The horror of terrorist attacks like the Manchester bombing Monday evening are obvious to anyone with a conscience, but we should also not overlook the small acts of heroism and compassion that arise from our darkest hours.
The latest example of the horrors of which people are capable was the bombing of the Manchester Arena in the United Kingdom, where a 22-year-old university student killed 22 people, including an 8-year-old girl, and wounded 59 others, with the use of a suicide bomb packed with nails, nuts and bolts to maximize the damage.
The terrorist detonated the bomb in a foyer area at the conclusion of a concert by actress and pop singer Ariana Grande, who is particularly popular among teenagers, as people were filing out of the venue. He was believed to have come through unsecured outer doors with parents waiting to pick up their children.
The attacker, who was born in Manchester, was described as an Islamic extremist who had reportedly become radicalized fairly recently and been “known” to authorities. The Islamic State has claimed credit for the attack. At present, it is unknown if the bomber was a “lone wolf” attacker or part of a terrorist cell, though police have raided the home of a 23-year-old man and arrested him in connection with the attack. Ironically, the terrorist’s parents had fled the regime of Muammar Gaddafi in Lybia and come to the U.K. as refugees.
The tragedy is the worst attack in Britain since the subway and bus attacks by four suicide bombers killed 52 people on July 7, 2005. It also brings to mind the teams of terrorists who killed 130 people across Paris in November 2015, including 89 at the Bataclan theater during a concert.
“We struggle to comprehend the warped and twisted mind that sees a room packed with young children not as a scene to cherish, but as an opportunity for carnage,” Prime Minister Theresa May said in a statement. “But we can continue to resolve to thwart such attacks in future. To take on and defeat the ideology that often fuels this violence.”
But we should also tell the stories of those who showed our better nature in the wake of the disaster, like the woman who led about 50 unaccompanied teenagers to a nearby hotel and helped alert their families that they were safe until they could be picked up; or the efforts of a T-shirt seller and two homeless men at the venue to offer first aid and comfort to the wounded and dying.
We should celebrate the local businesses like Costco, Tesco and Iceland Foods who provided food and drinks to police responding to, and investigating, the scene, and the countless souls who used social media to offer cups of tea, a place to charge cellphones or housing for those stranded after the city center went on lockdown. That includes the numerous Muslim taxi drivers that offered free rides home to those in the area and the Muslim doctors who worked through the night to treat the injured. In just two days, nearly £700,000 ($900,000) has already been raised by nearly 28,000 contributors through a crowdfunding effort set up by the Manchester Evening News on the site JustGiving.com.
There will be plenty of time to continue discussions about how to prevent the most deranged and desperate among us from resorting to violence, whether due to Islamic extremism or other motivations, but amidst the grief and the heartache of another tragedy, it also does us some good to remind ourselves of the kindness, tolerance and freedom which most of our society values and strives to embody.
ANAHEIM — A woman was found seriously injured Tuesday night in an attack at an Anaheim mobile home park and her 18-year-old son was taken into custody as a suspect, police said.
Officers responded to Friendly Village Mobile Home Park at 5815 La Palma Ave. around 8:45 p.m. for a call about an assault and a young man was seen running away, said Sgt. Daron Wyatt of the Anaheim Police Department.
Officers found a woman suffering from blunt-force trauma and she was taken to a hospital in serious condition but the extent of her injuries were not immediately available, Wyatt said.
Her 18-year-old son was located and detained pending further investigation, Wyatt said.
The Orange County Transportation Authority got some good news this week concerning the ridership crisis on its bus system.
“While total average weekday ridership dropped 2.9 percent from March 2016 to March 2017, ridership on routes improved in June and October overhauls increased by 4.2 percent and 10.4 percent, respectively, according to an OCTA staff report presented to the board on Monday, May 22,” the Register reported.
It may be hard to see how a 2.9 percent decline in weekday ridership is positive, but shifting routes from low-demand areas to high-demand areas seems an appropriate reallocation of scarce resources, and something the Editorial Board has often encouraged. Moreover, the news that efforts to reverse the trend on a number of routes is potentially starting to bear some fruit is certainly a welcome sign.
But it also makes the second news item to come out of the meeting all the more concerning. The OCTA board also approved “a full-funding agreement with the Federal Transit Administration for the OC Streetcar project.”
Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido, also an OCTA board member, called it “the biggest single step so far.” Great. Oh, and the cost of the 4.1-mile route rose — again. Now it’s up to $299.3 million.
Buses, as has been shown in Orange County, are by no means a moneymaker, but a system that is flexible and capable of adjusting to user preferences in a time of crisis is far preferable to a fixed-rail system — especially when so many elsewhere fail to meet ridership projections or come close to turning a profit.
Some have criticized us for “ignoring” the supposed economic benefits of a streetcar. The point isn’t to make money, they say, but to spur development that more than pays back the costs over time.
Yet, as we have previously noted, the streetcar in Portland, Ore., is often cited as a success in this regard, but the massive zoning changes and hundreds of millions of dollars in incentives to developers along its route are seldom mentioned. Even setting aside the financial burden placed on taxpayers, streetcars simply are a poor use of scarce transportation dollars that are better spent on more economical and flexible public transportation systems.
The fundamental purpose for a city or county is to serve its residents. If government is doing its job, then your streets are clean and safe, your public parks and buildings are maintained and the like. Taxpayers should be able to expect that government is spending their hard-earned dollars on critical services that improve their health, safety and quality of life. Assembly bill 1250, authored by Assemblyman Reginald Byron Jones-Sawyer, D-Los Angeles, would severely limit a city or county from contracting for services with a private entity. The proposal encompasses virtually every service a city or county can contract for — services such as accounting, waste-hauling, park maintenance, street cleaning, wastewater treatment, legal services, drug treatment facilities, IT services, landscaping services and more. If this bill is passed, it will drive up cities’ and counties’ costs and add layers of complexity to contracting for services — so much so that agencies would have limited choices for contracting services, or would be forced to eliminate specific services altogether.
Let’s set aside for a moment the backroom tactics used to move this measure to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, which included replacing members on the first policy committee that heard it to ensure its passage. On its face, Mr. Jones-Sawyer’s bill proposes a bureaucratic web of vague, costly and onerous reporting requirements. For example, a potential contractor would be forced to disclose to a city or county the full names and salaries of its workers and subcontractors performing work like that provided under the potential contract, as well as the compensation information for its highest-paid executives. And a contractor would have to provide descriptions of all criminal, civil or local administrative agency charges, claims or complaints filed against the contractor in state and federal court for the past 10 years. Those are just a few items on the laundry list of requirements.
To top it off, the city or county would be forced to post this information on a fully searchable public database, bringing about significant privacy and safety concerns for private-sector contractors. It is unclear how the posting of private citizens’ personal information benefits the public.
Furthermore, AB1250 arbitrarily forces a prospective contractor to pay for a full cost-benefit analysis, including an environmental impact report, as well as an annual performance audit. These ongoing costs can range in the hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars depending on the scope of work being contracted. Moreover, the measure prohibits private contractors from offering a more competitive rate then their union competitors. The result of these unreasonable new requirements is plain as day: many vendors will be discouraged from bidding on projects. And that leaves agencies with a Hobson’s Choice of selecting from a very limited number of contractors or cutting the services provided to residents.
The Service Employees International Union, the chief sponsor behind this measure, claims AB1250 will provide needed transparency in local agency contracting. But how can true transparency be provided when the cost of contracts are artificially inflated? How can an agency make a fiscally-sound decision when it is prohibited from contracting based on salary and benefit cost-savings?
The truth is the proponents are attempting to leverage a democratic supermajority by hiding behind a veil of transparency to grow the ranks of its membership. Forcing private companies out of the market will only continue to drive up costs for local agencies at a time when they are bracing for a spike in retiree pension obligations. Public-private partnerships such as those under attack provide residents across California with highly-trained professionals who can serve the public without squandering your tax dollars. These partnerships reflect the ingenuity of all California cities and counties.
AB1250 currently resides in the Assembly’s Appropriations committee and can move to the Assembly floor for a full vote as early as May 30. Don’t buy what the proponents are trying to sell. Urge your state lawmaker to stop AB1250 by voting no.
Tracy Hernandez is founding chief executive of BizFed, a grassroots alliance of more than 160 business groups representing over 325,000 companies that employ over 3 million people in L.A. County.
Re: “Why the Newman recall is justified” [Opinion, May 13]: Jon Coupal’s attack on state Sen. Josh Newman goes to show how far political operatives from outside our district will go to thwart the will of local voters and turn Orange County into a political circus.
Coupal and his cronies want to force a costly recall election that won’t do anything to solve the real problems families are facing in our area, from the high cost of housing, to the hours long, white-knuckle commutes we endure getting to and from work and picking up our kids from school.
They would force the county to flush $2 to $3 million of our tax dollars into a recall election only six months after county voters already had their say in November. That’s money better spent on our kids’ schools and public safety. Voters can say no to this costly boondoggle by refusing to sign recall petitions being circulated by out-of-area paid signature gatherers who are selling our community’s future for $3.25 a signature.
— Jeff LeTourneau, Brea
Show me the money
Re: “Health care for all” [News, May 20]: I didn’t think anyone would ever top Gov. Brown’s $64 billion bullet train boondoggle. But, I was wrong. $400 billion for free health care. Sure, the article says some of the money would come from existing programs. But it also says some of that money would require Washington to waive some Medicaid and Medicare rules. Don’t hold your breath. Expect to pay for it. Even the $100 billion estimate would require a doubling of our tax revenue. Or, as the article points out, a 15 percent payroll tax increase. That would put California’s top tax bracket around 28 percent. Time to move to Texas.
— M. J. Knudsen, Trabuco Canyon
Can’t come soon enough
With its history of imagination and innovation, California seems destined to move forward with a state-sponsored single-payer health care system. If the good health of a citizenry is foundational to a wealthy, thriving society, the Golden State’s investment in a single-payer system of health care, which would provide medical insurance for all state residents, can’t come soon enough.
— Ben Miles, Huntington Beach
Who’ll build the tunnels?
Does Trump’s infrastructure plan include renovation of tunnels under the wall?
— Phil Silverman, Laguna Woods
WALK AND TALK: Italian fine jewelry house Buccellati is partnering with the Walkabout Foundation, which focuses on providing wheelchairs and rehabilitation to people in developing countries, to host a charity ladies lunch in London.
The event, called Women4Walkabout, will take place on June 16 at Claridge’s Hotel in Mayfair and aims to draw 300 influential women, including designers Mary Katrantzou, Emilia Wickstead, Eugenie Niarchos and Noor Fares. The guest of honor will be Charity Nana, a beneficiary of Walkabout who was given a wheelchair in her native Kenya.
Maria Cristina Buccellati, the house’s global head of communications and host committee member for Women4Walkabout, said the jeweler shares Walkabout’s “positive, constructive and concrete energy, which is inspiring for everyone involve.”
Tables cost 1,600 pounds, or $2,080, and all proceeds from the lunch will go toward the work of the foundation.
“Millions of people throughout the developing world suffer from mobility disabilities, and women and children in particular are often the most vulnerable and neglected,” said Carolina-Gonzalez Bunster, who founded the charity in 2009 with her brother Luis.
In 2015, the charity hosted a gala at the Natural History Museum alongside Bill Clinton, drawing the likes of Jenson Button, Natalia Vodianova and Naomie Harris.
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While his competition travels the globe for ever-more exotic pre-fall and cruise locations, Pierpaolo Piccioli is taking a different tack entirely. He has identified New York as Valentino’s second home away from home, after Paris, where the Rome-based house has long shown its couture and primary ready-to-wear collections.
For Piccioli, New York epitomizes cultural diversity at its most expansive and genuine, a concept he wants to capture, particularly in his pre-collections. Yet the collection Piccioli showed on Tuesday morning proved more than a sartorial civics class. It was a compelling ode to casual urbanity — chic, smart and glamorous in the most unfettered sense. As such, it offered a powerful statement of Piccioli’s intention to build the daywear side of the Valentino repertoire in a manner more pragmatic than that which meshes so seamlessly with the lyrical gowns he presents in March and October.
Yes, this collection has some pan-cultural currents, mostly in embroideries and knits that looked non-specifically tribal. But Piccioli’s primary point was to tackle head-on that which has become one of luxury’s greatest challenges: its customers’ increasingly casual lifestyles. He did so in a powerful street-sport-Valentino fusion. No easy trick, especially given the baseline of his work for the house:
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