Gloria Romero: Another Camera Happy Politican Dishing Up Fluff

Senator Romero Congratulates the Lakers on their Championship Win

LOS ANGELES, CA— Senator Gloria Romero (D – East Los Angeles) released the following statement on the Los Angeles Lakers’ victory over the Boston Celtics last night in the NBA championships:

“Congratulations to the Lakers for winning their 16th NBA title! East Los Angeles was in the house last night, cheering on our all-star team, and the Lakers did not disappoint with an incredible showing of not only athletic prowess, but a lot of ganas to win a tough match. From the eastside to the westside, there's a lot to love about LA this week and we Angelenos are incredibly proud of our NBA champions. Go Lakers!”

How about a shout out to the hundreds of Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputies who had to be deployed to East LA to hold back the hooliganry and thuggery we saw last night.  When is an elected official going to speak out on just how inappropriate this behavior is - whether its scores of perpetrator or hundreds or thousands.

Memo to GloRo - sports fans generally don't care what elected officials (particularly State Senators) think of sports teams and quite frankly resent their showing up and horning in.

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Monday

Your Los Angeles city officials are lying to you about the need for more taxes.  We've told you that.  Walter Moore has told you that.  And now the Daily News makes the case about Goofy Janice Hahn's gang property tax scam (so she can use your tax money to pay more gang members and give them guns).  By the way the Council voted last week to put this scam on the ballot and almost sneaked in a provision to allow them to raise the tax every year. 





Councilman Bill Rosendahl has decided to cancel a town hall meeting to discuss an important community issue and replace it with closed door meetings.  Rosendahl was to have sponsored the community forum on issues of bicyclists' rights this evening but later announced it would be cancelled and replaced by a "task force." However, the task force does not include members of a bicyclists' group who have been advocating a cyclists bill of rights.  With the price of gas going sky-high and the need to find alternate methods of transportation the bicycle issue will not go away despite the wishes of the NIMBY-pamby wishes of homeowner groups in Rosendahl's tony district.



The Griffith Park, Interrupted blog takes the Westside White Guy to task for writing a puff piece on DWP General Manager H. David "E wastewater pluribus" Nahai presenting the controversial utility chief as some sort of environmental hero.  Good point as the DWP is filling up reservoirs with plastic balls which has been questioned by some environmentalists.  In an unrelated (maybe?) story Joseph Mailander reports that the lotus flowers in Echo Park Lake have died off.  For the first time, the annual Lotus Festival will have no blooming lotuses.





Local politicians want to raise your taxes and cut your services but that hasn't stopped them from living high on the hog.  The Daily News reports that dozens of top Los Angeles County officials drive in luxury official vehicles costing as much as $50,000 each.  Over the last few years these vehicles have been involved in nearly 2000 separate traffic accidents costiing the County millions of dollars.





The Kennedy Republican is possibly looking for a job in a potential Obama administration.  Though Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has endorsed John McCain for President he says he'd be interested in being an "energy czar."





Cityhood for East LA begin in earnest Friday.  Leaders begin a petition drive which if successful would force a study of the city's viability by the County's Local Agency Formation Commission.  The petitions will require the signatures of 9000 registered voters within the future city's boundaries.

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Monday

During the city budget process, Mayor Villaraigosa threatened that over 700 city workers would be laid off.  In an amazing shell game, all of those employees have been transferred to other posts with the exception of four remaining city workers who are facing possible termination.  The next time politicians like Villaraigosa tell you we have to raise taxes and fees to balance the budget remember tricks like this.



If you've been jonesing for a fix from the Dean of LA Bloggers, Joseph Mailander, since his Street Hassle blog went dark back on June 24th, there is some to be had.  Joe's been posting on his arts and culture blog, Mainbrace, the last couple of days (and indeed Don Quixote was quickly there to start posting comments) and he has a great response to our piece on Bill Boyarsky's whine about his time on the Ethics Commission.





Rick Orlov says that the entry of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom into the gubernatorial race adds some glam compared to the last Democratic candidate, Phil Angelides (though his daughters certainly added some spice, maybe Newsom would like to date one of them.).



Dennis Zine and others are accusing School Board Member Tamar Galatzan of breaking a promise to build a community center at a new LAUSD campus in Canoga Park and the City is now suing the LAUSD.  As part of the plan to build a mixed use housing project and school, Galatzan and her predecessor, the late Jon Lauritzen, promised the LAUSD would pay for half of the cost of constructing the community center with the City and the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency picking up the rest.  Now Galatzan is saying that the District did not promise to pay for the center and will not.  Zine says the City is left holding the bag, shifting the funds from other priorities.



Speaking of our favorite former motorcycle cop turned Councilman, Dennis Zine seems to be more concerned about celebrities being stalked by paparazzi than illegal construction in his neighborhood. At the same time - following violence between locals and press photographers that even wound up impacting Zuma Dogg - Malibu officials seeking to protect the landed gentry in their town have consulted former Monica Lewinsky prosecutor Ken Starr on legal ways to block the tabloid press.  How about putting this energy to work fighting gangs?



The SoapBox LA blog reports that the bicycle activist group Critical Mass staged another one of their mass bike rides, this time in Hollywood.  Police overwhelmed by so many bicyclists decided to make a stand by citing the most egregious of the offending cyclists.  SoapBoxLA is calling upon Council President Eric Garcetti and City Council Transportation Committee Chair Wendy Greuel to take action against the police response.



The long awaited desire for cityhood in East LA got a boost when yet another drive for independence started up on the Fourth of July.



And finally a 42 year old toilet trained chimp who lives with a married pair of animal trainers has gone missing.  Moe the Chimp escaped his cage about two weeks ago and is believed to be hiding in the San Bernardino Forest.  His owners are urging anyone who comes in contact with him to avoid him as he has a history of biting humans.