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California’s budding YIMBY movement is up for a real test. Under a new pilot program approved this week, Los Angeles County homeowners are being asked to literally open up their backyards to the homeless. The county’s board of supervisors gave the green light to the The Granny Flats Motion project on Tuesday, which would give homeowners up to $75,000 to build a backyard home—if they agree to rent it to a homeless family or individual. (For those who already have a unit to offer, the county...

Fifty years ago, an MIT professor created a chatbot that simulated a psychotherapist. Named Eliza, it was able to trick some people into believing it was human. But it didn’t understand what it was told, nor did it have the capacity to learn on its own. The only test it had to pass was: Could it fool humans? These days, with robotics advancing to drive cars, beat humans at chess and Go!, and replace entire workforces, Eliza’s smoke and mirrors is child’s play. Researchers now build chatbots...

As violence erupted in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, with three killed and dozens injured at one of the largest white nationalist rallies in a decade, TV screens and newsfeeds across America were filled with images of chaos and terror. While politicians including Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Senator Dianne Feinstein reacted by condemning the attacks, calling for "hope and prayers for peace" and reminders that "violent acts of hate and bigotry have no place in America", parents...

A pilot program that pays some Los Angeles County homeowners to build a second dwelling on their property to house homeless people was approved with a 4-0 vote Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors. Homeowners in unincorporated communities who qualify can receive up to $75,000 to build a second dwelling in areas zoned for such structures, while others may get $50,000 to update and legalize an existing dwelling. The program was introduced last year as part of Los Angeles County's set of 47...

It's rare that a California lawmaker seeking a policy model to follow would turn to Kentucky. But with the Legislature on summer recess, that's precisely what Sen. Bob Hertzberg is doing. The mission: travel to the Bluegrass state to investigate how Kentucky gets its defendants awaiting trial to show up for court dates and keep them from committing crimes - all without locking them up. Civil rights advocates point to Kentucky as a shining example of reform, and Hertzberg, a Democrat who...

A farmers market opening Wednesday at the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital in the Willowbrook neighborhood of South Los Angeles is the first in the county to open on a hospital campus. The hospital serves over a million people in an area with the highest death rate related to diabetes in the county. It's also an "amputation hotspot" due to complications from untreated diabetes. The new farmers market is part of their efforts to knock this area off the list of L.A's "food deserts"...

Should LA County youth prisons close? That's how 61 percent of Los Angeles County residents surveyed feel about juvenile halls, according to the results of a statewide poll released Wednesday. Across the state, more than half of the 1,042 California residents in the survey said they supported prevention and rehabilitation programs for youth instead of juvenile halls. The survey was commissioned by the California Endowment and conducted online in June. In January, the Los Angeles County Board...

The L.A. County Board of Supervisors Tuesday voted to pursue an overhaul of the Office of the Public Guardian by looking for ways to bring down caseloads, improve the quality of services, and ensure those who qualify for public guardianship are getting adequate care. The move comes as the county embarks on a massive effort to address homelessness and cut the number of people ending up in jail because of untreated mental illness. At the moment, the office serves as a conservator for 2,700...

A new front in Los Angeles County's battle against homelessness was launched today with an innovative program aimed at encouraging cities across the region to join forces more strongly in confronting this escalating humanitarian crisis. The county and the Home for Good Funders Collaborative - a joint initiative of United Way of Greater Los Angeles are calling on cities to submit plans that would serve as a blueprint to combat homelessness both locally and regionally. If approved by the...

A $14.5 million project that will expand mental health services in the San Fernando Valley was approved unanimously Tuesday by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. The proposed new building will include outpatient mental health services, mostly for children, a waiting area, reception area, business offices, counseling/therapy rooms, and group therapy rooms, among other spaces. " The San Fernando Mental Health Center project will enhance the County's ability to provide mental health...

Los Angeles lawmakers are pushing for city contractors to reveal whether they are helping to build a wall along the Mexican border , arguing that Angelenos deserve to know if firms are working on the polarizing project. At a Tuesday meeting, the City Council voted to draft a law that would require companies seeking or doing business with the city to disclose whether they have contracts to help design, build or provide supplies for "any proposed border wall between Mexico and the United...

To See the Conference Agenda, List of All-Star Speakers, and To Register Click Here Why Should Californians Attend This Unique Conference ? From high levels of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), to job and financial struggles, racism and other forms of inequity and injustice, traumatic stress is epidemic today. Climate change will aggravate all of these existing adversities, and add many new ones as well. Yet, California is leading the U.S. in finding innovative new ways to address...