April 2007 Archives

A former Lod Angeles furefighter, who became a cause celebre and hot talk radio subject for weeks, lost a court rulnig on Monday where a judge ruled his attorneys cannot prove he was the victim of retaliation.
City News Service is reporting that Tennie Pierce's attorneys did not prove he was the victim of retaliation after he complained against fellow firefighters for feeding him dog food.
Pierce had sued the city and it had been recommended he receive a $2.7 million settlement until talk radio began a campaign against the payout and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa vetoed the settlement after photos surfaced of Pierce taking part in other firehouse hazing incidents.
Pierce attorney Genie Harrison was unfazed by the ruling, saying "this happens all the time."
However, Councilman Dennis Zine, who was among the first to oppose the payout, praised the ruling.
"I am hopeful that we can maintain a stance of fiscal responsibility to the City of Los Angeles and can respond to these types of cases with logic and rational thought rather than an inappropriate financial windfall.”"

While they have more areas of disagreement than issues to praise, the ACLU of Southern California on Monday issued a letter of support for the appointment of Police Chief Bill Bratton to a second five-year term.
A letter from ACLU Exectuive Director Ramona Ripston, delivered to the commission for it hearing later in the day on Bratton said it disagrees with the chief on the "broken windows" theory of policing, how the LAPD has dealt with the homeless on Skid Row and that the LAPD has a culture that permits excessive force.
But, even with all that, Ripston said Bratton has also shown a willingness to talk to critics, seek outside voices and been more open in his operations.

Concerned about a 15 percent rise in gang crime in Los Angeles County from 2001 to 2006, county Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke is expected to urge her fellow supervisors Tuesday to direct the Chief Administrative Office and other department heads to review the findings and recommendations in a city report on gangs and develop a plan to address the issue countywide.
Burke's motion, which also asks the Countywide Criminal Justice Coordinating Council to join the effort, directs officials to develop recommendations for a coordinated to the problem.
Gang violence in the county is taking a devastating toll on children, families, communities and schools, Burke said.
Recent tragedies, such as the fatal shooting of 23-year-old Demetrius Perry at Charles Drew Middle School and 14-year-old Cheryl Greene in Harbor Gateway, dramatically illustrates how innocent lives and communities are at the mercy of a gang culture focused on violence, intimidation and control, Burke said.
Overall gang related crimes increased 15 percent from 2001to 2006, with 1,076 documented gangs and 80,757 gang members countywide, according to the Sheriff's Department. While suppression of gang activity is a necessary approach to bringing about safety in communities, prevention and intervention efforts are equally critical in order to stem the tide of at risk youth seeking the refuge of gangs as a safe harbor and a group with whom they can identify, Burke said.
On Jan. 17, attorney Connie Rice submitted to the City Council’s Ad Hoc Committee on Gang Violence and Youth Development, the Advancement Project report: “A Call to Action: A Case for a Comprehensive Solution to L.A.’s Gang Violence Epidemic.”
The report, which focuses primarily on the city emphasized the need for a multi-jurisdictional, regional solution that would require close collaboration between the city and county.

Newly returned Councilman Richard Alarcon has wasted no time making his voice heard at the Los Angeles City Council.
Alarcon, in his second go-round as a councilman, has been using all the political skills he learned in eight years in Sacramento to begin to establish himself as a leader on a variety of issues and is looking to solidify support among Neighborhood Councils, who feel they have been left behind in the administration of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
For more on this, ready today's Tipoff in today's Daily News as well as about five secrets the mayor is keeping.

Does Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa plan to tell speakers at next week's Cinco de Mayo celebration that they are full of hot air and to limit their speeches to 30 seconds each? How about the speakers at the annual September 16 Mexican Independence Day celebration?

That's what he told speakers at Sunday's Israeli Independence Festival at Woodley Park in Van Nuys.

At Villaraigosa's request, officials and dignitaries at the event limited their remarks to 30 seconds in ceremonies that ran so fast that Israel Counsel General Ehud Danoch rushed to summarize almost six decades of Israeli achievements in half a minute.

In the mayor's own remarks, he said he had been attending the festival since 1998, and "the speeches are too long!"

It appears that the motivation for Villaraigosa demanding the 30-second speeches at the ceremonies that began well past 1 p..m. is that the mayor was rushing to get to the annual pre-Cinco de Mayo Fiesta Broadway downtown where he was scheduled to make a 2 p.m. appearance. The mayor didn't even stick around long enough for the Israeli National Anthem at the end of the unusually shortened Israeli Independence ceremony.

As she worked the Calaipornia Democratic Party convention this weekend, insiders are saying that Sen. Hillary Clinton is close to picking up the support from the mayors of the state's two largest cities.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. will be rolled out as supporters in the coming weeks, says Carlal Marinucci in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Clinton was endorsed by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez. D- Los Angeles, last week, and has picked up the suport of those who were behind her husband during his eight years as president.

As part of a new program to warn school children of bad air quality using a color-coated flag system to match the levels of pollution on any given day, Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich joined Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Southland air quality officials Friday to discuss reducing the impact of air pollution on children.
Antonovich, a member of the South Coast Air Quality Management District, spoke at the "Asthma Is a Small World” international conference at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim about the need to reduce the amount of pollutants in the air, and the alarming increase of asthma among the county's youth.
“It is especially important that we protect our children many of whom suffer from the debilitating effects of asthma,” Antonovich said. “Through continuing research we are meeting the challenge of reducing harmful emissions and protecting public health.”
Every school day, the proper color flag will be raised to alert students, parents, teachers, and the community when the air quality is bad and when preventive measures need to be taken.

The city's 50-50 program to repair sidewalks -- where residents pick up half the cost -- is so popular that it uses up all its money within six months.
Bill Roberton, director of the Bureau of Street Services, told the City Council panel reviewing the proposed $6.8 billion city budget, said he has a waiting list of more than 500 residents who want to participate in the program which is projected to pave 13 miles of sidewalks this coming year.
"The reality is we close the program off in December of each year because we don't have the money," Robertson said.
The city's aging street and sidewalk system has long been a source of despair among city officials and the public and the department now has a 50-year backlog of street repairs. Robertson said he would need $1.5 billion over 10 years to restore the street system.

The crackdown on gangs is beginning to pay dividends, at least in one traditionally troubled area.
The Los Angeles Police Department and Councilwoman Janice Hahn said Friday that the Watts community _ which last year had seven homicides in one month _ has gone since Feb. 21 without one gang-related fatality.
And, during that time, overallcrime is down 7 percent compared with last year.
*It is hard to believe that just over a year ago, the Watts community
had 18 shootings and 7 deaths in just one month and that in the past two
months, there has not been one homicide in the community,* Hahn said.
"The community has really come together
through the Watts Gang Task Force and has formed a partnership with the
LAPD. Together, we are combating the gang violence that has terrorized
this community for years.*
Hahn attributed part of the decline to increased community involvement through weekly meetings of the Watts Anti-Gang Task Force and developing a better relationship with the LAPD.

With the election only two weeks away and absentee voters beginning to mark their ballots, school board challenger Tamar Galatzan is deluging voters with a 23-page book on why she wants their vote.
The book, "A Plan to Reform the Valley's Public Schools," outlines her platform and asks voters to give their views about the Los Angeles Unified School District and what changes they would like to see, from smaller schools to charter schools _ the kind of things everyone agrees with. The election is on May 15.
Sending out the books is an expensive campaign proposition, but one Galatzan's campaign can afford. The last fundraising totals showed she had raised more than $723,000 for the race, compared to the $458,000 raised by incumbent Jon Lauritzen.
The race it the one being most closely watched by political insiders, since it is the one expected to determine if Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is able to elect a new majority to the Board of Education.
The timing of the mailing is also important, since absentee voters could account for as much as 50 percent of the total vote.

The Candidates

Hillary Clinton A
No surprise. Nothing like tutorials from Bill.

Barack Obama B-
Sound bites, more style than substance and little else.

John Edwards B-
Could use another medical update.

Bill Richardson C
Should know that when Castro dies, Cuba will not be in a "post-Democratic" era.

Joe Biden C-
Leading contender... for The Comedy Store.

Chris Dodd C
Where's Bianca Jagger when you need her?

Dennis J. Kucinich C-
Who did this guy's hair dye job?

MIke Gravel D
I thought this guy was dead.

Moderator

Brian Williams D
Hardly Tom Brokaw. Nor Jim Lehrer, for that matter.

Signs are popping up in downtown Los Angeles about a protest that is expected to shut down many streets on Tuesday.
A year after more than 400,000 demonstrators flooded downtown streets in support of legislation that would give status to millions of undocumented immigrants, the Great American Boycott will return on May 1.
The Los Angeles Police Department and the city Department of Transportation have posted advisements regarding travel to downtown on Tuesday.
"The advisements have been provided to inform the community of an extraordinarily large demonstration and march," according to prepared statement from Los Angeles Superior Court. "Last year's event attracted over 400,000 participants and it is estimated that this year's crowds will meet or exceed that number. The affected area is bordered by the 10, 101 and 110 freeways."
Billed as the "Day Without Immigrants," rallies across the country on May 1, 2006 drew crowds totalling more than a million people and prompted many restaurants, ethnic markets, farms and other businesses that rely on undocumented workers to close. Thousands of Los Angeles Unified School District students skipped classes.
As a part of protests over immigration reform legislation proposed last year, organizers called for supporters to abstain from buying, selling, working and attending school to show the extent to which undocumented immigrant labor is needed for the U.S. economy.

You can tell its budget hearing time at City Hall by two things. There is even more paperwork floating through the council chambers and the candy.
If the paper is what fuels government bureaucracy _ with reports and requests for more funding _ it is the candy that fuels the staff who make the council chambrs their home for 10 to 14 hours a day for the next two weeks.
No one is sure when the tradition of providing the candy began, although it is has been around for more than two decades and the choices have remained constant – chocoloate, chocolate and more chocolate.

This is a political story only in the sense that throughout the country, a fairly new class of people is demanding its rights in legislatures and offices acoss America -- and succeeding in many cases, as they should. The group of people are transgenders, though it is interesting that some of them still refer to themselves by a label that is increasing going out of use within that community -- transsexuxals. Among them is Los Angeles Times sportswriter Mike Penner.

For most who have not known what he has been going through, through much of his life, Mike presents his first-person account today -- "Old Mike, new Christine."

"During my 23 years with The Times' sports department, I have held a wide variety of roles and titles. Tennis writer. Angels beat reporter. Olympics writer. Essayist. Sports media critic. NFL columnist. Recent keeper of the Morning Briefing flame.

"Today I leave for a few weeks' vacation, and when I return, I will come back in yet another incarnation.

"As Christine.

"I am a transsexual sportswriter." Read his story.

Eli Broad apparently isn't waiting on Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to come up with an alternative to his seemingly defunct attempt to take over the LAUSD -- and he's found more upscale company with which to partner.

On the eve of the first presidential debate, Broad and the foundation he heads with wife Edythe Wednesday joined up with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for what they call "the Strong American Schools campaign" aimed at elevating American education to the top of the upcoming presidential campaign agenda.

Strong American Schools is a nonpartisan public awareness and action campaign designed to give a voice to every American who demands strong leadership to improve our schools.

"The American dream is slipping away, and unless our leaders dramatically improve our public schools, our standard of living, our economy and our very democracy will be threatened,”" Broad said in a statement touting the announcement in Columbia, S.C., where Democratic presidential nominees will square off in a debate Thursday night. "Our country'’s education system is no longer the best in the world. We need every American to demand better schools and specific policy solutions from presidential candidates. Our future depends on it.”"

“Broad and Villaraigosa parted ways on the education front last year when the Los Angeles philanthropist and billionaire grew disenchanted with the mayor's backroom political compromises to get AB 1381 -- the measure to give the mayor control of the LAUSD -- through the legislature.

Billionaires Eli Broad and Bill Gates announced plans to launch a new program calls the Strong American Schools Campaign to try to get presidential candidates from both parties to deal with education issues in next year's election.
“Each year more than 1 million students drop our of high school _ that's one child every 29 seconds,” Gates said. “We all must demand that candidtes..share their policies on how our countrye will offer all young people strong American schools.”
Broad said he wanted to see an election where the candidates were forced to address education issues.
“The American dream is slippin gaway and unless our leaders dramatically improve our public schools, our standard of living, our economy and our very democracy will be threatened,” Broad said.
Both men are funding the program their foundtions to take the case directly to the American public at a website.

A funny thing happened on the way to the reappointment of Police Chief Bill Bratton _ his nemesis and predecessor, Councilman Bernard Parks.
The Police Commission has scheduled one public hearing on the reappointment of Bratton – for next Monday night at the DWP headquarters -- and Parks is questioning if that's sufficient.
“From the communities I represent, it looks as if there is no process in place at all and that it's a done deal,” Parks said. “The commission says it wants an open hearing, but they all say they want to reappoint Bratton in a month. They have 90 days to make a decision, they should take their time and hear from the communities of interest.”
Parks introduce a formal resolution this week requesting the Police Commission to consider additional hearings.
Police Commission President John Mack has said he is willing to hold more hearings if they are necessary and will determine if more are held based on public interest.

Sen. Hillary Clinton picked up a key endorsement on Wednesday as she gears up her Califormnia presidential campaign for next February's primary election.
Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez was named as a national co-chair of her campaign, giving her a major voice to the Latino community and blocking a key endorsement to the only Hispanic candidate in the race, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.
“Bill Richardson is an excellent candidate, but when it came down to it, I decided that Hillary Clinton is the most qualified to be the next president of the United States,” Nunez said. “The color of my skin didn't guide me in this decision. What guides me is my passion. I think Hillary Clinton is the most prepared to lead this country.”
Clinton, along with other Democratic candidates, are expected to be in California this week for the state Democratic Party convention.

With speculation booming over who will run to succeed Rep. Juanita Millender McDonald, D-Compton, who died last week, one person not interested -- so far -- is Los Angeles Councilwoman Janice Hahn.
"I have the best political job in the world," Hahn said. "I was born to be a city council member."
Hahn said she had not considered the prospect of running until she heard her name metioned as a potential candidate.
"I still have time left here to serve," Hahn said.
She is up for re-election to the City council in 2009.

Deputy City Attorney Tamar Galatzon picks up another endorsement today in her May 15 runoff against incumbent school board member Jon Lauritzen.
Last week, it was former Asssembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg backing her campaign. On Wednesday, it was Louis Pugliese, who placed ther in the primary election for the seat.
Galatzan was the leading vote getter in the primary and is being backed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in his effort to elect a new majority to the Board of Education that supports his calls for reform.
Pugliese said his decision was based on the need to change the LAUSD.
"In conversations with Tamar, it is clear to me that she is committed to the extensive changes necessary to restore excellence to our schools,” Pugliese said. “We need a representative on the School Board who is not afraid to challenge the powerful forces that stand in the way of genuine reform.”

Maybe it is time for a new police headquarters.

Councilwoman Jan Perry and LAPD Assistant Chief Earl Paysinger were trapped in a Parker Center elevator for 20 minutes Tuesday, delaying a press conference to announce the arrest of four people involved in fatal drive-by shooting last year.

Built in the 1960s and now too small and outdated for the LAPD, Parker Center is being replaced by a $400 million headquarters on First Street.

After being released from the elevators, an exasperated Perry quipped: "I'm very glad I voted for construction of the new police headquarters."

By Tony Castro: New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson may not have the money to compete with the "rock stars" of the presidential campaign, but he showed he has the sense of humor Monday night at a Hollywood fundraiser.
Richardson entertained supporters -- among them City Councilman Tom LaBonge -- at Lucy's El Adobe Cafe with an anecdote about his 93-year-old mother -- who is Mexican and still lives in Mexico.
"My mom, God bless her, is getting along in years, and sometimes she has difficulty remembering. Well, I called other day she asked me, 'Are you still governor?" Richardson recounted. "'Yes, mother, I'm still governor. They didn't impeach me yet.' And then she says, how's your sister? And I said, 'Fine.' And then she asked, 'Are you still governor?' And I said, 'Yes, mother.' And I said, 'Mother, in fact, I've told you this, but I'm going to tell you again. Two months ago, I announced for president.' And she said, 'El presidente de que, hombre!'"
Richardson also cleared up his California roots. He was born in Pasadena, but it turns out his California residency was brief.
"Most of California doesn't know that I'm Hispanic, but I'm working on it," he said, explaining that he had appeared on several Spanish radio shows, "and I'm going to be with George Lopez Saturday."
"My father was an American, and he had this complex -- that he wasn't born in the United States. He was born in Nicaragua... So he said, I am not going to permit my son not to be born in America. We lived in Mexico. He was working there. So what they did (when my mother was due) was to get in the car and drive up here. So I was born where (my father) had a sister -- at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena.
"So I was born there and we went right back. Right after I was born, we stayed a day and we went back. And last night, there was a fundraiser for me at (filmmaker) Moctezuma Esparza's. He's in Pasadena. He has a house there. And this woman from Huntington Hospital say, 'Well, governor, we'd like to do a fundraiser here at Huntington Hospital, and you can talk about your roots in Pasadena.' My roots were about four hours!
"But now that California is one of the first primaries, my roots are going to increase. I'm a native son!"

In addition to the new television commercial it is airing statewide, the Morongo Band of Mission Indians has a new website to espouse the virtues of its desire to expand its gamblng operations.
The state Senate has approved a new compact allowing the tribes to expand its operations and its television commercial, similar to earlier ones telling of the advantages of the casinos to the tribes and the state, began runing on Monday.
The Morongo Band has been among the most aggressive in working the political system to allow the casinos to continue and expand -- often putting it odds with labor, which has had problems in being able to organize the casino workers.
In launching the website, officials say the new tribal compacts will help the state in balancing its budget, improving education and providing health care.
“Today we are here to stand in solidarity with the people of California as the state struggles with some of the most difficult fiscal problems it has ever faced,” said Robert Martin, Tribal Chairman of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians.

The state Republican Party unveiled its new website today that it says is designed to "make it easier for you as a journalist to access the information" needed for stories.
What it is, however, from the initial looks of it is the start of an attack on Democrats.
It's initial offering is a hit on former Sen. John Edwards criticizing him for his $400 haircuts. Fair enough, jus t seems odd in your opening salvo to go after the opposition rather than seek to broaden your base in a state where your party has had difficulty finding new members.

As officials at County Hall are putting the final touches on a plan to give Chief Administrative Officer David Janssen broad new executive powers, insiders say a lot of department heads are getting heartburn.
"Now they are going to be third down in the food chain," a source said. "They were reporting directly to the Board of Supervisors. Now they will be reporting to an assistant chief administrative officer. So the big question now is who are going to be the assistance chief administrative officers who are going to tell them what to do. They were masters of their domain and now they are a ways down the list."
The queasiness comes as the Board of Supervisors voted recently to give Janssen the power to make hiring and firing recommendations and to oversee department heads. Up until recently - after two CAO candidates turned down the chance to fill Janssen's shoes - the supervisors were soley responsible for hiring and firing non-elected department heads and overseeing departments.
In fact, some supervisors seemed to relish the opportunity at Tuesday's weekly board meetings to put department heads on the hot seat and grill them about the latest faux pas.
But Janssen is now in the process of deciding on who will serve as "junior CAOs" to take over that responsibility, overseeing clusters of departments. That means department heads will report directly to these officials and not the Board of Supervisors.
The supervisors are expected to vote next month on Janssen's plan overhauling the county's power structure.

Assemblyman Lloyd Levine's plan to ban incandescent light bulbs in California just passed its first committee test today. The Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee OK'd it by a 7-2 vote.

Levine's bill is AB 722, and more info can be found here.

Levine appeared on CNBC this morning debating Assemblyman Doug La Malfa, R-Richvale, about the merits of his plan to force Californians to switch to more energy-efficient fluorescent bulbs.

Levine says the bulbs can help save the environment and reduce the demand for electricity.

La Malfa sees the bill as just another example of "nanny government" -- i.e. Democratic bills that seek to regulate every portion of our daily lives.

"It does get a little embarrassing,'' LaMalfa says. "We have spanking bills. We have bills saying how long you can tie your dog up .... People around this country, you always look at California as setting the trends. Please don't do what we do, OK?"

The upcoming trip by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to El Salvador and Mexico is proving to be a hot ticket.
A large delegation of city officials and business leaders is on board to travel with him and this time, unlike his last two major trips to Asia and Washington, D.C., he will be accompanied by a large troup of television reporters.
Details are in today's Tipoffs column n the Daily News.

Next weekend is Big Sunday, the second annual coordinated effort between the mayor's office and Temple Israel to bring together a hoped-for 50,000 volunteers to take on projects throughout the city.
The program has grown so big that it actually takes up the entier weekend with projects scattered throughout Southern California. It could be as simple as sitting with an elderly person or reading to kids to more intense projects. It is all being coordinated through the Big Sunday organization.
To try to convince people that volunteering is good, the group is taking a new approach and released a study saying volunteerism is good for your health.
And, it also notes that California is not doing so well in terms of voluntering compraed with other states. In a separate study, it says that California ranks 38th out of the 50 states.

Businesses, have you paid your sales tax bills? If not, prepare to add public humiliation to the list of problems you'll be dealing with. Thanks to a new law, for the first time the state today publicly posted a list of the 227 worst sales tax delinquents. Altogether, they owe the state of California about $219 million.

Don't worry if you're just a few days late paying your bill. These are debts that go back several years for which the state has made multiple attempts to collect, including taking out liens.

The worst offender is a Tustin business, Southland Federal Enterprises, that owes $17 million to the Board of Equalization.

There are probably about a dozen businesses from the San Fernando Valley on the list, including one in Tarzana that owes about $7 million.

Link to the list here.

As part of his new anti-gang strategy unveiled this week, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said he will hire a "Director of Anti-Gang and Youth development". When reporters asked about the new gang czar position at a press conference, Villaraigosa was quick to correct. It's not a gang czar.
"I didn't want to use the word czar," Villaraigosa said. "It sounded too military to me. I don't like the connotation of the word czar."
The director will be " the individual who will have authority to coordinate prevention, intervention, re-entry services in the City of Los Angeles. So they would function in that capacity. But that wasn't the term we wanted to use."
Civil rights attorney and author of the city's gang reduction strategy report Connie Rice urged the mayor to hire a gang czar, and has said recently that she thinks there may only be five people in Los Angeles qualified for the job. But she too doesn't care for the czar title.
"In light of the sad demise of the real Czars, and the abject failure of every federal "Drug Czar," we are reluctant to use that title," Rice's team wrote in their report.
Sorry mayor. Sorry Connie. We're still going to call him or her the gang czar.

On his annual trip to Washington, D.C.next week, Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich is once again going to push his reform package to address the high cost of illegal immigration in the county and across the nation.
A political hot potato for many politicians, Antonovich has no qualms about sharing the data he's squeezed out of various county departments in recent years.
“Illegal immigration continues to have a devastating impact on Los Angeles County taxpayers,” Antonovich said in a prepared release. “When the nearly $500 million spent on welfare is added to the costs of public safety and health care – the total cost exceeds $1 billion a year. This does not include the skyrocketing cost of education.”
Antonovich noted that the United States is one of the few nations where children of undocumented immigrants become legal citizens if born here. As a result, every child born to an undocumented immigrant is entitled to a variety of social services, including welfare, until they are 18 years old.
This costs the county nearly $420 million annually in welfare and food stamp benefits, Antonovich said. Nearly 100,000 children of 60,000 undocumented parents receive welfare.
In the jail system, a quarter of the 19,000 inmates are undocumented immigrants.
“The cost to our county's justice system has increased more than 50 percent just seven years ago to $220 million a year, which includes incarceration, prosecution, defense and probation,” Antonovich said.
The county's health system, long teetering on the brink of financial collapse, spends about $360 million a year to provide health services to undocumented immigrants, who make up about 30 percent of its patients.
During his trip, Antonovich plans to urge lawmakers to take several steps to address this problem.
Antonovich would like to see the federal government help stabilize Mexico's economy by encouraging the country to privatize their state-run companies, set up medical centers along the Mexican side of the border with the United States, create a bonded guest worker program, establish a trained reserve component to increase the number of U.S. Border Patrol officers and increase funding for more prosecutions in the United States for those who violate immigration laws.

In his declaration of war against street gangs this week, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa defiantly said he and the city woudl combine forces to protect the new East Valley High School in North Hollywood from being taken over by gangs.
The school, he said, was being targeted by four separate gangs vying to decide which one will rule the six-month old campus. "We shall stop them," he declared.
One problem.
Schooll officials and LAPD gang officers say that isn't the case.
While there are four gangs operating around the school, none of its members are enrolled at the school and students say the threat is overrted.
Daily New reporter Naush Boghossian talked to the officials and provided a report here.

If California is the ATM of presidential politics, it is the San Fernando Valley that is helping fill the machines with cash.
In today's Daily News, Washington, D.C., reporter Lisa Friedman breaks down how much the Valley contribued to the main presidential candidates as well as how much Hollywood is contributing.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-NY, remains the frontrunner among Hollywood, but Sen. Barak Obama is moving up among Democratic givers. On the Republican side, itis former Massachussetts Gov. Mitt Romney who is the early frontrunner, followed by former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Los Angeles Councilman Bill Rosendahl, whose district includes Los Angeles International Airport and is no stranger to the politics of airport operations, is taking to the tarmac to complain about neighboring Santa Monica.
Rosendahl is joininng Assemblyman Ted Lieu, D-El Segudo, and various residents in protesting the increase in private jets at Santa Monica Airport _ a longtime local issue where residents have complained about the greater number of private jets flying in and out of the facility.
Rosendahl insisted he is not trying to lecture Santa Monica, but offering to "raise awareness" about air pollution, noise and safety concerns. The event will begin at noon on Saturday.

The man who makes a living seeking questions to answers will be honrored this week by the Los Angeles City Councill.
Alex Trebek, the host of the popular game show "Jeopardy," will be honored by Councilman Bernard Parks for his 23 years as host of the show and his involvement with numerous organizations.
Trebek, who has received four daytime Emmy's for his work, is active in a numbe rof organizations, including World Vision and United Services Organization.
The reason for Parks decision to honor Trebek, however, might be because the show is planning on taping its Jeopardy Colelge Championship sreies at USC's Galen Center later this week.

How important is California to national politics.?
It is still the state the pays for presidential politics, kicking in $1 of every $8 raised by the major candidates, reports John Wildermuth of the San Francisco Chronicle.
The reports detail who Californians favor (HIllary Clinton has the edge over Barak Obama) when it comes to hitting people up for cash. What we want to see is how much of that money returns to California for its February primary after a year of national campaigning and the early contets in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada.

Continuing his emphsis on gangs, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will be proposing a $168 million anti-gang program designed to deter young people from joining gangs and convincing gang members to quit.
The details of the program, expectged to include a plan to create gang reduction zones throughout the city and administered by a gang czar in his office, will released when he speaks at 5 pm.at East Valley High School in North Holllywood.

For those who just can't get enough of the health-care debate in Sacramento -- or for those who can't make sense of the increasingly complex fracas -- a new website has just been launched which seems to be a nice CliffsNotes guide to the whole issue.

The site, www.calhealthreform.org, is put up by the Oakland-based California HealthCare Foundation and the Los Angeles-based Center for Governmental Studies. The foundation is a nonprofit philanthropy which is "committed to improving the way health care is delivered and financed in California." The Center is a think tank which is generally considered an accurate source for nonpartisan analysis.

The site, which I'm told just went live today, summarizes all the major proposals by lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, posts news items on the debate, debunks common myths about health care and even has a calendar listing dates of upcoming legislative hearings.

Worth checking out if you're into health care.