Sultry Is The Official Forecast For Malibu, As Storms May Hit Over 3 Next Days

At 4am today, it was 80 degrees at the top of Kanan Road.  79 degrees at Pepperdine. 

“For the next three days, Southern California is going to feel like Florida West” says the NWS Oxnard weather summary.

Moisture from the remnants of Tropical Storm Mario is moving into the forecast area. 

There is already one band of thunderstorms in the outer waters to the southwest of Pt Conception.

The chance for showers will increase through the day today but most of the shower and thunderstorm activity will remain over the waters. 

The chance of showers: 20 percent early this evening,  40 percent by dawn on Thursday, 65 percent later in the day tomorrow.. Showers may be accompanied by thunderstorms. 

Almost all areas can expect rain at some point during the day. Most people will at least hear thunder, if not experience a thunderstorm as well. 

This will not be a continuous rain event but rather a day with periods of showers or thunderstorms, and periods of muggy weather with no rain. 

Rainfall amounts will be the hardest part of this forecast. Amounts will be highly variable due to the showery nature of this system. 

The current forecast calls for most of LA and Ventura counties to receive a half inch of rain with local three quarter inch amounts. Some mountain  areas could see upwards of an inch. 

These numbers are general numbers and there will very likely be outliers some area may only see a tenth of an inch but other areas could see up to 2 inches of rain if a strong shower or thunderstorm moves over the area.

50 Meters Is Not Needed By The Malibu High Coaches and Kids, Committee Affirms 

The facilities committee at Malibu High School is pressing ahead with plans for a 40 meter pool at the new campus … disappointing a group of regular swimmers who really want Malibu to have a 50 meter pool.

The committee members said building the bigger pool would cost at least an extra 3-point-3 million dollars that is not in the budget … and spending the money on the pool might jeopardize plans to build a fine arts center and auditorium in two years. 

Plus … additional increased maintenance costs would really hurt the proposed Malibu school District … to be carved away from Santa Monica. 

The move clearly disappointed hard core swimmers … who use the school district’s pool because the city does not have one. 

Former Malibu school board member Craig Foster sits on the district facilities advisory committee – which the Santa Monica school board has set up to direct spending at the 395 million dollar Malibu bond project.

He pointed out that the School’s coaches say they do not need a 50 meter pool.

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“Everyone is saying, ‘this is what’s good for the kids.’

“There may be one kid who might just benefit from this, but we can’t build a whole pool around one kid.

“Because there might be one kid in the sciences, there might be one kid in the auditorium. 

“We have got to a balance the whole thing.

“So, I don’t think we have any reason to redo the decisions we have made, because when we check our math, it’s the same math.”

Although Santa Monica has a pool that is 50 meters long … coaches there say the 50 meter lane alignment is never used … 

Instead swimmers there always go crosswise in the 40 meter width direction.  The 50 meter pool is important to Santa Monica because they have seven times the population … and can squeeze in more people in the pool at any one time. 

But they are always swimming in 40 meter lanes. 

The PE teachers and coaches at Malibu High say there is no academic or interscholastic need for 50 meter lanes. 

As for the current high school pool … it is 35 years old … leaky … and the filters and pumps may give out at any time. 

It also serves as the Malibu municipal pool … because in its 34 years of its existence … the City of Malibu has never been able to come up with a plan to build a city pool.

Several Malibu residents attended yesterday and said the district cannot make a mistake it will regret in the future … by building a pool that is 80 percent the size of a full OIympic pool. 

The bottom line was that while the 50 meter pool is important to some members of the community … it is not that important to the teachers and students at the school.

And the school district walks a delicate balance here … according to school board member Stacey Rouse.

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“We have really kept our eyes on what’s important and what our purview is.

“And I just want to say again: our purview is the school district and our public schools.

“And that is the number one main focus.

“Right under that is the community – it underlies everything we do because we care about that deeply and we know the community funds and says yes to these bonds.” 

At its meeting yesterday … the district facilities advisory committee did not make any formal moves on increasing the size of the pool.

It told the 50 meter advocates that ti would be up to an outside agency ,.. maybe the city … maybe the college district … to come up with money for the bigger pool.

They’ve been saying hats for years.

But revising plans at this late stage in the planning process would delay the opening one or two years.

And it might drag the project back before there Coastal Commission … a two year delay to get permits for the required earthmoving into a hillside to make room.

The pool can’t be moved towards other buildings because of fire department access rules.

Bottom line … the pool will be 40 meters … it should open in two years.

Idiot Who Crashed Drone Into Superscoopers During Fire Gets Short Prison Term

A Culver City man who put Malibu lives in danger during the Palisades Fire will spend s short time in federal prison.

Peter Tripp Akemann …. 57 … admitted operating a flying drone that crashed into and damaged a Super Scooper firefighting aircraft … as it lined up to dump water over the fire last January.

On Jan. 9, Akemann drove to the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica and parked on the top floor of a parking structure, where he launched the drone.

He lost sight of the drone after flying it more than 1.5 miles toward the blaze. 

It collided with the Super Scooper and ripped an approximately 3-by-6-inch hole in the aircraft’s left wing.

It and its sister super scooper had to be grounded just as the Palisades fire was destroying 68b hundred homes and killing 13 people on the eastern end of Malibu. 

The drone wreckage got stuck in the wing … and was traced back to Akemann.

He was sentenced to serve 14 days in federal prison, followed by 30 days’ home detention. 

He was also ordered to pay about $156,000 in restitution and fines, prosecutors said.

Malibu License Plate Data Will Not Go To ICE, Supes Say

The City of Malibu several years ago thought it would be a good idea to put up automatic license plate readers in the city.

The data goes to the LA County sheriff’s Malibu-Lost Hills station.

But now … there is worry that license plate data from Malibu and other cities might up int he hands of ICE … the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

Yesterday … the LA County Board of Supervisors enacted a rule that bans the sheriff from sharing license plate data with immigration officials except when “expressly required” by law or if they have a warrant.

There’s already a state law against that.

But Los Angeles police and other cops have been accused of routinely flouting that state law by sharing license plate data with federal agents. 

A recent report from an anti-surveillance group called Oakland Privacy showed more than 100 instances in a single month when local police queried databases for federal agencies.

In Washington … an ICE assistant director blasted what she called “sanctuary politicians’ efforts to stop the Sheriff’s Department from cooperating with ICE.”

She called that reckless and said it would not deter ICE from enforcing the law.

Ben Allen Runs For Statewide Office: Insurance Commissioner

Malibu’s state senator is going to try to replace the elected Insurance Commissioner. 

Ben Allen announced yesterday that he wants to replace fellow democrat Ricardo Lara … who is termed out.

Allen has bene sharply critical of Lara over his handling of the loss claims filed by victims of the Palisades and Eaton fires.

68 hundred houses were lost in the Palisades fire … with 700 of those lost in Malibu.

He calls that a defining moment in his political life.

Since the fire, Allen helped secure funding to rebuild critical local infrastructure and landmarks and “wrote legislation to assist mobile home park residents who lost everything.”

He also “supported efforts to establish home hardening standards to help residents better protect their homes from future fires and reduce liabilities for the insurance market.”

Allen says the role of Insurance Commissioner is incredibly difficult, and faces major headwinds. 

“For so many Californians, insurance is too expensive and inaccessible,” Allen said.

Allen is termed out … and can’t run for re-election as a senator.

He started his political career on the Santa Monica Malibu school board .. and was elected too there senate in 2014 … when incumbent Ted Lieu vacated the seat to run for Congress. 

Created in 1868, the Department has 1,400 employees who oversee more than 1,600 insurance companies and license more than 495,000 agents, brokers, adjusters, bail agents and business entities, according to the department’s website.

Santa Barbara Oil Platforms And Leaky Pipeline Restart Set Back

There’s a new setback for an oil company in its efforts to restart an oil pipeline shuttered by a major oil spill off the Santa Barbara County coast.

A judge this week denied the company’s efforts to order Santa Barbara County to approve its takeover of ownership permits for the pipeline and three oil platforms.

Sable Offshore Corporation says it’s repaired the pipeline that ruptured on the Gaviota Coast in 2015, causing a more than 140,000-gallon oil spill 75 miles up the coast from Malibu.

Restarting the pipeline would allow oil production to resume on three offshore oil platforms near Santa Barbara.

ExxonMobil unloaded the creaky old pipeline and deteriorating oil platforms several years ago … onto the much smaller oil company.

Earlier this year … Santa Barbara County Supervisors failed to approve the transfer of the related operating permits.

Sable went to court. Now, a judge refused the company’s request for an immediate transfer of the permits.

She ordered the Board of Supervisors to revisit the issue at a public hearing within 60 days. The judge said if the board deadlocks again, it must hold a third hearing.

Sable said in financial documents that it expects to restart operations by the end of the year. But, in addition to various legal challenges.

And the governor has on his desk a proposed law that would require the oil company to go to the Coastal Commission for permits … a step that will delay the oil drilling for years… If not, kill it completely.

LAPD Fired 1000+ Projections Against Anti-Trump Demonstrators In One Day

Los Angeles police officers fired more than 1,000 projectiles at protesters on a single day in June … according to amendatory state report filed yestedfsay.

The demonstrators were pushing back against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and decision to deploy the National Guard to the nation’s second largest city.

The Associated Press got a copy of theLAPD report. 

On June 8, police fired 1,040 projectiles at about 6,000 people, including 20 rounds of CS gas, a type of tear gas. 

Bean bags, rubber and foam rounds, and tear gas were shot at people in the street … and reporters covering the news … that day. 

Six injuries were hurt and injured.

The report was concerning to Josh Parker, deputy director of policy at the New York University School of Law Policing Project.

He told the AP… “if that’s how you police a protest, then you’re policing it wrong.” 

Pacific Is 3.4 Degrees F Warmer This Year

Getting back to the weather.

Today’s hot weather is just that .. weather.  

And that is related to … but not the same thing … as climate.

It’s been hot here before … but take a look at the changing climate.

One meteorologist says it is hard to overstate just how off the charts warm the Pacific Ocean is right now. 

From California to Japan … the ocean is about 3 point 4 degrees Fahrenheit above normal. 

And the this simply could never happen without global warming.

Since the last El Nino a couple of years ago the ocean has been rearranging its warm/cool water, as it typically does as a normal part of it’s natural oscillation. 

This summer a record ridge/ heat dome was parked over the N Pacific).

But each next time this configuration lines up it piles on a higher and higher baseline temperature over time due to greenhouse warming, air pollution reduction, and the feedbacks (clouds & direct insolation) of both. 

The departure from normal is sloping upward at a very unnatural and alarming rate.