March is Women’s History Month, and here at TNT we are honoring an extraordinary Topangan. For nearly 30 years, Stacy Sledge has poured her time, energy, intelligence, and heart into this community. She has played a major role in producing the Topanga Evacuation Guide and the website Onetopanga.com. She has volunteered for the Topanga Creek Stream Team, TCEP, Arson Watch, and CERT, and as president of the Topanga Town Council, Stacy worked with the county to find resources for the canyon, applied for grants, found ways to support critically important canyon programs even during fires, floods, and the COVID Pandemic. “No one has done more for Topanga to make life better for its residents,” writes TNT contributor Claire Fordham, the author of our cover story on Stacy. “Among Topanga volunteers, Stacy Sledge is a legend and an inspiration.” Thank you, Stacy, for everything you have done for all of us! Cover design by Urs Baur
The President of the United States is once again demanding oil drilling off the California coast.
California Governor Gavin Newsom immediately condemned the President: “Donald Trump started a war, admitted it would spike gas prices nationwide, and told Americans it was a small price to pay,” Newsom rebutted. “Now he’s using this crisis of his own making to attempt what he’s wanted to do for years: open California’s coast for his oil industry friends so they can poison our beaches. This wouldn’t lower prices by a cent. This is an attempt to illegally restart a pipeline whose operators are facing criminal charges and prohibited by multiple court orders from restarting. California will not stand by while the Trump administration attempts to sacrifice our coastal communities, our environment, and our $51 billion coastal economy. The Trump administration and Sable are defying multiple court orders, and we will see them back in court.”
One has only to review the devastating impact of the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill on the entire Southern California Coast, or the 2015 spill that poured 142,000 gallons of crude oil onshore near Refugio State Beach in Santa Barbara County, and dumped 21,000 gallons into the ocean to understand why resuming oil drilling off the California coast is a bad idea. The fact that the platforms and pipeline the Trump Administration is attempting to restart are the same ones that caused the 2015 disaster, and that company that owns the lease, Houston-based Sable Offshore Corporation, is currently embroiled in multiple lawsuits raises more concerns. It will soon be facing more, but the idea that the president can involve the Defense Production Act to deliberately override state environmental laws is deeply troubling.
“If the President can attack a foreign country without authorization from Congress and override state laws with unprecedented dubious legal authority—what is left of our Constitution?” asks Santa Barbara Assemblymember Gregg Hart. It’s a good question, one of far too many raised by the current administration’s increasing overreach.
Assaults on the environment, like the demand for offshore oil drilling in California, are just part of the flood of horror headlines Americans increasingly face: Children bombed in Iran; American soldiers killed and injured; the ever-widening circle of complicity and perversity of the Epstein Files debacle; attacks on the Constitution, civil rights, voting rights, public lands, and free speech—and that’s only a partial list. Just this week, President Trump demanded that news reporters be sentenced to death for reporting facts he doesn’t like on the bombing of Iran.
It can feel overwhelming, but American citizens all over the country, weary of the barrage of assaults on every aspect of life, will be coming together to exercise their First Amendment rights to peacefully protest the current administration and its excesses and abuses on March 28 for the No Kings March. It is anticipated to potentially be the largest organized protest in American history.
“As President Trump escalates his attempts to control us, it is on us, the people, to show that we will fight to protect one another and our country, ” a press release for the event states. “If he believes we will roll over and allow him to take our freedoms, he is mistaken. We are coming together again on March 28 because we know we can overcome this repression when we unite.”
The big Los Angeles protest will take place in Downtown LA, but Topanga residents will be gathering right here in the heart of the canyon to protest from noon to 2 pm on March 28, and there are other local protests planned for Malibu, Santa Monica, Woodland Hills, and Westlake Village. Check the No Kings website for locations and times, and also for information on how to safely and legally participate: https://www.nokings.org/
March is Women’s History Month. There isn’t a women’s march this year. However, concerns over the loss of women’s rights are a major concern for many taking part in the March 28 protest, and protestors who support women’s causes are encouraged to wear green in solidarity. American women haven’t faced so many civil rights setbacks since the 1950s, but women activists and their allies are stepping up and pushing back.
Whatever one wears, March 28 is an opportunity to send a message to our elected officials. However, the most important opportunity to send that message arrives on June 2, the day of the California State Primary. Now is a great time to check voter registration, especially for anyone who has moved since the last election. California makes this easy. Just visit https://registertovote.ca.gov/
Stay safe, be well. Speak up!
