Herb Wesson

Garcetti and Greuel's Worst Days in Power

Setting aside promises, how have they behaved?

Gray Davis, David Fleming Defend "LA 20/20" to Criticism the Group is Light on High-Tech, Hollywood or Entrepreneurs

Is LA 20/20, the high-powered committee that includes former Gov. Gray Davis and was selected by former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Mickey Kantor and multimillionaire Austin Beutner to find ways to bring economic health to L.A., a bit light on entrepreneurs and others who can create jobs? Jack Hump ... More >>

Herb Wesson's Fiscal Commission Stacked With Wendy Greuel Supporters

L.A. Council President Herb Wesson today officially unveiled a new "L.A. 2020" Commission tasked with wading through L.A.'s finances and developing some recommendations to keep the city out of bankruptcy court.Though the commission's chair, Mickey Kantor, has said repeatedly that the commission will ... More >>

Proposition A Sales Tax Increase Will Slam Los Angeles Poor, Profs and Students Say at Protest

Please also read Proposition A Sales Tax Increase: Do People Trust the L.A. City Council? By David Stamp Los Angeles City College poli-sci teacher Salvador Sanchez says "Nobody has time for this but we have to do it" -- it being to ask L.A. voters to defeat Prop. A, a tax increase on the March 5 b ... More >>

Jack Humphreville Fights Lone-Wolf Campaign Against City Hall Power Brokers and Los Angeles' Proposition A Sale Tax Measure

Read L.A. Weekly's news story on Proposition A: "L.A. Sales Tax Hike: Will $211 Million Increase Fix City's Problems?" While nearly all of L.A.'s political establishment -- Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, City Council President Herb Wesson, and deep-pocketed special interests -- are lining up behind Pr ... More >>

Villaraigosa Endorses Half-Cent Sales Tax You'll Vote On In March

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has been on the fence, or at least noticeably quiet, about a proposed sales-tax hike that will come before L.A. city voters March 5. Today the Yes on A campaign revealed that our leader is giving Proposition A his support. According to a statement from the camp Villaraig ... More >>

Ka Pasasouk: State Considered Northridge Suspect Prone To Violence

Would Ka Pasasouk, the man police believe murdered four people in Northridge last weekend, have been on the street had it not been for California's controversial prison-realignment program? A state prison official told us yes: He served his time and was due to get out last January in any case. The ... More >>

Buh-Bye to LA's 100 LED Billboards?

Los Angeles Rich People (Soboroff, Kanton, Toebben, Fleming, Miscikowski) Say to the Debt-Ridden City Council: We Like You

By Hillel Aron Nineteen big-time L.A. machers, including Steve Soboroff (rich Westside guy), Mickey Kantor (longtime Democratic consultant), Gary Toebben (Chamber of Commerce guy) and David Fleming (rich Valley guy), led by George Kieffer (Manatt, Phelps power broker), sent an open letter to City Co ... More >>

CIM Group Erects 'More Blight' at Midtown Crossing, Long-suffering Neighbors Furious

Mid-City resident Robert Portillo and his neighbors can't catch a break, and developer CIM Group seems to only want more. The newest clash between these two sides started last Friday, when Portillo and his neighbors saw construction workers at the CIM-owned Midtown Crossing shopping center suddenl ... More >>

Fast Times at L.A. City Hall: Pot-Shop Ban Pushed Forward After Shady Closed Session

What happened behind closed doors at yesterday's L.A. City Council meeting? Given the whole closed-door thing, it's hard to say. What we do know is that before L.A. City Council President Herb Wesson formed a secret huddle that lasted for over half an hour, a soft/sane proposal for pot-shop regulat ... More >>

Los Angeles Gadflies on Fire

City Hall politicians want them gone

Koreatown to File Redistricting Lawsuit Against L.A. City Council; 2 Pro-Bono Firms on Board

They threatened, and they meant it: Koreatown is taking the L.A. City Council to court over the gerrymandered land grab that was redistricting 2011-12. City Hall politicians get loads of legal threats thrown their way, on the daily. But Koreatown activists' growing rage was given a lot more weight ... More >>

John & Ken's Whitney Houston 'Crack Ho' Remark Inspires L.A. Council to Act

Update at 11:39 p.m: According to Daily News columnist Doug McIntyre the council approved the resolution. First posted at 4:15 p.m. The rantings of conservative talk show hosts John & Ken and their colleagues at KFI 640 AM have caught the attention of the L.A. City Council, which is considering a r ... More >>

L.A. Politicians Increase Amount of Money They Can Receive From Unions, Corporations

Smack dab in the middle of an election season, the L.A. City Ethics Commission decided yesterday afternoon to raise the cap on campaign contributions that municipal candidates can collect from their sponsors. In other words: L.A.'s election system just got a little less Democratic, a lot more bough ... More >>

L.A. Redistricting: Eric Garcetti's District 13 Looks Like an Evil Squirrel

Simone Wilson​While gazing at the recently proposed boundaries for L.A.'s 15 voting districts -- which is clearly what we like to do in our spare time -- we realized that the gerrymandered City Council District 13 is the spitting image of an evil squirrel. And so begins our (badly Photoshoppe ... More >>

The Five Most Furious Reactions to the Redistricting of Los Angeles

As insanely boring -- and incomprehensible to the average voter -- as the redistricting of Los Angeles may be, it's kind of a big deal. We understand the apathy. In a city where only a little over 10 percent of eligible voters turn out for municipal elections at all, they can hardly be expected to ... More >>

CIM Group's Bitter Lesson to Mid-City

Neighborhoods must sue L.A. City Hall to avert Lowe's-like disasters

Loew's Home Improvement Builds Gigantic Wall in One Day, Blocks Neighbors' City Views

Top picture before "the wall," bottom picture after "the wall," with blocked views of Hollywood Hills​"The wall went up in a day. I went away in the morning, and I came back later and couldn't see the city." So says 16th Place Neighborhood Association member Robert Portillo, who's now fightin ... More >>

Jamie Court: Browser Beater

California Governor Jerry Brown's Plan to Abolish Redevelopment Agencies: 1601 Vine Street in Los Angeles is Exhibit A

City Hall ​Los Angeles City Hall watchdog Jack Humpreville is making the case that Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to wipe out Community Redevelopment Agencies has an "Exhibit A" in the dubious money pit at 1601 Vine Street. City activists uncovered a hidden appraisal that shows the CRA overpaid by $1.4 ... More >>

City of L.A. Still Investing Over $1 Million in 200-Car Executive Fleet

Destination 360Hey -- if we're gonna sit in traffic, might as well do it on city dime​LA Daily News columnist Kerry Cananaugh keeps it short and sweet today with a ball-busting column on those 200-plus "car crazy" city employees who just can't bring themselves to give up their city-funded ride ... More >>

Eight L.A. City Councilmembers Give Up Potential Control Of DWP -- Bowing To Mayor Villaraigosa, Powerful DWP Union

City Councilman Paul Krekorian changed his position on DWP power play since last week​Updated throughout. Originally posted at 2:34 p.m. Jesus, guys -- we thought the vote would at least be close. Then again, we should have known. Caving to a long history of bullish pressure from the Departm ... More >>

Rushed and Confused L.A. City Council

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

L.A. Advertisers And Anti-Billboard Activists Pissed Over City Council's Bright Idea To Slap Billboards With A 12 Percent Tax

PHOTO BY TED SOQUI​The Weekly has long had an eye on sketchy billboard deals throughout Los Angeles. In 2008, we reported that 4,000 of the city's 11,000 billboards were illegal, built without permits or earthquake regulations. Then came the Westside "Mad Men," fat-cat entrepreneurs who were ... More >>

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

Mayor mirrors Detroit's disastrous choice

Apartment Building In Central Los Angeles Crawling With Bed Bugs

​ A group of tenants at Park Norton Apartments in the Arlington Heights area of Los Angeles are itching for help to fight an infestation of bed bugs that some residents say has been occurring for at least two years. "At night they usually come out," said Rosa Lopez, 30, who held up a plastic ... More >>

Awful: Bed Bugs Infest Entire Building In Arlington Heights

​ Much of the frightening coverage of the return of the bed bug has been focused on New York City. See, for instance, this New York magazine piece on bed bugs infesting upscale apartments on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. But the bed bug is here, in all of its awfulness.

Neighborhood Activist Allan DiCastro's Rules of Engagement With The City Hall Leviathan

DiCastro knows how to get these fixed.​ In these lean budget times, services are being cut, which means more trash, potholes and unwanted liquor stores in your neighborhood, in a city already known for having well enough of all of the above. City workers have many more demands on them and are ... More >>

Big Job Openings, Record Pay, At L.A. City Hall

Ron Kaye, former editor of the Daily News.​At $178,789 a year, they're some of the highest paid elected city officials in the nation, and seven openings are coming up. San Fernando Valley political activist Ron Kaye is looking for a few good men and women to fill those gigs and he's promising ... 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 >>

Mayor Villaraigosa Allegedly Snubs Black Leaders

Rev. Eric P. Lee.​Earlier this month we had a little chuckle over Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's slippage into a form of black-speak during a ceremony kicking off L.A.'s African-American Heritage Month. Mayor V. jived it up and called Jamie Foxx "this brother." Well, it turns out some African-Am ... More >>

Bill Bratton's Endorsements Spectacle

The LAPD chief's politicking has critics fearing a slide to the bad old days

Bratton: L.A. Is as Safe as 1956

Except the chief is manipulating numbers and acting like a politician

Is Tokyo the Future for Los Angeles?

A new "ban" would allow 20 areas citywide thick with billboards

City Report Calls For Digital Billboard Ban -- Kinda

City planners are causing a stir with a report released today that calls for banning all new digital billboards -- with a huge exception.The much-anticipated Department of City Planning Recommendation Report, obtained early by L.A. Weekly, comes just weeks after the Los Angeles City Council approved ... More >>

Digital Billboards Become a Bohemian Blasphemy

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

Billboards Gone Wild: 4,000 Illegal Billboards Choke L.A.'s Neighborhoods

Is City Hall corrupt, or just inept?

Payout for Dog Food Prank?

Rumors swirl that Delgadillo’s office will settle with firefighter Tennie Pierce

Anti-Choice Mayor

A political machine squeezes out Tokofsky, Montañez and Fuentes, giving voters sanitized choices

Tit for Tat

The mayor and the council talk up a deal — LAUSD power for term-limit extensions

Impossible Cure

Dr. Garthwaite abandons his five ailing patients

Team Antonio Scores

Maybe Nick will get the message this time

Lord of the Race

Serving on two powerful air-quality boards., L.A. Marathon founder William Burke sets a fast pace. But it just might be when he crosses the finish line, the public — and clean air — are the big losers.

Finally, Anti-War Democrats

Howard Dean: “I want my country back”

Out of Gas

Auto industry cancels plans to kill anti-global-warming bill at ballot box

Everyone But the Gloved One

The usual suspects of black leadership, and then some, give it their all in Inglewood

Voting Guide

Endorsements

The Weekly’s recommendations in the March primary

Endorsements (Continued)

The Weekly’s recommendations in the November general election