Los Angeles Touring

A rare mixed-use development is in the works for South Pasadena.

The project site, located at 1105-1115 Mission Street, is currently developed with three commercial buildings, one of which is listed among the historic resources of the City of South Pasadena.  Plans call for retaining and reusing the two-story brick structure, while razing the other two buildings to make way for the construction of a new three-story edifice.  A full buildout of the project would create 36 one- and two-bedroom condominiums with 7,335 square feet of street-fronting commercial space and parking for 114 vehicles.

South Pasadena-based architecture firm Workshop Design Collective is designing the project, which is dubbed Mission Bell.  Conceptual renderings show a contemporary low-rise structure, clad with brick and featuring upper-level setbacks to create terraces.

The City of South Pasadena is currently in the process of conducting an environmental study for the proposed development.  A timeline has not been announced.

Although the name of the proposed development is not listed, property records list the owner of the roughly 31,000-square-foot site as an entity called Mission Bell Properties, LLC, which is connected to Andrew and Peggy Cherng, founders of the Panda Express restaurant chain.

The Mission Bell project comes two years after the completion of a similarly-scaled condo development nearby at 820 Mission Street.

Broadcasting icon Ralph Lawler will retire as the voice of the Los Angeles Clippers following the 2018-19 season.

"My wife Jo and I have grappled with this decision annually for 15 years," Lawler said in a statement on Wednesday. "I now realize that I have spent half of my 80 years as a part of this team. The Clippers are a big part of my life's DNA. Yet, it is important that we have some 'life after basketball.'

"The current ownership and management team has been so supportive, and we are forever grateful for our years with the Clippers. I cannot express how much I appreciate the fans. I am looking forward to thanking as many of them as possible in person during this final season."

Lawler, 80, has been with the Clippers since the franchise moved from Buffalo to San Diego in 1978. Over the ensuing decades, Lawler has become one of the most revered broadcasters in basketball and distinguished himself as an ambassador for the game. 

More than anything, Lawler will likely be remembered for his signature calls on the mic, including "Oh me, oh my," which he broke out on several occasions during Blake Griffin's tenure in Southern California to punctuate a handful of tenacious dunks. 

Lawler was also known for exclaiming, "Bingo!" on made three-pointers and established Lawler's Law, which states that the first team to hit 100 points tends to win a game. 

According to Lawler's Law tracker, that theory has been right 93.4 percent of the time dating back to the start of the 1996-97 season. 

"Ralph Lawler isn't just the voice of the team, he has been the heart and soul of the Clippers," Clippers owner Steve Ballmer said. "Ralph has lived every single moment with this team and been an essential connection between us and our fans, who rightfully adore him. We will treasure every moment with Ralph and his wife Jo this season, and miss him incredibly next year."

The one word never associated with the Lakers: boring.

On and off the floor, the Lakers keep it interesting, from unique skill sets and backgrounds to off-court chemistry and the latest kicks.

Here’s a quick run-through of another week with the Lake Show.

1) Kyle Kuzma: Master of the Mystic Shots
Since he first stepped on an NBA court, Kyle Kuzma has busied himself by filling his highlight tape with high-difficulty shots.

That ability was on full display this week, including when he beat the shot clock in Houston with a twisting, 30-foot triple while falling to the floor.

And it also won him some dough from Ivica Zubac, who placed a bet on a half-court shot that Kuzma promptly swished. (He wants that money in singles, by the way.)

But his best of the week is probably his “Kuzmamba Mode” shot from behind the backboard in Memphis. Kuz went ahead and texted the clip to the godfather of tough shots: Kobe Bryant.

“Made sure he saw that,” Kuzma said with a grin. “He just laughed.”

2) The day the country met LeBron
Wednesday was the 16th anniversary of the day that a high schooler named LeBron James played his first game on national TV.

The unprecedented expectations were on full display during the opening of the broadcast, including references to Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant.

The 17-year-old led St. Vincent-St. Mary High to victory over the nation’s top-ranked team, and delivered a walk-off interview to remember — from the wise-beyond-his-years answers to the foreshadowing of his NBA headband to his mother’s custom “LeBron’s Mom” jersey.

LeBron may not be a teenager anymore (no matter what the Spurs say), but he’s still just a kid from Akron.

3) Bron Targeting the Big
Iso ball gets a bad rap, but not the way the Lakers play it.

The purple and gold rank sixth in the NBA in both isolation scoring (9.2) and efficiency (0.97 points per possession). While Brandon Ingram and Kuzma have been key contributors in this area, LeBron is among the league’s best one-on-one.

The four-time MVP has averaged the fourth-most isolation points (4.6) and is also fourth in efficiency (1.06 ppp) among the 28 players with at least 60 iso possessions.

LeBron torched Houston’s switch-heavy defense with his isolation prowess by constantly getting center Clint Capela to match up against him.

James flambéed that matchup, providing six buckets with an assist when guarded by Capela.

4) Space Jam Lance
Lance Stephenson wasn’t afraid to show his sense of humor following an ill-fated dunk attempt in Memphis.

While he failed to posterize Marc Gasol, he did win on Instagram, jokingly comparing his flight to Michael Jordan’s half-court dunk at the end of “Space Jam.”

(And hey maybe he does have a point about #thisisafoul considering Gasol’s feet inside the restricted area.)

Besides, years from now his family will never know the difference if he takes some advice from LeBron, who commented to “Tell your kids and grandkids when they are older that u made this one.”

5) The Andre Ingram legend continues
Is there a better story in basketball than that of Andre Ingram — the 10-year G League veteran who finally got his shot in the NBA last year and shined for the Lakers?

Well, Andre isn’t done. This year, he returned to the South Bay Lakers and has already provided another memorable moment.

Down by one against Santa Cruz, Ingram capped his 24-point night by sinking a floater with 1.5 seconds left to deliver victory.

The 33-year-old’s teammates showed their appreciation after the game, drenching Ingram with a water-bottle celebration.

Source: https://www.nba.com/lakers/news/181214-fast-break-points-quick-hits-lakers-week

Pasadena-based Axial Biotherapeutics, which is developing treatments for neurological diseases, said yesterday that it has named Jeffrey Young as its first Chief Financial Officer (CFO), and appointed Dennis Yamashita, Ph.D., as Vice President, Medicinal Chemistry. Young was most recently CFO, Treasurer, and Secretary at Juniper Pharmaceuticals, and also served at OvaScience, Transmedics, Lantheus Medical Imaging, Critical Therapeutics, PerkinElmer, and PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP. Yamashita was most recently VP Drug Discovery of ORIC (Overcoming Resistance in Cancer), and also had served at GSK and Trevena.

While using food stamps to purchase vegetables at a farmers market may seem like a simple exchange, it depends on complex government contracting requirements and increasingly sophisticated technology.

A change this year in federal contracts has left some farmers market operators and advocates nervous. A company that has long provided the technology to 1,700 farmers markets across the country that accept Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Payments (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, says it is pulling out of the business. And that could jeopardize recipients' access to fresh food.

Earlier this year, federal officials picked a new contractor to provide equipment to help expand the number of markets that handle SNAP transactions. That contractor, when choosing the companies it would work with, did not include the Novo Dia Group, whose Mobil Market+ app is popular with many markets. After that, Novo Dia announced it would no longer provide its service, even to existing clients, after July of this year.

The announcement, which came at the height of the market season, took many by surprise and set off an urgent scramble to avoid a disruption in service. The National Association of Farmers' Market Nutrition Programs stepped in to fund the processing platform's operations through August, and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo later announced a short-term agreement with the company to provide service nationally through the end of February.

What happens next is unclear.

The change was part of a competitive contracting process, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which both promotes American farmers markets and oversees the federal SNAP program. Every few years, USDA's Food and Nutrition Service selects a firm to manage the wireless processing equipment program for farmers markets and farmers who want to begin accepting SNAP benefits. In March of this year, it selected Financial Transaction Management of Reston, Va.

The Farmers Market Coalition, the previous contractor, had offered equipment to markets through three providers, including Novo Dia, an early and leading provider of SNAP processing technology. Novo Dia first received USDA approval to process SNAP benefits in 2012.

The new contractor opted not to work with Novo Dia. When choosing equipment options, Financial Transaction Management says it focused on cost effectiveness and compliance with standards that protect farmers markets from liability in the event of a data breach, according to CEO Angela Sparrow by email.

The decision seemed to catch many by surprise.

"It did throw Novo Dia into a tailspin," says Diane Eggert, executive director of the Farmers Market Federation of New York, who helped put the stopgap funding for the company in place and is seeking a long-term solution.

Novo Dia didn't respond to a request for comment, but told The Food and Environment Reporting Network this summer that without new customers coming from the federal contract, it couldn't remain financially viable.

For some farmers, SNAP customers are an important part of their market business, and they don't want to turn customers away.

"I think it would be noticed if it went away," says Anita Amsler, whose family sells produce and eggs from their Oldhome Farm at the Rochester Public Market in Rochester, N.Y., year-round. She says SNAP customers make up a "good-sized portion" of her business.

Meanwhile, some advocates see the current situation as an opportunity to improve the long-term prospects for the acceptance of SNAP and other nutrition benefits at farmers' markets.

"A crisis is a terrible thing to waste," says David Sandman, president and CEO of the New York State Health Foundation, who has written about the recent SNAP processing problems. He says his organization and others are interested in options for continuing to make the Nova Dia app available nationally through a public-private partnership. That way, markets and states that provide support won't have to pay for new equipment and technology and access to fresh foods will be less likely to be interrupted.

Improving access to fresh food has long been a goal of the Food and Nutrition Service. It champions farmers markets as an important way to provide people with nutritious food while also supporting farmers. And SNAP has boosted sales at the markets. SNAP benefit redemptions by farmers and markets grew by more than a third from 2012 to 2017, to a total of $22.4 million, according to USDA.

The markets are growing popular with SNAP recipients because they are "important touchstones and places for people to access their food the way other consumers do," says Ellen Vollinger, legal director at the Food Research & Action Center, an advocacy group that works to reduce hunger among the poor. She is concerned a change will jeopardize their access.

Novo Dia's Mobile Market+ app works with a smartphone to enable farmers markets to process SNAP benefits. It enhances markets' ability to track sales and receive technology updates, Eggert says. And it's compatible with Apple and Android phones.

The equipment provided by the new contractor is a standard wireless point-of-sale device that uses older, outdated technology, critics say — not a mobile phone.

For its part, Financial Transaction Management is moving forward. It is processing applications from farmers markets for its equipment. As of Sept. 24, 140 applications were in the review-and-approval process, and 46 pieces of equipment had shipped, according to USDA officials.

USDA's Food and Nutrition Service says it is interested in modernizing its approach. It wants to employ a "bring your own device" model for the market operators who want to begin processing SNAP in which "markets and farmers would use a smartphone and FNS would facilitate provision of [an] app," officials said. To that end, the USDA is testing a mobile application and encryption device that could be used with a smartphone to accept SNAP benefits.

The new app, which will require a separate PIN-encryption device, is "not as streamlined" as the Novo Dia app, according to USDA officials. Still, "this is an option that could provide additional flexibility for farmers and markets while also reducing cost to the federal government."

That option may be available by year's end.

But the current upheaval has sown uncertainty among many farmers markets about their ability to handle SNAP transactions next year.

Last year, the Rochester Public Market alone processed more than $800,000 in SNAP benefits and $300,000 in additional incentives for SNAP recipients, says Margaret O'Neill, program director for Friends of the Rochester Public Market, a nonprofit that runs the market's SNAP program. She says she has tried to reassure her vendors and customers that a solution will be found: "It's a huge market for us."

Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a nonprofit news service covering health issues. It is an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation that is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

Source: https://www.scpr.org/news/2018/11/05/86950/technical-difficulties-may-jeopardize-food-stamps/

Major clothing and footwear brands are failing to tackle the exploitation of vulnerable workers in their supply chains, according to a new report by Know The Chain. The benchmark test - which measured 43 global companies’ efforts to address forced labour - gave the apparel and footwear sector an overall average score of 37 out of 100.

Adidas (92/100) came top of the list with the best average score, followed closely by Lululemon (89/100) and Gap Inc. (75/100). At the other end of the scale, luxury brands Prada (5/100), Salvatore Ferragamo (13/100), and LVMH (14/100), and footwear brands Skechers (7/100) and Foot Locker (12/100) all fared poorly.

The report also found that 18 companies scored zero out of 100 on recruitment, which measured a company's approach to reducing the risk of worker exploitation by recruitment agencies.

While the 2018 benchmark showed improvement from Know The Chain's previous 2016 benchmark, the majority of companies still scored poorly with more than two-thirds of companies scoring below 50/100.

According to Know The Chain, while the apparel and footwear sector is increasingly reliant on migrant labor, industry-wide progress is still lacking on key issues such as responsible recruitment - one of the areas with the most direct impact on vulnerable workers' lives.

The company also highlighted the fact that, despite ever-growing public scrutiny, companies are still underpaying workers, and some are cutting them off from their homes or families. “Compounding the issue, workers are often charged exorbitant recruitment fees that they can never repay, further trapping them in debt bondage and forced labor,” Know the Chain said in the report.

Kilian Moote, Know The Chain project director, added: "No one should have to pay for their job,"We need to see stronger action from apparel and footwear brands to ensure vulnerable workers are recruited ethically and that their voices and grievances are heard across all their supply chains.

"A single pair of shoes made from rubber, leather, metal, and cotton may have passed through dozens of hands that belong to victims of forced labor.

"All apparel and footwear brands are at risk of forced labor and it's concerning to see the industry is still not doing enough to protect vulnerable workers around the world."

Photo credit: Pexels, Alex Andrews

As if 2018 didn’t already offer enough reasons to panic, here comes another one: Taco Lita is out of taco sauce. The longstanding Arcadia hard-shelled taco stand has legions of fans all across America, many of whom swear by the roadside restaurant’s signature sauce. It’s slightly sweet, slightly spicy, very addicting — and totally gone.

Pasadena Star News is all over the mysterious taco sauce disappearance, saying the issue is due to a supplier screw-up. Apparently the unnamed company that produces the packeted taco sauce for Taco Lita made a bad batch of the stuff, and is now struggling to make the order right. That means there’s no official timetable for exactly when the coveted packets will return — though the report indicates it could be simply a “matter of weeks” — and it’s throwing fans into an outright panic. One customer, who currently lives in Nebraska but has fond memories of eating Taco Lita growing up, tells the Star News that he’s got around 100 packets as back-up, and he’s ready to weather the shortage. Others are not so lucky.

While a little bit of missing taco sauce may seem like a silly thing to trifle over, Taco Lita’s version is particularly beloved. Most of the restaurant’s Yelp photos proudly show off the packets, and occasionally they even get resold on Ebay. The recent shortage has even caused a fake Twitter account for the taco sauce to spring up.

It’s also important to consider greater LA’s enduring taco stand history. Places like Taco Lita, founded in 1967, are as much cultural markers as they are local fast food stop. There was an outpouring of support when Taco Lita owner David Muniz-Harryman died back in 2016, while down in Orange County fans are still cheering the return of bygone taco chain Naugles. Hopefully the missing sauce makes a comeback soon.

Taco Lita. 120 E. Duarte Rd., Arcadia, CA.