Joe Buscaino

Encino Hit-&-Run Ends in Death

Updated at the bottom with a suspect in custody. First posted at 11:37 a.m. Another vehicle-versus-pedestrian fatality was reported overnight, adding to the death toll from L.A.'s hit-and-run epidemic. See also: L.A.'s Bloody Hit-and-Run Epidemic. A man in his 40s was walking outside an Encino cr ... More >>

Sherman Oaks Residents Enraged Over Fire Station Secrecy

$3 Billion Solution For L.A.'s Atrocious Potholes

We have some of the worst roads in the nation. How bad are they? They cost everyone of us about $750 a year extra to repair wheels, tires, suspension and other vehicular maladies, according to L.A. City Hall. They're so bad we even have a potholes website. They're so bad that two of the L.A. City C ... More >>

Will L.A. Councilman Joe Buscaino Raise Hell Over LAPD's Questionable Hit-and-Run Report?

Read the L.A. Weekly news story "Chief Beck's Hit-and-Run Crisis." In January, Los Angeles City Councilman Joe Buscaino asked LAPD Chief Charlie Beck to deliver a report that shows how the police department is addressing L.A.'s major hit-and-run problem. That request came after L.A. Weekly revealed ... More >>

L.A. Police Commission Approves Questionable LAPD Hit-and-Run Report

Despite questionable data, the Los Angeles Police Commission approved a controversial LAPD report about the city's hit-and-run crisis on Tuesday. The study now heads to the L.A. City Council's public safety committee, where Councilman Joe Buscaino will decide if LAPD Chief Charlie Beck is doing ev ... More >>

Garcetti and Greuel's Worst Days in Power

Setting aside promises, how have they behaved?

New Eric Garcetti Super PAC May Not Be So Super: Committee Has Modest Fundraising Goals

A new super PAC has formed to support Eric Garcetti in the May 21 mayoral runoff. The Committee for a Safer Los Angeles filed paperwork this week to start raising money.The committee is being organized by Brian Van Riper, the consultant who ran Joe Buscaino's San Pedro-area City Council campaign. So ... More >>

Hit-and-Run Blowback on LAPD

Doctors try to save bicyclist's remaining leg as legislator calls for crackdown

Toxic Train or Green Railway? L.A. Harbor Neighbors, Environmentalists and Long Beach Officials Fight Los Angeles

By Christina Schoellkopf The job-creating $500 million Burlington Northern Santa Fe railway plan is heading to the Los Angeles City Council for a vote on the Environmental Impact Report even as a top environmental group says working-class families and children in polluted Wilmington will be subject ... More >>

L.A. City Hall Wants To Shut Down Most Marijuana Dispensaries (Again)

During one of the lowest-turnout elections of the year, L.A. voters will get to vote on three marijuana dispensary measures for the city. The City Council approved putting its own measure before voters during the May 21 municipal election, although five on the council dissented. Are they trying to ... More >>

Marijuana Initiatives Head For May Ballot: Some Dispensaries Back L.A. City Proposal

The L.A. City Council today approved two competing marijuana initiatives for the May 21 ballot and came a step closer to putting its own, third measure before voters, too. At the same time one of the initiatives' backers, the Greater Los Angeles Collective Alliance, said it would abandon campaignin ... More >>

L.A.'s Hit-And-Run Epidemic Inspires New Focus At City Hall

Following LA Weekly's eye-opening report on the city's hit-and-run epidemic, one L.A. city Councilman wants something done. Joe Buscaino is asking the LAPD to report to the council's Public Safety Committee "about what efforts are being undertaken by the Department to curtail hit-and-run incidents ... More >>

L.A. Hit-and-Run Crisis Uncovered by L.A. Weekly Prompts Official Demand for Answers from Charlie Beck and LAPD

Please read L.A.'s Bloody Hit-and-Run Epidemic and Victim Finds Hit-and-Run Driver Citing an L.A. Weekly probe that unveiled a hit-and-run crisis in Los Angeles, with drivers fleeing 48 percent of all crashes, Councilman Joe Buscaino asked the L.A. City Council to require LAPD to explain how it plan ... 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 >>

Los Angeles City Council Members Take Time Off For Conferences, Then Don't Go

By now it's common knowledge that Los Angeles City Council members love their perks and holidays. Just read the L.A. Weekly cover story "Los Angeles on $300,00 a Year." But now they're taking time off from dealing with important city business -- it's officially called a "recess" -- for a major confe ... More >>

Marijuana Dispensary Ban Repealed by Los Angeles City Council

Fresh updates at the bottom. See also: *Marijuana Dispensary Crackdown by Feds Could Go Citywide in Los Angeles. The L.A. City Council repealed its own pot shop ban today. Woo-hoo!? Facing the choice of letting you vote on overturning the ban or doing so itself following a referendum effort that ... More >>

Joe Buscaino, City Leader, Gets 'Call Me Maybe' Video Spoof For Birthday

If we took a straw poll of what you Angelenos think overpaid city staffers should be doing with their free time, we think filling potholes, fixing sidewalks and directing traffic and our clogged intersections would probably be popular choices. But some of South Bay city Councilman Joe Buscaino's st ... More >>

Bob Marley Day Comes to L.A. as Countdown to Marijuana Ban Begins (Irony?)

City Hall continues to ream you with parking tickets, rock you with the worst roads in America, and wow you with red ink. But the most important thing on the plate of the L.A. City Council today was ... Bob Marley. Yes. Your favorite, overpaid politicians earned their highest-in-the-nation salarie ... More >>

LAX Not Actually Getting Free WiFi

Despite being one of the nation's busiest airports, LAX is having a really hard time adjusting to the 21st century. Most glaringly, as we're sure you've noticed, L.A.'s international hub lacks the next most important element after air and water: free Wifi. Up to now, T-Mobile has been charging a who ... More >>

Skateboard Bombing Down Hills Banned in Los Angeles

Thanks to a few kids who like to fly down hills on their skateboards, as they've done since the dawn of the sport, the L.A. City Council today voted to ban such "bombing." Not only that but, essentially, in the city of L.A., skateboarders will soon have to obey traffic rules just as a driver or bic ... More >>

LAFD Response-Time Scandal

Chief Cummings' plummeting morale problem

Meldrick Melgoza and Carolina Ramirez, Teen Couple, Shot Dead in Wilmington

Last night during the Oscars, an unknown suspect walked up to 16-year-old couple Meldrick Melgoza and Carolina Ramirez and shot them dead, according to City News Service. The couple, whose friends call them "Steam" and "Pinky" (respectively) on Twitter, were near the intersection of F Street and Ba ... More >>

Skateboard 'Bombing' to Be Outlawed Under City Leader Joe Buscaino's Proposal: Kid Skaters Would Also Have to Wear Helmets

Bomb a hill, go to jail? New L.A. city Councilman Joe Buscaino is proposing to outlaw high-speed skateboarding down steep hills following the tragic deaths of a couple teen skaters in his Harbor-area district. But perhaps the most controversial aspect of his proposal:

Joe Buscaino Beats Warren Furutani for Los Angeles City Council District 15: A Humiliating 2012 Thumping of the Party Establishment

By Hillel Aron It seemed as if half of San Pedro packed the Crowne Plaza Hotel ballroom late last night for a blowout victory party for local boy Joe Buscaino who won the Los Angeles City Council District 15 race. Things got wild as newcomer Buscaino beat dull lifer politician Warren Furutani. Furu ... More >>

Joe Buscaino or Warren Furutani for L.A. City Council District 15? Vote Now in Historic Race Between Underdog Cop, Career Pol

Can a humble police officer from San Pedro become a historic wrench in the well-oiled Los Angeles political machine? That's up to you, residents of City Council District 15. You can go with candidate Joe Buscaino, the former LAPD officer who's netted endorsements from local police unions and the Lo ... More >>

Buscaino vs. Furutani

L.A. City Council race is about preserving lifer politicians

Isadore Hall Backs Out of Congressional Race, Leaving Janice Hahn and Laura Richardson in Harbor Area Showdown

Assemblyman Isadore Hall​Compton Assemblyman Isadore Hall announced today that he's dropping out of the race for the 44th Congressional District, and will instead run for re-election.The announcement leaves a two-way contest between Reps. Janice Hahn and Laura Richardson -- which should be the hot ... More >>

Eric Bauman, L.A. Democratic Party Kingmaker

Elevates the ossified, keeps out L.A. talent

Joe Buscaino vs. Warren Furutani for L.A. City Council: Police Union's New 'Public Safety First' Yard Signs Could Sway Election

lapd.comNow on 6,500 lawns across L.A.​Like in national elections, it takes a democracy-numbing amount of time and money to win a political post in Los Angeles. Just ask Ron Kaye, LA Daily News editor turned City Hall watchdog. (If you ever feel like witnessing a city official burned at the ... More >>

Joe Buscaino Has Momentum In City Council Race, But Could Unions Give Warren Furutani A Chance?

​Tuesday update: The L.A. County Federation of Labor endorsed Furutani on Monday night, sharpening the biz-vs-labor narrative. More below.Joe Buscaino came from nowhere to win the most votes in last week's primary in the 15th Council District. Since then, the San Pedro cop been racking up endorsem ... More >>

Michael Trujillo's Controversial Pro-Buscaino Email Sent by Someone Else, He Says

Joe Buscaino.​An email that appeared to have been sent by career campaign consultant Michael Trujillo has been causing a small stir among L.A. city politics watchers in recent days. That's because it sounds like it's coming from a campaign hand who's gloating about a client's victory -- that ... More >>

L.A. City Council District 15 Race

Taxpayer funds make San Pedro-to-Watts election the most competitive in years

Joe Buscaino, Dark Horse

200,000 reasons why a cop is L.A. City Council District 15's sleeper candidate

League of Conservation Voters Moves to Silence Eight Candidates in Los Angeles City Council District 15 Election

monkeybuddha.comA consultant for the Los Angeles League of Conservation Voters chooses the top three L.A. City Council candidates. ​It's discomfiting to watch leaders of the Los Angeles League of Conservations Voters awkwardly try to play king-maker and repress debate in the wide-open Los Ange ... More >>