FIRST LADY LAURA BUSH TO VISIT MALIBU ON SATURDAY, APRIL 28

First Lady Laura Bush will be the 2007 Seaver College commencement
speaker and receive a Pepperdine Honorary Doctor of Laws degree on
Saturday, April 28, 2007, AT THE MALIBU CAMPUS.

Commencement begins at 10:30 a.m.

PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY AND MALIBU CANYON ROAD WILL BE IMPACTED FROM 5 a.m.
through 2+ p.m. BECAUSE OF SECRET SERVICE AND OTHER CROWD MANAGEMENT
CONTROLS.

Two Young Entrepreneurs Imbue Their Fashion with ‘Style’

BY SONJA MAGDEVSKI

For Asher Ross and Kurtis Major, their work day starts by checking the surf. If it’s good, they’ll be riding waves “until they can’t move”—all the while being inspired to create the next design. This is precisely what motivated them to start their clothing company, Culture and Propaganda. As the third generation of their families to grow up in Malibu, they say it is impossible to live here and not be influenced by its natural environment.

So whether they are surfing, fishing or enjoying the sunset or sunrise, they are working, absorbing their past, present and the beauty that surrounds them as those before them have done.

“All our family and friends live in Malibu,” Ross says. “Our families lived here when it was just the sticks.” “A cowboy town,” Major interjects. “When you are from Malibu, it is in your blood,” Ross continued. “It also means you are a little crazy from birth,” Ross laughs. “Because coming from a small town….” Major adds. “That we can come from a place so incredibly beautiful is amazing—your imagination just opens up,” Ross concludes.

Ross and Major have known each other since childhood and, in high school, persuaded their art teacher to teach them printmaking. She agreed, as long as they worked hard and started with the basics, which they did.

They learned silk-screening, stamping, everything they needed to add another dimension to their art work. They would spend hours drawing and painting (which they still do), trading sketch books. Taking up where the other left off.

They knew they wanted to print their art on shirts, which to them was the same as printing on canvas or wood, “Just another way to express our artistic values,” Ross says. “Except now, it’s kind of cool to have art you can wear.”

They knew they had to have a great name to sell clothes. They already had the Propaganda part of it down, but needed another element. In 2004, while sitting in Major’s kitchen drawing and “yelling at each other,” as they say, someone threw the word Culture into the mix and it all made sense. Culture and Propaganda was officially born.

To truly make it a reflection of their life and their art, every design is handmade in a collaborative effort. The purpose of their work is manifested in a fictional character they have created named Clyde Jackson who they say is a legend. “Clyde is basically the embodiment of what Kurtis and I do. He represents Malibu and the shared nature of our work,” Ross says. “I couldn’t agree with you more,” Major adds. “Clyde’s essentially the embodiment of Malibu, with no limit to its content and no limit to its colors.” “It’s our emotional expression put out there.”

Culture and Propaganda now sells more than 20 products, consisting of short-sleeve and long-sleeve t-shirts, sweatshirts, and tank tops for men and women made in downtown LA in super-durable and ultra-comfortable material printed in a variety of colors with designs named “PR Shark,” “Cry Baby,” “Fun Lover,” and “Sad Eyes.”

They say it takes about 300 hours of work to come up with an agreed-upon design, since out of a 200-page sketch book covered in artwork, they may only glean two or three designs. But all of their efforts are paying off.

While their clothing is not yet widely distributed, this summer Ross and Major will unveil a number of new stores, as well as a variety of product placement in films that can not yet be revealed because of contractual obligations. “Put it this way, this summer, the A-list of the A-list will be wearing Culture and Propaganda.”

They have already received impressive acclaim for a young company run by young men, having been featured in a number of media outlets including Fashion TV and People magazine. They also participated in a 2007 Oscar suite party hosted by actor Mark Wahlberg, and collaborated with local Malibu band Simon Dawes to design a t-shirt sold at Simon Dawes concerts. On May 3, Culture and Propaganda will be featured in the “30 Under 30” awards celebration hosted by Entertainment Tonight, where LA’s hippest and hottest actors, musicians and entrepreneurs are honored.

Ross, 21, and Major, 20, say all of this recognition is incredible for simply doing what they love to do. It is almost grounding, they say, to be recognized for their hard work and honesty, and for being themselves.

They both agree that they couldn’t have made it anywhere without the tremendous help and support from their families, friends, and business mentors who have provided the encouragement, knowledge and guidance to help them move forward. Their next goal, they say, is to one day soon wake up and be dressed head to toe in Culture and Propaganda clothing.

Next to everything being designed by hand, their number one requirement for their shirts is that they are made from durable material that is ultra comfortable.

City Council ‘Reorganizes’ with Mayoral Gavel Transfer

• Ceremonial Exchange Brings Visibility to the Council Member with the Title of Mayor

BY BILL KOENEKER

The mayoral title rotated in traditional fashion when the outgoing mayor, Ken Kearsley this week turned over the gavel for the largely ceremonial position to the incoming mayor, Jeff Jennings.

Jennings, who has served on the council for 12 years, took over the top post for the third and final time when the Malibu City Council met for its reorganization meeting. Jennings is serving the last year of his term and will be forced out by the voter-enacted term limits.

Kearsley, who will also be termed out, made outgoing remarks saying he did not want to talk about himself, but wanted to direct attention to the council and what it had accomplished in the last year.

The outgoing mayor boasted the council had spent upwards of $10 million for public works projects in which 96 percent of the project costs were paid for from grants obtained by the municipality.

Kearsley claimed that no other city had accomplished such a feat. He praised the staff, including Grants Coordinator Barbara Cameron and City Manager Jim Thorsen, for helping undertake such a feat. “Prior to this council there had been very little paid for in grants,” he said.

The outgoing mayor also claimed that just one employee separated from Malibu during the past year, reversing what had been year after year of staff turnover. “They now want to stay here. We heard all the rhetoric during the past campaign [about staff turnover]. It is not true,” he said. “They want to stay because of the council.”

Kearsley did not say what caused the reversal from when the current council had to replace the city manager, several department heads including public works and parks and recreation and other top posts and several planners.

The outgoing mayor ticked off a list of accomplishments and acquisitions, including three new parks: Las Flores, Trancas and Legacy parks. He described the Civic Center park as the “showpiece for everybody in Los Angeles.”

“People can come and look at it. It is our number one priority,” he added, saying that all of this had been accomplished and the council still managed to grow a reserve fund of $14 million.“That is an amazing figure for this city.”

Kearsley also talked about how the council had brought back City Attorney Christi Hogin in a successful effort to reduce the litigation of the city.

“There were 17 active cases in November 2001. We now have four active lawsuits. This council decided to get out of the litigation business,” he added.

The outgoing mayor did not reveal if the litigation costs were also lowered. The current council voted for extensive and expensive litigation against the California Coastal Commission, which after a lengthy courtroom battle, beat back the city’s challenge of the hotly contested Local Coastal Program.

The outgoing mayor also contended that the morale of the citizens has changed for the better and that civility is the key word of the council. “In other cities it is like open warfare,” added Kearsley, referring to many other municipalities where the opposing elements to the reigning power structure still take on the status quo. Malibu’s opposing elements have either been co-opted or nearly gone underground.

Kearsley concluded by praising his wife for “being the den mother” of Malibu. “She is the cheerleader,” he added.

Jennings seemed to acknowledge that the outgoing mayor had somewhat stolen his thunder saying, “Ken said a lot of what I was going to say.”

Despite his previous experience in the role as mayor, Jennings said the post still presented challenges. “You are the public face or voice of the city. You must represent the feelings and voice of the city and carry out that role,” he said.

The incoming mayor said the biggest change he has seen on the council during his tenure is what he called the division of labor. He contended when the city was young it was more difficult for council members to work together. He said that has changed dramatically and pointed out how various parings of council members had produced results as each member spearheaded their own causes. “It is that kind of thing working together and taking on our own projects,” he said.

Jennings also said he now realizes that government does seem to move at a slower pace than he anticipated. “The last time I was mayor, five years ago, I said things were just breaking. I thought that was the next year. But now thing are really breaking,” the incoming mayor noted, saying that the city was making strides in changing the actual physical landscape of the municipality, referring to the acquisition of parklands including Legacy Park and the old Malibu lumber yard site and how that will change Malibu. “Things are being built. There is a physical change in the city,” he said.

Jennings offered up a list of pending legislation from a proposed view protection ordinance to formula retail law. It will be very interesting. There is a lot going on next year,” he said and concluded by praising the staff asserting things are moving much more smoothly than in earlier years.

Councilmember Pamela Conley Ulich was sworn in as mayor pro tem.

Next Sidebar in Ferrari Saga Is Slated to Start

• ‘Homeland Security’ Angle in Spotlight

BY ANNE SOBLE

The man alleged to have created a paratransit agency that was subsequently connected to the spectacular 2006 Enzo Ferrari crash in Malibu is scheduled to appear in Alhambra Superior Court on May 15 to answer misdemeanor charges of unlawful use of a badge.

Yosuf Maiwandi, 39, of Bradbury, pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor charges related to the alleged 2005 founding of the San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority, in a Monrovia automotive repair shop, that became linked to the crash of a $1.5 million Enzo Ferrari in Malibu in February, 2006, that became an international mass media whirlwind.

The SGVTA was set up as a private nonprofit entity with five buses to provide free paratransit service for the elderly, infirm and disabled in Monrovia and Sierra Madre.

Founders of the group were quoted at the time of the Enzo crash as corroborating reports that the paratransit agency had its own police department, complete with a chief of police, weapons, badges and mission statement.

In one of the SGVTA documents formerly posted on the agency’s web site, it stated that its quasi-police efforts were necessary because “mass transit is faced with perhaps its greatest challenge ever—the post 9/11 era.”

Sources cited at the time of the Enzo crash indicated that former Swedish video game executive Bo Stefan Eriksson, 45, since adjudicated to be the driver of the totalled super-car and sentenced to three years jail time for grand theft charges related to the crash, supposedly brought video monitoring skills to the organization.

A major unanswered piece of the crash scene puzzle concerns the identity of the individuals who apparently facilitated Eriksson’s departure from the accident scene without his being arrested, or even booked, as it appears that the SGVTA’s five board members were issued police badges.

Among the issues that may come to light in next month’s trial are the bureaucratic procedures used for creating quasi-law enforcement agencies such as this paratransit agency.

The possibility that a small shuttle service could seek government status and funding, even if it was run out of an auto repair shop and had its after-hours telephone calls answered by an out-of-state answering service, can also shed light on the workings of so-called homeland security legislation and a myriad of civil rights and other civil liberties issues in what appears to be a climate of growing paranoia.

How the transit agency became linked to the crash of the rare Enzo and the role of its representatives at the accident scene where Eriksson was reportedly described as “a deputy commissioner with the agency’s anti-terrorism unit” is also expected to be addressed.

Moments after the crash occurred, two unidentified men showed up at the Pacific Coast Highway accident scene and flashed badges that were sufficiently “official” looking to convince the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies at the scene that they were authentic law enforcement agents.

Assuming that the more obvious questions are answered at next month’s trial, most Ferrari crash saga observers expect there will be another new series of questions of increased complexity that will start the inquiry cycle all over again.