That’s Odd

som signed into law last week a bill returning a beachfront property known as “Bruce’s Beach” to the descendants of a Black family who owned it. The bill includes a provision allowing Los Angeles County to begin an immediate land transfer back to the family.

The Black owners were run out by white residents and city officials nearly a century ago.

According to the Los Angles Times, Newsom signed the bill at the location in the City of Manhattan Beach, alongside family members of Willa and Charles Bruce, who had originally owned a popular beachside hotel.

The land is still being evaluated by officials, but it is estimated to be worth between $35-$75 million.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Willa and Charles Bruce purchased two lots of beachside land in 1912 for $1,225. Willa used the land to run a resort, while Charles worked as a train dining car chef. The resort included a café and dance hall and was popular among the Black community and Black beachgoers.

However, White residents threatened Willa and her guests, and the Ku Klux Klan allegedly destroyed property, as well as homes of nearby Black families. By 1924, city officials intervened, seizing the land and saying it was needed for a public park. The land then sat empty, and in 1948 it was transferred to the state.

At the ceremony on Thursday, Newsom said, “As Governor of California, let me do what apparently Manhattan Beach is unwilling to do: I want to apologize to the Bruce family. What we’re doing here today can be done and replicated anywhere else. There’s an old adage: Once a mind is stretched, it never goes back to its original form.”

Anthony Bruce, a descendant of the Bruces, said, “We do thank G-d, because this is something that we’ve been praying for, for decades. Hopefully this is the start of a new beginning for us.”

Oil Spill Permeates the Pacific

An oil pipeline breach approximately five miles off the coast of Huntington Beach in California has caused 3,000 barrels’ worth of oil to rush into the Pacific Ocean, according to Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley.

Foley noted, “We’ve started to find dead birds and fish washing up on the shore.”

She added, “The oil has infiltrated the entirety of the (Talbert) Wetlands. There’s significant impacts to wildlife there. These are wetlands that we’ve been working with the Army Corps of Engineers, with the Land Trust, with all the community wildlife partners to make sure to create this beautiful, natural habitat for decades. And now in just a day, it’s completely destroyed.”

At the same time, Foley emphasized, “Please don’t go down and try to help. We’re not taking volunteers yet. If you do see oiled wildlife call 1-877-823-6926. That’s the best way to help.”

Approximately 1,218 gallons of oily water mixture have been recovered from the site of the spill, the United States Coast Guard (USCG) said in a statement. According to Huntington Beach Mayor Kim Carr, approximately 126,000 gallons of post-production crude oil was spilled in what is a “potential ecological disaster.”

“This response is currently a 24/7 operation and response efforts are scheduled to continue until federal and state officials determine that the response to the crude oil spill is complete,” the USCG statement added.

The pipeline is owned by Amplify Energy. President and CEO Martyn Willsher said at a Sunday afternoon news conference that the company is “fully committed to being out here until this incident is fully concluded” and is working with various local, state, and federal agencies on recovery efforts.

He emphasized, “Our employees live and work in these communities, and we’re all deeply impacted and concerned about the impact on not just the environment, but the fish and wildlife as well. We will do everything in our power to ensure that this is recovered as quickly as possible, and we won’t be done until this is concluded.”

“The leak has not been completely stopped,” the city of Huntington Beach said in a Sunday press release. “Currently, the oil slick plume measures an estimated 5.8 nautical miles long, and runs from the Huntington Beach Pier down into Newport Beach.”

SCOTUS: No Rep. for D.C.

The Supreme Court on Monday ruled against an effort to grant Washington, D.C., residents a voting member in the House of Representatives. The ruling affirms a lower court’s ruling against the suit.

In a brief earlier this year, 11 Washingtonians said that “residents of the District of Columbia are the only adult American citizens subject to federal income taxes who lack voting representation in Congress, except for felons in some states.”

The argument had been rejected last year, based on a similar case from 2000 in which a federal court said that the Constitution requires House members to be chosen “by the people of the several states.” Washington, D.C., is not a state, the judges said.

The Court also threw out a claim comparing D.C. residents to military voters stationed overseas, on the grounds that it was not relevant to the suit.

Fat Bear Week

We may all be feeling a bit like we’re ready to start hibernating after all that challah we consumed over the past few weeks. In Alaska, and around the world, bears are preparing for a long winter – and that means that they’re gorging on salmon, berries, and veggies.

Of course, who can’t resist an adorable bear delicately nibbling on leaves on a tree? And so, the folks in Alaska in charge of Katmai National Park and Preserve have created a contest to determine which bear is the cutest and roundest in the park.

Fans can vote on their favorite bear online during Fat Bear Week, which ended on October 5. On the website, voters were able to view photos of their bears along with their winter weight.

Last year, the Fat Bear Week web page had 1.6 million visits, with about 650,000 people actually participating in the voting. The event began in 2014, when it was just a one-day event.

“Fat Bear Week gives us a chance to have a little fun,” Candice Rusch, spokesperson for Explore.org, noted. “It lets us celebrate the fact that the salmon run was healthy enough to get the bears (to) their peak fat state. And who doesn’t love how adorable the bears are as they round out in the fall?”

Images of Winnie the Pooh and Paddington are popular characters for kids and adults.

“When you look at how much weight bears need to gain to survive six months of famine, you can’t help but cheer them on. People love bears and they love a good competition,” said Amber Kraft, interpretation and education program manager at the Katmai National Park and Preserve. “For us, we are happy to share because fat bears exemplify the richness of Katmai National Park and Bristol Bay, Alaska.”

The park, in the southwest corner of Alaska, is home to approximately 2,200 bears, according to a survey done in 2004. In 2020, there were more than 90 individual bears, not including cubs, along the Brooks River, the 1.5-mile waterway where the salmon run. When preparing for hibernation, a dominant adult male might catch and eat more than 30 fish a day, and by the end of the fall, they can weigh over 1,000 pounds.

Pass me the honey pot, Piglet.