L.A. Department of Water and Power

Tiny Glendale Water & Power Shows L.A. How To Tame DWP Union Boss Brian D'Arcy

Scott Ochoa had never met Brian D'Arcy, the head of the powerful electrical workers' union, when D'Arcy called him up in a rage last year. Ochoa, the Glendale city manager, was trying to work out an agreement on behalf of Glendale Water & Power, the city utility. D'Arcy didn't like how the negot ... More >>

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 >>

Council President Herb Wesson Taps Mickey Kantor To Study L.A.'s Budget Woes

In the wake of the failure of a half-cent sales tax increase, L.A. City Council President Herb Wesson has recruited Mickey Kantor, the former U.S. Commerce Secretary, to head up a commission to examine L.A.'s troubled finances.Kantor is putting together a group of business and labor leaders to study ... More >>

Mayoral Candidate Wendy Greuel Picks Up Critical Support From L.A. County Labor Federation

Update below, 5:15 p.m. Full rundown of Garcetti and Greuel's remarks behind closed doors at the Fed today. Greuel: "I'm gonna stand with labor, not stand up to labor." Controller Wendy Greuel got a major lift this morning, as the political committee of the L.A. County Federation of Labor voted ... More >>

Los Angeles Mayoral Results: Eric Garcetti And Wendy Greuel Heading To May Runoff

Councilman Eric Garcetti and Controller Wendy Greuel appear headed to a mayoral runoff in May, after taking the top two spots in Tuesday's primary election.With about 42% of precincts reporting, Garcetti had 34% of the vote to Greuel's 29%. The third place contender, Councilwoman Jan Perry, trailed ... More >>

Amid Ad Blitz For Wendy Greuel, Eric Garcetti Uses TV Debate To Attack

Amid a TV ad blitz for Wendy Greuel, rival candidate Eric Garcetti went on the attack at Monday night's televised debate, with just two weeks left before the March 5 primary.Garcetti challenged Greuel's numbers and repeatedly cited the $1 million in ad spending she has received from the union that r ... More >>

Harold Simmons, Right-Wing Texas Billionaire, Throws In Another $500,000 For Kevin James

Harold Simmons, the conservative Texas billionaire, has kicked in another $500,000 to back Republican candidate Kevin James, making him by far the biggest spender thus far in the L.A. mayor's race.Simmons is known as a lavish supporter of conservative causes. During the presidential election, he gav ... More >>

A Contentious Silver Lake Construction Site Becomes a One-Night Art Party

When artist Bettina Hubby started bringing her camera down to the construction site at the foot of her street on Rowena, the team working there wasn't surprised, just cautious. At that point, the project, officially the L.A. Department of Water and Power's River Supply Conduit Improvement Project, h ... More >>

Wendy Greuel Stays Vague On Hot-Button Issues, While Mayoral Rivals Take Controversial Votes

The top contenders in the race for L.A. mayor have a lot in common, but there is one key strategic difference. As council members, Eric Garcetti and Jan Perry have to vote on issues that come up at City Hall. Wendy Greuel, the city controller, does not.And in the early stages of the race, Greuel has ... More >>

DWP Supervisor Arrested for DUI After Allegedly Swigging Vodka in City Truck, Crashing Into Parked Cars

Isaac Chavez, a supervisor at the L.A. Department of Water and Power, was arrested on April 25 in Van Nuys for drinking and driving on the job. But unlike those other DWP deadbeats famously arrested for drinking, driving and strip-clubbing two years ago, Chavez didn't bother to wrap his beer in pap ... More >>

California, Where Did We Go Wrong?

Pasadena Closes All Schools, Declares 'State of Emergency' -- Insane Winds, Downed Trees, Power Outages

Updated at the bottom with water issues in Northeast L.A. Also, photos of Oscar De La Hoya's driveway. Not pretty. Meteorologists say the storm will be back in full force tonight. Originally posted at 9:35 a.m. This is the closest Pasadena kids will ever get to a snow day: KNX news radio is report ... More >>

Occupy L.A: As City Debates Cost of Occupation, Port Spends Nearly $200,000 on Party

Moet & ChandonDrink up, City Hall.​As the skies of tolerance for Occupy L.A. are getting gloomy (both Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and city Councilman Bill Rosendahl have expressed that there are limits to how long demonstrators can camp out next to City Hall), our own tolerance for bullshit gro ... More >>

Southern California Blackouts in San Diego, South Orange County During Heatwave

​Updated at the bottom: As power seems to be coming back on, California electricity officials issue a "flex-alert" for the entire state. A power outage affecting all of San Diego County has been reported today, and now we're seeing tweets that the lights have gone out in Dana Point, Laguna Ni ... More >>

Beaches in L.A. Moving Inland: Rising Seas Via Global Warming Mean Drinking Water Problems

Kim Davies​Why go to the beach when the beach will come to you? Literally. Slowly: A fraction of an inch at a time. A new report says that by the mid point of this decade sea level will be a foot and a half higher. That, in our view, could be devastating to the way-too-close-to-the-beach deve ... More >>

Silver Lake Residents Protest Sycamores Marked for Takedown; DWP Says It Should Have Been More Discrete

The sycamores are perched on the southwest edge of the picturesque Silver Lake Reservoir.​Is it really any wonder the L.A. Department of Water and Power is the 13th most-hated company in America? On top of greedy, unnecessary rate hikes and surprise thousand-dollar bills out of nowhere, DWP o ... More >>

One in Five L.A. Department of Water and Power Workers Makes a Six Figure Salary

Mayor V. and the DWP.​More than one in five workers at the L.A. Department of Water and Power makes a six-figure salary, according to a peek inside the agency by the county's civil Grand Jury. More than 21 percent of the 9,177 workers make $100,000 and up, according to the Grand Jury, with th ... More >>

L.A. Department of Water and Power Makes List of 'The 19 Most Hated Companies In America'

'Chinatown'The DWP shares the same bed with the most hated companies in America.​Not sure if you remember the days last year when the L.A. Department of Water and Power held City Hall's wallet hostage over its insistence on a rate hike. The department told the City Council that if it didn't ge ... More >>

Westwood Explosion Under Street Injures Metro Bus Driver

Metro​So you're driving down Westwood Boulevard and boom, the ground explodes beneath. A heavy, solid mahole cover careens into the bottom of your vehicle. Startled, you look around for the terrorist or, at least, frat boy who did this. Nothing. No, it was an electrical explosion below the s ... More >>

Los Angeles Spring Storm Fells Trees, Floods Streets, Darkens Homes

MuscleNerdTree down in L.A.​Update: PCH was reopened, and so was the Grapevine. Record rainfall was recorded around Southern California, with downtown Los Angeles seeing 2.42 inches Sunday compared with 1.48 inches on the date in 1943. See more records after the jump. The first week of spring ... More >>

Is Bernard Parks In Trouble? Fundraiser Warns of Labor Clout

Forescee Hogan-Rowles​Compared to the slugfest in Council District 14, the race in District 8 has gotten relatively little attention. Bernard Parks is generally seen as a safe bet to win his third term.But this one could be a sleeper. Forescee Hogan-Rowles picked up two endorsements last week from ... More >>

MTA Approves $28.5 Million Expo Increase, As Gloria Molina Fumes

​The MTA board today agreed to pay $28.5 million to compensate the Expo Line contractor for delays, boosting the project's budget to $927.4 million.The board discussed the settlement in closed session before approving it, 8-0, in public. Supervisor Gloria Molina, who was not present for the public ... More >>

Expo Line Contractor Awarded $25-30 Million For Delays

Cover illustration by Curt Merlo​Meeting in closed session on Thursday, the Exposition Metro Line Construction Authority board agreed to pay a settlement to resolve a long-running dispute with the rail project's contractor.Sources said the board agreed to pay something in the range of $25-30 milli ... More >>

L.A.'s Light-Rail Fiasco

How rail service to the Westside jumped the track

(Photos) Rarely Seen Marilyn Monroe Photographs, Documents To Be Auctioned In Hollywood

This shot's not part of the auction; we just like it (and so, apparently, does Madonna).​L.A.'s most-iconic actress is about to get the spotlight again, 48 years after her death. Auction house Bonhams & Butterfields is teasing the world with rarely seen photos of the star that will go up for s ... More >>

L.A. City Councilman Paul Koretz Buddy-Buddies With Union Chief Brian D'Arcy To Kill Proposed Reform That Would Deflate DWP Worker Pensions

Councilman Paul Koretz received $40,000 from the DWP union for his 2009 campaign​[Updated after the jump with council-floor perspective from Bernard Parks, the L.A. City Councilman behind the push to gain city control of DWP pensions. Originally posted at 3:33 p.m.] Some of the highest-paid u ... More >>

DWP Officials Hauled Before City Council

​ The City Council did its best Congress imitation today, hauling up officials and former officials from the L.A. Department of Water and Power. Council members grilled them -- and did some grandstanding -- on charges that the public utility misled council members about $73.5 million in surpl ... More >>

Mayor Villaraigosa Praises Business For Not Leaving City, Proposes 'Tax Holiday' For Firms That Relocate To L.A.

​Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Tuesday praised a local business for not leaving L.A. and, at the same time, backed a proposed three-year "tax holiday" for out-of-town businesses that locate in the city. Nothing says your city leader is confident in its economy like a press conference touting a ... More >>

The Eternal Dustbowl

Paying for the sins of L.A.’s water barons has created a half-billion-dollar boondoggle

The Rainmaker

Mayor Hahn and the first indictment in the PR-firm scandal

Letters

Power Crisis II

New problems could short out Dave Freeman and his DWP legacy

Tough Enough

The genius behind the stumbling Dick Riordan

Hot on the Trail

Riordan blows a gasket — or two — on campaign bus

Letters

No-Class Deal

A tale of Steve Soboroff’s two hats

Shorting Out

Gray Davis is running low on time — and electricity

Letters