Another Day, Another Death. But Only Platitudes From Nithya Raman

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport - Chaos and death keep showing-up in Sherman Oaks, almost as frequently as the sunrise, while LA City Councilmember Nithya Raman keeps dodging this column's direct questions about a recent spike in deaths of homeless people and violent attacks by some of them upon the rest of her local constituency.

Now, yet another homeless person has died...

...while another yielding a knife was arrested after making death threats and climbing the roof of a local gas station, causing a major response from the LAPD and LAFD.

Because it's just about housing...right?

Raman's media flack has complained that instead of answering our direct questions, The Guss Report and Mayor Sam should quietly accept their prepared, gratuitous statement that speciously sidesteps accountability like so many Brooklyn trolley dodgers back in the day.

That approach may work in mainstream media circles, but not here, because we won't waste your time regurgitating press releases in lieu of direct questions and answers.

For the full story, jump on over to my Substack, sign up for the free newsletter and don't forget to follow me on The Twitters @TheGussReport.

Why Eric Garcetti and Mike Feuer Should Cancel Themselves

 By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport - LA's Buffoon Bros of Miscarriage and Corruption, Mayor Eric Garcetti and City Attorney Mike Feuer, should spend the coming holiday season reshuffling their future plans.

Eric Garcetti and Mike Feuer

Photo Credit: LA Times

In Garcetti's case, he should pick up the house phone and ring President Joe Biden to withdraw his nomination to become the next U.S. Ambassador to India.  Feuer should withdraw from the Mayor's race and see whether any of the other candidates would welcome his endorsement.  If those candidates are smart, they'll politely decline and change their phone number.

Garcetti and Feuer are more likely than not on the verge of being booted from those pursuits and instead creating mortifying footnotes for their forever Wikipedia pages.  

Better for them to quit rather than being publicly shown the door.

Beyond Garcetti's comprehensive failure as al calde of the second largest American city, everyone from his right-hand man Rick Jacobs to his disgraced former chief of staff Ana Guerrero (and those who covered up for them at the LAPD and City Attorney's office) have been exposed for the bullies and harassers many have long-known them to be, as shown by a series of mortifying exposés and depositions.  It is not possible that these issues have escaped the notice of the FBI and Biden advisors. 

The point is that Garcetti is responsible for all that literally took place right in front of him, and more. The buck is supposed to stop with a chief executive, but Garcetti hasn't taken ownership for any of it, including his welcoming Guerrero back into his office after a lengthy suspension for indiscriminately abusing everyone from little-known locals to historic and accomplished women of color like Dolores Huerta.

As for things that took place right in front of Garcetti.....

Rick Jacobs, Eric Garcetti and others

Photo Credit: LA Times

In fact, logic suggests that someone in the White House, perhaps chief of staff Ron Klain, may soon dial up Garcetti and "politely suggest" that Garcetti do exactly as I recommend.

That way, Garcetti can take his rightful place alongside his inglorious predecessors, like "The 11% Percent Mayor" Antonio Villaraigosa and traffic court judge James Hahn.  He can join some corporate boards, teach a college class and be shown on the 11pm sports report cheering on the Dodgers and Lakers.

I left the Rams out of that thought, because, despite Garcetti's untruthful claims that he "brought the NFL back to LA," they in fact play in the world's greatest stadium in a city he never represented; Inglewood, California.  Sure, Inglewood is in "LA," but that's LA County, where Garcetti has never been an elected official. 

Garcetti failed to get that stadium built in downtown LA as Farmer's Field, though he squandered much time posturing about it, as I pointed out in the Huffington Post a few years back.

And that's the rosier of the two futures outlined in this column.

Our crystal ball says things are much bleaker for Mike Feuer.

It is delusional that someone who is being investigated by the State Bar of California and whose office was raided by the FBI and whose legal hire, Paul Paradis, agreed this week to plead guilty to a $2.2 million kickback scheme while running that scam under the auspices of Feuer's office, thinks he will be elected to succeed Garcetti as Mayor!

Maybe delusional isn't the right word.  Nuts.  Feuer would have to be nuts to believe that.

Mike Feuer

Photo Credit: KTLA

But it's so much worse than that for The Frazzled 'stache of LA City Hall.   

Despite his assertions to the contrary, the U.S. Department of Justice says that Feuer's office knew that Paradis astonishingly represented both the plaintiff and defendant in the scandalous LADWP / PricewaterhouseCoopers lawsuit.

That alone should result in a suspension of Feuer's law license, if not out and out disbarment, even if he didn't personally profit from the bribery, which could include campaign donations to his nascent mayoral campaign.

And yes, I do speculate that Feuer has already spoken with white collar criminal defense law firms to potentially represent him.  One would have to be a nuts (there's that word again) to be raided by the FBI and not immediately pick up the phone to find one.

But to think he still has even a remote chance of becoming mayor?  

Come on.

Then again, maybe Feuer's counting on LA making the same dumb choices for mayor as it has for the past 20 years with Hahn, Villaraigosa and Garcetti.

Hmmmph.  Perhaps he's on to something.

Nevermind, then. We'll simply say this.  If Feuer runs, he will finish with fewer votes than any other major candidate and perhaps even fewer than the spectacular 9,115 votes hauled-in (without spending a dime) by Venice street performer David "Zuma Dogg" Saltsburg in 2009, when he finished in 4th place in a field of ten.   

That's the over/under for Feuer should he stay in the race. Nine thousand one hundred and fifteen votes.  We will see whether Feuer gets fewer than Zuma Dogg.

Of course, there's more to this story than just that.   

What about the names that keep Mike Feuer up at night and whether and when they might resurface?  That's precisely why Feuer's deputy at City Council meetings, one Strefan Fauble, has established a pattern and practice of illegally censoring this column from participating in the meetings of late and his peers continually failing to cure and correct such abuses, as outlined in upcoming complaints, plural, to the State Bar of California.

(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 too. He 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, and DM him there to join his distribution list for early story notifications, tips and more.)

Keeping Up with the Dodgers

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport - Sitting in the pre-dawn hours adjacent to a Jackie Robinson Brooklyn Dodgers treasure I scooped up for 50 cents as a kid, we find the hometown team on the precipice of its season blowing up. They're down 0-2 to the Atlanta Braves in a best of seven series that resumes this afternoon at Dodger Stadium at 2 pm, so there's no better time to dump these random musings before we find out which team advances to the World Series.

Trevor Bauer Might Extend Clayton Kershaw's L.A. Career

Alleged dirtbag girl beater and defending National League Cy Young Award winner Trevor Bauer was supposed to help bring a second consecutive World Series championship to L.A. Whether or not Major League Baseball suspends or permanently bans him in the off-season for allegedly beating the crap out of his date, consensual rough sex or not, his career is most likely over despite plenty of talent remaining in his mega-million-dollar arm.

With that, those who predicted that this would be the final season in a Dodger uniform for good guy, philanthropist and future Hall-of-Famer Clayton Kershaw might now think twice. The $31 million he was paid this season, which essentially compensated him for his underpaid Sandy Koufax-like earlier years between 2011 and 2017, is up for renewal.

Kershaw hasn't been that pitcher in quite a few seasons.  While just 33 years old (Koufax retired in 1966 at just 30), he isn't worth anywhere near that amount moving forward, at least not in L.A.   Note: Both southpaws won three Cy Young Awards and an MVP award.

While Koufax didn't become an all-time great until his final four seasons, Kershaw's best years are long gone. Still, the banishment of Bauer might keep Kershaw, a still-capable but not incredible player, in Dodger blue, but not at the same price tag.

Speaking of Kershaw, How About Matthew Stafford?

ABC-7 recently showed new L.A. Rams' quarterback Matthew Stafford at a Dodger home game that Kershaw started.

Big deal, right?

Except that the two are friends dating back to childhood, and the station also posted a great photo of them from way back.

Pretty awesome.

The Fresh Princes of L.A. and Atlanta

Your hearing is not off if you watch the Dodgers/Braves in Game 3 today and the announcers describe Will Smith batting against Will Smith.

Both teams have players by those names.

Whatever Happened To......

The Dodgers are well-represented in the playoffs, though those doing the best are former Dodgers.

Take, for example, our old friend from the 2020 championship team, Kiké Hernández, who now sports a Boston Red Sox uniform in the American League Championship Series.

Hernandez is batting 18 for 36, a .500 average, with five home runs over the playoffs against the Yankees, Tampa Bay Rays, and Houston Astros, the Red Sox' current opponent. His batting average got progressively better with each series with no end in sight.

And his glove and arm are equally as impressive.

His Red Sox teammate, Alex Verdugo, who the Dodgers coughed up in the Mookie Betts trade, is also doing well in the playoffs after a solid regular season, going 12 for 34, a .353 average.

And lastly, there's former Dodger Joc Pederson, who went to the Atlanta Braves via the Chicago Cubs and returns to Dodger Stadium this afternoon (but not in our dugout). He crushed the longest playoff home run so far this season, estimated at 454 feet, as you might remember, to tie Game 2 against the Dodgers, which ultimately helped his team win. 

Ouchie.

The Dodgers may have the best team on paper, but the Red Sox are playing and looking better than everyone else, thanks especially to Kiké. They need to pull it together, like right now, because only one team in MLB playoff history ever came back from an 0-3 deficit, and it was the guys from Boston back in 2004.

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 and Sunday Magazine, among other publishers.)

 

Presently using mi amigo Scott's sign-in until our new Mayor Sam 2.0 tech matters are ironed out.

Mayor Sam 2.0

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport –    “Surprise, surprise, surprise,” as Gomer Pyle used to say.

A group of local political corruption watchers gathered in the shadows of Dodger Stadium a few hours before Game 1 of a recent Trolley Dodger World Series run.  After an hour or three of grub and grousing, some of us decided that if, a year or so before the next local election, life in Los Angeles was no better, let alone worse, we would join forces and report on those problems and their purveyors with unflinching directness.

Without artificial deadlines.

Without artificial word counts.

And without pressure to side-step truthful but uncomfortable stories.

By all reasonable measures, quality of life in Los Angeles, both at the the county and city levels, has never been worse.   Leadership and trust in our elected politicians has never been lower.  That goes double for Sacramento and triple for Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and the Nury Martinez-led Los Angeles City Council.

And then there’s the question of why much of the local media parrots what the LA Times, aka The Nanny-State P.R. Agency d’El Segundo, puts out there.

The hash we sling shall be served cold with heaping hot sides of humor and sarcasm, here where L.A. political blogging started, Mayor Sam.

As our late great founder Michael Higby might have quoted, "let me be perfectly clear," our governments love to torture corruption watchers by hiding documents, ignoring public meeting laws and so on in what can be described as death by a thousand cuts in response to sincerely held civic concerns.

Touché is our reply. 

If we find a Mayor, Councilmember, County Supervisor or their corrupt-o-crat cronies and protectorates fail to respond to things like mundane public records requests, we may sue and report on it, but we may also post such requests as well as the lame excuses they give for not producing those records and explain what's behind their shell game.

And just because we post something, that may not be the end of the story. 

Mayor Sam 2.0 is going to have a rolling dialogue with L.A. because that’s another thing our political set loves doing: dragging things out until the concerned parties give up and go away.

We say nay-nay. 

We have a lot of catching up to do and prisoners shall not be taken.  

Let the madness begin.

(Of course, we do need to get me a sign-in of my own, but in the meanwhile, mi amigo Scott's shall suffice.  You are invited to follow me on The Twitters @TheGussReport.)  

Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Monday

Betty Pleasant (portrayed by TV's LaWanda Page
celebrates the inauguration of Bernard Parks.

In a move truly reminiscent of shutting the barn door after the horse has left, CM and possible Controller candidate, Dennis Zine, has called for reforms at the Department of Building and Safety.

Assemblyman Mike Gatto has reversed course and issued an apology for his rant about not getting paid when Controller John Chiang followed the law and refused to pay lawmakers who did not turn in a balanced state budget on time.  Blogger Paul Hatfield correctly notes that Gatto's apology is appropriate however the issue of the budget mess remains. Gatto, who received tough treatment from KFI's John and Ken last week, can be relieved the shock jocks are reportedly on vacation this week.

Read more »

Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Monday

Friday, Mayor Villaraigosa was selected to serve as the President of the US Conference of Mayors.  First perk, an appearance on Meet the Press.

In a move that would delight Ron Swanson of TV's Parks and Recreation, the City of Los Angeles is considering private management for the Los Angeles Zoo.  LA is the last of the big cities to manage a city zoo; and the costs are climbing too high for the cash strapped local government.

On the other hand, the Clowncil is advocating public ownership for the beleaguered Los Angeles Dodgers Major League Baseball team. The Daily Breeze editorializes the idea is a fantasy, indeed, it is.

Conan O'Brien is serious about renaming a run-down street in Van Nuys after himself.  Councilman Paul Krekorian, in whose district the street is in, has offered to work with the ginger headed TV comic.

Friday Free for All

A former aide to Janice Hahn is losing his cushy airport job after finding himself in an Anthony Weiner-like sexting scandal. Mike Molina, who had been serving as Deputy Executive Director of Los Angeles World Airports, quit when confronted by Executive Director Gina Marie Lindsey over the allegations. Molina claims he is innocent but did admit to Lindsey that he used "bad judgment." Don't worry about Molina being homeless though, insiders are telling the Sister City that the skids are allegedly being greased for Molina to get a job with a major supporter of Hahn's.

Read more »

Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Thursday

Hey, it's better than a pic of a crying baby!

We'll kick off this hotsheet with Ron Kaye's piece on the hiring of Ackley Padilla, the little brother of Alex Padilla, as CRA head Chris Essel's assistant. Ackley, who was unemployed and not a college graduate, got the high paying position by appointment. No job search for the most qualified candidate was conducted, just Chris Essel scratching Alex's back and giving his kid brother a cushy job on your dime.

Councilman Krekorian has proposed a series of reforms to update the neighborhood council system including better training for NC board members and streamlining the funding process. CM Krekorian recently held a series of town halls to gather input from NC members and stakeholders on improving the NC system.

That was fast! The very next day after the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned a lower court ruling that blocked implementation of a union busting law, Wisconsin labor unions have filed suit in federal court to challenge that decision.

 The Citizens of Los Angeles actually owning the Dodgers? The LA City Council is asking the US Congress to allow Angelenos to be part of any bidding process to buy the troubled team. I'm not sure why the US Congress has to be involved, but Janice Hahn's proposal is certainly intriguing.  A baseball version of the Green Bay Packers (who are owned by the citizens of Green Bay) in Los Angeles? I like it!

Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Monday

LA's politicians are finding that getting free tickets to premier events around town can wind up being expensive.  After Mayor Villaraigosa was slapped with $42,000 in ethics violations fines, Council Members, Eric Garcetti, Jose Huizar, Herb Wesson and Tony Cardenas all got slapped by the Ethics Commission for scamming tickets to the Oscars, Grammys, etc.  In an interesting twist, those who gave the tickets were fined as well.

The City Reapportionment Commission will be getting to work soon on redrawing Council district maps in Los Angeles.  Every interest group from ethnic politics organizations to those who shill for business plan to get in on the act.  The NAACP and MALDEF will surely wish to see that Districts are drawn to ensure the election of as many minorities to the Council as possible; trade group VICA wants to see that no more than one Council district overlaps the San Fernando Valley and the rest of the City.

Read more »

Dodger Bathroom Humor

New Dodger sensation Manny Ramirez was missing in the 9th inning of last night's Dodger win.

Bill Shaikin of the Times wrote:

"And there was a Manny moment, when the Dodgers had to find Ramirez so he could play left field in the ninth inning. Torre said Ramirez had headed back to the clubhouse because he mistakenly thought he had been replaced for defensive purposes; Ramirez said he had to go to the bathroom."

The Dodger fans better soak it up now. Manny is already suggesting he'd like to go to the NY Yankees after the season to get even for the Red Sox trading him.

DODGERS GET MANNY RAMIREZ from RED SOX

and Haikula gets her first Mayor Sam scoop!

(not counting the newspapers, which both SUCK ASS!)

Manny is the guy on the right, in case you're a Rams or Raiders fan who doesn't know baseball as well as I do. At any rate, it'll be fun to watch Manny's whopping home runs.

But be careful of what you wish for. The Boston Globe (why couldn't the McCourts make a trade to bring the GLOBE to LA?) has a great pictorial entitled "Manny Being Manny" which means that Ramirez is a slugger, but also a wackadoo.

Who wants to bet that Mayor Mirthala-Retardo is cutting short his fishing trip to welcome Manny to LA and claim credit for it?

The Call by Mayor Sam

Zuma Dogg's inside sources once again prove to be right, Monday morning KABC Radio will announce the return of Dodgers baseball to their airwaves in 2008. KABC was the radio home of LA's major league franchise for many years. In recent airs, the games aired on KFWB. Pre-emption of the Mark Levin radio show during home games could mean additional listeners for Kevin James on KRLA AM; away games will cut into the hours of Larry Elder and Al Rantel sending listeners to Mark "Mr. K" Germain on KTLK AM. Hell don't wait for Dodger baseball, tune into Mark's and Kevin's shows both tonight!

In other radio news, Franklin Avenue reports that veteran former KABC broadcaster Michael Jackson is returning to the airwaves on a new talk station that also resurrects the legendary KGIL callsign at its original location of 1260. Talkradio fans remember that KGIL was a great talk station that once featured hosts such as KTLA newsman Bill Smith and the late John Swaney.

At the same time FA covers rumors that morning talk jock Don Imus could return to the airwaves in LA, possibly on KABC. Lets put 790 on notice - IF you remove Doug McIntyre and replace him with Don Imus I will NEVER listen to KABC again and will do everything possible via this ever popular blog to encourage others do to the same. Your stupid losses of Mark Germain and Kevin James has vastly cut down the time I listen to your station, lets not make any more dumb mistakes.

More stuff after the jump...

I predicted - and will continue to - that Al Gore's head is too big to not run for President. Al himself hasn't ruled it out; at the same time a number of major leave efforts are underway to draft the man who invented the internet to run for President in 2008.

Here's an instance where a Clowncil is going to piss off someone no matter what they do. The Beijing government of China plans to enter a float in the 2008 Rose Parade. The City of Pasadena's Human Relations Committee has urged that the City take a strong position on the communist government's poor human rights record. On the other hand Pasadena Mayor Bill Bogard would prefer the Council not take a position; obstensibly not to piss off the powerful Tournament of Roses Association (as well as most likely George Bush, American companies doing business in China as well as Beijing itself). On the other hand human rights activists and local Chinese immigrants who suffered at the hand of the goverment are adamant a stand be taken. Stay tuned.

According to a political quiz, I am a Libertarian.