Dodgers Brand Slammed

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport on Twitter - The Azul is singing the blues these days as it discovers capitalism isn't always a home run.

Dodger Stadium - Photo: California by Choice

Until a few weeks ago, few institutions in Southern California had a stronger brand than the Los Angeles Dodgers, except perhaps the late legend himself, Vin Scully.

But make no mistake, this emotional embrace of the boys in blue is pure one-sided capitalism.  If the Dodgers could get you to buy oxygen, they would.

San Francisco pitcher Juan Marichal (27) swings a bat at Dodgers catcher John Roseboro as Dodgers pitcher Sandy Koufax, right, tries to break it up on Aug. 22, 1965. (Robert H. Houston / Associated Press)

Yet its brand recently took it on the cabeza like John Roseboro took it from Juan Marichal in '65.

I explain in my latest free column on DanielGuss.Substack.com.   

Karen Bass's City Hall Is Already Rigged

@TheGussReport - A column that I wrote last year, "Honest Services Fraud - How City Hall Rigged Its Herb Wesson Vote," detailed how sleazy LA City Hall can get when it wants a certain outcome, but doesn't want the public to participate or know what goes on behind the scenes.  I will have more on what this column is doing about that incident in the coming weeks.

But for now, a change of mayors from Eric Garcetti to Karen Bass hasn't changed City Hall's culture of corruption and backroom communications, which continue to deprive the public of a fair, honest and transparent government.

To see the rest of today's new column, head on over to DanielGuss.Substack.com and sign-up for the free newsletter and share it with your friends.

EXCLUSIVE: Bass Commish Using Hidden Email Accounts, Blocking Access to Public Records

@TheGussReport on Twitter - Larry Gross, a holdover appointee of disgraced former LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, has been using covert, private email accounts to conceal city business and to also confirm to city officials scathing criticism of the new mayor, Karen Bass, as well as of animal pound critics and volunteers whose importance she applauded at her recent State of the City address.

Larry Gross - Photo: PBS SoCal

It's just the latest example of rules being ignored at every level of LA City Hall.

Gross, who has served on the Los Angeles Animal Services, LAAS, board of commissioners for nearly a decade, acknowledged exclusively to this column that he does use unknown email addresses to conduct city business.

"I am quite aware that any email address I use to communicate with city officials regarding my position as a Commissioner is subject to the Public Record Act.  I fully support that and have no problem with that.  I have nothing to hide."

Nothing to hide, it appears, other than identifying which private email accounts he uses for city business.

Gross's refusal to identify those email accounts maliciously makes it impossible for the city to comply with additional public records requests by this column.

And that's not all.

Paging my public records legal eagles.

To read this entire column, head on over to DanielGuss.Substack.com, and don't forget to sign up for my free newsletter and share it with friends.

LA's Paranoid, Paralyzed Governments, Part 1

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport on Twitter - With apologies to rockers Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe as I riff on their hit song title, but what's so scary 'bout truth, transparency and integrity in Los Angeles governments?

To some of us here on Mayor Sam, on DanielGuss.Substack.com and in similar outlets around Southern California, civic engagement means more than volunteering to clean up a park, handing out groceries at the food bank or comforting dogs at the animal pound.

It also means exploring politicians' and governments' truthfulness, transparency and integrity by examining public records, asking questions and calling out those who dodge direct accountability.

Shoot us a note if you ever hear a politician encouraging that type of civic engagement.

In the meanwhile, we've got examples of how asking LA politicians fair-but-probing questions has resulted in a costly and time-consuming cloud of paranoia and paralysis hovering over their offices after a slew of our recent stories.

To read the rest of today's column, jump on over to DanielGuss.Substack.com sign-up for my free newsletter and share it with friends.

Politicians, Media Suddenly Silent On Sanctuary City LA

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport on Twitter - We are 18 months from election day 2024 with a deafening silence from local politicians and media who spent years grandstanding about how California and the county and city of Los Angeles are sanctuary enclaves.

(Photo: Protestors at a 2017 rally where organizers called for a stop to deportations and to establish Los Angeles as a sanctuary city.  Photo: Ronen Tivony/NurPhoto via Getty Images via Vox.com)

Like their blue comrades in places like San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, New York, Boston, DC and Chicago, they finally got to be the cool kids in school, free to defy federal laws while grubbing for federal dollars to satisfy their political hard-ons for higher office and irrationally overpaid and unlikely employment for their families.

You're laughing or nodding because you know in your soul that this is true.

Oh, but the bills eventually come due.  Like Title 42, which ends at midnight tomorrow and even Joe Biden predicting "chaos."

To read the rest of today's column, jump on over to DanielGuss.Substack.com, sign-up for my free newsletter and share with friends.

Did These LA Officials Violate Federal Court and City Hall Rules?

@TheGussReport on Twitter - A few levels down the City Hall policy food chain, below City Council, the Mayor, Controller and City Attorney, still further down from the lobbyists, unions, departments and media, is the bottom rung of official Los Angeles political power.

Or whatever is left of it at that level.

It's where you will find LA's ninety-nine Neighborhood Councils, or NCs, overseen by the largely ineffective and appropriately acronymic DONE, or Department Of Neighborhood Empowerment, a bureaucracy that is largely in-place to keep the hoi polloi engaged but under control.

At least in theory.

For a few NCs, it seems that some re-education, as they fondly call it in Xinjiang, will be on the horizon.  Just don't hold your breath waiting for accountability.

To read my entire column on what went down at DONE, click on over to DanielGuss.Substack.com, and sign up for my free newsletter and share it with friends.

Keepin' 'em accountable.

Bass Pick Backs Out

@TheGussReport on Twitter - On Tuesday, a prominent Los Angeles attorney who had been nominated by Mayor Karen Bass to serve on the uber-mundane Los Angeles City Employees' Retirement System (LACERS), was unanimously confirmed by City Council.

A few minutes later, city personnel sheepishly advised that the nominee withdrew his name from consideration, requiring their undoing the appointment and raising a few questions.

Not at City Council, but here.  Like...

• Why wasn't this accomplished attorney appointed to a logical post, like civil rights boards or the LA Police Commission?
• Why was this man nominated by Bass, confirmed by City Council, with no apparent qualifications to oversee LACERS' tens of billions of dollars?
• Why did City Council vote on his nomination despite his failure to provide financial disclosures, as is required by law?
• And what, if anything, does it have to do with this 1974 one-hit wonder? 

To read this entire column for free, jump on over to DanielGuss.Substack.com, and sign-up for my free newsletter.  

Hogwash and Hypocrisy

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport on Twitter - Words not matching actions are once again all the rage at LA City Hall.

When former L.A. Mayor Richad Riordan passed away in April, those with whom I spoke, without exception, said he was our last great mayor.

He didn't perpetually make a jackass of himself on a national stage like two of his successors, Eric Garcetti and Antonio Villaraigosa, did.  He didn't sloganeer like they did, and current mayor, Karen "Lock Arms" Bass, does.  And he didn't lose his first bid for re-election as James Hahn did in 2005, becoming the first alcalde to accomplish that feat since KKK member John Clinton Porter did in 1933.

Riordan was a moderate Republican, job creator and philanthropist who got LA through some of its deepest crises.  From time to time, he caused minor stirs by shooting from the hip, but at least he was authentic.

But, oh to have authenticity in LA City Hall these days, where post-pandemic words and actions once again gloriously misalign.

To read this entire column, head on over to DanielGuss.Substack.com, and sign-up for my free newsletter.  

Karma: Identity Crisis at LAPD

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport on Twitter - The Los Angeles Police Department finds itself in a genuinely catastrophic and dangerous situation, of which it is the sole architect with no good options.

It pains me to type this, but that's karma for you.

While wishing safety for them all, the flippant response comes from years of the LAPD's unapologetic efforts to intimidate and retaliate for columns I wrote about it, LA politicians and a City Hall that fails and cheats the rest of us.

Ironically, this crisis is a grander version of what the LAPD did to me, twice.

To read my entire column, jump on over to DanielGuss.Substack.com and sign-up for my free newsletter while you're there.  Also, follow me on The Twitters @TheGussReport.

(White) Power Grab: Krekorian Disenfranchises District With Only 8% White Population

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport on Twitter - Paternalistic racism is back in fashion at LA City Hall.  Did it ever really go away?

This week, while voters in Council District 6 hold a primary to decide who will replace disgraced former City Council president Nury Martinez, things are being handled quite differently in Council District 10, whose leadership for the past two years, the next two years and perhaps for the eight years after that, will have the heavy-handed influence of current City Council president Paul Krekorian, who is White.

And the man he is trying to single-handedly replace, the now-federal felon Mark Ridley-Thomas, is Black.

Paul Krekorian (Photo; Los Angeles Times)

But why should that be, especially since the 10th District is 92% non-White?

Because it's LA City Hall, where it is business as usual, and the business is paternalism, racism and disenfranchisement.

To read this entire column, jump on over to DanielGuss.substack.com.

Last Week At LAPD Is Why Young People Increasingly Say ACAB

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport on Twitter - Stylish merch and insular, politicized law enforcement is how the Los Angeles Police Department loses the youth branding war, its officers and the future.

There's little doubt that the LAPD's passive-aggressive non-response to a media inquiry I made last week is due to its embarrassment, and perhaps feeling cornered, by my two latest columns.  They detailed how it and the LAFD covered up disturbing recordings of 2021 domestic violence and murder/suicide threats by LAFD Deputy Chief Kristina "Kady" Kepner against her then-live-in-love-interest and, in a separate alleged incident, against current squeeze, LAPD Detective Scarlett Martinez, all three of whom are women.

That's why today's column at my free Substack also explores why current anti-LAPD sentiment is as easy as 1312, or in the parlance of today's youth culture, ACAB, which means All Cops Are Bastards or All  Cops Are Bad.

And then there's the ill-conceived Twitter poll that the LAPD ran and subsequently deleted, but not before a critic captured and questioned.

Go check it out and sign-up for a free subscription, where I'll soon have updates and tinker with new features.  And don't forget to follow me on The Twitters @TheGussReport.

LAFD Cheating Is Tip Of The Iceberg

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport - Last week, The Guss Report got its second-highest readership traffic since moving to the Substack platform, when I exclusively exposed a recent test cheating scandal at the Los Angeles Fire Department.  But the readership traffic title still belongs to the LAFD sexual harassment story I exclusively kicked off last October that resulted in the abrupt retirement of Chief Deputy Armando Hogan, who was likely going to be Mayor Karen Bass's next Fire Chief.

By staying silent on these and other issues, Bass, LA City Council president Paul Krekorian and Councilmember Monica Rodriguez, who chairs the council's Public Safety Committee, our elected officials tip their hand that they prefer that the scandals - and this journalist - just go away so nobody would be the wiser.

But would you believe that there's an even deeper, darker scandal brewing over at the LAFD?  

Stay tuned.

To read today's entire column, jump on over to DanielGuss.substack.com, and sign up for my free publication.  Also, follow me on The Twitters @TheGussReport.

Another LAFD Scandal and City Hall Still Lacks Proactive Transparency

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport - Back in October, The Guss Report broke the story about a sexual harassment investigation at the LAFD in which its likely next chief, Armando Hogan, was accused by at least one high-profile civilian colleague of misconduct.

City Hall politicians and their media flacks stonewalled my questions, to the detriment of their ever-eroding credibility.

In January, both The Los Angeles Times and Los Angeles Magazine credited my accuracy and timeliness.

Now, it appears that since January 29th, the same City Hall power players have stayed mum on another scandal at the troubled agency - a cheating scandal on a Captain I electronic test.  

And that's not all that insiders are telling me.

To read the rest of my column, jump on over to danielguss.substack.com and sign up for the free newsletter while you're there.  And don't forget to follow me on The Twitters @TheGussReport.

Burglary Exposes Possible Underground Casino

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport - A Reseda storefront that appeared to be a weight loss clinic may have actually been an underground illegal casino operation, according to the LAPD, whose investigation is ongoing.

The address looks like the kind of place that you drive past a thousand times without noticing.

But a closer look at this one and you might notice that it had red flags all over it.

To continue reading this column, jump on over to my Substack and sign-up for my free newsletter.  And don't forget to follow me on The Twitters @TheGussReport.

One LA Politician's Request

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport - Last week, I had productive dialogues with several Los Angeles politicians.  My rule for engaging is simple: conversation or respond directly to emailed questions.  I don't accept prepared statements from their media personnel because they are a dodge that answers questions that aren't posed rather than those that are.

One of those dialogues took place as I made my way to the scene of yet another random sidewalk death, this one in still-un-represented Van Nuys, thanks to the resignation of Nury Martinez, LA's irrefutably racist former City Council president.

Except the politician didn't address any of the questions I emailed.

Instead, while offering validation for my recent columns, the politician expressed a wish that I would also, "recognize in your writing some of our work and efforts in the district."

Easier said than done.

To find out why, head on over to my Substack and sign-up for the free newsletter.  And don't forget to follow me on the Twitters @TheGussReport.

Scandal-Scarred City Hall Remains Opaque, Paranoid and Bureaucratic

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport - LA City Hall has carved for itself an ignominious place in the recent annals of local political history.

Some of its politicians went, or are headed, to federal prison with their bag men or, if you prefer, their bag people of indeterminate identity.  Four other power players destroyed their lives when busted as racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic.  Agencies, like LADWP, LAPD and LAFD, to name a few, are embroiled in one scandal after another.

Things have been so bad that you would think that those remaining in, or rising to, power would opt for the simplest, cheapest way to build public trust.

Transparency.

But no...

To read the rest of today's column, head on over to danielguss.substack.com, where you can also sign-up for the free newsletter.  And don't forget to follow me on The Twitters @TheGussReport.

Shalom, y'all!

Hugo Soto-Martinez Deserves An Apology

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport - At 2am on Monday morning, Los Angeles Police Protective League (LAPPL) veep Jerretta Sandoz was on Fox News Channel perpetuating a debunked story about socialist LA City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez.

Sandoz, a former LAPD detective, should have known better.

There's no way she didn't.

I'm neither a socialist nor proponent of defunding the LAPD, but her actions ostensibly speaking for the LAPD rank and file, is the type of law enforcement-related dishonesty that may be at the root of the ongoing ACAB (All Cops Are Bad), anti-police sentiment at a time when the LAPD is hemorrhaging officers.

LA City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez. Photo: Gary Coronado - Los Angeles Times

To read the story, jump on over to my Substack and sign up for my free newsletter.  And don't forget to follow me on The Twitters @TheGussReport.

A Random Street Death Becomes Vivid And Real

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport - However many people lose their lives on the streets of Los Angeles on any given day, it is easy to see them as statistics, perhaps as a coping mechanism.

Numbers are cold and one-dimensional, at least until you meet the family and friends mourning their passing.  Then their death can quickly go from random and gray to vivid and real.

This is the story of one of those people, and his name was David Isaac Soto-Toral.

To read about what happened to this handsome young man with the broad smile and clear, engaging eyes, jump on over to danielguss.substack.com, and sign up there for my free newsletter.   Also follow me on The Twitters @TheGussReport.

Shade & Fraud - Why Eric Garcetti Should Consider Other Career Options

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport - Former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti won't be going to India as U.S. Ambassador any time soon.

President Joe Biden's recent re-re-nomination of him just a few weeks ago hasn't been withdrawn, but his White House - which keeps saying how important it is to have an ambassador in India - has yet to re-re-submit Garcetti's paperwork even though the second half of his term is well underway.

As of this morning, the U.S. Senate's Executive Calendar has a bunch of nominations, but none with the name Garcetti  on it.  

There are a few reasons why.

To find out, jump on over to my Substack.  While you're there, sign up for my free newsletter and follow me on The Twitters @TheGussReport.

Another Day, Another Death. But Only Platitudes From Nithya Raman

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport - Chaos and death keep showing-up in Sherman Oaks, almost as frequently as the sunrise, while LA City Councilmember Nithya Raman keeps dodging this column's direct questions about a recent spike in deaths of homeless people and violent attacks by some of them upon the rest of her local constituency.

Now, yet another homeless person has died...

...while another yielding a knife was arrested after making death threats and climbing the roof of a local gas station, causing a major response from the LAPD and LAFD.

Because it's just about housing...right?

Raman's media flack has complained that instead of answering our direct questions, The Guss Report and Mayor Sam should quietly accept their prepared, gratuitous statement that speciously sidesteps accountability like so many Brooklyn trolley dodgers back in the day.

That approach may work in mainstream media circles, but not here, because we won't waste your time regurgitating press releases in lieu of direct questions and answers.

For the full story, jump on over to my Substack, sign up for the free newsletter and don't forget to follow me on The Twitters @TheGussReport.