Morning Briefs on the Los Angeles Political Machine for Tuesday

With a Judicially-exonerated, former CD2/7 City Councilman Richard "Zorro Marxist" AlarCON, free to campaign as a Congressional Challenger against embattled Congressman Tony Cardenas, longtime South LA Soulvine Columnist Betty Pleasant muses about potential "Brown Black Inequality", involving the Voter Fraud Convictions (and dismissal) of State Senator Rodrick Wright and AlarCON. 

 Hahahaha Betty!! I'm exonerated ........., and Rod is still convicted.

Longtime Soulvine Columnist Betty Pleasant.

** Blogger's Note: A light news morning at 200 Spring Street (with the possible exception of Sidewalk Vote, update below), grants us cyber space to catch up on recent musings via the keyboards of Longtime South LA Soulvine Columnist Betty Pleasant and Downtown News Editor and "Reigning Scribe of Wit" Jon Regardie respectively AFTERNOON UPDATE: The City Clowncil Central Committee approves plan to pass on the cost of future Sidewalk Repairs to Property Owners ----Scott Johnson.

** Within the "Space of Being" of longtime South LA Soulvine Columnist Betty Pleasant, every action, event, convictions of corrupt Politicos ........., and their Judicial Exoneration, is viewed through a racial prism as exampled below.

What is the difference between Richard Alarcón and Rod Wright? Alarcon is Hispanic and he’s been vindicated. Wright is Black and he hasn’t. I asked Wright: what are you going to do? He said his appeal was filed with the Second District Court of Appeals last spring and he said he and his attorney are waiting for oral arguments to be scheduled. In light of Alarcón’s acquittal, that district attorney thing we have issued a statement to the effect that her office is “reviewing the court’s opinion and deciding on other options.”

In Betty's opinion ........, Exonerating Corrupt Black Politicos Matters.

 2017 Mayoral Candidate Matthew Schwartz via the Downtown News.

** Downtown News Editor and Scribe of Wit Jon Regardie does a Public Service in enlightening Angelinos on the background of Mayoral Candidate Upstart Matthew Schwartz .........., and some details excerpted below. 

In a nutshell, here’s what you need to know about Schwartz: He’s thoughtful, intelligent and running out of a true desire to help a city that sometimes feels like it’s melting into an economically ravaged, homelessness-plagued sludge. He’s no gadfly and the campaign for this married father of three is serious. He genuinely appears to care far more about the state of Los Angeles than the personal power the mayor’s office affords. At the same time, Schwartz seems shockingly out of his league, with a platform and a race strategy that are as wobbly as a plate of Clifton’s Jell-O. Granted his candidacy is in its infancy, but more than anything he seems to be banking on riding a populist swell against politics as usual. He repeatedly criticized Garcetti and cited Los Angeles’ myriad problems and weaknesses, but was unable to articulate what he personally has done that qualifies him to run a city of 4 million people.

In layman's terms, its about being a candidate speed bump to slow Mayor Gar-SOFT-ee's Sacramento ambitions.

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

Morning Briefs on the Los Angeles Political Machine for Monday

Outrage a plenty as Convicted Felon (and former State Senator) Roderick Wright, serves 43 minutes of his 90 Day Sentence for Voter Fraud. 

What was longer, the booking (and photo above) or the actual time served in a jail for the Felony Conviction of Voter Fraud?

Read more »

Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Tuesday

As the state and local budgets feel crushed under the weight of years of generous public employee pay raises and unsustainable pensions, Costa Mesa may be ground zero for politicians to push back.  The city is looking to lay-off over 200 positions, nearly half it's total workforce.

President Clinton and other reform minded Democrats in the past supported public school choice, primarily as a way to force schools to perform better but also to stave off the push by conservatives for vouchers.  In most cases public school choice allows parents the opportunity to move their kids to other schools or even other districts if their local school stinks.  Now, carrying the water for the LAUSD, Democratic State Senator Roderick Wright has introduced legislation to put an end to inter-district transfers in California.

Read more »

Betty Does it Again

"Mayor Sam can kiss my Black a@#!"

Betty Pleasant sure doesn't have much luck when she picks her friends.  She got behind the candidacy of city contracted non-profit operator Forescee Hogan-Rowles who may mount a challenge next year to Councilman Bernard Parks. Rowles however has had trouble with the City's Ethics Commission.

Then she called anti-Expo Line activist Damien Goodman her "baby brother in kick-butt activism."  Kick butt was right as Goodman was allegedly arrested in May of this year in a domestic violence incident invlolving his live in girlfirend.

Usually Betty likes anyone who opposes City Councilman Bernard Parks with whom she has an unnatural obsession with.  Betty didn't like it when we exposed her buddies and her answer was to tell us that she "owns" the Black community.  As lame a statement that is at least it's a bit classier than when Ms UN-Pleasant told Phil Jennerjahn I could "kiss her Black ass."

Well Betty has done it again.  She shoots off her mouth and it just backfires every time. If she just didn't irrationally hate Bernard Parks so much.

On September 15th Betty was rambling on as usual in her Soulvine "column" in the Los Angeles Wave.  Betty was excited to hear that State Senator Roderick Wright is thinking of running for Parks' Council seat in 2011. (Not sure if Betty has forsaken Hogan-Rowles)

On September 16th however Wright, a good friend to the poker industry, was arraigned in Superior Court on eight felony charges following an extensive District Attorney's office investigation.

Betty sure knows how to pick 'em.  Maybe she should spend some time at the track.

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Monday

Jason Mandell writing in the LA Weekly asks the question if CD2 run-off candidates Paul Krekorian and Chris Essell will support so-called "clean money" efforts for campaign financing, noting that former candidate Michael McCue has actively been pushing the issue for some time.  Advocates for this scheme however can't explain how campaigns would be publicly funded particularly when the City coffers are emptying fast.  One small error in Mandell's story was that in addition to Essel and Krekorian there were eight "neighborhood candidates" in the race; actually that would be seven.

Another photo-op and 89% time for Mayor Villaraigosa: He was out with a group of celebrity chefs encouraging Angelenos to dine-out more often. Wonder how that extends to the thousands of city workers who will soon be laid off due to the Mayor's overspending in his first term?

Law enforcement authorities recyently raided two homes owned by State Senator Roderick Wright as part of an LA County District Attorney investigation into his legal residency.  However it may not have any impact as experts say that state law does not require state legislators to actually live in their district once they are elected.  Further, even if the District Attorney is able to prosecute Wright it will be up to the Legislature itself to actually remove Wright.

The Latino Politics Blog once again on the story when it comes to controversial Orange County Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez.  This time it concerns the case of a former aide to Sanchez who recently received probation after pleading guilty to theft charges.  Caroline Valdez admitted to stealing office funds as well as forging Sanchez's signature for a bonus.  Interesting however it the blogs take on the position.  Adriana Maestas sees Valdez as a victim of Sanchez who plucked Valdez out of ASU prior to graduation, introducing her into the pressure cooker of Washington, DC on a $30K annual salary.  That may be true but nonetheless Valdez is an adult and should know the difference between right and wrong no matter how grim and unfortuante her circumstances.  Plenty of other young people do.

And finally, a public service note.  The LA Fire Department is encouraging parents to make sure televisions and other appliances are properly secured as to avoid injury to their children. According to the LAFD blog "Thousands of preventable injuries - including more than a dozen deaths, occur each year when children climb, fall against or pull themselves onto "unsecured" furnishings, often in an attempt to access a television or other heavy appliance."

Morning Briefs and Outtakes as a Major Gang Sweep Commences

LASD Deputy Juan Abel Escalante, 1981-2008

What started as the mission to find the murders of a fallen comrade has turn into a quest to reclaim a neighborhood.

As night gives away to a Tuesday dawn, LA Times Reporter Joel Rubin gives the details on the pre-dawn raids now underway to round up members of the notorious "Avenues" Gang.

Hundreds of police officers and federal law enforcement agents launched a major assault on the Avenues gang this morning, hoping to deal a blow to an elusive gang responsible for some of Los Angeles' most notorious street crime.

Under the cover of darkness around 3 a.m., roughly 1,200 heavily-armed officers from the Los Angeles Police Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration and several other agencies dispersed from a command post near the LAPD’s training academy in Elysian Park.

Warrants in hand, they descended on dozens of homes in search of 53 alleged members or associates of the Avenues gang wanted on an array of federal charges related to the gang's extensive drug dealing, unsolved murders and other crimes.

With 43 suspects already in custody on unrelated charges, the operation aimed to bring new charges against 88 Avenues members or associates, a significant share of a gang that is believed to have about 400 members.

Some suspects were sought elsewhere in the city, but the sweep focused on Glassell Park and other neighborhoods in the northeastern reaches of Los Angeles -- the center of Avenues territory since the gang first surfaced in the 1950s.

The ambush murder of Los Angeles County Sheriff Deputy Juan Abel Escalante, brought renew scrutiny on the Avenues Gang who also had been convicted of hate crimes, in targeting blacks within Highland Park for attacks as a part of a campaign to rid the neighborhood of African Americans.

Rubin reports that the motivation for this morning's raids were made clear during a planning meeting last week.

With the auditorium at LAPD headquarters filled with a few hundred officers, a recording was played of the phone call Escalante’s hysterical wife made to a 911 dispatcher after discovering him in the street. “If anyone has any doubt about the rationale or reason behind this operation, it was this,” a detective said.

OTHER NEWS:

** Los Angeles Times reports that Los Angeles officials may abandon the highly-controversial "Green Path North" transmission line.

The Department of Water and Power's proposed 85-mile-long Green Path North transmission line has faced fierce opposition from more than a dozen community and environmental groups, creating a political chink in Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's efforts to cast himself as the leader of the "cleanest, greenest big city in America."

Once again, the Oak Glen based "Wildlands Conservancy" stands fast in preserving open space from encroachment for dubious efforts.

** The "Old Gray Westside Hag On Spring Street" reminds us at 6:00 AM, that there is a Special Election in CD 2 today. But they do provide us with this info.

The city plans to spend as much as $1.8 million on the election. If no candidate wins a majority of the vote, the top two candidates will face a runoff election Dec. 8. The winner will finish Greuel’s term, which ends in June 2011.

Officials at the Los Angeles city clerk’s office plan to begin posting results by 8:30 p.m. here. The first tallies will be from vote-by-mail ballots. As of Monday afternoon, the clerk’s office had received just 7,386 ballots by mail – a fraction of the 124,955 voters who live in the 2nd Council District.

No need to remind you what fellow Westside native they are endorsing in this election.

** The Daily News expects many to shine on today's CD 2 Special Election.

** Former Mayor Villaraigosa deputy chief of staff Dan Grunfeld has found new employment.

The mayor's former deputy chief of staff Dan Grunfeld stepped down from his post Friday. Today, the law firm of Kaye Scholer announced that Grunfeld, 49, will work in its Los Angeles office representing clients in such fields as green technology, alternative energy and compliance with environmental laws.

** Financial times must be bad when the Los Angeles Unified School District and its bus drivers have to agree on taking six furlough days.

** Los Angeles City Board of Harbor Commissioners "are considering a new plan for improving the San Pedro port, including revitalizing the once-thriving Port O'Call village shopping and dining area".

** Where will State Senator Roderick "Burke" Wright wake up this morning? It seems that the District Attorney is taking a interest on the subject as the Times reports.

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office has searched two homes in a probe of whether Democratic state Sen. Roderick Wright lives in the district he represents, officials confirmed today.

David Demerjian, who heads the DA's Public Integrity Division, told The Times that investigators searched two residences early Wednesday morning but he would not divulge exact addresses. One of the homes was in Wright's 25th District and the other was in the neighboring 26th District.

This reminds me of a certain ex CD 14 councilman who had a house, once upon a time, in the hamlet of Hermon.

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