Howard Berman

Helicopter Noise Law Would Protect Westsiders From Noise Endured By The Rest Of L.A.

Sick and tired of helicopters flying low over your neighborhood? California-based federal legislators, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein and U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman, today introduced the "Los Angeles Residential Helicopter Noise Relief Act" to restrict flight paths and limit how low choppers can fly. ... More >>

Congressional District 30 Election Results: Brad Sherman Beats Howard Berman In Bitter House Race

Update, 2 a.m.: Berman concedes.Rep. Brad Sherman has soundly defeated his rival, Rep. Howard Berman, in their bitter, $15 million intra-party battle in the San Fernando Valley.Just before 2 a.m., Berman sent out a message congratulating Sherman and offering to "do whatever I can to ensure a coopera ... More >>

Howard Berman And Brad Sherman Spent $15 Million Destroying Each Other

The first time Reps. Howard Berman and Brad Sherman faced each other at the polls, back in June, it was not uncommon to hear voters lament that they had to choose between two fine public servants."What a shame that is," Donald Sternberg told the L.A. Times back then. "I like them both; I'm ... More >>

California Voter Guide for Nov. 6, 2012, Los Angeles Weekly

Confused about the measures and races on Tuesday's ballot? This California Voter Guide for November 6, 2012 contains a summary of all state measures and several key races. It does not take a position but does touch on controversies, polls and analysis. Proposition 30: Jerry Brown's Tax Hike Governo ... More >>

Howard Berman And Brad Sherman Take Their $9 Million Slapfight To Cable TV

Howard Berman and Brad Sherman are taking their $9 million intraparty slapfight to the airwaves, with dueling attack ads.The Berman folks are newly energized by the sight of Sherman manhandling their candidate at last week's Pierce College debate, and shouting "Do you want to get into this?"Having t ... More >>

Fact-Checking The Sherman-Berman Brawl: Howard Berman Deserves Credit For Early Sponsorship Of Dream Act

It seems almost beside the point to fact-check the altercation between Brad Sherman and Howard Berman yesterday. They could have been arguing about their favorite Valley hotdog stand -- the point is that Berman got in Sherman's face and Sherman lost his cool, grabbing the elder statesman around the ... More >>

Brad Sherman Grabs Howard Berman At Debate, Challenges Him To A Fight

Think Biden-Ryan was a hard-fought debate? Then you missed the Berman-Sherman brawl up in the Valley today.Congressman Brad Sherman put his arm around rival Congressman Howard Berman and challenged him to a fight, saying "Do you want to get into this?"A sheriff's deputy had to separate the two. The ... More >>

Brad Sherman Faults Howard Berman For Personal Use Of Taxpayer-Funded SUV; Berman Admits Oversight, Reimburses $9.50

The Congressional battle between Howard Berman and Brad Sherman was never all that substantive to begin with -- they agree on most things -- but lately it's taken a turn for the trivial. Last week, Berman slammed Sherman for pocketing $460,000 in interest payments on loans he made to his campaign.Sh ... More >>

Brad Sherman Poll Shows 17-Point Lead Over Howard Berman; Berman Goes On Offense, Launches Attack Site

Rep. Brad Sherman released a poll today showing he has a 17-point lead in the November runoff against fellow Democratic rival Howard Berman.Sherman beat Berman by 10 points in the June primary. If he has any chance of turning that around, the more centrist Berman will have to score big with Republic ... More >>

Comments: Bully Pulpits

Berman, Sherman Headed For Runoff in Westside-Valley Congressional Race

Let's just call it the upper Westside, the redrawn 30th congressional district that pitted two Democratic incumbents against each other in a blood feud that could only lead to another face off in November. Yeah, with less than 20 percent of the precincts at least "partially" reporting their results ... More >>

The Iraq Vote: Howard Berman's Most Momentous Achievement Is One He's Come To Regret

In his 30 years in Congress, Howard Berman has established a reputation as a savvy Washington operator. That reputation has become his chief selling point now that he's fighting for his political life.Berman's supporters like to note that he has a long list of bills to his name, on topics as diverse ... More >>

Howard Berman's Last Stand

Brad Sherman Accuses Howard Berman Supporters of Stealing Campaign Signs

Now that we're down to the last 10 days of the Berman/Sherman blood feud, things are getting pretty silly. First, the Howard Berman camp was high-fiving about Brad Sherman's photoshopped mailers. Sherman sent mailers to Jewish households that included a picture of his mother. But she was airbrushed ... More >>

Congressman Howard Berman's Super PAC Ad Looks Like It Was Produced In 1982

Rep. Brad Sherman has been hounding rival Rep. Howard Berman over his support from Super PACs for several months. But if the first TV spot from the "Committee for an Effective Valley Congressman" is any indication, he doesn't have much to worry about.The spot, which is posted after the jump, looks l ... More >>

L.A. Members of Congress Paid Hundreds of Thousands in Campaign Cash to Themselves, Relatives

You contributed cash to your favorite U.S. representative's campaign, hoping he'd use the money to fight the good fight and knockout his foe. But in many cases a lot of that money is going to "babysitters, five-star hotels in Athens, six-figure salaries for candidates' family members and thousands ... More >>

Howard Berman and Brad Sherman Meet for Second Debate: The Tussle in the Temple

​Reps. Howard Berman and Brad Sherman kept up their bitter fight for the hearts and minds of the San Fernando Valley on Tuesday night, debating at Temple Judea in Tarzana.The forum centered on foreign policy, playing to Berman's advantage as the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee. I ... More >>

In Debate, Brad Sherman Attacks Howard Berman On Iraq War, Trade and Super PACs

Brad Sherman: Throwing punches​The battle is now underway to determine which bald, Jewish Democrat who voted for the Iraq war will continue to represent the San Fernando Valley in Congress.At their first debate on Thursday night, Reps. Brad Sherman and Howard Berman eagerly tore into each other, s ... More >>

Congress Insider Trading: L.A. County Senators, Representatives Respond (or Don't)

NorCal's Nancy Pelosi finds nothing shady about her convenient investment in Visa.​As we learned on "60 Minutes" last night, many of the politicians we've elected to U.S. Congress have clearly been using their backdoor V.I.P. passes to gather exclusive intel on when to buy and sell stocks, bon ... More >>

Is Brad Sherman A Scientologist? Wikipedia Says Yes

​Brad Sherman is engaged in a political battle to the death with fellow Congressman Howard Berman. But over the last month, he's also been waging an epic struggle against some anonymous guy on Wikipedia.On Sept. 15, Mr. Anonymous changed Sherman's religion from Jewish to Scientologist. The new ver ... More >>

Tony Cardenas Is Headed To Congress: Howard Berman Endorsement Clears Last Roadblock

Tony Cardenas​Looks like Councilman Tony Cardenas can start looking for apartments in Washington, D.C.Today, he got the endorsement of Rep. Howard Berman in his race for the new "Latino" Congressional seat in the San Fernando Valley. That appears to eliminate the most serious threat to Cardenas' c ... More >>

Tony Cardenas Picks Up Support From San Fernando Valley Latinos

Tony Cardenas​Latino lawmakers are lining up behind Councilman Tony Cardenas in his race for the new "Latino" Congressional seat in the San Fernando Valley.Cardenas announced the endorsements today of Sen. Alex Padilla and Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes. No big surprise there: Padilla used to work for ... More >>

L.A. 'Helicopter Noise Relief Act' Proposed After Valley, Hills Residents Finally Discover What It's Like to Live in Chopper Hell

SZONE via FlickrYeah, we know. It sucks.​The national media is in a tither this week over the concept of "helicopter traffic" in Los Angeles -- an offshoot of the ridiculous amount of buzz we received for Carmageddon. Though the big 405 closure turned out to be an anticlimactic breeze, the m ... More >>

Soft Revolution Ends Gerrymandering

Under Prop. 20, 14 citizens chosen this month will remake state political map

Proposition 27: Billionaire Haim Saban Gets Burned by Howard Berman, Ballot Measure Loss and Republicans

Billionaire and Prop. 27 supporter Haim Saban​When Proposition 27 went down in flames on Tuesday night, so did L.A. billionaire Haim Saban's reputation as a politically astute businessman. Not only did the shady ballot measure the billionaire supported not pass, but Congressman Howard Berma ... More >>

Surprise: Rest Of The Shoo-Ins Win* California State Senate, Assembly And Congressional Districts In Election 2010, Banding Together For Mass Extermination Of Opponents

In a startling upset, Gerrymandering Congressman Howard Berman wins again​*OK, so we fibbed in the headline. The final results aren't in. But -- thanks to sleazy incumbent fixing of elections in California by the Berman brothers -- the new crop of California Senators, Assemblymen and Congressm ... More >>

California Proposition 20 Wins, Proposition 27 Loses: Politicians Will No Longer Draw up Their Own Districts

Billionaire and Prop. 27 supporter Haim Saban​Update, 11:50 p.m.: With 39 percent of California precincts reporting, Prop. 27 is heading for a huge loss -- 60 percent of voters oppose the ballot measure and 40 percent support it. California voters approved Proposition 20 and shot down Propos ... More >>

Merlin Froyd Is The Poor Guy Taking On Gerrymandering Congressman Howard Berman In The Fixed California 28th District Election

By Hillel Aron No chance for Merlin Froyd or any other challenger from any party in the fixed Congressional races​When California Congressman Howard Berman was first elected to congress, Merlin Froyd wasn't even born. That's the poor guy the Republican Party found to run against Berman. He's ... More >>

Proposition 20 and 27: Barack Obama's Home Got Carved Out Of His Illinois District As A Young Guy. California Incumbents Gerrymander To Remove Such Threats From Their Races

By Hillel Aron The original Gerrymander in Massachusetts: Governor Gerry salamander. ​Gerrymandering, in which politicians create stacked "voting districts" to fix elections, is a great original sin of our democracy. Three examples: 1) Barack Obama vs. Bobby Rush In 2000, Democratic incum ... More >>

California's Proposition 20 and Proposition 27: Gerrymandering And Election-Fixing And Why You Should Give A Rip

By Hillel Aron California's "Ribbon of Shame" Congressional District 23 stretches more than 200 miles from outside Camarillo to the Monterey Co. border, narrows to 100 yards and is said to "disappear at high tide​Update: Before Nov. 2, read about shadowy Michael Berman, a map-making guru who ... More >>

Prop. 27 Gerrymander Supporters Duck and Cover

Howard Berman camp issues denial; consultant Michael Berman won't talk

Propositions 20 And 27: California Newspapers Unanimously Back 20 (Except One) And Unanimously Pillory The Egregious 27

By Hillel Aron The California Legislature's crack gerrymandering team​The editorial boards of California newspapers agree: Proposition 27, which would overturn a voter-approved 2008 reform that prevents Sacramento legislators from gerrymandering voting districts to keep their jobs, is an ugly ... More >>

California Propositions 20 and 27: A Peek At The Gerrymandering Soul Of Congressman Howard Berman's Filthy Rich Handmaiden, Haim Saban

By Hillel Aron Mastering the Politburo​Haim Saban is different than you and me: he's the 287th richest man in the world, worth $3.3 billion. The Egyptian Jew, who looks an Ian McShane/Silvio Berlusconi cross, created The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. And he's the biggest giver to Proposition ... More >>

Pew poll says Americans hate government. Exhibit One: Howard Berman, gerrymander king

The respected Pew Research Center several hours ago revealed that Americans from all walks of life are beset with distrust for government at all levels, plummeting from 73 percent who said they trusted government in the Eisenhower era, to only 22 percent who say so today.Howard Berman ​This week's ... More >>

Piracy, Pickets and Peter Bart

Unrest on the studio, union and trade fronts

Gag Me With a Grape

UFW moves to silence its media critics

L.A. Weekly Voter's Guide

Disassembling the 47th

One of L.A.’s truly diverse districts may be on the verge of big — and unwelcome — change

New Fault Lines

Growing Pains

What the governor sows, he will reap

Voting Guide

Wendy Greuel for City Council

The Weekly’s recommendation in the December 11 special election in the 2nd District

Borderline Thinking

W., Vicente Fox and the amnesty-vs.-guest-worker debate

Print-Out Ballot Guide

Our Handy Print-out Voter Guide

Endorsements

Primary Concerns

Race, class and gumption in the March local elections

Our selections in Tuesday's General Election

Endorsements 98

October Demise

A Valley Campaign (About) Race

Kosher, picante don’t mix in the 20th