jfc, no cap on construction and renovation costs? get a taxpayer check, renovate or build your ballpark with someone else’s money, then turn around and deduct the expense from “baseball revenue” if you’re a fan, and you’re on the side of the owners, you’re a fucking dope
your buddy Craig who works at 7-11 and is high all the time@cdgoldstein.baseballprospectus.com · last wk.lol
Cost of living is 13% higher in Los Angeles than Pittsburgh, and California’s state income tax for the highest earners is 10 points higher than Pennsylvania’s—yet the luxury tax threshold is the same for both teams. This is a competitive balance issue that needs to be addressed in the next CBA.
The packages of bill aim to limit civil immigration enforcement in and around World Cup venues, fan zones, and public transport.
Three Bills Push To Ban ICE From FIFA World Cup
newsweek.com
With less than three months before the first World Cup soccer match at MetLife stadium, hotel bookings for the event are disappointing, suggesting that the predicted $3 billion economic boost will be far less. www.thecity.nyc/2026/03/20/w...
World Cup Economic Bump Is Starting to Look Like a Bust
With less than three months before the tournament starts, hotels have fewer advance bookings than they did this time last year when there were no special events.
thecity.nyc
looking at the work ahead of us probably the single most impactful fix you could put in place would be to legally turbo-charge and also destigmatize unionization nationally (card count, revitalized NLRB, make "right to work" illegal, etc). number 2 is rabidly aggressive antitrust enforcement
UBS asset management tells unions it needs to cut one fifth of Italy staff reut.rs/4801vXJ
UBS asset management tells unions it needs to cut one fifth of Italy staff
UBS Asset Management Europe (AME), a Luxembourg-based unit of Swiss bank UBS , has written to unions in Italy to start negotiations over nine job cuts at its local business, roughly a fifth of overall staff, a copy of the letter seen by Reuters showed.
reut.rs
I'm headed to Paris to see what the 2024 games left behind — but I need your help, Torched readers! Who can you connect me with? Which stories are most important to you? And perhaps most critically: where must I eat to fuel the step counter for my fact-finding missions each day?
Torched is going to Paris
And I need your help!
torched.la
Once again here's an example of a project for 2028 being not just prioritized but rammed through without any kind of citywide strategic plan for what we're trying to accomplish by 2028. Where is our Games CIP???
The road ahead
The city's first capital improvement plan will be focused exclusively on projects related to the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games. It's already being referred to as the "Games CIP"
torched.la
Alissa Walker@awalkerinla.bsky.social · 5mo agoI cannot stop laughing at this absolutely delusional timeline! As noted in the report, just getting Coastal Commission approval will take at least a year. You know what already has Coastal Commission approval? THE 100% AFFORDABLE HOUSING PROJECT PLANNED FOR THIS PARKING LOT
LA's World Cup host committee is only now getting the word out about a big community activation scheduled for this Saturday? Press release went out — and was previously announced to be held in Grand Park — but still no public-facing event information on the website or social media
Alissa Walker@awalkerinla.bsky.social · 6mo agoI wrote about the World Cup fan zones announcement, changes to Cultural Olympiad leadership, ICE going to Milan, and yes, the Casey Wasserman emails 😑 Plus soooooo many links for your weekend reading, all in today's Torched news roundup 🔥
And, says Walker, THAT'S NOT WHAT A MOBILITY HUB IS. It's apparently not that near transit, and there's a different lot that would be more suitable, Walker says.
Here it is: the long-awaited MOU between Metro and LA28. This is meant to clarify who is responsible for what, transportation-wise, in 2028. Read the MOU and supporting documents here, scheduled to be discussed at the 3/19 executive board meeting: boardagendas.metro.net/board-report...
City officials are holding a press conference today to talk about how we're preparing for the heat. But my question, as always, is how do these preparations scale to potentially accommodate millions more people who will be in LA for megaevents during the hottest months of the year?
Alissa Walker@awalkerinla.bsky.social · 2y agoSince I started this newsletter I've played a fun little game in my head when I'm walking the streets of Los Angeles. I look around at what's happening and I ask myself: okay, what if the Olympics were happening *today*? www.torched.la/the-olympics...
Truly. We've published some law & policy recommendations on how to make LA safer from extreme heat: law.ucla.edu/news/reducin...
Reducing Outdoor Vulnerability to Extreme Heat in Los Angeles
Climate change is making life in cities hotter and more dangerous, but cities—Los Angeles included—have not yet adequately responded. The risk and incidence of heat-related illnesses, such as heat ras...
law.ucla.edu
For about a year I've been working with some of the best reporters and editors in L.A. to build a brand new city news outlet. It launches tomorrow. Is it possible to operate a sustainable local journalism business in 2026? Let me know! lamaterial.com
Home | L.A. Material
News for Los Angeles.
lamaterial.com
"You, the moderate man, may be used for wrong, but are useless for right." Goddamn, Melville could really cook.
Screaming Pectoriloquy@caulimovirus.bsky.social · 2y agoHerman Melville on moderates, all the way back in 1857:
agreeing to make a terrible deal while your main opponent is quite literally being boo'd on live tv by an entire stadium of people is the kind of political instinct you'd normally only find in a 3 week old dead goldfish
This deal to reopen the government is fucking disgraceful. Tens of millions will lose their healthcare. Trump will be emboldened. This is exactly what’s wrong with Democratic Party leadership and why we need more people in Congress who will actually hold the line.
Up until a few years ago, the LA County Fair would have been kicking off this past weekend. I recently reported on how the fair moved to cool, drizzly May. This is not something LA28 is considering for the games, as far as I know www.torched.la/fair-weather/
Fair weather
Learning how the LA County Fair took heat seriously is a warning for other megaevents planned during Southern California's increasingly dangerous summers
torched.la
The Fair Games Coalition — made up of 60 worker organizations including unions Unite Here Local 11, UTLA, and United Farm Workers — is holding a rally at the Coliseum on Thursday to demand a "new deal" for 2028. The coalition "warns of massive protests and strikes if workers’ needs are ignored"
What an astonishingly bad look for any union to be aligning itself with Airbnb right now as this massive coalition of workers is literally calling for Airbnb to be banned from the city
Alissa Walker@awalkerinla.bsky.social · 12mo agoThis morning’s Fair Games rally was a poignant reminder that it's workers who will make LA's megaevents happen. And with 60 local labor and housing groups represented, it was pretty clear that this broad coalition could also make sure those megaevents do *not* happen
Not that LA necessarily needs any help from ICE to surveil the people attending their megaevents
Joey Scott@joeyneverjoe.bsky.social · 10mo agoThe LAPD justified this purchase, along with other digital surveillance technologies, by citing the Olympics and other major events coming to Los Angeles. The events are an excuse to grow the depts surveillance tech that they're using right now, including for protests. @nolympicsla.bsky.social
Also, maybe one reason there were no LA28 officials at this press conference? Traci Park says she "went to war with LA28" to get them to site Olympic events in Venice Beach so it would be back in the headlines "for all the right reasons"
Alissa Walker@awalkerinla.bsky.social · 10mo ago"We will be ready!" Bass exclaims. And... the press conference is over. No LA28 officials, which is interesting. Also, this is a real torch, Bass notes. No, it is not lit 😂
In August 2024, Mayor Bass announced the the Los Angeles Olympics would be a "no-car Games." Three days later, she "walked" that back to "transit-first games." There's not reason, though, that it can't still be the former. There's already transit to every venue. ericbrightwell.com/2025/10/22/n...
Over the past year, many of my megaevent-related geospatial questions have been answered by Nick Franchino, GIS manager for the Los Angeles County Department of Regional Planning. Join us to talk open data, digital twins, and the importance of jurisdiction as the games span a dozen cities
Torched Talks with LA County GIS manager Nick Franchino
Let's crunch some megaevent data on November 5
torched.la
this week’s roundup has links to stories on treatments for severe allergies, youth pitching, Roblox, cash subsidies for renters, the public health bloodbath, white supremacists in Arkansas, the CDC shooting, measles, cholera in Sudan, Texas Rep. Nicole Collier, ICE abuses, and more: bit.ly/4msPnnj
Stick to baseball, 8/23/25.
bit.ly
I'm old enough to remember being told liberal reforms to this privatized health insurance system would lead to death panels
Mar Hicks@histoftech.bsky.social · last yr.A U.S. surgeon trying to have a “peer to peer” consultation with a doctor at a health insurance company who is hiding his identity as her patient gets denied coverage. And it gets worse from there. You have to see it to believe it. (1/2)
One of societies great mysteries is how Alec Baldwin is an incredible, absolute powerhouse of a comedic actor who understands timing and movement and what to stress and what to leave out to be absolutely hilarious and who doesn’t seem to have any sort of sense of humor in his private life whatsoever
