Wednesday Hotsheet at 3 a.m.

JM, Two ex-Payphones on Mariposa., 1.22.08


Joseph Mailander a guy in la • elsewhere • email

Those poor phone companies just haven't been as interested in servicing the City since it started collecting that cell phone tax...

The alternative reality of Prop S is that it pits one unsympathetic monolith (phone companies) against another (the City). The true reality is that it pits cell phone users against a kleptocratic City Government that doesn't even have the ethics to call a tax a tax on your ballot.

Hey, here's some fun with numbers: if you check the interactive feature in the right column of this Times article, you'll confirm what you knew: that the middle of the Valley has been hit hardest by Adjustable Rate Foreclosure Syndrome. There are as many as sixty foreclosures a quarter in some zips. But sections of Riverside "Drive Til You Qualify" County have been hit even harder.

If you don't know your local zips, try ones like 91331 (Pacoima), 91343 (North Hills), 91402 (Panorama City) against your own.

With the Fed lowering, a recession brewing, and liar loans defaulting, it seems like a weird time to shut down a fishwrap's biz section, but that's what the Orange County Register has done. And when they did it, they cited Internet competition. See? Zuma's having a bigger impact out there than you thought.

Supermarket lobbyists succeeded in bagging the County's would-be plastic bag ban, the LA Times reports. The County implements a vastly watered down voluntary version.

Porter Ranch---in the news for the notorious once again. This time it's where a bank robber was nabbed. Three days ago it was where a body was dumped. I'm not sure that that real estate reset name is working out the way they wanted it to.

At last, a shred of sanity comes to the LAUSD. While the Mayor fiddles with expansion and private donors, the District pares back for the sake of prudence. The LA Times story reports what we have been saying at MayorSam for over two years: declining enrollments should translate into a paring back of the outrageous building campaign left over from previous Boards. Why didn't Huizar's Board think of that?

Another question: why haven't the fishwraps previously called for something even the Board could see? They all just keep giving brownie points to anyone who donates to the District.