Jose Huizar - I'll be talking about his federal plea deal today at 2pm on 790-KABC

@TheGussReport - Well, it's time for disgraced former LA City Councilmember Jose Huizar to face the music in federal court, and boy did the hard-working feds have an orchestra prepared, as he formally entered his guilty plea this morning.

Former LA City Councilmember Jose Huizar

Photo by Al Seib / Los Angeles Times

Today at 2pm on 790-KABC, I'll dig into the details of his racketeering and tax evasion dirty deeds and what it is likely going to cost Huizar when he is eventually sentenced.  

As the late, great KABC star Michael Jackson used to say, "do join us!"

Rejecting Paul Koretz and Ron Galperin, LA Times Regains Some Of Its Marbles

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport - Like a rare hybrid eclipse, this column finally aligns with at least the essence of the Los Angeles Times' first two endorsements for the upcoming June primary, which are best summarized as:

• Paul Koretz should not be the next LA City Controller
• Ron Galperin should not be the next California Controller

Considering that the Times repeatedly endorsed locals like convicted felon Mitch Englander; indicted Jose Huizar and Mark Ridley-Thomas; Gavin Newsom, Jerry Brown, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Gray Davis; Eric Garcetti and Antonio Villaraigosa; Nury Martinez and Herb Wesson; Kamala Harris, George Gascon, Mike Bonin, bigamist Curren Price (despite his denials), other fakers and takers, and yes, Koretz and Galperin, it may now see the consequences of those disastrous recommendations.

I don't entirely buy that the Times gets it, yet, and neither should you.  But rejecting Koretz and Galperin in 2022 is a good start.

To read the rest of this column and see earlier ones, go to: https://danielguss.substack.com/ and sign up for the free subscription.

You may also follow me on the Twitters @TheGussReport.

Sigan adelante gente increibles.....

(Daniel Guss, MBA, was runner-up for the 2020 Los Angeles Press Club journalism award for Best Online Political Commentary and was a runner-up in 2021 in the Activist Journalism category.  He has contributed to Mayor Sam, CityWatchLA, KFI AM-640, iHeartMedia, 790-KABC, Cumulus Media, KCRW, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Pasadena Star News, Los Angeles Downtown News, and the Los Angeles Times in its Sports, Opinion and Entertainment sections and Sunday Magazine, among other publishers.)

Eric Garcetti's Final Free Lunch: Crow with Karma

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport - There are various types of political comeuppance in Los Angeles.  But it is Mayor Eric Garcetti, a world-class conniver, who will soon feast on his final free lunch of crow with karma as it is slow-cooked and slow-walked from the kitchen to his smirking pie hole.

In days or weeks, on the grand Washington, D.C., political stage, Garcetti may sheepishly withdraw his nomination to be the next U.S. Ambassador to India, lest President Joe Biden will do it for him.

Look for it to be done on a Friday around 6pm in true cowardly fashion.  It will be savory and scrumptious for everyone except Garcetti, as L.A. has waited and waded for such a day.

To read the whole column, please join me over at Substack and be sure to sign up for a free subscription.  

Thanks as always to Mayor Sam, Scott Johnson and the late great Michael Higby.

As I Had Mentioned...Nury Martinez Dances With Corruption

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport - There is no particularly polite way to say "I told you so," so after Googling for a variety of alternatives, "as I had mentioned" seemed like the best option.

In a piece that I wrote for Mayor Sam back on October 26, 2021, this column correctly predicted L.A. City Council president Nury Martinez would appoint her controversial predecessor Herb Wesson to oversee Council District 10 after forcing out recently elected Mark Ridley-Thomas from the job upon his federal corruption indictment.

(Justin Wesson (rear), Herb Wesson, Nury Martinez - Photo Credit: LA Daily News)

Well, let's fast forward to the column's conclusion:

(Federally indicted former Councilmember) Jose Huizar may be dumb, but he ain't stupid.  As someone who went to Berkeley, Princeton and UCLA Law, he is probably very good at keeping notes.

To read all the rest, jump on over to my Substack.

Follow me on The Twitters @TheGussReport.

(Daniel Guss, MBA, was runner-up for the 2020 Los Angeles Press Club journalism award for Best Online Political Commentary and runner-up in 2021 in the Activist Journalism category.  He has contributed to Mayor Sam, CityWatchLA, KFI AM-640, iHeartMedia, 790-KABC, Cumulus Media, KCRW, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Pasadena Star News, Los Angeles Downtown News and The Los Angeles Times in its Sports, Opinion and Entertainment sections and Sunday Magazine among other publishers.)

Dan's Big Book Of Small Grievances, Volume 1

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport - When I signed up to become City Editor for Mayor Sam, I promised a no-punches-pulled approach in easy, digestible bites with a healthy dose of snark where applicable 

To wit, there are a lot of Post-Its on the desk worth exploring, just not in a thousand words, at least not yet.  

As they say at the bakery, let's roll.....

Freebird Gets No Ink In LA Times

Disgraced LA City Councilmember Mitch Englander was released from federal prison in September, according to the LA Daily News, way ahead of his anticipated release in May 2022. He served no more than four months of a 14-month sentence. As I reported, the scheming ex-lawmaker made an array of curious corporate filings adding and deleting family as Board members before surrendering.  

Eric Garcetti and Mitch Englander

Photo Credit: OC Register

But you know what? He had great legal counsel. 

He faced decades in prison but only spent a summer in it, albeit a summer in Arizona.

The former LAPD volunteer can't vote, may have had to turn in his firearms and his crimes cost him a fortune in legal fees and fines.  But free is free, whether or not Englander wears a monitoring device at a halfway house in Long Beach or home in Santa Monica. That's how the system works. Take note Jose Huizar, Mark Ridley-Thomas and fellow indictees. 

But the grievance here is that the story does not come up in searches on the LA Times' website as of Thursday.

Restaurant Ripoff Results in Cancelation

At least in Los Angeles, it has become commonplace to find additional fees added to your local restaurant tab, presumably to offset higher minimum wages. While some restaurants fairly mention this on their menu, others bury it at the bottom of the tab.

And then there's what one of our favorite local eateries did.

In addition to raising prices, which is fair, due to inflation, they added vague fees to the tax line, so you can't tell how much is tax and how much is the "fee" without pulling up your calculator app. Moreover, there is no mention of it on the website for takeout.

But the grievance here is that on top of the increased prices and buried fees, they also try to guilt customers into a default 15% tip.....for takeout, part of which we otherwise would typically add in the COVID era.

They lost the tip, the fees, the order and the customer for good.

Why Nury's Vax Mandate Is A Load Of Hooey

The problem with vaccine mandates is that it could wind up costing big cities with defiant cops and firefighters more than it realizes.  

Consider how much time it takes and how much money it costs to locate, recruit and train a firefighter or cop just to get ready to serve the public. Then, multiply it by the hundreds or thousands of LA's first responders that LA City Council president Nury Martinez says "may" be fired if they dare to defy her order to get injected with a COVID vaccine by her further-extended deadline of mid-December. Note: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis actively recruits those quitting or retiring from the NYPD and NYFD with a $5,000 signing bonus. Don't be surprised if some of our best leave for the no-state-income-tax Sunshine State.

Florida's cost of living is a fraction of LA's, as well.

Nury Martinez

Photo Credit: Unknown

So here's the question.  

If Nury insists on a vax mandate for all City workers, not just LAFD and LAPD, to provide a safe workplace and safe interactions with the public, why does she still refuse to let the vaccinated public into City Council's meetings?

Is it because she is still too insecure being a leader who cannot articulate how she will fix LA's worst-in-the-nation homelessness and other things that rotted away during the Eric Garcetti era?  Is it because she is too thin-skinned to face critics, so she needs to lean on a hypocritical COVID policy that applies to some, but not all?

The grievance here is that keeping out of meetings even the vaccinated public strengthens City employees' defiant stance. Vaccines cannot be the solution for cops, firefighters and librarians but not be enough for critics who want back in to the meetings to let her and her City Council colleagues have it and good.

You won't find this hypocrisy reported in the LA Times, either.   

(Daniel Guss, MBA, was runner-up for the 2020 Los Angeles Press Club journalism award for Best Online Political Commentary (and came in Show in 2021 in another category) and has contributed to CityWatch, KFI AM-640, iHeartMedia, 790-KABC, Cumulus Media, KCRW, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Pasadena Star News, Los Angeles Downtown News, and The Los Angeles Times in its Sports, Opinion and Entertainment Sections and Sunday Magazine among other publishers. Tell your friends to follow him on The Twitters @TheGussReport.)

 

How Mike Feuer Illegally Enabled A Nury Martinez Lynch Mob That Came For Mark Ridley-Thomas

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport - Two concepts take center stage in today's column: Presumption of Innocence and Due Process.

Momentarily set aside your thoughts on the 20-count federal corruption indictment announced just a few days ago against L.A. City Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas, MRT.  This column has its views about it and they are not favorable for the long-time L.A. political icon.  

Mark Ridley-Thomas, Sebastian Ridley-Thomas

Photo Credit: ABC-7

But this column is in rare in agreement with L.A. City Councilmembers Curren Price, Mike Bonin and Marqueece Harris-Dawson, the only names on the 15-member LA City Council who voted to not (at this point) suspend MRT and withhold his salary and health insurance.  

While suspending MRT or putting an overseer in-place to monitor his work and expenditures makes sense, withholding his salary and health insurance (which LA City Controller Ron Galperin stated he would unilaterally do even before Council voted or MRT entered a plea) does not.

MRT is entitled to the Presumption of Innocence and Due Process as is every other American, whether we are Mark Zuckerberg, an addict sleeping on the sidewalk or those of us who exist somewhere in-between them.

But MRT was deprived of both yesterday as a figurative L.A. City Council lynch mob came for him for something which is not yet proven, for which neither they nor he saw the evidence and which he denies.

Way to treat Ridley-Thomas like Emmett Till, L.A. City Council, but especially you Council president Nury Martinez, City Attorney Mike Feuer and Ron Galperin.  To be clear, we are not saying MRT is innocent; we do not know and we are skeptical of his claims of innocence.  Put restrictions in-place to ensure Council District 10 can keep functioning with its chosen representative while the legal process plays out, but don't jump to MRT's penalty phase before he even had a chance to enter a plea, let alone tell his side of the story.

Emmett Till

The severe crimes which Ridley-Thomas stands accused of committing:

1. Have nothing to do with his earlier time on City Council nor his recent return to it; and
2. Do not appear to have personally enriched him; and
3. Are denied by him. 

Martinez, enabled by Feuer's proxy, illegally silenced some who tried to comment during the meeting that Ridley-Thomas should be limited, but that his salary and health insurance should not be withheld.  Further, they ignored multiple "cure and correct" orders received via email, opened and read.  Those are Brown Act violations and further proof of their rigged proceeding. 

Talk about having your thumb weighing down the scale of justice!

Did these Councilmembers or their predecessors breathlessly race to suspend and withhold paychecks and health insurance from then-L.A. City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo who admitted his wife Michelle had an accident while improperly driving his city-funded S.U.V. and hid that fact when they had it repaired at taxpayer expense?  According to the L.A. Times, "(Delgadillo) also acknowledged that he did not realize that he himself had driven as an uninsured motorist for about a year, while his wife had driven without insurance for more than two years."

Does that sound like an admission of insurance fraud and mail or wire fraud, as well as violations of the California Vehicle Code?

How did City Council treat then-Chief Administrative Officer Miguel Santana when busted for D.U.I.?

Has City Council taken measures to restrict Councilmember John Lee, who seems to fit the description of "Staffer B" in the ongoing Jose Huizar investigation?  What about Councilmember Herb Wesson, Huizar's self-described "best friend" whose Chief of Staff Deron Williams appears to be prominently represented in the Huizar indictment?  

While City Council did suspend Huizar shortly after his indictment, it was not an apples-to-apples comparison with the Ridley-Thomas situation.  Among other things, Huizar is accused of crimes that violated his oath to serve on City Council.  Ridley-Thomas is accused of serious crimes in his prior office.

Did Martinez and friends hold any hearings on why Wesson, a swirl of corrupt nepotism himself, suddenly started recusing himself from votes when he hadn't done so in the years beforehand?  Since Wesson was Council president at the time and Williams his right-hand man, he obviously wasn't going to suspend himself yet not-a-one of these officials suggested that they should even be restricted.  

Where was the discussion about whether Feuer should have checks and balances placed on him when the FBI raided his office in 2019 in the still-ongoing LADWP scandal?  Why hasn't it held a discussion about the alleged current investigation by the State Bar of California into his activities?

Where was the hearing, outcry and suspension of pay for Mayor Eric Garcetti for claiming under oath and in the media that he didn't see any sexual harassment by his right-hand pal Rick Jacobs despite photographic evidence of it taking place right under his nose?

Rick Jacobs (left), Eric Garcetti ("thumbs up")

Martinez, Feuer and Galperin may have personal motives for their rush to judgment and it may be born out of a different flavor of their own rigged political proclivities.

In my next column, I dig into what I believe motivates them to treat Mark Ridley-Thomas differently.

Stay tuned.

(Daniel Guss, MBA, was runner-up for the 2020 Los Angeles Press Club journalism award for Best Online Political Commentary and has contributed to CityWatch, KFI AM-640, iHeartMedia, 790-KABC, Cumulus Media, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Pasadena Star-News, Los Angeles Downtown News, and the Los Angeles Times in its Sports, Opinion and Entertainment sections and Sunday Magazine, and other publishers.)

Presently using mi amigo Scott's sign-in until tech matters are ironed out.

Was Mark Ridley-Thomas On Your Corruption Bingo Card?

 By Daniel Guss 

@TheGussReport - Shame, shame, shame if you are a follower of Southern California politics and didn't have Los Angeles City Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas, MRT, on your corruption bingo card.  Yesterday, he and a former USC dean were indicted for what amounts to the following.

One of MRT's sons, Sebastian Ridley-Thomas, SRT, who had no legitimate reason for being elected to public office other than sporting a locally famous political surname, allegedly got all "hands across America" with women when he was in the California State Assembly and had to skedaddle so investigations into his haranguing proclivities could be dismissed as politically unnecessary. 

Mark Ridley-Thomas, Sebastian Ridley-Thomas

Photo Credit: ABC7

The media swallowed hook, line and stinker SRT's claim that his abrupt resignation was due to "medical reasons."

Like many coddled, lay-about children of politicians, SRT's daddy came to his rescue to get him a job that MRT apparently felt his son wasn't qualified to legitimately earn on his own and went over the top by allegedly buying him a professorship at the University of Southern California, USC.

Daddy Ridley-Thomas also allegedly bought Offspring Ridley-Thomas a USC graduate school admission and a full scholarship.

Think about that for a moment.  Mark Ridley-Thomas allegedly bought his kid a scholarship.  What bowl of Apple Jacks were those kids fed growing up where nobody seems to have raised the notion of accomplishment over entitlement?

You know, the type of bull that Mark Ridley-Thomas and all politicians spew day and night.

According to the indictment, all MRT had to do in exchange (i.e. a quid pro quo) was funnel your tax dollars and mine back to USC in a twisted amalgam of non-profits, nepotism and looking the other way. But it was apparently so aggressively ill-conceived that even USC couldn't ignore it and appears to have ratted out the wrong-doers to the feds itself.

What is it about USC that makes it a magnet for wealthy, powerful parents who think their kids aren't smart enough to get in on their own but can still be purchased from a cashier, as though the degree is a Prada bag that you carry around town?  Here's looking at you, Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli.

On that note, USC continues to refuse to say whether Gianna "Gigi" Caruso, daughter of bazillionaire and a Chairman of the USC Board of Trustees Rick Caruso, earned her way into the school.  The last time this column asked, the school dodged the question and described Ms. Caruso in a way that was nothing short of shameful.

Rick Caruso, Gigi Caruso, Tina Caruso

Photo Credit: Unknown

By the way, are we still allowed to say "chairman?"  USC still does.

To be fair, we shall assume that the bikini entrepreneur (and gal pal of the Loughlin/Giannulli children) earned her way into USC through exceptional grades, test scores and community service.  It's just that the school and papa bear have refused to say that she did, let alone provide the specifics.

Mr. Caruso might very well make an excellent successor to uber-failure Eric Garcetti, perhaps in the tradition of Richard Riordan, the only stellar alcalde L.A. has had in the past several decades and maybe the best ever.  If he decides to run, the Los Angeles Times should ask about Gigi's admission into USC.

But don't bank on it.

-----

A year ago, the Los Angeles Times endorsed Mark Ridley-Thomas to return to LA City Council despite knowing full-well about the alleged crimes for which he and a former USC dean were indicted yesterday, writing:

"He has made questionable ethical decisions, most notably when he funneled $100,000 from campaign fund to USC, which then hired his son as a professor."

Hey thanks for that endorsement, LA Times.  Imagine what a clear-eyed endorsement of a capable, accomplished community activist and attorney named Grace Yoo, who doesn't have the stink of scandal emanating from her pores, could have done for L.A.

But misapplied power and cronyism are hard habits to break.

The Times also repeatedly endorsed Mitch Englander,  who currently brushes his teeth in a federal prison in Arizona.  It also gave us the thumbs-up for Jose Huizar, who might someday set up camp in Englander's prison. And the Times has repeatedly endorsed others like Mayor Eric Garcetti, former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and former L.A. City Council president Herb Wesson.

But there's nothing that the Times loves to do more than floating the notion of coddled, lay-about political offspring (like Sebastian Ridley-Thomas and Justin Wesson) running to succeed their parents rather than encouraging fresh names with better ideas.

Huzzahs!  Everyone gets a trophy, everyone gets to walk in their parents' footsteps just because they're special!

Everyone except the kids who earned those spots in school.

Everyone except the candidates for office who would have worked diligently and with integrity to improve L.A.

Note to the L.A. Times: You can't manufacture the Kennedys. Even the Kennedys were not what the media wanted us to believe that they were. And neither are these locals.

If Los Angeles is going to be a glutton for felons, failures and flunky children of kleptocrat politicians, it is the Times' job to keep us from falling off that cliff rather than giving us a shove.

Thanks again, El Segundo Times.

-----

And finally, this column has chosen the top five politicians or political hangers-on who it thinks might be indicted next. We'll keep that on the note pad over here by the morning lime water.  But here's a hint: Methinks some will be for bankruptcy fraud, wire fraud, tax evasion, forgery and/or voter registration fraud.  Okay, or bribery, but we assume you already knew that.

Tell your friends to follow me on The Twitters @TheGussReport.

(Daniel Guss, MBA, was runner-up for the 2020 Los Angeles Press Club journalism award for Best Online Political Commentary and has contributed to CityWatch, KFI AM-640, iHeartMedia, 790-KABC, Cumulus Media, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Pasadena Star-News, Los Angeles Downtown News and the Los Angeles Times in its Sports, Opinion and Entertainment sections as well as its Sunday Magazine, among other publishers.)

Presently using mi amigo Scott's sign-in until tech matters are resolved.

Wendy Greuel Offends Local Latinos

Did Cesar Chavez Really Endorse Wendy Greuel?

One of the more curious parts of Wendy Greuel's campaign is that she has set up a number of "special interest groups" that support her. Such as African-Americans for Wendy, Latinos for Wendy, Women for Wendy, Armenians for Wendy, Right Handed Scientologists for Wendy (okay the last one is not real), etc.

Of recent note has been Greuel's pandering to African-Americans. Key to this strategy is the former Councilwoman turned City Controller's previous career as a young aide to former Mayor Tom Bradley (during which tenure she was reprimanded by the Mayor for using city resources for political campaigns). Greuel's references to Bradley on the campaign trail has been so excessive that opponents Kevin James and Jan Perry took to keeping track of every time she mentioned the name of the long time and very popular mayor.

Now the Greuel campaign, seeking to grab Latino voters away from Eric Garcetti and Emanuel Pleitez, has issued a mailer prominently featuring civil rights leader, Cesar Chavez, founder fo the United Farm Workers and a hero to many Hispanics.

The pandering apparently so intense that it raised the ire of San Fernando Valley community leader Monica Rodriguez, previously Community Affairs Manager for former Mayor Richard Riordan and Chief Deputy to former LAUSD Board of Education President Caprice Young. Rodriguez, who was a candidate for City Council in CD7 in 2009 posted the following on her Facebook page:

"I'm sorry, but I find it completely offensive to have an image of Cesar Chavez for Wendy Greuel when this incredible civil rights leader or anyone directly related (as far as I can see) or the UFW has NOT endorsed Wendy. Dolores Huerta endorsement is not Cesar Chavez endorsement. Dolores should be prominently displayed and not in a small caption on the back side."

Rodriguez further stated that Greuel has a:

"...warped sense of the Latino community - that if you put Cesar Chavez' picture and associate with Wendy we'll all just vote that way. Ignorante!"

Disgust with Greuel's near-stereotypical pandering to Latino audiences is not limited to the San Fernando Valley. Earlier in February, when Greuel joined with City Councilman Jose Huizar and Assembly Speaker/Mayoral Primo John Perez to open a Greuel campaign office in Boyle Heights.  Community activist Luz Montoya took great offense at the presentation saying:

"I feel like they're mocking us. It was deceitful for Jose Huizar to tell the residents of Boyle Heights that it was a reunion for him and out of no where comes a lady I have never seen in come near this neighborhood before. They come here and think they can win our support with some sweet bread and mariachi. They want to ridicule us."

Let's not even begin to speculate on the entertainment and food at the LGBT with Wendy event.

Wendy Greuel campaign staffer?