Friday Free for All - If Supermarkets Were Like Public Schools

Here's one to chew on:

What if groceries were paid for by taxes, and you were assigned a store based on where you live?

Last Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet of 2010

A group of public housing residents who had protested at the home of LA's Housing Authority head, Rudolf Montiel, and then found themselves evicted saw their evictions overturned by the agency Thursday. When the evictions first became public a few months ago, several members of the City Council expressed outrage.  In addition to overturning the evictions, the agency settle with the residents to pay their legal fees and provide computers onsite.

Councilman Dennis Zine will recuse himself from voting on an LAX contract because his girlfriend is an employee of one of the bidders.  Zine has been reportedly dating Veronica Becerra, who works for contractor Tutor Perini who wants a $270 million contract to build a utility plant at the airport.  Airport staff however have recommended to the Council the bid by a competing firm.

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Saturday Hotsheet

We're just going to sell propane and propane accessories.

Never doubt the power of well organized citizen activism when going up against brain dead bureaucrats when it comes to land use decisions. Residents in Sunland-Tujunga successfully fought off an industrial propane refilling station in their community with the help of Councilmember Paul Krekorian. Other communities are not as lucky to be as organized nor to have as decent a Councilmember as Krekorian when a koo koo for Cocoa Puffs planner such as Milena Zasadzien see no problem with such a facility in a retail zone. "It may not be an ideal retail use such as a cafe or restaurant, but it is still a retail site," Zasadzien told the LA Weekly.

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Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Friday

Blog away dum dums.

The LA City Council is going to ask for a tax that even a NIMBY could love but it doesn't mean it should be passed. The Clowncil has voted to place a measure on the November ballot that would tax billboards and supergraphics. Though the city is pleading poverty Mark Reddick, President of the Del Rey Neighborhood Council, makes a good point - “We don’t have a revenue problem in the city; we have a spending problem.” Reddick is absolutely right and at some point most of the rest of you will get it.

Clowncilman Greig Smith voted against LA's goofy boycott of Arizona but was wishy washy when asked why.  Not so with County Supervisors Mike Antonovich and Don Knabe who oppose a similar LA County boycott of Arizona.  Antonovich did not mince words calling the boycott "Stupid."  Perhaps Antonovich and Knabe are concerned about the economic impact of a boycott of LA and it's tourist attractions; San Diego lost several million dollars in hotel bookings from Arizona residents when that city only passed a condemnation of Arizona and not quite a boycott. With Arizonans gearing up for a counter-boycott of Los Angeles and other cities those considering sticking their nose into Arizona's business (especially when California already has an identical law on the books to Arizona's) might think twice.

Bloated mush-mouth Clowncilman Paul Koretz compared Arizona's anti-illegal immigration laws to Nazi Germany and caught a lot of heat for it.  But here's something about Nazi Germany Koretz may want to remember as he is cheerleading banning the carrying of unconcealed weapons in public.  It was in Nazi Germany that Hitler required all citizens to register their guns and banned Jews from owning weapons, just before they were loaded on boxcars and hauled to the ovens.  Koretz should think twice and consider that the second amendment is there for a reason.

The former Marine Corps Air Station at El Toro is being turned into a "Great Park" a enormous public space that will create a park twice the size of New York's Central Park.  Now efforts are underway to turn part of the park into a massive urban farm.  Maybe that's a good idea for the Grand Avenue Park in Downtown LA, given how many hungry people we have in LA.  It would be funny to see Eli Broad in overalls don't you think?

This may be bad news for the Republican and Democratic parties: Californians are fleeing both parties in record numbers  20% of voters in the Golden State have registered as decline to state.

If your home is in a hillside area its time to soon to clear the brush around your property.  The LAFD News and Information Blog has great information including how to hire a professional to clear the brush and how the inspection process works.

Does Tamar Want to Raise Your Taxes?

When you're an elected official seeking to upgrade your job and salary by running for another position it probably doesn't help that the current body you serve on is going to raise taxes in the middle of your campaign.

That's the word that came out this weekend while many of you were chowing down on Watermelon; that the Los Angeles Unified School District - whose boad CD2 candidate Tamar Galatzan serves on - wants to raise your taxes to pay off their massive debts due to their flagrant drunken sailor like overspending.

A little known provision of recent bonded indebtedness passed by voters in the past gives the District the right to raise property taxes by about a third on hundreds of thousands of property owners throughout LA.

So money you might put towards a family purchase, new clothes for your kids or maybe even food on the table goes to Tamar and her downtown cronies. "The liability on individual property owners will go up at precisely the time when property owners can least afford it," Jon Coupal of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association told the LA Times.

So are the good homeowners of CD2 going to like a property tax increase shoved down their throats? Sounds like Tamar has some 'splanin' to do.

Pigs Fly! Whoopi and Rush Limbaugh Agree!

No big fan of Rush and his racism - another day I'll talk about why the Republicans need to shitcan him but Whoopi is 100% in this piece.

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Sunday

Mayor Villaraigosa supposedly has a plan to deal with the City's multi-million dollar budget deficit. The rotten economy has caused a severe reduction in the receipt of sales and other taxes by the City. Significant layoffs of City workers are expected.  Of course if the Mayor would stop raising taxes he might actually see an increase in revenues.  Funny how things work that way.

Yet another Metrolink train has hit a freight train where it shares tracks.  This time in Rialto an eastbound Metrolink train hit the end of a westbound Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway train that was pulling onto a siding from the main track just west of the Rialto station.  The voters passed a mega-billion dollar bond that will build a high-speed train from Fresno to LA that will share right-of-way with the beleagured Metrolink. God help us.

Zuma Dogg caught Gavin Newsom driving his state-of-the art SUV and parking in a fire lane in Malibu this past summer.  Now the San Francisco Mayor is taking heat back home for the SUV use and for having what appears to be an excessive use of security personnel.  KGO television takes the Mayor to task and even quotes the Dogg in their report.

Speaking of Zuma Dogg, the Mayoral candidate reports that he's received his 500th petition signature to get his name on the ballot.  Every petition circulator however knows it is wise to get several hundred more signatures than necessary because not everyone who signs is actually a registered voter or a City resident.  Zuma reports on some of the events he's attended to get signatures showing grass roots politics in action.

Members of the City's system of Neighborhood Councils want the ability to initiate "Council files" which could eventually force City Council action on issues of importance to the local panels. However, a number of City Council members feel that in exchange for this "power" Neighborhood Council members should be required to submit some form of financial disclosure form.  Former Department of Neighborhood Empowerment Manager Greg Nelson opines at LA CityWatch that the price for this "privilege" may be "too high."

And finally the struggling economy may find more folks going homeless and forced to live in their cars.  Though many of LA's residents have truly "mobile homes" it's technically against the law to sleep in your car in Los Angeles.  Council Member Bill Rosendahl is looking to change that.

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.

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Monday

Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters writes about Mayor Villaraigosa's bait and switch with his garbage tax increases for "more police."  With respect to this and the many other tax hikes the Mayor has planned for you Walters opines that we "would be better served if they (politicians like Villaraigosa) were upfront about their purposes, rather than constructing elaborate fictions that imply voters are too stupid to understand reality."  Gee, ya think?



The new Beckford Parents blog reminds us why a potential $10 billion LAUSD construction bond on the November ballot (the fifth such in the last decade) must not be passed: Belmont Learning Center.  It's laughable that the Mayor is calling this latest dollar sinkhole a "reform minded" bond.  Let's put the same energy into breaking up LAUSD, creating more charter type schools while holding parents, students and educators accountable.



Under the Nahai regime at the Department of Water and Power it sure seems like there are a lot more random power outages throughout the City.  This time, nearly 10,000 customers were without power in Koreatown on Sunday. In the meantime, the rate hikes keep coming.



Writer Sandra Tsing-Loh dressed as the Statue of Liberty talking about her menopause may have been amusing for some of those in attendance at Ron Kaye's Bastille Day Storming of City Hall but I don't know.  There is definitely a place and a call for a protest movement in Los Angeles, however to gain traction I believe it needs a central rallying point and needs to be done somewhat without theatrics or maybe a different type of theatrics.



Is superstar pop diva Britney Spears on the way back to good looks and good health? I don't know, I'll let you decide.

A Laundry List of Taxes

Though the deadline has passed to put measures on the November ballot in California, the State Legislature and other government bodies can waive those deadlines to put a boatload of tax and bond measures to voters.  Among the soak the taxpayers plans on or potentiallly coming to the ballot include:



California Veterans' Housing Bond

California High Speed Passenger Rail Bond

California Children's Hospital Bond

California Alternative Energy Vehicles Bond

City of Los Angeles $30 Million Gang Tax

LA Community College Construction and "Green Technology" $3.5 Billion Bond

LAUSD $3.2 Billion Property Tax Increase for Construction

MTA Half-Cent Sales Tax for Transportation (which they round up by the way)

City of LA Personal Income Tax? (Also known as the "Occupational License Fee")



Of course there a ton of other fees the politicians can raise without your vote such as the trash tax and DWP rate increases.



So when is enough enough? When do we tell the politicians no more?

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Friday

Joseph Mailander has a great piece detailing how Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's re-election chances are in trouble. An interesting note that Joe makes, of the folks around town he talks to the one remark he keeps hearing over and over again is people who say they won't vote for the Mayor "again."

The lawsuit against Special Order 40 is still on for now as a Judge heard arguments but took no action when attorneys for the ACLU and the City asked him to drop the suit. Superior Court Judge Rolf M. Treu is taking the request under advisement and may issue a ruling later in the case filed by Los Angeles resident Harold P. Sturgeon against Police Chief William Bratton and members of the Police Commission.

It's been five years since the Los Angeles Children's Museum was supposed to open in Hansen Dam and it's nowhere near ready to open. Following a series of delays and funding missteps who knows when the museum will open it's doors to children. As aptly noted by the Pasadena Star News, a child who was 9 years old when the old museum closed will be in college assuming the museum opens on the next deadline. One of the big issues is that the politics of the day forced locating the museum in Hansen Dam, far from almost all children in the City when a better location would have been adjacent to North Hollywood , Universal City or Hollywood/Highland Metro Red Line stations which would be far more central to most of the population and have a better top of mind awareness for fund raising.

The useless VICA/VEDC Valley business crowd types are on board with a sales tax increase, presumably for transit. Like the cell phone tax increase, always for a "worthy" purpose, these tax increases they bend over to the politicians to support will do nothing but harm small business and consumers and then be wasted on boondoggle products with cost overruns, budget delays and little to show for it. Next on the docket: a property tax increase for "gang" intervention.

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Sunday

Think what you might about Zuma Dogg and Matt Dowd but if what the Mutt reports is true, I am aghast. While holding down a Venice Beach performance space for Dowd as the Kiwi gadfly ran an errand, Zuma was hassled by Venice Beach officials and LAPD officers who wanted to hand the space over to a "performer" who juggles machetes from a ladder. Oh yea that's really something servants of public safety should be protecting!

An audit by City Controller Laura Chick makes the finding that Los Angeles World Airports chief Gina Marie Lindsay did not unlawfully influence two different evaluation panels to choose a contractor which she had previous ties to in the awarding of lucrative construction contracts at LAX. However, insiders at the Airports department say otherwise.

Yet another tax increase! Assemblyman Mike Feuer got his fellow members to pass a local sales tax increase to fund the MTA. However you'll get a chance to vote on it, probably in November.

South Bay Area Congresswoman Laura Richardson who lost a home in Sacramento following foreclosure has two other homes in Long Beach and San Pedro that have fallen into default at least six times according to The San Diego Union Tribune. Richardson acknowledged using her personal funds to pay for her campaigns instead of paying her bills. She will face two challengers in Tuesday's Democratic primary.

Looks like Bob Blumenfield has secured the animal wacko vote. Too bad cats and dogs can't vote though. Well at least not yet; don't put any ideas in Richard Alarcon's head.
And finally, If you're looking for some interesting family entertainment, check out the Toy Theatre Festival at the Music Center on June 14th. Toy Theatre is a genre of puppetry in which plays are enacted using two-dimensional rod puppets in a small model theatre.

Down By Law

Joseph Mailander reports in Street-Hassle that actor/tax evader Wesley Snipes is being sent to the pokey for 3 years for tax evasion. Apparently, he also preached what he practiced – advising his employees to stop paying their own taxes as well.

Wesley, dude – two words for you and your lawyer, babe: Sheridan, Oregon. The federal pen there has consistently been in the Top 5 of all White Collar Crime Federal Prisons. Alan Ellis, co-author of the book The Federal Prison Handbook 2005, names other prisons noted for their lovely surroundings and quaint amenities:

Yankton, South Dakota. “A stand alone federal prison camp,” Ellis says. “A vanishing breed. These are camps that are not satellites to larger more secure institutions. It happens to be a converted college that went defunct. It’s in the middle of the town, not on the outskirts. There is a lot of community programming. People leave during the day and come back at night.”

Englewood, Colorado. “That’s outside of Denver,” Ellis says. “It’s a satellite camp to the federal correction institution there. I’m told by my clients that it is a pretty laid back place.”

Texarkana, Texas. “The federal prison camp there has a drug and alcohol treatment program,” he says. “It has a pond stocked with fish. And one of my clients said he liked to spend his day fishing.”

Pensacola Naval Base. “You get out during the day, you work on the Naval base, you intermingle with Navy personnel,” Ellis says. “The food is better. You are outside. I’ve had people who were taking care of the grounds at the admiral’s house. The admiral’s wife would bring out lemonade, invite the inmate in for lunch. Things of that sort.”

“If you are Jewish, I would say the federal prison camp at Otisville, New York, about 70 miles from New York City,” Ellis adds. “It has programs for orthodox and religious Jews. It has religious furloughs where people leave the prison for religious holidays.”

And if you, too, find yourself heading for a stay in a federal slammer, don't freak: the Sister City highly recommends, “The Ultimate Guide to Life Inside (and after) Federal Prison” by Mark Hrutkay. A self-proclaimed “Federal Prison for Idiots”-type book, you’ll find everything you need to know about life on the inside. The table of contents includes chapters such as: Before You Get In; Getting In; First Few Days; Procedure in Federal Prison; Communication With the Outside World; Your Life Here; Things You Shouldn’t Do; Spending Time on the Inside; and of course, Back to the Street. For more info, please visit fedsgotme dot com (no, really --that's the web address).

Hard luck, indeed.

People... pay your taxes!

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Thursday

Phil's Diner, North Hollywood - Photo by Mayor Sam

This story should make you giggle. Mayor Villaraigosa is looking for every way he can to tax you more and more. But of course they're not taxes but fees because he can't increase your taxes (well legally anyway) without your vote. And what makes it deliciously fun is the City Council might insist - at least for a couple minutes, about as long as they were opposed to water and power rate increases - that any increases be offset by cuts in "spending at City Hall." Ha ha that's they them! They won' t even give up their slush funds that they use to pay for event waivers, free food for Matt Dowd and other nonsense. Incredible! Hope you people wake up soon! Get ready soon for the city income tax!

Columnist Ira Mehlman does an excellent job of deconstructing the liberal hypocrisy in the reaction to the calls by Jamiel Shaw's family to pass Jamiel's Law. Mehlman perfectly captures the usual arrogance of some of our City Clowncil members, "Councilman Bill Rosendahl condescendingly explained that the reasons for city policies that shield illegal immigrants – even those who commit crimes – were far too complex for them to grasp and that further discussion needs to be put off for another time."

A blogger thinks that the members of the DWP Commission should be responsive and accountable to the people. Were they hitting the medical marijuana y'all?

Future Mayor Zev Yaroslavsky had an Antonio type moment over the weekend. He picked up a major "man of the year" type award from a local film festival.

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Thursday

Not too long after Mayor Villaraigosa declared NFL football dead at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum talk started anew of a stadium in Chavez Ravine. But I don't think its going to happen. The NIMBY/CAVE/BANANA movement is just too strong and it will take years to get through the lawsuits alone. The honest truth is private landowners just don't have rights anymore.

This sounds like something out of a Sanford and Son episode: Thieves are stealing copper wire from streetlights. Its expensive to replace and before it's fixed a significant number of streetlights in a community will remain off. The valuable material can catch quite a pretty penny from recyclers. Which makes it even dumber that radio station KPCC posts an article showing you the tools necessary and the steps to take for anyone who wants to join in on this thievery.

The City of Los Angeles wants to blanket the City with free wireless internet. That's good for Zuma Dogg and anyone else who wants to remote blog; the problem is no city government yet has been able to figure it out. However, a number of non-profit community based initiatives are working well. How about leaving it to the private sector?

Just about every politician in Los Angeles has a plan to raise taxes and cries poverty when it comes to the municipal budget. However the Daily News reports that the City has wasted millions of dollars mismanaging state and federal grants. In an audit of the process, City Controller Laura Chick found there is no tracking or central management of grants leading to missing out on some grants or spending more money to get the grant than the grant is worth.

The MTA loses nearly $7 million a year to fare scofflaws who don't adhere to it's "honor system" of no turnstiles on it subway and rail lines. Now the MTA is considering putting in East Coast style gates on the entrance to the lines, requiring a fare payment to ride. However, some idiot writing in the Former Local Fishwrap of Record thinks that the multi-million dollar fare loss is a small "price to pay for the architectural and aesthetic benefits" of the stations' "openness."

How do you get to do a major real estate development and trick the NIMBYs and local Clowncilman to get on board? Dig up historic plans that show your project was supposed to be there all along.

I don't know how I missed this, but over a month ago Luke Ford reported a woman who looks a lot like a television reporter we all knew and some (well one) loved checked into Sherman Oaks Hospital's maternity ward.

Fellow Mirthala Banger Speaker Fabian Nunez's spending sprees are going to mess it up for all the other pols. The California Fair Political Practices Commission is considering regulations to crack down on the use of campaign funds for personal use.

LAist calls Clown Prince of the City Clowncil Tom LeBong a "grinch" for claiming the DWP's annual holiday light show in Griffith Park is "green." Critics say the event is far from green especially considering the fact that LeBong and the DWP have banned bicyclists from riding the city streets through the show in contravention of state law.