December 2007 Archives

While he has spent most of the holiday freezing in Iowa campaigning for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is returning to take part in the Rose Parade in neighboring Pasadena.

Villaraigosa will be riding on the city's float, the S.S. Los Angeles, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Port of Los Angeles.

The city's float is a six-vessel piece called, "The Place Where the World Comes Together."

The float marks teh 100th entry by the city in the parade.

Scheduled to join Villaraigosa on the float is Councilwoman Janice Hahn, whose district includes the port.
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Part of me is really, really excited that California, the most populous state, finally will have a say in picking the party nominees with our Feb. 5 presidential primary. If two thirds of more of them don't fold their tents after Iowa and New Hampshire, we might be more than just punctuation on the process.
You gotta love that people like Rudy, Mitt, Hillary and Barack will actually have to set foot out here and be accessible to more than their six-figure fundraisers.
On the other hand, it means putting up with a big ole dump of campaign dollars, which doesn't excite anyone who isn't in broadcast advertising, sign printing or automated phone systems. Get ready for wall-to-wall commercials on radio and TV and so many annoying phone calls you can't hang up on them fast enough. If anybody knows what campaign overkill looks like, it's Iowans, whose sentiments about now are summed up in low-key fashion in this little YouTube'd ditty.
Perhaps their bitterness stems in part from knowing that, once their Jan. 3 caucus is over, it's highly unlikely that either the annointed candidates nor President Whoever will acknowledge Iowa's existence, much less return to the state.

There once was a time when leaving for work at 5:30 a.m. meant Brigitte Paulicivic practically had the San Diego Freeway to herself Sue Doyle in the Daily News.

Driving to her Woodland Hills job before the crack of dawn, the Santa Monica woman thought she had discovered a great little secret about commuting and avoiding traffic tie-ups.

Not anymore.

The early morning drive that had been a breeze for Paulicivic for the past five years is now crowded with other vehicles.

In a murderous quest aimed at "cleansing" their turf of snitches and rival gangsters, members of one of Los Angeles County's most vicious Latino gangs sometimes killed people just because of their race, an investigation found. AP in the Daily News.

There were even instances in which Florencia 13 leaders ordered killings of black gangsters and then, when the intended victim couldn't be located, said "Well, shoot any black you see," Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca said.

"In certain cases some murders were just purely motivated on killing a black person," Baca said.

Tipoffs: Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa makes his vows for the new year; challenges for City Hall in 2008.

For Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the new year brings with it new hope of emerging from an entanglement of personal problems and political defeats that have all but sidetracked his once-shining political career. Daily News.

But Villaraigosa still faces some grim economic realities as Los Angeles grapples with a slowing economy and a prolonged writers strike that have begun to take their toll on the city budget.

And the mayor and city are facing a high-stakes gamble at the polls in February, when voters will be asked to approve a replacement telephone-users tax - without which the city could lose $270 million.

It certainly feels that way. From the housing crisis to striking writers to high gas prices, old was new again in 2007. Here is a look at the year's top local business stories: Muhammad El-Hassan in the Daily News.

1. Home sales, prices drop

The housing market suffered a major slump in 2007, representing this year's top business story.

Reminiscent of the housing slump of the last decade, home sales took a major dive in 2007, with a double-digit year-over-year plunge nationwide. That was followed by a drop in home prices that also reached double digits in some markets, including Southern California.

For the Los Angeles City Council, this year has been filled with trying to establish its independence as Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was distracted by personal problems. DailY News.

In the power vacuum - and emboldened by voter approval of a term-limit extension that gives current members some job security with the ability to seek a third term - council members took several steps to try to boost their relevance amid a skeptical electorate.

"This was a great year for the City Council," Council President Eric Garcetti said. "The council became a more strategic body this year and talked about issues in a more proactive way."

Starting next week, minimum-wage workers will see a salary increase, kids will gain new protections from secondhand smoke, and cleats made from kangaroos will be legal to sell in California. Harrison Sheppard in the Daily News.

Those are just a few of the new laws that will take effect Tuesday after the Legislature passed 964 bills this year and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed 750 into law, according to the Senate Office of Research.

But analysts say this year's legislative session, overshadowed by wrangling over budget issues, resulted in few new laws that will make a major difference to average Californians.

In fact, two of the more significant laws that take effect in 2008 - an increase in the minimum wage and a ban on using handheld wireless phones while driving - were passed not this year, but in 2006.

Attention, Metro pass holders: Beginning Tuesday, there'll be no more free rides - at least not on DASH and Commuter Express buses.

Metro officials decided earlier this month that they'd had enough of picking up fares for Metro pass holders traveling on DASH and Commuter Express buses operated by the Los Angeles Department of Transportation. Sue Doyle in the Daily News.

Last year alone, Metro had to fork out about $760,000 to reimburse LADOT. That amount covered only about half the rides, so Metro thinks LADOT could take in some $1.5 million in 2008 thanks to the change.

Metro officials said it's not unreasonable to ask riders to share in the rising costs of transportation.

A city ordinance that would require a ``living wage'' for airport-area hotel employees was upheld today by the 2nd District Court of Appealm City News Service reports.
The court found that the Enhancement Zone Ordinance was sufficiently
different from a repealed Living Wage Ordinance because it addressed objections
expressed by hotels and businesses, according to the City Attorney's Office.
``I am pleased to report that the California Court of Appeal today, in a
published opinion, ruled for the city and upheld the city's Enhancement Zone
Ordinance,'' said City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo.
Officials for the hotels along the Century corridor said they were studying their options on an appeal

Los Angeles Unified School District is forfeiting millions of dollars in federal funds because just half of its eligible students are taking advantage of a lunch program in which kids eat for free or at reduced prices, the Daily News has learned. Naush Boghossian in the Daily News.

While 74 percent of the district's 700,000 students are estimated to be eligible for the federal program that subsidizes meals for low-income students, only 37percent of those in middle schools and high schools participate, LAUSD officials said. Despite higher participation by elementary students, the total rate lags far behind that in other large urban school districts - adding pressure on the LAUSD as it strains to boost food services on an increasingly tight budget.

"What is outrageous is that this is an absolute necessity and a valuable service, ... and I'm concerned we have a low participation rate because administrative costs are great, and we haven't made the necessary investments," school board President Monica Garcia said.

Online data base of schools.

American consumers, uneasy about the economy and unimpressed by the merchandise in stores, delivered the bleak holiday shopping season retailers had expected, if not feared, according to one early but influential projection.NYT in the Daily News.

Spending from Thanksgiving to Christmas rose just 3.6 percent over last year, the weakest performance in at least four years, according to MasterCard Advisors, a division of the credit card company. By comparison, sales grew 6.6 percent in 2006 and 8.7 percent in 2005.

"There was not a recipe for a pickup in sales growth," said Michael McNamara, vice president for research and analysis at MasterCard Advisors, citing higher gas prices, a slowing housing market and a tight credit market.

Citing changes in its housing agency, Los Angeles officials announced Monday that $72 million in new federal funding has been awarded to the city for its efforts to deal with the homeless. Daily News.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said the Department of Housing and Urban Development made the award to the city's Shelter Plus Care program.

"This is a watershed moment in L.A.'s effort to end homelessness," Villaraigosa said. "This is proof that when you set a goal, major change and progress can occur."

Questions over whether an insurance company acted properly in denying a liver transplant to a Northridge girl continued to reverberate Monday as insurance company executives said their actions have been mischaracterized. Daily News.

In a message e-mailed to employees, CIGNA Health Care's chief medical officer Jeffrey Kang and president David Cordani said the company had done all it could for Nataline Sarkisyan, who died last week after twice being denied authorization for a liver transplant even though doctors at UCLA Medical Center said she could be saved with one.

Kang and Cordani said the insurer's initial denial of the transplant was made after "we went directly to not one, but two, independent experts in the field who agree that the procedure in question, given the patient's particular circumstances, would not have been an effective or appropriate treatment.

California faces an estimated $14 billion budget deficit, but the state's independent fiscal watchdog has an answer - trim some of the tax loopholes that total $50 billion. Steve Geissinger in the Daily News.

Simple idea. Difficult to make happen.

That's because each of the hundreds of tax breaks are important to some interest group, political analysts said, and a few of those loopholes are perceived almost as a constitutional right.

Tipoffs: The mayor wins over some schools, even with LAUSD offering different rules.

Let's dub 2008 the "Year of the Home Buying Opportunity."

That's my glass-half-full take on what's going to happen with the residential real estate market.

But the extent of the opportunity will materialize over time. Gregory J Wilcox in the Daily News.

Perhaps market tracker DataQuick Information Systems and the California Association of Realtors provided a glimpse last week with sales and price statistics for November.

DataQuick noted that the median price across the Southern California region stretching from Ventura to San Diego fell a record 10.3 percent from a year earlier, to $435,000. (DataQuick's stats include new and previously owned houses and condominiums.)

With less than two weeks left in the year, Los Angeles is on track to record its lowest homicide rate since 1970. Rachel Uranga in the Daily News.

That year, 394 people were killed in the city as the war in Vietnam raged on and the Beatles called it quits.

As of Dec. 15, 379 people had been killed in Los Angeles this year, with about 200 of those incidents gang-related. The overall homicide rate is down 17 percent from last year.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has seen similar declines, registering a 25 percent drop in homicides this year over last. Police attribute the decline to a variety of factors, including more focused policing - and chance.

Interest in the wide-open presidential election _ and California's early role with the Feb. 5 primary _ is serving to drive up voter registration, particularly among Democrats.

Secretary of State Debra Bowen is reporting that 500,000 more Californians are registered to vote this year compared with the last presidential primary election.

“Californians have a chance to shape the presidential race with the earlier primary election, and the critical first step is registering to vote,” Bowen said. “There are still 31 days left to register to vote before the registration period closes January 22.”

Five-hundred thousand more Californians are registered to vote than there were at this time before the last Presidential Primary Election four years ago, according to the Secretary of State’s newest Report of Registration released today.

The report, with data gathered 60 days before a statewide primary election, reflects updates to voter registration rolls, including the removal of those who have passed away, moved out of state, or have been determined to be ineligible to vote, as well as the addition of new registrants.

When compared to the same period before the last presidential primary, registration lags behind California’s population growth. While the overall registration number has grown, the percentage of people who are eligible to vote and actually registered to vote has dipped from about 68.4% to just below 67.3%. The drop is partly due to better tracking and removal of so-called “deadwood” from the voter registration rolls.

“Californians have a chance to shape the presidential race with the earlier primary election, and the critical first step is registering to vote,” said Secretary Bowen, the state’s chief elections officer. “There are still 31 days left to register to vote before the registration period closes January 22.”

To view the release go to : http://www.sos.ca.gov/executive/press_releases/news_releases.htm.

Hollywood heiress Paris Hilton might have gotten a Coke and a smile
from Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies during her stint in jail
last summer, but the department went even further for errant actor Mel
Gibson. Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

In a review released Thursday into whether movie stars who run afoul
of the law get preferential treatment, an investigator found three
deputies involved in the drunk-driving arrest of Gibson violated
policy - including driving Gibson to a tow yard to pick up his car.

Deputies violated policy by hustling him through the release process
and not obtaining his palm print and the required signatures before
release, said Office of Independent Review Chief Attorney Michael
Gennaco.

And after his release, a sergeant gave him a lift to get his car.

"It's very rare to have an arrestee being driven to a tow yard so they
can pick up their car," Gennaco wrote in the report. "And in Malibu,
the tow yard was 112 miles away."

Legislators and activists involved with the Santa Susana Field Lab are
urging Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to support Superfund status for the
former nuclear research and rocket-engine test site. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

The governor is expected to decide by the end of the month whether he
supports placing the 2,850-acre lab on the National Priorities List,
which would bring U.S. Environmental Protection Agency oversight and
stringent cleanup standards that lab neighbors have long sought.

"The community has been praying for a decade that this site would be
added to Superfund list," said Dan Hirsch of the Committee to Bridge
the Gap, a watchdog group that has followed the field lab controversy.

"If the governor blocks Superfund listing, he would be doing a favor
to the polluter and a grave injustice to the people who live near this
site."

Despite threats of a mass defection of gang and narcotics officers,
the Los Angeles Police Commission on Thursday unanimously approved an
unprecedented requirement forcing cops from those critical
crime-fighting units to provide details of their finances. Rachel Uranga in the Daily News.

All five members of the civilian commission struck an almost
apologetic tone after passing the rule, calling it the last hurdle in
complying with a costly federal consent decree imposed after the
Rampart corruption scandal exposed a pattern of police abuse.

"It is not a sign of a lack of confidence in sworn officers but rather
of compliance with the consent decree," Commission President Anthony
Pacheco said. "This is just one mechanism in the arsenal to ferret out
any wrongdoing.

In what may be the largest early release of inmates in United States
history, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration is proposing to
open the prison gates next year to some 22,000 low-risk offenders. Sacramento Bee.

According to details of a budget proposal made available to The Bee,
the administration will ask the Legislature to authorize the release
of certain non-serious, non-violent, non-sex offenders who have less
than 20 months to go on their terms.

The proposal would cut the prison population by 22,159 inmates and
save the cash-strapped state $256 million in the fiscal year that
begins July 1 and more than $780 million through June 30, 2010.
Besides reducing the inmate population, the proposal also calls for a
reduction in more than 4,000 prison jobs, most of which would involve
correctional officers.

About half of the Sheriff's Department's internal investigations into officer-involved shootings and other uses of force in 2004 and 2005 were not conducted thoroughly and some were seriously flawed, according to a report released Wednesday. Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

In the report, Special Counsel Merrick Bobb raised questions about a number of investigations done by the Internal Affairs Bureau, including cases involving sheriff's deputies who shot suspects through their windshields and used flashlights to strike suspects.

In eight of 16 officer-involved shootings in 2004 and 2005, Bobb raised concerns that investigators didn't interview deputies involved in shootings and instead relied on Homicide Bureau reports in determining whether policies were violated.

A week after announcing seven Los Angeles Unified schools had voted to
join the mayor's reform effort, teachers union officials announced
Thursday that two of the high schools lacked the required majority to
participate. Naush Boghossian in the Daily News.

United Teachers Los Angeles said Watts' Jordan High will not join the
mayor's Partnership for Los Angeles Schools and dozens of Santee High
teachers will vote in January.

About 60 teachers at Santee High who were off-track when the vote took
place Dec. 11 didn't get the chance to vote and now will cast ballots
Jan. 8.

Los Angeles County's population grew by less than
one-half of 1 percent this year, reflecting a long-term slowing as
more people are moving to less expensive areas of the country. Harrison Sheppard in the Daily News.

The county's population reached 10.3million as of July 1, according to
the state Department of Finance. That was a one-year increase of 0.45
percent.

By comparison, in 2000 the county's population grew by 1.93 percent.
The only thing keeping the county growing now has been a healthy birth
rate, with 152,479 new babies delivered in the past year and 60,800
deaths.

Even as the Los Angeles City Council approved raises for thousands of
city employees Wednesday, city leaders said the union contracts allow
them to reopen negotiations next year if revenue drops or if voters
reject a telephone-users tax on the February ballot. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

The employee contracts - which come at a time when city revenue growth
has begun to fall sharply - provide 23 percent wage increases over the
next five years for some 200,000 city workers.

The increases come on top of regular "step" increases that can add as
much as 5.5 percent a year to workers' pay. And the contracts add up
to an additional $255 million over the next five years.

In a sign that Californians are tapping into a presidential primary season largely playing out elsewhere, the race here between Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama has narrowed substantially since October, according to a Field Poll released Tuesday.Sacramento Bee.

Clinton still holds a 14-point lead over fellow U.S. Sen. Obama among likely voters in the Democratic primary, 36 percent to 22 percent. But the margin between the two has dropped from the 25-point gap Field recorded just two months ago.

Poll Director Mark DiCamillo said his findings show California voters – who will go to the polls Feb. 5 – have started to tune in to the primary debate raging two and three time zones away.

Millions of dollars for Southern California projects are poised for approval in a massive federal spending bill that cleared a key hurdle in the Senate on Tuesday. Lisa Friedman in the Daily News.

Just days away from being finalized, the $516 billion spending bill includes funds for dozens of regional projects including cleanup at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory site and reimbursement for the costs of incarcerating illegal immigrants.

It also clears away the last federal obstacles to tunneling a "subway to the sea" through West Los Angeles.

Cramming together 11 of the year's 12 appropriations measures into a single package, it includes a controversial $70billion for the Iraq war that the White House had sought.

Some 500 LAPD gang and narcotics officers are threatening to retire or change jobs if the city follows through on a proposal forcing them to reveal their personal finances, union officials said. Rachel Uranga in the Daily News.

A financial-disclosure proposal set to be considered by the five-member civilian police commission Thursday would be the last major hurdle to comply with a seven-year old federal consent decree meant to root out police corruption.

Under the proposal, all gang and narcotics officers with the rank of lieutenant or below must provide a detailed list of their finances including all their properties, past-due credit card debts, outside income, stocks, bonds and checking accounts.

In one of the first steps toward cutting bureaucracy for neighborhood councils, the city clerk will begin overseeing local elections as soon as June, according to a proposal adopted Tuesday by the Los Angeles City Council.Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

The decision to move oversight of elections from the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment to the city clerk was one of several key recommendations put forward by the Neighborhood Council Review Commission.

Having the clerk's office handle elections is designed to free neighborhood council members and DONE from the responsibility of organizing, overseeing and promoting elections, which was time consuming and sometimes controversial.

Los Angeles' police and fire departments defied Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's call Tuesday to cut their budgets for next year and instead proposed major spending increases to improve public safety and emergency services. Daily News.

Commissions that govern the Los Angeles Police Department and Los Angeles Fire Department said they could not submit budget proposals with the 8 percent reduction requested by Villaraigosa without imposing draconian cuts, including layoffs.

Instead, both agencies submitted budget requests to the Mayor's Office that call for increases - $250 million more for the LAPD and $72 million for the LAFD.

Two City Council members are urging their colleagues to deny the reappointment of an affordable-housing advocate to the Community Redevelopment Agency Commission, charging that she has interfered with projects and hurt development efforts. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

In a letter to the council Tuesday, Councilman Bernard Parks and Councilwoman Jan Perry said CRA Commissioner Joan Ling has exceeded her authority by seeking to impose affordable-housing requirements and community-benefits conditions on projects in CRA zones.

"It has been our experience that in her role as a CRA Commissioner Joan Ling promotes an agenda that is driven by personal advocacy and results in a negative effect on South Los Angeles projects and housing projects in downtown Los Angeles," the letter said.

Despite five years of study and $25 million in design costs, airport commissioners on Monday scrapped most of the plans for a massive LAX baggage-handling system as projected construction costs have soared. Daily News.

Commissioners said the baggage-screening system planned for five terminals had become too technologically complicated and was part of an overall project budget that mushroomed from $341 million four years ago to more than $900 million.

"It's an unhappy situation I think that we have gotten as far as we have," said Gina Marie Lindsey, executive director of Los Angeles World Airports, which oversees the airport.

If legislation approved by the state Assembly Monday becomes law, it would be the largest overhaul of a health care system ever undertaken by a state. The legislation also would require insurance companies to offer coverage to Californians with pre-existing medical conditions. Sacramento Bee.

The landmark measure that would provide coverage to most uninsured Californians cleared its first major hurdle when it was approved along party lines in the Democratic-controlled lower house.

If the Senate approves the bill and voters agree to pay for it, it would extend coverage to nearly 70 percent of the state's permanently uninsured and require most Californians to buy health insurance.

USC presented a counterproposal to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission on Monday that offers to keep the Trojans football team at the stadium - but only if the panel is committed to making an estimated $50 million in improvements to the venue over four years. Daily News.

Also under the USC proposal, the university would take over operation of the stadium and make the upgrades itself if the commission failed to raise the money needed for the stadium improvements.

"With control comes responsibility and if we were in control, we would be responsible for the repair, maintenance and improvement," said Kristina Raspe, USC's associate senior vice president for real estate and asset management. "If they're going to be in control, they need to be responsible for those items."

Calling it the "public safety scandal of our era," a Los Angeles city official proposed a $10million program Monday to clear a backlog of 7,000 homicides and rapes dating back at least a decade. Daily News.

Councilman Jack Weiss, who wrote a letter with the proposal to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton, said he will be pressing to make solving the crimes a top priority next year.

"I am going to hold hearings every week on the backlog of DNA cases until every woman and man in this city is outraged," said Weiss, who chairs the City Council's Public Safety Committee.

Fabian Núñez felt betrayed.

It was 1993 and the immigrant rights activist was fuming: A lawmaker for East Los Angeles, a Mexican-American Democrat, wanted to stop California from issuing driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants. Núñez wrote and called Assemblyman Louis Caldera demanding an explanation, but the legislator only confirmed his decision to co-author the measure. Edwin Garcia in the Mercury News.

"I couldn't believe what I was hearing," Núñez recalled.

After hanging up, Núñez did something he never expected: He crossed the trench from political observer to political insider, eventually running for Assembly on a pro-immigrant platform, in Caldera's old district.

As a friend of presidents and hobnobber with governors, David Fleming makes an unlikely insurgent against the War on Drugs. Brent Hopkins in the Daily News.

He's been dubbed by a local business weekly as "The Valley's Most Powerful Person," chairs the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce and doles out dollars to charity by the millions.

He works for one of the world's largest law firms. He can preach for hours about business tax, government reform and transportation.

With his immaculate white shirts, slicked-back hair and easy familiarity with powerful people, Fleming embodies The Man.