Dennis Zine

Eric Garcetti Up 7 Points In New Mayoral Poll; Mike Feuer Has Commanding Advantage In City Attorney Race

Eric Garcetti has a 7-point lead over Wendy Greuel in the race for L.A. mayor with just four days to go before the runoff election, according to a new USC/L.A. Times poll out this evening. The results:Garcetti 48Greuel 41The margin of error is 4.4%, and 11% remain undecided.The poll also gives Mike ... More >>

Los Angeles' Historic Election Night for Gay Candidates Underlines 'Gay Okay' Trend in United States

While local media and L.A. political leaders are bemoaning the city's embarrassingly low voter turnout on Election Day, something quite positive, even historic, happened last Tuesday night: Gay candidates across Los Angeles kicked butt. Many gay politicos can't think of an election in Los Angeles h ... More >>

Los Angeles City Council District 3 Primary Results: Bob Blumenfield Wins Over Joyce Pearson

Despite his massive spending, Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield barely gained the votes needed to beat neighborhood council activist Joyce Pearson in Los Angeles City Council District 3 race in the West San Fernando Valley. Blumenfield, one of the more audacious job-hoppers from Sacramento, who has nea ... More >>

Sexy Venice Firehouse 'Burlesque' Hula Hooping Video Prompts Investigation

Updated at the bottom with a response from Hoopnotica, the video's maker. The L.A. Fire Department has been criticized recently for its response times, or at least the way it reports them, not to mention occasional firefighter shenanigans that include allegations last year that LAFD rigs were used ... More >>

L.A. Council Votes To Put Half-Cent Sales Tax On March Ballot; But Citywide Candidates Are All Opposed

The L.A. City Council voted 10-4 today to put a half-cent sales tax increase on the March ballot. But all of the candidates for citywide office opposed it.Councilman Eric Garcetti and Councilwoman Jan Perry, who are running for mayor, voted no. So did Councilman Dennis Zine, who is running for contr ... More >>

Richard Riordan Pension Reform Surprise

He throws a lightning rod into the 2013 Los Angeles mayoral race

Marijuana Dispensaries Banned in L.A. Per City Council Vote

See our updates, including a hail-Mary proposal to save some dispensaries, at the bottom. The L.A. City Council today voted to put an end to the city's infamous and numerous marijuana dispensaries, citing neighborhood concerns and court rulings that have questioned a city's right to regulate the re ... More >>

Bieber's B.S: He Claims Paparazzi Harassed Him During Freeway Chase

That alleged, 100-mile-per-hour high-speed chase we told you about Friday wasn't all Justin Bieber's fault. At least that's what he's telling authorities. Bieber filed a "harassment complaint" against one paparazzo who he says was part of the chase, according to TMZ. According to TMZ's reading of ... More >>

LAFD Response-Time Scandal

Chief Cummings' plummeting morale problem

Occupy L.A: As City Debates Cost of Occupation, Port Spends Nearly $200,000 on Party

Moet & ChandonDrink up, City Hall.​As the skies of tolerance for Occupy L.A. are getting gloomy (both Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and city Councilman Bill Rosendahl have expressed that there are limits to how long demonstrators can camp out next to City Hall), our own tolerance for bullshit gro ... More >>

Red-Light Camera Tickets: Calm Down, L.A., You Still Don't Have to Pay Them

The debacle that refused to die.​Looks like all those goody two shoes who paid their red-light camera tickets last month -- against the hard advice of select City Councilmembers, traffic lawyers and, well, this very blogger -- just screwed things up for the rest of us. Though the L.A. City Co ... More >>

Jews and Latinos Band Together for Ultimate L.A. Domination

4urpets.comThis is not a joke: Jonesy the Mexican Rabbi​Wow. This is epic. This is like the U.S. of China. Or Alien plus Predator... or the merging of Home Depot and Wal-Mart. Or the lovey part of "Westside Story," if Tony was Jewish, or whatever. In today's issue of the Jewish Journal, Jonah Lo ... More >>

L.A. City Council Meeting Canceled Because Members Jose Huizar, Paul Koretz Were Late; Others Were Known No-Shows

The chambers of ACTION!​Ah, the great city of L.A. Shit gets done! Mountains get moved! The City Council ... cancels meetings because slacker members don't show up on time. Yeah, you heard right. For the second time in four months the second largest city in the nation's scheduled council mee ... More >>

Kudos To Rex Olliff, The City's Revenue Estimator, On Hitting The Target

​It should come as no surprise that Los Angeles is facing yet another giant deficit -- $350 million for next year. Pretty soon there will be another round of drama and finger-pointing about how to solve it.But before we get to that, it's worth taking a moment to congratulate a civil servant for do ... More >>

Rushed and Confused L.A. City Council

Library, weed, DWP measures aimed for ballot all get short shrift

Meg Whitman Won't Weigh In On Los Angeles Police And Fire Pensions

Ted SoquiMeg Whitman​Meg Whitman, the Republican candidate for governor, declined to take a position Sunday on a proposed ballot measure that would cut pensions for L.A. police officers and firefighters.Whitman intends to tackle the state's pension woes by switching new employees to 401(k) plans. ... More >>

City of Airheads: Villaraigosa Dismantles L.A.'s Vaunted Library System

Mayor mirrors Detroit's disastrous choice

Mayor Villaraigosa Says 3,500 Will Have Been Cut From City Payroll Come July

Fox News​In a bizarre pronouncement, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa this week told Fox News' Neil Cavuto that 3,500 workers will have been cut from city payrolls come July 1 as City Hall balanced a budget that at one time was recently $585 million in the red. It's bizarre because it's not a number ... More >>

L.A. Council President Apologizes To Press Over New Rules

​Los Angeles City Council president Eric Garcetti apologized to representatives of the press Monday after they complained that new rules limiting movement in the council chambers would effectively muzzle them and prevent them from doing their jobs. "I'll apologize ... for anything that [you] ... More >>

Reporter Decries L.A. City Hall Media Restrictions As 'Draconian'

​Michael Linder, a reporter for KABC 790 Talkradio, decried recent measures that restrict the access reporters have to Los Angeles City Council members. Although some of the rules was later rolled back, at least verbally, Linder has a problem with what he sees as an attempt at "effectively mu ... More >>

L.A. Council's Travel, Lavish Accomodations Questioned

​A recent report by NBC4's Colleen Williams (pictured) questions the Los Angeles City Council's sometimes-lavish travel arrangements, especially in light of City Hall's $585 million deficit and impending layoffs. The station found that the mayor and council spent $70,000 on travel in 2008 and ... More >>

Guessing Game

How L.A.'s budget clouds suddenly parted

Neon Tommy and Ron Kaye team up for a LOL slam of Antonio, Hahn, DWP and Los Angeles City Hall bumbling

The Neon Tommy Web site has a hilarious -- hee-larious --  peek at L.A. City Hall and its absurd characters as seen by rabble-rousing newspaperman Ron Kaye in a Laugh Out Loud profile today of Kaye, the outspoken Los Angeles Daily News editor-turned blogger. You will chortle out loud at the bum ... More >>

DWP Board Approves First Of Mayor's Proposed Rate Increases

​The Department of Water and power's board on Thursday approved the first of what the Los Angeles Times has described as sizable rate increases -- 8.8 to 28.4 percent -- as part of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's "carbon surcharge" plan to ween the city off of coal-based power and move it toward ... More >>

L.A. City Council Aims For 4,000 Total Layoffs

​The City Council on Thursday voted to order city departments to identify and layoff an additional 3,000 employees, above the 1,000 already targeted for cuts. The vote was nine in favor and three abstaining but, once again, layoffs have not been set in stone. Based on a motion by Councilwoman ... More >>

Many On Council Admit To Having Smoked Pot

​As the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday gave its final approval to a law that would shut down hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries in the city, several City Council members recalled their own relationships with the drug. KPCC (89.9 FM) reporter Frank Stoltze queried the representati ... More >>

L.A. City Council Jumps On The Body-Armor Band Wagon

​Following last month's state appeals court ruling overturning California's ban on body armor for ex-felons convicted of violent crimes, the Los Angeles City Council is poised to consider a similar law that would apply locally. The Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union representing ... More >>

The Jackson Memorial's $4 Million City Windfall Dubious

It was cool to hear City Councilman Dennis Zine on news radio this morning discounting the benefit of the purported $4 million tourist-and-shopping stimulus brought by the Michael Jackson memorial at Staples Center in July. The city paid $3.2 million, mostly in overtime and regular staffing for pol ... More >>

Council Committees Shake Down Potency Of Proposed Pot Ban

The political will just isn't there on the part of the City Council to deal with the out-of-control pot dispensary business in Los Angeles. That much was clear today when a joint committee meeting passed along the city attorney's proposed near-ban of medical marijuana businesses like an unwanted joi ... More >>

Trutanich Pushes New Pot Shop Ordinance for L.A.

On Monday, local medical marijuana advocates were buzzing about President Barack Obama's new, federal rules for not busting legitimate medical pot dispensaries and an L.A. Superior Court judge's decision to invalidate the Los Angeles City Council's moratorium on pot shops in this city, which never s ... More >>

Long Knives Slice Up Bratton

As it overspends by $1 million daily, the City Council goes after the departing chief

Update: Trutanich may conduct criminal probe of Michael Jackson/AEG memorial costs

UPDATE: I missed this really funny Los Angeles City Council agenda list published today by Mayor Sam blog's Petra Fried, showing the council's time today is being dominated by post-Jackson explanations, probes and studies. One interesting agenda item: trying to explain how the city spent a fortune o ... More >>

MICHAEL JACKSON: THE POST-MORTEM SPENDING SPREE

The blame and the buck fly furiously after the pop icon's burial

$4 Million Jackson Memorial Cost to Taxpayers?

By Tibby Rothman City Hall is begging Jackson fans for alms, but upset L.A. residents face paying a king's ransom for the memorial to the King of Pop, Michael Jackson. During the hours leading up to today's globally viewed memorial, the Los Angeles Police Department and other city offices were str ... More >>

DWP Slush Fund

In Los Angeles vs. All Persons, a tough judge makes Villaraigosa return $30 million

Digital Billboards Become a Bohemian Blasphemy

Silver Lake, Hollywood, the Valley and Westside take on City Hall's anti-green transformation of LA

Kaye Rebuffs Rumor

Nine days ago, PolitickerCA.com wondered aloud if former Daily News editor Ron Kaye, who had just left the Valley newspaper, would be running for city council in Greig Smith's district--Smith plans to vacate the seat after his term is over. Kaye would undoubtedly make for an interesting candidate, ... More >>

San Fernando Valley Bloodbath

Mass Murder in Winnetka takes life of popular SWAT officer, a former Villaraigosa bodyguard An LAPD SWAT officer was shot to death and another was wounded last night in a horrific 11-hour standoff gone bad involving a 20-year-old unemployed furniture mover with a history of mental issues and suspec ... More >>

Better Than Phone Tax

Villaraigosa makes a Lazarus play to keep alive a pricey, illegal tax on residents

Tennie Pierce Gets $1.43 Million

Actual cost to taxpayers is higher than last November’s controversial deal

A Classic Diversion

Chief Cayler Carter is publicly sacrificed, but the screwups on May 1 began with Bratton

Gravy Train

A line forms as City Council confronts the $2.7 million dog-food debacle

Reform, Hucksters

And stop running City Hall like an ad agency

Endorsements, Election Day March 8

Shut Up, Already!

The City Council loses it on the police tax

Out of the Darkness

Some city leaders call for DWP to shed light on secret settlements. . . some don’t

Yet More Lists

Twisting Slowly

The final days of Chief Parks

Endorsements

Our recommendations in the June 5 Los Angeles city election

Nagging Reforms

Let Bernie Parks lose another argument