Morning Briefs and Outtakes for September 16, 2009

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and his ACORN "Rent a Mob"

Memo to Journalist Russ Stanton and Jim Newton at the "Old Gray Westside Hag On Spring Street".

The shock and unexpected kudos on your editorial "From ACORN, a mighty controversy grows". My finger tips are feeling a "tingling sensation" as I type these "spoll-checked words of praise", in response to your latest opinion missive regarding the growing ACORN controversy.

Now with the ACORN controversy reaching closer to your West LA center of journalistic thinking, after yesterday Andrew Breitbart"s "Big Government Blog" expose on the ACORN office in San Bernardino. I have a couple of simple requests for you both.

First, take a walk through the "mystical wall" that separates the Editorial and News Departments in your Downtown Spring Street News Bureau and give your intrepid news/ investigated reporter David Zahniser a big time "story budget" to disclose the links between ACORN and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

In his former incarnation as a reporter for the "Weekly of Record", Zahniser had this story about ACORN being the "paid rent a mob" during Mayor Villaraigosa's attempt to take over LAUSD with his unconstitutional AB 1381 scheme, some excerpts.

Six months after his summer in Sacramento, Villaraigosa turned in the financial reports for his Committee for Government Excellence and Accountability — the campaign that spent $1.1 million to win passage of the bill and defend it in court now that a judge has labeled it unconstitutional. Those reports show that nearly $73,000 of the money went to the nationwide organizing group ACORN and its employees, payments identified as campaign consulting services, travel and “meetings and appearances.”

Martha Sanchez, ACORN-L.A.’s vice president, says she sees no conflict, since the group voted to support Villaraigosa’s plan before his committee gave them a $20,000 contract to organize parents in favor of it. “Do you think people really care about who gets the money?” she asks.

The payments raise two possibilities: On the one hand, the mayor’s expenditure makes ACORN look like just another special-interest group, with its spokesmen serving as paid lobbyists for Villaraigosa. Or maybe ACORN is simply a grass-roots organization greased by big doses of special-interest money — contributions given to the mayor by companies like Anschutz Entertainment Group, which received $270 million from the city to build its L.A. Live entertainment complex.

Either way, it looks like disclosure is not exactly ACORN’s strong suit. And some question whether ACORN — which stands for “the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now” — is a little bit more corporate than it looks.

After all, this was the type of hard-hitting journalism you were seeking when you hire Zahniser away from the "Weekly of Record" Jill Stewart's stable of reporters that was and still are reporting news, while your P.R. scribes regurgitate the latest spin from west of the 405 and leak newsroom gossip to the "Westside White Guy".

Zahniser did well for your attempts to expand your West LA reader base with his extensive report on Mayor Villaraigosa' s friend Ari Swiller land grab in Kern County. But its up to you to loosen the editing reins and let Zahniser roam the political corridors of City Hall in the theme of exposing the fraud and corruption that is the hallmark of Villaraigosa's Reign at Spring Street.

......, and my second request Journalist Stanton and Newton ?? Please have your H.R. Director set up some racial sensitivity training for one Tim "Kim Il" Rutten, better known as your "Dear Leader" of objectively bias journalism. He is flashbacking to his younger days in the early part of last century when your regional paper was the "fishwrap of record" in Los Angeles and his mis-guided missives would be accepted as gospal.

Rutten is going the Joseph McCarthy route in the search of racists who disagree with President Barack Obama. But then racism may be the last refuge of a bunch of discredit journalists/leftists who are forced to pen racial McCarthyisms when they lack substance. A sad irony indeed.

OTHER NEWS:

** County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas is back in the "journalistic cross-hairs" of Times Investigated Reporter Paul Pringle who exposed the Tyrone Freeman "Reign of Corruption" at SEIU 6434.

Federal authorities investigating alleged union corruption have been examining a labor coalition's backing of Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas' 2008 campaign and whether his supporters illegally used city property and a nonprofit group in his earlier runs for office, people familiar with the matter say.

In addition, investigators have questioned people about whether Ridley-Thomas played any improper role in the hiring of a longtime associate by a contractor building the Expo Line rail project, according tothe sources, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the inquiries.

** Another day and more busted water pipes, this time in Woodland Hills. The Times reports and Steve Lopez opines on the growing fustrations of city residents who are paying more for less.

** How can CD 2 Council Candidate Paul Krekorian spin this contribution from Autry National Center CEO John Gray??

09/03/09 John Gray (President & CEO, Autry National Center) Los Angeles, CA 90026 Paul Krekorian Council Member - District 2 1318897 - Krekorian For City Council 2009 A - Monetary Contribution Received (IND - Individual) [Period: 08/09/09-09/05/09] $500.00 [Election: 09/22/09]

BTW, does Krekorian have a ACORN/SEIU connection ??

** Thought to ponder for CD 2 "cut and pasters". Did anyone find it interesting that Mayor Villaraigosa's friend and Cadiz's Keith Brackpool associate Richard Katz was moderating Monday's nights candidate forum in Sherman Oaks, with tough questions. Yet he won't disclose what was discuss during his vacation with the Mayor and Keith Brackpool in Iceland ??

Your thoughts...................................