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LAUSD opens clothing boutiques to help unhoused students – NBC Los Angeles

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LAUSD opens clothing boutiques to help unhoused students – NBC Los Angeles


The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) opened its doors Monday to five boutiques that will serve students experiencing homelessness across several regions of the district.

The goal is to both help families and students experiencing homelessness and address chronic absenteeism. Every piece of clothing is brand new and free to students. Featured brands include Adidas, Vans, and Levi’s. The grand openings were part of the district’s iAttend Outreach Day.

“Now when they don’t have clothes that are without holes, they don’t have clothes that really fit them because they got them at some bazaar and their church, which is better than nothing but it doesn’t make them look like they’re students,” said LAUSD board member Jackie Goldberg during the ceremony. “They can come here and find something to wear that will feel and look good and make them feel good about themselves.” 

Since 2021, the number of enrolled students experiencing homelessness has skyrocketed, according to the school district. Over the 2021-2022 school year, the district reported 11,314 students were affected by homelessness. Over the past year, those numbers have jumped to 17,245 students – nearly a 50% increase.

“Many of these families do not have the resources to provide for their own children,” said Superintendent Alberto Carvalho. “No child should feel inadequate. No child should have to go to school without the appropriate clothing or shoes.”  

The boutiques are currently funded by federal money from the American Rescue Plan, but alternate sources are already being explored.

“We are working to get donations from corporate entities to continue these types of services when these funds expire,” Carvalho said.

Each one of the five boutiques LAUSD owns and operates are located in different regions the district serves.



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Woman alleges Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs raped her on video – NBC Los Angeles

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Woman alleges Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs raped her on video – NBC Los Angeles


Another woman sued Sean “Diddy” Combs on Tuesday, alleging that the music mogul and his head of security raped her and recorded it on video at his New York recording studio in 2001.

The lawsuit filed in federal court in New York, the latest of several similar suits against Combs, comes a week after he was was arrested and a federal sex trafficking indictment against him was unsealed.

Thalia Graves alleges that when she was 25 and dating an executive who worked for Combs in the summer of 2001, Combs and Joseph Sherman lured her to a meeting at Bad Boy Recording Studios. She said they picked her up in an SUV and during the ride gave her a drink “likely laced with a drug.”

According to the lawsuit, Graves lost consciousness and awoke to find herself bound inside Combs’ office and lounge at the studio. The two men raped her, slapped her, slammed her head against a pool table and ignored her screams and cries for help, the lawsuit alleges.

At a news conference in Los Angeles with one of her attorneys, Gloria Allred, Graves said she has suffered from “flashbacks, nightmares and intrusive thoughts” in the years since.

“It has been hard for me to trust others to form healthy relationships or even feel safe in my own skin,” Graves said, crying as she read from a statement.

She said it is “a pain that reaches into your very core of who you are and leaves emotional scars that may never fully heal.”

Hip hop superstar Sean “Diddy” Combs was arrested late Monday after a federal grand jury indicted him on a series of charges including racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution.

Combs remains jailed without bail in New York on federal charges alleging that he ran a vast network that facilitated sexual crimes and committed shocking acts of violence, using blackmail and other tactics to protect Combs and those close to him. Combs’ homes in Holmby Hills and Miami were raided by federal agents earlier this year.

He pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking. His attorney said he is innocent and will fight to clear his name.

NBCLA has reached out to Comb’s attorney for comment on the lawsuit announced Tuesday in Los Angeles.

Graves’ lawsuit also alleges that late last year, after Combs’ former singing protege and girlfriend Cassie filed a lawsuit that began the surge of allegations against him, Graves learned through her former boyfriend that Combs had recorded her rape, shown it to others and sold it as pornography.

Graves’ lawsuit says both Combs and Sherman contacted her multiple times in the years after the assault, threatening repercussions if she told anyone what had happened to her. She was in a divorce and custody fight at the time and feared losing her young son if she revealed anything, the suit says.

Graves said at the news conference that the guilt and shame attached “often made me feel worthless, isolated and sometimes responsible for what happened to me.”

The lawsuit seeks damages to be determined at trial and for all copies of the video to be accounted for and destroyed.

“Defendants should be ordered to account for and destroy all copies of the video,” Allred said.

It also names as defendants several companies owned by Combs, the three-time Grammy winner and founder of Bad Boy Records who was among the most influential hip-hop producers and executives of the past three decades.

Resources for victims of sexual assault are available through the National Sexual Violence Resources Center and the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 800-656-4673.



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Ultrasound machine found abandoned in Whittier – NBC Los Angeles

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Ultrasound machine found abandoned in Whittier – NBC Los Angeles


A pair of puzzled men in Whittier were surprised and amused when they made a $10,000 discovery in the form of an ultrasound machine abandoned on the street.

Troy Silva was inside his restaurant on Whittier Boulevard on Friday when he got a text from his friend, Jason Barrio. The message urged him to go outside and see what his pal found.

“It was funny,” he said. “I mean, we were all laughing.”

Standing next to Barrio was a machine wrapped in plastic. After unpacking it, the men found it was a Hewlett-Packard ultrasound machine.

Confused but amused nonetheless, the two called the police to file a report. That was when they learned more information about the wayward machine.

“While we’re doing this, a van pulls up with two guys in it,” Silva said. “He calls over to me … he says a homeless guy abandoned it right there. He was pushing it down the boulevard and he left it there.”

The Whittier Police Department said it checked with two local hospitals, but neither was missing the machine. An investigator later learned the machine belongs to a local doctor who had recently moved his practice from the area to another location.

That doctor said he thought he’d taken all of his equipment but when he saw an image of the found machine, he realized the movers somehow missed it.

Officers said they plan to reunite the item with its rightful owner on Tuesday.



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Bill that would have allowed undocumented students to work on campus vetoed – NBC Los Angeles

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Bill that would have allowed undocumented students to work on campus vetoed – NBC Los Angeles


Citing concerns about a potential legal fallout, Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have allowed undocumented college students to work on campuses in California.

AB 2586 would have prohibited California colleges and universities from disqualifying students from being hired on campus if they were unable to provide proof of federal work authorization. The governor said his reason for the veto was federal funding potentially being at risk for employees and students since the federal law forbids employers from hiring undocumented individuals.

“I have to now struggle to figure out if I can even afford tuition for the next semester,” said Jeffrey Umana Munoz, a UCLA graduate who is studying for his master’s at Cal State LA. “I don’t know if I’m going to be able to finish this master’s program.”

Munoz, who was brought to the US at the age of 2 from El Salvador, is part of a movement called Opportunity for All. The organization rallied across the UC and state college system to allow undocumented students to work.

Assemblymember David Alvarez, who authored the bill, said he found the veto a “profound disappointment” and said his efforts would not stop.

“Students who are legally allowed to study at California’s public colleges and universities should also be allowed to work to pay for their own education,” his statement read. “The students who worked together to bring this bill to the Legislature will continue to fight for it, and I will stand with them, along with the Latino Caucus.”

In the meantime, Opportunity for All will continue championing for its cause and said it plans to attend the UC Regents meeting in January to push for a similar bill.



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