Afternoon on the Terrace

He likes the morita. This is a slow news day in City Hall, so slow that Mayor Villaraigosa wandered down to Ralphs to celebrate the fact that Homegirl has placed two salsas at Ralphs. (Ralph's issued a press release for the event). Eric Richardson of blogdowntown snaps a fine photo of Antonio Villaraigosa sampling salsa.

Not one but two Amendments are at risk in this bizarre story about the way local County government tries to control leaks. Free speech and illegal seizure are challenged by the LA County Sheriffs. Buried in the story is a memo by a district attorney on the case. It looks like Cooley's office might have given an opinion on how to handle the matter: with disregard for fundamental Constitutional rights.

Cooley's not the only lawman gone rogue of late. In Arizona, the Minutemen's favorite Sheriff has been reeled in a bit by the Obama administration for administering cruel and unusual punishment on undocumented aliens.

Representative Debbie Wasserman Schulz, (D-Fla, right), has breast cancer. Her next GOP opponent fires a gun at a target with her initials on it. That is one hell of a novel way to promote Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Ron Kaye sees cowardice at City Hall as the city spends its way towards bad bond ratings. Kaye's solution: "The mayor -- whose silence on the budget is the ultimate in irresponsible leadership -- and the rest of the city's elected leadership need to sit down with the unions and lay out a plan for salary and benefit cuts, elimination of non-basic services and a temporary two-year tax hike that truly brings city spending in line with revenue." He notes that the City Hall website is down again as of his posting, probably because this blog sent it too much traffic yesterday and exhausted the hamster that spins the wheel that keeps the server running.

We're picking up chatter that San Pedro wants light rail to come its way too.

Anthony Tommasini in the liberal fishwrap of record liked Dudamel's debut. So did the Mayor. But the New York Times critic heard trouble in the strings--"patchy string tone and scrappy execution"--something we've heard from the Phil for a while now.