Mid-Afternoon Briefs on the Los Angeles Political Scene for Tuesday

Care to guess who is "Papi Villar" and IBEW"s Brian D'Arcy's "little buddy" on the City Council today?

Let me guess, "Papi" would of been mad and he needs IBEW's cash?

Quick summery, the City Council voted 10-1 to put on the March 2011 ballot whether the City council should have more oversight and power to remove the top DWP executive with a two-thirds vote. Bravo!!

But who was the lone no vote? None other than CD 14's own DWP, IBEW and Papi Villar's Little Huizzy. From the LA Times.

Councilman Tony Cardenas said the proposal would help create “checks and balances” at the DWP between the mayor and the council. Councilwoman Jan Perry, who also backed the measure, said it would help council members get more timely information from the utility, regardless of who is running it.

Two weeks ago, the council deadlocked 7 to 7 on the plan, with neither side prevailing. At the time, some council members said they feared Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa would veto the ballot measure.

When the matter was reconsidered Tuesday, the proposal sailed onto the ballot by a 10 to 1 vote, with only Councilman Jose Huizar opposed.

Once again, we in CD 14 can stand proud as Papi Villar says "Muy bien, Mijo Huizzy".
** EVENING UPDATE: Mayor Villar vetoes council action.
** DWP related news:
DWP board president says he plans to resign
DWP's green strategy could come with rate increases, the agency says
DWP quietly scales back Villaraigosa's ambitious renewable energy goal

OTHER AFTERNOON NEWS:

** Out-going California Attorney General and Arizona vacationer Jerry Brown's media stunt in the City of Bell is doing more harm than good. this after a judge denied his attempt to have a court-appointed monitor take over the day to day affairs of the dysfunctional enclave.

** This type of legal trigger-pulling needs to go automatic. From Patrick Range McDonald at the LA Weekly.

For the first time in California, and possibly in the United States, parents are poised take over a chronically failing public school through a new state law called the Parent Trigger. The action will likely send shock waves through education circles across the country.

The historic event will take place in Compton this morning when parent leaders drop off a petition at Compton Unified School District headquarters and utilize the trigger to assume control of McKinley Elementary School. Given behind-the-scenes access, L.A. Weekly will run an in-depth feature story later today on its web site.

** Kamala will most likely declare these drugs as being toxic. California now has enough drugs to conduct 175 executions.

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

Scott Johnson in CD 14

The 70s at 7

For today's feature here are snippets from local television news during the 70s. See if you remember any of these.

KNXT (now KCBS) 11:00 p.m. news from around 1978 featuring a very young Connie Chung and Jim Hill.

Here's a KNBC News clip from the 70s back when Pat Sajak did the weather.



And Channel 7 Eyewitness News with Jerry Dunphy.