Recently in Los Angeles Category

The City Council temporarily halted construction of a new $42 million elephant exhibit at the Los Angeles Zoo on Wednesday amid concerns over funding and a debate over whether the animals should be kept in zoos at all. Brandon Lowrey in the Daily News.

The vote came after the nonprofit Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association offered to pay an additional $14 million to finish the exhibit.

It surprised many who packed the council chambers expecting a final decision on the matter.

In an interview with the Daily News on Wednesday, embattled Los Angeles schools chief David Brewer III said he walked into a "cascade of crises" when he started two years ago, but would love to finish his four-year contract. Daily News.

The bungled attempt to oust Brewer on Tuesday, when board President Mónica García failed to get all seven board members together to vote on his future, stirred passions among Brewer's supporters, including some prominent African-American politicians.

Among other things, Brewer said he's become an expert at fixing the dysfunction in the school district and believes he's one of the nation's most effective superintendents.

In these hard economic times, bailing out criminals is getting almost as hard as bailing out Detroit automakers.Tony Castro in the Daily News.

As fewer suspects and their families can post bail, they're buying fewer bail bonds, which is causing many longtime bondsmen and -women to rethink the business.

Van Nuys-based bail bondsman Larry Goldberg said he's seen some competitors around the Van Nuys courthouse shut their doors in recent months.

For more than 40 years, Los Angeles has held on to 17,000 acres of land near Palmdale's airport, hoping it could help solve congestion problems at Los Angeles International Airport. Daily News.

And, for most of those years, other than sporadic studies, nothing has been done with the land. The latest effort to have a passenger airline operation at L.A./Palmdale Regional Airport will end this month when United Airlines pulls its single daily flight.

On Wednesday, Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl called for a review of the city's plans for the land.

"It's time to get real," Rosendahl said during a meeting of the City Council's Trade, Tourism and Commerce Committee. "Should we just get out of the phoniness that we are planning something out there? We should look at the value of the land we have there and what we could get if we sold it."

They are the stars of public access. They are dancers, singers and talk-show hosts, and they fear the loss of their ability to perform on the public airwaves.Daily News.

With Time Warner Cable planning to shut down 14 cable public-access studios in Los Angeles after Dec. 31, those who use the studios asked Wednesday for the City Council to try to save their programs.

Leslie Dutton, whose "Full Disclosure Network" show has aired on stations across the country, said it will hurt those who want to get their message heard.

An attempt to oust Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent David Brewer III midway through his four-year contract hit a snag Tuesday when the board president, seeking his dismissal, failed to gather all seven members at a hastily planned session.George b. Sanchez in the Daily News.

News of the closed-door meeting surprised and irritated some board members, including one who charged that board outsiders, such as Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and former Mayor Richard Riordan, were behind plans to dismiss Brewer.

The superintendent's fate has been put on hold until next week, but it was unclear how the board might proceed. A simple majority could remove Brewer.

California's public school students relied on 28 million more free or reduced-price meals this school year compared with last, a sign that the economy has made the school cafeteria the de facto kitchen table for kids whose families are struggling. Susan Abram in the Daily News.

The 770.6 million meals served during the 2007-08 school year was a record, and a 4.5 percent jump from the year before. The state commonly experiences a 1 percent increase per year, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell said Tuesday.

But the variety provided with these meals, including fruits and vegetables, leans on state money, a sore subject given the fiscal emergency declared by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday.

Three county supervisors beginning new terms this week said county government, facing state and federal budget cuts and the drying up of property-tax revenues, faces major challenges during the year ahead in trying to serve people who rely on it.Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

Supervisor Don Knabe, named chairman as he began his fourth term on the county Board of Supervisors, said the economic challenges facing the nation and state will hit county government hard as it deals with a health-care crisis and opens negotiations with unions seeking new contracts.

"The next wave of state cuts could have a pretty significant impact on county services," Knabe said.

Deferring action on a six-month moratorium on new billboards, a city panel Tuesday indicated it wants to look at other ways it can control the new brightly lit digital billboards being installed around the city. Daily News.

Frustrated at the time it is taking the city's agencies to come to an agreement on how to control the signs, the Planning and Land Use Management Committee said it will deal with the moratorium in coming weeks while it gets a report on how the city has responded to complaints.

Councilman Jack Weiss, who has opposed the signs, said he does not believe a moratorium is necessary when the city could take steps to adopt more rigorous requirements.

The Los Angeles school board is expected to hold a closed-door meeting today to discuss buying out the contract of Superintendent David L. Brewer, who has lost the confidence of key civic leaders.Daily News.

These civic leaders are quietly pressing for Brewer to leave his $300,000-a-year position as head of the nation's second-largest school system. The school board is expected to discuss buying out Brewer's contract in a private meeting today.

Despite a warm October with no rain, Los Angeles residents cut their water use by 7 percent and government customers reduced theirs by 11.4 percent under a new water conservation measure that took effect in late summer. Daily News.

"Water conservation is the cornerstone to our sustainable future," said Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who signed the tough water-conservation proposal in August.

Commuters suffering in gridlock can now sound off about their experiences and learn about transportation solutions recommended by the Rand Corp. through a new Web site launched Monday.Sue Doyle in the Daily News.

On www.fastla.org, commuters can speak out about signal timing, dedicated bus-only lanes, discount transit passes and other issues - traffic management ideas proposed in an October report by Rand.

The idea behind the Web site is to help offset the $9 billion lost annually in Los Angeles' economy because of traffic. The site also puts commuters in touch with transportation initiatives that don't require major infrastructure development and can be implemented in the next five years.

After final vote tallies, the half-percent sales tax to raise $30 billion to $40 billion for Los Angeles County transportation projects won by a narrow margin, while the city's gang tax barely missed the required two-thirds majority. Sue Doyle in the Daily News.

Needing approval from at least two-thirds of voters, the transportation tax, Measure R, took 67.93 percent of the total, according to the Los Angeles County registrar-recorder.

The office certified the election Friday, spokeswoman Marcia Ventura said.

Meanwhile, a city parcel tax to generate $30 million annually to pay for gang prevention and anti-violence intervention programs received 66.27 percent of votes; it failed by less than half a percentage point. The parcel tax, Measure A, drew 712,039 yes votes and 362,396 no votes.

In a sober assessment of the state of the city, the United Way of Los Angeles on Monday warned that economic problems threaten to stifle growth and reform, affecting everything from jobs and housing to health and education.Daily News.

"Los Angeles, 2008. State of City" is the fifth annual report prepared by the charity with the Edmund G. "Pat" Brown Institute of Public Affairs at California State University, Los Angeles, and it offers a grim perspective for local officials as they develop policies to deal with L.A.'s housing, jobs and education needs.

Click photo to enlarge
A Southwest Airlines flight takes off from Bob Hope Airport in... (John Lazar/Staff Photographer)

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RELATED:
# Environmental Impact Report for Van Nuys Airport

In this tale of two airports, it's the worst of times.

A raging noise battle between Burbank's national Bob Hope Airport and the general aviation Van Nuys Airport is getting, well, louder. And residents at both ends of the Valley are losing sleep over it. Jerry Berrios in the Daily News.

While the complex air battle has gone on for months and might ultimately have to be decided by federal aviation officials, it essentially boils down to this:

Burbank eventually wants to send 32 flights a day to Van Nuys to ease congestion. Van Nuys officials don't want any of Burbank's air traffic, but they want to divert their noisiest aircraft to Burbank and other airports.