California Public Records Act

Eric Garcetti Muzzles Taxi Czar Who Criticized Uber

When it comes to Uber, Tom Drischler does not mince words. The smartphone app that allows users to hail towncars moved into L.A. last year, disrupting the traditional model of taxi service.Drischler, the city's taxi administrator, believed Uber and its competitors Lyft and Sidecar were brazenly viol ... More >>

Mayor Eric Garcetti Vowed Transparency, But Withholds Candid Assessments Of City Operations

Mayor Eric Garcetti has been in office for little more than a month, and already he's starting to lose some of that new-mayor glow. One of his first acts in office was to undertake a review of the city's departments, asking all general managers to reapply for their jobs and submit memos detailing th ... More >>

Millennium Hollywood Fault Coverup? Emails Show City Knew

Please read about L.A. officials' feverish approval of big projects near Franklin and Yucca above and near the active Hollywood Fault. Updated at bottom with a "before and after map" to show how skyscraper location got moved outside the Fault Rupture Study Area. Description of map corrected at 7 p. ... More >>

Secret Drain System Below Ballona Wetlands Under Investigation

Ballona Wetlands, the last major tidal marsh in Southern California, has been the center of a furious recent debate pitting environmental groups against Annenberg Foundation and state agencies, who want to construct a huge building there. Now, a mysterious underground drain system installed by deve ... More >>

Eric Garcetti Will Be the Boy Scout Mayor: No Limos or $500 Wine

No Fun Allowed: It's Damn Hard to Legally Host Live Music in L.A.

LAPD License Plate Readers Know What You Did Last Summer; ACLU Sues

The LAPD, the L.A. County Sheriff's Department and other law enforcement agencies in Southern California routinely scan millions of license plates via patrol-car-based devices that can track your whereabouts. What do they do with the info? It's not entirely clear, but the record shows that cops ha ... More >>

Los Globos Suing the City for $10 Million

Nightlife mogul Steven Edelson, the wealthy operator behind the renovated Los Globos club, has filed a $10 million claim against the city of Los Angeles, West Coast Sound has learned. The claim comes after the LAPD stripped Los Globos of its live music permits in October, though it has since resume ... More >>

Herb Wesson: Will L.A. Council President Turn Over Damning Emails in Redistricting Lawsuit?

Los Angeles City Council President Herb Wesson and other council members better hope they don't have any embarrassing emails or texts on their computers or cell phones. In a hard-charging legal move on Thursday, Beverly Hills civil rights attorney Leo Terrell sent out California Public Records Act ... More >>

Raves: 14 Deaths After Insomniac, Go Ventures EDM Parties

In recent years 14 people have died from overdoses or drug-related incidents after attending raves put on by some of the nation's biggest electronic-music event promoters, Insomniac Events and Go Ventures, both based in L.A. Most of the deceased were teenagers or twentysomethings attending events t ... More >>

LAPD Spied on 21 Using StingRay Anti-Terrorism Tool

Mimicking a cellphone tower, it bypasses checks and balances

Has Your License Plate Been Tracked by SoCal Cops?

If you were surprised to learn from LA Weekly's report in June that police agencies across Southern California -- including the LAPD and the L.A. County Sheriff's Department -- were using license plate readers to track your moves, you weren't alone. The Wall Street Journal used the piece as "one of ... More >>

LAPD Spy Device Taps Your Cell Phone

StingRay is secretly used without warrants

L.A. County Supervisors Spent Thousands on V.I.P. Chauffer Service in D.C.

After years of criticizing the every move of Los Angeles County's five-member governing board, gadfly extraordinaire Eric Preven -- known by county supervisors as the pesky mosquito who's never missed a meeting -- finally gets his crowing and legitimizing moment this week with a juicy expose on the ... More >>

Comments: Readers Talk Coliseum, Fairfax Avenue, and Stop-Sign Tickets

Stop Sign Camera Tickets in L.A. Lead to Demands to See Drivers' Bank Accounts

Mountains Authority takes money-grubbing to a new low

USC Grad Student Sues Over a Deep L.A. Secret: Who Got Rich Off Illegal Billboards?

License Plate Recognition Logs Our Lives Long Before We Sin

City Attorney Carmen Trutanich Withholds Occupy L.A. Video On First Amendment

Carmen Trutanich is running for district attorney on a pledge to bring "honesty, transparency and integrity" to the D.A.'s office. His record on honesty is a bit checkered, and lately his commitment to transparency has come into question as well.In a recent debate, Chief Deputy D.A. Jackie Lacey cri ... More >>

L.A. Overspends by $27,378 an Hour

Two key perks: free gas and cars

Teflon Sheriff Lee Baca Sued For Blocking Records of Slain Journalist Ruben Salazar

The death of journalist Ruben Salazar at the hands of an L.A. County Sheriff's deputy in 1970 became a rallying point for the Chicano movement and inspired the first organization for Hispanic journalists in the United States -- CCNMA: Latino Journalists of California, where this reporter serves as a ... More >>

Rave Promoters Got Low, Even No Rent at Publicly Run Coliseum as They Raked in Millions in Ticket Sales

Updated at the bottom: L.A. County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas says this just shows that it's time to do away with the Coliseum Commission. First posted at 11:54 a.m. Rave promoters at the publicly run L.A. Coliseum and Sports Arena paid decreasing rents as they raked in millions in ticket revenu ... More >>

LAFD Chief Brian Cummings' Media Blackout Is Illegal and Self-Serving, Says LA.'s Top Free-Speech Attorney

[Update: Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who hand-picked Cummings last September and has been lovingly tugging at the chief's puppet strings ever since, totally humiliated his political plaything this afternoon by demanding -- via passive-aggressive "open letter" -- that the LAFD go back to its old meth ... More >>

Stop-Sign Cameras Ticket 70,000 in Los Angeles Parks

Mark Berndt's Settlement Document Exposed: Teacher Alleged to Have Sparked Miramonte Sex Scandal Got Paid

With reporting from Beth Barrett We already know that the L.A. Unified School District paid alleged student molester Mark Berndt $40,000 to go away. It's an astonishing fact, even though the district contends that the payoff was the only way to get him to leave as he appealed the disciplinary cas ... More >>

Rave Promoters Gave $40,000 to City Leader Bernard Parks' 4th of July Event: Money Magically Came Off Their L.A. Coliseum Bills

Cesar SebastianRavers at the L.A. Sports Arena.​L.A. city Councilman Bernard Parks has been an ardent supporter of the four-times-a-year raves that were fixtures at the publicly owned L.A. Coliseum and Sports Arena since 1998. Parks, a former LAPD police chief, is a law-and-order guy through- ... More >>

Roderick Wright, Inglewood Senator Accused of Sexual Harassment, Pays Woman $120K in State Money to Shut Up: Report

Bakersfield NowOK, ew.​The most infuriating part about the California State Senate's reported $120,000 payout on behalf of Senator Roderick Wright (D-Inglewood) last year -- just now revealed by the Los Angeles Times -- is that officials are treating it like nothing out of the ordinary. Wrigh ... More >>

Judge Blocks L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca's Attempt to Conceal Deportation Stats, ICE Correspondence

The immigrants rights crowd in Los Angeles may be about to hit a Sarah Palin-sized jackpot of possibly inane, possibly explosive correspondence between the L.A. County Sheriff's Department and immigration feds. Sheriff Lee Baca, head of the department -- largest of its kind in the country -- initia ... More >>

L.A. Latinos Sue Sheriff Lee Baca for Failing to Reveal Internal 'Secure Communities' Correspondance With ICE

Sheriff Baca just got sued.​Updated after the jump: The Sheriff's Department says this is ICE's problem, not theirs. This should be an interesting lawsuit -- not only for the future of immigration reform, but for frustrated journalists who repeatedly get their California Public Records Act re ... More >>

Rave Promoters From Electric Daisy Carnival, Together As One Paid L.A. Coliseum Manager $10,000 a Year

Caesar SebastianEDC.​A report in today's Los Angeles Times expands the number of side jobs former L.A. Coliseum events manager Todd DeStefano had, indicating his own private companies took tens of thousands of dollars from the likes of Coca-Cola and UCLA as those entities booked events at the ... More >>

Los Angeles: Broke and Broken

City Council clueless about vast, hidden costs in Villaraigosa's $6.9 billion budget

Torpedoing a Top Science Program

Low-income Lawndale kids were getting into elite colleges. But the adults went to war

Richard McKee RIP: Pasadena Professor Beat Scores of Politicians in Court Who Illegally Kept Public Meetings and Info a Secret

RIP Richard McKee, Brown Act hero​Big loss for anyone worried about the scheming, secretive government entities and politicians so common in California cities, counties and Sacramento: The surprise death of Richard McKee, a widely respected expert on the California Public Records Act and Brown ... More >>

United Methodist Church vs. L.A. City Hall

Will city workers nab a historic church's Sunday collections?

Manhattan Beach Sex Payoff

City manager Dolan got $270,000 — instead of being fired for misbehavior

Four Manhattan Beach Police Officers Allegedly Involved in Drunk Hit-and-Run One Year Ago Finally Fired (But Still on Paid Leave)

grunionsmb.comJanuary 31, 2010: One expensive boys' night out for the City of Manhattan Beach​We're big fans of the whole "innocent until proven guilty" thing -- and certainly wish it had applied more thoroughly to cases like that of 18-year-old Jeremy Marks -- but in heel-dragging, money-wast ... More >>

Community Voice Newspaper on Eastside Slams Jose Huizar On Missing $1.5 Million Pollution Fund

Even Homer can't find the $1.5 million CLARTS fund snatched by Huizar​LA Weekly posted an item headlined "Jose Huizar, Los Angeles City Councilman, Pressed To Explain $1.5 Million Missing from Eastside Pollution Control Fund," detailing how Huizar convinced his ill-informed City Council pals ... More >>

Jose Huizar, Los Angeles City Councilman, pressed to explain $1.5 million missing from Eastside pollution control fund

L.A. City Councilman Jose Huizar pats a back other than his own.​Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar might be the first incumbent ousted by an outsider (Rudy Martinez, profiled here) since the 1980s if he isn't careful. The MayorSam watchdog blog is following La Opinion in exposing that H ... More >>

Citywide LAPD Ticket Shakedown

Thanks to Judge Charles McCoy, cops now testify even when they don't recall

Shaky L.A. Superior Court Estimate Is Enough To Overhaul LAPD Policy On Ticket Dismissals -- And No One Can Tell Us Why

Los Angeles Superior CourtPresiding Judge Charles McCoy won't take "I don't remember" for an answer​It's the only moment of joy in traffic court: when an officer doesn't remember your case well enough to testify. Everyone's happy -- copper doesn't have to make crap up, you get to blow that Pop ... More >>

A Stink in El Segundo Over Cadillac Salaries

Cops earn $175,000, firefighters $210,000, in a town with few criminals or fires

Has Ray Cortines Got Cojones?

If not, LAUSD board could buckle to union over L.A. Times teacher-test-score expose

40th Anniversary of the National Chicano Moratorium This Weekend

​ A large crowd is expected to participate in a series of events across East Los Angeles this weekend to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the National Chicano Moratorium, a massive anti-Vietnam war protest that ended, in part, with the nearby death of a former Los Angeles Times columnist an ... More >>

L.A. Sheriff's Dept. Refuses To Give Up Records In 40-Year-Old Case Of Journalist Ruben Salazar, Killed By A Deputy

​The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is refusing to release eight boxes of records that could shed light on the death of Mexican American journalist Ruben Salazar, who was felled by a deputy's projectile 40 years ago. The records are older than the famous "Watergate tapes," but the dep ... More >>

L.A. County Supervisor Gloria Molina Wants To Know Why Sheriff Won't Release Ruben Salazar Documents

Ruben Salazar.​Updated with Sheriff Lee Baca saying he'll go through the documents and determine which ones can be released. Originally posted at 3:29 p.m. After Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina on Tuesday asked for a report on why the sheriff's department won't release eight boxes ... More >>

Villaraigosa's Five-Year Free Ticket Spree

The Los Angeles mayor's usurping of anticorruption rules could spread to pols across California

Jerry Brown Steps Into Sarah Palin Controversy At Cal State

​State Attorney General Brown said late Tuesday that he'll look into allegations that the California State University Stanislaus Foundation dumped documents related to its invitation to have Sarah Palin come speak at the school. He also wants to find out why the foundation has refused a Calif ... More >>

LAUSD's Dance of the Lemons

Why firing the desk-sleepers, burnouts, hotheads and other failed teachers is all but impossible

Was Antonio Villaraigosa Napping at an MTA Meeting?

Was Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa napping at a Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority board meeting in late October?According to Hollywood community activist John Walsh, who attended the meeting, the answer is an unqualified YES!L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa​On his blo ... More >>

LAUSD's Finest: Los Angeles School Police

How an oblivious school board lets a tiny, scandal-ridden force endanger L.A. kids