September 2008 Archives
Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin will make her second trip to
Southern California this weekend with a GOP rally in Carson.
Palin will be appearing at a campaign rally at the Home Depot Center, 18400 Avalon Way, Carson, as part of a get out the vote effort of the party.
A fundraiser on behalf of Sen. Barack Obama, featuring Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, is planned for Saturday at The Edison in downtown Los Angeles, a former power plant now serving as a meeting place for power players. Council President Eric Garcetti is one of the hosts.
Billed as an environmental fundraiser, among the items noted about the event are fully compostable plateware and flatware is being provided by California Recycles , an offsetting of green house gas emissions through organizations such as Tree People and The Climate Registry and organic food and drink.
"Angelenos will come together to express their concern for the environment and show their support for Presidential candidate and environmental supporter Senator Barack Obama," the invitation says.
"This event aims to be an evening that will take a more thoughtful approach to political fundraising through environmental and sustainable means, while raising campaign funds for the last push of Senator Obama."
Cost of the event is $500 per perwson, $2,500 for those who want to go to a VIP reception with Clinton.
The identities of previously anonymous donors who have financed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's national and international travel to the tune of $2 million are now being disclosed for the first time. Capitol Weekly.
New donations to the California State Protocol Foundation - a non-profit which was established in March 2004 to "advise the Governor and First Lady of California on international, diplomatic and consular matters," according to its Web site -- were posted on the governor's Web site, as required by new regulations adopted by the Fair Political Practices Commission in June.
With the Dow closing down a record 777 points on Monday after Congress thumbed down a $700 billion bailout package for the financial industry, take a look at how the California delegation -- the nation's largest -- voted. Sacrramento Bee.
Overall, the delegation cast 29 aye votes and 24 no votes. A majority of both Republican (10 to 9) and Democratic lawmakers (19 to 15) from the state supported the bailout package.
Parents, teacher union representatives and school board members on Monday either blasted or questioned the growth of the Los Angeles Unified School District's massive bureaucracy in recent years as they responded to a Daily News analysis of the district's staffing and salary structure. George B. Sanchez in the Daily News.
The Daily News found that the LAUSD's bureaucracy ballooned nearly 20 percent from 2001 to 2007. During that same period, 500 teaching positions were cut and enrollment dropped by 6 percent.
"I think the teachers on the front line should be making a lot more money," said parent Raul Morales, who was attending a district-sponsored meeting for parents in North Hollywood on Monday. "Those who run the education system are overpaid for the little that they do."
While L.A. Unified Superintendent David Brewer III said the district bureaucracy is not bloated, he did say it is not as lean as it should be and pledged to tighten the belt, saying: "It'll get leaner."
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has allowed the City Council to go back and ask for an environmental impact report on the $180 million expansion of Providence Holy Cross Medical Center, an action that could postpone construction.Susan Abram in the Daily News.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Thomas I. McKnew Jr. is expected to sign off Thursday on his earlier ruling, which sided with a community group that wants more studies done to determine the effects the project will have on the neighborhood.
His judgment puts the future of the expansion back into the hands of the City Council. Construction would be postponed until the city approves an EIR.
Los Angeles schools will pay as much as $3 million more a year for electricity starting Wednesday when a long-standing agreement for reduced power rates expires.Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.
Los Angeles Unified School District officials said they've tried to persuade the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to continue the 5 percent discount on electricity, but the utility has said no.
"At a time when the ratepayers of Los Angeles are subject to a rate increase, to give a straight, arbitrary 5 percent reduction is not the desirable way to go," said DWP General Manager H. David Nahai.
With nearly one in three Los Angeles County residents unable to fully read and understand English, the region must do more to prepare immigrant communities for catastrophes, city leaders said Monday at the close of Emergency Preparedness Month.Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.
Too often, disaster preparedness officials and nonprofits rely on English-language materials and training to get residents ready for an emergency. Some agencies are increasingly translating materials into Spanish, but there are hundreds of other languages spoken in L.A.
"Natural disasters and other tragedies strike without concern for language abilities," said Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar, who has asked the city to report on ways to improve emergency preparedness outreach to immigrants.
Shortly after the House of Representatives voted down the $700 billion Wall Street recovery plan and stock values tumbled, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa issued his own challenge to Congress: Get back to work.
"As mayor of one of the cities hardest hit by our nation's foreclosure crisis, I implore our Congress to put politics aside and get back to work for the American people. This is not the time for partisan bickering. Too much is at stake. Too many families and employers are at risk," Villaraigosa said.
The mayor warned that if the credit market collapses and the economy worsens, Los Angeles would see tax revenue plummet, construction projects stop and taxpayer contributions to city-employee pensions would go through the roof.
"This crisis is no longer about Wall Street or Washington politics," Villaraigosa continued. "It's about families and small businesses in small towns and big cities across the nation. It's time for Congress to get back to work."
Arnold Schwarzenegger is vetoing hundreds of bills passed at the end of the 2007-2008 legislative session, many of them with little rhyme or reason and with a generic veto message, at a record clip of 47.8% of those sent to him in September.California Progress report.
This has occurred in the five days starting on last Wednesday in the telescoped time frame the Governor has to act, with many vetoes occurring at obscure times, such as the announcement made Friday evening 6:54 p.m.--in middle of Presidential debate of 27 vetoes and what some have dubbed the "Saturday Night Massacre" announcement of 99 bills being signed and 95 being vetoed. This was then exceeded last night with an announcement of signatures approving 64 bills and vetoes of 131.
Tucked away in a quiet neighborhood, Cleveland High officials take pride in the achievements of their 4,000 students. The school was recently accredited by the prestigious Western Association of Schools and Colleges. A banner tacked above the entrance reminds visitors this is a California distinguished school. George Sanchez in the Daily News.
The school's students, including more than 700 English-language learners, have consistently outpaced state and local averages on academic achievement scores. But even amid the gains, the school struggles with inadequate resources.
There are a little more than 120 Cleveland High teachers - 1 for every 32 students. There are just nine full-time counselors - 1 for every 422 students who attend either the traditional high school or a separate magnet program.
TIPOFFS: MTA spents $4.1 million on informational campaign for Measure R..
On the edge of downtown Los Angeles, overlooking the 110 Freeway, stands a 29-story office building that boasts many of the trappings of a modern corporate headquarters: a cafeteria with flat-screen TVs, a state-of-the-art media production center, an on-site dry-cleaning service.Beth Barrett in the Daily News.
The tower is the headquarters of the Los Angeles Unified School District - home to more than 3,400 employees. They are the core of a massive bureaucracy that has surged in recent years even as the number of students and teachers has dropped.
And 3,200 more administrators and support staff are scattered throughout the city, as top officials acknowledge that the number of highly paid managers has swollen beyond what is needed to run the nation's second-largest school district.
With the city mired in a foreclosure and affordable housing crisis, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has created a five-year, $5billion plan to help develop and preserve 20,000 units of reasonably priced housing for low-income and middle-class Angelenos. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.
Developed by managers of the city's housing, planning and redevelopment agencies, the plan includes existing city initiatives and some new, controversial proposals, including requiring developers to include low-income units in new projects.
The goal is to stimulate the construction of more publicly and privately funded housing for families earning less than $90,000 a year.
It's 2004 all over again - at least when it comes to home prices in the San Fernando Valley. Gregory J. Wilcox in the Daily News
In August, the Valley's median house price plunged an annual 35 percent to $420,000, according to the San Fernando Valley Economic Research Center. That's a price last seen in January 2004.
This is a big deal, especially if you bought a year ago, at the peak of the real-estate boom, when the median stood at $645,000.
Home to the country's first offshore oil well, California's coastal waters have been off-limits to new drilling for a quarter century.AP in the Daily News.
The congressional ban that halted development is set to expire next week, but chances are remote that the 10 billion barrels of oil estimated to lie under the continental shelf will ever be tapped.
Steadfast opposition within the state, fueled in part by memories of a catastrophic 1969 oil spill off the Santa Barbara coast, will make it extremely difficult for oil companies to win the necessary approvals and prevail in the lawsuits that would be sure to follow.
Former Gov. Pete Wilson on Saturday urged his fellow Republicans not to make light of a recall drive against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. AP in the Sacramento Bee.
He told delegates at the California Republican Party's fall convention that they should take the threat from the state prison guards union seriously, even if it isn't likely to succeed.
"I hope that I don't have to tell you what an ill-considered idea that is. We did it once; we did not do it lightly," he said, referring to the 2003 recall of former Gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat, an election that sent Schwarzenegger to Sacramento. "It is something that should not be taken lightly. It is an extreme measure."
California Republicans descend on Anaheim this weekend for their semi-annual state convention. Sacramento Bee.
Speakers include GOP legislative leaders Mike Villines and Dave Cogdill, ex-Gov. Pete Wilson and former Secretary of State Bill Jones.
The most notable out-of-state speaker is former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who will address convention-goes Saturday night along with Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner.
Poizner, who is exploring a run for governor in 2010, rolled out the endorsements of seven former state party chairmen on Thursday.
One interesting back story to watch at this weekend's convention is whether the California Republican Assembly endorses the proposed recall of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Sen. John McCain issued a statement saying that while work still needed to be done on the Wall Street bailout, he is confident a framework for an agreement will be reached this weekend.
As a result, "The McCain campaign is resuming all activities and the Senator will travel to the debate this afternoon. Following the debate, he will return to Washington to ensure that all voices and interests are represented in the final agreement, especially those of taxpayers and homeowners."
The state budget that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed this week cut about $129 million from Los Angeles County programs - or $34 million more than expected, county officials said Thursday.Troy Anderson in the Daily News.
The cuts, focused on welfare, health and juvenile justice, come as those programs are seeing increases in demand.
The budget will cut $33 million from Medi-Cal, $8 million from probation camps, $10 million from mental health and $6 million from alcohol and drug programs, according to a memo by county Chief Executive Officer Bill Fujioka.
Los Angeles City Council members can run for three terms, according to a court ruling Thursday that upheld the ballot measure that allowed council members to serve for 12 years instead of eight. Daily News.
Angelenos passed Measure R with nearly 60 percent of the vote in November 2006. Since then, North Hollywood resident David Hernandez has sought to overturn the law, arguing that the ballot measure was designed to mislead the public by packaging an unpopular term-limits extension with popular ethics reforms. Hernandez and his attorney said Measure R violated the "single-subject rule" in the California Constitution by combining two separate issues into one initiative.
But a three-judge panel of the 2 nd District Court of Appeal decided that the single-subject rule doesn't apply to Measure R because it was put on the ballot by the City Council and therefore isn't an initiative.
Two years after the Los Angeles Police Department beefed up its Skid Row presence in a promised crackdown on crime, a UCLA study is questioning whether it had any major impact on reducing serious offenses in the area. Daily News.
In a follow-up study on the Safer Citiesy Initiative - the $6 million effort in which 50 extra officers were assigned to the 20-square-block area - UCLA law professor Gary Blasi examined the crime rate before theand after the program began and the most recent figures available.
"It looks like there was a reduction of one robbery per officer assigned to the area," Blasi said about the most recent figures available. "I suspect you could have done better by assigning these officers to a higher crime area."
Clearing the way for construction of a High Occupancy Vehicle lane on the San Diego (405) Freeway, the California Transportation Commission on Thursday allocated $730 million to begin work on the 10-mile segment. Daily News.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office announced the allocation of money from Proposition 1 B, the largest project approved as part of that package.
"This funding will not only help relieve the traffic congestion that clogs our Los Angeles freeways - it will create jobs and help stimulate California's economy when we need it the most," Schwarzenegger said in a written statement.
With Los Angeles and the nation on the brink of recession, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told business leaders Thursday that the city is in for another tough year and should focus on retaining and building its work force.Daily News.
"Last year, we had a $400 million (budget) shortfall that forced us to eliminate 767 (city) positions," Villaraigosa told the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce as it met at City Hall as part of its annual Access L.A. program.
"This year, we might be looking at the same thing and it will require us to look at this as an opportunity to become more efficient and concentrate on our core issues."
California Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is a big name supporter of GOP presidential candidate John McCain -- but apparently he's very particular who knows it. San Francisco Chronicle.
We've learned Schwarzenegger plans to address several hundred Republican activists at a debate-watching event at the state GOP convention in the Anaheim Marriott Friday.
But in an unprecedented move, the gathering --remember, the head of the state GOP addressing his own party in a major public setting -- has been declared ''closed press'' or off limits to the media.
The governor's office said that the decision was made by the California Republican Party to restrict reporters from the event.
California Republicans who consider themselves the party's conservative "conscience" will consider bucking their own party's governor this weekend to endorse the proposed recall of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Sacramento Bee
The board of directors of the California Republican Assembly will gather during the state party's convention in Anaheim for the recall vote.
Former Rep. Bob Barr, the Libertarian candidate for president, says he's willing to take on Sen. Barack Obama in Friday's scheduled debate if Sen. John McCain won't.
"For the past several elections, candidates have used the CPD (Commission on Presidential Debates) as an official buffer to keep competition out of the two-party presidential contest," Barr said. "McCain publicly proved with his announcement what we've been saying all along: The candidates call the shots as to when to debate, where to debate and who to debate.
"Given Senator McCain's political stunt to avoid the debate, I ask that Friday's debate moves forward without him, as I am more than willing to step in to participate."
Barr noted that former President Ronald Reagan debated third-party candidate John Andreson, one on one an din 1992, George H.W. Bush demanded the inclusion of H. Ross Perot in all three presidential debates.
The contentious county supervisor race between Councilman Bernard Parks and state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas spilled into city politics this week when Parks tried to evict a nonprofit group tied to Ridley-Thomas and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa stepped in to block the move.Daily News.
Parks and Ridley-Thomas are in a runoff for the 2nd District supervisor seat being vacated by Yvonne B. Burke. The campaign has turned ugly in recent weeks, with each candidate calling for investigations of the other.
On Tuesday, Villaraigosa was forced into the fray - reluctantly, his aides said - after Parks had the city send a 60-day eviction notice to Strategic Concepts of Organizing and Policy Education, a nonprofit focused on community organizing and job training.
San Fernando Valley homeowners saw property values plunge 35 percent - a quarter-million dollars on a median-price home - in the year since the credit crisis erupted and foreclosures began flooding the market, a research center said Wednesday.
The median price of a previously owned house tumbled from $650,000 in August 2007 to $420,000 last month, said a new report from the San Fernando Economic Research Center at California State University, Northridge.Gregory J. Wilcox in the Daily News.
The median price in August matched levels last seen in January 2004.
"It's stunning. That's a huge amount," said Daniel Blake, the center's director. "Next month we'll be back at 2003 prices."
The August median is still $260,000 higher than the $160,000 recorded in January 1996, the low mark of the previous bear market.
After a relatively mild summer, temperatures should shoot above 100 degrees today in Woodland Hills. Dana Bartholomew in the Daily News.
Get used to it, scientists said Wednesday. There are hotter days and longer heat waves ahead.
After 100 years of rising temperatures, Los Angeles summers will likely go from deep-tan to deep-fry, according to a NASA-based study.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger isn't known for mincing words. But earlier this month, as California's budget stalemate inched from serious problem toward full-blown crisis, he gave an interview to a German publication that was surprising in its candor -- and certainly didn't help his cause. Mike Zapler in the Mercury News.
At the same time he was trying to win Republican votes for his compromise budget plan, the GOP governor described members of his own party as, essentially, a band of ideologues.
"Think about the Republicans from California that are running the party," Schwarzenegger told Der Spiegel magazine. "I have almost no contact with them. None. Because they're just so out there."
Days later, Schwarzenegger made a rare appearance before the Assembly Republican caucus. Its members wore name tags to the meeting -- a half-joking response to the governor's remarks.
Former Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, D-San Francisco, will announce his candidacy for California Democratic Party Chairman in the coming days. Capitol Weekly.
Burton has told those close to him that he is running to succeed outgoing chairman Art Torres, who will leave the post after the party elects a new chairman in April. Burton was not immediately available to comment.
The job of party chairman is particularly important in this era of legislative term limits, and since voters approved Proposition 34, which set campaign contribution limits to candidates, and greatly enhanced the state parties' rolls as arbiter of millions in political donations during campaign cycles. Burton largely wrote the initiative.
After predicting for the past four years that California will be able to avoid a downturn, UCLA economists now say the state may plunge into recession because of the ongoing financial crisis. Gregory J. Wilcox in the Daily News.,
"Worst-case, we can go into a real deep recession," said David Shulman, senior economist at the university's Anderson Forecast, which for 50 years has analyzed and provided predictions on the California and U.S. economies.
The third-quarter report was released today but was prepared before last week's financial storm that engulfed American International Group, forced Lehman Brothers into bankruptcy and prompted the federal government to prop up the $3.3 trillion money-market-fund sector.
Delivering some Hollywood glamour to the Los Angeles County Fair, one of the more popular exhibits this year features celebrity contributions to county government, from Lou Ferrigno moonlighting as a sheriff's deputy to "Baywatch" glamorizing county lifeguards. Troy Anderson in the Daily News.
Two life-size cutouts of Ferrigno, one as "The Incredible Hulk" and another in his new role as a reserve deputy, greet fairgoers, who line up to flex their muscles and pose for pictures with their movie-screen, and now, real-life hero.
"The women seem to like him in uniform; the kids and men like him as `The Hulk,"' said Judy Hammond, the county spokeswoman who helped create the exhibit "Los Angeles County: Movie Capital of the World."
It features movie trailers, posters, photos and historical trivia about famou
With the national economy in crisis, city and county leaders Tuesday urged department heads to tighten their budget belts to make sure the slide on Wall Street doesn't hit too hard locally. Daily News.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called for key city agencies to immediately launch a review of the city's financial health - and any risk it faces - by analyzing investments that could affect the city's daily operations and its pension system.
"We will not allow the unsound and unconscionable practices of Wall Street to stop the progress we've made on improving public safety and the delivery of services," Villaraigosa wrote in a memo sent to all department heads. "The unprecedented upheaval on Wall Street demands unprecedented vigilance at City Hall."
California Faultline, the political blog of KNBC, is reporting another dustup between the campaigns of Councilman Bernard Parks and state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas.
The two who are competing for the seat on the Board of Supervisors being vacated by Supervisor Yvonne Burke, have been engaged in a hotly contested race, with a series of charges and counter-charges.
The most recent involve Parks, who registered twice with the American Independent Party, an apparent mistake when he meant to register as decline to state. Officials with the AIP estimate up to one-third of their registered voters did so by mistake.
Here is the complete blog item and the link to the voter registration forms is here: California Faultline.:
Parks registered twice with American Independent Party, but party's chairman says 1/3rd of members may have have joined mistakenly.
Bernard Parks, Jr., told me his father did this at the direction of the Registrars office, was clearly attempting to register only as an independent, and the elder Parks had never even heard of the American Independent Party until last Friday.
On the first document, from 1992, Parks does check off "American Independent Party," but below it writes in "Independent." The form from 1996 only has "American Independent Party" checked off, but offers no other field to write in the party."
For the full item, go to ">California Faultline.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed the state's $143 billion spending plan after the longest budget deadlock in state history. Mercury News.
The governor's signature, which comes on the 85th day after the start of the fiscal year, frees up billions in payments to medical clinics, nursing homes, daycare centers and contract vendors.
It won't, however, finish the budget battle. That will be up to voters, who will be asked to tie up the agreement's loose ends during a special election next year
By next month, almost 20 percent of Los Angeles could be covered by gang injunctions, making it by far the most restrictive city nationwide for gang members and their associates.Rachel Uranga in the Daily News.
A judge is expected to approve City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo's request for a 13
"It's an integral part of the city's anti-gang strategy," said Bruce Riordan, a director of anti-gang operations in the City Attorney's Office. "It's not going to be the prosecutors who blink. It has to be the gang members."
Under pressure from Los Angeles officials to accelerate the cleanup of contaminated drinking water, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday ordered seven companies to pay a total of $500,000 to help decontaminate groundwater beneath the east San Fernando Valley.Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.
Plumes of industrial chemicals leaked into the groundwater have forced the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to take nearly half its drinking water wells off-line, meaning Angelenos have to rely more on expensive imported water.
World War II-era munitions and the aerospace boom in the East Valley left huge plumes of contamination underground. The seven businesses cited by the EPA on Monday are just a few of those blamed for contaminating the groundwater.
Reports of fraud and misconduct by Los Angeles County government employees have increased steadily in recent years, possibly because of the worsening economy, officials said Monday.Troy Anderson in the Daily News.
During the nine months ending June 30, the Office of County Investigations opened 676 investigations into allegations of fraud and misconduct, according to a new report on the county's fraud hotline. They substantiated 91 tips, referring them for prosecution or disciplinary action.
During that time, seven county employees were convicted of crimes, 13 were fired and 18 were suspended, the highest number of suspensions and convictions since at least 2000.