Saturday Special Hotsheet

The campaign of Los Angeles City Attorney candidate Carmen Trutanich announces that he has outraised front runner City Council Member Jack Weiss by two to one in the last reporting period.  According to reports filed with the City's Ethics Commission Trutanich received $92,000 in contributions compared to Weiss' $42,000.  Trutanich says that he has nearly $350,000 in cash reserved for television advertising.  In the meantime Trutanich unveiled a series of proposed reforms to the City Attorney office and garnered the endorsement of Council Member Dennis Zine and possibly from another opposing candidate, the Walter Moore affiliated David Berger.


Working hard for the City following President Obama's inauguration Mayor Villaraigosa took the ceremonial first bite of a Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich at the annual "dineLA" restaurant week photo op this week.  While slurping down roast beef and Velveeta, Controller Laura Chick uncovered millions of dollars in waste and lots of potential fraud and abuse in the taking home of city owned vehicles by municipal employees and elected officials.

Mayoral candidate Zuma Dogg (David Saltsburg) appears in an ABC News Nightline piece covering the current state of public access television for the first time out of his character.  Along with public affairs television doyenne Leslie Sutton, Saltsburg expresses concern as to potential censorship of programming with the channels moving to City control.  I guess that camera crew wasn't really "Matt Dowd's friends" as you know who was posting.

Following an ass kicking in Sunland-Tujunga, Home Depot is now focused on it's day laborer center at it's store in Del Rey; working with Council Member Bill Rosendahl on plans to upgrade the facility.  However, local residents are not in favor of day labor centers being forced by the City on local big-boxes such as Home Depot.

A middle-class section of Van Nuys has worked itself up in a lather over being associated with a primarily Latino and working class remainder of the historic San Fernando Valley community and wants to attach itself to Sherman Oaks.  The effort, led by unsuccesful Assembly candidate Laurette Healey who has last seen trying to bamboozle Neighborhood Councils over the last shady solar energy ballot plan appears to have zero support in either Sherman Oaks or the rest of Van Nuys.

Opposition from neighboring cities is growing to the construction of a proposed NFL stadium in the City of Industry by Los Angeles developer Ed Roski.  Joaquin Lim, the Mayor Walnut has expressed his opposition to the stadium over fears of the arena's impact on his community while Diamond Bar has hired an attorney to attack Industry's Environmental Impact Report.  Maybe they could build a Home Depot there instead or move the detainees from Gitmo.

With buzz that he is a leading contender for the GOP Presidential Nomination in 2012 and the usual comparisons to President Obama, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal will be the headline speaker at the National Republican Congressional Committee's annual dinner.  Jindal, who takes the spot previously reserved for President Bush, denies he is running for President but has made a tour to at least one early primary state, Iowa, and has been campaigning and raising funds for candidates in other states, part of the usual required groundwork for a run at a party's Presidential nomination.

The Republican Obama

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Friday

Potential Mayoral candidate Rick Caruso will receive the "Spirit of Lincoln" award from the Los Angeles Lincoln Clubs. As noted here Thursday, Caruso is being cagey about whether he plans to run for Mayor or not.

Everyone is hot for solar energy and it makes sense. That being said now the politicians are looking to use the issue to generate yet another bond on the March election.

If John McCain doesn't win next month will it be a Jindal-Palin or Palin-Jindal ticket in 2012? I don't know but no matter what Bobby Jindal is the Republican Obama of the future. If the Republicans do a train-wreck this November the upside will be the opportunity to once and for al clean house and get rid of the old White guys from the party.

The No on Proposition 8 is lagging behind in fundraising and needs to raise $1 million a day between now and election day to be succesful. Pony up folks, some people in love with each other are counting on you.

Speaking of same-sex marriage, many of the arguments against it are similar to those that were leveled against interracial marriage a half century ago. Today more Black women are marrying White men and most folks don't care. I have this in my own family; my brother is married to a wonderful woman who happens to be Black and has two great kids.

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Monday

LA County Supervisors have raised taxes again.  Property owners will be required to cough up another $50 million per year to fund the County's beleaguered hospital system.  Supervisor Mike Antonovich cast the lone dissenting vote.

Media Alert: If you thought the City using law enforcement resources to hassle the Shaw Family August 17th at Leimert Park was an abuse of power by the City, check back here on the blog at about 9:00 a.m. for a story about how a City agency has threatened community activists with police action for speaking their minds.

The scandal around deposed union leader Tyrone Freeman has fired up the battle between the SEIU and the EAA which represents the City's engineers and architects.  EAA has begun running radio commercials calling on LA's elected leaders to begin an investigation of the controversial SEIU. With labor divided and potentially in hot water, does this open the door for a candidate with means to enter the race and challenge a wounded Mayor Villaraigosa?


A Mexican national who allegedly massacred 19 people in Tijuana ten years ago has been found living in East Los Angeles. Jesus Ruben Moncada was arrested while taking out his garbage by ICE agents and handed over to 500 Mexican federal agents at the border Friday.

We usually ignore local blog crank Don Quixote, however I had to note his comment on our post about potential John McCain running mate Bobby Jindal.  Quixote who often posts comments on other blogs calling me a racist posted a bigoted comment about Jindal's Indian heritage. Good to see Don being consistent.

If you didn't have a chance to visit the blog over the weekend, here are some stories you may want to catch up on:

• A Pick for McCain
• A "Q and A" with "Madam Mayor Jan Perry",....at least for next week
• Hillary reacts to Biden's selection as Obama's V.P.
• Just In - Griffith Arsonist Apprehended
• A Volunteer's Story of Today's Jaimiel's Law Rally at Leimert Park

And finally, apparently actress Denise Richards' Hidden Hills neighbors weren't big on her shooting a reality show at her home.  So now, the 5600 square foot, five bedroom home is listed for sale at $4.25 million, about $100,000 than she paid for it.

A Pick for McCain

In as much as Barack Obama has in Joe Biden picked a contemporary of John McCain to serve as his running mate, the presumptive Republican nominee should consider selecting the Republican version of Barack Obama as his vice-presidential nominee.

For sure McCain's "short list" is somewhat long.  Former candidate Mitt Romney gets talked about a lot. So do Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty and former Ohio Congressman and Bush Budget Director Rob Portman.  Also on the list are former Pennyslvania Governor and Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge and Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, the 2000 Democratic Vice Presidential nominee. Lately former Secretary of State Colin Powell, an unlikely pick, has also received buzz.

And of course we advocated here for sometime the selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

The challenge for McCain is to find someone who will 1) stay out of trouble, 2) shore up his standing with the base, 3) not scare off moderates as well as disaffected Clinton Democrats, 4) Hold their own against Joe Biden in debates and 5) give him a little Google juice going into the Republican National Convention.

I believe that person is Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal. Here's Jindal on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno:



Jindal has an interesting background.  He's a first generation immigrant who was born in Baton Rogue while his parents, immigrants from India, were attending Louisiana State University.  At 37 years old, he's the youngest Governor in the US.  He served in the US House of Representatives, where he was Britney Spears' Congressman. Here young people who are fired up over Jindal talk about the Louisiana Governor:



Could you imagine Jindal debating Biden who has referred to Indian Americans as 7-11 and Dunkin' Donuts workers?



More importantly he's an impassioned, articulate, intelligent, dynamic young man.  And he brings a lot to the ticket.  He'd be the only Southerner on the ticket.  Like Biden, he's a Roman Catholic who converted from Hinduism in high school.



He comes from a solid middle class background and worked his way up to the top at a young age.  He has the immigrant experience and if nominated would be the first Asian to be part of a major party ticket.  And he even has somewhat of a resemblance to his namesake, Bobby Kennedy.  A Rhodes Scholar, Jindal is ten years younger than Obama, was born one year before Biden entered the senate.

Unlike Obama, Biden or even McCain, as a Governor, Jindal is a Washington outsider who has solid Conservative credentials. As the child of immigrants himself, he has credibility when calling for immigration reform.



McCain could really fire up the troops, gets lot of press and find a candidate who could appeal to all the important swing votes - without the baggage of a boring white guy like Romney, Portman, Pawlenty, etc.- if he picked Jindal.