Museum moves. L.A.’s cash-strapped Museum of Contemporary Art has rejected a merger offer from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. A statement from MOCA’s trustees says “The… best future for MOCA would be as an independent institution.” The board acknowledged, however, that the downtown modern art museum will require a major financial boost to remain independent. LACMA had reportedly offered to raise $100 million for MOCA in a merger. L.A. Times
Cleaner electricity. The L.A. Department of Water and Power is pledging to be coal-free by 2025. The utility has voted to buy power from a Utah natural gas power plant and another agreement is in the works to sell off DWP’s stake in an Arizona plant will make the utility coal-free by the middle of the next decade. That’s five years later than promised by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa a few years back, but environmental advocates are still applauding the change. L.A. Daily News
Realignment fight. Republicans in the state Legislature are taking aim at realignment – Governor Jerry Brown’s program to relieve prison overcrowding. GOP lawmakers say shifting state inmates to county custody is making California less safe, and they’ve proposed more than a dozen bills to counter the effects of realignment by sending some prisoners back to jail and improving supervision of parolees. Brown’s administration says there’s no evidence crime has increased since realignment started 18 months ago. Sacramento Bee
Jails survey. The L.A. County Board of Supervisors will hire an independent consultant to analyze the need for new county jails. That decision puts on hold for at least 60 days a nearly a $1 billion proposal to replace the aging Men’s Central Jail. The consultant will review existing facilities, profile the inmate population and project the need for jail beds for at least the next 30 years. L.A. Sheriff Lee Baca has been pushing the Board of Supervisors for new facilities for more than a year. L.A. Times
Latino trends. A new study finds that U.S. Latinos are increasingly spread around the country and that in Los Angeles many Latinos continue to live in enclaves with few white neighbors. Brown University researchers say the L.A.-Long Beach area continues to lead the nation in residents of Mexican and Central American origin. But its relative share of those ethnic groups has decreased as more take up residence in other parts of the country. Wall Street Journal