October 2008 Archives

In a last minute boost to the Measure A campaign, Attorney General Jerry Brown is supporting the $36 a year parcel tax proposal on next Tuesday's ballot.
Brown joins Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Police Chieff Bill Bratton in backing the measure, that was developed by Councilwoman Janice Hahn to develop a $30 million a year funding stream to pay for gang intervention and prevention programs.

With registration closing, Secretary of State Debra Bowen reportedf Friday more than 1 million new voters signed up for next Tuesday's election since Sept. 5.
That means there are 17.3 million Californians who have registered to take part in the election.
"It's great to see so many Californians taking an active role in their democracy," Bowen said.
"Voter interest in this historic election is enormous and I expect to see a record number of Californians cast ballots on Tuesday. Thanks to everyone - including community groups, elections workers, campaigns, schools, and businesses - who helped register so many new California voters."
The state now has 17,304,091 million registered voters - almost 747,000 more than it had at this time before the general election four years ago.
The previous voter registration record in California was 16.6 million in February 2005.
The breakdwon is heavily in favor of Democrats, who account for 43 percent of all voters. Republicans make up 34.7 percent. The remaining voters are decline to state, Amercan Independent, Green, Peace and Freedom and Libertarian.

California faces a long, broad recession with no rebound of lagging housing prices for nearly four years, economists said Thursday at a business forecast conference. Gregory J.Wilcox in the Daily News.

"I don't have to tell you that we are living in troubling times," VICA Chairman Greg Lippe said as he opened the 20th annual business forecast sponsored by the Valley Industry and Commerce Association at the Universal Hilton.

And in response to the question raised by the title of the conference - "When Does the Recovery Start?" - economists Christopher Thornberg and Andre B. van Niekerk said, not any time soon.

Thornberg, principal partner at Beacon Economics

Expecting another dry winter, state water officials warned Thursday that they can deliver just 15 percent of what local water agencies have requested for 2009, raising the possibility of water rationing in the Southland. Daily News.

"Hope for the best and prepare for the worst," state Department of Water Resources director Lester Snow advised agencies across the state, adding that deliveries could increase if water supplies improve.

After two years of drought, the state is facing the worst water conditions since 1993, with broad-ranging implications for the state's farmers and residents.

A high-speed bullet train connecting Northern and Southern California - $9.95billion. Tony Castro in the Daily News.

Rebates to companies and consumers to buy hybrid vehicles - $5billion.

Help for children's hospitals - $1billion.

These price tags sounded reasonable in May, when the nation's economy was more stable and the Dow stood at a lofty 13,000. Now, not so much.

Getting California voters to approve new taxes for a bunch of bonds on Tuesday's ballot appears to be a tall order, especially with Thursday's news that the gross domestic product fell at an annual rate of 0.3 percent during the third quarter. One more negative quarter and the U.S. economy will officially enter a recession.

Absentee balloting, which has played a pivotal role in California politics, is causing headaches again, even before the polls close in Tuesday's historic election. Tony Castro in the Daily News.

A crush of last-minute absentee ballot requests have swamped county elections officials, who warned voters to either return voted ballots today or deliver them to polling places on Election Day if they want their votes to count.

As clerks were trying to send out 13,000 last-minute vote-by- mail requests Thursday, the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder's Office in Norwalk was also still attempting to process 55,000 remaining voter registrations Thursday.

Julie Korenstein became the second Los Angeles Unified School District board member in two days to announce she will not run for re-election in March. Daily News.

"I am proud of the contributions I have made, and I look forward to a very exciting and rewarding retirement," Korenstein said Thursday.

Korenstein's 22-year tenure made her the longest-serving board member in the district's history. Julie Korenstein became the second Los Angeles Unified School District board member in two days to announce she will not run for re-election in March.

While the Los Angeles Unified School District has built hundreds of new schools in the past decade, it is now seeking an additional $7 billion for older schools that remain in need of repair and remodeling. George B. Sanchez in the Daily News.

Along with funds for upgrades and new technology, Measure Q would set aside $450 million for local charter schools.

Critics acknowledge a need to repair older buildings, but say the measure is expensive at a time of national economic turmoil, and when district enrollment is dropping. Charter schools also criticize the measure, saying they would rather have more freedom to build their own schools.

Griffith Park came closer to becoming a historic cultural monument Thursday after dozens of local residents jammed a public hearing to praise the nation's largest urban wilderness park and urge its protection. Brandon Lowery in the Daily News.

"Without Griffith Park, we would really be a city without a heart," City Councilman Tom LaBonge told members of the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission.

At least 58 people signed up at the hearing to pledge support for granting the park protection.

The Los Angeles labor movement said Thursday it will launch a four-day marathon on behalf of Sen. Barack Obama and their other candidates leading up to next Tuesday's election.
Officials with the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, said they will call 500,000 union members in battle ground states.
The operation will run from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.each day until the close of polls on Tuesday.
Since September, the unions have targeted their members in Colorado, Nevada, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Washington.

The Los Angeles City council this week tried to scuttle a proposed City Charter amendment to give the Controller's Office the power to conduct performance audits of programs in the offices of elected officials.
Several council members, Richard Alarcon and Tony Cardenas, among them, argued they were concerened about allowing one elected officials poke around in programs under the jurisdiction of another elected official.
At first, the council voted to scuttle the proposal _ but later revived it have it prepared for the ballot next March. A decision will be made by Nov. 7 whether to put it on the ballot.
The reason for the reversal? Controller Laura Chick.
The charter change was first proposed when Chick threatened to file suit against City Attroney Rocky Delgadillo when he refused to let her review the worker compensation program he controlled and its hiring of private lawyers.
If the council had failed to approve the charter measure, Chick was prepared to revive her legal action _ causing further embarrassment and cost to the city.

Mixing politics and business, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is in Washington, D.C., today to meet with federal transportation officials before heading out for a weekend of campaigning on behalf of Sen. Barack Obama.
Villaraigosa is meeting with Transportation Secretary Mary Peters to discuss loans the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has recieved from AIG.
AIG has loaned the MTA $1 billion as part of a sales-leaseback of buses.
On Friday, Villaraigosa turns into a campaigner, with a trip to New Mexico. On Saturday, he is off to Colorado, returning to Los Angeles on Sunday.
Villraigosa, earlier, campaigned in Nevada for Obama _ much as he did during the primary election for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton..

Thousands of people have descended on the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder's Office over the past several days to cast their ballots early, braving the heat and long lines to avoid potential Election Day foul-ups and ensure that their vote counts in Tuesday's historic election. Rachel Uranga in the Daily News.

Hundreds of voters formed a line that snaked around the office Wednesday in a scene mirrored in Florida, Georgia and other states whose residents anticipate chaos as record numbers of voters head to the polls next week.

Excited over the heated presidential election, some Los Angeles County voters came prepared for the lines and reclined in foldout chairs Wednesday as they discussed the future and a country eager to choose a new president.

all it an election-year twist of fate: Even as Barack Obama's historic candidacy is expected to draw a record number of Latinos and African-Americans to the polls, those same voters could help pass the statewide measures that oppose gay marriage and abortions for minors. Tony Castro in the Daily News.

Supporters of those two measures are making a strong pitch to Latino voters - especially immigrants who have become voting citizens - many of them Roman Catholics who oppose abortion and gay marriage.

The campaign for Proposition 8, which would ban gay marriage, has also targeted African-American voters, who some experts say traditionally have been religiously and culturally opposed to gay marriage.

In the midst of a tough campaign for the Board of Supervisors, Councilman Benard Parks will give his annusal State of the Eighth speech on events in his 8th Council District over the pastg year.
Parks, who h as been trailing Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, D-Los Angeles, will talk at 6 p.m. Thursday at the California Science Center before an invited group of constituents.
Among the topics his office said he will address are the district getting its shaqre of the city budget, economic development, public safety, transporation, housing and constituent services.
The councilman also will recognize outstanding students from schools in the district.

Admit it. Election withdrawal is starting to set in.
But, wait. Just when you think it's all over but the voting, third and fourth party candidates Bob Barr and Ralph Nader come to the rescue.
The two, who have been unable to get any attention beyond their own efforts on the internet, will debae on Thursday in Cleveland.
. The topic is on the economy and will be the first debate between the two.
This will be the first professionally organized debate to include both Bob Barr and Ralph Nader.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's decision to call a special legislative session over the state's rocky economy won't necessarily lead lawmakers to curtail their overseas travel plans. Sacramento Bee.

Numerous legislators were planning to pack their bags for India, China or Hawaii when the governor announced plans Monday to reconvene the Legislature. Lawmakers would typically begin work again in January.

Now many of the officeholders are adopting a wait-and-see attitude, noncommittal about their travel plans until decisions are made on when the gavel will bang and whether they will be needed while legislative leaders try to strike a deal.

After a harmonizing chorus of hallelujah hymns closed Mass on a recent Sunday at St. Charles Borromeo Church, a volunteer got up and carefully made her way to the altar. Justino Aguila in the Daily News.

Standing at the microphone, she urged the 500 parishioners to vote Yes on Proposition 8, which would change the state constitution to ban gay marriage.

"Let's not waste this opportunity," she said, shortly before other church members distributed fliers at the exits supporting the proposition. "It's a commitment to God."

A panel of economists, business executives and politicians will meet Thursday to tackle a vexing question: When will the recession end and the recovery begin? Gregory J. Wilcox in the Daily News.

Not soon, is what the experts are likely to conclude as the Valley Industry and Commerce Association holds its 20th annual Business Forecast Conference.

Andre B. van Niekerk, dean of the Woodbury University School of Business in Burbank, predicts that the current economic crisis will be difficult to resolve.

Pressured by the city controller and women's groups, Los Angeles city officials pledged on Tuesday to spend $2.5 million a year to clear up a backlog of more than 7,000 rape cases by hiring more specialists to test DNA evidence and outsourcing some work to private labs. Daily News.

"All victims of rape deserve justice. All rapists deserve prison," Police Chief William Bratton said at a City Hall news conference with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and City Council members to announce the plan.

Villaraigosa, who has made public safety one of his top priorities, said he found extra money to hire the specialists, or criminalists, for the LAPD crime lab by working with unions to save money on health costs.

The City Council today is scheduled to consider the first part of the funding, a nearly $1million program to hire 10 specialists and six support staff members, and authorize $250,000 to pay for work by private labs.

A taxpayer advocate attorney and a half-dozen other people asked the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday not to appeal a recent appellate court decision ruling that the county's practice of paying judges perks and supplemental benefits was unconstitutional. Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

The request followed a recent decision by a three-judge panel of the state's 4th District Court of Appeal that found the state constitution only allows the Legislature to set judges' pay. The Board of Supervisors' practice of paying judges an extra $46,436 annually in cash benefits, therefore, is not permissible. The case was filed by Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group based in Washington, D.C.

County Counsel Ray Fortner could not be reached to comment on whether the county planned to appeal the decision.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday gave preliminary approval to build the nation's first commercial plant that will convert grass cuttings, wood chips and other organic waste into ethanol. Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

Located near the Lancaster landfill, the $30 million plant proposed by BlueFire Ethanol will convert bio-waste into the gasoline additive that helps reduce air pollution, greenhouse gases and dependence on fossil fuels.

"This project will be the first on a commercial scale in the U.S.," said Chip Clements, a consultant to BlueFire and president and owner of Clements Environmental Corp. in Los Angeles. "I think this is really the future of our nation as far as the drive for (sustainable energy).

California is set to break voter registration records in an election that could result in the nation's first African American president or first woman vice president. Sacramento Bee.

The deadline for reporting pre-election registration is Friday, but preliminary counts already exceed 17 million - higher than the state's previous best of 16.6 million, Nicole Winger, spokeswoman for the secretary of state, said Tuesday.

The soaring rolls are good news for Democrats, who held a lead of nearly 12 percentage points over Republicans in statewide voter registration through Sept. 5, the most recent figures available

After almost a decade of what state prosecutors called "ripping off state agencies," the Department of Water and Power on Monday agreed to pay out a $160 million settlement to the county, local schools, community colleges and the MTA. Daily News.

Coming after years of legal wrangling, the settlement is the largest ever against a utility for overcharging customers, according to attorneys for the plaintiffs.

"The Los Angeles DWP had been imposing illegal and unjustified overcharges on their governmental customers for years," said state Attorney General Jerry Brown, who argued that the utility was using the money to ultimately finance the city's operations.

He said the actions amounted to "rippi

In response to an audit slamming its crime lab, the LAPD on Monday began taking steps to address a backlog of 7,000 DNA rape kits by transferring the lab to the direct supervision of the Detective Bureau to improve accountability and make more resources available.Daily News.

After an impassioned hearing from advocates saying failure to process the kits dissuades victims from reporting crimes, the City Council's Budget and Finance Committee urged that the city allocate more than $2.5 million to hire 16 more criminalists and staffers to help process the backlog.

After getting bumped from two earlier ballots, bullet-train measure Proposition 1A finally goes before voters who will decide whether to back a nearly $10 billion bond to begin plans for an electrical, high-speed rail whisking passengers between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Sue Doyle in the Daily News.

The measure would give $9.95 billion to the California High Speed Rail Authority for planning, design and initial construction of a $40 billion, 800-mile passenger train from Union Station in Los Angeles to San Francisco. Future connections are planned for Anaheim, Sacramento and San Diego, but do not include a link with Los Angeles International Airport.

But the 220-mph bullet train needs at least $10 billion in federal money - and masses of private investment - before it starts zipping Californians up and down the state and thinning traffic on the highways.

After already facing a series of deep cuts, California State University, Northridge, will curb spending by an additional $2.2 million this year - and college officials expect more reductions by early next year. Connie Llanos in the Daily News.

Those cuts will mean larger classes, fewer courses and a temporary hiring freeze.

They are part of an overall decrease to the CSU system budget of 1 percent, or $31.3 million, that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered recently in a series of midyear cuts to balance the 2008-09 budget.

The head of the Board of Water and Power Commissioners announced Monday he plans to run for the job of City Controller in the March election.
Nick Patsaouras, 64, a long-time civic activist who ran for mayor in 1993, plans to run for the job being vacated by Controller Laura Chick, who is termed out of office.
"Somebody has to do it," Patsaouras said. "I believe that having been on a number of oversight committees for the mayor, I can bring my experience and technical expertise and temperament to other city departments and create a sitution where our children have the same opportunities we had."
Patsaouras, who lives in Tarzana, said he and his wife, Airport Commissioner Sylvia Patsaouras, will step down from their appointed panels.
"It would be too difficult a situation for both of us," Patsaouras said.
In entering the race, he will be challenging another close ally of the mayor, Councilwoman Wendy Greuel.
Greuel has raised more than $700,000 for the campaign and Patsaouras -- who has proven himself a formidable fundraiser for others -- said he will immediately begin raising money.
"If people want me for the job, they'll support me," he said.
Patsaouras, a successful engineer, came to the United States from Greece in 1961, attending Los Angeles Valley College and California State University, Northridge. He became a U.S. citizen in 1964.
He first became involved with politics with former Mayor Tom Bradley, serving on the Rapid Transit District board and later the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
He worked on both mayoral campaigns of Villaraigosa.
Patsaouras said he advised the mayor of his decision late Monday.
"He was very gracious," Patsaouras said.

The Los Aneles Police Protective League is all over this November's ballot, taking on athird issue before voters.
It already has come out agaisntg Proposition 5, the mesure expanding drug diversion programs, and on behalf of state Sen Mark Ridley-Thomas, D-Los Angeles, for county supervisors.
On Monday, it was announced they are backing the Proposition 6 proposal advancd by state Sen. George Runner, R-Palmdale, with a radio commercial.
"Californians are fed up with gangs," said League President tim Sands. "Proposition 6, also known as The Safe Neighborhoods Act, is a comprehensive anti-gang and crime reduction measure that will bring more cops and increased safety to California communities and greater efficiency and accountability to public safety programs and agencies that spend taxpayer money
"The LAPPL urges voters to support the Safe Neighborhoods Act just like they supported Three Strikes and other critical law enforcement reforms. The safety of our communities is critical to all of us," added Sands.
In backing the mesure, the union is going against the Los Angeles City Council, which voted to oppose the measure.

In a tiny house on wheels, Geri Ulrey is trying to capture democracy in action. Connie Llanos in the Daily News.

Inside the house in a compact living room stocked with a plush suede chair, Ulrey, a professor of cinema and television arts at California State University, Northridge, is taking video confessionals from students.

They pour out their thoughts to a camera on everything from the economy and health care to education. Ulrey is streaming the videos on the Web and after Election Day will send them to the next president of the United States.

For Michael Spitzer-Rubenstein, it's the campaign of Sen. Barack Obama that is driving him to the polls.Daily News.

"This is my first election and I couldn't be more excited," said Spitzer-Rubenstein, 18, who also made calls for the Obama campaign in Los Angeles.

But, other than a couple of other items, he said he was unsure how to vote on all the ballot propositions.

"I know about (Proposition) 8, but a lot of the other ones are pretty confusing," he said. "There's no way anyone can really know about some of the issues that are on the ballot."

Foreclosures in the San Fernando Valley ballooned to a record level in the third quarter, pounding down prices but driving a huge jump in September sales, according to a report released today.Gregory J. Wilcox in the Daily News.

Foreclosures soared 203 percent from July through September compared to a year earlier, as 2,589 local families lost their homes in the market collapse, according to the San Fernando Valley Economic Research Center.

With 32 years in the solar business, Gary Gerber should be one of the biggest fans of an initiative to increase California's production of renewable energy.AP in the Daily News.

But he and hundreds of other small business owners say an alternative energy initiative on the November ballot could force them out of business at a time California is struggling to boost its production of clean power.

Proposition 7, one of two alternative energy ballot measures, would require California utilities to generate half their electricity from windmills, solar systems, geothermal resources and other renewable sources by 2025.

Tipoffs: Developer Rick Caruso to decide on running for mayor; Neighborhood Councils.

Colin never thought he'd wind up on Skid Row. Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

As a middle-class father and business owner, he had achieved the American dream. But that all came crashing down recently when his coffee-bean importing business went under and the home he was renting in El Segundo went into foreclosure.

With nowhere else to turn, the Westmont College graduate sought shelter for his family at the Union Rescue Mission in downtown Los Angeles.

"It definitely gives you a whole new take on life and how quickly things can unravel," said Colin, 39, who requested his last name not be published. "My experience is far more widespread than I think people would like to admit. And we may not have seen the worst of it yet."

Like many physicians at Tarzana Medical Center, Dr. Brian Fenmore was excited when he heard Providence Health System planned to buy his struggling hospital. Susan Abram in the Daily News.

The system had a good reputation in the community and already ran two other hospitals in the San Fernando Valley.

But when the sale became final last month, Fenmore, an obstetrician-gynecologist, got word that he could no longer perform surgical procedures that prevent pregnancy, including vasectomies and tubal ligations, because of the new owner's Catholic-based policies.

And now, some OB-GYNs are considering taking their practices

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who worked Nevada for Sen. Hillary Clinton during the primary election, is returning there on Sunday to work on behalf of Sen. Barack Obama.
The mayor is scheduled to appear at a vareity of events kicking off get out the vote ralles, from unions, to small businesses to Latinos. in addition, he will be doing a number of media appearances, including a radio call-in show.l

The Engineers and Architects Association, which represents about 10,000 workers, is escalating its battle with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and has come out against Measure R, the half-cent sales tax measure for transportation programs.
The union, which staged a walkout last year in a dispute with the mayor, is paying for radio commercials and a robocall to voters urging them to oppose the measure on the Nov. 4 ballot.
Bob Aquino, head of the union, said his board decided to take the action.
"Much of the reason has to do with the fact that we don't trust this mayor," Aquino said. "We've seen him increase every fee that Angelenos pay in this city and then misuse the money.
"In all candor, our board feels that when we're talking about $40 billion, that we aren't sure the money will be used as they say."
The EAA has a long history of feuding with mayors. It was the first of the city unions to endorse Villaraigosa when he was running against former Mayor James Hahn.

It was a case of family pride for Councilwoman Jan Perry this morning when she presented a plaque to her uncle, Sgt. A. William Perry.
Perry was a member of the 92nd Fighting Infantry Buffalo Soldiers unit deployed to Italy during World War II and that became the subject of the Spike Lee film, "Miracle at St. Anna.:
Sgt. Perry, who still lives in Shaker Heights, Ohio, served as a consultant for the book of the same title and the movie.

Courtesy of Latinogossip:

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is speaking out to the Latino community in California about Prop 8 via a new Spanish language radio ad. In it, he says:
"The Prop 8 campaign has knowingly targeted the Latino community with shameful and deceitful advertising. Proposition 8 is about discrimination, not education. It's disgraceful to use children to try to take away people's civil rights. Proposition 8 attacks all California families, including our Latino families. I am confident that once our community understands the discrimination behind Prop 8 they will join me and vote No."

Home sales in the San Fernando Valley soared an unprecedented 82 percent in September, while prices continued to fall at a record pace, a trade association said Thursday.

The Van Nuys-based Southland Regional Association of Realtors reported that 658 previously owned homes sold from Toluca Lake to Calabasas, up 296 from a year earlier. That's the biggest percentage gain since June 1986, when sales jumped 52 percent. Gregory J. Willcox in the Daily News.

But the median price has plunged 37 percent over the past year, dropping from $392,500 to $231,200, the association said.

That's the biggest percentage drop since a 35 percent decline in June and the lowest median price in five years.

a historic change with political and cultural implications for the nation's largest minority group, a baby boom has helped Hispanics account for just over half of the overall population growth in the United States since 2000, according to a report released Thursday.Tony Castro in the Daily News.

Different from the past, the nation's Latino population growth in this decade has been more a product of birthrate than immigration, according to the report from the Pew Hispanic Center.

Since 2000, the nation's Latino population has increased by 10.2 million - 6 million from births in the United States and 4.2 million from immigration.

Although the nation's economy is faltering, backers of the L.A. Live project in downtown Los Angeles said Thursday they under budget and on schedule for a beginning next month of rollouts to culminate in the 2010 opening of a 54-story hotel and luxury-condo tower. Daily News.

"We have been fortunate that we developed all our financing before the current problems hit, and we think it will end up benefiting us," said Tim Leiweke, president of AEG and the driving force behind the project next to Staples Center.

The number of homeowners ensnared in the foreclosure crisis grew by more than 70 percent in the third quarter of this year compared with the same period in 2007, according to data released Thursday. AP in the Daily News.

Nationwide, nearly 766,000 homes received at least one foreclosure-related notice from July through September, up 71 percent from a year earlier, said foreclosure listing service RealtyTrac Inc.

By the end of the year, RealtyTrac expects more than a million bank-owned properties to have piled up on the market, representing around a third of all properties for sale in the U.S.

The stock market crisis has battered Los Angeles County's public-employee pension plan so badly that taxpayers may have to pay an additional $500million a year by 2011 to prop up the system, according to a report by the Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association. Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

The county's general fund contributed $756 million last year to the system, but that is expected to rise to $1.28 billion by 2011 because of steep drops in stock market valuations.

The new findings follow years in which, critics say, public-employee unions in California were granted lucrative pension enhancements for their members.

A new poll showing California's constitutional amendment outlawing same-sex marriage trailing for the first time in weeks has renewed hopes of the gay-rights movement, which had become increasingly divided over its campaign to defeat the Nov. 4 ballot measure. Tony Castro in the Daily News.

Two weeks before Election Day, Proposition 8 is losing among likely voters, 52 percent to 44 percent, according to a statewide survey released Wednesday by the Public Policy Institute of California.

"If we defeat the measure, it will be in spite of the No on 8 campaign, and if we don't it will be because of the No on 8 campaign," said gay activist Robin Tyler of North Hills, a vocal critic of the organized drive against the measure.

Voicing the same anger and frustration residents have experienced in the battle against digital billboards, the Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday complained over the time it has taken for its own agencies to investigate how many signs are in the city and the cost to inspect them. Daily News.

"Give me a break," Councilman Richard Alarc n said. "No one has explained to me why this takes more than a week to get a report in here on cost recovery and what it costs to inspect billboards."

There are an estimated 4,000 billboards in the city, and efforts to find them have been hampered by lawsuits filed by the billboard industry over imposing the fees needed to cover the cost of inspectors.

California voters on Nov. 4 will consider sweeping changes to the state's criminal-justice codes, ranging from new drug-treatment programs to anti-gang measures and expanded rights for victims. AP in the Daily News.

State Propositions 5, 6 and 9 have not received the same publicity granted to a proposal to ban gay marriage, but supporters and opponents of the three measures have raised a combined $13 million so far to advance their causes.

The proposed Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act, Proposition 5, would require treatment instead of prison for most drug offenders. It would require $610 million in new state spending through mid-2010, followed by annual increases based on population and inflation.

Lo Angeles Police Chief Bill Bratton is warning of the danger of an October suprised in the New York Daily News. He writes:
"Will Osama Bin Laden have anything to say about the U.S. presidential race? Does our economic implosion make us an even more tempting target?
"Al Qaeda has a history of trying to influence elections, most notably with the 2004 train attacks in Madrid. Just three days before Spain's prime ministerial elections, 10 bombs left 191 dead- and Al Qaeda affiliates swung the election away from the incumbent, who supported the coalition wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and toward the challenger, a vociferous critic of U.S. foreign policy. "

Los Angeles county officials reported that Democrats now represent 52 percent of all voters in the county and that 57 percent of new voters signed up with that party.
The final talley shows teh county with 2.2 million Democrats, the most ever, while Republicans accounted for 1,02 million or 24.1 per cent.
Naturally enough, it made Democrats jubilant.
"The unprecedented number of Democrats registered in Los Angeles County and across our nation reflects the recognition of failed Republican policies and governance and points to the need for change, said Eric Bauman, chair of the county Democratic Party.
. "Sen. Barack Obama's inspiration, the Los Angeles County Democratic Party's voter outreach efforts, and grassroots Democratic activists' impressive voter registration drives are the key factors that have made Los Angeles County the Democratic stronghold of California."
There are a total of 4.2 million registered voters in the county. County election officials are urging people to vote early and be patient on election day because of the potential of long lines. Also, the results from the Nov. 4 election could be late because of the expected number of voters.

California's employment picture grew bleaker Tuesday, when AIG and Yahoo announced widespread layoffs as they struggle to cope with the worsening economy.Tony Castro and Barbara Correa in the Daily News.

American International Group Inc. issued a statement saying it was terminating nearly 7 percent of the employees in its auto insurance division.

The New York-based insurance giant refused to say how many workers will be affected. But three employees at the AIG Direct office in Woodland Hills said some 200 workers in their division had been terminated.

With a state-of-the-art elephant house taking shape at the Los Angeles Zoo, officials said Tuesday that Dumbo need not fly the coop. Dana Bartholomew in the Daily News.

Zoo backers defended the $39 million exhibit for endangered Asian elephants after City Councilman Tony Cardenas filed motions to replace it with a San Fernando Valley elephant sanctuary while putting Billy, the zoo's 22-year-old bull elephant, to pasture.

"We think Billy should stay," said John Lewis, general manager for the zoo, standing within the 3.6-acre elephant exhibit set to open in summer 2010. "He's a young and virile male, and we'd like to see him as part of our breeding program. It's a first-class facility in size and complexity, for the care as well as the enrichment of the elephants."

City Councilman Greig Smith assailed the city controller Tuesday, one day after she released an audit saying there is a lack of council urgency to deal with a backlog of 7,000 rape kits at the LAPD Crime Lab. Daily News.

Smith said he spoke with City Controller Laura Chick briefly in the council chambers and told her he was angry at the blame she was placing on the council for not moving quickly enough to deal with the matter.

"I told her I was upset at her saying she was appalled at the lack of action by the City Council," said Smith, who serves on the council's Public Safety Committee, which has been looking at the issue for nearly a year.

As several large developments throughout the nation have run into trouble due to the global economic crunch, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved another ownership change in the $3 billion Grand Avenue project. Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

Under the new ownership structure, the Honua Group, an investment vehicle owned by three Korean insurance companies, will invest $100 million for the first phase of the long-delayed project in downtown Los Angeles.

The investment firm is the second foreign company to invest in the project. Istithmar Building FZE, an investment fund controlled by the royal family of Dubai, committed $100 million earlier this year.

Following the recent arrest of the owner of a firm hired by the California Republican Party to register voters, Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan said Tuesday he is reviewing 9,000 registration affidavits turned in by the firm to determine if party affiliations were involuntarily changed. Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

Logan said he has sent letters to 85 of the 9,000 voters to find out if their registrations were changed from Democrat to Republican.

Despite the ongoing investigation, Logan said the issue won't be a problem Nov. 4 because all voters will vote on the same ballot. But it could be a problem in the next primary.

The final proposition that will appear on California's Nov. 4 ballot seeks voter approval to continue funding a state-run home-loan program for military veterans. AP in the Daily News.

If it's passed, as 26 previous versions were, Proposition 12 would allow the state to issue $900million in bonds to fund the existing CalVet Home Loan program so it can cover veterans who have served in the military since 1977.

The program, previously available only to those who served before 1977, helps California veterans buy homes, mobile homes and farms.

Three new commercials for Measure R, the half-cent sales tax for transportation programs, were released on Tuesday and, to the surprise of many, did not feature any local politicians.
Even though Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has put his political reputation on the line with the measure, the new spots feature UCLA Professor Jonathan Steward, Don Sepulveda of the American Society of Civil Engineers and Trisha Murakawa of the American Lung Association.
The three spots are designed to emphasize the impact on the environment as well as improving road and rail safety if the measure is approved.

It will be a star-studded event tonight at the home of billionare Ron Burkle to raise money for the No on 8 campaign to fight the measure that would ban same sex marriages.
Hosted by Burkle, Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw, David Geffen and Steve Bing, among others, entertainment will be provided by Melissa Etheridge and Mary J. Blige.
It also will feature the state's two most prominent mayors, Antonio Villaraigosa and Gavin Newsom of San Francisco. Newsom has become the unwitting star of the Yest on 8 commercials, showing him performing gay marrianges.

Political bodies love nothing better than a debate over issues as arcane as reapportionment.
Witness the Los Angeles City Council.
It just spent the better part of 45 minutes arguing over whether it should take a position on Proposition 11, the measure dealing with creating a reapportionment commission to take the drawing of political boundaries away from the state legislature.
The council ended up voting 10-3, to oppose the measure _ with arguments by two former state legislators _ Councilmen Richard Alarcon and Tony Cardenas _ arguing the measure would disenfranchise minority voters. Councilmen Dennis Zine, Greig Smith and Bill Rosendahl said they favor the measure.
"This is nothing more than the governor attempting to elect his own party," Alarcon said.
But several others pointed out most of the gains for minorities has come when the districts were redrawn by the courts.

Suggesting that racial bias colors the LAPD, a study released Monday found that officers stopped and detained African-Americans and Latinos disproportionately more than whites. Rachel Uranga in the Daily News.

The 52-page, American Civil Liberties Union-sponsored report by Yale economist Ian Ayres stops short of accusing the department of widespread racial profiling. But it suggests that prejudice remains among officers, despite the department's efforts to stamp it out.

"The results of this study raise grave concerns that African-Americans and Hispanics are over-stopped, over-frisked, over-searched and over-arrested," Ayres wrote.

With consumers' dollars at gasoline pumps dwindling and draining a federal fund for highway and transit projects, local leaders Monday pushed for a half-percent sales tax to generate $40 billion for Los Angeles County transportation projects. Sue Doyle in the Daily News.

The cries come two weeks before voters head to the polls and vote on Measure R - a third county sales tax for roadway and mass-transit needs. Unlike the others, it sunsets in 30 years.

The measure needs two-thirds of voter approval on Nov. 4 and would bump the county's sales tax to 8.75 percent. Leaders said local money raised would turn into a larger sum with federal and state matches and comes at a time when neither will provide enough on its own to meet the gridlocked county's needs.

City Controller Laura Chick issued a scathing audit Monday of the Los Angeles Police Department's backlog of more than 7,000 DNA rape kits and its failure to use a $4 million federal grant to analyze the evidence and arrest rapists. Daily News.

At a City Hall news conference with women's-rights advocates, Chick said the LAPD should find the money within its more-than-$2 billion budget to hire more criminalists and aim to clear the backlog within three years.

"Today, there are 7,000 women out there without a voice," Chick said. "There are 7,000 victims without justice."

At the J.S. West and Cos. poultry farm, half a million chickens are squeezed six at a time into wire cages where they must share 2 square feet of space. AP in the Daily News.

Beneath them, conveyor belts whisk away excrement while 1.2 million eggs travel from hen to carton each day without touching a human hand.

California voters will decide Nov. 4 whether this kind of operation is an example of factory farming at its most efficient - or the cruel farming practices of producers concerned only about the bottom line.

If a ballot measure seeking money for children's hospitals seems familiar to California voters, it's because they approved a nearly identical measure in 2004. AP in the Daily News.

Proposition 3 on the Nov. 4 ballot would authorize the state to borrow $980 million to pay for construction, remodeling and equipping children's hospitals. The measure would cost the state about $1.9 billion over 30 years, money that would have to come from the deficit-ridden general fund.

In 2004, a similar measure was approved by about 57 percent of voters. It authorized $750 million in bonds, which will cost the state about $1.5 billion to repay.

TIPOFFS: Neighborhood councils learning how to use its powers; Los Angeles football stadium seeks support.

Developer Rick Caruso told a sell-out crowd of enthusiastic Republicans Friday night that he would decide "soon" whether to run against Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa next spring. Caruso was honored by the Los Angeles County Lincoln Clubs as their 2008 Spirit of Lincoln award winner at a dinner held at the historic Casa Del Mar hotel in Santa Monica. Red County

The Lincoln Clubs are a Republican major donor organization founded by members of Ronald Reagan's "Kitchen Cabinet" in the 1960's. Today it has 300 members in eleven chapters throughout Los Angeles County, and is the most influential Republican organization countywide.

Caruso got a lot of encouragement to run at the event. County Supervisor Mike Antonovich publicly asked him to, and Lincoln Clubs Chairman Robert A. Virtue noted in giving him the Spirit of Lincoln award that the organization was honoring him "as much for what you will do in the future as what you have done in the past"

IN a very real sense, this election has become about hope and despair. Daily News.

On one side there is a sinking sense that America is losing its position as center of the Western world. There is despair that this one-time beacon of opportunity, bounty, democracy and decency that our forefathers dreamed of and people break laws to get into is disappearing.

Our financial markets are roller-coasting, our banks sit on the edge of collapse and our economy is in such shambles we can't see the bottom of the mess. We're stuck in a prolonged war in Iraq that no longer seems strictly winnable but keeps gobbling up billions of dollars each month - and the lives and futures of many of young Americans.

In an event closed to the media, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa -- who already has more than $2 million in his re-electio ncampaign -- held a fundraiser on Saturday featuring former President Bill Clinton. It was at teh home of record producer Clarence Avanat.
"I am proud to be supporting Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in his campaign for reelection,"
Clinton said in a statement.
"Antonio is one of those rare leaders combining big vision with bold action. He has correctly identified the major challenges that will shape LA's future, and he is driving toward that future with passion and purpose.
"Whether it's rescuing the city's lowest performing schools, putting 1,000 cops on the street, taking on the gang problem or transforming LA with a path-breaking environmental agenda, Antonio has laid a foundation for fundamental change in the City of Angels."
In some sense, the event is a payback by Clinton. Villaraigosa was co-chair of Sen. HIllary Clinton's campaign for president.

During his five years as chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, Bernard Parks was the main persona non grata of the Los Angeles Police Protective League.
Now, the Protective League is extracting its revenge as Councilman Parks is running in a fierce contest against state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas, D-Los Angelesl, for a seat on the Board of Supervisors.
The Protective League this weekend began a $50,000 radio campaign on behalf of Ridley-Thomas against Parks. With the buy, the Protective League joins with the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, in backing Ridley-Thomas,. The union has said it is prepared to spend $4.5 million in the campaign.

A bare-knuckles campaign to kick Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger out of office was abandoned Thursday by the state's powerful prison guards union. Sacramento Bee.
The California Correctional Peace Officers Association dropped its recall bid but continued to throw verbal jabs.
"We continue to believe that Governor Schwarzenegger needs to return to what he's good at, making movies," spokesman Lance Corcoran said.

The first commercial for Measure R, the half-cent sales tax measure for transit programs, debuted on Friday.
And, as expected, it featured a politician to make its pitch for support _ President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
The spot, which shows a series of shots of backed up freeways, recalls the effor by Ike in the 1950s to buiild the nation's highway system and says a similar effort is needed now.

Less than a year before Los Angeles Unified is scheduled to open a flagship performing arts school downtown, the project's cost has ballooned to $230 million and key backers remain worried about a lack of progress they believe has cost the district community support and donations. George B. Sanchez in the Daily News.

The district has yet to finalize a curriculum or hire a principal or any staff - and the school's executive director recently walked away from the job halfway through her contract.

Philanthropist Eli Broad - who was a driving force and financial contributor to the project - is now shopping it around to charter school groups in hopes they can take it out of the district's hands.

Protesting the size of a proposed commercial-residential project in Universal City, Councilman Tom LaBonge on Thursday said he will use whatever powers he has on the City Council to scale back the development. Daily News.

"This project will absolutely overwhelm this area and ruin a park space," LaBonge said at a news conference at the Red Line station near the project site.

He was joined by more than a dozen neighborhood council and homeowner groups opposed to the development.

"What they are talking about is just too big for the area and there is not enough mitigation required to deal with the traffic."

The chairman of the state Repbulican Party on Thursday instructed two organizations to clean up their web pages which contained racially insensitive material regarding Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.
Ron Nehring said he has instructed the Sacramento County Central Committee and a Republican women's club in San Bernardino County to change their web pages and halt emails of material considered unacceptable.
"We have a responsibility to wage a campaign that is focused on the real issues and qualifications of the candidates," Nehring said. "Any material that invokes issues related to race is absolutely unacceptable, tarnishes our party, diminishes the hard work of the tens of thousands of volunteers who are working hard every day for our candidates, and must be condemned.
"This material I've seen inspires nothing but divisiveness and hostility and has absolutely no place in this election, or any public discourse.
"This is an important election, but that is not an excuse for bad judgment or actions that impugn the integrity of our party. As Republicans, and as Americans, we have a responsibility to set a higher standard.
"I have asked both the leaders of these groups to take immediate and swift corrective action on these issues, and indicated that the California Republican Party vigorously opposes any material of his kind. We will continue to denounce similar behavior in any similar instances."

In a practice critics called a waste of taxpayer money, Los Angeles County has violated the state constitution for years by paying judges perks and supplemental benefits over their state salaries, a state appeals court has ruled. Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

The justices wrote that the state constitution requires the Legislature to set judges' pay - and the Board of Supervisors' practice of paying judges an extra $46,436 annually in cash benefits is "not permissible." They sent the matter back to Superior Court.

The case was filed by Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group based in Washington, D.C. The ruling was made Friday by a three-judge panel of the state's 4th District Court of Appeal.

Despite dipping gas prices, bus ridership in the San Fernando Valley is on the rise. Connie Llanos in the Daily News.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said Wednesday that 28,000 riders used the Orange Line in September, a new record for the Valley line that opened in 2005.

The Orange Line buses hit their previous ridership record of 26,600 in July.

Other Metro lines also continued to see increases over last year, including the Gold Line reaching 25,500 riders in September - 6,000 more than last year - and the Green Line seeing 45,300 riders - almost 5,000 more than last year. Both are light-rail lines.

As part of its effort to get full cost recovery for city services, the Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday approved dramatic increases in the cost for ambulance services provided by the Los Angeles Fire Department. Daily News.

On a 10-0 vote, the council raised the advanced life support rates from $889 to $1,004 and the basic life support service from $622 to $712. Mileage rates will be increased from $14.50 to $15.75 per mile.

"We are trying to remain consistent with the rates charged by the county of Los Angeles," said Councilman Bernard Parks, who chairs the council's Budget and Finance Committee. The county's rates are $982 for advanced life support and $700 for basic life support.

Billionaire philanthropist and producer Steve Bing announced ge was offering a
$500,000 match/challenge against Prop 8 at a event planned for Oct. 21 at the hom eof Ron Burkle in Beverly Hills.
The event will feature performances by Mary J. Blige and Melissa Etheridge. Barbra Streisand is honorary chair and others involved incoude Kate Capshaw and Steven Spielberg, David Geffen, Rob Reiner, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, among others.

New York City Mayor Michael Bllomberg joined Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday in backing Propositoin 11 on the Nov. 4 ballot. The measure would change how legislative districts are drawn,.
"Right now big problems get debated and debated at the Capitol, but they rarely get solved,' Schwarzenegger said. "We saw the dysfunction on the budget that was three months late.
Bloomberg said he was backing the measure to give more power to voters.
"If we want legislators to spend more time reaching across the aisle and solving problems, we have to stop allowing them to draw districts that promote ideological extremes," Bloomberg said.
"Proposition 11 will take the power of redistricting away from legislators and give it to a neutral and nonpartisan group of qualified citizens."

California first lady Maria Shriver - whose father, Sargent Shriver, ran for both president and vice president - said she finds it "unbelievable, jaw-dropping" that Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin so far has managed to sidestep news conferences and Sunday TV talk shows. San Francisco Chronicle.
Shriver, a prominent veteran broadcast journalist and bestselling author who is married to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, is preparing to interview and talk with dozens of international newsmakers, politicians and celebrities at her popular Women's Conference on Oct. 21 and 22 at the Long Beach Convention Center.

There's money to be made from California's financial pain. In fact, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger encourages it. Gregory J. Wilcox in the Daily News.

"Keep California great. Invest in our Golden State," he said in a radio ad that began airing Tuesday, urging Californians to buy $4 billion in bonds to help finance day-to-day expenses.

The state regularly sells bonds to pay its way. But given the dire financial climate, the state treasurer called on Schwarzenegger to use his movie-star charisma to make the pitch - his first - directly to the people.

On Tuesday and again today, Treasurer Bill Lockyer is selling short-term bonds - with a minimum investment of

Cheryl Green could have been written off as just another innocent victim of gang violence, a 14-year-old with dreams of becoming a doctor instead becoming collateral damage in a turf war.Daily News.

Instead, the December 2006 death of Green, who lived in Harbor Gateway, became a rallying cry against gangs and served as the impetus for City Councilwoman Janice Hahn to find money needed to provide alternatives to gangs.

It then developed into Proposition A on the Nov. 4 ballot.

The measure, which needs two-thirds support to take effect, is a $36-a-year tax on every piece of property in the city to raise $30 million a year to fund gang prevention and intervention programs.

Former Assemblyman Paul Koretz announced Tuesday he has hired the campaign strategist to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to to head up his effort to seek the 5th District City Council seat as well as a long list of endorsements from city officials.
Parke Skelton of SG&A will serve as overall consultant for the campaign. Nancy Dolan ro Nancy Dolan & Associates will be in charge of fundraising.
Skelton has run a number of campaigns for local, state and federal offices but is most closely aligned with Villaraigosa.
The mayor has yet to endorse in the race to succeed Councilman Jack Weiss, who is running for City Attorney.
Other candidates in the race include former council deputy Adeena Bleich, businesswoman Robyn Ritter-Simon, community activist David Vahedi, Neighborhood Council member Ron Galperin, Robert Schwartz, and Steven Webb.
Koretz said he has the endorsement of six council members as well as several state legislators with whom he served.
Koretz is former mayor and councilman from the city of West Hollywood. He said he moved in to Los Angeles when he was first elected to the state Assembly.

The Los Angeles Police Protective League has decided to get involved in the Nov,. 4 election, coming out with a $100,000 radio campaign against Proposition 5, the Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act (or NORA ) that exp
"Proposition 5 is poorly drafted, deeply flawed and fiscally irresponsible. It takes up to $1 billion annually out of the state's General Fund to fund a massive new bureaucracy and mandate a controversial drug treatment program for criminal offenders that provides no accountability and little likelihood of successful rehabilitation," said Tim Sand, President of the Los Angeles Police Protective League.
The measure is oppsoed by a broad cross-section of those in law enforcement, including the California District Attorney's Association, the state Sheriff's ASsociation, Mothers Against Drunk Drivers and former Govs. Pete Wilson and Gray Davis.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has contributed $25,000 to the anti-Proposition 8 campaign.
The measure, which seeks to overturn gay marriages, has gained support in recent days with a series of commercials warning about the potential impact on children.
Villaraigosa, however, said he believes the measure should be rejected.
"I entered politics because the America of my dreams includes everyone, not just a few," he wrote in a lettter with his contribution.
"Too many people have suffered injustice, discrimination, and inequality. It's time to bring every American out of the shadows and into the light. Our laws should not be used to single one group out to be treated differently. Instead, our laws should guarantee the same fundamental rights to every Californian.
"Same-sex marriage is the law of the land in California. In my legal capacity as Mayor of Los Angeles, I have proudly officiated many same-sex weddings since the Supreme Court ruling in June confirmed the constitutionality of these unions."

Supporters of Proposition 11 on the Nov. 4 ballot say the measure will make California state elections competitive once again, after years of lawmakers facing only token challenges to their re-election bids.

The measure removes the ability of legislators to draw their own district lines and instead transfers that responsibility to a citizens commission. Troy Anderson in the Daiily News.

Advocates say they have more than 1,800 organizations and elected politicians endorsing the measure, including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the California and Los Angeles chambers of commerce, and the California Taxpayers Association.Supporters of Proposition 11 on the Nov. 4 ballot say the measure will make California state elections competitive once again, after years of lawmakers facing only token challenges to their re-election bids.

The measure removes the ability of legislators to draw their own district lines and instead transfers that responsibility to a citizens commission.

A preview of the type of campaign we can expect for City Attorney next March unfolded on Monday, when Councilman Jack Weiss and his campaign went after attorney Carmen Trutanich for contributions he received from supporters of gun rights.
Weiss campaign manager Ace Smith called on Trutanich to return the money from calguns.net and any supporters of the group to him.
"Mr. Trutanich's continuing connection to the extreme fringe of the gun lobby absolutely disqualifies him from serving as the top prosecutor in a city ravaged by gang and gun violence," Smith said. "Mr. Trutanich should immediately return every penny in blood money from these gun extremists. Los Angeles needs a city attorney with the guts to stand up to the nuts."
Trutanich hotly defended himself.
"I tell you what, I'll return this money when Jack Weiss returns all the money he received from developers," Trutanich said. "I support reasonable gun laws. I think anyone who owns a gun illegally should go to jail. Anytime he wants to debate gun ownership I'll be happy to oblige."
In its fundraising letter, calguns.net called Weiss "one of the most anti-gun local politicians out there."
Campaign reports filed last Friday showed Weiss with $1.2 million and Trutanich with $473,000. A third candidate, Deputy City Attonrey Michael Amerian, reported raising $218,000.

Apparently, the November election is not enough for Mayor Antonioi Villaraigosa and members of the City Council.
Forget about the presidential election or the plea to voters to raise taxes to fight gangs (Measure A), pay for transportation (Measure R) or even more school bonds (Measure Q).
No, the mayor and council members Wendy Greuel, Jack Weiss, Jan Perry and Jose Huizar want us to look ahead to the election next March and a new measure working tis way through the council, called Green Energy and Good Jobs.
The only details available were thqat it will create a job training program for green industries that locate in the city. It also would work to develop a solar rooftop program to help the Department of Water and Power to expand its renewable energy program.
And, as it happens, the mayor will be up for re-election to a second term next March as Greuel and Weiss look to run for higher office. Perry also is up for re-election, but is unopposed.

Los Angeles Police Department overtime pay has skyrocketed almost 150 percent over the past decade as officer ranks remained relatively flat, a lawsuit capped the amount of comp time officers could take in lieu of pay and police made millions of dollars while waiting to testify in court. Jason Kandel in the Daily News.

Sizable increases in base pay - which is how overtime pay is determined - are also part of the reason LAPD's annual overtime bill surged from about $32 million in fiscal year 1997-98 to nearly $79 million in 2007-08, according to LAPD figures.

Police and city officials say the overtime is justified for an understaffed department that has worked hard to cut crime down to its lowest levels in decades. And they note that despite the increase, the department still ranks fifth in overtime pay nationwide behind the Oakland, Boston, New York and Houston police departments.

Southern California's largest water agency moved forward with a groundwater extraction project without disclosing that the water is contaminated with uranium and other toxic chemicals, a newspaper reported Sunday. AP in the Daily News.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California knew eight years ago about a "major stumbling block" with the proposed Hayfield Groundwater Storage Program but failed to inform key officials or the public, according to an Orange County Register investigation.

Tipoff: Turning to Chief Bratton to front for Measure A; donor fatigue

The two sides in the Proposition 8 ballot initiative have amassed more than $40 million for media campaigns now playing on California television, but their most important asset might be the huge, volunteer, shoe-leather armies battling over same-sex marriage. Mercury News.

In an election that looks increasingly tight, Dean Merkley, a retired executive and part-time rancher in San Jose, is a member of a volunteer army that hopes to convince Californians to pass a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. Darius Ngo, an 18-year-old college student in San Francisco, is among an opposing corps of volunteers who could make the difference on Nov. 4 in whether California becomes only the second state to reject a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

Faced with a national economic meltdown that is impacting states and cities, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Saturday it means Los Angeles will be forced to re-evaluate its goals and return to the core services of the city. Daily News.

"Make no mistake that even though Wall Street is 3,000 miles away, it is affecting every neighborhood in this city," Villaraigosa told an overflow crowd of neighborhood council members at City Hall during their annual budget day.

"The magnitude of this crisis is far worse than anything we have seen, and it means we have to look at what our core services are for the city and how we can deliver them more efficiently."

Living for more than five decades in an old city housing project nicknamed Dogtown, Clyde Fulford has seen toxic chemicals seep from his backyard and waves of violence claim the lives of youths. Rachel Uranga in the Daily News.

But on a sunny Saturday afternoon, the man known by many Dogtown residents as "The Black Godfather" picked up a shovel and participated in something unlike he ever saw there before: dozens of neighbors planting hundreds of trees.

Nearly $800,000 has been raised by candidates for the City Council's 5th District race in the March election.Daily News.

Former City Council deputy Adeena Bleich led all candidates with $155,000 raised as of Sept. 30 for the March 3 election to succeed Councilman Jack Weiss. Weiss is running for city attorney.

Former city commissioner Leland Wong was sentenced Friday to five years in prison for bribery, embezzlement and a host of other offenses discovered during a City Hall "pay to play" corruption investigation into former Mayor James Hahn's administration. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

Wong had been an appointee of three mayors and had served on the city's Water and Power, Airports, and Harbor and Water.

In a harsh rebuke, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Johnson said Wong used those years of city service, his good name and his access to politicians to extract $100,000 in bribes from a shipping company doing business with the city.

The Metrolink board of directors on Friday voted to appoint 11 rail industry experts to a safety review panel to analyze the commuter system and make recommendations on how to improve safety.

The board also learned that about half of Metrolink's trains now have an engineer and another set of eyes in the cabs and locomotives. And plans are moving forward to install a temporary automatic train stopping system before state-of-the-art positive train controls are required in several years. Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

Metrolink board vice chairman Keith Millhouse said he's glad Metrolink now has doubled-up staffing in the cabs and locomotives, providing an extra set of eyes to improve safety.

"I understand the practical difficulties (in getting more staff)," Millhouse said. "But I'd like to see that number exceed 90 percent and get those people in there as soon as possible. We'll get the money for it."

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa continued his fundraising bonanza for his re-election campaign next year, reporting Friday that he has raised more than $2.3 million against a field of lightly funded and little-known candidates. Daily News.

Only attorney Walter Moore reported any significant amount of money, $162,000, for the March 3 election. Other announced candidates for the election include Bruce Darian, Mervin Evans, David Hernandez and Mike Manley, none of whom reported major fundraising.

The money raised by the mayor was as of Sept. 30 and does not include other recent fundraisers, including one this week in San Antonio sponsored by former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros.

"Angelenos are showin

Relying on his ties to former Mayor Henry Cisneros, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa came to San Antonio on Thursday to tap contributors for his re-election bid in 2009. San Antonio Express.

Several dozen people turned out for the fundraiser at Magnolia Gardens, many of them writing checks for $100 to $1,000.

After losing his first mayoral campaign in 2001, Villaraigosa won in 2005 and started building a national reputation as the leader of the country's second-largest city. Despite admitting an extramarital affair last year with a television reporter, he's believed in some quarters to be considering seeking the Democratic nomination for governor in 2010.

For the first time in the nation, an ex-gang member's name has been removed from a gang injunction that limits the movement of people suspected of having gang ties, City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo said Thursday.Brandon Lowery in the Daily News.

City officials used the announcement to show that Los Angeles has made it considerably easier for former gang members to find redemption within the law.

Under the old process, people could petition the City Attorney's Office to get off the list, but even city officials acknowledged it was nearly impossible to succeed.
rn their lives around," Delgadillo said. The first successful applicant "was able to provide sufficient, reliable and verifiable information that he is not a member of any community street gang."

D

crisis will wreck what few sales prospects automakers had for the rest of this year, with J.D. Power and Associates slashing its retail car sales forecast Thursday and warning that next year will be even worse.Gregory J. Wilcox in the Daily News.

The downturn in auto sales threatens to close 700 car dealerships nationwide and 70 have already closed this year in California, auto industry officials said this week.

"This is a recovery that is going to take several years to work itself out," said Jeff Schuster, executive director of automotive forecasting at Westlake Village-based J.D. Power.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders emerged from a meeting Wednesday saying they're confident California will be able to repay up to $7 billion in short-term loans, even as the state treasurer estimated the state's revenues are likely to drop another $3 billion below projections. AP in the Daily News.

But they offered no explanation - and reached no agreement - on how they plan to solve the state's mounting fiscal problems, other than to say they will hold weekly meetings to discuss the crisis.

"We want to just assure everybody that we'll be able to pay our bills at the end of the month, and we go step by step after that," Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, said.

State officials have worried that the ongoing national credit crisis may make it hard for the state to sell $7 billion in short-term bonds, starting with a $4 million offering next week. The state needs the money to tide it over until it gets a surge in tax revenue next spring.

The Wall Street meltdown has caused local and state public-pension systems to lose tens of billions of dollars in value over the past year, and elected officials and taxpayer groups expressed worry Wednesday that taxpayers might ultimately have to bail out the plans. Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

The state retirement system has lost about $50 billion in investment value since June 30, 2007, a drop of about 20 percent in just over a year.

Los Angeles County's system has dropped 8 percent, from $40.9 billion down to $37.8 billion, during the same period.

In the wake of last month's fatal Metrolink collision in Chatsworth that killed 25 people, the region's two freight railroads announced Wednesday that they will put automated systems on L.A.-area tracks to stop trains before they crash by 2012 - three years ahead of an expected congressional mandate.Rachel Uranga in the Daily News.

Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe told a special state Senate hearing in Van Nuys the track infrastructure for the new system will be in place on 120 miles of track by 2012. But not every single locomotive will be fitted with a control computer by that date, officials said.

"Los Angeles is going to be our No. 1 priority," said Jeff Young, Union Pacific Railroad's assistant vice president of information technology.

In what environmentalists called the most progressive environmental action ever taken by Los Angeles County, the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday moved to make buildings and homes more energy efficient and landscaping more drought resistant. Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

Under three new ordinances approved by supervisors, new homes and businesses will be required to use power more efficiently, retain storm water on site and use drought-tolerant plants.

Mark Gold, president of Heal the Bay, said the board's passage of the ordinances is the most progressive environmental action taken by the county and will set a precedent for the entire region.

Animal shelter workers joined activists Tuesday to renew calls for the resignation of city animal control manager Ed Boks. During a special city meeting, employees for the Los Angeles Department of Animal Services called for the heads of general manager Ed Boks, and his assistant, Linda Barth. Dana Bartholomew in the Daily News.

Last month, half the department had filed a petition of no confidence, citing mismanagement, intimidation, retaliation and a disregard for workers, animals and public safety.

"This is unprecedented for this many members of animal services to stand up and say, 'We've had it, ... We can't bear to see animals the way they're being treated because of management policies and procedures,'" said Victor Gordo, a union representative for LAAS middle management.

A massive $200 million mixed-use project, stocked with glass-enclosed elevators and giant outdoor LED billboards, could revitalize a long-blighted area of Panorama City under a proposal by two controversial developers.Connie Llanos in the Daily News.

The Panorama Place project would replace the long-shuttered Montgomery Ward building with a three-story, 452,000-square-foot mall and 500 condos on an 8.7-acre lot next to the Panorama Mall.

The project's lead developer is Mark Siffin, a 58-year-old businessman from Indiana whose record includes a failure to finish a previous big project in the Los Angeles area and a conviction for drug dealing in his 20s.

Pledging to continue his efforts to help business even in the perilous economic times, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Tuesday warned business leaders the city is in for continued hard times.Daily News.

Villaraigosa, speaking to about 500 members of the United Chambers of Commerce at their annual mayor's luncheon at the Warner Center Marriott, said he will resist efforts to raise the business tax - which has been reduced to 15 percent under his administration - even with the city expected to face a shortfall from $250 million to $400 million this coming year.

And he said he will not push for any new taxes or fees in the coming city budget, which promises to lead to cuts in services.

Defending significant changes in how it punishes officers, LAPD officials told the civilian Police Commission on Tuesday that a disciplinary system that gives supervisors greater discretion will better hold cops accountable for misconduct.Rachel Uranga in the Daily News.

The system, slowly being implemented by Deputy Chief Mark Perez over the past year, is guided by the principles of changing behavior with warnings for first-time offenses. It relies on character development rather than punishment.

"The history of the LAPD has been too much focused on the process of the personnel complaint ... and they miss the essence of the event," Perez told the commission. "`Why did this happen? What is the cause and how do we change this?' And that is the focus of the department: Change the causes."

Only City Council President Eric Garcetti could turn a road trip to Las Vegas into a weekend of walking and knocking on doors.
In this case, it is part of the Obama get out the vote effort where volunteers from Los Angeles head to Nevada to try to turn the formerly Republican state for the Democratic nominee.
Garcetti is California co-chair for Obama and this trip is the second he has organized to Nevada. This weekend's trip is aimed at getting early votes for the Democratic ticket.
"For the first time since 1996 we have a strong chance to win Nevada's five electoral votes this year, and potentially to change the outcome for this election" Garcetti said.

Four former high-level officials with Los Angeles International Airport are seeking reimbursement for legal fees incurred during an investigation into the City Hall "pay to play" scandal, officials confirmed Monday. Art Marroquin in the Daily Breeze.

Payback for private attorney fees, expected to exceed $100,000, was cited in claims recently filed by Kim Day, the former executive director of LAX, along with former Deputy Executive Director Jim Ritchie and former airport Commissioners Ted Stein and Cheryl Petersen.

The Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners is scheduled to discuss the matter behind closed doors on Wednesday. It was unclear whether other current or former airport officials had planned to seek similar reimbursement.

The longtime spokesman for Los Angeles International Airport has moved over to a downtown private consulting firm.
Paul Haney, deputy executive director at Los Angeles World Airports where he worked for eight years, announced he was going to work for Englander & Associates. Haney will work on a variety of government relations, issues, media and crisis communications, it was announced.
Before working at LAWA, Haney spent 22 years at American Airlines and Lockheed Martin Corp.

As the number of people seeking welfare benefits from Los Angeles County is expected to soar this year, the Board of Supervisors will vote today on spending an additional $155 million to meet the rising demand and other needs. Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

The supplemental budget, funds that were left over from last fiscal year, calls for an extra: $14 million in general-relief checks; $12 million for homeless programs; $44 million for child welfare; and $6million to buy radios for District Attorney's Office investigators.

County Chief Executive Officer Bill Fujioka said the general-relief caseload is increasing by nearly 20 percent a year. General relief offers $221 monthly checks to low-income households.

With a presidential election and a slate full of ballot measures, campaign fundraising has been somewhat slow for proponents of local tax and bond measures, according to campaign finance reports filed Monday.Kerry Cavanaugh and George B. Sanchez in the Daily News.

Campaigns for three local measures all raised less than $265,000 each through September.

By comparison, earlier this year supporters of Proposition S, which extended the city's utility user tax, had donated more than $1.5 million a month before the Feb. 5 election.

Expected to generate $30 billion to $40 billion over 30 years for transportation projects in the nation's most traffic-clogged city, Measure R is aimed at relieving Los Angeles County by building a subway, expanding rail and bus service, and widening roads.Sue Doyle in the Daily News.

Though it comes at a jittery economic time - with subprime mortgages unraveling the banking industry and Congress bailing out those financial institutions - the half-percent sales-tax measure could find favor with voters sick and tired of soaring gasoline prices and seeking better mass transit.

The measure needs approval from two-thirds of voters and would increase the county sales tax rate to 8.75percent.

While bets of this sort are normally between mayors and governors, Councilman Tom LaBonge is getting in on the betting on the Dodgers.
LaBonge has bet Philadelphia Councilan Curtis Jones Jr., that the Dodgers will best the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League Championship Series.
LaBonge said he will put up pumpkin bread from the nuns at the Monastery of the Angeles, a case of Dodger Dogs and books on the history of Los Angeles if the Dodgers lose.'
In return, Jones is betting books about Philadelphia and a six0foot Philly cheese steaks.
The series opens on Thursday.

Secretary of State Debra Bowen announced that vote by mail for Californians began on Monday for the Nov. 4 elections with estimates it could account for 25 percent of the total vote.
Bowen since in the 2004 presidential election, absentee ballots were 32 percent of the 12.6 millino votes cast and represented fully 58 percent of the votes cast in the low turnout June primary election.
"Interest in the Nov. 4 election is going through the roof and I wouldn't be surprised to see a record number of Californians cast ballots," Bowen said.
"Any Californian can vote by mail for any reason. Many people enjoy voting at the polls on Election Day, but an increasing number of voters find the mail option to be an easy way to beat the crowds by voting at their convenience."
Bowen said her office has processed between 6,000 and 10,000 registrations a day due to the voter registration efforts of both parties.
County elections officials begin mailing out ballots to the more than 4 million permanent vote-by-mail voters.
The last day to request a vote-by-mail ballot for the November election is Oct. 28.

The wesbsite Fivethirtyeight.com takes a look at California's role in this year's presidential election:
COASTALLY URBAN AND MAVERICKILY LIBERAL, California is one of only four majority-minority states (TX, HI, NM) in the nation. It's a guaranteed 55 electoral votes for Barack Obama, as it has been for every Democrat since 1992. It has the smallest percentage of rural voters in America. Ironically, it's a state both candidates have visited far out of proportion to the closeness of the race, because both sides need wealthy donors.

Looks like the Yes on Proposition 8 ad that features San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom declaring same-sex marriage is here to stay, "like it or not," has hit a legal - if not political - snag down in Southern California. Mattier and Ross in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Newsom's bit is fine - but apparently not the part where Pepperdine University law Professor Richard Peterson warns that, if same-sex marriages remain on the books, people could be sued over personal beliefs, churches could lose their tax exemptions, and gay marriage could be "taught in public schools."

A number of alumni who saw the ad contacted the university president's office to protest what appeared to be Pepperdine's own endorsement of Prop. 8, which would violate its tax-exempt status. The university is affiliated with the Churches of Christ.

"Oh my god. Take a gun and shoot me."

That's one Hollywood fund-raiser's take on the difficulties of coming up with more political coin this month.

In recent weeks, the two presidential campaigns, various Senate and House candidates, plus myriad state legislators, ballot propositions and 527 committees have all been making the same play for the same pool of entertainment industry money. Variety.

He sees it in his customers' eyes as they pay for food with pocket change. Susan Abram in the Daily News.

It's the little things, like switching from salads to french fries, that tell Tony Green, who runs Flooky's on Victory Boulevard, that his customers are hurting emotionally.

"I can see it in my customers who have been coming here for a long time," Green said. "Their eating habits have changed."

Stocks inch up, then nose-dive. Rows of foreclosure signs line neighborhood lawns. Gas prices fluctuate, and banks go bankrupt. Wars continue in the Middle East and food costs climb everywhere. And on Friday, the Labor Department said the economy lost 159,000 jobs last month, the biggest one-month drop in five years.

TIPOFFS: Mayor has grim news on budget, neighborhood councils have warning.

Sarah Palin the pit bull showed up at The Home Depot Center in Carson on Saturday, taking shots at Sen. Barack Obama on taxes and on his association with a former member of the Weather Underground. Gene Maddaus in the Daily News.

Palin, who has energized the Republican Party base since she was chosen as Sen. John McCain's running mate, fired up a crowd estimated at 15,000 people.

"There is a time when it is necessary to take the gloves off, and that time is right now," Palin said, adding that a staffer had told her, "OK now, the heels are on, the gloves come off."

William Bratton, the ambitious and globe-trotting Los Angeles police chief, was subject to new rumors Saturday that he's seeking an even more high-profile post: head of New Scotland Yard. Rachel Uranga in the Daily News.

Bratton was in London last week for a crime summit and met with Mayor Boris Johnson, who was "extremely impressed" with the Yank, according to Britain's Sun newspaper, which described Bratton as expressing interest in the job.

But Bratton, greeting donors on the red carpet at a Los Police Police Foundation fundraiser at Paramount Studios on Saturday, denied he is seeking the position and said it had not been offered to him.

With Los Angeles feeling the impact of the national financial crisis, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa asked city department heads Friday to prepare to significantly cut spending by reducing services and cutting management.

In a letter to all general managers, Villaraigosa warned that L.A. is facing another dire budget year and the city will have to cut jobs and services.

The Mayor's Office and city officials are now beginning work on the 2008-2009 budget, which will be adopted in May.

He asked managers to prepare two budget proposals by early December. One would assume no growth in spending. The other requires department heads to cut spending by 6 percent if they have a budget less than $20 million or 9 percent if they have a budget more than $20 million. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

"Balancing next year's budget means that many difficult options will be before us, including position cuts and mandatory across-the-board measures," the mayor wrote.

Villaraigosa said city finances are being strained by the combined effect of growing unemployment, a tight credit market that limits business growth and a stagnant housing market. City financial managers project a deficit of $282 million.

The case of an MTA bus driver who embezzled $10,000 worth of day passes and his friend who sold them on the street has prompted the agency to conduct an audit of its drivers and address problems of accountability. Sue Doyle in the Daily News.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials said they don't know how much public money has been lost beyond this case, but they said about three drivers a year skim money from books of $5 day passes they sell on the job, allowing passengers to ride buses and rail all day with one ticket.

"We don't have a handle of the day passes unaccounted for," said Jack Eckles, Metro's deputy executive officer for systems, safety and security. "We're trying to identify our accountability problems first. We do recognize it's a problem."

Two city officials called Friday for creation of an independent post to monitor the Los Angeles Fire Department to ensure it implements reforms, after years of losing costly lawsuits over sexual and racial harassment. Daily News.

Councilmen Jose Huizar and Jack Weiss introduced a proposal to go on the March 3 ballot to create an independent assessor to implement the reforms being developed by Fire Chief Douglas Barry to end hazing and harassment.

"The independent assessor will ensure that the reforms Chief Barry is trying to implement are strictly adhered to, and to inform the public if they're not," Huizar said. "We need to put the focus back on the important work our firefighters do on a daily basis."

Apparently stung by local criticism, Councilman Bernard Parks has apprentlt droped hie effort to evict th SCOPE program from a city-owned building.
Parks had written to the city's General Services Department asking for the eviction, complaining they were using the site to campaign for his opponent, Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas, for the Board of Supervisors.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa stepped in to block the eviction, saying it needed to be approved by the full City Council
Now, the Liberty Hill Foundation says that Parks has dropped the effort and will not ask the council to evict the group.

If Congress rejects the $700 billion bailout plan today, California and local governments might have to postpone voter-approved road, school and other projects for lack of money. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

Turmoil in the financial markets has made it difficult and expensive for government agencies to sell bonds that generate the cash needed to pay for large-scale construction projects.

In a letter to Congress this week, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger urged action on a bailout plan, warning that the state won't be able to fund highway, school, housing and water projects in the current financial climate.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's school partnership is seeking exemptions from 86 state education laws, outraging employee unions that fear the move will weaken educational quality. George B. Sanchez in the Daily News.

The partnership, overseeing 10 of the district's lowest-performing schools, has asked to be free from requirements on teacher certification, math training, the employee merit system, student promotion, student retention and other issues.

The partnership has to request the waivers from the district, which would then seek approval from the state. In response to the mayor's plan, district staffers wrote a proposal for the state Board of Education essentially to "waive all laws that can be waived."

Day-labor organizer Antonio Bernabe, who sees the landscape of illegal immigration almost every day, thought for a moment Thursday about the latest report showing a declining number of undocumented workers in the country and wondered whether it meant anything Tony Castro in the Daily News..

"If they're saying that (illegal immigrants) are leaving, that's true," said Bernabe, day-labor organizer in the Valley for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA). "But at the same time, many are still coming every day, all trying to reach the American dream.

"There are still many (illegal immigrants) who are here and not going back. You are not going to see that change."

The union representing city Department of Recreation and Parks workers stepped up its protest Thursday of cuts, warning that fewer park rangers will be on duty, thus endangering the public and creating fears of a repeat of last summer when a fire broke out in Griffith Park. Daily News.

"This is strictly a public-safety issue," Ranger Pete Steuer said. "My concern is we have the Santa Ana winds due, and we don't want a repeat of the last fire we had in Griffith Park. What this is doing is taking eyes away from the danger."

The rangers also are needed to help with tourists who come from around the world to see the Hollywood sign, visit the Griffith Observatory and make use of the park, Steuer said.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is heading to Palm Beach for a meeting of the U.,S. Conference of Mayors, his office announced. No further details were available.

The engineer of a Metrolink train that smashed into an oncoming freight train in Chatsworth last month sent 29 text messages from his cell phone while operating trains on the day of the crash - including one just 22 seconds before the deadly head-on collision, federal investigators said Wednesday. Sue Doyle in the Daily News.

The preliminary findings released by the National Transportation Safety Board - the federal agency overseeing the investigation - confirm what two 14-year-old train enthusiasts have claimed since the Sept. 12 tragedy: They were exchanging texts with Robert M. Sanchez, 46, moments before the collision that killed 25 people and injured 135.

But the theory that Sanchez, who died in the crash, was distracted by texting is just one of several being explored by investigators who also are considering possible mechanical failures and health problems to explain why the engineer blew past a red signal that day and never applied the brakes.

Expecting huge cuts in funding from the new state budget, Los Angeles Unified officials recently learned they will get back about $165 million more than they anticipated. George B. Sanchez in the Daily News.

The district is still facing a cut of $188 million from the budget signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last week. But officials last month had expected to lose $353 million.

Now they have to figure out what programs to restore with the additional funds.

Most of the money is for special programming, such as small classes, but it remains unclear how much will go back to the classroom and when.

"That's a major

Los Angeles city parks will be cleaned less often and recreation programs will have fewer staffers starting this week, as budget cuts hit the Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Department.
Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.
As many as 155 part-time workers are expected to lose their jobs and hundreds of other workers will see their hours cut to close a $3 million department shortfall.

Wednesday, some two dozen parks employees pleaded with City Council members to stop the cuts, but Recreation and Parks Department General Manager Jon Kirk Mukri said he had no choice.

To help solve its traffic problem, Los Angeles needs to get 2 percent to 5 percent of vehicles off its freeways, increase discounts for bus riders and work with employers to get workers to use mass transit or let them work from home more, according to a study being released today. Daily News.

"All the easy solutions have been used," said Paul Sorenson, a researcher for Rand Corp., which spent more than a year studying local transportation problems and coming up with short-term solutions over the next five years.

The study, "Moving Los Angeles," will be available at the organization's Web site, www.rand.org.

State Controller John Chiang today announced that he has completed his cash analysis and, based on projected declines in revenues coupled with questionable cash solutions in the State's record-setting late budget, has determined California will need to borrow $7 billion to meet all of its obligations through the fiscal year ending June 30, 2009.

"There is no question that today's economic uncertainties and a tight credit market may create enormous challenges to the State to borrow at one time the entire $7 billion I have determined the State will need to meet its obligations through the end of the fiscal year. The difficulty is also compounded by the short window of time between now and the final days of October, the period in which my office has projected the State will likely run out of cash.

"It is critical that Congress take swift action to adopt an economic recovery plan that can calm the fears of American consumers, stabilize the market and loosen the credit stream we will need to continue to provide quality programs and services Californians expect and deserve."

Warning grieving families and injured passengers still reeling from last month's deadly Metrolink train crash in Chatsworth to think about the future, attorneys Tuesday laid the groundwork for litigation stemming from the head-on collision that killed 25 people. Sue Doyle in the Daily News.

At two town-hall meetings inside the Courtyard Marriott Hotel, lawyers spoke for two hours about a bullish corporate culture fueling the operator of Southern California's commuter rail system that they say leads to unsafe practices.

Metrolink officials knowingly send out trains with mechanical defects and encourage engineers to exceed speed limits and fudge record keeping, all to avoid being late and reap lucrative financial bonuses for arriving on time, the attorneys said.

"Their chief concern is not what it should be," attorney R. Edward Pfiester Jr. said. "And that's the safety of their passengers."

His Los Angeles-based law firm, w

Despite being virtually outlawed by the city three years ago, advertising trailers are spreading like a virus across the San Fernando Valley, drawing the ire of officials and the attention of vandals. Barbara Correa in the Daily News.

Parked on the shoulder of major thoroughfares, the 4-by-6 signs on miniature trailers advertise everything from professional services to fast-food restaurants, although the messages on many of them have been obliterated by vandals in recent days.

"I refer to them as something you wouldn't be able to put in the paper," said Los Angeles City Councilman Dennis Zine, who backed a 2005 ordinance restricting unhitched trailers from being parked on city street

East L.A. - birthplace of the lowrider, Los Lobos and Oscar de la Hoya - is to Mexican-Americans what Harlem is to the black community. AP in the Daily News.

Now it wants to become its own city.

Commonly mistaken for a part of Los Angeles, East L.A. is actually an unincorporated section of Los Angeles County, with more than 130,000 people - 96 percent of them Latino - packed into 7.4 square miles.