November 2007 Archives

The skies were clear and light winds blew in an easterly direction on the day nearly a half-century ago that federal officials insist was the only one during a 14-day partial nuclear meltdown when the Santa Susana Field Laboratory might have emitted radioactive materials into the air. Lisa Friedman in the Daily News.

The first look at wind direction that day emerged Thursday from mounds of meteorological data the Boeing Co. recently turned over to federal officials after years of denying the information existed.

But federal officials cautioned that many factors have yet to be analyzed and it still could take months to develop the data into a useful model for better understanding the 1959 meltdown.

Grappling with increasingly crowded Southland freeways, the Metro
board Thursday said it will seek to convert some of Los Angeles
County's most popular car-pool lanes to toll roads. Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

Under the plan, solo drivers could use the car-pool lanes if they pay
a toll. Vehicles with two or more occupants - which currently use the
lanes for free - would also pay a toll, although less than solo
drivers. It's unclear how the plan would apply to hybrids.

"Orange County has them and so does San Diego County, but we've never
had toll roads," Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman Marc
Littman said. "This is another option for reducing congestion,
improving mobility and generating additional revenues that we could
use to improve public transit."

In another warning to city department managers, Los Angeles Mayor
Antonio Villaraigosa renewed his call Thursday to slow hiring as he
set cutback goals for all agencies to try to deal with a projected
budget deficit. Daily News.

Villaraigosa released a letter to managers late in the day warning
again of the financial problems the city faces and singling out the
worst spenders in the city: the Office of Finance, City Attorney Rocky
Delgadillo and the General Services Department.

In separate letters to the departments, the mayor laid out targets of
$400,000 in reduced spending for each department as part of a citywide
effort.
.

Los Angeles County officials are bracing for a round of belt-tightening as property tax revenues fall short of expectations on drooping home values and the state prepares to cut off additional funds. Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

While soaring property values have poured millions into county coffers in recent years, officials say they expect revenues to increase just 2 percent to 5 percent next year - compared with 9 percent this year - as the real estate market cools.

At the same time, California's fiscal woes are worsening as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has asked all state departments to prepare for 10 percent cuts amid a slowing economy and unexpected setbacks that have created a nearly $10 billion budget shortfall over the next two years.

Los Angeles City Councilman Tom LaBonge said Wednesday that he will call for a countywide parcel tax, designed to raise $1.7 billion, to help make long-term improvements to the region's transportation system. Daily News.

The proposal came as the council's Transportation Committee recommended approval of an 18-month process to develop a 20-year transportation plan.

But officials said the tax proposal would need support from all cities within Los Angeles County, as well as from county supervisors.

Home sales and prices tumbled across most of California in October as the credit crisis continued to roil residential real estate markets, a trade association said Wednesday. Gregory J.Wilcox in the Daily News.

Last month sales plunged 40 percent statewide from October 2006 and the median house price declined 9.9 percent to $497,110, said the Los Angeles-based California Association of Realtors.

The association computes sales on an annualized basis, which means that if the market matched October's pace all year, 265,030 houses would change owners.

Democratic officials announced Wednesday cancellation of the planned presidential debate in Los Angeles set for Dec. 10 because of the ongong writer strike.

The debate, scheduled to be held at the CBS studios, was called off because writers plan to picket the location and the three leading candidates, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and former Sen. John Edwards said they would not cross picket lines.

There was no indication if an effort will be made to reschedule the forum before the state's Feb. 5 election.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa steps back on to the national stage this weekend, when he joins a group of big city mayors to serve as commentators on two presidential debates in Iowa.

Villaraigosa, who has endorsed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, will be part of a group of mayors from the U.S. Conference of Mayors who will talk about the presidential election and the candidates following the Heartland Presidential Candidate Forum and the Black and Brown Presidential Forum.

“With over 85 percent of people in the United States living in our nation's cities and metro areas, mayors clearly understand how urban issues impact every day Americans and are calling on candidates to focus on these issues,” the U.S. Conference of Mayors said in a statement.

“For the first time in our history, The United States Conference of Mayors is bringing a bipartisan group of mayors to the Iowa Caucuses. We believe that the issues of Iowa and the city of Des Moines are the same issues that face mayors around the country each and every day. We support Mayor Cownie and the other Iowa mayors as we present to the next President of the United States the challenges and opportunities before us,” said U.S. Conference of Mayors Executive Director Tom Cochran.

Other mayors include Douglas Palmer of Trenton, N.J.; Franklin Cownie of Des Moines, Ia.; Manny Diaz of Miami, Fla., and Mike Cornett of Oklahoma Citiy.

NBC Universal plans to sell its entire 34-acre studio in Burbank to a development company that will inherit the right to build on the property, city and studio officials said Tuesday. Alex Dobuzinskis in the Daily News.

M. David Paul and Associates will be the builder, with help from Stockbridge Real Estate Fund, officials said. The companies have created a joint entity - Catalina Media Development II LLC - to develop the remainder of the NBC lot.

With NBC Universal set to move its operations to Universal City, the company reserves the right to lease the Burbank facility for several years while it makes the move. The daytime soap opera "Days of Our Lives" and "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" are among the shows produced at the Burbank studio.

Decades after Santa Susana Field Lab neighbors first asked which way
the wind was blowing during a 1959 partial nuclear meltdown at the
site, lab officials have discovered the missing meteorological
records. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

The newly found data are expected to be vital in helping lab watchdogs
and researchers more accurately estimate where radiation released
during the meltdown could have moved during the accident and what
communities might have been exposed.

Last year, a state-funded study determined that radiation released
during the accident could have triggered 260 cancers in the area. But
that analysis was stunted by the lack of data from the incident,
including weather information.

Hammered by a barrage of negative publicity in recent months, Los
Angeles Unified School District officials have quietly hired two
consultants to help improve their public image. Naush Boghossian in the Daily News.

The school district also hired the public relations firm Rogers Group
to focus exclusively on dealing with fallout from an electronic
payroll system that has left thousands of employees underpaid or
overpaid since February.

The recent hirings come in addition to a six-person communications
staff with a nearly $1.4 million budget, an overall $10 million
communications budget, and a separate consulting contract with Darry
Sragow, who helps LAUSD develop communications strategies and policy
issues.

The problem with traffic in Los Angeles is everyone talks about it,
but nothing seems to get done.

Little fixes like left-turn lanes and synchronized signals provide
some relief. But no long-term plan has emerged to solve the problem of
too many cars going to the same places on too few lanes. Daily News.

"We are never going to solve our transportation crisis with a single
project," Councilwoman Wendy Greuel said. "We need a comprehensive
policy, with benchmarks, to hold the city accountable. Right now... if
you ask anyone where the city is going, no one knows."

Bowing to pressure from City Council members, a developer agreed to
pay an additional $20,000 in relocation costs for tenants evicted from
a Valley Village apartment building to clear the way for approval of a
condominium project. Daily News.

Developer Gary Schaffel, under terse questioning from Councilman Bill
Rosendahl, agreed to make the additional payment to end the
controversy that had surrounded his project after a city planner
mistakenly left a telephone message with a tenant promising the
developer would win approval "no matter what."

Former tenants in the building played the taped message at hearings,
and raised concern that the project approval process had been tainted.

Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, D- Van Nuys, has found a special meaning for Thanksgiving. It was the day he proposed marriage to Edie Lambert, a Sacramento television reporter, the Sacramento Bee reports.

Levine aides said he proposed to Lambert on Thursday.

"They're engaged and they're incredibly happy," said Alex Traverso, Levine's spokesman.

No date for the wedding was announced.

Thanksgiving carries a special significance for the couple -- and apparently always will.

Exactly two years ago, Levine and Lambert met in a chance encounter, hundreds of miles from home, inside a Seattle airport during a Thanksgiving Day visit to relatives.

Upon meeting, they began talking casually, one passenger to another, and each apologized because neither recognized the other, Levine recalled in an interview last spring.

"We've been dating ever since," Levine, 38, said at the time. "She's absolutely wonderful."

Amid severe staffing shortages, California park rangers for months have battled after-hours parties in the area near the flash point of the weekend Malibu wildfires that scorched 4,900 acres and left 53 homes in ruins, the Daily News has learned. Beth Barrett in the Daily News.

Rangers on Monday said they have been aware of the problem for at least the past six months and even patrolled the area less than six hours before the firestorms are estimated to have started just hours before dawn Saturday.

While officials on Monday were still investigating the cause of the wildfires, they have said it was caused by humans and swept down from the popular gathering spot at the top of Corral Canyon into the Malibu Bowl community

Voting-rights experts on Monday said Los Angeles County's electronic
voting system is vulnerable to fraud and hacking and urged officials
to return to the practice of publicly counting paper ballots.Harrison Sheppard in the Daily News.

Speaking at a hearing held to determine whether the county's
electronic system should be recertified, several independent
voting-rights activists said they had doubts about the system marketed
by Omaha-based Election Systems & Software Inc.

Secretary of State Debra Bowen decertified the county's InkaVote Plus
system in August because a vendor failed to provide information and
equipment on time to consultants performing a review of voting systems
throughout the state.

Foreclosures in the Greater San Fernando Valley area soared nearly
fivefold and home sales plunged to their lowest level in almost 20
years in October, a research center said Monday.Gregory J. Wilcox in the
Daily News.

As the credit crisis increases its choke hold on residential real
estate, the Valley's median house price slipped under its year-ago
level for the first time since 1997, said the San Fernando Valley
Economic Research Center at California State University, Northridge.

Last month lenders foreclosed on 414 properties, up from 84 in October
2006, as owners could not make monthly loan payments. The center said
the most likely reason for the jump in foreclosures was higher
interest rates making payments unaffordable, the center said.

Once a bastion of old guard conservatism, the San Fernando Valley has become a hotbed of progressive activism that appears to be re-energizing the Democratic Party base in the county and state for the 2008 presidential campaign year. Tony Castro in the Daily News.

Activists have already moved into positions in the party's important county and state central committees, which have traditionally been the seats of power from where old guard leaders have controlled money and volunteers for political campaigns.

"A lot of new blood got involved in 2004," says Democratic activist Chad Jones of Granada Hills, an executive board member of Valley Grassroots for Democracy. "We're not old guard. We don't have a history. We don't know how things are supposed to be.

A Los Angeles official is waging a battle against the City of Vernon and its plans to build a 914-megawatt power plant.
Councilman Jose Huizar is planning a mock funeral procession tonight
from the Boyle Heights area of his district to Vernon to bring attention to the proposal and mount an effort to block the plan.
Huizar said he hopes to have more than 200 residents join him to protest what he said will lead to increased toxic emissions that will impact his district.
The councilman sai the plan will add 881 tons of pollutants that will affect Boyle Heights and Huntington Park.
-

A move to declare Dec. 1 as Rosa Parks Human Rights Day begins this
week, with members of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable lobbying city officials to honor the civil rights leader.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson, who chairs the3 group, said it is particularly timely this year because of the continued racial problems in the city,the rise in hate crimes nationally and the increasing levels of
violence between black and Latino gangs.
"The spirit and example of Rosa Parks demands a rededication on the part of Los Angeles residents to the battle against bigotry and intolerance," Huthinson said.
The date was selected to commemorate the day that Parks refused to move from her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Ala., and became the turning point in the civil rights movement.
Hutchinson said he hopes to see the day used as a way for schools to teach about the civil rights movement and its relevance today.

Confronting an enormous fund-raising gap with Democrats, Republican Party officials are aggressively recruiting wealthy candidates who can spend large sums of their own money to finance their Congressional
races, party officials say.New York Times.

At this point, strategists for the National Republican Congressional Committee have enlisted wealthy candidates to run in at least a dozen competitive Congressional districts nationwide, particularly those
where Democrats are finishing their first term and are thus considered most vulnerable. They say more are on the way.

These wealthy Republicans have each already invested $100,000 to $1 million of their own money to finance their campaigns, according to campaign finance disclosure reports and interviews with party
strategists. Experts say that is a large amount for this early in the cycle.

Consultants for Secretary of State Debra Bowen said Friday they found several flaws in Los Angeles County's voting system that could leave it vulnerable to fraud or electronic hacking. Harrison Sheppard in the Daily News.

The report found that seals on boxes used to carry the system hardware could be opened and resealed without detection, making the machinery susceptible to tampering.

Plus, some password-protected systems could be hacked with certain programs, and some encrypted files containing sensitive data could be decrypted.

President George W. Bush has placed himself squarely between the Southland and millions of dollars for transportation and social services, blocking two appropriations bills in an attempt to rein in spending. Lisa Friedman in the Daily News.

Congress is gearing up for a battle, with House Republicans upholding presidential vetoes and Democrats accusing their GOP counterparts of ignoring the poor while suddenly rediscovering fiscal conservatism.

But caught in the middle are dozens of Southern California legislators' pet projects - known as earmarks - for everything from roads and hospitals to job-training programs, museums and after-school groups.

Due to the holiday weekend.

Recent changes to the Board of Water and Power Commissioners are giving the San Fernando Valley added clout on the powerful utility panel. Beth Barrett in the Daily News.

The moves come as former board president H. David Nahai prepares to be the DWP general manager, replacing Ron Deaton, who is retiring.

While Nahai's appointment still needs approval by the City Council and mayor, Tarzana resident Nick Patsaouras was recently named to succeed him as president of the commission.

In addition, Encino attorney Lee Kanon Alpert was appointed Friday to the panel by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, capping a major restructuring of the Department of Water and Power.

Is Arnold snubbing Newt?

Arnold Schwarzenegger, California's politically ambidextrous governor, is planning to skip a Republican Governors Association meeting in his home state next Thursday when former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is scheduled to moderate a discussion of "government transformation." Associated Press in the Mercury News.

It's a 75-mile trip from his Los Angeles home to an Orange County resort where the meeting is being held.

Schwarzenegger "is proud that RGA chose California for this meeting," said spokesman Adam Mendelsohn. "Unfortunately, his work as governor will not allow him to participate in every event."

Seeking to stave off a bitter regional battle over transportation money, state officials said Tuesday that they will add $1 billion to funding for port infrastructure and trade-route improvements throughout California. Harrison Sheppard in the Daily News.

The move came as a coalition of five Southern California counties geared up an aggressive lobbying campaign to try to land nearly 85 percent of transportation-bond funds to be doled out soon - or $1.7 billion out of $2 billion.

But officials with the California Transportation Commission said they now plan to add $1 billion from other revenue sources to the program - meaning most regions will now get close to the amounts they were originally seeking.

The Los Angeles Police Department's largest youth program came under fire Tuesday for its links to the Boy Scouts of America, which condemns homosexuality, and the department is looking into possible replacements. Rachel Uranga in the Daily News.

Every year, hundreds of youths participate in the department's Explorer program in an effort the LAPD sees as key to recruiting.

But the program was assailed by departing and openly gay Los Angeles Police Commissioner Shelley Freeman and other commissioners for its ties to the Scouts.

A brief online survey could help chart a new course for an agency charged with diverting airline traffic from Los Angeles International Airport to other local airfields. Art Marroquin in the Daily Breeze.

Or, as some have predicted, the survey could spell the demise of the on-again, off-again Southern California Regional Airport Authority, more commonly referred to as SCRAA.

It's been a year since Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa reintroduced SCRAA amid much fanfare in the hope that the group would fulfill a campaign promise to cap the number of flights coming into and out of LAX.

With the presidential primary less than three months away, Los Angeles County supervisors will ask California's secretary of state today to allow the county to use a vote-counting system that has not yet been reviewed by the state. Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

The request - with just 77 days to go before voters head to the polls - comes after vendor Premier Election Solutions failed earlier this year to submit its vote-counting equipment and software quickly enough for a statewide review of election systems.

With little time left, Board of Supervisors Chairman Zev Yaroslavsky said the county has to move forward to seek approval to use its existing, county-owned Microcomputer Tally System.

Bucking the national trend, the number of reported hate crimes fell slightly last year in Los Angeles, according to FBI statistics released Monday. Rachel uranga in the Daily News.

In Los Angeles, 211 hate crimes were reported in 2006, compared with 219 the year before. Most were based on race, mirroring national trends.

"We are trying to do more education with the community to report more hate crimes," said LAPD Capt. Ann Young, who oversees a three-person Hate Crime Unit. "I think in certain communities it's under-reported for fear of retaliation. Many people are still very fearful. We can understand that."

The Antelope Valley's population growth is driving the region's economic engine, adding more households with spending power and fueling local job growth. Karen Maeshiro in the Daily News.

Nearly 2,150 additional households a year have moved to the Antelope Valley since 2005, and the average household income of those living in the region less than four years is $67,900 - 3.5 percent higher than the overall area's average household income, a study has found.

"It's household economic stimulus to the economy and the job market," said Alonzo Pedrin, who led the study. "Every dollar spent by new households generates $1.28 in economic activity in the Antelope Valley."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has become the most prolific campaign fundraiser in California history, taking in more than $125 million for his various political committees, according to an Associated Press review of fundraising records. Associated Press in the Daily News.

In doing so, he has surpassed Gray Davis, the governor he ousted four years ago in a recall election that focused in large part on Davis' seemingly incessant fundraising.

Schwarzenegger's political committees have taken in $125.8 million since he jumped into the gubernatorial recall campaign in August 2003. Davis took longer - seven years - to raise $120 million for two gubernatorial campaigns and to fight the recall effort against him.

Even as Los Angeles faces severe financial problems, city officials were sharply divided Monday over whether to accept a recently announced pay raise that would boost their annual salaries to $178,000 or higher.Daily News.

The 4.16 percent raise, retroactive to July 1, is their fourth major salary hike in two years because of a policy that ties the pay of City Council members - as well as the mayor, city attorney and controller - to judges' salaries.

Seven council members and City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo said Monday that they will accept the raise. But four council members, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and City Controller Laura Chick said they will reject the extra money.

Los Angeles taxpayers are subsidizing more than half the cost of processing new development approvals in the city, according to a Daily News review. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

In many cases, the planning fees developers pay cover just 40 percent of the expense of staff review and public outreach. In controversial or complicated projects, the fees might cover only 20 percent of the cost.

Taxpayers pick up the rest of the tab, which can top $10,000 in some cases.

Tipoffs: The Courage Campaign seeks to make a name for itself, falls short in getting censure of Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

Salaries, pensions and benefits for Los Angeles city workers have soared in the past seven years, outstripping revenue growth and pushing the city toward a serious budget crisis, according to a Daily News study. Beth Barrett in the Daily News.

Since 2000, Los Angeles workers' costs have surged 53 percent - to $4 billion a year - rising an average 7.5 percent every year.

General fund revenues also grew strongly but only at an average 5.7 percent a year.

The result is a swing of almost $1 billion, pushing the city from a surplus to an anticipated shortfall of $300 million next year.

When traffic backs up, it takes LAPD Officer Janet Zunstein 25 minutes to get from the West Valley station to West Hills, where she's the community's primary link to the police. Rachel Uranga in the Daily News.

Gripping the wheel in frustration, she lists things she could be doing with the time she wastes on the road - finishing reports, attending community meetings or just getting to a crime scene faster.

But next year, with the opening of an LAPD station in Canoga Park, she said she will finally be more efficient.

"I can't get there quick enough. Say you need an ambulance. You want them there in two minutes not 10 minutes," she said.

As costs continue to soar on the new Los Angeles police headquarters, City Controller Laura Chick said she wants to look at what is being done by city overseers and subcontractors to catch any mistakes before they happen.Daily News.

"I want this to be a story of how we got where we are and, if we can, catch some mistakes and see if we can fix them," Chick said.

Chick has issued a $200,000 contract with KPMG to complete an audit of the project by February as construction proceeds on the 11-story building at First and Spring streets that is set to replace the aging Parker Center.

When President Jimmy Carter came to town in late October for a weeklong Habitat for Humanity project in South Los Angeles, the city's Housing Department encouraged employees to volunteer. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

And 31 department employees responded to the challenge, "volunteering" during regular work hours on the project for full pay.

In addition, some 14 employees in Councilwoman Janice Hahn's office volunteered half or one full workday at the San Pedro project site.

As the 2008 Summer Olympics in Bejing approaches, several lawmakers are beating the drum on human rights abuses in China.

Among them is Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, who as co-founder of the Congressional Caucus for Freedom of the Press urged the President of the Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games to improve freedoms for journalists.

"We regret that the highest authorities of the People's Republic of China are not giving a guarantee for more freedom of expression before the Games, especially considering that several aspects of the current situation in China contradict with the Olympic Charter's universal and humanistic values,'' he wrote.

Schiff and other lawmakers chided the Chinese government for forcing journalists to "accept the dictates of the Propaganda Department, which imposes censorship on a wide range of subjects" and urges the body to commit to improving freedom of expression.

Rep. Henry Waxman has fired off another one of his famous letters - this time to Environmental Protection Agency head Stephen Johnson demanding documents that might help shed some light on the nature of his actions in a behind-the-scenes lobbying effort to block California's request for a vehicle emissions control waiver.

Johnson was specifically cited in a number of e-mails that Waxman's House Oversight and Government Reform Committee obtained showing that the Bush administration was working full-throttle to kill the waiver request.

But when he appeared before Waxman's panel last week to discuss power plant sitings, Johnson sidestepped several questions about his actions, replying with a string of "can't recalls."

Chided Waxman, ``Your testimony before the committee last week did little to clarify the role that EPA may have played in this lobby campaign.

Waxman demanded from the EPA all documents and communications between the agency, the Department of Transportation and the White House on the California waiver, as well as all communications between the agency and members of Congress as well as the auto industry.

Already the best-paid city government officials in the nation, Los Angeles' mayor, city attorney, controller and council have seen their paychecks increase 20 percent in the past two years, thanks to a policy that ties their wages to judges' salaries. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

And the most recent increase, a 4.16 percent raise retroactive to July 1, marks their fourth major salary hike in three years because of a California effort to boost the pay of Superior Court judges.

With the city in a financial crisis and service cuts looming, several council members and the mayor have offered to forgo the most recent pay raise. But officials can activate the increases at any time - and if they accept the next pay hike, they'll also get any raises that they have skipped.

Math and reading scores of Los Angeles Unified's fourth- and eighth-graders showed no improvement over last year and continue to lag behind both state and national averages, according to a national report released today. Naush Boghossian in the Daily News.

In reading, performance of students in fourth and eighth grades in the Los Angeles Unified School District was the worst among 11 of the nation's largest urban school districts, according to the report card by the National Assessment of Education Progress.

In math, fourth-graders ranked eighth among peers in districts including Boston, Houston and New York, while eighth-graders fared better than peers in just two districts: the District of Columbia and Atlanta.

Reversing itself after generating national controversy, the Los Angeles Police Department announced Thursday that it is officially abandoning a program to map the city's Muslim community. Daily News.

"In police parlance, it is DOA - dead on arrival," Police Chief William Bratton said at a late-afternoon news conference at Parker Center after a more than two-hour closed-door meeting with religious and civil rights officials.

"We police this city with the consent and cooperation of the community. We did not have that here, and we will not go forward with this program."

Police officials

Four years after he was booted from office, there were no sour grapes from former Gov. Gray Davis as he heaped praise on the man who succeeded him. In an appearance before the Sacramento Press Club on Wednesday, Davis said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has mostly continued many of the policies that Davis supported.
"When someone takes a baton from you but keeps running in the same direction and then hires many of the same people who advised you, it's hard to feel anything but good about that person," Davis said.
Davis also offered some honest self-analysis in contrasting the leadership styles of himself and Schwarzenegger.
"I think the governor is one of the greatest salespersons on the Planet Earth," Davis said. "He thinks really big on every issue. And I think on balance he's done a good job."
"I'm not a global movie star. I believed in making progress on a consistent basis. I used to say incrementalism, in part because I didn't want anyone to get scared. I could see where I wanted to be in three or four years, and I'd say let's just go so far down the road here, and then we'll decide what we'll do."
"I wanted to take life in bite-sized chunks. He's much grander and bolder in his vision. And I think it's served Calfornia well."

While his old nemesis O.J. Simpson sat in a Las Vegas courtroom Wednesday, Gil Garcetti sat on a concrete bench outside UCLA's Fowler Museum in Westwood waiting for a class of elementary schoolchildren to arrive. Dennis McCarthy in the Daily News.

The former Los Angeles County district attorney, now a successful photographer, had a two-gallon bucket of water with him to help the kids understand what it's like for children living on the other side of the world in poor West African villages.

For young girls who never get the chance to go to school or visit a museum because their days are spent walking miles in scorching heat and dust storms carrying large jugs of contaminated water on their heads.

California's fiscal woes are worsening as a slowing economy, sputtering housing market and unexpected setbacks have created a nearly $10 billion budget shortfall over the next two years, state officials said Wednesday. Harrison Sheppard in the Daily News.

The projection from Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill comes less than three months after the Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger passed what was believed to be a balanced budget for 2007-08 with a $4 billion reserve.

But now the state is instead likely to face a $2 billion shortfall this fiscal year - a swing of $6 billion - and an additional $8 billion next year.

Defying opposition from the teachers union, Los Angeles Unified Superintendent David Brewer III on Wednesday released a final plan to reform nearly three dozen schools that includes key elements vehemently decried by the union. Naush Boghossian in the Daily News.

Despite union-leadership opposition to proposals including reassignment of teachers, merit pay and scripted teaching at middle and high schools, Brewer kept all of the concepts in his final plan.

The move sets up a critical showdown with the union, which now will target Los Angeles Unified School District board members, expected to vote on Brewer's plan later this month.

The LAPD dropped plans Wednesday to map the city's Muslim community as part of a counterterrorism initiative, less than a week after prominent Muslims and the ACLU decried the move as racial profiling. Rachel Uranga in the Daily News.

A day ahead of a meeting with Muslim leaders and the American Civil Liberties Union, the LAPD said it would not go ahead with plans to keep detailed records of neighborhoods with significant Muslim populations.

"It's been put aside," said LAPD spokeswoman Mary Grady. "It became clear to us they were not comfortable with the word `mapping' and what they believed it meant: racial profiling."

In the midst of a financial emergency, Los Angeles' mayor, council, controller and city attorney are set to get annual raises worth $7,000 to $9,000 each. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

The 4.16 percent salary hike takes effect as Los Angeles faces a severe financial crunch, and city leaders are considering cutting services to balance the budget.

The city also is asking voters in February to preserve the telephone users tax, worth $270 million a year.

In May, saddened that she had failed to stop the war in Iraq that took her son's life and made her the face of opposition, Cindy Sheehan tearfully quit the anti-war movement. Tony Castro in the Daily News.

She had concluded that her son Casey, a 24-year-old Army specialist killed in an April 2004 battle in Baghdad, had died for nothing.

"Casey died for a country which cares more about who will be the next 'American Idol' than how many people will be killed in the next few months," Sheehan wrote in an online diary.

A jury Tuesday told the owner of the Glendale Galleria to pay $15 million in punitive damages to developer Rick Caruso for trying to keep a restaurant from opening in his outdoor mall. A;lex Dobuzinskis in the Daily News.

The punitive damages come on top of a $74 million judgment against Galleria owner General Growth Properties that the same Los Angeles Superior Court jury issued last week. The verdict is the latest round in a long battle between General Growth and Caruso over his Americana at Brand mall, which is being built next to the Galleria in Glendale.

"The most important thing is that we were vindicated," Caruso said after the verdict.

Investigating tips and ferreting out water wasters, a team of Drought Busters will hit streets across Los Angeles beginning today. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power resurrected the successful Drought Buster concept from the early 1990s - the last time Southern California suffered a major water shortage.

This time, however, the 15 Drought Busters are dispensing warnings and water-conservation advice instead of tickets.

Amid growing nationwide controversy, Islamic leaders called on the Los Angeles Police Department on Tuesday to abandon plans by its counterterrorism bureau to create a map detailing Muslim communities across the city. Daily News.

The plan, revealed earlier this week, has drawn accusations of racial profiling and concern that it could be used with other communities, even as LAPD officials have said their efforts are being misinterpreted.

"As an African-American, we know what it is to be profiled," said the Rev. Eric Lee, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Los Angeles.

Just months after environmental concerns killed a proposal to locate a liquefied natural gas terminal off the coast of Malibu, a proposal for an even larger plant off Oxnard and one off the coast of Los Angeles are under review. Harrison Sheppard in the Daily News.

Houston-based NorthernStar Natural Gas Inc. is seeking to convert an oil platform 12.6miles off the coast of Oxnard into a liquefied natural gas terminal that could produce up to 1.4billion cubic feet of gas per day.

Meanwhile, Woodside Natural Gas is hoping to establish a plant 27miles off the coast near Los Angeles International Airport using an offshore buoy system.

A new state law could end the Santa Clarita Valley's practice of annually rotating the location of its winter homeless shelter to placate area residents. Patricia Farrell Aidem in the Daily News.

A law that takes effect Jan. 1 requires that cities and counties zone specific sites for permanent year-round shelters where public or private agencies could build.

That's sure to be unpopular locally.

Despite nationwide protests and rallies this year demanding an overhaul of U.S. immigration laws, congressional leaders acknowledge little change is likely for at least another year.Lisa Friedman in the Daily News.

Two leading lawmakers who have been key negotiators on immigration bills said last week that no measures legalizing any of the country's estimated 12million undocumented immigrants likely are to come up for a vote until after the 2008 presidential election.

"I don't think we're talking comprehensive immigration in this Congress," said Rep. Howard Berman, D-Van Nuys, using the Democratic term for legislation seen as incorporating more border security and employer verification as well as a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

Major reform is "not viable in this Congress," added Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, chairwoman of the House Judiciary subcommittee on immigration.

While George and Sharon Runner mark 35 years of marriage in January, working side-by-side in a job defined by petty bickering and fierce debate has given their relationship its share of challenges. Harrison Sheppard in the Daily News.

The Runners are the only married couple to serve concurrently in the California Legislature - George in the Senate and Sharon holding the Assembly seat previously held by her husband.

Both are conservative Lancaster Republicans, but the Runners are not always in lock step and occasionally clash on the issues.

Earlier this year, Sharon co-wrote a bill that would have provided more funding to house foster youths after they turn 18. The bill passed the Assembly unanimously, but in the Senate, George led the opposition on financial grounds and managed to kill it.

Tipoffs: When political enemies become your friends, upcoming political conflicts.

Former Massachussetts Gov. Mitt Romney on Sunday picked up the endorsement of the California Republican Assembly, the most conservative wing of the party, for the Feb. 5 GOP presidential primary election..

At its annual convention in Sacramento, Romney _ nominated by conservative favorite former Assemblyman Tony Strickland _ received a two-thirds vote to win the group's backing.

“Mitt Romney has been steadily gaining support from conservatives throughout California,” said CRA President Mike Spence following the endorsement vote.

Strickland urged CRA members to vote for Romney as “the best candidate to fight for critical conservative issues and to defeat Hillary Clinton in November,.” the organization said in a release.

The CRA said Romney won 139 of 230 votes cast. Fred Thompson was second with 30 votes. Rudy Guiliani received 6 votes, with the other candidates rounding out the votes.

Romney won the outright endorsement on a second ballot, with a 148-73 vote over Thompson.

At the one-year mark as superintendent of Los Angeles Unified, David Brewer III has had a rocky initiation into city and union politics as well as the massive bureaucracy at the nation's second-largest school district. Naush Boghossian in the Daily News.

He has grappled with glitches in a $95 million electronic payroll system that created a teachers union uproar as thousands of employees' pay was affected for more than nine months.

He was hit with pay raises for teachers and administrators, and new health care benefits for some workers that forced him to cut $300 million from his budget over three years.

The Space Age-style Encounter Restaurant at Los Angeles International Airport is scheduled to reopen Monday, allowing visitors to look out the window and catch a glimpse of construction workers shoring up the iconic Theme Building. Art Marroquin in the Daily News.

But the restaurant's 360-degree, panoramic views of runways, airplanes and the Pacific Ocean will be partially eclipsed by scaffolding that now envelopes the spidery structure.

While construction continues on the outside of the Theme Building until fall 2008, improvements are finished inside the Encounter, complete with a fresh coat of paint, new multicolored carpet and a new set of blue and red chairs in the dining room.

Threatening to veto any move to limit police hiring, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa won a showdown with the City Council on Friday when it voted to move forward with expanding the force even as the city faces growing budget constraints.Daily News.

But while the council voted to let Los Angeles Police Department hiring continue, it also added a provision that it must be notified when hiring exceeds 226 new officers beyond the existing force.

"What we are saying is we are pro-police, but we are also concerned with our budget," said Councilwoman Wendy Greuel, who was key in negotiating the deal with the Mayor's Office.

The 11-0 vote comes as Villaraigosa and the council had been at odds over the issue for a week after Councilman Bernard Parks suggested that the LAPD reduce officer hiring amid slower attrition in the department.

Citin

Los Angeles officials on Friday defended a plan to detail the city's Muslim community, saying it is an effort to increase understanding and knowledge and not a move to profile people based on race or religion. Daily News.

"I would urge people to step back and not get involved in the rhetoric," Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton said.

"We are doing a good-faith effort in a transparent way to increase understanding. We are meeting with various groups and will continue to have a dialogue.

Home Depot filed a lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles on Friday, charging that the City Council illegally revoked building permits for the company's Sunland-Tujunga store earlier this year. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

The lawsuit blames Councilwoman Wendy Greuel, who opposed the project and led the council decision to stop store construction in August.

The vote capped a three-year fight by community activists to block Home Depot in favor of a Target or other general-merchandise store for the area.

We are upgrading the working part of the blog and it is taking me some time to learn it. Posting will be light for a few days.
Rick Orlov

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Police Chief William Bratton spoke to a packed press conference Thursday, downplaying reports of possible terrorist attacks on Los Angeles shopping malls. The information wasn't credible and there was a low-level threat, if any.

So with no real danger, the mayor urged Angelenos to get back out there and do what we do best. Hit the mall and shop! Great message, but perhaps not the best choice of words. Here's what he said:

“Al-Qaeda has made this threat with this intent of disrupting our way of life and damaging our local economy during the holiday season. We have a responsibility to make sure they fail,” he said.
"I want people to know that they can shop in this city till they drop" (long, awkward pause) "From shopping."

Southland Democrats split this morning on a free-trade bill with Peru.

The measure, which passed 285-132, strengthened protections for workers and the environment. Democrat critics, however, said the protections can't be enforced.

Voting against it were: Rep. Joe Baca, D-Rialto; Rep. Grace Napolitano, D-Santa Fe Springs; Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Los Angeles; Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Lakewood; Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks; Rep. Hilda Solis, D-El Monte; Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles; and Rep. Diane Watson, D-Los Angeles.

Voting to approve it were: Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Los Angeles; Rep. Howard Berman, D-Van Nuys; Jane Harman, D-El Segundo; Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena; and Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles.

Southern California's Republican delegation voted unanimousy in favor of the trade pact.

Becerra, who helped lead the floor debate, praised the measure as important for Los Angeles.

"Los Angeles is one of our engines on trade. To some degree its health lives and dies by how we do commercially. But trade won't be good for L.A. if it comes at the expense of good jobs,'' Becerra said. The bill, he maintained, "tries to respect and defend people as much as it does products."

A controversial plan to move forward with an expansion at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills won tentative approval Wednesday from the Los Angeles City Council. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

In an 8-5 vote, the council paved the way for the hospital, without further study, to add 101 beds to the San Fernando Valley's badly stressed health-care system.

The decision fell two votes short of the 10 required to force a delay in the project, and marked a defeat for Councilman Richard Alarcon.

Two Los Angeles County supervisors called Wednesday for the firings of children's services workers who spent tens of thousands of dollars meant for foster children on meals and entertainment.Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

"I think they need to be dismissed and made to pay restitution to the county," Supervisor Gloria Molina said. "These are not people who should be around children. It's like stealing candy from children."

The findings were detailed in a new report by Auditor-Controller Tyler McCauley who found a lack of controls and inappropriate use of gift cards in the Department of Children and Family Services.

Congress is poised to rebuff President Bush for the first time today with an expected override of his veto of $23 billion for federal flood-control, ecosystem-restoration and water-infrastructure projects. Lisa Friedman in the Daily News.
The move comes as 131 House GOP lawmakers voted earlier this week to override Bush's veto. Each has projects in the Water Resources Development Act, which includes more than $1.3 billion for California and $25 million to restore the Los Angeles River.

Despite grim budget forecasts, a divided Los Angeles City Council delayed deciding Wednesday whether to back Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's efforts to move ahead with hiring more police. Daily News.

While asking for continued monitoring of police hiring, the council said it was reluctant to rein in spending on the LAPD.

The Los Angeles Police Department is the city's largest department and is also facing a $16 million shortfall this coming year - most of it for officer overtime.

Presidential candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Edwards have pledged to appear at a Nov. 17 forum in Los Angeles dealing with the issues of global warming and America's energy future.

The event, at the Wadsworth Theater, is sponsored by GRIST, is designed to discuss the two issues as part of a program developed with the League of Conservation Voters Education Fund, California League of Conservation Voters Education Fund, Center of American Progress Action Fund, National Resource Defense Council Action Fund and the Presidential Forum on Renewable Energy.

Sponsors said invitations were sent to all the candidates from both the Republican and Democratic parties.

While California voters approved $9.5 billion in bonds to improve the state's water infrastructure last year, little of that money has been allocated despite a lengthy drought and growing strains on the system. Harrison Sheppard in the Daily News.

Political infighting and bureaucratic red tape have slowed spending of the 2006 water bonds, even as state lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger consider asking voters for billions of dollars in additional water bonds on next year's ballot.

Only about 14 percent of the Proposition 1E water bond approved by voters last year - and about one-third of the Proposition 84 water bond - have been committed to specific projects.

Calling on Los Angeles residents to be more civil to one another - and inserting the City Council in a nationwide debate - Councilman Bernard Parks is calling for a moratorium on the use of the "n-word." Daily News.

Parks noted that Nov. 17 is the one-year anniversary of the much-publicized eruption by comic Michael Richards with the use of the word that prompted a national discussion about the word and its impact on society.

Escalating a dispute over police hiring, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said any cuts in his goal to expand the Los Angeles Police Department "will come over my dead body Daily News.

"I cannot overstate the importance of fully implementing the city's police hiring plan to build the Los Angeles Police Department to 10,000 strong," Villaraigosa wrote in a letter to City Councilman Bernard Parks, who chairs the council's Budget and Finance Committee.

"I will veto any effort to place an arbitrary cap on police hiring."

The City Council will vote today on a committee's decision that an environmental impact review should be completed before work is allowed to begin on the proposed expansion of Providence Holy Cross Medical Center.n Kerty Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

Following hours of testimony, Councilmen Ed Reyes and Jose Huizar of the Planning and Land Use Management Committee voted yesterday to overturn a Planning Commission decision allowing the expansion to move forward without an EIR.

The full Los Angeles City Council will vote on the issue today.

In a historic fight over revenue from the digital revolution, Hollywood writers went on strike Monday for the first time in nearly 20 years. Julia M. Scott in the Daily News.

Picket lines sprang up in New York City and from Burbank to Studio City on Monday morning.

Late-night comedy and talk shows - Jay Leno, David Letterman and others - were the first casualties and couch potatoes worried about their shows going into reruns as producers were left with few complete scripts.

Despite vowing that a trash-fee hike last year would be used only to hire more police officers, Los Angeles City Councilman Bernard Parks is suggesting reducing officer hiring and diverting the funds to balance a shaky city budget. Daily News.

Citing overspending by the Los Angeles Police Department, Parks said Monday that he plans to suggest the moves to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa as a way to rein in spending and balance the city's budget.

"This is one of the things that happens when departments don't live within their budget," said Parks, a former LAPD chief and one of the department's sharpest critics.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaking in Washington on Monday, said Congress has taken a "commonsensical approach" by pulling consideration of the Armenian genocide resolution.

Erdogan, who met with President Bush for about an hour at the White House and then spoke with journalists at the National Press Club, said Turkey views the delay of the bill "with cautious optimism."

Turkey strongly objects to the resolution by Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, which calls on the U.S. to recognize the massacres and deportations of Armenians in post-World War I Ottoman Turkey as genocide. The resolution passed the House Foreign Relations Committee, but caused a firestorm as it moved to the House floor.

Turkey threatened to close critical supply routes to U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan if the bill passed, prompting several lawmakers to withdraw their support for it. Schiff ultimately decided he no longer had the votes to pass the resolution and asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to delay consideration until at least next year.

Said Erdogan, ``The political judgement of Turkey is sad for us to see.''

The rows of quaint town houses of the Dronfield Villas used to be a nice place to live.

But now they're covered in tags: Astoria Garden Locos, Langdon Street, San Fer. And, increasingly, "For Sale" signs. Brent Hopkins in the Daily News.

In the past few years, three street gangs have claimed the sprawling, 64-unit complex on Dronfield as their turf. They tag their slogans on every wall - even the trees get defaced. They sling drugs in its gardens and have sex next to its pool.

Hundreds of nonprofit youth groups in the San Fernando Valley and across the city will have to pay to use LAUSD facilities and athletic fields starting in March. Naush Bpghossian in the Daily News.

Saying the Los Angeles Unified School District's lean financial outlook requires the move, Superintendent David BrewerIII will institute a three-tiered fee structure to offset annual facilities costs of $3.8million.

The move comes just two years after district officials abandoned similar efforts after a broad public outcry that it could force youth groups to cancel thousands of worthwhile after-school events.

A San Francisco company bidding for work on a planned LAX parking facility has withdrawn amid questions of a potential conflict of interest between the firm and former airports Executive Director Lydia Kennard, the Daily News has learned. Beth Barrett in the Daily News.

Kennard was still a city consultant to Los Angeles International Airport when URS Corp. was talking with her about joining its board - which she did one day after leaving LAX. Rather than answer questions about that relationship, the global engineering design firm pulled its bid as a subcontractor.

"Questions were raised about a potential conflict of interest, and URS was asked to provide information on their dealings with Ms. Kennard. They chose to walk rather than resolve those questions," a city official said.

It was a bitter and divisive battle that threatened to tear Los Angeles in half, pitting the city's political powerbrokers against a long-simmering backlash of discontent in the San Fernando Valley. Daily News.

In the end, the Valley's bid for greater recognition and its fair share of city resources led to the polls Nov. 5, 2002.

And the result was predictable given disparity in campaign resources and the requirement that both the Valley and the city overall had to approve secession.

While they were campaigning against each other for seats on the Channel Islands Beach Community Services District three years ago, Jonathan Ziv and Keith Moore met at a local deli to talk about their ideas for the board and found they had more in common than they thought. Tony Castro in the Daily News.

"I happened to mention my vision for a new city, and he said he'd been thinking about the same thing," Ziv said. "We hit it off from there."

Three years later, Ziv and Moore are the driving force behind a proposal to effectively split Oxnard - Ventura County's most populous city - by creating a separate city called Channel Islands Beach that would include high-priced homes on the sand but also low-income south Oxnard neighborhoods.

After years of contentious discussions about plans for a long-awaited propeller park, officials at Van Nuys Airport say construction on the 39-acre site will begin by March. Connie Llanos in the Daily News.

Plans for the park, hailed as a key for small-plane owners and the businesses that cater to them at the nation's busiest general-aviation airport, have faltered for years while airport officials have sought an operator.

But now, despite not yet having an operator, officials said they are moving forward with plans anyway.

It's a project everybody says they support, but the proposed expansion of Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills has divided neighbors, labor unions and city leaders. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

This week the City Council will consider the expansion, which would add a 101-bed wing, a larger maternity ward and a new intensive-care unit for newborns.

Providence has the support of the Mission Hills Neighborhood Council, county health officials and business groups, who say the region needs more hospital beds now.

Putting more agents on Southland streets to carry out sweeps, immigration officials said Friday that they have made a record number of arrests this year of criminal immigrants and those who ignored deportation orders. Rachel Uranga in the Daily News.

Nearly 2,700 were arrested during raids from the San Fernando Valley to San Bernardino during the year ending Sept. 30 - a 63 percent increase over the previous year.

"In the past, there wasn't a concerted effort to identify and locate people," said Jim Hayes, Los Angeles field office director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's detention and removal operation. "That has changed."

Transit officials said in remarks reported today that they will need an additional $145 million to build the Exposition light rail line from downtown Los Angeles to Culver City. Daily News.

The rise in the cost of the the project, which broke ground in August, once again underscores the huge financial stakes involved in constructing a rail system to the Westside.

Rapid increases in construction costs have ballooned the project's original $640 million budget to $785 million, officials said, and threaten to shorten the line before it reaches Culver City.

The California Supreme Court has ended a long-running legal battle over sexual abuse allegations against a former high-ranking official of the Los Angeles Police Department. Daily News.

Thursday's unanimous ruling upholds two lower court rulings that held that the alleged victims waited too long to sue the city of Los Angeles over abuse that allegedly occurred in the 1970s.

The lawsuits were filed after several former Explorer Scouts in 2003 accused former Deputy Chief David Kalish of abusing them.

Despite a Field Poll this week showing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in a virtual tie with Sen. Barbara Boxer if he were to run for her seat in 2010, the Republican governor said Friday he has "no interest in that at all" during an appearance at the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. Sacramento Bee.

Schwarzenegger joked that he was fine with the growing speculation about what he would do after he is forced to leave the Governor's Office in January 2011, implying that the rumors have been fueled by a desire by Boxer to raise money.

"This way she can raise more money when she says, 'That Schwarzenschnitzel, he's after me, he's after me, oh my god, we've got to raise a lot of money!'" Schwarzenegger said. "That's what this is all about. So, no, I have really no interest in that at all."

In an attempt to rein in city spending, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa directed city managers Thursday to submit no-growth budgets in 2008 and prepare for a potential 8percent cut. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

While the city begins preparing for next fiscal year's budget in December, the projections are already grim.

Some city departments have already overspent their budget this year and the city recently approved a five-year salary deal with six Los Angeles unions that includes incentives that could boost the cost of the contract to nearly $300million.

Television and movie screenwriters said Thursday they will go on strike for the first time in nearly 20 years, which economists said could push the San Fernando Valley into a recession if it lasts for several months. Julia M. Scott in the Daily News.

Four writers told The Associated Press that Writers Guild of America President Patric Verrone made the announcement in a closed-door session Thursday night, prompting loud cheers from the crowd.

"There was a unified feeling in the room. I don't think anyone wants the strike, but people are behind the negotiation committee," said writer Dave Garrett.

For the second time in less than a month, a judge on Thursday rejected a bid by the Department of Water and Power's union to bar the Daily News from publishing its members' names, positions and salaries on the dailynews.com Web site. Beth Barrett in the Daily News.

In a hearing that lasted just three minutes, Superior Court Judge Dzintra Janavs said the union representing nearly 8,500 DWP workers failed to demonstrate the need for a preliminary injunction.

"You're not asking that a particular group be protected, but asking that nobody can be disclosed," said Janavs, who last month tentatively rejected the union's bid for a temporary restraining order. "There's not been a showing made that all employees (represented) by the union should be exempt."

Stephen Colbert, the faux conservative host of Comedy Central's late-night "Colbert Report," has had the political rug yanked out from under him in South Carolina. His fledgling presidential bid to win the nomination -- as either a Republican or a Democrat -- in his home state is being undermined by some Democrats who apparently lack a sense of humor. His campaign posted the $2,500 filing fee to get him on the Democratic ballot shortly before the noon Thursday deadline, but within hours the party's executive council voted 13-3 to erase him. He has until tonight to cough up $35,000 to get on the Republican ballot if he chooses (and that decision could be heavily influenced by the high likelihood that his show will be shut down very soon because of the expected Writers Guild strike).
So what's the big deal here? He's a comedian, right? He's in no way qualified for the presidency, nor would he know what to do with it if he actually got the nomination, beyond playing it for laughs.
But he's a force to be reckoned with anyway. The guy got a bridge named after him in Europe just by having his viewers vote online. He's raised oodles for the Yellow Ribbon charity supporting families of slain and wounded soldiers through such outrageous measures as auctioning his wrist cast autographed by news anchors. And his first book, "I Am America, and So Can You," led the New York Times' nonfiction best-sellers list in its first week on shelves.
The Democrats were afraid he'd actually have an impact on the outcome of the South Carolina primary. And they could be right. A recent Public Opinion Strategies poll there had Colbert ahead of Bill Richardson and breathing down Joe Biden's neck.
It will be interesting to see what the Republicans do if Colbert turns in his paperwork and fee in time for that race. I mean, he sure sounds like one of them...
Personally, I'd like to see his campaign continue. He has a fairly young audience, and I'm all for anything that would bring the 18- to 24-year-olds to the primary election and compel them to read all those other names on the ballot while looking for Colbert's.

City Attorney Rocky Delgadillor returns to his alma mater, Columbia Law School, on Friday to discuss what his office has done over the past six years to fight gangs.

The City Attorney's office said he will "discuss effective prosecution approaches and techniques for the 21st
Century, including being more progressive, proactive and community
-focused."

During his years, Delgadillo has expanded the use of gang injuctions as well as develop a neighborhood prosecutor program to assist police in deterring gang activity.

Just two weeks after announcing an ambitious effort to reform Los Angeles Unified middle schools, Superintendent David Brewer III finds his plan already foundering amid fierce opposition from the politically powerful teachers union. Naush Boghossian in the Daily News.

Brewer, who proposed creating a special district of 44 low-performing schools, already has had to eliminate 10 of the sites and still faces opposition from teachers over the remaining schools. Only one San Fernando Valley school remains on the list.

And new rumblings have surfaced that union leaders and teachers in the proposed schools intend to kill the plan entirely.

Continuing to pressure area hospitals, Los Angeles city officials announced plans Wednesday to develop criminal penalties for dumping homeless patients on Skid Row. Daily News.

City Councilwoman Jan Perry, whose district includes Skid Row, said the toughened law is being sought after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a statewide measure that would have applied criminal penalties.

"This is a statewide problem, a national problem," Councilman Bill Rosendahl said. "Because they refuse to deal with it, we have to."

In a major concession involving a 14-year-old case alleging harassment in the hiring and promotion of gays and lesbians in the Los Angeles Police Department, the City Council agreed Wednesday to reinstate policies banning discrimination. Daily News.

In a 12-0 vote, the council also agreed to pay $695,000 in attorneys fees for former LAPD Sgt. Mitch Grobeson, the first openly gay police officer who won a suit in 1993 requiring the department to change its policies.

"This is a great day for the City of Los Angeles and a great day for the gay and lesbian community," said Theresa Traber, Grobeson's attorney.

It's back to work today for Waste Management Inc. truck drivers and mechanics who ended a two-week strike and have a new five-year labor contract containing the same provisions they had previously rejected. Daily News.

An estimated 225,000 customers in areas such as Inglewood, Carson, Rolling Hills, Rancho Palos Verdes, Manhattan Beach, South Gate, Long Beach, Huntington Park and portions of the San Fernando Valley, were affected by the strike, which began Oct. 19.

The strike did not affect residents in the city of Los Angeles, but an estimated 29,000 businesses in the city contract with Waste Management for garbage collection.