Domestic Policy

Mayoral Candidate Emanuel Pleitez Gets Aggressive with Rival Eric Garcetti and Hauls Out Immigration Politics

UPDATE: Emanuel Pleitez speaks out at press conference, after the jump. After seeing a bump in his polling numbers among Latino voters, Los Angeles mayoral candidate Emanuel Pleitez is getting aggressive and now looking to beef up that support by bringing the politics of immigration into the fold. ... More >>

Happy Birthday, Ronald

City Attorney's Race: Mike Feuer Calls On Carmen Trutanich To Return NRA Money

The top candidates for L.A. city attorney continued their battle over gun control this week, with Assemblyman Mike Feuer calling on incumbent Carmen Trutanich to return any income he received from the NRA when he was in private practice.Trutanich countered by calling on Feuer to return his sala ... More >>

Mike Feuer And Carmen Trutanich Back New Local Gun Restrictions In City Attorney Race

California already has some of the nation's most stringent gun laws. But in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., school shooting, L.A. officials are pushing for new restrictions at the local level. The issue has become particularly potent in the campaign for L.A. city attorney. Today, incumbent Carm ... More >>

City Attorney Carmen Trutanich, Whose Old Law Firm Worked For The NRA, Comes Out For Gun Control

The school shooting in Newtown, Conn., has put gun control back on the national agenda. Over the last two days it's also become an issue locally, as the candidates for L.A. city attorney jockey to prove how tough they are on guns.It started on Wednesday, when incumbent Carmen Trutanich wrote a lette ... More >>

Antonio Villaraigosa Joins Committee to Fix the Debt, Completing Plutocratic Conversion

Update below: Online petition calls for mayor to resign from Fix the Debt. Villaraigosa responds.Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has joined the Committee to Fix the Debt, thus completing his transformation from firebrand Chicano organizer to servant of the plutocracy.Fix the Debt wants lawmakers to addre ... 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 >>

Molly Munger's Prop. 38 Is Spoiling Jerry Brown's Prop. 30. She's Not Sorry.

Her husband Steve English and the Advancement Project fuel her toughness

Drug War Leads to More HIV?

Updated at the bottom with some of the report's findings. First posted on June 21. In L.A. your favorite outlaw drug, marijuana, is pretty much legit and widely available (for now). But what if it wasn't? What if you had to scrounge around dirty, dark alleys, buy your fix from shady drug dealers, ... More >>

Eric Bauman v. Gloria Romero in Assembly District 46

America Wants Marijuana Reform, Former LAPD Leader Tells Obama Via YouTube: Will He Respond?

Updated at the bottom with Obama's response. First posted at 7:01 a.m. The people who want to decriminalize marijuana are bringing the issue to President Obama this morning. A retired LAPD deputy chief, Stephen Downing, submitted a video to the White House in which he asks what the president would ... More >>

L.A. County Halts Section 8 Crackdown In Antelope Valley

Lancaster Mayor Rex Parris​Update below: Rex Parris pulls no punches in response. Lancaster and Palmdale have been at war with the Section 8 housing program for the last several years, fighting off what they see as an "inundation" of the urban poor into the Antelope Valley.But today they've lost t ... More >>

Illegal Immigrant Deportations to Slow Way Down as Presidential Election Approches: L.A. Immigrants' Rights Group Cheers

Kenn Wilson​This has the smell of a presidential campaign move if you ask us. President Obama hasn't really thrown too many bones to Latino voters during his first term as America's CEO, but he certainly needs a reprise of their support if has a shot at keeping the gig in 2012. A key issue fo ... More >>

Mark Cuban, Would-be Dodgers Owner, Says Idea of Higher Corporate Taxes Hindering Hiring is 'Nonsense'

Mark Cuban.​Mark Cuban, one of the billionaires named as a possible Dodgers' bidder (he has said the price was too high), is spoiling the trickle-down tax-break arguments of Republican lawmakers again. The Dallas Mavericks owner had previously sided with billionaire Warren Buffet in declaring ... More >>

Richard Nixon's War on Drugs: Happy Anniversary! Candlelight Vigil Marks the Occasion

Richard Nixon checks out a package of marijuana​As part of Richard Nixon's farewell to the press and the nation, he famously said, "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore." But tody, June 17 - the 40th anniversary of Nixon officially declaring a "war on drugs" - is a special exception. Fo ... More >>

Public Counsel Sues Lancaster And Palmdale Over "War" On Section 8 Housing

​Update: Lancaster Mayor Rex Parris calls the lawsuit "inflammatory bullshit." More below. Update 2: Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford gives his own defense. A public interest law firm filed a racial discrimination suit today against Lancaster and Palmdale, charging that the cities have declared "war" on ... More >>

Marijuana Legalization Supporters to Meet Up in Hollywood This Weekend in Effort to Get California Reform Back on Track

Troy HoldenCalifornia's pot jar is half full.​After California's effort to fully legalize pot failed in November, we told you that marijuana backers were already anticipating their next shot. Well, it's March, and they're not backing off. Cannabis supporters say there was a strong showing in ... More >>

Tucson Massacre: Sen. Barbara Boxer Says Guns Are Partly To Blame

File photo of Barbara Boxer at work.​Nobody knows what inspired Jared Loughner to allegedly do it: Inflammatory political campaigning, marijuana, punk rock, mental illness? But we do know that access to weapons didn't appear hinder a suspect who authorities said opened fire at a Tucson superma ... More >>

Return to Sender

What would comprehensive immigration reform look like if the Feds got off their duffs?

FAIRY-y Tales

Proposition 19 Dreams of Legal Weed

Bruce Margolin has defended 25,000 pot cases and Timothy Leary. Now he's primed for ganja tourists and sensimilla spas

Californians Spending Their Welfare $$$ In Vegas Is Great Tea Party Fodder. But It's Less Than 1 Percent Of Total.

​A lead story in today's L.A. Times reports that Californians on welfare spent more than $69 million out-of-state in recent years. Get ready John and Ken and all you other shock jock talkers: Included in the spending were "millions in Las Vegas, hundreds of thousands in Hawaii and thousands ... More >>

Prop. 19: Former Police, Justice Officials Stand Up For Pot Legalization Effort

​Backers of the November ballot initiative that would legalize pot on Monday rolled out several law enforcement and justice officials who are backing California's Prop. 19. A press conference was held in West Hollywood to announce the endorsements by cops, judges and prosecutors. "I was with ... More >>

Prop 19 Pot Legalization: Politico Parachutes In, Offers Little

​Politico dropped into California to report on Prop. 19, California's pot legalization voter initiative, and here's what they offered: Cheesy, snarky headline (California Dreaming For Legal Pot Advocates); point-and-laugh lede about Oaksterdam; perfunctory paragraph about why legalization mi ... More >>

Marijuana Advocates Want Michele Leonhart Out At DEA Following California Pot Shop Raids

Leonhart with Attorney General Eric Holder.​Despite an Obama administration directive meant to put a halt to federal raids of pot shops in states where medical marijuana has been legalized, recent dispensary busts, including one in Southern California, have prompted a group of cannabis advocat ... More >>

Rage Against The Machine To Headline Concert Fighting Arizona Immigration Law [Updated]

By Steve La Steve La(From left) Zack de la Rocha and Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine​ Some rockers are taking on the Arizona immigration law that has stirred a lot of passionate opposition here in L.A., including boycotts of Arizona by several cities. "This is not a Latino or immig ... More >>

California NAACP Group Backs Marijuana Legalization Initiative On November Ballot

​The California State Conference of the NAACP was scheduled Tuesday to back Prop. 19, the November ballot initiative that would fully legalize marijuana in California, according to a statement from the Drug Policy Alliance. "We are joining a growing number of medical professionals, labor orga ... More >>

Poll Shows That California Voters Support Pot Legalization

​According to a recent poll, Californians are open to the legalization of marijuana. However, support is soft, with 49 percent of voters favoring the legislation and 41 percent opposing it. Ten percent of voters were uncertain about whether or not to support or oppose the measure. The poll a ... More >>

L.A. City Council Backs State Law That Would Ban Open Display Of Firearms

​The Los Angeles City Council this week backed a proposed state law that would ban the open display of handguns in public, a practice that has been advocated in recent months by the pro-gun "Open Carry" movement. The law, proposed by San Diego Democratic Assemblywoman Lori Saldaña, would most ... More >>

California's Illegal-Immigration Enforcement Law Is Tougher Than Arizona's

​The conservative Washington Times newspaper recently pointed out that California law actually mirror's Arizona's controversial new immigration legislation that encourages police to verify the immigration status of suspects they believe are in the country illegally. The paper quotes Californ ... More >>

L.A. Councilman Proposes Ban On Rent Increases For Some

​Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon on Wednesday proposed a one-year ban on rent increases for rent-controlled residences. "My motion will put a one-year hold on increases in rent to help our working families, and give the council time to consider longer-term fixes to ensure fairness ... More >>

The Plastic Bag Lives On In Manhattan Beach

​A state appellate panel dealt a setback today to Manhattan Beach and to other cities that have sought to ban plastic bags, ruling that the city should have done an environmental impact report before imposing its bag ban in 2008.In this case, the plastics industry -- under the name of The Save the ... More >>

Weed Takes Root

Marijuana's steady march toward legalization nationwide

Hollywood's Catered Stimulus

Why $23 million creates just 21 jobs

Laura Chick Finds Half A Mil In Bad Federal Spending

Laura Chick, the former city controller who tried to account for tax dollars penny by penny, putting many council members on notice, is the new sheriff in town in Sacramento as a state inspector charged with keeping tabs on federal stimulus money headed to the Golden State.Laura Chick​ She's ... More >>

Arnold Schwarzenegger calls for massive tax increases

New Slant on Italics

And could Cesar Chavez be an icon of the Minutemen?

Eminent Domain Targeted by Propositions 98 and 99

Radically different ideas target the government practice of taking homes

Water, Water, Nowhere

Impeaching Presidents — and Messengers

Bush, The New York Times and the Patriot Act

Arnold’s Broken Bond

Our taxing relationship with the governor

Inherit the Wind

George W. Bush and his father’s failed federal agency

Lost in the Smog

Environmentalists say the energy industry helped write Clear Skies. Yeah? So what else is new?

Creating California

Pat Brown knew how to build a great state; Arnold Schwarzenegger knows how to dismantle it

Ready, Aim, Sign?

Governor’s showdown nears on gun-control measures

Corporate Kerry

The senator comes to California for the rich person’s vote and dollars

This Budget Hurts

Governor Arnold talks about his budget — and the outcry over cuts

University of Fear

How the Department of Homeland Security is becoming a big man on campus

Aborting Abortion Rights — Then and Now

New details from Blackmun’s papers show how 1992 begets 2004

Scream IV

Arnold and the tax hike to come