’t mean the heavily parodied freeze-frame in which she stood, arms outspread, as a woman who evidently would not be crucified on a cross of libs.
No — I mean the image of a recumbent Guilfoyle in Harper’s Bazaar from September 2004, when her political companion was, of course, not her current companion — far-right presidential son Donald Trump Jr. — but the then-mayor of San Francisco and now-governor of California, Gavin Newsom, a lifelong liberal. The piece dubbed Guilfoyle and Newsom “The New Kennedys.”
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The bizarre Bazaar image (if you can resist looking it up, please do) shows bare-shouldered Guilfoyle folded in Newsom’s arms, inexplicably on the floor of an extravagant, gilded dwelling straight out of “Dynasty.” Their awkward-as-hell asana can only be called “SNL” bait.
From my own days at fashion magazines, I remember that power-couple profiles like this one were considered jackpots, especially in thick September issues. The article would provide a “serious” pretext (California politics) for an eye-candy extravaganza. And the photo spread would convey that earnest public servants spend their days not in budget meetings but in erotic, consumerist splendor, making out on carpets in revealing eveningwear.
You can bet that Kimberly and Gavin were not likened to the Kennedys for their commitment to the Peace Corps. They were “Kennedys” because they were hot. And spent money.
And though the marriage — and Guilfoyle’s commitment to anything like liberal politics — lasted only three years, the couple’s shining Camelot days are frozen for all time in that spread, as if the image were shot through with eternal Botox.
My hope this week, as the sound and fury of Trump’s macabre Republican National Convention roars on at a deafening volume, is not just that Trump will be soundly defeated in November. I also hope that the reign of this century’s bipartisan obsession with vulgar preening will be bookended by these two photos of Guilfoyle. The 2004 shot of 35-year-old Democrat Guilfoyle spooning on the floor with Newsom. And the 2020 YouTube download of 51-year-old Republican Guilfoyle, as she screams on behalf of President Trump, “The best is yet to come!”
Advertisement
Guilfoyle now disparages California as “a land of discarded heroin needles in parks, riots in streets and blackouts in homes.” She says Democrats made it that way, in whose ranks she must include her ex.
But I don’t see her as a once-good Democrat who somehow turned into a bad Republican. She, like so many aspiring influencers, went where the spotlight was — and money, power and a mate-on-the-rise.
It may be hard to remember, but it wasn’t always this way. The Kennedys with their Camelot were an exception to the reigning idea that the American role model, the president, eschew consumerism and extravagance in favor of dignity, thrift and diligence.
President Coolidge allegedly said the American people wanted a “solemn ass” for president. So, the opposite of a sexy centerfold. And Camp David, the presidential getaway, gives a sense of what presidential leisure is meant to be: horseshoes, billiards, reading and of course chapel attendance, all amid castoff furniture and mosquitos. Not a celebrity hairstylist or tanning bed in sight.
In this century too many in politics — and media, academia, the law — seem to have lost their way. They became, or at least mixed with, the overclass. The TED set, the Gulfstream set, the Davos set, the can-I-get-you-a-glass-of-champagne-milord set. The greed set.
Look, I see the allure. Though I’ve never flown in a Gulfstream, I did attend, as an assistant, photo shoots like the one Newsom and Guilfoyle did for Bazaar. You could eat from vast sushi spreads. You’d get free lipsticks and could even go to wrap parties.
If someone had proposed to write a magazine profile of me as the new Jackie Kennedy, come on, I might have even said yes.
But I was never asked, so I never did. And that’s just as well. Because those who did take up such offers are now in an uneasy spot, whatever their political party. Trumpism — in all its gaudiness and brutality — has exposed the false idols of the Gulfstream set over the last decades.
And Guilfoyle’s cringe-inducing performance on Monday night represents a kind of limit case for how haywire “glamour” can go.
In addition to the success so far of Joe Biden’s not-so-glamorous bid for the presidency, there’s another sign that the excesses of the era might be coming to an end. Harper’s Bazaar, which had been in print since 1867, closed up several of its editions just last month. No one even noticed.
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