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.
'

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.

Tipoffs: Looking at impact of writers strike; other odds and ends.

Actress Marsha Hunt still finds it painful to talk about the time 60 years ago this month when her acting career came to an abrupt halt. Lisa Friedman in the Daily News.

She had recently returned from a euphoric trip to Washington, D.C., to protest, along with Judy Garland, Humphrey Bogart, Danny Kaye and others, the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings into alleged Communist influences in Hollywood.

And though the trip had ended on a sour note - the group returned deflated after two days of watching their fellow actors and actresses treated as criminals - Hunt said she was still shocked when three offers to star in her own TV show were suddenly rescinded.

Nadja DiMartino, 13, takes a break from her homework every Monday night to watch her favorite new TV show, "Aliens in America." Kelly Puente in the Daily News.

As a young Muslim, DiMartino said she's seen very few positive portrayals of Islam in film and television. But this show, which stars a young Pakistani Muslim, is different, she said.

"It's so funny," DiMartino said. "You don't have to be Muslim to like it. Anyone can identify with it."

DiMartino was one of several hundred Muslims gathered at the Long Beach Convention Center on Saturday for the seventh annual Muslim Public Affairs Council convention. The council is a nonprofit organization that works for the civil rights of American Muslims.

Major topics for this year's event included Muslim portrayal in the media, countering Islamophobia, security and civil liberties, and building positive dialogue within the community.

The latest political tug of war over the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum could intensify Monday, when USC officials are set to respond to the Coliseum Commission's new proposal for a long-term lease to keep the Trojans' football home games at the city landmark. Daily News.

While USC has threatened to leave for the Rose Bowl, Coliseum officials late last week issued a counterproposal that compromised on the key issue of control of the stadium at the center of Exposition Park.

But at the heart of the struggle is how to fund millions of dollars in renovations at the aging stadium, which has a long history at the center of political power plays.

Ten months after installing a new computerized payroll process that has been roiled by glitches, Los Angeles Unified officials now say costs for fixing the system and completing its rollout could top $210 million. Naush boghossian in the Daily News.

The system, with an original price tag of $95 million, has underpaid or overpaid thousands of employees, and last week district officials said hiring consultants to fix it has already ballooned the cost to $132.5 million.

And some officials are questioning the district's transparency on all the costs associated with the system, noting that at least $6 million will be forfeited by allowing some overpaid teachers to keep the money.

California is the 12th largest source of greenhouse gas emissions on the planet, and 41 percent of the state's emissions come from the transportation sector. Karen Maeshiro in the Daily News.

The state also has three of the five most congested urban areas, and the congestion costs the state $20 billion annually in fuel and lost time.

One solution, according to an official with the California High-Speed Rail Authority, is to build a system that would connect the state's major metropolitan areas and get people out of their cars and onto mass transit.

Amid a drought, two giant Los Angeles reservoirs have to be drained because officials have found high levels of contamination in the water, Department of Water and Power officials announced Friday. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

Reservoirs in Silver Lake and Elysian Park were taken out of service in October when tests revealed bromate, a disinfectant byproduct that can form when treated water reacts with naturally occurring mineral bromide in sunlight.

The decision means L.A. will lose about 600 million gallons of drinking water, enough to serve 4,000 families for a year.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he will declare a "fiscal emergency" in January to give him and the Legislature more power to deal with the state's growing deficit. Associated Press in the Daily News.

Schwarzenegger made the announcement Friday after meeting with lawmakers and interest groups this week to tell them California's budget deficit is far worse than economists predicted just a few weeks ago.

The shortfall is no longer expected to be $10billion, but more than $14billion - a 40percent jump that would put it in orbit with some of the state's worst fiscal crises, those who have met with him said.

Charging that students from low-income homes will be evicted from athletic fields, a law firm representing the San Fernando Valley's largest youth sports program has asked the Los Angeles Unified School District board to reconsider plans to charge for after-school facilities use. Naush Boghossian in the Daily News.

Many of the 10,000 students who participate in the nonprofit Valley Youth Conference's programs will lose their only regular after-school activity, John Carpenter, a partner at Carpenter & Zuckerman, wrote in a letter to the board.

"This is an illegally imposed tax on families, and these school grounds are already paid for by our tax dollars. This is an unfair policy of charging school-age children to use their own schools," said Carpenter, representing the Valley Youth Conference.

It started as a dispute over the use of the n-word during public comments to the Los Angeles City Council.

On Friday, it escalated into a debate over whether people should be allowed to wear masks while testifying before the council. Daily News.

In both instances, the debates were prompted by City Hall gadflies who scrutinize the council and testify about everything from their protest rights to special permit waivers awarded by the council.

This time, however, instead of moving to adopt an outright ban, the council decided to seek a legal opinion on whether the city can ban masks during council meetings.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is making his second trip to Nevada this weekend on behalf of the presidential campaign of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Villaraigosa, one of the national co-chairs of Clinton's effort, has made one other trip on her behalf to Nevada to make the case to Latino voters to convince them to vote for her. He also recently went to Iowa to campaign for her.

The state's political watchdog agency voted Thursday to close a loophole in state law that allows candidates and elected officials to spend campaign money without justifying expenses as political or job-related. San Francisco Chronicle.

Candidates and officeholders now can spend money donated by supporters and special interests on almost anything as long as the expense has a "political, governmental or legislative purpose."

Because the law does not require much detail about that spending, voters and taxpayers viewing campaign disclosure forms have no way to tell if listed expenses, such as a costly meal at a five-star restaurant or a weekend stay at a resort hotel, are appropriate.

With immigrant deportations on the rise, more than half of U.S. Latinos are afraid someone close to them will be deported, even though only a quarter of the country's 47 million Hispanics are here illegally, according to a report released Thursday.Rachel Uranga in the Daily News.

The annual poll conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center found that Latinos - regardless of citizenship - are increasingly feeling the sting of discrimination and are sharply against increased enforcement, especially when local police are involved.

"Latinos are feeling vulnerable in the current political and policy context of this country," said Paul Taylor, acting director of the Washington, D.C.-based center. "They are feeling a range of negative effects from the increased public attention and the stepped-up enforcement measures that have accompanied the growing national debate over illegal immigration," Taylor said.

They take credit and debit cards and will even send you text messages when they need more money.

And no, they are not your children, they actually are talking parking meters. New, fancy, high-tech ones. Sue Doyle in the Daily News.

About 6,000 of the electronic meters are poised to soon stand guard on Los Angeles streets under a pilot program launched Thursday at a North Hollywood public parking lot.

Costing $5.5 million, the new machines are being installed to help recover money lost from broken meters - estimated at $1.6 million over the past two years.

In the first major endorsements in the race for the 2nd Supervisorial District, state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas, D-Los Angeles, was the choice of a group of county workers over Los Angeles Councilman Bernard Parks.

The closely watched race for the successor to Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke has drawn wide interest because of the rarity of having an open seat on the powerful board.

Unions are expected to play a major role in what is believed will be a low turnout election in June.

Ridley-Thomas, a former city councilman, received the backing of a coalition of county nurses, firefighters, homecare workers and probation officers.

The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, is scheduled to make its recommendations soon to its other union members.

Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon called Wednesday for an investigation into the release of a city attorney memo that said city leaders would be breaking the law if they stop processing development applications for the controversial Las Lomas development. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

The confidential memo was obtained by project opponents and distributed by a neighborhood council.

But Alarcon argued that publicizing the opinion gave the developer an inside look at the city's legal strategy on the project, which has already spawned several lawsuits.

Marking a major political coup, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa won his bid to manage seven Los Angeles Unified schools as a majority of parents and teachers voted to partner on education reform, according to results released Wednesday. Naush Boghossian in the Daily News.

The hard-won victory culminated several failed attempts by the mayor over the past two years to assume a role in the district and capped an aggressive weeks-long campaign to win support for his plan.

Villaraigosa's nonprofit Partnership for Los Angeles Schools is set to begin managing the schools in the 2008-09 school year, promising campuses greater resources and control over budget and curriculum.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa appeared to be winning his bid to manage
seven low-performing Los Angeles Unified schools, the mayor's office
said late Tuesday. Naush Boghossian in the Daily News.

While the school district had not yet released official ballot
results, officials with the mayor's office who were observing the vote
count said it appeared the majority of parents and teachers were
backing the plan. Villaraigosa said at a news conference he was "very
optimistic about all seven schools."

"While not all the votes have been counted, we do know this - over
20,000 parents and community members either voted today or signed a
petition to see the Los Angeles school district on a course toward
lower drop-out rates, higher student achievement, and safer
communities," he said as votes were still being tallied.

Despite concerns over its broad sweep, a city panel on Tuesday moved
ahead with a plan to ban fast-food restaurants in South Los Angeles. Daily News.

The proposal from Councilwoman Jan Perry was approved by the council's
Planning and Land Use Committee even though two city officials said
they believe more work on the ordinance is needed.

"We have a serious problem in my district with fast-food restaurants
and the increasing level of obesity and diabetes," Perry told the
panel.

For the first time in more than a decade, a high-stakes race is under
way for a Los Angeles County supervisorial seat in an election that
could significantly reshape the region's longtime political power
base. Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

While still months before voters hit the polls, Los Angeles City
Councilman Bernard Parks and state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas already
have launched what are widely expected to be fierce campaigns for the
post being vacated by the retirement of Yvonne B. Burke.

The race is the first highly competitive contest for the Board of
Supervisors since Burke battled U.S. Rep. Diane Watson in a bitter
1992 campaign to succeed the late Supervisor Kenneth Hahn.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday
to appoint Dean C. Logan acting registrar-recorder, despite critics'
concerns that he lacks a college degree and was at the center of an
election controversy in the state of Washington. Troy Anderson in the .

The appointment, with a salary of $175,826, comes as the Secretary of
State's Office sent draft documents to the county earlier this week
listing extra security measures it plans to impose on the county's
voting systems before recertifying them for the February presidential
primary election.

The Los Angeles Unified School District's practice of using race as a
factor in enrolling students for its popular magnet programs doesn't
violate an anti-discrimination law, a judge has ruled.Daily News.

In a ruling filed Monday, Superior Court Judge Paul Gutman upheld the
nation's second-largest school district's integration plan, which also
buses volunteer minority students to schools in certain parts of the
city.

The American Civil Rights Foundation had filed a lawsuit in 2005
claiming the district's practice violated a voter-approved initiative
that outlaws racial preferences in all public programs in California.

In a test for the local labor movement, Warren Furutani, a long-time local educator, fell short of an outright victory in an election for the state Assembly.

Furutani, a member of the Community College Board of Trustees and a former Los Angeles Unified School District board, had 49.2 pecent of the vote, the country Registrar reported. He will be in a Feb. 5 runoff against Libertarian Herb Peters and American Independent candidate Charlotte Sadiyah Gibson. Carson City councilman Mke Gibson, a Democrat, had placed second wit 38 percent of the vote.

The district, whifch includes portisn of Long Beach and the Harbor City area, was holding a special election crated with the election of Laura Richardson to Congress.

Furutani was the beneficiary of assistance from the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, which poured in workers and money to get out the vote for him.

Despite assurances that a telephone-users tax on the February ballot is simply aimed at modernizing how Los Angeles taxes communications systems, wording in the measure opens the door to also taxing Internet access. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

Federal law currently prohibits taxes on Internet access and e-mail - but that law sunsets in 2014, and some watchdogs said Monday that if the broadly written Measure S telephone tax passes it could allow the city to tax Internet access without additional voter approval.

"How do you say you're not taxing the Internet when the statute specifically says it's covering DSL, Voice-Over-Internet protocol, text messaging, instant messaging and PCS?" said Walter Moore, who is writing the opposition to the measure for the Feb. 5 ballot.

Los Angeles Unified officials have sent thousands of fliers urging parents and teachers to let Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa manage some district schools in what critics decried Monday as a biased campaign that misuses taxpayer funds. Naush Boghossian in the Daily News.

The district paid for the fliers and automated calls to remind parents about today's vote at seven schools, but critics say the information is essentially an advocacy campaign for the mayor's Partnership for Los Angeles Schools.

One flier obtained by the Daily News from the district's innovation division lists the benefits of a yes vote to join the partnership but makes no mention of any potential drawbacks.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa warned Monday that he is prepared to call for mandatory cuts in water usage after the first of the year unless Los Angeles residents begin to sharply cut back.
Daily News.

"We made a call for cuts early in the year, and while there hasn't been a reduction there hasn't been an increase in water use," Villaraigosa said.

"But if we need to go to a mandatory program after the first of the year, we will. I think people understand that with the fires that surrounded us these last few months, with the fact we had the hottest year on record and the fact the snowpack in the Sierras is down dramatically, that we will have to understand the need to conserve."

The Los Angeles Unified school board will consider today awarding more than $4.7 million in new contracts to fix its computerized payroll system - funds that will come on top of $16.5 million in contracts already approved for the system since February. Naush Boghossian in the Daily News.

The contracts would pay for more consultants to come in and fix the system as well as for hardware to support the system's recovery efforts, said Dave Holmquist, the LAUSD's interim chief operating officer.

Thousands of LAUSD employees have been underpaid or overpaid since the district rolled out the new $95 million computerized payroll system in February.

As Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama prepare for some local fundraisers tonight in Los Angeles, both are also planning a visible presence to bring out their supporters.
For Obama, fresh off the Oprah-mania tour in Iowa and South Carolina, it will be a Universal City event with the Goo Goo Dolls and Ne-Yo.
Clinton, will be a private fundraiser as more than 300 house parties are planned around the state to reach out to volunteers.
Both campaigns are showing a lot of interest in California with its Feb. 5 presidential primary and, even more important, the mailing soon of absentee ballots.

Eight months ago, in a contemplative moment, Patric M. Verrone, president of the Writers Guild of America, west, sketched out what could have been a script for the collision that wrecked talks between Hollywood's producers and striking writers on Friday. New York Times in the Daily News.

During an interview in his office here, Verrone described the looming negotiations with employers as a confrontation much grander than a simple fight over pay formulas. This battle would be about respect.

Writers, he said, were looking to restore a sense of leverage and status that had been lost as ever-larger corporations took control of the entertainment business. He described Hollywood as teetering on the brink of a dark age, as far as creative types were concerned. "I think if they could do this business without us, they would, and so making our task as mechanical and simple and low-paying and unartistic as possible," Verrone said.

GLENDALE - With nearly 200 miles of Glendale's water pipes installed before 1940, the city plans to hike water rates to help pay for a $220 million upgrade. Alex Dobuzinskis in the Daily News.

The rate hike would amount to about 19.5 percent over the next three years, bringing the average household rate from $55 a month to more than $65.

Officials say the rate hike will allow them to qualify for millions of dollars in bond money to pay for an overhaul of the city's water infrastructure. But first, the City Council must approve the increase at its Tuesday meeting.

TIPOFFS:Los Angeles officials push back DWP rate increases until voters decide telephone tax.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa took off his jacket, grabbed the microphone in Jordan High's auditorium and began trying to convince more than 200 Watts parents, teachers and students to join his educational reform effort. Naush Boghossian in the Daily News.

The pitch was reminiscent of a one-month blitz of town hall meetings last year in which Villaraigosa exhorted support for legislation that would have given him a substantial role in Los Angeles Unified.

"I believe there's no magic wand, that this isn't going to be simple, that we're not going to put this partnership together and overnight turn around the schools," Villaraigosa told the crowd last week.

Aided by a new database that matches criminal histories with gun owners, state and local law enforcement agents have begun rounding up California's most violent gun-toting felons. Jason Kandel in the Daily News.

The state Department of Justice and the LAPD have identified 110 fugitives, ex-convicts and other offenders who legally purchased guns then later were convicted of violent crimes. Some 890 others have been identified across the state.

"Having armed, convicted felons is a risk to public safety," said Wilfredo Cid, the chief of the Bureau of Firearms at the California Attorney General's Office. "Those people do not have a right to carry a weapon."

Thousands of Southern California's middle-class families are paying into a tax originally designed for the mega-rich - and it could get worse, according to a Daily News review of Internal Revenue Service data. Lisa Friedman in the Daily News.

Southland households paying the federal alternative minimum tax rose more than 22 percent in 2005 - including thousands of families earning less than $100,000, according to an analysis of the latest data available.

And analysts are warning that next year could see an even more dramatic increase as Republican and Democratic lawmakers remain at odds over how to solve a growing issue that could hit more than 3 million additional California families.

Well, that didn't take long. Last Sunday we asked for a little help with the housing mess.

The Big Daddy of All Lifelines arrived on Thursday, courtesy of big government teaming with big lenders so more than 1 million homeowners can keep their heads above roiling financial waters. Gregory J. Wilcox in the Daily News.

It was damage control from the nation's capital for about 1.2 million homeowners with subprime loans that may turn into foreclosures.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has the scars from his failed 2005 ballot measure to prove how searing a campaign can be when trying to change the way political boundaries are drawn. Steve Harmon in the Daily News.

Schwarzenegger stepped into the fray again last week, proposing to create a 14-member citizens commission that would redraw district boundaries for the Assembly, Senate and Board of Equalization.

Political observers wonder whether Schwarzenegger has devised a strategy that can withstand a pummeling from Democrats, who don't want to give up their lock on the Legislature, and Republicans, who may well be disappointed that the plan doesn't go far enough.

If the latest measure makes it to the November 2008 ballot, Democrats and their labor allies would likely mount a strong challenge against it. Experts said the party would employ the tried and true message that the measure would amount to a GOP power grab that would disenfranchise communities of color.

The Santa Susana Field Lab should be listed as a high-priority cleanup, with closer scrutiny by federal authorities of the site's extensive chemical and radioactive contamination, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's regional office announced Friday. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

After a seven-month review of the 2,850-acre hilltop site, the EPA's regional team found that contamination at the site poses enough of a threat to human health and the environment to be added to the National Priorities List, also called the Superfund program.

Lab watchdogs and neighbors have pushed for Superfund status - which is reserved for the nation's worst contaminated sites - that would give the EPA authority to conduct a new investigation and oversee cleanup at the lab.

Shortly before noon, sprinklers shot skyward across an apartment lawn, followed by a whoosh of water discharged by a broken pipe. Dana Batholomew in the Daily News.

Within minutes, a flood of precious water had spilled across the sidewalk and into a neighboring yard.

"It's terrible," said Sonia Ramos, 44, a resident of the complex in the 6300 block of Fulton Avenue. "A lot of water wasted. This building - we told the manager, but they don't care. Where I live, the sink is leaking; the toilet is broken and leaks constantly for the past six months."

Enter the city's Drought Busters.

Everyone will be glad to know that as far as the Los Angeles City Council is concerned, peace is important.
The council, venturing off into international affairs, unanimously came out in favor of a proposal by Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich that the federal government create a Department of Peace and Nonviolence.

California voters will face one of the simplest ballots in years in February, but experts say they can still expect a barrage of advertising over the next two months. Harrison Sheppard in the Daily News.

That's because the issues on the Feb. 5 ballot could influence hundreds of millions of dollars in annual state spending, term limits for state lawmakers and potentially the next presidential election.

Voters will weigh in on seven measures, one candidate race and the presidential primary. But the election generally boils down to four decisions because four of the ballot measures are nearly identical and one has been abandoned by its authors.

The union representing most Department of Water and Power workers has dropped its lawsuit against the Daily News over publishing employees' names, positions and salaries online and has agreed to pay $17,213 in attorney fees and costs. Beth Barrett in the Daily News.

The settlement between the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 18, and the Daily News Publishing Company was reached Monday. The union filed in court Nov. 15 to have its lawsuit dismissed.

The union representing nearly 8,500 DWP workers twice failed in Superior Court to persuade a judge to bar the newspaper from continuing to post workers' salary information obtained under the California Public Records Act.

The region's transportation system is so clogged that Southern California residents and businesses will have to pay up if they want swifter freeways and efficient transit systems, according to a regional plan released Thursday. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

Current funding falls far short of the estimated $545.3billion needed to upgrade and expand the transportation system throughout the six-county Southern California area.

And with $132billion needed to fill the gap, the region should pursue pay-to-use programs including toll roads, benefit-assessment districts and cargo container fees, according to the plan by the Southern California Association of Governments.

President Bush acknowledges it's "no perfect solution." Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson says it's "no silver bullet." Associated Press in the Daily News.

The plan negotiated by the Bush administration to freeze the low introductory rates on subprime home loans appears likely to help only a fraction of the homeowners who face huge jumps in their mortgage payments.

Homeowners dialing up their mortgage company to get their current rate frozen could be disappointed. The White House plan doesn't force mortgage companies to give eligible homeowners a break. It is voluntary.

Youths in Los Angeles schools are less physically fit than their peers statewide, although they have improved a bit over last year, according to California fitness data released Thursday. Harrison Sheppard in the Daily News.

Less than 21percent of students in the Los Angeles Unified School District met all the criteria considered to comprise a healthy lifestyle, while the statewide average was 27-31percent.

But while kids in the LAUSD and across California improved by several points over last year's results, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell said most children still have far to go before they can be considered in shape.

Controversial DWP water and power rate hikes stalled Wednesday as Los Angeles city leaders demanded that the nation's largest municipal utility answer a growing number of questions and better justify the need. Daily News.

Three City Council members called for at least a two-month delay so Department of Water and Power officials can provide more information about the proposed increases.

Under the plan, electric rates would rise 9percent over three years and water rates would climb 6percent over two years.

Cardinal Roger Mahony told police Wednesday he was shoved to the ground and kicked by an angry man in a July attack but said he would not file a police report. Rick Coca in the Daily News.

Mahony told Los Angeles Police Department Lt. Paul Vernon by phone that he was dressed casually in a sports shirt as he walked toward a mailbox near Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral at dusk last summer.

"A man approached him and said: `You're the cardinal, aren't you?"' Vernon said Mahony told him. "The man shouted at him. It happened very quickly and the man just went off on him - shoved him, knocked him to the ground and kicked him a couple of times."

The final list of Los Angeles city officials who have formally turned down the 4.16 percent raise retroactive to July 1 came out on Wednesday.
Heading the list was Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, followed by Controller Laura Chick, who submitted letters rejecting their raises to $232,425 and 196,667, respectively.
Four City Council members rejected the increases boosting their pay to $178,000 a year. They are Council members Eric Garcetti, Wendy Greuel, Janice Hahn and Jack Weiss.
Accepting salary increases are City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, who is to get $214,546 and Council members Richard Alarcon, Tony Cardenas, Jose Huizar, Tom LaBonge, Bernard Parks, Jan Perry, Ed Reyes, Bill Rosendahl, Greig Smith, Herb Wesson and Dennis Zine. Zine has said he will donate his raise to a local charity.

The final list of Los Angeles city officials who have formally turned down the 4.16 percent raise retroactive to July 1 came out on Wednesday.
Heading the list was Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, followed by Controller Laura Chick, who submitted letters rejecting their raises to $232,425 and 196,667, respectively.
Four City Council members rejected the increases boosting their pay to $178,000 a year. They are Council members Eric Garcetti, Wendy Greul, Janice Hahn and Jack Weiss.
Accepting salary increases are City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, who is to get $214,546 and Council members Richard Alarcon, Tony Cardenas, Jose Huizar, Tom LaBonge, Bernard Parks, Jan Perry, Ed Reyes, Bill Rosendahl, Greig Smith, Herb Wesson and Dennis Zine. Zine has said he will donate his raise to a local charity.

Presidential contenders are digging deeper into Californians' pockets than ever before, already raising more than $50million in the Golden State even before campaigns get aggressively under way. Lisa Friedman in the Daiiy News.

The tally so far amounts to nearly 70percent of the $76million raised in California during the entire 2004 campaign cycle and virtually assures that contributions this election year will surpass previous fundraising, according to campaign records.

The massive donations come as the state's early Feb. 5 primary has added new clout to California and spurred a renewed candidate focus on the region.

The House voted Tuesday to begin extending federal protection to more than a half-million acres of mountains and canyons surrounding the San Fernando, La Crescenta, Santa Clarita, Simi and Conejo valleys. Lisa Friedman in the Daily News.

The bill, known as the Rim of the Valley Study Act, directs the secretary of the Interior Department to examine expansion of the Santa Monica National Recreation Area.

Ultimately, supporters hope the National Park Service will embrace the open space and ecological resources.

As Secretary of State Debra Bowen mulls whether to impose additional security measures on Los Angeles County's voting systems, an audit released Tuesday found a host of problems in the county Registrar-Recorder's Office.Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

Auditors found the department exceeded its Board of Supervisors-adopted overtime budget in each of the last six years, was not conducting criminal background checks for employees appointed to sensitive positions, and in some instances violated civil service rules by bypassing higher-ranked candidates and hiring and promoting lower-ranked ones.

"These practices result in bypassing eligible candidates, which can lead to a perception of favoritism and reduced morale from employees having an unfavorable perception of the fairness of their department's exams and promotion process," Auditor-Controller Tyler McCauley wrote.

The city of Los Angeles is losing millions of dollars each year by mismanaging state and federal grants, according to an audit released Tuesday. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

While the city receives about $450 million in grants each year, there is little central oversight and coordination of which grants the city applies for and how the city manages the money it receives.

"The system is broken. It's bogged down in bureaucratic, outdated rules and procedures," Controller said.

The U.S. Supreme Court today declined to hear an appeal of a man who sued over Los Angeles County's decision to remove a cross from the county seal. Daily News.

The high court's refusal to hear the case effectively ends the challenge brought by county employee Ernesto Vasquez, who claimed the county's action can reasonably be interpreted as hostile to Christianity.

Without comment, the justices declined to hear the case.

Cardinal Roger Mahony was physically assaulted by a man enraged by the Catholic Church's sexual-abuse scandal within days of a record settlement with hundreds of victims, the Daily News has learned. Rick Coca in the Daily News.

Mahony, 71, revealed the attack during an annual conference in October before hundreds of stunned priests, saying a man assaulted him because of the scandal, according to four priests who attended the conference.

News of the assault comes as the bulk of the church's $660 million settlement with victims began being paid out Monday, with more than $500million in checks going out in the mail. The settlement with 508 alleged victims was approved by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge July 16.

In a fiery, fist-pounding speech, the leader of Los Angeles County's largest labor organization issued a warning Monday to elected officials that unions want to see firm support for labor efforts in return for backing in the upcoming elections. Daily News.

The strident challenge came as contracts are set to be negotiated next year for 30 unions covering 350,000 workers ranging from actors and longshoremen to home-care workers, teachers and janitors.

Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, told some 1,000 delegates at the group's second annual congress that labor is in no mood for being used for political purposes.

California's legislative salaries, already the nation's highest, will rise to $116,208 today for all but a handful of lawmakers who have declined the hike while the state fights a massive budget shortfall. Sacramento Bee,

Thirteen legislators – four Senate and nine Assembly members – have asked the state controller to kill their $3,110-a-year raise.

The other 106 lawmakers and 11 of 12 constitutional officers are taking the money, although they officially have until Dec. 17 to turn it down.

When H. David Nahai takes the helm today at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, expectations are high that he will improve significantly the rough relations with the powerful union boss who represents more than 90 percent of the utility's employees.Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

Still, inside City Hall a number of city leaders are wondering whether Nahai will be able to stand up to the powerful union and might compromise too much in the name of labor peace.

"The labor leadership at the DWP is exceedingly strong and powerful and is absolutely a major key player in how that department is run. There's no argument about that," City Controller Laura Chick said. "I would want to be reassured to know that the DWP is run by strong management that works closely with labor, but not run by labor."

TIPOFFS: One developer's lesson; Dennis Zine pays symbolic changes.....

Frustrated by opposition in the Legislature, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to take his health-care plan to "the people" next year in the form of a sweeping ballot measure. Mike Zapler in the Daily News.

But if recent ballot initiative history is any guide, it's almost certain to fail. Any health-care referendum is bound to draw deep-pocket opposition and be exceedingly complex - two problems that, time and again, have spelled defeat at the ballot box.

A review of the 107 initiatives that have appeared on the California ballot since 1998 underscores how daunting a campaign on health-care reform would be.

San Fernando Valley business leaders decided this week to oppose the city's proposed telephone users' tax on the February ballot. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

The board of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association overwhelmingly voted Thursday to oppose Measure S, saying that the tax would be expanded to include services such as Voiceover Internet Protocol that are used by businesses but not taxed under the current law.

"VICA is concerned with the way Measure S has been presented as a tax reduction when it is really a new tax," said VICA Chairman Bob Scott. "The city needs to seriously consider that another new tax makes L.A. less competitive and less desirable to the business community."