• A 76-year-old Calabasas resident, in Malibu to celebrate the opening of a new Malibu restaurant, was struck and killed instantly while trying to cross PCH in the La Costa area. His death on PCH in Malibu was one of the multiple fatalities this year on PCH, one of most dangerous stretches of road in the state. It’s a main street that doubles as a freeway, and is a traffic engineer’s worst design nightmare
• Pepperdine University named a new CEO, James A. Gash, as its eighth president. Gash, a teacher, lawyer and administrator, is an honors graduate of Pepperdine Law School. His wife Jolene, is also an honors graduate of Pepperdine.
• Just to sweeten the pot, developer Rick Caruso—another graduate of Pepperdine Law School—later pledged $50 million to the law school, which changed its name to reflect the large contribution.
• The Broad Beach sand replenishment project funded by the local property owners through a GHAD (geologic hazard abatement district) lands on the rocks after eight years and millions already spent. The beach and sand dunes are disappearing rapidly but a decision by a superior court judge may require they start over. The court decision is now on appeal.
• As if getting burned out was not bad enough, there has been a wave of burglaries at some of the home sites in western Malibu and equipment, tools, piping and appliances have been stolen. Some neighborhoods have been installing cameras and begun hiring private security to watch the rebuild sites.
• Fire insurance rates are becoming dependent on something the insurance industry calls fire scores. It’s their technique of evaluating fire risk, which includes things like location, grading, lot clearance and also an evaluation of your neighborhood as a whole. They have as many as 70 variables and they come up with a total score which can range from zero to the 20s or 30s. Some carriers will only write up to 3s or 4s but some might write even people who have a score of 20—but, of course, you’ll pay a lot more.
