Karen Bass

Justin Bieber Freeway Chase Nets Charges Against Paul Raef, Paparazzo

While L.A. City Councilman Dennis Zine thought Justin Bieber should have been arrested for what he said was a 100-mile-per-hour exhibition of speed with paparazzi in tow on an L.A. freeway this month, the L.A. City Attorney has instead targeted one of the photographers. Paul Raef, a 30-year-old fre ... More >>

Assembly District 58 Results: City of Bell Activist Cristina Garcia Beats Entrenched Has-Been Tom Calderon

Updated to reflect the final vote totals. What happened on June 5, 2012 in Assembly District 56 covering Bell Gardens, Downey, Pico Rivera and Cerritos, where government reformer Cristina Garcia beat Democratic darling Tom Calderon, of the Calderon dynasty, and will almost certainly win in Novembe ... More >>

Elgin Olu Stafford, USC Student, Found Dead in Carson Water Channel

The body of a man found last week in the Dominguez Channel in Carson, not far from a popular Ikea store, was identified over the weekend as belonging to 23-year-old USC master's student Elgin Olu Stafford. Reports indicated he interned last summer for area U.S. Rep. Karen Bass. He was studying publ ... 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 >>

Enemies Mark Ridley-Thomas, Bernard Parks Unite Over Metro Light-Rail Funding Along Crenshaw/LAX Route

Mark Ridley-Thomas wants Crenshaw/LAX elements worth $400 million.​Metro has the cash to build two crucial elements of its Crenshaw/LAX light-rail line, even though there's been some foot-dragging about going forward on the MTA board. The cash can be found, according a Metro analysis released ... More >>

California's Parent Trigger

How McKinley in Compton became the first school taken over by parents under a radical new law

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 >>

Stiff Penalties For Aggressive Paparazzi In California Likely

​A bill would increase punishment for paparazzi who engage in car chases to get shots of stars or invade celebrities' privacy has passed the state legislature and will be on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's desk Wednesday for his signature. Although there are already laws against reckless driving ... More >>

Twist and Shout

The Curious Case of Karen Bass

How a dedicated community organizer becomes an insulated, perk-oriented politician

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 >>

Amid State Budget Crisis, New Assembly Speaker Gives Raises To Staff

Assembly Speaker John A. Perez.​The state of California is facing a $20 billion deficit. And, during his first days as speaker of the state assembly, Los Angeles Democrat John Perez got to work ... giving more of your money to his staff. That's right, one of Perez's first orders of business w ... More >>

U.S. Rep. Diane Watson Said To Be Retiring

Rep. Diane Watson​U.S. Rep. Diane Watson, who represents much of the central city of Los Angeles in Congress, is retiring, according to a report published on The Hill's Briefing Room blog. The publication reports that former state assembly Speaker Karen Bass has already expressed interest in ... More >>

The Price of Shooting Stars

Report: Villaraigosa Held Back-Room Confab For Assembly Speaker Job Over Bottle Of Wine

Assemblyman Kevin De Leon represents Silver Lake, Echo Park and nearby communities.​It's been years since Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa worked as a Sacramento power player, but that hasn't stopped him from throwing his weight around in statehouse politics. The Los Angeles Times on Monday reported ... More >>

Next California Speaker: John Perez, Villaraigosa's cousin, a neophyte with one year under his belt

Proving that you can skyrocket from relative obscurity to big-time power if you play your cards just right, neophyte politician John Perez, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's first cousin, is widely expected to be chosen by the Democratic majority in Sacramento as the next California Assembly Speaker, KQE ... More >>

Billionaire Hopes To Revive Hospital Of Horrors

A doctor who says he was moved by the story of a woman who bled to death in the emergency room waiting area at Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital is putting a $100 million in loan guarantees behind a movement to revive the troubled institution. The question is, on this Halloween eve, is the plac ... More >>

Romero, Fellow Politicians Support Polanski Extradition

Los Angeles state Sen. Gloria Romero and several Sacramento colleagues signed a letter supporting county District Attorney Steve Cooley's efforts to extradite Roman Polanski, who admitted to having unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old before fleeing to France in 1978.State Sen. Gloria Rome ... More >>

Arnold vetoes initiative ban: Sleazy effort by California legislature to hamstring signature-gathering

One of the sleaziest bills vetoed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger over the weekend was a law written by the California State Legislature to quietly but decisively wipe out the citizen ballot-initiative movement in California.Under the false guise of "reform", the bill was a blatant effort by legis ... More >>

Early Release Candidate No. 1: Prisoner Najee Ali

The L.A. activist says cut him loose, help the state budget

State Budget Debacle: California Descending

Why Schwarzenegger, Bass and Steinberg are grinning.

California's May 19 Election

Schwarzenegger, Villaraigosa, Weiss, Bratton, Bass, all repudiated

May 19 Election: Schwarzenegger, Villaraigosa, Weiss, Bratton, Bass, Go Down in Flames

Even with one key Los Angeles City Council District race still hanging in the balance on the Westside, the political wreckage surrounding some of California's best-known politicians was waist-deep, leaving Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to slog through the recriminatio ... More >>

Why Arnold's May 19 Bailout Is Failing

Pissed off voters primed to torpedo Schwarzenegger's ballot measures

Morning Sixpack: A News Roundup

Bass Whopper Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-L.A.) gave 80 members of her staff bonuses totaling about $350,000. Minority leader Mike Villines (R-Clovis) laid out about $201,000 to his employees. L.A. TimesNever on a Sunday -- or Tuesday, Wednesday . . . L.A.'s City Council approved  Mondays-and ... More >>

Rooftop Foster Kids

At 18, they lose their foster parents and become homeless. A law may help them

Morning Sixpack: A News Roundup

Dem on Dem Payback State Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-L.A.) disciplined three members of her party for not voting to put spending limits on the ballot -- part of a key compromise Democrats made to finally pass a budget with Republicans. Stripped of their committee chairmanships were Black Caucus l ... More >>

Proposition 11: The Most Misunderstood

The League of Women Voters, Common Cause and AARP seek change in Sacramento

Schwarzenegger may make history with a budget veto

Staffers to the governor are giving media outlets strong indications that Arnold Schwarzenegger will tonight go on the air to announce that he is vetoing the California state budget — which was approved weeks late by Sacramento legislators — because it is filled with accounting tricks and contai ... More >>

L.A.'s Racial Redlining of Black Children

When a horribly tortured boy enters child protection, does skin color hurt his safe ticket out?

Philanthropist Daphna Ziman's War for Foster Kids

Sacramento's politicians created a fat budget deficit. Then, local bureaucrats misspent state funds meant for foster kids. Now, foster kids might pay dearly. By D. Heimpel When wealthy philanthropist Daphna Ziman, wife of real estate magnate Richard S. Ziman, walked into the meeting room of the Lo ... More >>

The Deja Vu of Bernard Parks vs. Mark Ridley-Thomas

Stubborn black leaders stage a replay of '92, as the black community fades

Fabian Nunez a Victim of Racism

Describing himself as a guy who was "you could say, like a head of state," departing California Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez gave a bizarre interview to Spanish language Univision in which he claimed that slams on his lush lifestyle were based on his ethnicity. The Sacramento Bee broke the story ... More >>

Another Clintonite Bites the Dust

The LA Times probably had its farewell lined up for weeks. Last year, the newspaper went after the California State Assembly Speaker for his sleazy handling of political contributions with a special kind of glee. On Tuesday, the Eastside pol will be termed-out and replaced, and today the Times thou ... More >>

Fabian, maybe it's the friends you keep

If you followed the election fine print - those ballot measures having nothing to do with Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John McCain or Mitt Romney, you might be wondering what killed Proposition 93, the plan to alter California Term Limits for the first time since voters overwhelmingly passed the l ... More >>

He Stands and Delivers

Obama at Garfield High

A New Age

Civic excitement in blasé L.A.

New Mayor, New City

Antonio can remake the city as he pleases — well, sort of

The Architect

Miguel Contreras, 1952 – 2005

Reviving Education

Grassroots advocates for public schools are raising their voices — and getting heard

Start Making Sense

An open letter to Miguel Contreras

Letters

Anointing the Savior

Is Herb Wesson hoping his King-Drew role turns into more?

L.A. Weekly Voter's Guide

The L.A. Weekly’s Endorsements

Hahn’s (Un)Finest Moments

The Mayor’s embarrassing performance in Sherman Oaks sums up his first term

Springtime for Democrats

And a revolution in South-Central

Disassembling the 47th

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

We Endorse

L.A. Weekly’s recommendations in the major contested races of the March 2 primary

Behind Hahn’s Lines

Villaraigosa in South-Central