Morning Briefs on the Los Angeles Political Machine for Wednesday

California Governor Jerry "Moonbeam II" Brown endorses Gil Cedillo for CD 1

Then Assemblyman Gil Cedillo and California Governor "Moonbeam II" celebrate signing of California Dream Act. 

From California Governor Wannabee and Failed Mayor Tony Villar to the second incarnation of "Governor Moonbeam II, the Gil Cedillo for City Council Campaign continues to pick up momentum leading up to Election Day, with its latest endorsement from the current Governor. From KPCC.

“Gil Cedillo is a proven local leader who knows how to bring people together to get things done,” Brown said in a statement from the campaign.“We need Gil Cedillo’s leadership, strength and passion on the Los Angeles City Council in order to create jobs, increase neighborhood safety, and expand after-school programs that keep our kids safe.”The nod from the governor is Cedillo’s second high-profile endorsement in the past week. L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa backed Cedillo in a City Hall news conference last Friday.

Whats next? A Mayor Sam Endorsement? ** Morning Update: Challenger Jose Gardea gets  LA Times Endorsement. 

** As a bloggin public service, we link you to Jack Humphreville's Dozen Reasons to vote no on the City Clowncil Central Committee Strongman Herb "Mini Amin" Wesson's "Half Cent Sale Tax, Prop A". Polls are showing that the City Clowncil will have to get create in dealing with the project revenue shortfall ....., again.

** Meanwhile, Garcia, Garza and the rest of the LANG Group Editorial Board, rebound from their "Sister Villar Greuel Endorsement Debacle", with a firm "No on Prop A" indictment.

** We want to extend sincere Tenth Anniversary wishes to Deputy DA Patrick "Patterico" Frey for his bloggin "Patterico Pontifications Blog". His now semi-regular "Dog Trainer " posts regarding the agenda journalism bias at the LA Times, are and will, continue be the inspiration of our "Old Gray Collectivist Hag on Spring Street" musings.

** Surprise, surprise from our friends at the Los Cerritos News via Randy Economy.

Los Angeles City Controller and Mayoral candidate Wendy Greuel has once again refused to comply with a public records request submitted by Los Cerritos Community Newspaper, it was reported on Tuesday.The requests were made back on January 22 and 23, 2013, from LCCN Publisher/Owner Brian Hews under the California Public Records Act (PRA).In the request, LCCN sought all emails and written correspondence between Greuel and Brian D’Arcy, Head of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers #17, political consultant John Shallman, owner of Shallman Communications and consultant to Greuel’s Mayoral campaign, and Greuel for Mayor Campaign Manager Rose Kapolczynski.. 

Why am I having a bloggin Deja Vu Moment?

**From the Eric Garcetti Campaign, we bring you this exercise in "Deserving Immigrant Pandering".

GARCETTI TO HOLD IMMIGRATION REFORM PRESS CONFERENCE
Council to Vote Tomorrow on Garcetti Immigrant-Focused Legislation
LOS ANGELES -- Councilmember Eric Garcetti will lead a pressconference at City Hall on Wednesday at 1:00 p.m. to lay out his locallegislative agenda to move Los Angeles immigrant residents to thefront of the line when it comes to citizenship and fully participatingin L.A. civic life, which would benefit the entire city and oureconomy.
Garcetti authored legislation to reestablish the city's Office ofImmigrant Affairs and to make it home to the nation's first initiativefocused on helping local immigrants through the new legal resident andcitizenship program announced by President Obama.
"Immigration reform is coming, but any federal program can be dauntingto navigate, particularly for immigrants," Garceti said. "This officewill help L.A. immigrants cut through the red tape so they are at thefront of the line when it comes to President Obama's new pathway tocitizenship. Helping deserving immigrants earn legal status will buildstronger L.A. communities and a stronger L.A. economy."

We hope these topics are deserving of your attention.

Your thoughts ..............
Scott Johnson in CD 14

Friday Evening Wrap Up and Thoughts on Journalistic Malpractice and other News

Los Angeles Times Media Columnist James Rainey

"Old Gray Westside Hag on Spring Street"

"ACORN with local political supporters"

This happens when you replace "fact-driven reporting" with "outcome-based, agenda journalism", but then agenda journalism is "par for the course" at the "Old Gray Westside Hag on Spring Street" these days.

It started with this "agenda missive" on Andrew Breitbart's biggovernment.com video expose of ACORN, via the keyboard of Los Angeles Times Media Columnist James Rainey, as noted by veteran LA Times observer "Patterico" at Patterico's Pontifications.

The following passage below was cause to take notice, in the eyes of Patterico, whether Rainey was stating fact or "had likely been suckered and would end up with egg on his face".

[V]isits to other ACORN offices have gone almost entirely unmentioned. Lavelle Stewart, a fair-housing coordinator in the group’s Los Angeles office, told me this week that she tried to get the “prostitute,” who claimed she had been beaten by her pimp, to go to a women’s center.

“The fact she was not taking the help I offered her made me think something was not right,” Stewart said. “It raised a red flag.”

Then yesterday, Andrew Breitbart's biggoverment.com "dropped this load of crow into Rainey's lap for his consumption", in form of the latest ACORN video, featuring none other than..........., Levelle Steward. Thus, Patterico's keen instints on all things LA Times, expose the "Old Gray Westside Hag on Spring Street's" insular agenda for all to deconstruct.

But while Rainey mulls whether to add some BBQ to his crow, where is the outrage on this breach of journalistic ethics? Where are the former Times scribes "Westside White Guy", LA Observed blogger Kevin Roderick and "Westside White Guy 2", LA Observed contributor Bill Boyarski, in calling for an in-house investigation?

One should note that Rainey, was the lead newsroom agitator in outing former Opinion Editor Andres Martinez's relationship with ex. girlfriend Kelly Mullens. This initiating what became known as "Grazergate". as reported on "Deadline Hollywood".

I understand it was the Times' own media reporter, Jim Rainey, who just recently got wind of the editor-flack romance and first raised the red flag about it internally this week. My sources say Rainey began asking people who worked for Martinez about his personal life before approaching the editor directly. Martinez became livid and hurriedly called a staff meeting. But because of the LA Times' troubled relationship with its parent Tribune Co., Rainey is accustomed to threading the ethical needle on difficult stories involving his newspaper. (Though I've taken issue here and here with his coverage, or lack of it, of some related stories.) It's no secret there has been tension and resentment between the LA Times newsroom and the paper's editorial/opinion pages.

"WWG" and "WWG2" went into "cyber overdrive" in reporting this egregious assault on the "sacred style book of journalistic ethics". Boyarsky had this missive which he called for "an investigation of the tainted Times" and guess which reporter he wanted to lead the in-house "quest for journalistic justice"?

A beefed up team of top reporters should join media reporter Jim Rainey in examining past Current sections and editorials to see whether they have been influenced by publicist Allen Mayer and his associate, Kelly Mullens, who has been dating Martinez.

But in hindsight, maybe Roderick and Boyarski, both ex. LA Times scribes, were part of the "inside, outside cabal" of current and ex. Times reporters, who's efforts to purge Martinez, were driven by an ideological urge to blend news with opinion, as Martinez opined.

I think the desire to blend opinion with news is the far bigger breach, but I’m guessing the Henry Weinsteins and Tim Ruttens of the world will continue to conjure up the magical words “Staples Center” to wail against any innovation at the paper, and confusing the hundreds of thousands of readers of the LAT who don’t read LA Observed – sorry, Kevin -­ into believing that Grazergate somehow implied an improper blending of the newspaper’s business side and editorial judgment, which it patently did not.

So maybe this is why there are no "Raineygate" posts, with in-house gossip, currently at LA Observed? Who would Boyarsky find among the shrinking ranks of "objective reporters" to investigate this latest breach of journalistic ethics? Or maybe in the eyes of ex.Times scribes like Roderick and Boyarsky, their cohort in "outcome based, agenda journalism" was simply following the dictates of what passes for journalism at the "Old Gray Westside Hag on Spring Street".

In closing, Boyarsky, who also served a stint on the City of Los Angeles Ethics Commission, may have a good reason for remaining silent in regards to "Raineygate". Maybe it has to do with his own past comments on ACORN. Then there was this "appearance" at a "Project ACORN" event.

The Project Acorn event was at the headquarters of Local 721 of the Service Employees Union. It hadn�t started so I walked around the Virgil Avenue neighborhood, a few miles west of downtown. It�s a neighborhood of apartments, probably affordable for working families (if they double up) but they will be out of range if building ever resumes. At the union hall, I ran into Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas, and interviewed him on the closed Martin Luther King Jr. hospital for a story I plan to do for LA Observed on his race with Los Angeles City Councilman Bernard Parks. Then I introduced both Mama Hill and a short video about her and about how she faced foreclosure.

Thus, don't hold your breathe, in waiting for the latest on "Raineygate" from LA Observed but we did find this piece of "outcome-based, agenda blogging" from the "WWG".

* Andrew Breitbart doesn't want to talk about his business deal to carry Reuters news and links. Soundbitten
* The L.A. Times corrects some of an Op-Ed regarding the liberal group ACORN, but not all. Patterico

OTHER NEWS:

** Is the private sector version of IBEW's "Boss D'Arcy", getting close to snaping?

The head of L.A. Live challenged City Attorney Carmen Trutanich on Thursday to either file criminal charges over the Michael Jackson memorial service or apologize for hinting the company may have broken the law.

"Prove it or drop it," AEG President Tim Leiweke said during an interview. "We can't resolve this until he declares we have done nothing wrong or apologizes — I'll take either.

** Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa picks a former top official of the Chicago Housing Authority, Douglas Guthrie to become the new general manager of the city’s Housing Department. One want to bet that Guthrie has some past business with ACORN in Chicago?

** This appointment to the LACERS pension board came and went.

The newest appointee to a Los Angeles pension board has withdrawn her nomination after a city councilman voiced concern about her refusal to name her legal clients, city officials said today.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa had named attorney Angela Reddock to the Fire and Police Pensions system, an agency whose board members have come under scrutiny in recent months regarding the potential for conflicts of interest.

Although council members were scheduled to vote to confirm Reddock today, Councilman Bernard C. Parks raised questions after reading correspondence between Reddock and the city Ethics Commission, which is charged with identifying potential conflicts of interest for new city commissioners. Reddock told the commission in an e-mail that she did not plan to name any client that had paid her more than $10,000, citing attorney-client privilege.

** This is for "Parque Esqueleto".

Former CD 14 City Councilman Nick Pacheco, has been named "temporarily City Administrator" in the City of Montebello.

Many in the audience gasped as long-time Montebello City Administrator Richard Torres announced the $15,000-a-month salary of his temporary replacement, Nick Pacheco. The city council action to appoint Pacheco was among several made in a closed session meeting on Monday.

Enjoy "CD 14 East" before the latest shake up in Montebello.

Your thoughts.......