A Morning of Grieving for ALL affected by the Las Vegas Mass Shooting

Our Prayers and Thoughts are with those affected by "An Act of Evil", targeting attendees of the Highway 91 Country Music Festival in Las Vegas, that has left 58 Dead and 515 Wounded. President Donald Trump will visit Las Vegas on Wednesday.

Shedding Tears for the Victims of An Act of Evil.

Blogger's Notes: The ramifications of Sunday's night Las Vegas Mass Shooting, targeting attendees of the Highway 91 Country Music Festival are being felt here in Los Angeles. According to news sources, a LAPD Foothill Division Officer, two LAFD Fire Fighters and two LASD employees, were among the 515 wounded as the Death Toll reaches 58.

An extraordinary account of last night's Massacre has been posted by Sunland Tujunga Neighborhood Council Member Julie Jaskel Cuddihy who was attending the weekend-long, Highway 91 Country Music Festival with her children .........., and GLADLY, they are all well.

But in reading her raw, vivid (and fluid) account of the shooting and aftermath, she bares witness to a horrific act that will forever be a part of the lives of those directly affected.

For those wishing to help the victims, PLEASE call your local Blood Banks and consider donating, in lieu of the fact, that mass casualty shootings can put a tremendous strain on regional blood supplies----Scott Johnson. 

Morning Briefs on the Los Angeles Political Machine for Tuesday

 Councilman Jose Huizar's  former Downtown BID guy Russell Brown.

Broadway Property Owner Joseph Hellen's billboard support of former CD 14 City Council Candidate Rudy Martinez.

As CD 14 City Councilman Jose Huizar enters the first Fall of his second term in office, what is readily apparent to political observers, is the Princeton grad's inability to bring about consensus through freedom of choice, with the recent troubles on Broadway being latest manifestation of the "Huizar Way" of doing business. The "Huizar Way" is based upon the narcissus cravings of the Boyle Heights resident that predicates constituent loyalty to him before resolution of your given issue. 

Broadway property owner Joseph Hellen knows all too well the ramifications of not being subservient to the "Huizar Way", witness their clashing visions for Broadway. As local historian D.J. Waldie reports for KCET Socal Focus, the decision of the "little Downtown BID that could", to replace Huizar supporter Russell Brown as its E.D. has set up this latest challenge to the "Huizar Way" where the desires of "Big Huizzy" comes before the needs of his constituents.

** LA Weekly Editor Jill Stewart report that a three judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court has rule that "Blue/Green Coalition" scheme to force truck drivers to join the Teamsters as part of Mayor Antonio Villar's plan to bring clean trucks to the Port of Los Angeles, was struck down. Meanwhile Neon Tommy had reported sometime back how the Mayor's office was playing dirty with the supposed clean air facts. 

** We bring you the latest on CASA 0101's Josefina Lopez who describes "Being Stupid and Idealistic and Creative" with ...............** CRA money? ** Our editorial comment.

** Expect cooperation between the Los Angeles Sheriff Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation should become more strain, in light of the report that the FBI paid a deputy $1,500 to smuggle a cell phone to an informant in County Jail. Expect some damaging revelations to come from this sting.

** The Los Angeles Board of Supervisors held a close door meeting today with Governor Jerry Brown that had some "open government advocates" wondering aloud about possible Brown Act concerns.
** KCBS Investigated Reporter David Goldstein gave the television treatment to the LA Weekly story on the $1 Million dollar giveaway to the designer of Farmers Field Gensler, that should have gone to serve the poor on Skid Row according to activists. Funny to watch the obvious discomfort of Mayor Antonio Villar, as he defends this usage of federal dollars.   

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

Scott Johnson in CD 14        

Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Monday

In light of the pay scandal in the City of Bell the LA Times looks at the salaries of City Council members through out LA County.  While some cities pay more than others of course the CEO level pay of Los Angeles City Council members seems to get a pass.  Apparently thought it wasn't always that way.  Over the weekend I happened to catch an old rerun of Grouch Marx's "You Bet Your Life" show from the 50s.  One of the guests was then Los Angeles City Councilman Gordon Hahn (brother to Kenny, uncle to Janice and Jim). Hahn told Groucho that City Council members made on average about 20 cents more an hour than City Hall janitors but less than plumbers.  How times have changed.



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Did Sheriff's Department Errors Lead to Death of Innocent Young People?

What is going on with the LA County Sheriff's Office these days? It seems that a number of poor administrative and perhaps political decisions has led to the unnecessary death of three innocent young people.

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Use of Force Unnecessary in Champommier Killing

More and more questions coming out on the deadly and tragic shooting by LA Sheriff's deputies of Granada Hills teen Zac Champommier last month.

Champommier was in a Studio City parking lot at the same time a plain-clothes multi-jurisdictional police operation was underway.  Police had accosted a suspicious man in the parking lot who they believed was casing vehicles at the shopping center.  While this was happening 18 year old Zac, a suburban kid who probably never saw a bunch of un-uniformed officers waving guns before, got scared and decided to get the hell out of there.  In his exit Champommier bumped one of the plainclothes officers with his car.  

Sheriff's deputies assuming Champommier may have been an accomplice to the other man decided to shoot first and ask questions later killing the youngster, rather than perhaps just seek to disable the vehicle and halt the pursuit.

Now the man who the police had accosted is speaking out saying that police were slow to identify themselves leading him to think there were gang members about to attack him and that Champommier did not speed off but drove away slowly.

This blog has been supportive of law enforcement and realizes it's a dirty job none of us would be willing to do. That being said any profession has it's "cowboy" element and it appears that was in play here.  One must question why the officers were meeting in a busy upscale shopping center where their mere presence amongst folks not use to such a scene could be risky.  And were the officers so amped up into a pack mentality that their approach to investigating a man checking out cars was way over the top creating intense fear in a naive young boy nearby?

Indeed much is to be investigated here and hopefully some answers will come out.

No matter those answers, an innocent life has been lost and a community has been ripped apart.