Mike Antonovich

No More Jails Coalition Says New Women's Jail is Sheriff Lee Baca's Latest 'Boondoggle'

The Los Angeles chapter of No More Jails Coalition is taking it to the streets today, telling L.A. County supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky, Mark Ridley-Thomas, Gloria Molina, Don Knabe, and Mike Antonovich that the plan for embattled Sheriff Lee Baca to build a new women's jail is a crazy way to spend mi ... More >>

Teen Prostitution Finds Home Under L.A. Government's Watch

Sex trafficking is a major scourge that has become a top issue for L.A. County leaders, who supported a state ballot initiative that will increase penalties for pimps and other miscreants who coerce people for the skin trade. But it turns out that a key source of victims for sex traffickers is righ ... More >>

L.A. County Supervisors Spent Thousands on V.I.P. Chauffer Service in D.C.

After years of criticizing the every move of Los Angeles County's five-member governing board, gadfly extraordinaire Eric Preven -- known by county supervisors as the pesky mosquito who's never missed a meeting -- finally gets his crowing and legitimizing moment this week with a juicy expose on the ... More >>

L.A. County Supervisor Mike Antonovich Looks to Extend Term Limits After 3 Decades in Office

Not to be outdone by Kenny Hahn, the current record-holder for longest time spent on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors (40 years), current supe Mike Antonovich is shooting for the big 44. He's apparently attempting to be sly about it, but county-watchers got wind of his proposal just in t ... More >>

Rape Is on the Rise in Los Angeles County

L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and LAPD Chief Charlie Beck held their biannual crime-stats press conference today in typical feel-good fashion: They were proud to announce that for the first half of 2012, violent crimes were down 8.8 percent from last year. But the same cannot be said for reported ... More >>

Assessor Probe: D.A. Investigators Search Homes of John Noguez and Ramin Salari

Updated below with more details from yesterday's raid.Investigators from the L.A. County district attorney's office served search warrants at 12 locations this morning as part of an investigation of alleged corruption at the county assessor's office.The D.A. is investigating allegations of bribery a ... More >>

Villaraigosa Flips Out, Walks Out of Metro Meeting After County Leader Antonovich Says Constituents 'Gang Raped' by Sales Tax Plan

Updated at the bottom with feedback from Antonovich's camp. First posted at 1:08 p.m. In a rare showing of rage and emotion, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa walked out of a Metro meeting today after L.A. County Supervisor Mike Antonovich said that a proposed a permanent extension of a transportation tax ... More >>

Sex Offender Halloween Sweep in L.A. Turns up Trap Door Leading to Basement With Chair-And-Rope Set-up (Really)

NBC / HuluSNL's 'The Creep.'​We thought the Halloween limits on ex-cons who had once committed sex offenses were pretty draconian: No decorations, no opening your door for trick-or-treaters, and, for some, a roundup that had them staying at parole centers during trick-or-treat hours. The grou ... More >>

Anchor Baby Benefits in L.A. Cost Taxpayers $54 Million in June: County Leader Mike Antonovich is Pissed at Price of Illegals

Antonovich.​L.A. County Supervisor Mike Antonovich is continuing his campaign against illegal aliens, announcing that undocumented families that have so-called American-citizen anchor babies cost area taxpayers $54 million in welfare benefits in June alone. He says the projected cost of such ... More >>

Matt Fong, Former California Treasurer And Longtime Angeleno, Dies at 57

Matt Fong.​Updated at the bottom with reaction from L.A. County Supervisor Mike Antonovich. Matt Fong, a longtime Angeleno and onetime U.S. Senate hopeful, has died, according to the Sacramento Bee. Fong's mother is beloved Democrat March Fong Eu, who was elected California's Secretary of St ... More >>

Brian Stow Beating at Dodger Stadium Blamed on Alcohol: County Leader Mike Antonovich Calls For No Half-Price Beer at Venue

Dodger Stadium.​Updated after the jump with the Dodgers saying half-price beer days are canceled. For a long time alcohol and sports fans have been good friends. And for a long time they've combined to wreak havoc at football, baseball and soccer games. Some are blaming this witches' brew f ... More >>

Dodgers Fans Who Beat Up S.F. Giants Fan Bryan Stow -- Still in Coma -- Get Sketched, Tagged With $10,000 Reward

LAPD​Outrage is mounting, both in San Francisco and Los Angeles, over Friday's very unsportsmanlike (to say the least) Opening Day beatdown in the Dodger Stadium parking lot. Assault victim Bryan Stow, a 40-year-old Santa Cruz paramedic with two small children who had travelled south to cheer ... More >>

Arcadia Highlands' Oak Protesters Face Trial

As DA Cooley prosecutes four activists, a war to save SoCal old growth gets nasty

Raves: Pro-Marijuana Group Drug Policy Alliance Supports Coliseum Raves and L.A. County's How-to-Take-Ecstasy Fliers

Caesar SebastianRavers at Electric Daisy Carnival.​The Drug Policy Alliance, an influential pro-marijuana group that supported the pot legalization initiative in California last year, is backing the L.A. County Department of Public Health's controversial how-to-take ecstasy fliers that were to ... More >>

Raves: L.A. County Leader Mike Antonovich Wants to Pull Plug on How-to-Take-Ecstasy Education Fliers

Raver down at Electric Daisy Carnival.​After LA Weekly brought them to light, an L.A. County leader has asked its Department of Public Heath to stop distributing fliers that essentially teach young people how to trip on ecstasy more safely. The fliers tell ravers to "aim low (dose AND frequen ... More >>

Illegal Immigrants' 'Anchor Babies' Took $53 Million In Welfare Services In L.A. County In 2010

babypunk.netAnchor babies get paid on your dime?​Ah, the plight of the so-called "anchor baby," those children of illegal immigrants dropped on U.S. soil like a red-white-and-green flag (because we assume here that European, Asian, African and other immigrants don't do this). They're a thorn ... More >>

L.A. County Urges 18-And-Older Policy For Area Raves

Electric Daisy Carnival.​The people who run the county of Los Angeles want raves to be a safer. They want them to have an 18-and-older policy. And they want them to warn about the dangers of ecstasy. All these wants, however, don't mean that the parties will have do abide by the county's wish ... More >>

Los Angeles County Bans Pot Shops In Unincorporated Areas

L.A. county says no to pot shops.​L.A. County made good on its threat to ban medical marijuana dispensaries. In a 4-1 vote the county's Board of Supervisors moved to outlaw pot shops in unincorporated parts of L.A. Those parts seem few and far between, but they represent about a million peop ... More >>

Los Angeles County Bans Plastic Bags At Grocery And Convenience Stores

Bags be damned in L.A. County.​Updated after the jump: Fixes date the ban would go into effect. First posted at 12:45 p.m. The California legislature couldn't do it. The city of Los Angeles hasn't done it. But the L.A. County Board of Supervisors got it done: It voted to ban plastic bags in g ... More >>

L.A. County Supervisor Mike Antonovich Disses Prop. 8 Ruling

​In this, the land of the liberal, home of the labor union, and arguably most pro-gay-rights metropolis this side of San Francisco, a guy like Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich could feel out of place. But Antonovich, whose website features a photo of him wearing a cowboy hat and ... More >>

Steve Poizner Joins L.A. Supervisor Antonovich To Express Support For Arizona Immigration Law

Mike Antonovich.​Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner joined Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich at a press conference Wednesday to support Arizona's controversial immigration law and to decry the county's recent vote to boycott the state. Antonovich argued that the boyc ... More >>

L.A. County Supervisors Vote To Boycott Arizona

​The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to boycott Arizona business and travel over the state's controversial immigration law. The vote was three to two on the powerful five member board, with Mark Ridley-Thomas casting the decider alongside the boycott's author, Gloria Mol ... More >>

Mark Ridley-Thomas Has Deciding Vote For Proposed County Boycott Of Arizona

The decider: Mark Ridley-Thomas.​The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to take up a proposal to initiate its own travel and business boycott against Arizona, and on Friday it looked like the vote would be close: Supervisor Don Knabe said he would oppose such a measure, putt ... More >>

L.A. County Leader Antonovich Calls Proposed Arizona Boycott 'Stupid'

​We noted yesterday that the county's proposed boycott of Arizona would have at least one detractor: Supervisor Mike Antonovich. He didn't disappoint observers Thursday when he issued a press release calling the idea "stupid." "As elected officials, we take an oath to uphold the federal and s ... More >>

County Gives Key Approval To Grand Avenue Park

A model of L.A. Civic Park.​The County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved key leases and funding for what would arguably be the city's grandest public green space outside Griffith Park. The $83 million L.A. Civic Park, however, appears to have more concrete than greenery, and its expanse ... More >>

Sheriff Will Monitor Parolees That State Won't

​The union representing Los Angeles Police Department officers made a rare move this week in praising the Sheriff's Department for stating it would essentially do the job of the state and monitor those convicts set free under state parole reform. " ... We thank Sheriff Lee Baca," reads a stat ... More >>

Public Unwelcome at Grand Avenue

An obscure body of five will decide if Eli Broad gets public land for his art museum

L.A. Opera’s $14 Million Imbroglio

Superstar Plácido Domingo pushes the company closer to worldwide acclaim — and financial collapse

Did Feds Cause the Station-fire Disaster

Ugly allegations that fire officials reduced air support, tankers and backup crews

Is L.A. Unfairly Taxing Unincorporated-Area Businesses?

As the financial crisis tightens its grip on California, the pressure to squeeze out more local revenue is causing rifts between the city and county governments -- and the results are not pretty. Last week the County Board of Supervisors unanimously supported a letter proposed by Supervisor Gloria M ... More >>

Los Angeles' TV Station Fire

UCLA Dept. of Physics & AstronomyMount Wilson​The jury will always be out on whether a crashing tree makes noise in an unpopulated forest, but there's never any doubt about whether fires burn trees when no one sees it happening. Despite the absence of traditional wall-to-wall TV coverage of t ... More >>

Morning Sixpack: A News Roundup

DiFi Says No to Alt-Energy Desert Corridor California Senator Diane Feinstein is readying legislation to keep a large swath of the state's desert region off-limits to solar- and wind-power projects. L.A. TimesKeach Returns to Do Nixon Actor Stacy Keach, whose mild stroke last week removed him from t ... More >>

Mike Antonovich's Ironic Cross

Supervisor Mike Antonovich has rolled up his gray-flannelled trousers to wade deep into the culture wars. Specifically, according to the L.A. Daily News, he wants the crucifix put back in the County Seal, now that the steel cross has been restored to the roof of the San Gabriel Mission, following it ... More >>

Morning Sixpack: A News Roundup

Bloody Sunday Two people were shot dead in Echo Park, and third was wounded by a suspect police describe as driving a black pickup truck. City News ServiceSink or Swim Southern California's faltering economy has led to an increase of people applying for lifeguard jobs. L.A. TimesNo Leap of Faith A n ... More >>

Queer Town: Villaraigosa Breaks Bread with Rick Warren

A few days after gays and lesbians took part in national Valentine's Day-timed protests  against Proposition 8's November victory, evangelical minister Rick Warren addressed the city's annual Mayor's Prayer Breakfast at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in downtown L.A.,  the L.A. Times reporte ... More >>

Morning Sixpack: A News Roundup

Scorched Universal Studios Sets Back for Summer Associated Press reports that the tourist destination will have rebuilt its New York streets, seen in Spider-Man 2 and Transformers, in time for midsummer. The N.Y. neighborhood and other movie-set attractions burned during last June's massive backlot ... More >>

Rap Names for L.A. Politicians

What's in a name? Ask MyRapName, a Web site that automatically generates a rap-singer identity for you after you enter your first name and last initial. We did this with the names of some Los Angeles' leading statesmen and stateswomen -- just in case they require more street cred for their next elec ... More >>

War Over MTA's "Eternity" Tax

The "temporary" sales tax would last 30 years. It's already set Eastside against Westside

MTA's Plan to Gate L.A.

Miraculously, our subways use an honor system. The pencil pushers just hate that

Eli Broad's Grand Illusion

While real L.A. goes begging, City Hall pours millions into a plastic promenade

Death Watch

King/Drew slips away on county supervisors’ watch

We Endorse

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

Mr. Holloway Can Talk

A free-speech guide to angering county supervisors

The Testimony of a Tree-Sitter

The Toad vs. the Big Cement Company

L.A. County must take sides

It’s Weird Out There

Politicians provide comic relief from election madness

The First Step Back

Yes, needle exchanges can save lives. But they can do even more

SHYLOCK 2000

The Grateful Web

Our county wants to curtail your Net access

Big-Spender Mike

Antonovich invites the gun lobby in — at taxpayers’ expense