April 2008 Archives

Councilman Ed Reyes and Police Chief Bill Bratton are participating in a "Tamales for Peace" event with organizers of tomorrow's May Day parade as all parties involved pledge there will not be a repeat of last year's clash with police.
The LAPD has been working furiously to make sure officers know the limits of what they need to do in terms of crowd control and it will be closely monitored by Bratton, the Police Commission, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, City Council members and, well, the world, as television is expected to cover most of it in the afternoon.
Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez announced he will be joining the demonstrators at MacArthur Park tomorrow and march with them to City Hall.

John McCain is boldly promising to mount the most serious Republican presidential campaign for California in years as part of a strategy that targets the entire Democratic-leaning West Coast. Arizona Republic.

California, the state with 55 prized electoral votes, once upon a time was the home base of President Reagan, one of McCain's GOP heroes. But Republicans haven't carried the state in a presidential race or won a Senate seat since 1988.

And, with an increasingly influential Latino population, California is central to any Democratic plan to capture 270 electoral votes and retake the White House.

An Aside:
Californians have heard this before, most notably from President Bush in his first campaign, but it turned out to be little more than a feint to try to get Democrats to spend their money to preserve California.

In a startling revelation, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said this week that the state's budget deficit could grow to as much as $20 billion as he prepared to unveil a revised spending plan for the coming year that is likely to include deep cuts in education, health services and prisons.San Francisco Chronicle.

The new deficit figure - 30 percent higher than the latest estimates by lawmakers - reflects a deepening fiscal crisis that has polarized the budget debate in the Legislature as Republicans vow to fight tax increases and Democrats say they won't settle for cuts alone.

Schwarzenegger, insisting that he won't support raising taxes, says he wants to make fundamental changes in California's budget process. Experts said Tuesday that the governor's deficit estimate this week could help his campaign for those changes.

Facing a civilian oversight commission skeptical about LAPD's investigation of racial profiling complaints, Chief William Bratton said Tuesday he will launch a wide-ranging review of police practices. Rachel Uranga in the Daily News.

Members of the Los Angeles Police Commission said during their meeting Tuesday that they were baffled by internal LAPD findings that no officers engaged in racial profiling, despite hundreds of complaints in 2007.

Commissioner John Mack, a longtime civil-rights activist and former head of the Urban League, ticked off the complaints, scoffing at investigators who cleared hundreds of officers of wrongdoing.

St. Bernardine of Siena Parish in Woodland Hills has donated nearly $1.5 million of its savings to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles to help fund last year's multimillion-dollar settlement of clergy sex abuse cases.

The donation is unprecedented in the archdiocese, which has called on 101 churches with identified savings of at least $1 million each to help offset the more than $660 million payout to victims of clergy sexual abuse, according to archdiocese spokesman Tod Tamberg.Tony Castro in the Daily News.

"While it may not sit well with everyone in the parish, it is an extraordinary gesture of community and family on the part of St. Bernardine Parish," said Tamberg, who called the gift "emotionally moving."

Cardinal Roger Mahony was out of town Tuesday and not available for comment on the donation.

The donati

While Los Angeles grapples with the largest budget deficit in city history, all but one group of city employee unions have refused to reopen their contracts and consider concessions.Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

Unions representing police officers, firefighters, airport peace officers, engineers and architects, and managing city attorneys all declined when City Administrative Officer Karen Sisson requested that they come to the negotiating table to talk about contract changes to save the city money.

One group - the Coalition of L.A. City Unions - has agreed to negotiate with Sisson's office - because its contract included a reopener clause that requires discussions if city revenue drops 1 percent.

A bill to study adding greater portions of the San Fernando Valley to the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area passed through Congress on Wednesday and is headed to the White House, where President Bush is expected to sign it. Harrison Sheppard in the Daily News.

The study would look at a proposal to create a Rim of the Valley Corridor - adding some 500,000 acres of mountain land above the San Fernando, La Crescenta, Santa Clarita, Simi and Conejo valleys to the existing protected parkland.

The bill was co-authored by U.S. Reps. Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks, and Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena.

Identifying herself as the former, former, former, Jackie Goldberg made a rare appearance at City Hall on Tuesday, urging the City Council to hire more gang workers and provide more youth jobs.
Goldberg, a former school board member, former council member and former assemblywoman, is now working at UCLA and in Compton, she said.
"These are the mean streets and I do mean mean streets," Goldberg told the council as part of an appeal made by a group calling itself the Community Justice Coalition.
Goldberg warned that the city could be in for a long, hot summer involving gangs unless action is taken to hire more gang workers and try to create jobs for young people.
"If you would just hire the people who are on the gang list (of the LAPD), this would be a far different city," Goldberg said.

Gina Marie Lindsey, executive director of Los Angeles International Airport, will meet behind closed doors this morning with City Councilwoman Janice Hahn to explain allegations of cronyism tied to at least one airport contract. Art Marroquin in the Daily Breeze.

Lindsey asked to meet with Hahn after a story in Saturday's Daily Breeze outlined how Los Angeles-based developer DMJM was selected as project manager to oversee more than $5 billion worth of upgrades over the next decade at LAX.

"She asked for a meeting with me because I had expressed some concerns with these very serious allegations," said Hahn, who chairs the council's Trade, Commerce and Tourism Committee, which oversees LAX.

A growing number of immigrants and their children is pushing Latino voting strength in California to record levels and could alter local legislative and congressional races in coming elections, according to an analysis of potential new voters released today.Tony Castro in the Daily News.

By 2012, immigrants and their voting-age children could potentially represent 29 percent of California voters, according to findings by Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees based in Sebastopol, Calif.

But those estimates could be misleading, according to Jaime Regalado, executive director of the Edmund G. "Pat" Brown Institute at California State University, Los Angeles, and a leading political expert.

With the highest concentration of senior citizens in the nation, Los Angeles County is bracing for a surge in needed services as the elderly population is expected to double to nearly 3 million over the next two decades. Dana Bartholomew in the Daily News.

And in a bid to get ahead of the expected increase in demand, officials on Monday announced a countywide initiative with nearly every department aimed at improving services to seniors and making it easier for them to find and qualify for benefits.

"The strength of this new administrative structure is the ability to get multiple departments to improve services to specific target populations and to work together," Chief Executive Officer Bill Fujioka said.

Nearly two years after Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa vowed to find $1.8 million in city funds to bring more tourists to the San Fernando Valley, the region has yet to see a single penny for the effort. Daily News.

Widely hailed as a way to bolster an ailing economy, the money would have been the first to be used to specifically highlight Valley sites and accommodations. The mayor's pledge came after years of efforts by Valley advocates to get dedicated funding for tourism.

"Promoting the Valley as a tourist destination makes good economic sense," Villaraigosa said in making the announcement in November 2006. "Tourism boosts our economy and creates jobs. I will work ... to find the resources needed."

A skeptical Los Angeles City Council panel began its review Monday of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's proposed $7.01 billion budget, even as a coalition of city worker unions vowed to fight plans for layoffs and mandatory furloughs. Daily News.

Led by Councilman Bernard Parks, the council's budget and finance committee questioned exactly how the mayor is closing a $406 million shortfall and whether city revenues will achieve expectations amid what some say is a three-year economic downturn.

Parks and panel colleagues said they are concerned the mayor has proposed balancing the budget with about $200 million in one-time revenues - rather than confronting the fact that L.A. spends more money than it brings in.

While Los Angeles might be the nation's second-largest city and sit just a few hundred miles from one of the world's leading high-tech hubs, city efforts to tap into the booming Wi-Fi trend are being snubbed. Sue Doyle in the Daily News.

Tennessee bus riders can access free wireless Internet while zipping past old battlefield sites in Chattanooga. A pay-to-use Wi-Fi system is being installed for riders on a 35-mile rail line roaring past tumbleweeds and cactus from Fort Worth to Dallas.

And in San Francisco, a private company is rolling out a wireless technology to let commuters on Market Street soar through cyberspace on any wireless carrier.

Diabetes among pregnant women and teenagers more than doubled in six years, a concern among physicians who say the disease increases the chance of miscarriages and birth defects, according to a study released today. Susan Abram in the Daily News.

Of the more than 175,000 patients who gave birth in about a dozen Kaiser Permanente hospitals from 1999 to 2005, twice as many births were to women with TypeI and TypeII diabetes, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published in the May issue of Diabetes Care. The American Diabetes Association funded the study.

The conditions are unlike gestational diabetes, which develops during pregnancy but can disappear after a baby is born.

Tiooffs: Villaraigosa will be in town this year for immiigration rights rally.

For nearly two decades, the Los Angeles Unified School District has relied on its staff to flush hundreds of campus drinking fountains every day to help lower any lead levels in the water, but tracking began only six months ago on whether the procedures are being properly carried out.

News that the nation's second-largest school district has not vigorously protected its children's water comes just days after school officials acknowledged that high lead levels were found in a drinking fountain at Woodlake Elementary School in Woodland Hills.Susan Abram in the Daily News.

While acknowledging that staff members in charge of flushing water fountains and keeping logs on it were negligent on some campuses, Superintendent David Brewer III and other LAUSD officials are trying to reassure parents that their children have not been at risk.

But some parents remain skeptical about whether it is safe for their children to drink water from school fountains.

Amid a contentious battle over a proposed Home Depot, city officials tried to cool tempers Saturday by hosting a community dialogue aimed at finding a middle ground between warring factions. Rick Coca in the Daily News.

About 200 community residents attended, although organizers had been expecting up to 1,000.

Although a few supporters, including Home Depot employees, noted the project would likely bring more jobs to the community, most in the crowd were against it.

Alicia De La Cruz hears the words city and county prosecutors use to describe her and her neighbors and is left puzzled.

Can they be talking about us?

"Virtual prisoners in their homes."

"They cannot go to the local market without being assaulted and robbed by San Fer gang members."

The alarming portrayal came in a 14-page request earlier this month for a gang injunction to severely limit the movement of the San Fers, one of the San Fernando Valley's most menacing gangs - with ties to the drug trade and the Mexican Mafia.
Rachel Uranga in the Daily News.

The Daily News is in the process of switching to new servers, so postings will be sporadic at best for the next several days.

Political activist Linda Sutton, who has been closely following the race for the 40th Assembly District seat being vacated by Lloyd Levine because of term limits, has an article in Calitics looking at the fight over various endorsements.

Her take:

"Most Californians are sure that their election is over. All the media coverage is blaring babble from the most recent presidential debate in distant states as well as other inane minutia that denigrates the process.

"Yet, if you look closely, really closely, you may find evidence that there is yet another election coming up here in June. Yes, June 3rd to be exact.

"This season, in spite of the state being billions of dollars in debt, and the cries of horror about budget cuts, our state legislators gave us the special treat of spending double on TWO elections!!!. "

Days of free and open roads are dimming in Los Angeles after the federal government offered $213.6 million to launch a one-year toll road pilot program by the end of 2010 in an effort to boost speeds on three sluggish freeways.

With a promise to keep traffic flowing no slower than 50 mph in car-pool lanes converted to express lanes, toll lanes will straddle freeways through Pasadena and between downtown Los Angeles and east Los Angeles County. Sue Doyle in the Daily News.

Motorists cruising the Harbor Freeway could also see toll lanes, depending on how far the federal money stretches with the one-year program shared by Caltrans and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

"This is a great day for us," said Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. "This is one important tool to relieve traffic and gridlock in this area."

The toll lanes are designed to enforce congestion pricing, a strategy that aims to make driving freeways more expensive during peak traffic times so noncommuters will stay off the roads during rush hours.

In a major shift for the San Fernando Valley - long known as "the 818" - a state panel on Thursday authorized a 747 area code for all new numbers in the region starting next year.Harrtison Sheppard in the Daily News.

But for residents proud of their singular area code and the identity it has lent the area, it signifies a fundamental change. For some, it seems even to strike at their personal identities.

"I have a friend in art school in New York who was so homesick she had `818' tattooed on her arm," said Johnny Fernandez, 30, of Sherman Oaks.

"It's definitely a Valley culture thing."

About 85 percent of students in Los Angeles Unified School District's Class of 2008 have passed the state's exit exam - required to receive a high school diploma - but English learners continue to lag, with just 53 percent passing the mandatory test. Naush Boghossian in the Daily News.

The overall results are up 1 percentage point from the same time last year, when 84 percent of the Class of 2007 had passed the English and math tests of the California High School Exit Exam.

The results are up 6 percentage points over the Class of 2006 at the same time.

The top two contenders for a coveted Los County Board of Supervisors seat tore into one another Thursday, each saying he could better represent the sprawling 2nd District from mid-Los Angeles to Carson and each claiming to be the stronger supporter of Sen. Barack Obama. Brandon Lowrey in the Daily News

In one of the opening blows, Los Angeles City Councilman Bernard Parks said he was a true public servant while his opponent, state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas, D-Los Angeles, was merely a politician.

"I've seen public service rather than political process," Parks told a crowd of about 250 people at the Westside Jewish Community Center in Los Angeles.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger predicted Thursday that California would face a budget deficit of more than $10 billion in the fiscal year that starts July 1. AP in Daily News.

"This is why we have to make all kinds of cuts across the board," he told a group of prosecutors and criminal investigators at a conference near the Capitol.

"I hate making those kinds of cuts, but we have no more money," he added later in comments to reporters. "We have to live within our means. We are out of whack every one of the next few years by $10 (billion) to $12 billion. You cannot tax your way out of that."

To help the city of Los Angeles out of its current budget crisis, would you be willing to pay up to $4 an hour for metered street parking? Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

How about a $125 surcharge on traffic violations?

Or a luxury tax on electricity used by homes larger than 5,000 square feet?

The options were among the fees and tax hikes considered by the City Council on Wednesday in its first-ever "revenue day," designed to help close a $406 million shortfall that is the largest in Los Angeles history.

He's a disabled Vietnam veteran. She's a retired teacher who spends most of her pension on health insurance. Dana Bartholomew in the Daily News.

Arnie and Marilyn Bernstein are among an estimated 1million Angelenos with a rent-controlled apartment.

But if voters kill rent control in a June ballot measure, the Bernsteins say, their monthly payment would jump from $876 to $1,300 - a 48 percent increase.

"We couldn't afford another apartment," said Marilyn Bernstein, 62, of Canoga Park, who has lived in the one-bedroom unit for 21 years. "We'd be living under a bridge - like `Tent City, here we come.' The possibility of lifting rent control would be devastating."

Concerned about granting up to $65.5 million in tax breaks for Grand Avenue redevelopment even as the city grapples with its largest budget shortfall in history, Los Angeles officials on Wednesday insisted the project's benefits will outweigh the costs. Daily News.

"We are making sure that this is all there is," Chief Legislative Analyst Gerry Miller said. "What we believe is this money is needed to help build the hotel and we will get a lot more in other revenue that we otherwise wouldn't receive."

Defense of the tax breaks came just days after Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa proposed a $7 billion city budget that seeks to hire more police and firefighters but slashes city spending and proposes dozens of new fee hikes for Angelenos.

For more than a decade, the Lancaster City Council has unknowingly been following the wrong procedures when appointing Planning Commission members, officials recently discovered. Karen Maeshiro in the Daily News.

Traditionally, commission members have been appointed by individual council members and then ratified by the council as a whole.

But newly elected Mayor R. Rex Parris discovered that state law actually requires the mayor to make the appointments and submit them to the council for ratification.

Today is Denim Day in Los Angeles and all the city officials made sure they wore denim to commemorate a serious topic of domestic abuse.
"We want everyone to know that Los Angeles is not a sanctuary for domestic abuse," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said. "Coming from a family where there was domestic abuse, I can tell you what it does to a family. Men should respect women,."
And, while the topic was serious, it was also curious to note the different styles.
Some, like Councilwoman Wendy Greuel, looked comfortable in a faded pair of jeans.
Others, like Villaraigosa, had neatly pressed jeans and wore boots with it.
And, then there was Councilman Dennis Zine. He wore a matching denim jacket and jeans, prompting some to be thankful there isn't a leisure suit day at City Hall.

First the good news: Home sales in the San Fernando Valley increased for the third consecutive month in March, according to reports released Tuesday. Gregory J. Wilcox in the Daily News.

But now the bad: Sales and prices remain in a free fall and foreclosure woes show no signs of easing anytime soon.

From Glendale to Calabasas during March, 642 properties changed owners, up 17 percent from February but down 52 percent from a year ago, according to the San Fernando Valley Economic Research Center at California State University, Northridge.

Los Angeles' money crunch rippled across City Hall on Tuesday as officials began to flip through hundreds of pages of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's budget and found major cuts spread across city agencies. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

To fill a $406 million shortfall while still hiring police and firefighters, Villaraigosa has proposed cutting analysts and clerical and maintenance workers. Warning of tough choices, he has slashed travel budgets, cut park rangers and plans to stop payment to cable access Channel 36.

And on Tuesday, some city leaders began to fight back.

Despite criticism over how it spent $2.2 billion in previous bond funds, the Los Angeles Community College District board is expected to vote today on placing another bond measure of up to $5 billion on the November ballot. Connie Llanos in the Daily News.

If it passes, Los Angeles city residents could expect to pay $17 to $25 more in taxes per $100,000 of assessed property value to cover the bonds.

The decision comes even as district officials say they have more than $1 billion remaining from two previous bonds and about 200 unfinished projects.

But with 27 construction projects under way - including some at Harbor College in Wilmington - and several new vocational demands on the horizon, that money won't last long.

"We are spending about $15 (million) to $20million a day on construction," said Larry Eisenberg, director of facilities,

Los Angeles city officials marked Earth Day on Tuesday by enacting what they called one of the most progressive laws in the nation, requiring developers to comply with green building standards on major projects. Daily News.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who had recommended the policy, signed it into law just hours after the City Council voted 14-0 to adopt the standards.

Under the measure, developers of projects larger than 50,000 square feet are required to meet green building codes for water and energy efficiency, as well as for improved indoor air quality and drought-tolerant landscaping.

In Indiana, campaigning for its May 6 election, Obama offered his congratulations to Clinton.
"She ran a terrific race," Obama said."And, I want to thank the hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians who stood with me today. There were a lot of folks who thought we wouldn't make a race of it and would be blown out. We closed the gap.
"We registered a record number of voters. And it is those new voters who will lead our party to victory in November."
Obama then returned to his campaign theme of running a campaign to bring change to the country.

In Philadelphia, with Gov. Ed. Rendell and Mayor Michael Nutter cheering on supporters, Clinton thanked them for her victory.
"Oh, thank you," Clinton said as her husband Bill and daughter Chelsea joined in the celebration. "It's a ;long road to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.and it runs right through the heart of Pennsylvania. For six weeks, Sen. Obama and I have been criss-crossing the state making our case.... You listened and today you chose.
"You know the challenges are great. But you also know the possiblities...with a president ready to lead on day one."
Clinton's supporters adopted Obama's theme, chanting "Yes, we can" to he

Clinton supportet Terry McAuliffe said the Clinton campaign remains viable and that the party should now look at the popular vote to determine the party's nominee.
Meanwhile, Obama supporter Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri says her candidate did better in Pennsylvania than anyone expected, closing the double digit lead that had been held by Clinton.
Both candidates are preparing for the next elections. Obama was holding a rally in Indiana and Clinton released travel plans that include Indiana and North Carolina. Both states are to have May 6 elections.

The networks are calling Pennsylvania for Clinton, but no real percentages available yet.
And, to no one;s surprise, Sen. John McCain won the GOP election, against Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee.

And, you thought California was slow in counting votes.
With polls closed for a half-hour, not one vote return has been released and television commentators are almost -- almost -- running out of things to say.
On MSNBC, Chris Matthews asked if the close vote -- 0 to 0 -- is concerning the Clinton campaign.
No, he was told. They just want to see some votes.
****
And this is why MSNBC is "the place for politics," a Chris Matthews rant.
Matthews, the host of "Hardball," just spent the better part of three minutes with a series of rhetorical questions to Howard Fineman over the $4 million Clinton owes strategist Mark Penn.
":Where are the guys who believed in candidates?" he asked. "Why do you have to pay for brains?"

A state that hasn't received this much attention since the drafting of the Constitution -- or the the first "Rocky" movies -- took center stage today and it was unclear if Pennsylvania voters would give more life to the campaign of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Trailing in delegates, popular vote and money, Clinton was looking for a big win in Pennsylvania to make the case that she should continue her campaign against Sen. Barack Obama.

Early exit polls paint startingly different pictures of the Pennsylvania voters.
CNN has Clinton winning a clear majority of while males and seniors. Over at MSNBC, they say the biggest factor for voters is bringing about change, a factor that generally has favored Obama.