2018 was no stranger to images — moving, captivating, intriguing — that caused you to pause and reflect. Wildfires, immigration, homelessness, a mass shooting and a super blue blood moon eclipse were among events that dominated the headlines. Here’s a look, in pictures, at the year gone by.
Homelessness
Two years after Los Angeles voters approved a proposition to build housing for the chronically homeless, eight projects had broken ground. But not one was completed by the end of 2018.
Still, local tax money aimed at mitigating the crisis began to flow in earnest in 2018, with $442 million for housing, and $177 million for services. An additional $400 million is coming by the middle of 2019.
Rising rents made the problem more dire, however, pushing thousands of people into homelessness. Mayor
The project’s first shelter opened in downtown’s El Pueblo district. Other sites were approved, but some plans were met with protests by local residents, who didn’t want the shelters near schools, homes and businesses.
In Orange County, meanwhile, hundreds of homeless people were evicted in January from the riverbed next to Angels Stadium, setting off a legal showdown with a federal judge, David O. Carter.
Displaced people were put up in motel rooms, paid for by the county. The cities of Anaheim, Tustin and Santa Ana agreed to open shelters.
Immigration
Nearly every morning, a pseudo-dystopian scene unfolds just steps away from America’s gates.
At the San Ysidro Port of Entry in Tijuana, someone reads aloud from a mysterious, unsanctioned notebook filled with the names of thousands of people from across the globe. Each of them — including the various guardians of the notebook — is waiting his or her turn to give themselves up to United States immigration officials to ask for refuge.
They are trying to enter the country legally. But the process is slow, and immigration officials say they can’t keep up with the flow. Most days anywhere from 40 to 100 people are allowed to enter this particular port to make their plea for asylum while thousands who are living in miserable conditions wait in shelters and makeshift camps for their turn. Many linger in Tijuana for as long as a month before their names are read. The process has led to a humanitarian crisis at America’s doorstep.
In the meantime, President Trump’s order to limit asylum only to foreigners who cross at official points of entry — the Immigration and Naturalization Act says any foreigner who has arrived in the U.S. may apply for asylum “whether or not at a designated port of arrival” — has been blocked in the federal courts.
Wildfires
That made it one of the most destructive fires in Southern California history, although it was nowhere near the 14,000 homes lost in the Camp fire in Butte County.
The Woolsey fire scorched more than 96,000 acres and left three people dead before it was fully contained on Thanksgiving Day, fire officials said.
Mass shootings
Tragedy struck Thousand Oaks on Nov. 7 when a gunman opened fire at the Borderline Bar and Grill, which was packed with college kids. Twelve people were killed, including Ventura County Sheriff’s Sgt. Ron Helus, one of the first officers to reach the country music bar.
The national conversation on gun control and school safety reached new levels when, first, 17 people were killed in a Feb. 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., and then 10 more on May 18 at Santa Fe High School outside Houston. In both cases, the alleged shooters had armed themselves with legal weapons.
Sports
Los Angeles is a city of stars. LeBron James is the biggest star in the
It’s difficult to tell if it’s worse to be eliminated in Game 7 of the
When you pay $23.3 million for a high-profile new coach, losing the first game of the year to an American Athletic Conference team is not what you expect. But that’s what happened when Cincinnati beat the Chip Kelly-coached Bruins, 26-17. UCLA went on to lose its next four games and finished the season 3-9, its worst record since 1971. Things weren’t all bad, though — the Bruins pulled off an upset of the equally struggling USC Trojans, 34-27.
Clayton Kershaw, long the Dodgers’ best pitcher during the regular season, decided not to become a free agent, staying with the team he has played with during all of his 11 major league seasons. His incentive was $93 million over three years. Kershaw isn’t as dominating as he once was and has been dogged, by his standards, with subpar performances in the postseason. Still, he is the scraggly bearded face of the Dodgers, despite too many trips to the disabled list. He has won the
The last time USC’s football team had a losing season was 2000, and coach Paul Hackett was fired. This year USC finished 5-7, and athletic director Lynn Swann said coach Clay Helton was coming back. The Trojans got off to an acceptable 4-2 start, but then came two losses in a row, followed by a win and then a disastrous streak of three defeats, including losses to two of its biggest rivals, UCLA and Notre Dame. The Bruins were 2-8 when they beat the Trojans.
Source: latimes.com – Los Angeles Times