Paul Krekorian

Sherman Oaks Residents Enraged Over Fire Station Secrecy

Plastic Bag Ban for Los Angeles Is Back (Maybe)

Whatever happened to L.A.'s plastic-bag ban? Like so many other things at City Hall, there was a lot of bark but no bite, and the ban that was initially approved by the L.A. City Council never really went into effect as the politicians sat on their hands. Now the City Council's Energy and Environm ... More >>

Los Angeles Voter Guide May 21, 2013: Mayor, Weed Measures, City Council, City Attorney, LAUSD Board and The Works

Here's a quick guide to the key races and issues on the May 21, 2013 ballot in the city of Los Angeles. Los Angeles Mayoral Race: Read this fascinating dissection of the five main behavioral and philosophical differences between 2013 Los Angeles mayoral candidates Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti, ... More >>

High-Capacity Gun Magazines Banned In Los Angeles

Do you need your assault-style rifle to have more than 10 bullets attached to it, at the ready to pierce unsuspecting deer, paper targets and beer cans? Really? The Los Angeles City Council today dove into a contentious debate and did what congress has been unable to do: It banned 11-round-plus mag ... More >>

L.A. County Labor Fed Backs Wendy Greuel, Asks Eric Garcetti To Lay Off Anti-Union Remarks

The L.A. County Federation of Labor today officially threw its support behind Controller Wendy Greuel in the race for L.A. mayor. The Fed's endorsement -- a foregone conclusion since last week's political committee vote -- should provide Greuel a strong get-out-the-vote operation, which could b ... More >>

Marijuana Dispensaries Should Be Allowed, City Attorney Trutanich Says In About Face

Strange days when the city's most-outspoken critic of medical marijuana dispensaries does an about face and says 100 or more should be allowed to operate. L.A. City Attorney Carmen Trutanich, who's running for reelection, had argued vehemently in the past that California law leaves no room whatsoev ... More >>

Mike Feuer And Carmen Trutanich Back New Local Gun Restrictions In City Attorney Race

California already has some of the nation's most stringent gun laws. But in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., school shooting, L.A. officials are pushing for new restrictions at the local level. The issue has become particularly potent in the campaign for L.A. city attorney. Today, incumbent Carm ... 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 >>

Buh-Bye to LA's 100 LED Billboards?

Topless Maids Van Goes Viral Via Ellen DeGeneres; Sami Ammari Defends Eyesores

A "topless maid" service has been under fire for advertising its business on hot pink vans in Los Angeles and Burbank. But with headlines galore and even a bit on The Ellen DeGeneres Show with Matthew Perry this week, the operators appear to be laughing all the way to the bank. A rep for the serv ... More >>

L.A. City Council Approves $5 Increase in All Parking Tickets

L.A. politicians are pleased to announce this afternoon that they avoided laying off any city employees in the 2012-13 city budget. (So union heads can put down their daggers, for now.) But guess where they found $2.4 million of the emergency cash they needed to save their City Hall family? Your o ... More >>

L.A. Overspends by $27,378 an Hour

Two key perks: free gas and cars

Kinde Durkee Fallout: L.A. Councilman Paul Krekorian Seeks Relief From City Campaign Finance Rules

Councilman Paul Krekorian​Update below: L.A. Ethics Commission staff recommends four-month extension on debt window for Durkee clients.Politicians are still trying to dig out from the Kinde Durkee campaign finance scandal, two three months after the Democratic treasurer was arrested and accused of ... More >>

A Field of Billboards for Farmers Field

Wilshire Grand Hotel: Los Angeles Digital Skyscraper Goes to a City Council that Has Little Idea What It's Approving

By Tibby Rothman and Jill Stewart Wilshire Grand Hotel rendering done at such an extreme angle it's nearly impossible to see light effects.​Update: The City Council has approved the top-to-bottom lighted Wilshire Grand Hotel project.  The vote will read as "unanimous" officially, yet one co ... More >>

Digitally Ad-Wrapped Skyscrapers Coming to L.A.?

Jan Perry opens a new front in the Los Angeles billboard wars

Campaign Consultants Stank up L.A. on March 8

City Council candidate Rudy Martinez should have listened to his mom

L.A. CRA Scandal Outdoes Itself: City Council Calls Special Meeting to Steal $1 Billion From State on Election Day, After Weeks of Stalling

Jerry Brown is coming, and L.A. won't go down gracefully.​Update: The City Council votes to shield about $1 billion from Governor Jerry Brown after Councilman Paul Krekorian begs them not to, revealing the City Council only got their huge, complex reports yesterday. See jump. The Los Angeles Com ... More >>

El Camino Real High School in San Fernando Valley, Nationally Respected, Flees LAUSD to Become Charter School

Office-clinger Tamar Galatzan, behind Zuma Dogg, unsuccessfully humping to become a Los Angeles City Council member.​Update: The school was in the news recently for the Jeff Stenroos faked shooting. One of the top-rated schools in the Western U.S., El Camino Real High School -- so good that ... More >>

City of L.A. Still Investing Over $1 Million in 200-Car Executive Fleet

Destination 360Hey -- if we're gonna sit in traffic, might as well do it on city dime​LA Daily News columnist Kerry Cananaugh keeps it short and sweet today with a ball-busting column on those 200-plus "car crazy" city employees who just can't bring themselves to give up their city-funded ride ... More >>

L.A. City Council Bums

Entrenched and ridiculed, they line up for a March 8 "coronation"

Eight L.A. City Councilmembers Give Up Potential Control Of DWP -- Bowing To Mayor Villaraigosa, Powerful DWP Union

City Councilman Paul Krekorian changed his position on DWP power play since last week​Updated throughout. Originally posted at 2:34 p.m. Jesus, guys -- we thought the vote would at least be close. Then again, we should have known. Caving to a long history of bullish pressure from the Departm ... More >>

L.A. May Say Good-bye to EIRs and public notice

City Council tries to upend Community Plans and zoning protection

Wanna Run For L.A. City Council? Move To Your District Of Choice Now Or Steve Cooley Will Getcha (We Have Some Recommended Digs)

​All you politicians and would-be politicos out there it's time to play that game we call musical chairs: The L.A. City Clerk warns that it's time to move to the voting district you plan to temporarily represent while you think of a better political gig.If you don't move now, you won't just be ine ... More >>

Antonio Villaraigosa and L.A. City Council, Badly Slimed for Airhead Library Cuts, Get a Solution -- They'll Probably Ignore

Ted SoquiDemonstrators at a recent rally where budget cuts to the L.A. Public Library system were denounced​Almost certainly prompted by queries from L.A. Weekly as it gathered info for its blockbuster story "City of Airheads," council members Tom LaBonge and Janice Hahn are asking for a dela ... More >>

City of Airheads: Villaraigosa Dismantles L.A.'s Vaunted Library System

Mayor mirrors Detroit's disastrous choice

L.A. City Council Gives Neighborhood Councils A Win

Councilman Paul Krekorian​ The City Council this week moved $1.3 million and five full-time positions from the Community Development Department to the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, which oversees the city's 91 elected neighborhood councils. Neighborhood council types cheered and bre ... More >>

North Valley Planning Commission Allows Propane Station...But With Exception

​ Valley residents opposed to a planned propane filling station at the old Coffee Spot got good news and bad news at a Thursday meeting of the North Valley Area Planning Commission. The commission approved the filling station but also voted to force the developer, Trans Gas Propane, to signi ... More >>

Ron Kaye, Former LA Daily News Editor, Unveils Political Action Committee To Clean House At City Hall

Ron Kaye​ Ron Kaye, former editor of the LA Daily News turned political activist and polemicist, launches the Los Angeles Clean Sweep Committee with a fundraiser Saturday at 1 at the Mayflower Club in North Hollywood. The goal is to field a slate of opposition candidates in the next city elect ... More >>

City Of L.A. Joins Lawsuit Against Arizona Over Its Immigration Law

Council President Eric Garcetti proposed that L.A. join an anti-Arizona-law suit.​The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday voted to join a lawsuit challenging Arizona's controversial immigration law. The suit was brought by civil rights organizations and other groups that argue the law, which e ... More >>

Big Job Openings, Record Pay, At L.A. City Hall

Ron Kaye, former editor of the Daily News.​At $178,789 a year, they're some of the highest paid elected city officials in the nation, and seven openings are coming up. San Fernando Valley political activist Ron Kaye is looking for a few good men and women to fill those gigs and he's promising ... More >>

Announcement Scheduled In Case Of Four Men Gunned Down In Valley Village

Google MapsThe scene of the crime.​Los Angeles police on Friday scheduled a 4 p.m. news conference to announce an update in their investigation of the homicides of four men who were gunned down Saturday inside a Valley Village restaurant. The downtown conference is scheduled to include some ... More >>

Enjoy Being Ignored By City Hall? There's An App For That

Councilman Paul Krekorian.​Los Angeles City Councilman Paul Krekorian is joining the iPhone app craze by rolling out a program for the device that will allow users to report potholes, graffiti and other problems, according to ABC News (spotted at LAObserved). The app will apparently allow iPh ... More >>

'City Hall Seven' Gets Slammed For Refusing Salary Cuts

Councilman Bill Rosendahl says I'm not going to try it -- you try it.​In this time of severe economic hardship for the city, when 4,000 workers are slated to lose jobs, potholes go unfilled, and fewer cops roam the streets, you would think that Los Angeles City Council members are doing their ... More >>

"DONE" Is Kaput

Will a badly mismanaged city department take L.A.'s neighborhood council experiment down with it?

Many On Council Admit To Having Smoked Pot

​As the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday gave its final approval to a law that would shut down hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries in the city, several City Council members recalled their own relationships with the drug. KPCC (89.9 FM) reporter Frank Stoltze queried the representati ... More >>

L.A.'s Top Political Stories Of 2009 Listed: Not A Good Year For City Hall

Blaze of glory: The Station Fire.​The blog Griffith Park Wayist has its take on the top 10 political stories in the city of Los Angeles for the year, and by the looks of it 2009 wasn't City Hall's best year. There was a mayor who let the governor's race pass him by, the council that found dist ... More >>

City Councilman Herb Wesson's Deputy To Go For Open Assembly Seat

Andrew Westall.​Andrew Westall, a 36-year-old senior deputy to Los Angeles City Councilman Herb Wesson, announced Monday that he would run for the state assembly seat left vacant by Paul Krekorian, who was elected as an East Valley representative of the council last week. "I have worked for t ... More >>

Krekorian Wins L.A. Council Race

Assemblyman Paul Krekorian.​State Assemblyman Paul Krekorian beat former Hollywood studio executive Christine Essel in Tuesday's election to fill the city's Council District 2 seat. With 19,170 votes cast, Krekorian took 56 percent to Essel's 43 percent for that shot at the City Council. See ... 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 >>

Pre-election fornicating? A land speculator throws his weight around in Council District 2 Election

By Paul TeetorA small-scale blueprint of everything that's wrong with L.A. City Hall politics will be on display tonight at a Catholic church in Valley Glen, a community near Victory Boulevard and Laurel Canyon Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley: Tonight, a land speculator who is pushing for a hu ... More >>

Eight candidates scare L.A. City Hall

A September 22 election in Council District 2 may shake all the way to downtown

Carpetbagging for Cash in L.A. Council District 2

Eight committed San Fernando Valley activists try to stop two monied outsiders

Can an Activist Crack L.A. City Hall's Machine?

In the riled-up S.F. Valley, a struggle pits regular folk against big money

How to Run a Nasty Campaign

The Filthiest 48 Hours

Lies and distortions that fill the mailbox just before Election Day

Wake Up and Vote

L.A. Weekly endorsements for next Tuesday’s primary

Our Handy Print-out Voter Guide

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Role Reversal

Since when do ethics commissioners grovel before those whom they police?